ITALY FUTBOL: EURO CUP 2008

I HATE PENALTY KICKS!!

GUATEMALA VIDEOS!!

Here I am taking off to paraglide over Lake Atitlan. As you can see its pretty hard running while pulling a huge parachute behind you and your instructor strapped to your back!



And this is what it looked like from my view. This particular video is of Cory taking off.



Here's Cory and I playing soccer with the kids.

GUATEMALA PICS UPDATED

So here's some pics I promised to post of my trip to Guatemala up above. I'll post more as soon as I download the rest though so keep checking.

Its amazing how much we got to see and experience in just 11 days there all thanks to Jake the Snakes exausting yet absolutely fulfilling tour guiding. We experienced and learned so much especially about the wide spread poverty Guatemala experiences. Yet I've never met such kind and genuinely happy people who make you realize how petty and small our problems here really are.

From paragliding off a cliff over looking lake Atitlan, visiting and spending the night in a remote village without electricity, seeing the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal, flipping on my head while mountain biking, having one of the most interesting conversations with an Israeli, a South African, and a dutchmen, to getting sick to my bones in Semuc Champey, this was definitely the most eye opening and fullfilling trip I've had by far.

Anyways, so much to tell which would be impossible on here. Hopefully I'll be able to speak to whomever is reading this in person someday.

NICKELDOPOLOUS' BABY SHOWER

Went camping and fishing this weekend in the San Juan's for my greek exchange student Nickel's "baby shower." Actually turned out to be good weather compared to the Seattle area which was nice. It's amazing how much you will dick around when you have all guys filled with beer in the middle of nowhere and what games (not gay games) you'll come up with. We actually spent about a couple of hours competing in punting skills while making elaborate rules along with beer to make it much more entertaining. I don't think the other campers were too happy with us. And by the way, we're all horrible at punting especially after a few beers in us. Not that we're any good when we're sober.

But the highlight of the whole weekend was definitely Fartin Martin jumping into the 46 degree water at night in just his skibbies because of a bet made to him. I don't think he could feel his limbs for about 30 minutes afterwards. Who knew such a big WNBA fan would have such kahuna's to pull that off?

A close second was the boat ride back to Anacortes. It got pretty choppy in the straight and Fartin Martin was definitely in the wrong seat because he got about 200 gallons of water splashed on him for 45 mins straight while Nickel was laughing like a little school girl at the sight of it the entire time.

Good times.

EURO CUP 2008!!

Thinking about this summer's Euro Cup I found this old video that my Uncle made from pics and video shots he took after Italy won the 2006 World Cup where we watched most of the games in the Italian neighborhood of Vancouver on Commercial Drive. The opening shot is at an Italian Cafe just as they won and then the celebration that spilled out onto the streets. All traffic was stopped because of it but people more or less understood that this was a big moment. I changed the second video to the highlights of the Italy vs. Germany game which I thought was the most exciting by far. The first goal especially is beautiful. 2 more years until the next World Cup, can't wait. But I'll definitely be up there a lot this summer for the Euro Cup when Italy is playing.

Gumbo Shrimp, Cocktail Shrimp, Fried Shrimp, Ebi Sushi.....

Went Shrimping on saturday with a couple of buddies out in the Sound. Caught 54 Shrimp in all but that isn't that much between 3 hungry guys. The weather sucked all day but it was still fun and I look forward to stripping the sea of its bounty again. Here's a picture of the shrimp we caught.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOJO!! I BOUGHT YOU 3 INTENSIVE WEEKS WORTH OF ROMANIAN BREAD MAKING CLASSES!! NOW YOU CAN FINALLY FOLLOW YOUR DREAM!! ONLY THE BEST FOR YOU BUDDY!

SUPRISE PARTY FOR THE ROMANIAN GANGSTER

This last saturday, my buddies wife threw a suprise b-day party for him at a bar called the Duchess in Seattle. He was quite suprised as he had a dumb as rocks look on his face (not the usual dumb as rocks look for those who know him) when he walked in to see all his 2 friends and the 30 paid friends that showed up. Sort of like the look in the picture to the right. The week before though, he kept asking me to watch the UFC fight on TV with him that same night as the party. Unfortunately/fortunately I had to fib and tell him I had other plans. Anyhow it was all worth the sealed lips and hush hushness to see his face when he walked in. If anyone deserves to be showed how much he's loved and appreciated it's Josephine Dries because he'd do the same for you in a heartbeat. I still hate him though.....

THE POPE

I just found out from my Aunt Val, who is a Violinist musician in New York, will be playing for the Pope when he visits. First at St. Patrick's Cathedral and then at Yankee Stadium. Some of it will be televised she says. Of course my Grandma, being a devout Catholic and Italian, will probably pass out when she hears the news.

AWARENESS TEST

Alright, so I usually can't stand cyclists on the road but this commercial is in my opinion, genius. Check it out. Let me know if you get it the first time!! And if you do, you're a liar.

MY DREAM TOILETS!!

One of the many reasons I love Japan is their toilets. Yea that's right, I said toilets. They're all remote controlled for everything from heating your seat to raising and lowering the toilet seat! Plus they're all environmentally friendly by not wasting a lot of water. Even most public restrooms have heated toilet seats. They're expensive but a lot of celebrities in the states are buying them for their homes. Although the one's they're buying are the super high tech one's. Here's a video clip of Will Smith speaking about his toilet. How can you not love these!!?

SOUTH OF THE BORDER.

Off to Guatemala next month to visit a friend and see what he's been doing all this time down there. I've convinced myself that he's been running a bar on the beach like in the movie "Cocktails." We'll see.

DAY ONE OF BLOG

My buddy Josephine Dries influenced me to make my own blog so here I am. Stay tuned.