In Paris

May 23, 2007 at 4:34 pm · Filed under Life

Paris in pictures.

Hey, we’re in Paris! Yesterday was a busy day of crazy shuttle drivers, Notre Dame, and getting lost in the incredibly confusing streets of Paris (don’t worry–we found the hotel eventually).

Today, we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and also visited the Louvre. Taking the stairs and going early in the morning is definitely the trick to the Eiffel Tower. The view from the top was pretty amazing–I felt dizzy just looking that far down. At the Louvre, we saw several of the big names: Mona Lisa, Code of Hammurabi, and, of course, the Human-headed Bull Genies (see my photos if you’re curious on that one). I really don’t know much about art, so I was a little lost. The place is just so huge that I that I didn’t even know what to look for. Even so, it was still a great experience.

Bolt and I are both pretty tired, so I’m not going to write a huge post. Instead, I’ll just post some pictures and send you over to TTB for some In-flight Entertainment.

We leave for Cameroon tomorrow morning.

Paris in pictures.

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Paris

May 23, 2007 at 4:20 pm · Filed under Birding

We’re in Paris, but of course, since I’m with Bolt, we managed to get some birding in our schedule.

In the city, Rock Pigeons and Wood Pigeons are the most common birds. The Wood Pigeons were new to both Bolt and me. They’re enormous! We also saw House Sparrows, Carrion Crows, and European Starlings quite a bit.

To see more birds, we went through the Garden of Luxembourg (a park close to our hotel) and walked along the Seine. In the park, I saw Eurasian Jays, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Common Blackbirds, Mallards, Eurasian Nuthatches, and a Chaffinch.

Along the Seine, we got a great view of a Grey Wagtail. This one was particularly fun because it stayed in one place long enough for us to get the guide out and determine whether it was a Grey or Yellow Wagtail. They’re pretty close to each other, so it took us a while. We also saw quite a few Herring Gulls.

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Gulf Coast 2007

May 18, 2007 at 9:06 pm · Filed under Birding

As a part of all the crazy activities I tried to squeeze in before graduation, I went on a birding trip to the Gulf Coast with Bolt.

Over two days, we birded at the Anahuac Refuge, High Island, Galveston, and Bolivar Flats. I saw so many new things on the trip that it’s hard to even begin to pick a few highlights, but I will anyway:

I definitely enjoyed seeing the Purple Gallinules. They look like something that should be in some exotic location, not Texas.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many alligators as we saw at Aanahuac–and they were all pretty close to the road!

The rookery at High Island was pretty amazing. The Roseate Spoonbills we saw there looked almost as crazy as the Purple Gallinules.

I was impressed by the variety we could see with the scopes at the Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary.

I’d never been on a ferry before, so riding the one to Galveston was pretty fun. We even got to see dolphins the second time we rode it!

I was hoping to write more about this trip, but since Bolt and I are heading out to Africa on Monday, I thought it would be better to just get it finished rather than postpone it indefinitely. He’ll probably be more lengthy in his posts about the trip, so if you want more, head over to Search and Serendipity.

My best guess is that I saw about 70 life birds! The following is a list of what all I saw (including non-life birds), roughly in the order I saw them:

Day 1

• Barn Swallow
• Black-necked Stilt
• Snowy egret
• Short-billed Dowitcher
• White-faced Ibis
• Orchard Oriole
• Anhinga
• Common Moorhen
• American Coot
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Tri-colored Heron
• Marsh Wren
• Blue-winged Teal
• Northern Shoveler
• Mottled Duck
• Cowbird
• Nighthawk
• Purple Gallinule
• Catbird
• American Redstart
• Black-bellied Whistling Duck
• Rose-breasted Grosbeak
• Yellow Warbler
• Scarlet Tanager
• Bay-breasted Warbler
• Inca Dove
• Eurasian Collared-Dove
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Roseate Spoonbill
• Neotropic Cormorant
• Black-throated Green Warbler
• White Ibis
• Tennessee Warbler
• Black-and-white Warbler
• Summer Tanager

Day 2

• Laughing Gull
• White-tailed Kite
• Magnificent Frigatebird
• Willet
• Least Sandpiper
• Gull-billed Tern
• Savannah Sparrow
• Forster’s Tern
• Ruddy Turnstone
• Sanderling
• Black-crowned Night Heron
• Yellow-crowned Night Heron
• Brown Pelican
• Great Blue Heron
• Sora
• Sandwich Tern
• Painted Bunting
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Greater Yellowlegs
• Reddish Egret
• Least Tern
• Black-bellied Plover
• Royal Tern
• Dunlin
• Least Tern
• Whimbrel
• Piping Plover
• Semipalmated Plover
• Herring Gull
• Snowy Plover
• American White Pelican
• Wilson’s Plover
• Long-billed Curlew
• Horned Lark
• Caspian Tern
• Seaside Sparrow
• Common Tern
• Lesser Yellowlegs
• Clapper Rail
• Green Heron

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Cameroon Update #1

May 18, 2007 at 1:01 am · Filed under Wycliffe

These last few weeks have been very busy! On May 5, I graduated from LeTourneau University with a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering. The next day, I moved to Duncanville, Texas, to prepare for my trip to Cameroon, Africa, with Wycliffe International. I am staying with David Ringer, a friend from college who graduated two years ago. He now works full-time for Wycliffe International’s Communications department and is leading the Cameroon trip.

Since my arrival, I have been getting to know the people in the Communications department and have been learning about what I will be doing once I am in Cameroon. I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed by everything I need to learn, but I am certain that God will give me the understanding to accomplish what He wants.

Interest in our trip continues to grow as more people find out about what we are doing. Wycliffe Canada, The Seed Company, and Wycliffe Norway have all specifically requested to use materials we will produce during the trip. Wycliffe Canada will even feature our work in an upcoming issue of their Word Alive magazine. Our work will also go into several international repositories for later use by any of the about 50 Wycliffe organizations.

We do not know the exact timing for everything on the trip, but we have been able to put together a rough schedule:

May 21: Depart from DFW Airport
May 23: Meet up with Alan Hood (a photographer from Wycliffe Canada) in Paris
May 24: Arrive Yaoundé via Douala
May 26 or 27: Drive to the Bakossi language community
May 30 or 31: Drive to Bamenda to visit Ndop and Central Ring clusters
June 12: Return to Yaoundé
June 13-20: Wycliffe Africa Area conference in Yaoundé
June 21-27: Another village trip (we do not know where just yet)
June 28: Depart from Yaoundé
June 29: Arrive back at DFW

We hope to have Internet connectivity while in Cameroon, and I plan on sending regular updates via email. David and I are also excited about trying out “video blogging.” We’ll be posting short video clips about Bible translation and related ministries in Cameroon on his blog: The Translation Beat.

I still can hardly believe all the opportunities God has given me–I never would have expected to be traveling to Cameroon right after I graduated! I am excited to go, and I’m sure God has great plans for this trip.

Thank you again for your prayers and support.

May the Lord bless you.

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New Phase

May 11, 2007 at 11:34 pm · Filed under Life

Weekend of Insanity

My final weekend at LETU before graduation was spent in quite a few different places. I wanted to make the best of what I knew might be one of my last chances to hang out with at least some the awesome people I’ve had the privilege to be around for the last few years. So, we planned a big weekend with lots of stuff to do together.

On Friday, Slope, Karen, Michaela, Courtney, Spork, Trolley, Bubbles, Schmorgan, and I drove to Mesquite to go to the apparently world famous Rodeo. We all had a good time watching people insane enough to make large beasts angry try to ride them.

The next morning, Michaela, Courtney, Spork, Trolley, and I headed out to Six Flags over Texas. This was my first time to go to a real roller coaster theme park, so pretty much everything was new to me. We went on most of the big rides like Titan, Texas Giant, Batman, Superman, etc. I found that I really like the huge drops (yay Titan!), but wasn’t a big fan of the ones that jostled me around (Texas Giant) or squished me into my seat (the corkscrew of Titan). Good times!

Then, the next morning, I drove down to the Anahuac Natural Preserve to meet up with Bolt and go birding in the Gulf Coast area for two days. I had a really fantastic time, and at some point, I’ll get some pictures up on my birding blog.

Graduated

This last weekend, the inevitable happened. I graduated.

I’m still not sure how to feel about it all. I’m glad to be done, and there are some things that I won’t miss. But I will miss the people.

The Three Musketeers/Amigos/Whatever of Zerg, Fargo, and me are all going separate ways. I won’t be able to go visit Trolley and Don Juan whenever I want. fREW and I won’t have our weekly talks about the state of technology and society when we’re pretending to work on TOME. I can’t debate Jefferson history with Spence on a daily basis. The Sunday carpool group is gone. I won’t be able to spend as much time as I would like with the freshmen whom I’ve only had two semesters to get to know. No more living on 41. So many other things come to mind…

I know it’s not goodbye forever–I’ll be back to visit. But it won’t be the same.

Thanks to everyone who let me be a part of their lives. I’m missing you already!

Moving In, Shipping Out

The day after graduation, Bolt and I stuffed all my belongings into our two cars and drove to his apartment in Duncanville, which will be my home for the next 7 months or so. I still haven’t gotten everything unpacked–I’m always surprised at just how much stuff I have whenever I have to move it.

I’m still a little in awe of the reality of living outside a dorm room. A full-size sink for washing dishes, desks with more than one drawer, a kitchen that’s more than an electric water boiler, multiple rooms, the list goes on!

Over the last few days, I’ve been meeting with people in the Wycliffe International Communications office in preparation for our trip to Cameroon. I have so much to learn that it feels a little overwhelming at times, but I’m sure God will give me the understanding I need to accomplish what He wants.

We leave for Cameroon on the 21st, which is rapidly approaching. I can hardly believe that I’m really going to Africa. Bolt and I hope to keep everyone up to date with out blogs and email, depending on what kind of connectivity we have once we arrive. We’re even hoping to try out a little bit of video blogging.

Please keep us in your prayers as we make all the final arrangements.

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