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good times indeed

so I am here the night before I fly out from Tel Aviv to Cairo and my heart is full. In the last couple of days I’ve been able to visit some places that I am still in awe about. Places like Gethsemane, the Garden Tomb, and Bethlehem are not places that one would normally expect to see in their lifetime. It’s been an interesting range of feelings too as each day continues. I’ll write more on this later, but sufficeth to say, standing where something great happens does very little for me, but working to wrap my mind around a principle or concept in a concerted fashion has opened my mind to some great insights and thoughts which I’ve been consistently journaling. So after a Christmas in the Holy Land, I’m loving life. Jerusalem, and Israel as a whole, has really grown on me. I’ve spent quite a bit of time away from the groups and such (as me and Mikale are pretty much on our own most of the time) I’ve gained a small appreciation for their preservation of, and adherence to, many of their customs and nuances that make them a unique people. I would love to make my way back here again someday.

But that is today, off to Cairo in the morning. The adventures will continue. Stay tuned.

whew

So everything is fine with the car yada yada, here’s the run down…

First, driving in israel is truly an art, with everything being a bit ridiculous, people swerving into oncoming traffic, people jumping out in front of you and so on. So we rented the car and went to Galilee, were touring around and went to Capernum and to the mount of Beatitudes, etc, and then went to Nazareth, which really gave me a run for my money driving wise. Then on the way back, we’re parked at a stoplight with a lady in front of us and the rain was pouring, and I look in the rear view mirror just in time to see this guy plow us. So i go into the lady in front of us, our car is totalled, and needless to say, we didn’t make it to the mount of transfiguration… dang. But I had a couple of arabs who knew no english to deal with and work out insurance details. Merry Christmas indeed. In other news, we feel fine, a bit whiplashed, but nothing crazy, and after a nights sleep, we’re doing great (this is the next day, I put in the 7 hour delay between posts to build exitement. I’ll write more about seeing jerusalem, and the antonia fortress, and the temple mount, and so on later…. love you!

well shoot

Got in car wreck…. STOP

All is fine…. STOP

I’ll give you details when I can…. STOP

Bakor Tov

Well, merry Christmas, this very moment I am sitting at a hotel in Ein Geve Israel, which is right on the sea of Galilee, and thought I’d take a second to wish you all a merry christmas.

I am doing great, and stuff here is amazing. I’m in awe that I am really here, wondering the old city, haggling with arabs over lunch prices, etc. I am loving it.

Anyway, all is well, time is short. Today I goto the sites around the sea (mount of beatitudes, mount of transfiguration, capernum, Taberius, etc.)

I’ll try to keep in touch,

Enjoy

24601

so I’m in England, just accross the pond, if you will. And let me tell you, international flights have restored my faith in airline customer service. Food was great, people were great, etc.

But anyway, London is great. Heathrow is a disaster of an airport, but the city is amazing so far. Love, love, love hearing the accents all around and such. We got in and rode the metro into town,

and are staying with some friends right downtown, so that’s fun.

But yeah, haven’t done a whole lot yet, went and wondered around trafalger square and listened to carolers out (see below),

then wondered around town a bit to see the lights and the fun.

The highlight of day one though was definitely seeing Les Miserables on the stage in London. Fantastic. Seriously, I don’t know if I just haven’t seen it in forever, or if it really has gotten dramatically better, but it is such a powerful story and the music is great. Cool thing here is that all the accents are real too.

Anyway, I’ll post as I can and keep you up to speed on the adventures.

Merry Christmas!

the last train to clarkesville

so I’m off tomorrow (today) on my big adventure. It’s not coming at a very opportune time for me, but all the same, I am looking forward to it. The itinerary is to fly to London, spend a few days there, fly on to Jerusalem and surrounding israeli areas through christmas, then do new years in egypt and make it home in one piece.

Upon my return home I’ll be moving to Toronto to pursue business interests with my old buddy Mifsud, so I’m very excited about that. I’ll be heading over under NAFTA so we’ll see how long that lasts.

Also, I will be changing my phone number for the first and only time ever, I’ll be moving everything over to Skype, but I’ll mess with that come the new year. So big things are a brewing.

While I’m away, I am purging some of my pics I’ve been meaning to put up on doangang.com to make room for the new ones to come, so for at least the next three weeks, you get one a day. Enjoy them. – doangang.com

Send me notes via email, I love them, or just post on here, and I sincerely wish everyone a merry Christmas. Enjoy it, life is good.

oh brah, where you stay?

So I figured I’d give ya’all a quick update on life as I currently know it. So here goes –

When I took the job I am now currently in, I moved to the LA area, or more specifically the Orange County area to live with the old buddy Geoff. Initially it was a tough move for me, as California was a difficult adjustment for me when I was really looking for something different after being in Hawaii for three years and California is different only in that it lacked the local charm and backwoods close proximity of the north shore. So I wasn’t expecting to enjoy myself a whole lot, but honestly I figured life could definitely be worse so I wasn’t complaining.

So it came as a bit of a surprise to me this last week, as I was told by my work I needed to relocate in an eastern direction and I packed up to move, how genuinely attached I’d grown to the area and my friends there. It’s rare to find people that accept you as whole heartedly as my friends did down there, and honestly I feel like I was just getting to know many of them. And despite my tendency to chase adventure on every front which elicits frequent moves, leaving friends has never become easy for me. It was a relatively empty drive Wednesday as I left, and I’m more motivated than ever to settle down and put some roots in somewhere. Even as a single guy, stability is a bit appealing eh’?

What then am I doing you might ask? So the plan is to move out east, maybe Boston, maybe DC, maybe anywhere, I’m still deciding, but that’s where I’m headed, sometime in the fall. But Geoff was already off to school again, so the housing situation needed attention, and my solution was to go on a road trip of buddies and friends until I decide to move out east. So I have about 2 months, and right now I’m back up with some Utah buddies, hanging out in Provo now, gonna go drive support car at the Latoja Classic for a Etherington (a 206 mile bike race across 3 states, pretty sweet) visit some old EFY chums, then roll on with a few musts as I make it back across the US (and I’m open to suggestions if you have anything you feel should be on the list)

Yellowstone

Mt Rushmore

Gettysburg (currently reading Killer Angels and I must see)

That’s all I have on the must see list right now, but I’ll have plenty of time I reckon, so give me some suggestions.

Anyway, that’s where I am. Miss my Orange County family out there, and am especially grateful for the friendships they extended to this lil ole missoura farm boy. I continue my nomadic journey, and will keep you posted on how it goes. Much love and aloha.

beauty tip #412

when you are flying and the airport security takes away your mousse, you can just use the body lotion left in your hotel room. A generous application, worked in thoroughly will give body to the hair while leaving it silky smooth. Good two days in a row, though the third day it gets a bit sketchy.

-the beast

for all those times…

whew.

Like many of you, life has been crazy lately for me. Last we spoke, I was sitting in a Chicago hotel room still relatively unsure where I’d be when Friday came and I either had to use my return ticket to Hawaii or go back to Missouri, with really no idea of where I’d end up after that. So let me catch you up from there…
Continue Reading…

mmmm delta

so I am finding the good side of flying for the first time ever today. I sit in LAX and saw my name on the upgrade list, and being as cheap as I am went up there to get it taken off when the lady informs me “but sir, you’re a medallion member, you’re automatically put on the upgrade list for EVERY flight” “free?” I ask “of course” and so it is. The perks of flying 50,000+ miles a year, I might finally get some leg room.