Paris

Out of all the places that we've been to, only Paris conjures up such romanticism and nostalgia. Plans for our two weeks here:

Shopping, shopping and shopping
Macarons galore
Aquaboulevard (Speedos for men rule!)
The usual sightseeing
Watching Euro Cup
Strolling with no destination in mind (that's the good thing about a weekly unlimited subway card!)
Hanging out with our friend who happens to be here at the same time too

We've got 18 days left. Whoa!

My Travel Tunes

Sometimes I relish long train rides and road trips because I can listen to music without much interruption. At home I'll put on a playlist but then I'll get distracted by something else. On a semi related note, our hotel in Madrid had speakers in the bathroom so I had Jerry play DJ with the radio unit in our room. Now I want one for our home as well! So much fun to sing in the shower. It really is the little things in life :)

So here's some songs that have really been our travel anthems, or call it what you will.

Bruno Mars- The Lazy Song
Our Machu Picchu hiking group sang this song in our van ride back, and it was the perfect thing to belt at the top of our lungs after a 4 day hike. So many happy memories :)

Without You- David Guetta feat Usher
I know this song came out last year but I still can't get enough of it. The video makes me nostalgic for Rio. I think Rio is one of the most beautiful cities ever.

One Republic- Good Life
We listened to this song a lot in anticipation of our trip earlier this year. Love the lyrics!

Enrique Iglesias- Escape and Don't Turn Off the Lights
Jerry and I spent a full day in Jordan pretty much watching MTV non stop. One of the shows was entirely on Enrique. It was quite fitting as we were on our way to Spain the next day which is where he's from. Then we proceeded to play those two songs on repeat on Jerry's phone.

And here's my top 25 of songs played on my iPhone. Can you tell I am sort of obsessed with Lady Antebellum? And that I like the different versions of the same song? :) Ahhh I love music! I am excited to also go home and listen to the music that I've discovered while traveling. Thank goodness for Shazam and Soundhound!

One Month and I Don't Feel Like Doing Anything...At All

We've got one month to go! Crazy. We are pretty much ready to go home next month. Right now I am really just try to soak everything in. I am glad we picked Europe to finish our our trip. Our original plan was to do South America last...so glad it didn't work out that way. I can't imagine doing Machu Picchu right now, in the words of Bruno Mars, I don't feel like doing anything...nothing at all!

Europe has been treating us so well. Spain turned out to be one of my favorite countries so far, and we've had a blast visiting my family in Berlin. My last visit to Germany was 2001, so I met my cousin's kids that hadn't been born yet at the time! We only met the kiddos 5 days ago, but we completely bonded and already love each other so much. Despite the language barrier we had tons of fun just playing random games. Jerry and I also watched the most soccer we ever have during our time in Berlin, I had no idea my family was such huge fans! I also think it's hilarious that they gamble on games as well. In fact we got so caught up cheering for Germany that we saw last night's game from our hotel room in Prague. It was sad to leave my Berlin cousins yesterday but we had to move onto Prague as our next European leg. However in a few days we'll be bound for Heidelberg where my other cousins live! Yay for double family time.

So after Prague and Heidelberg we've got Paris!, Amsterdam, and London. We might throw in a side trip or two, we'll see how ambitious we feel like being. Jerry has a friend in Copenhagen, but we might have to save the Nordic countries for another time. Otherwise I feel perfectly content just doing nothing but soaking in the atmosphere of wherever we're at!

Random Obsessions

Podcasts- Jerry had been listening to podcasts (mostly sports related) for ages now but I barely got on the bandwagon until recently. Now I'm obsessed with finding all sorts of podcasts! My favorites to watch on the iPad are Mark Bittman's NYT The Minimalist episodes and random fashion videos. I like video podcasts cus they are short and sweet, I can learn/indulge in all sorts of things in a matter of minutes! I also like listening to the iTunes Celebrity Playlist Podcast, it's where a celebrity will introduce snippets of songs they like. Definitely a great way to get introduced to new bands. NPR has some great listens as well, like Pop Culture Happy Hour. Podcasts have been super useful during the long train rides we've been taking, or when my video screen on the airplane doesn't work.

Downton Abbey- I saw the pilot episode for free on the iPad and now I want to watch the entire seasons when I get back! It's so good!

Without You by David Guetta featuring Usher- okay I know this song is old but I can't stop listening to it. I also like the music video! Rio looks so pretty in the background!

On a more superficial note I've been looking for a new overnight bag and I think I'm going to go with Longchamp for the lightweight factor. Pretty much everyone around the world has the nylon Le Pliage bag which comes in multiple colors and sizes. I was going to go with that one until I found out that a new version came out this spring called the Cuir, it's all leather and has some nice buttery looking colors as well. So I've been obsessed with reading reviews to see if it's really worth it. It's been over 2.5 years since I last bought eye candy for my shoulder so why not in Europe, where prices are relatively cheap/comparable to the states, AND I get VAT back? We also specifically planned to be in Paris during Soldes, so hopefully I'll like the stock available! FYI, sales in France are strictly regulated and are only available twice a year during Jan/Feb and June/July, so pretty much this is when the Parisienne chic stocks up their wardrobe. A far cry from home where sales happen all the time, we're spoiled!

Watermelon. We've been eating it nonstop in Spain! Our place in Barcelona has a generous sized kitchen so we bought a whole watermelon from a local market and finished it in less than a day. I think we might get another one tonight!

Homestretch and Happy

We're in the homestretch of our trip- Europe! Landed in Spain a couple days ago from Jordan. Hard to believe that we're coming home in about 1.5 months. Time really flies.

While this trip has been everything and more, I'm also looking forward to coming home and starting a new life in the bay area with Jerry.

Other things I look forward to:
Checking out books from the library
Cooking in our own kitchen
Hanging out with family and friends
Typing on a real keyboard
American TV
Not being at the mercy of public transportation
Eating homemade salads (I feel like restaurant salads costs more than meat in many places around the world!)
Going on a fat ass refrigerator stocking trip at Trader Joes and Costco
Decorating and pimping our new house
Bumming it on the couch and watching the Olympics!
And bringing our puppy home!!

This trip is an ultimate experience, but what makes it special for me is that eventually it will end and it'll be time to move on. For example, you think back to the dorms and how fun it was, but you wouldn't want to be bunking it with a bunch of undergrads now, right? So that's how I feel about traveling personally. We're not cut out to be indefinite travelers. We crave the life we created at home and can't wait to move on to the next stage.

Howeverrrr since we're in Europe, I'm going to embrace the chill lifestyle (siestas, love it!), decent exchange rate, and tasty bakeries for the remainder of time that we have left :)

I'm incredibly happy, relaxed, and at peace right now. Kind of like this elephant!

Beijing-Pyongyang

We're leaving for North Korea today. Crazy! Will be back next week. Somehow the great firewall of China blocked blogspot but not blogger. Go figure. I'm also able to receive FB private PMs, but nothing else. Google docs is also blocked, but pinterest and feedler aren't, whew! Giving up our phones while in NK so talk to you all on the flip side!

Dumb and Dumber

I think my brain's gone soft the last month. Jerry noticed it too. Examples:

On one of our customs cards, instead of the house number I put the zip code. And then I didn't even fill out the zip code part.

When Jerry says look right! and he looks left, I'll look left too. He does it to prove that I'm dumb now haha.

I keep saying Tokyo when I mean Kyoto and vice versa.

About 80% of the time in Rio, I turned the wrong way from the elevators to our apt. Even on our last day!

I've worn various items of clothing inside out on multiple occasions. I'm not even rushed, I just don't think!

I left two items AT the store, yep walked out empty-handed. I was a little out of it that afternoon though, but still I've never done that before! Oops.

Hmm there are other things but I can't remember right now. Anyways at least my mind's pretty sharp when it comes to calculating exchange rates when I go shopping, and when I need to figure out the metro system! :)

Speaking of shopping I bought so much stuff in Tokyo (screw exchange rates) that we had to buy a backpack to load everything up. Our friend flew out to Kyoto to meet up with us (his job allows him free flights worldwide) and he was able to mule our goodies back home for us. Yay! I bought tons of cute stuff but I can't share it now because many are gifts for friends. I can share that we finally bought two knives that we've been on the hunt for to add to our kitchen, knives are bad luck to gift! Also I bought tons of fabric. I'll have to do a post on Tokyo shopping sometime.

Now we are in Hakone, I'm looking forward to relaxing in the hot springs! Maybe I can restore some brain cells as well haha. Just a few days left in Japan, and we're off to Beijing!

Fabric town in Nippori, awesome!

Fushimi Inari Shrine, love!

Edit: I'm so dumb I mixed up the captions. Oops. You can figure out what's what. :P

Facebook and Penis Jokes

This isn't a rash generalization of everyone, but more of a personal opinion. Disclaimer: Not bagging on my own Facebook friends, just some observations I've made lately! :)

Keeping up with Facebook while traveling has offered me an opportunity to somewhat keep ties to life at home while being geographically removed from it. It's also allowed me to keep in touch with folks that we've met on the road. I don't really know how else to say this, but it's really been refreshing to have this infusion of newness on my Facebook wall that's not interjected with penis jokes, or the t-b word or the d word or something equally inappropriate etc. It's not really my own Facebook friends who post such immature things, it's more friends of friends that seem to not have grown up, despite some of them being older than me! (Many are younger, I guess my fault for accepting requests of college aged kids haha).

Anyways, I still look forward to updates from the home front and from new international friends. I'll just have to learn to turn a blind eye to stuff I don't like to read. Everyone's entitled to say what they want where they want to. I've always been big on not censoring anyone.

But thank goodness my Facebook wall has more variety now! I'm no prude, so if I want to say something dirty or inappropriate I'm more careful than I used to be!

Quick Hello from Argentina!

We've been on the road for about 3.5 weeks now, my how does time fly by. Hope everyone has been able to catch up on our travel blog! I just put up a post on our parrilla adventure in Buenos Aires.

Quick thoughts:
We went from mid 50s in El Calafate to mid 90s in Iguazu Falls. Total wardrobe change in a matter of hours!

I've made so many friends on the road than I have in the last few years it seems like! It is nice meeting folks from all the corners of the world.

After nearly a month in SA, I'm ready to go to Asia! I miss Asian food a lot! I've had two local versions of Chinese food in Peru and Buenos Aires, but definitely not the same. As much as I love lomo saltado, ceviche, chicha morada, steak, I'm ready for new flavor profiles.

Mosquitos love me. I've been bitten in every country we've visited so far.

Today we are exploring the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls and then we fly out to Rio. Then off to Japan on Tuesday, weeee!

Puppy Deposit, Check

We've both wanted a dog for a while, and more specifically a shiba inu.  Well, it's almost a reality because today we met with our breeder and put a deposit down on a puppy from the next litter!  I think normally most people wouldn't reserve so early, especially since the dogs aren't even in heat yet, but since we'll be gone for 6 months, we decided why not, just get it done.  I think a dog's gestation period is around 2 months, and we get to bring the puppy home at 8 weeks, so total 4 months.  Our breeder told us we may be able to bring her/him home around Sept/Oct but of course it's also up to mother nature.  I simply can't wait to have my first puppy!!  But RTW trip first...we leave tomorrow morning!