life in the europe

All I can say is that energy bars dont fill you up no matter how many you eat...esp on train rides. Also, the Poisonwood Bible has been very good to me this trip whenever i need some thought provoking entertainment. I almost cannot believe that in two days Will and I will meet up with the other 17 members of the Rogers clan and together converge on Oslo. I am very excited about seeing the family, but definitely want to make the most of the last hours of freedom. Most of today will be spent in a train (eating food that we will buy beforehand...and energy bars), but tomorrow is all about Copenhagen. Can't wait to see what we will end up doing.

bremen

(this post is made possible by Christian's computer, where the 'z' and the 'y' are switched on the kezboard)
Thursday we traveled south to Bremen, Germany, to visit two friends of mine (I met them about a year ago, during their vacation through the US).

We have celebrated 3 German birthdays since we arrived, and we also called Steven in Texas on his birthday - he answered his phone while the plane was on the runway about to take off to NYC - this is very against the rules, but we are glad he did it, and we are looking forward to seeing him in Scandinavia in only 2 days.

Tonight we will travel to Copenhagen - not sure yet where we will stay. If you have any suggestions, Michael's temporary Danish cell phone number is 27303719.

on the island of Fyn

(this post is made possible by Sarah's crazy computer)
We are now in Odense, eating wonderful food in the home of Sarah and Joakim.

Sarah went to high school with me for 1 year, during an exchange program, so it is wonderful to see her in her home environment, and to get to know her boyfriend as well.

Today we will visit Faaborg, the small town where Sarah and Joakim grew up, and Joakim will be our guide. On Thursday we will travel south to Germany.

two days mixed into one

(this post is made possible by Deni's computer)

This morning Michael woke me up at 1:20PM. We were hoping to go to Odense around noon...

Jet lag was not the only thing keeping us asleep through the morning - basically, we have been having lots of adventures.
our flight left around 6pm on Thursday (it was a pretty fun flight), and we arrived at our destination at 7am on Friday... these days, put together, became one superday.
After arriving at Copenhagen, we were picked up by Jakob, the husband of our amazing friend, Hanne, who we met in Newark before the flight. They gave us a ride into town, where we got a SIM card and tried to contact Deni, our first Danish host.

Deni was in a class, so we waited outside his apartment for a little while (and took a nap).
Eventually, Deni returned home and let us into his apartment, where he became the first interviewee for the short movie that we are shooting during this trip.
We then hit the town with Deni, our magnificent host.
Later, we went to Tivali Gardens, where there is a concert every Friday during summer. The band was called Tower of Power, and they are from Oakland, California.
Tower of Power is quite popular in Denmark. During the concert, we met up with Jakob and Hanne (and their friends) at a restaurant overlooking the ampitheater. They are all really cool people.

And then we walked home and went to bed. And that was the end of the superday.

(leaving) new york

This post is made possible by Jana's laptop.

Michael and I are in Manhattan.


Last night we stayed at Jana's apartment, and I don't know what we would have done without this place; Jana (and Jared and especially Carrie) thanks a whole lot for letting us stay here.

In just a few hours, Mikey and I will be leaving the US for a while. We have a travel guidebook now, so our sense of direction will probably be a little more well-informed than it has been so far - Mom, I can't think of a better birthday present. Thanks for sending that book with Michael.

Yesterday it rained (really hard) during our (rather long) walk from the bank to the post office. It could have been really disheartening, but it was probably my favorite part of the trip so far. We bought 2 umbrellas en route, but we still got completely soaked, and we shared smiles with people who weren't too busy to make eye contact.

I'm praying for these sort of experiences throughout the trip, and I hope that you'll join me in this prayer.

Tomorrow, we'll be in Denmark.

...and we're off

Ok, Michael and I are officially on the road - this blog post, therefore, is made possible by Peter Porcino's sister's computer. I don't know your name, Peter's sister, but thank you for letting us use your computer while you are at summer camp.

I realized earlier that I hadn't given any itinerary for the overall trip, so I'm going to briefly outline it here:

one full day in NYC (tomorrow - my birthday),
then we fly out to Denmark on Thursday.
We arrive on Friday and find a place to stay that night (probably a couchsurfer named Deni).
On Saturday we'll go to Odense to visit an old friend named Sarah,
and we're also really hoping to see another friend named Vanja.
We might go to Germany,
and we might visit my friend Michele there.
We also might stay with some other couchsurfers.
Actually, we're really not sure what we're going to do;
it's going to be a Danish adventure.
And maybe German, too.
We meet up with our family on July 24 in Denmark
When we'll go to Norway with them -
this trip has a trip that has an itinerary of its own.
I'm not sure how it will look,
but it will look different than what MIchael and I are doing together.
It will actually be amazing, but just for different reasons.
Then the family will leave,
and I will stay in Norway
until September.

So that's the itinerary. We're basically filling in the gaps as we go.

And here are some pictures that I took of Peter and Michael as we left Newark this afternoon:




We'll try to keep the blog updated throughout our travels, but we're not going to forfeit adventure in order to do it.

Many thanks to Grandmom and Granddad, for letting us stay at your house in Dallas last night, and for taking us to the airport this morning. And Peter, thanks for picking us up at the airport. Jana, we're looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Tomorrow. A new day, a new year.

PS - Dad, thanks for calling in that prescription for Michael at the last minute, and thanks to Granddad for taking us to the pharmacy on the way to the airport. I don't think that Michael has pinkeye anymore. At least, he hasn't mentioned it today... No, he doesn't have pinkeye anymore. Nobody needs to worry about this.

Newbe... thats me

It's not so much that I avoid journaling (to quite the contrary), it is more so that I have never journaled for you, the reader of this blog. Is it conceited of me to assume a reader will be interested enough to read this blog? I still think the whole concept is sort of perversion of the book of journals that I have come to know and love. Perverted because I will more than likely be writing to be read rather than to express pure thought... but over the next 4 weeks you (the assumed reader) might find some of it interesting and complementary of Will's journal entries because though we are extremely similar in most aspects of personality, our individual selfs are often very different.

so here goes...

Rain has been the theme of my good ole Texas for the past 5 weeks. During that time I worked in a summer program at Pine Cove which is a Christian camp very near to Tyler. It took me a while to forget that home was so nearby as I hauled dead trees, cleared brush, and basically worked to exhaustion every day. The beauty of manual labor is that it gives the worker time to think about many aspects of life that he might not otherwise consider. It was the first week that I used my machete to clear an entire levy of baby pine trees. Two thoughts came from this work:
1. The same machete and swing motion were the primary weapons in much of the Rwandan genocide (and countless other African conflicts). How fortunate I am to have been forced to use the machete for something that doesn't compromise my morals or devotion.
2. I realized that work programs are the American way of simulating the stresses under which many youth in third world countries are constantly subjected. It seems like African boys become men at an unfortunately early age because of these stresses. On the contrary, we American boys sometimes never become the men that we are called to be...equally unfortunate, if you ask me.

and now I eat dinner commemorating the birthday of dear brother willy which we will have the pleasure of celebrating in the Big ole Apple... I'll get him some really nice street food.

haircuts

Mikey cut his hair a month ago for Young Guns, and I have finally followed suit.

I think it will help strangers understand that we actually are brothers (rather than some long-haired California hippie with his clean-cut Texas friend).


Since it was my first major haircut in 2 years, I decided to make a video of the occasion. It's very short and vain:



My mom took the photos at the beginning and end, and my sister Sarah took the ones in the middle. The video is from my dad's camera that I put on the counter before we started the haircut.

I hope you like the video.