Yeah, that's my cousin

So, I know this won't really come as a surprise to anyone. Considering how freakishly athletic I am it's not really a big deal that my cousin, Marco Sullivan, was in the Olympics.

Actually, it's probably kind of expected. It's hard not to be in the Olympics when you're related to a Francovich. Yeah, I taught him everything he knows about competitive down hill skiing.

Anyways, all that aside, I was in Seattle about a month ago dropping off Emmanuelle. We were saying goodbye, when suddenly, I saw this advertisement, with, yeah you guessed it, Marco Sullivan on it.

Apparently he loves to ski and drink Budweiser...

If I was 21 I would have an opinion about Budweiser, but, being 20 I barely know what it is.

Homeless

Met this guy in Seattle. He didn't have a leg because of a construction accident.

Back, back, back on the attack

Well, hey. It’s been a bit. Lots of good things to relate. Stories to tell, photos to share, memories to recount. It’s going to be fun. In the interest of time, professionalism and clarity I’m going to divide this post into a few different categories. I’m not sure what they are yet… but I’ll figure it out.

Seattle to Seattle (and a little more)

So it’s been month, more or less (probably more) since I last wrote. So I think it’s appropriate to bookend this thing, meaning I’ll start with the beginning, skip four or more weeks and end with the end. Then I’ll go back and fill in the middle, much like building a house.

Right, so what does this have to do with Seattle? Well I started in Seattle and ended in Seattle. So there.

On March 23 I drove to Seattle to pick up Emmanuelle Martin. She is this woman that I met in India during my trip. We got along great (read: really amazing) and are (judging by my facebook status) in a “relationship.”

I hope that didn’t sound snide or sarcastic. I don’t feel either. She was here for three weeks and it was amazing. It’ shard to explain, well actually its not. We get along really well. We just fit each other, pretty perfectly. And she is really beautiful and has this amazing grace about her.

I’m a big fan. Anyways, she was here, it was great and I’m not going to divulge any more intimate details onto the Internet. Trust me though, I’m really lucky.

So, I picked her up in Seattle, and now I’m driving back from Seattle. This last weekend I went to look at colleges (well actually only one, Seattle University) and to tour the Seattle Times and generally see Seattle. I drove there with a bunch of people from The Sentinel. I spent the first night with my good friends Hannah Reid and Sarah McHugh, who both attend Seattle University. They were awesome hosts and really made me fall in love with the college.

The next night I spent with Sentinel folks, which was a lot of fun. Mike McCall (the new managing editor of The Sentinel), Mike Paquine (the new online editor) and I walked around and had a good time seeing down town Seattle.

The next night (May 1) I went back to Seattle University and stayed with Hannah and Sarah again.

And now I’m on a bus, flying through Central Washington, wondering what the burning electrical smell is.

Yoga

My Yoga life has been going great. I’ve been teaching and have gotten the requisite 20 hours. In fact I now have something like 25 hours of teaching experience. I’ve been doing Yoga everyday, which really feels great. I feel changes in my body, slowly but surely. My hamstrings are lengthening and I feel very present in my body.

Actually, this weekend was a big one as far as yoga goes. On Saturday morning I went to my first ever Bikram inspired class. For those of you who don’t know Bikram yoga is where you do yoga in a hot room. There is a whole style and philosophy behind it. I’d never done it and boy was it interesting. I didn’t find it very hard, however, the experience of sweating that much was definitely something new. I really enjoyed it, however, I’m really glad I have the privilege of practicing (and hopefully teaching) Anusara Yoga.

Then, this morning (May 2) I got to go to a yoga class at Seattle Yoga Arts. This studio is owned and operated by two women who are good friends with my mom. They were very welcoming and gracious. I had a wonderful time, and quite a bit harder than the Bikram class I went to.

Newspaper

And things have been going great here too (I live a lucky little life, ah nice alliteration). A few weeks ago I found out that I won first place in the Region 10 SPJ (Society of Professional Journalists) feature-writing category, second place in in-depth reporting and first place (shared with Jake Donahue) in editorial writing. The Sentinel also won best of show for the Region 10 SPJ. Basically this means that we will go to Las Vegas (I won’t but The Sentinel will) in October to compete in the national competition. Design wise we have a good shot at placing in the top three, but we will see.

And, in addition to this all, I got accepted to the Poynter Institute. This, in of itself, is pretty awesome. I applied for the fellowship a few months ago without giving it much thought. I really didn’t think I had much of a chance. I guess I was wrong. As cool as this is, what is even cooler is that I’ve managed to get enough money to go. At first I didn’t think I would be able to because it came with a pretty hefty price tag. However, thanks to Nils Rosdahl and NIC I’ve been able to wrangle up the necessary funds. I leave on May 15 and will be gone for two weeks. Oh, right. The Poynter Fellowship is a two-week journalism intensive. Forty student journalists from around the country attend the fellowship where they learn from the “industries best.”

It should be a good time. It’s in St. Petersburg Florida, which I think is a cool place, I’m not sure if it can beat Coeur d’Alene in the spring. We’ll see.

The Sentinel is almost done. We have one more issue. I’m no longer the managing editor (despite the signature on my email address). The new guy is Mike McCall. For this last issue I will be in an advisory role (much like the U.S. in Vietnam pre escalation). I’ll help Mike learn all the things he needs to know for the nebulous and taxing job that is being the managing editor. I will miss it, but I think it’ll take a few months for me to miss it. Right now I’m just glad to be almost done.

Restless horizon looking attitude

I’m feeling the good old little travel urges. Actually they aren’t little. I can’t wait to be traveling (yes, this definitely has something to do with the fact that I’ll see Emmanuelle). It’s really getting intense. It’s hard to sit still. It’s hard to keep the same old routine that I’ve had these last 9 months. I’m horizon bound.

But wait, what about the summer?

Great question. This summer I’m working at Camp Reed, again. I’m so, so excited. It looks like I’m going to be leading CITs (Counselors in Training), which is this great program. It’s four 14 and 15 year olds. Basically how it works is we spend one week working on projects around camp (and we really work hard) and then we spend another whole week biking around Lake Coeur d’Alene (around 300 miles). I can’t wait. I’m really, really excited. I get to lead the weeks with some great people.

So, I think those are the main ones. I’ll add more if I think of things I omitted.

I’m still on this bus and that burning electrical smell is gone, so that is a plus. We’re in Moses Lake. It feels so good to be on a bus, traveling moving seeing different things different people.

And I'm back

Well I’m back. There is nothing too dramatic to tell about my return. Although my trip did change my life it isn’t a dramatic life change. It’s more of a subtle life change. I would say I’m a different person because of my new experiences, but it isn’t anything dramatic (like I don’t have pink hair). I don’t think it’s possible to experience so many different things and not be changed, at least a bit.

But despite all of this, or perhaps because of all of this, transition back into my life in Coeur d’Alene hasn’t been too hard. For the first week or so it didn’t really feel like my life. It felt familiar, but it just didn’t fit right.

That is passing, although at times I still see things from the traveling eyes. Anyways, I will catch you up on what has happened since my return and try to explain some of the things that I’ve noticed and felt.

I landed in the USA on May 18th. I took the flight to Minneapolis (after the airport debacle).

Minneapolis was quite a shock to me. Because I had just come from a foreign country (Holland) I had to go through customs. So, I got off the plane and came out into a type of holding area. It was separated from the rest of the airport and was highly secure. There were dozens of armed guards patrolling the whole area.

The customs officer who asked me questions managed to be both highly suspicious and completely uninterested. He was a big strong guy with angry looking eyes. He asked me a series of fairly innocent questions, however the tone in which he asked them made me feel like I was trying to sneak cocaine or weapons into the country.

He asked me how long I had been in Amsterdam. I corrected him saying that I had actually been in Holland, not Amsterdam. I don’t think he appreciated that.

Anyways he cleared me for entry and as I was leaving said in a machine like voice “Welcome to the USA”.

I sure didn’t feel welcomed.

After making it through that ordeal I had to go through a security check. Although I always found foreign security checks pretty comprehensive, the one in the USA definitely took the cake. They made me take of my shoes (I had forgotten about that). They made me partially unpack my bags (so the X-ray machine could get a better view). It was a new level of security. It was American style security.

And then I was through. There I was back in my home country. It felt great. Even though it was a bland corporate looking airport lobby, it was still the USA.

I immediately headed toward my next gate (I really didn’t want to miss this plane). While I was walking there I began to notice something kind of startling. I began to notice how many obese people there were.

Yes, there are plenty of fat people in Holland. But not the kind of fat I began to see walking through Minneapolis. Americans are a different kind of fat.

It was really startling. I didn’t think that it would be such a difference between Holland and the USA, but it was.

I got to my gate, sat down and began to soak it all in. I could understand everything being said around me. For a minute or two it was awesome. I eavesdropped on people’s conversations (something I hadn’t been able to do in Holland). I listened to T.V.

And then I was overwhelmed. People’s conversations were mostly uninteresting (that is the price you pay for eavesdropping) and the TV was down right annoying. It was FOX News (not my favorite new source by any means) and they were pretending to report on the Swine Flu. I wouldn’t call it reporting. No, they were actively trying to make people scared. At one point the talking head said, “It seems like people are beginning to forget about the swine flu. But they shouldn’t! It is one of the most deadly flu’s of all time.”

I felt like puking. It’s not that the Dutch media is any better. I just couldn’t understand them. So I turned on my I-Pod and drowned out the chaos.

Well, I got on the plane without a problem and took off for Seattle, Washington. I was squeezed between a very obese woman, and her very small baby, and a fairly large man. The woman was very nice and we talked a bit. The man didn’t say a word the whole flight.

And then I was in Seattle. I met my brother Leo Francovich (see picture) there. It was so wonderful to see him. We then went to Seattle University and spent the night with two friends of mine from high school.

The next day Leo and I jumped on a Greyhound bus and headed home. The bus ride was great. Leo and I talked nearly the whole time. It was interesting seeing the type of people on the bus. In Holland and India everyone uses public transportation. Businessmen use it, students use it and poor people use it.

It’s different in America. Almost everyone on the bus looked like they were poor. Judging by the their conversations (that I eavesdropped on) they were uneducated and fairly ignorant of things happening outside of their direct sphere of experience.

One woman described very loudly what a loser her ex-husband is. She also decided to tell us that he would probably show up to the bus station drunk (and she was going to get a ride home with him, in his car, great choice).

And then I was back in Spokane. My father Chris Francovich (see picture) met Leo and I there.

We went to dinner at a place called Noodle Express (not the classiest restaurant, but very good). There were two more shocks awaiting me there. The serving of food was huge! Things are smaller in Holland. I had gotten used to it I guess and didn’t even notice, but seeing that huge plate of Noodles brought it all back. I guess now I know why there are so many fat people in the USA.

And then there was the alcohol issue. The waitress asked us if we wanted anything to drink. My dad ordered a beer, and I remembered I wasn’t 21. That means I can’t drink alcohol. That was very strange (the drinking age in Holland is 16).

Then we drove home. I saw my mom later that night and I slowly began to weave myself back into my life.

It’s great to be home. I miss traveling, but while I was traveling I missed home. So it’s a trade off I can handle. This area of the USA is so beautiful. I absolutely love being here.

It’s good to be home.