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Articles Tagged ‘Greg Goetz’

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Me In Las Vegas

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

After a week in Hong Kong,  just in time to avoid the worst of the burning of Bangkok just up the road from Sukhumvit 20 where I was staying, I flew to Portland Oregon with a transfer in San Francisco on my favorite airline…Cathay Pacific.  Travel time from Hong Kong to the west coast is much shorter (about 10 hours) than a flight from Bangkok with a long layover in Taiwan or Seoul (14-18 hours).

But after 8 months in Asia, the jet lag and culture shock really hit me hard, as usual, flying to the western hemisphere from the east.  In short feeling like I have the flu on top of disorientation, lack of short-term memory (where are my glasses now…and those damn keys…and my phone!) and feeling scattered, very fatigued and strange.  So I holed up in a hotel for a week in Salem…not wanting to inflict myself on my friends…and where I could curl up on a cloud-soft mattress like a baby.

But then, beginning to feel somewhat normal again and stuck in a “cell”  the weather turned from rain to sun and I really wanted out of the hotel. And didn’t appreciate US CNN which is incredibly inferior to International CNN!  I missed the superior BBC, Aljazeera and Russia Today that I could get in Bangkok so I just relied on my computer on free wireless internet which was better than TV anyway. Then a very generous friend offered to have me stay with her and her husband.  This couple had spent a few years in Thailand in the Peace Corps in the 70’s, so it was wonderful to have someone to trade information and debrief the chaos in Bangkok with…especially since they had been following the web videos, articles, forums and tweets like I had been.  Thank you so much Judy and Bob! I hope someday I can be as generous with you!

So now, after almost missing my plane because of bumper to bumper traffic from Salem to Portland, I am in Las Vegas with weather in the 80’s and enjoying my son Greg and his new toddler, Val, a very sweet yellow labrador 18 month old puppy.  We have plans for a Bar B Q with his friends and a Cirque du Seleil show based on Elvis. If it is as good as the one based on the Beatles during my last visit to LV, it will be a fine evening. Greg is at work. Think I’ll curl up and take a nap.

Posted in Nevada, Oregon, USA | No Comments »

Oregon In Summer

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Oregon is most delightful in summer! Everything is so green. And my mouth has been watering for local strawberries, raspberries, peaches and cherries. And Walla Walla Sweet Onions! Cars obey the rules, garbage is picked up and motorcycles don’t try to run you down. And sweet faces of old friends are a joy.
This blog has just been sitting here while I have been planting flowers and maintaining the house for the last month since I’ve been home. I’m not used to house maintenance. I’m not used to making appointments and keeping them on time. My inner mechanisms are a jambles. The world news is upsetting and I’m sick of the negative campaign and mindless pundits. So I have been planting flowers. And enjoying my home. It’s like being in a 5 star hotel after all the cheap guest houses in Asia.

A couple weeks ago I was treated with a visit from two of my sons…Josh and Greg. They were on a mission to see their 92 year old grandmother in Portland. Josh was in between jobs so he spent a few days here and treated me and some of our old friends to a wonderful dinner here at the house…4 hours in the preparation of. Just like old times. I loved the banter. I miss it now. Then he flew to Las Vegas with Greg where he spent a week or so before flying to Hong Kong to join his wife Amy and begin work. They are happy to finally be out of mainland China…especially with the Olympics coming.

I’ll have a month of peace before Doug arrives from Thailand the first week of September…leaving the end of October. And time to catch up on my reading. Finished “Bangkok Blondes,” a book of short stories by expat women living in Bangkok. And “Tales From The Expat Harem,” also a book of short stories by expat women living in Turkey. Now I’m reading a short history of the Balkans where I hope to go next fall.

I am looking forward to leaving the house in the care of a renter in November and returning to Oaxaca Mexico for a couple of months before going to Cuba and Guatemala with an American expat friend in Oaxaca. Then I hope to go on to other Central and South American countries before returning to Oregon next summer. So that’s the deal…taking advantage of a window of time while I am still able to walk and before the cost of airline fuel prohibits any more travel.

In the meantime I spend time on www.couchsurfing.com making friends in all the prospective countries I will be visiting. It’s an online community where you hook up with friends and arrange to stay with them…and they with you. And join CS activities in their local communities. If you travel try it! You’ll like it!

Posted in Doug, Greg, Joshua, Oregon, Progeny, USA | No Comments »