ab Chasing Kate: February 2007

Saturday, February 10, 2007

This is the guy.

This is the guy who I told the first time we met, "you do realize that we have to spend the rest of our lives together, right?"

This is the guy who bought wipe-on sex appeal out of vending machine in a bar (like he even needs it).

This is the guy who asked me on a Monday night if I wanted to fly with him to Tasmania on Tuesday.

This is the guy who upon our arrival to Tasmania insists that we take a limo to our hostel.

This is the guy who cliff-jumps off rocks into a gorge with me in our skivvies then gets told by an elderly couple, "don't try to be anybody's heroes."

This is the guy who agreed with me that, "we're nobody's heroes."

This is the guy who makes me veer off hiking paths with him, turning a 3 hour hike into a 9 hour adventure.

This is the guy who dropped a grand for a night out on the town after he passed his actuary exam.

This is the guy whose only furniture was a hammock for the first 6 months he lived in an apt.

This is the guy who bartended in Fire Island wearing NOTHING but an apron.

This is the guy who has seen my good, bad, worse, and better and always laughs at me when appropriate.

This is the guy who makes me laugh so hard that I accidentally dove backwards into an automatic door that opened and closed until he picked me up.

This is the guy who quit his job, sold his car and moved to England because being stable and secure for 2 years was all he could take.

This is the guy who the words thoughtful, generous, and kind apply to him but whose personality does more justice to him than adjectives ever could.

This is the guy who buys a plane ticket 2 days before he comes to Kyrgyzstan to see me because as he said, "do you really think I could go two years without seeing you?"

In short, this is the guy, a best friend who I met in Australia and although we've only known each other for 4 short years, our history makes it seem like I've known him my whole life.

This is the guy. This is Craig.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Strike A Pose

I’ve gotten a couple questions on whether or not I’ve seen Borat or read Absurdistan. I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to comment on the content of either without serious repercussions but the answer is yes. To both. I think it’s interesting about the timing of all this and how Central Asia is becoming (dare I say) en vogue? Granted most of the foreigners I met in Turkey and Thailand still think I live in Kurdistan and some of you still think I’m in Kazakhstan or even worse, Russia (you know who you are) but after the increased media attention, people are going to start to take notice of all the –stans rather than just lumping them together as the Former Soviet Union. I was watching the second season of West Wing and they even pronounced the country correctly… now if only we can get our current news anchors to do the same.

I guess that closes this edition of my popular culture review. I actually didn’t feel so out of the loop this time. By the way, in Borat, the –rat is pronounced with a long o sound (as in the word got) not with a nasal a sound (as is in the word apple). After 16 months of living here I know I’ve learned that much. Don’t make me laugh at you when I get back.


Grant update:

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to my project, I'm doing well and I only have about 500-600 dollars left to go. Thanks to everyone who has been getting the word out about it with any luck in a few months it will be fully funded.