oberto_san

I'm sitting in an aeropuerto right this moment. Why you ask? For the reason that I have not been updating for a goodly amount of time. I have been taking part in an exchange program in La Hacienda Jacaranda, a town near Benjamin Hill, Mexico. I apologize for seemingly disappearing for a while, which I guess I did, but I had no internet access, nor did I want to be the rich American carrying around a portable supercommunication device. I enjoyed the technological sabbatical, by the way, and went to many a discoteca and cafe in place of sitting near a computer. Y mi espanol... mientras que yo estaba en mexico no cambio nada para mejor, yo creo. Actually I probably speak and listen fairly well now... jejeje

The point is, I will be returning in a few moments via flying machine back to good ol' Indiana for some more R&R and our American Thanksgiving break. For all of you who are interested in joining the Mexican school system, you may contact me and I will give you much information.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL

Yeah, so this extended weekend I have earned nearly 30 hours of community service. That is a lot for 4 days. And on top of that I managed to do all of my homework that teachers have quietly assigned us even though they aren't supposed to. I mostly worked around a halfway house doing random stuff, and my uncle dropped by. He's a cop, and asked me if I wanted to a drive-along with him. I tagged along and he showed me around, telling me all sorts of little known facts about the city, havens in bad parts of town, good family restaurants, hidden neighborhoods, and the likes of which you only find after driving the streets of a city for a few years straight. Nothing happened to us, but we did hear someone call in an armed robbery at a pizza place... apparently a guy tried to rob it while there was a cop eating there, the cop threw a pizza at the guy and tackled him, and no one was hurt. It all sounded like cheap tv-series material to me, but they discussed it later with very serious expressions and did not appreciate my lighthearted look at the pizza/tackle ordeal.

Nevertheless, I remain unkilled throughout this week to date. I can't wait till classes resume tomorrow. I am enjoying Russian class unbelievably so this year. It is so much more fun than last year, along with all my other classes for that matter. I even love my econ class, which I didn't even mean to take. Thanks, Mrs. Fallon!

Anyway I'll see most of you later today!

Looter

I just realized how long it's been since I've updated! A lot has happened since school started, but nothing really too important. I'm really tired right now because I finally got some people to go to the gym with me and work out. Usually Vanessa and I went to work out together, but seeing as she is "graduated," I had some trouble rallying support for morning jogs and such. Thanh eventually decided to accompany me, we spent over four hours at the gym, and je suis fatigué. We lifted like mad and did a little sparring, my judo vs. his tai chi. It was fun to the power of a trillion and we have many bruises. Of course he won, because he's Asian.

Classes also have me worn out. For the joy of learning I find myself taking 12 credits this semester. I love all my classes, but it sure is a lot of homework. If I expect to get into Harvard law, I should take as many classes as possible, methinks.

Academy life is back to normal, if not a little plusher. I threw a bit of money around and fixed my room up pretty nice, although I'm only in it to sleep anymore. I spend a lot of time now with one of my teachers from last year with some pro bono work for some of the nearly-homeless around the campus. I may just be a secretary now, but I'm quickly moving up the pro bono ladder in my humble opinion.

ENOUGH!

I just accidentally went to goodle.com

Anyway I'm back from Ross ee uh. The trip was ok, I'm kinda so-so about it. We saw all kinds of crazy and awesome things, but the people weren't too cheery and the food was... Russian. A whole lotta Shi, not a lotta kalbasa. Anyway we had some tchai (it's just tchai, not that fancy stuff), Misha had a little too much vodka one night and got chewed out by a babushka brigade. We got a lot of practice po-russkie, and I can't wait to go back to school to show off a few of the things I learned. Misha and I just love Russian class! It's such a great thing to start your day off with. Oh yeah I wore my hat one night and got a lot of evil looks so I didn't do that again.

Also I thought this was funny. I really like my new magician.

Don't know when I'll be back againnnnnn

Mama Cass was assassinated. Don't believe their lies.

Anyway, it shall soon be time to leave, I must finish packing today. I bought an awesome new satellite phone if you people want to call me and let me tell you how awesome Russia is.

I believe I will have internet access in "Ross ee! uh" as well. So I will still be online almost as if I had never left my house!

Looter! (inside joke)

I think I will change my name to Sergento.

Anyway with all this newfangled money (happily in the bank as you know it--and counted for that matter, no i will not tell you how much of a millionaire I am), I have been looking into traveling. Since Mike and I's Russia trip to St. Pete was kinda thrown off by our native guide being a drug trafficker, we had that plan abolished (cost would have skyrocketed without connections). Cost is now no longer an issue, so I have spent the last few days working on an itinerary for myself and dear Misha. Let's just say that we will be much more luxuriously treated than our initial plans had outlined for us. And I have been practicing my russian, молодой человек (sorry!). We leave for a two week Russiatour on the fifth of July. I will be sure to bring back at least a fourth of Russia as a souvenier.

If any of you have seen the new movie Dodgeball, you have an idea of how much money a full briefcase can hold. It's crazyness. I even have a lawyer now. I told him to get me a Swiss bank account, but he said the Caymans are better blah blah. I think I'll fire him. с удовольствием.

I have now become the number one ubercoolest liejournal user thanks to Dr. Charles Branch.

Anyway more good news for me, the police kinda just looked at us, made sure the money was legal and then kinda looked at us more. SO eventually they decided since it was more or less a gift, of more than $6500 (or $65000 I don't remember--whichever the limit is for a taxless gift) they figured I should pay taxes, but they didn't know who gave it to me, and the record at the trailor park was obviously false... etc. etc. SO the only people that want me dead is the IRS, the cops basically told us to leave quietly and pay up if the IRS gets a whif of the money.

Anyway more news to come when I'm less lazy, or busy, which I will be for another day.

So I told my parents about the money today, and they didn't believe me. So I says, "fine." and walked off. Then they made me show them, and they believed. I didn't really tell them how much I spent or anything, so I will keep that quiet for now, but they are making me take it to the police to make sure it is legal. The police will be curious I'm sure, but I have the thing proverbially handcuffed to my wrist.

I hope it doesn't get taken away.

The TV was dilivered. HUZZAH! Now all thats left that I am interested in is broadband. I will see how much it costs to get the best of the best installed in this town for me... heheh heh heh

Anyway it is a funny situation. My parents don't know what to do, since there's no real breaking of the law involved. I don't think they believe there could be this much money for free just sitting in my room. They kinda spun around for a little while but I didn't give them the briefcase, so they eventually died down.

Anyway I haven't gone psycho yet because of all the money, and I promise the rest of it goes in the bank after I spend a little more for decent internet. One of you kill me if I don't put it in the bank, k?

It's like I'm a celebrity, and I don't even have connections.

WOw wow wow. Did I mention wow?????

The coolest thing just happened to me today, a story that I shall tell to my death, which may happen sooner than most people if a group of heavily armed mercenaries come bursting through my window any moment. Anyway what follows is one of those things that only happens to I think two and a half people every decade, and I am now one of those people.

Ok anyway, as some of you know I work doing random maintenance at a trailor park that my friend's dad owns, and today I was mowing a bit, and "wedeating" as the gas can is aptly labeled for use with the "wedeater onely." Someone sure knows how to spell. Anyway I was working around a certain trailor that did not look like it was occupied. I saw something shiny in the grass, and picked it up, finding out it was a watch. It was quite the pimp watch, it looked rather James Bondish, I was seriously thinking about keeping it, but I looked around anyway... I decided it was most likely dropped by a person living in that trailor, so I walked up and banged on the door a few times. I was just about to leave and a guy poked his head around the corner and simply said "What?" I explained that I found a watch, and asked if it was his. He took the watch and looked very surprised for a moment, then serious again. "Wait here," says he, and then disappears back into his trailor. I waited at least ten minutes and was about to leave again when he shows back up with a few very nice suitcases and a briefcase. He gives me the briefcase and says, "Forget you ever saw me." He piles everything in his car and leaves. Can you say cliché?????

Needless to say, the briefcase was filled with cash, and I AM FREAKING RICH. The thing was crammed with used 100's, so I'm sure it's legitimate. I have decided to spend a little bit in small doses before I tell my parents. SO WHAT DO YOU ALL WANT??? Keep it reasonable, but I'm going to buy everyone something. I want to keep it quiet though, I don't want to know what the guy was doing there. Probably more drug crap, so if I disappear in the night, you know what happened. I should go to the police probably... screw it I'm spending it, it'll be just like Dumb and Dumber!!!!!!! So what do you want???

Well I haven't been around for a while because things got busy, shall we say. We are ending our year here at the academy, but that is not the source of all the action that had been going on lately. My class for today has been canceled, so I think I should fill you all in on what's going on, and why I haven't updated.

Anyway for the most part we have a fair amount of freetime, right? And we have enough freedom that for a limited time during the day we can go anywhere we want in Delaware County. I guess put these two things together and you get drug ring.

Well at least a few of my friends decided that. I think I mentioned Keegan before, and he has a roommate named Stephen. I also mentioned Evan, who is originally from Russia. They are all from Kokomo, which has a rep anyway, but these guys took it to a new level this year. Evidently my dear friend Evan was dealing with this type of stuff in Russia, surrounding countries grow easily accessible opiates, and heck marijuana grows on the side of the road there. Well, when he came over, he kept some people in mind about the opium, and whether he moved to Kokomo specifically for the drug reason, or it was just a coincidence I don't know, but that is still being investigated. Anyhow, in Kokomo he met some friends, and never being a user himself, started pondering how best to take advantage of the fools around him. Enter Keegan and Stephen. They either already had some kind of connection going, or they started making one then, but they were very quick and slick about it. I guess thats what you get with the best of the best of Indiana, but in about a year Evan had a few friends bringing him some goods from the motherland, and it was expertly distributed throughout Kokomo. When the three of them came to the academy, what better an idea than relocate the business?

Anyway there's where our story starts more or less. Keegan was a pretty good friend and I would talk to Evan every so often (he was usually pretty busy--I now know why). Stephen on the other hand was not my kind of folk, from the beginning I didn't really trust him, but there are others around here that act just like him, so he wasn't out of place. I didn't know them well enough to suspect anything, but one night while Fei-Fei, Kevin, and Stephanie were out on a walk, they saw Stephen running down the street. Fei-Fei yelled after him and started to follow, and he told them to run, a minute later a car came flying by in the direction Stephen was running. The car was frightening enough to certainly warrant a notifying of the officials. Fei-Fei called the campus police, since for some reason she has their number stored in her phone (we made fun of her for it a while ago, but I guess it was for reasons like this). The police didn't find the car, but neither did they find Stephen, he must have bolted, because he never showed back up at the academy. The police did a little investigation and found all sorts of goodies that allowed for an arrest warrant for Evan and Keegan.

It was the strangest thing in the world to be sitting in the lounge and have about fifteen policemen come flying in. Evan and Keegan went quietly, and everyone was about as confused as ever. Then the questionings started, and they went through the academy sifting for any more scents of drugs, which was great fun, let me tell you. There was a lot and a lot of the same stuff asked over and over, and it's finally starting to die down a lot more. You may have seen a lot of this on the news, but about the only thing they got right was that Muncie and drugs were involved. I figure they were trying to keep a lid on some of it, either that or the news is always wrong, this is the first time that I have been directly involved in something newsworthy. Anyway the police are still looking for Stephen.

Crazy year, crazy year. I'll try to update more often now, to be honest I had forgotten about this.

Catch you all looter, and hopefully with a very boring story not worth writing about.

It's been a while! I have so much homework... don't we all? I have been finding ways to get around it lately.

Anyways, prom is coming up and tomorrow is tux fitting day. The tailor company's name is "Chevy Fitters." I have no hopes that I will even look decent. I guess that's a sign that you live in Indiana.

HOWEVER, I have decided that I shall ask the fitter for something "piratey." Something with the little neck/sleeve ruffliness. I have no real idea what the technical terms are, but this is what I have in mind:
www.sewfits.com/piratewedding.html

Speaking of prom, my brother is an entertainer, and he's coming to do most of the music live. He does great impressions. His personal site is here:
www.tompatrick.com/songs.html

Anyway catch you all LOOTER

Sorry I haven't been saying much lately. Not a whole lot new has happened. Sean is getting better. My roommate is still alive. Steve is dying. Hmmm what else...

We had to turn in our forms for May Term this weekend. Steve and I chose a class completely dedicated to Emily Dickinson. Two weeks of pure poetry! It should be great. We are definately all looking forward to May term, and then comes summer! I've been practicing my Russian, I can't wait to go to St. Petersburg!

The faculty vs students basketball game was last saturday as well. The faculty got blown away, mainly because of Thanh. He scored 34 points total, which was more than the faculty scored the whole game. It was rather amusing to watch. Hilarity ensued.

Ahh what else... a big group of us got in trouble for throwing plastic poker chips at eachother in the lounge yesterday. There was a deserted poker tournament, and one thing led to another... Anyway we all got yelled at and had to clean the whole lounge. It was worth it though; we were circling around a table yelling "Garme" (inside joke) and pegging each other with anything we could pick up. I won.

Anyway that's all I can remember happening lately. Surely I am forgetting something important...

Well sorry about not updating lately, things have been busy as usual. I didn't even make my morning jog today... (sorry Vanessa). Oh well, that will never happen again, as long as I'm alive.

We made it back from Colorado without further incident. Only a little bad weather, that Mike handled well (like a true Russian!). Another story, Sean got stopped by security at the airport on our way back. They searched him and found... shall we say some contraband. Evidently our friend here has been addicted to some kind of book glue... or something... for a while now... he was always the energetic type, but seriously there was no warning sign that we could see. Even Thanh, his roommate says he had no idea at all, and he never saw so much as a single suspicious act committed by his roommate since we've been here. Pretty strange.

Anyway we've talked about it, and we're gonna work it out I'm sure. We are all backing him on this one, he will beat glue like so many... defenseless, easily beaten things. Just remember to be supportive, everyone!

Also, Steve needs some support about now, in the form of crutches! We were mocking Greg's bowling trophies as he was moving his collection (he is changing rooms) and he dropped everything and came chasing after us. Steve must have made him angrier than I did, because as he tried to flee down the stairs, Greg gave him a little shove. The shove was enough to send Steve sprawling, and he broke his toe on a post for the handrail. I have never seen Greg apologize so much, he must have felt horrible. It's not fun when things get out of hand, and I for one vow not to poke fun at anyone anymore!

Surely things will start to turn around soon. Not many great things have been happening lately. Tomorrow is the Japanese festival, though, which should be sunfunfun for everyoneoneone!

Looter (inside joke)

P.S. I will wake up on time to go jogging tomorrow, Vanessa.

Well we went horseback riding yesterday, and it was great... except for one minor happening. We all had our own horse for most of the trip, which was several scenic hours long. We stopped at one of the rockier sections of the mountain at a little cave-rest-station and got off our horses to give them a break. Stephanie got off her horse, and it just bolted. Straight off the cliff. It was horrible... we all just stared. It didn't even make a noise... it just turned and ran. It was easily the freakiest thing I've ever seen in my life. We don't know if something scared it or what... the other horses were fine.

Needless to say, we're all still a bit creeped out, but Stephanie took it the hardest, she grew up with that horse. Imagine one of your best friends just killing themself right in front of you. Actually don't, cause that's horrible.

We got back a little later than expected, needless to say her uncle was a bit dismayed, but there's really nothing any of us can do about it. What a bad ending to such a good vacation...

We leave tomorrow to head back, other than this episode it was awesome, and I hope we can come back again. By the way the Cantonese was "YOKATTA!"

looter

Sorry I haven't updated much, I've been pretty busy out here. It's awesome! That's my main excuse, my other excuse is that I couldn't get the internet to work on my laptop, but that has been rectified.

Today we went four-wheeling and I was victorious. Very fun, except when Mike fell off his ride and almost broke every bone in his body. I swear the snow flew twenty feet into the air when he hit the ground. It was probably the only thing that kept him from dying. Other than that we had a safe, fun-filled day of danger, and looking back it was entertaining even when he almost died.

Yesterday we went skiing. Let it be known that I AM THE MASTER OF ALL THINGS SLALOM. Eric put up a fight, but he conceeded. He even made me a little snow trophy, which I put in my room. It became a puddle trophy, but a trophy nonetheless. Soon enough it evaporated, and now it is a water vapor trophy that will travel the world advertising my skiing greatness.

Steve and I made an igloo today as well. An igloo EL MAS IMPENETRIBLE to LOS SNOWBALLS INEFECTIVOS. We have had many a snowball fight around here, there is no lack of snow. It's no fun going up against Kevin, though, he used to be a pitcher for his school's baseball team. Jerk.

Anyway, enough talking. Tonight Stephanie's uncle is cooking us a big Cantonese dinner (a little taste of the South, right here in the North). Too bad FeiFei missed her plane; she would want to do a bit of cooking as well. She almost had everything worked out to come with us... it's a shame, really.

It's time to eat.

CANTONESE'D

Finally spring break is almost here! I have been waiting for so long. We have planned so much for this break. All of us except Fei-Fei are flying out to Colordado tomorrow night to stay with Stephanie's rich uncle! It's amazing how everyone got it to work out (except FeiFei), the trip cost was very low since we're staying at this guy's gigantic house on some private mountain. It's amazing what kind of connections people have here! Anyway, I finally get to go skiing again, since I haven't been anywhere to ski this year. From what I've been hearing, this guy's place is basically a resort, and we're all staying there an entire week. It's what we all need I'm sure. I am imagining myself sitting down somewhere quiet and cozy and reading. It's not long now!

The only thing to overcome before we go is Mike's fear of flying. His parents keep telling him the plane might crash and wierd stuff like that. They are crazy people. Oh well if we have to tie him up or put him in one of those pet cages to get him there, then we will.

By the way, Eric says hes good at skiing. I want to see who's better. Surely it will be me. I shall be the master of all things slalom.

Cya all LOOTER!!!!

Nothing new's been happening lately.

The Japanese Culture Club is finally getting its act together about the New Year's festival. It's a little late, but it's going to be pretty big. We are going to have plenty of food, cooked mostly by Stephanie and her cronies, so I don't think I'll eat any, but I'll act like it, and Steve is in charge of the games. He's got some strange ones planned so far, I think I'll steer clear of them. I think we are actually trying to hook up a fireworks show, too. Sean is looking into that, and I don't want to die, so I don't think I'll go to that. There's going to be anime and some cosplay, but there are too many creepy fat guys around here that like to dress up like Sailor Moon, so I'm not going to any of that. My roommate, Derek, is going to dress in a kimono and do a traditional dance or two, so I'm going to stay far away during that. We have a calligraphy stand planned, and we are going to write people's names in beaauuuutiful calligraphy for a buck, but since I'm not in the Japanese class, I can't do that. Kevin is setting up an all-Japanese song DDR corner, but I can't do ddr, so no use there for me. Looks like the party's going to be awesome, but there's no use in my going. Let the naïve ones go on in, I'll set up the tables beforehand and cry at the butchering of Japanese culture by the hands of my closest friends.

At least I still have Mike to hang out with. Russian was not deemed important enough to have a culture club, so there's nothing for us to ruin.

3 more days till spring break!!!

Have you ever been to a ballet? I hadn't until tonight, and I can be honest, I never really wanted to go to one, but the other day I met some ballet peoples who invited a group of us to go see them dance. The first is actually a guy, who I met a while back when I first started going to this school named Kevin. I never would have guessed he was a dancer. That has to be rare, I've never met anyone even remotely connected to ballet until now. Anyway he looks like he could kill you if he wanted to, but he's so elegant and graceful when he dances. Go ahead and make fun of him if you dare, though. His ballet compatriate's name is Fei-Fei, and she's awesome too. She moved here when she was seven, but she was already training for her family's tradition of being part of the Peking Opera. She is what one would call an extremely talented dancer. Put the two of them together and you make some money, I should think. It's really hard to describe ballet, the stereotypes about it undermine it. It's definately worth going to see at least once to try it out. They are an awesome pair. Have I said that already?

Anyway once again it's time to sleep. Looter.

One more week to spring break!

Well today is almost over... it's a shame how quickly weekends go, but education awaits; and it must be satisfied.

This morning I woke up and went jogging with my friend Vanessa. She's really nice, but her roommate hates her, so we try to keep her busy and out of the room as much as possible. It's kinda a funny story, her roommate is in love with my friend Kegan, and Vanessa was making fun of him one day and didn't know her roommate was right behind her. Her roommate cursed at her and called her a dirty... woman of the night for lack of better term, and they never really recovered from that. That's the soap opera for today.

Funniest thing about it is I just talked to Kegan and he basically hates Vanessa's roommate. Kegan is a picky, picky person. Sometimes he acts very aloof, but hes more the cool-aloof than the scary, I'm-gonna-kill-you aloof. His grand dream in life is to become a geneticist... His family is very close, and his grandfather, sadly, has very bad Alzheimers, which has kinda mellowed him out recently (at least thats what I'm told, I haven't known him that long). I haven't talked to him about it but I'm sure he's got that disease in his targets already. So, be thankful for your health if you have it!

Anyways, the point is that Vanessa is really a nice person. She's really getting into this bowling thing. Strange if you ask me, bowling is so boring...

Enough! It's an early day tomorrow! Gnight

Well, most of my classes are done for today. I just have one more, and thanks to my friend Eric we are only watching a movie in it. We are watching "Glory," which he suggested since we are talking about the Civil War. He brought in a ton of stuff the other day to show the class, since his dad is a big re-enactment fan, and his great great great grandfather was an officer directly under Sherman. It's pretty awesome reading his journal, it gives you an unbiased, first-hand account, which is hard to come by. Eric is getting in on the re-enactments too. Right now he's a drummer boy named "Theodore Bailey" from Vincennes, and pretty soon he's going to get all his equipment to be a regular. I don't know how all the heirarchy works, but I'm sure he'll be an officer before you know it. Anyway it's one of the best examples of role playing I've ever seen. A month before each re-enactment he starts talking like they did back then. He's pretty "method."

Well that's all for now, methinks.