12/26/2012

Holiday reading

Eve before Christmas Eve
Waiting for the barbarians
Seeing the real humanity

Christmas Eve
Kabalmysteriet
Realizing your existence and thoughts

Christmas day
The Baker Street letters
Poorly written suspense novel

Boxing Day
L'élégance du hérisson
Work in progress... Shall report back


12/24/2012

when first world meets the third

long long time ago, I read a book called turning mountain (in mandarin)

life is turning and turning and more non stop turning

you're sitting on a chair, and you still haven't stopped turning

day by day, most of us live life like ants

we get caught up in loopholes

we take pictures of ourselves and post it on facebook, refreshing every 30 seconds to see who "like" it.

instead of having a good time hanging out with friends, we choose to spend time taking photos to show it off on facebook

people in third world live better than first world, in the heart

first world problems are meaningless when moved to third world countries

first world issues are laughable when seeing how third world lives

first world people are empty when meeting third world children

of course, not all first world are what is described above. but there are plenty, there are plenty.

the australian boy, gabe

We met at the airport going from Lima to Cusco in Peru.
Him and his female friend sat across me in the waiting benches, waiting for the gate to open and of course obviously, because we are in South America, it's "south american punctuality". I was on the fourth day of my travels and asked them to confirm that I am at the right gate going to Cusco.

"Hey, this is the gate for flight at 10:30 to Cusco right?"

"Yeah, we are on the same flight."

"Cool, where you guys from?"

"Australia, my friend is travelling with me for a month and then I am off by myself to Bolivia then Argentina."

"Really! I am on the same route as you!"

"Well, let me leave you my email, we could meet up again (write down his email on my "fuck you and your blog" journal, and I also ripped a paper out and wrote mine)"


We didn't meet up until La Paz in Bolivia, a month later.

On one of the busy intersection of La Paz's busiest tourist district,

"Gabe!"

"Jenny!"

Gabriel is from possibly the most boring town in Australia, Canberra. He was a trouble child, getting into trouble in school and eventually dropped out of high school and did not complete university till he was 26. His parents broke up relations with him until recently. His sister is even worse as she does not like hanging out with family, even during Thanksgiving and Christmas season. He decided to travel to South America to record sounds. Sound of the street, the alleyway, the wood workers, the party shouts, the bus driving by and the singing of the Amazon birds. He turns out to be a slightly famous Australian DJ doing gigs for festivals and clubs. He is tall, slightly fat and always carries his recorder. He has a interesting way of controlling his finances, he rather spend extra money on private rooms than eating a good healthy meal. He sleeps for 3 days straight and parties for one big night then continue 3 days of sleeping. He stays quiet for a long duration and can not be disturbed by crap music. He gets angry at crap music, aka, mainstream music.