Enough of what is ahead. Time to catch up on what of the last 4 months…

It began with some time on Salt Spring, at a yoga place where J invited me to come be his building partner. He showed me how to handle some drills and other machinery. But the biggest lessons were: a good project takes time to plan, and any mistake can be fixed. We built a deck for a cabin that he was finishing, a big ass posh looking shoe rack and some canvases. The center was great, and the people in it just dears. I was fed the bestest vegetarian/vegan foods, made with love, eaten with great appreciation for all that had brought them to our table. Salt Spring is a fun crazy place. Dancing, markets, biking, climbing and happy smiley people. And when this came to an end, I was off again.

A brief overnight in Vancouver, I got ready for a roadtrip with Isa and her mother. Stocked up on a camping food and gear, we set off to cross the border. A man stood at the border crossing holding up a cardboard sign, which announced the date of rapture. He looked very serious. This was the beginning of a long journey that took us through many state and national parks from Washington to California, Utah to Idaho. Most of it was driving, I admit with a heavy heart, but such is the nature of a road trip which I should have been prepared to accept. Another big chunk of the journey was being amazed, feasting our eyes.

Deserving of special notice were the sequoias and redwoods in Northern California, the monoliths and climbers of Yosemite, the red earthy geological formations of Zion and the Valley of Fire, the bacteria and bison of Yellowstone. A humbling trip this was, not that I ever really thought I was big, but it did make me feel smaller than ever. I am thankful for my guardian angel allowed me to survive the fast and dangerous (in retrospect) roads of the states. After 3 weeks, we were back in Vancouver where I frantically packed and left for home.

Home. After about 20 months, is the longest I have every been away. Guinness remembered me fine, but Shaka seemed a little cautious and unsure. I spent some time in Sabah with my parents, hiking up Mt. K and just relaxing in KK. It was good to see my parents push themselves, and I think they were surprised by their success and determination.

With the help of my sis, I got certified as an open water diver and entered for the first time into the underwater world. It was a very intense and very moving experience. I was out in the open and yet felt confined, not in a bad way, but the contradiction tickled my mind in a way. I felt very alien in the water, and indeed I was one. The idea of another world so close to mine inspired me. I wanted to make one more dive trip before the end of my break, and I did. My sis and Ss made a dive trip to the Philippines. Destination: Panglao Island’s Alona beach. Another amazing travel to the underwater world, completed with laughably cheap rum, mango shakes and a tourist food. Of course, we saw the Tarsiers of Panglao too. Gremlins!

Later in the holiday, I spent some time on a farm in the jungle. “I am a farmer!” I declared. I had to declare. And I or you may laugh at first but it’s like flipping a switch in the head, and suddenly you’re more convinced of yourself. I didn’t care about the leeches, thorns and crazy billy goat and their attempts to ruin me.  I just wanted to work and the rain that stopped our progress started to get on my nerves. 

And in between these outings, I spent afternoons in the climbing gym and evenings at capoeira class. The group was great. People were chill, and really into the game. We weren’t required to wear uniforms or learn portugese. No one was judging and you played for yourself, played to learn and to have a blast. Others were helpful, teaching the new ones like me the moves and the history of the game. The music is so catchy too. The best part was the Bantus handshake. Slap fist shake. It didn’t matter if we knew each other or not, we would slap fist shake and be friends. It felt being a part of something. I started to lose some fats and got a little fitter. Oh yea, CARDIO! ABS! The pain.

I watch the Pacific range out the plane window. Wow. I should abandon ship now. Soon to land. And return to life of school. Though, this time it will be different, because I will be living away from school, in a livelier place. 

the academic year started brilliantly with my summer trip to Europe, old friends new friends new places. pulled my emotional status way up. then, i move into townhouse 12, with great people, and made some new friends climbing.
  did some art, saw some art.
then, a family reunion in australia for “christmas”. it had been so long, and it was fun to see how we’ve changed but not really. i’ll still always feel like the baby.

Spring semester begins, with a new house mate, Giom. the funniest french boy i’ve ever met. open and talkative. he dealt with our vegetables, we dealt with his nutella. we had our dinners together 5 nights out of 7. i learned a lot from aske, about all the things i’ve avoided in my studies, feeling like the dumbest loser ever, but he was nice about it and accepted that as i knew nothing about politics, he knew nothing about biology. i picked the djembe a little and guitar on self-taught. picked up the unicycle and made a riding buddy. admittedly, the classes were tougher and i had suffered some, everything else made it all great nonetheless.

i think this has been a great year. i feel it has been a wonderful year. it almost matches up with muwci wonderfulness. and for the year to come, i will miss my life in townhouse 12 and the cheerful souls that inhabited it. but i will surely meet them again after a year. so there’s something to look forward to. the bar is set and i can’t wait to see the beginning of the next year, what shall the summer bring?

Sister. How pleasantly surprising, except she tore my dream.

But she bore good news. The fungi on my arms turned out not to be fungi, given the assumption that the two of us have the same problem (and that I do believe is true). Finally consulting a dermatologist, she (we) got the answer.

So, no more anti-fungal cream. It is a case of eczema. Just crappy skin, supposedly curable by moisturising and steroid creams. I guess this is less unattractive than fungusy arms.

First of all, 4 courses was supposed to mean relaxation and fun times! But it’s not. I don’t remember my last term being this stressful.

Courses range from uninteresting and general to really ponderful and focused.
Parasitology and microscopy: going from unicellular parasites (nothing but a nucleus) to flatworms (yes, uterus testes vagina, the whole shebang) and now  the roundworm (it even has an anus and digestive tract!) . Really interesting stuff, and somewhat relevant to the everyday. Well, I could relate it to MPO’s previously incessant rear-end gas activity and toilet problems. Which is relevant enough. I never miss a class though I may doze a bit because it’s an 8.30 class.
Evolution in health and disease: parent-offspring conflict, sexual conflict, genomic conflict, selective pressures etc etc. Also relevant if you think of why’s. Why do most guys not get fat? Why am I different from an ape? Why some are malaria resistant? Why do we grow old? I am awed by my prof’s wealth of knowledge and subtle humour. Definitely wouldn’t think of skipping.
Physics 101: 9.30 class. Enough said. This has been used as my catch-up-on-sleep and re-energising-after-parasitology class. I am surprised I still pass my midterms. It needs to be done.
Microbiology: Way to microscopic and abstract. I have had to sacrifice many a class for parasitology and/or evolution midterms. And now I’m paying the price. The material is not irrelevant, relatively speaking, but still unbelievably dry. And often, the class is suggesting that the field of microbiology is essential for reasons such as: GMO to relive food crisis. Which I’m not a big fan of. Other times it’s just I really don’t care how you found out that proteins were made contranslationally translocated in the ER lumen. Most people can’t be bothered.

The count down has begun. 4 weeks till the end of class. another 10 days till the end of finals and a month NA travel. Which totals to roughly a 2 and 1/4 month till I’m home and doing all the fun stuff mentioned in previous post. And I can’t bloody wait. 2 years has been long. a 4 month break well deserved.

1. camp5. i will be practising as much as physically possible. watch this lady, she’s so inspiring. probably the music is taking some sort of effect on me. but heck i would really want to achieve something, and it’s not an 8c+ but something in that direction. http://vimeo.com/736234. there should be progress in things i love. also, i must take a lead climbing course.

2. permaculture perak would likely take volunteers, and that would be great. a. because i get to learn the basics of life. b. it’s perak, limestone galore. hopefully gym practise would get me into good enough shape and hopefully i will find some climbing buddies.

3. the philippines. might go volunteer with a library project over yonder, meet some uwc people maybe.

4. sharpen my culinary skills. mama chef shall be my master.

5. read up on politics. i’m the dumbest person when it comes to politics. i admit. it’s like quantum physics to me, in 5 minutes i hit a dead end and there’s nothing left to do other than to think about something else. but it’s time i get that act together! no more running, except away from quantum physics. i don’t need quantum physics in my life.

6. put photos together.

7. play the guitar.

8. padi dive course?

the possibilities seem constrained only by time.

if you want to be included in my master plan, i’d love to have you.

Dedicated to you, pjg.
Don’t ask questions.

On the ferry over to Vancouver Island, we were blessed with orcas swimming by. I saw its face.
At the wharf, we were graced and contacted by a bunch of seals. I watched them watch me.
In the city of Victoria, we walked and were appalled by cold attitudes. I thought “yong soi”.
At the film festival, we watched “Men Who Swim”.  Bitter sweet adorable.
In the evenings, we spent talking of the past and present, guitaring. I learned the chords E and A.
When I was cold or empty, I grabbed a hug because Isaac is good for that.

We sailed across the Sansum Narrows and alighted upon Salt Spring Island
Where people talked of farms, peace and sustainability
They even, as we discovered later, have their own currency
A bunch of hippies, not without hypocrisy surely.
There was Jake and Kalyani
The former, our guide and chauffeur
The latter an amazing grandmotherly storyteller
We hiked and talked and stood and saw
But still the weather was pretty cold
Good thing Kalyani had a wood stove – to the thaw!

So that was the end
Back to school and and and and and yea

Saturday evening was much amusing with an intro class at circus school, trying out trampolining, aerosilk and balance techniques. The trampoline is my new favourite thing that I will never own.

Sunday was beautiful. Sun and old snow, crisp air. I went downtown to run errands, but very happily and came home with a good collection of art books from the library. I was oblivious still of what was to come, what had been in planning since a week back.

I spent my late afternoon painting and studying parasites. Around 6.40, I was all ready to start making dinner, when my housemates decided we should go slacklining in the park, with head lamps. I’m not one to turn down such fun so of course I got into it. As we were walking to the park, I though to myself: Gosh, it is a perfectest day to have a bonfire, and I should’ve organised one. 5 minutes into the park, I see in the distance, where we usually bonfired, a group of people in the glow of a bonfire. And I was like: shit, these guys must be cool.

Suddenly….Happy birthday was being sung and I couldn’t quite believe it. my birthday was a week ago, right? But there they were, a beautiful bunch of people equipped with cooked veggies, deserts and just warmth. AH it was nice. Ended the night with an enthusiastic attempted to sing songs.

If those friends ever stumble across this page, I thank you again.