Summer Trips

Summer is official over for us here in Seattle as of 5 days ago. You know, the first day of school and all. Yea yea, I know I am not in school anymore but its hard not to go by the quarter system. It just makes sense you know?

Anyway, I took a couple trips this summer. Not just the one to go home. Both were EPA government trips....but I had time for some sightseeing. The first was a week long stay in San Francisco. My first time in northern California much less the famous San Fran. It was alot of fun and reminded me of my solo trip to Biarritz. Same weather and everything...also french kids. But thats another story.

But I just spent my time wandering around the city and saw some amazing sights. It was tight. My favorite areas were China Town and the Docks. Well namely China Town. Aerica was there for a bit when I visited and she and I wandered around their a couple times.

While I was down in San Fran I visited my Aunts Mary and Susie. That was a crazy Italian/Hippy adventure in the redwoods of northern california. I plan to go back for Thanksgiving.

My second trip, the following week was to Oregon. It was an inspection of a facility. Interesting but I realized that file auditing is the most boring thing in the world. Uck....maybe I don't want to be an inspector.


The thing I realized most about this trip though was how flat the land was. It was strangely beautiful to see rolling hills for miles and miles around. I did take this chance to see my favorite childhood memory though. It hasn't changed a bit....


Well thats that. Well there is actually alot more, it is all stored in photos and in my head however. The stuff in my head is a bit difficult to access but the photos are all yours. Make up my adventures as you go along. Just remember to listen to your monkeys and stay away from deer that try to commit suicide.

The Second Game - Before

We have our second game tomorrow.
I have to admit I am scared.

I did well last weekend, for a beginner. But that doesn't mean squat if I screw up tomorrow. I guess I might not as scared if it wasn't such a violent sport...which I love. But my nose still hurts and is swollen...which could mean a number of things. Same with my knees. What if I get a serious injury? Or even worse, become ugly!

Erg...but I really don't care about hurting myself. I am more concerned with failing my team. i really look up to these guys and the last thing I want to do if fuck up. It would be so embarrassing. I mean look at these kids! Fucking around in daisy dukes! They really are a unique bunch.

Well regardless, I am going to try my hardest tomorrow, wish me luck.

(hopefully I will come back in one piece ^_^)

Knee Problems

My knees have been hurting. The pain started with the right when I landed on it getting the fallout sign but has traveled to the left since when I played Thursday. It might have been hurting since the game two Saturdays ago but I was on so many drugs I didn't really notice. Now however I am realizing that it hurts to even bend my knee, and bringing it up to my chest is an experience. Val thinks that I should talk to my doctor, which is a good idea and hopefully I can meet with him sometime this week. In the meantime I am going to ask coach if I should be worried or if I should just be stretching more.

BTW: Happy Birthday Mom!

Contacts

I went to the eye people yesterday and got contacts. It was an interesting experience mostly because I am not used to putting things in my eyes. It kinda freaks me out and I can't stop blinking. Regardless, after a couple of hours I forgot that I was even wearing them and boy they are nice. Its great being able to see signs and the like. The only annoying part is having to take them out. Erg...painful...

Go Rugby! - First Game of the Year

Wow. I am still in pain.

We had our first game of the year last Saturday the 6th. It was interesting. It pretty much started out with the coach saying to me, btw, you are playing as a lock today. Well I have never played lock before so I sucked at it. The pack in general wasn't stable at all and I felt kinda bad but hey, it was my first time. Regardless I had a really fun time, I just laid in bed the entirity of the next day. That could of also been due to the large amount of beer that I consumed that saturday....

In any case, if you are wondering how the match went this is the Refs report...

(Match Report. Referee: David Pelton)

Saturday opened the rugby season for so many teams, players, and referees. The ELVs were in play, the sun was out, and the grass was green – it was a rugby day and a bunch of us were at Marymoor in Redmond, WA for the Microsoft vs. Quake match.

For this preseason match we had rolling subs (with a lack of different jerseys for everyone it means the players listed as scoring below may not always be the same person) and 4 periods (two 30 minutes and two 10 minutes).

Off the opening kickoff, Microsoft controlled possession through a series of fast rucks and then passed the ball out to the backs who belted it downfield. They recovered the ball off the ensuing tackle, and spun it out for the #8 to score 2 minutes into the first period. Five minutes later, the Quake lost one against the head from a 22 meter scrum and it led to the Microsoft blind side flanker scoring. Neither conversion was good, but Microsoft was up 10 – 0.

The last score of the period came at the 26 minute, when a Quake lineout was stolen and the ball was swung out to the backs. The inside center broke through the defensive line and touched down under the posts. This conversion was slotted by the flyhalf to make the score 17 – 0 going into the first break.

The second period saw Microsoft score five tries all by the back row. They stole Quake ball at the tackle from the period kick-off and within three phases the open side flanker touched down. The Quake responded back when a quick tap penalty against Microsoft for not releasing resulted in a 80 meter converted try. The captain made a break through a Microsoft tackle and then took it the rest of the way, juking the fullback at the 22 before going in standing up.

Ten minutes later there was a push over try that the #8 touch downed. Four minutes later there was another scrum move with all three back row players involved in the pick and subsequent series of passes down the weak side from 22 meters out with the open side flanker get the glory. With ten minutes left in the half, the open side flanker picked off a Quake pass intended for a misdirection move and then sprinted the 50 meters to score under the posts. However, it was the score near the touch line by the blind side flanker after multiple phases that brought the only successful conversion by the flyhalf. With 60 minutes gone it was 44 – 7.

The Quake wanted to keep going to get in a full 80 minute day, and having plenty of subs the older Microsoft players agreed. Microsoft spread the scoring a little more in the third period, the outside center scored two minutes in when he stripped the ball from a maul started by the Quake, rolled out with the ball and touched down for a converted try. At the six minute mark the scrumhalf had a try when the 8 man popped a pass after picking up from a 5 meter scrum. The winger also got a try at the end of the period when the ball was spun wide after a loose phase. 61 – 7 Microsoft.

The last period ended with three more tries, two of which came from a rather large, fast inside center for Microsoft. He scored 4 minutes in when ran right up the middle and over a couple players and ended the scoring at full time with a repeat performance. Only the first try was converted despite them both being under the posts. A try was scored between those when a second row was hanging out in the back line and the ball was spun wide, he had a series of good give and goes with other players before touching down.

The day ended in good spirits despite the final score being 78 – 7 Microsoft.

My Bag

I forgot to mention that I lost/forgot my bag last friday. That new one that I bought it madison. It had my wallet in it but I really dont care about that. What I am really annoyed at is that I had my journal in it as well. The one that I have been writing in since france? The one that I was going to use to update this blog? Yea. If only I got off my ass and did it when I was supposed to. Oh whatever, too late now. This just means I am going to have to do my all of my french trips over again. Oh well.

picasa or flicker?

Its Crazy!
I got bored and instead of playing video games I started messing with my blog!
Oh me oh my!

First thing first, I need to get an entire years worth of pictures off of Flicker and onto my computer. I could copy and paste directly from Flicker but I kind of want the pictures on my hard drive. And a CD when things get ucky wouldn't be bad.

$36 later I have a CD....dam Flicker....

So now I am wondering, since Blogger already uses Picasa maybe I should just re-load my pictures onto that site? Or at least the ones I am currently collecting. The interface doesn't seem as fancy and I cannot seem to download the pictures back onto my comp, but at least its free....for now.

Oh what a dilemma.

But at least this means that I am starting to blog again!

Soon the past adventures of Tristen will arrive!
Woot!

On arriving home...

Mon dieu!

I forgot how huge my house is! There are literally four rooms that my parents do not use! Crazy huh?

Well unfortunately I am going to be unable to utilize the facilities of this house to its fullest extent because I still have to do finals...dang it!

Well wish me luck and I will hopefully remember to post pictures tomorrow.

-Tris

well darn...

...its february 28th of 2008 and I do not think I have updated this since last year.

I apologize.

Well as one would expect alot has happened since then, most of which I recorded in my journal. But unfortuantly I haven't updated my journal since summer. Which is funny because that was apparently also the same time I started dating Marko.

Oh Marko. That was five months of me pretending to be happy but oh well whatever. It was a learning experience. I will have to write about him later.

But, in the meantime, since I am grounding myself this weekend I think i will start backlogging what I have done in the last year.

....this is going to take a bit...

i love this video...but it makes me sad...

Dream Journal - 1:1

Last nights dream was weird.

It started out, I think it started out like this, I had a lover, a girl, who was overseas and was like married to some duke or some important guy in France. She was going to come back to the states after 4 years but she decided to spend another year over there, and do some work in Spain. She is famous, everyone loves her. But her best friend and I want her back. The best friend got really really mad when she heard this, especially since we heard it at the amphitheater ( i think that is where people go to hear news). After hearing that I started walking up the hill (think capital hill) to go home, on my way however I saw this really really beautiful girl closing her shop down. I decided to take a chance and I walked over to her while she was outside putting away her shops sign. I told her she was really beautiful. She smiled. I told her that I really want to hang out with her and if it would be ok if I gave her my number. She said yes, so I fished around for a pen and a scrap of paper. I ended up using the back of a receipt, how romantic I thought. She didnt seem to care and I left waving. A little while later she called me, she wanted to know if I wanted to go to the amphitheater with her tonight. I said yes and I met her there a couple of hours later. After finding her sitting near the top I put my stuff in the lockers near us, the top left ones. And sat down next to her. She was still smiling. We watched the show.

Later on I had a certain feeling, that I should go check on my stuff, so I went up then down to the the lockers. There was nothing there! Everyones shit was gone. And on the way down I saw a couple of kids running up with a bunch of stuff. I was pissed. I ran after them then detoured to the stage. Grabbed the mike from the girls hand and told everyone that we just got robbed. Only a couple of people believed me. I don't know if my date did or not, I ran after the thieves.

It was raining, I never found them, but I did find a bike, I donut think I stole it though. I was sad and depressed, all my crap was in that bag, including my keys. I couldn't go home. I ended up sleeping under a tree.

The next day when i woke up it was still raining. I was still sad. I ended up biking through the waterfront district and stopped at this yoga place. Don't know why but I saw that there was a class starting soon so I went in and the desk guy showed me where to go. Once I got there the yoga lady looked at me and asked me if I wanted to join. I wanted to but realized I couldn't because I had no money. So I said no, she gave me a puzzled look, along with everyone else in the class.

And then things shifted. The class and I were in the forest, next to a small stream. I think we were playing with miniature boats. It was fun, we were enjoying ourselves. Plus the light through the canopy made everything really really pretty. I was sitting alongside a moss ridden bank when I saw another small boat come down stream. It was a blue sailboat, a boat that I would like to have. in it however there was a small boy....a really small boy. For some reason this didn't strike me as weird, but whatever. We asked him if we could take a picture of him and his boat next to ours. He was happy and said yes. Unfortunately before we could a strong surge dragged them both down river. We chased after them. In the chase I realized that I should take my cell phone out of my pocket so it wouldn't get wet. This is when I realized that I didn't have to worry anymore, I realized I had my keys and everything I wanted was at my house. Nothing was stolen.

Thats when I woke up.

Weird huh?

lunch - with un aildour paste

Do you remember how last night I made the paste from the aildour leaves? Well today I bought a baguette and some St. Marcellen (my newfound favorite type of cheese) and went to the Ile d'Amour, which is the parc that I walk through everyday to get to school, and had a little picnic.
It was really nice and it felt great to eat something that I made myself. Which by the way is really good and has a galic flavor. I think that I am going to look for more when ever I am out walking around. I wish I took a picture to remember what they looked like but it is ok because the smell is quite reconizable.

KEXP

I just found out that I can get a touch of home while I am out. KEXP (my favorite radio station) is available over the internet so now when I go to the computer lab I can listen to it or even NPR even though I am in France! Cool huh!

laundry....

So I tried this morning to do my own laundry this morning...

I hope i did a good job.....as you can see its alittle complicated but my clothes dont look messed up....

well....whoops

So.... I kinda lost the little cord that connects my camera to the computer. I still have all my pictures but no way to transfer then to flicker or anything...

Sorry. But do no fret, I will figure something out soon though.

Haagen-Dazs

As a fun thing to do I have decided to take a picture of every Haagen-Dazs store that I see in my travels even if I don't go to them just because I love ice cream and it is something fun to do.

i hate you dollar!

While I was wandering around Dublin I saw this on a bus.
It says "Shop while the dollar drops." if you can't read it.

I just about cried....dam you dollar dam you...

Dublin!

Wow, do I have a lot to say but regardless I will make this short cause I'm lazy and pictures are so much easier.
Anyway, this last week, I went to Dublin with Alicia for 6 days and we had a blast!

Saturday 17th-

We Arrived at our hostel and found out that for our first night we were upgraded to a private room with no extra cost! Look we even have a kitchen!
Sunday 18th-

After going to the Tourism office we went and took a nap at Trinity College...just ignore the finger k?
We then precceded to wander around for a bit.Later I ran into Dan, a classmate from high school (very odd to meet him here), and we ended up going over to his new hostel and having a couple of drinks with him in his friends. It was fun because he filled me in on all the gossip of whats going on with our other classemates.

Monday 19th-

We tried to go to the Chester Beatty Library but it was closed. So instead we wandered around the Dublin Castle, got some coffee at starbucks, and came back to the hostel to watch Lost before going to bed.

We did take some time to do a quick visit to Dvblinia (dont ask) on the wander though.
Tuesday 20th-

Today we went on a day tour of Wicklow and Glendalough. Places in the country south of Dublin and as you can tell it is really pretty. I don't know the exact names of the places we went but Alicia does and I can get the info from her later.



Wednesday 21st-

Today we actually went to the Archeology Museum. While we were there I got bored so I sat in on a lecture called 'The Broighter Hoard: blah blah blah'. It actually was quite interesting and was about the fun stuff they find in the bogs from way back, like iron age way back. It is pretty cool.

Afterwards I went for a long long long walk around and ended up near the docks. I really liked it but passed out when I got back to the hostel.

Later that night we went to a bar with some other girls from the hostel to see Irish dancing.

Then we all went to the Temple Bar, a famous tourist bar in Dublin, because we figured that if we are going to be in Dublin we might as well. I had my first real Guinness there. I have to say it was quite good. You can see it in the center of the table.Thursday 22nd-

We actually went to the Chester Beatty Library today and looked around at the religious documents it had from most of the major religions of the world. It was cool and quite educational.

After the museum we left for the airport and came back to grenoble! I was so glad to get back because I was starting to get sick and that is never good.

Good bye Dublin....

Valentinstag

hier was weird...
I knew it was going to be weird when I was sitting in my 'Histoire du Cinema Français' classe et all of a sudden the end of the film was in German subtitles. As many of you know I took german in highschool and can still read and understand some of it (its an easy language), so imagine my surprise when I had to watch a movie in french but kept reading along with what they were saying in english! I knew I was going crazy when the french and the german combined in my head to form english...it gave me such a headache.

le Hiver vacance

So I think Alicia and I finnally confirmed our plans for Dublin.
We are going to be leaving this Saturday and taking a flight directly to Dublin and then hanging out in a hostel for 5 days untill we come back on thursday night.
Still don't know how I am affording it but I will figure that out when I get there.
Oh and I will definently bring back pretty pictures for everyone to enjoy!