So much to say, where to begin?

I'm writing this at 35000 feet, which despite my personal vow to use metric units, I have little bearing on how many kilometers that is. And despite the 50 hour travel time (don't ask), I never tire of airplanes. It's so therapeutic to be completely disconnected for such a long period of time. It's like how it was in North Korea, although I understand tourists can buy a SIM card there now. What's the fun in that?

Regardless Future Weg, after Singapore you went back to the US for about one and a half months to... well just because I suppose. Not to say it was a bad experience. I got to see two newborn babies, as well as my nephew who's two months away. I guess I didn't really see him, but you get the idea. It's baby season, and while I'm happy for the new moms and dads, it's amazing how much our lives went in completely different directions.

So while I was back in the States, I kept pretty busy. Of course the previous blog was about my trip to New York. It was fun, and pretty much the only city so far in the US that made me think "I could live here without going insane." I really hate cars and suburbs. I need to be surrounded by crowds, which I think has been a big reason why I've liked Asia so much. Also everything is 1/5th the price. That helps too. But part of me thinks, if I got a job in New York after college, I'd still probably be there.

Speaking of suburb hate, my friend from Taiwan, Tiffany came to visit. I swear this is relevant. We stayed at my sister's place, a very nice new house in a new suburb with a yard, deck, etc. One morning I drove up to the grocery store, got some corn and goetta, grilled them up, and we sat on the deck and talked. I thought "God, this feels like I'm married."

"God, I hate this."

And not to say Tiffany is bad of course, she's great. And I'm glad it works for some people. But it just further confirms it's not for me.

So Tiffany took a bus in from middle-of-nowhere Kansas to Indianapolis. I drove up to get her, as well as to spend a few days being tourists in Indy. It's a nice enough city, though a little small for my tastes. Yes I know it's bigger than Cincinnati. Still too small. We rode go karts, ate at a chocolate cafe, saw a museum of miniatures, and just chilled out.

Back in Cincinnati, we spent a few days doing the typical sights. Kings Island (love the new Banshee, wow!) was a highlight for me, and we went on the last day of school. So a lot of lines were super short. Score! Later in the evening we had a bunch of schoolgirls ask what language Tiffany and I were speaking. We said Chinese, and they were eager to show off their skills after studying it for one semester. Perhaps excited from just getting out of school for the summer, they came on pretty strong. I wish I could have had the camera ready to capture Tiffany's face when 4 teenagers descended upon her simultaneously saying "Hello my name is blank, I am blank years old, and I have blank brothers and sisters." I also remember them asking how to say some absurdly specific sentence like "No mushrooms on my pizza please." Jeez, baby steps. But I'm going to attempt it, please correct me Chinese friends :

请别给我蘑菇在我的比萨

We also saw other local sights like the zoo and aquarium, hung out in OTR, you know the drill. Tiffany commented on her last day how much there was to do in Cincinnati, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "Jeez if we spent another day here I'd have no idea what to do." But yeah, for a city of its size Cincinnati's not bad.

Anyway after saying goodbye to Tiffany and Cincinnati friends, my mind is on getting back to Thailand and seeing my other friends again. And after that of course, onto Vietnam. I'm still preparing my Thailand retrospective blog, I'd like to finish it after giving Thailand another fresh look. But I'm also thinking about personal improvement goals for Vietnam. I've always heard the theory that if you want to do something, you should tell a friend because they can hold you to it, or at least make fun of you for messing up. But then I also just heard on a podcast I listen to (called Hello Internet), saying you're going to do something makes you less likely to, because by saying you're going to, your brain releases dopamine like you did, discouraging you from following through. Then again, writing about nothing is boring. So for Vietnam, I want to work on my confidence. Specifically I mean social confidence. My personal confidence is pretty solid - why yes, I can probably go caving despite never doing it before. Yes, I can eat this indescribable mass of "food" and not become ill. But no, I mean the kind of confidence that has my brain saying "Ah don't say that, it's stupid." I'm sure we've all felt that way before. I've heard the expression faking confidence is the same as having it, and that sounds pretty good to me. So, hoping the first theory of wanting to do something is correct, I'm counting on friends to hold me to that. Actually that sounds like it would be untrustworthy. Maybe I'll have Past Weg hold Future Weg to it.

But, Past Weg cannot be trusted. It seems we have a conundrum on our hands.

That concrete jungle where dreams are maaaaaade of!

So, I'm back in the US for a bit. With my new gig starting in June, I had some time off. So what better way to spend it then go to one of the most expensive cities in the world? Apparently Singapore has that title, but I found it much easier to live cheaply in Singapore. Lodging and food were like half the price. Ah well, here I am. It was a family vacation, so it was heavily subsidized regardless.

To try something new and to shift gears a little bit, I'm going to talk less about individual sites, and more about general thoughts overall. Maybe it will be more interesting?

Anyway off we went to NYC, arriving in New Jersey. Which, I know New Jersey is the butt of a lot of jokes. It's not that Newark is bad, but it just looks bad next to Manhattan. We looked around Grand Central for a bit... nice place. After sorting out some logistics we got some amaaaazing pizza, the first of many. I finally get what people say about New York pizza, it can be pretty great. It can also be mediocre. I'm skeptical of the claim that the taste comes from the water, because I've had better pizza (in Myanmar) and worse pizza. Then it was off to the hotel to drop off luggage, and back downtown to Chinatown, oddly enough. But I was disappointed with NYC's Chinatown. It's not really any Chinatown I know. It looks pretty much exactly like everywhere else in New York, just with some Chinese writing. But everyone spoke English, the streets weren't crowded with people and cheap goods, it was just... dull. The Szechuan restaurant we ate at also had some pretty Americanized selections. Ah well.

There were some other things in there, like the top of the Empire State Building (tallish, the Taipei 101 was better), the Statue of Liberty (you can't go inside, so pretty lame), Ellis Island (not bad), and the Circle Line, a boat tour around the city. But the next thing I really have anything to say is the brand new 9/11 Memorial.

For starters, it's really well done. The twin reflecting pools look great, and the museum is very tasteful and a bit intense. But, much less intense than the Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing. Whereas that was more macabre, this one is more showcasey. "Here is the final pillar, here is a flag recovered, here is a time line and news reports." By contrast, the one in Nanjing was "Here are bodies, pictures of people being bayonetted, and people telling how their mother was shot." The closest this museum came to were voicemails from victims. Which were also on the tamer side, as there are more stirring ones available online. I'm not exactly saying this to complain, (I sort of am), but I think they were withholding the full extent of what happened to make it more family friendly or PC. Which, I think is kind of a shame. If you want to bring your 7 year old to a place like this, well... don't. It should be rated R, cause that's what happened.

Regardless, it was an impressive display, extending far underground and a giant records room showing 1 paragraph biographies of everyone who died that day - all 3000 or so.

At one point the parents left, and I was left to my own devices. I wandered around Brooklyn for a bit to find a hostel, pretty much this guy's house with bunk beds. Hey, cheap though. One night he bought everyone beer, so we went on the roof and chilled.

I had wanted to visit the UN, which is actually easy, but to actually get a tour and go around the facility is pretty limited to a small number per weekday. I had checked weeks earlier and they were all sold out. But on a whim I checked again, and they surprisingly had 1 spot left on an afternoon tour. Yazoink. I was the only American in our group, and as expected I got some great photos. I also really liked the art installations, and learned that Nordic countries pretty much donated everything in that building. So, rock on guys. Getting my passport stamped for "leaving" the US was also kind of neat. I'll bet that visa isn't too common (but probably more common than Myanmar's to be honest).

At one point I met up with Chris at his local bar, who regaled me of tales of New York living. Specifically how it can be a lonely city. We started talking to the girl sitting next to us, and turns out she is from Columbus. The bartender said, "Oh, you guys are from Cincinnati? I'm from across the river in NKY." I clarified that so am I, actually, and he's from Latonia. Crazy small world sometimes. Anyway we all had a free shot, and I'm pretty sure he didn't charge me for the second Gin and Tonic. So, right on.

But all in all, New York doesn't really feel like the rest of America, and it's one of the few places in the US I could actually see myself living. The subways great, the people are direct, and they do this cool thing where pennies don't really exist. The prices will be like, $8.47 which comes out to an even 9 after tax. Apparently that and mass transportation are all I need to be happy.

And $1 slices of pizza, that helps too.