Right When You Wake Up

Well, things are good.  We had a great surprise party that was thrown by Ms. Buffington and Ms. Pitfick last Friday at an awesome bowling / dance club style place, the cake that they surprised us with was tremendous and I'm up and running at 100MPH once again. 

Of course, right as that happens, my car takes a dump and I had to tow it today to the BMW Dealership.  Who knows what I'm going to end up with now.  Oh yeah, the latest attempts (2 times now) to help Manoj get an iPhone have been failures due to everyone else wanting one and the lines at the Apple store just never ending.  AT&Ts in Atlanta have all sold out and it's really just been too much fun. 

I'll upload some pictures from the party and update this entry once I get them from the camera and onto the computer.  I also just got a wind of the potential shcedule that I might have in August.  Once, it's final, I'll try to upload it.  Till then, I'll write more later on.  It's freaking 3:00AM and I've just not been sleeping!  Gotta clean the up the mess the tornado left in my room!

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July Schedule

I think that I'm finally finished moving around my schedule swapping and trading around.  What I have posted at www.elijahnicolas.com/wp/img/08Jul.jpg should reflect all my recent changes and modifications.  Should be a pretty easy schedule giving me time to head back to San Diego to hang out with family as well as Palm Coast to tidy up the house and get it ready for tenants.   I'm finally up and running at 90% again and probably can safely say that I'll be 110% buzzing in no time.  Flying is going well, the birthday month is here and things can only get better, right?  Thanks to everyone who found the time to chat to me about the randomness.  

Oppurtunities

When opportunities knock, how can you tell which door it's actually coming from.  I mean, imagine yourself walking down the hallway of life and you hear a loud bang... where is it resonating from?  I came up with a great visual (in mind at least) of the phrase "Home Stretch" and in doing so, am posing a question to you out there.   It's your turn at bat, you swing with all the HGH induced body mass you can conjure up and starting running assuming the whole while that you might have just hit a home run.  Now, as you round first, you notice that one of the best outfielders, who is nicknamed Air Jordon, is getting ready to jump and make the catch but there is a possibility that he might not make the ESPN Top Ten plays and miss it by an inch. Obviously in corresponding with the fact that you are on the "Home Stretch" are you really even home free knowing that it's still not up to you...knowing that you're running around the bases could all be for naught, do you just pause and watch?  What can you do?  WHEN DO YOU KNOW YOU'RE DONE?!?!

Two Weeks...

It's been just about that much time since my last post.  I've been trying to "find" myself and it's been really hard.  Concentrating a little too much on random things rather than facing the subject at hand doesn't help, but then again, what is the subject?  I was able to find a passage from Jacques Lusseyran's book and with that, I'll end this post:

Suppose I am sad.  Or embarrassed.  I have things which upset me.  I am anxious.  Armies of small pains race inside my head.  I see black butterflies everywhere.

What happens then?

Suddenly I see almost nothing.

When I am sad, walking inside my house, I bump my forehead; I hurt my hand on a half-open door. And I no longer even have a sense of where I am.

...I understand quickly that in order to no longer be blind in the way I detest, all that I have to do is simply no longer be sad. 

Final Day in Singapore (lots of pictures!)

Well, it was the first day that I got to sleep in, so I took full advantage of it.  I met up with Charmaine again for lunch at another mall where the food was just...all over the place!!!  After seeing what there was to choose from, I was so over exposed that I was lost in selection.  I wanted to try a little bit of everything but we settled for Malaysian because I mentioned that I had never had it.  I was going to take a picture of it, but I had already messed up the presentation, so just imagine an Asian dish in a huge plate, looking like $30 for only $7.50.  Awesomeness!  I made the conclusion that afternoon that maybe the 24 hours of flying was worth it just for the food.  I couldn't get enough! 

I walked around the mall a little more but I couldn't find the gifts that I wanted, so sadly for you, I had to give up.  I needed to make my tourist rounds and Kodak moments.  =)  The first place we went to was the Merlion in Marina Bay.  I rode the MRT Subway system and the escalators leading to the train were freaking FAST!!!  I mean, they were on turbo mode and I almost fell back a bit.  They have to adapt that here in the states so that it increases your chances of making your connections by 5 seconds at the airports!  It just felt right.  Talk about rapid transport. 

We strolled along Boat Quay where restaurants were aggressive as heck trying to get us to sit down and eat, but instead I took a picture of the largest crab I could find! Keep click for more pictures!

I needed to hit the beach so we took a cab to East Coast Park.  I wasn't dressed appropriately but that wouldn't stop me from taking a dip.  We walked some more along the coastline which was packed with joggers, roller bladders and bikers.

Since it was a Saturday, many families were out just enjoying the day at ECP and of course, I was there to just take pictures.  If you look at the pictures above, you can see the skyline / waterline just speckled with ships waiting to dock.  I haven't ever seen a sight such as that and could count roughly 25 ship just parked.  It's didn't make the sights calming at all but instead, more of an eye sore.  I guess that's what you're to expect from a country that doesn't manufacture that many goods. 

We took a cab back to the local area and headed back into Chinatown, where I took a few other random pictures. The fruits that were in the refrigerators were just there for the fast food types. I had to have my Asian Pear; a fruit that I've really been into the last couple of months.  I ordered a half cut from the vendor and when I took my first bite, I was surprised by the taste of salt.  Of course, my surroundings were also full of dried up fish so my initial thought was that my nose and my taste buds were confused.  We jogged a bit further down so that I continue my tasting experience and still, I tasted salt.  Obviously, the pear that I had was sprinkled with some and I'm going to have to try that when I get back.  It ended up tasting pretty good. 

I gave druian another try, but I can't say that it's up there on my top 10 fruits.  Sorry mom.  I didn't even have to touch it because of the left over wrapper so I was durian smell free!!! 

The night ended hanging out with some of Charmaine's relatives at their local condo where we BBQ'd and of course, I was just completely exhausted by then.  Thanks for cooking Love and Yang.  The chicken was great but I'm sorry that I didn't go for the squid.  I'm just too American I guess.  The food was great, the company was entertained and by the time I headed back to the hotel, I would end up getting about 2 hours of sleep.  Here you see me sleeping at the dinner table.  Pretty embarrassing but boy, the 3 day tour was over!  Thanks for everything Charmaine! 

Singapore (day 2)

Day 2 was pretty much just a bunch more of me walking around the local area.  I walked to a Catholic Church where I thought that there would be a daily mass, but I read the sign the day prior all wrong.  So, I just sat there and gazed upon the architecture and mediated a little bit then headed out again. 

Walking towards Chinatown, I had the chance to really experience the local grocery / shopping life with little tourist influence.  I was fascinated by the various types of fruits that one could choose and how relatively inexpensive they were.  Shops were lining up the streets, some with refrigerators filled with cut fruit for the on to go shopper and other with the latest an greatest in technology.  There was dried fish, an Apple iPhone store, dead fish, live fish, hanging ducks and chicken, plasma television, and some other herbs and random items that I have never smelled or seen before.  It definitely put me on sensory overload.  I saved all the shopping and fruit tasting for a latter day and after walking around for almost 2.5 hours, it was time for lunch.  I headed back to Central Mall to meet up with my friend. 

We headed to a mall food court and ate at a Japanese Hot Plate restaurant which was quite delightful.  Making it a short lunch, we bought some donuts on the way out and then I made my way back to the hotel.  The day was so hot that I once again found myself being a little lazy and took a nap.  The plan for the night would include hanging out with Charmaine's co-workers at a local restaurant followed by some true Singaporean Clubbing. 

Side note: I'm going to admit that I could just only barely recognize the English that was being spoken by the meer fact that the accent was too much to make out.  After a while, I got use to it but I can't say that I have ever heard that type of English mix. 

Charmaine's friends were very accommodating and had a lot of patience with me frequently asking them to repeat themselves.  It was a little embarrassing, but I got over it.  I hope that they did.  Everyone took their turns asking me questions and I tried my best to entertain them.  It definitely would have been great to bring some of my American friends down here for the trip.  Sheena, the girl in the white headband, got us into a club called The Butter Factory ( I still don't know why it was called that ) and we hung out there until I was so exhausted that I could barely keep my eyes open.  The alcohol consumption by the locals was tremendous!  The specials from 2300 to 0000 included two for one pitchers of whatever you call.  So the initial batch was screwdrivers and cosmos and they literally filled up pitchers with these mixes, dumped a handful of straws and off you would go.  Some people were even double fisting it with one straw! 

The dance floor was far too crowded to actually even move side to side so we reverted to little drinking games that were really awesome.  I can't say that I see my friends playing these games, because they are really "girly" maybe but then again who knows.  Maybe they could be coined as really "asian" but I have no idea.  It just depends on the group I guess.  The night ended with a short walk back to the hotel (3 blocks) and I passed out.  I couldn't believe that it was down to 24 hours left and I didn't even take that many pictures. 

SIN-NRT

After learning how to list for the jumpseat from a very accommodating United Captain and First Officer, I boarded flight UA803 from Tokyo to Singapore.  I was assigned to a Business Class seat, but as the doors were about to close, the FO came back towards the aircraft to where I was sitting and then told me that there was an opening in First.  First had the full lie flat beds and I have to say that it was awesome!  I've never gotten bed head from sleeping on a plane and I was just loving every minute of it.  I'm definitely getting spoiled traveling the way that I have been in the last two trips. 

I arrived at 11:30PM on the night of the 18th, met a friend who picked me up a little later than the proposed arrival time, and we took a cab straight to my hotel.  After a quick conversation, I opted to go to sleep so that I could start the day early and head out.  Pictures if you click on "MORE"

Today has been quite adventurous as I headed out on my own straight for Fort Canning Park.   Along the way, I went into a Hindu Temple and observed some prayers being said, took pictures then headed back out.  Back to the fort, I learned that Fort Canning was a British military installation in where they eventually surrendered to the Japanese in 1942.  I took some photographs of the foliage and just made my way around the area.  I didn't do the full history brief but as I began walking around the area, I ran into an Australian Drama / Art teacher with whom I exchanged a few words and we ended up walking the entire northern area of Orchard Road and Orchard Boulevard together.  We went to an informational store front, grabbed a couple of brochures and continued to just walk and look at all the shopping that was paving the entire way.   With construction lining up the walkways and tall buildings in their infancy, I can't say that Orchard Road was that much of a sight.  It's nothing less of a bourgeoning downtown.  Different indeed with all the food places around cooking BBQ and such along the sidewalks, but there were a couple of Starbucks', Coffee Beans, and the much favored 7/11s littering the area.  Globalization at its best really. 

We hurried back, after walking ~15KM, to where my friend Charmaine worked and went out to lunch.  Just earlier that morning, my friend Sean mentioned that I should hit up the Maxwell Food Court for some Chicken Rice and Singapore Chili Crab and we did just that.  The crab wasn't out yet, but Charmaine introduced White Carrot Cake, Oyster something and some coconut chicken dish I grabbed the sugar cane drinks.  It was great!  I'm sweating like crazy and haven't even pissed out the 1L water that I drank and a Gatorade that I downed plus the Snapple that I had for breakfast!

 

ATL-NRT-SIN

I'm going to stop saying sorry for updates, but looks like I'll finish up the Eilat / Cairo blog and insert it right before this post.  As for now, I'm sitting in the ATL airport after coming in on a Nap (ATL-BQK-ATL in 14 hours) headed for NRT then connecting to Singapore on Northwest or United.  I tried picking up an ID 75 on Singapore Airlines but it would have costed me ~$600 one way!  So, now I'm trying to book a hotel because it is looking good that I might be able to make the NRT trip, but then we'll see from there.  I'm trying to jumpseat because I don't want to use the rest of my transoceanic flight privileges which were degraded last December.  Wish me luck because I'll be needing all of it. Update: I just got assigned 11A only because the gate agent was nice enough to tell me that if I jumpseated, I would have been sitting in the back.  I just hope that this doesn't hit me in the butt when I try another transocenaic trip later on this year.  I mean, in reality, I don't think that I'll be hitting up Asia or Europe more than 1 more time this year.

Bus, $50 Cab for 15KM, Back 2 US / Afterthoughts

Well, the 5 hour bus ride wasn't that bad at all, but being that it almost cost the same amount as riding (ID90) on Arkira, Israel's domestic flag carrier, I still thought that it would be better to hang out with my buddies.  I caught some good glimpses of the desert, then more desert, and that was all there was to see really.  We stopped a few times for restroom breaks and snacks, but soon enough, it was time to say goodbye.  We tried quite a bit to find better methods of transportation to the airport but it was still early Saturday afternoon and the trains weren't in service because of Shabat.  We negotiated with a cab down to $50 and he made it seem like it was far, but once we got on the freeway, I saw a sign that said Ben Gurion was only 15 KM!  I was pissed.  What kind of country or business charges that much for travel.  I guess that fuel is quite a bit, but it was ridiculous!  He didn't even help with baggage which I guess was normal in Israel.  I was lucky to get on board again and saw some familiar faces from the trip prior and that was that.  To sum it up, I'm going to have to head back to Tel Aviv and actually do the Holy Land Tour but I'm definitely going to be taking a significant other!

Afterthoughts:  I can't say that I was too pleased with the level of service that a country like Israel had.  The cab drivers were rude and ready to take your money.  They weren't friendly at all and didn't even move a muscle to help you out with baggage.  They would even charge more for bags!  The prices of drinks, food and hotels were extremely overpriced, but I guess that my story is bias being that I went to a resort town.  The initial impression of Israel wasn't a too positive one, but I never shut things out.  I'll definitely give it another shot.  Maybe later than sooner, but for sure I will.  Egypt was for sure a one time deal, but like I said before, I would do it again only if there was a large group who wanted to know and learn more about the Nile and its surrounding economics and history.  I wouldn't recommend the tour again as we probably could have done it ourselves for cheaper, but 20/20 hindsight, it made it that much less of a hassle to travel around Egypt. 

DONE!!!

Now onto Tokyo / Singapore / Manila / Hong Kong!

Hilton Queen of Sheeba

We headed for the Queen of Sheeba relative early (Friday check-in) in order to feel what it was like to live the "better" life of glitz and glamour.  Bottom line, we just wanted a good pool at a nice hotel to chill at.  The Red Sea is awesome but it was a little cold and man the Hilton was amazing!  We checked in, headed up to the business suite, ate a little bit of what they offered for appetizers, played on the Internet, booked out tickets back on the bus for Tel Aviv and then went up to the room once they handed us the keys.  Our room was gorgeous!  It had two separate rooms each with its own bathrooms, a kitchenette, huge balcony, living room, and even dining room.  Yes, it was truly amazing.  I ended up getting an upgrade because of my gold VIP status and what a room.  We started getting little gifts for Shabat (a large loaf of bread and wine), bottles of water, a thank you card, a welcome card...people just didn't stop coming into the room! 

We got dressed and headed for the pool.  It was just a great afternoon to hang out and relax.  I had a chance to recuperate from the bug that was still eating my stomach poolside and I couldn't have had it any other way.  One word sums it up...beautiful...young men and women of Israeli descent hanging out poolside with their oversize Gucci / Louis Vuitton sunglasses, owning the world.  It was ridiculous.  Everyone there was with a significant other except my colleagues and I and it really just made me miss Adelle a lot more.  Prior to the trip, I was really egging her on, but the instability of the region wasn't a highlight in the trip proposal and I didn't want to fight it that much so it was known that I would be traveling by myself.  We spent the entire day at the pool with the idea of hitting up a local nightclub and of course, I still went out thinking I was going to dance the last night in Israel away, but I called it a night after standing in line for a couple of minutes.  I walked back, enjoyed the sights and went to bed.  I woke up just before breakfast was to close and was greeted with a huge buffet!  First class for sure.  The difference was was that I had an appetite and ready to get some food in me before the 5 hour trip back to Tel Aviv.  I had my fill, packed up quick and headed for the bus station.  The trip was coming to an end. 

Coming back to Eilat

Wednesday:  We headed straight for the hostel that night after the 5 hour van ride back to Eilat from Cairo.  Crossing the border on the way back wasn't that much of an issue at all compared with the day prior.  With just a few questions asked and after they found out we were students and that my colleagues were on the Israel Birthright (Taglit) trip, it was all good. 

Arriving that night, I was feeling a pretty good headache coming on.  I don't recall anything that was notable at the moment but I know that we ended up hanging out for a bit and then I called it a night.  Actually, we got some food by the beach around 11:00PM where we were entertained by the European Finals Soccer Finals - Manchester vs. Chelsea.  It was a great game and the food wasn't that bad either. 

I couldn't really eat anything that morning at breakfast, but I tried.  We figured we would hit up the snorkeling / scuba diving thing, but by then, my stomach had already turned over a couple of times.  Heading to the beach, I still didn't feel right and almost thought that I shouldn't go at all, but I tried to be a sport.  Trying to analyze what was causing my demise, we could only pinpoint it to shawarma, milk in my coffee from the breakfast in Egypt or maybe, maybe the dressing on the salad.  I'll award the bug to the fast food side shop in Egypt. 

The little spot of sand that was out there proved to be quite pricey.  After renting out some chairs for the afternoon at $15 each and then looking at the snorkeling stuff, it wasn't going to be cheap at all!  The drinks were over priced and ridiculous.  Bobby had some goggles and I jumped in after a bit of resting / tanning and swam for a bit.  I saw all the fish I cared for and called it quits.  I wanted to get some physical activity as I as already acting like a dead fish.  I was on vacation darnit and didn't want a little stomach bug to destroy that but it was getting the best of me for sure. 

After a brief couple of hours, I decided to head back.  It was already late in the afternoon, so once again, I ended up back at the hostel, my stomach in rotten mode and unforgiving,  I crashed pretty hard after a quick shower until the roomies came back.  I was awaken by my good friend, Doctor Nourani who helped me out with some pills and apple juice.  I was really messed up and dehydrated especially with all the trips to the bathroom.  I knew that I didn't look good either and was in dire need of some help.  At one point I was thinking of heading to the hospital for an IV bag!  I knew what my body needed, but I couldn't get anything done!  I ended up just sleeping it off and praying that I would feel better.  The dreams that I had were a little crazy and psychedelic.  It's really hard to explain but there was something in my dream that I had to figure out in order to help physical myself and even though I knew the answer, I couldn't see it.  Well, when I figured it out after much frustration, I woke up feeling a little bit better, but still only 70%.  Definitely a lot better though than the previous day but it wasn't like I was going to run a 10K or anything.  Thanks for taking care of me guys.

Two Day Whirlwind Tour (part 2)

The pool at the hotel was a definite bust as the bottom was dirty and we just weren't feeling it.  After a tiresome van ride, bogus shop tour and quicky museum trip, we just wanted to kick back Egyptian style.  Our tour guide had a hard time understanding that we wanted to see the nightlife and just hang out, but we ended up calling it a night after a dinner at the hotel.  We woke up early the next morning to a breakfast buffet where I had quite a few cups of coffee with some milk.  More on that later.  We headed straight to the Pyramids at Giza where we had a chance to ride some camels and even race a little bit.  The pyramids were definitely quite an awesome sight.  You really don't get to realize them in all their glory because of how fast the tour is and I guess it's safe to say that I'm still amazed that I even got to check them out.  I do have to admit though that it is a one time show.  I'm not going to be aching to go back anytime soon.  Maybe it was the heat or just the general mess but maybe with a bunch of other people on a 1 week Egyptian safari to Alexandria and the rest of the Nile might be worthwhile.  Here are a few pictures below.     

We also got to check out the Sphinx and we posed with some really provactive stances, but it all didn't work out because we lost a camera on the way home from Eilat to Tel Aviv later that week. 

After the Sphinx, we check out a Protestant Church, Jewish Temple and a Muslim Mosque.  Went to a jewelry store to check out some Egyptian gold, headed to some cotton place and went to a place where they sell perfumes.  I started to get a light headache by the time we were all said and done in the perfume shop due to the overwhelming amount of aromas in the closed room. 

We caught some lunch at a Shawarma (gyro type thing) place alongside the road (I wouldn't recommend <-- more on that later) and then made out way to the last stop which was an open market plaza.  We got a quick chance to tour around but we ended up not buying anything.  I saw some great replica watches, but when it came down to it, I didn't think that I would wear anything.  We got back on the bus where I started to really feel dehydrated and sick and headed back to Eilat.  That night is when I just started hurting.  To say the least, I was on the toilet every other hour throughout the next few days.  =(  I couldn't pinpoint on whether it was the milk in the morning or the fastfood place that we dined at for lunch or maybe just the overall shock, but I didn't eat (or was scared to eat) for the following two days.  I couldn't even get myself to go snorkeling or diving in the Red Sea.  I just about called it quits.  I did get better on the day prior to us leaving as we stayed at the Hilton Queen of Sheeba Resort!  That was awesome. 

June Schedule

For those of you that did not notice, I didn't have a regular June Schedule posted for quite a while.  This is due to the fact that I kept on switching things around in Open Time and now, there you have it.  Yes I have been "off" for the greater part of the month, but as you can see, I'll be working the next couple of days.  I'll still be trying to build up trips and make them longer so that I could get paid a little more, but as of now, this is it.  It's definitely a pretty light load though don't you think?