public boolean loadBoard( String countriesFile, String continentsFile, String adjacenciesFile ) throws FileNotFoundException
    {
	this.fileNames = new File( countriesFile );
	input = new Scanner( this.fileNames );
	Scanner secondInput;
	boolean hasLoaded = true;

	try
	{

	// Load this object's countries array from countries txt file
		while( input.hasNextLine() )
		{	
			Scanner skim = new Scanner( input.nextLine() );
			String tempCountString = "";
			do	
			{
				tempCountString += skim.next();
				if( skim.hasNext() )
					tempCountString += " ";
			} while( skim.hasNext() );		
			Country tempCount = new Country( tempCountString );
			this.countries.put( tempCountString, tempCount );		
		}
	
	//loads this object's adjacencies array with data from text file
		this.fileNames = new File( adjacenciesFile );
		input = new Scanner( this.fileNames );

		Country rootCountry;
		while( input.hasNextLine() )
		{
			secondInput = new Scanner( input.nextLine() );
			secondInput.useDelimiter( "[,\n]" );
			String whichCountry = secondInput.next();
			whichCountry = whichCountry.trim();
			adjacents = new ArrayList<Country>();
		
			while( secondInput.hasNext() )
			{
				String nextCountry = secondInput.next();
				adjacents.add( this.countries.get( nextCountry ) ); 
			}	

			rootCountry = this.countries.get( whichCountry );
			rootCountry.addAdjacencies( adjacents );
		}


		this.fileNames = new File ( continentsFile );
		input = new Scanner( this.fileNames );
		Continent tempCont;
		String tempContName;
		int tempContBonus;
		ArrayList<Country> members;
	

	//loads this object's continents array with data from text file
		while( input.hasNextLine() )
		{
			secondInput = new Scanner( input.nextLine() );
			secondInput.useDelimiter("[,\n]");
			tempContName = secondInput.next();
			tempContBonus = secondInput.nextInt();
			members = new ArrayList<Country>();
			while( secondInput.hasNext() )
			{
				members.add( this.countries.get( secondInput.next() ) );
			}

			tempCont = new Continent( tempContName, tempContBonus, members );
			this.continents.put( tempContName, tempCont ); 
		}
	}
    	catch( FileNotFoundException e )
	{
		hasLoaded = false;
		System.out.println( "trouble finding file" );
		System.out.println( e );		
	}

	return hasLoaded;
    }