Random Bits

:-). So I did actually intend to answer your request for travel stories, but then life got in the way. But I've decided to come up for air from a mountain of work and interact with people before I go back under again.

The short answer is that I'm not traveling anymore as of the middle of summer :-(. I'm back in school, yay, or something like that...I'm in new surroundings in a music technology graduate program at Mcgill in Montreal about to freeze my ass off in my first Montreal winter. One girl I met told me that walking outside for too long in January brought tears to her eyes...but I'm sure I'll be fine.

But anyways the traveling around was amazing and this is a great chance for me reminisce :-), now let's see...

Oh, monkeys! In India that is. One of my favorite parts about going to India is the knowledge that I'm going to see monkeys. I love monkeys! I went with my grandfather to one the temples that people make pilgrimages to in south India called Srisailam.

So I was in the line for one of the holy spots there and I noticed that there was a huge gap behind us in the line occupied by a rather large solitary monkey blocking the path up the stairs. It was just chilin', no doubt with full knowledge that it was in an inconvenient spot. So finally, a man decides to test the monkey and the monkey jumps up on the side railing and starts shreaking and playing tough by jumping from rail to rail in front of the man. Then the monkey grabs the man briefly by the collar! and they stare each other down before the monkey decides to take off :-) Definitely priceless, and fortunately I got it all on video.

I'll give you one more, and then we'll have to hang out in person if you want anymore...

So I spent a month in West Australia with Steve Andrews and Justin Mungal and we ended up befriending a group of local Margeret Riverians (I just made that word up) who put us up in their various homes and took us surfing and hiking, basically ridiculously nice people. Justin had to leave towards the end of the month I was there, but as luck would have it Kenta got a chance to visit us from Japan for the last week I was there!

The day before Kenta and I had to travel up to Perth from Margaret River to fly out, one of our friends Ben invited us to come with him to a rave in the middle of the woods about an hour outside of Perth. Highlights of the rave include: an eccentric woman who led a "laughing yoga" class, an amazing homemade sound system which could be heard miles away, and
watching a beautiful sunrise from the top of a hill overlooking a valley. The car which Steve and Justin has bought brokedown that afternoon about 10 miles away from the nearest town, but Kenta and I managed to hitch a ride from a dude who drove us an hour all the way to the airport. Unfortunately, we had to leave Steve with the brokendown car and the tow truck...