Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for June 23, 2014

Hey, Yale has an opening!Jump on it, Gunth!

Yup… this peanut likes it’s shell… maybe it’s content to just stay that way…. Or is it that it just doesn’t see what’s so good about the outside of that shell, yet? It could be that with a little “roasting”, either way, it’ll find it’s true flavor…. – So, the two choices are…. either “crazy as a fox”… or “as stubborn as a (Yale) Bulldog ?”…

Gunther, we all have different aspirations in life, my lad.

Oh, oh, Gunther…get all of that “mad” out of yourself and begin on the road to recovery from being rejected by a young woman who has No Clue as to how deeply you were hurt. But, then, she’s only 18 and often thinks of what she wants and what is going to happen to her. Obviously, she has no idea as to how you feel. Like a niece of mine, the day is going to come when she’ll wish she Had gone to Yale instead of Peru… ;)

“An Old Faithful In New Haven”“The Road Less Traveled”“Something Old, Something New”“…For All The Gold In Peru”“The Forest For The Trees”“Two Weeks Of Torture”“A View Of Peru”or “Don’t It Make His Brown Eyes Yale Blue”

Absent Rosa, shoot for MIT

Nah, everybody else should learn English.Then maybe WE would try it too.

So, Quill has laid it out for him:

Yale=boring – Peru=excitement

Seems we’re back at that place when Rosa mentioned this to Gunther… followed by a “rough” lesson from Quill…. –

In general, anglophones can’t be bothered to learn other languages — and when they do, they usuallyhave excruciating accents because they pronouncethe foreign language as if it were English. Manyanglophone expats seem to take pride in the factthat the have lived in Freedonia, or Lower Slobboviaor wherever, for decades but speak not a word ofthe local language!

I understand that Russians are much the same….

The hidden truth to take away from this…

He PLANNED to go with her! To Yale. He probably went to all the trouble of getting in to one of the hardest to get into colleges on the planet just to be with her longer. That is no mean feat.

I think a dude who can get into Yale on his own merits can handle Peru. Or anywhere else in the world.

As discussed last week, there’s also such a thing as ‘deferred enrollment.’ Gunther can take a year off if he must without losing his slot.

Move on little comic character, you can have a productive future without becoming Mother Theresa. Besides, you’re too young to abandon your own dreams, follow Rosa, knock her up, and spend the rest of your unfulfilled life selling phones at some Verizon store.

What’s Quill dressing up for? Is he the new face for Cracker Jacks?

The witching hour has arrived…I hope your Monday goes well… ;)-————————————————————————————“Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart.” (W. B. Yeats, 1865-1939)

Seems that Carla is being really insensitive to Gunther’s feelings, and she may later regret not pursuing college…

depending on how “much time” will be when we see Lue in college(Freshman, Soph or even Junior) in the storyline, we could have either Gunther going to Peru, and have him just returning from there WITH his wife Rosa, or have Gunther and Rosa as 2 of the characters that will be gone from “regular”(along with Delta) to being seen only when they come back to Pitts for vacation

Peru, and just up the road, Columbia. Cocaine heaven. And, there’s always the fun of learning the language so you can ask someone, “where can I take a pee?”

You can go to Yale and experience papers and books or you can go to Peru and experience life a thousand times more than what Yale can give you and its cheaper due to students loans.

Bachelorhood Rules!!!!

What’s with the Garth Brooks look?— “Gunther” : look at him in the last panel: no shoulders, built like a three-year-old, jug-handle-ears head down,and arms coiled around his precious self. Would you wish that on any woman, apart from his mom? He clearly lives like a child and thinks like a grandfather… psycho-analysis-over.

..oh, by the way: stereotypes: just think of the mormones, they all seem to learn foreign languages. And being an expat for more than 15 years now: sometimes we are liked a lot better speaking English than not speaking the local dialect…

Yale is a good school, but Peru has a lot to offer an enthusiastic young person, and volunteering in a clinic (which happens to be her uncle’s) is a worthy deed. But we are not yet really sure Rosa will go south rather than east. She still needs her parents’ blessing.

“Fiesty” sounds a bit sexist, as if Rosa is making a hasty, reckless decision rather than a well planned out one. And this from the Australian boy who took his senior year in America? Did anyone call him “Fiesty”? Bad choice of words.

Gunther could “one up her” and join the Marines. Then he could come back and wrap Les around a pole.

I live in Canada close to the Quebec border. French was a must for us in school and we do use it fairly often. I have never been sorry to know another language.I am considering spanish now too.Asta la vista!

I am kind of wondering here – in the last panel, Gunther says that he is clearly more Yale than Peru. I know he is supposedly enrolled in Moony. His statement may be telling us that he might be thinking that going to Yale is a doable thing to be there with Rosa.

He mentioned same in an earlier strip:

So this week’s arc will be about his decision making process and gathering all the input needed to make that call (I assume from people like Mom and Quill). Not so much from Rosa herself, except for “logistics” questions (i.e. “how would we do this, etc….”) so as to let him make the choice for himself. So we may not see her until the deal is done.

Although, it would be interesting to see if Gunther consults Lu in re: this decision and what her take might be….. ;-)))

Gunther needs to talk to Rosa and let her know how he feels.

If Rosa wants to help out in a clinic, shouldn’t she be getting some sort of medical training first?

I don’t agree with that. Education first. Peru’s not going anywhere.

Here’s a “Hint” Gunth: She HASN’T Asked YOU to Join Her, so CELEBRATE Your FREEDOM!

Go to College and FINISH It, Son. There’ll be PLENTY of Ungrateful “Down-Trodden” Folks to “Help” AFTER You Graduate.

Maybe MORE……,

The work in her uncle’s medical clinic could turn out to be menial cleaning which would be rather disgusting at times. At that point, she might consider the academic aesthetics of the Yale campus!

But he just made his decision while insulting his girlfriend.

Heh heh heh! [snort] Nice try. there RB! :-PPP The fact that he’s angry right now tells me the he cares about her a whole lot more than some people here think! If he didn’t care, he’d not have reacted this way. (“Yeah, whatever Rosa…Best of luck…. etc. etc.”)

Point being, by that third panel:

It is clear that he has not yet made a final decision and still has an open mind… Something I wish others on this forum might have…. 8-O

What about Quill asking Gunther," So she didn’t ask you to go with her to Peru?"; and Gunther replies “Yeah, but I thought she was just joking at the time”; Quill: “well, obviously not joking, so what are YOU going to do about it?”

Precisely! These are the kinds of conversations Gunther should be having this week with Quill, Mom, perhaps even Lu herself.

Rosa is an idiot. Gunther is lucky to be rid of her.

" What about Quill asking Gunther," So she didn’t ask you to go with her to Peru?"; and Gunther replies “Yeah, but I thought she was just joking at the time”; "^Also exactly!

If you’ll recall, she first mentioned plan C, when she didn’t know how to mention it to Gunther… Greg used this to develop this whole element… next, she tried to express it to him after the New Years’ Dance, but since he is so used to “safe boundaries” (more so than what some purport to experience), he picked up on her wanting him to be “adventurous” in relationships, but didn’t see the bigger connection when she next tried to “softly discuss” Yale after he gave her a prom invite through that kiss (on 2/14).

Actually, It depends on if a student can even qualify for that program at Yale (or any other school). Rosa is “accepted” by her uncle now , without strings attached….

And in addition to your point, he was similar to Rosa, in the sense of wanting to find his “chops” in the US, though as several have pointed out, could have done the same thing in Australia ! So he too was following in his dream, just as Rosa wants to, and isn’t here just because of Luann (I mention this part just in case someone tries to bring that up)…..

If Gunther goes to Peru, where will he stay? I’m sure Rosa’s uncle would not allow his niece and her boyfriend to live under the same roof.

The five stages of dying (or any other major shock) are: just that (shock), anger (the stage he’s in now), bargaining, depression, and serenity (the letting go and moving on).

You want to see games, but the strips above do not “spell out” any games…..

So you’re making “Sir Dave”s point… Quill followed after his passions as Rosa wishes to do…

Just what Rosa needs in a BF, someone who will hold her back and discourage her dreams. Rosa should dump Gunther and never look back.

Quill and Rosa would be great together. Rosa would live her own life and not sit around waiting for Q to amuse her. Q would support Rosa while he was busy with his passion. The time they spent together would be filled with fascinating conversation, not nagging and complaining.

The arc ain’t over yet.

@jpuzzle Ha ha, was funny!

It would be much wiser to have students learn Spanish or Chinese in HS instead of taking 4 years of math and learning how to factor polynomials. I’ve never used any of the math I learned beyond Geometry in real life. Knowing Spanish would have come in handy many times in my adult life.

Rosa did plan things out, but she had to deal with trying to “soften the blow” from what Gunther’s reaction would be. And she had to deal with (struggle with) the “crossroads in life” and their potential impact when they started appearing… this on top of the fact that she has to deal with her parents’ possible reactions to this… she was trying to find the best way possible for all to deal with it (including herself!)

While I agree Peru sounds exciting I think Yale sounds like a better life choice. It’s still quite an adventure and a person does have to earn a living. I think he should let her go and follow his own dreams.

-And if I don’t get the things I am afterI’m going to scream-This sounds like a good description of your attitude toward Greg, each time an arc doesn’t go the way you think it should.-It doesn’t seem like a description of an idealistic teen who wants to ‘do something’ in the world, rather than continue studying.

Rosa needs to grow up. Gunther needs to grow a pair.

Yes. Though the strip has been running “concurrent” to the year, it still runs on “Luanniverse” time and may be longer or shorter… there may even be other arcs presented before those two weeks are “up” (which could mean enough material to last through summer (or perhaps at least a month)…

LOL!!! -“While everyone else is out running around.. or dancing… or going to the movies…” – She could also add: "…. or stepping into volcanoes… "

Want to go to school in New Haven? Go to Southern Connecticut State. You’ll get just as good an education for a LOT less money.

Honestly, not everyone IS pissy.

-Panel 1: “Uncle Jorge says you can work here in the shed taking care of the chickens! You can sleep here too! Goodnight!”-Yeah, uhg.

The other shoe still has to drop. Rosa’s parents have their say.

Everybody learn Klingon?I know a little Spanish, Portuguese and French just for the work I used to do and the places I went. It’s fun to explore the differences just within our own language from place to place. Only us southern rednecks actually speak goodest.

Good God, Gunth! GO!

Acutually, I don’t Gunth should leave Rosa to Peru. It’s out of high school and onto their seperate lives. If Gunther left with Rosa to Peru, their love would turn into something both of them might regret.

What I mean, is that Rosa could get Pregnant, and bringing up a child in this world is tough. Gunth is a good and smart young man, but I feel like he might screw up if his hormones REALLY KICK IN! Peru is a 3rd world country and Gunth would have a hard time raising a child and being a father.

Our lives are about free will, you reap for what you sow.

Oh yeah, what about Gunth’s Mom? If he can’t go to school, do what I did. Join the U.S. Armed Services. Especially the US Air Force. Gunth could get his degree under the GI Bill and you need high ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Ability Battery) scores to get in the US Air Force.

Gunther is too morally straight to go to Pero with an unmarried woman. He’d have to marry Rosa. Asking her that question would really create some intresting strips.

So, if Gunther goes to Stanford and maintains ties with Mama Berger, it’d be a case of “Stanford and Son”?

Even better, if Gunther and Rosa marry and return home to Ms. B, and we discover that Ms. "B"’s first name is “Liz,” then Rosa could say:

You hear that ‘Lizabeth… I’m commin’ to join ya honey!!!

I really don’t think that if it were a choice to go to Peru with Rosa, that there would have to be an issue…. I really do think that they would have arrangements in place for them to be in separate dwellings… – And that there would be family who live in a dwelling separate from the uncle that would have been included in the arrangement so that Rosa goes with one and Gunther with the other, or at least a trusted friend/colleague who would be in place for this…

" A vote for Gunther leaving is a vote for unwed teenage pregnancy!"^I am also against such a situation happening (unwed teen pregnancy). – However, this line of reasoning would be “insufficient” if used alone, to make your case (for Gunther staying)…. based on this :

If this line of reasoning is used, then it could be said that same thing could happen here in the US between them, as well… Such a thing isn’t precipitated because they go someplace else … if they haven’t here, then surely Greg isn’t making it happen there ….

Folks, this was a high school romance, not a lifetime commitment. Relationships in high school have a typical half-life of about 6 months, not 30 years. it would be time for these two people to go their separate ways and pursue their own ambitions (which are obviously quite different!), no matter what. Regardless of whether Rosa were going to Peru or Yale – or even to Moony Uni, with Gunther – it’s time to put high school behind them and concentrate on their own lives, not each other’s._I realize that Gunther can’t imagine that any girl other than Rosa would ever be willing even to give him the time of day, but the world is a big place, and somewhere out there – maybe at Moony Uni – is a shy girl who enjoys sewing, doesn’t want any more intimacy than one kiss a year, and who dresses all in plaid. Go find her, Gunther, and relegate Rosa to the file of “fond memories of growing up”.

feisty means lively, determined, and courageous, that is Rosa

So Many Great conversations here today! I wish I had more time to read these in real time, but…life gets in the way, I guess… ;)

Rosa DID tell Gunther her plans, once. She told him she wanted to join the Peace Corps. Then that fell through. However, when it came to Peru, she did NOT tell Gunther. She made what appeared to be a joke about it and then didn’t mention it again. Gunther had no reason to believe she was going anywhere but Yale.

This is exactly what I was referring to the other day when I said “So she throws Gunther a hard ball to the gut and walks away happy. Sure, she mentioned Peru a couple times, but she never made it clear that it was a real possibility and that she would (or could) be able to pull it off.” And I mentioned him reverting back into his shell. I was told that she did this to shatter his shell. Her dropping this bomb and walking away with no indication she sees him as any part of her future is no way to “shatter” his shell. How is he suppose to “just know” she wants him to follow her. He is not a mind reader. If she wants him to be, she does not deserve him.