Finding Zen

It´s Been Real

But it´s time to come home.  In roughly 5 months time, we have traveled from Ireland to Scotland, to England, to France, thru Germany and Austria, on to Italy, then to Sardinia, back to France (the climbing was just too good), to Portugal, to the seas for 2 weeks where we visited Morocco, Cape Verde Islands and the Canary Islands, to Brazil then down to Argentina, over to Chile to hit the seas again...thru the great Drake Passage on to one of the most beautifully untainted places on earth - Antarctica and back to Chile where we made the decision that it was time to come home.

While I had heard that traveling for great durations was tough, I could never have imagined the stamina required to endure week after week after week of being on the move.  Zack and I have been acutely aware of the privilege of time and money we have had to embark on this journey, we have seen places and had experiences that many people will never know - for this we are extremely grateful.  However, the reality of all this, has taught us that it takes something we just don´t have the energy for, to continue spending our time - without grounding. 

There isn´t any greener grass over here.  Not in Europe, not in South America, and certainly not in the South Pole.  Okay well, maybe Ireland has some greener grass.  The stars I lay gazing at, the night after our wedding sitting at a camp fire in the foothills of the Beartooth Mountains of Montana...are just as bright as they are in Southern Bavaria.  The rolling hills of France don´t have anything on places in Alabama and Georgia.  There are old places in deed, there are castles, and chateaus, there are temples and ruins...there are even great rocks to climb.  But everywhere we have been there are subtle reminders of home.  And home is good - so that´s where we are heading. 

In summary, the world is a massive place.  One which we barely scratched the surface.  I have learned that American travelers are hard to come by.  That most people we were able to have conversations with don´t like our president so much and are greatly opposed to the war in Iraq.  I think that it is easy for us to support war when we are so isolated from the rest of the world.  Where we can sit back and watch updates on our televisions.  Where we don´t have to worry when and if our troops are pulled what will happen 'way over there'.  I´ve learned that there is something magical about the west coast of Ireland.  There is a place called Lenaun, I think, and it might have been heaven.  The Brits are most entertaining, the Germans are EVERYWHERE (they get around), and the French are nothing as Jay Leno would like us to think.  Fontainbleau has great boulders.  Lots and lots of them.  There is a little town called Nimes in the Provence region of France, and if you ever get a chance you should visit it. 

Brazil has great brown butts.  And lots of them as well.  And as we were warned about theft in Rio, our credit card was swiped in the one night we were there.  They make good flip flops too.  And Antarctica.  Whoa.  I have to dedicate a post to Antarctica, as it was probably the single most enlightening of all our experiences.  I like to think that it was a wake up call.  And I will tell you about it when I have more time.

We met some great Kiwis along the way, and have found friends in a couple from Australia we bonded with on that 2 week journey to Antarctica.  I have also picked up reading...and read more books on this trip than I have in my whole life.  The most recent being Pompeii by Robert Harris.  That makes me feel smart.  And I have to mention, that my new Aussie friend Jenny slipped me a trash romance novel on our way back to the airport, you know the kind...where the author is posed on the back page with her two Malteses?  I got about 20 pages into it on our flight, as my knitting needles werent allowed on board...and I got BORED...but I just couldn´t do it.  So I left a little treat for the next passenger in seat 13F.  Sorry Jenny.  I hope I have not dissapointed you.

We leave tomorrow at 5am to hike 2 days on the Inca trail and hopefully catch the sunset at Machu Picchu.  After which we will sit in some hot springs and enjoy our last night in Peru.  We leave for home on the 18th...and are so incredibly intoxicated with the anticipation of CHRISTMAS with friends and family.  It just wouldn´t have been right any other way.

Goodnight.

   

Tonight we had dinner in Cusco, and The Boy, ate my knitting project. Alapca. He ate my precious alpaca.

Really people, this barely scrapes the surface.  It has taken me hours to upload just these few...so please be patient and I will get more up as I have time. 

And no joke, we really need to talk about global warming.  I have some reporting to do on all that...and it's quite disturbing. 

Holy Penguins!

Back from the South Pole.  You all will never know the ball of energy that is me sitting in front of a computer that is connected to the internet (this part is crucial...my brain tries hard to understand the usefulness of a computer without one, until this last trip I didn't even know THEY (computers without an internet connection) still existed!), after almost 2 weeks of being completely torn from the blog teet.

I feel like Beavis.  Correction.  I feel like Cornholio.

Where do I even begin...

Back in Santiago, tomorrow we leave for Cuzco.  Next stop, Machu Picchu.  To be more specific, 4 days on the Inca Trail.  In the days ahead I plan to bestow upon you more photos of penguins and ice bergs than you have ever wanted to see.  This I plomise.  Thats PLOMISE with an L.  You heard me.  (joke completely lost on any of you who have not seen a particular That 70s Show episode.)

Two things I can share with you before I go to bed tonight.  If I never get on a boat or eat at a buffet again, it will be too soon.  Also, while I was gone my dearest friends had their first child.  She is absolutely too perfect for words.  As my father always said, "Its a beautiful thing".

Night.

About the Chickens

One day Vern and I were flipping through a sort of gag catalog of tshirts and found one that might as well have had my name written on it.  The description of the t  -shirt suggested that it was for 'that someone you know who just can't seem to stay focused on the now.  On the tshirt was a caption that was clearly part of someone telling a story and then suddenly interrupted by a sighting of chickens.  I really can't give you a better explanation, and all that is really important is that you understand from now on when you see a portion of my blog posts dedicated to the 'chickens', it simply means that they are things that have little or no relevance to anything I am doing or need to do, in the next 7 days.  For example if we are going to the Home Depot to buy paint and I wander off into the Garden for plants, the plants are chickens.  I, would be on a chicken hunt.  Got it?

So without further ado...let me present to you the latest chickens.

1.  We have decided to move back to Atlanta.  I miss the ATL so much, and after much discussion, weighing pros and cons...we agree that there is no place like home.  If there is ONE thing that I have learned since on this trip, it is that home is not a place.  It's not a city, or state, or country.   There is nothing more valuable than home.   Home is worth some discomfort.  Home is where I have family and friends who I have realized more than ever before, I can't live without.  Oh so cheesy but true.

2.  I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do when we get back from this trip.   Turner would be the obvious fall back, but I was so bored there and feel like leaving was my opportunity to go back into the workplace with a new set of tasks in a new environment.  It's just that Turner dominates the job market for anyone in media in Atlanta...and there benefits are incomparable.  When we get back, Zack plans to go back to school which will leave me responsible for bringing in the majority of our income.   So money is a factor.   I will need a job that pays me more than I made there.  It's hard to be picky when the money is a priority.  I'd love to get into interior design, but don't even know where I would begin without having to go back to school.  And I don't want to go back to school...because more important to me than becoming an interior decorator is becoming a mom someday in the near future...and that won't happen with Zack and I both in school.

3.  AINH.  Can I get first dibs on all of Grahams baby clothes?  That is of course unless you wind up having another boy...and assuming I have a boy...assuming that I am able to even GET PREGNANT when the time is right...and assuming that all those yummy clothes (many of which I can claim myself) will still be 'cool' if and when I am able to conceive???   

4.  How is my dog?  Will the Downer Dog Pound please give us an update on Mr. Marley Marls?  I want to go home and get him soooooo bad!!!!

5.  When will I ever get to knit again?  I have been carrying around in my ginormous  sak-a-do 3 sets of turbo needles, that I have not but ONCE used to knit a fabulous cable scarf that turned out to be perfect for say...BARBIE but not so much for a neck of the human variety.  I didn't get enough wool from the little Scottish couple and their farm!!!  Maybe Vern can make something of it ...just sent it home.  A pot holder maybe?

6.  We watched The Break Up movie with Jennifer Anniston and Vince Vaughn  on the cruise  - it was good, even Zack liked it...and I fell in love with their apartment in the movie.  Often times this happens...we watch movies and I become super fixated on the actors homes or apartments and obsess over making sure I remember which ones I want for my own home.  So anyway, they had those cool big checkerboard tiles for their   kitchen floor ...usually they are in black and white...but THESE ONES were even cooler. They were like creamcicle colored orange and white.  They had a big ol butchers block as an island that was cool to.  Infact I could probably recall more details from that set apartment than I could from the dinner we had last night.

7.  This couple at our dinner table on the cruise told Zack and I that there is a big debate in the states right now about eating HORSE.  Did I hear this correctly?  This can't even be up for debate...you don't eat the horses.  You just DON'T.  And I, can't be bothered with these sorts of stories.  I stress myself out enough worrying about whether I should have chocolate or vanilla ice cream for dessert.  If you all start eating the horses, I am going to be forced to go work for PETA or something.

8.  There is something I want REALLY REALLY BAD.  And it's not the Northface Nupste jacket, in black sized XSmall.  Or a new pair of Rainbow flip flops, size medium.  While I want both of those items really bad...and can't afford to either buy them or have them shipped to me anywhere...because we are EVERYWHERE and NOWHERE all at once...I long for my old perfume.  It was Angel 's LILY.  I got to squirt some on me the other day at the mall..and it was heaven.   Which reminds me of a story I forgot to tell you all. When we left Paris we had to fly through London Heathrow to get to Lisbon, Portugal.  Well, we weren't aware that the liquid restrictions were still going on because we had been in the dark for nearly 3 weeks in France...far as news had it.  Like an idiot I had  packed my TOILETRY bag in with my carry on.  You can guess what security made me do.  People...I cried.  They made me throw away an entirely full bottle of SJP Lovely perfume that I had conned Hillary into donating to my scraggly ass,  I had to throw out my $25 dollar tube of Christian Dior mascara (mind you, the most I had EVER paid for mascara), my foundation, my nose hair clippers (the horror, I know!), my lip gloss. I wound up throwing IN THE TRASH  (which is what prompted me to cry to the Irish security guard who felt really bad... ) LOTS OF DOLLARS.  You have no idea what those things represented to me.  That bag was the only little scrap of sexy I had!  There I was left with a few soap bars and my toothbrush.  There is a difference between clean, and sexy.  It was a very sad day.

9.  I was able to reclaim a few items I had lost while on the cruise.  One of which was a bottle of Ralph Lauren Romance.  Which I had forgotten until I wore it the first night...that it makes me ill.  Like I wanna throw up ill.  I think I must have thought I was buying GLAMOROUS not ROMANCE, which if you know perfume... smells totally different.      

10.  It's time to go catch yet another 20 hour bus ride.   Ciao from Buenos Aires!

ps. I have officially READ the entire contents of 3 WHOLE books since we ventured for TODO EL MUNDO.  THE MAYFLOWER, THE AMERICAN WEST, and a book called THE ISLAND.  I think.  It was about the lepers in Hawaii.  Now reading, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.    Look out...Stella 's getting  BOOK SMART!!!   

      

               

                  

Quick Update

Europe is over.  And it's time I bring you all up to speed.  I am the proud recipient of FREE internet this evening.  Look out!

For starters, don't believe anything you ever hear about The French.  They are wonderful people, who dress quite nicely, who understand food like we don't even know, with a beautiful country...and if we could have spent all of our 'Europe Time' in one place, in would have undoubtedly been...France. 

About the cruise.  It was 2 weeks too long.  We sat around and ate lots of food, watched movies in our cabin and tried our best to avoid wheelchair collisions with the rest of the guests.  The ports of call were desolate and uninteresting and as soon as we found out after the first night that we could eat every night casual in the cafeteria...the suits and heels never left our closet.  Yes, we are very boring.  There was one photo taken...one night...however because I am so cheap, I refused to pay 10 bucks for it to share with you.  Too bad, so sad.

We arrived in Rio a few days ago...and enjoyed the Copacabana.  My ass has never felt so white, in it's whole life.  No seriously, the bronzed buns of Brazil ain't got nothin' to do with my milky behind. 

We spent 23 hours on a bus from Rio to Iguassu Falls, and will spend 20 more tomorrow on one to Buenos Aires.  There we will spend a day, and then get on another 20 hour bus to Santiago...where on the 30th we will be heading to the great Antarctica.  Wahoo!

I have pictures to share with you....  I will post something a bit more descript tomorrow before we leave for Buenos Aires - and FREE internet.