I'm thinking I might buy a used scooter (like a vespa, only not name-brand) when I get to HK. I could wear a silly helmet when I ride it, paint it a ridiculous color, use it to get into the spacious mountain parks that seem to make up a lot of the new territories. In most countries, scooter engines are small enough that you don't need an actual drivers' license. And even if you do, I got one of those International Driving Permits from AAA.

I like AAA. They have random discount programs, and they're the only agency recognized by the State Department and the Fair Trade Commission to issue International Driving Permits. They also have arrived in the middle of nowhere with a tow truck on more than one occasion (once at like 4am). That sexist guy who ran the garage in Schuyler, New Jersey was way wrong about them.

If I don't get a scooter, maybe I'll just get a bike. A cheap one, a bike I can spraypaint and not feel bad about, a bike I can repair with a screwdriver. Simplify.

it's now (just barely) tuesday

And I leave thursday at 7am. Well, that's not technically true: depending on how you measure, I'll have to leave the house at like 5:15 for the 7am flight to LAX, and I won't actually leave the country until 1:35pm, when the LAX - Narita flight takes off. Whatever. It's approximately two days, and that's exciting and nervous and scary. They all just kind of feel like adrenaline to me.

I can't escape the feeling that I've forgotten to do something really important to prepare. This is silly, I hope, because I've been reasonably thoughtful about the trip, and anything so glaringly huge as to cause irreversible harm to the year in HK shouldn't have escaped my notice... What I think the real problem is is that I haven't done much of anything to prepare; with such a large life change, it seems strange that I am already prepared to go as I am. So the gulf between the expectation of change and the reality of I'm going pretty much the same person I am right at this moment makes me feel incomplete. So I must not have brought something important, must be forgetting to pack something crucial.

I'll take my gallon-size ziploc of school/office supplies. That should help.

Visiting family is worthwhile, but definitely stressful. We'll probably end up talking about it over the phone if you're the sort of person that's interested.



Deadlines really are what make me kick things into gear. Honestly, if I wasn't going to Miami on thursday (hi, Vicki!) for a week, I would probably be sleeping til noon or so every day. However. The truncation of "days left at home before departure to HK" has set a deadline, and I'm acting. I'm even waking up earlier--w/out my alarm clock, which, earlier this summer, I frequently turned off in my sleep. I guess this is a sign I will be able to adapt OK to working, classes (intensive language classes, hopefully), schedules, etc., once august rolls around. So yay for that.

I also have some other things I'm thinking about writing about in a more serious, less day-to-day-chronicle sort of way. A friend of mine from back home mentioned that he's started doing some writing as well, and I had to try to moderate my excitement over the phone. I didn't want him to get the wrong idea, like I was pushing to read it or anything; I'm just happy something I've found to be so helpful is a part of a friend's life.

Related: in my head, I classify most of what I've thrown out on the internet as lowercase-writing. Stuff I did for class last spring was capital-Writing, but barely, like I tried to keep the voice and tone of writing but with the focus and editing and meaningful lesson-to-be-learned common to Writers. I was, for a long time, intimidated by Writers (I intellectually fetishized Writing?). Something that probably changed for the better is that lesson that, like the way fiction and nonfiction kind of blur, the way thoughts sort out is somewhere between writing and Writing. Artificial distinction, sure, but categorizing things qualitatively is always artificial, and thinking about things this way makes the process a little more tranquilo. and that word means I've been watching too much soccer.

Going to Boston tomorrow. Staying on grandparents' apartment floor, most likely, for lack of space. Packing so far: underwear, jeans, two black tshirts, one other tshirt, Thermarest pad. Add bathroom stuff in the morning. Esp with recent "incidents" in Glasgow, London, not interested in fighting overzealous TSA personnel on orange-red alert--bag will be checked.

Family business, not really fit for this space. I'll bring my phone & charger, a book or two, a deck of cards, probably. It'll be a hard trip. It's been two years, and two years ago it was a hard visit to make. Hoping to find a map of China somewhere, atlas maybe, sit down with family, try to find correct villages to visit next year.

I'll probably watch fireworks over the Charles River. Interesting how holidays signpost where I am (where everyone is) in my life (their lives, respectively). Last year: serving Canadian food on National Mall, fireworks on steps of Lincoln Memorial. Year before: don't want to talk about it. Year before: don't remember. Maybe not this holiday, specifically, but just holidays in general. I should research holidays/school vacay common to HK.

No Internet next week = more time spent with people, doing real things. Internet: out of sight, out of mind. Floor: "firm". Responsibility: kind of a lot, apparently. Fears: (like real, genuine fears, not anxieties, not nervousness:) for sure. Mortality, "heritage", family (its meaning in principle and practice). Sleep quality: poor.