Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite-- too late.

God must have heard me.  My internship is a go! 

But I am now concerned with another thing.  There are 8 bites on my face and I am not sure what it is.  I thought they were mosquito bites at first.  I am using two mosquito repellent stickers every day, and there does not seem to be bugs flying around me for the longest time.  After doing some research, I am convinced that they are bed bug bites.  Now I have to go back to my cousin's place and see if they are in the bed.  Or a more likely place is the airline pillow.  The bites are mostly in a line, and are only on the two sides of my face.  There was a lag time of 3-4 days between the time I got bitten and the time my face showed the irritating and itchy welts.  I am getting more and more paranoid as I type.  If it was the airline pillow, I hope I didn't bring an infestation of bed bugs to my cousin's flat...





The Night Before

Hopping on a plane and heading off to HK is a maneuver that has been replayed in my mind some countless hundreds of times, but it really isn't the same now that I am experiencing the whole process in real time.  I am currently starving myself of sleep so I can actually catch some Z's on the plane, or it's the anxiety not letting me sleep, or both.

Not going to lie and be bubbly about it all, but I'm more nervous than anything right now because the internship agreement still hasn't been signed.  I am wondering if I should be concerned at this point or be happy that I am going to finally see my relatives for the first time in five years, some of whom are newly added members to the family.  Five baby cousins!-- well a few not-so-baby cousins now.  It's making me realize how much I have already grown.  Anyway, cousins are great!  I remember being the youngest in my family: an only child, spoiled with attention, drowned in toys, but nobody to play with.  Then one day when I was three, a baby cousin was suddenly plopped down in front of me, and we have been buddies since.

Well, I really hope to hear a big "YES IT'S A GO" from the host organization soon...  I will be in HK the next time I blog!

First Ride of the Season

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Not my picture but-- gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Okay.  It's hitting me now.  I am going far far away for three months.  It feels like the first ride of the season.  Your pre-ride chat with your friends to cover for each others' nervousness is over.  Before you know it, it's your turn.  You get on the ride, and you're on your own.  Every man for himself.  You get strapped in and hear the gears start to turn.  Can't look back now.  You have no control over your physical body as it gets transported up that steel structure, but your mind is already flying, imagining the utter terror of the drop.  Don't look down, you tell yourself.  But you inadvertently look anyway and it only serves to reinforce your fears.  Suddenly, the gears stop-- you think, "thank God the suspense is over."

But wait.  




That means you're at the top, the pinnacle, the apex, the summit, the zenith.  Breathe.  You risk your sanity and look again.

"Oo, beautiful scenerrr--eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

C o u n t d o w n :  1 1  d a y s