I officially moved to the UK in March from NYC. Ever since I starting coming to the UK for work, last september, everyone has been talking about the smoking ban, which went into effect on July 1st. Nearly everyone I talked to about it over the last nine months has said, "I'll quit when the ban goes into effect." So now its nearly two weeks after the ban started and I don't know a soul who has actually quit since it started.

It was an extremely disorienting moment.  Fearless leader and I had disembarked a plane after a 10 hour journey from Amsterdam to Bangkok, into an Airport we did not recognize.  We had both come through Bangkok several times, me as recently as last August.  But the airport we emerged into looked nothing like the Bangkok airport we knew and loved.  Bangkok airport is a chaos of shops, stalls, restaurants and bright neon that tells you immediately that you are in Southeast Asia, but the Airport we were emerging into was a cold soul-less space made of concrete and glass that could have bee

I'm in Phnom Penh for a meeting of sex worker advocacy groups from around the globe. Tactical Tech is doing work on helping these groups exchange information for both their global advocacy work but also for local advocacy. We just completed a survey of organizations and one of the most striking examples of use of media for an advocacy strategy (and there's actually quite a few) is from a group in Taipei calle COSWAS that have produced an excellent video about the plight of Sex Workers.

Somehow I managed to make it Tierra Del Fuego on this vacation. Its sort of a miracle I got here, acquiring a last minute plane ticket out of Buenos Aires and then having to wait hours for the plane to actually depart (Aerolinas Argentina definately does not have the best ontime schedule performance). But the two days it took to actually acquire a plane ticket and then get down here was definately worth it.

Summit View in Parque Nacional de Tierra del Fuego

Tierra Del Fuego is stunningly gorgeous. The mountain peaks are so dramatic. The hikes we've taken here have all been just wonderous, with gorgeous vistas at every turn. The sun seems to take forever to go from east to west and then hovers at dusk for the longest time and then descends finally.

So, I'm leaving Rio behind... And with a heavy heart.

Yeah, its gorgeous and yes, somewhat dangerous.  Made it through without the joy of getting mugged, but met quite a few people who did.

Here's some tips about how to get the most out of visiting Rio.

If you go during Carnaval:

- Avoid the parties and clubs you have to pay for and stick with the Banda's - the outdoor street parties and parades.  There a lot more fun and you'll meet a lot more

- Definately go to the Sambadromo, though heard a promising report that its well worth it to wait and see the parade of champions rather than the competition.  The Parade of Champions is apparently much cheaper (and a tad shorter).  The food in the stadium is horrible, be sure to eat ahead of time.

Bags are packed and I'm ready to hit the road. Walked down 8th avenue this morning and watched the frozen rain coming down and thought "this ain't so bad, should be able to get on my flight no problem."

But thats not how its meant to be. Delta has other plans with the weather.

As I'm rushing around the apartment in my final fervor before heading out the door, I think I better check the flight status. Sure enough, cancelled. I take a deep breath and pick up the phone.

An hour later, the agent is telling me I'm not going to get to Rio until Sunday (today is Wednesday). I freak, I plead "I'm going for Carnaval GOD DAMNIT, I'll miss it totally!." She sighs in my ear and puts me on hold.

I'm usually oblivious to World AIDS Day. For some reason, I've only noticed by hearing the odd news blurb on TV or seeing some sort of poster about it on the streets of New York City. Maybe this year is different because I'm currently in the UK (again) and its the headline of several major newspapers. I also got an email from a friend here in the UK this morning commenting on the fact that its World AIDS Day and maybe he should try to do something, rather than sit back and just take notice.

So, its hit me differently this year than it has in the past. The most significant way is that I found myself remembering all those friends and acquantainces I lost, so long ago. Then also thinking about the numbers in the newspaper and thinking about what 40 million AIDS cases really meant. Then I thought this is crazy. Should I only remember those that have succumb to AIDS once a year? It just seems so much bigger than that.

I was in a gay pub in brighton, england the other night and was introduced to this young chap who looked at me accusatorily when he learned I was an American.

"Wait a minute," he said, turning one eye towards me like he just spotted evil incarnate, "you people teach creationism in your schools!"

Embarrassed doesn't nearly describe what I felt at that particular moment and I did my best to deflect his growing scorn. "No wait, I think you misunderstood," I did my best to defend myself "I'm really from New York City, not America, and we don't teach creationism in our schools there." I tried to dissasociate myself as much as I could. I then started worrying if I'd just damned myself more, I couldn't really remember if New York City schools were required to teach creationism along with everyone else.

So I've had several conversations with people in a variety of different countries about how fucked up things are in the US, and I've come to a couple of conclusions about how the world's super-power is really an isolated mess of a country with no relation to the rest of the world (other than seeing it as a increasingly hostile mass against US interests).

As I mentioned before, I had this strange (for me) conversation with my handsome Turkish couple about the impending invasion of Turkey by US forces due to Turkey's amount of valuable natural resources. Even though I wanted to tell them that they were out of their minds, becasue of the insanity of US foreign policy these days, I honestly couldn't.

I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that while I'm on the road I just come off like a big stupid american. I embrace being a new yorker and being big and brash and in people's faces - its a cultural thing, and I just can't try to surpress it. I do, however, try to minimize intentionally offending people and I'm not really fond of unintentionally offending people either, though I'm resigned to the fact that its just going to happen.

Two weeks ago I was in Antalya, Turkey doing a training for HIV/AIDS activists from Central Asia and Africa. Imagine my horror when in the middle of doing a presentation, I was corrected by a young Pakistani woman for using the term, "kyrgys" to refer to the delegates from Kyrgystan. She said this was on a par of calling people from her country "pakis". I was pretty horrified that I had offended this group of participants who also didn't speak english (we had translators), an additional barrier of getting friendlier with them.