No amount of Britney, Barrie thinking I'm bumbling and unexperienced high schooler, or airplane food could prepare me for stepping off the plane in Medan at 10pm with only the directions to a hotel. Enormous billboards, dead rats, and prostitutes all steamed passed me on a current of completely random motorbike movement. All I could think of was a video game like Cruisin' USA where it doesn't matter where you drive or how narrowly you avoid crashing. Even with my jetlag, I arrived in my steaming room hyperventilating. And I brought running shoes? And I just left the comforts of the suburban United States for three months? WHAT WAS I THINKING??????
No amount of new things, incomprehensible language, or terror can ever hope to stand up against finally seeing the good friend you set out to see. When I saw Jesse at the Banda Aceh airport, I had been traveling for about 40 hours. I hadn't spoken to someone I knew or really communicated anything in just as long, so it was a relief to say the least. He quickly biked me into Banda Aceh where I saw Sarah Newman as well as Mia Walton and Guy Brown who were up for the week from Yogyajakarta. I really like seeing my friends.
No amount of dislike for carbonates environments, Midwestern lakes, or fresh water aquaria can prepare one for snorkeling on a coral reef of a secluded jungle isle. In my first glance under the waves, I saw two angelfish chasing each other between my legs. It was all there, from corrals, urchins, and anemones to puffer fish, parrot fish, eels and gars. It was such a traffic jam of fish that it felt like Medan all over again. Even the terror element was still there: you try swimming in the same ocean as an eel as thick as your arm. This is not an activity for Uncle Rob.
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I thought there were always angelfish chasing one another between your legs. I must have been thinking of someone else.
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