Bodacious Bobo

Philippines or Bust!

2011-02-26T14:35:00.000-08:00

So now that I’ve been home from India for a few weeks, I’ve given myself sufficient time to get over my lag. Now it’s time to leave again. I’ve got the travel bug, what can I say? Bill and Marissa (Bill’s girl friend for about a year), have been planning their Philippines trip since last summer. When I got back I stayed for a few days at their place and all they were talking about was their upcoming trip. I was envious that they would be leaving and I would be staying. And the whole time they were inviting me to come with them. I was on the fence when Bill finally made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. He paid for half my plane ticket, how nice is that? I’ve seriously been blessed in my life with super generous people. So booyah, Philippines here we come.

We fell in love....23 times over.

2011-01-31T10:56:00.000-08:00

After spending Christmas day with the kids from the orphanage, all Drake and I wanted to do now was spend as much time with them as possible. They do have school and homework during the week so we weren't able to stay the whole time with them. But we were able to spend a few days with them and stay a couple nights at the orphanage.
These kids are so much fun, but before I go any further, I need to make some introductions...

Wilson

Lily

Mercy

Robin

Florence

Jessica

Rachel

Reena

Michael

Rosie

Rita

Cindy

Mark

Dimni

Melody

Irene

Robert

Mary

Joyce

Ester

Felix

Henry

Philip
It truly was an awesome experience spending time with these sweet, fun, happy, loving, serving, playful, athletic, competitive kids. I wish I could take them all home with me. We played several games including Enemy at the Gates (arguably their favorite), Red Rover, Hang Man's Challenge (one of the funniest things I've ever seen), Human Battleship, Stick Pull, Dead Weight (basically every kid with all their strength carrying dead weight Drake to his room), and the Name Game. I've played a lot of games with a lot of different types of people, but I'd have to say that these were some of the most fun times I've had.
So in our very short time that we were blessed with to spend with these kids mine and Drake's hearts melted for these kids. They have been blessed and are in a good place considering the losses they've suffered losing their families. But they each have 22 brothers and sisters that love them and will do anything for them. They also have their Uncle Drake and Uncle Bo that fell in love with them right from the beginning.

Rishikesh...

2011-01-11T16:24:00.000-08:00

Okay I got a little ahead of myself on the last post, I'm doing things out of order. This trip actually took place in 2010 before our New Year's celebration.
So Carol, Drake, and I wanted to go on a mini trip and see a bit more of India and decided to check out Rishikesh, which I'm sure you're all aware is in the state of Uttarkhand. But just in case you forgot, now you know.
We were debating about whether or not to take the bus but Raj our driver convinced us that he should drive us...cheaper, faster, more comfortable, and we get to enjoy the company of Raj, all good things. We were excited about this trip too because it would be taking us out of the city area of Delhi and through the counrty side.

Steve made all the arrangements for us to stay at this retreat type place. We had the choice of air-conditioned villas or tented huts, we went with the latter. It was pretty chilly too so the whole ac comodity would be very unnecessary.

This place was a little bit weird. Our host wasn't the most welcoming person you've ever met. And at the entire place we were the only one's staying there. I guess that means that the employees don't have anyone else to serve but us. Dinner each night was cooked over the fire. The second night it was a bit rainy so we ate inside and they skewered our bbq and cooked it right over the fire place, pretty cool. We stayed two nights and for each day we had a choice of one of 3 options: River Rafting on the Ganges River, a massage, or a hike/escursion. We went with the rafting and the massage and we cashed them both in on the same day.
We talked them in to letting Raj come raft with us too. Carol has never gone rafting before, so she was really excited about going. I'm just not excited about getting wet, its so darn cold, I hate cold. But who can pass up river rafting in the Ganges River in India? Drake and I will have rafted in Peru, in Colorado, and now in India. The rafting was just a two hour trip, but we hit some seriously awesome rapids. I didn't really expect to but they were really fun. The first rapid we hit got Drake and I soaked, so right from the beginning we were wet and cold. Also I'm not sure exactly but I'm pretty sure our guide's name was Asole (but pronouced more like....yeah you got it). So if we got mad at our guide for getting us soaked we could just yell and call him by his name and have done no wrong.
Half way down we started pulling over to the side and wondered if we were stopping for a bathroom break possibly. Nope, here's a hint: we're in India...yup, that's right we pulled over in the middle of a rafting trip down the river to stop for tea. Right there on the side of the river in the rocks was a guy with his little make shift stove boiling water to make masala tea for the rafters. Only in India.
All in all it was an awesome rafting trip. If anyone's looking to go rafting for cheap, this is the place to do it. We saw it advertised costing only $7. Which is pretty much a non-existant deal anywhere else.

When we got back we had lunch and then the massage people showed up, a woman and a man. I haven't had too many massages, the first one I had has been the best. Ones I've had since have been alright but not great. This one was probably the creepiest. Let's just say the guy was a little "handsy". Alright, moving on. All in all besides the actual river rafting the trip was a little bit too relaxing for us, more boring than anything. We need entertainment.
On the way back we pulled over to the side of the road when we saw a group of monkeys. We had some cookies in the car that we tossed out to them and by doing that we got the WHOLE family down. There were probably 50 monkeys around the car. I threw the whole package of cookies out the window and in, no joke, 10 seconds the cookies were no where to be seen.

Sugar cane is obviously big in this area because along the roads that all we saw. Loads and loads and loads of fresh sugar cane being hauled by tractors, trucks,buffalos, camels, horses, men...basically anything that could pull. We sampled the sugar cane, you would have thought that having lived in Hawaii I would have had it before but nope, this was my first time. And let me tell you what...it's good, I mean real good.

We also got a flat tire on our way back but luck was there for us and we got it right by a tire repair place. Hmmm, now that I think about it, I wonder if that tire shop chuck nails and glass and other stuff in the road like a mile before their place just to give them more business, okay maybe not. But while we were waiting for the tire to get fixed we got a few more shots...

There were also these little fruit stands set up on the side of the road. I think we got 3 plates for like $0.60. You can't beat that.

Oh and just in case you thought your job was crappy, try picking up this one as a profession. Yup that's right, they collect cow and buffalo crap and mold them into convenient patties for fire building. You gotta look at your glass half full.

Bringin in the New Year with a bang?

2011-01-11T14:44:00.000-08:00

So just to give a quick little update about the blog, some of these posts might be a little bland as far as pictures go, but they will be coming soon. Since we've been in India we have been taking a lot of pictures but they are scattered in many cameras and will be uploaded soon...
Well we're here in India, Drake and I were thinking that celebrating New Year's in India might be pretty fun. There's bound to be some fun party to hit up and bring the New Year in right. Steve and Carol recommended a friend of their's, they also live here at the Aralias and apparently had a bunch of family in for the holidays. Carol even said that they had some cute nieces or cousins that were our age. Sounds good to us, so we decided to go cruise over and check it out.
Since we had never met them before Steve took us over to first make the introduction and then leave us there. Steve and Carol weren't going to stay up. So we knock on the door and Serge (Steve's friend) answers the door like this: (in a whisper mind you)"hey guys, happy new year, come on in." First hint that its not a hopping party, the guy answered the door whispering, WHISPERING, its a New Year's Party and he's whispering, this is going to be fun.
So Steve makes the introduction and leaves us. We walk in to find the rest of the family playing uno, they had just finished their last hand so we were just in time to be dealt in to the next game. Don't worry we've got Uno, not all hope is lost. The family the was in from out of town were all from Colombia which was cool because I got to use my Spanish and recycle my 3 hit jokes that know. They always get a laugh, if not genuine at least I'll get a few courtesy laughs anyway.
Oh yeah, and Carol wasn't lying about the cute girls, well she wasn't lying about the cute part anyway. Then there was the part about the age....Laura, super cute, was about 11 years old, and ______ (forgetting name right now but will fill in later) was I'm guess around 14, thanks Carol. So if you haven't guess by now I'll just tell you that there was no New Year's kiss, darn it, maybe next year.
After winning our game of Uno, cough cough thank you, we got up for the count down and did what they told us to be a south american tradition. We all counted out 12 grapes and when we got to 12 seconds til, you're supposed to eat a grape every second and have a wish for each of the grapes you eat. So not only did we arrive at a New Year's party greeted with a whisper but even when it came time to yell "Happy New Year" nobody did because we all had a mouth full of grapes. Hmmmm. We had a good time though.
After, Drake and I cruised down to the party down at the club house that the Aralias was putting on, maybe there we can grab some good food or something. So we get there and they ask us if we're guests and we let them know which flat we're from. Then they tell us that the buffet had just closed and we said that that was fine we just wanted to check out what was going on. Turned out the buffet was still very much serving so we thought we'd grab a quick plate before they started tossing the stuff. They had some gruuuuubb dishes. So now that I have as many dishes that I can fit on my plate one of the party managers informs us that buffet wasn't free. Well when we first arrived Carol and Steve told us that if we ever ate down at the restaurant to just sign for it. So we tell them "ok, that's fine, we'll just sign for it." So he brings me the bill and it comes to a total of 4,000 rupees for the two of us (that's about $40 a plate just in case you're not up to date with your U.S. dollars to Indian rupees current exchange). And by that time we had already starting eating, oops. The guy didn't really believe us that we were legit guests either. He kept on coming back to the table questioning us who we were. He even called our flat and woke up Carol and Steve to make sure we were really their guests. I think the real reason was the fact that Drake and I weren't really dressed for the occasion...jeans and flannels weren't really fitting in too much, the beards didn't add too well either.
So we got our fill and hit up the dessert table and did our best to get our money's worth before we bounced. On our way out we were walking by a flat that did have a legit party going on....loud music, strobe lights, lots of people, none of which were whispering. So we thought we'd just walk by and maybe someone would invite us in. Being white Americans here in India we do stand out and are often times somewhat of a celebrity so we thought an invite would likely happen. But nope...nothing. Even as we walked by the 2PAC song "California Love" featuring Dr. Dre was playing...."California....knows how to party, Califoria...knows how to party." I mean how perfect can it get, two California boys walking by a hopping Indian New Year's party right when "California Love" is playing, invite 'em up I say. Nope, nothing, so instead of "...keep it rockin" it was more like "...keep on walkin."
Happy New Year everyone! 2011 BABY!

Merry INDIAN Christmas!!!

2011-01-11T07:41:00.001-08:00

Since the time difference between India and California is about 13 hours, jet lag is going to affect us. We both got really tired at about 7:30 pm and then woke up around 2 or 3. I haven’t woken up this early on Christmas morning since I was like 8, but for different reasons this time. All the presents got wrapped last night so Drake and I were put in charge of hanging the stocking, which were actually santa hats, and blowing up a bunch of red and white balloons before the kids from the orphanage arrived.
There are 23 kids, 15 girls and 8 boys, ranging in age from 6 to 15. Last time Drake was here he met them, but this will be my first time meeting them. So they show up and they were all super sweet and polite. They all came up to me and shook my hand, introduced themselves, and wished me a merry Christmas. Then the temptation of playing with the many many balloons scattered in the living room was too much. So for about 30 minutes we kicked, bobbled, hit, swung, head butted, and did about anything else imaginable that you can do with a balloons to create chaos. I’m going to like these kids.
We had a pancake, bacon, and egg breakfast before the kids opened their first gift, which was for each of them their very own bible. Then we went to church and had an….interesting time there. One thing is for sure, they like their electric guitar. They sang some Christmas songs, some worship songs, some dance performances were done, and then the pastor gave his Christmas message. After they had light refreshments and the creepiest santa that I’ve seen in my life.
We came back to the house and barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers. It was so funny, some of the kids had never had a hot dog before, which is understandable, they are from India. But some of the kids sat down with their plates with just a hot dog bun. They didn’t know what to do with the actual hot dog, so we had to show them it goes in the bun and generally eaten with ketchup and mustard and then eaten with your hands. I saw a few of them take out the hot dog and eat both of them separately with a fork. Which is funny because they normally eat rice and some sort of stew mixture and they use nothing but their hands. Now they’re eating an American dish and assume that they should use utensils when with hot dogs that’s not the case.

After lunch we opened gifts one at a time. It was really cool seeing the looks on their faces and seeing how excited they got after getting their own toy or a new pair of shoes or jeans.

After opening gifts we took some of the balls down to the courtyard to break them in properly. These kids are so funny, they speak 3 languages, being from Maunipur, India they speak their native dialect kuki, they also speak Hindi, and then English. When they’re playing with themselves, they usually don’t speak English, but you can tell that they’re super competitive and a lot of them are really athletic. They keep themselves in line too, if we start playing a game that has rules, they are sticklers to those rules. Drake and I also are sticklers, which is great because they play like us, hard and fair.
Raj and two other drivers took them back to the orphanage which is about an hour away. We had a great time with them, it was sad having them leave, but Drake and I are planning on spending more time with them and going there to stay the night. This experience has showed me a different side of Christmas, one that I think will change my future Christmases for the better.

First Day in India...

2011-01-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well we began our travels early Monday morning and finally arrived in India on Thursday morning, its good to finally be where we’re supposed to be.
Our first day here we didn’t do too much. Raj the driver took us to old Gurgaon to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping. The market place is SOOO crazy. If you think going to the mall on Christmas Eve is crazy, try this and you might change your mind. Christmas isn’t even really celebrated here so the fact that it was Christmas Eve didn’t necessarily mean the market was going to be any crazier, its just always this chaotic. In the United States cars have to yield to pedestrians, that is definitely not the case here. If you are walking you better watch your step or you WILL get hit.
We sampled some of the food sold on the streets: Jelebee, which is made like funnel cake, a batter poured in to hot oil and fried, when they pull it out they soak it in some sort of sweet glaze, soo good, we’ll be having that one again. Samosas, which are filled with a potato mixture and wrapped with a flaky crust and also deep fried. And then there’s the momos look like wontons, you can get veg or non-veg, we tried both but the non-veg was better. At this point, after talking to other people who have traveled through India before, I’m basically assuming that by trying all this food that I’m going to get Delhi belly, but its all part of the traveling experience. I laughed when a buddy of mine told me that I need to try everything and that he doesn’t want me to fart with confidence once.

Hong Kong........

2010-12-23T05:43:00.001-08:00

So now that we've arrived at the airport the only thing to do now is wait. Wait to see if the next flight to Hong Kong has any available seats. Since Drake and I hadn't really slept, we were really tired. So we ended up setting our luggage down on the ground and taking a nap right in the middle of the terminal. People walking all around us but it didn't matter, we were out. We slept for about an hour.
We woke up and started tossing a tennis ball back and forth until I put together a game. You know those moveable posts with those straps that connect to eachother to make up the maze of lines that you find at the airports? Well we got two of those and put them together in the middle of the terminal and started playing a game of tennis, but without rackets just our hands. Nobody seemed to mind. A group of security guards even walked by and asked us what the score was. Another traveler was taking video of us as he walked by. Entertain ourselves while entertaining others in the process.
The next flight to Hong Kong was at 2:00 pm and when they called out the names of selected stand-bys, ours weren't called. There were two more flights leaving that night, one at 9:00 and the other at 12:00. Our first attempt for the stand by was doomed from the start since we were like the 36th and 37th names on the list. But this time we supposedly first in line, but its a full flight so we'd just have to wait and see what happens, no guarantees.
We ended up taking a free hotel shuttle to the In n'Out just outside of LAX, hung out there for a bit, and played a game of cribbage. Drake was able to get a hold of some friends from church, Aaron and Mariah, that live nearby that were happy to come swing by and pick us up for a few hours.
Later they dropped us off back at the airport and we soon found out that we made it on the flight. Finally, we're making some progress on our trip, actually making it on to a flight. The only bad thing was that we left the tennis ball at Aaron's house, but then we remembered that we had a case of them in the suit case of toys for the orphans, so we had to pull out a few for our entertainment.

The flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong is 15 hours, by far my longest flight. Since we were stand by we didn't get seated next to eachother. Originally when I booked our flight months ago I tried to reserve seats in the emergency exit isly because you get extra leg room, but those seats are usually reserved first. But I got lucky with my seats placement, thats right, emergency isle baby. And with my dead leg that I've had for going on 3 weeks now, this will be much needed.
Cathay Pacific is a really nice airline. Seats were comfortable, service was great, the two meals that we got were great, and every seat had their very own screen with probably 100 movies and tv shows to choose from. The flight for both of us was rather pleasant and passed quickly enough. We both slept thru a good portion of it.
We arrived in Hong Kong Wednesday morning, so that means we missed a whole day, left Los Angeles Monday night, arrive in Hong Kong Wednesday morning.
Our connecting flight to New Delhi wasn't leaving until 2:30 pm and that would also be a stand by flight, so we had a good 7 hours to spend until then. We decided to leave the airport and go to the island of Hong Kong. We checked in our luggage at an airport locker, took a train to the island, and then took a taxi to Lan Kwai Fong.

We're not too interested in the touristy stuff so we wanted to go check out downtown and get some local food. Stopped by a place and had a pork and vegetable soup and then a breakfast dish with fried eggs, mushed not mashed potatoes, and sweet beans and some sort of hot sweet milk to drink.
Next we went downtown to check out some street vendor stuff and some of the sights of the city.

(Apparently there were a lot of motorcycles jumping over cars so they had to put a stop to it by putting up these "No Jumping Over Cars with your Motorcyle" signs.)
We took a taxi back to the train station and the train back to the airport in time for us to find out that we again didn't make it on the 2:30 flight. But she put us on the list for the 9:15 flight, which means more time waiting in the airport. We sat around a bit and then decided to go and talk to a different worker to see if they could work their magic any better. I have no idea what those workers are doing when they try to get us on a flight, but whatever it is they sure type fast in the process. Every worker we talked to always asked us the same questions and we always had the same disappointing answer: Do you have an itinerary? No. Do you have a boarding pass? No. All we had was a little baggage claim sticker with a bar code. Our one checked bag was scheduled to be on the 9:15 pm flight, so our goal was to be on the same flight as our bag. The next guy we talked to was a champ and was able to do better than just stand by and booked us two seats, next to eachother even, on that flight.
So now we can relax, we know that we're on the next flight to India, no more stand by stress. Its now Wednesday and I hadn't showered since Saturday night and it was starting to catch up with us. They had showers there that you could use but it costs $20. So we decided to ghetto shower and just get butt naked in the public bathroom and use the hand soap and the sinks to clean ourselves up. There was this old man in there mopping the floor who didn't look too happy. I don't know if he wasn't happy because he was going to have to clean up our mess or the fact that he wasn't happy that he was having to watch to bearded naked men showering in the sinks. Ghetto but refreshing nonetheless.
We filled the next few hours with games with the raquetballs and convincing other travelers that we were wheelchair-ridden. I have to say that we were pretty convincing though. Later on the flight people on the plane would make eye contact with us, recognize where they had seen us before and then say "you can walk".
P.S. While we were in downtown Hong Kong we saw a ton of people but only one man with a beard, either beards aren't too common or asian men can grow them well. Later in the airport a waitor asked us if our beards were real. Ha.
Next stop New Delhi, India.........

Preparations for My Trip to India........

2010-12-23T02:13:00.000-08:00

First things first, define procrastination. If you'll look it up in the dictionary, most likely you'll find a picture and me and Drake. We've known about our India trip for months now and still we left our preparations to the last minute.
I arrived in Ventura on Sunday, the day before our departure. We meet up at the mall and get right down to it. We're buying toys and underwear for the 23 orphans that we'll be spending time with while there in India. We go to Target, FootLocker, WalMart, Sports Chalet, Fry's, back to WalMart, and finally back to Target. Now we've got everything we need, now all we need to do is eat and organize everything in our luggage.
We get back to the house and deal with the eating situation first, of course. Our plan is to leave the house in the morning at 6:15 am. We're most likely not going to get too much sleep but we'll have plenty of time to sleep on the plane so we're not too worried about that. It's around 1 am and I start thinking about everything that I'm going to need to start packing when it hits me. When planning a trip, what is the number one thing you have to take with you? Toothbrush? Underwear? While these things are very important, its still not what I'm referring to. Let me rephrase the question. When planning an INTERNATIONAL trip, what is the number one thing you HAVE to take with you? That's right, my freaking PASSPORT. The very same one that is calmly sitting in a small pocket in my backpack which is in TAFT!!!!!

Taft is 2 hours away, we're leaving in 5 hours, we still haven't even touched anything to begin packing, so we have to leave now. We jump in Matt's car, the Lexus, which will get us there the fastest and the safest. As we're pulling out of the driveway I ask Drake how much gas we have, he takes a look and sees that we have plenty to get us there and back no problem. We decide to take the 33 back to Taft because even if you don't drive really fast its still faster and shorter. A bit more dangerous but when has that ever stopped us? Its been raining all weekend and we soon find out that there are a lot of little mud rock slides that have fallen in to the road which give us little obstacles, but nothing we can't handle. Drake is pretty tired, kind of delirious, but getting the job done safely so far. He looks down at the dash and notices a new light that has been illuminated. Yup, its the gas light.

When Drake has glanced at how much gas we had he read the gauge wrong thinking we had close to a full tank we in reality we had close to an empty tank.
So now we've found ourselves right in the middle of Ventura and Taft with no close gas station, no cell phone reception, and no time to run out of gas. Somehow Drake manages to use what little fuel we have left very efficiently on the up hills and coast our way down on the down hills. We make it to the Texaco station in Maricopa with the needle pointing well below E.
So we book it the rest of the way to Taft, grab my passport, and head back to Ventura, this time on the much safer Interstate 5. At this point Drake is beyond sleepy, he's unable to complete full thoughts or sentences and claims to be seeing things on the road that aren't really there. After the "face out the window scream" and the several slaps to the face that I deemed necesary to give him at random times we decided that I should drive. When we're driving through Oxnard I get a voicemail informing us that our flight from Chicago to Brussels has been cancelled due to a massive slow storm in Europe. I call the airlines and they tell us the soonest they can get us there in by the 25, Christmas Day, yeah right.
So we arrive at the house in Ventura at 6:05 am, still not having even packed a single sock. So we get right to it, pack our bags until they're full and hope that we got the essentials. Our plan was to leave by 6:15 but we agree now on a much more realistic 6:45, to make it there early enough for our flight leaving at 9:50. Our buddy Kevin shows up to take us to LAX and we take off. You know how we don't like things that are too easy and how we love a challenge, so what does that mean? More hurdles. We run into a detour and also traffic. But we arrive at LAX at 9:15. We don't necesarily have to make our flight to Chicago since we will most likely be rerouted anouther way.
After talking with some not-too-pleasant representatives from American Airlines, we find out that all flights to Europe are cancelled and they will be sending us through Hong Kong flying stand-by with Cathay Pacific.

Hong Kong here we come..............

Heads Up!!!

2010-09-26T23:10:00.000-07:00

First things first, I know that I suck at the whole blogging thing. There's a few substantially important events that have happened in my life in the last 6 months that I haven't posted about. But I'll try to be better. This one has been screaming at me and had to be posted though, too funny to keep to myself.
So I'm taking an International Finance class at Utah Valley University, yeah Bo's in Utah...weird. But I had just got out of class and I'm walking to the Institute parking lot. To get in the parking lot you have to have this electronic card that you scan as you pull in which lifts the arm that allows you to enter the parking lot. When you leave the parking lot you don't need the card, the arm recognizes your car pulling out and lifts automatically for you.
So I'm walking towards the parking lot and I notice this girl just pulling out. She's got her head out the window watching for traffic so that she call pull out. Well she's really cute and I'm smiling at her and if my memory still serves me correctly she was smiling back. She then pulls out and I'm still a bit in a daze as I watch her drive away. SMACK!!!!! All of a sudden I get hit in the side of the head really hard, and I look and notice that I just got smacked in the head by the auotmatic arm that had just dropped down because the girl had just driven away. To my knowledge nobody saw, unless she was still looking in her rear view mirror or something. But I won't flatter myself, I don't think she saw.

So then I took this picture with my phone, I might write them a letter to see if we can get this sign enlarged or something. I'm mean come on, someone could get really hurt. Okay maybe I won't write the letter.

BYU-Hawaii Graduation 2010!!!

2010-06-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

I attended my first semester of college in the fall of 2002 at Palomar College. I didn't take classes again until fall 2005 at Bakersfield College where I did two semesters. While there I applied to all three BYUs (Provo, Idaho, and Hawaii). Provo said "no" but I didn't care because I didn't really want to go there anyway. I got accepted to Hawaii where I wanted to go all along. So I started my first semester in the fall 2006. It seemed like I would never finish school. I'm not the best student, I always procrastinate and I'm very good at finding other things to do besides my homework. My last couple semesters I got a little bit better at it. I got very familiar with the library and was in there more than any person should ever be. But I feel like a hit a good balance between school and play time.
So here it is, April 2010 and I finally graduated. It felt a little bit anticlimactic, all of that work and all that money for a stupid piece of paper, that paper says bachelor's degree in International Business Management but really, that's it? We'll see what's in store for me next.
Here are some pictures from graduation...

I couldn't resist. I'm never going to wear this robe again, why not? Jansen opted to jump with me too, nice shot Dad.

Dad and Holly after graduation and all my leis.

Mom and Wayne.

Jansen and I are both still dry at this point, but not for too much longer.

CHEEHOO!!!!!!

Appropriate Greeting Card

2010-03-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

So last semester I hung out with my good friend Gina a lot. BYU-Hawaii didn't have her major so she had to go back to BYU-Provo. Which was sad for me because I don't get to hang out with Gina anymore. We still talk every once in a while but not as often as when she was here. Anyways she sent me this card the other day...

I started cracking up when I read this. She said that she was looking for a birthday card for someone else, saw this one, and couldn't resist getting it for me. As many of you are aware I like to make my phone calls and keep in touch with people while I go to the bathroom. I usually have to normal contact who I call, and Gina is on my list. She said that she thinks its funny that I call her while pooping but she's honored to be on my bathroom contact list. I'm glad she's on there too, only the specialest of the special are on that list. Love ya Gina.

5K for Haiti

2010-03-08T15:46:00.000-08:00

So this Saturday BYU-Hawaii put on a 5K charity run for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. It was $10 and it all went to relief efforts in Haiti.
I would say the last year has been the year that I've officially worked out the least. And when I say "officially" working out I mean what I'm about to do is for the sole purpose of doing exercise or working out. I stay active and I work out my body by doing other things. I don't go for a run just to go for a run. I've gone to the gym to lift weights maybe twice in the last 8 months. But I would still say that I'm in pretty good shape. Surfing is a good example of a way to get a really good work out without really knowing that you're getting a workout. You surf to surf not to exercise, but it keeps you in really good shape. I climb trees, I'm always doing flips and walking on my hands, and lifting girls on my shoulders or in some cases (with Jansen) even higher. What I'm getting at is that I like my regiment of keeping in shape better than "officially" working out.
I haven't gone for a run in probabley 3 months and I signed up to do the 5K this weekend. Before the race I was kinda sizing up the competition. For one because I'm competitive and I like winning and two because I wanted to find someone that I felt would push me at a solid pace. I didn't want to pace with my roommate David because I felt like he was going to smoke me, he's really fast. This other buddy of mine Zack I knew was an athletic guy, about my same size and build, so I thought he would be a good one but I still thought that I could beat him.

The race starts and I start out to a pretty fast pace, I was in the lead for probabley the first 200 meters or so. The guys on the cross country team from BYU-Hawaii were running in the race as well (but they didn't count as far as race finishings) so I got nervous thinking that I went out too fast. At about the first half mile mark the cross country guys had passed me and David, Zack, and I were together.
Zack pushed ahead to try to keep up with the cross country guys. I didn't know this but he's alot faster than I thought. At 18 years old he qualified for the Boston Marathon and in high school he ran a sub-16 5K, that's fast. My first mile time split was 5:40 and David was about three seconds ahead of that. At about the half way point I started hearing steps catching up to me, I turned around and saw a pack of cross country girls, darn those girls. Once they passed me I tried keeping up with their pace but it wasn't really working for me. I'm not sure what my 2 mile split time was but my end time was 20:11, that's pretty bad. That's two minutes slower than my slowest time in high school.

Since the cross country kids didn't count as finishers, the race results were Zack in first, David in second and me in third. I'll take third, I got a free 6-inch sub from subway and a gift certificate for Angel's Ice Cream, NICE!!!!

Honesty is the best policy?

2010-03-08T15:25:00.000-08:00

So a buddy of mine, who reads my blog, that's weird because nobody reads my blog, but anyways, a buddy of mine read the story about the girl hitting the car in the parking lot and not leaving a note, and then returning later to leave a note because I called her out, he found this note somewhere in the vastness of the WORLD WIDE WEB and forwarded it to me. I was cracking up so I thought I'd share it with you, you who? I thought nobody read this thing, alright maybe I'm just posting it up here so that I can have it on file.
I wonder if the girl I called out left a note like this one. Hmmmm....I wonder.

Tsunami Warning!!!

2010-03-01T21:22:00.001-08:00

A tsunami warning was in effect for Hawaii on Saturday following a massive 8.8 earthquake that struck central Chile at 3:30am that lasted about 3 minutes, that's a long time for an earthquake of that size. We got news of it before we went to bed and knew that we would be getting Tsnami warnings in the morning.
I woke up at 4am to Elza, my hometeachee calling me. I jumped out of bed and then realized she was out of my porch. I went outside and talked to her, she was wondering if we were going to stay or leave. While on the deck I saw across the street that a line had formed outside of Foodland. The store wasn't going to open for another two hours but already there was a line clear out to the street.
I went back to bed and woke up at 6am sharp to the screachingly loud tsunami alarm. Lucky or unlucky for us, I don't know which, the town alarm is located right across the street. It was so darn loud and I was so darn tired, and I wasn't like the annoying alarm clock that I can just hit to turn off.
All of us roommates packed up some supplies and decided to go to higher ground, so we hiked Laie falls and thought that we could witness any surge of water that might come. We waited and waited and nothing. Its funny the attitude that some people had. It was like we were disappointed that there was no distruction. Really? What kind of people are we to be disappointed that nobody lost their home or their life in Hawaii. We dodged the bullet. Chile wasn't so lucky. Remember those people that were effected by the earthquakes and tsunamis in your prayers.
I'm okay, the only thing bad that happened to me was that I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked and I got a little bit of a sun burn.

The first waves were expected to arrive in Hawaii at 11:19 a.m. today (4:19 p.m. EST).

What To Do...

2010-02-22T18:34:00.000-08:00

So I'm driving to school the other day and I pull into the little circle. There are parking spots all around the circle of flags and I was doing a lap around to see if there were any empty spots.

As I'm pulling around I see reverse lights and as she's reversing out she didn't pull out straight and totally scrapped on the car next to her. So I leave that spot and see one on the other side all the while looking back to see what the girl is going to do. I see her pull back into the spot, get out of the car, looks at the damage she did to the car, and then gets back into the car to leave. The little circle is one-way so she's going to drive by me so I decide to write down her license plate number. As she drives by me I realize that I know who the girl is. Awww crap, what do I do now?

I was running late to class so I go to class while I'm still debating what I'm going to do. The class is Leadership and Management and the lecture for the day was on "Making Ethical Decisions." Well isn't that appropriate? So I go tell the teacher my situation and she excuses me from class so that I can go take care of it.
I go back out to the little circle and write down the license plate of the other car too. So I have a few options: 1. Report her to security. 2. Talk to her about it. 3. Or do nothing at all. But #3 isn't an option now. So I decide to send her a text which went like this, "Hey I saw you hit that car, you did scratch it up pretty good and you didn't leave a note. I think you need to come back and atleast leave a note, they might not even care. It's the right thing to do." How do you think that sounded? I didn't want her to feel like a completely terrible person but at the same time she didn't do the right thing, sometimes we need others to help us make the right decision. Driving off was the easy way out, but not the right thing.
She texted back and said that she was planning on leaving a note, but she went home first to call her mom and ask her what she should do. Which I don't really think is what she was planning on doing. You can't just leave the scene and come back later and try to fix it. While I was sitting in class before I talked to my teacher I texted a few people asking for advice of what I should do. One friend of mine said that I was in a sucky position and that I should talk to her. A couple minutes later this friend of mine texted me back and said "Bo I totally know who the girl is that hit the car, she just texted me and told me the whole story." So my friend got both sides of the story.
So she ended up coming back and leaving a note on the car. I kinda wish that I didn't have to get involved but I witnessed it and I needed to do something. The whole "Making Ethical Decisions" topic in class got me off the fense. I think the girl feels dumb and thinks that I was judging her but whatever. I told her that I don't think she's a bad person and that it doesn't matter because the right thing has been done now. I haven't seen her yet, I wonder if it'll be awkward when I do, probabley.
I am Bo

B is for.........B-Date

2010-02-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

So I've decided that I like dates, I think that I've known that but I might forget that I do sometimes. I've been hanging out with Jansen alot and I really like hanging out with her but I told her that I wanted to take her out on a date. What can I say, I like dates.
The first part of the date started when I went to her house between classes with a deck of cards. I had an idea of what I wanted to do but I needed the theme first. I pull out the deck of cards and start dropping cards on the ground and told her to tell me when to stop. She told me to stop and the card was the 2 of clubs...

Whatever card it would have been would have represented a letter. For example a '7' would represent a 'G' (the 7th letter in the alphabet). So in our case the 2 represents a 'B', now we have our theme. Everything that we're going to do on our date has to start with the letter B. I then pulled out 10-1 dollar bills and gave her 5 and told her that we would buy eachother something to exchange at the beginning of the date and it had to start with the letter B.
Later I picked her up and brought BLUE BALLOONS and she gave me a BEAR.

We first drove to the beach park by Chinaman's Hat where I had our first B activity. At the BEACH we BLEW BIG BUBBLES.

It took us a few tries to get the hang of it, well it took me alot of tries, her only a few and then I stole her method and had alot better luck. Chinaman's Hat and the Ko'olau mountains made for a good back drop don't you think?
My next plan was to go to this really good BRAZILIAN restaurant but when we arrived at the address that I got online it was no longer there. A Thai restaurant was in its place, and there's no B's in THAI. So we went to plan B, haha, get it, plan B. Anyways we decided to go to Bubba Gumps, somewhere we both hadn't been.

The waitress quizzed us on a few Forrest Gump trivia questions. I did pretty good until she stumped me on some random unknown fact on a second role in the movie that Sally Fields plays, I had no idea.
So we ordered onion rings, and then 2 entrees that we both would share, coconut shrimp and the seafood platter. We suited up in our BUBBA BIBS and went to town.

You can't go wrong with crab legs, lobster, mussles, clams, shrimp scampi, and drawn butter. I felt like I needed to wipe my mouth just now just thinking about it. So good.
We took a few random pictures at the Ala Moana mall on the way back to the car.

Jansen's jumping heel click.

And then mine.
From there we decided to take a BIG BUBBLE BATH together. Hold on, hold on, before anyone freaks out this activity we kind of stretched a little bit. It was more like a jacuzzi, alright it was a jacuzzi but we stayed in theme and I wore my BOARD shorts and she wore her BIKINI. We snuck in the marriot in Waikiki.
It was getting pretty late and we were getting tired so we drove back home, but don't worry I still have a few more B tricks up my sleeve. In the morning I picked her up and we had BANANA pancakes and BACON and later on that night we shared a BANANA split. Not too bad huh? Super fun time, super good food, and a SUPER cute girl. How could I go wrong?

FYI-B isn't the easiest letter to spell with your bodies. Especially when you're having complete strangers take the picture who probabley thought we were both crazy. But secretly they were really jealous of our BOMB B-Date.

Close Call

2010-01-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

First things first, I know that I haven't been the best at posting my blogs on a "regular" basis but I'm going to try to be better. I think that I'll try to keep them shorter, because if I know they're going to be long I'll cringe away from doing it at all. I don't think anyone even reads this thing anyway, I'll be honest I wouldn't if I got an updated post once a month. Here we go...
So funny story, I already posted about the house that we live in. The deck is probably one of my favorite parts about our house.

One reason that I didn't mention the first time is that of accessibility. Let me explain....in the picture, down at the end you see the double doors, those doors are to my bedroom. In our house there are three bedroooms and two bathrooms. One downside is that both bathrooms are accessible only through the other two bedrooms. My bedroom is the only one without access to the bathroom, so you'd think.
Come on I'm a guy, where do you think I'm going to go. That's one of my favorite things about being a guy, I can pee almost whenever and where ever I want. So at night if I have to pee, I pee off the balcony, it's perfect. Since our balcony overlooks the popular Foodland shopping center I do only pee off of it at night, yes I am civilized.

So one night before I go to bed I get the call and walk over to the railing of the balcony. It's a nice night, stars are out, where else do you get a view like this while you pee, no bathroom wall can top this view. Right when I start going I have to stop mid-stream. Apparently Porter had to run across the street to the ATM and was returning back to the house via the short cut which cuts through the yard and over the fense. He didn't realize that I was peeing and he was about to walk right through my stream. But the good cousin that I am, I yelled and told him to stop while I managed to stop myself. Now that's love. Because in the words of Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey - Dumb and Dumber), "you can't start once you've started, it stings." I started to laugh as I imagined if it had gone down differently. Just imagine if he had walked through my pee stream. And by laughing the stream started back up again. So Porter had to stand there and wait until I was done before he came up.

Man I love being a guy.

We Have a Winner!!!

2009-12-19T11:44:00.000-08:00

So I RSVP'd about a week ago that I'd be going to my work (Turtle Bay) Christmas party. There was going to be good catered food, the theme was casino night, and on the invitation it said, "Dress to Impress." I had my eye on this girl Jansen that I've met a few times that I wanted to ask out. She's super cute, only about 4'11", filipino, and has an amazing smile. So I asked her out and she said "yes", that's a refreshing response, different from the normal ones I've been hearing lately. I decided to wear my 3-piece suit that I bought at a pentecostal thrift store in Burlington, NC for $5. I picked her up, took some awkward pre-prom style pictures before we left her house and then headed up to Waimea Valley where our party was being held.

So we both got pretty excited about the whole "dress to impress" thing and when we showed up to the party we got a little bit nervous, thinking that we might have gone a little overboard. We saw some people in shorts and blue jeans but it didn't matter, we were looking good and we were going to have a good time regardless. Right when we show up they gave us a little gift bag with a few little goodies, the best one was this box of mint chocolates that are to die for. They taste like heavenly, velvety goodness. That's all I can say about them. While we waited to be seated they had some pupus out, shrimp and chicken wings. I was starving so I think that anything would have tasted divine, but I'm pretty sure that these things were bomb to begin with.
So we took out seats and even took our turn posing for a professional photographer who was invited to come. I don't have those pictures back yet, I'll post them when I get them. And then we went through the buffet line. Man Turtle Bay doesn't hold out, this food was good. I think that I can give an unbiased opinion now because I'm not as extremely hungry as I was before thanks to the appetizers.

While we were sitting down finishing up our meals my boss came around and passed out the fake money that we would be gambling with and a raffle ticket for each person. We were given $300 (fake) each and the point was to make as much money as you could because every $100 bought you another raffle ticket and they had some pretty good prizes.
So we go up stairs and they had 3 or four tables going. I don't really understand craps too well so I decided to go for blackjack, a simple enough game. Well to make a long story short I only played with $200 and I increased that to $1,200. Pretty good don't you think? But at the same time it does put the thought in my head..."I could do this with real money and make the easiest, fastest money ever." But that's just bad news, I probably played differently because I knew that it wasn't real money.
So we cashed in our chips for raffle tickets and took a seat to wait for the numbers. They explained the rules which were that they had 3 main prizes that they were going to wait until the end to raffle them off. The rest was first come, first served. They would raffle a ticket and you would simply pick off the table what you wanted. They had a lot of things: a bunch of oakley sunglasses, a nintendo wii, 4 rounds of golf at another really nice golf club, 4-night stays at some nice resorts, a big tool set, just to name a few. (Oh just a side note, right before they started the raffle I was named the chip leader of the night, boo-yah baby.) So they start with the raffle and guess whose number got called first, that's right mine. So I go up there and start looking at what I want to choose. Now I have a question to throw out there, have you ever been to a restaurant that has a huge menu and the more choices that you have makes the choice even that much harder? Well this is how it was for me. And they didn't wait for me, they continued and called the next raffle. The 2nd guy quickly grabbed the nintendo wii, I went for the oakley sunglasses because there's this pair that I've really wanted for a long time, worth $180. I didn't see them amongst the selection so I kept looking. And then I saw it, exactly what I wanted. THE IPOD TOUCH....BOOYAH to the 19th power baby. So I grab it and found out that it came with a shirt too. I walk back to my seat stoked on my newly aquired gift. I sit down and start examining it and.....guess what.....its not an ipod touch, its an ipod touch case. NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! You've got to be kidding me. I had first choice over everything and I chose the ipod case when I don't even have an ipod to cover. That's right I was that guy, I was one of the only sober people at the party at that point and I was the one who botched the first pick of the raffle. That's like choosing choosing 3 free oil changes when I don't even have a car. I attempted to go up and explain that I couldn't read it well enough and pleaded for them to let me exchange it. Instead of sympathy I was given mockery. They decided to announce my choice to the whole party. Just shoot me now. And to make it worse I wasn't able to redeem myself with another choice, none of my other raffle tickets were chosen. I just had one chance and I blew it.

Afterwards I went to the Oakley rep, who had donated the case and the shirt (which was a size XXL) and I traded them in for credit towards those sunglasses that I wanted. So I ended up getting the sunglasses that I wanted but I had to pay some for them. Only $60 for a $180 dollar pair though, so I can justify that purchase.
The rest of the night was fun. Jansen is a really fun date.

We danced by ourselves on the dance floor but were later joined by some of my buzzed fellow employees. So besides the fact that I may have acquired possibly the greatest regret story of my life, besides that it was a great night. Good food, good games, fun dancing, great date, and even a good-night kiss. It's my story, I end it on then note that I choose.

Reaching the breaking point.

2009-12-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

So what's the tell-tale sign that too much is too much? Considering what just happened to me, I think I may have found what my tell-tale sign is.

So it's 7:30 on a Thursday evening, the week before finals and I just returned to the library sure to be spending the rest of the night here (well they close at midnight so I guess until then). I needed to take a quiz online for my Operations Management class for chapter 17. So I open up the quiz, get my text book out of my back pack, open up to chapter 17, read the first question, and then started looking for the answer. I started getting frustrated thinking to myself, "great this is going to be one of those quizzes that has all the answers cleverly hidden in the text." No joke after about 15 minutes I was still on question number 1 having no luck finding the answer or even some of the same key words that were in the question.

Then it clicked, I'm looking in the wrong book. Now it makes perfect sense, that's why the answer to the 'Operations Management' question isn't found in chapter 17 of my 'international economics book. Just shoot me now.

Can you tell the difference? Of course you can, because they state which books they are on the darn cover. That's 15 minutes that I won't be getting back.

Mele Kalikimaka

2009-12-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

Well its official, I'm not coming home for Christmas. This will be my first Christmas spent here in Hawaii. Every other year I've gone back to the mainland and shared every else's Christmas, someone else's home, someone else's family, someone else's decorations, and someone else's tree. But not this year, this will kinda be my own first Christmas. This weekend I'm going to go buy a tree and I was thinking that I don't have anything to put on it. That's where all of you (I say all of you like there's a lot of people that actually read my blog, there aren't) come in. So what I'm asking is for a Christmas tree ornament from you guys. I don't really want store bought, I prefer homemade. So the more popsicle sticks, construction paper, elmer's glue, and glitter the better. I want a personalized tree. When people come over I want to show them all my ornaments from my family. I'm going to get the tree this weekend so if you find some extra time for a little art project that would be awesome. I'll even pay you back for shipping. I love you guys and am really excited for my first Hawaiian Christmas and my first very own Christmas tree. Mele Kalikimaka.
P.S. Here's my address:
55-220 Kulanui St.#1789
Laie, HI 96762

L. Tom Perry....ALOOOOOOOOOOOHA!

2009-12-07T01:53:00.000-08:00

About a month ago they made an announement in church that L. Tom Perry and President Monson were coming to Hawaii for a Regional Conference. Its always exciting to hear a prophet or an apostle speak in person. They also announced that they would have a priesthood choir sing at the conference. And since it was a Regional Conference basically all the members in the state of hawaii would be coming to this. So to sing in the choir meant that I would have a guaranteed seat up front.
About a week before the confernce we found out that President Monson's wife fell down and hurt herself pretty bad and that he would be attending to her and therefore would not be coming to Hawaii. A lot of people were bummed but at the same time we were still excited to be having L. Tom Perry come.
I was kind of nervous that being in the choir would draw too much attention to me, well specifically the beard. I thought that in the end they would make me shave it, but I played my cards right and I'm still sporting it. In the choir we sang two songs, "How Great Thou Art" and "Beautiful Savior," two songs that are now on my list of favorites.
Minutes before the conference started and everyone was seated waiting for it to start Elder Perry turned around and looked at all of us in the choir. He got up from his seat, walked over to our choir director, who is also a student, and said, "Music is the most important part of all church meetings, and it's all relying on you." I already told you this was minutes before we started, as if we weren't nervous enough already.
I got over the nerves fairly quickly when we started singing, actually when my neighbor started singing. They organized us according to height, so of course I was up in the front along with mainly Asians and Philipinos. I don't think the guy next to me hit the right note even once. Right before when we practiced a little bit I realized that that was going to be the case so I helped him out and told him to sing his parts in "piano", which means softly. I still heard him but it didn't bring us down, it atleast put a smile on my face.
After the conference when I was walking out I was stopped right before the front doors. They had started clearing a path for Elder Perry so that he could leave and be on time for his flight out. He was shaking hands on his way out and it looked like I was in line to shake his hand as well. When he got to me he shook my hand and then suddenly he grabbed the back of my neck, shook me around a little bit, and said, "look at this group, this group can change the world." That's the second apostles hand that I've shaken but the first time that my whole body was shaken by one.

I'm in the Money, I'm in the Money

2009-12-04T01:58:00.000-08:00

So I've been working at the golf course for about 8 months now. Just recently we had the biggest shotgun tournament of the year, the Oakley Invitational. Basically all the Oakley reps, surf/skate shops that sell Oakley, and even a few sponsored by Oakley were present, like Bruce Irons.
The thing with shotgun tournaments is that everyone leaves the club house at the same time which isn't too bad. Takes a bit of prep work but not too crazy. But the hard part is when they ALL come in at the same time. At turtle bay we have two full courses, the Arnold Palmer and the George Fazio. And for this tournament we had 4 to 5 carts per hole, yes all 36 of them. Do the math, thats around 162 carts coming in all at the same time. The first challenge is preventing cloggage, we don't want to replicate rush hour traffic at the golf course. Keep 'em moving, get the patrons off the cart without kicking them off, clean up the trash, re-stock the carts with pencils, score cards, tees, and waters, wash 'em, and plug 'em in.
After the mad rush Oakley set up a large tent with catered food with live music and raffle. I bought a ten dollar raffle ticket in hopes that I would win the $1200 Oakley watch, but I had no such luck. As I was taking the walk of shame back to the car I noticed some paper money on the ground. I picked it up and whose face did I see? Its all about the Benjamins baby. That's right I didn't win the raffle but I did find myself a one-hundred dollar bill. I'm never that guy that finds money at the movie theatre or at the county fair. I'm usually the guy who finds a quarter on the sidewalk and then finds out that its been superglued there. Not this time. Now its my turn, boo-yah!

Lochness Monster...Bigfoot...and the Beard Card.

2009-11-30T01:23:00.000-08:00

So you all heard the story about the chin incident. Well along with stitches and the newly acquired scar came a blessing that was previously believed to be mythical. Yup, you guessed it, the infamous beard card. When I went in to see the doctor at the health center to get my stitches removed he instructed me not to shave for a while. He knew about the honor code at BYUH and so he wrote me a note to take to the honor code office. I showed up at the office, presented my note and was given a beard waiver card that was valid for 45 days.
The expiration date on the card is December 9. Which to me is a terrible day and kind of scary. Why couldn't it have been just 8 days longer? School lets on December 17. I'm going to try to sneek by to the end, if I can make it there then I can take it all the way to January 7 which will make for my longest beard so far.
I'm not going to lie. I love having a beard. And being here at BYUH its super unique. I get comments from guys that I don't even know telling me that they're super jealous. I guess one down side to the whole beard thing is that I'm using up a little bit more shampoo, but that's one price I'm definitely willing to pay.

My Chiny Chin Chin!

2009-10-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

I've had the conversation before stating my desire to have a gnarly scar with an even gnarlier story behind it. Like a huge scar on your side that came from a propeller blade in a plane accident. Or a bear slash scar on your chest, but if you have that one it needs to come with a single bear claw necklace that came from the bear fight that you were in. Then you could say something like, "you think this looks bad you should have seen the bear." I don't have one of these scars, yet. But I guess this is the next best thing that will hold me off for a while.

So this semester I haven't had much time to go to the beach. I've spent the majority of my non-work/non-class time in the library. So one saturday I finally got an opportunity to go to Waimea Bay, one of my favorite beaches. Right when we parked I had Porter put some sun block on me so that by the time we got to our spot on the beach the sun block would have already soaked in and I could go straight to playing. So we get, I throw down my towel and go for the water. One of my friends Tara was standing only in the shallow part because the waves were kinda big and she didn't want to get worked. So what do I do? I pick her up of course. I pick her up in my arms and start running for the water. As I jumped in the water we also got hit by a wave at the same time throwing us back. In the process I smacked my chin on her hip, 6'3", 130 lbs, yeah, those are some sharp hips. I didn't think much of it. I was just excited to be in the water finally. I look up out of the water and see Tara getting worked by another wave, it was a pretty funny sight. After my adrenaline wore off a bit I brought my hand up to check my chin only to see my hand with a small pool of blood. Yup I split my open on a girls hip....

I'm actually pretty stoked, I mean its no plane crash or bear fight but its alot better then having a scar from just tripping on a curb and splitting my chin open on the side walk. Come on, how lame would that be. How many times can I say it without it sounding cool? "I split my chin open on a girls hip." I love it.

So I cruise over to Kahuku hospital and get 4 stitches. While I was there I made 3 receptionists, 2 nurses, 1 cleaning lady, and 1 doctor laugh at my situation. But its alright because we're laughing together.

I am Bo

Define Awkard.

2009-10-19T22:11:00.000-07:00

Main Entry: awk·ward
Pronunciation: \ˈȯ-kwərd\
Function: adjective
a : lacking social grace and assurance b : causing embarrassment

Or....

You could also define awkward by giving an example of an awkward moment. I'm a very visual person, I learn things best when a teacher paints a picture in my head or tells a story to relate a given principle. So for you I'm going to paint a very "AWKWARD" picture....

So everyone knows that I like to talk on the phone when I go to the bathroom, its no secret, its not like I try to hide it from the other person on the other line. Its just a good time for me to catch up on some of my phone calls. I'm also very regular. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have a music class at 8:40am, which is approximately 1 hour after breakfast. The class lecture isn't all too interesting so its a perfect time for a bathroom break. First I called Bobbi...no answer, then I called Drake....no answer, then I called Jill.....again no answer. Given, this whole time I assumed that I was in the bathroom alone. It is on a less populated side of campus and I've always been in there by myself before. But before I was about to make a fourth call I thought that I heard some rustling in the bathroom a few stalls over. So what should I do? I check. So I peek my head down towards my feet to get low enough so that I can see underneath the stall walls. But wouldn't you know it, right as I took the initiative to peek under the stall wall to check for company, so did the other bathroom occupant. There we were 3 stalls away from eachother locked in the most awkward eye contact ever. Now I've had some pretty awkward moments before but that one has got to be up on the list for the top most awkward moments.

Now what do I do? I don't want to make it even more awkward and go and wash my hands with the guy. Possibly catching another awkward eye contact moment in the mirror or something. I think that its better that I don't know the identityor the mystery pooper. So I stayed in the stall and waited him out. It's going to be really funny when I run into this guy again and someone introduces us and we both try to figure out where we know eachother from. That moment when it clicks is going to be another story in and of itself.

I am Bo

I am BOO

2009-10-13T02:29:00.000-07:00

Alright so Halloween is coming around again soon. I want to dress up and I want it to be original and unique. These are my costumes from previous years:

2005

WIRE WHISK - This ones going to be hard to top, set the bar pretty high. But there are plenty more good ideas out there.

2006

SPA GIRL (i guess) - This one was just easy and kind of lame and that facial mask thing sucked to have on my face for an extended period of time, very itchy.

2007

80's PROM KING - This suit jacket made the costume. It was a good find at Saver's. This year I dressed up together with Abby (girl friend at the time).

2008

MICHAEL PHELPS - Yup, that's right, I did it. I already had the speedo and the goggles, I bought the last swim cap that Champ's Sports had which by chance had an american flag on it, and I made the "8" gold medals out of jar lids and ribbon. That was a fun/awkward night.

So there's the run down of the last 4 Halloweens. Give me some feed back. Something funny, random, unique, original, crazy.

I am BOO

Skateboarding is NOT a Crime!

2009-10-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

So there I am, on my way to school, just like any other day. I ride my skateboard over to the quiet house so that I'll go to school with my friend Gina Geest. I live up on the point in Laie which is basically the only hill in the town. I've ridden my skateboard down this hill countless times before and I would say that it's ridden by numerous others several times everyday. But something must have been different about this time. So I'm riding down the hill and there's a cop parked on the side of the road. He yells at me and tells me to get off my board. So I do, and he calls me over to go and talk to him. He asks for my i.d. and asks me if I have $97. I tell him that I don't and he says, "well you better find it." He goes on to tell me that a skateboard has no place on the road as he's writing me a ticket. I can't really afford any additional costs right now so I asked him if he could just let him off with a warning. Before I was done with my sentence he cuts me off and goes on more to rebuke me for my "inappropriate" actions. He comes back with the ticket, tells me to sign, and now informs me that riding my skateboard on the road is not a $97 fine but rather an $130 infraction. Where he came up with that number I don't know. I took the ticket and started walking away and he added, "if you don't pay for it you'll have a warrant out for your arrest." WOW, me, Bo Christian, menance to society.

This didn't come at the best time. I just almost depleted my bank account to pay off my credit card to pay for school. Rents due in about a week and that's gonna put me down really low. Looks like mac 'n cheese and top ramen are back on the menu.

But don't worry. I'm not taking this one without fighting it. I'll write my letter, I'll show up to court with a suit and tie, I'm not just going to turn my cheek and wait for another. Since when is skateboarding a crime. Maybe it's the red hair, those racists.
I am Bo

When am I gonna learn?

2009-10-02T13:16:00.001-07:00

So I'm usually very good about washing my car regularly, but lately my car has been neglected. So I decided this last weekend to wash my car. While I was setting up I decided to wash my roommate Chris' car as well as a surprise. I didn't think that it would take me too long. I put sunblock on my neck and the tops of my shoulders but now I'm thinking I should have put an entire layer on my back too. What do you think?

Living Large in the VIP!!!

2009-09-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

Relaxin.....you've gotta love the hammock.

Finding good housing here in Hawaii is often times really hard. But besides my first semester here and maybe even the box I lived in with Neil I've had pretty good luck. The house I live in now is super nice and I'll stay here until graduation. This house will be my 5th place I've lived in.
All houses in Hawaii receive a name, Jill lived in the "blue roof house" because it had a blue roof, I lived in the "box" or the "castle" with Neil because it was a box. The last place I lived was called the "coach house" because coach wagner owned it. Now I live the the VIP house because its really nice and I don't know why else. We live up on the point, I can see the ocean from my bedroom window, I know I have it pretty rough.

Our large deck with dart board, t.v. and dvd player, a couple comfy couches and of course a solid quiver of surf boards.

Nice big yard that we haven't really utilized too much, we've played catch in it a couple of times but its still nice to have.

Our large living room is nice, ideal for get togethers and movie nights, we also have satelite t.v. and surround sound which has been nice for those breaks in between homework.

Everyone loves our kitchen, I probably use it the most and I love it. Its big and has so much storage space. Our house is really good about keeping it clean as well.

It's a three bedroom house and I stay in the biggest room of the house. There used to be two of us in this room but now that
Porter is here there's three of us. It's still super roomy though with plenty of windows which keeps it really bright.

ALOHA Porter Bowman!!!

2009-09-17T22:01:00.001-07:00

The last time that I saw Porter was probably when I was 16 and we had the family reunion at Vashon Island. So that means if I was 16 he was 9 years old. This summer we had our latest Bowman family reunion, I'm now 25 and he's now 18, a little bit better relatable ages.
We got along well and thought about the idea of him coming out to Hawaii to live for a while and getting out of Kanab, Utah. His parents were excited about the idea and now he's been here for a few weeks now. I'm stoked to have him here. Everything has worked out perfectly. My landlord was willing to let him stay and our rent got lowered because of it. I got him a job the first week he was here working construction for Oceana Builders.
He's pretty shy and quiet but we'll get him out of his shell. It was funny today I taught him how to write a check. I was cracking up but I'm sure I was the same way when I was 18, it just seems like so long ago.

One Man : Two Jobs - Difference of Night and Day

2009-09-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

I've been working at Turtle Bay Resort Golf Club for about 6 months now. I work in Outside Guest Services which basically entails getting golf clubs out of guests cars, setting them up on their cart, sending them out on the course at the right time, washing their clubs when they're done, and putting them back in their car. It pays $8 an hour but the tips are good. We're supposed to be clean cut and look professional.

Looking good on the golf course.
For a little more than a month now I've been working construction for an Australian contractor named Rob Fletcher (Rob Fletcha if said in an australian accent). Some of the jobs we've done so far have been demolishing a house, laying 800 square feet of tile, digging footings, and now building a house.
I come home from Turtle Bay and I can go straight to school or anywhere else for that matter because I'm still clean. Construction on the other hand, I can't go anywhere. I can't even get into my car to drive home without having to take off my pants, shirt, and shoes because I would stain the driver's seat.

This picture of my dirty face was even taken after I sprayed myself directly in the face with the hose. I even had to wash my face one more time after I got out of the shower. Cement dust is stubborn.

Looking at my socks you would think that I didn't wear shoes, but yes I did.

How are my odds?

2009-09-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

So I started thinking about this the other day and I realized that I've dated 8 girls since I've returned home from the mission. Of those 8, there are 5 that are married. Can you believe that, 5 out of 8?

Tia #1. This was a picture that I took on halloween, i couldn't find any pictures of her with her husband.

Staci #2. I think that the picture says it all on this one.

Abby #3. This one is the most recent, just got married the other day.

Alice #4. I knew a while ago that she was getting married, Drake and I actually snowboarded in Utah with the two of them when they were engaged. But I just got a friend request from her the other day and found out that she's a mama.

Marina #5. Marina and I broke up about 3 years ago. And that's right, in those 3 years she's been busy. Got married and not only had one kid but two. Crazy!