Made it to Oz!!

I arrived at the airport in Newark to be told by the nice porter that my large duffel (one of 5 bags I was checking) was over 90 lbs and there was no way they would fly anything over 70 lbs...joy. So he took me over to the weigh station and I rummaged through and took out clothing after clothing and put it into another bag until I got it down to just over 70 lbs. Luckily nothing too embarrassing fell out. Then I stood at the Continental counter for an hour while they decided how much the would charge ONE person to check 5 bags, one of which was still 20 lbs over weight (50 lbs is the actual limit). $350 later they 'gave me a break' and I was off. Good thing I can expense that. :)

I made it through one bag of sour patch kids and 4 magazines in my effort to stay awake on my flight from Newark to LA (thanks girls!). I slept like a baby after 2 lovely tylenol pms from LA to Sydney, waking up for meals of course. On my way off the flight I heard a flight attendant refer to Adam Lambert being on the flight and I noticed him with a small entourage once I got off the flight. His entourage had been in coach with me. Then I ended up standing next to him in the line at immigration...he was hiding in a knit cap and huge black sunglasses and either no one noticed or cared. I considered snapping a pic with my iphone but decided against it.

Immigration was totally smooth - no issues with the visitor Visa. My bags came pretty quickly and luckily the dog came sniffing around before my large duffle where some paraphernalia may or not be hiding came around. :) I wanted to take a picture of my one cart loaded with all my luggage but I couldn't manage it. I was wheeling one bag with one arm and pushing the cart with 7 bags with the other and it was quite a process. The guy at customs took one pitying look at me and didn't even make me unload for the xray machine! He just told to me to go the exit! Love Australia already. Then a nice Canadian guy helped me push out to the taxi line.

So now I'm sitting in the lobby of my hotel while they clean my room. It's hot here! Had to change in the bathroom into summer stuff and cannot wait to get into a shower after 24 hours of traveling. Hoping to stay up for the day but the jetlag is starting to hit already...hopefully this post makes some sense.

Packing Up Again

I've gotten some requests to renew my blog now that I am off on another international adventure..so here goes. I'm hoping to have some entertaining expat translation/confusion stories to share over the next few weeks. For now, I'm having enough trouble getting my Visa finalized and packing up my life...not so fun yet but there is the great light of 80 degrees and beaches ahead :)

I'm officially off to Sydney March 2nd (be it visitor Visa or working Visa). After the Night Train slides in Vancouver and the Bachelor has chosen his soon to be ex-fiance...no streaming American TV in Sydney so I had to plan accordingly!

Keep in touch or just track my progress here if you want...I'll do my best to keep the updates frequent.

P.S. If anyone is interested in renting a FANTASTIC one bedroom apt on the upper east side let me know.

Back in NYC

This is about 10 days late, but I am officially back in NYC. My lovely roommates are allowing me to crash in my old apt for the month of March, but I found my very own 'cozy' one bedroom for an April 1 lease. All grown up and moving upper east baby.

It has definitely been a whirlwind and I feel as if I've entered a whole different, yet very familiar, world. So bear with me as I get used to the crazy city again.

I'm heading down to VA to visit the fam March 12th and I'll be back March 19th. I hope to see everyone soon!

Chau

Galapagos with Mamacita

MamaDeCou and I did up the Galapagos and it was great. We were lucky in almost every way...my fears of a boat of old people for 8 days were not realized. There were 6 of us 26 year olds. There was even another American mother daughter pair of almost our identical ages. Mamacita also had her fair share of 'wiser' folks to hang with. Altogether a fun and interesting group of English, Dutch, Italian, American and Danish. Other than the day we almost lost a Danish girl during a snorkeling outing (no joke), the trip was just fun and easygoing. The crew on the boat were lots of fun and the food was even good. I experienced a couple bouts of seasickness but was able to recover pretty quickly.

We saw lots of pre-historic looking animals that look like direct descendants of dinosaurs. There were sea lions EVERYWHERE...even playing with us as we swam and snorkeled in the crystal clear refreshing water. We had lots of sun and a little bit of rain to cool us off, but I had plenty of sun to work on my tan.

On to the pics...better from the bottom up

The volcano on the way back to Banos


Apparently they developed ETs face from these large land turtles


Mamacita enjoying the Panga ride


Flamingos too...but the marsh was kinda smelly


Our kind of Titanic moment


See I wasn't lying about the gorgeous water...


Sea lions enjoying the view


Yup those are bright blue feet...blue footed booby (no I did not make that name up)


Sea turtles..my favorites!


Happy couple picture


Sea lions showing off


This guy was one of the cooler looking iguanas..there were many to pick from


Frigget bird looking for a ladyfriend


The not very well camoflaged crabs on the islands


La Floreana...the lovely boat we stayed on

Is it really Feb??

January flew by after a crazy New Years, a few weeks in Colombia and a great 10 days with Sara. Ok - maybe the beach wasn´t so successful but I could have predicted that! Lots of mosquitos and sunburn for Sara...and a scary fish museum!

Below are some pics of New Years, my adventurous trip to Colombia and some more recent pics. Right now South America is in the midst of Carnavale..party party party. In Banos there are lots of people, parades, water balloons, sticky spray. Overall a dangerous time to walk the streets :)

So here are the pics...

Dancing and parading in the streets of Banos during Carnavale


Some sticky spray victims :)


Daytime entertainment during Carnavale in Banos


Beautiful and relaxing thermal springs outside Quito with Sara


Solar clock at a visit to the equator with Sara


Heading back from an amazing day of repelling down waterfall in Banos


Sara and I in our taxi at the beach in Ecuador after an allnight busride


Some of the beautiful landscape on the way back from the Lost City in Colombia


Lovely lodgings :) during the Lost City trek


Trekking across rocks and rivers


The freezing fountain of youth in the Lost City


These steps were all over the Lost City..beautiful but treacherous


Indigenous families we met in the mountains in Colombia


Cooling off in the river


Learning the truly gross ingredients such as gasoline that go into cocaine


First place we stayed overnight during the trek...home of the guide


Midway through Day 1 of the Lost City trek


Driving down into the beach town of Togonga, Colombia...a haven


The walls and canyons of Cartagena, Colombia still protecting the city


Beautiful view of Cotopaxi on the busride from Banos to Quito


Jackie, fellow American, sitting with a couple dolls to be burned at midnight on New Years


New Years in my vampire costume with friends at the bar...yup that´s Elvis

Back in Ecuador

Well I survived the 6 day trek to the lost city in Colombia with about 100 bug bites and a sinus infection. I was the only one of 10 people who didn´t have stomach problems from the water..so I consider myself very lucky. The trek was pretty much uphill and through rivers the whole time, so very intense and very beautiful and very hot. We slept in hammocks with wool smelly blankets in COLD temperatures every night. A few days relaxing on the beach were very much needed and now I´m back in Quito with Sara, who I very conveniently found in customs. So now we are hanging out in Quito waiting to take a night bus to the coast to spend a couple more days at the beach, per her request even though she doesn´t like to sunbathe and is afraid of fish. Go figure.

Just wanted to let everyone know I survived Colombia pretty much unscathed. It´s great to have Sara here visiting to give me a taste of home. We´ll be heading to Banos to party with my friends here in Ecuador for a few days this week. I think she´s excited to get out of the city tonight after being chased around Quito today by a man saying dirty things :) A very nice welcome I thought..ha.

Happy birthday Dom!!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's January! New Year's here in Ecuador is actually more like the equivalent of Halloween back home except a bit more extreme. Everyone gets dressed up in costumes. There are lots of typical costumes that we would see in the states like goblins and gory stuff but it's also traditional for the men to dress like women..and they go all out! Lots of miniskirts and makeup and wigs. Those who don't get dressed up get pestered for money all day...literally men dressed as women and kids dressed up as goblins block the streets and stop cars for change. They also make dolls of themselves for the Año Viejo (Old Year) and burn them in the streets at midnight...Año Nuevo (New Year)- not quite as romantic as the kissing in the states but definitely interesting. There were also lots of fireworks and then fiesta of course. I dressed up as a vampire and have lots of fun pics that I need to post at some point.

But today I am heading to Colombia for a couple weeks to check out the northern coast. I´m going to the cities of Cartagena, Santa Marta and then hiking to Ciudad Perdida (the lost city). I´m psyched for some new travels although of course I am sick for the first time and am afraid my head may explode on the plane :)

When I get back to Ecuador on January 19th Sara will be here to greet me!! Very excited for a visitor. We´re heading to the beach, then to my fave town of Baños and finally some sightseeing in Quito and around the equator.

I hope everyone had an awesome New Years!