Hello from the windy city!

Hey guys!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post! It sounds like everyone is having great summers, and I am jealous of all of you who have been able to meet up in various places across the country. I am the assistant pool director at a jewish day camp of 850 kids in the suburbs of Chicago, which has been quite an adventure. Not really as exciting as Russia or rural Maine or wherever Aditya is, but we've had lice outbreaks and lots of poop in the pool, so I can kind of relate to Val. The camp is kind of a ridiculous place - the kids have classes like yoga and a DJ comes once a week so they can dance and stuff (it's like a bar mitzvah here every wednesday). Regardless, I like our staff at the pool and working outside everyday and getting tan is pretty sweet...

I finish up work august 8th, and am then planning on visiting celia for a weekend before heading off to australia for 3 weeks. My sister is studying abroad there, so I will be staying with her in Melbourne and traveling around to Perth, Cairns, and Brisbanne. Unfortunately I don't have time to get back to NZ, so I guess I'll have to plan on taking another trip to that part of the world sometime. I start working in a charter school in Chicago September 8, so I'll have a few days when I get back to relax before starting my job - yikes!

I just have to tell you all that one of my friends from high school just got back from Costa Rica, and she went to Puerto Viejo! The travel agent actually suggested that she go there, and I told her she had to visit bread and chocolate. unfortunately she's kind of an idiot and couldn't find the restaurant, but she had a great time regardless.

Hope you're all doing well! Please keep in touch - my email is annabirnberg@gmail. Miss you all lots, and take care!

xoxo Anna

Oh Herro

Right, so first of all, sorry that this is my first blog and I suck at keeping in touch. Now on to the good stuff:

Phase one: I am living in portland for the summer, working as a cook in the kitchen of an airport bar/restaurant, flipping burgers i suppose.  I justified this excellent use of my diploma by claiming that it wasn't as too bad because at least there were waiters and menus and such, (not McDonalds) and I wasn't really beating myself up about it, until today a waitress got food and I said, "want fries with that?".  uh oh.

Phase two: Luckily though, I am abandoning this job on August 6th.  For graduation I asked for a trip to New Orleans to do volunteer work and hang out in the French quarter, so my family (both brothers as well) are all headed to New Orleans from the 8th-15th.  Hurray!

Phase 3: Then life strikes hard.  I just got a job, a real one, teaching English at a foreign language school in Shenyang China.  It took a long time to get the position, lots of steps between me and the school, but I got the job, and am getting my visa, and leaving on August 30th for over a year.  The more it sinks in, the more I realize that I need to see all of you now, before I leave.  I know that this will be impossible for most, but for others living nearby, come to portland now, or come to Maryland between the 15th and 30th.  I am going to try to make some road trips during that time as well, hopefully new york and boston and such.

     I am incredibly excited about this, but I am a bit scared to be running away from all of you for so long.  I don't want to be ronery.  Sappy, but true.  I miss you all!

    -Jake

I Own FURNITURE

It's wonderful! I own lots of furniture, and my apartment looks like I'm a real boy now. I went to this place called the Maine Catholic Charities a couple days ago, and I got a couch, table, 4 chairs, and some shelves. It was fantastic. Then some folks found a bed for me finally, so I've been able to sleep on a mattress and box spring for the last couple of nights too. I really like my new home now. I think I'm going to have a grand opening gala to show it off. Of course you're all invited, but I won't feel bad if you decide not to make the drive...

Toast

Little Kids Love WAH!

Kabatz, I have not "parle voused up any francies." Unfortunately, I cannot parle vous a lick of French, so I just smile and try to look pretty. However, a friend is going to show me around tomorrow night, and we'll see what happens.

The real reason I'm posting is to announce to the other COOT leaders that middle schoolers love WAH! I taught it to them, and my voice is now hoarse from playing so many rounds. They also love Hobarn, but I couldn't totally remember all the parts of that... I'd appreciate a reminder. Anyway, it mostly comes down to the fact that the kids I coach think I'm awesome. It's really good for my ego.

I still don't own a bed. It's sort of stupid, but I just haven't managed to locate one. I have been doing a lot of great cooking. Dave, I'm going to type up the recipe for the chick-peas as soon as I figure out exact measurements on stuff. The important things to add to them are sesame oil, worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, cumin, a bit of curry, a little brown sugar if you want, and sesame seeds. Maybe I'll do a recipe of the month or something. That would be fun! I'm also growing basil, oregano, and cilantro in little pots on my porch now. I like it a lot. Scrappy Jr. (the pineapple plant) is hanging in there, and I think the avocado tree will grow branches soon. I'm listening to Richie Spice right now!

The World is a Cycle,
Toasty-Face

The mutha Fockin Big Sky State

Here I am, in geology nerd camp. I have found myself in a bastion of nerdiness that few can appreciate. This place is the "old guard" of old school geology: we hike all day, the stream is FREEZING, we use a piece of technology which involves magnifying glasses and 'blurring your vision", there is one land line for 70 people and no cell phone reception, and we have to be at breakfast by seven.
I am in LOVE WITH IT!

Hilights include:
Seeing the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, Sledding down a slope on a 9,000 ft mountain that Kit, Rachel, Brad and Nina and I hiked (there was a lot of snow!), making maps and meeting a lot of other nut job geologists.

Montana is one of the best places that I have ever been and I hope you are all jealous!

Update from Texas

Big news guys.  Today, on our last day of teaching, three days from the end of summer school, one of my students pooped his pants.

That's right.  Poop.  In his pants.  In the middle of class.  And I was teaching so my co-teacher Phil had to deal with it.

In other news I'm finishing up here and getting ready to drive back to Denver on Saturday.  I'm super excited to be getting back, getting an apartment, and starting real life.  I am so excited, first of all to get the hell out of Texas but also to start setting up my classroom and buy furniture and decorate my apartment and all that.

But none of that is as exciting as the fact that our class contains the only student to soil himself in all of summer school.  

Fat Guys Without Shirts

So apparently in Northern Maine it's really cool for fat guys to do things shirtless. They are the only ones though. I see lots and lots of people every day, and with the exception of the group I coach, only fat guys are shirtless. It's hilarious. They especially like to be shirtless when they are using lawn tractors, which brings me to my next observation.

People love machines here! I live across the street from the cross-country ski trails here, and every morning at least one guy is out using equipment. Sometimes it's a mower, sometimes the mower has a friend in a bobcat. Sometimes there are guys with graders and dump trucks. Sometimes they are pulling stuff around on four-wheelers. Without fail they are doing something when I wake up. I'm beginning to think the lodge here is just an excuse for guys to get away from their wives and use heavy machinery.

In other news, I should get furniture this week. The UPS guy delivered packages to my neighbor and left me a note that said he delivered it to the wrong address...WHAT?!?! I can see the packages in my neighbor's living room, but they aren't home right now.

I survived the Acadian festival (for those of you who don't know, the Acadians were the first French settlers in this part of the continent. They are the reason we couldn't understand anyone in Quebec and their name is suspiciously close to Canadians. I'm going to look into that. I also found out that the Acadians are the reason everyone here has one of the same eight last names). The Acadian Festival is a celebration of two families and there are big parties and a celebration downtown and a lady got thrown through a storefront window by her boyfriend's ex-wife. I thought that was funny. Rock the Valley was last weekend (Refering to the St. John Valley) A bunch of lame cover bands come play concerts and tickets are overpriced.

I went to the drive in movie theater! It was great. Some friends and I caught the double feature of Kung Fu Panda and Zohan. Kung Fu Panda is better. My mom told me that usually you don't go to the drive-in for the movie anyway. I told her I hadn't found anyone to get busy with in the car yet. I did meet a cute girl at the hardware store though. That sounds kinda weird, but I'm pretty sure it's normal here. Anyway, my life shows no signs of normalcy yet. I'll keep you all posted.

Humidity and Bug Bites,
Toast

Siberia

Hello Friends,

I cant believe it has taken me so long to start this blogging thing; I really like it. Although, it took me so long to read all of the original posts that I hadn't read. Anyways, this seems like the perfect way to make sure Toast is still alive up there.

Anyways, I am packing for Russia today. I leave tomorrow and I will (hopefully) get back on or near the 15th of August. It should be quite the experience, I will be rafting down a river (actually its a north flowing river, the Kotuy) that is a tad south of Khatanga, Russia. I really have no idea how long we will be on the river and what the terrain will be like but I am going to study the shit out of these communist rocks. I have also recently found out that there are going to be various professors of MIT and U of Montana on the trip, which makes me think I am definitely going to be the least experienced...oh well. I actually don't really even know what I am going to do in Moscow the first night before we leave for the field. I am supposed to meet this guy named "Roma" in the airport. It has also just occurred to me that I dont know a fucking word of Russian. I studied the alphabet a little bit (33 letters..."why?" I ask myself), but besides that, I am relying completely on other people to shepherd me.

So, even though this is my first entry to the blog and I am excited about it, it may remain my only post for some time, owing to the lack of wireless on my trip. But, I will have a satellite phone with me and it receives messages for FREE! (Text messages can be left on the following webpage: http://messaging.iridium.com/; phone number will be: 8816-3164-7092; don't type hyphens in) I can't reply to them at all, but it would be nice to have a small bit of entertainment when I am trying to sleep and the sun is out all day.

I moved into a New Haven apartment, too. It's fairly nice and I got a bunch of free furniture, so when (or if) I return, all should come and visit (remember, the 'Have has the "best pizza in the world").

Okay, it is time to pack. Have a lovely summer everybody, party at my house at the end of august and remember to plan on a sweet new year's reunion in Colorado again.

Fair Winds,
Taylor

Mad-Town

A lot has happened since my last short post. I now live in the northern-most city/town in the USA (The locals call it northeastern-most which is stupid because it's not eastern-most at all, but apparently it's a corner of the country if you are on a motorcycle). It's called Madawaska (some call it Mad-Town. I'm leaning toward "The Waska").

Almost everyone here is Acadian, and there are only about ten last names in the phone book. There are literally hundreds of people with the last names Cyr, Daigle, Guerette, and a few others. It's really confusing, and my Scottish last name stands out like a scarlet letter. Everyone is very nice to me though. I just get a lot of funny looks when I tell people that I moved here. I guess that really never happens.

Garage sales are one of the favorite pass-times here. I was talking to a girl who said that she knows of some that have been going on for several years. They just keep coming up with more crap to sell. Maybe I'll be able to pick up some cheap furniture. I've already basically cleaned out the Family Dollar and Mardens.

The accents here are also ridiculous: a funny mix of antiquated French and thick Mainer. It's something I hope to be able to duplicate one day. It brings out the twang in me, and the thicker the Acadian accent, the more howdies I blurt out. I sound downright country.

Everything also closes absurdly early here. The post office closed at 3:30 for no apparent reason, and the bank closes at 3:00. I can't figure out how anyone with a full-time job gets anything done around here.

My apartment is pretty rustic. The floors are uneven and the carpets need a serious shampooing. The landlord knocked $200 off my security deposit to clean the place for him when I moved in, and I consequently figured out that a werewolf had been the previous tenant. There were coarse black hairs everywhere. It was pretty gross, but things are looking better now. I only have to deal with the Creepy Room now. I've named it the creepy room because it is really creepy. The ceiling is slanted because of the roof line and its dark and has no windows. When I moved in there was no furniture in the place except for a chair in the Creepy Room. The chair was facing the wall and had either blood from the werewolf or dried fruit juice on it. There was also an oven rack in there. I'm scared of both. Who puts an oven rack in a creepy room? What was it for? When I checked the oven to see if it belonged there, I found two oven racks and a cookie sheet. Who puts a cookie sheet back in the oven after taking the cookies off of it? WEREWOLVES! Anyway, I planted a hydrangea out front today to compensate for the creepy room, and I'm doing better now.

Work consists of exercising a ton and entertaining kids in high school and middle school. I'm leading ski training for at least three different groups of skiers in a few different towns, so my hands are full. Some of the kids are great and some of them suck. I'm also in charge of helping different ski clubs plant vegetable gardens in an effort to save the environment. That seems like it will be fun.

Despite all the ranting I've done, I'm really enjoying myself. My job is fun, and the people I work with are really cool. The town of Madawaska is very endearing and quirky, as are all the towns up here in Aroostook County. I like that. Life has really been a huge adventure this last week, and I've only scratched the surface of it; but I'll spare you the rest. Hope you're all happy and healthy.

Love,
Toast

boogersphere

Hark, comrades!

I just signed on to this thing for the first time -- and I think I like it.

Right now I'm working as an intern for some nonprofit group called rails-to-trails in D.C. Specifically, i'm working on the quarterly magazine they release here, doing some modeling for photos (no joke), and getting paid in many multiples of $0. at least it's fun, though. Otherwise I'm looking for part time work. the only job i've managed to get so far involves delivering big movie studio standups to movie theaters (the ones that show 8ft. indiana joness and batmans) and assembling them. I'm still looking for something that will give me more "transferable skills," but we'll see...

Other than that, life is both kinda quiet and kinda crazy at the same time right now. SO if anyone's passing through the D.C. area, give me a holler, and I'll do the same if i'm passing through any of your regions.

FYI - my new email address is ceichacker@gmail.com.

One love,
Charlie