a flurry of chaos
Ask me where i'll be in four days. i can tell you: AFRICA. Johannesburg, specifially.
Ask me where I'll be in five days. i can tell you with 90% certainty: africa, jo'burg.
Six days gets a little muddier. 30% says on my way to Durban
Seven, eight, nine, and ten depend a lot on six. there might be a game reserve and some large animals involved, but only if day six is to durban. otherwise maybe it's to namibia. or to madagascar. or just to capetown. but regardless of all the different scenarios we've made up, despite the staggering number of times i've gotten a new sheet of paper in the presence of some new important piece of information and said "ok, let's try this again from the top," and blatantly disregarding the post-it notes we bought and reandreandre-arranged on the ground floor of the Times Square mongo-mall amidst a dusty, abandoned exhibit promoting singapore in Kuala Lumpur, i cannot tell you beyond a 30% chance where i'll be in six days. two days ago, i think i could've told you with maybe 70% certainty. but alas. things change. algerian visas need working days and letters of reference, flights to madagascar are twice as exorbitantly priced as we expected, tours to namibia don't leave every day... there aren't enough days in a week. certainly not enough days in three months.
chaos.
and with that, i wish us a happy nine months yesterday. nine months. that leaves under three to go.
still having fun though. we've met up with friends of nabia's from new haven. a family of 4 consisting of math teacher father steve, midwife mother leslie, daughter hannah and daughter julia. they're great and fun and as always, it's nice to have others around. they're on a month-or-so-long vacation visiting bali and malaysia and leave to head home in a few days from KL. they joined us for the trip down here to Melaka, where i currently am. We've had several meals together, the girls are sleeping over in our room at the traveller's lodge, and leslie and steve just got an open room (very nice) on the top floor of said guest house for tonight. we had a rousing game of B.S. in the Discovery Cafe last night (we were there 5 months ago too, sat there doing bullet points one afternoon. we wrote in the guest book that we'd be back and then last night i added a note that 5 months and 5 countries later, return we did. cool.). we're gonna head south tomorrow. they're heading north back to KL. we'll have a farewell cendol tonight.
i don't really have too much to write. the last several days have been spent either trying to make plans and thinking we've succeeded, only to find we've failed or something's changed or unexpected, or avoiding such planning and trying to relax but feeling like i'm stressed out cuz there's so much planning to do.
i bought some clothes in KL (necessary, though it seems i just had a wardrobe makeover. somehow stains appeared on everything i own and i only have 1 pair of long pants), we stayed in a sweet apartment complex with our servas host (each had our own room with queensize bed and there was a pool downstairs even though we didn't get a chance to enjoy it) outside KL, we learned a bit more about cricket and wickets and runs and such things, i tried a very smelly cheese and didn't like it... not too much to report, really.
i'm feeling vulnerable just now - about to embark on a new adventure to a new continent with very little clue as to our itinerary (despite our best efforts, as you can tell). we'll work it out, and we'll be fine, don't worry your pretty little heads about it, but for the moment it's a bit troubling.
in any case, whatever happens, there will be rhinos and lions and elephants and giraffes and cheetahs. the lemurs and sloths are now in question, but hopefully they'll join the party too.
partying lemurs make me laugh,
amy
email me
Ask me where I'll be in five days. i can tell you with 90% certainty: africa, jo'burg.
Six days gets a little muddier. 30% says on my way to Durban
Seven, eight, nine, and ten depend a lot on six. there might be a game reserve and some large animals involved, but only if day six is to durban. otherwise maybe it's to namibia. or to madagascar. or just to capetown. but regardless of all the different scenarios we've made up, despite the staggering number of times i've gotten a new sheet of paper in the presence of some new important piece of information and said "ok, let's try this again from the top," and blatantly disregarding the post-it notes we bought and reandreandre-arranged on the ground floor of the Times Square mongo-mall amidst a dusty, abandoned exhibit promoting singapore in Kuala Lumpur, i cannot tell you beyond a 30% chance where i'll be in six days. two days ago, i think i could've told you with maybe 70% certainty. but alas. things change. algerian visas need working days and letters of reference, flights to madagascar are twice as exorbitantly priced as we expected, tours to namibia don't leave every day... there aren't enough days in a week. certainly not enough days in three months.
chaos.
and with that, i wish us a happy nine months yesterday. nine months. that leaves under three to go.
still having fun though. we've met up with friends of nabia's from new haven. a family of 4 consisting of math teacher father steve, midwife mother leslie, daughter hannah and daughter julia. they're great and fun and as always, it's nice to have others around. they're on a month-or-so-long vacation visiting bali and malaysia and leave to head home in a few days from KL. they joined us for the trip down here to Melaka, where i currently am. We've had several meals together, the girls are sleeping over in our room at the traveller's lodge, and leslie and steve just got an open room (very nice) on the top floor of said guest house for tonight. we had a rousing game of B.S. in the Discovery Cafe last night (we were there 5 months ago too, sat there doing bullet points one afternoon. we wrote in the guest book that we'd be back and then last night i added a note that 5 months and 5 countries later, return we did. cool.). we're gonna head south tomorrow. they're heading north back to KL. we'll have a farewell cendol tonight.
i don't really have too much to write. the last several days have been spent either trying to make plans and thinking we've succeeded, only to find we've failed or something's changed or unexpected, or avoiding such planning and trying to relax but feeling like i'm stressed out cuz there's so much planning to do.
i bought some clothes in KL (necessary, though it seems i just had a wardrobe makeover. somehow stains appeared on everything i own and i only have 1 pair of long pants), we stayed in a sweet apartment complex with our servas host (each had our own room with queensize bed and there was a pool downstairs even though we didn't get a chance to enjoy it) outside KL, we learned a bit more about cricket and wickets and runs and such things, i tried a very smelly cheese and didn't like it... not too much to report, really.
i'm feeling vulnerable just now - about to embark on a new adventure to a new continent with very little clue as to our itinerary (despite our best efforts, as you can tell). we'll work it out, and we'll be fine, don't worry your pretty little heads about it, but for the moment it's a bit troubling.
in any case, whatever happens, there will be rhinos and lions and elephants and giraffes and cheetahs. the lemurs and sloths are now in question, but hopefully they'll join the party too.
partying lemurs make me laugh,
amy
email me
posted by theonetheycallamy at 8/07/2005 05:36:00 AM
2 Comments:
I'm sorry that the planning part of your trip is always so "chaotic", but you've felt anxious each time you've moved on, and each time, you've worked it out. And again, you will. So take a deep breath.
The key words in your entry is "still having fun, though", and that's what I like to hear. Glad you met up with some friends and increased your numbers for a bit.
Also happy you bought new clothes for use now, sounds like it was very necessary!! Duh!
Still looking for pictures....still very hot and humid here.....
Much love,
mom
Don't dwell on the chaos...it will certainly clear as everything falls into place. You are on the brink of yet another fine adventure/experience, and it has great potential to be the best yet...(what with the animals, and all!) Have fun, and keep the rest of us posted on what's next. Truly hard to believe that nine months have gone by. Looking forward to reading more as it occurs and you put it to "paper"(?).
Hugs, Elaine
Post a Comment
<< Home