Crete

So, on a little vaction from my vaction, I am in Crete right now!! My friend Elena from high school is half Greek (her dad is Greek) and the dad just built this sweet house on in the north overlooking the valleys with vineyards, olive trees, goats,etc, all the way to the sea. We are about twenty minutes south of Iraklion, the biggest city on Crete, and it is perfect because we are out in the country but it is very quick to get anything we need. We have been having such an amazing experience, because both Elena's dad and her uncle are Greek and so can bargain and get all the best tips and deals, and plus they have many friends here that help us out. Costa (Llena's dad) has a goddaughter here, who is the cutest little girl ever, and we have been able to hang out with her and her parents several times now.

Greek Easter is a week later than our Easter, so it was last Sunday, and the celebration started the night before with a late night church service (celebrating the comeback of christ, somehow), and then many too-loud fire crackers and too-close fireworks, etc, at midnight (the noise started earlier, when the priest was dutifully giving his sermon over all the noise) followed by a 1am FEAST of lamb, salads, beef, rice and potatoes, and desserts galore that we had spent the day preparing (It was the end of lent and hypothetically we had been fasting and not eating any red meat or dairy products for the past forty days, and nothing at all that whole Saturday). So at 1am on Easter morning, we fed a table of 12 all of that roasted lamb. We went to bed at 330 on a full stomach, then woke up the next morning to make more tiropita (cheese-pastries in phyllo dough) and a phyllo-apple pie, and went to a daytime Easter feast on the other side of the valley, at the home of the architech of the house. They cooked lamb and port on skewers as well as in the outdoor forno, and man was it tasty. But my god, so much food!!! We came home at 5, slept till 9, and then were awake trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. And we had lunch plans the next day.

Between all of our wonderful meals (I could go on about the food, and I will), we have been exploring the island. We went to Knossos one day, and visited the Minoan ruins which were really impressive but I thought that it was sort of a bummer that the emphasis was put on the archaelogist and not on the ruins themselves...but it was still sweet. The frescos were all fakes with the real ones at the museum in Iraklion, and all of the pottery, etc, were there too. So we went to the museum and it was so cool to see all of the intricate jewels made out of gold, the pots made of marble...and the frescos upstairs were so beautiful!

Yesterday we went to Agios Nicholas, a really beautiful port town--check out Elena's blog to see all the photos, and, actually, a recount of the whole trip:

http://web.mac.com/esevas/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html

Tomorrow is the housewarming party/dedication of the house, so it will be a fancy catered affair and there will be a gyro stand that we are trying to convince them all to put in our room. Yum.

El Salvador

I went here with my Dad's Rotary group, my brother and my friend Kev at the end of January and it was incredible...the recount of the trip will have to wait till I get home, though. Bummer!

After so much time....

...I will actually post something on my blog again. This turned out to be like my journal--after getting more and more behind it seems like a chore to update what I have been up to and so here is a brief, brief recap of the past, oh, year (ok, nine months).

Costa Rica was incredible. After living there for three months, I am alright at Spanish--I can say basically anything I need to say, whether of not it is perfect Spanish is another thing. I met such wonderful people through the families I was living with, the friends I met through them and also all of the women I worked with at the Orquideas and also the guys at the Escuela de Ganaderia. I am still in touch with all of them, and I'm hoping to go back sometime soon!!!
My parents, Andy, Aunt Sue and Karl all came for a week, and we got to travel around the island in the comfort of a car, something I had not done in 3 months of being away from home. It was great to be with all of them, and show off "my" Costa Rica to them, as well as doing all of the touristy things. She-Rene, Kev, Greg and Ted, my wonderful friends from school came down and we had an amazing time that cannot be put into words and only can sort of be captured by photos, but the week involved horsebackriding in the rain, broken toenails, guaro, beaches, and rafting. Sweet.

In October, for my parents' joint (10 hours apart) 60th birthdays, all four of us went to Europe together, something that has not happened since Andy was in high school (some, 10 year ago?). We arrived in Paris and stayed with Marie-Helene in Sceaux, and got to spend a few days with our friends in the city. Then, we took our rental car across to Slovenia, stopping in Alsace, which had such wonderful wine, and storks, and then across Germany staying on Chiemsee (really sweet, too) and then out to Lj. We didn't get to see Irenca because she was sick, but we got to be in Dole with our relatives Slavka, Tone, Tamara and little Gian (who is 4 yrs old and knows to sing lullybyes to his dad in slovenijan when his dad gets mad at him--the cutest thing ever!!) Mom and I were able to stay after and go to the National Park together, and we had all sorts of tour guides with us and it was such a beautiful experience. The two of us drove back, had some more time in Paris and then she headed back for the states and I caught up with my friend Greg in Barcelona--he was living there, chilling and drawing. My time in Barcelona included getting ditched on the discoteca floor, sangria, lots of walking around, gaudi, the aquario, and of course, yummy food.

After studying and taking the horrible godawful GREs, I went out to DC for a long weekend to visit Katiefoster and She-Renie (who is gone from SF for a whole year for a masters program!!). It was Kfo's birthday and Halloween, so it was a lot of fun. We moved Kfo to the burbs of DC, she's so grown up!

El Salvador is really going to need to be its own entry, so I will get that up and running when I get back. That was in January.

Right now I am living with my brother in Paris for three months. He is taking intensive French classes, and I am volunteering in a patisserie/boulangerie in the 16th, it is so incredible! This is thanks to our friends the Schillis, who gave me the hook up. I am working underground with all four pastry chefs and a bread baker, and it ROCKS! I work four days a week when I can, meaning when no one is visiting me (my parents, christ and renie have all been), and I am learning so much! I will give more details later, but basically I wanted to just go off and do something crazy and learn a new skill now, while I can...I am starting my phd program at Stanford in the fall, so this is the time to do it!!