Last thoughts

24 hours to go before my departure for Guatemala! I've been so excited this week as I'm realizing that I'm actually following one of my dreams and not letting any circumstances hold me back. I think I was so busy working, throwing a party for myself, and spending 1 last weekend with Ryan in Vancouver that I hadn't been able to fully take it in until now. A lot of people have said they're too chicken to do something like this or wish they could do it too. I say, join me then! Or make it happen for yourself at another time or place. This is our one shot at living and I fully intend to make mine count!

As a procrastinator, I still have plenty of last minute things to do: fit all my stuff into 1 carry-on size backpack (like I did for Europe) for starters. And it's a good thing I've done that before or I'd be lost, 2 months is a long time to pack for. My pack is only 1/4-1/2 full of clothing, the rest is meds for just in case traveler's diarrhea, etc and contact solution, stuff I'm not sure they'll have down there, and books too. I'm sure I'm even overpacking with this but don't know they'll have everything I think I need. So, interested in the nitty gritty details? 4 pairs of pants (1 I'll wear on the plane and 2 are lightweight hiking pants that are convertible to shorts), 6 or so shirts, 5 pairs of socks/underwear, and only 2 pairs of shoes!! Can you believe the last one? 1 pair of cross-trainers and my Teva flip-flops. I figure if I bring everything I need, I won't have an excuse to go shopping!!

Excited to learn espanol as well. I hope my high school and college courses come back to me. I have been listening to Spanish soap operas on tv just to hear the language. The school sounds awesome! I will go to "class"--really just 4 hours in the morning of 1 on 1 (!) instruction and conversation. It's suggested to not spend more than 4-5 hours per day when learning a new language. As I'll be staying with a host family that only speaks Spanish, I will be forced to practice at home too!! Additionally, at the market, restaurants, movies or whatever, I'll be forced to use my new-found language skills. No pressure. The afternoons are free to do your own thing or participate in various activities they offer such as cooking, salsa and merengue classes, etc. There are even movie and culture nights. Even for me, I don't think I'll get bored. Many trips/tours can be planned through them too, which really excites me. Sounds like there's a big traveler's network so there will be plenty of people to travel with over the weekends!! If interested, here's the website for the school: http://www.spanishacademyantiguena.com

Many of you have expressed concern for my safety. Please know I am an aware traveler but will take extra caution making sure I'm never alone or out late at night or frequent unsafe areas. I plan on registering with the US Embassy (something I've never done on any other trips). And if all else fails, I can use my newly acquired self defense techniques. Look out, potentail assailants! Better yet, I'll just yell Fuego! or act crazy if I'm approached by aliens.

So my flight leaves Seattle Friday at 11:25 am, arrives in Houston around 5 pm, only have an hour or so layover, then arrive in Guatemala City at 10 pm. Thankfully, I don't need to stay in Guat. City by myself that first night, a shuttle arranged by the school will be picking me up for the short drive to Antigua! And I'll stay with my host family that first night. These trip details have all fallen into place so nicely, it's been one of the least stressful trips to plan for, in that regard.

That is as much as I know about my plans as I've intentionally kept my itinerary open. If I like Antigua/the school/my host family I might hang out there through Semana Santa (Holy Week), 4 weeks, and then potentially move on. I've never traveled spontaneously like this before so stay tuned.....

And don't be a stranger, let me know what's going on in your lives. I bought a lightweight computer from a friend so will have access to email and plan to keep blogging.

Hasta luego, amigos!!

Vancouver

I'm not sure what all the fuss is over Vancouver. Sure it's gorgeous with the ocean and the mountains are closer than they are in Seattle, it's more built up and tons of glass buildings, it's more cosmopolitan, and easier to get around with their mass transit system plus the downtown area where we stayed was very walkable. Everyone had just raved about it so maybe that was the problem. But after looking at the pictures, you can see it was an easy trip on the eyes. We caught an early train and the ride itself was right along the water. Train was cool too in that we didn't have to worry about the border crossing just hit customs at the train station. We were fortunate enough to have clear sunny weather....not a raindrop in sight, didn't really think that through when planning a weekend in Canada in the winter.

Our hotel (a simple YWCA with pink floral bedding that Ryan loved:-) was right across from the Canucks hockey stadium, they're nuts over their hockey. We went to a Costco there too and their first display is of hockey sticks. We mostly did the touristy things as it was our first time there: the Harbour Centre (love the spelling, french influence I'm guessing) lookout, rented bikes along Stanley Park--6 mile loop along the water--gorgeous but freezing!, and Chinatown. We ate at a Chinese restaurant where we were the only non-Asians, I was in heaven. Except that I ordered the red hot wontons and my mouth and tongue were on fire for hours!! That and I'm not entirely sure what I ordered, oh well, it was good. It's a foodie town so we ate very well: Indian, sushi, crepes, yummy.

Almost Famous??

Unlikely, however I submitted this picture (from our glacial ice hike in Norway last summer) to an REI contest and they picked it to use for their marketing campaign!! I don't get any money for it and had to sign a bunch of legal releases for them to use it. But they don't have to let me know when they use it or for what, so if you see it anywhere, please let me know!! REI adventure trips? REI.com? I haven't seen it anywhere yet......

I'm sure it doesn't hurt that I have the REI logo across my jacket and am sporting their oh so fashionable pants. An REI member through and through....or a sucker? Anyway, if you haven't heard of REI--I hadn't until a few years ago, they're an uber sports store/coop, you can rent equipment there too. The flagship store is downtown Seattle and was a must for me when we first visited Seattle last year. I even climbed the pinnacle a few months ago (fake rock climbing tower you can see from I-5), really fun!

Politics & Parties

Hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day. Have to say we didn't do anything romantic, we did go out for Malaysian food the night before though. And I did buy Ryan a chocolate bar with bacon, sounds gross, huh? I'm throwing myself a sort of bon voyage party tonight so was prepping for that last night instead. My theme is Mexican food as I'm not exactly sure what Guatemalan food is, other than beans and rice, which I'm sure is not entirely accurate either. I'm about to find out though....only 1 week and I'm off.

Warning: if you're not interested in politics, you might want to skip this paragraph. I'm now a Washington resident so last Saturday was my first time participating in a caucus, which was the only way my minority vote would count. The majority around here is for Obama, he won out in delegates 2 to 1. The caucus seems like such an inefficient system....the neighborhood precinct leader didn't even know where the Democratic National Convention was...and the whole purpose of this caucus (which I didn't know beforehand) was to vote for your delegates to send to Denver. Anyway, I was so frustrated with the disorganization I had to speak up when she was going to make us (90 people) go from one side of the stage to the other...I suggested just sitting down when our names were called. It was still hard to hear over the other precincts and people's yelling and clapping. The consolation to the disorg. is the interest so many people have this election and their passion about their views which is so awesome as most of us have been so apathetic with the current administration. My vote went to Hillary for 2 reasons: I really want a female president and can not imagine a smarter, more results oriented candidate as well as her health care plan. I actually dragged Ryan to see her at a rally in Seattle. She was over an hour late and we were so packed in this cruise terminal (Washington was not a planned stop, Bill was supposed to come instead), people were getting hot and ended up leaving and the fire alarms were going off but it was worth it. I knew she'd be articulate and polished but wasn't sure she'd enliven the crowd and she did at times, she really awakened a sense of hope I hadn't been feeling for a long time! And really catered to the environmental crowd, saying Seattle's leading the way in green technology, etc. I would have loved to hear Obama as well but his rally was during a work day and was closed off hours before he got there, 20,000 plus crowd!! I can't wait to see who the candidate will be, much drama!

Happy President's Day as well...to those of you who have a 3 day weekend! We're going down to Vancouver, Canada by train early tomorrow morning, can't wait. My last day of work was yesterday so when I get back Monday night, I'll have 3 days to focus on preparing/packing for my Guatemala trip. Hasta luego!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

Any chance you believe I've decided to take up Chinese instead of Spanish? No, okay then, I'll just wish you "best wishes and have a prosperous and happy new year!"

It's the year of the rat and they celebrate it with a force here. I bought moon pies from a Chinese bakery in the International District (more than just Chinatown with its' Vietnamese influence and I'm sure many other cultures I'm not yet aware of) today. One made with red bean and the other with lotus. They are tiny but so heavy, let you know the verdict....

Fat & Super Tuesday

What's not to love? A day dedicated to eating your heart out and mucho political drama!! My kind of day. So, my vote in a few weeks as a Washington resident may not make much difference depending on what happens today. Still undecided....want a female president but at the same time think Obama might be the breath of fresh air this country needs. Health care is the most important factor for me...especially after seeing how insurance companies work now that I don't have socialized...oh I mean military...medicine. What are your thoughts??

Much paint, paint, and more paint going on this past weekend. Not my favorite of activities, however, I love the finished look. Our bedroom is a calming, light blue color...not pastel easter egg blue, more sophisticated and I love it! What a difference a color you love makes, instead of that ugly brown color I thought I could live with. After years of talking about buying bedroom furniture...finally did it...online from Costco: a king size platform bed with clean, simple lines. I won't get to see it before I leave though:-( Now am looking at bedding and curtains to continue the calming theme.

The second bedroom was a lot more fun to paint...smaller with less complicated walls. Well, it could've been easier had I not decided to paint the ceiling (and myself in the process). What a workout! My arms were so sore, reaching at all angles to cover everything. I thought the color was a little lighter, which is why I thought I'd paint the ceiling to give the appearance that it's a bigger room. It's still a light purplish brown, I love it, Ryan's on the fence. Still have to touch it up a bit and move furniture in there and put up curtains for the final effect. Now we can clear out the breakfast nook which is where we stashed the bedroom stuff. Can't wait to get this place clutter-free so I can enjoy Seattle for my remaining weeks and pack!

I'm off to make a Mardi Gras King cake for a Fat Tuesday party. This year, I've decided to not give anything up for Lent but to make positive changes in my life. Here's my first: 40 days of reconnecting to people, both here and in Guatemala. Here's to 40 days of change!

CA scenery & snow-shoeiing pictures

My attempt at making these pictures smaller has failed. So here you have it: huge pictures of us. The first three are from the Monterey area: 17 mile drive, Carmel, and Big Sur. There really were so many good pictures, it was hard to choose which ones to post (I highly recommend the camera I have--Canon Sureshot, it's virtually fool-proof aside from the occasional finger).

The last is of snow-shoeiing!! I've wanted to do this for years now and was so excited to go with a friend from work, Sirima. She organized a group of her friends--some of which had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro along with her husband, a former Air Force special forces guy--so knew we'd be in safe hands avoiding those avalanches. What she failed to tell me is that it was her birthday---one of her friends actually carried a cake he had made, surprising her with it and sang happy birthday. What nice friends she has! All this while eating lunch under a tree well (shown in the picture) atop a bench formed with their shovels, so clever. I had a blast and did not want to go back to the car. I discovered that snow-shoeiing is nothing more than walking/hiking in the snow. The only gear we needed were the actual snow shoes, which we rented from REI. Just 45 minutes out of Seattle, it was a wintry wonderland: snow on the mountains and a ski resort. It was recommended to have chains on your tires close to where we snow-shoed and currently I-90 is closed in Snoqualmie Pass (locale of our fun). It was snowing and cold but you work up quite a sweat until you stop and get cold again. What fun to tromp through the snow, this is one sport I definitely want to take up while living here.....

Back in urban Seattle, it's been on the cold side (30s) but clear and even, gasp, ....sunny. Work has kept me busy...no more low census days. This is allowing me to save even more money for my trip.....only 3 more weeks until my departure!

Hasta luego, amigos!!