Ameritel Inn Olympia

Well its been a rather busy two weeks, after leaving Colville Washington, we headed north back into Canada. Every border crossing is a challenge and in Osoyoos,  British Columbia, we were asked to deposit all fruit and vegetables in a freezer, at the border crossing. When I opened the large chest freezer it was full of fruit , vegetables and even a couple of frozen turkeys!!<br>We spent two nights in Osoyoos, a beautiful town right on the ...

Tonight is my last night in Olympia for at least 73 days...I signed up for the IFCO/Pastors for Peace 20th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba, at the end of my Freshmen year at Evergreen State College. I was Looking for a little adventure, and a chance to use my newly acquired college skillz (excluding expert microwave operation, and 365 ways to prepare Raman). So far I've gotten all that and more, and ...

Welcome to the wonderful world of MOVING. Stage 37 of our year-long traveling circus. Stages 1-36 required perseverance and fortitude, but we prevailed. We've started to move out of San Francisco Ave NE. What a cute little house. Yesterday, we moved everything we had already packed over the last few months. It's a great feeling for some of us. At times Misty would rather put things back in the closet instead of into the boxes. Mark on the ...

... like it's her one and only desire. Ride her hard and fast, ride er slow and easy, anyway I wanted to ride, she was all for it. Love on valantines day I tell ya. And like the good girl she is, we rode through the occasional rain, and all the cold cause she likes it rough sometimes, she let me ride her all day without a complaint, enjoying the pain and pleasure of it all. What a beautiful ****ing day.

... were open at most houses, and many had people sitting outside talking, listening to music, etc. Kids were running around, and there were lots of beat-up old cares with bumper stickers, even a spray painted van. Felt kinda nice. The hostel had maps to good places to eat and shop, a donation-funded washer/dryer, a vegetarian kitchen, and everything seemed to work pretty well. Kudos! Had dinner on 4th Ave ...

... The past week I've been frantically attempting to tie up all loose ends here in the US (thanks to Diane, Kevin, Korin and Joe in Sacto - wouldn't have made it w/o you!) and get everything ready for my trip. The only real information I've been able to get from current employees in Tajikistan is that it is impossible to get chocolate there, but my 60-meter climbing rope ultimately won out ...

... we went to see a band on a thursday night in Fremont. Jed supposedly knew the bass player of the band from way back. They were a really great jam band but what surprised me was the number of Butte, MT people have made it to Seattle over the years. It was like Jed's high school reunion in the bar. Seriously, that night I saw.....8 people from Jed's past all in one bar. I'm getting a little closer to Butte, MT than I'd like to. Last Saturday I went scuba diving ...

... in the evening, got to the hostel, got a room and went to sleep. However, int he midst of that I did run into a cute couple who is travelling together that i had met at the hostel in SanFran, and got to talk to the 2 Japanese girls in broken English and the Swedish girl in really good English that are in my room. The Swedish girl is actually not a girl and got married a year ago and has doe all of her studeies here and is working on her mfa at san diego state ...

... Talked with an advisor of mine who runs mass spectrometry research for the NIH. Big man on campus (the country) so to speak. AND, his opinion on career development and who's doing good work in the field is an opinion I trust almost implicitly. He confirmed some of the negative rumblings, and suggested I talk with a PI at UMICH. I had already contacted this person via e-mail Monday evening, but as of yet didn't hear back. This is Tuesday... so, not much time had past and ...

... where you feel close to nature and it is very calming. The whole drive was magnificent and we felt sure that if anyone was to hit a tree with their car, it would just flick them off and no-one would ever know! lol We spent a number of hours here and it was a refreshing change to be in a cooler environment. We had forgotten what it felt like to wear trainers! We made a quick stop at the Drive Thru Tree - which is famous for still being ...