travelswithcatie

Triathlon Training Updates

2010-03-20T23:42:00.018-04:00

It is hard to believe that in about 6 weeks, I will have successfully worked with my friends and family to raise $3000 to help end blood cancers AND I will have swum 1 mile, biked 25 and run 6 on a hilly, hot course in central CA. So far, I am halfway to my fundraising goal and I am so grateful to everyone who has been supportive so far in this journey. Training is going well - I have some work to do on the running component as the race will be hilly, but I am, albeit breathlessly, on it.

In addition to attacking hills on foot, we've done two open-water swims so far - one of which was in the San Francisco Bay. Between accidentally taking in gulps of salty waves and nearly freezing my toes off, I was happy to catch glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghirardelli Square, and Alcatraz. I've also begun to master the art of putting on a wetsuit - essentially you treat the whole thing like a giant pair of pantyhose! We've been biking a lot on hills, too. I got a great challenge two weekends ago because the "granny gear" or easiest gear, wasn't working on my bike for a tough, switch-back, monster hill-filled ride. I worked through MOST of it and finally had to walk the last 20 feet of a huge hill. Today we biked 25 miles on hills, some of which are named "the 3 Bears" - baby bear is hard, momma bear is harder, papa bear is nearly impossible. haha.

In closing, my teammates, coaches, and TNT staff are amazing. I am really enjoying the group. A few of our teammates are blood-cancer survivors ("honorees"). It's inspiring to be on a team with people who have successfully overcome these cancers - particularly because everyone I have been close to with a blood cancer has had their life taken from the disease. The honorees also help us to understand the challenges and supports needed for people battling blood cancers. It is inspiring and reminds me why finding a cure is so important.
Fundraising updates here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/wildtri10/cbaetens

Yellowstone and Grand Teton Images

2008-08-09T15:37:00.002-04:00

We made it to Berkeley! Here are some pictures from Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons:

Bison, Caves and Storms, Oh My!

2008-08-06T09:34:00.005-04:00

Day two was almost entirely spent enjoying the beauty of South Dakota. We visited the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, the Jewel Caves (Custer, SD), and the Needles (granite columns in Custer State Park). Pictures are below.

Once we got over our fear of getting charged by a herd of bison, we had a great time exploring SD! The Badlands are absolutely beautiful and amazingly in the middle of prairie land. I can only imagine what the first explorers thought when, after cruising their horse and carriage, ended up among the gorgeous, but barely cross-able, Badlands!

Our day ended with a crazy storm with golf-sized hail that landed us in a hotel rather than a tent. Today, we're visiting Yellowstone and Grand Tetons!

Badlands.

Spamelot

2008-08-04T20:30:00.006-04:00

Deepa and Catie set off on an epic journey to CA from IL, starting at 5:30am on 4 August 2008.

First, they visited the Spam Museum in Minnesota and learned that every minute 3.8 cans of SPAM are eaten and it is sold in 99% of US grocery stores in the USA.

Also, the parking spots are clearly labeled.

You can play with a spatula designed to flip a 10,000 pound SPAM burger.

Lastly, you can make your own SPAM can.

Things just got more and more exciting. Following the SPAM Museum, D and C visited the infamous Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Not only does the outside of the building change each year, but you can also entertain your "corny" side.

Chicago Images

2007-02-22T00:23:00.000-05:00

Attacked!!!!!!!!

2006-09-13T08:01:00.000-04:00

It was a sad, dark, wet, dreary day when I was ATTACKED. Now, don't worry too much because Deepa thinks it's quite funny, and I am sure you will too (at my expense...read on, see if you think it is funny. I am sure you will too.)
Was I lucky enough to be attacked by a human? No, not me.
Was I lucky enough to be attacked by a non-slimy creature? Nooooooooooo.
Here's the story from the "Hindu Times", dated 9.11.2006

"Foreigner's Blood Sucked Majorly"
While walking through monsoon rains in the Periyar National Park, an American girl was attacked by not one, but two leeches, on her right arm. The attacks could have been much worse if she hadn't listened to her wonderful guide who made her and her friend wear special burlap socks which prevented many leeches from sucking the blood in their feet. The white girl had, at highest count, 28 leeches on the burlap socks. She was completely preoccupied with flinging them off of her pants (you see, they kept crawling up her legs. Her weird guide said "You have nice blood) the entire time while in the world renouned Periyar. She was so busy flinging them off of her that she didn't even notice the herd of elephants coming at her. Thankfully they saw her and didn't stampede and kill her.* Her friend, Deepa, laughed at her, and said "This was the first time I saw Catie lose her cool. Hahahahahaha." It was a good thing that her hotel had salt ready for her and put salt all over the enormous leeches on her arms, otherwise this wouldn't have been such a thrilling to anyone but Catie story.
--associated press

It was the sickest thing I have ever had happen to me. However, I have gained something to say to men who annoy me at the bar "Did you know I had 2 huge leeches on my arm for a few hours?" Should take care of them. Yes, indeed.

Since my traumatizing event, we've seen wild dogs, elephants, buffalo, Munnar Tea Gardens (goregous), and the Sri Manakshi Temple (Taj Mahal of the South). Can't wait to share pictures!
Tomorrow we head to Bombay to conclude our journey here. Sad and exciting at the same time. India is a great place and I will miss it tons (minus leeches) but I am looking forward to new clothes (same yucky ones for 2 months = BORING), laundry, Starbucks, dairy, and non-scary driving. Using my credit card, etc.

*Fictional. The leeches, though, are true. Eew.

Maimed people

2006-09-09T05:54:00.000-04:00

After our houseboat adventure, we landed in Kumarakomb (those of you who are tracking me on maps, I am sure you have noticed I can't spell anything here correctly. West coast, southern India). There's nothing much written in our travel bible aka Lonely Planet about this town so we just started walking down the only road it has. All of a sudden, as if it were a mirage, a "museum" sign in big blue letters appeared. After scaling the fire escape, we found ourselves in the one and only driftwood museum. It was a riot...unique and funny. The woman who runs it gave us a very endearing tour of driftwood she's found that she has molded into shapes. Aside from showing us a group of 5 piece that was a handicapped family "See, that one is missing it's arm. That baby has a hole in it's hand" she would take her metal pointing stick at random times and hit the driftwood hard to show us it was now a fossil and prove her point: nature works in amazing ways.
We're totally writing to the Lonely Planet to have it added. It's worth seeing and funny.

Kerala Love

2006-09-08T08:23:00.000-04:00

The South of India is absolutely goregous. WE've been beach hopping and LOVING it!! What is a typical Indian beach like?
- HUGE waves (i.e. you don't swim if you have a brain...)
- No one wears bathing suits
- men in their tighty whities spashing around
-women in sarees trying desperately not to get all wet
-kids kicking water on eachother
-no one lays out, everyone is standing
-massive palm tree filled, red dirt coasts
-and of course, there are the 100's of Indian people gawking at me if I hapen to be there :)

We're now in the middle of our house boat tour of the Kerala backwaters. We were just in Kovalam and are on our way to Kumaracomb. IT's absolutely breathtaking - 100s of palm trees, rice patties, kids waving to us from their villages, etc. This computer is horrid so I am off - and dinner is awaiting us (why am I going back to work?!?!?! This is so much better!!!) :)
MIss you all. wish you were here to enjoy this with us.

Chennai, Catholic Churches, and Chutney

2006-09-03T11:10:00.000-04:00

Chennai - a city on the Bay of Bengal - took Deepa and I hostage for some great experiences for the past 3 days. To begin with, we got an aruyvedic massage which I had been pushing for. We went to the place Deep's uncle recommended and I was a bit skeptical at first because they take your temperature and prescribe oils for you - the "dr." wasn't able to tell me WHY he assigned certain oils to me. I got over that, though, but got even more weirded out when , on massage day, Deepa went first and she simply said "th e massage was interesting."
Relaxing, comforting, wonderful, amazing...these are words she should have uttered. Certainly not "interesting"
That was my second clue I was in for a treat. Here's the massage (all that I haven't repressed) in time order:
1 - take off nearly everything
2 - lay down on your back on a table
3 - have warm/hot oil rubbed into your head
4 - beg the woman not to put that oil on your face because you wear contacts.
5 - act out what contacts are
6 - have oil poured over your entire body and rubbed in
7 - listen to this "thump, thump, thump" noise
8 - feel burning hot packs of something being used to soak up oil
9- flip and have it done to the other side - burning packs and all
9 - get a bath from the woman

Dear lord. It was all I could do but crack up when I was laying there, with this foriegn woman rubbing oil over myself, thinking about Deepa's response "it was interesting" and knowing this paid-for-out-of-comfort zone experience was her first massage. We were happy to have a shower and change our clothes after that one. Ms. P - don't tell Ramanuncle we didn't like the massages - he raved about the place and goes monthly :)

Other than the massage, we had a GREAT time in Chennai and adored the little beach town. Deepa's Ramanuncle, who grew up there, showed us all around - on foot, in city buses, in rickshaws - and provided a grassroots experience. We watched the sunrise and set on the 2nd longest beach in the world! It was truly beautiful when looking at the water...the waves were hecka long (love the Cali lingo?!?!). Unfortunately it wasn't exactly a place you would want to walk without shoes because there were human feces all over the beach since it's now the bathroom for the tsunami victims who haven't sprung back yet. :(
We also went to the Malliballipuram Shore temples which were benefited by the tsumani as it uncovered a lot of new carvings and things of that nature. The temples were beautiful and were the 2nd largest carving in stone to Angkor Wat.

Went to a catholic church and I was the tour guide there. So we walked in and I noticed people were dressed rather nicely, but I just took Deepa and he Uncle to a pew and explained how to kneel and explained they could pray for whatever they felt the need to. Then, a huge camera with a big light came in and I told them that wasn't norlmal at all. Next, a bride and groom came down the aisle!!! Haha. We got out of there rather quickly :) It was neat to see, though, because in India, white symbolizes death and so the bride wore a bright red sari and a white veil.
Also, in most Hindu temples, the gods are dressed in new outfits daily, so the Mother Mary was also dressed daily in a new Sari! Mom - take notes for church :)

We left Ramanuncle last evening and are now in Mysore. Aside from the fact that we have a nice but really annoying guide, everything is wonderful. We went to Sringparam - an old palace which has a lot of beautiful old paintings and are off to see everything possible tomorrow. Items on the agenda: fruit market, local palace, silk factory, music museum.

Taj Mahal is goregous

2006-08-31T00:33:00.000-04:00

There's not much more to say other than it is absolutely phenomenal! All of the places around it are goregous as well - so much better than China.
We're in the South now, Chennai, and are getting a tour of this cute, very religious city from one of Deepa's friends. Hope you are having as much fun as we are :) Tonight we're off to the beach, yippee!!!

Bus craziness

2006-08-28T11:23:00.000-04:00

Who would have known Delhi would remind me of Paris?!?!? I guess it's the arc de tripmphe like gate of India and the European influenced Parliment buildings! Regardless, it was a plesant surprise to see the mixture of Indian, Arabian, and European influences in the city. It's also very easy in Delhi to escape the ever-so-scary driving and enter a park, temple, or market. We went to a goregous Muslim temple - I forget the name of course - but it was beautiful red with the wonderful dome tops, we also went to an ancient sun dial/astrology park, and did some shopping. Deepa drives a hard bargain, I tell you! It helps if I watch her bargain from a safe distance as she gets Indian prices if I am not too obviously with her!
Left Delhi to make an exciting drive to Agra - stopped to see the birthplace of Krishna and saw an amazing sight: college kids riding the bus. Now, this may not seem exciting to you westerners, but here riding the bus means you do the following:
climb up the ladder on the back of the bus with 150+ others while it is moving to avoid paying the fare.
The poor bus was about to tip over and of course we had to pass the frightening thing. While passing, I said 10 hail marys and prayed to Ganesha when we had to pass it. It is solely due to my praying that we didn't get crushed.
Now we're in the posh Taj View Hotel - read: fancy - and we are loving it. However, with the nice shampoos and lovely lounges come the downside: internet here is more expensive than a house, so I am off for a few days. Miss you all!

A sight to see

2006-08-25T00:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I took a trip to 2 Hindu temples with Deepa, her lovely cousin and her auntie. The temples were absolutely goregous (reminded me a lot of Cambodia), however they are no so much of a tourist sight.
Translation: I was the only white person for hundreds of miles .
Here are some of the comments that were relayed to me by onlookers:
A woman told a beggar child in Hindi to "Ask the white lady for money. She'll give it to you"
A transvestite said "The American lady will give you more money"
Others said "What is that white lady doing with 3 Indians?"

Children and adults stare at me. It's a riot. I have a new title: conversation starter and jaw dropper.

All is great - we leave Ahmbedad tomorrow morning and are headed to the Taj Mahal, Delhi, and Agra next. Exciting!

Top 10

2006-08-23T08:31:00.000-04:00

hi from India! I am loving this country for all of the differences it holds from probably anywhere else in the world.
Top 10 surprises so far:
1 - cows share the road with people (no one owns them...free ranging - they are sacred in the Hindu religion)
2 - driving means you honk your horn and just go
3 - shaking your head from side to side means yes, no, and maybe (i think...very confusing)
4 - you can NEVER eat enough :)
5 - 5 people can fit on a motorbike (up from 4 in Vietnam)
6 - goregou peacocks with their feathers open are not hard to find (so pretty)...nor are monkey
7 - You say "I need an STD" when you need to make an international phone call
8 - our driver looks like the Indian rendition of the Fonz...hair, hip hugger bell bottoms and all
9 - there are rarely road signs
10 - men wielding machine guns guard temples

I am having a wonderful time - much in part to Deepa's family and friends here. Everyone is lovely and so giving. The food - literally everything we've had - has been absolutely fantastic and we've gone to dinner at a different friend/family member's house every night. I am quite lucky!
It has been fun seeing Deepa as a local celebrity! Everyone has come to see her!
Also, I couldn't contain my laughter when her Uncle and Aunt both were talking to her at the same time, one in Gugrathi and the other in English, and Deepa was desperately trying to answer both...her head couldn't move around fast enough :)

We've also seen some beautiful textiles (mom, you would have drooled) and amazing temples. More exciting news to come :) We're off to dinner at another Uncle's house.
The weight we lost in China will be taken care of here!! Email me - update me about your lives!

Language Barriers Abound

2006-08-16T19:24:00.000-04:00

The Chinese-American language barrier is crazy huge, but the one between Brits, Aussies, and me is also quite large :)
I told our55 year old British woman traveler that I bought a really cute pair of pants with embroidery that tie on at the waist. She just looked flabbergasted at me, asked if they were small or big, and said "Oh that's nice" with an air of "Why did you tell ME that?"
When I remembered: pants in British english are undies. Trousers are our pants! We all got a kick out of that.
My British friend also mentioned that she would look like a "right tit" if she bought this crazy flower hat. Apparently it means Idiot.
I won't even get started on the issues between Chinese English and Engligh-English. IT should be noted that sign language (i.e. running around with toilet paper when you need a bathroom) doesn't work so well here and all you get are blank stares. Regardless, we're loving Yangshou. It's sort of like you are in an oven all the time (read: sweating like crazy) BUT it's goregous, the food is wonderful (farmer's wife cooked weggies for us yesterday - tasty!), and there are lots of little cafes and shops to knock around in. Last night we went on a river cruise at sunset, but on the way there, our sardine can "bus" that very uncomfortably seats 6 westerners (and seems to have the technology level associated with sardine cans) just stopped in the middle of the road! Of course the driver doesn't speak Engrish, so we watch while this man takes a bottle out of the back of the sardine can and starts running with it in this 105 degree weather. He leaves us with the car and the keys. Deepa climbed into the driver's seat and we all got a kick out of that. Turns out he was out of gas! Go figure. It was the highlight of the day.

Today we're going caving and are heading to Hong Kong on an overnight train. I am told I can use my credit card (exciting...I miss it) and that it's air conditioned everywhere!!!!! Kudos Hong Kong! WE're melting, melting, melting.

FYI - I probably won't post until we get to India the 19th. Hurrah for good food!

Engrish

2006-08-15T02:53:00.000-04:00

Forgot to mention that "veggies" are "weggies" and Deepa is "Keeper"
Signs on our hike told us to "Becare" and we were close to the "morder" of the mountain.

We're in a lovely town surrounded by mountains now in Yangshou. It reminds me of Vietnam a lot.
Tonight I am taking a cooking class, exiting, and other events on the agenda include boating, caving, biking, Tai Chi, massages, and a light show. We're only in this town for 3 days - so sad because it's so cute - but are very excited to get to Hong Kong and then India (still not huge fans of the food...).

Deepa and I have both gotten hippie headbands and now fit in with the backpacker crowd. I even got some crazy pants that scream freak, but they will be good for Lake Michigan.

Adieux! Email me and let me know what you are up to!

Crazy Monkeys

2006-08-13T20:19:00.000-04:00

Our stay with the monks at the Buddhist monastery reminded me a bit of Thailand and the hilltribe stays: very rustic and showers with spiders and who knows what are common. Unfortunately we had a curfew and no alcohol was allowed (remember Leslie how that helped with those bathrooms>!?!!? haha)
I absolutely loved the hiking to the monastery which was located at the top of a mountain and we saw tons of monkeys there and on the way! They monkeys here have red faces and are about the size of a 4 year old who eats too many snacks since they are fed tons of garbage food by the tourists. They are actually a little threatning and you can't have water showing or drinks showing when you walk through monkey areas! Crazy! Our hike guide had an orange juice on the outside of his backpack and a monkey sneaked up and grabbed it. He chased after it for a little while while waving his walking stick and screaming a few choice words in Mandarin. He didn't catch the mono but it did unscrew the cap of the bottle and drink it in front of his face!!! Haha. It was funny. On the hike we enjoyed great views, rivers, many trees, cicadias, and ate a yummy dinner at this older couples house (very rustic...bathroom is bascially the side of the mountain and the bedroom may be the only enclosed room) and they were so cute and sweet! They named their restaurant the "Hard Wok" restaurant which gave all of us a chuckle and they also provided us with some yummy crepe-like banana chocolate pancakes for breakfast. Mmmmm.
We also visited a nunnery and met some of the cutest kids there. They were quite good at English and were taking a drawing class in the mountains with the beautiful scenery. Their drawings were amazing - I took pictures. Two little girls gave Deepa and me some dates and so we shared some Cheerios with them. It was so funny to watch them eat them - it's extrememly western and I think it was their first encounter with them.
On completely different note, it's been funny to be in China while it is so quickly developing. It means there are constant juxtopositions of old and new. For example, while hiking in the mountains we walked past a house with chickens running around outside, thatched-type roof, falling apart walls, and it had a HUGE satellite dish on it! Haha. It also means things like the roads will be amazing (the infastructure here is quite good), but little kids don't wear diapers - just assless pants - and they poo anywhere. Middle of a town square, sidewalk, etc. It's just fascinating.
Moving on: we cruised along the Yangtze River the past 3 days and really enjoyed that as well. In the year 2009 the dam that they are building will change the landscape of the 3 gorges area a ton - we feel very lucky to have seen them before they are resolved to nothingness. They are raising the river another 150 meters within the year, I believe. There are huge signs all over with 150M on them - everything below them will be gone. A lot of the farming people are going to be displaced and the dam is very controversial, but it will be a source of tons of energy and it will control flooding.
Crazy to hear about the weird bombing things in London and just got a warning about Al Quaeda in India. Keeping my fingers crossed....Thankfully there was a cease fire in Lebanon-Israel conflict, right? News here isn't so great.
Miss you - take care! We're off to a train for the next 15 hours and then onto some small towns...not sure when you will here from me. No worries, though, we're not where the typhoon is going on.

Vegetarian Feast...MMMMMM/.

2006-08-06T19:11:00.000-04:00

Eating in China has been not so fantastic...I think Deepa and I have managed to lose a few pounds because to us, rice gruel isn't exactly a good brekkie. Also, other dishes are not balanced (as in all noodles, or all meat, or all cooked lettuce) so we haven't really felt satiated yet. That is until we were informed of a vegetarian FEAST (as we all did...) at a goregous buddhist temple. 12 courses, none of which I have a clue of it's name, were all fantastic! There were little fake shrimps, potato based chicken, etc. It was fantastic.
Also did traditional hot pot (minus my vege roomie, tear) where you have boiling broth - we had pork and Szechuan chili, to dip in veges and thin pieces of meat. Pork, steak, lettuce, CHinese swamp spinach, etc. I TRIED the Szechuan chili broth and nearly went to the fire department since my whole body went up in flames. My lips felt larger than Angelina Jolie's! A good precursor for some of the spicy food we'll be eating in Northern India I suppose (and a fantastic remidner NOT to get a lip job...if my lips were as big as they felt, I wouldn't fit through a door).
Hot pot was a ton of fun and people who are around MI, we'll have to do it when I get back!
Went to a traditional tea house here in Chengdu and enjoyed very strong and bitter (we steeped too long...) tea on a beautiful river where local fams were renting boats. We were sitting by the willow tree a few families managed to get caught in! It reminded me of when a friend and I tried canoeing at MSU and totally needed to get evacuated from the tree we landed in! There were also the cutest kids by us whose parents had gotten them bubbles and they had an absolute ball blowing them all over. Managed to get some cute pictures :)
Saw pandas as well - very cute - and met the Olympic panda - Xing Xing. They really love them here - it's the national animal.
All in all, things are great. We are busy all the time. Too much to write about. Today we're on the way to the mountains to hike and stay at a monestary. Sadly no gambling for us there and a 9oclock curfew awaits for us.
Last note: the only western toilets are in our hotel rooms. Makes life interesting. I have assembled a "toilet perparedness kit" which includes toilet paper, dove wipes, hand sanitizer, and a rosary so I can say a great deal of prayers in an effort to avoid the many horrendous things that can happen to you in there. Next item to include: a gas mask.
We're off! Miss you! And Mrs. P - the monastery has tons of vegetarian food (actually that's all they have) so your little one will be well fed!
P.S. I think while in China I can't access any people's blogs. IN fact, I am sure of it since I have tried sooo many times, so please email me updates!
ox
cb

Terra Cotta Warriors

2006-08-04T03:17:00.000-04:00

Did you know that the Terra Cotta Warriors are all airheads? (They are hollow!!!)
Quite an amazing sight to see....each face of the thousands is different. Some are cute, most are not. They were built to protect a king in his death chamber as he was placed in there with all of his expensive belongings.
Sidenotes: Tianamen Square is HUGE and everyone sells Chairman Mao watches with his arm moving around. Sorry, all, I didn't buy any for you.
--Tomorrow we're going to do Tai Chi in the am with locals.
--Here in the massive internet cafe filled with many gamers, DVD watchers, and online chatters, there is a man yelling "Shai Mai Shee Ai Yaaaa" which I think means he's selling green tea.
----It's rarely quite in China so far and the following things don't exist:
-crosswalks that are safe
-lines of any sort
-unpushy people
-peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (however, we can get them in India!!)

:) Won't hear from me for a few as we have a 17 hour train ride tomorrow as we officially leave dumpling land!

Concubines

2006-08-03T01:48:00.000-04:00

Did you know that the Emperor of China had an entire wing of the Forbidden City dedicated to house his 3,000 concubines? (and they wonder why there are so many peopele here!) Also, if you are a concubine and you try to kill the king while you are concubining, he will have his people rip off your flesh over the course of three days then tie you up to 5 horses and pull you in all directions? One thing I learned: If you are a Chinese concubine, you best just do your basic duty and not pull any fast ones.
The Forbidden City was okay...felt like once you saw one beautiful building, you saw them all. There was, however, a Starbucks smack dab in the middle of it! Nearly everyone in the group treated themselves to the only cold thing in the house: Frappuccinos! It's sad how much chains (KFC, McDo, Starbucks, etc.) have broken the market here. Our guide told us that the young kids prefer the fast food to the local food. Which brings me to the next point: Local food...very meaty, which is surprising since this is a country with many Buddhists. Dumplings (dim sum) are everywhere! Breakfast is awful - rice porridge or something like that (haven't tried it...), and there are plenty of dried animal looking bits around if you are interested in a snack. Johanna they have ha flakes by the bushelful! Haha.
We're out of Beijing which is nice (very, very busy) and are in Xi'an. We've eaten in the Muslim Quarter (who would have known?!?) which means no pork, but plenty of lamb and special bread. We are doing a bike ride soon around the old city wall (they are all about the city walls here!!) and plan on getting foot massages in a few. Tonight we're onto a dumpling party - I have heard you can't get dumplings in the south of China and I hope not because I am sick of them! All is well. Looking forward to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Mmmmm.

Ne Hao Ma

2006-07-31T20:25:00.000-04:00

The Great Wall is just that. Great. Absolutely goregous. However, we all nearly died on the Great Wall because it poured on us for about half of our trek, but trust me, it was a blessing. You see, the rain got rid of the annoying "friends" we had that tried to sell us tons of stuff! The people will follow you for a 5 hour hike just to sell a tshirt! The person who pegged Deeps and me was an old lady (90 years old, 80 pounds) who wanted to pull me up a steep part. Nice, but no thanks! I can just see the headlines "US citizen kills innocent old lady on Great Wall." Aside from tshirts, you can also buy beer. They have to cater to the Aussie and British population somehow!
On a more serious note, we are loving China. The GW was absolutely breath taking and amazing. We hiked through 30 towers - some from the Ming dymasty and some from another dynasty. Some parts are finished, and some are not - I would have never been able to run the unfinished parts like the soldiers had to!
I think it's the only man made structure you can see from the moon and I believe it because we didn't get too far in 5 hours of diifficult hiking. It's simply massive.
Beijing is interesting...there are a lot of large skyscrapers with the traditional Chinese roofs, the people are surprisingly nice, and the language barrier is enormous. Traffic rivals the Bay Area. We went to the Temple of Heaven and were amazed at how well perserved some of the extremely old buildings are, and very bright - much red, yellow, green, blue and gold. We've also had the traditional Peking Duck dinner, not a fan, and have gone grocery shopping to find that the boxes of Cheerios here have each serving in individual bags. Love it!
The subway here is clean, people not pushy, and everything is written in English as well. They are prepping heavily for the Olympics which come here in 2008 - TONS of building, renovation, etc. Beijing is also very clean...people sweep the streets, subway, etc. constantly. Pollution is awful, awful, awful (LA times 10) BUT today we have a blue sky day (VERY VERY unusual). We'll enjoy our tour of the Forbidden City with the sun on our backs :)
Watched an acrobatics show yesterday eve. The kids were doing the most amazing things - three tiered human pyramids with 3 back tucks off of the top, running up poles and doing flips off, etc. Quite amazing!
All is well...probably won't hear from me for a few days as we are taking a train tomorrow to some village or something. Take care!!!!

Baby steps

2006-07-14T09:17:00.000-04:00

There are a number of things I have to do now that I am back in the Midwest:
- use at least 10 products in my hair to attempt undermining humidity's GRAND effects
- wear bug spray at night or itch for hours
- wear as little clothing as possible since it's, oh, 92 and up
- pretend I remember people from HS when they spot me and insist on talking
- watch lightning bugs flutter and spark
- drive an SUV (anything beats the slow Saturn)
- drive at least 80mph on the express way
- cry and complain about Detroit's recent losses: Redwings - Steve Yzerman and
Shanihan and Pistons: Ben Wallace

I find myself baby hunting as there are 3 newbies around here that I must visit: cousin, quasi-niece, and friend's baby. Makenna, my quasi-niece (I am referred to as Aunt Catie!), is so cute and we are best friends. Pictures will be up asap.
Other than baby hunting, I have been making jewelry and reading a lot. Exciting things happening here in the great mitten state :)

Grand Mesa Fe

2006-07-08T10:04:00.000-04:00

Santa Fe is surprisingly cute and extremely artsy. Last night we went out for a Tex-Mexy meal and I had really tasty Mole Chicken and green rice. What's the deal with that? Do they grow green rice, put food coloring in it, cook it with spinach?
Mesa Verde was also wonderful - it's very well preserved ruins from a group of Puebloan People. Apparently Anasazi is not PC anymore and I almost fell over when this very astute 10 year old asked the tour guide:
"Why did the Indians, I mean Native Americans, I mean Anasazis, oh, I mean Puebloan Poeple, trade sand stone for other rocks? Who would have wanted their rock since it's so soft?"
Haha. I like to be PC and all, but it is getting harder and harder in my old age to keep up with all of this. I hope today at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market I don't misspeak and end up smacked across the head :)
The Grand Canyon is very appropriately named...hiked for a while until the thunderstorm came and kicked everyone and their moms (me included) onto one of the very few Grand Canyon busses (can't drive in most parts there). If you think public restrooms smell, try a bus full of drenched hikers. Most from Europe. It's true: many Europeans do wear deodorant, but many don't. However, that didn't ruin the spectacular views and wonder the Canyon holds. Pictures can't capture it, but I am trying here....
(Wild Animal Park - San Diego - Amazing place!)

And it goes like this:

2006-07-01T12:06:00.001-04:00

Shake your groove thing, shake your keys, clap three times, kick you left leg out, kick your right leg out, be ready to run at any time, scream when compelled...

I call this the "The walkway to my house sometimes has rattlesnakes. Make some noise" dance.

Times Johanna and I have done it: 6.

SeaTac and Malibu

2006-06-30T21:12:00.000-04:00

Currently relaxing after a day at the beach in Malibu with Johanna. We managed to see a movie shoot of some kind and kept our eyes peeled for Jessica Simpson and Reese Witherspoon. No dice. We also went to a lovely diner for lunch and promptly walked out when the vege sandwiches were, oh, $15.00. We're so not So Cal!

Seattle area was great fun...my mom met up with my grandma's cousin and me wearing the brightest outfit I have ever seen (seriously...flourscent green top and printed Hawaiian jungle pants...apparently designer marked down to $9.00. And she wonders why.). After we sorted out that the outfit needed to go, we managed to eat some yummy seafood, I learned to knit and pearl, and we chatted with some of our cousin's friends who have the most interesting histories. For example, Joy moved to Oklahoma in the 1950's from NY and the KKK on her yard telling her, the Yankee, to go home. Dodie's husband worked on the first monkey to go into outerspace and their family lived in Cairo! I learned the my grandma's cousin directed the first play in Detroit of mixed races in the 1950's as well. The mixture: African American and Polish immigrants.

Tomorrow is Alex and Leyla's reception, the entire reason we're down here. CHeck out pictures of their civil ceremony in SF www.inthemachine.blogspot.com
Then Sunday, off to San Diego to kind-of start the drive back east...after we go to every park, museum, and beach we can! I will keep you posted as I can.

Endings and Beginnings

2006-06-25T14:31:00.000-04:00

The last day of school came and passed anti-climactically and I have officially left the Bay Area to begin my soul-finding journey for a few months. Currently I find myself in my great friend Bobby's new place with my sister and his partner in the posh Pearl District in Portland.
Yesterday, we went to the fantastic Rose Garden, pretty appropriate for the City of Roses, and watched as Bobby nearly ate the roses as he smelled them with his whole face inside the floweres. Then we moseyed onto the river front and admired how Mount Hood looks over the city like an overprotective father: always present and endearing in it's own special way. In the evening, we went out for tapas and enjoyed octopus, Pisco Sours, quinoa, ceviche, and mint-salsa. Mmmmm. Today we're headed to the PO (Pacific Ocean) to avoid the oh-so-fricken-hot temps. On the agenda: frisbee, making sand castles, and throwing Vicky into the ocean when she is least expecting it. Tomorrow I am taking the Amtrack up to Seattle area and will join my cousin and mom for some more Pac Northwest Fun.

Summer Love

2006-06-04T12:04:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knows me is hyperaware that the end of the school year is the best thing that could happen to me right now, and it's almost here! Yeah! Deeps and I are planning our travels, and have decided on China and India after Africa was totally overwhelming and expensive. It's going to be amazing and here are some of the things we are doing in China:
Half-day bicycle excursion and lunch- Yangshuo
Boat trip through the Three Gorges
Yangzte river tributary excursion
Three Gorges Dam Tour - Yichang
Lingyin Si Temple and city tour - Hangzhou
Countryside village tour - Tunxi
Huangshan
Shanghai Museum - Shanghai
Zhouzhuang town
Humble Administrators Garden - Suzhou
Master of the Nets Cultural Show - Suzhou (seasonal);
Terracotta Warriors tour - Xi'an
Ancient houses and city wall - Pingyao
Hanging Monestary
Yungang Grottoes - Datong;
Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City guided tour - Beijing
Great Wall tour and entrance fee - Beijing
Huiling and Rickshaw Tour - Beijing

Deepa has been working hard to plan India and it appears that she is doing wonderful things with that. Her parents have friends and relatives there who are going to help us out and she's making sure we see and do all the wonderful country has to offer.

In other news, the wedding shower for Leyla was a success and it was wonderful to spend the evening with lovely ladies. I love that 2 people got her raw foods books and veges wrapped up :) So cute. Weddings are excuses to get things that you normally deem excessive, like a paella pan, and cook books.

Oh and being homeless with Alex and Leyla is fun and has been really relaxing. Yeah for not having a home. Thanks!

Poo + shoe + me + Paris =

2006-05-19T01:30:00.000-04:00

My poo experience was not nearly as funny to Vicks and me as when our dad stepped in poo in Puerto Rico, but giggles were had nonetheless. I will always remember PR as my dad scraping his shoe about 10 yards behind the fam in nearly everything he could find...tree branches, grass, gravel, lava rocks, brown dirt, asphalt, bums, (kidding about that one...)

France Pics

2006-04-17T22:46:00.000-04:00

Mona Lisa...

2006-04-17T21:48:00.000-04:00

...DOES FOLLOW YOU AROUND THE ROOM! That was discovered at the Louvre.
Giverney...IS goregous and explains why Monet had so much inspiration
Versailles...IS a fantastic castle and has plenty of bling for all
The Louvre...IS enormous and has enough artwork to give everyone in the world their own piece.

France was a great trip - met up with Mom and Liz in Paris. We ran around, checked out the art, Sacre Couer, French food in all of its goodness (YUM for crossaints, chocolate filled bread, escargot, dark chocolate and oeufs).

Best part: The Eiffel Tower SPARKLES for 10 minutes every hour from 9pm until midnight.
It's so special.

And the cutest little girl who didn't come to France: Makenna!!!

Good Things and Bad Things

2006-04-12T04:40:00.000-04:00

Good things about France:
-The Parisian Metro is amazing, you don't really have to walk outside if you don't want to
-The bread is to die for and cheap
-The coffee is super strong
-The men wear tight pants
-Goregous churches everywhere
-Lots of good seafood and pastries
-To be cool, you just need a scarf and no tennis shoes
-They call McDonalds McDo
-They sell beer at McDo
-Anyone can drink anywhere
-Good wine is cheap.
-Good chocolate abounds for cheap prices
Bad things about France:
-Dog poo everywhere (police don't ticket for leaving it around as they deem that below them...yes, I did step in it.)
-Lacidasical about everything
-Everything is closed on Monday
-It's ALWAYS windy
-Massive PDA's are the norm. I think I saw babies being conceived in front of Notre Dame, and it was so far from immaculate conception.
-Banks are closed Sunday, Monday and don't deal with cash on Wednesdays. There are crazy rules like this all over. I don't know how Vicks deals.

All in all, great trip :) We're going to Monet's house today to go biking around it. Saw Paris for the first time yesterday and will return tomorrow to meet up with Mom and Liz. Adieux. Bisous!

Bonjour!

2006-04-10T09:11:00.000-04:00

Aside from almost dying on the way to Mt. St. Michel, everything has been fantastic here in France! Vicky picked me up from the airport donning French-cheese-filled sandwiches and red wine, we meet up with her friends and proceeded to the French countryside. It was absolutely lovely – very green, lots of cows, and old, provincial houses. Her crazy French friend Oliviet organized a 25 person trip to Mt. St. Michel and the beaches around that area of this country. Everything was great - the trip to Mt. St. Michel was a wee bit treacherous – we walked for 2 hours in the freezing cold across where the ocean was coming into (at high tide parts of the day, it is completely surrounded by water). The guide almost sunk into the quicksand, then Oli was pulled out of it by 3 men when it tried to eat him, and when we had to fjord the quickly rushing water, we all almost died. BUT we made it and it was really quite pretty. The chapel at the top overlooks the water and has been maintained itself very well (it’s at least 700 years old;…).

The next day, we went to the beach and it was absolutely wonderful. In Europe, the sky gets so blue…I remember the same pretty skies in Spain 9 years ago. We walked around the little town, ate some bread (it’s the cool thing to do…), and did some shopping. The French are so laid back and seem very relaxed about nearly everything they do. EXCEPT if you are trying to use a bathroom where you shouldn’t…then they are overly aware of your presence and tell you where you can pay to pee.

Today, we went to the Musee de Arte in downtown Rouen, where Vicks lives, and she bought a “pain de chocolat” which means a crossaint filled with chocolate. It’s really, really good. I want one now, in fact. We’re going out for dinner tonight – yeah – and tomorrow head for GIverney.
SIdenote: Lots of French toilet paper is scented. AND it’s rare to find white TP – mostly pink. A far cry from my organic, recycled Berkeley tp!

Ready to go...

2006-04-06T00:23:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Tina, I am all set in the French language category.

Some useful phrases for you... France baby, yeah! :)

English: I like you
French: Je vous aime

English: You are goodlooking
French: Vous goodlookiez

English: Will you buy me a drink?
French: Vous fera m'achete une boisson?

English: Will you move to California with me and have five children with me?
French: Fera vous transfere a California avec moi et a cinq enfants avec moi?

This just might be more interesting than I thought...

haha

2006-04-03T10:49:00.000-04:00

News just in from my Parisian sister regarding what I should bring...
"Umm if you want to be comfy around Paris wear tennis shoes,
but it is a dead give away that you are either American or Canadian."

Pepe Le Pew

2006-04-01T19:51:00.000-05:00

Currently, I am super excited about going to France in a few short days.
Here's my itinerary ... any other ideas world traveling friends?

Friday and Saturday - Mt. St. Michael

Sun- St. Malo and drive back to Rouen

Mon- University Tour - Rouen (let's hope for strikes....haha)

Tues- Fly by the seat of our pants...

Wed- Meander to Dieppe (northern coast) and check out the
DDay Memorial

Thurs- Ride bikes through Monet's gardens in Giverney
Night: train it to Paris and meet up with Mom and Lizard

Friday- Versaille in the afternoon with the lovely ladies and Le Louvre at night b/c
on Fridays is it open an extra 2 hours later (until 10:00)

Sat- All the stuff you can cram into one day in Paris!
Here's my list...
1 - arc de triomphe
2 - basilique du sacre-couer
3 - centre georges polpidou
4 - hotel des invalides/napolean's tomb
5 - musee de cluny
6 - musee d'orsay
7 - musee picasso
8 - notre dame
9 - you guessed right..that silly tower

OOhh I am so excited! France. Paris. Vicky, Mom, Lizzy, crepes, chocolate, beautiful buildings, art, listening to the French language, cafes, no work. Just lovely.

In other news, CONGRATS to LESLIE and BRYAN!!! So fantastic! www.puddledog.blogspot.com

Yo Yo Yosemite

2006-03-12T22:46:00.000-05:00

Two men (one very tall man...), three women, 5 pairs of snowshoes, and a Saturn = a very interesting trip to Yosemite.
Highlights:
-walking around until midnight along a river with the huge rocks surrounding us and the moonlight helping us trip less than normal
-playing "snowshoe" rather than "bullshit" because the lodge had a lot of kids
-getting ambushed by Jess, Liam and Jaye's snowball stockpile as Owen and I tardily approached the falls thanks to my forgetfulness
-falling and thus sliding down a steep icy hill
-biting it on snowshoes and geriactrically getting up 10 minutes later
-learning about how Jessica loves crows
-using show chains - kudos to those things
-mountain men
-hot chocolate, game of spoons, and a fire-warmed lodge
-if book of questions. "if you had to _____________ (insert random question here), what would you do?"
-eating the wonderful muffins Chef Jessica made (millet-raisin-something or other). YUM!

All in all, a great time was had and it is suggested you go to Yosemite in the winter. The waterfalls are still going and there are lots less people around than in the summer.

Love is in the air

2006-02-07T00:37:00.000-05:00

Here's the first of the anonymous love letters I have managed to confiscate. It was hard to keep the original spelling, but I did, just for you.

Willom
I wont to know can you be my valetin beuace since the farst day I came I liked you and your prsonalltey beuace you are cute and fun

sincley your
seuact eddmer

Where's my letter? Who's my seuact eddmer? Regardless of spelling errors, it's flattering, no? Willom must be feeling good right now. He did, by the way, get to read the letter. It was then, after he realized he was loved by some onlooking girl, that it was snatched.

Such a different world..

2006-01-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

...I am actually on a corporate-call conference device right now with friends all over the country trying to plan a trip somewhere cool :) As a teacher, I didn't even realize that these things exist, services where you call a 1800 number, enter a code, and then are instantly put together with other people to talk over the phone. Wow. Cool. I need a job that has perks like this :) I am elated if I can actually make 50 copies without a paper jam, use the internet in the office without removing a 3 year-old from a game on it, or get my room sweeped (I am up to it being cleaned a total of 2 times this year).

In other news, Deepa ( a wonderful friend who I am lucky to have in my life) and I had a great talk today about traveling this summer through October. We feel that we have earned this right as we are so burned out by our current jobs and need to find the fun, exciting selves that we seem to have lost a bit of to teaching craziness. Tentatively we will be in Africa in July/August, India in September, Asia and Australia in October. Then on to get another job and make us some moola.

Things I am looking forward to:
--Visiting Vicks in April
--Skiing this weekend in Tahoe
--Potentially running a marathon in June
--Making cool things in pottery
--Getting things I ordered online in the mail
--Eating the homemade chowder my roommate is making right now!

yosemite

2006-01-09T00:45:00.000-05:00

Hey...I want to go to Yosemite this weekend and go snowshoeing. Anyone interested? It will be fun and pretty!!!

haha

2005-12-05T02:08:00.000-05:00

Pacific Northwest Holidays

2005-11-26T22:41:00.000-05:00

Oh how I love Mount Rainier, friend, family, coffee shops galore, plenty of local brews, "mist" aka icky rain, flying fish, underground tours, people in hiking boots everywhere, the influx of Outbacks ( I swear you are not someone unless you drive one), bars with bulls in them, and more. The trip to Oregon and Washington was a hit. I got to see Gene, my cousin, her wonderful friends, Sarah B from HS and Bobby. Went to the Underground Tour in Seattle, the Seattle Museum of Art, Pike's Market, mosied in Downtown Portland, got back into swimming, and managed to eat 2 great Tday dinners.

Here are some highlight photos:

Joshua Tree!!!!

2005-11-14T00:29:00.000-05:00

Iran and I had a great time in Joshua Tree this weekend :)
Highlights:
getting hissed and shaked at by a rattle snake that was less than a foot away
listening to coyotes howl all night
meeting weird people that live in the desert
seeing an actual road runner
hiking lots and lots

Dead dogs and all that jazz

2005-09-09T01:06:00.000-04:00

So, while playing an icebreaker where students tried to find one thing they have done that no one else has done in the class, the following became the highlights:

"Have any of you ever picked up a dog thinking it was a stuffed animal, and then realized it was a dead dog. And then, when you realized it was a dead dog, you threw it at your sister."

This came in second to this:

"Well, have any of you ever banged on the bathroom door while your papi is in there going number 2, and he yells at you to stop, but you keep hitting the door and he keeps yelling. But, the yelling stops and you realize he is coming out to find you, and he is really mad. Well, then, have you put pillows in your bed to make it look like you are there while hiding from your mad papi under your bed and watched him hit the pillows on your bed?"

Seriously, these kids are hilarious. They may not be able to read and write well, but they certainly have some crazy life experiences.

Sidenote: Jenni, I should ask them if anyone has propositioned them with poo crayons. :P I suppose we all have our stories...as random as they may be....

hehe...

2005-09-05T19:47:00.000-04:00

Check out www.postsecret.blogspot.com for more secrets...
Happy Labor Day! Thank you to all family and friends who have helped Andrea and her community out in Louisiana. You are phenomenal people.

British response

2005-09-04T11:58:00.000-04:00

If you are interested, I suggest you read this article...it provides the responses of the British people who were in the Superdome and finally got back home recently. Warning: it is also upsetting to read about their experience as it casts Americans as pretty awful. Worth reading, though, to get an international point of view.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4212684.stm

Weird trees and bootlegging

2005-08-26T23:25:00.000-04:00

My car has been enveloped in this weird, sticky, mini-drop mess. Apparently Berkeley and Oakland are plagued with "Yellow Leaking Sap Trees" or something awful like that, and they are attacking the poor, slow, defensless and now dirty Saturn. It is really quite exciting.
Sidenote: I just had some breadsticks and they were fabulous...and now I am going to watch "50 First Dates" - the non bootleg version**- and then sleep lots and lots.
**For those of you who have not watched proper bootleg DVD's (like from Chinatown in NYC), you can totally tell that someone videotaped what you are watching from the back of the theater - people actually get up and their shadows walk across the movie, sometimes they cough, and if you are lucky, they make ridiculous comments!

Durian, its nastiness, and the fam

2005-08-25T22:49:00.000-04:00

During our exciting work training, Jessica announced today that she had the grossest candy ever last night: Durian Sucky Candy. Haha. Then we engaged in a conversation about just how disgusting durian is and debating if people can ever really like it, or if they are just confused.
Other news: My mom just sent me that picture and since I am becoming tech savvy, it is online here now. Say hello to the fam!
More other news: School starts in a few days and I really have no clue what I am doing yet....moreover I am not worried about it. What is up with that?

tech savvy and loving it

2005-08-18T11:53:00.000-04:00

So I finally have gotten my pictures online from my travels, have begun online banking, got all the music Leslie and Vicky gave me into Itunes and have learned how to use a mac.
In other news, Joyce (my next door neighbor growing up) was out here for an interview and we went out for a wonderful sushi dinner. I've also been working the past 3 days at a program for our 7th graders and the kids are pretty tough....the year should be interesting! Lastlu, Ben came up and Leslie and Bryan met us for drinks which was great - I love where I live now! We walked all over and found a great little bar and cheap Mexican place for dinner. Today I am going into my classroom to set up. Exciting - I know you are all jealous :)

Saturns, Kayaks, and Hiking Boots

2005-08-13T02:35:00.000-04:00

Jay, Vicky and I have been busy touring California and the unfortunate city of Reno. Conclusions:
Yosemite is goregous, but hiking up mountains poses challenges unmet in the Midwest.
The lack of humidity is loved by all (me escaping Asia, them escaping the Midwest)
Cold water or pop is the best thing after hiking.
More Europeans travel in our parks than US citizens.
It is really hard to Kayak on Tahoe. It is necessary to befriend rich people with boats (anyone....anyone???)
Good times were had by all. We toured around SF today and said hello to the Golden Gate, sea lions, Ghirardelli chocolate and vats of ice cream, the lovely Pacific Ocean and Redwoods, and the random crazies around the city. Tomorrow we are going to the great city of Sebastopol with Johanna and Ry to experience the greatness that is the apple festival.

Yosemite!

2005-08-07T10:47:00.000-04:00

Today Jay, Vicky and I embark on our cross-California journey to the lovely Yosemite National Park. Things to look forward to:
good car snacks
ipods galore
weird company (my family isn't normal...me included...)
goregous views
The adventure begins soon - I have to shower and then we are off!

Faux Pas

2005-08-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

Some of the funny things I didn't mention yet were as follows:
In Cambodia, it was necessary to educate people about condoms since the average family has 5 kids and 60% of the population is under 15. Volunteers educated village people about condoms by using bananas and, well, condoms. All of the people practiced, and it was certain that they were ready to use them accordingly. Well, what happened was that they thought they needed to put a condom on a banana to prevent pregnancy...they didn't realize the true use :) Needless to say, more than one lesson was given.
Secondly, a friend of mine was trying to buy tampons in Vietnam and couldn't really act it out (acting is a crucial skill for travelling to Asia...) so she showed one that was in a bright pink wrapper to a pharmacist. The pharmacist thought it was lipstick and acted out putting it on her lips. We all looked at her in a sort of weird manner cluing her in that she was wrong. Then she figured it out, screamed "oh...." looked at us in a horrified manner, and said "Oh....you won't be able to find them anywhere here....on no..." She was clearly horrified and it became quite clear that it was seen as a taboo to use such objects.
Now that I am home, culture shock has set in a bit. Johanna has been my princess in shining armour and is helping me get used to cars, sidewalks, no bikes, drinking water from taps, non-Aussie/European language, and all TV channels in English! Woo hooooooo! It is nice to be back :)

Bikes and Fortunes

2005-07-29T20:56:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we all rented taxi motos and got a lovely tour of Hue - the Perfume River, rice fields, a monestary and nunnery for buddhists, a rice hat making home, and we got to have lunch - monk style - at a temple. The food was spectacular - all vegetarian and tons of it - tofu, won tons, veggies, fruit, juices, and they make you take a nap after! There were 2 novice monks (probably 6 years old) who were adorable with their mandated haircut that actually looks like a haircutting mistake - were making fun of one of the guys in our group who was snoring during the nap time. They kept pointing and laughing while trying to make snorting noises. The temple takes in orphans and takes care of them - it is nice that even though they have so many problems already, they still goof around and act like kids.

Then, we all went to the fortune teller who is dons a huge smile that shows her missing teeth, is no more than 4 feet tall, weighs about 60 pounds, and is older than time itself.
This woman predicted that I would be married by the time I am 28, will have 5 children, and will make a lot of money in the next 2 years. Watch out world, all of that sounds a little scary (aside from the money bit). Anyway, it was good fun and she really got some people's past right on the spot.

In other news: the women here are obsessed with my skin - they love that it is "white" and really wish their skin was so great. They also love that my eyes are not brown - I have been told I am beautiful for these reasons more times than I can count. I swear I have more wrinkles than 80 year olds, but it is the color they want! To protect their skin from the sun, women wear face masks, rice hats, bandannas all over their face, and long elegant gloves just to go to the market. If they only knew how much money there was in tanning products in our country...it reminds me of Dr. Seuss' Sneeches.

Today we are off to visit the citadel and then onto the night train to Halong Bay and then onto Hanoi. Only 4 days left - Viet Nam is a goregous country. You should all visit.

Pacific Love!

2005-07-27T20:46:00.000-04:00

The Pacific Ocean is warm enough here for you to swim in and there are not millions of people on the beaches (unless you count the women in tons of clothing from head to food, donning rice hats, trying to sell you crap). To say the least, the beach in Hoi An is goregous. We (my Aussie friend) and I had lunch and swam for a while yesterday and it was really relaxing. The two of us piled onto a female run moped (making 3 people on a one person bike), paid about 1.00, and got a round trip, door to ocean drive.
We took a cooking course last night which was fun I learned how to make pork in banana leaf (aluminum foil will suffice), vegetable spring rolls - fresh and fried, papaya salad (they use unripe papaya so it tastes like cucumber), and won ton salad. It was good fun :) I also managed to get some artwork that will hopefully be in my home one day and ordered more clothes. Johanna, watch out, I may come off the plane in something a little crazy!
We are leaving today for Hue, another beach town, and I have heard it is really nice. There is a woman who tells fortunes there and I am really looking forward to hearing what she has to say! While I am loving Asia, I think that I am preparing for going home as I am getting sick of people in these countries thinking I want to buy everything....they say "Madame" and follow you around, ignoring your pleas of "No, thank you" and bothering you for far too long. I am also sick of the mopeds here. They honk all the time and I have been hit by 2 so far (they drive everywhere - market, sidewalk, buildings, etc.)....none of my hittings were great and I didn't even get bruises, but it is annoying. Oh well, I will probably wish to be back soon enough!

Penis', Rats, Cockroaches, and more!

2005-07-26T11:15:00.000-04:00

I almost forgot to tell you:
The restaurant we went to last night had the following items on the menu:
goat penis
she-goat breast
rat
cockroaches
scorpion
cow penis
intestines
eel

People in my group ate: scorpion, eel, rat.
I ate: rat.
It actually wasn't that bad and tasted remarkably like beef jerkey. Sorry Lizzy..I know you keep them as pets...I promise it wasn't related to Taz, Taz II, or Taz III.

Hoi An - the Beach Town!

2005-07-26T10:56:00.000-04:00

After avioding getting run over by 30000000 mopeds this morning, we boarded a flight from Saigon to Hoi An - a lovely town on the enormous ocean. This town is really quaint, more quiet, and full of tailors and great restaurants! Nearly everyone in the group was fitted for clothing today and I am having more things made. I figure it will keep me out of US malls and truly I think I won't be able to handle them for at least 2 months for fear of culture shock. It is really cheap - for 120.00US I am having the following made (and the fabric ranges from linen to silk...)
2 pairs of pants
1 dress
1 asian-style jacket
1 asian-style shirt
1 skirt
3 button down shirts
Got a massage, ate some good tofu, read some Harry Potter (100 pages to go....), and walked a bit around. Tomorrow we'll go to the beach and visit some of the old homes on a tour. Leyla - Vietnam is definitely the Durian Country - it is everywhere :) Glad you are enjoying Ireland!

Cute Kids and Crazy Driving!

2005-07-25T07:52:00.000-04:00

Chau warned me against adopting a cute Cambodian child...and I laughed telling her not to worry...but after visiting an orphanage full of the most adorable, loving, sweet kids in Phnom Penh, I seriously considered adopting a cute kid some day from here. I can't wait to share pictures of these kids with you - one of the boys just latched on to me and wouldn't let me go! We danced to Cambodian music and they gave us a traditional dance show which was captivating.
We also went out to a club in Phnom Penh which was an absolute riot. First of all, before midnight, there are shows to Western songs that incorporate hideous costumes and crazy dancing with some awful singing. Secondly, the men dance like they are on crack and shake your hand to ask you to dance. A good time was had by all :)
On a sad note, we visited the Killing Fields - where Pol POt and his army killed massive amounts of people for fun and raped many women and went to the torture chambers which were a school at one point. It was awful and very upsetting that so many people were hurt for no reason.

Vietnam is a crazy place. Two men were seriously fighting over me to ride in a little cyclo thing with them and that was scary. There are over 4000 motorbikes in Saigon and you just have to cross the street with 100's coming at you and hope they weave around you. There are 40 fatalities each day on motor bikes alone! The city is really pretty and the French influence is intersting - there is actually a Catholic church here and it has some nice Virgin Marys that are surroded my neon lights (they really like those here....). The coffee is fantastic and the rice paper rolls are phenomenal - finally the food is healthy and not fried! I have yet to see any obsese people that are not white in Vietnam and to date have only seen one fat Asian and I think she may have been a tourist :)

Today we visited the War Remnants museum which made me very unhappy about the US involvement in this country and felt physically ill because of all of the photos and information about the hideous tortures. In addition, we went to Chu Chi - the tunneled city that the Vietnamese lived in for 10 years and was crucial to them winning the war. It was amazing and extremely scary in the tunnels - they were TINY and smelly but included a school, hospital, kitchen, etc.
Sorry for the long post - internet has been spotty here. Tomorrow we leave for Danang and I am getting excited to resume a non-travelling life and see Johanna and other people I miss :) Mabel and Em - good luck with the marathon - Woo hoo!

Crocs, Ruins, Sunsets and rises, and Land Mines

2005-07-19T06:42:00.000-04:00

Today I was up at 4:30 getting prepped to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat. The sky was full of purples and pinks as it engulfed the beautiful outline of one of the seven wonders of the Ancient world. We spent the day toodling around many different ruins- the most beautiful, in my opinion, the ones that are the most ruined by trees and random earth shiftings.

We also visited the most unique restaurant - The Stinking Fish - which unfortunately did not serve rat, worm, or cat (it explained this on the menu) and had a lake full of crocodiles ready to attack any drunkard that accidentely fell into their swarming, seething, evil territory. Food here is pretty good....similar to Thai food, spicy if you so choose, and always full of meat or fish. I was completely misconcepted thinking that I would find tofu wherever I went as I try to aviod meat when travelling.

We also visited the Land Mine Mueseum which is actually more of a center for victims of land mines. It was harrowing arriving there as you pass a basketball court full of goregous Cambodian children missing limbs - arms, legs, faces cut up, etc. because of land mines the US and Vietnam left here during our conflicts. There are still over 6 MILLION land mines and 3 casulaties a day here because of them - generally the most poor people are hit by them and there is not much they can do about them because they pose such a threat to all involved in finding them. The Museum has volunteers who educate the children by teaching them how to read, write in numerous languages since most of the victims are beggars. Unfortunately the US, China and Russia are still producing massive amounts of these mines and no one seems to do much about it. There are 3,000 surrounding many villages in Iraq apparently....democracy what? Anyway it is upsetting and innocent people are being maimed by devices that are made to do just that.

To end on positive notes:
I was in the same place as Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider today since she filmed here in Cambodia and we are on our way to have dinner at a woman's home....apparently she is a great cook and I am starving so it is really exciting! I feel very safe here and find it to be more beautiful than Thailand.

Oh Dear Me!

2005-07-18T08:45:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Cambodia...a country that is full of interesting juxtapositions and that I am still quasi-getting accustomed to.
Our day yesterday was spent in a long line of Thai people and ourselves at Poi Pet - the border of Thailand and Cambodia. Parentless Cambodian children were fanning us and holding umbrellas over our heads in hopes of getting food or water. Thai people (who had been nothing but nice) were shoving, pushing, and ready to step on you since the line takes 2 hours to get through and the line is in the sun (temps here are not low...).
It was crazy and scary and just got a little more daunting. You see, Cambodia doesn't really have paved roads and the recent rains mean there are red-dirted pot holes the size of a modest home you have to forage through. To go 100 miles, it took us 10 hours. Along the way, there were homes with cute naked children running around, little stores, rice farms, and people on mopeds.
When we stopped for water, kids came running up to us, speaking perfect English and I danced the macarena with one little boy. They are selling anything - books, jewelry, water, etc. and are charming and very street smart (they operate scams of getting foreign currency and exchanging it with foreigners for more in their currencty).
Okay...so that is depressing...but it was a depressing experience. I can't even imagine what it was like under Pol Pot here and how anyone managed to get by.
Today we went to ruins that were absolutely goregous and watched the sunset on the top of one set of ruins. On one side, there was the setting sun...on the other, a newly festering thunderstorm. Words can't describe the ruins - they are tremendous - and I can't wait to share pictures with you!!!

An American in Bangkok

2005-07-16T03:56:00.000-04:00

Status: Lost in Bangkok
Update of things done:
--Subway and Sky Train rides (nice, surprisingly easy to navigate, airconditioned system!)
-- Changtuk Weekend Market (you can buy fishies, underwear, lights, furniture, smelly food, shoes, paintings, jewelry, purses, bride dresses aka anything you could ever want!)
-- Ate dinner with Noi (a friend's Thai host sister) and her friend - food was great and they are very nice. Sarah - she says hello and is very curious why I didn't bring you :)
-- Met a Michigan fan - wooo hoooo - and talked football (real football...not soccer)

I have tried to get my pictures online but it isn't working....Check out Leslie's blog - we have the same pictures basically - and enjoy! www.puddledog.blogspot.com

okay...time to find Jim Thompson's house. Wish me luck :)

King and Queen Bling Bling

2005-07-15T01:10:00.000-04:00

Another interesting thing about Thailand are the King and Queen - interesting in the sense that their pictures are seriously everywhere and the people loooooovvvveeeee them. At first glance, it seems that people are brainwashed or something (especially since 50% of our country loathes our leader), but it is a genuine like and the king and queen have done a lot of good for this country. They have helped the hill tribes out, aided refugees, acted quickly in times of tsunamis and floods, and tried to remedy the financial situation that is pretty sad at the moment.
Today, I did go get fitted for a cute silk jacket and 3 pairs of cashmere pants...thanks for the address mom :) It is amazing how much cheaper they are here. Currently, I am getting a little weirded out about Cambodia - just because they have no ATMS and it is always dangerous to be a place with no access to money. I am sure it will be fine, just a little unnerving.
Yesterday I went to the Royal Palace - talk about bling. There is so much gold there it is crazy. Overall, it is goregous and I especially enjoyed the guards who I thought for sure would murder me with their machine guns. Thankfully, I took off my shoes at all the right times (you have to take off your shoes to go nearly anywhere here...keeps the floor clean) and was wearing respectable clothing (shoulders and knees = unseen).
I also went to the Golden Teak Mansion which was really quite astounding - very Victorian - and it won my heart because the whole thing was air conditioned! At the mansion, I saw a dancing show that was funny and they took kids from the audience as hostages (well...you would have thought as much at the little one's resistance). THere were seriously 10 schools of kids and all of them had to wear flourescent pink shirts - I gathered the pink color on boys isn't a problem here as it is at home!
I still have yet to meet another American person (aside from the cocky East Palo Alto boy Leslie mentioned). I don't think there are any more. Just me. The Thai people ask me often where I am from...it is funny because if I say USA or United States, most look blankly. It is essential to say "America" followed by "California" and then they smile and say how pretty it is there. Sorry about the rambling....I am waiting for my pictures to get on a CD! Check Leslie's site www.puddledog.blogspot.com for a link to her pictures - she's home!

Dogs with Running Sores

2005-07-13T22:10:00.000-04:00

Dogs are prevalent in Thailand and I don't think any are neutered. This means there are tons of weird looking dogs that mate with other odd looking dogs and come up with the most hideous of beasts that just roam around cities. Of course I avoid the dogs at all costs, especially the ones with open sores, but it amazes me at just how many dogs are on the prowl. Absence of nasty dogs: a benefit of living in the US.
Leslie left us this morning after a crazy night out that involved drinking out of buckets that were filled with some crazy mixture that still has my head spinning. To celebrate our last night, we effectively got our tour guide drunk and all 5 of us climbed into a tuk tuk since it was pouring when we left the bar. Leslie introduced us to the Stephen Hawking dance (you don't even want to know...) and our guide danced in a teradactyl like fashion if he wasn't doing MC Hammer moves.

I have a few days alone in Bangkok and I am going to run around - go to the zoo, the Royal Palace, read my new book (that is actually used and falling apart) - Gone With the Wind, enjoy cheap Thai food, go to the Teak Mansion, and of course get another massage (all of this while avoiding the mangy dogs of Bangkok). Hopefully I will be able to get my pictures up onto a CD and online - email me if you want to be added to the album!

24 is the lucky number

2005-07-11T05:21:00.000-04:00

So our visit to the Golden Triangle, where Burma, Thailand and Myanmar meet wasn't so exciting...BUT we did get to ride in a pick up truck with 22 people - 19 of which were locals - smashed in the back. That is the limit of students I will have in my classroom next year! Ideally I will not have to smash my students into a pick up truck, but thankfully I know it is possible to do.
We are now just chilling in Chaing Rai - a city in the North - with not much to do. We are enjoying AC and I am having my first mocah since leaving the USA. It is great :) On our way to get some massages and mom - we will finally eat the pad thai you say is so great at the Dusit Island. Hopefully it is better than the disgusting Durian I forced all to try!!! haha!
Tomorrow we stop by Chaing Mai for lunch and then board a night train for an overnighter to Bangkok where I will be staying for a few days before leaving on a crazy trip to Cambodia and Vietnam.

Berkeley!

2005-07-10T06:43:00.000-04:00

I didn't get a chance to tell most people before I left - I am living in Berkeley next year! College and Derby are the cross streets and it is a large, nice home built by Julia Morgan. My room is yellow with a balcony! Exciting. I will have to get some plants to grow off of it.

Showers!

2005-07-10T06:27:00.000-04:00

Something is really odd about most of the showers here...there aren't bathtubs or little enclosures for showers. No, that would make too much sense. Rather, here in Thailand, most places just have a spout on the wall facing the toilet that shoots out water all over everything. You could take a shower while sitting on the toilet if you so chose. Some places even forget drains which means that they bust a hole in some corner and the water finds it way out eventually. So, after a shower, the toliet is covered in water, the toliet paper is decimated and full of water, the floor is a complete hazard, and you are clean. We feel really, really special if we go places that have a bathtub shower...one of the many comforts of home.
Also, another odd thing: whitening creams. I ran out of deodarant which is something you desperately need here since you are in a constant state of hottness (and by that I do not mean a high level of attractiveness...). It took me a while to find any that didn't whiten your underarms...all of the skin creams are whitening too. Johanna - quite the opposite of what you have been scouting, no :)
Everything is good here - we are in the Northern part of Thailand near the Burmese border. My travel guide thinks I am weird (I was acting like the coneheads - you know "We come from France" and he just couldn't handle me anymore :) and I was worried about accidentally crossing into Myanmar or as it is still called here, Burma and getting killed. We are going to the Golden Traingle tomorrow - where Burma, Laos and Thailand form a peaceful (or not...) union and will be taking some sort of boat along the Mekong River there. Should be fun! We miss you all and hope you are well!

Durian and Drag Queens

2005-07-08T21:31:00.000-04:00

Leyla, Leyla, Leyla....how you find Durian at all appetizing remains one of the seven mysteries of my world right now. I talked this fruit up to everyone in my group - and they were a little sketched out from the start because every hotel has "NO DURIAN ALLOWED INSIDE ROOMS OR HOTEL" signs all over. I told them the smell was a decoy and that it tasted like pudding. When we got the "king of fruits" we disregarded the smell (which was repulsive). No one even swallowed it and their hands couldn't scrape the fruit out of their mouths fast enough. EEEWWWW! Haha! I got pictures of everyone eating it - you will enjoy them :)

On another note, we went to see the "lady boys" (the Thai term for Drag Queens) last night. The Thai men dressed as women are prettier than most women. Of course not everyone emerged from the show unscathed (remember Mike....the queen danced with you) Tim in our group was mauled by 2 of the queens and emerged from the show with huge red kisses all over his face. The lip syncing of English songs was amusing, especially for the people who did not speak English at all and at there were an alarming number of foreign kids in the audience. Good times were had by all.

Finished cooking school yesterday - Leslie and I are now culinary artists. The class itself was a lot of fun and we even got to play with fire. Pad Thai, green curry, sticky rice with mangoes, stir fry veggies, tom kum soup and more were our dishes and we ate them all :) It was a nice way to spend the day! Today we leave for Chaing Rai on a great city bus equipped with dirty people, buckets of sweat, fans that do nothing, and ... no air conditioning. Lovely. Bet you are jealous :)

Thai Response to London

2005-07-07T21:31:00.000-04:00

I am sure you are curious to know how people have reacted to the attacks on London. Not too many things seem different here since the attacks on London, but I also can't understand a lick of the language aside from Hi and Thank You. Our guide seemed less shaken than us - our other companions are from England and are clearly upset. Of course all news stations are broadcasting it - we get the BBC, some Asian news station which is in English and CNN. It is scary travelling when things are so uncertain and hopefully they are successful in figuring out who bombed their country and in helping the injured parties.

Asian Dialect

2005-07-07T21:29:00.000-04:00

It should be noted that our tour guide asks us if we want "Sticky Lice" because he can't say the "R"sound. We also go to bed and get some "Lest" and "Lent" vehicles. Leslie and I can't help but find the "Lice" slip up amusing :)

Busy Bees!

2005-07-07T09:33:00.000-04:00

CHAING MAI (excuse the massive amounts of info...we've been busy. Since it is so much info, it is divided up with subheadings)
- We like this city much more than Bangkok - it is cleaner and it is enveloped in beautiful tree-covered mountains. We visited a wat in the mountains that overlooks the city which gave an interesting vantage point for the city and of course we paid homage to the large buddah there and rang the bells for good luck. While in Chaing Mai, we also visited the following factories:
jewelry: saw beautiful jewlery being made...mainly jade, ruby, emerald, and sapphire things. I bought a really cute ruby ring.
umbrella: a lot of steps go into making these umbrellas - paper making, painting, sanding wood, gluing pieces together, cutting perfectly shaped pieces.
teak: When I am rich, I am importing the beautifully carved pieces of furniture that these woodsmiths make. Goregous scenes complete with elephants, monkeys and villages emerge from trunks of trees.
silk: what a lot of work for some fabric...it all starts with the boiling of cocoons and the tedious job of pulling out strings and moves to dying and looming.

HILL TRIBE TREK
Plowing through rice fields, through the humid, hot jungle, and a bamboo rafting we went! Why would we expose ourselves to such torture? Well, to visit the hill tribes! The hilltribes are minority groups in Thailand that live in the northern mountains. Most of the groups live very secluded lives and don't have TV, radio, electricity, cars, etc. After hiking in the jungle (I have sooooo much more of an idea of what Vietnam would have been like) and sweating more than humanly possible, we arrived at our first temporary home of the Lisu tribe. Basically envision chickens, pigs, dogs, people, red dirt floors, simple housing, squat toilets, beautiful Crouching Tiger-like mountains, and farms and that is where we found ourselves. The stars were absolutely goregous at night and the chickens, pigs, and roosters made some interesting noises for all of us to enjoy!
To get to our next tribe, we rode elepants (woo hoooo!) who were super cute and exciting and made our own bamboo raft to float down the river. The next tribe, Karen tribe, lives in teak homes that are on stilts about 10 feet above the ground on the river. The kids all were swimming and water buffalo (picture horse and hippo mix) were roaming freely. The houses of this tribe were much more substantial and we fancied them more. At night, we drank Chang Beer (6 % here in Thailand - catches up to you !) and our guides sang Bob Marley, Cat Stevens, and Simon and Garfunkel songs in addition to teaching us the Elephant Song. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did:

Elephant, elephant, elephant
Have you ever seen elephant?
Elephant have big body
Elephant have long trunk which we call moung
Elephant have two teeth we call neah
Elephant have two eyes and two ears
Elephant, Elephant, Elephant, Elephant, Elephant

TRADITIONAL THAI DINNER
We went to a Kabuki dinner which entails sitting on the ground and sharing a variety of dishes with your comrades. We dined n fried pork, chicken, spicy pork, sweet rice, sticky rice, fried bananas, and chili paste-ish mush. In addition to feasting on such healthy food, we watched traditional Northern dancing which was surprisingly slllooowwww paced and included some great outfits (chicken costumes, for example) and some neat props (fire, swords, long Halloween like fingernails). In addition to this dancing, we saw Hill Tribe dancing with the cutest kids you could ever imagine! Just the happiest things ever. One of their dances included a dragon suit with 2 people in it and they crept up behind some viewers and scared them to death! It was a riot. It should be noted that some 13 year old British girl was behind us and was balling her eyes out the whole time and her dad kept telling her to be quiet and that she was a drama queen. I thought she was going to die of suffocation.

Markets and Caves

2005-07-03T07:17:00.000-04:00

My mom told me there would be food cooking everywhere...and there is! Every city, street, corner, space has people cooking everything from entire fishies to chicken to veggies to unknown things on portable grill stands. I haven't eaten any meat from the vendors because typically there are flies all over the raw meats sold in markets not to mention nothing is refrigerated and it is really, really hot all day. There's also massive amounts of fruits (yes, Leyla, durian! I have yet to try it, but will!) and veggies all over. It is traditional for Thai people to shop daily and cook everything fresh (minus the flies). We have gotten to eat a lot of good food - Leslie really enjoyed Pad See Ew and I had some great coconut soup last night - and no one has gotten sick thankfully.

On a different note, we went to caves yesterday and encountered bats galore, stalagtites, and of course, buddahs! Unlike US caves which are to be untouched, Thai caves have massive golden buddahs hauled into them and monks go in to worship there. It was very interesting and was a stark difference from my Oregon Caves experience.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

2005-07-03T04:05:00.000-04:00

Sawasdee - Hello in Thai.
We have been so busy! Yesterday we visited a National Park which had really goregous waterfalls with great swimming areas. We all went in for a dip with the plethora of gross fishies that would definitely nibble at you if you weren't incessantly moving. We stayed on the River Kwai for the past two nights in a floating room actually on the river. We shared the room with scary pigeons and some spider voyeur in the shower. The river is really pretty and has a lot of history attached to it. The Japanese had POWS from all over build a railroad across Thailand into Burma during WWII. Many, many people died from harsh treatments and illnesses. We went to the actual rail road to a place called Hell Fire Pass, named because when they cut and dynamited through mountains at night it looked like hell to local people. Also, we visited the graveyard of the people who died during the war under the Japanese - one of few graveyards you will find in a Buddhist nation (the British maintain it).
Today, we took public transit (i.e. unairconditioned busses) to Ayuuthaya - a city of many ruins. We just returned from travels to a few and checked out the buddahs there. Unfortunately not a lot is known about them because they are so old (at least 400 years) and the records were not kept. Tonight we take the great night train to Chiang Mai and I can't wait - it is supposed to be awesome! Now we are preparing to take a swim in the hotel's pool and it should be great.

Buddah Day!

2005-06-30T05:46:00.000-04:00

Leslie and I arrived last night in Bangkok without a hitch! The things that stand out:
-- people are really, really proud of their country and want to help you in any way
-- things are very inexpensive
-- the driving here is absolutely insane...blind faith gets you through
-- tuk-tuks are the way to go - little moped-like rickshaws
-- buddahs are all over...there are 3000 in Bangkok alone
-- extreme fruits and veggies abound
-- monks are all over - talking on cell phones, eating, cruising
-- pollution is abundant
-- air conditioning is really appreciated
-- the weather isn't unbearble ... it's definitely warm, but not boiling
-- motorcyclists are everywhere
-- thai massages are great!
we are really enjoying ourselves and thankfully the 12 hour time change hasn't affected us yet. check out leslie's blog - www.puddledog.blogspot.com - to hear what she has to say about this whole bangok thing! we leave for river kwai tomorrow and i'll most likely have internet again in 4 days. until then, adios!

The Great Adventure

2005-06-28T02:27:00.000-04:00

While I feel that my post-first-trip life has been quite an adventure, the real one begins tomorrow when Leslie and I depart from the US, layover in Tokyo and arrive in Bangkok, Thailand. Here's what we will be doing each day:

Day 1 Bangkok	Dive into dynamic Bangkok and explore all the fantastic sights, smells and sounds this amazing city offers.
Days 2-3 River Kwai	Gain an insight into the perilous lives of the POWs on a ride on the notorious Death Railway or a visit to the JEATH War Museum. Why not check out the stunning Erawan Falls?
Days 4-5 Ayuthaya/Chiang Mai	Discover the ancient ruins and temples of Ayuthaya, one-time capital of ancient Siam and now treasured World Heritage site. An overnight train then takes us to Chiang Mai with its happening night bazaar and great restaurants.
Days 6-8 Hilltribe Trek	Colourful ethnic minorities reside in the hills of northern Thailand. Meet many of these friendly tribespeople on the hilltribe trek and enjoy an elephant ride or an exhilarating bamboo raft trip.
Day 9 Chiang Mai	Continue the Chiang Mai experience with a traditional Thai massage, experiment with Thai cooking or find bargains at the night bazaar.
Days 10-11 Chiang Rai	Chill out on the banks of the Kok River in the picturesque rural town of Tha Ton before boarding a local boat for a trip down to Chiang Rai.
Day 12 Golden Triangle	Head into the infamous Golden Triangle where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma collide and maybe take a boat ride down the mighty Mekong River.
Days 13-15 Bangkok	Return to Chiang Mai after some heavy duty travelling and then it's onward bound for Bangkok. Hit the streets of this vibrant city and discover why Khao San Road is such a well known travellers' hangout.

Redwoods!!!!!

2005-06-27T11:16:00.000-04:00

Awesome place....Shady Grove around Crescent City in Redwood National Park. Go. Enjoy it. Play with the trees (careful, they could stomp you OR eat you...see the picture of me getting attacked). My mom is REALLY strong.

Crater Lake

2005-06-24T02:58:00.000-04:00

One great secret of the United States - Crater Lake. My mom and I were flabbergasted at the immense beauty this not-so-well known place has. Formed 6000 years ago from an erupted volcano, the crater is about 6 miles across and a tecnicolor blue molded with turquoise that is just unbelievable. The lake's beauty combined with the fact that the park has a TON of snow left made it very special. I HIGHLY recommend you go, and when you do, hike down to the water (1 mile down) - there is only one trail down. Also, go in July or August because then you can take the only boat allowed on the lake around the perimiter and to the mini-volcano island in the middle.

More Crater Lake!

2005-06-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

You have to go! If you are coming here from Portland, here's the route to take:
Highway 84 East to Exit 13 (Hwy 126). Follow city roads and take Hwy 126 to SR 97 at Madias. It takes you alongside the mountains and into the Oregon desert.

Butchart Gardens

2005-06-20T02:34:00.000-04:00

The Butchart Gardens in Victoria are absolutely goregous! They made me want a house just so I could grow some roses and pretend to have a somewhat green thumb! The greens all melded together beautifully and all of the colors jumbled together to create a very picturesque place. In addition to flowers, trees, and bushes of all sorts, there is a hog-type thing you have to rub for good luck....hopefully it works.

Heellloooooo Caaavvveeessss.

2005-06-17T02:57:00.000-04:00

What better to do on a rainy Oregon day than go to the Oregon Caves? Pictured here is...well... either stalactites, cave bacon, stalagmites, shelfs, calcite - all things we saw.
Cool cave info: It takes 1,000 years for a stalactite to grow one inch and if you take a piece of cave with you, the next 15 years of your life will probably be spent in jail. These caves are not as cool as the Mammoth or Luray caves, but they are definitely interesting.
It is always humbling to be in complete darkness for a few minutes and really scary too.

Mooooove Over

2005-06-16T02:41:00.000-04:00

Well hello there elk friends! It was in Redwood National Park that we encountered these large beasts. Were they in a fence you ask...NO! Which is great except that they could kill you in 2 seconds flat. Much like gender segregation in an elementary school, the male elk ate in one field adjacent to the female field. I had only seen an elk head (thanks dad!), which is neat in and of itself - elk are beautiful and quite strong.
After our run in with the elks, we went to see some Redwoods. As always, they were not a disappointment. We managed to find a grove of trees that was recomended to us by a park ranger we ran into at a restaurant...should you ever go to this park, go to "Stout Grove." For lack of better words, it was awesome. It was raining and because of the mammoths, we managed to keep quite dry.

Mendocino

2005-06-15T02:16:00.000-04:00

After going up, around, down, and in loop-de-loops on Highway 1 for a good many hours, my mom and I arrived in the great town of Mendocino. We were greeted with warnings of tsunamis and were told that there was a large earthquake just North of our destination. Thankfully within 5 minutes, the warning was called off and the ipod kept us from hearing about it on the radio (Those of you not familiar with Highway 1 - you really can't get off of it and it is nearly all coastal).
Mendocino is just beautiful and you can easily climb down to the water and putz around on the beach. Tide pools are easily accessible and there are coves that would be fun to kayak in.
It was in Mendocino that my mom and I became "The Stupids." Much like one of my favorite book families, we made our fair share of stupid remarks. For example, my mom, when asked if she would like coffee or tea replied "yes." I couldn't remember the word for goose for the life of me and identfied the poor creature as a duck. I also fell down while running and made quite a lovely sight for all watching :) And that was just day one...

Summer 05

2005-06-05T17:48:00.000-04:00

Woo hoo. This summer is going to be fun filled with traveling on anything from an elephant to a rickshaw. My nomadic lifestyle begins in the good old US with my mom up and down the West Cost. Next I will be in Thailand with lovely Leslie and then Cambodia and Vietnam by myself. This summer will be the perfect culmination to a long teaching year and hopefully a peaceful experience to ready me for another interesting year. I hope you enjoy it :)

Tahoe!

2005-02-26T03:26:00.000-05:00

Gotta love Tahoe! Most of my friends are really good skiiers...that left Ben and me to ski together while all others went and basically paved their own scary paths down unchartered mountains. Ben and I had a great time trying not to fall the whole day and met up with the experts for the shady "free" lunch.

Rose Bowl!

2005-01-01T03:34:00.000-05:00

Oooohhhhh if only Michigan had won the day would have been soooooo much better. Thank you Ben for driving down and Steve for coming with and letting us stay at your place.

Christmas Seals!

2004-12-25T03:20:00.000-05:00

On the way down to the Hearst Castle, we managed to see these elephant seals and their babies. Aside from the cute baby seals, the coolest things we saw was two enormous males fighting over females - they even drew blood and the bloody one had to resort to staying in the water away from the colony for a bit. Oh, the exciting life of an elephant seal!