This is Mary. She was our trip leader. As you can tell from the picture, she is super cool. This was her third AYS trip as a leader - last year she went to Peru and Fiji. As a kid, she did crazy things. The kind of things I thought only happened on That's So Raven or The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Things like pretending to be a 6th grader so she could touch George W. Bush when he landed in the Provo airport. Or signing up as a "new student" at other schools on their picture days. Or sneaking into a Chinese concert by putting on a costume she found. She is an absolute inspiration to my bucket list.
This is John. He is Mary's father. He was fun, and funny, and he taught me a really fun game that he called Hungry Hippos. It was really called something else, but that name is nicer than the other name.
This is Janet. She's Amanda's mom. (Amanda was one of the kids on the trip.)
This is our bus driver, Dron. AKA: #25. We were all assigned a number for sound off so we could make sure we had everyone. We had 24 people, and he kindly finished our sound off every time we entered the bus. He was awesome.
Sadly, I don't seem to have a picture of Westley. I'm hoping I spelled his name right. But he was Ashley's dad, and still is. Ashley was another one of the kids on the trip.
Now, I've made it through the adults. On to the kids. There were lots of us. 20, in fact. 13 girls, 7 boys, and they are all wonderful. Let's move on.
This is Seth. Or Sethie, which is what I also called him. He was my partner in the bathroom building aspect or the trip, and he is crazy fun. He just cracked me up all day long. We spent a lot of the day teasing each other in one way or another, but I really enjoyed getting to know this kid throughout the trip. He's awesome.
The girl is Lyndsy, the boy is Zander. Aren't they cute? They were voted "AYS Cutest Couple." I love these guys. Their site was right next door to mine and Seth's, so the four of us partied it up. Lyndsy was my partner in crime in an adventure to be discussed in the future.
Yes, the first picture barely has him, and the second picture is blurry. This is Josh, demonstrating to us girls how one of the other boys slept underneath the mattress. The boys all decided to sleep in the same room, and space was limited.
This is Brittany. Oh man, the villagers just went crazy for her. They absolutely loved it when she danced, and named even one of the moves after her: The Brittany Pop.
Candace, too, was popular for her dancing. She is so darling. She was also called upon quite often to do the "Brittany Pop" throughout our stay in the village.
Natasha. Oh I love this girl. Our school loyalties may conflict, but we are united through our love of rugby. We decided to attend a BYU v. Utah rugby game together. I can't wait.
Whitney is a doll. I love her. She and I had some fun bus rides together. Also, we once climbed to the top of a palm tree and took pictures to document it. Pictures of this adventure are to come.
Meet Amanda. She was our master cockroach killer by the end. At first she would cower on top of the bed at the slightest hint of a roach. Then one night, everything changed. A video documenting this night is to come.
Emily and Rachel, respectively. These girls have some of the most absolutely bizarre people in their lives. I could sit and listen to them tell stories all day long, but my abdominals might tear from the stress of laughing so hard and long. I swear, if they had their own T.V. show, it would become one of the top shows in America. Love them.
Oh Anna. What to say about this girl? We had a bond from the very beginning. Our seats were next to each other on the plane ride there - ten wonderful hours. Not really. But we did manage to master the art of using controlling the movies...just as we began our descent and they turned them off. And we were buddies ever since. (Also, she dropped her camera off of the top of the cliff we hiked up to. It was really distressing, cause she had tons of pictures we wanted. But it was also hilarious.)
Ashton. This kid is hilarious. He has some of the craziest stories. Also, he went absolutely above and beyond with his eagle project, it was absolutely incredible.
Stephen, this kid was awesome. I felt bad for him though, when we were snorkeling there were these sweet holes in the reef that everyone was swimming through, and he hit his head pretty hard once. But he was okay, thank goodness.
Colin and Kaiana are the ones in the black. Oh man, these kids will kill you. But really, they aspire to become serial killers in Italy. Also, if I had a dollar for every time I heard one of them say "well dang" on the trip, I would be filthy rich.
Ashley is a cutie. She was one of my roomies, and she's way fun. She kindly let all of us girls borrow the straightener that she brought on the days there actually was any sense in getting ready.
This is Jenny. She is so sweet. She's pretty quiet, but way fun to talk to. Also, I could have sworn she was Shannon Sorensen when I first saw her.
Jocelyn is a doll. She doesn't much like bugs, in fact, they kinda freak her out. But no worries, she had 100% DEET bug spray to counteract that. She can tumble like nobody's business, and she's so nice.
Left to right: Tasha, Anna, Whitney, Amanda
Back row: Janet, Amanda, Brittany, Whitney, Anna, Emily, MeFront row: Candace, Jocelyn, Mary, Rachel, Lyndsy, Jenny, Whitney
Left to right: Stephen, Kaiana, Colin, Zander, Josh, Seth, AshtonPretty much, I love all of these people. And after thinking about all of them, I miss them. They are all amazing, and I had such a great time with them. This post was supposed to be short...well, I guess that didn't happen. Oh well. This concludes my sum up of the wonderful 23 Americans I spent two and a half weeks with on the other side of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment