On the journey...

And so my journey continues. I feel excited these days. I really feel like I am being called to use my gifts for God in some way, but I don't know how yet. I am excited about our small group and the younger members who are yearning to be closer to God.

I am currently reading the book "Be the Change" by Zach Hunter. Zach Hunter is one of those annoyingly active teenagers who seems to have accomplished so much. God has really used him and sometimes I wonder why I haven't been used in the same way. I think it is part of the corruption of ministry for us to forget that God values high profile ministry as much as he does one of His people touching the life of one person who needs it. While I hope to be inspired by this book I need to keep that in mind.

I just finished the book "Jesus Wants to Save Christians". I really found it to have some interesting insight and I will be writing more about some of the issues it raises soon.

God Reaching Out

Apparently it's Christmas time. It seems everyone enjoys this time of year, however to Christians it should be even more significant. This is the time we celebrate the the event which started it all. I usually stop and read the gospel account of the Christmas story, however I usually find that I don't get much from it. Let's face it, I can more or less recite it from memory in several different translations. We hear it every year, at church, at home, on TV and on those PSA pieces on Christian radio.

Today I came to do my Bible reading and realized that I was done the study I was on. When this happens, I usually head on over to BibleGateway.com and read their passage of the day. Not suprisingly, it was part of the Christmas story. The passage today was the story of the Magi. I read the online commentary that goes with this passage and it set me off on a train of thought that I had never persued before. Have you ever considered the significance of the Magi? First of all they were pagans, not only pagans, but astrologers. Astrology was not a welcome profession in the Jewsih world. Yet here they come, and they must not have come quietly. We all know they brought expensive gifts, yet they got in to see Herod. It is therefore safe to assume that they probably came in a large caravan with a lot of fanfare. They probably expected this new King to be found in the royal court. The problem is, He wasn't there.

Disturbed at the notion of a new Jewish King, Herod calls in the religious leaders to ask them about the Messiah. Here's the kicker, these leaders figure out what town the Messiah would be in. Do they care? Do they go with the Magi to worship the One their people have been waiting for? No. Those who came to worship Jesus were foreigm pagans. There's other examples like this throughout the Bible. Consider Philip and the Etheopian Eunich. This man was far from being in line with the accepted religios culture of the time, yet he is seeking Jesus and Philip leads him to salvation. God reaches out to all, and often to the ones we least expect it. By using a star to mark His Son't birth, he reached deep into the pagan world of astrology, and touched the heart of people most would not have expected to worship the Messiah. Today in our world, God wants to reach into the cultures that are entrenched in beliefs that take them far from Him. His arms are open.

What if his people prayed?

What if His people prayed
And those who bare His name
Would humbly seek His face
And turn from their own way

What if his people prayed? It is a convicting question asked by the band Casting Crowns. The first thing we would have to ask ourselves is, what is prayer? The simple answer is that prayer is talking to God. Often we say that when we pray we are coming into God's presence. We, these earth dwelling creatures, are in the company of the Almighty. Just think about that for a minute. Do we take prayer seriously enough? Do we really see it as the weapon it is?

What if the armies of the Lord
Picked up and dusted off their swords
Vowed to set the captives free
And not let satan have one more

When Jesus was being arrested he said "[p]ut your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords. Don't you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies—more, if I want them—of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready?" (Matthew 26:53, The Message). If we are willing to accept that Jesus was fully human, would he not be making this request through prayer? Look at the power Jesus knew that there was in talking to the Father!

Last week I attended the funeral of a friend. Sadly, it is not the first time I have sat and reflected on the short life of one of my peers. This time it was my friend Pat. About two weeks prior to his death he was taken into hospital with terminal cancer. Of course I prayed. I have prayed all my life. I have prayed for my own needs, I have prayed for the salvation of others and I have certainly prayed for healing. Something was different this time though. Pat was terminal. There was no hope. I must confess that I accepted this diagnosis and found myself praying for his comfort and salvation, but not for his healing. Why? Because Pat was terminal, there was to be no healing. I was challenged though by a friend, why not pray for the miracle? I began to question this, why not? Why not ask God to intervene in a mighty way. I realized though that I could not pray for this miracle, I did not know how to.

Hebrews 11:6 says "[i]t's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him." So often we think of Matthew 17:20 where Jesus says that if we had the faith of a mustard seed then we could tell a mountain to move and it would. The faith of a mustard seed, (The Message says a poppy seed) that isn't very big. Is my faith that small? Well, yes and no. This is why I had a hard time praying for Pat's healing. I had all the faith that God could heal Pat. I have faith that God could move a mountain. But if I come before Him and ask Him to do it, do I have faith that He would? That is where my faith falls short. That is why so often prayer is a blunt weapon in our hands. We do not doubt that God can do it, we just doubt He will. This is what I am praying for now. I prayed that God would give me the faith I needed to pray for Pat's healing, and I continue to ask Him to give me the faith to ask great things.

Obviously Pat was not healed. It was a hard time for so many and it doesn't bear thinking how different it would have been had the miraculous happened. However, a great work was done through his illness. I truely believe that he accepted Christ and that through that, and through the acts of love performed by the Church, many were ministered to. Let's continue to pray that names may be added to the book of life. God can do it, and in this case I believe He will.

Looking forward

And many probably thought this blog was dead. Originally it was certainly only intended to last while I was in Europe. Since getting back though I have come to appreciate the value of witting my thoughts down. As many who know me can attest, I am generally an informed and opinionated person. I also like to talk and discuss my thoughts. Often, I find the best way to clear my ideas is to talk about them. From time to time, when I'm walking somewhere by myself, I will find myself explaining things as if there was someone with me. More often than not, these impromptu conversations with myself have helped me clarify and crystallize my thoughts. So here we are. I have decided to formalize things a bit more, and publish some of my thoughts here online. They may be read by crowds or by nobody at all. Either way I am fine.

I have also chosen to keep the same title for the blog. While I am no longer out traveling the globe, they do say that life is a journey. Here I offer my thoughts and ramblings from the road of life.

Munich Airport

I am in Munich Airport, waiting for check-in to open so that I can then drop off my bag and wait for my flight. Is waiting the thing to do?

Now, in my life I have been fortunate enough to see a number of different airports. From the run-down airport of Guatemala City, to the airport which was probably too small the day it was opened (El Dorado, Bogota), to a hurrican damaged Miami airport, to the cushy comfort of YVR. Munch airport, however, is something else. Forget all this German efficiency and order, it seems to have gone wrong here.

Things don't seem too bad when you first arrive. There is Terminal 2 for Star Alliance members and Terminal 1 for every other airline. Of course the metro takes you to Terminal 2. Oh well, I disembarked the metro and began following the signs to Terminal 1, easy enough. THere was one sign outside, then a few more inside. After a few minutes of walking, the trouble begins. All of a sudden you are confronted by TWO signs pointing opposite directions. You see, Terminal 1 has five different wings, not gates, wings. Each wing has its own gates, its own arrival area and its own check-in. Is there a sign anywhere telling you which airline leaves from which wing? If only we were so lucky. Better yet, some of the check-in desks are shared, so let's say you are looking for ClickAir (as I was), if their desk isn't open yet there is very little to tell you that you are at the right place. Now, one might think that a simple solution to this would be information desks. The Germans thought of this. They did, however, miss the crucial step of having someone AT the information desks. Anyway, the story ends up with me walking through three wings before finding an open information desk which told me ClickAir was in the fourth wing. I suppose I could have stopped and asked people, but your customer service plan shouldn't hinge on the kindness and knowledge of strangers. A sign would help.

Vienna and Munich

I am now in Munich, the last big touristy stop for me on this trip. On the 12th I will fly out of here for Barcelona where I will visit my cousin (who I haven't seen for nine years) for a whole day before returning to London and flying back to Vancouver.

Our last stop was Vienna. For those who don't know, my Grandmother on my Dad's side was born there. Being a jew, she left on not the greatest terms. I only had two days in the city. We spent the first touring around and seeing just the general sites. It was quite rainy, which compounded with the fact that I lost my rain jacket, made for not the greatest first impression. Despite this though, the city is clearly beautiful. Too many people back home are stuck with the Canadian view os a city and fail to even stop to think of what it would be like to walk down a road that is hundreds of years old. Vienna and Prague are cities that both stand out to me as places where you just look at the buildings, and not just in the old centres, and you can see that they've been there for a very long time. They are still beautiful though.

On the second day I set out to see a few more sites, but also find some sites of significance to my family. With help from my Dad and Great-Aunt Anni I pieced together an address for my Grandmother's old house. I wasn't too sure if it would be right, but once I got there and realized it was a residential building in the old jewish area I knew it probably was right. From there we headed up to Prater Park, an old amusement park dating from the late 1800s. It was good to see but was also a stopover on my next quest. I was out to find the old (and as it turns out current) site of Hakoah, a jewish sports club my Grandmother and her family had been a part of. After a walk which was much too long I did find it. I also found that the club is operational once more and has a brand new facility. After giving my story to the receptionist I was given a tour of the place and was most impressed.

From there it was back to the centre of town to locate an old swimming pool. My Great-Aunt was a swimmer, and if anyone has seen the documentary Watermarks, the pool I was looking for was the one in which they take their reunion swim. I did find it, it was sort of hidden in plain site, but sadly it was closed for the summer. I tried to go in, but there was a lot of scaffolding and construction dust falling on me, so I decided to leave. My last stop was then to the Holocaust Memorial, which is quite plain yet powerful. Once there though I found the ruins of a 14th century synagogue, which for a couple of euros was well worth seeing.

As I said, I am now in Munich. Tomorrow we will have a look around the city. There is a tour of the BMW plant which I may try and do. I'll let you know how it goes, stay tuned...

Berlin's Ghost Stations

I realize I never did much of an update from Berlin, so here goes. I loved the city. I loved seeing the sites of such important world events that happened well within my lifetime. The thing that stood out the most to me was the Ghost Stations (credit given here to Brian from Sanderman's New Europe or I never would have known about them). They are amazing because they are so simple, yet they say so much about the two important era's in Berlin's recent history. For those who don't know, Berlin's metro system is one of the oldest in the world, if not the oldest (I don't remember). As a consequence of this, once it came time to divide the city, these underground tunnels posed a bit of a problem. Some lines were easy. The East - West lines were simply cut in half and run independently. However, there were a handful of lines which run North - South that are primarily in the West, but cross over into the East for a few stops. The solution to this was simple, these became Ghost Stations. Trains wouldn't stop here, and the stations would be patrolled by the police and their dogs to make sure nobody got in or out. It wasn't until after the wall fell that once again these stations came into use. These stations, which stood idle for 30 odd years, still look today as they would have at the end of the war. The Nazi's rennovated them, and so today it is like stepping into the 1940s. The tiling is all browns and yellows and the stations signs are in the very recognizable Nazi script. I will post pictures hopefully later today.

 

Also while in Berlin, a little Euro Cup final game was played between Spain and Germany. As most of you probably know, it wasn't a very good game and Germany lost 1-0. It was still a fun environment to be in and I can only imagine what it would have been like had they won.

Now I'm in Prague

Who would have thought ten years ago, or even less, that Prague would be a must see city on a tour of Europe. The more you here people talk about it, the more it starts to seem like any other Western European country, then you arrive here and any doubt that you are in Eastern Europe is removed. Our train didn't pull into the central station, was we expected, but rather to one on the outskirts of town. My first reaction when stepping into the terminal was, "Am I in Armenia?" (Armenia being a town in the coffee producing region of Colombia). For one it is stinking hot, and secondly the place just looks like it should, a less developed city. We made our way towards our hostel on the metro then a tram. The metro is fun because some of the stations just look communist.

 

Our hostel is very nice. It was strange because we were searching for a place to stay online and this place didn't appear in the search results. We found it on a side bar under recently reviewed hostels. It had three ratings, all 100%, so we figured we could give it a try (especially since it was cheap). Well, turns out the reason it wasn't in the main results was because our first night was opening night, The three reviewers were early arrival guests. We arrived to an unmarked building to find workers still moving furniture in. The building itself seems to have been intended to be new apartments, but after completion it was bought out an made into this hostel. Everything is brand new and looks on par with a new development back home (other than some questionable workmanship here and there). Kitchens with stainless steal appliances, hard wood floors, nice bathrooms, it really doesn't feel like a hostel. If anyone is in the area check out Sant Jordi. They even have private rooms for very low rates.

 

Yesterday we paid a visit to the Communist Museum. If you are into recent history, as I am, it is well worth it. If you are just a casual museum goer, give it a miss. It is heavy on the reading, but I enjoyed learning about what was going on here not too long ago. It was also cool to see actual statues of Lenin and others. We came back for a planned Canada BBQ which the hostel had planned once they heard it was our national day. In the end, trying to buy a grill and all the supplies in one afternoon tuned out to be to difficult, so we are having it tonight. Going to go see more of the city this afternoon, so stay tuned,,,

In Berlin

Where in the world am I? Well, I'm in Berlin. We arrived this morning after taking another night train. It was different this time though for two reasons. Firstly, there was some mix up that ended up with us being upgraded to two bed cabins (rather than the six bed ones we had paid for). Secondly, the train went on a ferry. I'd never seen anything like it. To cross over to Germany, the train drove onto a BC Ferry type ship.

We arrived here at 6AM this morning. We slept on the couch at the hostel for a while then went on another one of the free walking tours. Berlin seems like an amazing city. The fall of the wall is the first major news event I can remember happening, so to see the remains of it was quite significant for me. We are staying in quite a new hostel in Mitte (an area of Berlin) which is very convenient. We are booked here for four nights in theory, but there seems to be some confusion about that. We'll see what ends up happening.

Germany is playing Turkey tonight so there are big screens set up and they are expecting massive crowds. We'll probably go watch that and soak in some atmosphere. Stay tuned...

Two More Countries Down

I received an email today from my dealry beloved parents asking where in the world I am. I think it is time to provide some answers.

 

I am currently sitting in a 7-11 in Stockholm, Sweden. It has been a good time here. Yesterday we went to see the Vasa. I believe it has to be one of the world's best kept secrets when it comes to museums. For those who don't know, the Vasa was a war ship, completed in 1628 and it was to be the most fearsome ship in the world. Sadly it wasn't designed too well and sank thirty minutes into its maiden voyage. The thing is though, it sank in Stockholm harbour, where the mud and low salt content of the water meant it was kept quite well preserved. They found it again in the '50s and then spent the '60s and '70s raising and restoring it. It is a very impressive site now. The ship sits in its own museum and is mostly original. Even parts of the original sail were preserved. I have never seen anything like it before. You see pictures of ships like it in books, but I never thought there was a real living example of one anywhere. Later today we are off to the Nobel Museum.

 

Before this we were in Copenhagen. It was actually a nice rest stop for us. We did a walk around the city and visited the palace, but other than that we just recovered. Thanks to a friend of a friend type thing we had an apartment in the city all to ourselves. It was just what we needed.

 

Tomorrow night we hope to take a night train to Berlin to start a new adventure. Stay tuned...

Pictures of me!

Let's start off with a good tourist shot in London

And next up we have a group picture at the Guiness Storehouse. We poured those pints ourselves.

Is that a radio mast in the background?
We were too cheap to pay for a lift, so we took the stairs up to the second level.

On the train to Amsterdam.

I know I promised Lisbon Treaty pictures, but putting pictures on Blogger is a bit of a pain. I have them on Facebook and if anyone wants to see them and doesn't have Facebook, let me know and I will figure something out.

Scotland Pictures

Inside Edinburgh Castle. The Scotish have a sense of humor you see. If you took a picture in front an English sentry, you'd see that stone faced look behind you. This fine Scotsman however was pulling faces in the back of people's pictures.

Edinburgh Castle

Kyle testing out some vintage weapons on Brian

Ooooops

In my anxiousness I forgot to proof-read and spell-check my last post. Please forgive any horrible mistakes and don't lose faith in my ability to speak the English language.

Hop Holland!

I am writting this from an internet cafe in Amsterdam. We have been here for three days and will take a night train tonight to Denmark. Amsterdam has been a great experience. It started off well when we arrived the night of Holland's 4-1 win over France in Euro 2008. We arrived in the early evening, so we had time to grab some cheap orange shirts from a souvenier shop and head down to one of the town squares. Now, I have been to football matches live before, including one at Old Trafford, but I have never seen anything quite like this. The crowd was energetic yet controlled and we even had people letting off orange flares and smoke bombs. It was quite the site and a lot of fun.

 

I have to say that I really admire the dutch education system. Everyone here speaks such wonderful English. Three things highlight this to me. For one, I am not a slow talking person, yet I've never had to repeat myself. Secondly, I have never found a dutch person lost for words, their vocabulary is excellent and they always know the words they need to use. Lastly, their pronunciation is very good. Granted they have thick accents, but I have never had trouble understanding them. Someone told me that you never ask a dutch person if they speak English as in doing so you are essentially asking them if they graduated from school.

 

In terms of other things I've done while I've been here, I just got back from the Van Gogh museum. I was very impressed by it and would highly recommend it to anyone. It is the first time I have been to a museum which focuses on one artists and so I really appreciated being able to chronologically follow his work and see his development both as an artist and person. It is also always fun to realize that you are standing less than a foot from a world famous painting (such as his sunflowers). I also visited then Ann Frank house. I can't classify this as enjoyable, but I am glad I went. Walking around I felt a deep personal interest in it all knowing that members of my family lived through that time and experienced that persecution. One moving quote they have in there (I forget the exact quote or who said it) says that Ann Frank was one person who has moved so many, and then goes on to ask what would the world would be like if we had diaries for all the victims of the Nazi regime? Would there be anyone denying these terrible events then?

 

The last thing I'd like to mention is the New Europe free walking tours. To anyone travelling right now or who is going to do so, I would highly recommend these. They have them in most major cities. They operate on a tips only basis, so you pay what you feel it was worth. They are three hours long and so far have not disappointed. We have done them in Paris and here in Amsterdam. I am told the one in Berlin is the best.

 

Lastly, for those wondering about the subject line of this post, it means "Go Holland". You see it all over the place here. All for now, I hope to be able to do my next update from Copenhagen. Unfortunately we will not be making it to Legoland, but I am told the city itself is worth the visit. I'll let you know, stay tuned.

Dublin

Writting from Paris this time, but going to do an update of my time in Dublin.

 

Dublin was an interesting city. It doesn't call out to tourists as much as London or Edinburgh but I feel like they are working on that. The city itself is filled with quite a lot of contrast: the old with the new, the run down with the fresh, the poor with the wealthy. It is also, and I suppose this applies to the country as a whole, divided. Today the population is casting ballots on the Lisbon Treaty which would bring closer integration to the EU. The polls are too close to call and the campaiging was like nothing I have seen since back in Colombia. I took pictures of some of the campaign signs which I promise to try and post as they are quite interesting.

 

In terms of the tourist thing with visited the Guiness Factory, the Old Jameson Distillery, Trinity College and the northern coast (including Malahide Castle). Possibly the most interesting experience of all though was the taxi ride to the airport (the bus never showed up). We were lucky enough to have a most friendly and well read driver named Anthony. I learned more about Ireland today from that 40 minute ride than I did from anything else. I wish I had had the chance to sit down and chat with him longer.

 

Got to go! Stay tuned!

Dublin Attempt Number 2

Hello everyone! It looks like a lot more people are reading this than I expected, so I'll keep updating whenever I can.

 

I am writing this update from Dublin. This is actually the second attempt. I wrote one yesterday but the internet where we are staying is very spotty and it cut out before I managed to post. This time I am at an internet cafe, so it *should* work.

 

We arrived here yesterday on Ryanair. It was my first Ryanair experience. For those who don't know, Ryanair is an Irish airline which runs the lowest cost operation possible. It is so much so that often the base price of their flights is £1 or less. Fees and all bring this up a fair bit, but I would say in general it is still cheaper than even Southwest airlines. I had heard some horror stories about their service, but my experience was fine. They board from the front and rear of the aircraft simultaneously, so they use the old stairs rather than jetways. YVR of course has double jetways, but I suppose they aren't too common yet. Interestingly enough, we arrived at the new terminal in Dublin which didn't even have any jetways at some gates.

 

Edinburgh was fun. I found it interesting as it didn't really feel like a big city. We stayed at a nice hostel right behind the castle. It was very clean and well equipped and had very friendly people. The castle itself is well preserved and very well set up for tourists. I found it better than the Tower of London actually (dare I say it?). We also went to a place called the Scotch Whisky Experience. I am not a big scotch drinker, but it was still quite interesting to learn the history of the drink and see how it is all made. I didn't cave in and buy the £1700 bottle of scotch from the gift shop, but I thought about it (yeah, right).

 

Yesterday was our first day in Dublin and it was a bit of a wash. I think the constant on the go caught up to us as we spent all afternoon asleep. We ventured out and found a Tesco to buy some dinner. Later in the evening we walked around Temple Bar which is a the big restaurant/pub neighbourhood. I've never seen anything quite like it. The place was packed and not just with tourists. There must also be a lot of weddings today as there were celebrations wherever you looked. I suppose this is Dublin on a Saturday night.

 

We're not sure what we'll get up to today. Thoughts are maybe the Guinness factory or a bus tour. Stay tuned...

Two Pictures

I will no longer complain about my feet hurting at the end of the day

The London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben. In true London fashion it was quite a gloomy day

London is done

Today was our last day in London and we will soon start our 9 hour bus ride to Edinburgh. We went to the Tate Modern (modern art museum) today. I learned one thing, I am not crazy.

London

Two days in and so far the trip has not disappointed. We are staying with a highschool friend of Brian's in Stratford (right by the police station so all is good). We spent yesterday walking around and ignoring our jet-lag. We did the whole tourist thing and visited the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Downing Street, Buckingham Palace (saw the changing of the guard), Trafalgar Square, the Tower of London and a bunch of other stuff along the way. Despite still trying to remember which way to look when crossing the road we only really had one close encounter.

Today we went with our host, Kat, around Soho and then up to Camden. Camden was an interesting place to see. I had always wondered where people who dress like "that" get their clothes. If anyone I know is ever in need of fishnet tights attached to fluorescent tutus I will know where to send them. In the evening we went to watch King Lear at The Globe. It was the full experience. We paid 5 pounds and stood in the yard... in the rain (by the way, my new Columbia jacket is awesome). Brian and Kyle are currently in the market for more waterproof garments.

One thing we've learned so far is that Translink is cheap, even though I still think it could be cheaper.

Tomorrow we will probably go tour the Tate Modern and then enjoy some Fish and Chips. After that we will jump on a bus and nine hours later get off in Edinburgh. Should be good. Stay tuned...

In London, finally

We arrived in London only about 21 hours after first checking in at YVR. Thanks to some bizarre delays I can elaborate on when I have more time (but think, are these people only pretending to be an airline?) it really was a long trip. Anyway, staying with a friend of a friend. The London touring begins tomorrow! Stay tuned...

On your marks, get set, wait...

The day didn't start too well. I'd planned to get up at a decent time to give myself plenty of time to clean up the apartment and leave things in order before heading to the airport just after noon. Unfortunately I managed to sleep until 10:30, so it turned into a bit of a rush out the door. Never mind though, still made it to the airport on time and found the lonely little check-in stand used by the shady operation that is Globespan. Then the news.... Our flight which was supposed to leave at 3:25 PM was delayed until 11:59 PM. 11:59 PM? The time sounds suspicious to me. It sounds like the time they assign it when they really don't know when it will leave but they know it will be very late. This is what you get for $309. Stay tuned to find out if we get off...

The Adventure Begins Tomorrow

Tomorrow afternoon I will board my flight with my friends Brian McFadden and Face Graham. I hope that soon there will be many stories of adventure to share, so keep checking here to get more.

And yes, I am now officially an engineer!

Five Years in the Making

I am in Vancouver right now. I got in last night and will be here until
next Saturday. Tuesday is the day that I thought would never come, my
graduation. I am not sure how I will feel, but I do know that I still
can't believe this is happening.

Thoughts on Utah

This is actually now my third trip to the state of Utah but this time I've had some time to sit down and think a bit. Firstly, Utah is culturally a different place. It has its own heritage, history and values which, as most people know, are influenced by the Church of Latter Day Saints.

The first think that has struck me around here is the age of families. I had my hair cut and the hairdresser told me she was planning on waiting until she was twenty five to get married, but she only made it to nineteen. She is not the exception. I walk out of my parents' house in the morning and see guys my age, walking out of houses the own, and loading several kids into the car. There is not necessarily anything wrong with this, in fact I find it refreshing to see such respect for the institution of marriage, but it has really made me think about my life. I am happy with my life. I am not ready to have kids. Good for them.

The second thing which has struck me is what driving is like. People around here are really nice. They are pleasant and helpful, but put some of the behind the wheel and it is a different story. Some places I have been (and maybe where I live...) have unskilled drivers, but drivers here are mean. I do not want to stereotype, but the average meanes is definitely higher. Add this to left turn only lanes with no markers (you are supposed to know what they are based on the fact that they don't line up with a lane across the intersection) and the fact that streets within the same town centre can have speed limits 30 mph apart, and driving here can be an experience. If you don't believe me, check out the Utah Driver's Handbook where it actually says "being courteous won't kill you". I do want to add that I do not consider myself a perfect driver and would be open to hearing what Utahans think of me...

I have one more (hot) week in this place, then back to Vancouver for a week, then on to Europe. Stay tuned.

Vegas Vacation

Hey everyone!

I am still down in Utah (been here for a week now) but my family and made the drive down to Las Vegas last weekend. It was my first time there bringing my total number of US States I've been in up to 20 (I think). I wasn't sure what I would think of Vegas. Non of my family are gamblers, in I may be the only one who has ever set foot in a casino before (River Rock). Not knowing much about the place, we made reservations at a place about 10 minutes from the strip, The Boulder Inn Hotel and Casino.



This provided one of my first lessons in Vegas culture. I will begin by saying that the place was nice. The rooms was up-to-date, mostly clean and spacious, and the rates were good. Three things stood out to me about the place in general though. Firstly, it stank. Smoking was allowed throughout the gaming floor. Secondly, the place was filled with very gimmicky deals on food and what not. Lastly, nobody seemed to be having fun. After visiting the strip and walking around far too many places there I realized why the environment there was so different. See, the strip itself seems to attract more and more vacationers. The people come for the Vegas experience, gamble a bit but also shop and take in a show. Sure there are still some serious gamblers there, but it is much more vacation oriented. Once off the strip you get the old Grandma with here bucket of quarters whose sole purpose in being there is to try and beat the house... all day. Anyway, lesson learned.

The strip itself is amazing and I really enjoyed just walking around. If you've never been it is an experience. I have to be honest though, I don't know whether to applaud it as a remarkable achievement of capitalism, or condemn it for the many activities which go on there which I disagree with. Moral objections aside, it is still an amazing place to see and hag out at. Probably to me the most impressive place in terms of shock value was New York New York. I can't imagine how much it cost to recreate the New York skyline like that. Overall though I think the most breathtaking was the Luxor. What I didn't realize was that all the rooms face onto the outside of the pyramid, so when you are in the foyer, it is basically hollow. I found it awesome to look at.





While we were there we went and saw Phatom, which is a 95 minute Vegas version of The Phantom of the Opera. I have to say I was impressed. It's amazing what you can do when you have a theatre purposely built for one production. If you have a chance to see it is is visually stunning. Word is they spent $5 million on the chandelier alone which should give you some idea (it has four parts, 32 axis of rotation and each piece can be swung around the whole theatre).

In closing this was a great experience. For those wondering, I did spend $1 on a slot, but that was it. In fact the only reason I did was because my mom wanted to try one and had no change.

One last note, for those who don't think Vegas has something for everyone, I leave you with this picture. That's right, gambling on Beer Pong.

Stay Tuned

The blog is almost ready to go so watch for a post on my trip to Las Vegas.