iron

wine

top se7en picture of oh-se7en

|seven|

location: providence, ri

subject: jyll ethier-mullen

|six|

location: somewhere, czech republic

subject: lucka zagorova

|five|

location: orlicke hory, czech republic

|four|

location: prague, czech republic

subject: aubrey peth

|three|

location: katowice, poland

subject: billy van kirk

|two|

location: cesky krumlov, czech republic

subject: jessica red

|one|

location: pribor, czech republic

|honorable mentions|

location: lisbon, portugal

subjects: jozka, lucka, er bear, em, and me

location: portland, oregon

location: lisbon, portugal

subject: banana

location: prague, czech republic

subjects: matt peterson and jen solstad

location: austrian alps

subjects: johnny stevens and david bordner

top se7en places of oh se7en

|seven|

chicago: i am a west coaster through and through, but if i were to live anywhere east of colorado it would be chicago.

company: moody students, beth and dan, martel, bronston

|six|

austrian alps: snow wasn't great, but the weather was unbelievable!

company: jv men!

|five|

providence: i love visiting new places and providence may be the portland of the east...city with a small town flavor.

company: mullens and bergers

|four|

at&t ballpark: bonds' final game as a giant (maybe ever), the city by the bay, the best stadium in mlb, and my dad: priceless

company: dad

|three|

puerto vallarta: just a beautiful location.  i don't know if it was the place as much as the fact that i did nothing but read and chill with my parents.

company: mom and dad

|two|

portland: my time there just reconfirmed the fact that if i ever move back to the states it will be to portland.  great art and music scene.  city with a small town feel.  great neighborhoods with privately owned coffee shops, restaurants, and breweries.

company: josh, pete, and aubree

|one|

portugal: a fabulous vacation spot.  if it wasn't so far away i'd go there every summer for vacation. great food, inexpensive, good surf, breathtaking sunsets, majestic cliffs.

company: jozka, em, lucka, and er bear.

adventures in mexico

there were three very unique experiences that i had on my recent trip to mexico with somanorth here in arizona.

1_while driving through the arizona desert on our way down to mexico we saw ufos. now i'm not saying that they were alien ufos, but they were most definately unidentified flying objects...lights in the sky. i'm not an expert on military aircraft and i really don't know jack about aeronautics, but my friend Christian, the driver of our crew, has a degree in aeronautical engineering and he'd never seen anything like it before. there were two separate types of ufo.

the first was a bright light that would pulse as it fell to earth with each subsequent flare appearing more downward and more to the left. now, it could easily have been something just falling, but the odd thing is that at the end of each of these we saw (there were four or five total) it would arch upwards and then not appear again apparently never falling completely to the ground.

the second were four lights that were in the sky the entire time the other things were falling, but remained completely still during the entire show. in fact, we thought they were lights atop towers on a mountain, but suddenly, these once stationary lights begun to decend upon the earth. Christian exclaimed that they could not be helicopters, because helicopters couldn't decend so quickly. he was at a loss for what they could be.

2_i almost got shot in the head by an ak-47 on thursday night.

my primary role in riding shotgun was to get us to our final destination. my tools: map and a mag light. after entering mexico (around midnight) our senses were hightened to the federali (the mexican police). Christian had worried for hours (literaly) about what a mexican jail would be like, could we run from the federali, would we bail him out if he were arrested, and countless other annoying questions. the federali are notorious for their corruption and senseless arrests. we were even told to have $40 ready in case we got pulled over.

sure enough, as we pulling into puerto penasco (our final destination) the federali pulled up next to us. the mexican driving glaced over at me. i glanced back. he did a double take and slowed his car down. as we pulled away from him, he slid into our lane. Christian begins to get worried...we all do in fact. then, sure enough, the lights come on. we had been driving the speed limit and didn't appear to be doing anything illegal, so we were confounded. after pulling into a dirt lot on the side of the road, the driver came up to the driver side and in spanish (via Jenni's translation) asked us to turn the dome light on. we did. he then asked us to raise our hands, so he could see them. we did. all the while he is looking at me, not Christian. then, upon seeing the mag light on my lap, says, "Oh, lampa." smiles, says "bye" and walks away.

as the beat of our hearts begin to slow everything became clear. when the federali pulled along side of us, i had been holding the mag light in my right hand. apparently, he saw the shine of metal and thought it was a gun! the girls also spoke up at that time and asked if we saw the other guy standing outside of my window. because i'd been focusing on the guy at Christian's window, i didn't. the girls then relayed that he was holding an ak-47! i was one flash of the mag light away from being capped in the dome

3_the bed i slept in was the top bunk of a bunkbed. it was rather comfortable and nice. the odd thing was that it was extremely high. in fact, i could barely sit up straight while up there. the other interesting aspect was that there was a fan that hung over the legs-half of the bed. while not close to my head, it could be if i wasn't paying attention.

on the final night i came into our room at 3 am after watching a movie in another room. the lights were off in the entire condo, so it was pitch black. the white noise of the fan filled the room as i climbed up in bed. forgetting about the fan, i leaned forward in an effort to slide my body into bed.

THWAP, THWAP, THWAP

as far as i can tell i took three fan blades to the head. two to the forehead and one to the bridge of the nose. i was inches from losing an eye. feeling marginal amounts of blood and only feeling slightly dazed, I laid down and wondered as i fell asleep whether i had a concussion. knowing the dangers of sleeping after a concussion, i fell asleep wondering if i would wake up the next morning.

i did.


_____________________________________

here are pictures from other, less exciting times while in mexico:

days 7 and 8/9: three sunrises, two surfers and five kings

day seven we got up early and watched the sunrise...three times! due to poor timing on our part, the first was as we drove to the beach. fortunately for us, the beach we went to had a huge cliff between it and the sun, so we got to watch the sun rise a second time. finally, since our campsite was located in a huge revine, by the time we got back to our camp the sun was rising there too! oh, lucky us.





we also went to the beach again and jozka and i surfed...



days eightandnine blend together really.

we left sw portugal at 530 am to drive to barcelona. we made it to barcelona at 8 pm, ate dinner and walked around the city.

barcelona has a lot of street artists



then left at midnight to make the 16 hour drive home.

needless to say, when we ate burger king at 3 in the afternoon on day nine we were a little kookoo...



we wore those crowns for the next five hours...literally.

days 5 & 6: tents, naked gymnastics, and psalm 19

this is the difference between morning four and morning five:





we were super excited when we got to the beach:



the beach also had quite a few naked people on it. now, i'm not just saying topless women (a standard at european beaches), i'm talking full on. there weren't a lot and fortunately they were on the other side of the beach, but at one time while jozka and i were surfing i saw a couple of guys doing round-off back handsprings and handstands! i'm including a picture of jozka and i instead to spare you. no one should have to see that:



this is the view i had from where i sat:



we went to a lighthouse last night to watch the sunset on the atlantic. it was the first time i'd seen the sun set on the atlantic...it actually doesn't set. the earth rotates giving it the appearance that it does set. so it was the first time i saw the earth rotate so that the sun appeared to go behind the atlantic:





bye bye sun:

days 3 & 4: lisbon, a banana, and ninjas

day three found us reaching our goal of making it to portugal:



lisbon was beautiful and em's parents hooked us up with a night at the (five star) Sheraton in Lisbon! We were going to fit all five of us in a room, but our consciences caught up with us and we decided not to break the rules (three to a room) and we bought another room...that, coupled with Em's speeding ticket, put us way over budget...

not to be discouraged, we set out for lisbon only to be distracted by rain and a banana:



after helping the banana cross the street we wandered the streets of lisbon and practiced our ninja techniques in case of attack:



more on days four and five tomorrow...

Days 1 & 2: Thunderstorms and Speeding Tickets

Kilometers driven: 2360
To go: 629
Cities: Barcelona (kinda) and Madrid

We camped outside of Barcelona.
It stormed.
We didn't get wet.
Thank you, good tents.
I realized that the level of enjoyment of a thunderstorm is directly related to what your sleeping situation is within the thunderstorm and how tired you are.
Tent and tiredness=low level of enjoyment.



This was the only part of France we liked.
It was too expensive.
Too far to drive through to get to Spain.
And we lost 90 Euros to the Frenchy (as Em likes to call them) Police...she was driving to fast. They didn't like it.







once we got to Spain we ate our faces off.
perviously we had only eaten bread and water.
not really, but close.



Our awesome host, Dawn, competes with Emily for the affections of Juan the Bronze man.
Dawn is a missionary in Madrid.
She is sold out for the Lord.
She invited us into her home without knowing us.
We even ate her food.
Used her shower.
I stole lots of electricity charging my
phone
ipod
computer
camera battery
palm pilot



Madrid has cool grafiti.

I'm going to drink Starbucks now...then its off to Lisbon.