Prague

So it's been about 10 or 11 days since I've been in Europe. First time across the Atlantic Ocean, having crossed the Pacific Ocean to teach English in South Korea. I was there for a year, and then traveled around China and Southeast Asia for another 5 months.

I flew from Lima, where I lived for the past year and a half or so, to New York, where I spent 10 days between NYC and Washington DC. The weather there overall was excellent, and I had an excellent time visiting friends and seeing the sights. Then, on the 29th of September (10 days after leaving Lima), I took my Air Berlin flight to Düsseldorf, Germany.

I couchsurfed there and in Köln, meeting some great people along the way, and marveling at the fantastic European architecture and doing some great people watching, watching native Germans in their native context for the first time.

After Köln, I took a train to Freiburg, in Southwestern Germany, where I met up with my good friend, Sebastian. I met him last year while traveling in Arequipa, doing a tour to the Colca Canyon. After telling him of my plans to fly to Germany and then take a course in Prague, he immediately suggested he take some days off and drive around Germany a bit for me, which I'm extremely glad I did.

The past week or so I spent with him was excellent, meeting lots of great new friends, and driving around Germany and Switzerland. We visited Zürich, Luzern (both in Switzerland), München (Munich), Ulm, his hometown Cottbus, and finally Berlin. The past couple of days I stayed at his sister´s apartment in Eastern Berlin and had a blast (albeit a bit cold) walking around the beautiful communist era buildings and soaking up the history of the city.

Now I'm sitting on a 5 hour train ride on DB (Deutsch Bahn, I believe - German Trains (?) ) from Berlin to Prague. An odd side note is that, although I've always been told (and had that experience most of the time so far) that German trains are on time to the minute (which they actually usually are), this train was a whole hour late; my second late train so far. But other than that, fantastic.

The views out my window are beautiful, from the German side, and now in the beautiful Czech country side as well. Fantastic fall colors abound in the forests all around me. My seat actually faces towads the back (as many others do), so it's a bit weird to ride into Prague "backwards". I'm very excited to arrive and contact my Couchsurfing host. It's also exciting to be in a new country and to begin my 4 week TESOL course tomorrow morning.

That's about it for now... I'm glad I actually took the time to write something with a bit more substance than my usual travelpod posts, which I do hurredly as to not take too much time from spending time with my friends or uploading pictures or what have you. This time I actually took a few minutes to reflect upon the past couple of weeks and try to capture the feelings and emotions I have.

It's a gray, fall day in the Czech Republic, and I should be arriving into Prague main station in about an hour or two. At least it's not raining... yet.

Till' next time!

Back again...

So here I go again.

It's been about half a year since I've written and was reading an article online about self improvement that was talking about how good it is to write all the time and what not, which reminded me of my sadly neglected blog, so here I am.

I'm in Lima at the moment. I've been here for what seems like a really long time, but has only been about a year or year and a half or so. I've been having a great past several months, meeting lots of great new friends through couchsurfing and other ways as well. Couchsurfing, as I'm sure I've written before, is an online traveling community where you host others that come by your town and you stay at other people's houses when you're on the road. It's a great community and system and I love being a part of it.

I'm also one of the Lima "ambassadors" for couchsurfing, which is basically a volunteer position where I welcome new members, help organize meetups and outings, and try to help as much as I can in general. It's great and I love helping, but can definitely be a tough job at times. There's lots to do and I take it a bit too serious perhaps.

I've also thought about starting to work again on the audio for my brother's short film. He asked me to help him with it, and I was working hard on it, untill he told me recently that the video editing process of it was coming along quite slowly. Then I definitely got lazy with it, but I figured I'd get back to it again.

What else... Oh, I've been thinking about going back to the states (Denver, again) to get my teacher's certification, since I really want to start teaching at nice, high end, schools in Lima, but can't without being an actual teacher (Versus someone who just teaches). As always, it's always an inner struggle when I leave home, since I hate to leave my friends and activities behind again. Especially when I meet some really special people. That versus the attraction of new travels and experiences makes for tough decisions to be made.

Right now I'm listening to the album "The Flying Cup" from the band Beirut, which I love, and gives you that special feeling when listening to. Great for background, meditative music, but can also be very powerful at the same time.

I don't think I posted on here yet, but I went up to Ecuador a couple of months ago, and had an amazing time meeting new friends and visiting beautiful cities and national parks and beaches. I met some great friends thanks to Couchsurfing and experienced lots of awesome stuff that I never would have had the chance to have done if not for CS.

Anyways, that's all for now, I think... maybe someone will read this, maybe not.

'till next time.

2009

So it's 2009 now. It's been almost a month since I've written, and I have a lot on my mind, so I figured it was about time to add a bit to my little ole bloggy blog that no one ever reads, but at least to get it off my chest.

I've definitely been feeling a bit down lately. I had a really nice, short, two-day trip last week, which was a lot of fun. I went to Huacachina, near Ica (south of Lima), where you can go sandboarding. It was loads of fun and on the second day we visited the beautiful natural reserve of Paracas where you can see TONS of birds, penguins, dolphins, and other good stuff. An all around great couple of days.

Except the bus ride home when they robbed me of a cell phone and my beloved (but well used) Nikon D40. :(

I felt really, really sad and lonely during the remaining two or so hours, especially since I wasn't able to get in touch with my mom or brother at the time. I eventually managed to walk home from the bus stop and met up with my mom who had just arrived and told her what had happened. She started with her usual "well you have to be more careful, yadda yadda"which never helps, but later gave me my much needed hug.

Anyways, I'm kind of over it.. but it just really made me sad and a bit depressed to think there's people out there in that type of necessity or with the lack of opportunities to have to resort to such a horrible act. It made me feel really empty and violated.

---

Anywho!! I'm definitely excited about another new year. :) It's still *great* to be alive and quite healthy. I'm very fortunate to be so healthy and have all that I have, living in such comfort. There are so many who are sick or who don't have a home to sleep in, or food to eat. I'm quite grateful that I have all that I have.

I hope to do better this year than last. Try to get out there more and do something meaningful. Big hugs to everyone. :)

So I took a two-month trip over the months of September and October. I went through a few major cities in Southern Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Southern Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile.

The link to that trip can be found at my travelpod, here.

I'll probably post a few of the "highlights" from my pictures, but I can't promise anything, as I've been far too inactive in this blog. I'm hoping I can start posting on it again, but since I'm heading off traveling again in January or February, I'll most likely start another travelpod blog for that. When I do, I'll post the link to that here as well.


So this year has been pretty interesting. I cam back last November from my year and a half in Asia. I stayed till' February. Then I took a flight back to LA and roamed around a bit in the East Coast. I also visited my family in the South, and flew back home, to Lima, Peru.

Then I stayed here for about four months, teaching English and studying languages, after which I did my two-month trip. I've been back for November and December and then, as I said, I'm probably heading out in January, or February tops. But more than likely in January.

Hmm... that's it for now.

A new trip?

So it seems I'm finally going on a new trip pretty soon. I'm thinking of leaving the first week of September and heading South through Arequipa in southern Peru, into Chile, Argentina, and whatever I can fit into a couple of months or so, and financially.

I'm excited :)

Update time again... May 2008

Hey there (as I'll probably be the only one reading this in a few months. ;) )...

So I figured it was about time for an update and an online draft of how my emotions have been lately and what I've been up to as well..

I've now been back home in Peru for about two months.. I've been teaching private English lessons (I probably already said all this in the last post, but oh well..), as well as reviewing my French and I've also started studying German, which is super fun...

I've also been playing with a few different projects, but nothing that has utterly captivated me... I hope I find something that I really enjoy and that fulfills me...

Sadly, I haven't fallen back in love with Lima (or any girls for that matter..) Hopefully I'll find something that I enjoy more and makes me enjoy my time in Lima more...

At least I've been able to play music, like I said before, and some of it is pretty interesting... so I'll just hope for the best...

At this rate, though, I'll definitely be taking off after Christmas... I really hope I do my South American trip, and then probably off to Asia again... I have to go back..

Living in Peru...

So, again, it's been forever since I've written anything on here, but here I am..

It's been almost two months since I've come back to Peru. It's been about 10 years since I finished high school and haven't lived here. It's been interesting so far.

I've started teaching private English lessons through a company that sets me up with various students. Then, I've also started reviewing my French at L'Alliance Francaise (French Institue) and learning German at the Goethe institute.

I have a lot of musical projects that might be starting up... I got together with a metal band today, and then getting together with at least one or two other projects during the week...

We'll see what happens...

Christian Bjork has invited you to join Kiva!

Hello!

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Check it out!

https://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=register&_isc=56e68f58-5802-102b-8570-f23b51e27ecd

Catching up

First of all, thanks to my friend Courtney for reminding me to update this! ;)

So anyways... The last few weeks have been pretty interesting. I left Lima on February 14th on my return flight (I had bought a round trip ticket Tokyo-Lima-Tokyo) to Tokyo, but I just jumped off at the LA airport. I had a good time in LA, staying at my Couchsurfer host's house for a few nights.

We had a night out walking with several other couchsurfers through the art walk in downtown LA. I also spent a day with one of my mom's close friends, which was nice, walking in some beautiful botanical gardens and art museum.

So then I took a cheap flight out to NYC to apply for the education masters fellows, where you teach in high need schools as you get a masters in education (which I've already been accepted into, it seems). But since I left Peru I was already getting really homesick, so I had a premonition I'd have a desire to get back home regardless (which I'll get to in a bit).

I had another amazing host during my time in New York, and went to the MET, science museum, and walked around town and Central Park. It was a really nice time, but I could definitely feel the cold weather as I walked around.

The amazing MET

Oh, I also met three latin girls on the Brooklyn bridge as I was walking towards Manhattan. Monica from Mexico, Nahia from Honduras, and Marcella from Colombia. I told them how I was staying at a couchsurfer's house, and how I had met her online through www.couchsurfing.com. I joked to them that if they let me stay with them, I could make a quick trip up to Boston.

Monica, Me, Nahia, Marcella

Amazingly, Monica said I could come stay at her house, so after my interview I went up to Boston and had a really nice week with her and her son Isai. I saw a few different spots in Boston and Salem, and then took the Chinatown buses down to Philadelphia.

Salem, Massachusetts

My stop in Philadelphia was brief, but I was able to see all the cool historic spots downtown, such as the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, etc. Then, I took the bus off to DC that Friday night so that I could see my friend Amy before she went back to Wisconsin. It was nice to see her, since I hadn't seen her since Korea, where we met over a year ago.

The Liberty Bell

My host in DC was amazing as well. His name is Ranajoy, and he's from Calcutta, India. We were able to hang out a bit over the weekend, checking out some great jazz/blues music on Saturday and then some Iraqi traditional music on Sunday. We also walked through some museums. The rest of the time I also spent walking around all of the amaaazing (free!) Smithsonian museums as well as the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, among lots of other cool stuf.

A self portrait at the beautiful Capitol

After DC I caught a flight to head down to Mississippi. It was quite the fun day to travel, since Atlanta (where I was to catch my connecting flight down to Mississippi) had really bad weather that day. Long story short, our plane was rerouted to Charlotte, then we made it about 3 hours late into Atlanta, and I barely made my connecting flight to Mississippi.

It was nice to see my grandma and uncle Mike at the airport in Gulfport. Since then I've spent some time with my different relatives in Mississippi, including my aunt Karen, Elizabeth, and cousins Christie and Claudia. As they all might know, it's not the most exciting time of my life here in Mississippi, but I think they know as well as I do that I don't quite come down here for the thrills. I'm her so that I can visit my family since I don't get to see them all that often.

Grandma and Uncle Mike


Me with Uncle Mike

Oh, and my cousin Claudia's daughter Ayden, is absolutely adorable... Here, take a look...

Adorable..

Next Tuesday I'm catching a flight to Denver, where I'll be until the 26th, when I fly back to Lima. I really look forward to seeing a lot of my friends from CU Denver as well as getting some of my musical instruments.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm heading back to Peru because I got really homesick this last time I left. You'd think I'd be used to going back and forth, since I've been traveling (at least between the U.S. and Peru) since I was about 8, but this last time was really hard to leave. I think it has to do with the fact that I haven't lived in Peru in about 10 years now (since I left for Denver to do my senior year of high school there and University). I think it's time to spend some time back home.

Some of my plans include (possibly) studying for a translation certification, studying some languages some more, and giving private English lessons or some other type of work. I also look forward to playing some music with some of my friends or maybe some new people as well. It'll be nice to be "home" for a change, and not be on the move. It'll be nice, I'm thinking

word.

Thinking about the Future

So yeah, I've been thinking a lot about the future lately. I've been back in Peru just over a month now, and it seems like time has just flown by overall, while it has definitely crawled during some moments as well.

I always feel like I don't get too much accomplished when I'm in Peru, mainly since I always come back after doing a large(r) project abroad. Be it finishing my bachelor's degree, or teaching English in South Korea and traveling around Asia afterwards.

I usually come back to recharge my batteries. This last time I felt particularly exhausted, after traveling for five months around Asia. This might seem like a lot for some who haven't traveled, or very little for those who have traveled extensively, but it was definitely my largest trip ever. Most all of my previous traveling experiences had mainly involved going from point A to point B. Usually by plane, without much time on the road. Not too many journeys to speak of; just a trip to the destination and back.

So anyways. I've been debating on what path to follow next. I was thinking about doing a fellows in California or New York, where you get certified teaching while working in high need schools. The other option was to find a good Grad School to get my graduate degree in Translation/Interpretation. While these both seem like great options, I'm leaning (at the moment) at heading back to Asia and teaching and roaming around.