Cold shower no. 04, beached whale, retreating.

I have taken four cold showers in a row.  Why, you ask?  Well, it's a combination of things.  I share a shower with three other people (actually, five other people - we're all on the same hot water tank thing), which means the hot water is usually lukewarm by the time I get there.  Which is okay.  But combined with the fact that I can't figure out how to work the knobs - cold showers galore.  It's not that the knobs are particularly difficult...there's only two.  Hot and cold.  But I can't ever get the proportions right, especially with lukewarm water.  I couldn't do it at home either, just ask my dad.  I didn't even know that those knobs were specifically for hot and cold water.  I don't know, I'm weird and I have a deficiency.  : )

Here's a cool story.  This morning, we got an SMS (which is what they call a text message) from our coordinator, telling us that there was a beached whale on King's Beach, not too far from our house.  So after a while, we went down to the beach and checked it out.  At first we didn't see it, but we did see another chunk of whale.  It smelled bad, but it could just be my imagination thinking it.  We looked at it for a while, and took a lot of pictures and video, and Tyler threw a rock at it.  Multiple times.  The boys walked on down to see if they could find more whale, and the girls stayed at the beach and talked for a while.  We got an SMS from one of the boys saying, "yeah it's here" and so we walked to where they were, and yes.  There was a dead beached whale there.  The boys played with it (jumped on it, actually), the girls took pictures, and after a while, some workers started cutting it open so that they could get rid of it.  It smelled really bad.  It smelled dead, but also kind of like curdled milk.  But mostly and completely disgusting.

Don't worry, I'll have pictures soon.

Also, we're going on a retreat this weekend.  All of the AIMers, and our coordinators, to Jeffreys Bay.  I think it's about an hour away.  From what I hear (my dad's a good researcher), it's got good surf and friendly people.  We're staying in a beachfront cabin, I think.  I'll let you know more after we get back.

Thanks again for all the feedback.  Keep it coming, okay?  It's really encouraging.  Ask lots of questions, don't be afraid.  That's the only way I'll know how to describe what you want to know about.  Don't be afraid to ask questions about the little things - daily life, food, grocery stores, that kind of stuff.  

Love you guys.  Talk to you soon.

"Change your thoughts and you change your world."

-Norman Vincent Peale.