a year in facebook status updates – 2009.

January

does believe people should go to the new and improved http://www.redefinemag.com

done did got her laptop infected by a virus. ~__~ BSOD FTL.

February

got a web facelift: http://www.redefinemag.com — and a new arts blog: http://www.redefinemag.com/arts/

is going to be in Los Angeles tomorrow, until the 17th! Holla!

is wondering if anyone would like to go to Peru with her in late March / early April for a couple weeks?

March

is wondering if anyone knows anyone trustworthy who needs a room to stay in for SxSW?

is going to Peru, April 1st through April 23rd. Confirmed, son.

is wondering if anyone else noticed Facebook looks different! Rounded profile pictures, omg!! Bigger fonts!!!!

thinks the Indian holiday, Holi, is AWESOME. ^__^

is pretty sure SxSW is the best shit ever.

cannot WAITTTTT to get back to Seattle where allergies are more or less tolerable and not complete complete death action.

… did I say I couldn’t wait to get back to Seattle? Well, I don’t want to be in Austin, but I don’t want to be here, either. RESPONSIBILITIES. BLACHHH.

It’s funny when you have a sudden epitome on a way to fix something that is obviously wrong, with so obvious an answer it’s ridiculous. Naw mean?

Today I hung out with a 23 year old Australian dude I met at SxSW and an 18 year old super mature and smart (and classically very good looking) British lad. I rarely ever meet and get to know English-speaking foreigners while living in the States. It’s in…

Feeleth so dehydrated…

is headed to Seattle’s Green Festival… for anyone who wants to go tomorrow, if you go to PCC and buy some shit, you get a free ticket ($15 value).

Sometimes you just need a giant 16 ounce cup of cappuccino / hot cocoa mix from — no, not the coffee shop down the street — 7/11. Hail. Yeah. Son. Sure, you’ll regret it later as you are shaking with its sugary nastiness, but the first half hour or so o…

is headed to Mexico City / Peru in one day and seven hours. Here’s to not pulling a “Tony Cordova”. Not pulling a “Tony Cordova” can be defined as, but are not limited to: 1) not breaking arms while arm wrestling, 2) not getting rings stuck on fingers til…

April

was told that her brother’s house has Oreos for consumption, but the Oreos cannot be seen!!!!

is in the Lima airport, at a Starbucks. Ohhh nooeettthh! They’re seriously everywhere. X:

is in Lima, waiting to go to Trujillo, Peru. Lima is just a city, like every other city, but man, is Peruvian cuisine colorful and exciting. But people here drive like maniacs. It’s super fun to be in a taxi, wondering if you’ll get in a crash, but even i…

is going to Huacas Del Sol Y De La Luna today… and then off to the desert. – http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huacas_del_Sol_y_de_l a_Luna

is wondering about how strange it is that I’ve been here for like… three days… and it feels like an ETERNITY somehow. It’s fucking bizarre.

is thinking about how a girl on my flight from Seattle to SF five days ago finished off our 2 hour conversation with one another by telling me that I have “really nice hands” and that she has an “obsession with hands and necks.”

has photos online at http://picasaweb.google.com/veez0ri

helped another teacher teach some 2nd graders English today. We did one class in Spanish and one class in English, teaching kids things like, “What’s your name?” and “What’s her name?” and the class taught exclusively in English did MUCH better than the c…

$569 roundtrip to Iceland from Seattle this summer. Who wants to go

es muy confundido.

is PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY. K thx. Off to the mountains of Peru this evening for Semana Santa!!! Holy Week!

is just a girl.

has new photos from an awesome weekend in Cajamarca, Peru: http://picasaweb.google.com/veez0ri/042009Cajamarc aPeru#

has just been reminded that holy shit… art is better than pretty much everything. – http://www.redefinemag.com/arts/ – http://1988watcher.blogspot.com/

is wondering who wants to go to Burning Man this year… like, for real. This time.

& Mihae received many a love letter this evening from Peruvian men. Here is a note a hot 17 year old Peruvian waiter wrote us before we left: “Cuando vas muy lejos adonde yo no te puedo ver se que vata (?) o extranarte mucho Vivian te extrano mucho quisie…

is forever in love with “Gorecki” by Lamb. One of the most awesome songs ever.

feels like she just smoked at least five cigarettes due to the plethora of secondhand smoke this evening ~__~

doesn’t like secondhand smoke but residual smoke-in-hair is SO GOOD. So good.

is sad to be leaving Trujillo cause the kids are SO cute. ~__~ Want to come back for longer. How to do so logistically…

is Lima-bound tonight. Hello overnight bus.

says: If you’re riding a bus in Peru, reserve the freaking 1st row of seats on the 2nd floor of the bus. AMAZING view (And “Bruce Almighty” in Spanish is amazing, too.)

is in Cusco, and NOT altitude sick! Yay. Mihae is yet to be determined, however.

Cusco / Cuzco is uncharming, expensive, drab, unexciting, and completely un-Peru-like. Machu Picchu may be great, but this tourist trap mecca definitely is not. Just saying.

is tired after a day of hiking up a 3,500 meter (11,500 feet) above sea level mountain because two Peruvian waiters (we sure like making friends with waiters) told us to. Tiring and hard, with some parts of the “trail” actually being giant ladders we had…

is thinking, WTF, BBQ, LIFE, and using the internet while sitting on the floor of our hostel in Cuzco.

actually heard a stranger fart last night in an alleyway and then SMELLED it. That’s SO wrong.

got a tarot card reading today from a Peruvian jungle man nicknamed Captain Jack, while sitting on a giant rock and stuff.

is in the Lima airport… again. Living in Trujillo was SO cheap, but coming to Cusco and Lima is SO expensive!! BAHH! Sapping money like a motherfucker!!

is leaving Peru tomorrow. Already? Is it over already?! :[

is back in the States after a night of 0 sleep and techno music in Mexico City. Thanks, Franco.

is dying of stomach ache! WTF!

is feeling better. Yay for no Mexican flu

is wondering why people would install shit on my computer. Kinda annoying.

wants it all -- brand new socks and drawls -- and I'm ballin every time I stop and talk to y'all. I want it all, all, all, all.

lied a little. Stomach still hurts. :X And it is not reassuring that one of the people I was hanging out with in Mexico City also has had a stomach ache!!! (But I don't have any other flu symptoms, so I'm not going to die, right?!! RIGHT?!!)

can once again think of a zillion reasons to never live at home.

is wondering if anyone wants to pick her up from the airport at 11:00pm on Tuesday. No? OK.

is going to interview Crystal Antlers tonight at the Crepe Place in Santa Cruz. Bands? At a Crepe Place? We'll see how this goes.

is wondering WHYYYYYY WHYYYY STOMACHE WHYYYYY!

is pretty convinced what burned my stomach was drinking a glass of absinthe (when I never drink) on an empty stomach. Finally took medicine, and now it's all peachy.

is thinking four days or so is about the maximum amount of time to visit the parentals in California without going batshit crazy.

is wondering if anyone is going to Sasquatch, cause I'd actually maybe like to go for once, perhaps.

May

is thinking that looking at high school people's Facebook profiles is some Twilight Zone shit.

wants Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits. SRSLY.

is having her patience tested, z0mg.

reckons there's always a lesson to be learned in experiences that test you, but man, it's hard to glean something super positive from someone's annoying the shit out of you.

is gonna see some dags. Do you like dags?

revolutionized nail-cutting this afternoon. Cut your nails outside; never worry about mess again!!!!!!!!! ZOMG!!!!

gives in to Conor Oberst. I had always written off Bright Eyes as mediocre, but dammit, it's kind of good.

is wondering if anyone wants to go with her to either The Kills / The Horrors' show or The Curious Mystery / Ole Time Relijun's show. Both on Friday and free. Hollar.

is going country line dancing or something tonight. They call it 2-steppin? What? We'll see.

is HOLY FUCK, round-trip tickets from Seattle to NYC for $219 and from Los Angeles to Australia for $646. HOLY FUCK ASS!!!!!

just fell in the mud with my Nikon d40 D-SLR. But dude, smoothing concrete is fun (and the camera is okay).

is now officially only one degree of separation removed from Mike Patton (of Faith No More / Mr. Bungle fame). Wee!

is going to Hammingbell, aka Bellingham, for the day...!

recommends that you go watch The Kills and The Horrors, on tour now. They killed it this evening.

needs to need to not want to need.

loves the VH1 show "Daisy of Love." I'm just a lameass.

sometimes wishes she liked alcohol even a little bit. But alas, no.

is an idiot around boys I have even remote interest in, and I will run away prematurely. But hey, if I don't like you, I will talk to you for fucking hours.

... sometimes you think you know, but then find out what you know ain't shit. But it's nice when that can be said in a positive manner. SON!

spent the night at a bar with a fucking banana in my purse. SON!

eats a little too much hummuses!!!

necesita aprender mas espanol :0

was late for the bus but forgot bus money, had to run back home to grab the bus money, grabbed the bus money, kept it in her hands while running down the hill, lost a quarter of the fare in someone's unkempt lawn (where it was never to be seen again), and...

was called by her mother today, and her mother said to her in Chinese: "Your house is actually pretty clean now! But you live with boys, so make sure you wrap up your pads well when you throw them out while you're on your period." To which I replied (verb...

thinks the problem of being a sucker for pretty writing and pretty words is that, more often than not, that's all it is... pretty words... not pretty actions.

thinks may all die a nuclear death... in 2012.

just interviewed Mike Weiss of mewithoutYou. They have a new disc out: http://www.myspace.com/mewithoutyou

has been trying to install a Ruby on Rails environment on the computer all day. ALL DAY. Lord.

is being FUCKED OVER by Google. Motherfuckers. The Redefine website is inaccessible via Firefox without a warning of "vulnerability", and I fixed the errors, but they're still not removing this warning. PISSED!!

June

is up late, being emo. ~o~

: incentive for waking up earlier... $290 round-trip tickets from Seattle to Madrid, including taxes. *WTF*. Too bad I slept in and it got sold out. :L

is going camping in the Olympic Peninsula until Tuesday. Suckaz!!!

... just saw *the* most amazing dance-off ever at Trinity, by a pair of strangers, to dub-step. INSANE. They were *literally* climbing on the wall, crawling on the floor, and doing the fucking splits. In fact, the chick did the fucking splits on the wall,...

had an awesome weekend playing Rock Band, white trash golf? (testicle toss?), eating yummy catered food, and seeing ScM friends from looong ago. Congrats Pwny & Renae, and thanks! Even the sanest of girls is crazy.

is going to Ashland, Oregon for July 4th to watch Macbeth at the world's most awesomest Shakespeare Festival. Hail yessssss, dawwwwwgggg.

totally kind of believes in astrology crap. Do you?

July

was volunteering at Real Change today and Rosette made a joke about my going to bed at 4AM last night because I was watching Michael Jackson videos. That was untrue. Today, however, I am actually staying up til 4AM watching Michael Jackson videos. ~__~ Li...

thinks it's hilarious that *NOW* the FDA says Tylenol (and Percoset and Vicodin) is bad. - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31671172#3 1671172

inhaled too much nail polish, omg... headache galore.

still can't get over the fact that my parents have Facebook. Can they read this?!!! I have no idea!!!

just had a car trunk closed on her head and it hurt like a motherb!tch. If a giant bruise emerges on my face, I'm going to have to pin domestic violence on some lucky person!!!!

battled four nosebleeds today and won. Then again, if they keep coming back, does that still count as victories? Are they all the same nosebleed coming back to life again or are they four separate nosebleeds?!! HMMM?!!!!!?!!!! And if they're separate nose...

+ sports bra = boy... pretty much.

wonders if you would ever read a magazine in downloadable PDF form???? Check yes or no.

is disturbed by how different raisins in the same pack taste from one another Some are so nasty and mushy I have to spit them out!!

hates going through all the CDs we get for Redefine and really realizing how many bands we simply don't have the resources to give the time of day to. :{

spent the last four hours sorting through CDs. Got a couple discs in the mail that seem fairly exciting for me personally: Volcano Choir (JagJaguwar), OKie Dokie (Aagoo), Forks And Knives (Self-Released) and INF (Beats Broke)... WOOHOO!!!!!

is putzing around Portland for the day... what to do, what to do, other than talking to random crazy awesome strangers...

pretty much loves Portland. Seattle's still more beautiful, though. But Portland's more fun.

told Kyle that my house is really super empty because Chris moved out all his furniture. Kyle told me to try doing cartwheels now that I have space. I've been trying to do them... and I'm not going to give up til I actually do a legit one... but what's pa...

It's a bitch convincing people to like you/ If I stop now call me a quitter/ If lies were cats you'd be a litter/ Pleasing everyone isn't like you/ Dancing jigs until I'm crippled/ Slug ten drinks I won't get pickled!.../ Oh I could throw you in the lake/

fucking loves cherries! WHY OH WHY MUST I BE ALLERGIC! WHY!!!

is going to sleep at 4:30am and waking up at 9:00am. WOOOOO!

thinks is unfair that Block Party is this weekend in Seattle (still haven't been!) for a zillion dollars and PDX Pop Now is a free event this weekend. Pish, posh, poosh.

thinks it's kinda sorta fun to live without: a microwave, a television, a bed frame... a clue. Just me, music, hardwood floors, dreams, and a zillion dust bunnies are ADEQUATE!

had a freaking amazing day doing the "Talk To Us" thing in downtown Seattle (imagine Christian women's conference meets Narcotics Anonymous crowd meets Torchlight Parade participants), choosing from 60 FREE CAKES in Seattle Center, high-fiving marathon ru...

... when all the furniture goes away, all the spiders come out to play :/ including the hobos the size of your palm. WOO! This is when sleeping on the floor not so good.

... [stolen from someone else cause social experiments rule.] This is a Facebook Experiment. If you are reading this, even if we don’t speak often, post a comment with a memory of you and I. When you’ve finished, post this paragraph into your own status u…

HOW IS IT 105 DEGREES IN SEATTLE? THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

… damn you, bleeding from the nether regions! I wanted to go swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wonders if anyone knows of good electro/disco-type bands in the Portland and Seattle area??

August

had a memorable dream for the first time in a long time… kid ghosts, kid ghosts, kid ghosts… so plentiful in number they were flying and practically overlapping with each other in my vision. plus feelings of being insane.

enjoys the sleeping positions of the two cats I’m cat/house-sitting… teehehehe! Their names are George and Bert (because of resemblance to a Muppet)… but strangely, they’re both female. (Crazy cat lady in the making?!!…)

is going to hit up the $7-haircut-run-out-of-a-house place I’ve been wanting to try for almost a year now! Wish me lux.

“Your skin is something that I stir into my tea/ And I am watching you/ And you are starry, starry, starry…”

… me: going to tillamook today, never been / rachel: huh / me: what could possibly be confusing about that statement lol! / rachel: cheese / me: yes / rachel: holy shit, didnt know that was possible

is loving the new Portugal. The Man disc, The Satanic Satanist. More falsetto + blues/funk? Sweeeet. – Free MP3 here (not the best song on the disc, though, but whatever): http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/278763095/Pe ople%2BSay.mp3

… “Lovers loving love just like these lovers are loving in love.” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv3z8m1qbOQ

had a fantastical evening with Miss XL consisting of (but not limited to): getting lost in a maze of freeways, taking the LONGEST freeway detour EVER, being hit on by a guy using the classic, “Are you hot wearing that jacket? I mean, you’re HOT, but are you hot?” line, and laughing our asses off when a whole crowd of ridiculous clubbers got, “Low low low low,” in unison because “Apple Bottom Jeans” told them to.

is so very jaded by traditional Christian weddings… receptions rule, though. Fo’ realz.

is officially REALLY bad at frisbee golf. Really good at living off of snack foods, though.

… “A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a horse, of course, that is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.”

should give lessons on being a nomad. August / September / first half of October = PDX -> SEA -> PDX -> SEA -> LA -> NEVADA -> SO-CAL -> PDX -> SEA -> SF -> ????. All rent free. Jea.

… new nomad schedule for Aug-Oct 2009: Portland > Seattle > Los Angeles > Black Rock City, Nevada > Long Beach > Austin > Orlando > Seattle > Portland (MusicFestNW) > Chicago (La Dispute!!) > Detroit (:D) > Chicago > New Orleans (:D) > Pittsburgh > Seattle > San Francisco (Fever Ray/Castro St. Parade!) > New York > New Jersey > New York > Montreal > New York > Seattle…! (Settling down in Nov? Mayhaps. TIPS??)

… despite making films that would lead one to believe the contrary, David Lynch IS in fact Captain Obvious. Gems include, “And I thought to myself that in California, people wear sweaters! So it must sometimes be cool at night or something, because it was kind of a night-time thing, I imagined. And I thought, ‘What a great climate, that it’s warm in the day, and cool in the night — cool enough to wear a sweater!”

… 1) does anyone know if you need to take a GRE to get a Master’s in Social Work?… 2) does anyone know why I keep freaking getting Charlie Horses in my sleep? CHARLIE HORSES *SUCK*!!!

… emo emo emo mo mom oomaoo.

is gonna interview Theo Ellsworth in a hot sec. Awesome. – http://theoellsworth.blogspot.com

presents… a cross-section of Dutch words cuz Dutch is awesome/impossible … afschuwelijk = horrible, beschonken = drunk, droogtrommel = tumble drier, eigenaardig = peculiar, hulpvaardig = helpful, loopjongen = errand boy, natuurwetenschappelijk = natural phenomenon, ooghaar = eyelash, prijzenswaardig = commendable, raaskallen = talk nonsense, schurkenstreek = roguery, verachtelijk = despicable, zaniken = bother

… all of this past month’s Redefine updates in one handy ol’ August 2009 newsletter: http://www.redefinemag.com/newsletters/2009-08-new s.html (you can sign up for future similar updates in the right-hand column of http://www.redefinemag.com)!… … duude. Redefine life is doing good. It is, it is. A horse is a horse, of course, of course.

is pretty godamn satisfied. Bitches. And you need to listen to Leftover Cuties. – http://www.myspace.com/leftovercuties

… I know I just had a conversation recently about how band/musician names really shouldn’t play a role in determining how good he/she/they are, but man, Mac McAnally’s name is pretty funny.

is wondering if anyone in the Seattle / Portland / Los Angeles areas have crazy, super HOT desert weather clothes that they don’t need anymore that they want to give me to wear / demolish / never return (?)

wonders how many of the neighbors can hear me singing my ass off through the open windows. Hahahahahahahahaa.

wonders where I should go from Austin… Boston, Raleigh, Charlotte, Portland (Maine), Fort Lauderdale, Orlando…?? Decisions, decisions. VOTES?

is wondering if anyone in LA has a shitty bike he/she wants to sell/lend me? EH?????

has too much to do and therefore wants to do *nothing*…

… dude, coffee-drinking today has been CRAZY and has kind of sent me into this world where if I sit still for a hot sec I’m reeling into the unknown folds of the universe. Seriously.

is friggin pissed. Got a virus trying to download Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Virus rendered Internet unusable. Now, while trying to clear space on my hard drive to back up data, guess what I find? Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Godammit.

is watching a documentary on noise music called “People Who Make Noise”, and the cats are definitely freaking out in parts.

hates iTunes. I formatted my iPod Touch when my iTunes was set on shuffle and now my songs will only play on shuffle. Anyone know how to fix short of reformatting again?

September

is back in the real world (as real as Los Angeles is, anyway). Hello dry skin and straw hair.

is Austin and San Antonio-bound tomorrow, September 10th, through Monday, September 14th. Holla, Texans! And recommendations, por favor!!!!!

… funny press release of the day: “Name Your Tune is an exciting new children’s music compilation that is made-to-order and personalized for each child. Children will hear their name more than 80 times throughout 14 much-loved songs, such as If You’re Happy And You Know It (becomes If You’re Paul And You Know It) and Old MacDonald Had A Farm (becomes Little Ringo Had A Farm.)”

… guy’s name at the Long Beach Airport (the weirdest airport I’ve ever been to, BTW): Rohan McGee. AWESOME!!!

… one of my new favorite names for a city: Gay Hill, Texas!

equals not impressed by TexMex. TexMex is kinda sick. I’ll take Mex over TexMex every day of the week.

… dude, there’s a PLEASANTON in Texas!!!!!!!!!!!! 30 miles or so from San Antonio!!!!

passed a 5-mile stretch of highway in Houston today in which like, every American chain store had a branch. It was both amazing and disgusting! I’d begun to think that for sure every chain store had already shown up, but new ones kept popping up! Bed Bath And Beyond was like, “Don’t forget about me!”, Kohl’s was like, “I wanna play, too!”, and Panda Express was like, “Eat me!”

… three-hour-long+ adventure on Los Angeles Metro, here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

… actual synopsis for the film “Hood Of Horror”: “The Ghetto can be a scary place. And thanks to Snoop Dogg, it’s about to get even scarier. Snoop brings us three tales of terror from the hood featuring Billy Dee Williams, Method Man, and Jason Alexander. They’ll scare the shizzle out of you.”

loooooves eavesdropping on non-English-speaking humans (that I can understand, obviously)… cause sometimes you get real gems cause people think no one around can understand them!

… funny press release of the day: “Megan Fox is hot. She’s everywhere. And those short shorts and tank top and the black leather motorcycle costume she wore in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are available for all to buy.”

… awesome press quote I just saw on some taxi in Chicago about some theatre show: “Like Cirque du Soleil, but with horses.” — WTF!

… two assholes, at two shows, two days in a row. One racist in Detroit who said the Asian Yale girl who got murdered and stuffed in the wall begged her murderer, “Please no keel me; I sucky sucky for free,” (seriously??) and another dumbass who told Micachu And The Shapes that their music wasn’t music and that he “didn’t pay to have my ears pissed in.” Why so angry, Chicagoans and Detroiters?!!

self-loathes with a vengeance this evening, and to top it off, my electronics keep committing suicide, too. UGH.

… yet another low: MySpace Music is now brought to you by McDonald’s. WTF?

was thinking it was too early to sleep because my computer clock says 11:45pm, Pacific Time. Realization: I’m on the east coast. Dammit.

… MOTHAFUCKIN THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES IN DC, BEEYOTCH!

is so frustrated with myself!!! The airport security workers were totally being a dick to this Spanish-speaking lady and I wanted to stand in and translate, but I kept asking the security worker what she needed to do and he kept ignoring me, so I just stood down. It was so sad! They just wheeled her off in her little wheelchair and she was like, “No comprendo!” and had no idea what was going on :{

October

… Sondre Lerche twittering about Redefine? Awesome!

thinks it’s funny when people (*ahem, Sherry*) get all worked up over sports on TV.

… TONIGHT: Fever Ray in SF!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!

… who wants to make me a cupcake costume for Halloweenie!?

… anyone have experience with podcasting and can chat with me about it?

… funny press release of the day: “Dell [has] partnered with Major League Baseball to offer fans across the nation opportunities to bring their team spirit to their PC. Dell Design Studio offers designs for all 30 MLB teams in three customized levels – Fan, Classic and Die-Hard.”

is gonna be in New York City until the 13th, Montreal until the 17th or 18th, New Jersey until the 24th. Let’s meet up!?

is pissed! Of all the freaking delicious places to eat in NY I somehow settled on a place with THE WORST godamn eggplant parmesan sandwiches ever!! How could an eggplant parmesan sandwich possibly be this disgusting? AND it’s expensive. I’m craving one from Romio’s now. Ugh.

wishes bugs didn’t like biting me so much!! AAHHHHHHH. Three bug bites on the face… mostly no big deal, except for the one around my eye that makes me look like I got punched in the face

wants to eat something warm and hot, but I don’t have any Canadian money left except for $1.11, and I’m leaving tomorrow! I can’t even buy something from McDonald’s here with that! Much less the poutine next door.

being in the Northeast during the fall might be one of the best things ever… so beautiful, aaaah.

… my 16-year-old cousin doesn’t have ANY idea what Schindler’s List is. That’s almost as scary as Lingo’s nephew {?} not knowing who Michael Jordan is. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Social networking does a REDEFINE body good.

… explaining non-meat-eating to 85-year-old Chinese grandpa = impossible. Meat sickness impending. Not to mention they were pork buns, which I hated even when I did eat meat regularly!! ~__x

… wowowow Spaceland venue in Los Angeles!!! Taking word-for-word my article on Nurses for use in their promotional mailer: “By blending everything together in a way that turns layers of instrumentation, samples, and loops into structured tracks, Nurses create underlying backgrounds which teem with life and create a visual musical experience.” FUCKFACES. Where’s the credit!?

is geeking out on music so hard. Amusing finds for the evening: Terrible Records – Ghosts (http://terriblerecordsus.com/blog/wp-content/uplo ads/2009/10/ghosts.mp3), Yura Yura Teikoku – Dekinai (http://girlieaction.com/yurayura/sounds/Dekinai.mp3), Pylon – Beep (http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=down load&ufid=C646D21D51E64387), and finally… this really rad Nesey Gallons album, Eyes & Eyes & Eyes Ago! Yay!

is thinking, in this day and age where music videos are better than ever, why don’t VH1/MTV actually show music videos???????? Certainly they would hold someone’s attention…

just turned in my absentee ballot today, and I actually looked up all the candidates, but I feel like they’re all just about the goshdarn same. They all care about the environment and safety… blahblahblah. So I just went with whatever person seemed like he/she liked public transportation and homeless people the most. Ha!

November

… The Norwegian word “Røyksopp” means puffball fungus (lit. “(a) smoke mushroom”)… now you know!!!!!!!

… ever get those moments where you’re so insanely idiotic that you can scarcely believe yourself? They’re kind of special.

… funny press release of the day: “The Beatles cover [of] “I’m Only Sleeping” was recorded the day “The Beatles: Rock Band” game was released in protest of the idea of great musicians wasting time playing games about making music instead of actually making music.” – AEONs

… “I did not stir, and presently I began to breathe with the dispassionate rhythm of sleep. He listened, that was certain. I listened to his listening. He listened to my listening to his listening. Something snapped. I noticed that I was not thinking at all of what I thought I was thinking; attempted to catch my consciousness tripping, but got mazed myself. ” – Vladimir Nabokov, Despair. <3 <3 <3

… s o m e t i m e s l i f e i s r e a l l y r e a l l y a w e s o m e a n d i t f e e l s a m a z i n g . i feel like i'm onto something.

… loudly listening to music on Mihae Jung's $700 speakers = kinda better than going outside.

… so glad I don't work for a corporation… some corporate politics are truly ridiculous.

… "And we were laughing at the stars while our feet clung tight to the ground. So pleased with ourselves for using so many verbs and nouns. But we were all still just dumb, dumb, dumber than the dirt, dirt, dirt on the ground."

… "My grandfather used to say: 'Life is astonishingly short. When I look back now it is all so condensed in my memory that I can hardly understand, for example, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village, without his being afraid — quite apart from unfortunate accidents — that the whole span of a normal happy life is far from being adequate for such a ride.'" – Franz Kafka (The Next Village)

… three hours in Korea, and already I've been kidnapped and forced to drink beer and chat in broken Korean with two older Korean men (with the pimply-faced one stroking my back / laughing creepily and the other one — although hilarious and drunk as hell — calling me his wife and saying that Xinlei and I would be his friends forever); thank JEEBUS for being rescued by Xtra Large. <3 <3 <3

… mmmm, dreams about Joseph Gordon-Levitt…!!

… day two in Korea consistethed of going to seven different convenience stores to acquire seven types of banana milk and then taste-testing them one after the other. You'd be surprised at the array of flavors. The one with Bart Simpson sucking on a banana and having crazy eyes that looked like spirals was the winner.

… Portland's YACHT (http://www.myspace.com/yacht) and White Rainbow (http://www.myspace.com/whiterainbowwhiterainbow) are in Korea = free comped tickets for Friday night's show ($30 each!). Dunno if I actually like them, but it's not just a concert; it's a concert plus a DJ set by YACHT which goes until 5:00am. UMMMMMMMMMMM, AMAZING? 350 people confirmed on Facebook so far. S T O K E D!

… YACHT = awesome live show.

… I think I've done it. I think I've made myself sick of banana milk. THIS CAN'T BE!!!!!!???

… 2012 = worst movie ever……………… two hours of sheer and utter pain.

got rescued by the cops today. They pushed my car to the Honda dealership. Two of them plus one civilian. Hell yeah.

December

… cars are a pain in the snarse.

… breakfast! It’s what’s for dinner!

… the problem with always making faces or doing weird shit while taking photos is that when you actually need a professional-ish photo for business purposes, there are zero. Zilch. None. Nada. The closest to a passable photo might even be one you took with a Macaw bird on your shoulder. BLARGH!

= dry cereal addict. NOM NOM NOM. (so much better than wet cereal.)

… what’s an awesome name you think needs to be used more often? My vote: WYATT.

… Iceland/Europe in spring, anyone? Round-trip airfare from Seattle for $474…………. including taxes…….?

can’t sleep worth shiet.

is doing a post on Album Covers Of The Year!! Have any favorites from this year?? Anything blow you away?? Share

gets to eat lunch at Google today, heck yeah!!!!!!!! Free fooood come to meeeeeee!

… dude, remember Tomodachis?? And Furbys? Scary the random things you remember…….!

… REGIFTING RULE #1: Remove that sweetly-worded card that’s addressed to you. (Saving mother from embarrassment since 1983.)

… dude, did all of my tape singles get thrown out?!!!!! THERE WERE LIKE A HUNDRED OF THEM!!! Goodbye, childhood memories! You left without saying goodbye!

… 46 rad album covers from 2009! This is the most fun I’ve had writing an article in a while. Enjoy! (PS, Duran Duran is awesommmmmme.) – http://www.redefinemag.com/music/reviews_cover_2.php?artist=46-Fantastic-Album-Covers-From-2009,-Part-One&id=1379

back in the bay area.

Three and a half weeks later, the trip to Peru is over. Now I am at my parent’s house in Livermore, in the Bay Area of California. Things would probably be weirder if I wasn’t so damn tired. Already planning my next vacation, maybe? I’d like to go to a Spanish-speaking country and REALLY work on my Spanish. Leaning towards Mexico and Mexico City because it’s close and cheap. I’d also like to go to Burning Man, though. All things cost money. Snagnamit. TBD. ~__~

hostelling in barranco, lima.

Strange things going from Cusco to Lima this evening. We came from the Southern Comfort Hostel in Cusco — where everyone was up and about all the time, all evening — to this hostel in Barranco, Lima. It’s a SOMEWHAT happening part of town, I believe, but practically everyone went to bed before it was even midnight. Da feck? It’s the Bohemian District, but we have to leave at 11:30am-ish tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll have some time to actually explore the godamn place.

For the two and a half weeks we were in Trujillo, spending money was lax and it seemed plentiful. As soon as we got over to fucking Lima and Cusco, though, money just went away like a MOTHERFUCKER. This trip is turning out to be much more expensive than anticipated.

In other news, Mihae left her camera in a taxi tonight. ~__~ Hopefully it gets found ASAP. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow we head out from Peru to Mexico City for an evening, then back to the States. Is it over already? The first few days went by so slow, but now things are going by so fast… time… it’s many a trippieth thing.

Massive journal entries to come. I’ve basically been writing them down in notebooks here, there, and everywhere (actually, that’s a lie, because it’s all in the same notebook), waiting for the proper time to type them up properly. (I’ve decided I really like when Brits say “proper”, and that I’m going to work “proper” into my daily or somewhat daily quotes.)

machu picchu, day two.

Machu Picchu was cool and all, but I rather do not believe it was worth the $40 USD ticket and the painful expensive prices (relatively speaking) of everything in the small town closest to Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes). Tourist trap in the biggest sense that I have EVER seen. But for all who ARE going to Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes: there IS cheap food. You just have to cross the bridges near the artisan markets and go to the area where the “real” people live… then prices are on par with prices in a town like Trujillo — 3 soles ($1 USD) for a lunch menu meal including an appetizer, second course, and dessert. You just have to know where to look. PASS IT ON. Lonely Planet isn’t going to tell you this shit, sucka.

More later.

escribo español como un idiota.

Estoy pagando para una media hora de internet. Cuesta 1.50 soles aka 50 cents USD. Estamos en Aguas Calientes ahora. Es un pueblo muy pequeño cerca de Machu Picchu. Porque esto es, es muy, muy, MUY caro aquí y precios son como precios en los Estados Unidos… en partes, son mas caros del mismos cosas en los Estados Unidos! Es increíble! Es muy difícil a utilizar esto keyboard porque tiene muchas caracters y no se como debo usarlos. Pero, puedo usar esto… ñ… y estos… áóíú… y estos son bastante buenos.

Mi español es muy, muy teríble, pero me gusta lo usando aqui. Estoy aprendiendo — o recuerdiendo — mas rapido, pero uso muchas palabras que no son palabras… este noche usé la palabra ¨comfortable¨, que no existe en español. La palabra es ¨cómodo¨. Oops.

Anoche solamente dormí una hora porque muchas personas del hostal en Cusco fuimos a la discoteca. Discotecas en Cusco son muy, muy, muy, MUY horibles, y la música es de los ´90s y ´80s. Es teríble. Fue un poquito divertido ayer porque es solamente un noche, pero para personas que le gustan musica, es una broma. Una broma grande. No hay musica reál en Cusco… o no hay muchas… solamente hay musicas para turístos (y todos personas saben que turístos no saben nada… pienso que esto me incluye tambien).

Mañana voy a escribir más, sobre mi computadora, si tengo internet. Pero estoy usando mi cuaderno y escribiendo todos de mis recuerdos. Luego voy a… type them.

Tengo fótos pero no tengo una cord para la computadora!!

No puedo hacer SMILEY FACES con esto keyboard. AAAH!!

cusco, day two.

The next day at Cusco consisted of waking up, meeting the new hostelmates, and heading out around… 11:00am? We started off by wanting to go to Saksaywumun… but decided to take a cab further up PAST Saksaywumun to _______ and then walk down. After shooing away cab and cab again, we got one for twelve soles, and then it turned out to be a bit of a dick move, really, because the place was actually pretty fucking far. All upon insistence of Sarah, our new hostelmate, I guess. She’s this dreadlocked girl from Montreal. Really cute, has funny teeth, and speaks English funny. Haha. Anyway.

We took the cab to _____ and discovered that Cusco has this super lame thing where if you want to enter one of the sites, you have to pay for a one-day pass of 70 soles ($23 USD), OR you can enter all the sites in the area (I think there are around 10?) for eight days for 120 soles ($40 USD) or something. I suppose if you’re not traveling cheap and actually have enough time to go to all the available places, that deal is kinda rad, but if you’re a poor backpacker, that shit sucks ass, son (so it sucked for us, naturally). I personally woulda paid but Mihae and Sarah didn’t want to, so I didn’t push it. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t super worth it anyway. If only we were students. Students get massive discount action.

The walk down was fun cause it mostly consisted of farmlands and stuff. I’ve realized that our experience in Trujillo was rather really unique, because we saw the REAL city of Peru and more real poverty in El Porvenir instead of touristical facades people see in Cusco, for example. I think most people never really saw a lot of what was real Peru, particularly those people in Cusco.

On the way down, we stopped by Puka______, because it was a free ruin, but it wasn’t super exciting. It was Incan, as were most things in that area. Puka means “red” in Quechua (I learned this from eavesdropping on a Spanish-speaking tour guide).

Being with Sarah was in some ways rather awkward. Although she seemed fairly happy and friendly initially in the hostel, she wasn’t all that talkative and definitely was cheap and the type, I think, who likes to “know” where she’s going even if she doesn’t. For example, she scoffed when taxi drivers told her how much it would cost to go to _________ (15 soles), even though she had honestly no idea where it was and after seeing how far it was, agreed that the price was decent. I wonder if it’s too harsh of me to come to conclusions such as this after knowing someone for only half a day or something? NAH!

We walked for quite a while and were talking about sneaking into Saksaywumun because when we had driven by initially, we had seen a place where we could sneak in through the bushes. Unfortunately for us, we got side-tracked and tried to take shortcuts, which were in fact shortcuts, but didn’t take us to the area where we could sneak into the site. :[ We basically waded through this area with tons and tons of horse shit in various incarnations, from juicy ones from that day to some that had been broken down into what was practically hay (could make paper out of it!). Mihae did a party foul and freaking wore FLIP-FLOPS although she knew we were somewhat walking / hiking. PARTY FOUL ACTION! Needless to say, her feet were like, covered with poopies to a degree. Luckily it’s not the more juicy kind, but nonetheless. Good thing her flip-flops didn’t break, cause that REALLY would have been a SHITTY situation. Har har.

Anyway, by the time we walked down shitty mcshit path, we were fucking starving and opted to eat on this one street that didn’t look at all very touristy. We stopped by one place cause Sarah hadn’t eaten any Peruvian food yet essentially (even though she had been there for like, two weeks?) and she wanted to try chicharron. They had it. Made a big mistake, however, in not asking for the fucking menu price beforehand. The lady bitch ended up charging us 10 soles ($3.33 USD) for a super sub-par one course lunch in the middle of nowhere (in stark comparison to the really delicious three course vegetarian meal we had eaten the night before, in a more busy part of town, for only 3 soles ($1 USD). BITCH!

It wasn’t even so much about the money asd it was about the disappointment in the fact that she would rip us so hard. >__> And I’ve had chicharron two times now — of fish and chicken — and neither of those chicharrons were at ALL representative of what the fuck she gave us that day, which was this really hard beef that was almost like beef jerky. it tasted okay, but it was weird. There were also two cats and one dog that kept hanging around our table, trying to get us to feed them things (I gave them some nasty cholo — aka giant maize — but Sarah freaking gave one cat and one dog giant pieces of tendon!). The cat ended up pawing and gnawing at the piece of tendon forever but finally ate it. I can’t imagine that was all that good for it.

So, the meal sucked, and then we moved on, pissed. Stopped by this White Jesus (Christo Blanco) on the way back, hung out a little, and then walked down to Saksaywuman to disappointingly discover that it’s one of the 70 or 120 soles to enter places. >__> And like I said, we didn’t find the area where we could sneak in again. Tan triste. We didn’t go into that, even though people had said it was uber awesome. I hope we can go back later. Some horse corral man stopped us and told us if we did a horseback tour with him, it’d cost 40 soles AND include admission to 4 sites. I look forward to seeing if that’s actually true.

We walked back down, did some lame shopping, then went to the central market, which somewhat entertaining (always love markets… food markets, that is!!!). Outside of the market was this group of three people doing slapstick improv comedy which I didn’t quite understand at all. All I got out of it as that the lady enjoyed yelling at and beating on one of the funny-voiced scrawny men a lot. Some phrases included, “Why don’t you just get a job?!” followed by slaps across the face. Yeah, don’t understand.

After that, we rested a lot and people were talking about clubbing at night, so we put that on the list of things to do. But first! We went to the supermarket down the street and bought some ingredients to make some mothafuckin pasta, son! Mixed funny-tasting tomato sauce with tuna and a tomato (which Eric, a guy from SF, lent us). He also lent us parmesan cheeses! Yay! Let me tell ya — the addition of the tomato made a BIG difference because otherwise the sauce (owned by Nestle, like everything else here) is super sweet and has the consistency of like, ketchup. No shitting. WOOT.

That night, we waited around for a while as people randomly got drunk in the hostel. Rather amusing. A guy from Holland, Ronald, injured his arm while renting a motorbike the previous days but refused to get his shoulder popped back in the socket because he was waiting for his brother to come and didn’t want to risk some more serious injury. Kind of strange. The doctors in Peru told him that the arm would just pop back in itself, which is odd. I always thought people could just pop it in real quick and be done with it, but I didn’t want to argue with him. He got slightly drunk and then got really emotional talking to me about how his brother, who is slightly younger than him, and him were really close and did all these things when they were growing up together, but that he lives in Australia now and his brother lives halfway across the world in Costa Rica. He really seemed to miss him, and seemed conflicted talking about it, saying that it might sound stupid to people that he would not fix his arm because he is waiting for his brother to come… it was really kind of sad and he damn near cried and I didn’t really know what to say, and we were in the common room full of people, too (granted, no one else was really paying atteniton to his story because they were talking to themselves). Bah. He then said how he has an older brother who lives really close to him, but that the relationship is just not the same with that older brother. Bah bah.

Oh well, though, he was super freaking hilarious, though. Very goofy and stuff. He did this thing where he’d lick his fingers then push back his eyebrows… and he would flip his hair… both things to convey some kind of sexiness that was not really there because he was tall, gangly, and fucking goofy as shit. Hilarity. He looks like a less handsome Lars to me, but yeah.

There was this other guy, Caio, who had lived in Taiwan for five years and speaks some Mandarin — enough to hold a conversation certainly, which is quite impressive enough. I don’t think I’ve had a conversation with a white person who can speak Chinese since college, and he is only the second white dude (second non-Chinese person ever, really) who has been able to hold a conversation who I have met. Very cool.

Anyway. That girl Sarah, who had gone out with us earlier in the day, had been saying how she liked Caio and thought he was really cool, but I didn’t think she meant REALLY liked him. Soon, though, she proved that she REALLY liked him by making out with his face in front of everyone. It was funny though. She was super quiet and chill when sober and super loud and flirty when drunk, kinda. Hilarious. Oh well.

So we kept talking about going out and by 11:00pm, we were still there in the common room, with people getting drunk off their asses. The hostel had a lounge with a bar based on an honor system basically, and the hostel workers were barely ever manning the bar, so Sarah was manning the bar for them, even though she didn’t work there. Hah. It’s funny — all these people in Cusco, and especially this hostel, live in the town for fucking ever, and it’s a town with SHITLOADS to do, but none of them do ANYTHING except for go to Machu Picchu once. It’s like nothing else really matters. It’s really fucking weird to me. Like, Sarah going out with us was the first time she’d really been out to the sites (she would spend time hanging out and partying), and the same applied to many, many other people.

Anyway. We woke up the roommates Melanie and Caroline to get them ready to go out… or Mihae did, anyway. Melanie bust out this bottle of wine that was Peruvian. She had bought it specifically because it was Peruvian, but Peruvian wine is not known for being particularly great, mind you. It ended up being super fucking sweet and kind of sigusting. Because we took so long to leave, Mel just ended up drinking and then passing the fuck out after throwing up.

We finally ended up going out around 12:00am or later. It was interesting. Tonsa people from the hostel went, but in general, the group who I hung with was me, Mihae, Caroline, and Maya. We headed straight for the bar. Sam had picked the place (he is an Aussie who works at the hostel and had decided to go out with us that night, even though he had been bithcing to us like an hour beforehand about how godamn awful clubs in Cusco are and how bad the music they play is… like a godamn elitist grouch, really, although in a funny way). We went to Mythology, because Mythology is one of the four clubs with super aggressive workers standing outside it, trying to get you to go into their club with free drink flyers and lots of harrassment in English.

We went in, headed straight to the bar (I didn’t drink), and immediately saw four shirtless men dancing on top of the bar! One super chubs Peruvian man with kinda (I don’t want to say SEXY, but AMUSING, maybe) interesting moves, and three gringos. One gringo got his pants pulled down and his penis was hanging out. I didn’t see it because heads were in the way.

Then there was dancing, to uber HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE ’80s and ’90s American and non-American music (like Abba, Snow, Ini Kamoze, etc… lots and lots of badness, or kitsch goodness, I don’t know). The music was without a DOUBT targeted to UBER gringos. So very bad. I think Pervuians think this is what Americans (?) honestly listen to. Horrible.

To make it worse: The DJ SUCKED! He did NOT know how to mix, like, at ALL. For non-techno songs, he would just kinda lay one song over the other without beat-matching. Awful. For techno songs, “mixing” by the DJ consisted of turning the volume down and then back up again to simulate fading out…

The Euros super liked the techno, and I must say that I was really fucking excited to hear techno, too, even though it was CHEESY as SHIT techno. >__> Boo urns! I was even excited to hear ABBA, man. That’s how bad the music was. LOL.

There was this ongoing joke between Ronald and Caroline (Ronald REALLY really wanted her) about how he was a Dutch Euro who loves dcorny dance music and hated American hip-hop).

The worst, to me, though, was when they started playing like, Peruvian Kumbia and like, Regaton, cuz fuck, I can barely dance to hip-hop, much less to that fooking shite! Boo urns! So half the time, as some of the other girls were dancing and boogying down with Peruvian dudes who asked them to dance (even though they had no interest in them), I was: 1) Watching a video they started playing awkwardly, which promoted white-water rafting yet kept showing people crashing and tipping their boats over in the water, haha; 2) Telling Peruvian dudes that, “No, I won’t dance, because I hate this kinda music”; 3) Looking bored out of my mind and being asked by Maya over and over again if I was “OK”.

All in all a painful yet somewhat entertaining evening. MOORG.

fuck cusco / cuzco.

Cusco / Cuzco blows chunks. Super tourist mecca. Everything is fucking expensive. It’s kinda cool in that there’s a lot of international flavor, but it’s not really cool because there’s only a lot of international flavor because it’s targeted at gringo tourists with monies. Everything costs an arm and a leg. Also, there are these cool archeological ruins, but they don’t let you pay entrance fees for each additional ruin; you have to pay for all the ruins as a whole. You can either pay 40 soles (around $13) for one day’s ticket of 70 soles (around $23) for all of the archeological ruins. It might be not that much money to a tourist, but man, compared to how much things normally cost in Peru, it’s fucking robbery.

// EDIT: MAY 12TH, 2010. In retrospect, $23 is a super low price, and I think it was a bit hasty of me to write this at the time. I was quite very poor and unemployed at the time, so everything seemed exceptionally expensive. And everyone else’s mentality was that $23 USD for a day’s-worth of archeological sites was sOo expensive, so I got caught up in the mentality. Now that I think about it… $23 USD is really not that much, considering how much was included in the price. Also, the title of this post was a bit hasty and unfair. Sincerest apologies to any Peruvians I may be offending. (And read my comment below.)

Not to mention today we went to this random little restaurant in the middle of nowhere and this lady served us “chicharron” which I don’t really think was chicharron. We didn’t ask beforehand how much it’d cost cause we’d assumed it’d be like 4 soles. Turned out to be like 10 soles, pretty much only because the bitch ripped us off. What an ass. Can’t even believe that shit! First time a Peruvian has done did me wrong so far on this journey.

In conclusion, Cusco sucks. Tomorrow is Machu Picchu. I reckon, or hope, that Machu Picchu will be good, but it’s going to cost an arm and a leg to get into that fucking place, too. An arm and a leg is again in Peruvian money, as it is $20 USD, or 60 soles. BAHHH. I thought I wouldn’t have to take out more money, or exchange any, but it looks like I’m going to have to. Which sucks bawls. Cusco has made this trip quite very expensive

fun with taxi drivers & animals in lima!

On the plane right now, flying to Cuzco. The first place in Peru (other than @ the SKIP house, obviously) where I’ve heard other English speakers. Kinda strange-like. Nearly everyone on this flight is a foreigner; it seems uber English-speaking staff are on hand. I’m sincerely hoping we’ll fly over the Nazca lines.

BTW, Lan Peru is the best airline ever. Just saying. I think so many non-Peruvians have quite the perception that Peru (or all of South America, for that matter) is sooooo backwards but fuck, I don’t really think it’s all that bad. Granted, there are some really SUPER poor areas of unimagineable squalor and loads of bad infrastructure, but I think it’s quite obvious things’re changing for the better here. You can see construction everywhere, as well as loads of available jobs.

I sent my parents photos of Peru last week. My dad, for starters, didn’t even comment on my photos or my sending of them. He only said, “Don’t make phone calls; it costs $1.99 a minute,” because I’d mentioned that in Trujillo, my phone didn’t say that I was roaming and didn’t give me any extra messages about costs. It seemed to work like a regular local phone there, which was a bizarre thing. My mom, in the meantime, said, “Thanks for sending me photos; I would never go there.” Although gracious, the sentiment is ignorant as fuck. I think life in Peru, especially in places like Cajamarca, is VERY VERY very much like life in Asia — or at least in my parent’s home country of Taiwan — outside of the very central metropolitan area.

Anyway, I’ve ingested some altitude adjustment medicine I’d purchased from the farmacia (which is pronounced farm-AH!-cee-ah, not farm-uh-cee-uh), and although I’d looked at the box it was in, it was quite uber uninformative. No ingredient lists. Strangely, though, taking it on the plane made me pass out INSTANTLY. Which is super bizarre.

On the way to the airport, a taxi driver from Cuzco picked us up. He lives in Lima now because he has a family and a daughter. It’s exciting, though, to find my Spanish comprehension skills so drastically improved that now I can actually hold a conversation on every taxi trip. Super exciting. It was quiet initially, but then I asked him about Lima traffic, and then we talked a lot about how Cuzco is beautiful but expensive, and where we’d been in Peru. Good times.

Before that, we went to the Parque de Las Leyendas (Park of the Legends) in Lima. That alone made Lima somewhat interesting, because what we’d seen of Lima up til then was whatevers. It was basically a zoo / garden, and it had set up the zoo animals so that there was a Selva (Jungle) zone (ever reminiscent of Ever), a Costa (Coastal) zone (really weak), a Sierra (Mountain) zone, and an International zone. Pretty much dope sauces. Saw sloths, lots of cool monkeys, some other random shit… it’s pretty much the nicest fucking zoo I’ve ever been to, though. The attention to detail was extraordinary. Every fucking wall available was muralized gorgeously. It was ridiculous. The city of Lima / government of Peru must pay a fuckload of money to maintain that place, because everything, and I mean EVERYTHING — from the animal cages down to the plants planted — were fucking perfect. There was also this creepy ass taxidermy museum which would be cool had I not had been looking at LIVING animals for the past hour prior to visiting the taxidermy museum. That being the case, it just felt so WRONG. Especially where there was a whole jaguar skin. Like, WTF!! SO WRONG. (There were some cool leaf-bugs, though.)

The taxi ride there was also really fun, and the taxi driver played some awesome old funk music (in a CD mix, basically), and gave us his business card afterwards so that we could call him (although I don’t think that’ll be happening). And prior to that, we ate breakfast (kinda) at this super fucking expensive touristy restaurant in Miraflores (in Lima). And prior to that, the guy who drove us from the bus station to Miraflores was confused. See previous post.

sitting at an expensive restaurant in miraflores, stealing internet from mcdonald’s.

Oh yes.

The most expensive restaurant we’ve been to yet, charging practically United States prices for crap! Boo urns! Sometimes even more, actually.

I just bought a juice of melon (which I had hoped would be honeydew juice, but it was in fact cantaloupe juice) and now we’re stealing internet off of McDonald’s next door because McDonald’s has free Wi-Fi. Hail fooking yeah!!!

We left Trujillo last night in what was a tearful goodbye. Not really, but it was sad to leave the cute kids and the newly made friends. At least there were some good memories and now I know someone living in Paris, Madrid, and Santiago… amongst others. And also another nearby human who lives in Portland who hopefully I will be able to see upon return!

The bus ride was better than usual, as we were sitting in the first two rows of the bus, on the bus’ second floor. AKA lots of window and lots of good views! It took me forever to fall asleep, though, but when I finally fell asleep for like three or something hours, I must say I was thoroughly amazed to wake up to sunlight in Lima. They also played “Bruce Almighty” on the bus, which was dope. It was awesome to begin with, in English, but in Spanish it was pretty much just as amazing, if not moreso in some parts. What a fantastic fucking movie. And I don’t even like comedies like ever.

Anyway. So now we’re stealing internet off of McDonald’s, somewhat killing time, and waiting to go to the zoo, which opens at 9:00am.

We got a taxi from the bus station, and while we were on our way to Miraflores — the tourist hub of Lima, really — I asked him, “Sabe un buen lugar para desayunando?” (“Do you know a good place for breakfasting?”)

Soon, we found ourselves at the door of a hostel, and we were like, “WTF?”

And the hostel guy, who spoke some English, explained to the taxi driver that we were looking for a breakfast place, not a “descansar” — aka “resting” — place.

And then the taxi guy goes off about how I said descansar, not desayunar, and I’m like, no, I know for sure I said desayunar, but it’s not something I’m about to argue with the taxi driver about

Then as we were leaving, the hostel guy was like, “Estan confundidas, las chicas,” meaning, “They’re confused, the girls,” and I’m like, “No, no confundidas.”

ASS.

Anyway. Zoo coming up, and then Cusco in t-minus… 5 hours or something.

jesus christ.

We went karaoke tonight, which was fucking AMAZING, but I must say, I feel like I smoked at LEAST like 5 cigarettes because of all the secondhand smoke I’d inhaled. Feel pretty sick at the moment ~__~