Free Traveling

So I’ve been packing on and off for the past week or so in massive anticipation for Sunday night’s take-off into the unknown. One of the things I read in preparation for my trip had a clever idea that urged me to pack everything all at once, but then slowly take unnecessary things out and put in forgotten items of importance. This turned out to be really helpful as I took out a good number of frivolous items and reorganized my things to save space and really focus on what I absolutely needed to bring with me

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It’s finally happened… I’ve turned into a maiko-san!! Me!

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Raise a glass to absinthe friends…

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Sorry for the long absence, friends.  It has been an incredibly hectic semester.  One might even say that it’s been the worst semester I’ve ever had in grad school, but my very first semester at the ripe old age of 21 was probably just as bad, it was just so long ago that I can barely remember back that far. So, instead of whining about all the things in 2009 that stunk royally, I am going to focus on the positive and share some of the exciting moments of this past year, both significant and mundane: -  Won a summer fellowship. -  Wrote 2 dissertation chapters on that fellowship

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Christmas procession beneath my window with lost angel © John Lamkin 2009 I am now in Cuenca, Ecuador staying at the  Villa Nova Inn . It is reasonably priced and right next to the Tomebamba River. Earlier this morning a procession of angels, a few shephards and others passed under my window

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My Christmas in exile this year is going to be about as low-key a Christmas as I’ve ever had. The only decoration in the house is some silver ball that was a gift from my fresa school. There has been a mass gringo evacuation back to the snow and families waiting in the US

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We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend. -Robert Louis Stevenson Ah, travel…travel. All we wanted was a short escape to yet another urban chaos of a city that is kl.

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We are supposed to be in Chicago right now, enjoying Christmas in the city.  But we are in Michigan instead.  Why?  I’ll tell you why.  The weathermen have been predicting snow, rain, freezing rain, sleet and rabid monkeys.

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Scheduling a number of people for a face-to-face meeting is getting tougher and tougher. And the cost of traveling to a client’s location to make a presentation is also on the rise. There’s little more disappointing than getting there and finding that half the people scheduled have been called away by other priorities

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