Cultural Experiences and New Activities

I haven't been posting lately about our adventures, but we have had quite a few over the past few weeks. Oh, and I've got a fun new hobby I've been practicing. It's called poi. You can google it for the exact definition, but it's basically fire spinning (except we're just practicing right now to get the muscle memory so we don't kill ourselves when we switch to fire) that came from the Maori tribes in New Zealand. I've seen it performed both in Hawaii and also at numerous concerts (both with fire and with LED glow balls.) I am having so much fun with it and have been practicing every single day.

This was my first day and I'm trying really hard not to whack myself!
Amber is much more advanced than I am, and has become my teacher as far as adding new moves and tricks to my repetoire.
Some friends from work and I planned a trip to the Ocoee river in Tennessee to go whitewater rafting. Talk about exhilarating! It was a little scary, but I am so glad we challenged ourselves to try something like this! Our guide, Franklin, was hilarious, and very experienced on the river. I felt him grab the back of my lifejacket to keep me from flying out of the boat a couple of times :)
This picture cracks me up. This is Dirk "riding the bull" on the front of the boat. Hahaha. The week leading up to the trip Dirk had been complaining about his chest hurting. He went on the trip anyway, and two days later we found he had a cracked rib. He apparently cracked it during a soccer game, poor guy. So no more whitewater rafting or soccer for the next 6-8 weeks :(
Yesterday we went to my first SEC football game, to see the National Champion Crimson Tide take on San Jose State. Some friends from Birmingham met us there, and we spent the afternoon walking around and taking in the crazy Roll Tide fans.
Here we are in front of Bryant Denny Stadium, where the fans were waiting for the team to arrive. Craziness!
It's been ages since I've been to a college football game, probably since I visited Brooke while she was at U of I. At the time I was so much more interested in getting wasted off two wine coolers, so this experience was really special. The amount of energy in the crowd, from kids age 2 to elderly women wearing elephants on their heads. It was contagious, but also a little overwhelming. I had a great time, for sure!
The game was a blowout, and no wonder. Seriously, can you imagine taking on the National Champions on their home turf with hundreds of thousands of fans?! I expressed the same thought to Dirk during the game and he replied, "That's why they had to pay the team a million dollars to come here." Ha!
Walking through campus to our car after the game made me so nostalgic for college. I just remember walking home from a friend's dorm, or from the library, at nighttime, and that smell of academia just brought back so many wonderful memories. I am so fortunate that I not once took my college experience for granted. Every day I stood on campus and took in the wonder and the beauty and the confusion that was college. I'll be traveling to Sewanee with friends in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to be surrounded by all those memories, yet again.