History is full of great speeches.  Some of the most influential speeches in my life are:

• Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.
• Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech:
• Robert F. Kennedy’s “Mindless Menace of Violence” speech after MLK’s assassination:
• J.K. Rowling’s Harvard University Commencement Speech

And now, after watching Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, I am adding it to my short list of life-influencing speeches. If you missed Obama’s speech last night, please take the time to watch it.

Not that reality is all about rhetoric and great speechmaking, but I do believe that the masses need to be inspired to hope for and work towards progress.

While I’m on the topic of Obama, here’s a great NYT article that Lawrence linked me to about Obama’s stance on economics.

In all fairness, as independents, the husband and I will be tuning into the Republican National Convention next week.  This brings a whole new meaning to “tough act to follow.”

EDIT:  I am adding Barack Obama’s Call to Renewal speech about religion and politics and Barack Obama’s Yes We Can speech.

I have this reoccurring dream that I’m driving along a busy highway and I’ll be driving along for awhile and then suddenly realize that I am driving from the passenger’s seat and have no control over the gas and brake pedal.  I quickly maneuver myself into the driver’s seat but it’s always a full minute of intense panic.  I don’t like over interpreting dreams because my dreams are really, really ridiculous (usually involving the uncovering of a gross injustice or world wide conspiracy and then the subsequent plot to overthrow the villains accompanied by a chase on foot and sometimes a public display of my anger which I rarely indulge in).  But reoccurring dreams are different, right?  More meaningful?  Because it’s something your brain keeps looping?  I don’t know, that I need to take the wheel in my life instead of sitting in the passenger seat?  See, this is another reason why I don’t like dream interpretation.  It always ends up feeling cheesy.

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We brought a Netflix movie with us to Playa del Carmen because we’re really bad at carving out time to watch movies at home and we figured being on vacation would be a great time to catch up.  We watched “The Savages” on the husband’s laptop and it’s the best movie I’ve seen in a long time.  Wonderful cast, wonderful acting, great screenplay, laugh out loud humor, deeply felt heart pangs and you’re left smiling as the credits roll.

*A little blogging tip, the best movie stills are usually found on MovieWeb.

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There was this hilarious moment in Turkey on our last day in Istanbul when we rode the extremely crowded Metro to the Grand Bazaar.

Everyone was pressed up against each other, trying not to sweat on each other and it didn’t help that the metro was extremely jerky and would unexplicably come to sudden stops and sudden starts along the route.  At one point Jillian let go of the overhead handle and the metro lurched forward and she fell against this woman with her headphones on.  The woman had a stern look on her face and was certainly not amused that a bunch of American girls were giggling and crowding her metro.  Unfortunately, the bus came to a stop and Jillian let go again because she thought we had arrived at our stop and the metro came to an abrupt start again and she fell onto the same woman.  Jillian apologized profusely and the woman ignored us, her headphones were blasting music.  The music was so loud that everyone around her could hear the tinny beat and vocals.  Then Kristine had an epiphany and said to the woman, “Are you listening to the Black Eyed Peas?  You are!”  Still no response from the woman.  But we didn’t need one, because the Black Eyed Peas were singing, “Pump it, louder!  Turn up the radio, blast the stereo, right now this joint is fizzlin’…”

Whenever I travel I’m constantly trying to dispel the ugly, loud American stereotype but this was one exception I indulged in.  I laughed out loud with the girls.  It’s hard to take someone seriously when they are listening to the Black Eyed Peas– even if they keep a really straight face.

I think it’s fascinating that wherever I go in the world (not counting Asian countries or the U.S.), most street vendors assume I am Japanese and call out Japanese phrases to me.  It’s not because I look Japanese or dress Japanese (very far from it), but because Japanese tourists seem to have been EVERYWHERE.  I haven’t traveled to too many countries but in Italy, Belgium, France, TURKEY, and Mexico, someone somewhere on the street will call out to me in Japanese.  It’s usually just “konichiwa” or “ohio” but sometimes it’s complete phrases.  Sometimes people try to start a conversation with me in Japanese!  I was in Italy and a young man in the clothing store told us in Japanese that there were more men’s clothing upstairs.  It’s not like it was a dodgy old fruit stand peddler who was stuck in WWII days.  And then he was really surprised when we told him we spoke English.

When I was visiting schools in Turkey, the kids would run up to me and ask, “Japon?  Japon?”

Someone needs to applaud the Japanese tourism industry because it’s done a heck of a job taking Japanese tourists to all corners of the globe.

Sanky says that Japanese tourists are found in even the most remote villages.  The husband hypothesizes that the Japanese are the first Asians to have enough money to start participating in world travel and tourism and so most tourist places cater to that.  Sanky says the Japanese value traveling more and it’s one of their few forms of leisure.

The first night in Playa del Carmen, we heard several shouts of Japanese directed towards us as we walked along 5th Avenue.  But after a day on the beach, we were both about 5 shades darker and the second night we walked to dinner, we no longer got the Japanese greetings– as if no self-respecting Japanese woman would let herself get so tan.  I think towards the end of the trip, some of the waiters we encountered considered giving us Spanish menus.  Especially because we tried some local restaurants off the beaten path where not many tourists ventured.  I’m not even joking.

All joking aside, I really am pretty dark.  My mom’s not going to be happy about this.

I just hope this doesn’t mean I have to drink more freckle juice every day.

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We watched the end of Federer vs. Nadal in the Cancun airport (in BerryHill of all places) and it was a lot of fun to cheer for Nadal with the rest of the Spanish tourists.  The husband, however, was cheering for Federer and was pretty disapponted that he lost.  But even he admitted that it’s a bit much for Federer to put on his preppy sweater right after a long, sweaty match.

I’m back from my two week trip to Turkey and I’m excited about the delicious 4 GB of photos I get to sort through and upload.

This trip was sponsored by The Institute for Interfaith Dialog and it was the most eye-opening and intellectually challenging trip I’ve been on.  It was also the most exhausting trip I’ve ever been on.

I am only a little bit jetlagged.  Traveling was exhausting yesterday.  We left our hotel in Istanbul at 3 in the morning and I didn’t land in Houston until 4:30pm.  We went to bed early last night and woke up early.  We went to the grocery store to get milk, Apple Jacks (for me), Cocoa Pebbles (for the husband), and Salsa Verde Doritos (for me).  I was craving chips.

I don’t feel the culture shock I usually do when coming back from foreign travel.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing laundry all day and catching up on email and responsibilities.  I think it’s ironic that I started reading The Ugly American before I left for the trip because I think the trip showed me in some ways how ugly of an American I am myself.

I’m not prepared to blog about the trip yet– partly because the photos aren’t ready and partly because I haven’t really had to a chance to process all the things I experienced/observed there.  Unfortunately the husband wasn’t able to go on this trip and I have hours and hours worth of ideas, thoughts and questions I need to sort out with him.  Luckily we have all next week to laze on a beach in Mexico and talk about Turkey.

What I can say is that the trip has unexpectedly affected me spiritually and has renewed a sort of fervor for living out what I believe to be a good, meaningful life.

Oh yeah, and I’m glad I missed the travesty of the Lakers’ last game.

When we go on vacations, we often face dilemmas.

A prime example is when we were in San Diego and the Sunday morning we were going to leave we had a few spare hours. I had read great reviews about the Hash House a Go Go and was dying to try it. The reviews said that the wait at Hash House could be as long as 1.5 hours to 2 hours on a Sunday morning but it was a rainy Sunday morning so we thought maybe the weather would deter the usual brunch patrons. We only had a couple of hours to spare before we had to be at the airport so it was pretty risky. 2 hours to wait to be seated, eat, and then make it to the airport? Yeah, you’ve guessed it, we decided to go. No regrets there. We waited in the rain, inhaled our breakfast (which was served on ginormous serving platters), told our waiter we were in a rush, and made it to the airport in time.

When we were at Taroko National Park, we kept saying to each other how cool it would be if we were able to walk down into the water and dip our feet. Towards the end of our day there, we found Shakadang Trail and a trail marker board that showed photos of people standing in water having a grand old time. The trail stated that the round trip hike was 8.8 kilometers and that it took 3-5 hours to complete. We had 3 hours to spare before we had to head to the airport to fly to Taichung. We looked at each other and both knew what our decision would be. We would hike like crazy people as fast as we could until we hit water. The only problem was, we didn’t know how far down it was until we would hit water. But we both felt it was worth the risk. So we started on the trail.

They had these lion guys all along the bridge to the trail and each one had different facial expressions. This one was the least creepy. Nice bokeh, huh?

Here’s what the trail looks like. It’s a pretty small tunnel (we had to duck our heads at parts) carved into the side of the mountain.

So we’re walking and I’m trying my hardest not to stop and take photos. And before we hit the 45 minute mark, we see this opening! We’re going to get into the water!

The rocks in the water were small, jagged, and painful. But we didn’t care! We were in the water! It’s ridiculous how clear the water was.

I like how colorful the rocks are in the river cliff.

The river cliffs are dwarfed us. I felt very small.

I’m not sure if this row of rocks was natural or manmade. It was neat how distinct the two sides were. Murky green on one side and clean and pure on the other. Kind of like a filter.

As you can see, there was a fairly strong current in some parts of the shallow river.

By the time we had taken our quick dip, a group of giggly teenage girls arrived on the scene and ruined the tranquility. We put our shoes and socks back on and walked back to our car. We didn’t get a chance to see the pool at the end of the trail but that just means we’ll have to go back.

Sometimes you just have to take mini risks on vacations to be rewarded. That’s what I always tell myself. I’m sure one day we’ll get burned and then I’ll write a post about why you should always make conservative decisions on vacations.