Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, She's Off to Mexico!

This is Julie writing today... Carly will most likely be out of touch for another 10 days or so, so I figured I'd fill you in.

Well, the last few days were crazy for Carly--trying to get some schoolwork done while wringing the last bits out of her time in California. She hasn't sent a blog update, in spite of my nagging and begging. I'll nail her down when she gets home to go back in time and recap the last 2 weeks in CA.

In the meantime, she has traveled the length of California with Dave Burdette, a friend and mentor of my brother's. When Jake (my brother) was in college, he started working for Mexico Caravan Ministries (www.mexicocaravanministries.com) as the site manager in Tijuana, Mexico. He coordinated and facilitated visiting churches who came to TJ for week-long mission trips to build small, chip-board houses for women who had acquired land in the fast-growing outskirts of TJ. Jake would get the materials to the work site, then supervise/train the church groups on how to build these small buildings in which the women and their families would live.

Jake was with MCM for over 3 years, and it's where he met his wife. Dave was instrumental in Jake's desire to live a servant lifestyle, and Dave performed J&M's wedding. Dave is held in very high regard by our family, though most of us hardly know him!

MCM has grown over the years, and now has a handful of staff on site in Tijuana.

In the 90's, a man gave Dave a building called the Castillo (the castle) that was being built as a residence. For some reason, the building became available, and the owner asked Dave if he could use the facility in ministry. Dave formed a team of qualified people and they started up the Baja Bible School (www.bajabible.org) in the Castillo--it's a BIG place! They are a small bible school, and have added a dorm to the property for their students. BBS is run by a group of 10 or so American and Mexican national missionaries, and has several dozen students (I think it's around 50).

So, Dave drove Carly from Santa Barbara to Tijuana yesterday (Sunday the 21st). It's about a 7 hour drive, and when Carly called, it was after 9pm, and she sounded drained. She'll be in TJ for 8 days, helping at the Castillo, MCM and visiting a local orphanage. She's not in the touristy area of Tijuana... much of her experience will be in Third World conditions and SERIOUS poverty! Imagine a family of 4, 7, or even 12 living in a single room, 12'x12' chipboard shed with a tarpaper roof and no windows save the hinged plywood cut out from the wall! These people don't have running water, reliable electricity or indoor toilets. They live on the steep hillsides outside Tijuana, their mud roads gouged with ruts 18 inches deep after a rain! It's amazing to experience, and Carly will have an eyeful of how most of the world lives.

She is staying in the dormitory at the Castillo, so she is safe, warm and fed, and is being looked after by the staff at Castillo. Dave plans to go down a couple times to spend time with her, taking her to some of the more important places and introducing her to some of the people that will impact her during even the briefest visits.

Keep Carly in your prayers! I'm not worried about her physical safety, but she will have a lot to process during this week. I expect it'll be a week that will impact her life in ways she won't even recognize till she's older. We couldn't have asked for a better situation for her! Dave is a wonderful mentor and will see to it that Carly gets the most out of this week.

More later!

Surprises, Beachcombing, Horse Eye Doctors and Sneezing Seals

Hello Everyone,

Its been a few days but, as always I've been staying busy. Last Saturday, Annette hosted a surprise party for her sister Gerri at the beach house. Almost everybody from the family came and a lot of Gerri's co-workers came, so we had about 40 people show up. It was great!! Gerri didn't even suspect that anything was going on and just like a good surprise party should be. She was completely and totally surprised!! We had really great food that people brought, and I don't think that I went an hour that day without eating!

Since the beach house is a beach house, one whole side of the house is all glass, and we were lucky enough to have one of the nicest days since I've been here be the day of the party. After most of the co-workers left we all went on a walk on the beach. It was a pretty low tide and there was a whole bunch of drift wood, Annette and I were picking through it looking for table top decorations or potential candle holders, and instead of those kinds of things, we found a whole bunch of either seal, sea lion, or porpoise vertebrae. One of Annette's cousins found the skull of a porpoise too, which of course according to both Annette and I was the coolest thing ever!! We did find some pretty cool drift wood decorations also. So after a day of high suspense we were pretty tired, we came home and fed the horses and went to bed.

On Sunday, we and the family went to the little city of Capatola and walked around downtown and went to some cute little shops and of course bought things:) Sunday evening Annette's other sister, Lezlie and her friend took Gerri and her daughter (from Boston) back to where they needed to be, and Annette and I fed the horses their hay and went to a movie to relax and unwind after all the excitement of the day.

Now, I didn't mention this but last Friday, we took Klaudis, the old gelding to Steinbeck Equine Center, because he was a case study for an opthamologist EYE DOCTOR clinic. Klaudis is blind in one eye and is going to have it remove in a couple weeks, so his eye presented a good case study for the clinic. He got to stay at the center for 4 days and 3 nights to be watched and how it affected his "way of life" and his behavior and things like that. On Monday we picked him up and brought him back to the farm. Here's the thing to remember for later on. Klaudis is 24 years old and apparently the pressure in his eye is causing him pain and he should be uncomfortable. So when we got back to the farm, I was to scared to actually be in the same trailer stall because he was ready to get out, I took his halter off while he was still enclosed and once I opened the door for him to get out he took of and went running!! He got all the other horses riled up and they ran for at least 15 minutes. Does it sound like this horse is 24 and has a painful eye in his head?? NO!!

Sunday through Thursday Bruce was in Monterrey for a thing called WMU or West Marine University. They have this every 2 years and it just a whole bunch of classes and sessions on different subjects and things that they can do to make the company better. So on Tuesday night we went down and spent the night at the hotel where the whole company was staying. And because Bruce is a pretty important guy in the company, he got the presidential suite (sweet!). It was soooo cool!! I pretty much had my own room even though it was open. It was shaped as a squarish "C" so I got a wing all to my self. The room had 4 giant TVs and had balcony's all the way around it facing the ocean.

In the morning we walked around down town Monterrey and went to a few stores. Then we went to 17 mile drive where through a majorly ritzy neighborhood. This is also the site where Pebble Beach is and the place where they do the final PGA tour golf match thing. Annette accidentally took a wrong turn and it took us to this point which is part of the route but we weren't planning on going there. Anyways, people were glued looking on to the beach, so we got out of the car, and on the beach there were about 30 Harbor seals! They were so cute, when the waves would come they would lift their head and tail to try and get out of the water. Then one of the seals kept sneezing!! I don't think there is anything funnier that a seal sneezing.

After we finished the drive, we went back to the farm because some people were coming over to ride on Annette's track . Today was an uneventful day, Annette had to go to Santa Cruz for some stuff and Bruce and some errands to do, so I laid on the couch for a while and watched TV, then did some homework and laid back on the couch again. I needed to watch so much TV because I'm sick;) As for Friday, its supposed to be rainy and the vet is coming out to do vaccines. And if the vet gets done soon enough, we're hopefully going to go to Petrogliphs again!It's only 9:15, but I'm tired, could have lots more things to write about, but at the moment, my head is to congested to think properly. I'm definitely going to have to spell check this blog!!Peace and have good weather where ever you are!

Life's a Beach!

We had a busy weekend this weekend... Annette hosted a clinic on Saturday for 6 little girls. The little girls are just starting out learning to ride so it was a very mellow lesson but by the end, the little girl that I was leading around was tolting/troting and holding onto the reins while I was running with the lead rope, and she was only 5!!. It was so cute, her feet kept falling out of the stirrup and she would go, "OH!! My foot fell out AGAIN!!"

I also rode Giefa to before the lessons started, boy! did she have some go in her! I asked her for trot and she went into a full on gallop!! So I pulled her into the middle of the track and did some circles, by then she calmed down a little bit so we went out on the track again and I asked her for trot and she went into gallop again!!! Again we did some circles in the middle and by then she had tired herself out so much she was willing to listen and we had a good rest of the ride which was only a couple more times around because she is so out of shape.

Yesterday we went riding on the beach!!! It was so much fun. I went with a girl named Kait. She is 14 or 15 and she needs to earn some money by riding Annette's horses because she is going to be getting a gelding of her own. Anyways, I rode Giefa and she rode Hekkla, and Giefa really wanted to go, but she's really out of shape so she cantered for a little bit and was panting by the time we were to turn around!!

Annette and Bruce walked with Donny on the beach and picked up some shells and sand dollars for me, which was really cool. I have 3 sanddollars that are almost perfectly intact.

When we got back to the house we groomed Fraya and Thokka and put everybody away in their stalls and gave them their hay.

After we got cleaned up and relaxed a little bit we went to a restaurant called The Whole Enchilada, and I had wonderful Cabos Fish Tacos. They were SOOOOO good. They had battered halibit, lettuce, a little bit of cabbage and this really good ranch sauce.

We came home and fed the horses their mash and pretty much went to bed.

I'm TRYING to get out and take some pictures, but there is so much else to do! Maybe this week... Talk to you all later!

How to ride an Icelandic Horse

Today (Monday, Jan 18) was a really wet and rainy day so I didn't ride at all. I worked on some school this morning after we came in from doing chores and will probably be doing some on Wednesday because Annette and Bruce will be gone and I won't have anything to do.

We went to the Montery Bay Aquarium, but I don't know what to write about that cause almost all aquariums are the same, aren't they? There was cool stuff there, and I learned some new stuff about ocean life.

We picked up our travel mugs at Petrogliffs and they turned out really good! Annette put a horse on hers and it is so cool. I'll put up a picture of them when I get some taken.

Today we went for a walk right by the ocean because Annette wanted to show me what the ocean looked like after a big storm. Then after that we went to a bakery called Emilies, which was really good. We both had Blueberry cream cheese fold over things that were awesome.

Later, we drove up to the UCSC, (University of California, Santa Cruz) also known as Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp:) Once we were done she took me to her beach house to see how the construction was going. One whole wall was pretty much falling down! She said that if you touched it or if a gust of wind came the whole wall would sway. They got is 5 months ago as a fixer-upper--it'll be so nice when it's fixed up.

For those of you who are interested in horse stuff, I'm going to describe how I'm riding and the cues we use here. Most people think of riding as either English (saddles without horns, black and white uniforms, traditional and precise--think about Olympic dressage for an example) or Western (saddles with horns, lots of leather, athletic-fast-moving games--think of rodeo horses for an example). Icelandic is neither. Icelandic horses have differnt gaits than other horses--the walk, trot, canter are the same, but there is another gait called the TOLT that has the same footfall beat as a walk, but can go way faster than walking. Icelandic horses also have a fast gait called the flying pace (not something I do yet!). Icelandic horses are very smooth and comfortable to ride. They are smaller (and furrier) than other horses, and are extremely sure footed. There are no natural predators in Iceland so the horses are curious, calm and gentle. They don't freak out easily and are very comfortable around other horses, even in confined areas.

I've only ridden Kydee's horses, so I was a little bit curious to see how I would do at communicating and cueing new horses. It's been FUN!! I'll put up pictures of Annette's horses when I get them taken. Annette has a large track and a round pen where we'll ride.

It's important that you need to know that Annette's horse are trained for voice command. So walk is Fett, like feta cheese, trot is Brokk, you roll the "r" and don't linger to long on the "o". Tolt it just clicking your tongue, it's not Icelandic but it works, and finally canter is Schtuk, it sound like the word stuck but put a "shh" at the beginning instead of the harsh "stu" sound.

To warm the us horses up we first bring them into the center of the track. We work on bending and flexing and warming up. We do serpentines and figure eights, circles, shoulder in's and shoulder out's, then we go onto the track and walk a couple of rounds both ways. After they have got a good walk and head position we move on to trot. We trot a few rounds both ways until the horse, again has a good head position and is moving with ease and good rhythm.

The next gait is either tolt of canter depending on the horse. We go from trot to canter on Giefa (Gieva, said like the word guy with a "va" at the end) who is a little bit harder to get to tolt. On Mosa, pronounced like it looks, we go from trot to tolt because she gallops instead of canters:) So we need to work on slowing down her canter to where she can be relaxed and in no hurry to where she is going (which is just in circles around the track:).

The last horse that I ride is Hekkla, also pronounced like it looks. Hekkla is the horse I ride when Ashley, Annette's barn manger's daughter comes to ride and we need to pony or carry alone on another horse. That sums up what I've been doing for riding, I'll be doing more and riding some other horses, but in the round pen, which is to slippery right now because of the rain. Now you know how to ride an Icelandic horse:D

I'm going to start a shutterfly or picassa account so you can see all of my pictures. I haven't taken many yet, but will get out with my camera this week.

Talk to you later!

California... the next leg of my journey

WOW! Here I am in northern California, on a pretty Icelandic Horse farm owned by a friend of Kydee's (where I ride and work in Duluth). Annette and Bruce Coulon are their names, and their farm is called Mountain Icelandics (Check it out at: http://www.mountainicelandics.com/). There are about a dozen horses here, and this place is really pretty!

If you wondering what all the horses names are I'll try and name them all. There's Gilfa, Hekla, Klaudis, Freya, Mosa, and her baby and I have no idea how to spell her name, but it sounds kind of like Flickra. Those are all the horses in the first barn. Then there is Batman who is Annette's daughter's horse, Thokka, Ligfey or something like that, and then 2 borders. Catla and a gelding which I can't remember what his name is right now(his name reminds me of the name Brutus:), but he is the same color as my friend Kristen's horse Fjolia. Then there is Donny, the black lab. He is so cute he follows me everywhere!! Oh!! and then there is Annie's grey miniature poodle, Picasso, he is really cute to and he has a Mohawk. Annie is Annette and Bruce's 26 year old daughter who's staying here for awhile, too. So that's the jist of the animals.

My bedroom is at the end of the hall and has a big window facing I don't know what direction, but just outside there is an orange tree!!

The whole place is fenced in and the driveway has a gate, so the horses just roam free where ever they want-- except the boarders, they get to go in a grass paddock. I will eventually take pictures of the house and the barns, but the weather isn't suppose to be nice tomorrow.

Today, my first full day in California, was very nice. It was probably in the late 50's to early 60's. I wore a long-sleeve shirt the whole day and was perfectly fine. We cleaned the 10 stalls this morning which was really easy 'cause Annette uses wood pellets like Kydee (instead of wood shavings). After that we started to groom all the horses because we were going to have people here tomorrow, but got canceled because of the weather. After cleaning the animals, we cleaned the barn and the tack boxes.

By lunch time we were starving so we ate quick and went to the grocery store to stock the fridge and cabinet. When we came home we put all the horses away and gave them their nightly hay and then got ready to go to a place called Petrakliffs. Its a place where you can paint your own pottery and then come back a couple of days later and get your finished product. Annette and I both pick travel mugs to glaze. We're really hoping that they'll turn out as cool as we want them to!

When we finished our mugs, we went to a restaurant called Papalos for Bruce's dinner meeting. I had chicken enchiladas with rice, refried beans, guacamole, and sour cream. We came home and gave everybody their nightly grain/mash that they get. And now I'm sitting here at the computer typing this up :)

I'll be posting photos and blog updates pretty often. I'll be here for 5 weeks, then will go to Tijuana, Mexico for a couple weeks, then to Albuquerque, New Mexico for another couple weeks before I go home in March. There should be lots for me to blog about!
Don't forget you can email me... ceocon16@gmail.com.

Until next time...

YEAH!!!!!

I'm home!! I can also do my blog by myself. Since I was in China, the country blocks certain and a lot of websites, so I had to send an email to my mom in order to post an entry. Now, I can do it via the actual website.

The last few days have been going pretty well I haven't been too tired but my body isn't really on Minnesota time yet because this morning I woke up at 3:30 am, which in China is only about 4 in the afternoon. Its getting a little frustrating but it's so hard not being able to take a nap! For this post I'm going to try to add some photos, but I don't know how that will turn out seeing how I haven't put pictures on here before.

I have lots of things to say but I have to go for right know.

Carly

Leaving Liping

I just wanted to write a quick entry before I leave for Beijing for a day and a half. We're going to Beijing to see the Great Wall and The Temple of Heaven. We get to stay at the Yosemite Club Hotel, which is really nice.

We leave for Minnesota on Thursday morning and get to Minnesota Thursday morning!! I don't like that at all!!:~)

Well I need to spend the last half hour with the kids.
Hope to see everyone soon.