in front of a distant cross stands a mosque

bosnia, night fall, and how beautiful on the cobbled street were my feet walking. mostar is about 500 years old, an ancient town that has remained relatively unchanged. however, it is in a since no more than 2 years old. the entire population of the town left after it was reduced to rubble in the nineties, and 7 years ago they began trickling back. in 2005 it was completely rebuilt and is absolutely breathtaking.

jessica and i had just crossed the old bridge when a short man sweeping the sidewalk asked us if we were hungry. we said we were, and as quickly as he could he unlocked his restuaurant/house and sat us down at a table.

the menu was fairly extensive, but he approached us saying, "do you like chicken?" it was more of a statement than a question and in 10 minutes he served us his house specialty. while we ate he told us his story.

tale (pronounced 'towlie') was born and raised in mostar. by his early thirties he was a very succesful man. he had been educated in hospitality, owned two restaurants, had a wife and two sons.

"its nice when the season's over, so the streets aren't so crowded and you can talk one on one to people," jessica said.

"oh no, no," replied tale, "i love people. if this town were crowded all the time i would be happy. the more people for me to talk to, the better."

in the nineties croatia and serbia were fiercely at war. however, because bosnia is right in between them much of the fighting took place there. tale didn't go too much in to detail, but pictures of the town during that time are quite telling. the streets were feet deep in rubble. the buildings were collapsed. from the looks of it the town had been hit by an atomic bomb. even the old bridge, one of the world heritage sites, was completely destroyed. after all this, tale wanted to stay in his home town. however, his wife urged him to leave. in 1997, after fierce fighting, tale and his family applied for refugee status in canada and soon moved. the once succesful business man was now penniless and jobless in a foreign country where nobody spoke his language.

"for a year and a half i didn't leave my house. i didn't speak english and i had no job. i was depressed."

however, after a friend of his who had been a professor of math in bosnia urged him to get a job, tale began to work as a pizza delivery man. his wife began to go to a university and his children soon became canadians. for eight years the top chef slung pizzas and saved every penny he could, and after he began to learn basic english he tried to tell others his story. but, of course, nobody believed him.

in 2005 tale came back to mostar with his youngest son to start his business back. he and his son rebuilt his home and restaurant by hand, repainted everything and bought an oven. it was now that we were sitting in his place and enjoying his hospitality. he soon went back to the kitchen and brought out some walnut cake topped with whipped cream. "here," he said, "this is on me."

"when you go back, to america, tell everyone that muslims are not bad. we are not extremists, we are not angry. most people write us off before ever meeting us. but we are victims of violence just as others are. all we want is for people to visit us, to see for themselves."

we paid the bill (it was 20 dollars for both of us) and crossed back over the newly rebuilt old bridge. the town was splashed in ambient light from the crescent moon, and the shop owners were just closing their doors. absolutely incredible.

any conceivable justified war

this is an old onion post, right after 9/11, but at the present time in america i feel it to be particularly salient.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28151

a beautiful day

i'm back here in texas for a about a week and a half, so i decided i'd make the most of not having a car and ride a bike somewhere. after all, i am a new expert on bicycles.

so yesterday i ride a bicycle up through watauga, into keller, and then on the northside of keller on the west side of the road i stop at wat buddharatanaram, the oft ignored thai buddhist temple (home of the largest gold buddha in north america) right here in keller, tx.

i ride my bike into the grandiose and intricate entrance, and come up on a monk wearing a gold robe and drinking an arizona tea. i'm like, "hey, pardon me, but do y'all have any information on volunteer work." he looks at me and smiles, and takes a sip of his tea.

"so, do you have an information center or something, i mean i'm not buddhist or anything, at least i don't think i am, and i just thought, y'know, it's my day off and i should go out and do something for a change. i rode my bike all the way up here, and its like 10 miles and i'm beat, so at the least i might could use just a little bit of water and i'll get out of your hair."

he smiles, takes another sip of arizona tea, shakes his head, says something in thai and points off to the west.

feeling retarded, i then ride my bike further through the little town and pass a tiny old monk feebly hoing away at his front lawn. i follow the road, winding around a golden temple and come upon a woman sitting under a gazebo. figuring that nobody speaks english i approach her like tarzan would jane.

"HI. ME ALAN. VOLUNTEER?" i'm also making an exaggerated shovelling motion with my hands.

"hi, are you asking if there is volunteer opportunities?" she very elegantly responds.

thank god! somebody speaks english. now two people on this plantation think i'm a dumbass.

"yes, yes! if there's anything i can sign up for, i mean i'm here for a couple weeks."

we make our way back around the temple, and back to the old man who was every bit of 80 and still hacking away on his yard. she starts talking to him in thai, and i could only pick out a couple words in which she used the english form. for instance, she introduced me as alan, and i smiled and gave a little nod, then she talked a bit longer and put in the english word 'volunteer.'

the tiny old man, sweating in the texas sun, seemingly a bit confused by my presence, leans on his hoe and repeats thoughtfully the word, 'volunteer.'

then he turns and looks at me, and in a moment as if struck by pure epiphany, he extends out his hoe.

i look at the woman, and i probably looked like how my dog looks when i make a funny noise, y'know, and he cocks his head slightly to the side, i probably looked just like that.

"i think he wants you to finish this drainage ditch for him," the lady says, just barely eeking it out without laughing.

so for the next hour the old monk sat in the shade while i hoed him a drainage ditch. there was a bunch of bottled water there, so i was never thirsty, and after a while he got back up again and helped me smooth out the ditch a bit. once it was done i turned to him and said, "ok?", to which he responded, "ok."

i rode my bike out of their village, waving at everyone, and stopped off at my buddy brice's parents' house just in time for dinner. we all talked and laughed, and after dinner i rode my bike through the lush bear creek park, weaving through the trees and admiring fort worth's newly acquired rivers and waterfalls. a beautiful day.

jungle gym

when we were in wyoming, on the way back to salt lake city, we stopped over on the side of the road at a town fair. i don't think any of us knew there was a fair there, it just happened to be next to the gas station.

capitalizing on this unique opportunity many of us began to walk around the little kiosks. there was a fellow in a cowboy hat with muscular dystrophy selling puppy jack russell terriers, a group of girls from a small town rodeo club, and a group selling antler artwork. in the middle of the fun was a playground set with a 15 foot jungle gym, a huge slide, teeter totters, a swingset and monkey bars. and to my astonishment the playground was barren, completely empty of people and it was in the very middle of the fair.

so i climbed the slide, a bit courageously seeing as i'm a grown man with a bunch of coworkers, and silently began sliding down it. over and over i slid down the slide, i think one time i nervously mustered out a 'wee'. after a while 3 or four little kids followed suit, and because i didn't want to hog the slide, moved on to the jungle gym.

now that the initial fear was gone, i was like a monkey. i was swinging, hanging upside down, standing on the top and waving to the girls, and soon i found that two of my coworkers were playing on the teeter totters having a good time. we were laughing! next, it was on to the monkey bars. surprisingly i can still skip two bars at a time and make it across. a couple of adults in our group were waiting in line for the slide, and somebody else was crawling up the jungle gym. it was a complete blast, and i finished with incredibly sore muscles and a renewed spirit.

when did exercise stop being fun? why is it that if i want to strengthen my abs i must regimentally sit up, counting methodically to a predetermined number? what happened to swing sets?

why is it that when i need to get my heart rate up i run in a circle, keeping track of my pulse and the number of laps i've completed. what happened to tag?

why is it that in order to build muscle i must pay $60.00 a month to a warehouse that stores weights attached to pulleys, and under the pale glow of a florescent light stare at a wall and mechanically flex? what happened to jungle gyms?

moreover, what happened to exploring the area around the house? climbing a tree, just because it's there? who was given the authority to forbid me from having fun?

when the lord made me

when the lord made me he made a rolling stone
he made a curious wanderer of all that's unknown
he made somebody who is everywhere at home
when the lord made me he made a rolling stone

when the lord made me he made a penniless man
he made me without money and without land
he made me without a single red cent in my hand
when the lord made me he made a penniless man

when i get older i'll be a friend to many
i'll be a friend to strangers, i'll be a friend to any
i'll be someone who's always happy and grinny
when i get older i'll be friend to many

when i get older i will settle down
i'll find a wife of my own and a job in town
i'll show everyone there what i've found
when i get older i will settle down

when the lord takes me it'll be the perfect day
just when i've said all i've had to say
just when everyone here will be okay
when the lord takes me it'll be the perfect day

when i'm gone at my grave don't stand
don't spend anytime on that patch of land
keep on walking, shake somebody's hand
when i'm gone at my grave don't stand

on the eve of tetons/yellowstone

tomorrow marks day one of the second week of training. all of our classroom stuff is done, and now is our chance to prove ourselves in the real world of travel by taking a mock trip to yellowstone and the grand tetons national park. so what does that mean to me?

well i've learned just about everything there is to know about the park, and am supposed to give a detailed speech on the importance of forest fires. also, i'm in charge of planning children's games, so...studying hasn't necessarily been work.

also, some bright person decided to put up a slack line in our back yard of the condo, so i've become spiderman. i now have the ability to jump up onto the line (which is like a tight rope, only made out of a strap, not a rope) and land perfectly balanced on the line, walk all the way across, and turn around. a little more practice and i'll be doing backflips and ironing on the thing.

i'm quite excited to go on our mock trip, and look forward to practicing the skills i've been learning. one of the great things is that part of our job description is, in essence, to become better people. i mean, i'm learning about all different types of places and people, i'm leading strangers and teaching them about what i've learned, and i'm serving them hand and foot. i couldn't have asked for a better job. this is who i want to be, regardless of employment.

in other news, i've decided that ron paul is my candidate for president. he's under the republican ticket but his views are more aligned with a goldwater republican. he ran under the libertarian ticket in '88, he's a pacifist, and he's generally for a smaller government socially and economically. hopefully i can get my democratic friends to decide that he's the best candidate for democrats to vote for, even when compared to current democratic candidates, but, check him out, decide for yourself.

first day at backroads

well, after my trips to lubbock and to new orleans, i arrived here in salt lake city. wait a minute, new orleans.

new orleans was awesome. our hotel was two blocks from bourbon, and for two days brice, gabe and i stumbled around. at one point we were in an all black club (however we didn't notice til the next day) and we all tried to dance but were awfully undertalented.

then, thanks to gabe i was pulled onto a stage and forced to dance as a sea of new orleans chanted "go white boy go white boy go." a good time was had by all.

but on to training. today was our first day, we are staying at these awesome condos in a valley surrounded by snow capped towering mountains. our day started with a 15 mile bike ride down to a picnic and followed with several talks about how freaking awesome this company is that i work for.

in the next two weeks i'll be travelling to montana to take a mock camping trip in the teton park. after this intensive training i'll let y'all know where they send me.

adios

going through the south

i just got back from a week long rv trip through the southern states. we started up through arkansas, to tennessee, down through the smoky mountains and north carolina, georgia, alabama, mississippi, and lastly louisiana.

it was me, my dad, my uncle hank, and my brother. this was sort of a delayed graduation present for me, but really we just wanted an excuse to go somewhere together.

the first night was in a koa camp in nashville where we listened to three struggling artists sing original material around a campfire. the most memorable was a lady's touching song about her 'first time'. it was sort of like bob seagar's 'night moves' only a lot more discriptive.

then we camped in the smoky mountains for three days, hiking trails and putting new and interesting objects in our fire. we all visited, ate, and howled at the moon before we decided we'd make the two day journey back home.

on our way we were able to stop in livingston, alabama to meet up with some relatives and have some down south home cooking. the conversation was pleasant, at least i think so, i wasn't really sure what everybody was saying.

and now its back to watauga for just another hour until i go to lubbock to marry a few friends off. after that, new orleans for my going away trip and then i'm gone to salt lake city for training at my new job.

please check the date on this. i plan to keep these updated

alright, so this is my first real blog. i'm starting it so that others can keep up with my many travels and adventures and i realize that myspace isn't exactly the best place to do that. a couple things about me.

i don't like capitalization.

other than that, if you have recognized calvin and hobbes as the greatest achievement of mankind to date then you have a pretty good understanding of me.

i would also like this to be introductory, somehow telling everyone the sort of topics that i'm likely to post. however that would be impossible at this point, i simply don't know. hopefully i'll post pictures, stories, and opinions that EVERYONE MUST AGREE WITH.

here's hoping to post something soon.