Beijing, China

Hmmmm...what to tell you about Beijing. This vast, historical, and polluted city holds both my best and worst memories from our trip.

Best: climbing the great wall at the turning of the 2010 new year :)

Worst: stuck in the worst blizzard in Beijing in 60 years unable to leave the country :(

The pic to the right is the Temple of Heaven. It was the first sight that Caroline and I visited. It was soooooooo cold! Beijing basically felt like Iowa with less heated buildings. All the cool sights were outside, so we spent every day outside in temps in the single digits or teens. Not my favorite way to go sight seeing. The temple of heaven was fun despite the cold. Caroline and I made the best of things and took some fun pics. I am so glad she was with us!

This is Caroline and I at the Forbidden City. We were so cold (is there an echo in here)!! We couldn't stand to have our faces exposed to the open air.

This pic is from the Forbidden City. I just like all the zig-zag lines in the picture.

On this part of the trip we got to see a jade factory, a silk factory, and the pearl market. I enjoyed the pearl market because I was able to purchase a Tahitian black pearl as a birthday present. I call it "My Precious." We also got to visit with some friends from Texas that were in Beijing with Lets Start Talking. It was nice to see friendly familiar faces.

And now here are some pics from my favorite part of our China trip...The Great Wall of China.

On our way up to The Great Wall in a "lift" that was "made in China." Thus my nervous smile. I wonder how much lead is in the paint?



New Year's kiss on The Great Wall of China



Caroline, Me and Scott

Some places on the wall were really steep :)

All of The Great Wall of China pics are Caroline's. Hers were far superior to mine.

The day after these pictures were taken we were scheduled to go our separate ways, Caroline back to the states, and Scott and I to Vietnam. However, Beijing was hit with their worst blizzard in 60 years, and Scott and I did not get out of Beijing that day. We missed Vietnam completely, our travel agent worked some magic for us, and we left Beijing two days later for Adelaide, Australia.

(BTW, Caroline did make it out of Beijing on her original flight date, however, it was about 10:30 at night.)

Japan

Scott and I had a whirlwind 5 days together preparing for our next phase of travel. Flight circumstances dictated that Scott leave a couple days ahead of me. I flew to Tokyo, to meet up with him in Tokyo, Japan with my sister-in-law, Caroline, on December 20, 2009. As in Europe, during the day Scott had to work measuring all kinds of skulls, and I was free to sight see; however, this time I had Caroline Maddux to bounce around with. We had a blast hanging out and learning and seeing all kinds of new things. The picture to the right is an old five story pagoda. Pretty cool.

This blog post is somewhat deceiving because the rest of Tokyo looks nothing like this. Tokyo is the Asian equivalent of New York City. It's modern, and chic bustling with millions of Japanese. Imagine that.


First breakfast in Japan. Scott and Caroline got nice big bowls of rice and coffee, while I was given a small bowl of rice and orange juice...yes...they gave me the "child's breakfast."

One of the first things Coroline and I decided to do was go to the National Museum. We found an area where you could design your own Japanese mirror or Kimono with stamps. There were a ton of kids there, but the museum staff cleared Caroline and I a spot, and the kids started to give us stamps. Everyone was really nice, and we had fun. Caroline chose a mirror and I chose a Kimono.

This was defiantly the highlight of our trip to Tokyo...having sushi for breakfast on Christmas morning at the fish market. This was an absolute dream come true!


Eating unagi at a historical and famous restaurant that specializes in unagi. Mmm...eel!

A spectacular pic in front of the imperial palace.

We all loved Tokyo! The constant sushi eating, ease of getting around, finding what we needed, the friendly people, and everything being made for short people made it so much harder to leave than I expected. I think Scott and I could easily live there. In some ways it was easier to be there than it was for us to be in Europe! I miss you Japan! Beijing, China was next on the travel menu...the antithesis of Tokyo...

Communism and Viruses

Some of you who read this blog know that I am currently about to end my adventures in Asia and Australia. I wish that I could have written updates for you while I am away but two things have prevented me from doing so: 1)communism 2)a computer virus.

In China, the government blocks facebook and my blog! It was very frustrating and I got stuck there an extra two days, so I felt a bit like I was imprisoned. I was absolutely relieved to get to Australia, and planned on spending a couple days getting the blog caught up. However, the first day I used the wireless Internet in Adelaide my laptop got a nasty computer virus that put it out of commission for the entirety of my stay. I am paying for my time on the Internet to the tune of $1.00 for every 15 minutes, so I'm going to have to update retrospectively. Apologies to those of you who were hoping to live vicariously through me while I'm gone. Updates will follow shortly after I am home in Iowa (hopefully). In the mean time...a late happy holidays, and happy new year to everyone!

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Fortunately, I got to spend two weeks with Scott after he got back from New York!

Unfortunately, he left for Africa on November 14, 2009 and wouldn’t return until December 15.

Fortunately, my dear friend, Jill Graham, and her two cute boys were in Iowa City with me to ease the pain.

Unfortunately, she eventually had to go back to Wyoming.

Fortunately, Tex and I moved in with some other dear friends the Steeles. I love you guys!!

Unfortunately, I had NO time to clean my house before my family came for Thanksgiving.

Fortunately, some other dear friends, the Guglliuzas, did a major portion of it for me. I love you guys too!

Unfortunately,that means I was working hard at school and not hanging out with them.

Fortunately, Mom, Dad, Clint, Jackson, and Sara all arrived at my house on November 24, 2009!

Unfortunately, Scott missed a very relaxing and yummy Thanksgiving with my wonderful family!

Fortunately, the six of us had a great time creating more Iowa Thanksgiving family memories together.

Unfortunately, they had to leave on November 28.

Fortunately, Tex and I went back to the Steeles' with only two weeks left until Scott returned.

Unfortunately, soon Iowa got hit with the first blizzard of the season.

Fortunately, I got three snow days off of school.

Unfortunately, I was sick during that time.

Fortunately, I got better in time for Scott to come home on December 15, 2009!

...And that's what I did while Scott was in Africa. We then had 5 days to get ready for Travel Phase 3...Asia and Australia!

NYC

A couple weeks after Scott left for New York City, I used the rest of my personal days at work to take another long weekend to visit him in the Big Apple. My flight got in rather late on Friday, so, in true New York fashion, we had a piece of black forest cake at midnight at a pastry shop down the street from our hostel in Manhattan. I love New York!

The morning on Saturday brought rainy weather, but that didn't stop us from having a fabulous day. We started the day off right with some sushi! After that we took a walk through Central Park on our way to the Metropolitan Museum of ART. Which we thought was pretty clever since it was a rainy day, however the rest of New York was apparently just as clever as we were. It was very crowed, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. Scott got to see the Dutch paintings and I got to see my Italian paintings. I got to see some of the contemporary art too, but just as I was getting started they closed that part of the exhibit. Although I was disappointed, I did get to see their Jackson Pollock, so I was more than satisfied!

We started to make our way back to our hostel via Grand Central Station. While we were there, we got to have some dinner at Michael Jordan's restaurant...and by dinner I mean we each got an appetizer because we couldn't really afford to have dinner there. I had some blue cheese fondue, and Scott had some seafood chowder. Mmmmm.... When we had explored to our heart's content we hopped on the subway and back to our hostel in the pouring rain.

Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day, which we took full advantage of. We started the day by visiting ground zero. I expected it to be a bit more emotional experience than it was. There were construction crews working hard to rebuild. The experience of being there was poignant, but encouraging. There was an atmosphere of renewal and hope as we saw the new construction rising above the barricades surrounding the area where so much tragedy transpired just 8 years ago.

After some lunch we headed over to the Statue of Liberty. Again we were proud of ourselves for taking advantage of the great weather, and again the rest of New York City also seemed to have the same idea. This little adventure took up pretty much the rest of the day, but we just enjoyed being together, and got some great pictures! For dinner we had some special plans to eat at Cafe Du Soleil, a restaurant recommended by the curator Scott had been working with. It was a little French Bistro that had several menu items created from locally grown organic food. I had a salmon steak served medium, just like I like it, and Crème brûlée for dessert...so good. It was cozy and romantic, and a great ending to our last sight seeing day together.

Bright and early Monday morning I got up with Scott and went to work with him for a few hours to see what he had been up to the past couple weeks. We ate some lunch together, and then, once again it was time for us to say good-bye. Scott called me a cab and I headed back to Iowa, and looked forward to the next weekend when Scott would come home again for two whole weeks before heading to stop number 3 in phase 2 of the "Grand Tour:" Africa...

The Travels Continue

...And you thought we were done traveling. In fact the travel saga does continue despite the tardiness of my update. While we were in Europe, I think I forgot what busy lives we lead. I then discovered just how much busier I could get as a dissertation widow. I have had so much trouble finding the time to post on this blog!!

Just three short weeks after Scott and I returned to home-sweet-Iowa, Scott embarked on a second phase of dissertation research travel while I stayed home and "brought home the bacon," and pined for his return. His first stop in travel phase 2: three weeks in Washington DC at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. While he was gone, I moved in with some generous friends, the Steeles, to keep away the lonelies.

Fortunately, I was able to take a weekend off to go and visit him. For those of you who don't know, Scott and I spent our honeymoon in this beautiful and historic city, and this is not the first time we have re-visited. We love DC, and we now have a couple friends that live there. Scott was staying with some of our former Iowa City friends the Lewises, and I joined him there on my visit. It was great to see so many people that I missed so much...granted I missed Scott more than the others, but seeing the Lewises was fantastic all the same! I got to get reacquainted with Olaiya and Naomi, two of the most precious girls in the world. The Lewis family took us to their favorite burger joint, Five Guys. It was a fairly small and simple place, but they had made the best burger I've ever tasted! While we were eating I got the pleasure of telling knock-knock jokes with Olaiya...very funny! I taught her the interrupting cow joke. Pictured here is my little friend Naomi.

Scott and I really had only one day of sight seeing together in DC, and we certainly made the most of it by hitting our favorite sites. The last time we were in DC we didn't get to go the American History Museum because it was under renovation. This time we made a point to go and see the newly redone exhibits. We had a great time seeing one of our favorite items, the first idea for the Washington Monument...George Washington in a toga. I think this is the most halarious piece of history! I also think that whoever said "Maybe we should think of a different idea to imortalize one of the nations most important figures," was very wise in his decision making.

Some of the other highlights of the museum (pictured at the end) were, seeing the Julia Child exhibit. I love watching her old episodes on PBS on Saturday mornings, so getting to see her kitchen and learn some other things about her was really fun. I also got to see the musical instrument exhibit. Of course I had to have a picture of their old French horn that uses crooks instead of valves. I'm grateful to the guy who invented valves. Playing the French horn used to be somewhat inconvenient.

Sunday came all too quickly and I headed back to Iowa City. It was hard to say good-bye again, but the very next weekend he got to come home before he flew to his second stop in phase 2 of the "Grand Tour" -- New York City!

Julia and me

French horn and crooks

Thessolanica and Home

Around noon on August 25, we boarded a train to Thessalonica, Greece with McDonalds in hand for lunch. This train ride was better because we had our own private sleeping car. However, shortly after eating our lunch, we were informed that there was no food on the train. We found that to be ridiculous since we would be on the train until 6:00 a.m. the next morning! Thankfully, we had packed some almonds and dried apricots just in case which we ate for dinner. Fortunately, by this point in our travels we were used to big lunches and small dinners. We did not starve.

We arrived, tired and nasty, in Thessalonica, Greece on August 26 at around 6:00 a.m. We could not contact anyone at the University to start work on the next “sacred” skull, Petralona, or check into our hotel, so we "parked" at a cafe in the train station. We bought some breakfast and killed three hours before taking a taxi to Aristotle University of Thessalonica at around 9:00 a.m. We soon found the professor in charge of the skull. He was personable and offered us coffee. After a few minutes introduction, Scott got set up and got to work. Petralona was the last skull, and the granddaddy of them all. The best part for me was that I got to help this time! Scott let me push the button that recorded the measurements he was taking! That was my one shining moment contributing to the world of science on the trip.

Once we were done, we grabbed a quick sandwich for lunch and took a taxi to our hotel...on the beach! After showering (finally), we headed out the door of our hotel, and walked fifty yards to the beautiful beach. It was the end of the tourist season, so it wasn't too crowed and there were plenty of eating establishments to choose from. We lounged with a drink for awhile, and discussed what we were looking forward to the most about being home a just a few days. Then we walked a little further down the beach and had a great seafood dinner right there by the water! The food was excellent, it was beautiful, and Scott and I were having a great time! It was just what we needed to cure our Eastern Europe and “I’ve been away from home for three months” blues. As you can see from the pictures, how could we possibly not enjoy our surroundings after three months of “hard” work!

We turned in early that night in order to get up early for our flight back to Vienna. We arrived at the airport and checked in nice and early. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave we heard our names called over the loud speaker to come to the ticket counter. What we learned is that our plane had a technical problem, so they were going to transfer us to another airline to a flight that was going to leave at 9:00 a.m. to get us to Athens, so we could make our connecting flight to Vienna. Seems pretty nice right? Well…transferring to another airline meant that they brought out our luggage, and we had to get tickets and check in all over again. Because of the massive lines that had formed by that point in the day we were pushing our limits on time. While waiting in line we saw on the departure screen that our original flight was rescheduled to leave at 9:15, so we were only saving 15 minutes that we would lose by having to pick up our luggage in Athens and recheck it with our original airline. On top of that, everyone that had to transfer airlines held up the 9:00 flight and we didn’t take off until 9:30. So…our original flight actually left before ours plus we wouldn’t have had to recheck our luggage...we were very frustrated.

Despite the best efforts of Olympic airlines we caught our flight to Vienna without incident, and arrived safely in Vienna with all of our stuff after lunch on August 27. On Friday morning, Scott finished up his work at the Vienna Natural History Museum, and then we spent the afternoon shopping, and planning and preparing for our journey back to the US on Sunday morning. On Saturday, we met our good friend Bob Lojeck (Raija had left for Finland to visit her parents), for some authentic Japanese sushi. As usual, after consuming the best sushi I’ve ever had, our conversation took us to another spot for drinks, and then dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant. I can’t think of a better way to spend our last day in Europe, good friends and good food!

Finally, the morning arrived for us to travel home! Our flight from Vienna to London Heathrow went quite smoothly. We even arrived a few minutes early. However, since O’Hare and Heathrow, the two vortexes of travel, were on our itinerary we ran into big problems. Our flight to Chicago was delayed four hours. This meant that we would miss our connecting flight to Cedar Rapids, and guaranteed that we would be spending the night in Chicago. Fortunately, they put us up in the Hilton over night since the problem was technical. However, thanks to jet lag, we really didn’t sleep, which made getting up at 5:30 a.m. less of an issue to catch the first flight out to Cedar Rapids.

Our good friend Hannah Marsh was waiting for us at the airport, and we arrived back at our house at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 31 and were greeted by…a foiled living room! Our small group at church carried on a tradition that was started four years ago of pranking our house while we were gone. You can see that the quality of the prank is impeccable as they even individually wrapped a Starburst wrapper we had left on the table. Home sweet home!!