One Path

In Virginia...

2011-02-26T20:41:00.001-08:00

Being planted in a single place has been very hard to do over the past 6 months. The process of actually finding a place to root for a while couldn't have been possible without the help of several, beautiful, people. Especially the Ewings, the McNeals and the Enfingers. There's nothing trite about saying that we wouldn't have been able to make it to where we are without the help of those around us. It is by the grace of God through you that we are able to continue here in Virginia and I am finally coming to peace with how, even as I've tried to see it otherwise, we are without control over what happens next.

So what's happened? We're currently living with my mother and step-father in Virginia. While we've been happily adjusting to the community lifestyle that they've graciously extended to us, I'm in awe over how little they expect. The offer that they made was as simple as could be expected, but the implications that society provides us for accepting are even more perplexing. We're in need, but we are given a second chance to establish ourselves in America, and we will pursue this opportunity in as much as God will allow us to remain.

Kristen has been blessed with a job as a private nanny for a very kind family near home, I have resumed my studies at a local community college for pre-nursing. Her relationships are growing and my grades are remarkable. What's more is that we've become involved with a great Nazarene Church that's given us a wide-armed reception into the community. We're deeply involved with some of the ministries, including an outreach to the homeless known as Helping Hands. I'm so excited about the chance to become involved with missions as well! The pastor says that he will support our call into ministry, I pray that if our situation is related to coming closer to God, then that it will make itself more pressing. Today I'm happy with where we're at, which is not something I felt in December. I can already tell that it's going to be difficult removing ourselves from the area when the time comes, but hopefully no time soon.

I'll be better at keeping in touch than I ever have been.

I love you, thank you for believing in us. Thank you for not compromising yourselves.

Buckle up Religiously

2010-06-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

Driving through the county there's a catholic church that has this sign posted on the side of the road. I guess the first thing that popped into my mind is, since when did driving cars ever get connected to religion? The yo-yo effect kept going until I made further connections of doing things religiously: watching TV, brushing teeth, maintaining the garden, drinking; activities when done religiously should happen all the time. Right?

I come back to religion, and I keep interpreting it as 'dedicated'. So what am I dedicated to? I guess I can be religious about buckling my seat belt. But that's just something I grew up learning to do so that I don't all-of-a-sudden die; there's nothing more important than keeping your body on one side of the windshield when a bear runs into the middle of the road.

Lots of people talk about having a relationship with Christ while not being a big fan of religion; Jesus was great, but the people that follow him kind of suck.

I don't want to be controlled by a group of people who say "if you want to be part of us, this is what you have to be".

or

There's nothing for me in a system that tells me I have to stop doing the things I like.

To do something religiously entails that you're dedicated to an activity. I'm religious to the computer; I'm not so religious about washing my hair or tithing.
I know that there are things that I should be more religious about; small things like not biting my nails and big things like serving my community. There's a lot of good things that come from being religious and the whole world will tell us which are the best to dedicate ourselves to: health, happiness, wealth, sex, so forth.

Anything and everything that you dedicate your time and energy to will grow. No exceptions.

The forethought comes from thinking about which kind of fruit you want to nurture. The things that you show the most dedication to will end up being the things that you are most associated with.

For myself, there are pitfalls everywhere that tell me that I'm the most important thing in the world. I'm still trying to unlearn this. I know that with certain pastors, certain people who have seen the light, there is another way. They tell me about Jesus, the guy who didn't dedicate himself to money or sleep; He's a guy I could really get behind and follow.

There are hundreds of people around you searching for that same vane of selflessness as they seek God. Be religious about Christ and if you want to find them, he'll bring them to you.

But also, seat belts help; Flossing is a good habit as well.

Making Centerpieces

2010-05-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

With my wedding coming up in August, the hassles associated with getting the day done are ever mounting. One of the biggest that I should be ashamed about getting so excited about are the center pieces. Leave it to my fiance to come up with the idea, but put that project at my disposal. Since our colors are pink and brown, there was only one sensible things to do:
MAKE
ORCHID
TREES.

Ingredients include the following:
A faggot, obtainable from your nearest forest;

A bunch of plastic orchids;

Sultry glue;

and ~25 flower vases depending on the population at your reception;

So for the next 24 hours, yours truly is connecting A to B and C. Victory pictures t.b.p.

Another turning point in the road

2010-05-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

"He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Matthew 5:45

Insurance commercials preach that life comes at you fast. Under the same breath is the message that death comes even faster, like a thief in the night. A friend of mine, S___, called me yesterday afternoon to tell me of tragedy. Sometime between Friday night and the rise of the sun on Saturday, S___'s little brother T____ suffered blood loss, broken bones, and brain damage. The doctor's were able to stop the bleeding and maintain the bones, but it was the brain that they couldn't help; it was up to his body.

The spirit falls on a people in such drastic times like a flood.

I recall a number of plights that has faced this family over the past few years. Recently, where this same young man lost his sight in one eye while yet another member of the family was diagnosed with lymphoma.

Some of us know a person or a family that has taken a beating in terms of hard times. We start to pray for God's will to be done, but in out thoughts we're really thinking "Alright God, enough already with the rain falling on this family". For me, this is truth. I don't want Silas, nor his family to experience any more pain.

Another man to be visited by intense loss is Steve Saint, author of The End of the Spear. As a father, Steve Saint's daughter came home from a year long missions trip reporting a headache. Less than 9 hours later she was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage and lay dead in a hospital. The response that Steve Saint gives to his daughters passing is jaw droopingly un-worldly.

God is our creator, he knows how intricately and beautifully we are each made and we must yield to his calling.It is by grace that we are called to come home, even at the final hour of the day. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." -Jim Elliot

At 7:51 this morning I received a call from S___, and was told that his brother had been called to come home to God. Knowing them both as the closest thing to brothers that I've ever had leaves a hole in my chest. Life comes fast, unfortunately it never stays as long as we want. Prayer for his family is most important at this time. It feels unnatural for parents to outlive their young, and Christ's love through you must overflow.

The ripple effect is at hand, and while I have yet to see what great things are yet to happen from this sorrow I rest in confidence that the hand of God is in all of our lives, loving us and bringing us closer to his grace.

May we be broken and be remade with less of ourselves, more of Him.

trevor.diaz@gmail.com

The Last Day

2010-03-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Things about money upset meless now. I'm not bothered as much as I would have been in the past about someone taking advantage of me for money. It actually enables me to smile because I'm enriched by the relationship, and especially for being blessed enough to be elect for being a tool. I am more than the sum of my wallet, and the lives of those around me mean much more than a few dollars. Le Chaim.

Secret Satisfaction

2009-12-10T22:09:00.001-08:00

Sometimes when I eat oranges, I like to sit and squeeze the peel. I rip the skin off and pop the little spheres of citrus. It makes me think of popping pimples, my heart quickens and I feel intense joy.

Dermatology perhaps then.

Out from under the covers

2009-11-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

A pause, an image, maybe even that feeling.
God wants to speak to us in many ways, but it's on us to eliminate the distractions that keep us from knowing that it's really him.
We dance, we play, we try to take care of it all. But the seemingly limitless possibilities of our flesh will never obtain what we yearn for. May God, who hears and sees everything that we burn for, break down the walls around our hearts that have been built by our families and teachers. And may God, everlasting and merciful, lift us out of the darkness with which we comfort ourselves on a daily basis.

Coma

2009-08-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

Perhaps we're not supposed to get 8 hours of sleep every night.
Maybe sometimes
we're supposed to feel tired.

Washing over from walking around in the dark to the comfort of the light, being covered in sleep or walking confidently, and then...

The Year of Living Biblically

2009-08-04T05:20:00.001-07:00

Ever since I went Island hopping with Mr. Kelly Garren I've been reading a book by an agnostic man, author A. J. Jacobs, living in New York city. In it he wrestles with adapting to a Biblically inspired lifestyle for 365 days. I haven't finished it yet, but time and again I find snippets of commentary that provoke feelings of inspiration in my own heart. On the inside cover the New York Times Book Review remarks that "For many of us...walking with Jacobs is the closest we'll come to knowing what it feels like to be born again."

Where due credit is due, I have enjoyed reading it thus far. It has helped me to revisit asking questions about the Bible and I concede that it's a lot more thought out than I would have guessed.

Here's a section that really put the skids on my life.
-------------------
Give thanks in all circumstances... - Thessalonians 5:18

Day 263. I feel myself becoming an extremist--at least in some areas. Like with my obsession with gratefulness. I can't stop.
Just now , I press the elevator button and am thankful that it arrives quickly.
I get onto the elevator and am thankful that the elevator cable didn't snap and plummet me to the basement.
I go to the fifth floor and am thankful that I didn't have to stop on the second or third or fourth floor.
I get out and am thankful that Julie left the door unlocked so I don't have to rummage for my King Kong key ring.
I walk in, and am thankful that jasper is home and healthy and stuffing his face with pineapple wedges.
And on and on. I'm actually muttering to myself, "Thank you ... thank you ... thank you."
It's an odd way to live. But also kind of great and powerful. I've never before been so aware of the thousands of little good things, the thousands of things that go right every day.
Sometimes my thank-yous are directed at no one in particular. It's more of an appreciation than a thanks. A reminder to myself: "Pay attention, pal. Savor this moment." But other times, when I'm in a believing phase, my thanks have an addressee. I'm thanking God, or the universal laws of nature--I'm not sure which--but it gives the act of thanking more weight.
-A. J. Jacobs

Dog Eat Trevor (or vice versa)

2009-07-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

The other day I had the opportunity to indulge in one of the century old cuisines that make Korea such a unique country. Well, I can't say unique because the French have also had their history with such a delicacy. As controversial as it comes across, you guessed it: dog.

To be honest I was not very excited about the experience. I got a phone call from my friend Nate at about noon and he told me that his brother Aaron(who flew in for the week) really wanted to try dog. I said I'd look into it and after a few phone calls we were set for dinner! I decided that I would line my stomache with some delicious mandu before the affair though.

From what I was told, dog meat has been pretty much shunned by the up and coming generation of Korea. When the Olympics came to Seoul a few years back the practice of consuming dog was black labeled and cast as an "unsightly food". So to spruce up public image it was removed from the inner walls of Seoul. However, travel far enough to the fringes of society and you can find just about anything...

I know I'm not the only one that's played around with the idea of eating dog, so for any of you that are in Seoul and looking for a fail safe way to try the taboo meat, I present;
HOW TO GET THERE: Go to line 8 (the pink one) and head to Moran station. Walk straight out of exit 7 and Moran Market will come up on your right. When you start to see all of the vegtable/root vendors you'll know that you're there. Ironically enough, I saw this coming out of the bathrooms in the subway. Fitting, kinda.

When we were walking to the restaraunt we joked around that it would be kind of like choosing a lobster from a grocery store tank. We had no idea how close it would actually come to that. I'm not going to post the pictures for the sake of a happier time right now, but I never would have thought that they keep the dogs in cages right out front of the stores. That was probably the most awkward moment I've had in Korea to date. Eventually we mustered up enough nerve to walk in, sit down, and sit in relative silence while we waited for our bosintang to heat up. Little jokes and chatter aside, it made me pretty nervous. But that didn't stop it from coming out of the kitchen.

Now here the thing, it was pretty darn GOOD. It was so edible in fact that I forgot to take a before picture, accordingly I give you the paltry remains of my meal.

So let's get to it. I've been asked what it was like and honestly it really is like KFC fried chicken. I don't know what little woman snuck into Harland Sander's kitchen and snooped around the colonal's cook book, but the spices were dead on. The second bite wasn't so hot because I realized how fatty the meat actually is. But scraping off the undesirable parts leaves a fairy chewy meal that conjures up some unsettling meal-time images.

Some people make it spicy for their patrons, this restaraunt was decidedly not employing those people. I do in turn imagine that at another location you might be able to find something a little bit hotter, but just in case I would definitely recommend taking that bottle of tabasco sauce sitting on top of your fridge.

Yeah, just a little bit uncomfortable.

The Aftermath: Well, I can claim that I'm proud of myself for doing it but I don't think I'd do it again, not so much for the animal rights value but more so because of the taste. Sure, it was exciting and fried chicken-y but as Nate said "it tastes like meat." So really there was nothing special there.

After reading a few other blogs and responding to some comments about this experience I would give a single piece of advice to anyone that might be wrestling with the idea of eating dog. Dog itself is like any other animal that the human race has consumed for thousands of years. I concede that the living conditions of these dogs in particular are not to be envied but neither are the conditions of bovine, chicken, or pig in almost any country. If you find a problem with eating dog to be based on animal rights I hope that you are already a vegetarian. If, after trying, you become a vegetarian that will be wonderful. If you remain a carnivore that will also be awesome. In case that you actually might pursue dog meat congratulations, I hope that you will have a lot more courage than I did.

trevor.diaz@gmail.com

Island Hopping

2009-07-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” - Mark Twain

So today marks the first paid vacation of my life. And now it's a matter of how to spend it. At first it was going to be a motorcycle road trip, but after much debate and the purchase of a motorcycle, we've decided to go to Nanjido.

The only problem? I think I left the key in the ignition of the bike...

Let's hope that one doesn't end poorly.

"That sounds like a great idea, the only problem is I haven't been home in 2 years and I'm 90% sure that I left the front door open."

Monsoon Season

2009-07-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

So now that I've purchased a 125cc motorcycle, I can't do a bloody thing with it. It's a shame really that the rainy season should coincide with me augmenting my personality, but now I'm cooped up after work with a stuffy nose and plastic slippers to keep me unsaturated between home and PC bang. A lot is going to be happening in the next week and a half and I'm looking forward to it:

-Kristen will be traveling around South East Asia...which I'm actually not looking forward to all that much :(
-I'll be going on a roadtrip with newly acquired motorbike from paragraph A alongside a Mr. Kelly.
-I will buy new socks.
-The rain will stop. Gaaaaaah.

Some of these statements might seem insignificant to you. Particularly the bit about socks. Well believe me it's a big deal.

A Lazy Thought by Eve Merriam

2009-07-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

There go the grownups
To the office,
To the store.
Subway rush,
Traffic cruch;
Hurry, scurry,
Worry, flurry.

No wonder
Grownups
Don't grow up
Any more.

It takes a lot
Of slow
To grow.

Report Card Haiku Couplet

2009-07-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

generic comments
aren't my favorite to write
until it gets late

it's fun teaching but
writing all of these grades down
might be what I hate

Nuny

2009-06-29T01:57:00.001-07:00

Absolutely amazing weekend. On Friday saw Transformers 2 with Kelly and Matt, during which my mind was split into exponential bits, sauteed, and then deep fried in liquid awesomeness. Saturday morning wheeled in with an early saunter off ot CARIBBEAN BAY, the greatest water park known to Korean-man! After rocking the surfing machine and kicking the tar out of the lazy river I made it back to Seoul for some much needed R+R at Itaewon Land Sauna. Sunday pulls into the lane, I drive down to Yangjae to teach Sunday school, turn around, drive back up to OEM to do Podium Directing, and then spend the rest of the night in barrels of Thai Food, good friends, and 31 Baskin creamy creams.

Now it's a race to one-up myself on Tuesday.

Bring it on!

Thrown out.

2009-06-23T18:24:00.001-07:00

I just watched the movie Blindness last night, great film, reminds me a lot of Requiem for a Dream except that it doesn't have an cripplingly depressing final scene. It made me think about how un-fun a zombie apocolyspe might actually turn out to be. It also made me reflect on how much I take for granted.

This morning I woke up late, rushed into the shower, dried myself off, and threw out my back. Craaaaaaaaaaap. So now I'm at school and totally lurching around. Haha, I just told my kids that I have 'lots of back pain, back ouch'. I feel old. :)

OEM Retreat

2009-06-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

So after an hour and a half bus ride to Jesus Town, Korea we were kerplunked on the side of a mountain. Really. The church was build into the mountain itself. Walking into the main lobby is quickly met by a slanted wall of rock. Awesome.

Lots of volunteering, lots of great conversations that lasted into the morning. Good sleep, but not enough sleep. The invitation to teach Sunday school for 4th graders and becoming the transitional coordinator during church services this summer.

The pastor that was invited for the retreat was even better, he stood in front of the lot of us and gave invigorating messages on three occasions. The greatest thing that I took from it all was the grounding message of loving Jesus.

Don't be a good Christian. Don't be a great Christian. Just love Jesus. Don't be better than anybody else. Just love Jesus.

Jesus walks up to Peter and John and says "pick up a stone and follow me up this mountain."
Peter, being cunning, picks up a small stone so that he won't be exhausted. John picks up a regular sized rock. They hike up the mountain for hours and when they reach the top they're both starving. "Awww Jesus we're so hungry!"
Jesus turns to them and then changes their rocks into bread. Peter, having the smaller rock, looks at John eat the rest of his bread with yearning.

The next day Jesus walks up to Peter and John again and says "pick up a stone and follow me up this mountain."
Peter, not to be outdone picks up the biggest rock, more like a boulder, that he can find. John picks up a regular sized rock again. They hike up the mountain, Peter lugging his slab with grunts and strains. When they reach the top of the mountain Jesus turns to them and says "throw your stone back down the mountain." Peter's mouth just drops, he can't believe it. "What!?" he almost yells, "I can't believe you'd have me do all of this for nothing!"

Jesus looks at him and says, "but who did you carry the burden for?"

This story, as told by the pastor this weekend, leaves me with the greatest picture that I can think of for missions, both where many are saved as well as when everything is lost. All is still done for the glory of God.

I hope you lose your job. I hope everything you've worked to make comes to ruin. I hope you fall into a coma. If God finds you strong enough to draw closer to him through your suffering, I hope it happens to you.

Few are the workers.

A view of things to come

2009-06-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow will mark my first completed week at Poly since returning from my sister's wedding in D.C. Both experiences have been a blast. On Saturday I'm going to wake up at the turtle-head of dawn and drive the scooter down to Onnuri church so that I can meet up with Kristen at a spiritual gifts retreat. After getting back to Seoul on Sunday afternoon I'm going to put on the biggest pants party in the world.

Everyone can come.
Anyone can wear pants.

But as for today, 5 year old kids love this.

Drowned on the Freeway.

2009-06-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

So what's better than driving on a moped at night for an hour?

Doing it in the rain.

And singing at the top of your lungs during redlights.

I love my life.

Also, Toastmasters is mighty nice.

About:

2009-05-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

Profile: Julie and Emily
Some of the pluses behind working with 6 year old girls include how they do whatever they can to A)Make you proud of them, B)Be cute, and C)Claim the role of "Princess Baby Heart." Here on field day, two such toddlers were available for framing.

On the left we have Julie who is quite possibly the best reader in the entire class. Julie only gets upset when she sees monsters or when the lights are off. One of my fondest memories with her is when, during Finding Nemo, the big creepy Angler fish appeared and she started bellowing out in fear. She crawled into my arms where I took her into the hallway. Other teacher's came and she eventually calmed down.

Sitting to her right is Emily. Emily, as I've been told, was incredibly shy before I arrived at school. I will probably never believe it. As one of the leading socialites of the class, Emily has developed the 'turn head to the side, cross arms and say 'hmph!'' routine. She is also an avid reader and a contender for the best writer award. One of my favorite moments with Emily happens on a daily basis where she wraps herself around my leg and shouts "Koala!" at me. The unhappy part of this is when the other kids join in and I fall down. Soft floors are sincerely unappreciated.

CDI/CDL and Poly Review (Updated)

2009-05-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

I am posting these questions because there are problems happening in Korea right now. Not just because of swine flu, but also because of people asking me more questions due to the recent publicity given to Chungdahm Institute/Chungdahm Learning from their closing this week. In all truth I enjoyed the time I had with many of my coworkers. We forged a special bond on a daily basis from talking about how much we hated work and how it was not worth the money. In turn, I was not strong enough to continue working through the almost daily challenges presented by the company. I do not endorse CDI/CDL in any way and hope that these questions prove to be helpful for those seeking guidance.

Throughout my posts you should notice a significant bias towards my current employer, Korea Poly School. To frame what you choose to read I will simply state, I currently work more hours per week, I am paid less money, and I am happier after 3 months than I was for an entire year at CDI/CDL. I highly encourage readers to educate themselves before pursuing a teaching job in Seoul, if you have any questions regarding these or other matters, please feel free to contact me: trevor.diaz@gmail.com

A brief overview about weekly schedules:

Last year when I worked at CDL (previously CDI) with my fiancé, it was rare for us to have the same days off during any 3 month term. Weekends were cut into, overtime was constant, and stress was physically visible. I don’t want to fall into slander here but despite the high rate of hourly pay, the misery that came from the requirements of the institute were hard to swallow. On top of that, CDI did not provide sick days nor did they factor in Korean Holidays. Coming in on Christmas was not a favorite among students or teachers.

Currently after working for two months at Poly, I have had weekends off, Korean holidays, this June every teacher also gets a week off for Summer vacation, and at the end of May my director was gracious to give me an extra week off so that I can come back home to D.C. and celebrate my sister’s birthday. Kristen is working at a private elementary school at this time, and while we do not have the same hours, we are still guaranteed to have weekends off and our vacation time falls on the same dates. This is pretty common among all academic institutions throughout Seoul.

Housing
Q: Housing wise, we want a place big enough for 2 people. So a 1-person studio apartment wouldn't really work unless they gave us 2 that were next door to each other (use one as living room and one as a bedroom).
Absolutely, and I wouldn’t have it any other way if I was in your position. Regrettably I’m not in the position to tell you what Poly school would do for you in this case – but I can tell you that they will definitely do more to help you than CDI ever did for neither Kristen nor myself. When Poly gives you a call make sure you inquire about the housing, ask them if they would have you both teaching at the same school campus and what your options are for housing. Because there are so many Poly locations it will depend on the neighborhood. That is to say not every school owns their own apartment complex where they put all of their teachers, but if you’re looking to save money (for you and the school) and house two people in one location most schools will happily help you.

Q: - How are the schools are working with couples as far as schedule and housing goes?
Most schools will work with couples and actually prefer to have married teachers for the sake of longevity. A school will do more for you provided that they have a need for two teachers and quite possibly do more to make you happy so that you stay. Because if one of you isn’t happy, they know that they can lose you both. Most schools will also help to make your schedules match.

Payment Plans
Q: I think we would rather work on a salary basis. I noticed that Chungdahm doesn't pay housing on an hourly position and I think I would like the certainty of a salary position, as long as they aren't unreasonable with things like overtime.
Good choice. When I first came to Korea I wanted salary myself. Sure it’s more working hours, but the benefits greatly outweigh the lack thereof. I actually signed a contract with Chungdahm when I was in the States and when I arrived to Seoul they abruptly told me that I could only have an hourly option. At the same time though there’s segregation in CDI academies; some of them work on a salary option (franchises) while the rest function on an hourly basis (branches). If you want salary, I’d stand firm on getting into a franchise. That would have saved a lot of headaches if people had known about it before signing.

Comparison between Academies
Q: - Which of the schools that you worked at do you generally think is better (I know location makes a difference) and why did you switch schools?
I would give double thumbs up to Poly. And there are a lot of reasons for this. I’ll try to be succinct here. A) Poly provides hassle-free housing nearby the school, CDI will put you out on your own to pay rent if you don’t settle for the offers of their realtor, Michael Yoo; who merely walked from location to location reciting “this is the best you’re going to find”. We ended up living an hour away from the school with the rest of the teachers who found realty on their own. B) The other thing that really has nailed it in the coffin for me is that Poly does not drive home the idea of ‘you can be fired at anytime without notice’. They are a lot more democratic about their relationships with the staff and have really made be feel like a valued part of the team where CDI made me feel like going through a meat grinder.

Company not Fulfilling Contractual Agreements
Q: - I have read a lot about Hagwon's not fulfilling the stipulations in
the contract (not paying on time, not providing return airfare, etc.)
what is your opinion of your Hagwon and Hagwons in general?
What you have read about mostly comes from Hagwons in the countryside. Most schools in Seoul will pay on the 5th or the 10th of each month provided that you have a bank account in the city (no problems there, KB*, Hana Bank, and Woori Banks are everywhere and provide little stress for foreigners to sign up). Now, if you come to Korea and start working at a Hagwon that doesn’t pay you on time, you should definitely put up a red flag. For not paying returning airfare, I again have my reservations about CDI. They did not pay for when I left the country at the end of my contract and they also withheld a $1000 instructor performance bonus from my pay because I did not agree to return to their program this year.

Working Hours
Q: - How many classroom hours do you teach each week? How many days do
you work each week? Are you required to do overtime or is it
optional?
At CDI I taught 6 hours a day 4p.m. to 10p.m., but that translated out to about 11 hours total including transit as well as prep time for the class – both of which were unpaid. For one month in the summer and one month in the winter there was the option to teach Intensive classes for 3 additional hours 3 days a week. Overtime extended to Saturday classes during test times and classes directed at under achieving students. Like most normal businesses, the more time you put in, the more you get out of it in terms of scheduling. Unfortunately this was not the normal case for Kristen and myself. Weekends remained busy for both of us.

At Poly I work from 9a.m. to 6/7p.m. depending on the day. I have an hour for lunch; 10 minute breaks between my 40-minute classes, and more freedom to design the lesson. Overtime is nonexistent, and I only have to attend 2 Saturday workshops this year.

Preferences in Teaching
Q: - What is your favorite thing about teaching in Korea? What is your
least favorite thing?
My paradoxically favorite and most hated thing, sadly, was working with Middle school kids at CDI. The thing about teaching in Korea is that you instantly become part of this consuming machine that is driven to make an academic success out of their children. I sometimes wish that my parents had put as much pressure on me to succeed like these kids. When it gets to middle school life downright sucks for kids. It’s not just being lethargically in school like in the states, it’s getting hit by teachers and parents, and going to academies to ruin the global learning curve. At CDI, because they had a middle school program I had the opportunity for 3 hours a week to take kids out of the doldrums, to get them to smile and give them passion for something.

Treatment by School
Q: - Do you feel your school treats you and the other English teachers
fairly and with respect?
At Poly, absolutely. I feel respected, valued, and am treated with a certain degree of hospitality that I never thought was possible through CDI. Teachers at CDI constantly complained about their income, and received no sort of validation from the company. The final insult for me last year was getting a blemish on my passport for an overstay in the country. My visa expired a day before the last day of class and I was told, by a man named John Yoo, that an extension would be granted. However at customs I was informed that CDI did nothing of the sort. Accordingly after an hour of phone calls I was granted permission to leave and told by John Yoo that he would immediately remove the blemish from my record. Later he sent me an e-mail saying that he would take care of it if I came back to CDI. As a result, I did not come back.

Completing the Contract
Q: - What percentage of teachers complete their contract? Why do those
that break the contract do so?
When I worked at CDI I was with a group of roughly 30 teachers. Every term about 5 new teachers would come in, of those 5, at least 1 or two would simply disappear. It sometimes happened without warning, other times it would happen under the pretense of a family emergency. Whatever the case they were never heard from again. I blame the institution and lack of affirmation. People don’t come to Korea to be treated poorly but because of the immense size of CDI, I figure that it’s hard to do anything but embrace quantity over quality.

Living Hardships
Q: - What is the hardest thing about living in Korea other than being far
away from family and friends?
The hardest thing about Korea outside of missing home would have to be the rain and the subsequent mosquitoes that follow. Bring a couple cheap plastic ponchos, some Off and a good attitude about being bitten. Also take advantage of your weekends, they really are priceless.

Vacation
Q: - Do you get Korean holidays off?
Working at CDI resulted in having no vacation whatsoever, least of all Korean holidays. You were ‘entitled’ to a week of unpaid vacation, but only a few people ever took advantage of such a financially crippling endeavor. Now that I’m out, holidays are standard.

Q: "Is vacation time pre-scheduled? If so, is it scheduled a full week at a time or broken down a day here and a day there?"
Vacation time (outside of CDI) is prescheduled to one week in the summer and one week in the winter. Some academies will work with you in order to better fit your needs, but this depends on the school.

Q: "Hope everything is going well in Korea. I was writing to you to get your opinion. I put in an application at Korean Poly and they mentioned to us an opening that they have for July at their MokDong campus. Do you know anything about this particular school? The pay for the position is great, but the hours are pretty long since it is for a morning/afternoon shift. Which shift do you work and what have you heard about the morning/afternoon shift?"
I’m working over the the Dongdaemun campus. I also do a morning/afternoon shift, but it goes by incredibly quick. Tomorrow I start week 9 of the 26-week semester, and it doesn’t bear down on me at all. July is a good time to come because it’s in the middle of the summer, you’ll have ample time to prepare for the mosquitoes in September.

trevor.diaz@gmail.com

Quarantine in South Korea

2009-05-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

For more information regarding the current situation inside the compound, please click here.

So after the release of information regarding the lock down on some 20 odd English teachers in Korea and the impending onslaught of infection that will result from symptoms not being observable until 7-9 days after contracting the swine influenza, I got to thinking about the chances of an international pandemic. And they are: None.

Sure things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better, but it's not something that we can't handle. Antiviral drugs have already been issued to combat the flu at it's early stages and people are taking it upon themselves and their employees to remain within the confines of their own homes when not required for work. But it's still fascinating for me to be an adult in this situation.

The big thing that made me start thinking about the H1N1 strain is that CDI, who I worked for my first year in Korea, officially declared that all 121 of their academic campuses would be closed for ten days in order to compensate for the outbreak of swine flu in their teachers. This left me shell-shocked in how they never gave a thought to vacation for any of their teachers during my tenure. That's how I knew it was serious.

Whatever the case, I'm both excited and nervous to come back to the States. My coworkers are afraid that I'll contract the disease and bring it back with me. If that's the case, maybe I can get them a week of vacation too :)

Don't eat pork.

The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers

2009-05-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

My favorite thing about elementary/preschool children is that they don't know curse words. You can be stern with them whenever appropriate without them getting cross. You never have one writing "this class sucks" on their desks or saying "I hate that teacher" to other students.

Really, they're open to influence from just about anything and they buy everything you say without contest. Furthest from the good that this brings is the teaching that my childhood bullies received from their parents. How, for any number of reasons, they were taught to...I guess in so many words, sin. And that makes me upset because I think of how I could easily ruin one of these children's future by failing to tell them how to be outwardly kind and thankful.

Having someone to keep me accountable will be appreciated when I'm working with children. They share my mind and my actions, hopefully they'll pick up the good characteristics.

Perspective

2009-05-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

Co teacher Yelee Jo explained something to me about the school I work for now, and it really helps me to establish empathy with my kids. At some branches where the curriculum is intense and the mothers are more fierce, it is not uncommon to have children come home from "the P-school" at 4:30 in the afternoon and go to sleep only to wake up at midnight in order to complete their online homework.

I'm humbled. I'm grateful. I'm in awe.

My education was never so scrutinized that I might stay ahead of the above-average bracket. Book homework seems trivial to me now. I imagine that we'll do away with it altogether in the next few years.

Umm...

2009-05-08T03:51:00.000-07:00

Writing test on May 8th, question offered: "Why is it important to have good manners? Write about a time when it was important to have good manners. If good manners wasn't important, what would happen?"

Response gained from one student:
It would be important because manners make people happy and with good manners you become a good person. If it was not important Earth would be very funny. You need to have manners the most in the restaraunt.. If you don't have good manners you have to try some like being quiet or consentrating in tests or never kill alive animals. When you try some manners practice a lot.

Reasons for concern? Increasing.

Captain's Log

2009-05-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

Books to read:
Angels and Demons
A Tale of Two Cities
A Happy Death
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
The Shack

So yesterday was my first National Holiday off, EVER. How else could I spend it but to lie on the roof of my building soaking up the sun and then head to a far off district in order to celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Well the tanning worked out great, but when it came to Cinco de Mayo I found myself staring at a poor excuse for celebration...a bunch of foreigners sitting around a park drinking beer and dirty dancing to makeshift mariachi music. Let me focus on something more spectacular here. In the subway of Jongak, the same place of the festivities, I saw a soup kitchen in effect where lots of people were coming to be fed. When this scene unfolded it crossed my mind that the more we take the less we become...I'm constantly reminded that it's not about how much I have to show others, but how much I have to offer.

Thank you Sarah.

Advent in Wonderland

2009-05-03T08:55:00.001-07:00

Went to Sokcho this weekend, had a lot of fun bathing in iron-laden mineral water and fighting with little old ladies in the river so that I could drink the same water. Also had a great time meeting some new people and overcoming some obstacles. Got back late, still smiling, but not in a good situation.

I'm locked out of my apartment because I forgot my key somewhere on the mountain.
My phone is almost dead.
And I have no charger.

Hopefully I'll be up in time for work, am I right?

Thank God for Children's day on Tuesday.

Welcome to the new addiction

2009-04-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

I am so thankful for tofu and kimchi. Really, it makes any low budget meal seem like paradise. And shvoing this stuff down my throat is in no way unappealing to me anymore. I walked out of work tonight and it was the only thing I wanted to get my hands on.

The worst thing right now would be for some guy to walk up to me and in broken English tell me that kimchi is unhealthy.

I'd probably weep a little.

In other news I 'accidentially' pushed a kid down today. He was in the teacher's room jumping up and down, and when I stuck my hand out to stop him he sprawled out on his butt...followed by the welling up of tears and the heart wrenching quip of, "he pushed me." Sure I felt like a slug and apologized profusely, and wouldn't you know it he ended up looking me square in the eye about 15 minutes later and said "Trevor Teacher, I love you." Now if that's not a kick in the pants I don't know what is. Thank you God for making kids so much like you.

gt2c3

2009-04-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

Sunny confessed that she eats dirt today. And then she actually ate dirt from a plant pot.

Then another student, Harry came up and said directly to me "Can I eat dirt?"

Curry Rice

2009-04-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

Curry was actually not meant to be a flavor on it's own, rather it was to be a random mix of many different spices. Over time, the Western world adopted it as a specific flavor complete with vegtables. I, in turn, am thankful.

I'm also thankful for the sun, crab battles, ATV's, campfires in sand, rusty bungalows, ferry rides, frisbees, and the company of new friends.

Cheers, Muui-do.

West Islands

2009-04-17T16:42:00.000-07:00

Leaving in about 5 minutes to get to an island in the far West of Seoul. To this I thank God for providing me with friends, finances and most importantly 2 day weekends. After a sojourn on the subway and across the watery pass by ferry, we will arrive in a supposed tropical paradise for frisbee and photos. Website accessories to come!

Oranges

2009-04-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

BEHOLD

THE

GLORY

"Oh I'd say I'm doin at about..60 percent"

2009-04-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

So I've been coughing up battleships for the past week and a half. It dawned on me this morning that kids, I mean little kids, are walking minefields of diseases. So while I develop nodes in my throat and the sinew that slugs are made of from my nose, I smile at knowing by the end of the year I will be immune to every single sickness Korea has ever known.

Ha!

Homeless Ministries in Seoul.

2009-04-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my first monthly parent-teacher conference. I've already been getting apologies from mothers about their unapologetic little toddlers. In terms of week 6 out of 52, it's still comfortable.

I've been talking with Jessica from Action and Passion about starting a homeless ministry at Seoul station. She'd like to start something that addresses the spiritual side while I'm all about gathering funds and doing handouts. Combined we have a idealistically hopeful outlook on our involvement with the homeless population of Seoul. I think the key is keeping it small and making contributions of a perishable nature so that no one gets jealous when supplies run out.

I gather that adults are a lot like kids, and the constant shouts of "me too, me too" are enough to prepare just about anyone for being inadequate. Another thing is that I read Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree" to my kids today. I think 2 of them actually got the message, that was really rewarding for me. I imagine it'll be the same way if things work out and this whole thing starts, except instead of boogery little kids I'll get to work with boogery grown ups. The sweet thing is that I can't wait for either :)

...maybe it can be called something cute and cultivating, 'Pocket'?

S2/PreK9230

2009-03-31T02:20:00.000-07:00

I love little kids in the most uncreepy way imaginable. I love being told I love you every day. I love the feeling of lighting a candle inside each of their little pulpy brains. I also love the unhealthy little rice cakes and sugary yogurt drinks that they hold up to me inbetween classes. One afternoon class in particular features some of my dearest loves. Rather than being a teacher I feel like more of a big brother. I'm lucky in that they've all taken a liking to me and constantly run up to during class just to give me a hug. The lessons get accomplished by the grace of God and all the while they seem to just absorb the information. It's perfect and I knock on wood to keep it the same.

What I'm still hoping to fall in love with are the parents of these as well as my trouble students. The ones that I'm curious as to how they handle their violent children at home. Until one week from now it's all left to speculation but it's nice to know that soon I'll have the answers about the kids that don't seem to understand that spitting on others is not a good thing in most societies.

--
Also, The Wiggles are amazing.

Poly School

2009-03-08T20:50:00.001-07:00

Teaching preschoolers allows me to learn something new everyday.

Take Friday for example.

I had an accidental chance to teach about sharing when, after a game of memory, the students begged and begged to keep the pieces of black and white paper. One student, Alex, managed to collect the most. Another student, Justin, began to well-up tears in his eyes saying "he has too many", "Give me one!" So I tried to console Justin, telling him that it's just paper, but nothing would appease him. He began to cry and wail. Another student by the name of Julie, the most darling in my class, started saying "share, share!" Other students picked up her chant and that's where I followed suit. I swear I started feeling shudders. "That's right, that's right!" I began, "you need to share! Sharing makes you a nice person!"

So the first child to actually act on this was a little boy named Isaac. He reached into his backpack, pulled out one of his pieces of paper and gave it to Justin who at this point was still crying. Lucy followed his example emplored by shouts of "good job", and "yay Lucy!" Then, while everyone was getting excited about sharing, Alex began to sulk...

After a bit he turned around, reached into his backpack and returned to the table with a wad of little paper dogs, trees, and swings. From there he handed them to Justin. Justin in turn, gleeful at the recent turn of events, begins to take out his own pieces of paper and count them zealously on the table. I'm amazed at how quickly a boy who, at one moment, was a little selfish brat can then turn into an amazing example of generosity, and then become a crying heap of flesh and tears on the table.

Now at this I was hoping Justin would see how much we were applauding Alex for being SO generous and nice. But instead when asked to share some of his newbegotten papers with the rest of the class, he simply shook his head, smiled, and yelled "no!"

The pitiful thing here is that the rest of us aren't so different. Remember to smile. Remember to share. Remember to be grateful.

Back to the Future...

2009-02-26T19:07:00.000-08:00

at least that's what it feels like when you cross over the international time-zone break in the Pacific ocean for the third time.
____________
Vested Apology
:::There are a lot, and I mean a lot, of people that I didn't get to see before I left the States. Katie and Brian, this especially goes out to you. The greatest gift that I have ever known is time and I am sorry that I was not able to accept the time that you were offering me. I promise to make good on your gifts as soon as I can, and I will happily betroth you with the same thirst-quenching love that you have for me. Until then, may we both be kept safe until our eyes meet again.
____________

'So here's teh Earth.'

I just landed in Korea about 6 hours ago. Since then I've become reacquainted with the national food, kimchi, and made a new friend named Hong Ji Hyok. Things that stick out to me:

-the slender shape of soda cans
-the buildings that grow up and not out
-people having a %100 reduction in personal space "bubbles"
-clean, fresh water
-heated floors
-consumerism

While lying in the bed of my temporary hotel room I came to a realization about television. Frankly, I really don't like it. Movies are one thing. Hooking up your computer so you can watch Lost w/o commercials is nice. Nintendo Wii is a guaranteed way to break the ice at parties. BUT television itself irks me in a not so fanciful way. It's like the dirty old uncle that moves into your house, never showers, talks non-stop about sex and alcohol, and convinces you to give your money to his friends. What, you didn't have one of those too?

So I propose an alliance, a secret alliance with myself and all who might join my cause. I'm going to try it out for lent a couple days late. But let's see if I can go without all of that kooky fun from the light box for 40 days.

Watching Lost online is the only thing that doesn't count. Thanks to you loopholes in Catholicism. :)

In the meantime, let's learn Korean with Rosetta Stone!

Appreciation

2009-02-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

"Don't wait until they're dead to buy them flowers." -Steven Davis, The Worship Center

iPray

2009-01-30T20:22:00.002-08:00

Lord I ask you for serenity and patience. I throw my hands up while the things that frustrate me the most find ways to resurface in my life. Only through you am I able to regain myself and smile to think that these things shall too pass. At the same time my loved ones suffer and only through you can they have peace. I ask that you gather them in your hands and bring them into your heart, for while the earth might quake you will always find them firm ground to stand upon. Even so there are still many more that I have yet to know. Give me your arms and eyes that I might love them as my own, for it is through your passion that I will find purpose.

The Disparity of Attitude

2009-01-26T21:30:00.000-08:00

I've heard quite a few stories that wring my heart in the past two weeks while traveling hither and far. Here's just a couple.

-A man and a woman living in Florida cannot reproduce together, so they take up foster care. In Florida you must have a child for one full year before the child can become available for adoption. For this couple, a total of 7 children were cycled through their home each at the 10 month mark - making it impossible for them to obtain custody of those whom they took care of. While assuming this position as babysitter for the orphaned, they were also given a number of charges which have left them in debt in lieu of having children.

-A couple that has been running the beer concessions for a certain festival-based organization over the past 22 years was brought into light at a recent meeting where their profits were severely undervalued. Long story short, where $12,000 was expected only $3,000 turned up. In tow with their apparent lack of financial responsibility, their presence is no longer welcomed due to their inconsistent behavior with the rest of the group leaders.

I am really uncomfortable with how most of the problems that I hear about today come from money. Relationships aren't only stopped from being fostered but also torn apart because one person's 'financial character' is not up to par with the expectations of someone else. A tool for services rendered becomes the soul behind our motivations, limitations, and aspirations. And who do we blame for this?

Anyone but ourselves.

I can't speak for everyone because I know that there are a lot of people out there who have it together. They know how to save, how to spend, how to be frivolous and cautious without even wincing; but even so I'm learning.

You've done this before too. Probably with Mom and Dad, you know, they tell you something again and again and then one day it finally clicks. What clicked for me is attitude. As in the way that you feel about something really messes up the picture of what the thing really is! If you look at the world in terms of money being a person-defining feature, you lose the same kind of love for the sales person that you would lose for your neighbor if you were not color blind.

I hope that everyone already knows that people are more than price tags and that there is nothing that stops you from new love today. And for those that you come across who are heavy burdened, please be discerning and help me to change the way the world sees money.

I'll end this with the way I should have gone through Saturday night:
Around 10:30 at IHOP things were getting crazy in the kitchen. The new shift had just come on and things were backing up with confused orders. While sitting down at a table with Sean we overheard a couple with a baby talking about how they had just received their first plate of food after waiting 50 minutes. They caught the attention of their waitress and demanded to speak to the manager. After a brief conversation explaining the molasses in the kitchen, the couple calmed down and resumed their meal. Not 2 minutes later our waitress came out with our pancakes. The lady made a comment about how we must have paid off the kitchen to get our food out so fast. While Sean and I finished up our meal the family finished their meal and headed out the door. I followed them. Out in the parking lot I tapped the husband on the shoulder and handed him a $20. After he asked what it was for I responded that the two of them did a great job handling themselves back in there; they had a baby, it was late, things were going unreasonably slow for such a late hour, but they still walked out of the restaurant without making a fuss. Good job, keep it up, watch out for others".

Pass on what you have in hopes of reinforcing love for others and patience for all things. Your tools make way for your work.

Furthermore, thank you Melissa. It is a great feeling to know that I have someone supporting my qualms about the field. You make the mission that much easier for me to walk into.

Road Trip! Chapter 5: In the footsteps of the Wright Brothers

2009-01-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

...so while playing NBA Hangtime with Dave I got to thinking about how awesome it is to fly half-way across the court and do a slam dunk in the face of the computer controlled, and inferior, players. And that got me to thinking about flying...which led me to think about hummingbirds which eat that red nectar stuff which I think is sugar water, and hey sugar water is sweet, oh my gosh have you ever had that cinnibun-popcorn? I think it's made by Orville Redenbacher. Hey Orville that's a fun name, wait wasn't there a guy who invented the airplane named Orville? Yeah he had a brother too...holy crap they're from Ohio! Kristen lives in Ohio! Let's go there!

Sadly Dave was not able to accompany me, so after we beat 21 of the 29 NBA teams I brought myself to a standing position and gumby-slided my way out the door. 4 hours later I was on the doorstep of Kristen's house being smothered by affection. Not even a day passed until, all of a sudden, we were snowed in. The roads were thickly frosted, cars peeled out through all of the neighborhood, and children cried for their parents to let them go back to school (where it's warm). But did all of that keep Kristen and I indoors?

Heck no! We had ourselves a snowday!

Snow angels, cookies, Dances With Wolves, paraffin-appendage-waxing, you name it! Everything was wonderful because everything was done with my best friend.

I don't know too many people that are dedicated to having a balanced breakfast, but Kristen is by far at the top of that list. Every morning she would wake up and bust herself down to the kitchen in order to carb up for the day. I've never been in a home where the smell of food wakes you up, but being around Kristen at 8:00 in the morning really does show me what I've missed out on during my childhood. Man she's awesome.

Road Trip! Chapter 4: Hang 'em while there's time

2009-01-19T04:23:00.000-08:00

After running into Jon, Jay, and John, I took a brief detour to Harrisburg. Meanwhile Jon continued killing zombies, Jay made his way back to North Carolina to finish up his theology master's, and John continued his quest to solve the problem of Barbara Walters.

In Harrisburg I ran into the guys. Here is the only proof of said visit for all purposes associated with having an alibi. Thanks for being there Matt and Brian.

...and also special thanks to both of you for ruining the photo.

After a brief return to Maryland I then traveled north to see my eldest prodigy as fathered with Matt Scoggan. In the recesses of Pittsburgh there lives a grand wizard by the name of David Young.

David was fortunate enough to have the weekend off so he invited my visit with open arms. The one thing I admire profusely about David is, in a very abridged version, how he seeks to remove himself from dependency. While breaking social norms and seeking to rise above conformity David chooses to take an anarchist approach to life with the well-being of others as his premier motivation. He does not engage in actions that might bring unhealthy results for himself nor does he do things that might indirectly result in harm to others.

As a result Dave and I did a lot of cooking.

Here are some of the Wonton wraps that took me 2 days to figure out; David mastered them in an hour.

As the hours seemingly flew by as a crow to the exterior engine of a 747, Dave and I never seemed to run out of things to do. From watching Hollywood classics such as The Mist and Planet Earth to freezing our bums off in the snow and even losing our lives to NBA Hangtime.

It is a biblical fact that NBA Hangtime was made by the hand of Jesus himself, however this was not included in our modern day canon of scripture.

You know how, sometimes, goodbyes can be awkward? Like going in to give a hug to an uncle who, afterwords, shoots you the gun and says "take care, you". I don't ever have that problem with Dave - it's like coming in contact with a long lost friend who you know wants to have you around and also hates that you have to go. The thing is..Dave has that sensation on everyone that knows him.

Road Trip! Chapter 3: MANifest

2009-01-16T20:43:00.001-08:00

So now I'm heading into Norristown, Pennsylvania. An area known for two things: prostitution and gas welding. Now if you take those two things and rearrange the letters you'll discover the secret of Norristown. Because I love you, dear Reader, I'll tell you that the answer is "Jon Garthwaite", and that's exactly whom I went to see. Old Garthybags, as I used to call him, was one of my roommates in college. He was also like an older brother to me not because he dressed up like spiderman and beat the crap out of me in public, but because he convinced me to dress up like a ninja while he did it. While I was teaching English in Korea I was unable to attend important celebrations for Jon such as his barmitzvah and wedding, but still he finds some good in me to continue loving me as a little brother and for that I am continuously grateful.

Nowadays he lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, unfortunately whom was off preparing for the wedding of another dear friend. In his home were two other homeless people whom I will simply refer to in discretion; "The Vaitl" and "Jazzle McMuffins".

Together all three of us prepared for a glorious feast as made by our host and source of hospitality. After a meal of steak, macaroni, vegtables, and mashed potatoes, we continued to demonstrate our masculine appeal to eachother by scratching our chests and grunting out the beats to a number of manthems as heard on Rock Band: Manpanion Edition.

Not being satisfied with the level of mantasity happening, I then accepted a challenge from Jon to drink 32 ounces of salt water for the nominal fee of seven dollars.

I would later use those seven dollars to rent a video game from blockbuster called Left 4 Dead. Upon realization that Blockbuster is silly enough to only carry one copy of the zombie killing block...buster, I settled for less and found a terribly slower game called Fear. But that's a story for another time.

As the night continued we giggled and farted down memory lane, but while we would want to relive some of those experiences I think we're happy with where we're going. I just hope that we keep intersecting along the way.

THINGS I LEARNED..
-Pink eye comes from fecal matter
-You can't do a salt water flush after eating a lot of food, it just sits in your stomach and hurts
-Some door locks are made like tavern puzzles

Road Trip! Chapter 2: Don't sleep 'til..

2009-01-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

So after cutting up a deer, Abbie and I decided to hit the road for New York. We did the entire trip in a straight 7 hours. As we entered Brooklyn we came across Abbie's new flat mate and hung out for about 2 hours. The great thing about meeting new people is that you gain new experiences while sharing your own perspectives. Afterwards we traveled to a dear friend of Abbie's and slept for the night. For myself, I was excited to get in and then get out of New York. After ordering THE BRKLYN pizza from Dominos and then enjoying authentic Venezuelan food the following morning, I decided that it's a terrible idea to gain 4 pounds over 21 hours. So after bidding adieu to Abbie I took my leave and headed towards Norristown, NJ. In the process I forgot to get a ticket on the New Jersey turnpike...so in the end I payed the full freight for the trip. Sweet sauce.

It's like hang man for grown-ups.

TD bank! Mine!

So, Abbie's friend's home was located in a building with it's own fallout shelter. How fantastic is that!?

Abbie takes it upon her kind heart to order our very own New York style pizza.

^^^Try and pronounce this one^^^
:)

All in all, a wonderful trip. I think Abbie's really brave for sticking it out in New York and I know she'll do great :)

Things I learned on this part of the trip:
-It's a good idea to learn Spanish before you go, the guying leaving a parking spot open might be telling you anything from "park here or you'll get a ticket," to "take my spot and I'll kill you"
-Toll booth attendants can be incredibly forgiving (and apparently they also make $30 per hour)
-Buying $10 of gas with a $100 dollar bill is a pretty stupid thing to do when you aren't allowed to pump your own gas, and the person with the pump will be sure to let you know

Road Trip! Chapter 1, The Meating

2009-01-03T15:58:00.000-08:00

So today I began the epic haul from Southern Maryland to New York, Pennsylvania, and back. To start off with I drove from St. Mary's county to the pan handle of Western Maryland. I know that the description doesn't help anyone, so here's a quick sketch of what the drive was like:

Wait...what's that?

Oh Maryland, you name your cities so well.

Anyway, here's where the adventure begins. I arrive at the home of my friend Abigail Getty in an effort to help her move to New York. As the story goes she won't be having a car, so I opt to give her a hand. So, after about 5 hours of driving from damp and cold land to snowy and cold land I arrived in the shady woods of her home. Calm and serene as it seems, I had no idea what was about to happen. Here you can see my car from the next morning.

As luck would have it, I actually did not kill anyone and run them over with my car. Rather, as I arrived the previous night I was introduced to the skinned body of a recently deceased deer that we'll call Irva for the time being. Irva had been hunted down not one hour before my arrival by Abbie's dad, Abe Getty. When I walked up to her house I felt an eerie sensation of fresh death, and it was both unsettling and fascinating to behold.

So I start talking with Abbie's dad and soon enough, my vegetarianism comes up in conversation.

Abe: "So Trevor, do you like deer meat?"
Trevor: "Uhh, well actually I'm a vegetarian."
Abe: "Ah, a vegetarian! I love vegetarians! They're the only thing I eat!"

Hunter humor mixed with cannibalism is always a winning combination in my book. He charmed me over instantly.

As the evening progressed I was eventually invited to help butcher the deer the following morning to which I did everything I could to hold back my excitement and said yes. So at 7:00a.m. we set out to the garage with knife in hand, ready to sever some flesh.

Here we see Mr. Getty going to town on that little 'ol deer. In the process I had no idea what he was doing and if it were up to me and my own devices at the time I probably would have started cutting myself up. Fortunately, he was a ready and willing teacher. Mr. Getty had an unearthly amount of patience as we went to work on that meat sack, and what's more is that he affirmed me with every step. Albeit for me to say that I'm a vegetarian there is one event that might leave some to say otherwise.

Mini-chapter bonus, lucky you!

The story of the Backstraps

Around 10:00a.m., Abbie's father and I head back out to the garage after grinding up some choice cuts of shoulder meat. As I'm walking out with a Tupperware bucket in hand, Mr. Getty starts giggling to himself and begins to talk about the mythical and awe inspiring backstraps of a deer. He begins to grin a little bit and then, while cutting away at the spine he turns his head to me and says "you know if you weren't here, I'd probably be eating this stuff right off the bone."

***side note: A couple of days later when I was telling this story to Abbie, she told me that her dad was testing me. And then I passed.

So I said let's do this thing and before I knew it he stuck out his knife and offered a piece of raw flesh. Yumm.

As we continued through the day I learned a lot about Mr. Getty, aside from all of the lessons about hunting and butchering that he taught me he also showed me around his wooded property and told me about his life. Surprise to me, he's been hunting everywhere. After a missions trip to Africa, he decided to get a license and make his way back to the Kalahari desert where he tracked down all sorts of Seussically named animals. He's been buffalo hunting, bear hunting, zebra hunting and he's even taken down a cougar - which I might add he proudly has stuffed and mounted in his office. What's more, while Mr. Getty passionately hunts as a hobby he spends the professional portion of his life as a Dentist. Go figure right? Teamed with his wife, the two serve outstanding portions of savory venison to any guests that hap their way.

As the afternoon steadily approached us, Abbie and I decided to hit the road - heading to our ultimate destination of Brooklyn.

Things I learned from this part of the trip:
-The foreleg of a deer is not connected to the rest of it's body by any sort of bone, rather it is fastened solely by muscle.
-Everyone should know something about hunting/primitive skills, not only for survival, but also for the sake of being a real man! Abbie is already talking to her brother's about the establishment of a Man School in her backyard. Details of enrollment will be included on this blog when the details of how much it costs to start a university get figured out.

A merry sober and completely flamable new years day

2009-01-01T00:56:00.000-08:00

For the past several New Years I've been exposed to a relatively new class of human being, the kind that takes part in rigorous attempts to increase their average blood alcohol content. I guess it's not so much a bad thing as I thought it was when I was a kid. But when I was in Korea I heard a preacher talking about the people in the bar districts of the city who said that they simply "don't quite get the picture yet". This year, somewhat surprisingly, I did not hang out with that crowd. I was with my best friend from childhood and a few new friends from the county. One of them has made a solid commitment to continue their life without a drink for the past two years. How cool is that? To take that huge step at self-improvement leave nothing but respect to be had. Together, we made our way to a little lake in the backwoods of southern Maryland. But we didn't go it alone.

Here we have a number of fireworks; all of them illegal in a number of states. Including bottle rockets...really I have no idea what is in that pile, but most of it made enough of a boom to shake up the neighborhood.

Here are a few interactive results from the morning. Interactive because they're videos! Also interactive because you can turn your computer on it's side to watch them in their prime.

Event #1, The Preliminary
This was the first mortar blast of the night, done by Sean. As you can see it is perfectly executed with no delay. It's SO good that it brings out my previously dormant Santa laugh.

In contrast, this was my struggle to light off the cannon.

Event #2, The Corn Crusades
Also with us there were a number of cans of corn. Sean and Ryan were talking about a fantastic new way to cook a can of corn that involves placing it in a piping hot barrel. If I brought my fork this would have been even more fantastic. Here were the drawn out results!

Event #3, The Time Lydia Almost Killed Everyone
It was Lydia's turn to launch a mortar, unfortunately she almost killed every single person at the lake in the process.

Event #4, The Grand Finale
And lastly, Ryan came upon us with a really really really old jug of gasoline; the kind that you don't want to put in your car in fear that it might corrode your gas tank.

All in all, it was one of the best New Year's ever! Completely legal, alcohol free, and with adult supervision!

Christmas VayKay is over...

2008-12-29T13:49:00.000-08:00

...and here's what I did, pretty much entirely with my sister!
-Watched movies!
-Kung Fu panda
-The Tale of Despereauxeshds
-Spaceballs
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-Bolt
-Independence Day
-Robin Hood: Men in Tights

-Went to Virginia beach!
-Sand
-Cold!
-Pictures

-Went running!
-In our new neighborhood
-At a park (injured my right instep, still hurting!)

-Made plans for a road trip this weekend!
-Lexington Park, MD . January 1st
-Turkey Neck Road, Western Maryland . January 2nd
-New York mfer! . January 3rd
-Philadelphia, PA . January 3-4
-Harrisburg, PA . January 5-6
-Pittsburg, PA . January 6
-SoCo, MD . January 7

-and after some fa-la-la-la-laing

-ORLANDO, FL . January 17
-Georgetown, D.C. . January 19
-The Lawn, D.C. . January 20 INAUGURATION!!!

-Made plans for a west coast plane trip towards the end of January!
-KATIE BEHRENS, Oregon!
-BRIAN DUFFIELD, California!

The sky's the limit, and so is my bank account! So hopefully conversion rates between the won and the dollar clear out in the next 3 days :)

What What!

So let's do this thing!

Colin the Bartender

2008-12-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

Colin is the best conversationalist I have ever met. He could speak intelligently on any topic without ever saying anything that could offend anyone's sensibilities or politics. He keeps up to date on current events, business, and sports by going through three newspapers in different languages every morning. And on days he is not working, he reads novels and books on topics that interest his clients. On this night, Colin was able to participate in a brainstorming session on how to give Steve dysentery the next time I saw him.
Colin's incredible skills as a bartender boil down to selflessness taken to the point of mysteriousness. One leaves the Ritz Paris having had a fantastic time, having bonded with one's friends and fellow patrons, but without any knowledge of Colin Field as a person.
"Are you married, Colin?" I asked.
"Yes. But not always on duty," he charmingly replied.
Everyone laughed. None of us actually thought Colin did or would cheat on his wife. He was just telling a joke, one he might have told before to a different crowd of mostly foreign businessmen. Colin deflected the question about himself by giving everyone at the bar a laugh. Then he was off to greet a couple who had just entered the bar.
Colin never gave us any information that would allow us to size up his character. his focus on service prevented us from having to know him and might explain why everyone loves him.
-Vali: Meeting the Best Bartender in the World; "The Ridiculous Race"

The age of inflation

2008-12-27T15:27:00.000-08:00

I know that we've all seen them. They tend to pop up every holiday season and often stick around until next year. Sometimes prone to accidental stabbings and always a sign of developing taste. That's right. Inflatable lawn ornaments. The quintessential decoration for people who can't be bothered to actually put some effort into the appearance of their property. Just unwrap, throw onto the splotchy part of your lawn, plug-in and enjoy for 30 seconds until you get bored and go back inside to eat Doritos and play your xbox 360.

Today my sister and I were driving home from a jog when she told me to stop the car and drive back, there was something she wanted me to see.

That's right. Ladies and gentlemen, on your left you will see an inflatable Carousel. Not just inflatable, but also rotating. Pretty soon inflatable lawn ornaments will be totally interactive; you'll be able to jump and swing and wrestle and kick and slide in your own front lawn, just like in those inflatable obstacle courses that you used to go through on high-school graduation night! But that's not all, now your Christmas can be made complete with something that I find mildly less offensive.

For those of you that don't know, someone got really creative and decided to take the leg lamp of Bob Clark's own Christmas Story and turn it into a decorative icon to adorn the lawns of old school enthusiasts. I can respect that, but the moment someone decides to take this too far and apply it to something sacrosanct like church or breakfast, well that's the moment I'm gonna lose it.

Maybe I'm wrong though. I mean with the trendy spread of global warming and shortage of snow, perhaps this is just what the doctor ordered because we can no longer make snowmen. Long gone are the days when all we needed to be considered innovative was furniture that could be crafted with the use of your mouth. Granted, there's far morn innapropriate things out there that can be inflated with your own exhalation, but I wonder what will happen next? Grass/Dirt men? Lawn-legos? Only time will tell.

Going to the beach

2008-12-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

This morning I had my first run in a year with my sister. I was really proud of myself for getting through it and now she wants me to do a 10 mile trek with her. Time to get back in shape.

Also, because it's the day after Christmas we figure that it's the best time of the year to go to the beach. Nevermind that there's a windchill factor of -8 degrees. Nevermind that the clouds have smothered the sun. Nevermind that the earth has never been farther from the sun, ever. WE LIVE in Virginia now, we are THIRTY minutes away from the beach!! This is awesome!!!

"I have discovered the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there is no pain, only more love." -Mother Theresa

2008-12-25T12:54:00.001-08:00

I'm sitting here in my mom's new house drinking a glass of white zinfandel and sitting in the most exquisite armchair that has ever graced my buttocks. Ironically enough to my current post in the lap of luxury, I'm also watching the old Jesus movie, "King of Kings". Drinking wine while watching the impoverishment and death of Jesus doesn't seem to go together in my head - it's about as proper as putting a baby in a room filled with gorillas and knives, hopefully you just don't do it.

So while watching this movie I was struck by a couple of lines. Particularly I refer to the scene featuring the sermon on the mount. Jesus responds to a member of the audience who says "I see flesh and blood, how am I to believe that you are the son of God?" I'm pretty sure the quote isn't found in the Bible, but in the movie Jesus responds with the build up of "If you don't believe in me, believe in my work." It's a great idea to go along with my previous post yesterday about rhythm, just doing the right thing even if you don't have the faith - but it brought me to an even bigger idea about love.

In King of Kings I saw something of love that went beyond the popular idea of nihilism that's being adopted by many Christians. The idea of loving others without condemnation; simply saying that everything is OK and that Jesus & I still love you to all of the premarital sex-ers, meat-eaters, nationalists, adulterers, pedophiles, drug users, and corrupted. But I don't think it's that easy now. Love needs to go beyond judgment, it needs to surpass the all encompassing idea of love is the most important thing. Love the homeless, love the widowed, love your neighbor, take another swig from your wine glass.

See I think that we are called to love others at a cost to ourselves, not just this communalistic sort of 'oh I'll take care of you if you need something,' but more of a denying to and of yourself. I should be going out and finding situations that require me to love others more than just hand-outs and volunteering. Love should be a test on the things that I find most comforting, not what I find most convenient.

Jesus talks about how hard it is for a rich man to enter heaven, it's as possible as it is for a camel to squeeze it's way through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:16-24). This calls for sacrifice! This requires the man to relinquish his comforts so that he might be spared from distraction and engage the most important task!

In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus himself asks his father to take the cup of God's wrath away from him (Luke 22:42). I feel like this is the degree of love that should strive for, being placed in a situation where it outright hurts to love and in turn being forced into prayer.

Love in a sense, being the premium of Jesus' message pertains to giving up your own comfort so that you can undertake the perspectives of others:
It's not about working with homeless people. It's about becoming homeless yourself.
It's not about an offering. It's about a commitment to give of yourself.
It's not about defending how you feel when someone disagrees, it's about loving them even though they don't understand you, and helping them to receive your love.

So now I sit here in front of a computer, looking at an empty glass of white zinfindel in a new home and I wonder how I'm going to show this sort of love to others, especially on Christmas. I hope you have a great one.

Staying in tune with God's rhythm

2008-12-24T16:04:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve. I hope you're having a great one. While things are going right and wrong around the world by way of family feuds and zucchini pie, I come to think about what defines a Christian. After all I'm sure you know one or two people that make you think twice about what makes a Christian. Like how there are some people that aren't Christians, but they act more like Jesus than some Christians you know. With arguments rising up about the environment, changes in politics, food consumption and international poverty, I thought that a moment with Rob Bell could do me some good. Maybe he'll have something to say to you too.

Where's the Beef?

2008-12-23T15:22:00.000-08:00

Take one high powered projector,
One country in political turmoil,
Two self-motivated individuals,
Several buckets of Cass,
and you'll see how it was right here.

Eat it

2008-12-21T20:32:00.001-08:00

The best clothes that I've ever had are the ones that are given to me. Not so much that great pair of jeans that you can buy at the salvation army, but more so the shirts that have been thrown away because their owners don't wear them anymore. It's cheap, it's memorable, sometimes it smells until you put it in the washer twice. Whatever the case it puts meaning into the things I wear. I love talking about where such and such a piece of clothing comes from and being able to talk about a person rather than H+M or Express.

So I propose an alliance. A secret alliance. To trade clothing, save money, and make stronger relationships.

The only teacher who is worth anything to you is your enemy.

2008-12-20T23:47:00.001-08:00

After many conversations tonight about stupid things, really, a lot more of it has had to do with toppings for taco salad and variances in theology; I come to the idea that the person who will teach you the most in life is the person who directly opposes you. Groups of students to teachers, Mano a Mano a la Mujer, Mano a Mano a la job, driver to demanding passenger, you vs annoying guy in grocery store line, Sox vs. Yankees, flat mates.

The person that provides us with the most discomfort has a strong correlation to the strongest lessons that we can learn.

And then there was light!

2008-11-26T01:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, let's do this thing!

B.K. Seven Years Ago...

2008-06-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

Seven Years Ago..

I was in the amazon this past weekend, and while I was there I got into a deep conversation with one of the bigger honchos of study-abroads in Ecuador. He told me the worst thing that he ever had to deal with in all of his years of doing this program. We were sitting out in hammocks under a tent canopy when he told me about how 7 years ago a female student was raped when she took a trip down to the South of Ecuador with an exchange student that had studied at her school the year previous (and that she lived at the house of in Quito during her semester abroad).

There was a lot involved with the story, like how she had been drinking for the first time, about how a friend of her host sister's brother had taken advantage of her, and about everything happened hours South of Quito, where anyone she knew could have helped her. After it happened she wandered out to the highway and rode on buses for approximately 30 hours, and as the story goes with most rape cases - if evidence is not collected after the first 24 hours you can sit pretty on the fact that you will have to kiss any hope of a case goodbye. However, the man who told me this story then went to the police to address the situation - unfortunately he discovered through police reports that the young man who had committed the rape was the son of a woman who was running for office, and whose uncle was an officer in a neighboring precinct. So this guy couldn't be touched. The man who told me this story then told me the darkest thing that he had admittingly ever done in his years working with the program.

The woman told him that her parents would essentially disown her and blame her for the incident if they ever found out it happened, so with no other way to achieve retribution he paid two detectives approximately 50 dollars each to keep tabs on the guy who raped the exchange student. For a few days they sat outside his residence and watched him as he'd leave home to go to school. In time they trailed him down on his daily commute and pulled him over for a talk. After denying his own identity the two detectives took him into the station and "shoved his head into a toilet full of shit. You see there's this toilet that they never flush at the police station, where they tell the prisoners to go to the bathroom...essentially it's a wonderful interrogation tactic. I told them to make sure that he paid for what he did, and he knew exactly why it was happening."

This was hard for me to hear, it's not what I was taught to do in the case of rape counseling, but then I recognize this man's motivation and I understand his intense rage about the entire situation.

He told me that the rest of the students who were there that semester (all female) were very protective of the woman who had been raped for the rest of their journey. After the semester ended both he and his wife tried to stay in touch with her, but eventually she just vanished, contact stopped and he has no idea what happened to her. Hardest for him because he cared for her like a child as he no doubt did for everyone that came under his care.

But then that is part of life. That is the harsh way in which some people come and go like dust in the wind. Not a strictly bad thing, but unexspressibly painful for everyone involved.

And it happens a lot more than I'd like to think.

B.K. South Korea

2007-12-29T05:55:00.000-08:00

I'm still waiting my first paycheck for the past two months of living abroad. It will be arriving on January 10th. Until then the entire fleet of new recruits at Chung Dahm Institute will be sucking the marrow out of chicken bones to get by. And you know what, it really isn't that bad.

I'd say the worst thing about the past month and a half has been trying to figure out what is a suitable investment, especially when it comes to hanging out with the rest of the staff after work. If it were up to me I think that I wouldn't spend a dime on anything social wise - that's another reason why I'm thankful for Kristen, she pushes me to not become a recluse that hoards his money.

The kids that I work with are great. Every day I have at least 2 new classes of students that complain to me about school as much as I did to my own teachers. "Teacher, let's take a break," "teacher, no more homework," "teacher, CDI is the devil." In the end we almost always get along though, and there are those times when a surge of energy just sweeps the classroom beyond a simple 'oh great, everyone is paying attention for once,' it's that feeling that they're actually learning how to do something. I remember how my physics teacher in high school, Mr. Skinner used to smile all the time; this smug little look that was like he always had a secret to tell, and with that secret he always fueled his classes with this unworldly energy that us kids couldn't help but gobble up. He used to teach us all about how to make calculations about things that I have never used again in my life as a non-engineering undergraduate, but I still remember him as one of the best teachers in my life.

B.K Randi

2007-07-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

Lost the use of his right arm 20 years ago in a textile mill accident, his tennis scholarships for college, and still gained his arm back through physical therapy. He was compensated with $2000 for the incident.

Lost the lives of both of his children 20 years ago for reasons that he will not disclose to me beyond the fact that it was not his fault.
Has been divorced for 18 years.
Works at Flo's.
Is the happiest man I have met in my entire life.
Is enough reason for me to remember that making money is still not the most important thing in the world, but for some reason I can't help but feel bad for not being a provider even when I don't have a family.

Money does make the world go 'round. But it does not make it a happy place.

What a vicious conundrum.

B.K. My own worst enemy

2007-07-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

My day in short:

-My coworker and I re-established a friendship that was previously lost through non-verbal acts of service today, the tension between him and I revolved around me being in the weeds and discourteous last week.
-I continued to struggle with the desire to have more money when I know I don't need it.
-I figured out what it means to be personally injured by someone else.

My day in detail:
So work today was awful slow. I don't mean to hyperbolize here but I could have painted a 13 room house in my spare time, especially the last two hours of it when I was used to perform community service in side work. This was even more frustrating in lieu of the fact that last week was the restaraunts outright busiest week of the summer, not just at Flo's but apparently every restaraunt in Murrell's Inlet...a downer because of all of the business lost due to circumstance. But lets look at some positive things from the course of the previous six hours. For starters, a coworker of mine named Jay and I had previously come upon bad terms with eachother when I had rubbed him the wrong way last Sunday while I was in the weeds for an hour and a half; at the end of the night he made sure to constructively criticize my demeanor and it left me feeling anxious to come back to work. Tonight though he was more than willing to lend me a helping hand with carrying food to my tables and suffering in the plight of vaccuming with me. He really is a great guy and has a good heart, he just doesn't want people to do stupid things - which is exactly what I did a week ago :)

As for what remained of the night, I made a solid $60, which for some people reading this factors out to a very solid income for just 6 hours of work. I myself look at the hourly ratio and know that it still proves to be the greatest income I have ever had. However, today I found myself putting a price on my tables, looking at the customers and saying to myself "ah crap, they're only going to tip me 10%," and I also noticed myself being jealous of other waiters who were getting the really big tables and then I recall myself being angry at the hostesses for not being more equality-oriented with the distribution of customers.
Allow me to put something out on the table right here and now.
-I sincerely do not need the money. I have been given a full education at a college of my choice and will never have to pay a dime in debt.
-I have all the time in the world to make money, if it really mattered to me I know I could get another job, maybe even a second job!
-Being a missionary starts now, which means that I know I should be more conscientious of putting other people above myself, being joyful when others make 25% tips and not feel like I'm getting the crap end of the night and continuously doing things to bring smiles to my customers regardless of the stereotypes I can place on them. In fact, labeling people should not exist for me and I should act in a selfless manner while interacting with others!

There's something else, selfishness, the feeling that I am not getting what I deserve and should be compensated increasingly more for my time. I am sure that every job has its faults and every group of workers will always have something else to dream for, be it purpose or most likely greater income. The hard part is being mature enough to say "ok, this is good enough for me" and not giving in to the idea of wanting more. The hallmark of a good person is how selfless they are. How earnestly can I approach being a good person?

For me personal injury is when I am not given something that I feel entitled to. This can be anything from gas money on a long trip with a friend, to free time being denied by the lazyness of a roommate who fails to wash their dishes, to even a good night kiss from my girlfriend. Of course there are varying ranges of injury that go along with these trespasses but what I have trouble figuring out is whether or not they're really injuries or just me being selfish. It makes me think a lot about that whole dying to one's self each day thing that Paul talks about.

B.K. %10%action#%90%reaction

2007-07-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

night-time summer rain

yields a smile warmly gleaned

as the lot clears out

B.K. Spanitics

2007-06-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

Last night after punching out I got in a conversation about religion with one of the guys who works in the kitchen.

Just a shout-out really quick, people who work in the kitchens of restaraunts are outstandingly hard workers-I'm sure that doesn't apply to every single person who has ever had a cooking job, but the staff at Flo's busts their butts each and every night and I appreciate that.
Anyhow he was taking out the trash when I was getting out of the building and he started up a conversation. We have a habit of poking fun at eachother and other people in spanish, cussing and trying to figure out new ways to get the dishes done faster. He told me that as Christians we should be setting an example for other people and that we shouldn't use "malas palabras," and then he started to hold me accountable as an older person (I think he's 19) saying that I have an even greater duty to be an upstanding Christian of morals and decency and should consider my actions in front of even him. I responded by shoddily quoting Timothy 4:12, pertaining to his role as a young person to continue setting an example even though he doesn't have the, what, credibility(?) that older people have. We went back and forth about the responsibility of being a Christian and the relevance of being an example through ones actions in terms of stereotypical conservative behavior (Abstaining from alcohol) versus stereotypical liberal behavior (Radical love for others and dispreservation of one's self).
I told him that I believe it is our responsibility as Christians to reconcile everyone to God, not for the sake of winning souls to Christ but to establish a relationship to the Father through our own love. I asked him how we should do that and he responded by saying that we must first establish a friendship with that person so that they will take a vested interest in what we have to say; we must construct a sincere friendship that will create conversation. We then started to talk about the hypothetical male friend (because this model gets a little complicated if we incorporate a female) who wanted to go out for a drink and whether or not we would continue building that friendship in a liberal sense by earnestly going with him or removing ourselves in the conservative fashion by being a model of Christian excellence. He told me that he would go with the friend for the sake of establishing that friendship, that commonality for something greater down the road. He quoted Paul who said that he became weak for the weak and strong for the strong and told me that he could do no better.

This was big for me considering the fact that the majority of my kitchen staff does not seem to enjoy alcohol a great deal. When offered drinks by Debbie after one particularly strenuous night the majority of them opted for virgin pinapple slushies. My friend at one point earlier on in the job became frustrated with me because I bought a case of beer for some of the head chefs for all their hard work, he said that I was leading them to vice and corruption. You know when I think about it, a gift of beer may not have been the best idea when I didn't even know the people that well. My friend said to me that it would have been better to become something of friends with him first and then consider having a drink with them rather than just shoving alcohol in their faces.

All of this, ladies and gentlemen, happened in very broken spanish...but none the less did happen across the language boundry with passion, concern, and even a high-five at the end.

B.K. The 17-top

2007-06-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you that read the previous post, today began with me dropping a glass filled with coke in the kitchen. The first hour thereby proceeded angst-fully with me thinking that I was going to drop a bowl of gumbo or who knows what on an unfortunate customer. However I was lucky and didn't mess up a food delivery at all.

Yay competence.

Today was a really fun day. At the very end of it all I had the privledge to cater to both familial sides of a newly married couple. It was stressful because of all of the drinks and food and potential mistakes there-in with customized entreés, but fun considering the fact that at the end of it all I could smile knowing that I had done something that I had never before known to be a difficult task. God bless the rest of the restaraunt world - servers, hosts, cooks, and bussers alike.

I also had my first repeat customers today. They came in a few days ago looking to pass the time with some drinks and appetizers; an older married couple and their married son with his wife. The older man was a happy guy who knew how to tease with a smile. His name was Don. Their table made me feel good in that sort of you-make-me-feel-worth-your-while sort of way and if I had the chance I would be a maid in their home.

B.K. Tossed Salad

2007-06-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

Tossed Salad

The other day I walked into a place called Speedie Pizza when the manager, Tony, asked me if I wanted a job delivering pizza. He said I would make a lot more money than I would working at Flo's and would love to give me a full-time position as the lead driver. In turn, with 24 hours notice of my decision I explained to him that I simply did not need the hours he was offering me. That night I made nothing in terms of tips, but here-in lies the saving grace of working for Debbie, Kelly, and Jen at Flo's Place.

Tonight I dropped a scallop salad with no onions and no tomatos on the legs of a young woman and her friends father - bleu cheese/cajun vinagrette dressing and all. If any of you have ever committed a royal faux-pau against a customer you'll know exactly how I felt the rest of the evening. Sure enough Kelly came up to me and explained that if I ever failed to use a tray stand when delivering food again I would be in hot water.

Later on this evening Kelly and I were playing around again, she explained to me that if it wasn't her telling me how I screwed things up it would be someone else. We smiled and life went on. Although I screwed up on the job I was still accepted by my boss, Debbie - the original owner, Flo's, daughter - even told me that she liked my attitude on the job; that's the sort of moral support that I've been looking for in a job. The only other place I've ever felt that was from a lady named Judy Klinedenst at Bath and Body works. They're the sort of socio-emotional managers that the world needs more of.

I'm kind of happy to have a good boss.
Knock on wood :)

B.K. Rejection Stinks

2007-06-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

But is it worse from a stranger or someone that you know?

Lets go running.

B.K. The Freemans

2007-06-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight a couple came in that told me they had just been waiting for 2 and a half hours at Drunken Jacks (a very nice restaraunt down the street) for their food when they decided to mosey on up to Flo's place. It was my sincere pleasure to wait on them for the following hour and a half there-after. They told me the story of how they were high school sweethearts and dated for 11 years before they got married. They were on their way to a veterinarian convention of sorts, the Mr (I think his name was Robert), being a vet, is required to fulfill a certain number of hours for continued education of advances in the field. They asked me about my story, about how I ended up in South Carolina and what I was planning to do with South Korea, psychology, health, and Africa and commended me for my courage. The Mr. outright told me that he admired what I was doing; it felt good to be affirmed with my life.

The end-all in this is a smile and feeling that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. It's that sensation of wanting to get out of your car and dance to the radio when you finish parking in the driveway. The big thing now is not being blinded by money, because when people tell you that there's a lot more to be made just a few blocks down the road it can get frustrating to stay where you are. More corporate environments also have their lack of advantages :)

May you and I always have just enough of the green stuff.

B.K. The Restaraunt Biz: Dateline Flo's Place, $47 check, $0.00 tip

2007-06-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

There's a lot I can start off with right here, right now; a lot of surprising emotions and relative trespasses that won't matter to me in 3 months. But I can start off with honestly saying that if you love people that don't deserve it you are doing something un-human. I don't mean that in a pious sense, but by earnestly taking the things that selfish people do (or fail to do) and not letting them carry sway over your life you are doing both them and yourself a courtesy.

Remember that you can always tell a person's character by how they treat people that they don't need to treat well. Thanks Mission Impossible 3

Pray for the good fortune of your customers, especially the ones that don't deserve it. You'll probably never see them again anyway, so what good does it do to put more hate into the world?

Bad tips can always lead to an appreciation for better days. And ending the day on the smile is always better than going to bed with a heavy mind.

B.K. 3 Months Later

2007-03-12T04:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty good feeling being back in the United States, to be perfectly honest I was outright excited to be coming back near the end of my trip and I feel like that contributed quite a bit to my lack of reacculturation. Since I've been home I have had a lot of opportunities to become engaged with the communities I live in, and I've been very grateful for that. I made a new friend when I first came back to campus, her name was Charissa and one night she talked to me about her potential move to Philadelphia next semester.

Like many people at Messiah College she was getting tired of the 'Messiah bubble,' surrounded by a mostly conservative viewpoint of life that is more often resilient to change than not. As I remember the story now, she had gone to church one day where the pastor told the congregation that they will never be happy anywhere else unless they are happy in the here and now. Charissa heard this and told me later on that week about how it had been affecting her, about how she felt that it would also be true for her in the midst of going to Philadelphia in order to escape Messiah. How can I say that 'life will be better when this happens, or if I get there or if I get that.' Life is a struggle at some point for absolutely everyone, and when it is our time to persevere it may feel that the world is falling in on us but then that's the joy of living. In terms of being happy through it all, Charissa made me think about the price of being content, and how many people sacrifice more than I will ever be able to imagine in order to simply and humbly say "I'm happy."

The first person to come to mind with that state of mind was a poor man with crutches named Marco. I saw him everyday when I would walk to school in Ecuador and didn't talk to him nearly as much as I should of. I do know that he was happy though. One of the most grateful people I've ever met, especially considering his circumstances.

For all of those students who will be going on a study abroad or looking for advice to give to someone leaving the country, the greatest encouragement I could offer is smiling. Teach yourself to be happy where you are at all times because no matter how hard things may be. Like time, it too shall pass. Through this you may express a gratitude for life in itself to God. Go and make stories for yourself, and then be generous both with them and in them.

Smile, I love you
sincerely.

xanga.com/whatsmine

B.K. Might as well be walking on the sun

2006-12-14T04:44:00.000-08:00

Might as well be walking on the sun

That was the first thing to pop into my head in lieu of having this crazy sunburn that circles around the back of my neck and onto my chest. If I wasn't fairly tan at this point, it would never bother me, but it feels like my entire neck-head was placed on my body as a mask. But that's ok! Because I can fix it with even more time at the beach this weekend!

This week has been non-stop presentations and tests, and oh boy am I excited for it to be over. I have been in a fetted love with my theatre class of actuacion all semester but then I feel a little bit...unprepared for the show that we'll be presenting tonight? At 7:30 there will be a montage of 6-12 plays that will happen in accordance with the will of God, none of which have a connection to any other one, and none of have a scene change that is accomplished in less than 3 minutes. Not that I'm bitter or peeved, I just have never been in any sort of production that has been so...haphazard. Of course there is never a production that has ever been ready on the opening night of a show, but then I've always had a sense of anticipation to the oncoming hour of the curtain being drawn. Tonight I just want to go home and sleep. Tomorrow my other theatre class of voz y movimiento will be presenting an abstract piece incorporating our own dreams (spoken in haphaphappy spanish!), song, rasabox techniques (which were made in India, COOL), and dressing/undressing; all in the main hall of the school! Now that will be a capstone to such a long week.

Tomorrow afternoon, 32 of us gringolandians head off to Papallacta, a man-made series of holes in the ground which make it easy for shmoes like me to sit down and get the energy sapped out of them by thermal springs. Oh how torturous life is!

Lastly, it has been on and off for me the past two weeks whether I have wanted to come home or not, but then here comes the break down:

-I finally learned how to speak spanish comfortably, even if I'm not perfect, I'm better than crappy.
-I know I'm going to lose my abilities in Spanish over time, which is something not to be confused with awesome.
-I am going to miss people, lots of people, Ecuadorians, North Americans, and especially some Switzerlandians.
-I'm honestly kind of scared about reacculturation.
-I am relatively poor now. I am relatively happy.
-What does someone do on breaks from school anyway?
-Living in an apartment again when I get back to school, kind of missing out on that community thing.
-Class. Class is going to be something hard again.

But then these are all the negative things. Certainly, I will love seeing friends and family again, but then how easy will it be to get out what I've been accumulating inside me over the past 5 months; when I came back from Albania I was told that stories will eventually end with people having a glazed look in their eyes, finally coming back into reality with the presentation of the line "and so I hope to go back someday."

There's a lot to wrestle through with the landing of my plane back in Florida and I will definitely not be comfortable, but I look forward to the adventure of coming home. Someday it might just not affect me.

B.K. 34:12

2006-11-29T04:44:00.000-08:00

B.K. Clandestiny

2006-11-28T04:44:00.000-08:00

Last week I came back from my home, it smelt of pizza crust and dirt. I met people that I had never seen before, but it felt like I had finally arrived at the family reunion that I'd been missing for always. Standing at the shore I was swallowed by the salty waves - wanting to drown in my own paradise amidst the wind-whipped trees and mottled buildings that once stood at the beaches as proud hotels before hurricanes left them as ransacked refuges for drunkards and horny teenagers. The morning rose on Sunday as I walked through the streets alone without a sense of direction; never having been so lost, never having felt so right about where I was supposed to be. I'll go back there someday, I'll know my family and claim that sense of belonging that I've only had a taste of - much like a deer that has it's first savoring of a salt lick; a guilty pleasure that satisfies a carnal longing while at the same time putting it right in the line of fire. I think of that place everytime I look at the sand now. I remember the happiness of the people and the life of not having material pleasures everytime I see the faces of the homeless. I forget what needs to be changed because life there was simple but still in longing; an existence of self-perpetuated longevity that has worked for decades. I recall the smoke of a cigar from a man who sold old pocket watches in the street, cascading up his face in a fluid sort of ephemeral beauty; dissapating into the air like a stone sinking into the ocean. I remember the cotton soft sky. I will go back and find a resting place for my ashes.

B.K. 25 Days Later

2006-11-27T04:44:00.000-08:00

Currently Listening
We Run This
By Missy Elliott
Lose Control
see related

I was on a plane from Ecuador to the United States.
I had gone everywhere and done everything that I had hoped to do, and then some.
I knew how to hold my own in Spanish, being able to get more information than just the location of the bathroom.
I had made children happy.
I had made grown men smile.
I had made cuban women laugh.
I didn't have to miss my mother and sister anymore.
I didn't get upset about getting change in pennies and nickles on the bus.
I had gotten a little tanner.
I fully appreciated having a blue passport that entitled me to go anywhere in the world.
I was grateful that I was not born into slavery, poverty, or malnourishment.
I stopped turning into rice.
I said good bye to some of the greatest people I had ever known in my life.
I was still happy.
I planned on coming back.

B.K. This entry is not about McDonald's

2006-11-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

Welp, I was partially right about the Galapagos Islands. But then that's what I get for liking mountains more at this point in my life.

For those who don't know, I like to think of people in one of two ways, mountain-folk and beach-folk. I don't really think you can effectively stereotype the sort in a "you must be a silly introvert / impudent extrovert person," but then I don't think you can really like being on a mountain or at a beach equally. So if you think you do have one of those un-biased respects for these two beautiful settings, pick a side and get off that fence!

Of course there were penguins, and a seal decided to swim with me. These are the highlights, I would happily take one of each home just so I could show you how much fun the two can be, but then I do not own a swimming pool or a bathtub large enough to keep them happy.

1 Week later I sit at a computer in a district of Quito known as La Mariscal, it's the place where all of the foreigners come to drink and party and be loud at night. And I'm not as comfortable as I used to be here. I think I've developed an aversion to the touristy parts of life, the areas that are mainstream and common to the norm. I enjoy the gritty and foreign, the things that people would like to avoid normally - and I don't just mean non-pricey souveniers and trips to foreign places; but also the dark alley-ways and uncomfortable conversations with strangers that no one likes to start because such folk are 'poor' or 'dangerous,' or 'want nothing to do with you'. All the same I have never felt comfortable in shopping malls. When I used to work at Bath and Body works I would go home most nights feeling a sense of self-commercialization, which in no way I want to start downplaying America through ranting about big corporations, but then after 4 months away from home I have come to another realization. In knowing who I am and having a slight understanding of the things I am repelled from, I have come to know that America is a great, great country. Granted there are a few horrible things that revolve around corruption and a seemingly endless lack of care for those in less-fortunate conditions on a national and global level, but then there is so much more to be praised about that nation.

I've had talks about politics in the States, and how much they suck and deprive other countries of benefits for the sake of personal gain - and those are things I can't defend or agree with, but I can say that it has still worked. Things like Free Trade Agreements that seemingly benefit 3rd world countries by giving them global market prices for products are hated outside of the States by many because it still ensures enormous profit for the companies involved while those on the lower end continue to just make ends meet. But then not all actions can be meant for the sake of evil by the hands of the wealthy.

More important than money though, let me say something about people. I have also talked with people here about the condition of a class system. What I have realized through this is that in America, everyone is equal regardless of finance, race, or employment - far beyond that of many, many, many other countries out there. Here at the university of Quito, people are considered unworthy of dating if they receive a scholarship. For those of you at Messiah College who are paying $30,000 dollars a year to go to school, feel special becuase as one of the top 5 schools in Ecuador, the students of the University of Quito pay a mere $10,000 dollars a year to receive their education. The school is populated by the wealthiest of Ecuador's top families, who though I hate to say it, would come off as your stereotypical University of California student, just as opinionated against the student whose family can not afford to pay for them to go to school completely, imagine that where in the States people are praised for their scholarships, for their good grades and citizenship. Also with racism and prejudice, where it is a daily pass to see derogatory statements written about people from all types of walks on garage doors and brick walls, such is not publically tolerated in the States anymore. But I have to stop there before I make statements that can be overgeneralized.

The United States is not perfect by anymeans, I have never been one to think that and I never will. But the one thing that I can assert with more confidence than not as to what the States has been doing better with more than ever is that of respect. I talked to a woman here who told me that when her son was 18 he went to the States to finish high school. Near the end of the school year her son called home and said that he was going to stay in the States to go to college. The mother of the child, distraught as one might imagine, asked feverishly why? The son replied that in the United States, he was treated like anyone else deserved to be treated: that he could make a living scrubbing toilets and still be looked in the eye, greeted with courtesy, and respected as an individual that he ever would in Ecuador. And that still applies here with maids, indigenous families, and especially the poor.

There is a drastic separation of worlds here in Ecuador, just as there was in Albania, more so than I ever thought about the States - where there are the richest poor people in all of the world. Here you can cut the class system with a chainsaw and find just a stark number of people making the effort to mesh them together. The impoverished beggers, the middle class strugglers, and the upper class loungers: full of the wealthy and the non-residential tourists.

I applaud tourism though, it does wonders for the economy in whatever country it is implemented, but then I think there's so much more that could be done with it. I will be going to the most special place in the world for me in 5 days time, but I'll probably have to refer to it by a different name though for evading legal liability in the future. I'll tell you if I figure out what more can be done with that tourism when I get back.

B.K. I'm going to Turtle Island!

2006-10-31T04:44:00.000-08:00

That's right, tomorrow morning at 7:00 I'm going to the 5 islands where Charles Darwin himself became famous because he landed on an island, found lots of animals and plants and started screaming "THEY'RE GROWING INSIDE ME!!!" Later he was quoted for evolution, or something like that. Anyways, in all honestly, I'm not that excited. Seriously, you should be lecturing me about how I am not taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity being given to me to go to a secluded natural reserve where I can stand at a foots distance away from a sea hawk without it killing me or flying away. I mean, there's a 300 year old turtle named Lonely George who's just waiting to die as the last of his species (Apparently there's like 13 species of sea turtle, who'd'a'thunk'it?). I sin against all biologists for my lack of interest in the islands, but you know, I'm sure things will be different when I get there. Shoot, there ARE penguins! They're not real penguins and they look more like puffins in my opinion, but I'm sure some scientist out there said "look, a penguin! Let's key it!" So that's something to look forward too I suppose. Who knows, I might even buy a t-shirt. For someone else.

Yesterday There Was an Earthquake

2006-10-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

I survived two, count 'em, TWO earthquakes! They happened around 11:00 in the morning, and at the time I was just waking up on a couch. At first I thought it was just really crazy wind beating against the glass door, but thenit occurred to me, "hmm, there is no wind outside." So now I need to make a t-shirt that goes along the lines of "I survived..." wait a tick...they don't name earthquakes. Great. Omgosh but wait it sounds preeeetty cool in spanish. I can see it now...

That would be SO sweet and money inspiring. Actually, the quake wasn't nearly that bad, it was maybe a 4.0 on the richter scale...even if I have no idea what that means. But I mean STILL, who would of thought that Ecuador was on a fault line!?! I mean besides all of those people who saw Tungurahua coming. Speaking of Ecuadorian volcanos, I might be going back to that one this coming weekend in the city of Banos - by far my most favorite city of Ecuador to date (ie: the one that I was pretty much trapped in a mountain for one weekend past). There I will buy buckets of $.25 Guayaba candy...which is kind of the quintessential delicacy for every person who ever was addicted to Fruit Roll-Ups as a kid, keep my bicycle off of mountain paths, and maybe even hug a cougar.

Revelation:

I have been to two countries outside of the United States in the past 21 years (not including Canada, although they are just as much a country as any one else). And what has come to my attention is the idea that everyone wants to be the United States. I can't generalize this with every country, but I feel like there's a great majority of city-states that desire to be westernized and, well, american. I see this on television, where the majority of movies and tv-shows are broadcast in english with spanish subtitles, I see it in the clothing lines, I especially hear it in the taxis and on the buses. The big thing with Ecuador is that there is still an overwhelming amount of national pride, which is something I admire because it's never been something that I've worn on my sleeve for the states. But all the same, popularity seems to coincide with wealth, and nations are no exception.

And politics:

The first round of elections in Ecuador ended yesterday too. So come November, the people of this country will have to decide between one cantidate who does public healings in the name of God and has been rumored to pay people for their votes at the voting stations; and another who wants to supposedly change the national currency (again), and has been rumored to be in cahoots with an over-zealously corrupt president from 2 elections ago. To quote my ecua-mother, "poor country, poor poor country." Yay government.

B.K. The October Effect

2006-10-15T04:44:00.000-07:00

I was told before I left for Ecuador by a, 1, Crystal D. that the month of October would happen and I would not like it. Eventually during this month, the majority of my companions and myself would start to miss things from back home, get frustrated because it wouldn't seem like we would be advancing that much with our language abilities, and pretty much tired all around in general.

Well I know a couple people that this "October Effect" has already hit relatively hard, and see it happening to myself as well. I was walking down the street last week and smelled autumn; I don't know if it was the combined smells of street food, ecuadorians, and car exhaust or what...but I remembered auburned maple leaves lying across the lawns at messiah college, the onset of snow and calm in the air, and big puffy jackets adorned by the masses. It made me want to go home and drink hot chocolate. But then a honking taxi was quick to pull me out of my daze and encourage me to stop standing in the street.

I am excited to go home, I can't deny that. But at the same time I have a lot to look foward to in the next 2.5 months. There will be trips to islands, waterfalls, and maybe even canyons, relationships to fortify, and hundreds upon hundreds of photographs to take. The thing that I'm more worried about is when the December Effect takes hold, and I won't want to leave. I hope you are all doing well and feel more and more loved each day. Go buy someone a cookie.

B.K. The City of Guayaquil

2006-10-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

-smells like poop-poo
-sells clothing for very cheap, kind of one of those "everything in this store has something wrong with it" deals.
-sells really good sandals for next to nothing
-has a pirate ship, WITH a hearty crew
-includes populous that will try to get you into their car so that they can take you for a ride through the city...or back alley-ways where you might get robbed (We salute your valiant attempt Wilmer!)
-has some REALLY good artists on the boardwalk
-has some REALLY trifling restaurant attends on the boardwalk when it comes to table space
-comes fully equipped with chicken empanadas
-reminds me profusely of the movie Bladerunner
-pales in comparison to the city of Cuenca
-held "la feria" on sunday, where you could go and buy all sorts of kitchen appliances for blowout prices. gnarly.
-had fiestas of independance yesterday...somewhere
-is not the solution to world hunger. We're still working on that one.

I have a very interesting discolored patch of skin on the left side of my chest. Maybe it will not kill me. More details inside specially marked packages of Trix cereal.

Kernals of Wisdom

2006-10-05T04:44:00.000-07:00

The great equalizers of life are faith and death. I was privledged to be born in a country that gave me inherint rights and a blue passport. Others are born into slavery and famine in the countries of Africa. But we can all find a common richness and comfort in our faith and inevitably we will all die. The issue with faith is whom will be more likely to have a deeper, more intimate understanding of their faith given their lot in life?

100 years from now, no one is going to care how comfortable my life was or how much money I had.

There is a saying in Tibetan scriptures: "Knowledge must be burned, hammered and beaten like pure gold. Then one can wear it as an ornament." So when you receive spiritual instruction from the hands of another, you do not take it uncritically, but you burn it, you hammer it, you beat it, until the bright, dignified color of gold appears. Then you craft it into an ornament, whatever design you like, and you put it on.

People are afriad of the emptiness of space, or the absence of company. It could be a terrifying experience to have no one to relate to, nothing to relate with. The idea of it can be extremely frightening, though not the real experience. It is generally a fear of space, a fear that we will not be able to anchor ourselves to any solid groud, that we will lose our identity as a fixed and solid and definite thing.

Sometimes imodium is not the solution.

"Surrender" means acknowledging the raw, rugged, blumsy and shocking qualities of oneÃ‚Â´s ego, and giving them up; opening up oneÃ‚Â´s self completely, trying to get beyond fascination and expectation.
_______________________________
In other news, I drank a $.55 liter of milk today. What was the manliest thing YOU did in the past 24 hours?

B.K. Good morning October, I was lost in the woods last week.

2006-10-02T04:44:00.000-07:00

Here marks the beginning of the 3rd month in my adventure in another world. Right now I am sitting in a 3rd story computer lab on campus, listening to the delightful chords of a flute from across the great wall that divides this campus from the rest of Ecuador that is playing one of those wonderful sort of classical ¨good morning to the world¨sort of things that were composed by Johann Sebastian Bach or maybe even Bethoveen.

But it wasn´t always this way.
Last week at this time, I was waking up from one of the more tumultuous experiences I´ve yet to have in a foreign country...and let me tell you, there´ve been about 3 of them. But this one, was by far the most entertainingly scary.

It all started last Saturday, when Kristen said to me...

Kristen - "Hey Trevor! Hannah just invited us to go to BANOS, where they have all sorts of fun sporty things!"
Trevor - "Let's roll!"
(2 hours later)
Kristen - "Hey Hannah, we're ready, let's go!"
Trevor - "Hey who are those guys¿"
Hannah - "ECUADORIANS! Here's David, Ephraim, Jonaton, and my german roommate Julianne.
All - "Hi!"
Hannah - "okletsgonow!"
(5 hours later)
All - "Yay Banos!"
Julianne - "Hey guys tomorrow lets get bikes for the day so that we can go and see the waterfalls w/o taxis!"
David - "So sweet!"
((Sunday Afternoon))
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "Ok, $4, $4, $4, $4, $4, $4, $5 for each bike"
Trevor - "Hey why do I have to pay an extra dollar for my bicycle!?!
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "Because it is special and blue!"
Ephraim - "LOL!"
(A few minutes later after our heros have been flying downhill through the city, dodging cars and children)
Hannah - "Oh my gosh nature is SO pretty!"
Jonaton - "Guys I think this is the way we need to go in order to get to the waterfalls, up this ominous path"
Kristen - "Sweet lets go!"
Jonaton - "And then before the waterfall there should be a bridge that we can go BUNGEE JUMPING off of!"
Hannah - "How much does it cost?
Jonaton - "ONLY TEN DOLLARS!"
Trevor - "Yay!"
(30 minutes later while getting on and off their bikes to go over mud and rocks on a steadily rising course...)
Julianne - "Oh wow I am SOOO happy that I wore sandals today"
Ephraim - "I kno!"
Jonaton - "Careful guys, the path gets pretty narrow up here, you might want to get off your bikes."
(Moments later)
Julianne - "OMG IM FALLING OFF A CLIFF!"
David - "OMG"
Jonaton - "OMG"
Ephraim - "OMG"
Trevor - "OMG"
Hannah - "Let me take a picture!"
Julianne - "OW OW OW OW blood and adrenaline and lots of jagged pointy rocks"
David - "I don´t like them either!!"
Trevor - "Wow that was a close one"
Jonaton - "Ok giez lets go!"
Kristen - "Look out it´s a cow!"
Hannah - "Where did that come from?"
David - "I don´t know, poke it with this stick to get it out of our way!"
Kristen - "ahh it´s pooping!"
Jonaton - "HAHAHA!"
(After another 2.5 hours, our heros stumble across a little hut inhabited by a little man and woman)
Hermit man who lives in the mountains - "Oh my gosh guys, you must be stupids to have bikes up here"
Trevor - "I kno!"
Jonaton - "Hey do you know where we can find a bridge around here"
Hermit man who lives in the mountains - "Sure dudes! Just keep following this path for another hour, it's there!"
Trevor - "Thanks dude!"
Hermit man who lives in the mountains - "Totally!"
(One hour later)
Ephraim - "OMG where are wee?"
Julianne - "In a cow pasture of course"
Trevor - "EWW I TOTALLY JUST FELL IN POO"
Hannah - "H4rH4rH4r!"
Cow - "H4rH4Rhr$4!!!¨!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Jonaton - "Ok guys, we´re running out of day light, I say we keep going in this direction because that man said..."
Kristen - "Let´s go!"
(A few minutes later, while traveling on a narrow and barely lit path)
Jonaton - "Ok guys, there´s no way that we´re going to get back to civilization on this narrow and dimly lit path..."
Trevor - "...while only having a single cellphone flashlight"
Jonaton - "So you guys stay here and we'll go find food, water, and help...you know, things we don´t have!"
David - "OK!"
(Moments later, Jonaton and Trevor abandon the rest of the group to go find necessities)
Trevor - "Watch out a donkey!"
Jonaton - "I´ll hit it with this stick!" "Hahaha! That showed it!"
Trevor - "UGH I HATE MUD!"
(Meanwhile)
Kristen - "UGH I HATE COLD!"
Hannah - "It's ok guys I brought this blanket made with space age technology"
Julianne - "Will it feed us?"
Hannah - "No, but it WILL keep us warm...or me warm, provided that Im in the middle because it´s mine"
David - "Dude, 15 lb bikes in the mountain are not cool)
Ephraim - "I kno!"
(Meanwhile...1.5 hours later)
Trevor - "Yay, we found the bridge across the river that separates us from civilization and edible things!"
Jonaton - "I´ll call the red cross for help!¨"
Red Cross - "Hello red cross, how can we save you again?"
Jonaton - "Hi we´re tourists that are stuck in the mountains of banos and we need help to get out of here"
Red Cross - "..."
Jonaton - "Hello? Hello? son of a gun..."
(Minutes later after Jonaton calls back to prove that he wasn´t making a prank call after all)
Red Cross - "Ok, just checking, we´ll be there in 10 minutes"
(40 minutes later after Jonaton and Trevor have climbed a mountain to reach the main road and a small town)
Red Cross - "OK we´re here, all 14 of us, now let´s go find the rest of you!"
Jonaton - "What?"
Red Cross - "That´s right, you expect us to find these people by ourselves?"
Trevor - "mmmmm...."
(Meanwhile)
Julianne - "Hahaha! I don´t have any tampons!"
Hannah - "LOL!"
Kristen - "OMG LOL!"
David - "...what?"
Ephraim - "HAHAHA!"
(1.5 hours later)
Kristen - "we are save'ed!"
Red Cross - "Ok guys, lets go!"
(45 minutes later)
Red Cross - "OK, lets leave the bikes right here"
Jonaton - "But they aren´t ours"
Red Cross - "That´s ok."
David - "...but we rented them and have to take them back to the owner"
Red Cross - "That´s true"
Jonaton - "And we can´t just go back and expect them to let us stay another night without them!"
Red Cross "okletsgonow"
(1.5 hours later)
Kristen - "Yeah we´re back in BANOS!"
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "WHERE ARE MY BIKES!?!"
Ephraim - "We left them in the forest on the mountain where we were, the red cross told us to."
Red Cross - "Yessum."
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "Oh ok."
Hannah - "Can we have a room for the night?"
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "Sure thing."
Hannah - "Can we also have a discount?"
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "OH MY GOSH ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS!?"
Hannah - "I uh..."
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "LOL got ´cha! Sure, you can each have a discount :)!"
(The next morning around 8.25 a.m.)
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "YOU HAVE 3 HOURS TO GET MY BIKES, GO NOWW!!!"
David - "It´s 8 a.m.!"
Jonaton - "We went to bed at liek 4!!!"
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "Oh ok, you guys can sleep in until...how about 1?"
Jonaton - "Gee thanks dude!"
Owner of Hostel who Rents out Bikes too - "No problem!"
(And then around 1 o clock, our two ecuadorian hero liek men went off to move all 7 bikes from the woods to civilization through the use of a cable car that just so happened to be located nearby the bikes.)

In this, I salute the Red Cross of Ecuador and kick every mosquito in the mouth. I am so happy that Malaria is not a real disease.

B.K. The rainy season is coming

2006-09-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

Currently Listening
A Funk Odyssey
By Jamiroquai
see related

It made me sick for a little bit, but now I'm on the mend.

I was told that I would be in Ecuador while the rain was bountiful, but for the first seven weeks it was nowhere to be seen.
Quito was just a hot, sweaty city.

However as of about 3 days ago, the rain started to fall. And although I have never been a fan of apartment life, there's just nothing better than a cup of tea, a rainstorm, and the breeze that it sends to cascade over your face through the window.

I kind of want to live in Ecuador forever when it rains, and I kind of want you all to be here too.

_______________
In other news I was almost assaulted yesterday by three men. Fortunately, my humongous stature terrified them when I puffed myself up like a blowfish. Being a sea creature rocks.

B.K. The Word of the Day is: Locura

2006-09-19T04:44:00.000-07:00

Actually the word of the day should be Pubes rather than Locura...but then here comes the sitch:

This morning in theatre class our teacher was continuing to teach us how to 'lose ourselves' and 'stop thinking about what we're doing.' To do this he asked for volunteers to go up in front of the rest of the group and begin doing the first thing that came into their minds when he said any given word. I was a little scared of having to say "no entiendo la palabra," so I decided to sit this one out. Others went and were asked to act out words, things like inquieto, estupidez, carino, and locura (which is something I gather to mean really really crazy). When people were asked to respond to locura, one started to run around the stage, flailing their arms, laughing hysterically, dodging in and out of curtains. Another began to have a tea party with a non-existent entity. Our teacher however was not content with their acting methods. So he stood up in front of the class and started to explain what he was wanting us to do.

Over the past few classes we have been learning about sensory memory and how we have the inherint potential to suddenly become another person based on the memories and emotions evoked from a particular way our body may be positioned. Any-hoo the teacher, who I like to call Wolfy to my non-him friends, was explaining about how the hardest thing for an actor to do is snap into a character and then personify their personality at the drop of a pin.

He then went on with, "so when I say locura..." at which he began to scream at us from a crouched position, like a madman would then do I suppose, he continued shouting incoherent phrases, lashing his tongue about, all the while approaching us. He then gestured towards his crotch with both of his hands and began to pull down his pants while standing in front of a female student.

Although no penis was seen at this occasion, a good 'ol handful of pubes did make a special appearance. He then pulled up his pants, and began to back away while spitting at her, as good a stage-spit as anyone could ever give.

It was kind of admirable really, I mean, in the states and at Messiah College, a man would get fired for that kind of behavior. I myself wouldn't want Wolfy to ever lose his job, the man is amazing and has such balls to be able to do that kind of thing. He's been in a ton of movies and plays and has undergone a butt-load of martial arts training. Here is a picture of him that I found online that featured him in a movie translated as "Ayahuasca Dreams."

Kind of sweet, no?

B.K. Spanish Like Jazz

2006-09-15T04:44:00.000-07:00

Every night this week there has been a Jazz concert happening in the old part of the city, and every night it gets better. But what's the thing that keeps me coming back? It's dirt free. Although, when I think about the drunks that get escourted away by the police during the breaks between songs I feel a little bit of myself frown. Because the drunk people who hang out in public around here are ever so friendly, and all they want is to dance and share your wine.

Unfortunately, la policia dice "no."

This weekend is the celebration of Mexico's independence, you should remember this to have a reason to party. Because everyone is always looking for a way to justify their actions :)

_____________

I officially miss pizza. I had a slice of it a couple of days ago and I got this big fat nostalgic slap in the face from this summer when my room mates...which was at least like 8 or 9 people would order from Papa John's and watch movies or play computer games or just hang out. Wait...now that I think of it, I miss my ameri-friends. Damn you consumerist hunger!

_____________

I've been having a couple problems with my host mom, she's told me quite a few times in the past "your spanish is horrible," but then I guess that comes with the non-beat-around-the-bush communication tactics that I've been so comfortable with in the states. The program director was telling me the other day when I went to cry about it that once upon a time there was a girl who came to Ecuador on a previous program who weighed around 300 pounds. Well as luck would have it for her, she met a boy in Ecuador and they formed a relationship. He invited her to a dance, and as most women might say at these sort of junctions, she exclaimed "I need to get a dress!" (because honestly, who goes to Ecuador and takes a dress for a formal dance? Not me!). So in the process of getting said dress, she went to a tailor who ever so gracefully said to her "I'm not going to make you a dress! You're very fat!" Needless to say she was kind of pressed for the next few days. But a happy ending comes with how she finally did get something to wear and went to the dance with her boo!

The moral of the story: Although they sometimes use more words to get a point across, sometimes Ecuadorians can come off as a little mean.

Please add Nutella to the list of my current addictions, it's getting pretty serious.

B.K. Dear World Traveler

2006-09-12T04:44:00.000-07:00

When you leave the safe and sound prospects of your American borders, please be sure that you have contacted your bank about leaving the country, or else they might cancel your credit card. If this happens though, be sure to make friends with the bank tellers that you'll be encountering in your new home-abroad. You may also consider finding free events to entertain yourself with for the evening, such as Jazz concerts in the ancient part of the city, and be sure to stock up on street food; for the price of a cup of coffee (that you of course will never buy from starbucks), you can enjoy a heaping portion of papas fritas, meat, and all the pink/white sauce your tummy can handle! Just be sure to watch out for your new potential friends, dysentary and giardia.

Actually, street food is a slight addiction for me these days, but I don't think the Bible says anything about it...

B.K. And now for a funny joke!

2006-09-05T04:44:00.000-07:00

-Knock Knock
Who be dat?
-Trevor's House
Trevor's House who?
-Trevor's House who got flooded by Hurricane Ernesto SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE PG 506 OMGLOL!!!

Although honestly, worse things have happened in life :)

B.K. I climbed a mountain the other day..

2006-09-04T04:44:00.000-07:00

Actually I rode the teleferico...which is one of those "sit in this basket while we give you a ride up this steep cliff that you would otherwise kill yourself doing on foot." While I was up there I discovered a quietness that I thought could never exist in Quito. Up over a ridge, away from all of the attractions of the mountaintop themepark they call Volcano, away from all of the quaint little coffee shops that sell tea and soup, away from the other gringos that were taking photos and laughing about how fun it would be to pee off the side, I found the clouds. I found the cold, quiet bliss that makes mountains the only other thing that could compete with oceans. An alternate paradise of isolation and cleanliness, devoid of human life except for trails and the remnants of campfires. They call that mountain Pichincha, and I will be going back someday to camp in it's hills. However I might not take a camera, because apparently theres a mucho mad number of muggings and robberies recorded annually. Yay adventure!

B.K. This morning I was walking down the sidewalk...

2006-08-29T04:44:00.000-07:00

and a man driving a motorcycle came onto said sidewalk from the street behind me. He started to speed up and wouldn't you know it, decided to drive right at me. Well, wouldn't you know it, my natural instinct to be like Bruce Lee kicked in and I popped to the side in some sort of honkey martial arts position. Much to my surprise I deterred the madman to the point of making him slow down his motor-bicycle...only to watch him throw a newspaper over the 8 foot wall behind me.

Paper boys these days.

__________________________________________________

And now for a debaucherous fact:

Yesterday the rest of the some 270 estudiantes de intercambio arrived and we had a talking to by a counselor here at the school. He pretty much explained the merits of having unprotected sex, being involved with drug trade, parasites within the digestive system, and alcohol. The majority of subject was a big red flag of "no no," and "don't do that," but provided that the majority of exchange students studying here for the next 4 months are not from a school that floats along in it's own happy bubble (which is something that is exceedingly termed here), the man explained that because of the high altitude it will "take you a lot less alcohol to get high, in fact you might feel like your 11 years old again after just a couple drinks." Now here's the fancy fact: I've met at least 3 Ecuadorians (all of age 19 or less) who have expressed to me that on various nights, they had consumed in excess of 20 plus beers with friends or fathers...and had they not told me I would have taken them for completely sober. I can't even begin to imagine the conditioning behind such a feat, the only thing I can compare it to is studying to become a monk; you live in the mountains and it takes you years of practice and discipline to reach a point of excellence within your mind and body that other men often envy and pine to reach themselves...except you're stumbling everywhere and quite possibly vomiting, something I'm pretty sure they teach against in densely monk-populated areas.
_________________________________________

And now for a moment of reflection:Today marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and that means something to me.

B.K. (untitled)

2006-08-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

I think guitars are pretty swell. I also think spanish teenage boys are pretty amazing and willing to drag foreigners around with them anywhere. I'll tell you what though, once all of this is over I am going to miss eating german chocolate - in fact I might have to start an international trade business if they don't start selling Kinder in the states.

I only have one more day of these intensive spanish language classes, after that I start big kid school with hundreds upon hundreds of rich Ecuadorian fellows who will no doubt forgive me for my salvation army wardrobe. And my biggest problem in the next coming week is whether or not I should take a bread making class.

Hooray for low-stress inducing environments!

B.K. Things that can live in your body

2006-08-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'll be heading off to the amazon jungle with the rest of the BCA kids, and if there's one thing I've been warned about it's been that I should NEVER pee in the water. Mainly because of a glorious little friend who lives in the river who would love to enter my orifices and hang around with me forever. After a little rummaging around wikipedia, I found this piece of fan-mail:

The candirú or canero (Vandellia cirrhosa) or toothpick fish is a freshwater fish in the group commonly called the catfishes. It is found in the Amazon River and has a reputation among the natives as the most feared fish in its waters, even over the piranha. The species grows only to a size of an inch in length and is eel shaped and translucent, making it almost impossible to see in the water. The candiru is a parasite. It swims into the gill cavities of other fishes, erects a spine to hold itself in place, and feeds on the blood in the gills, earning it a nickname as the "vampire fish of Brazil".

It is feared by the natives because it is attracted to urine or blood, and if the bather is nude it will swim into an orifice (the anus or vagina, or even in the case of smaller specimens the penis - and perhaps deep into the urethra). It then erects its spine and begins to feed on the blood and body tissue just as it would from the gills of a fish. The candiru is then almost impossible to remove except through an operation. As the fish locates its host by following the water flow from the gills to its source, urinating while bathing increases the chance of a candiru "homing in" on a human urethra.

So remember amigos. When in the amazon river. Never ever pee and swim simultaneously.

B.K. 30 Hours for a beach

2006-08-13T04:44:00.000-07:00

This has been a most rewarding weekend to say the least.

On Friday night, 7 of us from the group decided to take a 6 hour bus ride out to the beaches of Esmereldas, for a nominal price we boarded a motor coach and set off for, simply put, the greatest adventure in the history of the world ever.

10:33 p.m. (Friday) - Departure from Kristen's residence with 3 members of the group for arrival at bus depot "Trans Esmereldas"

10:58 - Arrival at "Trans Esmereldas" makes known that the presence of the other 4 members in our group are nowhere to be found. Text Messages are dispatched to retrieve sleeping group members. Waiting inside sultry-hot bus station ensues.

11:15 - Remaining group members arrive with tickets in hand, bus number for some reason not being included on ticket stub.

11:30 - The ceremonial ascent and descent from various buses eventually seats us in the correct motor coach. Conflict thereby ensues when 'Man with child A' requests to have my seat. Local transit authorities intervene to direct man to a different bus.

12:00 a.m. (Saturday)- Coach number 186 departs full from transit station for non-stop drive to the beaches of Esmereldas.

12:10 - Transit authority wearing a Marlboro jacket turns on television for complimentary early-morning movie: "White Tiger." Hours later, the sounds of gun shots, sex, and martial arts action can still be heard throughout the bus.

12:44 - Loud denizens on back of bus begin conversation.

1:40 - Air pressure and heat culminate to the point of making babies on board the bus cry.

2:33 - Child sitting beside me becomes uncomfortable and uses my ribs as an elbow rest.

2:40 - Complimentary early-morning movie: "White Tiger" begins playing for the second time.

3:24 - Sordidly hot.

6:00 - Arrival at beach town of Tonsupa. Contact brother of group member named Andres nowhere to be found. Ceremonial wandering of the streets comenses. Strings of families are found heading towards the beach as well.

6:14 - Group haps´ upon very...friendly, dogs.

6:40 - All vacancies are full in all nearby hotels as a result of the holiday weekend. Calling Andres and his friends directs our group back out to the main strip. At strip, calling Andres directs our group to the direction of the beach. Desire to carry bags becomes markedly low on behalf of group members.

8:32 - After meeting Andres and finally finding a hotel, group departs for beach. Arrival at beach is met by a Ford Bronco parked "por la playa" with 4 people dancing on the roof. Unconscious locals are everywhere.

9:05 - After making camp on the beach, members depart for different activities. Some for the water, some for exploration, and still a few for tanning in the sunless sky. The pacific ocean proves to be surprisingly warm.

9:14 - I step on a hermit crab. I catch it and name it Frederick.

9:17 - Frederick is dropped into the ocean through shoddy passing.

9:33 - Rescue party finds Frederick, promptly removes him from the unsafe waters to the cool resesses of the beach.

9:40 - Unbeknownst to rescue party, Frederick is released by animal rights activist named Heather :)

10:30 - Group decides to fork out the shekles to "ride the banana" (a super-fun ya-ya inflatable rocketship that people ride through the water on).

10:40 - Ankle injury exchanged for head injury with Kristen upon flipping of banana boat by driver.

11:07 - Group returns to stable land. Hunger becomes prominent.

12:20 p.m. - Sun comes out to keep me company while rest of group wanders into the city for sustenance. Tanning commences.

12:40 - There's a very loud and annoying clown on the beach. He's making a lot of sound and has an army of children following him..all along the beach, for an hour from now.

1:14 - Hunting party returns with outrageously full box of shrimp and rice. Operation stop being so freaking hungry begins.

1:17 - Nearby flapping of towel by beach patron results in sand compromising the integrity of shrimp and rice lunch.

1:18 - Operation stop being so freaking hungry continues. Unfortunate inability to eat everything results in leftovers.

1:40 - Group of nearby men with beer initiates conversation about alcohol, the united states, women, and homosexuality.

2:08 - Departure from beach. Leftovers of glorious ambrosia are forgotten. Shrimp and rice of the gods is consumed by men with beer. Upon walking back to the hotel, it becomes known that the only available bus leaving town for the weekend is to come at 11:55.

3:00 - Tickets purchased at notably higher prices.

3:14 - Inordinately fun killing of time begins, with pools, hammocks, friendships with owners of hotel, and round'about good times had by all.

5:00 - Still having more fun than you could ever imagine :)

9:00 - 4 group members depart from hotel for night life at beach.

10:46 - I go stumbling through the dark streets of Tonsupa trying to find the missing group members, get to the beach, get lost in crowds of people, fall down on a dance floor, and return covered in dust and some sort of odd goo that crawled on me while I was in the street.

11:03 - Stress begins to mount with the approaching time of 11:55 creating the necessity to clean the apartment, say goodbye to the neighbors, kick out the locals, pay for the room, find the missing group members, and get to the bus station in half an hour. Easy.

11:28 - Missing group members finally show up at the gate of the hotel, proprietor of the hotel starts collecting money from each person, others are freaking out, a rat starts crawling up the fence and everyone staying in the hotel wakes up so that they can come out to see it. Members of the group start leaving, the hotel owner keeps locking and unlocking the gate, the people who were missing finally get their things packed and the rest of the visitors of at the hotel start playing with the rat.

11:45 - The entirety of our group finally gets to the bus stop, with 10 minutes to spare.

11:56 - A bus shows up, but it's not ours.

12:07 a.m. (Sunday)- Where the crap is the bus.

12:08 - A drunk man is carried to the bus station and lies down in the street with his arms sprawled out to his sides.

12:14 - Oh there's the bus. Oh wait, it's not ours either.

12:18 - Passed out man burps. I have a friend take a photo with me standing behind him.

12:23 - Our bus has arrived! Let's get on it! Bring the drunk man with us and put him in the back! What's this? There's a crack in the window, it's so very cold!

1:40 - Driving through mountains in a non air-tight bus proves to be insatiable while wearing shorts. Surprise surprise toes, you have frostbite. Fortunately, we took care of that with unconsciousness.

2:30 - Tactic of unconsciousness is still failing.

5:30 - Arrival in Quito is met with a shady man driving a volvo who attempts to convince us that he is a taxi driver.

5:34 - Real taxi is found, drive is made, house is reached, journey into the unfamiliar is made complete.

TOTAL SLEEP: 3 hours EXPENSES: 57 u.s.d. PHOTOGRAPHS: 37

Although it might come off as a bunch of bad experiences loaded into a cannon, fired into a chicken coop and then reassembled into something that resembles Metamorphasis by the great Salvidor Dali himself, I really enjoyed every moment of it. Of course, lessons teach that different beaches and better planning are sometimes a great thing to have.

Of course, 30 hours of spontaniety never killed anyone in Ecuador.

B.K. Dear Spanish Language...

2006-08-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

...In one and a half months, I will be inside you.

And now for some of the more simple pleasures of life:

ºThere is no better bread in the world than that which you might have made for you in the mornings by an older Ecuadorian mother.

ºWearing shoes is over-rated. So is wearing jackets, and having hair, and not saying hello to strangers.

ºMountains are wonderful. Has anyone ever asked you that question of "would you rather live by the beach or on a mountain?" You should think about it, I myself don't know what I'd prefer at this point in time.

ºThe ardently intoxicating smell of warmth, much like the kind you get on your skin after lying in the sun for a little while.

____________

I talked with a friend about volunteer opportunities while here in Ecuador. She said that she didn't want to get involved with some established organization like compassion international, but rather that she'd like to work with people that aren't provided for.

And then she told me about a woman that her host family knew about who lived just outside the city with no one to care for her. According to her, the woman has 7 children, two of which have been the result of being impregnated by police officers.

B.K. Most Important: Cuba through the eyes of the locals

2006-08-04T04:44:00.000-07:00

Honestly, this entry is pretty much just for me as a concrete place that I can certify what I now know about Cuba from the lips of Nieves, my program director´s wife.

The other side of the story begins with the relationship between Cuba and the United States during the 1950´s. At the time a man named Batista, like so many others in his position, was the dictator of Cuba. Furthermore, relations between Cuba and the States were of a pleasant nature, mainly because there was the existance of immense fruit trade between the two. However, similar to most dictators like him, Batista was corrupt and exported as much as he could from Cuba with the intention of investing the funds he received in himself. Not to be held in exemption, when told that Batista was "a son of a bitch," the States responded in a manner of "well at least he is OUR son of a bitch."

Also in the 1950´s, Fidel Castro was studying in the United States (as a result of being born into the upper-middle class). And in the process he came to the realization that the trade agreements between his home country and Cuba were of a not-so-good for his people sort of arrangement. Thusly, with patience and careful planning of guerrilla tactics with the infamous Che Gueverra, Castro led a small group of soldiers against Batista's forces, and on the second attempt of a Coupd'Etet, secured his position as the leader of Nationalist Cuba.

According to my teacher, Castro then went to the United States asking for help; his country was in shambles and people were starving. But Cubans who had fled from their home country to Florida after the overthrowing of Batista shouted out to the States that Castro was a communist (mind you, at the time there was severe tension between the States and everything with the label `communist`on it). Accordingly with this rumor and the fact that many corporations had been aversely impacted with the removal of international trade with Batista, the USA denied Castro's request and sent him back to Cuba empty handed. It was at this point that the Soviet Union decided to reach out and offer Castro help for his situation. It was at this point that Fidel had no better choice but to accept communism as the infrastructure of his country for the sake of not facing economic collapse.

Many people in Ecuador think of Castro as a hero in his time. Of course, things have changed with age and power. But then what could he have done given his circumstances? And just how bad is Cuba at this point in time? Castro is near death, his brother will be soon to follow, the country is riddled with doctors and tourism, and all I can do is wait until a door opens.

How un-fun waiting is.

B.K. There's only so much a man can do on an international keyboard

2006-08-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

It´s been 3 days since I´ve arrived in the city of Quito, Ecuador, and honestly I´ve been pretty nervous about it. My host-mother says that if I´m not careful I´ll get robbed in the streets, my program director says that if I´m not careful I´ll get robbed on the bus, and my program director´s wife says that if I´m not careful I´ll get robbed at the school. So essentially the biggest thing to worry about at this point is pirates, which is something I´m perfectly fine with.

Learning spanish has been challenging and fun, but rather than talk about boring things like that, let me start off this blog with some facts that will totally make you want to come to Ecuador too!

- A good sum of 5 liters of water...which has to be enough for AT LEAST 2 days, can be bought for .75 cents. Do you remember the last thing you ever bought for less than a dollar? Was it from a candy machine in a grocery store? That´s right, you should come to Ecuador!

- Clothing is pretty much next to free. Leather jackets and belts and bags and socks from local artisans go for cheap, and are relatively child-labor free! When I find out that this isn´t true though, I´ll be sure to mark it from the list.

- There´s a great deal of poverty and homelessness (at least 60% by the last rumors I heard) within the city of Quito alone, and no one has the power or time to help. Like the States, there´s a fraction of the population that has all of the wealth, and the rest are left to struggle through life.

The latest change in my life has to do with giving money to people on the streets. It´s stupid. It´s dangerous. And I want to do more of it. I don´t have much of an issue with the whole "you can´t trust them because they´ll just use it to go get drugs and liquor" argument; that action of theirs isn´t really up to me, and to ask them "are you going to go get drunk with this money" is outright silly to ask. My only dilemma with the act is the fact that if I do it, people might take me for a walking bank, and more of that whole pirates-in-Ecuador thing may be sure to happen...which might not actually be as fun as it sounds.

Tact would be a wonderful thing to have. Unfortunately it´s one of those few things I can´t get for cheap around here.

_________________
On a more somber note, if you actually took the time to read this, thank you. You are one of those few people that I really miss and can´t wait to see again. I hope you´re having a great time in the States and that you feel loved and happy. May everyone you meet leave your company feeling a little better about life.

:),
Trevor