Just before setting sail...

Hey everyone!

Welcome to the holidays!

I am in a transitional period between several things:

On a traveling / few-month size schedule, I'm between Palestine and another P3ace
B0at voyage!  Closer to the latter.

On the day-to-day activity front, I'm just finishing having lots of free time...
and will soon be super busy on the ship sailing around the world!!

On the internet front, I'm near the end of having free access and will be only able
to do email and update my site from internet cafes in various ports.

On the financial front, I'm between positive and negative numbers.  $24 in my
Japanese bank account, and 600 dollars available on credit card.  I will be looking
into getting a job when I get back!!

On the bicycling front, today is the last day I will have TJ Bike before I ride him
to Kellie's for archival during the voyage.

----

Over the past four days, the 52nd Voyage volunteer English teaching team went from
first time meeting each other to great framework for friendships that will list a
lifetime!  In addition, we heard a lecture from a man named Kip A. Cates
(http://kipacates.notlong.com), a man who is working toward Global Education as a
means of bringing positive change.  Though we only had 90 minutes together, I felt
inspired to do amazing things on the voyage!

We met the 51st voyage team, who had blossomed during their voyage..  After the
49th voyage, my team had met them and got them started on their adventure.  This
time they met the next group, getting us started on our adventure.  The cycle
continues, and continues to grow more and more wonderful.

I'm really excited about the team; we will live/grow/work/play/do so much during
the 95 day voyage that I wonder how it will fit into the rest of my life,
especially compared to the first voyage, and how it will look when I'm 100+ years
old...

- - - -

In the past 2 months, I have been encouraged individually by two different people
to attend the Vipassana 10 day meditation course. http://www.dhamma.org/   This
seems worth consideration; I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has
experienced it!

- - - -

Last, I have written a super long summary of my experiences in Palestine.  The
document ended up far longer than I want to send as an update, especially since I
have already sent a lot of the anecdotes.  BUT, for those who are interested:
http://robnugen.com/wordpress/?p=50

- - - -

I hope you and yours are safe and happy during the preparations for end-of-year
antics!

   Love Love
    - Rob!