This blog is proof that people really make websites about anything.
I am very impressed.
I present to you, Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century: A Daily Celebration of The Golden Age of Upper Lip Hair.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Um.....
I really don't know what to say about this post.
I've made a video. A video that could ruin my chances of ever becoming an elected official.
I guess I should at least explain what's on the video so you won't be blindsided.
On Sunday night we watched the movie Zoolander at L'Abri. Afterwards we had a "Ridiculously Good-Looking Party/Walk-Off". Of course, I won the walk-off. I would say, in fact, that I dominated it.
This video is a record and commemoration of my victory.
Disclaimer: I was wearing makeup, but only a little bit, and no more, I think, than Hansel himself would wear.
Enjoy.
I've made a video. A video that could ruin my chances of ever becoming an elected official.
I guess I should at least explain what's on the video so you won't be blindsided.
On Sunday night we watched the movie Zoolander at L'Abri. Afterwards we had a "Ridiculously Good-Looking Party/Walk-Off". Of course, I won the walk-off. I would say, in fact, that I dominated it.
This video is a record and commemoration of my victory.
Disclaimer: I was wearing makeup, but only a little bit, and no more, I think, than Hansel himself would wear.
Enjoy.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Pics are up
I updated the vacation post and put all the pictures on it. You don't have to reread the post, but at least look at some of the pictures. And for all of you old people don't forget, you can click on the pictures to see a bigger version.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Dance
This is it. The second most amazing thing that I saw/did on my vacation to Italy. Andrea and I were walking around Florence when we found this party and went in for the music and free wine. Little did we know that we would see something this amazing. Watch this video. Send it to your friends. Spread the love that is this man's dance.
A vacation of epic proportions
There once was a young man named Chris
Who went on a trip just like this:
First to Florence and next
To Livorno, but vexed
He and Jon realized that Livorno is retarded and so are all the people that live there who have no idea when or from whence the ferry to Capraia leaves their unbearably hot and smelly town.
Yes, my dear friends and family, Livorno is hella-dumb. Online, the ferry ticket office told me that there were five ferries leaving for Capraia on Sunday. When Jon and I arrived there, however, there was no ferry in port, the ticket office was closed, and no one around the port seemed to know or even believe that ferries would actually go to Capraia. After some deciphering of the signs on the ticket office door, we discovered that a ferry would be leaving the next morning at 8:30. Unfortunately for Capraia, Jon and I really didn't feel like staying in Livorno for the night so we hopped a train (and by "hopped", I mean we paid for tickets and boarded legally) to Cinque Terre and figured we'd just bum around there until the girls (Amelia, Erin, and Emily; all from L'Abri) got there on Wednesday.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning of our trip. Interspersed throughout the post will be pictures from our trip. I'm going to make them small in the post, but just click on them and you can see a bigger version.
Jon and I walked out of Chalet Bellevue on Thursday morning at 10 with our backpacks strapped tightly to our backs, ready to hitchhike to Turin, Italy. We had a sign that Greg Laughery made for us in French that said "We are going to Turin, Italy. How far can you take us?" Hitching down to Turin turned out to be pretty easy. We made it in just about five hours. Our hitches were as follows:
1) A former missionary nurse from Albania took us down the mountain and wished us luck.
2) A British lady from Villars drove us to the next town, Monthey, and told us she knew a bunch of people from L'Abri and that anytime she picked up hitchhikers she knew they'd be from
L'Abri. She was nice and had on three pounds of makeup.
3) These two old Swiss ladies who spoke absolutely no English picked us up and drove us about 40 minutes to the far side of Martigny. I told them that I didn't speak any French, but I guess I look like I can understand what anyone is saying because they talked and talked and talked to us all in French. I just smiled and nodded and Jon played Sudoku.
4) A middle-aged Swiss lady picked us up and drove us to the beginning of the highway that leads into Italy. She was very nice and told us that when she was little she memorized all 50 states of America. She also taught us how to count to 20 in French.
5) A Kosovar couple (if you'll notice, this is the first man that has picked us up; middle-aged women loved us) picked us up and drove us about 10 minutes up the road towards Italy.
6) Best hitch of the day. A French-turned-Swiss lady (middle-aged) picked us up and drove us all the way to within 50 km of Turin. We were in the car with her for about two hours during which she told us all about her travels around Europe and how she came to be a Zen Buddhist. She was incredibly nice and was a huge help for us.
7) We got dropped off by the Buddhist lady at a toll booth to get o
nto the main highway into Turin. Jon started making the sign for Turin (Torino). If you'll notice, he started out a little overambitious with the size of the letters and had to squeeze the 'I' 'N' and 'O' in at the very end. After he got the sign done, however, we quickly got picked up by a guy who was half Italian and half Scottish. He was an older guy who hitchhiked around Europe in the 70s and he took us straight into downtown Turin and dropped us off near a bus stop that we took to the train station.
We just barely made our train to Florence, but we did make it, and we saved about 40 euros by hitchhiking to Turin instead of taking a train straight from Huemoz.
Anyway, we made it to Florence and after waiting for a little while for the girls (Carla, Grace, Faith, and Andrea) we were on our way to their hotel. The plan was for all of us to sleep in the one room that Carla's dad had booked for two people. Of course, we had to be sure that the management didn't charge us extra for the extra people, so stealth was key. Unfortunately, they locked the doors to the hotel at 10 and we had to be buzzed in and the lady asked for Jon's and my ID (the girls had run upstairs as soon as we got through the door). So, since Jon and I couldn't stay at the hotel that night, we had to leave the room at about 12 am
and search for another hotel to stay at. I've never tried to book a hotel room at 12 am, but I really didn't think it would be all that difficult. It was. It took us two hours and over twenty hotels to find one that had a double that was vacant. When we finally found a hotel, we went in and crashed hardcore.
The next day (I promise my descriptions are going to get much shorter; this post won't be book-length) we all met up at the Accademia Gallery and saw the David by Michaelangelo. I've seen it before, but it's such an amazing sculpture that I'd love to see it again and again. We saw the
David (You aren't supposed to get pictures with the David, but I'm a rebel so booyah) and then went out to lunch near the Uffizi. Although we were supposed to go to the Uffizi at two that afternoon, all of us except for Carla and Grace were too worn out to go to another gallery so Andrea, Jon, and I walked up a hill on the other side of the river just to see what we could find. What we found was a free art exhibition that was jam-packed with people. They were only letting in about 20 people at a time so there was a mad rush every time they would open the doors to let people in. The picture of us in the crowd is the three of us waiting to
get inside and an Italian man who was very frustrated to be stuck next to the Americans. The exhibit wasn't actually that good. Just some lame impressionist paintings. Andrea and I went up the hill further and found a big church with a view over the city so we sat up there for awhile and then met up with everyone else back down in the city. We bought dinner from a grocery store and ate in the hotel room (we got into Carla's room) that night.
On Saturday, Grace, Carla, Jon and I went back up that hill and sat up at the church and chilled for a couple of hours and then we all split up and had some alone time. I ended up sitting on a
bench next to an old old old Italian couple who were flirting the entire time. It was kind of cute. Kind of uncomfortable. I just listened to my iPod and pretended that, in addition to not being able to understand their language, I also could not understand any of their actions or body language. They eventually left and Andrea found me and told me that she had found a garden party that we should go to because there was a disco band and free wine. We went and we witnessed the greatest dancing that I've ever seen by an Italian man over the age of 60. I videoed it, and it's on YouTube. I'll embed the video in a post after this one. It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
Anyways, that night we ate out and then chilled in the hotel room again. Here's a picture of the sleeping arrangement in the room. Three people on the beds. Three people on the floor. It was tight.
Sunday came, and Jon and I headed to Livorno where, if you'll remember the limerick above, we found out that no ferries exist on Sundays. So we went to Cinque Terre early.
I'm glad that we made that decision. Cinque Terre is maybe one of the most relaxing and beautiful places I've ever been. If you don't know what it is, let me explain. Cinque Terre is a series of five little fishing and wine villages on the coast of Italy that are set in a national park and are connected by a little train. Jon and I stayed in Monterosso which is the most touristy of the towns but also the only one with sand beaches.
Since it's October, though, there were hardly any tourists there and the beaches were pretty empty every day we were there. The picture of the village is Vernazza which is the next town over from Monterosso, but all the villages look pretty much like that one.
So, Monday Jon and I went on a hike up and around all five of the villages and then went back to Monerosso and chilled for the night. Tuesday = beach all day long. It was about 75 degrees Farenheit
and sunny every day we were there. Wednesday we hit the beaches again and then met the girls at the train station. It turned out that Grace, Carla, and Carla's friend Spencer came to Cinque Terre that day as well as Erin, Amelia, and Emily so it turned into a little bit of a people overload. No sweat, though. Thursday we hiked another trail with the girls and then went swimming. And Friday we all went out to breakfast before Jon and I took a train to Locarno, Switzerland to meet Faith and do the bungee jump of a lifetime on Saturday.
Locarno. What to say about Locarno? It would be a great city if you took out all the jerk faces that live and work there. I guess it's usually a resort town for the rich Europeans so they really didn't like three dirty poor (North) Americans coming into their restaurants. Whatever. We came. We saw. We conquered in the name of (North) America.
Our hotel was nice. I didn't really care about anything in Locarno except for the bungee jump, and it more than met all of my expectations. I'm getting tired of typing things so I'll just refer you to the pictures and video below to see how the jump went.
Okay, so that was my break. I don't feel like typing anymore. I'll post again next Tuesday or maybe earlier. I hope your lives are great.
Who went on a trip just like this:
First to Florence and next
To Livorno, but vexed
He and Jon realized that Livorno is retarded and so are all the people that live there who have no idea when or from whence the ferry to Capraia leaves their unbearably hot and smelly town.
Yes, my dear friends and family, Livorno is hella-dumb. Online, the ferry ticket office told me that there were five ferries leaving for Capraia on Sunday. When Jon and I arrived there, however, there was no ferry in port, the ticket office was closed, and no one around the port seemed to know or even believe that ferries would actually go to Capraia. After some deciphering of the signs on the ticket office door, we discovered that a ferry would be leaving the next morning at 8:30. Unfortunately for Capraia, Jon and I really didn't feel like staying in Livorno for the night so we hopped a train (and by "hopped", I mean we paid for tickets and boarded legally) to Cinque Terre and figured we'd just bum around there until the girls (Amelia, Erin, and Emily; all from L'Abri) got there on Wednesday.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning of our trip. Interspersed throughout the post will be pictures from our trip. I'm going to make them small in the post, but just click on them and you can see a bigger version.
Jon and I walked out of Chalet Bellevue on Thursday morning at 10 with our backpacks strapped tightly to our backs, ready to hitchhike to Turin, Italy. We had a sign that Greg Laughery made for us in French that said "We are going to Turin, Italy. How far can you take us?" Hitching down to Turin turned out to be pretty easy. We made it in just about five hours. Our hitches were as follows:1) A former missionary nurse from Albania took us down the mountain and wished us luck.
2) A British lady from Villars drove us to the next town, Monthey, and told us she knew a bunch of people from L'Abri and that anytime she picked up hitchhikers she knew they'd be from
L'Abri. She was nice and had on three pounds of makeup.3) These two old Swiss ladies who spoke absolutely no English picked us up and drove us about 40 minutes to the far side of Martigny. I told them that I didn't speak any French, but I guess I look like I can understand what anyone is saying because they talked and talked and talked to us all in French. I just smiled and nodded and Jon played Sudoku.
4) A middle-aged Swiss lady picked us up and drove us to the beginning of the highway that leads into Italy. She was very nice and told us that when she was little she memorized all 50 states of America. She also taught us how to count to 20 in French.
5) A Kosovar couple (if you'll notice, this is the first man that has picked us up; middle-aged women loved us) picked us up and drove us about 10 minutes up the road towards Italy.
6) Best hitch of the day. A French-turned-Swiss lady (middle-aged) picked us up and drove us all the way to within 50 km of Turin. We were in the car with her for about two hours during which she told us all about her travels around Europe and how she came to be a Zen Buddhist. She was incredibly nice and was a huge help for us.
7) We got dropped off by the Buddhist lady at a toll booth to get o
nto the main highway into Turin. Jon started making the sign for Turin (Torino). If you'll notice, he started out a little overambitious with the size of the letters and had to squeeze the 'I' 'N' and 'O' in at the very end. After he got the sign done, however, we quickly got picked up by a guy who was half Italian and half Scottish. He was an older guy who hitchhiked around Europe in the 70s and he took us straight into downtown Turin and dropped us off near a bus stop that we took to the train station.
We just barely made our train to Florence, but we did make it, and we saved about 40 euros by hitchhiking to Turin instead of taking a train straight from Huemoz.
Anyway, we made it to Florence and after waiting for a little while for the girls (Carla, Grace, Faith, and Andrea) we were on our way to their hotel. The plan was for all of us to sleep in the one room that Carla's dad had booked for two people. Of course, we had to be sure that the management didn't charge us extra for the extra people, so stealth was key. Unfortunately, they locked the doors to the hotel at 10 and we had to be buzzed in and the lady asked for Jon's and my ID (the girls had run upstairs as soon as we got through the door). So, since Jon and I couldn't stay at the hotel that night, we had to leave the room at about 12 am
and search for another hotel to stay at. I've never tried to book a hotel room at 12 am, but I really didn't think it would be all that difficult. It was. It took us two hours and over twenty hotels to find one that had a double that was vacant. When we finally found a hotel, we went in and crashed hardcore.The next day (I promise my descriptions are going to get much shorter; this post won't be book-length) we all met up at the Accademia Gallery and saw the David by Michaelangelo. I've seen it before, but it's such an amazing sculpture that I'd love to see it again and again. We saw the
David (You aren't supposed to get pictures with the David, but I'm a rebel so booyah) and then went out to lunch near the Uffizi. Although we were supposed to go to the Uffizi at two that afternoon, all of us except for Carla and Grace were too worn out to go to another gallery so Andrea, Jon, and I walked up a hill on the other side of the river just to see what we could find. What we found was a free art exhibition that was jam-packed with people. They were only letting in about 20 people at a time so there was a mad rush every time they would open the doors to let people in. The picture of us in the crowd is the three of us waiting to
get inside and an Italian man who was very frustrated to be stuck next to the Americans. The exhibit wasn't actually that good. Just some lame impressionist paintings. Andrea and I went up the hill further and found a big church with a view over the city so we sat up there for awhile and then met up with everyone else back down in the city. We bought dinner from a grocery store and ate in the hotel room (we got into Carla's room) that night.On Saturday, Grace, Carla, Jon and I went back up that hill and sat up at the church and chilled for a couple of hours and then we all split up and had some alone time. I ended up sitting on a
bench next to an old old old Italian couple who were flirting the entire time. It was kind of cute. Kind of uncomfortable. I just listened to my iPod and pretended that, in addition to not being able to understand their language, I also could not understand any of their actions or body language. They eventually left and Andrea found me and told me that she had found a garden party that we should go to because there was a disco band and free wine. We went and we witnessed the greatest dancing that I've ever seen by an Italian man over the age of 60. I videoed it, and it's on YouTube. I'll embed the video in a post after this one. It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
Anyways, that night we ate out and then chilled in the hotel room again. Here's a picture of the sleeping arrangement in the room. Three people on the beds. Three people on the floor. It was tight.Sunday came, and Jon and I headed to Livorno where, if you'll remember the limerick above, we found out that no ferries exist on Sundays. So we went to Cinque Terre early.
I'm glad that we made that decision. Cinque Terre is maybe one of the most relaxing and beautiful places I've ever been. If you don't know what it is, let me explain. Cinque Terre is a series of five little fishing and wine villages on the coast of Italy that are set in a national park and are connected by a little train. Jon and I stayed in Monterosso which is the most touristy of the towns but also the only one with sand beaches.
Since it's October, though, there were hardly any tourists there and the beaches were pretty empty every day we were there. The picture of the village is Vernazza which is the next town over from Monterosso, but all the villages look pretty much like that one.So, Monday Jon and I went on a hike up and around all five of the villages and then went back to Monerosso and chilled for the night. Tuesday = beach all day long. It was about 75 degrees Farenheit
and sunny every day we were there. Wednesday we hit the beaches again and then met the girls at the train station. It turned out that Grace, Carla, and Carla's friend Spencer came to Cinque Terre that day as well as Erin, Amelia, and Emily so it turned into a little bit of a people overload. No sweat, though. Thursday we hiked another trail with the girls and then went swimming. And Friday we all went out to breakfast before Jon and I took a train to Locarno, Switzerland to meet Faith and do the bungee jump of a lifetime on Saturday.Locarno. What to say about Locarno? It would be a great city if you took out all the jerk faces that live and work there. I guess it's usually a resort town for the rich Europeans so they really didn't like three dirty poor (North) Americans coming into their restaurants. Whatever. We came. We saw. We conquered in the name of (North) America.
Our hotel was nice. I didn't really care about anything in Locarno except for the bungee jump, and it more than met all of my expectations. I'm getting tired of typing things so I'll just refer you to the pictures and video below to see how the jump went.
Okay, so that was my break. I don't feel like typing anymore. I'll post again next Tuesday or maybe earlier. I hope your lives are great.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Firenze!
Hey everyone. Just a quick update for you. But first, let me clear something up that hopefully no one was actually confused about. That last post's introductory dialogue had nothing to do with any reality except that of my own rambling imagination. I just decided when I started to type that entry that I would just say whatever came to my mind. And that was it. Kind of scary.
Anyway. I'm in Florence (Firenze en Italiano) and it's pretty nice. Jon and I got here without a . . . I almost typed 'without a hitch', meaning with no problems, but we did get a hitch, and no, I'm not trying to be funny, I almost did write 'without a hitch'. We got about 5 or 6 hitches from Huemoz to Turin where we caught a train to Florence. It was a long day yesterday, not just because of the hitchhiking and travelling (it took us from 10 am til 8:30 pm to get to Florence from Huemoz), but also because when Jon and I went to go upstairs to sleep in the hotel room with our friends from L'Abri, the lady at the desk told us if we stayed the night that we would be charged for a room. Sooooooo, at about 12:30 am, Jon and I set out to find a hotel/hostel/bench. We checked with literally 20+ hotels and they were all booked up. Finally, at a little after 2 am, we found a double room for 109 euros for the night. I'll expand on this story later, but suffice it to say that tonight we were much sneakier about getting into our friends' hotel and now we are very very very thankful to have a place to sleep for the evening.
I'll post again as I have time and energy. Tomorrow we're exploring more of Florence and then on Sunday, Jon and I leave for Capraia.
Ciao.
Anyway. I'm in Florence (Firenze en Italiano) and it's pretty nice. Jon and I got here without a . . . I almost typed 'without a hitch', meaning with no problems, but we did get a hitch, and no, I'm not trying to be funny, I almost did write 'without a hitch'. We got about 5 or 6 hitches from Huemoz to Turin where we caught a train to Florence. It was a long day yesterday, not just because of the hitchhiking and travelling (it took us from 10 am til 8:30 pm to get to Florence from Huemoz), but also because when Jon and I went to go upstairs to sleep in the hotel room with our friends from L'Abri, the lady at the desk told us if we stayed the night that we would be charged for a room. Sooooooo, at about 12:30 am, Jon and I set out to find a hotel/hostel/bench. We checked with literally 20+ hotels and they were all booked up. Finally, at a little after 2 am, we found a double room for 109 euros for the night. I'll expand on this story later, but suffice it to say that tonight we were much sneakier about getting into our friends' hotel and now we are very very very thankful to have a place to sleep for the evening.
I'll post again as I have time and energy. Tomorrow we're exploring more of Florence and then on Sunday, Jon and I leave for Capraia.
Ciao.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
I'm here to save your marriage
Hey everyone. Yes, I know, I didn't post yesterday. See what had happened was, I was going to write it up and post last night, but since a bunch of people were leaving this morning to start their break trips and some to leave for home, we all decided to go up to a place called the targets (it's just a scenic lookout spot) and hang out for a few hours. So, it was you or them. And, I chose them. But only for last night.
Today, as I write this post during my study time here at L'Abri, I am choosing you, my faithful readers. I am choosing all of you, that is, except for 'Anonymous' who commented that I'm "shit at updating this blog." You are not chosen, Anonymous. You are rejected.
I guess I should take this time to let you all know what I'll be doing on my 11-day break from L'Abri. I'm sure it is of great interest to you. I can picture you now, huddled around your dinner tables at night, speaking in hushed but excited whispers. "When is Chris going to tell us what he's doing over his break?" "I don't know, but if he doesn't I'm just going to kill myself, I swear I will, and don't you dare try to stop me Bill." "Just calm down, Darla, I'm sure . . ." "NO! I will not calm down! Do you know how hard it's been for me lately? You have no idea! You go off to work everyday, and I just sit here, hoping that Chris gets some spare moment to post an update when I'm not expecting it. Damn you and your career! You have no idea! . . . . I think I want a divorce."
Just hold on a second guys. Fear not. I'm here to save your marriage. Now grab a nice glass of vino, gather round the family PC, put your arms around each other, and live vicariously through me.
That last sentence kind of rhymes. Maybe I'll make it the new slogan of my blog.
Tomorrow morning Jon and I will leave L'Abri right after breakfast, probably sometime around 10 am. Before I go any further, I need to decide which is the best format for describing my plans to you. I think I'll go for an itinerary format with comments on different days. So, here we go:
Day 1 (Thurs Oct 11)- Jon and I wake up, eat breakfast at L'Abri and then head to the hitch spot outside of Huemoz to try to hitchhike to Turin, Italy where we'll get a train to Florence. By hitching to Turin (about 3 hours drive from here) we'll save around 40 euros on train tickets. That night we'll meet four girls from L'Abri at the train station in Florence and hopefully stay in their hotel with them until Sunday morning.
Day 2 (Fri Oct 12)- Today the six of us (me, Jon, Andrea, Carla, Faith, and Grace) will go to the Accademia Gallery (where Michaelangelo's David is) in the morning and then the Uffizi Gallery (where Raphael's David in bronze is, I think) in the afternoon. I've already been to both of these museums before (when I went to Italy for three weeks after my junior year in high school), but they are awesome enough to warrant another visit.
Day 3 (Sat Oct 13)- Still in Florence. No plans except maybe go check out the Pontevecchio which is the big famous bridge in Florence, and maybe go see the Duomo and the Baptistery in the city center as well.
Day 4 (Sun Oct 14)- Jon and I leave early from Florence to hitchhike to a little port city called Livorno. It's on the west coast of Italy, just west of Pisa. From Livorno we'll get a ferry to a tiny island near Corsica called Capraia. We don't know much about the island except that it's there and has some good hikes and beaches.
Day 5 (Mon Oct 15)- Capraia exploration. The island isn't very big at all, so I'm not sure what all there is to explore, but we're going to find out. Maybe we'll even try to get a boat ride to Corsica. Who knows.
Day 6 (Tues Oct 16)- Depending on how interesting Capraia is, we'll either spend the whole day here and leave the next morning, or we'll spend half the day here and catch the ferry back to Livorno that afternoon and hitchhike up to Cinque Terre (about an hour drive away).
Day 7 (Wed Oct 17)- See above. Either explore or get to Cinque Terre, Italy today. Cinque Terre is a series of five small villages on the coast that are apparently some of the most beautiful places in Italy. Classic Italy is what everyone says. So, we'll get there and find a place to stay (I have a list of hostels or cheap hotels for the places we're going but we don't have any reservations) and then we're going to meet three other girls (Erin, Amelia, Emily) from L'Abri in a town called Monterosso (one of the five towns in Cinque Terre). Hopefully we'll be able to stay in the same hostel so we can hang out while the five of us are all there at the same time.
Day 8 (Thurs Oct 18)- Hike around Cinque Terre. The surrounding area is a protected park so there are some good trails from village to village. I'm not quite sure what to expect in Cinque Terre either, but that's what's nice about not really having too much of a schedule; we can basically do whatever we want.
Day 9 (Fri Oct 19)- Spend the first half of the day in Cinque Terre, maybe go to the beach and read some. I don't know. Then, towards early afternoon Jon and I will get a train (7 hours, suck) to Locarno, Switzerland where we'll meet Faith (one of the girls who was in Florence with us) and get a hotel room somewhere so that we can wake up early the next morning and . . .
Day 10 (Sat Oct 20)- BUNGEE JUMP! At 2:30 in the afternoon, the three of us have a reservation to jump from the second highest bungee jump in the world (the first highest is in China and is less than 20 meters higher than this one) at 220 meters. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us. We've heard stories from one of the workers at L'Abri of other students who went to do the jump but were thwarted by the weather. Keep your fingers crossed.
Day 11 (Sun Oct 21)- Maybe catch a train, maybe try to hitchhike, back to Huemoz where we will be reunited with the rest of the people who are here for the whole term.
So, there you go. I'm going to take as many pictures and videos as I can so that I can show you all of the people and places. The only thing I'm really worried about with the trip is, well, two things. One, I don't have a very big backpack (besides my huge one) to take my stuff in, so packing is going to be tight. And two, weather during the week and a half that we'll be on break. Really, it could rain every single day but be sunny on our bungee day and I'd be happy.
In other news, the weather here has been pretty great lately. They actually have a fall here, which is nice. It's around 65 or 70 during the day and chilly at night. About of the trees around here have leaves that change color so it makes the mountains around us look beautiful.
I really can't think of anything else to tell you. Is there anything in particular that you'd like to know that I haven't written about yet? Just let me know.
In conclusion, here's a picture of the white-out type of fog that we get around here. The picture below was taken on Sunday morning before chapel. The crazy thing is that only four hours later it was perfectly sunny and clear all around. I guess this is just something that happens when you live 3300 feet above sea level in the Swiss Alps.
Lata.
Oh yeah. I won't be posting for about a week probably. I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have while we're on the trip, but if I do get a chance I'll post a little update.
Well, it looks like Blogger isn't going to let me upload photos tonight. Just imagine a foggy scene with a tree and another tree and a bench and some grass and no mountains. If you can see mountains then your mental picture is a lie from the devil, so . . . . .
Today, as I write this post during my study time here at L'Abri, I am choosing you, my faithful readers. I am choosing all of you, that is, except for 'Anonymous' who commented that I'm "shit at updating this blog." You are not chosen, Anonymous. You are rejected.
I guess I should take this time to let you all know what I'll be doing on my 11-day break from L'Abri. I'm sure it is of great interest to you. I can picture you now, huddled around your dinner tables at night, speaking in hushed but excited whispers. "When is Chris going to tell us what he's doing over his break?" "I don't know, but if he doesn't I'm just going to kill myself, I swear I will, and don't you dare try to stop me Bill." "Just calm down, Darla, I'm sure . . ." "NO! I will not calm down! Do you know how hard it's been for me lately? You have no idea! You go off to work everyday, and I just sit here, hoping that Chris gets some spare moment to post an update when I'm not expecting it. Damn you and your career! You have no idea! . . . . I think I want a divorce."
Just hold on a second guys. Fear not. I'm here to save your marriage. Now grab a nice glass of vino, gather round the family PC, put your arms around each other, and live vicariously through me.
That last sentence kind of rhymes. Maybe I'll make it the new slogan of my blog.
Tomorrow morning Jon and I will leave L'Abri right after breakfast, probably sometime around 10 am. Before I go any further, I need to decide which is the best format for describing my plans to you. I think I'll go for an itinerary format with comments on different days. So, here we go:
Day 1 (Thurs Oct 11)- Jon and I wake up, eat breakfast at L'Abri and then head to the hitch spot outside of Huemoz to try to hitchhike to Turin, Italy where we'll get a train to Florence. By hitching to Turin (about 3 hours drive from here) we'll save around 40 euros on train tickets. That night we'll meet four girls from L'Abri at the train station in Florence and hopefully stay in their hotel with them until Sunday morning.
Day 2 (Fri Oct 12)- Today the six of us (me, Jon, Andrea, Carla, Faith, and Grace) will go to the Accademia Gallery (where Michaelangelo's David is) in the morning and then the Uffizi Gallery (where Raphael's David in bronze is, I think) in the afternoon. I've already been to both of these museums before (when I went to Italy for three weeks after my junior year in high school), but they are awesome enough to warrant another visit.
Day 3 (Sat Oct 13)- Still in Florence. No plans except maybe go check out the Pontevecchio which is the big famous bridge in Florence, and maybe go see the Duomo and the Baptistery in the city center as well.
Day 4 (Sun Oct 14)- Jon and I leave early from Florence to hitchhike to a little port city called Livorno. It's on the west coast of Italy, just west of Pisa. From Livorno we'll get a ferry to a tiny island near Corsica called Capraia. We don't know much about the island except that it's there and has some good hikes and beaches.
Day 5 (Mon Oct 15)- Capraia exploration. The island isn't very big at all, so I'm not sure what all there is to explore, but we're going to find out. Maybe we'll even try to get a boat ride to Corsica. Who knows.
Day 6 (Tues Oct 16)- Depending on how interesting Capraia is, we'll either spend the whole day here and leave the next morning, or we'll spend half the day here and catch the ferry back to Livorno that afternoon and hitchhike up to Cinque Terre (about an hour drive away).
Day 7 (Wed Oct 17)- See above. Either explore or get to Cinque Terre, Italy today. Cinque Terre is a series of five small villages on the coast that are apparently some of the most beautiful places in Italy. Classic Italy is what everyone says. So, we'll get there and find a place to stay (I have a list of hostels or cheap hotels for the places we're going but we don't have any reservations) and then we're going to meet three other girls (Erin, Amelia, Emily) from L'Abri in a town called Monterosso (one of the five towns in Cinque Terre). Hopefully we'll be able to stay in the same hostel so we can hang out while the five of us are all there at the same time.
Day 8 (Thurs Oct 18)- Hike around Cinque Terre. The surrounding area is a protected park so there are some good trails from village to village. I'm not quite sure what to expect in Cinque Terre either, but that's what's nice about not really having too much of a schedule; we can basically do whatever we want.
Day 9 (Fri Oct 19)- Spend the first half of the day in Cinque Terre, maybe go to the beach and read some. I don't know. Then, towards early afternoon Jon and I will get a train (7 hours, suck) to Locarno, Switzerland where we'll meet Faith (one of the girls who was in Florence with us) and get a hotel room somewhere so that we can wake up early the next morning and . . .
Day 10 (Sat Oct 20)- BUNGEE JUMP! At 2:30 in the afternoon, the three of us have a reservation to jump from the second highest bungee jump in the world (the first highest is in China and is less than 20 meters higher than this one) at 220 meters. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us. We've heard stories from one of the workers at L'Abri of other students who went to do the jump but were thwarted by the weather. Keep your fingers crossed.
Day 11 (Sun Oct 21)- Maybe catch a train, maybe try to hitchhike, back to Huemoz where we will be reunited with the rest of the people who are here for the whole term.
So, there you go. I'm going to take as many pictures and videos as I can so that I can show you all of the people and places. The only thing I'm really worried about with the trip is, well, two things. One, I don't have a very big backpack (besides my huge one) to take my stuff in, so packing is going to be tight. And two, weather during the week and a half that we'll be on break. Really, it could rain every single day but be sunny on our bungee day and I'd be happy.
In other news, the weather here has been pretty great lately. They actually have a fall here, which is nice. It's around 65 or 70 during the day and chilly at night. About of the trees around here have leaves that change color so it makes the mountains around us look beautiful.
I really can't think of anything else to tell you. Is there anything in particular that you'd like to know that I haven't written about yet? Just let me know.
In conclusion, here's a picture of the white-out type of fog that we get around here. The picture below was taken on Sunday morning before chapel. The crazy thing is that only four hours later it was perfectly sunny and clear all around. I guess this is just something that happens when you live 3300 feet above sea level in the Swiss Alps.
Lata.
Oh yeah. I won't be posting for about a week probably. I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have while we're on the trip, but if I do get a chance I'll post a little update.
Well, it looks like Blogger isn't going to let me upload photos tonight. Just imagine a foggy scene with a tree and another tree and a bench and some grass and no mountains. If you can see mountains then your mental picture is a lie from the devil, so . . . . .
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
It got pretty here.
Yes, it got very pretty here. It was rainy for about four days. Grey (or gray?). Gray. Cold. Miserable. I really just don't do well with no sunlight. I can handle coldness. It's just when everything is completely fogged over (which is what happens here; I'll take a picture next time it happens) and you can't see anything at all outside that I get cabin fever and start to go crazy. Luckily for us, Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days, as was Monday. Today seems to be keeping the streak alive.Since it was so nice outside on Sunday, a few of us decided to go on a hike. Actually, I didn't want to go at first, but I was talked into it. I'm glad I went. It was a nice one. We hiked up to Roc D'Orsay from Huemoz, about a three hour hike. It wasn't very strenuous but a couple of the people that went with us got worn out by the time we made it to the top. The problem was that we were at the top at 4:30 that afternoon, we spent half an hour looking around, and then we had to be back at L'Abri for dinner at seven o'clock. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal if half of our group wasn't completely and utterly exhausted and thus taking forever to walk down the mountain. After about thirty minutes of me and another girl, Erin, going at our own pace running and jogging down the trail and then waiting for ten minutes for the rest to catch up, we decided to split up. By "we", I mean me and Erin. Uli, one of the new guys here (he's from Gemany), also thought we should split up, but he agreed to stay back with the slowpokes. The problem was that the slowpokes thought we should stick together, that it was a bad idea safety-wise for us to be separated. Well, I disagreed and we argued about it for awhile and never came to an agreement. So, Erin and I told them that we would see them at the bottom, and we ran off down the mountain. It was actually a much more tense situation than I can describe on a blog, but it doesn't really matter. I don't think you care very much about it.
In other news, I finished reading The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and I highly recommend it for everyone who thinks about anything at all. It's a great look at how evangelical thought got to be where it is today, which is, in the author's opinion, slowly recovering from a century of anti-intellectualism characterized by tendencies towards activism (as prioritized above the life of the mind), intuitiveness (relying on your gut feeling as opposed to seeking out the truth), populism (as opposed to scholarly research and publication), and biblicism (relating absolutely everything that's going on in the world to some prophecy or something else in Scripture). It was a helpful book for me because it brought to the fore some of those proclivities in myself. It's an interesting, albeit brief and sometimes overly general, history of evangelical thought in America. You should read it.
Now, I've picked up a book called An Emergent Manifesto of Hope which is a book written by numerous authors, thinkers, and participants within the Emergent movement, a 'postmodern' response of some Christians to the thoroughly modern evangelical church. After finishing the first two sections, I'm not very impressed. I'm going to keep reading it because I feel like it's an interesting movement, but the writers of the book aren't very good at saying anything solid and don't seem to realize that the ideas that they're throwing around (ie the breakdown of knowledge) are huge ideas with serious implications, and they aren't being appropriated by the Emergent church very scrupulously. I know, I know, that's a very general statement made after reading only two sections of the book. I'll post more later.
Anyway, here's some pictures from the hike. Well, the first one isn't from the hike this week. It's from the L'Abri looking across the valley at the Dents du Morcles, the mountain I hiked a few weeks ago.
Enjoy!
The Dents du Morcles are those two points jutting up on the right.
Stopping for some pictures. From the left: Peter (Australia), Hugh (BC, Canada), Uli (Germany), Amelia (behind Uli; Tennessee), Erin (Florida).
Leading the way.
The Swiss army has all of these doors put up on the mountain. We couldn't kick them open.
Up at the top.
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