Humidity is at 88% even though it isn't terribly warm and I've been awake chatting with friends and listening to music for the last 2 hours and it's now 6:30 AM. These last few days have been tough.  I've been trying to communicate primarily in Cantonese but it gets quite frustrating after a while and I find after around an hour or two of conversation I get quite tired because of how much effort it takes.  Tutoring sessions have continued and have been going quite well.  I definitely feel like I am progressing and I'm in a unique situation where I feel like I'm almost learning the language for my own survival since no one out here in Shau Kei Wan speaks english.  Tonight though, while struggling to sleep, I started asking myself why I'm planning to be out here for 6 months in a place where I can't really speak the language and living in a blue collar neighborhood.  Somehow I again came to the same conclusion I had for the last 3 weeks, which was that I can't go back until I finish what I came out here to do.  And I've stopped trying to figure out what I'm trying to do out here. Took a walk through Mong Kok with a friend of mine tonight.  She showed me an independent movie theater in the area, which made me very happy :-).  Unfortunately they're not playing the Wrestler, but there were other movies I wanted to see.  Should be spot I will likely frequent. I should probably sleep now.  Tutoring at 3pm tomorrow afternoon.  Hope I'm awake for it :) Oh, I almost forgot, I'd like to share something I wrote in my Moleskine while I was in Taiwan.  My first real discovery on this journey... or at least a statement I thought of that seemed to hold a lot of truth. It's hard to let go of habits we're so used that are bad for us, even when the only real guarantee in life is that someday we will all die. To paraphrase Way of the Peaceful Warrior: "If you only had 6 months to live, you live every second of it.  Well, what if I told you you were born with a terminal illness and it was called birth.  So be happy now, or you'll never be happy." Another contemplation on happiness is in the movie, Into the Wild: "Happiness only real if shared." I realize that lasting happiness is not something that can be found from books, knowledge or from some profound tidbit from a great orator.  It needs to come from experiences, realizations.  I suspect this journey has something to do with this.