Another victim of The Mullet

It is with much chagrin that I blog today. Nay, more than chagrin. I come before you in dismay, shock, yes- even horror. It is with deep regret that I confess to you all that one of my greatest nightmares has come true. My brother has acquired a mullet. Sadly, it took him just one month of living in Spain to succumb to the pressure and become just another statistic. To all of my fellow sojourners who have suffered through the past mullet-filled year living in Spain: Only you can truly understand my pain. My prayer is that he would recognize the error of his ways and shave his head. I can only hope that he does not continue on this path which will inevitably lead to multiple facial piercings, tight clothing, and an addiction to cigarettes. I regretfully submit to you the evidence and ask for your support in my time of need:

That is all. In the wake of such a terrifying sight, words escape me. It is all I can do to post this blog.

Oops, you bwoke it.

I'd like to apologize for the lack of new photos on my photo page. I realize that I am now more than 2 months behind. The problem is, the program that I use is on my laptop. So, while I was traveling, I was unable to post pictures. Now that I am home, I've discovered that my laptop won't connect to the internet. Annoying. I'm not sure what is wrong with it. My aunt took a look at it for me and removed a couple of trojans (yeah, my bad), but it still won't connect. I bought it last summer at Best Buy and I got the service plan to go with it. So, I took it in today. Did I mention that my keyboard is broken? Yeah, due to liquid spillage a couple of months ago, the keyboard went on strike. So, I brought in a wireless keyboard which is doing some temp work for me. It's kind of a pain, but better than nothing. Unfortunately, my service plan doesn't cover liquid spills. I was hoping that the guy at the service desk wouldn't ask me what happened, but of course, he did. He sent it in anyway, though. He told me that they may or may not fix it; they'll call me if they decide not to. I don't know how long my lappy will be in the shop, but I miss the little guy already. Hopefully he'll come back as good as new and forgive me for everything I put him through.

In conclusion, I have the following words of advice: Use a good anti-virus; don't download Kazaa, anyone who tells you it is safe is lying through his teeth; and no matter how thirsty your computer says he is - DON'T GIVE HIM A DRINK!

It's good to be home

Well, maybe I should say it's good to be at my sister's home. While I was in Spain last year, my parent's cleverly seized the opportunity to sell our family home, so I don't actually have a home right now. Much to my relief, my sister has taken me in. I don't really know how long she'll put up with me before I'm back on the streets, but for now I'll just enjoy having a bed to sleep in and not think about the inevitable.

My plane flew in to Seattle night before last at about midnight. So by the time I got to my sister's place, it had been 25 1/2 hours since I left my brother's place in Spain. That may seem like a long time to be traveling, but my bags had it even worse. They just got in about half an hour ago.

I love traveling. There's nothing like that thrill of excitement that you get when you first enter a new country. It's strange, but I forget about that rush until I'm actually entering the country. Then it just kind of hits me. This past month was the first time I had ever been to Morocco or Ireland, and in Morocco I had the added thrill of being in a new continent. I think I'm addicted to travel. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to go anywhere right now. I'm perfectly content to be back in C-town relaxing and getting some rest (oddly enough, though, I've only slept a total of about 10 hours in the last two nights- go figure). However, I know that in a couple of months, all I'll be thinking about is that next hit..er..trip. While I was coming home, I had a layover at JFK in New York. At the airport I popped into a Starbucks to get my usual Iced Caramel Machiatto and a pamphlet caught my eye. It was about some contest that Starbucks was running where the winners get a free trip to the country of their choosing which has a Starbucks in it. The brochure was old; the contest ended a few years ago. I looked over the list of countries, though, and I started getting excited thinking of all of the places on the list that I wanted to visit. I definitely have an addiction. I'm planning on going to England over spring break, but that's not for another 8 months or so. I could be a wreck by then. I'm hoping to get a car in the next few weeks, though. If I get it off of Ebay, it will probably involve flying somewhere and driving it home. Maybe that will help stave off the cravings. Oh well, for now maybe I'll just go unpack my bags. After wearing the same clothes for the last month and a half, I'm pretty excited to rediscover my clothing.

Driving on the wrong..er..left side of the road

I arrived in Dublin two days ago and met up with Hannah, Roman, Robert, and Daniel. It was late by the time Hannah got there, so we basically just had dinner and called it a night. The next day we decided to hire a car so we could travel around Ireland and see some of the countryside. As I still don't know how to drive a manual, Roman was going to drive. But when we went to hire the car, we found out it would be a lot cheaper if the driver was 25. Roman turned 25 today, so we decided to stay one more day in Dublin and rent the car today. But when we got to the car rental agency, we discovered that Roman's driver's license expired today. This meant that I was the only one who could drive. It also meant that we had to rent an automatic, which was much more expensive. How many times have I wished I had learned how to drive a manual? More than a few.

Once we rented the car, we had to go back to the hostel to get our luggage and find out where to leave part of it. It doesn't sound that complicated, does it? But we managed to make it extremely complicated. I'm not going to go into all of it now, but 3 hours later, we were finally out of Dublin.

Let me just say that driving here was and is a lot harder than I thought it would be. It's not that big of a deal driving on the opposite side of the road, but having the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car is extremely weird. Getting a sense of the distance I have on each side of the car and parking are the main problems I have, but I'm getting better.

We're staying in Kilkenny tonight. It is a lovely little town with a river running through it and a castle nearby. Everything is a lot cheaper than in Dublin, as well. If we had more time, we'd probably stay here longer. But we don't, so we won't, so I need to leave now and go enjoy the city!

Terrorist attack in London

I'm so sick and tired of the terrorism. It makes me so angry. Why do those cowards have to attack innocent people just to get their political viewpoints across? It's disgusting. I know I'm not saying anything that everyone else hasn't already said, but I feel like I have to say it anyway.

Why? Why do they do it? How can we make it stop? If the troops are all pulled out of Iraq, will that help or will it just make things worse by reinforcing to Al-Qaeda that their tactics work? I don't know, but I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the threat of terrorism looming overhead. Most of the time I don't think about it that much, but it's always there. Living in Madrid, I would occasionally hear about bombs or bomb threats locally which the ETA (Euskadi Ta Ataskuna- a Basque separatist group) was usually responsible for. Just hearing about bomb threats reminds me of all of the attacks over the last few years and the possibility that another will occur.

I know there's no point in living in fear, though. All we can do is try to continue living our lives as usual.

Roughing it in Brit-land

It's my last night in London; tomorrow I bid farewell to good ol' Blighty. I have had one tough week- lying on the couch, watching TV, eating lots of good food (yes, folks, there is good food in England). Seriously, though, it was a much-needed break. On the way back from Morocco, I started getting sick. Being Sick + 8-Hour Bus = No Fun. I'm sure it was a result of a month of travelling- my body was just rebelling. I only felt really ill for the first day or two, now I just have a cold. At any rate, it was high time I took a break, and besides being a Whole Lot of Fun, I think I will enjoy Dublin now a lot more than I would have otherwise.

I had hoped that Lina, Matt 2, and Matt 3 would all be able to get together with Emily and I while I was here. Although we couldn't meet up all at the same time because of their individual schedules, we were able to meet Matt 3 for tea on Thursday, Lina for a curry on Saturday night, and Matt 2 for lunch today. It was a lot of fun to see all of them, but bittersweet as I won't be seeing any of them again for a long time.

So we spent the afternoon in London today - a bit ironic. I spent Independence Day in the capital of the country from which the US declared independence. My Brit friends enjoyed that, as you might imagine. We had a good time, though. After lunch we went to the National Art Gallery, then hung out in a coffee shop for a little while. We might have done more, but we were blessed with typical London weather: It rained.

Well, I'd love to write more, but as I said, this is my last night in London. I need to go lie on the couch and watch some more TV.