Homesick, yet ranting. Plus Trees.

You guys stink. No comments in forever.

Not much has happened though. I'm officially homesick. Whadda ya know? Of course, as soon as I get a plane ticket home, I can't wait to leave. Which is dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. Because I have some really fun stuff left to do here in New Zealand. And really, my departure is only a month away. But I've spent four days here in Takaka, by myself. In a fairly empty hostel. Spending the mornings running in fantastic environments. by myself. then coming in for lunch and taking a nap before heading out for an evening walk. by myself. For some reason, i feel much more alone when traveling and touring in hostels/backpackers/etc than when I WWOOF. Well, I know the reason. It's because with WWOOFing I become part of someone's family. And it's hard to feel lonely when you're part of a family. When you're touring, you are most definitely alone. So basically, I need to start WWOOFing again soon. The problem is, I have a WWOOF host set up for the beginning of February, which leaves these final days too short to get an in between host. So i'm left touring by myself for a week or so.

Imagine having a night out, going to the movies, etc by yourself. Most people say they wouldn't go to a movie by themselves. Well imagine going on vacation and staying in a hotel and doing vacation stuff, all by yourself. Well, it's not that fun. It was in the beginning. I don't know whatever. Its also awkward meeting people when you are traveling and they are traveling and your just well, it just is trust me.

So, today, despite the fantastic weather. I spent mostly inside. Moping I suppose. First I slept in instead of getting up and riding the bike 20k to the North Abel Tasman National Park and spending the day running (yes spending the whole day running since the park is big) before cycling back to the hostel for dinner. Instead, I laid in bed til about 9 30am. I don't know how these things happen. I have NO will power.

I ended up getting roped into several long long long conversations with the owner here about how he is psychic and it freaked out his sister when he was little, how he's saved lives. He also gave me 3 business lessons he's learned. How he worked as a gopher (go for it) guy temporarily for a Radisson hotel in Arizona when the big wigs for Radisson came to inspect the new hotel (they were from SF) and offered him a huge promotion etc etc etc. He declined of course because he didn't want to be in the hotel industry or in SF, he was happy as a pharmacist/hostel owner. Then, I heard about how he declined all the top med schools he got into and how he was offered a full ride to USC dental school but declined that as well. I learned about his Aunt and Uncle's death, their dyslexic son and how he had to deal with the Will and inheritance and all that jazz. I saw his homemade wedding photo album, made of out pages they made themselves out of their clothes. (like, the paper was made from their clothes) And. I saw his childhood photo album. Why not. I wasn't going anywhere. He also made me peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. So that was nice.

I went on a run the other day in the middle of the day so it was super hot all the way up to the freshest springwater in the world. freshest and clearest I think. and 60th largest spring in the world. Anyway, Pupu springs. (giggle) was the wrong place to run to when it was scorching out. Because you aren't allowed to touch the purest freshwater in teh world (duh) and so I got to stand looking at a freshwater spring of the clearest clarity and freshest freshness. Then turn around and run all the way back. Awwwhhh.

I then that evening walked to the small town of Pipi. (these Maori names are killing me. i just can't talk about them with other people with a serious tone. i mean cmon, Pupu and Pipi) I went to an old historic cemetery where many young people my age were buried. They all drowned in the Takaka River because there was no bridge back in the day and it was the young men's job to carry supplies across the river. Well naturally, since the river is large and dangerous, tons of em drowned. interesting societal decision....

One young man died at the age of 15 on my birthday 101 years before me. Two days later his older brother 17, died. i dont' know. I feel something when I visited that cemetery. And I felt the same with the old cemetery in Ireland. I like cemeteries. They are powerful places indeed.

So i spent a lot of today looking up apartments to rent in SF on craigslist, which i've been warned about multiple times. OK. I just really like reading listings. Aren't people hilarious? now I know why everyone always talks about how fun reading personals can be. I'm sure, because even housing listings read like personals. it's great.

So what else? i still want to have a Rome party. Perhaps when I have my own place. Oh, and i saw a straw bale house in the midst of production the other day and got to talk to the builder. The guy, is sorta like me in that, he knows jack shit about building, reads what he needs to do out of books and is building this house. we traded the craic for a while and when we left my host said "so you know about architecture." and i was quite surprised, but then, looking back on the conversation we had had, I said, "yeah I guess I do" and my host said, "because I had NO idea what you guys were talking about in there" I'm glad I'm only adding to my esoteric knowledge. But, I really am truly learning some pretty cool stuff about gardening, building, farming, etc. It sorta just came from accumulated experience. So that was nice. But it also has just made the list of things I want my house/apt to eventually have gigantic. I also have realized that I really really love trees. i think that's why I enjoyed claremont so much. I had beautiful mountains, and TONS of different trees. and trees are really important to me. I like them a lot and I want them all over and I want all different kinds. I love eucalyptus, which is here and all over claremont. It's beautiful and majestic and smells nice and everything. i like it. Another favorite tree is the weeping willow. I need it on a creekside in my backyard. Also, citrus trees, duh, because of food and wonderful smells. So as you can see, just in a short time i've already included a lot of trees. So yeah, trees. Maybe I should live in an arboretum. That would be sweet.

They also have a sweet tree here called a manuka. Maybe I'll try to snap a photo of one and post it. my mom used to make fun of me because my first childhood dream was to be a plantation owner (obviously I did not know what that entailed, heh.) but I think I fell in love with the plantation (funny because I have a chronic allergy to the South). The old Victorian house (with expansive wrap around porch, duh) and enough land to have a garden to feed a family, an orchard to feed a family and for beauty, and a general arborteum/ornamental garden. That's like a sustainable plantation. So I'm here to say, that after 18 years, I still desire to be a plantation owner albeit a completely different one than we traditionally think of. haha, anyway, that's kind of ridiculous.

I watched Michael Moore's Sicko today. I believe it's the first Michael Moore film I've seen. I think he sucks. But the sentimental biased movie did bring stuff to light and while I think he's a dumbass, i do support universal healthcare...which is basically what the movie is about. And well, the movie was moving. It's amazing how atrocious our healthcare is in parts of the nation, and how precarious even wealthy health insurance is. Uh, like how easily you can be stripped of your well-off health insurance. I would say it's surprising how well universal healthcare works in other countries, but I know, he just didn't show any of the problems with it. I've spoken with some people in NZ here about their healthcare (they have socialized universal healthcare) and there definitely are problems. But uh. NOWHERE near the atrocity and blatant disregard for human rights that the US healthcare system is. We are rated the worst of the developed nations. In an interesting juxtaposition, Moore examines the case of 3 9/11 rescue workers' attempt to get treatment for their respiratory and resulting problems through the US healthcare system. Which proves impossible. And then, examines the healthcare received by the al Queda representatives detained in Guantanamo Bay. Obviously, yeh. Ok. I know, but, its interesting. I would've liked to have seen him address perhaps instead the healthcare received in our prison system or something. (is there one?) but regardless. It's pretty awful. But it's pretty sickening, how a lot of us Americans, just go, "yeah yeah, its such a mess, its such a problem" and don't do jack shit about it, like don't even educate themselves so they understand our candidates positions on it, and hold them accountable. I mean, it is on the level of gross human rights violation. and its in our OWN country, involving our OWN citizens. And not just the poor invisible citizens we don't really count when we think of America. Like the Americans that DO normally count as Americans. it's ridiculous. it's funny how many people here have said they are too scared to visit the US, either because every has guns, or they're petrified of getting hurt while there. Nobody will travel to the US without traveler's insurance, because it's just too much of a risk. Whereas, that's non-existent for a lot of other Western nations. Go to Britain, France, Ireland, New Zealand (don't know about the other ones) but you have not to worry, you will get health care if you require it, and for free.

Perhaps Americans, wouldn't be so averse toward taxes and taxation, if our tax dollars were going toward providing top notch health care for free, and free retirement pensions, etc instead of the fanciest new bomb, or revamping our nuclear arsenal. Michael Moore points out in his movie that its easy to govern frightening and demoralized citizens. Duh, and he contrasts France with America, France, he portrays as having a much livelier revolutionary spirit, where the govt is afraid of the people whereas "in America, the people are afraid of the govt" yeah no flipping way, when our govt wields such an overwhelming physical force/threat, what other reaction would you get from the citizenry? ESPECIALLY after the discourse of the Bush administration with us or against us. With the way the US govt deals with those without the ability to pay for health care, it's as good as the US govt using the military against us. Would we really dare protesting even if we cared?

And while I'm on it...where is our public space in which to protest? The freeways? Storm down to Town Hall? (if anyone could find it) The Mall? that's not public. Are we gonna blog about it? where are we going to voice our discontent? I mean, you look at a lot of protests in the past, yes, some are highly organized etc. But a lot of protests don't need a unified clear objective. Sometimes a protest is effective just to communicate that Enough is Enough, and we aren't going to allow this anymore, so do something else. We don't necessarily even have to have a better solution, we just have to tell our ELECTED officials, to come up with a better one. No? Am I wrong? perhaps just an asshole.

Political Satire is NOT a suitable replacement for protest. Watching the Daily Show is NOT protesting.

ok good night. I'm tuckered out.