The Continuing

Monday, February 5, 2007
1:21:40 PM

Its been pretty good so far. The bus was about 45 minutes late this morning but we’re back on schedule as far as I know. We’ve driven along the foothills of the mountains for the longest time. We made a stop for 20 minutes in Pueblo. We’ve also passed Colorado Springs. The bagged lunch that Michelle pack for me this morning was delicious and filling; a ham sandwich, chips and granola bars. I supplemented it with some pop from the local gas station. I think soon we’ll e heading through some more scenic terrain. Most of the people on the bus are asleep. Its all Good™. We’re estimating arriving in Farmington around 7pm this evening. Tomorrow and Wednesday are going to be Community impact days, Thursday we are doing our first show, Friday we are having a regional learning day and heading out to ship rock, and Saturday we are doing another show and Sunday is our host family day. Next Monday we are traveling to Tucson Arizona.

At 6:05 PM we entered New Mexico.

At about 7:15 we arrived at a museum in downtown Farmington. There we were greeted by cheering host families, our advanced team (Peppe G.), throngs of media. There were radio stations, newspapers, and even a television crew. I guess I’ll have to learn what its like to be a celebrity in the fish bowl over the next little while. As the bus pulled in, we could see that all along the driveway of the museum there were paper bags with lit candles inside of them; apparently its some sort of southern/Mexican Christmas tradition but for whatever reason they thought it appropriate to us. We swiftly unloaded the luggage from the bus and went into our briefing for the week. My room mate for this week is 27 year old Jorhe (in English its George but pronounced as Hor-Hey) from Mexico City. He has just recently finished his degree in law. Also he has the U2 edition iPod like mine; he’s the only other person I’ve seen who has one. On each of our community impact days we are going to be mentoring and working with students from 4 different high schools. That means we’ll be working with 8 total. Our Host mom’s name is Edel Simkins and she is from Germany. Her husband is retired from the US military and they met when he was stationed in Germany. I can tell we are going to be spoiled this week. They have a hot tub out on the back porch and a talking parakeet that said hello to me and then cat-called me. We are about a 5 minute drive from the morning way point so we have the luxury of sleeping in a bit longer than we did in Denver. I’m also in luck where she is a coffee drinker as well so I’ll be sure to get my daily fix. Anyhow, long day tomorrow! Its all Good™

Saying Goodbye to Michelle