Off to San Diego now. 

15 days in Colorado just flew past. There were boring days, there were rainy days, but no regrets. Would like to have stayed longer but totally did not succeed in getting a job here. Time to move on to my next chapter of this trip, it turns out to be somewhat of a surprise but I knew of the possibility of this happening. Back to San Diego I go, this time to get certified by Apex and ParkourEDU! 

Of all the certs in the Parkour world, the PKEdu one definitely entices me the most. Been thinking of getting this since the longest time, and I think the opportunity presented itself and it would be silly for me not to take it. Thankfully I was offered a hefty discount and although the plane ticket back to SD is more than twice as expensive as the one to here, I had to bite the bullet and commit to this. 

So having a deadline in my Colorado trip definitely meant I had to make the remainder of my trip worth it. Didn't quite help that the weather got so much colder and wetter since the first few days here, the biggest bummer would probably be missing out on natural climbing in the mountains of Colorado (and having 20 bucks spent on rental equipment gone to waste). My body is also still on recovery mode so I didn't have a lot of great training but definitely getting back to it soon.  

But I had some insane highlights in this trip:

1) MYRM documentary night + Shay's 23rd birthday surprise. 

2) Tripping out at Boulder Canyon and spending the comedown at the sickest house party 

3) Did my first clean kong gainers to grass outside (at 2 different locations too!) 

4) Filmed my featurette with Flogang! #spotroulette

5) Watched a subpar competition but met a bunch of people, then heading to Estes Park for a stayover in the sickest cabin in the mountains ever. Seen and heard an elk's bugle for the first time. Woke up early for an intense hike up Eagle Cliff for an amazing view of the snowcapped mountains of the Rockies (first actual sunrise mission in this trip!). Then topping off with another hike through the Dream Lake trail and seeing a legit snowfall since Amsterdam/Paris. Then came home after all of that to a random AF house party with bomber food and edibles and alcohol. Gotta be the best weekend of the trip fosho' (guess it wasn't too bad of a trade off with Jurassic Park)

Other noteworthy things that happened was Leonard's cactus, still peeing, dipping in cold lakes, Goodwill thrifting, Kraves for breakfast, free Apex sessions, random morning fishing + hookah bar, getting drunk off 2 shots of Tequila (making use of the mile high altitude), prepping food and cooking for the first time in a long time, witnessing the Boulder descent and seeing how fucked up it is... 

I still have a lot of unfinished business like actually climbing Jurassic Park (name of a climbing place in Estes Park!), Colorado Springs (maybe TIT Jam?), Mt. Evans for astrophotography, actually hiking up a snowy mountain, the school roof mission right outside of Shay's, training more descents so I'll do the one at Boulder next time!

What is going to happen in San Diego this time? Well I honestly really enjoyed myself the last time I came, and after being certified by the end of this week, I hope I will be able to get some jobs coaching Parkour to gain even more experience before heading back to Singapore. I am giving up on the idea of getting a working visa as it's such a process and honestly I doubt I will have a good chance of being granted the visa so I definitely wouldn't risk the Visa application fee for no reason. 

If the gyms are open to pay under the table, I will be keen, if not, I'll probably have to choose to continue my America travels (spend more money) or if I want to cross the border and travel Mexico and the rest of Central America (budget travels, and warmer too). That will only be decided as we go along. No solid decisions being made more than one week in advance. Really loving how impromptu this trip has been, going with the flow and letting whatever happen has been pretty sweet so far, so I'm hoping to keep this up! 

Also, there's a good possibility of me going to China (Chengdu) again in November, although for a slightly controversial reason as it is organized by FIG. Personally I think the benefits outweighs the negatives at this point, so I'm hoping this pans out well. But the biggest question is do I head back to Singapore after (free ticket, but what will I be doing in SG really)? Or head back up again (longer travels, but spend even more money)? Leave your answer in the comments section below. 

Lastly, no more bad habits for the rest of this trip. 12 out of 15 days I had the luxury of enjoying the consumption of the legals here, had some great times (tho I can't say all of it was amazing), but I definitely need to put it on hold for the rest of the trip now. Pact made with the Subramanian too.

PS: Leonard, reminder to make this your homepage once you're done with your Monk training.