When I was in Nepal I didn't have a good camera on me. The weather and living conditions were terrible and so I had to make due with a crappy disposable camera, which was a problem because the pictures would turn out quite unfocused. On my last night in Rampur, the village threw a goodbye/thank you party for us, and after a lot of persuasion, my host sister finally got up and danced. She was wearing this bright pink dress, she had a huge smile on her face, and to top it all off she turned out to be a phenomenal dancer. Behind her sat the "band", which consisted of a group of the village elders who were banging on random drums and pots and pans. The scene was beautiful enough to make the photo goddess come down from the heavens, grab me by the balls, and scream "TAKE A FUCKING PICTURE" in my ear.

It could have been a perfect picture; it could have been National Geographic meets post-Orientalist theory; it could have captured the swaying of Lakshmi's hips, the beating of the elders' drums, the majestic singing in the background, the heat and humidity of the monsoon night that engulfed us all together in a Matrix-like orgy of bodies and sweat. It could have been...it could have been bloody fantastic.

Unfortunately, the damn disposable camera failed me once again and the picture came out blurry and dark.

During a rainy afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I sat at home after work playing around with the picture to see how I could improve it somehow. I used "paint strokes" and was surprised that it turned out pretty cool. The fact that the "paint strokes" blur out the face makes the picture even nicer in my opinion (and if you look really closely at her face, you can see her big bright smile).

What do you guys think?.

P.S. I ditched the novel-writing idea. What the hell was I thinking, I have so many better things to do with my life. Dubai/Abu Dhabi entry will be coming soon. Also coming soon will be a rant about my job, and why I enjoy development work (other than the fact that it reaps in truckloads of 'the bitches').

I spent the past two days travelling the east coast of the U.A.E. with Mathilda; managed to see Fujeirah, Dabba, Al-Ain, and even stopped over into Oman for a while, which is great because I can cross the 21st country off my pretentious list of countries I've travelled to. Highlights of the two days include getting lost south of Fujeirah for two hours, visiting the village of Hatta on the border of Oman, snorkeling with large sea turtles, and meeting bedouins at the goat and camel market in Al-Ain. I was very close to buying a goat, but I figured my mother would not be too happy about the potential purchase, and so I opted to spend my money on KFC instead.

I think travelling around has given me a new-found appreciation of the country, and allowed me to see the more rural parts of it that seem to hold onto the more traditional way of life. Al-Ain was particularly beautiful: it's a town built around a large oasis, and right next to a large desert mountain. The scene from the top was quite breathtaking.

( I am too exhausted to write more, so I shall leave you with pictures and my best wishes for all you Canadians on Canada Day. )

Okay, sleepy time.

Well, this is the final weekend, and this week will be the final week of classes. The semester has passed by too quickly, and was pretty much uneventful. Quite sad, but I have no doubt next semester will be awesome. Tuxedo-wearing, He-man obsessing Terrance will be back from the Green Party internship in Germany, we will have extended frisbee time, and lots of fun in the snow. And when I say fun, I mean, "Oh God let it end".

Last night I went to the Mall with my aunt and the Sizzler, then we went to Red Lobster. I had mussels, crab legs, fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, lobster tail and mashed potatoes. Sizzler ordered the grilled chicken.

"I gone an' went to Red Lobster's and ordered me some chick-kaaaan"

Tonight we all went out for a celebratory drink and smoke. Celebrating the end of the semester, or rather, the beginning of the aformentioned craziness of next semester.

Here are three of my favourite pictures taken tonight.

( ...QP, Pint Faces and the Trannie bathroom in the JDUC... )

I love the Morcheeba- 'Parts of the Process' album. It reminds me of two great things in my life: being high, and being in Sri Lanka. The former because whenever we smoke in Montreal, we have Morcheeba playing in the background. The latter because for some reason, everywhere I stayed at in Sri Lanka, everywhere I went, be it in the East, West, North or South...every single hostel there had this playing at the bar/restaraunt. Weird. The music just takes me somewhere, it's relaxing, it's different to what I usually listen to, and it's great to put on as background music. Beautiful. Best purchase ever, in my opinion. Trigger Hippie is a masterpeice, but so are so many of the songs on here.

In other news, this really annoyed me.

Peace.