Deep Fried Oreos

Makes 30 cookies:

* 2 quarts vegetable oil for frying

* 1 large egg

* 1 cup milk

* 2 teaspoons vegetable oil

* 1 cup pancake mix

* 1 (18 ounce) package Oreos

Yum.

New Years is the time of resolutions and reflections. It's January 5th and although I'm almost a week late, it's better now than never.

They say all you need in life is something to do, something to hope for, and someone to love. At the end of 2008, I believed I had all of that. I had a glimpse of hope when I made it to an in-person interview for the nonprofit 'Doctors Without Borders'. I was working with a great group of people at my homeless database job. My girlfriend simply meant the world to me and I felt genuinely loved. Well, that was before the major cluster fuck, more aptly known to me as the year of 2009.

Stability is an illusion. I didn't get the logistics job with Doctors Without Borders, most of my coworkers left because of convoluted board politics, my girlfriend cheated on me with her personal trainer, and we had a really drawn out breakup. I know things could have easily been worse, but I didn't take it well.

I tried to get back on my feet. I have such a great support network, I shouldn't have had any excuse not to recover, but for some reason I just couldn't. My mind kept wandering, I half assed everything, all except the drinking; I excelled singly at that. My bar tabs would even reach the three digits per week. I became jaded with the idea of love and I don't remember the names of the last three girls I kissed. I'd get numbers, but I ignored them since I knew I was an emotional train-wreck. Despite making more at my job, I stopped saving money to travel. I couldn't even study for the GREs; the idea of it just reaffirmed my own uncertainty of what I wanted to do with my life. I even applied for a temporary janitor position (in Antarctica) for a quarter of my salary, only to be wait listed. I found myself depressed.

My New Year started off at a local bar with a kiss to another random cute girl. After waking up, I thought I faintly remembered her name! A few days later, I finally decided to make a huge leap (for me) and call her. Luckily I got her voicemail so I was able to confirm the name. She called back later admitting to a recent breakup and still having issues with the ex so we won't be seeing each other, but I'm glad I made that attempt. I'm improving (albeit slightly) and I'm writing again.

Here's some of my New Years resolutions:

Try not to become a raging alcoholic

Climb a v5

Develop an iPhone application

Write a novel

Save money to travel ($1000 per month goal)

Travel somewhere out of the country

Don't buy shit I don't need

A friend turned around asking, "Do you want to start a fight with the ninja turtles?" At the moment, it sounded like the best idea in the world, so I yelled back "Sure! Why not?!"

As soon as the words left my mouth, I quickly regretted the decision and immediately thought of a few good reasons why we should not start a fight with 'the ninja turtles'.

First of all, my friend was serious. I figured this out by the sounds of pushing and yelling that already ensued.

Second of all, I was wearing a homemade domo-kun costume. The costume pretty much consisted of a cardboard box from the knees up. There were two cut out holes for my arms and a tiny slit removed in front for visibility. I barely had the dexterity to navigate the streets of downtown on Halloween, much less try to hurt someone in it.

Third, the ninja turtles didn't do anything! You need a good reason to start any fight. I'd be more than happy to throw a few punches if someone else instigated or if they were really disrespectful to a girl, but this wasn't the case. We were missing a motive AND we were picking a fight with my childhood heroes?!

Fourth, we were all drunk. I'm not sure if this supports getting into a fight or not, but I think this reason trumps all previous reasoning.

So that's where we were, standing in the packed streets of downtown San Diego on Halloween night right after last call. Just earlier the streets were so crowded that you had to push people to get through, but the brawl left people watching from a safe distance. It looked like a mosh pit at a concert (if you were on LSD); in one corner we had the ninja turtles and on the other side we had Jesus, Domo-kun, a Catholic priest, a cat, and my drunken friend.

I don't remember exactly what I did, but I do remember breaking up the fight when I saw the bouncer of a nearby club jump in. I'm 5'10 and when I looked at him, I saw his chest. His arms were the size of my thigh and he didn't appear happy.

I blocked the bouncer, who was making a beeline for the fight. I said that my friend was drunk and that we were taking him straight home. That didn't remove the scowl on his face so I mentioned that my friend was mentally handicapped and we were just trying to get him to have a good Halloween, but he's not used to being in public. I guess the thought of punching a retarded guy wasn't the bouncer's idea of fun so he let us go and walked back to his post.

The altercation was over and we went off to finish another epic night. Sometimes I don't remember what drunk Will does so it's interesting to see pictures from friends. I've gotten a few of them and I'll post below:

Wow, I've logged at least 40 hours of playtime on Dragon Age Origins, the newest Bioware game. It wouldn't be so bad if this was over the course of a month, but I got the game November 3rd and it's barely November 11th...

Left 4 Dead 2 is coming out in a few more days and I'll be subsequently hooked on that. There goes the thought of studying! Maybe I should wait off on taking the GRE, especially since I'm not sure what I want to major in yet...

Some friends and I have a trip planned to Vegas to celebrate my 25th birthday. That'll be fun! It's my first time in Vegas (as an adult). I don't plan on gambling and I think it'll be a great place to have a beer to people watch.

No beer, no sweets, and no drugs. This continues until either Sara or I give up. Winner gets a bottle of choice by the loser. I would say wish me luck, but I don't need it; Sara needs it.

Lately I've been thinking about getting my Masters and possibly even applying for the Peace Corps Masters Program...

Like a pendulum, economies swing back and forth from its ups and downs. Some years are ups, some years are down. Some say that a lack of oversight with the banking/housing sector was the cause of our current recession; people were not accountable for their work/money.

Money is still tight and companies are trying to squeeze whatever they can from their employees. Workers are laid off so that companies can become a fiscally leaner machine.

Now when there's large amounts of dollars, accountability is stressed. At work we need to keep track of exactly what project we're working on. We used to document our time simply by when we came in and when we left; that was good enough. Now we're required to track down to the minute exactly what contract we're working with and for how long.

The idea is simple; make sure people are accountable. Now I'm wondering if we're taking it to the extreme? I work with multiple contracts and due to the way some contracts are split, I'm spending hours on accounting for my hours.

Each contract code is a different city or project. I work directly with 8 cities and over 60 agencies / 300+ programs. The emphasis of the company seems to be not "How can we help", but now feels like "Who can we bill"?

Attached is what my timesheet looks like...

I'm taking a quick break from homelessness! I'm temporarily renting a room in my cousin's house up in Mira Mesa. It's different to be sleeping on a real mattress again (not better, just different). Most of all, I missed being able to cook and I'm excited to make home cooked meals again. I think I'll be here for the next couple months.

After being 'homeless' for two months, my compassion for the homeless hasn't changed much, but I feel like I have a slightly better understanding. After two months of car camping, I think that with the exception of the most determined people, the average person would need help if they became completely homeless.

I'm not talking about 'homeless' as is my case living out of a truck or 'homeless' as in crashing with your friends. I'm talking about living on the streets homeless (although I don't have first hand experience). When you deprive someone of their basic needs for prolonged periods of time, they pretty much get fucked up to the point that they need outside assistance to meet their basic needs/function normally.

What do I mean? For the sake of argument, let's assume that I'm a 'normal' functioning person. I'm a hard worker (for the most part), I like to think of myself as fairly intelligent (college educated), I'm young, and I'm in excellent physical condition (fairly regular exercise). I'm confident in what I do and I'm very resourceful.

Despite that, in my 'limited' homelessness, I still find myself sometimes not getting that basic necessity of sleep. I'm a heavy sleeper, yet most nights I don't get a full uninterrupted night's sleep. I'm woken up by normal things like passing cars, mosquitoes, by people obnoxiously honking their horns at who knows what, couples arguing, or even the extremes like a drug deal.

This is all happening while in the comfort of my vehicle with approximately $500 of high-tech camping gear; it'd only be worse on the street. While this doesn't seem like a big issue when you're woken up once or twice a night, over time it slowly wears you down when it constantly happens everyday for a month or two. It's not the worst thing in the world, but the effects are visible when there's no 'break' from it. Without a full nights sleep over a long time, your mind isn't quite as sharp.

Another basic necessity that I did quite feel its full effects was food. You are what you eat. One thing that was not apparent to me was how much the food that I was eating impacted me. Again, food is one of those things that is a basic necessity. I thought that I could get away by eating 'healthy' take out and I should be able to burn away those calories. I normally run 3-4 miles and I do 2-4 hours of rock climbing every other day. I'll try out new places, usually Zagat rated (I'm a food junkie). However, its not the same. Eating junk makes you feel like junk.

I appreciate my sleep, my veggies, and I feel a lot more compassion for people that just can't do X activity. I have no exact idea what they're going through, but I have a slightly better understanding.

I sat in the middle of a semicircle of people, with all eyes focused on me. I chuckled at the next question, "What's the longest time that you've been car camping or backpacking?"

I replied that I don't think car camping constitutes as 'camping', but answered that the longest I've gone car camping has been two months straight. Some of the interviewers were visibly shocked at the reply, probably expecting an answer closer to a weekend. The guy nearest me joked "That's not car camping, that's being homeless". We all laughed (with me probably laughing the loudest).

I went on and explained some of my backpacking experiences, mainly wilderness hiking in Yosemite and the trips out to various secluded islands in Tonga. After the interview, one of the members told me that they would normally get back to an applicant in a week. For me, they'd get back to me in 2 minutes while I stepped out so they could vote.

Once I was welcomed back into the room, I heard that I passed my initial interview to become part of the San Diego Mountain Search and Rescue group. It was only the first step in becoming part of the volunteer group, but I was excited. The next test is a weekend trip out to an unknown location with other new applicants. It'll test our ability to pack for an unknown place, the ability to work with other potential SAR members, use our survival knowledge in a wilderness setting, and to learn new SAR skills.

After climbing these last couple months, I figure its about time to try to do something productive instead of only crimping progressively smaller plastic holds in a gym (although I definitely won't stop the latter).

I parked the hobotruck at a local park. I slept pretty well throughout the night, but had drank too much water. This was the second time I had to use my pee bottle. I woke up this morning and hopped out the back. A family was having a picnic nearby (and apparently been there a while).

When I hopped out, they were all staring at me with my frizzly unkempt morning hair, probably wondering how long I've been in there. I smiled and waved, then got into the driver's seat and drove away to work.

It's been relatively hot in San Diego. The weather isn't so bad compared to other places in the world, but when you're living inside a small Toyota Tacoma, it gets pretty unbearable. The afternoon heat regularly melts the sticky velcro on my truck's curtains and I'm constantly needing to reassemble it at night when the weather has cooled down a few degrees.

I've been thinking about different solutions to the heat problem and in theory have come up with using Reflectix, a radiant barrier (poor transmitter of infrared waves) that is commonly used in homes. The problem is locating where I can buy a small quantity at a low price (I'm trying to be frugal after all).

I was on the way to Target in search of the material when I spotted a dirty white colored van sitting isolated in the parking lot. The location made perfect sense despite being in the wide open parking lot:

1.) It was far enough from any particular business that normal shoppers wouldn't disturb the person(s) inside the van

2.) Even business owners might think that the van's owner was simply shopping at another location

I pulled around and decided to investigate further. I slowly circled the vehicle and did a quick analysis. The side curtains were drawn, but the windows were open. The back door was cracked to allow ventilation, but not enough to openly see inside. Laying across the roof was a cargo box and an open vent. Even though I couldn't physically see in it, I was confident someone was living in there.

I stopped a few parking stalls away from the van and approached the vehicle on foot. I wasn't sure how to start it off so I loudly asked "Hi, is anyone in there?". As soon as the words left my mouth, I immediately felt bad; I probably startled the hell out of this person. I heard some feint scrambling inside.

I quickly followed it up by saying that I've been living out of my truck for the last month and that I wasn't a guard or a tow truck guy. I continued to have a one way conversation explaining that I came to ask for some advice on escaping the summer heat. After a couple minutes of what felt like talking to a rock, I saw a bearded man in his late 50's pop out into the driver's seat.

The homeless guy was friendly and said, "Hey, I didn't see you there. How's it going? So you're homeless too? Where's your truck?"

I pointed to my truck and explained my setup. He confirmed what I learned in my past month homeless; trucks are good for blending into an environment, but aren't good for extended homeless stays (since you don't have enough room to do anything in it). His opinion was that I wasn't going to last in the truck for long.

We traded notes on how we've been living so far. I told him some of my stories and favorite/worst places to park. He had a good laugh on my 'exploration' of sleeping areas, which included Wal-Marts and near police stations. He commented that parking in Wal-Mart lots would inevitably get your vehicle towed, but that parking at a McDonalds overnight never caused him any trouble.

He was quite frank on how he lived. He said that if he needed to pee, he peed in a giant fast food cup lying around. If he needed to go number two, he just used a plastic bag and threw it into a nearby trash can. He kept constantly moving to make sure that police didn't catch him (since it was illegal to live in a car).

As we continued talking in the blistering heat, I got a better idea about the guy; he had a raw, primal, and sincerely simple energy about him. He seemed like he could live off of practically nothing (which he probably did). There's something about a person that can take a shit into a plastic bag and not worry about things like hand sanitizer. Despite logic, the man had survived five years of van dwelling; even the 'necessities' that I thought I needed weren't really that necessary. (FYI: I respect his living style, but am not anywhere near adopting many of his philosophies)

He had bought his vehicle for approximately $2000 about 10 years ago and has lived in it ever since. He was vague about how he got into his 'situation', but as we got deeper into our conversation, he expressed genuine fears about how anxious he was getting. At times he'd lose sleep over whether his car would start up the next day.

As soon as his car can't start up, he'd be dead in the water. He would be towed and wouldn't have the money to bail his car out. He explained that even though he didn't have many material possessions and despite how meager those possessions were, it was still all he had. He said that he was getting too old for living in his car and was finally looking for a place to stay.

I wished him luck in getting a room to rent. Before I walked away, I asked him what his name was. He replied "Steve" and I thanked him for giving me the good advice. I extended my hand, ready to shake his, when both of us glanced at each other. For a second, we shared a telepathic link that said "Oh yeah, Steve shits in plastic bags in his car". I instantly retracted my hand shake and waved goodbye, saying "I'll see you around... maybe at a McDonalds parking lot."

Since college, I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve been to a Wal-mart. I have two main reasons for my limited visits. For one, I remember watching a documentary proclaiming the evil practices of the giant corporation; I refuse to support any grossly unethical businesses. I wish I could say that that was my main and only reason for avoiding Wal-Marts.

Quite frankly, even if the company were entirely altruistic, I would probably still not visit because I never found the appeal of being able to shop for frozen dinners and underwear all under the same roof. It was a wonder that I found myself heading towards the local Wal-mart at 11pm.

I vaguely remembered hearing that it was acceptable for people to openly park their cars for the night in a Wal-mart parking lot. I’m not sure how I even heard of it, maybe it was from the documentary, but I thought it’d be an interesting theory to test.

I drove in expecting to see a small congregation of vans, trucks, and RVs forming on the outskirts of the parking lot. In my head, I had a clear image of dark tinted vans, each with its own colorful history in police stakeouts and/or Amber alert kidnappings.

I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or disappointed when I found only one parked RV. All of the other vehicles looked like they were normal shoppers. I drove in closer to look for the telltale signs of a fellow hobo; there should be curtains shut, windows wide open, and maybe some form of light emitting from the cracks. I circled the parking lot and didn’t find what I was looking for.

However, I did find the security guard. He sat in his SUV and prowled the lot, occasionally driving up and down the lanes with his flashing orange lights. At first I didn’t pay him any notice; I figured I could park far enough away and he would leave me alone. I reasoned that the evil corporation probably didn’t pay him enough to actively look for trouble. On the other hand, I saw the signs that repeatedly stated “No Overnight Parking or You Will Be Towed”.

As much as I believe that ‘Bad Decisions make Great Stories’, there’s a certain line that has be drawn and having your vehicle towed while you’re still sleeping in it is not something that I’d like the pleasure of retelling. So instead of risking it, I simply drove up to the guard and asked him if it was acceptable to sleep in my vehicle.

The guard looked over at me with compassion. He explained how it was his job to make sure that no one parked overnight, with the exception of RVs (which were allowed a 1 day maximum). I told him no worries and that I didn’t want to make his job difficult (or get towed).

Just as I was leaving he mentioned that the lot further down the street (owned by Petco and Vons) was not guarded by anyone. He said I was more than welcome to stay there until the morning.

I thanked him and parked down the street in the nearly empty lot. It felt uncomfortable to be in such an open area, but I thought it’d be neat to try for at least one night. I wish the story ended here with me getting a good nights sleep, but you’ll be surprised at what goes on in a nearly empty parking lot at night.

My first interruption was what sounded like a drug deal that happened at 12:50 am. The two cars had parked approximately three car lengths away from me, with one car probably thinking that I was the initial buyer/seller. I peeked through the tinted window and lifted one of my blackout curtains just slightly. Since there wasn't much sound proofing in my vehicle, I could clearly hear their conversation. Yep, drug deal.

I was woken from my sleep a second time by the sound of a nearby heavy engine. It scared me into thinking that it was a tow truck. I hastily looked around and luckily it wasn’t. At this point, I started sleeping with my pants on. It’s barely 2:30 am.

The third time I heard an engine rev loudly. I woke up thinking “Are you serious?” I looked through the back window to find someone working on his car just a few feet from my tailgate bumper. I look over at my cell phone and wonder who works on their car at 4 am in an empty parking lot?! After a few minutes, I hear his car revving away into the night (or what was left of it).

I've decided that I’m done with parking lots. I head back to my favorite spot, an apartment complex that sits inconspicuously a block away from the police station. I need whatever sleep I can get; I have work at 8:00 am.

Let's say that tomorrow, the company you work for does a legal, but unethical thing. Although it really depends on what the situation is, I'd like to ask the main question of tonight's blog post, "What will you do? What's the extent that you as a person, are willing to do based on your personal morals and societies' laws?"

If a legal, but unethical situation happens, I would assume that most people are just people and would complain. Now what if nothing is done about the complaint? Do you bring the issue up again? Maybe. Would you quit your job? Probably not. People have credit card debt, student loans, car payments, cell phone bills, electric, and rent/mortgage payments.

This got me thinking about what I would personally do. I find that the higher my standard of living and my debt, then I have higher chances of compromising who I am, what I believe in, and what I do. For example, I know that right now if I ran into an unethical situation at work, I have no qualms about quitting. Its hard to imagine, but if I had a house payment (much less trying to support a wife and say 3 kids), that even if something grossly unethical happened at work, I would be less inclined to quit. Some would say that given that latter scenario, I would not have the freedom or the luxury.

What if an illegal and unethical situation happens? Would we still look the other way? Would you quit? Some people may say to look for another job, but what if taking another job means making less money and not being able to support your current standard of living? We all talk big, but who would really lower their standard of living if the unethical/illegal situation does not affect them directly?

These are some of my thoughts after a day at work. Today I woke up with a sick feeling in my stomach. I was scheduled to help interview 7 people for a new job posting in my company. I had time to glance over all of the resumes and knew that everyone was older and had much more experience than me; some of the people being interviewed were easily twice my age. None of that bothered me in the slightest because I knew my database better than anyone.

What bothered me was that the job was posted with a vague description and it was designed without consulting the current staff. I'm still not sure who posted it, but they obviously had no idea what they were writing. It pretty much asked for a Technical Program Manager position without stating the actual duties involved.

As a nerd, let me just say that a nerd is not just a nerd. I could break it down thoroughly, but for the most part a hardware nerd is much different than a software nerd. Hardware nerds are knowledgeable about servers, routers, firewalls, switches, and network infrastructure. The software nerds are knowledgeable about different programs and even then, it gets really specific. Today we were looking specifically at who can do queries, report designing, database migrations, and database merges.

The list can go on for both categories, but needless to say we were looking for a very specific skillset (even though the posting didn't specify it). It'd be the equivalent of hiring for a restaurant at an upscale French restaurant saying "We're looking for a good Chef" without saying what the specialties and roles were.

It's difficult to explain how this even happened. I heard that the position was posted last week (by an unknown person). Interviews were then scheduled immediately by the Executive Director. Since learning about the posting, I've asked for the job description (since I'm helping with the interviews), but did not get any straight answers. Since the ED was a month new, I asked quite frankly if the ED knew what the current staff even did (much less try to hire new staff).

The ED finally responded back to me with a list of the duties that everyone in the team was responsible for. We looked at the list for a few minutes and already could tell that the ED didn't even know what we were doing. I got the list yesterday and replied, but have not heard anything about it yet. It gets a lot more complicated with the history of the organization, but let's say that its provoked me to think.

I have mixed feelings about this whole situation. For the most part, I laugh at how absurd everything is. To me its just a job and I know that I can easily get another. However, there's a part of me that worries about the rest of the staff. I see them as friends and I worry more about them finding jobs than myself. Part of me feels like if I step up and help steer the company, we might be able to keep it from running into the ground.

What I can tell you about this whole situation is that I am VERY thankful that I do not have anymore debt (including student loans). Without debt, I have my freedom. I do not need to stay at this company if I disagree with how its run. I do not create a situation where I need the money in order for me to maintain my standard of living. I cannot be happier with how I'm living (even if I am living in my truck). I can't take a shower whenever I want, but I never need to compromise who I am.

Trying to find cover from San Diego's afternoon sunlight, I situated myself under a tree in a secluded part of the park. After reading for a couple of hours, I decided to take a nap. Despite finding a nice area, beams of light still passed through the thin branches. Improvising, I shielded my eyes with a book before falling asleep.

I woke up to hear the grass rustling heavily around me. The noises that woke me weren't from the surrounding sounds in the park, but instead came from something very close; it sounded almost at arms reach away. Being incredibly lazy, I peaked through the book to see what was causing the sounds.

There stood an ugly pit bull, panting from the heat and sniffing the grass uncomfortably close; the dog's nose was literally an inch from me. I removed the book and saw that the pit-bull wore a chain leash. Holding the other end of the leash was the owner, who was letting his dog sniff me as if I had somehow farted sweet cinnamon rolls in my sleep and it was only natural for them to come investigate.

Not only did it seem creepy enough to wake up having a strange dog smelling you, but the pet owner was even creepier. He looked around my age, but he was looking directly at me when I glanced at him. I wondered for a moment how long he stood staring at me before I woke up. I quickly brushed the thought away and scanned the area, finding that the rest of the park had plenty of other trees with shade.

I looked back at the owner with an expression of "WTF" written across my face. Common sense dictates that taking a nap at a public park is normal. However, it’s not normal (and it seems downright rude) to purposely let your dog sniff someone whose napping. Besides that, you do not just stand there and stare at people sleeping! Having just woken up, the best I could manage was saying "Ummmm... hi, what are you doing?" while giving my best scowl.

The slow witted owner misinterpreted my hostility and instead got the impression that I wanted a casual conversation with him. He asked if the book I was reading (Gregory Maguire's 'Wicked') was anything like Stephen King books. Hoping to end our conversation there, I bluntly replied no.

He continued onto a rant about how his parents tell him not to read Stephen King books, but he does it anyway because he's a ‘rebel’. I tried to switch the subject by mentioning that his dog is too close to me, but he magically hears something different.

What I say: “Why did you let your dog get that close to me when I’m sleeping?”

He seems to hear something different and replies: “Don’t worry, he’s a good dog. He’s a mix between a chow and a pit bull. I’ve had him for two years and he's so energetic, etc…”

This goes on for a couple minutes where whenever I hint for him to get lost, he believes I'm thoroughly enjoying his company and would like nothing more than to continue our exciting dialogue. I resist the urge to outright tell the crazy guy and his dog to fuck off.

As I'm trying to find a polite way of ending our 'conversation', he tells me how he lives with his parents and how he's bored all the time, but doesn't want to get a job or go to school. A weird feeling comes over me and I start to feel compassion for the guy. Maybe he has serious brain damage and I’m the closest thing to a friend he has.

After listening to 10 more minutes of his ranting about various subjects and after dispensing some of my own heartfelt advice (get a job), the compassion I felt is officially gone. I decide that he is either really crazy or really stoned. I tell him that I need to go.

Before I leave, he asks for my number and says that we should hang out to play video games, which he assumes that I’m a gamer (I'm sure his parents would have loved to have their unemployed son bring home a homeless person to play video games with him).

Normally I don't lie, but for him I make an exception; I tell him that I don't have a cell phone and that I don't really like to play video games. Sadly, Karma worked instantly and caught me in my lies. As if on cue, my cell phone (which was sitting inside my yoga bag nearby) began to ring. We looked at each other in silence while my cell phone continued to ring until finally the call forwarded to voice mail. At this point, I'm pretty confident that the guy was stoned beyond belief or seriously messed up in the head because he didn't seem to register that I received a call.

I quickly and awkwardly said my goodbye. I walked away pretending like I had a place to go, but as soon as he seemed far away, I resettled down to the nearest sturdy tree and started reading again.

Note: Although this was a weird stranger, I've bumped into many friendly strangers as well. Just a week ago at midnight, I was parked in a residential zone sitting in the back of the hobotruck folding my laundry neatly into my storage compartments. I had my camping light on, but didn't bother to put down the blackout curtains yet since street lighting provided some additional lighting.

It caught the attention of a girl who had just parked nearby. She walked over asking "Are you camping?". I looked over and saw someone a few years younger than me carrying a surfing long board. She seemed to have a mellow vibe so I explained my story of being homeless by personal choice and how it seemed neat to try out. We talked for a while about some common interests before she said the board was getting heavy. She pointed out her house nearby and said to knock if I ever needed anything. That was gnar gnar of her =)

I've been homeless for a week and a half now. This week at work I'm scanning resumes and next week I'll start interviewing people. What has this world come to? Homeless people are interviewing people for jobs!

Its such a strange feeling to be on the other side filtering the resumes instead of submitting them. For the position that we'll start interviewing next week, many of the applicants have their masters degree. We're also hiring a junior position that will mirror my job. I'm looking at my qualifications and I don't even meet those.

My job is starting to sound like a real career... and I definitely do not want that. This morning I was in a 4 hour meeting. Then when I got back, I had another meeting.

I've had the hobotruck since 2003, although back then it was just a regular truck. When I first bought it, it was a tan colored 2003 Toyota Tacoma with a regular cab. For years its been a reliable vehicle that I've taken on many camping trips.

I considered buying a Volkswagon Vanagon, but couldn't find one that was reasonably priced and nearby. So instead I went and modifed my Tacoma. Here's what was done:

Camper shell - The camper shell is the same tan color as the original truck. It has 9 inches of lift over the regular height. This allows more vertical room so I can sit up straight and not bump my head into the wall. Windows slide open on the side for ventilation. The original glass window in the back of the truck has been taken out so I can crawl through from the driver's side to the truckbed if I wanted to. Black tubing connects the two spaces so that its rainproof.

Curtains - For curtains I went to Ikea and bought some blackout curtains. I cut the fabric to match the windows and installed them using velcro. I can have my lights on inside and there's no light that comes through to the outside. On one of the sides I have a tension rod mounted and hang the curtains.

Bed - For bedding, I use a self-inflating ThermaRest DreamTime camping mattress that I picked up at REI. Its 3 inches of cushioning with a foam pillow top and fleece lining. It lays lengthwise across my truck bed and fits perfectly. For a pillow I use my memory foam pillow from Costco.

On Saturday I took the hobotruck out to Arroyo Grande and back. I was meeting up with some friends who I hadn't seen in a while. My weeks have been really packed and it happened to be the only day that I could visit. However, I had to be back in San Diego by Sunday since I had tickets to Comic Con.

It was the first time traveling in my hobotruck and for over 600 miles, every mile felt like home. 600 miles is a long distance to travel in 24 hours, but as soon as I was tired, I pulled over. I didn't have to worry about making it to the next rest stop or finding an affordable place with vacancy. Within minutes I was setup and happily sleeping. It didn't matter the environment, I was able to adapt to it.

I put in my 30 day rent notice; my last day as a tenant is August 1, 2009. Although I've joked about it a lot, I honestly don't think its fair to call my 'situation' homeless; I think it'd be an insult to those that are really homeless.

First of all, its my personal choice to not rent housing. Personally, I think the system is inherently flawed when people are sinking in a quarter to over half their monthly income on rent alone. Let's do some napkin math. The median income for the City of San Diego is $36,637 (2000 US Census bureau). This comes out to roughly $3,000 a month. After all the taxes, medicare, social security, etc. and you take home about $2200 a month.

I currently make approximately that amount and am a relatively fresh out of college student. Housing costs approximately $550 to $1000+, depending on the number of roommates and the location. That's anywhere from a quarter of my income to almost half of what I make being spent on rent alone. If you make less than the median income, you'd be spending more than half your income on rent. If you make more, you probably have more bills (student loans anyone?).

People are spending anywhere from $18 to $33 a night and that's not factoring in any utility costs. Some people are willing to pay that cost, but I think a lot of people don't even realize how much they're paying. My thoughts are that I don't think its worth it. I understand everyone's situation is different; I definitely would not have even considered this a few months back when I was still in a relationship. However, at this point in my life, I think car camping compliments my nomadic lifestyle so I'm choosing not to rent.

Another common response I get is that people think I've fallen on hard times. I am not destitute; I don't even have any debt. (And who can say that in this day and age?) I still have stable income and even have a little savings. While some might not consider this a factor in whether I'm considered homeless, I think it greatly affects my ability to find housing should I choose to. I know that at any time, I can easily check into a hotel without it hurting me much financially. I can even rent again should I decide to. I've been fortunate that I've never had to do anything for just the money and hopefully my luck will continue.

Now let's talk about the definition "homeless". According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), people living in a car are considered homeless because its a "place not meant for habitation". Contrary to HUD, I think I still have shelter. My camper shell with all weather carpet still provides adequate cover and protection from the weather. Am I roughing it? Hardly. I'm laying on a $200 Thermarest Dreamtime mattress wrapped inside a nice 3 season sleeping bag. I've roughed it more camping in Yosemite.

Is it different than how most people live? Yeah, I suppose so. I don't think I can say whether its better or worse. All I can say is that at this moment, this is what I want to try and there's nothing more and nothing less.

Some people frown on this and I think that's great too; society as we know it cannot handle everyone living this lifestyle. What would happen if everyone looked around themselves and decided "Hey, I don't really need this..."? The economy as we know it would probably collapse. Streets and parks would be crowded and houses would be empty. Its a good thing that we all have different perspectives, different lifestyles, and different priorities.

I look around my apartment room and its barren except for a plain mattress and a desk with my computer. Lately it's been making me think about living out of my truck. Besides, I'm outdoors most of the time. I could totally make it work. Here's my current thought process:

Pros:

I need a camper shell. I can pick one up on craigslist for pretty cheap once I get paid next week. The cost of a camper shell is a flat investment and maybe one month's rent.My truck is small, but I can make a makeshift bed inside the camper shell and sleep in there at nights. A buddy and I slept in the back without a camper shell in Yosemite and it was comfy enough, even when it was freezing outside. San Diego doesn't get that cold outside and after studying homelessness, I know that the times where you can possibly die while sleeping outside are the times when the city opens the winter shelters (that's how the winter shelters started, with a homeless person dying while sleeping outside and city officials responding by calculating exactly when the temperatures fall from 'discomfort' level to 'possible death' levels)

Since my truck is small, I can blend in well by parking on the streets. I'm also familiar with most of San Diego now since I've driven to practically every homeless shelter here

I'm in San Diego and there's homeless everywhere. I doubt a cop would take the time to give me a ticket for sleeping in my vehicle when there's people obviously sleeping on the curb.I have all my camping equipment including sleeping bag and a mini camping stove.I have one weeks worth of clothes, which means I can easily fit everything into a small box.I'm paying about $600 a month on utilities and rent. While its relatively cheap, that's still like $20 a night. That's how much sleeping in a hostel costs.Worst case scenario is that I crash with friends / family in the area if it doesn't work out. (Plus I work with homeless agencies so they'll see a familiar face! Maybe I could even exchange services designing a report for a cot!)My work has showers and since its a stereotypical non-profit, its mainly women working there. Except for one other guy, no one else uses the guys' showers.Freedom to roam wherever! When I go climbing or hiking, I don't have to drive 'home'.Cons:

Problem: Nowhere to use the facilities at nights and on weekends Possible Solution: Walmart or 24 hour fitness gym membership?

Problem: Personal Hygiene Possible Solution: Keep 1 gallon of clean water at all times with a mini sink built-in that flushes into an empty 5 gallon tank?

Problem: Nowhere to store my surfboard safely and I'd have to return my friend's crashpad Possible Solution: ???

Problem: My smell... (Sure, I'll just blame it on homelessness...)Overall, I think the pros are outweighing the cons more and more. I think this will be the start of another great adventure!!! :)

I met my team five minutes before the game started. I knew a few of them, but for the most part, we were still trying to figure out each others' names when we got onto the field. Names and faces were extra important to me since we were the green team and the opposing team was red (and I'm partially red/green color blind)

Genetics was probably the least of my worries. For one, I lacked experience. I haven't played soccer since middle school. At the time I remember making the soccer team... and promptly quitting since the video game 'Crash Bandicoot 2' was just released on the Playstation. You shouldn't ask a nerdy student whether he preferred running laps or helping a bandicoot save the world from Doctor Nitrus Brio!!! So I didn't quite remember the rules, no big deal.

We warmed up by kicking the ball on the field for a couple of minutes. I immediately felt out of breath and tired. I mentioned it and I think people thought I was joking. Ok, maybe I'm a little out of shape, no big deal.

I was still optimistic. I saw some elderly ladies in the parking lot, maybe they were the red team. The reality of the situation dawned on me as some of the red team came in wearing a San Diego State or a US Marine Corps soccer shirt (and that's just what some of the girls were wearing). The guys had custom names and numbers. Thinking it was a 'beginner / intermediate league', I was about to show up in my sandals. I didn't even know that shinguards were required until an hour before the game.

I can describe in detail how the red team kicked our ass, but I'm sure no one wants to hear about that! We ended up losing 15-3 (the scoreboard stopped keeping track after they hit 15 before half time). Apparently they were in the league's final match last year.

In the end, what really mattered was that it was really fun. It was neat meeting new people and jumping back into something active. I also realized that all the stuff that I would normally do isn't remotely competitive; yoga, rock climbing, running, slacklining, surfing, and hiking. All of that has been pretty mellow and relaxed. I guess with all the change happening, its good to change up the pace a bit.

All of my friends told me not to do it, but I still did. Like most good advice, I ignored it.

Everyone told me not to contact her again and to move on. I disagreed and thought that maybe there was a chance left to fix our relationship. If there was, I knew I wanted to take that leap of faith. Even after everything that's gone on in the last couple months, I still loved her.

So I contacted her, told her how much I still loved her, apologized for the mistakes I've made, and asked if she wanted to give us another chance. Initially she didn't want to talk; she needed her space. I understood and said I would wait however long she needed. After a couple weeks of waiting, I got the call yesterday.

At this point in time, I can only say what I feel now. I might look back on this months or years later and just simply think what an idiot I was. To make this short, we talked and I told her that I knew things could work out with us. I knew that I loved her and that in the end, nothing else would matter as long as she loved me too.

But she didn't. She said doesn't love me. She then told me how she didn't love me even a month before I broke up (the same time I said I would stop paying rent for the both of us, etc.) She said she was just too afraid to tell me.

Before the call, I thought I was ready for it and had all my scenarios planned out. If she doesn't love me still, that's fine. She's moved on already and just gets over relationships quicker than I do. If she does still love me, we could try making it work. I thought I had it all planned out. I didn't expect her to say that she stopped loving me when we were still together.

A lot of things were running through my mind. I couldn't believe that she had me 'figure it out for myself' that she wasn't in love with me or that there was a problem even. Instead of communicating anything to me, she knew that I would someday finally get mad enough at her passive aggressiveness and be the one to 'break up'. I wondered, how long would she have lived rent free before she told me anything?

Despite everything that was in my thoughts, I only said two things. I asked if there was anything that I could possibly do to make our relationship work. She said no. I then said that I loved her still and wished her the best in life, even though she's not with me. Now I can finally move on.

I believe we live in a country with an ever increasing group of irresponsible fat asses. We're in a country where not only are people simply irresponsible for taking care of their own personal health, society assists by pretending like there's no problem.

We have everything from clothing lines, restaurants, and pharmaceutical companies all redefining the definition of 'healthy' little by little until we don't even question something like a 20 lb weight increase. Case in point is obesity with its correlation to clothing size and/or food portions.

I won't even argue about the statistical research behind child and adult obesity; just take a look around you and its pretty evident that its a growing problem. There's always the exceptions, but for the most part, its become 'normal' to see a school bus unloading a group of pudgy kids.

For adults, I don't think there's much of an excuse. For children at least, its usually no fault of their own, but instead they're a product of their environment. Its difficult to escape that and I feel depressed and relieved at the same time. As an adult, I never thought I'd say this, but I am really happy that I've had the good fortune of growing up on a farm with smart parents. How do you escape an unhealthy dinner when you're still reliant on your parents?

Well, let me return to my original rant about society assisting in creating this 'unhealthy' illusion. Let me say that I'm not a big guy, but still have a bit of body fat. I used to order medium sized clothing. Now I'm a small or extra small because the current 'medium' describes a 160 lb person instead of a 140 lb. Within the last generation, our definition of medium has changed so that it fits a larger person. Instead of questioning the consumer's conscience about moving from a size medium to a size large, the industry instead shifts everything down from what used to be (for example, what was a size large is now a size medium).

I believe this is truer for women's clothing and that its gotten so ridiculous, some might need a size -2 skirt to find a right fit. Do you see those clothes that are currently XXXL? Someday that could very well be the newest size Large. While I usually could not care less, when I finally have to purchase some new clothes (which I've been dreading), I can't buy anything at the local clothing store! Nothing fits me and they don't carry extra small or sometimes small in stock. I guess its time to look online :(

This is the same with food portions and drink sizes. I once heard someone say he was cutting back on soda so now he's "only getting the 44 oz. because he's trying to cut back... plus it didn't fit in the car cup holder". I don't even know what to say there.

People, wake the hell up! You think you're saving money by buying a $.99 burger for lunch? In the long run, that same burger will cost you more with incurred doctor fees and medication. I'm far from healthy, but at least I can discern if I were to gain an extra 20 lbs, even if my clothing size tells me otherwise.

I have enough to pay off all of my student loans right now! That means I won't have any credit card or student loan debt anymore. The weird thing is that I don't get paid that much; I think the main reason I'm able to save is because the feeling of having money still seems foreign to me. When I look at my bank account, I'm still trying to get used to the numbers being in the three digits and now its five! Maybe I'm just slow...

The problem with paying off student loans is that I'll be broke after and I won't have any traveling money. What to do?

At first I thought corporations had a lot of meetings. I figured it was because management needed to keep track of a lot of staff. After I joined a small non-profit, I thought we would have fewer meetings since we have fewer staff. I was very wrong.

Instead, we have more meetings. I think half my days are spent in meetings. We then have meetings about our meetings. I thought it couldn't get more ridiculous, but it finally did today. Apparently I was not properly introduced to 'committees'. They're like meetings except its the exact same people dragging out the exact same topic ad infinitum, usually without anyone doing any actual work.

Today was my first day participating in one of the committee meetings. We're a sub-committee of a larger committee that's meant to address data quality concerns in our database. What were some of the topics that we discussed? The first topic addressed - there was a rumor that there is another committee doing the exact same thing as our current committee.

We ask around the room to see if anyone's heard of it. We promptly see half the room raise their hands. In fact, half of our current committee is part of the other committee (who we think are addressing the exact issues that we're addressing in our current group). People are already confused; some people are on both committees without even realizing it. (Oh you meant that meeting? That was one of our committee meetings?)

For two hours we talk about what needs to be addressed to present statistically reliable information about homelessness to our community. Our solution? Our current committee (remember that we're a sub-committee) has decided to form a new sub-committee to tackle the issues at hand...

I'm now part of a sub-committee's sub-committee that will focus on the rules of database merging and report writing. After today's meeting, I now know what a committee truly is. A committee is simply a group meeting where the work is repeatedly passed down to smaller groups until you actually have the people who will get shit done. That said, I wonder if we still have enough people to form one more sub-committee... The only difference is that I hope I'm not picked this time.

Fuck her. At one point I wanted to wish her the best of luck and thought that maybe we could stay friends. Now I'm thinking fuck that. She used me to pay her bills while she was a lazy fuck that just kept making excuses for two years on how difficult it was to hold down a steady job. I helped her out with everything; I was there to emotionally support her as a boyfriend,I helped her find a place when she came here, she used my truck, she used my computer, I even bought a scooter so we could share two vehicles. That was fucking stupid since it was just excuse after excuse. I don't see how she could have switched from 'nice' to 'bitch' as soon as I wouldn't pay for her shit anymore, and then tell me that she loved me with a straight face.

Fuck her. Fuck her. Fuck her. I was hoping she would change, but she hasn't. Before I was with her, she slept with a guy for months when she knew he was in a relationship already. She even knew the guy's girlfriend. She thought it was ok since she wasn't the one in the relationship. What a fucked up manipulative psycho bitch. After months she didn't come out to say what a horrible thing she did, she only admitted it after the girlfriend caught them.

I can't believe I spent more than two years of my life with her. What a waste. She's already over it and she's now going out with her new meal ticket. I still can't help but think about it. I don't hope the best for her. I hope Karma comes back and bites her in the ass someday when she's really in love. Then she'll know how much it hurts.

It's a Tuesday... and our Executive Director was let go today. This was a surprise to all of us. He came in on his day off for a 'quick meeting' to meet with some of the board members. It was his day off because he decided to take a vacation day for his Birthday (which was today).

I work at a non-profit, not a corporation. We're not even that big of a non-profit; I work with about 7 other staff. Despite this, we don't even have the decency to let him have his day off or to wait until a Friday.

That's cold. I called him up after to let him know that the rest of the staff didn't know about it and that we'd like to buy him a beer or ten.

Needless to say, there's a lot of 'talk' going on.

On Sunday I met up with her thinking that I was ready. I had some regrets about asking her not to speak to me again. The punishment didn't seem to fit the crime, especially considering the history we shared. Maybe I was wrong about her and her new roommates' relationship. Maybe she didn't just use me (at least intentionally) until her next meal ticket (her current roommate).

I wasn't sure if I was believing it or if I was just hoping that it was true. Regardless, we met up. Initially I was so happy to see her again; I couldn't help but smile. We talked about our week apart and I enjoyed every moment of being around her. Then she told me about a 'funny' story about how she was having dinner with him when something funny happened. Then she told me about the party they went to together. When we left, I found out she was driving his car already.

It seemed like they were in a relationship already. I'm angry, but at the same time, I'm happy that I'm not part of that relationship anymore. I guess its too much to ask that people change in a week. I should've known better, but I had hoped for better too.

I think this past week has given me some clarity on what I want in future relationships (and its a bit clearer than Sunday's idea of "I'm done with all relationships"). I'm more aware of where to draw the lines between helping and supporting. I know more of what I like and dislike. I know what are deal breakers and what I'm willing to compromise on. I guess in the end, this relationship just helped me learn more about myself.

I'm not a materialistic kind of guy. Despite living in San Diego for over two years, pretty much all my shit fits in two suitcases with the exception of my surfboard and mountain bike. Despite that, finances were an issue in our relationship and the reason they were an issue is because I want to travel again. Peace Corps in Tonga, backpacking through Europe, and seeing some of the US East Coast just made me want to travel more. I'm not sure if its just something that I need to get out of my system or if its just how I want to live life.

In either case, I want to travel more so I just applied to be a janitor... in Antarctica! If I'm lucky, I'll be going from a full-time program manager at a homeless non-profit to a temporary janitor, I'll make a third of what I make now, and I'll move from sunny San Diego, CA to freezing Antarctica... if I get the janitor job/I'm lucky.

After my interview with Doctors Without Borders, I know that I need more life experience traveling (and hopefully learn French) before I apply again. Since the job in Antarctica covers free room and food, I'll be able to pocket whatever I make and use that to fund more backpacking. I'm thinking that I might try either South America (either Ecuador or Buenas Aires) or South Africa to surf/learn French for a year.

Oh, and my travel blog hasn't been deleted, I just ended up archiving it. Here it is: http://uberproarchive.blogspot.com/

Isn't it funny where and how we draw our boundaries?

I couldn't stand Adrienne when she was not contributing at all to our finances. However, I'm ok with her contributing less (I made a calculation with rent and utilities being a % of our salaries instead of a flat rate so it'd be more fair - I couldn't help it, its the Chinese communist in me)

We had talked about it in the past, but if Adrienne had no more money and needed to move back to VA, I wouldn't have had second thoughts about quitting my job, buying a ticket to VA, and moving in nearby so I could still be with her. Simply being able to see her beautiful smile and to wrap my arms around her waist every night would've already made the happiest guy.

I would've been willing to do all that, but I'm not willing to fork out the extra $400 a month to cover her side of rent and utilities anymore. I would probably be making that much less at a job in VA if she had moved back and I had followed her. In terms of money, it would be the same. In terms of everything else, it would have been different.

I guess some things we're willing to compromise on and some we really won't.

I know I'm still in the denial phase. I feel like this might all work out if I just pick up the phone, but I know it doesn't work like that. I can't just come in and bail her out. I've tried and its only ruined our relationship. I know the only way it'll work is if she manages to become independent. I know she will too; its just a matter of time. I know she'll have a place of her own and end up holding a full time job. I just hope she still loves me then.

I also know the longer I hold onto that thought, the longer I'll be in denial. Realistically speaking though, I think she'll move on to someone else who she can use or to someone who doesn't know her past and start off fresh. I'm lucky that I realized that I was being used before I quit my job and moved to VA.

Maybe I was slightly wrong on my last post... I guess I am having trouble sleeping. It's 1:24 am here and I need to get up for work tomorrow.

This is the worst feeling I've felt. I know its been less than a week, but it feels so much longer. I don't have trouble sleeping or eating, but my mind is so distracted. I can't think and I constantly find myself not sure of what I'm doing. Simple routine actions like stepping on the gas at a green light are now forced and deliberate actions that I have to tell myself to do (or the guy behind me is more than happy to kindly remind me with a gentle honk of the horn and a wave of the middle finger) At work, I'm trying to explain some already pretty complex concepts, but now I'm at a lost even when its my own work.

At times it feels like a heavy heart and other times its a stabbing pain of memories. I look around, just thinking that maybe this was all a bad dream and that she's just around the corner. Maybe this never happened. My mind wanders everywhere and I have back and forth discussions with myself (another sign that I'm going crazy).

Maybe things can change. Maybe she'll be financially responsible now and then most of our problems would just go away! (Even though for the past two years, she's never been financially responsible and has had 8 jobs in the past year alone)

I wonder how she's doing. Just recently it looked like she was getting back on her feet again. Why didn't I wait another month or two to see if it would work out? Why wasn't I strong enough to stay longer? (With over 8 different jobs in one year, this might be another one of those job 'humps' right before more unemployment)

If I really loved her, why didn't I stick it out through thick and thin? Why did money matter so much to me? (I got frustrated; For the past two years, she's been working on her dreams of school while I hadn't saved anything for what I wanted to do - travel)

I loved her. I loved her so much. I felt closer to her than anyone else in the world. I love my family, but I can't relate to them as I can with her. Whenever I look at her, I just think of all we've been through these past two years and I know that I love her. (But I know that with time I'll get over it)

After she couldn't pay rent, it seemed like I was more frustrated than her that we couldn't live together. I thought she didn't fully realize that we were moving out of our place together, but now in retrospect it seems like it didn't quite matter to her. She had a lot of friends she could move in with, but instead chose her personal trainer that she's known for 8 months. She started paying more attention to her phone texts to him than the times we were together. This had happened before with another person that she flirted with in school, but this time it was different, this time she moved into his 1 bedroom apartment.

The next day with her going with him to a Friday night party where she gets drunk only made things worse. I realized that I wasn't anyone special, I was just the guy helping with money. The personal trainer is just the next guy in line. I realize I was the one initiating the break up, but that's only part of the story. There's a reason why we got there in the first place.

Its tough to go from being with someone nearly everyday for two years to not seeing them again. I keep wondering if she'll be ok. I know she has a test on Tuesday and a second interview on Thursday.

On one hand, I feel tempted to call to ask if she wants to use my scooter. I'm sure it would help a lot with transportation. On the other hand, I keep telling myself that I don't care anymore.

Adrienne and I broke up today. We were together for a little over two years. There isn't an exact reason since it was the culmination of multiple problems, although there is a defining moment where I finally realized weren't meant for each other. As with all relationship breakups, there's different stories depending on who you ask.

From my perspective, I guess this initially started with financial problems. I know money doesn't make people happy, but it sure does help keep people together. Adrienne's always had problems with money and money management. We've gotten into countless arguments over it. I think it's very simple; don't spend what you don't have. My advice was disregarded and it led to Adrienne pretty much maxing out her credit cards, taking out loans, and me doing a lot of 'lecturing'. I was tired of bailing her out, yet I still helped her for the past two years.

Two months ago, I gave another warning, this time that we'll move out if she can't earn more than she spends (since she was having problems with even getting rent). A month ago she couldn't contribute at all so I paid her portion of rent as well as an extra $500 to help out. I decided that we needed to move out and give our 30 days. I would find a place to save money and she would live with friends of hers until she got back on her feet.

Adrienne had multiple friends who would let her crash at her couch. She decided to pick the single male that was also coincidentally her personal trainer (don't ask why she has a personal trainer, but can't pay rent).

On the first weekend after moving out, she decides to go to a party with him, gets drunk to the point where she has trouble walking by herself (and she's never gotten drunk the whole time I knew her), and when we talk about it, she thinks its acceptable behavior. When I express how awkward the situation makes me feel, she tells me how dare I judge her. I tell her that I'm not judging her and that this is just me feeling uncomfortable with everything.

I look at her and she simply doesn't get it (kinda like how she doesn't get the concept of simple money management). I sigh and I just can't take it anymore. If I were a more patient man, I'm sure I could make this work... but I'm not. I ask for my spare car keys. I told her I'm done. I know she has a habit of keeping up with her ex's, but I don't want anything to do with someone that's broken my heart. I'm really done and don't want any form of contact with her.

When she left the car, we were both in tears. Even though we had our constant arguments, I was still in love with her.

I remember walking into the empty apartment with Adrienne. I can almost see us there, hand in hand with smiles of anticipation, both of us eager to move into our first place together. As we walked across the hardwood floors, our steps echoed throughout the rooms. The whole apartment had a light colored décor that was instantly warm and welcoming. After viewing the place, we knew it would be our new home. We moved in with barely any possessions. Between the two of us, there were a couple of mattresses and some hastily packed boxes of clothes. We didn’t even have to rent a vehicle; a few car trips with some friends quickly moved us in. We didn’t have much, but we couldn’t have been happier. We were still quite the traveling pair whose ultimate nightmare wasn’t being homeless, but rather needing to pay a mortgage. It was quite the commitment in more ways than one. It was our first time living with one another and in order to rent our ‘dream apartment’, we had to sign a 6 month lease (which seemed like an eternity to me). Despite my initial hesitation, I signed because I knew that life was going well; Adrienne had gotten the break she needed after months of job searching and had finally landed a new job that paid well. I was still enjoying my job and after being broke for so long in college, I was still getting used to the fact that I had expendable income. We were happy to have our own place together. Soon after moving in and consolidating what we had, we realized our past reliance on our previous roommates’ kitchenware and furniture. Our place was barren and it remained so for a while; a few months after the last box was unpacked, a visiting friend asked us without a hint of sarcasm, “When do you guys finish moving in?” One day we finally broke down and decided to ditch the minimalist lifestyle. We finally accepted kitchen and furniture gifts from family and friends. My mom started it off by buying us a dining table. Once she found out that I would accept gifts, she got us a couch and a set of kitchen knives. So it began our long journey of what we found acceptable to keep. When I moved to San Diego, I was first very adamant that we had to follow by the “everything has to fit in the backpack” rule. It took a while, but that mentality changed to the “everything has to fit in the truck” rule, which then finally took the form of “everything has to fit in the apartment” rule. Now I’m sitting in the same empty apartment as it was a year ago. The room’s completely cleared, our stuff has been packed into separate boxes, and we’ve had random strangers on craigslist come by every so often to buy our stuff. I used to wonder why people had such a hard time giving things up. Now I think I understand a little more. It’s not so much that they’re losing their material possession; it’s more so that they’re losing a souvenir of their memories. The cute dinner table wasn’t so much a finely crafted flat piece of wood with four legs as it was the gift that my mom gave me where I consequently spent cooking new recipes. When I leave this apartment tonight, I won’t take most of the material items with me, but I will take with me the memories I’ve had here. The most distinct memory is walking into the empty apartment with Adrienne, both of us eager to find our first place together.

I look at the test; it consisted of 100 multiple choice questions covering a wide range of subjects from logistics, construction, electrical wiring, computers, water sanitation, administration/accounting, automobile mechanics, and other miscellaneous subjects.

Here were some sample questions:

What is the correct mixture ratio for reinforced concrete?

a.) 2 parts cement, 3 parts sand, 4 parts gravel

b.) 2 parts cement, 3 parts sand, 3 parts gravel

c.) 1 part cement, 3 parts sand, 3 parts gravel

d.) 1 part cement, 3 parts sand, 4 parts gravel

When the front right shock absorber is leaking oil, you should do which of the following:

a.) Replace front right shock absorber only

b.) Replace front shock absorbers

c.) Replace all shock absorbers

d.) Replace oil in front right shock absorber

If there is a shipment from India to Sudan and it's marked "XXX Sudan" what does that mean:

a.) India is responsible for cost of sending and insurance

b.) India is responsible for insurance, but Sudan is responsible for receiving

c.) India is responsible for cost of sending, but Sudan is responsible for insurance

d.) Sudan is responsible for cost of sending and insurance

Say there is a building with 5000mm distance between the walls and a height of 600mm. The building needs to hold a weight of xxx lbs per x m. What size pieces of wood do you use? etc...

Needless to say, I guessed a lot more than I would have liked. After completing the test, I walked across the hall to call the recruiter back in to finish my interview with Doctors Without Borders / Medecins San Frontiers. I had applied to do logistics and somehow got an interview in their New York office.

In total, the whole interview process took about three hours. During that time I spoke directly to one of the field recruiting officers, a MSF nurse who had been in 10+ missions already. All of their 'human resources' department had either been in the field or were current field staff. We talked rather candidly about life working on the field and its expectation. Here's some of the points that we covered:

There were a high number of applicants per year (1000's) and only a very low number of accepted volunteers (approximately 100).Logistician applicants need to be knowledgable in pretty much every non-medical field (see all the skills mentioned above in the initial test). If accepted, you get a quick two day orientation that covers what the agency is about and then you get a plane ticket. You should be able to hit the ground running; there is no training.

As soon as you arrive at your assigned country, you should be able to setup a refugee camp and find a way to gather all the supplies/staff needed for it to be operational

Most people interviewing were older, usually in their mid to late 30'sSpeaking French fluently is a very big plus

I was confident about the interview and I think I guessed pretty well on the test. I was able to narrow most questions down to two answers and I knew I was strong in the electrical wiring, IT, admin/accounting, and simple water sanitation sections. I was surprised at how well some of my preparations paid off (I smiled when I knew I nailed one of the questions about the proper firing sequence for an automobile engine)

However, I wasn't surprised when two weeks later, I received a hand signed letter from the MSF interviewer informing me that MSF did not have any open positions for me. I needed more work or travel experience. She had asked me to contact her again if I were still interested in the future after more work experience and/or to update her if I'm ever able to speak conversational French.

Now learning conversational French is on my to-do list!

Project Homeless Connect is a one day event that homeless can receive a wide range of free services. It's held all over the country at different times, whether its once a year or once every few months. Services include food, clothing, dental check ups, hiv/aids testing, id cards, massages, foot washes, haircuts, childcare, phone home, and a list of other services that are not necessarily accessible in emergency shelters.

San Diego held its third Project Homeless Connect (PHC) on December 5th and I had the opportunity to help in this year's planning. The San Diego community came together in the form of organizations and volunteers who offered their time and services.

As with any event, there was a lot to organize. Unlike an ordinary event, we couldn't anticipate the number of people who would show up since our target audience were the homeless. With over 2000 homeless individuals in San Diego City alone, how many would show up? It's not like we can have people preregister.

Two years ago, the first PHC brought in a little less than 100 homeless. Last year, PHC brought in a total of 195 homeless clients. Since the numbers were doubling, this year we were expecting the number to double to 400 clients. Two hours after opening, there were 300+ clients already inside Golden Hall and more than another 300 lined up outside. At the end of the day, there were approximately 1000 homeless people that came and received services.

Although the event went extremely well, people ranging from homeless clients to volunteer agencies have asked a lot of questions including "Well, why didn't you plan for more people?", "Do you think we have all day to wait in line since we're homeless?", "Why didn't intake move faster?", etc.

Well, here's my point of view from the setup and organization perspective.

1.) Volunteers - This event is run entirely by individual volunteers and volunteer organizations. No agency or person has to be here to fulfill any obligations. These people are donating their time and they would not be here unless they cared. We appreciate constructive criticism on how to improve for next year, but if you're receiving free services, you have nothing to unconstructively complain about.

2.) Money - We don't have any. Our budget for this event is $0. Please understand this. We need everything to work within our budget and this includes the big costs of a location (normally $3000-$5000 per day - this year's place was donated by San Diego Golden Hall - thank you btw) down to the small costs of making copies or buying diapers (thanks to everyone that shelled it out of their own pockets).

3.) Intake Process - During the event I helped manage intake and our problem was that we weren't ready for 1000+ people. Yes, we had a massive line outside that stretched around a city block. However, the problem couldn't be solved by letting everyone immediately in. If we let everyone in, then there would just be long lines inside!!! If I let everyone in at the same time, we would not get the statistical information we need to apply for grants next year and we would create chaos inside. Some booths (like food) were already overwhelmed with the rate of people coming in.

4.) Don't tell us your sob story while waiting in line. I'm not cold hearted, I'm fair. If you have a valid complaint like the lady who said she was diabetic and needed food while waiting in line, then we can accomodate. There is no disability where you have to be first in line. We're also dealing with the homeless population, quite frankly (and sadly) most of them are disabled.

5.) Why can't you get more of X service (food)? - It's a one day event; if we overestimate the number for X service (perishable), then we have a lot wasted. We took a good guess on the number of expected attendees, then went with that number for the perishables. We restocked as much as we could while at the event. We stocked as many non perishables as we could before the event. (See Number 2 - $0 Budget) If we didn't have enough, I'm sorry, but that's all we could do.

At the end of the event, an adult couple stormed out of the place crying. The woman was crying because they heard about the event late. At that moment, almost all the agencies had left already, and she matter of factly stated that it was just their luck. The woman had a visible limp to her walk and the remaining volunteers paused to watch this surreal event.

As volunteers, there was nothing we could have done since we had no food or other services left to provide. However, as soon as they left, a group of doctors and nurses chased after the couple. One of the doctors shouted that she was in no medical condition to go back onto the streets. They chased her across the street and helped her get medical care.

That last scene reminded me that we did what we could, but sometimes we must accept that we can only do so much. I'm glad that we are able to do something though; over 800 clients received the services they were looking for that day.

My buddy Jim finished his Peace Corps service about a year ago and ever since he's been traveling around the world. Just recently, he came back to the States to crash with his sister for a month in Los Angeles, CA. Since he was nearby San Diego and his birthday was coming up, we decided to meetup and go surfing at the San Onofre beach. We spent the day eating burritos, surfing, and chilling at a night bonfire.

I suggested that we take a trip over to Yosemite National Park. It sounded like a great idea so in October, I took a week off work, picked Jim up from LA, and we drove to Yosemite to do some hiking/camping 'on the cheap'.

Now let me say that I respect everyone's need to plan to different degrees; some people need to have an itinerary for every hour with reservations already setup and on the other hand, some people only need to know where they're going. Jim and I thought the same, we were the latter of the two and the only planning we needed was that we'd start driving on the 5 freway to Yosemite.

Since I was going with Jim, a cheap ass almost to the extent that I was (and maybe even moreso), we knew that we weren't going to spend more than $10 a day. Since $10 a day for food and shelter wasn't a large amount, we knew we had to prioritize our needs; we needed to cover food, shelter, and fun with our $10 a day budget.

Shelter:

I had been to Yosemite National Park before and had stayed at the cheapest 'rooms', which was pretty much a canvas tent priced at $89/night in Curry Village. On my last trip, I was with some of my family (including some younger cousins) so I didn't hesitate on spending the money. Now, it was different.

For this trip, a friend from work let us borrow a tent for free (Thanks Sara). The problem was, where do we pitch the tent without park rangers coming over to give us tickets? We thought about pitching our tent out in a random trail, but knew that my truck would get a ticket (vehicles could only park in certain locations unless they had a wilderness permit).

The solution? We drove outside the park, parked on the side of the road, and slept in the back of the truck although it was freezing outside. Despite the harsh conditions, we slept pretty well that first night. After that night, we got up early and registered a spot at Camp 4 where we were able to pitch our tent inside the park for about $7 a day.

Shelter - Check!

Food:

Being the bums that we are, we decided not to spend much on food. Instead we brought our own supplies. I had my camping gear (camping stove, pots, and fuel) and lots of food lying around the house; some clif bars, oatmeal, mac & cheese, and packets of instant noodles (the good kind - I spare no expenses when it comes to instant noodle!). Jim snagged a lot of smoked pork and chicken at his sister's party just before we left LA.

For meals, we would sit in the truck bed making our food while watching people walk by their cars. Instead of buying our food at Camp Curry, we prioritized our food money and instead used it on what any other sane individual would've done: buy a beer everynight.

Food - Check!

Fun:

Our first full day in Yosemite, we decided to hike Half Dome. People advised us to start no later than 9 am. We started closer to noon and knew we had to hurry. We made it to the top (where its necessary to 'climb' up), rested a bit, and shared some of our spare water with others. The view was amazing. On the top we met Godzilla, the park ranger lady who went around kicking people's stone shrines down.

On the way down, we passed by people who were already on the way down when we were still hiking up. We made it back to camp for our well deserved beer just as it got dark.

For the rest of the trip, we did a little bouldering, saw a bear cub close up on a trail, helped some German hitchhikers get to a far off trail (they laid on the truck bed hiding under our sleeping bags), met a hilarious French husband/wife, shared stories with an Irish rock climber over a campfire, never once took a shower, had farting competitions inside the tent, raced across trails, and incessantly made fun of 'punters' (tourists who spend a lot of money needlessly - for example, taking the bus tour through a trail)

Fun - Check!

After a week up in Yosemite while sleeping in a tent and hiking everyday, we weren't the cleanest of individuals (not to mention the farting competitions didn't help our hygenie). So on the way back to LA, we stopped by my first home, good ole Reedley! Even though Jim and I had our fair share of traveling the world, it was always nice to return home for a hot shower, a comfortable bed, and some home cooked food.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Just found the language packet that I was supposed to get…. a week and a half late. It was just sitting in the office and I guess I’m pretty oblivious to things, especially large packages that say “To: William Liu”.

Word gets around that there’s a tech guy on the island; some teacher from a school nearby came over looking for me. A volunteer said that their Internet was ‘broken and it needed fixin’. The first thing that popped into my head was, “I wonder if I can get free Internet if I fix it for them.” Yeah, I’m selfish; I need my Internet fix.

I stopped by the school and found the teacher that was looking for me. He wants the Internet to work so he can build a web site (who doesn’t nowadays?). I checked it out and there was nothing wrong with the Internet connection; it was the computer that had something wrong with it.

To be precise, there were at least 247 things wrong with it. That’s the number of viruses that were on the library’s computer. How that happened, I do not know (though I have a good idea), but it scares me what some people do on the Internet without any idea of what most viruses are targeted towards. Surfing and downloading things at random using Microsoft Internet Explorer as your browser and running Windows XP as your operating system with no antivirus or firewall activated… yeah… enough said.

I can imagine riding a bike around Pangai, wearing my Peace Corps helmet, warning people with a giant speakerphone to practice “Safe Hex” and throwing out pirated CD copies of Norton AntiVirus 10 to all the teenagers. Knowing my luck, I’d probably end up accidentally flashing everyone with my tupenu and people might think I’m sending a different message than what I intended to convey.

Anyways, back to the topic, another problem was that the computer would restart every 4 to 6 minutes after applications started. It’s weird since it would restart, slowly turning off applications and logging off instead of immediately shutting off. There was a warning on boot up that indicated fan failure that was incidentally ignored by everyone until now. When there’s a problem and there’s very specific warnings, I would figure that people would link the two together.

I opened the case, and low and behold, the CPU fan was broken, which caused overheating of the processor and consequently the 248th reason why the computer may be restarting. We replaced the processor fan and I had to leave because the library was closing. I’ll check back tomorrow.

Cooked a lot of rice… because I’m Chinese and thus I inherently like rice, we all do! Making good use of the freezer and I have 2 kilos of chicken sitting in there, ate half a kilo earlier.

Important Note: Remember to use the word “fakatau” when buying chicken.

If you say, “Oku ou fie moa” and then immediately follow that up by opening up your wallet, store owners would give you a strange look, and then consequently laugh at you…. Not that I’d know by experience…

English translation: Stranger comes to your store, says, “I want a girlfriend.”, opens up his wallet, and asks how much for one.

What I meant to say was “Oku ou fie fakatau moa”, though I blame it on the fact that I was undecided whether to buy sheep (sipi) or chicken (moa) so I forgot the “fakatau”. It was not a Freudian slip lol. To be safe from now on, I’ll mention how many kilos as well.

English translation: I want to buy chicken.

Don’t ask me why girlfriend/boyfriend (slang) and chicken are the same words.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

We finally got our crate, woot! Now I need to find ice cream to store in my freezer. Yummm… Ice cream! They should make ice cream the official food of Sundays; screw bread.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

We went ‘bar/house jumping’ for the volunteer leader who’s leaving. There was food / a drink at each house and it was a lot of fun. Had to go to the wharf at 2 a.m. to get the elusive refrigerator and stove. Our crate was packed in first so they’ll have to unload the crates at Vava’u, then they’ll be back tomorrow.

Helped HYC test and fix a few of their computers that were just lying there. They have 9 working monitors, 3 working desktops, and 2 broken desktops. The ‘broken’ desktops either had a missing hard drive or a broken hard drive. The other pieces are still good just in case we need to replace other parts on the operational units.

That makes me wonder, who the hell steals just a hard drive? It’s like the thief had the expertise to know what part to disassemble and take, but doesn’t quite have the common sense to know that you still need a motherboard, processor, ram, etc. for it to work. Whoever it is, I nominate them for the smartest stupid thief award.

Had a CMOS checksum error on one computer that caused it not to boot up; changed the CMOS battery, restored BIOS defaults, and it worked again. Installed a few programs for HYC and gave them a quick tutorial on how computers work. Computer maintenance can be easily explained in twenty minutes with a visual. I haven’t tried without a visual, that’s going to be a toughie.

My stuff should be here at midnight! Woot!!!

Monday, September 25, 2006

Reading through all these tech manuals makes me feel like Neo in the Matrix. I know Flash! I know Judo! I know how to pick locks!

I am happy…. And a bit horny. (Although those feelings are mutually exclusive of one another)

Had dinner with a lot of important people from Ha’apai including a Member of Parliament, the principles of the local schools, and people that are helping with donating materials to the center. My supervisor definitely knows how to set things up. The food was delicious; everything from lobster, red wine, and ice cream desserts.

Went for a run today; it was interesting considering I haven’t really ran since Ha’atafu (and even then it was only a couple of times). I ran from my house to the airport in Koulo and back, with a break in between when I ran into some familiar faces. For some reason whenever I run long distances, my mind seems to daze off to some of the most random things. This time I was thinking of coding and how the program would look.

while(myEnergy > 0)

{

step++;

myEnergy--;

}

Or if it get a little more complicated and we needed to calculate how many right steps and left steps were taken (and thus total steps)…

int foot = 1;

int rightFoot = 0, leftFoot = 0;

for(int myEnergy = 100; myEnergy > 0; myEnergy--)

{

if(foot%1 == 0)

{

rightFoot++;

foot++;

}

else if (foot%1 == 1)

{

leftFoot++;

foot--;

}

else

{

// break

}

}

Monday, September 25, 2006

Last night I noticed that I only sleep on one half of my queen sized bed. I wonder why is that. Habit? Maybe I just don’t take up too much room? Maybe I’m so efficient not just in coding, but in real life as well and I save a second everyday getting into and out of bed. That’s like a little over 12 minutes saved a year! Damn I’m good. Or is it because I’m subconsciously feeling alone and just waiting for someone to fill that spot? Gee, that sounds depressing. Oh or maybe it’s because I keep some books / flashlight / knife on the other side of the bed. Hmm, that seems a lot more plausible.

New Address:

William Liu

Peace Corps Volunteer

General Post Office

Pangai, Ha’apai

Kingdom of Tonga

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Watching the third season of Sex and the City. DVD’s rock.

A good acoustic guitar strikes more than just one chord. Currently listening to: The White Stripes – White Blood Cells – We’re going to be friends

Maybe it’s my crazy imagination, but it’s eerie walking through town. I half expect to bump into someone from my old training group. It’s eerier (

Went to King's funeral a couple days ago. We have to wear black for a month and for some strange reason, I get thirsty when I look at too much black. Hmm... there's probably some screws loose in my head.

Yesterday I moved to Ha'apai, that is, if you can count dropping my backpack and guitar inside 'moving in'. The rest of my luggage should follow shortly on Friday. The plane ride over was delayed for 3 hours, which I hear seems to be fairly common. Got a chance to talk to some Aussies that had their flight to Vava'u delayed.

I know this sounds sorta cheezy, but I miss my old group. They're just a really great bunch. The group here in Ha'apai is awesome as well though. Last night we had a feast at my counterpart's house. It was yummyyyyy!!

The computers that should have come in for my site were accidently shipped to Somoa. I guess I'll have to wait a week or two before they'll be here. Until then I gotta find some way to be productive. I found a book on lockpicking that I'll read up more on in case I get locked out of my house. This morning I started some coding and I'm working on a program to teach Tongan. I'm not sure how useful it'll be, but at least it'll keep me busy. I need my bags (with my microphone) to come here before I can start recording sound clips.

A friend back in the States just confirmed that he sent some programs over, that'll be neat to receive. I'll have some more compilers to play with, yay!!! (Damn, that sounded nerdy). I have a feeling I'll just be programming while I wait for the computers to come.

Yay, Group 71 are now official Peace Corps volunteers! Woot us! We received a pin, a certificate, and our ID cards. I've been telling my group that I'm gonna use the ID card to pick up chicks at the bar when I go back to the U.S. I think it'll work; we'll see!!!

Here's what I wrote on my laptop not too long ago (may be a bit of overlap from other posts)

Wednesday September 13, 2006: 11:48 a.m.

Today was the OPI; I pretty much winged it and all I know is that I’m somewhere in the Intermediate level. The auction is pushed back until Friday. At 4 p.m. today we’ll get a chance to see the funeral procession. I’ll try to get some decent pictures (only if its culturally appropriate). Tomorrow we will swear-in as volunteers.

We get this neat looking card that says we’re with the Peace Corps. I have plans to flash that around when I get back to the States! I’m sure chicks dig that ;)

Tuesday September 12, 2006: 8:10 p.m.

It’s been a while on the updates, sorry about that. We flew back to Nuka’lofa and moved back into a guesthouse to room with other trainees. It’s nice to be with all the trainees again for some ‘palangi’ time.

Two of the IT volunteers put in a lot of work into the slideshow for our swearing in. For those interested in it, send me an email with your address and I’ll send a couple of DVD’s over with all the pictures and video that we’ve captured. The group t-shirt designs are almost finished up so if you want a ‘Peace Corps Tonga’ t-shirt with Group 71 in it, let me know as well.

Anyhoo, last Sunday we went to Pangai’motu, an island resort that’s about 15 minutes boat trip away from the main capital. Getting there with our lifejackets was quite an adventure in itself. Here’s the story and some things to keep in mind:

1.) In Tonga, we quickly realized how large a role that weather plays in determining plans. Last week the weather was raining off and on so we had to cancel our plans. This Sunday we were lucky and the weather was just perfect.

2.) To understand our thinking, I have to explain the Sundays of Tonga. During Sundays, most Tongans go to Church sometimes even 3 times a day and all shops (except for bakeries) are closed. It is illegal to work on those days; Sundays are designated specifically for spending time with family.

3.) One of the Peace Corps policies that they stressed repeatedly was the importance of lifejackets. We were told more than once about its importance and how another group had decided to ignore the Peace Corps policies, and thus consequently verbally warned.

With that in mind, we approached the Peace Corps office trying our best to obey policies. We spoke with the guard who let us in. Normally, the lifejackets are just lying on top of a table outside. This was not the case and we searched in desperation for the jackets. We found them inside a locked storage room.

Now if I had come immediately from the States, I would not have thought about opening the door. However, we’ve become very ‘fakatonga’ (like a Tongan) and thus we’ve become quite resourceful. After a short while (with the guard watching us and not saying anything because we were trainees), we were walking out of the office with our lifejackets.

Now this is not acceptable behavior! It’s actually considered “breaking and entering into a U.S. government building”. At the moment we didn’t see it that way, though we later did. At the moment all we saw was that we were considerate enough not to disturb anyone on a Sunday, we were resourceful with what we had, we already signed out for the lifejackets so we weren’t stealing, we didn’t break anything, and we tried to follow policy regarding lifejackets.

Now I see that they still consider that against regular policy and I sure hope I don’t break another policy. I can understand it from their perspective and agree. We were written up and from a clean slate we went to one more warning from getting kicked out of Peace Corps. What a day!

As far as the trip went, we went swimming, talked to some Australian volunteers, walked around the island, jumped off this rusty shipwrecked boat (about 15 feet high) into the ocean, played volleyball, and table tennis. One of the volunteers is a really proficient swimmer / diver, doing backflips headfirst into the water.

Today we took our Emergency Action Plan test. It tests our knowledge about safety and security in Tonga ranging in topics from the correct course of action in natural disasters to how to best avoid theft. Tomorrow we’ll be tested on our language proficiency test to see if we’re decently proficient in Tongan. Regardless of the results of the test, we’ll have to get a tutor for at least an hour a week to work on our Tongan. If we were under the Intermediate level, we would have to get a tutor for at least two hours a week.

After tomorrow’s test we’ll have a silent auction to look forward to. We’ve been given our settling in allowance and we use this sum to buy anything from burners to refrigerators. (Which by the way, I’ve already got an eye out to buy a used refrigerator at the auction and a fishing spear in the fishing store). The interesting part of this auction is that we don’t quite know what our furnishings are in our future homes (most haven’t seen their homes) and we just have to make an educated guess.

The King passed away recently and his body is being flown in tomorrow. The country is already preparing by cleaning up the streets, everyone’s wearing black (for at least a month), and entertainment areas (movies, bars, clubs) are all closing for a month. This is definitely an interesting time to be in Tonga.

Due to this unfortunate event, our swearing in ceremony will have to be a bit low-key and the meeting with our host country counterparts will have to be delayed slightly. I’ll stay around for a few more days after swearing in so I can see the funeral and maybe I’ll crash over at another volunteer’s house for a bit.

The King passed away early this morning. Tonga is a constitutional monarachy and he was the king for the past 42 years. The last time a King passed away, businesses were shut down for 6 months. I wonder how this will affect things now. It's an interesting time to be in Tonga to say the least, not to mention the fact that we have to wear black clothes for a similar duration of time. Time to go shopping for a few more black shirts...