albaninasia

For those of you who haven't heard, I started a new blog entitled bangkoscow. It will be my sole blog while I travel through Asia and Europe. Please visit!

Iceland - Day 3 (Golden Circle)

All 27, minus one late-comer.


Thingvellir - Ancient Viking parliament site.


Gulfoss



Gulfoss





My reward for patiently standing at attention with camera in hand.

Iceland - Day 1 & 2

The Blue Lagoon: enough to make you feel like a super-hero. Blue Lagoon photos were stolen from J. Payne. For more pics from her angle, click here.

Victims of the red-eye special.

Thor, our steadfast Icelandic driver.

Lutheran church, Reykjavik.




Reykjavik.







Aurora Borealis (The Northern Lights).

Daniel, mid kickflip.

Scandinavia

Many of you may know I am currently in Scandinavia. As I reread the previous sentence, I'm realizing that "many of you" makes it sound like a significant number of people will be reading this. Who am I kidding? When was the last post, October? Regardless, this is just a heads up. Once I get back into HVA's groove, pictures and stories should be appearing from what has been a hectic but rewarding tour of Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

Crazy Hair/Clash Day 2008

I borrowed the yearbook camera on Crazy Hair/Clash Day a week or so ago. Here are a few resulting pictures. Stephen Herr, Bible; Alban Howe, Math.

Awmi and Korrin

Airtime

Ben and Me

Mr. Herr

Decoration, Or, How to Get Students to Stare at the Ceiling in Silence for Forty Minutes.

I'm sitting in my now clean office (with my bonsai), looking out into the classroom. I've just reconstructed the paper lanterns that Phil and I had in our dorm room and hung them up for my Algebra II students to enjoy. It looks pretty sweet I must admit. Since there are five tables, and I have five lanterns, each table has a lantern directly above it. Two dark green and white, one light blue and gray, one lime green, and one yellow and light blue (the last one looks like a nursery accessory).

I think I may have the students recreate the laterns, only in a larger or smaller size. It would be very interesting to use proportions to create the perfect piece for a 36" or 3" diameter lantern.

Now to grading I go. Hurray (can you sense my excitement?).

New

Don't complain. It's only been half a year since I last posted. Nothing major has happened in my life since that point. Save a hectic school-year finish including several Much Ado About Nothing performances, a superb sailing summer at MiVoden, and an unexpected switch from student to teacher. Nothing major.

I like blogging, but I'm lazy, and prefer putting pictures up. The absence of a camera is forcing me to do otherwise.

Yes, the rumors are true. I ditched Walla Walla for a year to teach Algebra II and Computers at Highland View Academy (and an SAT prep class for Koreans/Taiwanese). It's exhausting, but I love it. Some of my students were here when I graduated. It's crazy.

Other news: Both Arsenal and the HVA soccer team are doing famously. HVA has played 7 games and won 5 of them. They tied to SVA and lost to TA (due in part to shoddy refereeing). Arsenal remain undeafeated. I love to give updates on the games to my students. Most of them don't care, but I figure they'll at least be curious by the end of the year. When they tease me by saying "Arsenal Sucks!" I simply reply "Hey, I just think the US is remiss in their negligence of the most beautiful game in the world. I'm supporting real football through Arsenal. If you don't like them, support the game through some other team!"

As I finish this short update, I ask myself, "How many consistent updates will it take before people start checking this dormant page again?"

PS Did you notice all my it'ses are correct? Thanks, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves."

Trippin

Yesterday, we visited Chan Chan, Trujillo´s answer to Machu Picchu, made completely out of adobe. It looked a little lame from far away, but the actual park was pretty impressive. There was an innumerable amount of tall mud-brick walls with decorations carved into their bases. Most of the decorations were either pelicans or fish, but they also had walls that were built to looks like nets. It´s hard to explain, so check out Ansley´s blog for pictures.

At 1:45 we left Trujillo for Chiclayo, 3 hours to the north. We were somewhat dismayed to learn that Frede would be coming with us (bless her paranoid peruvian heart), but in the end it turned out to be a blessing. In Chiclayo we hoped to catch a 12 hour bus to Chachapoyas. As we entered a taxi in Chiclayo, Frede pulled her classic "They´re missionaries from the Adventist church with little money! Lower the price!" Although this was annoying and embarrasing to us, it paid off this time, as the taxi driver was an adventist. For the next 15 minutes Frede and the driver gabbed about mutual friends, current pastors, and other various topics related to the church, and of course Frede threw in suggestions about lowering the price every time she could.

Unfortunately, there were no buses to Chachapoyas, so we caught a bus to Pedro Ruíz, 60 KM from our destination. We were relieved to be on our own again, but were not excited about the prospects of more violent movies. All the movies they show on the buses here are extremely violent, leaving you with a sickening feeling as you get out of the bus. During the eight hour bus ride, we had competitions to see who could NOT look at the TV. Each glance recieved one point, and the winner was the person with the fewest points. During the first movie, I won, with 4 glances (two of which were of the reflection in the window), Ansley came in second (6 glances), and Aaron lost horribly with 14 glances. John was and is somewhat sick, so he did not participate. The second movie went a little better, probably because we were either sleeping or listening to our iPods the whole time. Aaron and I got two glances, Ansley, zero. You´d be surprised how hard it is not to look when the volume is blaring down your neck. I tried to ignore the sounds of gun shots and punches by listening to The Horse and His Boy (thanks Alan).

After arriving in Pedro Luíz at 2AM, we waited two hours by the side of the road until a taxi finally agreed to take us to Chachapoyas. After about an hour and a half, the driver stopped the car, claiming we had to wait out the rain. After sitting there for an hour listening to our Taxi driver, rightly dubbed Moleface, snore, I got out and asked a Policeman what in the world was going on. He went over and talked to Moleface, and Moleface reluctantly helped us transfer our gear into another Taxi (that already had two people in it). This taxi then carried us the rest of the way to Chachapoyas, where we arrived at about 8AM this morning.