Hello out there?!

Wow. This may have been my longest leave of absence. I don't feel like it's quite time to re-enter the blogosphere. I think I'll take my Conan-break. Actually, for those of you who care about social networking, I've decided to reinvigorate my twitter account, zoti_soli. For those of you who don't understand twitter, try it for a few days, and it'll make sense.
Anyway, I figure that I could at least give you a partial update on things in my life. I'm floating under the radar for a bit...I think...until school is out. I've had an incredible difficult time as of late focusing on things, and it really bothers me, so I'm figuring out what the best way is to go about recovering from that. Maybe meditation, maybe some holistic approach...maybe a trip to the beach. I thought Honduras would help clear my mind, but I discovered that my tendency to always find something to be too busy with follows me even to the most remote places on this earth.
In the past two weeks I've begun to care about my networking presence on the web (perhaps/hence the twitter resurrection?). Part of this is becoming extremely active in the CouchSurfing community. If you don't know what that is, you should. And to answer your question, you don't understand. It's much more frightening to be in their shoes than mine (as a host), and you can be quite discriminating while still helping people out. Anyway, I hosted a Scot last week. Bernie was a great surfer and was very independent. He walked all over Salt Lake. I picked him up at the Greyhound station on Easter night, and he left that Thursday. It didn't seem very long at all, which is to say we enjoyed having him around. Yesterday, I picked up Roman from the Flying J his cousin dropped him off at on their cross-country big-rig ride. Roman is from the Czech Republic, and we had a lot to talk about, since we've both lived in Eastern Europe. I really enjoyed Roman, and was heart-broken that while he was in Boston, he was mugged twice within 10 minutes. Great hospitality. He was nervous when he got here, but after he explained why, I decided that I would do whatever I could to help him. I helped him get his rental car this morning as he was determined to make it to beautiful Southern Utah and all of the national parks. He had a pure heart, and I'm truly grateful that we are good friends. To think that within 15 hours, two people could have such a bond...amazing.
Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. My absence will probably resume until I feel adequate to manage my blog again.
Until then.

Honduras

For those of you who thought I couldn't go a day without being connected: I went 12. Haha.
I'm back, and I have many stories to tell. Perhaps over the next few days I will write about my experiences. Check back.

Road Trip!

Lance and I have left on a short-long little road trip to New York! I won't have internet to update what's going on all the time, but I do expect to have cell reception, so I will posting updates and what-nots on twitter.
My twitter name is zoti_soli, and you can find updates here: http://twitter.com/zoti_soli
If you are a twitterer, follow me and you can receive updates as well!

Answers

Sometimes, it's best not to plan. I've tried to convince people this for a while, and those who know me really hate me for it. But I can honestly say this trip wouldn't have been half the trip if we had planned it. Anyway, I don't want to spend too much time updating everyone, but we spen the last few days in a small German village known as Marsberg. Lovely, and very homely.
We're now in Köln (better known as Cologne...a small city you may have heard of before) and the day was fantastic.
Tomorrow we leave for Stuttgadt, then Saturday it's back to home...
The people are amazing, and I absolutely love it over here.

Here are the answers I promised in my comment:
-Nay, the ping pong table was found about a 10 minute walk away from the temple. However, as is evidenced at my house, a ping pong table isn't ENTIRELY necessary to play ping pong, Brad, so you could still get away with it...
-Yes, Teryn, I still do and will probably always remember the 8k meters we ran down(that is 8000 meters for those unfamiliar with the metric system)

Oh. So I guess there really weren't that many questions to answer. Oh well...

Frankfurt

The library is about to close, so here are some pictures until I can write more.

Leaving Home, Part Two

This was always meant to be a two-part series...
Getting out of the country this second time was a much smoother experience. My ride's car didn't suffer from bad battery and a flat tire, nothing really bad happened to me the night before leaving, and although I've been a little anxious since I haven't had any time to think about this trip, I have been rather calm since we left.
After a long flight, we got to Frankfurt and succesfully navigated the S-Bahn here to get to Friedrichsdorf, the city the temple is actually in. However, we had no idea where in Friedrichsdorf the temple was, so we just started walking. I navigated the best I could with my incredible memory of Google Maps, and a half hour later we arrived at the harder-than-it-should-have-been-to-find temple. It's incredible to see this one in real life.
Today has been the big day for many who came. We've had endowments and sealings for these couples, and it's truly been an incredible feeling. A lot of people have come, including the Lusho family, Brother and Sister Cunaj, Brother and Sister Rrokaj, the Isufi family (including all three kids!) and many others from Tirana and Durres.
We're here at the temple for another 3 days, and I really hope that my friends take advantage of the opportunity they have.
Last night, a friend of ours that lives in Frankfurt came and picked us up and took us around the city at night. It was beautiful...quite incredible. Saturday we plan on leaving to Berlin, but who really knows? We'll keep you updated.

Up and Away!

So, I will come out and apologize right away for not having any pictures. I somehow decided not to bring my camera cables...anyway...we're having a blast!
Yesterday was our last day in Moralillos for our project. I don't think I've become attached to a people as quickly as this village, except perhaps Albania. They were the most accepting and loving people, and they were happy! We did our work and got so close to them. As my job was to document it, I tried to get as involved with the people (because people are what good documentaries are about) and the children were fantastic. I still see their smiling faces as I struggled to pull my spanish out of the bag and communicate with them. They were great.
Before we got on our plane in Iquitos, we took a boat ride on the Amazon. Absolutely fantastic. That's all that can describe it! After a 5 hour weather delay in Lima, we finally made it 12,000 feet higher in Cuzco, which has also been fantastic.
I will write more details when I get home...we're going to Machu Picchu tomorrow at 5.30a, so I better hit the hay.
Hope you are all well, and know that I'm safe and feel safe (which are two different things, of course) and that the people are great.
Ciao!