Dear Friends, So arguably, aside from losing a traveler, the only greater casualty, especially near the end of a trip, is your digital camera. While we didn´t lose it cliff jumping, it is at the bottom of Lake Atitlan, and try as we might, we couldn´t find it. 500 pictures or so, gone to the sea. Luckily, the set of Jin and I roasting marshmallows over lava are in tact! We´ve had a wild past few days here since that long bus ride. We´re staying at a delightful hostel in San Pedro la Laguna on the banks of Lago Atitlan. The [View Full Entry]

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Dear Friends, Today I write from a hostel that could be the set of a movie. A multi-colored place filled with white kids from all over the world. Next to me, a Briton who said, "cheers!" when I moved my chair for him. Behind me, two Israelis using Skype. There is a table of German´s playing Risk and an American reading "The Life of Pi" in a hammock. (That American is Jin...)The place is half indoors, half outdoors, with jungle foliage growing in the garden, reaching up well past the nearby rooves. We´re listening to some sort of Reggae remix, there [View Full Entry]

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Dear Friends, Sometime you make a decision, and it implies some obligations. Along with our decision to go to Soloma came many many days of buses. Jin and I took two days of solid bus riding to get in and out of that scary town, we spent two in Xela, and now we´ve spent two getting here to the heart of the Guatemalan Jungle, Flores City, outside of the Mayan ruins of Tikal. Buses can be a wonderful thing. We sit in packed conditions, like the 27 man van in Chichi. Being that close with local Guatemalans is neat in and [View Full Entry]

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Dear Friends, Much has happened since my last hectic email. First of all, I want to thank everyone for your generous donations. We were able to raise more than I had anticipated, $120. With that, we were able to make donations to both the man in Jolocmu, as well as the Spanish School´s children´s charity program. Much thanks to all. I am honored that so many of you trust me with your donations, and flattered that we exceeded our goal. After I wrote last, Jin and I headed out to Soloma. It was described in the Lonely Planet as a friends, [View Full Entry]

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Dear Friends, So never before have I written two letters within such a short proximity of each other. But alas, I am venturing to an area where I don't know what my next chance to write will be. Let me continue. A few weeks before I left on this trip, I read this story on the cover of the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/us/03deport.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=guatemala&st=cse&oref=slogin It tells the story of Luis Alberto Jiménez, a resident of Jolumcu, Gatemala. He was working, illegally, in Florida when he was hit by a drunk driver. After being treated, for a time, in a [View Full Entry]

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Friends, So the past few days, Jin and I have been doing some obligatory highly touristed activities. They have been much fun, believe you me, much fun and highly unoriginal. But hopefully, we bring our own originality to the mix. First, a vignette on my travel companion. Jin, my college room mate, ever playful with language, and desperately lacking in Spanish skills, has terribly mispronounced the local currency. The Quetzale, pronounced Ke-tzal, Jin has taken to pronouncing kwetzle. This of course rhymes with pretzle. So, dinner tonight was effectively, 78 pretzles. This folks, is what [View Full Entry]

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Dear Friends, Look here, its Carl Beien. I´m realing from a recent graduation from Bucknell University, and fabulous graduation party that so many of you came to! What a blast! It was too hot to drink much of the beer, but for those of you who stayed around till late, it wasn´t to hot for a crazy game of croquet in the park! Whoo Dog! But alas, I´m not just writing to remind those of you who missed out that you shouldn´t miss the next party. What I´m writing about is that I´ve left the country again. No no, its not [View Full Entry]

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We've had snow the past couple of nights, here in beautiful Lewisburg, and one night, after it stopped, some freezing rain came in. Now this might be a pain for driving or walking, or doing anything on asphalt. But, on the other hand, it was magical for walking on snow. It reminded me of being a little child in Decatur, Illinois, during winter time on Uncle Dick's farm. You could get one foot on the snow, but then you'd punch right through. Today, punching through the snow, it felt like walking on the chocolate coating on an ice cream bar. For [View Full Entry]

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Hey Folks, So I'm back home again after another exhausting day's work at Navy Pier. Since my last letter, things have moved from the mundane life of Beijing, China to the wild and crazy life out west, in Chicago, IL. I spend my days riding my bicycle back and forth from Navy Pier, a mere 10 miles each way, sometimes after midnight, and in between I hawk boat rides. On my return to my home stay family back in Beijing, Lizzie and I were greeted with open arms. My family had cleaned my room quite nicely, and had even packed away [View Full Entry]

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Hello Everyone, So, it is amazing to me, I lived in Beijing for 4 months, and coming back to it feels a little like coming home. After seeing so many new places, Beijing feels very familiar to me. I know how the subway works, and what accent the cab drivers will speak with. I never thought I could feel comfortable this way in a city besides Chicago, but here I am, in Beijing, China, feeling like I'm back in my confort zone. So after leaving the absolutely delightful city of Xi'an, we took an overnight train to the coal capital [View Full Entry]

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