Episode XXVI: The Stars in the Ocean
9.26.07 The sun sets at about 6 p.m. here everyday. While biking at about 5:45 p.m. today, the sky was cloudy and the full moon was burning through the cracks between the clouds like a second sun. When full, the moon is much brighter than most Americans realize. The moon is astonishing.
9.30 I am so blessedly happy here at times. Of course, there's never been a time in my life when I could go more than a few days without being able to say that.
10.5 It's night. It is 77 degrees. I'm cold. The artwork for Graduation (especially the sequence with the bear in the city streets at night) is exactly how it feels to graduate. V.'s mother died last week so I hadn't been over to his house in a few days. Went over last night. I'm going to miss him when I have to leave. My American mom sent me a mix cd. I think it's the first one she's ever made--she clearly took no care in sequencing. I'm listening to Floyd's "Us & Them" which, on Dark Side, doesn't actually end but just bleeds into the next song. So I have my headphones turned up a bit because the song is kind of quiet, and then, WHAM, the opening riff of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" scares the **** out of me.
10.16 I like where I am right now: I don't really miss anyone anymore, I'm halfway through my time here, I'm comfortable, and I've let go of caring what other Americans think of me. I like these lyrics: "So he slept on a mountain/ In his sleeping bag underneath the stars/ He would lie awake and count them/ And the great fountain spray of the great Milky Way/ Would never let him die alone"
10.17 This past Saturday night we had a party at a hotel, a farewell for one of the Americans who is soon to leave. We were hanging out on the rooftop of the two-story building that looks right down into the ocean, and someone thought he saw some phosporesence in the water below. Turned out to be the stars reflecting in the ocean.
10.21 The passport I'm using to get to Vietnam (I have two) has my old address in Pamplona penciled into the space for my overseas address. And the space for my permanent address has my mom and dad's house in Ohio, which I will have to change. Something about having two passports with a foreign country written into the "permanent address" lines... kinda cool.
Vivo sin vivir en mi
Y de tal manera espero
Que muero porque no muero
-San Juan de la Cruz
9.30 I am so blessedly happy here at times. Of course, there's never been a time in my life when I could go more than a few days without being able to say that.
10.5 It's night. It is 77 degrees. I'm cold. The artwork for Graduation (especially the sequence with the bear in the city streets at night) is exactly how it feels to graduate. V.'s mother died last week so I hadn't been over to his house in a few days. Went over last night. I'm going to miss him when I have to leave. My American mom sent me a mix cd. I think it's the first one she's ever made--she clearly took no care in sequencing. I'm listening to Floyd's "Us & Them" which, on Dark Side, doesn't actually end but just bleeds into the next song. So I have my headphones turned up a bit because the song is kind of quiet, and then, WHAM, the opening riff of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" scares the **** out of me.
10.16 I like where I am right now: I don't really miss anyone anymore, I'm halfway through my time here, I'm comfortable, and I've let go of caring what other Americans think of me. I like these lyrics: "So he slept on a mountain/ In his sleeping bag underneath the stars/ He would lie awake and count them/ And the great fountain spray of the great Milky Way/ Would never let him die alone"
10.17 This past Saturday night we had a party at a hotel, a farewell for one of the Americans who is soon to leave. We were hanging out on the rooftop of the two-story building that looks right down into the ocean, and someone thought he saw some phosporesence in the water below. Turned out to be the stars reflecting in the ocean.
10.21 The passport I'm using to get to Vietnam (I have two) has my old address in Pamplona penciled into the space for my overseas address. And the space for my permanent address has my mom and dad's house in Ohio, which I will have to change. Something about having two passports with a foreign country written into the "permanent address" lines... kinda cool.
Vivo sin vivir en mi
Y de tal manera espero
Que muero porque no muero
-San Juan de la Cruz
posted by rjs at 11:13 PM
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