Long Time No Blog

I know that this happens every so often, and I apologize. It was hard keeping up with my blog at the end of my trip because I was traveling a lot. Then I went to a family reunion, where we had internet access, but it just didn't happen. Being back in New York has been busy, but not out of control. This is just one of those things that I either do a few times a week and really enjoy it, or let it slide for a few weeks at a time. But my mom told me last night that she had checked this to see if anything new was here, and so I figured that I better kick this in gear. But trust me, there are going to be some great stories about the rest of my trip that you don't want to miss.

Let me just talk for a second about being back in New York. I got back after a week in Washington at a family reunion. The reunion was fun and I enjoyed seeing my family. I have some pretty adorable nieces and nephews and some pretty funny siblings. And some interesting cousins. It was great also to be back in the Pacific Northwest and to get to a Mariners game, even though they lost to the Yankees. That reminds me of a title of a musical....what was it....oh yeah, Da(r)n Yankees! After the game, I was checking my flight schedule so that I knew when it left. I could have sworn that I had purchased a 6 am flight or something like that, but it really was leaving about 30 minutes after I was checking my email. I couldn't believe it. It actually turned out ok because it was a refundable ticket and I got my refund about 10 minutes before the plane took off. Then I got another ticket that wasn't much more expensive. It could have been a lot worse, especially since I had job interviews the day after I was scheduled to arrive. I got back on Sunday night without any problems.

On Tuesday I got invited to play softball with a few friends. I was a little hesitant because my heart is still broken from losing a lot of playoff games in BYU intramurals softball leagues. But I decided to do it. That day was really hot and the game was on a field of artificial turf. So this place was smoking hot. That artificial turf stuff is pretty hard. The only other time I ever played on it was when I was 10 in Seattle. My dad, brother, and I went to the Kingdome for some sponsored event or something with my dad's company, and my brother and I were playing catch. My brother had just gotten home from his mission that week and it was like being in heaven playing with him and my dad on the same field as the mighty Seattle Mariners. My brother threw a ball to me that bounced off the turf and hit me right in the nose. It gave me a bloody nose and it hurt pretty bad. Then some kid elbowed me on the school bus like two days later and made it bleed again. But it was all totally worth it.

Anyway, turf is hard and it is quick, so it makes things interesting. They had me playing left field, which is a lot of fun, but I never have really played much outfield. I don't mean to toot my own horn here or anything, but I made one play that was really great at the time, but maybe not so much in retrospect. I've noticed that whenever people start a phrase with "I don't mean to (blah blah)," they really are saying that they do mean to it. Especially in church! "I don't mean to take too much time," and then the person is finally done 15 minutes later. So I guess I do mean to brag. I had a ball come out to left field and I had to run in for it. I knew from the moment it was hit that I was going to get a chance to dive for it. I ran up, dove, and caught it while sprawled out on my chest. It was a great feeling and a lot of fun. It hurt a little bit then, but then it really hurt later that night. I could barely move when laying down and had to twist my body to get out of bed. I really thought I had cracked a rib, but I went to the doctor and he said that I hadn't. Anyway, that it just a little bit of what has been going on since I got back. Once I catch up on the rest of my trip, I will post more about what has been going on here.

So after the day I posted about earlier, where the Brazilian Federal Policeman almost stuck his machine gun in my face, I went to the falls of Iguazú. (P.S. "Iguaçu" and "Iguazú" are the same thing. Sometimes little intricacies like that can confuse the blog reader, and sometimes they even think that the author made a mistake. It's good to clear those things up.) Going to Iguazú is something I had wanted to do for a long time. I heard that when Eleanor Roosevelt saw Iguazú, she said "Poor Niagara." I have never seen Niagara, but I can't imagine anything more amazing than Iguazú. Supposedly the word "Iguazú" comes from the Guarani language and it means "big water." Those Guarani weren't kidding! When you're walking up the trail to get to some of the lookouts, you can already hear the water rushing on its way over the cliffs. The way they set up the higher lookout points allows you to be a few feet above the river at the top of the cliff, just as the water is headed down. On the lower lookout points, in some places, you can get right in the face of the falls. And the Devil's Throat....don't get me started! You can't even see the bottom where the water hits because of all the mist that the falls produce. The mist flies up higher than the height of the falls. It is also unbelievable to see a calm and slow-moving river on one side of the bridge, and then a steep waterfall on the other side. Trust me on this one....this place is amazing.

I walked all of the trails at least two times, and three on a few. The shades of green, the falls, the forests, and the cliffs all combine to make this the most beautiful piece of nature I have ever seen. Yeah, I went so far as to say that! It was that amazing! There are a lot of different species of trees and animals as well. It was the first time I had ever seen this weird kind of animal that looked like a monkey mixed with an anteater....sort of. And I had never seen an alligator outside of a zoo, until that day. Other than the scenery and so forth, there weren't any crazy stories or anything to report on. I will have to post some pictures here in the near future. The one at the top of the blog is a picture I took there. That's just there to whet your appetite.

After being there all day, I came back to Puerto Iguazú (the city in Argentina close to the falls) and bought a couple of books at the town's only bookstore (but a great bookstore nonetheless). It was fun talking to the clerk a little bit. But he was coughing pretty hard. I asked him if he was sick and he said he had been sick for months. I didn't really want to hear that, and especially when he wanted to shake my hand when I left. I know that the risk of getting swine flu doesn't increase all of a sudden when one crosses the border into Argentina, but it still was on my mind. Especially since these people--and bless their hearts, I love them to death--kiss each other all the time and share straws on their social beverages for hours at a time. It is not a place where germs go down without a fight. But it was fun to talk to him and to get some reading in Spanish to shake some rust off, at least because I was on my way to meet up with my mission president the next day. I will have to tell you about that the next time I post. Thanks for reading.