One more day

So, you think it can't ever happen to you?

Well, think again!

What time's your flight? 1:40.

Great, I'll take a cab to take me to the airport around 11. I'll have plenty of time to check in and everything.

Check the ticket time again.

What time's your flight? 1:40.

Great, I can sleep real well, wake up, have breakfast, no rush!

10:50... Sitting outside waiting for the taxi to take me to the airport.

Checking the ticket time one more time to make sure everything is OK.

What time's your flight? 1:40.

Oh... hold on... 1:40 SUN.... right?

I arrive in Korea at 16:40....

....

OH CRAP!!!!!!!!!

My flight WAS at 1:40 AM, not PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup, it happened to me. I missed my flight!

I went to the airport, the people from Qatar Air were very helpful and managed to book me on tonights flight again at 1:40 AM with only minimal charges.

What a way to end my vacation :)

Going back

Vacation is over.

In the morning I'm heading back to Korea.

I'm glad to go home, but at the same time I'm going to miss being away.

I miss Thailand the most. Everytime I'm there I feel so good!

I'm glad I keep getting emails from the people at Panya, and the clothes I wore there still smell like lemongrass.

I listen to the music I listened there, I look at the pictures I have from there, and I'm home sick. Home sick for Thailand!

New In-between Plan

So, in order to do the Permaculture Design Course this September, I'll have to postpone my employment in Qatar. YAY!!

So, I can take some much needed time for myself and my interests and do some travelling.

In August I can go back to Canada and take my stuff and my cat so she has somewhere to stay while I'm travelling.

Mid August I can go to Romania and visit family for two weeks, then go do the PDC till mid September.

Mid September I can go to Thailand (south) and do a 2 week detox/clensing program! YAY!

Maybe go up to Chiang Mai and visit Panya for 1 week.

Then go to Peru and take part in a Ayahuasca journey of selfdiscovery :) YAY!

And then, go back to Canada early November (perfect timing) and apply for work in Qatar to start in January.

Voala! EVERYTHING taken care of!

I like this plan!

Doha

Well, I'm here. It's really not what I thought a modern desert city would be like.

The whole country and mentality is TOTALLY different than anything I've experienced so far. It's totally incredible. There's a definite class system where everyone including the white faces (white westerners) fit in. In other countries is usually not so blatant and in your face, but here it's totally out in the open. It's something you are not exposed to on a regular basis and to be able to make it here you just have to accept how it is and get over it.

Also, when I flew into Doha, wow! The waters surrounding the peninsula were so blue and beautiful. Then, looking left past the water at Doha, wow! It was all sand. Looking closer I could see that all the low lever buildings and housing were all also sand coloured. No green, no colour, just sand colour everywhere. That was a HUGE change coming from Thailand, where flying over shows masses and MASSES of jungle full of vibrant shades of green.

Every place has it's own style, and getting your mind around that is always a challenge.

I miss Panya though. I miss the green, the birds, the fresh bananas and papayas, I miss the vegetarian meals, I miss the work, I miss the talks, I miss the communal living, I miss the ideas and ideals, I miss the dog and cats, I almost also miss the mosquitoes, but not really. I miss the feel of Thailand, the friendliness of the people, the kindness of the buddhist mentality. I miss the humanity and the care of nature. I miss it all!!!

Back to the city

So, I'm back in Chiang Mai, and am waiting around for 6:30pm to come so I can take a bus to Bangkok overnight so I can fly to Qatar in the morning.

I'm here in an internet cafe mainly to charge up my eBook so I'll have something to read on the 7 hour flight tomorrow.

Leaving the people at Panya, and also leaving the place itself felt strange. I feel like it wasn't really good bye. Maybe I'll see those people again, maybe I'll go there again, or maybe I didn't get close enough to have a strong feeling about leaving. But, this community is pretty small, considering the whole world population, so I'm pretty sure I'll meet them again.

It was a really interesting experience. I have to think a lot about this to come to a fuller understanding of it. Very cool!!

I've also accumulated almost 500 Gigs of music, permaculture resources and various documentaries. I can't wait to get back to boring work and have that time to go through that information. Fantastic stuff!!

AND! I've also got LOADS of pictures. AMAZING pictures :). (coming soon)

On the farm

I'm on the farm in Thailand.

It's called Panya (http://www.panyaproject.org/), and it's north of Chiang Mai. It is beautiful and very idealistic.

It's run by foreigners and it makes me think of a commune.

The course I'm doing now is about natural building, so building with natural materials.

It's not really an introduction to permaculture, but more of a specialization. 

I found a Permaculture Design Course that is really the first thing you should do to know more about the 'ins and outs' of natural living. This course will be from September 9th until September 20th in Romania (http://permacultura.alvalia.ro/index.html).

I really want to go. It's very cheap, and it's in Romania, so I can go and visit some family and also experience how it is possible to live this way even in Romania.

I hope I can do it.

I have lots of amazing pictures from this course, but they'll come when I get back to Korea.

I worry

I worry about my life
I worry about my personality
I worry about people liking me
I worry about thinking about people liking me
I worry that I'm too lazy

I worry that I'm too hairy

I worry because I'm not neat

I worry that I've had it too easy
I worry that I won't get anything done with my life
I worry that my dreams are crap
I worry that my efforts are pointless
I worry about what will happen in a few years
I worry about my health
I worry about being alone
I worry about not having friends
I worry about ending up alone
I worry that I won't find love
I worry about not having my own family
I worry about becoming antisocial
I worry about forgetting myself
I worry about not thinking
I worry about not being open
I worry about not saying what's on my mind
I worry that I'm wasting my life
I worry that I'm insecure
I worry about feeling hopeless
I worry about feeling lost
I worry about so many things
It's tiering to think and do anything to change
Because then I remember all the things I worry about and then
I worry about my life again

i dreamt of my hero

i dreamt of my hero
who asked me to trust him
he was strong and smart
with a knowing smile on his face
he knew me
he admired me
i punched him in the face
i wanted to show i was tough and independent
he was surprised by my reaction
i saw it in his eyes
in that knowing smirk
he asked me to trust him
and rely on him
it was very difficult
i don't trust easily anymore
nor rely on others anymore
but he held my hand
and reassured me he knew the area
and showed me on the map
where i had to go
and we walked hand in hand
i felt good
he knew me

Books I've read 2010

I just looked on my dashboard on this blog, and I realized I have 7 followers. WOW!!!

Do people actually read my blog??

That's amazing.

Well, so I clicked on each persons name and saw this one person had some other blogs they were interested in. I clicked on those.

I got to this really interesting post where the person wrote all the books they've read this year. WOW!!!!

It's nice to keep track of what you've read. I tend to forget after a while.

So, I'm going to, just for this post, write down the books that I've read since January.

Here we go:

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer:

Book1: Twilight

Book2: New Moon

Book3: Eclipse

Book4: Breaking Dawn

Book5: Midnight Sun

True Blood Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris:

Book1: Dead until Dark

Book2: Living Dead in Dallas

Book3: Club Dead

Book4: Dead to the World

Book5: Dead as a Doornail

Book6: Definitely Dead

Book7: All Together Dead

Book8: From Dead to Worse

Book9: Dead and Gone

Book10: Dead in the Family

Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong:

Book1: Bitten

Book2: Stolen

Book3: Dime Store Magic

Book4: Industrial Magic

Book5: Haunted

Book6: Broken

Book7: No Humans Involved

Book8: Personal Demon

Book9: Living with the Dead

Book10: Frostbitten

Book11: Waking the Witch
Book12: Men of the Otherworld (short stories)
Book13: Tales of the Otherworld (short stories)

Love at Stake Series by Kerrelyn Sparks
Book1: How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

Book2: Vamps in the City

Book3: Sugarplums and Scandal

Book4: Be still my Vampire Heart

Book5: The undead next door

Book6: All I want for Christmas is Vampire

Book7: Secret life of a Vampire

Book8: Forbidden Nights with a Vampire

Book9: The Vampire and the Virgin

Easy way to stop smoking by Allen Carr

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Bounce

I've bounced back.

When I get back from any vacation I seem to have a few weeks of feeling crappy. Maybe because I'm leaving a wonderful place. Maybe because I'm going back to a place I'd rather not be in. Maybe it's both. Probably it's both.

In any case.

I've bounced back.

I've started working out.

I've gotten back to cleaning my apartment.

Next I've got to get back into cooking.

I just have to learn to get through these emotional and mental ups and downs, and keep going, because things always work out in the end.