Elsja Down Under

A Brand New Journey March 11, 2010

In case you have forgotten, I’d like to mention one more time that I’m going to AFRICA on Saturday. I’m really getting excited now. One more full day of work and then we’re off.

I was telling Val yesterday that this trip seems really strange. In the last 4 years I’ve flown from LA to Sydney and back again probably 12 or 13 times. I know the flight well. I know the exact desk I need to go to for check-in. I know the gate I fly out of- it’s always gate 8 or 9. I know all about the extra security procedures at gate 8 and 9. I know the exact length of the flights. I know how many movies I can watch. I know that if I try to start a movie right when they are serving breakfast, I won’t get to watch the entire thing because the entertainment system will shut down before it ends. I know the usual flight numbers I might have (QF 12, QF 8, etc.) I know that my flight will always leave around 11 or 1 (or possibly 3 depending on daylight savings). I can estimate the weight of my heavy bags and even when they are CRAMMED full, I know they will still be under the maximum weight. I know I will usually arrive around 6:30 or 8:30 am in LA. I can calculate the time zone difference in 1.2 seconds.

Like I said… I KNOW THE FLIGHTS WELL!

I know NOTHING about our flight to South Africa and it’s a weird feeling. All I am aware of is that we leave around 10:30am. I have no idea how long the flight is. I don’t know when we arrive. I don’t know exactly how many hours behind they are. I am basically putting all my faith and trust in Andrew to tell me where to go and when to be there. It’s such a strange feeling to be flying on a long international flight that is heading AWAY from LA. It’s strange and very exciting at the same time.

In two days I will show up to the airport and board our plane at a different gate.  I will fly over the Indian Ocean for the first time. I will be stepping onto a new continent, one my toes have never touched. I will explore two new countries. I will see wild mammals, great white sharks and beautiful scenery. I will climb mountains and ride boards on sand dunes. It will be a brand new journey full of first-time experiences and adventures and I can’t wait!

Airport Adventures December 6, 2009

I’m back! I know I seriously suck at blogging when I go home to CA to visit. Now that I’m back in Sydney, I should be posting more. Although don’t expect any photos- wordpress decided to just take a dump and stop letting me upload anything. I hope to have that fixed eventually.

ANNNNYWAYS…

I made it home on Saturday morning after an uneventful trip across the pacific. While I was in the airport waiting to board, I did have a few thoughts and I’m sort of wondering if I am the only weird person that thinks of this stuff or if there are others out there just as paranoid, nosy and anal as me.

Am I the only one that gets a teeny bit nervous when they test my bag for bomb/drug particles? Ok so it makes no sense because I obviously am never carrying bombs or drugs, but whenever I get the extra screening through security I’m always a little concerned that the alarm on the machine is going to go off. Maybe I’ve watched too much Boarder Patrol or Banged up Abroad, but I always think to myself “what if I touched a dollar bill that had some bomb material on it and then I touched my bag, blah blah blah.” I’m a freak, I know, I know- but it’s always a big relief when the little “passed” sign comes up on the screen.

Does anyone stare at people at the gate and wonder who they are and why they are getting on that plane? I saw this group of maybe 12 African American guys at the gate when I was getting ready to board. Anyone who has been to Australia knows that it is pretty strange to see any groups of black people at all in this country. Don’t believe me? Read this blog.  One looked sort of like Don Cheadle, all cool with his gold jewelry and glasses on his head (indoors at 10:00pm) but the rest looked like big nerds. Obviously they were traveling as a group but what kind of group? They were too poorly dressed to be a sports team or music group. Church group maybe? I sat and wondered and I still wonder. Am I the only one who wonders?

Does anyone else have a detailed plan and schedule of events every time they get on the plane? I always have my big backpack that is too big to go under a seat so I bring a smaller cloth bag inside the backpack. The first thing I do when I get to my seat is take out all the things I might need on my flight (or things I don’t want to get stolen)- my ipod, a pen, sleeping pills, my wallet and passport, chapstick, water, socks, an eye mask, etc. I add these items to the cloth bag and put it under the seat. Next I take out my travel blanket…yes, I carry a travel blanket. Finally I put my big bag in the overhead, sit down, buckle up and check out the entertainment guide. That is how it goes on EVERY flight. Does that make me anal? Perhaps, but maybe I’m  just an expert traveler?

So who else is with me? Who else is as anal, nosy and paranoid as I am??

The Long Journey… Part 3 November 11, 2009

So I get to the airport and go straight to the line to check in. As luck would have it, the baggage belts were broken so once I got my boarding pass I actually had to hang around for about 15 minutes with my bags until the belts started working. I then waited at the gate and was seated next to the most obnoxious Aussie guy ever. He just sat there bitching and moaning, saying things like “come ooooonnnn,” “geeeeeeeeeeez” and “hurry up!” (all under his breath of course but just loud enough to be totally annoying). This trip was starting off just as stellar as the first attempt. I almost got up to move but I waited2 seconds too long and got sucked into a conversation with him when he started talking. UGH! Finally some guy he knew (because we were all BFFs from the day before) walked up and that was my chance to bolt. I used the bathroom as an excuse and luckily when I returned we were all boarding (about an hour late!)  To get to the air bridges everyone had to go down one of those people mover escalator things. Well, I think I was the only genius that realized it would take forever to get down that thing when 300 other people were lined up trying to do the same thing. I took the elevator (alone) and walked onto the plane before almost everyone else. Idiots.  Finally we all did board and took off with no more glitches. It seemed as if 99% of the passengers were from the day before; however, there were way less people. I guess there were quite a few people who didn’t want to get back on the A380. I did though, I wanted the flat bed!

The flight was uneventful. Probably the least turbulent of all my flights. I watched a few movies and TV shows and checked out a new bridal magazine. I only slept about 2 hours which meant that when I landed, I felt like a zombie. Unfortunately for my mom all the flight screens showed that we were flying in from Sydney at 7:40am. I suppose technically we were, but she was expecting a flight from Melbourne so when we were over an hour late- she struggled to figure out where we were. It didn’t help that we were flight 11 from Sydney (via Melbourne) but there was another flight 11 from Sydney arriving at the same time.

The whole trip was chaos… but I made it, I finally made it!  Now I am here in Huntington with my family and  friends. I finally get to do some real wedding planning and it’s so much fun!  Only downside? I miss Andrew

The Long Journy Across the Pacific – Part 2 November 8, 2009

As I walked into the lobby of the hotel in Melbourne I noticed 2 things. The first thing was the long line to the desk. Surely this was going to take awhile. The second thing I noticed was John Mayer sitting on a chair to my left. I did a double take and had a momentary “is that really him?” thought run through my head. Then I saw this guy on the right (at least I think it was him) totally decked out in jewelry and sunglasses (indoors at 11:00pm) and thought, yup that guy definitely looks like he’s part of a rock star crew. Once I saw guitar cases I was certain.

I looked around and no one else seemed to recognize him, at least no one was staring. Was I the only one that knew who he was? Maybe everyone else just didn’t care (I’m sure that will be Andrew’s logic), or perhaps everyone else in business class were all too old and stuffy and tired to notice.

After waiting for far less time than I had anticipated, I got to the counter and checked in. As chance would have it, JM’s people finished checking in at the same time and so when I headed towards the elevator he was heading in the same direction. He got there before I did and the doors opened. He was kind enough to tell me to go ahead before him so I crammed in the back of the elevator with my 2 bags and he and two of his peeps entered with their bags. The extent of our dialogue consisted of him asking me what floor I was on, discussing the need to use card keys to actually push the floor buttons and then when I said “it’s been a long day” he sang a little song about the fact that we weren’t dead. It was a funny little tune that went something like this - “at least we didn’t diiiieeee, at least we didn’t diiiiieee.” It actually could have been “at least we’re not deeeead,” I really can’t remember, but you get the gist. Our dialogue ended with saying “have a good night” when his friends and I all exited on floor 6 and he proceeded to head on up to 8.

The next morning I had a bunch of time to kill so I sat down in the lobby area while I had some breakfast and tea and read the paper. I saw some of his group down there but he wasn’t around. Finally I went up to get all my luggage so I could check out. As I stood waiting for the elevator, I noticed that one was on floor 4, one was on 5 and one was on 8. Hmm… floor 8. So The one from floor 8 started heading down and when the doors opened, there he was, all alone with his luggage and massive sleeve tattoo.  So this elevator dialogue consisted of me saying “we meet again” and then we both mumbled something about the flight and  when we got off he wished me luck on my flight and I did the same. Then I said, “I guess we’ll have the same luck” and then he told me they decided to take a completely different flight. I guess they didn’t want to get back on the A380 again. I don’t blame them. My thoughts were confirmed when I read  THIS.

Anyways, after 11.5 hours of traveling NOWHERE, it was a nice little experience to have some brief interaction with a pretty cool singer. Andrew… please no snotty comments on how stupid we all are for caring about celebrities. We all know how you feel already. As much as I realize that celebrities are just normal people with fancy careers, I still like seeing them in hotels after I’ve been stuck on a plane for 7 hours.

Up next: Part 3- finally getting there.

The Long Journey Across the Pacific: Part 1 November 7, 2009

I’ll start from the beginning…

It was a sunny Sydney Friday around 1:15pm and I had just arrived at the airport to check in for my flight to LA. I immediately received a business boarding pass which was awesome considering I was on standby. The plane was loaded in a timely manner but then we waited at the gate for some unknown reason for another 30 minutes before starting to taxi out to the runway. Finally we headed out towards the entrance to the runway where we proceeded to sit for another 15 minutes or so.We thought we were waiting our turn to take off, we were wrong. It was at this point that the captain made his first announcment. “Hi folks, unfortunately we’ve got a problem with the fuel management system that I’m not comfortable with. We’re going to call the engineers but we need to let you know there is a chance that we might have to return to the gate.” It was at this exact moment that I had the feeling I wouldn’t be getting to LA the next morning.

Ten minutes later.  “Ok folks, well it looks like unfortunately we’re going to have to return to the gate to have our engineers check this out. We’ll keep you posted with any updates and we appreciate your patience.”

One hour later (it is now about 5:00, we were supposed to take off at 3:10). “Alright, thank you for your patience. We think we’ve solved the problem… (pause)…put it this way, we don’t see the problem any more so we’re going to go ahead and taxi out so we can be on our way to Los Angeles.” Many people were not very comfortable with his choice of words. I admit, it probably wasn’t the best way to let everyone know what was going on, but I wasn’t worried. I just wanted to go!

About 2 hours after takeoff.  “Hello folks, it’s your captain again, I have some bad news. Unfortunately that fuel pump issue is still causing some problems and we are not going to be able to continue on to LA at this time. We have a few options. We could head to Fiji, but we don’t know how you will be treated there (read this), we could go to Melbourne but we don’t really think that’s the best choice so we think the best plan would be to go back to Sydney, so were going to turn around. Those of you watching the travel route on your screens will see that we’ve already started to turn.”

2 hours later.  “Hello this is your captain again. Well we’ve made it back to Sydney but unfortunately there is some heavy traffic and Air Traffic Control is having us hold for awhile until it clears up. We anticipate that we should be on the ground around 9:28pm.”

9:30pm. “Hello it’s your captain again. Well as you can see, 9:28 has come and passed. Unfortunately while we were waiting to land the weather in Sydney took a turn for the worse. There is a lot of rain and the ground is very wet, so unfortunately we will not be able to land here and we’re going to have to divert to Melbourne.”

Around 10:30 pm. We finally landed SOMEWHERE. It wasn’t LA, it wasn’t Sydney, but it was solid ground and after more than 7 hours in a plane going nowhere, solid ground was nice.

Luckily everyone in business class was told where we would be staying immediately before exiting the plane. This meant we didn’t have to stand in line with 200 other passengers to try to figure  out our accommodation details. THANK GOD! It also meant that I got to walk right across the street to a super nice hotel where I finally checked in  around 11:30pm and the 2nd part of my journey continued. Well, it wasn’t actually part of the  journey per se but some other stranded travellers did help to at least make the night more interesting.

Part 2 coming soon…

In summary:

*Part 1 of the journey- 11.5 hours from my front door to the bed at the hotel.

*Obviously this is all paraphrased but I’m pretty sure I underestimated the number of times “unfortunately” was used and I definitely should have included many more apologies, there were TONS of those.

*There’s a tiny, and I mean TINY, story about the incident here. Evidently the version on the news was much more entertaining. Supposedly we had an “emergency landing.”  The TV reporters clearly did not get their facts straight, what’s new?

Our Snowboarding Weekend August 2, 2009

I went snowboarding this weekend for the first time in over 10 years. The reason I know it has been that long is that I actually still had my last lift pass attached to my snow pants and the date was February 14th, 1999. Crazy! So since I had no internet for nearly 4 whole days, it was impossible to update everyone on the trip. So I thought I’d update you all on the weekend in a facebook/twitter status update-like fashion. This is mostly because I can’t be bothered to type full paragraphs. So pretend you just read these all throughout the weekend

Thursday

Elsja:

• is driving to Jindabyne with Andrew- I just saw wild Emu and I’ve seen tons of wild kangaroos too
• arrived at the apartment- pretty nice place. Now we’re eating pizza, watching a movie and waiting for the others to get here.

Friday

Elsja:

• is on the slopes  for the first time in 10 years… I’m REALLY scared
• is eating shit, this is a bit harder than I remember
• is getting a group snowboard lesson with 3 other girls. Our instructor is great and I’m actually getting the hang of this!
• is using my new knowledge of turning and making it down the bunny slopes without falling.
• had a great first day of snowboarding, now we’re drinking schnapps and beers at the bar on the slopes.
• is making fajitas for dinner and having some wine.
• and Andrew are kicking butt playing the game Articulate with the rest of the group.

Saturday

Elsja:

• woke up sore, but not too sore. I’m ready for more boarding.
• just finished my 2nd group boarding lesson and I was probably one of the best ones in the group of 10. I’m really getting the hang of this.
• decided to go up to the higher lifts, it is WAY colder up here, super windy and a lot steeper- I’ve lost all confidence to practice turns
• has changed her mind, I’m NOT getting the hang of this and have fallen more in the last 3 hours than I did the entire first day.
• is in pain. Lots and lots of pain.
• can’t stand up. I keep falling over and I’m just too tired to even stand anymore.
• is so over snowboarding!!!!
• and the rest of the group are heading to Kris’ friend’s place in Thredbo for a BBQ.
• has seen more roadkill on this trip than I have my entire life.
• enjoyed a great  BBQ dinner and conversation but I got one of my stupid stomach aches.
• took some medicine and laid down, feeling much better now.

Sunday

Elsja:

• woke up in horrible pain. Pretty sure I have whiplash. I do NOT want to snowboard today.
• realized that if I don’t snowboard, I’ll sit alone for the next 6 hours doing nothing so I’ve decided to suck it up and give it another chance.
• just went down Friday Flats (the bunny slopes) again and actually did really well- maybe I haven’t lost my confidence after all!
• ran into a few friends, SO many people are at Thredbo this weekend.
• was just asked “Friday flats AGAIN?” by the guy checking my lift pass. So what if I’m a wuss and can’t go on the bigger runs after yesterday’s experience?
• is getting better and better… so glad I ended up boarding today- I’ll leave on a high note!
• and Andrew just said goodbye to the snowy mountains and we’re on our way home. My body is still in massive pain, but I had a great time!

To see the rest of our pictures- click here!

Time Travel July 6, 2009

I completely skipped the 4th of July this year. I left LA on the 3rd and didn’t arrive in Sydney until July 5th. The 4th just did not exist for me. Do you want to know how I missed the 4th? Apart from crossing the International Dateline over the pacific, I think it also had something to do with the fact that I was traveling in a space ship.

I swear, the silver space pod looking seats in the WONDERFUL new A380 business class were so cool and high tech that it didn’t even feel like I was on an airplane. There was a massager on the chair, and the head rest was super cushy and cozy and check out how much room is between each seat!! The TVs were ginormous touch screens, the lights in the morning come on slowly- getting brighter and brighter over time – just like the sun. This is definitely a nice way to travel!

This is what I looked like for about 8 of the 14.5 hours of flying:

California Shopping & Dining June 3, 2009

What is it about going back to California that gives me this incredible urge to shop and eat? I don’t even typically like shopping all that much (unless it’s for home and kitchen goods) and even just a week ago I thought to myself “I won’t be buying much when I go home, I’ll save some money.”

Yeah, right.

That all changed. I leave for California tomorrow and of course I’m excited to see my friends and family but I’m also really excited to go shopping. So much for my plan to make this a cheap trip. I just can’t resist! I pretty much ONLY shop when I go home. I still think I’ve probably bought less than 10 items of clothing since I moved here. Shoes? 2 pairs since moving. I’ve been here almost 2 years people! That is an accomplishment for a girl!! However, the lack of my shopping down under means I go a bit crazy when I go back to the states. I probably could have squeezed all of my stuff into one big suitcase- or maybe one big and one little. But, I’m bringing 2 big ones to lug back all the stuff I buy while I’m away!

Here’s a little snapshot of a few of my favorite places that I intend to visit while I’m back:

California, here I come! I’ll be there Thursday, bright and early!!

Moving Forward November 5, 2008

So obviously, Obama won. I guess that’s old news now and everyone and their mother will be blogging about it- so I will just say this…

CONGRATS OBAMA! I really hope things can now turn around and the rest of the world can start to look at the US in a more positive light.

I thought I’d point out to all the aussies, some of the benefits of voting for the US public. While Australians HAVE to vote by law (or put up with a fine if they don’t) there are MANY benefits of voting in the US. In addition to selecting the new president, you can also receive the following:

Free Chicken Sandwich: Most Chick-fil-a locations

Free Coffee: Any Books A Million store today

Free Coffee: Any Starbucks location

Free Donut: Any Krispy Kreme store (and it’s a red, white, and blue donut, too!)

Free Ice Cream: Any Ben and Jerry’s between 5 and 8 p.m.

Free Song Downloads: A handful of free MP3 downloads are available at MTV’s Rock The Vote right now for anyone pledging to vote

Free Taco: Any California Tortilla store (in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia)

Free Sex Toy: Snag a free Silver Bullet or Maverick device at any Babeland store in New York, LA, or Seattle. Limited locations, but we figured this one was unique enough to warrant a mention!

And that’s just a small list… too bad I couldn’t receive all these freebies here in Australia!

**

So in other more personal news, Andrew and I went to Perth this weekend. We went to visit his nana as well as his aunt and uncle who live just outside the city. Andrew lived in Perth until he was almost 7 so we were able to see 2 of the houses that he grew up in. It was a really quick trip- we arrived Saturday night and left Monday afternoon. Sunday we rode our bikes an hour to the main city of Perth and watched the awesome Red Bull air race. We didn’t plan our trip around the race, but it was kind of convenient that it was taking place the weekend we were around. Since my old version of wordpress is retarded and it no longer lets me upload videos to my blog… you will have to click here to see one of the cool videos we took:

CRAZY PILOTS FLYING PLANES REALLY LOW AND FAST

Then on the way back, we saw a random fire on the side of the freeway and had to call 000 (911) for the “fire brigade” to come out. It was small, but spreading quickly and heading towards a bunch of dry brush. That was pretty exciting.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

PERTH PICS

And here is the BEST picture from the bunch… this is a lovely photo of me flying in business class. Oh it was so wonderful. I got to fly across the country twice in a big comfy seat with loads of free wine (although I didn’t have as much as I could have) and I enjoyed pretty good food, a plate of cheese and crackers and chocolate covered macadamias while I watched movies on my own personal TV in our private business class area. You know that little curtain that separates business class from economy? Well, it was REALLY nice to be on the other side of that curtain for once  And, I even get to cross another item off my 101 list… #56. Fly Business Class. I really can’t wait until I get to fly business class on all my flights to and from LA. One day!

Remember the Snorkeling Day from Hell? September 22, 2008

Well… If any of you read THIS POST you might remember the snorkeling “adventure” day from hell that Andrew and I had while in Costa Rica. Well, one of the girls we met, Lindsey posted some pictures of the dreaded day so we stole some from her since our camera was broken (thanks Lindsey) and posted them for all to see. Now you can maybe get a tiny feel for our pain that day. All the pictures are HERE but I’ll just post one for dramatic effect.

These are our boats… leaving us… stranded on the miserable beach in the miserable rain. Goodbye boats!

If you didn’t read it before, then it’s worth a read now. I’ll just post the good part (and remember, this is the short version):

Hey all Leaving for Arenal in 10mins so just jumped online quickly. Thanks to everyone who replied, Ive read them but dont have a lot of time to reply to everyone individually. The point of this email is really just to quickly fill you in on what happened yesterday. Such a crazy story. In short, we went on a snorkelling trip to an island but when we got on the boats to come back, the sea was too rough the boat drivers (2 boats went) dropped us off at some random beach with ONE guide and left to drive the boats back themselves. Our guide then didnt tell anyone where he was going really, just mumbled something in spanish bout going to find the road and disappeared into the jungle. It was POURING tropical rain and very windy. There was about 17 of us and suddenly we were stranded on this beach in the rain with nothing. We trekked into the jungle for a bit and found a shack for shelter. It was starting to get dark by this point and we literally didnt know what was going on. A couple of the guys tried to find a path out but it was blocked by a swamp and we couldnt see any way through. There was a costa rican guy with us who told us there was crocodiles in there anyway so we shouldnt try to pass.  We went back to the shack and lit a fire with what dry wood we could find. Hadn’t stopped raining the whole time.

This idiotic tour company had literally dumped us on this beach cos they had no back up plan whatsoever if the seas turned bad and they couldnt drive us back in the boats. When I say the seas were bad, we’re talking up to 30ft swell and these boats were about 18ft long- it was so scary. The walls of the swells were towering above the boats. There was nothing to hold onto in the boats either. Really scary experience so before we realised the predicament we were in on the beach, we were actually glad to be back on land.

Back Down Under September 9, 2008

We arrived safely back in Sydney on Monday, my birthday. It’s kinda cool that my birthday officially started while we crossed the International Date Line somewhere over the Pacific! Our flight was pretty easy… probably one of the best ever. I slept more than I ever have on one of those flights- nearly 9 hours if I had to guess!! I suppose I was tired from going out the night before for my bday (and sleeping pills always help). I must say… jet lag, unpacking, cleaning, fighting sickness and saying goodbye to all my family and friends are not ideal factors for having a fabulous birthday. But there is one thing that kinda makes up for it… Thai Intra. YUM. Andrew took me to dinner the night we got back and I was in Heaven. If there is one (and only one) thing I miss every time I leave this city, it’s Thai food! The Tom Yum soup has to be one of the best creations God ever put on this earth. So is my bed. I love bed and going to sleep at 8:30 is totally wonderful when you are SUPER tired from transitioning into a new timezone overnight.

When we landed on Monday, I was pleasantly surprised to see the sun shining and blue skies! YAY. It had evidently been raining a bunch on the weekend so it was great to see the sun! When we stepped outside the airport however, I was in for a rude reminder that sun does not always equal warm. After coming from California and Costa Rica where the weather had been warm/hot and beautiful, it wasn’t very nice stepping out into the chilly (a.k.a. freezing) cold Sydney morning weather. I can only hope that it gets better and better each day because after my brief taste of summer this last month, I’m ready more than ever to start wearing tank tops and shorts again!

I’m also ready for the prices in this city to go down. Ok, wishful thinking I know since this is one of the most expensive places on earth to live… but seriously- it has reached an all time ridiculous high in the overpriced produce department! Andrew bought 2 limes yesterday. 2 measly little limes. These same limes in California can sometimes be purchased for great deals. 5 for a dollar, sometimes even 10 for a dollar! Not here. Not in this little city of ours. Oh no. Here they are almost $6 bucks for 2 limes. Yes that’s right, nearly $3.00 EACH.

W.

T.

F.

???

!!!

I just don’t understand.

I also don’t understand how the price of gas in the US dropped almost a dollar in the last 2 months and in this city it is still going UP! Oil prices are down, airlines are lifting fuel surcharges for passengers… but good ol’ Sydney is still buttraping all its residents by overcharging up the ass for fuel.

In happier Australian news, I will be applying for my visa soon!! I have my medical appointment next Tuesday (so they can be sure I’m not bringing strange diseases into this country so I can feed off their government healthcare) and then hopefully we’ll be going to our interview by the end of the month. Still waiting on Andrew’s roster before we can make the appointment but I’m SO ready for this all to be turned in and off my plate. The preparation has been a whole lot easier than I thought. Don’t get me wrong- it’s NOT easy, but it hasn’t been excruciating.

Oh and the US dollar went up! WOOHOO This is good news for me. Not good news for Andrew who owes me some money from our trip. It’s like I got a giant raise over the last few weeks. I hope it stays this way

Costa Rica September 4, 2008

So we’re back… we have been a few days! It was SUCH a great time, some interesting, unplanned events… but still was really fun. Unfortunately our camera broke after a few days of the trip so we don’t have many pictures. For the few that we do have- click HERE. So since I’m lazy, I’m just posting some emails andrew sent during our trip… it’s much easier than re-typing all the details. Yeah, it’s long… but you only need to read it if you actually care about trip  Email # 2 is the most interesting if you want to hear about the most exciting of our adventures! We are supposed to get some other pictures sent to us by people we met with functioning cameras, so hopefully we get those and we can post some more!!EMAIL 1

got a bit more time now but this keyboard is a mac keyboard and thus, it sucks. Went to the waterfalls here this morning. Was a pretty crazy trek through the rainforest, elsja pretty much got heat stroke cos she’s soft. haha..it was pretty hard work so we’re lucky that we’re in pretty good shape. Some dude called Carlos (a local) met up with us on the first little bit so suddenly we had a tour guide. He was 29 but about 4′5 and very funny…spoke fairly good English but the german girl we had met spoke both English and Spanish so that was cool. Lucky we met this guy cos he took us to the upper falls that we would NEVER have found without him. We paid him 18,000 for his trouble in the end. I also jumped off a 50 metre waterfall much to Elsja’s grief. I dont think it sounds as high as it looks hey. Was pretty nervy. The guide assured me the landing was 10m deep so I went for it. Felt like I was falling for ages…which I guess I was. More on the first night – we came out of the airport and were late (cos the airlines here suck as much as at home) so our transfer had left. So we were left to get a taxi and it was basically a battle of the taxi drivers for our business. Some guy lead us into the carpark cos he said he’d do it for 20USD…until he pulled up in the car. It was like an old datsun, unmarked, no colour…nothing. I told him to get bent and tried to walk off and he cracked it. There was police nearby luckily so we kinda raced over to where they were and went for another taxi. We got in and he raced off…no seatbelt, doing 130km/h and driving like a MANIAC! Swerving, overtaking, honking, flashing his lights…then he decided to make a left and took us through the worst, bum looking ghetto streets ive ever seen…left, right, left, left, right…going deeper and deeper into this shithole jungle. Elsja and I by now thought we were going to be robbed for sure. Now it was 11pm and there was noone around except these junkies laying on the streets. We kept asking him how far but he kinda ignored us…We just couldnt see how the mainstreet Best Western was so far off the main road. My adrenalin was pumping cos I really thought I was going to have to take this guy on at some point…Elsja has been here before so I thought she might say ‘no this is normal’ but she thoroughly agreed with me. So here I am planning to grab this guy around the neck whilst he’s driving, we had only had 4 hours sleep in 2 days and I was pretty wired anyway. Wasnt very nice..suddenly we see this crappy little ‘best western’ sign and we kinda pulled in. Couldnt believe it…the only thing he said to us when we got out was ’stay inside, very dangerous’ in Spanish (elsja could understand).  So we spent the night there, didnt get much sleep, and then went back to the airport the next day to get a flight to Tambor and then got an hour taxi ride to Montezuma where we are now. When I say an hour, Im talking prob 15km but the roads are SO bad it takes that long. There are dogs running amuck, and we saw monkeys too…wild monkeys!! This place is awesome though…complete opposite of San Jose. It’s kinda like how Byron Bay wouldve been 20 years ago. Very hippy and laid back and the food is amaznig and very cheap. I ordered Calamari last night and it came with a huge plate of spanish potatoes, rice, veges for about $4 AU. Ive been ordering vege burgers for lunch cos theyre packed wtih salad and I can dump the local hot sauce all over it to get my fix. The local beer here which is awesome is about $AU1.50 for a bottle when you order it in a bar. You’re allowed to just walk around the streets drinking them so we’re just buying beer and cruising along. Met quite a few other people from the US, Germany, England and a few other countries not worth mentioning. I think I’m the only Aussie here cos everyone is very surprised that there is one here. I guess its just so far to come for us. We’re here til Tuesday then gotta figure out how to get to Arenal whcih is where the volcano is. Its about a 7 hours bus ride which is going to suck but we have no option. Staying there for a bit then I cant remember. I just ask Elsja and give her money when she says we have to pay for something.EMAIL 2  Hey all Leaving for Arenal in 10mins so just jumped online quickly. Thanks to everyone who replied, Ive read them but dont have a lot of time to reply to everyone individually. The point of this email is really just to quickly fill you in on what happened yesterday. Such a crazy story. In short, we went on a snorkelling trip to an island but when we got on the boats to come back, the sea was too rough…the boat drivers (2 boats went) dropped us off at some random beach with ONE guide and left to drive the boats back themselves. Our guide then didnt tell anyone where he was going really, just mumbled something in spanish bout going to find the road and disappeared into the jungle. It was POURING tropical rain and very windy. There was about 17 of us and suddenly we were stranded on this beach in the rain with nothing. We trekked into the jungle for a bit and found a shack for shelter. It was starting to get dark by this point and we literally didnt know what was going on. A couple of the guys tried to find a path out but it was blocked by a swamp and we couldnt see any way through. There was a costa rican guy with us who told us there was crocodiles in there anyway so we shouldnt try to pass.We went back to the shack and lit a fire with what dry wood we could find. Hadn’t stopped raining the whole time. This idiotic tour company had literally dumped us on this beach cos they had no back up plan whatsoever if the seas turned bad and they couldnt drive us back in the boats. When I say the seas were bad, we’re talking up to 30ft swell and these boats were about 18ft long…it was so scary. The walls of the swells were towering above the boats. There was nothing to hold onto in the boats either. Really scary experience so before we realised the predicament we were in on the beach, we were actually glad to be back on land. So we built a fire and started planning to spend the night there (im not joking). We started to think aobut food – there were coconuts and lime trees near by but the sound of the monkeys was getting pretty eerie to go out and start looking for anything else. The girls were getting a bit distressed by this point because we were literally preparing to spend the night…it was exactly like Lost. There were about 4 americans, the token aussie, some french, brazlians and mexicans and the costa rican family.Finally about 3 hour laters and dark – our tour guide came back in bare feet and no shirt. He said he had walked through dense jungle in his bare feet and found a road and followed it. A couple of people had phones but they couldnt really get a signal. We ended up having to walk another 20 mins along the beach, through more jungle and cross a river that was up to my waist (now I wish I’d had a hepatitis A shot) and get to some other dirty shack in the end that was worse than the first…we then had to wait another hour for a bus (mini bus, no 4wd). Finally got out of there but we were overloaded by 7 people in a bus that was not made for muddy, pissing rain terrain. Was nuts. Aboslutely nuts. This is the short version. We got back to the city we’re staying about 4 hours late and it turns out the tour company hadnt even known what had happened until an hour after we were due back…the boat drivers had thought they could solve the problem by themselves and screwed up majorly. We got all our money back for the day but it wasnt really worth it. I will tell the story in more detail but wanted to pass the basics on. gotta run, the bus is here…..now its 7 hours of hell to get to the volcano.
The adventure continues… EMAIL 3 Hey all Just a quick update before we go blow 20,000 ( i love that 20g´s here is only about $35) on dinner.

Yesterday we went on a volcano tour which basically gave us some history, a walk in the rainforest (apparently it was a hike but i break more sweat walking from my car into work), sitting and watching the lava come out of the volcano and then going to the hot springs that are heated naturally by the volcano. It was basically a whole system of jacuzzis that u sit in and chill out, order drinks and do whatever. Then we had dinner there which was included in the tour. It was a pretty amazing 3 course meal that we didnt expect for what we paid. The whole place was surreal cos we were sitting in these volcanic heated rock pools, it was raining and there were thunderstorms around and they were blasting corny 80s rock music. Very weird. Oh yea I also ate live termites straight off a tree in the rainforest. The guide said they were edible so him and I dug in whilst the girls nearly threw up. They kinda tastes tangy, like lemon. Whatever. Today we went on a rainforest canopy tour. This included doing 9 zip lines which are awesome fun for those who haven’t done it. They let us do a couple upside down so here we are, hooning through the rainforest canopy dangling upside down from a cable a couple of hundred feet above the ground. Then we got to abseil down a cliff and then rode horses back up to the top. This arvo we just hung out. Had beers and lunch etc and just hung out. Happy hour is very happy here…4 cocktails for $7.00…cant complain about that. The pool is great, theres a jacuzzi where we can just sit and drink cocktails and watch the smoke and stuff spew out of the volcano. Loving it.  Ok, off to dinner. Adios!

Introductions August 18, 2008

Did I mention how much fun I am having with Andrew here in CA with me? Did I mention how happy I am? Oh… no, I didn’t. That’s because I’ve been too busy and having too much fun to blog this week.  But I’m taking a moment from my day to fill you all in on some happy times and important introductions that took place this week.

1. Andrew and I were both introduced to Ruth’s Chris for dinner-YUM! It was delish but I think I probably gained 17lbs from that one meal alone.

2. We went out on Friday night to O’Mallys. I thought it was just going to be Andrew and I with Jen and a couple other people because most of our friends were out that night at a birthday party, but tons of people ended up showing up and it was a really fun time. So not only was Andrew introduced to many of my friends, he also had a little too much fun when Brad introduced him to Patron (pronounced petrone for you aussies). Andrew also wants to direct the attention of you Aussies to the size of the shot glasses…

Andrew said this is how he felt before 5 tequilla shots:

And this is how he felt after 5 shots:

3. I was happy to introduce Andrew a few American favorites… LA Baseball and Dodger dogs.

 

4. And lastly (for the week) I was only too happy to introduce Andrew to another type of Mexican beer… Pacifico. In fact, I introduced him to quite a few pacificos, throwing in one chugging contest between the two of us at the end of it all. If it weren’t so cold (giving me a brain freeze), I might have won. Oh and we enjoyed our Mexican beer in the warm sun on the Island of Catalina. We headed there for the day with my parents and enjoyed some lunch, mini golf and drunky sunbathing. Such a nice day. I seriously love summer.

Only a few more days until I will introduce Andrew to the awesome country of Costa Rica! I can’t wait!

Busy Busy August 7, 2008

So today I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, I worked- but that doesn’t count, I always work. But other than that, I had NO plans. Do you know how nice that is? I’ve only been home since Sunday and on top of working every day I have already had lunch with friends once,  gone to 3 dinners, attempted to shop for clothes twice, went to Target (that doesn’t count as shopping, that’s a hobby), went to my sister’s in-laws to hang out with the family, got fingerprinted (for my visa) had a Dr. apt, went to the gym twice, spent the night at my sister’s house, and managed to work on my forum a bit.

Do you know how nice it was to have NO plans today? I literally made plans to not make plans. Tomorrow it’s back to business and I have a hair appointment… FINALLY. I’m looking forward to getting a major trim so that my house will stop looking like a hair farm. Do you all remember my hair post? The day before I left I was out on my balcony looking at my cilantro plant…examining the leaves and what do I find? One of my long blonde hairs. Seriously… outside… on a plant! So anyways, hopefully a trim will help a bit! I

Andrew arrives Tuesday and I’m very happy to see him. I know we’re used to not seeing each other for long periods of time. While you do get used to it, it’s still never fun. I can’t wait for him to come hang out with my family and friends- he hasn’t been here in over a year and a half! I miss my love. While I dread the day he has to start taking two week trips for work- I can also realize that missing him will always make me appreciate him more when he is home

Off to bed… maybe tonight I’ll be able to sleep without assistance in the form of a pill. I’ve managed to overcome jetlag magically! And by “magically” I mean “with the use of drugs.”

Sweet dreams to me!

The Ups and Downs of Vacation May 21, 2008

Aloha… I’m finally back to blogging after my vacation. 

Maui was woooonderful! The food, the sun, the cocktails, the beach, the pool, the snorkeling… it was all so great. But like most things… even vacations have a downside. Here are a few of the ups and downs I’ve noted from our holiday.

UP: My great tan I’ve acquired in 1 week. I keep surprising myself as I walk by the mirror and see a bit of brown rather than the glowing white that I’ve been displaying for the last few months!

DOWN: The return of the sun spots on my face that had disappeared with some wonderful cream the dermatologist gave me. Not to mention, the appearance of NEW spots that look like a rash on my hands. Seriously- I feel old. I probably should stay out of the sun.

UP: Mai Tais, Coronas and Lava Flows.

DOWN: Not drinking enough of these!

UP: Qantas, such a nice and easy airline to fly with. We didn’t have any problems with staff travel and the planes weren’t too cramped.

DOWN: Hawaiian Airlines BLOW! They were SO rude, SO unorganized and SO USELESS!

UP: On the airplane (or aeroplane for the aussies), we had a spare seat on the way back. We could stretch out a little and enjoy a BIT more comfort.

DOWN: Did I mention it was a 10 hour flight?

UP: The gym was right downstairs. Just a simple elevator trip and I was there working my booty into shape.

Down: After the gym, I usually went straight to the pool where I ordered more cocktails…reversing any positive effects of the previous gym experience.

UP: Beautiful weather… warm sun, clear skies (for the most part), the ability to wear skirts and dresses outside at night.

DOWN: Coming home to the cold

Ok, so that’s enough with the downers- really, there aren’t too many when you’re on a wonderful Hawaiian holiday… here are a few other things I truly enjoyed about our trip!

• Homemade guacamole, grilled corn on the cob and Coronas enjoyed at a sunset BBQ with family and friends.
• Mai Tai Lounge… a new restaurant that I HIGHLY recommend! Nachos made with wonton chips and sweet chili sauce are the BEST nachos ever! Oh and the wasabi mashed potatoes?? YUM!
• Snorkeling for FREE on the beach and seeing giant Sea Turtles. A few years ago we paid for a snorkel tour and didn’t see ANY turtles.
• Drinking wine on our balcony with a beautiful view of the ocean and pool.
• Playing glow putt with Andrew, Preston and Emma and kicking butt! I putt much better in the dark than I do at normal mini golf courses.
• Our cool ATV adventure. Even though I was really scared that we were going to tip over, it was pretty fun and I’m glad we did it!

If anyone is interested in seeing pictures, I have a few of them HERE and HERE… haven’t uploaded them all- my internet is crappy and slow!