Living in the jungle is a great way to practice living in the moment. When we're living at Bamboo School I find that usually the urgent and everyday chaos is all consuming. So much so that one day I opened my computer and saw my "BLOG" folder on the desktop and realized I had completely forgotten I even have a blog!
Right now Ryan and I are in South Korea until the end of January to teach at an English winter camp. I'm not very good at or even interested in blogging chronologically about our life. Still....I had hoped that the blog would be a way to keep people updated on what we were doing and where we were because I know that changes too often for anyone to really follow.
Ryan and I spent last summer in the states. We stayed six months and hopped around visiting friends and family in LA, Seattle, Kentucky, Michigan, Chicago and Canada. We hadn't planned to stay so long but Ryan's brother Stephen and his girlfriend Rachel got engaged and we stuck around for the wedding in August. I danced harder at that wedding than any other before! It's always good visiting home. There are things about being in the states that are strange. We experienced more culture shock this trip back than we have previously. We find that we're happiest and most comfortable being in a foreign culture for whatever reason. We don't have any desire to move back home any time soon, if ever. But I still love going home. I'm not a traveler who is running away from something at home and I never get bored when we're home. It doesn't matter how long we go home, it never feels long enough!
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When we were home we had a photo shoot for our 10 year anniversary. This is one among many favorites. |
When I wrote the last post (about my 30th birthday) we were traveling in Italy for said birthday and our 10 year wedding anniversary. We were heading back to Thailand from the states and were able to make our flight a multi-city ticket so we could do some special traveling and friend visiting on the way. We spent a little over three weeks in Italy (Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Cinque Terre, Capri/Anacapri, Rome, ) and about a week in Spain (Barcelona and Sitges). We had the best time in Europe.....Spain was so much fun thanks to our gorgeous friends Will and Sara and Italy didn't disappoint any of my lifelong fantasies. On my birthday we were staying in Anacapri (on the island of Capri). On our way back that night we stumbled across a community dodgeball game happening at some sort of outdoor community center. We soon discovered that the referee's name was Luigi as the players shouted/whined his name every time they wanted to complain or argue about his calls. By the end of the game there was a circle of guys in each others faces shaking their fists and fulfilling every stereotype I could imagine. Happy birthday to me! :) I would live in Italy for an extended period of time in a heartbeat.
The next leg of our flight was an extended layover in Egypt (Cairo and a little jaunt to Alexandria) for about a week that only added about $20 to our ticket cost!!. Stayed with a friend there and felt like the luckiest people alive. Can't properly explain how it felt seeing the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx in person. Saw mummies (including Rhamses'!) and couldn't get over that I was looking at real people's bodies who had lived 4,000 years ago (their hair, toenails, seriously surreal) . Stood staring at King Tut's famous mask for a long time....I could have touched it if I wanted to (and wanted to most likely spend the rest of my life locked away in some Egyptian prison). Had dinner a couple times on the bank of the Nile River and took a sunset felucca (boat) ride there as well. Pretty much felt like I was living in a National Geographic magazine.
The next leg of our flight was an extended layover in Egypt (Cairo and a little jaunt to Alexandria) for about a week that only added about $20 to our ticket cost!!. Stayed with a friend there and felt like the luckiest people alive. Can't properly explain how it felt seeing the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx in person. Saw mummies (including Rhamses'!) and couldn't get over that I was looking at real people's bodies who had lived 4,000 years ago (their hair, toenails, seriously surreal) . Stood staring at King Tut's famous mask for a long time....I could have touched it if I wanted to (and wanted to most likely spend the rest of my life locked away in some Egyptian prison). Had dinner a couple times on the bank of the Nile River and took a sunset felucca (boat) ride there as well. Pretty much felt like I was living in a National Geographic magazine.
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Giddy to finally be in Italia! |
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Met up with Kelli and her lovely friends in Rome. Being touristy at Trevi Fountain. |
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Truly surreal. |
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Our favorite day outside of seeing the pyramids and Egypt museum was a day we spent wandering in Islamic Cairo. We turned down into a little neighborhood and felt uncomfortably conspicuous with our big camera but couldn't help stealing a shot of these little guys. |
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Felucca on the Nile! The Egyptian sun is truly different than the sun anywhere else I've been. |
Finally, in the end of September, we landed back in Thailand. And Thailand is what I want to talk about.....in my next post!
