a two

I was in a library today. A big library. It has a coffee shop in it. It was a 15 minute walk from where I'm living to the library, and after that walk and a couple hours of reading magazines and studying Swahili, I was pretty thirsty. I already had lots of coffee today, but I thought maybe I could get something else to drink. So I went over to the coffee shop. There in the little refrigerated part, they had Coke, Diet Coke, and what's this? It wasn't a One, but it looked like, maybe, could it be? Yes, it was a Two! I thought, when I leave Singapore, I could be going to the jungle, then I'll be in the Philippines. I haven't seen Ones or Twos since I left Texas (actually, I have a vague memory that I might have seen some Twos somewhere, but I can't think where, so I'll assume it was a dream). I doubt they have them in the jungle or Philippines. So, even though it was $3.20 (that's Singaporean dollars-$1.50 to $1 US) I bought it. It was beautiful. IBC rootbeer. What could be better? Only IBC cream soda, of course. Just wanted to share my joy...

a strange feeling

On the voyage from Cambodia to Singapore, I sat out on the deck for a while. It was my longest voyage yet, and my first voyage out of the Bay of Thailand. In the Bay, I could usually see other ships and sometimes islands on the horizon. But, in the South China Sea that day, I looked around and there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just a ship with 4 main decks slighly larger than a football field, surrounded by blue. Hardly any waves, smooth water, empty sky. It was weird. A little unnerving. The world could have come to an end, and we wouldn't know. I think it would be like that if you were floating out in space. Except, depending on how far out you were, you might be able to see the world coming to an end.