Sunday, January 14, 2007 1:36:19 AM
Today was quite the change from the scramble which comprised the bulk of last week. Despite waking up around the usual 6-6:30 am, Peppe and I managed to get back to sleep until eleven or so. He was getting picked up to go to the staff retreat in the mountains at 12:30. I started in on working at the website for our cast after discussing the morning’s news with Peppe over coffee and bagels. I came to realize that I did not have copies of Dreamweaver or Flash installed so I downloaded them; not from their website as they are available there, but as one large zip file of the suite from bittorrent. Not too long after that Michelle came downstairs with a printout of an email from her ISP stating that they had observed the download of this software from this illegal source. Explaining that it was simply a matter of obtaining my serial code from my dad’s license I cleared myself of criminal intent. This was a completely foreign concept to me that your internet provider could track every bit of information that passes through your network interface and pass this information on to the government. The same applies to phone calls as well from what I am to understand. I can understand why they would have to do this but I am surprised at the same time that people allow their government to invade privacy to such a degree. The opposite side of this coin, as usual, is “what should the people have to hide?” Anyhow, I hope I don’t have a criminal record now because of this or something along those lines. Later in the afternoon Michelle and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things; we left with a lot of things including “American Canadian Bacon” and several pounds of tortilla chips; some of which were blue. After we had brought in all of the groceries from the van, I took a walk around the area and took some photos of the downtown Denver skyline. The temperature was down below -20°C so I wasn’t out for very long. The rest of the afternoon was what most would call lazy in nature as chili was cooked for the pot luck organized by one of the other host families that evening. The Pot Luck was a new concept for some of the other cast members and this was a very fine introductory example. Almost everyone was there; with lots of food. It was a great time to socialize outside of the usual UWP schedule. I took the opportunity to talk to a few of the other host families about their experiences. There was a great selection of main dishes and an even greater selection of desserts. It seems like ages since I had had the room to have seconds but I did. Well, technically I had seconds twice; once for the main dishes and once for the desserts because I could not pass up the pecan pie. Some of the cast members made their own dished, some, like myself had something made by their host family. Its all Good™. After the supper and social time there was karaoke. As with every group there is always the good and the ... interesting. The guy from New Zealand sang “Ring of Fire” while the guy form Curaco sang “Ave Maria” a capella and a group of girls sang Back Street Boys with their thick European accents. I just had to capture it on video. Afterward we drove back to our little suburb called Arvada (with little being used in relative terms; so really a couple hundred thousand people). We talked at great length about a great many things ranging from theories on how water crystals freeze differently if exposed to different idioms of emotions to 90’s A Capella music. I don’t think I could have possibly ended up with a better host family. Tomorrow the plan is to sleep in until Peppe returns from his retreat, then head to the National Stock Show and Rodeo; should be intense! Oh, and Peppe; I'm stealing one of your Pillows tonight!

Photo Captions:The Skillens; Downtown Denver; The PotLuck; Kevin's very own secret garden; Evans from Mexico and myself; Kenzo from Japan & myself; Myself & the Skillens; and Leonardo from Brazil and myself.