Whenever the kids ask Mama what she wants for her birthday, by now we all know the standard answer: "A blog post." We were also talking a while ago about how Mama likes to collect memories, rather than material things that might not mean much later on. I think the longevity of this blog and the journals she has filled before that all speak to that. It also 100% reminds me of Dumbledore's Pensieve in Harry Potter, who has lots of memories from himself and others stored up, ready to recall at a moment's notice. Mama can keep the blog for forever (as long as the world doesn't go apocalyptic and we can still access the internet?), just like a Pensive can keep all of the memories stored in it as well. Plus, a blog post is a memory that Mama doesn't have to write down on her own, saving her lots of time. So here you go Mama, a blog post for your Pensieve! I figure I can share a few stories from different points in my life that I remember. These don't really have to do with Mama, but they are pretty clear memories that I have that I think would be interesting to Mama and that she hasn't heard before. So happy birthday!
This one's kind of a weird one from our time in Germany. I'm sure my family is aware of the fact that I never went to Venice, which is crazy, because I'm pretty sure it became one of my parent's favorite places in the last little while we lived in Germany. Rebecca has even been there because she went there on her study abroad. So I'm really the only one who hasn't been. The reason I didn't go was because I was on a school trip. Once a year in Germany our classes would take a school trip for a week to a town called Serrig. It was kind of a team-building thing that we would do with our classmates. The class would stay at a hostel-type place, we'd all stay in in like four rooms with eight bunks each, we'd have "classes" in the morning with the two or three teachers that were along on the trip, and then the rest of the afternoon we'd have activities, or we'd play foosball or ping pong at night. We would also eat all our meals together and get to know one another better.
I remember one day we took the afternoon and walked from the hostel to the actual town of Serrig, which was a couple of kilometers away. We were going to then take the train back to the hostel afterwards. We walked on one of the many paths that are alongside the railroads, and then when we got there we were supposed to have two or three hours to ourselves to do what we wanted. Now, I generally chalk up any and all hijinks or bad behavior I committed in German schools to a the constant state of survival I was in, or just a lack of understanding. Looking back, I don't think I generally understood everything that was being said, just the "gist," so if I missed stuff, that was why. So we get to the town, having walked alongside the railroad, and then are set free. The teachers wander off to do whatever they want to do, and for some reason none of my classmates or me actually went into the town. We got bored super fast. So we ended up at a cafe-type place either directly in the train station or next to the train station and sitting there for an hour, then going to our platform to wait out the last hour. Looking back, I have no idea why I didn't go into town. I do remember going into a grocery store, buying an 8-pack of Twix, and my classmates thought that this was one of the greatest things ever! Anyways, with 20 eighth-graders and nothing to do for an hour on a train platform, inevitably there was bound to be some mischief...such as sticking pennies and M&Ms on the train tracks. Which would have been fine...except there was an off-duty police officer on the same platform. So, when our teachers showed up, this police officer proceeds to tell the teachers all of the bad things that these kids have been doing, and threaten to fine the kids because of their bad behavior, and it turns into this whole thing. So when we get back to the hostel, we end up having something like a two-to three hour sit-down about how the teachers tried to give our class the opportunity to have a good time by letting us go into the town and we spoiled it because we wasted our time and ended up not going anywhere. And then they threatened to have us all go home. And I didn't really do anything wrong (no pennies on the train tracks from me!), but I had to sit there the whole time, feeling horribly guilty for not much of anything. Looking back, that's kind of a crazy thing to happen, especially since it wasn't really their responsibility to teach us morals, but it was just one of the adventures of German schools!
Another memory was from my mission. And first off, to my siblings: NO JUDGEMENT! So I was in Warsaw, around the one year mark of my mission, and I ended up doing an exchange with a guy from my MTC group who was also in Warsaw. Our exchanges always happened after P-Day (Monday), and would go through Wednesday morning so that we got a full 24 hours on Tuesday with the missionary. And this missionary, Elder Lundin, was also in Warsaw, so I think we just met his companion and him in downtown Warsaw and we all did a whiteboard or something for a while together on Monday night. At some point though we took off and walked around the Palace of Culture and Science, which is this big old Soviet building that's in the middle of Warsaw. The legend is that Stalin asked the people of Warsaw if they wanted a metro or a building as a gift from the Soviet Union after World War II. Being practical, the Poles said a metro, so of course Stalin built them a building. In modern times, on the backside of the building there's a little park, where they have an ice rink in the winter and basketball courts in the summer. It being Europe, the basketball courts were never very occupied. BUT, on this particular night there were two kids playing basketball on the court, and I knew Elder Lundin, liked basketball. So I suggested we take a break and play with these kids for a bit. I know, I am NOT a basketball player. But Elder Lundin was, and I was taller than both kids, and we were both American. So, in our shirts and ties, we beat the pants off of some Polish kids in basketball for 45 minutes. I distinctly remember hitting a skyhook over one of the kids (look up a skyhook here, it's what the first shot is called), which is not an easy shot and shows you by how much we skunked them. And I think afterwards we were hot, so we went and got some ice cream to celebrate. It was pretty fun and set a good tone for our exchange, and was probably one of my only team sports accomplishments ever :-) Plus, Polish summer nights are light until like nine or nine thirty, and they aren't super hot, and everything feels peaceful...those were some good times to be a missionary, talking to people on benches about the gospel.
Finally, I'll tell a quick story from Rebecca's and my "babymoon, "which happened the summer before we had Annie. Rebecca and I had found super cheap tickets down to Orlando, where we rented a car and drove down to Key Largo for some scuba diving for me and some pool relaxation for Rebecca. We were pretty poor, but I don't think either of us regret ever having those five days to spend time together before we entered "kid jail." I don't think anybody else in our family has gone diving solo without family members, have they? It's a little freeing, because whenever we're together we all want everybody to see everything that we can find. Which makes sense, because we all love each other and want to share our joy with our family. When I was diving with strangers? I felt no such compunction. If people were around I'd show them something, otherwise I was good keeping it to myself. Plus, "dive buddy" was a loose term and basically meant just stay around the group. So I got pretty good at getting close to the coral and finding stuff. So I remember going over the section of coral and finding a moray just hanging out underneath. And I was good checking him out and being like: "Yeah, I'm pretty awesome," and then I remember thinking that this outcropping looked like a good place for a drummer to be hanging out (juvenile tophat), and I kicked over and sure enough, there was a little drummer flitting back and forth. It was pretty cool to have the freedom to make the dive my own, and I was good enough that I didn't have to rely on the dive master or others to find animals for me. Also, I remember I had a watch that was water resistant and had a bevel so that you could see how long you had been under. It was TOTALLY intuitive! So eventually I think I'll try to get a watch that can double as a dive watch and that I can take down to measure the dive time I've had. It was a fun little trip and I got to have some fun experiences on my own.
I realize none of these have to do with Mama, and just so you know, Mama, you mean so much to me. You're a dear friend that I miss when I don't get to talk to you after a couple days, and you've taught me so much throughout my life. Thanks for being born and being the rock of our family, it makes all of our lives so much happier. I love you!
Cheeser
This one's kind of a weird one from our time in Germany. I'm sure my family is aware of the fact that I never went to Venice, which is crazy, because I'm pretty sure it became one of my parent's favorite places in the last little while we lived in Germany. Rebecca has even been there because she went there on her study abroad. So I'm really the only one who hasn't been. The reason I didn't go was because I was on a school trip. Once a year in Germany our classes would take a school trip for a week to a town called Serrig. It was kind of a team-building thing that we would do with our classmates. The class would stay at a hostel-type place, we'd all stay in in like four rooms with eight bunks each, we'd have "classes" in the morning with the two or three teachers that were along on the trip, and then the rest of the afternoon we'd have activities, or we'd play foosball or ping pong at night. We would also eat all our meals together and get to know one another better.
I remember one day we took the afternoon and walked from the hostel to the actual town of Serrig, which was a couple of kilometers away. We were going to then take the train back to the hostel afterwards. We walked on one of the many paths that are alongside the railroads, and then when we got there we were supposed to have two or three hours to ourselves to do what we wanted. Now, I generally chalk up any and all hijinks or bad behavior I committed in German schools to a the constant state of survival I was in, or just a lack of understanding. Looking back, I don't think I generally understood everything that was being said, just the "gist," so if I missed stuff, that was why. So we get to the town, having walked alongside the railroad, and then are set free. The teachers wander off to do whatever they want to do, and for some reason none of my classmates or me actually went into the town. We got bored super fast. So we ended up at a cafe-type place either directly in the train station or next to the train station and sitting there for an hour, then going to our platform to wait out the last hour. Looking back, I have no idea why I didn't go into town. I do remember going into a grocery store, buying an 8-pack of Twix, and my classmates thought that this was one of the greatest things ever! Anyways, with 20 eighth-graders and nothing to do for an hour on a train platform, inevitably there was bound to be some mischief...such as sticking pennies and M&Ms on the train tracks. Which would have been fine...except there was an off-duty police officer on the same platform. So, when our teachers showed up, this police officer proceeds to tell the teachers all of the bad things that these kids have been doing, and threaten to fine the kids because of their bad behavior, and it turns into this whole thing. So when we get back to the hostel, we end up having something like a two-to three hour sit-down about how the teachers tried to give our class the opportunity to have a good time by letting us go into the town and we spoiled it because we wasted our time and ended up not going anywhere. And then they threatened to have us all go home. And I didn't really do anything wrong (no pennies on the train tracks from me!), but I had to sit there the whole time, feeling horribly guilty for not much of anything. Looking back, that's kind of a crazy thing to happen, especially since it wasn't really their responsibility to teach us morals, but it was just one of the adventures of German schools!
Another memory was from my mission. And first off, to my siblings: NO JUDGEMENT! So I was in Warsaw, around the one year mark of my mission, and I ended up doing an exchange with a guy from my MTC group who was also in Warsaw. Our exchanges always happened after P-Day (Monday), and would go through Wednesday morning so that we got a full 24 hours on Tuesday with the missionary. And this missionary, Elder Lundin, was also in Warsaw, so I think we just met his companion and him in downtown Warsaw and we all did a whiteboard or something for a while together on Monday night. At some point though we took off and walked around the Palace of Culture and Science, which is this big old Soviet building that's in the middle of Warsaw. The legend is that Stalin asked the people of Warsaw if they wanted a metro or a building as a gift from the Soviet Union after World War II. Being practical, the Poles said a metro, so of course Stalin built them a building. In modern times, on the backside of the building there's a little park, where they have an ice rink in the winter and basketball courts in the summer. It being Europe, the basketball courts were never very occupied. BUT, on this particular night there were two kids playing basketball on the court, and I knew Elder Lundin, liked basketball. So I suggested we take a break and play with these kids for a bit. I know, I am NOT a basketball player. But Elder Lundin was, and I was taller than both kids, and we were both American. So, in our shirts and ties, we beat the pants off of some Polish kids in basketball for 45 minutes. I distinctly remember hitting a skyhook over one of the kids (look up a skyhook here, it's what the first shot is called), which is not an easy shot and shows you by how much we skunked them. And I think afterwards we were hot, so we went and got some ice cream to celebrate. It was pretty fun and set a good tone for our exchange, and was probably one of my only team sports accomplishments ever :-) Plus, Polish summer nights are light until like nine or nine thirty, and they aren't super hot, and everything feels peaceful...those were some good times to be a missionary, talking to people on benches about the gospel.
Finally, I'll tell a quick story from Rebecca's and my "babymoon, "which happened the summer before we had Annie. Rebecca and I had found super cheap tickets down to Orlando, where we rented a car and drove down to Key Largo for some scuba diving for me and some pool relaxation for Rebecca. We were pretty poor, but I don't think either of us regret ever having those five days to spend time together before we entered "kid jail." I don't think anybody else in our family has gone diving solo without family members, have they? It's a little freeing, because whenever we're together we all want everybody to see everything that we can find. Which makes sense, because we all love each other and want to share our joy with our family. When I was diving with strangers? I felt no such compunction. If people were around I'd show them something, otherwise I was good keeping it to myself. Plus, "dive buddy" was a loose term and basically meant just stay around the group. So I got pretty good at getting close to the coral and finding stuff. So I remember going over the section of coral and finding a moray just hanging out underneath. And I was good checking him out and being like: "Yeah, I'm pretty awesome," and then I remember thinking that this outcropping looked like a good place for a drummer to be hanging out (juvenile tophat), and I kicked over and sure enough, there was a little drummer flitting back and forth. It was pretty cool to have the freedom to make the dive my own, and I was good enough that I didn't have to rely on the dive master or others to find animals for me. Also, I remember I had a watch that was water resistant and had a bevel so that you could see how long you had been under. It was TOTALLY intuitive! So eventually I think I'll try to get a watch that can double as a dive watch and that I can take down to measure the dive time I've had. It was a fun little trip and I got to have some fun experiences on my own.
I realize none of these have to do with Mama, and just so you know, Mama, you mean so much to me. You're a dear friend that I miss when I don't get to talk to you after a couple days, and you've taught me so much throughout my life. Thanks for being born and being the rock of our family, it makes all of our lives so much happier. I love you!
Cheeser
Comments
Post a Comment