Grainne in Denver

Hello everyone! I miss you all heaps.

Denver is beautiful, but I am not really doing anything very exciting. I was interning for Q's aunt, but she just hired me so now I am a full time editorial assistant, which basically means I get paid and have a fancy title. Basically, I'm writing activities for both gifted and talented and at-risk middle schoolers; while this isn't terribly exciting, it's definitely interesting.

I also just got back from spending a week in New York City! Somehow, I managed to pick the week that New York was ravaged by a record breaking heat wave. After living through that, I'm not sure that I'll be able to survive east coast humidity. Tucson's dry heat is infinitely superior. Apart from the heat, New York was amazing! So many awesome museums, one beach plus amusement park, a few bicycle rides, great food, and, most importantly, a fantastic roller derby game, not to mention some excellent thrift shopping--can you say cashmere J Crew sweater for $6?

I hope the all of your summer's are full of excitement and relaxation!

From Germany with Love

It feels so weird to be writing one of these again, but since I've been having adventures I feel like now I can finally contribute.

So as you all probably know I got to spend the last month in wonderful Deutschland and if you're friends with me on facebook, you'll also know that I've been having quite a bit of fun.

I started my trip in Erlangen with my dad (he stayed for the first 9 days so he could attend my great aunt's 80th birthday party). We stayed in Herzogenaurach (a tiny little town in the country side, mostly known for its enormous Adidas and Puma outlets) with my three beautiful friends Kerstin (my age), Berit (the one who came to America three years ago) and Meike (the awesome rock climber and slackliner). Kerstin is my age and the other two have already moved out so I mostly spent all my time with Kerstin. We only stayed for a few days before we went to Mannheim for a week (but my dad left half way through). In Mannheim I stayed with some very close friends Tim (my age), Sonja (Gordon's age) and Katrin (older and living in Freiburg). I had a ton of fun with Tim and Sonja (I only got to visit Katrin once), we played a lot of soccer and volleyball, I did some yoga with Sonja, I went to school with Tim twice (the first time happened to be on the day of their senior prank), and Tim and I watched the World Cup with 5,000 other people in a hot little tent and then jumped in a fountain with a few hundred other people afterward. Then I took a four and a half hour train ride back to Erlangen for another week. Other than getting kicked out of first class and almost missing my train connection, I think I did pretty well.

Being with Kerstin and her sisters again was so much fun! We cooked, went to bars, slacklined, went to festivals, shopped, watched I Love You, Man, and went swimming and tanned (well some of us got really REALLY bad sunburns). I met so many fun people that I am now friends with on facebook and talk to all the time, and getting to experience the nightlife of the town was pretty cool. About a week ago I took another train to Augsburg, this time I came insanely close to ending up in the completely wrong city but I managed to figure out I was on the wrong train and get on the right one just in the nick of time.

I am now staying with my aunt and uncle who live very near the center of the city so every time they have to work I can wander into downtown which is awesome. My aunt and uncle felt bad that I didn't have anyone my own age to hang out with so my uncle asked his college with a daughter my age if she could spend some time with me on Friday night. I admit I was a little bit reluctant to agree to being set up with a stranger for the night (after all my aunt and uncle are pretty cool so I was content to stay with them). However, the night turned Julia and I (and her friend that came with us) into very good friends and was probably one of the greatest adventures I had on the entire trip (if you want me to elaborate, see me in person) and I was ultimately very glad I agreed to go. Today Julia and I hung out and went shopping for her graduation dress and her friend told me that when I come to Germany again I should stay with her for a while. It's such a great feeling to make these international connections!

Anyway, now I'm supposed to be packing my bags because tomorrow I leave for Frankfurt to stay with my dad's cousin for one night, then I'll be on my way home! I can't wait to see you guys, I really have been thinking a lot about you all (in fact, I've seen German doppelgangers for many of you) and maybe someday I'll cook you guys some German food! See you soon! XOXOXO

Rita

We celebrated Christina's 18th birthday

At Club Congress after Second Saturdays downtown. Bigger room this time and it was a lot of fun.

Bicycles, Backpacks, Thumbs, Mountains and Canyons

Summer is great. I feel like I am taking a gap year given that I haven't been in school for five months, and I won't return for another two and a half...
As Brian mentioned in his previous post, I took a large group of people camping up in the Pineleno mountains a few weeks ago which was a lot of fun. We played horseshoes, sat around campfires, and had some awesome jam sessions.

When it was time to go, I got dropped off in Safford where I started my next journey: hitchhiking to Canyon de Chelly just below the four corners. I had my bicycle, but it was more of a secondary form of transportation given that I had three days to get to the canyon (I was meeting some friends from California there). The first day was really hard, which was my fault. I decided I wanted to take route 191 all the way north to canyon, which proved to be a poor decision, given that I only saw maybe 8 cars on my first day. This made getting a ride really tough, and I only made 30 of the 370 miles I had to go. Luckily, the next two days, my luck turned around and I made some awesome time. On top of that I got to ride up the part of hwy 191 that I was supposed to come down on my last bicycle journey. This was an exceptionally beautiful area packed so tightly with aspen you could hardly see the sky. Day three I made it to the canyon by 10 in the morning. I met up with my friends that afternoon and through a series of really lucky events I ended up backpacking into the canyon that night. A few days later my friends left and I headed home, taking a different route, that took me through Flagstaff. It took me two days to get home.

Over the 4th of July Sean C., Sean S., and myself decided to climb Mount Wrightson where we could watch the fireworks from the summit. Being the tallest mountain in southern Arizona, it was awesome. We watched fireworks from Tucson, Sierra Vista, Nogalas, Saughrita, and Sonoita (among others) at the same time. We then spent the night on the mountain drinking coco around the fire before we passed out like little babies.

Thats all I got for now, I'll be camping this weekend, and next week I leave for Colorado. The fun never stops....
Enjoy the pictures!

Brief Update

Been biking a bunch, bothering a bunch of people by calling and randomly stopping by their houses on my bike, swimming, bits o' ping pong, and making sandwiches. Honestly my sleep schedule is slowly going to hell lately because I end up staying up till around 3am and then just trying to fall asleep because I don't want to try when the sun starts shining through my window blinds. I've been waking up at times ranging from 11:30am to 2pm. Recently I went on a weird biking trip with Devin, Sam, and David Gifford on the 24th and I did type a long post about it but I do feel that it needs shortening or else it will just drag on too long. Andy also hosted a pretty cool camping trip and has a bunch of pictures and stuff that he should edit and post. I've gone climbing with Devin and his climbing buds up in mt. Lemon to do boulder climbing which is pretty fun. Oh yeah and since this is crazy World Cup soccer season I've been getting my ass handed to me in soccer when a bunch of us meet at Himmel. If ya'll are interested I could try typing more detailed stories but I just wasn't sure if you would really want to sit through long paragraphs without cool pictures showing it.

Hope the rest of everyone's summer is going great, I'm going to be in California for a while with mah folks and bro so hopefully nobody else leaves for college yet while I'm away. I'm trying to stop by peoples places before they leave but that's only worked for Grainne and Rita so far, I missed Charlie because I was still camping with Andy... my bad. Oh yeah I've also been shooting hoops with Collin, Cody, and Jendy quite a bit; would like to throw in some time at the golf driving range as well. I do feel bad that I do not have a job like most of you who are probably sick of hearing about all of the free time I have but I do feel I am using it quite productively at the least. Will work on updating you guys more often if ya don't mind all of this.

-Brian