hola amigos

first of all, i'm sorry i didn't post right away after getting back from mexico. i went home right away and then my computers required some maintenance. i should be up and running now. well, pretty close anyway. i guess bullets would be the popular thing to do here so in no particular order:

• 32 hours down, 30 hours back
• el meatwagon
• still don't know enough spanish to survive a week in madrid
• getting to know everyone on the trip and even meeting new people
• the schicks
• brian's speeches
• being sick and then suddenly not being sick
• nurse nic
• french fries for breakfast
• about 40 fed-ex trucks to 1 ups truck
• young fixing the shower head so that we got a nozzle instead of a mist
• playing basketball with the kids
• the kids think i look like someone on mexican cable television
• dip-n-dots hail storm on the mountain
• rainbow after the hail
• going to church in a hoodie
• still don't know enough spanish to survive a week in madrid
• evening testimonies and devotions
• bill's puzzle piece
• special wednesday supper drink concoction made by jenny and i
• joan leaving us to make wednesday lunch on our own
• missing the play day because i was sick
• josh's dropped ice cream
• catholic guy rubbing the two plastic saints but ignoring the plastic Jesus
• aupps yelling into the whisper thingy
• manzanita
• laying blocks (slow, but accurate!)
• the bad corner that everyone avoided
• pouring concrete into styrofoam walls
• still don't know enough spanish to survive a week in madrid
• josh's heatstroke
• showing rhonda and laura how to skateboard
• MI CORAZON!!!
• kevin's unicorn song
• bob taking brett's dragon kick
• josh's thinking rap
• clogging bob
• mariani taking a bamboo to the face
• photo shoot on the bus
• the early morning meteorite
• driving the sunrise shift both ways
• mdx to keep me awake
• aupps and michael, my awesome co-pilots
• still don't know enough spanish to survive a week in madrid
• the old guy teaching gab how to polka
• breaking into hotel rooms with a credit card
• how i still couldn't sleep on the makeshift van beds
• naz and blanca
• the pineapple preacher
• "it's a mirage, you idiot!"

man, this got long. i guess this really was a great trip. it gets better every time i think about it. as far as i know, jenny is the only other trip member with a blog so i guess this is mostly so those who weren't on the trip know how it went.

mexican basketball

i'm a little sad that i'm going to be in mexico or in transit to/from during most of the ncaa college basketball tournament. but going to mexico is a much better cause so i'm not going to skip. plus i already paid nic.

last weekend was great, watching the syracuse orangemen win three improbable victories to take the big east championship. oh yeah, caleb was here too watching alongside me. thursday thru saturday were three great days of college basketball conference tournaments. and today begins the ncaa tournament aka the big dance. i entered into three pools on facebook and so far (after only three games) i'm at the top of all three. after work today, i plan to spend the evening: watching basketball, packing for mexico, and possibly eating.

enough about college basketball, now on to magdalena, mexico. it's going to be great. i've never actually been to mexico the closest being tucson on family vacation '96. plus, i get to go with a fantastic group from u of i/parkland and it promises to be a great time. i'm a little nervous about speaking spanish since i don't even speak enough to survive a week in madrid. i'll just resort to french and get a lot of weird looks. the isu group is there right now so i hope they're not wrecking the place for us to fix up. nah, i'm sure they're having a great time and getting a lot accomplished.

anyhoo, i'll be offline for a week or so. (fri thru sat) hope everyone else has a great time in illinois!

feral children

last week i stumbled upon a link on britni's blog that led me to here. and i was pretty bored at work so i read a lot of it. it's all really fascinating to me. i even read the first ten pages of doctor singh's journal about kamala and amala (found in 1920). it's amazing that even though kamala lived for 9 years after she was "liberated" she was never really able to talk. neither of them could walk upright and both preferred uncooked meat over cooked meat. very intriguing stuff. yeah, i don't really know much about it so there's not much to talk about here, but i recommend you go to the link above and read some stories.

otherwise, i'm sick. i have a cold. it's very annoying. i left work early yesterday and i didn't go today and i may not go tomorrow. i really need the hours though, so i won't skip all week. i just need to rest a few days to get better. i'm a little worried that i'm going to get a bunch of other people sick too and i don't want to do that. anyhoo, hope you're all having great weeks!