Cockroaches and Cannibals

Today was a bizzare day. I found out I am going to Fiji and my leader was a Cannibal before she became a Christian. There are about 50 people on my team(the biggest of the 3 teams.) Most of the time we've been doing orientation. Tonight as we started getting ready for bed, I saw a cockroach for the first time. It was about 4 inches long and really quick. Immediately it ran under our mini fridge and we couldn't find it. So we just put the fridge outside. I hope I don't find it crawling over me tonight. It is kinda freaky really. Tomorrow we will have the whole day free. Not sure what I'm going to do, maybe find a beach or try and get a frisbee game going on. I also found out my address is as follows:

Joel Oliver
University of the Nations
75-5851 Kuakini Hwy #431
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740

Arrived in Kona!

I arrived here this morning about 8 and it turns out I'm going to have 5 roomates. I was the first one to arrive here today, so I am unpacking and just wanted to report that I arrived safely. I have internet here and cell phone reception, so feel free to email me. I will be meeting all sorts of people the next few days...I'm excited.

Mahalo!

I did it! I arrived Hawai'i safe and sound. The plane ride was an extra hour due to head winds but I met up with my friend and today we're going snorkeling! It's so dang hot here! Everyone is calling it mild, but the 70s are hot to me...especially in December! I go to Kona to the DTS base tomorrow. Thank you all for your prayers.

Going to HAWAII!!!

Tomorrow I fly out to go to Hawaii!!! I'm so busy packing and figuring out what I might want most over the next 5 months, my head is spinnig! So if you think of me, shoot up a prayer for me to think clearly, pack properly, and be at peace. So much to do, so little time. If I said I would call you or see you and didn't, I apologize. I love you still, just slipped my mind or ran out of time. I'll let you know how I am once I'm settled in.

I hate goodbyes!

I'm moving back to P-town today, and although I love my hometown, it's hard to say good bye to five years' worth of memories. Mixed emotions today....(but I did hide a treasure map on Sehome Hill....can't wait til someone finds it...double checked it last night at 2am just in case...it's still there.)

Gingerbread Houses

Went home Thursday to pick up my dad's truck so I can move home on Monday. While I was there I saw my sister's 4th graders because they wanted to meet her "crazy brother." Afterwards we decided to build a Gingerbread Mansion. During this construction, we decided this was the first annual Gingerbread Mansion party. I am currently trying to attach a pic of it, but it might not show up. This was just one angle.

Today I typed out all my contacts in Microsoft Outlook. Not a big fan of the program, but I needed them all in one place because having them in a huge pile on my desk on a hundred different envelopes and napkins just wasn't going to work. Still missnig lots of details for some people, so if you did not get one of my letters, and you want one, could you email your address to me at JoelOliver@gmail.com I will get you one asap!

Snowshoes and Mountains

A carload of us went hiking on Tuesday up this here mountain on the left, and the picture on the right is from the top. I had never been snowshoing before. It was fun! Lots of work, but amazing! On the way up, we had to take lots of small steps because there was a lot of steep areas, but that made it really fun to sled down on the way back. It made me realize how much I'm going to miss the snow while I'm gone to Hawaii. Don't get me wrong, I'll love it there, but I'll just be missing the snow and all that comes with it. There's nothing like sledding down a 500 foot slope on you bum in a foot of powder! I'm sure Kona will have it's perks too...and I can't wait to find them out!

Oh Christmas Tree...

This last week a few of my roomates and I were at our friends' house. They were tired and went to bed, leaving us downstairs by ourselves. We decided it would be a shame to leave their house unaltered somehow, so after discussing what we would do while my roommates ate the advent calendar candy, we decided to take the Christmas tree on an adventure.

We started at 1:15 am by looking for keys, and after we found a set, we then got one of our roommate's truck and drove all over Bellingham as far north as the Canadian border with the tree taking pictures of it. (Let me tell you, the conversation with the border guards was EXTREMELY AWKWARD!!!...You try explaining to them that you stole someone's Christmas tree to take pictures of it under the peace arch at 4am and that is why you don't have your passport) Anyways, we returned it by 5:30am and then we went to the store and got all the pictures printed out and gave it to them as a graduation/Christmas present. (there was written commentary in the book)

HOWEVER, while we were watching Narnia on Friday, they decided to dump crumbs and salt all over our beds and shaving cream all over our bathroom. We gave them their gift regardless. So with all my friends leaving, I've been trying to find them all to say goodbye since I won't be seeing them for half a year at the soonest....As a result, no time to do laundry yet, so I'm in my sleeping bag again tonight.

25 Days to go!!!

No, I'm not talking about Christmas, so don't think that I've forgotten how to count. I am super stoked for my DTS to start!!! I have a lot of money yet to raise, and I have most of my letters sent out. I have complete faith that God will provide the rest of the funds.

As far as the snow goes, unfortunately it didn't pan out the way I hoped. We did get some snow, but not enough to successfully go sledding. We tried, but it was more like sledding in the mud. But we had fun throwing snowballs, playing football, and frolicing in the snow. However, now I am really sore and I have a ton of muddy clothes.

SNOW!!!!!

IT'S SNOWING!!! (I was going to upload a pic, but it isn't working right now.)

I'm super excited!!! I'm back in Bellingham, and excited to go play in the snow tomorrow! I just hope it will be enough to play in! Since I'm going to be gone all winter, this is super duper exciting for me! I finally finished printing out my newsletter, now the tough part of getting addresses. They will all be out by the end of the week(fingers crossed). I also finally finished the Chronicles of Narnia! So barely in time for the movie, but I read all 7 books this fall! I'm proud of myself! The Seahawks game yesterday toyed with my emotions more than any game I've ever seen in my life. I thought only girls could toy with your emotions that much. I was wrong. At least we ended up winning. Not sure how. Anyways, to bed for me, because I have much playing in the snow to do tomorrow.

Thanksgiving

So I learned this week that people actually read my blog. I kinda thought it was one of those things where I write and maybe a person or two will read it when they're bored each week. Well it's a good thing I haven't written anything out that's TOO incriminating. However, my mom did manage to find out that I picked up a hitch hiker on my adventure with Jungle Jim who had just been released from jail...oops. There's no keeping secrets from mom.

Thanksgiving was great. I had 3 thanksgiving turkeys, and I have had a good time here in Puyallup. I'll be heading back monday sometime...Looking forward to watching the Seahawks game tomorrow. Now dispite getting up at 4am to attempt to buy a laptop at best buy, (there was not one computer even on sale by the time I got in there.) I have had a relaxing time. However, I am starting to dislike best buy a great deal after being short changed for the Xbox earlier, and now their shady advertizing schemes.

On a ligher note, I played Balderdash tonight, and a few new words for you:
Lucubrate - To study by lamplight
Lobcock - A dull or boring person

Okay, so I'm a nerd.

So monday night I went to Canada with my old bible study from a few years ago, and it was cool to chat. It was actually not too long to cross the border, which was suprising. "We're just plain ol' kids" was the phrase we tried to use crossing the border...we got it in the first time...it was great.

Well, later we went to Best Buy because a few friends were going to spend the night, and well...we did too. Yup, outside of good ol' best buy. We waited in the 28 degree weather to buy a Xbox 360, and we got 'em. To ease frustration, I will leave out the details about people cutting, but everyone is desperite to get these dumb machines, so I'm selling mine on ebay, and that money will be my christmas money. So far, so good on ebay, since they're selling for lots.

Now it wouldn't be as crazy if you realized that my house has over a dozen broken windows, and my house is normally close to the outdoor temperature. At this moment, our landlord (after 2 months of nagging) finally sent someone to fix them. SO our house is FREEZING because we have no windows, and it's about 39 degrees outside (weather.com) so I need to go put on a few more layers.

Til the Win Dows,
JoeL oLiver

Time flies when...

So in the last week, I've been working on my newsletter and anything that could go wrong has. However, finally today I'm printing them up. When I haven't been working on them, I did a few fun things. Thursday I went to the Upfront theatre and saw Ryan Styles live, Friday I played Ultimate frisbee, Saturday I went hiking because I won't be seeing much snow this winter. Then Saturday night, we played fugitive. 35 people came. It was a small game, but still fun. Likely the last time I will get to play. So it was a fun few days, but now I'm really sore. I just need to get everyone's addresses to send them the letters. So email me your addresses, and I'll send you one of these letters I've spent WAY too much time on.

My crazy friends...

So one of my friends from alaska sent me an email, because he planted a geocache....he thought he was going to be arrested...luckily a couple cops were fellow geocachers.

http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=68675

Also, last night we went to the Western recording studio and recorded a few songs. That was extremely fun. We recorded 3 original songs...James wrote two on the spot. I'm excited to hear how they turned out.

Christian Musician Summit

Thursday morning until Late Saturday night I was helping out at the Christian Musician Summit in Redmond. It was really cool to meet all the worship artists and see what they were like behind stage. This is a pic with Phil Keaggy. He was amazing to meet, because he was the most kind-hearted gentle man. I was really suprised, to be honest. He really loves the LORD. To be honest, I was suprised how short all the artists were. Matt Redmond and Chris Tomlin were about the same height as Phil. So I felt like a giant. It was a great experience, and the guys who put on the show seemed really greatful, so that made me feel appreciated. Now I'm back in Bellingham.

Disc Golf

Last night Pirate Ryan and I tied the campus disc golf doubles score at -24!!! (It was mostly him, but I'll take it). The singles record is -19 (mine is -13). I also put up a posting for our fugitive game (November 19th) so I've got a few things that will keep me busy. I love bellingham(dispite the fact that my roomates won't turn the heat on).

Jones Soda

Tonight i was chilling with my sister and a few friends and we decided it was a "good idea" to drink a Jones Soda "thanksgiving dinner" beverage pack, which consisted of 5 beverages that had thanksgiving dinner flavors. Things like turkey and gravey, cranberry, pumpkin pie and brussel sprouts. Turns out they were all bad, but the brussel sprout flavored one was the most vile and rancid thing i've ever put in my mouth. So if you have a desire to throw up, go buy the Jones Soda Holiday pack on ebay.

All Hallow's Eve

So this week was pretty cool. Still applying for jobs, yet hearing back from none yet. I went to a halloween party that had no alcohol, but the cops still busted it at 10:45. Lame. So three cars drove to the lake and jumped in, and then two cars went and got pizza. So that was fun. I'll put up a picture of what I looked like on halloween when I get one. I didn't think of taking a picture of myself. In other news, I've been reading Chronicles of Narnia (just started the 6th book yesterday) and Psalms. I'm going home for the weekend to work for my dad so that I can have some sort of income. Call me if you're in P-town this weekend and want to do something after the "working day" is over.

Joel and Jim's adventures...

Since i'm goingto be leaving for my DTS in two months, my friend Jim and I decided we needed to go on adventure beforehand. So friday night we decided to go to Ross lake. We drove out there, started hiking about 10pm and hiked until we were so tired we could sleep anywhere. We had seen quite a few animals so we were needing a good place to sleep, and there is basically nowhere to set up a tent. So by 1:15 we had hiked to this "resort" which was basically a bunch of floating cabins tied together and we found an open woodshed and slept there for the night. We were awoken at 8ish by someone turning on the light, but he didnt' see us, so we quickly packed up our stuff and hiked on out of there. Only one person saw us, and we just waved and kept walking. We trail blazed to a good spot to have a fire and then we had oatmeal, and bacon for breakfast. (I made a decent size fire around a large rock and then once the rock was hot, we threw bacon on it and it cooked it quite nicely.) So now i'm hiked out and ready to read some more. I'm in the 4th book of the narnia series. I'm also going to be looking for a job again, and starting to send out support letters for my trip, so pray for that for me. That's my recent adventure.

Bug me not

So don't you hate it when you want to read an article online and they make you sign up for a free account just so that you can forget your password the next time you want to read an article on that site and have to do it all over again? I just found out about a web site and you paste the address in and it will give you a username and password as long as it is free to sign up. So the next time you want to read a New York Times article, go to WWW.Bugmenot.com and it will give you a username and password.