nothing else compares.

i'm on an update spree!
this is our kitchen. that's brianna's legs,
my troll & wooden rocking horse.
she told me the trolls with a jewel for a belly button
are called treasure trolls. & when she was a child,
she used to try so hard to flatten their hair

"if you understood his paintings, you'd be in tears before them"

come to think of it,
i was actually in tears before one of them last year,
trying to write a 10 page research paper on no.3/no.13,
the night before it was due!

but i like rothko a lot,
& i can't wait till my poster^ arrives.

SKY TREE.
a tribute to 3-d Foundation.
i should start makin' my wire & plaster wings,
so i can fly like a clanky metal bird~

to "jade dragon snow mountain" we went!
chinese--->english direct translations
sound somewhat silly most of the time.
but i think it sounds poetic & nice in chinese
(yu long xue shan)
i guess this is what they mean by
lost in translation.

time for some fun, gus!

.call it a ritual.
especially after
being offered
unlimitted
little
silver
gobblets
of
rice wine.

we live in a wonderland.
but i look worried.

*please work*

i watched several bright butterflies
flutter obsessively around a withering flower.
dozens of orange wings flapping densely in the air,
pushing, tugging, picking at it in a disturbing manner.

then i realized it was not a flower,
it was a dead butterfly.
it was as if they were trying
desperately to coax or plead it back to life.

they speak
in a language we can't understand.
but sometimes we can try to,
and just sometimes, who knows,
we might be right.
i think/hope so.

LUNAR ASPARAGUS.
so after 1 day of searching for an exacto knife,
i was informed by my roommate, brianna,
that there is a big box of assorted ones in her drawer.

you deserve a big bowl of coffee ice cream B.
- - - - - -
:::YOU WILL BE ALRIGHT:::
(even more than ALL RIGHT, actually).
the universe will make sure of it.
: : : : :
oh and part of this is to
convince myself of this as well.

this is brianna.
she likes to giggle alot.

regarding used bookstores,

in palm springs, i had hoped with all my might
that love in the time of cholera was there.
and it was!

at logos, i had hoped with all my might
that a vonnegut book was there.
and it was!

today at logos again, i had hoped with all my might
that an old deliciously smelling bell jar was there.
and it was!

now my bookshelf is on it's way
to becoming beautiful.

also, at the bookshop santa cruz,
in a box of used books,
i found all 5 of my favorite books.
(but i didn't purchase them,
because i already have all of them).

my foolishness in time management
results in venturing into
the early morning writing a paper about
population change, the environment,
subsistence systems, and technology.
well, i am finished(with the draft).

i think i deserve sleep now.

fresh tropical fruit > dining hall fruit.

stalagmites.

"Mr. Forse said he had already used some of the bread
when he noticed "a dark-coloured object embedded
in the corner of three or four slices".

"Initially I thought it was where the dough
had not mixed properly prior to baking," he said.

"As I looked closer I saw that the object had fur on it."'

this is qian men.
i bought a pixiu ring here.
(to fend off evil spirits).
but i lost it on my last day.
oh pixiu, where art thou?

at the edge of town,
in an isolated neighborhood,
surrounded by trees,
is where NBF now lives.

thanks will(friend/ex-RA).

i took my goat-cheese bell pepper pasta
on the slope right outside our door,
sat on a wooden bench and looked
at the city lights & the monterrey bay
as i 8 my dinner.
to the left is cowell college & these trees:

we have a wondrous kitchen in our apartment.
jill made star/heart/bear shaped pancakes this morning.
it's bear o'clock!

the procrastination has already begun.
i read 1 paragraph for my first(!) upper-div class,
and stopped, to make myself lunch:
~a poppyseed bagel w/ cream cheese & turkey.
~grilled asparagus.
~kiwi for dessert.

i don't miss the dining hall.
but i still have to go in once a day
in order to use up the forced plan.

eavesdropping on conversations
(with permission of course).

"Everything is connected in life

the point is to know it
and to understand it"

today is mid autumn festival.
i left my mooncake at home.

all the pretty lights are glowing.

"but where is she going to get her babies?"

"craigslist"-jeff.

i'm sitting in jeff & alex's new haus,

watching lady gaga videos

& waiting for alex to come back from volleyball.

jeff has a shower IN his room.

i drew open the curtain,

and a strange man was standing there.

(turns out, he is the landlord)

i want to be so many things but right now,
i'm jet-lagged, having last minute panic attacks,
leaving for school in 1 day,
feeling somewhat STRANGE,
and i just want to be able to
understand the luminous spaghetti.

somethings are so beautiful that
you can't get over them for a long time.
like this gator/lizard/amphibian creature.

he glides across the surface of water,
as if floating in the air.
his tail swishes back and forth in S curves perfectly.

the sun shines & 10 seconds later, rain arrives.
i ran through the rainforest in my 7th day
unwashed(and only pair of) socks,
trying to protect lulu from drowning.
this bridge swayed back and forth.

then we met a [very] slow loris:

and an albino man!
then it cleared up and we watched peacocks fly.

xishuangbanna is a combination of han, minority,
burmese, vietnamese, and laotian culture
(as it borders the three).

burma lies on the other side of the rainforest's mountain.
vietnamese candy is sold in the marketplace.
thai architecture fills the streets and Buddhist temples.
most people speak/have learned mandarin.
& many of the women wear tropical dresses and
bright flowers in their hair.

vietnam?
i walked past a boy emptying a box of trash here.
a group of farmers yelled at him and told him to,
"dump your trash on someone else's land!"
fish farm

english+mandarin+local language

we found an outdoor market:

whole fried fish & pineapple rice wrapped in banana leaves
(i ate that for dinner at the feast later that day)

"gei wo xiao yi xiao!" i told the little girl.
she shrieked in laughter and shook her head.
her grandma(?) thought it was the funniest thing in the world
and told her to smile at the camera.

then i almost sat on a tiny almost transparent gecko.
later, i found a few baby praying mantis"es" on my arm.

in miss benson's 4th grade class,
we did a play based on The Great Kapok Tree
[A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest].
i think i was a porcupine who
had 2 lines, each consisting of one word:
"oxygen".

i remember frantically scribbling a toucan costume
with crayola markers.

i found myself in a tropical rainforest
(xishuangbanna)

at the very southern tip of southwest china.
the extreme humidity, constant rain, and isolation
makes yunnan the most eco-diverse region in china:
a refuge for monkeys & elephants,
a prosimian paradise,
and a wonderland for insects!

cousin bill and i had a fun time
scanning the forest floor for
anything bright, colorful, or textured.

yun=cloud
nan=south
yunnan=south of the clouds.

kunming, yunnan province.

with 26 minority groups,
all speaking different dialects,
yunnan province is the most
interesting, diverse, and beautiful
place i have ever visited.

maodeli!