i have been sleeping on the couch since this week began. And tonight will be the last night on the couch. Andi, her mum and their exchange student leave early tomorrow from Batavia. I got some apartment stuff filled out and got my keys. I also met James my room mate for the next four months. He is a very polite and pleasant guy. I’ve been chatting with him pretty often before I got to Oak Ridge.. Andi, and her family along with me went to Gatlinberg which is supposed to be an artsy fartsy place. Before we hit Gatlinberg we did a picnic at the Smoky Mountains National Park. Well, it was going fine until the part when i slipped and fell into the water with my cell phone and camera in my pocket. i was stupid not to leave my cell phone out before I started walking around on the rocks.. anyway, the camera didnt get soaked for more than a second but the cell phone took some water. eventually after drying it started working again but it gave me a scare because i didn’t want to buy another cell phone just yet..And of course, i was completely soaked. And I’m not totally dry yet. I did dry my socks and my shoes got a little drier when i put them under onee of those automatic drying machines in the rest rooms..we went to a few art and craft stores in gatlinberg but didn’t buy anything. I was given a small bear made by an American Indian as a gift. I took a few pictures of the first wolf i’ve ever seen. and then we just walked around downtown. i disliked all the touristy stores selling the exact same things..the weird part was seeing nice stores by not so nice stores..and then there were these stores which had hard core christian shirts surrounded by sleazy dirty shirts.. just catering to the needs of the tourists..and now as i write, we are heading back to oak ridge..it’s been a fun day. i really liked the national park with the water and the rocks..

i do have quite a few pictures to put up. i might go wardriving to put them up if need be ..

my trip down to tennessee began on monday at 4 pm instead of the planned 2 pm. Andi and her family got held up in traffic because there was a big accident on the way here. we went by the accident on the way back and saw the traffic held up for 3-4 miles. I felt sorry for the people who were stuck. After a few hours we got to St. Louis where we stayed for a couple of nights. We spent the day at St. Louis visiting the Arch and the Budweiser factory. We spent a lot of time at the musuem underneath the Arch. I learnt more about US history there as they had a year by year info block. I took a few pictures. I actually figured out the exposure setting to take low light images of stationary objects. They came out pretty well actually, atleast on the small LCD display on my camera. After this, we did a quick lunch at the parking lot near the Arch. This was the steepest slope I’ve seen for a parking area. It was mildy scary to park.. And then we did the oen thing that people would be most jealous about. The tour and free beer at the Budweiser headquarters and factory. The tour was about an hour long and I learnt about the methods of preparation of their beer. I didn’t know that their beer contained no preservatives and was naturally carbonated..And at the end of the tour, we got to try two free samples of any of their beer. I really liked their AmberBock. It;s a little darker but it was good. And then I got a honorary beer taster certificate for taking part in their little test to show us the difference between fresh beer and expired beer. And so that was my souvenir from the Bud factory.. And then we went to the Union Station and looked around and did dinner there. After that we head back tired and that was the day. And today we have been driving all day and we got stuck in a traffic clog here Nashville for an hour in torrential downpour. It rained quite a bit today while driving. Mrs. Ziffer is the only one who can drive so we feel sad for her to take such a burden to drive all the way.. I guess I have a few pictures so far from this trip that I’ll post when i get the chance.. And tomorrow we visit Gatlinburg and then they leave friday morning.. And after that it’s new people..