Then I ran by this and I liked Boise even more:

I’ve never seen live action role-playing (LARPing) in person before.  It looks… pretty… fun.

We waited outside of Exit A, as instructed by the monitors,  for over an hour… but no Shama.  We saw the Aer Lingus flight attendants in their teal crazysuits come and go… but no Shama.  We started to worry — did they lose her luggage?  Did she pick a fight with a customs agent?  Did she turn into a being of pure energy and lose interest in humanity?

Finally, we saw a grumpy girl, head down, dragging bags behind her, pass right in front of us — coming from the opposite end of the terminal. 

Shama somehow managed to pass through the doors of Exit B and had been wandering the airport for the last 20 minutes wondering why no one bothered to meet her at the airport.  

Shama: I kept thinking, “Who’s the idiot with the balloon?”

That’s me.  I’m the idiot with the balloon.  Welcome home, Shama.

In London we happened to walk past a statue of Michael Faraday outside the Institution of Engineering and Technology.  I had Shama stop and take a picture of me with him.  (Nice pose, Evan.)

While we were walking away, another dude was getting another lady to take his picture in front of the statue. When I asked if he was an engineer too, the lady laughed, nodded,  and rolled her eyes.

In Dublin Shama had me stop and take a photo of her punching James Joyce in the balls.

I guess we all have our heroes.

In the London tube stations there were a bunch of travel ads for Chicago.  I didn’t see many ads for other places — maybe one or two for Aruba — but maybe I just didn’t notice the other places.  

The ads weren’t very good, but everytime I saw one I felt the need to point it out.  Look!  It’s Chicago!  I think it made Shama a little homesick.  It made me a little homesick too even though I’d only been gone for a couple weeks.

I met up with my cousin Josh in Paris and we went to Versailles.  After a long day of wandering the many halls, we took a break in a room lined with marble busts of the heroes of France.

While we were resting, Josh told me that his friend is a sculptor working on a piece for a cathedral in Los Angeles, and wouldn’t you know it, he ended up using Josh as the model for Joseph.  We joked about a Jew modeling for a statue in a church, but Joseph was Jewish, so maybe it’s appropriate.  I can see the resemblance.

We agreed that Joseph seemed like a solid dude.

JOSH: I know the guy who modeled for Judas.

I wouldn’t know, however, since I got to sit in the front the whole time. Why?  Turns out I was the only one who knew how to drive stick.  That, combined with a lack of directions, the Irish insistence that people drive on the left side of the street, pint-sized lanes, and my general poor driving skills seemed to be a recipe for disaster.  Oddly, however, I felt a lot more comfortable driving here than in the US.  I think I’m a natural left-side driver, which might explain why I have so much trouble back home.

On the way to the Cliffs of Moher, we passed the Aussie Super Circus and Shama said we had to stop.  The show wouldn’t start for another 5 hours, but any passers-by would have been treated to an unadvertised clown car as we all piled out to look at the wallabies and emus.

I’m still not sure if I want to take the time to post inane garbage from here, but in the mean time you can read Shama’s blog. She is a better writer than I and has a lot more to say about Ireland, having been here for 2 months already.

Here it is: http://emilypostmodern.blogspot.com/

Shama’s off to Ireland for 5 months.  

When Arnie’s girlfriend movied to Boston, I suggested that they should play World of Warcraft so they could still do things together, even if those things involve beheading orcs. 

I made the same suggestion to Shama and she seemed up for it, but after some research it turned out the game wouldn’t run on her computer.

Shama: Thank God.

Maybe we’ll play Puzzle Pirates instead.

Somehow I ended up talking about Jesus Christ Superstar with Shane at work. He mentioned that the Indigo Girls did a weird production of it with Amy as Jesus and Emily as Mary. I looked it up. Man, it is weird. There were some production decisions that make me wonder if the Indigo Girls have any concept of the actual story — the Jewish Priests are portrayed as nuns wearing giant crosses and Jesus sings Hosanna — egotistically praising himself. That said, Amy Ray in overalls with a mullet is still a better Jesus than Ted Neely.

Meanwhile, in Guatemala we saw a very different side of Jesus. Antigua gets really into Easter every year when thousands of pilgrims descend on the town to participate in the festivities throughout lent. There wasn’t any electric guitar, but there sure were tubas!

Anyone know what this is? Because I imagine something like this:

Photo Credits: Delgoff, foundphotoslj

I’ve been a member of Engineers Without Borders for several years and whenever someone returns from a trip they are often accompanied by grand adjectives: wonderful, amazing, life-changing. I get the point now. These trips offer something that’s hard to find: a chance to interact with a different culture in a truly cooperative way.

There are a million stories to tell from the trip, and I’ll probably tell many of them here, but the thing I’ll remember most is those rock lines. It was the time when those of us from Chicago and the Mayan Kichi’ villagers who lived near the bridge site really bonded. It’s no coincidence that the two Kichi’ words we all knew by the end of the trip were heavy (al) and rock (pek.) It’s also no coincidence that the English word all of the Kichi’ knew by the end of the trip was “Oops!” Occasionally a particularly “al li pek” would make it almost all the way up the embankment when a combination of mud, sweat and aching hands would compromise someone’s grip and we’d all watch it roll back down to the river accompanied by laughs and shouts of “Oops!” from Chicagoans and Kichi’ alike. Good or bad, we were all in it together.

I’m leaving for Guatemala in a couple of days.  While I’m gone, my brother Aric will be guest-writing on this site.  Enjoy.