How to cut your hiking supplies' weight in half?

My aunt and I are going on a two week long hiking trip in a couple of days. We will be hiking along the coast of Southwest England, through the wilderness. And we will be carrying everything with us (except for a tent and a sleeping bag).

Since I am not a good hiker at all, I am concerned about the weight on my back quite a lot. Before I would put anything on my packing list, I always weighted several items on my kitchen scale and decided to take only the lightest of things. To my surprise, the weight was still ending up at 12 kg (more then 20 lbs) and that was quite scary. For two months I was thinking of the tiresome travel with these 12 kilograms of 'stuff'.

Tonight, I made a great discovery! I realized that in the 'Grand total' weight, I also included the subtotals... Yes! I am that bad! I don't care though because this has just cut my hiking weight to only little over 6 kilograms. And that is much better than 12 :)

One for Boys, One for Girls...

The American Bicycle

So it happened, I spent a week riding bicycles with my family. As we rode our bikes for 30 K a day, my transmission began to make some funny sounds. My dad tried to fix it (he just didn't see that he was tightening my breaks instead of the transmission wire), but for some reason's to him unknown, it would not get better (well, at least the breaks became more sensitive ;)
Well, so we are riding through this really nice field with flowers around and my transmission keeps clicking without a break. And now my aunts rides up to me and says, 'Why are you changing gears all the time?' Well I did not know I was changing them, in fact they were changing without me doing anything! So, I am explaining this to my aunts and she goes, 'Well, you have to have it the American way, don't you?' So yes, I had an American bike with fully automatic transmission, anybody's jealous?


PS: My dad eventually managed to tighten the right wire one day before the vacation ended.

Nice Blague

So I decided to write something funny in here, well, maybe not really, but I'll try.

So this happened when we went to Monaco on our Nice trip at the end on June. Brandon, Anna, and I went for a walk and all the sudden I saw this bronze statue of woman in a little park, so I jokingly tell Brandon, 'There is someone waiting for you there, Brandon.'
Anna: 'Who is it?'
Me: 'It's that girl over there in the park'
Brandon (after looking at the green statue): 'But she is green!'
Anna: 'She's been waiting for too long...'

Oh well, so i just thought that this could make some people laugh, maybe not... It's short anyways.
:)

J'aime ma classe avec Randi... - The Story of a Roaring Sunflower

Our classes are usually very boring and monotonous. We do the same "fill-in-the-blanks" or "talk-your-teeth-off" over and over again. While many consider this to be a creative and non-traditional way of learning, some (like Randi and I) get done with exercises very quickly and spend over half of our class time in "lalaland".
But, praise God for Randi who not only is an awesome person to live with, but also a fun classmate. We have so far written couple pages of letters to each other, drawn pictures, did a car accident simulation, and couple other things.
Today, however, Randi decided to draw the whole world on one page of paper. After about an hour of drawing, she showed me the picture, pointing at a circle with eyes, smile, and a fuzzy edge.
Randi: What is this?
Me: A sunflower.
Randi: Oh.................do you see the bubble right next to it that says "ROAR"?
Me: Hummmmm............yeah...........is it a ROARING SUNFLOWER?
Laughter....




Correct answer: a lion

Je Vous Souhaite Toute le Bonheur du Monde...

Ref : On vous souhaite tout le bonheur du monde
Et que quelqu'un vous tende la main
Que votre chemin évite les bombes
Qu'il mène vers de calmes jardins.

On vous souhaite tout le bonheur du monde
Pour aujourd'hui comme pour demain
Que votre soleil éclaircisse l'ombre
Qu'il brille d'amour au quotidien.

1. Puisque l'avenir vous appartient
Puisqu'on n'contrôle pas votre destin
Que votre envol est pour demain
Comme tout c'qu'on a à vous offrir
Ne saurait toujours vous suffire
Dans cette liberté à venir
Puisqu'on sera pas toujours là
Comme on le fut aux premiers pas.

{au Refrain}

2. Toute une vie s'offre devant vous
Tant de rêves à vivre jusqu'au bout
Sûrement plein de joie au rendez-vous
Libres de faire vos propres choix
De choisir quelle sera votre voie
Et où celle-ci vous emmènera
J'espère juste que vous prendrez le temps
De profiter de chaque instant.

{au Refrain}

3. Chais pas quel monde on vous laissera
On fait d'notre mieux, seulement parfois,
J'ose espérer que c'la suffira
Pas à sauver votre insouciance
Mais à apaiser notre conscience

Aurais-je le droit de vous faire confiance ?

Des Betises...

Very important that 5cm of the rear tire didn't get rained on...

The smallest & the best coffee I have ever had (Sicilian restaurant)

Plate wider than Heidi

Boys carrying a matress - they just ran through a RED LIGHT!

Ce Que J'ai Appris...

So far I have learned: (list to be modified as I will learn new skills)

1. to eat and intestine filled with something and actually finish the meal.

2. to eat green liver of some unspecified animal

3. to use my laptop as an underwear dryer

4. t0 take pictures with an umbrella in one hand, bag in the second, and camera in the third

5. that not only Washington State can get 14+ days with no sun

6. to drink a small beer in two hours

7. to write the longest e-mails to my friends whom I miss a lot

8. to travel using 6 different lines of Paris metro in one day (intentionally, just in case you wondered :)

9. how to say in French "Can you ride a broomstick?" (Connaisez-vous comment conduir un
manche a balai?)

10. that B-O-T-T-O--------------------M is not a French word

11. that (according to one of the songs) the French strive to free themselves from standing in the
line for the bathroom

12. to eat cow cheeks (yet I could not hide the look in my face - unfortunately)