Welcome to the jungle--Santa Cruz

Drew, Ann, John and I decided to get away for the weekend and head to Aqua Land in Santa Cruz. What could be better then a water park in Bolivia? Hummm??


Day One: The Zoo


Zoo's in Bolivia are a little different then in the States. Some of there animal are free to roam around the park. This poor sloth was getting carried around by small children as he was too slow to get away. He was clearly annoyed.


We were glad some of the animals were in cages. Very small cages. SAD!!!


Day Two: AQUA LAND!!! Oh wait! We are in Bolivia, and it's closed??? Instead we found this really cool pool. So, John and Drew pretended they were at Aqua Land.





Yes, Ann and I realize that we married BIG KIDS!! We are glad they have each other.

At the pool there was a butterfly park and a bird jail (AKA bird observatory?)


We fed the birds.

Almost got attacked.

Hiked to the top for sunset.

Great view. Great weekend.

Round 2

Our last weekend was incredible going out on the boat with Peggy and Buster and our parents to an on the water restaurant. We couldn't have asked for a better summer and a better last weekend in the US. Thank you al for loving us so much. We'll be pumped to see everyone in a year!!






































Jenny and I walking to school the first day of school, getting ready for Round 2 teaching here in Bolivia. We were excited, me teaching Math again and Jenny 6th grade and a high school Science. We also felt pretty cool in our matching jackets- thanks Dad.


How do you get the role as being the official MC of a school? I guess they pick the person that is the best at it! Jenny gets to welcome all of the students and read announcements not just on the first day of school, but every week. Dang my wife is awesome!!

EUROPE- Part 2- ITALY

WOO. ITALY.

Italy

We loved Spain, we went to Europe to see Dave and Beth, but said, why not take advantage of being there, so we went to Italy too. We stayed 2 weeks in Italy.

Venice- We did it. We got to ride in a gondola around the city with an almost full moon at about midnight. There was hardly anyone out on the water, it was beautiful. Unbelievable. Just cool. But man, what else do I remember from Venice, a lot of walking!!!! You had to navigate through all the waterways. We were warned, but man, we walked a lot!! We were wiped out by the end of each day!

Cinque Terre- "The Five Towns" that line the coast. They were very cool. You have to go. Incredibly charming and romantic. We asked around one of the towns (Vernazza) a bit about where to stay, and it could not have been more perfect. This little old lady lived on the top floor of a building that looked right over the small town and the water. It was spectacular. I got to play water polo with kids!! It was awesome. Jenny and I were swimming, and fellas began to play and I hopped right in. I could not think of a cooler place to play water polo.

We walked to the other towns, trying gelato in all five towns. It was fun, and the fifth town had the best gelato.


Siena- Two things about Siena. The town square and the food! Best town square we spent time in, it was jumping, kind of set up like a big ampitheater, where you just sit and people watch. Everybody was happy, especially the children runing all around.
We had our best meal of the trip here, white lasagna goodness, and the best thing we ate......fire-roased pork and peas coated in lard. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! And the wine was cheaper than the water!!! We took advantage.


Orvieto- Hill towns, traveled to a bunch of little hill towns. Was relaxing and took a ton of pictures.

Sorento- Walked along cliffs, gazed into the Mediteranean. And the, SCOOTER RIDE!!!! We rented a scooter for a day and drove the Amalfi Coast. Most beautiful stretch of highway in the world. It was dang cool. We rode to anient Greeek ruins. It was awesome. Were on the scooter for 7 or 8 hours and loved every minute of it.

Pompeii- Pompeii. Cool. So much bigger than I thought it would be. Was a real city. I thought it would be a few buildings, it was a few hundred buildings.


Rome- Vatican City- ton of comments under the pictures in the album, but it was neat being there. Had some mixed feelings about the Vatican Museum, they just had so much "stuff." Was cool to go into the Sistene Chapel- smaller than we expected. Were impressed with St. Peter's Square. The things that had happened right there. That is why we were excited to go to Rome. It was neat learning about it.

Saw the Coliseum. WOO. Cool. Big. Old. I was looking for Gladiator, he wasn't there. What a structure. Again, to think of the stands being packed, men fighting for their lives. Crazy. A neat life experience to check it out.

JOHN AND JENNY LIKE EUROPE. MAYBE LIVE AND TEACH THERE SOMEDAY???????

EUROPE- Part 1- SPAIN

What a blessing to be able to spend some time in Europe this summer. It has taken us this long to write about Europe because we could write many pages. Every day was great. Europe was Europe. Those that have been there know what I mean. Those that have not, try to get there sometime. It was a wonderful place to visit.

We spend time first visiting Dave, Beth and Lucas in Madrid. They have been there for a year and a half, so it was great to see them, and to see Lucas for THE FIRST TIME!!!! Man, he is such a cute kid. Fun. He smiled at people, and everyone loved him. I was expecting people in Madrid not to be very friendly, but I was wrong. Lucas broke the ice, and people on busses and trains loved him. It was perfect.

We saw a few cities close to Madrid, Segovia and ChinChon. Segovia was a beautiful medieval town that still had a 1st century Roman aqueduct and the castle, Alcazar-what they modeled and named the Disney one after. We felt like we were in another time. In Chin Chon, we ate, and wondered around. It was cool, the next weekend they were having a bullfight, so the small town was getting ready. At first we were bummed we would miss it, but as we thought more, we were definitely OK with missing out. We heard bullfights aren't very pro-animal rights and they can get pretty ugly.

We then went to Barcelona, which was AWESOME. We loved it. The coolest city in Europe. It had everything. It had a beautiful main street, great buildings, tons of cool stores (John is writing this, I even liked the stores.). Little food places, lot of small meals and coffee shop type places we loved, There was an awesome very green part of the city, an awesome park. We took a bike tour and discovered it. And, in this huge city, is a real beach!! I have never been to a big city that has a beach. It was great. Beautiful beach that we enjoyed a ton. Our most memorable part, was when we single-handedly stopped a pickpocket ring. Check out our Barcelona pics. They were very cool.

Europe 09-Spain

Costa Rica

If you remember, we are in this cool Master's Program, Jenny for International Education, me for Educational Leadership, in which we will go to Costa Rica 4 or 5 times over these 2 years. It has been a neat time to travel and meet new friends. (This is the school in CR where we take classes, it's much different then Calvert.)



This is Brooke. Brooke is the bomb. This could be enough said, but I will say more. She is just cool and fun and rediculous and will be a friend for life. She's not getting rid of us. (I wish I could have stayed an hour longer after this pic was taken to see all the drama that unfolded....please keep me updated.)


She threw her keys away in a nasty trash can, set us up with an incredible 5-star place to stay, (for real, thank you!!!!), and we just like her. SHOUT OUT!
















And I got to see a great friend in Costa Rica. Brian Neary, just grauated from LaSalle, took a surfing trip to CR and we got to hang together and catch up. It was wonderful. To catch up on lfe, and then to surf together. We went in the evening, paddled across this river that met the ocean, I was surfing (kind of) with a full moon on one side and the sun setting on the other. Amazing. The coolest part, as it was getting dark, we decided to head home, Bri and his friend were on the beach, I rode the last wave all the way to the shore, stepped right off the board onto the sand. Could not have been better. (for me.) (FYI, i have no pics to document this because it would require swimming across a river with a camera.)

Next morning was a different story. Waves are bigger in the morning, which was great for them, terrible for me. I couldn't even paddle out the waves were so big. I tried to duck my board or roll over, nothing worked. I tried for about 20 minutes and called it quits. Just laid on the beach, watched them, and enjoyed the early morning. A Kelly Slater I will never be.


Here is one of our favorite parts of CR...the food. Specifically this Lebanese place with belly dancer and all, look at that spread! I affectionately call it Lub-Nub b/c I can never remember the name, sounds yummy.



































This is what we saw in the middle of NOWHERE on way home from the beach back to San Jose...
















Also, please note our 2 year anniversary presents to each other...(read our shirts)














We like being married.










We laugh a lot.

SUMMER 2009

SO, we were pumped to get home. Real pumped. So excited, that get this...after going into a bathroom in the Miami airport, not having to pay to go in, actually flushing the toilet paper instead of putting it into a trash can, and being able to drink from a water fountain.....we both truly broke down and started to cry at the baggage claim!! We love the USA!!


Our parents and Lori met us at the airport and we were obviously so excited to se them. John's dad greeted him with a Super-Size bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos, which I missed so much over the past year. We had our meals planned out. We headed straight for the Carlyle Grand in Alexandria. About seven appetizers and an amazing meal,Jenny got a real beer, we loved it.


Our friends had a party for us the next day where we just go to see everyone, show pics, and just share our experience. It was so wonderful. I am also so thankful that the friendships are still there. They are solid enough that after a year of not seeing each other, they hardly took a few minutes to be right where they left off.

It was just great to be home. We spent time in Virginia Beach with Jenny's family, includng Lori and Bryan, Mary Kate, Jacob and Addie Grace who came in for 3 weeks from Jackson, MI. It was just good hanging with the family we love so stinkin' much. We needed good time with our family who we missed so much last year.



We had the Kane Family Weekend. It was awesome. We loved it. Just fun hanging with aunts, uncles, cousins, and all their kids. Our family is growing every year. We hope to add to the family in about a year or two!!!!!!





Phillies game with two of my best friends, Finn and Creeden. Couldn't be home without a Phils game.


Some members of the OCC, the Oreland Cyclng Club. This was truly one of my funnest times of being at home. I got to go out on bike rides with friends. It is kind of hard to explain, but I just loved these times!!!!! It is how I would spend most of my time if I could. Biking with my best friends. Once we biked then had a post ride breakfast at the Fairlane, and this is a pic of post ride Chinese. DK, Wilo, Finn, and Lizzy G. Thanks guys. For real. Absolutely loved it.




This was cool. Got to check out my pop's job site. My dad is the man. Simple as that. He's great at what he does, works harder than anyone I know, and gets the job done. And they're big jobs. He's the man and I love him. It was so cool for me and Jenny to go see his site, his office, and see him in action.

We're Outta Here!!!!!

WOAH!!! We're through one year. We are home for over 2 months and we'll be back here in Cochabamba August 8th. We haven't been writing much lately, because of our new toy, a Honda XL 185 motorcycle. John's only fallen bad once, and dropped the bike a lot. Cracked the engine in 2 places, lost a headlight, and broke off one of the brakes. So we've been breaking it in well. We love it.

So we enjoyed it here. Great new friends, and we really enjoyed teaching. Jenny loved her first year. But the best part of the teaching profession is the next two months. We are excited to come home for June, spend time with fam and friends we miss, head to classes for our Master's Degrees in Costa Rica, and then to Europe to visit Beth, Dave, and Lucas!!! It will be our first time meeting our nephew Lucas!! We will post more this summer as we travel from Madrid to Rome.....HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!

Spring Break Part 2

So Jenny normally writes, but my turn to write about the second half of our spring break, because she wasn't there!!!! She and Bill got to hang out for three days in a hospital room.

We on the other hand missed them but had a great time wine-tasting, and then flying across the country to beautiful Copacabana, Lake Titicaca, and I had to take the best friends ever to Isla del Sol. We had a wonderful time. It truly is a paradise. I am so thankful that Wilo, DMac and KLo got to spend some time there. We hiked, carried bundles of hay for some locals, and sat and enjoyed the beautiful lake. And again- Wilo, DMac, and KLo- wouldn't have been the same without you- thank you for showing us love by coming down and spending time with us. It really did mean so much to us. (Or were you just using us to come see Bolivia???) You can use us again next year. We're definitely going to the Salt Flats next spring break!!!!

Spring Break pics

Click below to view web album...

Spring Break

It will make you want to come for a visit!

Spring Break part 1

Oh my gosh…Is it really May?? Does that really mean that we will be back in the States in less then 1 month?? We have survived our first year in Bolivia! And I don’t think we would have made it unless our friends had come down for a visit this past Spring Break. Karen, Diane, and Chris, Thank you. We could not have made it if you did not come. I am not saying it bad down here, just saying, Man we really miss our friends. It was good to have a ‘taste’ of home. (Thank you for all the treats you brought us!)

It is Amazing how much fun can be packed into one week. Here is the run down of all that we did.
* hung in CBBA. Ate good food, ran up Christo, showed off our school (me judging my kids a the science fair), and headed to the largest open-air market in the western hemisphere.



* Then night bused to Potosi, where we went caving and then broke into what used to m the famous World Mint. At one time, all coins in the world were made here. Bill even made his own coin. (John and Chris were not here because Chris missed his flight and John had to go and meet him in Sucre.)

* They made it just in time for us to take the next overnight bus to Tupiza where we were met at 3am by our new friends the owned the hostel where we would being staying. (Ariel and Sylvia, we miss you!)



* Woke up early and met our new four-legged friends. We started our 2 day horse back riding tour through beautiful landscape that We had never seen before.





Bill had a rough time when horse took off at full speed around the corner and tried to jump the hole behind him. Only had a broken rib-WAY PAINFUL. I decided to stay with Bill, while the rest of the group continued on. Glad I stayed, no way Bill would have survived the 21 hour train ride with out me...:)
















Next Spring Break the plan is to hit up the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats, if you want to join us.)


John will do part 2 soon! I will post the pics to web album then!!

Shout Outs!

Just a few quick shout outs about what makes Bolivia so great!


John and I have been blessed to live in community with some really great roommates. We are so thankful for their friendship and the true family they are to us here. For example...My birthday was a month ago. All i asked for was boxed yellow cake and store bought chocolate icing. Well they delivered even more. They made me a special meal. Knowing that i am from the beach (shout out Va Bch) they decided to make a Seafood Extravaganza in our lovely landlocked country! We had shrimp and scallops, with coconut rice and curry sauce. A-Mazing. They are good people.


Yummy....























View from laying in bed. One of my favorite things. I just can't believe that it is real.















Thank you Bolivia for taking soccer so serious. Nothing adds adventure to a sporting event like the fact that you could get trampled if the fans above you and below you began to really fight, and not just throw bottles at each other. Thank you for that added excitement.















And to "G" who found us on warmshowers.com and trusted us to keep her bike while she did some traveling. G- thank you for the real maple syrup from Canada and for all the fun stories. We wish you luck and many prayers as you bike to LaPaz.



John, G, Jenny, Bill (Shout out to Bill for teaching my husband how to ride a motorcycle...that is all he talks about. He wants to sell the car and get his own. Thanks a lot, Bill.)