The ultimate relationship test – traveling with someone

         “We’ve been best friends since ninth grade, we’ll have the best time in Europe!” 

         “I love him!  Three weeks on the beach will give us time to connect more!”

          “You’re going to Asia?  Me too!  Let’s go together and save on the hotel costs.”

            It seems like such a good idea at the time.  You get along with/are dating/are married to/share similar interests with someone and you decide “gee, Steve, wouldn’t it be awesome if we went on vacation together?”  Picking your travel companion is usually done even before the destination is chosen, but before you begin to suggest a trip, stop and think about it.  No, I mean, really think about it.  There’s no greater test to a relationship than travelling together.

             Let your mind wander back to your childhood.  When Mom and Dad packed you, your brother and your ten thousand suitcases of crap into the van and took off for a weekend up at the lake.  By the time you reached mile eight someone had thrown something, someone had been insulted and someone was crying.   Just because you’re grown up and not necessarily with children doesn’t make a vacation any easier, as it still involves the same components:  long hours trapped together and unable to escape, tedium where you have to struggle to keep yourself occupied or come up with something to say, stressful connections or deadlines, and exhaustion.  Everybody reacts to these factors differently, and if, when she’s over tired and jet lagged, your best friend gets really weepy and needy or she gets so bitchy she’s taking shots at your family/career/significant other/fashion sense/pet, she may not be the ideal person to be with.  Unless, of course you are prepared to handle this. 

             And don’t forget, you’re going to be just as unpleasant.   We all have our triggers.  God knows, I fly all the time, but if anyone I’m traveling with wants to wait and check-in for the flight less than the recommended three hours prior, I’ll take them out.  We can relax once we’re through security, but until I know I’ve  made my flight and am not going to have to run/beg/risk having my seat given away to a standby passenger, I’m in go mode.  I don’t fucking care if you’re going to have to go sixteen hours until your next cigarette, that’s not my problem, so let’s get a move on it.  Apologies to anyone I’ve told off in this situation over the years, but I still get this way every time I step into an airport, ticket in hand, and I don’t foresee this going away any time soon.  Consider yourselves warned.

         My point is that when it comes to traveling with someone, you have to, as my boyfriend always says when he does something that mildly irritates me  (like leave his damp – they’re always damp – socks beside the hamper instead of two inches to the right in the hamper) take the “good with the bad”.  If you can work through your differences in extreme conditions, then you’re going to have a fantastic time together.  But if you have a mental picture of this person being perfect and they fail to live up to your expectations, you’re going to have issues.

          Travel can test even the strongest relationship, bringing you closer than ever or tearing you apart.  The way I see it, if neither passenger comes home in a body bag or handcuffs, it was a success.  If times get occasionally testy just remember, you’re normal.  That’s just part of the experience and (unless you’re the one in the body bag) you’ll laugh about it later.

Tags: boyfriend, family, friends, girlfriend, scary, tough, travel, weird

Vancouver: Ready to welcome the world

We’re in the home stretch now – less than 30 days until the winter Olympics get underway.  Personally, I’m excited, I love the Olympics and having it right here is going to be cool.  I’m going to be watching it on TV (afford to go to the events?  You have got to be kidding me) and going “hey, I know where that is!  I went to school down the road from there!” Or whatever. I always get excited when I see places I recognize on screen, which happens frequently, this is Hollywood North.  Like the end of the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, when they’re walking through a building to a restaurant, I actually squealed “ooh! thats the library!” aloud.  But anyway, during the olympics this is going to be happening at an alarming frequency.  Anyone who knows me, consider yourself warned.

The city itself is starting to show noticeable finishing touches.  The construction walls are coming down on Granville for the first time in like 6 years, we have the spiffy new Canada Line skytrain from the airport to the city center (which rocks!) and even the ads on bus stops and park benches are now citywide exclusively for the official Olympic partners.  Needless to say you can go blocks and see nothing but McDonalds, Samsung, Coca Cola and some random company I’ve never heard of before, but that apparently is the official vaccine supplier for the athletes.   If I can survive the crazy-long commute times – God knows I can barely get on the train on some normal mornings, and when you add eight million extra visitors we’re going to need the people to cram passengers on the trains like they have in Japan – I hope to wander around downtown a bit during the games, because the vibe is going to be electric.  All the excitement, the street performers, free shows, random overheard conversations in different languages to pretend to understand and happiness.  It’ll be great.

If you happen to live in Vancouver and are hoping to get away on vacation during the games to escape the crowds, why haven’t you booked yet?  Do you really have that much money just hanging around that you don’t mind paying eight times the regular price?  The destinations you’re heading to probably have lots of space left, it is the low season, but the flights departing Vancouver don’t and are going to cost you a mint.  At this point it’s not how much but what’s left.  There are a lot of people I see on a daily basis who are surprised by this, but think about it: all the athletes, their fans and supporters are coming and going throughout the games – most of them don’t stay for the whole time, they just jet in, do their event and take off, as do their fans (to avoid a ridiculous hotel bill, as everything’s expensive), and when you combine that with the regular people traveling, there are shit tons of people coming in and out of YVR and only a certain number of seats on the planes.  If you still insist on trying to book for mid Feb, do it now.  Like now, now.  Stop reading this and book this instant or else you’re going to be totally out of luck.

And if you already have tickets, remember that at this point (thanks to the underwear bomber) you can’t take any carry-on onboard the plane with you.  And the heightened security due to that, combined with the heightened Olympic security, means that you’re going to be spending forever in line.  Get to the airport early.  Really early.  3-4 hours early.  Any later and youre going to be in line sandwiched between the chaotic family with the screaming baby heading to Disneyland and the Blackberry-addicted businessman who texts continuously as your plane takes off without you on it.

I’m sure the city will change when the games start, and I’m looking forwards to it.  What it’s going to be like I don’t know, but I’ll report back with the details in two weeks

Tags: airports, commute, crowds, excitement, last minute travel, Olympics, public transportation, security, skytrain, vancouver

Back from Ontario at Christmas!

       I did it!  I managed to fly to Kitchener-Waterloo Ontario and back without becoming a strangely dressed popsicle.  And I didn’t freak out/scare off/offend any of the bf’s family as I met them all for the first time.  High five to me.

       I left Vancouver Boxing Day at 8am – if you want to get a great parking space at YVR, get there at 530am on Boxing Day.  The place was a ghost town.  So much for those holiday crowds.  This was the day after the underwear bomber in the US, but my plane was half empty and there was no increased security or anything.  My carry on backpack (I’d always wanted to travel with nothing but a backpack and fulfill that Amazing Race fantasy of mine – it was totally worth it!) was probably a little oversized, but there were no questions and I was still able to cram it into the overhead with a slight running start.

          Arrived in Ontario to 5 degree weather, actually warmer than Vancouver when I’d left.  You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.  I was wearing a down jacket (that’s like wearing a hug, it’s the best purchase ever!) and god-awful snow boots, and it’s warmer?!  I was vindicated the next day when it started snowing, and the snow continued off and on for the rest of the trip, so that was good.  I love watching snow, anyway.  When we get it in Vancouver it’s an event, so here, with everyone being so blase about it, I was the only one stupidly happy.  Whatever.  I was on vacation, if you’ve got one time to be stupidly happy, that’s it.  And the snow in Ontario is so different than what we get out west: dry and fine, it can snow all day and barely accumulate, and it doesn’t stick to the roads too much – the ground temperature must be freakishly warm or something.  It was cold, though, one day it was minus 14 Celsius before the windchill was factored in, and there was an extreme weather warning issued.  Sweet.

        Saw a movie (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – weird shit, but my odd art film loving bf was all over it), went go-karting with some of Eric’s friends, wandered around a mall without buying anything (because Canada has the same crap in stores on either side of the country, so there was nothing to get excited about), went to a Kitchener Rangers hockey game and watched his little sister’s jumping lesson on her gorgeous horse Romeo, but aside from that it was all family gatherings.  This was totally new territory for me - I’ve never gone on vacay to just visit with people before.  If I’m on vacation and someone I know happens to be nearby I’ll totally hang out with them, but it wasn’t the purpose behind the trip.  It was an enjoyable experience.  His family is all incredibly nice, and I was welcomed right off the bat.

           Of course, the Rockband didn’t hurt, either. 

          Let me explain.  I officially met everyone in one big shot as the second day I was there was the big family Christmas dinner on the 27th.  His Grandparents (who we were staying with) held it, and they bought a full Rockband/Guitar Hero 5/Beatles Rockband set for everyone to play.  Very little bonds people like some bad singing and crazy drumming, and we had already started when most of the relatives arrived, so their first impression of me was rapping out the Beastie Boys’ “So Whatcha Want”.  Clearly it was my most shining moment.  But it served as an awesome ice breaker!  I highly recommend it.  Thankfully they didn’t arrive ten minutes earlier when I was killing dogs with my fantastic take on Bon Jovi’s “Livin on a Prayer”.  That could have led to an entirely different outcome

           The days flew by and before I knew it we were flying home, back to the tropics of Western Canada.  I could have stayed longer, although I’d need to find a better mall to shop in…  It was a great adventure.  I like his family a lot, and I’m not just saying that to kiss ass if any of them read this!  I discovered that the bf and I can travel well together – that’s a test of any relationship, and from what I’ve seen as an agent, it can go either good or bad very, very easily.  Thankfully we passed with flying colours - and that down jackets are a gift from the Gods.  I’m really glad I got to go.  Maybe next time it’ll be warmer…

Tags: animals, boyfriend, Canada, Christmas., Cold, family, Food, friends, fun, Go-Karts, Hamilton, horses, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Rockband, snow, winter

London – My favorite museums Pt. 2 – The Natural History Museum

Finding a museum in London is like finding a Starbucks in downtown Vancouver – if you spit, you have a pretty good chance of hitting one.  But unlike Vancouver Starbucks, the majority of these gems are free (although a donation is greatly appreciated).  Thank the British lottery for that.  With availability like that, if you tell me you didn’t visit some of these incredible museums, I’m going to smack you.  Seriously, I will smack you.  I know all that choice can seem overwhelming, but allow me to help steer you in the right direction with a spotlight on my must-sees.  This one proves that looking at Dinosaur bones isn’t just for kids and nerds, the Natural History Museum.

I admit, I have a bit of a passion for architecture.  Maybe it’s because I’m a painter, but the incredible, graphic things being done with stone and glass always fascinates me.  The Natural History Museum holds a special place in my heart, architecture-wise, as it’s an interesting mix of classical and whimsical, and I love whimsical.  Technically it’s an example of the German Romanesque style, with spires and sweeping arches, all done in a mix of buff and cobalt blue terra cotta, circa 1881.  What makes it stand out are the relief carvings of plants and animals that crawl all over the outside, so subtly included in the design that you could easily walk by and not notice them.  But upon closer inspection it becomes “ooh, there’s a monkey climbing up that tower!”  and “is that a Pterodactyl on the roof?”  The western winghas living forms while the eastern’s are all extinct. I spot more creatures every time I’m there and, as I learned firsthand, it makes waitingin line to enter a rather pleasant experience.  Inside it’s just as cool, particularly the ceiling of the central hall, which is covered with a patchwork of more than 160 painted botanical panels, each depicting a different plant.  There are more monkeys crawling the columns and girders in here, too.

I love a good entrance, and this one greets you with a fully-assembled diplodocus skeleton smiling at you.  Well, if he had skin and muscles, I’m sure he’d be smiling.  Anyway it’s sure an impressive way to greet the visitors.  He’s just the first of many dinosaurs, some real, some animatronic that fill the gallery to your right.  That’s an interesting gallery, as are the Earth (earthquakes, rocks, weather, etc.) and Ecology ones (bugs, big trees, recycling), but personally, as a girl who’s been hauled to zoos around the world her entire life, the real draw for me are the animals.  The stuffed animals.  Taxidermy still kinda creeps me out, but when you remember that this was the norm back in the 1800’s when most of these samples were collected, and that they’re incredibly well preserved and displayed, it takes some of the “eww” factor away.  Some are even faded from sun exposure over the last hundred and fifty years or so.  This is also the only way to actually see a dodo, sabre-toothed cat and more species of animal than any zoo could hold, all life-sized and not reproduced by computer, so I guess it’s worth it. The bird, primate and mammal galleries are my favorites, specifically the animals that are elusive to see in the wild, like lemurs (only in Madagasgar), lorises (damn that nocturnal thing) and duck-billed platypusses (what is the plural of platypus?  Platypusses? Platypii?  Whatever it is, they’re so damned hard to find they were thought to be a myth for years).

Another thing the Natural History Museum has going for it is their food, specifically the cafe by the bird hall in the green zone.  No, we’re not talkinghigh gourmet here, but as far as museum food hall fare goes, it’s pretty darn good with a price point and selection to match.  You can get everythingfrom a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to fresh plated pasta.  A couple of years ago I had a bowl of tomato-basil soup that tasted exactly like my homemade spaghetti sauce, and I love my spaghetti sauce.  I cannot tell you how good this was.  It’s making me hungry just thinking about it.  Once we were wanderingaround South Kensington around lunchtime and couldn’t decide on a restaurant, so, because of it’s free admission, we went into the museum cafe just to eat.

The Natural History Museum is totally not just for kids.  Granted, the kids will love it (lots of ooh-ing and aah-ing), but you adults will enjoy it too.

Tags: animals, architecture, birds, BlogSherpa, cafe, England, free, London, monkeys, museum, terra cotta, UK, weird

London – My favorite museums pt 1 – The British Museum

Finding a museum in London is like finding a Starbucks in downtown Vancouver – if you spit, you have a pretty good chance of hitting one.  But unlike Vancouver Starbucks, the majority of these gems are free (although a donation is greatly appreciated).  Thank the British lottery for that.  With availability like that, if you tell me you didn’t visit some of these incredible museums, I’m going to smack you.  Seriously, I will smack you.  I know all that choice can seem overwhelming, but allow me to help steer you in the right direction with a spotlight on my must-sees.  I’ll start with the most iconic, and spectacular of all, The British Museum.

Not only is the British Museum a national treasure with some of the most remarkable artifacts in the world within it’s walls (I’ll get to those later), but the Great Court itself is a sight to see.  The classical, round (literally) reading room, sweeping staircases, outstanding sculptures of men and/or horses,  a cafe, and gift shop, all done in white marble and stone that positively glows with the natural light coming in through the modern geometric glass ceiling.  It reminds me of a television version of heaven, where every thing’s white and shiny and ethereal.  I dare you not to take a picture here, it’s that compelling.

Once you tear yourself from the Great Court, you’re transported to another magical world just by walking through the doors of any gallery.  My personal favorite place to start (because I love Egyptian history and like to work clockwise) is the Egyptian Sculpture hall, home of giant – and I mean Volkswagon Beetle big - sculptures, all so perfectly smooth and detailed that the fact that they were able to carve this well back then is astounding.  Also, there’s the Rosetta Stone, the one unassuming little scribble-covered rock that proved to be the key the translation of heiroglyphics.   If Egypt is your thing, there is more upstairs as well: the actual, flaky, thousand year old Mummies that the statues downstairs once guarded over, all sorts of bones, artifacts and even a mummified cat.  My cat, Cairo, was actually so named because she resembled the statues here, and I’d like to take her into the afterlife with me, assuming she drops the diva act long enough to be mummified.

The Egyptian Sculpture hall leads into the Assyrian halls (I love making a good entrance, and here 2 giant winged human-headed lions are built right into the walls on either side of you, so you can’t help but feel grand), and the Greek halls.  Here you can marvel at the incredibly detailed, life-sized  alabaster people doing everything from throwing a discus to pouring invisible water.  Or, you can play the ”find the statue who’s penis hasn’t been broken off” game.  That’s endless hours of entertainment, let me tell you.  And it’s hard!  The game, not the penis.  Well, I guess a stone one would be, too…  Amidst all the phallus-less warriors are the Elgin Marbles, one of the most famous friezes in history (can you name another?) from the Parthenon.    I guess due to political correctness, they’re now called the “Parthenon Sculptures”, since they were kinda stolen and Greece kinda wants them back, but that doesn’t make them any less cool.  The Greek sculptors are unrivalled in their ability to create perfection, to the point that these people (if they had all the appendages that have broken off over the years reattached) look as if they could stand up and walk away at any time, they’re that realistic.

There are far too many galleries and collections here to list – from Korean to North American to an awesome display of Turkish tiles and Thai Buddhas, there’s even a money display that has some Chinese bills that were used to buy yourself out of Hell – so I’ll stop here, teasing you with the details of the others.  You name it, they have a gallery for it. You can immerse yourself in the history of pretty much everywhere without having to pay for the round-the-world airfare.  And, being such a prestigious institution has it’s benefits, as the limited-engagement displays in the rotating gallery attracts only the best from around the world.  A few years ago they had the first display of Terra Cotta Warriors from Xian outside of China – man, what I would have given to see that, I was just a few months too early.

In short, if you’re in London and you don’t visit the British Museum, shame on you.  If you think you’re not interested, I challenge you to just go in (it’s free, after all) to use the nice and clean bathrooms in the Great Court.  If crossing that white expanse of fabulousness doesn’t inspire you to keep exploring, then you’re not human.

Tags: BlogSherpa, British Museum, cafe, donation, England, free, gift shop, heaven, London, museum, UK

WTF – The airline lost my client!

          Let’s file this one into the “smack your head in amazement of their stupidity” file.   And I stress, I am not making this up.  If I was making it up it would involve a rare species of bird and a police chase.  This, on the other hand, is just stupid.

        An airline (who shall remain nameless to avoid a lawsuit) actually managed to loose one of my clients. 

        Yep, as in “no we have no idea where he currently is, but we know he’s on a plane going… somewhere”.   That’s actually pretty close to the exact words the agent said to me.   At this point I’m staring at my phone in complete disbelief.  You’re a freaking airline, moving thousands of people every day and with an incredibly sophisticated computer system, but yet you have no idea what plane you put my client on?  You have got to be kidding me.

          The situation was this: my client showed up at the airport in Cordoba, Argentina, only to be notified that his flight had been rescheduled and he’d miss all his connections, so he been rerouted.  Instead of the planned route Cordoba to Santiago to Mexico City to Vancouver, he was now going Cordoba to Santiago to Los Angeles to Houston to Vancouver.  Nice, eh?  Ooh, surprise, you’re no longer even touching down in an entire country (where he had been supposed to spend the night and had a hotel reservation) and we’re sending you all over the Americas just for the hell of it.  But because all these changes were made right at the check-in counter at the airport, his tickets were issued and he was on a plane even before the airline’s computer systems had time to catch up with the changes. 

         Luckily he had called his wife, who had called me, to notify her of his new schedule, so we (the important people) knew where he was at least supposed to be, even if the airline didn’t.  I can’t even begin to imagine what it would have been like had his poor wife not known where he was and I wouldn’t have been able to give her any answers.  I’ve had upset clients before, but she would have taken the gold medal for having the best reason to freak out.  But alas, all was calm.  Just dumbfounded.

       On the upside, he arrived right on time and everything turned out great, but I just can’t help but wonder that if the airline could spend hours not knowing where a passenger is, what do they do to luggage?  “Oh, I’m sorry, your bag had an emergency rerouting to…somewhere.  You may get it back, but we really have no idea at this point”.   

              And get this: regular passengers out of Cordoba told my client that this wasn’t unusual.  It’s like airplane roulette, you have a 50% chance of landing close to where you want, but nothing is guaranteed!  Needless to say, next passenger I have going anywhere close to Cordoba, I’m monitoring their progress every step of the way so that even if the airline looses them, I don’t!

Tags: argentina, BlogSherpa, crazy, flight, Mexico, south america, travel agent, weird

If you won the lottery…

           So, tomorrow’s Lotto Max draw is worth CAD$50 million.  With a carrot like that dangling in front of me, I can’t help but start daydreaming.  If I had that money, what would I do with it?  I’ve been asked this question tons of times over the years, and my standard answer is “I don’t know, but I’ll send you a postcard when I get there.”  I’d be on a plane so fast my clothes wouldn’t even have had time to crease in my suitcase.  But that poses the bigger question, if you had unlimited funds, where would you go?

             For me, someone who plans her own vacations on a daily basis (I’m not sure this is healthy anymore…) it’s a tough decision.  Of course, I eventually want to go everywhere, but you have to start somewhere, so you might as well start off with the important places on your to-see list (the ones underlined and bolded with the little stars scribbled beside their names). 

              Tokyo.  Definately Tokyo.  If you’ve read my other blogs you know that I love me some Asia, and nothing looks more incredible than Tokyo.  The colours, the people, the food.  I want to get lost at the Shibua Scramble crossing.  Plus, they have a Disneyland.  With that checked off, I would only need to go to Florida and I’d have seen them all.  And since I was already in Asia, might as well hop on down to Vietnam and Cambodia, two places that not only look cool, but that I’ve heard nothing but incredible reviews about from clients.  Everyone says without fail that the people are just so unbelievably friendly.  And Angkor Wat’s there.

            And for something completely different, I’d go to Rio.  Climb Sugarloaf mountain, visit with Christ the Redeemer, learn to samba and wear feathers on my head.  Then down to Iguassu falls to see one of the most incredible waterfalls.  Another skip and I’d be in Buenos Aires, tango-ing away and eating at the restaurant where a bar code tells you exactly what cow your steak came from (that’s right, specific cow, not just farm) so you know it’s perfect.

          And Venice.  Gondola-ing along the canals and wearing amazing masks as I watch Murano glass being blown.

            And finally, topping my must-see list is Cairo.  I love Egyptian history and archaeology, hell my cat’s even named Cairo.  I want to stare in awe at the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Karnak temple, the crazy cab drivers. 

         So basically, I still can’t decide where I would go first if I win that jackpot tomorrow night, but you can bet it’s going to be fantastic! 

 Where would you go?

Tags: amazing, Angkor Wat, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Cambodia, dance, Disneyland, dreams, Egypt, Food, glass blowing, Iguassu Falls, masks, money, pyramids, Rio de Janiero, Sphinx, Tokyo, travel, Venice, Vietnam

Spooky Halloween around the world.

       Here in North America Halloween rocks.  We have a commercially-successful excuse to dress up, trick or treat, do crazy things (”but Officer, it was Halloween!”), set off illegal fireworks, sing Monster Mash far too loudly and eat the junk food we spend the rest of the year trying to remove from our waistline.  Personally, I can’t survive the day unless I’ve heard Michael Jackson’s Thriller at least three times - something I don’t think will be a problem this year.  In the US it’s now the second most popular holiday for decorating after only Christmas.  But if you think we can party, you should check out how they do it in other countries.

                  Scotland gave us one of the great traditions we over here have stolen/corrupted/commercialized into our standard Canadian holiday. Little Scots used to carry traditional lanterns called Samhnag’s made out of turnips with the devil’s face carved into them in order to scare away evil spirits. Nowadays they’ve switched to pumpkins for their jack-o-lanterns, mainly because it’s waaay easier to carve a pumpkin than a turnip, but some cities, such as Perthshire, are trying to reinstate the old ways.  Hopefully vandals don’t go around blowing up turnips like pumpkins are blown up here, as a turnip can do so much more damage since they don’t smush and splatter on impact! 

        In Wales Halloween is called Nos Calan Gaeaf (the beginning of a new winter) and legend has it that the fearsome spirit Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta took the form of a tailless black sow and roamed the countryside with a headless woman.  Needless to say, kids would rush home early.  This fascinates me, mainly because I have no idea how to pronounce Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta.  It’s hard enough to type correctly.  Your how-itch do-doo g-wah-ta?  Beats the hell out of me, but it’s fun to try.   

         Halloween in Mexico is just the start of three days of festivities, Witches Night (Halloween), All Saints Day and Dia de los Muertos (the day of the dead).  I mean, really, why shouldn’t the dead get to party, too?  Skulls play a huge part in these rituals, as wooden skulls are placed on alters dedicated to the deceased, sugar skulls made with late relatives’ names on the foreheads are eaten, and they dance to honor the dead while wearing wooden skull masks called calacas.  Sugar and dancing?  How have we not started celebrating this yet?  Sweet.

              Romanians have the perfect reason to celebrate Halloween, as Dracula himself, according to myth, lived right there in Transylvania (specifically the town of Sighisoara – another one I’m not going to try and pronounce).  Dracula’s spirit is believed to live here, as the city once was the site of public Witch trials (it makes sense to keep all your spooky dead people together, right?) which are recreated by actors amidst all the costume parties.  Can you just imagine getting pissed drunk and watching a live “Witch trial”?  Neither can I.

                 In Lebanon, Syria and the Palestine don’t actually celebrate Halloween, but Arab Christians hold Eid Il-Burbara (Saint Barbara’s Day) on Dec 4th instead.  The festivities are nearly identical to the Halloween we know and love here, and include wearing costumes, trick or treating and singing a Halloween song.  No, not Monster Mash, though I would love to hear that in Arabic.  Similarly, Kuwait and other Gulf states have Qarqe’an.  It’s not scary, but children wear traditional costumes and sing outside homes for handouts of candy and nuts.  There it’s actually cool to get nuts, and if you give them out you don’t have to worry about your house being egged later that night!

          And then there’s Japan.  There actually is no Halloween per se in Japanese culture, but think about it, do you really think they would pass up a chance to dress up in weird clothes (or weirder clothes) and celebrate?  Their Halloween is based mainly on American pop culture, but it has really caught on and I personally would love to see it. Carved pumpkins are a common sight and Disneyland and Universal Studios over there have huge festivities leading up to the big day.  A few years ago I was in Disneyland Paris just before Halloween, and the decorations were massive, with everything from a troupe of life-sized pumpkin men taking over Frontierland to the riverboat in the rivers of the far west being turned into a giant floating gray ghost, but apparently the decorations and theming in the Tokyo park are twice as impressive. 

            There are many reasons fall is one of my favorite times to travel, but if you really want a show, check out some of these countries and I’m sure you’ll have yourself a bewitching good time.  There’s just something about Halloween that makes we want to end this blog with a big Mad-Scientist cackle.  So i will.

           Mmmmwwwwwaaaahaaahahahahahhahaha!

Tags: Canada, candy, Europe, France, Halloween, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Middle East, Monster Mash, Romania, Scotland, Sweden, Thriller, traditons, USA, weird

Need Christmas gift ideas? Go abroad!

My favorite time to go on vacation is the fall (well, technically my favorite time to go on vacation is any time, but you know what I’m getting at). The reason for this is not the lovely crisp air and possibility of a sample sale, but so I can do all my Christmas shopping in destination. It’s great. Combine that with Christmas shopping (my other excuse to go wild – within budget, of course – shopping time of the year) and it’s the best combination since cookies and milk.
What better way to cut down on costs? I always call vacation shopping my “get out of jail free” shopping – I’ve technically already spent the money buying the currency, now it’s just trading it for goods. So as long as I don’t overspend what I’ve brought with me and have to break out my debit card, I’m golden. It’s a second layer of protection to make sure I stay on budget. With exchange rates being what they are, the dollar goes farther in many countries, so you can also get bigger, better, more awesome gifts for your loved ones. And you can plan for this in advance, too. A couple of years ago I knew I was going to bring back Costa Rican coffee for everyone for Christmas (plentiful, not too heavy to carry, and world-renowned while not being budget-busting) but the guidebooks said that the quality was best in the whole roasted beans as opposed to the grounds. So all year I covertly checked with every coffee-drinker I know whether or not they had a coffee grinder. If they didn’t, they got one for their birthday! That year was great, I got built-in ideas for birthday gifts, too
Speaking of more awesome, instead of yet another scarf or gift card from Sears, I can guarantee your Aunt Mil is not going to get two of those hand-carved Guatemalan wine bottle holders from that tiny stall on the side of the tiny winding mountain road. That is going to be memorable. And knowing that you were thinking of them while on your great adventure, they appreciate the gesture more (in my experience, anyway). Plus, even if they don’t like it, they’re not going to return it (the airfare is too expensive) so you don’t need to worry about keeping the receipts.
The coolest thing, though, is that you can essentially get your loved ones anything, and it’s still special, because it’s from wherever. Seriously. Anything. “Yeah, it’s toothpaste, but it’s from Ecuador, so you don’t pronounce it Colgate, you pronounce it ‘Col-gaaat-eh’.” If someone gave you a couple of small pieces of wood tied together at one end with a string from the local Wal-Mart, you’d be thoroughly unimpressed. But if the same thing came back from Spain and were called castinets, now that’s cool.
So, if you’re having trouble coming up with Christmas gift ideas, just go on vacation between now and the holiday season, and everything will all fall into place for you. Simple, really.

Tags: BlogSherpa, budget, Christmas., coffee, gifts, shopping, souvenirs

Julie & Julia, the most disturbing movie ever

Last night the bf and I went to our local drive-in for a Julie & Julia and District 9 double feature and I practically had an out of body experience.  District 9 was good, but Julie & Julia freaked me out.  It also inspired me to bake and blog (chocolate chip cookie squares in the oven as I type this), but that’s beyond the point.

The movie is about me!

I’m not talking one little passing similarity here, I’m talking full-on, Joey Lawrence “Woah!”   The bf kept looking at me, eyebrows raised, amused smirk on his face as I squirmed in my seat, engrossed in the very good, very funny movie, but also having a disturbing moment of self-reflection.  Totally weirded me out.  For the most part it was cool, but there are some aspects of my personality (the occasional meltdown over the smallest things, my neurosis, fears, not always appreciating all the fantastic things I have in my life) that you don t necessarily want projected on a giant screen.  Thank God we were alone in the car!

Get a load of this:

- Julie Powell is an aspiring novelist as yet unpublished.  Julia Child is an aspiring cookbook author in the process of being published.

- Julie and I both have jobs where people occasionally yell at us for something we have no control over or, conversely, burst into tears, and it’s our responsibility to make it all better.  When the frustration of this follows us home we bury ourselves in our hobbies to escape.

- Julie and I both blog about our passions.

- Julie and I both have a fantastic man NAMED ERIC (!!!) who fully supports us through all our emotional meltdowns (not that I have many) and whom we need to appreciate more.

- Julie and I both love to cook.  My particular passion is baking and desserts, but any port in a storm will do. Luckily, Eric is a foodie and loves good quality meals (or pretends to like the lesser-quality stuff that pops up every once in a while), so it doesn’t go to waste.

- Julie and I both have short red hair.

- Julie and Eric just moved to a new apartment to be closer to work and save money.  Holly and Eric just moved (two weeks ago) to a new apartment to save money and be closer to work.

- Julie and I both had no idea about blogs until our Erics got online and set them up for us.

See?  Told you it was overwhelming.  On the upside, the movie (as all Norah Ephron movies do) had a happy ending, so I’m taking that to mean that I will have my novel published, become a super famous (or at least financially stable) writer and live happily ever after until the credits roll.  And it made me want to cook so bad I almost gave up on sleep last night to whip something up at three in the morning.

On an only slightly related travel note, the movie also made me want to go to France, which never happens to me. I have been to France twice (which qualifies me to say this) and left both times saying I had no desire to ever be back. Don’t get me wrong, I love the attractions they have there. The Eiffel Tower is quite possibly my favorite structure on the face of the planet and I can stare at it for weeks happily. But the overall “vibe” of France – the stereotypical standoffishness (I don’t find them rude at all, they just ignore the non-French as if they’re not there) just doesn’t suit me. But seeing the tower, the adorable little winding cobblestone streets, the look on Eric’s face at the thought of eating actual French food in France… I would go back.

Okay, just got the chocolate chip squares out of the oven and they have some issues. I think they’re slightly undercooked and I might have accidentally just poisoned Eric and I. So I will do like Julie and channel my inner Julia Child. As the maestro says in the movie, there are no mistakes in the kitchen, just setbacks.

Tags: baking, cooking, drive-in, France, Julie and Julia, movie, weird