Back from the dead! Doing some more traveling..
I doubt anybody is actually still reading this but I figured I would update it with some sort of conclusion or ending even though I've already forgotten everything that I wanted to write here. After I left New Zealand, I ended up spending a week in Las Vegas (another holiday in itself) for my parent's wedding anniversary. I ended up surprising them there before heading back home to Boston. It was a pleasant experience for about 3 hours before the novelty effect wore off and I realized I had to spent an entire week with my dysfunctional family, all of whom hate each other. I encountered more yelling, screaming, fights, arguments in one week than all of my 6 months traveling, not bad - huh? If I come sum my Las Vegas trip up in one short description it would be "constant agony." You see my family is pretty much your typical ignorant and loud group of obnoxious people which is everything I tried to avoid while traveling. Sadly that's the embodiment of everything my family does.
If you haven't been to Las Vegas I'd let be known that it's a place most people will either love or hate, me preferring the latter. It's a city that gets old quick and I think I've actually lost count on how many times I've been out there for shows and gambling. The entire drinking/gambling 24/7 experience gets old. It's an entire city built to depart people of their money, serve weak expensive drinks and has continous D- list entertainment. It strives to be a rich/posh Disney Land for adults though no amount of polishing behinds the scenes could ever rid Las Vegas of it's sleazy and trashy underbelly. Yes that's right, behind every multiple-million dollar hotel is a group of illegal immigrants passing out cards for hookers and sex shows, the women you see it bars? Probably prostitutes, or entertainers designed to befriend you in order to make their commission by getting you into "the hottest" nightclub with "free VIP" passes. You see because everyone is "VIP" in Las Vegas. Actually "VIP" in Las Vegas equates to something along the lines of a three-four hour wait into a club with a 25-50 dollar cover charge, a 100 minimum bar tab with 10 dollar beers. Yep... Las Vegas, if you still have money then you're not doing it correctly. I guess you might enjoy the city if you have a fetish for Elvis impersonators but that remains to be seen. Anyway, after finishing up a week in Las Vegas I went home to Boston.
Some of my observations from heading back to the United States after being gone nearly 6 months. There are tons more fat people; it's not just a broad generalization; it's truth. In Las Vegas you certainly notice the worst side of this when you see a never-ending stream of people pushing 350lbs+, so fat infact that they need a motorized scooter to get around. This also doesn't stop them from chain smoking massive amounts of cigarettes while indulging in the All You Can Eat(tm) buffets that Vegas has to offer. My friends...You have not yet experienced the worst of humanity until you see a women pushing 400lbs glued to a penny slot machine on a motorized scooter, hooked up to an oxygen tank, chainsmoking cheap cigarettes all while wearing an American flag baseball cap, wearing an XXXXL Elvis t-shirt with a pink fanny pack. Also, people are considerably ruder and more impatient. That's also not just a broad generalization although maybe I got used to being overseas and dealing with different levels of politeness and rudeness from different cultures. Lastly, I thought traveling around the world would desensitize me of this but there really are millions of illegal immigrants in the United States. At least everywhere else I traveled, they (meaning me and other travelers/immigrants) were in the minority. There were probably a lot more things that I noticed but I am writing this post about 4 months after coming back so i've nearly forgotten everything.
Conclusion: Stay away from Las Vegas, and get out and explore the world a bit more.
So fastforwarding to current events, I got my old job back at Geek Squad although I now work out of Portsmouth, NH which is approximately an hour away from my house. I don't mind the job since the company fronts the bill for the car and gas. I've slowly been paying off all my debt that I accumulated while traveling so I can go on more trips. Around the 2nd or 3rd week of getting my job back I was driving back home from New Hampshire around midnight (before I got my company car) when I managed to total my own personal car by hitting a deer head-on going about 80mph (130km/hr). Even though my car wasn't that nice of one (It was 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier). I was pretty pissed about this whole thing happening since I almost had my car payed off in full and was looking forward to not having a car payment for the next few years so I could use that money towards bills. Since that didn't happen I ended up taking what little insurance money I got due to the depreciation of my car and putting it towards a brand new 06 VW Jetta. Hooray for more debt.
Lastly, I just finished doing my tax returns and good old Uncle Sam owes me about $1700 USD. Being a responsible person I should put this money towards credit card bills but instead I am planning a one week holiday/backpacking trip through a small area of Central America. Although I am mostly going for scuba diving. I plan to visit Mexico, Belize and Guatemala on this short one week trip to get away from the cold weather here and get back into some sunshine.
I am going to start off in Belize City, and work my way out to Ambergris Caye (an island known for scuba diving in Belize), spent a few days there and then take a one day trek into Guatemala to see famous Mayan ruins in Tikal, finally I am going to work my way up to the Mexican border by taking a bus to Chetumal which is a town on the Belizean/Mexican border, from there i'll take another bus to Playa Del Carmen, take the ferry to Cozumel mexico (Mexican island in the Carribean) and finally take bus up to Cancun to flight back to Boston.
Map below for a better idea of what I am planning. This week long little excursion should probably cost me around 600 bucks, not including flight. I will track expensives and keep everything updated on here.
