Valentine's Day Abroad

So for Valentine's Day, I hadn't exactly set any expectations (not that I would anyway, right?) on Lance for much, due to the fact that we're abroad and living on a really strict budget (wait, that last part isn't new though...) So you (and all who know Lance well) will be surprised at how wonderful the day turned out to be!

First, we traveled to Charleoi to visit Patrick on Saturday, and Lance kicked off the weekend with this little guy that he surprised me with when i literally turned my back for 3o seconds in the train station. <3

I'd told lance seriously, a MONTH ago that I wanted one of these dope hats because it was freezing outside and I think they are seriously so awesome - plus all the street vendors sell them, so I knew they'd come at a reasonably good price.

 

But Lance told me no, that we need to save for traveling...and he's right. I'd totally forgotten i'd told him I wanted one. So Monday (vday) rolled around, and I went to work early before Lance so I could pick up some chocolate from the grocery store (we made valentines for everyone in the office, which wouldnt have been complete without chocolate!!)... when I came to my desk THIS HAT was sitting atop my little desk lamp. I didn't think much of it, except... what the heck? I asked everyone whos it was, no one knew, so i put it on the shelf on the other side of the room. About 3 hours roll by, lance calls down to my desk and says "did you get your hat?" HAHAH! He didn't even leave a note or anything...like I was supposed to know it was mine. Needless to say, I was SO surprised! I love that! Usually I have a tiny inkling of a surprise lurking ahead, but he got me GOOD on this one.

Next, after our lunch break, I found THIS on my desk (Thanks Tarun for being the sneaky delivery boy!) umm only the YUMMIEST chocolates from Leonidas... seriously delicious.

and THEN he took me to the mall. About a month ago we visited Zara and I've been obsessing over this perfume ever since...he surprised me and took me in, told me to pick my favorite out, and bought it!

THEN he sprung for SMOOTHIES - which I have been DYING for (so many carbs/meat/sugar...no fruit!)...then the BEST Frites in Belgium...then a Goafre (belgian waffle).

           

Lance really did such a wonderful job and made this valentine's day so special. Thanks doll, i love you!!

To-Do List

Things I will do when I get home:

*Hug  Zoe until she licks me to death/dies from me hugging her

*Sleep in my AMAZING king sized bed

*Call Katherine/MomandDad/Celeste/HeatherandNick/Kassie/Paige JUST BEAUSE I CAN

*Make something on the grill that my in-laws bought us last Christmas

*Eat 5 Guys Burgers and Fries

*Go to the mall JUST BECAUSE I CAN

*Go to the grocery store JUST BECAUSE I CAN

*Drive a car JUST BECAUSE I CAN

*Go run my usual run around the temple with Zoe

*Clean my house because its MINE!

*MAKE A CRAFT- particularly one with glitter

*Visit Katherine before she gives birth

*Start my business plan for an actual boutique

*Watch American TV whenever I feel like it

*Go to TARGET/WALMART JUST BECAUSE I CAN

*Take a stroll through my ol’ stompin grounds of UVU [because I’ll admit it! I already miss learning and reading in a formal setting!]

*Drive a car AGAIN

*Buy SKIM, refrigerated milk

This is just a start. I will be adding to this more, I’m sure

"Only Poor People Ride the Metro"

 

ummm excuse me, Gideon. I ride the metro. Almost daily. It's my only means of transportation.

haha.

This is a DIRECT quote from the owner of where I work - he told one of my coworkers this (who also rides the metro). He drives a brand new Mercedes (bought with cash, of course)...and really has no filter placed on his mouth. But i guess when you're as successful as he is, some sort of entitlement is inevitable...?

My job is full of interesting people, that's for dang sure.

Obelis

Oh-bul-iss

that's how you pronounce it.

I've never worked in a place with so many different kinds of people from different backgrounds, and i really couldn't love it more! Every person has a very distinct, very vibrant, colorful personality. The synergy in the office is so lovely and well meshed. Of course, this starts at the top (well maybe not Gideon, but with his son, Doram, who is a wonderful boss) and trickles down to even the minions interns.  Technically every person in the office are interns, with the exception of Father/Son/Daughter, and two interns who were so amazing they were offered permanent positions. The longest someone has been there is one year, the shortest is the new guys (us) and we leave in a few short weeks.

The building we work in is 100 years old, and looks like it was built yesterday...the entire place has kept the integrity of the wood floors, structure and even windows - but somehow manages to feel brand new. it's actually pretty impressive.

So basically, the internship that (literally 50 people apply for p/year) fell into my lap is a glorified secretarial position. Im busy ALL day. Luckily, there's this darling couple, Eric and Shayly who came (eric had the internship, and shayly got the internship by default like me), and Shayly and I share the overwhelming amount of tedious filing/accounting/customer care/phone calls/collection agency?/HR duties with each other. Luckily Shayly is a doll, which makes the job go by so much faster. They are a newlywed couple that live in Logan.

There are three floors to our office. On the first floor, it's me, Shayly, and Ivan (pronounced eevahhn) who is from Sweeden - we all share this part of the office.

Behind us is Brigham (also lives in utah), Eric, and Paulina from Poland.

Upstairs is the sister - then Nina from  i think slovenia? Dash, an Indian from Kenya, Poseidon (cool name, yes?) an Indian from England, Tadej (pronounced Today) from Slovenia, Lu from Romania, Keiran from London, Geraldine from Belgium.

Then on the third fllor -  in what i call the Rapunzel Tower, Lance hangs out works with Tarun(pronounced Tahroon) an Indian...from i forgot..(sorry tarun!).  I still don't know how to classify lance's job. All i know is that he mostly works with scary Gideon- better him than me. hahah.

Overall, its like a big family at obelis. Everyone genuinely cares about one another. I really feel so fortunate to have landed such an..interesting...job with such wonderful, interesting, lovely people.

These Shoes Weren't Made for Walkin'

I bought these beauties on sale when I visited Katherine in Arizona a while ago...$250 knocked down to a mere 40...!! I've been in love with them ever sense, and have worn them frequently...thus, making them one of my top 5 favorite pair of shoes.

Thank you, Brussels, Belgium, for officially putting them on my top 5 LEAST favorite pair of shoes. Thank you, for also letting me walk on your cobble stone streets to and from work every day - thus, totally destroying the (previously very sturdy!!!) structure of them.

:(

Guess that means it's time to search for a new favorite?

ROMA!

(**disclaimer... i KNOW i need to blog about my job, the apartment, London, and Brussels...but i figured since i'm in the mood, and i just got back, that i'd go ahead and blog out of order...other blogs to come soon!)

I'm in love. It was love at first sight.

Lance and I scored cheap tickets to Rome through this awesome airline called Ryan air...sometimes they have tickets starting at 7 euros!

**heather and celeste, this next part made me think of y'all!**

We left work a little early to catch our flight out of chareloi. I We had to catch a train that took us from Brussels to Chareloi- which takes about an hour. It has several stops, and at one, a lady and her friend got on. One sat right next to me, the other sat next to lance, so they were sitting across from each other, make sense? Anyway, they started signing to each other!! I didn't interrupt them, but at the very end, one of them got off, the other stayed on, so I tapped her on the shoulder and signed, “do you understand american sign language?” it was SO COOL! I am SO rusty on my sign language, but it was really neat to use what I remembered. It was a little difficult to try and communicate through broken sign language, me speaking ASL, her speaking French Sign Language, but through finger spelling and common signs we had a relatively successful conversation. People in the train car were all staring, but it was still a cool experience.

We made it to the airport with an hour to spare...however. I printed out our boarding passes, however – printed them out like two hours before we left.... We got to the ticket counter and she informed us that we had only printed out our return tickets. Turns out that you have to print out your boarding passes like 5 hours ahead of your flight time otherwise you have to pay 40 EUROS each.... I guess i found out the hard way why ryan air is able to offer tickets for so cheap.

Our flight was scheduled to be a 2 hour flight, but we landed 30 mins early! We then took the train into the center of Rome where we were to meet our Sicilian friend,Andrea, who was going to pick us up.

We had about 20 minutes to kill and we were both starving so we found a little hole in the wall pizza place. The guy behind the counter had the THICKEST Italian accent, so when he tried to expain to us what pizzas he had, it sounded like gibberish. Lance picked out one that looked the best. The guy weighed the pizza, threw it back into the brick oven, then we chowed down. Seriously so good. It turns out the pizza was foccacia bread, cheese, and shredded potatoes. And it was heavenly. Mmmmmmm

So we finally met up with Andrea, and the first thing he did a take us to a sicilian bakery, and bought us pistachio canoliki and vanilla canolos....ohhhhh my gosh. I can't describe how amazing these things are. They are this cinnamon somewhat hard shell with sugar and a cream filling. Soooooo good.

Andrea then took us around town and we somehow ended up at a place where one of his friends was, which just sos happened to be a venue where Laura Veirs was playing! Shes my new foundnfavorite artist and I about died. We hung out there for a while, then andrea showed us around the part of Rome where he lives. When he went to park, he cousldnt find a place on the street so he parked on the sidewalk! And that is completely acceptable to do here, apparently. Haha. And when people drive here, the only real rule is green means go, red means stop-but if it's safe to go hurry and go.ha ha it's sooo crazy. It's lances kind of driving, actually, he loves it.

So we went back to Andreas and he cooked us a real, Sicilian pasta dish. Ok. This was even better than any previous said food. I'll share the recipe... But seriously. So delicious. I feel so lucky!

We all crashed and the next day lance and I set out to disc of Rome. After our experiences with London and Paris, we decided there was just too much to see with not enough time, so we bit the bullet and bought tour bus tickets, which actually wasn't as expensive as I thought they'd be. I feel like it was money very well spent. You get on the tour bus,they give you headphones, you plug them into the jack, and as you go around the city, this very nice Brit gives you an audio tour of history of each street and monument you pass. On top of that you can get on and off at 18 different locations, with a bus that comes to each stop every 15 minutes. So that gave us the ability to get off and explore whenever we wanted to for however long we wanted to.

Rome was so warm. I'd say it was a solid 65 degrees outside – Lance was in shorts! This proved to make a VERY pleasant experience – especially being on the top of a tour bus.

Since I know explaining sight seeing isn't as exciting through words, i'll just bullet point the highlights of the bus tour:

*THE COLOSSEUM. When we were dropped off here, it gave me chills. The place is as incredible in person as one might imagine. I've always wanted to see the place in real life, and to be able to touch and explore it was so surreal. Imagining the history that took place here was a little disturbing, but still such an incredible experience, truly.

*St. Peter's Basilica – This is the alleged burial place of Peter. This place was very ornate and over-the-top, with multiple chapels with statues, gold, marble – the works.

*The Vatican – Lance and I found out at 3:35 that the Vatican closed for touring at 4:00, and from St Peter's Basilica the walk was about 30 minutes – so we walk-ran to make it on time. They charged us 30 euros total to go in, but we both decided this one time it was appropriate to spend the money. Again, this place gave me chills. We toured as much as we could, and at the very end, the kicker, the Sistine Chapel...I've studied the Sistine Chapel multiple times throughout my life, and I've always tried to picture what it was like. I never thought I'd ever have the opportunity to see it, let alone BASK in it! Complete silence was required and no photography (but I managed to take a video...whoops..is that disrespectful?) but I sat in awe, thinking of Michelangelo standing (yes, that's correct; he did not lie on his back) with his neck craned back, painting this incredible ceiling (reluctantly). After taking humanities courses, painting courses, drawing courses and the sculpting course, my capacity to appreciate this work was much larger – therefore this experience was exponentially more meaningful to me.

*Gelato TWICE.

*Italian Pizza – thin crust (Settebellos Style)

**We saw most of the rest of the heavy-hitters in rome (minus the fountain) – and it was amazing. I've always been fascinated by the Romans, their culture, the architecture, the rise and fall of the empire – all of it. I can't believe I had the opportunity to walk to streets and imagine the Roman Soldiers, doin their thing.

We finally made our way back to Andrea's house. He promptly asked us if we were hungry, and took us about 45 minutes away to his friend's Pizzeria – who was born and raised in Rome. The pizza is SO amazing. Thick, hand made crust, sloppy red sauce, and piled on toppings. YUM. (Katherine, it sounds yuck, but it was SO tasty, I promise. Much better than any $5 pizza, I promise that. Hahah). I have to say the food we ate while in Rome (ha!) was BY FAR some of the best food i've ever had.

The next day we woke up at 6, flagged down a taxi, and flew home -exhausted.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but we explored it in one! HAHA, i'm so clever. hahahahaha
(sorry for the lack of pictures. see FB for a more extensive view of rome)

The Coslett Nose Would Never Survive Paris.

I will explain later.

First let me catch you all up on what's been going on in my life the last few days.

(**side note. 90% of this post was written IN paris, i just hadnt had a chance to finish it.... i'll step in and let you know when the date of writing changes)

Patrick took Lance and I to the train station where we rode the almost 2 hour ride from Brussels, Belgium to Paris, France… which is where the real backpacking began. Lance has a huge backpack he threw on his back that weighed a solid 50+ lbs with our clothes: enough to last us 4 days (for our 8 day expected trip). I had a backpack with lance's laptop, ipad, our toiletries, my makeup bag, all chargers for said electronics, and in a separate bag, our large camera. My bag wasn't as heavy as Lance's, but it came in at a close second. SO, keep in mind this is what we had to travel with everywhere we went from leaving Patrick's on...

There was one transfer train in-between with a 30 minute layover, so Lance decided it would be a good idea to try and find a SIM card that would work in Europe so he could have a working GPS and phone in case we needed to get ahold of the people who lived where we were staying in Paris.

I can't really explain the train stations very well, (probably because I am seriously exhausted at this point and my brain is functioning at half-capacity) but i can say that there is a LOT of walking, running, pushing, stairs, and uneven walkways. That's just inside the train station. Then outside there's more stairs, and at this particular stop there were a LOT of relatively steep hills (lined with shops and bakeries, i might add!)-which is where Lance was sure he'd find a place to offer him a SIM card.



While lance went walking up the hills, he let me wander into H&M  and look around. (Paige this is the part that made me think of you the entire time!) I LOVED IT. I seriously loved it. I felt like I had just walked into the most amazing department store with the most gorgeous clothes at FOREVER TWENTY ONE PRICES. seriously…the only problem was i looked similar to a homeless person with a huge backpack on my back, which in turn, caused me to bump into racks of clothes and other people and it was just overall embarrassing…but i didn't exactly care - There were so many things i wanted…and they were made out of fine materials - there was this one tunic i cant stop thinking about that was a pale pink made out of 100% silk  with a ribbon belt and quarterlength sleeves for 14 Euros! I'm hoping that on the way back to Brussels i can con my way into buying a few things.

anyway, so eventually we met back up and went back to the translation (lance still hadn't found a sim card)  and made it into Paris.  The excitement of being in one of the most amazing cities hadn't set in yet. I was still jetlagged and hungry and ready to get the heavy pack off my back. We got off of the train and walked down to…the metro… oh the metro (which is equivalent to the subway). I have a lot to say about this thing. First, (i don't know how totally accurate this is so please feel free to correct me if my information is wrong) let me say this about the metro. Apparently some of the underground tunnels where the metro currently exists in Paris are made of cleared out catacombs (how eerie is that?), which i found pretty cool. Next, the metro map is your bff. With out it, it is VERY easy to get mixed up and end up on the other end of town. Good thing Lance is already experienced with reading metro maps because it would have been miserable to get lost. Anyway, we found our right metro route to take us to the place we were staying- which was about 15 miles outside of the heart of paris. Overall it took us about 40 minutes to take the several metros and then hop onto the bus. We arrived relatively late (this is new years eve, so i was stressing a little) - around 6:45. Lance stayed in his denim and jacket, but I was sure i wanted to change into my darling lace dress, tights, and flats (i wanted to curl my hair too but i knew realistically there wasn't enough time). So we backtracked the exact way we came and toward the Eiffel Tower. I don't understand French yet, so i was just sort of following Lance around like a lost puppy and didn't realize we were there yet, so once we walked up the metro steps and onto the street Lance made me close my eyes and held my hand… then told me to open them and BAM! The Eiffel Tower was RIGHT in front of me, all lit up and HUGE! It LITERALLY took my breath away. I haven't seen something so incredible in a really long time. It was beautiful and the streets were relatively clear, so i was able to enjoy it (...i loathe crowds).

It was VERY cold. I mean like my knees started become numb…and shortly after my feet followed suit. Lance, at the end of the night, called my shoes "pieces of paper wrapped around my feet", which is actually pretty accurate. The stone streets and the cold Paris weather did not agree with my attire. a lace dress, cardigan, tights, and flats. REAL SMART. I just thought we were going to go somewhere nice, but by the time we got to the Eiffel Tower everything nice was closed. Luckily there were a few bakeries open on the side streets - so before we decided to venture closer to the Eiffel Tower, we got some yummy sandwiches and eclairs - okay seriously SO AMAZING and delicious. We went back to the Eiffel Tower to explore and to buy a few souvenirs, waiting for the "ball to drop" - or some sort of equivalent. we eventually ended up where we started and saw a huge crowd start to form, so we climbed up on the ledges overlooking the courtyard….which ended up being a really smart idea. basically the courtyard ended up looking like a moshpit with people drinking, smoking, yelling and even fighting (great holiday cheer, eh?). The experience was pretty amazing in general - there was a group of Brazillians to my right, some super cute girls from Spain to my left, french/belgian people all around… so multicultural. Eventually when the it turned midnight there were a few small fireworks that came from the crowd - apparently fireworks are illegal in Paris because too many accidents have happened and the ban is their attempt at avoiding terrorist attacks... - but the tower twinkled like it does on every hour, and it was beautiful. I will never forget this new year's eve. So breathtaking.

The adventure that followed was..interesting. We waited about an hour before we started to head back to the metro - there were too many people pushing and getting trampled (and wayyyy too many drunk people who were a little out of control). so we froze, and then started walking. We walked along the riverbank with the Eiffel Tower to our left, it's light reflected on the water, and headed toward the metro station. By the time we pushed through the crowds and made it underground, it was around 1:45 am. Apparently, normally the metro doesn't run past midnight, but i guess for NYE the city made an exception, AND decided they'd make the metro FREE- thus explaining the excessive amount of people...this proved to be a slight problem. Once our metro finally arrived, we were pushed back and people shoved themselves into the train. it was so full that when the doors were shutting peoples backs were literally pressed up against the windows - FACES literally pressed up against the GLASS. Seriously, SO funny. luckily, there was one more metro that we knew was coming....it arrived... people started pushing and shoving to get in... then a fight broke out! Luckily it was at the far end, but like 1st graders, one fight ruins recess for the whole class... in other words, because of the fight, they SHUT the last metro ride down.... COOL.

Normally this wouldn't ahve been such a big deal, but i really couldn't feel my feet. But our only choice was to walk. To walk the 6-7 miles back to the house we were staying at... needless to say, we arrived at home around 4:30 am.... and woke up at 3 pm on accident that afternoon. whoops!

(...here i am now, in belgium... weeks later....so forgive my lack of remembering)
What I can recall is that the next few days we went sight seeing. We saw the moulin rouge, which gave me the creeps. but it was bright and colorful.


then we walked to the Paris Opera House and were able to pay something like $3 each to take a self guided tour through out. Apparently, when lance was in high school, he read The Phantom Of The Opera and ever since has wanted to explore the place... I am pretty sure he was interested in exploring what was UNDERNEATH the building - i think it is some underground city or something - but we got to explore the private viewing rooms, the grand staircase, the hallways.... it was so intricate and elaborately designed... i loved it.

we also quickly visited the outside of the Louvre - which was just neat to be there....

on sunday we were able to go to church in paris!! which i LOVED!

we also went to Notre Dame. I've been so fascinated by this cathedral, ever since i was introduced to it in the disney movie, The Hunchback... i've studied it a few times, and the stained glass, the history...everything about it has always been so interesting to me. I've day dreamed about it even, ha ha. I am so happy to inform you that it lived up to everything i've ever thought about. it was so incredible. beautiful. gothic (in the historical sense)....which in its own way was beautiful. the intricate history. we walked in while a sermon was taking place, so that added to the way i was feeling.

we explored more of paris, which meant we spent a LOT of time in the metro. Please let me explain what the metro is like (especially the day after NYE).

1. There are no public bathrooms anywhere. ESPECIALLY the metro.

2. Homeless people set up permanent shop inside the metro. (I guess that makes them technically not homeless).

3. Due to 1 and 2, the metro is a permanent toilet....the walls, the benches, any surface, really. It is a toilet that has no prejudice - it doesn't discriminate against animals, people, vomit, feces, vomit...all are welcome.

4. Due to 3, the aroma of the ENTIRE METRO SYSTEM smells like a mix of said items.

5. Due to 4, YOU, in turn, carry the aroma WITH you if you're down there too long.

yummy.

on that note, i will end my paris blog.

it was beautiful, interesting, dreamy, stinky. ha. i loved this experience.