guat 2011: monday student blogs.

as promised (only about 12 hours late): here are some thoughts from our group after our first day of teaching! read on to hear from alex, kj, trent and mary kate!!!

Hola mis amigos. Mi nombre es Alexjandro, y este dia ha sido fantastico! Alright, so that is it for the Spanish, but after speaking it for a whole morning and being in this culture, it just sticks. So far this trip has been amazing and I can’t wait to see what is still yet to come. We have become such a bonded group and it comes out in the way we teach these kids. No matter how hard it may be with language, together we work so well with the kids and we all feel that it is more then just doing activities, but truly teaching and making a difference.
Alex R.

Greetings from Guatemala,
This trip has been absolutely incredible, other than the fact that today has been one of the most stressful days of my life! In our first day of teaching I was in charge of teaching biology and anatomy to hyperactive kids who need to be constantly moving. It is however impossible to get upset with them because they are beyond adorable and melt your heart every time they smile at you. Now that my teaching is over I am able to lay back and enjoy the rest of the trip without stress.

I can’t look at the mountains enough; they are so gorgeous and take my breath away.
KJ R.

To those it interests
After a full day of teaching now under our belts, while being here for 4 days, I do know that we all are starting to feel the stress grow. However, none of that matters as much due to the amazing times we have had as a group. I feel that as a group we are having a blast and are really getting to know each other. Great bonding like standing for an hour-ish in the bed of a who only knows how old Toyota Tacoma driving down a steep, dangerous, road while coming back to the hotel from some of the most fun I have ever had in my life at the world’s highest zip-line.

Now that a day of teaching is done, I feel so much more relieved. I am assuming that most of that is from the fact that today was the day I was in charge of and it is now over. Still I am looking forward to the last 3 days and I am sure I will be sad again when we have to leave. Can’t wait to be home though so I can sleep without be serenaded at night by tuk-tuk’s, roosters, and Marcus trombone snoring.
Trent F.

Hello from Guatemala! I wanted to share with you guys a moment that happened to me today, while teaching to the kids. I am in the art group and I taught in the classes today, and through that whole experience I could feel God giving me strength to keep going and talk in front of those kids for the first time. In trying to communicate things to kids, I would try talking in Spanish and one person would get it and be able to explain it to another person. Through all of that I just saw God in helping break down the communication barrier. This trip has been amazing so far and I can’t wait to see what happens with my life through out the rest of the week.
Mary Kate P.

as i type this, we're halfway through day two of teaching and things are going great! the p.e. group is playing hockey, the english group is teaching family terms, the science team is using homemade catapults to teach physics, and the art group is having every student and teacher paint a piece of fabric that they will be sewing together to create a massive tapestry for the school to keep!

more updates to come - thanks again for your countless prayers. also, just as a reminder, you can see the short twitter updates (complete with photos) at my twitter account here: @adampaulcooper.

-apc.

guat 2011: prayer tour, zip-line, san pedro.

we have been in san juan for over 24 hours now, but it already feels like days. after a gorgeous (and a little longer than anticipated boat ride) we settled into our hotel, grabbed a late afternoon lunch, and quickly set off on a prayer tour around san juan.

our first stop on the tour was the school we will be teaching at over the next week. the school is run by a man named Francisco with whom we have developed a tremendous relationship with over the years here in san juan. Francisco has taken the elementary school from a 3-room schoolhouse to a multi-level school with around a dozen classrooms and an adjacent basketball court with a brand new roof! Francisco gives all credit to God for providing groups like us to help. we prayed for our teaching, for Francisco, and for the kids at the school. what a joy and an honor to be apart of God's story here.

our next stop was a church where Francisco's son serves as youth pastor and worship leader. from there we went to a demolished home on the north side of town. it had been left in ruins by a mudslide. the house was the home of a family whose children go to the school. it was so humbling to see the hardship that this family had gone through. we prayed for the community, for the lives we come in contact with, for the divine appointments we will encounter that we don't even have in our schedule. what a rich time of convo with God.

this morning we woke up and after a quick breakfast we jumped in a truck and drove to the zipline!! we all did it! what a great time of bonding for our group - everyone was so encouraging for those of us that were a bit nervous (i.e. meredith and karlie). so awesome and so fun.

dinner is in san pedro tonight. san pedro is the neighboring town to san juan and a fun place to hang out and grab a meal. but its early to bed, early to rise tomorrow cause the teaching begins in the morning!

thanks for your prayers! stories from the students are coming tomorrow night!

-apc.

guat 2011: tori's bag is found.

quick update this morning: tori's bag has made it back to the guat city airport and is en route to us in panajachel! what an answer to prayer.

the weather is PERFECT this morning for a boat ride. 70s, sunny, no clouds, gorgeous volcanoes. boat leaves in 72 minutes!

keep praying. love and miss you all in the states.

-apc.

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guat 2011: made it to panajachel.

we have made it to lake atitlan!

our trip from KC > OKC > houston was flawless. we found our shuttle to the hyatt place hotel for the night. this morning came very early - left for the airport at 7 am - but our flight was delayed a bit so we were able to kick it a bit at the gate before departure.

flight was smooth, customs was a breeze, and we all got our money exchanged with no trouble at all. the only hiccup we have experienced thus far is that someone took the wrong baggage and accidentally grabbed tori's by mistake, leaving his behind! continental seems to have it under control though, and her bag should find its way here soon. the other girls have been great leaning her stuff, and she has been a great sport throughout. pray that her bag finds its way safely!

we spent the rest of the day on the windy roads of guatemala, pulling into panajachel around 8pm. the weather is gorgeous and we are all so thrilled to step outside and see the beautiful scenery in the morning! what a gift God's creation is.

a few of us have been chatting about how interesting it is that there are guatemalans all around us, all who have their own story and their own encounters with the same God we know back home. looking out on Guatemala from the plane thinking, "man, there are so many places that God - this one same God that we know and love - is working at the same time."

prayer: take time to slow down to notice things like the encounter above.

we are a tired bunch, but spirits are high and very eager to cross the lake to san juan in the morning. we had some dessert and sang some karaoke up the street from our hotel tonight, but we are all turned in now ready to see what Jesus calls us to for day 3 of 10.

we appreciate your prayers! stay tuned for an update from san juan tomorrow!

-apc.

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hillcrest covenant church: guatemala 2011.

over the next couple weeks, my blog will serve as a domain for our hillcrest student missions trip to san juan, guatemala. we leave tomorrow afternoon and return sunday, march 20, and in that time i, along with others on our team, will be updating this space to keep you up to speed on the ministry our group has the honor of being a part of in san juan.

hillcrest has been doing this trip for 7 years now, and in that time we've had the opportunity to teach children, do different construction jobs, and build lasting relationships with the people of san juan. this year we are teaching science, art, english, and p.e. to around 150-200 elementary school children. san juan is on the south-eastern shore of lake atitlan in the solola region of guatemala. we fly from kansas city to houston, and into guatemala city on friday morning. we then drive to panajachel (on the north shore of the lake), and then taxi across by boat on saturday morning, march 12. feel free to explore the area on the google map below.


check back often for updates, photos, and prayer requests, or follow me on twitter (@adampaulcooper) as i will be linking each update there as it is posted.

pray for our group as we take part in what God is doing in guatemala. here we go!

-apc.

superbowl xlv.

so the superbowl happened last night. congrats to the pack. here are some thoughts that i had during and following the game:

1. the emergence of jordy nelson - the k-state alum led all receivers with 140 yards - twice as many as any other receiver on the field - and scored the first points of the game. in 17 regular season games he put up 500+ yards - in the playoffs he had nearly 300. jordy suddenly emerged as aaron rodgers's favorite target: 15 times in the superbowl (of course, the injury to donald driver helped that). on most teams, jordy would be a legit #2 receiver. unfortunately he's playing 3rd or 4th fiddle behind jennings and driver. his future looks great - especially as driver is aging.

2. black eyed box heads feat. usher surprise - finally. we are redeemed from the janet jackson mishap. we've been subjected to mick jagger's 80 year-old midriff and the boss's camera crotch slide as punishment during this pop-music purgatory. glad that's behind us. however, i wasn't sure the black eyed peas were the answer.

rough start, but that's to be expected when you're leading with tracks off an auto-tuned lackluster album. couple that with fergie's microphone issues, and her overall lack of musical talent, and i thought we were in for a real bummer show. it hit a low point when fergie was grinding on slash. just unfortunate.

but then they turned a corner with "pump it" and "lets get it started". all i was hoping for was one track off Elephunk and Monkey Business, and i got both. phew. all my hopes and dreams were fulfilled that easily. but then...surprise! will.i.am broke into "omg" and usher decended from the worlds largest hd screen to blow our minds with his white kerchief. did i fist pump? yes.

the whole "LOVE" theme they ended with? total throw away for me. you can't grind your booty on slash's guitar and expect anyone to think you have a healthy concept of love. they saved the show with the box head dancers - felt like a Von Trap family/youtube sensation/flight of the conchords "humans are dead"/TRON mash up - and i absolutely loved it. then they heel clicked and i gasped at the greatness of the choreography. so simple. so silly. nailed it.

overall - 6/10...which was 3/10 more than i was anticipating.

3. why are the commercials so bad? is it really that difficult to brainstorm a 30 second concept that makes people laugh? i'm supposed to think that a grizzly cowboy singing "tiny dancer" is funny? godaddy dupes the nation into lusting after joan rivers? not funny. half of the commercials were either FOX promos or movie previews (though i was very intrigued by that new j.j. abrams movie...though i am very biased.) i was glad that they companies ditched the "lets make fun of the male gender" theme they went with last year. but they replaced it with...nothing. doritos seemed to be the only ones who came to play.

but the mini-darth vader VW commercial was so great.


welp. that's all i've got. you stay classy, internet.

-apc.

free weird cat.

-apc.

REVIEW: kanye west - my beautiful dark twisted fantasy.

every review i read is telling me this album is phenomenal. rolling stone gives it the often-talked-about-rarely-seen 5/5 stars. PMA blog gives it a 95/100. consider me confused.

maybe i'm just selfish and want kanye circa 2007. maybe i just throw my guard up when someone (kanye) messes with near-perfection (Graduation). there has to be something off about how i'm approaching this album, because this album certainly doesn't warrant phrases like, "It's kanye's best album" (rolling stone), or "It’s Kanye’s most complex and complete release and one of the most consistently impressive hip hop albums in recent years" (PMA).

so is it me? or is it them? something is just off.

the album is good. i will admit that, but it is certainly not "consistently impressive", nor is it "the best". its better than 808s, and that about it. individual songs can potentially compete with some off kanye's previous 4 albums, but this album ought to be viewed as a complete album rather than a collection of individual tracks. that makes it a bit dicey for me.

don't get me wrong though, there are bright spots: Dark Fantasy is a perfect lead track - the sampling draws you in and you catch your head bobbing to the back beat almost immediately. the aptly titled "Power" makes me feel like i'm about to take over the world in slow motion. it's chanting, clapping Afromerica sample puts off a dynamite underdog uprising vibe. pretty sure it has already been adopted as the team entrance music in 40% of NFL stadiums. "All of the Lights" is truly brilliant. it flows beautifully from "Power" and continues the world-domination feel.

but there are also spots where i think, "who in the world thinks this sounds remotely appealing?" tracks like "Monster" and "So Appalled" make up a dismal heart to the album. if the beginning of the album is beautiful, then this is certainly the dark and twisted portion of the album. "Monster" may give me nightmares, and "So Appalled" may never make it past five in my itunes play count.

this album stands as a whole, and i respect that a great deal. i also respect the fact that kanye pulls samples from rad old school tracks (smokey robinson, cold grits, the mojo men), but he also tosses in artists i've never even heard of on nearly every track. both of these bits, now that i think about it, revert back to his College Dropout and Late Registration days. i was spoiled with MJ and Daft Punk samples on Graduation, but he seems to have found a certain aspect of his roots while transforming them into something new and musically forward...even if i don't really care for where he's progressing at certain times.

maybe the most impressive sample on the album is the use of the original "Soul Makossa" track that is probably better known (at least by me) as a Michael Jackson reference. he throws it down as the backtrack in the Bon Iver collaboration that winds the album down to a close. the shortest track on the album (a whopping 4:17), it leads with an Imogen Heap vocoder feel that builds to an and 808-heavy Soul Makossa beat that i dig quite a bit (though its possible that he wins me over simply with the blending of the sample and the "mamakusa" line in the first verse).

it starts and finishes strong (though i can't help but be bummed out by the track 2 Kid Cudi collab - i tried, but i'm just not a Cudi fan). ultimately, save for a few songs that do anything but get me excited, the album is solid as a whole. though if i had to weigh the songs i love versus the songs i hate, it'd be an even split.

i respect the album (which i certainly did not expect to). the samples i thought were gone are present and are, truthfully, very strong. and i can ALMOST understand how this album passed with flying colors according to so many. depending on the moment - i both love it and hate it, but honestly - despite a handful of tracks i find TERRIBLE - kanye has again proven that he truly is a genius. insane? that too, but he utilizes his insanity relatively well.

ugh. i hate that i just said all that.

overall, the album is good. but not great. certainly not as good as others have claimed it to be. but as kanye says in his 35-minute film "Runaway" - "first thing in this world baby, don't pay attention to anything you see in the news." it's not a 5/5 or a 95.

i give it a 78.

-apc.

reasons i used to blog more.

reasons i used to blog more:

1. i used to live in manhattan and go to radinas/bluestem every day.
2. i have very little to say to the world wide web that can't be stated in 140 characters.
3. john buck got traded (now twice).
4. i got married and have more important things going on.

-apc.

wedding dance floor playlist.

just so we can all relive the epic saturday evening on the dance floor - here's a screenshot of my itunes:

dj falco absolutely killed it. thanks to everyone who sacrificed their bodies on the dance floor to celebrate the coopers.

-apc.