Holiday Weekend and Thunderstoms

Ya for me, I get to again celebrate in the American celebration. I have celebrated the last 2 years July 4 being as I was on my mission, and now that I am at school in the US I get to do it again. I really wanted to go home this weekend, but somehow it just wasn't going to happen. I feel so behind, so stressed, I have 4 quizzes and 2 exams that are going to take place this weekend, and I want to be able to celebrate my countries birthday on July 1, but I just can't afford to go home. I wish I could. I love July 1 in Raymond. My little town of 3000 people grows, and swells, the campgrounds all around are booked to the max, and peoples back yards, open lots, and driveways become places for extra campers to stay. 10000 people line the streets the morning of the 1st for the parade, and nearly 200-300 people participate in the 5K/10K road-race. I miss those times, working at the pool, kicking out all the moto cross kids who are breaking the rules, and just being with my family for the parade, fireworks, and sometimes sneaking into the rodeo to watch the bull riding.

In light of not being able to go home I might just dress up on Thursday, just enough that I can wear my Canada flag tie. Who knows. Part of me wants to cling on to my small amount of Canadian heritage that I have left, but the bigger part of me knows that my future will be the best that it can be only as I pursue a career and family, and life here in the United States. The people that I love the most besides my parents are here, I want to stay close to my converts from my mission, I want to be close, to the church, the temples, and maybe one day a beach somewhere. Things will somehow work themselves out. I don't know at all what I want to do yet, but somehow I am thinking that someone does, and if I just pay attention to a few details, I will one day learn it, and be able to succeed.

I was caught in a rain storm today, and for some reason I just thought, and I thought about me, who I am, who I want to be, what I want to be remembered by. Somethings in my life just turned around in the past little while, and I didn't know what to do. What to think, what to say, who I wanted to be. I felt myself slipping away a little bit, feeling slightly lethargic from school. I think its the fact that its July, and its finally getting warm. It is not supposed to be this cold this long. But anyways, back to the rain. I had just had a not great day, and then to make matters worse, I had planned on not being able to do much of anything today because its hay bailin season and I was planning on being out til 4 am driving a tractor, but dumb Idaho has to have a 90 degree day, with 5 percent chance of rain and get a flash flood thunderstorm. So as I was driving, to the shop because hay was an epic fail, I saw a car on the side of the road, and with all the time I had to reflect and realize a lot about me, I stopped and pulled over. In the ten steps that it took me to get from my car to his I was drenched from head to toe, completely soaked, no joke, not a dry spot on me. I asked if they needed up and they had someone coming already... times like those I wish I was a bit more mechanical, but I just knew that at least they would know someone in this world cared. How many times do people just drive past the car on the side of the road with the lights on. Do we stop? Do you ever wonder what those people think!? Why are we always so rushed that we can't just stop for a minute and check on the well being of someone else? That's when I realized a bit about who I am, and what I want in my life. I would like to think that I am a pretty nice guy. I mean sure, I have moments where I am mean, but for the most part I bend over backwards for people, friends or strangers... I am known to pull over most of the time and help, or at least make sure there isn't something I could do. I love my friends, even though sometimes it feels like its one sided, like I am always doing, or paying, or helping them, and yet my pride doesn't let me take things in return very much. I just do things, I don't think, or make a fuss. So why bring this up!? I have realized that I miss intimacy in my relationships. I feel like I haven't been myself lately, I have always been trying to impress because someone made me feel like I wasn't good enough. I constantly fight a battle with myself to add up to everyone else's expectations, and yet what about mine, what about my dreams and goals and wants and needs? Not many care, and those that do I consider my truest friends. But as I pondered this thought, I realized that I miss the intimate relationships of trust with the opposite sex. Not sexual relationships, but intimate, deep, passionate relationships of trust and love. It has been a very long time since I felt that way about anyone, and Lord knows its been a lot longer since anyone has felt that way about me. So what to do? I don't believe there is anything I can do, but I sure don't want to have to change me to accomplish it. I don't need to be anyone other than what I want to be, I know that I want to leave behind a legacy of love, patience, trust, and charity. I want people to remember me by the things I willingly, faithfully did out of the goodness of my heart. I want to be soft spoken and wise, and have others truly look up to me, not for me, but because I follow a plan much greater than my own. With God as a witness I want to be honest and true, and I want people to never doubt my integrity. With all these things that I want I need to have someone who wants me for all those same reasons. It is hard to love, or to let love in, and yet when you do it can be one of the most rewarding things on earth, but can you force it? No, but you can certainly influence it, and let it start to develop. Nothing can be worse than cutting yourself off, and being reclusive, you never learn, never grow. I want to be wanted, is ultimately what I learned today. I want to have the one person who can't wait for me to get home from work, who tries their best to stay up late when its a late night, or to just always remind me how much they miss me. I want someone who can't wait to hear about my days follies or triumphs, and who can't wait to share theirs with me. I want someone who looks into my eyes, and melts me, and who I just can't wait to see, someone who the moments apart seem like forever until we can reunite. That is not an impossible thing to find, what is hard it letting it happen. Being not afraid, to open up, to gamble everything for love. If it pans out it is worth it. It becomes the most important and valuable thing we can find and treasure. It becomes the purpose of life, and creating life. When I find that, I realized tonight, I will die a happy man. A man whose purpose was fulfilled, and who found all the things in life he desired and dreamed. But its two way, people have to open up, we have to trust, its our nature, its built in, and yet we fight it, hide it, hide ourselves. Don't hide ourselves, or our talents... its not ultimately in the best interest of anyone.

Summer Sun, Soccer, Swimming, Sushi, Singing, and Sleeping... Sometimes

Today seems to be as good a day as ever to update again. I am starting to spread this blogging addiction around, a few good friends are doing it, and more and more of my family are online updating their "journal" of their life. I love reading my families adventures and seeing me cousins and their children grow. I am grateful for the wonderful technology at our fingertips.

This past week has been a great week of re-connecting. I have been on the same campus as an old mission companion for the past 5 months, and we had not been able to connect until this weekend. It took another friends birthday party, a random trip to Walmart (where we saw him and invited him to the party) and a blind date gone sour that we were all going on to be the buffer/protection for a great friend. In the process we realized how much of an error it was to not be friends for so long... our adventure started out at a super fun birthday party, with ice cream cake and soda pong, but that was a small time together. Saturday started with soccer, the US vs Ghana, and after 123 minutes of play, 2 overtime periods, Ghana defeated the miracle team, and my heart sunk. My friend says, "I can run home and make us a few sushi rolls if you want..." "HECK YA" was my answer, he had started my crazy addiction to 3 things I never thought I would eat, let alone eat them together at the same time, raw fish, seaweed, and hot sauce..... I am so glad I can enjoy the wonderful flavors, and the amazing textures of sushi. We ate the rolls, but it was all to quick, and we decided that we wanted to have a Sushi party. We first want to swim, so a group of us went to the Sand dunes to swim in the lake there. It was a blast, I soaked up as much sun as I could and we enjoyed the lake. We spent the better part of a few hours out there we came back home and made some more delicious sushi. It was fantastic. I realized at the moment that I had outgrown most of the tastes that were influenced on me by my parents. I had been trained to not like fish, and I had been trained to not eat certain things because my parents didn't like them, and hence never eating them of course I would not like them. We feasted upon that sushi as people came over to play games. We had a fairly good turnout for fugitive. I was supposed to be a cop and drive with my knee, but I ended up running, and we made it to the end point without being caught. A lot of people cheated or went home, and so that wasn't fun, but we did have one good round. And that was mostly the end of my night. Today brings clear skies, sunshine, sacrament, more sushi, soccer (world cup not me playing) perhaps some songs sung with my guitar, hopefully a little sleep, and to top off the night I think I get peach cobbler tonight! I love my new friends, I love summer, I love having fun, and being me. I don't have to pretend, I don't have to work hard, I just have some amazing friends who just like me for me!

*noidon'thateyou,don'twannafightyou,youknowi'llalwaysloveyou,butrightnowIjustdon'tlikeyou*

Adventures=Pictures!

We were a little excited to be here, we were of course listening to the Beverly Hills song by Weezer, as Clayton drove us around in his dad's BMW. It was a great day!
LA TEMPLE! BEAUTIFUL!

FUN TIME, GHETTO HILL, MORE GHETTO CHAIR LIFT!

Can You Ever Be TOO Nice?

I am starting this post in a very unusual way. I typically have a title in mind when I start a post, and a theme of what I want to talk about, and it usually involves fun times and adventures, and while I am sure this post will include that, I have been thinking a lot about personality lately. I had a conversation with a new friend last night while driving around the farms of Rexburg and surrounding area and we got on the subject of personal conversion, convictions, and the individual decisions that brought us together at BYU I. It was not supposed to happen with either of us, and yet we were both there, in that moment, having a very deep and bonding conversation. How do things like this happen? What drives people to do the things they do? How can we understand more about others that will benefit us in the future, and in the very choices we make every day. I have learned over the past few months, and years what type of personality I have, and based on the "color" scheme you choose, here are some of the details of how I tick, you may find this helpful, you may not, but I feel its important. I am a "blue" personality, with a dominant "white" 2nd personality. This ultimately means that I form connections with people and I love using words, and intellectual conversations to become friends with people. If I know you, and if I trust you, I will tell you nearly anything you want to know, and I have no problem listening either. I also love to put people first. I am one of the nicest people I know, not to boost my self esteem, but to relate to other nice people out there. The "white" part of my personality happens to also be a major source of the internal struggle I have with myself. I hate confrontation. I don't like to fight, or argue, I don't like the feeling it brings, I don't like the way it makes other people feel, and it is a WHOLE lot easier for me to just take the abuse of the fight, and hold it in, and let the other person win to boost their ego. That is just how I operate, I will tell you anything that you think you want to know if it keeps us from fighting.

Now, I suppose that there was a reason for this little rant, and there was. I played maid today, as I have found myself doing nearly every day since the beginning of the year. I have great roommates whom I love to death, but they are not neat. I may or may not be slightly OCD with cleanliness and order, and I just didn't want to do it all. I had some help today, which was greatly appreciated, but I found myself this entire week running from what I knew was inevitable. I never cooked at home in the past 2 weeks, or spent more than an hour during the waking hours in our house. I was always gone, gone so that I knew, and no one could doubt, that the mess that is always left behind is and was not mine. Then it builds up. Then it just gets bigger and bigger, and I come home later and later, so that I don't have to spend time in it, or look at it, and then it happens, class gets cancelled, I get home way earlier than I am used to, and I can't function. I start thinking I will just do the dishes that we need to cook our chocolate chip pancakes, and I end up doing all the dishes, cleaning the counters, stove, island, microwave... mopping the floor, gathering the trash (someone else took it out for me) and picking up the living room. I really didn't mind doing it, we had some great music, and at least I had company, but I just was so frustrated, because nothing, not one dish that I did, was dirtied by me. I just don't understand why the concept of "if you use it, wash it, dry it, and put it away" is so hard for people to get. Simple, and yet never does it happen. Well thats enough of my vent for today. I just thought about the simple fact that my personality is such that I avoid confrontation. To me it is easier to just suck it up, and use my free time, to benefit everyone else and avoid a fight, or even having to have an awkward conversation about it. Moral of the story...

Nice people get screwed over, not just a few times, but most times, but nice people don't worry, we will always win in the end. I can't tell you how many times I made a new friend, and that that friend became someone whom I could entrust my life with, as I did acts of kindness to them. The other day I was standing in a ticket line, and the people next to me didn't have enough cash to pay for their tickets. Without even hestitating I slapped down 10 dollars for their tickets, just as they found the missing dollar in their purse. Sure, 1o dollars seems like a lot for a college kid, but its a small price to pay to be the helping hand. I just felt happy after that. A week ago I was with my friends on a Horkley's fun, and I had to charge $2.00 in order to use my debit, and I only had $1.30 or so, and so I picked up the girls tab behind me without her even knowing it. I didn't mind, again, small price to make someone smile. And lastly, the big finale, a mix up in the orders at a friends birthday party left me paying the tab for 3 steak dinners. At first I thought I would make a big deal about it, but then I changed my mind, for friends, anything is worth it. I will just have to work a little harder, save a little more, and I got the satisfaction of seeing them, engaged and in love, on a special birthday event. Being nice has its advantages, because we get to have the personal feelings, and so to those of you out there who are struggling with the fact that you may be getting taken for all you're worth, then you just have to sit back, smile, and say that it's all in a days work!

Make a goal, set a plan, to help someone, or to say something nice to someone on a daily basis. These are small things I have noticed start to help with any problem. Depression!? No problem, a bit of exercise, service, and trusting God, and that is done. Having a bad day!? No problem, just suck it up, smile, and see how many people will smile back, shoot, you might even meet someone special as they gaze into your pearly whites. When all is said and done, we don't get to take all the riches and fame with us after death, so a spending a few pennies is just that... pennies, to what the happiness you can receive from helping out someone in need. And to those of you who get helped by a super nice person.... Thanks goes a long way!

College is great, school is tough, exams are rough, people are fun, dating is stressful, and I have a knee injury, but on the bright side, more girls than I thought I knew brought me treats... I almost had a handi-cap parking sticker, I get to talk to a lot of people who ask "what happened?" and I tell them and become friends. I am sure that many adventures await, and that I have a lot lot more to look forward to this summer, and early fall. Until next time, help someone out, say thanks to a stranger, and smile. It goes a LONG ways!

Quizzes, Tests, Stress, and FUN!

What a week! I can't believe all the things that happened. First I guess I will start with the beginning. Monday was a hectic day. I didn't do much, I was feeling slightly handicapped, but I ended up going out to the farm and planting some more corn. I did that Saturday as well. Farming+Tractors+Guns+Horses+Motor bikes= my new addictions! Well Tuesday proved to be a miserable day. I had realized much to late that after working all day homework was to be done. I spent well into the AM working on what I thought was all my assignments..... I was wrong! Tuesday came and I had missed a quiz in Economics, I was quite upset about that. Tuesday was just a long day in general. We had a soccer game... GOT our Killin Em Softly shirts and that was sweet! I found any excuse I could to procrastinate my homework as much as I could and found myself up again, really late doing things that could have easily been accomplished earlier that day. I got up for class Wednesday and was beat. I don't want to encourage this, but if you have an injury, and show up to a 7:45 class and talk to your professors they usually let you go home and take of things.... I went home to sleep, but no one needs to know that! I had my MRI that morning, and that was a painful experience. That is the last time I let a middle aged balding Asian man touch my leg. He clamped me into this harness and shoved a block in to keep my knee straight.... Thank Goodness for the lousy elevator music playing in my earphones, yet every so often, just as I would forget how much it was hurting to have my knee straight, I would hear him come through the phones and say, "this scan will take about 2 minutes..." or "this one will be about 30 seconds..." So much for sleeping to block pain receptors.... after that was all said and done how about the old fat guy in the parking lot who is supposed to shuttle everyone from their cars to the front doors in his souped up golf cart... He sat there and watched me hobble and limp to my car.... HOW RUDE!!! I was not a happy camper that day, and I still haven't hear back from them with the results... its been nearly a week. Canada might have slow health care, but at least they are gentle! Wow, ok... calm down J, just relax.... I have to talk myself through things like that sometimes~.... Planted more corn Wednesday, but if anyone asks it was Tyson. My drill stopped spitting down seed on the middle disc and I am not sure at what point that happened, but a chain fell off, and the middle row didn't get planted for a certain section of the field.... HMMMM but don't tell... I don't want to get in trouble! haha, we fixed the ditches, and ran home for dinner and on to the end of the week. I realized that I had 2 exams that I had yet to open a book for. I was still finding myself ignoring my homework, and I took a hit.... B and C on the exams... hopefully there is a little mercy with the one, and we get to have a curve... but I doubt it. I had a study party... well we tried... Matt planned his weekend, we laughed, got Horkley's and pretty much did nothing... Friday I woke up, studied, wrote out every terms definition for 340 pages, and went to take the test.... not great.. but I am happy I passed.... I watched some world cup, went to work and fixed some stuff, cleaned the shop... and we had a HUGE bonfire Friday night! It was great, I was a human blanket to people, and we roasted some starburst.... I thought Curtis Tucker was going to die again as he climbed to the top of our 10x10x10 pile of wood to pour diesel fuel on it and ignite it... there was someone underneath of him... not sure why... lighting the same fire... not smart... but hey, thats life!~ We partied it up that night, and I don't remember when I got to bed, around 3... but we got up and went fishing at 7 and what an adventure that was. Not a bite... I think the fish knew that it was free fish day and we didn't have any luck. I pulled out alot of stuck hooks, and fixed a few lines and supplied the car and spitz for the adventure so I can't complain. Went to the farm for the remainder of the day, and just chilled, dug in a culvert with Tyson, pulled out my car stereo that I now have to put back in... and then realized that I was late for my date! Guitars unplugged.... shoot... ran home.. coasted into the tesoro on fumes cuz my fuel level was beyond empty... and I got ready and was only a few minutes late.. The show was great, we cooked pancakes and had whip cream and strawberries after and just chilled. Last minute decisions always end up being the most fun I realized, as at 12 midnight be started packing the car and Estaban, Shayne, Alex and I crammed into my car, and headed to Utah. We left Rexburg at 1 AM, got to Shwendiman's at 4:45, slept til church, enjoyed a wonderful homecoming, reunited with a friend, and enjoyed the company of many of my old mission friends and then headed back to Rexburg. I think my friends will eventually kill me... but who knows... I love em all anyways! I love spontaneity! It was great fun... highlights of the trip.... not dying... everyone sleeping but me... playing the singing game where you have to sing the next line of a song.. i think its called singing bee.. and just chilling with some of the coolest people I know! Good times!~

2 Semester Highlights so far!

This semester was turning out to be a lot more challenging than the first. I was able to maintain a 4.0 GPA during my first semester, which also gave me the opportunity for BYU I to pay for my tuition! I had to get into classes, and because of the system here I had a very difficult time getting anything that I wanted or needed. Online classes, and a few other not so exciting classes filled my schedule at first, all the while the pressures of keeping my grades high lingered in the balance. I need to have my tuition paid for so I don't have to go home to Canada. My classes became a challenge, and all my friends that I had met seemed to be equally busy. Our relationships began to fade and I slowly found myself isolating myself from the world. It was not a bad thing at all, I found great things to do: watching 3 seasons of 24, 3 seasons of One Tree Hill, finishing Glee, finishing OTH Season 7, finishing House Season 6, catching up on Friday Night Lights, and watching movies with Gage, until that wasn't enough and I started him on One Tree Hill. Between my TV shows, sleep, and music (learning the piano even more, and playing guitar) I was doing just fine! Things began to look bad to my roommates though, either that or they have always just pitied me, probably more of the 2nd, and Austin started to take me places. We started working out on an every other day basis, and I loved getting back active. We would hit up worlds, come back and do ab ripper x and then have our protein. Over the next several weeks we became great friends again, partly because of our time spent together, and partly because he seemed to sleep on my floor for nearly 3 weeks straight because he didn't want to clean off his bed. It was just like old times when we were missionaries. I planned my next great adventure- going to Orlando for his wedding. Kenzie had a small part to play in that as I sat through her trying on wedding dresses on our trip to Salt Lake. It was either that bonding, or the bonding at Tucano's as they told me to stop eating every piece of meat that was brought by, but how could I... I had paid 20 dollars, and for pete's sake I was going to get my money's worth. I couldn't wait to get through the first half of the semester, for multiple reasons, it was a-half over, b-it would get warmer, c-it would be soccer season. I had secretly been hoping for the longest time that we would get a better record than our intramural basketball team who unfortunately went 0-9 in our season. We started with a 2-0 record so far, but I took a few terrible spills after scoring my first goal and here I sit, typing my life story to a webpage who has no feelings because I can't play. I tore my MCL and damaged my meniscus in my left knee. No fun. Classes are going well and I felt the desire over the past few weeks to meet people. I went to Green Canyon with a new group of friends and had a blast! I have now met a few different groups that with time I could find myself opening up to, and perhaps actually enjoying! One other group that is just amazing is our FHE group! We love them to death. I never thought I would enjoy it, heck, last semester I made up every excuse in the book not to go... mostly just the fact that it was time to prepare for planting on the farm, and that took a lot of hours. I have learned a lot about farming this year as well. We did vaccinations a few times on 800 cows, calving season is all but gone past us now, and I have learned to plough and prepare a field for planting, how to plant, and even am learning how to repair the ditches so we can irrigate. Its been an adventure in and of it self going to work with one of my best friends. Tyson, my cousin's husband has been so great. He teaches me many things, like how to tear a radiator out of a semi so we can fix it. I am learning to drive almost anything, and to even fix things now. Its a blast. I am glad I have family here in Rexburg, my cousin and her husband ROCK! Mandi, first off, is the most amazing cook ever, and I will say that til I am married so I don't bite the very hand that feeds me, and Tyson is just one of the funniest people I know.

Things noteworthy of mention of the past few months: first back flip snowboarding (should have been attached in the last section, new friends, new adventures, warm weather, still getting good grades, still not dating (which is fine with me), still watching my drama as often as I can, and still trying to have adventures. We eat out often, Big Jud's, Applebee's, Taco Time, Craigo's at least 2 or 3 times a month with Gage. Going home to Canada 2 times, and tearing my MCL. My brothers amazing starring lead in Raymond Junior High's Beauty and the Beast... and finally getting a new car. Things are great, life is meant to be lived and the newest trend among my blogs will be to close with a line from my favorite song of the week/month....

*todayisthefirstdayofmylife,ithinkiwasblindbeforeimetyou....rememberthetimeyoudroveallnightjusttomeetmeinthmorning*e

Random Events

Where to start, I could take this way back, and just write all the small random events that have begun to shape the person that I am, but lets start with college for now. I enrolled in college while serving in Salt Lake City South Utah. I was positive at first that I was going to be going to Provo to BYU and yet I somehow (personally I still am puzzled) ended up at BYU Idaho where this particular segment of randomness occurred. I went to Canada on November 5th and re united with my family after 2 very short years apart. Tears flowed from my eyes like a raging waterfall as I sobbed to my dad and told him I wanted to go back. I was so petrified to make yet another life altering change and I couldn't contain my emotions. After some chinese food that I didn't eat, and my family relentlessly asking questions and me telling stories I was released from my 2 year calling. I had learned to love the people of Salt Lake City; it being challenging at first. I poured my heart and soul into my work, and was blessed as a result. The next few days were surely going to be long I thought as I sat there, shocked and in awe. My family all ate their cheesecake and we drove the rather unfamiliar roads home. Everything had been turned upside down. No more freeways, no more miles per hour signs, everything was smaller, slower, and less crowded. I called my old boss, and started working the 2nd day home. The first day home I spent unpacking and settling my life due to an uncontrollable urge to be organized (OCD perhaps). Work was great, it kept me occupied and it wore me out. Concrete is a job I think every young man should have some experience in. Coming home exhausted, and literally being able to fall asleep in mid chew of dinner is such a great feeling. I often found myself driving around listening to my old favorite songs and thinking about all the things that were ahead of me. A curious romantic potential arose and fell giving my poor exhausted heart its fare share of wear and tear. I just had to wait a few more weeks and I could find my way back. A visit back to SLC over Thanksgiving proved to be what the doctor ordered, until I ran out of gas 40 miles from home and had no way to get there. We slept in a cold car until a father of a friend rescued us and brought a gas can. I switched jobs to make a bit more money, and a week before Christmas got in my first car wreck. I couldn't believe it. It was the most horrible day already, we had built 15 sections of cedar fence, and I was just not wanting to be out in the -10 degree weather anymore. We were finished and on our way home when the wife of a cop slid through her intersection and hit me on the front drivers side. My car was written off, and my dad had to pack my sister and I in the car, and be apart from his wife for the first time in 22 years over New Years to drop us of at our colleges. I was excited to be gone from home again. I had planned, and somehow it all came together, to be roommates with my old mission friends. We all had so much fun those first few weeks... meeting people and just talking to everyone (still habitual from the mission I guess). Classes started and we all began to buckle down. I made a few great friends in the first few weeks, and again had a small heart break. With it, went my friends for a while, but this is where the adventures began. Clayton Williams, my big red head comedian friend invited me go with him home for spring break. I of course jumped at the opportunity because my family was going to be in Hawaii without me during that time. We flew into LA and I was like a small child as he saw all the gifts Christmas morning. "Palm trees! Can we pull over here and take a picture!?" "I have three in my backyard Rex...." said Clayton in response to my perhaps overly excited request. That week proved to be amazing. We partied it up Saturday, and I found myself sitting out at the pool in the sun as often as the others were napping. Sunday we toured LA and it was great, we saw the temple and the normal Hollywood stuff. Monday was another adventure of itself. We all went to 6 flags and heard "have a 6 flags day." It started off that way, we went on any ride we wanted, without a line. That was true the whole day, but Jordan put a damper on it for 2 of the gang. Jordan's phone fell out of his pocket on a ride, and he was mad. Ryan and JD went over a fence looking, and pretty soon there was security everywhere looking for them because of the obvious danger of being hit by a roller coaster. They were escorted out of the park and we had to just send them text messages to sooth the pain. Tuesday we saw Dr. Phil in his finest, and Wednesday we dropped half our gang off at the airport. The other highlights of the trip: bonfire and guitar on the beach til 2 AM, horseback riding in the mountains of Cali, seeing dolphins swimming the waves, body surfing, soccer on the beach, 3rd street promenade, fish and chips on the pier, the BMW on the free way, the street dancers, in and out, of course getting lost during fugitive, sailing a real boat in the ocean, and finally the awesome people we met as we saw the world our friends grew up in. The next semester was sure to bring about its fair share of challenges and fun times, but I had no idea what I was in for!