Spring Break (St Olaf, IA & Minneapolis, MN)

On the 25th we started towards North Dakota for Amy Tanner's (formerly
known as Amy Barber) wedding. We stopped in St Olaf, IA to see my Gramma and
Granddaddy Hoover.

Here is the cabin where they live.	There was an eagle sitting above their creek when we left on Saturday morning.

We also spent a couple hours in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon. We met
up with some friends and went to some art museums. The Walker was
closed for expansion so we went to the Weisman (a Frank Gehry
building) and to the Minneapolis
Institute of Art. After the museums we went to a Tibetan/Nepali
restaurant called Everest on Grand. It's on Grand St in St. Paul. They have tasty yak dumplings. The
yak are free range and grass fed of course.

Another cool place in Minneapolis is Bob's Java Hut. It is a biker coffee shop. The whole front of the store opens to the outside and motorcycles are often parked out front. It also has free wireless internet.
				We drove around for awhile because I couldn't remember where it was. So I took a picture.

Spring Break (Amy's wedding)

Amy's wedding was really nice.

It made me cry a little.

Daniel and Scott make me feel really short,

so I have to stand next to Ceri more often.

On the way back we got to eat
breakfast with my dad at the casino in Bettendorf.

And now I'm back in Loma Linda. My
apartment is down there somewhere to the left of the hospital.

One week later (?)

Did I say a week? How long is a week? I make promises like this because I think it will force me to actually do it, like a deadline. I guess I sort of lost track of time with finals coming up, accept in relation to spring break which is when I will see Ceri. Oh yeah! I’m going to Ohio on Wednesday. I guess that was the main point of my blog, to tell you all where I’m at and where I’m going.

To tell the truth I don’t know where I’m going. I still haven’t found a project and it makes me wonder why I’m borrowing so much money and feeling so poor. I have a final proposal due for a class tomorrow which is supposed to be something I would present to my committee.

Loma Linda is a good school I think. The Department of Earth and Biological Sciences is quite small and comes with the usual advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are; Fellow students are friendly and supportive. Professors are understanding and willing to help when asked. Classes are in depth, interesting and small, about 6 per class. Small classes are really nice for discussions (actually four is optimum, that’s what I learned in sociobiology.) Loma Linda requires a lot of class hours to graduate compared to other schools. Which brings us to disadvantages; Resources are limited. They don’t offer very many classes. I have basically three to choose from for next quarter. Being a medical school, of course they subscribe to a lot of medical type journals, not nearly as many ecology and biology journals. I’ll probably have to find at least some of my own funding through grant proposals.

The city or Loma Linda isn’t very nice. It’s hardly a city really, pretty much a lot of houses and a hospital/school. I would like to fix my car so I can go see some other parts of California.

I went bouldering at Joshua Tree yesterday with some friends. That was fun. The air was a lot cleaner. Ethan did a V8 on the ceiling of cave that was flippin’ cool. I forgot my camera but I’m sure I’ll go back and take pictures later. I haven’t climbed seriously for 10 months or so and have gotten somewhat out of shape since I ran the Lincoln Marathon. I could tell extra weight, less endurance and conditioning was effecting me. Ceri is going to pass me up since she has been climbing twice a week and I climb about, oh, once every 3-4 months. I better be careful or she is going to beat me up, she’s all buff now.

I’ll be spending the majority of my spring break in Ohio but me and Ceri will take a trip to Jamestown, North Dakota for Amy Barbers wedding on the 27th. We are going to stop at my Grandparents on Friday night, then spend some time in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon/evening. Then I’m flying back to LAX from Detroit on Tuesday the 29th.

That’s all I can share for now. Keep bugging me and I’ll try to post more often. I’ll probably have time over spring break to post some pictures and offer more thought provoking opinions.

Peace and Love

bryant

Resuming postings

This is a test, of the email blog publish system.

Some people have been commenting that I don't publish often enough to my
blog. And I did mention that I would be publishing once a week. So
sorry.

I am going to make an effort to actually write more often starting now.
This post is a test of the email publishing function. If this works I
will be able to write at home and email my posts the next time I get a
connection. Hopefully, encouraging me to write more often.

So long for now. I promise to have another update within a week.

after spain

I am back from Spain and full into graduate school now at Loma Linda.

Spain was a lot of fun. I'm really jealous of Bradley. He looks like he is really getting along well. He is happy and learning spanish. And now Sunny is there with him. Here is what we did while I was there:

monday: Arrive in Madrid in the morning. Ride the metro to Bradley's place and eat homemade spanish tortilla. walked around down town a bit.

tuesday: Pick up Ma at airport. Make some breakfast and open christmas presents. Me and ma took naps while bradley and sunny watched Napolean Dynamite, which I gave them a copy of for christmas.

Wednesday: We went to Segovia, which is about an hour from Madrid on the bus. It is a little city on top of a hill. One can still see the walls to the city and an aquaduct built during the Romans time is still standing. The castle Alcásar is at one end and is open for tourists. It´s pretty cool.

Thursday: The Madrid Zoo and the Reina Sofia. Sunny wanted to see raccoons at the zoo but the closest thing we could find was a kind of dog from mongolia that looked like a raccoon. They also had a baby dolphin. The zoo is expensive, like $20/person, but it is in a nice part of town with lots of trees and grass. I wouldn't actually recomend going. By the time we got to the Prado we only have an hour before they were going to close so we went to the Reina Sofia instead. They had a big Dalí exhibit and a lot of Picasso, including the Guernica which is huge.

Friday: We went to the Prado early and saw a lot of paintings. They something like 15 rooms of Goya. We also saw paintings by Rubens, Bosch, El Greco and a lot of others. My mom really liked a vibrant painting by Van der Weyden called The Desposition from the Cross. After the Prado I did a little shopping a bought mostly books, magazines and maps.

Friday night was new years eve and we went to the Puerta del Sol. It wasn't really that exciting. There were graphics shining on the sides of buildings with random numbers and words which might have had something to do with Don Quixote turning 400. The ball dropped while we weren't watching and a couple minutes later there was a decent fireworks display right over out heads. We stood around for a while after that and threw grapes at people. Apparently we were supposed to eat a grape on every ring of the clock tower at midnight but we didn't know that so we just threw them. There were some entertaining mexican girls drinking and singing next to us but we got bored of them and went home.

Saturday: We went to church somewhere east in the city and got there late. I'm not sure what the sermon was about, but I tried to read my Spanish Bible. After church, Cesar was really talkative and tried to make us stay for potluck, but we weren't hungry. He taught us how to say "God bless you" and my mom kissed him on both cheeks, which was different for him because he's from Peru, and he made fun of her. After church we went to the Retiro , which is like Madrid's Central Park.

Sunday: I woke up early and flew back to the States. It was a 24-hour trip and I was tired.

Desert Hot Springs

I made it to California and have been staying at Ceri’s parent’s house while registering for school and finding an apartment. They have been really nice. Feeding me, doing my laundry, and giving me a place to stay, and keep my things. I found an apartment yesterday. It was a little more expensive than I would like but about what I expected to pay.

I feel a little better now that I have all that figured out, or mostly figured out. This afternoon me and Ceri, and possibly Joel (ceri’s brother) and Lee (ceri’s dad) are going to go to Joshua Tree National Park for some rock climbing. Ceri forgot her shoes so we are going to have to find a place to rent in the Village of Joshua Tree. We are going to stay there overnight and climb a little tomorrow as well.

This Saturday is Christmas and Lee wants to find a church in Loma Linda with a Christmas program. After church we will return to DHS to open gifts and have a Christmas dinner which I am told will be gigantic and include a dish called “bear meat” (vegetarian).

Ceri and I are planning to stay up all night since I have to make it to the airport ~4am Sunday for my ~6am flight to Spain. I will be returning to California on the 2^nd of January and starting classes on Monday morning, when I will need to add two classes with my professors and advisors signatures.

Merry Christmas, peace and good cheer to all of you.

Bryant

Desert Hot Springs, CA, USA

Goodbye

Farewell, Lincoln. I love you all, and I will miss you very much.

Homelessness

I haven't actually written anything to my blog before. Just posted pictures. I don't really even know if anyone looks at this.

Anyway, it might interest people to know that I am now homeless. I am staying with Daniel Murauskas and Scott Cushman presently. Tomorrow night, it might be someone else. Tomorrow I will be training my replacements at NDEQ. Ellen Hartman is one of them. She is a good friend and I am glad I could help her get the job.

The 15th I will be starting on my trip to California, first stopping in Chicago to pick up my good friend Ceri. I dont know where i will live when i get there. I dont know what classes i will be taking. I dont have anything on my calender after the first week of January. Really, my future is blank to me. Sound like fun? We'll see.

I don't know where all of you are but this way you will know where I am and can contact me if we are close to each other. I have heard stories of people happening to run into people they know in a market in Thailand, on the trail in Colorado, in the Smithsonian in Washington DC. How often do people just miss each other when they might have had a chance to connect. If you stop to think about it the universe is a terrifying place. We could all use a connection whenever possible.

I am a traveler in a lonely world where people increasingly distance themselves from each other. If you want to know where I am you can check here and i will let you know. I believe i will try to write something once a week stating my location and a few thoughts in an attempt to keep your attention. I would be pleased if you would write comments to my posts. I want to know what you think and where you are.

Happy travels,
bryant reynolds

currently in Lincoln, NE, USA