My Life is a Comedy Show

The Tale of Two "Packings"

2011-05-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

3 more weeks! Time flies...

Well ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow will be 3 weeks until I report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. I'll be there for 2 months learning Spanish and learning how to be an effective teacher to all the people I meet. It's pretty crazy how quickly it all came! One second I'm graduating high school, the next starting college, then finishing my first year, now I'm going on a mission.

Things have been pretty busy and hectic with my life lately and I apologize to all my friends who it seems like I haven't seen in weeks. I had been home a couple weeks hanging out, then I went to Virginia Beach to see my brother in All-State Choir. Not too long after that my family decided to go to Disney World for my last vacation before I leave them for 2 years! It was pretty fun, but a little hard for me to hide how it also made me sad. My childhood is pretty much over. Pretty much after my mission I will be my own man, an adult who has taken care of himself for 2 years on his own. I mean, sure you are always your parent's kid, but now when I come home for holidays or the summer I'm "just visiting".

I guess I'm just one of those people who isn't much of a fan of change. I know it happens and time is constantly slipping through your fingers, but sometimes the future is a bit scary.

So now I get to explaining the title of this Blog post... "The Tale of Two Packings". You see, as I have been getting ready for my mission I've been packing all the stuff I'll need to take (Packing #1). But the second packing is the packing I'm helping my family do as we move out of our house (Packing #2). The same day I leave for the MTC, my family leaves back to California.

We have been in here in Virginia almost 3 years, and its been a wonderful experience. I believe that my family was meant to be here. Without moving here my life would be very different, especially with Sammi. Yes she is my girlfriend and I love her, but mostly she is my best friend :) I am so thankful for the change and happiness she has brought in my life and I'll definitely miss her when I leave.

But also I want to thank the many other people who have been such great friends, neighbors, and second family to us. With all of my relatives back in California except for a cousin in New York and a cousin in Philadelphia, our friends here in Virginia have become our second family and have really made living in Virginia so wonderful.

I know I'll come back and visit after my mission, and who knows how things work out in the future, but I hope I'll come frequently :) Virginia and all the people in it will always have a special place in my heart, and if I don't end up seeing you when I come back and visit... God be with you till we meet again!

Saudi Arabia, the Country That Changed Me (Final Part)

2011-05-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

Well this is it, the final part to my Saudi Arabia Trip Series. I hope you all have enjoyed hearing about it. I mostly put up this series for 2 reasons... The first reason was that I wanted to share, in full detail and pictures, my trip with all my blog followers and to try to break down the barriers of misunderstanding of this culture. The second reason was just for myself, so that I could combine what I put in my journal and the pictures I took with my camera.

I'm sorry that this series has taken so long, but right in the middle of writing all this I had College Finals, coming back home, family trips, and now I have been helping my family pack up and get ready to move to a new house. I know lots of people lost interest because of the waits in between the posts, but maybe some of you will read this months down the road...

I still don't know what I want to do with this blog, and after this post I think I'll spend a little time finding a purpose for this blog... I want to share my life experiences but I hate sounding like I know more than others because I really dont... but anyway, the Final Part:

Well I guess I'll start out by saying that April 8th, our last day, was kind of a rough day for me. I should have realized at breakfast that this would be not so great of a day. You see, every morning we had breakfast at out hotel's restaurant on the ground floor and it was always very good. It was a fairly "Americanized" hotel and so most of the food was very familiar to us, but some of the food was foreign.

Well I loved how many fruits they had at their buffet, but this morning I figured I would be adventurous and try all the foreign looking fruits. Usually I had my fruit first and then ate my eggs and toast, but this morning I just felt like eating my fruit last so have that sweet good taste as the aftertaste (miracle #1). Then I decide to go for the new fruits first instead of having the usual fruits, in case I had one of the new fruits last and I didn't like the taste... well the first fruit I went for looked white and was fairly crunchy, but tasted familiar to me... it tasted like cantaloupe....I'm severely allergic to cantaloupe. I guess when you're in a different country even familiar things can look foreign because that cantaloupe did not look like the cantaloupe I grew up with!

So the second I taste it and realize it's cantaloupe, I spit it right out. (miracle #2 was that I ate it first so I didn't eat the lesser contaminated fruit and then the cantaloupe and have a worse reaction). Everyone kind of looks at me weird because its a pretty fancy restaurant and thats a pretty rude thing to do in any culture. But I quickly feel the tingling in my mouth, and I tell them that I'm severely allergic to what I just ate. They ask why in the world I would eat it if I'm allergic to it, and I tell them how it didn't look like the cantaloupe I was used to. By then though, I feel the throat being tingly and I know this'll be bad... So I run upstairs (not literally because I was already having trouble breathing) and got the Benadryl that my Dad insisted I bring (miracle #3).

After I took some and went back down to the lobby where everyone was, and just had to wait it out. It took nearly half an hour for the swelling to start to go down, which doesn't sound that long, but when you're struggling to breath and everyone is asking if you need to go to the hospital, it feels like forever. Eventually once I could tell it was going down, Musa asked what I would like to do... did I still want to go to the doctor, or just stay at the hotel and take it easy? I answered, "You know what would really make me better? If we could go to the old marketplace again and buy souvenirs now that we have money" (originally before my reaction they had said we wouldn't be able to go). Musa laughed and said ok, we would go. I thought he was kidding because the Saudis always wanted to stick to schedule, but in this case they really did let us go!

We all got loads of stuff at the marketplace, but of course with the help of Musa and Abdulaziz. If you remember in Part 1, Saudi Arabia doesn't have taxes, so items are negotiated for and bartered. I think Musa and Abdulaziz were a little frustrated and confused with us though for two reasons. One, they thought what we were buying was junk, but to us they were treasures. Two, to us the exchange rate was great and we thought everything was a bargain, but to them they wanted good deals for all of us. When I old Musa I bought something for 30 Riyals, he almost wanted me to take him to the shop I had bought it at and yell at the merchant for ripping me off, but I told him I was ok because to me that was only around $10 or so.

One man's junk is another man's treasure.

Market courtyard.

Musa giving us deals.

After we had gotten all of our treasures, we started out for a long car ride. Right about then was when the drowsiness of Benadryl kicked in, so I have no idea how long the car ride was.

Eventually I woke up when we got to the entrance of the National Park we were going to, and all of us went to the bathrooms. Everywhere we went things were foreign to us, including the bathrooms signs:

As we drove into our camping spot we found two big tents among vast endless desert. It was quite a sight!

Our campsite.

The tents.

After we had dates and coffee as usual, we met with a falcon trainer! He fed it some meat right in front of us and we got to see it absolutely devour the food.

The Falcon Trainer.

Devouring the meat.

Right after we had seen the sharp beak and talons in action, he offered for us to hold it. At first I was like "no way, my finger could end up just like the meat he ate" but then he put on a beak holder and eye blinder and I was fine with it.

After the falcon trainer we started making lunch inside one of the tents. It was already probably in the high 90's and cooking in the tents made it even hotter inside! Once we had prepared everything and were just waiting for the lamb and chicken to cook, we went exploring in the desert! It was so hot and dry, that even with a light breeze you didn't sweat. (I found out later that you are sweating, but it evaporates so fast that the sweat doesn't stick to your clothes).

The great wide open.

We were only out there for an hour or so, but we really were super thirsty and tired when we came back into the tents! Right when we came back it was time for lunch, and boy was it tasty! We had a traditional Saudi meal which was a bowl of rice, chicken and lamb in the middle, and lemons and peppers surrounding the edges. Everyone shares and eats with your right hand. (It is best to just sit on your left hand so you aren't tempted). I wrote in my journal all about how to properly eat it, but this video explains it better:

Once we had eaten and cleaned up from lunch we hung out in the tent while Musa set up a scavenger hunt around the campsite. He used puzzles and trivia and all sorts of fun little things for clues and as luck would have it, I won! The prize was these very neat woven handkerchief slides that scouts love to wear and collect.

After our scavenger hunt we play a friendly game of "Hit Each Other Blindfolded With Water Noodles".
In case you have been living under a rock and have never seen this sport, here is a clip of us playing:

After our time at the campsite it was time to go, but on our way out we went into this desert canyon place that looked like Petra in Indiana Jones!

Straight out of Indiana Jones?

Compare my photos to these pictures of Petra, Jordan:

Eventually we got to the main event, ATVing! We had been talking about it all week and had challenged many of the Saudi Scouts to races on the dunes. So each of us took turns and I took a couple pictures while I waited for my turn... but luckily I figured "Man, if I crash or fall off I could break my camera... maybe it's best to leave it in the car" (miracle #4).

Eventually it was my turn and right as I was going up the first ridge into the dunes... my ATV stalled. A Saudi Scout tried to help, but it wasn't working so we pushed it back down to the cars. Eventually we got it to work so the scout drove me out to the dunes while I held on, and then he hitched a ride back with the guys who we done with their turn and going back in.

The ridge into the dunes.

Matt (my roommate for the trip) and me are ripping up the dunes and getting some air on a couple dunes... sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident. But eventually, I lose Matt. I decided to keep riding around and keep an eye out for Matt, but I never see him again.

I keep riding around and having fun, but I'm starting to get worried about being alone, because I don't want to get lost (especially now that it was close to twilight). But then I see Anish (one of the U.S. scouts) flying across the ridge of some dunes. He is going really fast, but I decide I really need to keep up with him and follow him because I really need a buddy.

So I'm going near full throttle (conservative estimate is around 25- 35 mph) for probably for a good 45 seconds or so following a trail parallel to the ridge. Then all of the sudden, trail ends, deep pit, get thrown off my quad, and I'm just slow motion airborne.

In the movies I had always seen the scenes where something dramatic happens and time slows down, but I had never experienced it until right then. And in the movies sometimes the person flashes back to their family, or of their loved one, or see a scene from their past... you know what I thought in my head? I looked into the pit and saw a big 5 gallon water jug that they have in office buildings except this one was brown and my thoughts while flying through the air into this pit was "You know, I'm not sure I've ever seen a brown one before..." CRASH.

Have YOU ever seen a brown one??

I landed on top of the ATV and kind of went over the top of the handle bars and rolled out of the way as the ATV came to stop. I don't know how long I laid there, but I don't think I passed out. Sooner or later I got up and looked at the ATV and it was pretty beaten up... handle bar bent on the left side, throttle we on the complete other side of the bar, headlights not in good shape, etc. But the thing still ran (miracle #5)!

I tried getting the ATV out of the pit but it was steep hill on every side so the it just sunk deeper and deeper into the sand. I didn't hurt at first, but once I tried lifting the wheels out of the sand I felt it. My left knee shot up in pain, my chest was on fire, and other sensitive parts weren't feeling so hot either...

I looked down at my jean and saw blood on my leg, but the amazing thing was that I hadn't cut through the jeans, I had just hit that hard!

So for a little while I just sit on the ATV not knowing what to do, when all the sudden I felt like I was in a movie. At first I hear a sound, then I hear the engine, then I hear music, and then I hear people yelling and laughing! So I stand up and walk up the pit (ouch) and see two guys in a jeep riding by! I wave them down (ouch) and yell until they come over to my pit.

They didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any useful Arabic, but when they saw me and then saw my ATV they realized I needed help. So with hand gestures and charades we work together to tie up my ATV to their Jeep (ouch) and pull it out of the pit (miracle #6). I at least knew thank you in Arabic and I tried to ask in English which way the ATV rental place was, but they just looked at me with blank faces...

At least I'm out of the pit, but I was pretty darn disoriented. I still knew which way is out so I head that direction and eventually I get to the top of the ridge that borders the dunes and the sand area we started at. But the problem was that it was nearly dark and my headlights didnt work anymore...

So a couple times I get unwanted air going of uneven dunes, and I decide I should probably just go down to the sand area where at least I know it's flat. But the problem is that there are a bunch of cars, trailers, and ATVs everywhere and now that it's dark all I can see is a bunch of headlights.

Luckily I had noticed that when I first went out to the dunes we went East, for a while so I decided I need to go West to get back. But after a very long time of driving ( I kept thinking that I'd be so mad if I gave up when they were only another minute further) but eventually I came to a Bedouin village with a bunch of tents so I knew that I had gone too far.

So I turn around and by now it's completely dark so I'm driving blind and I'll admit, this was when I got to the panic stage. I had kept my cool and tried to stay positive the whole time, but once I had gotten to the village and it was completely dark I was starting to panic. I kept thinking about what if they had left me without noticing. We did have two cars... what if both had thought I was in the other? How far away was I from Riyadh? Would I have to wait all night? Would anyone be able to speak English to help me? What if they didn't realize I was gone until too late and they were already on their way to our 3am flight before they realized I was gone.

As you can imagine being lost, hurt, bleeding, and alone in a foreign country where you don't speak the language on your last night before your flight in the early morning the next day is not the best situation I've been in...

So I kept driving, and driving trying to go up to every pair of headlights I saw to see if it was my scout group. Soon I see two pairs of headlights coming towards me and I asked "English?" and the reply was "Miles?". I'm overjoyed, I'm relieved, and I think this terrible episode is over until Matt and Will come closer and ask, "Hey man do you know where our group is? We're lost..."

My heart sank. What I thought was my search party was actually just another addition to my lost party. But it did feel good to not be alone anymore (miracle #7), and I was pretty sure they would notice if there was 3 of us missing instead of 1.

So I told them my story and how I had crashed and how I had gone all the way to the Bedouin village so we needed to turn around and head the way they came. And wouldn't you know it a couple miles down the road we find out group packing up! But as we pull in they just look at us and don't say anything... they hadn't realized we were all lost. But when I get off I can't walk to well and so I limp (ouch) to the nearest car. Eventually people started to see how banged up my ATV is and that I'm sitting in the car by myself not looking so hot and so Matt and Will explain that I crashed and that we got lost.

After hearing the story everyone kind of came over and asked if I'm ok and usually being the stubborn guy I am, I usually would have said I'm fine... but I was in so much pain I just told them honestly "No, I'm not ok."

So Dr. Qureshi comes in the car and closes the door to talk to me and when I start telling him the story I just started crying. I hadn't cried like that in years... but I just couldn't keep it in. I don't know why I started crying, especially why I started crying then in the car instead of during the event... but I was just in shock and in a lot of pain.

So we drive on over to the hospital and I already have some nasty bruising, cuts, and blood but luckily they don't think anything is broken. But one cool thing about my doctor is that he is an Egyptian from Alexandria! Being the history lover I am I can't believe that his hometown is such an ancient city! He grew up in a town that has been around for 1000's of years. Here in America we just don't understand that because we live in cities that were founded in the 1700 or 1800's.

But eventually I go back to the hotel and I'm super embarrassed about crashing and getting lost and crying but everyone wants to hear my story so I tell them. Then we go up to our rooms and start packing because we have to leave the hotel by midnight to get to the airport by 3am for our 6am flight.

We actually had a little sandstorm that night, but it cleared up pretty fast and off we went to the airport! When we got out of the car we said goodbye to out favorite drivers (The Racing Brothers) Fahad and Sultan and I really was going to miss them!

Beginning of the sand storm.

Then we go and check our bags and do a bunch of official stuff but mostly I just hung out with Abdulaziz, Musa, and Mohammad. Eventually it was time to go and it felt like I was leaving life long friends! After sharing a few hugs (I'm not sure if their culture gives hugs, but I wanted to give them anyway), and Musa telling me that he hoped to see me again once I'd learned Arabic, we went through security.

Abdulaziz and I traded hats.

My Saudi friends.

My Saudi friends again.

We got through pretty fast and we had 3 hours until our flight so some of us tried to sleep but I couldn't really get myself to so I just used the free wi-fi since we hadn't had internet access since the gaming place.

Soon we're off on our flight home and have a good 15 hours straight in our plane which was especially rough since my leg needed to be straightened. Even with the luxurious Saudi Arabian Airlines the seats are pretty close to each other so that wasn't much of a possibility.

Eventually after watching us fly over Alexandria, Athens, Germany, Belgium, England, Ireland, and Canada we land around 3pm in the U.S. of A! My family came to pick me up and once going outside I was freezing in the 60 degree weather after being used to over 100! But the first thing I had after my trip? A tall glass of milk and Dominoes pizza... it doesn't get more American than that!

Thats my trip for ya! I hope you liked it and I'm sorry it has almost taken me 2 months to write about it, but now that I'm home for the next month or so I'll be writing about my recent travels :) I really do love the country and people of Saudi Arabia and truly can't speak of them in any higher respect. They are such good, charitable, religious people that I have tried to be more like.

I hope that as I study Arabic and major in Middle Eastern Studies that I can have the opportunity to go back many times and experience that wonderful culture again soon (after my 2 year mission of course). I hope Abdulaziz and my many other Saudi friends approve of this series and I hope what I've shared about your country and it's culture is true. If I could wish for one thing after I went on this trip it would be for more understanding and peace with less ignorance and hate in the world.

With that, I finish this series, but hopefully this is not the last time I blog about a trip to the Middle East (Inshallah!).

(Got a comment, question, or suggestion? Let me know in the comment box :) )

Busy Bee!

2011-05-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all my followers on this blog and a special sorry to my friend Abdulaziz who has been patiently waiting for Part 5 of my Saudi Series! Things have been pretty crazy in my life and I have been really bad at updating my posts. I have so much to talk about, but life has been hectic so I hope you understand and forgive me!

In almost a month I'll be going on my church mission leaving family, friends, and pretty much everything behind for 2 years. So needless to say I have lots of things I need to set in order, lots of people I want to see, and places I want to go before I'm gone for that long of a time!

I'm very excited to go and I know it will be a great experience, but as it gets closer I get more and more nervous and overwhelmed at the changes it will bring to my life.

I'm going to California (literally in 15 minutes) to see my Wheeler relatives before my mission, but once I am home in 5 days I should be back to blogging and hopefully catching up on all I missed! Note: My family is still here so anyone trying to rob my house will meet an angry Mr. Wheeler if you try to pull anything.

Sorry again for letting all you guys down! Check back around the 25th for my blogpost :)

Saudi Arabia, the Country that Changed Me (Part 5)

2011-05-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is Part 5 of my Saudi Trip. I hope you are enjoying it :) I'm sorry this series has been so strung out, but it's something that I really wanted to share with everyone!

Sleeping in on Day 5 was a much needed rest from the busy schedule we had been following the rest of the other days. Because we had stopped at McDonalds for a late night dinner, we didn't get to bed until pretty late, so we slept in until 7am this time instead of 6.

That morning we got to go visit The American International School on an American military compound. It had 3 buildings for the 3 different schools (elementary, middle school, and high school). Going into each one, it felt just like I was back home going to my high school or brother's middle school.

We got to meet some of the students and teachers in their class room and they were doing exactly what a kid back in the U.S. would be doing too. They had arts and crafts for the little kids, the middle schoolers had a computer lab that they had to learn typing and media skills, and of course the seniors weren't do much of anything when we visited them (just like the classmates I left behind for a week).

Elementary School.

Classic American Lockers

The drama class put on a scene of their play for us.

After our tour we had a little reception with food and drinks where we met all the kids in the school that were in BSA (Boy Scouts of America). Among the boys they were almost all from different countries and represented 6 continents! That's a lot different than some of the American kids I know who have never gone past the Mississippi!

Once we had finished out tour we headed back to the hotel to rest while Dr. Qureshi and Mr. James (Our other scout leader) were going to go see the Prince who was the Secretary of The Ministry of Education. We were all kind of bummed we couldn't go, but at the last second they said we COULD!

Originally because of security reasons (al- Qaeda and the Saudi Government hate each other), they didn't want such a big group but I guess they realized that the only damage American Boy Scouts could do would be to start a fire, or accidentally cut themselves with a pocket knife.

After going through security and waiting in his reception room we met Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Saud. (If you think thats a long name, look at Prince William's official title: "His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, Baron Carrickfergus, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.")

The waiting room.

Anyways back to the Prince. After waiting for a few minutes the Prince was ready to see us and so we filed in, shook his hand, and took a seat. I had never really met anyone this important before so I was extremely nervous and uncomfortable in such a formal setting, shoot I even feel out of place at fancy restaurants (SO MANY UTENSILS)!

The Prince with Dr. Qureshi and Mr. James.

All of us listening to the Prince.

The Prince's desk.

But once we sat down and the formal part of the meeting was passed, we had a nice conversations with the Prince about Saudi Arabia and the West. He talked about how both sides have so many misunderstandings with each other because of such different cultures and life styles. He talked about how even amongst the best people in America (like the KKK) and Saudi Arabia (al Qaeda) there are bad apples that make the rest of the good apples look bad. He concluded with a very profound insight that I truly believe is the solution to most of the problems in the world. In know that is a bold statement, but sometimes the simplest sincere changes in the hearts of the people are more influential than the complex foreign policies of any country. He said, "Between two people it is always easier to find differences that can make you enemies, but if you attempt to find similarities, you will find potential to being the best of friends."

What a true statement by the Prince! It is always easier to not like someone or not want to talk to them because it takes less effort. But, if we do make that effort and actually try to get along by finding similarities, you can see the other as a person just like you are.

As you many of you have noticed for my blog entries about Saudi Arabia, I have said that this country has "changed me". Many of you may have thought that it was because of the great sites, good food, and fun times that I said this, which is a reasonable thought. But the true reason I say this country changed me is because my eyes were opened. I saw that there are good people everywhere who love their families, peace, and God just as I do. I saw that though at first look a person and a country can seem very different from yours, a deeper look shows they are almost identical. I realized that no matter where we are born, the skin color we wear, or the language we speak, we are all human. We share this world together and it is up to each of us to make it the world we want. It's too easy for the world to be full of hate and darkness, we need to make the effort to fill it with peace and unity. Saudi Arabia changed my heart to find the similarities between anyone I meet, and then celebrate and share our differences with one another. I know this sounds cheesy to some of you, but to every hard and complex question, the answers are always simple; love, charity, and hope.

I hope my jumbled thoughts made some sense, but now I'll go back to my story.

Once we left the Ministry of Education building we went to one of the Saudi Scout's video game store. It wasn't a video game store where you actually buy games and take them home to play, it was a store where you go to play the video games on their huge screens that people normally wouldn't have at home. It was a really neat idea, and we had a great time playing some video games while also checking our email and of course, checking our Facebook accounts. ;)

After the video game hangout store, we went to a Saudi Aerospace Museum with all sorts of planes, helicopters, and anything that could fly.

Graham and I loved playing in the helicopter... maybe a little too much :)

At the museum they had huge portraits of every Saudi King they've had, so if you've been confused with all the Kings I've been mentioning in all my posts before...here is the order!

King Abdullah (6th King) Current

King Fahd (5th King)

King Khalid (4th King)

King Faisal (3rd King)

King Saud (2nd King)

King Abdulaziz (1st King and Founder of Saudi Arabia)

There ya have it folks! Next post I'm going to quiz you on the order, so study up!

Soon darkness was upon us as we ventured to our next stop, but little did we know that the night has just barely begun! We went to the Al-Hilal Sports Club, which is the equivalent of touring the Laker's or Yankee's Clubhouse. Al-Hilal is THE team in Saudi Arabia. But I use the term "team" loosely because really it's an organization with multiple teams that compete in multiple sports.

LOTS of trophies everywhere!

We toured many of their fields, gyms, and sports complexes that were very extravagant! I thought they were the nicest fields I will have ever seen, but maybe I'll be able to go to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar?

Nice fields.

We played a friendly match of volleyball against their team, but of course we lost even when they were going easy.

The volleyball team.

Us losing...

But what surprised me most about the tour was that some of the teams even lived in the complex!

One of the beds in the dormitory of the complex.

After our tour we went our for a late dinner again to a local restaurant that was so delicious! They had this food that was chicken, mayo, lettuce, and fries all wrapped up inside pita bread like a burrito. Whenever I think about it it instantly makes me hungry! But after the delicious food we went to the mall nearby looking for souvenirs, but mostly we just got stuff at the Saudi Scout Store.

The Saudis were very kind and patient as we went through the mall looking for souvenirs but we weren't really looking for nice modern stuff, we wanted the awesome old antiques. The Saudis didn't really understand because to them the old stuff was junk, just like we would think most old American antiques are junk, but to us the old stuff was the best stuff!

And that was that, the end of another action packed busy day! My next blog post about Saudi Arabia will be my last, but it'll be a long one! I hope you've enjoyed it so far!

Saudi Arabia, the Country that Changed Me (Part 4)

2011-05-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

I want to apologize to all my readers for taking so long with Part 4! I had to wait for my stuff to get here, and then the next day we went out of town for the weekend. I would have put up a post saying I would be late with Part 4 because I was going out of town, but I didn't think that was a smart thing to put on the internet for everyone to see... Anyway here is Part 4, and I PROMISE Part 5 will be up on Wednesday! Enjoy!

Day 4 started like every other day, early! We woke up at 6 am again to get a start on all the things we were going to do for the day. After another delicious breakfast, we went to King Abdulaziz's vacation palace outside of Riyadh. (In case you forgot, King Adulaziz was the Saudi's George Washington figure who unified the country. For those of you struggling with remembering all the Kings I've been mentioning, we will go over them in more detail later.) They said he usually would only stay at this palace for a month or so back in the day, but it looked like no one had lived there for a while.

When we first arrived we were greeted by the little Beaver Scouts (Same rank as American Cub Scouts).

Our Beaver reception.

They read a letter to us and sang a song in English that they had practiced while we did the sword dance.

Reading a letter to us.

They also gave us delicious drinks consisting of mango, pineapple, and many other tropical fruits. That surprised me at first because around me all I could see was desert for miles, but then I realized that they were very close to the tropics of Africa or Southeast Asia.

After our wonderful reception we got a tour of the whole palace. I think they said it was still under renovation, but it was still pretty well kept. Except of course as expected in the desert, there was sand almost everywhere.

Me at King Abdulaziz's Vacation Palace.

Beautiful architecture and detail.

The view.

Once we finished the tour of the palace we headed over to a Prince's office. I didn't understand much of the hierarchy of the Princes, but it was explained to me that this Prince was like an American Governor. He ruled a province of the country, but was still under the command of King Abdullah (the current King). This was a great honor to meet and talk with him, especially because he is a strong supporter of the Saudi Scout Association. (In case you forgot, thats the whole reason I came... Part 1). He talked about the many activities that the Saudi Scouts had been doing in their own country and abroad.

The Capitol.

Me meeting the Prince (Governor).

The Prince.

Soon it was about time for 1 of 5 prayers for the Saudis, so we were honored to be guests at one of the large mosques nearby while they prayed. It was my first time in a mosque, and I'm sure for many of the Muslims there that day it was their first time seeing an American at their for prayer.

To enter we had to take off our shoes, but then Musa stayed back with Dr. Qureshi and they explained everything that was going on while they prayed. I learned a lot because, like I said, I had never been in a mosque before!

You can hear them talking faintly in the video but here are a couple things I learned:
- For their 5 times a day they pray at sun-up, mid-day, 2 hours after mid-day, sunset, and 2 hours after sunset.
- You don't have to go to mosque to pray if your circumstances won't permit, but usually you try to.
- Women don't usually go to mosque and pray at home.
- Muslims have special Friday (their Sunday) services where the imam will give a talk/sermon.

After they had all finished praying the imam came and talked with our group for a little while. We then put our shoes back on, but has to check our shoes first. I forgot to mention this earlier, but just like living in Australia or Arizona (where I'll be going on my church mission... Daily Double: Part 1), you have to check your shoes before you put them back on.

Back home I usually would slip my shoes on without looking inside and shaking it out, but in Saudi Arabia you never know when a scorpion or little critter could go inside your shoes and not like your foot coming in and squishing it.

After we safely put on our shoes, we were off to a scout camp in a nearby town. This time the camp wasn't a school but more of plot of land outdoors. After the greeting cushion (no tent this time) with dates and coffee, we played some volleyball against the Saudi Scouts and had a good time. They had some camels, but we didn't get to ride camels because they weren't in a good mood.

In my previous post I showed a video of me getting on and off a camel (Here), but that time you saw wasn't very bad. Usually they aren't that gentle, and sometimes, like this camp, the camels are just too angry for rides.

Camels in Saudi Arabia have some serious spunk and attitude, that is why Saudis call camels "The Kings of the Road." In the United States we encounter deer in the road and sometimes almost hit them because they freeze up and stop in the middle of the road. In Saudi Arabia sometimes camels get in the middle of the road and stop there because they want to.

Camels in the road.

A couple times a herd would just cross the road and even though the drivers would honk their horns, they wouldn't go anywhere. In fact, I think the more you honked your horn, the more they would want to irritate you and give you the "I'm not going anywhere" look. Here is our encounter with the "Kings of the Road":

Camels... a love/ hate relationship.

Once we go past the camels, we went to the world largest dairy farm! I know what you're thinking, "dairy farms and the desert don't usually go together."But in Saudi Arabia they do! We toured their feeding places, the lactation room, the processing room, and everything! I thought it was way cool because I had never been on a dairy farm ever, let alone in the KSA.

All the cows.

These were baby cows born that day.

When the tour was done we had a nice lunch in a little room at the dairy farm. I expected it to be just mainly milk and cheese products, but they gave us a huge buffet!

After our lunch we were on the go again to finish the schedule of our busy day. Our next stop was to a house converted into a museum. He had a whole bunch of old Saudi artifacts and some old technology that our older scout leaders had to explain. I thought I was pretty tech savy, but some of this stuff I had never seen before! It's crazy how much technology changes and evolves, I'm sure in 20 years I'll have to be explaining Ipods and cameras with lens to my children... I thought I took more pictures, but this was all I could find of the museum:

My only picture of the museum :(

We next went to a scout camp in town, but I felt bad for the scouts because we were running very late and I think we missed out on a lot of things they had wanted to do.

One thing we did do was an obstacle course that they did timed runs on. It was pretty difficult, but one of our guys had a flawless run and was still 7 seconds under the record. After that all of us Americans pretty much gave up because Graham was our best guy :P

After our attempt at the obstacle course we shared some songs with each other while eating desert. The Saudis all had scout songs they knew and liked to sing, but all of us Americans were all from different parts of the U.S. and all had different camp or folk songs. So our solution was to do nursery rhymes or children's songs because we all knew them. So whenever we shared songs our hit song was the hokey-pokey!

After the scout camp we were all a bit hungry and decided to make a stop for some good ol' American comfort food...McDonalds. I sat next to Mousa and Fahad our driver, and it was a blast! They told stories and jokes and Mousa would translate and all of us would laugh. It's amazing how no matter the language or culture, there is nothing more bonding than sharing a good laugh together :)

I was surprised at how nice the McDonalds was in Saudi Arabia... to them it wasn't a low-class restaurant, it was somewhat fancy! They had waiters that brought out our food and cleaned our table afterward, and they even delivered!

An Arab McDonalds!

Fahad and me at McDonalds!

Community fries!

McDonalds delivers.

In general I noticed that Saudis are very happy, generous, and hospitable people. They offered everything to us and made sure our stay was comfortable and went smoothly. Mousa even warned me that you can't tell Saudis that you like something, or else they might give it to you.

Both Musa and Abdulaziz were very kind and friendly, and by the end of the week I felt that we had been friends for years, not days. I all my Saudi friends very much, and hope that someday I can return!

Thanks to everyone for continuing to read my blog, I know I'm bad at being consistent, but I try! I hope you are enjoying my blogs of this trip, and who knows, maybe you will want to go to Saudi Arabia too :)

Saudi Arabia, the Country that Changed Me. (Update)

2011-04-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would let everyone know that I have uploaded all my pictures and videos of Parts 1-3 now! Hope you enjoy them!

Part 4 should be coming out tomorrow or Thursday :)

Intermission (Part 2): Freshmen Year.

2011-04-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well I'm home from college, and what a great time that was! It seemed to go by so fast! I really bonded with the guys on my floor and really miss the crazy times we had already.

Most of us are going on church missions for the next 2 years, and it was amazing to see where everyone was going. Latvia, Ukraine, Japan, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Denmark, and quite a few here in the U.S. too. We truly are going all around the world to give God's love to all His children.

Our last Sunday together we all had a goodbye/ testimony meeting and it was a pretty emotional hour. Those were all great guys with great potential. To me it is so exciting to be part of the youth of this generation, because we truly can change the world. Each of us has a different life and a different story, but we all can make a difference in the world. I believe that with all my heart.

I'm sorry this is kind of a short blog, but I thought I would write down a little something while I'm waiting for my stuff to arrive so I can continue with my Saudi Arabia Series. But, I DID put up all the pictures up that I didn't have at college on the previous 3 blogs. I know I had written a lot, so hopefully you'll enjoy looking at the pictures :)

Hope you're looking forward to Part 4, and I hope everyone had a good Spring Break/ Easter/ Passover!

Intermission: Spring Snow Storm Photos

2011-04-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I would take a brief break from my Saudi Arabia trip series and share a couple pictures that I took a couple weekends ago. That night we got a couple inches of snow and in the morning it was a beautiful blanket with perfect blue skies.

I used a little photo editing, but for the most part they're genuine point and shoots. Hope you enjoy them!

I liked the tree/road combination.

Tried to emphasize the blue sky.

Loved the blanket of snow, went for
Ansel Adams kind of Black and White

White tree, blue sky.

Hinckley Clock Tower.

Ansel Adams type again.

Stores kind of ruined the seemingly endless road.

Close up of spring vs. winter

White and blue.

Saudi Arabia, the Country that Changed Me. (Part 3)

2011-04-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone for the delay for getting Part 3 out! I've been trying to have my family send me ALL my pictures from the trip instead of me taking off my Facebook ones. On Facebook I only put up about 80 or so but back home I have over 200. But since it isn't working, I'll just have to add more pictures later! THEY'RE UP! :)

I also need to add a little to Part 2 as my friend Abdulaziz pointed out, I forgot the dancing and acting out of skits that both sides did! I have been reading my account of the trip and I skipped the whole page! But I loved how throughout the week both sides shared their culture with one another! Though, I found the Saudis' dancing and skits more impressive. They showed us how to beat their drums, dance in the sword dance, and have a great time! I will try to upload pictures and videos of this when I get back home in 9 days! THEY'RE UP TOO! :)

Day 3 was another very busy day in Saudi Arabia! We woke up at 6am as always, had an amazing breakfast at our fancy hotel and hit the road by 7am or so. Our first stop was King Abdulaziz's old palace. He is the King that unified Saudi Arabia and really established it as a nation, kind of like a George Washington figure for them.

The Saudi's George Washington.

I'm not sure what to compare this palace to because in America all the Presidents live in the White House, but imagine if every president got his own White House while in office and thats what Saudi Arabian King's Palaces are like. Each gets his own, but the old palace before him is just left as a museum.

A model of King Abdulaziz's Palace.

Across from this palace was a museum all about Saudi Arabian history and culture. I was in heaven! Dr. Qureshi and I were way behind the group because I wanted to read and understand everything! They had so many things that I loved! It was around this time that Dr. Qureshi started telling me that I should look into the Middle Eastern Studies/ Arabic (MESA) Major at BYU. I had already been accepted to BYU, but I didn't know what I would study or major in. Looking back it was around the time of the museum and day 3 that I really started thinking about it!

After the palace and museum we went back to the hotel for lunch and to rest. I was so tired that I just napped through lunch and slept for 4 hours! It was a combination of jet lag, late nights, early mornings, busy days, and the heat which sucks the energy right out of you!

That night we again went to a scout camp where we rode camels, horses, and raced ATVs. The camels were terrifying! To get up or down the camel seemed to want to buck you off, it was almost like bull riding to me!

I pretended I was awesome... I wasnt.

Then with ATV racing, we had a couple people who were very good and a few that were very bad... I was part of the very bad. I like to go fast and speed, but I'm not very good at technical courses, especially in sand.

Racing ATVs.

As you can see, I'm not very good...

After a while the Saudi Scouts wanted to play soccer, much to the American's horror. We said we would play, but when we huddled up to start the game we asked each other if anyone had every played before. Some of us had played in Elementary school, so they were the leaders of our team. I had only played one year of soccer when I was 5 or 6, but that made me instantly "good". Once the game started the Saudi's got 2 quick goals, and after that I'm pretty sure they went easy on us. They even gave us one of their better players...but we still lost 4-1.

After soccer we went into the cafeteria for a few snacks and drinks while we met many of the Scouts from this camp. Soon we were taken to the game room while dinner was being prepared and we had a great time playing foosball, pool, and ping pong. I love foosball and have gotten pretty good since I have one at home, so I naturally went to play that in the room. Soon I had made a team with one of the Saudi Scouts (I really wish I could remember his name!) and we were unstoppable. He was great at goalie, and I got a few shots in and we were the undefeated team!

The Saudi Scouts soon had to pray to Mecca, so us Americans hung out for a little while, but once the Saudi's came back it was dinner time. It was a very traditional meal, and I loved it! I don't remember exactly what we had, but I do remember it was one of my favorite meals of the trip!

We soon were entertained by the Scouts and a Magician. One of the scouts was very good at sound imitations and it made everyone laugh! The magician was very good, and he did tricks that I had never seen before in America! We also looked at some of the scout's artwork and I was very impressed. Soon we had to leave because a sand storm was coming and we needed to beat it back home to the hotel. We exchanged pins and badges, then ran to the cars.

I was pretty scared of the sandstorm, because all I knew of sandstorms was from Hollywood, like Hildago. In the movie a sandstorm is right behind him and all the other people get buried alive in sand. So as we were driving I was thinking me life was in danger, but it turned out it wasn't imminent death. It mostly just got very hard to see and hard to drive. It was like thick fog vision and ice-like slippery roads mixed together.

What I thought sandstorms were like.

I learned a lot about their culture that day too. In my journal I talked about how I learned that Saudis don't celebrate birthdays. (Which is ironic because today is my birthday). I may not have understood this right, but they don't celebrate it because you only celebrate death, so celebrating your birthday is bad luck because they believe you'll die in that year. One of my Saudi friends has informed me that this isn't right. Not sure how I could have mixed that up, but on his comment below he has links to Wikipedia on how Muslims celebrate birthday :)

More things I learned...
-Muslims can have certain prayers. I was talking with Musa that morning and he said that at morning prayer they had a special rain prayer because it had been very dry lately.
-If a Muslim kills someone than you are either beheaded, pay a fine, or the victim's family doesn't press charges and forgives you. I learned this from one of the scouts whose cousin had killed someone. The victim's father asked for 5 million Riyals for payment, and the cousin did so now he is free.
-Also, like many Americans, Bible names are popular for Muslims too. My friend Musa, his name means Moses. And Abraham is Ibrahim. I thought that was awesome!

Musa! (Which means Moses.)

-Saudi Arabian citizens also don't have to pay taxes. The King and Government don't really need more money, so they don't tax the people. That means that most prices aren't fixed, and most trading is bartering and debating.

I hope everyone is enjoying this series, and once again, sorry for the lack of pictures... come look at these posts in 9 days and they'll be tons :) I also hope that through this blog that everyone can appreciate and understand Saudi Arabia more! I love this country and the wonderful people in it!

(Stay tuned for Part 4 soon!)

Saudi Arabia, the Country that Changed Me. (Part 2)

2011-04-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

When last I left off, I had just had one of the longest days of my life traveling to the KSA, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I went to bed pretty early but I still felt tired when I woke up because we had another long day ahead of us so we woke up early. To me the sunrise seemed very early, but that was because I was used to the North American spring where there is still more dark than light, but in Saudi Arabia they are actually pretty close to the equator so their days and nights are fairly balanced.

Our first stop of the day was Al-Musmak, a historic fort that is the site where Saudi Arabia first started to become a country. It's kind of like America's Lexington or Concord... it's where the fighting first started in their Revolutionary War.

King Abdulaziz, the Saudi's George Washington.

It was a very interesting place and we got a special tour inside of it. It is mostly made of mud and brick with a few wooden supports, so I was a bit scared when they told us we were going to the top. Going to the top wasn't allowed, but they wanted to take us up there anyway...but seeing the No Entrance sign didn't help to my fear of the whole fort crumbling beneath me 4 stories below!

Model of Al Musmak

Al Musmak, the fort.

Me on top of Al Musmak.
(Musa and Fahad holding the banner.)

Dr. Qureshi and I in front of Al Musmak.

After touring Al Musmak, we went to an old fashioned market with all sorts of awesome things! They had old swords, lamps, coins, spices, and anything else you would find in an Indian Jones movie. I'm sure the Saudis thought we were crazy because they just saw all that stuff as old junk, but we saw them as awesome antique souvenirs! We hadn't exchanged our money yet, so we just had to look that day, but later on in the week we went to buy our treasures.

My kind of shop!

Outdoor market.

Musa showing us everything.

I wondered what my mom would
think if I brought home an Arabic Sword!

When we did exchange at the bank, we found the exchange rate to favor the dollar very well. 1 U.S. dollar was 3.5 Riyals and Riyals were worth a lot in their country. An example of this is buying a soda. With our US $1 we got 3.5 riyals, and 1 riyal could buy a normal sized soda! So to us we could buy 3 sodas with $1, where in the U.S. 1 soda is probably around $1.50! Gas was also amazingly cheap! Back in the U.S. gas was $3 a gallon, but in Saudi Arabia gas was about .50-.60 riyals so about .15-.20 U.S. cents!

After the market we then went to former King Fahd's cultural center outside of town. It was an interesting building that had a large theatre, museum, reception halls, and planetarium. It was a enormous building that could fit thousands of people in a night. But the strange thing was, it hadn't been used in years! You see, using an old king's palace or cultural center is like using your sibling's or cousin's old hand-me-downs. You want your own! So in Saudi Arabia there are dozens of old buildings from old kings that are maintained, but not used very often (if ever).

King Fahd.

Here is a stain glassed window at the cultural center showing the former king,
the current king, and the next prince in line.

The theatre.

After the cultural center we went back to the hotel for a couple hours to hang out and rest. Usually during this time I would write in my journal about the first half of the day, and then before bed I would finish writing the rest of our adventures. Looking back now, I'm so glad I did that instead of napping like everyone else, because this record is a lot more memorable than a nap.

That night we went to a "scout camp" at a local school, and for the rest of my trip it seemed every night we went to a "scout camp"for dinner and evening activities. I put scout camps in qutoes because in the U.S. we think of scout camps as little lodges and dirt patches for tents in the mountains. In Saudi Arabia a "scout camp" is an elaborate compound. These "camps" are at schools and have their own designated area like a soccer field or basketball court. They usually had a greeting tent (we'll talk about that later), permanent tents, basketball, soccer, and all sorts of toys close by. Some had ATV racing tracks, other had horses to ride, one had a camel we took turns riding, and most had game rooms with ping pong and pool.

This was part of the scout camp that
we visited that night.

Once we got to this scout camp we first were greeted by all the Saudi Scouts in their uniforms and in their ranks, and then headed into the greeting room. As I said in my previous post, the Saudis are some of the most generous people in the world and show wonderful hospitality; these greeting rooms showed that. Every single place we went, we were taken to greeting rooms. Scout camps, museums, Bedouin tents, everything! What is a greeting room you ask? This picture shows one, but mostly they were tents or rooms that guests first go to and receive dates, water, and coffee. Then you mostly socialize and hang out! I loved that custom!

This is a greeting room. Everyone sit on the cushions bordering
the outside and accepts dates, water, and coffee.

The only problem was that me being part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons), our religion prohibits drinking coffee, alcohol, and wine. I asked Dr. Qureshi, who is also a Mormon, what to do in this situation because I didn't want to offend anyone and wanted to show gratitude for their hospitality. He said that I must accept the coffee, water, and dates, but eating and drinking them wasn't required. I quickly soon made a deal with the other Scouts who didn't share my faith. They quickly got addicted to the coffee because Arabic coffee has LOTS of caffeine, and I soon got addicted to dates because they are AMAZING! So us scouts being thrifty, we would switch. I would eat their dates, they would drink my coffee, and everyone was happy! (Sidenote: It's said that a white man can only have 4-5 dates before he has fiber overdose and has an unpleasant bathroom trip... but I guess I'm no normal white man because I had about 10-12 a day and was perfectly normal!)

After the greeting tent, we got to meet every scout at the camp. We traded pins and badges that we had collected for that very reason. I felt bad it was all I had, because they're pins were medal and fancy, but I felt like our badges weren't nearly as cool. Maybe the grass is always greener on the other side? We then had some free time and some of us played basketball against the Saudis. It was interesting to see throughout the week what sports our different countries valued. The Saudis didn't care much for basketball and didn't know very much about football, but they were very good at soccer and loved racing!

Saudi Scouts showing us their songs.

By then it was close to sunset, and writing this blog right now, I really miss those sunsets. It just felt great, after a long hot day the nights would cool off and a nice breeze would feel wonderful! We had dinner there with kabobs of lamb and beef, which were very good. Throughout the trip I noticed that not only did I love the taste of everything because it was so fresh, but that my stomach agreed with everything too!

Quickly after dinner the scouts and everyone there had to wash up and pray to Mecca. It was very interesting because I had never seen a Muslim pray to Mecca before, but afterward I had nothing but respect for them! They are truly devoted religious people, and I admire that very much! After they prayed they even taught us a little class about what they believe and explained a lot of things. One thing that surprised me most was that they believe in most of the Old Testament and believe that Jesus was an inspired prophet. I also learned that they pray 5 times a day, but on Friday it's different because they go to Mosque and have special prayer and lessons from the Imam. As I was learning this I couldn't help think of how many "Christian" friends I have who rarely ever pray or go to church, yet here the Muslims are doing it everyday! I was inspired by their devotion!

I asked if I could take a picture while we respectfully watched.

I hope people are liking this series, and I hope some of my Saudi friends are able to read this and understand my story. I loved this trip and want everyone to be able to have the chance to learn of the wonderful country of Saudi Arabia!

(Stay tuned for Part 3 in the next couple days!)

Saudi Arabia, the Country that Changed Me. (Part 1)

2011-04-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

Today exactly a year ago, I was in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia starting a trip that I will never forget. Before going I was nervous because before the trip I had only been to Canada and Mexico before, but those were merely day trips. For this trip I was staying in a foreign country 6,700 miles away from my home (yes I looked it up :P ).

I should probably explain why I went to Saudi Arabia before I get too far into the story... so here it is. In February I was in school and my mom texted me out of the blue and said, "Would you want to go to Saudi Arabia with Dr. Qureshi and meet the royal family in April? You need to let me know ASAP!" Of course I was super flustered but always willing to go on an adventure, so without knowing anything else, I said yes!

Once I got home my parents explained that Dr. Qureshi (our neighbor and church friend) was part of a group of 12 scout people that were going on an exchange for the Boys Scout of America. One of the kids had dropped out and since Dr. Qureshi was in charge, he picked me as long as I fit four requirements...

1. Be an Eagle Scout

2. Have a Passport

3. Be under 18 by April 1st.

4. Pay the $800 for the trip that was already super-subsidized.

To me, I knew this was a blessing from God, because I had met all these requirements!

1. When my family moved from California to Washington D.C. I was close to getting my Eagle Scout Award but had little motivation to get it done any time soon. But since it's near impossible to transfer records when you move, I hurried up and finished it weeks before we moved. If we hadn't moved when we did I probably would not have had my Eagle Scout, and wouldn't have been able to go.

2. Before we had decided to move the previous summer, we had scheduled a camping trip to Canada for a couple weeks, and to get into Canada you need a passport, so our whole family got them. Of course, once we found out we were going to move we didn't go on our trip, but I had gotten my passport. If this hadn't happened I wouldn't have been able to go because passport stuff takes months and I only had days to send in my passport for permission to get into Saudi Arabia.

3. Our trip was planned from April 1st to April 9th. My birthday is April 12th. If it were just a few days later than it had been planned, I wouldn't have been able to go.

4. The $800 was a big load of cash that I didn't have. My parents didn't have it either so we were afraid that I would have to borrow money somehow. But then God answered our prayers again! That winter Washington D.C. was pounded by 3 blizzards. 2 of the 3 blizzards over 3 feet deep were after I found out I needed $800. So I didnt what any enterprising high school student does...I snow plowed and shoveled people driveways for money. Luckily Dr. Qureshi was out of town and let us use his new snowblower as long as we blowed his for free. So we plowed his driveway and knocked on every door in the neighborhood to see if they would like us to plow their driveway. Most people didn't have snowblowers, (and in 3 feet of snow it's impossible to shovel your driveway in less than 3 hours.) In two days working a total of 24 hours, we raised the $800 for my trip. It was quite ironic shoveling and plowing snow to go to the scorching dry desert...but whatever gets the job done right?

So that was that, I met all 4 requirements with the blessing of God, and there is no denying it was His help that got me on my trip...Now back to the story!

From Washington D.C. to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was around 13 hours long and it was about 15 hours to our final destination Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (The Capitol). We flew Saudi Arabian Airlines, which was the nicest airline I had ever flown in in my life! The had TV screens in front of every seat on which you could watch any of their 50 movies for free!

They also served full course meals (free again), but if that wasn't enough there was a buffet of free food too! When one of the guys that was with me came back with food from the back, I asked where he got it and he said, "Dude there is a huge buffet in the back, just grab what you want!" I was terrified! I thought for sure there was no way the buffet could be free too and I thought they would arrest us for stealing!!

Eventually I went back there and asked the flight attendant 3 times making sure it truly was free... it was, I felt like a dummy.

They also had these cameras on the front and bottom of the plane so you could see live images of what you are flying over and flying into! I always loved the window seat so I could see everything, but this was the window seat times 10!

Screen showing flight.

Once we landed at the Riyadh Airport we learned quickly that Saudis are some of the most generous and hospitable people in the world. They took us through a VIP lounge and merely put our bags through a meal detector. (Unlike coming back to the U.S. where we had to declare and show everything!) They showered us with gifts and took plenty of pictures and off we went!

Driving in Saudi Arabia was definitely a thrill ride! If it were a ride at Disneyland the line would be hours long. We had two government cars that took us everywhere and our drivers were amazing! If I were driving we would have gotten in dozens of car accidents, but these guys didnt get in a single one while we were there, they were truly professionals! City streets..85mph, freeways...more than that! But by the end of the week I loved our drivers, they were brothers and were so nice and very funny! Even though they didnt speak any English at all, we had translators at the end of the week tell us they called us their kids, and they were right it did feel like that!

Fahad and Sultan. The Racing Brothers!

Sultan, Me, and Fahad at McDonalds.

After we had driven from the airport to our hotel we took a little breather (We had just gone over 30+ hours without sleep), and then that night we had a little news conference thing with the Saudi Scout Association. In my journal that night I wrote, "We went to this big conference room and all sat in these super fancy, super comfortable chairs. They filmed us and took our pictures and everytime someone walked in the room we stood up, shook their hand, said our name, took a picture, and sat back down."

View outside my hotel.

Front view of our fancy hotel.

After we had all greeted everyone and sat down for good, they passed around this communal incense holder. The Saudis being the wonderful guests they always are, gave us Americans the incense first. They gave it to Anish, from Dallas and not knowing what to do with it, he put his face close to the incense and smoked it through his nose.

Immediately all the Saudis start laughing and laughing while Anish is coughing and coughing. Once everyone settled down (which was a while) one of the kind Saudis showed us the right way to use it... merely hold the incense in front of you and waft it onto your clothes so the smell sticks and you smell nice. (Sidenote: I thought this idea was genius! In America we could all have so Old Spice incense and at a party just waft it on your clothes so no one feels self conscious about smelling bad!)

After exchanging gifts and talking about our plane ride to the camera, we were off to bed. The time difference is 8 hours, but after not sleeping on the plane was zonked right away. And that was Day One of my Saudi Arabian trip!

(Stayed tuned for Part Two...)

My Comedy Show has been too serious!

2011-03-30T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well it's nearing the end of my first year at college, which is pretty bittersweet. I've enjoyed college and the experiences this year, but I'll definitely miss my Freshmen year once it's over. They say Freshmen year is the most fun you'll ever have, and I definitely agree with that! It's kind of a weird feeling because I wish I had been more outgoing and involved in things, but at the same time I loved my Freshmen year just the way it was.

As you can tell from my title, I've realized that my blogs lately have been pretty deep spiritual and philosophical stuff, and I need to lighten it up a bit. Sharing thoughts and ideas are always a good thing, but I'll admit it's not a very exciting blog to read. So from now on I'll try to live up to my name of "My Life is a Comedy Show."

I truly do believe that if I had cameras following me all day I would have one of the most popular TV shows in the country. Not because I'm awesome or that I tell funny jokes, it's just that my life is so crazy, ironic, and awkward that I'm sure to someone else it would be great entertainment. Don't buy it? Listen to dinner last night at Tucanos....

Tucanos is a Brazilian restaurant where they bring huge chunks of meat to your table and they cut it right onto your plate and it's all you can eat. Well the 10 of us that went had a bit of a competition to see who could last the longest before getting full.

An hour and a half later of eating we were all stuffed and headed out to the cars. As we were walking we hear someone have a hefty barf and turn around to find Alex just smiling back at us. We ask him if he just threw up, he says yes and keeps walking.

As we keep talking and walking on our way to the car he threw up 4 times mid-conversation! It was the awesomest thing ever, major respect. He just would be talking, puke, and finish right where he left off.

Then me, being the person I am, said loud enough for this family walking by, "That's the last time I go drinking with you Alex! But do you think you're still ok to drive?"

Of course we weren't drinking and he was fine, but I could only imagine what that family thought was going on!

So that's just dinner for me, so you can imagine what breakfast and lunch are like for me! (And if a reality TV show director is reading this post, I'm completely available and ready to negotiate a contract)

I hope everyone is having a good week and is looking forward to April Fool's Day like I am!!

Daily Double Part Two: Live Your Own Life, Not Others.

2011-03-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I pretty much failed at getting two blog posts out today... and I apologize. I have 4 finals going on this week and I thought I could squeeze in time in between studying to write up 2 blog posts. I didn't, but I figured half and hour late or so is better than nothing? Today's post is something that I've been thinking about for a while. It's asking why do we let what people think about us influence us?

This first started a couple weeks ago when I visited my Grandparents in California with my sister. We hadn't seen them since last summer and so there was a lot of catching up and talking to do. After a few hours of this, we all decided it was time for bed. As I walked by my grandparent's door on my way to bed I heard my grandma say, "They sure good young people." This really meant a lot to me because I realized, thats what I want people to think of me. Being cool, popular, or funny is all second to people thinking I'm genuinely good and nice. So I got thinking, what do people seem to want others to think?

The world will tell you many things. Society says, "To be cool you have to wear ____, do ______, say _____, and be _____." The only problem with this, as you can see, is the blanks. The blanks change; what is cool one day or one season sure isn't cool the next. Society for the most part is wrong and constantly changing its mind, so why do we waste time trying to chase something that never can be caught?

In my history class my teacher really focuses on the 'so what?' aspect of history. His main focus of the class is to show us the blunders and successes of previous peoples and times, and to learn from them. While thinking about this topic of following the crowd/ society we happened to be talking about ancient China and their famous foot-folding trend. When learning about this ancient activity, it was easy to think, "Why on earth would they do that? Didn't they know it would handicap them for life?" but then I realized that every society has something like that. Sure drugs, plastic surgery, and following the crowd is 'the thing' but how long will it take for us to look back and ask what the point of all of those things were? When will we realize that when we listen to others to fit in we are really just handicapping ourselves? When will we realize that nobody is perfect and that society has built impossible expectations?

Their is nothing worse in life then losing opportunity, hope, and potential. Jeff Whittier once said, "For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'" I truly believe that as you study and work hard that you will have more opportunities come your way. But when you are lazy and choose not to do well in school and waste your time on unimportant things, you are closing the many doors of opportunity and narrowing your options.

To bring this tangent back to relevance, we need to realize that when we let people's opinions make our decisions for us, we are just handicapping ourselves. When we let other people tell us what is most important, we are losing our personal potential. Inside all of us is hidden talents and differences that make us who we are... but when we become 'just like everyone else' we all lose that special thing about ourselves. Why does society make us assimilate to what it wants? I wish we could all be ourselves and accept our differences rather than frown upon anything foreign to us.

In my first blog post I shared my belief that their is too much hatred and prejudice and not enough love and acceptance. I think that if the world could change this attitude, we could all be some much happier and feel the love. To God we are all His children and wants nothing but the best for us. So are we above God to not want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and love one another?

Lets love more, judge less, and be ourselves.

Daily Double Part One: My Mission!

2011-03-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Today is your lucky day! Because I haven't been on in so long, I have a lot to talk about...so today I'm doing a Daily Double, which means two back-to-back blog posts! This is part one, stay tuned later for part two!

It's been a really long time since I have written on this blog. As always I have a lot to say, but I'm never sure how to really say it. It's quite frustrating because you want to share your thoughts, but not sound hypocritical or full of yourself while saying it. I guess I've always been the kind of person who always analyzes something and finds what can be improved and thats kind of what this blog has become. I see things in the world that need to be fixed and try to share those thoughts. I'm far from perfect, but maybe these blog posts will help someone learn from my short experience so far in life.

Part 1 today is about probably the biggest moment of my life so far... my mission. Yep, I'm going to be a white shirt wearing-bike riding-missionary! I have been called as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons) going to the Arizona, Tempe Mission speaking Spanish. I go into the Missionary Training Center June 22nd and will learn to speak Spanish in 2 months. As a missionary we don't get to pick where we think would be nice or fun to go to, we merely submit our papers saying we are able, worthy, and ready then they assign us where they think we are meant to be. You may think that sounds a bit strange, but I truly believe that this is an inspired call for me.

As a missionary I'm going to go for 2 straight years with no vacations, no breaks, and little contact with the 'outside world'. The reason I say little contact is because as missionaries we try to stay focused on our job and going out to see movies, watching the news, or reading newspapers doesn't really fit in our schedule. Granted we do have one day a week to do laundry, exercise, go to meetings, and possibly site see, but other than that it's work work work. I'm going to have to get used to waking up at 6:30am and being back to my apartment by 9pm. I'm going to have to get used to being out preaching in the hot Arizona summer. Im going to have to get used to living on my own with a randomly assigned companion who you live, teach, and do everything with.

You may be reading this and thinking, "Miles has gone crazy! Who would sign up for that, especially when YOU have to pay to go?!"
My answer to that is when you truly believe in something that will change someone's life forever, you would want to share it too. The way I see it is like reading a really good book or going to a really good restaurant. If you really liked it then do you just keep it for yourself? No, you tell people like your friends and family about it! (Have you every read ____? It's so good, you have to read it!) Thats the way I see my religion. Being a Mormon is the most important thing in my life. If someone asks you to describe what defines you, most would say where they are from, their profession, or their education. I would say that what defines me most is being Mormon. If you're asking right now "What's so important to Miles about being Mormon?" Then we need to sit down and chat, because I couldn't fit everything in this blog post. But I will tell you that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what gives me the most true happiness. Sure Disneyland, or going to the beach makes you happy for a week or so, but believing and coming to Christ gives true happiness that never fades.

I'm sure I'll write more about going on my mission in later posts, especially as it gets closer and closer. But right now, I feel like I'm rambling and overwhelming all of you not familiar with Mormon Missionaries.

The last thing I want to say is that when I go into the MTC, I've started my official mission. As a missionary we are allowed to email our family every week, and call them one Christmas and Mother's Day, but I'm allowed to write letters to everyone all the time! So if you want to still keep in touch, write me a letter! I would really appreciate it :) I might be a little slow writing back because we are so busy, but I promise I will try to respond back as soon as I can! You are all great awesome people, and I want to thank everyone one of you for the friendships we have made!

STAY TUNED for Part 2 of the Daily Double....

God Knows Better, So Quite Whining.

2011-02-07T23:46:00.000-08:00

It's past midnight. I have so many tests and papers due its crazy, and yet here I am blogging. As some of you may know, I'm preparing to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). This isn't some trip where I go for a couple weeks and vacation in a 3rd world country. This is a 2 year commitment working harder than I've ever worked before. I still don't know where I'm going, but where I'm going isn't the point. The main thing to me is that I go wherever God wants me to go.

Throughout my life I've been taught that unexplained coincidences are called chance or fate, but I've come to know what they really are...God's hand in our lives. Nothing that happens to us is merely a role of the dice, God is all knowing and all powerful. It was not by chance that I grew up with the family that I did and that I've made the friends with the people I have. God's hand is in everything, and from each experience we are supposed to learn something from it. When I moved from California to Washington DC I thought my life was over. I thought I wouldn't make any friends and that I would hate it. Sure it wasn't easy, but that experience has taught me so much and has truly shaped who I am.

Last April, coming up to almost a year ago, I went to Saudi Arabia. It was an opportunity that came out of the blue one day in the middle of school. My mom texted me to ask if I wanted to go, but I had to make a decision right then. Not knowing how I was going to pay for it, or make up for all the school I was going to miss, I said yes. It was by no coincidence that one major snowstorm later I had gotten the $800 for the trip in two days.

In Saudi Arabia my eyes were opened and I really found some motivation and some ideas on what I wanted to do with my life. I got to see the world, especially a wonderful part of the world that most Americans don't get to see. The Saudis were amazing kind, faithful people, and while I was there I picked up some Arabic. My favorite word by far is, Inshallah. Which in slang means "hopefully" but the direct meaning is "If God wills it." I love that phrase!! It is just so true! Everything we do here on life is God's plan for us. Though we can make our own decisions, he already knew we would make it. I'm not quite sure how that works, but God is perfect and knows everything and I don't... so I'll take his word for it!

Sometime I feel like we all need to just take a step back and look at the bigger picture. What am I supposed to learn from life right now? Is what I'm doing right now going to be important 20 years down the road? Are my actions leading to true happiness or am I living in the moment and preventing further growth and experiences down the road? All these are things that I constantly need to ask myself. I don't claim to be smarter or better than anyone else, but I have realized that we need to be honest with ourselves and evaluate what really matters.

I'm not sure if any of this made sense to any readers who actually bothered to spend some time looking at this, but it's just a lot of what I've been feeling. I feel like my life really isn't my own, but that I owe everything to God. And with that, It's bedtime!

FLASHBACK: Temple Square Lights

2011-01-17T12:24:00.000-08:00

If you've been following the blog at all then you probably realized that I pretty much dropped off the face of the earth between Thanksgiving and New Years. I apologize for that! So to try to make up for it I'm uploading a couple pictures that I took at Temple Square in Salt Lake. Sammi and I went up for a day trip to SLC and we had a great time! I even tried messing around with the pictures and editing them to try to bring out my inner-photographer. Some turned out pretty nice, others kinda alright...

The front face of the temple.

Side view.

Another side view with color.

Went for a vintage look for the tabernacle.

The spires just seem to reach to heaven.

No idea what this building is called... but the lights looked cool.

Little manger scene on the lawn.

This Seagull Monument is actually where my Dad
proposed to my Mom... after a romantic hockey game.

I think this one is my favorite.

Sammi also took some great pictures! And by great, I mean near professional, she is a really talented photographer :)

New Year brings a New Life

2011-01-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

I've really been awful at keeping up with this blog! Sorry to those who actually read this thing, and to those who don't, you're missing out :P SO much has happened since Thanksgiving when I last posted. I'll try to catch up on everything that's been going on!

After Thanksgiving was the dreaded Finals Week here at BYU. I was fairly stressed, but not too much. I am a firm believer in the philosophy that paying attention in an one hour class is better than making up for not paying attention with hours of studying. You may think I'm crazy, but I almost got straight A's my first semester here in college...(the only reason I didn't was because I didn't listen to my own advice and zoned out in Political Science). This Winter Semester looks pretty promising though, I have 5 classes all on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 9am-3pm. But on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go skiing up at Sundance :) You may think I'm a slacker or that I'm not taking college seriously, but skiing is my passion.

Ever since I was little I've dreamed of coming to BYU like my grandpa, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings have. Ever since that dream though, I've also dreamed of skiing here too! Skiing just clears my mind, takes out my worries, aggressions, and problems. It's my quiet escape from this world. There is something about the mountains that gives me peace and inspiration. When I used to live in California my family would often go up to Tahoe and Donner Lake (where my grandpa used to have a cabin). The Sierra Nevadas have a very special place in my heart because of all the wonderful memories I had up there.

Anyway, I got a little off-topic, but then again this is MY blog, so if you don't like it...tough. :P

Christmas was wonderful! I got to fly home on the 16th, which was pretty early. I drove with Sammi (my girlfriend) to the SLC airport and we both hung out together until my flight left around noon and hers a few hours after that. The flight was crazy!!! Everyone was super stressed and angry so there were a few mental break downs on both my flight to Denver then to Dulles. One story I'll share is this guy put his suitcase in an overhead bin but it had moved around with other people putting in their luggage, so now his luggage didn't fit. When the flight attendant asked him to make it fit, he flipped and started yelling at everyone and took out everyone else's luggage and threw it on the floor and put his in and sat down....NUTS.

But once I got home my sister, Joce and my mom picked me up! My dad was still in Germany for business so I didn't see him until a couple days later, but it was all good! My flight came in fairly late but I stayed up even later talking to my family (mostly my sister who I hadn't seen in a year and a half). It's amazing to me how being away from your family for an extended period of time makes you love and appreciate them even more. You forget all the annoying or means things they have done to you and just look past it to see them as your true best friends.

My sister and I are really tight so it was great to see her and catch up. Now she is here with me at BYU and already we've hung out and had meals together :)

Christmas morning was great being around family! There weren't many presents and the few we got, we already knew so it was more of a happy family bonding time :) Which, I truely liked better because in such a blessed family and country, there is few things that I could even imagine I would want. Key word: want. There is barely anything that an average American family truely needs. We may say that we need a new car or iPod or some new gadget, but compare yourself to the rest of the world, and even a fridge is a major luxury to them.

New Years was a great time too! My family went over to the McGann's house and had quite a party! I love the McGanns and all they do for me, they feel like a second family to me :)

Now I'm back here at BYU living in the dorms and going through life. I'm working on my mission papers, and some guys are already getting their calls. So far we have had people on my floor get called to California, Missouri, France, Mexico, and Latvia (Baltic Mission). Pretty soon, I'll be getting my call and I'm super excited! Some missionaries say they want to go to a certain place or really don't want to go another, but I'm ready to go wherever! I'm ready to teach and come to know any race, gender, or religion. All people are God's children and I'm ready to show them His love for them :)

I love you all and for your friendship!
-Miles

Got Some Splaining to Do

2010-12-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a while since I last blogged, I've been pretty busy! College Finals are coming up soon and teachers are going full force with tests, papers, and projects.

First thing that happened during my absence was my brother's birthday! Collin had his 22nd Birthday on his mission in Houston, Texas which keeps his birthday tradition alive. I don't think he has had his birthday at home in over 7 years? Our family likes to travel for Thanksgiving and the past 3 years he has been at college or on his mission. We'll see if he can keep the streak going! Here is what he said in his weekly email home about his birthday...

"My Birthday was wonderful. We started celebrating on Friday, since that was when we were together in the chapel for District Meeting. Afterwards, the Hermanas ran and told me that someone needed my help in fixing a bicycle in the kitchen, but it was a birthday surprise. The English Elders where waiting there and sang to me and we ate "Apple Pie Cake." Which was really good. On the actual birthday, I had dinner with the Hernandez Garcia family and we watched The Prophet of the Restoration with them. They had been dying to see it for months, when they first heard about it. They loved it.

I loved all the presents! Especially the CD's! I've been listening to them whenever we're at home. I love all of them, I can't decide on a favorite. I have been saving the Christmas one for after Thanksgiving though. I had a really fun time with the trick candles. I gave two of them to the Hernandez Garcia kids, because they were absolutely amazed by their magical properties."

I love getting his emails because he just sounds so happy being on his mission! I know my mission is coming soon and I'm also so excited to go share the thing that I love most!

The next thing that happened was THE BLIZZARD OF THE DECADE! The news said it was imminent death, we were going to be buried in snow and emergency crews would find our frozen corpses later and we could only pray for a chance of survival.

They even closed the Cannon Center early so that the employees could get home safely...and then it came!!!

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Andre and I called it, they were freaking out about nothing. This is the picture I took expecting to see snow above our windows. Oh mass media...

Next thing that happened that week was Thanksgiving! Sammi and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with her two roommates Jessica and Meghan. Unfortunately we all forgot to take pictures the whole day :P I'm sure Sammi's Mom isn't too happy about that...

It was pretty lonesome Thanksgiving Break here at BYU. I did talk to my family but it was just very quiet in the dorms.

Pretty much a ghost town.

Here are some picture that I took of the scenery though :)

Eventually another storm did come and bring some snow Sunday. It was pretty fun because instead of a floor meeting we had a floor snowball fight.

This week has been crazy and super busy so not much really has happened. I've just been doing my work, doing what I gotta do. I'm really excited to come home for Christmas and see everyone, but also I'm really looking forward to a break from college!

One thought that I had on my mind recently is something my Book of Mormon teacher said. He said, "You can never have enough of what you don't need." I think this is truly a profound statement that he just said casually, and didn't even realize how much it impacted me. Here at college and especially during the holidays you learn what truly is important and what makes you happy. In America we have so much and are spoiled compared to the rest of the world who have barely anything. Yet, though we have so much, we are not truly happy. An easy, lazy life full of expensive toys isn't happiness, that's pleasure. True happiness comes from family, friends, accomplishments, and trials. Thats what I'm thankful for this time of year and I home I can keep this perspective throughout the year.

"It's all fun and games until someone yells Avada Kadava"

2010-11-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

Guess I'll have to explain this title... So Megan Bahr and I were up on campus watching people walk by. I brought my camera because I thought a bunch of people would be all dressed up for the Harry Potter movie tonight at midnight. I told Megan this and she said, "I wish we had our own magic Harry Potter world..." and I replied back, "Ya, well it's all fun and games until someone yells Avada Kadava." (The Killing Curse). She laughed a little, but was mostly upset I killed her dreams of a magic world...

So here at college I've really been into doing fun things like being in movies (Deception and BYU vs. UoU Food Drive) other fun random activities. Last night as a pre-celebration of the Harry Potter movie coming out, I went to the Harry Potter Fest that BYU put on. But I didn't go as a wizard, I went as a snitch. Yep, the golden ball that the seekers must find in the Wizard game of Quidditch.

Basically my job was to run around with a gold outfit during the game of Quidditch and not got my flags pulled. It was a lot of fun!

I've noticed that most of the best and most fun things I've done at college have been spur of the moment decisions. Carpe Diem!

Also, today I found out that my family got a puppy! Its a little Beagle puppy and they're planning on naming it Bailey. It's been over a year that Greta, my last dog died. She was a Yellow Lab and such a nice, sweet dog. I kinda feel a little sad that we are replacing her, but I'm also pretty excited for Bailey :)

I'm pretty pumped for Thanksgiving Break, it's definitely a much needed break! We only have a few more weeks until finals and I'm definitely feeling it drawing closer and closer. I'm just going to have a nice relaxing Thanksgiving here at school, but will definitely miss my family. I won't see them (and Bailey now too) until Christmas.

Overall life is pretty good, we've had some flooding problems in our hall but thats about it. I think I'll end with a funny little status I saw on Facebook:

My First Post

2010-11-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well, I have joined the blogosphere! Pretty crazy, I never really saw myself ever making one but here I am! I'm not one really to toot my own horn, so I think this blog will mostly be about insights and experiences I've had that people will enjoy.

I guess I should start off explaining the title. My life is crazy and sometimes I feel like things that happen in my life could be a sketch for series for a comedy show. Sometimes situations are just so bizarre or badly timed that I think that someone must be watching me on a screen and just laughing non-stop. I hope to share these experiences so that the world can get enjoyment out of "my comedy show."

I don't claim to really know anything, in fact I've heard it said something along the lines of, "You don't really know anything until you realize that you know nothing." But I sure have one heck of an opinion.

I guess it's important in my first blog to come straight out and say that I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormon). Recently it has become kind of an unpopular thing to say, but I'm proud to say I'm a Mormon true and blue.

I do think of myself as a pretty tolerant and respecting person no matter what lifestyle, and that is why I ask the same for mine. I'm no hippie, but I do believe that the world is full of too much hate and could use a little more understanding and brotherly love.

I guess this is a good start, I don't know, I'm new to this whole thing?? But if anyone has really bothered to read any of this, thank you :)

I think I'll try to finish each post with a quote or scripture that might spur some thoughts:

"Each person knows that he is a something.
He also knows that a something could not be produced by a nothing.
Therefore, whatever brought man and everything else into existence also had to be a 'something'.
It follows that this 'something' which did all of this organizing and arranging would have to be all knowing to the full extent required for such an organization and arrangement.
This 'something' would therefore have to be superior to everything which resulted from this effort.
This element of superiority makes this 'something' the ultimate good for all that has been organized and arranged.
In the Anglo-Saxon language, the word for supreme or ultimate good is 'God.'"
-John Locke