Blogs from East Lansing, Michigan, United States, North America

Made a brief detour on my way to the east coast to visit another poker player I know from twoplustwo. Not really sure what to write here as we pretty much just played poker solidly for 3 days, including one 12 hour session at the local Indian Casino. Either way, I got on really great with Josh and it was nice to have unlimited computer access for a couple of days to catch up on things like this blog (I use the term "catch up" loosely, I actually mean get less far behind) and Facebook. ... read more

Driving north from Lafayette, Indiana, was uncharted territory for me. I’ve travelled to Chicago before, but that was by bus and for a long weekend. This time, however, I had a Ford Ranger filled with a bike, table, chair, clothes, and fishing pole, destined for East Lansing, Michigan and Michigan State University-Summer Cooperative African Language Institute, or MSU-SCALI. Not a vacation, not a distracted weekend, but a destination with mental as well as physical baggage- I am to study Arabic for two months. Why? Well, that’s an involved question. The best answer may come next summer, when I may have finagled a means to practice the language in a sub-Saharan West African nation. Until then, I’ll just try to learn it as best as possible, and fulfill not only my vague intentions, but also the ... read more

I have re-entered academia. I am with academics- people who like to learn as a profession. I identify well with that description, and am enjoying my time as a student again. (My perpetual mouth does not, however, benefit my reputation as a student…) My brain is nearly constantly engaged with a new concept- primarily adapting to the Arabic language. I am picking up on the right-to-left method, well enough to write my English backwards, fairly adeptly. Once I remember which language flows most fluently from my pen, I admire the ease with which I create strokes that make words using letters from an alphabet in which I naturally recognize the phonetics. (Sometimes I indulge in my attraction to alliteration and otherwise play with words.) When I return to my Arabic homework, I re-start at the right, ... read more

So for New Years 2010 I traveled 4 hours north to Michigan to visit Sarah, a former co-worker and her boyfriend. Now, normally I would be nervous about spending a week with a group of strangers (her friends) and especially since I'm staying with her twin sister, who I have never met before. However, I have heard many stories about Sarah's friends and talked to her sister on the phone so I was not that worried. So I left Indianapolis on Wednesday ready to party for a few days. Well, I knew that Sarah and Chris liked to party, but I wasn't sure what to expect from Sarah's friends. Wow, they are crazy! We have been partying since Wednesday night, and they were partying before I even arrived. For New Year's we went to Club Harem ... read more

Kyle and Sarah and Sharye got up early and left for Milwaukee while the rest of us slept in. Then we joined later, leaving behind with the biggest towels ever found in a hotel. The kids had a show at some corporate thing for a half hour or so. It was fun to watch the show from the house and not have to work. The crowd went wild! Usually I’m in a glass cage and don’t get to feel the audience reaction quite as much, so it was great. Plus the audience was all music teachers, so they had pitch and rhythm- two things not commonly found in our houses. More driving. Sarah came back with us and Beth finished a few hours in the truck. I tried really really hard not to ready more of ... read more

Hello everyone, this is Sean. I am sadly back in the united states. So here is what happened. We were having a great time traveling as you all have seen and read about. And we were making are way to the coast to go relax and swim in the sea. We wanted to stop in a small town on the way were you can get a $7 message. But on the bus ride there I started to feel really bad. When we got there I felt worse so I rested in bed for a couple of days. After 2 days I thought it was time to see the doctor. He was very nice and he took a blood test for malaria. It came back negative so he thought I just had an infection. The next day ... read more

Life back at MSU, very busy. I have lots of class work, that I am avoiding at all costs. I better get down to it since I have homework for every one of my five classes that just so happen to be: Intermediate Accounting I- My favorite class since I am continually learning something new and actually enjoying it. Amazing how this major works out for me. Accounting Information Systems- Great teacher, but crazy computer work, boo. Introduction to Econometrics- Basically this is business statistics with a twist. Let's show you how to prove a billion different proofs that each take an hour to complete, double boo. Honors Business Law- Great instructor, tough material. sooo much to learn. Intermediate French II- I feel like I already took this course, why? Because I did, last spring in ... read more

Alright, here it is... in 3 weeks Start in California - Nevada Arizona Utah Wyoming South Dakota Nebraska Kansas Iowa Wisconsin Illinois Minnesota Missouri Indiana and finally.....Michigan Only 2 states left, Ohio and New Mexico So, since I left you last we have stayed in small towns and its been a bit refreshing. So maybe I can make this blog a bit more exciting and not so much "and then we did this, and then we did this.." We stayed in Evansville last I wrote to you, and performed in Lynnville Indiana a super small town. Just to explain, we asked the secretary for a good mechanic in town and she said there is only one and she recommended not to go to him. We headed for our next town, Jamestown, another place with one traffic ... read more