One Stroke at a Time

February 26- March 5, 2010

Well, Spring Break has come and gone. Last year, I went to sea kayaking in Florida with a great group of college students. Surprisingly, this Spring Break was very similar. The only this that differed was the type of boat being used. I went to Florida with a great group of college students but this time hours and hours were spent in a canoe.

Our trip started on the Santa Fe River, merged in the Suwannee River, and ended 110 miles later on and island in the Gulf of Mexico. The decision for me to go on this trip was quite last minute. Originally I was going to help with a different trip but that trip was canceled due to lack of interest.

My role for this trip was pretty simple: take pictures. So that is what I did, experiencing a lot of firsts along the way, the biggest one being paddling that far in a 6-day stretch. I also slept in a hammock for the first time, paddled through the rain, and saw manatees in the wild.

Below is only a small representation of the trip. As always, I find that my best pictures never have people involved but I did try, really I did.

It Only Took Five Years

February 3 -7, 2010

That time of year arrived yet again, the Association of Challenge Course Technology (ACCT) conference. As always, a new year and a new city. This year, my backyard: Atlanta. It was hard to believe that this was my 5^th year in a row that I have been to this conference. Once again, Lynette was there to continue with tradition as well as I was on Service Crew. This time, I was not alone in my travels, as Jeremy and Lauren saw came along for the adventure.

For her first year, Lauren walked around knowing more people than I did. She was constantly turning around to see yet another face she knew. Many of the regulars I recognized. However, some of the most familiar faces to me appeared at the annual euchre tournament. Lynette and I were back ready to win it all.

Some of the pairs we played were so funny I can’t even begin to describe the experience. One of our opponents described us as nice, innocent looking young ladies that deceived everyone. For when they weren’t looking, the fins poked through our disguises and our true card-shark colors came out.

With comments like that, we thought we had it in the bag. Well, our winning streak ended when we faced the other undefeated team. We lost to a team that just learned how to play euchre that evening.

Unlike years in the past, we moved into the losing bracket. Yes, this year was not a one-loss elimination. We continued to play. The hours passed, until we found ourselves up against the still undefeated team composed of beginners. If we lost, we

would have to settle for 2^nd place yet again. If we won, our battle was not over. We would have to play them again for the championship round. Lynette and I had come this far, and we both knew that 2^nd place was not an option.

Our speed and awareness at the early morning hours were our secret weapon. For close to the 2 o’clock hour, victory was ours.

An Intense Intensive

January 17-27, 2010

A quick background on how the grad program works. The majority of my class work is done online. However, for twelve days of the semester, we come together with all of the other people in the program who aren’t GAs to go through an intensive. Every semester the location of the intensive is different. As this is my first one, the location was twofold: Atlanta and Chattanooga.

For the first half, we spent our time touring the greater Atlanta area visiting schools, nature centers, the Atlanta aquarium, and the Atlanta zoo getting a view of their outdoor education programs as much of our focus and discussion was focused on the No Child Left Inside topic.

It seemed every waking moment was spent with my fellow classmates as we all slept in the same house (although some chose to sleep outside), fixed meals together, crammed into two vehicles, and even climbed trees together.

The Chattanooga experience also included the nature center and schools. However, our services were required in a different way. We were asked as a class to write curriculum for helping children achieve a sense of place. This was the first step of a chain that the school administration was hoping would take place. If students were taught of the importance of taking care of what was around them, they would take that mindset home and thus begin to care about their neighborhood. By getting their parents involved. Through exploration and mapping, our team tried to get the kids to discover what is round them, make a connection with it, and then understand the importance of taking care of it.

Our project was not only to develop this in theory but also be the pilot to a group of students at a local Chattanooga school. Develop it one day, implement it the next. In my book, that is the definition of intense.

GA Introductions, Continued

January 8, 2010

With the arrival of the new semester came three new Graduate Assistants, all female. Two of the former GAs did not return this semester, so in essence we grew by one. The end of last year also brought graduation for Ann and Kelly, my roommates. The new band of GAs brought two new roommates as well. Here they are without further ado:

The first to arrive was Laura (pictured right). Laura arrived from Maryland. Like me she knew little of the world she entered. As I helped her unpack her car, I asked about a certain item as to what it was. She told me it was a humidifier. I then proceeded to welcome her to the land where we fight humidity on a daily basis. Needless to say, the humidifier made its way back to Maryland with her father. Laura continues to bring a fresh perspective and a zest for life here along with “dimples deep enough to park a car in.”

Next we have Christina (Pictured next to Laura). Christina almost magically appeared. I went to bed one night, and the next morning, she was here. Arriving by airplane from the state of Washington, she too arrived after a whirlwind hire. However, being friends with Jerrod, she was told a bit more of what to expect than Laura. Christina’s stamina always amazes me. She is constantly on the move; driven and determined who has mastered the art of making garlic bread out of hot dog buns.

To wrap up the introductions, we have Stephanie (Pictured Left). Out of the three, Stephanie has the most knowledge of Southern as she earned her undergrad from here. Stephanie also has the most unique position here. She is in charge of the Boy and Girls Club. A project I couldn’t imagine handling, Stephanie attacks the project with great determination and humility, as she finds herself in experiencing so many new situations.

Quilt This

January 2, 2010

With all of my first semester of Grad school homework turned in, the time finally opened up to work on a few projects I have been putting on the back burner. Something I have always wanted to do was make a quilt. It has been on my life list for a while (My mother can testify to my

unfinished attempts in the past) My sister made a quilt out of old jeans when I was in college. I still love that quilt. She always made it seem so easy and quick. With a few weeks at my disposal, how hard could it really be?

With my present situation being a little tight in the cash department, I had to use what I already had. I have been in Tennessee for over four months now. The time to go through my closet had arrived yet again. With several moves this past year, I have been lugging around a huge stack of my old t-shirts that I have been picking up here and there through my college years and the adventures beyond. I didn’t wear them anymore. What better way to put them to use than a T-shirt quilt.

For a project such as this, I have a hard time remembering what life was like before the Internet. If you want to know how to do anything, just look online. After hours of research, I was inspired and willing to attack this project. After a trip to the store for the backing and thread, the process began.

By the end of the project I was glad about many things. The biggest one being that my roommates were not there to witness the process. My project took over my entire living room and kitchen table with a little overflow making its way into my bedroom. Scraps were everywhere and stands of thread stuck to the carpet like a colorful web.

After three days, I had made it through countless ripping episodes, stuck myself with a pin numerous times, fought a few battles with a sewing machine, and watched every Jane Austen movie I own; my quilt was finished.

2009 Stats

One Eyed Christmas

December 29, 2009

Due to my European travels, it wasn’t in the budget to do more traveling for the holidays. My original plan was to spend my two weeks off making some extra money and working on projects I have wanted to work on but just haven’t had the time due to the busy work schedule.

As the day of my time off approached, my physical health was dropping. A problem that I had been having on and off since October, flared its little head again. By the Monday before Christmas, I could hardly open my right eye. I was trying to look at the bright side. First, I thank the Lord that I have two eyes. Second, even though I could barely open my eye, the problem wasn’t affecting my vision.

On Tuesday, I headed to the eye doctor (my 6^th visit since late October). After some of the reactions I was getting from people, I really wanted to know what people saw. I could a hardly handle light let alone looking in a mirror for more than a couple of seconds. So I decided to put my camera to use.

Now I must warn you that the following pictures are not even close to being pretty. For comparisons sake, what my eyes look like normally:

Notice the amount of effort I am making to get it to open that far (as evidenced by the number of wrinkles in my forehead).

Now for the close up:

The good new is, by the end of Christmas Day my eye was to the point where the swelling was down and the constant waterfall coming from my eye had dried up. Being able to function normally was the best Christmas present by far. Now my New Years hope is that whatever is causing this to sporadically happen will a.) be discovered as it is still a mystery to the doc or b.) stop affecting me all together. Only time will tell.

Switzerland

November 29 – December 2, 2009

My Switzerland adventure began on Sunday as I greeted Leah at the Zurich airport. From there Urs (one of Leah’s house parents) drove us to the old part of town to see if we could get a glimpse of St. Nicolas. To our dismay, he had already left. So we walked around catching up on where we were in life and all that had happen since the last time we saw each other in April. After some hot orange punch, we decided the night was still young. Each hopping on a bike, we headed to the train station to go see the nightlights of the city.

Upon returning back to the house (basically a 4 story version of IKEA with white walls, a sauna, electric blinds, and automatic lights) we talked of our plans for the next day. What I didn’t realize was that the train tickets that Leah had already purchased would not only get us to Zermatt but they would allow us to get on and off as much as we liked, taking any route of choice in the whole country. What does one do with so much freedom?! When you put a ticket like that in the hands of two spontaneous, adventurous women anything can happen.

The next morning it seemed the weather was going to play a huge factor in what we did. With the entire country being under a cloud, we decided to take our time getting to Zermatt. Leah had done some extensive traveling during her time in Switzerland, yet she still hadn’t made it to Geneve down in the southeast corner bordering France. So that direction we went.

After studying the very informative map that showed us all of the places our tickets would take us, we discovered that Lake Geneve also bordered France. A boat ran from Lausanne, Switzerland to Evian, France and was covered by our ticket. With zero hesitation we got off the train at Lausanne and headed to information to get the times for the boat. I must add that the information stations in Switzerland are AMAZING! They speak English, give you printouts, and explain things beautifully.

After a short ride on the Metro and an easy walk, we embarked on our journey to France.

‘Tis true that the rain had not let up thus far on our journey. However, I didn’t expect the weather to keep people at bay. Evian seemed like a ghost town. The streets were empty in the middle of the afternoon. I remember asking Leah what day of the week it was, thinking it was Sunday causing everything to be closed. With a little investigation we discovered that almost everything in town closed from noon-2:30pm everyday. Funny how our boat back to Switzerland was leaving at 2:40.

Fortunately just the idea that we were in France made something as ordinary as going in a Super Market seem like an Adventure. Plus, I just happened to have some Euros left over from my trip to Germany in 2007 (1 of 4 currencies I had on me at the time).

After recovering from the shock of how much cheese, chocolate, and wine were in the store; I decided what I was going to purchase: an off brand of Nutella like substance mixed with a vanilla crème of sorts. A gamble that turned out to be a spectacular, absolutely mouth-watering-perfection purchase.

With France now behind us we decided to start our journey toward Zermatt and abandon the original plan to go to Geneve for we had to check into our hostel by 9pm. As the train headed further south, the rain began to turn to snow. Dusk had fallen, but even as we traveled through the valley toward Zermatt we could see the amount of snow around us increasing.

The sound of the snow crunching beneath our feet caused and extra surge of excitement as we went on a hunt for the Matterhorn Hostel. Sad that my Zermatt connections didn’t work out, I still looked forward to staying in a hostel for the first time.

After receiving our locker keys, we headed down the narrow, wooden, spiral staircase to find our accommodations for the evening. Bed D17 and D19 were the top of two bunk beds side by side lengthwise. Occupying the bottom beds were two guys from Australia. One other bed was taken in this 10 person capacity, dorm style room by a guy from the Ukraine name Valentino who later that evening managed to teach us how to play Bridge using a language that was probably last on his long list of known languages.

Morning arrived. Throughout the night everyone one beheld the power of a little space heater as we all felt like we slept in an oven. The day didn’t seem promising as we could see the snowfall beyond the windowpane. My hopes were set high to see the Matterhorn for this was our first and last day in town.

With so much snow to contend with, the slopes were closed until 10am at which time the situation would be reevaluated. We headed toward the train station after killing a couple of hours in town hoping the clouds would break.

Defeat loomed until I glanced at the slope board just outside the station. Over half were open for skiers to enjoy. I looked to the sky and saw a patch of blue poking its way through the grey blanket. After pointing this out to Leah, my hope was rejuvenated. It was quite possible that we could get a glimpse of the Mattherhorn.

As we hiked back toward the other side of town, my determination grew. Whether or not Leah knew it, we were going on the cable car to take a journey up the mountain. We had already come this far. I was willing to invest even with the risk of not seeing anything.

It was a risk that paid off, but not in the way that I expected. We had to change cable cars three times to make it to the top. Was the view from the top spectacular? Honestly, we didn’t see much of anything from the very highest point. But what we got to see on the way up was well worth it. Stretches of untouched snow covering some of the highest peaks in the Alps. As we reached the top, we saw a glacier: one of the majestic products of the mountains.

The Alps, in all their splendor, did put us face to face with some of the realistic effects of nature. Leah had never been to an altitude that high before. In all honesty, I hadn’t either but physically she and I were having different responses. Nausea and dizziness were beginning to set in for Leah. Seeing her change in state, we headed to the restaurant to taker a breather. Although altitude sickness can be quite a serious matter, Leah’s case was becoming quite comical. Her gestures and phrases were anything short of hilarious.

With Leah feeling better, we headed back to the drop off point to begin our journey down. As we waited for the decent to begin, the operator informed us that they were having some technical difficulties and we were instructed to exit the car.

After 40 minutes of standing in frigid cold temperatures watching the car arrive only to leave again empty 5 times in a row, we along with other cold, frustrated travels headed back to the restaurant to unthaw. An hour and a half later, new people entered the restaurant. It was our understanding that we were going to be informed when the cable car was up and running again. Leah approached two of the new comers, who just happened to be Americans, to confirm our assumption.

Without hesitation, we headed out to see if the car was still there. Sure enough, there it was. As we waited for everyone else to board, we spotted the American couple boarding after the had just arrived, our delayed car experience caused them to head back down before it had a chance to happen to them.

With the time having reached the 2:30 mark, the traffic of people at the first stop was much higher as the car filled with more and more skiers and snowboarders. To our surprise there stood next to us Dillon, Leah’s Aussie bunkmate. After exchanging adventures of the day, he informed us that he and Chad had purchased a toboggan and were going to put it to use that evening and invited us to join them. With our next objective to catch a train back to Zurich, we sadly declined.

As we had some time before our train departed, we went into Coopers grocery to get some food for the journey back. As we were leaving we ran into none other than the fun, hilarious American couple who extended an invitation to join them for crepes. Our need to get back to Zurich wouldn’t allow for it.

As we journeyed back, we got to witness the mountains hidden from our view only 24 hours before. I was still trying to comprehend all that happen…all that I had seen…all that I had experienced.

The rest of our journey flew by as we occupied ourselves with an intense game of cribbage eventually trying to play while speaking a different language. Showing off her Swiss German skills, Leah managed to say with great volume, “I have a white dress with pink polka dots” amusing the girl seated across the aisle causing us to burst into laughter. Proving the common stereotype of Americans being loud.

The evening ended with a review of knots using red licorice rope and an art revealing by one of the girls that was part of Leah’s host family.

After and amazing journey in Switzerland, my flight home only had two hiccups. I was traveling on this trip with only a carry-on. I flew from Zurich to London with no issues. As I went through security in London, I was pulled aside. I knew what they were looking for; but, as I had already made it this far with it, I thought I was good. Well the Liquid Act got me, well got my jar of off-brand-Nutella-like-substance-mixed-with-a-vanilla-crème-goodness from France even though to the scientific world it would be considered to be in a solid state. I will admit, I was sad, well actually, devastated. It rattled me so much that I managed to set off an alarm in a handicap stall thinking I was flushing the toilet. I am sure the security camera guys got a good laugh as I hightailed it out of the bathroom in a panic.

I boarded the plane to Chicago relieved that none of the things that I imagined might happen actually did. I had to laugh to the think that a jar of spread being confiscated could alter my mental state that much, but like my trip as a whole, it was just that good.

PS. We never actually got to see the Matterhorn. This was the next best thing.