Good Weekend

Hey everyone! I hope you had a good weekend.

Friday evening, me and my friends Michael and Colby went to Johnson City to do some Christmas shopping. I didn't even buy anything. Most of our time was spent in Gamestop playing a dirt bike game. I have never been much of a gamer but sometimes I wish I had something to keep me occupied in my downtime. I think I am better off without anything like that though. I have purposely tried to steer away from video games since I've been in college. I find myself much more useful when I don't have things like that to get me distracted. On our way back through Abingdon we stopped and met mom and picked up Blake. He spent the night with me on Friday night. It was a good time. We just hung out and watched Christmas Vacation.

Saturday we went Christmas shopping. I still didn't buy anything for anyone. I spent my $10 Target card that I won at the RA Christmas party on an iTunes gift card so I could buy some music. I also bought a few things from Ross and Books-a-Million. It snowed and the roads got pretty bad. I almost wrecked on the way back from Emory. I'm not scared to drive on the snow but last night was very scary. I came back, took a shower, then headed to Blacksburg.

It was my friend Tarah's 21st birthday. She didn't know I was coming up so it was a suprise when I answered the door at her apartment. It was fun. We just hung out last night then went to eat at Cracker Barrell this morning. I'm going to Miami for the Orange Bowl! I'm excited. Me, Tarah, Dove, and a few of their friends from VT are going. I'm really excited about it. I have been in need of a road trip and this one will be good. VT is playing Cincinnati so I'll get to see Colton and Lance, my two friends from California while I am there. I am stoked!

Have a good week everyone. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Buddy the Elf

Below is the picture of the whole Claus family...me, Daniel, and Tessa dressed as Buddy the Elf, Santa, and Mrs. Claus.

From Blogger Pictures

Buddy the Elf...What's Your Favorite Color?!

Hey everyone! Everything has been good the past couple days. I have just been busy. Since I am the RA over 5 houses...that means I have 5 bulletin boards to do, which is not fun. But, I worked really hard this month and actually did 5 awesome boards! I made them interactive so my residents could "color their stress away." Each of my residents had a space on the board and they all received a personal box of crayons! It turned out to be good.


I got an email from the director of the organization in Ecuador today! He is going to let me work with them. He said I would be able to travel with their workers into the different communities and see what all they are doing. I took some money out of my Ecuador fund yesterday and went to Books-a-Million and bought stuff to learn some Spanish. I'm going to try and learn as much as I possibly can. If I do, I'll have a better chance of getting to do more while I am there. I am really excited. He told me that Altropico's website was going to be translated into English soon. As soon as it is, I will post the website so you can check out where I will be working. If you are not familiar with the location of Ecuador, here is a map:



View Larger Map


Tonight was the RA Christmas party. A few weeks ago, the Residence Hall Association ordered me an Elf costume to wear at our Angel Tree party so I could amuse the kids. Well, I along with Daniel and Tessa decided to wear our Angel Tree outfits to the RA Christmas party. It was quite entertaining. Something is up and the blog won't let me put in pics, but as soon as I figure out what's wrong I'll put up a picture. Hope you are having a good week!

Here's a shout-out to Jen Davis! She is one of my previous "bosses" I guess you would say. She left us this year and went to Radford. All the RAs miss her, especially me! Come visit Jen!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Pictures

Hey everyone! I hope you had a good weekend. The next week is going to be crazy for me. If I can get three big papers done I will only have to worry about 2 final exams for exam week. So, that is my goal. If I can get them done by the end of the week, I will feel very accomplished. I would rather work really hard and wear myself out this week and have the rest of my semester to relax!

I back up all my pictures on my Google account so that if something happens to my computer then I don't lose them. I got onto my account and unlocked some of my albums so you can look through and check out my pictures. I only posted a few pics from the summer on my blog and the albums have a lot more. I also have a lot of pictures from my other trips I have taken. I hope you enjoy. Here is the link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/zacharytriplett

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Back to the Blog

I started my blog this past May before I went to California. It turned out to be such a success that people have been urging me to continue to posting. Even though there has been a break in my blog for approximately four months, I think I will pick it back up. This is going to be long and will include a lot (summer plans, school, Black Friday)! So, here it goes:

This past week I bought a ticket to Ecuador. I knew I was wanting to take a trip out of the country this summer and I didn’t really know where to go. I wanted to go to Africa and work on something AIDS related since I want to go into public health. When I talked with one of my professors about it, he told me that airfares to Africa would eat me alive and on top of that, I don’t know how to speak a different language. He told me I should to go Ecuador and take Spanish classes while I am there. So, I’m going to Ecuador. I’ll be staying in Quito, which is the capital of the country. I am going to be taking four hours of Spanish lessons a day, living with an Ecuadorian family, and working for an organization called Altropico. I will be there for four weeks and I think it will end up being a good trip. I will get more nervous the closer I get to the day.

I am hopefully going back to California this summer. As of right now me, my good friend Colton, and hopefully one of his friends are going to be driving across the country to work at CTY in Santa Cruz again. We plan on going up through the Badlands in South Dakota, crossing over to Glacier National Park, heading over to Seattle, then traveling down the West Coast to Santa Cruz. It will be good, not only because the trip will be awesome, but also because we will have a car in California so we can do more traveling when we have free time.

School is going great this semester. It is just rather stressful. I am taking Intro to Public Policy & Community Service, Sustainable Community Development, Intro to the Christian Faith, Marriage & Family, and History of Appalachia. I am liking all of my classes. I am only going to end up with two final exams to study for. I have take home exams for my Public Policy classes and I have a huge research project for my Appalachia class. I have been researching one and two-room schools for my project because they were very common in the Appalachian region many years ago. I interviewed my Aunt Clara and Aunt Vic this past weekend because they were both involved with two-room schools when they still existed.

My Head RA job is going well. Nothing too stressful I guess. I have five bulletin boards that I have to update each month so that gets rather stressful at times. Sometimes I feel like I am not a good RA because I don’t get to visit my residents as much as I would like to. I try my best though. I stay quite busy with everything at school…student government, Bonner, Residence Hall Association and a lot more. Even though I stay super busy, I like it. I hate when I just sit around. I like to stay busy during the week but it is nice to just crash on the weekends.
I went shopping on Black Friday. I had many very interesting experiences. I will start off with the beginning. I went to my apartment at the college and spent the night on Thursday night so I didn’t have to drive so far on Friday morning. I woke up at 3:30 to get ready. I had to meet Dana, LeRae, and Rita in Abingdon at 4:15 to head out. On my way down the interstate, a red Pontiac from Ohio passed me going around 90 MPH. Being the daredevil I am, I sped up because 1) It’s 4:15 in the morning…no cops. And 2) I like to drive fast. After hitting 85, I decided to slow down because I had no reason to be in a hurry. While slowing down, I was passing a car and a cop got behind me and put his blue lights on. Keep in mind this is 4AM. I knew I had been caught. I just put on my signal and prepared to pull over. When I got into the other lane, he kept on going. I was relieved I didn’t get a ticket. It turns out that he had the red Pontiac pulled over about 10 miles down the interstate.

We got to Bristol Mall around 4:30am. JCPenney was the only store open so we went in there to blow some time. I was amazed at the number of people wearing Elf hats. People really got into this. There were people waiting in line at Chick-fil-a before the metal chains were raised! It was nuts. We went to Belk so we could get the $25 Fossil watches that were being advertised. After searching around the jewelry counter for the watches, we were encountered by a sign that said there was a printing mistake and the price was $125 instead of $25. We were angry at this time and stormed out of Belk. Me and Dana had made a rule to be rude all day. We had to be legit Black Friday shoppers with angry faces and no manners. After fighting the crowd at Bath & Body Works (and encountering a lady in stilettos shopping for $5 wallflowers), we were on our way to Exit 7. We walked in Wal-Mart and some lady heard me ask Dana about the $2 movies. After Dana didn’t know, the very excited lady graciously pointed us towards McDonalds. They hid the $2 movies in the deli! What the heck? It was weird. After deciding it wasn’t worth waiting in the check-out line for 3 hours, we left Wal-Mart and headed for Target, Best Buy, and Old Navy. There were excellent deals at Best Buy and Target. I ended up buying a total of 15 DVDs the whole day! I was quite excited. I stopped at Wal-Mart in Lebanon on my way home which was completely in order and not crowded at all. There, I managed to do a little bit of Christmas shopping.

This evening I rode to Norton with Dad to get a hot water heater at Lowe’s. In our search for dinner, I decided we should go to Taco Bell. Our cashier was nuts. We were telling her our order and she stopped, looked at us, and said, “I look so innocent standing here!” Not knowing what to say, Dad was like, “Yes you do.” And the transaction was finished. It was by far one of the most awkward moments I have ever encountered. I was biting my lip to keep from busting out laughing. It was a good time.

Hopefully I will update my blog pretty often from now on. I enjoy writing and I like to go back and read what I have written in the past. I’ll try to find some interesting things to write about. Keep in touch everyone and I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! I’m back to Emory tomorrow!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

CTY Goodbye

Wow. I can't believe I have been in Santa Cruz for 6 weeks. The time out here has gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I took off from the east coast to go on a trip where I didn't know what to expect. This summer has been so much more than anything I ever thought it would be.

Last summer I wasn't happy with my work that I did at the hospital. Since it counted for my community service hours, it made me even more unhappy because I felt like I wasn't having some kind of an impact on other people. I knew I wanted something different this summer. I didn't know what to expect when I took this job. I had never really worked with kids before so I knew it was going to be somewhat challenging. So, I took it on a limb.

I came to California thinking that this job was gonna be easy. I have to be an RA for a group of well-behaved, intellectual, extremely smart young students. I was gonna get paid a good deal of money and I get to live in a beach town for 6 weeks...for free. What more could you ask for? Not much. Even though this sounded like a perfect way to spend my summer, I did have some hesitations. Was I going to be happy counting this as my community service. Is it really service to someone if you have so much fun and get paid a ton? This was a question that I struggled with at the beginning, but it was at the beginning that I realized that I was in for much more than I had originally bargained for.

This summer has been a life changing experience. I have learned new things about myself that I wouldn't have learned anywhere else. I feel like I've come to appreciate so much more since I have been out here. I am going to go home tomorrow changed. Not changed in a bad way, but changed in a way to where I am going to enjoy all of my time at Emory.

I can't even begin to talk about the people I have met out here. Everyone from students to my fellow co-workers have been amazing. You don't realize how well you get to know people until you live with the same one's for six weeks, and some only 3 weeks. We really are like a family. I don't know how it's gonna be at 6:30 in the morning when I get on the shuttle to go to the airport. It's gonna be hard to leave these people, a couple in particular.

This summer has been a big learning experience for me. I am bringing back to Virginia with me more knowledge about me, the world, kids, life in general, that I never expected to learn. I can't really imagine what I would have done better this summer had I not chosen to come to California.

I just want to thank all of the people that I've worked with this summer for this experience. It has been amazing. I'm excited about keeping in touch with them and I can't wait to get back to Southwest Virginia and tell about my summer.

I'm gonna leave you with my favorite picture from the summer. Even though it was taken between 4 and 5 weeks ago, I never put it on here because I wanted to save it for the end. Its most of the RA staff, on a hike, and we found this squiggly thing. I think it's awesome. It's a picture I'd like to keep forever.

You know, I kind of like this blogging thing. Maybe it's something I'll keep going after I get back home. I will be in Charlotte, North Carolina at 9:35 tomorrow night and Haysi around 12 on Sunday. I'm excited. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Day Off/Awesomeness

Good morning everyone! Hope everything is good in Virginia and wherever else you are. The past two days have been great.

I left Santa Cruz around 7:15 on Sunday night. By the time I waited on the bus to San Jose then caught a train to my hotel is was 10:00. You would think since I haven't watched TV in 6 weeks that I would watch it all night. Well, it's really weird, but I just have no interest in watching TV anymore. I've done without it for 6 weeks so whats the use of watching it if I don't absolutely have to. So, I was in bed by 10:30. I got up yesterday morning and caught the 10:10 train to San Francisco. Once I got to the city I was utterly confused because their public transportation is confusing. I ended up catching two different streetcars to the Fisherman's Wharf. I knew one thing that I for sure wanted to do was ride a boat around the Bay. So, I paid $23 and got an hour long cruise. It was a lot of fun. It took me under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz and gave me awesome views of the city. I was kind of disappointed that the fog was still around because I couldn't see the top of the bridge. It was also the coldest boat ride I have ever taken in my life.

I had lunch at In-N-Out. Since it is a California thing I figured I should take advantage of it while I can. It was very tasty. After lunch and the cruise I caught another street car back to the Museum of Modern Art. On the way there I was fortunate enough to see the San Francisco Police do their finest work. Four officers was tackling a man right where my street car was stopped. They had out their sticks to hit him and everything. His significant other, who was in a panic, was running around yelling, "don't taze him, don't taze him, he's got metal in his mouth." Even though it was a serious situation, it was quite comical.

I became sort of sick the day before I left, so I was feeling a little under the weather by the time I got to the Museum of Modern Art. I only spent about an hour in the Museum but it was really good. I really enjoyed the photography section. I caught the 5:56 train out of San Francisco and was back at the college at exactly 9:00.

We have a common room on my hall with couches and stuff for everyone to hang out in. I had my kids promise me before I left that they would clean the common room before I came back. Well, we walked back in the dorm...the common room was clean...but they were all rushing me to my room. I figured they were trying to pull a prank on me. So, I went to my room and there was a sign on the door that read, "Go to the right stall in the bathroom." So, I went to the stall and there was a sign that said, "Go to the common room." So, I went to the common room and on the table there was a paper that said, "Check both microwaves." So, I went to the first microwave and opened it up. I found a card that all my guys had bought me and signed just saying how much they missed me on my day off. There was also a sign that said, "don't forget to check the other microwave." So, I go to the other microwave and inside I find a giant stuffed Banana Slug, which is the mascot for the University here.

So, my day off was great. I needed it. Now I'm off to Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey on a field trip. I guess I'll have even more pics to post after this.

Day Off!

Hey everyone. Tomorrow is my day off so I am getting ready to leave in about 30 minutes. Be expecting pictures tomorrow night or Tuesday morning. Only 6 days 'til I'm back on the east coast!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Plans for My Day Off

I'm excited now. I had been bummed because I didn't have plans for my day off but now I do. I really wanted to leave here on Sunday night and go somewhere and spend the night. A fellow RA gave me the idea to go spend the night in San Jose then ride the train to San Francisco early on Monday morning.

Thanks to priceline.com letting me name my own price, I got a room in the Wyndham in San Jose on Sunday night for $60.00. Normally the rooms are $169 per night. So, I'm gonna ride the bus from Santa Cruz to San Jose late on Sunday evening, spend the night in San Jose, then ride the train to San Francisco early on Monday morning. Keep in mind, I'm doing this all by myself. There are a few things I didn't get to do while I was in San Francisco that I want to do. I would like to go to the Museum of Modern Art. I heard it was really nice and it's something that I really want to do. I like going to museums and I didn't get to go to any while I was there. So, I'm excited about that trip. I will be coming back to Santa Cruz late on Monday evening.

The past couple days have been good. This session is flying by. It is hard to believe that in just 10 days I will be back in Virginia. It's gonna be hard to leave everyone here at Santa Cruz, but I am ready to head back to Haysi and Emory.

Hope everything is good for everyone! Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Santa Cruz Adventure

Good morning everyone. Just thought I would put up a few pictures from my trip to the beach yesterday evening. I wish everyone could be out here to visit these places with me. They are pretty awesome. Have a good day everyone. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Me holding a starfish.

Waves crashing into the cliffs.

Pacific sunset.

Lighthouse State Beach

Sea lion

Lance diving into the waves

Home Sweet Home...for the summer

So...on my way back from lunch a few minutes ago, I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of my dorm where I am living this summer. It looks pretty cool so I figured that I would put a picture up.

The past few days have gone really well. The dance was a ton of fun. I think they are one of my favorite parts of CTY. We had a really good playlist for Friday night and I think that all the kids really enjoyed what we did. Weekends are where us RAs really earn our money. It is our responsiblity to keep all the kids occupied for 48 hours...which can be a huge challenge. So, we had the dance Friday. Yesterday we had "Halloween in July." Basically it was just a bunch of random games with halloween names like "witchy wiffleball" and "headless ghoulie soccer." It was fun though. Last night was Casino Night. It was a lot of fun too. I was in charge of the marriage booth for the first hour. We had to come up with good vows for all the kids to say when they "married" each other. It's hard coming up with an hour's worth of different vows, especially when most of the kids were getting married multiple times.

I'm looking forward to today. Basically we're going down to a big field and we are going to "chill." It is going to be nice to take some down time. My day off is coming up on the 4th and I'm getting excited about it. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do. I thought about getting an early flight out of San Jose to Los Angeles and staying in LA for the day but I've waited too late and it is going to be too expensive. I'll figure something out. The way I see it, since I'm in California I might as well spend a little bit of money and enjoy myself because it's not all the time that I'm in a place like this.

Hope everything is good in Virginia. I'll be home in 14 days! Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Time Flies By

Hey everyone. Everything has been good around here the past couple days. Just busy. This past week has flown by.

Today I needed some down time so I decided to go into town around 11. It is so nice being able to walk 2 minutes out of my dorm and catch a bus that goes right to the middle of town. I went down to town, went to Gap, the bookstore, the surf shop, and ate lunch. It was nice to get away from campus. I wish I would have figured out how to use the bus system earlier so I would have done this more last session.

Activities have been fun this week. Yesterday we had a game of Capture the Flag with over 100 people. It was a lot of fun. It just dawned on me that I really haven't watched any tv in over 4 weeks. I feel like I have been cut off from the world. I never hear anything about what is going on in the news. I kind of like it.

I have a feeling I'm going to be bored once I go back to Emory in a couple weeks. There is not near the amount of stuff to do around Emory that there is to do there. I can't just "catch a bus into town." I have to drive everywhere which I've come to the conclusion is not very fun. I like riding buses. They're cheap and easy.

My day off is Monday, August 4th. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do. I may end up riding a bus to San Jose and doing something over in that direction. I'll figure something out. I'm almost ready for a day off. I need it.

Well, I hope everything is good in Virginia and wherever else you all are reading from. I miss everyone! See you in a little over two weeks! Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Another Day

Hey everyone. Hope everything is good where ever you are. The weather has been really cold here the past couple days. I have been freezing to death. This morning I'm sure it was only around 50 degres. That's the thing about this place. You'd think that since I'm in California it would be warm, but that is not the case. Of the nights and mornings it is cold then during the day it is pretty warm.

Everything seems to be going pretty good this session. I have a really good group of students. I have been kind of down the past couple days though. I think it's a combination of things. One, a couple of our good RA friends had to leave because they were only staying for one session. That was upsetting. I'm also really missing the guys from my last hall. I think since it was my first time in California and they were my first group of students, I am going to miss them. They were an awesome group of guys. At time they were a challenge, but they made it through. I'm kind of missing Virginia too. Even though I love this place, I'm missing being in southwest Virginia.

I was talking with some other people and it would be totally different living here as a student. I think the reason most of us like the place so well is because of the people we are working with. We came from all over the country and we get along really well. It would be a totally different experience if it wasn't for those people.

Thanks to everyone who sent me a birthday card! I really appreciate it. I know the thanks are late but I still needed to thank you. I'm on the dance committee for this weekend so I need to go do some planning for the boogie night. Everyone have a good day.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

New Day, New Kids

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been a few days since I have updated my blog. It seems as if I've not stopped to rest for the past 72 hours. We left on Friday afternoon for San Francisco. It was about a 2 hour drive up from Santa Cruz. We took Highway 1 which runs all the way up the coast. It was one of the most beautiful drives that I have ever taken. We basically drove on a cliff beside the ocean the whole way up.

Once we got there we checked into our hotel. 12 people in one room! It was quite the night. We stayed in a hotel called The Palace. It was super nice. Right in the middle of the city too. Friday night we went to the waterfront and then walked around the city some. After getting a little bit of sleep we got up early and headed out on the city. We ate at Mel's Diner for breakfast and I got gravy and biscuits which I was stoked about. We then walked through Chinatown, saw different places to shop, then went to the Fisherman's Wharf. After that, the day was practically over. We left and went to the Golden Gate bridge, went to Twin Peaks (the highest point in the city), and then we headed back to Santa Cruz.

It is so weird that Santa Cruz feels like home now. Even though I loved the city, I was so happy to be at Santa Cruz. It was one of those moments where you feel like you have been on vacation and you're so happy to be pulling back in your driveway, except I was pulling back into Santa Cruz.

This morning was sad. Some of the great RAs only here for one session left. I will miss them a lot. After they left kids started coming. I have a really good group of guys this time around. As of right now. Hopefully this session will be as great as the last.

It's time for me to go. I have things to do and people to see. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Group shot.

Chinatown

Maxwell House guys

Golden Gate Bridge

Twin Peaks

I'm Free!

All the kiddies are gone!!! It feels nice to have a 48 hour break. I just wanted to update real quick since I hadn't in a few days. I'm leaving to go to San Francisco in a few minutes. Expect pics in a couple days. Have a good weekend everyone!



Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Birthday pic

I got 10 birthday cards yesterday! I was excited. I knew they were lost in the mail somewhere. I'll put up a picture from my birthday party with me and all the RAs that suprised me.

I'll update with more later. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Days Gone By

Just to let you know, there is also a new post right below this one with a few pics from my day off today. My birthday was great yesterday! Mail travels really slow out here so if I haven't called to thank you for your card, I will when I get it. It takes a while to get to me once it gets on campus.

The awesome RAs that I work with threw me a suprise birthday party yesterday afternoon. I thought that I was going to "play whiffleball," but instead, a suprise party was waiting on me. It was fun. I swear I couldn't ask for a better group of people to be working with this summer. They are all awesome and I appreciate every single one of them. It will be hard leaving in August after making such great friends. I'll put up a few pics of my birthday party when someone gives them to me.

Today was my day off. I started by sleeping in...whooo. Did that feel good. I slept until 9:45 then layed in the bed for a while in the peace and quiet. I went to the office around 11:30 and the mail had run with a birthday card plus I got my paycheck. I left right after that to go to town. The strike is still going on. It was so confusing trying to get a campus bus to the entrance of campus. Once I finally got there after about 30 minutes, I had to walk across the picket line which was blocking the entrance to campus and catch a city bus into town. I walked down Pacific Ave for a while then went to the wharf and to the beach. The weather was so nice today. I layed on the beach for about an hour. It was good to relax.

Every once in a while we have a TA/RA soiree...or just a time for the teaching assistants and RAs to get together. Tonight, we are playing whiffleball and having a bar-b-que. The RAs team name is the Wookies. We are quite a team! I am going to lead our team to victory just like I led the RA team to intramural victory at Emory...haha.

Hope everything is great on the east coast! Just a few more weeks and I'll be home. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Pictures from my day off

derelicte

Hey everyone! Cali is good. No complaints...other than this. Our luck: the employees of the University of California at Santa Cruz are going on strike beginning on Monday. So, that means that we have to walk an extra 5 minutes or so to eat at a different dining hall. Also, the housecleaning crew will only be cleaning every other day. You can imagine how that is going to turn out when you live with a hall full of 13-14 year olds. I gave them a speech tonight on how they should work extra hard to keep the hall clean.

Last night we had a derelicte themed dance. I had to design an outfit out of garbage bags. It was fun. I think that the dances are one of my favorite parts of CTY. We all have fun. Last week was our 80s dance.

Today was good. For the activity, we sort of had a carnival I guess. We played games and the students earned tickets for pies in the face, slushies, fun stuff. I've never played soccer in my life, but I had to play goalie today for the first time. We did soccer shots as an activity so the kids would earn tickets if they could get the ball past me. It was fun. Slightly painful sometimes though.

I'm going to San Francisco on Friday. A few of us RAs are leaving on Friday afternoon and coming back Saturday night. I am really excited because I heard that San Francisco was something that I needed to see while I was out here. I'll be sure to post pictures.

Hope everything is great everywhere! I miss everyone! Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Dang, Decieving Sun

Ok. The sun out here is crazy. I would say it's about the same brightness as in Virginia, but it will burn you about 5 times faster. Me and some of the other RAs went to the pool yesterday and I can now be declared a lobster. I'm burned to a crisp...minus my arms and face; the only two places I put on sunscreen.

The past couple days have been good. Activities are going good. On Monday I did Bingo. Tuesday, another RA organized an activity called, "How to talk to boys" in which girls got to come and ask me and another guy questions on how they should talk to boys. The questions consisted of, "how do I get a guy to notice me?", "what do you consider attractive in a girl?", "is it ok for a girl to ask out a guy?", and other random questions. I found it quite comical. Yesterday, I went banana slug hunting with a group of kids. The Banana Slugs is the mascot for the Univeristy of California here in Santa Cruz. We didn't find any banana slugs, but I did teach the kids the banana slug mating call...haha. It was something like "mur-mur-murrr." It's really hard to explain. I'll teach everyone when I get back to Virginia.

There is a ton of wildlife on this campus. I usually don't go a day without seeing a deer or two. I always see raccoons. There are also a ton of squirrels...and the occasional skunk. I try to steer away from those though.

I have come to the conclusion that it is unnecessary for me to wake up at 6am. I now shower of the night and wake up at 7 instead. Therefore I can get an extra hour of sleep. I have begun to read "Into the Wild." It is a really good book and I want to watch the movie after I get done reading the book.

Hope everyone has a great day. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

No More Mr. Nice RA

The days are flying by. It is hard to believe that I have been here in Santa Cruz for almost 2 weeks already. I have had a hard couple of days. It's a long story and I shouldn't go into it on here, so I'll tell you later.

I think I started out my job being to nice...haha. Since I have never really worked with kids before I didn't realize that if you didn't set ground rules in the beginning that it is hard to set them after about a week. Kids are sneaky...they will lie straight to your face and that aggravates me sometimes. The students here are not allowed to have their cell phones outside of the dorms at any time. I used to just peck on their shoulder and be like, "you shouldn't have that...you need to put it back in your pocket." Now, since I am no longer nice, I take their cell phone away and give it to their RA.

My day off is coming up on July 15th...which is a week from today. I am really excited. Since I don't have a vehicle here I'm not gonna go far. First off, I'm going to sleep in. Second, I am going to ride the bus into town and lay on the beach for a couple of hours. Third, I am going to seek out Jack in the Box so I can have a biscuit. Fourth, I am going to shop. Fifth, I may go back to the beach for a while. Then, I'm going to go star gazing to end the day. It will be relaxing.

Just a reminder, I will no longer be a teenager in 6 days. Therefore, if you want your card to get here on time, you should go ahead and mail it. I've not received any mail since I've been out here so it would be a treat. I posted my address a week or so ago so feel free to mail me something.

Hope everyone has a great day! Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Things I've Learned About Kids

Wow. Working with kids is totally different than what I expected.

1) They are very observant. They caught on that I bite my lip to keep from laughing. So now when they tell inappropriate jokes that I shouldn't laugh at, they see me biting my lip and know I'm about to laugh.
2) I don't know what this world is coming to...but they know too much about stuff that I didn't know about when I was their age.
3) They're sneaky. They try to hide things (iPods, cell phones) and they think you don't notice, but you do.
4) Sometimes, for no reason, they choose not to shower. And it stinks...literally.
5) They like to play Jenga...or at least the kids on my hall do.

We have had some major Jenga action going on the past few days. Since we are allowed to order stuff for our hall and our programs, I ordered a new Jenga set for my hall and it came in today. I was excited along with all of the kids. Oh...here is the quote for the day from one of the kids. "Jenga is like a girl...you gotta prod in all the right places in order to win." Yes. That is what I have to put up with every day.

Last night was fun. A few nights a week we are allowed to go out after all of our kids have gone to bed. One of the other RAs knew of this big field where we could go look over Santa Cruz and the ocean. So, about 11:30, we went walking. It took about 20 minutes to walk there but once we got there it was amazing. Because of the way the Monterey Bay is set up, when you are behind Santa Cruz, you can see several miles south to Monterey. Since it was dark and the skies were clear, you could see the fires at Big Sur. Even though we were probably 40+ miles away, you could even sporadically see the flames. It was one of the coolest sights I have ever seen. It would turn the sky red and everything.

It was warm here today. I love the dry air though. No humidity at all is great. My wiffleball activity has become fun. All of the girls who are supposed to be playing badminton sit to the side and cheer for the boys playing wiffleball. I'm sure they'll be all kinds of couples for the dance on Friday. Yesterday I played basketball for a while then today we just did wiffleball because we had a fire drill.

Well, I'm gone for now. I'm leading a photography activity tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to put up tomorrow evening or Saturday. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Good Morning

Good morning everyone. I figured I would update this since I had a little bit of extra time. I've been trying to wake up at 6:00 every morning to get ready before the kids wake up. I make sure they are all awake at 7:15 then we leave for breakfast at 7:45.

The past couple of days have been good. I am responsible for leading a daily activity which lasts only one day and a weekly activity which is the same activity everyday of the week. Since the schedule had been a little hectic, we just started activities yesterday. My daily activity was hiking. Night before last, my boss and some other RAs went on a hike and found a nice trail to walk the kids on. There is this one place back in the woods where there is a bench and then there is a cutout in the trees for the ocean and Santa Cruz. It is amazing. Anyway, we went hiking and then my weekly activity is wiffleball.

First of all, you need to remember that my wiffleball team at Emory is the intramural wiffleball champions. My team didn't do bad yesterday either. All the people that I work with are awesome. We were talking yesterday that it's so weird that we all got interviewed over the phone and got hired and we are all normal and all get along just fine. I am on the dance committee for this week. We are having an 80s themed dance on Friday. We let all the kids request some songs that they want to hear. We got around 5 pages of requests. Some of them we can't play though, such as "Sensual Seduction," "She Got a Donk," and "Some Kind of Bush" by Booty Love. I didn't know what "She Got a Donk" meant until someone explained it to me, but apparently it means the girl has a large posterior.

Well everyone, I am going to to leave you with some pictures. There is a perfect view of the Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean from the athletic fields and the other day the fog had cleared away so we could see. Hope you enjoy.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Hey everyone! Santa Cruz is going great. Over the past couple of days, we have basically just been doing training for the RA stuff (how to handle certain situations, etc.) Students are supposed to start arriving within the next few minutes and I had some free time so I figured I would update my blog.

All of the kids that live on my hall are taking a class called Mathematics of Money. It is going to be interesting. I have to go to class a couple times each week just to see how everything is going. I am excited about that. I have been working on door decorations and my bulletin boards for the past couple of nights. I was excited this morning because I actually slept until my alarm clock went off. I'm starting to get used to the time now. It felt good to sleep for a long time.

One of the things I have to do as an RA is lead an activity every day. On Friday, me and another RA are having a photo activity where we just walk kids all around campus and take pictures of different things. I promise that I will put all kinds of photos on here after Friday. Santa Cruz is beautiful. The other day, we went for a walk down to the athletic fields and that is the place on campus that overlooks the ocean and the town of Santa Cruz. Because of the fog, we couldn't see it. It has been pretty cold here. Since a nip stays in the air all day, it takes quite a while for the fog to lift. The past couple days you have also been able to smell smoke in the air. Apparently the big fire that is about 30 minutes away is the one that you can smell here on campus.

Here is my mailing address if anyone wants to send me something (birthday cards on July 14th, etc.) I get excited when I receive mail so it would be nice for you to send me something...haha. Here is the address.

Zach Triplett

Johns Hopkins CTY Program

UCSC

1156 High Street

Crown College, Harvey Residence Hall

Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The Beginning

Hey everyone! I have finally arrived in Santa Cruz, California. My flights were good. I've been awake for a long time though. I got up at 4:45am Eastern time, which is 1:45am Pacific time. This time is going to take some getting used to. Its 10:40 at the house but it's still daylight where I am at, which is awesome.

I took a few pics on the ride from Dallas to San Jose. I love flying. Dallas/Fort Worth was a huge airport. I had to ride a train from one terminal to the other. It was neat though. I landed in San Jose and it was about 45 minutes across the mountain to Santa Cruz. The San Jose side of the mountain was smoky from the wildfires but once you crossed into Santa Cruz it cleared up. The closest wildfire is about 30 minutes away so no-one needs to worry about that.

The campus is amazing. It is on the side of a mountain surrounded by a redwood forest. It's pretty neat. I've still not seen the Pacific Ocean yet. I'm excited about that. All the people that I am going to be working with are great. A lot of people are from the east coast and this is the first time the majority of them have worked here too.

My room is small but it is nice. They didn't give me a fitted sheet in my linen packet which is kind of aggravating, but at least the sheets are clean. The dorms look like houses in the southwest with the curvy roofs, if you know what I am talking about. I will put up a pic of them later on. I've not had a chance to take my pics, but I will put a couple up. There will be a lot more to come.

Clouds between Dallas and San Jose.

The Sierra Nevada Mountain range.

The view from my dorm window.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Santa Cruz...Here I Come!

How's it goin everyone? Everything is good here. I can't believe I leave for California tomorrow. Mom, Blake, Aunt Vic, and I are going to spend the night in Charlotte tomorrow night and then my plane leaves at 7:05 on Thursday morning. This will probably be my last update until I am on the west coast.

I am getting excited. I took a break from packing to write this blog. I think this thing turned out to be a pretty good idea. At least everyone can keep up with me without having to send boo-koos of emails.

I'm excited about California...meeting new people, experiencing a new place. It is going to be a lot different than here in Virginia, but it will be worth it. I am going to miss everyone though. I was thinking the other day...I've never been away from home for 6 weeks. The next few weeks will be the longest I have ever gone without seeing anyone that I know. I will meet all kinds of new people though.

Well, goodbye everyone. Sorry if I didn't get around to seeing you before I left. I will be back in August...if I don't decide to just stay. If I do that, I'll try to come visit.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Holy moly. I've already started slacking at my blog. I promise it won't be like this in California. I will keep your mind stimulated with all sorts of interesting stuff about my life...yes...that's how interesting my life is. You will be amazed, I promise.

Only 5...well...6 more days until I'll be in Santa Cruz, California. My plane leaves from Charlotte at 7:05 on Thursday morning. I'm starting to get really excited. I'm just kind of nervous because I don't really know anyone else who is going to be out there. The people I am going to be working with have been sending traveling emails which is good. For one, I like traveling emails...and two, I get to know the people I'm working with. And I like numbered lists, like what I just did.

I'm sure I will love it in California...but I'm sure I'll be excited to get back to the mountains here in Southwest Virginia. At least I will get away from the locusts for a while. For those of you who live around here, you know what I am talking about. They will deafen you. The day I walk outside and do not hear the roaring shreek of the aggravating bugs, I will question the functioning of my ears.

I miss everyone from Emory. I'll be excited to get back to my favorite place in August. I had a weird dream about it last night.

I'm going to start ending with a generic ending? That doesn't make sense, but you'll catch on. Like where Bob Barker always said, "Remember, have your pets spayed or neutered to control the pet population." Here is my ending:

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

It feels nice to be in Haysi for a few days. I've been in the mood to work outside I don't like to put labels on people, but I laughed yesterday when I realized I was mowing the yard without a shirt on and was listening to Aaron Tippin on my iPod. It was comical...to me and only me I think.

I'm getting more and more excited about California as the days come on. Only 14 days until I leave to go. I got out my packet of information today and was reading a little bit more about where I'm going. I'm actually going to be working at the University of California-Santa Cruz. I'm excited about meeting all kinds of new people. This is going to be a major change from the mountains of Southwest Virginia, but I think it will be worth it.

I like the Price is Right. I know that is random, but the Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular is on right now. So, I need to go. I promise all my updates won't be this pointless. Later!

Zach

"I can't do all of the service the world needs...but the world needs all of the service I can do."

I was at the Bonner talent show tonight and I saw a fellow Bonner wearing a shirt with the subject quote written on it. I think that quote says a lot.

I think I can speak for myself and other Bonners at Emory & Henry when I say we are sometimes secluded. I can't really explain what I get out of doing my service in the community. Most people at the college see service as a burden...something you do when you are in trouble or something. That is not the case. My point is...I didn't realize until this morning in my Bonner congress meeting that there are other college students, all over the United States, who love service just as much as I do. It feels great to be around so many amazing people that have practically the same views on the world that I do. The world needs change...and that is what Bonner is all about doing.

We're comin home tomorrow and I'll be around Emory until Tuesday evening then back to good ole' Haysi for a few days. Hit me up. Later.

Live from Meadville, Pennsylvania

Wow. I've not had a blog since I had LiveJournal back in...I think the 8th grade. The whole point of creating this thing is so that people can keep up with me while I am away this summer. Right now I am at a Bonner conference in Meadville, Pennsylvania. It turned out to be a 9 hour drive from Emory in a mini-van. Nothing against mini-vans...but, ok, I'm against mini-vans.

I'm pretty lost up here. I'm a Bonner Congress rep and I have no clue what is going on. The other three people that came from Emory are in Erie, PA until Saturday doing service, so I'm alone here. I'm a social person but I'm just feeling in-social tonight, so thats why I decided to start the blog. I guess I will learn more tomorrow. We are learning how to use a lot of technologically savvy stuff (Wiki's, RSS feeds, etc.) Don't feel bad. I didn't know what they were either.

Speaking of technology, I have the story for the day. So, on the way back from Tennessee where I visited my Uncle Jeff and his family, me and my posse of cousins stopped at the Bass Pro-Shop in Sevierville. I had been wanting a pair of Sperry's so I decided to buy some. They are Sperry's, but yet they are shoes I can get wet at the same time. They are really cool. Back to my story. Here in my awesome dorm that I'm staying in, I thought we only had internet in the lobby. So, I come to my room to get my laptop during dinner and take it to the lobby to check my email. On the way down, my new Sperry's, which are very slick on the bottom, caused me to fall on the stairs while I was holding my laptop. My laptop took a blow and busted my screen. I was only bruised though. I am still able to see my screen but the right hand side is all screwed up.

Well, I'll go for now. My goal for this...I guess you can call it blog...is to not only let you know about whats going on in my life, but what is my life. I feel a post about my Bonner service coming along really soon. Later!