June - July 2007

I've been wanting to get a little blog started in order to let my peoples know what's going on with me, where I am, what I am up to. I wouldn't really need or want to do a blog if I were closer to family and friends, but it's a necessity because I am far away and relatively simple because the technology exists to let me do it, so......

I will be putting my 2007 experiences here over the next couple of days, even though they are finished or happened some time ago, I should put up some pictures or something anyway!

Let's start off with June 2007:

After a relatively light travel schedule throughout the spring of 2007 due to the heavy workload at University due to the international admissions period and evaluations etc, June ushered in the possibility to do a bit of travelling. I went to Portland, Oregon for a few days for work. Portland is a pretty cool town. I'd never been to the Northwest since becoming an adult, and luckily I had a few contacts and therefore apart from work, which was pretty uneventful and thankfully a no-go in the end, I had a good couple days around town with a couple friends and then headed out to Cannon Beach on the coast for a couple days, which was really nice, if a bit cool for a beach.

I then had a couple of weeks back in Milan before I headed out to Hong Kong. HK is a great town, but there's a limit to the amount of time one can spend there by oneself without going crazy if not into shopping round the clock. Since I am not really a shopper, after the first few days it was a bit tedious with the oppressive heat! I love Asian culture, I just wish HK had a bit more of it! I was actually there for a conference in which I was a speaker and so I had my things to do, which went relatively well, but then as things fell through with a friend who was supposed to visit me there, I had a few days to myself and really didn't do too much. The only thing I really wanted to do was to find something really unique to bring home, but with all of HK's shopping malls, all I seemed to find were things imported from the west. Finally i found an old man selling Buddhas carved out of pieces of wood in a square in Kowloon. He was very nice, we shared a few cigarettes (I couldn't refuse his hospitality) and I brought home 3 wonderful Buddhas, which I will post pictures of. There is a picture of the old man on this blog as well.

I got home and then had just a couple days to relax (well, not really, I went straight from the airport to work) before I had to head to Seattle for several days for personal reasons. The trip was long and over 28 hours. Seattle seemed to be a nice city as well, if not as funky as Portland. Had some nice hospitality from a couple guys there involved in Dubstep, and so I got to know a few more people. Always nice to make personal contacts where you go. Makes things much more pleasant and enjoyable when you return, or when I have the opportunity to take them in as guests in the future....

G