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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Skateistan

The plane lands. Yes, I am here! As soon as I get off the plane it becomes very hot; I shouldn't have worn pants but whatever. I weave my way through the airport. My hat is making me pretty hot. I get to the baggage claim and grab my duffle bag full of skateboards. I am waiting outside for Ollie and soon enough he comes in the van. I put my stuff in the back and I am then greeted by him. "What's Up dude?" He says and in return I say, "Hey bro." We then go to Ollie's house and there is Kenny Reed. He is my favorite professional skater, by the way, so it was super exciting seeing him. Since it is already six, I am not going to get to go to the warehouse which is kinda a bummer. We eat a plain dinner of rice and beef. Then just relax and watch Kenny "ollie" off the porch. The sun shines in my eyes and I slowly wake up. I immediately smell some kind of bread. So I hop out of bed, put some skating jeans on and a plain t-shirt and some socks. Now I have to pick what shoes I want to wear because I brought four pairs of VANS© and one pair of Nikes. I choose a pair of VANS©, they are cheaper and are better skating shoes. I eat the bread but the milk was disgusting so I drank some bottled water. I then jumped in the van and chose a girl skateboard out of my bag. Off we go I am pulsing with excitement, and I can't wait to get there. We are here; I jump out of the car and sprint in and as soon as I am in the building I am in shock at how amazing this place is. There is no one here so I jump on my board and start skating around jumping off stuff, ollieing over ramps and snapping on the half pipe. Skating was fun but all the kids get here, so I go to meet them. Fortunately, I get to skate again before school starts. I have the kids teach me some things about skating seeing that a lot of them are better than me. It is time for class so we go inside and we learn math that I have already learned so the teacher has me teach. That happens in many of the other classes like English but not Afghani; they teach me and I have a lot of fun learning it. In one class we are praying and I hear a helicopter fly over. For me this is normal but they are scared, I realize they are very tense, the teacher stops the class and is listening, waiting for the helicopter to fly away. I then realize that the helicopter is American and that they saw it flying by and it made them horrified to see it. I realize how lucky I am not to be scared of things like that. The day goes on and we skate a little more then it is time to go back to the house with Ollie. It has been a very fun day and I have learned a lot. I hope I can come back.







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10 comments:

John SB said...

Laird this is easily your best effort this year. It sounds like you are really there. Good map (I would like you to label the marker in addition to simply adding it to the map.) Good addition of the picture, and great, great music.
Your writing is so real, speaking of Ollie and Kenny as one of your favorite pros. Your combination of skating and other real life happenings add to the realism. I especially like your talk about the helicopter.

Thanks for this most improved effort. I can tell you got some editing and spent some very focused time on this. Keep it up. People will begin flocking to your blog if you keep this up.

Unknown said...

Laird, I really like how you put time and effort making your blog awesome! It was really entertaining, and it really felt like you actually were in Afghanistan! Good job!

shonster96 said...

Awesome Blogg Laird. I liked how you where very descriptive and made your story almost real.

~Shani

Unknown said...

I like what you said about the helicopter. I really makes you think

Max said...

Laird you have an awesome blog with a lot of detail. i really like your picture with the soldiers standing right behind the skater. I really like your maps and how they allow the viewers to view whatever they want. Laird you have an awesome blog!!!!!

Unknown said...

I love how you describe how you feel right at the beginning of the post. And how you think they might feel based on what has happened. It seems like you really went to Afghanistan. --Katty

Unknown said...

I loved your blog. Your writing made you seem you were really into it. I love how you described the helicopter going over the school, the way you wrote it made it genuinely feel how scared they actually were. I also liked how you added that Ollie and Kenny as your favorite pro skateboarders. It makes you also feel like your blog is related to you.

Unknown said...

I loved your blog. Your writing made you seem you were really into it. I love how you described the helicopter going over the school, the way you wrote it made it genuinely feel how scared they actually were. I also liked how you added that Ollie and Kenny as your favorite pro skateboarders. It makes you also feel like your blog is related to you.

Unknown said...

Laird, I really loved your blog. You really seemed to be enjoying what you were writing. I loved when you mentioned the helicopter, it genuinely as if you could sense the kids' fear. It seemed like you made a huge effort to make this blog a good one.

Unknown said...

great blog! I like what you said about the helicopters. Also the map is very helpful. You wrote like you were into it!

~PAUl~