The Continuing

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
6:46:05 AM

Ok, well maybe today got off on the wrong foot so far, but its all good. Did I mention that our host grandpa is ex-military? A former member of the construction battalion who served in the Viet-Nam war. I think that is really cool and something to be respected highly; the one caveat to that is the 6 am military shakedown complete with full Texas accent. “Its 6 am, geet up or you’ll be late son”. I don’t think that Angelo is having such a good time as me. I’m staying on a sofa bed in the living room that must be folded up and made every morning before breakfast. He’s got is own room down the hall but the bed is far too short for me anyhow so its all good. Another interesting thing about this place is that its equipped with an expansive security system. It features both internal and external motion tracking sensors. Each night if you even walk to the bathroom after the alarm is set; it goes off and its very loud. The same goes for the external system as well. Its certainly different than what I‘m used to.

12:25:42 AM

Well, today all worked out just fine and dandy with only a few minor hitches. For Breakfast I had the traditional Wheaties. On the way in to our home base this morning. Angelo was very sick and we had to pull over so he could get out and vomit. I don’t think the crazy Texas driving helped either but enough about that. We did eventually arrive. I really like our morning meeting room (which is the Mannatech lunchroom) because there is a free unlimited supply of coffee throughout the day. By the time our morning had wrapped up I had polished off 7 cups of that wonderful Starbucks blend stuff. I think I’ve also perfected the technique for making ice coffee and I enjoy that just as much or maybe even more. Our morning workshops were centered around our Community impact days on Thursday and Friday where we are in schools. Our theme for the week is diversity so we did some brainstorming and activities surrounding that.
Lunch today was donated by a former alumni who just happened to work for [insert drum roll here] Pizza hut! A lot of us were so glad to finally see some pizza again. I think tortillas a great, but not for every meal of the day for weeks on end (or so it seemed). After lunch we loaded onto the bus and headed downtown to tour the 6th floor Museum. Its exhibits are all related to the assassination of former US president J.F. Kennedy. The museum itself is the building that Lee Harvey Oswald shot the president from. You can stand and look out the same window he looked out of; there is an x on the pavement on the street outside that indicates the location where JFK was shot. After our tour we had a Q&A session with the curator and then an hour of free time to wander around. Unfortunately there was nothing but restaurants in that area so I didn’t get in any shopping; I did however take lots and lots of pictures.
Our host grandfather picked us up back at Mannatech and on the way back we experienced several more cases of road rage, both from him and other drivers; I think its a disease of epic proportions here in the states. Back with our host family, we had mashed potatoes and pork sirloin for supper. Our host family was quick to leave us for an important church meeting. I decided to go for a walk. I was gone for about an hour and a half. In my travels, I witnessed a police arrest in a parking lot; it was just like on COPS. Anyhow, tomorrow is another day to make a difference. I’m off to sleep :) Its all Good™

We all got labeled as we studied diversity this morning