Well, this trip I actually took down some notes and observations while on the trip! Consequently, there's more detail than my last try. It's still long and pointless, but it's traditional.

About a week before last Thursday, I received a call from a counselor from LeTourneau University in Texas about a scholarship opportunity the following weekend (now last weekend). The catch was, I had to be there in person to apply, because it was mostly based on an interview and an impromptu essay. Considering our financial position (mediocre to less than), I laughed out loud when the representative suggested we fly down. Still, I told my parents at dinnertime, and we discussed it briefly. The next day, my mom called travel agencies and looked online, and received the totally absurd price of roughly $4000 per ticket to fly there. A few hours later, thanks to the magic of Priceline.com, we had tickets for $200 each instead. Not bad. In fact, I think it's pretty darn cool to be able to board several of those great hulking pieces of steel and machinery and travel thousands of miles in a couple hours for less than four days' work at minimum wage. Even better, we left on a Thursday afternoon, meaning I didn't have to get up early but I could still miss school. Exciting times.

The morning of the flight, my alarm clock didn't go off. I'll mention here that I though I took an alarm clock with me to Texas, but it was pointedly not this failure of a clock. (It probably was only reset by a power outage, and did not have serious malfunctions.) So I woke up much later than I had wanted, and I was in a horrible hectic rush that morning, packing and finding everything I could possibly need and still fit into the suitcase. My carry-on looked far too large, so I grabbed another and transferred the stuff, double- and triple-checking to make sure I had everything. I ate hurriedly, but my mother still kept looking at the clock and saying, "I'll see you guys later tonight." So my dad and I began the drive up to Portland, going significantly above the posted speed. Everything seemed fine.

Then, on a whim, I thought I should check to see if I had enough money in my wallet to afford food at the airport. I crawled back over the seats and looked in my carry-on. Then I ransacked my luggage. THE STUPID, BLEEPING WALLET WASN'T THERE. That is not a good feeling. I'm 18, and required by law to show photo ID before boarding a plane. It was far too late to turn back, so we kept on, in a funk.

As it turns out, the lady at the counter where you pick up tickets (whatever it's called) didn't seem to think the same thing about the law that I had thought. "May I see your photo ID?" "I forgot it." "OK, here are your tickets." "Thanks!" I was very relieved. I was also rather troubled, because any old creep could have done the same thing. We made it to the plane without troubles. Of all the few airports I've been in, Portland's PDX is my favorite for its architecture.

I sat by the window for the mostly uneventful flight. We did get some good turbulence near Dallas, but I though it was fun. The guy next to us was one of those grizzled coach-class veterans, and he had the following advice: "Don't worry about turbulence unless you're close enough to hit the ground." Sounds fine to me. Out the window, for the clear sky stretches, I watched the terrain of eastern Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. They looked exceptionally cool from above, with the huge crevasses, valleys, rock striations, gullies, and other formations. They'd probably be dreadfully ugly to live with, but they were still neat to look at in passing. I'm taking a geology course at the local community college, and I think that made the lay of the land much more interesting. Somewhere over western Texas, there was a branching system of shallow, layered valleys as far as the eye could see (from the plane at 30000 feet, no less!). It looked kind of like coral. Kind of. Anyhow, it was my favorite of the features I saw.

We landed in Dallas, waited a few minutes, and boarded the next flight for Shreveport, Louisiana. I was rather pleased at how quickly and smoothly that part went. I suppose that such is a forbidden thought, however. The plane waited on the runway for an hour and a half before making the half hour flight over the state line. Talk about poor planning. Also on this flight, I noticed the warning on the back of every seat said something about using "floatation" devices. Conspicuous misspellings are so comforting; they must convince every passenger that the airline is absolutely competent. Anyway, the student who volunteered to pick us up at the airport was still awake and still around, fortunately, and he drove us back to the university. While driving I saw the only combined Taco Bell/KFC I've ever seen. It was one normally sized and shaped building, but it had both inside it. The signs and banners had both logos on them. It was weird. We received a personal, abbreviated registration meeting and walkthrough of the materials, then I went off to my host's dorm room to crash for the night. By the way, this is in Longview, Texas, near the border with Louisiana. There are a few small, scattered trees, and the place smells like dust.

Except, of course, I should have realized that it was only midnight, meaning that the students who were supposed to be there weren't yet. It's a mostly Christian campus, though, so no one bothered locking the doors during the "day," and I went right on in. About an hour later, one of the two hosts came back, and I talked to him briefly. The other came back even later, but I was too tired and it was dark.

The next morning began wonderfully early at 6 a.m., or 4 a.m. my time. In my haste packing the day before, I guess I had just assumed Texas was a warm, sunny, dry place. It rained and it poured. Then it dropped to about 24 degrees. I was cold. Breakfast was typical cafeteria food, but I didn't lose any of it. Hey, it was free. I talked with some other students also there to compete. Then we went to the student center, a big glass mushroom shaped building. At least, it looks like a mushroom to begin with, then it doesn't for a while, and then it does again, sort of. Maybe a square mushroom. It was still pouring down rain, so they gave us the campus tour by going around the building and pointing out the window.

Next we went and sat in on classes. I went to a circuit design class. It didn't look hard, just stuff I didn't know how to do yet. But I can't explain anything that was going on. After that, there was a comedic duo who were somewhat funny. I thought perhaps they preferred serious acting, and threw humor in as comic relief. Third, I went to a short meeting where professors talked about the university and answered whatever questions they could. Their program seems rigorous but reasonable. I think I'd like it. Lunch. Brief, informal interview with my counselor. Perusal of the library facilities. I read some stuff about Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt's anthropological work which so opposed Tylor's theory. INTeresting people.

I arrived for my interview earlier than recommended, because I was bored. I sat in the lobby for about twenty minutes and played with a parlor toy, one of those evil puzzles that looks impossible. The object was to get the ring off of a post with a string through it, and on the ends of the string were discs too large to fit through the ring. I played with it for all twenty minutes before giving up. I set it down and noticed, irritatingly, that the ring had come off. The interview rules stated that I needed to answer eight question or talk eight minutes whichever came first. I expected to be hard pressed to make more than three minutes of the whole thing, since I normally speak very little. I was very surprised when they cut me off as I was answering the third question. Where does the time fly to when one is nervous? The first question caught me unawares, "What is your favorite color and how does it make you feel?" That had to have been written by the women's dorm. I stumbled through it, basically saying a fancy "I don't have any clue whatsoever." The other questions were more sensible and typical interview type questions.

The university treated all the competing students to a meal at a local burger and chili joint. I was not impressed by the food--flat, torn buns and lumpy, irregular burgers, with no utensils to spread condiments. Ah well, Texan style, I suppose. It was a fun opportunity to talk to other students, however. There were a disproportionately large number from Oregon, but I didn't meet any of them. The people I talked to were from Washington, Colorado, Indiana, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Saudi Arabia, Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Alaska, and other places.

Last for the night was an event they called the Acoustic Cafe, held in the glass mushroom. It involved just what it sounds like, coffee and music. There was plenty of pop, too, for coffee-haters like myself. My hosts were one of the groups that went up and played. I didn't tell them, but I don't think they were very good. Some of the other groups were good. The style ranged from a few rehashed Oldies to more modern mixed rock, and alternative, more Christian themed than not. It got late. At one point, I fell mostly asleep. I heard someone on the microphone yell, "Wake him up! Wake him up!" and something else I didn't catch, so I opened my eyes and straightened just before some guy got to me. He didn't do anything, but I heard a lot of female voices saying, "How mean!" and other similar phrases. A bunch of them came over and sat by me. Heh heh. Not too bad at all.

Actually, that was the last scheduled thing, but not the last. About 2:00 am, my hosts invited me to go to IHOP with them and others and other previewers. I accepted, but before we went, they declined. I went out to the gathered group as we piled into a van of someone's. I did notice that I was the only previewer, and that everyone else happened to be wearing all black and face paint. I wonder what the waitresses thought of that group. Longview isn't much of a college town. The story slowly came out, having to do with abducting and duct-taping a guy to the flag pole because he got engaged. Weird traditions seem to abound at colleges. I had a Belgian waffle, because they're good. I got back about 3 a.m. and woke up at 7 a.m.

Breakfast came and went again. At 8 o'clock I went to a computer lab to write my essay. The choices were reassuringly normal, paraphrased here: (1) Discuss the positive and negative ramifications of rapidly advancing technology. Use '2001: A Space Odyssey' as an example. (2) Discuss California's energy problems and possible solutions. (3) Discuss the ethics of stem cell research and whether or not, by prohibiting it, we would be "putting God in a box." (4) Some weird question about economic options available to Texas K-12 schools. I wrote about two sentences on #2, then found I had nothing else to say, so I switched to #3 and wrote and short, quality essay. Well, I think it was quality, but it was 8 in the morning after I had a whopping four hours of sleep.

The rest of the day was pretty much free. I went to a basketball game where LU got crushed, then to another, much larger performance of the "comedic" duo Custer and Hoose again. It was the most hard-hitting play I've ever seen, and absolutely needed the quips to keep the audience from getting too stressed. It was about many things, but focused on friendship, forgiveness, and faith. It was the weekend, so the dorms were pretty much vacant. A lot of the previewers had gone home already. The university gave each of us a nice, small piece of luggage, with the LU emblem on it. I talked to people in the halls, read some of the Fellowship of the Ring, caught up on the RinkForum and Sluggy Freelance, went jogging, and repeated. I got to bed late, but my hosts weren't back at that time. I checked my alarm clock several times to make sure it was set for 5:00, so I could be out the door easily at 6, to catch my ride to my flight.

I woke up to some night noises and rolled over to check my alarm, to see if there was enough time to keep sleeping. Apparently not. It was 6:50. That was NOT A GOOD FEELING. I got dressed, contacts in, and repacked by 6:52, an all-time record for me, but, unfortunately, I still had no idea how to get ahold of the person who was supposed to drive. I began to pray, but was immediately cut off by her calling me to tell me she'd be over in just a minute. Coincidence, eh? She drove fast. My dad and I ran through the airport. It felt like a movie. We make it just barely in time. The flights back were smooth and without hitches. I read one of the magazines in the seat pouch and found this gem: "Twenty soothing sounds include Foghorns, Thunderstorm, Steam Train, even Roadside and City!" Who on earth was in charge of selecting those "relaxing" soundtracks?! I sure thought it was interesting that it took three hours to get from Dallas to Portland and another three to get from Portland to home.

At home, I noticed that one of my carry-on bags was missing. Sigh. As if I hadn't had enough plane troubles yet. I called PDX's lost and found, but they weren't in until Tuesday, because Monday was a national holiday. Phooey. National holidays always seem to come at inconvenient times, and we never get them off school anyway. The carry-on was, of course, unlabeled, because one never loses the luggage that one labels. It contained some clothing, which is probably mildewing by now, and all my CDs. Ouch. Fortunately, the lost and found called us back this afternoon to say it had turned up just then.

And that's my tale of all sorts of things that didn't quite go wrong. I'll bet this made my longest all-original post.

As for the school, I think it's a great place, and I'd be happy to go there. The atmosphere was wonderful, the people friendly, the accents cool, and the quality seemed very high. I'll find out about the scholarship in March.

gab"Needs new alarm clocks"by