Back In NYC!

Sorry for not mentioning this earlier (I guess this is what happens when you are dealing with two blogs and a twitter) but I spent the last ten days on vacation. It was mostly another Contiki (my second one-the other was in Fall 08) and it was in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was also my first real cruise (minus those mini Bahamas vacations) which meant a lot of constant drinking and running around extremely hot locations. It was pretty fitting especially since those Sex and the City girls spent time running around another hot locale recently!

I always learn something when I travel. When I went to Scandinavia/Russia right after college graduation I found myself completely out of my element and loving that buzz which made me even more motivated to plunge right into NYC. My first Contiki in fall 08-was Eastern Europe. I was more reticent around other people and realized on that trip that I deserved to connect with people.

This past trip was a very interesting one. Every single stop was a completely different culture, lifestyle, and history (hello, pyramids!). It is also completely fascinating to me how people portray you in such a short period of time. Some of the ways i reacted was a flashback to college-same scenarios but different people. I have always felt horribly misunderstood-I love my body but I am actually quite picky with it, I am smart but I love the flighty girly things. I also always want to make sure that I 'right' everything before i leave something. I was unable to do that this time around and I am sorry for that. Very few people understand me and that is not always the easiest thing to deal with. But some people are just fantastic-I will leave it at that!

Overall, it reaffirmed my desire to grow and be happy and that most importantly that I DESERVE to be happy.

I am closer than ever to that goal-coming back to NYC i feel excited for upcoming events and to go right into another work project. And if you can return from vacation and still be excited, well, thats a milestone that I am loving :)

Fun in Finland

Finland is a country not many people really know much about. I was very lucky to have spent about a week in Helsinki, Finland after my college graduation. It was interesting, beautiful and the people were very friendly. Not to mention all the delish seafood!

Not long ago I saw Confessions of a Shopaholic where the main character claimed that she was fluent in Finnish (she obviously was not!). Later that night my friend and I crashed a party and met some Finnish documentarians (that's a whole other story!). Recently, that same friend sent me a list of unique competitions in Finland. They are:
1. Wife Carrying World Championships
2. World Cell Phone Throwing Championships
3. Air Guitar World Championship
4. Mosquito Swatting Championships
5. Ant-Nest Sitting Competition
6. Ice Swimming Events
7. World Cup in Snowshoe Football
8. Finnish Sauna World Championships
9. Kutemajarvi Sex Festival & Matchmaking Festival
10. Swamp Soccer World Championships
11. Finnish Cattle Calling Championships
12. Finnish Dialect Speaking Championships
13. Milking Stool Throwing Contests

And if you are there and none of these events are happening the just call up one of my favorite Finnish-Pamela Anderson!

6 Month Catch-Up

It has been about six months since my last entry and so much has happened. I suppose that is expected-there is a good chunk of time invested in half a year (and closer and closer to my quarter century mark). When I try to take a snapshot of what has happened I honestly automatically just capture a blank.

Yet I have travelled to Eastern Europe (which wasn't techinically Eastern Europe but that is what Contiki calls it so I will 'trust' them on that). The most interesting part of that adventure was Poland-precedence is given to my heritage. It is always striking to go to a country and feel that you look so similar to those people-I have experienced this in Russia and Poland so I do stick true to the stereotype (and damn proud!). This was my first time travelling in a group and I am mildly surprised to say that I did enjoy it. Maybe my almost-obsession with independence does hold me back a bit.

I also joined a few volunteer committees-mostly for the cause and partially to make friends (elementary school style of course). I hit up a few concerts in the past six months (Lisa Loeb, Vanessa Carlton, Alanis, Duffy, Rachael Yamagata-yea that's right chic rock music but with solid lyrics!). One of my favorite events was Family Guy Live! -which was completely amazing- besides you can't be a crowd of FG fans.

NYE was spent happily and drunk at Tavern on the Green. It was a great way to start 2009-an enormous buffet, free flowing drinks, and kissing a couple of boys. I passed my one year mark of being an official New Yorker (even though I was UES born!) and the first 6 weeks or so of this year have really flown by.

Sometimes I feel bored-I know ironic but after discussing and uber-analyzing this I have decided that that is not true-I'm restless. So what is the cure? I will constantly move and shake, plan, go to lectures and concerts and bars, throw ridiculous theme parties with cupcakes, and plan out-of-state/country trips (I still really want to go to Iceland!). So maybe i'm not restless either, maybe i'm just really addicted to constant stimulation. And I am very much okay with that...xoxo*