Hello to All,

Well the big news is that I am home. The main reason for this is an accident which happened on July 4. While I was trekking in a cave near Tuguegarao (Northern Philippines), I slid off the path (slippery rock + bad shoes). The fall was over the ledge down to the rocks/dirt below & was approximately 30 feet. When this happened I had several areas that were affected. I had deep scratches on my left forearm, right wrist, right elbow & left calf. I also had contusions to right hip & hit mainly on my right knee. I however had no broken bones. I was happy that I had learned how to fall from my experience with Tae Kwon Do. It probably saved me serious damage as I reacted while falling to protect myself since at one point my head was the first thing heading towards the ground. Over time the scratches have mostly disappeared. However, the knee & hip have continued to be a problem ever since the accident. I have not been able to go hiking since because going up & down hills is not possible. By Monday (July 23) things hadn't got better with my knee & since trekking was the planned activity of the rest of trip I decided to come back to the US. I was able to get a flight for the next day & I arrived home late last Wednesday (July 25), enduring a flight cancellation on the way.

All in all it could have been much worse (although I have to say getting told "I was lucky" is getting a bit old since the lucky thing would have been not to fall at all)! I spent the next several weeks after the fall doing only diving (ok drinking too) as trekking was not physically possible. At that point I planned to throw myself into underwater photography. The biggest problem with that was that my camera flooded on the first dive after the accident, so my plan to get into underwater digital photography really failed as well. Sometimes the only luck you have is bad :( I do have to say I met some awesome people & the trip was still worth it. In the future I will write an update about my time in the Philippines ;)

Since being home I have been mainly working on getting into college & trying to get some medical attention for the knee/hip. The original plan was to attend the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP) for at least this year to get my foreign language credits & other general classes since it is close to where I live. Then next year go to my dream school the University of Wisconsin Madison & live in Madison. After talking to UWP yesterday it looks like I would come in as a sophomore there. They appear to be more willing to give me credit for past classes & possibly work/life experience so I may go there for my bachelor's degree. On the other hand I have always wanted to get a degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Maybe it will have to be an MBA :) I guess time will tell for all that. Either way I am going to university now & continue to travel internationally during the summer breaks :)

On another note I leave this Saturday to travel to Colorado with my parents for 2-3 weeks which will be the first time I have been out West (other than when I was 3 years old which I don't remember much of). I also am taking my mountain bike which is exciting since I haven't got to ride in a while & since I can't hike. Overall I really needed a vacation!!

Well there is the update for what is going on right now. Other than a future travel update about the Philippines (& possibly Colorado) I won't likely be doing these updates since I am home. If you want to keep up with things in my life the easiest way will be via www.brockwaterman.com. I have also started using www.facebook.com. I will post what is happening there every so often as well. Once you sign up with Facebook you can find me by simply putting in my email - brock@genextsoftware.com. If you don't want to do that then you are required to send me an email about what is up with you quite often :)

Also sorry to all the people who have emailed in the past 3 weeks I have not replied to anyone because I have obviously been dealing with other things.

Love & Peace!!