Bradley and Mallory's Wedding 10:29 PM

Congratulations.

This wedding was seriously so fun. James, Gabe, Dave and I were able to get stand by tickets to go to Seattle and be there for the wedding and reception. It was so much fun. When we got there mallory's dad gave us there old jeep cherokee which didnt have any power steering and also no headlights so that eliminated any night driving. Thats when we started our 3-day adventure in seattle and boy was it fun. we did Pike Place, Iva's clam chowder, REI, Bellevue, wedding preparation, H&M, and so much more. It was a blast and i want to thank the Cooneys for such a good weekend and for their wonderful car that put up with us.

A week later we went to Jackson which was way fun and stayed at the Roney's so that we could go to the Jackson reception. it was way fun and we celebrated Halloween up there also at the Roney's by carving pumpkins and having a fabulous four person dance party. i loved it. we danced for almost 2 hours in a home theatre it was way fun.

October has been good to me. I can honestly say i don't regret any day or choice in October!

Red Rock Relay 8:20 PM

ok so it's been a long while since i have written. school just really swept me off my feet and i've bee going non-stop since. but i want to blog about the Red Rock Relay because it was amazing and everyone should know. so last month me and 11 other friends ran the Red Rock Relay which is a 181 mile running relay race. We were sponsored by The American Red Cross and we ended up coming in third overall. our team was not a bunch of runners we were just out there to ahve fun and compete but once we realized how well we wanted to win we put our minds and bodies to the test and ran our best. we were super satisfied to get third place and we're totally excited for next year when we can come back and stomp the competition. here are some shots from the 24-hour extravaganza:

Luberon adventures 10:43 PM

My France trip was topped off by a week-long trip to the Luberon. the Luberon is located in the south of France about 40 minutes east of Avignon and an hour north of Marseille. This area is also known as Provence and is covered with small little mountain towns speckeled with castles and cool old buildings. my parents had found a villa located next to the town of Lourmarin and it was amazing:we spent the first couple of days just relaxixng at the pool and enjoying being of vacation. i think while we were there it stayed between 90-100 all week. it was a very penetrating sun but the pool was the perfect relief to have on hand. we decided that this would be a fun week to just go off and do small day adventures in all directions. so we did.
the owner of the house let us use two of thier bikes for the week so one morning i woke up and my dad had packed the two bikes in the our little Renault hatchback and wanted to go do a little touring. we drove up to Gordes and started our day. there was a market for mom and bikes for the boys!:it was small little mountain town it seemed but had some beautiful sights. we biked around the city for awhile and then on to the next town Cabieres d'Avignon. it was a fun day and just good to get back out onto bicycles. i seriously missed biking over this summer. that night i looked at a map of the area and it appeared that their were bike trails all over the Luberon, connecting most all of the little towns. i now knew that my parents had gotten the right place for me for the week!
the next day we took a road trip to Marseille but more important to the coast, to a small little town called Cassis. it was pretty much the beginning of the french riviera. it sounded good to my dad to go swimming in the mediterranean so we set out for our full day journey. we drove right through marseille nothing really adventurous to see there and found our way to Cassis and les Calanques:Cassis was a cool little coastal town and was crammed full of people there enjoying thier holidays. the roads were seriously like up and down these cliffs and it was pretty hard to find a beach. we had found one rock beach but it required pay and there was no parking even around the small little beach. so we drove out to a place called Prequ'Ile which was really cool. there were no beaches just big rocks and cliffs. people were mostly sun tanning on the rocks but there were some teenagers who were out there doing cliff jumping and that was the funnest thing to watch these people of all-ages do these cliffs just like they had been doing them since they were all 9 years of age. it was a super fun day on the rocks/cliffs of les Calanques.
we did some more adventures throughout the week another one of my favorite was a 20k bike tour that my dad and i did starting at a beautiful mountain town called ????? we started there and biked through 4 towns and it was a blast:i know that that was not my last trip to the Luberon. there were too many bike trails to call it quits there. i would love to go back and do some big 100k+ tours with road bikes with camping along the way. now that i know its possible i want to do it! there was a lot more that we did within that one week but these are the big highlights if you ask me. it was seriously a nice break between working in India and classes which start tomorrow for me. im not excited to get back to school but all summers have to end sometime.
Goodbye Summer.

Biking Versailles 10:54 AM

I enjoyed Versailles very much. Nikki Styler recommended Versailles to me but i thought she meant the big palace at Versailles:well i went to the palace and it was seriously so packed full of people that it was crowded in every room. and to make it worse the set up of the palace was that you entered in one door and then you walked in a line all through the palace and there were no exits until the very end. well i didnt last long and i just left mom and nicola and walked as fast as a i could to get out of the palace. i then tried to find dad who had planned from the very beginning to go rent a bike and bike around the gardens. well i found him but he was too far off to catch his attention so i rented my own bike and set off on a great journey:i later found my dad and we went off once again and biked through all of the gardens again. it was a blast:
i love biking and biking in Versailles was a very good thing!

Paris 10:26 AM

Well i know its been awhile since i've posted but things have been busy here and its been hard to get a good enough signal to post pics. Last weekend i spent the weekend in Paris with my parents and Nicola. it was a blast but yet also very tiring. after being in india all summer and going non-stop for the last month i realized Paris was not a place to stop and relax at. we saw a lot of sights within the three days that we were there. and since Paris was not a big hype for me i'll just post some pics and let you guys see them:

Goodbye Bangalore, Goodbye India 4:25 AM

This last week was my last week in India. I left India on Wednesday and i took a summer full of excitement and adventures with me. I learned a lot while i was in India. its not every summer that a 23 year old kid is allowed to take a break from the world, his friends, and family and rethink life and rethink how he lives it.

As for work i was able to leave things pretty well and cleaned up. i handed my projects off to a co-worker who would try to push the applications we developed to a public release. i was also able the last week to go out to lunch with my team and my managers and even get in a last minute coffee break with my best friends on the team. it was a blast and i really am happy that i got accepted for this internship this summer. i felt like it was the perfect thing for me, living in the third world and just able to have fun and live. if any of my old teammates read this all i would like to say is thank you so much and that i miss you.

India was a good trip in itself. i tried to see everything in India over the summer but i have come to realize that India is just way to big for three months of weekend adventures. i was only able to see a little bit of India but the bit that i did see was spectacular and unforgettable. Hindu temples, Elephants, Buddhism, the Taj Mahal, and the LDS Church are some things i won't forget. Also i have come out of India with a greater love for Indian food. Palak Panner, Butter Masala Chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Thali, Idli, Masala Dosa, and of course Coca-cola are some highlights from the summer.

I love India and i was actually not ready to leave. i wish i could have stayed and done more but i guess that'll have to be another adventure!

one day Agra 3:00 AM

i woke up early sunday morning at 5am to catch a 6am car to Agra. i found a pretty good deal from a reference from the mission presidents wife here in india and i was able to have a whole car to myself and the driver to go to Agra all day! Agra used to be the capital of India, now it has moved to Delhi, but in Agra is some of the most beautiful old building including the Taj Mahal:

I think no one should pass up the opportunity of seeing this beast of a mausoleum. this whole building is just one big tomb that was built out of love and it is beautiful. i had a tour guide the told me a lot of things about the Taj but then after he was done he just left and let me look at it for myself and i loved it:

when you walk to the Taj you first come to this big gate that welcomes you to the Taj and sets you in the mood for big buildings:

one of the things that i really liked to see was all the arabic all over the taj and the surroundings mosques and guesthouses. they were chapters taken straight from the Qur'an. the inlay work the Taj was amazing everything you see is actually stone. there is no paint on the Taj. i still think its a little funny that this huge building is known worldwide but really all thats inside is a dead woman and a dead man. it isnt very big inside and not much to see except for all the exquisite hand work. when we got out it was a hot tiring day and most people agreed with me:

but the day wasnt over after the Taj we went and saw Agra Fort:

which i ditched the tour guide on and jsut enjoyed walking through and seeing all the crazy hallways that went everywhere. it wasnt as big as Golkonda Fort in Hyderabad but it was still pretty big and had a wonderful view of the Taj:

Seeing these two things was a perfect way to end my adventures in India for the summer. before leaving again for Delhi me and driver stopped by this boutique style restaurant and enjoyed some good original indian food. then the whole way home we listened to indian music and i noticed that the driver like to dance to these songs a little so i joined in and it was seriously a fun Delhi road trip!

one day Delhi 2:16 AM

so i really feel that my summer here is coming to a close rapidly but there was no wasy i was going to pass up the oppurtunity to get to the Taj Mahal, while i was here in India. so sure enough on my second to last weekend here on the sub-continent i took a midnight flight to spend a weekend up in the north, one day in Delhi and one day in Agra!

i flew into delhi and took the bus to the New Delhi side of town which was full of markets and businesses so i took advantage of the super hot day in delhi and went to the markets and enjoyed the parks. i found my hostel on this Street:

in this alleyway:

through this door:

i was quite amazed that i actually found the place considering the atmosphere it was in and the crowded street it was on also but i found home for the next two days. it wasnt much, but it would work:

Delhi was amazing place though. for those of you who'd been there i spent most of my time by foot walking around the area of Connaught Place. it was super fun just to be somewhere new in India and jsut walk around and enjoy the people and atmosphere that was going on around me. i sat at a park for awhile and relaxed but before too long i was joined by some indian teenagers that wanted to practice thier english. i talked to them for quite awhile about life and growing up in india and then they invited me to go to the market with them, but i knew if i followed them they would just lead me to some gov't tourism office like the other 'english students' had done and i didnt want to return. so i let them go and i continued venturing around. i found an a/c underground market that was very interesting and some textile, wood working, and rug stores that were pretty cool. i got offered a free auto ride to a nearby restaurant named splash and it was really good food. im not sure why the auto was free but i was happy it was!

it was a good day in Delhi, hot but fun.

Bannerghatta Nat'l Park 9:23 AM

We decided that since this Saturday was our second to last Saturday being in Bangalore we would go out to Bannerghatta National Park which is situated just south of Bangalore. so we woke up early and got a bus headed to majestic which is the main bus station in Bangalore. from there we caught a cheap A/C Volvo bus out to the national park. it took about two hours for the transit part of getting there but it was worth it we immediately booked ourself a grand safari for 100 rupees (2 bucks)! it included the lion, tiger, and bear safari plus a zoo pass for the day. we were excited! we went to stand in line for the safari and there was about 100 people in front of us but us being the two white guys the leader looked at us and asked if we were just two and we said yes so we were immediately escorted to the bus in front of everyone i felt pretty bad but it seems we get treated pretty well at tourist sites (only to try to get tips, i was also guilty of this when i saw rich people come into the Marriott last always willing to help the deep pockets!) so we got onto the bus and went to the back of the bus. well this bus was full of a group of young girls from college. so we sat in the back till about 3 minutes into the trip then we were again escorted to the front of the bus right next to the driver so that we could see a good 180 degrees. and plus who doesn't want to sit on a hard seat right next to the shifter and see Indian animals all around!! and we did see a lot of animals: Sloth Bears:

Tigers and White Tigers:

Lions:

we also saw plenty of stags, deer, javelinas, a yak, and other animals on the safari. The Sloth Bears did a cool bear dance that in hindi they call Baloo, hence the naming the jungle book character (amazing what you learn on an indian safari). the dance wasnt much but it was very interesting to watch them. they would just sway back and forth and back and forth. the driver said it was natural but wikipedia said that some indian priests train them to dance for performance reason, im not sure which to believe, it looked pretty natural.

we then went to the zoo where we saw King Cobras, caged monkeys, wild monkeys, hippos, and more elephants. i stayed at the elephants for quite a while when they were giving blessings:

if you give an elephant 1-5 rupees you put it in their trunk and they will lift the coin to their driver then proceed to give you a tap on your head. the big elephants were pretty good at it. but this small little fellow couldn't quite get the gentle part down and he ended up scaring a lot of children and missing a lot of heads. it was great fun to just sit there and watch these massive elephants love the company of humans. after the zoo we found a small section on the map that said live dinosaurs so we took off to find them, and sure enough after being sneaky enough we captured the most amzing site on camera:

outside of the zoo we found carnival rides. Robby says that outside a lot of tourist traps in Southern Asia there are carnival-like rides that just wait for anyone to come to ride them Robby did the ferris wheel while i grabbed some snacks then we went for the rocking boat:

and of course we had some local carnies join us!:

it was a super successful day. i loved it and straight from the park we took a chain of buses to get to the church to go to a movie night where we watched the testaments. what a day!!