Monthly Archive for July, 2007

Ready For The World

So Laura and I have a plan.

We’re going to travel the world for a year when I graduate grad school in May 2009. Not sure exactly where yet. We’ll probably fly to London and go over land from there through Europe, then maybe to northern Africa, India, Thailand. Who knows. You can’t really plan these things, because you can never be sure where your travels will take you. But we’re doing research and coming up with a list of “must see/do’s” for the places that we’ll be near.

To prepare, we bought a few books:

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

Traveler’s Took Kit

Rough Guide to First Time Around The World

Our goal is to save up at least $10,000 each over the next two years. I’ve already got about $3k stashed away (since selling the bike) and should have another $4k to add to that by the end of the year.

To save money, I’m going to basically live out of my tent the entire time I’m in grad school, cook the cheapest meals possible with a camp stove (and go dumpster diving for “expired” food), and pretty much not buy anything I don’t need. I figure, my tuition is paid for and with that I get office space for my computer and books, and free showers at the gym. All I really need to pay for is laundry at a laundromat. Why pay $400 a month for rent and utilities? Ridiculous.

After world traveling for a while, we plan to join the Peace Corps for 2 years, save up more money, travel again, etc etc etc. Maybe teach English in China for a few months. Travel more. At least for a half dozen years or so.

Fun!!!

Breakin’

Last night, Laura and I went (with Mark and Serena) to see the Ashes 2 Ashes B-boy Championships. I can’t even describe how awesome it was — there was even a 6 year old one one of the teams (though most were probably early 20’s). People from all over the US, Korea, Japan… defying the laws of physics.

To get a faint idea of what we saw last night, check out this video on YouTube:

B-boy “SO” from South Korea

(Yeah, we saw him live!)

And last but not least, look what happens when breakdancing goes wrong.

!!!

Bye bye Virago

I sold my motorcycle.

To this girl. It’s her first bike.

Sold Virago

Seattle, WA

I finally made it to Seattle.

But getting there was painful.

See, I left work early last Friday. Got to Laura’s house, showered, packed up, thinking I had a few minutes to spare to catch the bus. Then we missed the bus by 30 seconds, and caught another one 5 minutes later (even though they are supposed to come every 15 minutes). At this point we had 35 minutes until the train left, and a 20 minute bus ride and 5 minute walk between us. Cutting. It. Close.

Then, as we were going over the bridge to the west side, traffic stopped. Yep, the drawbridge. We sat there for 10 minutes and realized we were going to miss the train. So we called Amtrak and bought tickets for the next one. In 3 hours. For $80 more. (Please explain to me how a train at 3pm costs $34 per person but the one at 6pm costs $75?).

So we ate dinner at Vegetarian House, went to the station, and boarded the train. As it crossed into Washington it slowed. And stopped. And sat there for an hour. Not moving. The train operator came on the intercom and told us that it was a problem with the bridge. No joke.

Did I mention this was my first time on Amtrak?

Eventually, after our 3 hour ride turned into a 5 hour ride, we arrived in Seattle.

We couch-surfed with a Kyla, who lives in the University District. She was amazing and made us feel welcome — she also drew a map to show us where the good restaurants and cafes are.

Saturday, Laura and I ate breakfast at a really great vegan place called the Wayward Cafe. Great food, cheap prices… we couldn’t even finish it all. Then we went to a farmer’s market, headed downtown, and visited the famous Pike Place Market. Saw Mt. Rainier, the Space Needle, and even one of the 7-11 stores converted into a Kwik-E-Mart for the Simpson’s movie. Ate lunch at Vegetarian Bistro, an amazing asian restaurant. Yum. Found free postcards (sorry, can’t elaborate on that one).

Sunday, we took Kyla out to lunch at the Flowers restaurant near her house. We all enjoyed a massive vegetarian buffet. Mmm. Then Laura and I took the bus to the Seattle Center and saw the Science Fiction Museum and the Experience Music Project. Bought books: Tree and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

Took the train home. Only 3 hours! Local Portland pizza and beer rounded out an amazing weekend.

L

L Smiles Food

L+B

Flickr photo set: Seattle, WA

4th of July at Mt Hood

I took off work on the 4th of July (we don’t get a holiday) and went up to Portland. Laura had recently gotten her motorcycle back after the accident, so we rode up to Mt Hood to visit the Timberline Lodge. Originally, we had planned to eat lunch there — until we saw the menu. $14 for a veggie burger and potato chips? Uh, no thanks. But the view was nice and we did run into Optimus Prime, who was sunbathing out front. Priceless.

Timberline Lodge

L+B

Optimus Prime at Timberline

Flickr photos: Timberline Lodge




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