Change

San Diego, CA – 11.2010

It’s amazing how things change over time; What’s even more amazing is how people change. It’s so interesting to watch the winding paths of peoples lives as they grow and develop into their adult lives. This has been very evident over the past year, as many of my friends and schoolmates have begun their lives, careers, and even families in the so-called ‘real-word’ (which in my opinion, doesn’t exist).

The interesting thing about it, really, is how people and their interests change. For instance, someone who was so passionate about music years ago, has since but let that passion fall to the side because they have become distracted, or in my opinion – conditioned, by the ‘real-world’, that those passions of years ago are no longer relevant or appropriate for a ‘grown up’. As I’ve settled into my job, I’ve met dozens of people across the country, most all of which are at least 5-10 years older than I am, and seem to have this air of defeatism about them. With some people it’s a bit more prevalent than others, but it’s as though they’ve given up. They no longer challenge themselves to progress, to grow as a person, and become the person they have always wished they to become. Instead, it’s like they have begun just accepting what’s given to them, and just continue to be pushed around by life, like a sailboat with no sail. This is a bit troubling in my opinion. It’s troubling because I think that people are just too scared to take a risk that could lead them to whatever dream it is they have for them self. Why is that? What happened to chasing your dreams, and not just chasing money?

If you walk up to a friend and tell them that you are moving to another country, halfway around the world, and you have no job in place for when you arrive, they will certainly tell you that you are crazy. Is it because you are actually crazy? I guess you may be, but generally speaking, No, it’s because you are taking a risk and becoming the person that you want to be, not just thinking, dreaming, and wishing that one day someone will knock on your front door and say “Hello, I’m here to take you away to your dream life.”

When I look at my friends my age who have already graduated college or started working after high school, I can almost separate them all into two groups. The people who have put themselves out there and have gotten the job they wanted, or have moved to another country, or whatever it is that they have always wanted and have pursued that passion to achieve those goals. On the other hand, there are also those friends (not that I think any less of them, I still think they are nothing less than amazing people), who have unfortunately just sort of given up on growing and challenging themselves to chase their dreams.

When I say chasing dreams, I’m not implying anything having to do with money, because let’s face it, it will never make you happy. When I say that people have given up on chasing their dreams, I mean people have given up on pursuing their passions in life. If you love to play music, play music and never stop no matter what anyone says. If you love to travel, do it as much as possible and keep that thirst for experiencing the world and don’t give up on it. Do everything that you love, don’t stop because you think you will be perceived by your peers or coworkers in a certain way, do it because YOU love it. Share those things you love with everyone you can. I say that because when you speak with someone who is truly passionate about something, regardless of subject or type, you are naturally inspired by their passionate nature. So if you continue to chase after those passions in life, and you are sharing that with as many people as you can, you can do nothing but inspire them and challenge them to become more passionate about the things they love doing.

Do what you love, because you love it.

Appreciation vs. Desire

It’s funny isn’t it? It is so easy to get sucked into the cycle of wants and desires, which really are ultimately developed from some initial appreciation. It’s interesting also, how large of an effect our wants and desires have upon our lives, subconsciously and consciously. I’ll use cars as an example, we see – or rather, I see (I don’t want to speak for everyone when I say this ). So I see a nice car parked at a stoplight and I almost always do one of two things; I’ll think ‘wow, I really want that car’ or, I’ll think about how ‘cool’ it must feel to drive that thing around all the time.

Although this may seem small or insignificant to most, I think just a small change in the lens through which we look at and perceive things can make a huge impacts on our outlook on life. I believe that if we are able to see things with a sense of appreciation rather than desire, that outlook will eventually begin to be adopted in many other aspects of our lives. Rather than looking for that next thing that will make us ‘happy’, we can then begin looking at what we have with appreciation rather than comparing it to new things, and in turn looking at it with a sense of inferiority or dissatisfaction because we convinced ourselves that we ‘need’ it. Although many of us convince ourselves that we will be happier or that we need that new car, house, or thing, the reality of the matter is that new and exciting feel you get after buying something will soon wear off and it will go back to being just like the thing you had before. I definitely learned this, in a roundabout way, in the past few weeks after selling my car, and downgrading to something that was paid off and cheaper to insure. At first, I missed the amenities of my previous car, but as I got more used to my current older car, I realized that I’m really no more or less happy with the change. I’m not a worse or more unhappy person because I drive a cheaper car, and I wasn’t a better or happier person before because I drove a fancy car. So I suppose my point is that the happiness comes from the fact that I have a car to drive, rather than the type of car that I have.

I think this idea applies to more than just possessions; I think it can have a very distinct effect on our personal lives and relationships as well. Its safe to say that everyone has felt jealously or insecure at some point in our personal lives, relationships, or friendships. I think this is oftentimes rooted in how we have perceived someone else’s worth, wealth, or happiness in comparison to our own actual worth, wealth, or happiness. Given this perception, I think what we end up doing is in a way, we try to indirectly emulate that perceived image that we have because they seemed more happy, wealthy, or whatever, than us. I think this translates into us, consciously or subconsciously, trying to attain this fabricated image that we made based on the perceived whatever of someone or something else, rather than being totally aware, content, and happy with who we are,where we are, and the things that we have. It goes hand in hand with the saying ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’. I think this concept is what drives people into that cycle because they never really feel, no matter what they buy or do, that they are quite there in that fabricated idea of what happiness really is.

As a result of all of this, personally, I feel that if I have a clear and realistic knowledge of who I am, and what makes me happy, rather than looking for the next thing to try and define me, or make me ‘happy’, I’ll be much more happy and satisfied than I would have been had I used all of my available funds to try and attain that fabricated idea – that is impossible to ever attain –to reach true ‘happiness’.

Be true to yourself, and happy with the people you’ve been blessed to have in your life.

Happiness is free.

Define success.

It’s an interesting and sometimes difficult task, to which the results are rather arbitrary depending on the person considering the question. During my job search, I’ve continued to look for jobs that will make me successful and happy, and lead me to achieve the goals that I’ve set for myself. Just for fun, I did a wikipedia search of ‘success’ to find:

Success may mean, but is not limited to:

* a level of social status
* achievement of an objective/goal
* the opposite of failure
* the succession of successfully executed tasks and successes

Interesting isn’t it that social status ranks above personal objectives or goals? It’s also interesting on how vast the difference of definition of success is from person to person, country to country, and culture to culture. Many define success by having X-amount of money, some define it as landing that perfect job, having a nice house, and more or less simply having having things.

I see success as living in a place that I love, regardless of the money that I’m making, because I’ve found that the sights and sounds around me are often what I cherish and enjoy most in life, rather than things that I possess. When I think of the things in life that I’m most proud of in my life thus far, it isn’t my cars, the fancy apartment I lived in for 2 years, or the clothes on my back. This isn’t to say I don’t like those things, but they aren’t the things that make me who I am. I’m proud that I was able to travel to the places that I’ve gone so far, and the people who I’ve met in those places.

I often get funny looks from people who ask me my ‘plan’ now that I’ve graduated, who are often expecting the usual: find a job, get an apartment, get married, have kids, etc.. I was in an interview for a job a few weeks back and the interviewer asked me where I’d like to be in 5 years, to which I could only smile. I answered “I’d like to be living in Asia, making enough money to live and pay my student loans, and enjoying my surroundings”. He looked at me funny, obviously.

My outlook is a little different than most of my friends and people I know. I think about the large majority of the workforce in the US right now, and I guess just don’t understand. What I mean is, 1-2 weeks out of the year, everyone packs up, goes somewhere warm/tropical for vacation, and comes back and talks about how much they wish they could go back. My view is, why not live in the place that you love, rather then just visiting for 7 of the 365 days out of the year? Sure, you have to work, and do all of the normal things that people do all over the world, but during the off work hours, there is no reason you shouldn’t love the place where you are.

I’m writing this with the understanding that sure, many people do love where they live. Many people love living in Ohio, or the United States for that matter. I think there are many things here that you cannot find anywhere else. However, I’d argue that many people are afraid to take the leap and move somewhere that they’ve always dreamed about.

So I guess that’s my ‘plan’. I’d like to live somewhere that I love, have a great family (which I already have), be surrounded with friendly people, making enough money to live. That’s how I define success, how would you define success?

Life & Debt

I initially created this blog in so that I could share my thoughts, feelings, and reflections during my time in Cambodia. Writing out my thoughts became quite therapeutic actually, because it helped me to sort out what I was feeling, and why I was feeling those feelings.

I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to go to college. I think that it has certainly made me the person that I am today and has taught me things about myself and about life that are irreplaceable. The people, places, and things that I’ve seen as a result of college are certainly among my most treasured memories of my 23 years thus far. However, the expenses of those experiences are overwhelming, and even enslaving at times because places a large damper on what you can and cannot do.

I’ve always been told, and this is still mostly true, that going to college will get you a better job. But, when you owe so much in student loans, is a better job necessarily ‘better’ when you’re spending half of what you make to pay back the money you spent in order to get that job?

There is one thing that I’ve never let myself do, and that is to live in the past. The decisions I’ve made were what I thought was best at the time, and thats something that I have to live with. Do I regret going to college? Absolutely not. Do I regret not ever getting any guidance on the type of apartment I should get and how to minimize the loan amount that I should take out? Of course. However, the loans I owe will be there regardless of the amount of stress I put on myself, so the only real way to deal with the stress of loans is to make my payments and continue about my life knowing that the money was well spent and got me to where I am today.

The last

So this is my last of my asian adventures, for now. I wrote this on the 13 hour bus ride from Saigon, mostly as a recap of Nha Trang and some of my last feelings and thoughts about Cambodia. If there are any spelling errors, I’m sorry haha, I typed the entire thing on my phone (before it later got stolen in Vietnam).

What an awesome few days. So for the last few days of nha trang and then the last two days in hcmc I spent hanging out with the glc kids and faculty since they justfinished their projects and I have to say that it may have been some of the most fun I’ve had in Asia in these past 4 months.

The second to last day of nha trang a few of us decided to visit this Buddhist orphanage and oh my goodness… So awesome. There were at least a hundred kids that we spent the morning hanging out and playing with and giving toys to that we brought them. Really though, they weren’t all that concerned with the toys, they were seriously overjoyed at the fact that we were there to visit them and hold then and play with them. It really reminds you what is really important in life and regardless of how many things you are given, nothing can replace the feeling that you are given from recieving true care or love from someone, and that was so apparent in each of the faces of those kids. It was just an awesome experience, everytime I’d put one of the kids down, another would come running up to have me hold them or play with them.

Once I got back to our hotel, nick told me that I was invited to go on this boat ride with the faculty which was going to head to some of the islands around nha trang, so obviously I agreeed and 20 minutes later I was stepping down onto this little speedboat and cruising to the first island. Illl preface this by saying that I’ve always thought snorkling is pretty silly because you have to stay on the surface the whole time and can’t go down more than a few feet to see stuff, But I figured what the heck… I’m in Vietnam, I might as well. What a good decision, we jumped off the boat and swam toward the coast until the coral was so close that if we were to even put our legs down to tread water we would have been kicking the reefs. So after snorkling for 20 minutes or so, we headed to the next island were nick and I paid about 3 bucks and floated around this cove in a basket which was hilarious. The lady who was driving spoke really broken English but was asking nick and I about our girlfriends, which neither of us currently have. Once she found that out she suggested that we fund wives, so we asked her and told her that she was beautiful, only to have her not talk to us the rest of the ride hahaha oops.

So after a really delicious lunch, we headed back to the mainland to get rested for the evening which was alot of fun. There was a bar that all of the students hung out at in the evenings for the entire trip, so we went there for a while and I played pool for oh about… 3 HOURS haha. I met this guy from wales who asked if I want to play doubles with him, so I agreed thinking we’d win a game or two and that would be it. Well we ended up winning until he got too drunk to remember if I was still his partner, which is obviously when we started losing. So I decided to leave and go swimming with some of the GLC kids in the rooftop pool which was about 50 degrees (or that’s what it felt like at least) and Natalie & I ended up staying up till about 4:30 just talking and hanging out, which was alot of fun.

The next day we embarked on our 10 hour bus ride to HCMC which just draaaaaaagged. Once we got there nick and I noticed that out window lead out onto the roof, overlooking the busy intersection 6 floors down, so naturally I climbed out to take some pictures (sorry mom and dad). We spotted a night bazaar while up there, so nick and I ran over to get some authentic Vietnamese phò which was wonderful. We called it quits early on the day so we could wake up early and see the city.

Yesterday we got up around 8:30 and headed over to the war remnants museum, which was really really intense, but was something that I’d recommend everyone go visit if they ever are in Saigon. There is everything from bazookas to full tanks to pictures of agent orange victims, so like I said, if was alot to take in. The experience became even more real when Natalie and I were outside looking at the tanks and airplanes when a war victim walked up to me and asked how I was and where I was from. I answered him by telling him that I was doing good and that I was from the states, to which he outstretched his arm and asked to shake my hand. This would normally be pretty standard, except that both of his forarms had been severed during the war, so I shook his forearmless arm and he smiled and began trying to sell me books since that’s the only job he can do because of his physical condition. I guess that just made the things we saw in the museum completely real for me. And really struck home with me to speak with a Vietnamese citizen who was there during the war and had all of those images in the museum as his own personal memories.

Overwhelmed, we all headed back to the hotel to relax a little bit before going exploring some more. Nick, Natalie, Jenna and I all went over to the market so they could do some lite (purse) Christmas shopping haha woopee. It was actually fun helping then bargain these fake Louis v. Bags down from 50 dollars to 10. The only problem is that we lost nick in the process since he went wandering for fruit haha so after some searching around we again went back to the hotel to drop off all the findings.

When we got back, we still had no nick, who had our room key, so I took Natalie to check out one of these really hilarious Asian 5 story electronic stores that was next door to the hotel. You can buy anything at these places, and I mean that in total honesty. Anything. There are thousands of people and thousands of more products packed into those five condensed floors. We watched this lady on this machine which can be best described as one that just just shakes your body as fast as possible. Trust me, it’s hilarious to watch, even though I am still missing the point of it haha. We then grabbed some coffee at this very Panera-esque French cafe before heading back to meet nick.

Last night a bunch of us headed out for dinner which our tourguide, tom, picked out. Interestingly enough it was this place that resembled a German brauhaus but served Vietnamese food, and was decorated just like the macaroni gille haha. I officially added the next crazy food to my list, which was pig ears. I have to say, they were probably my least favorite yet because of the crunchyness of the cartilage, but it was still pretty okay.

Tom then took us to this Texas style bar to see his brother play guitar, who was surprisingly really good. The band mainly did covers of western songs, but it was still fun. After Natalie finished teaching some of the hostesses how to dance, we left since they all had to be leaving the hotel at 3am. So of course, we want back to the hotel, and a couple of us sat out there for an hour or two and just reflected on the trip and shared stories which was alot of fun.

That brings me up to this morning when nick and I were leaving on a bus to siem reap for two days before heading over to Bangkok. We were told we would be picked up at 6:15, only to have the bus not show up. In a slight panic, we went back to the hotel as they were the ones who booked the tickets. Miraculously, the front desk guy jumped in a cab with us and had us on a bus 10 minutes later, which brings me almost up to now.

The bus ride has been a little bittersweet for me for a few reasons. There are no direct roads to sien reap, so we make an L over to phnom penh and then up to Siem Reap… And drove right past the university which made me a little more sad than I really expecting… It really left me wishing I had more time to spend there. I was also bummed to leave all of the glc kids who I’ve become good friends with over the past few weeks.

So, I guess that is truely bittersweet for me because, although I left them for now, I know that I’ll have a ton of new friends on campus when I get back to Athens, which I was really getting bummed out about because all of my friends from the past four years for the most part have graduated. So I feel that as my trip is coming to an end, I’m ready to get back and see family But I’m also ready to get back over sometime sooner than later.

I’ll talk to you all soon when I get to Siem Reap!

Kyle.

Its been a hectic few days

But I’m finally back in the states. I wrote a series of blogs on my phone while we were bussing around during the last week in Asia, so I’m going to post one of those a day just as I would a normal blog so you all can keep up. The first is from our day trip to Dalat, Vietnam. I didn’t really know we were going on this trip at all until I dropped off my bags the first night I arrived in Vietnam, only to see Nick packing a bag for the weekend trip that we were leaving for at 7am the next day! So here is my Dalat story:

Dalat

Dalat was a really odd place. It wasn’t the people or the sights, but rather the terrain of the place. I guess when I remanisce and reflect on Asia, I don’t picture pine trees, orchards, and little French two story houses everywhere.

Anyrate- it was a very touristy weekend which I just LOVED haha. I should start by saying that I do not wish to eat hot pot again until I return to Asia the next time. Almost every meal we had as a group featured hot pot, which is more or less a pot of boiling vegetables and some meat. Which is good the first time or two, but then after 6 or 7 time you’re more than ready for something new.

I really didn’t know I was going to be going to Dalat. In true glc fashion, they told me the day after getting to nha trang that I was coming on weekend adventure that was about 9 hours away. So that was okay haha, we went to a few different events which included a run down 70s amusement park, traditional dalat dancing, and this place called the crazy house.

The entire trip was okay, but the most entertaining part was when our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere in the hills of dalat. I guess this was normal problem, our driveshaft pulled apart. So, without hesitation, the driver jumped out, pulled off his shirt and got to work. I tried to offer help, but the bus employees weren’t having any of that, so I just kinda hung back and talked with the students until we heard the ice cream moto pull up haha.

Picture a little freezer attached to a moto which drives around the hills of nowhere selling kids the occasional cone here and there. We cleaned him out. We are every bit of I’ve cream, every cone, every everything and decided that he probably would be taking the month off because we probably doubled his yearly salary haha.

Finally, the bus was fixed and off we were to the rest of our trip which was plagued with car sickness and nausea.

Moral of the story, dalat is an aeesome place, just leave the tour guide at home and don’t let your driveshaft get broken in two.

Kyle.

IM SORRY!

So it’s been a seriously long time since my last post, and I apologize, but my last post proved to be more than true. The last two weeks has been something seriously crazy… for real. Event after event happened, and I’m just now getting back to normal/not sick/myself again. So lets see… in the past two weeks: Nick came to visit for four days, John came to replace me, I got a really bad fever/headache/stomach ache which left me unable to pick him up from the airport, I got pink eye, I tried to leave cambodia, I left cambodia, and somehow I made it to Nha Trang. Alot of this sounds pretty boring and not that crazy, but just take my word for it.

So Nick came, and of course when anyone comes to visit you in a place they’ve never been before, you want to show them the best time that you can so they can fully appreciate the place that you’ve come to love. Maybe I mentally took that idea overboard, but I spent those 4 or 5 days just worrying about what we could do and between worrying and walking miles a day in the sun I ended up with a terrible fever and an awful headache, and unable to pick John up from the airport when he arrived on saturday night. So after I bummed around for an entire day with that, I was pretty okay by the next evening and thought to myself ‘well great, at least I got one more sickness out of the way before the beach so I have nothing to worry about..”

Wrong.

Fast forward a day where I was finally taking some time to myself at my favorite cafe spot, the Living Room Cafe, and I started to notice that my eye was really soar and kind of gunky but really thought nothing of it. Once I got home and looking in the mirror I discovered a completely bloodshot eye, which I thought was from me rubbing it to get the gunk out. Hoping it would go away after some decent sleep, I woke up to the same sight. 2 hours later I was sitting in the office of the SOS Clinic getting an intensive eye exam to figure out what was wrong with me, which we found out to be a little more sever version of pink eye and $88 later, I was on my way with some antibiotic eye drops.

So I thought my troubles were finally over. I’d pack my things and be on my way to Vietnam to meet up with the GLC students in Nha Trang. I booked my ticket several days in advance and had it all planned out to catch the 8am bus on the third which would leave me with 2 hours at the airport for security and check in things. When I went to the bus station to buy my ticket on the morning of the 2rd, they informed me that, unlike Cambodia, Vietnam doesn’t allow upon arrival visas, so I was going to have to stay for another day until I could get my visa processed and granted.

Okay, fine.

So I fill out the paper work, flustered and a bit annoyed, very quickly and left. I went back to the embassy at 4:30 like instructed only to find out that in my flustered rush, I filled out the wrong entry date (as the 4th and not 3rd) and that I couldn’t entry the country until the 4th unless I payed them an extra 10 dollars to WHITE OUT wrong date and put a stamp over it. Awesome.

So after an hour delay on my flight, I finally arrived in Nha Trang last night safe and sound at 8ish. After being bombarded by taxi drivers offering to take me to my destination, I chose one who seemed to speak decent English and claimed to know where our hotel was. About 15km down the road he begins asking me what the name was and if I knew how to get there. Great. By some string of luck I happened to catch a glimpse of the tiny ‘Golden Rain Hotel’ sign and finally made it.

Now, its about 9:45pm and I think I’m going to head to bed because of the tiny amount of sleep I’ve gotten in the past 3 days. Tomorrow we are bussing to a place called Dalak, so hopefully I’ll have some internet connection to update you on my time here so far and maybe upload some pictures of my last time in Cambodia and my first little while here in Vietnam.

Until then,

Kyle

Just as quickly as we arrived

we were back on the plane again this morning.

A few weeks ago Mike mentioned a PIA (Princeton in Asia) Singapore office opening party which I also wrote briefly about in an earlier post. Now, if I’m being honest, and I’d say its safe to assume this goes for both Mike and Auggie as well, we all were just looking for an excuse to fly to Singapore. One of the nice things about being in Asia are the extremely cheap flights and this trip was no exception to that. We found round trip tickets for $130 USD, to fly out Thursday morning and return again on Saturday morning. So, as you can imagine, it was a whirlwind of a trip and we packed SO much stuff into basically a day and a half that it’s hard to remember it all but luckily I took nearly 500 pictures haha.

I’ll preface the post by saying that I knew that Singapore is extremely modern and developed, but maybe I just wasn’t expecting the shock of the feeling of walking into the airport to see Christmas lights and Burger King. So, while refreshing to be in a developed city again, I got a little taste of the reverse culture shock that is coming one month from today when I touch down in Columbus at the end of my adventure. Aside from the shock though, I really do love Singapore. From first impression, it has so much that I look for in a city: It’s clean, good public transportation, and its very diverse. It’s expensive, just like any NYC or Philly of the states, but that is to be expected from any major developed city.

So, we flew in at noon on Thursday, only to arrive in a downpour of a city that was Singapore with only shoddy directions to get to the hostel we were staying at. Now, mind you, it is downpourning. Any of you who have been downtown in a major city during a downpour, an unhired taxi is about impossible. So, we run over to this little indian place (go figure, our hostel was in little india mmmmmm) to get directions from a man standing outside under the awning, only to find out that our hostel was about 3 blocks away. After changing out of our dripping wet clothes, we anxiously went to check out the mall that was closeby to get some last minute items before the party.

I like malls, and I like shopping. With that said, I felt like the flintstones went to a modern mall or something. It all hit me at once when we walked into the mall… Christmas trees, McDonalds, and 4 floors of overwhelming consumerism. We all agreed that it would have been completely overwhelming and uncomfortable had the mall been crowded, just because of the level of consumerism. That’s not to say that Cambodia and Phnom Penh is devoid of consumerism, but it is so much different than what we experience in the States and other major cities. Instead of getting verbally smacked in the face for tuk-tuk rides, you get smacked in the face with pre-light, fiber optic Christmas trees and thousand dollar purses.

So after our hour of awe struck shopping, we headed back to the hostel to change and get ready for the party which proved to be equally shocking haha. Wine & o’rdurves were nothing like what I’ve experienced in the past two months. Wine & o’rdurves with Princeton students, alums, and board members was icing on the cake so to speak haha. All shocked effects aside, I’m really glad that we went to the party and had the chance to mingle with some of the PIA fellows and leaders to get a feel for what the program is all about, so that was fun. Afterward, we stopped into McDonalds to crush on some french fries and get a little taste of home before heading to bed early to get enough energy to walk around the city all day Friday.

Friday, we literally walked around ALL DAY trying to see as much of the city as possible and while we didn’t see everything (obviously), I saw enough to get the feeling that I’d love to stick around and live there for a while. For the most part, I’ll let the pictures do the talking once I get them uploaded and posted, but the city is beautiful. While we were walking past the croquet club, we noticed signs up for a concert from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and decided to go check out the dates just for fun, and it just so happened that there was a show that night. After a very short deliberation (see: You guys want to go? YES!) we went in and got our $22 dollar cheap seats and were on our way.

The show was wonderful for two reasons: it was not depressing/dismal cambodian khmer music, and it was performed live (obviously) in an awesome concert hall. I’d at times just close my eyes and imagine that I was sitting on the lawn at Blossom listening to the Cleveland Orchestra with Mom and Grandma, so that was a nice boost of excitement to come home in a month.

All in all, it was an amazing 48 hours. Had I known that it was that affordable to fly around Asia, I think I would have taken advantage of a few more weekends to check out some of the other destinations like Kuala Lampur. Oh well, next time I’m back I hope. I’m going to hopefully get some pictures uploaded this afternoon to post, which I’ll add more narration along with them.

Until then,

Kyle

1 1/2.

So things are going to pick up quick in the next few weeks and for the remainder of my time over here. Just to give a brief overview of my upcoming schedule:

Nov. 17: Day trip to the former capital
Nov. 19-21st Singapore for the PIA office opening
Nov. 23rd Nick gets here
Nov. 26-27th Hang out in Siem Reap/Angkor Wat
Dec. 2nd Travel to Ho Chi Minh to catch a plane to Nha Trang (and maybe meet Erin)

So yeah… busy few days. It’s a really weird feeling having just 2 days left at work, I feel like it was only yesterday that I walked into the office with my suitcase to blindly meet Bandol and Thida for the first time, only to find out that the president of the university didn’t relay the message to them of my arrival. It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting outside the office of the director of operations, only to happen to bump into Mike and Auggie who quickly became my two best friends here.

It is unbelievable how quickly time has gone by. I have to say, I’m really not ready to come home yet. I’m SO excited to come back just in time for Christmas and see family and friends and celebrate with them, but in the same breath, I feel that I’ve not yet explored and had the full Cambodian experience yet. I feel like there is so much more to see, do and experience. There are providences that I’ve not yet (and now, will likely not have the time to) visited. It is hard to leave this life that I have jumped into and really embraced in the past two months. Certainly there are times when I’d love to just hop on a plane and head back to the states and never look back, but that happens everywhere you go.

The more I think about it, the more I’d really like to get involved in a program similar to what Mike and Auggie are doing now. They have a one-year contract with the WFDD (World Faith Development Dialogue, an NGO which seeks to document and promote dialogues and acceptance of all world religions) to interview various religious leaders around the region. So during their time here, they have a living stipend and really get to immerse themselves in the lifestyle and culture. They also have plenty of time throughout their stay to see the country and take in as much as possible. I think this is something that I’d really love to do, maybe not in Cambodia, but somewhere in the world. It’s not that I dislike Cambodia, I LOVE it here, but I’m so anxious to see more of the world that I’d like to have a similar opportunity to learn somewhere else.

So I guess I’ll just see what I can find or where I could use the skills I have to help out. While I don’t want to spend my whole life and career working 1-year contracts in foreign nations, I think that while I’m young and single that I might as well take an opportunity like that if it should present itself.

What do you do? I feel like there is so much pressure put on twenty-somethings and college grads to follow that cookie cutter mold that everyone kinda follows after college: Find a job, buy your first car, get married, etc, etc.. Its not that I have a problem with that, someday I’m sure I’ll do all of those things, but I feel like anymore that its become less of the common trend and more of an expectation. I’m excited to start a career doing something I really love, but I also don’t want a career to dictate what direction my life takes outside of work. It just seems like there are so many opportunities to get out and experience more things and become a more rounded person, and I’d hate to miss out on those things just to get a few more years into a career.

That’s just me I guess. Everyone always says you should do what you love, and I love traveling and learning about people and their cultures, so why not do that for a while before doing something else that you love?

Kyle

generally unrelated

but awesome nonetheless.

Que Houxo is a Japanese artist who does live paintings. His style is quite colorful, he uses fluorescent paints with black lights. These photos are from The Paint Players event, taken by Evan Roth.

here is a video from a separate show, but it gives you an idea of how he creates his work.