Rhys McGaw
To the seven or eight people that might look at this, and the two or three that might look at it more than once (hi mom):The Travelling Gong Show
Let the gong show begin.
My name is Rhys (pronounced like the candy that is decorated with the primary colours of halloween). I go to university, or at least did. Said institution is in Ottawa, same as my house. I study/studied history and political science and secretly think that I am smarter than you if the topic has anything to do with original thinking and logical diagnosis and not math symbols or the obviously debunked "sciences". As an evangelical creationist I believe dinosaurs to be the biggest hoax in history (right after the moon landing and the notion that babies are cute). When listening to the illuminating words of Kurt Vonnegut, that "the proof of God's creation of life on earth is all around us, in the form of hippopotomi, giraffes, and the clap" I must faithfully not in assent.
I work at a hockey arena along with four fifths of my fellow countrymen. The remaining fifth are on welfare as, after all, we are a socialist hedonocracy.
I like the colour blue and getting lost in cities I've never been to before. My excesses include thinking and drinking too much while my greatest personal attributes... well I'm depressed enough so lets not bother.
It's 3 am, I havent packed yet, and I go to London tomorrow morning.
GONG. Stay tune for further capitalized noises.
Oh, and for Christmas I want a pony and peace in the Middle East (for selfish reasons this time).
Travel Blog Posts
June 10th 2006
I just payed for an hour of internet and I'm out of things to do online. I've been about forgotten about back home so not many emails. And I already know the oilers are screwed, down 2 zip so that was a quick read. So its been a while, lets give an update. I'm in a net cafe in Budapest with Mojo and a real decent lad from Couver whos been with us most of our time here. In a few hours were striking out for Romania on an overnight. Budapest has been reald ecent to us and our wallets. I have a good solid hangover today, so dont expect much writing and too much effort put into it. We went to the grocery store and spent 900 florints on a 5 litre jug of wine. ... read more
April 20th 2006
Sup, So I've essentially given up on the blog for now. I think it becomes tiresome to write about things you are doing rather quikley and I lasted faily long all things considered. Plus the stupid comments the guys back home wore on the patience a wee bit. eg. "Hi Rhys, this is friend A. You should gave seen friend B at the bar last night; he did such and such and such and such and is such a fag/uggo-jumper." To that I add thanks for enriching my life. Anyhow since I leave the kibbutz relatively soon I'm going to use this site as it was originally intended - as a store for digital photos. Cheers, maybe I"ll update before I go back to Europe.... read more
Why did the turkey cross the road? To die of bird flu at Ein Hashlosha.
Published: March 18th 2006Middle East » Israel » South District
March 18th 2006
one of the English girls put it best yesterday. She said "we're just beside the Gaza Strip and can here bombs going off, and we have bird flu at the kibbutz, but this place still manages to be well boring". Bingo. This is to head off any safety queries from those of you who might actually read the news. For my dumber friends this might just be informative. A couple of days ago turkeys here at Ein Hashlosha and neighbouring Kibbutz started to kick it. As of sometime today god knows how many thousand of the birds will have been killed off by the government. So yeah we've been hit by bird flu - nifty eh. A few people were taken to a hospital in Beer-sheva as a precaution including the new Thai who'd been here ... read more
Shit happens when you party in a dress
Published: March 18th 2006Middle East » Israel » South District
March 18th 2006
Well I suppose one of these suckers is due. I've recieved emails from several friends recently which is exactly what this enterprise was trying to avoid so now to save myself writing upwards of several gruelling emails I'm going to do this. The last couple of weeks have flown right by. I hit my one month mark of my trip a few days ago and I hit the three week mark on this kibbutz on the 21st I think. I'm getting on well with the other volunteers and have come to realise that we've actually gotten a half decent crew here. Some of the Israeli's here are turning out to be decent blokes and I've learned to make obscene jokes using only gestures and a fistfull of Hebrew words. Times are good. I drink less than ... read more
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March 5th 2006
They give us a computer here, and I can't think of anything else to do at the moment, so thus begins another installment of this travel journal that I will no doubt be abhored at having written as soon as I return to Ottawa. I am now at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in the South West of Israel working as a volunteer. I do it for room and board and beer money basically. Oh and the life experience. This is the life experience. Dragging pipes all day is a life experience, just keep saying it over and over in my head. Well it's been a good go thus far though stories are minimal. I get up at 6:45 and rush to the office for 7 where I get into the back of a pickup and get dumped ... read more
picking oranges in Gaza
Published: April 21st 2006Middle East » Israel » Tel Aviv District » Tel Aviv
February 27th 2006
Now for all you who would worry its not actually in Gaza, its several kilometres outside the Gaza Strip. So it's all good. See when I went to the kibbutz placement office they were like 'where do you want to go?', and I was like 'I don't know.' And we deliberated together - myself and the woman at the office- and eventually I though hey, you know what would be funny...well see a whole wack of people gave me the whole 'be safe', look both ways before you cross the street and dont get shot sort of shite....so I was like 'hey lady, where's somewhere scetchy, you know, dangerous. I feel like an adventure'. Well apparently a kibbutz volunteer was hospitalized by shrapnel last week so I scored his spot. And off I go to Ein ... read more
First entry for the chronicle of my perfectly normal and moderately entertaining adventures
Published: March 12th 2006Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam
February 21st 2006
Something that goes hand in hand with cheap flights, let me tell you, is ridiculous waits and brilliantly complex schedules. So yeah that means I'm killing time waiting for a train to take me to a plane that'll take me to Rome for some godawful reason and then wait 4 more fun hours so I can arrive in the Middle East at 3:15 am. And it's raining outside, and I've been everywhere I could care to go at the moment, so yeah here I am, in all my tired, smelly and burnt out glory. Oh and I can't wait to see Israeli security poor over my things just because everything I own smells like weed. A feature of these, I think, will be that I write them when I'm spaced and tired. Or it's raining and ... read more
Putting off packing at 4:30 am (and leaving at 8:30 am).
Published: March 12th 2006North America » Canada » Ontario » OttawaFebruary 14th 2006
OK, so instead of actually packing lets make a list. check - 8 pairs socks with holes cause I forgot to buy new ones check - towels stolen from hotel for specifically this reason check - language guides that I will never use except to look up dirty phrases check - unbroken in hiking boots check - enough batteries to survive a nuclear holocaust (and provided I still wanted to listen to tom petty MP3's) check - box of unopened condoms to be returned for store credit or refund upon my return in July check - dignity deficit that allowed me to set up a travel blog Well I'm off to find myself. I'm going to try not to get hurt over there. Oh yes, and I will try to have fun, hard as it may ... read more
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