Bali-high- Mon 9/22/08 6:52 PM

Dear All,

Everything is about to change.

I've put all my earthly possessions in storage and am about to move to Bali for 6 months to learn how to cook. A friend owns a few restaurants out there and has agreed to take me on as an intern. People who know me know that I can make a nice spread for dinner. But working in a professional kitchen? That is a whole ‘nother ball of wax.

I can predict my status will be something of an honored guest/slave. The words "kitchen" and "bitch" spring to mind. Muttered insults from the native cooks will, no doubt, be regularly hurled in rapid-fire Indonesian at the crazy bulé fool, messing around where he doesn't belong. Hopefully they will resent me less since I'm both incompetent and unpaid.

The origins of this trip are simple. I met a couple who worked at Daniel in NYC for a long time. As I have become increasingly obsessed with food and cooking, I asked them if there were any culinary programs that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Cyrille said, in his charming french accent, that I was much better off using that money to apprentice in the kitchen of a great restaurant in Paris or somewhere in Italy and to use the money to live in that place while I learned: "You weel learn so mush more zis way."

I thought, hell, if I'm going to travel, I might as well go someplace I'm even more interested in (i.e. Southeast Asia). How perfect that I happen to know a restauranteur in Bali? How much more perfect that it costs so little to live there. My whole trip will amount to as much as a few classes at Culinary school.

My pack weighs 20 pounds. I'll buy what I need when I get there...and it will be cheap. Pretty bad to have this much adrenaline pumping through me since my flight has two layovers in Vancouver and Hong Kong and is going to be 27 hours long. That's a long time to be this jittery and eager.

Why must I leave when there are so many reasons to stay? I love my family, I have great friends, I was, until recently, in the best relationship of my life. I'm not ready to tackle these questions yet.

For now, at least, it's a moot point; I leave in 3 hours.


Love,
Alex