So Busy!

I am going to cheat here. This is an abridged email that I sent to Merrin my first week here. I would like to write more, but I spend all day at a computer for work. I don't want to spend my free time anywhere near a computer! I can't avoid it though; I am using Rosetta Stone to learn Chinese, on top of the classes I take twice a week, but language is the most important factor in my life right now so it must be excused.

I had a dream last night about living at New College. It was more of a slightly fictionalized remembering. I am not sure why the characters in the dream were who they were, but it was remembering the feeling, and the feeling was what the dream was about.

I woke up and laid in my bed and thought about my life and how lucky I have been. Thought about how and why I was who I was. Then I thought about 'Karma'. Now that Communism has collapsed here the economy is thriving but the poor people aren't doing so well again. There is a lot of homelessness, and I don't think social services are so good. In the US I never give poor people money. Here the poor are not just poor in spirit but actually destitute, with no possibilities of getting better. 'Karma'. I can not know why, and I can not change it.

I thought about dad and what I know of his life and where he is now. I felt so much peace and sadness. I am so happy that we are doing well, and doing things that he can be proud of. I think that we have become everything he could have hoped for and more.

Then I thought about the future. Holding onto what I have valued and moving into the future with freshness.

Yoga has given me so much. What was it that created that 'me' who lived with no thought of the future or past. Can I have that intensity of presence and a normal life? I don't know what 'yoga' is even though I have been looking at it for 10 years! Now I will start practicing martial arts. It has been the Buddhist yoga of the far east.

I got up. My hot water is still broken. I washed my balls and arm pits in the sink, spiked up my hawk, did 6 sun salutations and took off for work. I walked to the food stall under the foot bridge and threw my money into a bucket. If I am their only white customer or not they still recognize me. I don't know if they had my breakfast ready for me or if it was a coincidence, but I did not have to wait for them to make it, only heat the parts and put it together. I get an egg filled pita type bread with some sauce painted on wrapped around a piece of lettuce and some mystery meat. Two of them only cost 7 kuai, about 1 dollar. No words were exchanged until I left "xie xie" (thank you), "bu ke qi" (don't worry about it). That's about all the Chinese I know at this point any way. Pleased as anything I smiled as I walked to the subway station. I love the subway, and hate it. I love it because it is so cheap and useful. I hate it because it is an hour of my life to and from work. I don't know if it will bother me by the end of the year, but right now I think it is funny how crowded it is. I get to the station and race to the train. Rushing around and jockeying for position. When you get on the train you have to push and shove so that people will squish together and you do not get smashed by the closing door. I was tempted to try to lift my feet from under me to see if the pressure from the people would hold me up... I didn't. When the train starts and stops we all move like a wave and if you are up against a pole or wall you get squished. I really need to get an MP3 player so that I can listen to Chinese lessons on the train. For now I meditate and do energy practices. It is good because I am very out of practice with both, especially the energy practices. I have just arrived at work. Someone came in and was introduced. People clapped for him and I didn't understand what was going on. Now that my personal emails are taken care of it is time to do some work. I have to write a "What's Up" column for the web page. It is not very good, or serious. I am going to try to get rid of that task. Nobody who lives here would use it and we might as well send potential au pairs to useful sites so that they can get a full range of what is actually happening. Aside from that I have some interviews to asses the English of potential outbound au pairs and my personal project to attend to. Oh! I get to listen to music at work here! I put in headphones and dance in my seat and nobody cares! Using my computer is a pain in the ass though. I can not read the words in the menus etc. They said they would fix it last night but it is the same, all Chinese.

China!

Life has been busy! Writing this I wish I had kept up more. I can only brief the past 6 months when so many interesting things have happened. So many thoughts and experiences. So many people I would like to introduce. This will have to do.

The end of my stay in Alaska was a lot better then the begging. It turns out that I like office work just fine and that I liked the attitude in the office better then on the boats. After a month answering phones I moved downstairs to the front counter. That was great. I could interact with people again! I liked it better then the boat work even, except for the fact that I was no longer on the water. The best part was the camaraderie.

Outside of work I started going to Resurrection Art Coffee Shop instead of the mountains every day. I met a few really great people. Most notably Brianna and Jo who would become my adventure partners. Brianna and I took a surprise train trip to Anchorage to sleep in a cardboard box and hitch hike back the next day; and Jo came back to the lower 48 with me.

The weekend before leaving was the Seward Music Festival. I didn't expect much but much to my surprise it was pretty awesome. Great music and a great scene. Best part was that all the tourists had left for the season so most everybody knew everyone else. The most notable band was the "Flying Hearts". I was chatting a very pleasant vendor when they started. Punk! I excused myself and walked over to the stage. When I arrived I broke into a hysterical fit of laughter that lasted for the entire rest of the song as I watched this kid scream into the mic. He was only 9 years old but Wow what an amazing voice! The audience was not as impressive. I think I was the only one who had ever been to a punk show before. They stood around nodding their heads at best.

After the festival I hopped into an RV with a few other people and rode to Anchorage to pick up 2 more. We were a motley crew: Jo, the young ex-morman artist; Jonathan, the middle aged traveler; Isaiah, the party animal; Emily, the hot teacher/massage therapist; Philip, the fisherman; and me. We had an incredible 10 days drive through Canada. The stop off in Haynes AK and meeting Marion and Sarah was the highlight.

I spent a month in Washington. I can't tell you how much I loved it. I think that when I move back to the states I will move to the North West somewhere. Maybe Port Townsend? To much happened for me to write about here. I had a perfect month. Everyday was full and beautiful. I was on the phone with Carlos one day at Evergreen State Collage, "I am still doing the same thing I was 10 years ago! I am living in a closet and partying with Collage kids." I was staying at with Dave Crager. Dave is like a younger punker version of me. We have the same taste in music, women, and fun. He drinks a little (lot) more then I do though. Dave, Uma and I got drunk and had a dance party almost every night! That was only about a third of my time though. I also partied in Seattle with kids my own age and relaxed in PT when I needed a break. I stayed up all night my last night in Seattle with Ali, the sister of Bri from Alaska. We biked around and scavenged dumpsters, made beer with Garth, and talked about politics and philosophy until I had to go. In the morning I went to the airport and passed out. I woke about 20 minutes after my plane left... Fucked. The next day I finally made it out. The plane was delayed 6 hours but I did make it to

CHINA!