Vacation, it is over.
I feel like I've been out of the country for six weeks, not just two. I went to Mexico, Boston, New York, Boston, and then back to Seoul. Craziness.
Mexico was fascinating, and looked pretty much just as I imagined (deserts, lots of fruit and beans and tortillas, horses and dudes with cowboy hats...we even saw a guy with a Chevy pick-up carrying two horses and two sheep in the back). Next time I go, I am DEFINITELY going to learn some Spanish, because English + Korean do not help much.
Lisa really ran the trip, which must have been really tiring for her, planning all the places to go, driving for hours a day with a GPS that had outdated maps and kept trying to tell us to turn onto the overpasses above our heads and onto streets that were actually concrete walls...and of course she had to do all the talking for us.
We saw such amazing stuff, though. First of all, I fulfilled my number-one goal on my Bucket List, which was to see the monarch butterfly migration in the Mexican mountains.
Lisa and I also went to see a number of ruins and other cool places while we were there.
And we had some mighty delicious food.
All in all, it was an adventure. We did run into a couple of snafus, mostly involving the car we rented, but we were able to go to some amazing places, and I am so fortunate to have Lisa in my life. She is really awesome.
Then, I went over to Boston.
Liz and Jean and I went to this great farmer's market and bought amazing things I could never have gotten in Korea: made-today mozzarella, apple cider, clover honey, fresh scallops... Then we went back to my parents' house and made a feast. Anthony and Cat and Suzanne and Scott and their kids came to visit, too. So it was just rounds and rounds of people and delicious food.
Sunday, we went to church in the morning, and then out to Chinatown for Super Dumpling Buffet. And man, that was great too: beef with broccoli, hot broth dumplings, pork with bamboo shoots, amazing tea. Then we went shopping for a while (I acquired SOME of what I needed but did not have time for everything), and then got some takeout to eat at Christine's house. We also watched "It's Complicated."
Monday morning, I hung out with Jean at a Middle Eastern cafe and did some of the NYT crossword puzzle (Mondays are easy).
Then I went out to Westboro to visit with Cat. Anthony came along for sushi, and then we had planned to buy some groceries, get pedicures, and make some delicious food. But somehow we wound up hanging around at their house looking at pictures of space-saving furniture...kinda cool, though I would have preferred pedicures and cooking. Alas.
Monday was Liz's birthday, so we went to this great Italian place in Medford with Jean and Max. I ordered gnocchi with chicken, AND they had my favorite wine: Da Vinci chianti! I was terribly happy.
Tuesday, I was supposed to pick up David from JFK airport, which, yes, is in New York. It was a doomed trip from the beginning. There was a snow storm the first day (Tuesday), so all the buses after the one I was on were canceled. We stopped at a rest stop so the driver from NYC could switch with the driver from Boston, so they would not get stranded in the wrong cities. Well, when I got off the bus, I slipped on the ice and cut my hand. So, I was bleeding for the next three days. Charming.
Then, since getting to JFK seemed extremely complicated, I decided to take a taxi, which I figured could not possibly cost more than $20 since the bus ride ALL THE WAY from Boston was $15. Nope. I was wrong. A taxi to JFK is $50 before tip. I nearly cried.
The friend I was supposed to stay with was very sick, and the friend David was supposed to stay with had sprained his ankle and was on crutches. So, we decided to stay at a hotel.
BAD IDEA.
The hotel double-charged us for the rooms, refusing to acknowledge the online reservation that my sister had made. We are still working on disputing the charges. They were extremely rude and lied to us several times about it, also.
David realized that I suck at arguing, even if it is in English. Fortunately, my sister is awesome at arguing, even at 6 AM when I call her to ask for help. Thanks, Liz.
David had the worst jet lag I've ever seen. The first night, we just had dinner and fell asleep afterwards. The next morning, we tried to go on our Statue of Liberty cruise, but there was an ice storm, so it was canceled. So, we had breakfast, and took the Staten Island Ferry instead, got a few hazy pictures, but that was it. We decided to hang out at Staten Island for a half hour. Nothing much was open though. We did find the Staten Island Museum, though, which was all right.
We were supposed to take the bus back to Boston in the afternoon, but that was canceled too. So we went to Port Authority to try and book bus tickets for the next morning, but the customer service representative seemed pretty doubtful that there would be buses running even then. We wound up taking the Amtrak train instead.
The world was pretty much one big slush puddle, so my boots were soaked through the first time I stepped in the wrong place. David, who is basically my hero in life, bought me new, waterproof boots.
Then we went back to the hotel to try and sort out the billing disaster, which didn't work, but at least we were able to go back to our rooms and take naps. By the time we woke up, at 6 PM, I had not eaten in nine hours and I was hungry enough to eat my pillow. We couldn't find an Italian restaurant, but we ate at an Irish pub.
Then we tried to go to the Wollman Ice Rink, which was featured in Serendipity, one of our mutual favorite movies. But that was closed too!
So we gave up on New York City and went back to the hotel to sleep. The next morning, the billing idiocy still hadn't been resolved, but they said we could settle our bill later. So, we went to Penn Station and got on our train, which was only late by 30 minutes, and which, thank heavens, had a dining car, because we sure didn't have time to get breakfast.
Back in Boston, Liz picked us up at Davis, and made us rice, lamb curry, and kimchi, which I was pretty sure David was craving by then.
Then we went to meet my parents. It was David's first time. We made lasagna and garlic bread, and David and I talked with my parents. David asked for formal permission to get married, and my parents very enthusiastically agreed. Of course, it will be hard to live so far away, but I think my new job will give me more of a chance to visit.
The next day, we did a tour of Boston: Boston Common, the Public Gardens, Quincy Market, Harvard Campus, L.A. Burdick and the Harvard Coop, then to Johnny D's in Davis for David's birthday event. So many people came out, it was amazing! My sisters all made it (my brother's schedule was too tight, so he couldn't, but we skyped later), Max, Matt, Jill and SARAH BETH whom I have not seen in about four years, GINO who also happened to be in town, and Anthony came out.
It was so amazing and fortunate that all those people were able to come. The bands that were playing at Johnny D's were also good, so we had a really nice time, and since we came out crazy early, we didn't have to pay cover. We were there for about five hours.
David's plane was supposed to leave Boston at 5:30 AM, and mine was supposed to leave at 9. But fortunately, Delta's ground staff helped us a lot, and we were able to get on the same plane and also sit together.
I couldn't sleep on the plane, though. But luckily our flight got in early enough that I got home by 7:30 and was able to sleep for twelve hours, have breakfast, and go to the doctor's office (apparently I have chronic sinusitis, so it's not really going to go away. Oh well).
And work, well, it's not so bad. I just hope I can get my visa okay.
Mexico was fascinating, and looked pretty much just as I imagined (deserts, lots of fruit and beans and tortillas, horses and dudes with cowboy hats...we even saw a guy with a Chevy pick-up carrying two horses and two sheep in the back). Next time I go, I am DEFINITELY going to learn some Spanish, because English + Korean do not help much.
Lisa really ran the trip, which must have been really tiring for her, planning all the places to go, driving for hours a day with a GPS that had outdated maps and kept trying to tell us to turn onto the overpasses above our heads and onto streets that were actually concrete walls...and of course she had to do all the talking for us.
We saw such amazing stuff, though. First of all, I fulfilled my number-one goal on my Bucket List, which was to see the monarch butterfly migration in the Mexican mountains.
Lisa and I also went to see a number of ruins and other cool places while we were there.
And we had some mighty delicious food.
All in all, it was an adventure. We did run into a couple of snafus, mostly involving the car we rented, but we were able to go to some amazing places, and I am so fortunate to have Lisa in my life. She is really awesome.
Then, I went over to Boston.
Liz and Jean and I went to this great farmer's market and bought amazing things I could never have gotten in Korea: made-today mozzarella, apple cider, clover honey, fresh scallops... Then we went back to my parents' house and made a feast. Anthony and Cat and Suzanne and Scott and their kids came to visit, too. So it was just rounds and rounds of people and delicious food.
Sunday, we went to church in the morning, and then out to Chinatown for Super Dumpling Buffet. And man, that was great too: beef with broccoli, hot broth dumplings, pork with bamboo shoots, amazing tea. Then we went shopping for a while (I acquired SOME of what I needed but did not have time for everything), and then got some takeout to eat at Christine's house. We also watched "It's Complicated."
Monday morning, I hung out with Jean at a Middle Eastern cafe and did some of the NYT crossword puzzle (Mondays are easy).
Then I went out to Westboro to visit with Cat. Anthony came along for sushi, and then we had planned to buy some groceries, get pedicures, and make some delicious food. But somehow we wound up hanging around at their house looking at pictures of space-saving furniture...kinda cool, though I would have preferred pedicures and cooking. Alas.
Monday was Liz's birthday, so we went to this great Italian place in Medford with Jean and Max. I ordered gnocchi with chicken, AND they had my favorite wine: Da Vinci chianti! I was terribly happy.
Tuesday, I was supposed to pick up David from JFK airport, which, yes, is in New York. It was a doomed trip from the beginning. There was a snow storm the first day (Tuesday), so all the buses after the one I was on were canceled. We stopped at a rest stop so the driver from NYC could switch with the driver from Boston, so they would not get stranded in the wrong cities. Well, when I got off the bus, I slipped on the ice and cut my hand. So, I was bleeding for the next three days. Charming.
Then, since getting to JFK seemed extremely complicated, I decided to take a taxi, which I figured could not possibly cost more than $20 since the bus ride ALL THE WAY from Boston was $15. Nope. I was wrong. A taxi to JFK is $50 before tip. I nearly cried.
The friend I was supposed to stay with was very sick, and the friend David was supposed to stay with had sprained his ankle and was on crutches. So, we decided to stay at a hotel.
BAD IDEA.
The hotel double-charged us for the rooms, refusing to acknowledge the online reservation that my sister had made. We are still working on disputing the charges. They were extremely rude and lied to us several times about it, also.
David realized that I suck at arguing, even if it is in English. Fortunately, my sister is awesome at arguing, even at 6 AM when I call her to ask for help. Thanks, Liz.
David had the worst jet lag I've ever seen. The first night, we just had dinner and fell asleep afterwards. The next morning, we tried to go on our Statue of Liberty cruise, but there was an ice storm, so it was canceled. So, we had breakfast, and took the Staten Island Ferry instead, got a few hazy pictures, but that was it. We decided to hang out at Staten Island for a half hour. Nothing much was open though. We did find the Staten Island Museum, though, which was all right.
We were supposed to take the bus back to Boston in the afternoon, but that was canceled too. So we went to Port Authority to try and book bus tickets for the next morning, but the customer service representative seemed pretty doubtful that there would be buses running even then. We wound up taking the Amtrak train instead.
The world was pretty much one big slush puddle, so my boots were soaked through the first time I stepped in the wrong place. David, who is basically my hero in life, bought me new, waterproof boots.
Then we went back to the hotel to try and sort out the billing disaster, which didn't work, but at least we were able to go back to our rooms and take naps. By the time we woke up, at 6 PM, I had not eaten in nine hours and I was hungry enough to eat my pillow. We couldn't find an Italian restaurant, but we ate at an Irish pub.
Then we tried to go to the Wollman Ice Rink, which was featured in Serendipity, one of our mutual favorite movies. But that was closed too!
So we gave up on New York City and went back to the hotel to sleep. The next morning, the billing idiocy still hadn't been resolved, but they said we could settle our bill later. So, we went to Penn Station and got on our train, which was only late by 30 minutes, and which, thank heavens, had a dining car, because we sure didn't have time to get breakfast.
Back in Boston, Liz picked us up at Davis, and made us rice, lamb curry, and kimchi, which I was pretty sure David was craving by then.
Then we went to meet my parents. It was David's first time. We made lasagna and garlic bread, and David and I talked with my parents. David asked for formal permission to get married, and my parents very enthusiastically agreed. Of course, it will be hard to live so far away, but I think my new job will give me more of a chance to visit.
The next day, we did a tour of Boston: Boston Common, the Public Gardens, Quincy Market, Harvard Campus, L.A. Burdick and the Harvard Coop, then to Johnny D's in Davis for David's birthday event. So many people came out, it was amazing! My sisters all made it (my brother's schedule was too tight, so he couldn't, but we skyped later), Max, Matt, Jill and SARAH BETH whom I have not seen in about four years, GINO who also happened to be in town, and Anthony came out.
It was so amazing and fortunate that all those people were able to come. The bands that were playing at Johnny D's were also good, so we had a really nice time, and since we came out crazy early, we didn't have to pay cover. We were there for about five hours.
David's plane was supposed to leave Boston at 5:30 AM, and mine was supposed to leave at 9. But fortunately, Delta's ground staff helped us a lot, and we were able to get on the same plane and also sit together.
I couldn't sleep on the plane, though. But luckily our flight got in early enough that I got home by 7:30 and was able to sleep for twelve hours, have breakfast, and go to the doctor's office (apparently I have chronic sinusitis, so it's not really going to go away. Oh well).
And work, well, it's not so bad. I just hope I can get my visa okay.