I was thinking of SSSuper Mario Brothers

Oh boy. You really picked quite a day to check the blog. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I wish you could feel what I'm feeling now. So for those of you who don't know, David Crowder recently broke out of the so-called "boundaries" of worship leading and led the song Foreverandever using a keytar. I've always had a good feeling about using whatever we have for worship. Tin cans, spoons, chairs, whatever goes. But that is another story altogether...

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new and improved Foreverandever Intro! Yes, it is hard to understand what he's saying, but don't you recognize the music? It's Super Mario Bros.! I've grown attached to this particular song over the past few months, and with this cool new intro, I know that it will be stuck in my head for quite a while. Maybe this doesn't make much sense, but it does to me. And I'm having a blast. So if you're not amused by Crowder, his wild hair, the funky keytar, and his awesome incorporation of Super Mario Bros. into Foreverandever, then you can imagine me sitting in my room jammin' along with my own air keytar. And if THAT doesn't make you laugh, then you don't know me. At all. So laugh and sing and dance, forever and ever and ever!

"I'm thinking about eternity and what we'll be doing forever and ever and ever!"

I Ain't Afraid of No Bugs!

While many people back home spend their Saturday relaxing and enjoying the fact that school was out for the summer, I was hard at work half a world away. In this country they call France, there exists rather large creatures known as Bugs. In Georgia, these creatures are not a problem inside your house, because we have invented the screen door to keep them out. When Springtime arrives you can cool off your house just by opening some doors and letting the breeze sweep in. And just in case you don't have a screen door, you can cool your house the expensive way: with A/C. Unfortunately for the French, neither the screen door nor the A/C has been discovered. Well, seeing as how Spring is here and the heat is just around the corner I decided to solve this little problem. I started with the A/C. I know what you are thinking- "I can't believe David and Walter (with all his heat transfer know-how) built an A/C system for their apartment!" Don't worry, we didn't. I copped out and bought a cheap fan. It works great...for circulating the already warm air in the room. Determined not to be beat, I went to work on my next innovation: the screen door.

Walter, Rani, and I headed to a home supply store. We wandered for a while looking for just the right materials to build this door. About an hour later, the three of us sauntered out of the store carrying a nice roll of polymer mesh, some duck tape, and two pieces of 4m pipe (12+ feet each, for those of you who don't do the SI units). With a trusty saw that I borrowed from Dan, we proceeded to build the most beautiful screen door that France has ever seen. It fits perfectly into the outer doorpost. I rearranged my room so that my balcony door could open all the way. It's nice; I can sit on my bed and look out the window onto the Technopole. Last night I spent some quality time just sitting in the cool of the dark, a breeze coming in from the damp night, listening to music from Amistad. It felt like home. Now I just need a bunch of friends, family, and home-made ice cream. And crickets. You can't hear the insects here, just the crows on the island. It's too bad. As you can see, I've got a picture of what the screen looks like. Check it out, and for those of you at home with the friends, family, and ice cream, know that every time you sit out on the porch and enjoy the summer nights, I'll be right there too, just six hours ahead. I'll let you know when the really beautiful nights are coming 

The Beach Boys, Part 2

There are two pictures that are really neat. The first one is the No Diving sign. That's right, there is no diving at this pool.

Here's another picture of us hanging out in the pool. Notice the floating cups? They are glasses filled with our beverages. Who knew glass would float? It was pretty cool.












After the First Annual ALOES Pool Party the pool had to come down. I had moved my bed into Stephen's room and there was no room at all. None. We couldn't even walk around without tripping over stuff and falling. So after having the pool up all weekend, it had to come down. It only took an hour to empty the water and pack everything up. My floor was "mopped" if you will and then the bed replaced and everything back where it was before. I forgot to mention that we recorded our friends' reactions when they saw the pool for the first time. Classic moments in ALOES history. I really can't wait for you to see the video. I'm just not sure how that's going to work. And that, my friends, is the story of the pool. But be warned, you never know when it may appear again...

The Beach Boys

It all started like any other normal day. Stephen and I woke up and needed food. The obvious solution was to go to Cora and pick up the essentials for the weekend. Within an hour we had returned with everythin we needed. Baguette, bread, rice, pasta, sauces of various sorts, cheese, and a swimming pool. Yup, you heard correctly. We bought a pool at the store. Eight feet in diameter and roughly two feet deep. It was quite the deal for a mere 20 euros. We came back to the room and made up a plan, and we thought it up quick. The pool would go in my room for several reasons. First, it was closer to the bathroom, the source of water. Secondly, if something went wrong, it was closer to the bathroom, the fastest way of getting rid of water. Finally, it was better for hiding the pool, since you look right in on Stephen's room when you walk into out apartment. We got to work. We opened the box and spread the pool out on the floor. It was huge. There was hardly enough room to walk around it. We begain filling garbage cans with water from the bathtub and sinks. This was going to take a lot of water. Now, you might be thinking that we are quite dumb
for doing this, but on the contrary, we planned ahead. We calculated the load-bearing ability of the floor and the worst-case scenario: 1.5 inches of water in my room. We felt confident. As we continued to fill the pool, we ran out of hot water. We had to put ice cold water in for over an hour. Man, the pool was going to be cold. They Stephen had a breakthrough. The next thing I knew, pots of boiling water were on the stove, ready to help make the pool a bit more pleasant. The total filling time was right at two hours. It was a lot of water. We turned the heaters on all the way (to make a sauna-like room) and make the chilly water a little more bearable.

Look at us. See how happy we are in our new pool? To be honest, the smiles were forced. That water was some of the coldest water I've ever been in. But the timer on the camera was set and there was nothing we could do but smile and feign joy. Notice the little European bathing suits? Those are standard here in France. You too should get one. The other pictures are from the First Annual ALOES Pool Party. John, Derrick, and Dan (not shown) came down and hung out with us, listening to the Beach Boys, Cake, and a lot of horrible random music that Stephen's computer like to play.

It was so cool. There are more pictures, and some really awesome videos. I'll post the pictures with some details about the taking down of the pool, but you're just going to have to wait until I return to the US to see the video that Stephen is putting together.

That Place Between Sleep and Awake

Today I finished my PFE. An entire semester of work came to an end. I think things turned out well. My temporary grade is 17/20, but that is not certain. I hope it doesn't change much. The day got better as it went along. I borrowed The Da Vinci Code from Sandra and picked up Season 3 of 24 from the library at ENSAM. I'm pretty set as far as entertainment is concerned. But the really odd thing about today is that everyone is leaving tomorrow. Everyone will pack up their belongings and head all over the country for the summer. Yes, there will be some people here. Yes, we will have fun. But the group as a whole has grown so close over the last few months. It will be different without them here.

Sitting here typing this it is late, nearly 2:30 am. The whole day has been surreal. Finishing up projects, last trips to buy kabobs, and one more dinnertable discussion. So much has happened that you should know about, but I haven't had time to write until now. I will start tomorrow, once everyone leaves. There are tales of swimming pools, PFE's, and The Wizard of Oz. Oh, there are many tales to be told. But the best ones are not real. They happen in that place between sleep and awake. That place were all I want to do is be a boy and never grow up. And fly. But for now I'll go to bed listening to the rain, the first good storm of the year, and thinking of that last dinnertable conversation...