Travel agents

There is a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction every time I book a trip. I like having my ticket or a receipt of my ticket in my hand, it gives that extra bit of assurance that I really am going somewhere. Now I do most of my research for my trips about 1 year in advance or 6 months at the very least. There are plenty of resources available to a person going on a trip. The internet is your biggest source with travelogues, blogs, sites like tripadvisor.com or expedia.com famous travel websites like fodors.com or frommers.com also the Travel Channel's website is a great resource to use. There are travel magazines, books, travel agents and people who have gone to the place you visit

Now I have used various methods of booking a trip before but I must say that my travel agent has been the best way to book at trip. I'm sure you have heard plenty of myths about booking and doing it yourself to save money. But my thing is . . .why bother with the hassle if you have someone else that can take care of it. Now the key in booking with a travel agent is finding a good agent. One of the best ways to do that is my word of mouth, this is how I found my travel agent. A co-worker recommended this travel agency and Linda is who I ended up working with, that was over three years ago and now for my major trips I use her. The thing is you need to find someone you are comfortable with, who listens to what you want and need and who works with you. It is just like choosing a hairdresser, you don't just pay them for their service they become one of your friends. I do research on my trips and then pass the information along to Linda, she does research on her end with the resources she has and I end up making the final decision based on a wide array of information. Look into www.travelstoreusa.com that is the company my travel agent works with and see if there is an office nearby. Go in meet with the agents and talk to them, get a feel for them and then use them as a resource. IF you lived in Sacrament I would highly recommend my travel agent, Linda. :-)

As of now she helped me book my next trip in November. I used Linda to book both of my trips to Hawaii, my trip to Paris and now South-east Asia.

Friendships

As I visited BJU and met up with some friends living in town it made me realized how varied my friendships were. I mean there was the fun loving Society guys-Phi Beta Bulldogs like Joey. Then there was the Science Building people like J.God, "Bob" and Peter who have these idiosyncrasies which makes them fascinating. Also you have the most unpredictable people like your new roommates every year and you never know who you get along with the people in the prayer group. I've been blessed to have been able to keep in touch with most of my former roommates and for the most part they were all very nice girls whom I've developed a friendships with like KB, Beth, and Ratchet. I think only the roommates my Junior year were the one's I never really befriended. We were total opposites then, I mean talk about a room that has four people exhibiting the four temperaments! Now if you've watched Under the Tuscan Sun, there is this one line that stuck in my mind. " You have to live spherically, in many directions." And if you look at my Christmas Card list, you will notice a variety of people from around the country working in various fields. But I digress...going back and seeing some of my friends who live in the area after five years was great.

Joey was still himself and marriage life didn't change him too much. His wife is so perfect for him and they balance each other out, she loves to laugh. Joey was telling stories about the guys side and all throughout dinner we were laughing. Darla was the same as ever, so sweet and with a big heart. She loves her kids, her ministry in West Greenville, and is kept busy with all her various activities. Beth was still full of energy and married life has been good for her. She has a good head on her shoulder. It was also great to see Laura again. I was pleasantly surprised that she is now a dorm supervisor but then she has the patience and heart for all those girls. And then there is J.God. . .whom I've managed to keep in touch with since graduation through e-mails, AIM and leaving plenty of voicemail on his cell phone so that he will eventually answer. Darla and I got to see him in his environment at Clemson. Well I hope you enjoy the pictures.

BJU pictures

I have been on campus at least once a day since I got here. So here is a collection of some of the shots I took around campus these past two days.

Eleanor's Wedding

Today was Eleanor Callison's wedding day. The main reason why I arrived in Greenville before my mother and brother. But before that Darla and I ran some errands on campus. One of the girls from my prayer group is now a Dorm Supervisor in Margaret Mack (according to the kind guy who helped us at Bellis Copy center where Darla had some laminating done). But when we stopped by she wasn't there, however I did get to see Miss Sarah. This lady is one of BJ's school fixtures, she has been working at the school when I came and it was lovely to see her again.

Eleanor's wedding can be summed up in one word: simple. There was hardly any decorations and we were there for only 50 minutes. (Of course we didn't see them cut the cake or throw the bouquet!) But it was short and simple, Eleanor's grandfather married them. Their wedding day was also the same day as Eleanor's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. So the grandpa was pretty emotional. There were only 4 bridesmaids and then the bride walked down the aisle. A nice sweet message about the meaning of marriage, ring exchange, signing of the wedding license and then the kiss. Boom! They were hitched. Short and sweet.

For dinner we met up with God, who is still the same crazy person. I forgot how tall he was but he wouldn't let me forget it. I took him and Darla out for dinner to celebrate his 30th birthday at Outback steakhouse. Then I went with Darla to her church and met all the wonderful people she has been telling me about. I also got to see her classroom. After church we wandered around downtown and ended up at Marble Slab. I had parked the car down by the Reedy river area and it was at least a 5 block walk up to Marble Slab. But as Darla pointed out, we walked off the calories we just ate from the ice cream going back to our car. All in all a nice pleasant day.

Back in Greenville

I must say my first impression of coming back was being hit in the face with the thick humidity and then I thought “the airport hasn’t changed”. In Houston you still had to go to that small round terminal for small “express” planes and in Greenville they still had that same ugly carpet in that weird geometrical pattern and that glass partition wall as you go down stairs. My flight was early going into Houston and then it got delayed leaving Houston for Greenville. But that worked out well because Darla had a class and wasn’t sure she would be there to greet me so the delay was nice because she was right there as I got out of the passenger area only. They did make a few changes like a new parking garage but that was all I noticed for the airport on the way into town was another matter. There were more stores and buildings and people learned how to use the merge lanes. I still recall being close getting involved in an accident as people would stop in the merge lane and let traffic pass until it was “clear” to get into the lane. Instead of being an offensive driver like I was used to being from California you had to be defensive. One major change was the front of campus is done and they definitely improved it for the better. Tomorrow Darla and I will wander around campus in the morning and I’ll take plenty of pictures the. I did see the Public Safety people and it made me chuckle.

Darla looked the same and her family was as gracious as ever. We met with Mr. and Mrs. Roue and Galen for dinner at Olive Garden and did the “Italian thing” where we sat around the table and talked over a delicious meal. I had forgotten that here in the South you had an option of sitting in the smoking or non-smoking area. Another reason why living in California has so spoiled me (besides the weather). Smoking inside an eating facility was abolished a few years ago in California. It’s all about that whole “healthy Californians are happy people” thing we have going on. Galen certainly changed from when I last saw him, of course he was still in high-school then. He now has earrings and a goatee. Fortunately Mr. and Mrs. Roue were still the same and they told me about their experience in China. It made me want to go! Darla and I stayed up watching Discovery Atlas: Australia on my computer while trying to figure out how to get to the church for the wedding tomorrow. Finally we gave up and decided to just find a place where we can hook up my laptop to a wireless network and go from there.

Family Game Night

Have you seen those commerical encouraging people to have a family game night? Or spend more time talking over dinner at the table? Well tonight we had our family game night. My dad doesn't play games, it is just not his "thing". But he does sit with us while we play and talk. I challenged my mom and my brother to scrabble. My mom is very good at this game, when I was little I used to think she memorized the dictionary since she knew all these words that would earn her a triple word score. The last time we played scrabble my brother beat me and my mom didn't play since she was helping us both. Trying to be neutral. But tonight . . .I finally beat my mother in scrabble!
It is a nice feeling of accomplishment that covers this, even if it is just a game. But this will be the last family game night with my brother fora while. He is leaving for college next week and won't be home until Christmas break. So this is another nice memory for him and for us too.

IKEA

I took a friend to IKEA today. She had never been there before and just got a new house. Now if you have never been to an IKEA store before, you should know that it is huge! It is like this warehouse but you don't feel like you're in a warehouse because they set it up so that there is a variety of rooms. It is like being in several different houses. They showcase different rooms in the house filled with items you can order in the store or online. They have a living room area where they put together several living rooms using the IKEA furniture. Then there is the kitchen area, which I love to walk throug and see the different styles and new items they have for the kitchen. After that you walk through the bedrooms, some of which have bathrooms attached with more things to see and possibilites. Downstairs they have all the small accessories including lights. Now I used to think that lights were just bulbs you put in a lamp or overhead. No, when you visit this store the whole "lights" concept is totally different. You have wall art lights, funky ceiling lights, modern lamps and all sorts of small lights that you can hide to add emphasis on certain objects or decor. Then there is the art/pictures area. This place always gives me ideas on what to do with the travel pictures I take. I saw this picture of the Eiffel Tower that they blew up to about 4 ft by 4 ft size, and I realized that I had a similar picture I took when I was in Paris. So you can create a totally modern room filled with your own individual taste at reasonable prices from stuff you find at IKEA. Normally I only spend about two hours max in this store, but I didn't count on my friend's indecisivness. By the time we left, it was four hours and my feet are aching. They need to add more benches in the store though. But overall the day was good, just hanging out with a friend and getting ideas for my house that I shall someday have. =)

The Importance of Toliets in trip planning

I've been thinking and planning about my up coming trip to Southeast Asia this Winter. One of the things I learned from my trip in Paris was that where you went depended on the availability of a toilet nearby! At first I began planning my day by what I wanted to see but at the end of the first day that idea was crossed off. It was all on where the nearest bathroom was and if it was clean. Afterall you don't want to get stuck in some strange scary neighborhood needing to use the facilities and yet all you have is a few shady bars. The look of the place will deterimine the sanitariness of its bathroom. Museums and office buildings will most likely have nice clean bathrooms, while you take a risk at the public bathrooms in park areas. I did find that the bathrooms in the Jardin Tuillieries were some of the cleaneset I've been too.

My experience with bathrooms in Asia is very limited to what the Philippines had to offer. It ranged from the hotels which had a western style bathroom with the ability to flush your toilet paper down to an outhouse with a hole in the middle and a place to put your legs but no toilet paper (so you have to be creative and find a new use for the tree leaf or whatever you have on you!). But I googled 'toliets around the world' and found this great website:
http://www.thebathroomdiaries.com/search.html

I suggest you check it out! =)

Woman Equation

My Travels

As I get ready for my up coming trip back to my alma matter, I was going through some pictures. They reminded me of all the places I've been to since I graduated. Amazing how time flies! A year after I got my job, I went to Italy with Allison. The following year I finally made it back to the Philippines where we celebrated my parent's 25th wedding anniversary. Then I met up with Allison and Rachet to go visit Hawaii and the Big Island. And last year I was in Paris. So I put together the pictures from my travels and put together a slide show. It made me realized how blessed I am!