I miss...

Friday night Watchtower study with David and everyone

Long service days with the old Oviedo gang

Tuesday night evening witnessing

Hanging out at High Five For Justice band practices, and hearing the same 3 songs every week

5am beach trips to surf at sunrise

Scavenger hunts

Bonfires at Kelly's

Linkin Park screamfests at the Rodriguez' house

Tijuana Flats

Manhunt and Capture The Flag in the round-about

Making stupid movies with friends

Singing Angels and Airwaves while driving aimlessly with my brother, Reuben

Basketball at the Thompson's park

Having no plans and hanging with Diego and Kelly

Sunday night ultimate frisbee, and watching Greg destroy a trash can to make a catch

Sunday soccer every week no matter what!

Donatos pizza

FYE at Oviedo Mall

Recording music with Melea

Gaidens short story blog

Open Mic at Bill's Elbow South, and all the conversations and happenings that occurred there

Friday morning service with Eric

Nighttime sardines at my house

Capture the flag with my sisters when we were little

Making movies and town with my cuz'n Nicole

...and a million other memories.

Bolton - Night

Eliz

Williston

day one - explosions in the sky

Low-Latent Inhibition

Currently fascinated with it.

Doodles

- Posted from my iPhone

NYC - Day 10 & 11

The trip home.

We took a taxi to the station. Our train left Pennsylvania Station at 3:15 PM.

The passengers from New York were quite different from when we got on in Orlando. These passengers were more normal, I would say. And plus, there was an entire girls college softball team traveling to Orlando in our car, so that was pleasant :-)

We watched Lost In Space. I hadn't seen that movie in years. Reuben slept a lot. I watched about 5 episodes of Jericho Season 1 before going to sleep. I woke up on and off throughout the night. I was more restless on the trip home.

The trip home felt very short. We got into Orlando at 12:45 PM today. Melinda picked us up and brought us home.

We had dinner at Tijuana and then headed to the theater to see Battle: LA.

After that I drove Reuben back to Melbourne. When we were on 520 E we caught the Delta IV rocket launch of the USA spy satellite "Gryphon." It looked stunning; right at sunset.

And our vacation came to a close. It was fun.

NYC - Day 9

Our last day in the city. We didn't do much. We slept in, Reuben did some homework, watched some TV, his Grandma made dinner, and then we went to the meeting at the Kingdom Hall at 730.

The meeting was awesome. It was the final study in the "Follow the Christ" study book. One of the talks on the TMS was about the Greek word pro‧sky‧ne′o, it's meaning and use in the scriptures.

Then a brother who is an engineer at Bethel gave a talk about how to have sound, logical scriptural discussions. He recounted to us an experience he had talking to a student and how he used a series of scriptures to teach him.

The East Elmhurst Congregation was very warm, as all congregations prove to be. We enjoyed the evening there.

On the walk home we stopped in to Dunkin' Donuts to get some coffee and a snack, then headed home. Reuben played video games with his cousin and I hung out with them and surfed the web.

It was a relaxing last day.

NYC - Day 8

We woke up around 8 and got ready for service. The Kingdom Hall is about a 10 minute walk down on 92nd Street in Queens. There were 9 of us out in the ministry. After the group met the brother who drove stopped by a few sisters' homes to pick them up, then we headed to the territory, which was near LaGuardia - just to the West of it.

The territory was reminiscent of door-to-door in Zurich a few years ago; each building housed about 6 apartments and you rung one bell after another at the same house. We met people from several different nationalities. We met one young man who we semi-woke up and who was leaving for Frankfurt that day. He wasn't very religious, nor interested, but he was nice and told us he had several family members who who Witnesses. We finished service around noon and then headed home to grab my camera before heading to Brooklyn Bethel.

A sign at one of the buildings

We got to Brooklyn Bethel around 130 and took a tour. The other family in our group was from Greece and the young man in their group translated for the rest of the family. The father in the group told how he had been in jail for 4 years along with other brothers in Greece years ago for his faith. Our tour guide responded to this: "Thank you." That made me smile.

Our tour guide was very nice. She was a sister named Muriel. She had been there for over 15 year, and had gone to school for dental hygiene. Hence, Reuben got talking with her a bit about that. At one point during the tour, the Greek family met up with a brother they knew in construction and building development who showed them around the construction part of the tour. Obviously, it was in Greek, so while we waited Reuben, Muriel and I sat down and talked for a bit.

While we were walking a brother walked by who caught Reuben's eye and then mine. It was Steve Grow. He and his wife were serving at Bethel for a few months.

Steve, Reuben and I

We had a great time there and I took a lot of pictures; I will post a few below.

After the tour we walked around down by the water for a bit and then got some coffee at a shop across the street from Bethel. We headed across the Bridge after and Reuben had fun joking about it as the Cloverfield filming location. Once we crossed into Manhattan we sat in a small park and people-watched and talked about how many people had approached us for directions since we had been in NYC. We contemplated giving wrong or increasingly difficult directions for fun. But that would just be evil... :-)

Around 630 we headed back to Brooklyn to the Bossert Hotel to meet up with the Lydia, Aly, Jenny and Alissa. We went out to dinner with them and 2 brothers from Bethel, one of which was a friend of the Thompson's. We ate at JOYA, a Thai place that I recognized from other peoples photographs in the past. Enjoyed some good conversation with both the guys about spiritual goals, serving in the congregation, and the lessons they had learned in their first 8 months at Bethel. After dinner we headed to the former printery buildings and crossed over to the residential floors to hang out in their room for a bit.

Unfortunately, the buses stop running at midnight and several train routes had been closed for maintenance, so by the time we got back into Queens we had to walk home from Roosevelt Ave to 99th, which took about 40 minutes. I think we finally got home at 2 am. Then I had homework to do.

Our group

Original MEPS

Awards won for our videos

Note the Watchtower without the title...

Cultural differences in the Awake!

Abyssing of the Dragon

What Happened to the Dinosaurs?

NYC - Day 7

Q49 to F-train to Lexington Ave then 5 train uptown to E 180th. About a 45 minute trip to the Bronx where we headed to the Zoo.

Walking from the station to the zoo we encountered this informative sign:

The Zoo was huge. Most of the animals were inside for the winter still, but we saw the Snow Leopards, Polar Bear, African Wild Dog's, Gorillas, Giraffe and much more. Zoo closed at 430 so we then headed to downtown Manhattan.

We stopped by the WTC site and walked around for a few minutes. It was around 530 when we got there. It felt surreal. My mind kept seeing those images of the street and air filled with dust and debris as people ran away covered in ash. Streets looked familiar and the area was oddly quiet despite many people, cars, and construction vehicles moving about. 10 years and everyone you passed by in the area had that look in their eye like they new exactly what they were walking past. You can't help but notice the void in the city skyline as you walk by.

Next, we hopped back on the Uptown 1 back to Canal St. where we walked through Chinatown. We stopped for dinner at a place off a side street. I had roast duck and roast pork over noodles. Yum! After dinner we walked all over the area; in and out of souvenir shops, fish markets, and Chinese grocers.

Octopus Jerky??

And finally, some roasted duck... Quack! Quack!

To top the day off we watched Cloverfield back home for the 100th time. It's always good. Except this time we recognized every location in the film, which was cool.

Service and meeting tomorrow. Bethel on Wednesday. Night.

NYC - Day 6

It rained all day. We had planned to go snowboarding. We had our bus tickets to the mountain but we found out the night before the slopes were going to be closed due to the rain.

I slept in and woke up around noon. We headed out around 1 to 86th and Lexington in Manhattan to exchange something Reuben purchased at Radio Shack. After we headed to Union Square and stopped in a coffee shop to relax, warm up and get out of the rain for a bit.

Reuben's uncle and two cousin's, Hillary and Brianna, met us around 730 and we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Queens. Dinner was delicious! After me drove the girls back to their moms place then his uncle dropped us back at the house.

It was a simple and relaxing day.

NYC - Day 5

We woke and headed out around 10 to Central Park. It was a very warm day; probably around 50 degrees, sun shining.

We walked just about the entire park. I had my frisbee and we brought a ball so we played catch for a while. My sister had headed to the city in the morning to go on a Bible tour at the Met so I was in touch with her throughout the day so could meet up with them when it ended.

At 2 we met Elizabeth, Lydia, Aly, Jenny and Alissa at the Met. I had not seen Elizabeth in a few months, but it seemed much longer. I had talked to her 2 weeks ago on the phone about life and changes that were going on with hers, but even in that short period a lot was different; like she had moved into her own apartment in Greenwich - where I was born. I miss my sisters a lot. I always love talking with them.

So the 7 of us got lunch at a stand and then walked around the park for a few hours, with me pulling out my Polaroid camera every once in a while for a picture, which my sister found humorous and archaic. Starbucks, FAO Schwartz, bubba Gump and a few blocks later and we found ourselves in Times Square around 6 which was fun. We all hung out there for a bit, had a snack, took pics and then headed out around 8.

Reuben and walked Elizabeth back to Grand Central where she caught her ride back to her car in CT.









Later, we headed back to Queens where we stopped by his uncles house to see Hillary and Brianna. Hil hung out with us for a few hours back home, had dinner, watched some old cartoons on Boomerang, chatted and then walked her home around 11.

It was a fun, long day, and our feet were killing us at the end. A good day with family and a few good friends.

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:31st Ave, Queens, New York, United States

NYC - Day 4

Woke up late at around 10 this morning and finished my HTML homework and quiz online, submitted it, then got out of bed. We got ready quickly and headed out around 11, took the bus and train to Brooklyn to go climbing at BKB.

Brooklyn Boulders is a very cool place. It has about as many top rope walls as Aiguille, but it has sooo much more bouldering. Every wall and nook of the place is for bouldering. It is a newer place, and they decked it out with graffiti and such to try and give it an authentic feel. There is definitely something to say about the employees lack of communication with customers regarding their safety policies, though... Aiguille beats them on that front. But that's another story.

At 4pm we left and headed back towards Manhattan to get bus tickets at the Port Authority for snowboarding on Sunday. On the way back we stopped at York Street and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, then took the train to Penn Station. Walking out of Penn we asked a cop for directions to 40th St., which she kindly gave, and as we walked away we came upon a group of guys arguing and completely taking up the whole path. I was already right on top of them as it started to escalate so I tried to push past quickly to avoid anything. As I did I got pressed against the wall by one of them unknowingly and noticed one of them was interested in opening some cardboard boxes... Yeah, we moved quickly after that... The cop didn't even seem to notice them.

Pizza and Panini's for dinner. The waitress at the place was cute, and mentioned to Reuben about the creepy guy in line before us, and how he had tried some stupid one-liners on her before and stuff. He seemed like the type that goes there all the time just because of her, but in a creepy way. He looked like 40. The girl was in her 20's. I'm sure she gets that a lot.

After we saw The Adjustment Bureau at the AMC Loews. It was interesting and pretty good, though definitely did not live up to the quotes on the trailers that it is "better and more thought provoking than Inception." This movie was good, but it had to narratively state its message at some points throughout the film, whereas Inception was brilliant enough where everything it portrayed and made you think about came naturally and by perception. So whoever originally said that quote was an idiot.

Home now. Watched some Whose Line? and Family Guy with Reuben, and now I'm off to sleep. Headed to Central Park tomorrow.