So where am I now?

So you've heard a lot about my past travels to get a catch up and might be wondering, what's going on with me now? What exciting travels am I up to next? Well, none at all sadly. Right now the only traveling I'm doing is my 30 minute commute each way to work Monday through Friday. I'm sure that's the same story for a lot of people. However, there are a few interesting things coming up in my future...

Sometime next summer my parents and I will probably make our way to Alaska. That's all the news I have about that because that's all I know. I don't think my mom has started planning yet but it's definitely something we want to do and it's been a dream of my parents to go there. They're smart and have decided to travel before they retire when they are still making money with the way the economy is going.

A few months ago, I made the decision I wanted to go back to school. Initially I was just going to go if I found the perfect program and was going to select a school somewhere in the US. I wanted to go somewhere far away and interesting with a great campus since I hadn't gone far for my undergrad (just a two and a half hour drive from home in the same state) and had found a few prospects. But after speaking with the director of my study abroad program at my undergrad (note: I'm wanting to break out into the study abroad field and become a study abroad advisor/get a job in that kind of program that sends students abroad but haven't had any luck) to see how I could make myself more marketable. He suggested I look into a school abroad. I felt so stupid - WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?
Well, that's why I'm looking into now and will be updating it on. I've been doing lots of research trying to find a program in a taught masters that is somehow related to cultures or international studies. Right now I'm currently focused on University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland or University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England. I imagine I'll be applying to all three and then deciding but I'm still looking around slightly and have e-mailed some past professors for references. I'll be sure to post updates about it - what else is better to lead me to traveling than grad school in Europe???

San Fran and Maui - May 2009

In May of 2009, I went on vacation with my parents to California and Hawaii.

We had a 5 hour flight to San Francisco and took a boat tour of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.


We also took a ride on the cable cars and walked around Fisherman's Wharf


We took a day trip to Muir Woods, a national park full of huge Redwoods.


We then had another 5 hour plane ride to Maui, Hawaii. Needless to say, it was absolutely beautiful. Even the view from our resort was amazing.


We went snorkeling twice (pictures didn't come out that great) and saw spinner dolphins, whales, coral, fish, and a reef shark. There was a luau at the hotel as well as a fancy one we went to later.


We took a day trip to Haleaka crater and drove around Maui a bit.


We also went on a star gazing cruise the one night it was cloudy and started to rain but overall it was an amazing 10 days. It was so nice to take off work and just sit around at the pool and doing nothing. I loved Maui and can't wait to go back and see more and all of the Hawai'ian islands!

July 2008 - Germany and the end

Jul. 21st, 2008 at 4:44 PM

HEIDELBERG (July 8th - July 9th)
We only stayed in Heidelberg for a night because we just wanted to divide up the super long train ride to Aachen. The Banks had arrived the previous day but we weren't planning on seeing them until we met on the train on Wednesday.
The main thing to do in Heidelberg is see Shloss Castle. So that's what we did.


It's got the largest wine barrel in the world. I thought it was this one...
But it turns out to be THIS one... it's HUGE.

And you'll never guess who we found by the wine barrels. The Banks! Imagine that :) We joined forces and hit the town. Along the way we stopped at a park the girls had seen coming up and it had a super duper crazy slide. Madison went down first...way too fast. She landed way too hard, knocking the wind out of her and hurt her tush but she ended up being okay. We then continued to walk into town and some guy started singing some British song to us (umm I think it was that God Save the Queen song) which made us laugh. We stopped at the most amazing, lovely beer garden ever for some yummy food (and beer) and drank honey wine from a horn that was supposed to grant us eternal youth.

Our hotel (the Ibis) was right near the train station which stunk so I was pretty happy to get out of there and onto Aachen! There were lots of castles and cool buildings along the way!


AACHEN (July 9th - July 12th)
We were met at the train station in Aachen by Julie, her husband Andreas, and my dad's sister Mary (Julie's Mom). We walked to our hotel, the Mercure an dom which was probably the nicest we'd stayed in so far although I found the street outside to be a little noisy...then again I am pretty sensitive when I sleep. We went out for a nice German dinner and called it a night.
The next day Andreas and Julie (who have been living there for about a year now) played tour guide and took us all around Aachen to the major sites. We smelled the stinky sulfur water, saw Aachen Cathedral, and just all the little things with the Charlemagne (it was pretty much his city) markers all over the place.

The Sydnor-Finkelmeyers then treated us to an authentic German lunch after which we all split up for a little while before convening again for the important stuff. Beer. There I discovered my love for Weiss beer with flavoring.

The first is raspberry flavor and the second one Andreas tried to describe it to me as tasting like "earth" or "green" haha which wasn't very helpful. Julie couldn't describe it either but finally I solved the mystery. It tasted like lucky charms! We had a fun time!

Danielle and I made sure everyone could do this...(we had to teach Dad and Madi)

At the end of the night we got treated with a show from a man juggling fire and also with a crazy downpour. It rains in Aachen like it rains in Ireland...everyday!!

On Friday we had all been planning on going to the Bad Aachen Spa which people come from all over the world to go to but slowly people backed out. But Mom and I ended up going anyway! We relaxed in the thermal pools before getting some relaxing massages (my first! it sure was nice but I think she missed something and left a kink in my neck) and going back in the water a little bit longer. Then we went to Julie and Andreas' apartment for dinner where we met their friends (well really Andreas' since Julie only had met them once before but they were SO friendly that it didn't seem like it) Ralph and Simona and their children Jannika (9) and Nielt (3). So cute! Only Ralph spoke English although Simona understands a lot. Jannika, Danielle, and Madison managed to play without much need of interpretation. But with Nielt all you can really do is say "VROOM!"

Saturday was Julie and Andreas' wedding. Yes..they got married in 2006 in Las Vegas (by a grim reaper haha) but this wedding was about celebrating it officially in front of family. I got a pedicure in the afternoon (I had gotten one right before the trip errr but it got messed up along the way) and then just spent the day getting ready. The wedding was a lot of fun! We met Andreas' German family although no one really spoke English and just ate and laughed at our English table. My BFF Nielt specifically asked to be pushed around in his stroller by the "blue lady" which made me feel special. Here are just a few pictures.

^my BFF Nielt^
There were lots of German traditions. First, after the ceremony, they had a race to cut through a heart (Andreas won) then at the end of the night there was a picture matching game (Julie won) and they ended the night sending "hot air balloons" with wishes into the sky. It was pretty cool.


The morning after the wedding, everyone met for brunch...and then everyone went their separate ways :( The Germans went home...The Banks and Aunt Mary got on their separate trains to Amsterdam...Andreas and Julie left for their fake honeymoon to a poolside villa in Tuscany...and we headed back to Paris...well the airport.
Because Iberia changed our flights we stayed at the Novotel Fitness and Wellness Convention Center which was really nice and had delicious food. It was all healthy. But we were just waiting to board a flight to Madrid. It ended up being delayed and taking forever (it was Bastille Day) but blech.
But gosh was it good to see Julie. I miss her!! I'm so impressed with her German. She really knows a lot and we had fun making fun of her speaking it ;)

MADRID
We were only here for a night but we got to see what it was like...it was crowded and the sangria was not good. I liked Barcelona MUCH better! But it was nice to say we'd been there.

The flight home was BORING. The sound on the movies didn't work so I sat there for six hours bored out of my mind. The airlines didn't even seat us together. Good thing we got home an hour early. It's good to be home. I missed home but LOVED being in Europe. Ugh I can't believe we're back in the real world now. I'd really been hoping to come home and have an email or voicemail from a job but no luck. I have nothing. booooooooo. Can we go back yet?

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Wow, side note: reading these posts again a whole year later really made me realize what am awesome time we had and how much I love Europe. I can't wait to go back!