His & Hers Diaries

A true look into the minds of men and women‏

HER DIARY

Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a bar to have a drink. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment on it. Conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn't say much. I asked him what was wrong. He said, 'Nothing.' I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said he wasn't upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it. On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving. I can't explain his behavior. I don't know why he didn't say, 'I love you, too.' When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent. Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed. To my surprise, he responded to my caress, and we made love. But I still felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else. He fell asleep -I cried. I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.

HIS DIARY

My Snowmobile wouldn't start today, but at least I got laid.

T-G-I-F vs. S-H-I-T

A business man got on an elevator.

When he entered, there was a blonde already inside who greeted him with a bright,
"T-G-I-F."

He smiled at her and replied, "S-H-I-T."

She looked puzzled and repeated, "T-G-I-F," more slowly.

He again answered, "S-H-I-T."

The blonde was trying to keep it friendly, so she smiled her biggest smile, and said as sweetly as possibly, "T-G-I-F."

The man smiled back to her and once again, "S-H-I-T."

The exasperated blonde finally decided to explain.'T-G-I-F' means 'Thank God, It's Friday.' Get it, duuhhh?"

The man answered, "'S-H-I-T' means 'Sorry, Honey, It's Thursday'-- duuhhh.

Eye Test

SURVEILLANCE EYE TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOOK CLOSELY AT THIS PHOTO:

DID YOU NOTICE THE BUTTOCKS OF THE GIRL IN THE BACKGROUND?



IF YES, THEN MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH YOUR EYE DOCTOR, BECAUSE IT IS THE SHOULDER OF THE GIRL WHO IS TAKING A PHOTO!!!!!

Cat and Mouse

After viewing these adorable pictures Please read end message...........it's just beautiful!

FOR SALE:
One Useless Cat

Christmas Lights

Halloween Cupcakes

Like my scary cupcakes?!!

Drunk Pumpkins

Don't let your pumpkins near alcohol!!

Swine Flu

Swine flu paranoia going a little overboard!!! Poor Piggy!

Everest Pictures

Hey all. Our Everest pictures have been added to my shutterfly website.

www.sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com

Enjoy!

Cute Baby

I thought this picture was too cute not to share!!

It's Mika! We got to hangout all last week and now she's having fun without me down in Phoenix. So unfair!

So I've been home for about 2 weeks now. Just been doing some catching up with friends and family and have also been on the job hunt. What a pain in the ASS! Finding a job is no fun! I want to go back to Asia!

I haven't had any interview opportunities. But I do have a part-time position now. I'm going to be working at the front desk at Life Time Fitness in Plymouth. I worked there before London and they were nice enough to hire me back. Haven't had any incoming money for about 7 months, so its going to be nice to have a paycheck again, even if its only about $100 a week! And I get a free membership, so I can start working out again! I've already looked through their group fitness schedule and have some classes picked out!

Becker started work today. He's working for the same construction company that he worked for before. They're letting him work there for the rest of the season, so he'll be working 40-60 hours a week until around Thanksgiving.

We're also looking into back to school options for Becker. Right now we're looking into a Tech school for carpentry. We know its not a good career to get into right now, but the program is 2 years. So by the time he finishes the program, the economy should have picked up, so he'll have some good career options. Other than that, not too much is new! Just bumming around all day searching online for jobs and networking!

Hopefully my next update will be titled - I HAVE A JOB!

Malaysia Pictures

Malaysia pictures are available at:

http://sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com/

Cheers

WHALE SHARK!!!

We had a great dive this morning. WE SAW A WHALE SHARK!!!!!
IT WAS AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!!!!

The Holy Grail of diving in Koh Tao:

A great way to end our diving in Asia!!

The end is near :(

We are reaching the end of our Asian travels :( 7 days from now we will be back in Minnesota. I am very excited to see everyone again, but not overly excited to begin the job hunt :( ah well. Still have 7 more days until I really have to start thinking about that.

Right now we are back in Koh Tao, Thailand where our adventures began 6 month ago. Becker is currently out diving and finishing off his Divermaster course. I am diving every other day and spending my time searching the web for jobs when I'm not underwater (if anyone knows of any openings let me know!!).

We will be leaving Koh Tao this Thursday for Bangkok where our flight takes off early Saturday morning. It has been great to spend so much time on this lovely dive island.

See everyone soon!

Everest Base Camp

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE MADE IT!!

It was quite an uphill struggle, but we succeeded!!!

As the previous blogs state, the trip didn't quite start out as planned. Because of our delay in getting a flight to Lukla we lost two days. This meant that we would lose one acclimatization day on the way up and lose one day on the way down. We now had to do the trek in 7 days up and 3 days down rather than 8 and 4. "No problem", our group said, "We're rock stars!". To the left is the Yeti Airlines flight that we finally got to Lukla. Cute little plane isn't it!

Upon arriving in Lukla, we rock stars started out with a light hike from Lukla to Phakding (see the map below for reference). Today's hike was only 3 1/2 hours.

After some lunch, dinner and relaxation in Phakding we started out Day 2 with another 3 1/2 hour hike and then lunch. After lunch we hiked up Namche hill as the locals call it. This "hill" would be better described as a cliff face. We hiked up and up and up forever. It consisted of a whole bunch of switch backs which meant that you would hike up to the top of a switch back thinking that at the top it would be flat, only to turn around and see that you had to keep on going up more. It was tough! It took another 3 1/2 hours to reach Namche Bazar where we were more than happy to rest!! Luckily we were informed that Namche Hill was the toughest physical hike of the trip. Later on we would be experiencing more mental challenges as the altitude increased. At Namche we had reached a mere 3440 m (11,286 ft), nothing! Unfortunately here 2 of our 12 had to turn back. Sabah, who is asthmatic but hasn't had an attack in about 10 years, had a slight asthma attack while climbing Namche Hill. She and her mom Farida decided that it wasn't worth pushing Sabah to climb to higher and tougher altitudes, so they headed back to Kathmandu early :(

Day 3 started out with a very light slightly downhill hike until lunch. Donna from our group was actually giggling to herself while watching the people hike up while we were going down. But the giggles slowly died as she realized that that would be us in a few days time!! After lunch we had another set of uphill switchbacks to conquer. These ones didn't seem half as difficult as the previous day's. After the "easy" switchbacks we arrived in Tengboche (3860m, 12,664ft). While in Tengboche we visited their monastery where the monks were chanting/praying to reincarnate one of their head monks who had just died. He died in a seating position and they will continue to pray for him until he falls over. So far they've been doing it for 16 days. Also in Tengboche the owner of the place were we stayed was Tenzing's daughter. Tenzing was the sherpa who was with Sir Edmund Hillary during the first summit of Everest way back in 1953. The owner had a photo album of her father during his expeditions, which she gladly shared with us. Very nice!!

After Tengboche we hiked a total of 4 hours and 40 minutes to get to Pheriche (4270m, 14,009ft) where we spent two nights. We lost one acclimatization days, but still had time for one here. So the day after arriving we did a 4o0 meter climb up and then headed back down. It was a tough day. We had pretty much all begun to feel the affects of altitude. Many of us had some intense headaches and lack of appitite. This is where it really became a mental challenge. The physical steepness of the hikes weren't overly challenging but the headaches and loss of breath because of the deficiency of oxygen at the higher levels was a struggle. At this point Tanya (from my MBA program) had to turn back. The altitude was too much for her body and the only way to fix it was to climb lower. It was quite unfortunate when we set out the next day one member short :(

We were now 2 days away from Base Camp with about 1,100 more meters to climb (3,600ft). From Pheriche we climbed to Lobuche, knocking out another 700 meters (2300 ft). Only 400 more meters to go (1300 ft) and our goal would be met.

We finally reached Base Camp on day 7 of our trek. It was a long and exhausting hike from Lobuche -> Gorak Shep -> Base Camp, but the remaining 9 members of our group and 2 guides made it. And we have a picture to prove it!!!!!

You know what the weird thing is about Everest Base Camp? You can't actually see Everest from it. How insane is that?! Doesn't make any sense to me! So the day after base camp we had to hike some more so that we could get a shot of the infamous mountain!! To do this we took a hike to Kala Pattar. Here is our proof that we actually saw Everest!!

The way down consisted of 6-8 hours of hiking each day and lots of laughing. It felt sooooo great to have accomplished our goal and we were continuously getting more oxygen than we were use to which instigated fits of giggles!!!

All in all it was an amazing time!!!!!

And "I shot the minnow" even made it there!!!

Everest Trek - Day 2

Please refer to the previous blog titled " Everest Trek - Day 1", because that is exactly what happened to us today :(

Again bad weather. But we did get some " hiking" in. We had to take a coach bus back from the airport and seeing as how the streets are extremely small, the bus couldn't make it to the hotel. So we got to take a ten minute walk with our big packs on! We also went to the monkey temple, which yes has monkeys and also had 365 steps to hike up. Exciting!

But what would be much more exciting would be getting to Lukla, so we could start our real adventure. Becker, Tanya and I have all had enough of the Kathmandu sights. We're ready for some mountains and nature. Third time's a charm, right??!!

Everest Trek - Day 1

Day 1 of our Everest trek didn't quite work out as planned! Woke up this morning at 4:30am to catch our 6:15am flight to Lukla (the base city to Everest). However, our flight continued to get delayed because of bad weather in Lukla and finally around 11am, after about 5 hours of waiting, the flight got cancelled. We are now back in our room at the Kathmandu guesthouse and plan on trying again tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Kathmandu, Nepal

Kathmandu is an interesting place. As the plane was landing I looked out the window and it looked like a miniature replica of a city. It looked this way because it is a big city but it has no skyscrapers. I think the tallest building was only ten stories high. It was a lot different from looking out the window in Bangkok!

While here we have spent most of our time wandering around the shops. Tanya had to essentailly buy a whole trekking wardrobe and Becker and I needed some waterproof pants. Shorty we realized that Kathmandu is a Minnesotan's paradise! There are a ton of nice warm winter clothes for very cheap. For instance tanya bought a nice Northface winter jacket with the fleece liner for about $60. It's crazy. Becker and I are trying to hold ourselves back!

Apart from shopping for our trek tanya and I went on a bike ride yesterday. It was quite strenuous! The first 3 hours consisted of a " slight" incline, or so our guide said! So we were breathing pretty heavily and were very excited for the ride back which conisted of coasting down rather than fighting to get up. Ahhh wonderful way to end a tough ride! Gave the legs time to stop burning! Throughout the ride we got some great views of the Kathmandu Valley and rode through a few villages. It's amazing how poor these people are. It's crazy to imaging living their lives.

In about two hours we have our first meeting for the trek where we get all the details and get to meet our fellow Trekkers. There are 12 of us total. I'm getting really excited! We officially start trekking tomorrow after an early morning flight to Lukla. I think tomorrows trek is a light one, only four hours. After that it's about 6-8 hours a day. Wish me luck!

Lastly, I'm pretty sure the teahouses on the mountain won't have Internet, so I'll update my blog in about 2 weeks after we've survived the trek!

Malaysia

We had a first couple of interesting days in Malaysia! First off, I didn't do my research so didn't realize how very muslim the country was. Because of the Muslimness Tanya and I were made to feel very uncomfortable walking down the street. The men stared like 12 year old boys. I mean it was really staring and pretty creepy. At first I thought it was because I was wearing a tanktop and showing my shoulders. So the next day I wore a long skirt and a t-shirt, but it didn't change anything. I still got stared it. It was really irrating. Its like they have never seen a woman (or western woman) before. Arrrrggghhh.

We stayed the first few days on the mainland in Semporna. Semporna is right on the sea so we assumed that there would be beaches. We were sadly mistaken. Not a beach in sight, just a dirty little town!

The first day was spent wandering around town to find a dive shop to go diving with. We found Scuba Junkie and they stated that they had a resort on the island Mabul where we could stay rather than in the smelly town of Semporna. So we took them up on the offer. However, when we got to Mabul their resort was full so we were sent to what was called the Long House. It was crap!! The put me, Tanya and Becker into a room with 2 twin beds. We were paying $20 each per night and had to share some really dirty toilets with everyone else. The place was really only worth $3 per night per person, which I would have gladly paid, but seeing as how it was really bad accommodations for over twice the price as in Semporna ($15 per room), we ended up only spending one night there. The island also wasn't very developed so meals were provided by the Long House, but only at 7:30am, 12pm and 7pm. If you were hungry in the meantime, tough! So after our coupld of day on Mabule, we hoped on the transfer back to Semporna. This way we got better accommodations for much cheaper, so with the money saved there we were able to dive more!

Diving there was amazing!! Becker and I did 5 days of diving totaling 15 dives!! Becker now has 68 days logged and I have 42. Not bad considering we've only been divers for about 4 months!! Becker now has all the dives that he needs for his divemaster, now he just has to do 2 more assists on courses. I am now 18 dives short of what a divemaster needs. But I would still have a ton of tests, a couple more courses and some assists to do. But at least I would have the dives done!!

But anyways. We had a GREAT time diving in Malaysia. We took lots of pics underwater, which we will have online in 3-4 weeks. Right now we are in Bangkok for a couple of more hours before our flight takes off to Nepal for our Everest Trek. Its going to be fun, but tough! I'm not worried so much about the physical challenge of hiking, I'm just worried about using the woods as a toilet and the possibility that I won't be able to shower for a week or so!! Gross and smelly will be my name!!!

Bye Bye Mom & Dad

Well mom and dad are gone :( Becker and I left them at the airport last night around 1am. They are now in the air somewhere between Bangkok and Tokyo, about 4 hours away from Tokyo. They will be landing in Minneapolis in about 15 hours. Ewwww. That's a lot of travel time! Not looking forward to doing that in September!

It seemed like the rents enjoyed their stay. They both really enjoyed diving and the elephant show we went to on Sunday. Dad was not a big fan of the heat at all, but he survived!! Mom took lots of pictures. I should have them online before Thursday.

Becker and I are still in Bangkok. We're just cleaning up the apartment, buying last minute stuff, saying goodbye to other Mountbattens and getting all packed up for Malaysia. We have today and tomorrow in Bangkok and then its off to sunny Semporna, Malaysia for some DIVING!!!! :) Currently the temperature there is 83 degrees. I think we can handle that!

Graduation

I am graduated! How exciting! We had a lovely ceremony last night and now I am officially extra smart!

The parents seem to be having a good time here in Thailand. Monday after my presentation we took off for Phi Phi island. Its such a lovely island!! Upon arrival Becker and I stopped by the dive shop that we dove with last time we visited. We quickly arranged for some scuba diving on Wednesday. Mom and dad really enjoyed the diving. It was mom's first time breathing underwater and dad's first time since 1972! We had some great dives! The first one involved hanging out with a turtle! We did bring the underwater camera so you'll be able to see pics of all of us in our scuba gear!

The rest of the time on Phi Phi was spent relaxing, playing cards and drinking. Ahh the life!! While on Phi Phi Becker and I did realize that out of the remaining 7 weeks we have in Asia, 4 1/2 of them will consist of exactly what we did on Phi Phi, scuba diving and relaxing at the beach. Its going to be rough!! The other 2 1/2 will involve hiking up a big mountain, so really the opposite of relaxing!!

Today I think we're going to do some elephant treking and tomorrow go to the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha. Then mom and dad fly back home. It seems like they just got here :(

Goby's Bar and Grill / Dive Shop

So my and Becker's dream when we get home is to open up Goby's Bar and Grill and Goby's Dive Shop (named after the goby fish, pictured). It will be a bar and grill/aquarium/dive shop in Maple Grove/Dayton. It'll be awesome!! There will be a dive shop area where we'll offer diving courses and fun dives, a man made lake for more courses and fun diving, a ballroom for receptions/banquets/etc where you'll be able to see into the aquarium and a restaurant and bar which will also face the aquarium.

We're actually writing up a business plan for it. So if you want to know more about it we'll gladly tell you!! Or if you know of any investors who would be interested, feel free to give them our contact details!!!

CLASSES ARE DONE!!!!!

CLASSES ARE DONE!!! CLASSES ARE DONE!! CLASSES ARE DONE!!!

Its a great feeling to be done with classes!! Yesterday was my last day of class FOREVER!! I'm soooo excited! Now all I have to do is my thesis defense and then I'm FREE!!!!!!!!!!!

Then its off to Phi Phi with the parental units. They arrive in 1 hour and 34 minutes! Becker (he arrived back in Bangkok this morning) and I are leaving for the airport in about 45 minutes.

Well anywho, just thought I would share my excitement with everyone. I'll let you know how my defense goes on Monday!

Vietnam Pics

Well I'm back in Bangkok now :( I had a wonderful time in Koh Tao with Becker. I was able to do 4 dives. I didn't see a lot of fish during the first 2 dives, but I did get to swim through a bunch of caves and passages. It was cool. Then the last 2 dives were awesome! There were a ton of fish at those two dive sites! It was great to be under the water again, but now its back to the reality of school :(

Today I have to finish up my final dissertation paper, because its due tomorrow. Then this weekend I have to crack down on homework, because I have 3 presentations and 3 papers due next week. fun times!!

Mom and dad also arrive next week. Their plane comes in next Saturday night! Then I have my defense presentation and then I'm FREE!!!!!!!! can't wait!

Ohh and I finally got the Vietnam pics online: http://sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com/



Cheers!

Good News!

I only have class one day next week! There is a Thai holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we get Monday off and then one of the lectures cancelled class on Thursday! Its amazing!! Now I only have 6 more days left of class and then my final presentation!!

Since we only have class on Friday I'm going down to Koh Tao with Becker Saturday night! I get to spend a few days diving. Much better than sitting in Bangkok!! I'm very excited!!!

Pictures

Hey! We've added pictures to our shutterfly site. They're from Kolleen (Becker's sister), Susan (Kolleen's friend) and Laura's visit. Enjoy!

www.sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com

Vietnam pics will be coming soon!


<3 Sarah

Tubing in Laos

Tubing in Laos was amazing!!! I will let these pictures and videos speak for themselves.

Pictures under Vang Vieng, Laos on: http://sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com

Sarah
Matt
Becker
Seamus

Nha Trang & Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

Nha Trang was a nice little coastal city. While we were there we relaxed on the beach, did 2 dives and a day long boat trip around the islands and to an aquarium. The dives were pretty nice, but they don't compare to Phi Phi. Phi Phi was awesome!! Although while we were diving in Nha Trang one of the girls who was on our African Safari was also on our dive boat. She has been traveling around Asia for the last 5-6 weeks. Its crazy that we were all at the same place at the same time!! Such a small world!

After Nha Trang we headed to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. Whichever you prefer! We actually didn't stay in Saigon for too long. We were there for 3 days and 1 day was spent on a Mekong Delta tour and the next day was at the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The Mekong delta tour was nice. After our bus ride we hopped in a boat and headed to a coconut candy "factory". Its all made my hand and it was really good! I'll get some pics online in a week or two so you can see what it was like. After the candy place we took a little boat ride down a canal, stopped at a cafe for some honey wine, went on a bike ride, tried some snake wine (see left) looks disgusting, but it tasted just like whiskey, then we listened to some tradition music while eating local fruit and then headed back to the city.

The next day was a Cu Chi Tunnels tour. The tunnels are an intense network of tunnels that the Vietnamese created during the Anti-American war as they call it. They consisted of about 250 km of tunnels and had three levels. They were used mostly for fighting but some civilians also lived down there during heavy bombing. we got to go down a few of the tunnels and it was not pleasant. it was really dark and cramped.

Now our Vietnam adventure is over and we are heading for drunken tubing in Laos with 6 other Mountbattens. Should be interesting!!

Hanoi, Halong Bay & Hoi An

After saying goodbye to our guests, Craig, Teresa and I took a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. Talk about car horns a honking and a gazillion motorbikes!!! If we thought traffic was bad in Bangkok it wasn't anything compared to the number of motorbikes in Hanoi. Also there are very few traffic lights so we were literally playing real life frogger!! Slightly fun but also slightly scary! Luckily none of us were hit!! Also upon arriving in Vietnam we were instant millionaires!! It was lots of fun taking out 4,000,000 dong (which is about the equivalent of $240)! Until you spent it all, then it was a little sad :(

While in Hanoi we did a walking tour of the city and also a 2 day, 1 night trip to Halong Bay. The picture below is of the bay.


It was amazing! We cruised around on a boat all day, visited a cave, kayaked, went swimming in the evening and then headed to bed on the boat. We took quite a few good pictures and I'll get them online when I get back to Bangkok in a couple of weeks!

Once we got back to Hanoi we did some shopping! Now we thought Thailand was cheap but that is nothing compared to Vietnam! The prices are crazy! The prices are so cheap that you hardly even have to haggle. They start out so low. While in Hanoi we picked up a few "North Face" backpacks for $11 a piece. They even look like really good quality. We also picked up some shorts and pants that you can zipper off to make shorts for our Everest Trek. And we found a few other souvenirs for our every growing "international room" in our imaginary house!

From Hanoi we took an overnight bus to Hoi An. Hoi An is a very cute little ancient town which was fun to stroll around (although ridiculously HOT!! I thought Thailand was hot, but no, Vietnam is blazing!!) After strolling the streets we realized that apart from it being a nice ancient town it is really known for its cheap clothing and tailoring. For example, after buying a pair of shorts in Hanoi I realized that they were a little too big. So what's a girl to do? After walking down the street for a bit, I found a tailor and they were able to alter my shorts for $2! I also got 2 business suits made ($55 a piece), a tailor made dress for my MBA graduation ($17) and Craig bought two tailor made dress shirts for $22. It was nice! Now we're running out of room in our backpacks! Oops!!

Right now I'm sitting in our hotel lobby waiting for our night bus to Nha Trang. We plan on spending 2 nights in Nha Trang in order to check out the diving in Vietnam before heading to Ho Chi Minh where our flight takes off on the morning of June 15th.

Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi was an AMAZING island! Crystal clear waters and sun. Who could as for more?!

To get to Phi Phi we took an hour and a half ferry ride from Phuket, and like idiots we all sat out in the sun the entire time and got fried before we even got to the island! After we checked into our hotel, we made a mad dash for the ocean to cool down. The beaches on Phi Phi were absolutely amazing and the water was even better. Our resort had an amazing pool, but we never went near it cuz the beach looked more amazing.

The second day we went diving! The dive sites were awesome! Right when we were about to go down we saw a Black Tip Reef Shark that was pretty darn big. Once under we saw more fish and corral than we ever expected. The next morning we went out for a couple more dives, this time Laura got to go too. She started her scuba diver course the previous day and got all the boring book work out of the way. The two dives were the most amazing we've ever had. Right away we saw a cuddlefish, then a huge porcupine puffer, then right after that a Turtle! Throughout the dives we saw Trumpet fish, Giant Moray Eels, Giant Porcupine Puffer Fish, Yellow and Spotted Boxfish, Sorpionfish, Lionfish, Banded Sea Snakes, Barracuda, Kuhl's Stingrays, Nemo, Blue Ringed Angelfish, Emperor Angelfish, Regal Angelfish, Long Nose Butterflyfish, Bannerfish, a Juvenille Harlequin Sweetlips, Trigger Fish and lots and lots of others. And the grand finale was a Leapord Shark that was laying out in the sand and didn't move even when we were about five feet away!

To celebrate the awesome dives and Laura passing her Scuba Diver course we went out for a few cocktails that night. It started at the Mojito bar, which is a really cool cocktail bar overlooking the ocean. We got Laura a strawberry daiquiri fishbowl that was bigger than her head. She made a lot of friends at that bar as she tried to get everyone to help her finish it! We proceed to several other bars and ended up at the Beach Bar. We grabbed some beers and put our chairs in the sand and let the waves crash over our feet. It was a great way to end the night! The next morning when we woke up the night seemed like a blur. We were able to get checked out by 11am but it was a struggle. After a good greasy meal and a dip in the ocean we started feeling better.

Now we're sitting in Bangkok and it is pouring rain! We can hardly see the buildings outside of my window, its coming down that hard. Hope it clears about in about a half hour though, we gotta catch a taxi to the airport. Sarah, Teresa and I (Craig) are catching a plane to Hanoi, Vietnam, while Laura hops on her flight back to the USA (Kolleen and Susan already left around 8am this morning. They should be in Tokyo right about now!).

We had a great trip with all of our guests! And look forward to seeing Kolleen and Susan in Bali at the beginning of September!

Koh Samui

Right now I am sitting in our bungalow on Koh Samui waiting for the rain to stop :( dang rain!

Laura, kolleen and susan arrived safely in bangkok last Thursday. Friday we let them sleep in while Becker and I went to the train station to pick up tickets to Laos for the end of June. After we arrived home from the station we went to the Siam center for some shopping. I finally found some cheap swimsuits, four for 800 baht ($24)! It was exciting. After shopping we rested a bit and then met katie and nick (our diving buddies from Koh Tao). We went to Buddy's Steak for dinner. A yummy restaurant where you can get a steak for 79 baht ($2). Mmm mmm good :)

The rest of the time in Bangkok was spent shopping at the Weekend market and seeing the Grand Palace.

Monday morning we caught a plane to Koh Samui and have been relaxing in the sun/rain ever since. Yesterday we did a nice kayaking trip at the Angthong marine park which was cool. It's a bunch of rock islands and we got to kayak through a cave. In about 15 minutes Kolleen, laura, susan and craig are going on an elephant ride. Should be interesting since it is raining cats and dogs right now! They'll just have to wear their swimsuits and hope that their elephants can swim! Since I've already ridden an elephant I'm just going to stay back and read. It's rough ;)

Sawadee Kha (Hello)

Only 4 more days left of class for the 1st session!!!!!!!!! These last 3 weeks have been pretty hectic with classes, papers, presentations and field trips. But its almost over and then I have a month off!

Last weekend we had a field trip to Kanachanburi(just outside of Bangkok)and to a polyester factory. The bus took off from Bangkok on Friday morning. The 1st stop was a buddhist temple which was very pretty. Then it was a few hours of traffic before arriving a our hotel. After a quick lunch we headed to an elephant park where we got to go on elephant rides. So much fun! A little bumpy, but still fun! After elephant rides we had a lecture which was centered around thinking positive while the world is throwing negativity your way. It was a great lecture. It revived my positive thinking and made me happier! Screw you economic crisis! You're not going to beat me!

Anyways. After our uplifting lecture was a dinner cruise filled with good thai dishes and some dancing. Upon completion of the cruise all of us MBAers decided that what we really needed was a dip in the hotel's beautiful pool. So that's where we headed! The rest of the night was spent swimming and playing some water b-ball. At midnight when we were kicked out of the pool I was thoroughly exhausted! A few hours of playing water b-ball and having to tread water because I'm short (thanks mom!) proved to be very tiring!

The next day we took a train ride and then visited a polyester factory (the actual reason for our field trip!). It was pretty interesting. Did you know that polyester is made by mixing chemicals until they turn into litte crystals, then melting the crystals, then cooling them and turning it into thread? I didn't, but now I do! Can't say I didn't learn anything in Thailand!

Not only have these last few weeks been busy for me, but Becker has also been very busy. He has been taking as many tests as I have been writing papers and has been assisting open water dives and working on his diving skills.

He is really tired and thinks he has an eye infection, so is looking forward to heading back to Bangkok this Saturday. I'm really looking forward to seeing him again!

Then I only have one more week until break! I'm so excited that I only have to sit through 15 more hours of lectures and then 9 hours worth of group and individual presenations. Can't wait for Thursday at 5pm when I'm FREE!!!

Shortly after I gain my freedom, cousin Laura, Becker's sister Kolleen and her friend Susan will arrive in Bangkok. They'll be in Asia for 10 days of smoggy Bangkok and beautiful beaches! Exciting :)

1st Week

One week of classes down, 3 more to go until break! Not that I'm counting down or anything!

This week was a pretty rough one. It was really hard to get back into classes and also to have class from 9am-12pm and then again from 2pm-5pm. But what is great is that Mountbatten takes us out to lunch everyday!! And some of the places are really nice. Now I know where my $20,000 worth of tuition goes!

The classes that I have for this first session are:

Political and Economic Development in Asia
Operations and Supply Chain Management
Research Methods
and a CAPSIM business simulation game

Political and Economic Development is a little boring, Operations is a little interesting and the Research class is way easy because I've already done the research for my paper, so I pretty much have all of the assigments completed!

Becker left this Tuesday and it made me sad :( But at least he's not too far away like he was when I was in London. He had his first aid class on Wednesday and started his Emergency First Response class on Thursday. I guess these classes are quite a bit of work and he says that he is exhausted by the end of the day. Sunday he finished the EFR course and then on Monday he gets an orientation for the Divemaster course. He's really excited for that! I'm really excited for 2 1/2 weeks, which is when he's coming back to Bangkok!!

Today I did a bit of sightseeing around Bangkok with Carmen, Candace and Teresa. We went to the Grand Palace and it was hot, hot, hot. But the palace was amazing! Lots of shiny decorations and an emerald Buddha! Tomorrow I have a group meeting at 11am and then the rest of the day will probably be dedicated to more reading and working on my paper. fun!

Africa and Koh Tao Pictures

For anyone interested in seeing our Africa and Koh Tao pictures, you can now see them at the link provided.

http://sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com/

Bangkok

Becker and I are no longer on the lovely island of Koh Tao, but are in the large city of Bangkok. It was rough leaving the island. I really got use to traveling, diving, relaxing and not thinking too much. So needless to say, I am not overly excited about starting my final MBA courses.

Our apartment in Bangkok is awesome. Its a studio apartment that I have all to myself (well I have to share it with Becker for another few days). Below are pics of the apartment and also the view of the city from the balcony. Make sure you don't miss the samurai swords on the shelves. Becker picked them up at the market today for $57!! What a deal! They are going to go into our "international room" once we actually stop traveling and can afford a house!







Becker will be staying here until Tuesday (April 28th) then he's heading back to Koh Tao to do a Dive Master course. I am a little jealous! We both loved diving so much and I think its a little unfair that Becker gets to go back and have fun learning more about diving while I'm learning about the boring world of business :( But by the end of this trip we will both have a Masters in something! So that's exciting! Can't say that the trip to Thailand was for nothing!

This last week consisted of orientation. I didn't learn anything too interesting! The Thai language stuff was the most interesting. The teacher and the other Thais in the room loved laughing at all of us as we tried to pronounce the words! It was hard not to laugh, half the words sound like noises rather than words!! But I now know a few phrases:

Sawat dii Kha - Greating - good morning/evening/afternoon

Sabaii dii mai Kha - how are you

Sabaii dii Kha - I'm fine

Today we went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market and found lots of cheap things!! I bought 3 skirts, 2 dresses, shoes and a purse and each was only about $5 (except for one dress, I splurged - it was $11). Becker also found some shirts, swim trunks and of course the samurai swords. It was fun!

The rest of the day I had to do some actual school work. Booooooo :( I don't wanna!

Well anyways. We're going to head to Tesco to find some food! See ya!

And pictures on shutterfly will be available soon!

We are advanced open water divers

So over the last couple days we have completed our advanced open water diving course, which consisted of a peak performance buoyancy, navigation, night, deep, and naturalist dives. We were already pros at adjusting our bouyancy to just hover under water so the first dive was a breeze. The navigation dive was pretty easy too. We just had to figure out basic things underwater with a compass, like doing a square, triangle, etc. The night dive was amazing. We pretty much swam around with flashlights and had fun! On that dive we saw two stingrays and lots of other crazy fish. When we turned off all lights and waved our hands in front of our face it made flickers of light like fireflies! It was cool!
On our deep dive we went down to 30 meters (100 feet) which is as deep as you go when recreational diving. We saw schools of barracudas, puffer fish, angel fish and tons of others. The naturalist dive was a lot of fun. We just swam around and identified fish and corral. We saw another stingray, that tried to hide from us, and we saw a baby puffer fish that was absolutely tiny. Later we saw a big one. We also saw nemo, angel fish, butterfly fish and a ton of other fish and corral. We also saw a tiny little fish that shares a hole in the sand with a shrimp. They were really cool to see how they interact.

We have one day off and then start a new course called nitrox which means you have more oxygen in your tank and less nitrogen so you can dive longer! Really exciting!

Certified Divers

Becker and I are now officially certified divers!! We can dive alone if we so choose. But don't know if we're ready for that yet!!

We spent the last 4 days watching some dive videos, taking tests, doing some confined water dives in the pool and then finally we were able to do open water dives in the ocean! It was awesome!! We saw lots of pretty fish, a Moray Eel, a Stingray, Nemo and a bunch of coral. Diving is so relaxing! I think we may have to find some more time to dive throughout our stay in Asia and perhaps see if there is anywhere we can go when we're home. We don't want all of our diving certificate money to go to waste!

Today we have a much needed day off. Its surprising how much diving takes out of you! So we plan on just sitting around the beach and reading for fun and then also reading for our next open water class. Tomorrow we start our Advanced Open Water course. we have some academic stuff in the morning and then we get to go on two afternoon dives and then a night dive! Should be fun. The preditors come out at night so we should be able to see more sting rays and maybe some bigger fish! After our night dive we have to wake up early the next day for two more dives to finish off our advanced course. Then we get to celebrate Songkran (the Thai new year). Apparently its quite the party and it mostly consists of people throwing water at each other! Should be a good way to get some relief from the heat! It is HOT here!

Africa

So here is some info about Africa!

we have had a good time in Zambia where we started. we laid around the hostel and read. There were monkeys around the hostel. It was pretty cool at first but then they started to get a little annoying!! They stoled becker's boxers one morning! he had them hanging outside the tent and when we came back they were gone! But we did get them back. Apparently the monkey realized that it wasn't something that it could eat, so it brought them back near our tent and dropped them off!!

we went and saw Victoria Falls. Its really pretty. We'll have to get the pictures online some time but probably not until we get to our apartment in Thailand. Unless there is cheap internet on the island in Thailand.

we also went gorge swinging and it was crazy!! It was terrifying but fun! We have a video of Becker and me going. I'll get it online whenever I can. Probably about a month!! We also did the abseiling and flying fox. You can check out all ths stuff here: http://www.thezambeziswing.com/gorgeswing.htm

The next six days consisted of our safari. It was a very interesting experience. The first couple of days we pretty much just drove to our campsites and hung out the rest of the day, which was relaxing. At the first campsite we went on a river cruise in the evening where we first started seeing animals. We saw Kudu, hippos, a crocodile, and at one point we watched over 20 elephants come running down to the water to drink, that was really exciting. The second campsite we stayed at was called Elephant Sands, where the elephants were litterly all around the campsite, which was amazing. There was a watering hole just past the pool and bar/patio area where there were several elephants just hanging out and drinking. The next day we woke up early and had a really long drive to a campground on another river and set up camp, ate, and then had some drinks with our new friends. The next day we had another long drive to the most amazing campsite we stayed at on our trip. We got there, set up our tents then jumped into safari vehicles for a night drive. The night drive was amazing, in the first couple minutes we were within feet of two female lions, very exciting! Throughout the drive we saw buffalo, wildebeast, a giant elephant, and a couple rhinos. The next morning we woke up really early again and headed to Kruger National Park in safari vehicles. Right away we started seeing all sorts of animals. Throughout the day we saw Impala, Kudu, Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras, Buffalo, Wildebeasts, Warthogs, and several other species of animals. Our guides were very dissapointed they couldn't find us Lions or Leapords, but we were still happy. That night the campground had some children from a local tribe come and do a traditional dance for us, which was really fun, and then had a phenominal meal after. The last day was another long drive to Jo-burg. It was really nice to sleep in a bed again!

While in Jo'burg we went on a tour through Soweto (South Western Township) which is where Nelson Mandela lived, and is kinda the slum of Jo-burg. It was very interesting. Now we're gonna rest for a while, the lack of sleep is catching up with us!

Tomorrow we leave for Thailand. we're both very excited to get to the island and start scuba diving!!

Sorry to everyone for not emailing too much :( I love receiving your emails, but the internet is really slow and cost money :( So I usually can only email a few people back at a time :( Will have better email upon arriving at my apartment in Thailand towards the end of April.

Hope all is well!

Love,
Sarah and Becker

King of Queens

Hilarious! Check it out!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vedCzjIDZps

Cheers!!

One week left

So I am entering my final week of work!! It's a GREAT feeling!! I now only have 3 more days left. I can't wait for 5:30pm (12:30pm MN time!) on Thursday. I will be skipping my way out of the office building!!

This past weekend was pretty busy. Mom, dad, and aunties Kathy and Sandy arrived on Wednesday morning. They spent the day wandering around London until I met up with them at 6:30pm at my parent's favorite pub, The Crooked Surgeon. It was a little unfortunate that the pub changed ownership, so things were a little different, but good none the less. The pub is near Leicester Square and I had a pretty exciting walk from the tube station to the pub. As I was walking through Leicester Square there was a movie premier going on for Monsters vs Aliens. I quickly grabbed Sandy and we went to see if we could catch sight of Kieffer Sutherland or Reese Witherspoon. Unfortunately they had already passed by, but it was kind of fun anyways.

Thursday the Fam did the hop on/hop off bus tour while I ran some errands. That night we headed down to Canary Wharf where I work for leavings drinks for me and Max. I was planning on not drinking too much that night because I had to wake up early to go and pickup Becker from the airport, but its just really hard to say "no" when someone offers to buy you a drink!! So needless to say, the tube ride to the airport was a little rough! But I survived and Becker made it to London!!!

Friday the Fam headed to Windsor castle and then stopped by the apartment for some cards that night. Saturday was the Fam's last day in London and it was spent at Covent Garden looking for some penguins for Kathy to buy (you're welcome Sliz and Shadders!!). She did find a few cute ones! Abby will be pleased!!

After Covent Gardens the Fam was off to the airport for their next adventure in Dublin.

Sunday Becker, Tanya, Teresa and I went to have some Sunday Roast at The York pub near our place and then to Oxford Street for some last minute shopping and then to a little theater for a show called The Murder Game. It was a pretty good show. I have heard that the Fam did the hop on/hop off bus tour in Dublin and thought it was interesting! I'm sure we'll all see the pics on Sandy's facebook shortly!

Becker and I headed to bed early on Sunday night because we had to get up at 2am so that Becker could catch his bus to the airport. He is spending today (Monday) in Dublin with the Fam. Their plans are to head to the Guinness Factory and I believe that is about it!! The Fam leaves Dublin for the USA on Tuesday and Becker is heading back to London also on that day. The Fam did not plan their trip too well. They are leaving Dublin on Saint Patrick's Day rather than staying there to celebrate with the locals!! Very unfortunate!

But its fine with me that they're leaving tomorrow, because I'm excited for Becker to come back. It was sad to have to say goodbye to him again! I finally saw him again and then he left :( But I can only blame myself for him going to Dublin. I bought him the tickets!! Thought he would have more fun there, rather than sitting around in London while I'm at work. But at least this time its only 2 days that we'll be apart rather than 3 months!!

Economic Models explained with cows‏

1. SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbor.

2. COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

3. FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

4. NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

5. BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk
away...

6. TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

7. SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

8. AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

10. A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

11. A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

12. A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

13. AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

14. A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

15. A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows.
None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

16. A CHINESE
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

17. A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

Mika Isaacson

Congratulation Jodi for your beautiful baby girl!!

Mika Isaacson - I look forward to meeting you in September! (even if they didn't name you Sarah, you're still pretty cute! There are always nicknames ;) )

Richmond Run

So this last weekend I did a 5K race. I ran it in 29 minutes and 08 seconds. Pretty good considering I'm sick. The fastest racer ran it in 18:49. Crazy! Also I placed 57 out of 171 and Tanya placed 118 out of 171. Not too shabby!

Family is coming tomorrow!! Their flight has actually aleady taken off!!

Saw this quote that I thought I would share:

Turn things you've always wanted to do, into things you've done

EXCITED!!!!!!!!

Only 3 days of work this week. 7 days left total!

mom, dad, sandy and kathy will be here in 3 days and becker in 5!!!! I'm soooooo excited to be almost done with my year in London!!

I've finally uploaded all my pics from the year online. Here's the link if you want to check them out: http://sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com/

I can't wait to be able to post pics of lions, giraffes, hippos, cheetahs, etc! 2 weeks from today Becker and I will be landing in Zambia!

Turkey Turkey Turkey

I had a great time in Istanbul, Turkey this last weekend!

Aaron, Cecile, Evan and I met at 5:15am to catch the bus and train to the airport. After a 4 hour plane ride (slept the whole time!) and an hour and a half shuttle ride to our hotel, we were exploring the city.

We started by checking out the Blue Mosque or next plan was to go to the Hagia Sophia museum, but it was closed! So instead we had some dinner and drinks at a local pub. Then we retired early (little tired from waking up so early!).

Friday we checked out the Hagia Sophia museum, the Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar. All were lovely!! After this we went back to the hotel for a nap and then checked out a whirling Dervish thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mevlevi). It was kind of lame. There was only one guy twirling. I think we got ripped off! I think there are usually more than one dervish spinning. Ah well, what can you do? After the dervish show we found a hookah bar and had some apple flavored tobacco and some apple tea. It was great! But what was kind of weird was that the hookah/tea place was in a cemetery. Strange! But good!

Saturday was our last day in Istanbul :( Boy the time flew by! Aaron, Evan and I headed to the Grand Bazaar again where I bartered in order to get a purse for 30 lira (started at 80 lira) and a hookah water pipe for 40 lira with some banana tobacco (started at 120 without the tobacco). Gave me some practice for while in Africa and Thailand. Three weeks from today Becker and I will be in Zambia!!! But anyways. While we were at the Bazaar Cecile went to a Turkish bath. She said it was nice but a little violating! Lots of nakedness and massaging. I stayed away! Our last act in Istanbul was to head back to the hookah bar for some strawberry flavored tobacco and some more apple tea. It was a good end to a good trip!!

Now I'm back at work and again counting down the days until I'm done!!! 11 days and 27 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait!!

Also, mom, dad, sandy, kathy and becker will all be here next week. NEXT WEEK! I can't believe how the time has flown!

How to start your day

Read this and let it really sink in...then choose how to start your day tomorrow...

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a
good mood and always has something positive to say. When
someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I
were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad
day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the
positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to
Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive
person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself,
'Mike, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a
good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to
be in a good mood.

"Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim
or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

"Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to
accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of
life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it isn't that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Michael said. Life is all about choices. When you
cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose
how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect
your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. "The
bottom line is: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the tower industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a
serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications
tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care,
Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his
back.

I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked
him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins.
Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone
through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well being of my soon-to-be-
born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Michael continued, "The paramedics were great.They kept
telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me
into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors
and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse
shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was
allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses
stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep
breath and yelled, 'Gravity.' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead'."

Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

17 more days!!!!

17 more days until Becker is here!!! Then only one more week of work! AWESOME!!!

These last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful. Just heading to the gym, work and that’s about it! My stipend has dwindled to about nothing, so even if I wanted to go out to eat or a movie, I don't have the £££££ for it! Luckily we get paid this Friday!

Also on Friday I will be in Turkey!! Only a 3 day work week this week because on Thursday morning I am heading to Turkey with 3 other Mountbattens. We are going to be sightseeing in Istanbul and I'm really excited for it! Always wanted to check Turkey out and it will also add another country to my list!! One country closer to 26! What is also nice about this trip is that we are heading back home late on Saturday night rather than Sunday. In this way I will have one day to recover. Normally we get home late Sunday night and then I have to go straight to work on Monday. It’s a little tiring to start out the work week with little sleep, so I'm looking forward to my day of rest.

Aside from only having 17 days until Becker gets here, I also only have 14 days left of work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SCORE!!!!!!!!! I have been relatively busy at work, but there are still days where I don't have much work to do at all, so I have been taking advantage of my free time. For our final project in Thialand we have to write a 35 page paper and give a final presentation defending that paper. Seeing as how I have lots free time at work, I have been using that time to write my paper. I have about 21 pages written (about 60% done!)! In this way I will be able to relax more while in Thailand and Becker won't have to spend the whole time alone while I stress about papers, presentations, group projects, reading and tests. Now I'll probably still stress a bit about all of this, but the stress level will be reduced because by the time I leave London I plan on having about 90% of my final paper written.

Anyways, congrats to Nicole and Jen Hall for doing the Polar Plunge. Crazy!

Pictures

I've finally put some pictures online.

http://sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com

There will be more to come!

Score!!!

I just saved $700!!!!!!!!!

I bought flights from London -> Africa -> Bangkok from Orbitz.com about 3 months ago for Becker and myself. Today I got an email that said that signifcant changes were made to my itinerary and to call a number. Turns out one of our flights changed to 4 hour later, which meant that we would be arriving 45 minutes after our connection flight. Now that obviously doesn't work! Orbitz was unable to find us another flight that would work with our connection, we got a refund. I then went to expedia.com and found the flights for $700 less! How awesome! Now we have more money to spend on traveling around Asia! Woohoo!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hey everyone!

Happy early Valentine's Day!! Wish everyone love and happiness!

I'm trying to think about what's happened since I wrote last!! Lets see . . .

We had our last weekend of class and I actually enjoyed it. It was our Personal Development unit and we talked about thinking happy thoughts and being happy with life. This actually went along with the movie that Tanya and I watched the Thursday night before the weekend of class. We watched The Secret which is all about self-fulfilling prophecies. Think positive and good things will happen to you. I had been so unhappy and angry that I really needed a change. The movie helped me find ways to adjust my happiness level. First thing at work on Friday morning, I created a "Vision Board" with pictures of things that make me happy and things that I want in my future (such as a wedding in the Dominican Republic with a pretty dress, a nice house with about 5 acres, a job that I enjoy - preferably at Cargill, etc). The Vision Board brightened up my day and it continues to. I have added to it since then, and its amazing how much lighter I feel now that I am thinking happy thoughts rather than the thoughts that were bringing me down.

Although we had our last weekend of class, we are still not officially done with the London MBA portion. We have one final 2,000-3,000 word paper to write. Its 1/3 on our personal development throughout our year in London, 1/3 on where we currently are and 1/3 on our future. Shouldn't be too bad. Just a bunch of B.S.!

This weekend Tanya is going home to New York for Valentine's day to see her boyfriend Mike. Saturday I'm going to a travel clinic to get my travel vaccinations, then Aaron and I are doing something around London (maybe going to the top of tower bridge or a museum, we'll figure it out eventually!), then I am going out for a Valentine's day dinner with Teresa and Carmen at Brick Lane (the street with a ton of Indian restaurants). Sunday I think I'm just going to go to the gym and do the aerobics class and then the circuit training class. The circuit training class is about 60 minutes of pure hell! But you feel wonderful afterwards! Its very similar to the functional training that I use to do during the off-season in college. Tanya also found somewhere for us to go in Bangkok for some tough workouts. Its boot camp style and only $171 for 3 months of unlimited classes. That's crazy. Most boot camp type classes at the gyms back home are closer to $400-600 a month. Definitely getting a deal!! The boot camp info is at the link below in case you're interested! www.fitcorpasia.com

Getting excited to be done with London!

Less than 4 weeks until mom, dad, Sandy, Kathy and Becker are here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quiero una bottela de vino?

This weekend was ridiculous. I should have just stayed home!

Saturday morning Tanya, Teresa and I woke up at 4:30am so that we could catch our flight to Barcelona. We landed in a very rainy/foggy Barcelona. Perfect London weather! We left London to get away from weather like that. After checking in to our hostel, we went and got some lunch. After lunch was a nap, then dinner, then bed!

Sunday morning we woke up at 4am to Teresa turning on the light and searching for her iPod. It was no where to be seen. We were in a private room; however, the private room did not have a lock on the main door. There were lockers for each of us; however because it was really loud, we all went to bed plugged into our iPods. Apparently someone came in during the night, unplugged Teresa's iPod and took it. I was on the top bunk so mine wasn't taken and Tanya had her iPod next to the wall rather than on the outside. Luckily the iPod was the only thing that was taken. Our wallets and passports were safe. I have stayed in too many hostels to count and this is the first time that anything has ever been taken. Its not a good feeling.

The rest of Saturday was spent on a Hop on Hop off bus tour of Barcelona. We braved the cold and rainy weather and sat on the top of the bus. We were not the happiest throughout the day, but we saw quite a bit and stayed relatively warm.

Our flight home went without any hitches until we arrived in the air above Stansted airport. For those of you who didn't see it on the news, London was hit with the worst snow storm that they've had in 18 years. Stansted closed and therefore our flight had to be diverted to Birmingham (a city north of London, like landing in St. Cloud rather than Minneapolis). After landing we sat on the plane for about 2 1/2 hours waiting to see if we could get flown back to Stansted. But Stansted never opened up again, so we were all directed off the plane, through customs and on to buses. It was not a pretty sight to see everyone running and pushing to get on the buses!! Most of the planes meant for the London airports landed in Birmingham instead, so there were lots of angry and tired people! After our 3 hour bus ride to Stansted (in a really cold bus!), we hopped on the Stansted express which took us to Liverpool Street Station. We arrived there around 7:45am and there were no buses running and a very long line for cabs. Because of this we walked the 25/30 minutes back to our apartment. It was amazing getting back to my apartment and to my bed. I didn't end up going into work, not only because I was up all night trying to get back to London, but also because the buses and tubes were not running and I was not going to walk the 6 miles to work in the cold and snow! Not worth it!

London ended up getting about 6 inches of snow. Which was enough to completely shut down the city! They don't have the plows and such that we have in Minnesota!

So I'm back at work today hoping for another snow day!!!!!!!!!!

Heading to Spain

So I am leaving for Barcelona tomorrow. I am excited!! I have been wanting to go to Spain since I studied abroad in Salzburg about 5 years ago (wow, putting a number on the years makes me feel old! Was it really that long ago?!). Now I am finally heading there. It better be as great as everyone says it is!! The only bad part about traveling to Spain this weekend is that I have to wake up at 4:30am tomorrow in order to get to the airport on time. :( So much for relaxing!!

Spain will add another number to my list of countries visited. Tanya (my roommate) told me that in order to be considered a true Globetrotter you have to have as many countries as years you have been alive. Since I'm 25, I need 25 countries. I will be 26 by the time that I leave Asia, so 26 is my goal!! Good thing there are lots of little Asian countries for me to hit up! Right now (counting Spain) I have 17. I will keep everyone up-to-date on my progress! Wish me luck!

This last week was exciting. Well not really overly exciting, but my group did present our business plan to the panel and did a decent job. We didn't put in enough effort to have done a wonderful job, but we passed and the panel liked our idea. We didn't win the £700 prize (£100 for each of us), but we really we're expecting to, so it wasn't too much of a dissappointment.

Speaking of dissappointments, I went to a Cardio Kick Boxing class last night and it was worthless! I'm pretty sure that I got more of a workout from the walk to the gym (about 30 mins each way) than I did in the actual class. I was looking forward to a kick ass Cardio Kick Boxing class like the one that I used to take on Saturday mornings at Life Time, but I was serverly let down. I barely broke a sweat. At the Life Time class it use to be a struggle to get to the first water break which was 20 minutes into the 60 minute class. Oh Brits and their lack of tough exercise!

But anyways. Back to the Business Plan. It is very exciting for it to be over, because now the real work for the London MBA is over with. I can now take a break! Well actually I'm not taking too much of a break because I want to have most of my final research paper done with before leaving London. The final research paper is our final big project for the whole MBA. We have to write a paper, minimum 35 pages, and defend our research in front of a panel. Scary!! I can't wait for that to be over with! Thailand is going to be really stressful to begin with. We have 4 weeks of classes for 3 classes, then a month off to do our research, then 4 more weeks of classes. So we are going to be moving at a very fast pace. Probably writing a couple of papers a week and/or presenting. Its might just be hell on earth! That is why I am trying to get as much of my research done as I can before leaving London. I don't want to have Becker travel all the way to Asia with me and then not be able to spend any time with him! That would just suck for the both of us!

Speaking of Becker . . . 6 weeks from today he'll be here!!!!!

And less than 6 weeks Mom, Dad, Auntie Kathy and Auntie Sandy will be here. That'll be fun and exciting!

Stuff

Lets see . . . . what has happened since the last time I wrote?


Last week was an intense week at work. They started laying people off on Tuesday, but did not lay most people off until Thursday. They started right at 9am on Thursday, but they didn't get to our department until around noon. Only two people from our department got laid off. Which is good, the previous rumor was that five people were going to get laid off. So two was a relief for everyone.

This last weekend was another lazy weekend. Loved it! Its so relaxing when you get to sleep in and do nothing! Tanya and I did make it to the gym both days though.

I had my meeting with the academic director from Thailand. I have started writing my disseration paper already, so he didn't really have much to say. Just said "well I guess you have it figured out"! I was expecting some more feedback, but oh well. He did give me a name for an advisor, so hopefully my advisor will give me more advice and direction.

In a day and a half from now I will be done with my business plan presentation (thank God because I'm sick of my group). And I only have 35 days left at work!!!!!!!! Yeah!

Nothing much

I saw The Reader movie on Thursday night and Slumdog Millionaire last night. They are both good movies! If you're bored you should check them out!



Today I got to sleep in!! Tanya and I both slept until 10am. It was great! Now I'm going to head to the grocery store and then to the gym.



Tonight I'm making my Buffalo Chicken Lasgna. I brought buffalo sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings back with me, so the lasgna will be good. Better than any of the "hot" sauce you find in Britian. They seem to have something against spices. Its really sad :(



Tanya, Carmen and Aaron are coming over for the lasgna. Tanya and I are also going to make brownies and Carmen is bringing ice cream so that we can have brownie sundaes. Very exciting!!! Also, Aaron is bring over some wine, so it should be a good night!



54 days until Becker is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

World's Best One Liners

1. I say no to alcohol, it just doesn't listen.

2. A friend in need is a pest indeed.

3. Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.

4. Work is fine if it doesn't take too much of your time.

5. When everything comes in your way you're in the wrong lane.

6. The light at the end of the tunnel may be an incoming train.

7. Born free, taxed to death.

8. Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

9. Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.

10. Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.

11. If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you'll have trouble putting on your pants.

12. It's not hard to meet expenses, they are everywhere.

13. I love being a writer... what I can't stand is the paperwork.

14. A printer consists of 3 main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.

15. The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius.

16. The trouble with being punctual is that no one is there to appreciate it.

17. In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?

18. If you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one?

19. Beat the 5 O'clock rush, leave work at noon!

20. If you can't convince them, confuse them.

21. It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end.

22. I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

23. Hot glass looks same as cold glass. - Cunino's Law of Burnt Fingers

24. The cigarette does the smoking you are just the sucker.

25. Someday is not a day of the week

26. Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.

27. To Err is human, to forgive is not a Company policy.

28. The road to success.... Is always under construction.

29. Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, but if you think again, neither does Milk.

30. In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it.

31. All the desirable things in life are either illegal, expensive, fattening or married to someone else.

Last "real" class in London!

Back to work, Back to work

So I'm back to work and have acutally been busy all week. That's good. Makes the days go a lot faster. 43 more days left of work at BGC!!

This last weekend we had our last "real" weekend of classes. We have one more weekend of class the first weekend in February, but its our goal setting/personal development unit. So it doesn't really count. We don't really have to do anything for it. So its exciting not to have to go to any more "real" classes while we're in London. I'm not completely done with the class though. I have to write one more paper that's due next Friday. Then 2 weeks from today we have our business plan presentations and then I'm done!!!!!!!!!

This week has been a pretty standard week. Just gym, work, eat and sleep. I did book a trip to Barcelona for the last weekend of January. I'm really excited about that. I have been wanting to go to Spain since the first time I lived abroad in Salzburg. I'm finally going!

Smile!! ;)

Back in London Town

So I'm back in London after a wonderful 2 weeks at home. Those two weeks were spent visiting my friends and family (mostly at bars! Yeah BWWs!), going to a wild game and hanging out at the cabin. The cabin is a little different in the winter! Just as much reading, but a lot less outdoor time! And Becker and I did get $1.50 cheeseburgers at the coral. That might actually be better than the minnow that we usually get during the summer when we visit that bar!

Now its back to reality . . . I don't wanna!!!! I miss my relaxing vacation already. Today I headed back to work. Booo. We're starting the year end packs. That should last the rest of the week.

School work has also started up again. I have a paper due each of the next 3 Fridays and in 3 1/2 weeks we have our final Business Plan presentation. Its going to be awesome to be done with the London portion of the MBA!!! Then I can stop worrying about papers and research for about 3 months. That will be a nice break!

An exciting thing that happened today . . . I booked Becker's and my Everest Base Camp Trek for August 12th. Its VERY exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait for all of my travel plans to actually start happening! I started planning this stuff about 9 months ago and now its only 11 weeks away!