So today I had many plans to clean and workout and get a lot of stuff done for school. Oops!!! Instead I watched "You've Got Mail" and made homemade popcorn and Chai I bought in India! It has been one of those times in life that I need some veg. time to be with my thoughts! Who said growing up was fun! Well I guess it is! I love being married and traveling the world and meeting new people and loving my friends more and growing with Him who made me! But sometimes it is hard! Where are we going to live next? What job should my hubby take? When should we have kids? Am I EVER going to learn this language!!!!!!! Do I want to teach or sing? How are my decisions affecting other people? Are we in His will or just floating close by? How can I make my relationship better with Him? You know just the simple questions people ask all the time! :-) Then I just have to stop and remember, He is perfect and He knows all these questions and answers already! What a comfort to know he is not shocked by one of my questions! I only wish he would share with me some of the answers! I know he will in time but sometimes it seems to take him a long time! BUT then it always, funny enough, is the perfect time! Don't you just love how that works! He is perfect! Everything about him is just perfect!
Well I guess now I can clean and workout. He is in control and I don't have to worry about a thing! Like the song "don't you worry 'bout a thaaaaaaang".....
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Food Challenges!
Ok so today Norris and I went out with some of our friends to grab some dinner! We do not do this often because some times it can get pretty pricey! They just put in an Outback Steakhouse around the corner! So tonight we went to have a little American Food! It was great company with friends, thats about it! We all ordered and a couple of them wanted to get the Bloomin' Onion! Well the waiter said they had none! NOW how in the world do you not have an onion! We offered to go down the street to the alley to get them an onion but they did not take that to well!!! So since they did not have the onion they also did not have some of the burger stuff and it was so funny!! It worked out we eat what they did have and left! We then decided to go to the Starbucks to have a coffee. Norris and I have no become addicted to the Iced Frappaccino Carmel with coffee! It is soooo good! Well two weeks ago we went to get our Saturday dose of coffee and they did not have any cream for the frappaccino! Well today they did not have any Frappaccino! I am not sure how you can run out of Frappaccino at a Starbucks but it happened! We were laughing so hard! We told the man that we would try a carmel Mochiatto. He then said is that all. Norris in the way he does said: "well that is unless you got some Frappaccino in the last few minutes!" The man did not get it and again went into the explanation how they did not have any frappiccino! It was so fun! Just some of the fun moments of being in a different place! It is always an adventure everytime we step out of our doorstep! What a blessing that we have the opportunity to be here! Sometimes we can get frustrated and then we just have to remember that we must be here for a purpose even if we don't know what it is right now!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
India Pictures
This was our boat ride down the Ganges River. It was fun to go at sunset and see all the people around the city! Many were swimming in the river and it was cold! But notice Norris in his shirtsleeves and shorts! We got to boat by different parts where people were swimming, drinking and burning bead bodies! I think that was the most intense part of the whole time in Varanasi. I don't think I will ever get used to seeing bodies being burned!
These were the beautiful ladies washing themselves in the Ganges River. They were from southern India. It is amazing to see how far people would travel to wash in the Ganges River.
This was Norris and I waiting for the sun to rise over the Himalayas! It was sooooooo pretty! But it was VERY cold! I thought I was going to freeze to death! Once the sun came up it did get a little warmer! Not much though! I am wearing my new wrist warmers! That is what Norris calls them. I love them. I can still use my hands but keep them warm too!! He was very jealous that he did not have them this morning that is for sure!
This was Norris and I at the Taj Mahal! It was awesome! We just sat in front of it for about an hour! It was soooooooo beautiful! The people were so respectful of the area and it was so clean and white! I never realized how big it was but it was huge. There were a lot of people around that day so it was hard to get a picture that a bunch of other people would not be in!
There,There,There and Back Again the Hams Tale!
Strangely enough the subject line could mean more than one thing. First, it could be for the crazy Luxor Full Marathon we ran last Friday, OR, it could stand for how many times we keep coming back to Cairo.
Well...............last weekend Norris and I and two of our friends flew down to Luxor, Egypt to run a marathon. It was a lot of fun. We were excited to get started with it because after months and months of running and training we were ready to be done with it! It turned out to be fantastic. I know this is hard to believe coming from me, but I really did love it! I did not like training for it that is for sure but on the day of the run it was so much fun!
It was difficult to train here in Egypt. There are not a lot of places that have a good flat ground to run on, plus being a female makes it all the more challenging. Well we did end up finding this great place to train. There is this club that has a gate around the outside. You could get through the gate but not have to go into the club. The only problem with it was the mile and a half giant hill at the end of the run. The whole loop around the club was 5k or 3.1 miles. Well after about 18 miles and having to run up the giant hill 5 times I never thought I would make it through. I think that it why my goal for the marathon was 6 hours.
As it turns out the hill was just what we all needed to help us get great times for our runs. Norris finished in 4 hours and I finished in 5!!!!!! For my first time I was pretty satisfied! Norris took a little break to wait for me, so had he not done that he would have finished under 4! That is ok though 4 hours is pretty amazing. That is until we realized he would have to cut off an hour just to qualify for the Boston Marathon!!!!!!!! CRAZY! We met this guy who is in the Marathon Maniacs club. He has run 137 marathons in the last 4 years! His goal now is to run a marathon in 20 different countries! I am not sure I want to do that but I do think I would like to run another one just to see how it compares to this one!
There were a couple of obstacles we had to get through on the day of the marathon. There happened to be big groups of children that were hanging out. They just wanted to touch you and talk to you as you ran by. I tried to be nice to them and speak to them in Arabic and give them a little fist dap when they wanted to high-five me! I think they just wanted attention from the foreigners. Well that was all great and dandy until kilometer 38. Up to this point they did nothing but want to give me a high-five. But all of a sudden these 3 little boys got around me and thought I had money in my pocket. So the next thing I know the littlest boy was reaching his hand in my pocket. I started yelling at him and saying the strictest things I knew in Arabic. Little did the boy know the only thing in my pocket was a used tissue. He was not to excited when he realized what it was! He tried to reach in again and I realized he was not going to leave me alone. I had to stop and yell at him and after a few moments he ran away.
Then when I was about to turn to the last little bit to the finish line this man walked up to me. He was in a button up shirt and I thought he was part of the marathon crew. He started talking to me and asking me where I was from. I told him and then he decided that I must look like someone who wanted to buy his post cards! At this point I got a little upset! I looked at him and said: "what about my appearance right now makes you think I want a post card?" "Do I really look like I care about anything you have to offer?" Well he did not like that very much and he stormed off! This was just what I needed because it made me laugh almost all the way to the finish line!
It was quite a moment when I crossed the line! I realized I had finished in 5 hours and I knew it was all over! It was an incredible accomplishment! I never thought I could have done it but it was fun to have a husband who would support me and friends who would always help me when I wanted to give up! I now can't wait to run another one!
Well...............last weekend Norris and I and two of our friends flew down to Luxor, Egypt to run a marathon. It was a lot of fun. We were excited to get started with it because after months and months of running and training we were ready to be done with it! It turned out to be fantastic. I know this is hard to believe coming from me, but I really did love it! I did not like training for it that is for sure but on the day of the run it was so much fun!
It was difficult to train here in Egypt. There are not a lot of places that have a good flat ground to run on, plus being a female makes it all the more challenging. Well we did end up finding this great place to train. There is this club that has a gate around the outside. You could get through the gate but not have to go into the club. The only problem with it was the mile and a half giant hill at the end of the run. The whole loop around the club was 5k or 3.1 miles. Well after about 18 miles and having to run up the giant hill 5 times I never thought I would make it through. I think that it why my goal for the marathon was 6 hours.
As it turns out the hill was just what we all needed to help us get great times for our runs. Norris finished in 4 hours and I finished in 5!!!!!! For my first time I was pretty satisfied! Norris took a little break to wait for me, so had he not done that he would have finished under 4! That is ok though 4 hours is pretty amazing. That is until we realized he would have to cut off an hour just to qualify for the Boston Marathon!!!!!!!! CRAZY! We met this guy who is in the Marathon Maniacs club. He has run 137 marathons in the last 4 years! His goal now is to run a marathon in 20 different countries! I am not sure I want to do that but I do think I would like to run another one just to see how it compares to this one!
There were a couple of obstacles we had to get through on the day of the marathon. There happened to be big groups of children that were hanging out. They just wanted to touch you and talk to you as you ran by. I tried to be nice to them and speak to them in Arabic and give them a little fist dap when they wanted to high-five me! I think they just wanted attention from the foreigners. Well that was all great and dandy until kilometer 38. Up to this point they did nothing but want to give me a high-five. But all of a sudden these 3 little boys got around me and thought I had money in my pocket. So the next thing I know the littlest boy was reaching his hand in my pocket. I started yelling at him and saying the strictest things I knew in Arabic. Little did the boy know the only thing in my pocket was a used tissue. He was not to excited when he realized what it was! He tried to reach in again and I realized he was not going to leave me alone. I had to stop and yell at him and after a few moments he ran away.
Then when I was about to turn to the last little bit to the finish line this man walked up to me. He was in a button up shirt and I thought he was part of the marathon crew. He started talking to me and asking me where I was from. I told him and then he decided that I must look like someone who wanted to buy his post cards! At this point I got a little upset! I looked at him and said: "what about my appearance right now makes you think I want a post card?" "Do I really look like I care about anything you have to offer?" Well he did not like that very much and he stormed off! This was just what I needed because it made me laugh almost all the way to the finish line!
It was quite a moment when I crossed the line! I realized I had finished in 5 hours and I knew it was all over! It was an incredible accomplishment! I never thought I could have done it but it was fun to have a husband who would support me and friends who would always help me when I wanted to give up! I now can't wait to run another one!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Favorite Quotes from India
Here are some of our favorite quotes or conversations that we had on our trip to India:
1. Oh My Gosh...Check This!
2. You look like a mummy only scarier.
3. Comparing the treatment of cows in India compared to Egypt.... "We Praise them, they eat them....That's Different"
4. "Are there windows in the Pyramids?"
5. Are there still mummies in the pyramids?
6. Teach me all the states and capitols of Australia.
7. Emily: "I think I could do crunches in here."
Waiter: "Wait, what kind of crunches?"
8. When Norris refused to buy something.... Salesman: You look like the devil
9. Norris was talking to a man about running and his weight and how we have not run since we had been in India. Norris said that he needed to run..Response by salesman:
"I think your body is good"
10. Norris while we were lost walking around Rishikesh...we had just been ripped off by a Auto rickshaw driver, and we were starving and we had just barley survived a 16 hour drive earlier......
"This is the worst day ever!"
There are many more but I thought those were the best ones!!!!! Enjoy!
1. Oh My Gosh...Check This!
2. You look like a mummy only scarier.
3. Comparing the treatment of cows in India compared to Egypt.... "We Praise them, they eat them....That's Different"
4. "Are there windows in the Pyramids?"
5. Are there still mummies in the pyramids?
6. Teach me all the states and capitols of Australia.
7. Emily: "I think I could do crunches in here."
Waiter: "Wait, what kind of crunches?"
8. When Norris refused to buy something.... Salesman: You look like the devil
9. Norris was talking to a man about running and his weight and how we have not run since we had been in India. Norris said that he needed to run..Response by salesman:
"I think your body is good"
10. Norris while we were lost walking around Rishikesh...we had just been ripped off by a Auto rickshaw driver, and we were starving and we had just barley survived a 16 hour drive earlier......
"This is the worst day ever!"
There are many more but I thought those were the best ones!!!!! Enjoy!
From Pushkar to Jodphur to Rishikesh
Well last place I left it we were heading from Pushkar to Jodphur. We decided to rent a driver and a car to take us to Jodphur. It was not that far away only about 3 hours so we did not think it would be bad. It was a pretty nice drive. It was a little scarry at times but our driver knew what he was doing so we were not to worried! We had a nice time in Jodphur but it was not our favorite place. The fort we saw was amazing but the rest of the city left much to be desired. It was the first time that we felt like we were being followed and asked for money. It was the most intense place we went for sales. The people also we quite rude but that was ok. We could just hide out in a coffee house and drink fun drinks and look at the city and fort. It was nice!
When we got back to Pushkar we decided that we would have our same driver take us up to the mountains to Rishikesh. It seemed to work from Jodphur so we thought we would do it again! We were sick of being on trains and the last one we were on we did not have much fun!!!!!! Well the drive to Rishikesh was 16 hours and we were three to the back of a tiny car. It was not the smartest decision we have made. It was actually the most terrifying thing I have done. Emily slept most of the way so she did not really know how bad it was but Norris and I got quite nervous. It was like a giant game of Chicken just with a small car and giant trucks. Luckily we won! Norris definitely yelled at the drivers a couple times and threatened not to pay but we got there just fine! 16 hours later! It was a long day! One we got to Rishikesh we were sooooooo excited!
Rishikesh was my favorite place. It was sooooooo beautiful! It was awesome to see the mountains! We got to take a trip up into the Himalayas to watch the sun rise! It was beautiful!!!!!! It was awesome to see snow and the fresh air. It was so polluted in India and it was nice to smell fresh air. It was also the first time that we stayed in a nice hotel. The other places we went to we either did not sleep there or we did not get the best place. Here we decided that it was time to get a nice place....PLUS it was Christmas! It was such a great place to have Christmas! We went to this awesome Bedouin place for dinner and had GREAT food! It was sooooo much fun! There were a lot of monkeys in Rishikesh and it was crazy at times! I did get scared some times when I had to walk by them! They hissed at Emily when she tried to take a picture of them and that made me a little nervous! I did not want them to bite us!!!!!!!!! I did not want to get Rabies!
After that we just headed back to Delhi and got on our flight back to Cairo! What a fun whirlwind of a vacation!
When we got back to Pushkar we decided that we would have our same driver take us up to the mountains to Rishikesh. It seemed to work from Jodphur so we thought we would do it again! We were sick of being on trains and the last one we were on we did not have much fun!!!!!! Well the drive to Rishikesh was 16 hours and we were three to the back of a tiny car. It was not the smartest decision we have made. It was actually the most terrifying thing I have done. Emily slept most of the way so she did not really know how bad it was but Norris and I got quite nervous. It was like a giant game of Chicken just with a small car and giant trucks. Luckily we won! Norris definitely yelled at the drivers a couple times and threatened not to pay but we got there just fine! 16 hours later! It was a long day! One we got to Rishikesh we were sooooooo excited!
Rishikesh was my favorite place. It was sooooooo beautiful! It was awesome to see the mountains! We got to take a trip up into the Himalayas to watch the sun rise! It was beautiful!!!!!! It was awesome to see snow and the fresh air. It was so polluted in India and it was nice to smell fresh air. It was also the first time that we stayed in a nice hotel. The other places we went to we either did not sleep there or we did not get the best place. Here we decided that it was time to get a nice place....PLUS it was Christmas! It was such a great place to have Christmas! We went to this awesome Bedouin place for dinner and had GREAT food! It was sooooo much fun! There were a lot of monkeys in Rishikesh and it was crazy at times! I did get scared some times when I had to walk by them! They hissed at Emily when she tried to take a picture of them and that made me a little nervous! I did not want them to bite us!!!!!!!!! I did not want to get Rabies!
After that we just headed back to Delhi and got on our flight back to Cairo! What a fun whirlwind of a vacation!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Taj Mahal and Pushkar
Well after our quick train ride of 13 hours we arrived in Agra! It was really neat! There is not much to see other than the Taj but that is definitely enough. It was the most amazing thing......What a beautiful gift to his dead wife! It was very sweet! It was soooooo white and big and beautiful! We were able to finally show that day though and that was great! We went to a little hostel and took the coldest shower I think I have ever taken! But at least we were clean!!!! The people were not to bad, at least not as bad as we had been told. We had heard some stories that made us a little anxious about what we were going to experience but it was not like that at all! We were able to see Agra Fort which looked a lot like the red fort in Delhi....I mean it was big and red. I liked it and we had a really fun time! I think we sat and looked at the Taj for about an hour and it was nice to relax and get out of the chaos of the city for a while.
That night we went to Pushkar. I think that was my favorite place. Disaster struck the night before we got to Pushkar. We were on another train and we had yet to stay in a room for the night and when we got to Pushkar station we walked out with our bags and stuff but we left ALL our cameras!!!! IT WAS THE WORST! That is why there will be no pictures to prove that we were there! It really was the worst news in the morning! Norris felt so bad but that stuff happens and it is all just stuff. We did all we could to try to find the cameras but there was not much we could do....so we walked around the city of Pushkar for a while and did some shopping...Norris felt sooooo bad that he left the cameras that he tried to buy me everything I looked at! It was very cute! It was a rough morning but the rest of the day was AMAZING!!!!!! It was much less chaotic in Pushkar than any other place we had been. There was supposed to be a lake but it was the dry season so it was more like a little pool. We also got to see one of the only Brahma temples in the world. It was pretty neat. My friend and I went in and we were just looking around when we got yelled at because we were walking the wrong direction. We felt really bad but we just turned around and started the other way....then I do not think they were toooo happy when we did not go up front and buy flowers to lay in front of a statue. We decided that it was time to leave after that! But it was pretty cool to say that I have been in one of the Brahmas temple!
That night we went to Pushkar. I think that was my favorite place. Disaster struck the night before we got to Pushkar. We were on another train and we had yet to stay in a room for the night and when we got to Pushkar station we walked out with our bags and stuff but we left ALL our cameras!!!! IT WAS THE WORST! That is why there will be no pictures to prove that we were there! It really was the worst news in the morning! Norris felt so bad but that stuff happens and it is all just stuff. We did all we could to try to find the cameras but there was not much we could do....so we walked around the city of Pushkar for a while and did some shopping...Norris felt sooooo bad that he left the cameras that he tried to buy me everything I looked at! It was very cute! It was a rough morning but the rest of the day was AMAZING!!!!!! It was much less chaotic in Pushkar than any other place we had been. There was supposed to be a lake but it was the dry season so it was more like a little pool. We also got to see one of the only Brahma temples in the world. It was pretty neat. My friend and I went in and we were just looking around when we got yelled at because we were walking the wrong direction. We felt really bad but we just turned around and started the other way....then I do not think they were toooo happy when we did not go up front and buy flowers to lay in front of a statue. We decided that it was time to leave after that! But it was pretty cool to say that I have been in one of the Brahmas temple!
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