On Monday, the school bought a truck load of coal to use for the winter. The school heats up the radiators and water by coal, so they needed a lot to keep us foreigners warm. After first class Master told us we can train or help by unloading the coal and storing it in the back. Unloading Coal sounded fun so i decided I'd help. Once break was over and second class was starting, the people who wanted to help with the coal went to the gates of the school and found a MASSIVE truck with at least 400kg worth of coal.

The Shifus already started by the time i got there and their method was like this:
Push the coal off the truck onto the ground
Shovel coal into the back of smaller trucks
Smaller trucks went to unload the coal in the back of the academy

Students and Shifus would pile up the coal
And start over until all the coal was unloaded.

Problem with this was there were too many people with shovels trying to work while other guys including myself decided shovels were useless and began using our bare hands to put big chunks of coal on the small trucks. This project broke down to about 5 groups: 1st group was Shifus and students in the truck pushing coal onto the ground (why not push the coal onto the bed of the trucks? EVERYONE thought of that idea but no one did it). 2nd group was the ground crew. Also Shifus and Students. I was in this group. We would pick up the fallen coal pieces and put it in the small trucks while dodging coal and shovels that were cutting our ankles. 3rd group was the shovelers. They shoveled up the dirt and small stuff that came off the truck. 4th group was the sweepers who swept the dust and dirt back to the truck (they just swept dirt into group 2's shoes). 5th group were the Students and Shifus that unloaded the coal. Luckily i was by the truck so i did not have to deal with that. 

Coal dust, truck smog, and dirt was all in the air. I tried to dodge the falling coal off the trucks and shovels that picked at our feet, but when the head master had the people who were standing around and watching sweep the coal bits and dust back toward the coal pile...i lost it a little. I stopped following and began leading a few students near me. When the trucks came back i told the shovelers and sweepers to wait, a couple guys and I went in and picked up the big pieces of coal put it in the trucks. When we got most of the big ones out of the way i told the shovelers to go in and get the small stuff. When the trucks had enough and left i told the sweepers to go in and sweep up the stuff away from the school drive way. 

We worked like this for about an hour then i hopped onto the truck because people were just pushing coal by the ground people and some hit people. Coal isn't light either. One hit my bad foot and it hurt for a while. When i was in the truck i got the guys to line up the rocks on the side of the truck so it wouldn't hit peoples heads. 

Then when the trucks came back we would pass coal to one another to make it to the trucks. I was not sure if the other guys who were piling stuff in the other two trucks were doing the same but i just kept working with my guys. By now the truck was almost empty...an hour and a half later. Work continued and after another hour we finished by 12:30. I was covered in coal ashes and my hands were black. But it was a good experience. After washing up i saw jenny the school translator and told her that it was fun unloading all of that coal. She laughed and said good, "Another truck but bigger comes again tomorrow with more!" On Tuesday, about the same time as yesterday, another coal truck came. It was the same size as yesterday's truck but i bet Jenny tried to trick me. We started again during second class so when i started walking towards the truck Master Guo told me to come help him unload. He was there yesterday with a few other students. I guess few people wanted to help out this time. In the back was clement, Phil, a couple other guys and me. 

Our job was when the trucks dumped the coal on the floor we had to throw the rocks up to make a big pile. After a few loads more guys came to help but then it got to hectic. To many guys were throwing rocks but it would fall back down and hit someone. Guys would try to shovel while we threw rocks and get dust in our eyes. While others just stood around. 

Again i took over. There were 8 of us so i said 4 of us would throw the rocks and the other 4 would shovel. Then when the next truck came, we switched jobs. Everyone agreed and we began working a lot safer and faster. I enjoyed throwing the coal. Back in high school i did Shot Put on track and field. I would throw heavy chunks of coal like i would a heavy shot put. I had perfect aim. Who knew a sport in high school would help me in China.

We finished up at 12 this time and again everyone was dirty. The bathrooms had black water everywhere. I felt bad for the cleaning lady. At least we helped keep her warm in the winter. Afternoon class was dreadful, everyone took naps during lunch break so everyone was exhausted. i think Master Guo was tired too because he made stance training pretty short.

Good times.

-Scott

Two blogs posted

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Enjoy!

Shabbat Shalom

Shabbat Shalom


Shabbat Shalom everyone! In the past 11 months, tonight was the first time I have said the Kiddush and the Ha-Motzi before dinner with Amitai. But first let me introduce him.

My friend Amitai, who I mentioned in the last blog, is from Israel. He is 23 and spent the last 3 years of his life in the Israeli army as a Medic. He came to china because he did not know what to do with his life and thought it would be nice to spend a couple months here in the academy. I have talked to him in the past and told him that I am Jewish. I even told him about how I went to Sunday School to learn about Judaism since I was 5, went to Hebrew school to learn how to read and chant prayers for my Bar Mitzvah, and spent many Fridays in my Temple for Shabat. He told me about how religious he is in Israel. He doesn't go to Temple often but keeps kosher because of his parents, but he would like to start being more religious since he is away from home. I said, "Ill teach you some prayers that I know." He said he knows a few from family gathering for holidays back in Israel. I told him about time I went to Israel with my best friend, my Rabbi who is my best friend's dad, and other temple members. He was shocked that I have been to Israel. 


We shared stories about the places I been to, the amazing Shwarmas I've had, even told him the few Hebrew words I remember. Amitai was shocked I knew how to speak a little so he offered to teach me in exchange for me helping him out in class. I agreed. So over the weeks I learned how to count to ten, say the basics like how much, thank you, your welcome, even learned how to say, "You have beautiful eyes." The lessons have been fun. Then one day Amitai told me that its Rosh Hashana on the 28th of September. He told me that we must celebrate it and that his dad sent us a list of prayers and a list of food we need to buy to eat on the day! 


I asked how do they celebrate it in Israel. They have big parties and no one goes to work or school and everyone eats apples and honey...along with plenty of wine. He asked how I celebrated it in Temple. I told him how I would skip school to spend the whole day in services and the songs and prayers we sing and of course the apples and honey...and wine. We agreed to celebrate it here along with Sam and another Israeli guy who just joined the academy.

The past few Fridays I would see Amitai after training all sweaty, tired, in training clothes, and he would ask why am I not dressed for Shabbat? I'd laugh and ask him about his training. But today was different. When I saw Amitai in line for dinner he yelled out while shaking my hand, "SHABBAT SHALOM!" Then he told me he had a surprise and so sit next to him at dinner. When I sat down he pulled out a bottle of Grape Juice, poured us each a glass, and told me to say the Kadish with him. Well we stood up from the table, not paying attention to the other people at our table starring at us with food in their mouths, and said the prayer. Then he said, "Grab a noodle." "Why?" I asked. "We have no bread!" he told me. I laughed so hard and grabbed a noodle. Once again we said the prayer in unison and ate the noodle, which he said to dip in salt first...not sure why. Then we sat down with the rest of the table, I told him, "Botah Avon," (a Hebrew word that he taught me which means Bon  apatite) and we began eating. 


I was not suprised when Darel,one of the guys at the table asked, "What the heck did you guys just do?" I told him and the rest of the table who was listening about Shabbat and that we say prayers before we eat. Then he said, "You guys have a lot of Holidays huh?" I told him about the High Holy days that were coming up, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Again he asked what they were about. Amitai told me to explain because he was not very religious back home. So I explained what the High Holy days were about and the traditions. Then I said, "After Yom Kippur its Hanukah! You know that one right?" Amitai corrected me,"No its Sukkot!" 


I can't believe I forgot that and then I explained about the Sukka and other traditions we do on that day. Afterward Amitai named the next holiday which I explained the traditions. So I told them about Simchat Torah, Purim, Pesach (Passover), and many others. With each Holiday came many traditions and with many traditions came a lot of food and of course...the wine drinking. Told them about the commandment that said 'You have to drink so much that when you read the Megillah (story of Esther and Haman) you can not tell the difference from the Good guy (Mordecai) and the Bad guy (Haman)'. Then on Passover you must drink a glass of wine after each prayer. 


Darel, the guy who asked all the questions, said, "Sure looks like you guys like to get drunk." Everyone laughed but Amitai looked a little insulted. I said, "Many of our holidays involve suffering, pain, and death. The story of Hanukah isn't about Santa Claus and presents, its about the Menorah lasting 8 days when it only had oil for one day left and the Brave Macabees who fought the Greeks to protect their temple from destruction. Purim was about a evil guy who wanted to KILL all of the Jews! Passover was about the Jewish people who have been slaves for decades and finally was saved by Moses! You think we drink just to get drunk? No, we share these stories with our families and friends to REMEMBER, the hard times our ancestors had to go through and the hardships they had to deal with. 


We drink to rejoice that the hardships are now over and we can live peacefully, for however long that may be. So to say we just like to get drunk is not correct, but we Jews.....sure know how to party! Everyone laughed at that last statement which seemed to lighten the mood a little. Even Amitai laughed and started telling us about the crazy parties in Israel. 

Out of the 11 months I been training at the academy, tonight was my favorite night. I miss my temple friends and being in temple. Tonight brought back many memories of the time I celebrated holidays with family and friends, but now I will make new memories with my new friends who are like family to me.

Shabbat Shalom.

-Scott

Update at the Shan

Update at the Shan

The schedule at the Shan has changed now. The morning schedule is the same, Tai Chi at 6am, class at 8, and then Lunch at 12pm. The afternoon break would be 3 hours so we wouldn't be outside when its really hot. We'd start class at 3pm and then have dinner at 6. Now we changed back to the Winter schedule, which is lunch break until 2:30pm, class ending at 4:30 and dinner at 5:30. The transition has been tough. I'm still used to half an hour of rest time. While my brain thinks it's still rest time. we are doing drills in class!

The class size has been pretty big lately. About 26 students, even with the 5 students who left in the past month. Four new people joined our class in the past two weeks. Clement and I are the ones who train them and get them going in class. It's a fun job.

A couple of weeks ago I was doing some sparring training and I kicked wrong and messed my foot up a little. I kept training but had a limp. It finally got better this Monday. Unfortunately, I thought it was fully healed and thought I could handle some acrobatics in the ring with Mathieu. When I did a back kick flip I landed with my bad foot. It got stuck in between the mats in the ring and I fell and bent my foot pretty badly. Not good. My foot swelled again, but I have these ice packs my parents sent me which helped A LOT. I went to class Tuesday limping a lot worse this time, but I had to lead the class with Clement. 

Master asked about my foot and I told him about my accident during acrobatics. Since he saw that I couldn't do the drills well he pulled out a couple new students and had me teach them new moves. Thursday is grading and Friday is Sparring so I need my foot to heal by then. Tuesday, I asked Master if I can have the afternoon stances class off to let my foot rest since he leads that class pretty much. He allowed it so I iced my foot the rest of the evening.

Today, Wednesday, the 14th of Sept was power training day. In the morning we did forms and in class a few friends invented a new game called Charlie. Basically the game is to give the other players Charlie horses by kneeing them in the leg. Only 4 of us play which included Sam my roommate, Sam the Aussie, Mathieu, Luke, and me. During power training I couldn't do jumps or put to much weight on my foot so I did the upper body drills and more. Right before the guys had to do bunny hops across the floor, Luke who had been kneeing me in the leg constantly all morning came by where I was and I ran up and kneed him hard in his leg. He cursed and said, "Now you get me right before I have to use my leg?!!" I laughed and said, "Karma is a bitch!" He went to sit down but Master Guo saw him and yelled at him to start jumping. He swore he was going to get me back but his kneeing doesn't hurt, or my legs are conditioned well. Actually, if we keep this game up our legs will be very conditioned.

When we started power stretching, I paired up with Bart, Amitai, and Shen. Amitai and Bart are new guys to the class. Bart doesn't try very hard in class sometimes and I always call him out on it. If he doesn't do the pushups low enough I'll yell at him to go lower. If he doesn't hold the splits long enough I'll yell at him to do it again. Just stuff to help him get better. Same with Amitai but he tries pretty hard. "I dont do it to be mean, I just want them to get better," I tell the other guys when they laugh and say I'm a bully. 

A few of the guys call me the Whip Master. I didn't know what that was. They said it's someone who cracks the whip, as in keeping order. I laughed, but as I thought about it more, a whip would be pretty handy. But back to the power stretching. The past couple weeks master made me pair up with Amitai and Bart to help them with the split stretches. "They don't use enough power," master would say. So I went over and showed them how it's done. I had Amitai go first and Bart would pull his front leg out. I put my hand on his hip and pushed down. I guess they didn't use any power before because he yelled out pretty loudly. Then I had him switch legs. 

Bart went next and seemed to tremble with fear a little. He told me his foot hurt so not to go hard. I laughed and told him not to worry, that I wouldn't touch his foot. I didn't touch his foot, I just stretched his leg. He yelled out saying, "STOP STOP STOP you will break my leg!!" Master, who was watching, started laughing. I barely used any power! But I eased up and held him at a decent height. So when I went over to them again this week, Amitai who thanked me last time looked happy that I was going to stretch him. Bart, who looked at me like I was his executioner, knew that I was going to "help" them out again. Shen, who is leaving tomorrow, had no partner, so I told him I'll stretch him one last time before he leaves. Amitai went first. Instead of crying out, "Stop Stop", or "Enough," he said, "YES YES I LIKE!" Everyone laughed. Bart went next and he did pretty well. He didn't yell out for me to stop. I was proud. 

Then Shen went and I stretched him hard because it was his last time. After I stretched all of them, it was my turn. I told them that what I do to them is nothing and to wait until they see my turn. Master came over and had one guy pull each foot while he pushed my hips down on the ground. It hurt really badly. I felt nautious afterward, like I do every time, but I almost made it into full front splits. When he stretched me on my side splits, he sat on me to get me lower. I yelled and laughed at this point. It's not funny or and didn't tickle, but I edfor some reason. The new guys don't complain about what I do to them after they see that.

Friday is Sparring. Its been a while since i done it. Been training to get back into it. Can't wait!

-Scott

Kids Don't Try This At Home

September 8, 2011

Adventure to Muping


On friday evening Sam, Sheradon, Yaz, and I decided to go into Muping for dinner and do some shopping so we can rest over the weekend. After the mountain run we all showered up and went to meet downstairs at 5:30pm since Yaz booked a taxi for 5:45p. I met up with Yaz in the lobby and she said the academy is out of taxi's. The Mantis group took their Shifu out to dinner and i guess that took up all the taxi's. We were a little pissed about that but we decided to go to the Everything Shop to look for local taxis. Headed down the road to the shop to find that there were no taxis. 

Yaz told us she got a few free rides hitch hiking from the cross road by the school so we gave that a try. We waved down a car that is similar to the cars the taxi of the academy use. Yaz told the guy, "Muping, Muping?" He told her ok and she asked him how much. He responded, "No, No." She took that as it was free for us and told us to get in. I have NEVER hitch hiked before so i was a little hesitant on this situation. i spoke the most chinese out of all of us and knew the roads well so i said ill sit in the front. I responded by saying, "People think i look chinese so they will think im the drivers partner and take you white people!" 

On the drive there Sam made jokes like Scott is the first one to get grabbed since he is in the front or we are all going to be killed in a warehouse. Did not help the mood. Then he went on saying stuff like, "Parents tell their kids to stay away from strangers! Getting into stangers cars is a big no no! Back in England if you did that and the driver said it was a free ride its because they will kill you!" He went on a bit more and Sheradon joined in.

Sam also said, "Only people that should get free lifts are people over 50!"
"Why?" asked Sheradon.
"Because you are too old to be sold into a sex trade or cant move."

The driver took us into town and asked me where we wanted to go. I had to go to a bank so i told him to drop us off at the corner and we can walk. When he pulled over i offered him 10 yuan for the ride but he refused. We all got out and Sam shook the guy's hand. We all started talking about how crazy we must be to hitch hike at 7pm in CHINA! After the bank we got some food and did a little bit of shopping. 

Its the moon festival on Monday i bought some moon cakes (celebration cookies) for Master Guo. We headed back around 9pm by local taxi. On the way back the driver was driving pretty fast and when we saw a rabbit in the middle of the road, he swerved to miss the rabbit but i swear i felt the car hit something. The taxi driver pulled over and started shouting something in chinese. I guessed it was bad to hit an animal in the streets? Then the driver started backing up looking for the rabbit. When he didnt see anything he pulled over, got out, and began looking for the rabbit. We were all laughing because we all bet that he wanted the rabbit for food! When the taxi driver came back he shouted looking mad, "Rabbit, Good Food!" I laughed, told the guys what he said, and we all started laughing harder. 

When we got to the hill on the way to school he swerved which made us all slide and bump into each other and we started laughing about how we are so close to the school but we knew we were going to crash and die! well the taxi driver must of thought we thought his swerving was fun because once we started laughing he laughed a bit too and started swerving big time! He would swerve into the trees or by people walking and we would laugh harder because Sam bet he would crash into the school. He must of thought we were still having fun because he didnt stop! We finally get to the gates of the school alive! We paid the driver, got the hell out and headed into the academy. It was a good adventure.

-Scott

KC's Blog: School’s Anniversary and I Hate Saying Goodbye

School’s Anniversary



For the Academy’s anniversary the master’s usually put on a performance. For two weeks the Sheifus have been practicing at night in the dark because they don’t want the students to see them practicing. All we could hear was the sounds of the swords, the staffs hitting the ground and the sheifus yelling. This year was the first year the academy asked students to perform. A big bus full of people from the Shandong district, a few Chinese police officers and friends of the head master came to watch the performance.

The student’s performed first and they were great, but when you the masters performed you could tell they were masters and not students. Master Guo did a dummy form and it was cool but I don’t know anything about Wing Chung so I didn’t really understand it. My master did a drunken sword form and it was so cool! He moves so fluidly and fast. I don’t think I could ever move that fast in my life. Two other Shaolin masters had staffs broken over their head, leg and backs. You could see the staff splinter and hear it break.

After the performances we had a nice lunch and rested for training in the afternoon. After a fun morning I didn’t feel like having power training but I had to go or else Scott would probably tell my master to beat me.



I have been craving bananas for the past 4 weeks. I went into town to buy groceries and I picked up some bananas. I didn’t know that I had to get a special ticket from the produce isle in order to pay for the bananas downstairs. When I got to the counter to pay the lady wouldn’t let my buy the bananas and I couldn’t go back upstairs because the other students were waiting for me.

It rained this week during the mountain run again. But I was able to make it up and down the mountain 4 times. It took me a little over an hour to do it maybe next time I will be able to do 5 runs up the mountain. We went to Yantai on Saturday to do some shopping and hang out. It rained all day, my pants and shoes got soaked all the way through trying to walk from store to store. But it was still a fun trip, it’s always fun when there are a lot of the students going out together; we get a lot of attention from the locals.

There are so many people leaving the academy it’s sad. It breaks my heart a little when we have to say goodbye, I can’t imagine being one of the students who stays here a year or longer and has to say goodbye to the students who come and go.

I moved to the third floor with two other girls. I like the third floor its cleaner, quieter, and better because that means I’m closer to Scott and don’t have to climb stairs to go in his room and ask him to feed me. The only problem with this room is that it is super crowded. I am going to ask to be moved to the second floor to Brittany’s room because her roommate just left.

My shaolin group had dinner with our Master because two girls left this week. It was fun to go out with our Master and talk and make jokes. The restaurant we went to was great. I’ve never had Chinese food like it in the States. We had sour ginger fish soup which was really yummy, we had spicy “meat” with cucumber, fried/steamed bread with condensed milk dipping sauce, and noodles. I think it’s funny when I look at a menu and the description says “meat” not chicken, pork, beef, just Meat. I don’t usually eat those dishes.

During application class Master was my partner and I didn’t understand how to do a certain move so he would demonstrate it on my arm but I still wouldn’t understand. So each time he’d do the move a little bit harder and faster as if that would help me understand how I was supposed to make the other person feels. I thought he was going to rip my arm off but he didn’t. My ankles were hurting from kicking the punching bags and I couldn’t do the usual power training moves so Sheifu made me do 500 burpies. Yeah that’s right 500. The burpies were my idea because he told us to do duck hops up the hill and bear crawls up the hill. I asked if I could do burpies instead so he said ok “5, 100” meaning 500 burpies. Yay me, I lost count after 160. I had to beg him to let me do the ab workouts with the rest of my group and stop doing burpies.

I am so sad that I am leaving; I leave in a few days to go back home. Scott took me to the duck restaurant this weekend with Brittany, Jeremy, Donna and two other new students. I don’t even like duck but this was delicious! After that we went to the cake shop and to the bath house.

The bathhouse is like a hostel/hotel with a big hot tub and saunas. You can get massages there also. There is a big room with recliners that you can sleep in or you can get a private room. I got a private room and didn’t go down to the bath part so I’m not really sure how it works or what it looks like.

On Sunday it was Ash, Mathieu and David’s birthdays so I got them a birthday cake. We had a little party in me and Brittany’s room (I moved into her room a few days ago because I thought I was staying for another month and her room is AWESOME and not as crowded as my room on the third floor). Scott got the boys birthday hats and we even had candles! It was a fun party.

Xoxo,

Kc












Now for My Last Blog




I hate saying goodbye

For my last day at the academy I took videos and pictures of people training. Sam would make fun of me every time he’d see me with my camera and call me a stalker. During class we taught Rong Sheifu the word “Friend”. It’s really hard for him to pronounce the “end” part but he kept repeating it for 10 minutes and I think he got it.

For my last night at the academy a few of us went next door had sodas, ate some dumplings, and I tried squid for the first time and it wasn’t bad. It’s so hard to say goodbye, I really hope I see these people again. I can’t imagine not knowing them; it’s so weird to think that a month ago I didn’t know any of them.

This morning I had to say goodbye. I tried really hard not to cry and I didn’t until I had to say goodbye to Scott and Mathieu at the airport. Scott and Mathieu picked me up at the airport at 11 pm when I first arrived in China and they dropped me off at the airport when I left.

Halfway through my flight to China I wanted to turn the plane around and go back home. Now that it’s time to go home I don’t want to leave. At first I thought 5 weeks was too long but now I know 5 weeks isn’t long enough. This trip to China was exactly what I needed. I met some amazing people and I am so lucky to have been able to experience this. I will miss everyone so so so much.

Now it is time for me to say Goodbye… for now.

Xoxo,

Kc

Dropping Kc to the Airport

Kc and Rong Sheifu

KC has left the Shan

Update from the Shan


Kc has been having a lot of fun here at the Shan (Shan is a nickname we call the academy). During her last weekend here we all went into town on friday for Mathieu, Ash, and David's birthday celebration and then Saturday was Kc'S goodbye dinner. About 13 people went out for the bday party. we all went to sing a bit at KTV and then went dancing at the club until about 1am when a few of us decided we were exhuasted from dancing and went to the bath house to rest. On saturday Brittany, Diane, Anton, Donna, Jeramy, and I stayed in town for Kc's dinner. 

During the day we did some shopping and then we went to the fancy Duck resturant for dinner. I took Brittany here once for dinner date and we loved it. Kc only had Duck once when she was in the philipense so i told her she needs to try chinese duck...luckily i know of a place. The only people who had duck in china out of our group was Me and Brittany. So i ordered the food and when the food came in i told them how to prep the wraps and how to dip duck into the sugar...its really good trust me. After dinner I took Kc and Brittany to the "Cake shop" that everyone loves for desdert. Everyone else went back to the academy. After dessert we went and had a early night at the bath house.

On Tuesday Master Guo announced the Excellent International Student award winners during morning line up. The winners in order by most votes were Clement, Me, Brittany, Adam, Allen. Sheradon, oran, and Clement who is in Shaolin. I told clement i am always number two to him! I can never beat him! I always come second to him in gradings, he is class leader number 1 and i am 2, but then again he spent 2 years in china so far and i only been here 11 months. I was still happy i got that award. If you get that award the school takes your picture and puts it in the lobby.

Wednsday morning Kc had to fly back home. She wanted to stay another month but she could not change her flight date and it was a thousand dollars to buy so she had to go home. Mathieu who went with me the night to pick KC up from the airport, went with me to bring her to the airport. When Kc first got here it was a little weird seeing her around, hanging out with my friends, seeing her in my room eating all of my food. But over the 5 weeks she was here i grew accustomed to having her around. Now its thursday afternoon and i havent seen my sister at all today and it feels weird. The guys would say, "Lets go do the morning run a little early," or "Lets go to lunch," and i'd think, "Ok lemme just run up and tell kc..." then i would remember she is gone. 

Its sad that she is gone but my time here is up in a couple months, so ill see her soon. I did not expect her to love it here so much. She was not ready to leave here either and when we said goodbye she was crying. Like i said before, this place is an Escape. People come here from all over the world, from different life styles, all different ages, but somehow everyone creates a bond with one another, with your Master, with the atmosphere of the school. Kc created a strong bond here just after 5 weeks. I cant imagin how i will feel when its my turn to board that plane to go home.

-Scott