sleep, sweet sleep

Like almost every Saturday, my day started bright and early at 4:45. Unlike most Saturdays, my alarm didn't go off so my wake up call was the person at work wondering why I hadn't shown up yet. On the bright side, I did get an hour more sleep than I was expecting. Very exciting.

Last night I went to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti with Krista, Daniel, Daniel's brother and sister, and one of Krista's friends. We went down in two separate cars (girls in one boys in the other). The ride down consisted of a lot of singing, mocking songs that we were singing, and laughing. Once there, we ate some tortilla sandwiches (compliments of Krista) and drank some delicious lemonade. While waiting for it to get dark so it could start, we played some catch phrase. I LOVE that game - I almost forgot how much fun it can be. Finally it got dark and the Pageant started at 9:30. It was fabulous, as it always is.

Our drive home started at around 11:30. Manti is an hour and a half away from Provo when there isn't any traffic. Both Krista and I are the type of people that go to bed early. If either one of us is awake after 10:30 it is a rare occurrence. It was my goal to stay awake and talk to Krista on the drive home so that she wouldn't fall asleep since we had both far exceeded our bedtimes. I did pretty good for the first little while. In fact, I was able to stay fully awake and even semi functional clear up until we got to Nephi - which, mind you, is about half the drive. After that though, it went downhill fast. I was in and out of sleep. But I was trying so hard to stay awake. One thing that you should know about me is that I talk in my sleep. On a pretty regular basis (just ask Emily - she will tell you all about it). My sleep talking abilities did not disappoint last night. I would randomly wake up and know that I was talking but have no idea about what. Or I would know what I was saying but not really know why or know that it definitely didn't make any sense. I really have no idea what I was saying to Krista most of the time. She assures me though that I talked and even sang along with the radio. She did say that she was grateful and that it helped keep her awake, even if I wasn't conscious at the time. 

Deep down inside my tired mind running for almost 21 hours straight, I knew that I wanted to talk to her and help keep her awake. And don't even worry, I did my part. Whether it made sense or not, that is another story.

Thank goodness for late night adventures! There is never a dull day.

curiosity killed the cat

The following should not be tried at home.

My roommate has an awesome protective father (so do I by the way) who has so kindly supplied our apartment with pepper spray. Last night one of my friends and I were intrigued by said pepper spray and decided to see just exactly how it works/what it is. He was anxious at first to spray it so I took it, held it away from both of us and gave it a timid spray. A few drops dripped onto the floor, but nothing major and it was actually very anticlimactic. Then my friend took it and gave it a good spray into my kitchen sink just to see what would happen.

Let me tell you, I sincerely hope that I never have to smell that stuff again, much less get sprayed with it.

Even smelling into my sink from a distance sent both of us into coughing fits that lasted a solid 5 minutes - not counting the random coughing fits that came throughout the rest of the night. Once our coughing would calm down, just trying to say something would set it off again. It was CRAZY. After a long walk and some fresh air, both of us were feeling better and decided to go back to my house. The chemicals were still in the air enough to make us start hacking again, but not as bad as before. And I was able to sleep in my house last night without any problems. Don't worry, my sink is currently soaking in bleach to rid it of both the smell and the funny brownish yellow color.

Moral of the story: don't ever do anything that would make you get sprayed with pepper spray. It is a WAAAAY better self defense tool than I could have ever imagined - and I only smelled the stuff from a distance! I am pretty sure that it would incapacitate anyone who got sprayed for a good long time.

notes from europe (part III)

Day 11:  Day three of the cruise was another duplicate of day one and two. The difference is where we stopped. We went to Santorini this day. We rode something that is very similar to a ski lift up to the top of the volcano that is the island. We walked along all the little shops and bought some killer gelato before walking down the cliff. Sister and I both wore flip-flops and both of us fell straight on our behinds once and slipped many times. Flip-flops + Marble staircase = bad. And it was HOT! But it too was a good experience.

We were up so high! This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but it was an incredible view nonetheless.

You can get taken up the side of the mountain by donkeys as well. We opted for the ski - lift route, but on our way down we kept running into hoards of donkeys.

Day 12:  We unloaded off of the cruise ship this day and toured all over Athens. We saw the first modern Olympic Stadium and the Parthenon with its surrounding buildings. It was very interesting to finally see all the things that we have learned and talked about in school all these years.

This is the first modern day Olympic Stadium located in Athens.

The one, the only, the Parthenon!

Our last night! We got to experience Greek life in real Greek fashion - we went to dinner and a show where everyone sang and danced in Greek. We even got all dressed up for it!

Day 13: Trip home! Our first flight (which was supposed to be to Frankfurt, Germany) was delayed which would have meant that we would miss our flight to Chicago forcing us to stay another night. So after some quick switching around, we were rushed onto a flight to Munich and then to Chicago, where we are now. In all this hustle and bustle a lot of luggage was lost - mine included. It took the original path to Frankfurt. Oops.

All in all, our European adventure was a lot more than I could have ever expected it to be. Everything about it was incredible. 

notes from europe (part II)

Continuing on:

Day 6: This day we went to Pompei. It was incredible to see how well preserved everything was and to realize the real archeological gold mine this little city is. After exploring all the ruins Pompei had to offer, it was off to the coast to board a ferry to head to Greece.

This picture was taken in downtown Pompei

Day 7: After sleeping on a boat for the first time in my life (I did very well by the way. Turns out I have a pretty strong stomach or something), we loaded on a bus and headed up to Delphi. On the way we stopped at a beach and played in the Mediterranean Sea for a couple hours. Everything about it was beautiful and so much fun! Delphi was such a cute little town and we thoroughly enjoyed being able to explore all over – we found this cute little café that we spent hours at eating ice cream, playing on the computer, and laughing together.

Yay for the Mediterranean Sea!

Day 8: After our day in Delphi, we went into Athens. We kind of just had a free day to hang up and catch up on some sleep. It was much needed. Before we left Delphi however, we were able to visit the temple of Apollo.

Day 9: Early this morning we went and got on board a cruise of the Greek Islands. I have never been on a cruise before so it was definitely a good experience! Our first stop of the cruise experience was at Mykenos. It is a cute little island where all the buildings are white. They say that they painted everything that way so that pirates would get confused when they were trying to raid and pillage the little villages. I can see how that would be very effective. Also this day we spend a lot of time under the sun working on our tans (or sunburns in my case...)

Everything is white!

Day 10: Day two of the cruise was very similar to day one. Our stop this day was at Patmos. We were able to get off the ship and play on the beach. Britt and I made it a point (along with a few other people from our party) to swim out to the little lighthouse/buoy thing. We didn't realize quite how far out it was until we were trying to swim back. It felt good to be able to go for a good swim though! And on the Mediterranean Sea nonetheless!

Fresh from swimming...

notes from europe

Here are finally some pictures from my European adventure!

Day 1/2: we traveled. A lot. Clear across the world in fact. After arriving at our hotel we basically ate and crashed.

This picture was taken in the airport in Rome. Apparently this area is reserved? Right in front of baggage claim? I don't know.

Day 3: Rome! We were able to explore Rome with our group as kind of a free day. It was fun, but without being completely current on my Roman history, day 4 turned out to be way more interesting.

An actual picture that I took of the Pantheon!

Day 4: Again, we toured around Rome. We saw various places such as the Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, the Roman Forum, and the Coleseum. It was pretty much amazing! We took tons of pictures and had SOOO much fun!

The Coliseum!

Making our wishes at Fontana di Trevi

Day 5: More touring around Italy. This day we went to the Isle of Capri. It was BEAUTIFUL! We walked all around the whole island. I love the island environment. It actually reminded me of a more expensive, European version of Hawaii. Weird I know. haha.

The beautiful Island of Capri.

time zones

It is currently 6:20 in Chicago, which is where I spent the night. 

I have been awake since 4:30-ish. We are talking wide awake here.

In Athens, it is 2:30 in the afternoon. 

It would seem that I am going to have a fun time readjusting to the proper time zone.

Besides all that, I am once again stateside! The last two weeks were so much fun! I learned so much and was able to see so many things. Also, because my little excursion included a 3 day cruise, I am slightly tanner (only so much due to my amazingly white skin. haha.). I can't believe that we were gone for a full 2 weeks. It seems like it was so much longer, but at the same time it is really weird that life continued on without me here in Utah.  I am definitely excited to be home though. 

I have to go eat breakfast and catch my flight to Salt Lake, but I will post some pictures later and share the amazingness that is Italy and Greece with you! Maybe I'll do it in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow... (hopefully not though)