I befriended a girl named Victoria while I was here and she gave me an apple as a happy parting/going home gift. If you know me at all, you know it was a perfect gift.

They tell me it's over.

It's been a whirlwind.

one that is bound to continue once all worlds collide.

the last class: how much do I care?

an example of social change. not the center of cosmology or the son of God. but a man who did great things. suffered. had dreams, desires. some achieved. some not. a teacher. a character in a story. a history. but of course, one of many.

a tool? one that we have used? most likely, yes.

boycotting: the museum and a mood.

I don't want to be disturbed
by English words
sounds you can distinguish from

shadows and trees,
grey branches stretched on the ground
not just up
but out as well,
like a cat
can i say i like that?

you don't need museums,
the age-old artifacts and artworks
gathered together to entertain your day.
i promise the treasures live
in the holding hands
in the park, the space, the trees, the breeze.

what makes you stretch?
grow?
you start to know
when you stand in front of this piece.
think. they say.
ask questions. they say.

make boxes around words.
corner them with order.

why do we have this tendency to justify feelings?
as if anger were anything but anger.
sadness anything but sadness.
happiness but happiness.

don't let the Buddhist's destruction of desire,
the Christian's commitment to love
or the Muslims' need for submission
mislead you.

we're all so empty sometimes
and full
that
we
can't always be so mixed and matched.

i saw a small green jacket. a father's hand.
now, it's a couple, they're twenty, who stands.
but they don't have the composition of slanting heights.
just a connecting line
white. grey. black. and a clean-cut window frame?
where's the color?
it's modern
they say.
they break the window. i say.

a response?

and if I didn't stop
when you saw me, would
you think it is because she didn't
love?
just know,
disturbances,
ripples in the water
change directions
change what we're writing,
thinking.
maybe i want the change
and to write about what is given.
not taken.

what is the answer to the question:
what are you doing?

(sitting, thinking, observing)

a response? pretending to be more or less than I am?

go away paul. i don't want to be to be
found.
persisted.
forced to say.

South Korea: The little big things

Yonsei University:

- The immediate circle outside the campus looks like a Wisconsin city, Milwaukee perhaps. Quaint, convenient, and cute but still rollin'.

-Then there is Sinchon, which is about a 15 minute walk. Basically, it's a city on parade. The multi-colored lights line the double, triple, quadruple-deckered buildings. There is every style of cuisine, coffee-shop, bar, and karaoke place you could ever want. The street food is also quite good. My favorite is the cinnamon, sugar pancakes! whoo. whoo.

- Korea also does this thing where instead of renting movies or playing board games at home, you can rent out various rooms and have fun there. It's a sort of "going-out to stay-in business." It's quite cool, really. Props to Seoul. Thanks for letting us get a taste of the "Korean Wave!"

-We use a fingerprint identification system to get into our dorms. The guys and girls are split up. It's the first time this has happened on our trip.

- Kimchi is interesting. Thankfully "The Kitchen" is nearby."

- I like the bowing.

Our trip to the DMZ: I don't even know what to say.

Op Dora. The 3rd tunnel. Camp. Bonifas. JSA. Unification village. Freedom village. Panmunjeom. The Bridge of No Return. A cocky cowboy dressed as an American soldier. One of our professors asking us if we saw the monsters. It is real. War is real.

Cleaning up the Oil Spill: I'm in shock how one man's mistake can affect so many people.

-The rural fishin' village will never run again. So many jobs are lost.

-Help came from miles away. Some like us, one-timers. Some like them, there every day.
-I wiped off rocks. One by one till my cloth was soiled.

-The sea and land will take 10 years to recover.

It's coming to an end

It's coming to an end. Some are counting down the days. Others refuse to hear anything of it. We all know that there is still much to do and see, a country that for the most part remains unexplored. But all are short on cash and energy. Some can still manage to muster up the stamina for a trek around town or a drink at such-and-such a bar. But most have realized that movies and drawn-out chats are the best way to help pass the time.

DeAne instructed us to come up with a list of smells, tastes, textures, and sounds that we have experienced these past five months. She wanted to help us remember all of our experiences in a more tangible way besides our picture, but also and perhaps more importantly, to help us begin to realize the enormous task ahead of us: sharing our stories with friends and families and giving them a chance to try and understand what we have done. Here's what we came up with...

smells:

-the pungent, sandalwood incenses. they all seemed to smell the same no matter where we were, India, Hong Kong, Thailand, or Egypt.
- the sheeja in the streets of Cairo and how you never really noticed the smoke, just the sweet fragrance
- the rancid smell of the infiltration tunnel at the DMZ in South Korea
- purrell hand sanitizer. the crisp, clean, germ-killing machine
- the collection of cooking scents that wafted through the halls in our apartments in HK
- and the complete opposite, the sewage and dirty streets

tastes:

- kosheri. beans, noodles, and rice with a little bit of bite, depending on your amount of "spice"
- Indian tea
- baguette and cheese in front of the convenient stores in Geneva
- the spicy, tangy, shrimp and coconut soup from our Thai cooking class

textures:

- biking along the gravel, muddy, and 100% uneven road in Whitefield, India
- feeling the hot sand dunes on your toes in Egypt
- the gusty, whipping wind on top of the cliff at the Temple of Poseidon in Greece
- eating rice with our hands for the first time in India
- stepping through the opaque water at the Hindu temple in India
- the thick, stifling heat in the crowded room at the Hindu temple when we received our Bhindis
- laying beneath the milky way at 4:00 in the morning during desert camping, feeling completely free and entirely exposed.

sounds:
- the loud and static-y call to prayer in Luxor

- the cat calls in Egypt, as well as the frequent "Yankee Doodle!" and "Howdy!"
- all of the languages and distinguishing between the various dialects
- the whirring ECC fans, sometimes they kept us awake and sometimes put us to sleep
- the piercing horns at the welcome ceremony at the ECC
- "But No...He was a great man" - our Egyptian guide
- the array of horns in Cairo: buses, bikes, cars...
- waking up to the commotion in the streets in Mumbai, the cricket players, the roosters, the taxis, the people
- the Feralese jingle at the Ma On Shan station in Hong Kong.

DeAne also mentioned we could make a list of our emotions. But that still seems too daunting.
Perhaps it will be a task for Hawaii.

Other questions and ideas she suggested we consider before reaching home.

-After seeing all the things I have, I'm convince the world would be better place if.....(And how am I going to work on achieving that it the next 5 months? in the next 5 years?)

- What did I learn about myself?

- What do I admire, envy about the places we've been or things we've seen?

- What am I apprehensive about?

- What will people at home expect from me

- What am I looking forward to?

- What are reasons I may feel marginalized? And how do I deal with "How was Global?"

Hong Kong, I suppose

So yeah. I kind of forgot about this thing. Actually, I just didn't feel motivated to write. To be honest, Hong Kong has been rather challenging; in part because I just didn't expect it to be. For the past month, we've been living in really nice apartments that overlook one of the many HK harbors. It's really quite beautiful and grandiose, nestled in between the mountains and the sea (which I love!). But Hong Kong also feels like the consumer capital of the world, which has been rough, especially coming here after India. It feels odd to buy things, take the train, fix my own meals, walk down the street unnoticed, basically do the things that used to (and should ?) feel perfectly normal. .

Another thing that's been challenging, which as I look back has been challenging all the way through is sitting in class. I just can't take it! I don't like lectures or listening to people ramble on about topics I find completely dull, and then having to memorize facts I don't even want to remember, all for a stupid little quiz. I realize I'm ranting and perhaps being completely insensitive to the language barriers and non-American teaching styles (which is rather hypocritical of me), but I dunno, I just find the whole thing so injurious to the spirit. I would much rather do a series of independent studies. That would be a whole lot better. That way I could research what I want, write what I want, and talk to who I want. Oh gosh...seriously, tiff. hmph. I hope Olaf and my happy, little English major treats me better. We'll see...

On a different note. Sort of. More like, I just don't know how to transition to what I'm about to say, especially after ranting for so long, and can't help but feeling highly inclined to stall....to draw out the space between such feelings....okay that's good.

I feel much closer with everyone in the global group. And it's more than just knowing Ben is a good person to have around (which I knew before we even left) or to be thankful for Kina and Christine (which I also discovered early one), but for the genuine liking/respecting/accepting feelings to spread to everyone...to Annie, Marissa, Paul, Sue, Kirsten, Eric... It's not just about each of us as individuals anymore. But who we are to each other. It's true what they say about global and about traveling with the same group of people for five months. We really do become a family.

Other things:
- I really like the party district in Central because everyone is doing the exact same thing - having FUN, and thus, everyone is in!
- We saw the Nutcracker last night. It was aaaamazing! The Arabian sequence was the best I've ever seen.
- We leave tomorrow and it's raining. It's the first time since we've been here. Figures that would happen only a few hours after I've packed up my umbrella.
- My favorite place in HK is the the walkway along the bank in Kowloon: where the city looks like a painting and the rhythmic motion of the waves and people pulls me in and out of time. The British were smart to put a clock tower just a few blocks away. If they hadn't, I probably never would have remembered to buy my secret Santa those candy canes.