the dates are all wrong

i knew it, the dates on this blog are all wrong - they're listed as the date/time in chicago at time of posting rather than the date/time in new zealand. no wonder it looks like i keep posting in the middle of the night. my last post says thursday, 26 march, 11.00 pm, but it's actually friday, 27 march, 6.00 pm - ignore the dates/times, i guess. i don't know how to fix that.

forget about the dates, i can't remember

• so after kayaking half the day, i was exhausted - the next day was sunday, so i went to a flea market and then to church at the anglican cathedral in nelson - a gorgeous building on a hill overlooking the city and surrounded by gardens. the service felt very familiar, though it's been years since i attended the anglican church in northern ireland.
• i wasn't feeling very well, so i lay low for most of the day, did a little grocery shopping, and read for most of the afternoon. in the evening i had dinner at the stingray cafe, a place recommended by the kayaking guide - quiet, dim, low-key, off the main restaurant/cafe strip and not too crowded. the bartender was quite friendly (i was the first customer of the night) and a couple of kiwis came in after me - we joked about charging to each others' tabs. i was so comfortable and cozy there, i didn't want to leave, but i had to catch a flight at 6.50 the next morning - somehow i've convinced myself on this trip that i'm a morning person, but i don't expect it to last. next stop: queenstown!
• i should have reversed my plans for the south island, because you can't fly directly from nelson to queenstown - you have to go through christchurch, which i was planning to visit anyway. i don't remember why i decided to stick with my nelson-to-queenstown plan, but anyway, it was still a lot quicker than taking the bus: three hours versus two days. when i arrived in queenstown, i booked myself a few activities: gondola, luge, haka show, canyoning, and - the best part - a trip to doubtful sound. i was running around pretty much the whole two and a half days i was there.
• when i got to the backpackers where i was staying, i rooted through my luggage to find my contact lenses (i always wear glasses when i fly) - and i didn't find them. i tore through everything twice, and then i realized i must have left them in nelson. what i had to say about that is not the sort of thing i can record here for public viewing. the guy at the reception desk was really nice about the whole thing, helped me call the place i stayed in nelson, and was very sympathetic when they said they looked around but couldn't find them. he even found an optometrist for me in queenstown, though i decided it would be too expensive and time consuming to try to replace my contact lenses in nz. so any pictures of me from this point forward - i'll be squinting through my glasses, or awkwardly wearing my sunglasses OVER my glasses . . . good thing i got a small frame.

• monday afternoon, i took the gondola to the top of the hill overlooking queenstown and lake wakatipu - gorgeous views of the remarkable mountains (that's the name of the mountain range, the remarkable mountains - and they are, too) and the deep blue lake. the gondola is kind of like a ski lift, but with enclosed cars that look a bit like space-age bubbles. it's a steep ride; i tried not to think about what it would be like if the cable broke! at the top, they have this luge track - like a sort of go-cart ride. i figured i'd give it a try, and it was heaps of fun: you get in this little three-wheeled cart and hurtle around the track, controlling speed and direction by pulling on or turning the bicycle-style handle bars. i went five times - it was a short track, once just wasn't enough. then i went to the kiwi haka show, a short maori cultural presentation - hard to describe, really, not like anything i've ever seen before. there were five people presenting, traditionally dressed and tatooed (or made up to look as if they were tattooed) and chanting examples of maori challenges, music and story telling.
• tuesday i went canyoning - i really didn't know what i was getting into, because i'd only read a short description in a tourist brochure about queenstown. the brochure mentioned abseiling (rappeling) and swimming and climbing, all of which sounded like fun to me . . . either it wasn't mentioned or i missed the part about jumping . . . anyway, there were seven of us, three germans and four americans, plus two guides and a photographer. after driving about an hour, we wriggled into wet suits and diving boots and hiked twenty minutes or so across a stream, through the forest, and into routeburne canyon. the forest was beautiful: green and lush, with both pine and deciduous trees - it looked just like that part in lord of the rings where the elves are leaving middle earth, walking single-file through the forest to the grey havens.
• i enjoyed the day quite a bit, initially, but then we got to the canyoning part . . . sliding backwards down a fifteen or twenty foot natural rock chute into an icy river pool wasn't so bad (we wore helmets), but then we were supposed to jump a good twenty feet or so into another pool (land on your bum in that narrow spot between the white water and that big rock or you'll break something, was what the guide said) . . . i didn't jump, i went down on a rope, but i knew i was in trouble at that point. i'm afraid of heights! i had no idea what i was getting into! i should have known, queenstown is the adrenalin capital of new zealand, probably the adrenalin capital of the world (did i mention the numerous bungy, sky-diving and hang-gliding options in town?).
• the rest of the canyoning trip was partly fun - rappeling, climbing, sliding, and one short zip line (they call it a 'flying fox' here in nz) and also partly awful - i felt like a real pansy. i just couldn't make myself jump farther than four or five feet, but a couple times i didn't have much choice (no rope option - or they let you down part way on a rope, but drop you a good ten or fifteen feet above the water). luckily there was one other woman who was almost as chicken as i was (i take it she didn't know what she was getting into, either - she did the first jump, which i refused, but she was shaking like a leaf for a good half hour afterwards, and she protested all the others). the german guys (three of them, all about 21) went twice off some of the jumps. crazy kids. i think i'm just too old for that sort of thing. 'course i wouldn't have done it at 21, either, so . . . maybe i'm just a pansy by nature.
• i survived the canyoning trip in spite of my embarrassment, but i wish i'd caught the bus out there and gone hiking instead. it was hard to enjoy the gorgeous surroundings while trying not to wet my wet suit. but, now i know - i don't like canyoning.
• i was really glad to get back to my room that night . . . unfortunately, the population had shifted, and it was now occupied by me, an english woman, a young dutch guy, and a middle-aged man of unknown nationality who went to bed at 8.30 and snored like a freight train going through a tunnel all night long. i'm pretty sure he was the only one who got any sleep - in the morning, the other woman and i compared notes as we were leaving for the day, and she said he'd kept her awake even through her ear plugs. i could hear him loud and clear over U2 and the cranberries on my i-pod, which i played for five hours till the battery burned out. i was never so glad for morning to come - and it was an early one, i got up at 5.45 for my doubtful sound trip.
• well, you're probably getting bored with my long post, so i'll leave doubtful sound for the next one . . . i'm still having a good time, in spite of having lost the most expensive thing i brought with me, scared/embarrassed myself silly, and lost a whole night's sleep.

what day is this, anyway?

• ok, i have a little more time now, though of course i forgot my card reader, so there might not be any photos, but here's what i've been doing the last few days . . .
• anyway - i enjoyed staying at that place. oh, except when i first arrived, i was tired and sweaty from traveling, so i dumped my stuff in my room (a six-bed dorm) and went straight to the shower. i came back wrapped in my towel to find a french guy sitting on the bed! i think he was as surprised as i was. i'd thought the room was all women. needless to say, i grabbed my clothes and went straight back to the bathroom.
• 
• friday i did get up early and go for a hike before i got on the bus to nelson. it took me a while to find the trailhead - things like that don't tend to be very well marked here, and though i had a map, the streets weren't all signposted, either! i didn't see anyone else on the way up, and the views from the top were terrific, looking out over picton, the harbor, and marlborough sound, which i'd passed through two days earlier on the ferry.
• there's nothing to say about the bus ride to nelson, except that it was shorter than i expected - never a bad thing. the bus conveniently dropped me off right in front of the i-site, which is where you can find all kinds of tourist information and book activities, travel, and accomodation. every town seems to have one, anyway, all the towns i've been in. it's a great service.
• so from nelson i was hoping to get to the heaphy track - but there was nothing going that worked on the time i had, and i was kind of disappointed. it turns out you can't really just go and come back in one day - i mean, i knew it was a four to six day walk to do the whole thing, and for that you book in advance, but they don't really have day-hike options, which is what i wanted. i was kind of bummed about that.
• however - since that didn't work out, i said to myself, my dad would never miss a chance to get on a boat! so i booked a water-taxi and sea-kayaking trip in the abel tasman national park instead. that was all day saturday - the bus picked me up at 6.50 am (yeah, that's right, ten to seven - i got up, voluntarily, well before dawn). it was loads of fun. we took the bus to the beach in kaiteriteri (a good hour-long drive) and from there a water-taxi to another beach where we launched our kayaks.
• it was a tiny group - me, the kiwi guide, and a german couple. we used double kayaks, so since i was traveling by myself, i ended up with the guide, who was very friendly and kind of flirty with me all day (i tried to enjoy the attention, but i'm not so good at that sort of thing). we kayaked for some time, towards a tiny bay where we found three baby seals playing among the rocks and tide pools. i got some good pictures - they were right next to and swimming under the kayak! that was a real highlight.
• after some additional kayaking, we stopped at a beach for lunch - i was pretty cold even sitting in the sun, i guess from stopping the hard work of paddling - but it looked like something off a postcard: golden sand, sparkling blue water, the occasional small island visible here and there, and hardly another person in sight. the place was gorgeous. after lunch, we paddled a short way back to the beach we started on, where we waited a few minutes for the water-taxi to take us back to kaiteriteri and the bus. i was really tired and my left arm was so sore - like tennis elbow or something, from paddling - but i'd had so much fun.
• and - that's all for now folks, i'm pretty much out of time . . . more to follow.

short update!

• hey guys - i broke down and bought a card reader today, since i'm having trouble finding internet cafes where the computers have sd card slots. i just added a few photos to my earlier posts, so you can go back and check them out. uploading photos takes forever, so there's not very many yet - i'm running out of coins for the internet. more to come, though - enjoy! i've taken hundreds (well, a little over 200) so you'll have to wait til i can put them into a slide show or something to see them all - if i put them all on this blog, it would take forever to load. and it's only been a couple weeks . . .
• so, still having a good time here. i'm in nelson now. yesterday i went on a sea-kayaking trip up the coast of the abel tasman national park. we saw a bunch of baby seals - so cute! i'm really tired after the kayaking and begin out in the sun all day, so i didn't do much today.
• right, i'm out of time, so . . . til later!

days eleven, twelve & thirteen (i think!)

• i'm totally losing track of time here - i think that's a good thing, so long as i don't miss my bus to the next town.
• so tuesday - day eleven - eilidh and i went to te papa, the national museum in wellington. they have exhibits on new zealand geology, wildlife, and natural distasters/events, including a simulated earthquake in a model house. my favorite parts were the exhibits on the maori people and also the more recent immigrants to the country. the maori exhibit is really cool - all kinds of things on the history of the maori in new zealand complete with canoes, an assortment of tools, and displays showing the routes through the pacific that these first settlers likely used. the section on more recent immigrants told a number of moving stories about all the reasons people have come to new zealand, among them chinese gold miners who left their families to try to work their way out of poverty and european jews fleeing the holocaust. i wish we'd had a couple of days to look around the museum - we only saw maybe a third of the exhibits, and i could have spent more time at most of what i did see.
• wednesday - day twelve - eilidh and i headed to town again so i could catch the ferry to picton (on the south island). the ferry hauls everything you can think of - trucks, cars, buses, even train cars - i've been on some big ferries in the seattle area, but i think this one has those ones beat. the trip is a little over three hours, most of which i spent out on the observation decks taking in the cook strait and marlborough sound. the last hour or so - through marlborough sound - was the best part. the sound is pretty narrow in places, with smaller green islands dotted all around and coves and bays tucked here and there - beautiful, like a little slice of paradise. we left wellington in the sun, but it was overcast and rainy by the time we reached the sound - the weather and the views reminded me of ferry trips in the san juan islands. of course, walking to my hostel in the rain wasn't ideal, but it wasn't too far, and if i'd been thinking, i could have called to have them pick me up . . .
• today, thursday - day thirteen - i've been taking it easy. i slept in a little, did some laundry, booked the next few legs of my trip, and walked around town for a while. picton is pretty cute, and as usual, the people are friendly and helpful. tonight i'm going to make some soup for dinner (there's cooking gear in the hostel kitchen) and repack my bags.
• tomorrow i'm planning to get up a little earlier and take a long walk around the outskirts of town before my bus ride to nelson. i hear this is the best way to find out about the heaphy track, which was my dad's favorite place in new zealand when he was here back in the seventies. i don't have time to walk it - five days! - but i'd like to see the trailhead, at least. maybe when i come back to new zealand, i'll make sure i have the time and equipment for that trek. yeah, i'm already thinking about how to get back here; there's so much to see and do that i just can't imagine feeling like i've finished with the place after three and a half weeks. i can see why people move here.

what, no comments, people?

hi again - will fill you in later as i'm running out of internet time just now and need to hang up my laundry. short version: have been enjoying myself immensely, wish i could extend my stay in nz several months longer.

days nine & ten!

sunday - day nine, first day in wellington! here's a shot of the city from the ferry terminal - i took this as i was leaving. that evening, we went to karori wildlife reserve, not far from where david & eilidh live. the reserve is a heavily protected area where conservationists are working to increase the populations of nz's endangered native birds and lizards. it's surrounded on all sides by a two meter, tightly-woven mesh fence to keep out predators - new zealand has no native mammals, so many of the ones that have arrived in the last two or three hundred years are unwanted pests: mice, rats, rabbits, ferrets, possums, cats . . . even cats! people have cats for pets and they seem to run wild in many areas, but they're dangerous for the native birds, and the conservationists do what they can to keep them OUT of the wildlife reserve. we spent a lovely evening listening and watching for birds: tui (an excellent mimic), shag (cormorant), ducks, and kaka (a noisy kind of parrot) among others. the reserve has kiwis also, but you don't get to see them generally because they only come out after dark and they're very shy.

• yesterday (monday, day ten) david went to work, and eilidh and dorothy (their black lab/saint bernard mix) and i did the city-to-sea walk around wellington: a six-hour scenic trek all over the place. we went by the botanic gardens, through forested areas, along streams, in and out of more urban areas, around a golf course, through a maori reserve area, and down to the beach at last . . . and it did take us just about six hours for the official trek, though we walked almost ten hours altogether: it took a good 45 minutes to get to the starting point and almost three hours to walk home again! let's just say my feet are still swollen more than twelve hours after we got home and after a good long night's sleep - dorothy, on the other hand, appears to be fully recovered and antsy for a run.

• the walk was beautiful - i felt like i got a great view of wellington city and harbor. we hiked over numerous hills, each of which provided a different vantage point. i'd wanted to do some hiking here in nz, and i certainly got my wish! today the plan is to take it easy. i want to go to the te papa museum, and i've already decided to sit in front of all the exhibits!

days six, seven & eight!

• have you been missing me? i've been busy these last few days! on thursday (day six) i went on an all-day whirlwind tour of the northernmost part of the north island - saw a small stand of kauri trees, visited cape reinga where the tasman sea meets the pacific ocean, went for a short swim on a white sandy pacific beach, tried sandboarding on the dunes, drove down ninety-mile beach (more like ninety km beach) and had fish and chips for dinner - all in one day. needless to say i was too tired to blog after all that. here i am on the beach just before my swim . . .

• we had a clear sunny day for most of it - got drizzled on in the kauri forest and again a the beach (a few pansies went back to the bus rather than swim in the rain - go figure). sandboarding was pretty awesome - after a steep trek up the dune, you go hurtling down face-first on a sort of body-board thing. the first time down i let go somehow and caught my arm underneath - got a bit of a sandburn - but i went a couple more times anyway. actually i would have kept going, but everyone else was all tired out and heading for the bus. it was good fun - like sledding, but warm!
• i've been wearing sunscreen pretty religiously since i got here, but i must have missed the backs of my hands, because i've got a pretty bad case of sun allergy bumps. i forget about my sun allergy every year, and every year after my first long day out, it takes me by surprise - this is the first year i've had it as early as the first week of march! luckily i brought some hydrocortisone cream with me - i was thinking i'd need it for bug bites, but no, i'm using it all up on what looks like foot-and-mouth disease on the backs of my hands. gross. at least i had my arms covered most of the first couple days.
• and - here i am in a cave! muddy up to my neck (and this was before crawling through what they call the "pig wallow")! friday (day seven) i got back on the nakedbus, passed through auckland, and stopped in hamilton to spend the evening with lydia and seth (i'd met them earlier in the week - they took me to hobbiton). they plied me with new zealand candy - lollies is what they call it - and then we went caving. i don't think i'd ever been in a cave before. it was pretty intense. we wore nasty old clothes (i borrowed some off lydia's younger brother dan) under what looked like mechanics' overalls, and we had helmets with lights on the front - i felt like a miner. the caves were pretty sweet - limestone formations everywhere, mud and cold water and glow worms and tight places to squeeze through. all that yoga i've been doing came in handy - strength and flexibility helped me brace myself between walls and swing my leg up to the next foothold, which sometimes was up near my shoulders! turns out i'm not as claustrophobic as i'd thought, and even though it seemed like i could see my breath in the light of my lamp, i didn't feel too cold - until we got home and i was waiting for the shower! i slept like a rock that night and woke up stiff and covered with bruises. caving is hard work, but i really enjoyed it. lydia said i did great for my first time. she should know - she's been leading caving groups for years.
• yesterday (saturday, day eight) i took the overlander train from hamilton to wellington. it's a long trip - something like ten hours - but it's a great way to see a slice of the north island. the train passes gorgeous snow covered mountains, hillsides full of sheep, sleepy little towns . . . i was exhausted and slept a few hours here and there, but every time i woke up there was something beautiful to look at. the train also features an outdoor viewing platform, a kind of tiny balcony between the baggage car and the first passenger car. i can't imagine this being allowed on an american train - seems very unsafe - but i loved feeling the wind and sun in my face while we zipped along between hills and over rivers. the scenery was worth the length of the trip.
• when i arrived in wellington, david and eilidh (friends of my sister from college) met me at the station and we went up to their house - a good half hour walk, at least, through beautiful hilly wellington. some people compare wellington to san francisco because of the steep hills and the lovely views of the harbor. the train driver also mentioned that wellington has more clubs, bars and restaurants per capita than new york city! pretty amazing. here in wellington, i'm hoping to visit te papa, new zealand's national museum, and do some walking - eilidh has a walk marked out that she's been meaning to do, so i'm hoping to accompany her.
• well - that's all for now. i'll fill you in on today's adventures tomorrow night! for now i'll just tell you new zealand seems like a great place to live.

day five!

• big fun today - i went on a dolphin-viewing boat ride around the bay. we were out on the water for most of a beatiful sunny afternoon and saw two separate pods of dolphins. we couldn't swim with either one because they had babies along - cute, if you can use the word cute about a baby that's four feet long and weighs hundreds of pounds. the dolphins swam right up to and all around the boat, sprayed in our faces, and played jumping and chasing games. i've never seen anything like it - several times, they were so close, if i'd stuck my leg out a bit i'd have kicked a dolphin in the fins. the boat operators knew many of the individual dolphins by name and pointed out some they'd seen grow up in their 10 or so years on the bay. the ride wasn't exactly cheap, but i'd do it again if i was going to be in paihia even one more day - it was that great. i almost booked again for tomorrow, anyway, but i decided to see cape reinga instead - where the pacific ocean and the tasman sea crash into each other.
• josiah, if you're reading this, another thing i forgot was my zit cream - but don't bother bringing any along on your trip to america. even with the exchange rate in my favor, it cost me twice as much here as it would in chicago.
• i'm staying at a different place tonight and tomorrow night - just as clean, much cheaper, and with three friendly roommates: one from ireland, one from scotland, and one from england. we compared notes on what we've seen so far in new zealand, and we all agreed it's a great place. the irish woman is travelling alone like me and the other two are together. it's been fun to meet people from all over.
• ok, the cafe is closing, so i'm off to sleep now - tomorrow's another big day.

day four!

• ok, i just wrote a longish, funny post and then lost the whole thing . . . this next won't quite measure up to the first, but it will have to do.
• this morning i actually woke up after sunrise - new and exciting! perhaps i'm returning to my pre-jet lag sleeping habits at last. i spent the morning getting to and looking around at kelly tarlton's, this aquarium in auckland. it's a bit small for the price, but what they have is pretty cool. i arrived as the penguins were being fed - fat little black and white water birds are so cute! one of the more unique features of the place is its "antarctic experience" section, which has a model of the huts used by the earliest explorers in antarctica and brief descriptions of their travels (and for some of them, their untimely deaths). fortunately for me, the experience did not involve antarctic temperatures.
• this afternoon, i took a four-hour trip to paihia with a company called 'naked bus.' (in spite of the name, it's not a clothing-optional ride.) it was a pretty drive through green and hilly country with flocks of sheep, herds of cows, and - what do you call a bunch of deer? it seems that deer are farmed here much like sheep and cattle; they graze in the same sort of pastures all over the place. oh, and at one point, i'm pretty sure i saw a bunch of llamas, too, or maybe they were alpacas? i can't tell them apart.
• anyway, i'm here in paihia now, and it's time for me to book some fun for tomorrow . . . i'll let you know what happens. thanks for reading!

days two & three!

• yesterday was sunday. i visited kitty & tim's church, which they described as "charismatic lite" with a decidedly international twist. most of the people are not native new zealanders - i met people from maylasia and the philippines, among other places. then, after a stop at a sort of lunch counter (curry steak pie - buttery, flaky goodness) kitty and i drove to matamata where their son seth and his wife lydia live. for you spanish speakers out there, matamata is maori and the first and third syllables are pronounced like the last syllable of doormat - has nothing to do with death and destruction.

• here i am in a hobbit-hole! lydia and seth live just down the road from where hobbiton was filmed for lord of the rings - they took me on the tour. it's not well kept up - new line cinema owns the rights to the place and had it pretty well torn up by the time the family who owned the farm was able to salvage a bit for tourists, and by agreement with new line, the tour operators aren't allowed to make any improvements to what's left. they do their best to put on a good show - starts off with sheep shearing and lamb feeding (it's a working farm with thousands of sheep - smells like it, too) and then the guide takes the bus over the hills to the sites where she points out where the set was. and that's mostly it - the party tree is easy to pick out, and a handful of hobbit holes are still there (without their brick facade) - the rest of the tour went something like this: see that blue peg across the gully? that's where the bridge started. see those yellow pegs below? that was the village centre with the pub and market. i rather enjoyed it anyway, though i wouldn't recommend it to someone who wasn't crazy about lotr.
• last night i got some good tips on travel around new zealand from lydia & seth and josiah (tim & kitty's youngest son). they recommended a cheap way to get around and pointed out some good stuff to see throughout the country. i booked bus tickets - i'll be back in their area friday night to go caving! i don't know that i've ever been in a cave before! should be fun. also i got to hear seth and josiah sing music they'd written themselves, good stuff, too bad it's not out on cd.
• today i visited lydia's class of nine-year-olds: thirty kids who had made group projects about tourism in new zealand to show me. they were adorable. they told me what they liked about new zealand and asked me what i thought of the place (terrific) and if i'd seen an assortment of kiwi television shows (never heard of them). they were also quite impressed that the entire population of new zealand could fit in chicago - twice over!
• i'm not really over the jet lag yet, as i've been droopy by mid afternoon but wide awake well before dawn. (rebeccas 1 and 2, perhaps this trip will make a morning person out of me! don't hold your breath, though - i'm awake but not exactly chipper, so i doubt it will last.)

nz day one!

• i'm off seeing the world now . . . first time ever in the southern hemisphere. the flights weren't bad - i slept through the majority of the long one - and my lovely hosts kitty & tim were waiting for me when i exited customs. none of the customs people seemed in the least bit surprised that i was accompanied by a harp - they didn't even want to open the box! i guess that's what x-ray machines are for.
• so far as i can tell, my new camera is vastly superior to the old one. i can't seem to get my sd-hc card in the card reader on this pc, but i'll give you a little summary of my day and hopefully upload some photos later.

• this morning, after my 6.00 am arrival, we went to downtown auckland and mt eden to look around - beautiful views of the harbor and city. it was hot and humid but felt terrific after a long chilly chicago winter. after lunch (which included a delicious tomato-feta salad - yes, alyson, my first meal in nz was cheese-based) i took a nap and then kitty dropped me off in devonport for the afternoon. i walked by the harbor, watched the sailboats, visited the naval museum (dad, you'd love this town) and got takeaway fish & chips for dinner, which i ate on top of mt victoria while enjoying spectacular views. all of auckland is built on a bunch of volcanoes - makes for interesting and varied terrain. this photo is of auckland from the harbor in devonport.
• now all i have to do is stay awake until a decent hour . . . and try to sleep through the night. day one of my adventures has been lovely.

travel plans

• so here's my plan so far: three and a half weeks in new zealand, followed by five weeks in laos. in new zealand, i'll visit auckland, the bay of islands, matamata, wellington, and . . . some places on the south island, as yet to be determined. i have plane tickets for the major moves: chicago to auckland, auckland to bangkok, bangkok to vientiane, bangkok to chicago. as of right now, i'm planning on trains and buses for most of the rest of the trip, except that i'll probably want to fly between (somewhere on the south island) and auckland so as not to burn up too much time in nz with back tracking on the way to laos.
• also, i got a new camera - the battery is charging now. once it's ready, i'll post some photos of . . . my luggage? there's not much in my apartment that i'd care to photograph and then plaster all over the internet. let's just say i didn't do all the pre-trip cleaning that i would have liked.

last day at work

tomorrow! i'm almost there . . . i hope the day doesn't drag too slowly.