My tour in Nam

Namibia is the coolest place I've ever been.  

I just had to start with that because it's true.  Our adventure starts with a 22 hour bus ride from Cape Town to Windhoek Namibia.  We decided to take the bus because it was far cheaper than an international flight.  I was with 4 other friends and we were meeting up with two others who were flying into Windhoek.  We had heard things about the bus company we were traveling with but didn't understand the extent of the rumors until we got on the bus and they played a welcome video that started with about 15 solid minutes of Jesus praise.  As if that wasn't enough the whole bus ride was filled with Jesus movies and propaganda.  The best was a section they played in the wee hours of the morning comparing atheists to Robsepierre and the reign of terror in France where he killed about 30,000 civilians.  I don't really think you need god to tell you killing everyone is a dick move.  Other than that the bus ride was relatively painless and we got to stop at gas stations that were like scenes out of the twilight zone:  in ghost towns with an inch of dust covering everything in the store.

We made it to Windhoek and got picked up by our driver from Thimbi-Thimbi Adventure Safaris.  Windhoek is the biggest city in Namibia, but that's not saying a lot considering Namibia is 4 times the size of England and has a population of 1.7 million.  We made our way to the Thimbi office to sign our lives away and get supplies for the tour.  Once we got there the tour organizer Sandra told us that our driver Martin had to go to the police station to try and get a temporary license because he was mugged the night before and, as Sandra said, had "a little bit" of a stab wound on his head.  So much for small towns being the same as safe towns.  The two friends we met up with told us that the people who worked at the hotel they stayed at said a woman had been on the street a week before and someone grabbed her purse and ran with it.  The police saw it happen and instead of stopping the man to get the purse back just shot him dead on the spot.  Welcome to Africa.

While we were waiting I bought some sweet sunglasses (the awesome pair of sunglasses my mom had got me from a box of cheerios when I was little (one of the only things I've ever had that said my name on it) were, and hopefully are, the first and last things I've had stolen in Cape Town).  The boys picked up some Billtong (like beef jerky but BETTER) and we hung out.  Finally we left in the bus only to be turned back at a check point because Martin didn't actually get a temporary license.  (Over the duration of the trip Martin would prove to be kind of a useless d-bag.  Hopefully a strongly worded e-mail from Caroline will get us some money back).  Finally at about 2pm (6 hours after we were supposed to leave) we were on the road.  After four hours of driving we made it to our campsite just in time to watch the end of a lovely sunset from the deck.

The next morning we woke up to go to Sossusvlei which is a clay river valley surrounded by huge red dunes.  Here we climbed the biggest dune in the world: Big Daddy.  

It doesn't look that big from the picture but trust me, it is.  Climbing in sand is the most difficult thing to do, made even more difficult in the Namibian sun.  But we finally made it to the top, exhausted sweaty and dirty but with a fabulous view.  The best part was going down.  To get to the top you have to walk and climb your way up a gradual but steep incline only the spine of other dunes.  It took us about an hour and a half.  To get down you run straight down the side of the dune at about a 45 degree angle.  It takes about 5 minutes.  Oh, I also feel it's important to mention I did all of this barefoot.  Total hippy-earth-africa shit and I LOVED it.  

Once we were at the bottom of the dune we walked back to the pick up point through Deadvlei (vlei means valley).  Deadvlei has this name because the trees in the valley have been dead for 150 years.  They're still there because there are no bugs to eat them and no wind to knock them over.

Needless to say we were all pooped when we got back to the campsite to hang out.  

The next morning we got up and took down our campsite to make our way to Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.  During the drive we got to cross the Tropic of Capricorn. We had lunch in Walvis Bay but it smelled like poop so we were eager to move about 50km up the coast to Swakopmund to do our first activity: quad biking! (Yes I'm rocking the flannel in the desert)

 This was by far the best activity we did in Namibia.  Riding ATVs through the sand with nothing but dunes for miles and miles made me feel like I was living inside Mario Kart.  We did it in the later afternoon too so we came up upon a huge dune were we could see sand and the ocean to one side of us and the entire town of Swakopmund behind us.

That night we got to eat at a restaurant in town which was a nice change from eating outside and slept in a lovely little hotel in rooms with beds and showers and locks.  The next morning the girls all decided to go sandboarding because we'd been told it was the thing to do in Namibia.  The boys decided to get drunk on a bay cruise.  Go figure.

We got picked up by a guy named Castro.  The five of us were then joined by 3 more instructors from the sandboarding company.  We figure they must have been bored to all come along.  Caroline and Kelly decided to do the kind of sand boarding were you stand like snowboarding, but Mel and I felt lazy and just wanted to do the kind where you lie on a piece of particle board and zoom head first down the dunes.  It was a good choice because you go super fast where you lie down.  This is a video of Caroline trying it and eating shit because she didn't hold the front of the board up enough:

  The guys we were hanging out with were super cool pseudo-rastas who just wanted to have a good time and talk.  They wanted us to stay in Namibia to hang out with them because there are only a handful of people who live in Swakopmund and sandboard.  They were trying to get a sandboarding gang together.  We had lunch and a few beers with them on the beach and they showed us some rasta hand signals and told us about wanting to go snowboarding.  They invited us to their boss' birthday and party but we had to head back to Winhoek.  

That night we stayed in a hostel so we could make our flight this morning.  The cost of the flight was completely worth not having to be on a bus for 22 hours again.  Especially if they were just going to show us the SAME Jesus films over again.  

Overall Namibia was completely incredible and worth every penny I spent.  It might be the last bit of serious traveling I do before I come home (in less than a month I might add) and it was definitely a good note to end on.

Love and Kisses, miss you all!

Laurel

I have neglected you

It's been so long since I updated my blog that the URL isn't even recognized in my browser.  Oops!  Sorry about that, allow me to update you.  Lectures are donions!  Today I turned in my last two papers and having nothing to do until exams start on the 27th.  University of Cape Town has a "reading week" before the first lectures start which is when students are theoretically supposed to catch up on the reading they didn't do during the semester.  Instead of doing something silly like studying, I'm going to Namibia!  Now most of you who I've told this to have asked what there is in Namibia to see and the answer is sand.  Lots and lots of sand.  Namibia has some of the largest continuous sand dunes in the world and I plan to roll down more than a few.  To get there myself and some friends are taking a 20 hour bus ride, then joining a tour that will take us to the dunes and sea and get to do fun stuff like sand boarding.  Namibia is one of the places in southern Africa that I really wanted to go to and I'm very excited to get another stamp on my passport.

As for what I've been up to since I got back from spring break, the answer is not much.  It has been mostly school around here and now that it's turning into winter there is even less incentive to go outside.  This weekend was nothing but cold pouring rain.  I'm very much looking forward to coming back to the middle of hot sunny California summer and luckily I won't have to wait too long: I'll be home a week from Friday!  It's crazy to think how fast 4 months have gone by but here I am.  I will update you all on my Namibia trip when I get back this Sunday.  I love and miss you all.  Big kisses!

PS here is a video that my girl Maureen took on one of my last days working at the home.  I will miss that girl to pieces and wanted all of you to get a chance to see how silly she is.

Break Part Three: Zululand and Durban

Ok, here it is, part 3 of 3.

After Swaziland we left (with the help of many kind Swazis) to go back down to eShowe, a town in the heart of Zululand South Africa.  Eshowe is in the middle of nowhere but it's really really green and pretty.  Laura had originally booked us there because she thought it was on the coast, in the good surfing area north of Durban.  We didn't realize until we were on the trip that it's actually very far inland.  Because of this, we thought that we would only stay a night there and then move on to have a full day in Durban.

We arrived at our backpackers which was actually behind the George Hotel.  This was the first hotel built in Zululand by the colonists and it's very old and pretentious looking.  At one point while we were there I went into the hotel kitchen to see if I could find a can opener and I was pretty sure I saw a ghost.  It's that kind of place.  Anyway, we were shown to our bed and were surprised to find that Laura and I actually got our own room with regular bed, instead of bunk beds, and a door that locked.  After a little over a week of sleeping in dorm style hostels with 20 strangers we liked the idea of some comfort and privacy and decided to spend two nights there.

As it turns out, the hotel has a microbrewery attached to it that makes a beer called "Zulu Blonde" and you get a free beer with every night you stay there.  The beer was absolutely horrible, but it was free so we drank it on principle:

We woke up on Easter Sunday and while Alex was cooking breakfast I hid eggs for an easter egg hunt.  Laura is catholic and it was the first Easter that she was away from her family which was pretty hard for her so I wanted to give her a little celebration.  Then while we were eating on the porch all hell broke loose.

Suddenly there were monkeys EVERYWHERE.  They were screaming and running over the roof back and forth.  It looked like they were directing their anger at something on the other side of the fence so we went over to investigate.  I guess in Zululand monkeys are a total pest, and the neighbor to the hotel had killed on and was holding it up by the feet taunting the other monkeys.  We were pretty sure they would seek their monkey revenge on us.

That day we went to the Zulu museum and art gallery.  I didn't know before but zulus are such good beaders because they had no written language, so they use bead patterns to communicate over distances. After that we went to explore the forest in the area and walk around a bit more.  Then it was back to the backpackers to sleep so we could leave for Durban in the morning.

We only had an afternoon in Durban and Laura had heard of something called the "uShaka Marine World" that was an aquarium/amusement park with a big shark collection, so we decided to go there.  It was like the Disneyland of aquariums and I don't mean that in a good way.  The aquarium itself was fine.  It was in a building that was designed to make you feel like you were in a sunken ship and they had a collection of dangerous reptiles and bugs that was interesting.  Then we went to see the dolphin show and that's when things got a little weird.  The show had actors dressed up as zulu warriors who would dance to songs that didn't make any sense about marine conservation.  The premise of the story was that king uShaka was telling people to protect the wildlife, and as he did it the "authentic zulu warriors" would bow down and grovel at his feet.  It was slightly uncomfortable to watch.  I compare it to having people dressed as native americans doing a rain dance at 6 flags to demonstrate the importance of water conservation.

The real purpose of going to Durban was to have Indian food.  Durban has a huge Indian population and we were excited to finally have some sort of good food.  Most South African food is just watered down versions of American food.  They have a dish in Durban called "bunny chow."  It's basically the Indian version of a clam chowder bowl; a hollowed out loaf of bread with curried vegetables or meat in it.  It was DELICIOUS! Then we went back to the hostel and ate ice cream until we wanted to die and left for Cape Town the next morning.

So that was my break.  Pretty neat right?

Break Part Two: Swaziland

Ready for more?  Then read on my friends.

We left Maputo bright and early Thursday morning to head to Swaziland.  Swaziland is a small country sandwiched in between South Africa and Mozambique.  The cool part is it's still a monarchy, ruled by King Mswati III.  The whole time we were traveling by Cumbies, which are like little vans they cram a bunch of people in at once.  They're very cheap but not very comfortable.  We got across the boarder just find and made it to our backpackers.  Now, there's not a whole lot in Swaziland, and we had originally intended to use it as a stop over point and a new stamp on our passports, but once we got to the backpackers and saw all the things they were offering, we decided to stay for a full day.  We signed up for a safari in the Hlane Royal National game park for the next day and then went exploring around the hills.  We ended up at an art gallery that is owned by the honorary Finnish representatives to Swaziland.  I personally believe that A) those are the two most random countries to be connected to each other and B) the Finnish people probably gave themselves that title because they are they only Finns in the country.  In any case the gallery had a bunch of cool Swazi art that we bought and the fattest lump of a dog that would just walk up to you, roll on her back and stay like that.  Partly because she wanted to be petted and partly because she couldn't roll back over:

We went back to our hostel and hung out with a few people we met there, then went to bed to get ready for the safari.

Let me tell you something, safaris are AWESOME!  We got picked up and driven to the game park where we first had a 2 hour walking tour, just the three of us and a guide.  You walk along in a single file line really quietly and you basically sneak up on animals and get really close to them.  Seriously, this is how close I got to rhinos:

Amazing!  The first time we got that close to about 6 lazy rhinos and I really didn't feel nervous around them until we came to a mama rhino and her baby and she seemed like she might like to do some trampling if we got to close.  Our guide explained the difference between black and white rhinos by saying that, among other things, black rhinos walk with their babies behind them, like black people, and white rhinos walk with their babies in front of them, like white people.  Then he asked why white people do this, and he actually wanted a legitimate answer.  He was kind of a jerk now that I think about it.  On foot we saw rhinos, hippos, impala, springbok, crocodiles, warthogs, a bunch of bugs and giraffes!

At one point we were walking through the bush and heard a low moaning like sound.  Our guide immediately stopped.  Laura asked him what made that noise and he paused for a while then said "A lion...a male one" and kept walking IN THE DIRECTION OF THE NOISE.  At least being killed by a lion would make a cool story....

Next we had lunch and then headed out for our game drive.  On the game drive we saw what the guide described as "naughty" elephants.  These elephants were "naughty" because they did things like roll over ranger rovers with 10 Dutch tourists in them killing them all.  Very naughty indeed.  Ooh and they had a baby elephant!  After a short drive we went into the locked portion of the reserve that houses the lions.  This is the biggest part of the reserve because the lions just live there with impala and they feed themselves but hunting.  Almost immediately after going inside we pull up right next to a male lion and a lioness and we were REALLY close:

It was pretty incredible to see wild lions just chilling on the side of the road.  Although it made it slightly less dramatic that they were hanging out by the fence.

After the Safari we were really tired, but I was definitely in touch with my inner animal:

On our way home I asked the guy driving the van if he knew how we could get to eShowe in Zululand South Africa, which was where we were going the next day.  This was the beginning of the experience that leads me to conclude that Swazi people are the nicest people I've ever met.  He told us he had a cab and would pick us up from our hostel at 5:45am to take us to the bus depot.  Once we got there he asked around to find the right bus for us and waited until he was sure we were ok.  Then the bus driver I spoke to told me the right bus to use and where to get off to get to eShowe and told THAT bus driver what we needed.  Then when we were at a rest stop in South Africa that driver told us he knew a better way to get to eShowe, drove out of his way to take us to a taxi stop and made sure someone called a taxi for us to get where we needed to be.  The eShowe stories will have to wait as I don't think I can write anymore tonight.  The strangest thing is, the people in Swaziland were so nice, yet there was this billboard at the bus depot:

I just leave you guys with the knowledge that such a billboard exists in the world.  Goodnight.

Break Part One: Mozambique

(A note before I begin: I don't know if you know this, but South Africa is not the most technologically advanced country.  Surprising right?  So uploading pictures here is a total pain.  If you would like to see all my pictures from my break please feel free to look at my facebook albums of people and animals.)

Hello everyone!  I am finally back in Cape Town after my AMAZING Easter break and I thought I'd share my adventure with you in pieces, because a lot happened.  For the first part of the trip myself, Laura and Alex flew from Cape Town to Maputo Mozambique.  I was a little worried about the visa situation once we got there, because some guidebooks say you should get your visa in advance, and others say you can get it when you get there.  We got off the plane and the customs agent said "no visa?"  I said "no" and she told us we could buy them for 25 USD or 170 South African Rand, which is about $17.  Easy-peasey.  We probably could have just run past customs and out the door and no one would have stopped us in the airport.  However, all the police in Mozambique have AK-47s left over from the civil war because it's cheaper to use those rather than make hand guns, so it was probably good we got visas.

We got to our backpacker's in Maputo, dropped our stuff off and went in search of dinner.  Maputo was a completely new experience for me.  It was the first really 3rd world city I've been to and was kind of shocking.  In the late 1960's the Portuguese government finally pulled out of the country, destroying technological equipment and pouring cement down wells as they went.  For a while the country was run by the Marxist organization FRELIMO until the civil war broke out, last 17 years and ending in 1992.  It's pretty apparent that absolutely nothing has been repaired since before the revolution.  The roads are full of pot holes, the sidewalks are cracked and damaged by tree roots and there are man sized holes that go down 6 feet with nothing to keep you from falling in.  Trash is everywhere and there were children fighting over garbage like the lord of the flies.  But even still the city had an amazing energy that made you want to explore.

After dinner we went back to the hostel to sleep because we had to get up at 5:30am to get the shuttle to Tofo, which is 8 hours north of the city.  The shuttle ride was pretty great.  I really love long car rides when I can just look out the window the whole time and this was one of the first times I really felt like I was in Africa.  There were grass huts on the side of the road and women carrying huge loads balanced on their head with babies tied to their backs.

We finally got to our hostel in Tofo, which is a very small coast village, and the second we saw the beautiful clear Indian ocean we had to go for a swim.  The water was incredibly warm and made it difficult to imagine going back to swimming in freezing Cape Town with a wetsuit.

In Tofo we met some very interesting people.  Specifically, there was a group of 3 surfers and a very old man.  The surfers had been sponsored to travel from Cape Town to Mozambique, filming for a surf website.  On the night we met them one was passed out drunk on the table at the hostel the entire night.  The next morning when I got up I saw he was sitting drinking coffee so I went to talk to him.  I was really surprised to find that, sober, he was incredibly intelligent and knew an insane amount about African history and politics.  The old man they were traveling with was the best by far though.  His name is Bruce Gold and he's a surfing legend from J-Bay.  He has no money and his brian is totally fried from years of drugs, but he's such an institution that everyone in the town allows him to pay for things with seashells.  He can still surf the biggest waves in J-Bay despite being 61, riddled with cancer and toothless.  He was by far the happiest man I've met.  This is Bruce:

The next day Alex and I realized we might have a bit of a money problem if we couldn't get to an ATM so we walked a very long distance in the hot sun to the only ATM for miles only to find neither of our cards worked.  Visa somehow managed to get the monopoly on ATM machines in that country.  Luckily I had enough Rand which they accept there to get by, but Alex owes me quite a bit of money now.  Walking by all the hunts was fun because the little kids come out to say hello, and hello, and hello, over and over again because it's the only english that most of them know.  The rest of the day was filled with more swimming and sunning and that night there was a dance party in the hostel with all the locals and other people visiting that was really fun.  That was probably one of two nights where I stayed up until midnight.  My malaria medication makes me incredibly sleepy and I spent most nights going to be at 8:30.  What a loser.

The next day we met up with some international friends we had made at the backpackers and decided to go on an ocean safari.  Tofo, for some unknown reason, has the largest population of whale sharks in the world, and it's pretty easy to go out and swim with them.  We, of course, were one of the rare groups that did NOT see a single whale shark. We did, however, swim with giant manta rays.  To be specific, I swam with giant manta rays.  I was like the manta ray whisperer.  Every time the guide told us to jump out of the boat quickly before the manta got away I was the first one out and I was always right on top of the animal, so close I could touch it.  Now you might be asking yourself "Laurel, how big IS a giant manta ray?  Are they like giant pandas that you expect to be huge and then you seen them and they're actually smaller than most other types of bear?"  Well, I obviously don't have a picture of me with one, but, and I'm totes serious about this guys, it was the same size as this one:

BAM! Did I say it was giant or did I say it was giant? (Don't doubt me again).  A lot of people got stung by jellyfish, but being one with the sea they left me alone.  Then we did some regular snorkeling and saw nemo fish and lion fish and all sorts of fun stuff.  That night we taught a bunch of the foreign kids how to play Kings Cup which was  a lot of fun.  One of the french guys joined the game late and didn't get the full explanation.  We someone pulled the card for "waterfall" Laura told him that he couldn't stop drinking until she stopped drinking, but she didn't mention that most people fake drinking so they have enough beer for the rest of the game.  When the waterfall started he chugged his entire huge beer and finished before everyone then said "Wait, I am confused."  Oh those crazy french.

The last day in Tofo was exceptionally lazy.  We lay around in hammock, reading and napping.  The next morning we woke up at 4am to get the shuttle back to Maputo.  That was the most uncomfortable 9 hours because I was in the seat over the wheel-well and had my knees practically at my chin the whole time.  We stopped at a gas station and there were some little kids begging for money.  I gave the smallest one a 1 metical coin, which is about 30 cents, and I have never seen such a huge smile on such a little face.  He ran back to his friends to show them so I have them all 1 metical coins and they were very happy.  We got back to Maputo extremely cranky and hungry and went out for pizza and ice cream and walked around the city more.  Then we went back to the hostel because the next day we had to leave for swaziland.  But that's a post for next time!

Going going gone

I know I haven't posted anything recently, but that's because there's not much to post.  I've been schooling and writing papers, but my next post will be a doozy.  Tomorrow I start my easter break and I'll be traveling to Mozambique, Swaziland and along the danger coast to Durban!  I'll be gone from the 3rd to the 14th and will try and update my facebook status so you all know that I'm safe and doing well. I am very excited to have a test run at my future life of surf bumdom.  I leave you know with a lovely (little) picture of Tofo Mozambique:

So let's hear it for warm weather and crazy dreams due to malaria medicaiton!  Love you all, see you in a while...

Big Wednesday

Today was a very big day for me.  But to really understand it, to truly comprehend the magnitude of this Wednesday, we must first go back to Monday.  On Monday my Princeton friend Laura and I decided to go to Muizenburg and buy our first surf boards from the local Lifestyles Surf Shop.  Now for those of you who know me, you know I am possibly the most indecisive shopper ever.  I tend to have panic attacks when picking out toothpaste.  So before I went I consulted every friend possible for what to look for in a board.  Gretchen, kind soul that she is, sent me the used board bible, Jenn and Matt backed me up when I said I thought I wanted a 6'6 rather than a long board and Seth and Jared essentially told me they were proud of me for trying.  And thank god you people told me what to do because we got to the shop and Laura informs me she's choosing based on how pretty the board is.  But that's what you get from someone who only has the option of surfing the Jersey shore I guess.  So I toiled, I pondered, I searched, I asked the shop guy WAY to many questions, I stopped Laura from accidentally buying a gun because it was pretty and then I found her.  And she was perfect; a used 6'6, bright green: 

She was covered in about a 1/4 inch of old wax which was extremely satisfying to scrape off.  I bought a pink leash to make her extra girly and remind me of watermelons.  Laura ended up going with a new 6'10; pink and blue and very pretty.  We were talking to the shop guys for a while about where to surf in Madagascar and Mozambique and Namibia because we're planning our Easter vacation and I felt we had FINALLY built up a little respect from the local surfers...until Laura turned sideways to walk out the door and got her board stuck in the security gate.  Oh well.

So we planned to get up early this morning to get on the train to go back to Muizenburg to try out our boards for the first time.  We both have class at 11 and wanted enough time to get back and get ready for school so we decided to get a 6:30 am train to the beach.  Now I don't know if you know this but one of my three favorite past times is sleeping (the other two are eating and dancing, and I've yet to figure out a way to combine all three without choking or falling off the bed, if you have any advice let me know) and as it turns out 6am is pretty early.  So I went to bed around 10 so I could get enough sleep.  At about 12:30 in the morning I get a knock on my door, which i decided to ignore because, seriously, if someone needs to wake me up in the middle of the night it had sure as hell be an emergency and they can just KNOCK AGAIN DAMMIT!  And then there was another knock and I heard my room mate Carolyn say "Uh, Laurel, the mountain is on fire and I really think you should see it."  And what do you know? The mountain WAS on fire:

Like lots of fire.  Like Dante's inferno.  Which is ironic because the mountain that was on fire was not table mountain, but rather devil's peak.  So we stayed up for a little while on the back porch watching and taking lots of pictures.  Then I had to go to bed because I am DETERMINED to become a bad ass shredderette by the time I get back to California.

So we went to the beach bright and early with our friend Tris who lives above me and...it was poop.  Seriously.  The surf forecast said 3-4 feet and clean and it was maybe 1-2 feet and mushy poop surf, in poop brown water, probably with a lot of poopy sharks too (don't worry mom the shark spotters were there today).  But, as I've mentioned before, I am DETERMINED to get better so Laura and I figured we might as well try because we came all this way, this early and we needed to test our new boards (did i mention that Laura first put her fins on backwards and hadn't waxed her board because she didn't want to "mess it up"?  Yes we have a ways to go with that one, but I sure do love her).  So we got in, attempted to surf on waves that literally die under you for about 45 minutes and then got out. Oh, and Tris stayed on the beach, he didn't feel it was worth it to even get wet.

So I went to school with a lack of sleep and a lack of surf time but it was all good because today is the day I go to St. George's home for girls and hang out with Maureen:

Today we talked about what to do if someone attacks or abuses you.  I asked what she would do if a man was grabbing her and hurting her and she said "scream my head off and kick.  HARD."  She might be the smartest girl ever.  I've also taught her the meaning of the word "sassy"  which she likes to say all the time now.

The girls at St. George's are all exceptionally sassy.  And entirely unruly.  Today I brought my camera so I can document what goes on, and, not surprisingly, it turned into St. George's Next Top Model photo shoot.  Today's theme was "shoes."  See the girls like to play a game where they convince volunteers to jump on the trampoline with them, but shoes are not allowed on.  So while the volunteers are jumping in their socks, the other girls steal their shoes and wear them around for the rest of the day and refuse to give them back.  Fun, no? Then they make you take a 6,000 pictures of them in various poses wearing shoes that are far too big.  Case in point:

I have yet to fall victim to this game.  I think it has something to do with the respect I gained last week from totally dominating all their little asses at the front flip competition (thank you mama for buying that death trap trampoline so many years ago. Rest in peace, you served us well).  

So it was a big day today as demonstrated by this rather big post.  I hope it's easy to read because it has pictures!  Speaking of which, I would like to leave you all with photographic evidence that Maureen and I understand each other on a deeper level:  

Have a nice day!