Hey all!  I am in London right now!  It's 5:15 PM here right now, and I've been sick all day today .  It's raining at the moment, but hopefully it will be better weather when we get to Paris tomorrow.  We are taking a train like thing under the water in the morning to Paris tomorrow.  For England, we have had decent weather, expect for the day we got here (last Friday), and today.  At least I was sick today and not on a sunny day.  The first day we were here, we went to Harrods, a really big shopping place downtown, and we bumped into a family I know from Cal Camp that I went to 2 weeks ago!  Anyway, someone else wants to use the computer, so I should go now, see ya later!

~Adam, via London, 5:21 PM

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't been updating at all, I was at Cal Berkeley Family Camp until last Saturday (I was able to stay until the end while my dad left on Thursday).  As usual, I had a great time at camp (Go Bears!).  The past two years in a row, I have won the most trophies from winning the tournaments out of anyone in the camp, kids, teens, and adults.  This year I turned 13, so I had to compete with the teens, and I still won just as many tournaments as I had the past two years!  I played this one tennis match against an 18-year-old that just graduated high school, played number three Varsity on his tennis team, and was undefeated.  And I beat him!  It was pretty cool.  When I went mini-golfing with the young teens, I was the only person to beat Alan/QB's (the teen leader) score.  He got 3 under par, I got 5 under.  I found out later the the high score with the old teens was 4 under.  Here are some pictures from the Thursday my dad left:

So right now, it's 2 in the morning, and we have a flight to England TODAY at 4 PM, gotta be there at around two.  Were gonna travel all over, to 5 different countries: England, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.  I'm not going to be back until July 28th, which is in about a month, so I will see you and talk to you all then! Bye!

~Adam

My little cousins were here last weekend, they are so cute!  They live in Seattle, so I don't get to see them very often.

So anyway... Wow... It's summer!  Yay!  This week was pretty much the only week I am around all summer.  Tomorrow I leave for family camp, and then depending if I come back early or not (long story), I may have up to a week home, and then we leave for Europe for a month!  Were going to travel all over Europe, and after one week we are picking up my cousin and traveling with her, and then after 3 weeks we pick up my brother, who will be studying in Spain, and we travel for one more week.  Then in August, we are going to go to Lake Tahoe.  This week I had tennis, and I have hung out at the club a lot, playing tennis, swimming, ping pong, everything.  So it might be a while before I update again.  If that's the case... goodbye!  I'll miss you!

~Adam

"I just got home from Ashland!" (Last week)  Wow... what an interesting trip that was!  On the bus ride up, Emma started a trend that many people would soon follow.  She asked Terry out, and to my surprise, he said yes!  I didn't think Terry liked anyone!  Right when we got there, we went straight to our first performance, Henry VI.  Tommy and Mary Beth must have definitely seen a performance like the one we saw.  Just like ours, it had all that interpretive dieing and everything.  I noticed a lot of similarities in style, like slow motion battles.  They merged the Bastard (Me) with Reignier, into being just the Bastard.  Since I had woken up at 5 that morning, and gone to bed at 11 the night before, I was extremely tired, so I nodded off a few times during it.  Then we got to walk around Ashland in our knarly walking groups, with my leader once again being Azmi.  Fountain pictures, on the left is everyone's favorite, Lithia water!  I downed a ton of that stuff, it tasted like a rotten hard boiled egg, but it was good for me so I drank a lot:

Then we went back to the hotel, and I went swimming and went on the biking machine in the workout room.  Then we headed back into town, and we went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, where I got a caramel apple.  It was almost dinner, so I decided to save it for later.  We went to this place for dinner, where the soup of the day was "Shit Pea Soup."  They were closing up before they closed, and they broke the fryer for the french fries.  I would have fired them all!  Then we went to BJ's Ice Cream, so I was too full to eat my caramel apple, so I saved for the next day.  At which point I hid in my room by myself and ate it, while everyone else was downstairs, because I knew all the girls would ask for bites and then rip the caramel off if I went down there.  Thursday morning we went on a backstage tour which was pretty cool, and we got to learn a lot about what went on behind the scenes.

 

That afternoon we went to see The Royal Family.  It was a long play, and it kind of dragged on a little.  There were definitely some funny parts though.  When the dogs came on, I could not beleive how similar they were to me and Alex, with the pulling and everything!  We matched those dogs almost exactly.  That night, we saw Topdog/Underdog, which definitely sparked some controversy.  It was a play probably intended for more mature audiences, and in one of the more raunchy scenes, I turned back to look at Andrew, and he was sweating bullets.  He must have been so nervous thinking "What are the parents going to think?"  At intermission, they pulled us aside and I thought they were going to make us leave, but they made a great decision I beleive, and said that if you are unconfortable watching this, or your parents wouldn't want you watching this, then please feel free to leave.  I thought it was a great play, and I knew my parents would be fine, so I stuck around.  About 8 or so people left, along with Lori.  The ending of the play was extremely shocking and powerful, and I was so amazed that a 2 person play could be so intriuging and so shocking that it could make an audience still be talking about it days after it was over.  I thought it was an amazing play, and I'm glad I got to see it.  Moving on, during the course of the trip, 7 people asked someone else out, and six new couples were formed.  It was pretty crazy, within 2 days, half the grade was going out with someone.  It made the bus rides veeeerry interesting, especially at the back of the bus.  So I stayed away from there, until I had to go to the bathroom back there, and when I walked by, it was like the petting zoo of Nueva.  The next day, we didn't have to walk around with our walking groups, we could make our own groups of up to six.  Trevor and Alex D wanted me to come along with them and their group, but I wasn't really into watching two pairs of lovey doveys flirt and whisper to eachother for 3 hours, so I went with Kenji, Andreanna, Riley, and Mai, and we went to go eat at a nice little place.  At the restaraunt:

We then went to our last play, Comedy of Errors, which was set in Las Vegas.  The characters were pretty funny, but I didn't really like it that much, not sure why.  It was ok though.  After that we headed home on the bus.  And I saw Greece the movie for the first time on the bus! (I had seen the musical, but not the movie)  The End! Yay *applause*   Picture time!

Now you share your stories!

~Adam

"I just got back from the backpacking trip!" (2 weeks ago)  We started off the trip with a 6 or so hour long van ride, with cool van driver and group leader Azmi, and all the other boys in my backpacking group: Trevor, John, Alex Eckert, Grant, and Christian aka Matthias Humphrey Bogart Junior III aka Knock Knock.  We listened to some stupid Republican Talk show on the radio, I forget the guy's name.  Before that started and after that was over we listened to the stupid "Biggest Hits of Today" channels for the rest of the time, which play the same songs over and over again.  Doesn't anyone realize that those stations take the MOST played songs, and play them even more?  Doesn't it get old?  Pictures from the ride there:

Anyway, we got there, met our two guides (Disco Dan and Brenda!), and played this name game where we say our name and a movement, then everyone else has to repeat it, and then also repeat all the ones they have already done.  We got our jobs for the trip, almost got a game of Survivor going with one of the other groups, and camped out at the main camp the first night.  That night was the most raunchy of them all.  We played Truth or Dare, and pretty much the only dare anyone had, was that I had John make out with the nearest tree.  They were pretty cute together.  Meanwhile, one of the other groups were playing strip spin the flashlight... Hokay... moving on!  Pictures from the first night:

The second day (Tuesday), we woke up, got our stuff ready, drove to the head of the trail, and started hiking up.  We hiked for a little over 2 miles pretty flat, and then got to these steep switchbacks that went way high up the mountain.  Those were pretty rough, especially since my backpack didn't fit since I was too skinny, so the pack kept sliding down past my hips and put all the weight pressure on the wrong places, like my shoulders, neck, and legs.  About three fourths up the switchbacks, it started to rain, and we had to put garbage bags over our packs to keep them dry.  It was weird because it had been really sunny before, and it changed so quickly.  I was really hoping that it would stop soon so that we could sleep outside and do everything we planned on doing.  Some people were having some trouble, but we eventually got there, and found a pretty nice camp site.  Hiking pictures from our ascent:

When we got to camp and got settled in and set everything up, we started our super intense line up of mafia games.  We probably played about 20 times throughout the trip, at least.  Christians funny side came out during those games.  He was so funny on the trip, I couldn't beleive it.  I think his alter-ego Matthius had something to do with it. "FRISK you clown!" and "So how about that Jerry Springer huh?" Ahahahaha funny funny times.  So Wednesday afternoon we went on a day hike, and that was pretty fun and somewhat relaxing.  Pictures from that hike:

That night, we started playing Survivor, with me hosting and my 11 other group members playing.  If you want to know how we did it, you can talk to me and I can give you the run-down.  The first night we had 3 challenges and 3 tribal councils, and people actually had fun with it.  We played the rest the next day, and the game itself turned out to be sooo interesting!  If I were to write episodes I would have so many juicy elements and characters, it played out really well.  I have an insanely large memory card on my camera, so I was actually able to record videos of all the votes and reasons except for the jury votes, and some of the challenges too.  The only regret I have though, is that I didn't bring an extra battery, because 1) I didn't think I'd need it and 2) I was trying to save weight.  So I didn't have enough battery to record the Jury session, or jury votes, or most of the challenges, or the vote readings, or people strategizing, things I would have LOVED to record so I could make cool video episodes.  I am considering re-enacting some things, but that's besides the point.  This was the cast picture (including me), that is currently my backround for this Xanga:

Thursday night, we had a talent show - which I "MC"d - and a campfire, at which I read the final Jury votes for the final 2.  It was really cool because it was like a real tribal council, with the light of the fire flickering on people's faces.  I wish I could have recorded it...  Anyway, the final 3 was Trevor, John and Charlotte.  Trevor had promised both John and Char a final 2 spot, and Trevor ended up winning the final immunity challenges, meaning he had to break one of his promises and vote one of them off.  The whole time he had been saying in his reasons that he was sticking with John till the final two, but in a surprise twist that even surprised me, Trevor voted out John and brought Char to the final 2.  The jury questioning session was extremely intense, and this is how each person voted, in order of elimination:

Kelly: Char ~ Alex Lai: Char ~ Kathryn: Char ~ Christian (Matthius): Trevor ~ Alex Eckert: Trevor ~ Sonia: Trevor ~ Maya: Char ~ Grant: Trevor

It all came down to the final vote.  John's.  From before the game even started John had had a final 2 allaince with Trevor, and Trevor had broken it.  But he didn't really feel that Char played that great of a game.  So it all came down to if he would vote for who he thought played the game the best, or for who didn't screw him (ewww no not like that you sickos!).  John's vote for the winner of Survivor: Kings Canyon was...

 

 

 

TREVOR!!!

He felt that Trevor did deserve to win the most, even though he stabbed him right in the back.

(If you want to see some of the videos come talk to me.)

Heneyway, the next day (Friday), we hiked back down the hill, and drove back, stopping at Emily Abrahams house along the way for pizza and chilling.  Our stories were much better then the other group's stories .  If you read all of this, wow good for you.  You should congragulate me too, it took me about a full day to write this!

Coming up next: ASHLAND Oregon Shakespeare Festival STORIES! Everyone's favorite .

~Adam

Oooo my Uncle, Aunt, and two little cousins from Seattle are getting here, they'll be here any minute!

~Adam

"We just had our drama culmination last night!" (More like 3 weeks ago)  I thought the culmination went amazing!  Everything was so cool.  My personal favorite was Grant and Kelsey's scene, but I thought Alex Eckert and Cecile did an amazing job, especially with that sword and ring thing that Alex did, too cool!  Christian had an awesome summary for Hamlet, and I loved Jeff's accent for that final monologue.  The Hat dance went pretty well (Go us...), and so did the Elizabethan Dance (The streamers were awesome).  The afternoon improv was GREAT, so funny, and there were some people that I didn't expect to do so well in that, but they made some great jokes!  I was amazed at how far we had come in Henry in that final day.  The day before half the people didn't have their lines memorized, and it looked like a disaster.  We pulled it together for the show though, and it turned out pretty good.  The one thing I wish Tommy and Mary Beth had focused on more however, was making sure people knew what they were saying, and more importantly, WHY they were saying it, but they spent too much time on the blocking and the "interpretive dieing."  Most people were just saying their lines, and not really focusing on the actual intent of what they were saying.  It did go well though.  The Royal Family was hysterical as usual, especially with Trevor's pleading scene.  The cutting of the play had some rough spots, as if I were the audience, I might have a rough time understanding what was going on, but it was a fun and upbeat play, and turned out well.

As for my parts, it was an amazing experience being able to play Hamlet, he is such an in depth character.  I loved getting into character every time I rehearsed the scene, it was so much fun.  I wish I could have gotten to do more of the play.  I think my scene went pretty well, and I got some awesome compliments.  Being the Bastard in Henry was pretty fun, because even though I didn't have that many lines, I was still in on the actions most of the time, and I got to do a lot of the battles (I died interpretively twice! Woot!).  In Royal Family, I was an awesome dog wasn't I?  I was only in it for about 15 seconds, but I think everyone would agree Eckert and I stole the stage .  We had our barks down.  That collar though (It is actually my dog's collar) smelled SOOO bad.  And it itched...  Anyway, it was fun, and we decided to go out and take a bow on top of the stairs behind everyone else, even though we weren't supposed to... hehehe...  We went out with our hats and did one quick hat bow, and exited.  I think we deserved it .

So after the Shakespeare, once it was all over, everyone came back to Andrew's room and were shouting for joy and celebrating.  And that's when it hit my that the drama unit was over... and we wouldn't get to do it anymore.  So while everyone else was celebrating, I was saying "Noooo!!! I don't want it to be over!"  I wanted to go out and do an encore presentation right then and there, I was just getting warmed up.  I wish we could have done another performance, it was such a fun thing, and then it ended so quickly.

Well, thats all, my critique of our Drama Culmination!

~Adam

PS. I lost all the pictures I took when I got home .  I wasn't sure what 'Format Memory Card' meant... so I pressed it, and *Poof!* All gone.  I was so pissed off, I wanted to throw the camera in the toilet, I had such great pictures that I didn't want to lose, because they were meaningful to me...

Wow... so now I have a Xanga too, I'm such a knehrd.  Everyone is getting all this online stuff now, like this and the Blunt Surveys.  But it was me that started that trend .  Now that I have this, I can share my most personal and insightful thoughts with you!  Just what you wanted right?  Figured.  *Insert shamless plug here*  Now that you are in my trance you can go and take my survey and say so many great things about me at http://blunttruth.bolt.com/takesurvey.cfm?uid=030296.  Now you see, I have missed out on a lot of great posting opportunities, so I will be posting things about the culmination, the backpacking trip, and Ashland, because everyone needs those famous entries!  Sounds fun? Of course.

~Adam