So... I could blame the lack of blogging on a lot of things: my computer breaking on me, traveling a bit (okay, a lot), being on vacation, sunshine, blue sky, stars, and getting distracted by the multiple polar vortices in Michigan...
Today, on my birthday, I'm catching up. We don't have classes at school because it's the first day of the semester (happy birthday to me!) and I forgot to bring my book... and this will probably take hours anyways, I've got a whole two months to cover.
"If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?" T.S. Eliot
December 28 - Took the 5:30am bus from Cheonan to Gimpo airport for my first flight to Beijing. The airport is Beijing is HORRENDOUS; so confusing, so confusing, so confusing. I'm confused even thinking about it. Also, there isn't any internet and I was stuck in a warehouse for hours. (Funny story: I sent my parents an email saying my flight was delayed on what "wifi" I could find at the Starbucks, and they got the email the day before I was leaving home for Madrid...9 days later). The flight to Chicago on the Chinese airline was interesting: watched Gone with the Wind, Charade, and Planet Earth. I saw the Great Wall from the airplane and it's even great from however many thousands of feet I was in the air. But what's even greater was seeing Lake Mich from the airplane. Oh, what a sight. My beloved lake. Family met me after I sped through immigration and customs. The strangest thing: I understood what people were saying! English! I hadn't realized just how much I missed it. First stops in Michigan: Panera for some broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl and OF COURSE Biggby (Beanz, duh). So good, so latte.
December 29 - Burkholder family Christmas. Woke up at noon and partied all day with the fam. So, so good to see everyone together. Holidays away from home are hard, realizing just how hard.
December 30 - Spent hours upon hours in Beans catching up with Bri, Becca, and Erin. Actual hours (I think five?). Some came, some went, some overlapped, and some didn't - but I was there for the duration, full to the brim of coffee and of friends.
December 31 - Eddie Bauer. New Years Eve. Qdoba. Fargo. Bad decisions? Good decisions? Qdoba good, Fargo BAD.
January 1 - Saw beloved Erk. Met at 24-hour Beans and caught up on everything under the sun. AND I get to be her co-maid of honor for the wedding!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then watched Michigan State win the Rose Bowl and ate homemade egg rolls. Duh.
January 2 - Hair cut. Sansu. Loads of sushi. Watched Hobbit in 3D with the Walko's.
January 3 - Coffee at Sparrows. Lunch with mah guhls at Marie Catrib's in GR. Drove back across the state and had dinner with Hanner. Full day. Happy, good, filling. We met at married Morgan's house and hugged and reunited and laughed and I tried not to cry. We talked about Caboose, Van Drez, Stein night, birthdays, lake days, TC, road trips, lattes, hair cuts. Life. Things we'd missed, things that overlapped, things that have changed in the last few months, and things we wish we could go back to.
January 4 - Saw Sophie and got lunch. Logan family Christmas.
January 5 - Beginning of the blizzard of 2014. Mel came over, and the three of us (Marshall, too) went and played in the snow. We tumbled down hills and made snow chairs in the marsh and made snow angels in the side yard and documented the snowfall with gopros and bird bathes.
January 6 - (-)30 windchill. Dad wouldn't let us out of the house. People went by on snow mobiles and cross country skis. It would've been nice to have my snowshoes.
January 8 - Drove up north for the day. I needed to see my lake, and Mary, and Leah. I needed to sit in the Brew for an hour with Leah, talking about the most random things, drinking the most random lattes, wearing the most random sweaters. I needed to drive down M22 and go down Gill's Pier and walk down the 84 steps to see my frozen lake. Mom and I trudged across the snow and the ice and just looked. Looked up the beach, looked down the beach, looked out at the lake, the frozen tundra. Took in all of God's frozen glory. It was worth the 8 hour drive for those precious few hours in Leelanau. That night, Erin came over and helped me pack and sent me on my way armed with MI coffee (Lake Michigan morning blend) and a travel journal.
January 9 - Mom and Aunt Char took me to Beans and then we ventured back to Chicago to catch my evening flight to Dusseldorf, then on to Madrid.
January 10 - Spent the entire day in the Dusseldorf airport wandering around and drinking lattes and sleeping on benches. Got to Madrid at 7:30 that night (another terrible airport, avoid this even more desperately than Beijing). Alyssa met me outside immigration and we began another adventure: taking the metro to our apartment with my monster suitcase (whose wheels had broken at this point). After wandering around La Latina aimlessly and trying to speak to our host in Spanish over the phone, we convinced a kind stranger to talk to her and got us pointed in right direction (shout out to the kind stranger and for asking for directions). We put our things down and immediately turned around and went out for sangria and potato pancake (things) that were massive and we ordered two (the leftovers lasted us at least four meals).
January 11 - Today was a wandering day (as was the entire weekend). We walked from square to plaza to street armed only with a map and what little Spanish we knew. It was exciting and we got lost, but eventually we found our way back. We met Sasha and Dina at la Reina Sofia and walked through the art museum and saw Picasso's Guernica. Ended the day with a siesta for energy and a brownie for dinner.
January 12 - Coffee shop hopping day. You get to know a city pretty well by its cafes and coffee shops. We managed to hit four or five in 24 hours. Sasha and Dina joined us at the rooftop coffee shop and left us at the three-story bookstore coffee shop. I was very caffeinated and content after that day. Tapas for dinner that night.
January 13 - We brunched at Gorila, our last coffee shop and meandered our way (lugging suitcase with broken wheels) back to the subway and back to the airport and back through security. And began the journey to Casablanca, Morocco. We landed after dark so my first experience of Morocco was of a rapping taxi driver.
January 14 - We began the morning with breakfast and Starbucks by the Atlantic and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun and wandering the corniche.
January 15 - Spent the day on the roof and went to happy hour at Rick's American Cafe (fashioned after the movie and it plays all the time). Then we went to a fortress nearby for dinner where I had my first vegetable tajine.
January 16 - Pastilla for dinner. Sweet. Cinnamon and chicken pastry.
January 17 - Spent the Friday at the American Academy with Alyssa and her darling little first graders (who are also punks). It was a great day experiencing what her life was like every day at school. They attacked me with questions about where I lived and where I've been and how old I was and if I had pets or siblings or a house and they ended the day saying they loved me ;)
January 18 - Took the train an hour north to Rabat for the day. Spent a few hours getting lost and found again in the medina, bartering for a purse, coming out on the opposite side of the city and having to walk along the water all the way back, getting a cappuccino on the coast, and boat watching.
January 20 - Took my bright new tennis shoes for a run to the Atlantic.
January 21 - Took the three-hour train (by myself!) down? over? to Marrakech and spent the night in a hotel. First time I've been in a hotel alone. Weird. Lonely. I read my book twice. I couldn't figure out how to turn the tele on. Luckily, it was a good book (Looking for Alaska by John Green, I recommend it, twice).
January 22 - Woke up bright and early, packed up, and was picked up by my guide, Brahim, and a couple from New Mexico and we started our long drive to the desert. The first day we crossed the Atlas Mountains (breathtaking and terrifying). I thought Korean drivers were scary, until I went to Morocco. I'm lucky I made it out of those mountains alive. The cliffs dropped off on either side and lines don't mean much to semi-trucks. But still, I was in awe of the majesty of those mountains. We went to a kasbah where the Gladiator was filmed, and were guided through the winding streets up to the top of the hill (also a World Heritage site). We spent the night in the Dades gorge (night #2 in hotel alone.. started book for a third time). 8 hours of driving. (Note: Dades gorge has great rock climbing!).
January 23 - Woke up early, again. Drove for hours, again. Arrived in Merzouga where we ate a late lunch with Brahim's family (Berber pizza!) and then went to meet our camels, mine was Jimi Hendrix and he was not happy. The camel ride into the desert was two hours to our Berber camp where we met with three other travelers (from Chile, the Netherlands, and Georgia). They were great and good company to spend the evening with. Ended the night with fruit and a drum show. It rained in the Sahara that evening. 6 hours driving, 2 hours camel-back. (Also, pee'd behind a Saharan sand dune, and proud of it. Sorry, Mom).
January 24 - 3:44am. The moment that sticks out most from the past few months. The stars were so bright, they woke me up. The stars were so beautiful, I was in awe. The stars were so dazzling, I kept spinning in circles. I can't stop thinking about those stars. I saw Mars, and Jupiter, and constellations, and the earth actually seemed round that night because the stars were that grand. Then we woke back up at 6:30am and got back on the camels for the return journey (and to see the sunrise). Then proceeded to drive back across the Atlas Mountains to Marrakech. 2 hours camel-back, 8 hours driving. Met the others back in Marrakech and found our riad in the medina (with a little help from our host).
January 25 - Breakfast on the rooftop, seeing the city, the Berber museum and gardens, Ben Youssef medersa, dinner on a different rooftop, hot tub.
January 26 - Alyssa ran the Marrakech half marathon, and we walked and trudged and trekked to the train station (too much traffic for a taxi to get us there, and too many bags to realistically walk).
January 31 - Journey to the airport. Went to school with Alyssa that morning. The drivers took me to the train station in Casablanca where I was supposed to catch a 30-min train to the airport. Apparently, there were no trains that day and I didn't have enough cash for a taxi. I walked around until I found a bank that could exchange money so I had enough for the taxi, which then took me to the airport. At the airport, I checked in and almost made it through immigration until they told me my second carry-on was too big and had to be checked (but it wasn't before?). 8 hour flight to Dubai. Layover in Dubai (awesome airport). Another 8 hour flight to Seoul. Got bumped up to business class so I had my own little cubbie and three-course meals and noise-cancelling headphones. So I slept most of that flight, making the most of it.
February 1 - Landed in Seoul that afternoon and caught a bus and a taxi back to Sinchang. What a relief to be back where I know what I'm doing and can get myself around. It was also good to see the cat and sleep in my bed and sleep in late and rest and get iced lattes and feel comfortable again.
February 4 - 7 - Sort of taught for a few days, kind of. Not really. But I started each and every day with an iced latte and discovered that "Let it go" from Frozen had taken over the whole of Korea and our elementary school.
February 8, 9 - Took the train up to Seoul and spent the night on another bench in another airport (this time, Incheon). Flight for Manila left early the next morning and we made it to Puerto Princesa that night. Our bed and breakfast picked us up from the airport and took us "near the forest" to our lodging in the middle of nowhere. I slept hard.
February 10 - First day. Pristine beach. Our own little hut. Crabs in the sand. Tide coming in. Mango smoothies. Making a new Russian friend named Liza. Downpour.
February 11 - Day trip, island hopping around Honda Bay. We went to three different islands: on the first we went snorkeling and had lunch, the second we went swimming, and the third we drank more mango smoothies with our new Australian friends. That night we went to a tiki bar with them.
February 12 - Took a tricycle with our driver, Alan, and went to the crocodile farm and the butterfly garden. At the crocodile farm, we saw hatchlings and big monsters. We walked through a little forest that had some Palawan birds and bearcats (the porcupine was missing). The butterfly garden was beautiful, but it was raining so there weren't very many butterflies in sight. They had a string of pupae that released butterflies each morning, and millipedes, and scorpions, and other creepy beetles that reminded me too much of invertebrate zoology. We spent the evening eating ice cream and pizza.
February 13 - We went to Sabang to see the Underground River, another World Heritage site and a natural world wonder. We took a ferry, then a paddle boat, then a ferry and avoided monkeys the entire time. Then this is what was supposed to happen: catch 4:30 bus to El Nido from Sabang. What actually happened: due to mis-communication we weren't on the manifest and so we had to take the 2pm bus to the crossroads, wait three hours, catch another bus to El Nido squashed in with 18 other foreigners. But we met a Canadian, a few Swiss, and a few Brits. We made the most of it and it worked out and we made it to El Nido and our hotel, eventually. 6 hour mini-van ride.
February 14 - I didn't have a valentine. Instead, we woke up and went island hopping and snorkeling. It was a group of four, us and two Brits. The weather started off nicely, but it didn't last. BBQ on an island, sitting on a beach towel, looking out at the boats. I tried squid rings and ate pineapple slices. We saw big lagoons and snorkeled through small lagoons. They thought we might see reef sharks, but instead I saw blue starfish. And then it began to rain, and we abandoned snorkeling to go to our last island where we had drinks and watched the storm roll in. That night, we caught another mini-van and headed 6 hours back the other direction. In the front seat of a mini-van. At dark. I thought I was going to die. But of course, I didn't (it was iffy for a while). There was also one point where the van stopped to let some passengers off towards the end of the trip and the tricycle drivers started pressing their faces against the glass, trying to get us to take their trike and instead discouraging us quite effectively.
February 15 - I was flying out this day. There was a Filipino couple from Manila staying at our B&B and they befriended us and took us to the market in Puerto Princesa and ate lunch with us by the seaside. They told us about Manila, where she was a flight attendant and he was a lawyer. They were kind and they were welcoming and they offered their house the next time we want to visit. They even took me to the airport that evening and helped me check in. They flew off, and I flew off soon after. I sat in the Manila airport at a coffee shop for hours, trying to journal about everything I'd experienced and seen and done, and the people I'd met and most importantly, the kindness of strangers. Kindness is free.
February 16 - I arrived in Seoul early. Ate breakfast and drank coffee, read a book for a while. Eventually, I caught the bus back but the morning was moseyed (mosied?) and relaxed, and again I was comfortable.
.
.
.
Adventures are raw, gritty, and altogether sort of unsavory, but I'm developing quite a taste and addiction for these delicious moments (kind of like how my relationship with kimchi began). The sides, end, and beginning of adventures always seem rosy and romanticized, but the act of adventure reminds me of putting socks on backwards. So uncomfortable that you might never get used to it, but you're too lazy and your toes seem to be just outside your reach. Is it worth the effort to fix your socks? Change them even? Maybe, maybe not. Will you get used to the feeling of not really having a heel? Probably not, but you might actually be enjoying the socks that aren't just right, being so far out of your comfort zone that you've completely lost sight of it. So adventure seems like uncomfortable socks, itchy even. They invite patience and perseverance and even more patience to the table. Eventually it will be over and you'll change or take off the socks, and you'll get back to where you're comfortable, where things seem normal and not much surprises you here (except on the odd occasion). And so after taking off the itchy, maybe wool, socks (that I love) or getting back to your bed after the adventure (that I also love) it always feels good to shed layers. To realize that those socks are never going to be put back on, or those socks are a size too small, or those socks that you're never going to get on the right way are being tossed (toe socks, gross), and you'll see that those adventures made you realize that not everything is going to fit well or feel right or be permanent. But for now, it'll do and maybe you'll look back on those adventures and be thankful for those uncomfortable and itchy experiences because without them you'll never realize that you're capable of tolerating the not-so-perfect situations and it's those times you look back and learn to love. Maybe not right then, but later (once the itchiness (and worst case: rash) has gone away).
But, maybe you don't even have a tendency to put socks on backwards like I do.
The most important thing, out of everything I've learned, is that kindness is always, always, always free.
Happy March, everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment