Scraped knee & chaco tan

Where does the time go? We (Morgan, Martha & I) are on the Croatian island of Vis. For the past few weeks, we've had patchy wifi ("wee-fee" in Europe), and no access to computers. So no way to upload photos from the digi.

Here's a quick recap of where we've been, and some highlights:
-celebrated Neva & Fredo's wedding outside of Paris
-visited Jim & Francoise near Annecy in the French Alps, where we enjoyed a great hike with spectacular views and some delicious fondue and gourmet food
-spent an exciting day of travel to arrive virtually unannounced at Tina's cheese-making dairy farm in the Swiss Alps, and got to bathe in still-warm whey
-met up with Martha (a day late) at Lake Como in Italy-- beautiful!
-made a quick trip through Verona, where Juliette's balcony and tomb were more moving than expected
-used Padua as a base to visit Venice, which was charming and delightful
-bussed to Split, Croatia, along the beautiful coast, and then took a ferry to Vis, where we have spent the last day.5 beaching

Tomorrow the plan is to scuba dive down to some ancient ruins with huge urns (?). I have to research this a bit more. Or just go and be surprised...

Now we're trying to work out the best route to Prague. We have people there to show us around, and will be joined by Sean. Then lots of adventure and reunions with friends and family in Germany. Perhaps a day or a few in Amsterdam before our last destination: Estonia.

Ta-da! It's been great so far, with a few hiccups (skinned knee, etc.). Mostly fun (tanned feet, etc.). We miss you, and will fill in details upon our return. I'll get a chance, I'm sure, to post again (including pics) when I'm not just typing on my cell phone. For now, that's all my thumbs can take!

Hugs.

statue butts and more

Just like french camp... in real life

Things tend to work out. When I came to France once before, in '96 on a french class trip, I accurately predicted that my bag would be the very first off the plane. This time, my pack arrived on the flight before mine. I didn't know that until allll the other luggage came and went. Fortunately, that delayed me long enough to allow morgan's broken down train to be repaired, so that he could arrive just as I was about to hop on the metro (at midnight).

Earlier in the day, he visited the louvre. See photo, when he posts it.

We are very appreciative of our great host, Felix. From his home we've explored the neighborhood and also the impressionist museum- musee d'orsay.

Morgan is providing the photo documentation, and I'm sure he'd post a classic photo of baguette, brie, and fig jam here... but we already ate it.

I'll update this blog from time to time over the next couple months, when I have wifi for my phone--I'm typing on a little keyboard, so please excuse typos, Mom. Oh, I was wrong. I can receive texts for free, but sending costs $.

Tomorrow we're off to a wedding in a place called Ville Perdu (lost city) on the groom's family farm. Looking fwd to seeing all of my college ladies!

Au revoir from paris.

back to reality

i'm home in st. louis park, mn. it's strange to be here. morgan is still in ca with friends and our parents. i've gotta say, i'm missing being on the road... but there are some really great things about being back, too. one of those is getting photos developed. i have 25 of 29 rolls printed. i'll scan some of them soon. it's great to be able to see the trip again this way. i have so many memories of taking specific pictures so it's really fun to see the outcome.

to wrap up the trip: singapore (for 1 night) and fiji (for 2 weeks)

singapore is a very clean modern city. a city, to be sure, but a very manageable one. we got to see our friend Sebastian, a guy we met in vietnam last june. he introduced us to some of his friends, and they took great care of us during our visit.

fiji is a beautiful group of islands. it was really super hot while we were there. like 100 degrees in the shade hot. we had a blast with seda and jenny, who came over from korea to be there at the same time as us. we stayed with seda's parents for a good chunk of our time there. what amazing hosts they were. the rest of the time we were in a village, at a resort, and then in another village. we ended drinking a lot of kava (made from the powder of a root, mixed with water), a mild intoxicant. mostly it just makes your mouth and throat numb. i actually like the flavor because it reminds me of some weird mints i had once... the water was incredibly clear. morgan and i went scuba diving and saw a bunch of reef sharks. amazing. we had a great time there.

after fiji, we flew to san francisco. i met jen zipp for the first time (!) and we got to see other friends: clem, martha, jen, katia & pete and their beautiful kiddos. fun times. i also went up to bodega, which marked the first time morgan and i have been separated in a few months. also strange. great to spend time with the family... my aunt, uncle, and a couple of cousins came up to bodega bay. nice.

i got back to st. louis park almost 2 weeks ago now. the first week was consumed by wedding plans. (not mine.) congratulations to eliza and michael! since they left on their honeymoon, i've been hanging out and working on my resume. time to return to reality. so-- if anyone hears of a job in the event planning/project coordinator area, please let me know! i'm especially looking in colorado and northern california...

not sure how much i'll post on here now that i'm back in the country. please be in touch; it would be lovely to hear from you and get a chance to catch up on your life!

raining cats and cats

one more funny thing about malaysia: there aren't stray dogs like we've seen in every other country. instead there are tons of cats wandering the streets. they're pretty friendly, not feral, and don't seem to have a lot of fleas. most of them have stubby little tails, which is normal for cats in malaysia, from what i've read. purrrr- i love cats.

one more country down

we leave malaysia tonight, on a train bound for singapore. we've had a good time here. we spent a few days in penang, known for the delicious food of chinatown and little india. i have to say that the indian food we had there was better than some we had in india. but not as good as the best, for sure.

next we made our way to kota bharu, where the highlights were: scuba diving off the coast, taking a batik class, and seeing a master shadow puppet maker at work.

then we took the "jungle train" (beautiful ride) down to the taman negara rainforest. it's the oldest in the world at 130 million years! that's too ridiculous an amount of time for me to comprehend. while we were there, we went on a beautiful 11-kilometer trek to a hide, which is basically a cabin on stilts where you can look over a clearing where animals may come during the night. well, we didn't see any. on our way there we saw a little poisonous snake, and on our way out we saw a poisonous spider. though i hate spiders, i have to admit that this one was beautiful-- about 2 inches long, with a black and yellow striped body. we took the easy way out of the jungle by hiking 2 kilometers to a jetty and then taking a boat the rest of the way. my legs were sore anyway. too long without substantial exercise, i guess.

now we're getting ready for an overnight back on the jungle train. we arrive in singapore tomorrow morning, and we'll get to have a reunion with a friend we met in vietnam. fun. it's great to see fellow travelers down the road.

i'm still alive and well

i realize it has been a LONG time since i wrote last. what has happened?

morgan and i had fun traveling separately, and had a nice reunion. we met up again in mumbai, and left the same day for thailand. when we got there (the next morning) we went to our airport hotel to await the arrival of the parents. yup, my mom & dad (and good friends jane & rich) came out for a visit. we flew to koh samui, a beautiful island in the southern part of the country. our days there were spent luxuriating on a beautiful sandy beach. morgan and i went scuba diving one day, and were awed by a 5-meter long whale shark swimming directly above our heads. amazing! definitely a highlight of our travels.

now we're back in pai, where we have been a couple times before. we stay (and work) at tacompai, an organic farm run by a remarkable man named sandot. it's another home for us at this point. it was so fun to get to show it to my parents.

they left today for chiang mai, and soon they'll travel to cambodia and spend a week there. morgan and i are busy planning our upcoming trip through malaysia. anyone have any thoughts on places we can't miss? we need to be in singapore for a flight on february 28.

it's becoming hard to live in the moment now, as the end of our travel sneaks up on us. after malaysia we'll spend 2 weeks in fiji and then it's time to return to the states. i don't mean to complain, so please don't read it that way. but travel time is relative--a month remaining is a long time compared to the 2 weeks of vacation provided by my former full-time job. but it feels like a heartbeat after the (gulp) 11 months we've experienced so far. and what a trip it's been. i can't believe it's been so long, but then i recall all of the amazing things we've done and realize how lucky i am. there's no way that all of those events could have taken place in less time, and i can hardly believe everything that's happened in the last year. incredible.