A Super Sized Post

Hello, Bill fans. It has been a little while since I have last talked with you my friends. I know what you're all thinking and no, the rumors are not true. I did not eat myself to death by eating too much pizza. Well I guess I will get that out of the way. No, I unfortunately did not complete the pizza challenge. I'm not proud of that fact, but I never gave up. We did the best we could and my partner, Nicole, and I each ate around the same amount of pizza which totaled to be a little more than half the pizza. In the near future, I'm hopefully going to be doing a post of a bunch a pictures that will include pictures from the challenge. But for this post I'm just going to try to update you on what I have been doing the last few weeks.

The day after the pizza challenge, we volunteered at a fun run for kids to teach them health and fitness at an early age. I was a course guide and pointed out where they needed to run. But here's the kicker. The race took place at Lego Land amusement park and it is amazing. We actually got to walk through a lot of the park. The best part is an area called Mini Land, that holds 1:8 scale replicas of areas around the United States including New York City, Las Vegas, New Orleans, San Francisco, LA, and Daytona racetrack. The area I found particularly amazing was in Washington DC where on the mini Capital Building they had the Obama Inauguration set up. Wait till you see the pictures of this. No detail was spared. They even went back to change the color of Michelle Obama's dress to yellow after they had already set it up.

Later that weekend, we did some sightseeing. First we went to an area called Sunset Cliffs along the beach. The cliffs overlooked the beach and had a neat erosion look from all the years of waves pounding against it. Next we went to this cemetery at a Naval base that offers a really great view of the city. Next,we went to an area downtown called Balboa Park. It's a beautiful park that holds many museums, trails, and fun things to check out.

Then comes Monday, which means the start of another work week. A week full of digging holes, building deep water holes to irrigate the trees, planting trees, building berms of dirt around the trees to save up water from rainfall. The work gets a little tedious at times but I still over all really enjoy the work. But the free time we get has been so amazing here that it seems like we're always working for the weekends. Although, this particular week, a little excitement took place because the mayor of San Diego came to campus to give the Alliant International University, at which we are staying at and doing our tree planting for, a proclamation for 80 years of service to the city of San Diego. We got to meet the mayor and then he was kind enough to check out the work we have been doing.

The next weekend we volunteered at an urban farm/community garden downtown at the City College of San Diego. We learned a ton about local farming, agriculture, and how to garden (all topics I am thoroughly interested in). One of the guys who runs the garden works with a movement called "Farms Not Lawns," in which they suggest that the world would not have food shortages, people would be healthier, and there would be less fuel costs because less food would have to be shipped if everyone grew a small portion of vegetables on their lawns.

Later that day, we went to Coronado Island which is adjacent to downtown San Diego. It's a beautiful island with a nice beach, a touristy area, and the Coronado Hotel. The Coronado is an extravagant historic hotel that was built in the late 1800's. They used it to shoot scenes from the movie Citizen Kane (as shots of Kane's mansion) and in the movie Some Like It Hot (as the hotel where the men... I mean women perform). The next day was relaxing and we just chilled out and watched one of the most exciting Super Bowls I can remember.

Then another work week. A couple of the nights though, we got volunteer at the San Diego Food Bank which turned out to be a lot of fun. The first night we separated expired donated food and then the second night we worked on an assembly line making boxes of food for the elderly. We were able to move through over 2 tons of food. I guess I should explain why we're always volunteering extra at places outside of work. As part of the Americorps NCCC program, along side our 1700 hours required to graduate, we also need 80 hours of Independent Service Projects. These ISP's have to take place outside our work and have be done at a non-profit organization, a faith based group, or a school.

That brings us up to this past weekend. On Friday, I went up to Los Angeles with my teammates Sara and Nicole. Nicole's twin sister lives in Santa Monica and she was nice enough to let us crash at her place for the weekend. I had such a fun time. We did a few of the touristy things such as go to the walk of stars, see Gromann's Chinese Theater, drive throughout Beverly Hills and on Rodeo Drive, see the Hollywood sign, and go to the Santa Monica pier. And it took us all weekend but we saw a celebrity on Sunday. As we were walking down the Promenade (a series of a shops in Santa Monica) we saw Billy Mays. That's right. The Oxy Clean commercial guy. I know how impressed you all must be.

Well thank you for reading all of this. Unless you just scrolled down to the last paragraph. Which in that case, what the hell are you doing? There is some pretty interesting stuff up there. I tried to make this a big one on purpose just because I missed it for a few weeks. I'll try to put up that post full of pictures soon. Also, I hope to get back in the habit of this becoming a weekly or at least semi-weekly blog. A missed one week due to the internet being out. The other two weeks I must blame on sheer laziness. Well, thanks for taking time out of you're busy day to read about my life. Peace.

The Challenge

I sit before you on the eve of a most courageous challenge set before me. Tomorrow night, at this time, I shall be joining the list legends: Kobyashi, Joey Chestnut, Eater X, and William "The Refrigerator" Perry. That's right, tomorrow I shall become a competitive eater. Let me explain. Last weekend, we were out getting a bite to eat at a pizza place near by. Halfway through the meal we notice that they have a challenge for a team of two people to eat a 30" pizza in 1 hour. No bathroom breaks and no throwing up. So my teammate, Nicole, and I mentioned how we would both like to try it. So tomorrow night this epic gauntlet will be thrown down. If we are successful, we get the pizza for free, a free t-shirt, and our pictures forever immortalized on the wall of Luigi's Pizzeria. If we lose, we will have to pay $40 for the pie and forever have the shame of not being able to do it. Wish us luck.

Not much else to report. The work has been going really well and we've been planting a lot of trees. Also, last night I had a dream come true. We volunteered on behalf of the San Diego Food Bank to sell programs at a San Diego State basketball game. It was phenomenal. I got to yell all night, "PROGRAMS! GET YOUR PROGRAMS HERE!" Then I would make up different saying to attract the customers. Then finally, to top it off, I would make up songs to what the pep band was playing and turn them into songs about selling programs. For instance, "Whoop! Here it is: Programs. Whoop there it is: Programs." When I started to sing to the songs, it was a guaranteed sell. It was a lot of fun and for a great cause.

So long Bill Gwynn readers and hopefully by the time I talk to you next I will have had completed the challenge and be wearing my free t-shirt as I type my next blog. Peace.

Greetings From San Diego

Hello Bill Gwynn loyalists! Welcome back to my world. I'm currently sitting in a dorm room on the Alliant International University campus in San Diego, CA. We have been here for a week now and we have been working pretty hard. Each day we work from about 7-3 digging holes, planting trees, and putting in irrigation pipes on a the hillside of a canyon right next to where we live.

This is a look at the outside of our dorms.



Here's the pool right outside our dorms. Trust me, it's not as good as it seems. The water is kept at sub-Arctic temperatures.



Here is the hillside that got completely burnt by wild fires in 2004.



Here is a closer look at the hillside.



And here's another.



Here's my team at the start of the work day.


Everything has been going pretty great. The work has been a little back breaking in the 80 degree San Diego sun but its also very rewarding. I know all my friends back east are a little jealous when they read that I'm working in such sunny weather when your are currently suffering through 6 degree temperatures. All I can say is, "Lay off. I get paid less than $12 a day." I'm just kidding of course. The area is tremendous and I'm having a blast. The beach is 15 minutes away and there is some beautiful scenery around. The highlight of my leisure time, however, took place last Sunday when I was able to locate a bar devoted to displaced Philadelphia Eagles fans. I got to watch the game there and it felt like I was right at home. We got to sing the Eagles fight song after every touchdown and of course celebrate a big win by the birds. Next stop Arizona.


He's a look at the beach we went to that's only 15 minutes from where we live.



Here's one more glorious look at the La Jolla beach in San Diego.


Well that's it for now. My New Year's resolution is to try to update this thing more so hopefully you will be hearing again from me real soon. Peace. Go Eagles.