at the same time. New York is too big/loud/bright for me i think. my heart belongs to california. specificaly san fran. concrete may be concrete, but somehow san fran is just enchanting to me. and i love the sense of belonging i feel there (here.)

the trip also dis-enchanted me to the whole traveling thing a bit. somewhere in there i got really bad food poisining, and even had to stay an extra day because i was defintley not well enough for a 6 hour flight. i've been back two days and it was a feat that i was able to keep coffee and a piece of toast in my system for more than 15 minutes. on the upside (i guess) i lost a fewlbs becuase i have not been able to eat for the last 5 or so days. ha.

anyways, also my south africa trip just got cancelled (honestly one of the ones i was most excited about too..) leaving only Japan in the summer. As much as i'm sad about missing out on SA it makes Japan that much more affordable.

Also visiting people that acutally live in a place (or actually living there for a while) seems the best way to really get a feel for the place & in Japan i'll be staying with my brother, while he will still take me to do stupid touristy things. (including buying me a yukata and going to a fireworks festival because i allready begged him!)

Though in SA i would have also been staying with friends.

Oh well, maybe at another time. I'm still really excited for Japan. Still need to get that job so i can afford it..