Oh my goodness. I haven't been here in like...a machillion centuries! Well I don't think anyone will ever read this, at least I hope not. Stalkers. *ahem* Anyways well this will sort of be...relief of my personal experiences. I mean Alaska was amazing so it's only fair that I should get the opportunity to express my enthusiasm to nobody, right? Yes of course. Let's begin, shall we.

So it all started in the airport. I was pretty much hurtling myself into a situation full of the unknown, and by then I should've been nervous. But surprisingly, I was fairly calm. I had a short confrontation with my dad before I left, but haha of course that's to be expected. It was all better before we cleared security though. Anyways, long story short, we got stuck in the Seatac Airport for roughly 7 hours, in which I digested 5 Grande Mocha Frapuccinos from Starbucks, and got time to "get used" to the girls :) Now you may not understand why I need to "get used" to someone, but let me tell ya, these people are crazy :-D But I really was starting to get the hang of having fun with them....so all was good.

Well our delay in Seattle caused us to miss our connecting flight to Nome, meaning we would have to spend the night in Anchorage. Not to bad, right? More time for team bonding and such. So we arrive at the airport and sit in the terminal for a while because they lost our baggage, so we played a few games and then once the van came for us outside, we quickly discovered we were staying @ the Puffin Inn. That's right folks. The Puffin Inn. Luckily, I got my own room and the rest of em had to share :D But I did go down to party in their room till about 1, until I had to leave and continue partying in my own room...with myself. Oh that sounded naughty. But it wasn't, I swear. Gross...

So the flight to Nome that day was surprisingly on a Boing 737-300 or something random like that. I never really thought that many people traveled to Nome....but there were only like 10 people on the entire plane lol so I don't know why they wasted a commercial jet like that on us haha. Oh well, more legroom for the jumpers! Well anyways we reviewed the rules of the camp, and got used to Carla's business side (she was our "coach" for the trip). It's ok, I think we didn't piss her off too bad.

Well, flying into Nome you notice about one thing: none of the buildings are more than 2 stories high. There is also no concrete, and since this is Alaska the roads are muddy in areas from the rain. Everything looks pretty trashy around there, I won't deny it....but inside the houses are fabulous. It's strange...you'd think the haggard appearance of the town would be repulsive, but it has that strange homely quality. And it's so peaceful. Sad to have it go :(

Well all us jumpers had to room with a host family...usually the parents of a son/daughter who was participating in the gamp. My fears were confirmed when I found they were Mormon, but apparently they're not the fanatic type so I had a chance to relax ;-) The kid I roomed with was surprisingly tall for a 9th grader, and I found this disturbing because I don't like it when people are almost as tall as me. Thankfully he wasn't an annoying little kid, but 14-year olds still have a ways to mature :D Haha I should know, I have a 9th grade sister too -_-. *cough*. Anyways, their house was about 5 doors down from the school, so I got to walk through peaceful Nome @ about 9 in the morning....I shall miss that.

The first day of camp was...an experience :) After finding out that each of our tickets cost $1000 (did I mention we were all paid for by the Alaskan government/the team we were teaching?), I was pretty apprehensive. What if I didn't teach them enough? It would've been a waste of $1000!! So naturally I tried my best to be helpful....and also to understand that little [u]little children cannot learn skills in less than two years[/u]. While that may sound brutal, it's the truth. Little kiddies just simply cannot grasp a technique without time first getting their brains more coordinate and muscles strengthened. Heh, I'm sure glad I was never as terrible as they were

Ok skip ahead a few days. MY B-DAY! Yup, an Alaskan birthday how many of you can top that? Nope, didn't think so. My compadre jumpers made my cupcakes/cake and I had to do a hugline down the entire camp -_-. Needless to say, I'm a professional now. Some people went back at the end of the line again to get a 2nd hug. While I think that's very nice of them, all of them are about 3 years younger than me and considerably clingy. Heh, oh well, I guess you can't find love everywhere :D But overall I thought it was really nice of the people there to do what they did....and it actually felt like they cared, not just some superficial event thrown for me out of necessity. *sigh*...if only everyday could be so grand....

Skip ahead another day. The camp is now over, and we're left with freeeee time! So one of the moms takes us out to a place called Salmon Lake....absolutely amazing. EXCEPT the enormous swarms of little mountain bugs that DIED IN MY LEG HAIR. Ugh...that's right. I had to pick them out of my leg hair. And don't run with your mouth open or you may unwittingly digest some extra protein -_-. Did I also mention that the mosquitos there are about the size of your thumbnail? Yuuup...nasty buggers. Anyways, we all took canoes out across the lake to the tundra...I really wish I could describe it to whoever the hell is listening. It was like...lots of little lumps. You couldn't just walk on the ground because you'd trip and fall on your face. You had to jump from lump to lump to get your across until you got to higher ground. And then you had to traverse through all this underbrush....it was about 4 feet high and very scratchy. Bad day to wear shorts. But when we got to the waterfall....oh man that was pretty cool. It was like a picture from National Geographic or something. And the best part was that you got to climb it :D There was a giant ice floe in front of the waterfall, and the running water had carved a big cavern underneath it. Pretty awesome. So you could either slide down the ice floe or hibernate underneath! A very exciting ordeal needless to say. I half expected a polar bear to come out of hibernation and eat someone, but of course this never happened. AT least....I don't think so.

After we got back there was a BBQ...hotdogs and hamburgers! I'm thuroughly convinced that I will now take home-made hamburgers over fast food anyday. We also went bridge jumping....it was only about a 20 foot drop, but the water there is a freezing bitch. Maybe if I had a change of clothes I would've tried haha. But other peeps did, including our coach! She screamed the whole way down :D

The next day we went down to the beach with some puppies. They were juniors on a snow dog team that did the Iditerod. Apparently one of the daughters from the family Carla was staying at owns them. Anyways, we went down to the beach and started a mini-bonfire. Eventually I decided to brave the frigid cold of the Bering Sea, and waded in about 3 feet. Unfortunately, Jeremy (the kid I'm staying with) decides it's a good idea to throw a heavy log right next to me, and simultaneously drench me in salt, water, and arctic temperatures. Excellent! But that's ok, bonfires and marshmellows always heat me up pretty quick haha. We played pictionary in the sand, had stick fights, and Stephanie collected sand, rocks, and water from the Bering Sea in a water bottle to take home for some crazy person who follows her around everywhere :D Haha you have to please your fans I guess. My last encounter with bonfires + marshmellows was rather...insane. Surprisingly I was rather calm this time around....good thing too, for the safety of pedestrians at least lol.

Well on the last day it was sad. The airport is tiny. It's a single room with only one security thingamabob and only 2 people checking in luggage. But everybody met us there to say goodbyes :( I hope we left an impression on them....not just jump rope wise, but also in life lol. I know that sounds cheesy, but honestly I think that the people up there are bored. Really. We were kind of the occasional visitors to spruce things up a bit. I hope we did, at least :( Anyway, I'll miss it....

By the time we were on the plane home, I felt like an officialy Hotdog :) The girls were soooo good at making me feel welcome and breaking me out of my shell....and not making me "afraid of life", so to speak. I don't think I've ever seen anybody take as many pictures as them, but maybe that's why I felt so welcomed :D I think if I was ever gonna do another trip with the Hotdogs, these people are defintely the jumpers I would want to do it with. I don't think I've ever warmed up to anybody faster...and let me tell ya I don't warm up very easily :)

*sigh*. Overall, it was a great experience, the likes of which I will probably see very rarely in my life. I mean, you can only be broken out of your shell once, right :) Ok well time for me to make my grand exit. If you actually read this whole thing, thanks. And if you don't even know me....stalker!

Stay sexy Nutang! Oh wait...was it classy?

-Shoe

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Do not try to bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

I'm back, and damn does it feel good! I have an all-new-super-cool Matrix Layout too! I'm really excited.

So lately I've been getting really obnoxious and wierd, the two things that I hoped to never become. It does have its benefits though, cuz now I'm not scared to say answers in class out loud lol, however lame that might be....

Anyways, today was awesome and I have no idea why. Maybe it's because I had jump rope practice today, or maybe because I pulled the chair-thing on Megan and she fell for it literally lol. Good laughs from that, just hope she didn't hurt her head . And then I translated "I write many compositions at home" with like NO ERRORS in Spanish, except for one stupid thing but other than that I owned. Then in Science I drew Jorjor as a superhero known as "hardballs" and his sidekick was "Cuddles The Fabric Softner Bear" (sean), and The Bulge (lol don't ask). Being completley off-task is awesome!!!!

The 3 reasons why Friday is the best:
1. Jump rope practice
2. end of the week
3. Threshold is on (channel 7 @9 pm)

My brain has run out of ideas as what to put next, so maybe I should stop. I think i will. Adios amigos (I'm geting an A in spanish, can't you tell)!

-SHOE

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Wahoooo the weekend is herrreee....
This week has gone by fast. Probably because there was only like 3 days, but also because it was fun! Wednesdays usually suck, but today wasn't bad. I finished my flashcards early in Tutorial. Me and Fatty still have to plan what we're going to wear!! I guess we could do it tomorrow when we work on the Science Project, and go shopping w/Lindsay and Murphy or something on Saturday. Who knows....anyone know what Paul's talking about when he says people are going with their senior friends?

Ooook so anyway back on topic. Burke's class was sooo boring...got 24/25 on the Vocab test (yay) but usually those aren't too hard after we practially memorize the list from doing inner-outer circle. Advisory was funny. I illustrated a masterpiece comic making fun of Brittany =D All in play...and Paul illustrated us as a fat mouse (brittany) and a monkey (me). Lol...

KELSEY HAS ABONDONED US!! She's left Jackie and Becca all alone. Now she only sees Becca during Rock and...Jackie no time =( Sad. And now I can't make fun of her during math! Urrggghh...stupid concert choir. Yeah so about math...it was stupid. I stabbed Vince with a pencil and he made this sound like a dying moose. Lol good times.

In tech I was supposed to help Josh grapping Image Discs of all the computer s in the building, but Mrs. Weberg had me video tape her for that National Teaching Board thingy. It hurt my shoulder....

Yeah so pretty much that was my day! Tomorrow I go over to Fatty's house to work on the Science Project some more. I don't really know if Michelle can come, and knowing Vince he probably can't. Jeeeez. Michelle's going to make some realy really awesome visuals. She's the master at that. I'll do a PowerPoint or something, and we can try to type the quesiotns at Fatty's house. Hopefully we'll get SOMETHING done this time...

Have a happy 4 day weekend!

-Shoe

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YAY! I looooooveeee going over to Brittany's house!!!! Dude I was laughing the whole time...and now my cheeks hurt really bad. We got absolutely nothing done on our project, but I really coudln't care less. That was one of the coolest things ever. First of all, her dog is the best. Second of all, Brittany's parents are awesome. And third....I dunno it was just cool. Who knows! Maybe it was becuase I rarely get out of the house.....but I'm preeetttty sure that's not the only reason. I'd love to list all of the hilarous moments but that'd take wayyy to much time and I can't remember them. *sigh*......I would SO do that every Saturday....
I WANT TO GO LIVE THERE!!!
Brittany is just so fun to be around...good lord.
Tomorrow I get to see my puppy!
http://tinypic.com/view.html?pic=21915i

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