Costa Rica

When in Costa Rica, do as the tourists do. The Costa Ricans eat beans, rice, and work all day. The tourists, at least these tourists, lead a much more glamorous life. They fly first class, zip line through the jungle, ride horses to mud baths and thermal pools, learn the mating call of the holwer monkey and the Costa Rican men, shower outside, snorkel, zip line upside down, wear sexy diapers to go on gigantic cement water slides...

Zip lining through the jungle.

  We stumbled upon some monkeys, just hanging out in the trees next to the zip line. We got pretty close for some great pics.  :)

Auditioning for Lord of the Rings... ;)

The tourists ride Sea Doos, stumble upon these monkeys hanging out in trees...

ride ATVs through the jungle and high five little kids who run out to great them, feed birds on the patio, see Toucans up close instead of just on a cereal box, have monkeys sit on their shoulders without ripping off their eyelids (thankfully!), lay by the pool, get sun, sunburn, eat fancy dinners at luxurious restaurants, and sit in the spa every night. And that's all in just one week! One tourist in this particular group, me, was also stung by a scorpion, but that's an entirely different story.

Summer 2012!

Summer is finally here. Well, almost here. Three more days with students, then check out day. Is it too late to make a countdown chain? I feel like, somehow, if I don't, things will be anti-climactic. ;)

This school year has been hectic, as always and, unfortunately, as expected, but it's been a fun year. I have some really good students this year and it's actually been fun to get to know some of them. Teaching 9th graders is kind of nice because I'll still see the kids around school next year.

What are my big summer plans? Will the summer of 2012 come close to topping the most incredible vacation of all time in 2011? It just may. :)

• A 7 day cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage. We had such a great time last summer, the girls and I decided we needed a repeat. My cousin, Kara, lives in Anchorage, so we are staying there after the cruise to see some more sites. We HAVE to take a helicopter to the top of a glacier and dog sled, of course. I mean, a trip to Alaska just couldn't be complete without that! 
• After Alaska, I may take a quick trip to Dallas to visit a boy, a friend, and my aunt's family.
• Middle of July? Costa Rica with Heather and her family. We booked an excursion in Costa Rica that includes horseback riding, which I haven't done in years, so I'm not sure if I'm excited or nervous about that. Either way, I'm sure it will be beautiful! :) 
• Some friends and I are going to a church conference in Orange County in the beginning of August.
• My brother, Matt, is getting married in the middle of August. That means a quick trip to Utah for his wedding, then next think you know... summer will be gone and it's back to school. 

It's crazy to think that summer hasn't even started yet, yet somehow, listing all of my plans and looking at my calendar suddenly makes me feel like it's almost over! Luckily, I have over two months of freedom just ahead! Freedom. Hoo-ray!!  :)

New York City! (Spring Break 2012)

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We arrived in New York around 7:45 PM. We went to the hotel, dropped off our stuff, and took off to find food. We ate at Shake Shack, just down the street from our hotel. We'd heard good things and were not disappointed at all. On Wednesday, we spent a nice, relaxing morning wandering around Central Park. It was nice to be out in the sun after Boston, which was windy, cold, and a bit rainy. We saw an underpass (photo at top right) that seems the type where bodies are always found on CSI. Surprisingly, there were no dead bodies anywhere in sight.

In the afternoon, we visited the Museum of Natural History. We didn't spent much time, but just ran through and saw the highlights. We had lunch at a cute little Greek place, then searched for Levain's Bakery, the reported home of the best chocolate chip peanut butter cookies in the world. It took us a while to find the cookies and, when we did, they were dark chocolate with peanut butter in them. I'm not a fan of dark chocolate, so I just got regular chocolate chip walnut. At $4 a piece, I decided to just get one, then quickly decided I could have easily had one or two more. The cookies were absolutely delicious. On our way back to the hotel, we spotted Nick Jonas. He was standing in front of the theatre where he is performing "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." His car dropped him off in front of the theatre so he could sign autographs before going inside to get ready for the performance.

We visited the 9/11 Memorial and Ellis Island on Saturday. My great-great-great (who knows how many greats) grandmother, Jeanie Milligan, came through Ellis Island in 1904 or 1906. I'd seen the movie "Hitch," so I had unrealistic expectations about Ellis Island. I hoped to find a big book of records to thumb through, but they had computers you could use for $5 an hour. I could do the same research online at home for free. Disappointing, but...

Boston and Salem, MA (Spring Break 2012!)

We flew into Boston on Saturday night. It was cold, rainy, and we were tired, so we ordered pizza, chatted, and tried to plan out the rest of our trip.

On Sunday, we walked The Freedom Trail. I love U.S. History, so I was fascinated the entire morning. We saw the gravestones of Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Mother Goose.

We spent Monday in Salem, Massachusetts. I've taught "The Crucible" and Scarlet Letter in my American Lit classes, so I've been interested in the witch trials and Puritan history.

We met up with my friend Jamar and his wife, Sheena, for dinner that night. Jamar and I were friends when he lived in Las Vegas during the summer of 2005. We haven't kept in touch much since then, but are friends on Facebook, of course. He messaged me when he saw I was in Boston and asked if I'd be interested in meeting up. It was fun to catch up and didn't feel at all like it had been so many years since we'd seen one another.

Tuesday morning we visited the USS Constitution. We left Boston on Tuesday afternoon. The bus to New York City was only $15 and just over 4 hours. Kristin and I both sat alone and tried to get some sleep while on the bus.

The most luxurious cruise ever brought us fame!

Our cruise was incredible. We made friends with a famous guy (DJ Doug who tried to teach us us that "nerd is the new sexy” even though we didn’t believe him), became famous ourselves (see video below), visited TONS of incredible places in Israel, Greece, and Turkey, enjoyed air conditioning, ate unlimited desserts and were brought extra whipped cream because "it looks like you girls are losing weight", slept in, slept in REAL BEDS, danced, watched incredible entertainment both on and off the ice rink, had FHE with a British family who quickly became our BFFs, made friends with a Romanian who may eventually kill us, and learned all about KFC from our new South African friend. Words are not enough. Simply incredible.

Provo Peeps

P-town is not my favorite place by any means, but some of my favorite people live there. Stephanie and I have been friends since bonding cleaning bathrooms in the MTC. After our missions, we traveled through Europe together and stayed with friends we'd met while in the MTC. She's currently going to school in India. She's studying film, so it's cheaper to study in Bollywood than in Hollywood. She's home visiting her family in Provo for a month this summer, so I was happy to get the chance to catch up with her.

I was extremely excited to see Lena and Olya today. They are sisters from Dnepropetrovsk, my favorite area from my mission. Lena was 14 and Olya was only 10. They were already members when I served there and were really involved in activities. Their mom was baptized when they were, but hadn't been active for a long time by the time I got there. The other members of their family were heavily involved in drugs and alcohol and these young girls struggled. One of their older brothers sold a sweater I gave Olya to buy drugs and their mom sold the Christmas tree the ward donated to their family to buy alcohol. Olya shared a pair of boots with her best friend, Marina, who lived in an apartment in the same building. The rest of the time, she used worn out shoes that had cardboard in the soles and tried her best not to get her feet wet.

We were really close while I served in Topol and stayed in touch pretty well over the years. When Olya was 17 or 18, she married a former Elder shortly after he finished his mission and they moved to Provo. Within a year, Lena married a former Elder and they moved to Oregon, where he's from. About a year ago, Lena and her husband moved to Provo. Lena wanted to be closer to Olya and near more Russians.

Liliya, of course, is Liliya. She's smart, beautiful, talented, UKRAINIAN, and simply amazing. I love hanging out with her, though I don't get to do it nearly enough. I love Liliya enough that I was willing to post this pic even though my eyes are closed, simply because she looked cute in this pic.

Summer vacation!!

It's finally summer vacation again! :) The school year always seems to go by so slowly, then suddenly, the next thing you know, it's time for final exams and cleaning out classrooms.
This summer, I may have got just a bit carried away with my summer vacation plans. Just maybe... We're going to all of the places marked on the map on the left. :)

I'd originally planned to spend some time visiting my friend Tanya in Italy this summer, then invited my friend Heather to come along. She has a friend who lives in Istanbul and... the next thing you know, we planned a trip all over the place. We invited another friend from work, Elaina, and her roommate, Jenn, to join us. They are meeting us in Rome, going on the cruise and through Italy with us, then going home through Switzerland when Heather and I head toward the Balkan countries. We've met quite a few times to figure out our travel plans and are getting more and more excited as things are getting closer. We've got our plans for Italy all figured out. Now Heather and I just need to figure out if we'd rather go the more adventurous route through the Balkans or stick with the scenic route and go mostly through the beaches in Croatia. Either way, this summer is going to be amazing! July 7th simply can't come soon enough. :)

A real American rodeo!

Bogdan, Galya, and I had a fantastic time at the Fiesta Days rodeo in beautiful ol' Spanish FARK, Utah.
Sadly, it was almost over by the time we finally talked out way in (apparently the rodeo always sells out), but we stayed til after 1 A.M. watching some of the preliminaries for the next day's rodeo. Up close, turns out most of the cowboys were surprisingly hot. I have no idea why I'd never noticed that before. I mean, I watched "8 Seconds" and Luke Perry, obviously, was hot, but I had no idea that all cowboys were similarly attractive. Does this mean I should start listening to country music?

Utah, a little bit of Arizona, and a quick trip to Cali.

Galya and Bogdan wanted to go EVERYWHERE and see everything. They got in around 7 PM on Thursday, but weren't tired at all. We had dinner, then saw a hypnotist on the strip.

Our first stop was Spanish Fork and the much anticipated Spanish Fork Fiest Days Super Amazing and Insanely Crowded Rodeo. The rodeo was sold out, but Galya was able to work some magic with her sexy Belarussian/Ukrainian accent and not only did we did in, but we got all three tickets for the price of one.

We went to the Days of '47 Parade in Salt Lake and saw a pow wow at Liberty Park.

Luckily, I was able to drop them off with a friend in SLC so I could take a break from "tour guide" and see my own friends. :) I spent most of the weekend with Kristin and Allison. We watched movies, hung out by the pool, went to dinner.

I planned an EXTREME VERSION of the scenic route back to Las Vegas. Our first stop was Bryce National Park. We just drove around and took pictures for a few hours. From Bryce, we went to Zion National Park. Bogdan and I actually hiked in the Narrows a little bit. I've been to Zion a few times before, but I'd never done that.

Our visit to Colorado city was fascinating. Just driving around was not enough. We decided we HAD to make a quick stop at the grocery store. I suggested we all speak Russian the entire time and pretend like we weren't SHOCKED by anything we saw. I'd heard the people there weren't entirely welcoming. I've really just never seen anything like this. Insane. Incredible. I just couldn't stop looking!

We took a SUPER QUICK trip to California. I spent a bit of time hanging out with Kelsey, one of my favorite friends, and her parents in beautiful Newhall, CA.

Summer!

So, summer vacation is here! Galya and Bogdan (my favorite Belarusian and one of my very favorite Ukrainians) will be here on Tuesday, so we’re doing a mini-tour of the western U.S. They are staying with me for an entire month, so here’s what I’ve got so far:

• Utah
  This includes a variety of activities for the good ol' 24th of July, which you only get to REALLY celebrate in Utah. Rodeo, parade, Native American Powwow, and fireworks.
  Temple Square and "Music and the Spoke Word" with the MoTab.
  Horseback riding.
  Laser show! (Really. These things are just as fun now as they were in high school.)
  Visiting tons of people we know and love.
• Grand Canyon
  I’m not entirely sure if I really want to do this yet. I’m thinking about lying to them both and telling them the Grand Canyon isn’t accessible by car. It’s just so far!
• L.A.
  Of course every Ukrainian wants to see Disneyland and Hollywood, so… even though I have 0% interest in either place, I just can’t disappoint.
• San Diego
  Visiting friends, visiting the beach, and possibly visiting Shamu.
• Las Vegas
  Wandering all around the strip in 100+ degree weather, free shows on the strip, using my awesome connections, Mystere or Le Reve or “O”, shopping for EVERYTHING because the U.S. is so much cheaper than Ukraine, and if it cools down enough, a drive-in movie, complete with popcorn and American pizza.
• Miami
  No clue what we're doing here, but we have a free place to stay!
• Costa Rica. We’ve changed our mind about this trip a million times already, but… Costa Rica, here we come!

It’s a lot, I know, and a LOT of driving (especially for someone who hates driving as much as I do) but I’m excited. I’ve been waiting for this all summer!

Anything I forgot?

Puerto Rico

Gran Melia

As evidenced by these beautiful photos, our very, very posh hotel included anything and everything our heart's desired.

World class restaurants, great snorkeling right behind our villa, a "boutique" casino, a nightclub with live entertainment, and the best virgin pina coladas in the world. The best thing about our luxurious hotel, sadly, was also the worst thing. We were in Rio Grande, about 40 minutes out of San Juan. Our hotel was right on the beach, which also meant it was about 10 minutes (by car) from any major road. We were NOT interested in walking for 3 hours to find a taxi, so once we got there, we were stuck. No busses, no taxis, and the hotel was even out of rental cars. The good thing, however, is that it was one of the nicest, most relaxing places a person could ever possibly be "stuck". I was FORCED to relax, which is usually pretty difficult for me because I think vacations should be non-stop excitement and adventure.

El Yunque National Rainforest

According to the sometimes reliable Wikipedia, El Yunque, the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Forest System, encompasses 28,002 acres of land. This area boasts 160 different tree species, not counting ferns and vines, including the candle tree and the laurel sabino which grows nowhere else in the world. El Yunque has also eight different lizard species.


Our guide said we were on the second easiest trail, but it was much more difficult than any of us expected. Our guide gave us walking sticks, which people made fun of (probably because they were jealous!) The trail ended at La Mina falls, where we were all excited to jump into the freezing cold water.

As soon as I find the cord to my camera, I'll upload more pics.

Will Puerto Rico be my heart's devotion?

So far I've only seen the airport in Puerto Rico (quick layover on my way back from Barbados), but I'll let you know if it's anything like this video.



Spring Break plans have changed at the last minute. The cruise to Hawaii is out and a fancy resort in Puerto Rico is in. If you want to be jealous, you can check out the hotel website. If it's even 10% as nice as the photos, I'll be happy. Very, very happy.

The end of summer...

Summer is really, sadly over. The last month has been busy! Here are the highlights:

I got back from Ukraine just in time for Nicole's bridal shower.

The next day, I went to a week long AVID conference in San Diego.

I visited my family in Logan for a few days before school started. Joie's growing quickly, Jacquie's running all over at all times, and Matt's pretty good about letter her crawl all over him.

My friend Tanya and I hung out with some of our favorite AVID kids, just before they left for college. Curtis went to Grambling, Reggie to UNR, and Boo returned to Lincoln University in Missouri.


Matt and I took a quick weekend trip to the best concert ever in San Francisco. Pretty much all of my favorite bands in one place at one time.









There are always a few weird people at concerts, but this was a bit extreme, even for San Fran. Check out this guy in the Santa suit.

Overall, good summer. As my friend from the Tepee would say, "Good times. Good times."

Odessa

Bogdan and I continued our Ukrainian world tour and made a quick trip to Odessa. Some of the highlights:

Mickey D's

For some reason, McDonald's tastes better outside the U.S. I've never quite been able to figure out why, but EVERYONE agrees. When McDonald's first opened in Russia, thousands of people stood in line just to get a hamburger. And if you're looking for a clean (free) restroom in Ukraine, McDonald's is still your best shot.

Not only is the food itself better, but there is often live entertainment. Please see examples:
There's a regular old Playland, but people can also rent motorized toys or ponies for their kids to ride.