Traveling!

Hello everyone!

I have finally made it Peru, which is the final country I will be visiting before I return home on the 23rd!

After leaving Rosario, we traveled to Mendoza, Argentina, home of the famous Malbec. The first day we explored the city and relaxed in a gigantic park which is about half the size of the city itself. The second day we took a buc to Maipu, which is the wine country where the best Argentine wines are produced. We rented bicycles from a guy named Hugo and rode through the country to the different wineries, called Bodegas. We got to try some of the best wines in Argentina while riding bikes in beautiful weather. There was also a Museum of Wine which showed us the entire process of fermenting and bottling the wine. It was a really long and fun day, and the ride back to Hugo´s was quite interesting…

On a side note, while the road´s between the bodega´s seemed safe and were patrolled, some friends of mine were robbed at gun point a block off one of the streets. Fortunately they only lost a small bit of cash and a camera and both were safe, but it goes to show that wine tasting in Argentina is not like Nappa Valley.

The next day we made the decision to go paragliding off the foothills of the Andes! To get on top of the hill we had to take this thin winding road of gravel in an old Land Rover. It was pretty intense because any slip of the road would have been a long fall down and looking off the cliff in a back seat of a car is never a good feeling. It was my first time paragliding and was an awesome experience! We got to see the mountains and the city of Mendoza from incredidbly high view. We spent another day horseback riding in the hills and hiking through the paths. Mendoza was incredibly beautiful and it was a good way to end our last days in Argentina.

Afterwards, we took a 8 hour bus ride to Valporaiso, Chile. This was one of my favorite cities along with Buenos Aires. The coloful city rests on  steep sloping hills leading into the Pacific Ocean. All of the houses are painted in different colors and the streets are lined with really cool street art. It has a really bohemian vibe that reminds of something like San Fransico and Eugene. We spent the first day just exploring the city and trying out the acsesors, which are large elevator type boxes that shuffle people up and down the hills and providing great views of the city at the top. We also toured the old house of famed poet, Pablo Neruda, who´s house looking over the city and ocean is now a museum with all of his furniture and stories.  The next day we took a 15 minute bus ride to Vina del Mar and spent the entire day on the beach playing paddle and swimming in the ocean. We had some amazing seafood empanadas and relaxed. Our hostel was also very cool and reminded me a lot of a large Eugene house. Everyone was really friendly and laid back and it gave me a feeling of being back at home which was nice. We also were able to watch the Blazers-Celtics game which was televised on one of the channels. Unfortunately it was a disaster and it was hard to get over the terrible loss for the one game we could see. The next 2 days we went to the beach again and hung out in Valpo.

Leaving Valpo, we had to take a 30 hour bus ride north to head to Peru. Luckily I was exhausted and slept a large portion so it was not a very bad trip. The busses are also pretty comfortable for the most part and allow for some sleep and relaxation. We stopped for the day in a desert beach town called Iquiqui. It was in the middle of the desert with huge dunes dipping down into the ocean with the city snuggled in between. We hung out on the bach all day and went to bed early to get headed to Peru in the morning.

The trip to Peru was really interesting. We had to take a bus to a small border town of Arica and from their we took a driver with a ´88 Oldsmobile classic across the border to Tacna, Peru and then another bus to Arequipa. The 3 of us spent the day exploring the cool city of Arequipa which we found to be very friendly and also very cheap, which is nice to have at the end of the trip. I am still here this morning awaiting to catch a bus to Cusco where we will hang out for a few days before hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu! Afterwards I will spend a few more days in Cusco until my flight to Lima on the 19th. From there I will return home on the 22nd to be back in the U.S. before Christmas!

This will probably be my last post for my trip since I will be very busy the next week and a half. Thank you all for being patient with me as I know I have not been very dedicated to this blog! I will be back with many more stories and pictures for you all to see!

Hasta Pronto!

One More Week in Rosario..

HOLA!

So I have been traveling for the past 3 weekends and have not been able to get to a computer for much time to write anything down really. This week we are preparing for finals and I am actually pretty busy with school and planning for my traveling after the program ends.

During these weekends I have gone to: Colonia, Argentina; Buenos Aires; and then to Uruguay.

Colonia: I decided to go here on a whim with some of my friends that are living in Rosario. I didn´t know much at all about this small town but it is right on the border between Arg. and Uruguay. It was about a 6 hour bus ride and we arrived at dawn. After a long nap we headed to the hot springs in the area which is about 7 big pools that all the locals seemed to go to on the weekend because the town seemed mostly empty when we were walking there. It was a nice day and so we got to hang out in the sun and the pools. The town is all red gravel roads for the most part with only 2 main roads which are paved. There is a giant river along the side which reminded me a little of Rosario. The river was actually flooding the shores quite a bit and even some of the restaurants and shops had to close down because of the water. We then took a bus to the Uruguayan side in a town called Paysandu. We spent some time in the town and headed back for dinner. The next day we visited and airplane club that we were told about the day before. When we got there, we were suprised by the huge number of people there. It was a club for pilots who all had single engine planes lined up on a giant parkground. There was a giant asado going on and I had some of the most delicious choripan, which is basically a sausage in bread with a delicious sauce called chimmichurri. The place offered plane rides and for 10 US dollars we were able to fly for about 20 minutes over the river and towns on both the Uruguayan and Argentine side. We then headed to this beautiful national park that was about 30 minutes out of town. It was filled with giant palm trees and the setting sun provided excellent views and beautiful pictures. We also saw the biggest rodent in the world called a capybara. My friend, who didn´t have his glasses, kept thinking it was a bear as we approaced it.

Buenos Aires: This was our last school sponsored trip in the program and my last time to Buenos Aires. We toured all of the main neighborhoods and saw almost all sides of B.A. It was a lot of the same sights as the first time I went there but I felt a lot more comfortable with my spanish and in the environment as a whole. The weather was also beautiful and the parks and streets were full of people. I really enjoy B.A. and definitely want to return sometime. On Saturday night we went to one of the most popular tango shows in Buenos Aires and the world. It was really cool to see and a very impressive production. Afterwards a couple of my friends and I went to the Creamfields music festival with over 55,000 people. I typically don´t listen to the type of music they played which is a sort of electronic type, but the amount of people and the production of it all was incredible and extremely fun. On Sunday we went to a giant  fair in the San Telmo area and toured a little more of the city before returning to Rosario.

Uruguay: This past weekend I took a bus to Montevideo with a group of friends to relax on the beaches. Montevideo was really calm and cool with really pretty architecture. It reminded me a lot of Rosario because it wasn´t as crazy as Buenos Aires and everyone was very friendly. We spent all of Thursday walking through town and along the water. On Friday we headed to a big beach town called Punta del Este. This is basically where all the wealthy Argentines go during the summer to stay in the huge condo´s. Since it wasn´t quite high season we basically had the entire beach to ourselves. We also met a bunch of cool kids in our hostel which we went out with. Saturday was cold and we weren´t able to enjoy the beach as much but we walked around and watched a ton of windsurfers who were out on the water. On Sunday we had a half day before we took a ferry back to Buenos Aires and then to Rosario. Sunday was a beautiful day again and it was hard to leave.

So there are my weekends all updated! I will be very busy this week with school and planning so I probably won´t be able to update again for a week or 2. I pretty much have my travel plans down for afterwards. I first plan to head to Mendoza, Argentina, which is beautiful wine country located on the western border of Argentina and nestled within the Andes. I then am planning on bussing across the Chilean border to Valparaiso, which is on the west coast of Chile and hanging out in the cultural beach town. Then I am taking a long bus trip north to Cuzco, Peru where I plan to hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Pichu. Hopefully all works out!

Journey to the Bottom of the World

On Tuesday I returned to Rosario from my trip to Patagonia. This was our biggest trip with the entire program and also the best. We first flew into Urshuaia, which is the southernmost city in the world. As we began to descend to the city, we were able fly right in bewteen and over the giant Andes mountains. The city is located right where the mountains meet the ocean. It is a beautiful small town with great views of the Andes all around. From the city you are able to see the Chilean side of the Andes across the sea and the water leading to the Arctic Ocean.

The first day we took a group tour of the cities prison. The city was litterally built by the prisoners who were stationed there. It was Argentina´s maximum security prison and all the worst criminals were sent there to build roads and buildings throughout the year and even in the coldest of winter temperatures. It is no longer used and is now only for tours and art exhibits.

The next day we went to the Urshuaia National Park. This park was incredibly beautiful and full of streams and mountains with small hiking trails to take visitors to different viewpoints. The water was incredibly blue and the weather was perfect.  It was cold but the sun was out and there was little wind. On Sunday I was able to walk through the city in only a long sleeve shirt.

After the park we went back for lunch and then took an amazing boat tour through the sea to get close up views of all the mountains. There was some large rocks in the middle of the water that were full of sea lions and some type of bird that looked a lot like flying penguins. As it got later in the day the sun began to go down and really gave the mountains and water a beautiful color. It was really relaxing and fun experience.

The next day we all boarded a plane and headed to the town called Calafate, named after a berry that grows in the area and makes an incredibly good jam. Calafte is an upper scale town with tree lined streets and pretty buildings. The town was located more north and had a lot more open landscape with great views of a giant lake and the mountains in behind. I guess the hotel screwed up our reservations and they moved us all to a different hotel which was way too fancy for 50 college kids. It was a hotel perched on a hill overlooking the entire town and then mountains. The food was incredible and I really enjoyed sitting by the pool in my robe and slippers watching the sunset. The next morning we took a bus to visit the main tourist stop for the town, Perito Moreno Glacier. This glacier is located in the Glacier National Park is noted to be the 4th largest icefield behind the two poles and Greenland and the 3rd largest fresh water reserve. It was an incredible sight and the ice mass went on beyond the eyes could see. The clouds gave the glacier a really cool icy blue look that made it seem even more amazing. We took a boat right up to the front of the glacier and then  the main tourist paths that took us right up front to the other side. 

On Tuesday we headed back to Rosario. I stayed at a bar until 1 to try to watch the Blazer game on satellite and by the time it came on we had to leave because they were closing. We only saw the first quarter but from what I read I am somewhat glad I missed it. Other than Oden being out, everything is going good for me down here. I just had a massage today that costed only $8 US dollars so I feel amazing. Hope everyone has a happy halloween!

Adventure to the Amazon

This weekend was probably one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. Some friends and I left last Thursday for a 20 hour bus ride to Igauzu. The Iguazu falls are the second largest waterfalls in the world, and it is situated in the amazon jungle. We stayed in a hotel in the small tourist town of Puerto Iguazu, which is about a 20 minutes bus ride from the actual park. The first day we headed up to the park we did not actually tour the falls. Instead we took this hiking trail that a lot of people do not know about. It was amazing because we were hiking right through the forest and could see a lot of cool wildlife. We saw monkeys jumping through the trees and a mother with a baby monkey on its back. We saw tucans and hundreds of the brightest and decorative butterflies that I have ever seen. There were also a ton a cool hawks and these weird caitos, which are racoon like animals with pointy noses and would walk right up to all the people. Basically it felt like and episode of Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. The best part was at the end of the trail there is a waterfall and we were able to hike down to the base of the waterfall where there is a natural pool at the bottom and we were able to swim in the river! I was able to bring my waterproof camera and get some really cool pictures in the river and the waterfall.

The next day we returned to the park to check out the waterfalls. When we first saw the falls, I couldn´t believe how incredibly large they were and the amount of water being dumped off these cliffs. There were two parts of the falls and they constructed walkways along the jungle edge in order to get right next to the falls and have amazing views.  One side of the falls is in Brazil so we were unable to go there because we didn´t get a visa but most of the views were from the Argentina side. One of the coolest parts of the trip was when we paid for a boat tour of the falls and all got on a boat that drove us right up to the falls and dunked us under some of the smaller falls. The final trail took us over the river on a long steel bridge to the ¨Devils Throat¨which is the largest part with the most water dumping over the falls. This part was amazing because we were able to stand right over the falls and look right into them. It was a majestic experience and well worth every hour in the uncomfortable busses.

Aside from the falls, the town of Puerto Iguazu was very cool. The first night we met some cool locals that were actually from Columbia. One showed us his giant scar he got when he was attacked by a jaguar in a jungle which was obviously really cool. The second night we went out and met some other really cool travelers from Europe and other from Chile. We also stopped and saw some ruin´s from an old indigenous town and a diamond mine where they showed us diamonds growing in the rock quary.

All in all, it has been my favorite weekend thus far. The weekend after this we will be heading to Patagonia. I´ll try to update you all soon on progress…

Fiesta de las cervezas

Hello all!

Sorry for taking so long to put up a new post. Hopefully you all haven’t given up on me.

All is still going great here. My spanish is improving to the point where I can carry on conversations for the most part. I still have trouble listening at normal speaking pace but if people speak slowly I can usually get most of it. My speaking is ok as well. I can speak senteces and get across what I’m trying to say even though it may come out sloppily or slow but it feels good to notice the improvements and feeling more confident talking to people.

This weekend I went to the third largest Oktoberfest in the world! It is located in a small town called Villa General Belgrano, about an hour outside the city of Cordoba. You can read more about the town here. Basically the town grew after a ship of German Nazi’s sunk off the coast of Uruguay at the end of WW2. They fled to Argentina and payed off the government to let them stay there. They stayed in the town, which was founded by Germans because the mountainous region reminded them of home.

.Back to the weekend… A group of about 15 of us stayed in 3 different cabanas about a 20 minute walk from the town center. The cabanas were gorgeous with a view of the mountains and loctaed in a foresty area that kind of resembled something like Sunriver. During the day we hung out at the cabanas and Friday and Saturday had asado. I don’tknow if I have described an asado, but it is a huge part of the Argentine culture. Basically they are large BBQ’s and the meat is cooked over hot coals. The meat here is touted to be the best in the world and the way they cook it makes it delicious. So for lunches we had an array of different steaks and ribs and sausages which was amazing. We had a few friends from Rosario go with us and were able to organize most of the food and transportation for us which made it a lot easier for us.

After lunch we went into town to begin our cultural immersion. The town was incredibly cool and different from everything else I have seen in South America. All the buildings were of German architecure and signs were all carved of wood and decorated. The main street was lined with restaurants and small shops and everything was filled of people. The streets all had speakers which played the music coming from inside the center of town was the main park area where the event was held. Everyone was required to buy a stein of some sort in order to drink. They were all sold in different sizes and decorations which made it a fun process in itself. Once in the park there was a huge courtyard. One side was filled with artisan breweries from all around Argentina. The other side was all different types of German food: chocolate, cakes, sausages (which were mostly just hot dogs with sour kraut), and only one place which sold pretzels! On the other part of the courtyard was a huge stage which hosted German bands playing old German music and dance groups doing dances in there leiderhosens. Everything was incredibly fun and it felt great to get out of the city for a while.

This week is going to be an easy week for me. We didn’t have much class today because we went on a tour of the historica part of the city. Tomorrow we are headed to the country for a school sponsored trip. I think we are riding horses and having an asado along with some other things. This weekend I will be headed to Iguazu Falls, which is the second largest waterfall in the world.

Everything is going by incredibly fast. I was just looking at a calendar and I only have 3 weekends left in Rosario before the program ends. The other weekends are filled with traveling. I’ll try to update as I can.

Chau!

PS. Sorry I haven’t put up any photos. The internet here makes it incredibly diffiult to upload pictures. I might have to wait until I get back to the states to do so.

Feliz Primavera!

On the Sunday the 21st we celebrated the first day of spring in Argentina! It is a celebrated day here where everyone heads out to the river and lays out in the park. We headed up north of the city where there is a large beach filled with thousands of people. There were food shops and artisan markets all along the beach and it was incredibly fun and realaxing. With so many people at the parks, they all need to eventually go back home. When we tried to go back home it was incredibly hard to get a taxi. We had a group of 9 trying to get home and the busses were all full and it was impossible to fit people on them. So we ended up heading back by foot, trying to catch cabs on the way. Two of my friends and me were the last ones looking for cab´s after we were able to get the rest on cab´s in the span of 45 minutes or so. However we weren´t able to find another open cab for the longest time and ended up walking about 2 hours or so down the roads until we finally got a cab about a 5 minute drive from our house. But the weather was nice and I didn´t have anything better to do so it was ok. My host parents weren´t suprised and told me that was a problem. It is the same with trying to get cabs late on Friday and Saturday nights. 

The economic situation going on back home sounds terrible. It is interesting to see the news and information about the U.S. economy from an international perspective because it does affect the whole world. I am also impressed by the amount of knowledge people here have on american politics. They are all very curious on what we think and have a lot of their own opinions as well. It seems to me that they know more about our national politics than a lot of U.S. citizens.

I went and played some soccer with some friends and argentinians the other day. We played in a big park but the actual field was a court of hard tile with goals set up on each side. It was fun and I can tell I´m out of shape. I haven´t gone out to play that much because I haven´t been feeling well. Now I´m feeling good and plan to start going out more next week. This weekend is suppose to reach the 80´s so I´m excited.

Old Boys

On saturday I went to my first futbol game in Argentina. It was Newell´s Old Boys, which is one of the two premier teams in Rosario, vs. Lanus. A lot of the host families had told us to be careful at the games because it could get dangerous. When we got to the stadium, it was a little intimidating to see the stadium lined with shieled police and some of the largest muzzled dogs I have ever seen. They make the home and away teams enter from opposite sides of the stadium everyone is patted down before entering the stadium. Before we went in, we could hear the chants from far away and saw the red smoke fuming from the stadium. Right as I walked into the stadium I saw this guy that looked about my age get slugged in the face from a guy that looked 30 or 40. I didn´t know why it happened but that definitely made me not want to do anything that might piss someone off. However, after that everything went fine. We didn´t arrive that early so we were in the very back of the stadium and it was hard to see at first. We stood in the popular section, which it the cheap and roudy seats which are a lot more fun. The crowd was insane and at the beginnig of the games and when they scored, you could literally feel the ground under you shaking. The crowd cheered and chanted the entire game and it was incredibly fun. My host dad wasn´t very happy that I went to the game because he is a Central fan, which is a bigger rivalry than any civil war or other rivalries in the U.S. However I assured him that I would only go to Central games from then on and we made peace.

Durintgthe weekend my friends and I, along with what seems like the entire city, went to the River Parana to hang out in the parks along the river and check out the fairs that lined the streets along them. It was a beautiful day and was comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. There were ton´s of shops set up and once again everyone was sitting on the grass drinking mate. I made my own mate and bombilla purchase and it is curing at my house. The gourds have to be cured before you can drink out of them. In order to do so, you juyst have to let the mate set in the gourd for a couple of days. Later that night I went to a reggae concert at one of the club´s and it was a lot of fun. It reminded me a lot of Eugene and I met a lot of nice people.

Classes are starting again today but I don´t have class until 3p.m. on Monday´s so I have a lot of time to rest and do homework. I am happy to see that the Duck´s won again even though it looks like the QB is out for a while. I have been trying to keep my eye on American sports but don´t want to get too into it so I start to miss it. Wednesday is a Central game I hope to go to but I have class. Hopefully I can convince my teachers that skipping class that day might be okay…

Rosario!

So I have been down in Rosario since Wednesday night. Since then I have not been able to really catch up on much sleep. After this post I´m going to take a much needed siesta. First off, after a night in a hostel and then another in a hotel which our program paid for, we were able to meet our host families. My family is a married couple name Eduardo (but everyone calls him Lali) and Adrianna. They are incredibly nice and very social and fun at the same time and I feel very lucky to have them as host parents. They have had about 15 exchange students through the U of O program and had a student when the program first started in 2002. They have about 2-3 students each year so they understand how the process works and how to work with the kids. They speak very little english so it makes me really have to work on my spanish, but they know to speak very slowly and they can understand stand what I´m saying when I know that I´m not really making any sense and they are able to correct me. Adrianna is a kindergarten teacher and Lali works in some type of sugar export business (I think?). They have two children who are both in their upper 20´s and one is living in Spain and the other in London. Their house is a beautiful house a short bus ride from campus and is a block away from the main street and a quick walk to the city center. My room is the their son´s old room and is very nice with a nice deck right outside my doorway. I would put up pictures but I´m using an internet cafe and it´s hard to upload photos.. sorry.

The city here is great and people are for the most part very friendly. The program sets us up very nicely and has given us great meals in nice restaurants and tours with good information and advice. We don´t have classes on Fridays and today they took us on a beautiful boat tour along the Rio Parana and we were able to see the entire city and some nice wetlands areas. Afterwards we had a huge dinner with steaks, empanadas, and dessert along the river and then concluded with a city tour. Later in the term they also fly us down to the Patagonia region for a few days and take us up to Buenos Aires for tango lessons and a show. Classes for the most part seem to be easy. I´m taking grammar and conversation classes for spanish, a business class for my minor, and a class about Argentine film which seems to be a fun and easy way to practice spanish and see some good historical films during the process. I feel as though my spanish is slowly improving with my vocab improving daily and trying to remember how to properly conjugate verbs. It is tough and very mentally exhausting but it´s necessary to communicate so you have to keep having to do it. One kid who ate dinner with us the first night did this same program 2 years ago. My host families daughter actually was able to hook him up with an internet job down here because he loved it so much. He was telling me that studies show that the during the first timer period in a differenet language culture that the mind actually rapidly improves its comprehension of the language but after a few weeks it begins to crash for a little before rebuilding. It´s kind of like a muscle I suppose.

The city seems to be very lively and fun. It is actually very big and has more people than San Fransico. The people are very nice and are genuinely happy to see us arouand and often ask us where we are from. Rosario is the third biggest city in Argentina but is not a very big tourist town at all which is great. There is a huge soccer rivalry between the two local futbol teams of Rosario Central and Newell´s Old Boys. People get VERY into the rivalry and there is graffiti everywhere claiming Central or NOB. We have even been warned to be careful if we deceide to where a certain jersey in certain parts of town. Lali is a big Central fan so I chose to do the same.

During the nights, it is the mostly the same as B.A. Everything lasts until 6 am or later and most boliches (very popular dance clubs) don´t start filling out until 2 or 3. Before then my friends and I go to some bars but we don´t really know our way around yet. The late hours make naps necessary and also a lot of mate, which is incredibly popular among the people. Mate is a type of loose leaf tea and is drank from a ghord or bowl of some sort with a straw that has a strainer built into it.

So far I´m having a great time learning and hanging out in the city. There are a lot of good and fun people in the program and have made some really good friends. I haven´t been able to play any soccer yet or go to any games because we have been soo busy but soon I hope to and meet some local people. Everyone here is very interested in American politics and are often curious of my opinion. Lali and Adrianna had some family friends over and they tried to pick my brain about the elections but it was very difficult for me to understand a lot because they talk so fast and have a very different accent than what most anyone is used to when studying in the states. I hope to update you all more with info when I can and hopefully get up some more pictures that better help you to see things! Ciao!

First Weekend in Argentina

Okay! So we were able to make it safely to Buenos Aires! The flight about 16 hours and I wasn’t able to sleep for any of it, so we were a little tired getting to our hostel. Out hostel is directly in the center of the city which is great because all of the subways go right through it and it can take you to all the parts of town. We are a block away from the main street that is filled with street vendors and things of that nature. I have met a lot of people here that are all going down to Rosario and all of them have been great. There is a crew of about 7 of us that have been going out together. We also have met up with a couple of other friends that are from U of O and are studying here in Buenos Aires and have been here for a month or so. They have been able to take us around town at night to all of the bars and clubs. The night life here is INSANE. Dinner doesn’t even start until 9 or 10 and restaurants aren’t even open before that. Afterwards most everyone goes to the pubs or bars around 12 or 1. Then there are tons of dance clubs that get going around 1 but really pick up around 3 in the morning! The last few nights we have been out until 5 or so but it is typical for people to stay out later and eat breakfast.

Yesterday we went to the Recoletta district which is a very pretty part of town that is known for its European architecture. The big attraction there is actually a cometary, but is more like a city of tombs. This tombs are the size of small houses and there are hundreds upon hundreds of them lined up. It also is where Eva Peron was born. Also there is a hippie type festival that happens in the park next to it which smelled just like Eugene.

Everything here is so cheap it is astonishing. I had an amazing steak for 5 bucks and that is pretty typical and taxis are cheap and by the dozen. The drivers here are insane and swerve into lanes without turn signals or anything. I have read that there are tons of car accidents and I can totally understand that.

Today we are planning on going to San Telmo area, which is the birthplace of the tango, and then to La Boca. We head to Rosario on Monday with school starting on Thursday. I am very excited to begin living with my host family who are a married couple with a 28 year old daughter.

Bienvenidos!

Hello to all friends family! Welcome to this thing many call a “blog”. I think the name sounds a little cheesy so I will try to refrain from using that term.  I will use this page to share my travels abroad to Argentina and South America, where I will be living/traveling for the next 4 months. I hope to keep you all updated on my journeys and experiences and to hopefully prove that I am having more fun than you are. I will be trying to post regularly so keep checking up to see if there is anything new. Other than that, stay tuned and do not drive your car with peanut butter over your eyes.

Side Note: R.I.P. to former Blazer’s big man Kevin Duckworth 8/26/08 – “the man whose game could live up to the name”