fiji

fiji was AWEsome for many reasons.

#1 – this:

fiji, originally uploaded by suddenly.

#2 – we stayed at a resort and made new friends from all over the world. we played a ton of board games (trivial pursuit, scattergories, pictionary) and card games (hearts, asshole). another favorite pastime was teasing the guy from the netherlands about dutch ovens and “6 to 8 black men” (read explanation after the jump).

#3 – we went snorkeling in the south pacific where we found nemo and his friends including a 7-foot reef shark, a baby sting ray, and a couple of squids.

#4 – without internet access i am serious backlogged on e-mails but i flew through two and a half great books: my year of meats by ruth ozeki which i then traded in at the resort library for hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world by haruki murakami (better the second time), and then returned to it must’ve been something i ate by jeffrey steingarten.

#5 – i am restored to my canary-islands level bronzeness, a shade i refer to as “tahitian goddess.”

#6 – i began to conquer my fear of bugs and reptiles (although the four-inch flying cockroaches still creep the bejeezus out of me).

#7 – the S.O. won the international hermit crab race and we got $30 off our bar tab (which sadly only made a tiny dent in the final tally).

#8 – i didn’t have to cook once while there but kimchi deprivation was running high. i broke down and had shin ramyun in a cup twice. you can take the girl out of korea…

#9 – fiji bottled water is about half the price in fiji.

#10 – guaranteed sunshine and good moods every day!

see more fiji fotos here

happy (american) thanksgiving!

i am alive and well, trying to readjust to a semi-wired life, after two glorious weeks in fiji sans internet. stay tuned for more details…

chocosquirrel

chocosquirrel, originally uploaded by suddenly.

fall was in full swing in toronto and the squirrels were scurrying around collecting nuts. (insert joke here about nuts in the mouth.) they’re especially skiddish and it took a gazillion attempts before i got a decent shot of a torontonian black squirrel. most of the squirrels are black in t-dot, and might i say, particularly husky. the gray squirrels i grew up with all my life are the minority. i even saw squirrels with gorgeous chestnut brown fur.

chestnut brown squirrel

we saw this super friendly squirrel on ward’s island off toronto. i swear he woulda crawled right up my leg, if i let him. ( i didn’t.)

by the way, i’m seriously backblogged. i’ve moved onto two other cities since toronto but haven’t had much opportunity to post. it seems that the more friends i meet and the more places i go to in each city, the less time i have to write about it. i’ll try to catch up more this week.