Sights of Christmas

Spark sleeping in front of our Christmas tree
Part of the wreath I made last year

Our pretty ornaments

An oddly rotated pie that Abby-la and I made

My delicious vanilla-scented candle

Meow hugging Abby's Christmas tree. We're not sure why.

Apologies, NaNoWriMo, Carols, Thanksgiving, Elvish, and Otherwise Misscelaneous Greetings

First of all, an apology. I have somewhat abandoned my blog of late and undoubtably people have ceased to check it. So sorry! Life has been hectic here in Cambodia and I've barely had time for, well, anything. But now Christmas break has come around and I have...well...not much more time, but at least some.

I'll begin at the end of November. I won NaNoWriMo. It was not easy. Not easy at all. Yet somehow I managed to struggle through and finish with 50,033 words. Last year NaNo was so easy for me, but this year I really had to push to get it done... I was very happy to have won again, though. I had a wonderful time writing with friends in various homes and cafes, and I made at least three more NaNo recruits this year! I'm very pleased with NaNo this year. Can't wait til next November....
Also, I'm thinking of launching a Cambodia NaNoWriDay. In other words, National Novel Writing Day. One Day. 50,000 words. My friends all think I've lost my mind (or at least what was left of it).

I really didn't have time to type up a Thanksgiving post, so I'll give you a bit of a recap. I had two Thanksgivings, one with my youthgroup and one at my house with 37 or so friends and family.
Youthgroup first: We crammed into Christina's little apartment, baked, baked, and baked (which included mashing about fifty potatoes with a fork), ate lots of heavenly food, and overall had a spectacular time.
My Thanksgiving: 37 people, 10 pies, 2 turkeys, need I say more? It was wonderful. I ate until I felt like I couldn't move. I read the Thanksgiving proclamation and got a bit of stage fright (I hate it when that happens), and spent the rest of day hanging out with friends and eating leftovers. It was very much a multi-national Thanksgiving. We had Americans (obviously), Kiwis, Canadians, Brits, Mexicans, and Cambodians. We might have had more nationalities, but if so, I have forgotten them.

After Thanksgiving I caved in and decorated my room for Christmas. I have bells, candles, angels, and a little mini Christmas tree that looks simply adorable next to Tollers' cage. A few days later we decorated our family tree, which is huge, beautiful, and highly erratic. By now the rest of our downstairs is decorated, complete with wreaths, tinsel, stockings, a red table cloth, candles, and other decorations. It definitely looks Christmassy. Since then we have baked hundreds of cookies. We've made sugar cookie cutouts, gingerbread men, date swirls, Russian tea cakes, molasses sugar cookies, peanut blossoms, peanut-chocolate cookies, and quite possibly something else I forgot. I'm not quite done yet.
Youthgroup had a lovely Christmas party. It was quite a small group since it was the night of the Click 5 concert (which was something between a disaster and fantastic, from what I've heard). We still had a wonderful time eating pizza, having a more or less odd gift exchange, playing games, talking, and overall just goofing off. Cross Culture had a Christmas Worship Service last Friday which was great, although we had a few problems with the powerpoint.
Tonight Cross Culture is joining with a few other people to go Christmas caroling! Abby will arrive soon to help me bake cookies for us to eat afterwards. It should be fun.

A few weeks ago we had our annual Christmas Craft Fair...It was much fun. Four hours straight of shopping.

Speaking of shopping, I finished both my shopping and wrapping yesterday. I'm ready for Christmas!

School ended Friday, but I have to work ahead on my TPS work (English and Science) so that I don't get behind while on my mission's trip to Thailand. I did some Chemistry reading today and may do some later...maybe not. I don't really mind having a bit of work over the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, Christmas involves presents and my amazing friend Meow gave me an extremely cool Klutz bracelet making kit. Naturally, I had to do something in Elvish, so I am now wearing a bracelet with the Lord's Prayer in Elvish on it. Here's the Lord's Prayer in Quenya, but I printed it out in the proper font when I actually did the bracelet.


Attolma i menelessie, nai airitainiéva esselya.
Our Father who is in heaven, be it that will be hallowed thy name.
Nai ardalya tuluva. Be it that thy kingdom will come.
Nai írelya tyarniéva mardesse ve menelesse.
Be it that thy desire will be done on earth as in heaven.
Anta men síre ilyaurea mastalma.
Give (to) us today daily our bread.
Ar avanta men raikalmar ve avantalme raikatyarolmain.
And forgive (for) us our wrongs as we forgive (for) our wrong-doers.
Ar nai útukuvalye me mailenna
And be it that thou will not lead us into overmastering desire
ná fainu me ulkallo. Amen.
but release us from evil. Amen.

Not a perfect translation, but still pretty cool, no?

I'm getting so excited--Christmas is right around the corner!

Well, I'm off to mix up some cookie dough.

Isusarad 'Elir! (Merry Christmas)

~Manwathiel

Thanksgiving Proclamation

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the heavens.

Abraham Lincoln, 1863

NaNo Is Here.

What are you doing reading my blog??? Crazy person, get back to your WriMo.
What do you mean you're not doing NaNoWriMo? Get started. Now.
What? I'm *not* supposed to be spending time writing on my blog?
You know, you're right. I'm off to do some writing.

Yes, NaNoWriMo has begun. Havoc is wreaked upon the world.
12,604 words and counting.

An Update

I suppose I owe you all an update before NaNo starts and havoc is wreaked upon my social life, online and offline.

Lately I've been doing loads and loads of schoolwork--I'm absolutely loving my Advanced Comp class, absolutely dying under the load of my Chemistry class work, rushing through my health class as fast as possible so I can skip it in November, enjoying History/Literature/Bible, and not enjoying Spanish. I'm about to go to Chem class right now, so I'm afraid this must be short.

I've been doing quite a bit with youthgroup of late. Since we didn't have youthgroup while Christina (our youthleader) was in the US a bunch of us went to Sovanna mall, had pizza, ice cream, and played in the arcade (well, not me, I didn't particularly feel like embarrassing myself). Twas an utter and complete blast. You can go to www.abbysroom.blogspot.com to get a more detailed account (just scroll down a bit), although I did not play games in the arcade, get left in Sovanna, or blow dry my hair, since I don't own a blowdryer.
Youthgroup wasn't spectacularly fun last week, but most of the time it is very, very fun. We've been playing capture the flag and I have discovered that American style is not much fun compared to the other version, whatever version the other one may be.
At ICF we've been playing quite a fun game, where four people pretend to be guests to a party, and one person plays the host. The four each have to act out something on a piece of paper--an adjective and a noun--and the host has to guess what they are. We had a depressed poet, a weird lobster, a sad egg, an irritated pencil, an icelandic cowboy, a bubbling chemical experiment, and a tyrannical hobbit. Guess who wrote the last one =D. Oddly enough, I got to act it too. I got to scream about The Shire, the little folk rising up against the big folk, ruling in the place of the Dark Lord, and crushing the big folk with the iron fist of the halfling. Much fun, no?
We also had a potluck at ICF, I was a bit worried about the amount of food, but there ended up being enough (although there weren't enough plates or silverware!). I took brownies, which appeared to be quite popular since none were left. A lot of my youthgroup were there, so I had fun hanging out with them.

Saturday I spent the day making sock monkeys! I named mine Monkeystein, after Frankenstein, of course. Kris, Hannah, Abby, and Sam finished their adorable monkeys too. They were referred to as disturbing at ICF, I cannot concur.

Ahh, NaNo starts in less than a week! Here is what you may expect during NaNoWriMo:
I will randomly blurt out things about my characters at very random times
I will randomly blurt out plot ideas at very random times
I will bring my notebook to all social activities and while I will attempt to refrain from writing, I might fail misterably in my resolve, hence the notebook.
My internet life will be sadly lacking, I fear.
E-mails will not be replied to unless they are very urgent or I have that strange mysterious thing called "free time."

Anyway, with that said, let us talk about the future. Do you know where you want to go to college? How are you going to pay for college? What are you going to do with your life? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm? Ok, nevermind that, I'm talking about the near future. Thanksgiving and Christmas to be precise. I simply CANNOT wait. Thanksgiving will be very fun, we have lots of people coming. And Christmas is always fun, naturally. I'm excited =).
This upcoming Friday we have a costume-bowling party at Cross Culture! I'm sooo excited. I'm wearing my elf dress, naturally, but I have to figure out a way to keep it clean, keep myself off the bumper cars, and bowl with those sleeves... Hmm. Something will be figured.

Ah, class is begun, must head off!

~Manwathiel

First they ignore you,

then they ridicule you,

then they fight you,

and then, you win.

-Gandhi

Oh, yes yes. The madness begins in a mere month. The excitement!

So...

The two paged biography turned into a three paged biography. English class was a blast. Chemistry class not so much. Star Trek is awesome. Data is more than awesome. Tolkien wrote hysterical short stories. That periodic table doesn't want to be memorized. I have videos to watch (Chem videos), essays to write. Three pairs of earrings somehow wound up being bought by me, despite the fact that I'm supposed to be broke (stupid earring addiction). Youthgroup has been fun. Slime needs to be researched. Season Four of Atlantis is being re-watched. Season One of Next Generation is so lame it's funny (except for the occasional brilliant episode--like Datalore). Tollers has discovered that he can fit halfway out of his cage. I'm actually not worrying about Be Verbs at the moment. I have books to read, things to make, brownies to bake. It has been discovered that the Cookie Monster only eats cookies as a "sometimes snack" now (American propaganda... I grew up on the cookie-eating cookie monster and I'm fine!!!!). The US Constitution is fascinating. Alexander Hamilton is boring, as of last week. It's been raining lots. College is worrying me. God used Be Verbs. I need to get working on that essay. I also need to get off this computer. Headache, ya know.

And that, my friends, is pretty much my past week. Ooh, I'm going to go highlight the Be Verbs in this post...
Now, look at this, same post--no Be Verbs--what thinkest thou?

The two paged biography turned into a three paged biography. I had fun in English class. Chemistry class, not so much. Star Trek rocks. I can only describe Data as "more than awesome". Tolkien wrote hysterical short stories. That periodic table doesn't want to stick in my head. I have videos to watch (Chem videos), essays to write. Three pairs of earrings somehow wound up purchased by me, despite the fact that my friends describe me as "broke" (stupid earring addiction). I had lots of fun at youthgroup. Slime needs researching. Meow and I have begun re-watching Season Four of Atlantis. Our wonderfully lame Season One of Next Generation has me chuckling (mentally, of course, I'm Katherine) at it's...silliness? (except for the occasional brilliant episode--like Datalore). Tollers has discovered that he can fit halfway out of his cage. I'm actually not worrying about Be Verbs at the moment. I have books to read, things to make, brownies to bake. It has been discovered that the Cookie Monster only eats cookies as a "sometimes snack" now (American propaganda... I grew up on the cookie-eating cookie monster!). The US Constitution fascinates me. I declared Alexander Hamilton boring, as of last week. Rain pours down in beautiful torrents every day. College worries me. God used Be Verbs. I need to get working on that essay. I also need to get off this computer. Headache, ya know.

Geek-rant

As I wait for my various family members to get off the ps2 and pop in a Star Trek, I decided to flesh out a few of my geeky-trekkie ideas. To be more specific: Wouldn't it be awesome if the Borg could assimilate a Q?
If the Borg could assimilate a Q, and I stress the "if", then the Borg would add the Q's abilities to their own--right? And since the Q are near-invincible, then the Borg would be near-invincible. I mean, come on, how spectacular would that be? Bad, yes, I'll admit, but spectacular as well, no? Imagine such an awesome episode... The Borg wouldn't even have to assimilate anymore! They would just go *pouf* and then perfection. Or some such thing. Of course, the rest of the Q Continuum wouldn't be too happy about that, so they'd probably wind up destroying the Borg (bout time, I'd say), which would be good and sad at the same time. It usually is the Continuum that ends up fixing problems that other Q's (usually Q) make. That would be so great, though... Q messing things up and getting assimilated, the Borg taking over everything in the blink of an eye, all hope lost... And then the other Q's would zap everything back to normal. So cool. Of course, there is the little problem that the Borg could never assimilate a Q, because the Q are, as I said, almost all-powerful. Oh well. That is a problem for another day.

For the record, I don't expect any of you to understand any of that (except my parents and Isaac, most likely, and even if you understand it you probably can't follow my train of thought). And that, my friends, is all.

Live Long and Prosper \\//

Nothing Whatsoever

I decided to come on here and post a post telling you absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Yep.

So this is a nothingness post.

I will tell you, though, that I bought a plant for my room and named it Fergus. Contrary to popular belief, I do not talk to it. Well, at least not most of the time.

And that, my friends, is the end of the nothingness.

Tollers

Yes yes, I am finally getting around to this Tollers post! Shall I begin at the beginning? Tis always the best place to begin, dost thou not agree?

As I was saying: Tollers. Most of you know that I have been wanting a parakeet for ages. I finally managed to get a cage and all my parakeet accessories (perches, mirror, toys, food dishes, etc) ready a few weeks ago, and began hunting for a parakeet. Living in Cambodia, this is not an easy thing. In the US if you walk into a pet store, there will be parakeets. Guaranteed. $14 parakeets. Every petstore. But in Cambodia we don't exactly have regular pet stores. With that said, I will continue from the almost beginning.

We heard from our bird-people-friends that you could find people carrying little cages of birds around on the other side of town. My dad set out on the motorcycle and drove for what seemed like ages, to the other side of town. My foot, brilliant thing that it is (or not), decided to take a nap as we drove. We reached the location and found birds, but none were parakeets and they decidedly looked like they had mites or mange in one form or another. I felt so sorry for the poor birdies, but we left without finding my parakeet. Dad and I went to the bank afterwards, where I made a fool of myself by being unable to get my stupid foot to actually work (I hate it when it falls asleep), I practically fell over and then I couldn't put my shoe back on. I limped for a few minutes, but eventually my foot started to work again, which was a relief. As afore-mentioned, we went home without a parakeet.

This was when the dreams began.

I had dream after dream about buying parakeets--and trust me, these were strange dreams. I won't relate them because you would probably never look at Tollers the same ever again and I wouldn't be surprised if you never spoke to me again, either. Let's just say that they involved glasses, pets for blind people. mutant penguins, parakeets trying to fly away, and eggs hatching into bright pink parakeets... Not your normal dreams, if you ask me.

The dreams occured for several nights, until my mom managed to take me up to Central Market to follow a parakeet lead... Well, we didn't find parakeets, which was heartbreaking, but a very nice man who sold locks told us where to find a petstore! I was ecstatic, so we quickly went to the street where the petstore was supposed to be.

As we drove down the road suddenly I spotted them--hundreds of parakeets, all jammed in one little cage. I screamed something about parakeets (what else? Did you expect me to start babbling about the hidden theology behind LoTR?), and we pulled over. I jumped out and ran over to the cage of birds.

The petshop wasn't exactly well cared for... The birds, as I said before, were in a cage far too small for the many birds, and the other pets in the store didn't look healthy. Most of the birds had feathers falling out and didn't look too good, but I managed to spot a few healthy looking ones. I watched the birds for a while, until I spotted one that looked young, healthy, and very active (he was attempting to shove another bird off of his food dish in order to get more for his greedy little self). I pointed to the one that I wanted, the store owner stuck his hand in the cage, and pandemonium broke out. The birds were going crazy, flying from one edge of the cage to another as fast as they could--it wasn't a surprise when the store owner grabbed the wrong bird. I decided to give this bird a chance, so I looked at him for a while, then discovered that he was missing a toe and did not look healthy. I told the store owner that I wanted the other one, and attempted to point out my bird amongst the masses. The next bird wasn't the one I wanted either, but finally the store owner managed to grab the bird I wanted and put it in my little travel-cage. I paid the store owner, and headed home with my own little parakeet!

Well, I can't give you the full minute by minute analysis of my bird, but he is adorable, I trimmed his wings myself (with a lot of help, admittedly), his name is Tollers, thanks to the suggestion of one of my fellow TPSers--oh yes, about the name. For a brief time I had people shocked that I had not named him something Tolkien related. Sorry to burst your bubble, my friends, it is Tolkien related, just too obscure for most of you to know of =P. Anyway, he is my dear little birdy, he likes to eat my rings, my fake vines, my hair, and my fingers. He is one of the cutest little birdies ever and I am really worried that one of my friends is going to try and steal him.

And that, my friends, is all. Oh, and here is Tollers and his favorite "snack."

A Downpour of Rain, A Reminder of Glory

Tis the rainy season in beautiful Cambodia. Rain is pouring down at the moment, like it did last night at the same time, the night before, and the night before that. I love every minute of it. The trees swaying in the wind--the sound of water on tin roofs--water flooding our yard--rain blowing through my bedroom window and soaking my room--everything. I love it. I love the thunder that makes the ground shake, the lightning that makes the sky bright as day, everything. And then sometimes, if it's still light outside, you can see a rainbow--a constant reminder that God keeps his promises, something that I often forget. God made the rainbow, the rain itself, the wind, the thunder, and the lightning, and it all serves to glorify him. That's what the rain reminds me about: God's glory. I have a slightly awkward habit of breaking into worship songs at the top of my lungs when it rains. It's awkward because I frequently forget just how loud I am singing (the rain drowns out a lot of noise) and I get people staring at me funnily. But that's what the rain makes me want to do--worship God. I love the rain, singing in the rain (or rather in a nice dry room while it rains), and more specifically, worshipping God when it rains.

If there was no rainy season, life in Cambodia would be quite different. The river would never overflow, the rice-fields would never flood, and the Cambodian way of life would be drastically different. By something as simple as rain, God has enabled the Cambodian people (and probably every other people group, when you think about it) to develop the culture and way of living that they have today.

God has used something as simple as rain to show His glory in Cambodia and in the rest of the world.

Something as simple as rain.

The First Day of School (Among Other Things)

School started today. Isn't that such an ominous sentence? Doesn't it immediately bring terrible thoughts of pile after pile of homework to your mind? No Abby, I'm not talking to you, we all know you love school, but not everyone does. Well, I have one thing to say to all you pessimists who can relate to the third sentence in this blog post: Stop being so pessimistic, school's not that bad.
Ok, some of you are thinking "Katherine, give me a break, you're a homeschooler. You sit on a couch watching Star Trek and eating doritos all day."
Well... I have very little to say to that except that if you think such a thing, you should really do some research. Here is what I did on my first day of school:
Health, Algebra 2 (I'll actually do Geomoetry this year, I'm just finishing up last year's work), Exploring America (which encompasses history, writing, literature, and Bible and included me beginning a two-page summary of my worldview), Spanish, read 1/3 of Peace Child, worked on memorizing the periodic table of the elements, Classical Roots, Analogies, Art, and a few other things that were undoubtably so boring that I have already forgotten them. Oh, and I haven't even started Advanced Comp or Chemistry yet. To put it simply, that's not sitting on a couch watching Janeway beat up the Borg. Not at all. I know very well that my friends who attend private (or even public) school are probably all doing something vaguely similar to what I'm doing. So hey, I'm as much an expert on the first day of school as any other Sophmore on Planet Earth. Thus I can truthfully say, from experience, that the first day of school isn't as bad as everyone seems to think it is. In fact, school in general can actually be pretty fun, and if you look at the first day for me, school probably will be pretty fun this year. Even for a homeschooler. And no, I'm not a social invert.
But anyway, getting on with what I was saying, the first day of school was actually pretty fun. Spanish was just...well... It was the first day and was pretty much just housecleaning that I fastforwarded through (BJU Press Distant Learning stuff). Art started simply enough, but I flipped through the book and saw what looked like some awesome lessons. Math is, well, math, 'nuff said. I don't like it but I don't hate it. It has always been that way it will always be that way. Classical Roots... I don't know if I've ever told anyone, but I absolutely positively love my Classical Roots book. It has all these awesome famous quotes in Latin and is filled with writing assignments that are simply a blast. I also love dissecting those words and figuring out their history. Analogies started out rather dull, but I know that it will be at least somewhat fun, eventually. My Health book is a complete crackup, it was talking about how our bodies are the Holy Spirit's temple (which they are, of course, don't get me wrong here), but instead of using the word "body" it used the word "temple" pretty much constantly. I kept thinking of an area of my forehead, which wasn't exactly what the book intended. It looks like it'll be halfway decent, although it looks relatively dull. Now we get to my American History/Exploring America. This thing is AWESOME. Basically it combines History, Literature, and Faith. It has the regular history book part, but it also comes with a book of complete source documents! How awesome is that? I get to read the words of Benjamin Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt without any editing or frustrating people interjecting their own summary of what so-and-so said. I love, love, love it. Of course, I am now supposed to be writing a two-page summary of my worldview which is going...well...interestingly. I'm not the kind of person who really talks about my worldview, so it is rather interesting getting it down on paper. I'm not sure how to describe half of it. But moving on, I haven't started the literature for this course yet, but I've seen the books and they're wonderful classics like Uncle Tom's Cabin and To Kill a Mockingbird. Mom also supplied a list of extra credit literature which I will, naturally, be reading as well as the required lit. I've already started with the afore-mentioned Peace Child which is, to put it gently, not for the squeamish... I absolutely can't wait to start my TPS courses. Chem sounds very fun and Advanced Comp will be good, I'm sure, except for that pesky Be Verb rule... I'm working on memorizing my elements and you'd probably be surprised how fun it is to memorize "Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorous, Sulfer..." Yeah, that's as far as I've gotten. But tis fun!
So yes, the first day of school wasn't bad at all, and I got to read with Tollers sitting on my shoulder (what do you know, he's interested in the classics as well as fantasy!).

And because I feel like it, here is a list of books that I know I will be reading this school year. First of all we have my school-required-and-extra-credit books:

Peace Child
The Scarlet Letter
Narrative of the Life of David Crockett
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Company Aytch
Humorous Stories and Sketches
Up From Slavery
In His Steps
Mama's Bank
Christy
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Giver
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huck Finn
Portable Poe
Walden
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book
My Antonia
Grapes of Wrath

And as to my own, personal reading:

The Sword of Shannara (I should at least finish it, no?)
Pendragon
Emma
The Silmarillion
The Unfinished Tales (I need to read these two again)
The Virtual Mummy (I'm maybe halfway through)
Brush up Your Shakespeare
The Treason of Isengard
Twilight (Because Abby's making me ;) )

Naturally, more books will come along and will be read... But for now tis a good start for a list, don't you agree?

Ah, I'm boring you, so ttfn, I'm off for now... Be expecting a full-size post about Tollers to be coming along soon, I'm on the wrong comp for pictures of him right now, so you will be spared that mammoth post until at least another day.

Oh wait, I just remembered, I'm not done with this post! I did say "Among Other Things" in the title, if you will recall, so I intend to continue boring you with this post.

I wanted to talk to you all about the Taizé service at ICF... Most of you know that I haven't gone to ICF since I went that one time eight years ago, but I decided to go to the Taizé service (which is very different from the normal service and only happens every few months) with Abby. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it all turned out to be very peaceful and relaxing. I did a reading from Isaiah, which I butchered, and actually turned out to, oddly enough, be my favorite Bible passage! The service was very quiet and was composed mostly of singing with beautiful flute music, reflective pauses, Scripture readings, and prayer. Twas all very nice and worshipful. I fully intend to go next time. Of course, next time I won't sit on the floor... I think every bone in my body cracked when I stood up =D. But it was definitely worth it and was overall a very nice, calming time of worship.
Oh yes, and speaking of church services, I'm planning to go to the ICF afternoon service (as well as my usual ICA morning service) next week, because I've heard that the youthgroup at ICF is very good... Thus I might as well try it! Regular youthgroup is starting up soon and I'm very excited about that. Hopefully it'll be good this year around. The Highschool group was quite good last year. I'm going to try helping out with worship again this year... We shall see how that goes.

And that, I think, is really all. Namarie!

~Manwathiel

Parakeet Needing a Name

No, I haven't got my parakeet yet (alas) but since I like my pets to have a name on day one I've decided to get a head start on names... And I need your help! Check out the poll on the right side of this post ---> and give me your opinion! If you choose "other" go ahead and comment on this post giving me your suggestion. Whatever your decision may be, feel free to give input on this post in the commenty comment section. Thanks!

~Manwathiel

*edit*
Too late, the parakeet has been named! Tollers be his name, thanks to a wonderful member of Isaiah. I'll undoubtably make a whole post on the subject of Tollers later, but for now he's being shy and hiding in his cage, but I'm sure that he'll do something of interest soon!

Songs...

I have decided that two songs can pretty much sum up what I want my life to be about. Yep, two songs. Here they be:

To the Ends of the Earth
Hillsong United

Love unfailing
Overtaking my heart
You take me in
Finding peace again
Fear is lost
In all you are

And I would give the world to tell Your story
Cause I know that You've called me
I know that You've called me
I've lost myself for good within Your promise
I won't hide it
I won't hide it

Jesus, I believe in You
And I would go to the ends of the earth
To the ends of the earth
For You alone are the Son of God
And all the world will see
That You are God
You are God



Mission's Flame
Matt Redman

Let worship be the fuel for mission's flame
We're going with a passion for Your name
We're going for we care about Your praise
Send us out

Let worship be the heart of mission's aim
To see the nations recognise Your fame
'Til every tribe and tongue voices Your praise
Send us out

You should be the praise of every tongue
You should be the joy of every heart
But until the fullness of Your kingdom comes
Until that final revelation dawns
Send us out

Every tribe, every tongue
Every creature in the heavens and the earth
Every heart, every soul
Will sing Your praise, will sing Your praise
Every note, every strain
Every melody will be for You alone
Every harmony that flows from every tongue
Will sing Your praise, will sing Your praise
Will sing Your praise, will sing Your praise

A poem loosely based on Tolkien's Elves and their love of the sea:



The Voice of the Sea

As I walk under trees of green,
I realize what my fate is to be.
No longer will I hear the trees sing,
For I am to fall for the love of the sea.

The voice of the sea is calling me;
Calling me to lands unknown,
Calling me to shores that are free,
Calling me to lands renown.

Lands that are free from hurt and pain,
Lands that nothing will ever maim,
Lands past the sea that is my bane.

The cries of the gulls along the shore—
The voice of the sea is calling me.
The whistling foam that all adore—
I am called by the voice of the sea.

The voice of the sea is calling me,
Out to the wilds of the deep.
In little time I shall see
Where storms arise and strange things sleep.

Never again shall I love the trees.
Love how softly they sway in the breeze—
For I am called for the love of the seas.

Someday across the sea I will flee,
And there I will find that I am free.
For the voice of the sea calls to me.

Books Missing...

Hey everyone, a bit of bad news from me. Yesterday I found out that about half of my book collection was stolen while I was in the US. You all know me and should know that my books are my most prized possessions, and now everything except my Tolkien books (which is about half of my book collection) and the few books that I had with me in the States are missing. This includes my Artemis Fowls, my Lawheads, my Redwalls, the Dragons in our Midst series, a couple books by Anne McCaffrey, The Case for Christianity, a collection of Sherlock Holmes, The Thrawn Trilogy and Hand of Thrawn Duology, and several other series. I feel kind of like I would love to do something nasty to the thief (please pray that I stop feeling like this). There is a possibility that we can get the books back, since there is only one place to unload English books in Cambodia, but we're not sure yet if we'll be able to. My only consolation is that maybe the thief will pick up The Case for Christianity or one of my devotionals and that God would work on his heart. Maybe this could end up working for the better, although I confess that I most definitely am not feeling optomistic about this...
Anyway, if you guys would pray that I handle this well--and that, if it is God's will, we could get the books back--I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much!

Home...

Well, after a wonderful two weeks in CA, I am back in Cambodia watching Stargate and wondering just *how* to unpack all those boxes... My room is a mess, I'm exhausted, and I am also very excited to be back. And I'm afraid that I have no other update to make...

~Katherine

<-- La Jolla Cove in California

A Tribute to My First Camera

So as some of you know, and some of you do not, my first camera that I recieved most unexpectedly for my 14th birthday broke a week ago. I was heartbroken. My first camera! I have recently gotten a new one (and thus gotten into quite a bit of debt) but I will never forget my first camera. This post is a tribute to my camera. Here are several pictures that I took with my first camera. All pictures are copyright to me, Manwathiel, please do not save them, copy them, reproduce them, or any such thing.

With all that said... I give you a tribute to my first camera:

California, Here I Come

I'm on my way to beautiful San Diego tomorrow! I really can't wait--especially since I'll be meeting up with four of my awesome TPS friends (yay!) as well as seeing quite a few friends who live in SD who I haven't seen in....well...two years, I guess.

So to my fellow MEA-ers--I can't wait to meet you all!!!! I'm getting so excited =D.

To my friends who I haven't seen in two years--I'm looking forward to seeing you all and seeing what's changed in your lives since I saw you last!

Sorry for the short post and the lack of regular posts... I'll try to get up a more detailed (I can hear your moans) post about D.C. later...

TTFN!

~Manwathiel

An Update!

So after a very long time with not enough internet time to give an update, I am updating.

I am going to try to cram this down into a little itty bitty update, so here you are:

So about a month ago we toured Washington DC. We almost met Duncan Hunter, toured the Capitol Building, visited all the monuments, and had a complete blast. Twas very awesome.

After DC, we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Illinois. I'm afraid to say that I spent most of the time reading... But that's not exactly shocking if you know me. I had a very fun time in Illinois, we visited Amish country, went to a museum and saw a mummy, and went to my cousin's soccer game.

After Illinois we wound our way through the Ozark Mountains, eventually stopping at a nice little campground where we stayed in a cabin, ate hotdogs, swum in the beautiful river, and made s'mores (yum....). Our second day there, we went out on a two hour canoe trip, which was very fun. Of course, the canoe did tip over, which wasn't so fun, but it was all part of the experience, right?

Now that I've come to this part I want to make a little point here... Two points actually. One: God always answers prayers, although not always in the way that you think he will. Two: God is a God of humor.

You're probably wondering what this has to do with a canoe trip, but here you go...

When the canoe tipped over, I lost my $152 perscription sunglasses. Yes, I do hate those sunglasses, but I kind of needed them. So I started to pray that I would find my sunglasses. While dad was emptying the canoe of water, I walked up and down the riverbed looking for my sunglasses, praying that I would find them. After a few minutes of looking I spotted something shaped roughly like a pair of sunglasses. I ducked down in the water and picked them up. Well, I had prayed that I would find sunglasses, and God said yes and sent me sunglasses. But you know what is hilarious? They weren't my sunglasses! It was very, very funny. But hey, my prayer was answered!

And now we are back in Arkansas, safe and sound... And that is my update. Wow. I didn't give you a minute by minute analysis of our trip... Amazing.

I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.

What are we holding on to, Sam?

There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

It is time for another Blog-post

So while in the US nothing incredibly exciting has been happening. I leave for DC tomorrow, which will be amazing, hopefully. So with that in mind, allow me to give you a complete summary of all the movies which I have seen recently for the first time:

On the plane I watched "I Am Legend"

Good, good movie. Some might say it was a tad scary, but I really enjoyed it. Overall, I really can't think of any problems that I had with the script, plot, or otherwise. I loved the idea of a "cure for cancer" going wrong. Oh yes, Will Smith is a great actor.

At my cousin's house I *finally* saw "I, Robot"

I have to say that it really is about time I saw this movie. Once again, Will Smith is a brilliant actor, the plot was great, the futuristic technology was spectacular, etc.

In the theater I saw "Prince Caspian"

I have to confess, I was expecting to hate it and ended up loving it. Caspian, who I was expecting to be terrible, was great. The whole Spanish/Italian Telmarine thing really, really fit Lewis' history for the Telmarines, and Reepicheep stole the whole show. My only problems were the script deviation from the book (major deviations, there) and the fact that Peter was... Well... Not magnificent. I couldn't stand him. But overall, "Caspian" was great.

Just last night I went and saw "Iron Man"

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, considering that I really am not one to geek out over superheroes, I cannot recall ever picking up a marvel comic, and the only movies involving superheroes that I've actually seen are the X-men movies and the first Spiderman. With that in mind, I really, really enjoyed "Iron Man." The main character, Tony Starks, was obviously a very messed up guy at the beginning of the movie, and throughout the movie we really got to see his character develop. Great character development, there. The Iron Man armor was really fantastic, the plot was good, there were a few twistings and turnings of the plot, and overall I really liked it. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone under 12--not even 12 year olds unless they're quite mature, but it was very good.

And that, my friends, is all. Unless you would like me to tell you about the complete experience of sharing FoTR and TTT with my grandparents--which as you all know, would probably result in several pages of rambling.

Namarie,

Manwathiel

Dream Big

I'm still an Elf with an Elf-bow and I promise, this time I will actually tell you about the Archery (in other words, part III)

So, where was I? Oh yes, taking aim with the arrow. So, as soon as I strung my bow I looked straight towards the target and let it fly--the arrow spun forward like lightning and struck the target smack in the middle! Ok, so that's what I *wish* happened... What really happened was the arrow fell of the T (see previous post to know what on earth I'm talking about. You still might not know). Very impressive. The arrow fell off the T. Well... so I put the arrow back on. But I couldn't aim properly. So after several tries and the arrow falling off the bow, the very nice teacher-person showed me how to tilt my bow to the side (which looked awesome), so the arrow wouldn't fall off. So I aimed and shot the arrow, and surprise surprise, I hit the target! Not only that, I hit about the third circle, which was very nice. Oh, and I also killed my arm. Not very nice. I believe I finally know what the point of the arm-guard is. And instead of hitting the arm-guard the string (it snaps forward, propelling the arrow off the bow, obviously) hit my arm. Hard. It's swelling up into a lovely bruise now. It hurt, but of course I would never admit that. Oh wait, I just did... But anyway. Was a little wound going to slow me down? Of course not! I grabbed another arrow and shot again. Well, this arrow went straight over the target. Alas for me.

Now, the third arrow.... Ok, so you don't want a complete analysis of every single arrow that I shot. So I won't give you one. But GG and Kristine were shooting too. They did great! Both got an arrow a little over an inch from the middle. So we kept shooting. It was the funnest (is a word) thing ever! I didn't want to stop! So we kept going... After about an hour Kristine stopped, but I kept going. Ohh, it was so fun. Finally GG said that we had to go... So I asked for one more round. GG said alright, so we shot another round. One more? Yes. So we did one more. And then one more. On my very last round I *finally* hit the yellow (middle circles)!! And here's the best thing....I hit closer than anyone else! Ok, so only about a centimeter closer than Kris' and GG's close arrow... Maybe even less. But it was a bit closer! I was so happy. So then we went home. But oh, I didn't want to stop. But I had to. So I did. But it was so fun! I am going to try to somehow take up an archery class somewhere, somehow. And that, my friends, is all. And I did finally get to the archery part!

I'm an Elf with an Elf-bow doing Elf-archery (Part 2--the part with the archery)

Yes, this is the moment that you've all been waiting for (or not). Now that I have told you about the pottery in my previous post, I will get on to describing the archery. Well, as you can imagine, the moment GG mentioned that she had done archery previously with one of my cousins I leapt at the chance to do it. Kristine and GG loved the idea of doing it too, so the day before yesterday we set out to do some archery. First we went and picked up our bows (they were red), arrows (half were broken), and arm-guards. After a bit of trouble we managed to get our arm-guards on (mine was backwards--thankfully, a guy at the archery range told me and I was able to switch it before I started) and drove over to the archery range. At the archery place there were many, many different kinds of targets. There were the ones with twelve circles, the big standard targets with one big circle, big bags of hay or something, etc. They were all different lengths away. There were two men there, one obviously the teacher and the other the student, who moved over and let us have the...*cough* I'll admit it, the closest target. But it was still pretty far away! The teacher was also nice enough to show us how to shoot. And you know, the Elves make it look sooo easy. You have to stand with your left side facing the target, your legs spread out slightly. You take your bow and tilt it to the right (you know what way to hold it because there is a piece on it where your hand goes that is kind of shaped like a T. the line on the T goes above your fist). With your left hand you take an arrow and place it on the left, top side of the T (the I in the T is lined up with the bow itself), then there is a notch at the other end of the arrow and you stick it in the middle of two plastic pieces. Then, holding the bow itself with your left hand, you take the string in your right hand, with one finger above the arrow and two below, and you... Oh. I have to go.

I promise, the next post will actually get to the archery part!

I'm an Elf with an Elf-bow doing Elf-archery!!

*cough* So I suppose I should start before the archery... Before the archery comes the pottery. Anyway, as most of you know, I am in FL with my grandparents having a blast. We leave tomorrow =(. I know that I'll have fun back at my cousins, but I'm having fun here too! Speaking of fun, did you know just how addictive doing acrilic paints on pieces of pottery is? Highly addictive. Almost as addictive as archery. But I'm starting at the beginning.
Well, GG took Kristine and I to a little pottery-decorating place downtown. You could do glazed pottery, but that took a week to be fired and we didn't have that long; or you could do fuzed glass pottery, but that took a class, which we didn't want to do; and finally, you could do acrilic painted pottery, which only took a day to be sprayed and to dry. Naturally, we chose acrilics.
First we got to pick out our piece of pottery. GG picked out a little plate shaped like a fish, Kristine picked out a statue shaped like a fairy, and I, after much inner-argument, chose the most adorable little box. Yep. A box. The box itself is shaped like an egg... Egg, you're thinking, ooh. Yay. Adorable. Naturally, you are thinking this in your most sarcastic tone of thought. But then, you would be wrong. On top of the lid of my egg-shaped box is a alligator. A baby alligator! It is sooo cute. And it's legs are kind of over the side of the box. Basically, it looks like a alligator egg is hatching into the most adorable baby gator that you've ever seen (have I ever mentioned how much I love alligators?). So we painted them, GG's fish was gorgeous, mostly yellow, with spots and stripes and the names of all her grandkids on it. Kristine's fairy ended up absolutely stunningly creepy (I think my love of creepy fairies is rubbing off on my sister), with silver hair, sparkly pink dress, and pale green eyes. My gator ended up soo cute. The egg was white and the gator was green. Surprise surprise. But it was shiny green and had a cute little smile! And red eyes. Glittery red eyes. I love it.

Oh well, I have to go get ready for bed (we have to get up at six tomorrow), so no time to tell about the archery. I'll get on to that later...Yes, I know that this throws the whole point of this post off point. I'm sure you can tolerate my incessant ramblings and off-topicness. Thank you, and goodnight.

Ha!

Ha! I remembered what it was I was going to say at the bottom of my last post.

I realized that I think weird. I don't normally talk weird, for the most part, but I think weird. For example... I saw a really awesome statue of a viking-like-person at Disney yesterday (the pic is in the below post). Now, most 15 year old girls would think something along the lines of "That's cool," or "that's awesome," if they thought the statue was cool or awesome... Well, I thought it was cool and awesome, but I didn't think the phrase "that's cool" or "that's awesome." To be precise, the first thing that popped into my head was "That's so Volksung." Most 15 year olds don't know what the Volksung saga is. And most wouldn't think "That's so Volksung." Anyway... Once again, that made no sense.

Farewell.

Tales of a Wanderer in a Strange Land... Also known as "A Tourist's Tale"

So, I've been doing the tourist thing in lovely Florida with my wonderful grandparents. Yesterday we went out and fed buffalo! As you will notice to the right --> I found the sign posted on the fence rather amusing. We fed the buffalo (I love those things) carrots and sweet potatoes. They liked 'em =). One of the buffalo kept trying to get more, twas quite funny.

And then today we went to Disney World! We went to Epcot, which is the educational part of Disney World. While "educational" might sound dry and boring, I assure you, it was anything but. The first thing we did was go on a boat ride through various ecosystems and then through a greenhouse-type thing. Before the ride started we stood in a line with a wall covered in mother earth propaganda. Made me laugh. Second, we went on the AWESOMEST ride ever. Basically we were astronaut trainees (you can see where this is going) and we were going on a training mission to Mars... There were two different versions of the ride, Green and Red. Green was supposed to be easier, without the spinning and g-force. GG and Pop-o wanted to take Green, so we went on that first. We got tickets and went to stand in line... The line was awesome. On one side of the line there was this big spinning thing--it was in a circle shape (and really big) and had rooms all around the edges. The floors of the rooms were all on the middle, so when the circle spun the rooms whirled around upside down! There were chairs, tables, dishes, treadmills, and equipment stuck to the floors! It was really cool seeing them spin around upside down. And there was a real Apollo-model moon-buggy-thing! It was cool. And considering that the line was long, it was good that it was cool. After we got through the line we were ushered into a waiting room by people in space-like uniforms... Kind of tacky, but very fun. We were put into teams of four, my team obviously consisted of myself, Pop-O, GG, and Kristine. As we waited we watched a video from the guy at the "command center" and the "lieutenant" who told us what we would have to do... Then a guy came in (in one of those uniforms too) and took us in, team by team, inside a room, where we watched another video, and then went inside again.... This time, we got into our little capsules. They were long-ish, about four seats wide, but once you were in your seat you had something right in your face... Anyway, I don't need to describe it all to you...But oh, I want to. Anyway, we got to push buttons, zoom around the moon, and eventually we crash landed on Mars!!! It was so awesome that Kristine and I decided to go back and do orange....Well, we might have gotten more than we bargained for... At first, everything was the same, we got in our capsules, put our personal belongins into a box-thingy in front of us, pulled down our restraints, watched the doors close, watched our control panels pull forward in front of us, and then I noticed something different--this time, the ride was equipped with throw-up bags. I tried to put that out of my mind and concentrated on the viewscreen in front of me as it flickered and I got a perfect view of the blue, cloud-filled sky in front of us, including the long ramp that would give us a perfect lift-off into deep space. Then, I felt the *real* difference. The whole thing started to shake. You would not believe how real it felt! Then suddenly we were blasting forward. It shook, and suddenly I felt an incredible force pushing down on my chest, neck, and head. I could barely breathe because of it! Then I heard our orders being given-- "Pilot..." it was for me--I had to push my button and release the lower part of the shuttle--I reached forward, trying to push the button. I couldn't move my hand forward because of the force pushing back on it! At last, I barely manged to push the button, then we were out in space, and all I saw on my viewscreen was stars. But not for long. Soon we were zooming by a satellite, almost hitting it, and then we saw the moon coming up in front of us. We jerked forward, the whole thing spinning around (I felt nauseous) until we were shooting around the very edge of the moon. We circled it, and then, on our viewscreens, we could see Earth again. Then the orders were given to activate chronic sleep. The engineer pushed a button, everything felt cold, and then everything went black.

"Warning! Warning! Danger!" a red light flashed overhead, instantly giving me a headache. In front of us was a whole field of asteroids! I grabbed my manual control stick and started navigating around the asteroids as the g-force pressed down on me and the shuttle shook from side to side--then we were out of the asteroid field with Mars directly below. We engaged rockets for the landing and started to head down. Then we started to crash! We all navigated towards the field we were to land on, overshot the field, and landed on the very edge of the canyon. Then it was over. We had completed our mission.

Ok, so maybe it wouldn't be very real for a real astronaut, and yes, some of it was very tacky, but it was soooooo fun and for a moment I completely lost myself and was actually out in space on a three-month mission to Mars... Oh, it was awesome. But it was over, so we moved on.

In Epcot, they have different sections for different countries. Each country has lots of shops...heh... We started with Mexico, where we went on a boatride, complete with annoying singing donald ducks. We visited a few of the shops there, and Pop-O and GG bought me a beautiful silver bracelet (Kris got one too, but a different design). We also went to Italy, where I saw the most gorgeous masks; England, where I saw lots of soccer (or should I say, football) stuff; Canada, where we watched a movie; Germany, where I saw the cutest little village (everything was reeeaalllyyy tiny); China, where I bought a gorgeous pair of earrings; Japan, where I saw people making candy-art like they used to have in Cambodia; old America, where we visited the Liberty Inn, where all the staff wore old costumes, and we ate hamburgers for lunch; last of all, we visited my favorite place there...Morocco. One of the shops had all sorts of awesome Egyptian stuff, models of Tut, Neferti, Bast, etc. It was really awesome. GG and I walked into another stop where I instantly saw a little sign saying "Have your name written on a pendant in Arabic." I happen to really like Arabic... So I walked over and felt the little pendant, looking for a price tag. It was $12 for a little pendant with your name written on it... Obviously, I couldn't get one. I sighed and started to walk on when a girl wearing traditional Moroccan clothes walked up to me (she obviously worked there). "Would you like to get your name written on a pendant?" she asked. I really wished that I could say yes. I told her no, I couldn't get one, but it would be awesome... She smiled and asked me what my name was. I told her my name, but that I couldn't get a pendant today. She said something about writing my name on paper. I instantly assumed that she wanted me to write my name on a piece of paper so she could translate it and write it on a pendant like I've done before when getting my name on something. I said something stupid along the lines of "Oh, but I can't get a pendant today." (again, stupid me). She said something along the lines of "No, on paper," walked behind the desk, grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote really quickly in Arabic on it. Then I realized what she was doing. She was writing my name on a piece of paper for me because I couldn't get a pendant! You would not believe how happy I was--I really love Arabic writing. She handed me the piece of paper, I was so surprised! I smiled and said thank you (probably several times--like I said, I was surprised). I was staring at my new treasure when a man walked up (also wearing Moroccan clothes--so he definiely worked there). Seeing me staring at a piece of paper with a big lopsided grin on my face, he naturally asked me what it was. I grinned widely (well, I think I did, I was kind of dazzled by my piece of paper. A very special piece of paper. With my name on it) and told him that it was my name in Arabic. I showed him the piece of paper and he looked at it. "Hmm..." he said, "Jimmie." I grinned, raised my eyebrows and looked at the girl who had written it, "Jimmie?" I asked. Then I couldn't help but laugh, I knew she had written it right. Who mistakes Katherine for Jimmie??? "No," I said laughing, "Katherine!" he laughed too and nodded, "It says Katherine," he said. I smiled, thanked them both, and left the store, clutching my piece of paper with my name on it. Call me slightly obsessive, but I think I worried about losing that piece of paper for the rest of the time there. I think I'm going to have it framed. Anyway... We did several other things at Epcot, but eventually we were ready to leave.

I had soo much fun! And now I'm leaving you all this massive blogpost to read...

Oh yes. Note to self and anyone who cares: Never listen to a really good cd (like Comatose) while reading a really good book (especially ones by Stephen Lawhead). Especially don't listen to the same cd every time you read the book from beginning to end. Every time you listen to the cd it will remind you of the book. If, of course, both the cd and book are good and somewhat seem to go together, this isn't such a bad thing, but then, it can be.

And that, my friends, is all. Oooh, did I mention-- No, you don't want me rambling for another hour. I bid you adieu!

Oh! And I totally forgot to tell you... Oh bother. I forgot what it was...hmm... You guys are probably relieved.

Greetings, Earthling

Well, today I went to a Habitat for Humanity house dedication. It was really awesome--a woman got the keys to her new house, and we dedicated the house to God. It was really a wonderful thing, I'm very glad that I got to see it.

No other big news today, except that I blew a whole bunch of money on iTunes downloads... All American Idol performances, of course. Funny enough, one of my favorite new downloads is Kristy Lee Cook's version of "God Bless the USA." It's a beautiful song. I really am rather patriotic, although it's not a side of me that you see often. And I'm much more likely to be seen singing "I'm Proud to be a Terran" than "I'm Proud to be an American." *cough*

Anyway...that's all for now, folks!

Ducks, Gators, Politics, and Calico Capers--it's Florida!

So I am in Florida with my grandparents! I am having a complete blast.
First of all, there's my grandparent's house...They have a birdfeeder outside. With birds (duh moment there). There are reeeaaalllyyy big cranes with really big beaks! And there are ducks. Lots of ducks. With bright orange beaks =). I love those ducks. Then, of course, there's the politics side of my grandparents... The whole house is like plastered in politics. There's a big sign on their outdoor fridge that says "STOP Senator Hillary Clinton!" which I love, and Dad's been walking around wearing a "McCain '08" pin. I love it!
Second, there's the shopping... So far, in my trip to the US, I have gotten body butter, Skillet: Comatose, three pairs of earrings, an awesome pair of shoes, an extremely comfortable pair of blue jeans, a skirt and shirt to wear to the wedding, and a book, Survivor's Quest, by Timothy Zahn. I is happy.
We've also been doing all sorts of awesome things (other than shopping). Yesterday we went to Homosassa Springs, which is a wildlife park. We took a little boat ride, and then walked around the park. Twas fun! We saw humongous alligators, a hippo, lots of beautiful birds, wildcats, manatees (Barbara Manatee!), and much more. It really was amazing. I got loads of great pics.
We've also just been hanging around the house a lot, taking walks, I've been driving the golf cart a bit (you can legally drive a golf cart when you're 14), etc.
Note to self: NEVER walk one mile on asphalt barefoot. Never. Never again. You will wind up with a giant over-one-inch-long blister on your foot and will have to hobble around on your tip-toes for the rest of the week. Never do it.
Oh yes, then, last night, Kristine, GG, and I went to a little show called Calico Capers. It was kind of a...erm... *thinks of how to describe* Small-town country folk-type-thing. (Abby, I can imagine the accent, and in this case...you might be right). It was quite fun, lots of dancing and singing, there was an amazing violinist with a purple violin, and there were two guys who must have been professional singers at one point in their life, they were *so* good. It was a little odd, in places, because every single actor/dancer was a senior citizen.... But a lot of them were obviously retired professionals, and were quite good. There were four amazing ballet dancers, too. At the end we all stood up and sang "God Bless the USA" a song that I really do love... And goodness knows, the US needs all the blessing it can get.
At the end of the show some guy looked at Kristine and I and said, "Aren't you two a little young to be senior citizens?"
Considering that we were the only people in the room that were not senior citizens, I instantly came back with a wonderful comeback: "Why thank you! We've aged quite nicely, haven't we?"
Ok, so I didn't come up with that comeback until later last night...Ok, so I didn't come up with it at all, mom did. But oh well. I ended up pointing to GG and saying something about visiting. Rather sad.
Anyway, I have had a great few weeks here in Florida... tis fun! But I'm kind of...feeling odd... Dad got offered a job position, but he hasn't taken it yet. I know I should be hoping that he takes it, but... I don't feel anything. I miss Cambodia, yes, but I don't feel like if we stay in the US I will *feel* anything. I just don't. Sometimes I really do think that I must be part Vulcan... But I don't want to be. Ah well...
Anyway, that's all for now! Meow, no more impersonating ;), other peoples, Meow included, posty commentys! I miss you all!

World of Coke

You didn't know that Coke had their own planet, did you? Well, they do.
Ok, so not really.

But they do have their own city!
Or rather, their own building.
Which isn't really a "World."

But we'll let them get away with calling it one, agreed?

Well, my friend, my cousins, aunt and uncle, and other family members and I went to the World of Coke last week. We watched a 3-d movie that involved being splashed with water (real water), knocked out of your moving chairs, and getting jabbed in the back by an *extremely* painful stick-thing. It was awesome.

Oh yes, we also got to look at tons of Coke memorabilia (I know, I know, I spelled that wrong, give me a break), which was fun, and we got to...best of all...drink as much as we wanted of pretty much every beverage that Coke owns! Included among these was various juices, iced tea, root beer, fanta, sprite, coke, cherry coke, vanilla coke, coke zero, diet coke, diet cherry coke, diet vanilla coke, diet vanilla cherry coke, beverly, fruit-fanta, and too many other beverages to list.

I drank waayyyy too much. But it was awesome. I do believe that Brad, Kristine, and me drank almost every drink in the place--and that's a lot. Just trust me on this one, however, NEVER try the Beverly. Never. Never never never. If you value your life you will believe me.

Never.

Piccys for all!

Oh yes, and at the end...I got a free coke! =)

Aaaah

Well, everyone, I am terribly sorry for not posting/e-mailing/anythinging for such a long time...My comp crashed and we lost lots of stuff. For those of you who have e-mailed me and have not gotten a reply, could you please resend? Thanks!

Well...I'm at my grandparents now, having lots of fun. While at my cousins we visited the World of Coke, which was a blast...I'll post about that later with lots of pics. For now, though, I just wanted to say that I'm fine and I miss you all! Sorry there's been so few updates...the computer is frustrating...right now I'm on my grandparents comp. Well, I have to go!

~Manwathiel

The US of A

Well, life in the US has been interesting.

For one thing, I tried a chicken-fried steak and some ochre the other day. Two Texan dishes. The chicken-fried steak wasn’t bad, and the ochre was pretty much tasteless. Not too bad…

Oh, and did I mention that it hailed? Well, there was a storm, and apparently there was hail the size of golf balls falling in some parts of Texas, but where we were the hail was smaller… About half an inch. Caleb ate it. Here’s a pic -->

Well, its still freezing, we’ve been eating good, and we’ve done some shopping. I got some lovely body butter that smells like kiwis (no, not you, Abby, not the bird either, the fruit.), and also got a new awesome Skillet cd, two books—“Tolkien’s Ring,” fully illustrated by Alan LeeJ and “Grail” by Stephen Lawhead—and a t-shirt that says “On the 6th day God created Dinosaurs!” and has a big T-rex on it. So me.

We’ve also been eating lots of luvverly food… strawberries, grapefruit, whoppers, cheerios, etc. Yum yum.

Well, we’re in Arkansas now. It’s gorgeous here, was gorgeous in Texas too. I miss you all back in Cambodia, and I can’t wait to see those of you who I’ll be seeing while we’re in the US!

~Manwathiel