bum knee

Hello,

I thought there was a problem with the internet when I was trying to post but went with it anyway. Then the next day I saw what I typed wasn't posted or in the drafts. gone away somewhere i guess. that's okay, but for some reason i can't type again what i typed before because it feels staged.

so a quick summary that will likely turn into its own post:

knew i could count on you, ryan! sorry amy, should have counted you in on the short list. thanks laurie, i don't think you're a cheater. just waiting for jasmine now...

really liked kaikoura. my knee not so much. after saturdays little jaunt (10k run) through the bush in Sydney with Jose my right knee was doing some pretty weird things. then the walk around the peninsula in kaikoura secured my thought that going down was bad. only to go 1602 meters (5,250 ft) up to the top of Mt. Fyffe and then 1602 meters (5,250 ft) back down to the bottom. further confirming that going down is bad.

it is just plain weird to be in Nelson again. Kaikoura was a new place for me but it feels like too many ghosts are here in Nelson. i walked into a grocery store tonight to look at some of the pricing of the food for work and realized i was in this grocery store before. when i was more hungry, in grubbier clothes, and not able to buy so much. i drive by the bridge that we walked over to meet katja, pauline and hayley at the bar. or see the hostel where Thomas and i had a half can size of rice pudding because the grocery stores were closed for some holiday. actually he had food, and i had the half can size of rice pudding for dinner but a full bag of salt, olive oil, and butter which made me think i had plenty of food to eat. whenever you hear someone say, "this is just a taste, i'm traveling to so many places to see where it is that i want to go back." kind of a specific thing to hear but I have heard it so much. tell them, "no, don't come back, go somewhere new."

the only exception to the above rule is italy. everyone should go back to italy as much as possible.

crazy day tomorrow: early flight to Auckland, some meetings during the day (world's best hot chocolate which by some amazing weird chance is one block away from one of my meetings), over night flight to Hong Kong, flight to Beijing, then drive 5 hours to somewhere. Don't think it is actually in the region of Mongolia because 5 hours drive time in China doesn't really get you that far. So either I'm not going to Mongolia and just nearby it, or the drive will be much longer than 5 hours. If it were any other country I would put my money on the first one, but since we're talking about China, i think we're at 50/50 here.

28 days down, 4 more to go. looking forward to going home again.
your friend,
chad