8/30/08 For two days this week, I spontaneously boycotted the Carson & Barnes Family Circuses, I add some photos to this blog and some information about why I felt compelled to do it: In one advertisement alone for the Carson & Barnes Family Circus, it gave the schedule for their performances in Washington - Oregon - and California from August 19th - September 6th, 2008, and stressed how they have beautiful elephants performing: In reading between the lines, it occurred to me in just 19 days, the circus animals would need to perform at their best in a total of 16 [View Full Entry]

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For those of you who haven't heard from me in a while, I'm planning a cross-country motorcycle trip this summer. In June I will be graduating from Oregon State with my mechanical engineering degree. I really feel the need to get out and travel for a little while, and I think this will be a prime time to do it. I have many reasons for going on this journey, though I won't bore you with them right now. Most importantly, I don't really have any large commitments in my life right now. School has had its ups and downs for the [View Full Entry]

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We are out of our house and on the move, and we will be leaving Oregon Saturday, Dec. 7. We first head to Texas to see Amy's family, then we're off to Washington, D.C., and finally arriving in Ireland on Dec. 17. We had thought that would just be a short trip to Ireland to scope out cities before we headed to Spain for a term, since there is a hiring freeze for Ireland's national health system until at least the first of the year, maybe later. But if you know anything about our plans, you know they change hourly, as [View Full Entry]

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hey ya'll, i guess at the ripe young age of 29 one starts to become a planner. that, and i spend sooooooo much time on the computer, doing things like this is called "a fun break". anyways, the countdown is counting down and i'll be flying high in the sky in the wee'morning hours of the 18th day of November (also my mama's birthday!) i want to make sure i have everyone's address correct so i can check it off my "master brain list", which i'm sure you all know, feels oh so good. this is my first travelblog, but the [View Full Entry]

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I just wanted to let you all know that I will be heading back to Chile...4 days from now! I'll be keeping my travelblog as updated as possible and posting photos...all that fun stuff! So stay tuned for another couple weeks of my Chilean crazy adventures... :o) [View Full Entry]

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It was a long haul down to Oregon, but we made it, plants and all! It took us about 5 days to make the entire trip, with one day spent in Vancouver, Canada. We saw a menagerie of ungulates on our drive down, such as deer, caribou, buffalo, and some sort of sheep or goat that did not look like the Alaskan doll sheep or the mountain goat. We also spotted next to the Alaskan Highway a brown bear with a small cub. Maciek and I have been living in Corvallis for about two and a half months now. Corvallis is [View Full Entry]

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I feel like the luckiest girl in the world right about now! Recently, the head advisor of the International Studies department at my University, pulled me aside to talk about my senior thesis research. I told her I'd been pretty frusterated after finding out that my initial senior thesis proposal was "beyond the undergraduate level" after I was already in Chile, just waiting for the go-ahead to begin my research. We talked about some new ideas that I had to rewrite my proposal, and after a bit I told her that I was so bummed to not be able to conduct [View Full Entry]

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