Summary

Oh, guys...

I'm apparently terrible at updating stuff. Although anytime that any of you update, I most definitely read, so you are not updating in vain.

This summer can be summed up pretty easily, I feel. Work, Adam, Warped Tour, Eating and Free Box.

Natural building is tough. Don't be fooled. I've been keeping a journal of my work over at erinisbuildingstuff.blogspot.com. So if you really are aching for details, that's a good place to start. Or just wait another couple of weeks and talk to me in person.

Adam's been up here almost the whole summer. He's gone home and to Canada a few times, but I would say that he's been here almost 75% of the time. He would come to work with me, so nobody seemed to mind that he was staying here. I guess it's good that he was here, because I have hardly seen anybody else this summer. Lilly a few times, but nobody else, really.

Lilly, her sister and friend and I went to the Warped Tour to set up a booth for the Rainforest Action Network. We handed out stickers, temporary tattoos and information and got people to sign a petition asking Bank of America and City Bank to stop funding coal fueled power plants. We also got to see several shows, including The Horrorpops (my favorite), Katy Perry, The Color Fred, Motion City Soundtrack and many others. I spent far too much money. Our table was right next to a table of anarchists, so we made friends and I bought books.

I've been eating a ton. My garden is beautiful. It hasn't been the entire time- it got pretty overgrown for a while, but Richard hired Katie (the gardener from last year, former SENS house resident, Berea Grad, awesome person in general that some of you may or may not know) to come clean it up really well before Libby, David and Zac(h/k) get here (so that it's not entirely overwhelming.) I've been trying to eat as locally as possible this summer, buying my food primarily from the farmer's market and Happy Meadows, if I can't get it from my garden. Last night I made pizza using local tomatoes, basil, garlic, onions, mushrooms, and amish cheese (and organic flour!) Be jealous, my children.

Also, the free box down the road has been my main supplier of weekend shopping. Today, somebody awesome decided to get rid of some very cool vintage dresses and skirts and I snagged them. Which is not to say that I will wear them daily, but I will love them daily.

I'm going home next week. I have only been home once this summer for about a day and a half- my sister moved out to Montana and I was visiting with her and the rest of the family during that time. So next week is going to be nice- no working or worries or anything. I'll have time to visit Chimney Rock and Asheville and some of my favorite people (although several of my favorite people will already be going to school...) Then, back to Berea and getting to see some more of my favorite people (YOU GUYS!), getting housemates and going to class.

I'm enthusiastic about all this.

Never again...

I was posting to say that never again will I blog.

But that's a lie, so ignore this.

CARSSSSZZZZZZ!!!!!

dudes! i just bought a car!!! it's a 2006 Scion xa, gets up to 40mpg with standard driving (which puts hypermiling potential above sixty!!) It's a four door hatchback which means you all will be super comfortable in it, and the total cost is less than one semester of the tuition i'm not paying for!!! It should be almost completely paid off by the time I graduate, and it only has 30,000 miles on it! It's kind of funky looking, like it's trying to be a smaller version of the smaller version of the SUV, but it's going to LAST. And the best part? If i fold down the back seats...I can sleep it in!! And that's all I could ever ask for. :-) I can't wait to see you guys!

http://www.scionlife.com/scion/xa/RS3.jpg

http://www.edmunds.com/scion/xa/2006/consumerreview.html

Thursday Night Lights

Monday night I left Peoria for LaGrange (which is a Chicago suburb) with a friend of mine to visit a friend (Nate) up there. We've done some big fun thing each day.

Tuesday: Brookfield Zoo
Nate works there this summer as a tour guide, so we got the scoop on all the animals. Zoos are pretty fly anyway, but Brookfield is one of the top zoos of the nation, so it was cool. I hadn't been to a zoo in quite some time. We have one back in Peoria, but on a scale of 1-10, it kind of blows.

Wednesday: Shed Aquarium
There were fish and other aquatic animals. Nothing too terribly awesome because we would have had to pay extra for really cool stuff, which we didn't want to do. We were spoiled by Nate because him working at the zoo got us into other things for free.

Thursday: Field Museum
Way awesome. One exhibit they have right now is about mythical creatures and their potential origins in different cultures. I found out that in China, the phoenix is a symbol for peace and good times. Not the reason I got it (since I didn't know that last year), but I thought it was very fitting and have chosen to take it as a sign.

Thursday night was the main point of this post. My friend who I drove up to Chicago with left, and after he did, Nate had me go on a jog with him. (I rode a bike while he jogged.) What the prick didn't tell me before we began was that it would be 10 miles. I wasn't really mad at him because you can't really be mad at Nate for anything, but I was slightly perturbed. Then we turned onto this path out of his neighborhood and were in the woods by a large creek, and I could see literally hundreds of lights, flashing like paparazzi. They were lightening bugs. I don't know how it is where you all are staying, but there has been a noticeable decline in the lightening bug population in Peoria throughout my childhood years, so this was a very special sight for me. It was so peaceful in the woods and it was so beautiful. All there was to see was the long reaching shadows of the trees, the flashes of the lightening bugs, and the occasional ray of moonlight through the leaves, but it was beautiful.

Right now I'm in Boston for Oxfam CHANGE Leader training. I just arrived this morning and will be here until July 25th. This is my last planned adventure for the summer, and I am glad for it. I don't mind being away from home or being home for long periods at a time, but it's hard for me to keep adjusting when I'm gone for one week, home for two, gone a few days, etc. Not that I'm complaining; I've had quite a good time on the trips I've taken this summer. I just like to feel grounded somewhere.

I pray that life continues to treat you all well!
~cocoa_goddess



how's that, david?

So, that's that annnd

no harm done.

People, I am in a foreign country taking classes, and I update more than you!

Honestly!

Today I finished the journal I began at the very start of the trip. I am sitting here in the Knowledge Center with a bar of Toblerone.

One thing I need to say about Turkey is that they are not uptight people. They also don't really follow any rules.

For example, we went to a mosque one day (by now I think, 'Mosque, DULL') and after we finished the visit, putting our shoes back on, we saw a sign that said, 'Sitting on the steps is strictly forbidden.' Naturally, about fifty people were sitting on the steps. And the sign was in English and Turkish.

It's very freeing to be in a place where people are just over being so (BU-REA)ucratic and paper-oriented in everything they do, and so they just stopped.

We in the U.S. have yet to reach this awesome state of existence. If the people were just like, 'F thıs W2 form,' it would be effed!

Honestly.

Okay, well so much more to tell you all. Or most of you.

The End

Trash Peters

We caughts an illegal fish and ates it illegally (woooo!)






A piece of collection of random objects which are taking over the truck (and sometimes our snacks).

Our last "field."

This is more to say "I can't talk right now" than to talk right now. Roo, I'm sure you're busy too and on my one town day my nose is always itching from the fury which is Computer Work and by the time I get groceries and a week's worth of books it's too late to beg or bribe the Coworker to hang out just a bit longer so I can make some phone calls. Has anyone heard from The Tara? Someone should post on her behalf. Heh.

Looking forward to getting back to KY.

Libby

Just to save you from any distress

There was a terrorist attack at the U.S. Consulate here today. Three gunmen attacked and killed three Turkish guards who, in turn, killed the gunmen. No one has taken responsibility for the attack, but it has been condemned in newspapers throughout the Middle-East. We have been told to lay low for a time. Our campus is far enough outside of the city, so we are alright. The attack was on the European side anyway.

SO I am fine and stuff. It's too bad about the guards, but I'm glad the gunmen got what they deserved.

Turkey is treating us well, and we are telling people we are from Toronto. So far, most people speak French or German to me when they are trying to sell me things, so I am flattered.

Okay folks, you'll have to wait for the full report. I write every day in a book about this place, so you won't miss a detail. That might be a bad thing, depending on how much you care.

Okay, peace.