Merry Adventures

So, those of you that follow me on Facebook are no doubt aware that I have safely arrived in Wellington, and the trip was pretty easy, all things considered. I tolerated the super long flight much better than I expected, and honestly it was ok.

I did have a missed connection on the last leg of my flight, due to a luggage issue (more on that later), but it only put me about an hour behind schedule and all was well. From Atlanta, I had a pretty awesome view of the sun setting behind the tower as I was waiting to board the flight to LAX.

 

Then I was SO lucky! My flight to LAX (with a window seat) had an empty middle seat – started off right! (MinifigMerry really enjoyed that space!).

 

ATL – LAX was fairly uneventful, and I napped quite well – honestly – I think the collective exhaustion of the last few weeks packing, getting ready to go and saying goodbye to all of my awesome people finally caught up with me.

We arrived in LAX, and I had just enough time to freshen up a bit, grab a snack and some water and reorganize my bag so that I could do some work on the plane (HAHA!).

 

LAX – AUK was a much easier flight than I anticipated – I think because my expectations were SO very low. This flight was on the new Boeing 787 (AKA Dreamliner) – and I had heard mixed things about the seats. I had decided to “bite the bullet” a bit a pay for a preferred seat – 29 A. On the 787 in the American Airline configuration, rows 29 and 30 only have 2 seats on the outside rows instead of 3 – so that meant I had this great space between my seat and the body of the plane – space large enough that I could actually stand up between my seat and the plane to stretch. Not bad, right? Meal service on the plane was pretty great, and the entertainment options were pretty good too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I honestly don’t really remember much of what I watched on the plane – I know there was a movie – and some TV shows, but honestly, I slept ALOT and just relaxed – So, all intents of doing work on the plane went out the very interestingly tinted “automatic” windows.

What I do think made the plane ride more tolerable were a couple of accessories, that I would strongly recommend. I do not do well with the traditional around the neck travel pillow – all they do is make my head fall forward. Prior to my trip to Europe 2 years ago, I purchased this travel pillow – and it is the BEST!! – It is inflatable, and rolls up to take up almost no space at all. Also, a pair of compression socks are a must have for a long series of flights like these. Finally, I made what I was sure would be a frivolous purchase, but thought it was worth the try – you see, my short legs don’t always reach the floor or the “adjustable” (HaHa) footrests on airplanes, and I knew that could be quite miserable for the duration of my 2 longest flights, so I bought a travel footrest – let me tell you – what a brilliant thing! I “ALMOST” felt like I was in a recliner when I adjusted it to hold my legs. If you are taller, I am not sure how much it would help, but for those of us that are vertically challenged, I cannot recommend it enough.

Upon arrival in Auckland the less than fun adventure began. I cleared passport control pretty quickly, then got to Biological Security (As an Island, NZ takes this pretty seriously – the last thing they need is something like a Kudzu epidemic!). The line was a mess, and they kept branching the line off, and as my luck would have it, I was always in the “wrong” line. I started getting nervous, because of course my flight at that point was in less than an hour and a half. I cleared bio security rather quickly – I had my form filled out, knew what I was declaring and why and zipped through, and then started to find my way to re check my bags. . . My friends, AUK is NOT a fun airport to change from the international to domestic terminal. It is a long, nasty walk between 2 completely separate airport buildings, and with luggage. . . NOT FUN – AT ALL.

I get to the domestic terminal with 45 minutes till my flight, but I have been assured I will be fine – until they can’t pull up my reservation, and insist I must pay to recheck my bags (which were tagged through to Wellington, mind you). . . at this point, I decide I will just bite the bullet and deal with that later, so that I can hopefully make my flight, and then the guy can’t print my bag tags. I still don’t know where he disappeared to trying to figure it all out, but I missed the flight – then was rebooked, but what a mess. . . I finally got a new flight and boarding pass, checked the bags  – got through security (and oh my is it easy to go through domestic security in NZ after being used to the US) and got on the flight. After the nightmare that was dealing with AirNZ counter service, I did not have high hopes for the flight, but the flight attendants were lovely, and redeemed my experience. After a little more than an hour, I arrived in Wellington, where Jenny and Ian, my wonderful landlords were there to meet me. Colin from Fulbright NZ was also there.

 

 

 

 

Landing in Wellington!

 

 

 

 

Jenny and Ian helped me get my luggage, and then took me on a little tour of Wellington on the way to grab some lunch. I totally hit the landlord jackpot with them, by the way – they are truly a blessing! After a lovely lunch we walked over and got my NZ SIM card situated before heading to Aro Valley to meet the Ludbrooks for tea. (You may remember that the Clark’s flat was damaged by the earthquake, so for the next month or so, I will be staying with their friends the Ludbrooks (Julian and Joanna). We arrived at Julian and Joannas, and I must say that yet again, I have hit the jackpot – what lovely, engaging and awesome people – I am going to enjoy so much getting to know them over the next month or so. We had a lovely tea, and then I retreated to my room to unpack a bit and take a shower. Part of my deal with the Ludbrooks was that I had the option to be included in dinner with them which is so nice! While I was settling in, showering and then just hanging out and exploring the gardens, Joanna was busy making a lovely dinner for the 3 of us.

We ate dinner – had some lovely conversation, and I made myself stay awake until 9:30 – then I went to bed, ready for a full Wednesday of exploring Wellington.

Stay tuned – more blog posts to come until I get all caught up!

Note: Somehow I never posted this blog post, so I am posting it now incomplete – and might even revisit and finish it. . . But for now, I needed to get it out of Draft mode. 🙂

I had a wonderful Spring Break in Washington DC, and got to do some neat stuff across the city. Instead of boring you all with a daily post, (and probably because I’m being sort of lazy) I decided to just do one post for the whole week, so it will be a little long, but here goes:

I had been to DC previously mostly for work stuff, so I had seen a lot of the monuments on tours and in passing, but I had never done any of the Smithsonians, which for a self confessed geek like me, was a bit of a shame, and I sought to rectify that this trip.

My flight left very early Saturday morning, and I am quite thankful that my friend Jill was willing to get up that early to take me to the airport. My flight left on time, and I actually arrived in DC early, which was fabulous. I was staying with friends Dawn and Darrin, who had to leave town due to a family emergency, so I got to hang out with Sprocket, their funny dog, for the first couple of days that I was in town.

Once I got settled into the flat, I decided to go grab some lunch, then just stroll through DC. I had hear that DC is the place to try Ethiopian food, so I thought why not. I looked up places on yelp and found a place called Ethiopic and ventured there for dinner/lunch. If you have never had Ethiopian food before, dining is an experience in itself. In traditional Ethiopian restaurants there is no cutlery, and you use the bread which is very similar to a nan-type flatbread to essentially scoop the food with your hand.  The food was very good – with interesting spices. I must say I enjoyed the whole experience, and the honey wine was spectacular.

 

 

 

After I left the Ethiopian restaurant, I decided to head towards the national mall to see if the Cherry Blossoms were still pretty – (they had peaked a few weeks before I arrived), and check out the Cherry Blossom Festival around the title basin. Little did I know that was also going to stumble upon the Kite Festival around the Washington Monument, which was a really cool sight, and definitely some spectacular people watching!

  
  
  
 It was obviously incredibly crowded all over the mall so after a few minutes of hanging out watching the fun that was the kite festival, I continued down towards the Tidal Basin and I was not disappointed by the beautiful blooms that I was able to see.

                       After strolling and admiring the cherry blossoms, I found my way to the Festival stage, and got to see this great show:

 At this point I wandered further, and came across a lovely and unexpected surprise, the Floral Library at the National Mall – just stunning!                                 

At this point, I was honestly a bit over the crowds, so headed back to the apartment to just chill.

Sunday

Sunday I started by attending worship at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, which is a very cool church located in the heart of DC, and a church with a fantastic history. I encourage to read more about not only their history, but their role in seeking justice in DC.

http://www.nyapc.org

The service was lovely, and I arrived early enough to hear the organist and choir warming up, which I enjoyed.

The pictures below are from my tour of the church after the service (you can read about the connections to Lincoln on their website, but it was fascinating, and I enjoyed the time they took to do that – I even got to sit in “Lincoln’s Pew”)

  
  
  
  

After my tour of the church, I wandered across the street to a great German Cafe – The Mozart Cafe – which was a tiny little place tucked behind a German grocery store – (I resisted the urge to stock up on German Mustard walking through – I figured the potential for it to bust in my luggage wasn’t worth the risk, since I was headed to SD before I made it home). The food, mustard (and beverages) at Cafe Mozart were spot on, and I almost felt like I was back in Germany!

  
  

After I left the German Cafe, I decided to just wander through DC and enjoy the afternoon, with no real agenda or purpose. Walking around the waterfront neighborhood that evening, I did get spectacular views of the evening sunset (and no, that is not a UFO, just the lobby of the theater).

Monday

Monday was a busy day, and started early, with a tour of the capital I had booked through my Congressman’s office. Regina gave us a great tour, and even with all the scaffolding, it was a cool experience.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

Once I left the capital I decided to head back to the National Mall, with the goal of knocking out some Smithsonian Museums, but on the way took a slight detour (really just walked in) the National Botanical Gardens.

  
  
  
  

After the Botanic Gardens I went to the Native American History Museum -great exhibits, which really were very well done.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
I honestly didn’t take a lot of pictures, which will be a theme through much of my museum journeys.  Just trust me – take the chance to go and experience the Smithsonians. They are free, and are true national treasures.

Tuesday –

Wednesday –

Thursday –

Friday –

Saturday –

 

 

Since today was my last full Parisian day, I decided to make the most of it. I started by heading to the Art of Lego Expo – featuring the awesome Lego sculptures of Nathan Sawaya – which I have used in my classroom to introduce some “stem art” to my students, so I was pumped. The expo did not disappoint. Check out this amazing artwork: 

After the show I hit a few sites in rapid succession & had lunch at a bistro. 

I went to the Notre Dame crypt – cool ruins of the old Paris, skipped the cathedral (the line was wrapped around the church!) and went to Montremarte and enjoyed the lovely views of Paris. 

To conclude my day we had a Bon voyage/ celebration dinner at the best little restaurant in Paris.  L’Ecrin – yummy! Thanks to Joy, Bethany, Claire and Zoe for being such awesome Paris friends! 🙂

Tomorrow I head home. This has been an amazing trip!

Today was Bastille day in France, a national holiday, so I really got to experience the fun and traditions of the day 1st hand.

We started with a light brunch at Bethany’s, before venturing to the parade route, we found a spot, and settled in for a few hours of standing and watching the Bastille Day Parade, which is a military parade (not like the parades we think of in the states). Before the parade started, you had flyovers by jets, the first one creating the French flag in the sky with red, white and blue dust. It was pretty cool, but I must say that having planes fly that low in a city is a bit unnerving – especially the historic planes that I am certain were similar to those used during the air raids and bombings. 

The parade was different than any I had ever seen – each military group came through in their dress uniforms (I assume) and many of them were marching and singing – while I couldn’t understand a word (no French, remember?) I was able to really appreciate the difficulty of that task – they were very impressive. We discovered that were only saw about 1/2 of the parade because of a split in the route, but it was cool none the less.

The neatest thing was that each year, France picks a partnering nation to be the guest, and this year it was Mexico – and the Mexican Military group marched with huge birds – I kid you not! It was amazing to see them march, sing and cary these giant birds with them!

After the parade, we headed back to Bethany’s to chill before our next fun adventure, a picnic.

Joy planned a great picnic with lots of her friends (and involving wine and cheese, so you know it will be great!). We enjoyed the conversation with each other and the beauty of the park – it was great!)

After several hours, we realized we were done, and we were both perfectly ok to skip fighting the crowds at the fireworks and the Eiffel tower, so we ventured back to Joy’s, ordered yummy Lebanese take out, and just relaxed.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Paris, so I will see what I can check off my list before heading home Thursday evening – I also realized today that somewhere in my blog I have messed up the days – but oh well! 🙂

So, today was a pretty fantastic and busy day. I started my day at the Louvre – which is the first ever public museum in Europe, and is the largest in the world – I knew I needed a focus, because you could spend years in the Louvre, and not see everything it has to offer. The palace itself is a masterpiece in its own right, as you can see in this room: http://360.io/zPKy6d 

The Louvre was once the home of France Royalty, and has an interesting history, which you can see here.

But, back to my visit – I knew I couldn’t see everything, and I wanted to hit the highlights, but the Louvre is massive – so I decided to download the free Rick Steeve’s Audio tour – and use it to guide my exploration.

This was a good plan – the Louvre is overwhelming, and this tour allowed me to see the highlights, and learn a little history about the paintings, the museum and the artists. (I also sort of used his guide in the Orsay).

After thoroughly enjoying my time in the Louvre, I headed to a close site, and another museum, Le Orangerie, which thankfully is a very small museum, but the highlight of the visit was Monet’s beautiful series of paintings, Water Lilies. They were breathtaking and are displayed so well in the museums oval shaped rooms. I failed at pictures here, (too many tourists) but they were just beautiful, and to think about them in a historical perspective, as Monet felt the world needed something beautiful to reflect on and contemplate after the devastation of WWI.

I left the museum artistically fulfilled, and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to my next stop, a French Wine Tasting. This was lovely, and apparently the sommelier really liked me, because I certainly got to try more than my alloted 3 wine samples – they were brilliant!

After the wine tasting, I ventured back to Joy’s to chill out a bit before our next adventure.

We started our evening at Bethany’s flat, where she had prepared some fabulous snacks and things for us to have before heading to the Bal de Pompiers – a French Bastille Day tradition. In each Arrondissement (district) in Paris, the firemen (pompiers) hold a ball to raise money for their charity, and these are quite the party – it was such a cool experience – not only because there were LOTS of firemen there! 😉

The live band was interesting, and played a huge variety of music, both english pop and french music, and it was excellent people watching and observing. I loved that this was truly an intergenerational event (at least early on) as families, older couples, young adults and everyone in between enjoyed the party together.

We finally left at about 1:00, but their were still people coming into the party at that time, and from what we understand, the parties often last until 4:00 in the morning – but we certainly were not in for all that excitement.

It was a great day, and tomorrow we get to partake in Bastille day celebrations.