Goodbye, London! Hello, Poland...and CZ!

Well, we made our first visit to POLAND!  I got a passport stamp to prove it!  I also ate a meal there, which of course makes it even more official.   I should step back for a second though and mention the events leading up to our arrival to Eastern Europe…

 Nathan and I had a good last half day in London.  We gave away all the foods stuff that we had left as well as some paper towels and cleaning spray by putting them outside our door with a sign that read: “Leaving London tomorrow.  All items are free.  Please take them.  Please!  FREE!”  They took everything but the bag of coffee, which, honestly, was a good option b/c that coffee was wretched.

A high point of yesterday was that we got to see our sweet and dear friend from Boston for breakfast.  It was a joy to see her happy and settled here in Europe.  It’s also fun to hear about her various adventures, etc.  Loved every minute, and it was only about an hour. Sad day.  Anyway, below was my croissant with Gruyere and tomato.  Indulgence.  And a pot of coffee.  Necessity.   

My last class we had a guest speaker that was pretty boring until the last 45 minutes (of a 2.5 hr total talk) when they shared their own stories of how they acquired HIV and their lives now as a result.  It went 30 minutes longer than planned which meant that everyone was fidgety and wanted to kill the girl who asked FIVE questions in a row (per usual) at the very end when we wanted to ship out.  Argh.

After class, Nathan and I met up and hopped on the Tube to the Liverpool Station and caught the Stansted Express to the airport.  We made it with a perfect amount of time to spare.  I’m proud to report that we were UNDER the weight restrictions for our two bags on Ryanair which is really a feat.  We also managed to only have one carry-on each (that’s also a strict Ryanair rule).  Thankfully, Arup agreed to hold onto our larger suitcases for this next week of travel so we didn’t have to pay to store them.  When we land in Heathrow, Nathan will go fetch our bags before we fly out to NY.  Anyway, we grabbed Pret for lunch and went through security. 

I’m not sure what to say about our flying experience other than to say that it was like flying on Hulu or something…an advertisement every 10 minutes.  Seriously.  There were automated messages that came on and the flight attendants had various motions and actions to perform each time an announcement was played.  For food purchase, Duty Free items, discounted phone plans and SIM cards, and my personal favorite…. lottery tickets!  Here’s our flight attendant showing off the special lottery cards:

I have to say that all these things were a good distraction from one of the most turbulent flights I’ve been on in a while.  Thankfully it was a short 1 hour and 40 minute hop over to Katawice (Cat-ah-Vee-CHey).  We deplaned and got onto one of those shuttle buses with everyone from the plane, only to drive a could hundred feet to the arrival terminal.  It was hilarious.  An older Polish couple sitting next to us laughed and said well, this is Poland!  It was cute.  A passport stamp and bag grab later, we were with Jonny and Lisa, bumping along the Polish highway toward the Czech Republic!  Only one stop for petrol and a bite at a Polish McDonald’s made us realize that Poland is certainly not how I ever imagined.  Maybe more on that later…dunno. 

So, we’re here.  It’s awesome.  Today will be fantastic.  Signing off. 

(It’s now after the whole day is through that I’m actually posting this online, so more posts later in the day. J  Lucky you, reader!)

xx

God Save the Queen!

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  It’s that terrible habit that if you miss a day, it becomes so much easier to miss many.  If I hope to keep this blog up, I need to do it every day.  (Discipline, Meredith. Discipline!)  Okay, okay! 

So, I want to talk a bit about Sunday because it was day two of our friends’ visit and we definitely took advantage of another tourist day, despite exhaustion from a full day prior. In the morning we decided to head out to Notting Hill before we searched for a place for breakfast hoping that it would save us time.  It turned out to be a great decision because we found an AMAZING bakery right when we got off the bus called Paul Rhodes Bakery (oh, and it is a new location I just noticed, when i looked up the site!).  Oh man. Delish. They had these funky milk bottle lights that reminded me strangely of the movie Runaway Bride where Julia Roberts plays an industrial designer.  Anyway  Here’s a picture of the amazing meringues (Don’t they look fantastic, Emma??):

We then walked along and I didn’t take a lot of cell phone pix, so I don’t have much for you.  I enjoyed Notting Hill and Portabella Market about as much as I did 8 years ago.  Really cute and diverse with a million things I’d buy if I didn’t have to haul them back to the States.  I came close to getting a couple fun prints, actually, but it didn’t make much sense.  If you’ve been to Notting Hill, you probably remember this one shop before you get to the market that sells a million “old fashion” (translate: weather worn) metal signs.  This one made me laugh pretty hard:

After we walked around quite a bit in the area through residential parts and such, we decided to head to Buckingham Palace before it got too late.  We grabbed a bit to eat at a pub off the Victoria Station stop and then walked through the beautiful gardens to the Palace. 

The lighting was perfect and it was nice to be in the sun most of the day.  Every day here has been cloudy basically, so it was a great break from dreary weather!  Anyway, we walked through the gardens, past geese, ducks and a few pelicans (??) to the palace itself.  So majestic.  Love.

At this point it was time to head back to our place so that Marc and Albert could get their luggage and head to the airport.  Nathan and I also had to head out to go see some family friends in the country.  It was so sad to say goodbye to Marc and Albert, but it’s okay.  We’ll see them again soon I hope.  Next time it’s Barcelona!!!!!! 

This week deserves a separate post which I will not do until tomorrow.

Made it!

We arrived without any trouble this evening at Heathrow.  All our bags were in order and it was a basically painless Underground trip to our flat where we will be staying the next two weeks.  We checked in and grabbed Indian from a place around the corner. (the only place open)  Headed to bed.  Super exhausted.  Maybe it has something to do with less than four hours of sleep last night...

Night! xx

Masters in Counseling & Guidance, Bilingual School Counseling

Wow.  A lot has happened since my last post.  It might have something to do with the fact that working full time and taking classes full time this summer took over my life.  I was at Fordham taking a full load of courses towards my Masters, since I was wait-listed at NYU. I decided to stay on the wait-list since I wasn't fully sure about Fordham.  NYU has a great program, and though on paper it's basically equal to Fordham, there isn't even a comparison in faculty.  Anyway, the short version is that the week I finished finals this summer at Fordham, I was accepted to NYU Steinhardt.  I was thrilled and torn.  I had made a couple great friends at Fordham and was getting comfortable there.  In the end, it didn't make since to turn down NYU's offer and I withdrew from Fordham and enrolled in NYU in August of this year.

Phew.  A long story.  I had a fantastic semester and especially enjoyed the diversity in my program.  My favorite class was Adolescent Development, taught by a Turkish professor who also did much of his work in Boston at Boston College.  So cool!  Many of you know that I am really excited about working with Latino high schoolers in urban schools.  I've wanted to get my bilingual extension but I thought that in order to enroll in the program, I needed to already be bilingual.  My friends in the bilingual program encouraged me to enroll because you just have to take an exam at the end of our program (in my case, May 2012.) to get the extension.  So I enrolled!  Wahoo!  I'm really excited about this, and am very motivated to get my Spanish to an advanced level.  I can understand about 90% of what's spoken to me and can respond in English.  That's not very helpful though, since I need to speak with families who don't understand English.  Haha!  Gotta get going on that.  I need an NYC based immersion program is what I need.

I'm back in the blogging world because I'm headed to London in less than 24 hours and want to keep my friends and family up to date with my adventures!  Thanks for reading and please leave some love!  I better get packing!!

La Paz, Bolivia: April

I figure since I'm back in the blogging routine, I should do updates of the months that I missed on the blog. I'm not going to backdate b/c at this point, that might be a bit silly. So, here's a brief Bolivia update.

Easter weekend, Nathan and I met up with my parents, sister Abigail, and my brother Christopher in Miami, FL to head down to Bolivia, South America. Ten years ago this November, my family of six traveled down to Bolivia together to adopt my little brother. He was born in March 1999 and was being cared for in a Spanish orphanage until we arrived and got custody of him in November 1999. That was my junior year of high school, and it's hard to believe that was already 10 years ago! Eeeeek! (Side Note: My mom and Abigail actually stayed in Bolivia for 5 weeks because of the laws surrounding adoption! My dad and Natalie were there for 4 weeks. Emily and I were there for 10 days.)

Anyway, this trip was the first time my brother had been back to his country since we adopted him and flew back to California. He was thrilled to be going back and seeing all the things we told him about his whole life. The plan was to do tourism, visit a couple organizations that we are involved in supporting. It was pretty awesome to be able to go back. I first went to La Paz, Bolivia in 1998 on a mission trip with a small organization, working in an orphanage and doing outreach to the homeless and street children. How cool that 11 years after that I'm back with my family and my husband to celebrate my brother's life!

I had a great time bonding with my family, touring around La Paz and its outskirts (Lake Titicaca, the La Paz Zoo, etc.), seeing one of the Compassion International locations and my family's sponsored child, getting to know Kaya International and their work (and the awesome boys that they've rescued from the streets), and in general just Bolivia culture. The sad story is my video camera got stolen during the trip, and also Abigail left before the trip was completely over...we missed her. =(

Here are a few pix of the trip. They're a bit out of order, so bear with me:

Me & Chris

Christopher after an Easter Egg Hunt that I brought with me (in my carry on!) for Easter AM

La Paz, Bolivia

Christopher playing with a baby that's now in "his" room at the Children's home.

This woman was overjoyed to see Chris & started crying at this point. She worked at the Children's Home when Christopher was there 10 years ago.

Some kids from Kaya, rescued from the streets of La Paz. Christopher is certainly a Bolivian, eh?

Some indigenous women, or Cholas. The hats they were are wearing are characteristic of the Bolivian people. These Cholas are selling goods in a big market called the Cholas Market.

Christopher with a little boy in the Children's Home.

Christopher playing with Luis, a boy from La Paz that my family sponsors through Compassion.

Lake Titicaca with a view of Peru in the background.

Abigail and Chris at the Lake.

Dinner with some of the Kaya kids. Please note the huge, genuine smile (hard to get in a posing photo with him) on Christopher's face. This is the sign of a happy kid: playing with Bolivians his age, soccer after dinner, and teaching the kids how to play Yahtzee! Especially the soccer part. Haha!

A view of the gorgeous Mt. Illimani taken from the airplane home at sunrise. The indigenous have a lot of beliefs surrounding this mountain.

For more pictures, check out our Phanfare Site (if you don't have the password, just ask me for it)! The Bolivian album posted is Chris' Perspective; he was the photographer.