My New Belt

I passed! That's Master Del Porte putting on my shiny new belt with a black stripe on it. First new belt in almost 9 years.

One Steps II

One Steps

Just ignore that expression on my face.

Testing Board

There's me and Tania in front of the testing board. Check out how serious they look - and you wouldn't be nervous?

Back Kick

The only thing that makes my kicks look impressive is the flying hair. It makes it look like I'm really whipping around with those kicks.

Cows and Cemetery, Belarus

Since nothing new and exciting is going on in my life right now I figured I'd post some pix from last year's adventures.
Oh, I almost forgot: I'm testing for my black stripe tomorrow and Corey, my bro, and his girlfriend are going to be here to see it! =)


Locals of Belarus - this shot was taken in Kamenka (June '04) outside the home of a woman who we interviewed about her town in the times of the Holocaust. The town used to be predominantly Jewish, but is currently entirely Christian.



Restoring a Jewish cemetery in that same town in Belarus. That's me painting the star on top of the gate. It turns out the director of the town decided he wanted the whole thing green instead of its original color only after we put up the fence.

Mt. Ascutney and Big Plans

Having my parents up here to help me move out meant I had to go hiking with them today instead of writing my paper. Of course we got back early enough so that I would've had plenty of time to write, but I took a long nap instead and got absolutely nothing done. It was nice being out with them today though, we hiked up to Mt. Ascutney in VT and enjoyed the crazy warm weather that came out of nowhere. We also discussed my plans for next year and I was surprised at how excited dad was about the fact that I'm applying to go study Buddhism in Thailand for my winter leave term. He even said he'll come visit me. They were also OK with the fact that I want to go to India in between being in Budapest this Fall and Thailand this winter, just want me not to travel alone.
So... any Dartmouth people out there taking a term off in the Winter and want to come travel with me to India? I'm thinking something like Dec 23rd to Jan 6th. Even if you're not taking a term off this winter, maybe you can leave early enough to make it home in time for class, so give it some thought. And all you non-Dartmouth people who have winter break in January, you should come too! =)

Half Dome

Reminiscing about the Cali trip I took last summer - this is the final stretch to Half Dome in Yosemite. It was pretty exhillirating climbing those cables. It may not look steep from this perspective, but the fact that you had to wear gloves to get up these things should give you an idea. Some people turned back at this point after having spent the entire day trying to get up to the summit.

You Should Try Adventure Racing

Not only do you have the extreme attitude You've the extreme endurance for an adventure race!

What Extreme Sport Should You Try?

=)

Szervusz! (Hello)

I'm tempted to waste time and write here, so I will.
Started packing some of my stuff together (and by that I mean collected one small box of books that I won't be needing this summer). Parents coming up this weekend to help me move out of my room and put my stuff in storage for the interim so I'm supposed to be getting everything organized right about now. I should also be studying for my Math 70 final that's at 8AM tomorrow morning.
Got my plane ticket to Budapest in the mail today, that was pretty exciting. Now I can apply for my visa and I better start learning some Hungarian. From what I hear it's a very difficult languange, not related to any of the ones I know. It's more well known relatives are Finnish and Estonian, and all I know is Russian and a little bit of French. All I've learned so far is that your level of mastery of Hungarian can be easily measured by how long the words are the you can construct. They tend to get longer, and longer, and longer, and... you get the point. Oh yes and I learned that "Magyar" means Hungarian. :)