The South Dakota Kid Goes East (Sort of)

Hey guys, Scott Osthus here. Welcome to my website! I'm from Sioux Falls, SD. Yes, contary to popular belief, modern civilization has reached my state. We dont ride buffalo to school, or have to worry about the sod from our houses caving in. You'd be suprised how many people still think this is South Dakota. Anyway, I'm not in South Dakota right now, but back at Valpo for my sophmore year of college. And, for the second time, I have switched my major, which is why I'm taking Geo 490x (the class I'm building this website for). Who would have thought that I, one of the most computer illiterate people in college, would be buiding his own website?

I suppose I should say a little bit about myself. Since I'm a Geography major, maybe some of my favorite places in the world would be a good place to start. Well, my hands down favorite place in the United States is out in western Montana, more specifically the Flathead National Forest and Glacier National Parks area. I did a rafting trip through here a few years ago with my church at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp, and absolutely fell in love with the place. Another favorite place of mine is Brazil. I went there this summer to visit some friends I made during my senior year of high school. We went to Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and the Pantanal Wetlands. It was incredible. I even did a day hike in the Tijucan National Park right outside of Rio, and went snorkeling in the Pantanal Wetlands.

Anyway, like I said I'm a sophmore at Valpo, but this is only my second semester here. I went here for the first semester of my freshman year, but transfered to Augustana College in my hometown for the second semester. You might be wondering why I left, and even more why I came back. Well, it's a long story, but all in all, I think it was just part of my process of figuring out where I really wanted to go to college, and now I know it's here. I also learned a really valuable lesson: you can never go back to how things once were. Some things change, and won't be the same ever again, but that doesn't mean that they cannot be just as good or better than they once were. But enough about that. What else do I like to do? Well, I absolutely love the outdoors. If I'm hiking, biking, camping. or anything like that, then I am happy. You can probably guess that that's why I love Montana so much. I think i could spend the rest of my life out in nature and not feel like I was missing out on anything. Thats probably an overstatement, but lots of times I think that it's true.

Heres a list of places that I would love to travel to:

• Africa. I put this because I'm hoping to go to Namibia, Africa on an exchange during the spring semester of '06. Click on the Africa link to read a little bit about the program offered by VU!
• Salinas Valley, California (I put this in my list because John Steinbeck is my favorite author)
• Any national park
• Machu Picchu
• Amazonian Rainforest
• I also have to say that one of my good friends back home in Sioux Falls and I have an awesome trip to Europe planned as well. We are hoping someday to fly into Madrid, Spain and travel from there to the south of France, followed by going to Milan and Rome in Italy, then on to Greece, and finally, flying home from Istanbul, Turkey. Wouldn't that be awesome? It is also really cool because in my intro to geography class we are talking about urban geography, and our textbook has specific examples and pictures from place like Milan.

It's probably best for me to stop here, because it's a list that could go on and on. In fact, when it comes right down to it, I want to go everywhere. I really mean it. I love exploring and learning about places all over the globe, and I hope someday I can see them upclose, instead of from a computer or t.v. screen.

Well, for right now, thats about all I've got. However, I'll keep updating to let everyone know if I do get to go anywhere exciting, and to just in general let you know how things are going. Peace everybody!

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