I have just returned from a great trip touring parts of Southeast Asia. The upside to working in China and having no time off at Christmas is the 5 week holiday we get in January As all the teachers went off to various parts of the world 2 friends Mandy and Sanya and I ventured to the Phillipines and Indonesia for some fun in the sun. We headed to the Phillipines first. One of the priorities o

Some people will inevitably snub your needs and show up at your shower or wedding with a mixer toaster or markanddip bowl. Thank them then settle what to do with their gift keep it regift it or earnings it for something you can use.Try to keep perspective in these bags. The spirit of the gift sincerely does grasp and every one of your guests who takes the time and struggle to give you one d

Ahh Nha Trang how a week of you wrecked my entire life and possibly my liver mom I am kidding. Our last couple days there turned out to be a bit hectic. Me and Kenna were lucky enought to meet three awesome guys who were staying at the Perfume Grass Inn with us all of whom were sarcastic mother effers but hilarous. rog and Gu ywere from Chicago and they tried to introduce themselves as The Las

During the planning stage for the trip Noah postulated the idea of taking a gander at the Grand Canyon. The 16th of February found Noah steering us North out of Phoenix on I17. The day was warm enough to run the Camryrsquos AC. We entered a long area of hilly desert populated with thousands of Seguaro cactus. Just south of Sedona we hit a section of road that would either tax your d

We arrived in Rio at 6am and hailed a taxi to take us to our hostel in Santa Teresa. I had been warned about their driving skills but oh my god its scary. We arrived at our hostels road but the driver couldnt find the hostel and was going mental he was even explaining that it did not even excist. Coincidently this is the only hostel we have prebooked and we did it in England through STA. so it

Up early for the trip to King David's hotel in the city centre where we are to be picked up for our tour to Massada. Taxi picks us up at 7am as we know what the traffic can be like we have gone early to make sure we get there in time for 9am Taxi metered and we are off King David hotel is the most famous hotel in Israel boasting guests like Churchill Sadat Haile Selassie Gorbachev That

Well today was the day that me and Fi had been eagerley anticipating since deciding that we would go travelling. Today we had tickets for the Sambadrome and we were due to watch the carnival and on Valentines day. It is a really good day for the both of us.With the carnival not being until later on we decided we had to kill some time and there was only one thing that Fi wanted to do during the day

Well having my mom here could only get better by us traveling to Dublin for three days. My mom not going to lie got tired of Belfast and wanted to see someother places and I thought Dublin couldnt be a better place to go. Just a quick note also which has made the trip great is while she has been here we have won two super league games in a row and one college game she is the Ulster Elk's good lu

Another day Yet another story.At about 630pm two nights ago I was preparing to set out to travel to Cusco. This being the last leg of my South American journey I was to stop here then travel onwards to Lima where Im flying out of on Sunday. At this time I thought that I would search online to find out what time the buses were departing from Cusco to Lima..... As we all know the roads and the I

Today was an early start. After checking out of the rooms we loaded the bus with our bags and settled in for journey through dappled sunlight towards the former capital of Costa Rica Cartago.The traffic was busy and chaotic 4x4s jostled with commuter buses to occupy the same space on the road as light goods vehicles whilst mopeds darted in and out like hummingbirds visiting flower after flowe

Today is a pretty boring blog as from 5am until 6am the following day we were either flying or stuck in an airport trying to get our way to Rio de Janeiro. The dullest part was definately the 12 hour wait at Lima airport which included a bit of sleeping chosing a restaurant for lunch chosing a restaurant for dinner there was only 2 restaurants so this didnt take long general procrastinatin

Kathmandu is fantastic and my job here couldn't be any better but these past 10 days have been beset by sickness and frustration. Fieldwork isn't always fun and games so it seems. The sickness was due to parasitesI must have made some malignant little internal friends during my village stay the subject of the next postI promise and they kept me in bed with a bucket nearby for some days

After a hard day walking in the heat yesterday today i woke up feeling a tired b a little unwell and c itchy mosquito's 4 mark 0. A lazy morning was neccessary and after the Boducherala family picked up on my lack of appetite. I was given some soothing medicine for anyone in india it's called Digene and it is a miracle cure. The family even sent the housekeeper out to buy me a bottle

Perceptions of Beirut are so deeply ingrained that to many people in the UK the city is synonymous with bombings kidnappings carjackings and bloody massacres. It's also a generic term used when arriving at a place less than perfect. It's like Beirut here is a common phrase and one I'd used myself over and over. But surely times had changed After all the terrible civil war had been over for alm

Today students addressed and stuffed their envelopes with an eager to travel Stanley. He was mailed to Germany California Tennesse and California. The students were very excited to mail their envelopes in the school office Now the waiting game begins I will begin posting entries as soon as Stanley makes his return to Austin.

It was 640am in Thailand when I got a message from my mom 240pm Feb 8th Seattle time. She is about 7 pounds. 51 cm. Born in the year of the ox. Her name is Violet.OH.MY.BUDDHA I'm an Uncle I was overwhelemed with joy. I was also shocked because the baby was expected to be born on Feb.14th but I guess she was too excited for life to begin Maggie and I finished up our adventurous vacation in

waiting for the time to pass is so hard. still have a few months to go but weve got mostly all the stuff we need probably buy our tickets this weekend and wait to find a great deal on a lightweight and small but durable tent...and we will be ready to go. decided we will fly in to prague and explore from there. this will be only the beginning i simply can not let everyone else see the world an

Ahh off to london again I cant wait I am leaving on the 23rd and will be in heathrow airport 24th 7.30 am. Well planning the trip this time was easy i used one website for my hotel and all the rest of my bookings i brought all the tickets for the tourist attractions in advance this time all via the website londonpics4u.com i was looking in the gallery page of londonpics4u and there is truly so

Today would have been Irenersquos birthday. In Richmond Park in south west London at midday Nellie and Monk joined together with 30 or so others to celebrate their love for Irene by planting a tree in her memory.Irene was the freest of free spirits and Monk felt that the final resting place for her ashes should reflect this and he chose the hawthorn as the tree that best symbolised Irene's bea

Irsquom a skier itrsquos one of the reasons I live in the mountains. One of the most popular sports in the Olympics are the skiing events it doesnrsquot matter men women or which event they are very popular. Earlier in the week I had a chance to grab my skis and head up the mountain to watch the menrsquos downhill event from along side the course at Whistler Creeksidersquos Dave Mu