Friday, January 31, 2014

wanderlust

decisions, decisions.

i'm trying to decide where to go this spring break.  i'm already booked on a cheerleading trip the first week to salou, spain (yay!) but have two weeks afterwards to galavant around europe, much like i did last year (if you recall, luxembourg, belgium, and the netherlands).  here are my options:

option 1: i have always wanted to go to germany so it is on the top of my list.  also, a friend of a friend is doing study abroad outside munich so i could potentially have a guide one day or at least some helpful tips.  i could do similar things to my benelux trip last year where i just get a eurail pass and go to various german cities.  negatives about this trip include only seeing one country and not speaking the language.  positives include cost, ability to do what i want when i want to do it, and making myself get back in to learning german.

option 2a: a friend i met in amsterdam last year recommended contiki tours - they do tours for 18-35's. he said it was great as there are lots of solo travelers but even those who are coupled up or small groups are still really friendly and open and that they all have loads of fun.  he had been on a few, too, so had lots of advice and what i felt were valid opinions and suggestions. i found a tour called "berlin to budapest" that looks really awesome - 11 days, 10 nights traveling from berlin through prague, vienna, bratislava, and ending in budapest.  i would love to see hungary as my grandmother's family - the one who just passed away - came from hungary.  negatives about this trip are cost (almost $2k) and timing; it starts in berlin on april 12th and i get back to london on the 11th from spain so i would have to do laundry, get minimal rest, and book it to the airport early the next morning.  positives are the amount of cities and countries i would get to see and that i would have a guided tour in places where i didn't understand the language.

option 2b: another contiki tour option - greek islands and turkey.  while i do want to see greece and turkey, i kind of had my heart set on germany.  this trip, though, had lots of positives that i can't ignore.  negatives are not getting to see germany (yet) and some of the reviews made it sound like you didn't get to spend too much time in each place and that a lot of the time is spent on a cruise ship that also has non-contiki guests, i.e. families and elderly folk.  positives are price (much less, i think only about $700), timing/duration, and again the benefit of a guided tour in places where i don't understand the language.

of course there are a million other options, but these are kind of the ones i've settled on at the moment.  i'm not sure what my reader base is like, but can anyone who stumbles upon this post happen to offer any thoughts on my choices?

brb.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

harry, my little monster

harry is my little special christmas savior.  coming home to an empty house was devastating (well, there are my cats and of course parents but it wasn't the same without my baby jordan).  still more was my grandmother's house, but we will save that for another post and i will try to keep this one upbeat.

while still in england, i began browsing petfinder.com, which i think i mentioned in a previous post (but it's been so long since i last wrote, who knows!) and found this adorable dog leah.  well, lo and behold leah got adopted (yay!) but i was still hooked out this shelter.  it was very near to my parents' house and it appeared they train and treat the dogs well as it was also a training centre so i kept browsing their pets.

i want to take a side bar here and say that apparently, this shelter had some issues a few years ago - the old owner wasn't properly feeding or giving attention to the dogs.  this has completely changed and the new owner is wonderful, as are the staff/volunteers.  the dogs are so happy, have plenty of toys and treats, a lot of which are donated by people who got their dogs from this kennel.  it was such a nice place!

i came across two black lab puppies but really thought a puppy was too much work and would be too hyper; these things proved true but i don't want to jump ahead.  they were both male "older" puppies, around 6 months.  they also had a cute 5 y/o female black lab who i decided was the one... until my mom called the shelter and was told she wasn't available, but they did have a 2 y/o female yellow lab (yet the 5 y/o is still listed on their site and harry has been taken off so i'm confused as to why she is still listed... anyways...).

my dad was not pleased with my mother and i as he did not want to get another dog this soon (yet he is an animal person so whatever) but through my deep depression, we decided to get one.  we went on sunday december 22nd and met the 2 y/o female.  she.  was.  in.  sane.  super jumpy (she kept over the play area fence!) and once we ran out of treats, wanted nothing to do with us but look out windows.  my mom had also spotted another dog sitting quietly in his room when we walked by, not acting like a nut like the rest of them.  we decided to meet him, too.

i had seen him online - "hercules" - one of the male black puppies (he was 8 months by this point).  online he didn't seem very cute, a little awkward-shaped but in person he was the cutest thing.  we met him, too, and played with him and he interacted with us and i liked us more than the female did.

he was it.

we couldn't take him home that day because my dad had to meet him.  which meant we had to convince him to come to the shelter.  i think i made him feel bad because he met us the next day after work and we took home my new baby!  we renamed him harry - i chose it because of the similar sounds, not because of harry styles, prince harry, or even harry potter (though if it were any, it would be the last).

harry came, originally, from a shelter in arkansas called "last chance arkansas."  i think they saved dogs from kill shelters and "distribute" them to other shelters like the one we got harry from; i think they actually had several dogs from arkansas there.  i really hope the yellow lab gets a home soon - it was hard to "choose" a dog and it did break my heart to have to leave her there, but it just wasn't meant to be; we bonded better and "fit" better with little harry.

some personality bits we have learned so far: harry does not like the cats.  they won't play with him and are jerks, but to be fair, harry is also a jerk getting all up in their shit (sometimes literally).  they will be friends one day, i'm sure.  charlie (fat beastly cat) used to like to go outside with jordan but after jordan passed away, was too afraid to be alone out there.  come spring time i'm sure charlie will appreciate harry more when they play outside.

be prepared for more posts like this one and some remembering jordan.  i love them both.  dogs are the best things ever - jordan was always there for me during rough times and harry has already supported me with the loss of both jordan and my grandmother even if he doesn't know it yet.  i'm so happy we were able to rescue him!

"so i'm sitting.  where the hell is my treat?"

christmas 2013

<3

brb.


i'm back!

ok, so this may have taken the cake as longest absence from this blog but i really need to be fair on myself and hope to be given some sort of break by my avid readers.  the last few months have been very difficult since coming back to england for my final year.  first, i was in and out of the hospital (love the health system here, by the way!).  then i lost my jordan.  then i lost my grandma.  and i couldn't get home for the funeral.  to say life has been trying would be an understatement.  it was all this grief and stress and on top of it i was trying to run a cheerleading squad and do adequate lab work.

i've just had my last exam yesterday.  it went super awesomely (i think?) but i also had an exam last week which did not go so super awesomely.  i told myself i wouldn't write a blog post until the revision was done so here i am.  i still have to make a research poster (literally need to be done with draft one tonight) but i'm giving myself a little slack.

we have our first cheerleading competition this weekend!  so excited and nervous.  i threw out my back last wednesday and subsequently couldn't practice the rest of wednesday or friday at all. even yesterday i only half-assed stuff due to le injury.  one of our flyers busted her knee and can't lock it out (FML) so we may have some awkward routine missing a person.  sigh.

unrelated to my general dramas of life, but in my distracted mind this past week i was thinking about blogging and how i hadn't been on here in eons.  i was thinking, maybe i should just start a new one, start fresh?  maybe make more of a general one to get some click traffic?  my thoughts today are similar but less destructive of this blog than last week.  i think i will keep this one as my personal blog buy maybe will start a more general one.  i've already thought up some great topics i can word vomit about that both interest me and are more general about life:
- stuff i like (make-up products, foods, etc)
- books and reviews (i read so many books, how the hell am i not reviewing any?)
- cheerleading!
- science (obv)
- travel
have any other suggestions?  i want to keep it in the scope of shit that interests me and i can have a valid opinion on.  for example, i would not write about this year's winter olympics luge teams because i have no idea about it, who they are, or even how to luge but i would write about cheerleading because i run this show.  heh.

well it's breakfast time.  i was all set to watch my US shows online only to discover that none of them aired new episodes last night!  (i'm talking to you, CSI and criminal minds!  jerks.)  so sad.  netflix just isn't doing it for me over here - the selection is incredibly slimmer not to mention they cut half of the (children's) programmes i liked watching (hey! arnold, por ejemplo).  i will hopefully see you clowns soon... especially because i need to talk about my christmas/birthday present, harry!



brb.