Day 4: 2 Sep 2007

So I slept in again. I got up, showered, and started searching for bicycle parts. I need a light, a helmet, and mud flaps for riding in the rain. Around 3:30pm we left for Crick Road, the other house in the program for afternoon tea. The walk to Crick Road is about 30 minutes but stretches through many of the same parks that we go through to get into town. On the walk I got in a conversation
Walked through the Parks to Crick Road.

On the way I got into a conversation with a fellow history student about political ideologies which, of course, led to a discussion about Iraq. He began discussing the reasons for going to war and the legitimacy of WMDs in Iraq. Come on you all know me, I couldn’t let it go. About 20 minutes later the conversation drew to a close. It was a lot of fun, and interesting. For perhaps the first time on this trip I felt like I had a place in academic discourse… of course it helped that some young kid stumbled into a subject that I’ve payed close attention to for some time.

The best part was that after the conversation we had a great time moving on to other conversations. It is so nice to be around people who engage in debate but don’t have to take it personally. As the conversation took a different turn, I discovered that I was talking to a real life Dwight Shrute, a character from NBC’s The Office. We got on the topic of bears, discussed pirates, and finally man’s most feared enemy… the Hippo. All fun conversations. We did this while having tea at Crick, which brought the whole group together again for about an hour.

The we all went back home, about a 30 minute walk. I worked on my bike, which had a flat tire for most of the night. That work progressed until about 10:30 when a few of the guys, Bryce, Nick, and Scott sat on a back porch playing guitar. I just sat and listened and enjoyed the college life for awhile. The night ended by joining a group watching movies in the living room. A great end to another great day.