-33: History will repeat itself.

I was having dinner with Jia Ling today, when it struck me that around this time last year, I was in a similar turmoil caught up with work and travel and on top of that, homelessness. I wasn't under intense pressure as I am right now, because of the tight deadlines and everything, but I was definitely frazzled and stressed. Two months, four countries. Two months, a change of scenery every week from going back to KL, attending a graduate forum in Singapore, backpacking in India, going through a graduate course in Singapore, packing for the States, and five weeks in the States after that hopping from Boston, New York, San Francisco, national parks of the canyons in the west, the Burning Man.

Now it's two months, 10 countries. Somehow the realization of the fact that I pulled last year's epic trip off gives me this sense of accomplishment - I will be able to make this year's trip, and I'll be able to make it as memorable as last year's. I told Jia Ling that Europe doesn't seem real at all, at this point I can't see anything beyond the crazy amount of work that I have, and she told me that I said the exact same words last year pre-US, when she was hosting my homeless ass and I was whining excessively about my life. And that was when I knew that, although I can't see the end now, the end is going to come, and as unreal as it may seem, I am going to Europe. Beautiful cities, fantastic landscapes and nature, awesome people and random experiences.

And the report, stressful and mindfucking as it is, will not stand in my way.