Fun, fun fun! And, a loss...

So, the weekend before Thanksgiving I went out to New York, just to see some friends, hang out, and watch the Michigan - OSU game... But I'll get back to that. After an initial flight delay I finally got to Newark. I asked around for the fastest way to get to Midtown Manhattan (well, the fastest way that's not a cab), and was told there was some bus that was supposed to be fast. OK, I guess I underestimated how far Newark is from Manhattan, because after the bus finally got there, it still took about an hour to get to Grand Central. But, at least I was there. I talked to Jamie and we decided to meet up at the cutest little coffeeshop (OK, I'm Dutch, I should say: coffee house) downtown. It sounds like Jamie is doing great, one show (the Flood) was just ending, and another one beginning soon, so she's really livin' the dream!

After a brief stopover in Chinatown (I wanted to find something funny Chinese to bring to Steph, in China, but couldn't find anything) I decided to wait for Rachele at the Starbucks on her corner (in Chelsea, if I remember correctly), because I was kinda tired of lugging around my big-old backpack. But, she got home just minutes later, so lucky me! After catching a breath we went out for a beer with Rachele, Mel, and their "editor-in-chief" (!). After that, Rachele, her roomie Andrea and I went even farther downtown, to 2nd & 2nd, and met up with some of their other friends. There was a vodka bar there, and it was awesome! Not only did they have the coolest and most amazing infused vodkas there (horseradish-vodka. chili pepper vodka. honey-ginger vodka. To name but a few!), but they also had the coolest lady singing live (her name was Grace Garland, check her out at http://www.gracegarland.com ). So, as we were doing shots of vodka, which later turned into martinis, Grace and her guitar player were putting on quite a show; she even did a 10-minute-or-so improv song 'serenading' Rachele's friend Peter ("Make love to me with your eyes"), it was brilliant. After that, we went to a karaoke bar and got a private room. After Rach killed a cockroach (oh, New York...) we got free shots, which was quite nice. And then home by cab; I always forget how nice it is to take cabs places, and not driving after this night was probably a great idea...

The next day, well, we /almost/ made it out of the apartment while it was light out... in other words, we didn't. Of course, sleeping in was excellent, until a crazy New York pigeon tried to attack me through the window or something... I don't get it really... Anyways, Rach and I went for a bit of some really yummy Thai food, but it had just gotten dark out. Oh well! Anyways, after we got back I packed my bags and took a train up to Grand Central to meet Kat (a.k.a. Geraldo's P.A.) there. Of course, because neither one of us was really paying attention, the train we were sitting in that we thought would take us to White Plains didn't move (and, there was no one else in it... You'd think that would've tipped us off!). So then we finally figured out which train we were supposed to be sitting in, and off we went, up north through Harlem and the Bronx to Westchester, where Maria came and picked us up off the train. We ate a late (and of course GIANT) dinner at the Cheesecake factory (with an awesome strawberry margherita!), and then decided to put on our PJs and watch Mean Girls (or, in Kat's case, to sleep to Mean Girls going on in the background).

The next morning we didn't quite make that early rise-and-shine call, but still got up at a respectable hour, put on our Michigan gear, and got on the road to Hartfort, CT. The drive was a lot of fun (a lot of a cappella!!!) so it went by like THAT! We then got to V's house ready to watch the big game. TJ and Christy and I threw the football around for a little bit, probably in an effort to not let our nerves get the better of us... which in my case only partially worked. What worked a lot better was the "shotski". Where I first thought this was just a weird Russianization of doing shots, it's an actual ski with four shotglasses mounted to it, which are then filled with the poison of choice, and four people drink them simultaneously. The one trick, as Kat discovered, is that it sucks to be shorter than the other three people, because the rum will end up in your face and shirt rather than in your mouth. But, good times! Of course, the game didn't really end up going our way, so Maria and I display appropriately sad faces. To the credit of V's (OSU) roommate JJ, he didn't rub it in, which was mighty big of him (not sure I would have been so "gallant"). After that, the night just continued with more beer, more shotski, more girl-on-girl wrestling, more naps (and I think at some point there even was a wheel-of-fortune!), and overall, despite the big, big loss, a great time!

The next morning, Christy, V, and TJ were leaving early to go see the Bears play in the city, but Maria, Kat and I were not far behind them. But, not until we had an awesome breakfast at Hot Cakes, some breakfast place that made me feel like I was somewhere down south or something... amazing omelets though! The drive back also was over before it began, and after a brief "chill" at Maria's place, Kat and I took the train back into the city. She had some apartment to see (funny how housing situation rules the lives of everyone in NYC; everybody I met up with this weekend has discussed their living situation with me!), I went downtown to meet up with Mel. We had a couple of beers at the (famous?) White Horse Tavern, and then dinner at a really funny little Tex-Mex place (I totally forgot I was on Manhattan after 10 minutes at that place!). I then had to rush back to Newark, which is when I realized that that bus I took on the way in probably WAS the fastest; on the way back I took the subway and Airtrain etc., and it took me almost 2 hours... I arrived at my gate 5 minutes before my official "leave" time, but /luckily/ my plane was delayed. It took a while, but I got back safe and sound in A2 around midnight.

So, the real saying-goodbye-to-people has begun, and it's making me sad, very sad. Even though these people all live in New York, and it's not like I see them all the time (in some cases about once a year, maybe), but still, moving to another continent makes it all feel much more serious. I'm making everyone promise me that they'll visit me in Europe, even if they don't necessarily mean it; that will make me feel less bad about leaving, I'm hoping. As for the trip itself, I'm planning to buy tickets in the next week; the plan as posted a couple of posts ago (below) pretty much still stands, give or take a couple of small changes. But, more will follow shortly, after our little Christmas party at my place on Friday, with the Four Wise Men. And, scene...

Big giant apple.

So, I guess my leaving is kind of really officially starting tomorrow. I'll be headed to New York City for a couple of days, for the last time while I'm living here. Though certainly not the last time in my life... but still. I'll be visiting a couple of friends who I likely won't see again in the next two months. So that's sad. And it feels like I'm really going to leave now.

Meanwhile the other plans are progressing, but slowly. I haven't booked any tickets yet, I haven't sold or shipped any of my stuff yet, I haven't gotten insurance and all that taken care of yet... but there's time. I'm guessing after thanksgiving I'll really have to get my butt in gear and start doing things, I mean, really. After thanksgiving there will only be like a month and a half left before I leave, so yea... hurry!

Anyways, this blog isn't very interesting yet, it'll be more fun once I'm actually on the road and put travel stories and pics up here. So bear (bare?) with me for now while I get things straightened out; if nothing else hopefully I'll have a lot of great pics from this weekend, seeing Jamie and Nick's shows, goin' out with Rachele and Mel, belting an entire car ride with Maria and Kat, drinking to the Democratic victory with Christy, or to the Michigan win with V and TJ... it'll be a blast!

Such Enormous Joy!

I've heard people say that part of the joy of a journey is planning it... Well, I respectfully disagree... Though it's very exciting to start thinking about all these cool places and cool people I will be visiting, the actual planning part is a giant pain in the ass!! Dates, times, plane tickets, locations, lodging, vaccinations, visas, insurance, packing lists... AAAAHHHHH!!! I've always known I hate traveling (it's the "getting places" part I like), but now I'm starting to feel so overwhelmed by even the early planning stages that it's freakin' me out man!!!

But, I am making some headway with the planning. So, here's a (very rough!) outline of the plan, please, feel free to make suggestions etc.

I want to have a big Dutch boy bye bye bash on probably Friday January 12th. Then I'm getting in my car the next day and will be driving to LA. I'll take my time doing that, I want to make stops in Chicago, Vegas, and some of the canyons. Anything (or anyone) else I should definitely see in between in my last cross-country drive in the US? Then once I get to LA, I want to stay there some 6 days or so.

On January 27th, I would be headed for Nagoya, Japan, to visit Megan & Ben there. Megan suggested going skiing up by Nagano, which sounds awesome! I'll have to leave there on February 2nd (because they're going on vacation themselves on the third), so I'll probably fly straight to Shanghai there, to visit Stephanie and perhaps Julia's brother Jon. Steph actually has some time off after the 4th, so that's pretty sweet!

The next part is a little fuzzy still... I can do something else in China, or I thought about maybe taking a train or something to Hong Kong, but I'm not sure if there's anything fun to do there... Any suggestions for things to do south of Shanghai? I have to take a flight to Brisbane, Australia around the 12th, to visit Nadine there, and perhaps my brother's old roommate Hester.

I'll spend a few days in Brisbane, and then make my way down the coast to Sydney and Melbourne. Perhaps a few days of outback would be sweet too (again, suggestions are welcome!). After that, I'll be hopping on a plane (either from Melbourne or Perth, if I end up traveling west a lot) to Mauritius around the 23rd of February. That'll sort of be the midway point where I plan to do not much else but lying on a beach in the midst of summer ;-) Anyone jealous yet?!?

I'll probably only spend about 5 days or so there (it'll be one of my more expensive stops!), and then hop on over to South Africa around the 28th to see some of my 'roots'... I'll have to talk to Hanna and Ella for some South Africa tips as well, but I'm pretty excited about that stop.

After that, it's all getting very blurry, I haven't worked out these last 4 weeks yet at all. There's a couple of possible scenarios. I would really like to see Tanzania and/or Kenya, though probably one of them might be enough... Another option (or perhaps in addition to Tanzania) would be Ghana, Debs is really rooting for that one (but flights from Dar Es Salaam to Accra are mostly VERY expensive, unfortunately)! Depending on what happens first, I'll then make my way north to Egypt and/or Tunisia, with perhaps a last stop in Portugal. I scratched Saint Petersburg and Moscow off my list, because Yuri pointed out that it's going to be friggin' cold there in March... I'll get there some other time... in any case, I'd end up in the Netherlands some time shortly before April, on this schedule.

Wow, this is a long post... can you tell I'm new to blogging? Anyways, seeing as the point of this blog is to keep y'all abreast of my travels, I guess the plans are part of that... let me know if you have any suggestions for any of this or if you want to advertise an alternative; I'll probably be starting to book all plane tickets around mid-November, so there's certainly some time and none of this is carved in stone yet... and clearly i can use some help!

Pardon Nederlanders

Aan alle toekomstige Nederlandse lezers van dit blog wil ik bij dezen alvast mijn verontschuldigingen aanbieden. Het merendeel van de posts hier zullen in het Engels gaan zijn. Dat is simpelweg omdat de meeste Nederlanders die ik ken wel Engels kunnen begrijpen, maar van alle Amerikanen die dit mogelijk lezen, er maar eentje voldoende Nederlands kent om dit wellicht te begrijpen (Thanx Trey!). Af en toe zal ik mijn best doen om er wel wat Nederlands op te laten staan, maarja, het zal niet zo goed worden bijgehoudend. Dus... dan weet je dat alvast!!

my grand opening.... or something like it...

I know this is a bit early... but I'm old enough to be new to blogging now, at last. I'm going to be moving to Europe (the Netherlands) from the US (Ann Arbor) early 2007. But in the process, I will be visiting several cool people and places. Here I shall chronicle my journey for all my fans (hi mom!).