So this will be my real first post. I've wanted to start a blog for about 6 months, since I started reading them during my infinite hours of boredom this past summer. I shouldn't say infinite, because they were pretty finite...about 4 hours at the end of the day after spending about 8 hours in chinese class and doing chinese homework. but they seemed inifinite, especially after the 20th straight day of watching a movie. During the 8 week program I probably watched 50 movies on my computer. But I was writing about blogs...a couple blogs that i read are linked on the right side there...most of them are by people living in china, and a couple are political. i'm not really interested in reading about people's daily miseries, which are what so many blogs are about.

a lot of my thoughts lately have been about this trip, probably spending a little too much time looking up travel info, reading guidebooks, and buying things in preparation; such as some snazzy new shoes, a snazzier digital camera, and now i'm looking for the snazziest travel backpack i can find. The goal is for my snazz to be awe-inspiring. I want people to see me and after i walk away say behind my back "that guy really brings the snazz."

My travel plans have changed a bit also. Originally I was supposed to fly from israel to thailand and connect in Uzbekistan with an 18hour layover in Tashkent (it was about $400 cheaper than flying direct). I was really looking forward to spending a frigid night in Tashkent with a bunch of uzbekis and a bottle of cheap russian vodka and committing various other acts of debauchery, but the debauchery will have to wait until thailand because the ticket was cancelled. So now I found an even cheaper ticket through ethiopian airlines with a 10 hour layover in Addis Ababa. This could be awesome...hopefully i'll be able to get out of the airport and see the city for a few hours. I thought about trying to stay there for 4 days (there are only flights from israel to Addis every 4 days), but it would cut my free time in israel too short.

Other things going on in my life: drinking (trying to take every opportunity to celebrate my 21st), and the bane of my scholastic existence, finals.