Greetings from the Greek Islands!

Hello everyone!
I must send my apologies for not updating more often! It's hard to be on a computer when you're in the most beautiful place on earth! =) Seriously though, I'm having the time of my life! I've only been gone for a little over a day and I can already tell you that I've made the right decision by coming here. We've met so many amazing people whether they are studying abroad or traveling for their honeymoon or just traveling everyone is in support of what we're doing and there is definitely a general concensus that no one wants to go home!

This post is going to be without pictures because the internet is really expensive here on the island and there's also no USB availability! But I will post and send some soon. So we just came to Ios last night from Santorini which are in the Cyklades chain of the Greek islands. These two islands have been the best and most beautiful place that I have seen on earth so far. Santorini was so much fun! Our hostel was about 30 steps from the beach and about 15 steps from this amazing restaurant with very cheap and delicious Greek food! We found out from our waiter about this cruise that goes around part of the island and to the volcano which you hike up and then to some hot springs where you can swim (if you choose..we did not). After that you get some traditional Greek cuisine and wine =) and you sail around until the sun sets while one of the crew members plays the saxaphone...it's incredible! We had an especially good time because of all of the wine that we had! Estee ended up "getting married" to one of the crew members and we had a little wedding ceremony and everything. Fortunately, we caught this all on Estee's video camera, so for those of you who'd like to see..it might be on YouTube later. =) While on this cruise, we met some really cool people from Australia who were on Honeymoon and ended up going to a local pub with them afterwards which lead to even more fun! It was quite the way to end our stay in Santorini!

Yesterday, we came to Ios which is a smaller less popular island but it is just as beautiful if not more! The main "square" in this town is literally like six restaurants and bars and that's it. We went to the beach today where we stayed all day and just vegged out which I think is what we all needed! We just came back a few minutes ago to our hostel, which is also amazing-15 Euros a night which is roughly $18/night for a view of the Agean sea and amazing sunsets! It's completely worth every penny!

Well tomorrow our travels take us back to Athens for one night and then we'll be heading to Venice to see and stay with a friend of mine from high school Josh. After that, our vacation is over (for now) and we actually start work on Monday the 4th, although we have to arrive in San Remo, Italy by June 3rd at 6 p.m. We're already discussing places we want to go when our small summer stint is over. I don't think any of us are ready to let go of this vacation mode yet!
It's been an amazing time so far and it's really just beginning! I can't wait to see what the future is going to hold for us and I'm sure I'll have even more tales once we leave Venice and start working!
Until then, Ciao!

Barcelona!

This is my first blog of my travels! So, welcome!!
Might I say that I think I´m spoiled from this hostel that we´re staying at! Might I also highly recommend the Mambo Tango Youth Hostel here in Barcelona if you should ever need awesome accomodations and wonderful hosts!! I know that Estee gave them a plug in her blog already but I wanted to give one as well! Here is a picture of a few of our roommates and fellow hostel residents.


Well we are on our second and final day here in Barcelona. It was overall a great day! We went to this beautiful park where we had a picnic lunch with stuff that we picked up at this amazing market this morning!


We had a little photo shoot in the gardens.....

and then some accidental zoomed photos that I actually really liked of Jess and I.


Well for now I´m signing out. Jess and I are going to walk down to the street corner and see if the market is still open! Ciao!

A perfect few days!

I would like to start out by saying I am so lucky to have some of the best friends in the entire world! Four of my best friends are all living within a three hour radius of each other up here in Virginia and I have been apart from them for four years now. I was so lucky to get to spend a few days with them and see where they live and be a part of their lives for a change! While I didn't see all of them at the same time, I got to see them in groups. On Thursday, Molly, Chelsea and Lindsay took the day off work so we could spend it together in Old Town Alexandria! We had a great time window shopping, going to lunch and just roaming around the area and down by the water. I'm sure some of the people there thought we were a little crazy because of the pictures we were taking, but we'll live.



So this is us from left to right: Lindsay, Chelsea, me and Molly.




After we finished in Old Town, Lindsay and I headed to Richmond to see our friend Lottie graduate from VCU. I had never been to Richmond (or at least not really) so it was fun to go out and see what our capitol has to offer! We ended up going to this Irish pub called Sine for some karaoke!




While we never actually got to sing (someone took our song) we still had a blast! When I got home last night from Richmond, I met my parents in Middletown (the town where we live) for dinner. Now keep in mind that Middletown is a one stoplight kind of town...(literally!!) but they have this cute little place called the Civil Cricket that is in the middle of town and serves an excellent meal and even better coffee! A brief history behind the name: Civil is for the civil war (incase you couldn't tell by the picture); this area has a huge renactment twice a year which draws a pretty big crowd. THen apparently the cricket is a sign of hospitality, which I certainly didn't know.

I have now been there three times within the past 24 hours..so needless to say, they already know my name! But the guys that work in there are so nice and were very interested in what I was going to be doing in Italy this summer.
Well time to sign off for now, but I'm leaving tomorrow! I cannot wait, but now it's time to go put in another load of laundry and pack some more!

Retirement...day 5

Retirement Day 5 Agenda:
Meet with the ESL teacher at my mom's school in about an hour and then head down to NOVA (for those of you that don't know that means Northern VA or areas surrounding DC). I'm going tonight to hang out with my best friend of 23 years, Chelsea and her husband Heath.

Tomorrow my best friends and I aka the Golden Girls will be heading down to Old Town Alexandria for some shopping (or in my case, window shopping) and then depending on how the day goes, maybe into DC. I'm so excited that they were all about to take the day off so that we can spend some time together which is so rare these days!

Thursdsay night/Friday will be spent in Richmond for another Golden Girl, (GG's) Lottie's graduation with her MSW.

Well I'd better be off to go pack for the next two nights and then head out of here!

Ahh Winchestertonfieldville

Soo I'm home. It was a seriously long trip especially when I only had about 3.5 hours of sleep on Friday night. Thank you so much to Kelley who came and folded my clothes and put them in a suitcase for me until 1 a.m.! I so appreciate my true friends and that made it so much harder to leave Orlando! My mom asked me why I didn't just wait an extra day and take my time, but I couldn't. I knew that if I stayed in Orlando one more day, I would want to stay forever, so I had to go.
On another note, Lisa and I also had to squeeze in a wedding cake before I left. Yes..talk about stress, but it was all worth it! I think the Custom Cake Co. went out on a high note though! I was pretty pleased with the final result which has much to do with Lisa's creative eye in putting this thing together and adding the final touches! You can see what you think below:



Retirement Day 4 Agenda:


....and conversation with Lindsay. Then perhaps a little lunch with Andrew and Lindsay. Have I mentioned how much I love retirement?

Am I done yet?

Packing is going very slowly...I am a procrastinator..but I've known this all along. Maybe I'll start to live by the motto: Take only what fits in your car. That would be pretty much amazing! In less than one week I'll be home in Virginia. In less than two weeks, I'll be in Barcelona, Spain. I feel very lucky!!
Stay tuned for more!