The Adventure Begins.... part 1.

I have arrived in antigua, but i have back log of stories. I plan to bring this blog up to date over the next few days...

As many other things in life, well…my life anyways… many things get pushed to the last minute. So this adventure, like many others, started with some minor misadventures. It all started around four days before my departure. I decided to pick up all my meds. Ends up, I didn’t have a malarone prescription. Now… although Antigua is at altitude, and is not itself a malarial area, almost everywhere else in Central America is. Talking to some friends who had been to Africa, they offered their extra doses, as the barely took any themselves. Or at least this was the plan when I went to the travel clinic a few months earlier. Long story short…I was making plans on a foundation that didn’t exist, and I found myself in need of a prescription for 40 doses of malarone on short notice. This became a bit tougher when many places are closed for the holidays.

On the evening of the 28th after a day spent celebrating Ally’s birthday, we stopped over in Lindsay to make a quick stop at the afterhours clinic. The hope was that I could make it a quick in and out. But, reality strikes. The waiting list was packed, they were turning people away as soon as the clinic opened. I was lucky to get in, and I feel bad, as it was not just I that waited in line, but my Eric, Carol and Ally. So at the end of a wonderful day, we all spent over an hour of waiting, for an exchange with the doctor that lasted less than five minutes. But…in the end, I got the prescription that I needed.

Two days before my departure, I found myself ripping around southern Ontario, trying to fill my small prescription of malarone. Although it a relatively common malarial medication, ends up Lindsay only had about 17 doses. I was leaving town the next day, and new years was fast approaching. I had to split the prescription with another pharmacy in Markham. When I went to pick it up, they didn’t have me on record. After a brief investigation, we found that Google had mismatched the address with the phone number, resulting in me going to the wrong pharmacy. The day before I left, I had finally got my prescription filled. More excitement about the flight to follow…

Check out the updated picasa page later today.

Home for a rest

First...the room started to come apart

Then the bikes came apart (so many wheels!)

Not too long before all my worldly possessions where packed into one vehicle

Made it home for the holidays

I ate sooo many cookies!

Then started to roll for Guatemala

including some tools (just in case)

Enjoy the rest of your holidays!

Due to post from Antigua, Guatemala beginning Jan 1st 2011!

Quick Update

Hope everyone is having a safe and sound Christmas Season.

More updates to follow when the trip begins, flight date: January 1st.

For photo galleries of christmas and my future travels visit my Picasa site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mark.romeril.1

Photos from Guelph

Leftover Thoughts: Wittgenstein

These are leftover thoughts from semesters past. Read at your own risk.

A friend of a friend was in passing through town. A quick conversation about philosophy led me to a webcomic called "Dead Philosophers in Heaven". The title says it all. This one was pretty awesome...

In the authors notes section of this particular release of the web comic, there was a link to Derek Jarman's 1993 theatric movie, Wittgenstein. I started watching it immediately. It was odd, even by my standards. It was an exploration of Wittgenstein's philosophy, his love life, his struggles and of his relationship with Bertrand Russell and Maynard Keynes. Its the one ow two movies I have ever seen about a philosopher, and was much more entertaining than Derrida. One of the best parts, in my opinion, is a story that is told to Wittgenstein on his deathbed...

There was once a story of a young man who dreamed about reducing the world to pure logic. Because he was a very clever young man, he actually managed to do it. When he finished his work, he stood back and admired it. It was beautiful, a perfect world purged of imperfections and indeterminacy. Countless acres of gleaming ice stretching into the horizon. So the clever young man looked around the world and decided to explore it. He took one step forwards, and fell flat on his back. You see, he had forgotten about friction. The ice was smooth and level and stainless, but you couldn’t walk there. So the clever young man sat down and wept bitter tears. But as he grew into a wise old man, he came to understand that roughness and ambiguity are not imperfections, they are what make the world turn. He wanted to run and dance, and the words scattered on the ground were all battered and tarnished and ambiguous. The wise old man saw that that was the way things were. Yet something in him was still homesick for the ice, where everything was radiant and absolute and relentless. Though he had grown used to the idea of the rough ground, he could not bring himself to live there. So now he was marooned between earth and ice, at home in neither. And this was the cause of all his grief.

The whole thing is on YouTube for anyone else who is interested:

interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WzqyO-wIMI

Last night out in Guelph

On Thursday night, the wonderful musicians in YNOTW threw a impromptu (but wonderful) send off for me. Thanks to Nicole, Tom, Ben, Julia, Dave for shaping my coolest musical experience in Guelph. Couldn't give a proper shout out without mentioning Robin, Steve, and Josh. All of whom have given us some great inputs and opportunities along the way. The shindig at Nicole's house created the beginnings of a capstone night in Guelph.

As the music began to fade, groups drifted away from Yorkshire. I decided to swing by home and pickup some reinforcements before heading downtown. Two housemates came along for the trudge towards the DT, and we ran into a third at the venerable Jimmy Jazz. After dancing around to Madame D's set, we decided to roll to Tony's for some pool. We didn't realize how late it was until we noticed that Tony's was closed, so we needed to come up with a plan B.

For cheap pitchers and free pool, there was only one option. The Dip. For those who have not heard, or had the privilege of visiting the establishment Yenkel's, it is best described as premier dive in downtown Guelph. It is an establishment that polarizes opinion, and stimulates the senses in more ways than most would be conformable with. To add to the dive ambiance, it was thursday night Karaoke, which is a mixed blessing. The crowd would be large and lively, but also would be entirely composed of hipsters (used in the endearing sense of the word) and skid-row alcoholics. But the beer is always cold, and the pool is always free so we decided to slum it up.One thing led to another, and some light hearted shenanigans were had, contributing to our decision to move on. So the last shout out goes to James and Nick for being, as they would say, 'bosses' on the highest calibre.

That was a great night...

Almost GONE!

Its almost time to fly, with Jan 1st only a little over two weeks away! I've got my ticket, I've got my shots, I've almost got my grad-apps wrapped up... so things are shaping up very nicely.

For your listening pleasure as you read: Alèmayèhu Eshèté, Ethiopias answer to James Brown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvVuChXBAhs

With the tunes rolling, we can move on to other things of interest...

First, a brief follow up of Crazy Weekend pt2. After a few phone calls and and some hushed conversations back home, it has been decided that the van will be terminated early this friday afternoon. It is one of those times where it makes more sense to recoup the losses rather than fight off the inevitable, not to mention at great expense. So, in light of the van's impending demise, new plans have been hatched, old ones have been revised and the next two weeks should go off without a hitch.

In mondays excitement, I forgot to mention the other stuff that was going on later that day. At around 5:00 that afternoon I met up with the band, Your Neck of the Woods, at Synn Studios to record a track for an upcoming charity album. This album is due cause for excitement. The concept for the album is based off Neutral Milk Hotel's 1998 album 'In the Airplane Over the Sea'. The tracks are split between local talents, such as Texting Mackenzie, Modern Field Recordings, Richard Laviolette and others, who will bring their own influences to the re-interpretation of this classic album. If anyone reading this has not heard of Neutral Milk Hotel, I strongly support finding the album and listening to it start to finish. Repeat as necessary.

Although I've come to terms with not having a high-performance bike in Guatemala, a classmate asked me if I was planning to bring my violin. Truth is, the though never even entered my mind until she mentioned it....

Initially, I thought it might be a good idea to bring my violin, until I quickly remembered some wise words "If you can't deal with it getting lost, broken or stolen...don't bring it." Based off the experience of some of my other friends to decided to travel with their instruments, this 'dilemma' is really a 'no brainer'. My best friends viola only made it as far as the baggage handlers before it was turned into this...

With no cycling and no violin where i'm headed...it seems like I'm going to have to find some new ways to get my fitness and musical fix.