Same 'Ol Me..

..just missing you! At least I have my new camera to keep me occupied.



I know, I need something to do. Hope everyone is well!

Neema (Grace) in Nairobi and Welcome to Barcelona!

So we made it into Nairobi, Kenya after a long, hot, sweaty, and bumpy ride from Moshi, Tanzania. As always we had pretty much no idea what we were going to do once we got there. We had two days to kill in Nairobi and after hearing horror stories of NaiROBBERY we weren´t too excited. We tried to pull a Paige/Kelly and get them to move our flight up so we could goto London that night and spend a day in the city but to no avail... we even told them about Cody´s cancer... jerks...

God was good, as usual. The woman we had met only 2 weeks earlier that works at the baggage claim (sarah) that we had breakfast with welcomed us with open arms. We stayed at her fiance´s place in the ¨slums¨ as they called it, of Nairobi. We both thought it was nice and very extremely grateful. Sarah even took off work to show us the city.

So, i traded my nikes to a street vendor for Massai (a tribe) sandals. they are made out of old tires which they cut up and made shoes out of. Whats up TOM!? they cost about 3000TSH so i think i got ripped off.. oh well.. jk, i was going to throw the nikes away in spain so good for both sides. Then we told them about Jesus. Soles for souls right? not really but i think they already know him.

In the two and half weeks in Africa we did mostly everything we wanted to do.

Learn a bit of Swahili. Check.
Hang out with the locals. Check.
Find adventure. Check.
Drink the ¨Local Brew¨. Check.
Play with monkeys- i mean kids. Check.
Play with monkeys. Check.
Meet random people from around the world. Check.
Eat EVERYTHING. Check.
Poop in a hole. Check. Check. Check.
Not change clothes or bath for extended periods of time. Check.

We have pictures of everything. Coming soon.

So now that we´re in Spain. Which we still have no idea what we´re doing, we made a new list.

Go to the beach. CHECK!
See topless women. Check.
See topless women at the beach. Check.
Get an education. pending

We have pictures of this too! well, the last one.

We´ve already spent 160 USD (about 85 euro) and we´ve been here for like 8 hours... how the heck are we going to do 4 weeks?? swipe swipe..

We met a french couple today and they are very nice. They invited us out tonight for drinks with their friends. They speak french and spanish. we speak english. Communicating with them so far has been a lot of chirades. Tonight will be fun.

Alex & Zach, Cody and I are SOOO pumped to see you two. Zach, we know you´re birthday is coming up soon so we have a surprise for you. It involves candles, Alex, and the beach. And alcohol because i wont go through with it unless I have a few drinks first. But thats enough for now.

We LOVE all of you guys and are soo excited for all of your travels! See you sooner than you know!

American women are prettier than spanish women,
Cody and Max

Plano, TX 1:48 am

There are rules to blogging, especially in a group setting such as this one. I suppose one obvious one is that this blog should not be used as a college version of AIM. The disclaimer to this post is that it is not that.

FOR MAX ONLY:

This is Shyler and Paige. We really really really miss you a lot. Shyler says that she is glad that you are not eaten. I think we are not sure because you have not posted in awhile and last we heard from you, Cody was biting you. You are probably eaten. 

Max, tonight, Shyler and I sat outside of Starbucks for 3 hours, all of which occurred after Starbucks closed. Did you know that it closes at 10pm in Plano?? Ridiculous, huh? Max, I know right now you are feeling left out, but know that we talked about you the whole time! Shyler and I have nothing else in our lives. We just love you thats all. Our conversation about how wonderful you are came abruptly to a halt, when a strange man with a backpack came and stood right in front of our car at 1 am. He seemed unhappy/constipated. VERY VERY SKETCHY.... so we drove away fast in Shyler's car. However, I forgot to lock my car and get my wallet, so we made several drive-bys. Shyler tried to point out that now she was unsure of who was sketchier- us or the unibomber backpacker? The choice seems obvious. US. 

Now we are sitting in her room, writing you in Africa! unless you are eaten.

Max come home to us!!!! seriously!!!! i cant do anything without you!!.. such as simple math.. using a computer.. double clicking :/ .. eating at sonic.. laughing.. living in general :( i miss you!!!! 

We love you.

FOR EVERYONE:

This blog is not a free for all. Use it wisely.

Paige

and Shyler 

Don't Talk About Bottled Water.

It's 12:32 in Prosper, TX. 

And in less than twelve hours, I'll be in the air. Thankfully, I'll be protected by a pressurized cabin, really big engines, and, of course,  The Immutable Laws of Physics. I hope to be fine. Tonight, I just wanted to share a quick piece of advice before storming the continent like B List celebrities at an Obama campaign rally. Ready? 

Don't talk about New Balance shoes. 

There's a lovely little blog called Stuff White People Like. And, no, it does not concern the newest Eddie Murphy film. It's a charming, sardonic sort of treatise, on, you guessed it, the odd proclivities of caucasians. And, for our purposes of European travel, 'White People' can pretty much be translated as 'Americans.' If you want to survive in Europe, do not, under any circumstances, discuss Scarves, Grammar, Music Piracy, or Not Having A TV. Any of these topics will cause the natives to verbally, or, if you're Max or Cody, perhaps literally, rotisserie you. Friendly advice. 

As for me, well, be thinking of your dear friend while he's confined to a chair for nearly twelve hours tomorrow. And, in the event that his plane goes down, just pray that J.J. Abrams doesn't hear about it. In that instance, his life will quickly become

ONE! PLOT TWIST! AFTER! THE NEXT!

-A. 

Ain't no party like a c-stat party

Just rolled into college station. It looks a lot like Europe, so I think I will consider myself studying abroad. That was me being completely and utterly facetious. The weather is good though, and there was a friendly rabbit in the backyard waiting for me when I pulled up. Also, there was an army of ants in the kitchen here at the Prestige, but I fought them off bravely without sustaining too many injuries. Summa (i would like everyone else to start spelling it like this) school starts tomorrow so I would like to tell you that I will be crashing soon, but you just never know. Ummmmm, what else has been going on...Ooooh, I saw the new Indiana Jones movie twice and it is FREEEAAAKING tight!!! Uhh, well that about sums up my summa. Hope everyone is doing amazing. I miss yall and you are all in my thoughts and prayers.

Good night and good luck,

Mutt Williams

Kloster, Burg, und Ort

20:55 Bonn

This morning I got up at 6:30 am, an hour and a half after sunrise, to meet up with my fellow study-abroadees for an "excursion" into the Eiffel region of beautiful North Rhine-Westphalia, Deutschland. At first I was rather reluctant to overcome my cynicisms of "excursions" - who wants to go see a bunch of random stuff with a bunch of random people and have no input to the schedule? However, I quickly realized that you can easily enjoy the guided tours, split with a smaller group, or be alone all together on your own schedule governed only by the bus' departure. So don't be afraid of excursions, I saw some absolutely beautiful things today and had a great time, despite my awkwardly large group.
I don't want to bore anyone so I will just comment briefly and let the pictures do their thousand words each.

Kloster Maria Laach
We began with mass at the Monastary of Mary Lake. If you're Catholic and you know it, clap your hands, because this place represents! The monks here have devoted their life to God and live off the land, repair the Cathedral, and sell stonework and flowers to provide for their needs. The plethora of Latin with the baritone monk choir produced a very ancient aura.
Schloss Buerresheim
One of the few castles in the region to have survived the French Revolution, Buerresheim Castle is unique in that the northern half was constructed as a Burg, or fortification, in the 1400s, and the southern half was constructed as a Schloss, or Palace, over 300 years later. It had been passed down through families until 1932 and all of the furniture is original, some of it over 500 years old. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside but there was some amazing stuff.

Monreal








This little Ort, or town, was recognized as the most picturesque town in Germany. It's buildings are crammed together among narrow alleys and boast the traditional Fachwerk style. A river runs through the center of town, and a ruined Castle watches from atop the hill. Definitely the best stop of the day.

















I learned two things today:
1. Germany is more beautiful and its history more alluring than I thought it would be.
2. No matter how many amazing things I hear and see, I can't help but wonder how much better it would be with some of you here. So those of you who at least have friends enough with you that every conversation is not surface oriented chit chat, enjoy them.
And skype me!

Auf Wiedersehen,
Thomas

p.s. does anyone remember the 20 word name that we almost had for the blog...?

Hope that's not too many pictures

The Time Has Come...

11:00 am last blog from Arlingfun

Fellow Ags,

The time has come for my departure from normalcy. No longer can I watch Carrie Underwood's "All American Girl" music video and comment on how incredibly sexy she is...ive been called to be above that.

The time has come for me to live 3 months with 8th and 9th grade children, wow.

The time has come because Pan just got here and we have to go. Please write and keep in "touch my body" with us. Feel free to send inappropriate things through mail, it's not checked. Just think WWMD? I would send it...will you?


As Julie Andrews sings,
"What will this day be like? I wonder.
What will my future be? I wonder.
It could be so exciting to be out in the world, to be free
My heart should be wildly rejoicing
Oh, what's the matter with me?
I've always longed for adventure
To do the things I've never dared
And here I'm facing adventure
Then why am I so scared

A captain with seven children
What's so fearsome about that?

Oh, I must stop these doubts, all these worries
If I don't I just know I'll turn back
I must dream of the things I am seeking
I am seeking the courage I lack
The courage to serve them with reliance
Face my mistakes without defiance
Show them I'm worthy
And while I show them I'll show me

So, let them bring on all their problems
I'll do better than my best
I have confidence they'll put me to the test
But I'll make them see
I have confidence in me

Somehow I will impress them
I will be firm but kind
And all those children (Heaven bless them!)
They will look up to me
And mind me with each step I am more certain
Everything will turn out fine
I have confidence the world can all be mine
They'll have to agree
I have confidence in me

I have confidence in sunshine
I have confidence in rain
I have confidence that spring will come again
Besides which you see
I have confidence in me

Strength doesn't lie in numbers
Strength doesn't lie in wealth
Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers
When you wake up -- Wake Up!
It tells me all I trust
I lead my heart to
All I trust becomes my own
I have confidence in confidence alone(Oh help!)
I have confidence in confidence alone
Besides which you see
I have confidence in me!"

Make this your anthem this summer my dear friends.

Until we meet again,
Matthew Tyler Pierson

high and dry

12.16 pm, london... there is a beautiful version of Radiohead's High & Dry playing in the background

well for the past 24 hrs i have been stuck in london.  my flight to paris got cancelled and i could not get on another one until tonight.  ba (british airways) was kind enough to put up in a great hotel for the night and provide taxi to and from the airport, so overall it has been a very pleasant experience. there was one thing however...

buffalo shrimp quesadillas! a terrible thing to order at an airport and an even worse thing to think about eating an hour before you are to sit in a seat for eight hours 30,000 ft off the ground.  i am feeling the effects of this decision to this moment, and regretting it ever more.  i am sure that i have food poisoning ( i wont go into detail).  at one point in the flight a nice 30-some year old britsh flight attendant tapped me on the shoulder and said "excuse me sir, are you feeling alright?" i replied no. she then inquired further "well i hate to ask you but do you have diarrhea, you look very pale?" i replied yes.  she then proceeded to give some medicine that taste horrible and did not really do much.

aaron, the british people are great.  look forward to that. for all of you, there is free wine on airplanes, take advantage of that! it gets much more expensive once you land.  i am off to have a large brew and some fish & chips before i leave. i hope you are all doing well.

cheers mates

andrew    

 

life after steak and ale

Dallas, 3:32 am

 

I wish I could I report that I am writing at this late hour because I have been up all night parting like its 1999, but unfortunately the steroids from my wisdom teeth removal have abruptly awoken me at 2 am and I have been unable to fall asleep again, so I thought I might blog instead. And yes, I look like a complete chipmunk, or not so "glowey" as Alex would put it. 

For the record, that surgery is scarier than one would think. I knew the doctor was putting in my IV that would eventually knock me out, but not as quickly as what followed. Literally, the man had just told me that his son, who is a senior at HP would be attending Texas A&M in the Fall, and I of course was in the midst of my auto response: "tell him to try out for Fightin' Texas Aggie....." (I passed out). I woke up alarmed. I didn't have enough time to tell him about Fish Aides....or the Lord!!! What if the doctor thinks I was telling him about Aggie Fish Club instead? Whoa is me! (no offense to over half of our friend group). 

In other news, the Jude has a B12 deficiency, which explains why she can no longer tell the boys apart, and thinks that LD stands for Lauren Daniel, which is now written on the back of Chi-Omega embroidered plate meant for our house next year. What is worse is that we made the discovery, while showing it to Bret, who asked, "Who is Lauren?" For those of you who are concerned that you may also have the condition, its symptoms include memory loss, mood swings, and difficulty with the English language. Unfortunately, the treatment for this condition is a shot that you must inject daily for a week and once weekly after that. My dad now thinks its hilarious whenever my mom forgets somethings to tell the boys, "quick hold her down! Get the injections!" My mom doesn't think it is funny yet. If you or a loved one struggles with this deficiency, please talk to your doctor and know that you can find solace here at camp smiley. 

I was going to try and be funny and add that another symptom of B12 was poor driving, but I was afraid the comments on this blog would come back to bite me later. Although, in that department, I have one small victory to announce. While aaron and Bret were over earlier this week, both aaron and JD thought it was really funny to bring up all of my driving fiascos both from high school and college (Thank you afran!). Jd got a real kick out of reminding me that I hit Dad's car twice in our own driveway in high school (it was not my fault). He was laughing and going on and on. Well, tonight, when I awoke from my surgery, I was surprised to see JD hanging out the family on a Friday night, even as cool as we are. The truth finally came out...he was grounded. For what, you might ask? For hitting Dad's car in the driveway. Two Points for Paige.

With much love,

Paige

P.S.

I made Bret watch Steel Magnolias, and he loved it.

last minute

3:22 am, Arlington.

i leave for the airport in 9 hours...still not finished packing. expected. i'm trying to stay up late though so i can sleep for a few of the 12 hours that will make up my flight tomorrow (thank you, thomas, for the forewarning about jet lag). i thought i'd do a quick recap of the first two weeks of summer, before i go to spain and forget all else:

1. went to brett dennen concert in austin. got high off of second-hand pot smoke. discovered missy higgins...she is awesome. you should download her.

2. finished defensive driving for one of my two spring break tickets. asenseofhumordriving.com was actually quite humorous (thank you, aaron, for the reference). my only complaint, is that, they used, an excessive, and unnecessary, amount of punctuation. but it definitely could have been a lot worse.

3. watched trinity valley football highlight video. go trojans.

4. also at the burketts': went through a box of dave's stuff from like 2nd grade. found a note that dave wrote, and it began: "dear ms. jones, i am sorry i called you a liar." another, similar note, began: "i said 'shit' in class today. i don't even know what that means."

5. went on a walk with two 50-year old women. felt sore the next day.

6. cut 10 inches of my hair off and donated it to locks of love, in an effort to reduce shower time.

and now, here i am! ok, it's about that time. if i go to sleep now i will get 3 full REM cycles. i depart for spain tomorrow and will be taking classes in granada (which is way down south). if y'all are coming through, call me on my nuevo espana telefono: +34 696-960-144. or skype me! (kellycorley). right now a tentative plan is to go up to barcelona around june 21, same time as sol, kat, and paige! i hope it works out!

i love you all very much and pray that God keeps every single one of you safe!

see you soon,
kc

This Preview Is Rated Awesome.

It's midnight in Prosper, TX.

Earlier this week, on a lovely, cloudy Sunday, I chunked deuce to the First Baptist Church and turned tail to Dallas. Mostly, because Dallas is a holy city, there was little traffic. 

Simple pleasures. 

I arrived at Camp Smiley, triple shot in hand, to see the radiant Coral Zelon reheating quiche. She seemed unusually luminescent, a quality I am tempted to attribute to the scent of twice-nuked spinach filling the air. Piage was in the corner, looking, well, less-than-glowy, pretending to help Coral. From Piage's bedroom, I heard the sounds of Grittney and Kelly B giggling/snuggling/rolling in puppies. Soon thereafter, Aaron arrived. He had gone to church that morning and had then made a detour to the Northpark Apple store (redundant?), for which he blamed his tardiness. 

We made pancakes and chatted with The Jude about the evils of Barack Obama. The man is a socialist, and, in non sequitur, pancakes of the banana variety are superior. 

That evening, Aaron, Piage, Kelly, and I reconvened to take in a showing of The Chronicles of Christian Conservatives: Prince Caspian. At one point, during a particularly rousing speech, an awkwardly bipedal bear bellowed, "For Aslan!" Kelly, rather predictably, tittered the quietest whisper of a giggle guffawed. It's true that the entire theatre was disturbed by her cacophonous, pealing laughter, but I wouldn't trade her and her sexy bed-hair for the world. 

Because we were having such fun, we all, with the exception of Aaron, who claimed to have a dentist appointment (I suspect he was back at "church") agreed to a farewell breakfast. This is where the picture at the top of the page comes in. Kelly, Piage, and I had a two and a half hour al fresco breakfast in a French cafe. I had the most mindblowing almond croissant in the universe, and Piage had some "normal granola."

This is us, guys. 

In mere days, many of us will be having to ask for our croissants in a foreign language. I had a little preview, a small taste this weekend, and let me tell you that it's good: sugary with a hint of nutmeg. 

Ready?

-A. 

A new addition to the family

9:01 PM The Wilson Residence, College Station

The other night my father burst through the garage door slightly hunched, hands outstretched palms clenched and screaming "someone get a box!" it turns out that in between those clenched fists of his was a baby cottontail rabbit.

a sane person would ask the question where did he get a wild baby rabbit, why would he even pick it up........... no one who knows Harry would really classify him as sane though

all that being said, my dad has put this bunny on the same pedestal as his moped. being 2 weeks old and a rabbit the only word that comes to mind is worthless. it has to be fed at all hours with baby formula and an eye dropper. resulting in it eating 5 and pooping 10 times his body weight. additionally, we keep it in the laundry room, which now smells like thousands of poop pellets instead of clean clothes.

the other day i offered to help my dad with its feeding. (i thought it might serve as a nice bonding experience)..... wrong. seconds after taking the provided picture the little rodent bit me, resulting in a drop of blood, the s- word, and the rabbit. (a fran its a shame you weren't there to get it on camera)

You would think that my dad would be pissed about the fact that his only daughter might have contracted rabis.... wrong again. instead he was mad that i said a four letter word, and even madder that i dropped his stupid psycho bunny. Now i'm not allowed to get near it because Harry has convinced the family that the rabbit doesn't like me.

I've contemplated a solution to this little problem- sometime in the next few days I am going to present it to romo as a new chew toy.... zach, your thoughts?

Fannypack Friends!!!

3:44 ArlingFun, Texas

Holy Shat!

Hola friends. It is Matty P and I am finally writing on our Pedo-files page. I hope everyone is doing well in their foreign countries of choice. As for me the past two weeks, well Arlington is the bomb.
After I got home on Thursday after my finals, I started a mini-mester. Bren Bren signed me up for this and told me two weeks before getting home that I would be in school for 12 straight days from 8-12:30. Some of you may not know this, but I have a deep hate towards school and knowledge. It's weird. Speaking of hating school, the good news is I did well enough this semester to 1. stay in the business school and 2. come back to College Station in the fall. Dr. Swim and I have become really good friends through email to see if he would give me a B. Surprise!! He didn't...what a hoe. I'm riding the A-B line in my TCC mini-mester right now, I'm really good at school. Tomorrow I will be turning in a resume for 25 points extra credit.

In other news, Magic my 13 year old Rotweiller had to go to the vet this week. It's always an ordeal when she has to go. Why you ask? Here it goes, Magic has been deaf for the past year and half so we have to wake her up by touching her. If we are lucky, she doesn't poot and we can just continue on with our task. But, she has been known to pass gas these days when she gets startled. Well, after I recovered from her butt fog, I put her collar on. It's now time to see if she will get up. She has two really bad back legs. Now that it is summer, she will only sleep on our hardwood floors. So if you are putting this together, trying to get a 85 pound dog up on hardwood floors with two bad back legs is miserable. Plus, her toenails hadnt been clipped yet, so she slid all over the floor. Naturally, I put my arms around her torso trying to help her get into the car. Thats when I accidentally put pressure on her fatty tumor that is in her stomach. She attempted to snap at me and missed. What's funny is that we havent brushed her teeth in years so when snapped, we think she might have lost a tooth and swallowed it. We would have gotten the fatty tumor removed a couple of years ago, but it was a $4000 surgery. The vet told us it wasn't going to damage her, it would only get bigger as the years go on. So now, her tumor is the size of a softball hanging down from her belly. All of this to say, we got to the vet for her annual shots, and well she is too old to get them.

In other news, while we are on the topic of animals. The Pierson's have decided to become bird breeders. In our backyard last week, we noticed that a mother bluejay had given birth to two babies. Naturally, Bren Bren and TP become infatuated with the birds. My mom literally spent most of the past week looking out of our back doors watching them. This week it was great because the birds were learning how to fly, but they ran into an unexpected obstacle. We were watching my sisters dog, Bentley, this week for a few days. The two baby birds were learning how to fly, so naturally the mother and father pushed their babies out of the nest. Bentley just happened to be in the backyard while this happened. So of course, she ran up to the first bird and picked it up in her mouth. My mom was standing there and started screaming at the top of her lungs. Our neighbor next door called to make sure that no one was raping my mom in the backyard. While my mom is focused on the one that has just been injured, the other baby bird flew away but didn't have enough stamina or practice yet to clear our pool. So, it drowned and we later found it in our pool sweep. At the same time, the mother and father blue jay are so pissed off they are pecking at Bentley's head. Now my mom had to step in and save Bentley. Then, my dad had no idea what to do with the injured baby bird. So, he picked it up and attempted to place it back in the nest. In order for this to happen so that the mother and father bluejay dont peck my dad, my mom is outside blasting the parent bluejays with a water hose. Point of the story....both birds ended up dying and when I got home from school yesterday Mother B was crying, and I hate it when she cries.


Seriously, my life has been a joke the past two weeks. I hope all of you are enjoying your time out of school and getting ready for your adventures. I leave on Saturday for El Pina Covay....its in Spain, just dont worry about it...private island. I love all of you and miss you like "whoa"

In Him,
USDA

Skype!

If you do indeed have Skype, leave your username in the comments.

el blog numero uno

hey y'all!

first and foremost, i would like to apologize for my lack of blog participation thus far. i hope it has not been misinterpreted as a lack of love for y'all. i know there is no good excuse, but every time i have signed on, this is how it has gone down: i start reading (because i would much rather read than write), and after about an hour or so (because i am a slow reader) i realize that i still haven't done what i got on the computer to do in the first place. so i sign off frantically, telling myself i'll post next time. anyway, the point is, i have been guilty of lurking this entire time, but i didn't know i was lurking until i discovered (as i was lurking) what lurking was! but i have decided to finally put an end to that....and here i am!

wow. i just found out that we are about to leave for my brother's baseball game, which doesn't start for another hour. really? do baseball players need that much time to warm up?

don't worry, i'll be back.

Deutschland

20:13 Bonn, Deutschland

In the spirit of travel, I will be posting in military time because that's what all the airports use.

First and foremost, jet lag is a whore. DFW to Toronto to London Heathrow to London Gatwick to Bonn equals a good 17 or 18 hours of flying, barely worth the 300$ I saved by taking the scenic route. Anyways that flight I was supposed to sleep on was from Toronto to London, a 6 hour flight with 4 hours of darkness. Long story short, by the time I was taking the shuttle from London Heathrow to Gatwick I noticed my right peripheral vision in my right eye was a little "dark" but I ate some food and took a nap on easyJet airlines to Bonn and I am doing fine now :) Just be careful fellow travelers, the Atlantic is more formidable than you thought.

I am living with die familie Friederick in their humble abode in Bonn. They have four kids which is culturally comparative to someone in the US having like seven. Sven-Yannick, Ann-Cathlyn, Phil-Matyce, and Grace-Jaclyn (they are totally rockin the double name thing) are all under eleven years old and are a freakin blast. Today we did gymnastics in the living room together and tomorrow me and Phil-Matyce are going to play some computer-spielen together. One weird thing, the girls have friends over tonight (which makes 4 girls) and they all like to hide behind me or peek in my doorway then giggle and run away when I look at them... whatever.

Anyways just wanted to dispel all your fears for my journey - I am indeed alive and well.

Also here is my itinerary, some dates tentative, all dates excellent:

May 22 - June 5 Bonn
June 5 - June 9 Barcelona with Alex, Cody and Max
June 9 - June 27 Bonn
June 27 - July 3 Study Abroad bus trip through Germany
July 4 - July 12 No Plans yet (please pray)
July 12 - July 21 Rostock, Germany working with a church plant organization
July 21 - July 26 Vienna with my sister and the missionary family she is working with
July 26 - July 28 Paris with Aaron and Anna
July 28 - July 30 Cannes with A&A
July 30 - August 1 Carcassonne with A&A
August 1 - August 2 Tours with A&A
August 3 - August 4 London with A&A and flight home

I'll put up a cell phone number once I get one.

p.s. everyone should be a member of Skype by now

Deepest Love,
Thomas

bear with this one

Yesterday I had the joy of going to school at my old junior high with Mrs. Noto, yes Caitlin's mom. I thought it would be a good experience since she is teaching a 6th grade reading class which I possibly might want to do one day.

It all started as I was introduced to the class as a past student of Mrs. Noto. I received bewildered eyes from these 12 year olds saying "You're old!" (Guys we are old). Then when she told them I went to a&m there was a mixture of excited yelps and a few boos which started this argument between young aggies and t-sippers. I slowly step over to my chair fearing for my life as Mrs. Noto gets the class to calm down.

I won't go any further into the stories of what junior high kids do during class that either made me laugh or feel sorry for their teachers. Some people ask me why I would want to teach that awkward age group. I'm not sure why but as I walked out of that classroom yesterday, I got even more excited about teaching!

I'll try not to bore you with any other stories with junior highers but I will be surrounded by them for the next 5 weeks so I just might have to:)

Also, my last post I complained about my brother. In reality, my brother is one of the coolest people I know. Not only did he win 3 class favorites but he had a rockin concert on sunday. His band and him just made a CD with 6 songs being written by my brother. Ok enough braggin on the bro. With it being his senior year many things I have attended since I have been home has been because of him :)

I hope all is going well for you all. I'm praying for each of your summers. Love yall!

My Life.. Ohhhh My Life

11:53 pm. Ol' Coppell TX.

I hope this finds everyone happy and in good health. At the moment I am laying on my couch, listening to the new Death Cab CD, and surfing the WWW. Doesn't get much more exciting. But before I send your little hearts into overdrive with my day-to-day, I'd like to tell you where I've been.

I spent last week in glorious Colorado at Frontier Ranch, a Younglife camp. I went up there with our Bible study and the other Bible studies as well, the '11, '09, '08 and some old guys. All in all there were about 45 of us that went. After many hours on the bus, we finally got there and had about an hour to kill before we had to go to dinner. So naturally, we went for a climb. (All you Garner State Park folks understand the need for a good climb.) This climb was not like anything I had done. It was eXtreme! Bobby Stipp, Frank, and I went out behind the cabins and just started going straight up. It was rather silly but still quite a rush. After a laborious 30-45 minutes we made it as high as we thought would be wise. Well, a little higher. Of course we hadn't thought about getting down until we were done getting up. We decided it would be best to go down the back side because the front side was far too steep for any such tomfoolery. Being the back side, it was indeed covered with snow. And by covered I mean about to my knee. So we were hiking, down, down, down. At one point I stepped on a patch of snow that had already iced over on the top, and I started sliding. It was very much fun, although a bit frightening. I slid for about 40-50 yards before realizing that I was sliding directly towards a creek, so I dug in my heels and brought my cold, wet snowslide to and an end. But what a ride it was! And this was only day, no, hour one.



We did a lot of hard work, but you can't complain when you are working in such a beautiful place with a lot of your good buddies. We all had our jobs, some washed windows, some made beds, some dug trenches. My noble job was to aerate. Aerating, for those of you who don't know, means poking a thousand holes in the ground so the grass can get.. air? Either way, the machine is a monster. It's basically about 70 pounds of weights in the front and a rolling wheel of spikes in the back. You just pull up the handle and hold on for dear life, while the spikes dig into the earth a propel you forward a remarkably quick pace if you aren't ready for it. At one point, I was aerating near a wall when I felt the machine start to roll. I tried to roll it back the other way, but what with gravity and torque and everything, I didn't stand much of a chance: I was falling as well. In all my brilliance, and in a very short amount of time, I came up with this idea: scream like a girl and jump off the wall. So I did. I screamed and jumped off the wall, the aerator had the same idea. I landed and turned around to see a 100+ pound machine with rolling spikes of death starting to fall. So I moved. The aerator fell and made a loud noise and flipped upside down, flooded with gas, and turned off. I turned it over and aerated the part where we had both landed. That lawn had to be done too.



It was a fun time and a very pretty camp. It snowed about 7 inches total while we were there. Four-five on one day and about 2-3 two days after. It's good to be home again, for a bit. I got to see Alex, Paige, and Kelly B. a few nights ago! How I missed them, and you all. I'm glad we are bringing forth the lurkers, although I know a few are still out there. Katelyn, Sol, Kelly C, Master Wayne! Where are you guys? I hope you are all still living.

Until the next time I hear from you: peace, love, and safe travels.

aaron


PS: the first to identify where the title of this post came from will get ten (10) Dubya-Dubya-Dollars, good at all WWW internet stores. (If you believe me, I'll give you 1000 of them)

Brought to you from the ex-lurker

10:09 College Station, TX, USA

Hey team-

First blog. This is monumental. However, I confess...I have been a lurker. My lurking time is now over.

After waking up at 4:45 on Monday morning, I arrived in cstat just in time for work. The museum looked the same as it did before I left. While I half expected to see a new climbing wall or possibly some bones from the forefathers...no such luck. Dress up clothes and tambourines lined the disney song infested museum displays.

Today, a five year old pre-schooler told me she was gay. God bless public schools.

Now back to pre-college station days. Fredericksburg, Texas. Located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. That's right. THE heart. I saw a few things that made me wish you guys were with me in fbg.

1) The sign placed above the a thrift store that read: "If you steal from St. Vincent's, you steal from Jesus." ...works for me, I guess.

2) The blinking yellow lights down main street beginning at 10:30. ...yet the speed limit is still 30. ouch.

3) Waiting until 7:47 for the 7:30 showing of Narnia just so everyone could be seated for the last showing of the night. ...thank you small town businesses.

4) Running into the entire FHS class of 2006 at lunch every single day. "Hey! How are you? How were finals? You here for the whole summer?"...yeah, miss those days. (shout out to a fran. I know you did the same thing. don't even try to pretend that you didn't.)

5) Field tripping down main street along with my sister's second grade class for a "Historical Day In Our Town."...really informative.

Alright, I'll be in c stat until the end of June. ENGL 374 here we come.

-courtney (I can't remember if signing your name is mandatory)

If you're bored

Hey guys,

If you are really bored and want to send me a letter or something at camp, here is my address,

Dave Burkett
155 Camp Ozark Drive
Mount Ida, AR 71957

Pray that I have an effect on some kid out there by not strangling him when he poops on the floor.

Osage Riot!!!

highlight of my summer thus far...

Last night at about 11:30pm, Bret and I were rushing through Walmart to get jumper cables for his desparate family stranded on Mansfield Dam over Lake Travis. All details of the car situation aside, rushing through the store I scream when Bret abruptly stops and yells "SHUT THE F UP!!!" I have no idea what he is yelling about until I turn to my right and see a larger-than-life poster of Matt Pierson himself right in the center of the "young men's" section of the neighborhood Walmart. I have never been so proud of you , Matt. All of you (everyone that is still in the US of A, that is) must immediately venture to your nearest Walmart to check out the stud muffin. He looks so great up there!!

Needless to say, this is the highlight of my summer thus far...

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!

-LD

Off to Kamp!

5:21 pm Allen, TX

Hey guys!

I am leaving for Kanakuk tomorrow morning so I won't be blogging for a while. I miss all of you terribly and can't wait to catch up with everyone through the blog on my days off. Write me letters or send me a postcard from whatever exotic place you will be, I would send you a postcard from Branson but believe me, you don't want one.

Katie McGrath
364 K-7 Drive
Lampe, MO 65681

Love you all!!!!

Katie

I'm a Comment Whore, and I'm sure you are too!

9:53 am.  Aggief-ingland   A A A WHOOOOOOOOOOP!

I love getting comments on the posts that I've made to the blog.  It's an exciting moment, flipping upon my MacBook Pro 2.13 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor machine and seeing that there is a comment on a previous blogging.  I love it!  Unfortunately, this occurrence does not occur enough.  

Comment away!  It's fun to see what we all have to say about all of our blogs, and I know that we all have opinions*.

* overstated opinions

Where are all the TOMS?

Jambo,

From the hustle and bustle of the small town of Moshi with its street vendors and tour guides constantly asking you if you want to go on a safari to the tropical rainforest village of Shimbwe with its lush vegatation hosting a array of fruits, we have experienced a week of Tanzania!

We went to Shimbwe Village about a week ago with our friend Deus where we stayed at his humble home. We worked in the mornings, building the school he is starting and either played soccer in the valleys of Kilimanjaro, or visited town in the afternoons. It gets dark here around 6:30 ish and in the village there is no electricity, so the evenings have been spent reading and writing by lantern or having great conversations with Deus and Kiba.

God has been very good in providing work for us to do. So far we have leveled a small field, planted a small garden, and made cement blocks to build a bathrooms.
Cody just bit me.
The orphanage/school is actually very impressive as Deus has been working on it for some time now. The walls and roof are up and one of the three rooms is almost finished.

We are back in Moshi town now and will be spending two nights at the backpackers hotel and hopefully we'll get to take part in the AIDS march and candlelight service tonight. If not, we'll just go to another rave.

This week we are going to another village, Bomang`ombe where we will be helping Aaron, who is actually from Seatle on a year long study abroad program, with an orphanage he is volunteering at. We will probably be staying in the village for the week before we fly out.

Oh, I got my bag! Praise God!

I truly wish you guys could see some of the things I have seen! just the sights itself are worth the trip. The lush rainforests, the windling slopes of Kilimanjaro, the colors of the local market, the beautiful little children (watoto)! Gosh! God is good!

Cody is smelling me.

Dear friends,

there is small child in the village named pasco. I think he will fit in my bag. Zach, can we keep him. (Need i remind you....you were skeptical of romo and he ranks higher than me. Please consider.)

Hott and bothered in tanzania. Cody

Oh, and Trob, I also have a child to bring home. I hope thats ok with the Doc. If it comes between my child or cody's.... well lets just say im responsibile for mine... and it wont come for about 9 months.

DEUS IS COOL!!!!! and a good man. Pray for his orphanage/school that God will provide for it! Keep praying for our safety and that God continues to show himself to us. We love you guys so freaking much and Cody and I are excited to see you soon Alex! WE HAVE Kahawa! (coffee)

Much love!

Max "I pooped three times in a hole" Su
Cody "He really is hott and bothered..."Page

oh.. and where the hell are all the TOMS??

hooters

10:38 pm, austin, tx, shady hotel

well its saturday night and i am spending my night inside a shady, smelly hotel room studying.  yes thats right, saturday night and i'm studying. its standard procedure for a tour guide in training. there is a hooters next store having a crawfish boil, and a rather out of tune texas country singer with his amp turned turned up way too loud is gracing us all with his presence. some friends of ours from down south of the border are hanging out outside our room and i am beginning to wonder when the deal is going to go down. lets hope it doesn't go bad!

thankfully this is a temporary situation and i will soon be pressing on from this rather dingy existence and moving on to the city of lights. hope all is well. 

andrew

Texas Rocks (double meaning)

Hey guys,

It is 3:41 in Fort Worth. This is my first time to blog, it is a big step for me. I don't really use the interweb much.

I thought I would tell y'all about my backpacking trip. On the Thursday after school got out, at about 2:00 AM I got into Fort Worth and unloaded all my clothes and stuff from the war wagon, and then loaded up my backpacking gear and got to bed at 3:30ish. I woke up in about an hour and a half and headed to the donut shop to meet the rest of my fellow backpackers. The crew included Rob, Will, T-Rob, myself, Malcolm (our good friend that goes to Vandy), and Cameron (another good friend who goes to OSU). We left Fort Worth around 6:00 AM on Thursday after loading up the wagon. I slept for a while and was awakened by the war wagon making some odd noises (surprise, surprise). It was about 10:00 AM We were in Quanah, TX. The transmission was having some problems, mainly reverse didn't work and 1st gear barely worked. I talked to a mechanic in Quanah and he said that I probably wouldn't make it to Palo Duro State Park, much less back home afterwards. I called my dad and he said the same thing. Naturally, we disregarded all warnings and kept going. Now in order to prolong the life of the transmission, we needed to stay in 2nd gear or higher. This resulted in a couple high speed turns, and about as many negated stop signs. We arrived in Palo Duro with great anticipation. We packed up and headed out into the canyon. After about 5 hours of hiking we had reached the rim of the canyon and were looking at an amazing view. We ate dinner overlooking the canyon. We got in our sleeping bags when it got dark. Rob and Cameron had both presumed that they would be able to sleep fine in their clothes with no sleeping bag. They got a rude awakening (except they weren't asleep) at about 2 in the morning with a 20 mph wind and a temperature of about 50 degrees. Needless to say Rob slept about 30 minutes and cameron slept about 3 hours, thanks to a makeshift fire they got going for a little while. I woke up at about 10:00 with sun pwning me in teh face. Malcolm and T-Rob were there, but Rob and Cameron and Will weren't. Malcolm informed me that they had hiked back to the car to get their sleeping bags which they realized they needed. Apparently Malcolm and Rob's convo at a bout 6:30 AM went something like this:

Rob: Hey, dude we are gonna go get the sleeping bags.

Malcolm: ghhhud.... wait, what? (awakening)

Rob: Yeah We couldn't sleep last night.

Malcolm: Ok, where should we meet y'all?

Rob: Where we were talking about hiking to last night.

Malcolm: Where is that?

Rob: ok....good

So, basically we had no clue where they were when we woke up. T-Rob, malcolm, and I headed down across the canyon and up the other side a little bit to get a decent vantage point to try and catch a glimpse of them. We yelled a couple times and got no reply, so we decided to take a break and cool off a bit. T-Rob had ventured off to take some pictures, when we heard him yelling again. We ran up and saw Rob and Will and Cameron at the top of the canyon. We stayed where we were and waited for them to get down. When they got down, they all were sunburned and salty from all the sweat. We were glad to see them and we headed down to the creek in the middle of the canyon for a little swim. We swam around a bit and cooled off. It was then that we saw the only other people we saw while we were backpacking. Four potheads from UNT... figures... they informed us to give them a holler if we wanted to smoke a bowl. I then asked them who they were voting for which resulted in four dead potheads (A-tone would be proud). We buried them and headed off. We slept the second night at the base of the canyon where we all got some great sleep. Sunday morning we woke up and headed back to the wagon. We got there around 10:00 AM and decided to go see the famous "Lighthouse" rock formation which was about a 6 mile hike. We did the hike and took some great pictures. After that we headed back to the wagon to begin the trip back, if it even could begin. We checked the fluid and found metal chunks in the transmission fluid which meant that the transmission was grinding itself up...bad. We headed out with our fingers crossed, hoping for the best and expecting the worst. We got all the way back to where I-30 intersects I-35 before encountering any problems other than having to push the car in reverse if we wanted to go backwards. While trying to pass a guy on the entrance ramp to 30, I stripped 3rd and 4th gear, so 1st and 2nd were all that remained. This resulted in our traveling the remaining 5 miles in 2nd gear on the shoulder of the highway, not to mention the taillights were broken as well as the dashboard lights. So we limped in at about 15 mph running about 45000 Rpm in 2nd gear. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Things I learned on the trip:

1. Never give up if the war wagon is involved

2. Texas really is as awesome as we say it is

3. Don't fall in a cactus

4. Destroy all democrats

5. Spare tires are overrated

6. Your body doesn't require as much food as you think, but it requires more water than you think

7. Texas Rocks

brunch

hey y'all!

anyone (only friends of this blog) who is in dtown or close by is welcome to come to my house tomorrow (sunday) at 12 for lunch.

call me for directions (you never know who is reading this---maybe the people who are creeping on the tal and zach)

paige

Alone in the Land of Tal

11:30 am.  The Tallahassee.

It's lonely here.  The darkness flung itself upon us sometime last week.  I can't remember the day.  I can't remember any days anymore.  Spending the next month in perpetual nighttime will wear thin on me.  Romo is getting restless.  He perks up at any sound, hoping that at least one more of his five fathers will return.  But they don't don't.  We. Are. Alone.  We long for the days of old, with friends and those we loved.  It's only us now.

We killed a squirrel yesterday.  The only morsel of protein we've had in weeks.  Our rice supply is running low and I don't know how much longer it will last.  I don't know how much longer I will last.  

This may be the last time I write anything for a very long time.  I wish you all safe travels, and know that I wish I was there.  

As for me, I will carry on like I have for so many months before. 

I've been Skyped!

12:17 pm PARIS, tx

Hi friends!!

Yay for blogging! Greetings from the beautiful and historic Paris TX, home to our very own Anna Staples and me for the past two days. While on my visit here me and Anna have been having some great adventures. First, we tried to go out to lunch which I discovered was harder than it sounds in a small town where everything is closed on Mondays. Who knew? Not this suburban girl. I also had the opportunity to go sightseeing and saw a real live eiffel tower (with a red cowboy hat on top) Later we wandered out to the family's land and fed their longhorns (ssss) which was quite slimy, yet pleasant. And for the first time ever I climbed on a four wheeler and we perused around the forest.  Anna taught me how to drive it but I think I gave all of us whiplash with a 3 point turn gone wrong. I hope Anna's friend from high school, Ava, didn't get a bad first impression. Then we saw a wild panther that Anna speared and her mom bar-b-qued. And then we watched an extremely spicy episode of Gossip Girl, don't you just hate G? 

Today we did a lot of...not a whole lot. But we did get to go to the bank and talk to a really sweet lady with an equally sweet voice, very similar to the girl that checked us out at the video store. I don't know what it is about Paris people and their sweet accents, but I like it. Reminds me of Texarkana accents. 

Then we SKYPED with Kelly C!! For those of you uninformed about the wonderful world of Skype, it is basically like making a phone call between two computers but also with video, and its completely free!  So me and Anna sat in front of the computer and talked/saw Kelly for over an hour. It is so great, we are going to do it while Kelly is in Spain and Anna Italy. Download it from skype.com and we can all see each others bright shining faces from all over the world.  And I have to admit, I am envious of any Mac user because I require 4 different cords to use Skype (earpiece/microphone and web cam) and with a Mac all of that is already on your computer so it is much easier. But it was not hard enough to deter me from using it, I found a really cheap pair of web cams and headsets at Radio Shack.  

Well its time for us to say goodnight (insert scene from Sound of Music where the Von Trap Family children sing goodnight) Peace out bloggers, love you all!

Katie and Anna 

  

not quite a vespa.....

7:06 PM: C-STAT

A few months ago Harry Wilson(my father) discovered a new love while spending spring break in the Grand Caymans........ Mopeds

My mother and I discovered the love affair, when we found a memory card stock full of moped pictures......a few days later a ITA 150 Supercharge (capable of reaching speeds to 60 mph and complete with alarm system) was proudly displayed in the garage.

Now, Harry's favorite activity is driving The Moped to work. (The reason being his route takes him directly past the Harley Davidson store). My brother recently informed me that every time he passes the Harley store he "beeps" his horn at burley men twice his size. I'm told that their initial response was the finger, but now they simply shake their heads and wave.

The real issue at hand is that I have mixed feelings about my father looking like transportation services........

katherine

my first attempt at blogging...

It is 4:43 in Beaumont, Texas, or as my mother calls it, BOREmont.

Well, life is grand here at home, but I have to admit it doesn't really feel like home. I know 3 people within a ninety mile radius. One is my brother who is asleep on the couch and my mom who is opening the mail on the other side of the couch. I know 5 people if you let me count my dogs, Mia and Bella. Did I mention that I am highly allergic to dogs. That's what happens when you go to college in the Bjornaas household, they move to the worst city in Texas and you get replaced by two puppies who make you itch...ALOT!

I attempted to escape for 24 hours by going to Sugar Land. I drove down and met some people for a movie and then decided to go to a party... YIPEE! Let me paint a picture of this for you. We are all meeting at someone's house, I'll call this the "pre-party". People are already taking shots and discussing who has drank the least so they can figure out a driver. We then proceed to some girls piece of land where we hang out in a hot barn with bad country music blaring all night. It was a bad rendition of Varisty Blues. To the right, people are playing beer pong. to the left, oh suprise two more games of beer pong. Any direction you look drunk girls with a small amount of clothing on are taking pictures so that they can tag them later. I honestly hear one girl say she needs to get a picture taken with a hot guy so that she can make her boyfriend jealous...

So then my new drunk friend, let's just call him Bob, asks me to play "flip cup". I agree and slip Diet Dr. Pepper in the cup instead of beer. Then we play. If you don't know how this game works, you have an equal amount of people on each side of the beer pong table. you can start at either end of the line, but you chug a cup of beer (or DDP) and when you are done you have to flip the empty cup until it lands upright. This sounds easy, but easier said than done when it is 12:45 am and you started drinking at 8. Anyways, this continues until one team finishes first. The game gets intense and it is down to me and a girl, her name is Ashley. We chug, then flip. My cup somehow lands upright first, and she gets really, really mad. I'm on the other side of the table jumping up and down highfiving my drunk teammates...bad idea. Ashley starts saying things like "it was diet dr. pepper" "that doesn't even count" "lets get the young guns out of here and get a real game of flip cup going" those sound harmless but she is really bitter and she keeps staring at me...luckily someone pumped some more beer out of the keg and all is peaceful again.

not too exciting but it was good to get my last party in before i'm off to camp for 3 months!

farewell

Dobro Dosli Starbucks!

It's 4:24 P.M. in Zagreb.

Two years ago, a few architect types got the wildly bright idea to recreate a Croatian fishing village north of Dallas, Texas. It's shameful; I know. I'm fairly certain that none of the architects were natives of that fair, war-torn land, and I'm even more positive that none of the moms ordering ten-syllable lattes have ever heard of the country. I have yet to personally encounter any land mines or crossfire, much less the fish suggested in the development's catchy moniker, but, for reasons I can't put my usually xenophobic little fingers on, I have adopted this strange, hybrid coffee shop as my own. 

I visit Starbucks, Croatia every morning.

Most days, when I drag myself to the counter, Woundingly Cheerful Senior Citizen rings me up, Weirdly Distracted Mom Jeans froths my milk, and That Apparently Cuban Lady orders a triple espresso - either five minutes before or two minutes after I arrive. Some Ordinary Person works the drive through.

It's funny how normal it seems - the coffee, the chit chat - until you remember you're sitting in faux-foreign-bucks instead of gig-em-in-v-necks-bucks. Sometimes that's what being "home" feels like. A few shots short of  Red Eye; one or two Mary-Kate Olsens off the mark. 

You too? And yet there are adventures to be had. I'm not sure what or where they are, but I promise to keep you updated, gentle reader. Until then, know that you're always welcome to pull up a chair and have a cup of coffee. Except for you, Pan. You...don't need any caffeine.

-A. 

Macs and Ipods

Dear Bloggers,
I have swallowed my pride and clicked on the link in my email. I don't know what my life has come to. Just got back froma trip to Palo Duro Canyon where a bunch of highschool friends and yours truly slept under the stars and hiked under the sun for 3 days. In 3 days I can count on one hand what I ate, regardless, it was a great time and it was a pretty amazing trip. Even though the burb's transmission exploded and we had to push it any time we needed to back up.

That was really short. Sometime in this next week I'll learn how to put pictures in. I am a definite blog noob (aka. bloob or the shortened word...boob)

Zack I was so engraged by your Mac cockiness that I bought 3 I phones and plan to use them in the place of golf tees. I think u r funny tho. P4G13 15 DuM3. Crack the leet speech

Peace and Love,
T-Killa

a couple quick notables

11:06 pm Dallas

It started out like every other Mother's Day, with the whole family waiting in the car for my mom to get out of church 30 minutes later and for us to begin our mad dash to meet with my mom's ultra-punctual family in Arlington. We made quick time as we cut people off left and right once we had passed the 5 mile holy radius from church. In fact, my mom went so far as to say that a car who tried to cut to the front was in fact a "bad person." It was her "duty" to stop him by eking forward just enough for the backseat to make awkward eye contact with the perpetrator, who gave us a friendly gesture. We were victorious as we passed him, gliding by just in time for him to see our cool TCA logo on the back (ministry opportunity). 

Finally we arrived at our much anticipated destination..... Steak and Ale. For those of you not familiar- this is a steak franchise that has struggled on since the 90s with low lighting, irish pub decorations, and poor service. Needless to say the lobster bisque was a bad choice. It had much of the look and taste of subway's seafood sensation sandwich spread mixed into a lard of cheese. (My cousin used it for sandwich dipping sauce). My grandmother ordered her usual- the chicken breast with sweet potaters on the side and split it with my aunt. After finishing the entree, my grandmother slipped away somewhere. Little did we realize that Nana also doubled as Sherlock Holmes. If the wording on the menu was read carefully, the entree was intended to come with two chicken breasts! (breasts=plural!!!). And they had made her and Aunt Tammy split only one! They had tried to pull a fast one on Nana, and she wasn't havin' it. We got that second chicken breast in a To Go Box, and proceeded to the family portraits outside by the luscious shrubs of Steak and Ale. 

With Steak and Ale in the backdrop and the prized chicken breast in a To Go Box still sitting on the table at the restaurant, I realized that I have come from a long line of vindicators. I must rise to the occasion! No longer shall I park anywhere and everywhere at Texas A&M, no longer will I cut to the front of the line at Corner Bakery, and no longer will I email professors and try to get them to change my grade... I will fight now for equality!

(I'm sure Zach is reading this, riveted by the exciting tales of old, much like he was with pan and greg v's shakespeare performance).

-Piage

P.S.

We have bees again. My parents thought that a good way to share this fact with family and friends was for us kids to pose with the bee keeper for our annual Christmas card photo.... more excitement to come...

The suprise awaiting me when I got home

I am going to get over my fear of writing on this blog and instead of just thinking "what would I write"... I actually will. So, here it goes!

I have always heard stories when kids leave for college they come home to their room being transformed into a sewing room or scrapbooking room for their mom. I would laugh at these stories and then feel bad for that person whose room was taken away from them without their approval. My room back at home is my get-away. It is the only place I don't have to share a space with another person and sometimes yes, I just want to be selfish.

Well for the past 2 years since I have been at college little by little my brother has been creeping in my room taking over space. At first I didn't mind. I'm not home so the space might as well be put to use. This time when I came home, it was different. My room had become my brothers music room and a place for him to study. So where was I to put my bags when there were ap test books and papers spread out on the floor, his computer and speakers on the desk and an organ, eletric piano and guitars in any other open spaces. The one thing that was untouched was my bed. It is not much of a bed though. Most describe it as a cloud.

Because I love my brother so much and I am so forgiving, I guess its ok to share the space with him. He is going to be coming to A&M (whoop!) in the fall so he won't be able to have it all the time anymore. Also, eventhough it is summer, there is little time that I am going to be home. Where will I be? Well I am glad you asked...

May 24th-July 6th - Pine Cove... Woods!!
Write (only if you get bored, or you miss me, or you thought of me, or just cause your nice:)
Pine Cove Woods Camps
P.O. Box 9055
Tyler, TX 75711-9055

Oh and it will be the same for anyone else at Pine Cove like Matt and Max, just put the camp they are at!

July 11th - 19th Alaska!!

July 20th - July 27th Washington :)

I hope everyone has had a great first week off. Max and Cody, please stop spending money so we can see you again!

Everyone speaks Swahili here!

Jambo,

This is Cody and Max from Moshi, Tanzania writing to one say, we are safe and well and having an amazing time, and two, yes we found strangers and they looked friendly so we've been hanging out with them this whole time. Seriously.

"All we've eaten thus far are bananas and mango juice and Max has grown three inches."
-Rasta Cody Page

We missed our connecting plane from London to Nairobi but caught a later one that day about 9 hours later. It was a good 9 hours as we spent 100$ US in food at the airport (thank you British Airways).

"By day we looked for Keeba whos face we didn't know, by night we went to a rave reminencent of a Steven Segal movie"
-Rasta Cody Page

After a long bumpy 8 hour shuttle ride through Kenya into Tanzania, we arrived in Moshi where at least three different people tried to take us somewhere. After following one of them for about 5 minutes we decided to turn around. Good decision.

"We squandered away 2500 shilling (2.50$ US) accidentally so if anyone could could wire us money to help us get home that would be great"
-Rasta Cody Page

But seriously, this is our second day and we literally have 72.50$ US left... not including the 500 shilling that its going to cost us to use the internet. Oh, and the airline lost my backpack which has all of my money in it... So, pray hard that they find my bag. Please.

"..."
-Rasta Cody Page

We have so far experienced some native food and "chew" and a Rastafarian rave which was amazing. We met an American named Aaron who we are hoping to work with as he volunteers at a orphanage.

Be praying hard for us. For our safety, that God continues to provide, my bag, that God keeps giving us great and unordinary opportunities, and most of all that His name is glorified.

Love you all,
Rasta Cody Page & Rasta Max Su

I still like the Pangean Backpack...

11:34 p.m.; Paris, Texas...Where the eiffel tower has a big red hat. 

Yep... we have an eiffel tower, and it has a disgusting red cowboy hat on top of it. You'd think it'd attract tourists, but they built it right next to a campbell soup plant... and the air smells like creamy mexican tortillas mixed with dead chicken. Oh, and garlic. 

My parents wonder why I'd rather be in Italy all summer...

With that being said, Paris is just the same as when I left it. However, there are a few exceptions... we have a Starbucks, Pet-Co is moving in across from the wall mart, and Target is on it's way (or so I've heard). 

My family, on the other hand, has decided to invest in cows. It was really sudden, and took us all by surprise. My dad became a rancher overnight. It was weird at first, but we're adjusting. They're kinda cute... the cows, I mean. My dad insisted that we bring our lawn chairs out to the farm, so we could watch them. And by watch.. I mean watch. We sat for AT LEAST an hour watching large animals eat grass. Their domestic cows. They let my dad pet them and they eat out of his hand... I don't think that's normal. But neither is an eiffel tower with a red cowboy hat... I need to get out of here. 

I will be in Florence from May 17th - July 28th. Please call me if you'll be there.. actually I'll be pissed if you don't. My international number is +39 335-764-1966 (p.s.- I just felt REALLY cool saying 'My international number...')

I miss you guys! 

However you end things,

Anna

entertainment

Then I heard footsteps on a stairs, and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty....

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

Where I Will Be

7.41 Cop Hell Texas. HA!

The cops are bad here though.

In order to comply with request, here is a list of all the places I will be this summer.

June 19-20: London

June 21-23: Paris (with Andrew!)

June 24-25: Venice

June 26-27: Florence

June 28-30: Rome

July 1-2: Barcelona

July 3-27: London

July 27-August 4: Dunno, somewhere with Thomas and Anna.

Let me know if I will be somewhere at the same time as you, I would love for you to see me. Wait.. what? Hope everything is going swimmingly, I'm off to beautiful Colorado for work week. 

aaron

PS. Cody and Max should be in Africa right now, pray that they don't 'seek out' a stranger merely because he looks friendly, and end up trouble.

A Clarification of Sorts

1:00 a.m.

Texarkana, Texas- where the Living is Twice as Nice

It has been brought to my attention that some of you (Aaron) are slightly confused about what the actual, intended purpose of a blog is.  It is not a way to "keep up with each other," because, regretfully, no one really cares what you've been up to.  A blog, this one in particular, is in fact a writing competition.  Each post made to "What Time is it Where You Are?" should be a calculated and quite planned inclusion, as each and all will be judged by a panel of highly distinguished professionals (i.e. Alex, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Homer).

This evening when I opened up my Macbook Pro 2.16 Ghz laptop (made by Apple in California) I expected to be taken on a journey the likes of which I had never seen, to be swept away into a tale of mischief, where hilarity ensues at every corner.  Unfortunately, this was not so.  I was instead greeted by a post that actuallycontains the phrase, and I quote, "my no so exciting life."  The author of this post, whom we will call, Piage, must not have understood that we want to be entertained by the literary perfection coming from each and every word that alights onto our computer screens (mine is a Macbook [Pro]).   We do not want to be bored with the mundane rigors of daily life, or ponderings about our so-called "feelings."   I'm sure that Piage had good intentions, but his/her approach was just all wrong.

If we take nothing else from this, remember this one simple thing; blogging is not for "fun" or "information regarding one another's whereabouts" or "sentimental value" or even "because we 'care' about our friends."  Blogging is a competition, and you don't want to be a loser, do you?

With my Best Regards,

Zach

*** Please disregard this post, it was a playful attempt at humor.  "Piage" is a fictional character created only for the sake of creation.

**** I'm just kidding, this post was for real.

***** "Piage" is actually Paige Smiley, I don't like her.

****** Paige Smiley is selling a circa-2000 Black (Blue?) Volvo in great condition for only $350.  She's a highly motivated seller and loves phone calls, emails, and personal visits.  She can be contacted at (214) 418-1116.  You would think I was joking if I told you her email address.

******* Ok, it's trudy87@neo.tamu.edu

11:32 am Dallas

In order to comply with Aaron's request for more girl participation, I will post about my not so exciting life back here. Trash can (my black 94 volvo) made it home for one last time, but not without the smell of "any minute, I'm going to combust." She's a trooper. 

Today will be a very scary day in the world of Paige....UNPACKING and ORGANIZING. Two words that should always be off limits. Wish me luck because I'm gonna need it. I miss yall already.

To Those About to Blog: I Salute You.

11:46 pm and bored. Home Coppell.

I want to first congratulate Katherine for being the first girl to take the bold step to post. To the other girls, I encourage you to seek out Katherine and ask her about her experience posting, I'm sure she will say that it was nothing but pleasant. 

I hope everyone is enjoying this so far, I think its a whole heap of fun. I just wanted to post to remind everyone that this is not some sort of writing competition (as much fun as those are) but rather a way to keep up with each other! So cast off your fears, oh timid souls, take up the home keys and blog away. Even if you don't think what you have to say is interesting, remember, we have no idea what you've been doing, and we miss you. So let us know! 

Oh, also, I hope everyone likes the new design. I added a sweet picture (given to me originally by Alex) to the top and subtle one to the very bottom. Few other small changes. Enjoy your lonely, friendless days.. Woops.. too much. 

Missing you,

aaron

PS: I'm watching Live Free or Die Hard, and it rules.

Those Girls At Hastings

10:23 PM - Where it's only home to us now, TX

Typical..... Today Paige Sol and I were supposed to meet at Hastings, 3 o'clock sharp to plan our Europe itinerary.  Thus, we arrived promptly at 4:30. Then we proceeded to clear out the entire shelf of the western Europe Travel Section of the store. We lugged back our weight in books..... and ended up using our lap tops for the entire duration of our stay (Sol did attempt to read a map, got confused and then ripped it trying to refold it)- poor little colombian. We never did put the books back, and I'm sure we're responsible for one really pissed off Hastings employee with sore biceps. That being said, we did get down to business and planned our trip. Here it is, please know that we would love for you to jump in at any time to share in our adventures. 

June 12-16 Paris France

June 17-18  Barcelona

June 19-21 Morocco

June 23-26 Barcelona 

June 27- July 2 Greece

July 3-6  Switzerland

July 7-Aug. 6  Florence (we've got an extra couch for you)

I miss you all already....... it seems as if the college has been taken out of college station

k 

9.28 pm san antonio, tx

seeing as we are now all leaving and heading off to our respective summer adventures i think it would be appropriate to let everyone on the blog know when you will be where this summer. so i will start... feel free to throw in a mailing address as well. much love

andrew

fat tire bike tours

andrew threlkeld

24 rue, edgar faure

paris, france

75015

Leaving Home

It took me awhile to shed the eeriness of waking up to my last day of the semester. This morning pangs me not only with the sadness of goodbye, but the sort of guilt that comes from realizing how many opportunities I have missed to grow closer to my friends. Yet the very thought of you evokes my transition from gloom to anticipation as I think of our time ahead.

It excites to consider the adventures and growth that we shall all see in the next few months, but what excites me more is contemplating August when I come back Home - to College Station with the friends I love.

I hope that only flirted with the line of being too sentimental.

Truly,
Thomas

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Why I Love Sundays. But It's a Secret

1.45am ish. Under my bed.

There are several reasons that I love Sunday, one of them being the obligatory Sunday nap. I don't remember the last time I had a Sunday without a nap. Since I Sunday is a day of rest (save for during finals) I feel great about napping, it is actually my God ordained duty. (Not theologically sound, but a good joke.) That, however, is no secret. We all knew that.


The secret is PostSecret. PostSecret is a blog that I read every Sunday. The idea is simple, anyone around the world is invited to make a homemade postcard and write a secret on it that they have not told anyone and send it in. Some of them are very funny, some are heartbreaking, and some are scandalous and NSFW. (NSFW = Not Suitable for Work. Blogspeak.) I look forward to the Sunday secrets every week and often times read them again and again throughout the week. One of these days, I will send in a secret. I just don't have anything as good as the ones online! Go check it out, it will give you a nice break from studying.. and we need all of those that we can get. Enjoy.

PostSecret


Some are funny.



Some are just sad.


aaron

take a break

1.49am- cs, tx

i will be writing in all lower case letters this summer. it is something i have decided i like very much. i had a good talk with a great friend tonight.  it reminded me that amongst all the business of finals it is important to take the time to be with those who mean the most to you. so take a break, smoke some hookah, get some coffee, whatever it may be, just don't let the ones you care about leave without knowing it.

The "How to Post" Post

11.54 pm - Alex's.

I hope everyone is doing well with their studies, I have decided that it would be more important for me to write a thorough how-to than study for my 4 finals. That being said, here goes. 

The first step is to log in with your individual username and password. (If you don't have one of these, let me know.)

After you log in, you will see this:

Simply click: New Post.

1. Now you are on the new post page. There are several fantastic things you can do from here. The first is to name your post something terribly clever, something you think will make all of us laugh or is extremely profound. 
   
2. We have come to most important part, the writing of your post. This is what is generally called blogging. Congratulations, you are a blogger. Tell us all that is happening. 
   
3. Next, there are several buttons at the top, but probably the only one that we are interested in is the picture button. Click here to add a picture for your computer, its that easy. The Internet! Once you are done writing and adding pictures, it is time to tag your post.
   
4. The reason we tag posts is that, let's say I want to only view Cody's posts, all I have to do is click on Cody's name. Brought to you by tagging. You are welcome to tag it with items other than just your name, but please at least tag your name. Other examples might be: Paris, Train, Make-out, Hostel, etc. 
   
5. Finally, click publish and it is available for the world to see.
   

If you would like to comment on a post, all you have to do is click where it says how many comments there are, and leave one of your own.

To view only posts with a certain tag, click on that tag. Eg: "ALEX" in the example above.

Hope all is well. Goodnight.

And good luck.

aaron