Do I have to leave??!!??

Nothing says "vocation" like a Star Wars Hot Dog Eating Contest

That's right, For our class we needed to rewrite the story of Jonah and the Whale from a "modern" perspective. We chose to have Leia called by Yoda (played by Haylie) to win a Hot Dog Eating Contest against Vader. She doubts his call and comes to R2D2 (played by me) for support. She also complains to Queen Emidala leading to my favorite line "Girl, if you eat all those hot dogs, even Jaba won't want you. " Hahaha. Yep class tomorrow is going to be so much fun!
Nothing else too exciting happening here. I smashed my finger with a screw-gun at work yesterday. That hurts. We have been busy and having lots of fun eating and hanging out with people from our class. Today we all got together and watched Good Will Hunting in Olin 102.
Haylie and I have to go watch some Star Wars clips now. Speek and Beep corectly we must. A Wookiepedia content editor in our class we have. :) Hope you are loving Cape Town. I miss you both so much. I can't wait to trade stories of our fantastic adventures.

Goodbye Windhoek, Hello Capetown

The Challenge: One blog update in 11 minutes! Okay, here I go! Quick update about the past three or four days and the next couple of days. Well, on Monday we left the North of Namibia and came down to the Etosha National Park for the day....where we went on a SAFARI!! It was my childhood dream to go on a safari after I saw the Lion King, but I never actually thought it would happen. I feel like Randy Pausch. We saw SO many animals! Tons of giraffes and zebras and a few wildebeast and antelopes and dik-diks. Got a ton of great shots I'm so excited to show everyone. That night we stayed at the Mokuti Lodge (which is a 5 star hotel!) and had probably the best and most filling dinner I've ever had. We ate probably 5 or 6 courses each and were there for 2 hours! But it was soo good! It makes my mouth water to think of it! After that the whole choir jumped in the pool for a late night swim/group meeting. Only at Luther College can you do things like this. It was such an incredible day! Tuesday was another travel day, and we left Etosha for Windhoek again. Had a rehearsal at night with the Young Singers of Namibia. Today we got the morning off and we'll have our final concert tonight with the YSN, then tomorrow we fly out for Capetown. Time is flying by, both on my internet account and on this J-Term. We only have a week left! :'-( Hopefully we'll have better internet connections and be able to write more in Capetown. Hope you two are having a wonderful J-Term! See you second semester!

only a week left!!! I don't want to leave!!! My iPod is dumb so I'll try to write later :/

Full Tummies and Bachelors

So Mari, I suppose this is for you more than anyone else because you were the only one there when it happened...no offense to the rest of you :)

Anywho, so today I was thinking about one night last J-term when you and I were in your room watching the Bachelor and I was painting my toe nails. I was sitting on your floor all squished up cause I was trying to paint my nails and my stomach kept making awful sounds cause I was SO FULL! I had apparently eaten too much that night and attempting to paint my toe nails myself was a poor choice for my stomach lol All I can remember is me just saying over and over, "Oh my gosh, I'm so full. Oh, I'm so full." haha

Thought that might put a smile on your face :)

Funny Quotes From Guys and Such

So I'd like to start my blogging with some great quotes I recently heard from several guys. Hope I remember them, but Megan can add some if i forgot :)

So apparently Spicy needed our help with a project of his for class. He examined the differences between men and women in how they take self portraits. He told us his plan of attack while we were standing in the lunch line: "Yeah I had a list of 15 girls I could take pictures of but 12 of them are out of the country or gone. So I just went around to the freshmen dorms and found girls." Such a great quote! Would've been better if you were simply eavesdropping and didn't know the context :)

Then when we overheard this at lunch today from a group of guys: "Yeah I met up with this girl at Roscoe's and she was just like, 'Oh, I know you guys! You're the ass holes from orientation!' I don't know what that was all about." Haha yeah, they was great to hear during lunch!

And we heard this the other night in the cities from a guy in the group. He had been drinking a little bit, then hooked up with some Tau Delt at Roscoe's (just this situation sounds good doesn't it?! It gets better). So actually I think they met up on his floor then went to Americana and THEN to Roscoe's where they started "dancing." After they made out for a while, she looked at him and said, "Why are you so perfect?!" and he answered, "Cause I love my mother so much." I laughed so hard when he told that story :)

And in a nutshell, this last week was totally amazing! It was extrememly rewarding in so many ways and there just isn't enough room to write all that happened here, so we can share when we're all back together :) But long story short, the service places were extremely grateful for our help, several lives were touched by our presence at the soup kitchen where we ate every night, and we gained some great friendships that we hope to continue on with!!

Hope you guys are having an awesome time!!

After a long day relaxing at the pool...

so i can write this now since no one is really in here...
in one of the airports...there were seriously so many i don't even remember which one...fuzzy asked me about the secret board. awkward but i played it off really cool so he doesn't think it was me. plus i was tired and acted confused so it all worked for the best. other than that nothing too interesting on that note. although i did feel a little uncomfortable in a swimming suit near him...but whateves.

it is so beautiful here. today we went to church and it was 3 hours long, but it did not feel like that. there was a lot of letting the spirit move you and 3 different languages...crazy! today we had fun in the pool, this is the best CLASS ever haha.

I should go work on my "homework" now...journal. :P

I hope you are having fun in Minneapolis and staying safe :-)

Love from Namibia!

Crispy fries, extra cheese and food for thought

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! Margaret, Amanda and I went sledding down the stairs at Dunning Springs today. It was the best sledding ever!!! Who would have thought :). Upon your return from Africa I insist we go explore the Ice caves now that I know where they are. We tried today but candles do not make for adequate substitutes for flashlights.
Random, but Decorah school district didn't have school Thursday or Friday and it didn't even snow, nor was it even that cold.
Ally - Ally since you left I have had two meals that consisted of fries, just like you like them, and lots of extra cheese. I couldn't help but smile and think of you.
Mari - Jennie sent me an e-mail today and said that I was doing a "great" job running things for dance. That made my day.
I have a 30- second mystery for you both- In addition to picture of his wife and children , Peter Cannon carries pictures of a number of dead people with him at all times. Peter admires these dead people, but they are not members of his family. Even though the pictures are extremely valuable , Peter often gives them away. Why does Peter carry the pictures and why does he give them away? best of luck. watch for clues in the future.
Amanda says "Mari, I am so sorry I missed you at Luther again. Hi Ally, I wish I got to see you. Have lots of fun you two!"
A message from Margaret "Be safe, don't get eaten by monkeys and wear lots of sunscreen; being a lobster is no fun!"
So happy to hear you made it to Namibia safely. I miss you.

we made it!

hi! we are at the hotel!! it's beautiful. miss you guys. saw a taxadermy we can eat at if we get hungry so no worries. love ya

Less than 12 hours

It hasn't even been 12 hours since you left, and I already miss you. I hope you are having fun on the van or plane or whatever you happen to be doing at this very moment. We went to dinner with Kaci tonight and spent no less than two hours in the caf just people watching. It was so fantastic we laughed so hard. I heard "What'd Ya Say" and I could help but think of you both and our trip to the Cities and had to share my night with ya.

I'm Leavin' On a Jet Plane....

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Mari and I will begin our 40-some hour long journey to Namibia and South Africa! These past couple of days we've been hauled up in the organ room of Jenson rehearsing our music and learning about the countries we'll be in. The atmosphere among the group is just incredible! We have a blast during every rehearsal, joking around and singing. This is going to be such an amazing trip! Pretty generic, I know, but I want to keep myself open for everything we will experience, and frankly, I don't know a whole lot about what we'll be doing. Yeah, I have a general idea, but Drs. Peter and Peterson keep telling us that we'll just go with the flow and feel things out.

Only about 14 hours left until we leave!