Sunday, October 12, 2008

Week 2: Still here.

Last summer, my family went on our first big family vacation ever. We went to Belize, it was a lot of fun. Despite my original belief, Belize, though Itallian sounding, is not in Italy. It is actually in Central America. Wikipedia and Google maps agree on this.

Yup, it's week two and I have not given this up yet. That's a good sign. I took up running a little while ago. Ran almost everyday for a week...and then stopped and haven't been out again since. So, two weeks in a row without quitting is pretty good for me.


Mainland Belize is a pretty cool place, with lots of old Mayan ruins, surrounded by jungle. It was fun to wander around, eating fruit off the trees, and bugs off the ground, just like Baloo taught Mowgli in the Jungle Book (Disney cartoon version, as I'm not mature enough to actually read any sort of book, or watch a real movie). Just need those bare necesities.

I was going to just write about my week, but I realized I have one major problem. I have no pictures from anything I did this week. And since some people (namely my brother...possibly others) tend to only look at pictures, I realized I was going to have to do some improvising. So I think I will show random pictures that tell one story, while here in the text I will talk about something completely different. This will most likely be very disorienting and confusing, but my mind's made up, so it's too late to change anything. This week I did some country dancing at a church activity (and possibly even did it right...well...small little parts of it right). The whole activity was fun, even though there are rumors floating around that the chili judging was rigged. By rumors floating around, I mean I hope to start some by mentioning this in my blog. I did not win, nor did I take second...or third. On top of that, the guy I was taunting all week took second place, completely thrashing the credibility of any future trash talking that I might do.

We didn't realize it at the time, but some of these sites were famous...well, more famous than other ancient indain ruins. The top picture is one taken with my camera. The bottom one is not. This may be the closest I ever come to being in a famous movie. For those who don't recognize the bottom picture, it's from Star Wars (Return of the Jedi I think...). Please note, I thought of many lame Star Wars related jokes for this caption, and I held off on putting them. That should be worth extra credit in something...do we get graded on our blogging skills?

Also this week was my first ever visit to a cider mill, followed by many hours wandering in a corn maze (It was actually very similar to Lord of the Flies. After so many hours of wandering lost without water or food-not counting the hundreds of ears of corn that surrounded us-our group started to split into tribes. Then the tribal wars started. Things got ugly for a while. There was much backstabbing, friend turning on friend, life long enemies made, then unmade...and promptly made again due to said backstabbing. It was definitely a lot of fun and I would highly recommend it to anyone.) Cider mills are apparently very important in Michigan. There are tons of them around and everyone has their favorite one to go to. In fact, I'm told you can tell a lot about a person by what cider mill is their favorite. I'm trying to figure out which cider mill says "I'm cool, tough, and ruggedly handsome". That's the one I plan on making my favorite...which may shake many people's faith that you can tell anything about anyone based on their favorite cider mill.


After spending a few days in the jungle, we went to the coast and went snorkeling (first time I've ever been). I had mixed feelings about it at first. I had recently watched shark week on the discovery channel and had seen a "harmless" reef shark bite a camera man. The mixed feelings came from my fear of being attacked in contrast with my hope of losing a sister or two to feed the poor, hungry sharks. Neither one of these happened...nor was I able to ever catch...or even touch...a fish despite the fact that there were many that mocked me by swimming close, only to dart away when my hand moved.

6 comments:

Amy said...

I hate to break it to you (especially if your blogging streak is as fragile as your running streak was), but you are not the first to break rumors of chili-cookoff-rigging on your blog. If, of course, you can call something based on absolute fact a "rumor."

Elizabeth Downie said...

Good summary of what happened in the corn maze. That was pretty intense. I'd say your "tribe" was the most violent of all the tribes. Mine was just trying to defend itself for the most part! Brian's the only one who ended up bleeding, although I think that was unrelated ;)

thedannycrittershow said...

Looking dang sexy in that Star Wars pic.

Katherine said...

So if I understand your post correctly, you swam with a tribe of sharks while throwing corn at Darth Vader at a cider mill in Belize which makes you feel manly even though your chili is sub-par...? I think I've got it right...

P.S. My tribe was annoyed that the other tribes were throwing things and acting like her kindergarten students...and by "my tribe," I mean just me. ;) Snap!

Emma said...

Murt, I didn't know you were in Star Wars, that's awesome. Now were you Admiral Akbar or yourself? Anyway, it's great to see you write just like you talk, except thankfully there is no mumbly font. It's good to hear things are good in Michigan. Awesome blog, don't give it up, you have followers and you have mad manbooking skills.

Kip said...

Murt murt murt murt murt murt murt murt murt murt murt murt mrr mrr mrr mrr mrr mrr MURT. (it's like the charge song they play at ball games. now read it again. it's to encourage your hilariousnes and blogging)