The End

Its two days after we've finished our walk and I finally am able to write a little bit about the experiance.

The last few days we treked pretty hard doing at least 15 miles or more a day.

The last stretch of the walk was pretty insane as we were exposed to this incredible wind. We were walking along the ocean and for whatever reason, it happens that this section is always very windy. We were blown very hard for a couple of miles and that was quite challanging. Eventually we made it to the town of Kenting and we celebrated by going out on the streets with all of the other middle school aged kids. Cool huh! We stayed there for a night and then I requested we leave as it was a beach town and I am not a big fan of beach towns.

Interesting/hilarious note: So of course in a beach town you have people dressed and acting "beachy" You know. Loud shirts,"Cool kids" riding fast through town...except it was all Taiwanese people. Now heres the funny part: In the midst of this Asian beach town there was one white kid (besides me). He was alone, BUT, he wasn't dressed like the other weird white people that come to Taiwan...He dressed like an American, White, Beach Thug. It was as if some strange porthole in Daytona Beach had swallowed him and his buddies were too busy looking at girls through sunglasses at night and pulling up their oversized jean shorts to notice he had been swallowed. He looked lost. I felt a little bad for him, but I was also laughing hysterically while I asked Jeff repeatedly, "Did that just happen?"

Ok, up until now my blog has been for laughs and a little for thinking and a little for facts. I'm gonna wrap it all up neatly like a nurse allergic to obtuse angles, and I just might get deep or philisophical. Don't say I didn't warn you Hickory Joe!

Dr. Strangewalk: A strange title for a strange trip. Why did I call it this? Because I had a feeling that it would be strange, after all, we had very few plans. Interestingly, the times when we had the most plans were the least satisfying. You hear that notebook planner! Unsatisfying!

It was indeed a strangewalk; sometimes we walked into the same characters repeatedly, sometimes we walked at night, sometimes we walked into family parties, sometimes we walked on beaches, sometimes we walked on mountains, sometimes we walked on strange metal beasts that walk a lot faster than we do, using rubber spinning devices. Thats why it was a strange walk. Now some might say, it wasn't completely a "walk." That is true. We ran once. But seriously, while we did get rides, they added to the adventure and humanity of the trip. For instance, had we not accepted the first ride, we may not have lost the camera, or we may not have gotten to live in a Bhuddist monistary.

Also, had we not accepted the ride from William, we would have missed out on a wonderful interaction with a fellow human. On the other hand, if we had gotten rides the whole time, we would not have had many of the enriching experiances we had. For instance, while we were walking, a white guy on a moped passed and said, "Hey you gotta get a bike!" We had a good laugh. However, only about a mile later we stopped and had a feast with a family that invited us into their party. This happened about 3 times on the trip and is something that would not have happened if we had only been getting rides. So I guess like the last bowl of porriage, this trip was Juusssttt Right.

It is on a trip like this that you more easily recoginze the strange forces guiding all of us. It becomes more evident when your walking and you "by chance" have a run in with someone or something amazing that was a function of another "chance" encounter that you had earlier that put you in that situation. So I guess we're talking about fate. Or something.

If you look closely, something is guiding us. Maybe you call that coincidence. Maybe I call that God. Whatever you call it, we've all experianced it and it is truly a strange phenomenon.

I guess this goes along with the belief that nothing is good or bad. They're all just events that happen, and you immidiatly interpret them as good or bad, but in terms of their effect on your future, bad events can lead to good events, good events can lead to bad ones. SO what's the point? I guess that everything is. But you don't know what anything is until you do it. So that doesn't mean you don't have free will. Your freewill is. So whatever you do, it is.

This is truth. But there are many truths. I'm sorry if I sound like that guy at that party...

SO here's the other truth...that we all like happiness and that human interaction is a great way to experiance more fufilling happiness.

So, being and optimist, try to be as happy as possible. Don't let things that give you that empty happiness take over your life. Be thankful for what you have, you have a lot. I don't care who your thankful to. You coild be thankful to coincidence... But so long as you and I and everyone, especially in the U.S. how incredibly good we have it. Never take that for granted. Also never take a mosquito-free house for granted.

Finally, I suggest that everyone travel as much as possible. I realize I am incredibly lucky to be able to do this and that everyone can't. But try to work towards it. And travel in unconvential ways and do unconvential things in your travels. It will make you think a lot, and thats good...

I want to thank everyone for reading my trying to be funny blog which may sound a bit trite at times, but whatever...it is what it is. Or was.

I think I might stop. I think that my adventures in Taiwan were interesting and I hope they made you think a little or at very least made you laugh a tiny bit. Thats what I'm here for.

I doubt that my adventures in College Park Maryland will be nearly as interesting.

It would be something like:

Went to school today. Smelled a pretty girls hair as she passed and shivered with delight.

Ate the same lunch I always eat. I'm still completely unsure as to what I want to do wiht my life.

Thats no fun. So unless theres massive support for the continuation of this blog perhaps under a different name, I will stop. Also, if you have any suggestions for my blog subject matter like horticulture or small buisness economics in west Africa please send them in as well.

I thank you all for your love and I send it out to all of you just the same!

Last note: The picture is of me and a dog we met along the road who followed us and was very cool. Cooler than all the mean dogs that barked at us. I named him Slinky. Oh yeah, and Jeff and I have terrible intestine sickness haha, so please pray for our well-being.

Ok in ending I'll write a few thoughts of mine and possibly...Jokes!

About an old man walking out to the road from within the grass:

His walking feet were strange; they were separate ideas wobbling differently in the same direction, like a similie.

Me pointing to strange colored piece of something:

"Jeff, whats that?"

Jeff: "Blood"

Todays Famous Doctor of the Day: Dr. John (Musician...great!)