On the road

After returning from Spain, Dave and Rachal were once again wonderful as they allowed me to stay at their place for about week while they were on their honeymoon in exchange for my taking care of Garinger (the cat, not the school). After leaving Charlotte I then took off on the longest car ride of my life: a mere 3700 miles from Charlotte, NC to Corvallis, OR. The drive was not as bad as it sounds, though. I actually had a fabulous time in going to five Major League Baseball games and one AAA Baseball game with one of my best buds from college, Alex Kwak. I have pictures here. If you have access to Facebook, I highly recommend that you check out Alex's daily blog, complete with pictures and Kerouac quotes.

Otherwise I’ll give you the brief rundown. I left Charlotte and drove to Atlanta where I watched the Braves beat the Rockies in 10 innings. Additionally, both John Smoltz (200 wins and 250 saves) and Chipper Jones (2000 hits and 300 homeruns as a switch hitter) were honored before the game. After the game I drove to Nashville and picked up Alex. After a day of foosball, Target, and trivia with my friends James and Zach, Alex and I left for St. Louis where I bowled a turkey at the International Bowling Hall of Fame. Why, you ask? Because two museums are better than one. For one low price we received admission to the International Bowling Hall of Fame, a game of bowling, and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame (complete with McGwire’s 1962 Cardinal red Corvette) all in the same building.

Continuing through Missouri we found two of more of the world’s best museums in Kansas City: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum, also in the same building for one low price. I highly recommend both of these museums as the former is filled with information, artifacts, and various media spanning the entire history of African-American baseball. I also bought a hat. AWESOME! The latter absolutely amazed me. This just might be the most interactive museum I have ever experienced. Complete with at least ten interactive music mixing stations this is less a visual museum and more a musical game room.

Leaving Kansas City we entered Kansas.

Then we arrived in Denver and I ate the greatest hamburger in the world at CityGrille. I’ve had better. I watched the Rockies lose for the second time in five days, but the best part of Denver was being with three of my future Ecuador Team members. John, Abbie, and Annie are all from Denver and not only did they join us at the baseball game, but they also showed us around some of the Denver nightlife. The night was made even more fun, thanks to Abbie’s clothes shopping. I am not entirely comfortable talking about my outfit…

Then we drove to San Francisco and watched a AAA game in Utah. There really are a lot of blonde-haired, light-skinned Mormons with big families in Utah. We decided to keep moving and figured the best course of action was to bust out the flux capacitor and go back in time as we entered Nevada at 88mph. Actually I was asleep and felt no ill effects from the time travel.

The Bay Area just might have been my favorite part of the trip for the following reasons, in no particular order:
1. View from AT&T Park
2. The Guzzler
3. The Twist-off
4. Alex setting a new record
5. Mexican Shawarma
6. A beach with neither water nor sand
7. Hippies who live in trees
8. I got my visa
9. Brokeback to the Future
10. Two consecutive nights in the same room
11. The UC Berkeley campus and football stadium
12. House of Curries
13. T-shirt orgy
14. Going from above 9000 feet to below SF Bay in less than 6 hours
15. Baby scaring apparati
16. But most of all, the best part was being reunited with both my college roommates: Eric Walle and Alex Kwak

My summer vacation

Summer started off with the absolutely fabulous task of moving out of my home! Now normally when you move you (1) pack up all your belongings and (2) take it to your new home. Unfortunately for me, I did not have this two-step luxury; I still do not know exactly where my new home is. What I did was (1) sell everything I could, (2) gave away a lot to Goodwill, (3) threw away a lot of junk, (4) put everything that I still had into my 2-door Honda Civic, and (5) left the rest for my roommate Zach and his broken leg to deal with (sorry buddy). Civic loaded to the brim, I did the most logical thing and left it in Harrisburg, NC (thanks Bert) as I took a plane to Michigan.

I have to personally thank Dave Morway for allowing me to cross two new states off my list. In May I attended his bachelor party along with 15 of his best guy friends from Cleveland at Salt Fork State Park in Ohio (there’s one state), and one June 23rd I was in Saginaw, Michigan (there’s number two) to witness his marriage to Rachal. The wedding was incredibly well organized and was a true three-day affair filled with activities ranging from an afternoon tour of Saginaw to an evening game of cornhole to a late night dance party to an amazing newlywed brunch. After the wedding festivities I then embarked on a 70 hour journey to the village of Llanes in northern Spain via Flint, Chicago, Charlotte (baggage claims make great bedding…), JFK International Airport, Times Square, Brooklyn, JFK, Paris, Madrid, and Oviedo. Oh yeah, and our flight to Paris was cancelled in which case we were rebooked on another flight four hours later that only had seats for four of the 18 of us. That was awkward…

Fortunately we all made it to Spain safe and sound to begin our five week long Spanish language learning and cultural exploration expedition. Lizzy Chapman, a Spanish and Art History graduate of UC Berkeley, and I led a this trip for 16 high school junior and seniors through Putney Student Travel. Lizzy and I were lucky enough to have an amazing group of young men and women, though they could have spoken a little bit more Spanish. I do, however, believe that we all were able to benefit from our time together. The activities we engaged in are too numerous to mention here, but I would like to describe a couple of the highlights. For a more detailed description and more pictures, please check out the blog that I maintained directly from Spain available here.

One definite highlight was our visit to the Alhambra in Granada. The Alhambra was built by the Moors (Muslims) during their 700+ year control of Spain and not only served as the seat of their kingdom, but was also so admired by the Catholic monarchs that it served as the Spanish capital for quite sometime after the Reconquest in 1492. From afar, as can be seen in the photo, the Alhambra is an amazing structure sitting atop a mountain overlooking the beautiful city of Granada; however, its true majesty is only seen from the inside. The palaces are constructed with such beauty and such attention to detail that neither words nor photographs can truly approximate what it is like to be inside. The use or reflecting pools and the placement of windows to allow light at certain angles only adds to the inherent beauty of the intricately engraved walls, ceilings, doors, and archways. I could go on and on about the Alhambra, as it is the most beautiful building in the world that I have seen, but I will bear you the ramblings and continue with another story from Spain.

One moment that I am, and I believe of the kids would agree, most proud of is reaching the summit of the highest mountain in the Iberian Peninsula. Mulhacén in the Sierra Nevada, not far from Granada, stands at 3,479 meters (11,413 feet) above sea level, and yet lies at a mere 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Mediterranean Sea. Due to this close proximity on a clear day, such as the one we picked to hike to the summit, one has a clear view of the north coast of Algeria on the continent of Africa. I have to say that I am very proud of my group of kids as this was not an easy hike; at 14 kilometers and with nearly 1000 meters of elevation gain this was no walk in the park. As a token of our pride, my co-leader Lizzie and I gave each of the kids an old Spanish peseta as a memento of our expedition together. I still proudly wear mine around my neck. More pictures from Spain are available here (album 1, album 2).

Last days at the G

Since saying goodbye to my fellow teachers and students at Garinger High School in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 8th I have had quite the busy summer. Beforehand, however, I want to mention just a couple things about my last month in Charlotte. First off, leaving Garinger was definitely a difficult decision and I truly will miss the students. Anyone who knows about my job at the G knows how important the kids were to me. This year I was lucky enough to be on stage and participate in the graduation festivities, as well as attend the prom ceremonies. I have included here several pictures of my students at their prom. It was tough saying goodbye, but I know they will do well on their own.

Secondly, around the same time as the Garinger prom, my sister Lisa’s softball team was working their way through the NCAA Division III national tournament. After an amazing run through the regional tournament in Louisiana (don’t ask me how Oregon and Louisiana are in the same region) in which the Linfield Wildcats won four consecutive elimination games, they advanced to the College World Series in Salem, Virginia. I was fortunate enough to attend several games at the College World Series and the best part was that my whole family was there. It is not often that I see both of my parents and my sister together in the same place and it’s always a treat when the four of us get to spend some time together. An even bigger treat was the amazing play of the Linfield Wildcats. Despite playing against 4 time All American pitcher Laurel Sagartz in back-to-back elimination games (and despite Lisa’s broken arm), the Wildcats belted four homeruns in the national championship game to win Linfield College’s first ever women’s team NCAA championship. GO CATS!

Less than a month later I was back in Oregon for Lisa’s graduation where she was honored with the Verne Marshall Award, the highest award given to any Linfield athlete for her strength and perseverance in the face of adversity (missing 25 games due to a broken arm and still winning a national championship). I have included several pictures here from the College World Series and Linfield College Graduation.

After Garinger graduation I immediately took off for Putney, Vermont for three days of staff training with Putney Student Travel for my upcoming language learning trip to Spain. I don’t know about you, but in my opinion spending three days in beautiful Vermont with 80 other recent college graduates is more like entertainment than work…I guess it makes up for spending five consecutive weeks with 16 high school students. Seriously though, I have a lot of respect for the Shumlin´s and all the directors at Putney with not only the wide array of programs they offer, but also the profound impact they are able to make on the lives of these children in such a short amount of time.