Sunday, October 21, 2007

Dear Leah - October 16

Dear Leah,
I've made you wait two weeks for a response, and that's not right, but frankly, I just got scared. I remember you telling me how Dave wrote you such good emails (along with others), and while I'm not exactly your boy toy looking to get some play (or love for that matter) out of this, I still felt intimidated. And if the truth be told, I also got distracted, more so sucked into an abyss of inactivity and lounging around which after a while can get mistaken for some degree of busyness. By this time it does not matter, though, as you are undoubtedly trekking through the backward third world jungles of Cambodia or Laos where computers don't exist and the people have never seen modern marvels such as "Dude, Where's My Car". Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if you were in an internet cafe at Angkor Wat right now (if not inside the temple itself) talking to your sister in Israel on Skype. They just don't make the third world anymore like they used to (although Cambodia would probably be something more along the lines of the second world, but who's counting).
So I'll be back to the ole' stomping ground in just one short week. Today is my last day in the States before setting out for Tokyo tomorrow and I don't have the slightest clue what I'll do there. After I get done writing this email, I'm gonna make my way over to the book store and grab a Lonely Planet guide to Tokyo, but not to buy of course - we all know I'm too cheap for that - rather just for ideas.
As time wore on during my stay at home, it increasingly felt as if I'd never gone to Thailand at all. I didn't have any new stories to tell my family or friends because they all kept updated through emails and my blog, plus all my photos are posted on Snapfish. As for the rest of America, I reduced my experience to a mere cliche of "It's hot, cheap, and I don't just have to eat Thai food because there's every kind of restaurant there you can imagine." My eyes are no more clear, no details of home are any more salient, I've been creatively defunct, but I am 23 now with shorter hair and less of a sleep deficit because sleeping here goes a lot better than over there. I ate a lot of pizza and mexican food, saw my girlfriend for about 5 minutes a day due to the fact that's all her frenetic schedule could allow (ok ok, maybe a bit more than 5 minutes), though those five minutes were pretty damn nice, and I'm just about finished with this book called "Indecision" which I've got mixed feelings about. Somehow over these last few weeks I've forgotten most of the tiny amount of Thai that I knew, so I only remember 3 words now instead of 4; and no Leah, we're not tan.

The Brothers Robbins (at 3-way family birthday celebration)