Biking the 'Triple Crown'

About two weeks ago I returned my bike to Costco (thanks Costco for having the greatest return policy EVER!!!) and then went and bought a little bit nicer bike, one that is more suited to long distanc biking. It is almost a rode-bike, you might call it a hybrid or an entry level rode bike. Whatever it is, I like it! It is much lighter than my old one, it has much thinner tires, and a lot of aspects of it are much better.

In part due to having a better bike and in part due to just building up my strenght and endurance, I have been able to ride in to work and back home three times a week for the past two weeks. I do it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to give some time for my legs to recover. It is a 28 mile round with some moderate changes in elevation so I would say that it is a somewhat challenging bike ride. I was so happy when I rode in three times in one week for the first time, I was on top of the world that day. I dubbed this achievement the 'Triple Crown.' And if I ever ride in 4 times in a week I will call it the 'Grand Slam.' My legs are getting much stronger and my endurance is improving as well. It is seriosly a great work out and I love the days that I get to ride in, I just feel really good about it for a few reasons: the exercise, not wasting so much time stuck in traffic or sitting in a ssubway car, and all the MONEY I am saving. With the latest incresases of fare charges with DC's Metro system my round trip to and from work would be $8.70. This has helped motivate me to ride the Metro as little as possible, and inversely to ride my bike to work as much as humanly possible. Stretching out a lot after each bike ride really helps a lot. My legs don't hurt if I stretch out a lot, they just get sore. Ever since I got IT Band Syndrome when I ran 11 miles last year I have had to make sure I don't push myself too hard too quickly in running and biking.

All of the pictures are pictures that I took with my new 4th Generation Ipod Touch during a ride home from work. As you can see, I get to ride in some cool areas. It is nice to be in the naturey areas for most of the ride. Passing the famous monuments is fun too!

Hey! Give us back our pinata!

Michelle and I celebrated our birthdays this month. My birthday was the 5th and we had a really fun get-together with friends here at our place. Since I told Michelle that the only thing I wanted was to have a pinata at the party, she got my a treasure chest pinata and filled it with really good candy. We took it outside and one of our friends actually climbed up in the tree to let it hang and to pull it up while I was blindfolded and swinging at it. While we were all gathered outside doing the whole pinata thing, a bunch of little Latino kids saw us and all came over. I told them they could go after the candy when I busted it open, and man oh man they sure did go after that candy! Those kids made out like bandits! One kid did that thing where you use your shirt to carry a bunch of stuff (think elementary school) and filled his shirt with candy. Other kids stuffed their pockets and still walked away with handfuls of candy. The funniest thing though was one kid actually tried to take the pinata. We told her that we actually wanted to keep it in case we wanted to use it again. It was a great way to spend my 27th birthday.

Michelle's birthday was on the 18th and to celebrate, I decided to surprise her by taking her to Six Flags. I was talking about it though with other people and trying not to give it away but when we pulled into the parking lot she said 'I knew it!' I was going to take her to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where there is a theme park and a lot of fun Hershey chocolate stuff, but our friends the Jansons have season passes to the DC Six Flags and they were able to get us both in for free with some season pass holder coupons. This worked out much better because Hershey, PA is a couple hours away and the DC Six Flags is only 30 minutes (tops!) from here; I had no idea it was so close! I was just settling in for the ride when we got off the freeway. We had a really fun time at Six Flags: we went on a lot of fun roller coasters; we got soaking wet on some water rides, but we dried off pretty quick because the sun was out; and we ate an obligatory funnel cake with ice cream! Even though we were there on a Saturday, it was not crowded at all. We pretty much walked onto every ride, no joke. I think we may have waited about ten minutes for one ride near the late afternoon when there were more people there. Either it is the slow season if the place just doesn't get the crowds I associate with theme parks. Either way, it was fine by all of us.

School Evacuation and a Glimpse into the Chaos

Yep, we had to evacuate our school today at 11:00, and nope, not a fire. When we got to school at 7 am this morning we realized the water did not work. That meant toilets couldn't flush and no one could wash their hands - a pretty big problem for a school full of kids ages 3 - 12. They can't go without a bathroom for too long. Our principal spent the morning on the phone trying to get it fixed, but I guess a big water line busted and it was not going to be fixed soon enough. Our whole school ended up having to walk about 5 blocks to another elementary school. They doubled up 2 of their classes to a classroom and then gave us the other classrooms to use for the afternoon. We had three classes in the one we used. With all the chaos and the crowded room, there was no way any teaching could take place, so my class spent the afternoon coloring, drawing in their journals, and reading (mostly coloring) - not the most productive day and definitely a crazy one (which is not that abnormal for my school).

Other crazy happenings at my school over the past week (a glimpse into the chaos):
*One of my students hit the art teacher after hitting several of my students and throwing things across the room.
*A first grader in the other class tried to choke a girl in her class, tackled (literally) 2 of my kids in the hallway and tried to choke one, stripped naked in her classroom, and slapped her teacher in the face - all in the same day.
*chairs thrown across the room on 3 different days
*one of my students cussed out the computer teacher and my entire class during specials - repeatedly and loudly

I often go home thinking "Wow, did all of that really happen today? Do I really work at this place?"

There are good things that happen too and good students, but everything above is actually pretty normal. Hopefully I can help to change some of this and introduce my students to a more positive and cooperative culture. I definitely have my work cut out for me this year!

The First Two Weeks of First Grade

I've just finished the first two weeks of teaching first grade as a second year teacher. Teaching a second year really is a lot easier than the first. I actually know what I'm doing this year as far as the material that needs to be covered, how to teach it, how to handle behavior, etc. I'm definitely not an expert and still have a lot to learn, but it feels good not to be totally clueless! Planning has been a ton easier this year too. I remember at the beginning of last year I was up at 6, taught and planned until at least 9 p.m., and then went to bed and started over again the next day. It was pretty draining and stressful. This year I have been able to do most of my planning at school. It is my goal this year to stay until no later than 5:30 at school everyday or work at home until 6:00 and then be completely done with schoolwork. So far I have been able to do it. It is so nice to be able to reuse the lesson plans I have from last year. I'll make some minor adjustments on some of them and plan some completely new lessons, but it is going to be so much easier! The other first grade teacher at my school is new to first grade this year, but is also a second year teacher. She is so great to work with. We plan everything together and do a lot of combined class activities. It makes planning and teaching easier and more fun. It is so nice to have someone to collaborate so closely with.

While this year is a lot better than last, there are still some big challenges. There have already been a couple days (or times of the day) when I don't want this job. This is all due to the huge challenge of student behavior. I only have 16 kids in my class this year, which is amazing (and probably won't last long), but there are a couple that are a real handful. I just get tired of fighting behavior to be able to teach. The behavior is nowhere near as bad as last year, but it is still hard. I just get sick of the fighting, disrespect, and lack of effort. I need to keep practicing my patience. Most of the students in my class are great, and I think as the year goes on and we get routines and procedures down more thoroughly, things will be better.

On a separate note, I completely forgot how little first graders are at the beginning of the year. They can't read, can't count, struggle to write letters and numbers, don't really know how to listen, always just want to play, and are pretty socially immature. They grow SO much by the end of the year - behaviorally, socially, and academically. I think of my first graders at the end of last year and it is amazing all of the progress they have made. I look forward to my students this year making all of that progress - especially with their behavior and ability to focus.

Mockingjay

Michelle and I just finished Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, the third and final book of the Hunger Games series. We read this final installment the way we read the Harry Potter books - by actually taking turns reading out loud to each other. This was a quick read so it only took us a few days. I don't think I am going to do a real critique of the book and break it down analytically or anything like that, rather I mostly just wanted to say that it was our least favorite of the trilogy and we were slightly disappointed with the story and the ending...although it did provided enough closure and satisfied all the loose ends.

More than anything else though, I would love to hear what you have to say about the book if you have read it yet. Please share your thoughts!

An Amazing Summer

This summer has been one we will never forget. We went to Peru and Georgia, and we had great friends and family come visit and stay with us here in DC. We also did a ton of sightseeing right here at home. I guess you could say this is going to be one of those 'catch-up' posts since there are a lot of really cool things we did this summer that we haven't gotten around to blogging about. I will start out with the most recent. Last night we went to a Red Skins preseason game with some friends. I don't think I had ever been to an NFL game before so it was a lot of fun! FedEx Field is the largest NFL stadium and we could tell! It is also pretty far from the nearest Metro stop so it took us almost two hours to from our apartment to our seats. It was quite an ordeal to get there but it was totally worth it. The Red Skins were playing the Ravens so that added a few cool elements to the already cool setting. Michale Oher (from the movie The Blidside) plays for the Ravens so it was fun to see him play. Also, between the Red Skins and the Ravens there are multiple BYU and Utah alumni including John Beck and Dennis Pitta -- who had a great game.



Last weekend we went kayaking on the Potomac River. Some of our friends got a great deal through Groupon and were nice enough to invite us to join them. Each couple -- including us -- got into a two-person kayak and were free to go as far up or down the Potomac as we wanted (as long as we were back to the dock in an hour and fifteen minutes). We made all the way to the Lincoln Memorial and you could see the Washington Monument behind it. It was a great view and we rested there for a little while, took some pictures, and then turned around and made it back to the dock, albeit extremely exhausted. Kayaking is harder work than I thought, luckily Michelle is strong enough to pick up my slack :)







Last weekend we also went to a Maroon 5 concert with our friends the Hammocks. We found an incredible deal on tickets a few days before the concert, the venue must have needed to sale some more tickets, which was fine by us! We were both really looking forward to it and they didn't disappoint. They had VV Brown and Owl City as opening acts. I enjoyed all three groups a lot more than I thought I would. VV Brown's music was a little different but she really grew on me by the end of her set of songs. Owl City was also a unique performance, to say the least, but we enjoyed all the music. Maroon 5 put on a good show and played all the hits. Before the Maroon 5 concert we visited the US Marine Corps Museum in Quantico/Triangle. We had heard nothing but good things about it so we were anxious to finally visit it. It really was a great museum. There were many artifacts and lots of history in the museum. Sadly, we only got to spend about 45 minutes in the museum because the traffic was so bad and it took us so long to get there. I was certain that the traffic must have been due to an accident but I was wrong, it was just DC traffic. To give you an idea of just how bad the traffic was, when we were only about 5 miles away from the museum it still took us something like 2 hours to get there. We left with plenty of time to get there, or so I thought, and there were moments while we were stuck in traffic when I thought we might not even make it. Thankfully we did at least get to spend 45 minutes there!

Finally, going all the way back to the beginning of the summer, we had an amazing fourth of July here in DC. Michelle's cousins Phil and Noelle and their baby came and stayed with us for the weekend and we all went, along with a ton of friends watch fireworks from what has to be the absolute coolest place in the world to watch fireworks. We watched fireworks go off above the Lincoln Memorial from right in front of the Washington Monument. On our right was the White House and on our left was the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The US capitol was also behind us, a little further down the National Mall behind the Washington Monument. We got to celebrate our country's independence surrounded by all of these magnificent memorials. Some people say its not worth the long Metro ride in and wading through what must be hundreds of thousands of people to see fireworks, but I would beg to differ, I think it was completely worth it! Muchas Gracias to Chance for his fine photography that you see on all of the 4th of July pictures.







Michelle and I now blog for two reasons: the first is the same as before, to let our friends and family know what is going on in our lives. The second reason is because we recently discovered that you can have your blog turned into an actual book. The website blog2print.com will put all the posts, with their pictures, in order and into a hardcover book with a title page and page numbers. You can customize the book however you want and not include some posts if they are silly and you just don't feel that you need it in your book. We paid for all of our blog posts (up to the point about a month ago) to be made into a book and we absolutely love it. We will probably do it about once a year and keep them as something of a record of the fun things we have done.

My Life is About to Change...

Take a look at the books I spent the last couple of months reading:

• Hunger Games and Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
  
• Deadline - Clair Poulson
• These is My words - Nancy E. Turner
• The Third Option, Separation of Power, Executive Power, - Vince Flynn

Now take a look at the books I just checked out of the library for the upcoming month:

• First Day Jitters
• Chrysanthemum
• Listen Buddy
• Chick Chicka Boom Boom
• The Little Engine That Could
• Why Mosquito's Buzz in People's Ears
• The Honest-to-Goodness Truth

Yep, starting Monday I will once again be teaching first grade and life is about to change quite a bit! Hopefully I will have time to actually blog about it this year.

Awesome Road Trip To Atlanta

Atlanta is a really cool city. We spent this past weekend there with our really good friends, the Hammocks. The Hammocks were nice enough to invite us to stay at their house for the weekend with them and it was really fun to get to know their family. We managed to see a lot of the city and have a lot of fun in just a short amount of time. Atlanta has some very famous landmarks and attractions. We went to the World of Coke, the Georgia Aquarium, and Turner Field. Special thanks to Chance, an awesome photographer, who took the above picture and the pictures at the stadium. Atlanta was great, but I think what made the trip so fun was who we were with!

The World of Coke was a blast. It was a museum about the history of Coca Cola products and it ended with a tasting room where you were free to try coke products from literally all around the world. There were 24 products from North America and then 6 actual coke beverages from North America, 8 from Latin America, 8 from Asia, 8 from Europe, and 8 from Africa. It was a lot of fun trying the different flavors of sodas from all around the world. To be perfectly honest with you, a lot of the drinks from Europe, Asia, and Africa were pretty disgusting (see video of me trying a Japanese flavor of Hi-C). Michelle and I both tried every single kind, except for the Nestea beverages because we don't drink tea. In total, we tried something like 54 different soft drinks from around the world, we both felt sick afterward. The worst soft drink, if you are wondering, is an Italian drink called Beverly. Look it up on Wikipedia if you want, but take my word for it, it is awful. I thought it was really cool that Peru was represented in the Latin America section with Inca Kola. It was not as good as the real Peruvian beverage but it was a pleasant surprise that they had it.








The Georgia Aquarium was a real treat. It is the biggest aquarium in the world. Our favorite part of the aquarium was touching the rays and sharks in a section of the aquarium where they let you touch them when they swim by. It was also fun to walk through a tunnel with the aquarium and sharks and whales all around you.





It was 'Mormon Night' at Turner Field where the Braves play. We saw them beat the New York Mets, but the real treat was getting to walk around the field in a parade with all the other members of the Church a little before the game started. Chance took some awesome pictures of us walking around the field, but the coolest is probably one of me pretending I am jumping at the outfield fence to catch a home run. It was a neat experience to be on the actual grounds of a baseball field. After the game we went to a local legend of a restaurant called the Varsity. We enjoyed some chili cheese fries and chili cheese dogs.

From what we saw and all the people we met, Atlanta is an awesome place! What really made the trip so great though was the company we were with; really, we had such a great time!

Peru (Updated with Slideshow and Slideshow Link)

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Machu Picchu, Cusco
Warning: This is a long post about our two week vacation to Peru, but I think friends and family will enjoy reading about our trip in this much detail. We posted a few pictures here on the blog but the slideshow which we will add soon will have many, many more.

Michelle and I recently got back from our two week trip to Peru. We had such an amazing time, we visited so many cool places and saw so many awesome ruins throughout the entire country. Despite all the cool places we visited, our favorite part was spending so much time with my friends and the families I knew in Peru on my mission. We were fortunate enough to not have to stay a single night in a hotel due to the generosity of my friends in Peru. In Lima, we stayed for a week with a family that I baptised and hadn't seen for over five years but while there I found out that they had been sealed in the temple. We also spent a week up in the high mountains of Cusco. The elevation in Cusco is 11,000 feet but some of the ruins we visited had an altitude of even higher. Needless to say, it took us a couple days to get acclimatized. In Cusco we stayed with the same family that I lived with and that prepared my meals while I was a missionary. We were very lucky that the families in Lima and Cusco both had extra rooms in their houses. Spending so much time with these families and other friends we met up with was by far the highlight of the trip. It was so hard to say goodbye. While in Peru, we filled every moment with fun things. We usually left the house pretty early and got home pretty late. We did so much.

Nazca

The highlight from our time in Lima was an overnight trip we took to Nazca to see the Nazca Lines. You may have seen these in the latest Indiana Jones movie. Basically, there are thousands of geoglyphs (drawings, designs, and shapes drawn in the dirt) in the Nazca desert that are so big that you can only see them from a plane. Michelle and I went on a 30 minute private plane ride at 2,000 feet elevation and saw the amazing drawings in the desert. There were birds, hands, a tree, a monkey, a spider, and many other things designed 500 years ago that are still there today. Nazca is a desert with so little change that the lines have been there for hundreds of years and never go away. The lines were formed by removing the darker rocks and soil from the top of the desert dirt, revealing a lighter whiter color below. This is all they did to make the lines that you can see from a higher elevation! The biggest formations are almost 700 feet long. The lines are only 10-30 cm deep but they never go away because nothing ever changes in the Nazca desert's climate. It is still something of a mystery why they made these lines. There are some very paranormal theories out there, like that they were used as landing strips for aliens, and some more down to earth theories that they may have been religious symbols or may have marked underground rivers.

Lima

Another highlight was the recently completed "Circuito Magico del Agua" (Magic Water Circuit). It is the world's largest public park of water fountains. Unfortunately our camera died while we were there so we didn't get too many pictures, but the ones we got were amazing. I thought this place was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. There were 13 tremendous, unique water fountains. There was an amazing show with lasers, lights, and videos projected into the water and into the sky. I think it would be worth visiting Lima just for this show. This large park somehow adds so much to the city of Lima, well done to the mayor who commissioned this project.

In Lima, we spent a day in a really nice part of town called Miraflores. We walked around the city and the beach. There is a famous park called Parque Del Amor (Park of Love) and a really nice shopping center called LarcoMar. We also made a visit to the Lima Temple. Michelle says it looks a lot like the Boise Temple. In the city center of Lima, which they call the Plaza De Armas, we saw the Palacio del Gobierno (the Peruvian president's mansion, like the White House) and watched the changing of the guard that they do there every day. There are also some huge cathedrals that you can tour at the Plaza de Armas. The coolest part of the Plaza de Armas was the Catacumbas (Catacombs) of the Catholic Church. Here we toured a very old Catholic Church and got to go into the basement where thousands and thousands of people are buried and whose bones are still on display. There were literally rooms, filled over 20 feet high, with people's bones. Interestingly, they had them organized very neatly and sorted by bone (skull, femur, etc.). In the colonial times in Peru the Catholics thought it would help them 'rest in peace' and get into heaven if they were buried under a church.

In Lima's major port city of Callao, we toured an old military fortress called Real Felipe. Here, we got to see the inside and out of the fortress Peru used to unsuccessfully fight of off Chile, but Chile was nice enough to give Lima back after a few years. In one of the rooms of the fortress there was a 'wax mannequin' of a pirate. While the tour guide was teaching us about the history of pirates in colonial Peru, the 'wax mannequin' started moving and talking. Everyone screamed as we realized it was actually a real person. Inside the fortress we also saw an old prison that Spain used for anyone that opposed them.

An interesting note, before moving on to our week in Cusco, is that a neighborhood I lived in for 6 months in Peru that was nothing more than an invasion of squatters from the mountains (no plumbing, no pavement, most of the houses were shacks), was now much more developed and had paved roads. As they say in Peru, "Juntos Avancamos!" (together we advance).

Cusco

Machu Picchu

Cusco is a mysterious, breathtaking, marvelous, historic, city. It is full of ruins that the Inkas and some pre-Inka civilaztions created that have been preserved for hundreds of years. The crown jewel of Cusco, and possibly all of Peru, is Machu Picchu. We were fortunate enough to visit Machu Picchu and many other ruins. We arrived at Machu Picchu by riding a train through the mountains for 4 hours and then taking a bus for another half hour. It really feels like you are going into the middle of nowhere and then somehow you magically arrive at Machu Picchu. The Spanish probably would have destroyed this ancient Inka city for the upper class if they knew it existed, luckily they never found it. We spent several hours walking through the rooms of this ancient city, playing with the llamas, and looking at the amazing view (despite how cloudy it was that day).

City Tour

Despite going from the coast to well over 10,000 feet elevation in one day, the first day we arrived in Cusco we went on a tour known as the 'city tour.' This starts at the second most amazing ruin in cusco: Saqsay Waman (not a joke, that is its name in the Quechua language). This was a fortress used to protect the city of Cusco when the Inkas lived there. I like this place a lot because it has the largest rocks in all of the ruins in Cusco. The largest in fact, is so big that it is hard to get a picture of the whole thing and still be able to see the people's faces that are in the picture. Saqsay Waman has three walls on a hill, the first hill is made up of very large rocks, the second wall was made of medium sized rocks, and the third wall is made up of small rocks. The other reason I love this ruin so much is because the rocks in the walls, no matter how huge they are, have been transported from very far away and have been carved so that each rock fits perfectly together without and type of cement. You can not even stick the point of a needle in between the rocks, it is spectacular. Other ruins that we visited here were Pukapukara, Q'enqo, and Tambomachay.

Sacred Valley Tour (Valle Sagrado)

We went on the Valle Sagrado Tour, a tour through three ruins up in the mountains of Cusco. We started at Pisaq, which has a very large terraces going up the side of the mountain. Terraces basically look like huge shelves going down the side of the mountain that have been carved out of the mountain. They speculate that the terraces here, along with the other terraces all throughout Cusco, were used to conduct experimentation with their plants on the different terraces. Because of the terraces and the wind around the top of the hills, there were very different temperatures on the different levels of the terraces. Also at the Valle Sagrado Tour was Ollantaytambo and Chinchero, where they taught us how the Inkas died and wove articles of clothing.

We visited many other ruins in Cusco, but you can only write about rocks and ruins for so long before it starts to sound all the same. Some of the other highlights of our time in Cusco though was a stop we made on the way to Moray at the Salineras near Maras. Salineras was a salt mining area where a hot river flows out of the mountain and brings tons (literally)of salt with it. There were thousands of small man made pools full of water and salt that each yield 1,000 kilos of salt per month. At the Salineras you can reach down and grab a handfull of salt, rinse it off in the river, and taste it.

Going back to Peru made me realise how much I miss everything about it: the people, the culture, the language, the ruins, and especially the food! We really want to go back.

Comments from Michelle: Like Chad said, Peru was amazing! I just wanted to add a little more about my experience there, specifically living in a country for two weeks where I can't speak the language. I know a little bit of Spanish, but not a ton. I can understand a fair amount when Chad is speaking, at least enough to get the gist of the conversation and be able to follow it, but I don't speak Spanish very well yet. I still need to memorize all of the verb conjugations for the different tenses and get used to the sentence structure. Anyway, staying in Peru for two weeks was a great opportunity for me to use my Spanish skills. While in Lima, I didn't understand much of what anyone other than Chad said because they talked to fast and the accents were too think. It was a little frustrating at times to not know what was going on around me, but a great learning opportunity and Chad helped interpret. However, in Cusco I was able to understand a large amount of what people were saying. They talked slower and didn't have as much of an accent. I picked up quite a bit of Spanish in the two weeks we were there, which was fun.

The trip was so amazing that Chad really does want to go back - not just to visit, but to live. If it were up to Chad we would have just stayed there another year or so and not come home. Now he wants to find a job there. I think he was meant to serve his mission in Peru and now it is his second home. His Spanish is incredible and he loved getting to use it. While we were there almost everyone Chad talked to was amazed at his Spanish and asked him how he knew how to speak so well. This presented a couple of great missionary opportunities as well. It was so fun to listen to him talk.

To sum up, here are the things I miss about Peru the most: the food (only when it doesn't make me sick), how nice and friendly the people are, the weather, the way the people there personally greet and shake hands with everyone in the room when they arrive, the beautiful things to see and do in the city of Cusco, the simplicity of life there...Here are some things I have an increased appreciation for in the United States: traffic laws (in many places in Peru there are not stop signs or lights - you just drive aggressively while honking your horn and watching the people around you - Crazy and scary!), not having to worry about drinking the water or which food is safe to eat, cleanliness, carpet, advanced technology, heated water and air conditioning...