Three months of podcasting! We have been having a great time sharing our thoughts with you and we hope you’ve been enjoying them too! Meeting 12 includes an update on news stories from last week, an important conversation about preservation of historical sites and the history that surrounds them, a recommendation to be more environmentally conscious, and a Bachelorette update! Listen below and check out our meeting notes!
News Updates: The Trash War, Hawaii, and Everest
After we recorded last week’s episode, we started seeing updates on the stories we shared with you EVERYWHERE. We read some pretty interesting things, so we had to update you this week. First up, the trash war. It turns out that the Philippines is not the only country that takes trash from other larger countries. We know it makes them a profit, but it is still strange to us that these tiny countries would be taking trash. Plenty of drama unfolded in the last week when this strange system came to light and Carrie gave us a great update. What we also learned is that sometimes even the things you put in your recycling bin DON’T get recycled. Check out this article on USA Today for more information!
Amanda Eller released, of all things, a Facebook video last week discussing her ordeal and her rescue. Afterwards, she had to issue some statements apologizing, or clarifying what she said. If you don’t have an hour to watch the video and catch up on the articles, just listen in to our summary. What do YOU think of Amanda Eller? Do you agree with us that she was incredibly irresponsible? Do you find her as hard to believe as we do? We find her story extra frustrating in light of the news that Noah Mina, the other Hawaii hiker that was missing, was found dead a few days after Amanda was rescued (and only 18 miles from her rescue spot.) Or are we completely misinterpreting her story? Let us know what you think!
Hiking at Everest is still a hot topic. Mandy Moore recently completed a small hike up to one of the checkpoints, and we did not realize there were so many! Listen to hear a short update about that, and why we think we don’t appreciate the greatness that is the Everest hike.
New York, 9/11, & Historical Significance
Over the weekend, Sam went to New York City and got a chance to spend some time at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. She got the unique experience of going for the first time herself, with other people who were old enough to remember the day, and her younger brother, who wasn’t even born when the tragedy happened. These contrasting perspectives, as well as the perspectives of others who were visiting the memorial and monument, made her ask some difficult questions. As a culture, do we treat monuments and memorials differently if we are too far removed from the event? Is that okay? Do we have a different perspective because we live in an area that was basically surrounded on all sides by the scary events of that day? How can we be sure to help the younger generations respect and appreciate the sacrifices and devastation of 9/11? Is there a way to find that sense of national togetherness without another tragic event? We don’t think we have answers to all these questions, but the discussion is powerful and important. We’d love to hear your thoughts too!
Cruise Boats on the Grand Canal?
New York City and the 9/11 Memorial wasn’t the only thing related to historical significance that we talked about this week! In the news recently was the most recent episode with a cruise boat and the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. While a cruise boat crashing into a river ferry is definitely newsworthy, the unique geography and history of Venice makes this story even more frightening. We aren’t the only ones who are concerned about Venice either. UNESCO already has Venice classified as a World Heritage site, but has threatened to put it on the endangered sites list, which will require more of Venice in terms of plans for tourist management and the upkeep of it’s historical integrity. You can see a video taken from the most recent event here. Have you been to Venice? What are your thoughts on tourism and history? Let us know!
The Bachelorette Recap
We don’t even know if we WANT to do a recap because ABC has left us with a “To Be Continued” episode…HOW MANY TIMES can we, as Bachelor Nation, complain about this before they listen to us? Nothing is more annoying than this type of episode. Nothing. Not even Luke P.
This week was basically entirely focused on Luke vs. Luke (with a little Mike in there, as backup for his buddy Luke S.) and by the third time these guys had the same argument, we were kind of over it. In our opinion, Hannah should have kicked them both out on the spot. BUT, we know she’s got a lust thing going on for Luke P. and Carrie thinks that she’s mad at herself for having feelings for Luke P., so she’s taking it out on Luke S. and trying to twist the situation to make it reasonable for her to keep P instead of S. I mean, we’ve all been there right? Finding some way to manipulate what is happening so we can convince ourselves that the bad guy really isn’t THAT bad? Hannah, we can relate, but it doesn’t make it any less painful to watch.
We saw the ambulance edit happen the same way it has on every other season ever. We are led to believe Luke P. does damage to another contestant in his uncontrolled rage and turns out Kevin just messed up his shoulder tackling the other guys. (This is an entirely different conversation: Why do boys like to tackle each other for fun?)
Jed had a great one-on-one date. Hannah was the one who really shined during their date. She is funny, quirky, and not afraid to be herself around Jed, which is super refreshing. They seem to have a great time together. Big points for Jed, and for Carrie who was the only one to put him on her list. The only thing that made us feel a little weird about it was that Jed openly admitted he originally signed up because he’s a musician who needed a platform. We were shocked that he said that, but maybe it made Hannah feel like he was an honest guy!
We got to see Garrett a little bit more this episode, which was kind of fun. He opened up to Hannah and I think he might have a personality that we can appreciate, even with his lack of airtime. JPJ’s shining moment was reading the date card and that one really long rugby run he had. Other than that, all the guys pretty much maintained whatever status they had last week, with no one making too many gains in the group except Peter. OH, and Tyler C…
Let’s discuss Tyler C. Did he have a breakout performance here? We think so! Hannah was really in her own head at the beginning of her date, and although sometimes Tyler’s words made it feel like he was playing to win, he did seem to really get her out of her funk. Mostly, we appreciate how honest Hannah was with him, telling him her real first impression of him, and actually listening to his road to The Bachelorette. Nicole is slightly more convinced that he’s smarter than she originally thought, but is so distracted by the weird tone and cadence of his voice that she still isn’t 100% convinced he should be in the running for Hannah’s husband.
We have no idea what’s going to happen at the rose ceremony, so we’ll have to catch that next week to see if we lose anyone else from our original picks. Our last thoughts on this season are this: Hannah is the BEST bachelorette ABC has had in a really, really, really long time. We are absolutely obsessed with her and hope she is SUPER successful in finding love. We subscribe to Hannah!
The Ladies Recommend: Reef-Safe Sunscreen
Chemicals in sunscreen are really dangerous for the ocean ecosystems. So much so that Hawaii has banned the sale of sunscreen with damaging chemicals. We talk about some of the negative effects and what to look out for in this week’s episode. We also give you some reef-safe sunscreens you will want to check out. STAY TUNED!! On Friday, we’ll have an entire post dedicated to WHY you need reef-safe sunscreen AND give you some great options to check out!
THANK YOU for listening and checking in with us again this week. Come back Friday morning to get the scoop on sunscreen before you head out for the weekend!
The Ladies Auxiliary 