a walk through my brain

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

So I think I might have discovered one of the most fun and frustrating things to do in the whole world. Picture in your mind the big city, (I know that's hard for you Lubbock kids) say Dallas for example. Everyone knows that traffic can be a nightmare. Now picture having someone follow you, that's never fun in traffic. Now think of 3 cars following you. That never works. So now take two of the drivers and make sure that they are international students who have driven a total of about 3,000 miles in their whole life, and never in the big city before. Let me tell you guys it was really exciting, I have to say thanks to God for giving us the intellect to invent cell phones. I think my two highlights were A. seeing people behind you getting the bird and B. losing cars because they traveled the wrong direction down a one way street.
Many don't know this but most international students are deathly afraid of dogs. You see in most places in the world they are kept for protection not for companionship. So another highlight of the trip was seeing an Indian friend of mine just about jump on my back when someone can around the corner walking their wiener dog, It was hard not to start laughing. I most enjoyed watching the peoples faces when they said ohh... hes ok... he doesnt bite.
Finally in a farewell note my good friend Eric (Huang) got a job in Atlanta and will leave at the end of this month. I am truly sad.

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Woah its a new post. All bets are off, those who were betting against me ever posting again have now lost. So its been a totally crazy summer. I spent 5 weeks in countries that that don't start with the word United. My whole summer was however spent in countries whose names end in the letter a. That's deep I know.  Tomorrow I am taking off with some international students to Dallas to go to a Texas Rangers game! I am so pumped about 6 dollar hotdogs. mmm yum. Today's question is this, stadium nachos - with or without peppers? Here is something you should know, you can actually buy that yellow orange  goo substance that they call cheese at Sams club. The greatest part about it is that the slogan for that particular brand is "the profit maker" There is no hiding the fact that it is cheap trash that you are clogging your heart with and buying for 4.75 a serving. 

So here is the way I have decided to pay for all of my future trips to China. I am going to become a DVD smuggler. We bought 30 DVD's for a total of about 50 bucks. So if I sold them all  for 10 bucks each that means that I would make 250 dollars profit. Which means next time I will have to buy 240 DVD's and my trip is paid for. Do I have any takers? If not there is always e-bay. Well till next month, remember that I will always love you.  

Monday, June 21, 2004

OK so I kinda really stink at this Blog game. It turns out that I have been much busier than I ever expected this summer. Tomorrow I leave for China for 3 weeks. Pray for our group going, it will be a good time, Jordan and I also get to spend 2 days in Hong Kong by ourselves on the way home, so thats going to be a really nice anniversary gift. But its the day before we leave so whenever your in charge its the high stress time. I cant wait for the 42 continuous hours that will be spent in airplanes and airports.

Thought of the day- it really sucks that seedless watermelon still have seeds. They are just smaller. Shouldnt they be called less seeds watermelon or something? What are your thoughts?

One last thought on Canada, I was up really late one night and this infomercial came on for extramarital affairs. Their slogans were "when its not if but when" and "for when monogamy becomes monotony." Woa, I couldnt believe it. I was like man there should be a banner on the bottom this companies website that said "making sin profitable since 1998."

OK I did my obligatory post before Im outta here. Peace in the middle east. (and hopefully the far east for the next three weeks)

Saturday, May 22, 2004

So sorry that its been so long I am up in the great white north. First I would like to thank my site manager Jordan for my excellent new skin. (she is the coolest)
I don't actually leave Yellowknife for another day and a half but I figure its about time for me to tell yall what's been going down on my trip.
To start with the travel up here took from 5am till 11pm. Its crazy far away. That is certainly the longest I have ever flown without seeing an ocean. So I know that I talked about planes a couple of posts ago but here is one last comment, American airlines (the category not the company) suck. You sit there on the plane for like 5 hours, You paid like 700 bucks for the flight and when you get something to drink they don't even give you the entire can of coke. Look man I would rather pay 700 dollars and fifteen cents for my ticket to get an entire can. What's so hard about that?
So Canada is a bit different. It seems that about 80 percent of all people under the age of 30 here are into punk music. They are so into punk that there is actually different categories of punk here. I have seen a crazy amount of lip piercings and dyed hair. Now when I see a kid with no metal on their face, color in their hair or ink on their skin, I can help but think, yeah stick to the man.
So far it snowed 3 different days, its currently 10 degrees and people are ice fishing. It seems that nobody told them that spring is about over. The cool thing is that the sun goes down at about 12:30 at night and comes up at 3am. Even then its not fully dark, which really makes it mad hard to go to sleep at night.
The strangest part about "life in the knife" is that you don't get enough vitamin E in the winter because the sun never comes out. So as a result chicks here tend to have facial hair. I am not kidding I saw this janitor at the airport with a Tom Selick mustache. It was so impressive I wanted to drop my bags and start clapping, but then thought the better of it.
One cool thing about Canada is that they all have these monster craving for all things sweet. The Dr Pepper (and every other drink) is a good bit sweeter than the ones at home. Like the sun there is a down side to this, People talk about obesity in America, Well Canada is certainly hurting in this category as well.
Another cool thing about Canada is that High school is like College, You only have to go when you want to. We went fishing one day and my sister in-laws boyfriend was like cool can I come. (we had to drive four hours south so we could get to some unfrozen water) I was like what about school, he was like I just wont go. Its no big deal here you can go whenever you want to and its no big deal. Once again the problem is, not to many folks graduate high school as you can imagine.
I have also learned new ways to say all sorts of stuff, none of which would really be funny posting on the web of course. It is pretty fun to say eh, and right on right on whenever someone says something cool.
Anyway I am sure I will still post more about my trip but Its easier for me to break it up. Tell you more later.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

its been awhile

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Hey kids, so funny thing happened tonight. I am sitting here working at about 11:30, bored since everyone is studying, So I decided to walk next door to the Coffee Haus and invite everyone over to the 1407 for a chips and salsa break at midnight. I didn't know if anyone would come, but at midnight 13 people just got up from their tables and came over here for a little break. It was really funny to have the Coffee Haus just randomly empty out for about 15 minutes and then have everyone start coming back in one by one.
Speaking of Mexican food, I have been thinking a lot about Taco Villa (pronounced vil-uh) So that has to be the worst Mexican restaurant that has ever opened up a second store. They have this special now where you get 6 bean and cheese burritos for $3.99. I have had some bad experiences at Taco V. before but I was like what the heck for at 6 for 3.99 I would probably give Alpo Burritos a shot. The result is that they had to have been the worst tasting "beans" ever. A friend of mine happens to be an insider in this industry and he told me that at Taco Bell the beans come to the store dehydrated as a powder, you just add water. I think that no doubt the Villa does the same, but somewhere along the line they thought they could save some bucks by telling 16 year old Steve "hey you just keep adding water in that bucket till I tell you to stop." Maybe they thought shoot it takes someone 15 minutes to drive home, by then these will dry out a bit and maybe that sounded like a good idea to upper management but come on guys the 20 pound bag of beans at Walmart is like 2 dollars. Do us a favor and stop contributing to our ever depleting Lubbock water supply. Ok so if you cant tell I didnt enjoy my burritos.
Here is my second problem, I thought I could chase my burritos with an always filling Chalupa. I see this item on the menu and my mind races the thick taco like item that one always sees on the Taco Bell commercials. mmm... This will be soo good. But what comes out is what I have seen everywhere called a flauta. Its basically a flat oversized chip with beans and lettuce. There needs to be some regulatory agency that helps control things like this. When a taco chain based out of Delaware comes to make a store in Texas, someone needs to be honest with them and be like dude, I know you are from Delaware but uhh that's not a Chalupa.
Problem Three tomatoes that are sliced instead of chopped, two big round slices of tomato on my taco....come on guys this is not a burger, that's why I came here, for tacos not burgers.
Problem Four cheese fries. Don't get me wrong, I just like anyone else in my weight class, we loves us some good cheese fries....just not with my enchiladas.
Those Yanks can take their tacos back to where they came from for all that I care. So in the end I am done with Taco Villa for now. Adios Vil-uh

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

So today was the last International lunch of the semester. That means that I have now completed an entire year of international lunches, that's crazy. Unfortunately one year later the problem is still the same. Soo many internationals, soo few Americanos who will invest in their lives. But I am encouraged I look forward to this summer and all the students who have mentioned an interest in studying the bible. I really look forward to things taking off this year. I feel that I fail so miserably at praying for my lost friends and in particular praying that more people can begin to take an interest in their lives and help them to see the fullness of Christ.
Todays Champion - the Navigators, about 15 of those guys showed up today to help me bring the building to a cleaner than new condition. Its was really great. I just look around and really enjoy the way the place looks at this exact moment knowing that tomorrows Cinco De Mayo party is going to do some damage. But I sit now and rejoice.
Tomorrows Champion - Mexico, I just want to say hey guys good job beating the French, I would celebrate that too.