Late Friday night...
I write this late on a Friday night, one day after arriving in the beautiful city of Seatle, WA. Unlike the rumors of rain, fog, clouds, and general BAD weather that I hear about, the place is simply amazing! The sky is clear, the air is clean and crisp, the temperature is just right, and the nature is beautiful. There seems to be a very refined lifestyle here (a bit north of Seatle) - fancy dining, dressing, cars, houses, etc... I wonder if part of that is a reflection of the natural scenery around here which just seems to demand respect.

Today was very relaxed - sleeping in, walking a beautiful young German Shepherd, and flipping through my Aunt's wedding album (one of the few things I truly missed while I was in Australia). It only got better from there... I enjoyed a nice evening dining at PF Changs with Aunt Brenda, Uncle Jorge, and Trung - and then went stargazing with a pair of their friends. Jen (the wife) actually works as a programmer for Google, which was a pleasant surprise - perhaps I have a future working for Google someday. Also, in the spirit of trying new things, I enjoyed a Long Island Iced Tea and a Sidecar - both rather tasty I must say. Now it is almost midnight and we are planning on leaving for college at 6:30 am. Sounds too much like getting up for work, but oh well ;) Thus the adventure begins on a very high note!

**The next day...
The drive out to Walla Walla College was relatively uneventful, but the scenery was astounding... at first. We went through mountain passes with peaks, enormous pines, lakes, rivers, etc for many miles and I was beginning to think that I had found paradise! WWC was looking like a VERY good move at this point. As time went by though, the scenery turned into rolling hills and eventually flat land filled with tan, dead-looking grass. I was getting very concerned as we approached the college. Fortunately, WWC seems to be an oasis in the middle of a northwestern desert. The campus is lovely!

After eating at a small shop on main street (with excellent sandwiches), we got my luggage into my new room and I said my farewells and thank-yous to Brenda and Jorge. I didn't really know what to do for the rest of the day, so I wandered and stumbled across a large gathering of freshman that were about to leave on a hike. Well BY JOVE that sounded like something worth doing! This turned out to be quite good - I snapped the picture above and met several people including a girl that was at Avondale the same time as me (but somehow we managed not to meet). I also spent some time interrogating a 4th year mechanical engineer about activities and the like around WWC. I've discovered that there is a huge amount of "stuff" to do at WWC and I believe this is probably because there is nothing to do anywhere else. Seriously. Rockclimbing sounds like a grand opportunity, student leadership opportunities, and even a WWC radio station by students... Things are looking good.

After the hike, I stayed busy for the rest of the day - went to a concert with free haystacks (and met Tim, Eric, and Shane - friends from Union College), moved into my room for a while, and then played carnival games for a few hours at they gymnasium. It was one of those "freshmen-get-to-know-each-other" events and not too shabby. I managed to make out with Sprite and some candy bars - and all the fun of course. Now it is approaching midnight and I'm exhausted for some reason. OK, it's not really that surprising. But in afternoon I managed to get my room, unpack everything, and attend 3 great social events. Crikey! BRING IT ON!