Временно Жизнь

Spontaneity At It's Best

Sunday, July 27, 2008

This has certainly been a very busy and exciting week. As I write this I’m sitting in the airport awaiting my flight to Amsterdam (I’ll talk about that in a minute). This past Friday several American friends and I took an Elektrichka, aka electric train, to a smaller city where we held a camp for those who attend our weekly baseball games. It was incredibly relaxing and spiritually refreshing for me to get out of the big city and spend a few days camping with friends. From Friday through Sunday we had Biblical lessons on love and friendship, home cooked meals, an “Amazing Race” competition, and learned how to hunt for mushrooms and berries. The berries were delicious (I think they were huckleberries?) Anyway, I think everyone really had a good time. (click pictures on right to see all that happened during the camp)
So just a few days ago my Dad called me up and asked me a shocking question: “Hey Peyton, why don’t you come home and surprise mom for her birthday?” Now this would be a perfectly reasonable and valid request…only my Mom’s birthday was in 3 days!! After some careful thinking and research for plane tickets on the internet, we concluded that it could be done. Dad bought the tickets and I was on a plane the next day to surprise my Mom in Alaska.

UPDATE:
I made it safe to Alaska and apparently Dad had already put much thought in how he would have me surprise her. He picked me up from the airport and explained to me, in detail, what to do. We pull up to our house and he parks the car behind a pine tree so that Mom couldn’t see me waiting in the car. Dad says, “Wait here 3 minutes and then come knock on the door. I’ll make mom answer it.” At this point I’m already so anxious to surprise her and I started wondering what she will do. I was actually afraid that she might possibly pass out in shock. Well, 3 minutes were up and it was time for me to go knock at the door. I quickly got out of the car and approached the house. I knocked and heard everyone talking inside the house but no one answered. I knocked a second time but a little harder so that they would know that someone was waiting at the door. Mom opened the door and I yelled “SURPRISE!!!”. She stared at me for about 3 seconds before she broke out with loud screams. Haha…I’ve never heard her scream that loud! She then began to cry, I’m assuming tears of joy, as she hugged me. All in all, she was most definitely surprised and excited about my unscheduled visit. Below are some pictures I’ve taken during my stay so far. More pics to come.


Guess what my first home cooked meal was back in America? Mom made BBQ, Filipino egg rolls, rice, and some king crab legs! It was glorious.



Real milk!! Not some boxed milk that can be stored at room temperature.



Dad and Mom.



That's my Auntie on the bottom left.



Dad doing a Sunkist advertisement.



Check out the reflection of the mountain on the water. Seriously, Alaska is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.



That's a fishing net with a diameter of 5 feet! Every year thousands of Alaskans head to the Kenai River to catch red salmon. This type of fishing, known as dip-netting, is only allowed by Alaskan residents and a person can only use a fishing net. The limit on fish a person can take home per day is 25. We came back with only 6. :(





Typical tools used when fishing for salmon. The wooden baton is used to bang the fish on the head and kill them. This makes it easier to untangle them from the net. That semi-circle looking blade is a typical Alaskan Ulu knife. It was originally used by Eskimos for skinning animal skins and cleaning fish.




Salmon fillet. Yuuuuuuummmmm.

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