270 Gallons of My Life
I had a whirlwind 24 hour stop in Grand Rapids to pack up my stuff. I will not be here when the guys help me move my stuff so I needed to get a lot of my stuff packed up for them to make it easier. There is a still a lot more to do, but I got nearly everything in my room packed up.

I bought some rubber tubs for moving. All in all I filled up over 270 gallons of rubber tub. That is a lot of stuff. I have accumulated a lot of things over the past couple of years. Moving is never a fun thing, but at least I know I have all the furniture I will need and nothing makes you feel at home in a new place like old familiar furniture.

All my rubber tubs and a few shoe boxes filled with my stuff.

My closest which was once stuffed to the top now sits empty.

My cluttered desk now has a clear top and empty drawers.

I did not get to somethings... like the storage room or cleaning the kitchen.

Getting ready for a new place is always exciting. I made some calls yesterday on some rental property. I am looking for a little house to rent. I would love to have a garage. Rent in Albion is very cheap which is great, so I hope I find something for a good price and all the space I need.

Today I am back to the grind. Early morning flight from Grand Rapids put me into Oregon before lunch and now I am working. I have been up since 3am PST and will work until 6pm. AH! I only have three weeks left I need to get into high gear and get all of my projects finished up so I can leave with some accomplishments under my belt.

Alright... this thing called work is calling my name. Adios!

Convention Ups and Downs
The 2004 Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity, Inc. Convention was another historical event for our great Brotherhood. For me it was filled with many ups and downs. First was that the GVSU Colony was not given chapter status, but will be granted it this fall once they start their new membership education process. Which is good because they were "conditionally" approved. A down was that I was not elected to the Board of Directors, I knew it was a gamble when I started. I am an opinionated Brother and sometimes my views are unpopular. At least I know that I say what I think, and unlike the rest of the "political" Brothers I don't hold back a comment because some people might disagree with it. I do my thing and don't look back.

The big up was.... GVSU won the Outstanding Colony for 2002-2004! I am so proud of them, I nominated them and I kept my fingers crossed. Those guy made me so proud I can barely describe in words. They are following another proud tradition... my chapter when we recolonized we went on to win Outstanding Colony for 1998-2000. I am expecting big things from GVSU this fall, and of course from the Epsilon Chapter as well.

Lets see the pics:

In return for me doing 5 workshops at convention my Headquarters hooked me up with a free room with a great balcony!

First night with Max and Hermen from the GVSU Colony.

The Brothers hung around my room a lot, seen here: WMU, Miami(OH), CMU, GVSU and Wichita State.

One of the WMU Neos, I am expecting big things from this Brother... big things.

During Convention I was in the middle of my negotiations with Albion College. I wanted to be sure I made the right decisions and wanted to weigh a lot of things out. I made the right decision during the middle of convention. I start there on September 7th and I could not be more excited. I am confident I will be able to accomplish big things there.

The last night of convention, once all the business is over, we had our banquet and dance. This is where the awards are given out and ends with a little gig. Check it out:

Mary Peterson, our Executive Director started the night off. We would not be the organization we are today if it was not for her.

MOA! The Michigan/Ohio Alliance of Brothers, now known as the East District of SLB was well represented.

Everyone gets dressed up and ready to celebrate a successful year, good meeting, and be presented with the new boards.

GVSU with Ammar the International President getting their award.

We have a special award for Brothers. Salon de Hermanidad inducted its 8th member, Brother Dough. I hope to have as successful a career as he is having in SLB.

The dance was crazy, hot and tons of fun. I was glad I got to chill with so many Brothers.

I am right now sitting in the lobby of the hotel. Getting some work done while I await my flight back home. I will spend tomorrow in Michigan packing up a lot of my things and then back to Oregon for a day before flying out to San Francisco. These will be my last couple trips before I settled into my new job.

Convention was amazing, I love sitting here and not being able to type because I have too many Brothers and Gammas coming over to say bye. I love my fraternity, for what it has done for me, what it does for our community, and what it will continue to do in the future to shape the views and culture of college students all over the country. We are doing Big Things, and I am proud to be a part of it.

The Britons
I spent two days in Chicago and spent the most amazing time with my family. My grandparents from Bolivia are visiting and I met the family there and took Novali to see them. It is the first time they have met her, and I am glad they got the chance.

My Abuelitos are the best, they are getting old (late 80s) and I are so strong and vibrant still it amazing me. From the stories of abuelo hanging from a Mango tree, to abuelita and the crazy airport drama on the way here. They now have meet their two American great grandchildren and I know they could not be happier. My abuelo has not stopped talking about how tall the Sears Tower in Chicago is...

Of course we swam, ate, and caught up. Novali took a little time to warm up to the abuelitos, but not much time. I did not get any pool pictures this time, maybe my dad will send me some and I will post them. Here are a few shots of my family time in Chicago.

My abuelitos have not been to the USA since 1994 for the world cup.

With the old Centellas men... my Dad and Abuelo had tons of fun with her running around.

With the Centellas women: my mom always is trying to teach her new things, and Abuelita sang some old children songs in Spanish with her.

When they dropped us off Novali showed her toys to Abuelo, and then the family took off.

I am glad I got to spend sometime with the family in between all my trips. I am planning some time in Saginaw with the family at the end of August as well.

Currently I am in Orlando at my Fraternity Convention. In one hour we start our business meeting at which someone will be elected as our new Vice President of Finance. I am hoping to be elected... wish me luck.

Oh, for those wondering... I am going to be a Briton.

Around Oregon in 48 hours
Three day weekend, 1200 miles on a rental car... hold on.. didn't I do that last weekend in the Midwest? Well this time it was in Oregon. I have officially seen everything this state has to offer, so now I can leave and be happy that I saw it all. Lets recap the roadtrip weekend.

Friday Night
A vineyard tour and tasting, more sand dunes, big RVs, some old town shopping and the smallest scallops ever.

King Estates was huge and the rows and rows of grapes were amazing.

The ground were perfectly manicured and this would be a great place to have a reception.

The view on the dunes was great, it was a hit day and the ocean really helped cool the air.

Sand between my toes.

Old Towne Florence was very scenic and reminded me of the old lake side towns in west Michigan.

The old boats added to the rustic touch... but the seafood restaurant was nothing specially... tiny scallops.

Saturday
Glide Oregon, a lost camera, Diamond Lake, Crater Lake, Willamette Pass, a Gondola, Covered bridges, a sunset and music at Taylors.

The drive south wound along the Rogue river and had awesome views and winding roads which made it fun to drive on.

After having to go back and get Becky's camera she left at a store, we stopped to some awesome views.

Diamond lake was so smooth, makes me wish I still water skied.

All the pine trees reminded of that artist guy.. the one who painted happy trees. What was his name?

On the way to Crater lake there was snow! I had to jump in it barefoot.

Crater Lake is an old Volcano, now it is one of the deepest lakes in North America.

Mountain ranges surrounded the location.

The water was a shocking blue mixed with green.

The Willamette Pass ski lodge is open all year.

The Gondola ride to the top revealed some long distance views.

All day spent looking for a covered bridge... and this one you could not even drive through.

Sunset. We called it a day and went to the famous campus spot, Taylors.

Sunday
Homemade cobbler, St. Helen Burger, lots of bikers, a big blowed up volcano, regrown trees, and accidentally finding the Oregon Brewmaster Festival.

The family run dinner was great. St. Helen burger=Burger, fried egg, ham, and all the fixin's. Yum.

Not nearly as scenic as I had hoped, the history in the park was cool though and so was the drive.

As we drive into Portland we saw a little festival happening. So that means bands, and old people trying to dance.

They had microbrews from around the world... even Michigan!

In Oregon people are either shirtless or on stilts. Standard.

Brews and Porta-Johns. A match made in heaven.

People could put where they were from... someone was already there from Santa Cruz!

Of course... I ate... pizza, and teriyaki chicken, but they ran out of elephant ears!

The weekend was great. I am tired but the travel continues... this week I head to Chicago and then the weekend to Orlando, FL. Yes I know... I don't like to stay still in one place. I am looking forward to more traveling. Not looking forward to starting to pack of my place in GR... now where will I move it to is the question... stay tuned for important updates.

My abuelitos are great! Novali is being fun and we are about to jump into the pool, again. So I got to run. I will update about my time in Chicago soon.

IntroDUCKtion
This weekend was a blast... Crater Lake in the South of Oregon, Florence on the ocean, Mt. Saint Helens in WA, and the Oregon Brewmaster Festival and Portland. I will be posting pictures soon of the adventure. For now an update from Greek Life...

The summer orientation program here is called IntroDUCKtion (Oregon mascot is a Duck). Greek Life gets to put on a presentation, have information tables, and give tours of a house (fraternity and sorority). I get the pleasure of helping to coordinate the Greek involvement. Of course this is the first major time they will get to recruit potential new members and get to set parents minds at ease about their son or daughter going Greek.

I field a ton of questions (which is tough being how new I am here) from parents and make sure the students are getting the correct information. Students come with their parents to orientation here, about 70% of students bring their parents. I find that strange coming from Michigan were I don't know of schools that would have such high parent enrollment in an orientation program. I like it though. Most parents went here and it is an excuse for them to visit and check out all the changes... "I remember when" stories all over the place.

The first couple sessions were packed with people interested in Greek Life. Many were legacies (meaning someone in their family is Greek) and some had friends who were Greek. I of course took some pictures and figured I would let you all see one of my summer projects.

The fraternity info table gets lots of random questions, the students study up on Greek facts before hand.

The sorority table spends most of their time explaining what the Formal Recruitment Process looks like.

Our office is open letting people register online for recruitment right on the spot.

The morning presentation is very intersting... Flash.. pictures... all the fun stuff.

Numbers are up, way up. I really motivated the guys to push hard during IntroDUCKtion to sign guys up for recruitment (most days we had more guys then girls helping). They are very lax here about recruitment... I am trying to teach them effective techniques to get guys committed to checking out Greek Life. I got big plans for them during my short visit, hopefully we can accomplish some cool things before I go...

Speaking of going, today I fly to Chicago. I spend two days there and then buzz off to Orlando for my convention. On my return I will spend August 2nd in Grand Rapids getting ready to move my stuff, and then back to Oregon for work. Ah... so much traveling, so much work, so much fun, and so little time!

Eugene and I
I am back in my office. Got back into Eugene and saw that Hoobastank was in town and was also quickly reminded of the things that make Eugene fun. Today I got a funny article emailed to me, check this out:

Oregon profs wield influence with Bush
EUGENE, Oregon (AP) -- Over the years, the University of Oregon has developed a reputation as a hippie haven, home to Hacky-Sackers, Frisbee-throwers and anti-globalism activists. But tucked away in a bucolic corner of the campus is a group of education professors whose work has been widely influential and found favor with the Bush administration.

Full Story at: CNN Online

I loved the opening part of that article, very descriptive of this area. Speaking of descriptive, I thought since I came in early I would spend a minute and tell everyone about my office here. The Greek Life Office has three full time staff, one Advisor (me), the Director (Shelley) and an Office Manager (Audra). It is a cool set up and I am enjoying the atmosphere. I don't even have a cubicle, we all just share a big space and I like that. The open air environment is fun and easy to put some head phones on and work without disturbances, or just be available for the students.

Here are some office shots:

No I did not take a side job working for AT&T. I do not have a regular phone, just this headset. At first I hated it but now I love it.

Of course a picture of Shelley's cats, and her famous jar of marbles. Ask me for the story about the marbles.

We are an Apple office, I love it! We have 5 flat panel iMacs, one old iMac, 3 G4 towers, one iBook and two Powerbooks. How sweet!

We are located in the student union and in a very high traffic place.

I am loving working in the office, and surprisingly missed the place more then I thought while I was gone. Well back to the grind. I have a busy next few days getting caught up with Oregon work and preparing for my presentations at the Sigma Lambda Beta International Convention next weekend in Orlando.

Alright, off to do that thing called work.