So long, and thanks for all the visas!

I will be back in my dear hometown in exactly 23 hours. Since I've last written on here I have:

- Left Scotland and headed back down to England
- Explored northern Wales for a few hours
- Met some crazy people on long bus rides
- Arrived in London yet once again
- Met up with a cousin of mine whom I haven't seen in 8 years
- Ate the delicious food he cooked up in no time and listened to all the crazy things that have happened to him the past year and a half, including the story about how he ended up in London
- Acted artsy at the Tate, which came quite naturally
- Met up with a friend from Australia and reminisced

Having covered more of planet Earth during the past 9 weeks, I now find myself feeling more at ease while also feeling restless, feeling cynical yet hopeful, and feeling satiated and thirsty all at the same freakin time. Awkward, no? Not really sure how to explain it better here. So ask me questions if you want to know more about my experiences. I'll just leave it like that. Cause it makes me sound all cryptic and deep. And deep is good.

Until I travel again...or if something exciting happens in Vancouver,

Zen

"Yearning to feel the kiss of sweet Scottish rain"

I'm not yearning to feel the kiss of the sweet Scottish rain. That's just a pretty sounding line from Scotland the Brave . I arrived in Scotland three days ago. Edinburgh is freakin/bloody gorgeous. I'm staying with friends Paul and Olwyn. Their house is right down the street from the Edinburgh castle. Fireworks come out of the castle every night during this festival month. The town is buzzing. There are people from all corners of this earth here right now. This fest is the biggest arts festival in the world. Which equals heaven for me. Let me paint a picture for you so you better understand.

Hundreds of venues. A cappella group from Czech performing in the street, a few yards from a French clown in a French flag leotard. Ballet performances which are not as free. Shakespeare on shuffle. Molière and Ionesco re-imagined in big venues, little venues, black box theatres, fill-in-the-blank-theatres. Art galleries brimmed to the ceilings with...well art. A simultaneous book festival with book readings from authors all over the world...like the author of Fight Club who's in town right now. World renowned stand up comedians cracking jokes till 2 am. Markets selling fair trade products like jam. Mmmmm jam. And mmmmm Ionesco.

I'm living in this little wonderland. Dreading to go back home and plop back into "real life." School, work, responsibilities have currently been put on the back burner. Like the back burner way down.

Anyway, I should jet. I have to go do Scottish things like wake up and eat porridge by the castle. Sorry this post appears a bit all over the place. It's 7 am so, I'm blaming it on this ungodly hour.

Back in the U of K

I'm back in the United Kingdom! The awkward placing of the @ sign on the British keyboards is already driving me crazy. However, it's also nice to be back in a place where women have more rights and can dress however they want! Just to make up for the last month and a half, I have planned to wear scandalous clothing for the next few days. Not sure now this plan will pan out cause it's probably going to be cold and rainy...knowing this place. I'm heading to Scotland tomorrow to check out the Edinburgh Festival. I am SO flippin excited. You don't even know. My time on the computer is running out! Gotta jet! Toddle doo!

Internet! I've found you again! Post these pictures NOW!

These pictures are old. They were taken way back in June/early July. This first one was taken in the streets of London, in case you didn't figure that out already.

This is my brother drinking in a pub in England. Isn't he only 17 you say? Yup. The bartender wasn't looking.

They have really nice beaches in England. I totally didn't know. I went down south to Poole to visit a friend of mine. It's absolutely gorgeous there.

It's the Middle East! I call this photo "Sunset in Kuwait" Mostly because that's literally what it is.

I call this one "Women wearing burkha on the beach in 50 degrees heat"

Brown times

Holidays rock. You don't know what day of the week it is. You have no idea what day of the month it is. You forget how to spell the word "chore" and you eat things other people cook.

Bangladesh has scooped me up in her monsoon soaked hands and has been cradling me so. All this monsoon cradling in this humid air has left my hair a massive fro. Bangladesh has also been feeding me lots. Steven and I are kind of fat right now. True story. What have we been eating these days (sometimes up to three times a day)?

Mangoes
Fish curry
Jackfruit
Bengali desserts
Lamb curry
Duck curry
[Fill in the blank] curry


God bless people who cook brown food...well.

Dear Air Conditioning,

Thank you for saving my life and the lives of many others who live near the equator. Thank you for making sure I didn't slowly roast in the Kuwaiti heat. I wasn't aware that there were humans beings out there going about their daily businesses in 50 degrees Celsius. I didn't think the Earth would heat up past 45 degrees to be honest. But it does. And I continue to pray for those stray cats in Kuwait walking around in the never-ending sauna.

I want to say I'm ok now, that I won't need you anymore...but I don't want to prematurely make statements that I won't be able to stand by later. You know I arrived in Bangladesh today? It's only 28 degrees here right now. But wait! Don't walk away just yet. That's what I meant earlier. There are a few ifs and buts. It'll stay in the 28 to 35 degree range while I'm here. Now you're thinking "Suck it up Zen. You've done that before." And I have! Australia and all. But unlike Kuwait, which gives you dry heat, it is ridonculously* humid in Bangladesh. My skin sweat-eth. My hair is sticking to my neck. I feel like I'm wearing a turtleneck sweater made of hair.

I exaggerate. Besides the humidity I'm enjoying myself here. I missed Bangladesh SO much and am having such a fun time with my cousins so far. I've only been in the country for 8 hours so I'm sure there's plenty more of this fun in store for me. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't leave just yet. I have you in my room right now and I might call on you from time to time. I realize you won't be there when I head to the small towns and villages though, and I'll forgive you for that.

Hope you're chillin like a villain. Hahaha...chillin. So much wit...so little time...

Sincerely,

Zen (not quite as cool as you)


*Real word. Part of the Zenith Bose Dictionary. Look it up.

Bose family reunite. Which is fine. Except for Steven.

My familia has arrived in England. We have been having a swell time. I missed my brother the last week and a half. Since he's arrived I've forgotten why it was that I missed him. He's already leeching off of me and making me pay for all kinds of stuff. Mints, sandwiches...mints. I'm not sure what the mints are all about.

But it's been fun exploring London with the family. It's also been fun being the pro in the group. They were all like "Oh whichever way should we go?" and I was all like "Let me guide you with my almost-local-knowledge of this city" Sarcasm aside, I am freakin awesome at figuring out my way around new cities. Unlike Moumita. Moumita really sucks the bucket. I mean REALLY sucks. I hope she reads this post. But I'm amazing and if you don't believe me, ask my dad. He didn't even try to figure out his way around London cause he had me and I was...well, amazing. Yesterday Steven and I went to catch Avenue Q on Broadway. Good times with puppets who do some R rated stuff. We both know almost all the songs in the musical so we sang along (quietly) and sat at the edge of our seats for all the punchlines.

We've done all the touristy crap that one would want to do in London. And I had already done half of them with Zina anyway so I'm ready to move on. So goodbye London and hello Kuwait. We're boarding our plane to head to the Middle East. Pray that the sun won't roast us. That's all for now. Toodle doo.

This post was supposed to be up 2 days ago.

I was writing this 2 days ago at an internet cafe. I had only paid for an hour. Just before I clicked on "publish post" my hour was up and my computer logged me off. Most annoying indeed. So pretend it's Friday the 27th and I'm in Liverpool...because neither of those things stand true at the moment, as I type away from an internet cafe in London.

Today Rob, Dave, and I were walking around the city centre in Liverpool when we saw this seagull standing in a sea of pigeons. It was walking around bullying all the pigeons and feeling quite good about itself. At one point it picked a pigeon up with its beak! The pigeon was sandwiched in between its beak. I thought the seagull was going to snap the pigeon in half. I shrieked and grabbed Dave's arm in a "do- something-stop-this-bird-bullying-madness" kinda way. The pigeon started flapping its wings and the seagull finally let go. The whole thing lasted only for about 5 seconds or so, but it was the scariest and most scarring 5 seconds of this entire trip. Rob, Dave, and I continued to walk around town, but the rest of the day wasn't the same. We continued on with our day, but with a little less hope, and a little more "WTF WAS THAT??" If you see any birds out there exhibiting this behaviour call 1 800 BIG BIRDS ARE AHOLES.

"Excuse me Mr. local man there, which why to Kmdx!hi? You've never heard of it? You don't say..."

This is why you travel...

(and by you I mean me)

a. To mispronounce street names and look like an asshole.

b. To look at the wrong side of the road and get run over. So far I've been fine but Zina almost got run over twice and almost gave me heart attacks and aneurysms in the process.

c. Eat the "local" food until you get sick of said local food and go back to eating Thai, Indian, or Chinese. Unless you're in Thailand, India, or China. Then you're screwed.

d. To carry heavy crap on your back from trains to buses to trains, all the while feeling your shoulder muscles turn to rock.

e. Mess with your own accent to mess with the locals.

f. Try to copy the locals' accents and get beat up.

g. Pronounce the word about "aboot"

h. Generally lie about Canada.

i. Make fun of the local currency (the size of the coins, the lack of 25 cent coins, the way the Queen looks funny when you hold the bill/coin from a certain angle)

j. Befriend at least one local, preferably a big strong one who can protect you against the other locals who're after you because of the whole "accent" thing.

"Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones!" (random Shakespeare quote for lack of a better heading)

Hey folks. Sorry I didn't write earlier. I accidentally set the language on my blog account to Korean. It took me forever to figure out that it wasn't just some random computer screw up and that I needed to fix it myself! Anyway, here I am at an internet cafe in a small town called Exeter in the south west of England. Zina and I arrived here by train this morning from London.

London was big. London was pretty. But London was too busy for us most of the time, and could only give us the time of day when we took the time to figure her out. So we said, "Screw you London. We're only spending 4 days here anyway. Tomorrow, it's off to the small towns in the south." Actually, London was a lot of fun. Highlight: we caught some Broadway shows. We got all our tickets on sale but still spent a ridiculous amount of money when you take the conversion into account.

The train ride from London to Exeter was really exciting. I slept through most of it but I was excited cause I never take the train. Not a real train anyway (skytrain...you just got dissed). When we got to Paddington station it was a little Harry Potter-esque. I know nothing about Harry Potter so that last sentence has little merit. But Zina agreed with me and she's a Harry Potter geek. Anyway, tomorrow we're wanting to do that high wire zip course thing at the Haldon National Park. Apparently it's only 10 miles away but no one knows how to get there! We've gone to the train station, the bus station and have asked numerous people on the streets and operators on the phone but have gotten mostly sketch details. We're determined however. It's the main reason we came to Exeter. Anyway, the internet cafe closes in 1 minute so I should go. Wish us luck. I'll write again when I get to Liverpool.

Blogging? I have one?

I can't believe my last post was over a year ago! Well, I'm back. For better or for boring. I have finished packing and everything's a go-go. I felt like posting something up here but now have realized I don't really have much to say. So here are some photos I've taken this past week. The highlights if you will...

Spending the day out in Ladner helping the VanderKuips fix up their new place. Though I'm not really doing a lot of fixing in this photo.



Spending 1 to 8 pm at the Commercial Drive and Main street Car Free Day



Going out for drinks and saying goodbye to friends earlier tonight. This is a truly international bunch, come to think of it. Tanzin (the other brown girl in the pic) and I are the only locals. Besides us, you've got a French, an Aussie, and an English dude. Max, Kris, and Darren, respectively. Friends + pub food = awesome + fat.