Overdue...I know.

Ok, ok. I guess I just didn't think anyone was really reading this blog or would care much about what I was up to after I finally made it to Colorado. I guess I'm wrong because I've had a couple of people ask why I wasn't writing anymore. So here it is. The GRAND UPDATE!!

Believe it or not, I have midterms this week. What?! YIKES! That means I have a quiz in Sanskrit, a team project and paper due for my Contemplative Hinduism class with my friend Amy (it's on the Upanishads) and a 6-8 page paper due on Science v. Religion. You could say I'm a little overwhelmed but I'll get it done. The light at the end of the tunnel is my trip to see my beautiful niece Adison this Thursday. I'll be in Orlando for 5 days playing with her and, of course, no trip to Orlando in October goes without a visit to my favorite place in the WHOLE world, Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait! The theme this year is Bloody Mary so it should be awesome.

Besides getting school work done, the biggest stress in my life is finding a part-time job. I have inquired at a couple of places but no hits just yet. I haven't really put in the effort yet because I don't want the job until November but I'm still a little stressed about it. It'll all work out though. Gabe just got a job with REI. Here is Boulder for you. REI did a job fair to recruit employees, they had 90 people interview for the 30 positions they were going to hire. Gabriel was so lucky he got hired. Even with a degree in Parks and Rec (the outdoor industry), there is still major competition for those positions out here. He starts training in a couple of weeks and is looking for a restaurant job in the meantime to compliment his REI schedule. It is not easy finding a job nowadays, that is for sure!

So far we have been hiking every week, cause that's what people in Boulder do:) I've been letting Gabriel pick the hikes and he has progressively kicked my ass harder and harder. Last week we celebrated Gabe's birthday and went to Rocky Mountain National Park. For those of you who know Gabe and are wondering why we were celebrating his birthday in September rather than in June, it's because his real birthday in June kinda sucked. We were moving and it didn't receive the attention it deserved. So I surprised him last week with homemade brownies (like from scratch, yo), I decorated the house, took him to a Thai dinner, got him some groovy gifts and we went hiking in RMNP which is only 40 minutes from our house! It was beautiful! On one of our hikes in Boulder we saw a black bear. In the park we saw some elk. And yesterday we saw a fox in Longmont.

Animals have been a big theme since we've been here. Our personal animals have had a bumpy ride. Sedona had to have two teeth pulled, Duncan dropped his ball in a ground hornet's nest and suffered the consequences (both of his eyes swelled shut from the stings) and Diego has now been to the vet TWICE for getting his ass kicked my a neighborhood cat. He keeps getting popped in the shoulder and on the face. I'm pretty sure I know who it is but I haven't seen it happen. I think it's the white cat in the neighborhood that doesn't have a home, some of the neighbors feed him though because his owners moved and left him:( Then, last weekend we saved a baby squirrel from our backyard and took him to a wildlife rescue center here in Longmont. We hope he is doing well. It took us almost an hour to catch that bugger and we had to fend off several neighborhood cats while doing it. He was too young to be on his own and would walk right up to us or any other animal that could potentiallly harm him.

Lately Gabriel and I have been cooking more. We go to the Farmer's Market here in Longmont almost every weekend and are trying new vegetables. Last week it was spaghetti squash, this week is butternut squash and brussel sprouts. If anyone has a good recipe for either of those, please let us know. We love our home here and feel acclimated to life in Colorado. My parents come to visit this month and I can't wait! It's gorgeous here. I drive, or ride the bus, to school each day and see the sun shine on the rockies. We would like to formally invite anyone and everyone to come visit! We have a spare bedroom with your name on it:)

I think that's it for now. I'll try to post some pictures on here when I get a chance. I love October and Halloween is just around the corner. We're having a party here on Halloween if anyone would like to come!!! We hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather as much as we are...miss you all!

Rocky Mountain High

WE MADE IT! After 4 days of driving with two cars, two dogs and a cat we finally made it from Durham, NC to Longmont, CO. And believe it or not, it really wasn't all that bad. The first day we only drove 4 hours to Asheville, NC and spent the night catching up with Becky. Then we took off on Wednesday Aug 13th and spent the night in one of my favorite places to say... Paducah, KY. We hit the jackpot with one exit that had the terrific trio: a hotel that allowed dogs (Days Inn), a Cracker Barrel and a Waffle House...who could ask for anything more??!!

The second night we stayed in Topeka, KS and it turned out there was a dog show that weekend so there were purebred dogs EVERYWHERE. Diego was definitely outnumbered and like one woman said "You better hold on to that cat cause there's a shitload of dogs around here". We managed though with our cat and two muts and were on our way the next day. We arrived in Longmont on Friday night around 8pm MT (yep we're on Mountain Time now). It turns out that our landlord now lives next door to us. They are staying at the neighbor's house for the next couple of months until the husband recovers from a heart attack he had this summer. He's fine though and they were happy to show us to our new house.

Since then we have been unpacking and I have been attending orientation for my school, Naropa University. I registered for classes today and here is what I am taking this semester:

1. Contemplative Hinduism
2. Sanskrit I
3. Meditation Practicum I
4.Trends in Religious Studies
5. Methods and Issues in the Study of Religion

Pretty cool huh? Meanwhile, Gabriel has already applied to a job with the OSMP (Open Space Mountain Parks) Department and is looking for other possibilities. We love it here! So, that means...y'all need to come visit right quick! We miss everyone already and can't wait to show off our new life here. It's been quite a ride getting here but has very fortunately gone so smoothly.

Back in North Cackalacky!!!!!!!!!!!!

We made it, we're home! Well if that's what you can call it. We actually don't have a home right now. Mom and Dad get here on Sunday and bring the babies. Then we pack up a trailer on Monday with all of our stuff to be sent to our new home in Longmont, CO. We'll start driving across country on Tuesday (12th), me in my car and Gabe in his. We'll have both dogs and our cat Diego with us so it should be quite the experience. We originally wanted to camp on the way out there to save money but I'm not sure how that'll go with all of the animals. We'll see. We're hoping to stop in Asheville on the way out to visit Becky and then haul ass to Colorado. My grad school starts on Monday, Aug 18!! YIKES! In the meantime, our friends are throwing us a goodbye party on Saturday (thanks Hopie and Charlie) so we're going to have some fun and try to get our bodies adjusted back to EST....just in time to move to Mountain Time:) In case I forget here is our new address in Colorado..

1433 Gay Street
Longmont, CO
80501

Well, that's it for now. Our journey to the other side of the world and back is over for now. It's time for the next phase. We'll be updating the blog with pictures from the trip and our highlight and lowlight lists for each destination so stay tuned!

A-L-O-H-A

Hawaii was fabulous! We were only there for 2 1/2 days but it was a nice transition before coming home. The craziest thing for us has been the time changes. I'm not really sure what time zone are bodies are on right now. We left Thailand on Aug 5th at 8:15am and arrived in Honolulu the same day but at 7:30am. So it was like we landed before we even left! Crazy! When we were in Thailand we were 11 hours ahead of NC. But in Hawaii we were 6 hours behind. Needless to say, we were all screwed up and extremely jetlagged most of the time there. Still, we rented a jeep and drove around the island with the top down. We managed to catch some rays on beautiful beaches and watched a hula show in Waikiki. Due to all of my work travel we were able to stay at the Hyatt in Waikiki with my points. After staying in places that didn't even have screens in the windows or electricity, we were beside ourselves with the decadence of the Hyatt. We wish we could have stayed longer and checked out more of the island. We'll have to go back someday to get more quality time there. One thing is for sure, Hawaii is gorgeous!

Roxanne... you don't have to turn on the Red Light.

So no trip to Bangkok would be complete without visiting the Red Light district, Patpong. We decided to hit up the nearby night market first which was huge. Not quite as big as the Weekend market but still big. Lots of stalls with higher end goods. Then there was a big stage and a beer garden where you could grab a beer and watch Thai bands play. We also managed to squeeze in an hour foot massage because our feet were sore from all the shopping:)

We walked over to the Red Light district not really knowing where we were going or what to expect. Surprisingly it's not much different than all the other streets in Bangkok. There were street vendors selling the same stuff as everywhere else and then a few selling more "erotic" items. The only real difference were the throngs of people asking you if you wanted to see a "ping pong" show. I will leave that one to your imagination but if you'd like details, give us a call. In all I guess you could say it was a cultural experience. It's strange that a country that infuses Buddhist ideals into all ways of life would have such a HUGE sex market. But it does, and for a reason. It makes a lot of money!

Our last day in Bangkok we went back over to the infamous Kho San Road for last minute souvenirs and to grab a new book for the plane ride home. Gabriel had mentioned maybe wanting to get a new suit custom tailored made while we were there and it turned out they could still do it in time. For $80 we met with the tailors, chose the style of suit, the fabric and had a suit made. We initially met with them at 2pm, had a fitting at 6pm and it was ready to take home by 9pm! It's really nice and fits him to a T. Now he just needs somewhere to wear it! I think it was a great purchase on his part. Thailand is famous for that and there are tailor shops all over Bangkok. I could have had a suit made myself or even a fancy ball gown made from Thai silk. Maybe next time...

Our final wish before leaving Thailand was to have one more traditional Thai massage so we did that on our last day. It's funny though. The massages are so cheap you really can't complain but it's not like getting a massage at a spa. You walk in and there are mattresses laying on the ground next to eachother. You can be getting your massage with numerous other people. There is no soft music playing or privacy. And the masseuses are usually talking the whole time to eachother in Thai so you have no idea what they are saying. It's kind of like getting a pedicure at a Nail Salon in a strip mall vs. getting one at a spa. Even though the atmosphere may not be as nice, it still feels great! A good way to get relaxed before sitting on a plane for 24 hours.

Hawaii here we come!

Last few days...

We are back in the big city, Bangkok, for two days before leaving Thailand. It's bittersweet. We are really sad about leaving but also excited about starting the next chapter.

We are trying to do all of our last minute sounvenir shopping while we're here so we made a point to be back to Bangkok during the weekend. There is an incredibly HUGE weekend market with thousands of vendor stalls so we went today. There were so many people and tons and tons of stuff to buy. Everything from puppies to Western shirts. It was crazy! As if we didn't get enough, we're headed to the night market tonight. Tomorrow we'll visit the floating market and then off to Hawaii on Tuesday. We have a two day layover there before going home.

The last couple of weeks we've been in the islands. We found our beach paradise on Koh Pha Nang and then went to Koh Tao to dive. We spent three nights on Koh Tao. Being the smaller and more remote of the islands, I thought it was going to be quiet but since this is the #1 place to dive in Thailand, everyone was there! We saw some amazing fire shows where they twirl fire. We even saw a three year old boy do it! And Gabriel finally got to experience his first ocean dive. We did two dives on one day. There was a rumor of a whale shark at a particular dive site so our captain changed the schedule last minute. We weren't the only ones with that idea so we ended up diving with a TON of people. It was kind of a mess underwater. Divers everywhere! There was no whale shark but we did see two banded sea snakes which were really cool. Gabriel had a great time too! The second dive was better....less people. We even went through a really cool swim through that was the highlight of our dive.

All in all, we really enjoyed our time in the islands. We can't wait to show you pictures! Now it's time to go shopping. See you all soon!

Beach Paradise

We have found our beach paradise on a beach called Haad Yao on Ko Pha Ngan. It's a nice little stretch of white sand with only a dozen or so hotels on it. We had a candlelit dinner right on the beach last night...it was really nice. We've been hanging by the pool and beach all day today since it's finally sunny. We haven't had horrible weather but it hasn't been the best either. Mostly cloudy with scattered rain. We arrived here 4 days ago. We stayed one night on the beach that hosts the famous "Full Moon" party once a month. Turns out there is also a "Black Moon", "Half Moon" and "Shiva Moon" party as well. They really find any excuse to party here. I wonder what they would do during an eclipse? We've managed to steer clear of all the partying though and have spent most of our nights playing a mean game of Gin Rummy or reading. How did we get so old???

While on Ko Pha Nang we also spent two nights at a place called The Sanctuary. It was this really cool resort built right into the rock on the hillside of a bay called Haad Thien. Thee was a fancy schmancy spa there, vegetarian restaurant and wellness center that thrived on doing "cleanses" for people. A lot of people go there and stay for two weeks doing an intensive cleanse. We didn't do that but we did kayak, eat and had a shower that was outside! It was nice. We also tried their herbal steam room.

Tomorrow we're headed to Ko Tao for diving and our last rest/relaxation before heading back to Bangkok before flying home. Don't forget that we have a two day layover in Hawaii so if we aren't broke by then, we definitely will be by the time we get home:) I'll write more after we dive. I can't wait to see Gabriel's face after his first ocean dive.

Sorry so short but internet is pricier in the islands. I hope all is well with you.

Love and kisses, B & G