Sight.

Stop 2: Yangshuo

2011-12-22T06:14:00.001-08:00

Well. Here we go on stop two of the blogocation (see stop one here). We left Hong Kong at about 10:30 PM and got to Guilin just before midnight. We were a little nervous when the taxi that was supposed to pick us up and drive us to our hotel in Yangshuo wasn’t there, and we were greeted by a desolate airport terminal in the middle of southern China. After deciding to wait it out for a few minutes, a guy came running up to us with a crumpled up paper that said “Eyre – Li River Retreat” on it, we were quite relieved. He didn’t speak any English other than a few words, so our communications were limited. So, off we went speeding into the night – into the pitch black in a little taxi. I will be honest it did cross my mind once that this dude could have taken us out there and dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, and we could still be there to this day working for food in some little village trying to figure out where we were. We had just left the most densely populated city in the world – and 2 hours later were in a place on the polar opposite side of the spectrum. After about an hour we made it to our little hotel that we found on tripadvisor (what an amazing site that is) by about 1 in the morning.

The next morning, we awoke to this right outside of our room’s sliding glass doors.

These crazy Karst mountains just shooting up out of the ground everywhere. My first impression was that it looked like drip castles that you make on the beach – we figured that must have been how God created this place. It was so amazing. This is another one of those spots that I saw photos of as a teenager and decided that I needed to find a way to get there. All of the sudden we were right there in the middle of it. These Karst peaks shoot up out of the ground for miles and miles along the Li River. I love little hotels/guest houses like this. Here is an illustration of why I like them; I was asking the lady working in the lobby of the building for some tips on where to ride bikes – she gave me a rather confusing map and some directions in broken English. I thanked her and as I was walking away, a really nice guy stopped me and offered his advice on where to go and told me about the adventure him and his wife had been on the previous day. Come to find out he was an American professor from Minnesota who was teaching for a year at a university in Guangzhou (China). He gave us some great advice, told us where to find bikes, and we were off. I love that he was nice enough to share that cause it saved us from getting seriously lost.

We rented some bikes from this little old lady that was about 4 feet tall, she had a room full of bikes connected to her little one room cinderblock house – she let us go in and pick which ones we wanted and then asked for a whopping 3 dollars each for the day. We took off and started riding. That day we were going to ride along the Yulong River, a tributary of the Li River. We rode through Yangshuo which is a bustling little town with Karst peaks sticking up right in the middle of it. We finally made it through the town after nearly getting hit by a couple of scooters and weird tractor truck things and suddenly we were surround by rice paddies and these mountains.

As we started riding through these little villages, we noticed this lady (in the picture below), who conveniently was following us just closely enough to tell us which way to go each time we looked a bit lost. She was pretty nonchalant but I think this was a rehearsed plan to get us lost enough so we’d have to follow her to find out way to the Yulong Bridge (our first destination). It worked, we got lost and couldn’t help but follow her. We pedaled through these little villages interconnected by little roads and paths through the rice paddies.

Here’s a little house we rode by where they were drying out the rice which was cool to see. Also above, there was an assortment of meats hanging out to dry or age or something. It’s so cool how that rice is laid out so perfectly, it almost looks like a Zen garden or something.

The weather was perfect. It was in the low 70’s and sunny as can be. A lot of the fields has already been harvested, but many were still green and offered a great contrast to the mountains shooting up everywhere.

Bam! Isn’t that awesome!!! Holy Cow I was amazed at this site. Surreal. One of the most beautiful sights I have seen, and this was only the beginning.

Another little trail leading through the fields. At this point we gave up on navigating on our own and just followed our new friend.

Finally, we made it here, to the Yulong Bridge. A four hundred year old bridge connecting the two sides of the river. Here were were greeted by another sweet lady – who I think was in cahoots with the lady that was guiding us along the trail. She convinced us to come to “her house” and she’d make us some lunch. We thanked the other nice biker lady and gave her some money and then followed this other lady through some alleys and a copy of other houses, until we made it to her house. She had some tables set up on rafts down on the river so we sat down and had some food. We opted for the fried rice and Chinese cabbage over the river carp and other weird meats she had on the list of food she gave us. We were just here in the middle of China, no other westerners anywhere near us, it was awesome. Two couples floated by us on bamboo rafts taking their wedding photos.

Next we jumped on a bamboo raft after negotiating with the lunch lady to help us get a good deal. They have these little bamboo rafts that they let us put our bikes on the back of while we floated down the river. There was no one else out there, we saw like 2 other rafts and a couple of fishermen in the next hour. Above is the Yulong Bridge – look how it frames the mountains.

We kind of felt like we were in Avatar Land – didn’t see any blue people though. It really was kind of otherworldly though. We just leisurely floated along soaking in the ambience.

This guy pushed us along with this big long bamboo pole (the river wasn’t very deep). Cool hat.

The views just kept getting better and better.

This guy couldn’t speak English but I wish I could have learned more about him. I would have loved to hear his life story – to hear what his perspectives are. He was such a happy guy. He even threw down the peace signs for the photo. We had some funny experiences with him. Every so often on the river there were these dam sort of things that we would go over (maybe for them to regulate the flow of the water for farming or something), I think the river was relatively low at this time of the year, so on some of them we had to get off an pull the raft over. Our friend the captain needed some help on a few, so I helped him pull the raft over. One time we pushed too hard and the raft flew over the edge and started floating down stream. The captain took a few steps back and ran and jumped and barely made it to the raft – then he realized he didn’t have the bamboo stick to steer – he pointed at it and I threw it to him like a javelin which he also barely caught (I need to work on my javelin skills). Anyway, he was laughing his head off as were we. From then on, he was a little more cautious with letting me help him pull the raft over the little dam things.

Here’s a video so you can see what I am talking about.

Yulong River

The last one of these we went over was like a 3 foot drop off and the whole raft went completely underwater and got us soaked. It was hilarious (notice how my backside is a different color in the photo above).

Once we got off the raft we cruised along the river on our bikes back toward the town.

In the center of the town there is main street that is full of restaurants and shops. You can see how the mountains are just shooting up through the middle of the town.

We found an amazing little restaurant there – I don’t like Chinese food per say (I’ve had some bad experiences), but we loved this place. It was the best Kung Pao chicken I have ever had (like the mac n cheese of China, you can get it everywhere) as it was big on taste and spice and not on oil. We liked it so much we went back again the next night. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel and crashed after riding many miles on our bikes.

The next morning – our backsides weren’t feeling up for another day on bikes. Wow. I haven’t biked that much since my mission in Japan. So, we elected to rent a motor scooter from our hotel. I love scooters – they are just fun. So thanks to that, we were able to cover a lot more ground the second day. We went first to Moon Hill (above) one of these huge karst peaks with a hole in the middle of it. There was a path that we were able to hike up – like straight up – to the hole.

Here’s a video of the view on from Moon Hill:

Moon Hill

Once again, we had a persistent lady that followed us along making sure we didn’t get lost. I am pretty sure she asked if we wanted a “cold coca-cola” about 34 times. She was determined to get some money. She followed us all the way up. When we’d sit down to take a rest, she would whip out her fan and start fanning us. She let us know she was a “poor farmer, no money.” I asked her to take our picture and she ran over to Julie and started flashing peace signs and smiling. She was awesome.

We made it to the top, and thanks to the pollution, we were afforded this most extraordinary view. I mean how amazing is that. We were both in absolute awe. God created an incredible earth I tell you what.

She then snapped a nice photo of us. The lighting was a little off, but not bad for a “poor farmer, no money” We gave her some money and she was happy.

Here is our awesome little scooter – cruising past some more rice paddies on our way to Xingping and Fuli – two towns on the Li River (the larger river).

The Li River; quite a bit busier than the Yulong River the day before. This river is used for some commercial shipping and has ferries going between towns. We heard that on days ending with 2,7, and 9 – the lucky days – the town of Fuli has their market days. Luckily we were there on one of those days, so we went by and saw it. It was like Costco – China style – you could buy almost anything there – from candy to live catfish to chickens to clothing, you name it.

Check out this video of it, there is even a guy at the beginning of it selling something like the Vitamix guys that come through Costco.

Fuli Market

Need a chicken?

The aisle of the fish and meat. Those are fish tanks on the right.

Noodles. We were completely in their world. I didn’t see another westerner.

Need a live chicken?

Or some green onions?

I loved the faces here. Again, we were wishing we could just sit down and hear these people’s life stories.

Look at this sweet woman. What is her story I wonder?

I wonder what this little guy has in store for him in his life?

Or what adventures these two old pals have been on together?

The people there were kind, they just looked at us and smiled and wondered what in the heck these two white people were doing wandering around their markets snapping photos. That’s an experience I will never forget.

This was a truck we passed while riding up to Xingping. That is a work of art right there.

In Xingping – the karsts were considerably taller and bigger – there were a lot more people, and the bamboo rafts were all had motors on them. We jumped on one and took a ride up the river.

Here’s a video to give you some perspective:

Li River

This particular location is immortalized on the back of the 20 Yuan bill there.

We headed back to Yangshuo as the light started to fade…stopping along the way to take our last looks at the awesomeness.

We got up at 5 the next morning to catch a taxi back to Guilin and then off to Beijing! So stay tuned for Stop Three of the blogocation – Beijing. Yangshuo was amazing. A completely amazing experience in Southern China. I think the experience was amplified by coming straight from Hong Kong…two awesome spots that couldn’t be any more different. There is nothing better than traveling. I love this world and the sites and beauty it has to offer.

If you missed the post on Hong Kong, keep scrolling down or click on older posts in the lower right corner and it should take you there.

P.S. 3 days 1 hour 20 minutes and 23 seconds until Christmas! Wahoo! Only problem is that it was 63 outside today. I don’t think it’ll be a white Christmas this year. I think DC is out of snow for this year after the past two crazy winters.

Blogocation Stop 1: HONG KONG

2011-12-10T10:31:00.001-08:00

Are you ready for a blogocation? I finally have had some time to go through the 1000+ photos that we took on our China adventure. Holy Cow. I can’t believe how lucky we were to be able to go over there and to see some of the most amazing sites that the world has to offer. To have the opportunity to travel to both of the most populous countries in the world in the year is such a blessing (went to India earlier this year). And I also have to say how lucky I am to have Julie who is the best travel partner there is. She gets me, and it totally willing to go and do anything. In order to make this a little more digestible, I am going to break this blogocation up into three parts: 1)Hong Kong 2)Yangshuo and 3)Beijing. Let me start by saying that I love Asia. I love the people, I love how they sound when they try to speak English, I love their smiles, their serious quirkiness, and the amazing cities and culture that they have created. Having served a mission in Japan for two years, I got a pretty good feel for Japanese culture. Some things are so similar to China and some are so completely different. Japan is extremely organized and proper, while China has some of that, I would say it is quite a bit more chaotic. Nonetheless, it was fascinating to be there right in the middle of it. I am not sure if it was just the time of year that we visited, but I was also amazed how few westerners that we saw there. At times it felt like we had the country to ourselves (and 1.4 Billion Chinese people). On top of all that, it is a photographer’s dream. Everywhere we went was so fun to take pictures of – I just got a wide angle lens too, so I was super excited to put it to work. Julie was awesomely patient as I would ask here to stop for a second so I could take a picture every 3 minutes.

So. Let’s start in Hong Kong. After a 16 hour flight from Detroit to Hong Kong that fortunately went fairly quickly – we were both able to sleep a bit and watch like 38 movies each – we arrived in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a place that I have always wanted to visit – in particular since 1998 when my parent visited just after the reigns has been turned back over to China from the UK. I remember seeing those photos and knowing that I had to go there someday. Anyone who knows me, know that I love cities – so it was amazing to finally be in the most densely populated city in the world surrounds by massive skyscrapers and craziness.

There is a great express train into the city from the airport – so we made it into the city in no time. We came up out of the subway surrounded by the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island – we decided to walk the half mile or so from there to our hotel to take in the city. Hong Kong is way more tropical than I thought it would be…to be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect. The air felt like I was in Hawaii or something. Coming around the corner, I looked and saw this – the Bank of China Tower (above), arguably the most iconic of the Hong Kong skyline. There were double decker trams flying by, taxis, scooters, cars, buses, we could tell we were in a serious city. We went to the hotel and crashed as it was about 10:30 pm by the time we made it into the city. We both woke up by 5 am or so cause of the time difference so we spent some time planning the day.

We head to the central part of Hong Kong Island first. On Hong Kong Island all of the building are built right into the mountain, so the streets are really steep, kind of like San Francisco. Above is a typical street in that part of town, packed with shops and apartments. Below is one of the long hills we walked up to get to Man Mo Temple.

This Man Mo Temple is one of the most famous Buddhist temples in Hong Kong. It was crazy – all of these circular cone things are incense sticks that burn constantly. Then I think the red card hanging down is a prayer or something associated with each one. I felt like I was back in Japan as I was slapped in the face with a cloud of incense. This is a huge building full of these things.

At the front was this alter where the people come to pray and make offerings.

We started feeling like we were gong to pass out due to the incense so that was the cue to move on, but wow, this was a cool spot, unlike anything we’d ever seen.

We started wandering back down the hill and happened on to this market full of all sorts of fresh produce and meat. I heard that slamming sound and looked over to see this guy (below) going to town on some meat.

Below is one of the things that I distinctly remember my parents telling me about; this escalator that just goes all the way up the hillside. It just keeps working its way all the way up the hill for at least a KM or so. It goes up for half the day, and down for the other half I think – kind of corresponding with traffic (going to and coming from work). We conveniently timed it so we walked all the way up – and it was going down at that point, then right as we turned to come down, it reversed directions and starting going up.

This was the inside of big office building that we walked past on a busy street. They use bamboo to build everything there, it was amazing to see (more photos coming).

Occupy Hong Kong!!! What the what?

We hiked up the hill to the main Cathedral in Hong Kong (there is a Christian influence there due to the British) and happened on to a wedding that was being held.

Cool view eh?

Julie found a British copy of the first Harry Potter book at a used book sale going on at the church to add to her collection. Too bad it didn’t come with a Nimbus or Firebolt to cruise around the city on.

Can you tell I was a little excited about the architecture?

Julie found out that we could go up to the 43rd floor of the Bank of China Building (about half way up the building) for free to see the views, so we headed up there. Julie read that the building right between our heads in the picture above, the Mandarin Oriental – was the tallest building in Hong Kong when it was built in 1968. Now it is one of the smallest.

Self portrait in the cool elevators.

This is the war memorial – the domed building behind it is where the offices of the British rulers of Hong Kong had they offices.

The Jardine House. This was my favorite building in Hong Kong. Julie’s brother and his wife call it the Connect 4 building. I love the precision and balance. I took like 40 pictures.

From there, we jumped on the Star Ferry and headed across the Harbor to Kowloon (the other main part of Hong Kong and is physically connected to mainland China. It was pretty cool to be on the South China Sea.

What a skyline. Wow.

The TST district in Kowloon is the big shopping part of town.

They were already all geared up for Christmas. I love how Asians aren’t necessarily Christian, but they LOVE the commercial aspect of Christmas.

Had some tasty Mongolian BBQ for lunch at a place recommended by Ashley (sister-in-law we were on our way to visit in Beijing). It was Julie’s first experience. She liked. We need to find one of those around here.

Everywhere you look there are these HUGE buildings full of apartments. I love how people just hang their laundry out the window like 20 stories up.

I mentioned bamboo scaffolding earlier. Look at this building – the whole thing surrounded. This is a big part of their means to build many of these huge buildings. Pretty amazing. I read they don’t wear shoes and some of them don’t wear harnesses while they maneuver around on these scaffoldings.

This is the Goldfish Market. Crazy. 3 or 4 blocks straight of pet stores. The majority of them selling every kind of fish you can imagine, from little goldfish to really big fish that were like 6-8 inches long smashed into little plastic bags. I guess when you are in a city this crowded, goldfish are the go-to pets.

I loved this propane delivery system. I am not sure how those tires hold up with all that weight.

This is arguably the coolest view of a skyline anywhere in the world. We got back down to the harbor in time to admire the massive skyline and watch the super cheesy sound and lights show that they do every night there. I tell you what, the Chinese are serious about photography. I had my camera set up to take pictures of the show and three dude came and set up directly in front of me with their tripods and everything, without really acknowledging my presence. Then they yelled at each other for the next 30 minutes (I think trying to share photography tips). Nonetheless, it was an amazing spectacle.

Made good use of the camera remote Shawni gave us for Christmas last year.

This is at the end of the light show. Those streaks on the left are a huge cruise ship that cruised into the harbor right as the the show started. Good timing. The crazy thing is that even with a wide angle lens, I only captured about 40% of the skyline – it goes forever. We headed back to the hotel and crashed after walking like 17 miles that day.

The next morning for breakfast we went to this place next door to our hotel – I ordered a waffle and Julie ordered french toast. My waffle came smothered in sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter, and Julies french toast was deep fried – kind of tasted like something you would eat at a state fair. It was awesome.

We then walked over to the church which we serendipitously happened on to the previous night on our way back to the hotel. Check out some of theses massive apartment buildings we passed on the way there.

So the night before as we were walking across a bridge across a street I notice a sign on the side of this huge building with the church’s logo on it. Then outside was this big touch screen that was playing videos. We went down and looked at it and found out that this huge 14 story building was a church. We used to the touch screen to figure out that there was a meeting in English starting at 9:00am so we were set. It was so cool. Any person that passes by (it is in a really busy part of town) can stop and watch videos and learn about the church on this touch screen (above). The church has 3 or 4 chapels and meeting space on the first 11 floors, then the top 3 floors are where the area authorities live. Cool.

It was so amazing to be there in the middle of Hong Kong and attend sacrament meeting and fell the spirit so strongly. It is amazing that no matter where you go in the world, you can find a church to and an opportunity to worship the Savior with fellow Saints.

From there we jumped on the subway – felt like I was back in Japan on a crowded train a head taller than most everyone makes it a little less claustrophobic…Julie got the real experience as she was down there with everyone else. We headed out to the New Territories (another part of Hong Kong) to go to the 10,000 Buddhas Temple. Literally hundreds of Buddhas lining the path as you hike up a really steep path up to the temple. All of them unique.

Awesome Engrish. Remember – don’t sleep on the stone chair or climb on Buddha.

I think this is where the 10,000 Buddhas are – look at all of those little statues.

Gotta hand it to them for the colors. Love how vibrant their temples are.

The whole thing was built right into these tropical mountains.

Peace signs at the very top of the temple.

I think all of these female statues are very happy with Julie’s hang time in this photo.

This was my favorite Engrish from the trip. Too bad we didn’t see the monkeys so we could “beware the monkey attack”

From there we went to visit the Hong Kong LDS temple. This is a building that I have always wanted to see as it was always my favorite one growing up. So beautiful.

We then headed back to TST where they had a CoCo Ichibanya!!! The best curry house in Japan had a location in Hong Kong complete with all the wax samples of the food in front. Julie was kind of laughing at me because I was so excited about it. Then she tasted the curry and she shut up. It was amazing. Made me realized I really need to work on my curry making skills. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. And how can you not love their slogan “Good Smell, Good Curry”?

More Crazy TST.

A daytime look at the amazing skyline before heading back over to Hong Kong Island to go up to Victoria Peak.

We took a bus up to Victoria Peak on accident – we were trying to take the tram, but ended up getting on a bus that took us all the way to the top instead of to the tram due to our lack of being about the read Chinese. It was really cool tough to go up the switchbacks to the top of the crazy steep hill. All the while these huge 30-40 story apartment buildings just scale the mountain. We made it to the top for the iconic view of Hong Kong. Wow. We just sat and stared in awe for like an hour. This was an out of body experience to finally be there. You can see why a 4 bedroom house (3500 square feet) with this view sold for $30Million a couple of years ago.

Just to prove we were actually there.

We took the tram back down, looked up and saw this amazing sight. Then took a double decker tram back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and raced to the airport to catch a late flight to Guilin. That is Blogocation Stop 2, so stay tuned. Hong Kong was amazing. It exceeded our expectations. People, culture, buildings, food, more buildings, harbor, packed streets, nasty smells, meat hanging everywhere, east meets west, hills, just a great spot on earth.

where you at?

2011-11-04T16:55:00.001-07:00

Well, after a nice respite from blogging (not intentionally, just preoccupied with work and other things), it’s time for like 4 months of out lives in one blog post. Fall has been awesome here thus far – we’ve had some great visitors, and the weather has been quite beautiful. The leaves are just hitting their peak right now. I was driving up the Baltimore-Washington parkway today just dumbfounded at how beautiful the trees are. You see, the highways out here are nothing like the ones in the west – here you are constantly surround by trees and you can’t see anything through them or above them – as opposed to the west where there are huge old billboards and mountains. Anyway – the are just amazing right now. Get ready for a speedy look at what’s up around here lately.

We spent a bit of time in July at Bear Lake – I can’t believe how beautiful that place is. I turned 28 while we were there. Julie stuck with her awesome tradition of creatively illustrating how old I am (in the past she’s done it with doughnuts, waffles, candy etc. – this one was awesome and apparently the grandkids all really liked playing with those cups afterward.

Every sunset at Bear Lake replaces the one from the night before as the most beautiful one you’ve seen.

We spent a lot of time walking around the monuments. I love that about DC – they are so unique and make this place different to any other city in the US. There is almost a spiritual feeling around them. The Founding Fathers were amazing men – living here has helped me learn more about them and what they did for us.

FDR Memorial – my favorite at night with all the water.

The newly finished MLK Memorial. This bust of him is surrounded by powerful quotes from his many great speeches.

We went out to the Air and Space Museum near Dulles for the first time with Kelsey, Garrett and their little dude Hudson. Garrett was here interning this past summer and we had a lot of fun with them. Kelsey was in Jerusalem with Julie and me. Kelsey and Julie told everyone in Jerusalem that they were cousins and we all believed them – they are like sisters from another mother (did you see the Modern Family this week where Phil uses that phase? it was awesome).

Kelsey and Garrett found this place and showed it to us – The Franciscan Monastery. It was beautiful.

For Labor Day we went up to NYC to hang with Tal while Anita was visiting her fam in Switzerland. It was so fun to be in the city with Tal and have some fun times that included a nice piece of brunch, going to Smalls with Tal (great little Jazz club in the village), helping Tal transport a couch to his new apartment, tasty food, great talks, and several trip to the US Open. I LOVE the US Open – and Julie does too. We’ve now been 3 out of the past 4 years – and it just gets better every year. We pulled a Noah and got in (thanks to Tal), then at the night session we worked our way down (thanks to Tal) to the front row for the last set of the greatest tennis player of all time’s match. It was so cool to watch Fed from about 10 feet away. I am pretty sure he just floats, his feet don’t really touch the ground. We even saw him throw down with an in between the legs shot. The match finished at about 1:15 am, but it was well worth it.

Gotta love this iconic shot as you walk across the bridge from the subway to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center.

Julie came down to Fort Lauderdale with me for a few days for a work conference. We stayed at a cool hotel right on the beach, ate some really good sushi, and got up to watch the sunrise a couple of times.

Josh came through DC on his way home from Ethiopia. We got to hang out for a few days, as he showed us some of his old stomping grounds from when he used to live here. While in Ethiopia, he contracted an eye condition that made him squint and something grew out of his head – as illustrated below. Isn’t that awesome (he really is fine, in case you were worried, these are just the random photos I caught on my phone).

Next, Julie’s parents came to town. It was so fun to see them. We took them to Les Mis at the Kennedy Center – it was the 25th anniversary tour they are doing and it was really fantastic. It was fun to be there with Julie and her Mom who are both big Les Mis fans.

A trip to Ford’s Theater. We’re pretty in to the Lincoln assassination right now after Julie read “Manhunt” and we watched the new movie “The Conspirators”. You should check them out.

A beautiful night on the Tidal Basin. There was a thick fog surrounding us, something I haven’t experienced there yet. Kind of fit in with the eerie Halloween time of year.

We also took at trip down to Monticello with them. None of us had ever been there. Thomas Jefferson was an amazing mind…never stopped thinking, designing, writing, conjuring up ideas, and building up his Monticello. The leaves were beautiful – the Virginia countryside is quite beautiful.

The farm where all of the food for the large crew of people living at Monticello was grown.

There was an apple orchard just a few miles from Monticello. Julie’s mom is a legend for her apple pies. What better time to try one out? Kathy made us a wicked awesome pie. It was a little late in the apple picking season, so here Julie and Kathy are trying to figure out how to get the apples from the tops of the trees.

Here was the solution, which worked rather well considering Julie isn’t the tallest girl around.

Lastly, we went down into Charlottesville to complete our Thomas Jefferson day at the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson designed a beautiful campus there.

I think the idea was to have all the professors and students living in close proximity to each other and to the classrooms. It has since expanded, but this main part still has professors and students living in it I think.

So, Julie’s mom is an Apple Pie master – her dad, is a BBQ master. Or I should say a “Serious Barbequer” – see his book below. He marinated, rubbed, glazed, garnished some rib-eye steaks over the course of about 24 hours and they were seriously tasty.

Our friends Steve and Jesse came over to help eat all the food with BBQ’d, and to chat about Brazil. Steve served in Montes Claros on his mission – which is the same area where Mark and Kathy spent much of their recent mission to Brazil. We finished it off with a hot apple pie that has me reconsidering my stance as a “cake and cookie person” over a “pie person”. It was so fun having Mark and Kathy here – Julie truly has some amazing parents and it was fun to try to soak up their wisdom and awesomeness.

Brace yourself. Then came Halloween. Some of our friends hosted a party – so we went all out. We won the “Scariest Costume” award. Not exactly what we were going for, but let’s face it, we looked creepy. If you don’t know who we are supposed to be, then you need to slap yourself.

We had the Nutcracker cast there, Gadhafi and his bodyguard, some of the Occupy Wall Street people, the Bachelor was there, and a lot of other awesome costumes.

Including one of my favorites – the LORD OF THE RINGS!!! Honestly, I can’t stand those movies, but Steve pulled it off very nicely. If you look closely you can even see the ring around his neck.

My head kind of changed colors as the night went on. But check out this ham head that Jesse made. It was so creepy and awesome at the same time.

On actual Halloween, Julie was working – a fun day to work at a Children’s Hospital. Check out her awesome costume.

She is helping train a new nurse right now that is taller than her, so Mario and Luigi were a perfect fit. Isn’t Julie awesome, I mean, look at that mustache she wore all day. She is without a doubt the best nurse ever. I can’t imagine a person that is more knowledgeable and so good with kids.

So, there you have it! It’s been a crazy few months. Life is good here in DC. Come visit.

And P.S. stay tuned for another Blogocation as we are headed here:

here (Yangshuo):

and here:

For Thanksgiving we are are heading over there yonder to see Julie’s brother and his fam. They’ve been living there for 5 years or so, but are moving back to the US next spring. We’ve been planning on going forever, and the time is finally here. Can’t wait!! Stay tuned.

Finally some new Coldplay

2011-09-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

It's been way to long since these guys have put out a new album. Looks like October 24th is the date. This is the second single off the new album "Mylo Xyloto"...not sure how you say that one. See what you think.

wrath

2011-09-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

We have learned here in DC over the last month or so - that nature is powerful - very powerful. From an earthquake, to a hurricane, to non-stop rain for 5 days - if nature wants to, it can. DC is a place where people get really worked up over news (rightfully so with all the crazy stuff that has happened here), so people were scrambling a bit to say the least. We must just be bad luck for DC. Since we got here a little over 2 years ago we've seen the following:

Snowmageddon - Craziest snow storm in recent history here
like 3 other big blizzards
hottest summer last year
last summer was dethroned by this July being the hottest in history
earthquake and the pandemonium that followed - biggest one here in like 100 years - did you hear the Washington Monument is now slightly tilting (haha)
hurricane - who knew hurricanes came up this far north
terrential rain leftover from hurricane irene and tropical storm lee
flooding as a result of the rain

Hopefully things calm down a bit now and we can have a nice colorful fall. We've kind of been on summer vacation from blogland, but photos will come soon.

fast time goes

2011-06-28T08:07:00.001-07:00

Wow. Time is flying. We’ve been quite busy these past few months. I have a bunch of photos on my camera to put on here, but I don’t have my camera right now, so my iPhone photos are going to provide the story.

We went up to to New York for the first time in way too long to see Tal and Anita. That city is awesome. You can’t really compare it to anywhere else: it just is its own place. We just had a few days, but made it to some of our favorite spots. The Guggenheim has entirely changed since we last went there a year or so ago. My favorite part about that place is the architecture – and how cool it looks with people in it. The guy above was outside the Met, painting on t-shirts. He painted this thing in like 5 minutes. It was so amazing to watch.

This painting was at the Met. How cool is that. A painting of a window with a view – they had an exhibit of these types of paintings going on there. It is like the type of photography you see nowadays with kind of an artsy appeal – and here it is in a painting.

I mentioned the iPhone app Photosynth in a previous post. Check it out, it is awesome to take pictures like this. On the phone you can actually swipe around the photo for a 360 degree view, but this one looks pretty cool too.

Julie’s brother Matt came in town from Hawaii (he is a professor there) for a conference. It was great to spend some time with him and get out and see the city. We’ve lived in DC for two years now and I am still always just blown away by the majesty of the monuments and the feelings I get when I am there – except for when there are tour groups of thousands of annoying teenagers. Those parents that volunteer to chaperone kids on those trips are crazy – that sounds like the worst job ever.

We went up to the National Cathedral with Matt. Beauty spot.

My parents came in town for a speech, just as Julie was leaving to California – but it was so fun to spend some time with just me and my parents. Not sure the last time that happened. My mom and I went to the National Gallery of Art and found this funky exhibit in the East Gallery.

We went out to California for Julie’s family reunion. It was so fun to see everyone. We camped on the beach in San Diego for the reunion with everyone and then the boys took a sailing trip out to Catalina Island for a few days. It was so cool to finally make it out there after Julie’s dad had got me excited about going out there over the past few years. Julie’s brother Dan and I scuba dove which was awesome. Totally unlike other dives I have done as it was a cold water dive. We were wet-suited from head to toe – but seeing the kelp forests and the cold water wildlife was comparable to being in Avatar land – whatever that place is called.

We moored at Emerlad Bay. A beauty spot.

One of Julie’s best friends from Jersusalem and her husband are here for an internship this summer. We spent Saturday enjoying the city with them and learning what it is going to be like to have an 18 month old.

I have been traveling here and there for work, from Orlando, to Denver, to Miami, to Delaware, to Philly where I am today for a conference. This is a great city.

Thanks iPhone. The camera is getting better, but they’ve got a ways to go as far as the light sensor goes. Next week we are heading to Bear Lake for my family reunion. I am so excited to see some wide open spaces and be in one of my favorite spots on earth. Julie is too…though she isn’t too excited about the four straight 13 hour shifts she is working this weekend (and on the 4th of July) in order to get some time off to come to Bear Lake, but it will be worth it when she sees the Bear Lake sunsets, the starry sky, skies on the glass, and gets invaded by 20 some odd nieces and nephews. That’s all for now.

Cozumel with the broskis

2011-05-10T12:08:00.001-07:00

My dad had the idea way back when to create F&FFE (Fathers and Future Fathers of Eyrealm); not really sure how to describe it, but it consists of my dad, all the brothers, and brother-in-laws in the family. Once every few years when we are lucky enough to coordinate schedules; we take a trip together. Last week, we all met up in Cozumel for 3.5 days of scuba diving. It was so cool to be there with these great guys who are my brothers, but also my best friends. We had a blast – ate great food – talked – laughed – scuba dove – played basketball against a local team – just enjoyed ourselves. I must say that the diving was some of the most amazing I have experienced, (I’ve been lucky enough to dive in some pretty amazing spots around the world) the visibility was incredible and all the dives we went on were very unique in their own way. The deepest dive was down to about 120 feet and included swimming through caves, all sorts of amazing coral and underwater life. We did some amazing drift dives (where you are moving with the current so you just glide along the reef edge (cliff)). We even did a night dive which was so amazing and eerie at the same time…we had underwater flashlight and saw squid, HUGE crabs, eels, and my favorite – the bioluminescent micro-organisms that we saw in Puerto Rico last year. They weren’t as concentrated, but when you turned off your light and moves around, the organisms would light up all around you like fireflies. On the cave dives it was almost unreal as you looked up through the coral and rock to the shards of light coming down through – I wish we had a camera for that part. I learned that blood is green underwater when I scratched up the back of my leg on the coral as we swam through one of the caves. Tal described it best when he said that each drive was like flying through a different world.

Anyway, I tried to snap some photos along the way to share. Jonah bought an underwater camera that gave us some great shots, until we went down too deep and well, the camera didn’t like that too much.

We stayed at Scuba Club Cozumel which was a full on dive lodge. Everything you needed was right there. Great food, rooms, pool, hammock, dive gear, lockers, and a dock that the boats would come pick us up at. You could also grab tanks and go out and shore dive. That was the first thing we did when we got there, while we waited for everyone else to arrive. This was relatively shallow so the underwater camera worked.

Tal takes great underwater photos…look at his face in both of these (above and below).

This one is going on the Orange Sky website (me, Noah and Tal’s company).

By the time we got out, the rest of the guys had made it.

This was the sweet little restaurant there…lots of good pieces of fish and homemade Mexican food. That is something that is severely lacking in DC so it was nice to get my fill.

Each morning, the boats would come pick us up and we’d head to various parts of the island for dives.

This is the one picture we all got together. Jared was just finishing his scuba certification so that is why he isn’t in his gear in case you were thinking he was too scared to go or something. He joined us on the next dive.

Here’s a couple of shots of the dive lodge. Then some random shots on the boat as we got ready to dive.

This is right after we finished the night dive. Sorry it is so blurry – a little bouncy on the boat.

This is Buddha, one of the awesome boat hands that helped us out. I made him smile real big.

Later that day – we went and played some basketball at the pro basketball arena on Cozumel (a humble spot). Noah met this guy at the airport who saw that Noah was tall and asked him if he played basketball. Noah said that he did, and that his brothers, dad, and bro-in-laws were coming who were also tall. This guy was the coach of a group of high school/early college kids. So he asked if we would come and play them. So Noah, Tal, Dad, Dave, and I went and played them. The gym was right in the center of town and had cement bleachers built it. A lot of the kids parents and friends showed up to watch. It was lot of fun – it was about 90 degrees and 183% humidity with not a lot of circulation in there. I think that was the most I have ever sweat in my life. We had a fun game where the team we played took the early lead, but we came back and beat them down the stretch thanks to “Mr. Clutch” Dave Pothier, and a sweet move by dad where he took to Pepe (their best player). Luckily Noah had his phone and we took a photo.

The place we stayed was so relaxing; no TVs, just hammocks and the ocean. So we spent the evenings playing cards, talking, and swinging in the hammocks. It was SO cool to be there with all of my brothers. It has been a while since we’ve had talks with all 5 of us.

This is an awesome picture of Jo and Tal watching Noah try a new app on his phone that Josh showed us. It is called PhotoSynth. Totally awesome, try it out.

Jo and Noah went for one last night dive.

This was the sunset that Jo and I shouldn’t have seen. Due to a big old storm in Dallas and the mid-west, our plan never made it to Cozumel to fly out on Sunday. So, we got to spend another day there with Dad (who was staying for another couple of days). We rented a Geo Tracker (amazing right) and drove over to the other side of the island to see what that was all about. It was so fun to spend more time with Jo and enjoy the beauty of the Caribbean Sea. We got up the next morning to get on a ferry to go over to Playa del Carmen, then took a bus to Cancun where the flight I was supposed to be on was full, and so I got fly to Chicago with Jo.

Chicago has a pretty amazing skyline. We are hoping to spend a weekend exploring there this summer.

What an amazing trip! Thanks so much to Dad for putting it all together. This one will be one we’ll be talking about for years and years!

3 years…

2011-05-07T08:35:00.001-07:00

Well, May the 2nd marked 3 years since the day that Julie and I got married. Whoa, where did the time go? In some ways it seems like we have been married for so long, and in other ways it seems like it was just May 2nd, 2008. Unfortunately due to a storm in the mid-west, I got stuck in Mexico and by the time I got home on the night of our anniversary, Julie had already left for the night shift at the hospital. Cripes. We decided to celebrate the next day since for a while we were planning the wedding for the 3rd anyway. We went out to dinner and reflected on the last 3 years of our lives, and the fact that we are just getting started. Being married to Julie is such a blessing to me. She makes me who I am. I can’t wait to see what year 4 of marriage holds.

This is a video that I made her for our anniversary…don’t feel obligated to watch, but I wanted to put it up here to remember what an awesome year we’ve had since anniversary number 2.

Dubai UAE

2011-04-24T18:32:00.001-07:00

Anyone that knows me know that I love cities. Dubai is one of those cities that I had heard so much over the years and hoped I would get to go there one day. It turned out that Emirates (airline) doesn’t charge any extra on your tickets if you stop over in Dubai for a few days (their way to bring some extra tourism to their country I guess – Emirates is UAE based). When we found this out, it was a no brainer that we’d be stopping there for a few days.

Going from India to Dubai was basically going from one end of the spectrum to the complete other side. From poverty to extravagance. It is interesting to see how an extremely wealthy country uses their wealth. In the case of Dubai, it was to create the craziest, most futuristic city they could. We found a really cool hotel that was just opening so it had “opening rates” that made it affordable to us. We only had two days, but we made the most of it and saw everything we had hoped to.

This was the view from the roof of our hotel.

We first went down to the marina area – the newest, ritziest part of Dubai. I think these were all condo buildings.

Buildings as far as you could see, about a fourth of them were under construction with people working busily on them.

This one one (above) was my favorite. I am excited to see what it looks like when it is finished.

Next we walked up the shore a mile or so to see the icon of Dubai…the Burj Al Arab (well at least until they built the Burj Khalifa…you’ll see that soon).

Unfortunately it was rather windy and sand stormy, but it was pretty amazing to see this thing in person…the 7 star hotel built on its own little man-made island. The cheapest room I could find there was $2000 per night on a discount website. They won’t let you in unless you have a reservation to eat there or are actually staying there. I tried to get in, but no luck…so we admired from the beach. The Arabian Sea was so beautiful – so blue.

Next stop was the tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa – all 828 m (2,717 ft) of it. That’s like half a mile. It was just insane to crink your neck up and try and see the top of it.

It was located right next to Dubai Mall, and this Downtown Dubai thing they created which is this huge Lagoon with dancing fountains that is surrounded by all sorts of huge buildings. It was really cool. We ate dinner at a restaurant right at the bottom of the Burj Khalifa on the Lagoon. You had to pay like 50 bucks to go the top which included a wait of a couple of hours, so we just decided to admire it from the ground.

a clip of the dancing fountains

This was the dress of most of the men out for a night on the town. It was so cool to see the men in these and the many of the women in full on burkas. That’s just how they do it. So interesting.

It looked absolutely amazing at night.

Here is the night view from the roof of our hotel. Pretty amazing skyline. The Burj just makes everything else look tiny. In reality though, the buildings that look small were really tall buildings.

The next morning we ventured into Old Dubai. This totally reminded me of Jerusalem and cities I have been to in the middle east. The Spice Souk was amazing. Every spice imaginable – I mainly just liked it for the photos.

These colorful old boats bring everything from electronics, to toys, to furniture to Dubai from Iran. There were tons of them on the water there getting unloaded.

We headed back over to Dubai Mall to see the rest of the mall and to see the fountains at night. The mall is huge. It is over the top and insanely extravagant. This is a chocolate store. Amazing. Then we saw the rest of the crazy stuff in this mall including:

Touch screen 3D maps/directory of the mall.

An Olympic sized ice rink.

A 3 story fountain with statue divers.

An insanely huge aquarium FULL of fish…

Including sharks…you can pay to scuba dive in this sucker.

Candy stores galore, and every store you can think of. We were amazed to see Magnolia Bakery (what the what? (the famous NY cupcake place) – so we got some banana pudding and went out and watched the fountains.

We took one last photo, said our goodbyes to the Burj and jumped in a taxi to the airport to catch our midnight flight to JFK. Holy Cow that was a long flight, but it wasn’t too full, so we were able to spread out a bit.

There you have it, the last stop on our incredible trip. The world is an amazing place. I wish we could just travel all the time, anybody want to hire us as your travel writers?

Delhi– the city of wires

2011-04-17T13:51:00.001-07:00

Next stop was Delhi. We drove rather late into the night from Agra down to Delhi. We stayed is a rather interesting hotel that, well, lets just say it was interesting. Not quite what we were expecting. Delhi is kind of the like the Washington DC of India as it is its own state and that is where the Indian government is headquartered. There is a rather lavish area that includes all of the embassies and the presidential palace, then there is Old Delhi, which was one of the craziest, most congested parts of a city that I have ever been in in my life. It was amazing. You’ll see what I mean in the photos below. Unfortunately, we were all feeling a little sick this day, but we toughed it out and had an amazing day. We started off our day attending church at one of the branches in Delhi. I think there are eight branches there. It was so awesome to be there with our brothers and sisters in India. Though the cultural backgrounds were completely different, I couldn’t help but feel like I was there with my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I just felt this overwhelming spirit of gratitude to God for the opportunity that we have to worship Him no matter where we are in the world.

On our way from church to Old Delhi, we stopped at a pharmacy – drank a couple bottles of Indian Pepto Bismol and we were set. We passed these slums which were beautiful in their own way. Built right into the rocks.

We stopped at this huge minaret – Qutb Minar. They started building it in 1193 and took a hundred years or so to build. The carvings (scriptures from the Koran) were so amazing and pristine.

I had to sneak a photo of this guy’s awesome tshirt. I love English tshirts in foreign countries. This one rivals some of the ones I saw in Japan.

On our way into Central Delhi we passed this statue. Raj (our driver) pointed out that is the picture that is on Indian money. In the statue, Gandhi is the leader and he is being followed by the leaders of other world religions.

The Presidential Palace. This place was HUGE. Something like 600 rooms.

The World War II Memorial.

Now we get into the crazy stuff. We got to Old Delhi, jumped on these bicycle rickshaws and rode into the masses. Here we saw everything from people bathing on the side of the street, getting haircuts/shaving, selling tires, you name it. So awesome. I will let the photos do the talking (sorry some are a bit blurry, the rickshaw was bouncy). Notice the wires. Wires EVERYWHERE.

Playing hide and seek with this little boy in the well. Behind him is the largest mosque in India.

Can you believe all of those people? This was in the middle of the day – not particularly rush hour or anything.

Kids playing cricket on the grounds of the mosque.

Fences didn’t get in the way of their cricket game. Holy Cow India loves cricket!

Here’s a video standing in the middle of this street.

Old Delhi Craziness

Our rickshaw driver took us by a shop where Julie and Kristi learned how to wear Saris.

Our awesome rider/driver. He talked a lot but we couldn’t understand most of it. He smiled a lot though, so that was good.

A little shopping strip area we stopped at to buy some last minute souvenirs. I tell you, everywhere is just packed with people.

This is Raj, our driver as he dropped us off at the airport (the guy taking the picture did an awesome job).

This is about how we all felt as we waited to get on the plane. Luckily, we avoided the Delhi Belly until our last day in the country. From here, we all flew to Dubai – we said goodbye to Noah and Kristi (they flew back to LA while we stayed in Dubai for a couple of days). I know I mentioned this at the beginning of my posts on India., but wow, this trip will forever change my perspective on so many things. Seeing the incredible things that are happening at Rising Star, seeing the light in the eyes of each one of those students, their eagerness to learn, and the selfless people that run the school and organization, all of these things, just so amazing. Then traveling to places I only dreamed I would ever actually see. The fort at Jaipur, the magnificent Taj Mahal, the streets of Old Delhi. Wow. This world is an amazing place. The best part of all of this was having Julie there with me, and being there with Noah and Kristi. Those two are amazing. This is a trip we’ll reflect on for the rest of out lives. Hopefully we’ll get to travel with them a lot more in the future. They make life fun – they are afraid of nothing, everyone loves them, they are hilarious, they truly care about other, and they are just plain cool.

Thanks for joining me on the blogocation of India, I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have (going back through the photos and remembering the experience). Dubai is up next.

Agra

2011-04-10T16:37:00.001-07:00

The Taj Mahal is one of those places that you always dream of going to, but it kind of just seems like exactly that – a dream. To travel to the other side of the world and see one of the most famous architectural masterpieces in the world was unreal. Looking at these photos, I can’t believe that we were actually there. It lived up to every ounce of the hype.

We left Jaipur (click here to read that post if you haven’t already) the night before and drove 4 hours or so to Agra so we could be there to see the Taj Mahal first thing in the morning. That drive was one of the craziest of my life (I think Julie, Noah, and Kristi would back me up on that). We were all pretty sleepy after a packed day in Jaipur. Raj, (our driver) was just flying along. I’d be asleep one minute, and jarred awake by a quick turn. I’d stay awake for long enough to see us swerve around a cow in the middle of the road, or see a car coming straight at us even though it was a one way street, or look over and see us pass a rickshaw full of people, or a truck with 20 people riding in the back. Keep in mind this was all at like 11pm too. I go back to my point, India is crazy (in a very amazing way).

Anyway, we got to the Taj Mahal early the next morning. We had an awesome guide Nitin – Charity recommended him and he was awesome. He knew his stuff and we were in good hands. He described the Taj as a palace floating in the clouds. That is what it was – this mystical masterpiece of architecture that almost seems like it is fake.

Getting ready to go inside the walls surrounding the Taj.

The first site. Everything about this was planned perfectly, starting from the way that you see it for the first time. Because of the sunlight when you first get inside this gateway – you can’t see anything, everything was just kind of white – then after a few steps forward, suddenly the Taj Mahal just appears….bam!

Had to do one of these shots. It wasn’t even that heavy.

Noah and Kristi were having trouble with this picture…I mean, they weren’t even close to holding it the right way.

Just a couple glamour shots. This was one of Nitin’s masterpiece shots.

We put on some of these nice little booties and headed up onto the main grounds where the Taj stands.

The entire thing made out of the hardest marble there is…completely non porous. The carvings were all still perfect as though they were carved yesterday.

The light reflecting off of the Taj made it SO bright. Here are Julie and Kristi doing their best to open their eyes, with the beautiful courtyard behind them.

Black Jasper is inlaid into the marble displaying verses from the Koran. They were strategically sized to make them all look the same size to the viewer below. The inside of the Taj was beautiful in its own light, mostly because of the inlaid semi-precious stones all over the walls…some of them that essentially glow when touched with light. No photos allowed in there though. The guards made sure to blow their whistles non-stop to make sure no one took photos – kind of ruined the moment a little.

On both sides of the Taj are huge identical buildings. On one side is a mosque, and on the other side is an identical building with no real purpose other than to maintain perfect symmetry. We made use of it by some sweet silhouette jumping photos.

I know this doesn’t show off the perfect symmetry, but this was my favorite vantage point of the Taj. You can get a sense of the grandeur by looking at how tiny the people are up there.

I’m not sure what, or who these guys were, but I snuck some photos of them. I wish I would have tried to talk to them.

Have I mentioned how awesome it was that we got to go on this trip with Noah and Kristi? They made it SO fun and memorable. I laughed more in that week that I have in quite a while.

Love it. Here we are utilizing the sweet remote for my camera that Shawni gave us for Christmas.

See what I mean when I say that these guys are awesome.

Here is when Julie became a rock star. Everyone was amazed by her blond hair. We were sitting there gazing at the Taj when these guys came up and started requesting photos with Julie and Kristi. One by one, they took their pictures. At one point they handed their baby to Julie and told her to kiss the baby for the photo. It was awesome.

This dude really loved his wife. I want to meet the architects in heaven some day. These two photos – above and below, give a bit of an idea of how the color of the Taj changes as the light changes.

Perfect.

We wandered around for a couple of hours just soaking it in, then we headed to Agra Fort.

Monkeys seemed to have taken over this place.

While not in quite as good of shape as Amber Fort that we saw in Jaipur – the architecture at Agra Fort was slightly different, and amazing.

Noah, with a little burst of the spirit of Aloha.

The courtyard of where the ruler lived. I didn’t take a photo, but surrounding this courtyard are rooms where the hundreds of his concubines lived. Again, these rulers had some interesting lifestyles.

View of the Taj from Agra Fort.

View across the river (via telephoto) of people out doing their laundry. Wish we could have gotten a bit closer to this.

Another photo request. They made sure Julie would put her arm around them for the photo.

Look at the detail!

Weird ruler point #2. This huge thing was the ruler’s bathtub. He made his people bring it with them when he would travel.

These were my favorite arches in India. So beautiful.

Hey look, there’s a beautiful girl in the beautiful architecture.

Another photo request.

The streets of Agra. Cows just do what they want in India. I wonder what that would be like here in DC.

We stopped by a place where they showed us how they inlay the semiprecious stone into marble. The patience it takes to do that is amazing. They told us about the hours and hours it takes for a small plate or whatever. Then you think of the Taj Mahal again – and wow – the amount of time and patience it must have taken to create that masterpiece. I guess that is why 20,000 people go to see it every day. Agra was amazing.

We finished off our time there with some food (the infamous spot where we all contracted “Delhi Belly” as they called it). Wish we could do that restaurant trip over again.

We drove off into the night to our awesome 2 star hotel in Delhi that we thought was supposed to be a 5 star. That was interesting. Pictures of that coming up next. Don’t forget to keep reading on to see the photos from Jaipur below.

Happy Sabbath!

Jaipur

2011-04-08T19:02:00.001-07:00

It’s Friday night and Julie is working the night shift at the hospital tonight. I have no excuse to not get these photos up. So here we go.

Jaipur was a place I had never heard of before planning this trip to India. Thanks to family members that urged us to go, we worked it into the schedule. After leaving Rising Star – we only had 3 days in India before having to head home. We found a flight from Chennai to Jaipur that only had two stops (sarcastic, but at least we didn’t have to switch planes, we just sat there while people got off and then the next group got on. SpiceJet. How cool of a name is that for an airline in India? Anyway – Jaipur was absolutely amazing. The history there is so interesting. The Mughal rulers were some interesting dudes to say the least, but man oh man did they know to build up a fort/palace. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love architecture – and wow, Amber Fort was just insanely beautiful.

As time was limited, we worked with a guy in the branch in Delhi that owns a travel agency. He set up us up with a driver and we were off. Raj (our driver) met us at the airport and whisked us off the the Fort. We go to drive through Jaipur aka “The Pink City” on our way to the fort. The main part of the city is surrounded by a pink wall, and all the buildings within the wall are pink. In 1876 they painted everything in the city pink to welcome Prince Albert and Queen Elizabeth II. That would be awesome if we still did things like that.

I think I mentioned this before, but one of my favorite things in India was just driving around – it was ALWAYS crazy – night or day. I loved looking out the window, sticking my camera out the window and capturing the daily life of Indians. They’d probably think a lot of the stuff we do here is rather interesting as well, so I guess it goes both ways.

That rickshaw was rather full. Though we saw many that were much more packed.

I wish I could have talked to this guy for a few minutes. You know, just chillin on the roof of RPK Gems and Jewelry.

Hawa Mahal. A huge structure built to allow the royal ladies to observe life on the streets below without being seen.

After driving through the city we made it to the base of the fort. Kristi, what are you looking at?

The main courtyard where all of the people would gather to hear the rulers speak.

Looking out from the fort, not only is there this humungous fort, but also a mini Great Wall of China built surrounding it, you can see it off in the distance in the photo above.

This place was so amazing to tour through as nothing was blocked off. You could kind of just wander around as you pleased.

K. This is where it gets incredible. These architects were geniuses. Imagine this large open courtyard with two sides; one side for summer, and one for winter. On the summer side (above) somebody was smart enough to come up with the idea to stream spring water through this ditch that would in turn create a cool breeze that made the insane summer heat a little more bearable.

Then, on the other side – mirrors were imported from Europe and included in the design not only for beauty, but to reflect the sunlight all over the place during the winter and create warmth.

This was the shot of the trip.

Or maybe this one…can you tell I was excited about that?

This gives you a good view of the courtyard – on the left is the winter side and then on the right across the way is the summer side.

A view from up top. You can see the wall there on the top left that scaled that mountain.

This is Cameesh (spelled phonetically). He was our tourguide in Jaipur and he was awesome. It was so great to have him with us as he knew so much about the fort and its history. And he was just a really cool looking dude. This a great shot of him.

Another example of the stunning architecture.

On the other side of the courtyard was the living chambers of the ruler. The door was incredible.

More amazing architecture. The color of this structure was especially beautiful.

This is where the ruler would look down on his concubines and pick which one he wanted for the day. Those guys were not exactly moral people.

As we were heading out of the fort, I heard this awesome music. I was so mesmerized by the music I started filming them. About 15 seconds into the film I realized that those were COBRAS in front of them.

We then made our way back down the hill and stopped by this on our way out of Jaipur.

The Floating Palace – this whole area was drained (see the dam across the way) – they built the palace, and then filled it back up again. Incredible extravagance.

This guy was trying to sell us something or other, but man – don’t you wish you knew this guy’s life story.

We didn’t make it in time to ride the elephants up to Amber Fort, but this guy “pulled over” off the side of the road and let us take some photos. The elephants just walk down the middle of the road as if they just share it with the cars. No prob.

We finished off our time in Jaipur with a trip to a fabric factory. Noah and Kristi bought this sweet hand stitched table cloth, and Julie an I got some old pillow cover things made of all sorts of recycled old fabric stitched together. Oh yeah, and we had an awesome dinner that included Julie and Kristi dancing with the entertainers at the restaurant. I think I have a video somewhere that you need to see.

Next up – Agra and the Taj Mahal. Holy cow this takes forever, but it is so fun to relive the moments and give you guys a chance to see what we saw as you take your blogocation. G’night.

13.1 for Julie

2011-03-27T19:50:00.001-07:00

I mentioned this in the last post. But now it is legit. Julie ran a half-marathon yesterday! After pretty nice weather here over the last few weeks, it was conveniently about 30 degrees and freezing at 6:30 in the morning when I took Julie to the starting point for the National Marathon. She totally dominated and finished ahead of the goal that she had set for herself. This is a testament to what I wrote about Julie in the last post. When she puts her mind to something, it happens. It was awesome to see her stick to her training schedule and make it happen. Here are a few photos from yesterday. I wish I could have taken photos of her during the race, but I failed to do so.

Here she is right after the finish with this awesome foil blanket thing they gave out to keep everyone warm. You can see the thousands of people that were there behind her. There were 15,000 runners.

I made Julie put on her medal that she got for finishing and sport it for some photos.

Maybe next year I will be man enough to run it with her. Ya, that’s right, she “ran through history” …not really sure what that means but it sounds cool. Julie rules.

P.S. it snowed here this morning. Then it was like 50 and sunny a couple of hours later. DC weather is weird. It is so beautiful here right now though…an explosion of spring everywhere you look.

Second P.S. I promise I am going to post the photos this week from the second half of our trip to India. I finally had time to dive through all of them this week and get them organized. Now I just need to get them on here, so come back soon.

ni ju go (25)

2011-03-23T08:21:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone!

Today is Julie's 25th birthday! She is celebrating by working from 7am to 7pm at the hospital! Wahoo! Bless her heart.

I know Julie loves it when everyone talks about her, so I thought I would start out. Ha.

I just wanted to tell you all a few things that I love about Julie, then if you guys want, you can respond with things you like/memories of Julie.

1. Julie is dedicated. When she does something...she is all in. I wish I could watch her at work each day. Though it is about the toughest job there is; it makes me smile to think of her there dedicated to kids dealing with cancer and other issues. I know her smile and ability to connect with kids brings so much light into the lives of her patients and their families. She just connects with kids. I wish you could have seen her in India with the kids at Rising Star (see pic above). Holy cow is she ever going to be an incredible mother!

2. Julie is determined. Again, when she puts her mind to something...she makes it happen. On Saturday, she is running a half-marathon as part of the National Marathon. I was going to do it with her, but totally wussed out (some excuse about my knee hurting after a certain distance). Even if it means getting up at 4:30 to train before heading to a 12 hour shift...she's dedicated, and she's going to dominate. She's probably really happy with me telling everyone she is running it.

3. Julie got up at 4:30 this morning to make her Strawberry Pie for her birthday. I offered to make it, but she doesn't trust me. "Eyres are not pie people" she says. Isn't that awesome?

4. People like Julie. She is just easy to get along with, whether it is her co-workers, her friends from college, friends from the ward here, or the concierge at our building, you can tell people just genuinely like her. You are probably nodding as you read this.

5. Julie adapts. I am weird. I have quirks. She has adapted to me and been willing to take on my passions and understand me: the Jazz, architecture, photography, tennis, technology, cars etc. I love that about her. She takes what is important to me, and finds a way to make it important to her as well.

6. Julie adapts, but she also is not one to be messed with. Julie knows what she stands for and there is no way she will back away from her standards and morals. I am so excited for my kids to have that example in their mother.

7. Julie has an awesome sense of humor, and a contagious laugh. Just get her in a laughing mood and you are toast.

8. Julie has an incredible sense of style. She is creative. There is no such thing as too much color or too many different colors when it comes to Julie. I love that about her; she's always knockin my socks off.

9. Julie loves life. She loves adventure. She drinks in new culture and surroundings. I love how excited she gets about new ideas, cultures, concepts etc. For example, she drinks in the culture in India, and then the first thing she does when she gets home is download the autobiography of Gandhi.

10. Julie is perfect for me. She makes me who I am, she believes in me, and she loves me unconditionally. I couldn't ask for more.

Happy Birthday Jules!! I love you.

Eli

Finally India.

2011-03-06T18:26:00.001-08:00

I apologize for the delay on these photos. Going through 1300 photos was daunting and we have been quite busy, lame excuse I know. But might I just say that Julie and my lives were impacted forever through this trip. It was something I have wanted to do my whole life, then all of the sudden within about three weeks from the minute we heard about the trip, we were on a plane on our way there. Before we left, we spoke with family and friends who had been to India in the past. They described it as “indescribable” – I was like “huh, how can something be indescribable?” – then we went to India and figured out exactly what I meant. India is a giant slap in the face or people, culture, smells (good and bad), beauty, poverty, smiles, bobbling heads, humility, happiness, light, overly crowded everything, history, spirit… I think I could keep this list going for pages. Really though, India is indescribable. You have to see it to believe it. I loved the people. They are so genuine, so happy, so intriguing, so faithful, so eager to learn, and eager to share. They just seemed happy and content with making the best of what they have been dealt in this life.

What made the trip even more amazing/special is that we (Julie and I) got to go to India with some our favorite people in the world…my brother Noah and his wife Kristi. With those guys, every minute is an adventure – you’re either thinking, how the heck did we get in this place, or crying because you are laughing so hard.

As has become my custom with big trips, I am going to split this into 3 posts: Part 1. Rising Star Outreach Part 2. Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi, and Part 3. Dubai. Otherwise I think I would bore you to death with all the photos I am going to put up here. This way, you’ll get your blogocation – but it will be in palatable amounts, instead of a 10 pound burger.

Part 1. Rising Star Outreach (http://risingstaroutreach.org)

Rising Star is what brought us to India. This is a fantastic organization, that we’ve had the opportunity to hear a lot about over the last couple of years. Two years ago, Julie and I (along with my parents) went to a Rising Star fundraiser hosted by the Utah Jazz. Then last year, a couple of my siblings spent extended periods of time at the Rising Star School in Southern India. One of the great parts of Rising Star is the school. They bring children in from surrounding Leprosy Affected Colonies and give them an education. Were it not for Rising Star, these kids would be outcasts and untouchables – destined for a life of begging (I am not being dramatic here, that is the case). Because of their parent’s health, they (the kids) become outcasts. This school was created to bring these kids in, give them an education, and exponentially increasing their chances of breaking the cycle by educating them and preparing them to get a job and succeed in life. The ability to speak fluent English (without a heavy accent) is a key aspect of this process.

That is where Imagine Learning came into the conversation. Imagine Learning Inc. is the company that Noah, Tal, and I all work for. Imagine Learning’s software program is used in schools across the US and around the globe to help kids learn English (language and literacy). The program is used by ESL students, Special Ed Student, kids that are struggling to read on grade level etc. The leadership of Rising Star heard about Imagine Learning, and asked that Imagine Learning donate the software so that these fantastic students could learn to speak fluent English. Noah took this one by the horns, and asked Imagine Learning to help – they were as excited as we were and immediately said yes. They have a beautiful computer lab at Rising Star that was donated by the Dell Foundation – but there wasn’t a lot going on in there. By the time we left the school, the lab was packed all day long as students rotated through to do their daily session on Imagine Learning English.

The first week of January, Noah and I were together at a conference for Imagine Learning and he was telling me that Imagine Learning had just agreed to donate the software. Right then and there I thought to myself, “why the heck aren’t you going too dummy?” – I asked Noah what he thought, and he was all about it. So I called Julie and said, “Hey, you want to go to India in two and half weeks?” – she of course thought I was kidding, then she thought I was crazy when I told her how serious I was. When else were we going to get to go to India with Noah and Kristi and work with this great organization. After a little explanation – Julie was as excited as I was. So she spent the next week frantically pleading with other nurses to take her shifts (you have to sign up for vacation like 6 months out at the hospital where Julie works, so our only hope was finding people to take her shifts). Thanks to some VERY kind co-workers of Julie's who understood this great opportunity, she was able to get all of her shifts filled and it was ON!

That is how we got to India. I love it when life is like that – how just all the sudden you are doing something you only dreamed would ever happen. Serendipity as my dad would say (that mixed with some luck and craziness).

I flew out to LA and met up with Julie who was already out there for a gathering with all the sisters/sister in laws and my mom or the Eyre fam for a get together. We all jumped on a plane at LAX and were on our way to Chennai, India. The flight was wicked long. 16 hours. Whoa. Luckily it was a flight that had quite a few empty seats so we could spread out a bit. We slept and watched a lot of movies that day or night or whatever it was.

We got to Chennai after a stopover in Dubai. It was 2:30 in the morning. I will never forget walking out of the plane, and then out of the airport. As we went through security screening of our checked luggage – someone pulled me aside and asked for another look at one of the bags I had. This bag was full of about 30 headsets for the kids to use on the computers with Imagine Learning. They ran the bag through the scanner and asked me what in the world was in the bag. I told them they were headsets. We were in a bit of predicament as we were there as “tourists” on our visas, not as volunteers as that makes the process take much longer. I decided to just be honest with the guy and tell them that they were for a school that we were donating them to – as opposed to trying to explain why I needed 30 headsets for my time in India. He kind of looked at me in disbelief, and then walked me over to his manager who then asked me the same question. I told him again that we were donating them to a school. He looked at me for a while and then said “You are not supposed to bring more than a couple of these into the country, but since you told me you are giving them to a school, I am going to close my eyes, and my colleague is going to do the same, and you are going to walk past us and take these headsets to the school.” I kind of looked at him like “what?” and he just motioned for me to walk past. It was like we were in a movie or something. Right off the bat, I knew I was going to like the Indian people. We picked up the bag and headed out of the airport.

The place was packed with people and it was the middle of the night. I quickly learned that cities in India are crowded all the time. We walked out of the airport to the smell of India – mixture of spice/burning garbage/gasoline and people. We were swarmed by people asking if we wanted a taxi – after a while we finally got a hold of our hotel and they sent someone to pick us up at about 3am.

The next morning after an awesome breakfast buffet, we jumped in a van along with some other volunteers that were headed to the school and headed to Rising Star. It was light outside and we really saw India for the first time. My first sight on the road was a guy running along side an overcrowded bus and then jumping on the side, grabbing the window bar and then clung to the side of the bus (like Marty McFly on Back to the Future except no skateboard) and rode off. It was awesome. Riding in the cars/buses and people watching was like my favorite thing in India. Packed buses, rickshaws, trucks cruising around – no real lanes, just everyone smashed into the little road trying to get to where they were going. In the middle of all of this were countless motorcycles and bikes, most with more than a couple people cruising around on them. Families of 4 just cruising along on a motorcycle like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

After a 2 hour or so drive. We stopped at one of the Leprosy Affected Colonies to drop off a couple of the volunteers. We met some amazing people there, one of which was an Austrian guy and his wife who had started an art school there in the colony. He taught the Leprosy Affected how to paint, and let me tell you, their art was amazing. This guy lives there in the colony like 4 months out of the year, then takes the art work back to Europe to sell it as form of fundraising for the colony and his school. These are some of the awesome people we met at the art school.

This is the Austrian guy I was talking about.

This was the sweetest little old lady. She had the highest voice you’ve ever heard (kind of like when you breath in helium and then talk).

We then headed the rest of the way to Rising Star. The location of Rising Star is so beautiful. It is out in the countryside, surrounded by deep green rice paddies and palm trees. Rising Star has done an incredible job building a beautiful campus there.

Just outside the front gate are these beautiful paddies.

Front of the school.

Back of the school (below).

I will never forget what happened next. We went out to back of the school (open field area) where the kids were just coming out for recess I think. All of the sudden we were surrounded with the sweetest, most beautiful, bright eyed, happy kids in the world. They were SO excited to see us, and we were SO excited to see them. They all remembered Tal and Anita and Charity…constantly saying “you’re Tal’s brother?” over and over. They were so excited that we knew those guy (Tal, Anita, and Char), they definitely left a legacy at Rising Star. Anyway, just seeing the light in their eyes and talking and laughing with them there in the middle of India is an image I will forever have in my head. Those kids are just amazing.

We spent the next few days there at Rising Star. Combining spending time and playing with the kids with the installation and set up of Imagine Learning. We had a great training with the teachers and got them all filled in on the program and using it. Luckily the installation went perfectly (there lab was amazing – better than a lot of labs in the schools I see here in DC!). The teachers were very bright and picked things up quickly. We got the kids on the program, and another thing I will never forget is their faces and seeing how excited they were when they got on the program for the first time.

I loved watching them and seeing their engaged determined faces. And then hearing the occasional giggle or shriek of excitement.

Part of the training that we did for the teachers. The woman on the far right is one of the house mothers (that lives with the kids in their dorms there) and one assistant computer lab coordinator), next to her is Nayeem (the one who is in charge of the lab and the tech guru for the school. Nayeem is awesome and so excited about the program; he will be a fantastic facilitator of Imagine Learning there. Next to him is Celina – the principal of the school. She has been there for like 8 months and just comitted to be there for another year. She is awesome. Such a powerful influence for good and success at the school. She might have been the most excited about Imagine Learning. Next to her is one of the volunteers there for a few months and helping out as a tutor in the lab for the kids.

After the first night of use, Celina was excited to sit with us and go through the reports. Just FYI, Imagine Learning pre-assesses each student and then creates an individualized curriculum for each student so they basically have a tutor helping them in the areas they need it most until they are full on readers and speakers. All of their progress is tracked an always available in reports. Here, Noah is showing them how to generate and use the reports to help the students.

There was even a documentary team there that week. Here they are interviewing Noah about Imagine Learning and how we partnered with Rising Star.

We had the chance to read with the kids, play with them, talk with them, eat with them, see them dance and sing, just got live their lives along with them for a few days. I wish we could have stayed there for weeks. The other volunteers, along with the family that lives there full time to run the school were so great too. Each night, we’d all gather on the roof of the building where the volunteers stayed. We’d eat amazing curries, fruit, red rice, breads etc. off of banana leaves and share our “highs, and lows” of the day. It was so cool to hear from all of the people that had brought their various expertise to come to the school and contribute. It really put things into perspective for me. What is important in life? It’s so easy to get caught up in the every day “gotta make money, gotta get this, gotta get that.” There are some truly amazing people in this world, and many of them were there at Rising Star with us that week.

Eating in the cafeteria with the kids. They know how to eat!

These kids LOVED Julie. Seriously.

We found Aniston’s (our neice) long lost sister in India. She seriously looks just like Ana.

I was having a hard time with this guy’s name. So finally he just whipped out a pen and wrote it on his arm for me. Some of their names were tough to remember!

It was like Richard Eyre circa 1992 in Romania.

This little girl was convinced she could pull his finger off too.

Noah, the magic trick master…had these boys going non-stop. They loved his magic skills.

Each night before bed, the kids sit on the grass and read and pray together.

The kids were working on a special dance for a fund raiser being held in Chennai later that week.

We got to see all the kids dressed in their best and sing Indian songs for National Day.

This boy was dropping off his little sister for school. Look at the size of the bike in comparison to him…they were both riding on it.

Each morning before school they gather in the field to repeat the pledge of allegiance (I think) and sing the Rising Star Song.

Dinner on the roof.

We got to see the “Star Store” that was started by Tal and Anita. The kids were having issues with ownership, learning to care for things etc. So Tal and Anita came up with the idea that kids are rewarded in “stars” for everything from good behavior, to helping, to doing homework etc. When the accrue stars, they can take them to the store and buy everything from school supplies, to clothes, to the opportunity to eat dinner at the directors home with their family. It was amazing to see that the store was going stronger than ever and hear from the directors and administrators of the school that it was one of the best things that every happened to the school. The kids now took ownership. When they bought something that they had worked for, suddenly it was worth MUCH more to them. This is a lesson they’ll take with them through the rest of their lives.

The store is run by the older students; they have a register of all the students and how many stars they have/have used. Really cool.

Here is one of the girls Vijayalakshmi (amazing name) holding her card that tracks her stars.

One day we had the chance to go into another one of the colonies to assist the medical team in treating the Leprosy affected there. Another experience that will never be forgotten. When I think of Leprosy I think of the time of Christ. Here we were in 2011 seeing this thousands of year old disease that I assumed didn’t exist anymore. It was so fun to listen in as Julie talked with the Rising Star doctor and learned about the disease and how they treat it. Julie had the opportunity to put some of her nursing skills to work. We even had the opportunity to help clean and dress the wounds. Again, I was struck with how special these people are. Struck with a terrible disease, yet smiling and happy still.

Another day, we had the chance to walk into the village that was close by Rising Star. One of the cooks/helpers at Rising Star invited us to come an see her home. The home was complete with a small shrine, and a room for their cow to sleep in.

It was a sad day when we got up at 3 in the morning to head back to Chennai to fly up to Northern India. I really hope we’ll get a chance to go back to Rising Star again someday. I hope we can take our kids there someday – hopefully by that point, theses schools will be all over India. To be there with these kids, to look into their souls and know that they are my brothers and sisters. For whatever reason, I was born in the US, they were born in total poverty in India – yet they are SO happy. They were such a special example to us. It was so special to experience this with Julie. And to be there with Noah and Kristi. An unforgettable experience.

I will leave you with the faces of Rising Star. You’ll see what I mean when I say they are absolutely beautiful and full of light.

Come back in the next few days to hear about Part 2. Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi.

3 years ago

2011-02-15T16:43:00.001-08:00

Three years ago to the day I somehow got Julie to New York on a red-eye - tricked her into to thinking she was going up in this building to meet a potential employer for me - then we kept going up and up until we made it to this spot. Arguably my favorite spot on earth - I got down on one knee and asked Julie to marry me (she said yes). I will never forget that moment. I cannot believe it has been 3 years. I love this girl.

Sorry I have been so terrible at blogging lately. We've been all over the place. Come back soon for pictures of our adventures in India. Life changing event. Also there's some new music over on the right...give the first couple of tracks a listen.

It’s already almost Christmas?

2010-12-13T19:48:00.001-08:00

So, while I was taking you on a two month long blogocation, we enjoyed fall here in DC. In a place with as many trees it’s not hard to find some beautiful foliage. The fall weather was amazing, it last until like 2 weeks or so ago, and now it is all the sudden insanely cold. Anyway, how about those leaves.

My favorite thing about DC is the architecture. I particularly like Capitol Hill. I never get bored of just walking around and taking pictures. It is especially beautiful in the fall.

In October, Julie’s sister and her family came to town. It was fun to hang out with all of them and host all seven of them in our apartment for a couple of nights. That was a new record for most people sleeping here. It was awesome. We went with them (along with some friends in the picture below (the two in the middle that aren’t kids)) to a pumpkin patch.

That included a corn maze, apple launchers, a huge inflatable bubble jumpy thing, pig races, you name it.

We went to see Abe and walk around the monuments. Another place I never tire of taking photos of.

The highlight of the night was our nephew Ezra. He was his typical hyper-self running around from place to place. He was running along the reflecting pool (the one that runs between Washington and Lincoln) and we kept telling him to be careful. He made it past that pool, and headed up toward the WWII Memorial. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice where the sidewalk turned into water, and went face first into the water. Cory (his dad) did the right thing and whipped out his video camera to film Ezra’s reaction). Poor Ezra was cold, but ran back to the car to get warmed up and was laughing about it later.

We finished up October with Julie having to work on Halloween. She was one amazing nurse ninja. She knows some pretty cool moves and she is pretty good with a bow-staff.

I was gonna finish right there, but I know you want a little more, so what the heck. Time has really flown, we’ve now lived in DC for 16 months. There is so much cool stuff in this city. So much stuff that even though we’ve been here for a while now, we haven’t seen yet. This is the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, it looks out over the city. These huge metal things (3 of them) jut up into the air 100 feet or so.

We went to the Pentagon Memorial – really beautiful and solemn. Each of those benches represent one of the lives that was lost there on September 11.

We also found our way out to Roosevelt Island one day. It is a little island on the Potomac a few miles out of DC. In the center is a big circular area with the big old statue of Teddy and surrounding it are some of his most famous quotes.

Noah and Kristi came through DC in the RV on their way across the country as they moved from NYC to Southern California. It was a nice piece. It was also Noah’s bday so we had a fun breakfast and got to hang out with the kids while before they jetted off in their 5 mpg beauty. McKay was pretty excited to show us around his “house car”.

We’ve been cooking up storm. Julie is quite the cook. On this particular night however, my friend and I had to cook our wives dinner because they regulated us in little bowling wager. We cooked up some tasty Chicken Katsu Curry.

I won’t lie, the finished product was a culinary masterpiece complete with spritzed fresh strawberry lemonade. These guys are awesome. They were also crazy enough to go to the midnight showing of Harry Potter with us. We have been blessed with some great friends out here, the definitely fill the void of not having family super close by. There are so many interesting people out here doing so many interesting things; makes for plenty of great conversations.

Julie had to work the two days after Thanksgiving, so we stuck around here for the Holiday. We decided (well, I decided) that we’d be crazy if we didn’t cook a turkey. So, although I was dry heaving as I was pulling the neck and giblets out of that turkey as I was prepping it, it turned out quite tasty.

That brought in the official Christmas season! I love this time of year so so much. We headed out and got a beauty of a Christmas tree, and the music has rarely turned off since then.

I hope you are having the best Christmas season ever. Remember Him. Let’s share His light.

Have you been to Amsterdam?

2010-12-09T17:45:00.001-08:00

I know this was a couple months ago, but looking through the pictures and writing about it on here is reminding me how awesome Amsterdam is. On our way back to DC from Rome, we purposely scheduled a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam. Julie’s brother and his wife lived there a few years ago and we were dumb enough not to go see them. After being there, we wish we could fire up the flux capacitor and go back in time to see them. Anyway, they were nice enough enough to give us some advice and things to see. Their best advice was to just rent a bike and ride around along the canals. I’ve been lucky enough travel quite a bit in my life, and Amsterdam had a feel unlike any city I have been in. Granted, we were only actually in the city for a few hours, but we were both very impressed. The city is laced with beautiful tree-lined canals and beautiful buildings. Oh, and I am pretty sure there are more bicycles than people.

We were greeted by a sea of bikes when we go off the train. It was literally bikes for as long as you could see. This was my favorite part about the city. People just biked everywhere. It seemed like half of every road was dedicated to bikers, then cars and trams got the other half.

We found these beauties and took off. Surprisingly we had a lot of energy after sleeping at the airport in Rome and getting on a flight at 6am.

You got the tram, the cars, and then the big old bike lane. It was awesome. People were cruising along on their bikes talking on their cell phones, no big deal. I saw people doing it, so I thought I would whip out my phone and take a little video. I am not as skilled at one handed riding as the natives of that city. Let’s just say that.

These canals are so beautiful. Oh ya, there’s the other mode of transport around the city, boats!

Here I had the the tastiest pastry I have ever had in my life. Croissant, filled with some kind of cream, and fresh strawberries. If I lived there, that would be my breakfast everyday.

And saw the smallest car I have ever seen.

Amsterdam seems like a very international city, very livable, and just really beautiful. We are definitely going to need to go back and spend more time. I wanted to bike out to where we could see the windmills and fields, but time didn’t allow. This was a really fun way to squeeze a little extra out of an amazing trip to Europe. I know it has taken a while, but I hope you’ve enjoyed this blogocation that I have taken you on.

Finally some Roma

2010-11-18T14:51:00.001-08:00

We were greeted in Rome by this. The craziest lines of all time to go into the Vatican Museums. We were advised by friends to get there early. We did. And we were greeted by a line that was 2 KM long. That is not an exaggeration. So after waiting in for an hour or so and moving about 50 yards (well, Julie was waiting while I was scoping out the situation), we finally took one of the gypsy ladies promising no wait in line and a guided tour up on her offer. She took us to a little tourguide shop and we met this awesome Italian guy that took us and a group to the front of the line, and into the Vatican Museums. This is something I had been anticipating doing my whole life, so it was so amazing to have the chance to get in there. There are going to be a lot of photos in this post, but see, that’s how a blogocation works.

I love that this is a building across the street from the Vatican. Could that say Italy any louder?

Our tour guide was actually very knowledgeable and really entertaining. He was a big fan of Michelangelo and so were we after all the amazing stuff we learned about him.

Well. Just cause we had the guided tour didn’t mean we avoided the crowds. Holy cow that was the most tourists I have ever seen in one space. The picture below gives you an idea. It was a sea of people slowly moving through the halls. How beautiful is the architecture and artwork though?

This hall was my favorite (up to this point) – the hall of Maps. First off, look at the ceiling, seriously, who the heck had time to do all of this? Anyway our guide was telling us (forgive me if this isn’t totally true, but it sounded good to me) that this is the hall that the Pope would walk down (back when the Pope was also the military leader and governor of the land) and look at all of these intricate maps in order to plan battles etc. All of these are done by hand and yet they look exactly like the images we have from satellites today. We were amazed by this. Who needs google earth when you have a hall of maps.

Here is the map of the whole of Italy. Look at the precision.

We worked our way through the halls and the various rooms of the museums, all of which were incredible. The climax of course being the walk through the door and then turning around/looking up to see this; The Sistine Chapel. No cameras allowed but I could not help myself.

The story of Michelangelo and this chapel is amazing. The fact that he had no desire to paint this place as he was not a painter. And the fact that he was basically threatened/forced by the Pope to do it. We also got a kick out of the fact that he started out having people teach him how to do the Frescos. Once he got the hang of it, he kicked them out and did the entire thing by himself. What the what? That is amazing. You can visibly see where he took over and started the amazing work on his own.

Another interesting fact. Michelangelo was mad at the Pope the whole time. Our guide pointed out to us the in the middle left side of the photo below, the painting of Michelangelo portraying God “mooning” the Pope as he was not happy about being forced into doing the Sistine Chapel.

After looking at that ceiling until our necks hurt, we took the tunnel from there straight into St. Peter’s Basilica. I know I said the Vatican is somewhere I’ve always dreamed of going, but this here, is the place I was most excited to see. It lived up to every bit of the expectation. First, we took the long hike to the top of the dome. We came out in the rotunda first, before making our way all the way to the top.

This is what amazes me the most. Every bit of the ceiling is done in mosaic. You’ll remember from the post on London how much I love St. Paul’s in London, and this place was equally as amazing. Every single piece of rock or glass or whatever it is that makes up the mosaics. Can you believe that?

The view from the middle of the rotunda, looking down onto the high altar. This place is HUGE.

After quite a hike we made it all the way to the top. The literally breathtaking view of St. Peter’s Square and the city of Rome. How awesome is that?!?

The tiny little staircase you have to take to get to get back down from the top. This one is actually bigger than the one on the way up.

And at last, into the Basilica. I will let the photos do the speaking here. Just imagine the biggest cathedral/church you’ve been in, and then times in by 10.

The throne of St. Peter. It was very interesting to learn more about the transfer of power to St. Peter and the history of Popes.

Side note: notice Julie’s awesome shoes here. She left her flip flops in the hotel in London. Anyone that knows Julie knows that she is all about flip flops. So she was not super happy about the grandma look she was going for this day. Who cares though. LOOK AT THIS PLACE!

The Swiss Guard. I can’t believe they actually wear those outfits.

St. Peter’s Square.

From there we wandered out of the Vatican city and roamed the streets of Rome. (sweet sentence there). Another one of those – holy cow – this is what you picture Italy to look like.

Piazza Navanno. This one was probably one of our favorite piazzas. A huge oval as it used to be where they had chariot races. So cool though with all these amazing fountains, architecture, and cool little restaurants.

Next. We found our way to the Pantheon. Yet another one of those, “I can’t believe I am standing here right now” moments.

Trevi fountain. This sucker runs off of water from ancient aqueducts that still function.

Had to throw in a coin to guarantee good fortune and a return to Rome. Julie threw it in before I was ready so she threw in another which I think means she’ll go back to Rome, but that she’ll fall in love with an Italian. Cripes.

We ate dinner in a little back alley off of Piazza Navanno. Amazing food, and amazing atmosphere.

We then headed back to our hotel exhausted after walking like 34 miles.

We stayed in a really cool old hotel with this old school elevator.

The next morning we got up and went to the Coliseum! Wow.

It was so cool to see that place in person and hear the stories surrounding it. Did you know that originally, everything under the stage/floor was made of wood (where they’d raise animals up out of for the gladiators. They used to be able to flood the floor level to the point where they would stage Naval battles. Romans knew how to do it right.

Julie’s favorite car. The Fiat 500. That thing makes a SmartCar look big.

After a stop for some Pizza and Gelato; we lived off of those two things. That is all you need to be happy in Italy. We headed to next door to the Forum and other ruins.

Then over to the Spanish Steps.

Then to Piazza del Popolo.

Then for some more Gelato. I had to put this one on cause it was the best we had. Mixed berry and Peach. Just off the hook.

This was a crack up. This is our car we have (the VW) and next to it is the Fiat 500. That thing is so little. I wish we could have driven in one.

Architecture is amazing. Anywhere you go. I had to limit the number of photos I took of just buildings that I didn’t know what they were.

We then went to the Castel Sant’Angelo (probably spelled wrong) which was the mauloseum of Hadrian. Also the secret hiding place for the Pope in time of attack. The view from the roof of St. Peters and the rest of Rome was amazing.

Angels and Demons?

Then we wandered back into the city to find some dinner.

Another charming little spot in an alleyway. No wonder people say Italians are so romantic. There is a romantic spot every 22 feet.

We went back to see St. Peter’s Square at night. Pretty much deserted.

Then sadly we went back to the hotel, got our last Gelato fix, and then got on this ghetto subway and another train out to the airport where we slept on a bench there for a few hours before catching our flight to Amsterdam and then on home to DC. I have some photos of Amsterdam that will be coming soon. All in all, Rome totally lives up to the hype. What an amazing place. What an amazing history! This world is pretty cool. And congratulations to you for making it all the way through this post!

P.S. We are going to see Harry Potter at 12:01am tonight. I love Julie. She loves me almost as much as she loves Harry Potter.

Blogocation Part II. Pisa and Florence

2010-10-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

We woke up early in the morning and boarded a flight from London to Pisa. We spent the morning there, and then took a train to Florence for the rest of the day. I got to go to Florence for a weekend while I was studying in London, but it was so fun to go back with Julie and get our first taste of Italy. I have to say my favorite thing about Italy (other than the pizza and gelato) is the fact that it looks just like you always imagined it would. Everything is just old, but a beautiful kind of old; narrow winding cobblestone streets surrounded by beautiful old buildings all with old window shutters. I love the window shutters in Italy. You’ll probably notice a few in the pictures coming up. I have to say we loved the people too…Italians just seem so happy, friendly, and willing to listen to us in broken Italian trying to ask for things. We kind of just communicated by smiling and pointing at stuff – and they smiled and pointed at stuff back at us.

So we jumped on a train to Pisa from the airport to see this:

Not really sure how much more there is to Pisa that this, but wow this tower is weird. It’s always weird to see something in photos and textbooks your whole life, and then actually see it in person.

Julie was really excited about this part. But serious, she is holding that whole thing up with her finger. Not quite as cool as when I did it with my feet in 2006, but still pretty cool.

That sucker seriously is leaning. It seems like more now than last time I saw it (I know that isn’t true, but look at it).

Inside the duomo that is next to the tower. The interiors of these buildings in Italy are just amazing. I love the style of architecture. I think gothic architecture is beautfiul, but the renaissance style in Italy and the amount of light in those churches just make them so amazing.

After seeing the tower, we missed the train to Florence we were trying to get to, but quickly realized how hungry we were and found a little hole in the wall pizzeria. Wow. The way that they make those crusts just makes any other pizza you’ve had in your life kind of like blah. mmm.

We made the next train and headed to Florence. Immediately you just feel like you went 200 years back in time (or 500) – see what I mean by the shutters and everything looking just like you imagined it would. We walked down to the Duomo and just sat there in awe for a while. The whole exterior is so intricate. It makes me kind of sad at how architecture has digressed – they took the time to hand carve every detail – whereas we now just slap up some walls and call it a building (which will fall over in 25 years).

No two are alike.

The Duomo.

Look at the detail.

No shortage of tourists. Look at that street though, isn’t that just beautiful?

The Baptistery Doors. It took Lorenzo Ghiberti 21 years to make these. Click the link or here is a little bit compliments of Wikipedia “It took Ghiberti 21 years to complete these doors. These gilded bronze doors consist of twenty-eight panels, with twenty panels depicting the life of Christ from the New Testament. The eight lower panels show the four evangelists and the Church Fathers Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory and Saint Augustine. The panels are surrounded by a framework of foliage in the door case and gilded busts of prophets and sibyls at the intersections of the panels. Originally installed on the east side, in place of Pisano's doors, they were later moved to the north side. They are described by Antonio Paolucci as "the most important event in the history of Florentine art in the first quarter of the 15th century"”.

No description necessary. Strawberry, Coconut, and Mixed Berry Gelato. The first of about 25 trips to the Gelateria.

Another awesome Italy quirk: look at these buses – they are everywhere and they fit about 10 people.

That is sheer delight on Julie’s face right there.

Next we went to Galleria dell'Accademia to see the David. That brought a serious line, but we took turns waiting while the other person walked around. This is door that you pass in the line. You can tell a LOT of people have waited by this door over time. It was worth the wait. I had seen it before, but I am so glad I saw it again with Julie. She knows anatomy and to see her in awe as she looked at it helped me to appreciate it more. Julie should be writing this but the way that Michelangelo portrays David and the detail is incredible. To start with a huge chunk or marble, and turn it into such a masterpiece – was there anything Michelangelo couldn’t do?

Ponte Vecchio. Translation “Old Bridge” Ha. Really cool bridge over the river in Florence full of old jewelry shops.

I saw this and I was like “this is Italy”

mmmmmmmmm.

Sunset on Florence. We jumped on a train to Rome that evening. Trains in Europe are amazing. Why can’t the US take a lesson. Northeast Regional is a piece. This train from Florence to Rome was so nice, and so efficient. Just bought some tickets, jumped on – no security line – and we were zipping along to Rome.

Rome is coming next. Stay tuned. It is full on autumn here in DC. Lovin it.

Post on London below; if you haven't already seen it - click on "Older Post" below and it will show up.