Vegetarian-ism

Warning: If you are easily grossed out you may not want to read any further, especially if you have a love for eating animals.

So over my first few weeks here I had a few bad meat experiences that slowly turned me off. That's A HUGE thing for someone like me who is normally the garbage disposal at any table and eats more than the average human. I tired several meat inclusive meals, mainly burgers, when I first got here. Every single one of them was average. Even thinking back to Fergburger, which in a prior post I claimed was amazinggg. Well really it wasn't, it was just the most amazing meal I had eaten at the time. No offense to the kiwis, but they just don't have a whole lot of interest in their food. Prime example: Sue, the lady I lived with, made spaghetti one night and told me how great it was. Let me just tell you, it was ketchup with peas, carrots and meat. That's no spaghetti. Oh and that was the best thing I ever witnessed her make.

So then I tried making this excellent soup that my friend Val makes. It called for ground sausage, which I couldn't find, so instead I bought these sausage links that had some weird casing around them and tried to make "ground sausage" myself. Mistake 1. Peeling the casing off made me so sick that I was nervous to try the meat once it was cooked. Tasting it reminded me of my freshman year in college when I bought "Smart Dogs" aka vegetarian hotdogs. Even after a late night out they tasted like rubber and never have I been able to look at them again. Needless to say, I could not get past the prep work nausea, so after one bite the entire soup went in the garbage. I hate to waste food, clearly, but I just couldn't stomach it.

The final straw was when I cut into a piece of chicken at work and blood came out. I threw it away and said THE END. I should have written this post a month ago when I was really motivated to never eat meat again. It's been about 5 weeks now and I have to be just let it out: I'm REALLY craving not only a Callaghan's burger, but a Checker's Spicy Chicken and an Arby's Chicken Bacon and Swiss, Conecuh sausage and a whole lot more. However, I have told myself I will go 3 months without meat and if at that point I just can't live without it I will try it again and see what I think. Some days when I'm feeling really inspired I say that my first experience trying meat again will in fact be a Callaghan's burger. That's a bit unrealistic though.

I should make a couple things clear. I'm not a die hard vegetarian. I love seafood and without it I would die. I also love french fries, so I find myself eating more of those than I really should. Aioli is the greatest thing since honey mustard. And no I don't mean the aioli you buy in America that's mayo mixed with garlic. I mean legit, homemade, New Zealand aioli. Even though I don't like our chef at work, I have requested a huge container of it for my birthday, which is only a mere 4 months away.

I wish I had a picture of the BEST meal I have had since True Midtown Kitchen over 2 months ago, but don't worry, I can describe it to you very vividly. Get ready. On our wine tour in Blenheim, we went to Wairau River Winery for lunch. I had 2 options for lunch, some shrimp meal or Portobello Bruschetta. I chose the latter. Out came 2 HUGE roasted Portobellos with perfectly ripe red tomatoes, bright green chargrilled asparagus and topped with the best homemade feta I have ever had. It was drizzled with a balsamic glaze. Oh. My. Goshhhh. I have tried to recreate this meal twice at home and have bombed it both times. My mouth still waters just at the thought of the meal!! Anyways back to fruit and fries and whatever else crazy non meat eating people eat!

ALL that being said, here was the Thanksgiving dinner I made for my flatmate and I...Carb overload and 3 pounds of cheese: Gouda, Havarti and Cheddar, with lots of hot sauce! My room mate now thinks I'm not only the weirdest American he's ever met, but the weirdest person in general. His comment, "this is realll....(long pause)...cheesy". Well duh my friend!

And if I had to guess....Brinley may have enjoyed her Thanksgiving meal almost as much!!!

This is my favorite meal, Salmon and Avocado!

Injuries Happen....

So, again, I have been MIA for a bit of time. I had a bike accident and have been down for the count for the past couple of weeks. My flatmate, Gareth, has a BMX bike, like the ones you do tricks on, so there are little pegs on the back. He had been bowling and I went to a going away party for a girl at work. We met up afterwards for a couple of drinks. On the way home we decided it would be quicker if I just stood on the pegs and rode on the back. We made it down quite a steep hill and around a corner, but once we hit a speed bump my foot slipped and we ate the concrete. I hit my head and gashed it open, so of course I was screaming dramatically on the ground and the neighbor heard and called the ambulance. We spent a lovely night in the hospital. I had some brutal brazes on my right hand, my left knee, 8 stitches on my forehead, a concussion and a busted shoulder. Gareth roughed up his left foot, a scab on his head, scabs on both knees and a couple fingers and a fractured shoulder. Needless to say, we lived through it and now that the pain is slowly going away we are able to laugh about the stupidity of it all. I was off work for a week, but still went in to do office work so I could get out of the house for a bit. He is a builder so he will be off for 6-8 weeks with the severity of his shoulder and the limitations the AC joint puts on movement and lifting. Poor guy had no idea what he got himself into when he told me I could live with him! Hopefully from now on we will understand we are not invincible!

So much happened before our incident that I don’t even know where to begin! I will be brief and let the pictures do the talking. Hopefully I can go back to blogging on a regular basis now.

Joe and I took a road trip up the east coast for a week. We drove up through the center of the island around Twizel and some other beautiful lakes and then made our way over to Christchurch. Christchurch was a bit of a let down. I had been there 5 years ago and remembered it being quite boring. This time though I was really fascinated with seeing earthquake damage. I know that sounds awful, but I have never witnessed an earthquake, like some people have never witnessed hurricanes or avalanches. Movies make earthquakes look like the ground opens wide and everything falls in. I knew that wasn’t what really happened so I wanted to see it for myself. A year and a half later was a bit too late to see most of the rubble. My boss is actually from Christchurch though so when I told him I wanted to witness buildings falling he showed me hundreds of pictures and videos from 5 minutes after the quake. It was so interesting. We stayed in Christchurch just to see Kora perform at a “bar” that was no longer a bar. It was where the bar used to be, but there is a big outdoor tent set up now. The show was really good. Not as crowded as I expected since Kora is huge here in NZ, but enough of a crowd for my taste.

The next morning we headed north along the coast for Kaikoura. Oh and let me just say a majority of our trip was a disappointment for me because it rained and the weather was gross the whole time. It hindered my plans for hiking and kayaking and getting to see the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. We got to see seals in Kaikoura, went wine tasting in Blenheim, bought Salmon in Twizel and saw Mumford and Sons in Christchurch on the way home. I have to say, if they are ever near you, they are a MUST see. I was blown away. We were like 3 people from the front and they put on a rockin show for a non jam band show. Thanks to Judd for sending me the link that they were even playing in NZ!

Twizel....the water is this pretty from the glacier...seriously the clearest water I've EVER seen! I was a bit beyond obsessed!


Wine tasting in Blenheim...the Marlborough wine region, where I discovered I love Rose and it's not an old ladies wine

Kermit admiring the scenic drive...

Jumping off a rock in my Callaghan's shirt in front of my favorite place in Twizel!

Pretty green country side on the drive up to Christchurch!

Seals in Kaikoura!

I'M BACK!!!!

So much for the post office and there 6-8 day shipping. Now about 2.5 weeks later I finally have received my package and my computer charger. Woohoo

So I feel like I have a lot to update on, but don't feel like a whole lot has happened. I know once I get to writing it will be never ending, so brace yourself.

Work is going really well. I enjoy my job and I am pretty sure this place could have it's own reality tv show. I think that is the way any bar/restaurant job is though. In a small town you have a lot of drunks because they don't have anything else to do. The weather was cold and rainy for a couple weeks, so it really brought out the booze, which of course encourages the drama. The police check the bars constantly around these parts, so when someone is drunk you instantly cut them off. I know that's supposed to be the case anywhere, but we all know good and well that not many places around home will cut you off. Anyways, in doing so I have made a couple enemies and called a bitch on more than one occasion. Then they come in again like nothing ever happened and the whole cycle starts over again. Oh the joys of working in a bar!

There was an American couple here for a week that was probably around their late 60's. They were from Florida and were retired from the airline industry, so they were out traveling the world. Sometimes I am still convinced I should become an airline attendant so that I could fly first class stand by on international flights. Anywho, this couple was so cool. The wife went SKYDIVING AND BUNGEE JUMPING!! I hope I'm that cool at that age, but I doubt it. Last time I was here I went bungee jumping and it was beautiful and all, but I had to jump with someone because there was no way I was going to make myself jump. Never doing that again. Skydiving, on the other hand, was the coolest thing ever. If you are going to do it though be sure it's somewhere scenic. It's not too cool when you're just jumping out of a plane to see the interstate or something.

The weather over the past 5 days has been AMAZING! It's gotten really warm. I have turned off the electric blanket and now sleep with the windows open. It's crazy since 2 weeks ago I woke up to snow. With the weather being so nice I have been able to run after work. I love to run, but I do get bored with it normally. It is so beautiful here though I can't imagine really tiring of it, other than the fact that the hills are so brutal. I've never been a hill runner, but I guess I am going to have to now. It's worth it though because when you get to the top and are running along the paths that overlook the farms and mountains and neighborhoods, it's seriously breathtaking. I am looking forward to the weather getting warmer because I am much more motivated to get outside. I have scoped out several trails and hikes I want to do, so you can count on lots of scenic pictures to come as we head into summer.

This Friday my friend Joe and I are headed on a roadtrip for 6 days. We are heading first to Christchurch to see Kora, which is a New Zealand band that is kind of funky, reggae type music. It's about 6 hours away and on the east coast. Then we are going to head north to Kaikoura to see whales and sea lions and all kinds of marine life. We will stay for a night and then head to the very top of the south island to Picton and the Marlborough sounds. I read up on all of it last night and got so excited I'm afraid I won't want to come back to work. There are tons of walking trails, biking and kayaking that can be done around there. On top of all that it is the Marlborough wine region. I love wine and I know every vineyard is different, but I can skip that for the sheer fact of how pretty it will be and all of the other things we can do. I of course go all out when I travel and wake up real early, get moving and pack in every single thing I can. I also have made all of our plans and have not consulted with my travel buddy on any of it! He better prepare himself for an intense week. We will stay up there for a few days and come back through Christchurch for one more night to see Mumford & Sons!!

When I get back from our trip I am actually moving! I have made a few friends that are locals around here and I told one of them I was considering moving. It just so happened that he had a room open at his house. There is another girl that lives there as well and works at the bird sanctuary down in Queenstown. I have not met her, but it will be nice to live with people a bit closer to my age.

I'm sure I am leaving so much out, but I will now be able to blog consistently and get caught back up!

Oh PS....I hope you are all watching Homeland. Last night was the best episode yet!

OUT OF COMMISSION!

So for the next week or so I will be out of commission due to my computer failing me. It stopped charging, so my sweet mother added a charger and battery into a package she was sending me. It would cost me a couple hundred bucks to buy that around here, so I figured wait until it can be sent since there were extras at home. If I have a chance this weekend I will head down to the Internet cafe to update my blog. Otherwise, sit tight for the next week and I will be back up and running after that!

All of my pictures are on my camera, other than this cute Tango date I had the other day!

More pictures

Driving from Arrowtown to Queenstown is such an amazing thing. I pay more attention to the scenery than the road :) I constantly find myself stopping for pictures, so I'm sure I have tons of the same. The little red house is my new home! I'll get a better angle, but I took that real quick before leaving for work while I was thinking about it. For the next few weeks I'm just working Monday through Friday 8-4, so I have a pretty unheard of schedule for the hospitality industry! Hopefully I will get to make some trips around the area here soon!

Enjoy!

Dear Summer, Please hurry up!

I have been here 8 days! It feels like so much longer, I guess since so much has happened. I have a job and a place to live, so things have been a bit hectic getting settled in. Working really takes away from my blogging, Skyping, emailing, Facebooking time. Quite the problem eh?

My new job is great. I stay busy, which is really nice since I hate sitting around staring at the wall. We have a rooftop/balcony restaurant that overlooks the mountains and we can slide open all of the doors on that side, so essentially the whole thing is open. It is really nice and warm during the day, except for when it rains, which has been the past 2 days. However, the sun is back out now and it's super nice. I had to drive to the airport today to pick up my boss' friend and everything is getting bright green and the sky is clear blue. For it to be this beautiful right now, I can't imagine what it will be like in another month. It is still pretty cold the minute the sun goes down. Houses here don't have heaters, which I find unbearable for winter. Most places have big fire places or otherwise they will have a small space heater. Where I am living, we have a great warm fire, but my room stays freezing. I have an electric blanket that I turn on about an hour before bed. Greatest thing ever! I love jumping in the warm cozy bed. Waking up is pretty brutal. I came up with the brilliant idea to have my clothes for the following day next to the bed, so I set my alarm 10 minutes early. When it goes off I hit snooze, turn the blanket on high, put my clothes under the covers and then sleep until the alarm goes off again. Magic! Don't let me fool you though, I'm still not warm and fuzzy, I'm cold, just not freezing. I work at 8am, so I decided I will start getting up early and coming to work around 7, so I can sit by the fire and use the internet. I don't have wifi at my house, so I have to take advantage of it when I have it. I may eventually get it, but I want to wait it out a bit to see what happens.

Since it is still so cold at night, I made Sante Fe Soup the other night, which of course is my favorite easy chili in the whole world! I made enough to last me the whole week. For those of you that have seen my India pictures know about my elephant pants. They are basically bright blue MC Hammer pants with elephants on them and the most comfortable things in the entire world. I put my PJ's on after work yesterday, lounged on the couch reading 'Little Bee', listening to the rain, eating chili, and then watched Homeland. Let me just tell you, if you don't like that show, I can't be your friend anymore. Remember this is coming from someone that hasn't owned a tv or had cable since my junior year of college. There is a part of me that wonders what I was thinking? Anyways, I'm hooked and now trying to figure out where I can find season 1 so I can have a marathon this weekend.

I can't remember if I have mentioned my living arrangements yet or not. I found a place with a lady I work with. She's 48 and her name is Sue. Sounds amazing right? She really lives with her boyfriend so I have the house to myself. I feel like I live in an outdated log cabin. The walls are all wood and the curtains and furniture are quite grandmotherly print...think floral, maroons and dark green. Disclaimer, my grandparents house looks nothing like that, but you know where I'm coming from. And if your house looks like this and under 65, then I apologize, but please let me know so I can send some decorating help your way.

The one downside to this place is there is no good music. There is no Callaghan's. Quite sad. I am currently listening to a playlist that consists of John Mayer circa 2005. I heard 'Sweet Home Alabama' on this same playlist earlier. Places here have DJ's and by DJ's I mean the ones that were at middle school sock hops and you request songs to. That's not music. If only someone had fulfilled my life long dream of teaching me to play the drums, I would create my own band. I guess until then I will be requesting '90's pop and rock at the DJ booth.

I realized after just ranting about DJ's that I have been out later than 9pm once since I've been here. HA! It was to watch the Packers and Seattle play at this sports bar with a huge screen. So really I haven't witnessed a DJ, but I'm going off what I have been told and the image I have created in my mind. I'll keep you posted.

Sorry if I bounce around when I write. I get overwhelmed and one thought leads to another and I get off track. Too much to say, too little space! Guess that's all for now. I will be in touch soon.

I would love feedback on what kinds of questions you have and what you would like to know. Leave me a message!

Happy GAMEDAY!

I hung out this afternoon with Genny, Beth, Amanda, Allison and Ryan for gameday. It's been raining all day! Soo heads up, tomorrow you will have rain :)

My new home: Arrowtown

Guess who's EMPLOYED?!?!

Yours truly!!!! It only took 3 days. Heck yes. I have a job. Unfortunately, it is not as the green cab driver or at the Save-A-Lot. I was just thinking about how I wanted to move to the Marlborough region and work on a vineyard. I emailed a lady about an aupair job and she didn't need someone till November, but after looking at my resume she told me I should contact the New Orleans Hotel (ironic eh?) because they were hiring and I had hospitality experience. So I went and talked to the guy today and he offered me a job. I will go in tomorrow to see what he wants and to make sure it's something I want to do. However, we didn't discuss money. Is that important? Here is a link: http://www.neworleanshotel.co.nz/ He is hiring me to be the manager! He needs someone that can run a bar, restaurant, run the hotel and manage the inventory. So it sounds like it will be a lot of work, but it sounds like it will be exciting. He told me he has never met an American that was a bad bartender so he had faith in me. I assured him he would not be disappointed :)

The New Orleans Hotel is in a little town 20 minutes outside of Queenstown in a place called Arrowtown. It's super small. 2000 people. It is beautiful though!! I walked around the little river today and I could see the blue sky and the mountains. It was so peaceful. He knows of a guy that needs a flat mate, so I will meet him tomorrow and hopefully be able to move in this weekend. I am looking forward to getting out of a hostel and having my own room!

I realized after my last post that I have mentioned very little about the scenery, where I was staying, etc. Just the food....imagine that! My first 2 nights I stayed in a hostel right in the middle of Queenstown. It was really really nice and clean. There were 9 red leather couches in the common area, with a pool table and a fire. I had a 6 bed dorm, which is 3 bunkbeds, and we had our own bathroom and shower instead of community, which was nice. Problem is, it was more for someone that wanted to go on a bar crawl every night. No thanks. So I moved a bit outside of the downtown area into a small hostel. It's not quite as nice because it's older, but it is much smaller and quieter. I will stay here until I find a place to live.

I have been borrowing Joe's car, Kermit. He is lime green. Kinda like the taxi I wanted to drive! Driving on the wrong side of the road is kind of fun. I feel like I just turned 16 again and am driving for the first time. However, I still don't really care for driving, so I will probably not get a car. It was really nice to drive back from Arrowtown though as the sun was setting over the mountains. I wanted to take a million pictures on the way home, but figured I would wreck trying to do that. I will eventually get some. The problem here is everything is picture worthy. Everything looks like a postcard. It's pretty unreal. I love the mountains this time of year.

I did make one friend, Mai Lee, she's from Arizona. She was only here for a couple days though so that is the downside of making friends in a hostel. It was very nice though to have someone that I could talk to and relate with, because she felt the same about the party hostel. We took a gondola ride to the top of the mountain and had a glass of wine. The views were incredible and we could see all of Queenstown and across the water and the mountains. It was a little cloudy, but I can only imagine how pretty it would be on a clear night. You can hike up to the top instead of taking the gondola, which I would like to do sometime soon.

I will get pictures up once I can get to wifi for my phone. Ever since I switched my iPhone over to a NZ carrier it freezes my computer when I try to upload the pictures, so I am not sure what that's about. Either way, pictures to come soon! After my first day of work I am sure I will have plenty to say!

Until then....ciao!

The last 7 days....

The last week has been a complete whirlwind of emotions. I am extremely lucky to have really awesome friends and parents that ate 100 meals out with me before leaving. Thank you to those of you who spent your life savings because I guilted you into non-stop bonding. There were lots of tears shed before leaving, as it is hard to say bye when you don't know when you will be returning. I am thankful that my friends Genny, John, Valerie, Hardin and my parents were all able to enjoy a big lunch in New Orleans before I left.

I flew from New Orleans to LA and had a 24 hour layover. It worked out perfect because my brother flew down from San Francisco and we were able to spend some time with our cousins, Chris and Julie. I also was able to meet up with a friend that I made 5 years ago in New Zealand. She is from Denmark and we met while here. Then when I was in Germany she came and spent a week with me. She was studying in San Diego this semester so I told her I would be in LA. The day before I got in she sent me a message saying she was there. It was a really unexpected surprise! We met for a drink and laughed about funny stories and the ridiculous things we did on our last trip. It got me so anxious to get back that I couldn't wait to get on the plane!

I arrived in NZ on Monday morning and my friend Joe picked me up at the airport. He works here in Queenstown at a hotel and had been working the night shift, so he went home to sleep and I wandered about the town. I had forgotten how touristy it is here. Even though I am a tourist, I am not really a fan of tourists. It's really irritating when people stand in the middle of the sidewalk to stare at their maps. I mean go somewhere that is not in the middle of everyone's way. People forget how to cross the street, they forget manners and basically get on my last nerve :)

Another thing about New Zealand is that it is really expensive. Everything. Last night I was at the supermarket and a 12 pack of Heinaken is NZ$36.50 and NZ$3.00 for a candy bar. Either I will get real skinny because I can't afford those things or I will get real skinny because I will make a candy bar a meal. In all honesty, I don't see getting skinny in the plans because I found an incredible burger place already. Joe told me it was the worlds best burger. I cannot bring myself to say that because nothing will top a big juicy Callaghan's burger. However, this burger was HUGE. The patty was thing, but it was large. The bread was amazing and it was covered in aioli. I added avocado! Aioli could have been what made it though. Aioli is the greatest thing in the world. I might even eat aioli and french fries for every meal. It's not like aioli you will find in the US because that is mayonnaise based. That place may be my downfall because the burger is NZ$12. Which isn't bad considering tax is included in everything already, you don't tip and the US dollar is worth a tad more than the NZ. So I find great value in that deal.

Yesterday Joe and I went walking along a trail on the Shotover River and bowling! If the weather holds out today we will go on a trail that is on the other side of the river. I have been job searching, but I am thinking I want to make my way up north a bit and work on a vineyard. Most of those jobs don't start for a couple months though so I need to find something temporary in the meantime. I saw a job posting to drive for Green Cabs. I am DYING to do that!!! Can't you see me sporting people around town in a lime green Prius? It would be so fun! However, you have to have a P certification and I am sure that is costly and timely. I do plan to check into it though. I guess that way if all else fails when I move home I could drive for Yellow Cab. Coffee is a big thing here as well and they like their fancy drinks, so I would like to work in a coffee shop. Ok so that's all for now....I of course have more to say, but am trying to learn to keep my conversations to a minimum!

Miss Johnson's Classroom

Genny Johnson is my dear friend/ roommate (even when I'm gone...at heart)! She teaches the 4th grade at Newton Elementary in Fairhope. She told her principal about what I am doing and she was all for me coming to brief Genny's class on my adventures, show pictures, answer questions and teach them about a new place! Genny's initial reasoning was so she could teach them to write a proper letter and to teach them about email. Her principle told her she could incorporate my trip into so many different aspects of her curriculum, which is really fun! They had some really good questions and some really funny ones. My favorite being: "what do they write with there? Do they use a feather and ink?". They were amazed to know they use pens, no. 2 pencils and crayolas just like them! They all took guesses on how many miles NZ was from the US. Google told me it was 9000 miles! I would have thought further. I showed them my skydiving video from my last trip here and they got to hear a kiwi accent! Another country was extremely fascinating to them.

Anyways, I am really looking forward to them following me, reading letters from them and hopefully eventually being able to Skype with them!

LA TO QUEENSTOWN....

.....I'm here! Only have time for pictures now, but they speak for themselves. I was very thankful to spend time with my brother, my cousins and a friend I made on my last trip to NZ....all in LA!! Stories to follow...the sunset is LA, the plane pictures are flying from Auckland to Queenstown, which is where I will be until I decide on a more certain plan.

Loss of sleep starts now

Do you know how hard it is to sleep when you will be packing a backpack with a few possessions and leaving with a one way ticket in just 4 days? Let's just say it's not easy. I have been tossing and turning and adding to my mental to do list (meaning it won't happen since I remember nothing unless it's written down). I think about the errands I need to run, which I always seem to have triple any normal persons. I start thinking about what I may forget. Even though I'm a pretty light traveler there are necessities like my favorite fingernail polish, my hammock and deciding how much of everything is feasible. Right now the pickins are a little slim as you will notice by the picture below with the short stacks of clothes. Once I am packed up you will get to see what the final product looks like stuffed into my pack.

I am going to try to sleep now that i have put some of my thoughts on paper. I have an early morning with a haircut appointment. Clearly I have priorities, right?

As I scrolled through the photos on my phone tonight it made me thankful and appreciative for so many of the things I'll miss....

Art Walk with a munchkin

I will miss spending all of my free time with my friends and their kids. Hence part of my motivation for leaving. Dear friends, please slow down. No more weddings and no more kids. Come visit me first. K thanks!

I'M BLOGGING!

It's really happening....and by happening I mean I'm actually blogging and I am actually approaching my departure date. I have a one way ticket to Queenstown, New Zealand on September 21st. Most people have asked what I will do when I get there. My answer: I don't know. As you can imagine I have gotten some bewildered looks, but that's just it, I don't know. I will figure that out when I get there. I may be a nanny, I may work at a coffee shop, I may be a greeter at Walmart (sike- thankfully they don't have that scary place), I may work at McDonald's or I may just fulfill my childhood dream of wanting to work at grocery store just to scan the items at the register. I will keep you posted on that one. I plan to at least work through the summer (our winter) and see what happens. If I can brave the cold winter then I will stay, otherwise I will galavant on over to Australia to visit some friends I studied with. Next August I plan to be in Thailand to find a job teaching English for a year. So that is my "plan". I wanted to put it in writing so I can look back and see if I even vaguely came close to following it. You never know what will happen when you travel. What I do know is that travel teaches you a lot about yourself and every trip has made me a different person. I am thankful for that!

Anyways, now that I am in the final countdown with less than 2 weeks to go it is really starting to sink in. I feel like I have so much to do, so many fun people to hang out with and so many of my favorite restaurants to visit, all in so little time. I'm a real procrastinator, so I should have been doing these things over the last few months. Actually the only one I am slacking on is the "so much to do" aka get organized before I go. I have hung out with most of my friends and I have gone overkill on the eating out, but that's normal.

I have tried blogging every time I travel and I always give up. However, this go round I am hoping to post more consistently, so I don't get carried away and write lengthy posts and then burn out. Somewhere on this blog there should be a place for you to "subscribe", so that you will receive an email when I have written a post. I think it is at the very bottom. I am new to actually creating a blog, so bear with me in the process of figuring all of this cyber nonsense out. If you would like to volunteer to make it prettier than this ancient picture of a globe, please let me know. I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure it out and got extremely frustrated.

I promised I would acknowledge whoever came up with the best blog title. My friends and family voted on this one. So a HUGE thank you to my comical friend Keith Domen! Good work on pegging the nail right on the head in terms of describing my life. Want to know what you win? A plane ticket to New Zealand. Oh wait, I'm definitely lying, but it sounded good right?

That's all for now....but don't worry, I always have plenty to say so stay tuned for my next post!