I love to travel. Exploring new places, eating new food, seeing completely different environments with the unfamiliar sounds and smells will always be a thrill. Smell always stay with me the strongest after I have come home from my journey. For example, the smell of fire – not a fireplace fire, but a brush fire or wildfire always reminds me of Jakarta. In Jakarta they cook outside in front of their homes, so at any given time there will be 10 to 30 different cooking fires along a street. This doesn’t sound pleasant, but I loved it. Now, anytime I smell a wildfire I’m taken to the streets of Jakarta.

I want to continue my travels, but am not sure where to go next. I have always wanted to see Macchu Picchu or backpack through Southeast Asia (Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries around that region). A girlfriend of mine lived in eastern Europe and said it was great place to experience…so I need to get there too. I’ve always wanted to travel to the bayous in the South, but think I will wait.

Countries I have been to;
Mexico, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Italy, Spain, England, Switzerland, Antigua (Caribbean Island), Israel, Egypt

States I have been to;
California, Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, New York, Washington, Missouri, (Texas for a moment)

My boyfriend and I have danced around going backpacking during the summer (early fall) and hope that it happens. I know backpacking doesn’t hold the thrill of traveling to new places, but sometimes I get so wound-up at work and with life that I forget that there is so much more than my life and its chaos. It’s good to remember that I have a big world to explore when my little world gets to be too much.

Last night I watched the film, 'A Sea Change' and it really moved me. The film followed a retired teacher on his journey to learn about the impacts of ocean acidification to both marine life and us. As Sven, the teacher, learned about some of our irreversible impacts to the ocean, he wrote letters to his grandson to explain what was happening to marine species. The film was amazing and really makes me want to get more political about the need for our government to support an alternative energy resource. But what works?

I have signed MANY online petitions, sent letters to political reps., protested - but I don't think any of these have been effective to activate change. The money filtering in from corporations is like a tidal wave against our little 'save the earth' signs. I'm not rich and don't have the answers, but I know there are plenty out there. I guess that is part of the journey.

On a more positive note - I took these pictures this weekend. Pretty cute eh?

Deep thoughts

I once kept a diary, and still do but the poor thing sees me only once a month (if that) and it is usually focused on my boyfriend or any immediate tragedies I experience in my privileged life. Now, to curb this I will keep an online diary to make sure that I continue to be interesting.

My most recent infatuation is the Gulf Coast Oil Spill - the most disturbing environmental tragedy I have been exposed to in my adult life. I was sent a letter from an Ultra-Deepwater Drilling worker and he said;

"The root cause is a failure to resolve a poor primary cement job. B.P. had knowledge that the primary cement job had failed; their continued operation was unsafe...B.P. knew they failed to bump their cement plug on the casing cement job. It should be investigated how much they over displaced the cement. B.P. made the decision not run a cement bond log."

Trying to figure out what the hell is going on WRT the spill is overwhelming. Is it the fault of Halliburton for fucking up once again?, BP for not doing anything about it? The Federal government for not making strict regulations that would prevent 'mistakes' like this from being overlooked?

The blowout happened on either April 19th/20th..that was over 2 months ago...at about 2.5 million gallons a day (from the NYTimes on June 15th) which is means we are seeing the Exxon Valdez spill every 4 days.

Hurricane Katrina and now this - does God hate the south or does the government forgot the whole 'for the people by the people' promise?