All the stars in the galaxy

I went on a beach walk with a beautiful French girl named Patricia. Here in my little beach town at night and when you are walking on the beach generally it is just you alone with no other tourists around. I was walking with her and we stopped. I told her to look up and it seemed as if we could see every star in the whole galaxy all at once. There was zero light pollution and it was like her and I were alone on the planet. Every star was crystal clear.

I had nowhere to be,nothing to do,no worries or pressures in that moment. Just hand in hand with a beautiful, fascinating girl on the beach in Thailand. Unfortunately this will be one of those passing through life experiences I mentioned before. She was leaving the next day so all we had was one night and that was it. Even if I never see her again I certainly won't forget her. Who knows maybe we will see each other again somewhere. I never say never.

If only life were always so simple. We tend over complicate life. To pollute it with our expectations,worries,jobs,stresses,family problems,money problems and so on.

Of course this is natural. All of our worries are just part of the course of life. But, I don't think enough people are reminded of how life CAN be. I am certainly not a millionaire nor will I be one any time soon. I don't have air conditioning (not that I need it) and sometimes my electricity shuts off. You know what though? I am happy. I am happy to be pretty much debt free,traveling,working, living life in another country far from home but happy.

People here seem to live life at a slower pace. Not always rushing and always ready to give you a smile and a wave. Teachers here are treated with serious respect ( I can't leave school without saying hi or bye to at least 50 kids!) Everyday at work the kids sing me a song. “Thank you Teacher Tyler for being our teacher,we love learning with you!” The first day I was quite taken aback by this. I wasn't even sure how to respond to this haha. But, everyday the sing me this song. It is just part of the culture here and I let them do it.

The kids generally listen to me very well and are eager to learn and eager to please. The boys just as in any culture are a little more routy than the girls but even they are tame compared to American children. The girls are super hard workers and always want to be perfect for me. I rely on them to help me keep the boys in line sometimes haha. All the teachers at my school are very nice and the administration here seems very competent as well. I am still only in my trial period but I am hopeful they will hire me because I would love to stay! I have started to slowly but surely learn a few words of Thai and the kids are helping me too. It is a “tonal” language that is NOTHING like English so it is extremely hard for me but I am hopeful I can learn because in this small town not many people speak English.

I had my interview and they told me “Can you start tomorrow?” I said sure and the next day they put me in front of a class and said “Teach!” no guidance, feedback or directions haha. The first couple of days they did observe me (still no feedback lol) and they did give me a work book to go off of. But, the first couple of days were rough for me, never doing this before. Now that I am into my second week though, they have stopped looking in on my classes and just let me do as I please really. For this trial period I am just teaching one hour per day, five days a week.

I am hoping to get more hours if they accept me though. I have tried to be fun and creative with my kids and stay away from the work books too much. I like playing games like Hangman with them. I teach three different age groups at the moment, ranging from age 6-12. I prefer the older kids but all my kids are good. They are studious and fun to be with. I have met a few other English teachers here and one of them has given me some great advice plus some awesome teaching tools! Luckily all my kids know some English already so I am not starting from absolute zero. Most of them have long complicated names that I can't even begin to pronounce but luckily they have short nicknames they go by that are easy to remember!

I have been renting a place from a wonderful Thai lady who is super sweet and takes really good care of me, she even feeds me :). Her place is RIGHT on the beach and my room is huge! I want to put some pictures up soon but at the moment I don't have Internet access here so it is a little hard to get the pictures on Facebook but I am hoping to get them up soon. I have been stuffing my face full of great Thai food and making some friends around here.

I am a regular at a bar about 100 meters from my house. It is mostly retirees there I am one of the few young ones but all the old guys are great and have many stories to tell from all over the world. I have even taken to driving a motor bike here. In this little town it is pretty much the only way to get around. They don't even have proper taxis here. Just motor bike taxis. Very few people own cars,mostly motor bikes. The Thais drive on the left side of the road (well all over the road haha) I routinely have to deal with live stock on the road and even cows walking on the beach!

There is not very many driving laws here at all but they do have some kind of crazy system here (sometimes oncoming traffic even comes right at you!) But, they always manage to veer off at the last second. Almost no one uses their turn signals here either! I have figured out mostly how their system works here though and as long as you pay attention and do as the locals do you are fine. I haven't had a single close call yet. Having access to my own motorbike makes it so much easier to get from where I live on the beach into town and work. Yes, I do have and do wear a helmet so no worries there! Besides, taking a motorbike taxi too and from was getting expensive so renting my own transport works out much cheaper in the long run. Gas/petrol is not much at all. I am going tomorrow to sort my visa stuff out and then all will be well in the world again :)

I wish all of you all the happiness in the world. If you are reading this I hope you are doing what you need to do in your life to be truly happy. If you aren't, my question is, Why not?!

Til next time,Your traveling Texan-Tyler

Back in my sleepy little town!

Well I survived my first three days of teaching and I was SUPER nervous at first and they didn't give me any training, they just told me to start. But, I am starting to get the hang of this. The kids are super nice and respectful much better than I was at that age haha. They are so curious about me and America in general they ask me lots of questions but I certainly don't mind. The staff is super nice and helpful. I have one week of my trial left then we will see if they want to keep me but the signs look good so far!

I have just moved into a house RIGHT on the beach (pictures coming soon) I have been meeting some good people and starting to settle in here. I went back up to Bangkok to get my things and bring them back here. I got to see my friends and do some shopping for school stuff like clothes. I am on day 27 and counting of my no Western food vow. I don't count ice cream as Western food because I still have that all that time haha.

Tonight I went to a party that was hosted by my new land lady (she is super nice) and I met a lot of cool people. I may also rent a motor scooter from her so I can get to and from work easily. If I was to bike it, it would take a long time!! I am going to start exercising on the beach and doing my push ups again because I have just been eating and eating and doing nothing! I don't want to lose all I have worked for but, I will have to get creative because there is nothing that even remotely resembles a gym here :(  and learning Thai (because living here in this town I really NEED too) everyone has been super nice here so far though.


I was sad to miss Turkey Day since you can't get any Turkey here but, I had the most amazing duck/baby clam dish I have ever had in my entire life so it was a great substitute. I am the only white person at my school and there is very few white people here that are my age but I have met some pretty awesome retirees on the beach here lol. I am just five hours south of Bangkok so I can always go back to visit.

Inner Bangkok never flooded but, there is still flood waters there for sure. I was always safe and dry the whole time I was there though. There certainly is not any flooding down here. It is hot and dry! I don't have hot water or a functional toilet in the western sense, Internet is spotty and I really don't have much creature comforts but I am really truly pretty happy right now :) I hope yall are too.

Tyler

I got a trial teaching job!

So I walked into a school here in my sleepy little beach town and applied for a teaching job. They have given me a trial two week teaching job here! For one hour a day, five days a week I will be teaching English to three rotating groups of kids. Yesterday ( my first day) I had 10-12 year olds and they were super attentive and TOTALLY way more respectful than North American kids lol. They were so curious about me and America and they asked me lots of questions. One kid asked me if I had ever met Michael Jackson and someone else asked me if I had ever seen a UFO lol.

They are sweet curious kids and are eager to learn. I was super nervous at first because the director of the school was observing me in the classroom but she is super nice and she asked me a lot of questions too. She asked me if I voted for Obama haha. I think I can do this teaching thing, thus far my biggest problem is trying to remember/pronounce all their extremely complicated hard names. :P For the two weeks I will be teaching on a rotating basis. Yesterday I had 10-12 year olds, today I will have 4-5 year olds and tomorrow I will have 7-8 year olds.

If they hire me I am hoping to get the 10-12 year olds but I will be happy just to have a job really. Everyday when class is over they sing a song for me. They call me Mr Tyler and they say "Mr Tyler,Mr Tyler thank you for being our teacher we hope to see you again!" haha it was nice. I have never been in such a position of authority before! But wish me luck and I will let you know how this goes.

Soon I will be moving to a fully furnished house on the beach with an amazing view! I will be putting pictures on Facebook soon so you can all be jealous of my ocean view haha. I thought I was going to be an old man before I got a beach house but it seems I will still be young and have one :P

I worked with the little ones today and they were cute and really wanted to know a lot about me! I had to be way more active though always walking around and monitoring them. I think they were somewhat intimidated by me this first time around but it helped them be on their best behaviour haha.  I think they really liked me and it went well, it went so well that the school director left me alone in the room for most of the time! I am hoping I get to teach kids a little bit older than 4 or 5 though.

Now that Maurice has gone back to Bangkok I am one of the very few non retiree white people in town and I am really treated like a celeb here haha. Everyone has been super nice and I am making friends and practicing my Thai.  I have also eaten almost every kind of organ,meat,fruit and veggie and bug known to man haha. Some stuff I didn't even know what it was, some stuff so hot I thought my mouth would explode and some stuff that would disgust my Western readers haha. But, nearly everything (minus bean sprouts) I have really loved even if it looks disgusting, if you just try it, it is usually really good! They eat it for a reason over here! I have even taken to drinking the water here in small doses and I have eaten everything here in Thailand and so far not been sick once. I think my body is adjusting to it all.

Maurice and I have had a contest to NOT eat any Western food (hamburgers,hotdogs etc) for as long as possible In this little town even if I wanted Western food I couldn't get it lol. But, I have now been 24 days and counting without a bite of Western food. I really do like Thai food and my diet is actually quite a bit healthier now that I have stopped eating so much processed crap, it is all super fresh! Anyway I am the new guy in town but everything is great I don't mind the beach life :P

Yall take care,Tyler

Hotel California

Well ladies and gents I think I just might have found my Hotel California.  I have moved from Bangkok to a sleepy little beach town which I won't name on this blog because since I have SO many followers I don't want you bringing all the tourists here and spoiling it ( insert sarcasm here) but seriously it is so drastically different from Bangkok I love it! There is VERY few tourists here and not many people speak English. I got a two week trial job here teaching English and if they like me I get to stay!

My new friend Maurice from Australia brought me here and it is 5 hours south of Bangkok and right on the beach. I was staying at a beach bungalow literally just steps from the beach. Well now I have found an even cheaper place for rent and I am seriously going to snatch it up. It is a fully furnished house right on the beach and super cheap! I will be sharing with the Thai lady who owns it but I don't mind!

Since so few people speak proper English I think I will be forced to learn Thai which is good for me but it is so hard! In English you can say " I have a dog" that same sentence in Spanish would be "Yo Tengo un perro" (yo= I Tengo=have un=a pero=dog.) pretty simple right? In Thai they have 5 different tones which means the same word can mean five different things depending on your voice! Not only that but, there is no spacing at all between their words so it all blends together. There is something like 44 consonants and 16 vowels  plus irregulars. Ka is the ending that girls say and Krup is what guys say on the end of the words. So as you can see it is NOTHING like English.

The only issue I see with living here is I may get bored easily and hopefully not to isolated. I have made a few friends here and tend to meet people easily so hopefully I will do alright. If I really start to go stir crazy I can go on the weekends up to Bangkok just five hours away. Anyway that's all I have for the moment. Wish me luck with the new job! Everyone seems super nice though.

This is my view every night :)

My life plan

My life plan is to not plan out my life. I can freely admit I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Too many people put their lives in boxes. They think you need to do X by age 25, have kids,a house,a car,a family by age X. I have chosen not to do this. I have chosen to live my life the way I see fit and not the way society says I should. So, if I am breaking the mold then more power too me!

I have some things that interest me in life, (mainly traveling) I have a future business idea, and I have my friends and family. That is all I need. In the future I may have a house and a dog and a car and kids and the typical things that most adults have. Then again I may not. I am totally ok with this. I am living for the here and now and in the moment.

At age 26 I have traveled to over 17+ countries and been super lucky to see and so many amazing things that most people don't get the chance to do. But, in reality I haven't done anything that any one of you couldn't do. I just chose to step outside the box and take a leap of faith and try something new. I have learned that the one thing in my life that makes me truly fulfilled and happy in life is traveling and seeing the world. Meeting new people and seeing new places.

My life style is not for everyone and that is ok. I have a restless soul. I have a minimal no strings life syle. I am totally happy with this and have always told myself I will stop traveling and settle down when I feel like I have seen enough of this world. That day has not come yet.

I k ow this blog entry seems random but I really felt I should write this. Yall take care,Tyler

Food and other ramblings

It has been a while since I have updated yall so I thought I would let you know what has been going on with me! I have been job hunting (had an interview but it didn't pan out for me) I lost my phone which really sucked so trying to sort out a new one... I have now moved to a new much quieter guest house that has much more of a family atmosphere the owner of the guest house even told us to call her "Mama" and she is about 70 years old she takes good care of us all. It only cost me 5 USD per night for my own private room with a fan :)

I have met a core group of really good friends and we all hang out together. Other than job hunting and hanging out I have been eating. alot. haha for super cheap! Today I had duck soup for breakfast and it cost 1.20 USD for a huge bowl! The most expensive meal I have had here is 6 USD!  Last night I had roasted duck with rice (on a duck kick lately haha) I have had noodle soup,rice dishes (lots of rice!) curries,everything Asian! I have not had a single bite of Western food in the whole time I have been here! and I am totally not missing Western food at all, although I am getting a little sick of rice haha.

I have also eaten some "crazy" stuff which is normal for here. Grilled pig intestines,bugs,octopus tentacles,scorpion, a few other things... I haven't been sick yet and love trying new things. I despise eating like a tourist and I love to go to local places where the local Thais are super surprised to see me and my adventurous friends lol. It is so much better,fresher,local and its cheaper! prepared right in front of your eyes and not Westernized.

Here in Thailand their sewer system can't handle toilet paper so if you are lucky enough to actually get toilet paper you must throw it in the trash can. But, I have also mastered the art of the "bum gun" imagine the hose that is attached to your kitchen sink at home.  Now imagine that for your bum in the bathroom haha. You have to point it at the right angles so you don't soak yourself but, done properly it is actually so much easier and more hygienic than toilet paper. All you need is something to dry yourself off with at the end. If you don't have that, well.... then it is not so much fun haha.Also, make sure you test the pressure of the water coming out of the bum gun BEFORE you squirt it on yourself :P

Here in Thailand one of the biggest scams around is hotels/hostels/guest houses charging tourists extra for hot water in the shower. You TOTALLY don't need it! It is so hot here that a cold shower is totally refreshing. One last thing, to all of my readers in a Westernized country when you wake up in the morning and are able to turn on the tap and get a drink of water think of me. Because I can't do that. I can't drink the tap water here so I have to pay for bottled water everyday. It is not that expensive but over the course of a year I bet I will have spent quite a bit on just water to drink. So don't take it for granted at home because some people don't have it.

Today we ate in a place that was so authentic to Thailand it didn't even have an English menu haha. But, the food was great! I wanted to touch on a few other topics while I have a bit of time. Here in Bangkok there is almost a complete lack of trash cans/bins all over the city! You just cannot find them anywhere! it is so frustrating when you have something to throw away! Here in Thailand you can buy (and haggle) for almost anything you want. It is all for sale as long as you have the money and haggling skills to buy it. Some people are afraid to haggle or look down on it. I certainly am not one of those people, because if you don't haggle you pay the "tourist price" which means things can be marked up 300% or more! I love haggling knowing I got what I want for cheap and they still get the sale.

There is a HUGE shopping centre here in Bangkok called MBK ( don't ask me what that stands for because I don't know lol) everyone knows this place and it is 7 storeys tall and FULL of anything and everything you can imagine. It is physically and mentally exhausting to go there but, I went there today because I had to buy a new phone since I lost mine. I got one, not a good one but a working phone none the less for 25 USD and it is unlockd to use anywhere in the world. Most shop keepers speak at least passable English there but some do not. Not being able to communicate effectively in the same language is one of the most frustrating things in the world! Effective communication is something that no one should take for granted.

One of the largest scams here in Thailand other than the hot water scam I previously mentioned is the tuk-tuk scams. Ok imagine a motorcycle connected to a carriage like thing to carry people. Well they are loud,crazy and wild drivers but it is something everyone should experience once and only once. I will tell you why. Here is how it works. a tuk-tuk driver pulls up and says "Where you go?" you tell him and then he quotes you a price. Say 150 baht, that is about 5 USD sounds cheap right? Well you can get a metered taxi for half that price and you get AC in there! It is a little secret that most new tourist don't know. Not only do the tuk-tuk drivers rip you off they also have "stops". Basically they get commission and/or fuel cards from say a suit shop (They hassle you for suits here ALL the time, I just tune it out totally now) and if the tuk-tuk driver takes you to this suit shop he gets a commission.

So, rather than taking you directly to your destination if you don't say NO STOPS he will make a stop. Then they pressure you into buying something you don't want. It is such a scam! I rarely take tuk-tuks anymore. Although, if you want to get discounts on something,say a muy thai fight the tuk-tuk drivers have the hook up. Not every taxi driver has a meter or if they do they sometimes don't want to use it because they know they will make less money on the meter so I ask BEFORE I get in the taxi if they have a working meter and if they don't I move on. But, 90% of taxi drivers are honest here and there is only the 10% you have to watch out for.

I guess that is it for now, this weekend I am going to a beach town like 3 hours from Bangkok for the weekend (hard life I know lol) yall take care,Tyler

Back in Bangkok!

So I guess its time for a little update. I left Bangkok last week due to the still ever present threat of flooding (Hasn't happened yet Thank God) and went with Amber,Melissa and Sarah down south to an island called Ko Phangan for the annual Full Moon Party (Every month on the cycle of the full moon) only this one was extra special because it was 11/11/11!

So we took a two hour bus ride from Bangkok and a two ferry ride and soon enough we were on the island! We got settled into our guest house which was right on the beach and totally peaceful and amazing (pictures to come) and then as night came we went down to the party on the beach. It was absolutely massive! There was 20,000 people there!

I got my face painted and got all fixed up and was ready to party :) we spent the night walking around and having fun and having a few drinks, we got to watch fire dancers and had a really great time. After my weekend on the island I  took the reverse bus/ferry journey arrived back to Bangkok and am now back on the job hunt (schools are still closed but where I am staying still has not flooded.) and looking for a permanent place to stay.

Amber and Melissa had to go back home to America and Sarah stayed one more week down on the island. On the way home to Bangkok I met a really cool couple of Aussie's,a couple of Americans from Denver, two Danish guys, a couple of really cool local Thais headed back to Bangkok and one super amazing French Dive Instructor named Sarah. If you can't tell already I love to chat to people haha.

One of the hardest things about traveling is coming to terms with the fact that you will meet some really amazing people and have a great time with them,get on so well together and then you have to split up, possibly never seeing them again. It is hard but necessary.  I have many many great friends from around the world and lasting memories with people that I just had a brief moment in time with. Traveling forces you to live in the moment, in the here and now. Although there is times where you meet people again and again and that makes it all the more great when you do. I won't forget the people I have met thus far nor the ones I will continue to meet.

The humidity is pretty horrible right now but other than that I am happy healthy, and hopefully will have more to report soon. -Tyler

Cost of living life in Thailand

This is gonna be a quick one because I am almost ready to leave for my weekend island trip (hard life I know :P) but, I wanted to let you know an average day here in Thailand looks like. I had lunch today for 3 USD,a taxi ride to the movies (there and back) cost me 4.25 USD and I went to see a movie but it wasn't playing. Had that movie been playing the ticket would have cost me 3 USD. I had a half hour massage for 4 USD and yesterday I had a half hour "Fish Massage" (little fish eat the dead skin cells on the bottom of your feet) yes it really is fun hehe. That cost me 3 USD. A large Beer here in 2 USD. Bottled water is never more than 1 USD at the most. Ice cream is 75 cents.

As you can see life is cheap as chips here and so far the only thing I hate is the humidity and the threat of being flooded. Not having proper bathrooms/toilet paper or consistent electricity is also a downside lol. Anyway I am off to the islands for the weekend so yall have fun. This is just a short little blog so I will fill yall in with more later!

Stay happy,Tyler

Bangkok

Well here I am finally arrived in Bangkok! But I have a lot of drama to fill you in on. Amber,Sarah,Rob and myself are all here in Thailand we met Amber's roommate Melissa here in Bangkok. Well we got off our flight from Beijing and soon found out that half the plan didn't get their bags! us included :( So I have been here for two days with nothing but my money and my carry on and the clothes on my back. They assure us they are getting our bags here but we haven't seen them as of yet. We didn't even get settled into a guest house until 5am!

I am glad to be here in one piece and having a great time with my new friends (and seeing some old friends from last time) but because of the flooding here in Thailand the school year has been put on hold. The flood water has not reached where I am yet but much of Bangkok is underwater. There is a slight water shortage here in Bangkok but I am still getting enough to drink (many of the street vendors have bought up huge stocks of water and are selling them at higher prices) but I can still buy Gatorade and other things at normal prices.

Bangkok is subdued and quiet because of the floods. I am in no danger and I am dry, Most things are functioning normally but I can feel a definite difference here in Thailand. I feel bad for the people but not being able to speak Thai there is not much I can do. I want to help but I feel that I would be in the way really. I don't have a job as of yet (and no clothes to go interview in) but, I have been told that many of the teachers have left Bangkok due to the flooding so it should be easy for me to get a job I hope. I am also going to be looking for a permanent place to stay soon but due to the floods I won't be able to find anything until this all blows over because all of the displaced Thais have taken the apartments for now.

That is all I have for you now but I am doing fine and just trying to adjust to this damn humidity and getting familar with with Bangkok and the craziness again but I am having fun and will keep yall updated. I have been eating good and getting enough to drink. I have a place to stay and a shower (not a hot one but don't need it!) Soon I will post pictures of Thailand on Facebook.

Yall take care until next time, Your once again Traveling Texan,Tyler

I must eat some crow about China

Well I am man enough to admit when I am wrong so here goes nothing... For most of my adult life I have had no desire to go to China. I really disagree with their govt. there and how they treat the people by restricting the flow of information and freedom of speech. There are over 1 billion people in China so I had always imagined it as dirty and polluted and generally just not a place I ever wanted to go.

So when I found out that my flight to Thailand was being diverted to Beijing,China for a day I was not to thrilled at all. Oh how wrong I was! I soon found out that since I was in China for only 24 hours they would let me stay without the required visa (and 160 dollar fee to go along with it) not only that but the airline paid for the hotel!

So I was starting to get slightly more excited about going to China. Now enter Rob,Thomas,Amber and Sarah. 4 of the coolest people I have had a chance to meet in a long time! So all of us were in the same boat so to speak. We decided to leave the hotel and explore China for the day we had. We all got along really well and had a great time!

Beijing has over 20 million people living there but it is one of the most organised,orderly cities I have ever been too! The pollution was not overly bad and I never once felt over crowded. There was just not tons and tons of people on the streets. The public transport system is cheap,fast and organised. The Chinese people are some of the most friendly,happy,curious people I have met. They bent over backwards to make us feel welcome and enjoy our stay. Everyone was super super nice and made an effort to speak English for us. in my 24 hours in China I learned how to say Hello and Thank You in Chinese :)

We took a whirlwind tour of Tienanmen Square,The Forbidden City and a really really pretty natural park with a great overview of Beijing. The weather was perfect and we had the most amazing lunch! They were playing Justin Timberlake and Taylor Swift on the radio in the restaurant (it constantly amuses and amazes me how pervasively American Culture is everywhere!) the only thing I didn't get to see that I wanted to do was the Great Wall.

So to wrap this up I just wanted to say that I really loved China and totally totally want to go back and spend more time there! I will post my pictures to Facebook very soon.

Yall take care,Tyler

Californiaaaa!

Well it is that time again folks. Time for Traveling With Tyler Volume Two! I am now in Bangkok,Thailand looking to teach English here. First though I need to catch you up on my journey to get here. It all started with my week long trip to California. I had never been to California before and my flight to Bangkok was out of San Francisco so I decided to visit my good friend Sean Ryan who I met in Argentina. He lives in Coronado,California on an island just outside San Diego.

So he picked me up at the airport and the fun began. It was Halloween weekend so we decided to go to the L.A. area to meet with his friends and go to a party. My costume for Halloween this year was a Morph Suit (a full body skin tight suit that looks like a black and white tuxedo). Now obviously since it is skin tight there is no pockets or anything so I had SR carry all my stuff.

This plan was working out great until I got separated from him and his friends on my very first day in California without anything on me. I decided as logically as I could at the time that going to the police station and asking them for help would be a great idea lol. So I found my way there (I was pretty cold at this point) and told the police Sargent lady my problem. She agreed to look up SR on Facebook for me and actually succeeded in finding him on there. The only problem was that his phone number was not listed.

From there my problems got worse. I really had to pee and unfortunately when you are wearing that suit the zipper is in the back and completely unreachable by yourself. So I politely asked the police lady to unzip me so I could pee but she said no lol. Well she wasn't of much help from that point on so I left the station and literally stumbled into the arms of my friends so I was saved! it was quite the adventure haha. The next night out I wore a costume with pockets and had no further issues :P

After our partying we went back to Coronado to recharge our batteries. I really enjoyed staying with SR on the island and just relaxing. I took some great pictures which I have put on Facebook.I also did the touristy thing and went to San Diego proper and looked around. It was really fun and the weather was amazing, I was in shorts and a T shirt the whole time!

I left SR's place three days before I was to fly out to Bangkok. I traveled to San Francisco to see another friend of mine and the weather was much colder there but I still had a great time! I visited all the typical tourist stuff and even got to see Alcatraz which was really really neat! Next I will tell you about how totally wrong I have been about China all this time....

-Tyler

Traveling With Tyler Volume Two

Well my friends it is that time again! I am once again traveling and spending a year teaching English in Thailand. I am restarting my blog again so for those of you who are interested in keeping up with me here is the link.

http://travelingwithtyler.blogspot.com/

Yall take care,Tyler

Afterword

I have not posted a blog since June because it was my intention to end this traveling blog once I got home and was not traveling anymore. Considering that I was blogging nearly daily while traveling it was a hard habit to break but, I needed to end it somewhere. I have recently become inspired to add an afterword/post script so here it is.

Being back at home now for a good 4 months I have gotten back into the routine of "normal" life. I am not terribly unhappy although I have had some ups and downs since coming home. Then again nor am I extremely happy with my life either. I told myself right before I came home that I was not going to stagnate and let my life get dull. I did not want to fall back into the same old routines over and over.

In some aspects I have done a good job at doing new things and not being stagnant. I have been exercising much more than I ever did before, I have been seeing old friends and trying to make some new ones. I have also enrolling myself in an online TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class because I am leaving America once again to go teach English in Thailand on Nov 4th.

That being said, I have done quite badly at keeping my life fresh in other ways. I still talk to my friends I met traveling but not as much as I should. I can do better there for sure. I promised myself I would get more involved in the Couch Surfing Community here locally and I haven't. I make up excuses like it is too far to drive or there is not much of one here but those are poor excuses. I can do better than this.

You know one of the best things about traveling for me was that I was not a typical American. Sure I had bad days and hard times just like anyone but I remember so clearly on my travels how for the most part I did not have any of the stress or worry of a typical person back at home. I was so care free and truly happy. I had many many good happy experiences on my travels but I want to share two of them with you that really stick out in my mind.

I met a British girl when I was living in Sydney who shall remain nameless to protect her privacy. There was nothing romantic with her and I because at the time she had a boyfriend. One day we decided to go to Hyde Park in Sydney. Think Central Park in New York and you will get a good mental picture. We ordered pizza and decided to eat in the park. We had quite a bit of left over pizza so we decided to feed the birds. At the time I was not working and nor was she. I remember how absolutely purely and completely happy and carefree I was. I had not a worry in the world and everything was perfect. This was almost two years ago now but I still remember everything clearly. I just knew that nothing could improve my day that day. If I would have died on that day I would have died totally happy. (other than the fact that I would die without close family by). Her and I still talk and look back on this day with fondness and it is a day I never will forget.

Ok, second story, I was now living in Auckland New Zealand and it was about 9 pm. I was walking down Queen Street (the main street in Auckland) and I heard two buskers (street performers) each playing their instruments. It was a man and a woman and they were on opposite sides of the street. The girl was playing a cello. She seemed classically trained and she was amazing. The grace and beauty in which she was playing stopped me in my tracks (literally) I was completely memorized by her. I then heard the guy playing "The Wind Cries Mary" by Jimi Hendrix. At that time everything melted away for me. Time stopped. I forgot everything I was doing. I simply stood there and listened to them play. Just me and their music. Totally pure and complete.

I was completely 100% content with my life at those two times. Not a care in the world. Even if the world ended at that exact moment I would be fine with it. Since coming home I have fallen back into the routine of rushing through life. Worrying about money,time and "stuff". I had hoped that I could find the same carefree happiness I had while traveling here in America but I just can't. I worry about our country, I worry about the economy, I worry about my family. All of this worry is a big motivation in me leaving again. I just want to come back after my time away refreshed and renewed and totally happy (and hopefully stay totally happy). I want to come back to a country that is back on track.

When I am traveling if someone asks where I am from I say Texas generally or America. I am proud of that but, I don't generally identify myself as just "An American" I feel that I am more a citizen of the world when I am traveling.  I am just a guy who tries to love everyone and everything. I enjoy meeting like minded people and we are just going through life without one set identity to be stereotyped by. I love the fact that almost every backpacker has the same free spirited open mindedness that you just don't find at home. There is SO many things that I got to do solely because I said "yes" to something and took a risk and it paid off.

I am not Anti American. I love my country and my family even though America has a lot of problems right now it will always be my home. I am hopeful things will get better in the future. I am just choosing to wait it out somewhere else in the world where I feel I can get more happiness out of life. Because whether I end up in staying in Thailand for a while or going to Colombia or somewhere in Europe I just feel that my zest in life is totally revived when I am traveling. I want to feel complete again and I am taking steps to make that happen. I have amazing family and friends who allow me to do this even if they don't fully understand. I know they will love me no matter where I am and will be here waiting for my return. They also know how much I love them.

Well this is officially the end of Traveling with Tyler Volume One. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed living it. The next volume of this blog and my life starts when I start traveling again. All of you have my very best and thanks for reading this and being in my life. I look back with great memories of everywhere I have been and all the experiences I have had. I have had the privilege to meet some amazing people all over the world. Some only for a day others who are now my life long friends. I would not trade that for the world. -Tyler Horton.

This is it.

I have been home for a week now long enough to "mostly" adjust to being back home now. I am still having some issues with adjustment back to normal adult life here. Whats ironic is the most trouble I am having is the food here. It is tearing me up inside! I guess I am just not used to all the chemicals/processed stuff we have here. I am in the process of looking for a job and settling in. Getting bank stuff arranged and all that "normal stuff". I will still write this blog every now and again but, since I am no longer traveling I have to end this somewhere and get started on this book printing process!

I just thought I would add some final thoughts and do a final recap of my 575 days (19-ish months) away. My fondest memory of my entire Australia trip if I had to pick only one would be singing slightly drunken karaoke with my mate Josiah from Boston. I loved it so much because I am a horrible terrible singer with a bad voice but that night I just didn't care at all and I got on stage and let loose. The crowd ate it up when we sung "Lost that Lovin' feeling" and I loved it! I loved getting out of my comfort zone and doing something new. I may never do that again though haha I don't think I could top that night.

My fondest memory from Thailand was just hanging out with The Wolf Pack and all the great times I had with those guys who will be lifelong friend's now. In Laos I loved relaxing and driving around on my motorbike like a local. In Cambodia my best memory is the massage I got by Nika the blind woman and having the power go out to the entire city every night. It was really peaceful actually. As was the golden temples of Cambodia.

In New Zealand my greatest memories were all the friendships I made and all the new jobs and skills I got. I can't even begin to narrow it down to one thing there is way too many and I will have countless life long friends there for sure.

In Chile my best memory is the awesome party we got to go too with our great CS host Jordan and his amazing hospitality to Ben and I which I will never forget. In Bolivia the Salt Desert sure was amazing. In Peru I loved the food and of course Machu Picchu was absolutely amazing and breathtaking. In Argentina my favourite memory by far was all the great times I had with the sugar active Couch Surfing group there and the tango lesson I took. Because that was really out of my comfort zone but I did it anyway and really enjoyed it!

What can I say about Colombia? I loved every minute. My up's and downs and crazy times, fun times all of it. Even when I had no money I was having fun. The Colombian people are by far some of the nicest people I have ever met. So kind and caring and giving. Willing to help out a random gringo like me. Their Spanish is so clear there and the country is so beautiful! The safety has much improved and there is so much to see and do. Almost untouched by tourism and has so much to offer I just love it there! The Salt Cathedral was by far my favourite though.

It is so hard to narrow it down to just one favourite memory from each country but I am trying for you. I experienced so many amazing things and places I will never forget. Saw so many amazing sunsets/sunrises and things I can't even begin to accurately describe for you, you just have to be there. I met SO many amazing people all along the way. My life will never be the same again and it is forever changed for the better.

I have so many countless people to thank for making my 19 months so special and amazing for me. My family, friends back home, friends I made along the way, All of my CS hosts and friends, I have to thank all the random strangers who helped me out along the way just out of the kindness of their hearts. I must thank the strangers who helped me and became good friends. Most especially I need to thank Sandradee Makejev (my amazing now lifelong friend from Sydney) and Bernie Czislowski my good mate from Queensland.

I have to thank tons and tons of people from CS in New Zealand and most especially Vikki Neal who helped me out tons! My list of people to thank is endless! So many people to thank all over South America! Without Couch Surfing my trip as it was would not have been possible.

My best mate Ben deserves a special paragraph all to himself. I randomly met him on the city bus in Sydney in December 2009 and since then we have been through thick and thin together. He truly will be a life long great friend of mine I will never forget or lose touch with no matter where we end up in the world. He has helped me through countless situations and I will be forever grateful for his friendship. I like to hope he feels the same way about me.  Thanks a lot mate! :) I wont forget our good times together (and our bad ones) we always managed to make it through!

Last but not least I need to selfishly thank myself. I chose to go to Colombia and in the process of that trip learned that you can't believe everything you hear and read about a country. I had an amazing time there and everyone was great! This has been a great ride and it is over for now but maybe not forever. I have learned so much about myself and about life. I am closing this chapter of it but will always remember all of it forever.

The biggest thing I learned while I was away was perspective. Don't bitch about the little things and be grateful for what you have. Be grateful for hot water and tap water you can drink and toilets you can put toilet paper in. Be grateful for Walmart and good clean sanitation and cars and money and westernized life styles. Because many many people in this world can only dream about what you have. I have experienced the worst so I can be thankful for the best. Thankful for my friends,family,health and my life. I am one of the luckiest guys alive.

Remember always pack your own toilet paper. Thanks for joining me on this ride it has been fun sharing it with you. Traveling with Tyler Volume Two will start up when I decide to start traveling again. For now I leave this journey with a full passport and a brain full of memories and experiences I will cherish forever.

Over and out for the last time. Your traveling Texan,Tyler

South American Reflections

Now that I have left South America it is time for a little recap. I started with Ben in Santiago Chile and we arrived and got to our awesome host, Jordan's house. He was an English teacher from New York and he was really cool he helped us with Spanish (because at the time we knew zero Spanish) and he took us on a food tour of Santiago which was great. We really had a good time there the only hiccup I had was thinking that everyone would speak English in South America because boy was I wrong! I had some issues the very first day with the language barrier but, once I started learning Spanish I got it all sorted thank God.

From there we went to the coast of Chile to a city called Valparaiso and had some great seafood and a great time. Not much to tell there we just had a great host Peter and met some great people and really enjoyed it. We left for the Chilean/Bolivian border from Valpo. Once we got there we left from San Pedro Chile (a city I really liked but took us 26 hours on the bus to get there!) into Bolivia for our salt flat tour.

After I paid my 140 USD for my friggin entry visa fee i got to go into Bolivia and take our salt desert tour with Ben (he was 140 USD richer than me at that point) :(  I had a really good time with our guide and our group on the tour even though I actually enjoyed the lead up to the actual salt desert more than the salt desert itself. Although we did get some pretty amazing pictures there. We also stayed in La Paz the highest capital city on the planet and I had a lot of trouble breathing there! it was like being on the top of a mountain all the time!!

Next we went from Bolivia into Peru and spent some time in Lima and Cusco with some great couch surfers. In Lima we saw a laser light/water park show that would blow anything Vegas has out of the water (no pun intended) they had big water fountains on timers set to shoot up to music and not only that but they had laser lights timed to go with this as well it was totally amazing! It only cost us 1.50 USD to get in and we loved it. There was even a water "maze" we got to play in and all the locals were laughing at us white guys getting wet haha.

Cusco was my favourite city in all of Peru, the history and architecture all the Spanish influence and it was just a really awesome place! We stayed there before we decided to go to  Machu Picchu. That in and of itself really is a world wonder! It is so hard to get up there and expensive and our tour was not amazing due to some of the shitty things that happened but after all the walking and hiking and effort it was totally worth the money to go up there and see that amazing city on top of a mountain and I have the passport stamp to prove it :) The only other place we went in Peru was Lake Titicaca. It was beautiful and amazing and huge there. Sure the town we stayed in was a total tourist trap but just being there was great. I saw one of my top ten best sunsets ever there I wish all of you could have seen it overlooking everything wow!

Ben and I flew from Lima to Buenos Aires Argentina where I again had to pay 140 USD just like in Bolivia and Chile only because I am American. As a German Ben doesn't get charged a penny but, our country does it to them so they charge us right back. I hate our travel policies! Anyway B.A. was a lot of fun and we had great times with couch surfers (they have one of the most active couch surfing groups in the world) and we met some amazing people there. We took a tango lesson and had a great time that is until I got my wallet stolen :( it was also kind of expensive in Buenos Aires by South American standards but other than that bump in the road everything else was great there and we did manage to see an amazing drumming performance there!Also, in Argentina they had very very strange door keys. Big golden keys like they were from the 1800's or something and they were square!

Ben and I split up after Argentina and I decided to go to Bogotá Colombia since I didn't get the visa to go to Brazil (only to the airport there where I met Jessica in the terminal) so it was a lucky stopover for me hehe. Once I landed in Bogotá I went straight to my CS hosts house and he ended up being a really nice guy but at first I bought into all the media reports and I was really scared of Colombia which is ironic because it ended up being my favourite country in all of South America and not a single bad thing happened to me at all! If anything, people were extra nice to me and I would totally recommend that Americans (or anyone) travel there!

I traveled in and around Bogotá I saw a church in an underground mine made out of salt. I saw an amazing view of the whole city of 8 million people and I saw a bunch of cool cities around Bogotá.  I met some amazing couch surfers who helped me with tons and tons of stuff and were some of the nicest people I have ever met including my second host Marcela who was amazing to me! I had great food for super cheap and got to see this beautiful country and for sure I will be coming back to see more of that amazing country since I only saw just a bit of what it has to offer and not to mention that is where I want to learn proper Spanish in Colombia. I loved it there!!

My only regret is that I ran out of money so I had to come home earlier than I planned (even though I made it a surprise and my family didn't know) I wish I had more time for South/Central America (like Ben does) and while I did learn A LOT of Spanish (considering I started with basically zero Spanish) I still want to go back to Colombia and learn proper Spanish and take some classes and maybe even teach English there.

Until next time yall,Tyler

As time winds down....

 Last Sunday I  found out the hard way that in this pretty religious country most everything is closed on Sunday. I went to get something to eat at 8pm (not THAT late right?) and EVERYTHING was closed! The only thing I could eat was at that horrid global corporation we like to call McDonald's the only good thing about this is that Maccas has a standard of crappiness no matter where in the world you are haha. It is frustrating when that is your only choice though! I have noticed that Colombia actually has very high food standards. When they are cooking your food they are required to wear masks as to not get you sick. They have great food here and I have had some great meals for less than 3 dollars.

I also managed to see an amazing underground salt mine that they actively mine salt out of but for some reason they decided to build an entire church under the ground! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen you should check out my pictures on facebook. In addition to this I got to go to a place above Bogotá via cable car called Monserrate and it was a (rare) beautiful day and I had an amazing overview of the entire city (again check my pictures on facebook)


Bogotá actually has a really modern really great city bus system called Transmelinio they are large double busses like two busses connected together that can seat 45 people sitting and 150 standing (according to the card on the door) but there is always like 487 people in there haha. That I would change, and I would also change the fact that everyone enters and exits from the same points so there is a lot of crowding. But it is 75 cents USD for a ticket to anywhere and the busses have their own lanes so no traffic! It's great :)  Taxis are also a great cheap option. The most expensive fare I paid was 11 USD and that was for an hour in a taxi! You can get anywhere cheaply and quickly and the drivers were for the most part very nice to me and honest I know I never got ripped off because their meter has a number that they read from a card to see how much to charge you and they have to show you the card. i.e. 148 is 8000 pesos (4 USD).  I also got to practice my spanish with them.


I really wanted to see a soccer game in Colombia but unfortunately for me it was the finals so tickets were sold out and the scalpers were charging me triple the price so I said no. I have come to find out there is a few "levels" of police here in Colombia. There is the private security guards who just have a baton and nothing else and basically stand around. Then, there is the policia who actually have guns and look fairly intimidating they are all very nice but I am sure you don't want to mess with them. The next level up is police who walk around with very big scary dogs that I am quite sure will rip your face off.

Luckily every one of these dogs I saw had a muzzle on. The final level is the "Policia Nationale" and the general army. These guys have automatic assault rifles and I got the impression they shoot first and ask questions later. These guys were dead serious.
The Policia Nationale were the ones at the soccer game, they were all armed to the teeth. So I got the feeling that those games get pretty routy. There was people (and police everywhere) maybe it was better I didn't go haha. But, I survived without a scratch and got the Transmelinio back home.


Many people in South America and Asia have very common birth defects that would be fixed at birth in westernized countries or even detected prenatally. But, in those countries they just don't know about it or they can't do anything about it so people live with these common problems and struggle through life and have to beg because these countries also don't have any social security programs so it is every man for himself. It is quite sad actually because there is nothing I can really do for these people as a traveler besides give them the change I have in my pocket. Some of the beggars are really creative though I have mentioned many street performers/beggars I saw in Australia/New Zealand but in Colombia I saw a full on total cheerleading perforance in the middle of traffic! Two guys and a girl were doing flips and stuff in the middle of the intersection! One of the craziest things I have ever seen!

I had an amazing three course dinner with some great great helado (icecream) a bottle of wine and the whole romantic deal for me and my date for 60 bucks USD. It was quite the deal and I knocked her socks off for cheap. We had a live band there and then a movie for 6 dollars for dos boletos (2 tickets). Que Paso Ayer Parte Dos (The hangover 2) was super funny! I loved my time in Colombia it was one of my favourite countries so far and I had an amazing time! Thanks so much to both my hosts and all the people I met and too all the people who helped me out! :)

Until next time,Tyler

Reverse Culture Shock

I know there is culture shock when you go to a new culture (I have even experienced it myself) what I didn't realise until recently is that there is reverse culture shock when you go home! In a short time I will be going home for the first time since 2009. I figured I would write this now while I have a good Internet connection. I wanted to try and explain myself via my blog so please bear with me. I want to be clear right from the very start that I have amazing friends and family who I love very much and who love me. I could have never done this without their support and none of that has ever changed for me nor will it ever.

That being said, I want to talk about what I am feeling. I am slightly scared to come home. Nervous that things won't be the same, people won't be the same (I am not the same person as when I left because I have grown, learning from so many experiences I have had in 2 years) or on the flip side of the coin maybe I am scared everyone at home hasn't changed much and I have.

I am scared I won't be able to relate to people at home, we won't be on the same "level", conversation will be hard because I have been all over the world on this adventure and they haven't. I really have fallen in love with this life style. My life is on my back and I am not tied to anything. When I don't like somewhere or something I get up and go. Sure I have worked and had jobs (and worked hard) but my life has been anything but "routine" for the past two years.

I have fallen in love with the feeling that this world is a big place to explore and that I can do it. I have been to many countries in this time away and I have seen and done many many amazing things and I have been so so lucky to do so. These travels have forever changed my perspective on life and I am so grateful I made the choice to do this because my life is better for it.

When I do get home you might notice some differences, My core personality is the same. My accent is the same but things like my vocabulary and spelling have changed. I am still "American" and certainly a Texan but you are going to have to bear with me. If I say something you don't understand ask me to translate haha. I just worry that being home is going to make me so restless I will start going crazy! I worry that I won't be able to go back to my "old" life and be happy.

For those of you who have seen the movie The Hurt Locker and remember the scene near the end of the movie where the soldier gets home and he is grocery shopping and just walking up and down the aisles staring at nothing. He can't adjust to "normal" life. Life as a soldier is all he knows. Of course I haven't been to war but I feel that I can parallel this feeling.

It is strange to even be writing this. I never expected not to be 1000% ready to come home and be totally happy. I am as surprised as you that I have so fallen in love with my current life style but at this moment in time I can honestly say that I am 100% happy right here right now sitting here in Bogotá Colombia. Basically what I am saying is I need you to bear with me while I adjust back to life of a normal person. I need you to realise that I may have the overwhelming desire to leave again and I need you to realise that I DO care about each and every person in my life back home and abroad this is just a new experience for me. I am trying to deal with this.

If you ask me "What is the best thing you did in your trip" that is going to be very hard for me to answer because I have been lucky enough to see and do MULTIPLE amazing things. If you ask me "how was your trip" you need to be prepared for a long answer! It was two years of my life remember! I don't want to feel like a stranger in my own home and country but right now I do so I am asking for your help to help me adjust.

One last thing, I don't write this to be all "high and mighty" and tell you how amazing my life is and what I have seen and done. I have had shitty days too, normal days, gone to work 9-5. I am still a normal person I just travel. I know your lives haven't been on hold waiting for me to come home. I am quite sure your lives have been great too I just need to get these emotions out the best way I know how. My one year adventure in Australia has turned into a two year multi country adventure so my life is different than I ever expected but I don't regret a thing and I hope you don't either.

This blog may sound very negative to you. It may sound like me whining about coming home but I felt that I needed to write this. I really am looking forward to eating a meal hand cooked by my mother and seeing my family and sharing a Shiner Bock with all my awesome friends back home. I am just not looking forward to everything else that goes along with "normal"" life. I hope yall can understand where I am coming from and I hope I expressed myself correctly. I do feel bad that I don't feel "ready" to come home and I wish I could continue traveling even now but, it is how I feel.

Thanks for listening and I hope you understand. -Tyler

Random Colombia Observations

I thought while I had the time I would mention a few random observations I have made about South America in general. South American drivers in general are VERY VERY impatient. I mean seriously impatient! They will honk at you even BEFORE the light turns green! If you are getting out of a taxi and trying to pay the driver they will honk. They honk at anything! Back home if someone honks it is a warning and you usually pay attention. They honk so much here for everything you just tend to tune it all out. That is why you have to be really careful crossing the street haha.

South America and Asia,third world countries in general would just be hell for a person in a wheel chair or a person with disabilities. To be fair to these countries they are just too poor to afford proper infrastructure so it isn't totally theit faults but the sidewalks are all cracked and uneven (if there is any sidewalk) the roads rarely have proper crosswalks the doorways and entryways are small and there is rarely elevator/escalators. I am really thankful that I can walk properly and don't have any major disabilities and I sure hope it stays that way and I really feel sorry for people who live in these countries who do have them.

These countries are too poor to afford proper social service programs (social security etc) so the poor are left to fend for themselves. I usually will give whatever change I have to a poor person because they need it more than me. It doesn't cost me much and it makes me feel good. There is a few kinds of poor people though. The ones who just sit there with a sign or in silence and expect you to just give them money. Then there is the ones that pull at your clothes and beg you and ask you for money (its annoying). Then there are others who are offering some kind of talent for your money and that is sometimes interesting and entertaining. There are still others who are generally hard up and need your help or people who pretend to be and aren't really but they are just lazy and want your money. It happens all over the world I have found in every country I have been too. 

Another thing I noticed is the massive quantity of late night street food. It is usually pretty good and if you make sure they heat/cook everything properly you are generally ok. I have had some really amazing street food and some really bad street food but only once have I got sick. In Asia/South America after a night out at the bar or the club they don't have a Walmart or gas station you can run into and grab something cheap so they have cheap street food. For less than a dollar you can usually get semi full and they cater to alcohol induced people lol. They are open all hours of the night and I have eaten some really strange but good things. Nothing has killed me so far and I love eating local food and cheap food and trying new things and not eating touristy expensive crap I can get at home.

The last thing I wanted to mention was third world showers and toilets and general bathroom facilities. You probably don't think about this at home ( I know I didn't when I was home) but I certainly do now. I have had many many showers with no hot water, many showers with trickling water,many showers with water that stops flowing RIGHT as the shampoo is in my eyes lol. I have used toilets with no running water and only a bucket or no bucket at all and only a hole in the ground. I have used toilets with no toilet paper or you can only throw the toilet paper in a trashcan or there is a hose to squirt yourself with instead of any toilet paper. I have used many toilets with no toilet seat and you just have to squat. Many many gross bathrooms (even when you have to pay for them they are gross lol)

Basically what I am saying is don't take the little conveniences of life you have at home for granted. Think about people in third world countries who don't even have the option. Oh ya! I almost forgot! I had the most amazing lunch today for just over 4 USD and it was huge! I had basically what was ground beef,with a fried egg,rice,fried banana,another form of some kinda of meat product lol, Then I had some sausage and some more brisket kind of thing PLUS baked beans/ranch style bean soup. The soup was by far my favourite and it tastes JUST like something my dear mother makes :) I am so full right now I couldn't eat another bite lol. Next week I will visit all the places I have been meaning to visit so far and pick up my laundry haha.

Tyler over and out from Bogotá.

Colombia Adventures Continue

I know its been a while since I have written so I thought I would give yall an update. Colombia is still super awesome for me and by far my favourite country in South America (even if it is the rainy season right now :(   ) it rains all the time! An umbrella is a must! I have been here in the capital city of Bogotá and made some great friends thru CS (couch surfing). Everyone has been SUPER nice! Colombia has a really bad reputation on an international level and there isn't that many tourists here and that is really sad. People judge this country before they come here for themselves and see it! I know that the people who live here know that so they try extra hard to disprove the notion that every person in Colombia is a criminal.

I have had nothing but good experiences here thus far, it doesn't mean that I still don't act smart and stay on my toes I just know that not everyone is out to get me. I can walk at night in (most) parts of the city and feel totally fine. I know the parts to avoid so I do. They use pesos here and there is 2000 pesos in 1 USD. So obviously when you buy certain things the amounts can get pretty large. Not only that but the numbers are obviously in Spanish and not English so I tend to struggle with the larger numbers even though I am fine with knowing how much money to give for smaller amounts.

The other day I went to pay for something I thought was roughly 30 USD so I gave the guy that much money in pesos. I didn't see a problem with it because I thought that was the price but, the price was actually around 13 USD. So this guy could have totally robbed me and taken more money than was required but he pointed out my mistake to me and gave me my correct change. I am sure most people would do this around the world but I just wanted to make it clear that in Colombia they do the same.

I have been taking day trips in and out of Bogotá and around (I usually don't go further than 4-5 hours away with friends and then come back) and so far I have seen some amazing places and beautiful landscapes. Much of Colombia is still very Catholic and religious and has a lot of Spanish Colonial influence. There is many plazas and old buildings and church's and almost every street is cobblestone and not concrete. Here in Bogotá though there is a big military/police presence and they are all armed to the teeth. It makes me feel safer for sure but on the flip side of the coin I have a feeling that I would NOT want to mess with any of these guys/girls because they all have automatic rifles. Thus far I have had zero problems with the military/police. As a tourist they just leave me be and they are even really helpful if you need directions or something.

Most of these soldiers look quite young but I am sure they are competent and trained well. There is a bigger presence of armed guards etc near the president's house obviously but it is quite a large neat building I am hoping to tour it in the near future! Also, I want to go to a look out point that overlooks all of Bogotá and a church made totally out of salt! Another thing I have noticed is that there is a ton of motorbikes here and every rider is required to wear a helmet and hi-vis vest. In addition to this they must have their license plate number painted onto their helmets. I am assuming its so if they get knocked off their bike for some reason the police can identify them or so they can see it easier at night. Either way I think its a smart idea. I wish America would implement a helmet law. Its proven to save lives and it makes me mad that people are stupid enough not to wear them then they get hurt and my tax dollars have to help pay for an unnecessary hospital visit.

I got bit by a dog recently. First time in 2 years traveling I have ever been bit by a dog. This dog was growling as I was walking (it was someone's pet tied up) but I have walked by probably 1000 dogs in multiple countries in these 2 years who have growled at me and done nothing so I didn't think anything of it. I was with my friend and she was walking out of reach of the dog. But, this dog was just not happy. Before I knew it he bit my leg!

Luckily I was wearing jeans and he didn't get thru them much. I checked and there was a tooth mark but it wasn't deep at all. Much as if you bumped your leg against the table and scraped it or something. Just to be on the safe side I washed it out with alcohol/soap and water and then went to get checked out to see if I needed the Rabies shots. ( I was NOT looking forward to that as they are expensive and painful I have heard) but Rabies can kill you untreated so it was worth it to go get checked out.
I went with my friend so she could translate and the doctor's said I didn't need the shots. They said even if the dog had rabies (which I doubt) the cut was so small and not deep enough to infect me so I should be fine. But if I start foaming at the mouth I will let you know :P

I have tried a lot of amazing food and drinks here. I have had meat/potatoes/other stuff wrapped up in a huge banana leaf that was so yummy! I have had traditional Colombian soup that had avocados and other stuff in it. it was called Ajiaco. I have had Colombia's version of a hot dog (that is interesting hehe) amazing Chocolate milk-ish kinda stuff,some great coffee and I have had some great national beers plus a fermented corn alcohol drink. It was called Chicha Everything is cheap here and I can eat a full meal for less than 3 USD!

I recently moved hosts and she is a really cool girl :) I like her a lot. Her English isn't 100% but nor is my Spanish. We communicate in 50% Spanish and 50% English. It is working so far. Actually I prefer it, staying at her place I am forced to speak more Spanish and improve my Spanish and she is here to correct me. I also help her with her English. I have always heard the best way to learn a language is to get a boyfriend/girlfriend who speaks that language and live with them. I can totally believe that because my Spanish has much improved since staying here! There is many museums in this historic district where she lives. I have been to the Fernado Botero  Museum. It was free which was great. There was security guards in every room! They were nice and helpful though.

He is a really famous Colombian painter but he has the weird obsession of painting everything fat. I mean huge. He mostly paints fruit and people but he ALWAYS makes them very large like overly obese people. It is strange but fascinating at the same time. His other quirky thing is that when he paints a woman nude he paints her always with armpit hair. But, he also has painted some serious stuff too. Ten years ago the violence was much worse here in Colombia (Now it is isolated to other parts of the country most bordering Venezuela in the jungles) anyway he painted a picture of a car bombing but he painted in such a way that the whole thing looks like a cartoon. I am sure it was based on real events but I think he wanted to "soften" the image. He is an interesting fellow. I also saw my first real Picasso picture up close and personal in real life. He was also an interesting fellow.

One last thing, a few cities here in South America don't have any street names only numbers. Bogotá is one of them.  At first it was confusing to me but now it is easy and I wish every city was like this. You don't need a map ever you just need to understand how the number system works. There is one set of numbers called Carrea and a second set of numbers called Calle. So say I need to be at Carrea 11 and Calle 2. All I have to do is find my way to there (the numbers go up numerically and Carreas are from North to South and Calle's from East to West) and then there is a 3rd number of the actual person's house/business whatever. Its easy peasy.

Also today I managed to eat lunch and buy a shirt and 2 pairs of socks all for 8 USD :) I tried one of the weirdest things I have ever eaten as well. It was a waffle ish kinda thing called oblea (it was harder than a waffle and almost like a communion cracker. In the middle it had arequipe and chocolate sauce and cream and cheese (not cream cheese and cherry sauce) it was weird and wonderful. I also had an enormous portion of helado (ice cream) that was basically like a bowl of ice cream but instead of a bowl it was a huge waffle cone. It was amazing and so so good! It cost me less than 5000 pesos, that is just over 2 USD!  I love the ice cream here and the fresh fruit juice. I have never been so healthy in my life haha. Almost everyday I have jugos naturales or some fresh fruit and it is so so cheap and good! I will really miss it when I have to leave South America.

Well that's all I got for now. As soon as I can get my hands on some sort of a camera I will take some pictures of this beautiful country for yall :) Until next time,Tyler

How I survived Colombia with 2 dollars

I have heard great things about Colombia from multiple people while traveling and I was really excited to come here but I must admit once I got here I let all the negative stuff get to me. I was VERY anxious (more than I have have been in any country) and the first day I didn't barely leave my couch surfing hosts house at all. It is true that Colombia in the past has been one of the most dangerous countries in the world and due to the Cocaine industry here and other things there was lots of drugs wars and kidnappings/killings. But, in the past ten years a lot of things have improved! The second day I realised that I could stay shut in and live in fear of Colombia the whole time and not enjoy anything here (Thanks CNN) or I could go outside and enjoy myself and stay positive and realise that not everyone in Colombia is wanting to kill me and/or rob me.

So on my second day I ventured out. You know what? I didn't get robbed or murdered! This isn't to say that you shouldn't be careful because you should but just know that you shouldn't always believe everything you hear on the news. Thus far in Colombia I have had nothing but good experiences! Everyone has been so so nice to me. This is one of the friendliest countries I have ever visited. My couch surfing host has been awesome to me and totally taken care of me and I have had multiple couch surfers show me around the city!

Everything was going swimmingly until I realised NONE of my bank cards/credit cards are working here in Colombia! Not my credit card or my Aussie/American ATM cards. I called my bank and they can't figure it out all they can do is send me a new card that will take more than a week. Well obviously I have money in my accounts but I cant access any of it! At this point I had left Bogotá with some couch surfing friends I met so I wasn't even in Bogotá (the capital city of Colombia) when I found out my cards didn't work! They covered my expenses for the first day but after that they didn't have anymore money to do so. I don't blame them and really thank them for doing that I know its hard when you don't have a lot of money. 

They gave me enough money to get bus fare back to Bogotá but after I paid the bus fare I was left with 4000 pesos (2 USD!) so by the time I got to the terminal I was alone and only had 2 dollars. Thank God I speak at least basic Spanish. My Spanish is not great by any means but it was good enough for me to let a guy understand that none of my bank cards worked and I only had 2 dollars. This guy was the shop keeper at a phone/internet store.

You know what he did? He gave me a free drink and took my bags and told me to come sit down. Then he let me use his phone and internet all for free. Ask yourself how many people you know who would do all that for a stranger?! Well he did and I am forever grateful. I used the time to call my couch surfer here in Bogotá and he was with his family hanging out but he came with his mother and her husband in rush hour traffic to come get me and take me back to his place to stay, again out of the pure kindness of his heart! There is good people all over the world and my bad experiences I can count on one hand even after two years traveling but I would need 1000 hands to count all my good ones! So it could have ended up really really badly for me but hopefully soon I will get money via Western Union from home and all will be well. I have been in a few hairy situations over the past two years but this has by far been the worst. Luckily it should all be ok and if I can survive this I can survive anything!

I wanted to mention something else important. Sometimes in life you meet people who pass thru your life that you really connect with but due to whatever circumstances you just don't get the time with that person you would like to get to know them. As a traveler this tends to happen a lot more than if you were just at home doing your thing. It has happened to me before and I am sure it will happen again. I just wanted to tell you about my most recent experience. I met a girl at the airport in Brazil and she was from NJ. She spoke English and so did haha so we had that connection right away.

I talked to her in the terminal and we had a really good time. But, sadly she didn't get to sit next to me for our six hour flight. I saw her as we exited the plane and we started up again right where we left off. I planned to see her once I cleared customs etc. But, I got held up as usual lol. By the time I got out she was gone. She was just in Bogotá for three days on business. I was honestly really quite sad that I didn't get to see her again to say bye/exchange contact details. I really felt that we had a good time together and I was sad it had to end like that.

But there is a semi happy ending to this story. Through some seriously impressive detective work she managed to find me on facebook! (I had jokingly showed her my messed up passport lol) and she remembered my name! So we connected again online and got to talk more. She has left Bogotá now and is back home, its a shame I didn't get to see her again but I have a good feeling our paths will cross again one day in the future!

So always treasure the experiences you have with people in life and don't take any for granted and realise that just because someone passes thru your life doesn't mean that it is a meaningless thing or it doesn't mean you wont see them ever again!

Tyler over and out from Bogotá, Colombia.

Buenos Aires Post Robbery/Bogota

So post robbery I had basically no money because the thief got away with my ATM card. LUCKILY I had my "main wallet" at home so basically all he got was a little cash, my drivers license and that ATM card. I called and canceled the card but that still left me stranded with basically no money until I could transfer my funds to my other bank account. I thought that would go fairly smoothly but there was a mess up so I am STILL without much cash at all but, on the bright side I called today and finally got it all sorted and soon I will be good as gold again as long as I don't get robbed again.

I should also mention a special shout out to my semi saviour in human form. Sean-Ryan Mccray. One of the coolest dude's I have met! I met him randomly at a couch surfing event in Buenos Aires and we hit it off pretty well so we started hanging out. He is from California and moved to B.A. to work for a year. Once he found out I got robbed he took me into his house and let me crash there for free and not only that but he shouted me everything and paid for all my stuff, food,drinks,everything (just a loan because I paid him back) but regardless I think that is totally awesome and not many people would do that but he did it without blinking an eye after knowing me less than a week! I really owe him big time and there still is really good people in this world.

Not only that but once I got robbed I pleaded my case to the taxi driver to take me to the airport and he took me there for half off the normal fare. I have had many many random acts of kindness in South America and around the world and I appreciate every one of them. I have had random tour guides and people just genuinely being nice. It really restores your faith in humanity.

SR and I and his cool roommate Justin went to see a live drum performance (South American/African) style and it was amazing! There was a huge crowd and everyone was going wild and it was so much fun, one of the coolest things I have seen in South America so far! Well that pretty much closed out my time in Buenos Aires on a good note.

After flying from Buenos Aires to Brazil (but I couldn't leave the airport) I really really needed to use the Internet to sort my bank stuff and such but I didn't have money to pay for it. But, I randomly started chatting up two guys, one from Iraq and the other from Ghana and they let me use their computers and Internet time all for free. Again just out of the kindness of their hearts. They were good dudes and I wish them the best. I didn't even get their names. After that, I met a girl on the plane who is American and here for work in Bogotá and we really hit it  off so I am sure I will see her again before she leaves. Soon some of my friends from Buenos Aires arrive here too! Now I am safe and sound at my new host's house and all is well as can be. He is a doctor so I am hoping he can sort me out for meds and help me kick this cold!

Bogotá seems like a beautiful friendly place and thus far I have no reason to believe otherwise. Tomorrow I am meeting a whole group of new couch surfers who just offered to show me around the city for free! So don't believe everything you see on CNN.

That's all I got for now. Til next time,Tyler

Robbed in B.A.

Had a good night last night almost all night. I went out with some friends I met here in Buenos Aires and we had fun at the club. It was all fun until we were walking home and some dude bumped into me.

I had my wallet lifted out of my front right pants pocket and stolen from me in less than 5 seconds. Luckily he only got 100 bucks USD,my drivers license and my eftpos/atm/bank card. Everything else is safe in my other wallet at home. I canceled the card and I am transferring whats left of my money to another bank account anyway. The police didn't do anything for me but its ok. There isn't much they could do anyway.

I do respect that guy's talent though. I had no idea he reached into my pocket until he was long gone. If there was a pickpocket Olympics I bet he would win. This is the first time I have ever been stolen from like this but I am alive and he really didn't do that much damage to me.

Shit happens huh? such is life but I am glad I am with friends here who will help me out and the next crap wallet I buy will have a chain on it! I am actually surprised with the amount I travel and the places I have been it has taken me this long to get robbed like this. My luck just ran out but you live and learn and move on. -Ty

La Plata

I think when I last left you Ben and I were settling into B.A. City life since then we have had a lot happen! Somehow I let Ben convince me to take Tango lessons haha. I am a horrible dancer and to be honest he really had to pull my leg to get me to go. I showed up without a partner and everyone was all coupled up and no one really looked like they spoke English (the instructors certainly didn't) and we had to pay to get in. All of that just really had me in a defeatist mood and I wanted to leave right away.

But, I stayed. Boy am I glad I stayed! I couldn't understand a word of what the instructor guy was saying (he spoke really fast) but I watched his feet. After a bit I learned the basic moves. (Left,Forward,Forward,Stop,Forward once more then Right) Pretty simple huh? I managed to get myself a really pretty girl as a partner and I was off to the races. About half way thru the lesson I was really honestly enjoying myself and not doing to horrible at this tango!

The girl tried to talk basic conversation with me and usually I can handle basic stuff pretty well in Spanish but something happened to me and all of my Spanish failed me! I felt like I had honey in my mouth and I could not put two words together for the life of me. I felt so stupid and it was frustrating.... You really should never take basic simple communication for granted because when you can't do it, it is super hard and frustrating. I think it had something to do with how pretty she was :P

Long story short, I am really glad Ben forced me to go and glad I stayed because while I hated it at first by the end of the night I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new in the Tango Capital of the World :)

Earlier in that day I went into a pharmacy to buy some contact solution and I had no idea where to find it or how to ask for it in Spanish. No one there seemed to speak English and I just could not find it at all! But then I heard someone speak English (when you are in a country where they don't speak your language it is amazing how quickly you can pick it up when someone speaks English) So this lady was there from New Jersey with her family and she helped me find contact solution. She was very nice and helpful and I really appreciated it and not only that but, we randomly saw her again as we were getting off the subway a whole 24 hours later. In a city of 8 million people that is pretty amazing!

Speaking of the Subway, the Subway system in B.A. Is quite good and really cheap but man is it ever crowded! There is always tons and tons of people on there and there is constantly people trying to beg for money and/or sell you something that gets a little annoying. On the “Line B” of the subway (Subte is Subway in Argentina) there is one train car that we rode on that is so so old! The oldest one I have ever seen. The doors are not automatic you have to open and close them yourself and it is semi open air and made out of wood! Pretty wild huh? But it gets you where you need to go.

We have been involved in Couch Surfing here in Buenos Aires and last night Ben and I wanted a proper Argentian steak dinner (supposed to be some of the best in the world) for our last night together in B.A. We went to a restaurant recommended to us by a friend with some other couch surfers and for 25 USD I got one of the best steaks I have ever had in my life plus a side dish and some beer and I was a happy man. There is no way you could have had that meal back in the US for the price we paid and we really had a great time with great friends. Everyone in Argentina has been nothing but nice to us! I have met a really cool guy from America and a really cool girl from California here and we have also had some great CS hosts here in Argentina.

Today Ben and I split up. I wont see him again now until he comes to Texas in July. We have had a good run together, always good times him and I. He really is one of my best friends. He left for some amazing waterfalls on the border of Argentina/Brazil and I am now in La Plata couch surfing here about an hour outside of Bs As (Buenos Aires city centre. My bus was late leaving for La Plata but I had a really nice lady help me out who didn't speak a lick of English but we managed to work it out together (the bus left from a different terminal than they originally assigned) Then once I actually got to La Plata I had a few issues finding my new hosts house but I had another really nice girl help me out on the street and even though we don’t really speak the same language she actually escorted me all the way to the doorstep of where I needed to go. I love the random acts of kindness you find around the world in every culture.

In less than a week I fly to Bogotá Colombia and I am excited to continue my adventure there. I had talked to multiple people here personally who say it is one of the most beautiful friendly countries in the world and people go out of their way to be nice to you there and show you a good time to prove that the media reports don't have to be right. I will be couch surfing there as well. To jump back to B.A. For a bit I have a few last things to add. Just as in the rest of South America they have amazing Helado here (icecream) most of you know how much of an ice cream fan I am and I love trying it around the world. Buenos Aires has a chain here called Freddo and they have great ice cream! Some of the best I have ever had. Buenos Aires is also the first city I have ever been too in the world that has sponsored street signs. It will say (insert street name and number here) and then above all the street information it will say Nokia or Claro or some other company that paid for the sign and every sign has it! Weird huh?

In every country we have visited so far there has been political unrest. There was picketing signs in Chile and Peru with people marching and in Bolivia there was flat out riots. Here in Argentina there is strikes and picketing as well. South America as a continent just doesn't seem very happy right now. It is really interesting because in my experience with Thailand and other countries how this seems to go is the people as a whole get really angry over something like bad pay or something and they mobilize and stand up to the government and the government tolerates it for a while then steps in and usually crushes it all violently with people ending up dead. It is quite sad actually.

In America we have our fair share of problems and people do get angry with the government but I never really hear of riots or huge protests like they have here and certainly the government doesn't step in and start killing people. I guess generally speaking back home people as a whole don't care enough to protest in large numbers and our government never feels the need to step in or change anything so everything just stays as is. Well hopefully South and North America can work their respective issues out and everything will be peachy because there is much more to life than having to argue with your own elected government.

My new host here in La Plata actually had a party in my honour I was totally blown away! She made a cake and everything! All of her friends are really cool here and everyone was nice. There was a lot of Spanish being spoken that I didn't catch but they did manage to translate most of it for me. The Spanish here in Argentina is a lot different from anywhere else we have been and it is much harder for me to understand. They love to had a “Sch” sound to lots of words. Here in B.A. Americans are called “Schyankees” a play off of Yankees I am assuming. My new host Sole was nice enough to personally show me around town and take me on a tour.

We went to a huge cathedral here in La Plata. Also, in La Plata they have an all numerical system for the streets. No names only numbers. It is really quite easy to figure out once you get used to it and the whole city is laid out in a big grid. I have never come across this before and it was odd at first but actually quite handy! The only one bigger than this that I have seen in my life was the one in Cologne Germany. They both are massive! We took the lift to the top and the views were really impressive! She has given me a lot of history of the area and helped me a lot. It was really nice of her to do all this for me. Since being in Argentina I have had to get used to kissing men on the cheek. When I moved to New Zealand and got active in Couch Surfing there I got used to kissing girls on the cheek because there was a lot of foreign girls there from Europe who did it as a hello/goodbye greeting.

It was weird for me at first as we don't do that in America but I eventually got used to it. Argentina is the first country in the world that I have visited where men kiss men on the cheek as a greeting too. Women do it, men do it, everyone does it. It is just normal for them and and it means nothing really just a hello but I am still getting used to kissing all these men on the cheek and receiving kisses lol. I think this weekend I may leave La Plata and go to an island close to here that is supposed to be great called Tigre. If everything works out I will stay there for a few days and tour around with a friend I met back in B.A. But for now I am having fun in L.P.! :) I will be going out with Sole later for drinks with her friends and we may even see a movie.

I am still adjusting to the Argentian way of night life. They routinely as a culture just don't eat cena (dinner) until 10,11 or even midnight! Then they just party all night long until the sun comes up. You wont see anyone out on weekends until 3am at the very earliest and the clubs here don't close until the start breaks thru at 6:30 or 7:30am. Even on week days the people of Argentina stay up all hours of the night and seem to be able to function on just a few hours of sleep and still be able to go to work the next day! The only way I can deal with this as an American is to take a long power nap during the day so I can stay up late and I nibble on food all day so that even though I am eating at 11pm or later I am not starving by that time. It is interesting how different culture do things. You just have to know how to go with the flow.

That's all I have for now. Until next time,Ty

Buenos Aires City Life

We went out for our first proper night out here in Buenos Aires last night. It was an event organised by some Couch Surfers at a pretty flash club here and we had VIP access! The night life is different here, NO ONE goes out before 2am (closing times for most clubs back home) and they party til like 7:30am in the morning (at least we did) but luckily I knew this before hand so I took a good long nap during the day and I was good to go. It was really fun and the language barrier was not as much of a problem as I had thought. It was a really fun night.

Other than that we have seen a really cool weapons museum here that I really enjoyed and been to some markets here. We have also been to Recoleta Cemetery a very famous very old graveyard where a lot of famous ex presidents and important people of Argentina are buried. Most of them were really rich so they have huge sarcophagus that their entire families are buried in with giant life size statues of themselves or their pets or family or whatever. There is a surface level that you can see with basically a shrine to these different people with lots and lots of religious stuff (Argentina is very Catholic) then a staircase that leads down under the ground and underneath the surface level there can be like 10 or 15 family members all buried in the same crypt.

On most graves in America they list the name and birth and death date. Here it is totally different. It only lists their death date and their grave markers are by in large "sponsored" by the deceased person's friends. They are placed there anywhere from 1 year to 100 years AFTER the person has died. So it will say ________ (insert name here) we your friends dedicate this to your honor X number of years after you have died. It is very strange how they do it. It was super neat to see those even though it was a little morbid. But, it was a shame to see how bad the condition was on some of the graves it was terrible. Some were very well preserved and others were not.

We are still going to see a live tango show and maybe take some lessons here and have a proper steak dinner. Buenos Aires is extremely expensive compared to other places we have visited so far so that is kinda sucky. Especially considering my money situation haha. It is impossible to eat here for under 10 USD and that is the cheapest of the cheap. In Peru and Bolivia you could get an entire meal for 1-3 USD! There was street stalls everywhere and here there is none. It is really frustrating! But, I am willing to pay extra for that good steak here. There is absolutely no middle class eateries here. Either you pay like 10 USD for crap food or you pay like 40,50 USD for a really good meal. It is extremely hard and frustrating to find somewhere good and cheap to eat! Also, they charge you "Cubierto". Basically almost every restaurant charges you 1 USD (or more) for the privilege of sitting down to eat and using their silverware. PLUS you have to tip. It is really shit but it is what they do here and there is nothing you can do about it.

The food culture here is different. They salt EVERYTHING excessively (really bad for your health) and I ALWAYS have to request ketchup,butter and black pepper those are just not normal for them but they do have them if you ask. They usually give you huge portions of rice but unlike Asia where soy sauce flows freely (I love it) here they give you plain dry rice and they give you oil and vinegar to spice it up. Pretty odd for me but normal for them.

Buenos Aires is a neat city and we have enjoyed walking around and meeting people and going to cool places I just wish it was less expensive. The weather has been good but now it is kinda crap with rain etc. Can't have it perfect all the time huh? I have gotten (re)sick again! That airplane ride from Peru just re infected me and I cannot seem to kick this freaking head cold it is horrible and I hate it but I am still alive. We are still having fun and enjoying ourselves. We saw another movie the other day (in English) we saw Thor like the comic book Thor and it was actually pretty good I liked it quite a bit.

Well I guess that's all I have for now. Yall take care,Tyler

Oh ya just a little side note. Unfortunately I am running out of money. Due to this fact I booked my flight back home to Texas for 4 June. See yall soon-ish huh? Its been a good run for me.... I have been super lucky and had lots and lots of fun.