yup.

Finally arrived in yesterday (without my luggage). Hopefully, it will be here today. The program directors are a lot younger than I thought, which is good...seem like a lot of fun. First day of fieldwork today. Last night we sat on the roof of the staff house and drank wine...trying to get to know one another. There are ten students in all (including myself). Mostly America, though there is a guy from Dublin, dude from Zurich, and a lovely lady from Rome who makes us all coffee. Well, I'm going to go smoke. Write me...it'd be nice to hear from you all. shev_isyrfriend@yahoo.com

Comfort at the Comfort Inn

Wow.



Quite a journey so far. I'm taking a flight out tomorrow at 8 PM and going to Manchester, then Munich, and finally Malta. So, I'll be two days late for school.



Had to call around for a hotel room, finally found one. The shuttle driver was a little creepy. He told me he got into massaging because he had a foot fetish. "Yeah, you have sneakers on so I can't see yours." Thank God for that.





and, oh yes, I have a jacuzzi in my room. What the fuck?

SAVE ME!

What a fucking day!

I have not arrived at my destination. Instead, I'm stuck in the Philadelphia airport. It's 12:17 AM. I'm going out of my mind.


So, everyone is on the plane in San Fran....we are on the freakin' runway when the plane stops and we're informed there's a storm in Philly and we'll have to wait until further notice. We wait on the runway for an hour and a half. We're cleared, we leave, fly for five and a half hours, arrive OVER Philly to a closed airport because of the storm (which has closed pretty much the entire Eastern seaboard). The plane had to circle around and land in Pittsburg. Wait in the plane for another hour and a half. Get clearance to go to Philly, another forty minutes in the air (while there are thunderstorms going all around the plane...), land (and yes, it was raining), stay in the plane for thirty minutes, and finally deboard. At this point I was relieved: I can get a hotel, take a shower, and sleep like a baby. No, no, no. Governmental bureaucracy is still alive and well in the wee hours of the morning. Got sent to "Customer Service" to get the next flight to Munich. They don't say where the hell it is, spent fifteen minutes walking around looking for the damn line which is, by the time I find it, an hour long. Wait there for forty minutes, listen to some cracked out, drunk soldier (yes, TWO terms in Iraq) try to hit on some middle-aged woman behind me (who was also trying to cut me in line). This guy was OUT of his freaking mind. These are the guys we're giving guns to. Fucking awesome. Brilliant. "I fuckin' hate terrorists. This line is their fault. That's why I fuckin' hate 'em."

So, yeah, then they have one of their employees make some bunk announcement (only five people heard her out of the mile long line) that everyone flying internationally would have to wait at GateC28 for "further instructions". Yep, still here....been waitin' for quite some time with all the other International folk. Sure they're having the greatest of times in our country.

And yes, all the hotel rooms are booked.


Fuckin' hilarious.

Mysterious Mose.

Goddess Eris has a sinister gleam in her eye this morning. Taut airport relations, vexed employees irritable and easily provoked, (((in case of emergency, please check and follow our orderly and therefore, 'highly logical', list of government approved stages of evacuation))) , expeditious answers which don't really solve anything, miles of labyrinthine coils unfurling surly suitcases ....yes, Eris (the loveable goddess of discord, confusion, buracracy, and international relations) is surely lurking around every security checkpoint and ticket counter, giggling decisively. The Department of U.S. Homeland Security assures the safety and security of you (yes, you!), as well as all your bags, children (bags always come first you know), loins, even that Starbucks coffee cup that you paid double the price for in Terminal Three (but as stated in Section 3.678, you MUST leave all personal belongings and carry-ons on the plane in case of emergency. We are fully aware of how much your things mean to you....certainly the fate and destiny of America depends on them. But we are also aware that you come first; after all, you still have plenty of money and labor that we'd love to exploit!) Still, the security level IS at orange-so be careful!


Anyways....besides my barrage of inopportune words (or rather, complaints), it has been an interesting ride so far. San Francisco is covered in a pallid cloak of fog, turning the sun into the moon. Above the fog, I was lucky enough to have found myself in a window seat, taken aback by the blanket of clouds; tempted to pull it up to my chin and take a long, much-needed nap. As of right now (and for some time), I am seated at ::insert diner name here::, quite possibly irritating my waitress by picking at my food, typing on my computer, and drinking Fat Tire at 8:43 in the AM. Also, I was sure to swipe the headphones on the plane and am now listening to some Radiohead (My Iron Lung). Yes, yes, yes. It has been quite the interesting ride.

Well, really no news. I found some nice quotes you might all enjoy:

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavor to understand reality, we are somewhat like man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations. He will never be able to compare his picture with the real mechanism and he cannot even imagine the possibility of the meaning of such a comparision."
Written by Albert Einstein in 1938, quoted in "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" by Gary Zukav

Hmmmm, let's go deeper?

"Boethius says nothing is more fleeting than external form, which withers and alters like the flowers of the field at the appearance of autumn; and what would be the point of saying today that the abbot Abo had a stern eye and pale cheeks, when by now he and those around him are dust and their bodies have the mortal grayness of dust (only their souls, God grant, shining with the light of that which will never be extinguished."

"The young no longer want to study anything, learning is in decline, the whole world walks on its head, blind men lead others equally blind and cause them to plunge into the abyss, birds leave the nest before they can fly, the jackass plays the lyre, oxen dance. Mary no longer loves the contemplative life and Martha no longer loves the active life, Leah is sterile, Rachel has a carnal eye, Cato visits brothels, Lucretius becomes a woman. Everything is on the wrong path. In those days, thank God, I acquired from my master the desire to learn and a sense of the straight way, which remains even when the path is tortuous."

Both quotes from 'THE NAME OF THE ROSE' by Umberto Eco.

I'll let you guys decide whether or not there is any subtle synchronicities inherent among these quotes and above text. Who knows?

And now: a picture or two. :)

1.2.3.

Wanted to see how reliable the page is on uploading photos; what better way than to use pictures of last year's Burning Man? Some of you have seen them, some of you haven't. Take care.