These are truly the last days. (Albeit not the one's I expected)

Well, I have said it before and I'll say it again, "I am leaving soon!" It has been, for lack of a better word, interesting for me these last couple of days seeing as I am the last of the departing exchange students to leave. There are already at least 4 or 5 inbound exchange students here in Ashland that I know of and they are all doing very well. My friend Alex has been in Ecuador for a week already and is nothing less than explosively ecstatic about his experience (if you know Alex you know what I mean). I can only hope my first week in Portugal will compare to his seemingly flawless time. I am sure it will! It seems as though everyone is gearing up for something now. My friends and brother have been attending the Fresh Start program through the High School. My brother is attending as a first timer (incoming Freshman hence "Fresh Start") and my friends as upstanding role-models/counselors/helpers/friends etc. The rest of my comrades who are not taking part in this program seem to be even more busy with things such as sports, (water polo players and footballers are having two-a-days) end of the summer vacations (Wilderness Charter School Backpacking trip), or summer homework; which should have been finished by now but, as the rule of the stereo-types go, procrastinating teens will always put off summer homework until the last minute. As you may see this lack of companionship/time consuming tasks has/have lead me to feel somewhat abandoned and utterly alone. Save my beloved dog Rocket who lies sleeping at my feet as I stare at screens for hours upon end. Thus I have been filling my spare time with online gaming, t.v. and other brain-numbing anti-everything activities. Of course I am being somewhat facetious but (sadly) I find it difficult to really express myself otherwise. I have been keeping fairly busy with packing, working out itineraries and the likes that deal with my departure/exchange but as the saying goes "If we don't have large time consuming tasks to occupy us, our lives get filled with things that are meaningless, that are momentarily distracting but have no exalting possibilities." I edited that a little! ;)
On a lighter note I have said goodbye to most all my friends and am happily preparing for my time abroad. I am really very excited to be leaving so soon and there is nothing in the world that can crash my soaring spirits. The last few days have been just an end of the summer blues period where saying goodbye and lounging around/lack of motivation and activities have left me feeling frustrated, anxious and a little depressed; it's not how I expected to go out but there's proof of why we should hold no expectations, and I will take it as another life experience. My advice to you if you ever feel this way is to just get out; which I am about to do now. Learn from the past, live in the moment and be mindful of the future. My perception of time right now feels so skewed. The past seems so far away, as does the future and the present seems to drag along. Of course there is nothing and no-one to blame for this, not even myself this time, it is just another mystery that lies deep in the dark depths of human thought, emotion, and above all existence. I am excited to start traveling with my Dad. We leave Ashland on Monday, go to San Fransisco, stay a night there, fly to New York Tuesday, I stay there for Two nights for the departure orientation then fly to Lisbon/Lisboa in Portuguese on Thursday and I won't arrive there until Friday. Then I go to another orientation for inbound students until the 7th when I meet my host family and leave with them to my new home! After that it's school, adventure, experience and fun!

Kayaking Video.

Here is a video of me kayaking on the Keno wave near Klamath Falls. This is also sort of a test to see if I can post videos/photos in my blog.
(the photo that was here was of me in the redwoods, taken by elias opgenorth. That image was hosted on a photobucket account of mine that I deleted and sadly it took the picture with it.)
Ben on Keno Wave

Crazy true story.

Chaco Fiasco

By Ben Small

Once upon a time I went backpacking with my family (Just my Dad and brother, my mom stayed home with the old pooch.) and some friends from the bay area. We decided to meet in a very remote place called the Plumas Nation Forest which, if you didn’t catch my drift, is in the middle of nowhere. We got there late, couldn’t find a campground and decided to spend the first night in our cars. The second day we got on the trail and everything was going fine until... We start to leave the spot where we had lunch and I realize that one of my new Chaco sandals is missing! In case you've never owned Chaco's they are the best shoes money can buy and I hadn't worn anything else since I bought them. They are simply the best. Imagine losing one of your children, your dog or your most beloved pet/possession. So, I ran back on the trail as far as I could remember to the spot where I last took off my pack just in case my baby fell of when doing so. With no luck I decided to leave it forever. On this trip we camped at some beautiful lakes and I would have loved to use my sandals to explore them. Well, we hiked for 3 more days and finally ended up back at the cars. I decided to run back up the trail a second time to try and find my lost sandal, but alas I had no luck and returned to the cars even more exhausted and disheartened. In desperation I left a badly handwritten note scribbled on a torn tuna wrapper at the trailhead with only my cell phone number as a contact, and sadly began the trip home. Before leaving I even went to check the lost and found at some hotels nearby and still no sandal. My feet were very hot in my boots during the 6+ hour car ride back home to Ashland and this only added to my pain as I was grouchy because I was in mourning over my lost sandal. After a day of being home I told my Chaco pals the story of what happened. They sympathized with my dilemma and recommended checking out chacousa.com for help. I did and from reading the FAQ realized you can order one sandal through your local dealer. I checked the FAQ because I came up with this crazy story that I was rafting a gnarly river and pinning mad lines when my Chaco broke (yeah right) and was lost in the carnage. And I just simply wanted to know if Chaco’s warranty covered stuff like that. Well, I guess Chaco is smarter than they look and low and behold one of the FAQ’s was the perfect clone of my story; and of course this was not included as part of the warranty. I also found out that you can make custom designed Chaco's in any color, style or fit you can dream of, irrelevant to my story but it's still cool. The next day I went on down to the one and only outdoor store to place an order for a single right foot blue men's 13 z/2 Chaco sandal. Luckily my bro T-Call was there and said "Dude, you don't want to just order one sandal because it costs like fitty bucks with shipping and handling and the people at Chaco are lazy S.O.B.'s and it will take like 2 weeks to get here." Of course I don't have 2 weeks because I'm leaving for Portugal in 6 days and I need my Chaco's for that. So, he looked around and found a new pair of Chaco's in my size (last years but still fresh and basically the same as this year’s) but in brown. I don't mind the color but I really did love my blue ones. So since they were last years he gave me a whopping 55% off. Thus, I got a new pair of Chaco's for only $49.50 to be exact. (O.K. I’ll do the math for you. That’s $90 new.) BUT THAT"S NOT THE CRAZY PART. A couple of days passed and I liked my new Chaco's a lot. I was just minding my own business when I got a call from some random number with some random area code I had never seen before. I answered and the voice on the other line said, "Have I reached 944-6063" and I'm like yeah??? And then the voice (some dude) says, "I have your lost sandal." BLAM! What!? "I looked for that darn thing for hours" I say, and tell him what I went through. "Well I got it," says the guy, "And boy do I have a story for you." I laugh, how can this guy’s ordeal be any worse than mine? Well, here's what he said: "I was on a long day hike way out in the forest having a good time when suddenly the sole of my right boot just decided to fall off. With no sole my boot was rendered useless and I was S.O.L. I sat down off to the side of the trail to try and repair my boot with duct tape when I saw your sandal. I picked it up and was awestruck that it was the right foot and in my size! I used your sandal the rest of the day and it saved my butt. If I hadn't have found your shoe I would have nearly been stranded in the woods with only a quart of water and would have been forced to walk out with a busted up boot that would have chewed my foot to shreds." "Wow," I said. "I am no fan of blisters." "Me neither," he said. "Your sandal really saved me. I don't know what sort of divine intervention or coincidence created this but boy am I thankful." "Glad I could help," I said. He said he'd ship me back my shoe on him for all the help it was. I am just ecstatic to get my shoe back and since the Outdoor Store doesn’t take returns on discounted items I don't know what I’ll do with the extra pair. I guess I can always be creative.

Only two weeks left in the U.S.A.!

So I'm down to only two weeks left here in the good ol' U.S. of A. and I am feeling restless. All of my friends who are going on exchange have already left and a ton of my friends are leaving in a couple of days on a school backpacking trip. I have a feeling these last couple of weeks in Ashland will sort of drag along. A friend of mine just got an exchange student from Germany. It is interesting seeing someone who just arrived and seeing my friend Alex just leaving. And here I am, Somewhere in the middle of it all. My time will come soon enough. Until then I can just live it up as much as I can here in Ashland!

Leaving Town.

This is the first in a series of posts about my feelings/emotions on leaving Ashland. Now I am in a state like none other I have ever felt. Usually during this time in summer I feel anxious for school to start and this "Dog day's blues" feeling. But this year, knowing that I will be in a different country in effectively in a new world, I'm feeling indescribably uncertain yet optimistic of what is to come.