cue Sugar Ray's "I just want to fly"

I am on my way out the door....to pick up some Tylenol PM and hair mousse in case my flat iron explodes. But my luggage wont zip up for some reason?? Strange, but true.


More to follow.

HOLY SHITAKE MUSHROOMS!

I leave in one week. Yes, next Wednesday, April 29 instead of the original plan of Friday, May 1. I want to throw up.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m excited, but I now have two less days to get all this freaking work done! EEEK! I’m nauseous….or nauseated, as Rachelle would correct me.

Gotta get ready for staff call! BOOBERRIES OUT!

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

The plane ride back wasn't bad. JJ was sitting in front of me. He asked me if I was going to rub his shoulders. He is crazy. Initially there was a guy sitting next to me, but no one sitting on the other side of him (we were in the middle of the plane, I was by the aisle). Before we took off, we realized no one was going to sit on his other side, so he moved over and put a seat between us! Sweet, I can sit in half lotus!

I watched three movies: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," "Madagascar 2," and "Twilight" three times. I liked all of the movies. I was laughing out loud while I was watching "Madagascar 2," the lemur king is a riot. He was singing "Private Dancer" during one part of the movie.

The food on the plane was good, as usual. I also decided that I'm going to dress up as one of the flight attendants for Austrian Air for Halloween. That, or Willy Wonka. Back to the food, they served us this really good potato salad, which I wouldn't normally eat but I was starving, and now I can't stop thinking about it!! UGH.

I didn't sleep at all during this plane ride. I just watched movies, drank wine, and made bathroom runs when the service carts weren't around. I accidentally left my fly down after one of my many bathroom breaks, that was fun. Luckily I had been sitting down the whole time. Jeez, I'm an idiot!

When we started to make our descent for Dulles, I realized that it was pretty windy out. I don't usually get freaked out on planes, but this plane was different. After they turned off my "Twilight," the screens switched to showing live video of the outside of the plane. So one view showed the runway ahead, another view showed what we were flying over, etc. Landing while its slightly turbulent and watching those videos is freaky!! I had to turn them off, they were making me sick!! I heard the lady behind me describing the throw up bag to her kid... When we landed, the plane touched down for a sec, caught a little wind and bounced up, then landed again. Yikes.

It took forever to get off of the plane so I missed saying bye to DM. I managed to make it onto the shuttle for customs and sat by JJ. He told me to stick with him and he would get me out of the airport quickly. He definitely did!! After customs, we grabbed a couple of carts and our checked luggage and got out of there!! The AV Kit made my cart so heavy I almost couldn't keep it under control!!

I had a taxi drive me home. It was relaxing to sit in the backseat with the windows down and see how "spring" everything looked. When I finally got home, I ran upstairs to let Kiwibear out. When I peaked my head around the corner, she was looking up at me and then, I swear, she did a double-take!! We went for a nice walk and waited for Tiger Woods to get back from the golf tournament.

I slept really good that night.

One Night in Vienna

Before leaving the Podgorica airport I did a bunch of stuff. I checked my big suitcase and the ki all the way to Dulles so I wouldn't have to lug them around Vienna, I pretended to be related to JJ, I bought 12 Kinder Eggs, I watched a video about menopausal women wrecking into each other's cars, and I accidentally walked in on the Principal in the bathroom... Crazy Montengrins!! You need better signs for your restrooms!! Oh, well. Time to board the plane!!

Sweet! A window seat AND no one is sitting next to me?! Thanks Booberries!! I spent most of the beginning of the flight staring at the back of a guy's head and looking at his camera screen while he took pictures. I tried to get a few photos of the mountains, but the stupid propellers kept getting in the way. I ate some bread, had some tea, then decided to try and get some sleep.

Next thing I knew, we were in Vienna!! No need to grab any luggage, I was ready to get into the city!! Vienna sausages, some type of alcohol, buy some souveniers. Well, we had to check into our hotel first. We all piled into yet another van and headed to our lodging for the night.

The hotel was really nice. DM decided to check in and check out as soon as we got there. Meaning, he got his hotel key and closed out his bill all at the same time so he wouldn't have do it the next day. He didn't bother to let the other seven people check in first though. Crazy DM. I ran up to my room to get changed, I was really excited about being in Vienna, until I got up to my hotel room...

The hotel was fine, and I'm sure a normal person would've been fine there. But since I'm afraid of everything and make weird associations, this place freaked me out. It reminded me of the Exorcist and Amityville Horror put together!! I did a Google search for pictures of this hotel, but I couldn't find any. I wonder why...

We walked to a restaurant a few blocks away. Someone mentioned that they heard ribs were really good in Vienna. Next thing I knew, five people have ordered whole racks of ribs. Holy bananas, they are crazy! And you know JJ was one of them!! I wanted comfort food, so I got something that was kinda like macaroni and cheese. It was good, but I got full quickly and also wanted to try the beer. We ordered a couple of apple tarts to share after dinner.

At this point, I realized that we probably weren't going to make it into the city center. Darn it. We walked back to the hotel. The principal, myself and our friend from sounds like "nintendo" hung out in the hotel bar and had a nightcap. I knew I would need one to get to sleep!! A half a glass of wine, one hour and a bunch of good stories later I was headed up to my room. I got ready for bed, requested a wake up call, talked to Jakester and Gabe for a few minutes, then I grabbed Domo and I decided we needed to sleep.

Oh my gosh I was so scared. I laid there and drafted emails in my head, listened to cars and airplanes, pretended that I knew what the people walking by outside were saying, and kept telling myself that I was tired. I was too scared to turn the TV on. The remote was on a stand, and behind the remote on the stand was a very colorful, very bold warning that read "From THE MOMENT you turn on this TV you will be CHARGED!!!!!" I didn't even want to touch the remote incase I accidentally pressed a button, so I immediately put it back. Sleep did not come to me.

The next morning I was so out of it. I "woke up" an hour before my wake up call and decided to just get ready. We had to be out of the hotel at 9am, so I figured hanging out in the lobby was better than hanging in my creepy room. I went downstairs, checked out, then had breakfast. They had really good jam there and I had two huge cups of tea. After breakfast, we had about 40 minutes until the van was going to pick us up, so I grabbed my book and sat on the front steps of the hotel. It was a very nice morning.

Back to the airport. After getting through security I decided that the Vienna airport is a very evil trap. Burberry?? Lacoste?? Swarovski?? Grr... I wasn't getting out of this airport with a cent left!! GAH. I had to keep reminding myself that I needed to buy stuff for OTHERS. I made it to the airport lounge with nothing designer, except what I already owned of course. The lounge we ended up in was awesome!! I made myself a latte, grabbed a croissant and sat down for a bit. It was very nice. I didn't stay there long because I had wasted so much time poking around the stores, so as soon as I had finished my latte, I headed to the gate.

When I got to the gate I realized that this was going to be a VERY full flight, seeing as there was not a single open seat at the gate. Eek. While we were waiting to board, the head honcho decided that we should play "Spot the Americans." I never knew such a game existed!! "I see one!! He's wearing a Dallas Cowboys hat!! Awesome!!" The head honcho then told me that most adult Europeans do not wear baseball hats. He also told me that some wear their wedding rings on their right hand, and that the women usually travel in full velor outfits (AL). That was educational, it was nice to have something to pass the time.

The rest of our team showed up and then it was time to board the plane. Next stop, DULLES!

Last Day in Budva...

Do I really have to leave? I have five hours until I have to leave this place. That's all I could think on the last day in Montenegro.

I couldn't dwell on it for very long though, I had work to do!! A couple of the team members were working on drafting an exercise for an upcoming event, and I offered to type and edit the document for them. They said we would meet after breakfast at 8am... What time did I wake up? 7:15am. Awesome. And I still had to shower, get ready and go have breakfast. CRAP!

I rushed through getting ready and ran down to the cafeteria with wet hair. Screw the curling iron, I didn't have time to get burned again! I planned on just grabbing a few pieces of fruit and heading to the terrace, but when I got to the cafeteria, three of the team members were there having breakfast. One of them was AD, the main person I was supposed to be working with that morning.

When I sat down with them, AD told me that we were meeting for breakfast around 8am and that we would work on the exercise afterwards. Phew!! I had time to eat!!! After eating a quick breakfast, AD and I got to work on the exercise. AD and DM were leaving earlier than the rest of the team that day, so when the exercise draft was complete, the three of us headed down to the ocean.

We collected pretty stones that had been smoothed down by the Adriatic. I found one that was in the shape of a heart!! I gave it to AD to use as a paper weight, and also as a reminder of the fun times we all had in Budva! I collected orange stones for Al and a few bluish green stones for myself. The three of us headed back inside to finish packing. We planned on meeting in the lobby before they left. That gave me about... 40 minutes to pack.

Oh, did I mention I hadn't even STARTED packing yet? Yeah, I had a lot of work to do in a short amount of time. I was running around my room like a crazy person!! With Animal Planet on in the background, of course. I managed to get my big suitcase packed, but was having some trouble getting the AV kit closed. I didn't have time mess with it though, I had to go say bye to my new friend!

Two team members gone, and one hour until we leave. Dang it, I need to pack! I finally finished packing about 20 minutes before our bus left. I ran downstairs to check out and have a bellboy help me with my luggage. While I was in my room getting the rest of my stuff together, my phone rings. Its JJ. He has "sliced" his finger open while packing in a hurry. He needs a band-aid. Well, unfortunately for him, I used the one and only band-aid that was in the kit on my crazy burn earlier that morning (complete side note, but while JJ was asking me for a band-aid and I was explaining that I had used the only one, I happened to look down at my leg and the band-aid was gone!! Gross, I know. Its probably on the lobby floor somewhere...). He opted for gauze and tape. The bellboy watched as I doctored a grown man's finger where he had pulled a little bit of his cuticle back. Oh, JJ.

We all met downstairs and piled into the van promptly at 1pm. The ride to Podgorica wasn't bad, of course I slept the entire way. Its nice being able to curl up and sleep comfortably in two seats. Thank you yoga!

When we got to the aiport, Oli was there to see us off. DM was there to continue on to Vienna with us. It was sad leaving, but I was getting sick of living out of my suitcase... Plus, Oana was traveling with us to Vienna!!

Day 4

Last day of class. Good because I get to go home soon. Bad because I was getting used to being here every day. :(

So. The electrical outlets in Europe are fun. The first time I plugged my hair dryer in and turned it on I immediately smelled burning. And when I turned my curling iron on, the plastic handle was very warm and I noticed that it didn't take as long to curl my hair. Well, on this particular morning I learned something about these electrical outlets.

I was sitting on the floor, watching "Growing up baby Sitka deer," curling my hair, I accidentally put the curling iron on my leg. Yeah, awesome. The mini fridge in my room wasn't on, so I couldn't grab a bottle and put it on the burn. I had to grab a wash cloth and soak it in cold water then put it on the burn. That didn't help much. About five minutes later, I had a humongous, disgusting blister forming on my leg. What a way to start the morning.

No time to think about the burn!! I put some salve on it, got dressed and went downstairs. I had breakfast and got an early start on my work. The last day went by a lot faster than the other days; a lot faster than I wanted it to. Everyone seemed really pleased with the seminar and we all said our goodbyes, packed up and left the classroom. Definitely bittersweet.

Oli, Oana (pronounced Juan-ah) and I changed and headed down to the beach to take photos while the sun was setting. It was a perfect afternoon and we took a lot of great pictures. I also collected a bunch of really neat looking stones.

We went out for dinner one last time in Budva that night. Another seafood place, go figure. Dinner was fun as usual, but you could tell everyone was exhausted. After dinner, we took the van back to the hotel and all went to bed. The last night in Budva was the best sleep I had during the whole trip.

Day 3

Oh my gosh, that morning hurt. Let's wake up and get ready for class. First, I took some tylenol and drank a lot of water. Then I sat on the floor in front of the full length mirror and started to curl my hair while I watched "Growing Up Walrus." That one was cute, and my hair took forever because I was only functioning at about 70%.

Class was normal that day except that everyone consumed far more water than they had during the two previous days of class. Hmm... I guess I wasn't the only one.

I'm trying to remember if I did anything stupid that day... I'm sure I did, but its been so long now that I can't remember. Dang it.

Well, we went to a Chinese place for dinner that night. Yeah, Montenegrin Chinese. I was scared. We go in, we are seated at the largest round table in the place, and the table is equipped with a "Lazy Susan." If you don't know what one is, Google it. Its basically a turntable. We all start ordering food and chatting. The photography nuts are taking artsy pictures of bottles and lamps. The food starts to come out and we realize that we've ordered WAY too much stuff... Its almost as if our waiter took our entire order then wrote "x2!" next to it. So, we made use of the Lazy Susan. We put all of our dishes on the turntable, and would basically spin it until we found a dish we liked. I recommended playing Montenegrin Chinese Roulette!! Spin it reasonably fast, without making food fly off, and you have to eat the dish that it stops on. Even if its just the tentacles left over from the calamari. No one wanted to play with me.

About half way through dinner, DM remembers that its one of our team member's birthdays. So, DM calls our very strange waiter over and asks him if they can arrange some sort of dessert for the occasion. Well, since its a "Chinese" place, they only have fried ice cream and fruit... DM says that will be fine, the waiter leaves to go create this birthday dessert. 2o minutes later, strange waiter returns and whispers something to DM. Sounds like plotting to me. 10 minutes later, there is a large plate making its way to our table via the weird waiter, it is on fire and as it gets closer I realize that the ice cream scoops and fruit are cleverly placed on the dish. Wow. This is funny and embarassing.

After dinner, we all pile in the van and head back. I had homework to do that night, so I stayed up for a little while.

Eating and Drinking

So, Rachel gave me a list of stuff to try. I didn't do a very good job of accomplishing everything on the list. I swear, you other analysts are going to be as busy as I was, so we may need to rethink this scavenger hunt list...





Here is the list from Rachel





Shopska solata - which is a type of salad that JJ had everywhere we went. Pretty simple, I think it was just tomatoes, cucumber, onion, cheese and some other stuff. I didn't try this.





Vampi - I have no idea what this is because when I Google it, I get some comicbook vampire character or whatever. But I don't think I tried this.





Okay, this is taking forever. Here is what I did try. Probably every type of wine they had in Budva, a lot of fish, olives, fish soup (pictured below), their pizza, desserts and some meats. I didn't have rakija, which was probably a good thing. That wine was enough, and the Head Honcho was on my trip. I think that's a good enough excuse.

Day 2

Day 2... It was so long ago that I'm scared I won't remember everything... I'm trying to remember which "Growing up baby" I watched that day on Animal Planet. Oh, right. It was Kalulah the giraffe baby. Okay, so I watched that, got ready for class and went down to breakfast.

I don't recall nodding off in class on Day 2... So I'm pretty sure I didn't. We took the class photo today. We all gathered out on the terrace overlooking the pools and the ocean. There were some mountains in the background, too. It was really pretty. Oli, the guy who drove us to Kotor, was our photographer!! He is a lot of fun and very informative. He took great pictures of the class and is a Photoshop wiz. I bring up the Photoshop thing because one of the participants was a little short and was standing in the back row so all you could see was the top of his bald head. Oli took a new picture of him and Photoshopped his face in. The picture turned out nice.

My new friend is AD. He works closely with us and has an accents. He is very nice and absolutely delightful to talk to. I sat with him at lunch along with another new friend I made, one of the participants. This was the part of the day when I almost used my lovely silk shirt to wipe crumbs off of my face. Classy, I know.

The rest of the day was fine. JJ was doing lunges as usual, DM's lectures were riveting, and the Principal was a comedian.

Later that night we had The Social. That was a good time. It was nice to be out of the classroom and hang out with the participants and instructors. As I've mentioned, there were a lot of photographers on our team, so there were a lot of pictures being snapped that night. I have a CD full of them and they are awesome!! The CM made an awesome toast and even said part of it in the participants' language!! DM also made a toast and made good on a promise - he had all of the participants speaking spanish that night!! The Social was a huge success! To celebrate the team moved the party to the seating area in the lobby. Eventually everyone went their separate ways, since we still had to get up and continue the course the next day.

I went upstairs and got ready for bed then fell asleep watching Animal Cops.

I'M SORRY

I am finally home and am going to post updates on all of the days I missed. I am so sorry, we got really busy on the road. And at the end of the day I was usually so exhausted that all I wanted to do was set out stuff for the next day and go to sleep. Sorry, I suck really bad at this.

Val - you are right about just posting on the day you leave and the day you get back.

Stay tuned... I'm typing away...

Pictures

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=356540009/a=60910076_60910076/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish
Here you go.

Day 2 Summary!

Today was awesome. I have to get ready for the social. Very quickly, here are a few things from today:

- I almost used my shirt as my napkin at lunch today (my blouse has a necktie that hangs in the front...)
- I got to watch my favorite “Growing Up Baby” EVER!! Growing up baby giraffe – Kalulah!!
- I’m uploading my photos to SnapFish because Blogspot is being lame. Didn’t realize that I had over 200 photos… This could take a while.

Will update you guys on the rest of the day later. It's time for booze. I mean dinner.

Email from Alpal - "Funny Blogs"

"So I'm totally loving them! I hope you can get the pics up. I love the one of the iris. I don't have a lot of time to write right now, but I just wanted to let you know that I was in Wal-Mart returning something last night. I was kinda worried about the return cause I wanted to return those tooth pick things (don't work at all don't ever buy them, they just bend and you can't even floss the part between your teeth and gum cause it's too thick) but since I used one I wasn't sure what they'd say. But they gave me the money back so I didn't have to get all pissed off. I did have it out a bit with a Clinique lady last night though debating over a return...interesting that you'd have a dream about that. Clairvoyant maybe???

Hope you're having a great time!!! I had more reactions about the blogs so I'll write those down later.

Miss ya!

~Al"

If you don't know why I posted this email from Al, read my previous posts. You'll figure it out.

HOSTAGES.

Since I can't post pictures of them, you guys have to guess what I have of yours. This should be easy.


David - kinda scary looking, especially on a plane seated behind a small child.

ValPalerizor - sometimes you see this little guy when he's flying at you as you are answering a phone call.

Mandabear - it laid a LemonHead once. And it was born from chocolate.


Just so you guys know, they are all together and are happy. But they are with the LemonHead and will smell all awesome and Pine-sol-y when I get back. :)

Now for the ransoms...

Here's a picture of them:

Here we are in the lounge...

Amandabear: I forgot to tell you that your fish friend traveled the whole way with the LemonHead. MMM.

Day 1

Upon waking up my first thoughts were "Where am I? And why do my legs hurt so badly?" Oh, right. I'm in paradise but tried to kill myself yesterday. Better get up and get ready for class.

Let's turn on Animal Planet and start the day off right!! I watched "Growing Up Black Leopard." Really cute. Got ready for the day. Double and triple checked all of the stuff I was bringing to the class with me, and then headed downstairs for breakfast.

The first day of class was awesome. The participants have a lot to say and are very interesting. Jetlag started to get the better of me around 11:30am. I swear I shut my eyes for a second; JJ then came up and said “no sleeping!” He wasn’t mad; he knew we were all tired. A few times during the day, I looked across the room and saw other team members nodding off. JJ was doing side lunges and other stretches in the back of the classroom; I guess his legs hurt too from our jog.

I wore my best suit on the first day specifically for the class photo. Well, they moved the class photo to Tuesday due to yucky weather. So much for our planning, huh Al?

After class, we had some free time. I came up here and chatted with a few people, uploaded a new post, then got ready for dinner. A few people on the team are photography nuts. They have those huge, high-tech, awesome cameras that make everyone look like movie stars. Well, photography nuts need subjects. They took pictures NONSTOP from the lobby, on the way to dinner, through dinner, and on the way home from dinner. The head honcho kept referring to them as our paparazzi. They were toying with lighting, reflections (cause the rain made the roads look cool), etc. so I guess I can understand why they had to take the same picture five times.

Dinner was fun. Most of us went to a really cozy restaurant. I say cozy because it was tiny. There was a musician there and he played “La Cucaracha” for DM. That was really funny. Then, after playing that song, he finished all of his other songs with “cha cha cha.” It made DM happy, and all of us laugh. Since we had fish two nights in a row, I decided to go for chicken last night. You can’t really mess chicken up, and they served it with rice and potatoes so I was really happy.

After dinner, we came back to the hotel and all went to our respective rooms. I decided that while I was doing my homework, I would “steam” my shirt in the bathroom. I used the bathroom for this because this five star resort’s rooms are not equipped with irons. They have a “pressing service,” which costs about four euro per shirt. Call me cheap, but dang it I like to iron my own stuff! So, what did I do? Turned the hot water on in the shower AND bathtub, hung my shirt up in there (that’s right, ONE shirt), closed the door and let the steam fill the bathroom. Thanks Mom!! I finished my homework, and then got ready for bed. I was exhausted last night, but couldn’t get to sleep. After I finally fell asleep for a while, I woke up because it was ridiculously hot in my room.

I miss you guys. Dad, thanks for commenting on the blogosphere. :):)

KOTOR

I'm just going to get this out there. I didn't go to church on Easter. Sorry, Mom. A few of the people on the team found a service to go to, but the Principal invited me to go take a tour and photograph Kotor... I took a picture of a church, does that count??

Kotor was absolutely amazing. I took a bunch of pictures, but they should've sent a better photographer. I'm sure I didn't do Kotor justice. We were there around 8am, the lighting was perfect!! It was kinda hazy, so the sun and mountains looked awesome. I wish I could post pictures so you guys could see what I mean!! AHH. We walked around the town for a while, took a bunch of pictures, then stopped at a bar and ordered beers. I drank the beer, even though I'm not a huge fan of beer.

After the tour of the town, we decided to go up one of the mountains to take photographs of the bay. Wow. What a drive that was. Apparently, according to Oli, the person who designed the road was madly in love with a woman named Mila and designed the road to spell her name; it was a really windy, mountainous road. Oli also told us that vipers are common in this area. I appreciated the tip, but didn't think I would be out in wooded areas. Well, about half way up the mountain, the beer got to all of us and we had to pull over. Mountain road = no restrooms. Awesome. "Go by the car, Angela. No one will see you." Yeah, not so. I ended up in the woods. With the vipers.

The top of the mountain was AMAZING. You could see the bay of Kotor, look in the direction of Croatia and see something (it was hazy, remember?), AND there was SNOW up there. Amazing.

The drive down was scary. So I went to sleep. Nothing to say about the drive down. We drove back to Budva, had some pizza for lunch and went to set up the classroom.

After classroom set up, I went for a "jog" with JJ and a couple of others. 2 and half hours later and what they say was three miles but I swear I ran 15, I'm walking up to the hotel. I can't feel my legs and my whole body is in pain. Marathons, here I come. Syke. Although I was in an INCREDIBLE amount of pain, I have to say, the run was a really cool way to tour Budva.

We ran along the bay, passed some restaurants, I found a mama dog who was bringing food to her pups, we ran through a freaking tunnel, I met another doggie but this one looked like a fox, and we ran all the way to this really cool island. And on the way back, we ran by a watch donkey. By watch donkey I mean it was a donkey, in the front yard, hee-hawing at every person that walked by. I'm getting one. We also ran by the mama dog and her puppies. They almost made me cry. I miss Kiwibear lots. Oh! AND! The little fox dog RAN WITH US!! She was awesome!! Think of three dog names, I'm bringing them home with me.

Came back, took a bath, and got ready for dinner. That hurt. Dinner was good. There was a cat in the restaurant, she was sitting under my chair. I swear, I'm just radiating with my feelings of missing Kiwi. I keep attracting these animals. Oh, I left out the little dog I met in Kotor, too. But I have a picture of her, she was awesome. Followed us all around the town. AND I DIDN'T FEED ANY OF THEM, so don't say its because of that.

I Ate a Fish Eye...

The hotel room is sweet.  I took a bunch of photos when I got in yesterday.  Most of the TV channels are in english.  The most important channel - ANIMAL PLANET!  :) :) 

We went to a nice little seafood restaurant for dinner last night.  It was right on the water and became quite chilly after the sunset.  We ordered a whole fish for the table to share and it was awesome!  DM and I ate fish soup AND fish eyes.  I told them about Dad giving fish eyes in place of Tylenol to his buddies when they were drunk.  I've got a really sweet picture of DM with a fish eye in his mouth.  Will post it as soon as I can.  I may just post them on Facebook to get them up.

I went to bed around 10:45 last night.  There is no fan or loud AC unit in this room so it was hard to stay sleep.  Luckily, I was really tired and immediately fell asleep.  After a few hours, I tossed and turned.  I woke up at 5:45.  I still feel  a little tired, but its that tired you feel when you get up for a normal work day.  I figure this will help me sleep later.  

When I woke up I could see the moon on one side of the little bay outside; and behind the other side, I could see brightness behind the rock/cliff.  It was really neat.  I tried to wait for the sun to come around the rocks, but man its taking for ever!!  Come on sun!!  

Al - I had a dream about you last night.  You were wearing that purple 80s looking shirt and we were shopping at a place that looked like wal-mart.  But, you got mad at someone because they wouldn't help us or let us return something.  I think it was that we couldn't return something.  It was weird.  And you were livid.

We are headed to Kotor today.  It looks to be a little bay town.  A few of the team members want to make it to church, and Ernie is always looking for a photo-op, so off we go!!  Today will be the warmest day of the week, I'm very excited for the near 80 degree weather.  When we get back from Kotor, it will be time to do actual work.  Setting up the classroom.  Yay!  

 I need to eat something before we leave...

The Real Thing

UPDATED WITH PICTURES

Vienna to Podgorica

That's right, kids. Our plane functions off of propellers. Awesome.

The arial view of Vienna is pretty neat. It reminds me of those crayons we had when we were little; the ones that had like eight colors in one. Or a Butcher's block; with all the different shades and lengths of the wood pieces put together. And there are windmills dotting the different patches.

There are very few people on this flight, so after boarding we were able to spread out.

The food on Austrian Air is very good. This was my lunch.

JJ is all about the chocolate mousse, lounging with his socks off and doing standing stretches in the front of the plane. He's actually pretty fun to travel with. I'll let you know if that changes when the course starts...

This flight is only an hour and 20 minutes. I've already fallen asleep for 10 minutes on this plane!! I also slept for about 20 minutes in the "reading corner," along with DM and the Principal, before we boarded for Podgorica. I'm feeling okay right about now. I can't wait to get to Budva, it sounds like we already have dinner plans. Woo!!

Wild World (cover)

Layover in Vienna...

It is now 3am in DC.  I slept for maybe an hour on the plane.  Watched three movies.  Ate an entire bag of twizzlers.  Read two chapters in my book about lies.  And have now had two cups of tea.  

The frequent fliers got us into another lounge.  It kinda looks like the "reading corner" of a kindergarten classroom.  Big purple irises painted on the walls...  I can't complain though.  They are very happy flowers :)  Al - you would like them... Very detailed.  They make me feel like I'm in "Honey, I shrunk the kids."  Upon arriving in this exclusive lounge, we discovered a full bar...  Bloody marys, beers, mimosas followed.  Collectively.  Not just for me.  

The group conversation has gone from the Somali pirates, to Twittering, to "When I was your age...," to kids, to guns...  Yep.  DM fell asleep in one of the lounge chairs and is snoring.  

Our flight to Podgorica leaves in about three hours.  Then a bus ride.  I'm updating my iPod for the rest of the trip...

Every Thug Needs a Lady

**I wrote this yesterday, but couldn't post it until today.  And, I couldn't get my font to work.  SORRY!! 

I want to sing really bad right now!  I am currently on my way to Vienna, listening to my iTunes while I write.  I've had my dinner, a Tom Collins and am now enjoying a glass of white wine.  Flight of the Conchords is on.  This flight is pretty sweet.  Let's recap the day, shall we?

Today was SO MUCH more hectic than I intended it to be.  I didn't make it to the gym today because I went to the gym twice yesterday and am very sore from lifting weights.  What's that?  Why?  Yeah.  I've been asking myself that same question for about 24 hours now.  I forgot my company card in my office desk drawer, so I had to visit the office to pick that up.  I ate very little today because I was so anxious.  I left one of my Victoria's Secret lotions in my carry, and I had to THROW IT AWAY when I was going through security.  Ugh.  Every time I think about that it makes me feel sick to my stomach.  

I almost had a panic attack today - I thought I had lost the LemonHead.  I know.  Relax.  I found the elusive little sucker.  Apparently he doesn't like traveling and was hiding in one of my other tote bags.  Luckily, I found him.  Speaking of good things, here are a few more pluses for the day:  my checked luggage only weighed 40 -43 pounds!! WOO!!  That is a huge accomplishment for me.  AND, my carry on suitcase is only half full.  I think I am going to make it back with loads of souvenirs!!  I also thought I left my personal cell phone at home but later found it in my tote bag while I was sitting at the gate.  Heck yeah!!  Leaving my company card in my office was a little bit of a blessing in disguise.  Since I had to visit the office, I got to see our wonderful boss with the great hair and wish Amandabear good luck and steal another huge before I left!!

No good pictures yet.  JJ was sitting right across the aisle from me, but his TV screen was "busted," so he got to move closer to the rest of the team.  From here, he looks to be sleeping...  Maybe I can snap a picture of him on my way to the restroom.  DM has been awesome.  He got me into the Lufthansa Senator's Lounge.  SWANKY.  Really awesome chairs, food and company!  He also let me know that booze on the flight is FREE.  Holy Bananas.  I guess I will be sleeping on this flight.  Oh, and JJ was CRAZY in the lounge.  There was a plethora of really good food and this man walks in and gets an Easter cupcake, a chocolate cookie and apple juice.  "Excuse me, when is your naptime?"  He then asked me to have half of his cookie because he didn't want the whole thing.  You guys all know what my response was.  10 minutes later what is he doing?  Eating a bowl of jellybeans AND gummy bears.  

The TVs are pretty sweet.  But, I swear, I think that on one of the music channels they've played the Madonna - Frozen video nonstop for the last three hours.  Seriously?? I love Madonna too... but come on.  That video kinda reminds me of The Ring.  

The rest of the team has been really awesome so far.  The head honcho keeps giving me crap for my day planner.  When we met for our trip brief, he claimed to be intimidated by its size.  Rightfully so.  It is quite an intimidating accessory.  Before we boarded the flight he recommended that I stow it in an overhead compartment.  

We are about three hours into the flight.  Fantastic.  My arsenal against boredom = twizzlers, starburst, gum, a book "Telling Lies," the QA Style Guide, videos of Kiwibear, pictures, stolen items (MWAHAHA), and I guess sleeping at some point.  

I'm Old Greg

I was tasked to write a blog post to explain our nicknames. However, upon sitting down to write it, I've realised that there is actually very little explanation for them. Usually what happens is that Angela calls us a name in her head, and then one day she gets distracted and it slips out when she is actually talking to us, and then it sticks. So Valerie is Booberries, and I have the distinction of having two nicknames - Mandarin Oranges in the summer, and Amandabear in the winter. (Angela also calls her dog Kiwibear. I'm sure the fact that I have the same nickname as a dog is pure coincidence.) As payback, Valerie started to call Angela Smangela (because she smells?). She also answers to noon!. David has pretty much avoided the bestowal of a nickname so far, although sometimes when Rosa comes in my office, she looks at the picture of David that he pinned on my bulletin board and calls him "the silly one." Edit: Apparently he is also known to certain individuals as OTTO BOCK TRANSFORM.

Now that I've written all this out, I'm thinking that the things that happen in Angela's mind are kind of strange...

Evidence.

Where In The World Is The Lemon Head?

The link to this blog is called the traveling lemon head. This is an inside joke that needs some explaining. We all work in an office where many people put out candy on their desk. I guess it gives more of an inviting feeling or maybe it gives you a reason to stop by that person's office. I haven't figured that one out yet. The lemon head came from one of these offices. Francheska would put out candy for people. Over time certain pieces of candy would remain in her candy dish month after month. There was the sugar free lifesaver, the old chalky peppermint candy, a mystery piece of what looked like a nugget of some sort, and the lemon head.

Normally I am a fan of lemon heads, but this was no normal lemon head. It looked like it had been sucked on and put back in the wrapper. Or maybe left in her car to melt and then later re-solidified. Or maybe one day Francheska decided to ride her bike into work and wanted to bring candy in to fill up her candy dish but she didn't have a basket on her bike so she had to hold the candy in her arm pit! Whatever the case none of us were going to eat it. I know I even felt gross when my hand rubbed up against said candy when reaching for good candy. Months went on and it looked like the lemon head was destined to spend eternity in Francheska's candy dish.

Then one day the lemon head found its way on to Angela's desk! Angela was flabbergasted. What rascal could have done this?! That rascal was Veronica, another coworker. She had gone to talk to Francheska and just grabbed some candy from her desk. It wasn't until Veronica had made it back to her own office did she realize that in her hand was the infamous lemon head. Instead of just throwing the candy away she decided to put it on Angela's desk knowing full well that Angela also found that piece of candy repulsive. And so begins the game. You must hide the lemon head in another person's office. I think there was maybe 7 of us in on this game. I don't think Francheska every caught on

Here is a list of some of the more memorable hiding spots.

It was raining one day and Angela wore some rain boots into the office. As she is getting ready to leave she slips her foot into her rain boot but her foot is impeded by the lemon head.
Jermain, another person that hated the lemon head, took a light bulb out of the lamp on Angela's desk and replaced it with the lemon head. This was not the first time that Jermain had hidden the lemon head in a lamp. He once put the lemon head in one of Amanda's lamps, but he didn't take the bulb out. It didn't take long before the smell of burnt plastic starting coming out of her office.
One morning Veronica comes into work and realises that her mouse is not working. She pulls on the cord to see if maybe it is not plugged in and at the end of the cord she sees the lemon head tapped to the cord.
After a hard day of work we all go out for drinks. Fun is had by all. As we are leaving Valerie puts on her gloves but is unable to because the lemon head is stuffed in her glove.
Jermain comes into the office and sees the rubber chicken he has hanging from his celling now has a beak full of lemon head.
I come into work to answer some emails and then leave for the airport to go surprise my sister for her birthday in another state. When I get to the hotel and open my suitcase the first thing I see is the lemon head staring at me.
Valerie sits down in her office chair and notices that it is not at its normal height. She reaches for the lever to adjust the height and finds the lemon head tapped to her chair.
Angela always has a water bottle on her desk that she drinks from constantly through out the day. The lemon head found its way into her water bottle. She threw the water bottle out.

The fun part was not hiding the lemon head. The fun part was watching the person find the lemon head and groan with discuss. We had always planned on hiding it in each others luggage for these trips. But instead we decided to make this lemon head the most well travelled lemon head ever! Now not only will we be bringing underwear but also the one and only lemon head.

If it means a lot to you

This time tomorrow, I will be… running errands? I’m not sure.

I packed most of my stuff last night. Allison and I have got this down to an art!! All business attire is grouped by day and / or color and in separate garment bags. I’m pretty sure that packing my casual attire will be fairly simple; I plan on getting that done tonight. You should all be happy to know that I am only bringing a total of four pairs of shoes. That’s right. Four. Grey heels, black patent heels, running shoes and my flip flops. I am very proud of myself. :) Now to make room for my hair dryer, curling iron, hair products, makeup, miscellaneous bathroom stuff... As Al would say: "Its a pUZzle!!"

So, what's left? Packing, obviously, charging the iPod and updating the songs, packing my carry-on bags... I'm trying to decide whether or not I should bring Twilight with me... I can probably watch it on the plane... and WHICH STUFFED ANIMAL SHOULD I BRING??? Do I bring my Peep, for Easter?? Do I bring a giant microbe?? My new LionBunny?? The Seahorse finger puppet?? DOMO?? HELP! I definitely can't bring them all, but I can't decide between them!!