south dakota

howdy. right now alex, nick, and I are chillin at our campsite in wall, south dakota. here is an update since the last blog: in arches national park, alex and i got up little bit before 7am, had breakfast, then took a tour of the park. in order to see some of the arches you had to walk, so we did at one point a 2.5hr hike to see some of them. after arches, we drove a long time (and got stuck in traffic and got in a rain storm in colorado) and picked up nick about a half hour after his flight got in. we couldn't find any campsites in denver, so we decided to continue driving on up north (to see mount rushmore in South Dakota). we ended up not being able to find one, so we pulled over at a rest stop somewhere in wyoming and we slept in the van. not the most comfortable but it got the job done.

since we were in a van and surrounded by semi's, we ended up hittin the road about 6:30am. so after driving for quite awhile this morning we saw the crazy horse monument (cost $27 to get in, so we took a picture from a distance), mount rushmore, some lakes, then booked it east across south dakota cause we are seeing a buddy of mine from my china trip tomorrow in sioux falls. oh yeah, on the way to our campsite here in wall, we stopped at wall drug. we started seeing signs for this place about 30-45minutes before we got there, and it was pretty nuts.

i tried to upload photos. but it was taking too long. sorry.

CA-Arizona-Utah-and tomorrow Colorado

so. after kicking starting our trip to the allens, we had a long long drive on 6th to the grand canyon (close to 8hrs i believe). once we got to the park it said one of the campgrounds was full, but the one 25 miles down the road was open. after getting to that campground, we found out that one was full. but a ranger said if we got down the road another 5-8 miles, we'll start seeing some dirt roads and to just pull off there and camp for the night. so that's what we did. that morning we checked out the grand canyon for awhile, then drove on to Utah (another long trip) to Zion National Park. After driving around zion for a little bit and eating some pb and j for lunch, we left for Bryce canyon national park, where we camped for the night and checked out some of the view points.

this morning (the 8th), alex and I did about a 5 mile hike throughout one of the canyons in bryce and we did it in about 1hr 40 minutes (it was a canyon, so lots of ups and downs). we left bryce about 11 (after sneaking into a nearby hotel to use their showers for their pool) and got to moab, Utah around 4ish. about 5 miles down the road is arches national park, which we are going to check out tomorrow morning, followed by a 300 mile drive to pick up nick at the airport in denver, colorado.

i don't have any photos uploaded to my computer yet, so no dice on uploading them to this blog. alex and i are at a cheapo campsite in moab, and randomly get wireless internet, so that is how i am posting it. it is sprinkling right now, which is our 3rd night in a row with some sort of rain. seems a storm is following us on our roadtrip, there was some thunder and lightning earlier but we are hoping that dies down. there is also a relay for life deal going on about 100 yards from us, which means blaring music and lights, which we are also hoping will stop soon. well, its a little past 9pm, which means it is getting close to bedtime (i know, its early, but we are camping, meaning, no lights, and we are getting up before 7am tomorrow to get an early start on arches). ok, bye.

USA! USA! USA!

I am back in the states, and it is good. i flew in on the 31st (london to detroit to LAX to San Jose) but didn't make it to san jose until about 12:30am. unfortunately, i still don't have my luggage.

after the hague, we went to paris and then london. currently i am at my friends, the allens, in ventura, but once i am finally settled down (which will be beginning of september) i will put some photos up of those cities and explain what I did while i was there.

As of yesterday, Alex and I started our summer roadtrip from CA to PA. Nick is meeting up with us on the 9th in Denver after he gets back from his missions trip in Costa Rica, then I am dropping them off at the airport in Philly on the 20th. Alex and I are at the Allens last night and this morning, but we've got a long drive ahead of us today as we are off to see the grand canyon. i'm not really sure what our internet access will be like but i'll try and post updates when i can. alright, later.

clogs, windmills, and rain

musuem with Rembrandt

amsterdam

boat crusie in amsterdam. lots of house boats
the boardwalk in the hague. and where i went swimming
why do they make the spoons so small?
urinals. am i using it for real? that is the question
at the pottery place
me and ben

getting my hair played with by women = awesome


me and tanner lookin tough
flower seller
clog place
cheese factory
fishing village
windmills. never knew this but they help with pumping the water out so the netherlands, which 60% of it is below sea level, doesn't get flooded all the time.

the last two days have been pretty touristy, but fun. yesterday we spent the day in amsterdam, and don't worry it was in the good part of town. we went to the Rijksmuseum, which is known for its Rembrandt paintings. afterthat we went to a diamond place, a pottery place (don't remember what it is called but it is known for its blue pottery), took a boat cruise down the canals, and also went to Anne Franks house. Last night (and the night before), I, along with about 5-6 other people, took a 25 min. walk down to the coast of the north sea and took a swim. water was actually pretty nice and it has been a ton of fun.

today we left nice and early (7am) and went to the flower auction, which is housed in a building that covers over 250 football fields. after that we went to a clog making place, a cheese making place, saw a bunch of windmills, went to a fishing village in northern holland and ate some more haring (still gross) and spent the rest of the evening walking around near our hotel, eating dinner, and studyin up for class tomorrow. tomorrow we have our last corporate visit with Shell and their strategic planning branch, a few classes, then off to paris on wednesday.

the netherlands

utrecht (i think this is how you spell it)



raw haring with onions. quite the delicacy here in holland

eating at a pancake house for dinner
in utrecht
dinner in utrecht with marco, denny, and jan
playin soccer, i mean futbol. i had one of me playing but for some reason it wouldn't upload. but no worries, i'm awful at soccer.
random deer park here in oistervijk. i have no idea how they get these deer to stay inside the fence

in the fire station with our dutch friends




as you can probably tell, this uniform was way to small for me.
jan learning how to use chopsticks

US vs the Netherlands. as you can tell, we were gettin pretty bored waiting for our train

denny, jan, myself, and marco. overall a great day.

so i recently realized that I haven't updated this blog in quite some time. the last three weeks we have been in a conference center in oistervijk. during this time we have had class everyday (monday thru saturday) from 8:45 am to 12:15pm. the classes here, international trade and finance and global marketing, have been pretty interesting but at the same time, i'm glad they are over. in the course of these past three weeks, i have had 4 tests, one 6 page paper, a multitude of small assignments and article summaries, and a 30 minute presentation. but don't worry, it hasn't been all work and no play here. most days a group of us will get a ultimate frisbee game or soccer game going, which has been a great way to relieve stress and get some excercise in. another cool thing is we all have bikes here, which is great cause we have been able to tour around towna and see some of the neighboring town. the weather here is kinda funky. most days it has rained for part of the day, then been sunny and nice, but the last 3-4 days have been overcast and rainy. but due to the fact we have had two finals in the last two days, we've been quite busy studying and haven't been too distracted to go out side.

i think i mentioned this in a blog post before this trip, but in january, myself and my roommate and buddy, Denny, hosted a dutch student, Jan. Last week, our group visited his university in Ede, had a tour of the school along with some presentations, and then we went to a nearby town, Utrecht, for a city tour and dinner. what was sweet about all this is Jan was there and we were able to catch up with him and several other dutch students we had met. then this past tuesday, Jan and Marco met up with denny and I for the afternoon and evening. we hopped on multiple trains until we reached were jan works, which is at a firestation. after a quick tour of the station, we proceded to put on the uniforms and pose in front of the firetrucks (see photos above). after that we had chinese food and headed back to oistervijk. i think we were together from 1:30pm to 10:30pm and i'd say we spent about 6 of those hours on a train or in a train station. but it was cool to see the majority of western and southern holland in that time period and we had lots of time to catch up and stuff.

tomorrow we head out to the hague for a few days and amsterdam for one. after that paris for a few days (where we will finish up our final class days) and london for several days (where we will have our last final!!) then home on the 31st.

photos

i'm in geneva, switzerland right now and just finished my first class (of 4) this morning. geneva really isn't that cool, so if your planning on coming to switzerland, bring lots of money (8 dollars for a frapp at starbucks) and don't come to geneva. we are driving all day tomorrow to koblenz, germany, then taking a rhine river cruise, then driving to the netherlands where we are going to be for the next three weeks. MOM: yesterday we went to mt. blanc and chamonix in france. absolutely amazing. so beautiful. we took a trolley-tram thingy all the way to the top. so so cool.

I have a couple albums on facebook, here are the links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044618&l=7871e&id=55303386

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043454&l=f7e36&id=55303386

the joy of switzerland

denny, yomi, and john walking through lucerne

looking out over the lake in lucerne, switzerland. alyssa, myself, sara, and denny (all from messiah).
denny jumping over me
this is what happens when you study too long. denny and I had our hair done by the two girls in our group project. went to visit our program director and decided to take a photo with us.
we just finished a group project in our global business strategy class were we had to come up with a strategy of bringing a car into china. me, with denny and two girls, did our project on the smart car (which is pictured). 13pg paper and 10 min presentation.



denny and I on our way to switzerland
in the mall in moscow
in the train to moscow
i stole some photos from denny. this is our group in the presidential's palace in lithuania.
a place were we went one afternoon. although i hate diving boards i did jump off all three levels of this platform. doesn't look that high but the middle one was about the height of a normal high dive.
dad, you would love this place. absolutely amazing. water was "warm" based on what i'm used to at home, so i went swimming at least 5-6 times in the 3 days we were here. i went one morning before breakfast also. way good times.
in a jesuit church in lucerne
yomi (from nigeria, goes to messiah), in lucerne, switzerland
downtown lucerne
a sweet memorial in lucerne to french soldiers who died back in the 1800's
house we saw in town.
our hotel. i was in the building in the right.
my view out my window in lucerne, switzerland.
we had lunch in liechtenstein. got to check off another country.

me and tanner.
on the way to switzerland. we stopped at a rest point and ran around in the snow.
up at a lookout point in austria. i tried to imitiate a photo of my little brother, nick, when we are at niagra falls back in the day.
me with marianna (from brazil, goes to messiah) and wairimu (goes to messiah, from kenya) havin fun bowlin in austria