i'd rather be flying

The Story of a Hellacious Commute

2011-05-21T17:43:00.003-04:00

So, I find myself currently sitting in my hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. Got here about four hours ago, went out to eat lunch with my other flight attendant and first officer, and now I'm just chillin waiting on the rapture to occur. What better way to wait than to get on my blog and tell a story?! There is no better way.

Picture it, Richmond...Wednesday morning. I have to work Thursday morning. I woke up, mowed my jungle of a lawn, and went out to eat lunch with my friend Jean (which has become a regular occurrence on the days I leave Richmond for work.) I got to the airport around 1:30 planning on catching the 2:45 US Airways flight to LaGuardia. As I'm sitting there, both the 2:45 and the 3:40 flights are delayed by one hour. I continue to wait. At 3:30, both flights cancel. In my mind I begin to say many choice words, but I'm trying to figure out my next step. "Ah-ha! There is a Delta flight that leaves at 3:15 for JFK! But it's currently 3:30...maybe it's delayed!" Turns out, the JFK flight was delayed. So I ran back to the other side of the airport, went through security all over again, and arrived at the Delta gate.

When I arrived, I saw a Delta ERJ-145 sitting on the taxiway. "Dammit," I think to myself..."I missed it!" I go up to a gate agent to ask if I missed the 3:15 departure to JFK. She said no, that was the 1:30pm departure still awaiting takeoff. Yes...you read correctly. The current time is 3:45 and the 1:30 is still awaiting takeoff. Even though I should never be happy about delays, I was excited because this delay was my ticket to work.

The 1:30 departure sat on the taxiway for nearly 2.5 hours then came back to the gate. Of course...the angry passengers came off to be rebooked on missed connections, etc. I was still waiting for the 3:15 plane so I could get to work. Both planes kept getting delayed. 6:00pm rolls around, and they decide to board both planes. "Ladies and gentlemen," I hear, "we are gonna begin the boarding process for both flights to JFK because both planes are going to take off right at the same time." So, we wait in line and finally board the plane. I am on a plane with about 20 other passengers...and the other Delta plane beside of me had 16 passengers. "Yay! We're finally going!" Or, so we all thought.

We sat on the plane for about 40 minutes, watched a rainbow come and go in the thunderstorm, then our captain informs us the other plane (original 1:30 departure that is now 5 hours late) has a mechanical issue. They planned on moving all those passengers onboard our plane so that we could all get to JFK. "That's fine," I thought. We had plenty of seats. I see the ramp guys pull a ladder up to the other plane and fix it. Yay! It's fixed!

Then, the rampers begin unloading our suitcases from our plane. "What is going on?" I thought. I am getting to New York today if I have to swim up the coast of the Atlantic! Our pilots come over the PA and tell us they have just hit the 16 hours of work mark and that we have to deplane and get on the other plane to JFK because they are now illegal to fly. Ok...not a big deal. There are 20 of us, 16 on the other plane...36 total, for a 50 seater plane. We gather our carry-ons and proceed to deplane. I stop to talk to the flight attendant before heading over to the other plane. I walk off of my plane to go get on the other one...and here it comes: the other plane was pushing back from the gate...with the door closed...and with only 16 people. None of the people from my plane was on there.

I am going to give a precursor to the following conversation: I was in my uniform going to work. I understand I am supposed to be respectful to everyone, but I lost it at this point. I was on my 6th hour and watching a plane leave to go to NYC without me and 20 other people who needed to go. This is how is went:

-Gate agent is standing at the bottom of the ramp.
-Zach: (throws carry ons onto the wet ground with an attitude) "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"
-Gate agent: "What?"
-Zach: "you have 20 people trying to get to JFK who were told we were gonna be on that plane and you're letting it push back?"
-Gate agent: "We couldn't help it."
-Zach: "What do you mean you couldn't help it? You've known for 10 minutes this plane is gonna leave because you hooked up the tug and now you're letting it go without all of us. You've got to be fucking kidding me."
-Gate agent: "The pilots closed the door and said they had to go."
-Zach: "I honestly don't know what to say right now. Are we gonna go on the 7:30 flight?"
-Gate agent: "It's cancelled."

At that point, I grabbed my bags and walked away. I had made friends with a United flight attendant named Katherine a few hours earlier and we were both trying to get to NYC. We spent this whole ordeal together. We immediately run inside the airport and hop onto a plane heading to Washington-Dulles. We were happy with anything that would get us closer to NYC.

We land in Dulles around 8:30, with only two options: one plane to JFK and one plane to LaGuardia. Both were oversold. We end up sitting on the taxiway for about 30 minutes because a thunderstorm wouldn't allow the ramp guys to marshal the plane to the gate. We run in the airport and run to the LaGuardia flight that is delayed until 10:50pm. Long story short, people missed their connections and we got on the plane. Landed in LaGuardia at 12:15am.

Yes, it took me 11 hours to get to work on Wednesday. It was a fabulous time. I'm not sure anything could be more fun...other than the impending Rapture. It's about that time.

Until next time, and if we make it through the Rapture, Zach will leave it at that.

The Joys of Travel

2011-05-16T16:37:00.001-04:00

Actually written on May 15th at approximately 830pm somewhere in the air between DC and Denver...

I find myself in the air pretty often. Yea, it's my job. As most of you know, I am a flight attendant now. It's pretty crazy how much my life has changed over the course of the past few months. In December I was driving to work in a bank every single day and I was miserable. At this moment, I'm on a plane headed to Denver, Colorado, then I'm gonna head down to Tucson, Arizona to visit my best friend Colton, his parents, and his girlfriend Alison.

I've not updated my blog in quite a while. Perhaps I should bring it back to life. I need to find something to do with my spare time. I used to sit on planes for hours and look out the window in amazement of where I was at (35,000 feet above the ground.) Now that I am on the go so often, I am pretty used to the sights out of the window, so blogging with my interesting airline stories may be the best way to pass my time.

I'll start with a brief synopsis of the past few months. I could write a book, but I'll spare you. I now work for Shuttle America, a regional airline that operates Delta Shuttle, Delta Connection, and United Express flights. I'm based out of New York City's LaGuardia Airport I love it. It's a ton of fun and I get to go places which is what I wanted. The people I work with are amazing. I've met some great friends through the job, although I do miss my friends from college and from Richmond. I have a very good schedule and sometimes I find it hard to believe that I actually have the job that I do.

I have a new appreciation for flight attendants. Before I start my story of the day, let me tell you about the past few hours of my life…

I ended a "trip" in LaGuardia last night and I along with the wonderful First Officer I had been flying with for the past few days headed over to JFK to head down to Washington, DC. I spent last night with my good friend Hunter with plans of leaving today to go to Tucson, Arizona for a few days. Even though I fly everywhere for free, I fly space available…so, if there are no seats on the plane I do not fly. I decided not to leave Washington, DC today until around 3PM because my flight to Tucson didn't leave Atlanta until 7:25 and I didn't want to sit there for four hours. I looked on my iPhone (my new favorite accessory) and saw that the 3PM flight to Atlanta was overbooked, so when Hunter dropped me off at the airport I ran to the AirTran gate to catch a flight to Atlanta. Long story short: AirTran had no seats, Delta's 3pm had no seats, Delta's 4pm had no seats, Frontier was delayed by 2 hours, and I really thought I was out of options. I ended up hoofing it over the United counter and getting a United flight to Denver. Once in Denver, I will connect to Tucson on Frontier Airlines. Yes, I know it's confusing, but it's what I have to go through to get where I'm going. In the end you may be sweaty, tired, frustrated, angry, hungry and look like you just ran a marathon through the Saharan Desert, but at least you make it.

I have to say that I'm very satisfied with life at this point. I like driving down the road with my windows down, sunroof open, blasting my music. The other day I was doing just that and I was thinking about how I honestly don't have any worries right now. I wouldn't complain if my life stayed like it is for a while. I love my family, I love my friends, I love my job, and I am very content. I hope I stay this way for a while.

For now, I'll just keep on flying and see what comes my way.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The Power Behind a Story

2011-01-04T15:00:00.007-05:00

People cease to amaze me...and I don't say that with anger. Diversity amazes me. Struggles amaze me. But most of all, stories amaze me.

I love stories. I want to hear them. When I am trying to get to know a person, I want to hear the stories they have. Whether it is stories about family, stories about friends, stories about happiness, stories about struggles...it doesn't matter. It is one's stories that make a person who they are.

For now, I work in a restaurant. I'm a server. I deal with people for probably about 95% of my job. And every single table I go to, I think about the stories they have. It is probably not noticeable at work, and the people I work with will not know this about me until (and if) they read this blog, but I think a lot at work about the people and environment around me. I had a table last night...two older men who have been partners for 28 years and recently became legally hitched. As I always try to instigate conversation among my tables, this conversation was inspiring. Twenty eight years...wow. And they have never been happier. It's sad that I only had a few minutes to talk with the gentlemen because I wanted to hear more. I wanted to hear the stories behind their lives, their struggles, their fears, and what has kept them going.

I think a lot of the motivation we get comes from stories. When we get depressed over something, many times we think of other people and say, "I'm not the first person who has ever faced this problem, and I won't be the last. If someone else made it through this, so can I" And many times, that keeps us going.

I've recently begun working the crisis hotline again. I've been doing it off and on for a year and a half now. Yea, a lot of times, it's not happy stories. After I hung up my phone from a 7:30am call this morning, I thought back...what kind of story lies behind the man who I just hung up with. It's ironic, but many times I find joy behind working a crisis/suicide hotline. I learn so much from the people I talk with, and maybe they learn from me. Although many times I find myself struggling to figure out what to say, hopefully what I do say inspires or helps them in some way.

If you're reading this, I want you to think of your stories. What stories do you have that make you who you are? I am lucky to have many people in my life...my family, friends from college, new friends in Richmond. But when I think about it, I don't think I have taken the right amount of time to sit down and listen to stories.

It doesn't matter who you are, I'll buy your coffee...as long as you provide me with your story.

Hopefully I'll see you around...

A White Christmas and a Little More

2010-12-26T23:24:00.002-05:00

My blog went well for about...2 years. Then, it seemed to fall off the face of the earth. Or did the writer of it fall off? I know I didn't. So maybe my blog did. I just returned to Richmond from a white weekend in Southwest Virginia and it was wonderful. I was able to catch up with family that I hadn't seen in nearly seven months.

I haven't updated in quite a while, and figured I would let everyone in on the happenings in my life. I sent a mass email to all my family and friends in mid-August giving an update on myself. I will kind of-sort of recap on that, and tell what has happened since.

After traveling and working in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic for a month this past summer, I headed to California for my 3rd summer with CTY. It was fun, as always. After CTY, I relocated to Richmond, Virginia. That is where my email left off...

I was hired with Wachovia as a teller the day I arrived in Richmond but couldn't start training until September. In the later part of August, I began working at Red Robin as a server to make some easy cash. For those who live in Southwest Virginia and have only seen commercials for Red Robin, it is a nice burger restaurant that has become a rather large part of my life in Richmond.

I was not happy with Wachovia from the day I started. To keep things simple, I have to say that the people you work with and/or are supervised by make or break a job. Well, that kinda broke my job at Wachovia. Luckily, I have great managers at Red Robin who were willing to help me out and give me more hours if I gave up the bank. So, a few weeks ago, I made the decision to resign from Wachovia. I wasn't supposed to be working the bank. Everyone who knows me knows that I want to do something with airplanes. Whether it is become a pilot, flight attendant, plane watcher, custodian at the airport...I don't care. I just want to be around planes. I decided that by resigning from Wachovia, I would have some extra time on my hands I could use to pursue a career in aviation. And, that's just what has happened...

I have two job opportunities lined up. The first that came along...flight attendant with Republic Airways. I am attending a session that includes an interview in Washington, DC on January 6th. Republic Airways operates a number of regional airlines (US Airways Express, United Express, Frontier, etc.) but I would get to travel a ton! Being a flight attendant would be fun, but the pay is kind of bad.

The second opportunity is what I'm really hoping works out...last week, I was contacted by JetBlue. I had submitted my application around two months ago about a customer service position at the Richmond airport. I honestly thought they had sifted through applications and brushed mine to the side...but I guess not! This coming Wednesday, I have an interview for a customer service position with JetBlue at the airport. I am so excited! From what I've read and heard, they are the best airline to work for and I'm hoping it works out.

Other than that, I have to say I have made a few new friends in my move to Richmond and my travels this fall. Now that the bank is out of my life, I have more time to spend with them and I like it. It is making my time here in Richmond more enjoyable. Last Tuesday I fixed breakfast for about 15 or so of my Red Robin co-workers. I like to cook for people, and I like visitors. So, it was a joyous occasion.

Want me to cook for you? Let me know when you're coming and it'll be ready! Until next time, I'll leave it at that.

Hola!

2010-06-12T12:50:00.002-04:00

I guess you can say I've failed. I promised a few weeks ago that I would keep everyone on top of what is going on in my life, but I haven't. I'm nearly three weeks into my 3.5 week stay in the Dominican Republic and I have yet to update my blog and let everyone know how my trip is going. I apologize.

I arrived here what seems like just yesterday. I have to say I enjoy this country much more than Ecuador. The people are, in my opinion, much nicer. I've been trying to think of the best way to do this post, so I think I'll divide it up into different aspects of my life here.

Where I live: I live in a home with around 20 other guys, and one lady. It is one of the two homes that make up Villa Bendicion, an orphanage in the city of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Here at this home, the guys range in age from 12-25 or so. At the other home lives all the girls, and the younger boys. I share a room with two more awesome volunteers from Oklahoma, and one of the guys who live here. We have a bathroom which we share with Karen, the lady I would refer to as the house mom. On the toilet, there is no seat so I have become a pro at balancing myself on the rim of the commode while attempting to use the bathroom. There is no shower head, so water spurts from a hole in the wall. And, there is no hot water. It may sound rough, but it actually is not. It is part of life here. Even though there are these issues, the bathroom is kept extremely clean, which is awesome. We have wireless internet here, which was a big suprise to me. It is pretty awesome because there is an office with three computers so all of the guys here have access to the internet and stuff.

La Ciudad de Santo Domingo (the city of Santo Domingo): the city is great. The driving...not so great. I have begun to get a thrill out of running across the road and trying not to get hit by cars. The streets are dirty, but what can you expect in a city? There is a mixture of people. I can't really describe a Dominican person. Many are of African descent, while many others are Latino or Latina. The city is located right on the Caribbean Ocean. One of the routes we take to the other home each day is a sidewalk that runs along the coast. It is great to feel the ocean spray as we walk.

What I do each day: The first week or so varied. We spent those days cooking lunch for all the kids at the other home, which is where we do all of our work. We would leave here around 8 each morning, walk for 30 minutes (about 2 miles) to get to the other home, and then cook until around 1. After lunch, we would just spend time with the kids. Their school ended on June 3rd so since then we have been conducting a summer camp. Now I wake up around 8 and we leave here around 9 or 9:15. We get there and break up into our groups. I am a group leader for the youngest of the kids (2 years to 7 or 8). It is great. We do group activities (read a story out of a Spanish kids bible, dance, sing, etc.) then of the evenings we usually do a group activity. This past week we watched three movies and two days we had a water day which included water hoses, water balloons, and lots of getting wet.

Weather: it is in the low to mid 90s here each day. The humidity is insane. I sweat all the time. Not joking, I think I've lost anywhere between 15-20 pounds since I've been here. I drink a lot of water, but I don't pee hardly at all because I sweat out all of the water I take in. It rains once every two or so days. Sometimes it comes rather intense thunderstorms. The power goes out regularly (once every day or so.)

Non-categorized stuff:
-The theater here costs 50 pesos (around $1.25) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we go to the movies really often.
-I get angry when taxi drivers assume I want a taxi because I'm American.
-My Spanish is improving. I can actually have somewhat of a conversation with some of the kids.
-I like the people I work with.
-I like ice cream.
-We go to church on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. The church services last anywhere from 2.5 to 4 hours. They are quite exhausting, but fun. I enjoy the music, but I can't understand any of what the preachers have to say.

Now that I've gotten this long post out of the way, maybe a few more will follow. Sorry there are not any pictures up, but the internet here is not fast enough to upload pictures. I will do so as soon as I get to California. I leave here at 7:15 on the morning of June 19th (a week from today)! I fly from here to Miami, where I have a stupid 5 hour layover, then I have a 6 hour flight from Miami to San Francisco. I am spending the night in San Jose, CA, on the night of the 19th, and meeting up with the CTY folks on the afternoon of the 20th. As you all know, spending my summers at the camp in California has become one of my favorite things to do, so I am really excited about that.

Until then, Zach will leave it at that.

The Life of a Graduate

2010-05-18T23:11:00.002-04:00

Yes...it's been a while. Many things have changed since I last updated this blog. Mainly, I am now a college graduate. I was sitting here in Myrtle Beach with some of my friends and a thought came to mind about my blog. Now that I am not in constant contact with many of the people who I regularly talked to, I figured it would be best if I started my blog back to keep people informed of what is going on in my life.

I have some extensive plans ahead. Currently, I am living out of my car...which is parked in Blacksburg, Virginia. My best friend Colton came from Arizona for my graduation. After exploring Virginia for a few days, doing graduation stuff, and then visiting some more of Virginia, we headed to Ohio. I spent a couple days in Columbus with some friends and then headed south to Virginia Tech. After attending the Virginia Tech graduation, we headed down here to Myrtle Beach.

I'm burned...I tend to be like every other person who has lighter skin and lays in the sun just hoping today is the day I will get a tan. I didn't. I just got red. I'm here until Friday.

A week from today (next Tuesday), I will be flying to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. It's kinda scary, but my plans are not in stone yet. I talked to a man in the DR today who is setting me up with a place to live and such. I should hear back from him sometime tomorrow about where I'm gonna be working and living and stuff.

I am flying on June 19th from the Dominican Republic to San Francisco to spend another wonderful summer in Santa Cruz working for CTY. After returning from California in August, I will be moving to Richmond and living with my friend Tarah. I will be working (hopefully a state or a federal job) for a while and saving money to attend flight school.

I will be keeping the blog up to date, especially while I'm in the Dominican!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Breakeven, Twitter, and Volcanoes

2010-02-02T16:26:00.003-05:00

It has been a couple of weeks since I last updated my blog so I figured I would give you an update. Weekend before last, I went to Virginia Tech to visit my friends there. On Saturday night, I shut the top of my computer. On Sunday, when I opened it, I had the blue screen of death. Being in college and trying to save money for pilot school, I decided not to buy a new computer just yet. I figured I would make a list of my thoughts because I no longer feel like typing in paragraph form.

-My computer in the Student Government office also contracted a virus...which makes me mad.
-I am sick of the snow. It is pretty, fun to play in, and relaxing, but it is ridiculous.
-I had an excellent weekend that consisted of sleigh riding, movie watching, good friend, and a lot of doing nothing. It was quite great.
-I have watched the movie Volcano twice in the past 18 hours.
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-I would like to experience a volcano eruption.
-I now have twitter. Click here to go to my page. You should make one too.
-I like my schedule this semester.
-I have a good song for you.

Take the time, listen to it, and enjoy your day. I know I'll enjoy mine.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Life in My Hands

2010-01-20T00:48:00.002-05:00

I sit there waiting. Sometimes I can sit there for hours on end and it not ring. Sometimes I can sit there and have five calls in a matter of three hours. Either way, it's a waiting game. Although in this situation, I don't know what I'm waiting for. Well...I do know what I'm waiting for. I'm waiting for the phone to ring. But, when it does ring, I don't know who will be on the other end of the line. Will it be a 20 something guy who feels like he has no purpose in life and is contemplating suicide? Will it be a 50 something lady who has just lost her husband and needs someone to talk to? Will it be a 16 year old girl who called to tell me that her dad just raped her? Honestly, I never know what to expect. I have to be prepared for everything.

Working a crisis hotline can be challenging, but sometimes I just can't explain how rewarding. Many times last semester I would ask myself, "Zach, why are you doing this?" I never could figure out the answer...as many questions I have are left unanswered. But I have figured out something about myself during my time at Emory & Henry. I have an earnest desire to help other people. I have to do it somehow...so why not help other people by helping them solve their various crises?

As I was driving back from my 8:30-12 crisis hotline shift a few minutes ago, I thought about the depth of our job. We look at doctors and others in the medical field and we talk about how they hold other peoples lives in their hands.

It didn't occur to me until tonight that when someone calls and tells me they're contemplating suicide and they have a gun sitting in front of them, I am holding their life in my hands.

It didn't occur to me until tonight that I may finally be comfortable with that. I may actually be able to help them.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Eli, The Barrow Boy

2010-01-17T18:52:00.002-05:00

I have come to realize over my past years here at Emory & Henry how much stories mean to me. This is all kinds of stories...books, stories of my past, stories of my family, stories of strangers. All kinds of stories. I learn most from hearing and reading stories.

Listen to the story of Eli, the Barrow Boy.

Thanks to my best friend who had me listen to this song.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

I Just Haven't Met You Yet!

2010-01-16T23:51:00.003-05:00

Yes. I've slacked once again. I updated on the 2nd of January about my New Years. My trip to England and Ireland was great. During the time we were in Ireland it came a massive ice storm and the public transportation system (buses, airport, etc.) completely shut down. It made for an interesting time but we ended up getting out of Ireland on time and getting back to the US.

The past week has been busy. I began my last semester of college. I actually have some great classes this semester. I have my senior seminar class for my major, Politics & Public Policy, Statistics, International Communication, and an independent study called Memory, History, and Place. I'm really gonna enjoy my work while at the same time looking forward to graduation and heading off to pilot school afterward.

Hopefully I'll have a more meaningful update in a couple days. I'm gonna be reading some great books this semester so I hope to let you in on some of my thoughts with those.

Until then, I'm gonna leave you with a little tune. I heard it the other day and I think it is funny as it kind of explains my love life I suppose. I've always been a fan of Michael Buble and this is one of the first upbeat songs I have heard from him. Enjoy it!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Lessons, Memories, and Hopes

2010-01-02T15:26:00.002-05:00

Since I've been in England the past few days, it probably hasn't been appropriate for me to think about the past. I should be focusing on my time here. I promised one of my friends I would quit thinking about the past so much...but I found it only appropriate to update my blog with my best times and memories of 2009.

Early in the year of 2009, I found myself extremely busy. In addition to starting some challenging classes, I was reapplying to work for CTY in Santa Cruz again, plan a giant road trip with my best friend, and figure out the logistics of going to Ecuador by myself! The semester went by quickly and it was time for me to go to Ecuador.

I can't really explain what I learned about myself on this trip. I learned that I adapt easily...I went to a country where I didn't even speak the language and I was able to...go with the flow I suppose. I learned much Spanish. I may be able to have a conversation now! I learned how much I love to travel and experience new places and at the same time I learned how much I like to do this with my friends. I learned to always carry an empty wallet with a $5 bill in case I get mugged (which I did). I learned to appreciate and interpret art because when I would visit art museums I couldn't read the captions by the pictures. I learned what it was like to be homesick. In general, Ecuador was a learning experience for me.

As soon as I got back from Ecuador, I turned around and left for my cross country journey. It began in Chicago. I headed off to a city where I had never been before. I was able to appreciate everything there. It was a memorable three days.

Next came me and my best friend Colton hopping on an Amtrak for a 60 hour train ride! I learned many things on that train ride. After passing through many states we ended up in Tucson. It was the first time I had ever visited the desert. I learned here how hot the desert was, how easily I get dehydrated in 100 degree weather, and I discovered only one beautiful part of the United States. More beautiful parts were to come.

After spending a few days in Tucson, we headed north and west into California. We visited Los Angeles where I learned how rediculous money is, how great it is to see family who I don't get to see often, and how American society has turned materialistic objects into status symbols. Despite this, it was great to visit a part of the country I had never visited before. After a day or two in the OC, we headed north towards Big Sur. Along the way we visited a few universities and beautiful coastal towns. Arriving in Big Sur may have been my favorite part of the summer. I had never experienced anything like it. Colton and I sat on the beach one night under the fog covered sky, stared out at the churning Pacific Ocean, and took in the situation. It was here I learned to appreciate nature. It was excellent to feel being away from society for a few days and I felt like we were at Big Sur.

Leaving Big Sur a couple days later, we headed north to Santa Cruz where we spent the next 7 weeks. Again, this past summer, I learned how to have patience with teenagers. I also learned how much of an impact people my age have on teenagers. Working at the camp for CTY in Santa Cruz was important to me once again, as I made new friendships and was able to build on the friendships I already had. In the mix of all this was a random, awesome trip to RENO!, a visit to Napa Valley, and many other little side trips. This whole time Colton was helping me prepare myself to hike to Half Dome in Yosemite.

After leaving Santa Cruz, we headed to Yosemite with Colton's brother Lance and his friends Bryant, Clark, and Cameron. It was perhaps the most memorable part of my year. From camping on top of a mountain, to driving down a cross country ski-slope and having to build a road, to climbing a 4000 some odd foot ascent to Half Dome, to camping in a beautiful part of the country, to driving through the hottest part of the United States (Death Valley), to losing $125 in the video blackjack machines in Vegas, to seeing who could collect the most "escort" cards from the streets, to having a few drinks and spending my evening playing Bingo with the elderly folks. Looking back, all I can say is, "Damn! We had a good time." I find myself thinking back on that trip a lot. It was an experience unlike others, and I made some awesome friends along the way.

A few days later, I found myself saying goodbye to the west and heading back to Virginia. The past semester consisted of my first semester as Student Body President, an internship on a crisis hotline, and learning more about myself. I have learned that I need to pursue my passion...therefore I'm going to go to pilot school! That is probably going to be the most exciting part of 2010. I am looking forward to not looking back as much, and looking forward to what is coming in the future and what I have right now.

So, looking back on 2009, what did I learn? I learned a lot and I feel like I summed it up rather well above. So, what do I want to do in 2010? Here it goes:

-I want to become a pilot.
-I want to worry less about what other people think of me.
-I want to become an accomplished graduate of Emory & Henry.
-And, I want to spend much more time with my close friends and learn more about who they are.

Here is something for you to think about:
When you go through life, you learn many things about yourself, other people, and the world. We gain knowledge. What is your duty to the knowledge you have?

Goodbye 2009.
Hello 2010.
Bring it on.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Day of Travelling

2009-12-30T12:12:00.002-05:00

Haysi still has no power. So, I left my cousin Misti's on the 27th and went to Tazewell to stay with my friend Joni and her family. We got up early on the 28th and got all of our stuff ready for our trip to England. We left around noon and met my friend Cody and his friends in Bluefield to eat lunch. It was a good time.

We drove straight to Washington, DC where we stayed with my good friend Jordan for the night. He is a volunteer with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and I'm pretty sure I have mentioned him in previous posts. It was good to catch up with him.

We woke up yesterday morning and got ready. We went to Gravelly Point, a park in DC, to watch a few airplanes take off. It is one of the best places in America to watch planes take off because they do it right over your head! The park is literally right at the end of the parkway! After figuring out that it was too cold to watch planes, we headed south of Washington, DC into Maryland to visit my grandpa for a little while. We stayed with him for about an hour then headed back into the city to pick up Jordan.

STORY: On the way to pick up Jordan, I was attempting to find a set of spare keys in my center console. Not paying attention to what I was doing, I ended up rear-ending a lady. It did nothing at all to either of our cars and she was extremely nice about it.

We picked up Jordan then we were off to the airport. I agreed to let Jordan borrow my car while I am in England so he could visit some friends, so he took us to the airport and dropped us off. We said our good-byes and headed inside. Jordan used his lunch break to drop us off and we were at the airport at 12:45...our flight didn't leave until 6:15! So, we had around 5 hours to spare. The British Airways counter didn't open until 3PM so we just sat around and read for a while before we checked in. We then dropped our bags, got our tickets, went through security, grabbed our lunch, and arrived at our gate.

STORY: Around 5:15, the sunset was beautiful. So, I decided I was going to take some pictures of the sunset from our gate. Security is really tight because of the incident that happened last week with the Northwest Airlines flight in Detroit. I was standing near the window taking pictures of the sunset and a TSA agent came up to me and this is how the conversation progressed:

(Zach is zooming in on the sunset with a happy face)
TSA Agent: Sir, what are you taking pictures of?
Zach: The sunset.
TSA Agent: Are you sure you're taking pictures of ONLY the sunset?
Zach: Yeah.
TSA Agent: ONLY the sun?
Zach: Um, yea. Would you like to see the picture?
TSA Agent: Actually, I would.
(Zach shows him the picture and comments on how the sunset is beautiful.)
TSA Agent: And you're sure you were photographing only the sun?
Zach: Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
TSA Agent: Thank you.
(Zach walks away laughing.)

We boarded the plane. British Airways was amazing! Me and Joni made friends with the girl who sat beside us so we talked to her for a while. About an hour and a half into the flight, I took a Xanax my cousin gave me to sleep. Needless to say, I feel asleep and slept until we were descending into London! It was great.

We arrived at the airport, went through customs, our friend Eddie picked us up, and we headed north to the village of Raunds where his sister lives. It is a neat little place! We slept from about 9 this morning to 2 this afternoon then woke up and explored the village some. So far, it's great.

Tomorrow, we're headed to London for New Years! I will update again soon.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Good Song

2009-12-25T18:28:00.001-05:00

This song is at the top of my playlist right now.

From the Desert to Disaster

2009-12-25T16:19:00.003-05:00

Yes, it's been a few days. I've led a rather hectic life since December 12th. I finished up with all my exams and ended up with a 3.5 GPA for the semester. I was satisfied with that.

I left Emory on December 15th and headed towards Charlotte. That night, I met up with my friend Annelise who went to the same Spanish school as me in Ecuador. We went to McAdenville (Christmastown USA) and then we went to the airport overlook at the Charlotte Airport and watched some planes take off and land. It was great to hang out with her.

I got up at 5:00 on the 16th and headed to the airport for my trip to Tucson. The plane rides were good. I like to sit beside people who I can talk to and learn things from (refer back to my entry about learning from strangers), but I was not lucky enough to sit beside another social person during my flights...so I sat there in silence.

Colton picked me up from the airport and we had an awesome 5 days. We did some hiking, his brother Lance took us jeeping, we hung out in some book stores, ate some good food, had some good talks, and it was great. Here are some pictures:

I had a very, very interesting flight back. First off, my flight was like a flight to a retirement home. Tucson is the Florida of the west. All the old people go to Tucson in the winter because it is the warmest place in the west. Anyways, on the way back I flew into Minneapolis. I ate dinner and got to my gate a few minutes early. My flight to Charlotte was delayed 40 minutes so I just sat around and people watched. And then came the big moment...the gate agent said they had overbooked and wanted to know if any volunteers had flexible travel plans. I basically sprinted to the counter because I knew if I gave up my seat there would be great incentives. Well, there was. I got:

A one night stay in a Hilton in Minneapolis
Free dinner and free breakfast
A first-class ticket on the flight to Charlotte the next morning
and, a $300 travel voucher to use on a flight in the future

I was hoping the overbooking situation would happen all along so I could earn all of this stuff. It was great! As we were flying from Minneapolis to Charlotte the next morning, we flew right over my neck of the woods! Below is a picture of the Tri-Cities Airport. I was able to see South Holston Lake and everything, but we were a little bit too far south for me to see Emory or Haysi or anything. Since I am an airplane fanatic and such, I was able to identify Tri-Cities Airport by the layout of the runways and that's how I knew where we were at.

I came home to Haysi being basically destroyed. The blizzard that tore through the area pulled down a ton of trees onto power lines and today makes exactly one week since most people around Haysi have been out of power. I have been staying at my cousin Misti's house since I returned from Arizona. Yesterday, I went to Haysi just to see things with the intention of staying a couple days but I ended up coming back. It is horrible. I'm sure it will be after the beginning of the new year that everyone has power again.

I am leaving for London in a few days. I have had the tendency to make my blog posts a little bit more, let's say, motiviating or something, but it just isn't in me today. I figured I would just update you on my trip to Arizona.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Question For You

2009-12-12T22:35:00.004-05:00

I typed 10 1/2 pages of my 15-20 page paper this morning in 2 hours. Wow. Tomorrow I will finish that paper, type another 5 page paper, take an exam on Tuesday, and then I am off to Charlotte to spend the night and fly to Arizona early Wednesday morning. I like to travel.

My best friend Colton has a habit of sending me YouTube links to songs and wanting me to listen to them. I have to admit...in the past, I have had a hard time listening to songs for their lyrics. I would like songs solely because they were pleasing to my ears...never because of the quality or depthness of the lyrics. Since Colton started sending me these songs, I seem to have become more apt to listen to lyrics.

I like to go for drives. I have always liked driving. Now while I'm driving, I spend much of my time paying attention to the lyrics that are on the radio. Tonight, I was kinda stressed. So, when I get stressed, I go for drives.

I hopped in my car and Kris Allen's song "Live Like We're Dying" came on. As I listened to the lyrics, as I have started to do, he posed a question in his song. This question is kind of creepy for me to be posing considering I'm gonna be a pilot, but oh well! Here it is:

"If you're plane fell out of the skies, who would you call with your last goodbye?"

You don't have to answer it on my blog, but I want you to take a minute to think about that question to yourself. Who would you call with your last goodbye?

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The Day of No Power

2009-12-09T22:37:00.004-05:00

I've thought a lot today about what to write on here tonight. Yesterday I had a pretty profound experience at the airport...but today, there hasn't been anything much that has happened. But, one has to learn to appreciate the little things I suppose.

I really enjoy all the guys that live on my hall. I've been an RA for nearly 3 years now and this is the first year I actually feel like there is a sense of community on my hall. Even though there are times when I know I should be doing work, I always enjoy my residents coming into my room and hanging out. I wanted to do something for them, so I decided we would go out to pizza this evening.

The wind has been terrible here today. We lost power around 1pm this afternoon and didn't get it back until around 10:15 tonight. They asked us RAs to be in the buildings at all time, so that shot the pizza plans into the air. I decided instead of going out to eat pizza, we would just order it and chill in my room.

As me and my resident Kameron were going to Glade Spring to pick up the pizza, the sunset was amazing. I stopped beside the road and got this picture of the sky. I thought it was beautiful.

We got back and a bunch of guys gathered in my room and just hung out and ate pizza. It made me think a lot though. Even though the guys on the hall all get along, it took a situation like the power going out to just sit around in my room all together and talk. We had no TVs, internet, anything. But we, a bunch of guys in college, just sat around and told ghost stories and stuff. It was enjoyable. It is a part of college I will miss. I am eager to graduate, but I will miss having a bunch of friends who live just right down the hall from me.

What did I learn from this experience today? We need to take time to be with our friends. Even if the power is on and everything is perfectly fine, turn off the TV, close your laptop, order a pizza, sit down, and have a good time just enjoying each others company. You may enjoy it more than you realize.

All this came from one simple happening...the power going out. Even though most people saw it as an aggravation, I saw it as a good time and hopefully the guys on my hall did the same. Maybe it will happen again sometime next semester.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Lessons from a Man at the Airport

2009-12-08T22:48:00.004-05:00

I had a free day today. Since I finished my work at the Crisis Center, I didn't have anything to do. I ate lunch, then I told my friend Cody to put on a jacket because we were taking a trip.

We hopped in my car and headed down the road to Tri-Cities Airport. I checked the flight schedule before we left to make sure we would have a few planes to watch. Since Tri-Cities is so small, flights are few and far between.

A rainy, windy day doesn't make for a good day for plane watching. But, I'll take any type of weather so long as I get to see some planes take off and land. When we got to the airport, Cody headed towards the bathroom and I went up to the observation deck. There was a man standing on the deck who looked to be in his 60s and he struck up a conversation with me. "It's been 15 years since I've been to this airport. It's really built up!" "It sure has," I said, excited that someone wanted to talk about the airport with me.

I asked him if he had come, like myself, just to watch a few planes take off and land. "My daughter has a friend who is coming home for the holidays from Iraq today. His parents don't know he is coming, so I am picking him up so we can drop him off and suprise them." I thought this was cool. I almost teared up when he told me the story because for some reason, I imagined in my mind some worried parents who hadn't spoken to their son in days, and the joy that will be coming into their lives in just a few minutes when he arrives by suprise at their house. I just can't imagine.

We continued the conversation and the man told me about his work in the armed forces. He was drafted into the Korean War where he was wounded, and he later served again in the Vietnam War. He met his wife when she was only 14, and he won a bet against his brother saying that the relationship wouldn't last. They've now been married for nearly 40 years. He had an alcohol problem. When he was in Vietnam, one of his friends who was a pilot took him up in a plane one day. "I thought it was amazing," he said. "I came back to the United States and needed a hobby, so I started to take pilot lessons. My instructor knew I drank a little. He always told me, '24 hours from bottle to throttle.' I came to the airport one day to take my lesson, and he smelled whiskey on me from the night before. He told me I couldn't fly that day. I never went back to the airport after that."

It was at this point I started telling him about my dream of becoming a pilot and how I knew it was gonna make me happy. "Young man," he said, "you gotta do what makes you happy. You don't need to do something in life that you don't like."

I was sitting at the airport, watching airplanes, and I was talking to a man who was giving me lessons on life. It was a bittersweet moment. For some reason, this man has stuck in my mind for the rest of the day. Had me and Cody not gone to the airport today, I wouldn't have met him.
I learned a few things from this...how alcohol had ruined something he enjoyed, how I needed to pursue my dream, and how it is important to strike up important conversations with people in public. After all, you never know what you will learn from a perfect stranger.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Fast, Crisp DC Visit

2009-12-08T10:56:00.004-05:00

Yes. It's been a few days since I last updated my blog...but I have been very busy. I finished up my work at the Crisis Center a week back from today. Even though I was sad to leave, I learned a lot from my experiences there that have taught me a lot. I think I talked about this in an earlier post, but the Crisis Center was one of the big factors I decided to pursue my dream as a pilot. I know I wouldn't be happy working at a 9-5 desk job and my love to travel just cut to my core even more this semester.

This past Thursday, I left to go to Washington, DC with some classmates. For our practicum class (the class for which I worked at the Crisis Center), we had to go to DC and give a presentation to the Appalachian Regional Commission. We proposed that empty school buildings throughout Appalachia be used for community centers. Not to brag or anything, but we had the best presentation by far.

Thursday night, I was able to meet up with my friend Jordan from over the summer. If you read my blog or kept up with my pictures from this past summer, Jordan was mentioned or pictured many times. He has been a great friend to me ever since we met 2 summers ago in California and it was great to catch up with him. He is currently working with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Washington, DC. He has a good blog going about his experiences in DC...if you're up for some more reading, here is it: http://jodoggsblog.blogspot.com

Funny story. I have a fascination with airplanes...if you didn't already know this. It's bad. I could sit and watch airplanes for hours. So, there is this park in DC called Gravelly Point. It is at the end of the runway at Reagan National Airport and the planes take off right over your head! I was there about 10 years ago but never had the chance to go back. On Friday after we gave our presentation, I sat aside my whole afternoon to go to the Holocaust Memorial Museum and to ride the metro to the airport and go to Gravelly Point so I could watch some planes and take some pictures. Holocaust Museum...success. Gravelly Point...not so much. I ended up walking around the airport for an hour and a half. I finally found the trail that goes to Gravelly Point, but it was across a 4-lane highway. I walked around the airport on the verge of tears because I could see where I wanted to go but I just couldn't get to it. By this point, it was 5:00 and getting dark, so I just rode the Metro back into the city and roamed around some. It was very frustrating.

Tomorrow is my last day of classes. I only have one class left. Today, my time is going to be spent eating lunch, working out, writing a paper, and then relaxing! I have a paper due tomorrow, 2 due on Monday, and a final exam on Tuesday. Then...I'm off to Arizona to visit Colton and his family! I'm really excited about that. It's been over 4 months since I've gotten to hang out with him and I can hardly wait to Arizona to do stupid stuff and not have to worry about anything in Virginia.

I'll leave you with a few pictures from DC.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Stereotypes of an Appalachian Dialect

2009-11-30T15:46:00.004-05:00

For everyone that lives in Appalachia, have you ever been aggravated when someone from outside the area asks you to say something again just so they can laugh at the way you say it? I have been aggravated by this before, and it spawned into a project for one of my classes. Below is the clip for a radio show I produced. Hope you enjoy.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Thanksgiving and a Black Friday

2009-11-28T00:13:00.002-05:00

The past few days have been pretty relaxing.

I didn't get any crisis calls on Wednesday night. I was very excited about that. Since I didn't get any calls, I basically slept all the way through the night! That made me a happy person for Thanksgiving.

On my way home from the Crisis Center on Thursday, I proceeded to get into an argument with a cashier at a convenience store. I didn't have enough quarters to get a Bristol paper with all the Black Friday salespapers, so I decided to go into the store and buy a cup of coffee, a donut, and a paper and put it on my debit card. Well, I got to the register and the cashier said I couldn't put the newspaper on my debit card. I asked him why not and he gave me some bull-shit answer. Thinking out of the box, I asked him if he could just charge me for another coffee (which would equal the price of the paper) and I would just take a paper instead. He said he couldn't do that because his inventory would be messed up. I was angry. It was then he told me that the paper machine now takes debit cards. Why couldn't he have told me that at the beginning and we wouldn't have had a 3-minute conversation about the dang paper?!

Thanksgiving dinner was good. I ate way too much. I spent the day with my Aunt Karen and her family. It was good times.

I went to Dana's house last night so we could get up and go shopping this morning. We woke up at 3 and left the cabin by 3:15. We were in line at Target around 3:40. People get on my nerves...and a lot of people are idiots. The lady in front of us in line would not shut up talking to the people beside of her. It was FREEZING! Here is a quote from that lady, "It doesn't look like it's gonna get any warmer." What the hell? It is 3:45 in the morning. Of course it's not going to get warmer. The lady needs to use her common sense!

The crowds were crazy, I was tired, and honestly I didn't feel like putting up with anyone. I bought a few things and then we headed back to the cabin. I did get a really nice GPS system for my car. I was really excited about it.

Currently, I am sitting in Blacksburg at my friends' apartment. I wanted to get away for the weekend. This is a good place to come because it is always fun, it's relaxing, and it is a good distance away. It helps me just to get things off of my mind.

18 days and I'll be in Arizona. I can't wait.
1 month and I'll be leaving for England. I also can't wait.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The Next 10 Hours

2009-11-25T22:56:00.002-05:00

The cool thing about a blog is that I can update it from anywhere at anytime...as long as I am near a computer of course.

It's 11pm on a Wednesday night and I'm sitting in the Crisis Center. I agreed back a while to take overnight shifts on Wednesday nights into Thursday mornings. My shift tonight is from 11pm-9am in the morning. 10 hours. Yes...10 hours of my life where I am devoted to the phone and the receiver sitting on the desk in front of me. I don't know what to expect. A person could call me and tell me their heat is messed up and their house is cold and they don't know what to do...or I could receive a call from a person who says they have a gun in their hand and they're contemplating suicide. I never know what to expect when the phone rings. But, I had to do 40 hours of training to work on the hotline and I am pretty confident I can handle whatever comes my way.

Much of my day was spent relaxing and scoping out the deals for Black Friday. Me, my friend Dana, and her mom Rita have made it a yearly habit of fighting the crowds at 5am on the day after Thanksgiving. I am very excited. I always end up buying a lot of stuff for myself. My goal this year: to obtain the $99 Garmin Nuvi GPS that is at Best Buy. I will be in line at 5AM to get it. I have read reviews and compared it to the many other GPS deals that are being offered, and I feel that particular one is what I want. As much as I travel, I have never owned a GPS. I would like to have one and I think it will be beneficial to me.

I spent the day at my cousin Misti's house and then me and Dana ventured into Abingdon for the evening to have frostees at Wendy's and to loaf around Roses. I went back to Misti's for a while then left to come here. On my way down her driveway, a rabbit ran out in front of me. But, when I expected it to keep running, it didn't. It had no choice. Something was wrong with it and it kept rolling around on the ground. It was moving around but it could hardly walk. It reminded me a lot of my cat that contracted "milk fever." I sat there with my headlights focused in on this rabbit for about 2 minutes and I desperately wanted to get out and help it...but I thought I shouldn't because it could have had rabies or something. The sight of that helpless rabbit stuck in my head for a while after seeing it. I'm not sure why it bothered me so bad, but I think it teaches us a lesson. We are able people, and we have the responsibility to help those who can't do the same things as we can. Tonight, I should have helped that rabbit, but I really didn't know what I could do to help it.

A possibility: the next crisis call a receive will be someone who has helped a rabbit in distress in the past and they will tell me what I should have done. I learn more from the calls I receive and the people I talk to than I could ever teach someone else over the phone.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Is It Gonna Work?

2009-11-24T20:17:00.005-05:00

So, my blog fails. Epically. When I'm doing something cool (like travelling in Ecuador or working in California), I seem to have no problem keeping everyone updated with what is going on in my life. But, when I am in school and busy doing other stuff, my blog falls to the back burner. That is proven by the fact it hasn't been updated in nearly 4 months. Maybe more than that. I want to change that. This is my last semester in college. I've learned something I suppose. I want my blog not only to be about the fun stuff that happens in my life, but letting you in on stuff that I've learned over my past few years here at Emory & Henry.

I'll just highlight some important points from the past few months of my life:

My summer ended great. After finishing work at CTY in California, I travelled to Yosemite National Park and Las Vegas. It ended up being the best summer of my life.
I began my work as President of the Student Body.
I have been working as an intern with the Crisis Center in Bristol. I help people solve their problems. It is quite challenging, but at the same time I am learning a lot about myself and other people.
This is my last fall semester at Emory & Henry. Wow. It is over in two weeks!

As most of you know, I am fascinated by airplanes. One of my good friends helped me realize that I am not going to be happy unless I'm a pilot. So, after I graduate from Emory & Henry, I am going to pilot school to become a professional pilot. I get more and more excited about this each day. I was driving through Bristol today and I saw a jet preparing for it's landing at Tri-Cities Airport and I got really excited. I know...you probably think I'm weird as hell, but that's the kind of thing I get excited about. If everything goes as planned, I am going to enter an accelerated training program after graduation and I should have my commercial pilot's license 5 months after I gradate from E&H and hopefully this time next year I'll be working for an airline!

Here is what I want my blog to give you over the next little while: what I know, what I learn, what I experience in my travelling (I have upcoming trips over Christmas break to Arizona and London, England), my thoughts on things I read (I'll put up interesting articles and such), what one's last semester of college is like, and everything in between.

I hope I don't slack as usual.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Birthday of Fun, A Trip to Reno...and a Bunch in Between

2009-07-20T00:18:00.008-04:00

Again, I have been neglectful. First off, I would like to give a shout-out to my good friend Catherine Robert who I worked with last summer here in Santa Cruz. She is one of the faithful readers of my blog and she is good about reminding me when I forget to update.

I stay so darn busy here. For some reason, it seems like I am staying much more busy than last summer and it is really hard for me to find time to sit down and update this blog. I will give you a slight synopsis of the last few days.

I turned 21 last Tuesday. I am happy to say that I didn't drink a drop on my 21st birthday. It was a great birthday though. Tarah, my good friend from Virginia Tech, is working at a CTY camp in Palo Alto about an hour from Santa Cruz. She rode the bus over on the morning of my birthday and me, Jordan, and Colton picked her up at the bus stop. We went to Denny's where I had gravy and biscuits (wahoo!) and then we showed Tarah around the campus here where we work. We then proceded to travel up the coast of California towards San Francisco. We stopped at some beautiful beaches and also a lighthouse. It was a great drive. We eventually ended up in San Francisco where we visited the Golden Gate Bridge. There are pictures from the trip below. After we left the Golden Gate Bridge, we visited Stanford (where Tarah is working) and Santa Clara University (where Jordan graduated from.) We also went to a mall where I got a pair of $31 Adidas shoes. It was great.

Camp ended on Friday. Our students from first session left then. I was kind of sad to see mine go. I had a good group of guys. As soon as the students were gone, Jordan, Colton, and I left for our journey to Reno, Nevada. By the time we fought traffic, it took us about 5 hours to get there. We got there around 10:30, ate at Jack In the Box, checked into our hotel, and then we walked around the city. I gambled for the first time. I lost $25 on the slot machines. Even though we were gone for only 24 hours, this was possibly one of the best trips I have taken in my entire life.

On Saturday morning, we got up and left Reno. Before we left, we bought matching t-shirts and hats. On the way back we visited Lake Tahoe. It was absolutely beautiful. We made it back just in time for our staff meeting at 6:30 here in Santa Cruz. It was a great time.

Now, I'm sitting here getting ready to tell my new kiddies to turn their lights out. Hopefully another adventure will happen soon. They are too much fun.

Lots of pictures are below.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The most beautiful lake I've ever seen

At Lake Tahoe

Rocks at Lake Tahoe, CA

Lake Tahoe, California

Panoramic Picture of Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe, California

Oh no! It's empty!

My first slot machines!

RENO!

At the Golden Gate Bridge

Pigeon Point Lighthouse; Highway 1, California

My Bad

2009-07-11T11:26:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone who may still read this. I figured I would give you an update about my time here at camp in California.

The past week or so has been very interesting. We have had a flu outbreak. There have been many kids to leave and go home. I began to get a sickness but mine only lasted for about a day. We now have a seperate dorm that all the sick kids are staying in and we are now required to take the temperatures of all our kids. The college is also making us eat in our own seperate dining room so we don't contaminate the other camps that are here. It is quite the experience.

Otherwise, everything has been going great. We've been spending the majority of our free time exploring places around Santa Cruz and just taking time to relax. My kids are great. My time here is great. Its another awesome summer. I will leave you with some pictures.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Address

2009-07-03T17:15:00.000-04:00

Last year, I really enjoyed getting birthday cards out here in California...and my birthday is coming up soon. Here is my address if you would like to suprise me with a letter or card.

Zach Triplett
JHU-CTY Summer Programs
c/o Central Conferences
College 9, Res Bldg. 2, Apt. 2231
UCSC
1156 High St
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Good Times in Santa Cruz

2009-07-02T02:47:00.002-04:00

I enjoyed myself last summer. Perhaps, last summer was possibly the best summer I had ever experienced. This summer is starting off in a similar way. First, my cross country trip was one of the best experiences of my life. I got to see so much. Now, I'm enjoying my time working with the kids here at camp.

I have been a bit sore lately. I sprained my ankle somewhere in the midst of my and Colton's 13 mile hike at Big Sur and I am just starting to recover from that. On top of that, my legs are also covered with poison oak and I have a couple blisters on my feet. I am pushing on though.

I have really taken the initiative to get in shape. Day before yesterday, I played Ultimate Frisbee with some of the RAs and then we played Volleyball. Yesterday and today both I woke up around 6AM and took some of the campers running at the track. Yesterday, I ran a mile and today I did 1.5 miles. I am taking the morning off tomorrow to sleep in though.

I am staying super busy here. Sorry I'm not getting to update that much. Once I get caught up on my sleep I will think of some funny stories to tell. Today, one of my kids who speaks Spanish gave me a lesson on Spanish cuss words. Now I know what to look out for!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Apologies

2009-06-27T03:22:00.002-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen,

I apologize for slacking on my blog. I realize it has become a serious problem and I figured I would address it right now while I have some free time. It is currently 12:25AM local time in Santa Cruz, California.

The last three weeks of my life have been pretty much crazy. My last few days in Ecuador were great and even though I was ready to get back to the United States, I was kind of upset to leave my friends and my new "life" behind me. It was a good time though. An update...I got robbed and shot at in Ecuador. Most of you have heard these stories...if not, email me and I'll fill you in. The situations were quite comical and exhilerating at the same time. I didn't write about these originally in my blog because I didn't want people back home to worry about me.

I am tired and for that reason I am going to give a quick run through of the past couple weeks. I got home from Ecuador on a Tuesday. On Wednesday, I visited everyone in Haysi and on Thursday I visited everyone around Emory. Then, me and mom left for Cincinnati on Thursday night. On Friday morning, we woke up and she dropped me off at the University of Cincinnati where I met my friend Colton and his friends Bryant and Nick. We began our trip to Chicago. Chicago was a great city. Out of all the cities I have visited on the east coast and now the midwest, Chicago was my favorite. On Saturday we visited the Museum of Science and Industry, went to the top of the Sears Tower, walked around the city, ate the original Chicago Style Pizza at Uno's...and had a really good time. On Sunday, me and Colton headed to the Amtrak station to begin our journey across the country.

After 60 hours on the Amtrak which turned out to be awesome, we arrived in Tucson, Arizona on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we hung out with Colton's mom and dad and helped his mom do some stuff around town related to the house they just bought. On Thursday, me and Colton woke up and went hiking in the desert. It was the most intense hike I had ever had up until that point. I didn't drink enough water and I got dehydrated. I think I may have actually had a little bit of heat stroke or something. I was sweating profusely, chilling in the 105 degree heat, and I was also having some emotional problems. It was very intense. Colton's mom hooked me up with a ton of ice and wet towel and she basically nursed me back to health...so it all turned out good. On Friday, me and Colton went to Phoenix with his parents and walked around the city a little bit. It was also a good time. On Saturday, we went to a park about 30 miles outside of Tucson and did some hiking. It was also good.

On Sunday after eating Father's Day breakfast with Colton's dad, we started our journey north. We arrived in Los Angeles and met up with my cousin Mac and his wife Marta where we spent the night. On Monday, Mac took us all around the big places around Los Angeles. On Tuesday, we got up around 5:15, got ready, and went further north. After stopping in Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Malibu, we finally arrived around Big Sur at our campground. We walked to the beach which was directly across the road and enjoyed ourselves.

On Wednesday, we hiked 13 miles. Enough said about that. It was awesome!

On Thursday, we headed north to Santa Cruz. We stopped in Carmel and did the 17 mile drive. It was nice. We finally arrived in Santa Cruz and now we are already at work at CTY. The kids get here on Sunday so we have been preparing for that.

Most of the people who read this have facebook...so all of my pictures are on there. I'm not going to put them on google like I did in Ecuador. That would take way too much time.

The past two weeks and the trip was probably one of the best times of my life. It has been a great experience. Now...it's time to work for a few weeks. I'm excited about the kids getting here. It will be a good time. I promise I will update more often now.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

HA

2009-06-05T14:57:00.002-04:00

Besides the mountain climbing experience yesterday...nothing exciting has happened.

Otherwise, here are some good stories and random thoughts:
-I rode in a taxi the other night that was driving me 90 kilometers per hour down the city streets of Quito. It was intense.
-Last night, I rode in a taxi that didn´t have brakes and the driver was using the emergency break to slow down and stop.
-My host mom is very funny. She tried to save a handicapped bird that was tied up on the street yesterday. It turns out the people who had it tied up were going to eat the pigeon for dinner...so she left it to be.
-I told my teacher today that I needed to wash my car and my mom. I really need to get these verbs straight.
-I rode on a bus the other day that was so crowded the doors wouldn´t shut.
-I eat rice everyday.
-A week from Sunday, I´m going on a 59 hour train ride across the country with my friend Colton. Some people tell me we are crazy for spending 59 hours of our lives on a train. I beg to differ.
-I attempted to put some videos on YouTube for you to see, but the files are too big and I can´t do it here. Once I get to a better computer, I will do that.

I will be back in the United States on Tuesday! My time here has gone by fast. Even thought I´ve met a ton of people, I´m excited about seeing everyone next week!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Pictures

2009-06-04T19:36:00.001-04:00

At this point in time, I don´t have time to do a long update. That will come probably tomorrow.

Today, I visited the Teleferiqo which is a cable car that goes to the top of the mountain behind Quito. It was almost 14,000 feet elevation! It was amazing to say the least.

There are a few pictures at the bottom of this album.

Ecuador

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Apparently, I Like Fire

2009-06-03T15:03:00.002-04:00

I apologize for slacking on this lately. Really, nothing worth updating has happened. But, I will provide you with a funny story.

Today, I told my Spanish teacher...in Spanish...that I liked to burn my family and my friends. That is what the subject of this post refers to.

I come home in 6 days! Yes, Ecuador has been a great experience and I have met cool people, learned Spanish, and visited (and will visit) some cool places...but I am ready to get back to the United States. I am not happy with my flight situation on the way back. This may get confusing, so try to follow along:

The American Airlines flight out of Quito that I will take next week is almost always delayed. I have a one hour and 50 minute layover in Miami...which means if the plane is delayed next Tuesday...I will have a short time in Miami. While I am in Miami, I have to go through customs, collect my luggage, recheck my bags, and make my connecting flight in a different terminal. So...everyone hope that my flight from Quito leaves on time and not an hour late as usual. If I miss my flight to Charlotte, I´ll admit...I will cry.

I´m going out with my friends from Clemson tonight. We´ve discovered some neat bars\dance clubs here in Quito and they create for a good time. I´m looking forward to that. Then, this weekend, I am heading to Otavalo...a huge market about 2 hours from the city. It will be a good time as well.

See everyone in...6 days! Yeah!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

You Have Got to Be Kidding Me

2009-05-29T14:25:00.002-04:00

So...yesterday.

I went to Spanish class then I came here to the internet café to take care of some business as usual. If you´re wandering, that business consisted of checking facebook, email...and that´s about it.

I decided I was going to visit the Old Town...or the historic part of Quito...just as I am going to do today. I got on the Ecovia (one of the main bus lines) and normally it is packed. Yesterday, it wasn´t. A seat opened up beside a couple of people and I noticed they were speaking english...so I proceded to ask them if they were from the United States. They said they were from North Carolina. I told them my school was about an hour across the mountain from Boone and it was about 20 minutes from the North Carolina border. Here is the rest of the conversation between Channa (the girl) and I:

Channa: Do you know where Bristol is?
Zach: Yeah...my school is only about 20 minutes from Bristol.
Channa: Do you know where Abingdon is?
Zach: Yeah! I go to Emory & Henry!
Channa: Oh my gosh! I graduated from Abingdon High School!

That might not have been the exact wording...but it was similar. I am in the middle of Quito, Ecuador, got on a random bus, and met a girl who graduated from Abingdon High School! It was nuts.

Everything is good. I have the weekend ahead and I´m not sure what I´m going to do yet.

Yesterday, after I hung out with Channa and her friend Estyn for a little while, I visited the San Francisco Monestary and Museum. It was very interesting. I paid $2 and had an english speaking guide walk me around the museum. It was cool.

See everyone in 10 days!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Spanish Mishaps

2009-05-28T14:29:00.002-04:00

Of course, if you´re just learning Spanish, you are going to have words confused and things sometimes aren´t going to come out right. Since I really don´t have anything to talk about on my blog today, I will update you on a few of the mishaps I have had over the past few days. Me and my spanish ¨profesora¨ spent a good time laughing over most of these.

1. She wanted me to write down the past tense of verbs. She said ¨pasado¨ which is the spanish word for past. I quickly asked her, ¨fish?¨ The spanish word for fish is pescado...I had gotten them confused.

2. Today, she was asking me what I ate for dinner with my Ecuadorian family. I was explaining in spanish that my family really doesn´t eat dinner...and I was telling her some of the things I fix for myself. I said, ¨Yo como sanduches de jabón.¨ Translated: I like to eat soap sandwiches. I meant to say jamon, the word for ham.

3. Today, I was trying to tell her that my host sisters in Ecuador do not speak english, that they only speak spanish. I said, ¨Mi hijas ecuadoriana no hablo inglés.¨ Translated: My ecuadorian daughters do not speak english.¨ I quickly turned myself around and explained to her that I was talking of my ecuadorian hermanas, or sisters and I am positive I have no ecuadorian daughters.

4. One of our daily exercizes is that we go through verbs, and I ask my teacher questions in spanish. Yesterday, I asked her, ¨Que gusta hace in la noche?¨ Translated: What do you like to do in the night? I was expecting to get the answer from her, ¨I like to sleep.¨ I think she took my question pervertedly and she thought I was hitting on her and asking her out. It was confusing.

5. I´m not going to try any spanish for this one, but I asked my teacher yesterday why she liked to work in the mountains. I meant to ask her why she liked to travel in the mountains.

I hope everything is good in the United States. I return in 11 days. Although I am enjoying Ecuador, I´m ready to get back.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The Excitement of a Bank

2009-05-26T15:47:00.002-04:00

So,

Ecuadorian banks are not like banks in America. Well, banks in Southwest Virginia that is. The bank I went to a few minutes ago was very similar to a DMV. You walk in, punch in some information on a computer, and you are given a number. When I got there, I received number C400. The tellers were on number C345. That meant there were 55 people in front of me! I ended up waiting about 45 minutes to see a teller.

Anyways...two interesting things. Most little shops, especially the internet cafés in Quito, won´t take bills larger than 1s! They won´t even change a $5 bill. So, I went to the ATM and it gave me two 20s and two 5s. I didn´t know what to tell the teller, so my host mom wrote out a conversation for me on a piece of paper. When I went to the window assigned to me, I kindly said, ¨Hola! Yo no hablo español,¨and then I handed the teller my money and instructions...haha. It was basically like one of those robberies where a person walks up to the bank window and hands the teller instructions on what to do...except my instructions said graçias with a big exclamation point at the bottom. It was a good time and the teller laughed because of the instructions and fact I wanted 50 one dollar bills.

The other interesting thing. People get really excited when they´re number is called. If you went to a bank and had to wait 45 minutes to see a teller...you would be excited too! Anyways, there was this shorter lady in a business suit who had on really high heels and she was sitting in the seat beside me waiting. Her number was called. She jumped up really quickly not noticing that the front of her foot was wrapped around the chair leg in front of us. She flattened out in front of the whole host of people waiting to see tellers. Everyone from Ecuador was like ,¨ahh!¨ and they ran to help her. I, on the other hand, had to keep my cackle inside. I think I was the only one laughing. I really need to learn not to laugh at inappropriate situations like that.

I don´t know what I´m going to do this afternoon. I may go to the Vivarium...it´s a museum with all kinds of live reptiles. On the other hand, I may go back and take a nap.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Day in the Life of Zach

2009-05-25T15:00:00.003-04:00

I said a few days ago that I was going to educate you on the culture of Ecuador. I have a list of topics made up...but I figured I would do something different. Here is a day in the life of me, in Quito:

6:15- I wake up because the sun is coming through my window. I roll over, pull the blankets over my head, and try to sleep a few more minutes.
7:00- This must be when everyone begins to drive to work because this is when car horns start blowing. By now, I am awake...and I probably won´t go back to sleep. My bed is comfortable so I continue laying there for another 30 minutes.
7:30- Now, it´s time for me to start getting ready. I only have an hour to get to the spanish school. I gather all of my shower stuff and head to the bathroom.
7:33- I walk in the bathroom and turn on the hot water and wait for it to make it´s way from the water heater in the kitchen. This takes approximately 3 minutes.
7:36- The water is steaming, so I step in. I make sure the large window in the shower is barely cracked so that the neighbors in nearby apartment are not blinded by my white, American posterior.
7:45- I get out of the shower and head back to my room to get dressed. I put on my clothes and make my bed because it would be rude for me to leave my room a mess in someone else´s house.
7:53- After getting dressed and making my bed, I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I have to be careful not to swallow any of the water out of the sink when rinsing my brush so that I don´t contract E-coli which could lead to bad number 2´s.
8:00- I head to the kitchen where Cecilia, my host mom, has a slice of pineapple waiting on me. I pop two pieces of toast in the toaster, layer it with ¨marmalada de frutas¨, and eat the toast along with my one ¨omelette egg¨, as Cecilia says.
8:15- After discussing the weather, breakfast, and some Spanish with Cecilia, I head back to my room to gather my things. I put $5 in my back pocket in case of a mugging, my keys in my left pocket, change in my right pocket, and grab my backpack.
8:21- I´m out the door!
8:22- I wait a minute for the elevator to get to the top of the apartment building, then I ride it down.
8:24- ¨Hola, amigo! Buenas dias,¨ I tell the apartment guy as I walk out the front door.
8:25- Now, I´m at the intersection of Seis de Diceiembre and Orellana. I rush across the road to keep from getting hit by a taxi all while having a bus honk it´s horn at me. It´s not very often that a unusually tall, red bearded gringo is running across the streets of Quito.
8:27- I turn the corner of Yanez Pinzon street and head towards the language school. I pass many people in suits who are headed out to work. I, the gringo (American), am in my Gap pants, an E&H tshirt, and either my trusty North Face sweatshirt or my favorite Old Navy sweatshirt.
8:30- I arrive in front of the Equinoccal language school and hit the button to have the gate opened for me. After they look through their little security camera and see it is me, they buzz me in.
10:30- By this time, I have had two hours of español and I want a break. My teacher lets me go get a drink of water and chat with my friends at the school for a bit.
12:30- I am starved! After having them buzz me out of the gate at the language school, I head straight for my apartment.
12:43- After taking my backpack to my bedroom, I head straight to the kitchen where Cecilia has a plate of food waiting on me.
1:07- I usually finish eating my rice and whatever else around now and I head to my bedroom to put some more change in my pocket.
1:15- I leave now to head to the internet café to check my email, check my facebook, and update my blog!! Yea!
2:45- Depending on the amount of email and such that I have, I usually head out of the internet café around this time.
2:45-5:15- During this time, I may go a park, a museum...something like that. After I am done with that, I head back to the internet café before it gets dark to check my email and facebook one final time for the day. Sometimes, important messages come within those three hours!
6:15- I usually head back to the apartment around this time.
6:25- I arrive back at the apartment and head for my bedroom.
6:32- After thinking about the day for approximately 7 minutes, I pick up my book I´m reading and read until around 7:45.
7:45- I head to the kitchen a fix a ham sandwich...yeah! My splurge of American food each day.
7:55- I head back to my bedroom and do my Spanish homework. Usually, it takes me around 45 minutes.
9:00- I go to my closet, grab my toothbrush, floss, head to the bathroom, brush my teeth, floss, and then I head to bed.
11:10- I usually wake up around this exact time every night. I think there is a really loud plane that goes over around this time every night.
11:13- I´m back to sleep.
12:30- A car alarm goes off. Awake again. Then, I´m back to sleep and sleep until 6:15 the next morning!

Wow...that turned out much longer than I expected. I hope you like it though.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Yesterday, I Walked on the Equator

2009-05-24T13:36:00.002-04:00

A few times that I have updated, I have told about what I considered to be my best time yet in Ecuador. Once again, I will say that yesterday was the best day I have had thus far in Ecuador.

I took a trip with the group from Clemson. We met at the school around 9 yesterday morning and headed north of Quito towards the equator. On the way, we stopped at an overlook. I forgot what the name of the volcano was that we were looking at, but it was an amazing view. There is a picture in my photo album.

We left there and headed towards the equator. We first encountered the equator at a museum we visited. It was a museum that demonstrated how the Incas lived. It was very interesting. In this museum is where the equator passed. It is where all of my pictures of the equator were taken. There were many neat instruments they had placed on the equator to demonstrate the forces of gravity and the sun telling time and seasons and such.

We left there and visited La Mitad del Mundo, or, the middle of the world. We ate lunch at a nice little café and then visited an ethnographic museum that explained all the different peoples that live in Ecuador. It was very interesting. Even though most of the day was spent learning stuff in Spanish, I got the general idea of what the guides were trying to tell us.

We arrived back in Quito around 4 yesterday evening and then we went out to a bar\dance place last night. It was fun. There was a ton of spanish music and all of a sudden...Usher came on. Of course, I danced a lot. Since it is dangerous to walk from my apartment to the ¨Mariscal¨, or club area of the city, I had to take a taxi by myself to the Mariscal last night. I got a taxi, told him where I needed to go, negotiated a price, and paid him...all in spanish! It was good. Even though it may sound simple, and it was, I was proud of myself because I did the whole thing in spanish. At around 1230, I took a taxi back as well.

I stayed in bed until 1030 this morning which is different for me considering I have been waking up at 7 every morning. It was good to just relax. I don´t know what I´m going to do this afternoon. I may go the park not far from where I live and finish reading my book I´m on. I will have it done by this afternoon. That will make two books that I have read since I have been here. And, I only brought two. I´m going to have to seek out an english bookstore here in the city and buy a couple more to last the rest of the time while I am here.

I added a few new pictures from the equator to my album:

Ecuador

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

It´s Friday!

2009-05-22T16:33:00.003-04:00

Here in Quito, Friday´s feel the same as they do in the United States...I am glad they finally come around. I have two days free of spanish classes which is a big relief. Even though my spanish classes are going pretty good, it´s nice to have a break.

Yesterday, I visited the Botanical Gardens. It was actually a good visit. It cost me $3.50 to get in and I could walk around as much as I wanted. A couple good pictures I took are in the photos I have uploaded.

After I visited the Botanical Gardens, I went and laid by a pond in a park for about an hour and just watched people. It was fun.

Tomorrow, I am headed off to la mitad del mundo...the equator! I leave here around 9am in the morning and I will get back around 5 tomorrow evening. I am going with the language school so there is no need in worrying about me getting lost somewhere in random Ecuador. I will be fine.

I put a few new pictures in my album. Enjoy-

Ecuador

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Going on a Week

2009-05-21T14:24:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow, I will have been in Quito for seven days. That is hard to believe. I was counting up last night...I really don´t have that much time left here. I have 11 days of Spanish classes and 3 weekends. The last weekend I am here I am taking a trip to Otavalo, so it will go by fast.

I figured I would make today a more worthy update than yesterday. Actually, yesterday after my update has been my best time in Quito yet. I have decided that instead of just having my blog, ¨Zach did this...Zach did that,¨ I will try to teach you a little bit more about the Ecuadorian culture than what I have been doing. I feel like the last few posts have just been similar to a journal or something and I am not really teaching you about life in Ecuador. So, my plan for tonight sometime...I am going to sit down, make a list of things that stand out to me (the children here, food, clothes, cars, etc.) and each day that I update, I will try to teach you something new about Ecuador.

First off, I was disappointed to get to my email this afternoon and have no emails...from anyone...nada. I look forward to hearing from people and all my faithful readers did great for the first 4 or 5 days. But you are slacking now. Get back at it!

Yesterday after I updated, I began to walk back towards my apartment. I can´t remember if I told you this yesterday, but I made a list of 16 different museums, gardens, parks, and things like that I want to see while I am here. Since I have all of my afternoons free, that basically gives me one thing to do each afternoon from now until I leave.

Anyways, yesterday, I began to walk back towards my apartment because I was going to go to the Botanical Gardens. According to my handy-dandy Ecuador guide book, it was opened in 2005 and has over 300 species of plants native to Ecuador. Of course, being my touristy self, I want to visit the Botanical Gardens. As I was walking, I passed by one of the city bus stops. The city buses here are only 25 cents but I had been afraid to get on them since I don´t speak spanish. Well, yesterday, I decided I was going to brave up, get on a bus, and go to the historic district.

Once I got off the bus stop, I walked directly to find the city square. I learned in Urban Geography this past semester that one of the main points in South American cities is the plaza. So, I found it. I just sat down and was watching all the people when all of a sudden, I heard music. I looked around and what I assume to be the national army/military band was walking around the plaza. All of a sudden, they doubled in numbers. There was some type of celebration going on and I got there just in time to see it! Some of the military guys were on horses playing their instruments and it was very organized. It was quite an amazing site.

Pictures- Just to let you know, pictures are a pain here. Sometime tomorrow afternoon or this weekend, I plan to put up a few more. I won´t be putting up many while I am here. Once I get back to the United States, I will make an entire Ecuador album on my google account and let you see every single picture I have taken. It will be much easier once I get back. Also, I have a few videos of the event I witnessed on the plaza yesterday that I will put on YouTube and link to my blog.

Otherwise, everything is going well. It is only 2pm here, so I think I may head to the Botanical Gardens today since I didn´t go yesterday.

Email people! Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The Life of Quito

2009-05-20T15:17:00.002-04:00

Spanish is about to kill me. I have spent the past two days learning one verb. Although it is hard, I am learning.

I met a group of people from Clemson University yesterday at the language school. It is good to have some people here from America that I know now. I was supposed to go to a salsa class with them last night but it turns out the dance teacher had the times wrong so we went to a little restaurant instead.

I´m going to have to start updating my blog before I reply to all kinds of emails. By now, I am tired of typing.

I will sit down tonight and make a list of things I want to talk about in my blog tomorrow. I promise I will have a more rewarding post tomorrow.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Few Pictures

2009-05-18T17:12:00.001-04:00

Funny...I´m at the internet cafe nearly 3 hours from earlier and My Humps just came on again.

Just to let you know, pictures are a hassle to upload from here. I uploaded 11 and they will give you a general idea of where I live and such. Below is the link.

Ecuador

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

My Humps in Ecuador

2009-05-18T15:06:00.002-04:00

The internet café I come to in Ecuador plays a variety of American music. As of right now, Fergie is blasting with My Humps. It is quite comical.

Thanks for the emails everyone! My blog post from yesterday definitely prompted emails and now I have my work cut out for me responding. It is good though...I like hearing from people.

Today was my first day of spanish classes. They went well. My spanish school is about a 5-10 minute walk from my apartment. It´s in a house and the people are really nice. There is a group of students from Clemson University there as well but I didn´t get to meet them today. I´m hoping to meet them soon and maybe they will give me some people from America to hang out with.

My spanish teacher is really nice. She doesn´t speak a lot of english, but she speaks enough for me to communicate with her. I am actually suprised at how much spanish I picked up in the 4 hours I had class this morning. I have a lot of studying to do tonight.

I promise I will put up pictures soon. I would do it right now but I can´t find the computer that goes with this monitor. I know that may sound stupid, but it is true.

I am off for now. I need to reply to the emails I received, send a couple more, then go study for a while. Don´t think my trip to Ecuador is a vacation...it is actually going to be a lot of work.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

I Live Above a Gynecologist

2009-05-17T11:05:00.002-04:00

First, I´ll explain the title. I live on the 7th floor of an apartment building. On the first floor is a gynecologist office. I just found it amusing when I walked in to where I was living the other day and there was a sign for a gynecologist office in the lobby.

I figured since I was at the internet café checking my email and such this morning I would give you an update on yesterday. After I updated my blog, I headed back to the apartment for lunch. Eating is much different here. Basically, I eat a banana or something and then a couple pieces of toast along with a cup of hot tea. I´ve never been a big tea person but I´m learning to like it. Different from in the Estados Unidos (United States), the big meal of the day is lunch. Yesterday, my host mom fixed us really good homemade spaghetti. It was very tasty. After lunch, I headed out to explore the city a little bit.

I found a park that is about 45 minutes from the apartment. I am afraid to use the bus system right now since my Spanish is not good so I have been walking a lot. The park was really nice. It had a little pond and a lazy river type thing with rowboats and paddle boats. It was cool. I took some pictures and I will put them up later. I don´t want to put up a lot of pictures until I have a few more.

I am off to a park that overlooks the city now. I have figured up that it will take me about an hour to walk back to the apartment from the park and I have to be back by two so it will be good timing. The streets are very easy to navigate here so I won´t get lost.

I will check my email later on this evening before it gets dark here. If anyone reads this today and wants to email me, feel free. I´ve not gotten any emails from anyone and I would be excited to get them.

Hasta luego!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

I Made It!

2009-05-16T11:28:00.002-04:00

So, I made it to Ecuador. It was definitely an interesting day yesterday. Not knowing if I was going to have a seat on my flight from Charlotte to Miami, I got at the airport 3 hours early to find out that I did indeed have a seat. Since the small plane I rode on from Charlotte to Miami wasn´t worthy of a real gate at the airport, we were parked on the taxiway and put on a bus that took us to the airport.

Since I didn´t book my ticket here until Monday because of my series of unfortunate kidney events, I had a middle seat from Miami to Quito. The flight was about 3 hours and 40 minutes and it was quite bumpy to be on a large plane. Arriving at the Quito airport was interesting. The airport is right in the middle of the city. So, when you are landing, it looks like you are landing right on top of multiple buildings. But, it turns out you are on the runway. Customs was much easier than I expected. Basically they just stamped my passport and sent my bags through an x-ray machine and that was it. As I was walking through the area where people get picked up by cabs and stuff, I heard my name called. It was some random guy at a cab window. It turns out my driver had called him to let him know that he was running a couple minutes late and I just needed to wait. Eventually my driver, Benecio, came and drove me to my host family´s house. It could have possibly been the scariest ride I have ever taken in my life.

My host mom is very nice. She speaks english rather well. I can have a conversation with her. I have my own bedroom with a great view of the city. The flight path for the airport runs right outside my window so I can sit on my bed and watch planes fly right over! I´ll put up pictures of my home sometime later.

I slept ok last night. I am right in the middle of the city and there are all kinds of car horns and such. There is a major issue in this city with car alarms. Apparently when a bus drives by and jars a car it can cause the alarm to go off. Also, my host mom says the wind from busses cause fruit to fall from the trees and land on cars and set the alarms off. Apparently, the windows in my bedroom are not very thick because I heard alarms all night.

There is another man staying in the apartment until Thursday. His name is Ray and he has been here for 3 weeks already. He told me a lot about the city last night and then we walked around a bit this morning. I have discovered this little internet cafe this morning while walking. It is cheap and it has phone booths where I can call the United States for about 7 cents per minute. It is good.

For now, I am going to run. I really don´t have anything at all to do today. I think I´ll go back and get my backpack and walk to a park and read or something. There are all kinds of parks around the city. If anything excited happens by tomorrow evening, I will update again. Otherwise, I´ll update after my first day of language classes on Monday.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

2009-05-12T22:17:00.002-04:00

In the midst of packing my stuff for Ecuador, I decided to take a break and share a picture with you.

Today, I was laying in my hammock outside my apartment. I was staring at the ground while I laid. It's amazing. If you look at the grass from a distance, it looks so still. But, if you're about 2 feet from it just staring, you can see all the movement; ants, spiders, and other creatures. It was great.

I decided to go inside and get my new camera and see what kind of pictures it takes in situations such as this. This is one of the pictures I got:

Back to packing for Ecuador. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

It's Still On

2009-05-11T15:40:00.004-04:00

Hey folks. I figured I would give you an update. Right now, I should be departing Miami for Quito, Ecuador...but I'm not. It's ok though.

The last time I updated, I had underwent surgery and had a stent placed in me to help me pass my stones. I went to the doctor in Kingsport today and he has released me to go on my trip Friday. I have already bought a plane ticket for Friday so I will be going to Ecuador then!

I am excited. At first, I was very disappointed. But, everything happens for a reason. I'm still going to Ecuador though.

I bought a new digital camera the other day! Yesterday, it was a b-e-a-utiful day here at Emory and since I didn't have anything to keep me occupied due to my trip delay, I decided to walk around and take some pictures of campus. Here is the link to those photos:

Emory on May 10, 2009

Enjoy. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

A Slight Setback

2009-05-08T18:32:00.003-04:00

The past couple days of my life have been rather eventful. I will give you a day-by-day breakdown and I will make it short:

Wednesday: I go to have a Cat Scan done for my kidney stones before I leave for Ecuador on Monday. I leave there, go to the hospital where my mom is having surgery, then head back to Emory to take my last exam. I didn't think I did good on my exam and I had a B going into it, but I didn't do that bad because I ended up with a B in that class. That's another point of excitement...I made 3 As, an A-, and a B for the semester! I'm excited. That day went on with no other happenings...besides me going to eat Mexican with my two aunts and two cousins, which was fun.

Thursday (yesterday): I get up early and go to Johnson City with my friend Dana. While we are there, the college nurse calls and says that Dr. Elmore (my doctor) wants me to see a urologist before I leave for Ecuador. My cat scan showed that I had a 7mm kidney stone blocking my ureter and I also had another 3mm stone somewhere else. So, after having my records faxed all over the planet it seemed, I ended up at Bristol Urology yesterday evening. I saw the nurse practitioner and she told me that my trip to Ecuador wouldn't be feasible unless I had something done about this because if I put it off, I could lose a kidney. So, after being upset for a minute about my trip, I realized that I purchased trip insurance so it shouldn't be a problem to put off my trip a couple days. The nurse practitioner makes some phone calls and gets me an appointment with a urologist in Kingsport this morning at 8:15. Yesterday evening, Josh (the kid I mentor) came to Emory and we played ping pong for a while. It was good to get my mind off of this mess.

Today: I visit the urologist in Kingsport this morning at 8:15. He tells me he wants to do surgery today at 1:00. So, I went directly to the hospital and checked in. He went in, shocked and lasered my stones, and now I'm sitting in my aunt's condo in Bristol with a stent in me. My trip is being postponed for a just a few days. I have an appointment on Monday morning to have an x-ray and a follow-up with my doctor in Kingsport. If everything goes as planned, I should be off to Ecuador by Friday or Saturday, Monday at the latest.

I was depressed about this at first, but it's best I had this done rather than lose a kidney in Ecuador! I'll keep everyone up to date. Sorry you had to hear about my dang kidney stone troubles, but I figured I should explain rather than just say I wasn't going to Ecuador Monday. This is a set back, but at least I will be healthy in Ecuador and my later trip to California.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

One Week

2009-05-03T21:27:00.004-04:00

I can remember updating this blog several months ago and telling you how I was going to Ecuador in May. Now, I can't believe it is only one week away. That is simply hard to believe.

This year has flown by. I can't believe I will be a senior next year. Everyone keeps asking me what I want to do after graduation. I don't know. That is a year away. My advisor and I had a good talk the other day and he brought it to my attention that I worry about the future way too much. I just need to chill and not worry. I have big plans for the summer, and I need to focus on those instead of worrying what I'm going to be doing a year from now.

My interests have changed somewhat over the past year, so it's hard telling what I will want to do a year from now. I'll just go where the wind blows me...although at this time it seems to be blowing me towards the Peace Corps. It is very enticing. But, I'm not worried about that right now.

I leave for Ecuador next Sunday. Dad is taking me to Charlotte and we're spending Sunday night and then my plane leaves at 10:15 on Monday morning. My Spanish has made a little bit of progress. Even though I can speak Spanish un poco (a little), I think I will just tell people down there that I can't speak it. Because technically, I can't. That's the whole reason I'm going to Ecuador...to learn Spanish. I feel like it is better for me to go down there with a small knowledge instead of trying to teach myself and learning it wrong.

I'm still debating on whether or not to take my laptop. I don't think I would use it. I definitely won't be carrying it around because there is a chance I could get mugged and I wouldn't want to lose my laptop! I will probably just find a cozy little internet cafe somewhere around where I live where I can go and sip coffee, update my blog, and email everyone.

I'm excited, yet anxious at the same time about this next adventure in my life. I've never been out of the country, and I'm going by myself! It will be interesting. I will update again before I leave.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Get Dat Gold

2009-04-21T23:46:00.004-04:00

This past week has been very exciting. As I said in my last post, I went at Atlanta this past weekend. Before I get to talking about my Atlanta trip, I would like to share a video with you. It's a video that was made at the Highlands Project (the afterschool program) and now it is on YouTube. I warn you though. Make sure your volume isn't too loud. It's quite comical and we had a fun time making it.

Now that you've watched that, on to the Atlanta trip. We left here on Thursday afternoon and drove to Ophelia, Georgia. On the way, we ate at a delicious Italian restaurant with Dr. Reiff's mom and dad. Then, we went to their house for birthday cake because it was Dr. Reiff's birthday. It was a good time.

Friday morning, we woke up and drove on into Atlanta. In addition to being plagued with kidney stones for the duration of the trip, I also ruined one of Dr. Reiff's handkerchiefs due to a random bloody nose. We went straight to St. Paul United Methodist Church which we called our home for the weekend. It was beautiful. It was built many years ago and the stained glass windows were amazing. We met and talked with the Pastor and she gave us a little bit of history about the church then just kind of hung out with us for a while. Soon thereafter, we left to go to the Gateway Center. The Gateway Center is a community outreach program run by the city of Atlanta to eradicate homelessness and assist those who may be facing homelessness. After taking a tour of the place, we played games with some guys who were residents there. It was great getting to talk to them. I learned how to play Chess! The most eye-opening part of the Gateway Center was walking through the women and children room and seeing lots of kids toys laying around in the make-shift bedrooms. It hit me hard. Later that evening, we went to a choir/orchestra concert and Emory University. It was good.

Saturday was the best day. We first went to Emmaus House. This place operates outreach programs to the youth in the area. The main thing we did was head over to a community center to assist with a community cook-out. It was great. There were a few community organizations there such as the YMCA and YWCA and they allowed kids to go around and learn about summer programs they offer and they could sign up for them. Here is the deal with this community: I looked around and we were the only white people anywhere. Normally, I would feel uncomfortable because of where I'm from. But, I didn't. I felt so welcomed. It was definitely a great feeling being welcomed into that community and I enjoyed that. Below is a picture of our group at the community center, and also a picture of us on the steps of the Emmaus House.

Later that night, we went to a friend of Dr. Reiff's house who he knew from seminary. The church she is a pastor at (Brookhaven United Methodist) does a lot of recovery ministries for recovering addicts. She had four people speak to us who were recovering addicts and at some point had a run-in with homelessness. This was very eye opening and I enjoyed it.

In retrospect, this trip was amazing. It was probably the best trip I have been on since I came to Emory & Henry.

This weekend, I am packing my stuff and heading to Cincinnati to hang out with my friend Colton. We're doing Cincinnati's Relay for Life (which I'm excited about because I haven't done Relay since high school), going to a Reds & Braves game, and just walking around the city some. Everyone knows my love of walking around places. I'm very excited about the weekend.

Below is a picture that was taken by my friend Alex. I really liked it and figured I would share. I hope everyone has a great week and weekend. Happy Earth Day tomorrow!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Off to Atlanta

2009-04-16T13:33:00.003-04:00

I'm off to Atlanta for the weekend with my Church & Community class! I'm really excited about this trip, although I'm going to miss my inauguration as student body president. It's ok though. I suppose I'll survive.

I will update when I get back. Here is a picture of me and Josh from this past week. He is the kid I work with at Highlands Project on campus who is now like my little brother. It may possibly be my favorite picture from this year. I'm gonna miss hanging out with him this summer while I'm in Ecuador and California.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Easter & Good News

2009-04-12T20:32:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! This past week has been great. It was one of the most hectic weeks of my life, but maybe the most rewarding since I have been here at Emory & Henry. I, along with my good friend Rachel Preston, were elected President and Vice-President of the student body. It is going to be a large undertaking but I feel as if it will be well worth it. Our campaign picture is at the bottom of this post.

I leave for Ecuador exactly 4 weeks from today. I am getting slightly nervous. I need to make it a point to sit down and learn a little bit more Spanish. I found some podcasts on iTunes and I have been learning some from them. Although, the man teaching it is scottish and he has a strong accent and pronounces it differently than what I as an American would pronounce the words. It is helping me to learn greetings and such though.

I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me. Most of my upper level classes are not requiring me to take a final exam. Only two of my five classes I have final exams for. Most people would be excited about this, but with no final exam comes multiple long papers and projects. They are all due about exactly two weeks from now. I'm leaving this Thursday to go to Atlanta for my Church & Community class until Sunday. Then, the weekend after that I am going to Cincinnati to visit my friend Colton and plan our trip across the country.

I am getting very excited about the summer. I can't believe it's only 4 weeks away. It will fly by. Maybe something will come along later this week and I will have some good dough for a blog update.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Future Prez & VP

Homeless, But Happy

2009-04-02T16:28:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone! I just got in from an afternoon run and figured I would update you on the happenings of my life. This week has been exciting. Each year, our campus sponsors Cardboard City. All week, there is a group of cardboard boxes that students sleep in to promote awareness of homelessness here in our area. Well, I've been sleeping there for the past 3 nights...and tonight will make my fourth.

Monday was cold, Tuesday was rainy. I woke up at 5AM to the loudest crack of thunder I have heard in my life. The ground shook. I told my friends my heart was beating fast because it was so loud. About that time, rain began to downpour. We stayed dry for 2 or 3 minutes and we thought our box was going to make it. Then, water began to seep in. I was trying to find my shoes and my blankets and stuff was getting soaked and we were all freaking out. In the midst of things, I accidentally knocked the support stick out from under the roof and the roof collapsed. It was traumatic. My sleeping back and everything began to flood. At 5:15 in the morning, I was standing in the middle of a lawn in Emory, Virginia with my backpack and all soaked by the rain. I can only imagine what homeless people go through when things like this happen...regularly. Homelessness is an issue that needs to be addressed. There is more to it than people think, but that is for another day and another post. I have put some pictures of my cardboard house that was destroyed by the storm at the bottom of this post.

I have been working with Highlands Project, and afterschool public education program, all this semester. It has turned out to be one of the best things I have done while I have been here at Emory. I am a mentor on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings from 3-6. I have been working with Josh, the kid in the picture with me down below. It's kind of scary how much he and I have in common, now and even when I was in the 5th grade like him. He's a fun kid to work with and I kind of dread the year ending and not getting to work with him this summer. It will be hard. But, there is always next year! Below the pictures of cardboard city is a few pictures from the Highlands Project.

Everyone have a good evening! I'm off to visit a couple of my cousins and the back to cardboard city for the last night! It is supposed to rain. Oh goodness.

My house that collapsed during a severe thunderstorm.

Me laying in my cardboard house.

Standing on a shovel at the Highlands Project.

Our group after we caution taped a car.

Me and Josh playing with dirt...what?

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Time Flies

2009-03-29T18:25:00.002-04:00

I logged on to update my blog and I realized I haven't done so in 12 days. That's wild! It seems like just yesterday my face was as smooth as a baby's bottom. Ok, maybe not that smooth, but it was smooth. I've decided to let my beard grow back. For the first couple days I liked myself without a beard, but I just feel better with facial hair.

The past two weeks have been quite busy. School is going good. The only class I was worried about was my Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality course. We took a midterm in there before Spring Break and we got them back a few days ago. I made a 93! I was very excited considering the average grade was in the mid-70s. I was proud of myself. I may actually be able to pull of straight A's this semester. That will be great.

I went to River's Way this past weekend. It is a camp for mentally and physically challenged young adults and we (students from Emory) go two weekends per semester and spend time with the campers. This weekend's theme was circus. It was quite entertaining. A clown came and performed for all of us. He walked in the room in a jean jacket and jeans, he sat down his boom box, put on circus music, and took off his jean jacket only to reveal a white, sleeveless shirt. For a minute, I thought we had rented a stripper clown but it turned out he was just changing into a clown before our eyes! I had never seen a clown performance in real life so it was pretty entertaining.

I have an extremely busy week ahead of me. Cardboard City takes place all week here on campus. Basically, it is a city built out of cardboard boxes and students sleep in the boxes all week to promote awareness of homelessness issues. I am staying in Cardboard City Tuesday and Thursday nights. It will be hard, but it will show me how much I take for granted having a bed to sleep in every night.

I am running for President of the student body here at Emory & Henry. Starting this Tuesday I and my Vice-President candidate Rachel will begin campaigning for the 2009-2010 school year. I am excited about the opportunity to give back to the campus here at Emory if I become elected, because this school has taught me a lot in my three years here.

I hope everyone has a good week. Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

My Face is Breathing

2009-03-17T22:40:00.003-04:00

Hola señors and señoritas! My spanish is improving! Although, that is about all I can say. I am hopefully going to have one of the RAs who is a Spanish major give me lessons for a few weeks before I go to Ecuador.

Hence the title of this post, I have shaved off my beard and mustache. I look a few years younger. I kind of like it. I have lost a lot of weight since last having my face smooth so my face is much slimmer. I have begun to run for exercize. I run a mile at a time. I began a couple weeks ago and I like to do it every day. With my iPod in, I find it quite fun. And, I feel better after I have done it.

I am going to Cincinnati April 24-26th to visit my friend Colton and plan our cross country road trip to California. I am also on his Relay for Life team the weekend that I am there, so I am going to try and raise some money before I go. If there are any faithful blog readers out there who would like to donate a couple dollars, you can click here and make an online donation for our team. Any little bit helps and it goes to a good cause. I was very involved with Relay in high school and I haven't had the chance since coming to college to be involved, so I am very excited about relaying again.

I stay so busy with all of my classes...it is nuts. I was just thinking the other day: it is really a shame that I have a $500 TV sitting in my living room but I never turn it on except when I have time on the weekends, and sometimes I don't even turn it on during the weekends. It is nuts.

We have under 6 weeks of school left. I think I'm going to pack up some of my stuff and take it home soon. I have so much crap I never use in my apartment and it basically just takes up space. I'm moving back to Hillman next year, which is the freshman guy's dorm. I will not have an apartment, only a triple room to myself. But, I'm not that disappointed. I will miss my bathroom, but I don't mind living in a small space. It makes me feel more at home. I don't think I could ever live in a big house. I'm happy with small spaces.

It's my bedtime. I'm leaving you with a picture of the repo crew and the car we repossessed. I still can't believe I rolled up to a lady's house and took her vehicle away. That's kind of against what I've learned in college. I've decided...I'm applying for the Peace Corps. For sure.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The Days of a Sunburned Car Collector

2009-03-13T17:06:00.002-04:00

I attempted to begin a blog entry last night but I quickly realized that I was too tired to concentrate and type words that made sense.

I am currently on Spring Break in Florida. It has been a ton of fun. I am with seven girls. There were supposed to be two other guys to come, but they bailed and sent me off with seven girls.

We left for Florida on Monday morning from my apartment. After approximately 10 stops, we got down here around 6 or so on Monday evening. We went to Orlando first. I booked a hotel room on Monday night at a Wyndham for $45! It was very nice. We all stayed in one room. We set up an air mattress in the middle of the room and we were good to go.

We checked out of that hotel early on Tuesday. Since it was a resort and it had a super nice pool, we actually laid there around the pool until 3:00. We left then and moved to our other hotel that was about 15 minutes away. The next hotel was the one I got for $13 per night. Well, the name of the hotel had changed. I booked a Quality Inn and we checked into a Continental Plaza. It wasn't the nicest hotel, but the room was clean and that was all that mattered.

Wednesday we went to Universal Studios all day. The lines were short so we visited both parks and got to ride almost all of the rides. It was a fun day. I hadn't been to Universal Studios since 10th grade of high school so it was nice to go again.

We left Orlando around 9:00 yesterday morning. Tarah's mom is the head of collections at a bank in Virginia. So, she had a car down here that a lady wasn't paying for and she needed it repossessed. She overnighted us tags and the paperwork and on our way to Daytona, we showed up at the lady's house and took her car. It was quite intense. She knew her car was getting repossessed but she wasn't expecting us to show up and take it yesterday. She asked for a couple of hours to "clean it out" but we told her she should probably just go ahead and get the stuff out then because we knew she would drive away with it and we wouldn't be able to find it.

After we re-poed her car, we headed onto Daytona Beach. We decided to pay an extra $20 and check into our Super 8 Motel early. So, while we are all in the parking lot, the manager walks by and sees all of us and ends up charging us $80 extra because we have 4 people in each room as opposed to 2 people. It is nuts considering we have 2 beds in each room! I feel like I am currently staying in a prison. Tarah went down to get towels a few minutes ago and the manager told her that our room was using too many towels. What the hell? This is a hotel and we already paid extra money for us to stay in a room so why does it matter how many towels we use?? It is nuts. Even though it is a tight ship, it is definitely the cleanest hotel I have ever stayed in.

I am sunburned. I thought I put on enough sunscreen but obviously I didn't. My junior year of college will be over soon. I can't wait for the summer. Ecuador, cross-country road trip, Santa Cruz...it will be great.

Until next time (and I'm back in Virginia), Zach will leave it at that.

Monuments, Statues, Museums...oh my!

2009-02-21T20:02:00.002-05:00

Today was a good day. I got to sleep in...9:15. That is much later than I usually sleep. I have my clock set for 8am every morning, even though I don't have class until 11. I just like to get up early and get the day started off right...take a shower, check my email and the weather, do the Sodoku in the Bristol paper...I have a routine.

Anyways, I woke up at 9:15. Dad, Poppaw, and I decided we were going to go into the district today since it was supposed to be warmer. We left here around 11. We went downtown and Poppaw dropped us off at the World War II memorial. I hadn't been in downtown DC since the memorial had been built. It is really nice. Me and Dad walked around there until Poppaw found a parking space. We met up with him then walked to the Vietnam War memorial. My dad had a couple he wanted to find on the wall. After we found the names, we walked up to the Lincoln Memorial. It was nice. We then walked to the Korean War memorial (I know...I visited every war memorial in one day). We did a lot of walking.

After we left the Korean War memorial, we walked to Pennsylvania Avenue and saw the White House. We then got in the van to go to Union Station to get lunch. My grandpa drives a huge Dodge conversion van that is really tall. He went to pull in the parking garage and the bar that warns about vehicle height hit the top of the vehicle. He being 75 and hard of hearing didn't hear the bar hit the top of the van. Me and my dad had to tell him to stop and go out of the parking garage. So, we had to turn around and find a spot on the street. It was confusing...well, my grandpa got confused. We ate lunch then left Union Station.

I had been watching planes all day. I can't remember if I've told you before, but I'm obsessed with airplanes. It's an interest of mine that I have aquired since taking my first plane ride freshman year. If the plane is low enough, I can tell you rather quickly what airline the plane is from and what kind of plane it is (Beoing, Airbus, MD, etc.) All day I had been watching planes flying over DC getting ready to land at Reagan National Airport. They were low and I was rattling off the airlines and plane types, testing my own knowledge to impress only myself. There is a park at the end of a runway called Gravelly Point. It is one of the best plane-watching locations in the country...if you're on the ground and not in a plane. I had been looking forward to going to Gravelly Point at the end of the day to watch a bunch of planes land and take off. My grandpa doesn't go into the city very often and they have changed the roads a lot. He got confused again and couldn't find Gravelly Point. I was disappointed but, oh well. I still had a good day in the city. I may drive to Gravelly Point tomorrow before I leave and watch some planes if the weather is good.

I don't have my cord to put pictures on my computer. As soon as I do, I will put them on here. I hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

"I Go Commando"

2009-02-20T14:11:00.003-05:00

Yes...I'm sure the title of my post may throw you off. Here is the reason for the title: I am currently sitting in my grandpa's living room outside of Washington, DC, and we are watching the Maury Povich show. There is a lady who is blaming her husband for cheating on her because she found a pair of panties in his back seat. She said, "I know they ain't my panties because for one, they're two sizes two small, and two, I go commando!" I thought it was quite funny.

Me and my dad left Emory around 11:30 yesterday to head up here to Washington, DC. We had a good trip up. The wind was outrageous. It was hard at times to keep the truck in the lane on the interstate because the wind was blowing so badly. We hit some traffic going around Washington and finally got here around 5:15.

We didn't d0 anything yesterday evening. We got dinner from a little carry-out place down the road and just hung out and talked. It was good times. This morning we got up and watched a family reunion tape. After that we got ready and went and ate a buffet. I haven't eaten at a big buffet in a long time. They are interesting. One of my favorite things to do is to sit and watch people and I have come to the conclusion that giant buffets are the best place to do this. I think you actually find more of a variety of people to watch at a buffet than you do at Wal-Mart, which could possibly be one of the best places on earth to people watch. If you need any recommendations for where to people watch, let me know. I have a list of good places to recommend.

After we ate at the buffet we stopped and bought some raw oysters (disgusting, I know) and then came back here to Poppaw's. It is nice to skip class today. I needed a break and I needed away from Emory for a few days. We are going into the district (Washington, DC) tomorrow and going around for a while. I haven't been into the district in a few years. I'd like to hit up the Holocaust Museum while we are down there. I will take pictures, and they will be up shortly.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

All in All It's Just Another Day Now

2009-02-15T19:15:00.004-05:00

The past week of my life has been relatively uneventful. I suppose that I can pull a couple of good stories out of somewhere.

I am the president of the Residence Hall Association here at Emory & Henry. Basically, for those of you who aren't familiar, RHA serves as an organization to improve life in the residence halls here at the college. We will do little things to improve the halls (buy dishes, fix volleyball courts, buy dry erase boards, etc.) and we also do programs on campus (The Roommate Game, Indoor Soccer, etc.). Each year, there is a state wide RHA conference for all RHAs across the state of Virginia. This year, I was quite excited because the conference was at UVa-Wise, which is in my neck of the woods. These conferences are always a ton of fun because everyone that attends them is borderline insane (including me I guess!) We had fun at the conference though. Below is a picture of the people who went with us.

All of my classes are going well. I had my first test of the year on Friday! It was in Urban Geography. I really like that class because all we do is talk about different cities. It is very interesting. Hopefully, I pulled off a 1oo on the test. I think I did pretty darn good. I don't want to get my hopes up and jynx myself though!

I've been on duty all weekend here at Emory. Basically, that entails being required to sit around and do nothing. Even though I don't mind being on duty for my RA job, I do wish more stuff would happen so it would give me something to do. Especially on the weekends. Weekend duty can be rather boring.

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about what I'm going to do after graduation. Even though I still have over a year before I graduate from college, I need to go ahead and start planning. I've spent a lot of my time looking into the Peace Corps. I think it would be a life changing experience. From what I've read, I have all the qualifications necessary to enter. It is recommended that one apply 9-12 months in advance. That means that I should apply this summer. I could go ahead and fill out an application now, but I feel like I should wait until I return from Ecuador. If I wait until then, I will have a lot more experiences that I will be able to talk about in my application.

I need to write papers. I've spent a lot of my time lately thinking about this summer. Less than three months until I leave for Ecuador! That is hard to believe. My time here at Emory is flying by. Before I know it, I will no longer be here at Emory but somewhere else in the world enjoying myself. Goodnight, everyone. I'll leave you with a beautiful sunset picture I took in Wise last Saturday. I like Appalachian sunsets. I will miss them while I'm gone.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Busy Week!

2009-02-06T09:59:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone...or at least the few who read this. This past week has been ok, just very busy. It always seems that my Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are the most hectic days of the week. When Wednesday night rolls around, I am always worn out and excited about Thursday, mostly because I have one class and nothing else to do on Thursday.

All of my classes are still going well. I am taking an independent study class on Rural Health Care Policy. I am working on a very big project for that class. Me, along with 8 other students, are gonig to be going door-to-door in some low-income housing complexes and taking surveys on health care needs. It is going to be interesting, yet stressful at the same time. The deadline for the grant is the end of March so we are aiming to get all the information gathered and analyzed by Spring Break, which only gives us a month to work with!

This past weekend my grandpa's girlfriend of many years, Kitty, passed away. Her services were yesterday but I didn't get to go up to Washington, DC because of my classes. So, in two weeks, I am taking a road trip by myself up to visit my grandpa. It will be good. I haven't been up there in quite a while so I am really looking forward to the trip.

I hope everyone has a good week. I have a little bit of reading to do before my class at 11 so I need to run. I'm off to UVa-Wise this afternoon for a conference all weekend! I'm excited!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Personal Statement

2009-01-30T15:16:00.003-05:00

Hey. I had to write this personal statement for my RA job and I figured you all might like to read it. So, here goes:

My name is Zach Triplett. I grew up in the small town of Haysi, Virginia which is tucked in the hills of Southwest Virginia. I went to a small high school and graduated with a class of 80 other students. The value of hard work, meaning of family, and the ability to love home are only a few of the things I learned while growing up in Dickenson County, Virginia. In this short statement, I plan on telling you a little about myself, my plans, and why these things are important to me.

I was very involved with community service in high school. Although I did a lot of service, I wasn’t fully aware at the time of what exactly community service was. I helped to tutor kids, I volunteered at community events, and I would help out around town when help was needed. When trying to figure out where to go to college after graduation, I knew what I wanted. Since I grew up in a small town and was used to small town life, I wanted to go somewhere that had similar qualities. Emory & Henry College was the only school I applied to my senior year of high school.

As the new chapter in my life approached, I got an application in the mail for the Bonner Scholars program. I applied for the community service scholarship and was told that I had not received it. I was rather relieved because I felt that eight hours of community service per week was a bit much for a first year college student. It was July before I came to Emory and I received a call one day from someone that offered me the Bonner Scholarship. After much debate, I decided to accept the award. I was unaware at the time how much this decision would affect my life.

While in high school, I took an anatomy class online and I loved it. I became obsessed with health and I wanted to become a doctor. I shadowed at a local hospital and I decided that a career as a physician would be great for me. It is interesting, the pay is excellent, and doctors tend to have good reputations. So, I came to Emory & Henry as a chemistry and biology double major. I struggled my freshman year. College was unlike high school. I found my classes challenging and I didn’t study as much as I should have. I ended my freshman year of college still dead-set on becoming a doctor. During this first year of school, I began to volunteer with Crossroads Medical Mission. Crossroads is a non-profit organization based in Bristol, Virginia that provides free health care to uninsured and uninsured residents of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. My work with Crossroads also was fulfilling my plans to one day become a doctor.

My first semester of my sophomore year was a large struggle for me. I ended up taking three extremely challenging classes in one semester. It proved to be almost fatal. I did very poorly in my grades. It is strange, but it was like I woke up one morning and decided that I was on the wrong track. If I was meant to be a biology student going into med school, wouldn’t I have more motivation to do well? Since I began at Emory, many people had suggested that I take a Public Policy & Community Service class. It was a major unique to Emory and I thought it sounded very interesting. On the day I decided that my classes were leading me in the wrong direction, I went straight to a new advisor and changed my major. I began my second semester as a sophomore at E&H as a Public Policy & Community Service major. I knew that this was the right track for me. I loved all my classes and I began to make good grades. I am still a PPCS major to this day.

Throughout high school, I was able to travel a little but not a large amount. I would go on field trips and occasionally go to places with a program I was a member of. But, I never took the time to appreciate the places where I was visiting. During my spring break of freshman year, I went with a few friends to Boston. It was this trip that sparked my love of different places and traveling. Just a few months later, after the end of my freshman year, I went to New York City with the Bonner Scholars program. I fell in love with the place. Even though Appalachia is my home, I love to experience new places. For my last spring break, my mom, my brother, and I took a trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I often joke that I went on the National Treasure tour because I visited all the places that were important to the history of America. I decided that last summer I needed to do something big. I didn’t want to take a job that was close to Southwest Virginia. I wanted to experience somewhere new. So, I applied for a position with Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth. I applied for an RA position and was expecting to be placed somewhere on the east coast. Instead, I was offered a job in Santa Cruz, California.

The job in Santa Cruz was one of the most challenging, but rewarding, experiences of my life. I faced many obstacles out there with my students, but at the same time I learned more about myself than ever before. Not to mention, I met many friends who still mean a lot to me. I was happy with my decision to go to California. Again, my love of travel was sparked, so this summer I am going to Quito, Ecuador for four weeks. I am excited, but nervous, about the experience.

I am unsure what I want to do after graduation. My love of people and volunteering is leading me towards an Americorps VISTA position in a city. I feel like I need the experience of living in a city for some amount of time. I have always been a person with plans. But, over the past couple of weeks, I have decided that not having plans may actually be good for me. I’m just going to go where life takes me. So far, it has led me to Emory & Henry. Where it will be next…I guess only time will tell.

A Week Has Gone By?!

2009-01-30T08:48:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone (or at least people that read my blog.) I never sleep in. I don't have class until 11:00 today but I was still awake at 7:50 this morning. I kind of like it because it gives me time to do random stuff, such as update my blog, when I normally wouldn't have time. I went to bed at 11:00 last night, which is normal for me, so I guess going to bed early is what causes me to wake up early. I would rather get up early than stay up late though.

This past week has been good. It has just been super busy. I can't believe it is Friday already! It seems like this semester started up much quicker than last semester. All of the work for my classes is keeping me pretty busy. I have a lot of reading and I need to spend this weekend getting caught up on some stuff that I have fallen behind on.

On Wednesday night we had the Village Bonfire. The picture below is a picture of all the RAs in the Village. It was a lot of fun. We just hung out with some of our residents and roasted some marshmallows and weenies. When you ask the college to supply wood for a fire you are going to build, they usually supply old desks or something similar. So, we arrived at the fire to find a pile of desks covered with diesel fuel. It was a hot fire, none-the-less. I think I scorched my beard a little bit.

I have no plans for the weekend. I am trying to conserve money and not waste gas so I don't plan on going anywhere far. I have readings to catch up on and a few things I can write on so I'm just gonna stick around here and relax. I know...I lead a very exciting life.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Life in Emory

2009-01-26T23:09:00.003-05:00

It can get boring at times. Life here in Emory. The past few days have been good. My first full week of classes ended up going well. I can't believe we are into the new semester already..and almost two weeks at that! It doesn't feel like we have been at it for that long.

This past weekend I lead a service project in Abingdon. It was for the Martin Luther King National Day of Service. We went and moved some stuff from a storage building for a food pantry. The day of service was supposed to be on MLK Day, but since we had school we had to push it back to this past Saturday.

I headed up to Blacksburg on Saturday evening to visit Tarah and Dove and everyone up there. I spent the night on Saturday night. We basically sat around, listened to music, and I washed clothes. It was terribly exciting. It was good to visit with them though. I enjoy going up there just to get off campus.

I have set some goals for myself. I dropped a few pounds while I was in California and I continued to do so up into last semester. I think I've gained a little back. So, I need to start eating healthier in the cafe. I have also decided that even though my car is close by, I am not driving if I have to go anywhere on campus. I am going to walk everywhere. It is silly to drive when I can walk anywhere in a matter of 5-10 minutes.

Random thoughts

I got a new fish...his name is Henry.
The IRS makes me angry. Why taxes, why?
I like to travel.
I need to learn Spanish.
I also need to write my paper due at 9:30 in the morning..."What does it mean to be an American?"

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

I'm Sorry/Christmas/Orange Bowl

2009-01-18T23:11:00.010-05:00

I know. I'm sorry. I didn't keep to my word and update this thing regularly like I said that would. Everything has been going good. I will give you a rundown of what has been going on.

I ended up with good grades last semester. I got 3 A's, an A-, and a B. I ended up with a 3.7 GPA for the semester, which put me on the Dean's List. I was really excited about that because I had never been on the Dean's List before. I enjoyed all of my classes from last semester. Christmas with the family was good. I didn't get to go home until around the 18th of December, so I didn't have much time for break. I spent Christmas with everyone and then left for Florida on the 28th.

Me, Tarah, Dove, and Jenna went to Blacksburg on the night of December 28th. There, we met Erin and Corey and left for Miami on the 29th. Despite being plagued with kidney stones for part of the ride, it was fun. We made a pitstop in Savannah, Georgia. At the time we stopped, it just so happened that power was out all over the city. It was a coincidence we were there but we did have time to walk around and take a few pictures.

We found what claimed to be the Smallest Church in America. It was a church on a side-road we took to avoid traffic on the interstate. It is tailored for travelers to stop in and worship.

We stayed in Jacksonville with a guy that Erin knew on the night of the 29th. We left Jacksonville on the morning of the 30th and drove on into Miami. Along the way, we stopped in St. Augustine which was a really nice city. We got to our hotel and decided to visit the beach. We went to Ft. Lauderdale beach and then we headed north to Deerfield Beach. There, we met up with my good friends who I worked with in California, Colton and Lance. We hung out on the beach for a couple of hours and then headed back south.

The next day, we woke up and the girls took their sweet time getting ready. We went to what was supposedly the 4th largest mall in America. It was huge! We were there for about 4 hours and didn't even see the whole thing. Once we got back to our hotel, Colton and Lance stopped and picked me up and I spent the evening with them. The crew I went with wanted to go to South Beach for the New Year, but I didn't feel like fighting the crowd, so I went north with Lance and Colton. We hung out on the beach, dug a huge hole, and watched the fireworks. It was a good evening and a relaxing way to spend New Years. Below is a picture of the fireworks from the beach.

On New Year's Day, we got up and checked out of our hotel. We headed to Dania Beach, which was close by, and layed on it for about 3 hours.

We left from there and headed to Dolphin Stadium for the Orange Bowl. The game was a ton of fun. Even though we had very, very high seats, they were right on the 50-yard line with an awesome view.

Three pictures are below. The first is a picture of a sunset at Dolphin Stadium. The second is a picture of the megatron with the Orange Bowl logo. The third is me, Colton, and Lance at the ballgame.

I came back to school on January 5th. We had RA training and stuff and now I'm back into classes. I'm taking four actual classes and an independent study class. Even though my class schedule isn't a lot, I stay busy with all my service work, RA stuff, and other committments.

I'm excited about my Spring Break. As of right now, me and a few other people are planning on flying to Orlando for a few days. It is going to be cheap and it will be fun. I leave for Ecuador on May 11th, return June 9th, and just a couple days later leave to work in California again! It will be an adventurous next few months, but I am looking forward to it.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Good Weekend

2008-12-07T22:43:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-03T16:37:00.004-05:00

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?!

2008-12-02T23:46:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-30T18:28:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-30T00:31:00.000-05:00

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

2008-08-08T17:41:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-05T10:31:00.007-04:00

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!

2008-08-03T21:36:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-31T01:14:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-28T11:34:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-27T15:08:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-24T21:12:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-22T13:38:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-20T21:12:00.004-04:00

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!

2008-07-18T19:06:00.001-04:00

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

2008-07-17T10:16:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-15T20:38:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-15T20:35:00.003-04:00

derelicte

2008-07-13T02:30:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-10T10:18:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-09T01:12:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-03T23:28:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-02T09:27:00.004-04:00

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.

2008-06-29T12:47:00.004-04:00

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

2008-06-26T22:35:00.006-04:00

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!

2008-06-24T15:38:00.003-04:00

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.

2008-06-20T23:22:00.002-04:00

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.

2008-06-11T20:34:00.002-04:00

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."

2008-06-07T01:28:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-05T21:11:00.000-04:00

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!