The Epic Adventure of Coming Home

Last friday, I took yet another flight to Salt Lake City. I've done this a lot over the last few months. The same lady helped me at the Delta counter, the one that helped me get a last minute flight to Salt Lake to propose to Torrie (I don't think she remembered me.) I know the people at the desks. I know where the gate always is. I've almost memorized the entire flight schedule.

This time, was different, however. It took us 3 times as long to get to the airport, due to a combination of my grandma's slow driving (she's very cautious, which is probably a good thing because....) and the snow storm we were in. Seattle does not do very well with snow storms.

Upon my arrival to the airport, I found out my plane had been delayed yet again. We were now three hours late...but things in Seattle weren't that bad. They told us that things were worse in Salt Lake, which was the cause for the delay. So I pulled a switcheroo and got on a flight that was leaving in a half hour. Nice! Miracle #1.

As the flight continued, I tried to sleep, but I couldn't. I was just too excited to no longer be in a long distance relationship. I looked down from my window perch often to try to figure out where we were and how close we were to Salt Lake.

By the way, I was flying in an MD-80. I pay attention to those things now, which is fun. I like the MD-80 cause of the seat configuration, 3 seats on one side, 2 on the other. Only one seat that's not a window/aisle seat! That's nice. However, I know that it uses a lot more fuel than other more efficient planes and I don't like the engines being on the back (empennage, if you want the technical term).

Anyway, I finally dozed off, and I woke up, looked at my clock, and saw that we should have arrived already! Finally a few minutes later the captain explained that we were circling because an airplane had skidded off the runway (not the 737 continental flight you heard about in denver, but just a turbo-prop) and no one was landing, and that we were probably going to have to go to Boise for more fuel. NO! But then the Captain came on really quickly and said "hey! We got clearance to land, here we go!" We landed safely. Miracle #2.

So I get off the plane and hurry to meet Torrie, who has, on her own, packed all of the items that she owns into a Ford Explorer. Are you kidding me?? This girl is amazing. To show you how fully packed this car was....I present this video:
Well, I wanted to, but my internet isn't working right now. I'll try again later.

Do you see how the person in the passenger seat can't even put their feet down! It's crazy! Miracle #3

So we start driving right then and there. Drive drive drive. We stopped to sleep for a few hours at rest stops twice - once right across the border into Idaho, and one...a few hours later in Idaho. We kept going and going, going right over the Blue Mountains in Idaho. We were hurrying to beat the storm that was coming into Seattle. Torrie was amazing, even taking most of the driving in the last few hours over Snoqualmie Pass. Although it was pretty windy and slightly snowing...nothing was too bad. We stopped at Dairy Queen in Bellevue right below the temple and then the snow began to fall in earnest. Here is a picture of us eating blizzards in a blizzard. :-)
Miracle #4

I drove the rest of the way home.

More stories to come later about the holidays, wedding, honeymoon, and life as a new husband!

I'd also invite you all to look at my lovely wife's blog, thestoryoftorrie.blogspot.com, unless you one of those creepy guys that keep following us, in which case BACK OFF. We are sick of you following us and making our lives so stressful.

Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile

One of my goals as I moved to Seattle and started a new life was to read more.

The whole falling in love, being engaged and planning a wedding derailed that, to a point. However, I was able to read a couple of books that I would like to comment on. The first is the following:

You may recognize the title from the movie starring Tom Hanks and....Glenn Close? I think. Obviously I'm too lazy to do the google search and find out. Anyway...........

I love history. I love war history, especially. I would read books about the Civil War as a kid...World War II documentaries....the problem is, I've learned so much that I never really learn anything new. Maybe one little nuance in an hour-long documentary.

So the idea of reading a book about a war that I really no ZERO about? How cool is that?

I loved it. I actually read through it pretty quickly, I was on travel for business so I had some quality reading time. I really enjoyed getting the behind-the-scenes info on how some very imperfect people used some back doors to fund a war in Afghanistan that was one of the principal reasons behind the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Two issues that I found myself contemplating:
1. I think it's SO crazy how one person, one random senator from Pennsylvania are wherever, can be in charge of appropriating so much money... billions of dollars...often with so little oversight. I don't think that's right. (Yet...in this case it turned out at least fairly nice.)

2. Man, how about those unintended consequences? Our support for the various tribes of Afghans against the Soviets may have brought us Osama Bin Laden and a lot of the problems that we are facing in Afghanistan right now. Going back, would you want to change it all? Would our world be a better place without our pumping billions of dollars of weapons, technology, and training to the various violent factions in Afghanistan? Very possibly.

Anyway, a good read, not that my literary opinion means anything...making myself write a blog entry about it makes me accountable to someone.

Today At Work

So today at work, as part of our staff meeting, we had a brainstorming session about ways to cut costs. I feel like I can tell the world that, it's not proprietary information that Boeing is trying to save money. I'm actually a fan of saving money, and I approve that they are looking for our input in doing that, as workers are usually the ones with the best ideas.

Anyway, as is wont to happen, the brainstorming session eventually degraded into who can come up with the funniest way to cut costs. I was in the zone, and my ideas kept getting funnier and funnier.

I would target ideas that I knew my coworkers would find funny because of their tastes and the things they complained about.

"What about industrial strength toilet paper? Oh wait, we already have that!" ha ha ha
"What about if we have a policy where you only flush every other time? Think about it, 50% savings in water bathroom costs!" ha ha ha. my germophobic coworkers loved that one

I was on a roll. I looked at my manager and took aim. She's a pretty hard-core environmentalist, had a Prius the first year they came out, lives out in the country, has a lot of pets that she really cares about, makes sure we turn off our monitors at the end of the day to save a little bit of energy...really nice lady, I like her. At the perfect time, at a lull in the conversation, I looked up and said,

"Isn't just throwing everything away cheaper than recycling? How about we do that?"

Dead Silence. Finally I added a "Just kidding. Joking. I love recycling."

Nobody laughed. Oh well.

Something's missing...

I haven't been writing much in my blog because blogs are supposed to be funny.





At least that's the way that I look at it. I have a list of my friends and their blogs and which ones do I take the ones to look at? The ones that I know are funny.





Well, I haven't been stepping it up lately. I've been busy with marriage plans and work and running and elections and I just don't feel like I'm very funny.





That's kind of how my life has been. Let's take Halloween, for example. Last year, for Halloween:

Oh, wait...this is me and Torrie, pre-relationship, dancing. When I got her to dance (for those of you who know Torrie, she HATES dancing) with me, I knew that she liked me, cause I could get her to do whatever I wanted. Ha ha.

My change in funniness? Perhaps it has to do with my work. I am now surrounded by older people all day. The two people I sit next to have been with the Boeing Company for a few years, and I find that a lot of my efforts are spent making them laugh. I'm successful at it, but I don't think jokes about kids is going to cut it for the blog.

I can make Torrie laugh - I spend enough time talking to her on the phone that I'm still really good at that...but really, she laughs a lot so it's not that hard :)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can be funny again? Perhaps some suggestions for funny blog entries? Cause I got nothin, but I refuse to believe that getting married means I have to give up my being funny.

Greece, continued

I have had a longstanding rule about my blog - I don't talk about politics or relationships.

I'm currently watching the presidential debate, and I don't like either candidate. I think Jim Lehrer is winning so far. Oh and in an totally unrelated note, Nancy Pelosi really really really really really bugs me.

I'm getting married in less than 100 days and words cannot express how I feel about Torrie. I am convinced that she is the best woman that I have ever met and with the most important decision that I will ever make...I am making the correct one.

Some of you (meaning the five of you that read my blog..thanks Dad!) may have noticed a remarked change in my online policy, and I quote: 'I just want to make everyone here a promise. ... When I get engaged (which I don't see happening for awhile...but we must be prepared) I will NOT put it on facebook. Nope. Never. ... If my fiancee` tries to make it official on facebook, I will decline her. If she has a problem with that, then we're not getting married. That's right. I am putting my foot down! BAM.' Logan Schultz, Friday, August 17, 2007" I had no idea at the time how great getting engaged would actually be or how much I wouldn't care if everyone knew that I was getting married. In fact, it's been quite the opposite, I want to share it with everyone! I'm sure some of the people that saw it couldn't care less, and that's fine. I am very grateful that Torrie and I have been able to share a little bit of the happiness we've experienced with our friends, and I have been touched by the many different people that have sent us messages wishing us good luck and showing excitement for us. So thanks.

Okay, onto a story about Greece:

The more I think about it (which actually becomes less, with time, unfortunately. I guess that is the way that time works in this mortal existence) the more I think how cool and unique our backpacking trip to Europe was. We travelled across the continent of Europe for five whole weeks. We saw amazing sights, encountered interesting cultures, and learned a lot about ourselves in the process. Greece was no different.

I already talked about our arrival in Athens. We decided that we had the evening, so let's go explore. We left our hostel and walked down to dafdafsdfad, the market area of the city. We were soon lost in a sea of small little shops filled with greek eyes, leather sandals, and clay pots. It was fun to look around and browse the different shops.

However, we didn't have time to lollygag. Our goal was to get to the Parthenon before it closed, because the light would be better for taking pictures. The sunset was pretty as we wandered through small streets in a residential district just below the Acropolis. The streets were narrow with lots of stairs, and all of the houses were whitewashed. The sidewalks were whitewashed as well, with random royal blue stones every once in awhile. We did finally make it up to the Acropolis, but we didn't make it in front of the Parthenon in time. We tried to see a couple of other things, including the Temple of Olympian Zeus, but it was closed as well. All closed. We were tired, so we took the subway home.

Back at the hostel, we watched the Turkey Germany Euro semifinal soccer game. Germany won, 3 - 2, in a pretty exciting game. The place where we were staying was definitely a youth hostel - lots of backpackers and people getting drunk. One of them decided to pounce on Torrie. "Torrie...you are a piece of work." ha. You should ask her about that sometime.

We made it up to our room and tried to go to sleep after eating our disappointing chocolate pear cookies. It was pretty hot all night, which reminded me, like Greece always did - of my first days is Napoli. Not really understanding the language, crazy chaos everywhere, so hot, so humid. It was fun and invigorating to be in a land that chaotic where I didn't understand what was going on. That made me excited for future trips to places like India, China, Egypt....

After a night of wishing I had a fan, we woke up and metroed down to the Acropolis. We ran ahead of the first big tour group and had the Acropolis pretty much to ourselves. The first building we saw was the Temple of Athena Nike. This was especially cool cause we came up a hill to go through it so it looked much more impressive. It was cool to think that archeologists had taken apart and rebuilt the entire impressive sculpture. Wow.

After our walk through that, we walked under the classic sight of the Parthenon. I had goosebumps as I looked under one of the most famous sights of the world. We walked around it, trying to take in its perfection. The builders had taken human deficiencies and made up for them - for example, they made the middle of the columns bigger and rounded the bottom slightly, things like that. It was awesome to see. I also think its crazy how it has survived - everything around it is basically rubble, you walk on pebbles of marble...yet the temple somehow continues to stand. Pretty cool.

From on top of the Acropolis we could see all of Athens. We could see a few parks and mountains that had Greek temples on them, whjich was cool. The city was mostly white, which is different then any other city I've been to.

We next came down and walked to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Only a few columns remained, but you could see how huge it once was. Our favorite part of this temple was their drinking fountain. It was chilled...an amazing. We then went to the stadium which held the original modern Olympic Games. That was pretty cool.

On our way back to the market we stopped and had a sesame seed ring and a doughnut. They were pretty good, as most things bought on the street are. The market was fun. I've decided that the Greek pattern of white and blue is fun, and there a lot of possibilties for Greek souvenirs with Greek pottery, statues, etc.

We wanted to make sure that we got back to the train station in time, so we left a little bit earlier than originally planned. Once we arrived in the train station, we found out that the train left earlier than we had expected. Oh good. I managed to jump on the train pretty quickly, which was good because I was able to save Torrie and I seats on a pretty crowded train. We rode in comfort, with me winning a yahtzee championship, and playing a great game of "A guy comes up to you on the street and asks....". What a fun game.

At Kialto the next train was already waiting on the track, so we got on it. About halfway there, all of a sudden the train stopped. We were unfazed - this happens every once in awhile and us veteran travellers didn't even notice such minor details. Big deal. However, after 15 minutes of sitting, we began to get a little worried. The fact that it was SO SO SO hot and the nice cool sea water was tempting us from the windows, we decided to see what's up.

Well, they were building a road just above the hill from us. As they were building this road, some rocks fell down in a little avalanche on the train tracks, pushing an iron rebar fence in our way. Well, out comes a backhoe, and they pull back the fence/dirt enough to let us through> here's a video of us getting through....hear the fence scratching against the train?

Well a few minutes later we stopped again. Another avalance had happened....including a big rock. (Petra! They said. I understood! Thanks Peter...) So they pulled it up with a rope attached to the same backhoe. A few minutes later, we all cheered as the train continued on its way to Patras.

Greece

I really don't know if I can explain our journey through Greece in a single blog entry. We'll see how I feel after awhile.

So our arrival to Greece was by ferry from Bari. We arrived in the city of Patras, on the NW side of the country. We got off with our backpacks, and made our way to the train station, which, unlike Cherbourg, France, was right next to the ferry port. Way to be smarter then the French!

We had a couple hours or so until the train left for Athens, so we decided to look around the city a bit. This was complicated by a couple of factors:

1. It was like 110 degrees...celsius.


2. It was probably 186% humidity.

3. We were wearing like 50 lb backpacks.

4. The city was built on a mountain cliff.

5. I don't understand a single thing in the greek language.

While all of those are slight exaggerations (even #5), it was pretty cool, and we sure as heck weren't going to waste our time in Greece!!!

So we began to explore the city. I saw a big hill with a fort thing on the top of it and a sign that said in Greek "Patras Fortress" (at least I assume that's what it said in Greek), so I said, hey, let's climb up it! It was a tough hill, but our reward at the top was........





an amazingly beautiful view from the top. As you can see. Stunning.

Let me just say a couple things about Greece. First, the beaches are gorgeous. Not that I've seen a large and varied amount of beaches in my lifetime, but still. Absolutely stunning.

Also, everything, at least the official signs, were in Greek and English. I thought that was kinda wierd. I expected maybe Italian...French...but English? I guess it is the international language...you could also tell, especially in Athens, that they had done a lot to get the city ready for the Olympics. It was pretty nice.

Being in Greece seriously reminded me of the first days of my mission. The feeling of sweat as it starts to appear on your neck. Not understanding anything that's being said, nor any street signs. Fast-moving cars that you don't ever really know where they are coming from. Random really old things in the middle of a modern city. A whole new world ready to be explored. A new fantasic point of view.

While exploring the city, we found this big ancient amphitheater. Turns out it was the second largest odeon, or amphitheater, in Ancient Greece. We would see the largest one the next day in Athens. This was really cool though because we found it ourselves. If we had looked it up in a book, and then gone and found it, it probably we have been an okay sight to see. But the fact that we found it while exploring ourselves made it a real treasure to find. There's another big lesson that I learned on this trip:

Activities, Sights, etc. are more meaningful and exciting when you figure them out on your own.

I'm sure that applies to a lot of areas besides vacationing in Europe, too.

After our adventure through Patras, we got on the train to Kialto. This was the first time I felt as part of a group of backpackers. We definitely were the majority on this train. Instead of being able to be quiet and hear the lively conversations of Greek, we instead were treated to a quiet lull of profanity-laced english. Sad. The train was the most rickety one, moving around from side to side a lot, and it was pretty hot, mostly because I was the one in the sun.

At Kialto we hurried to get on the next train, before someone behind us in english said that it wasn't the correct train, and that we needed to wait for the next one. We decided to wait, while probably about two-thirds of the other backpackers got on anyway. In retrospect that train went to the Airport, while our train went to the main train station. Not a big deal, but whatever. It probably saved us a couple euro of subway tickets.

Either way we showed up at Larissa Station in Athens. This was difficult because I do not speak Greek, their letters are different, and their maps are pretty difficult to read.

We had a hard time finding the hostel, but we did, thanks to some patience and an idea by Torrie. She didn't even get mad at me as we basically wondered around for a little bit! What a patient girl.

More Greece to come!

Walter Cronkite and My Journalism Kick

More stories to come out of Europe. But for now....

I've been on a journalism kick lately. As in, appreciating it. It all started with my graduation from BYU and subsequent move to Seattle. I wanted to continue to learn and to grow. The way I saw it, my learning should continue not only through my years of formal education, but forever. As such I made plans to continue to learn, weather it be through classes, (yeah free education paid for by boeing!) reading, whatever. Must continue to learn. This goes along with a verse of scripture I read the other day:
"Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly ...of things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms-That ye may be prepared in all things..."(D&C 88:78-79)

My first book to read was a biography called "A Reporter's Life". It was an autobiography, actually, written by Walter Cronkite. While it started off a little slow (most memoirs usually do), once he began to be a reporter in Europe during WWII and in Post-WWII Moscow, things became very exciting. I would take the book to read at work, stealing a half hour outside my building, enjoying the sun, my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and my endeavours through the eyes of Walter.

I think the most important thing I took from the book is the need for unbiased news. Don't get me wrong, I love opinions. My favorite tv show? Pardon the Interruption.

(Yeah, it's about sports, but whatever. I love it because of Tony and Michael's opinions. And I wanted to have a picture in this blog entry.)

I value the opinion of people who I usually agree with...and I really value the opinion of those who I don't agree with (knowing both sides of an issue and really thinking about it..I've changed my thoughts on a couple of things. Oh and as such, I don't hold it against a politician when he or she changes his/her mind. It happens sometimes, I think. At least it happens to me). However, after watching a little bit of tv news (my grandparents watch it every night) and with the little bit of internet surfing I do to find my news...I found myself wanting more. I felt the need. The need for unbiased journalism, but yet intensive enough to go beneath the surface.

I found the answer to my desire one morning while I was trying to put in my iPod on the way to work. My Guster kept cutting out as I drove down the road. Finally, I gave up, turned Candace off. (candace is the name of my ipod) and all of a sudden, a channel came through, crisp and clear. NPR! National Public Radio. That morning they told me about Seattle and some of the local issues with which the city has been dealing. They gave some insights into the Obama presidency. Best of all...it was refreshingly clear of bias. Just the news. Just the facts.

NPR has become sort of a ritual in my car, now. While I still enjoy a good Justin Timberlake on the way to work, and I usually talk to Torrie or the family on the way home...when those aren't going on, I listen to NPR. Today they had an interview with the President of Estonia, and how he was viewing the Georgia-Russia situation (which I know all about, thanks to NPR). His opinion was insightful, being a head of state of another small country that was once under the Soviet umbrella. I came home knowing more than I did before. Thank you, NPR.

Ireland is Green!

After being misidentified is Irish, I was pretty excited to get to Ireland, as you can see:

The following in an abridged excerpt from my journal written that night:

We woke up, had breakfast, and made our way to the Dublin Train Station for a trip to Cork. Well, first we went to the wrong train station. Then we took the tram to the right train station. We got our rail passes validated and made our way to the train...which happened to be full. (What! Such a thing would never happen in italy. They would have just piled us on and we would have stood the entire way. What has civilization done to society?) No room! They said there was no room on the train. I still don't know if I believe them. So we had two hours until the next one, so we walked around this little outskirt of Dublin, saw the Guiness factory.....yeah. Our train finally came, and we left through the Irish countryside for Cork.

Good thing we brought our stash of McVitties caramel cookies. mmmm....so good. That's seriously all we have eaten for the last two days.

Once we got to Cork, we went about finding the way to Blarney Castle, Amazing Race style. The train station lady told us to go to the bus station, 5 blocks away, who directed us to the right bus...perfect!

Cork is a cute little city. Very clean, a river down the middle...The bus ride was nice, just like the city buses in Rome. Also just like Rome, we got off at the wrong stop. While backtracking, we walked through the town of Blarney and saw the castle in the distance. A castle! Not just a big in the middle of the city castle like the Tower of London, but a straight up in the middle of the forest castle. So cool!

The coolest thing was...we were able to explore it! We paid our entry free and they just let you go! We climbed into the sentry posts - both human and dog - and crept on our hands and knees through the dungeon. As we scaled the castle we were free to climb on the walls, peek out the windows, all unsupervised. It wasn't too crowded either, which made you kinda feel that you were discovering it all for your own. Very cool. It was literally a dream come true. I've wanted to do this all my life!

It was so much fun climbing and playing in a real castle that I almost forgot the whole point of going specifically to the Blarney Castle. The Blarney Stone! Its gift is eloquence to all those who kiss it. As you can tell, it has totally worked. To give it a kiss, you have to lay down and kiss the stone upside down while hanging over the battlement. It's a pretty intense process (there's a guy helping you) but all totally worth it.
I need to underline the fact that I totally went for it as I kissed the stone. No going half way. All the way. Go big or go home.

We played on the battlements and explored rooms before we had to leave. Same process, only backwards - bus to Cork, walk to train station, where we missed our train by like two minutes. Blast! We looked up at the schedule and saw there was another Dublin train in like a half hour. Not too bad...until a half hour later when we realized that was the arrival of the train, not the departure. That only made me feel slightly stupid, compounded by the fact that I had to ask the train guy three times in order to understand his accent. I guess I'm not too Irish after all...

Another ride through the Irish country, with tons of green and cows on either side, accompanied by lots of U2, Tonic, and the Cranberries by my IPod. I have been doing my best to make myself associate Irish music with Ireland, that way whenever I hear these bands in the future, I will think of the beautiful green fields of Ireland (it worked, by the way.)

We found ourselves back in Dublin, but at the faraway train station. That's ok. We had return tram tickets. Well...one. I couldn't find the other one, so I rode illegally. No European trip is complete without breaking the law! (This is something that would be repeated several times throughout our trip.)

Overall assessment of Cork and the Blarney Castle: LOVED it. On my next trip to Ireland, I plan on renting a car, which I think will make it easier to explore the country more, and see more out of the way castles and other impressive sights that were somewhat hard to get to on public transportation. We only had two days in Ireland, so we only got a taste, but it sure was a good one. mmmmm

Wales, Land of Milk and Plenty

So I have moved to Seattle and started work at Boeing. While that is all very exciting, I am tired after a full day of buying a bed and moving into my new house. I pretty much got my room set up with the basics, though I still need a dresser and probably a bookshelf...well, a nightstand will probably do. My house is sweet and I will write more about it later.

I want, instead, to tell you about Wales.

Our trip did not allow for us to spend a lot of time in Wales. In fact, all we did was take a train through the southern part of Wales through Cardiff and Swansea to the port of Fishguard, where we embarked on a ferry that took us to Rosslare, Ireland. We didn't see any Welsh sites nor eat any Welsh food. However, we did meet some Welsh people....and oh boy were they a hoot.

Our first encounter of the Welsh kind was in Bath, England. Torrie and I had just gotten back to our hostel, the local YMCA - cue the music, please - and we were just grabbing some stuff before going on a walk of the town.

Here is a picture of said town: Bath, England.

So while Torrie was getting something out of her bag, I said hi to a guy in the corner of the room. I tried to do this pretty often, partly because I want to give a good impression of Americans to the outside world, but really I am just a friendly person.

He was a pleasant looking guy, probably in his thirties, and we soon found out he was from Wales. We also found out that he was a stonemason. (I think his name was John?) Yes, they still have stonemasons. When then found out a LOT about this guy. He just kept talking and talking. Doesn't like the royalty, thinks it's a waste of time. Likes the tradition of Wales though. (Isn't royalty a part of Welsh tradition? Can't pick and choose, buddy....) Doesn't speak Welsh, but is glad they teach it now in schools. Likes the environment. Likes Gaelic football, thinks I would be good at it. On and on and on......man! All we wanted was to get our stuff! He asked us what we did, and after he found out Torrie was a food and nutrition teacher, led to the best part of the conversation:

J:"You're a nutrition teacher? So you must eat pretty healthily, eh?"

T: "Yeah, well mostly."
L: "Yeah we do! We even had yogurt for dinner. (I didn't mention the caramel mcvitties that we had with them. That would have ruined my comment.)

T: "Oh YEAH! That yogurt was SO good. I LOVE yogurt." (Torrie loves yogurt, she really does.)

J: "Oh yeah? Yogurt, eh? How long have you been on the yogurt?"

T: "Well, I can't remember of a time when I haven't eaten yogurt, so pretty much all my life."

J: "Wow! I just started the yogurt a few months ago and it's had a big difference."

L: "Alright, well we have to go......"

Way funny, and it has inspired me to be on the yogurt more often.

Welsh Story Number Two!

So I mentioned that we took a ferry from Wales to Ireland. While watching a game of cricket (i do NOT understand that sport) I decided that I needed to charge Candace, my iPod. I finally located an empty outlet near these four ladies. I decided to go for it. As I made my way over there, I smiled and asked how they were doing. Pretty well, I had guessed, from all of the drunk cocktail glasses and a few cigarettes, and I was correct. They let me begin to charge my iPod, and I sat down next to the plug, cause I didn't want to just leave it there. A few minutes later they told me that I could sit down and next to them.

This I did, thanking them, and the first question they asked me was: "So what part of Ireland are you from?"

For a second I wanted to tell them Killarney, but I had never even been to Ireland before, so I sheepishly answered that I was actually from the United States.

"Oh! But you sounded Irish! Your voice was a wee bit soft, with a bit of a lilt to it..."

I had never heard that before, but I am definitely going to take it as a compliment, I told them, after which I asked where they were from.

"We are from Wales!"

I had ancestors from Wales, and after I mentioned where they were from and my mom's maiden name of Morgan they replied, "Oh! We are from there! We know plenty of Morgans!"

The next two hours or so were spent talking about Wales and America, Tom Jones, Bill Clinton (they liked him, he was a good-looking guy, apparently), Donny Osmond, Rugby, and Scarlett O'Hara. After awhile they invited Torrie over, but she didn't enter into the conversation much, mostly because every time she talked...no one could understand her. That was pretty funny.

Anyway, after a whole lot of pictures at the end, they let us go. Lovely Welsh ladies. I got a lot of pinches on the cheek and a lot of "Aww....my little Billy Clinton...I could be your grandma..." but then it was time to go. Wowza.

Here's a picture!!

The Welsh are incredibly friendly! These two experiences alone has made Wales pretty high on my list of places to go back to.

Back and Gone again

Hey! I am back in Provo! This means that I can begin the online narration of my amazing Europe summer trip.

After I get back from the Grand Canyon on Sunday....and before I leave for Seattle on Wednesday...start my new job on Friday...

There certainly is a lot going on right now, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

i tasted heaven two days ago in pizza form

thats right, i was in napoli and had some pizza with mozzerella di bufula. i had forgotten how amazing it was.

it has been so good being back in italy. SO good. im realizing things about myself and about my mission and the person who i want to be. some great blogs will follow, im sure, and you will all be impressed with the depth of my pondering :)

hey hey!

i know that i promised to update this more while im on this trip, but things have been crazy busy, and its hard to justify the expense to buy internet when i could eat gelato instead.

Here's the thing. Im having an amazing time, and i am writing all of my adventures down, so i will put them up here later. we can just pretend im in europe while im actually moving to seattle and starting my new life.

a couple of lessons learned that i will elaborate on:
1. knowledge increases enjoyment
2. things are worth more if you find it out by yourself
3. if you dont plan things out well enough, sometimes you might have to sleep on the ground in front of the santa lucia train station in venice.

does anyone want anything from europe?

My Accomplishment for Today

I can't tell you how much better I feel now. I look up at the mountain, and think: "I own you. I climbed you. You are nothing." I feel as if I rule Utah Valley.

Well...I guess I haven't climbed Timp yet.

It's the final countdown....

Anytime I get momentarily depressed (see: Detroit Pistons game 3 loss last night) I just have to think of the following picture:

This castle is in the city of Bacharach, Germany. It is also where I will be spending the night in about a month.

I'm pretty stoked about the trip. It's going to be life-changing. Legendary. Epic.

Of course, I will keep all two of my faithful blog readers updated. (Thanks Mom!) wink, wink.....

I'm not excited about leaving Provo, though, and especially all the really good friends that I have here. I'm dealing with that situation by not thinking about it...and instead, dreaming of castles in Germany.

My Current Love

I've been catching up on old episodes of the Office.

This, of course, always leads me to the same conclusion:

I must marry Pam Beasley.

Yup, she's great.

I've had a couple of fictional characters that I have been in love with. Elizabeth Bennett is the one that first crosses my mind. (In case anyone's interested, the fictional character that bothers me the most is Kim Bauer. I....am not going to talk about her right now.)

But for now....I think that Pam has taken my heart. She's funny. She has an amazing personality. She's attractive. She's smart. She's devoted. Her and Jim got together like I always imagined (and..frankly...still do) myself doing with my wife; totally liking each other from the very beginning, but first becoming really good friends and then later dating and at the end, hopefully getting married. Well, I will get married to her, I'm just talking about Pam and Jim. I want them to be happy just like I will be happy.

We'll see how long it takes before I fall in love with another fictional character.

I have a couple of things that I could talk about:

But for now, I think I'm just going to mention that I graduated a couple of weeks ago.

My parents came out to Provo for the occasion. It was fun to see them. For some reason, I just realized that...I will only see them once a year, most likely. Christmas. I guess that isn't a huge chance from before, and I did go two years without seeing them...but I don't know.

My grandparents also came down from Idaho for the occasion. It was really good to see them. Isn't my grandma's hat cute?

I can't believe it, four years of school all for the chance to wear a cap and gown and stand on this sign.

The graduation ceremony itself wasn't the most exciting, so I spent the whole time staring at the faculty's graduation robes. They were intense. Then I start thinking of all the places I should go to grad school, so that one day if I ever decide to teach and have the opportunity to wear crazy intense graduation robes as a member of faculty I could have the coolest color robes. The University of Washington's colors are purple and gold....that could be pretty cool, I think.

I bought train tickets today

Yup, I'm going to Europe. I'm pretty excited.

San Francisco!

I would encourage all of you to take a look at the pictures that I put up on facebook. Maybe I'll add a couple here. Okay fine I will.

It was so nice. So warm. So much fun. So much not dealing with school. So much having good times with good friends.

The best thing I ate was probably....chinese food in chinatown. We went to the House of Nanking, and it was really good. Me and Jess walk in and the cook comes out to take our order. I tell him that I've never been here before...and he just takes away our menus. "I will decide what you will eat." Haha okay....and he did not disappoint. SOOOOO good.

An honorable mention would have to go the gelato that we had in Little Italy. It was only gelato, so it did not take the ultimate prize, but it was heavenly. It also meant that I got to talk to REAL italians, which is always a treat.

This is all I'm going to write, but I am definitely going to recommend San Francisco for anyone looking for a vacation. Any questions?

The Detroit Tigers

Before I get to the current state of the Detroit Tigers, let me just explain my feelings of the baseball season this year.

I am SO excited.

I have found over the last few years that my love for baseball has increased. I used to be your normal type of baseball fan - "yeah, i only like baseball if you actually go to the game, that's fun...or maybe the world series on tv. but that's it."

Yet now I bought the package to listen to every single Tigers game (what do you think i'm doing during class today? I'll give you a clue - not international corporate finance). I sat down last sunday and watched the tigers because they were on tv. I'll call up and talk to my family about it. I love Tigers baseball.

With all the buildup this year, the first six games have been somewhat dissappointing. 0 - 6? No hitting? Pitching off and on? It's depressing. Everyone wants to talk about it, too. "Hey Logan! How bout your Tigers, huh?" "Wow Logan! That sure was an expensive 6 losses you've paid for!"

Well I don't care. I believe. I'm clapping right now (clap if you believe!). The Tigers have too many weapons and are too good just to collapse. They will turn it around and be in contention for the playoffs, I'm sure of it. We will then see more pictures like this one:

Arches National Park

President's Day Weekend Recipe for Success:

1. Ready to leave Provo for a few days.

I was ready to spend a few days out of Provo. I really hadn't left since Christmas...and a month and a half is a long time be in Provo the entire time. This brings up another question....what happens in three months and I have a full time job? I can't just get sick of whatever city I'm in and leave, right? Especially when I have a family....is there something in particular about Provo that makes me so excited to leave every once in awhile?

2. Destination

Having a good destination is key. No one is going to be excited about going to Price. It needs to be someplace close enough to drive to, not too expensive, and have fun things to do. For President's Day, and especially due to the above average snowfall, it needed to be someplace warm. Our thoughts were:

Las Vegas - too expensive. Plus we're going for the Mountain West Basketball Tournament.

California - too far. Plus...again...we're going later this semester.

Idaho - just kidding. Why would anyone go to Idaho.

Colorado - I just went there. We could have gotten Deanna's truck, but she decided not to come. Plus it was still cold there.

Arches National Park - Bingo! It had everything we wanted. It's a cool fun place, lots to do and see, a little bit warmer, only three hours away, and what is cheaper than camping??

3. People

You have to have the right people. I cannot stress this enough. If you go on a roadtrip with a whiner, or with someone who doesn't fit with the group, or too many people, or someone not willing to pay anything...it is not going to be fun. Having the right people is essential. Some inquiries and opportunities left us with myself, Torrie, Andrea, and Chris. I don't think you could find a better group. Everyone was on the same page, and we all brought our own unique skills/resources to the experience. Torrie came up huge with getting a stove, providing the car, and spearheading the food (bread on a stick? pure genius.) Andrea got us a tent, Chris was great with the fire, and I, well, I didn't really do anything. I supervised :)

4. Food

You have to have good food. Hungry roadtrips are sad roadtrips. We ate like kings, however. Tin Foil Dinner kings, that is. We also had the necessary hot dog roasting dinner, which we surrounded with dough to make our own buns, which was fun. Breakfast we had Toad in the Hole, which is basically an egg cooked in a hole made in a slice of bread. I don't really like that name, but it was pretty good. We had plenty of chips and doughnuts and good roadtrip food for in the car as well. The food was great.

How was it? Great. Seriously. So much fun. We arrived late at night, found a free campsite, and cooked hot dogs. We then went to bed, and after a cold night woke up to find the Colorado River right next to us.

After breakfast, we drove quickly to Arches National Park and began to explore. It was so much fun.

After all that, we came back to the campsite, cooked our tin foil dinners, and then drove home. Perfect.

It’s the end of January, which means that I am at the point where my mind starts thinking of traveling. (I think it has to with the fact that it is FREEZING.) Where am I going to go this summer?

I honestly think I’m at the point now where it’s no longer a question of IF I’m going somewhere. It’s WHERE.

Let’s take a look at the criteria for Logan’s Summer Trip:

1. It needs to be somewhere exotic...maybe foreign is a better word. While I love New York City…let’s be honest, I can go there when I’m married and have a family. I need to be taking advantage of the fact that I am single and have some flexibility.
2. I need to go to some place that I’ve never been. What’s the fun in going some place that I’ve already been to? There are a couple exceptions to that…if I’m traveling with friends who have never been to a certain place, I’d be willing to go back…but part of the trip has to be some place I have never been. New adventures.
3. There is nothing worth seeing in the world that would not be better with your best friend. The choice of a travel companion is essential. Last year I was successful in dragging Connor around Europe, and I got some friends to Mexico City. Who will it be this year? Where will he/she/they want to go? This may have the largest effect on my summer trip.
4. One thing that I noticed while compiling with this list is that I want to be able to go on a trip where I will be able to see a number of different things. India would be amazing…but all I would end up seeing is India. While I’m young and spry and can move around a lot quicker, I want to take advantage of that and see many things.

Now that the criteria has been put into place, I am going to name and judge some places which fit the crtieria (some of which have already been suggested, some of which I am throwing into the ring.) Looking back, my first thought is – wow. I still have a lot of places to visit. Let’s take a look.

Spain

Spain would be way cool! Madrid, Barcelona, maybe Portugal too cause its right there…there would be friends to visit in Spain (Michelle and Nautasha), I could try to run into my cousin Cathy on her mission, I have possible vacation buddies who speak Spanish, and Italian is pretty close….there is so much to see…this is a definite possibility. Ooooh I get excited just thinking about it. I could go Spain..Portugal maybe..then up through andorra to southern france and over to Italy. Doesn’t that sound fun????

Germany

Castles are SO cool. Germany has tons of them. I would write the ones that I want to see here but they are too difficult to spell. This is the land of some of my ancestors, I’ve always wanted to go to Germany…and it could be a part of a more central european trip – Germany, Austria, Prague, maybe Switzerland and…of course…Italy?

Switzerland

Um…I absolutely loved Switzerland last summer. I may have to go back to Gimmelwald, wherever I end up. I don’t really know what else to say. It was incredible in every meaning of the word. Every single step we were saying "wow...this is so cool....wow...this is so cool...." I really can't describe how much I loved Switzerland.

Austria

Sound of Music…Mozart…and my grandpa won’t stop talking about Salzburg, and I think that would be cool to see. I also hear that Vienna is absolutely gorgeous. The Alps would be pretty as well, like Switzerland.

Czech Republic

I’ve been hearing about Prague from when I was a missionary in Italy. “Anziano Schultz….devi andare a Praga. È bellissima.” (Elder Schultz, you must go to Prague. It is gorgeous.) Friends that have gone have loved it….yeah. So maybe I need to see what all the hype is about.

Scotland/Wales/Ireland

I’m putting these all together, even though I know they are fairly different places. A lot of my ancestry comes from here, so that’s cool. Pemberly? Hogsmeade Station? Crazy Celtic Castles in the middle of nowhere? The moor? Secret Garden? I cannot explain HOW COOL this would be.

South Africa

If I’m going to go to South Africa, I’m going to wait for the World Cup in 2010. Sorry, Carla.

Peru

So while talking to my mom last night, she asks me, “Logan, when you were in Mexico, did you go Macchu Picchu?” hahaha. No mom…that’s Peru…a little ways away…but I do really really want to go there. And I will someday. Old Native American ruins are sweet.

Hawaii

For me to go to Hawaii….I’m going to wait until I’m married.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico and/or Guatemala

See Hawaii. (Cancun...beaches...maybe its not the same.) Though seeing all the Mayan stuff will be amazing…if somebody really wants to go....

Japan

Someone mentioned to me Japan. I don’t really want to go to Japan. I figure that I'll eventually make it there on business sometime.

India

I don’t think

I’m ready for India yet. One day though,

I want to see the Taj Mahal.

Greece

Greece would be SO cool. The Parthenon? The Acropolis? Greece is a d

efinite possibility, especially cause it is just a boat ride/Ryan Air flight from Italy.

Egypt

The Pyramids…the Sphinx…I HAVE to see these sometime in my life. I get the feeling that right now I won’t be going here, just because I will want to focus my attention on a trip where I can see a lot of things quickly. But I guess it’s not that far away….

Any comments would be appreciated. I’m not going to make any final decisions until I know a little bit more about my personal situation (for example…will I have a job?)