the new year
So, 2009 is ages behind. The new year is hip, hot, and progressively tiring. With the transitions that have occurred over the last year I find myself asking myself whether it is a time to reflect the past year or preview the present. It's been my first complete year spent in Asia, which came with many surprises, pleasures, and frustrations. And already I've settled down with a contract confirming my dedication to another year here.
I'm gonna write this out, a quick list of the lows which will hopefully bring about the humor and learning present in any experience, and then I'll advance onto something lighter.
5 worst moments of 2009
5. The way Taiwanese mosquitoes continued to hang around in the freezing cold of unheated indoor winter temperatures, hovering around my head as I quivered underneath the blanket from the cold until the sound of their helicopter-powered wings a-lined for my face, at which point I'd slap myself.. and then again once i'd missed the five times prior.
4. The utterly pitiful standing of my bank account for the entirety of 2009.
3. Woke up one night in Koh Tao with an inner-ear infection. I thought someone had slapped my face and woke me up. Doctor said there was a small perforation to the ear drum. Took me away from diving for another month.
2. Too be brief, a good bit of grief between relationships held by myself or others, near and far with family, friends, and even acquaintances.
1. Undoubtedly the winner goes to Koh Phangan's shitty little-bike accident which resulted in August spent cooped up in my pink-walled bungalow atop a very steep hill, thirteen stitches in the knee.
Top 7 moments of 2009 ...in no particular order
1. Lasik eye surgery! Technically this occurred Christmas day, 2008... but it's been such a marvelous enjoyment for the past year. It's so good I wanna get it twice..... (joke, haha?)
2. When a handsome firefighter named Justin, all geared up proper in a uniform of gold with ash smeared across his sweaty brow, saved me from atop a tall building, a burst in flame. (caveat emptor: this never happened)
3. Full moon parties on Koh Phagnan, which brought in a good fare for a month's labor in a meager few days of walking the beach, partying, dancing, body painting, friends, the works.
4. Diving. DIVING for crying out loud, which was the EMPHASIS for the year. But what can you expect to expect on an island 21 square km? But even better at the end when the murkiness filled the water and unexpected prizes unfolded. What I mean is freaking Sea Horses and Bull Sharks!
5. Bali is a beautiful monument of culture and smiles and mass tourism. So lovely with the best mouth stuffing paper-wrapped platters of food possible under the sun for a meager $1. Okay, it's that and so much more! It was learning how to surf and diving. Biking around the lush green country side and seeing Helen and Jonny again. Spending time with Abe and meeting his girlfriend. And that terrific pizzeria unlike anything outside of New York...or was it Italy?
6. Being put up in Bangkok by Samsung, who I suspected was days away from hiring moi, after 8-months spent penny pinching in a one room bungalow without so much as a frivolous whim ever pursued. The shock of that first bath, the koala bear scented body soap (did you know they smell like eucalyptus? really quite spectacular), and the feeling of wrapping myself up in the bathrobe that first time. And then the second time they put me back in the hotel. And then the third time when they put me up for the weekend and my room got upgraded to a two-bedroom mercury sweet.
7. The early (and we're talking, early 7am and onward) mornings spent perched up in my balcony's hammock out-looking the waters surround Koh Tao, writing.
8. When Abe came to visit Koh Tao, bringing along one of my best friends from high school, whom I hadn't seen in nearly 7 years (can that be accurate?). Rejoining that connection... conversation... opinions... diving...
9. A night in bed, asleep, awoken by an urgent voice calling my name. I awoke to a box of itsy-bitsy abandoned kitties! Thus, Abu and Erdnuss.
10. Okay, took a lengthy break to think about this last one, as this has become rather long-winded. And I have to say that as a final critique, I place my final highlight as a fairly general one. This past year, the draw and passion I felt towards interests and experiences, places I was going and things I did, really brought me a bit out of my shell in the comfort I felt expressing myself and my desires, knowing what it is that attracts me and the areas in my life I want to further explore and draw on.
And finally, 3 aspiration for the new year
1. I'd like a rediscovery of a spiritual aspect that has been subdued in my life this last year.
2. Refill that bank account with BLING!
3. A further dedication to the attainment of knowledge, and more specifically, specification and the details of knowledge.
I'm gonna write this out, a quick list of the lows which will hopefully bring about the humor and learning present in any experience, and then I'll advance onto something lighter.
5 worst moments of 2009
5. The way Taiwanese mosquitoes continued to hang around in the freezing cold of unheated indoor winter temperatures, hovering around my head as I quivered underneath the blanket from the cold until the sound of their helicopter-powered wings a-lined for my face, at which point I'd slap myself.. and then again once i'd missed the five times prior.
4. The utterly pitiful standing of my bank account for the entirety of 2009.
3. Woke up one night in Koh Tao with an inner-ear infection. I thought someone had slapped my face and woke me up. Doctor said there was a small perforation to the ear drum. Took me away from diving for another month.
2. Too be brief, a good bit of grief between relationships held by myself or others, near and far with family, friends, and even acquaintances.
1. Undoubtedly the winner goes to Koh Phangan's shitty little-bike accident which resulted in August spent cooped up in my pink-walled bungalow atop a very steep hill, thirteen stitches in the knee.
Top 7 moments of 2009 ...in no particular order
1. Lasik eye surgery! Technically this occurred Christmas day, 2008... but it's been such a marvelous enjoyment for the past year. It's so good I wanna get it twice..... (joke, haha?)
2. When a handsome firefighter named Justin, all geared up proper in a uniform of gold with ash smeared across his sweaty brow, saved me from atop a tall building, a burst in flame. (caveat emptor: this never happened)
3. Full moon parties on Koh Phagnan, which brought in a good fare for a month's labor in a meager few days of walking the beach, partying, dancing, body painting, friends, the works.
4. Diving. DIVING for crying out loud, which was the EMPHASIS for the year. But what can you expect to expect on an island 21 square km? But even better at the end when the murkiness filled the water and unexpected prizes unfolded. What I mean is freaking Sea Horses and Bull Sharks!
5. Bali is a beautiful monument of culture and smiles and mass tourism. So lovely with the best mouth stuffing paper-wrapped platters of food possible under the sun for a meager $1. Okay, it's that and so much more! It was learning how to surf and diving. Biking around the lush green country side and seeing Helen and Jonny again. Spending time with Abe and meeting his girlfriend. And that terrific pizzeria unlike anything outside of New York...or was it Italy?
6. Being put up in Bangkok by Samsung, who I suspected was days away from hiring moi, after 8-months spent penny pinching in a one room bungalow without so much as a frivolous whim ever pursued. The shock of that first bath, the koala bear scented body soap (did you know they smell like eucalyptus? really quite spectacular), and the feeling of wrapping myself up in the bathrobe that first time. And then the second time they put me back in the hotel. And then the third time when they put me up for the weekend and my room got upgraded to a two-bedroom mercury sweet.
7. The early (and we're talking, early 7am and onward) mornings spent perched up in my balcony's hammock out-looking the waters surround Koh Tao, writing.
8. When Abe came to visit Koh Tao, bringing along one of my best friends from high school, whom I hadn't seen in nearly 7 years (can that be accurate?). Rejoining that connection... conversation... opinions... diving...
9. A night in bed, asleep, awoken by an urgent voice calling my name. I awoke to a box of itsy-bitsy abandoned kitties! Thus, Abu and Erdnuss.
10. Okay, took a lengthy break to think about this last one, as this has become rather long-winded. And I have to say that as a final critique, I place my final highlight as a fairly general one. This past year, the draw and passion I felt towards interests and experiences, places I was going and things I did, really brought me a bit out of my shell in the comfort I felt expressing myself and my desires, knowing what it is that attracts me and the areas in my life I want to further explore and draw on.
And finally, 3 aspiration for the new year
1. I'd like a rediscovery of a spiritual aspect that has been subdued in my life this last year.
2. Refill that bank account with BLING!
3. A further dedication to the attainment of knowledge, and more specifically, specification and the details of knowledge.