4th of July YOA Party

Though I am still fighting the slow internet connection here in Mexico, I WILL at some point have a video online of the YOA brass musicians playing our national anthem in my hotel room as we celebrated the 4th. 

YOA Tours are all about learning about other people's cultures, sharing languages, and instilling a sense of pride for your country while appreciating the cultures of others.  So, for the 4th of July, we Americans threw a party in honor of our independence, and were joined by our friends from 20 other countries...

...in my hotel room.

It was a great time, and my room is by far bigger than everyone else's, so it seemed the appropriate time to throw a party.  We all pitched in to buy (extremely cheap) cervezas, plugged in someone's iPod with lots of salsa music to my TV, and posted a USA flag on my hotel room door.  Even though we were celebrating the 4th of July, we were all having a great time getting to know our friends from the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, and all of the other countries of the orchestra. 

There were a lot of beer cans to pick up, and of course some spilled beer here and there... but I tidied up nicely before going to bed, and left a tip for the cleaning ladies in the morning.

One of the musicians (still don't know who!!!) left me a present...  When I was finished cleaning up and was getting into bed, I found about 5 copies of the sheet music for The Star Spangled Banner in my sheets, and under my pillow...  Thanks, guys.

All in all, it was a really fun party, and all of the musicians thanked me very nicely for hosting it in my room.  I really like the group of musicians this year.  They are very polite, extremely talented, and they are fun and interesting people to get to know.

It has only been about 2 weeks since I've been here in Mexico.  It has seemed like a lot longer.  Still, I am looking forward to the rest of the Tour because of the great people that I get to be around.

Also, it doesn't hurt that this year Patrick is getting to visit me halfway through the Tour!  Next Thursday Patrick will be arriving in Mexico City and will get to see two YOA concerts before heading back after four days.  This will certainly make life easier than last year's 7-week tour where I barely could even Skype...  Difficult.

Getting Ready to Say 'Goodbye' to The Jefferson at Fair Oaks

After almost two years, we are about to say goodbye to our apartment here at The Jefferson at Fair Oaks in Fairfax. It is small and pricey, but it also has been good to us. This is me waxing nostalgic over everything that has happened since moving to Virginia:

We drove from Seattle in August of 2008, without knowing where we would end up living, and found this apartment.



Shortly after, Patrick started his new job, I got my first car, and I started grad school.



We explored the cute walking trails and tested out the food in the area. Wegman's, our newly discovered grocery store down the street, turned out to be one of the best grocery stores we've been to. The greek mom 'n pop restaurant we originally thought we would be going to all the time, HavABite, gave over to the much closer and DELICIOUS Moby Dick's House of Kabob. (Ok, they're not exactly the same type of food, but to me, they feed the same craving.) I don't even want to count the number of delicious delicious burgers we have sampled.



We had many adventures being tourists in DC. Friends came to stay with us, including Seth, Steve and Jessica, and Brian.



In the summer of '09, we flew back home to Seattle to get married. Our little apartment became crowded with boxes of wedding presents, and I crammed as much packing material into hiding places as I could so that we would have it ready for us when we inevitably moved again.



Christmas came, the whole family came out to Virginia, and we all got to experience the craziest winter I have ever seen.



School ended, and I got my first full time job. Now, with 5 months of employment under my belt, we finally leave this small space that we have, for a short time, occupied and I look back fondly at all that we have been able to accomplish while we have been here.

It has been a busy two years. And I imagine we won't be slowing down for some time yet. This is such an exciting time for us.

Cherry Blossom and House Progress

The weather has turned absolutely gorgeous out here on the East coast! It seems like not too long ago I was bundling up to go out in 3 feet of snow, but now I am wearing my contacts more so that I can wear my sunglasses, and I am leaving my coat at home. I had a lovely short week last week, as I took a vacation day on Monday and got to leave early on Friday because it was such a nice slow day. Next week will be a bit more busy; I have my normal late days, plus an extra late day somewhere in there for a development committee meeting.

We have spent the beautiful weather checking out the new house; it won't be long until it's done! They have already put in the cabinets, and have done the tile in the bathrooms.

UNFORTUNATELY, it looks like they screwed up the tile, so we'll be making them do it again, but still- it is coming along quickly.

Back story: They told us in the beginning that our tubs and toilets were already ordered, and we confirmed with them (over email, so I have evidence) that they were "biscuit" colored. Based on that info, we made our selections at the design center. Well, NOW that we see our "biscuit" tile selections next to the "biscuit" tub.... I am pretty positive that they were white after all. They haven't responded to my email yet, but we'll stick to our guns and make sure they make it up to us. Here's a picture of our biscuit tiles against the so-called "biscuit" tub. Looks pretty damn white to me.

They also screwed up the listello in the guest bathroom, but there's no way they can get away with that one. They did one wall in the correct color scheme (a mix of greens), but the rest was in the same tile that our master bath was in (browns)... Pretty blatant.

Other than that though, the house is coming along great. I know they have to fix that stuff too, so I'm not really worried about it.

We walked into DC yesterday. The Cherry Blossom Festival is going on right now, so we got some great pictures of the blossoms. We went to the Jefferson Memorial for the first time. That was a good call too, cause the "mass of humanity," as Patrick calls it, was less dense over there. We also walked by a cool seafood place which we will have to try some time, but were too full from lunch to try this time around. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was beautifully sunny, and warm enough to walk around with shorts and a tank top, but not so hot and humid to make Emmas wilt.

Happy Easter!

Cure to Winter Blues = FOOD + FLOWERS. It's Science.

Ugh. Staying in your apartment for a whole week is never a good idea. Not that it would have been a better idea for me to drive to work and get myself in an accident on the icy streets, but I've gotten pretty sick of sitting here at home.

I did finally get out to the grocery store today, and met Patrick for dinner at a place by his work that we've been wanting to go to: Don Churro Cafe. I failed to bring my camera, but the food was quite excellent. We had Arepas Reina Pepeada (shredded chicken and avocado stuffed inside an arepa) for an appetizer, and it was FREAKING DELISH. I will definitely be getting arepas again- that bread is amazing. For our entrees, I had the Milanesa de Pollo (which was basically breaded chicken and fries) and Patrick had the Churrasco Palta (a grilled steak sandwich with avocado). And of course, being that it is almost Valentine's Day, I figured that I deserved a special dessert, so Patrick and I "shared" Nutella Churros Rellenos- churros stuffed with Nutella. MMMmmmmmmm!

We got home and Patrick surprised me with beautiful flowers! He is the sweetest. I don't know where he found the time to pick them up.

That really really made my day. I was feeling blah earlier due to the snow and cabin fever, but now I am full of delicious food and in love with an amazing man. This is going to be a great weekend!

I love you Patrick! Happy Valentine's Day!

A Fantastic Holiday

Even as a huge fan of Christmastime, I can say that this year's Christmas holiday was one of the best ever. Except maybe that year I got the Nintendo 64; that was pretty kickass.

Just joking, this one was way better. First off, it was awesome to get to go back to Seattle and see friends and family. It actually worked great when I was there and I was able to visit a lot of people in a fairly short amount of time. In 6 days I was able to see Patrick's grandparents, my Grandma Yantis and Aunt Susy, all of the Preedy's side of the family, and hung out with my amazing friends Steve, Jessica, Josh, and Kevin. Shout out to Steve and Jessica: Congrats on getting engaged!!!! I am so excited for those two. A-Dorable.

At the end of all of that, I hopped back on the jet to the East side, but this time took my parents and sister with me! They came out for 10 days and boy howdy, did we do a lot in those 10 days.

Emma's Family Goes To Washington

Here is a rough break-down of what we did while my family was over in the DC area, with pictures! Hooray!

Patrick and I got a queen size air mattress for Hilma to sleep on while she was staying with us, and Patrick's parents were generous enough to offer their guest bedroom to my parents while they were here. Patrick's parents' house is so beautiful and big and clean- my parents were able to have their own bathroom and everything!

My mom, sister, and I were all sick with colds on the first couple days. Mom had hers first, so she was recovered the soonest, and Hilma had hers the longest, so she was pretty wiped for a lot of the trip, unfortunately. The DC area got a TON of snow the weekend before we left, (2 feet... Seriously!) so we weren't able to do much the first day due to the road conditions.

I took the fam out to the Dulles Town Center mall next to Patrick's parents' house the first day so that we could go do something without actually having to go very far. That worked out pretty well because we got some books for the little kids that we'd be seeing around Christmas. I also got a sweet hair-band out of the deal. Thanks Mom and Dad!

The next day we hit the National Mall for the first time. It was neat to see the Mall with snow everywhere, and little snow men from the people playing in it. Someone clever even made a snow-Capitol building. I took the family to the Old Post Office Tower, which I am glad to say is still not a big tourist trap. It has a wonderful view of all of the Mall from the bell tower, a food court in the bottom that often has live music, and a pretty atrium interior. Also, it is free and doesn't have a line to get up in the tower, unlike the Washington Monument. I really like taking people there. We also went to the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery of Art.







On Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Baltimore, where we had a nice family Christmas. We got to be with my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Kurt, cousins Mary and Sadie and their husbands, Sadie's baby boy Eddie, Mary's dog Zeke, my Aunt and Uncle's dog Sammie, the neighbor dog they were sitting for Chloe, and my cousin Dave with his toddler Tanner. It was a packed house, with excellent food, and plenty of entertainment (a house full of babies and large dogs... we had a few exciting moments!!!).



Christmas day was such a treat because we got to watch my little almost-three-year-old niece Rylan open Christmas presents. She was so good too- very gracious when other people were opening their presents, and not greedy at all. I was pretty happy though that she seemed to like the Disney Princess Tea Set I picked out for her best. Or maybe second best, next to the plastic tool set she got! Hahhaaha! I also happened to get little baby Escher a plush tool set, which worked out great with Rylan getting to have her big girl tools and Escher still getting to be part of the action. I've always loved giving presents! It's even more exciting to give them to kids. It was really nice to finally have a Christmas with Patrick again. I was very sad to be away from him last year for Christmas. This year was probably a lot better for him.



















On Saturday everyone went to the Air and Space Museum - Hazy Center, which is the awesome giant museum out at Dulles Airport. It has tons of planes, and a space section with a shuttle, missiles, and satellites, among other things.











We went back to the National Mall on Sunday, this time with the Klocks (minus Escher, who got to be babysat by his Grandma and Grandpa), and got to see much more of the Mall. We started out at the American History Museum, then split up and my family went to see the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and then up to Chinatown, where we ate Tapas at La Tasca, saw the Portrait Gallery, then saw the outside of Ford's Theatre. (We got there just after it closed and didn't get to tour it).











On Monday we (everyone but Patrick's dad, who had to go back to work) went to Mt. Vernon, which was George and Martha Washington's home. I had never been there before, and it was absolutely beautiful. Except for the fact that it was FREEZING. My fingers were frozen, even inside of my gloves.









Tuesday my family went to the National Mall one last time, and Hilma and I got to meet up with Dani (one of my friends from grad school, whom Hilma met at the wedding) for coffee. First we were going to go to the Archives, but the wind was bitter cold (worse even than at Mt. Vernon) and there was a line around the corner which we didn't really feel like standing in.

Instead I walked us through the sculpture garden, then over to the Botanical Gardens, which I figured was a good choice, being that it is controlled to simulate much warmer climates, and somewhere my parents haven't been yet. As advertised, I brought my family to a nice warm environment, which happily also had neat things to look at. The orchids were especially beautiful and fragrant.









My dad really wanted to walk up the steps of the Capitol building, because he never actually got to walk very close to it in the past. Unfortunately I don't think you are allowed to walk up the steps anymore: I didn't bother asking the guard armed with a semi-automatic weapon that was blocking the gated-off steps. hahhaha. We got some great pictures in front of the Capitol still, and Dad really liked getting to be up close to it finally.







I took my parents to the Library of Congress next, but Hilma and I were meeting with Dani then, so Hilma didn't get to see inside it. Mom and Dad really liked it though; Mom said it was the prettiest building on the Mall, so I am glad I was able to lead them to it. Hilma and I had a good time catching up with Dani, even though it was wicked cold. Apparently at this point the Capitol building had a gun scare, which stranded Mom and Dad on the wrong side of the mall. They had to walk a long ways to get around it and meet back up with us. Apparently someone called in and said that there was a guy with a gun on a tour bus, but it turned out to be some Metro worker or something.



Wednesday morning Mom, Dad, and Hilma flew back out. Patrick and I drove them back to Baltimore Airport. The rest of the week we spent hanging out with Patrick's side of the family, eating delicious meals (which I now need to exercise off), and other fun activities. Steve and Mellisa took us to see Avatar in 3D, which was really fun and entertaining!! We also made an awesome gingerbread house, and I got to learn about Dora, Ni Hao Kai-Lan, Wonderpets, and other favorite cartoons. hahah!











Many more pictures from Christmas 2009 are here on my Picasa site.