Greetings readers!

I can’t believe that a year has already passed since my travels in Australia last summer. At the end of summer this year, I’ll be traveling to Malaysian Borneo for a month to work at the Danau Girang Field Centre, which is a collaborative research facility and wildlife sanctuary in Sabah, Malaysia.

As of last month, my internship has become fully funded, including my flight, room, and board, which is an amazing blessing that I am very thankful for. I had thought that last year’s flight to Australia was long (at about 16 hours in-air), but one of my flights this year will be 19 hours, which is going to be interesting, though I’m confident I’ll get at least a little bit of sleep, watch a movie or two, and practice some chair yoga (need to prevent those feared blood clots!). I also got my vaccinations, apart from a flu shot, which I’ll get around August. I also still have to pick up my doxycycline (which works as an anti-malarial). Though I am very excited to travel to southeast Asia this summer, so much is happening right now in preparation of my younger brother Matt getting married this Saturday (to which I am the co-best man with my older brother Joe), and then the three of us are putting on an acoustic concert on July 19th for the public, where we’re planning to perform some of our original songs, which should be a lot of fun. Then right before Malaysia, our band has our big annual summer concert and car show, and then I have a week of rock guide school at Oregon State University with the Adventure Leadership Institute. It’s going to be a busy summer, but a great one.