more music?

i really like victoria bergsman (taken by trees).

this makes me really happy.

full album out october 7th.

do you name a bike?

will i get too attached? should it remain nameless? why do we always feel like we need to name things? and by we i guess i mean i? i think this is the first time i've wanted to name an inanimate object? if you had a bright red bike what would you name it? do you want to hear my name ideas? i doubt it?

these are the things i think about when i bike in a straight line for a long time.

i bought a bike!

i am now the proud owner of a beautiful new (bright!) red cannondale f6. my plan had been to go with the much uglier, much less conspicuous, white and blue one, but the bike shop didn't have that one, and i figured i need all the help i can get to be noticed around here.

so now i'm in kunming for a few weeks until i leave first for jinghong in far sw china, and then cross into laos. in a rather ambitious fit of inspiration this afternoon (i'm pretty sure i was biking downhill), i've decided to start the bike trip from here. expect my lovely google map to reflect that change in the next few days if it still feels like a good idea tomorrow and the day after. this does mean i'll have to leave kunming a bit earlier than planned since i'm still only on a 30 day visa. oh, i've also added a little icon to the google map that i plan to move as i move, if you feel a burning desire to know where exactly in the world i am, right now.

my short few days in yangshuo were wonderful. i spent the time exploring the countryside on bike and foot. yangshuo is definitely the most naturally beautiful place i've been in china, and maybe one of the more beautiful i've visited in the world. hopefully some photos will make their way up here some day.

and that's it! i'm staying in a great apartment just outside of kunming, started chinese lessons today, and will be biking up every hill i can find in the next few weeks! i hope you are all well - i'll be sure to be back soon with exciting biking stories/puns. take care.

a year and a day in hong kong.

whoops, another month gone.  i'm still in hong kong, but will be leaving a week from tomorrow.  the last month has been really great, although i've been busier than i ever was during the actual grant period.  i couldn't afford the full yoga teacher training (3,500 US wasn't really in my budget...) but i have been doing the morning practices, which means i've been doing yoga 7-9am monday through saturday.  65-70% of you won't believe that i'm actually doing this, but it's been really wonderful and made me even consider the possibility that i'm a morning person.  who knew?

when i'm not pushing the snooze button, i've been teaching about 20-30 hours per week with kaplan.  it's been pretty demanding, but surprisingly enjoyable.  i've learned a lot in the last year about teaching, and am finally reaching a point where i can have fun with the classes, as i feel like i've started to develop my own style of teaching.  

i'm currently living in sheung wan on hong kong island with a friend of mine named julian.  i left my apartment in mong kok this afternoon, which was much sadder than i anticipated.  i've been surprised at how nostalgic i've started to get as i'm faced with my imminent departure.  leaving has led me to realize just how much i've taken away from this year.  

about ten days from now i'll be in kunming and i'll remain there for about three weeks.  during that time i'll start biking up every hill i can find, continue to do yoga (i've been put in touch with some local teachers) and maybe learn some chinese or something.  grad school has become a very real and very exciting possibility in about the last five days, so studying for the gre has been added to my to do list as well.  

that's about it for now.  many of you will have heard this song, but it feels relevant right now.  

sort of a plan.

things are finally starting to fall into place. i just purchased my ticket home this morning, which will take me from ho chi minh, vietnam to hong kong on november 20th, and from hong kong to minneapolis on november 24th. now, all i have to do is figure out what happens between today and november 20th. this is what i've come up with so far (subject to change):

follow along with this map (you can zoom in and out and move it around)

the fulbright officially ends on july 3rd, when the other english teaching assistants fly back to the united states. i have to forfeit my fulbright funded return ticket as my *brilliant* plan to change my return flight date was foiled by northwest and their rules. i'm currently planning on staying in hong kong for the next six weeks, so that i can take part in a month long anusara yoga teacher training course hosted by my yoga studio. i'm also hoping to pick up some teaching hours, and continue (or rather, restart) studying mandarin.

on or before august 12th, i'll head into mainland china, traveling overland through yangshuo (a place i've meant to get to for months) to kunming, the largest city in the southwest province of yunnan. kunming is an important spot, because it is here that i'll be buying the bike that will take me to ho chi minh. i'll remain in kunming until my china visa runs out (30 days) and then head south via xishuangbana into laos. this will put me in laos right around september 12th. at that point, since it will still be a thousand degrees, i'll probably hide in the foothills of northern laos until it cools down, and then make my way south to the largish city of louang phrabang.

this is hopefully where the real bike trip i'm planning will begin. over the next seven or so weeks, i'll work my way south to vientiane (the capital of laos) and then follow the mekong river along the border of thailand and laos until i hit cambodia. i'll then cross into cambodia, making my way to phnom penh. i'll then continue south to kampot, and then work my way east through the mekong river delta to ho chi minh. then, i'll sell my bike and come home.

i've stuck with this idea longer than most, so i'm feeling pretty confident that it's the real deal. when i was home visiting family and friends, i picked up most of the gear i'll need for the trip, so that all i really need to purchase in kunming is the bike itself.

if anyone will be in any of these places, or could be coerced into being in any of these places, do let me know. i'll probably need a piggy back ride around mile 800 or so.

jet lag.

i've tried writing this post quite a few times in the past few months, and as time went on it got harder and harder to create something that adequately expressed what inevitably kept becoming a larger experience.  so instead, i'm not going to really talk about the last few months at all.  the difficulty i have in maintaining this blog has made me realize that blogging probably isn't for me, but since i'd hate to devastate my three loyal readers (actually, google reader tells me i have five subscribers, i'm touched), i'm going to try to push through anyway.

i returned to hong kong four hours ago (at 5:15 am, after a ten hour layover in vancouver), and have decided to use jet lag to my advantage and maybe write something that my sleepy stupor will allow me to post without over thinking.  being back in the us was wonderful and exhausting.  i split my time between the west coast (vancouver, seattle and portland) and minneapolis, and saw a lot of great friends and family.  the ten months i lived in hong kong were, i think, the longest period of time i have spent outside of the us in a single stretch.  after my whirlwind trip back to the us, it's strange to be sitting back in my bed with only the recent water damage on my ceiling courtesy of hong kong's recent torrential rains to remind me of my absence.

so, i'm back, probably for about five months.  the fulbright officially ends on july 3rd, and then i have to start making choices for myself.  it seems i've finally reached the end of the live-your-life-in-handy-segments-so-you-don't-have-to-make-important-life-decisions phase.  i'm not sure why i'm calling it a phase, though, since that phase has been more or less the entirety of my life.  i feel ok about that, though.  i won't share any of my 'definite/certain/fresh' plans for the next few months quite yet, since, let's be honest, they'll be different tomorrow, but i do know that i'll be staying in china and se asia until thanksgiving, hopefully studying chinese, and (maybe?) studying for the gre.

the point of this post is that i'm working through a lot right now, and maybe if i figure some of 'it' out i'll share my realizations here.  i did smile as i stepped off the plane this morning, even as i was slapped?kneed?buffeted? in the face by 120% humidity and 90 degree weather at 5:15 in the morning.  i guess that probably means i'm happy to be back.  and with a little luck, hopefully it will be less than two months until i try to do this whole writing thing again.