John's Fresh Jive

Colombia - La Feria de Cali

2008-01-26T20:20:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Colombia friends! The home of good coffee, cocaine, beautiful woman, and amazing salsa clubs. La Ferria de Cali did not disappoint. My buddy Dustin and I had the time of our lives in Cali, Colombia and Bogota, Colombia. So this guy wants to know, who is ready to dance?

Dustin is ready to dance like crazy!

Andrea is ready to dance!

Sandra is ready to dance!

Sandra's friend is ready to dance!

The girl with the big beautiful eyes is ready to dance. (Too bad the hat is in the way of her eyes.)

The girl in the green shirt is ready to dance.

I started to take some pictures the forth or fifth day in Colombia because I was too busy dancing like crazy every night with Dustin. Here is a bull fight we went to on December 29th. Never mess with a bull...

But it is always a good idea in Colombia to mess with the police. (Eh ... Fernando, we have a crazy gringo tourist here. 10-4 over and let's go out on the town)

We almost had too much fun in Colombia.

D-town, The Cowboy, The Architect, and Lily con pelo rojo y natural. Ha!

Natalia was a fun girl to hang out with at La Casa de Cerveza.

The Cali zoo is incredible.
This is the largest freshwater fish in the world!! It lives in the Amazon river. (Dony, it's calling you!)

Watch out boy!

The anteater is one of the weirdest animals I have ever seen. (It's tongue is a half of a meter long to slurp up ants out of holes. God I love evolution.)

I love Cali!! The people here are as crazy about Salsa music as I am.

Dustin and Lily had a great time at the concert featuring Grupo Niche.

I had a great time at the concert dancing salsa with my new friend Andrea.

Dustin would communicate using sign language sometimes in Colombia. Here we are actually playing cheerades in Spanish at the end of the night. Damn that's tough. We were at Sandra's friends Olga's place and started with a dance party... ie me putting on music and dancing salsa with the girls in the room. When I screamed "Fiesta de Olga dos mil ocho es la bomba" Olga told me her parents and grandma were sleeping in the other room.

There is nothing better than downing a huge bowl of Chicha at a bohemian type bar rockin out ACDC in Bogota.

At a dance club with new Aussi, Isreali, and Colombian friends in Bogota.
Back row (John, Alejandra, Rocio's BF, Dustin)
Front row (Russ and Kane)

You learn something new everyday in your life. One day in Bogota, Colombia in the beginning of January I learned that it is always good to pretend like you are a cowboy riding a horse when entering a circle of girls dancing. Pass the cowboy hat to a girl and let the hat do the magic...ie two girls dancing with each other

Russ (in the middle) gets a special credit for wearing a Fresh Jive shirt. Thank you for promoting the Fresh Jive Russ.

The Dominican Life ... so far

2008-01-26T18:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Dominican Republic Baby!

Don't mess with me wave. I'm coming to get you.

This was our ride on the beach when I spent Thanksgiving with my parents and some friends on the beach.

I'm hangin out with Dad, Amy, and Mom on the Beach for Thanksgiving. (Mom was taking the picture.) It was my first Thanksgiving on the beach.

Sunset in Las Terrenas

Little dude with fish

My friend Amy on a beach in Barahona.

The road to paradise and pooping behind a bush.

Bahia de las Aguilas was one of the coolest places I have ever camped in my life. The water was so clear with an incredible light blue tinge. Bill, Mark, Amy and I cooked our food over the fire every night and swam, played frisbee in the water, and snorkeled everyday.

Ball games are crazy and funny in the DR. My friend Bill once said, "It is a party where a baseball game just happens to be taking place." Between every pitch they would crank up the latin music. Even when a person walked to first base they would cheer like someone hit a homerun. No one hit a homerun that game, but I am sure they probably would have stopped the game and had a dance party on the field. There were girls between innings dancing on the dugout of the home team. (Big Draws, you would have loved it!)

If you want to get Gin and Juice at a ball game...it's all good.

This is my crib in the DR

Vacation of a Lifetime (Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam)

2007-12-02T15:41:00.001-08:00

THAILAND

Elephants on the streets of Thailand

Brendan ride'n the one horned bull like a master. Wait till you see him vs his competition.

YMCA led by a dragqueen in Bangkok

We're heading to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie!

Blankets, Lazyboys... this is how we roll at the movies in Thailand.

Welcome to the King's Place

King's Palace

Monday is yellow shirt day in Thailand. Go King!

CAMBODIA

Tracy, Rory, and Elephant.

This girl was one of the funniest waitresses I've ever had.

Our Cambodian waitresses

Here she is! The Controller. She doesn't just let anybody into Angkor Watt.

She may look like Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider, but she is actually my friend Rory.

Tree swallowing building

Thank you trees, tree roots, and nature for making the Angkor Thom fall to its knees at the face of your destruction.
No really, it looks really cool like this.

Tree eating John

Huge tree loving the wall

Where is Waldo? And why is this tree so big?
Angkor Thom

The monk in orange was quite skiddish when Rory tried to touch him. Shame on you Rory, the only woman he is allowed to touch is his mother damn-it!

Right on time! The beer man.
Just what Rory needed after rejection from the orange monk.

Little dude selling incense in the hallways of Angkor Watt

Rory and Guillaume

Don't jump! You're so young.

Monkeys near the temple of Angkor Watt

I'm not a two-faced bastard, but check out the dude behind me.
(Wow, three faces!)

Nice face! No seriously there is a face behind Rory's face. Rory your face is nice too.

Guillaume, Rory and I toasting to Cambodia

This guy has a fan in his hat. Genius! This guy should be president.

Get Fat! Yes FAT airlines! Only in Asia.

VIETNAM

Mmmmm

Win, Lu, Tram, Cheung and Shaun chillen before we play a mean game of hearts.

Nice beach in Hoi An

You better wear a long jean jacket for the hot hot Vietnamese sun.

Peace

Lu and Cheung are rocking it out at the karaoke bar!

This is the cheesecloth that they use to make tofu.

Here they place the silkworm cacoons in super hot water in order to kill the silkworms. Then they place silk threads from 5 different cacoons on the machine that spins the threads together to make one thicker thread of silk.

Scooping up the silkworm cocoons to place in the hot water.

Quin and Shaun chillen by the waterfall

Quin and I are ready to ride off into the distance with our elephant condoms on.

Shaun shows us silk worms ...

And then we went to this crazy party where everyone got naked around this huge bonfire.

Sweet kite, sweet cheeks!

Seriously, who takes an elephant to work anymore?

Pho shur we need bigger chairs

A romantic bike ride for 2

Sweet Cheeks! Sweet Chops! Sweet Fruit!

Ring My Bell

2007-05-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

Here I am ringing the bell at the Bell Tower in Xian. Xian is one of the first capitals of China. They would use this bell to warn people in the city of invadors.

Styling

2007-05-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

Styling with my manikin friend

The Warrior

2007-05-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

You will never get past this guy. Here is like a rock.

Tang Dynasty Show

2007-05-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

The woman in the Tang Dynasty were some of the most liberated women in China. They also wore really long sleeves.

Peace

2007-05-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

I think we are with some famous person from Beijing.

Bell Tower of Xian

2007-05-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

School Visit

2007-05-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

My Dad and I were rock stars when we went to visit this school in Xian. I love the kid that decided to give three fingers instead of the peace sign.

Terracotta Warriors

2007-05-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

Terracotta warriors from the Qin dynasty over 2000 years ago

Concubines

2007-05-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

These heads represent concubine heads of the emperor in the forbidden city. The concubines could never tell the emperor directly that they did not want to please him, so they placed symbols on their foreheads indicating that they felt bad or that they were up for a good time.

Tang Dynasty Show

2007-05-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

The dragon dance

Great Wall

2007-05-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hiking on the great wall was tiring. The further you went the less people you would see and the more beautiful it became.

2007-05-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

HARBIN

2006-07-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

I went to visit Harbin with my friend Amy in February. Harbin is much colder than Wisconsin. The temperature range when we were there was between 0 degrees and -20 degrees F, but it does get down to -40 degrees F or -40 degrees C. They are the same. Really, really cold. Because it is so cold they are able to make huge snow and ice sculptures that last all winter. Harbin is close to the border of China and Russia in Manchuria, China. It was a winter wonderland. There was a luge, ice mobile park, and sledding park right outside of our hotel. We went to see Snow World, an Ice Sculpture Park, Ice World, and a Siberian Tiger Park. The whole time I felt like a little kid in a candy shop who has the biggest sweet tooth ever or like a 27 year old man in a snow world with all the snow and ice buildings built to size. My mouth was open with awe for about three hours straight at one time. It was truly awesome!

2006-07-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome to SNOW WORLD!!

2006-07-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Why are you sneaking up on me sun? Why?

2006-07-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Eewe ... cold boogers

2006-07-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

Play on playa

2006-07-17T13:30:00.001-07:00

Mmmmmmm ..... tasty!

2006-07-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

Don't get your head sucked off Amy!!!

2006-07-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

This Japanese snow tower is HUGE!

2006-07-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

I am praying that this guy behind me will not fall on me. Otherwise I will be in a world of pain, not a world of snow.

2006-07-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

Let me in your sweet snow castle. Please . . . I am freezing out here.

2006-07-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

Chillen at a snow cafe.

2006-07-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Should we cross the river of ice to Harbin on a mule cart?

2006-07-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Of course we should

2006-07-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to THE ICE SCULPTURE PARK!

2006-07-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

Has evolution of the human really come that far? Ha!

2006-07-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hey there! How you doing?

2006-07-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

El Matador!

2006-07-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Everybody is scared of the dragon.

2006-07-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Ice Dogs for the year of the dog.

2006-07-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hey buddas guarding the ice pagoda tower. Some people are sneaking past you!

2006-07-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Ice World!

2006-07-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Sledding down the Great Wall of Ice was super scary. At the end you fly into a huge snowbank and a couple Chinese dudes pull you out before the next sledder flies into you. No Joke!

2006-07-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the people standing to the left of the pink ice tower's stairs. This is how crazy huge these ice buildings are in Ice World.

2006-07-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

How can you tell it is super cold outside? Just look at the budda's nipples behind me.

2006-07-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

Check out this ice bar. The tables, seats, glasses, candle holders, floor, and part of the wall is made out of ice. The rest of the walls are made out of snow. I can't believe part of it is made out of snow. What kind of ice bar is this!

2006-07-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

Sweet, sweet tower of pinkness. This is actually the same color as my house in Shanghai. I heard that this tower is a replica of some tower in Russia and is the tallest ice tower ever created.

2006-07-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

This is actually where I live in China. I live in a huge ice castle of neon lights. I am very nice and put down thin carpets for my friends coming up the blue stairs so that they won't slip.

2006-07-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hey! What are you doing in the middle of the road?

2006-07-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

I was in one of the vans that you see in the right hand corner of this picture when visiting the tiger park in Harbin.

2006-07-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

Here is one of the tiggers that we saw in the siberian tiger park. You could buy them live chickens or calfs to eat in front of you. The cow may have been cool to see getting eaten or horribly disgusting, but we didn't have enough money to buy a cow anyway.

2006-07-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

We all want to say peace to the people in the middle east.

2006-07-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

This is the view of the ice rink on the river outside of our hotel. I loved it. People were getting balloons, cotton candy, ice runner mobiles, etc.

2006-07-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

When on the river outside our hotel, Amy and I raced various people on these ice runner mobiles. I have no idea why this guy has his thumb up because he lost in our race, but they were pretty tough competition.

2006-07-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

I am right outside my hotel preparing for lantern festival. That night when heading back to Shanghai we saw all of the fireworks from Harbin to Shanghai from all of the people celebrating lantern festival. It was a 3 and a half hour firework show.

2006-07-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Our hotel in Harbin was the one behind this luge track made out of ice and snow. It was pretty fast. You luge right onto the frozen river.

2006-07-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here are what the streets of Harbin looked like after a nice hot pot meal.

2006-07-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

Here you can see that I am trying to say Maglev. When we arrived at the airport after Harbin we took the fastest magnetic elevated train (The Maglev) in Shanghai. Unfortunately it took us no where close to Shanghai Racquet Club where I live.

2006-07-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

We got up to 301 km/hr on the Maglev train. Pretty fast for the slow train. I have been on one maglev train in Shanghai that can get up to 430km/hr.

The Philippines

2006-02-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

My trip to the Philippines I will never forget. The people are so friendly and laid back, the weather is perfect, and there are tons of things to do there. You can kite surf, snorkel, scub dive, cliff jump into water on an island near by, golf, play football, play futbol, play volleyball, go urchin hunting and eating, go hiking, and go shopping. I did everything except cliff jump, scuba dive, and play volleyball, so I will have to go back someday. If you go to Boracay and want some good food, one of the best places to eat is the chicken restaurant right by the ferris wheel. It was the best chicken I have ever had both times I went there. I know it is impossible to eat the best chicken in your life at two different times, but trust me, it is possible at this restaurant. You can make this sauce with mini-limes, soy sauce, mini-red peppers, and vinegar. When you splash the sauce on the chicken you are in heaven for every bite. The other cool restaurant is the Hobbit house where midgets serve you food and drinks. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Sorry, no pictures of the chicken restaurant or the Hobbit house.

2006-02-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

I just want to let you know that I always choose Fiesta Class on the plane to the Philippines. It's just the way I roll. Nuff said, onto the Philippines.

2006-02-07T07:34:00.000-08:00

Since there are no good donuts in Shanghai I had to hit up Mr. Donut. Really what else would you want to do for one short night in Manilla.

2006-02-07T07:31:00.000-08:00

I also visited Mr. Quickie. It's a shoe place. Really!

2006-02-07T07:29:00.000-08:00

From Shanghai I took a large plane to Manilla. Then I took a small plane from Manilla to a small island near boracay. Then I took a really small boat to just a small boat. The small boat went to about 30 meters from the beach of Boracay. From the small boat I got on a dude's shoulders to land. The dude made a second trip to carry my stuff. I gave him a huge tip. Small planes should be fairly safe, right?

2006-02-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

Oh shiznit, why is this guy following our plane with a fire extinguisher?

2006-02-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

This is one way how you can get onto shore from the boat.

2006-02-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

Kite surfers and wind surfers on the beach near Ben's house.

2006-02-07T07:19:00.000-08:00

The day view of kite surfers from Ben's balcony.

2006-02-07T07:18:00.000-08:00

The streets of Boracay only consisted of moterbikes and their sidecars. No cars are allowed on the island. So you are either walking it or taking a sidecar taxi. You could squeeze four americans into a sidecar, although I have seen up to 8 philippinos in one.

2006-02-07T07:14:00.000-08:00

Alex and Ben on the sidewalks of Boracay.

2006-02-07T07:13:00.000-08:00

The sidewalks of Boracay. This ferris wheel was the slowest one in the world, but I still screamed for fun.

2006-02-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

Golf in Boracay

2006-02-07T07:10:00.000-08:00

Come out of the golf cart with your hands up!! Have you been drinking gentlemen?

2006-02-07T07:03:00.000-08:00

It looks like a hole in one, but it went straight out of bounds. Unfortunately the caddy keeps score of all of the penalty strokes. I used all of my money to play golf here, so I couldn't even pay her off. I don't know if she even gave me a mulligan. All joking aside, it was pretty sweat having a caddy for the first time.

2006-02-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is the ball that always took at least 7 strokes to go into one of these holes in this game called . . . golf.

2006-02-07T06:53:00.000-08:00

Professional sandcastle guys built this. Who else could have, really? They tear it down and build it back up eveyday for donations.

2006-02-07T06:51:00.000-08:00

I wish we would have had a good time or at least a good laugh on vacation. Maybe next vacation. who knows?

2006-02-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

Going from left to right . . . Dragon vs. Noodles of Death T-shirt guy, professional baskeball stud Alex, hot green shirt Brony, and Bubba (aka Ben aka the spicy food eating monster)

2006-02-07T06:38:00.001-08:00

The sunset at Boracay on my last night.

2006-02-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

This is the belly of Steve, one of the guys I will room with next year.

Random Pictures from 2005

2006-01-28T01:29:00.000-08:00

2005 was a great year. Here are some random pictures from January 1st 2005 to January 1st 2006.

2006-01-28T01:25:00.000-08:00

Is this the coolest blue devil in the sky you have ever seen or what?

2006-01-28T01:22:00.002-08:00

My Mom is taking pictures of the crazys on New Years day in Wisconsin.

2006-01-28T01:22:00.001-08:00

This is rather disturbing and funny at the same time, so I thought I would share it with the world.

2006-01-28T01:22:00.000-08:00

I would never go polar bearing, but that does not mean that I don't like polar bears.

2006-01-28T01:20:00.000-08:00

Why are Wisconsin people so crazy and go swimming in Lake Michigan New Year's morning? Who knows?

2006-01-28T01:19:00.000-08:00

On New Years I went out on the town with my good friend Anne-marie.

2006-01-28T01:14:00.000-08:00

Why this guy always prefers this to toilet paper, I will never know.

2006-01-28T01:09:00.000-08:00

Summer time at the terrace with Mark.

2006-01-28T01:02:00.000-08:00

Medieval Times in Chicago is one of the coolest places I have been. It has knights, fights, jousting, kings, and best of all paper king hats. He are my roommates from 301 Charter and I chillen with our king hats

2006-01-28T00:56:00.000-08:00

The Beetles with mustaches or the boys from 301 Charter? It's anybody's guess.

2006-01-28T00:49:00.000-08:00

After a month long phooseball tournament, the losers had to shave their face until they only had a mustache. Well mustaches were in that night, so we all decided to shave into mustaches.

2006-01-28T00:41:00.000-08:00

Who would ever mess with this dude? Ever.

2006-01-28T00:40:00.000-08:00

My family is pretty hard core when it comes to kickball during birthday parties. Here we are about to set up kickball and play kickball in the hail on my birthday (2005). This picture features Timmy, Mom, myself, and hail.

2006-01-28T00:32:00.000-08:00

Orange hair, orange shirts, sunglasses, and funky suits. . . this is the way we role.

Beach Party 2004-2005

2006-01-28T00:20:00.000-08:00

The Wild World of Western China

2005-11-25T02:42:00.000-08:00

Traveling the silk road through Western China while chaperoning a school cultural trip for our 10th graders was a great experience. The people, cultures, and landscape of Western China is much different than Eastern China. Check out the pictures below!

2005-11-25T02:39:00.001-08:00

Here is the first place we stayed in Dunhuang.

2005-11-25T02:39:00.000-08:00

Here comes the Takla Makan desert.

2005-11-25T02:37:00.000-08:00

Here is my friend Rory a little scared while the camel lowers itself.

2005-11-25T02:36:00.000-08:00

The edge of where the Takla Makan desert meets civilization (Dunhuang). Below you can see people in line for sand sledding and even farther below you can see the group of camels that brought us to this place in the desert.

2005-11-25T02:33:00.000-08:00

Here I am freezing on top of the largest pile of sand I have ever seen in the Takla Makan Desert near the Gobi Desert. The sand dunes went on for miles.

2005-11-25T02:30:00.000-08:00

Here is a girl on our trip Sand Dune sledding. Sledding on snow is 100 times better. It is much better to get snow in your face, eyes, and mouth instead of sand.

2005-11-25T02:26:00.000-08:00

Inside of all of the caves are different Buddas. Some of the biggest Buddas in the world are found inside of these caves of Dunhaung on the Silk Road. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the Buddas inside of the caves.

2005-11-25T02:23:00.000-08:00

The Urgur mosque in the background is made out of mud, clay, and straw. It is no longer used for worship since it is so beautiful and all of the westerners like to look inside of it and disturb the worship of the Urgurs. Damn Western tourists! Wait that's me.

2005-11-25T02:19:00.000-08:00

Burial site of the Urgurs in Turpan