Hello America,
We're about a week and a half into this misguided excuse for a roadtrip, and so far we've somehow managed to deviate 100% away from our planned itinerary. We're actually still in Germany now, despite the fact that we had originally planned on spending maybe 3 days here. But it's all cool, because each one of us is fluent in German. Oh, wait...
As it turns out, none of us know a single German word beyond "danke" and "bitte." Fortunately though, Scottie and Steve's friend Peter Wurth ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5P1YO4PdlE ) taught us the expression "I'm sorry, I don't speak German" on the way from the airport back to his house, where we spent the next two days in search of a car whose tires weren't going to fall off after 20 miles. As it turns out though, Americans who have only spent 2 hours in Europe aren't very good at shopping for cars, so Peter did all the work while we all looked at climbing magazines with 3d glasses on. We managed to find one though, and Scottie had to become a resident of Stuttgart, get a bank account, and become a member of the German Auto Club before we could drive around legally. Peter did all of that too actually; Scottie just followed him around.
So we left Stuttgart, and within 5 minutes were hopelessly lost. Somehow (read: thanks to the GPS) we managed to find our way to Frankenjura, where we've been spending the last week or so. Steve's been doing laps on Action Directe (5.14d) and the rest of us have been doing nothing more than drinking some ridiculous German beer that's 1) cheaper than water and 2) legally considered a food product to be exempt from alcohol taxes. A few nights ago we went to a brewery, where we hung out and had a few drinks in a town that celebrated its 1000-year anniversary back in 2007. We drive through a few of those on the way to the crag, which is incredible.
The area around here is absolutely beautiful - every few kilometers there's a tiny little village that looks like it was taken out of the 1300s, and in between each one is fields and hills and dense green forests. And scattered throughout the forest are crazy limestone cliffs with creeks running between them. Most of the approaches to the cliffs are less than 2 minutes (sick!) and the climbing is really cool and pocketed and gymnastic. We've all been struggling to get used to it, but slowly we're getting some endurance that'll probably come in handy for the 35m routes in Ceuse. We're taking off for Ceuse tomorrow, possibly stopping in Magic Wood or Volarpse (Switzerland) before getting there. So that's kinda cool...
We've amazingly been pretty incident-free so far. The only issue we had was when our car window fell off its track and got stuck in the door, which had to be resolved by a mechanic who didn't speak a word of english. Right around the time we were getting ready to accidentally order a new window, some dude showed up who happened to speak french - he and I were able to figure out what the deal was, after which point he translated it into german and within 15 minutes our window was fixed.
So yeah, it's been a pretty cool trip, and once I have a computer that's not in German I'll try to upload some pictures. Keep the posts coming! It's been cool to hear what you all are up to.
Palmer
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Creede, CO: home of the Wild Beaver
Hi 3D
Ben and I started work at Broadacres Ranch today, and then were promptly told to take the weekend off to have fun. This is a good sign.
Since I left Hanover, I spent some time at home and in Key West with my family. On our first day in Florida, this guy crawled up onto our table and tried to eat our lunch. We also went snorkeling and saw one of these . Ok not really, but I did see a huge (non man-eating) shark, which was still pretty cool.
Last weekend I flew into Denver, and Ben and I spent a couple days in Boulder at his aunt and uncle's house. They took me on my first mountain bike ride in years, and Ben and his 9 year old cousin left me in the dust. Boulder is about 20 minutes from El Dorado Canyon, world renowned for amazing climbing, and the weather was beautiful so on Monday we headed out into the mountains in search of skiing. We hiked up to Arapahoe pass towards some snow fields, and managed to connect enough of them to get a pretty continuous line down. Then was the schwack out, where we ran into (1) a river, (2) an old abandoned mine, and (3) back on the trail, about a mile from the start, a mountaineering instructor with a group of 12 kids, 4 of whom were already puking either from altitude or bad food, still bravely on their way up to a campsite.
Tuesday we skiied Grey's Peak, a fairly accessible 14'er. There were lots of hikers, and they all felt very bad for us as we laboured up with skis and boots, until we got to ski back down. There was another 14er, Torrey's peak, about exactly the same height as Grey's along a saddle, but a nasty thunderstorm started to come over the ridge just as we reached the top so we decided to leave it for another day.
On Wednesday we drove down towards Creede, aka "huh never heard of it," Colorado, and stopped at a whitewater park in Buena Vista on the way. We got to the ranch in the early evening, and we were shown around and told "come into work tomorrow if you want, or not." Ben and I arrived at the same time as Nick Edwards, and the three of us along with Kat ('09) went into town in search of food. The only place still open at 9pm was called the Saloon, sort of a Wild West themed Molly's. They had pizza, burgers, and rocky mountain oysters. Not seafood. Google it. We'll be buying our alcohol from the Wild Beaver, purveyor of "hooch and fine drinkables."
Today was our first real day of work, and I spent most of the day at the Lodge helping the cook (flown in from London and/or Paris) prepare for a 24 person banquet that's happening on Tuesday. Despite the mountains of things that supposedly have to get done before our boss arrives, in his private jet, either sunday or tuesday or whenever he feels like, we have the weekend off and are going to check out Penitente Canyon tomorrow morning. There have been daily afternoon downpours so far, but we're hopeful they'll hold off until afternoon. If we do get rained out, there's always the axe and tomahawk throwing competition, happening all weekend long in town.
I'm sure Ben will have things to add, but I hope that's a taste of life in Creede so far.
Ben and I started work at Broadacres Ranch today, and then were promptly told to take the weekend off to have fun. This is a good sign.
Since I left Hanover, I spent some time at home and in Key West with my family. On our first day in Florida, this guy crawled up onto our table and tried to eat our lunch. We also went snorkeling and saw one of these . Ok not really, but I did see a huge (non man-eating) shark, which was still pretty cool.
Last weekend I flew into Denver, and Ben and I spent a couple days in Boulder at his aunt and uncle's house. They took me on my first mountain bike ride in years, and Ben and his 9 year old cousin left me in the dust. Boulder is about 20 minutes from El Dorado Canyon, world renowned for amazing climbing, and the weather was beautiful so on Monday we headed out into the mountains in search of skiing. We hiked up to Arapahoe pass towards some snow fields, and managed to connect enough of them to get a pretty continuous line down. Then was the schwack out, where we ran into (1) a river, (2) an old abandoned mine, and (3) back on the trail, about a mile from the start, a mountaineering instructor with a group of 12 kids, 4 of whom were already puking either from altitude or bad food, still bravely on their way up to a campsite.
Tuesday we skiied Grey's Peak, a fairly accessible 14'er. There were lots of hikers, and they all felt very bad for us as we laboured up with skis and boots, until we got to ski back down. There was another 14er, Torrey's peak, about exactly the same height as Grey's along a saddle, but a nasty thunderstorm started to come over the ridge just as we reached the top so we decided to leave it for another day.
On Wednesday we drove down towards Creede, aka "huh never heard of it," Colorado, and stopped at a whitewater park in Buena Vista on the way. We got to the ranch in the early evening, and we were shown around and told "come into work tomorrow if you want, or not." Ben and I arrived at the same time as Nick Edwards, and the three of us along with Kat ('09) went into town in search of food. The only place still open at 9pm was called the Saloon, sort of a Wild West themed Molly's. They had pizza, burgers, and rocky mountain oysters. Not seafood. Google it. We'll be buying our alcohol from the Wild Beaver, purveyor of "hooch and fine drinkables."
Today was our first real day of work, and I spent most of the day at the Lodge helping the cook (flown in from London and/or Paris) prepare for a 24 person banquet that's happening on Tuesday. Despite the mountains of things that supposedly have to get done before our boss arrives, in his private jet, either sunday or tuesday or whenever he feels like, we have the weekend off and are going to check out Penitente Canyon tomorrow morning. There have been daily afternoon downpours so far, but we're hopeful they'll hold off until afternoon. If we do get rained out, there's always the axe and tomahawk throwing competition, happening all weekend long in town.
I'm sure Ben will have things to add, but I hope that's a taste of life in Creede so far.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Jake: Visa Adventure, Part I
This is my first time blogging ever.
Today was a big day - ventured into La Gran Manzana, braving wind and rain to get an Ecuadorian Visa. I arrived at the Ecuadorian consulate with minor issue to find a confusing scene - a long waiting room with lots of Ecuadorians, numbered windows, and zero white people (besides me). The lady at the entrance handed me a numbered ticket and mumbled something in Spanish. I was confused, but soon enough the man on the loudspeaker called my number, so I went to the window and asked for a visa. After some confusing Spanish and equally confusing English, he told me to sit and wait for a person to appear at the next window. 30 minutes go by and no one appears. I go back up to the window and ask a different guy what the deal is. He calls someone, and a lady appears at the window. She takes my folder filled with letters from police, doctors, passports, and 30 pages of Spanish legal mumbo-jumbo with all sorts of official seals. In broken English she tells me she'll be back in 15 minutes.
Another half hour goes by, and finally she returns. "We have some problems with your documents." Uh-oh. So, it turns out that a bunch of the important legal stuff my school sent me is out of date and/or missing. And, there's another little issue...turns out the visa I'm applying for is only for VOLUNTARY work. So my contract that the school told me to include, detailing my salary information...yeah, Senorita Consular don't like that too much. Apparently, what I need from my school is a letter saying they will support me and pay for all my living expenses while I'm in Ecuador. They can even say they are giving me money every month for food, housing, transportation, etc. But, they definitely can't say the monthly payments form a salary. Well shit.
I left the consulate, opened my umbrella, donned my snorkel, and waded through the New York monsoon towards Lily's office. The rest of the afternoon was great, met up with Lily, went out to lunch, looked at Times Square. BTW Lily is kind of a big deal. She works in a 600-story brand-new fancy tower building, like 2 blocks from Times Square. I stood in the lobby, but apparently you need security clearance to get to the elevators.
Hope all's well with everyone! I'm at home eagerly awaiting my school to Fed-Ex me new visa documents. Saturday I'm going to Dartmouth, then Sunday work starts in Northfield, Mass.
Keep in touch! Stay tuned for Visa Adventure, Part II: Jake enters Ecuador by force, bb guns ablazin' and bat out of hell arockin'.
Today was a big day - ventured into La Gran Manzana, braving wind and rain to get an Ecuadorian Visa. I arrived at the Ecuadorian consulate with minor issue to find a confusing scene - a long waiting room with lots of Ecuadorians, numbered windows, and zero white people (besides me). The lady at the entrance handed me a numbered ticket and mumbled something in Spanish. I was confused, but soon enough the man on the loudspeaker called my number, so I went to the window and asked for a visa. After some confusing Spanish and equally confusing English, he told me to sit and wait for a person to appear at the next window. 30 minutes go by and no one appears. I go back up to the window and ask a different guy what the deal is. He calls someone, and a lady appears at the window. She takes my folder filled with letters from police, doctors, passports, and 30 pages of Spanish legal mumbo-jumbo with all sorts of official seals. In broken English she tells me she'll be back in 15 minutes.
Another half hour goes by, and finally she returns. "We have some problems with your documents." Uh-oh. So, it turns out that a bunch of the important legal stuff my school sent me is out of date and/or missing. And, there's another little issue...turns out the visa I'm applying for is only for VOLUNTARY work. So my contract that the school told me to include, detailing my salary information...yeah, Senorita Consular don't like that too much. Apparently, what I need from my school is a letter saying they will support me and pay for all my living expenses while I'm in Ecuador. They can even say they are giving me money every month for food, housing, transportation, etc. But, they definitely can't say the monthly payments form a salary. Well shit.
I left the consulate, opened my umbrella, donned my snorkel, and waded through the New York monsoon towards Lily's office. The rest of the afternoon was great, met up with Lily, went out to lunch, looked at Times Square. BTW Lily is kind of a big deal. She works in a 600-story brand-new fancy tower building, like 2 blocks from Times Square. I stood in the lobby, but apparently you need security clearance to get to the elevators.
Hope all's well with everyone! I'm at home eagerly awaiting my school to Fed-Ex me new visa documents. Saturday I'm going to Dartmouth, then Sunday work starts in Northfield, Mass.
Keep in touch! Stay tuned for Visa Adventure, Part II: Jake enters Ecuador by force, bb guns ablazin' and bat out of hell arockin'.
Parker: Hi 3d!
Yo, glad to see that this is up and running!
I just wanted to remind people to send 3d postcards from your travels this summer. I think it is a cool idea to get started, and if we don't do it than no one will. You all know the address:
3d Residents
3 Dorrance place
Hanover, NH 03755
I don't have much to report on, just getting ready for africa. Everyone else leaves next week. We will have a blog, which I will post here so you can read up about our trip. We probably won't have much internet access though, so it will probably be just info dumps. I also get to spend absurd amounts of money on gear that I would never buy myself, which is sweet.
Skype: I now have Skype on my iPod touch and have an account with a voice mail set up. you can skype me at: parkerreed and you can leave me a voice mail if you want. I'll check that when I can.
My itinerary:
June 21-24: BESC Science Retreat in Ashville, NC
June 23: everyone else leaves for Tz
June 30: my appointment with the handle bar mustache that is Dr. Nutting
July 1: fly to Tz
August 26th: everyone else comes home
August 26-sep 15 dermo and I travel tanzania
looks like I won't be coming up to hang out in the grant....
keep in touch dudes
-Parker
I just wanted to remind people to send 3d postcards from your travels this summer. I think it is a cool idea to get started, and if we don't do it than no one will. You all know the address:
3d Residents
3 Dorrance place
Hanover, NH 03755
I don't have much to report on, just getting ready for africa. Everyone else leaves next week. We will have a blog, which I will post here so you can read up about our trip. We probably won't have much internet access though, so it will probably be just info dumps. I also get to spend absurd amounts of money on gear that I would never buy myself, which is sweet.
Skype: I now have Skype on my iPod touch and have an account with a voice mail set up. you can skype me at: parkerreed and you can leave me a voice mail if you want. I'll check that when I can.
My itinerary:
June 21-24: BESC Science Retreat in Ashville, NC
June 23: everyone else leaves for Tz
June 30: my appointment with the handle bar mustache that is Dr. Nutting
July 1: fly to Tz
August 26th: everyone else comes home
August 26-sep 15 dermo and I travel tanzania
looks like I won't be coming up to hang out in the grant....
keep in touch dudes
-Parker
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Global Climate Change Impact
On Tuesday, the US Global Change Research Program released their comprehensive report on Global Climate Change Impacts on the United States. Kind of a big deal in the climate change arena. I went to a reception tonight where Sen. Kerry (D-MA) and Rep. Gordon (R-TN-6) spoke. It was kinda cool. Apparently they're taking Climate Change pretty seriously.
Kerry said that he is working harder on this issue than any other issue he has ever worked on in his career. That's nice to hear. If you want to read the report, check it out: http://globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts
Afterward, I talked with a lobbyist from a satellite-maker about beer. Hooray beer!
Hi Lily!
-elar
ps. I'm going to NYC 7/1-7/5
Kerry said that he is working harder on this issue than any other issue he has ever worked on in his career. That's nice to hear. If you want to read the report, check it out: http://globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts
Afterward, I talked with a lobbyist from a satellite-maker about beer. Hooray beer!
Hi Lily!
-elar
ps. I'm going to NYC 7/1-7/5
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Lehlee; Almost one week!
FIRST -- happy graduation to all the 09s! You made it, but I bet you just wish you could be freshmen again...without the awkwardness.
So I’ve been in
This week has been training, and on Monday we start actual work. Wednesday was a really really long day. The instructor guy is a douchebag. Look at a quick snapshot of him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzmzMZ0s8mE . He talked down to us so much, saying things like “this stuff is the worst shit you could do. And because you guys are at the bottom of the totem pole, you have to do this.” He also picked on people; someone yawned (not even with a peep) and he was like “Hey, sorry to keep you up, Mike!” All the bad people I worked with in the winter put together weren’t as mean as this guy was. On Friday we had to fill out feedback forms and I gave him a good rating (his training was good and the dude is brilliant), but in the comments box wrote a lot about how I didn’t appreciate his tude. I wrote my name down even though it was optional, so I guess we will see what HR and this guy will say to me once they read the evaluations.
On Wednesday, my mom also had a freak-out. She called me literally 10 times and I couldn’t pick up because I was in training (it wasn’t even that late!) She ended up calling Verizon Wireless and I guess they went through my call log and picked the first 914 number…which happened to be Dan Egan. So she called Daniel and he tried to calm her down and was like “I’m sure Lily’s fine she’s just at work”. Then she called Merrill and somehow found a manager to go find me…gah! I never heard anything about it from anyone at work so I’m assuming they figured out that I was just let out of training and was fine. What a neurotic mom.
At home, I’ve just been taking care of the utilities and moving in my clothes and stuff. I guess the tenants before us had a crazy high internet/cable/phone plan. They were paying $500 a month! Our wireless was all set up, but there was a password on the it from the previous tenants, so I had to pay $30 for linksys to reset the password. Bullpoop.
Anyways, I guess on Monday I start for real. My group is on the 26th and 27th floor, but more people that I know on the 26th floor. Unfortunately, I got thrown on the 27th floor. In the corner. By the printer. Gah. At least if I take a nap no one will see. From the 5 minutes that I spent at my desk on Friday afternoon, I really like the people I’m sitting with. I will have more updates soon I suppose! Please, keep this from being the lilar blog – someone else tell us what they’re up to!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Having been in Washington for a solid month and some change I feel like I’m starting to get with it. As I mentioned before, I’ve been doing a ton of work writing statements, meeting w/ tribal delegations, preparing for hearings, and other cool jazz. While peeps were taking exams back at dmouth, I was in ‘Finals’ mode too. In one week we passed 3 bills through on the floor and had a hearing on 3 bills regarding taking land into trust in Washington State, designating land as ‘on reservation’ for a tribe in the San Juan Islands, and appropriating more funding and some technical amendments to a scholarship foundation. All three are great bills and I feel like I’m actually making a difference in some peoples’ lives. (gasp!) whatever. In other news…I saved Indian health care. Literally. It was in my hands. I got to go down to the floor and turn it in to the Hopper. H.R. 2708. That’s mine. I slipped in an appropriation for $10 mil for a study at the 3D institute on my favorite pastime. Screw grad school and infomercials, The Dom squad’s gonna keep running table.
On to cool adventures I’ve been having! So I’ve been exploring the area via bicycle which has been awesome. But the humidity is a huuuuge chafe. A weekend ago or so I went 40 miles into VA which was a ton of fun. Then last Sunday I went with my cousin (older than me, has 3 small kids all <4yo>
As for my AK plans, I got hardcore screwed by this bush plane pilot who told me that I was booked, but after trying to call him for 1 week told me, “um, I’m all booked. Good luck.” So, I quickly booked a bush plane out of Fairbanks, which is way more expensive, but means we don’t have to drive on the Haul road/Dalton Highway which is a gravel road. It also means we’ll be flying in two airplanes. DKAF = Davis Kirby Air Force. I just wish he was paying for more of it…
We’re officially packing heat up there. It’s sheep season then, so how awesome would that be to come back with a sheep?! Baaaaaa! Baaaaa! Remember Jurrassic Park? ‘He’s gonna eat the goat?’ ‘-excellent’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V50ex8sOLL4.
I’ll be going to New York for the 4th of July, so everyone go!
Watch for a supplement on blitz w/ some more details!
-elar
On to cool adventures I’ve been having! So I’ve been exploring the area via bicycle which has been awesome. But the humidity is a huuuuge chafe. A weekend ago or so I went 40 miles into VA which was a ton of fun. Then last Sunday I went with my cousin (older than me, has 3 small kids all <4yo>
As for my AK plans, I got hardcore screwed by this bush plane pilot who told me that I was booked, but after trying to call him for 1 week told me, “um, I’m all booked. Good luck.” So, I quickly booked a bush plane out of Fairbanks, which is way more expensive, but means we don’t have to drive on the Haul road/Dalton Highway which is a gravel road. It also means we’ll be flying in two airplanes. DKAF = Davis Kirby Air Force. I just wish he was paying for more of it…
We’re officially packing heat up there. It’s sheep season then, so how awesome would that be to come back with a sheep?! Baaaaaa! Baaaaa! Remember Jurrassic Park? ‘He’s gonna eat the goat?’ ‘-excellent’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V50ex8sOLL4.
I’ll be going to New York for the 4th of July, so everyone go!
Watch for a supplement on blitz w/ some more details!
-elar
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Hawaii!
I'm going to Hawaii!
...No, not really.
But check me out on tv at the House Committee on Natural Resources LIVE STREAMING VIDEO at the hearing today at 10am on H.R. 2314 Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009.
http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/
-elar
...No, not really.
But check me out on tv at the House Committee on Natural Resources LIVE STREAMING VIDEO at the hearing today at 10am on H.R. 2314 Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009.
http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/
-elar
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
3D - June 10
What up, bitches?
So none of us have gradumacated yet, but let's get this show on the road. It'd be cool to post to this thing regularly, since we're all gonna have some seriously bodacious summers.
To keep things organized, when you post something, include your name and the date in the title field. And then go nuts describing whatever craziness you get yourself into.
Word.
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