International Blog of Mystery

Home Sweet Cabin

2008-06-24T22:08:00.002-07:00

In case you wondered how we really like to spend our vacation time, you should have a look at this album. We met up near Ithaca, NY to give a week of badly needed attention to a family property on Geo's dad's side. It was a lovely week. It was great to spend time with all the brothers (sadly Anne and her family couldn't make it) and lots of other relatives too. It rained every day we were there and it was so green. Quite a contrast from the desert. I'm hoping some of George's pictures make it into this album soon and anyone else who has pictures should share them also!

It will probably be another year before we all gather there again, and hopefully this time it will be without so much work involved. But the hard work pays off and it was a pleasure to spend a week there.

Rim to Rim to Rim (R3)

2008-05-20T17:32:00.003-07:00

Some statistics:
South Kaibab Trail is 7.1 miles to the bottom of the canyon from the South Rim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Kaibab_Trail
North Kaibab Trail is 14 miles from the bottom of the canyon to the North Rim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Kaibab_Trail
Bright Angel Trail is 8.1 miles from the bottom of the canyon to the South Rim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Angel_Trail

On Friday, Geo and Mark left Prescott around 3 pm. They met Sabrina and Walter at the Mather Campground on the South Rim around 7. They had dinner and went to bed. Wake up came early on Saturday morning. They broke down the camp and moved the vehicles and were on the South Kaibab Trail at 6:55 am. Geo was the first one up on the North Rim around 6 pm. The rest followed shortly. Meanwhile, Simona and I left Glendale at 7:30 am and were in Flagstaff by 9:30. We had some errands to run and then we were back on the road at 12. We made it to the North Rim at 4 pm and had the camp set up before 5 pm. Geo ran into the campsite and sent Simona back with the car to pick up the others (it's about a mile and a half to the campsite from the trailhead).

On Sunday morning, we were up at 5:30 but didn't make it to the trailhead until 7 am. They were quickly off and I got to go take some pictures before meeting back up with Simona at the campground. We packed up by 9:15 and then we hiked on a North Rim trail called Widforss. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widforss_Trail We hiked about 2 miles each way. Then we hit the road to the South Rim. We arrived just after 4 pm because of multiple stops for taking pictures along the way. What a scenic drive it is! We set up the camp and got a shower before Geo arrived at 7:05 pm. He ran from Indian Gardens all the way to the campsite. That took him one hour and 35 minutes. Wow. It took a little longer for Sabrina to summit and then Mark and Walter came along too. We were all clean and had dinner by 10 pm. Mark drove home that night (he had to teach on Monday!) and the rest of us passed out and were up before 6:30 on Monday morning.

The drive home was easy compared to all the little stretches of highway we were on Saturday and Sunday. We got home about 12:30 pm on Monday and we were back to our routines instantly!

Total trail miles hiked: 43.2, with a bit extra for hiking on the rims (just shy of two marathons, which would be 52.4 miles).
Total miles driven: approx. 794 in 3 days.
Hours of sleep (for Krissy): 6 each night (one night without a sleeping bag due to my last-minute counting error).
Hours of enjoyment (for Krissy): the whole trip!

I hope you think that my husband and friends are crazy: this is not normal behavior. R3 is not meant for everyone and certainly not reasonable in 2 days. These people are very lucky. It could have been very bad for them. Thankfully, they survived and are even talking about doing it again!

Enjoy my pictures. I hope to be adding more from Sabrina and Simona soon.

Best of Krissy's R3

Four Peaks

2008-03-17T22:45:00.003-07:00

Normally, I would let the pictures speak for themselves, but this was such an adventure in itself, I must tell you how the day went. Sabrina, Walter, Geo and I set out for this after taking care of family business first in the morning. We gathered supplies we thought we needed (food and drinks) for a short hike. Our plan was made the night before and we had a description of the trail - moderate, 4 mile loop - and we had directions and had looked at the map on googlemaps. Off to a good start. We set off sometime around 11ish from the west side of town. It took 45 minutes to get to the far east side of the valley. Then we drove off towards the turn off from the highway. We spent about an hour looking for our turn, before we finally called in help from my mom and dad. First, I amazed I had signal in the middle of nowhere (near Sunflower, AZ). We talked for about 15 minutes, trying to find out where we went wrong. Finally, my mom sleuthed the answer by googling for other hikers' journals. That worked well. We found our turn and set off for 19 miles of dirt. That took an hour and a half. It was only then I saw the words high-clearance on the sheet of paper we had. The Vibe is a great car, but high-clearance is really a stretch. Oh well, like we could turn back now?
We set off on a lovely road featuring great camp sites and tons of off-wheel recreation vehicles of the 2 and 3 wheel sort. Most of them were quite friendly as they must have laughed at our imposing size. We finally reached the parking area and decided we were underdressed. It was cold on Saturday. Never got over 60. And very windy. It was good we had an odd collection of long sleeves to wear on the hike. And our 4 mile plan quickly doubled when we decided to hike the extra 1.3 miles each way to the trailhead instead of drive. With all the commotion about the cold, I actually forgot to bring snacks along with us from the car. Oops. At least we all had water. So, I did about 8 miles without snacks. No fun. It was 3 hours of walking, in all. I was very happy to get back to the car, where there was plenty of food. We celebrated our very cold hike with a Green Machine, an Odwalla juice. Then we drove back the 19 miles of dirt (another hour and a half) while we studied our Spanish knowledge as a group. Good fun (mucha divertida?)! Who knew Sabrina speaks Spanish too. That makes something like 6 languages she can get by in ;)
We arrived in Fountain Hills and all I could think about was pizza and beer. We thought we'd show our "tourists" the fountain while we were there, and there was a place called Euro Pizza with great pizza, cold beer and a view of the fountain to eat outside while propane heaters kept us toasty! Doesn't get any better than that. I think we got home around 9:30 pm. Not a bad day. No, in fact, a great day!

Four Peaks

Birthday Party

2008-01-29T00:02:00.000-07:00

Well, about 2 weeks ago when we found out Geo's mom needed the coronary bypass operation, we told her surgeon, okay, fine, but she needs to be home by her birthday. We said hospital birthdays are no fun. Well, after a major surgery with a lengthy recovery, we are just blessed to be able to celebrate another birthday with McMom, period! So today we decorated her room, invited a few friends over, and had "high tea" with scones as the birthday pastry of choice (great idea, Andie!!!). Mom seemed to love it and we were all happy to celebrate the day with her. And her surgeon stopped by and was happy to wish her a happy birthday as well. I won't mention that we broke about every rule the Critical Care Unit has, but it's all for the patient's well-being, right? ;)
FYI: the broken rules include 1) no more than 2 family members visiting at a time, 2) no food or drink in the room except patient food, 3) actually, breaking the first rule felt like breaking two at the same time, because it was mostly friends visiting and there were 7 of us there at the same time. Mom's nurses have been wonderful and her nurse today was a doll for letting us entertain mom this way and they even bought her a balloon and a sweet little angel for a present. We are so spoiled!

Enjoy the pictures!

McMom's birthday

Surgery News

2008-01-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is better late than never, but for those of you who follow this blog, you probably know about our McMom. She just underwent a scheduled triple bypass operation yesterday and she is doing well, thank God. She's recovering in the Critical Care Unit for now. Hopefully this surgery will improve her chances to travel again, something she was missing as her health started to decline. Thanks for keeping her in your prayers.

We love McMom!

Happy New Year v 3.0

2008-01-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

This is my third posting on or around New Years. Amazing how the time goes. This year, we are NOT setting out on some truly global adventure. I know, how sad. Instead, Geo is turning all his focus on growing his new venture: Arizona Tags and Titles. This is a very worthy thing to do. He's got his new MBA skills, time to put them to use.
I will be attending to all the home fires, some of these haven't even been started yet. It will be a wild adventure for me, I'm sure.
New Year's started off with a bang! Sabrina was here from Germany for the holidays. We threw ourselves a traditional German style party, complete with sparklers, bleigießen, feuerzangenbowle and a showing of "Dinner for One" (don't ask). Just after midnight, we started setting off a string of firecrackers and colorful fireworks. The only problem was the very very cold wind.
Our guest list was short and sweet: Me and Geo, Pooja, Sabrina, Walter (also visiting from Texas), McMom, Andie, Michael, Vania and Simona.
I wish you all a happy and healthy year full of blessings. We hope to keep this blog up to date once in awhile...even if we're not living truly globally for the moment.

Keep in touch!

NYE 2008

Slice of Paradise

2007-12-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

This part of Australia, the northern beaches of Cairns and the surrounding areas, is so idyllic, this is the only way I can describe it. We saw everything from the reef to the rainforest in such a short time. We rode on a catamaran, a train, and a skyrail cable car. We petted koalas, kangaroos, cockatoos and experienced culture while having dinner with aboriginal people. I'm not sure what else you could ask for in an adventure. And to top it all off, we beat the Christmas rush! The weather there was warm, but not too hot for me. The humidity was high, but I think I'm even getting used to that! We had some early/late showers, but it never rained on us while we were out and about. Stunning, absolutely stunning...

Cairns and Kuranda

Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef

2007-12-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

I wish these pictures would be able to show more of how much I enjoyed our trip yesterday. Sadly, I didn't do the best job taking photos. Annette bought an underwater camera but will need to get the film developed before we have any of those pictures available. I was a bit nervous to go in the water, because I haven't really enjoyed previous salt water experiences in the past. But I was determined to try this once in a lifetime opportunity. George was a great swim buddy for the day and we did see some great coral and fish. There wasn't anything super exciting in the water that we saw, but for a first time snorkeler like me, I couldn't get enough. The water was clear and warm. The coral reef was amazing. There were coral of every color and shape. The best thing about the coral is that it is named as whatever it resembles above the water surface, for example we saw corals called brain, mushroom, staghorn, Christmas tree...
I thoroughly enjoyed the snorkeling experience and I won't be afraid again to try it if I get another chance. We had 3 hours of exploring underwater and I spent almost every minute in the sea.

Today (Sunday here) we decided to take a day off from touring. The environment here is amazing. I've been sitting outside a cafe in Palm Cove for nearly 3 hours, sorting out pictures to share. I've had a soy latte. I get distracted by every wave that rolls into shore. The sky is blue, but there are big gray clouds all around. Here it rains every morning and evening (must be seasonal). The temperature is balmy and breezy, perfect for sitting at an outdoor cafe like I've found. Tourist season picks up next week, so we pretty much have the whole place to ourselves. The internet connection is painfully slow, but what's the rush? The only thing I'm even tempted to do is to run into the sea and splash around, but without the stinger suit, I'm afraid for that. The stinger nets are placed on each beach for a small protected swimming area, but ours is about 1 km down the beach. For now I'll just enjoy the lush vegetation and the stunning view. Until it's time for lunch...hopefully that will be soon ;)

Great Barrier Reef

Sydney and Surrounds

2007-12-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

It's hard to gather enough words to give justice to the gorgeous time we had in Sydney. We spent the better part of 3 days exploring our suburb and the city. It was amazing just experiencing the city at our own pace. No agendas, no tours...just our maps and some helpful advice from tour books, family and friends. We had really nice weather too. It only threatened to rain, but never really managed to spit out more than a few drops. We really managed to see a lot in our short time there, without feeling rushed. And staying with Annette's family (they are so gracious!) and meeting up with my friend Markus (my RA from U of A) helped me not feel like a tourist but more like a local. Sydney really is stunning.

Sydney Favourites

What in the World?

2007-12-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

...is Krissy doing in Australia with her brother in law, George, you might be asking yourself at the moment?
Honestly, I think I probably have some disease...maybe suitcase-packing-travel-mania. But, since I'm here, I'll try to make the best of it :)
Australia is a nice place, so far. It was always someplace I thought I'd like to go, far far away, but the people I knew from here had been nice. It wasn't a hard trip getting here. I actually got 7 hours of sleep on the flight. Then, we hit the ground running with George's friends Mike and Annette. Mike had a business trip to Melbourne that he was going to combine with a visit to Sydney to visit Annette's aunt. George was invited and I invited myself to accompany George. I was just joking when I said it, but he said sure I could come along. What a great guy he is. We are having a lovely time, and I hope that we'll get to see a lot more now that we're in Sydney and have a great home base to stage our days from.
Here are a few pictures from the weekend in Melbourne.

Melbourne Highlights

Weekend in Toronto

2007-11-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

We took the red eye from Phoenix to Toronto on Friday night. Got to spend all of Saturday in Toronto with Geo's brother Chris. Then he took us home to Guelph. We set out not so early the next day to see the Escarpment near Guelph in Elora. That was cool. Then we came home and got to meet Emily. She made us an amazing dinner that we shared with another housemate, Tara. On Monday we drove to Niagara Falls and got to spend a day with Chris and Emily doing very touristy things, but getting to let out our inner children! It was a great day. They were so kind to drive us to the border city of Fort Erie, where we called a cab and went to the Buffalo Airport to get us a car to drive the rest of the way through New York. Our border crossing was also one for the annals...they stopped us for "gamma" detection. Then they sent us in the immigration issue room, where we were prepared to sit for hours, even though we had no idea why. Luckily, they were confused and found us and pulled us out to a much shorter line and we were on our way within minutes. Very strange. And the poor taxi driver lady couldn't charge us for "waiting" time because it was the car that triggered the "gamma" detection. Oh well. She was sweet.

And can I mention that we ate at mostly veg friendly restaurants that I would highly recommend if anyone is visiting the greater Toronto Area? Yummy!

Best of Canada Weekend

Diwali at our house

2007-11-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

A most important holiday in India, Diwali was something we didn't get to experience while we were there. So, Pooja and I planned our own Diwali celebration for our friends here. We planned for a week and cooked the food for more than 3 days. We had so much fun and everyone enjoyed learning a thing or two about this festive time in India.

Best of Diwali

A Fun Weekend Project

2007-10-10T00:15:00.001-07:00

In case you wake up one perfectly beautiful early October morning and decide (over a very leisurely breakfast) to clean out your garage, here is what you have to look forward to.

Thank God Drew dropped in for the weekend. We would not have been able to do this project in such a short time if he weren't here, twiddling his thumbs for the weekend. Drew is Walter's new roommate in Texas and he came out on Friday evening to pick up a car that he was going to drive back to Texas on Saturday. Well, that didn't work out so well, so we put him to work until he could pick up his car on Monday morning. Woo-hoo, our lucky day.

I have to say, the epoxy was my idea. Geo had been talking about it for ages, but you're only going to have a clean garage once in a lifetime, so we took the opportunity to put on the epoxy. Not a bad deal, really. Smelly stuff, but oh so pretty when it's finished. Now I am sure it is not environmentally friendly, but we're going to have a spiffy looking garage for a long time now!

Epoxy Project

Driving Me...

2007-10-05T00:16:00.000-07:00

Crazy??? No, not yet. But let me tell you two crazy things about driving. One, I've been teaching our new roommate Pooja how to handle the American roads. Not so bad, but I tell you there is nothing like teaching someone the rules of the road to do an inventory on your own driving habits. And the drivers here on the road in Glendale have been driving me crazy! I have never seen such recklessness...I just can't handle it anymore. It would make me mad if I were the one driving, but I'm stuck in the front seat trying to explain to sweet Pooja why all these drivers are making me crazy. We've got about 7 hours or so behind the wheel together so far (I think) and just thinking about getting her 30 hours in (what is recommended for new 15 year old drivers, not those with licenses from other countries!!!) is enough to make me throw in the towel. Not because of Pooja, mind you, but the other crazies on the road. Argh!!!

And two...tonight I took my first spin around town in our new-to-us stick-mobile. I have been afraid to drive the oh-so-cute, but terribly impractical Toyota MR2 Spyder. I'm glad it's Geo's commuting car! But he needs to borrow my car one of these days to bring home some stuff from Prescott, so he's got good incentive to give me driving lessons. So I went from teacher to student tonight. He's a great teacher, but I'm glad I can punch him when he tells me to go faster than the posted speed limit. Thankfully, Pooja hasn't started punching me yet when I tell her to speed up to reach the posted speed limit! ;)

Remind me, I must post a picture of us in our cute new car here! Here's to safe and defensive drivers!!! :)

A few days in Shanghai

2007-09-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

Shanghai Highlights

Just a few highlights of things we've been doing in Shanghai.

Chinese Food

2007-09-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

Chinese Food

Just to whet your appetite.

The Great Wall of China

2007-09-08T07:24:00.001-07:00

We saw the Great Wall today. One word: awesome. Again, I'll update with the story later. For now, the album.

Great Wall

My first trip to China

2007-09-08T07:22:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have to edit this later with a story about getting to China, but at least you'll have pictures while you wait. I'm falling asleep at the laptop now, sitting up. We've been here almost 30 hours, and I'm just so tired...

Enjoy the pictures!

To Beijing with the Meyers

Hiking in Havasupai

2007-08-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

The plan was to hike Havasupai Canyon. I'm not sure who made the plan first, all I know is that I was going to be involved quite heavily, as the local person with the contact ability. The trip got organized pretty quickly, once I realized that Walter was actually coming for a visit during Sabrina's short-term stay. With Walt's schedule of 3 days on and 4 days off while performing nursing duties, we had time for a quick trip down to the most beautiful spot in Arizona.
I booked us camping spots for 2 nights during the week...very easy to get. Maybe because it was after school had started and it's still quite warm during the day. Anyway, it worked out well. Our plan was to spend two nights and hike the 9 miles each way, being able to take all the time we needed. We didn't rush down the canyon, because each step gave us something new to look at! But after a late night arrival party and an early morning departure, we were anxious to sit a spell. Needless to say, we slept very well the first night we were down there.
Day 2 of our trip gave us a full day to explore. We decided to search for the Colorado River confluence in the Grand Canyon National Park...didn't quite make it, but had a blast in the process. We ended up hiking about 7 or 8 miles that day. Also, we discovered that Sabrina really doesn't like peanut butter. She survived only on pretzels that day. Wow.
Our last day involved hiking back up 9 miles. We were lucky to get a donkey to pack our our bags. Only $50 for 3 bags. Not bad. It made the hike uphill bearable. Barely. I have a small problem with overheating...I always do! It was about 95 F that day when we got near the top. And it was high noon. Ugh. Nearing heat exhaustion is no good, but thank God, I made it. I did manage to drink a 32 ounce gatorade upon the completion of the hike (in about 10 minutes). Yummy.
Also, we survived the trip as vegans. All 3 of us consumed all vegan food. It was awesome being able to cook and eat the food I wanted to eat. And very sweet that Walt and Sabrina put up with me and my crazy ideas! I don't think they minded very much ;)

Enjoy the pictures...and plan your own trip soon! Let me know if I can join you :)

Havasupai Canyon 2007

Roommate Reunion

2007-08-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

On Sunday night, our former roommates Sabrina and Walter arrived from a lengthy absence from AcomaHoma. It was a chance to throw a proper party so it was a reunion of many friends around the pool. The heat still lingers through the latter part of August...many of us enjoyed the chance to get wet, whether or not we were actually in the pool!
It was so nice to have Walter around again, even if just for a short while. It seemed like he really never left, although having him home again made us realize how much we miss him!
Sabrina will be staying for awhile, so her late arrival (without one piece of luggage) didn't bother us too much. We're enjoying her stay while it lasts :)

Enjoy the pictures, friends and family!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ktgm721/ReunionAcoma

Bad car news

2007-08-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

Just when you think you've got everything figured out...Geo's new car (the 94 Ford Escort) that Walter so lovingly got into action for us has died. Officially. I think. He spent the last 10 days without it (not really a problem since he was at cancer camp in Prescott) but today he picked it up, having paid $1600 for it and was on his way home. I jokingly told him I wouldn't drink too much wine while making dinner in case he needed to be rescued. Well, 5 minutes after he should have been home, I started calling him, but his phone went straight to voice mail. He called 5 minutes after that from Claimjumper, where he was stranded. He actually drove a mile past the restaurant area and had to run back a mile to make a phone call. His phone was dead. Bizarre, as the roadside assistance guy said. So, he called and I picked him up. On the way there, I saw a white car stranded on the highway with a cop behind it with his lights running. I thought to myself how nice that the cops are probably finding a stolen vehicle that could be returned to its owner. I didn't know where Geo had broken down, so it didn't even occur to me that this was his car!!!
Anyway, the cop had already called a tow truck. We unloaded the car and waited for the truck. We got home and enjoyed dinner, only about an hour late (this at 10:35, by the way). On the way home from the breakdown site (less than 7 miles from home) we called our friend Abe about buying his car, since he's moving home to Singapore and won't be able to take it with. I'll post the pictures of the new car when we get it. For now, I will be mourning the loss of our $900 beautiful Ford Escort. It was a really pretty car. And very fuel efficient. I will miss it...

Airport Updates

2007-08-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

It has been *so long* since I have been to Phoenix Sky Harbor. In fact, it's probably been 6 weeks. Wow. How quick things change. Actually, what I'm griping about now is the parking situation. I can't even think of the last time we had to park at the airport. That's one of the benefits of having roommates! Someone is always avaialable to drive :) So, arriving at the airport today and finding it's $8/day to park in the blazing hot Arizona sunshine (and spend 15 minutes at least finding a spot) or $10/day to park in the comfort of the garage and not spend more than 5 minutes looking for a spot...hmmm, tough choice. So, for my 5 day trip to LA, I will spend $50 in parking. Now, I know gas is expensive (actually, it's getting cheaper every week, yea!) but this is something that I think I have miscalculated. McMom offered me a ride to the airport, but foolish me, thinking it was $4/day and just as easy for me to take myself, rejected her offer. Again, foolish me. I shall endeavor not to ever have to park at the airport again.
Meanwhile, I am thankful for free wi-fi in the terminals. You should see how many of us fellow travelers are hunched over laptops. I love it!
And while I take a look at the fancy flat panel tvs hanging all around, I am feeling pretty guilty for my ease and comfort to travel the way I want to, when I want to. I'm watching the story about the bridge in Minnesota that has collapsed and I feel bad, because I know people that spend time there. So, I am at a loss, because I don't spend a lot of time watching the news, and I rarely know what's going on around me. Talk about feelings of selfishness, being made aware with this news in my face. Life is simpler when you don't have to worry about what's going on outside of your own sphere, but these are real people that have to deal with this crazy stuff every day. Wow. My prayers are with those affected by this tragedy in Minnesota. But more and more, I realize that this is a big world (over 6 billion people) and that God loves each and every one of us the same. That's wow. I don't want my sometimes apathetic approach to be confused for not caring. All I can say is that I'm happy my future's in God's hands. Now only if everyone else I care about had the same approach...
Sorry if this is preachy, or offends. But when I get out of my selfish world, this is the way my brain ends up thinking. Maybe I should spend more time at airports by myself.

Remodeling

2007-07-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Since our house suddenly was very empty, and I'm not working yet, it was time to work on a few house projects. I somehow managed to convince my very smart, MBA-holding husband that I could actually be making us money by working on the house (it is an investment after all). Not hiring contractors to do this sort of work seemed like the way to go. I've put in more hours than I can count and I've taken one wound to my left leg (thank you, shims) and now I've painted my hair too. Sweet. Enjoy some pictures on my picasa site. Hope to have the whole project finished soon, then you can all come for a visit!

Remodeling

Memorial for Grandma

2007-07-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

On 21 June 2007, my grandma, Marcella "Marsha" Ann Conly passed away after a long illness of emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was 79 years old. Geo and I attended her memorial on 7 July 2007 (a fitting day, 7-7-7, as she was also a fan of the "slot machine"). Geo and I thought the memorial to be a fitting tribute to a wonderful person who was able to brighten everyone's day, even when her days weren't going so well. I'm so thankful for my cousin Kam and her family for making her last few years so wonderful. We are truly blessed to have so many caring people in our families. I am thankful that her suffering is over now and she has a new, perfect body to enjoy in Heaven. In Christ's family, we are deeply comforted now, knowing that we don't have to say good bye, but simply see you later.

Grandma's Memorial

Memories of LA

2007-06-24T00:02:00.001-07:00

Playing two truths and a lie once we got stuck in classic LA traffic to pass the time. It worked. Walter is a fantastic story teller (stuff you wouldn't believe any of it could be true) and Joab is a good bluffer and Emily has a totally creative streak when it comes to these stories. I played alright, considering I was the one driving!

Not being able to snack at all in George's truck (nonetheless, thanks for letting us take such a cool ride to LA); a tricky proposition for a toddler and a 4 year old.

Walter spending almost 8 hours by himself at Disneyland and California Adventure, but sure getting a lot out of his entrance fees. He made it on almost every ride!

Going with Miriam on her first roller coaster ride (Matterhorn Bobsleds---no comment---) and Asa on his first non-roller coaster ride (Storyland Canal Boats).

Squeals of excitement from Miriam and Asa!

My mom and dad taking the kids home so the big kids could enjoy the park, which we did to the fullest extent possible. We closed the park down at 12:02 am and didn't get home until nearly 2 am. Having left the house at 7:15 am, that made for a long day. But it was totally worth it.

Playing on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters (the coolest ride at Disneyland) twice with no waiting either time. Joab beat Walter and Emily and I were pretty far behind.

Getting no more than 6 hours of sleep for 3 days in a row...

Having so many questions that only wikipedia could answer.

Taking the driving tour of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica on a gorgeous Saturday and really getting to enjoy the experience (even with the crazy ex-Californian tour guide/driver---me!).

Missing Geo was no fun :(

And so much more. Enjoy the pictures.

LA with the Roommates

Seriously?!?!

2007-06-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

Did all this happen in one week? Geo moved McMom out from Arkansas so she can live in Arizona again. All of us pitched in to help her get settled in quickly! Then we took a road trip to IKEA in Tempe so we could pick up a few things for her new place and get a few fun new toys for our house. After that, we decided that it would be super easy to drive my mom and dad's stuff that was in storage in Prescott Valley to their new house in Los Angeles. That wasn't such a bad idea, but we got a flat tire about 1 1/2 out of Phoenix...the angel that came to fix us got us back on the road in 15 minutes. Thank you, Lord! We spent one extra night in LA to compensate for us not getting there until 3:30 am. It was fun to spend some time in the new house and I also got to visit my grandma, a lot of cousins and my sister and her husband. I just wish I took more pictures :}

One week in Glendale

Land of the Midnight Sun

2007-05-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a 2 week cruisetour of Alaska. We had a wonderful time. You'll have to check out the website I posted some pictures on: www.picasaweb.google.com/ktgm721

Hope you get a chance to have a look. Let me know if you like the format of viewing pictures this way. Thanks!

By the Numbers

2007-05-09T23:18:00.000-07:00

I've seen these sort of lists in lots of magazines...they seem to be a good way to share information. Here's my compilation of the 104 days we spent on the sub-continent (from biggest to smallest).

4000 Indian rupees we didn't get to spend, now taking up space in my wallet (almost $100 USD)
1488 Pages I read in Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy" (the longest book I've ever read)
32 Sessions of yoga I attended (for free, woo-hoo!)
9 Domestic flights (one ways) paid for in cash because these airlines don't take foreign credit cards: Kingfisher, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Air Deccan, IndiGo)
6 Frankies eaten after midnight on campus at various all-night parties (a most-delicious Indian snack)
3.63 Geo's awesome GPA at the Indian School of Business (transferred back only as pass/fail)
2 Bollywood films seen (3 hours each!)
Too many Days until we can go back to visit our new friends and be Indian again!

Twelve and a half days

2007-04-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

That's how long it's been since we landed in LAX on our way home from India. This is noteworthy because it marks how long some say it takes to break out of jet lag. Some people say it takes a day per time zone. India is 12 and a half hours away from Arizona, so we're officially over our jet lag. For the record, coming home this time was probably the easiest it's ever been for me. I suffered more the first two weeks we were in India than I did coming home. I would say for Geo, it was the opposite. He seemed to do better than me going over, and he definitely was the sleepier one this time. I'm baffled about the intricacies of jet lag still; you'd think by now I'd have some authoritative opinion about traveling. But no. I have nothing to offer. I guess I was lucky coming home this time.
Speaking of being home, it's nice. The culture shock wasn't nearly as bad as the stomach shock I had for the first week! Maybe being gone only three and a half months isn't long enough to completely forget about the life you lived before you left. We slipped into our new routine easily, although we certainly can't come close to saying we have an actual routine. The focus now is to get the important stuff done each day and go to bed ready for the next day. Easy enough for now!

So long, sub-continent

2007-04-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

We refuse to say "good bye", because India (and the other countries we visited in the sub-continent) refuses to let go of us. We will be back! We are home and have not really had a chance to share all 10,000 pictures (or 0.1 lakh pictures, depending who you talk to) that show us having the time of our life in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Thanks to all of you who showed off your wonderful countries, homes and shared your hearts with us. And for those of you at home, thanks for making sure we wouldn't stay too long away and the hearty welcome upon our return.

If I owe anyone pictures, please let me know! Stay in touch, no matter where you are or where we are! All the best :)

Day 3 in Nepal

2007-04-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

Our travel plans for our third day included picking up our buddy Bev from the airport before we would all set out for a day of sightseeing outside Kathmandu valley. We visited two really interesting old temple squares, both were UNESCO sites, as far as I could tell. The architecture in these villages is really unique, I think. It blends Indian tradition with Chinese/Tibetan influence. I really like it! At least it was something completely different to look at!

We started at Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square, the heart of the ancient city Kathmandu. It was built between the 12th and 18th centuries. Until the 20th century, the royal family of Nepal lived there. It is made up mostly of temples and shrines, both Hindu and Buddhist.

In Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square.

Our second stop was in a city called Bhaktapur. This name means "city of devotees" and I guess it is a fitting name, because again the old square is full of temples and shrines, each one more elaborate than the last. I saw so many well-maintained "squares" (I'm lacking a better word), but in my opinion, they are more than comparable to the beautiful squares of the beautiful European cities that we saw last year. They seem to center on a temple, and there are tall buildings with convenient rooftop terraces to enjoy the ambience from the best viewing areas. These squares were really enjoyable in this sense. I hadn't experienced anything quite like this in India, so this was quite a treat for me.

These two pictures are from Bhaktapur.

The next stop was a hill station called Nagarkot. This is a popular place to go, as it isn't very far from Kathmandu, and it offers stunning views of the Himalayas. Sadly, there was a very heavy haze in the air the whole three days we were in Nepal. This made for limited views on our Everest flight, and the mountains were almost non-existant from the heights of Nagarkot :( We climbed up to 2, 175 M and didn't see a lot of any mountains, except for some terraced gardens.
We did get to try Everest beer, at Bev's recommendation. It's pretty good; I'd have to say the closest thing to proper beer so far! It actually had some flavor and texture.
After a cold evening, we set out for the Lookout Tower in the morning, about a 10 km roundtrip hike. It would have been amazing if we could see anything beyond the haze. Instead, we enjoyed the last time we'd see Bev on the sub-continent and the exercise was refreshing. Our breakfast at the hotel was filling and then we loaded up the van and set off for the airport for our flight back to Delhi.

These last 3 pictures are from Nagarkot.

Mt. Everest!

2007-04-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Getting close to Everest with the airplane wing for perspective!

Even closer. This was the best picture we got of Mt. Everest.

Looking over the propeller at the Himalayas before we saw Everest.

George, Krissy and Geo after our fabulous flight experience. This was my first flight on such a small plane!

Today we saw something I never thought I'd see in my entire life: Sagarmatha (in Nepali), or Chomolungma (in Tibetan) aka Mt. Everest (in English). I have to say, it would be really silly to come to Nepal and not see the tallest mountain the world. Since we were here only for 3 days, the only way we could do this was with a scenic mountain flight. We paid about $130 USD for the experience. The flight was a little more than an hour delayed, not really sure why. But the domestic flight terminal in Kathmandu is an adventure in itself. We were in our taxi at 6:45 this morning and the plane finally took off around 9:15. We were back on the ground by 10:15. We flew within a few miles of Mt. Everest (I think it's the south face of the mountain). Kathmandu City was really hazy today. I'm not sure if it's dust or pollution or something else that makes the sky over the valley so brown. But above the clouds the sky was a very pretty shade of blue. I imagine on a clear day the flight would be spectacular. Not being able to see the true height of the mountains made it hard to get the full WOW! factor. But we got a good sense for the size of the Himalayan Range, to be sure. Almost every peak in the range we saw was over 20,000 ft. Mt. Everest is officially 29,028 ft (8848 M). That number does make my head spin. Our flight elevation was about 25,000 ft. As our certificates from Buddha Air say, "I did not climb Mt Everest...but touched it with my heart!" A bit sentimental, but fitting for "the best mountain flight in the world." A nice reason to get up early in the morning :)

Sleepless Nights

2007-04-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

George and Geo walking with our guide for today through the streets of Thamel, Kathmandu City, Nepal.

Our backpacks packed and ready to go. These are the housekeeping staff that were so helpful to us during our stay at ISB. Carrying our own bags would be absolutely ridiculous in their minds.

Geo and Krissy at the party the last night of our stay at ISB. The theme was to dress in white shirts and blue jeans. Geo went in reverse!

Our stay at ISB has come to an end :( This is very sad, because we really had a wonderful experience while we were there. But the good part about leaving is that it means Geo is done with his MBA and we began our 10 day road trip of the sub-continent.
The last night we were at school meant another party...ISB-ans really know how to have a good time. The party was held in our student village, which meant we wouldn't get much sleep in our room. We were "forced" to dance the night away. At 4:30 am, we gave up and went to sleep. Our fatigue allowed us to pass out immediately, even though the music didn't stop until 5:30 am. Wow!
After a hectic "last day" on campus, we managed to leave on schedule (okay, we were 12 minutes behind, but that's not bad for Indian "stretchable" time). We went to the airport in time for our 10:30 pm flight. We arrived in Delhi at 12:30 am and met George at the international arrivals right around 1 am. Our plan to sleep at the retiring rooms at the airport didn't work out (not good, since Lonely Planet made it sound quite reasonable). We were stuck in the departure terminal, but our flight didn't begin checking in until 9 am. So, we slept in the lounge area but it was pretty restless. I gave into sleep at 4:30 am and was awake by 8. Geo got a bit more than me. George probably slept less than an hour. Poor guy. Our flight to Nepal was just a little late. So far, we have explored the Thamel neighborhood of Kathmandu. It's really nice here. The weather is awesome. The high today was 86 F and at 10 pm it's 58 F. What a change from Hyderabad!
First thing tomorrow morning we're taking a flight over Mt. Everest. Pray for a cloudless sky for us so we can thoroughly enjoy our flight. I should be able to blog about it tomorrow, so check again when you can :)

Counting Down

2007-03-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Now, I know I haven't been the best at blogging. So for the faithful that are still checking this once in a while, I thank you! The only way I can justify my less-than-regular blogging is because I'm having too much fun in India. Really, it's been a great time. I know I've been boring you lately with pictures and stories of where we went and what we saw on our trip between terms. That was so 6 weeks ago. Good grief, a lot can happen in 6 weeks.
I have been putting up with really warm weather. It's been up over 100 degrees for about 10 days now, and it will not be getting cooler. At first it was okay, because the nights were still cool. Now we have to sleep with the a/c unit turned on all night. It makes a lot of noise, so at first I resisted this. But now, it's just hot. So the a/c stays on at night.
I've been enjoying more interaction with the Indian ISB students now that we have them all to ourselves. There were just 6 exchange students for this last term. And the ISB students have all been placed for their jobs after they graduate, so there is much less stress around here. We've been having lots of fun and I hardly get to sleep. Poor Geo has so much to keep him busy though: finishing his last projects, trying to find a job...
Geo's sister Andie had a quick visit here too, over her Spring Break last week. We had a good time showing her around Hyderabad, and then we took a 2 night trip to Sri Lanka! It was a beautiful island country, but it was hot and humid there too. But we stayed at one of the Taj hotels (a really nice chain in India, and I guess Sri Lanka too!) right on the water. There wasn't really a beach scene though, but it made for a great view and awesome sunsets.
Geo has 3 days of classes left before he's done with his MBA! If only we knew where he's going to work after this degree is done...oh well. There is certainly nothing to stress about, since we know the plan is already made. We'll find out when the time is right! Despite having his fortune read (some Indians are really into astrology), we know God is in control and it's just much better that way!
Geo's brother George will be joining us on 4 April. Then we're off to Kathmandu, Nepal and Lahore, Pakistan. Our Indian hub will be Delhi. And we might get to take a trip into Chandigarh, Punjab. Awesome!
I'll try to get some more postings taken care of before we're home on 15 April. Stay tuned :)

Hotel Killa Bhawan

2007-03-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

The terrace on top of our hotel.

Our quaint bed. Geo and I barely fit!

The colorful sitting area just off our room.

This was going to be our fancy splurge for the trip. It wasn't exactly like Steph expected it to be, but it still had plenty of charm. There are only 6 rooms, I think. We were made to feel like family there, more than any other place. And the terrace on the top was totally special!

Next Stop: Jaisalmer (the Golden City)

2007-03-15T00:10:00.000-07:00

Jaisalmer Fort lit up at night.

Geo on top of the fort.

A giant sandcastle in the desert.

Cars aren't allowed to go up in the fort. Only auto-rickshaws and cows.

The Cenotaphs.

In the middle of nowhere is this magnificent fortress. It's really like a giant, golden sandcastle. And we were lucky enough to get stay inside the fort. There is a bit of controversy about this, but I went along for the experience anyway! The controversy is related to the inadequate plumbing lines built a long time ago when the fort only had a thousand or so living there. Now, with the increased tourism, it really can't support the thriving tourist spot it has become. The place we stayed seemed to be aware of this though and trying to help.

There were some Jain temples built in the fort that were pretty cool. Mostly, we just enjoyed the gorgeous sunsets over the golden city. We saw the cenotaphs that were built for the old maharajas. And we got to see Steph's mom's friends that were also in town.

Devi Bhawan Haveli

2007-03-06T03:32:00.000-07:00

This place was so lush! I felt very comfortable here and it was a shame we had to leave after only 2 nights. The only problem was the first night, when the power wouldn't stay on regularly. They managed to fix that though. Continuous power does seem to be a problem in most of Rajasthan, we learned.

Jodhpur - the Blue City

2007-03-06T03:08:00.000-07:00

Jodhpur's Clock Tower

Krissy, Cecelia, and Stephanie enjoying the special lassi

K & G at Umaid Bhawan Palace (construction began 1929); home of the maharaja

K & G at Meherangarh Fort (Majestic Fort); this fort has been around since at least 1806

View from the Fort to the Umaid Bhawan Palace; notice some of the blue houses that give Jodhpur its nickname (the baggy riding pants also took their name from this city)

Jodhpur is a mere 315 km away from Jaipur, but this was still a long and tiring journey. We arrived to a lush, peaceful oasis (our haveli, more on this later) and the girls set out for a special lassi, called makhania. This treat is so delicious. Lassi is basically made from yogurt, water and various flavors. Mango and banana are quite popular. But this makhania lassi is made from saffron, and it's got a good bit of tang to it too. That could just be the sourness from the yogurt, I'm not really sure. Anyway, it's a bit like a melted milkshake. Creamy, cool, and thick enough to need a spoon. The place that Lonely Planet recommends for this is a small place underneath the "clock tower" in town. It's bustling, but we managed to find the place, enjoy our lassis in the store, order two more for take away (for Geo and our driver) and return to the haveli in less than an hour.
The next day we set out to do some shopping, to see some palaces, and spend time at the fort. Our friends John and Kristin were in Jodhpur with us (they stayed at a really fancy place just outside of town) so we spent the day together. We made it up for the last fort tour just before sunset. This was really nice. We also got to have dinner up on the fort, which is amazing. It feels like a movie set. There weren't more than 8 tables either. The stars are amazing to see from the top. Watching the sun go down over the blue city wasn't bad either.
After spending two nights in the quaint city, we took off for Jaisalmer, which would be a long drive, so we tried to get an early start.

Jaipur Haveli: Nana-ki

2007-02-26T00:28:00.000-07:00

Indian Valentine's Day picture.

Architectural detail of the Nana-ki Haveli.

Krissy dancing with a young performer before dinner, in front of the puppet theater.

Our room.

Our bathroom.

Geo and Cecelia (Stephanie's mom) in the stairway.

Looking from the courtyard.

In the dining room.

Chokhi Dhani

2007-02-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

Krissy, Geo and Stephanie at dinner.

Geo in a hut, one of the examples of Rajasthani homes replicated in the village.

K & G at the entrance to Chokhi Dhani.

Krissy and Kristin (wife of John, an exchange student from Duke) dancing with the performers.

K & G on our first camel ride :)

Isn't he cute?

Krissy and Stephanie riding an elephant!

First, you can look at Chokhi Dhani's website to get a better idea about where we went. We only had about 3 hours there, from 8 until 11 pm. That was enough time for a camel ride, and elephant ride, a magic show, shopping, and dancing. Also, dinner was included in the admission price, so we got to have a proper Rajasthani meal. This place was the most-mentioned attraction in all of Rajasthan according to most of our friends, both Indian and foreign. It was well-worth the price of admission (250 rupees, about $6 US).

Chokhi Dhani means "special village" and it was certainly a treat. We found that most of the people there with us were Indian, and very few signs were in English. It was a delightful evening, sharing the experience with our friends Stephanie, John, and Kristin.

Jaipur-The Pink City

2007-02-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

A glimpse of the busy Pink City.

A commonly seen type of painting used to decorate palaces. This one is in the Madhavendra Bhawan, the palace where the king kept his 9 wives.

Looking down into the neighborhood from Nahargarh (Tiger Fort).

Inside the Jaipur City Palace, see http://www.royalfamilyjaipur.com for more info.

The current maharaja still lives here in this part of the palace. Look up to see the Nahargarh fort.

K & G at the top of the Jantar Mantar, a fascinating astrological observatory that Jai Singh built for his own use, starting in 1728.

Now that we were officially in Rajasthan, it was going to mean nothing but palaces and forts. Rajasthan actually means "land of the kings." This should be fun! The first city we were going to visit was Jaipur, named after its founder, the great warrior-astronomer Jai Singh II (ruled from 1688-1744). He came to the throne at the age of 11. His name means "victory". That's enough background! The reason the city is known as the Pink City is because in 1876 the current maharaja had the whole "old" city painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales (aka King Edward VII). Pink was traditionally the color of hospitality, says Lonely Planet. Today the pink is maintained by tradition and also perhaps by the law.

Home Sweet Haveli

2007-02-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

Krissy dancing with a young boy in traditional Rajasthani style.

Geo checking out of the haveli on a rainy morning!

Mahesh, our driver, fixing our bags on top of the van, in the busy street of the village we stayed in.

Looking in our room. It was large, but simple.

Our private patio, with stairs leading up to another private balcony that looked out over the village. Wow!

View from the top of the traditional mansion into the interior courtyard.

Haveli: Traditional mansion with interior courtyards. This is the definition from Lonely Planet. Our travel agent, based in Delhi, was able to recommend a number of lovely havelis for us to stay in each night. They operate as hotels, but they often have a limited number of rooms, maybe 10-20. Dinner is often available. Breakfast is always included. We spent an average of $50 US per night for the two of us (I think). Each one was lovely and individual. Fortunately for me, all of them were written up in Lonely Planet. (I know the "Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra" edition of LP as well as I know Rick Steve's "Best of Eastern Europe" now.)

My plan is to show you each haveli as I write up the area we stayed in, then you shouldn't get too overwhelmed with information at one time.

The first place we stayed was about 100 km away from Agra, in a place that we would have never found on our own. Honestly. Our driver Mahesh found it quite easily though. Good thing, as it was in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I'm pretty sure the locals in this village must be used to the tourist vehicles that drive down the dirt roads, but this was stretching my imagination. I wasn't sure where we were going, but it was like heaven when we got there. The place was quaint. Dinner was provided. Entertainment was provided. Everything you could want was provided. An overnight thunderstorm was provided, which meant we didn't get out for our early morning walk as we had planned. Oh well.

Enjoy a glimpse at a proper haveli, heaven in the middle of nowhere for the weary traveller.

Taj Mahal

2007-02-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

An example of the marble screens that make up the Taj Mahal.

Closeup of the inlaid marble and semi-precious stones that are knowns as "pietra dura."

A view of the Taj Mahal from the Red Fort, another monument in Agra.

Inside the Oberoi Amar Vilas resort. This was our first sighting of the Taj and it did give me goosebumps.

It was an overcast day, but this picture is still stunning.

This would be a fine picture except for the little blurry spot. Who knows where that came from, but there is nothing I can do it about it now :(

Well, we finally have seen the famous Taj Mahal. Even now, I can't say that I've got all the facts straight, so to supplement the commentary, I will add facts and figures from the Lonely Planet.

First, we took the train from Delhi to Agra. That was an adventure in itself. The train departed at 6 am and that meant we had to get up at 4 am. Ouch. The train station was busy even at 5 am, but we were supervised by our Delhi driver. He waited for us to get on the train, which was nice. We were served non-stop on the 2 hour and 15 minute train ride. First, a newspaper. Then some bottled water. Then tea. After that, breakfast. Then more tea. In between all the services were the collection of the used bits too. So I don't think we would have slept, even if we wanted to. The train moved quickly and most of the pictures I got were blurry.

Our arrival in Agra was smooth. We were met by our driver Mahesh, who would be our driver for the next 10 days. He took us straight to the area around the Taj Mahal. This area is also a non-polluting zone, so we decided to be dropped off at the Oberoi hotel called Amar Vilas. This is a fantastic place, if you can afford it. We used the toilets, took a look around, and used their electric golf carts to get us as close as a vehicle can get to the Taj. We walked through a street of vendors trying to sell us batteries, memory sticks, and postcards. Then we arrived at the entry ticket gate.

Feel like guessing how much it would cost you to see the world-famous Taj Mahal with your very own eyes? I hope you enjoy the pictures, because they cost us a small fortune. If we were Indians, we would get in for 20 rupees. That's about 50 cents, US. Our tourist price per person was only 750 rupees. That's more like $20 US. Wow!

Now for the history lesson: construction of the Taj began in 1631 and was finished in 1653. It was built for the Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, who died in childbirth of their 14th child. It's really just a very large mausoleum. Very large and very impressive...

The day we were there was overcast and cool. We arrived early enough in the morning because of our handy train. This was probably the best way for us to go, as it wasn't very crowded when we were there. We were told over 20,000 people visit the Taj Mahal every day. What a thrill.

Just so you know, the Taj is closed on Fridays. In case you were planning to visit yourselves!

Slideshow from Mumbai

2007-01-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Indian Wedding Story

2007-01-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

Our Indian Wedding portrait with Ganesh and Palu and two cute kids that couldn't resist having their pictures taken with us.

Krissy's mehndi, drying on her hands.

Palu's fabulously applied mehndi, showing off for the cameras.

Geo having a bite to eat at lunch on the wedding day in traditional style.

The remains of the altar after all of the ceremony traditions had been completed.

Palu and Ganesh and a priest performing the wedding ceremonies.

I have to say it was a bit anti-climatic (anyone who has seen Monsoon Wedding might know why we think this) but that's only because Geo didn't get to see any white horses. We were honored and privileged to be invited to Palu and Ganesh's wedding in Mumbai over the weekend to celebrate their marriage. We were the only non-Indians there but we felt so welcomed and everyone was so hospitable. There were plenty of people who spoke great English to visit with and help interpret some of what was going on.

The first activity was the Mehndi celebration. This was on Friday night. We arrived moments before it started, so we met up with an Indian who has lived in Connecticut for the past 40 years and he helped us get our bearings. Mostly, there was music and stories about the bride and groom, but very little of it was in English. We amused ourselves by getting our hands painted with henna. Palu (the bride) had mehndi applied on both arms and feet, I just had some put on my palms. One tradition they observed was that Ganesh's name was written in her arms somewhere and he had to find it before the wedding could actually take place. I wished him luck! There was snack service during the story-telling and dancing, and then there was a full food-court style meal service for dinner. You walked around with a huge plate to different stations and took whatever looked interesting. What fun!

Sunday was devoted entirely to the wedding celebration. Prayers began at 7 am and after a few more wedding traditions, breakfast was served. (We actually slept through this part, although originally we had intended to be there for this part--more on that later.) We arrived around 11:15, and the priests were just finishing the actual wedding part. There was an altar-type structure set up in the middle of the room where the bride and groom sat, carrying out a number of traditions. Then it was over and lunch was served. This was served to us as we sat at long tables with a banana leaf for a plate. Yummy! After lunch, there was some more entertainment. There was music sung to tell the story of the bride and groom. I'm not sure if they had professionals singing, or if the performers were all somehow related. The families are huge, so this is entirely possible. The monologues were in English but the songs were all in various Indian languages. This went on for about an hour and a half. The last song we were invited to dance to, so we got up and did a little dancing. It was fun.

Then we watched the hall get transformed again into a beautiful stage. The bride and groom stood on the stage while family after family came up to be properly received by the bride and groom and then they posed for a picture. Every guest was invited to the stage. This is also where we presented the happy couple with a small envelope stuffed with rupees (the only type of gift that makes sense at a foreign wedding). We had our picture taken and then we went to eat again, this time at another elaborate food-court style buffet. Amazing. The food was so good. I was so full I didn't eat anything except breakfast on Monday.

The weekend was quite an experience in itself, given the travel to the BIG city and our first Indian wedding. But add to this the fact that Geo had to fight off a persistent stomach bug all weekend...we had a doctor come to visit the hotel because Geo was so uncomfortable. I actually thought he might have malaria, but the doctor decided it was just a stomach bug, so he took the antibiotic and was much better within 12 hours. Thank God for antibiotics. We had already been prescribed some for cases like this, but you never know exactly how bad it has to get before you should take them. Now we know.

We didn't do much else in Mumbai because of Geo's illness, but we did get to see the Gateway of India, Marine Drive, and Chowpatty Beach...pretty much the big landmarks in town. I'll try to come up with another blog entry for that experience after I post this wedding blog!

Indian Movie Night

2007-01-22T10:27:00.001-07:00

We got our first taste of Bollywood on Saturday night, compliments of our ISB friends Pushkar and Johnson. First, they were able to borrow another student's car so they could drive us into town in style. I have to say Pushkar is a most considerate driver. He didn't honk at anyone! What a treat :) We were planning to see Guru, which is probably the most popular movie in India right now. Needless to say, tickets were hard to come by. So we ended up seeing one called Bhagam Bhat, a slap-stick comedy with some dark twists. Pushkar was kind enough to offer a synopsis from time to time, but even with the language barrier it was a fun experience overall.
The movie started at 10:30 pm, a bit late for those of us that got up at 6:30 that morning for community service! But I thought a cold coffee from McDonald's would help me make it through the three hour event. I was wrong. I shamefully admit that I dozed off near the end. But please, this is after 12:30 am and I was tired! I think Geo managed to stay awake through the whole film...amazing. The theatre was nice enough (although Geo said it had a bit of a stinky feet odor to it, only noticeable when you first walked in). There had to be at least 200 seats, all of them filled (although not on time, people showed up until 15 minutes into the film). I won't even begin to describe the premise of the movie (you can see the movie's web site though at www.bhagambhagthefilm.com) so watch the trailer on your own...it's on the website.
The evening was great from beginning to end, despite getting home at 2:15 in the morning. I was exhausted...but it was worth it to experience fine Indian cinema. Everyone thought we were nuts for going to the film, especially without subtitles or any English. One thing ironic about this film: it was filmed in England. There were a handful of sentences in English, and the one non-Indian actor who only spoke English is probably the worst actor I have ever seen in a movie. Ever.
And a few comparisons can be made quickly. One: the audience laughed out loud continuously. That rarely happens in the states. Two: there was an intermission half way through, but it was barely long enough for Geo to get some popcorn. Three: there were lots of children and babies in the theatre. Four: the movie was 3 hours long! Five: tickets were only 100 rupees and popcorn was 20. Great deals!
And the best part? We're even willing to go again :) Guru, here we come.

Community Service Opportunities

2007-01-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

The health camp set up in the village, waiting for it to begin.

In the village with the chickens (hens).

A tent in the village. One of the many styles of housing available.

Kids checking out our parade!

In the village: all the "white hats" are the volunteers. ISB is in the far distance.

Krissy, holding a broom, with a few other volunteers (we had plenty of time for photos!).

On Saturday, the ISB community at large was given the opportunity to volunteer with a local NGO (www.premalayam.com) to provide a health camp and sanitation drive in a local "village". Several of us exchange students signed up, not really sure what we would be getting ourselves into. It looked well-organized on the school's side, and we received a proper map with all the instructions and phone numbers we would need for getting ourselves there. Three of us actually showed up at the main gate at 7 am on Saturday morning: me, Stephanie and Brannan. I thought more would join us, but it turned out it was just us. I was really hoping to get some coffee before we went, but we just went there straight away. Fine with me, since the cold weather was more than enough to keep me awake on the drive there. The village we went to was no more than 5 km away from school, so I'm glad it was just a quick ride there.
When we arrived, we signed a ledger (ledgers are common here...they are used for everything!) and received a greeting and a hat with the organization's name. A few introductions were made amongst a small group of volunteers. We waited around for something to do. We ended up being taken on a tour of the village, which turned out to be a lot like a parade with drummers and singing. Stephanie and I just followed along. Eventually we were given latex medical exam gloves and a small mask. We thought the clean up work was about to begin, but the point was to demonstrate that we were willing to work along-side the residents while they cleaned. I think the lesson for the day was "Give a man a fish, and he'll fish for a day; teach a man to fish and he'll eat forever." All good, but still we didn't have any work to do ourselves. Hmmm...the parade continued on. I felt like a celebrity being followed by the papparazzi, but honestly, I don't know who enjoyed the spectacle more: me observing the villagers or the villagers observing me!
Now the parade is over and we've ended up at the food tent. We were told breakfast and lunch would be provided. Breakfast was good: I had some flavored rice (also containing some nuts/seeds, I think) and my new favorite coconut chutney, a fiery hot, cold dressing to put on things at breakfast. Yummy. I enjoyed it, but really hoped not to get sick! You never know...but the food looked fresh (so far so good, by the way).
After breakfasting, we went back to the health camp area and because the government doctors hadn't arrived yet (3 hours late) we were all starting to get a bit restless. The villagers seemed to be losing patience, and we still hadn't actually done anything. It was now getting hotter and having only 6 hours of sleep and no caffeine, I wasn't sure I'd make it until 3:30, when we were supposed to wrap up. The three of us voted to go back to campus, having felt really good about ourselves just to make the effort and observe and get close to a real Indian community (we feel like we're in a fishbowl on campus sometimes). We said our goodbyes and gave back our hats and went back to our fishbowl.
Overall, I feel like the conditions weren't great, but they weren't the worst I've seen either. There was a small store in the village. There were toilets. There wasn't any proper sewage removal...hence the sanitation drive. I have to admit I was a bit nervous to get my hands too dirty. I'm not germaphobic, but this is real yucky stuff here. I wasn't sure I wanted to take any unnecessary health risks, so I stayed back a bit more than I could have. I probably would have been fine, but you never know. It was nice though not to be plagued by bugs of any sort. The organization of the event started off well, but because the government doctors and the medications arrived late, things sort of seemed to disintegrate. There was a small media presence there, which one of the key organizers said was the first coverage in 4 years of volunteering. Brannan even provided a small interview, who knows where that will end up.
I'm glad I went and I certainly feel privileged to have been welcomed so warmly by those putting on the event, even though they probably had no idea what to do with us either.
Enjoy a few pictures from my experience.

Shopping Excursions

2007-01-17T04:13:00.000-07:00

I spent 5 hours yesterday shopping, eating, and exploring with Noi (an exchange student) and Holly (an exchange student's fiance). I had complete success, finding a lot of nice Indian-style linen clothes and a few things to do yoga in. I don't have any pictures from this, but I want to point out the difference in return policies here. First of all, I was able to use my credit card at both places I shopped at. Bonus. At fabindia, my new favorite store, they have a strict no-return policy. Bummer. But at the new department store, Hyderabad Central, they have a return policy. Check this out:

Exchange Policy: We will accept exchanges within 7 days from the date of purchase only if the Sales Receipt (Cash Memo) is presented along with the merchandise. Books, Body Care Products, CD ROMS, Cosmetics, Crockery, Hair Accessories, Jewellery, Pens, Pharmaceuticals, Music, Soft Toys, Stationery, Toiletries, Undergarments, and Utensils cannot be exchanged. Altered, Damaged, Used, Discounted & Promotional Merchandise also cannot be exchanged. Afer Sales Services for watches, electronics, home appliances, telephones, etc. will be provided by the authorised service centres of the manufacturers. Sarees and Shoes will not be exchanged unless returned in the original condition. In case of repairable defect in Shoes & Spectacles, it will be repaired and not exchanged. We reserve the right to determine whether the goods have been damaged or used. Exchange will be entertained only once for each item sold. inter-store exchanges are permitted only for select range of products. Exchanges are permitted only between 11 am & 4 pm on all working days.

Terms of Sale: Subject to Mumbai Jurisdiction. Goods left for ALteration/Undelivered Goods must be collected within 15 days. Your purchases are guaranteed against all manufacturing defects. Please follow the washing/usage instructions as stated on the merchandise. Please retain this receipt. Exchanges without this receipt will be done at the lowest sale price of the merchandise as per our records.

Don't you think WalMart could get away with something like this?!?
Happy Shopping wherever you are in the world :)

(PS. If you want anything from fabindia, see their website at fabindia.com and let me know. Seriously, it's my new favorite store!)

Busy Weekend

2007-01-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

There are so many things I could tell you about to fill you in for the last 3 or 4 days. Let me see where to start:

Friday: I sat in for my first business school class. They are offering a lecture series this term about the medical/pharmaceutical industries in India. I learned a lot about the pharmacy business here and how it differs from the rest of the world. I will go to this class as often as I can, but there are actually only 8 sessions left, if I am counting right. Classes go by so quickly, it seems.

Friday night: A large group of us exchange students, plus one ISB student (Shiv) went out for dinner at a fancy place called Fusion 9. It was really nice, a great atmosphere. Actually, this place is in Lonely Planet India, so it's got a great reputation. We paid $20 for both of us. Not too bad. Geo even had a steak, which was his first red meat in over 2 weeks. Wow...I'm not sure how he's made it this long without meat, really. Shiv took us out for ice cream after the meal too. We weren't entirely sure we could handle this real Indian food (not the very sanitized stuff we get on campus), but it really hit the spot.

(My two scoop sundae...chocolate and coffee flavors. This was around 65 rupees, I think.)

Saturday morning: A few gals headed to a store called Q-Mart, which has a lot of international food and supplies. It's small and crowded, but I got a lot of things that will get me through. I got peanut butter for 180 rupees, and I even bought a set of UNO cards for only 99 rupees. Some things make little sense around here. I got a package of 20 birthday candles too for 10 rupees.

Saturday afternoon: The campus was visited by a group called AEISIC (an international student group) for a short weekend trip. Shiv sponsored them here and we volunteered to host one of 8 students. Her name is Nina and she is from Germany. She is doing an internship in Bangalore this year. I met up with her and her colleagues at lunch and then sent them off for a tour of Golconda Fort, where we went last weekend. I decided not to go through the tour again, because it was quite hot and I didn't think I needed to bake in the sun for 3 more hours.

Saturday night: I had the opportunity to go to the fort for the "sound and light show" that is also in Lonely Planet, and highly regarded as a fun activity. I went with one of the exchange students here from Italy (Antonino) and we met up with the rest of the AEISIC group for the hour long show. It's hard to describe, but they have an audio track playing with a dramatized story of the fort's history, with music and various illuminations of the ruins. Lonely Planet calls it "trippy". I haven't decided what to call it yet, but I think going was a good decision.

(Golconda Fort lit up at night after the Sound and Light Show.)

Much later Saturday night: The campus put on a celebration to usher in the Lohri Festival. I understand the festival is more from the North of India, but ISB celebrates many festivals because students come from all over India. The festival is to celebrate the harvest. There was fire, food, drumming and dancing and some impromptu singing (reminding me of the Vironia parties of my youth). The students wore such beautiful, colorful traditional clothes and even some of the exchange students got dressed up as well.

(ISB students and exchange students dancing at the Lohri festival celebration.)

Really late on Saturday night: Yes, it's still Saturday. A tradition on campus is to throw birthday celebrants into the swimming pool at midnight to usher in their birthday. Geo's was discussed and he was signed up for a toss-in at midnight. At least 15 people (ISB students and exchange students alike) were there to witness this event. They said they often throw the spouse in too, but I thought they were kidding. They weren't. I kept trying to tell them "It's not my birthday!" It didn't help. The pool was warm. Yea! The air outside afterwards was not. Boo. But I got a nice Kingfisher beer for my good humor.

(Krissy and Geo exiting the pool after a midnight birthday dunking.)

Too early Sunday morning: Nina, our exchange student, had to leave at 8:30 this morning for breakfast. I somehow woke at 8:26 and made sure she was up. She was. Amazing. She went to bed after I did! I got up later in time for a late breakfast with Geo in the dining hall, where I decided they really need to introduce Belgian waffles to the Sunday morning breakfast line. I think it would be a huge hit!

Birthday Sunday: Noi (another girl here on exchange) and I again joined the AEISIC group for a tour of the Salar Jung Museum. This is one of the nicest museums in India, I've heard (yes, I heard from Lonely Planet!). And today happened to be the last day of Museum Week. The museum was so crowded, I have never experienced anything like this. Even at the Louvre, where the entry hall is throbbing, you can still get close to the exhibits. This was really hard to get through, there were so many people. And the condition of the museum is not quite like the Louvre. It is a lovely effort though and the collection was impressive. It was hot again and the fans barely made it tolerable. I enjoyed the two hours we spent there, but we didn't even get to see half of the museum. I guess there's always more time. Oh yeah, and they don't allow cameras :(

(The entry ticket for the museum. Notice it says Non-Indian price on it, only 150 rupees. Indians pay 10. This is quite common.)

Birthday Party, Sunday evening: At 6 pm, we gathered everyone in the cafe (not the dining hall, but right next to it) for cake! I had ordered a chocolate cake from the cafe on Saturday to be ready by 6 pm. It was ready then and it was devine! I have never had such an amazing cake. The cake itself actually received applause by all. Wow! The ISB cafe staff outdid themselves. Almost all our friends here came and sang for Geo and then we all enjoyed the delicious cake. Yummy! We have some leftover too, and I can't wait for my next piece. After cake, about 13 students joined us for dinner at The Water Front, one of the snazziest new places in town. I could write a whole blog about that...anyway, we had a feast for dinner. 7 of us ate and drank for about $180 US. Even at $25 a person, you couldn't have a better experience in the US. Or in India, for that matter.

(Geo and his birthday cake.)

Late Sunday night: Geo had a study group to go to at midnight. Does anyone ever sleep around here?!? I'm going to try to stay up until 2, when he's supposed to get home. But I probably won't make it....zzzzz......

Laundry Day

2007-01-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

The spacious laundry room

Lots of wet clothes!

We've been here 10 days now, plus we had some dirty laundry when we left LA, so I decided it was time to do some laundry. We heard quickly when we arrived here that students don't really do their own laundry, despite having free access to machines 24/7. Instead, the students hire someone to do their laundry for them, which costs about 150 rupees per month, I've been told. Now that's cheap! I thought to myself though that if I am not cooking or cleaning, and I hire the laundry out to a helper, then I have really no purpose here. So on Monday morning I set off to do laundry all by myself. I bought the detergent from the convenience store and sorted out 2 loads. I had already checked the machines and saw that they only hold 5 kg of clothes (about 11 pounds). Three pairs of jeans from me and Geo already weigh 11 pounds, so I knew this could take awhile. But I was prepared, because I have all the time in the world. However, when I got there, all the machines were in use. And they had buckets of laundry lined up already. I walked back to my room, head hung low, because now I had made the decision to hire someone to do our laundry too, if this was going to be the situation. I walked to the front desk and asked if I could have someone get my laundry. With a confused look and a head bobble, the lady replied, yes, tomorrow morning. I was happy, I guess. I almost thought to myself, good riddance. Well, Tuesday came and went. No one came to pick up my laundry. Wednesday morning and still no one is picking up my laundry. Now I have decided to do it myself again, so I went back to the laundry room and saw the same story I saw on Monday. No chance. But I made a plan to go before dinner started at 7:30 pm. Lucky me, it was empty! I had the room all to myself. I started two loads, but during dinner, I decided I'd get all of it done tonight. Only one problem. Drying racks. We'd already asked for one on Monday, but we didn't get one. (I think they also said, tomorrow then.) Geo went back today to get one and he got the same answer. Tomorrow. Hmmm. There are drying racks all over the place, but there are none for us. So we decided to borrow our neighbor's drying rack which has been sitting on our front common area since we've been here, unused. They have their laundry done for them, so they don't really need it often. Well, I ended up doing 5 loads of laundry, so I had to find more than one rack. Geo went up a level of our building and "borrowed" another one (really, he's not borrowing it, we stole it. No one is ever in their room...but we left a note!). Okay, so now I have two drying racks for 4 loads of laundry. They're both full. It's almost 11 pm. I have one load left in the washer. Now what? Fortunately, our next door neighbor came home and donated his to us. He also his laundry done and his drying rack still has the plastic on it. Woo-hoo! I've never been so excited. So it's 11 pm and I've got 5 loads of laundry drying on the front landing. It's bedtime though, so I've pulled the racks into the living room now. There isn't quite as much air flow, but it's warmer inside, so hopefully that will help.

Rupees

2007-01-10T01:14:00.000-07:00

I realize I'm starting to talk a lot about rupees. In case you don't know, the rupee is the functional name of Indian currency. Today, 10 January 2007 at 13:46, 44.48 rupees is equal to 1 US dollar. Oppositely, one rupee is equal to 2.25 cents of one US dollar. You can look for yourself at www.xe.com/ucc to find the most current exchange rate for any currency you can think of.

Here are some facts I've learned about rupees.
1) Until very recently, to exchange any other currency to rupees, you had to have a receipt proving you went through the proper sources. Then you would use that receipt to exchange your money back to dollars (see number 2, below). There was a lot of fraudulent activities going on with money exchange. With the advent of the ATM, however, things have changed. We can simply walk up and get money now any time of day or night. The campus has an ATM, however I haven't seen any in town yet. They certainly don't jump out at you. I think you can get money still at banks and maybe at the mall. Fortunately, at the mall they are eager to take our credit card. So far, we feel confident using our card there. In smaller places, it might be a different story.
2) It is illegal to take rupees out of India (according to two sources, although both are a bit out of date...things change so quickly around here!). So, I'll have to give you a link to wikipedia so you can see the rupees, as I probably won't be bringing any home.
3) Indian counting is very different from our western style: two words are commonly used, although I doubt any of our transactions will get us using these words fluently. A lakh is 100 thousand (written 1,00,000) and a crore is 10 million (written 1,00,00,000). Hello! These groupings of two instead of three are more than I can handle. And I thought it was hard to adjust in Europe to the period replacing the comma and the comma replacing the period (ie 4.321,00 instead of 4,321.00)!!!
4) When paying with a large bill (100 and 500 bills are all that come out of the ATM), people shake their head and ask if you have anything smaller. This is especially amusing on campus, because we go from the ATM straight to the convenience store. They don't like to make change. We don't have anything but large bills. I don't know how we manage! Three times already we've had to go back later to pay the 2 or 6 rupees we owed because they didn't want to take our larger bills. If we can just figure out where to make change, we'll be happy to count out every single rupee...

The wikipedia website for the rupee is quite interesting. Just go to www.wikipedia.org and type in Indian rupee for your search. I think you'll like it!

Hyderabad City Tour

2007-01-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

The majority of the exchange students and two local students from ISB took a city tour on Sunday. We left at approximately 10:30 am and were back to campus by 6:30 pm. It was a warm, sunny day and we had an ambitious touring schedule. We saw the Charminar, the Golcanda Fort and Hyderabad Central Shopping Center. The first two are historic, important landmarks. The mall is quite new (less than a year, I believe) and you can hardly tell you're in India when you see it! I have made a slideshow of the trip, but it's got almost 120 pictures in it, so you need to have a long break to enjoy it. But you're invited to look at it at kodakgallery.com. Again, click on the title of today's blog, Hyderabad City Tour, above to go to the kodakgallery. You don't have to sign in to see the pictures.

The pictures are nice, but of course, they don't tell the whole story. So here are a few memories to add to the big picture:

We assigned ourselves seat buddies to make sure no one get left behind. There were a lot of us and no one really seemed to know how many, but we could each be responsible for one other person and that seemed to work. No one got left behind anywhere.

Geo and I were brave and tried some street snacks after our petite lunch. I got a bag of popcorn and a bag of cheesey puffs, but instead of being cheese flavored, they were hot and sour flavored. The popcorn was easy to eat and the puffs were not as good.

Soda in a glass bottle is cheaper than soda in a plastic bottle. We paid 12 rupees for a glass bottle (that needed to be returned) and 20 for the plastic bottle. Plastic is becoming a problem as it is littered everywhere and facilities don't exist for recylcing, as far as we can tell.

When we got to the mall, we shopped at the grocery store on the lower level. It's no "hypermarket" like we had in Prague, but it had a variety of items. We bought some cereal and cookies and shelf-stable milk (Geo picked out a malted chocolate soy milk).

Before we left the mall, we had Baskin Robbins. They have 31 flavors, but they aren't the same as the ones from home. For example, there was no peanut butter cup, my personal favorite. (Honestly, I was not at all surprised...peanut butter is such a strange concept over here, but peanuts are everywhere.) And they had a lot of fruit flavors, like mango, pineapple, and papaya in various combinations. I opted for banana caramel, which is a flavor I had never had, but it was delicious. I'm not sure if you can get that at home or not. One small scoop of ice cream cost about 30 rupees, if I remember correctly. That was without the cone. A hot-off-the-press waffle cone was about 30 rupees too. Delish!

So, now you have a few more stories to go with the pictures from the tour. Enjoy :)

Shilparamam

2007-01-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

First, take a minute to look at this link for Shilparamam (I guess you have to click on the title of this blog entry to see the link). We drove past this interesting landmark several times on our way in and out of ISB. Another exchange student, Stephanie, mentioned that she had been to a large craft fair held here last January when she was here for two weeks. She was informed that it had already ended on 31 December. She was sad, but then on my next trip to town, I noticed it was still open! There were signs all over town saying it had been extended to 8 January. So the 3 of us went to check it out. Stephanie said it was smaller than it was last year, but it still had some great bargains. We went on Thursday morning from 10:30 to 12:00 and I didn't get much, except a sun burn! Darn Indian sun. But I went back again with almost half of our exchange group (it's 18 students, and a handful of spouses/fiances/girlfriends are still coming) and I bought some fabric to have clothes made for the wedding we're going to in Bombay at the end of the month. Geo also found something fun to wear to the wedding. You'll get pictures as soon as the clothes are ready!
Anyway, this craft mart is a spectacle. We drove past it again tonight (Sunday, the last evening of it) and it was packed! Early in the morning, it was not so crowded and vendors were begging us to be their first customer of the day, promising good luck and special discounts. Like I said before, we managed to buy 3 outfits (2 for me, 1 for Geo) and a few things that would fall in the category of home decor.
One thing I found interesting was that they charged 10 rupees to get in (about 20 cents) and that got us a ticket that could be scanned at the entry turnstyles. The craft fair has technology that the very modern ISB doesn't even have. For example, each time we go to the dining hall for a meal, there are several ledgers that need to be filled out and autographed, a very time consuming process for hungry kids. Oh well...we can make a suggestion that they look towards the craft fair model.

Our studio apartment

2007-01-05T04:06:00.000-07:00

The bathroom. Already a mess!

Our living room/office.

The bedroom and the TV.

Five Senses

2007-01-05T03:42:00.000-07:00

If I remember right, I tried to do this in Prague when we first got there, and I don't think I ever finished. Now you will get the full sensory experience (from Krissy's point of view, of course) with pictures as I get them. I'd like to add sounds too, but I'm not sure I have the technology to figure that out yet.

First: Toucing/Feeling (I'm really not sure what to name this sense). What I feel all the time is hot. Thankfully, not sticky hot, but it is much warmer than I had anticipated. Fortunately, I checked the weather before we left LA and decided not to bring my heavy fleece. I have not yet regretted that decision. Women here wear clothes that cover their legs, so the shorts and short-ish skirts I brought are fine for campus, but I don't wear them off campus. I have a few long things, but I'll probably be getting some new stylish Indian clothes too. Anyway, it's been about 85 F (30 C) and overnight it's about 60 F (16 C). It's nice, but I don't want to overheat yet...it's only going to get hotter. At least we'll be gone before the sticky season starts.

Second: Sound. Three noises come to mind. One is the sound of airplanes. I guess we're one of the landing paths for the airport. Planes fly overhead frequently (4-10 per hour, night and day) and they drop their landing gear on top of our building. I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not. Two, I think of horns. Beep, beep. Every vehicle on the road has a horn. The last auto-rickshaw we were in had one that had a SONY label on it, but I'm pretty sure it was a fake. I don't think SONY makes rubber horns for rickshaws here...They make distinctive noises so there is quite a symphony to listen to when you're out in the roads. Horns can mean so many things, like "beep, you're in my way", "beep, I'm here but I want to be where you are" and "beep, the vehicle in front says on its rear bumper to please sound horn". Okay, whatever. It's so noisy!

Third: Sight. The campus is a beautiful sight. It's well designed and beautifully landscaped. One thing I've noticed is there are a ton of butterflies. They're all so pretty and different. I won't mention the other types of bugs we've seen around (thankfully there are not too many of those pests). Also, Hyderabad is full of boulders. Everywhere you look, there are gigantic rock formations. Many of them are being blasted out of the way for all the new construction going on; I learned today there is a society for rock preservation. But the formations that remain are a sight to see!

Fourth: Taste. Definitely my favorite. Who knew Indian food was so good? Really, I have a very limited knowledge of Indian food...only what we've had in restauants at home. Now I know there is so much variety. It's all using the same basic ingredients (potatoes, chickpeas, tomatoes are the most common ingredients) with some type of sauce, served with rice and bread. The rice varies from meal to meal though, sometimes flavored with lemon, or saffron, or other unknown flavors and the bread is usually some sort of flat bread cooked in some sort of oil. It's delicious! We've had naan only once (it seems to be the only type not cooked in oil so far). There is usually some sort of sweet dessert, although fruit is the most common. For a few days now, we've had trays of watermelon, pomegranate, and grapes offered. Today for lunch they took the fruits and layered them with pudding and cake (a trifle, how delicious!) I actually haven't bought any food yet for the apartment. It's so cheap and convenient to eat at the dining hall, for now I see no need to worry about cooking. Although I'm sure I'm going to gain weight, everything is heavy but so delicious.

Fifth: Smell. Both Geo and I have been congested for nearly a month. So our sense of smell is definitely a bit off. Which I actually think is a good thing. The campus is very clean and doesn't smell at all. But for some reason, our sheets have a strange odor...not bad, but strange. I think I'm getting used to it. Maybe it's the smell of the detergent. No worries, it doesn't keep me from sleeping! The most powerful smell is noticed around dawn and dusk when there are fires burning off the campus. Depending on the direction of the breeze, you can smell that from time to time. And of course, there is incense. Not so much on campus, but the guy in the convenience store on campus burns it and they sell boxes of it there too. It gives me a sore throat, so we'll stick to candles if we need to cover up any unpleasant scents.

Sorry this got so long, but I hope you get a good "sense" about what we're doing here at ISB. If I notice any changes in my sensory evalution, I'll update this post.

5 Days in India

2007-01-05T03:18:00.000-07:00

There is a very large lake in Hyderabad and we don't know much about it yet. But there are nice places to eat along the waterfront.

Geo and I took an auto-rickshaw into town. It costs 150 Rupees from the campus to town (maybe 15-20 km) and you can pack three normal sized people in. I've seen these things with 5 or 6 smallish men and 7 or 8 young children. I also saw one with 3 adults and a goat. Hmmm.

A sample of traffic at night. There are lots of motorbikes and auto-rickshaws. Some people have their own small cars, but they are not as common.

This is a picture of the area in front of the mall in Hyderabad. The traffic is usually quite heavy.

We're finally getting a bit more productive. We've had two trips into the city now. On Wednesday, we went with our ISB Buddy, Sartaj. We went into town to a big mall, then to another big mall to meet a friend of his. Then we had a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant on the shore of the large lake in town.
On Thursday, we went into town again with another exchange student, Stephanie. We had no purpose of the trip, other than exploring and seeing what we could accomplish on our own. This time the mall was closed (opening hours start at 10 am for almost everything) and we went to a large craft fair instead (Stephanie has visited here last year for 2 weeks and remembered this from her visit).
Today now is Friday and Geo took part in the orientation for all the exchange students. So far there are 10 and only one is not from the US. More are coming but I'm not sure when they're going to arrive. We did some icebreaker activities and then had lunch together. Now the students are at a marketing symposium and I'm blogging!

Welcome to the Indian School of Business

2007-01-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

Our dorm: Student Village 2. Our room is pretty much directly behind the tree that is above the "P" sign.

The main campus building.

Geo in front of the main campus building.

Looking at the beautiful campus buildings at sunset, beneath the full moon.

India...

2007-01-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

...has better get ready for us to get out of jet lag. We are going to hit the ground running, as soon as we can adjust to the time! We have repeated another historical fact today, last done one year ago: 6 hour napping in the middle of the day. We had a very productive morning...eating, jogging, getting set up online, shopping on campus, skyping, eating again...and then we both couldn't keep our heads up anymore, so we laid down for a short nap, lying to ourselves really, since we knew we'd sleep for ages. The doorbell rang at 10:30 pm and woke us up (it was our ISB buddy, Sartaj, wanting to greet us). We've officially slept through dinner, but that's okay, because we ate twice already today, and the food was delicious! I'm not going to drop any weight due to lack of interest in the local cuisine. At least initially...I suppose I could grow tired of it after a little while. But today was delightful...Indian food twice in one day, with no real desire to stuff myself because I know there's going to be more tomorrow!

The weather is warm but we don't need the a/c on yet in our room. The ceiling fans are a real nice addition, problem is they look they were just added. There are big holes around the ceiling where they cut the hole for the electrical box. Hmmm...the real question is how long they've been left with the big gaping holes.

If you haven't skyped us yet, please try! Our parents know this, but we've got a great new laptop (MacBook) with a built in video camera. I guess the quality is pretty impressive. Geo and I are online now, using jazzygeo as our skype name. We'd love to chat with you! Plus you can leave us voice mail if we're not around.

We'll try for a more productive day tomorrow. We need to get ourselves "official" here. That means we need IDs, a student number, class schedules and the like. Then I can use the gym and the pool, both look fantastic, but it's all without a/c, so that means I probably need to go early.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Happy New Year v 2.0

2006-12-31T00:35:00.000-07:00

Funny how we seem to repeat history. It was just last year when we sent New Years greetings from Cape Town, South Africa while we were there for a class Geo got to take through Thunderbird. Now here we are in Singapore, sweating in the tropics, listening to rehearsals for huge parties, thinking of one last flight we have to take to get us to Hyderabad, India. Geo is anxious to start his last semester of school as an exchange student at the Indian School of Business. I'm anxious to eat Indian food for four months straight. It's already started, really, since I signed up as an Indian Vegetarian on Singapore Air. (Wow, we even got our food over 30 minutes before the "normal" diet people). So, as we are ready to enter into 2007 a bit ahead of most of our friends and family, we send our well wishes to everyone for a blessed, healthy and happy New Year!

We should arrive in Hyderabad just after 11:30 pm tonight if our flight is on time. So it will be a kiss in the baggage reclaim for us this year!

Stay tuned for new contact info!

Begging your forgiveness

2006-11-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. It's been a long time since we've been home. A really long time. We arrived back in Phoenix on August 1 and have barely anything to make excuses for why we (I) haven't been blogging. Maybe a simple, I'm sorry, will suffice?
But now I can tell you all the big news: we're going to India! That's right. Geo's been approved to study abroad at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India. So now we're gearing up for a brand new, super big adventure and you'll get to read and see it all as it happens.
We leave on 29 December. That puts us in our new home on 31 December at 11:15 pm. Right in time for the New Year. Perfect!
We've had a truly global, truly blessed 2006 and I'm really looking forward to blogging some more in 2007 from India. Stay tuned!

Pictures worth 11,000 words

2006-07-13T01:44:00.000-07:00

We flew on Swiss Airlines this time and we were not surprised to have all Nestle products on the flight. But ice cream was a first for us on a plane, and since it was a hot day, it really hit the spot!

The three brothers at the top of the funicular in Paris (near Sacre Couer) taken from the inside of the funicular.

In the Louvre! Emrys, Geo, Sara and George.

Krissy and Geo with the Eiffel Tower lit up behind us. This was taken at 10:30 pm.

At Versailles, with the amazing fountains behind the amazing family we stayed with! Chantal, Fathi, Camille, Quentin, and Rosanne.

In Brussels, the Atomium. This was built for the World Fair in the 40s, I think.

Some famous statue in Brussels!

Yummy, a really good Belgian waffle!

Who know clogs were so cute? These were almost big enough for Geo's size 50 feet. I think these were 48s or 49s.

An old windmill in Amsterdam. I guess after the windmills were no longer needed, they destroyed most of them. There are only about 1000 left in all of the Netherlands. This one was built in 1632.

Finally, getting to show our colors for the Germany v. Portugal game. That was fun to be in Germany with Sabrina for the finals.

Story First, Pictures Later

2006-07-13T01:04:00.000-07:00

Well, since it's been almost another month since the last blog entry, I feel you are all entitled to a short story of how we've spent the last month. For two full weeks, we were on the road. We visited Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Düsseldorf. That's France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Belgium and the Netherlands were firsts for both me and Geo. It was my fourth visit to Paris and the longest (a whole week). We did lots of things that we never had a chance to do before, because our normal style of travelling is to just blast through a city. I finally got into the Louvre, which is amazing for so many reasons. And we got to stay with relatives of a friend from home, which really gave us a taste of superb French hospitality. We did a lot of wandering along the beaten tracks, but almost everything we saw was new to us, or at least a new angle of something we've seen before. And I thought I didn't much care for Paris before, but it turns out I didn't care for rushing through Paris. We had a wonderful, RELAXING visit, getting a chance to catch up with Sara and Emrys in person, and a week with George, who really got to perfect his French on this trip! It was really a nice way to see Paris this time, and I'm glad we got all the experience we did!
After we dropped George off at the airport, we picked up our cute brand new Ford Focus. It had 14 km on it when we put on our seatbelts. Wow! It smelled nice and new, and since it was a free upgrade, we were happy. Sixt is such an easy company to work with renting cars. It was a completely hassle-free experience! We got on the easy-to-navigate French highways, and our first stop was just outside of the airport for a huge Michelin map and a picnic lunch from a gas station. But it was all gourmet food at this gas station. We had fresh salads, tomatoes, wraps, chips, and chocolate ladyfingers, and green tea. Yummy. It did cost more than a fast-food lunch, but we didn't have to give in and eat completely junky food of the normal convenience store type. And then we were off for Brussels. We made sure to get a reservation for a place with a/c there, since it had been really hot in Paris and we didn't have a/c our last 3 nights. We were in a great hotel, so we had a good base for touring the city and watching the World Cup. We were there both nights of the quarter finals. That was fun. But it was a challenge to find a great place to watch the game, so one night we watched most of it in our room. The second night, it wasn't on any TV stations we had, so we had to go out and the first place we found was pretty dumpy, but the people were friendly, so that made it better. The TVs were mounted high in the corners near the ceiling. Ouch for the necks! At least we had a few days off until the next games. In Amsterdam, we arrived at 3 pm so we did the most logical thing we could think off: Mike's Bike Tours. We knew they had a gig in Amsterdam from our first experience in Munich with them 8 years ago. So, we made it at 4 pm to the meeting place and had a fun tour of the city. That was 5 1/2 hours, which meant we just had to eat dinner and then go to bed. We slept in the next morning and went back to explore a little bit before hitting the road for Germany. The drive to Düsseldorf took about 2 1/2 hours (I drove the whole way, scary for me! The car was a diesel and a stick...good grief!) and we were so relieved to arrive safely at Sabrina's flat there. We had a nice visit with Sabrina again, but this time we were completely focused on the World Cup. That means two games in 3 days. I won't get into my opinions of the games here, but Geo is going to write something about it for the next Das Tor (the school newspaper).
After the final game, we went to bed, since we had to get up early and drive back to Paris the next day. That only took about 4 hours, which was good, since I accidently told Geo the wrong departure time (oops, I read the arrival time instead). We had budgeted plenty of time for getting to the airport, but we could have spent it somewhere else instead of trying to check in for our flight. So the disaster was averted. Whew!
Well, now you know how we spent the last 2 weeks. Keep your eyes open for some pictures!

10 pictures from Croatia and Slovenia

2006-06-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

A few pictures (and not too many words):

2 pictures from Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. We were there while it was raining, which made for some awesome waterfalls.

A cute street in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. We had some really good food on this street.

The village we stayed in near Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We stayed at a "tourist farm." I would highly recommend that if you have a car!

On the beautiful Adriatic coast of Slovenia, in Piran. This is very close to Italy!

The view from a tall tower at Diocletian's Palace in Split, on the Croatian coast.

The imposing mountain ranges in Split, Croatia.

From a hill in Hvar, an island an hour by catamaran off the Croatian coast, near Split.

At the top of the fortress on the hill, in Hvar, Croatia.

The view from our hotel in Omiš, near Split, Croatia. We had a beautiful view of the Adriatic, and private beach access. This is paradise!

The Last 7 Days

2006-06-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 27 May: We toured around Prague with Emrys' mom and her travelling buddy. We made it to a few sites we hadn't been to yet. One, U Fleku, was on the 1000 Things to See Before You Die list. A scary title for a book, but figure the experience is worth a shot. So, we had an over-priced lunch at a very very old restaurant. Not too bad of an experience for a rainy afternoon. After that, we went to Vysehrad, an old settlement just south of the most popular parts of Prague. We hadn't been there yet, although we had passed it from nearly every side. It did have great views and an interesting cemetary full of grave markers of all sorts of famous Czechs.
Sunday, 28 May: My birthday! I got to sleep in. Geo made me breakfast. We watched a movie. We went to church. Chris, the worship leader, was heading back for the US after the service today, so he had a good-bye party at his flat. It was really nice.
Monday, 29 May: Mandi and I spent the entire day shopping for something to wear to the opera. We looked with Sara at some second hand stores, which was a good idea, but I didn't really find what I was looking for. After a few hours with Sara, Mandi and I went ourselves to some other stores with more expensive clothes, and I found nothing there either. We made dinner. Geo was with the new group of T-birds, doing his TA thing. Our friend Justin came back from a visit in the states. He has an internship here in Prague with Exxon Mobil for the summer. He stayed with us for 2 nights.
Tuesday, 30 May: We finally did one thing we've been wanting to do here for a long time...we rented a Smart Car! For only 5 Euros, you can get a tiny little car with a max of 100 Km per day. We had a blast. It rained a lot while we were driving. We were the first drivers of this particular car...it had 47 Km on it when we picked up. Later that night, we went to the Opera. That was my birthday present. We saw Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at the State Opera House. It's beautiful (the theatre and the show itself). Before the show, we went to dinner at a nice place in the Jewish Quarter. "We" were Sara and Emrys, Geo and Mandi. It was a nice evening! And since I didn't manage to buy a new outfit for the opera, I was quite relieved with the cold and rainy weather. I had something suitable to wear in my closet under those circumstances.
Wednesday, 31 May: A rather unproductive day. I guess after all the excitement of the previous days, I needed some downtime. I didn't leave the house until nearly 3 pm. Geo was out in Celakovice again all day. He took the car and got lost the first time he went. It's hard to drive and navigate at the same time around here! He made it though and he was glad to have the car, because he was able to move some stuff around for Justin, who was moving into his new apartment for the summer. Mandi and I made dinner again for us, but our friend Tomas came over to eat with us after his day at DHL, where he is interning for the summer. We made some cookies and then Geo came home. I got a turn to drive the Smart Car!
Thursday, 1 June: Another cold day. It's only 7 degrees today. That's cold! Geo and I got up early today to run to the grocery store to stock up on the heavy stuff while we had a car to move it around. We got water, beer, and shelf milk. And hopefully enough toilet paper to last the next 2 months. Then we took the car back (it was kinda sad after we dropped it off...how quickly you get used to having a car again). We met up with our pastor at the church office, which is near the Prague Castle. We did some reorganizing of the space they rent for the church headquarters. We're going back again tomorrow for a little more helping! It's fun to do some projects involving remodeling and renovation.
We have a busy weekend planned: a softball tournament, a BBQ at a farm, a dinner party at our house. And we have to get packed and ready to go for our Croatian Vacation on 6 June. I never would have thought we would be so busy with things to do in the Czech Republic. It's never-ending fun around here, I tell ya!

Prague International Marathon Weekend

2006-05-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Since we got to stay in Prague a little longer than we thought we would, we decided to participate in a great event here in town. This weekend was the 11th running of the marathon in Prague. About 4,500 racers ran last year...I'm not sure how many took off this year. Geo had only trained for about 2 weeks leading up to the race. He probably ran 2 or 3 times a week while in school (even in the freezing cold) and then took a couple weeks off while we were on our various vacations. Then for the last 2 weeks he got serious, running a few longer runs and tapering properly. I knew he was serious, even though he wasn't anticipating to go out and have a fast run. He finished in 3 hours and 23 minutes, which is a great time! He told me to expect about a 4-hour race, but based on his times when I saw him out on the course, it looked like he was running faster. It was a great day: overcast and not too hot. Those are great race conditions. Anyhow, Geo was happy with his performance, and I was happy that I was able to see him 3 times on the course, and at the start and the finish. It was a lot of fun and Geo reports that Prague puts on a great marathon. It's small, but it has room to grow. Prague is going to be putting in a bid to host the Oympics in 16 or 20 years and they think the strength of the marathon will be a key consideration.
You can look at a few pictures of Geo by following this link: http://www.marathon-photos.com/index.html
Look for Prague International Marathon and then use Geo's bib number 999
Meanwhile, I rollerbladed a 15 Km non-competitive race. I was pretty much by myself the whole time. I'm not sure how many people competed, but I was not the last one across the finish line (my personal goal). I passed a lot of people too. It rained a couple times during my race and I had to cross cobblestone intersections three times (horribly embarrassing I might add) and a couple sets of tram tracks (that was easy). I had fun, which is the most important part. I might even do another race this coming weekend...purely for exercise and fun.
And we're joking around saying we might go to Nice in June to watch Ironman France, although it won't be the same if Geo's not competing. Stay tuned...

Our New Place in Prague

2006-05-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

Geo and I signed a contract for a 3 month lease on a nice apartment in Prague. It's pretty conveniently located (very easy Metro access). It takes 10 minutes to get to Wenceslas Square. Our apartment is huge--98 square meters. I have no idea what that is in square feet, but for the same price (a little closer to the popular parts of Prague) we only would have gotten about 40 square meters. It's 3 bedrooms, and has a nice living room and kitchen. The place itself is about 9 years old, we're told. It's typical Czech construction...nice but not extravagant in any sense. We have a big TV with cable...30 German stations and CNN in English. Not one channel with any Czech. Very interesting...The landlord and his wife live one floor below us. A couple of guys live the floor above us. Also in the building is a small business. Across the street is the only curling arena in the Czech Republic. There is a brand new, gorgeous, American style mall one Metro stop away. Unfortunately, there isn't a movie theatre there, but there is a great big grocery store (much like a Super Walmart...it's got everthing).
I'm going to try to upload a few pictures. We've got a new internet connection for the laptop now. It's a mobile phone modem. It is not all that fast, but it's cool because it can go anywhere!
Here goes...well...it looks like it's not going to work after all. I've got to figure out a way to reduce the size of the pictures so they'll be able to upload. Perhaps that will be a project for another day...sorry about that!

A Little Bit More on Prague

2006-05-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

So many things we didn't know for the first three months because it was such a different climate then. Spring is here and things are actually open now. And everything is so beautiful. Here are a few pictures of what Prague looks like now.

A Few More Pictures

2006-05-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

These three are: Krissy and Geo on the old medieval wall in Tallinn, Estonia; looking at an old part of Stockholm (tiny lanes through most of the old town); and an overview of Stockholm.

Recent Pictures

2006-05-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

The three pictures are: the view of the Oslofjord, coming into Oslo from our "cruise" ship; the Holmenkollen Ski Jump from the 1952 Olympics in Oslo; and the view from almost the top of the ski jump, looking back into the Oslofjord.

The Beginning of Prague, version 2

2006-05-03T15:05:00.001-07:00

I know it has been a long, long time since the last post. We were out and about, seeing the world! Now how's that for something new and exciting?!? Well, we are "home" again in Prague, and this time we're in a sweet apartment that is actually in Prague...not that we didn't like the experience we had with Thunderbird, near Prague (as they put it), but now we're truly in Prague. Geo got his first monthly transit pass, a real sign that we are blending in with the locals.
Today we got hooked up with mobile phone internet technology. Our laptop can go anywhere and still be online. Sweet! It's a bit slow, but it gets the job done. (We'll see about uploading pictures, though.)
Geo's still waiting to find out if he has an official internship for the summer. In case that falls through, we'll just stay here until August 1 and then we'll be back in Arizona to get things started for the Fall trimester back at campus.
I'm going to have to write more later about our Scandinavian Blitz Tour. I took good notes along the way and I took tons of pictures on our new camera. 834 pictures in less than 2 weeks, to be exact. Not that any of them are any better than the sort of pictures I used to take...the new camera is just so small and cute and easy to take out if I feel the need.
So enjoy the teaser pictures for now...and as soon as I get fast internet access I'll publish some more.
Ciao!

This picture is in Copenhagen, Denmark. These are the horses that the Carlsberg Brewery uses today to deliver beer kegs to the pubs.

These Boots...

2006-04-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

...are made for compliments! Who would have thought that rubber rain boots could attract so much attention. I am typically the type of person who avoids any possiblity of drawing unnecessary attention to myself. It's not that I don't like an ocassional compliment, but it's much easier to just stay out of the realm of "high fashion". When I got to Prague in the thick of the snow season, I thought to myself it would be a good idea to get a pair of rain boots. I don't think I ever had owned a pair, so it wasn't that crazy of an idea. Well, they have cute rubber rain boots here. The kids pairs are even cuter, but they didn't fit. So, I found these. I actually made a trip back to Prague to get them the day after I saw them the first time. And until yesterday, I had worn them once. I found they weren't really worth the effort. If I simply avoided puddles, I was fine. And if my shoes did get wet, we have a handy radiator in our room to dry them on.
Yesterday it rained all day. Really. All day. I had to go to the airport to meet my mom and dad, so I thought if I would be out in the rain, I could probably get away with wearing these boots. They're not comfy...a pair of insoles would be awesome in these. But, they keep your feet dry.
I wore them downstairs to lunch and I got a nod and a smile from the lunch lady who takes my money and wishes me a good meal (in Czech) every day. A couple of students commented that the boots were cool and one mentioned that his neices would love them. Then, a complete stranger (she was probably 18) mentioned to her parents that she thought my boots were cool. This was on the subway, she probably thought I was Czech. She had a British accent and a red passport (I think that's from the UK). Anyway, I just smiled, because she was pointing at my boots, not at me...
So I thought I would write to say you never know what will be a conversation starter. I certainly didn't expect it from my rubber rain boots.

Good times in Kraków

2006-04-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

The train was scheduled to take 7.5 hours to get from Prague to Kraków. I think that even included the time for transferring. Well, our train from Prague to the first transfer, Ostrava was right on time. Also, it was a "fancy" train, operated by Czech Airlines. It cost about $8 to reserve seats on this train (high priced considering most reservations are about $1.50). But, we zoomed through the countryside, looking at all the flooding in the fields near the rivers and entertaining ourselves for the first four-hour segment of our trip. Emrys and I played cribbage. Sara cross-stitched. Geo studied. Everything was swell. When we arrived in Ostrava, we found out our train would be 45 minutes late, in addition to our 25 minute layover. The incoming train was running late because of flooding in Austria. Well, it arrived, we went straight to the dinner car for a nice Polish meal and enjoyed the hour and a half journey to Katowice, Poland. That was our next scheduled stop, but because we were so late on this train, we missed the train to Kraków that we had wanted to take that would finish our journey in the 7.5 hours scheduled. Instead, we were on the next train that didn't get us in til about 2 and a half hours after we should have been there. That means we would be getting in around 23:30. And with a 30 minute walk ahead of us to our hostel (quite charming though!) that meant a long day...several hours more than we had signed up for. Oh well, what can you do?
We took off early the next morning (um, 10:30 is early, right?) and enjoyed learning everything we could about Kraków. You can read Sara and Emrys's blog for a nice commentary on the trip.
Meanwhile, we walked about 5 or 6 miles and did almost everything Rick Steves recommended for the day. And the weather was gorgeous! That was the best part. When Andie and I were there about 3 weeks ago, it was so cold and snowy. This time I actually got a bit of a tan! There were so many people out enjoying the good weather along the river...I was so jealous of those with bikes and rollerblades.
On Sunday, Geo and I split up from Sara and Emrys. They went to Auschwitz for the day. We headed back for Prague. Another uneventful 7.5 hour train ride put us in to Prague on time (actually 4 minutes early this time) but we still had to wait an hour for our little train back to Čelákovice. We had drinks again at the Marriott (right next to our train station) and enjoyed a few minutes of free internet. Awesome.

The Hills are Alive!

2006-04-11T01:51:00.000-07:00

Trying to decide what to do in Austria when you have free train tickets is like going to a pastry shop and trying to decide what yummy dessert you would like. Andrea and I went over our options and decided to go to Salzburg. I didn't know this before, but Andrea is in love with the Sound of Music. I've seen it and have loved all the songs, but she's way into the movie. So with the opportunity to go to Salzburg and take the Sound of Music tour, we figured we'd have a good time. Andrea is amazing for what she was able to accomplish with only a week or so to get this trip organized. She has connections in the publishing world, so she was able to get us press/media rates for our trip. That meant a deeply discounted 4-star hotel room and free tickets for her and Connor and me to a Mozart dinner concert and the grand Sound of Music tour. It was unbelievable! Now that's the way to travel :)

Another week on the train

2006-04-11T01:32:00.000-07:00

First, let me say that buying an Eastern Europe Rail Pass can be a good value, despite what Rick Steves thinks. He says that it doesn't save much money...I disagree. I spent $195 for 6 days of rail travel through the following countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Austria. True, the 6 days had to be in one month, but we're not going to be here forever (maybe).
Anyway, after Andie came, I still had 4 days left on my pass. So, I had to use up the rest of the days. My plan was to go somewhere in Austria because that is where the train tickets would be the most expensive and therefore I would get the most value. I talked Andrea and Connor into coming with me to Salzburg. That was awesome! So there were two train days spent. And then I talked Geo (and Emrys and Sara) into coming with me to Poland again. I really wanted to go back to Krakow since Andie and I didn't have much time there on our quick trip. Again, it was way worth it.
Now, I will say that it is challenging to manage all these train schedules and connections. I decided it would be wise to have reservations on trains here because for some reason I am often on the busiest train at the busiest time and I have been kicked out of my seat by someone who has the reservation. Sneaky, because they don't always post the little tickets that say the seat is reserved. So for a few dollars, you can make a reservation and not have to worry about being kicked out. It took me more than a half hour to make reservations for the trains I would be taking in a 10-day period. But even that was okay, because I had planned out the schedules ahead of time. I only wonder how long it would have taken if I showed up without the schedules planned...
The sad part of this story is what happens when you miss your originally planned and reserved train. For various reasons, on both of my trips, I managed to miss trains that I had paid extra for reserved seats. Ouch! Fortunately, the trains that we ended up taking had seats for us that were not already reserved. But when you take the time to make reservations, it's because you have quick connections in some far-away station that you want to catch. And if you miss the connection, sometimes you are stuck a long time. On the way to Krakow, we had a train delayed because of flooding in Austria. That made us late getting to the next stop, so we were about 2 hours late. Going to Salzburg, we were running late and I wasn't sure what platform we were departing from, so we missed the train there and had to change our plans a lot. That only cost us four hours. So, the moral of this story is be thankful for your car. Just kidding. I've relied on the trains exclusively here (except a few times with a taxi after IKEA runs) and they've been great. But once in a while, there are some glitches in a very organized system and I wonder how everyone else manages. I'm sure the fact that I don't speak any of the local languages doesn't help me much. Anyway, I'm off on another train adventure with my mom and dad over Easter weekend to go to Budapest. We've got tickets and reserved seats and the train is direct. Nothing to worry about (I hope!).

Český Krumlov

2006-03-27T03:10:00.000-07:00

This is the name of Czech Republic's second most visited town. It's small, picturesque, and pretty quiet, compared to Prague. The name means "Czech bend in the river" and if you see the map of the town, you would see how it gets its name.
We went the weekend before everything "officially" opens for tourist season. So we got great prices, no crowds, and to see some snow on the ground still. But, we didn't get to tour the castle, see the bears, or the castle gardens :( I guess we'll have to go back. Also, the biggest tourist attraction there is simply the river itself, for canoeing or rafting. Maybe we'll plan to go back in July, when it's a lot warmer!
Here are the first three pictures. One is looking from the castle at the Church of St. Vitus (built in the 15th century). Next is the castle, with its colorful round tower, showing off its splendid paint, originally done in the 16th century. And then there is a picture from the Main Square, with its Baroque and Renaissance homes from the 17th century. The pink one is a pharmacy that has been there since 1620. Rick Steves says McDonald's has tried 3 times to get a spot there...no such luck yet. The tour group in the picture is the largest group of people we saw the whole weekend. Their group was even larger than our group. Only 15 students made the trip from our group...too much homework for most of them to leave, I guess.
Which reminds me, I have one more picture to share: Geo doing his homework on the trip in our 4 star hotel room.

Time Change!

2006-03-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

Last night, Europe made its Spring Forward. This came as a surprise to us, because as Arizonans, we don't observe Daylight Savings Time. So when we were standing around the hotel lobby last night before a group of us went to dinner, I overheard some talk that I used to hear as a Californian. Things like, "...An hour later?..." and "Are you sure?" and "So what time does our bus leave tomorrow?" and "What about the US?" Okay, so some of those are not really things I heard in CA, but I quickly figured out what they were talking about. We checked on the internet for confirmation of all of this and then we went out for dinner. Sure enough, Europe changes a week before the US. So for this week, and this week only, we will be one hour further away from all of you. And then, most of you will catch up, unless you're reading this from Arizona, and you'll just stand around, scratching your heads, trying to figure this out. Well, that's what I would be doing...
So don't change your clocks yet, but keep in mind our new time when contacting us this week!

Pictures!

2006-03-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Alright. I finally used the camera cord that was lent to me over a week ago. So now there a few new pictures to look at hidden in the blog. All the pictures I added are from posts since we've been in Prague, so you shouldn't have to go too far back to find them.
Today I managed to go the US Embassy in town to get a whole bunch of new pages added to my passport. I'm so excited (no more nervousness at border crossings, wondering where the new stamp is going to go) and Geo is jealous ;) Maybe I'll take him on one of his days off. The Embassy only does this from 8-12 on weekdays, so that's a bit of a challenge.
Also, it snowed some more. Nothing that stuck, but I wonder how long it will keep snowing for.
Well, enjoy the pictures. I'll try to get up a few Vienna pictures too, but I've got to pick out the best ones for the blog. Have fun!

Around the world

2006-03-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

So, for Christmas, I got Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe 2005. Again, thanks Ivan and Marc. I don't think I could actually function in "Eastern Europe" without this book. It's got everything you need to know for short trips. Andie (Geo's sister) and I set off on a whirlwind trip, each of us with a clean pair of socks and underwear, an Eastern Europe Train Pass, and Rick Steves. Really, I don't know if you need much more than that. We set off Thursday pretty early. We were on the 11:18 am train to Kraków and we got in at 21:08 (or thereabouts). It was drizzling, but it was a very short walk from the train station to the hotel we booked (from RS). We had dinner downstairs in the hotel's restaurant, which was tasty and cheap. Then we played cards for a few hours before bed. I've turned into a night owl, but I guess it was a late night for Andie. We got up sort of early and took off to the main square to book a driver to Auschwitz. While we waited for the driver, we looked all around the square. We shopped at the Cloth Hall. We had a pizza snack (garlic cheese bread with dill--very yummy). Then we drove an hour and a half to Auschwitz. We spent about 2 hours there, taking in as much as we could handle. It was not raining, but it was very cloudy and quite cold. I kept thinking that the winters must have been miserable there for the victims, as if the rest of the year wasn't bad already. After the challenging visit, we made it back to town and shopped some more on the main square and had a nice dinner at another restaurant that was recommended by Rick (completely unintentionally, as it was). We had a few hours to kill before our train at 22:30, so we went and had some wine and coffee at a fancy hotel's bar (much cheaper than a fancy hotel's bar in Prague would be!). We boarded the train on time, we had reserved a sleeping car ahead of time (one female roommate from South Korea joined us).
We crossed two borders on our way to Budapest (Poland/Slovakia and Slovakia/Hungary). That meant we got woken up twice, but we got lots of new stamps in our passports. We pulled into the train station at 9:22 (20 minutes after I thought we were supposed to get in). Geo was so sweet to meet us there. His train from Prague came in at about 8:00, so he had some time to wait for us. We knew our train was getting in at this new time, but Geo didn't know. I'm glad he waited for us. We met up promptly after we arrived and went to the metro to find our hostel. I booked a hostel a few days before we left, based on a website I found (not Rick Steves). We got down there and the hostel just looked bad. I didn't think I could handle sleeping there, so we agreed to leave. Fortunately, there was a Best Western across the street, so we checked in there. It cost a lot more, but it was really nice. I'm not saying that hostels aren't nice, but this one didn't look a thing like the picture. So, in our new place, we showered and then went on a 3 hour bus tour. That was really fun. We saw a lot of the sights, got off to walk around at a few places, and took a lot of pictures (on Andie's camera--to be posted soon, I hope). That evening, we took a Danube River boat cruise. It was really pretty at night, and the boat showed pictures of the buildings as we passed by. We learned a lot on that one hour trip. After that, it was nearly bedtime. On Sunday, we didn't have much to do (as almost everything is closed) so we went to the baths. Budapest is full of hot thermal springs, with a rich history of "baths". It was a beautiful sunny day (not quite "warm" but maybe about 6 degrees C). Andie and I both got a 30 minute massage. Then it was about time to go back to the train station to go home. We got on a 14:30 train and we were home by 23:00. It was a fast and furious trip, but a lot of fun! It's great to go to new places and see new things, even if it's a short trip.
I really hope to have the pictures from Andie's camera soon. She's on her way home right now, so it might be a few days before I can get them from her.

A few thoughts

2006-03-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

Geo and I have a writing assignment for the school newspaper, called Das Tor. (That means "the gate" in German.) We were asked to write a "he says, she says" sort of column as a representative piece from Prague. Normally, only students write in the paper, so it's sort of special that I got to write my piece. Now having said that, in case you haven't noticed yet, I'm not the world's greatest writer. I lack imagination, but I can tell things like they are! So, keeping that in mind, feel free to read our "dialogue" with the editor of the paper, Elena. Family and friends may enjoy the banter...you may be the only ones that actually understand our unique writing style.
You may also enjoy reading some of the other stories: we're part of the Kenya group story that's on the front page. But for the Prague part, just click on the link to the Prague section. Have fun! Any comments or critiques will be tolerated...

Another new way to contact us

2006-03-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

Apparently, this cell phone that we bought the first day we were in South Africa (31 Dec if I remember right) has got all sorts of bells and whistles that continue to amaze me. So now, you can send email right to the phone. It's free on your end and free on ours! A response might cost a few cents for us, but don't worry: you're worth it!
So, if you feel like it, you can send a short email to us at ktgm721@vodafonemail.cz
Pay close attention to the address, or else you'll be like Krissy, telling Geo the wrong address and wondering for hours why he wasn't going to email me. But now, we know it works!
Hope to hear from you soon!

Pictures from Düsseldorf

2006-03-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

Pedestrian zone of Kaiserswerth.

Sabrina, Krissy and Geo at the top of the Dom in Köln (there are 509 steps to the top!)

There it is, the majestic Dom. Try looking at the website for more information and much better pictures.

Geo standing at the shores of the Rhein River in Düsseldorf with our super snack: Dutch (?) style fries (huge, thick slices of fried potatoes) with a spicy curry ketchup sauce and a big Coke to wash it down. Very authentic snack.

This is the street that Sabrina lives on. Her flat is up on the 5th floor. I think it's just under 100 stairs up to her place. A tram runs right down the street, going to great places, like the pedestrian zones, shopping areas, and the train station. Even the airport! She lives on a really cute (high-end, but busy) street.

A weekend to relax

2006-03-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, after Geo was finished with his first "module" finals and projects (the first half of the trimester is over!) we took off for Düsseldorf, Germany. Our friend Sabrina (a former roommate of ours in our Phoenix house) lives there, so we thought a visit to her would be fun. Geo and I went to the airport separately on Thursday, although he had both of our bags. I was coming from town, where I had just got my hair done. So, we met at the airport (actually, unplanned, because we were supposed to meet much earlier in the day, but because his train was late and my hair took longer than I thought it would, we both managed to barely get ourselves to the airport on time!) and we took off for the Rhein River-region. We had dinner out on Thursday evening, slept in late on Friday and explored the very bourgeois pedestrian zones of Düsseldorf. Sabrina cooked an exquisite meal for us on Friday night. On Saturday, we went to Köln (a.k.a. Cologne) and we saw the Dom, a beautiful, gigantic cathedral. Today (Sunday), we went on a 10-K hike on the Rhein River to a quaint village, called Kaiserswerth. During our trip, there was a little bit of rain, a little bit of snow, and a little bit of sun. Prague, however, was hit with heavy snow today and it even delayed our flight by an hour. It was great though, because as soon as we came out of the airport, our beloved CMC driver and van was there picking up a Thunderbird professor coming in for the week from Glendale. It was awesome, because we got a free ride home and didn't have to take the public transport (which would have gotten us home an hour later than we did get home). So, it worked out very well for us!

Now, we are back in our room, marveling at the depth of the snow (almost 3 inches, deeper in some areas). This is the most snow we've seen since we have been here. Amazing! Geo is back in some new classes and 2 classes that continue for the whole trimester on Tuesday. Also, Andie (Geo's sister) comes in for the week! I should have some good blogging after that.
Enjoy the pictures (borrowed from Sabrina's camera)!

The Shipment Has Arrived!

2006-03-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was sent on a mission to a freight logistics company in Prague near the airport to retrieve our boxes that were picked up from our house in Phoenix on 28 December. That means it took two full months to get the boxes here. You might ask yourself, is anything worth shipping halfway across the world if you don't get it for two months? We asked that to ourselves daily, especially as Geo spent lots of hours on the phone and sending lots of emails to track down these late boxes. Our boxes were full of extra clothes, and a few comfort things (like our favorite hygiene products, etc), but another student sent his laptop through this shipment, so he's been in severe pain since we arrived, not really being able to keep up with his schoolwork and all. Anyway, Heidi (bless her!) came with me in the van from the CMC, with the driver who doesn't speak English, but understands enough to get the job done and speaks to us constantly in Czech...it took over an hour to get there and then we had to wait for a half hour or so for the paperwork that Geo spent 9 hours working on the day before to arrive. Finally, we got the boxes forklifted into the back of the van and we were off! The plan was to drop me and Heidi off in Prague so we could do some errands there and the driver would take the van with the boxes back to the CMC and Geo and John (the student with the laptop) would unload it. The plan seemed to work out, because when Heidi and I got back a few hours later, the boxes were unloaded in our room and my stuff was thrown all over the place (they had been looking for John's laptop, which I guess got packed in one of our boxes instead of his).
So now I have all my warm things (fleeces, long underwear, snow boots, etc) as well as some stuff to work out with (swim cap and goggles and a big towel) and the best: our pillows from home. I had forgotten about those! Now the question is: what are we going to do with all this stuff when it is time to leave? Obviously, anything for the cold weather can go back in a box, but I think we'll still have a lot of stuff to lug around. If only we knew where the next stop on our tour is going to be for sure...

24 Hours: To Vienna and Back

2006-02-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

For your enjoyment, a play-by-play account of our trip to Vienna on Sunday. Hold on to your hats!
14:00 Saturday afternoon, in our kitchen:
Geo: "Let's take a trip."
Krissy: "Okay. When and where?"
Geo: "Tonight, after the opera...how about Vienna."
19:00 Don Giovanni at the Estates Theater in Prague
22:30 Dinner afterwards with friends
23:30 Dash to train station to get on train with tickets one minute before it takes off
03:00 Transfer somewhere in the Czech Republic. It was cold.
03:45 Back in the train and off to Austria
06:00 Arrive in Vienna
06:15 Breakfast in the train station (first cup of cofee); plan they day (thank you, Rick Steves and Marc and Ivan)
07:45 Depart for town with an all-day transfer pass
08:30 Use tram to see "the ring" in Vienna
09:00 Begin tours of the Hofburg Palace--the Imperial Palace, including the silverware/porcelain collection and the Sisi museum (dedicated to Emperor Franz Josef's wife)
11:30 Snack at Hofburg cafe (strudel and espresso!)
12:00 Tour of the Treasury at Hofburg Palace
13:00 Ponder what to do next...Lipizzaner horses, famous opera house...settled on opera
13:30 Decided to finish a school assignment first, found an internet cafe to take care of business
14:00 Time for lunch--walked around until we found a great Japanese/Chinese buffet (all you can eat!)
14:50 Dash off to the opera house, but there were not going to be any tours today :(
15:00 Boarded double-decker bus for a one hour tour of "the ring" (I dozed off for about half the ride and Geo slept a few minutes too)
16:00 Starbucks (cookies and espresso--can one have too much caffeine in one day?)
16:20 Haus der Musik: a very interactive music museum that we could have spent all day in, but we only had a little more than an hour
17:30 Begin heading back to the train station
18:30 Board train going to Prague
22:50 Arrival, but 15 minutes late, causing us to miss the train back to our town, so...
23:10 Snack time at McDonald's on Wenceslas Square in Prague (salads and water, to detox after all the sugar and coffee we had all day)
0:11 Train back home departs
0:59 Home at last
Tired? We were too. One thing we learned is you shouldn't take an overnight train unless you have the possibility of sleeping for at least 6 hours (Vienna is too close to Prague). I took some pictures, and I think I can get those posted with a borrowed cable to upload them, so I should get those on soon.

Finding our way

2006-02-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much to write about this week, so I will try to summarize the things we've done to keep us busy since the last post.
Last Thursday, Andrea, Connor, Heidi and I set out to explore the town of Čelákovice, the small town where we are staying for school. We walked up and down the main street of town, looking at the stores, figuring out what they sell and what their hours are. That kept us busy for a few hours, and then because we were quite cold after spending that much time outdoors, we stopped in a Greek restaurant for some hot chocolate and lattes. They cost about a dollar each, which gives you a nice portion.
On Friday, the whole class went into Prague for a scavenger hunt. We were split into small groups of 4 or 5 people (husbands and wives were split as well) to answer as many questions about Prague (3 pages worth of questions, activities and challenges) as we could in 2 hours. We were a bit sluggish because of the cold, but we had fun in the process. One of our challenges was to find out how many stairs there are in the Prague replica of the Eiffel Tower. You could use a book, search the internet, ask someone, or go there and find out for yourself. Our team decided to go there. It's all uphill getting there, and then there are lots of stairs to climb (completely frozen stairs, I might add). But, we trekked about so we could have the pleasure of finding out for ourselves how many stairs there are (1046, if I remember correctly). Also, we got bonus points for taking a picture once we got there. So, that was the gist of the scavenger hunt. I think the team I was on came in last. Our prize was a pair of fuzzy socks for each of us. The team Geo was on came in second or third to last; they got some warm gloves. The rest of the teams got various warm items, like a beanie, a scarf, and ear warmers. The winning team got a bottle of sparkling wine each, and they were kind enough to share it with the whole class at our magnificent lunch we had after the competition. We went to a restaurant where the menu was already ordered for us...a nice big salad, a special Czech entree of beef with bread dumplings and a sweet, rich gravy, and apple strudel for dessert. I didn't have to eat again the whole day...
After lunch, which was actually a very late lunch or a very early dinner, we took a walking tour of the "mysteries of Prague". It was mildly entertaining to hear our local tour guide tell the old "ghost" stories of Prague. But I should have known better to sign up for an outdoor walking tour after dark. At least it wasn't snowing! After the tour, we went to another restaurant (people in the group were actually hungry) and we ordered a light snack, so we wouldn't go to bed hungry. We got home around 10:30 pm, so it was a full 12-hour day of fun in Prague.
Saturday we intended to do laundry, so we sat around our apartment the whole day while we waited our turn. It was later revealed to us that a staff person had the key to the laundry room and there was no way to get ahold of her. So, Geo made the best of the day and studied all day. He got a lot done. I sewed a lot. It snowed mostly all day, but it stopped long enough for me to go to the grocery store. It was about an inch of snow by the time it was finished snowing. Later that evening, Geo and I went out for crepes.
On Sunday, we finally got the laundry key, so we did one load in the early afternoon. Then we went in to Prague for church...we found a group called Prague Christian Fellowship. They meet at 4:30 pm. That part is the best. It was a nice service, and it was really nice to be back to church, since we hadn't been since Christmas morning. After church, Geo and I went out to dinner in Prague--the Pizza Coloseum. We had delicious pizza and pasta. And tiramisu and ice cream :)
Geo doesn't have classes on Monday, so he had more time to prepare the rest of his homework. A lot of his classes are only 5 weeks, so he really has to get moving! In the afternoon, I did a little research with Andrea about the possibilities of going to Italy for the Olympics. Then we ran to the pharmacy (Connor seems to have pneumonia, poor little guy) and then to the store for food for dinner. Geo studied and ran, and studied some more. He's starting a club here that will set up touring the Central Banks of various countries and maybe the whole EU. We had to do a little bit of advertising and planning to get the club charter turned in by today.
So, that's an update. I guess we did a little more than I thought. Now I'm doing another load of laundry while Geo's in class. Tonight we go into Prague for "First Tuesday," a Thunderbird get-together that happens all over the world. Students and alumni (and sometimes potential students) gather for some sort of social activity. I think it will just be appetizers tonight.
Friday we're going to tour a beer factory. I'll summarize that over the weekend for you.
It snowed again this morning (another inch) and snow/rain is the forecast for days. Temperatures today are about 36 F (feels like 24, says Yahoo) and shouldn't be over 30 the rest of the week! Brrr...

Missing!

2006-02-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

It seems I've misplaced my USB connector for the camera to the laptop. I don't know if got left in Kenya (the last time I used it) or if it's just been misplaced with all the unpacking and rearranging we've been doing here. That doesn't mean the end of the blog, but it might seem a little empty for awhile without a visual on life here.
Here are some other senses for you to experience while the pictures stay stuck in the camera:
Hearing: Let me tell you about the radio we have in our rooms here at the CMC. There is a large box in each room that plays one radio station. It is a decent station, with some songs in English, some in Czech (I think) and maybe some songs in other languages as well. I have heard quite the mix of English songs though: Patrick Swayze's song for the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack; Duran Duran; and Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time" (a song I had never heard until we sang it for high school graduation in '96 and haven't heard since). At least the one radio station comes in clearly.
Smelling: Cooking (usually one of my favorite activities) has become a challenge with two hot plates, a wok, and a pot. What I really need is one of those 4 ingredients or less cookbooks. That still doesn't mean I can handle the recipe though, since we don't have an oven. And even the ones that can be done on the hot plate might not make it. Take tonight for example. I wasn't too excited to eat any more potatoes (Czech's really like potatoes, so I was going to try something else) so I thought some rice might be nice. Well, I haven't cooked rice in a pot in ages (thank you, rice cooker at home) so I did the best I could without my Joy of Cooking to refer to. I brought the rice to a boil and let it cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. At 18 minutes, I smelled burned rice. The rice was attached to the bottom of my brand new pot. And of course, the top layer was undercooked. Geo ate it anyway, it wasn't too bad. But so much for rice. And I hope my pot turns out okay. Anyway, the scent filled up the whole place and we had to air it out, which leads me to the next sense:
Feeling: All we feel is cold. The rooms are heated well enough for our desert blood, but due to the burned rice incident, we turned our rooms into freezers for a few minutes. It helped get the smell out, but it got really cold inside. 2 hours later and it's starting to warm up. Thanks also to a hot pot of tea.
I'll write some more about the other senses later. And I'll keep looking for the camera cord.

Correction: the right number

2006-01-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Oops, I messed up with the cell phone number. Here it is:
+420 608 235 762
We look forward to hearing from you at some point.

New Czech Number

2006-01-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

Our cell phone here is +420 608 236 762. This should be the number we'll use until the end of April. For the rest of the contact information, refer back to the first or second entries in the blog.

Goodbye summer, hello winter!

2006-01-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, it is so cold in Prague! We arrived nearly on time last night, only about an hour or so late. We took a taxi to Celakovice and it took about 40 minutes. And we were going really really fast on some tiny roads (no traffic or cops, apparently, at midnight). So, we arrived and upon checking in, we got quickly unpacked and fell asleep. We had to be up before 9 am to get our breakfast (included in the stay). Breakfast was delicious--I love European food! Or maybe it's just the bread and butter I love so much...anyway, it was a nice start to our stay here.
After breakfast, Geo and I met up with two girls here from T-bird (Laura and Debbie) and we went into Prague on the train. This was after some hot beverages though, as it was really cold! I'm not quite sure what the temperature was this morning, but Geo was still able to run in his shorts...ice on the ground and all. So, we had hot drinks and went on the train. The train runs once an hour on the weekends and it takes about 35 minutes to get into the main part of Prague. It was awesome when we got there, and we walked around a bit to get our bearings. I had to buy a new scarf and mittens (I didn't bring any with me, since my Arizona clothes don't quite cut it for a true winter). We saw a bit of the old town and then we checked in our friends to a hostel (they're spending the night so they can see the opera tonight). We had a nice "traditional" Czech lunch, then we split off to go our separate ways. Geo and I had a few errands to run. On the agenda: IKEA, grocery shopping, and buying a new number for our cell phone. We wanted to get these done today, because who knows what we'll be able to do on Sunday (and really, tomorrow I need to do laundry)!
IKEA is half way between Prague and Celakovice. We got there easily from old town Prague via the metro, but getting home by the train would require us going back into old town. This would not be easily accomplished, with a big bag full from IKEA and several shopping bags of groceries. So, we had to cheat and take a taxi (yikes, that was almost $20 US). A small price to pay though for getting our little "house" up and running.
After IKEA, we went to a Hypermarket grocery store. It's huge and has everything under one roof...but nothing, absolutely nothing, is in English whatsoever. Talk about a hard shopping trip. Thankfully, Geo came in to rescue me, and we managed to get enough for a few meals on our own. With him pushing the cart, I could try to figure out what the labels meant. It was packed with people shopping and navigating and reading was more than I could handle. We ended up with chicken breasts, zucchini, red potatoes and a fresh loaf of whole wheat French bread. Everything has to be cooked on 2 burners on a hot plate. But, really, I can only use one burner, because the wok I bought is too big to fit at the same time with my 3 liter pot. Oh well!
Enough rambling now, can you tell I have good internet now and plenty of time to use it?!? The internet connection in our room is awesome. Maybe it won't be so fast when all the other students come and start hogging the bandwith, skyping all the time. Having said that, try to skype us whenever you want. Or else, I'll try to skype you!
We love Prague, even if it's freezing! You'll love it too if you can follow along with us and if you're planning to visit, make sure you let us know soon!

Fun stuff

2006-01-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun as you can tell from these pictures. We got to pet a cheetah (apparently, this is totally unheard of) at the Nairobi National Park "Safari Walk" (from left to right, the cheetah handlers, Linda, Fred, and Krissy). This cheetah is 4 years old. She was injured as a baby, and is very content with people. Then, we have the Giraffe Park, where we got to feed and kiss the endangered Rothschild Giraffes. That was awesome. When I can figure it out, I'll put up a link to a video we took with our camera.
Then, the last picture is a family picture from "Carnivore", a meat-lovers' paradise. Fred's younger brother, Malik, and his wife, Veronica, came (they live in Norway) and Fred's friend Edna and Fred's mom joined us, as well as another friend, James.

Last Days in Kenya

2006-01-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

While trying not to get too ahead of myself (easy to do when you don't get internet access all the time), I am going to try to summarize our last days in Kenya.
First, a few pictures. Here we have our group, shopping at the Maasai Market in Nairobi (sorry about the blur, we need to get the lens fixed still). From left to right, we have Linda, Krissy, J.T., 2 local salespeople, Geo, and Adam. Fred took the picture. The other picture here is an example of a town center in some of the very rural towns. People just set up shop, have meetings, do business of all sorts, right in between the main road through town.

Last day in Africa

2006-01-26T03:09:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe today is our last day in Africa. We are taking one of our party to the airport in 15 minutes...he heads home through Jo'burg...long flights for him. Tomorrow we all leave separately, except Fred, our host, who leaves on Saturday.
We had a very interesting trip here to the rural part of Kenya, where Fred's extended family lives, without water, electricity, etc. We spent one night there, but we had a nice "hotel"...it was a room with a bathroom for $10 a night. It was clean and we weren't bothered by any mosquitoes. We did have to use bottled water for teeth brushing there though...that was the first and only time we've had to do that in 4 weeks.
We've done some shopping here, which has been interesting. The salespeople at the markets will try to take everything you have to "trade" for things they are selling. We traded a key ring clip and a cheap hat of Geo's for some things. Not sure if that was a good deal or not though. It was a fun process, learning the local way of doing things.
Last night, we went to the famous Nairobi restaurant called "Carnivore". They serve all sorts of skewered meats, directly served onto your plate. We tried ostrich meat balls and camel. Those were pretty exotic. Interestingly, they offer a vegetarian menu as well, for about half the price as the meat menu (about $25 a person, all you can eat, soup, salad, desserts included). We had a good time and then we danced off our dinner at the attached club. We got home around 3 am...the rest of our group stayed out until almost 6 am. Crazy kids...
Today we should be visiting the giraffe center, where you can hand feed giraffes, and maybe we'll get to see some Kenya dancing.
We should be able to update some more from our layover in London tomorrow.

Karibuni Kenya

2006-01-22T02:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Kenya! That's a greeting we've heard a lot of since we landed here yesterday at about 3 pm local time. It's one hour past South Africa time, so everyone adjust your internal clocks. It was lightly raining when we landed and 21 degrees C, cold by South African standards. We were greated with a large van that holds the 6 of us and all our luggage, amazingly. That would have made a great picture...but I didn't get one.
Our driver took us to Fred's aunt and uncle's house first. They live near the airport. We were greeted warmly and served a variety of cold sodas. A nice way to unwind after a 5 hour flight (plus packing and driving, it made for a long morning). We stayed about 30 minutes, then we made one stop at a nice indoor/outdoor market near Fred's mom's house. I had some espresso, Geo had a fresh (exotic) fruit smoothie and we went to Mama Fred's house. Her house is awesome...it's quite large and there is room for all 6 of us, plus the other cousins that live there as well. We had a wonderful home cooked meal (we haven't really had a home cooked meal in over 3 weeks now) and then it was time to visit with some of Fred's friends at a club in town. We were home by 12:30 am or so, but we all voted to sleep in today (Sunday).
Today we're getting caught up on email and school stuff (some have a deadline to apply for internships today) and we'll be going to a large Masai Market this afternoon.
Today the weather is beautiful! It's sunny, not too hot and there's a breeze. I think the weather is ideal here. Not too hot, not too cold, not too much rain, not too much sun. And it's not too humid either.
One more thing: our local number here is +254 72 564 6139. We'll have that number until Friday when we leave for Prague.
I'll post some pictures after I've taken some. Kewaheri (good-bye!)

Off to Kenya

2006-01-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Early tomorrow morning we will be departing for Nairobi. We're on South African Airways SA182 leaving at 9:50 am from Jo'burg to Nairobi.
I don't know what sort of internet we'll have available when we get there, so our departing flight is on 27 Jan to London then Prague, all on British Airways.
Thanks to everyone for following along on our journeys here. It's been fun seeing everyone's comments.
We'll be in touch as much as we can. Also, I think we'll be getting a new phone number when we're in Kenya. Just email for now, until I post a new number.

One more of the big 5

2006-01-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a long-distance shot of an elephant. It was a breeding herd, so we saw dads, moms, and babies.
Unfortunately, I didn't get the shot of the leopard, so you're only get to see 4 of the 5 for now...

The lion through the binoculars

2006-01-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

A few more shots, the animals were way off in the distance, but at least we saw all of the Big 5!
It's the lion's tail!

More pictures- 2 of the big 5 (buffalo and rhino)

2006-01-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

My skills as a photographer are not good, plus the camera lens is slightly blemished following a disastrous drop on a bed of rocks :(

Pictures from Kruger

2006-01-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

The entrance to the park and our first find of the day! A family of giraffes!

Safari!

2006-01-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

We had an amazing time at Kruger National Park this weekend. We were split up into groups of 6 or 7 for the ride there (5 hours, then 3 hours of safari). We had cute little huts for sleeping (3 to a room) and our tour guides fed us dinners and breakfasts (lunch was on our own). So, Saturday, we were in the van from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Then we did some swimming and had dinner at 8:30. We were awake at 3:45 am on Sunday to go on our early morning safari (it's a good time to see the animals) and we got back to the camp around 2 pm. We had lunch and then swam some more. We took a night drive at 5 pm until 8, then had dinner and went to bed. We got up around 6:30 this morning (Monday) to drive home. We stopped at some neat sites on the way home to see some other natural sites, and we stopped in a cute "tourist town" for lunch (called Graskop?), where they make the best "pancakes", a dish inbetween a pancake and a crepe. You can have any sort of filling you want. I had butternut squash and feta cheese, Geo had fruit and ice cream. We got back to Joburg at 6:30 pm and checked back into our hotel. We got a larger room this time, but it's a 1 bedroom unit, as opposed to out last room, which was simply a studio. More on that later. For now, enjoy the safari pictures!

Lesedi Cultural Village

2006-01-12T13:09:00.000-07:00