Trip to Japan and Southeast Asia

At Golden Palace in Tokyo

Traditional Japanese Restaurant

Explanation on how to use a toilet that is a hole!

For those of you who don't know Jeff and I are currently on a trip for a month to Tokyo and Southeast Asia. Jeff just graduated from the UCLA MBA program and I just quit my job at UCLA so we decided what better time to take an amazing trip! We will be traveling to: Tokyo, Japan Kyoto, Japan Luang Prabang, Laos Siem Reap, Cambodia Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam Hoi An, Vietnam Hanoi, Vietnam Halang Bay, Vietnam Phuket, Thailand Ko Phi Phi, Thailand Bali, Indonesia

Currently I am sitting in the Hanoi, Vietnam airport were it is about 100 degrees inside, waiting for our flight to Luang Prabang, Laos. So far, we have been out of the US for 5 days and have travelled to Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan.

We spent two of our first nights in Tokyo, one night in Kyoto, and our last night back in Tokyo. Jeff and I have both found it to be super hard to get over the jet lag coming over here. The first night we went to bed at 8 and woke up at around 5:30, we got off to an early morning start in Tokyo seeing the Imperial Palace and a couple of other famous areas. We got back to our hotel and took a nap at around 4 and didn’t wake up until 8 PM, decided to take a sleeping pill and sleep until 7 the next morning. Let’s just say it has been rough adjusting to the time change, in Japan we were 14 hours ahead of LA time. It rained almost the entire time in Japan, but we just had to suck it up and get wet..good thing we brought our Cetaphil umbrellas! We have been having a fantastic trip so far, seeing all the main sights in Tokyo and travelling about 2.5 hours south of Tokyo to visit Kyoto. Tokyo is like NYC on steroids, so many people and so many lights and sounds, it is very overstimulating! Our first experience on the subway in Tokyo was like being on Bourbon street on Fat Tuesday; I felt like I could not breathe we were stuffed into the subway car like sardines! Kyoto was a much different experience..it was a big city, which was not expected, but it did have many Japanese Temples and great Japanese culture. One night we ate ” Indian style” and drank green tea and had noodle soup for dinner in a whole in the wall restaurant. The next day we had sushi on a conveyer belt for lunch for only 5 dollars a person. Jeff had an encounter with a Japanese young school girl who approached him, probably about a foot away from him, to say hi and the giggle with all her school girl friends like he was an alien. Then in broken English she asked if we would take a picture with them, and we all held up the peace sign! All in all Japan was great to see! The people were friendly and very accommodating. The public transportation was fantastic in both cities making it very easy to see a lot all over each city.

We look forward to our next adventure which will be 3 days in Luang Prabang, Laos, which I have only heard great things about…

February in Newport Beach

Sometimes I don't realize how great we have it here in California. This past week Texas had record breaking snow, 12 inches in some places. In California we are seeing unbelievably beautiful weather. I had Monday off for Presidents' Day so Jeff and I decided to tour some more places in Cali. We traveled about 60 miles south of Santa Monica to Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. On Saturday and Sunday the highs were in the 70s, which was perfect weather to lay out. Here are some pictures!

Newport

Newport Pier

Newport Beach

Newport Beach

Laguna at sunset

Laguna Beach

View from the Marriott

Huntington Beach

Atlanta and Kansas Game in Austin

Jeff and I went to Atlanta to visit my sister, Holly, at the beginning of November. I definitely gained some lbs and felt like SHIT each day I woke up! The food was delicious; we did not eat at a bad place. I have been to Atlanta for the LSU/TN SEC Championship in 2001, but have not been sine. I had no idea how beautiful it was. It reminded me of were Jon used to live in Raleigh, NC. The trees were changing colors and it actually felt like fall! We don't get that much here in LA. We had so much fun! It sucks that she lives so far away!

The weekend before Thanksgiving Jeff and I went to Austin for our first game at Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium since the new section was added. We went to some of our favorite Tex-Mex restaurants including Trudy's and Polvos, and went to a great dive bar called Billy's. Hilary and Nick (and Jon and Andy) have a great tailgate for each game. Complete with a keg of Fireman's 4, chili, queso, and some other goodies. It was very cold in Texas, which you can tell! The trip was amazing! I love Austin!

Halloween 2009

Jeff and I were Fred and Wilma Flintstone for Halloween! We had a keg party at Aaron's apartment (one of Jeff's friends from business school), we played Flip Cup and did keg stands, but we are feeling it today! Here are some pics. Dana's blog has better pics...she was there at the party, but I have no pictures of her!

On another note..Texas rocked it last night! And I love to watch USC lose!!

Jeff and Me

Flip Cup

Dave - No one really knew what he was dressed up as

Aaron (breast cancer awareness guy) and Brady (creepy Pope)

TEXAS FIGHT!

Today at work, out of the blue this morning, one of my patients says to me, "I think Texas is going to end up going to the Rose Bowl this year to play for the national championship against Florida". This was music to my ears on a bright and early Monday morning. For those of you who don't know I treat patients who have suffered from a neurological disease such as stroke, a brain injury, or a spinal cord injury. So this was great to hear!

Here is a link to our new website at work: www.rehab.ucla.edu ( I look pretty awful in these pics; you can tell I don't get ready for work!)

Jeff and I were in Dallas for the Texas/OU football game, it always makes for one of the most exciting football game of the year. We also got to see all of our Texas friends that we don't get to see very often. It sucks living in California where everyone LOVES USC, it makes me want to vomit! And if they are playing at the same time Texas is playing Jeff and I have to go to a bar to try to find the Texas game on TV. It sucks!

As you know the Longhorns pulled out a win! Thank you DEFENSE! Let's continue this trend with a little more offense next time, that would make us all feel better!

Haddy and Me

Haddy and Ed

Ferrell/Hiddemen Family

Hilary loves wax cup beers at 8 in the AM!

Tom and his game face at 7:00 in the morning..pre-Starbucks!

Hilary and Nick at Uncle Julio's

(Tex-Mex: BEST FAJITAS!!)

Jeff and Me at the game

This Summer

I have been really slacking on this whole blog thing...but I have been really busy. On July 11th, my friend from PT school, Mysha got married to her long time boyfriend Jonathan. The wedding was in Stillwater, OK, so it was cool to see the OK State campus. It was VERY HOT, around 110 degrees that day, thankfully the wedding was inside. The wedding was beautiful and Mysha looked amazing.





In August, Lindsay and Jon got married in the best city in the world, Austin, Texas. This wedding was super emotional for me because it was a year after Jeff and I were married and she had some similar things that we had at our wedding. It just made me think of our wedding day and how amazing it was. They had the same band we had, Blind Date, and they were again AWESOME. No one left the dance floor that night! Lindsay was beautiful, and everything about their wedding was special. It was great being a part of it!