Back into the gym

Today's workout: 3o min. on the elliptical and 1 hour of turbo kick.

If you've ever been to turbo kick before, you know that learning a new round for the first time can make you look like you are jumping around with ants in your pants. I tried my best, but i'm sure I looked quite embarrassing especially since everyone else looked like they've done the routine a million times.

I'm a few days late but Santa Mommy was very good to me this year.

Some lovely wunder unders from Lululemon. Mine are purple on the top

This beauty. Now I just have to get to Bloomingdales to get a few links taken out.

My sister also got me a top from Lulu and Mama gave me some shopping cash as well that I will probably blow at Lululemon in the near future. I dream at night of scuba jackets.

It's been nice being in Napa for the holidays. I get to be around my family, good friends, eat, drink and be merry at places like Morimotos and Rutherford grill. Oh, and it's not a bad looking place either.

If it isn't raining tomorrow I'm hoping to go for a 9 mile ish run. The longest run I've done so far during my training is only about 6.5 miles. I did 8 miles the other day but it was split into 2 parts. I already picked out my route and clothes so i'm hoping the weather cooperates. I've run in the rain before but last time I did it I was on base in Germany on one of their "running trails" and I ended up getting lost in the woods, stuck and mangled in a blackberry bush and soaking wet so i'm still a little hesitant to run in the rain. Maybe I should just be hesitant to run new running trails that take you into the woods and then abruptly and rudely stop.

I'm now going to attempt to get off the couch, I've been here for quite some time now after I took my post gym shower. I atleast have that accomplished. Maybe i'll be a nice daughter and do some cleaning and take the dog on a walk.

Home for the Holidays

That's right, I am BACK. Back in the fabulous United States that is. I arrived in Napa last night around 8ish after a zoo-ish of a 11 and a half hour flight. I could have been in the cargo area though, I was just so happy to be getting home. I'm pretty I cried a little when we landed because I was so happy, the non-english speaking family sitting next me probably thought I was a little crazy. They also gave me a strange look when I pulled out a little airport bottle of vodka out of my purse to put in my bloody mary mix. Oops, I had extra euro change and needed to calm my nerves. Don't judge me.

Already I have been to In n out, Target, and Trader Joe's, just a few of my favorite places. Being back has been great, just a little overwhelming. And my driving skills arn't really up to par after not driving for 3 months. I may need to brush up on those skills. My sister has already banned me from driving while she's here.

The jet lag has been awful. I was up at 6:30 this morning, wide awake. And now its only 5 and I can barely stay awake. This 9 hour time difference is killing me.

After all the traveling chaos I almost forgot Christmas is in just a few days. I'm excited :)

Now if only I knew what to do with my life now.... We'll get that figured out, maybe next year?

Light at the end of the tunnel

This will finally be me tomorrow. No more stopping at London Heathrow where all the problems are, causing my flight to get cancelled not just once, but twice. I went to the airport yesterday and after 3 hours of standing in line I now hold a ticket for a direct flight to SFO for tomorrow. Goodbye Germany, goodbye snow and goodbye flying nightmares (let's hope at least). I am so happy and relived that I'm going to make it home before Christmas. After this nightmare experience all I want is to be home, safe with my family.

And Santa, if you at feel sorry for me after this whole fiasco, this is what I want for Christmas...

Love, Lacey

Dear Santa, please get me home for Christmas.

Already one of the girls flights has been cancelled again and mine isn't looking much better. This is slowly turning into a disaster. We are in the process of trying to get to the airport to try to get direct flights instead. We can't even call the airlines since they're phone lines are so busy. Moral is getting low here between the 4 of us and our food supply is getting low. Please help us :( All we want for Christmas is to be home in the USA. Ughhhhhh

Stranded in Germany

Apparently mother nature decided Europe needed a really, really white Christmas this year. Not cool mother nature. As I type this my flight was supposed to be landing in San Francisco. Instead I am sitting in my apartment on base in Germany. 5 out of the 6 of us were connecting in London to go to the USA and due to snow London airport was closed today and all our flights were cancelled. Super duper. It's a good thing I am writing now instead of last night, I was not happy at all when I found out I was staying here for a few more days.

I have a new flight, but it's not till Tuesday, TUESDAY. Also, I will be by my lonesome, all the other girls are headed out on Monday. Very sad and true story. Let's pray that one doesn't get cancelled. I'm leaving with the other girls early Monday morning and then I will stay in a hotel Monday night in Frankfurt that camp paid for. I am getting nervous though, Christmas is a week from today. If this next flight get cancelled there is a chance we will spending our Christmas in the airport or a hotel. Please pray that the weather clears up and that we all make it home. In total there is about 20 camp A people that had cancelled flights and are still over here. I'll keep you posted.

On the bright side my hotel has a spa, gym and looks pretty spiffy. Napa sounds way better though.

Adventures on Ramstein AFB

Today I woke up a little later than expected. I had a little too much fun celebrating Friday last night. We were supposed to take the train to Frankfurt for the Christmas market, but Liz and I decided to stay home. Maybe we'll go tomorrow. It's supposed to snow and be practically 0 degrees, so we'll see.

Our day ended up being pretty eventful. Please excuse my gross appearance, I didn't shower this morning. Oops.

First we went to Macaroni grill for a nice meal.

Next we took some pictures of big planes.

Then we enjoyed latte's at the E-club.

Did some gambling, I even won 1o bucks! And yes, there is a casino on base.

Next stop...Commissary. We got yummy sandwiches, this is a 1/4 sandwhich. You can also get a 1/2 or a whole. Ridic. I should also mention that this only costs $3

I'm going to miss this place, not the snow though. Living where it snows is not fun. The other day I slipped and fell walking to work. I'm surprised I didn't break anything. Donations of snow boots would be greatly appreciated. My vans just aren't cutting it.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

If you havn't figured it out by now, I kind of suck at updating my blog. I have excuses though, don't worry.

1. I work 40 hours a week (yes, I know most people do, but I'm just getting used to it)
2. I travel out of the country every weekend (I bet you don't do that, now do ya?)
3. I spend way too much time on facebook (um, ya, no comment)
4. I spend any extra minute in my day trying to get a run in, which is hard enough.

Enough excuses for now. Snow has arrived in Germany. We heard many rumors over the weekend in Barcelona that it has been snowing like crazy while we were gone. I found it hard to believe, even harder when I arrived home and saw, well no snow. Apparently it had melted, sure. But, sure enough the next morning when I left the house at the god awful hour of 06:00 (I switched to the morning shift, at least I get off by 15:00 now) the ground was COVERED in snow. At first it was super magical and I felt all warm and fuzzy inside but then reality set it, I almost slipped and died and it was no where near warm, more in the neighborhood of 15 degrees. Did I mention I have to walk to work? Yes, in the snow. But don't worry it's only up hill one way.


Rewinding a little bit, Thanksgiving in Barcelona was absolutely amazing. I couldn't say one of the best because I had to spend it sans my family. I missed them dearly and can't wait to make up for it during Christmas. On the menu for Thanksgiving dinner was tapas, paella, and cheap luke warm wine. Not exactly the best food, but the location made up for it. Everything about Barcelona is fabulous. They take siesta's (naps) daily, party till 6 in the morning, the weather is gorgeous (it was sunny and in the high 50's when we were there) and everything you see looks like something out of a fairy tale. One of my favorite things we saw in Bcn was the magic fountain show. It's kinda like the Bellagio water show is Vegas but way better. They even played "my heart will go on" during one of the shows. I'm pretty sure I cried a little. Our hostel was great, no one got mugged and we got to stay 3 full days compared to our normal 24 hours.


I only have 16 more days left in Europe. Ridiculous. On the itinerary for the next few weeks, homework, lets be serious though, not, Christmas market in Frankfurt, possibly Belgium depending on the weather and that pretty much brings me to December 18th where I will have to endure another 24 hours or so traveling across the Atlantic, yay me.

One last thing, I would like to request that everyone does a little snow dance for me so that it snows ridiculous amounts and the CDC will have to close. I need atleast 1 snow day in my life, we didn't get to experience those in California. Poor us, I know.

BARCELONAAAAAA

Barcelona is official for Thanksgiving. I am overwhelmed with excitement.

That's all for now.

I amsterdam

Amsterdam may have been one of the greatest weekends yet. Such a neat city, i'm going to bed so I don't have time to write now, but later this week.

And we found out some AMAZING news today that we have the day after Thanksgiving off so we have a 4 day weekend so we are planning a trip to Barcelona! I am beyond excited, it is going to be so amazing and fun.!!!

Berlin: Swampity swamp

Train station in Berlin

At first, I wasn't so sure about Berlin. It sounded sorta boring and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to go. Any how all the other girls talked me into it and I am super glad I went. We took our first overnight train ride...which wasn't horrible, but it isn't exactly something I would want to do all the time. While we were there we took a cool walking tour, went to the East Side Gallery of the Berlin wall, which was SUPER cool, and did lots of walking around, some of which was in the rain :( Berlin is supposed to have amazing night life. But since we had been walking around since 7 am and the area is super big and confusing we didn't end up making it out. I was sorta bummed but we had a good time anyways.

Eastside Gallery of the Berlin Wall

Brandenburg Gate

I am so excited right now because tomorrow we are going to...AMSTERDAM. This is probably one of the trips I have been most excited about, besides Paris. I have heard so many exciting things about Amsterdam and it just seems like such a cool city. I will be taking lots of pictures.

I can't believe I only have a little more than a month left in Europe. Crazy that time has flown by so fast! Luckily there are still tons of things to look forward to, Belgium, Switzerland, Thanksgiving, Nuremberg, and I'm sure lots more.

October

Happy Halloween! I realize I am ridiculously behind. And I really have no good excuse why, just that I’ve been putting it off. I am going to try to keep this short and not turn this into a novel. We’ll see how that goes though, I don’t want to bore anyone.

So the weekend after Paris we took a road trip to Prague October 9^th-11^th since we had a 3 day weekend. We ended up just renting a car instead of the train because the train would have taken ridiculously long and it was only about a 5 hour drive. On the way we also stopped in the city of Dresden in Germany which was actually really cool. Prague was amazing though such an amazing city. The first night we got there we got lost for a few hours and couldn’t find our hostel or anywhere to park, it worked out fine though. Our hostel was great though, it was right in the middle of the main area of town. They also had a free breakfast of cereal, orange juice, coffee and ham sandwiches. Europeans are weird about breakfast. We also had to take out money once we got to Prague since the Czech republic doesn’t use the Euro, they use the Koruna (pronounced Crown). I US dollar is about 18 koruna’s. It was weird paying for things because it was ridiculously high numbers but things were actually pretty cheap. While we were there we took a free walking tour and we actually got a really good tour guide and enjoyed the tour. We saw all the main sights in Prague, did some shopping and went on a pretty fun pub crawl on Sunday night.

The following 2 weekends and this weekend we have stayed home. The week before we went to Prague Liz and I met some guys that live right across the way from us and we have become friend with them and have been hanging out with them alot. They are really nice and it’s nice to have friends out here. They have also been taking us to the commissary which is absolutely amazing since I have missed so many American food and food in general that is labeled in English. We’ve been going out with them to K-town which is fun and it’s about 30 min away. It’s nice just to sleep in too and actually get to relax on the weekends. Anyways, the guys are here working at the deployment transition center and are leaving around the same time as us. Except for 3 guys, they left this week unexpectedly. I am very sad about this, I didn’t want them to go home to the states already!

Speaking of going back to the states, I am already halfway through my time here. I only have 7 weeks left and I know time is going to fly by. I’m not really homesick, but I know I will be ready to go when December comes. I am very excited for November because we will be back to traveling and we still have so much to see!

Pub in K-town. Getting ready to go to Nach Schict, a club in K-town

Hostel in Prague. Halloween in Germany, going to Nach Schict!

13.1 miles...

The other day I made an impulse decision to sign up for a half marathon. This will be my second and i've been meaning to do another one for a while now. My sister and a few friends and had already signed up and when I got back from Prague the other day I just decided to do it, no looking back. I'll start officially training in a few weeks and I have a goal time of under 2:15, my last was was about 2:25 ish so hopefully those 1o minutes will be easy to shed. Wish me luck. (Especially since I will be training in Germany's FREEZING weather ahhhhh)

j'aime Paris

So this is one week behind, but I promise I will catch up this week! The end is a little vague since I couldn’t remember everything we did.

This past weekend we made a first weekend long trip to Paris! I had an absolutely amazing time, Paris is so beautiful! We took a ICE, fast train there and got to Paris around 10am on Saturday. We were greeted by Liz’s cousin Megan who happened to be vacationing in Paris at the time. Megan helped us buy Metro Paris and helped us find our Hostel. We dropped off our backpacks and went off to sight see for the day. We saw Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Moulin Rouge, Hotel de Ville, the Shakespeare bookstore, the Saint Michel fountain and walked down the famous shopping street Champs-Elysees. By that time we were exhausted so we went back to our hostel to rest for a few min and freshen up. Ashley Liz and I went to meet Megan for drinks and dinner while the other girls did more sight seeing. We to the Creperie des Arts for dinner, it was really good. We had both dinner and dessert crepes. I liked the dessert crepes a lot more but my dinner one was good as well. We also had some nice French wine. Megan was nice enough to pay and even show us to some cool bars. We found some fun places but no one was too nice. We walked around to bars for a while and finally made it to the metro around 2am we made one train, which was so packed but unfortunately we missed the last train of the night that went to our hostel. We walked around for a little bit but finally decided to just take a taxi. We made it home around 3 and passed out in our not so comfy bunk beds.

Sunday we woke up early enjoyed the free “breakfast” at our hostel. Which consisted of a roll and butter, coffee and orange juice. Not too excited. We visited the catacombs, which was super creepy. Pretty much just tons and tons of real human bones stacked 20 meters under the ground. Next we we went to the Eiffel tower which was amazing because the weather was PERFECT. We walked up the stairs which was way better than taking the elevator. We couldn’t go up to the very top though because of congestion but we weren’t too disappointed. Next we went to the Louve , but just to the outside, it was still really cool though. We did a little more sight seeing and napped at a park and then we had to make it back to the train station.

Overall it was such a fun weekend! We got really good at taking the metro and weather ended up being perfect. I was so scared it was going to pour the whole time and be miserable. I just felt like we had so much to see in such a short time and all we did was go go go. Not so fun. I definitely like to relax and not be rushed.

Next up, PRAGUE. Which was even better than Paris!!

I have SO many pictures, here are just a few. The rest are on facebook!

Oktoberfest in Munich

It’s hard to believe I’m already in my third week here in Germany. This past weekend we went to Munich for the day since all the hotels were either super expensive or booked because of Oktoberfest. We got there around 11am and headed straight to Oktoberfest even though it was pouring. It was quite a fun and eventful day! Email me if you want the long version. I don’t have time to write it all now sine I’m on my lunch break. But it was crazy and I am so glad we went! We took a train home around 2 am which was AWFUL since it took 9 hours (the way there it only took 4) and we had 5 transfers. We arrived back to base around 11:30 am Sunday morning, very haggard and very tired. I slept all day, woke up ate dinner then went back to sleep.

Work has been good. I am in a single ratio room so I am usually by self with the kids which has it’s ups and down. Sometimes it would be nice to have another teacher to talk to or help. My kids are pretty well behaved though. Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to the pumpkin patch!

This coming weekend we are going to… PARIS. I couldn’t be more excited. The forecast says it is supposed to rain but I am really hoping that it doesn’t because that would be terrible! I am excited to stay in our first hostel too, we are staying at the Aloha Hostel. We are only able to go for 2 days so hopefully we can fit everything in that time. I’ll take lots and lots of pictures.

Today was a fairy tale

We survived our first week of work! I found out that I will be working in one of the pre-school rooms. I met the kids on Friday, but the lead teacher was out sick so I didn’t get to meet him. There are only 9 kids so it doesn’t seem like it going to be too crazy! This week we also made it to the gym which is really nice, it’s about a mile and a half away though. The first day we walked and the second we decided to ride bikes. After work on Friday we went with one of the girls Ashley to her friends house for a birthday party. It ended up being really fun and it was cool to see what German houses look like. On our way back we got stopped for a random check at the base gate where we show our ID’s. They made us all get out of the car and they searched our whole car including the hood and also let a drug dog smell around the whole car. Ashley who was driving had to show one of the guys all our documents and Liz and stood on the curb freezing talking to one of the soldiers who was from Georgia. After we decided to see what the bars on base look like but they looked like they were closed. It was really weird since it was only around midnight.

For our first trip in Germany Liz and I headed to Heidelberg yesterday. We had no clue how the train system but we ended up not having any problems. We bought tickets from the automated machine and we were on our way. Once we arrived in Heidelberg we took a bus to Old Town Heidelberg and walked around all the shops and restaurants. It was so cute and pretty! All the streets were cobblestone and they were so many cool things to look out. We saw about 5 brides too, I guess here after they get married they hang out in the city square to drink champagne and celebrate. Kind of weird. After exploring for a little bit Liz and I decided we had to get Doner Kebabs for lunch. They were so good and filling! After we walked up the 350 stairs (we opted out of paying for a tram)to the castle in Heidelberg. It was really pretty, nothing like I had ever seen before. We walked around, took lots of pictures and then headed back down into town. We went to a cute little bar later that had a tree inside and had a few beers. It was about 7 and we had been in Heidelberg for around 8 hours so we decided to head home. On the train back we met a really cute and nice local boy and he even gave us his number and invited us to his hometown in Germany and said he would show us around and what not. I am sure I am leaving lots out but I don’t want this to turn into an essay. All of the roommates are going to a huge wine festival today which should be fun!

And here are pictures from yesterday

Hello from Germany!

After all the waiting and excitement, I am FINALLY in Germany. It basically took FOREVER to get here. But definitely worth it. Liz and I got to SFO around 2ish on Saturday, no problems. We met 2 of the other camp a girls at the airport Ashley and Katie. Liz and actually ended up being randomly seated by Ashley which was cool since we could talk especially since the movie system wasn’t working on the plane for the first like 5 hours! The plane ride was long, we had dinner, some Spanish wine, finally got to watch a few movies and then we had breakfast even though is was about 2am CA time and none of us could sleep at all.

Then we had our 6 hour layover in London which is a huge airport with tons of stores like Gucci, Prada, and Tiffany. It was really weird. We pretty much just laid on the chairs and tried to sleep while we were there.

Then we had a short 1 and a half hour flight to Frankfurt which was fine. After our flight we couldn’t find one of the other camp a girls and we didn’t up leaving the airport till like 9:30pm even though our flight got in at 7:20. Once we got outside it was pouring and dark. Then we had to pick up our PC’s rental car and get gas. It seemed like we were never going to get to base. We finally got to base around 11:30 we met our Point of Contact who showed us our apartments and told us she would meet us at 9am the next day. Our apartment is pretty nice we have tons of things and appliances and a washer and dryer. Liz and are sharing a room, our bed sheets are pretty gross though so we’re thinking we will have to go buy some new ones. Here are some pictures from the trip and at the airport.

Today we got our base id’s and then went to the German grocery store which was quite the adventure. It was really hard to figure out what certain things were and how many calories and fat were in things. Hopefully grocery shopping will get easier as we go along. I’m really hoping though someone at work will offer to take us to the commissary on base which is way cheaper and it is mostly American food. We start training tomorrow so hopefully that goes well! Miss everyone and can’t wait for the adventures to come.

16 days..

I'm back to counting down days that I have already counted down. Ughhhh. Now the only highlight of my day is ripping a link off.

Still in the United States

Unfortunately I have not yet left for Germany. Due to some unexplained reasons, something to do with military contracts I am not leaving now till Sept 11. Yes. I have the bad fortune on flying on Sept 11 (or good if you think of all the heightened security.) I was very bitter about my delayed flight especially since I found out FIVE days before I was originally supposed to leave. I was all packed, and all ready. Oh well. So now I have 18 more days in Napa without a job... I've scheduled to get my wisdom teeth out this Saturday but besides that and working out like crazy, I have no plans.

An upside though was since I didn't leave on Sunday, Liz and I were able to join my sister and some friends for a camping trip in Yosemite. We had so much fun! I use to go to the park a lot when I was young and it was so exciting to go back. It definitely needs to become an annual trip! While there I hiked Upper Yosemite falls a.k.a the death march! It was so hard but worth it in the end. We played some beer pong, ate smores, star gazed and even saw a bear every day of the trip. It was a great trip that won't soon be forgotten! My favorite memory was being woken up at 2am to a lady running after a bear screaming "get outta here bear!!" We all laughed about it the entire trip!

Here are some pictures from the trip

Yosemite falls (barely any water left) where we hiked all 4,700 feet up

Liz and I with half dome in the background

Camp A fashion

This, ladies and gentleman is the hideous uniform I will have to wear 40 hours a week for 4 and a half long months. And don't worry, it looks much worse in person. Don't let my smile fool you, I do not enjoy wearing this get up one bit. My not so favorite part is that the pants come well above my belly button. Hey, Camp Adventure, FYI no one under the age of 40 wears pants that come above their belly button. Especially me! The only good part is that everyone will be stuck wearing this. I also have a few other none polo and long sleeved shirts that are even uglier in my opinion.

At least I am exactly ONE MONTH away until departure, YAY!!!

RAMSTEIN!

I have finally received my final placement for my internship! I will be at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Ramstein is close to Frankfurt in the southern region of Germany. Apparently Ramstein is HUGE and about 50,000 Americans live there. OMG this is almost the size of Napa, that is crazy! My friend Liz received the same placement so we are really excited about that! 34 more days! I have yet to receive my uniform, flight information or exact departure date but hopefully soon. I feel like I need to start packing already, but how do you pack for 4 and a half months in 2 suitcase? And I have no cold weather clothes since it has never gotten colder than 50 anywhere I have ever lived. I may need to do a little shopping.

iPhone 4 craze

Image from apple.com

Ever since I got my first MacBook my sophomore year of college, I have been hooked on Apple products. I have bought iPods, iPhone, and recently my Mom graciously bought my a beautiful MacBook Pro for graduation, let just say I am obsessed. I have been anticipating the release of iPhone 4 and couldn't have been more thrilled when Steve Jobs unveiled it yesterday at WWDC. While I admit I wasn't a huge fan of the new design when Gizmodo leaked the phone prototype, it has now grown on me. Some of my favorite new features include:

-FaceTime built in video calling

-HD video camera

-Front facing camera and a LED flash on the back camera, updated to 5 megapixels

-Longer battery life, 40% more talk time

-Stainless steel and custom glass body (hopefully shatter proof)

-New retina display

There will also now be a Farmville app, while I have quit playing, I may have to start all over since now I will be able to harvest where ever I go. No more withered crops. Make fun of me all you want, it's a pointless game, but can be quite addicting.

Pre-order starts the 15th and the release date is set for June 24th. $199 for 16GB model and $299 for 32GB.

I am beyond ecstatic, since a few months ago months ago I killed my iPhone by shattering it twice, which ultimately caused the home button to stop working. Then making the phone pretty much un-usable. I was smart not to jump and buy I new one, since I knew all the rumors were floating around about the new iPhone this June. I'm glad I waited, I know I will be pre ordering on the 15th but I haven't yet decided if I will be driving to the Apple store early morning on the 24th, or having it shipped. Since the nearest Apple store is an hour away and I have work at noon that day, I'm thinking getting it shipped might be the only option.

The video on the Apple website is pretty neat and showcases all it's new features, check it out.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/index.html#design-video