the sun rises at five and it sets around ten. it's ok to wave hello to strangers, and there are no sounds but the birds. there is land for as far as the eye can see. in town, there is a movie theater, a 125-year-old chocolate shop, and a supermarket that sells sugar from the sugar beets grown just across the street.

i'm here now, about the furthest place from hong kong, and in a very different way, it is great.

last sunday, after my six-movie flight from hk to chicago, i slept 16 1/2 a half hours. i woke up for mexican food, a target run, and to split a pack of cheesecake koala yummies with katie as she helped me unpack and then pack again: shorts and tees for israel, pants and frye boots for the farm. that night i slept two hours and woke up for cheese on toast times two with mum before taking off again.

i flew to minneapolis where eggboy picked me up for an egg lunch at brasa and a rainy drive up to practically canada. after a slice of pie with eggboy's family in north dakota (my very first time in north dakota, might i add), we arrived at the farm. just past midnight.

and since wednesday i've been paying for all of it by way of some variation on the bird flu. i'm obviously being melodramatic with the bird part, but...blob.... i feel like one. i'll spare the details even though one of my hidden talents is spelling "phlegm" without spellcheck, but my recovery has thankfully been imminent due to eggboy's mama's unreal chicken dumpling soup and like a thousand episodes of homeland.

-yeh!