European Food-Is there anything better?

While it has been a while now since we returned from our European trip, the food still lives on in my head. While Britain is not known for their culinary offerings, we had some great food while in London. Funny side story, while studying abroad in Reading, England, Monique and I actually escaped to Calais, France on a trip to Dover, in order to get good food. We had a stash of spices we carried to every meal in the dining hall (season salt and lemon pepper were a mainstay at our table).

Back to our most recent trip, our first meal was a traditional English Tea at the National Portrait Gallery. The scones and tea sandwiches were delicious, but we added on a cheese tray and charcuterie (cured meats) plate to make it into a meal. The entire meal ended up being a little more than the three of us could eat, but it was a great way to start off our trip.

The next day we met up with some of Monique's friends for authentic dim sum in China Town. I had never had dim sum, so I was excited to try something new. I think Traci was a bit leary, but ended up enjoying the food.

That night, after a day of siteseeing, we hit a pub over near Earl's Court and our hotel. I was thrilled to get my favorite British drink, a Snake Bite. This is made with cider and ale, and I asked for a shot of currant syrup (which I thought was called a Snakey B, as that is what I always ordered in the pub in our dorm, but I learned, after the bar tender laughed at me, that this is also a Snake Bite). Traditional pub food was on the menu and our minds. I ordered Bangers and Mash (which is sausage and potatoes with an onion sauce). I had never risked ordering this before, as I am not a fan of onions; however, this onion sauce was cooked down so much that there were no chunks or pieces, just the perfect essence of the onion. It was delicious! Traci and Monique each got the fish and chips.

Our last meal in London was snacks (sausage rolls [my FAVORITE] and veggies with hummus) while we watched Wicked! That was a pretty good one too.

Our first night in Amsterdam (after I was freed from the bathroom), we experienced an authentic Dutch meal. Traci ordered smoked salmon, which was served with capers; Monique got chicken satay, which had the best satay sauce; and I ordered macaroni and cheese. My meal was not what I was expecting, but it was really good. Elbow macaroni, with a bacon/pancetta type meat in a light tomato sauce, and grated aged gouda (known as oude kaas, or old cheese).

Traci and I took a tour of cheese, windmills, and klompers (wooden shoes). On this tour we were taken to Volendam, where the South Sea was dammed to create a lake (I'm pretty sure that is what they told us). Here were found a cafe (or essentially a Dutch pub) where we had some of the best fish and chips (the BEST fish ever, in my opinion) and a glass each of Amstel beer. I am not a big fish eater, but this was just awesome. There was no fishy taste, and it was moist and flaky all at the same time. I'm not sure I will ever find fish like that again.

That night, after visiting a local grocery store (so Monique could find some of that yummy satay sauce, and buying wine and more cheese), we found a local restaurant and decided we had to try Dutch pancakes. These were very good. They were like large crepes, served flat with our choice of topping. Traci went for a sweet pancake, with currants (which are like raisins)  and whipped cream, Monique got more of a breakfast-type one, with canadian bacon and cheese, and I ordered ham and cheese.

That night, we had our very own wine and cheese spread in our hotel room.

In Delft, we ate at another cafe. The food here was also very good. We started out with beef carpaccio, which is thinly sliced uncooked beef, served with a salad of greens, pine nuts, and shaved cheese. This beef was so delicious, and it melted in my mouth like butter. The idea of raw meat never really appealed to me, but I am so glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone and tried it. Next,  I ordered the steak (which was a filet) and Traci and Monique got the special, which was pork. One thing we noticed here especially, but definitely throughout the areas we visited, there is no rush to turn over the tables. We had gotten to the restaurant around 6:30-7:00PM, and planned to catch an 8:00PM train back into Amsterdam. 8PM came and went while we were waiting for our food. Once we ate and got our servers attention that we would like our bill, I just gave her my credit card right away, so we wouldn't have to further wait. I think it was way after 9PM by the time we made it to the train station.

Another interesting fact about the restaurants in Amsterdam, apparently pets are allowed. Two of the restaurants had their very own cats. Yes, I said cats! They weren't bothering anyone, they were just hanging out. I love cats, but this was strange.

In Belgium, we got what we had patiently be waiting for: Waffles, Chocolate, and Waffles with Chocolate! We learned on this trip that there are many types of Belgian waffles, but the two most popular types and sold all over Brussels are Brussels and Liege style waffles. Brussels are the type you normally think of when you think Belgian waffles. They are rectangular, with the deep holes. Liege waffles are a little different. They too have the deep holes, but they are not exactly square. I found a great website that explains the differences well. Monique and I both agreed that we prefer the Liege style waffles to the Brussels style. They are denser and sweeter. Both styles are great topped with Belgian chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream!

Belgian chocolate is one of my favorites (although I am not that big of a fan of chocolate). Around Brussels, we found tons of chocolatiers. And some very interesting chocolate statues!

Our last meal in Brussels was actually Italian, but it was quite good (probably more of the American Italian we are accustomed to). Traci, Steven and I all had different variations of pizza, and Monique had a chicken (or it may have been pork) dish that I can't remember the name, but it was smothered in a cheese sauce, and looked delicious. Traci also got tiramisu for dessert, and was excited when it showed up with a sparkler-type pompom on top.



Another interesting fact, fries in both the Netherlands and Belgium are served with mayonaise, not ketchup. And the mayonaise tastes different (more flavorful) than American mayo. The combo actually is pretty good.

I promised myself that on this trip we would do our best to eat only local, non chain, type food. And with the exception of Starbucks (and come on, we gotta get our caffenine fix somewhere, and they are everywhere), we did a very good job of this!

My (Mis)Adventures in Europe!

(I have been back for two months now, but with work and finishing up my Master's degree, this is the first opportunity I have had to actually post this.)

I had planned to wait until my sister got back from Belgium to write this blog since she has most of the pictures to back up my crazy (life) stories. (I can't believe her time there is almost done, and she will be back here on Saturday!) So expect an update with pictures soon!

London

• We landed on Friday after an 8 hour flight, and had to make our way not only through customs, but from Gatwick airport (which if you don't know, is NOT in London, but about 30 miles from central London) to Victoria Station, where we could transfer from the BritRail service to the Tube (or officially the London Underground). All this with 700 pounds of luggage (okay, not really, but it was probably close to 100 pounds). Not SUCH a big deal, except, oh yeah, it was RUSH HOUR. That meant the train was packed (we ended up in a First class train, and I just paid the extra difference over Second class, since we were already seated and had the luggage stowed) and the so was the Tube. We get off at South Kennsington (because I can't remember which station, I just know its AFTER Earls Court) only to find out that we should have gotten off at WEST Kennsington. Oh well, back on the train. Its only two stops. Finally we make it to our stop, and then we have to lug our luggage up two flights of stairs. Fun times. I made it to the top first, and this very nice lady stopped and helped Traci get one of her suitcases up the second flight. Oh yeah, did I mention she had TWO suitcases? No? Well, she did.

On the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station
• We finally make it to the hotel (bit of a walk, turns out Earls Court was closer, it just involves some extra turns) and our room is not ready. Of course not. It was only 9AM. We check our luggage with the front desk, then go into the public bathroom to change out of our "traveling" clothes. At first I am looking for a place to hang my coat, but there is no where. So I say (outloud) "Well, the counter is dry" and I lay my coat down. Only to have it activate the faucet, pouring water down the back of my coat and onto the floor! Well, poor Traci, after 8 hours of flying (and not sleeping, the girl ate like 3 big packages of Starbursts and was wired!) and lugging suitcases up and down stairs and across uneven sidewalks, really got a kick out of this! I think my blunder (stupidity) made up for the extra blocks of lugging suitcases, sort of.

• So once Monique finally met up with us at the hotel (she had some issues of her own, delayed in Orlando due to rain, delayed in DC due to rain, and United dropped her scooter in DC) we were off! We headed to Earls Court where they had "step free" access to tube trains (click here for Monique's blog on accessible London), only problem was the lift (elevator) down to our platform was out of commission. Okay, we'll take the other lift down to the other platform, get off at another accessible station, and back track. Yeah, easier said (REALLY?!?!) than done. The train pulls up, and it is totally NOT step free! There is at least a 6 inch step up into the train, not too mention the 4-6 inch gap between the platform and the train. So back up the lift we go. We can catch a bus! Once we finally found a bus that would get us somewhere NEAR where we were headed, we were off, again!

• We got off the bus at Victoria Station, and we were headed to Trafalgar Square, to get our passes for the hop on hop off bus. This worked well, as Buckingham Palace was on the way. We stopped to get our obligatory Red Phone Booth pictures, and Traci noticed a weird art sculpture-thing covered with polka dots, so of course, we have to get pictures! After we took pictures, I was saying something and gesturing with my hands, when I totally got POOPED on by a bird! YUCK!!!! Well, I've heard this is a sign of luck (but for me I should have looked at it as foreshadowing!) and my mom told me once (after getting pooped on by a bird in Washington  DC) that you really haven't been somewhere until a bird poops on you! Luckily I had tissue and hand sanitizer in my bag.

Fairly self explanatory
• We keep on walking, see the Royal Mews, pictures in front of Buckingham Palace, and then a walk through St James Park. Traci finds some ducks and geese and befriends them by sharing a cookie she bought at Starbucks. What bird doesn't love a good chocolate chip cookie? We're still headed towards Trafalgar Square, and headed out of the park, when Monique decides to go to the restroom. Traci and I are standing around people watching, when she sees a "bum" (her words, not mine) sitting/sleeping over near the restrooms. She asks if it is okay to take his picture? I tell her to be discreet. While she is taking pictures, I decide to stretch my leg. I grabbed my ankle from behind to stretch my hamstring/quadracep (not sure which one the stretches) when I hear a gentleman in a British accent shout "What are you doing?" I look over, and its the BUM! So I shouted back, "I'm stretching!" Neither one of us could hear what he shouted back, but luckily Monique was rolling past him at the time. She rolls up to us and asks what's going on, so I told her I was stretching and that man wanted to know what I was doing. She laughed, and said "Oh! That's why he called you DAFT!" Now I know what this means, but Traci didn't, so I had to tell her, he called me DUMB. You think getting water all over my jacket made her laugh! Her quote of the trip was "A bum called you dumb!"

• Sunday we planned our trip to Madame Tussauds, and got a decent start to get over to Trafalgar Square (we had waited to use our hop-on-hop-off tour tickets). By this time we had figured out how to get Monique on and off the tube trains (she could step onto the train, and we lifted her scooter on, then she drove it off), so we were able to take the tube from Earls Court to Westminster (I love walking out of the station and seeing Big Ben's tower!). We walked to Trafalgar Square, got our passes, then looked for a bus. This was March 13, but apparently it was the day London was having its BIG St Patricks Day Parade. Cool! NOT. The roads around Trafalgar Square were closed off, and busses were re-routed. When we finally found the ONE bus that would take us to Baker Street (for Madame Tussauds) it would not let us on, because there was already one (or two) people with strollers, and oh yeah, it was raining, and I guess the guy didn't want to kick them off to make room for the wheelchair! Monique figured out another routing that would get us close enough to walk, and luckily that bus was only about a minute behind the one that would not let us on. Once on, I told the driver what stop we were getting off at, and took a seat near the front. Traci was sitting with Monique near the back door with the ramp. After a couple stops the seat next to Traci was empty, so I moved back. When we got to our stop, I waited for others to get off, I stepped off, and waited for the ramp to come out. Only, it didn't. The doors closed, and the bus drove off. After a milisecond of WTF! I started chasing the bus! As best as I can chase a city bus! I kept praying PLEASE DON'T TURN!!! PLEASE DON'T TURN!!! I even walked/ran out in front of a car, but it stopped, and I kept going. The bus did not let them off for another 2 stops, and worse than chasing a London city bus, I later learned, was that the people still on the bus thought that Monique and Traci has lost their MUM. Mum as in MOTHER! How crappy must I have looked to be the mother of the two of them?!?!? Granted, Monique and Traci look young, lets say 25 and 18. Even if I looked 35 (which I don't think I do), that's just CRAZY! They finally get off the bus, and we catch up to each other. I thought chasing a bus would be as bad as it gets...

• ...until I almost had to chase a TRAIN. Traci wanted to get out of the city, so I did some research and found a town not too far outside of London with wildlife, canals, and world famous cakes! We planned the trip for Monday afternoon, after visiting the Tower of London. By the time we got to the train station, we were only going to have about an hour there before we would have to catch the train back to London. I knew Traci had her heart set on getting out of the city, so I looked at the train schedule and told her she could pick a town closer to London and we would go there. She picked a town called Denham. I bought tickets, and we caught the next train. We got out there, and there was nothing! It was nice, at first, until we realized that we had seen and done everything in the first 20 minutes we were there. As we were walking back to the train station, we met a lovely older couple, who reaffirmed that there was nothing there. While we were talking, the train drove up. I asked "Let me guess, that is our train back to London?" The woman said yes, and that the next one would be a while, so Traci started running. The lady yelled to her husband who had gone on ahead, to hold the train, but he wasn't paying attention to her. I took off running, as best I can. My brain was shouting the whole time "You can't run!" and I got up to the platform just as the doors closed! I guess Traci and I hit the door open button at the same time, because, luckily, the doors reopened! I jumped on, complaining of pains in my back, because my heart was beating so hard, and Traci was certain that I was about to have a heart attack. It was then and there we decided that if one of us got separated again (like on the bus) the others would get off at the next stop and wait until we were all caught up to each other!

Traci walking in Denham
• That was the end of my craziness in London, but I do have one more misadventure story that was more of a misadventure for Monique. Monday night, our last night in London, we went and saw Wicked at the Apollo Victoria theater. We knew which bus from Victoria went back to Earls Court, so we figured we'd be fine getting back to our hotel. We get to our stop, I go tell the driver we need the ramp, and Traci and I get off the bus. The doors close, the doors open, the doors close. The ramp come out, the ramp goes in. The bus pulls forward. Traci runs to stop the driver, but apparently he was just pulling forward. After about 5 minutes (which for a bus to stop is a long time) the driver finally tells us he can't get the ramp to come out. I can see Monique sitting in the bus, and looking at the floor. She thinking "can I drive this thing off the bus" to which I shake my head NO! Traci and I finally talk the bus driver into pulling the bus as close to the curb as possible so Monique can step off, and Traci and I pop her scooter in neutal (we're pros at this!) and pull it off the bus!

Monique stuck on the bus

Don't get me wrong, I had a WONDERFUL time in London, this is just me sharing the MISadventures!

Amsterdam

• We landed in Amsterdam with no issues, and other than meeting a fairly rude train attendant at the airport, we made it into Central Station and the hotel with little issue. We checked into our hotel, and waited for a fellow Sigma Kappa sister from UNLV to meet up with us to take us around and out for an authentic Dutch dinner. Tessa was on her way to the hotel from where she parked when Monique asked me to meet her in the lobby. I decided to go to the bathroom first. As I tried to exit the bathroom, I could not get the door to open. I had not locked it behind me, but somehow it got locked and/or jammed! We were on the second floor (third if you counted the lower floor) and the bathroom had a big window. But there was no ledge, and a bicycle parked under the window. Yeah, that was not an option. Traci went down to meet Tessa instead, and came back up with one of the front desk attendants. She used her key to try and unlock the door, and succeeded, after I had been in there about 10 minutes. Lucky it was me, and not Monique or Traci, otherwise there may have been some major freak outs (this is coming from the two of the them!). The outside of the door did not have a standard key whole, as I discovered, but the other side of the lock was a bolt with a slit, so the front desk person used her key as a sort of flat head screwdriver. We asked for some tape, and were given a roll of scotch tape, which I used to tape a business card over the latch. There was no way that door was getting stuck again!

Our window (next to the stars on the sign) from the ground

• After I finally made it out of the bathroom, we left for dinner. It was a rather busy night in Amsterdam, but Tessa took us to a great local restaurant. We had a bit of a wait for a table, but that wasn't a problem, because we ordered drinks. We situated our selved near the door, while we waited for seats at the bar. The place was fairly busy, and I was bumped several times. I put my arm up to protect Monique, who was standing in the corner near the door, because I knew if she got bumped it could be bad. Traci then asked me why I had my arm up, and no sooner had I explained that I was trying to keep Monique from getting knocked over, I got my finger slammed in the door! Let me just say, that hurt like hell!

Alcohol helped with the pain, Tessa, Monique and I

• The rest of our time in Amsterdam included many near misses and close calls with public transportation, but luckily, there were no more injuries, entrapments, or insults from bums!

Brussels

• Of all the cities we visited, Brussels was the least eventful, but that was okay with me. :) We did have some additional issues with public transportation, but again, nothing like in London or in Amsterdam. All in all, I'm glad I made it back to Brussels, because it was definitely better than I remembered, and there were NO MISadventures there (unless you count dragging my traveling partners to see a castle in a fairly boring city!).

Ghent Castle

Europe has changed in 10 years...

I have been back from our trips for 2 days now, and I have enough stories for several blogs. Trust me, they are coming, but I wanted to write a short summary of the trip. The highlights, if you will.

London

• We had the opportunity to see two awesome West End plays: In a Forest Dark and Deep (starring Matthew Fox!) and Wicked
• Took a ride on the London Eye (this time at dark, and the lights of London are beautiful)
• A river cruise on the Thames at sunset was an exceptional experience
• English Tea at the National Portrait Gallery
• Hop on hop off bus tour, riding an iconic red double decker bus

Amsterdam/The Netherlands

• Seeing the look of amazement on my sister's face when she saw a windmill in person
• Delicious fish and chips in a Cafe on the harbor in Volendam
• Dinner with a fellow Theta Eta sister, and native of Holland
• Walking the quaint (yet cold) streets of Delft

Brussels

• Getting to see the city through older eyes
• Warmest and sunniest days of our trip
• The best hotel room by far of our trip (Le Meridien, great find on Expedia, THANKS Monique!)
• Belgian waffles with Belgian chocolate, for BREAKFAST

Best part of the trip:

Experiencing all of this with my sister and best friend

I'm the BEST Travel Agent, EVER!

That is, in my own opinion! Just kidding, but I do think I am pretty kick a**, otherwise, why would I be in such high demand?

Okay, okay, I am just stroking my own ego here, but seriously, I must be okay at it. Lately my calendar has been extremely full with travel related planning. I work three days a week for Cathy, and almost every foreseeable Friday from now through May I will be filling in for Pat, either all day, or at least a half a day. And then there's the travel agent-related questions I get on Facebook, which I actually love answering (and for those of you still waiting to hear back from me, I promise I haven't forgotten you!).

It is probably for this reason that my brain is a little flustered at times. The other day, after I was SO excited about figuring out and booking hotel rooms, I was on cloud 8 (cloud 9 comes once EVERYTHING is taken care of). Well, I wake up the next morning to an email on my Blackberry that says FAX------. Okay, that's weird. But its on my Blackberry, so I'm not worried about opening a virus (can you get a computer virus on a Smartphone?). I open the message and this is what it says:

Open het bijgevoegde document. Dit document is naar u verstuurd via de scanner van de HP LaserJet M3027

Okay, well that's some foreign language (duh!). Let me tell you how much I love having Google on my phone (and ask anyone, I use the hell out of Google on my phone!): select and copy the text from the message, open Google in my Browser, type translate then hit paste, and VOILA!

Open the attached document. This document is sent to you via the scanner HP LaserJet M3027

Okay, so I open the attachment (still on my phone, seriously, am I crazy doing this, can you get a computer virus on your phone?) and its an invoice from the hotel in Amsterdam for a no show fee of  €140! Uh, oh! What did I do?!?!? Apparently I booked our room for that night, instead of for March! I guess when I clicked Check Rates, and a new window popped up, the dates were reset. (It kept happening to me while trying to book rooms in London through Holiday Inn Express, should have paid more attention.) I emailed the hotel, and a very nice woman emailed me back that they would refund the charge and make the reservation for the correct dates! Yay, we're back in business! BUT, this means that I need to be extra diligent at checking dates and all. This was Tueday.
 
Yesterday, I worked at the travel agency in the afternoon. I had a lady come in with her husband and two adorable daughters, wanting to book Disney. YES! I am all over this, its my specialty! We were having so much fun, discussing what all they could do, and I was blowing her mind talking about Fast Passes, that I did not realize it was 10 after 5 until Jenny came to my desk and said she had to get going! Oops! So I finished up with the lady, and packed up to go, still on my high of being the best Disney agent out there (again, just me and my big head! I know I sound conceited, but every now and then, I think I'm allowed).
 
I drive home, and when I go to get out of the car I notice the red light on my Blackberry is blinking, Somebody loves me! I open up the email and see three, THREE emails from United Airlines. My first thought is What the Heck? Wait, I booked our tickets on EasyJet earlier that day, but EasyJet has nothing to do with United. What could this be. Duh, open the message and find out! Here is what the message first said:

Subject: Your United Airlines confirmation- March 10, 2011- Orlando, FL to Washington, DC

OH MY GOD!!!! What have I done? Who did I book from Orlando to DC, and WHY would I book someone from Orlando to DC?!?!?! I was standing outside my back door, about to have a heart attack, when it occured to me, MONIQUE!!! Monique was going to book her tickets through United! Yes, that must be it! So I send Monique a text that I got her itinerary THREE times, and my phone rings, its Monique! Her roomie heard my text come through and thought I was calling, so lovely bestie that she is, she called me back, where I explained the coronary she just gave me. Enter Monique and her roomie laughing the a**es off, at my expense! Her roomie loves to laugh at me, but I allow it, because I am usually being classic Lonnie, who deserves the laughs.
 
So, very long story short, I will now proceed to read everything 18 times before I click, or over react, plus I think I will have 27 different people verify my work after I have read it 18 times, before I click. Which totally makes me the BEST TRAVEL AGENT EVER!

The Jetway and Big Ben are In Sight!

I have spent the last couple weeks working on arrangements for our trip to Europe. Since my last post, we have made leaps and bounds on decisions about where to go and what to see. After a particularly interesting conversation with Monique about Traci, and how she could get lost trying to find her way out of a wet paper sack (or in her own words, she's like an "uncharged GPS. Potential yes, but the nonetheless lacking."), we decided our trip should start in London! I absolutely love London, and I am so excited to be taking my sister there. This is a perfect place to start her crash course on Europe because, of course, they speak ENGLISH! (Well sort of, but it will be easier for her to understand than, lets sa,y starting her off where they speak FLEMISH!)

We have decided to spend 4 nights in London, then fly to Amsterdam, where we will spend 3 nights. After Traci gets her fill (which I am sure WON'T happen on this trip, unfortunately) of Holland and the Netherlands, we will train through Brussels, and on the Ghent, which happens to be the same train station for Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, and where Traci will be living for three weeks once we leave. Actually even longer, because all three of us will stay at her B&B for the last two nights before Monique and I move on to a hotel near the Brussels airport for our morning departures.

I am getting so excited about this trip, but I am completely on information overload when it comes to booking hotel rooms, looking for tours, researching sites, and everything else that planning a European vacation involves (rent a car versus take the train, etc). Its crazy to me how much work this is, and I'M A TRAVEL AGENT! I guess it really is easier booking a trip for someone else! :)

We have all of our hotel rooms reserved, so that is a load off. Most of the transportation details have been decided, so that is good too. Now comes the fun part: deciding what we are going to do in each of the cities! I have some great ideas, and we have already decided on a few sites (Madame Tussauds in London, the flower marts and cheese farms in Amsterdam, and this mini-Europe model park in Brussels), now we are just waiting for more input from Traci on what she does (and DOESN'T) want to see.

If someone had told me a year ago that I would have the opportunity to travel through Europe again with Monique, AND I'd get to bring my sister as well, I would have laughed and said yeah right! But here we are planning hopefully one of the greatest trips ever. I just hope it lives up to everything (and exceeds!) Traci is dreaming of. What better gift could I give one of my favorite people?

Where has January gone?

I cannot believe it is already January 26! This year is off to fast start. I am so excited for the next few months to go by quickly, except for the fact that I have TONS to do between now and then. Then being MAY 15TH. Graduation Day. I cannot believe I am finally in my last semester of grad school. What started out as something to do after I was laid off has become very rewarding. I have met many great and interesting people on this journey, and I really hope to keep in contact with them, once we are not required to keep in touch. :)

While January is almost over, I think I can cross one thing off my list of TO DOs in the next several months:

• Secure client for research methods class

There are still many more TO DOs however:

• Secure client for applied strategic planning project
• All planning and reservations for trip to Belgium with sister and best friend in March
• Fill in at Travel Agency (which I LOVE, but can be exhausting, when you have gotten used to NOT working all day)
• Make sure that other boss's clients are taken care of while she travels (again, I really enjoy this job, but sometimes there are more people and demands than there are hours in the day)
• Travel to Europe with a very GREEN (in most senses of the word) little sister, and make sure we do a good job of acclimating her, so she doesn't follow us back to the airport
• Stay ontop of grad school work and my boss's clients while on said trip to Europe
• Actually, stay on top of school work and the gazillion or so papers and projects through the duration on the semester
• Find a way to be in Las Cruces for my sister's graduation on May 7th, and make it to DC by 8AM on May 8th (I'm totally on top of this, and WILL figure it out!)
• Ace the case competition capstone portion of my degree, so that I can...
• Take part in TWO graduation ceremonies in DC, one of my 4th wedding anniversary, and the second on MAY 15TH!!!!

And then once I am done with all of that, I have the task of finding a job (although I guess that is actually part of my pre-May 15th To Do list as well) and getting out of Georgia, but more on that later.

I will leave you with a favorite picture from the month of January:

Who knew you could get alcohol at the movies? Enjoying (???) Black Swan with a large (HUGE) Amaretto Sour (me) and a nice glass (cup) of Reisling (Monique).

A Year In Review: 2010

With the continuing declining economy, many people have felt that 2010 was not a very good year. I was one of these people. While I am not exactly unemployed, I am definitely "under" employed. The declining economy has affected the construction industry, which affects Marshall's business, the same can be said for the travel industry, and businesses with which I work.

However, with further reflection, I realized that 2010 has actually been a pretty good year for me. I was able to travel A LOT, spend time with family and friends, learn a lot more about the industry that I love and hope to be a part of, and I learned more about my self.

• I was able to make three trips to Orlando in 2010, and spend time with my best friend, reconnect with sorority sisters at Sigma Kappa's National Convention, and get to experience the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

• I visited my brother, sister-in-law, and neice in Nebraska, and had an awesome time reconnecting with my brother, visiting Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas, and playing  A LOT of games on the Wii (who would have known that I could kick my bro's butt in Bowling and Frisbee Golf?).

• I was granted the opportunity to intern with the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Burea, analyzing culture and heritage. This allowed me to spend over six weeks with my family in NM, including a trip to my other brother's house, where I got to meet his AWESOME girlfriend. Lots of fun was had during those weeks.

• Marshall came to NM at the end of my time there and we traveled to Southern NM, visiting White Sands National Monument and Carlsbad Caverns. We also later took a trip to Las Vegas for my 30th birthday, and Halloween.

• I received a $1000 scholarship from Tourism Cares for the Fall semester, and as a scholarship recipient I was given the opportunity to travel to Montreal, Quebec for the National Tour Association Convention. This was truly an experience I will never forget, and the highlight for me, was volunteering at the St Joseph's Oratory.

• This past year I also started blogging about my experience as a cancer patient and cancer survivor. This has been very difficult, and very rewarding. I hope that my story can help other patients and survivors make it through a difficult time.

This past year has been very good to me and my family, and I hoping that 2011 is even better! Happy New Year to all!

1 Day After Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends! I know we did!

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1 Day Until Christmas!

One of the best things about the holidays is all the food! While it may not seem like it to the rest of my family, food is an important tradition to our family Christmases. I have already mentioned baking cookies and eating posole for Christmas breakfast, but there are so many other great things!

Another favorite is making tamales. We have attended and hosted tamale making parties. Tamales are a big deal. The best tamales are made from masa (the corn-meal type mix that is stuffed with meat and wrapped in corn husks) from El Modelo, in Albuquerque. It is probably the best because it is made with lard. It's Christmas, deal with it.

New Mexican food is served on Christmas Eve. Fajitas, enchiladas, chip, salsa, and queso join the tamales. I am sad that I did not get to make tamales this year, but I am serving my favorite, green chile chicken enchiladas, with chips and homemade salsa for dinner tonight. Along with all my baked goodies.

Christmas dinner is generally traditional, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (which I actually despise!), and my grandmother's famous fruit salad. I say famous because there has not been a single holiday, or big family get together, where she hasn't made her fruit salad. The salad is made with segmented oranges, bananas, apples, mini-marshmallows, and whipped cream (Dream Whip for the big bowl, and Cool Whip for my aunt and brother). While its not necessarily a favorite of mine, I can't imagine a family dinner without it!

Christmas dinner will just be Marshall and I, so we got a small spiral-cut ham. I'm planning to make cheesy scalloped potatoes, roasted asparagus, and rolls for our dinner. I am sad to not spending this Christmas with my family, but I know they are with us in spirit, and we are with them as well!

2 Days Until Christmas!

I spent today baking Christmas goodies. Apple pie, pumpkin pie, and sugar cookies. All day today while baking, it reminded me of my family. This is the first year that we are not flying home to New Mexico for Christmas. This is sad and happy all at the same time.

It is sad because I will not be seeing my brothers, sister, or parents. It is happy because I get to experience a true Georgia Christmas with Marshall. Marshall's son is even joining us for Christmas Eve dinner. I am happy to not have to be traveling with people who do not seem to be happy to visiting their families (because we all know there are rarely happy people traveling around the holidays).

Family is the reason for the season, too. Getting together and reliving memories and traditions is what Christmas should truly be about. Taking time to appreciate those around you, and remind them how much they are loved!

Merry Christmas to you and yours! Remember that we love you all!

3 Days Until Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas movies!!! I love them so much that I look forward to Christmas in July (on certain cable stations) so I can watch Christmas movies.

Strangely enough, there are some Christmas movies, like Its A Wonderful Life, that I have still never seen in their entirety! I do have Its A Wonderful Life on my DVR, and plan to watch it this year, but there are so many movies that I love, I sometimes would rather just rewatch them.

A favorite from childhood is The Night They Saved Christmas, starring Jacqueline Smith and Art Carney. Who wouldn't love a movie about oil drillers trying to blow up Santa Claus? Just kidding, but that is the main premise of the movie. And who hasn't wanted their very own Reindee Zephyr? All in all, a great movie, and I wish they would show it at appropriate times (instead of 4AM! I love the movies, but that is just crazy!).

My two favorite Christmas movies from my childhood are The Christmas Gift and A Smoky Mountain Christmas. In The Christmas Gift, John Denver plays an architect sent to a small Colorado town, to scout land for a ski resort. I remember being 10 years old, and saying that I would NEVER let someone buy my land for resorts. And now here I am, looking to go into tourism development! I guess the one bright star that doesn't make me feel bad is that I am working to create sustainable development, and concerned with local communities. But I digress. :)

A Smoky Mountain Christmas is about a country music singer, played by none other than Dolly Parton. She is tired of her glitzy, non-private life, and heads to her best friends parents cabin in the Smokies. There she encounters a group of runaways, and they change eachother lives forever! At least that is how I look at it.

I think I love Christmas movies for the same reason I love romantic comedies. They are heartwarming stories about family, friends, and love. There is always some sort of moral you can take away from story, and they make you feel all warm and cuddly from the inside out!

In the past several years, there are newer movies that have joined my ever-growing list of favorite Christmas movies. Here is a list of a few of them:

• The orginal Miracle on 34th Street
• The Christmas Card
• Comfort and Joy
• Recipe for a Perfect Christmas
• A Boyfriend for Christmas
• Holiday in Handcuffs

• A Holiday to Remember

And we cannot forget the Christmas movie to end all Christmas movies! The BB Gun Movie! A Christmas Story. And with cable channels like TBS playing it for 24 hours on Christmas Day, how could anyone forget that Ralphie wanted a "Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time" and how he's rebuffed time and again with "You'll shoot your eye out!"?

4 Days Until Christmas!

Christmas trees are ubiquitous signs of holiday cheer, and in my family, nothing was more cheerful and horrifying, than getting and putting up a Christmas tree. In a previous post I mentioned that my mom was a bit of a snob when it came to her luminarias. She's the same way with her tree. And she raised her children to be snobs about trees too. Or at least we were when we were younger (and weren't the ones paying for the trees!).

While shopping for Christmas trees it was always about getting a tree that was tall, but not so tall it wouldn't fit, and full, but not so full that the big ornaments wouldn't sit between the boughs, and then it had to survive for the weeks leading up to and after Christmas. Not too big an order.

(Side Note Funny Story: One year when I was home from college, my brothers, sister and I piled into Mom's Suburban to go find a Christmas tree, first year without Mom and Dad in tow. We drove to Los Lunas, and out towards Bosque Farms. There was a house with a huge lot full of trees, so we parked in front of the house, got out and started looking. Can't remember which one of us it finally dawned on, but turns out it was just a house, with a front yard full of pine trees, NOT a Chritsmas tree lot! We got a good laugh out of that as we ran back to the car!)

The horrifying part of putting up a Christmas tree, after Dad has sawed the bottom off, and finally got the tree to stand up straight, was when Mom pulled out the lights! Our solarium used to be closed off by double French doors. I remember Mom would close herself off in the solarium with the tree and the lights, and we were not allowed to talk to her until she was done. Every year, when she would unwrap the tree, she would painstakingly coil the lights up, nice and untangled, and the next year when she'd pull them out of the box, the light fairies, elves, or whatever other demonic creature lived in our Christmas boxes, would have tangled them all up again, and stole some of the bulbs!

When Marshall and I bought our first tree all those years ago, I finally understood her plight and aggression. Needless to say after many years of fresh cut trees at Mom and Dad's and live trees at mine and Marshall's, both our households are the proud owners of fake trees! My sister even has a BEAUTIFUL white tree that she "Seuss-es" up each year.

While Marshall and I plan to go back to the live tree at some point (I am allergic, and breakout every time I touch the boughs while decorating), I am very much enjoying my pre-lit, stick it back in its box, don't have to vacuum up after it, burn a pine-scented candle in the house and you wouldn't even know its fake, Christmas tree.

5 Days Until Christmas!

Christmas is a time for giving, and I love to give! My grandma and my mother instilled in me a need to buy gifts for everyone, and start my shopping early. I am not like some people who will hit the mall the day after Christmas to stock up on season leftovers at great prices (except for Christmas cards and gift wrap, those sales are GREAT!). I like to do my shopping while I am traveling. That way I am ensuring that I am buying gifts for my family and friends that they could not get from just anywhere. I also try my best to buy QUALITY gifts over QUANTITY gifts. Some people (like my sister) are just way too easy to shop for, and I find myself needing reminding that I have already bought said person MANY things (or this year, that I did not drawn their name, and had already bought them tons!).

With giving comes receiving, and lets be honest, everyone likes to GET gifts. But for me, it really is about the giving. I put a lot of thought into what I buy for people. (Except when I am walking through a store and something jumps out and says "You know exactly who I am perfect for!" But in all honesty, those gifts are reserved for those who are really easy to shop for.) When I know I am headed somewhere in particular, I make a list of who I need gifts for, what they like, and what I can probably find. Going to Orlando, and Walt Disney World, is a prime example. There are usually certain things, that certain people, would like, and I know I can find a Disney version. I love shopping for my neice at Disney World, because even if I can possibly find something similar at a cheaper price, I know that what I am buying is quality, and will hopefully bring a smile to her face, the way shopping for her brings a smile to mine. I also have a nephew on the way, and I am excited to shop for him too.

So while "Jesus is the reason for the season," I remember that Jesus was God's gift to all of us, and I try to spread cheer, happiness and love by giving gifts from my heart.

6 Days Until Christmas!

Baking Christmas cookies has been a favorite tradition of mine as long as I can remember. It's funny, even to this day, I get so excited to bake cookies, but halfway through, I forget why I was excited in the first place!

Today I made chocolate chip cookies for Marshall to give to his best customers (and a few that will go to my friends as well). I made a double batch, which is A LOT of dough. I have also discovered that while making the dough in my Kitchenaid mixer is great, it is better to just use the mixer for creaming the butter, sugar, and eggs, and then mix the butter mixture with the flour mixture by hand. Sometimes I want to becoming a professional baker just to get the upper body strength they must have from mixing and whipping!

Later this week I will make sugar cookies, and I am really excited to make snowflake cutouts! A few years back I tried drawing snowflakes in white icing on round cookies with light blue icing. Instead of snowflakes they looked more like Hanukka cookies! :) I found snowflake cookie cutters at a kitchen store in Savannah when mom was visiting, and mom gave me a couple more snowflake cutters, so I have lots of options!

7 Days Until Christmas!

Its funny, sometimes when I think back on holiday memories, it seems like certain things happened every year. But it could just be fond memories of a singular event. Driving through Albuquerque and looking at Christmas lights is one such event (or maybe it really was a tradition).

I remember being really young (my brothers were probably still babies), and piling into my grandparents conversion van to go look at lights. We had hot chocolate, and I seem to remember my grandma, Bam's guacamole (again, I could be confusing memories!).

I still look back on that trip (or maybe it was several trips) to go look at lights as a family as a memory I will always cherish. I hope to someday bundle my own children up, and drive around looking at the Clark Griswold-wannabes, and creating memories that they will cherish for a lifetime as well.