Link to my good-bye post to Francesca.

http://francescagalarus.blogspot.com/2009/12/one-classy-holiday.html

a farewell list

Dear Tori,

I know you have an affinity for lists, so I`m going to make this goodbye as list-like as possible. It will probably also make it easier to read considering your yet-to-be diagnosed dislexia.

First is an easy list of thank yous that will probably never be complete -
1. Thank you for being the first (and possibly) only friend to come and visit me in South America. No one has even the hope of an excuse next to you, considering you were living in Korea 6 short months ago.
2. Thank you for basically being my South American mom - reading maps, rationing out hand sanitizer, teaching me how to use Western Union, streering me away from creepy men, always carrying the purse, finding everything I lose, etc. etc. etc.
3. Thank you for essentially planning this entire trip.
4. Thank you for eating ice cream with me every day and for taking me out to McDonald`s to celebrate the exact moment I turned 24 with dulce de leche sundaes.
5. Thank you for occasionlly indulging me in turning left even though you`re 100 percent positive that where we need to be is just to our right. You know I`m not an ambi-turner.
6. Thank you for always finding sushi.
7. Thank you for rationalizing every bad decision we ever made. You`re really good at that. Example - "It`s totally okay that we went to the completely wrong airport in Brazil because those three hours in that glass vestibule were super fun." or "We should absolutely buy ten bottles of champagne `CAUSE IT`S SO CHEAP!"

Speaking of fun, Tori, I just have to say that you`re a really fun girl. And there`s at least two people on this continent that would totally agree with me on that one. Everything from day 2 in Sao Paulo when you broke your fall by pulling my hair, to your first step in Columbia being into a big pile of dogshit, to getting robbed on the subway in Buenos Aires has been pretty fucking hilarious and here goes the list part -
I will never ever think of
1. toucans;
2. Evita Peron, Phil Collins or Mariah Carey;
3. a certain, unmentionable color of punch buggies;
4. cockroaches;
5. Austrailians, all things and people Argentine or anyone named Javier;
6. excercising (which is pretty disturbing if you use it in it`s contextual sense);
7. scary 8-year-old boys or
8. sexy 19-year-old boys
without simultaneously thinking of you.

There were also so many firsts that we experienced together on this vacation,
1. like first time we saw an elephant dick.
2. And the first time sleeping next to the same person for 52 consecutive nights. Also interesting here is that`s a rough total of about 1272 hours with each other, of which we probably spent about five of them apart.
3. We also had our first fight, which happened a week ago and lasted for about 45 seconds.
4. First time in the Pacific Ocean.
5. First time in the jungle, but we didn`t stay that long because it`s not really our bag.
6. First time seeing boobies!!!!!
7. First time seeing DJ Byetone, which I sure hope isn`t the last.

Here, I`ve also compiled a list of your mastered Spanish phrases so you can always use this as a quick reference -
1. Quiero comer los huevos - I want to eat the eggs.
2. Mira a la mierda - Look at the shit.
3. Te amo, muebles - I love you, furniture.
4. Hoy es jueves - Today is Thursday. But I know you only learned this one because you thought jueves sounded like huevos.
5. ¿Cuanto cuesta? - How much?, which you had down the very first day and never forgot.

In conclusion, the only thing that I feel is appropriate here is a quote from the beloved South American artist known only as Pitbull, which I will rearrange in list form -
1. "The dog is too stupid to lose.
2. And they're outlawed in Dade County.
3. They're basically everything that I am.
4. It's been a constant fight."

I think that about sums it up.

1. Love you,
2. miss you already even though you are sitting right next to me.
3. Keep it classy,
-F



you and me and pitbull

South America vs North America

Ever wander where some classic things from North American culture end up?
Well all you old favorites are in South America:

Rat-tails and mullets are prodomiently found in the more developed cities like Buenos Aires or
Santiago among the youth... They are very fashionable down here.

Scrunchy socks are in Brazil.

80´s music dominates the airwaves in most countries.

The genie pant is on every female in Buenoa Aires.

The USA´s late 70´s and early 80´s obvious and abundant cocaine use is normal here.

The Classic Volkswagon Beetle can be found in every country, but they are literally everywhere in
Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.

Scrunchies are in every women`s hair throughout the continent.

Sacagwea dollar coins are one of the most popular currencies in Ecuador.

In other stories though, I got pick-pocketed on our first day in Buenos Aires.
We weren´t as careful as we usual are and just had our guard down on the
subway. It totally sucks, but luckily we only had the equvilient of $100 US
dollars on us and our cards we were able to cancel.

Buenos Aires it self has been ridiculous ly fun. We have been out with some great people
and having a blast in the city from going to dinner parties, discos and bars... actually we
haven´t been doing much sight seeing,but instead sleeping till three. This has definitely
been my favorite city and I don´t want to leave!

I do however miss a few select things from the USA:

Toliet paper in stalls.

Toliet seats.

To go coffee.

Using credit cards everywhere.

ATM locations everywhere.

Cheap plane tickets.

Good cocktails, beer and TEQUILA.

Breakfast.

Dishwashers.

How ham does not come on everything.

But that´s about all I miss.

It has been awhile, but I am still South America.

I have made it through Peru and Chile and am in Mendoza, Argentina now. Itś hard to blog because I have had a lot of computer troubles. Mendoza is most like suburban USA, besides for the whole wine and mountain thing. We went white water rafting today. I got an xs wetsuit to pair with an xl helmet. Some how I ended up on the front of the raft and was one of the steer leaders... hilarious.

A quick overview though... we have been traveling by bus and have seen amazing things from the windows, such as sunsets in the pacific ocean, endless deserts and towns built from plywood. Bus travel, although draining, has been an incrediable way to see these countries. It sucks though cause my pictures do no justice to what I have seen.

I only have two weeks left on my vacation and get thrown back into the real world. I am already getting nervous about finding a job and starting over again. I am giving some serious thought in to possibly traveling more next year. Next stop though is Buenos Aires and I am really excited about that part of my trip. I hope to post more pictures soon, but will definitely upload a lot once I return home.

Crazy Ecuador.

One of the many photos of Francesca and I running through one of two churches with no one around.
The blue-footed boobie mating!
The view from our ocean front cabana eating breakfast every morning in Peurto Lopez.
The other church we ran through uninhabited like a jungle gym.

Fat, poor woman in a plastic chair... Ecuador.

If I give each country a category so far then Brazil would be hot and drunk, Columbia would be safe and quick and Ecuador would be random. In no real order I am going to list these random events for you in keeping with the idea that this is Ecuador.

1. Filming TV commercials to teach Ecuadorians English.
2. A seven year old waiter and six year old food runner.
3. Being asked out by our tour guide what we assume for is to grab a drink at a bar only to be led to the beach at night and be questioned why I am not drinking... ummm I am not a dumb girl.
4. A family of four on a motorcycle.
5. A father and his three kids on a bicycle.
6. Motorcycles converted into Taxis.
7. Buses picking up hitch hikers.
8. Four dollar four hour bus rides.
9. Beret wearing bar owners.
10. Red Kabala strings.
11. Running around churches with no one there...
12. Ringing the bells in churches.
13. Stumbling upon monks rooms accidentally, while roaming around a museum then being asked to leave that same museum.
14. Djs preforming in a theater with everyone sitting and no one dancing.
15. Cab drivers chasing down buses.
16. People coming on buses selling everything from hamburgers to coconut water.
17. Karaoke bars singing, "Sexo!"
18. Stairs and hills.
19. Don Cherry the tour guide, who actually never was our tour guide.
20. Nineteen year old boys.
21. Grandma's cooking us dinner and feeding us dusty empanadas.
22. Cockroaches in our cabana.
23. Sleeping under mosquito nets.
24. Surfing and getting stung by jellyfish.
25. Seeing a dead sea turtle, blow fish, birds, snapper and hamster.
26. Ecuador's black outs.... cities having the electricity turned out for hours at a time everyday because they are poor or lack of energy.
27. Sleeping on the beach.
28. Thousands of sand dollars.
29. Children of the corn escorting us to our tour boat.
30. Jumping of a boats roof into the ocean to snorkel with huge fish.

I am positive there is more, but that is what stands out.

Getting to Quito

So, I was only in Columbia for a short amount of time. But It was the safest city so far and I found out the men with guns in our neighborhood where there cause the president lives there, which makes sense. Our trip to Ecuador though was a 35 hours adventure in itself.

It started with a 30 minute cab ride through Bogota in a cab playing all of Mariah Careys greatest hits. After purchasing our tickets and stuffing our faces with food we entered our bus. It was comfortable and it was fine for the first leg winding through mountains that literally broke through clouds. Then we stopped. A man with a mchine gun came on and told us to get out. At this point I thought we were being robbed. I started to feel better as one of the men grabbed my hand to help me of the bus and smiled at me. I thought at very least if the other guuy was planning to shoot us all maybe this guy would have my life spared. Of course Francesca and I started walking to the male line and then they started to laugh at us. Then we walked over to the female line with a man with a large gun was waiting for us. He just wanted to check our bags for cocaine. Soon we were aloud back on the bus and we carried on our way.

We stop for an amazing dinner with mixto rice and chicken and everything seemed fine. Until about an hour into being back on the nus passing all these amazing little villages that I wish I could have photographed we stopped again. This time for nearly two hours. The light outside quickly became dark and we weren{t going anywhere. Apparently, a car over turned up the road. Eventually we started moving arond seven and the bus driver apparently thought it would be agood time for us to go to bed. He turned off the lights and turned the air up and we were forced to sleep. Which would have been fine, besides the fact that it was unbelievably cold. Everyone else was prepared with blankets and jackets and Francesca and I tossed and turned snuggling at some points trying to warm our convulsing bodies because we were shivering so badly at some points. Morning finally came and it warmed the bus up. We stoppped again i the morning for breakfast and I passed out. When I awoke we were at our destination in Ipiales. We grabbed a cab to take us to this amazing church built over a river and then to the border. People were everywhere offering taxis, money exchange everything. It was overwhelming. As we got our exit stamp from Columbia and where walking towards Ecuador we were stopped again by armed men who were nice enough. One searched Francescas bag and another checked mine. He kept talking to me and I didn{t know what he didn{t understand about me not being able to speak spanish. Then an armed women came over and felt me up looking for drugs. We were obviously clean and then allowed to walk into Ecuador.

Yes, you guessed it we were stopped again. This tiem by an armed Ecuadarian Policia. We went into aroom, where he really only checked my things. He went through my wallet and asked how much cash I had. Francesca translated around one fifty. Appareantly, I had more. At first I thought Heas going to keep what I didn{t say I had, but know he really wanted me to count with him in Spanish. It was kind of ridiculous. He picked up one of my tampons not really knowing what it was, as well. He didn{t even go in Francescas things. Then we headed to immigration to get our stamp and then off for another taxi ride.

Our taxi driver was amazing. It was less then three dollars for less then a half hour drive. Ecuador is on the US dollar, too. He chased down a bus for us in his car to take us to Quito. The people from the bus ran up grabbed our luggage and Francesca and I ran down the street after them. We got on the bus where we stood out so badly. About ten minutes in to our trip we were stopped again. The bus driver guy came over to us and escorted us off to yes another armed man smoking a ciggarette. He asked for our passport and said oh, americanos... we grabbed our bags and he searched them going through my dirty underwear.

We then got back on the bus for another five hour ride through mountains and towns. At every stop people came on the bus trying to sell you anything from hamburgers and fries to water and plantain chips. At one point a passenger came on and put his chickens underneath the bus. We got to watch Fast and the Furious in Spanish and after that was over some up beat Spanish music. The bus trip seemed endless. Eventually, we pulled into the bus terminal and grabbed another cab. Our cabby told us the area we were at was kind of dangerous. It{s inbetween the new and old town.

Our hostel itself is great. The guy is so helpful and told us where to go and when. How much we should be charged for cabs and everything. He lives there with his family and me and his dog are best friends already.

Quito has been amazing. The curches are like playgrounds. No one is in most of them and we are free to climb and discover as we wish. I will tryo to post pictures soon.

Fucking Cristo

So, I am finally in Columbia in this amazing hostel. It is a series of open air courtyards with haammocks and rooms circling. Unfortunately, I am unable to upload pictures with the computer I am using at this hostel. We spent out first day here drinking the best coffee for thirty scents and three course meals for less then five dollars a piece. It´s ridiculous. It is a very different change of pace from Brazil.

In Rio you would just here music all the time. You could here it from our bedroom window. It is so peaceful and quiet here. The weather alone adds to that. It´s about sixty degress compared to Rio´s nearly hundred degree temperature everyday.


Everybody says how dangerous Colombia it is and yes I think at a particular moment in time back in the 80´s it was. But I feel safer here then in Brazil. I thought I was continuously going to get robbed by the ten year boys. One threw something at me when I didn´t give him money. Obviously, it isn´t America safe here. There are police everywhere and soldiesr with machine guns, but in caomparison this is safer.

Rio was also crazy just cause the blending of culture. Everyone was a different color and size. Unlike America where we label blacks: African American asians: Asian Americans and so on. They are just Brazilian and proud of it. And there are not Giseles and Adriana Limas runing around everywhere. The majority of the women are very plus size and they all where the smallest bikinis ever. It´s kind of gross. There are signs on the bus that says give your seat up for heavy people. I think people ar emore obese there then in the USA.

We hung out a lot on the streets in Lapa and Santa Theresa, where you colud drink outside and dance. The only problem is I can´t samba, but I tried and everytime you danced with someone they tried to make out with you. When I would be look, ¨Sorry, no¨ they didn´t understand why. Everyone here makes out everywhere. I watched a helicoptor and life guards pull someone out of the water and right near this whole scene at the beach, people are standing in the water going at it.

All in all Brazil was a lot of fun, but I am glad to be out of there. Even though leaving was such a process. We went to the wrong airport, had to take a taxi to the other airport, where we had to wait in a vestibule (which we could havve been robbed at anytime). We had to watch out for huge cockroaches and finally when the airport open they were giving Francesca shit about not having a ticket out of South America. It was just ridiculous. But everything about Brazil is ridiculous.

South American Adventure

Pictures are soon to come, but as of now let me brief you on my current situation. I came home from Korea in June and went to taiwan right before I came back (I will when I return home post the ast of my Korea and Taiwan pictures). I camehome ultimately because of the stress of my job and the fighting with them over money and because I knew my boyfriend was going to break up with me. So after many months of couch surfing (thanks Kate) and 90 hour work weeks I treated myself to this one last adventure to meet my friend Francesca in Brazil.

I can´t be more clear when I tell you no planning was put in this trip. One random day in June she asked me to go with her and I worked my ass off until I got on the plane to afford it. So when the day came to leave it was slightly surreal. I slept bascially the whole flight becasue it was at night and in the morning I opened the window and was like holy shit I am in Brazil. This is the fourth country I flown to by myself and you still get that uneasy feeling of like where the hell am I going. But I made it to the hostel in Sao Paulo, where Francesca was waiting for me. Our hostel was great; clean, accomandating and everything was free to use. We knew we were being spoiled to what we are probably going to encounter on the rest of our trip.

Sao Paulo is a huge city. The first night was pretty tame ending up in their china town and eating at there equivilant of Thai Lake (late night chinese food place in Philly). The we had a night cap of capíhrina´s. The sceonf day we explored the city which is endless, covered in graffiti (some beautiful and some ugly) and full of women wearing really tight clothing with their guts hanging out. The downtown/ historic area is kind of poor and at night we went to a more upscale part of town to go to dinner at an over priced sushi restautant. We did go to a total expat bar called OMalley´s: Your Home Away From Home. The Phillies game was and we met to really nice Braziliam men. Afterwards I got something to eat with the one and we went for a small tour of Sao Paulo.

We just got into Rio and getting to out hostel was a bitch. All the ATMs to get money out were broken and the taxi´s would not accept credit cards. In the midst of this I realized I left a bag with ahlf my clothes on the bus. Half out of the basically 14 items of clothing which I brought leaves me with practically nothing. Finally we found a working ATM, made it to the hostel and now am going to start my Rio adventure with a friend of a friend back in Philadelphia.

Catchy Korean song.

This is not one of my favorites, but it is always gets stuck in my head.

Korean music.

My new favorite Korean pop song. I like the outfits better in the first video, but the sound quality is better in the second.

Jinok.

So I said good-bye to my Korean friend the other night. We went out for Korean barbecue and then to the arcade... I turned into a 13 year old again in Korea. She is a ridiculously nice girl and was so helpful to me. However, I think she was more upset that she never got to meet my boyfriend. I was actually sad saying good-bye. We exchanged email information and stuff, but I probably won't be back to Korea and as Koreans get older it is more and more difficult for them to travel. She does really want to come to the USA one day and of course New York. So maybe one day I'll show her around.

Jeju.

Me.

These ladies go in to the ocean and dive and catch all this seafood. They will serve it to you raw and fresh with a bottle of soju. These women are at every coastal tourist spot. It's only women that dive and do this. These aren't young ladies either. The one on the right was pissed I took her picture and didn't buy anything. 

Waterfall.

Rather large Buddhist temple.

There were 80,000 small gold plated Buddhas encased around the second floor of the temple.

Bunker.

Lava rocks.

Canyon created by lava flow. (tour guide and the kids we were on tour with are pictured)

Jeju is a tourist trap from hell. They have every kind of museum you can think of; African, Sex, Teddy Bear Museum, etc. The kids we were on the tour with went the day before and were taking pictures of there bears at all the sites. 

Literally each region of Korea is represented by a cartoon.

White peacock.

The hike up to a huge dormant volcanic crater was guided by an old, rusty barbed wire fence.

The view as we hiked up.

This looks like nothing, but this is the crater. There are no fences or anything around the edge. Literally, you could fall 70 meters to the bottom if rock were to crumble or if you were fucken around. I couldn't go to the edge because i am deathly afraid of heights, so my pictures of it did not turn out that dramatic.

Other hikers around the crater.

Grave site near the edge. It is mound shape, but the grass have grown to high to give it any definition.

You can see more hikers in the distances coming up another angle on the hill.

Horse.

Snake sin.

Random ride.

Green tea fields... we got to drink tea from here and it was literally the best tasting green tea I ever had.

Another diver.

Barnacles.

Koreans do not swim. They wear long sleeves and gloves with an umbrella to the beach. I don't quite get why they flock to Jeju. Our tour guide say they look this way in the dead of summer and in no way was it cold, when I photographed this.

Some little kid was collecting these shells. I felt bad at first removing anything from the ocean pools. After I saw th kids doing it I climbed in and got some seashells, too.

Boat.

Taking a stroll through the city at night. So much quieter then Seoul.

Black sand.

Tour raft.

A walk through the tangerine groves (Jeju is known for them).

Abandoned house.

Random grave.

No seeds.

Seeds... looks like alien babies.

The rock the KOreans are taking a photo infront of is suppose to look like a women from the side. I sort of could make it out. It seemed like every rock form had some legend to go with it.

My two day vacation to Jeju was nice. It was great to get fresh air for a few days. The island itself is beautiful, but it is sort of manufactured beauty... they import rocks from brazil and indonesia, palm trees from the USA, coconuts from vietnam, citrus fruits from California (not tangerines though), horses from Mongolia. The island was designed for tourism and had museums and anything romately beautiful on the island turned into something for tourist. For the most part all the natrual sites are free.

I did have the best meal of KOrea here... Bibmbop. Which I had a milion times, but this time it wa served in hot stone pot, which I was concerned it would burn the rice. Instead it made it crispy and delcious. The meal was finished with fresh tangerine juice. It is one of those thins I will think about from time to time, but will never have again.

My tour guy was a Russian, who has lived in Jeju for eigth years with his family. He was great and showed us all the highlights and took us to places that normal tours wouldn't go. The oneday we were with another Russian tourist that didn't talk to us at all. The first day we were with a family; a Chinese- American, a ffrench man and their two intimadating children. They live in Beijing and their children both under eight already spoke three languages fluently. They were a nice family, but man the lady could talk and mostly tlak about herself. In all it was a good trip and I can leave KOrea now not feeling like I missed anything.