Sally and I decided today was the perfect day for a trip to the beach. I had hitched a ride to the Portland area this weekend, and I suppose it’s my little vacation before starting a summer of lab research. Anyway, I ended up at my friend Sally’s house in Laurelwood last night, a place I’d never been and now wonder why. I was entranced by the house itself, which is half of what used to be a nursing home and so has a very wide hallway, extra wide doors, and extra sinks and bathrooms in the rooms. I was also [View Full Entry]

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The bus: Last night I finally got so sick feeling and tired that I laid all our luggage down in the bus station and sprawled out across it. And I actually fell asleep. Around 1am we finally reboarded our bus. I was so thankful to be one of the few people on the bus without a seatmate. Unfortunately, my sister had someone sitting next to her, which made me feel really guilty. Still, I fell fast asleep for about four and half hours until a stop woke me. The woman sitting next to my sister moved to another seat, so she [View Full Entry]

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The bus: Using the bathroom in the bus while the vehicle is in motion is not unlike trying to ride a mechanical bull. I hope my fellow passengers couldn’t hear my exclamations and proclamations as I struggled to maneuver in there. The second day of bus riding and fantasies of burritos are growing very strong. Every town we stop in hates vegetarians, as I haven’t been able to find a burrito without chicken, bacon, or beef. I’ve started going for my sister’s arm because it now looks like a burrito to me. If I don’t get a burrito at the next [View Full Entry]

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The bus: I like learning about people by listening to their conversations without the inconvenience of having to take part in them. No, that’s not a fancy way to say I like to eavesdrop. I merely appreciate the auditory diversions that are offered to me. It’s fun to try imagining a visual representation of the person based on their voice and story before actually seeing their face. Drug dealers, ex-cons, and fugitives of the law- those are your greyhound seatmates. The man sitting beside my sister made a not-so-discreet drug deal over the phone. He’d just gotten [View Full Entry]

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I've been back for a week now, and I'm able to stay asleep all night. That's always nice. I still have some kind of funky thing going on with my stomach, but I plan to bombard that with charcoal for a few days and see what happens. Maybe I just need to get back to my little home in College Place and return to my little routine. I'm currently on the bus with my sister on our way to the northwest. The other day we were in a restaurant and I was suddenly overwhelmed by the large percentage of overweight people- [View Full Entry]

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After a horribly long Tuesday during which I traveled solid for at least 31 hours (following a mere 5 hours of sleep), I finally arrived back at my parents' house in Texas. I proceeded to sleep that night and all the next day. During the one hour I was awake I felt horribly sick, a feeling I'm still struggling with. Somehow, traveling forward in time was not nearly as difficult as traveling back. I'm finding the task of readjusting my body to the correct days and night very arduous. Not helping I'm sure, is the fact that my stomach seems to [View Full Entry]

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Words can't describe how I feel right now (but they can try). I'm sitting on a bed in a room that I'm not sharing with anyone. I'm in a real house. With nothing but a ceiling fan blowing, my environment is at a comfortable temperature and humidity. I'm eating coconut pie. It's only 9:30PM and I don't have to be anywhere until 10am tomorrow. There's everything I need in the fridge to make pancakes. There are a bunch of mangos on the kitchen counter. I can't really hear any sounds except for crickets and stuff outside. And, probably best of all, [View Full Entry]

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Today I became a part of the first graduates of Walla Walla University as I joined fifty others completing our field school of evangelist and church growth. It was a long graduation, but delightfully punctuated by performances from a really wonderfully talented group called the Asidors. Their music is beautiful and I believe they are true Christians in their hearts. I bought their CD. Today while out and about we found some baby goats in a field. I picked one up and it licked my nose! That kid was so cute I wanted to take it home as my souvenir. Alas, [View Full Entry]

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We had a really full day today. It started at 7:45 am when we left for the international fish market here in Gensan (General Santos City) to attend the annual Tuna Festival. There were paddling races and swimming races. That part was really hot even though we were sitting under shade. I took some video of the racing, but most of the time I wasn't sure what was going on. Then we moved to another location for the other contests. That part smelled strongly of fish and was much cooler. Our celebrity status got us front-row seats of course. First they [View Full Entry]

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Today at lunch I sat with David and Brittney and listened to Dave Thomas talk about the animals of Africa. He grew up there and he knows so much about animals that we've had absolutely no experience with. It was completely enthralling and little scary since he mostly talked about the animals that can kill you easily and stuff like that. We did learn, though, that cheetahs can be domesticated. [View Full Entry]

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