I went down to Tianjin for three days with another guy to test how well over 200 oil company employees speak English. It was a rather unusual time.

Trip with a few friends from school today to the Summer Palace, a huge compound on the northwest corner of Beijing. Despite the 35C+, we had a great time wandering around the place checking out the various buildings and watching how the locals enjoy this sort of thing.

Nearby to where we live is the Dongyue Temple, a nearly 700 year old complex that sprawls over a huge area. We had some fun wandering around in the 35C weather and checking it out.

今天我们和朋友们去了司马台长城。长城非常长，很高了。天气不太好，下雨了。后来，我们去了吃中国菜。很好吃！

Although we had walked around it before, we only today got around to paying the admission and going -into- the forbidden city. It's spectacularly large (over 1km long) and takes a few hours to see the few parts of it open to the public. Very cool.

We had a rare warm, blue-skied day today, so we headed out and went to Ritan Park, about 400m away from our house. It's a really nice place to do some exercise, fly a kite, or otherwise just escape the city.

Labour Day lasts five days here in China, so we took advantage of the time off from school and went on vacation on Hainan Island. Hot, expensive, and gloriously little activity.

We arrived in Beijing a bit ago, and have spent some time exploring the rather grey city. It's huge, and very full of Chinese people. We can say "Hello" so far and that's about it !!

Flush with our awesome command of Spanish gained in Costa Rica (hah!), we decided to hang in Spain for a few weeks, driving around and seeing the sights. We had a tonne of fun with the dialect and a blast seeing some beautiful stuff.

Our primary goal in Sámara to do a lot more surfing. We managed to do this, although it was quite abusive on the body. Great fun was had by all!!

Day trip! We did some kayaking and got to do some snorkeling in the lovely Sámara bay. Good fun, good exercise, and plenty of stuff to see!!

The beach in Sámara is simply spectacular, as is the one north at Playa Buena Vista. You can spend days exploring all the fun stuff they have here.

After spending a month in the clouds where it was chilly and rainy, we headed to warmer climes for sun and surfing, and to practice our Spanish. We picked the right place to go!

One of the neat things about a homestay on a farm is that you get to see the most amazing variety of cute animals. Here are some of our shots from over the weeks.

We did a number of cool outdoor activities in Monteverde, including the various canopy tours and walking trips they have available. It's a great way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Up at nearly 5000' (1500m), Monteverde sits mostly in the clouds, and turns out to be a great place to learn Spanish. We had a blast talking with the locals, seeing the local wildlife, and otherwise just enjoying the nature.

We started our trip in Costa Rica with a few days in the capital city, San Jose. It's actually a bit smaller than we thought, but still with some wonderful sights. We also had some fun trying to figure out what all the locals were staring at ...

We were on the east coast and had a week to spare. What to do? New York City, of course. It might be the coolest city on earth.

Some friends of ours told us to come to Costa Rica with them, and being fiercly independant people, we did what they told us to and went. We're glad we did, because it's an awesome place and we had a blast. And almost got blasted by a live volcano.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, Samantha decided to volunteer for the Red Cross. They called her up and sent her down in late September / early October. Here are some of her comments from Baton Rouge and surrounding areas.

Bodo, the son of some friends in Germany, came to town for some interviews with a friend. We all ended up going up Mount Rainier for a bit of hiking and otherwise enjoying of the nice weather.

We went out on Lake Washington on a friend's boat to check out the Blue Angels, drink some beer, and otherwise get our butts kicked by pirates.

We surprised our friend Jerry by spending a weekend in Las Vegas. We ate, saw a show, and went on a helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon.

Time for the annual trip to Europe. This year, we only had three weeks, but that's still plenty of time to get into all sorts of trouble, eat entirely too much, and see lots of cool castles and ilk. Tonnes of photos this time!

Lots of holiday parties to go to this year, including a pre- Christmas gift swap, a post-Christmas gift swap, and a new years party. Throw in a few dinners with friends and family, and some vacation, and you've got some busy times!