Here at last!!

So im going to give you all an account of what ive been up to since i left roseville, and what better place to start than the airport. my plane for houston was leaving at 12:00 noon so we got there at around 9:30. Ryan and I played around with the uke for a while and we read and finally the time had come. At this point it was starting to hit me, what i was about to embark on, and i was getting nervious and a little scared but we pulled through it. We all said goodbye and the adventure began. I felt a little ridiculous carrying my humungous backpack through this narrow aisle. i was constantly apologizing to people because it would hit their arms and heads... i felt horrible. and after some aimless staring and a little Fellowship of the Ring (thanks ryan) my first leg was over. now im standing in the Houston airport which is one of the largest airports ive ever been in, and i have a 6 hour lay over, so what did i do for that long? well i explored. i walked through all the terminals except A and i took a couple rides on the tram going in between terminals, which was surprisingly more fun than i expected and tried to find a place where i could eat dinner later that night. After wandering for about 2 hours my back was getting sore from carrying my humungous backpack and i decided to take a rest. I ended up getting into a conversation with these two college, im guessing, marine biology majors who just came back from belize after helping the government count fish and evaluate the coral life. they were very interesting and then they left. so i pulled out FOTR (fellowship of the ring) and started reading. I am not yet 15 min into reading when i see this kid with awkward looking blazer identical to mine so i yell out across the waiting area,¨HEY are you a rotary student?!¨ waving my hand ridiculously, and he said yes and he walked on over and we got to talking his name is Mitchel and he´s from benicia going to Bogota which is the capital of colombia. He seems like a cool dude so im looking forward to seeing him again. And then we got some dinner and chilled. after dinner we still had like 2 hours to kill so we just sat. he sketched while i played the uke and read FOTR. we made fools of ourselves because we cant understand spanish that well and we thought that everyone was boarding when it was just first class and children so we walked right up to the desk with our passes with a good 20 people behind us and the dude had to say that we cant go on yet and he sent us to the back. we soon got on the flight after i pummeled some people with my gigantic backpack and were up in the air. this was the portion of the trip when you are supposed to sleep because it was from 12 to five in the morning, but i was not able to sleep at all, not because of nerves or because i was talking or watching a movie, no it was because it is impossible for me to sleep while sitting up. So im up for the entire 5 hour flight dozing in and out of conciousness not gettting any rest whatsoever, suddenly all the lights went on and the pilot said we were landing. bummer for me. So we get off the plane and go to customs which was another adventure because neither of us had the address for our host families houses. but the guy let us through and this is where Mitchel was leaving so we picked up his bags and were about to leave when a woman comes up to us speaking in spanish, we just stand there like idiots until i finally tell her that we dont speak spanish. she was looking for his baggage claim sticker which he had misplaced so we´re scrounging around his pack for it and we finally find it and were walking up to leave and another woman stops us speaking in spanish, i wised up and said immediately that we dont speak spanish and a nice old woman helped translate for her and she was going off on how we need the addresses of our host families. Well with no way of communicating with our families we thought that we were pretty screwed, so i did my best to talk to her saying that we cant find them and asking if there is anyway else, she said no of course, so were scrambling for a good 5 min until she says ¨hey you can use your own addresses¨ im confused ¨de los estados unidos?¨ i asked ¨Si¨ she replies. Mitch, who doesnt speak a word of spanish is just looking at me and i start to get a smile and hes asking what she said and what to do and we soon worked our way through that ordeal. and then he leaves and im now in this foreign airport not knowing what the heck to do so i did what any lost person does: i follow the crowd. i soon get to where i need to go but i soon find out that bogota is basically an outside airport with a tin roof and a glass wall. and as it turns out its san francisco weather. so im chilling, literally, in this room at 5 in the morning in sandals, shorts, and a blazer. i start to look around and i see all these families and people bundled up in heavy coats boots and pants, and a lot of them staring at me. and im doing this for 3 hours. again bummer for me. and on the flight to cali i finally get some rest even if it was for only 20 min. and i arrive in cali thrilled to see that it wasnt bogota weather. it was 70 degrees with a strong breeze and a humidity. it felt fantastic. I met my fam, and they seem pretty legit so thats good, and they lived close to the airport which was even better. and we had b fast together: scrambled eggs, amazing fresh bread, fresh fruits that ive never tasted before, there was this one fruit it kinda looked like an orange on the outside but the inside were all these seeds with a weird gel holding it all together. and when you eat it you dont chew you just kinda swish it around your mouth and swallow it, sounds gross, tastes delicious. and one of the best things about b fast was the juice its called LULU and it was amazing. then i met some rotarians, took a nap and then off to lunch which was gibondous (pronounced jie-boon-dos) and we toured the city a bit. and now im here in front of the computer writing this out. Now youre all caught up sorry it was so long and now i say goodbye and until next time, ADIOS!

The time is approaching

I was just told yesterday that i will be leaving for Colombia on the 27th of August. I am very excited as you might imagine and i am very ready to leave... mentally at least, i havent started packing yet. But i will start soon... maybe.