First Blog in 3 years!!

Random Facts from my travels in Ecuador:

1) High schoolers only go to school 4 hours a day

2) A piece of bread costs 10 cents, a bus ride costs 25 cents within the capital city of Quito, lunches with soup and juice cost $1.50, and lobster meals cost $4--all in American currency cuz that's what they use over there.

3) It can actually be cold around the Equator. Yes, I'm not lying, I've had to wear sweaters over there in the evenings, and there're mountains covered by snow.

Okay, so I'm on my last week in Taiwan, just chillin' away my time while all y'all are in school working your butts off. I once vowed to never use the world "y'all" cuz of its redneck connotations, but at one point I just realized how pathetic it was to hold cultural discriminations for a guy who's been all over the world like me (and especially after all those college essays about globalization and the need for greater understanding).

I met this Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador who put this idea in perfect words: "think We, not Them." The world'd be a much more harmonious place if we focused more on our common aspirations and dreams instead of trivial, artificial differences like religion and culture. It wouldn't be annually spending 1.5 trillion dollars on its military, while the entire United Nations can only afford to spend 1/73 of that amount per year, with all its programs that help fight world hunger and global poverty (http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending)

Anyway, back to regular small-scaled stuff. I'm heading to India in a couple of days after an entirely unproductive month of procrastination and relaxation in Taiwan. God I feel so guilty about leaving everything to the last minute (packing, booking tickets, medical examinations, etc) It's just like it was in Rabun Gap.

You know, sometimes, I really have this urge to quit procrastinating once and for all, I always fall short. I can never keep up the push-ups, jogging, and pretty much any other major new years resolution. Studies show that it takes 66 consistent days before a resolution becomes ingrained into a habit (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5857845/It-takes-66-days-to-form-a-habit.html), so I hope I'll be able to a better job of making things happen in the future.

On the bright side, though, amazing adventures await me in India, so I know I can count on a lot of extra motivation there. I'm going to spend the first 3 weeks in the Himalayan Mountains in a village where the famous Dalai Lama's staying, and then another 3 weeks of learning some ancient Hindu Yoga in the province of Kerala. and then I got 2 full weeks of free time to just go wandering around wherever my heart takes me =)

and then after that I'll be heading to Palestine, hopefully not running into any Israeli tanks or helicopters. expect a lot of interesting stories and photos in the future!

Stay tuned.