England/Ireland Highlights: Post 2

One of my favorite things about going from England to Ireland was seeing the dramatic difference in the landscape. And because I hardly suffered from jet lag (miraculously really), I didn't take many car naps and got to enjoy it all. We took an overnight ferry from Wales to Ireland and proceeded to drive across the southern portion of the country to get to the south west peninsula known as the Dingle Peninsula, stopping along the way at cool castles and former monasteries and abbeys. And really, how could you not already love an area called Dingle? It's hilarious.

monastery that I thought was so cool but unfortunately cannot remember the name of

Rock of Cashel, seat of many Irish, medieval monarch, and now mostly just a cemetery, but really cool

the wall at the Rock of Cashel that overlooks the countryside and one of the cool monasteries that surrounds the hill/castle

on the drive around the Dingle Peninsula, unfortunately there was so much fog

Atlantic Ocean view (my cheerleading moves need work apparently...)

city of Dingle harbor, clearly the fog burned off

drive up the western coast of Ireland

cool castle just sitting there on the side of the road as we drove through the country

The saddest part of this trip was that we really wanted to go to the Cliffs of Moher but when we got to the site the fog had set in again and there was zero visibility. Unfortunately for us, everyone said this was the wettest summer in Ireland on record. We had lots of rain (not new for Oregonians) but that meant lots of fog and that was the saddest part. Also, we have zero pictures of Dublin, someone forgot the camera that day... But we took a tour of Trinity College, saw the Book of Kells.

England/Ireland Highlights: Post 1

Oh hey there! I'm blogging! Summer is over and I am back on my game.

Last month (ie. August) I went to England and Ireland. I never blogged about it because I was too lazy. So here I am, finally blogging about it and giving you five of my highlights. (Even though the entire trip was pretty awesome.)

Highlight 1: Visiting the Estates. We hit up Chatsworth (used as Pemberly in the 2005 P&P with Keira Knightly); Highclere Castle (better known as Downton Abbey); Haddon Hall (used as Thornfield Manor in three Jane Eyre adaptations); and a walk through the grounds of Lyme Park (used as Pemberly in the 1995 P&P with Colin Firth)

(Chatsworth. I think my favorite thing was that there were sheep all over. And once all the cars left for the day, the sheep moved in to take over their spot. And look at all our curly hair!)

(Highclere Castle. It was fun to hear about the real family that lived there and how they balance while living there and the show's filming.)

(Haddon Hall grounds, they were beautiful grounds. And the inside was so much older than the other estates we visited. And we liked thinking there was a crazy wife hiding in the attic.)

(Lyme Park grounds. It was a rainy rainy day. Lyme Park is barely seen at the end of the row.)

I think what I like most about visiting these places is that they're still kept up beautifully and it's fun to imagine people really living there, throwing parties there, and living how we see them in movies. I guess I haven't changed a whole lot from the squirmy seven year old who pretended with her grandma that they were princesses while walking around castles in Germany years ago. Now I just pretend to be an Elizabeth Bennett or Lady Mary. Should I be embarrassed?

The Boston Years

I have a handful of girl friends from college that I've been friends with since freshman year. A few of them grew up together, a few of them know each other from the dorms and a few of them I know from the dorms and together we make this random group of wonderful women I wish to be more like.

About a month ago we all met up in Boston. Kate's little Harvard Business School apartment was turned into a major slumber party for seven woman (and a baby!) for a couple nights and we explored Harvard campus and Boston before driving out to Cape Cod for the evening.

I should have blogged about it right when I got home but how can I adequately describe how much fun I had. I love these women. I love their strength, they're struggles and their support. I felt so loved all weekend and remembered how much I loved them all and how much I wished I had lived with them in college. (I was on my mission when they were finally all roommates or close neighbors.) I didn't want the weekend to end, and as I told the girls, I felt a little like Anne Shirley when Marilla is taking her away from Green Gables and Anne says, "Just fixing Green Gables in my memory. In years to come I'm going to look back on Green Gables as a beautiful dream that will always haunt me." (Just substitute Boston in for Green Gables.)

Here are a few pictures from the weekend taken by Cath.

And my favorite picture I took on my phone:

me with Steph's adorable, adorable little girl. seriously, cutest, darlingest baby girl ever. i miss her. seriously.

Oh, why meet up in Boston? We had an idea that we would all live in Boston together someday. "The Boston Years". I think this fall is supposed to be "The Years Abroad". I should probably start planning for that...

Debbie got married

Last weekend I went to California for Debbie's wedding. It was in Oakland, and so we took off Friday and went to San Francisco before hand. The weather fantastically cooperated despite the call for rain and we had an absolute blast. It made me miss the west so much.

view of Golden Gate from Alcatraz

the DC girls with the bride

I had a fantastic trip. San Francisco was awesome. Debbie was the prettiest bride and I loved being on vacation. Someone get married so I can have another. Please?


and for my embarrassment, the photographer had all the bridesmaids and groomsmen pair up. see how there are two separated, on the ends? yeah. one of them is me. i'm going to be forever single apparently.

yes I realize I'm being completely ridiculous.

Awkward NYC Moments

• After seeing The Hunger Games, we got a little confused on which way to exit the theater. This led to some random guy latching onto our small foursome. He stopped when we stopped. Tried joining the conversation by asking where we were headed. Hovered around our group as we regrouped and tried to figure out where we were going. Followed us as we attempted to loose him in the crowd still exiting the theater, and later circled us (widely) as we waited for some of Jessie's friend who also saw the movie at the same theater. As we met her friends, the guy still hovered close to our group, not close enough to listen to our conversation, but close enough that we were aware he was keeping tabs on us. Creepy. (Is it important to mention he was a short, chubby-ing, balding, white, 30 something year old? Helps with your mental image? There you go.) Luckily Jessie's friends came, the guys basically told our stalker to scram, but we were still creeped out and walked Sarah all the way to the Subway.

Creepy McCreeperson is just outside this photo. Not kidding.  (Just picture him where that person in periwinkle is.)

• Friday night Lisa and I found ourselves at Max Brenner for dessert. We outdid ourselves (oh, maybe it's also worth mentioning Lent was put on hold for the weekend?) and got much more dessert than we needed. What we also got was a table in between two couples. A table like they have in that scene on Valentine's Day (terrible movie). And it was awkward. I tried to tune them out because that's what I do when I feel uncomfortable. 

• Saturday night we tried for the second, unsuccessful time, to get Newsies tickets in the lottery. As we got in line (with high hopes, though not as high as the previous night) for tickets some young, hip guys were in line before us and I made a joke. It should be noted that I almost always think my jokes are funny. I generally get laughs at my jokes. Well, at least I get courtesy laughs. Well, my joke to these guys consisted of me telling them they should get out of line because they probably wouldn't get tickets anyway and if they did, the odds for me would be better. If there were crickets in NYC you would have heard them. Well, crickets and my nervous awkward laughter. I was teasing, joking, didn't expect them to actually get out of line! They should just laughed and said something like, "tough luck! we're getting tickets!" It would have been fine and probably funny. Instead they just turned around and didn't do friendly we're-all-standing-in-line-for-the-same-thing-and-we'll-be-temporary-friends-but-secretly-we-hope-your-name-doesn't-get-chosen banter. On second, close, examination, I realized they were dressed too fashionably hipster and were probably gay and were probably afraid of my sad and pathetic semi-flirting. And yeah, I felt stupid.

who wouldn't want to see this?? no wonder everyone in town was in line.

Couldn't see Newsies so we settled for a JoBro instead.  Totally worth it.

I find myself feeling awkward frequently. 

Congratulations. You made it to the end of this long post.

The end.

Laduree

It's like I died and went to heaven deliciousness. I've heard stories about the tastiness of Laduree macarons but I've only had the imitations. So when I heard the famous French pastry shop opened a location on the Upper East Side I knew a trip across Central Park needed to be made.

And seriously, how can these little cute, delicious-ness of packed flavor chewy cookies not make any and everyone happy. It was hard not to devour them all post lunch. Totally worth it. I'm officially sold and now am going to learn to make mediocre imitations.

(Oh, and our favorite flavors? Vanilla, Coconut, and Caramel with Fleur de Sol.)

ps. I added a picture of us post Hunger Games to the last post. HERE.

NYC BOUND!

Last year two of my coworkers read The Hunger Games. I was thrilled because I had finished them all about six months prior. They devoured the books and we found ourselves emailing throughout the day about what we thought and how we felt about the books. Then next thing I knew, they were moving away to New York. Well, one of the girls sent out an invite for our work calendars to see The Hunger Games Midnight Showing March 23, 2012. I kind of laughed, accepted the invite and thought to my self, "Like that'll actually happen."

Well, people, it's here.

And Lisa and I are on a bus happily reading our HG inspired mags on our way to meet them in Manhattan where they will be saving us seats (or spots in line) for our theater. And I am so thrilled I might not be able to take a nap.

POST EDIT:

I figured I'd give the movie rating. We love love loved it. I thought the movie was fantastic. I loved the scenes that were provided to round out the story on the screen (ie the control room stuff) and was so thrilled with the movie. Totally worth it. Here we all are post movie all excited with our US Weekly magazine.

Girls Trip

Last weekend was Debbie's last weekend as an East Coast resident. We decided to go out of town for the long weekend and head up to Pennsylvania.

Highlights include:

• our decked out bachelorette mobile (aka mini van)
• visiting Amish county (specifically the quilt museum in Intercourse, PA)
• seeing the Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts at a cool old theater (my favorite was The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore)
• going to a family ward for church (especially the deacon who was half flirting with the girl at the end of the row)
• our gorgeous bed and breakfast (especially the feather top king sized bed)
• delicious dinner (but really I loved my dessert)
• bachelorette games (specifically pin the kiss on Ryan Gosling)
• catching the season finale of Downton Abbey (LOVED it)
• massages (there was a heated table)
• seeing This Means War (thought it was going to be dumb, found it surprisingly good)

This was one of my most favorite East Coast weekends. Maybe it's Pennsylvania. Or maybe I just need to get out of DC more often. But either way, I love all these girls. They're all fantastic. 

Warsaw, Poland

I spent the last few days of my trip in Warsaw which was really kind of like coming home. It's just comfortable.

Highlights include:

• having Ewa meet me at the airport
• walking around Old Town, eating DELICIOUS donuts, and reminiscing my first day in Poland on a cold drizzly day late November 2005
• staying with Nasa and meeting the lovely Dorota
• having fun with Ewa and Robin and getting soaked multiple times since it wasn't ideal weather
• lunch with Emily and Erik 
• going to the grocery store and Tesco (remember I wrote about how much I liked them here? I love them in Poland too.) 
• geeking out at the Warsaw Ghetto walls

Pictures are as follows:
1) Ewa and me on the Stary Rynek (Old Town Square); 2) view from Nasa's apartment, see the Tesco? I was itching to get there. serious; 3) ghetto walls; 4) Lazienki Park and the Chopin statue where we got caught in a serious downpour; 5) Donuts by Nowy Swiat. My favorite besides Chata in Bydgoszcz; 6) meeting Erik and Emily (who is the former Sister Jakobsen) for lunch before they drove north; 7) with Dorota and Nasa after church, picture stolen off Facebook

It was the most wonderful weekend and I couldn't help walking around thinking that I could definitely be an expatriate and live in Poland. 

St. Petersburg, Russia

I've always wanted to go to St. Petersburg. So when planning the trip, I really struggled with using all the vacation I saved up for the year, or missing out on St. Petersburg. Obviously I chose to use up the vacation.

St. Petersburg is huge. So big that we were exhausted from all the walking we did. The metro isn't very convenient either, unless you're right off the stops, and we weren't going to be able to figure out the buses for the 48 hours we were in the city. But we managed to get a feel of the city and we've all decided we'd only come back with a Russian speaker. But that's just us. In order to avoid a marathon post I'm just going to post about my favorite things we did: Church of the Spilled Blood and the Hermitage. We also went to the ballet (Swan Lake) and went to the Modern Russian History Museum (or something like that). 

We loved the Church of the Spilled Blood and it was probably everyone's highlight. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and we spent a good amount of time admiring the mosaics. Yes, every inch of that church is mosaic. I could literally do an entire post about the mosaics because I loved them so much. I won't. I'll just leave you with a few.

On the second day we went to the Hermitage, the giant art museum and former palace of the Romanov family. The building was a gorgeous green, white and gold on the outside and the inside was so ornate with its gold leafing. I think I've seen a lot of art so seeing the state rooms was definitely more exciting than seeing paintings.

I feel like St. Petersburg, and Russia in general are a mystery. Let me know if you have any questions. I will tell you this though, my Polish did not help one bit. No one understood me. I would catch words here and there that I recognized, but knowing words like: good, yes, no, please, and numbers do not really help you understand anything that's going on. Any Russian speakers want to take me back?