Blood and Goo

Yesterday I went to my first day as a volunteer in the Vet clinic in Big Piney (or as my mom called it in her youth "Pig's Hiney". IT is about 45 minutes away from my small town of Daniel or Cora, or somewhere in between. We aren't quite sure which we belong to. The morning was really cool. I got to hold an old border collie with a huge tumor so the vet could take a tissue sample. Help x-ray a dog and a horse. Prepped some sutures. It was pretty gruesome actually. I had to get used to all the blood and goo again but I learned a lot. I watched him spay a dog which sort of reminded me of dissecting a mink in bio at Willamette. I miss school. Isn't that weird?

Salemites

Today was bizarro. I led a crew of canvassers down to our dearly beloved Sail to the M. I saw that once some professor had given money and had written his contact address as Eaton Hall. Haha, I didn't recognize the professor's name though and I forgot to check the year. Anyway, when I was dropped off on my turf it looked strangely familiar... let's just say if we had come the opposite way, I would've remembered the route by train tracks at night. I knocked on the Delts' door, and on Brandon and AJ's. I also ran into Bethany from frisbee. Weeeeird. It was so awkward giving the Delts the wrap, although luckily the people who answered the door didn't know me. I saw Aram pass by and the guy that Ming had a class with last semester and came to the Invisible Children movie event that one time came to the door. Anyone know who I am talking about? I'm almost positive Ming and Rachel had a nickname for him but I can't think what it is. Anywho, I will be in the area probably all week and maybe longer. Dan (or Madeline if Dan isn't fast on the response and you want to give him a nice surprise), for the hundredth time, where are you living? Maybe I will pull some devious tricks and accidentally knock on your door... if I do though, will you give me 15 dollars? Man that would be awkward! Haha

Can I direct everybody's attention to an older post made by Brian. Brian, yes Brian Greggs, posted an album called the Jaki Byard experience. Listening to the song Memories of You, I learned how to love.

Dan

er..uh....

Hi guys,
I recently was asked why I don't post anything on the blog and the answer is that I forgot there was one. So, I just went through every one of them, great stuff everybody. I am really happy to see that everyone is still alive and doing well. Ari, you are a tough cookie to keep it up at that job. Natalia, I am super jealous of you seeing otters! I saw some bears in Yellowstone but I bet you see them all the time. Ming and Travis, I am so glad that you have a good house and I hope your jobs work out. I am also glad that you didn't get run over by that car! Brian, getting some ideas down for a novel? Tell those brats to behave! just kidding. Madeline, have an awesome time in Ecuador! Dan, I love the pictures! Katie, have a great time in Mexico! and don't eat anymore meat! Rachel, see you soon and I hope you are having fun. Stina good luck rowing. Evan, good job driving from Salem to Eugene and great post. Now that I have caught up with you and I will tell you about what I have been doing and make this more bloggy like. I have to wake up early so I am going to bed now. there. Just joking, I will be keeping up with this from now on and will write about my summer soon.

Which Weighs More?

A cubic foot of feathers or a cubic foot of gold?

WRONG.

In fact, they both weigh exactly the same amount.

so we started fishing...on the opening day there were like 20 boats in this tiny cove and we actually caught the most fish out of everyone...which was prettty sweet considering we also have the smallest boat...salmon fishing gets really competitive. There were some guys on another boat who were yelling, "Who are those bitches??!!" referring to us...so funny. 

saw another bear today from a plane. (like a small bushplane) It was running. we are headed back out to that cove again this afternoon to fish more....so until next time! and i am really enjoying everyones posts it makes me miss you all

A story to benefit the bank accounts of Daniel and those others traveling to America Sur.

so we were on the ecovia today (one of the buses in quito) and we're just riding along, packed as usual, when on comes the guy who pick-pocketed my money last week. i don't know if there's really anything i can do... not like i could prove it. so i quietly tell my friend next to me "hey that's the guy who stole my money last week." he's on the ecovia for only a little while and gets off at the very next stop. the next moment i hear my friend david say "where's my wallet??"

he totally took it.

and it turns out that within an hour he spent $3,500 dollars from his credit card that was in the wallet.

so i feel kind of bad because i knew this guy was a thief and i didn't say anything... but i didn't really know what to do because if i did announce to the entire bus "hey yall, this guy is a thief!"... or more like "oye! este hombre es un ladron!" i didn't know if 1)anyone would care or 2)if he would just turn around and punch me in the face.

later, telling my pains to my profesora, she said that if i were to annouce "ladron! ladron!" (or something similar in spanish or english to get the point across) the conductor would immediately shut the doors of the ecovia and call the police to be at the next stop to arrest him. plus the other people would be totally into it.

proxima ves.

so, words of "wisdom" or more like experience from stupidity, do not keep ANYTHING in ANY pockets while on a bus or in a crowded place. both david and i thought we were guarding our pockets but... and if someone does happen to take something, make a fuss and people will help.

also, vocab word for the day:
Ladron- thief (don't forget to roll your r)

im going to the beach this weekend, think happy, unsunburned, dis-malaria-infected thoughts for me.

spanks,
mads

Happy Thoughts

Madeline, you are making it so easy to keep updated on your activities and goings-on, I love it! Today was my first day back in the saddle wif my summer job; it’s been a long and painful month. I’m much better when I’m kept busy—when my duties involve going someplace other than my parents’ house, and, once there, feeling golden and quick and buoyant.

I’ll run the wading pool at Dahl Field come July 6th, but until then I’m subbing when they need me. I’m not going to pretend it’s hard work or anything (nothing like I imagine canvassing or salmon fishing to be), but then, I’m good at it, and it is tremendously rewarding. It must be that I control the source of fun for all these children, and I’m more than happy to turn the water on. I don’t have to decide whether they’ve been good or not, I don’t have to teach them anything, and I almost never have to raise my voice with them. Yet they have a congenital sense of respect for me as an “adult” who is not their parent—they are awed and impressed as I test for chlorine, and they listen to me when I ask them not to stand on the grate as the pool is draining. These are qualities y’all could learn from…

They’re not scared of me either. Two boys will go on a mad chase through the water, part of the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie playing out in their heads, and splash my book as they pass. I don’t really care though. I don’t bring books whose perfection I’m unwilling to sacrifice.

I remember the young girl who saw me pick a flower petal out of the water, and proceeded to scour the rest of the pool for more petals. “These are for you,” she said to me as she finished. I remember the second-grade boy who confided in me his dream to create a more sustainable line of cruise ships. I asked about his motivation: “It must be my love for the sea.”

Brian

I am going to kill you unless you call me. I don't have your number anymore. Stop living your life off the internet.

Dan

Bla bla bla

Hello hello hello I'm at the library reading and ripping cds, and hoping for nice weather so that I can work.

am i a quitena yet?

answer: no.

but i am having a wonderful time. it´s been a lot of places to get comfortable, my family, the language, the city, school, the willamette group,etc. and this week i start volunteering at the children´s hospital that rachel loved so much, baca ortiz. i anticipate that it will be the biggest challenge yet.

however, this weekend we go to the beach and hopefully the water will be warm! last weekend we went to the indigenous market called otavalo. it was huge, besides crafts there were the strangest foods and animals. i bought an alpaca sweater that actually makes me excited for salem´s winter so i can wear it! however, it does shed alot. sometimes i feel like i am the alpaca.

anywho, don´t want to take up the internet at my house.
here are tons of photos if anyone´s interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43719707@N00/

nos vemos,
madz

This week I have been field managing a section of Lake Oswego and it is, in a word, stressful. I could go into all the extra responsibilities I have now, but it'd be hard to explain and not very interesting. Tonight was crazy though -- I was supposed to have a really good turf, but after five hours I'd only raised 25 dollars and all the rest of my renewals had said no (with the exception of one, who was avoiding me. They were home but not answering their door, and finally when I caught them in their car on their way to dinner they said they wouldn't be back for several hours). I was freaking out because without a good night I wouldn't make quota for the week and you're only allowed to miss two in a row. So I sat down and waited for the night to be over. With ten minutes left on turf, I saw my renewal come back. I almost didn't go back, because I needed a really big contribution to break quota and the odds of that happening were slim, so what was the point of harassing them when they'd made it pretty clear they didn't want to talk to me? But, you know, it being my job and all, I should just get it over with. Dude, the guy saved my butt big time -- I made quota, and I can go off to Bend for the week on a camping canvass feeling like my neck isn't on the line. It'll switch up the monotony too, which was starting to sink in.

Ugh, it's pathetic really -- I spend all morning getting to the office to canvass, I canvass all evening, I dream about canvassing at night sometimes, and now it's all I blog about too.

Hace casi dos semanas...

Hola amigos!

Omg, I can´t believe its already been almost 2 weeks. I apologize in advance for any spanglish I throw in. So I've been studying español a la escuela mexicana desde mi llegada, y he aprendido mucho. I'm staying with a family in la ciudad de Guanajuato and its absolutely beautiful. Cobble stone streets, colorful buildings, música todo el tiempo, and friendly people. My time here is already coming to an end though, hopefully this weekend I'll be moving to my first farm. Slight problem though, the farmer Oscar hasn't responded to my last 2 emails this last week, and usually he responds right away, so I don't know exactly how to get to the farm or whats going on. Some police chiefs were recently arrested in the Silao, the nearest pueblo for being implicated in drug networks, and so I don't know if the situation there has affected anything.

Ok, so a quick rundown of the typical day. Get up 8, go to classes from 9 hasta 2 y regreso a la casa para comida a las 3 ( the main meal of the day). I live on top of a huge hill with a beautiful vista de la ciudad and so I've been staying in better shape than I thought. Then I take a siesta and go back down to the city and walk around, people watch, and meet up with some friends from the school, and some Mexican friends and go to various bars. And no, I still don't drink, although I could probably do so very easily for not a lot of money, guys are always offering to buy me something and there's lots of free nights para las mujeres. Go back to the house about 2 ( we're always the party poopers, most stay out till 4) and repito.

K, thats all the time I have, I still haven't caught up on all your posts! Yall have been blogging like mad! Con todo mi amor...

travis is teaching me how to improvise on my clarinet. and we sat on the corner of our house today and tried it. and then two guys (one or both were probably drunk...hopefully just one, though) drove by and threw a dollar out the window. woo hoo! we're paid musicians!

saw a grizzly and some killer whales

¡que linda!

today was my first day at aclas. it consisted of an introduction orientation by Fernando the owner of the school. he told us about quito and how to be safe etc. then we had a test to place us into groups by spanish level. oh man. it was SO hard. kind of destroyed my confidence but only for alittle bit. most of the kids said it was really hard too. ibis (my mother) picked me up at 1pm and we started to walk back. we met up with her amiga (whose name i cant remember) and we had lunch. lunch is so hard for me because it consists of three courses- usually soup, meat and rice, and then some kind of desert. i dont even eat that much for dinner usually! plus i want to please them and they´re always asking me to eat more! after that ibis had to go do errands so i went to her friends house that is just a block away. she speaks english really well so it´s easier to get through converstations. i am still having a really hard time understanding all of the spanish around me. in fact, i dont. but it´s ok i know i will learn so much in thenext few weeks.

funniest thing. ibis´ friend rents part of her casa to an american from colorado. his name is vern and i met him today. quite a strange guy. he´s a vietnam vet who met an ecuadorian woman online and came here to marry her. she was goingto move back to the us but decided shedidn´t want to. so he´s been living in quito for 5 years separated from his wife... and he doesnt know a bit of spanish. so i spoke englishwith him for a while and then this other guy named gilles from nova scotia came over and tried to convince me (also in english) that 9-11 was a conspiracy... as was the lunar landing. crazy guy. he retired and said that he didn´t trust the US and decided to move to ecuador. he´s old too and said hed go to a movie with me sometime. i may take him up on it... he barely knows spanish either.

anywho, classes really start wed and tomorrow we get a tour of thecity. im feeling better every day. i love you all andmissyou so much!!

besos!
madeline

Paper Moon

This is mostly for Madeline, but if anybody else wants to hear it (Brian), this is what I played at my dad's retirement.

Paper Moon.mp3

- On a side and less sentimental note, fuck Verizon wireless. Never use them. I'll explain later.

Ready to Roam

Ah, hanging out in Montag, just doing some laundry. I leave tomorrow morning for Ecuador! I have my moments of nervousness and freaking out, but as of right now I feel pretty good. Packing shouldn't be too bad, I'm really not bringing that much stuff. I looove packing light.

Dan's bestie from Coeur d'Alene, Jim, came to visit from Monday to Thursday. He's super awesome. When he first got here monday night, I sat in the living room with Katie K, Kevin and other people and it was just so funny to hear Dan and Jim in the kitchen giggling like little girls. Jim had just come back from a year travelling around Jordan and Morocco. He brought me a scarf from Morocco which was so nice of him.

Dan and I finished the motzart recordings last night. We did the final keyboard tracks and my vocals. The vocal stuff got pretty frustrating as Dan was being a real hard-ass perfectionist. JkJK. But seriously. I am so excited for the record!

Anywho, not much to say, just hanging out and waiting to go. Dan and I will see UP tonight, I've heard it's real good. psshhh it's Pixar, how could it not be? I hate saying bye to Dan waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Hasta Pronto!
Madeline

ps. Here are some pictures from Dan's Dad's retirement slideshow. Jim is pushing the shopping cart.

people who are not

people who are not: brian

people who are hot/funny

people who are hot: prospero, ian, ari, evan

people who are funny: luiz, ari, evan

I'm on the computer...blogging..what??

So...I'm chilling in Ridgway with my parents, we're watching a movie, all laying in the masterbed. So fuckin comfy. You wouldn't believe the view my parents have from any window in their house (well maybe you would if you saw a picture, but let's face it--we all know the only camera I have is on my phone), it's  amazing, I can't get over it...The moon's fuckin bright as shit too, it's gorgeous. But that's now and I was gonna try and catch up a bit. 

Well, the V8 and two spares stayed in Salem to train for nationals until the 26th of May, which was nuts. I thought crew was my life before...we had two complete days off, and most days we had at least 2 practices a day--on 3 we had 2 practices and Christine Foltz, so it was pretty intense but a lot of fun. We slept, rowed, ate, rowed, ate, maybe showered, slept, did it all over again. But the river was beautiful--people actually come out in Salem during the summer, believe it or not, it's fun. Downtown gets a little more hoppin and the foot bridge is really cool--we get a lot of spectators ;) And it's warm! Guess who only wore a shirt for two practices total? That's right... (Actually, funny story: one morning practice we had just finished our first piece and we were taking a rest, and of course I was already down to the bra, and Susan pulls out her megaphone and said, "So..I just want to make sure you're all aware that at Nationals you have to keep your entire unisuit on..." Haha, I enjoyed it.) Anyway, we went to New Jersey on the 26th and it was crazy. It was one of the coolest things of my life to go to be a part of a competition like that, to see such incredible athletes. The DIII schools, I had to look up at their girls they were so tall and as you all know I'm not exactly petite...and they were so fast! It was incredible! It was so inspiring to even be a part of it, and I really hope to go again. We have set new goals, for sure. But yeah, the whole fuckin experience was just insane. I want to say more but it's a lot, and I don't really like being on the computer so I won't say more than that, but I'm willing to converse about it lol. 

Anyway, after that we flew to Portland, and I stayed at Lars' house and we woke up at four for me to fly to Denver. Then I saw Peter for a few hours before he drove back to Jackson, WY for work--my parents and I hung out with some family friends and stayed at their house. The next day we visited my Poppy and I stayed in Boulder for one night, got some errands done the next day until Jeff got off work, ate dinner with him and then drove 6 hours to Ridgway. Stayed there for one night at my parents house (they got an earlier start that day) and then drove the next day for 4 hours (actually 5 cause I kind of took what you might call a wrong turn..) to southern Utah. I camped for 2 days in Goblin Valley State Park, and we hiked Little Wild Horse and Ding Dang Canyon on the San Rafael Swell. It was all fuckin sick--Utah has such beautiful dirt. The colors there are ridiculous.. and the sunrises!! So good.. It was really windy though and I ended up having a visa scare with going to New Zealand so I drove back early and am now at my parents house in Ridgway again. My parents and I went hiking yesterday and it was nuts! It was sunny and snowing! Like you'd almost think it was the cotton fluff shit from trees if it didn't melt on you. It was really cool though, and I've been getting some good parent time in, even though I miss the brothers a whole lot. AND MY FUCKIN ROOMIES!!!!!!!!!!! NATTIE!! STRIPES!! COME BACK TO ME!! Okay, okay...I really do want us to have our adventures...to grow as people or whatever...but I do miss you...

That's all for now though! Headed to Boulder on Thursday and I leave the 4th of July for NZ!! (And knowing me you won't hear from me till half the semester's over... ;) ) Love you all and miss you!

Sasquatch

...went to the Sasquatch Brewfest in downtown Eugene today. I tried some interesting beers, including "Brew Free! or Die IPA" and "Hopasaurus Rex". Also got a commemorative glass!!

-Evan

Beating the pavement

Well I got here to Portland about two weeks ago. The first day I tried to go to work at the canvassing job, they wouldn't let me because I hadn't memorized the "rap" for environment Oregon that they were supposed to email me and didn't. They told me to come back Monday so I was like yeah whatever. I went to Seattle for the weekend and met up with Dave Reed, Shaffer, and Brian at Folklife. A lot of the musicians had dreads...strange. Afterward, Shaffer and Brian showed me around northern Seattle. It is a great city.

On Monday I tried to go back to work but it was a holiday so once again they wouldn't let me work. Stoopid. I finally started on Tuesday. It was indeed "soul crushing" as my friend Milo had described. It sucked knowing how much of that money I was raising was going straight to me. The only way to rationalize the work was to think about all the petitioning I was doing. Even still, on the days when I didn't make very much, I was getting paid more money than I had raised. I needed money though so I stuck with it and searched for jobs at night. Ming arrived on Saturday with her dad and we celebrated her birthday over the course of the weekend.

On Tuesday, I was on my 6th day of canvassing and I knew I was going to quit. I had gone to forty houses and had only raised $10 even though the quota is $105. It seemed like a pretty low income neighborhood and here I was bothering all of these people for money. I found the nearest bus station and left. Ming and I went back to the office later that night to notify our boss that we were quitting.

Every day since then, we have been going to downtown Portland dropping of resumes and picking up applications. As of today, we have applied to exactly 100 places, most of which are restaurants. Only a few admit that they are hiring but hopefully we'll at least get a few interviews. Until we get a job, we're not drinking or going out to eat. When we finally do get hired, we'll go out to Burgerville (they have two kinds of veggie burgers!) and buy a bottle of something good.

Electric Car

A cool electric car I sawr at the park.

Eve of departure...

Hello friends,

Well early tomorrow morning I'm headed off to Mexico. Crazy! A quick update of what I've been up to since I last posted: I went to my brother's graduation from West Point NY. It was amazing, impressive, intense and emotional. I cried at every ceremony (and there were a lot). It's a whole different world out there, I definitely felt a little out of place among the macho guys and high maintenance girls. Back in CO, I've been climbing, hiking, biking and dancing as much as possible. I've also been hanging out with my brother more than usual. He's come dancing a few times. He also brought home these laser tag guns that give you an electric shock if you get hit, and we've been playing that a bit (he had to duct tape them to my hands since I kept dropping the guns when I got shocked). This weekend is the Denver Lindy Exchange and I'm planning on dancing until I head off to the airport around 5. Love you all!

Katie

Jazz Thing

Hey everybody. Dan, this is mostly for you, but also for anyone who wants a Good Jazz Album.

The Jaki Byard Experience.zip

I love you.

Rick Ross

The boss.

Hey, just testin bloggin from my phone

Guess Whose Back

Hey yall. I remembered we had this blog, and I went to look at it, and I saw that you folks have been posting HELLA. I was euphoric for a minute. Out of control. So, I'm gonna get back into it! To start off with, here are some notes I took when I went to Carkeek Park the other day to chill by myself. I was walking through a marsh, and I heard all this yelling but I couldn’t see where it was coming from. I emerged from the trees onto this meadow where a huge group of bronze-skinned high schoolers were playing kickball and drinking. I sat down at a picnic table, and read and listened to what they were saying. I know that’s questionable, but I really enjoy eavesdropping.

----

“I love you Kate! Redheads for life! […] You know we’re going extinct, right?”

“Doesn’t this beer look like some Tang?”

“You guys, it’s a friendly game. Friendly game, yeah?”

“Action, action, read all about it! Jessica’s gonna hit a home run, no doubt about it!"

--One team, encouraging their kicker

“Um, are you guys smoking marijuana over here, cause you know that’s illegal.”

This next sequence came when Ryan decided he wanted to chug a glass boot full of beer. I got the sense he had already enjoyed a fair amount of beer, and in fact, shortly after finishing the boot, Ryan chucked it all up into the bushes, to the tittering of his friends and cajolers.

(As Ryan is chugging, stated by a kid about 4 feet from Ryan)
“He’ll do it, he’ll do it, he’s crazy. He does this all the time! He’ll do it, he’ll do it.”

“He’s throwin’ up!”

“Hey Ryan, go again! I missed it, go again!”

“Your two kidneys can’t handle it. If you would’ve waited like 20 minutes…”

(Ryan didn’t say this next line.)
“Let’s do another one!”
then,
“Only a Mexican would say that.”