Merry Christmas!

This year we stayed in LA for Christmas and got to spend some quality time with family. Christmas Eve we were in Woodland Hills with my dad and most of Julie's family - Susan was an excellent hostess! It was just the two of us on Christmas morning and then we headed up to Palos Verdes for Christmas dinner at Auntie Linda's place - another fantastic hostess! Aaron and I are sporting our new scarves in this photo. More from Christmas dinner are here.

Santa Monica Mountains

Yesterday afternoon Aaron, Minh (friend from Austin who was visiting) and I headed to the Santa Monica Mountains for a hike. The weather was perfect - sunny with a chill in the air. I somehow missed one of the turns and we ended up scaling the canyon rather than the nice stroll we had envisioned. After about 45 mins of a nearly vertical climb through a very poorly cleared 'path', we made it to the top and enjoyed the views of the entire LA basin. We only had to trade 2 pairs of sunglasses, a torn shirt, and a torn pair of pants for our safety. Luckily we didn't have to come down the same way we went up.

Secret Date

This evening I treated Aaron to a 'secret date.' A few weeks ago I had seen a poster for an L.A. Unfolded exhibit at the Central Library. It was showcasing old maps of LA... exactly right up his alley. Rather than telling him any details about it I simply told him to be ready at 3:30 on Dec 20. I was taking my man out! He treats me to many surprises - which I love - so it's about time I returned the favor.

I fed him hints on the bus ride downtown (whoa - bus riders in LA on a weekend - whoa) and I think he was pleased once he figured it out. The exhibit was pretty interesting. Maps dated back to when the city was first being formed. I got a kick reading the insurance map that detailed the names and occupations of each of the home owners through the streets of historic downtown.

The gallery viewing was followed by dinner at McCormick's (AAFA auction prize) in the US Bank tower across the street. We caught the bus home and were surprised to see the same driver who brought us downtown. He recognized us, too, which was fun.

I don't really consider myself an Angelino, even though I've lived here for the past 4 years, but this evening brought me a little closer to admitting it. I'm a bus riding, public library patron with a bit of historical perspective and a little bit more room in my heart for this place called La La Land.

4:00 am does exist

Just in case anyone was wondering, 4:00 am does in fact exist. Aaron and I checked this morning - that's what time we woke up to get places in time for the Long Beach Bay Series this morning. That's right, I have started rowing again!

A month or two ago, in search for a 'new' hobby/exercise routine, I found that the UCLA recreation center offers skulling classes and rentals - even to non students/alumni - for a decent price. On my 4th and last class I learned that there were efforts to put together a masters program out of the Marina Aquatic Center where the UCLA classes were taking place. BTW, 'masters' is in no way an indication of skill level, it just lets everyone know that you're past college.

So, 7 years since my days rowing with Beach Crew (check them out, they look all professional now - website and all) and I find myself on a four in Long Beach for a race. It was so fun to be down at the Long Beach boathouse - I saw a few familiar faces, though not as many as I was hoping. A special thank you to Kelley for getting out of bed at an unreasonable hour to watch us pass in front of her apartment!

All said and done I think our boat did pretty well this morning. The other ladies are much better than I am but I'm not beating myself up over it. I figure once I have more than oh, 3 weeks of 'training' under my belt that I will get up to speed and feel like a better contributor to the team.

Cookies and a Gingerbread House

Each year Kelley, Rosemary, and I get together and decorate Christmas cookies. Of course it's really just an excuse to catch up on gossip, get into the Christmas spirit, and eat some yummy sweets. The guys haven't put up too much of a fight for the past couple of years - I think the trick is that we don't stop them from making anatomically correct gingerbread ladies!

Also, a Nan Schneider tradition is to put together a gingerbread house with her kids - yes, even at 29 and 32 years old we are still 'kids' (Beth is there too, but I won't share her age). This year our kit included a cool tree and red frosting - fun!

Thanksgiving in Portland

We were in Portland for Harvest Festival (aka Thanksgiving) with all of the Oregonian relatives. We mostly spent our time just enjoying being together and playing with the kids. They are so much fun! As Aaron put it, "you can toss Carson around and try to tire him out as much as you want and he keeps coming back for more." And little miss Hadley was just too cute for words. Such a well behaved little one. She hardly ever fussed or cried.

Friday night was guys-night-out and the four older boys went to the Blazer's game at the Rose Garden. Aaron reported that the Blazers fans are *way* cooler than the Laker's fans. They are there to actually root on their team, not just to see and be seen. Don't get me wrong here though, he's definitely a Laker fan still!

Saturday we had brunch with my first boyfriend (from 5th grade) who I haven't seen in at least 10 years. And then we all went to the Christmas tree farm followed Greek food (a Drews family tradition).

Another excellent week with family!

Warrenton, OR

Aaron and I went to Oregon for the week of Thanksgiving and decided to spend some of our time in Warrenton with my brother Nate and his wife Amanda. Highlights of the visit included exploring the Maritime Museum, trying to rent Goonies but settling for Wall-E, and bowling at the local lanes. It was so nice to spend some quality time with them and even better that the weather worked out so nicely for us!

AAFA Ball

Each year the Schneider family attends the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America's Breath of Life Ball. Grandpa Shel, a retired allergist, founded the non-profit organization back in the day and continues to be a big supporter. This year was especially fun because Aaron and I were actually serious contenders in one of the live auction items. We were the second to the last bidders on a weekend in Aspen at the St. Regis.

You'll notice at the end of the photo show that there is a picture of me with Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She was one of the honorees this year (along with two other Olympic medalists who suffer from asthma). I was too intimidated to ask for her photo until just at the last minute when we were waiting in the valet line. She had already changed into her street clothes and was on the way to the airport. She didn't really wear a track suit to the ball!

Clipper's game!

After a completely random turn of events that involve a Clipper's cheerleader who is a friend of Aaron's, lunch with one of my friends, and a Deloitte partner who is in Korea.... we ended up with 4 free 10th row center court Clipper's tickets! My friends Joe and Iman were able to join us. This photo was taken in the Staples Center lobby as a promotion by AT&T before the game. Good times!

McCabe's Guitar Shop

This weekend we got together with our good friends Kelley, Rosemary, Zach, and Andy. It was so warm outside that we bbq'd and ate dinner in the back - never mind the small bits of ash from the wildfires that fell as we ate. After dinner we explored a Santa Monica institution and went for a concert at McCabe's Guitar Shop. For the past 50 years, this shop on Pico Ave (blocks from our place) has been selling guitars and hosting concerts in it's back room. Such a fun spot!

U-C-L-A!

This weekend Aaron and I were treated to a UCLA football game by my friend Nancy. She works there so with the annual faculty/staff appreciation day she scored a huge group of her friends free tickets and food. We were three rows from the field at about the 20 yard line - Aaron was in heaven! I had a great time too, though a little disappointed with the 1/2 time show. They had alumni band members join them on the field, which meant for pretty much no movement. It was cool though that they honored the UCLA students/grads who competed in the Olympics this year; some were wearing medals that they won.

Tom's Shoes

One of the nice things about working for Deloitte is that they are pretty big on volunteerism and community involvement. In addition to cash donations they give time as well. One example was yesterday's internal networking evening where the guest speakers were from United Way, Community Coalition for South LA, and the founder of Toms Shoes.

Though rather than writing about the impact these guys are making (each are doing great things - check out their websites) I really wanted to show off my free shoes! We were meant to decorate them to reflect something about ourselves. I had some fabric with stylized images of plants and flowers and got some special fabric glue to put it on. Voila!

PS - Happy Halloween!

Fall crops at the Schneider farm

This weekend Aaron and I finally got around to taking out the corn from our raised garden bed which made room for some new crops. We went to the Yamaguchi nursery for the first time and it's now officially our nursery of choice. They had a great selection, everything was in great condition, amazingly low prices, and best part of all.... owned by our neighbor across the street! I can't believe we've been pumping money into the chain store Armstrong's this whole time when we could have been supporting our neighbor.

Rather than planting from seed like we had done with our summer crops, we went with starter plants since we have waited until pretty late in the fall season to get going. We chose broccoli, sugar snap peas, lettuce, and green onions. With temperatures expected to be in the 90's this week you could have fooled me that it's actually fall here. So I'm hopeful that we have a long growing season ahead of us.

Also, say hello to our squirrel friend who watched us work today. He and his buddies hang out in our backyard with Alex. Alex certainly notices when they are around, but they must have worked out some sort of agreement because Alex doesn't chase them away. They try to help us with our planting, too - today when I was digging to put in the broccoli I found a fruit item clearly "planted" by the squirrel. It had his teeth marks in it and we matched it to the fruit that came from neighbor Dave's tree. I've found loads of peanuts throughout the yard, too. Someone on the street must be giving them peanuts.

Visit from Lisa

One of my very best friends, Lisa, has recently taken a new job and had some time in between. Since we live on opposite coasts we don't get to see each other as often as we like, so she took advantage of the free time and came to visit for a week!

I took the day off Friday and we planted some sweet peas in the backyard, relaxed for a while, went shopping, stopped at LACMA for a jazz show, and then had dinner at home with Aaron.

Saturday we met up with my in-laws for brunch, walked the Venice Canals, shopped Abbott Kinney, had dinner with our friend Darren, and bon-fired in our backyard.

Sunday we ventured down to Orange County and hung out with my friends Kelley & Rosemary and then to Lisa's family friend's Tim & Janie.

The rest of Lisa's visit included a little bit more downtime for her since Aaron and I both worked. I worked from home a little and also took Lisa downtown to see my office. She ventured by bus to see more of Santa Monica during the day and we all just hung out at night.

It was *such* a pleasure to have her here for the week! Check out more of the beautiful photos Lisa took while she was here.

Halfway to Halloween^2 (Aaron)

We haven't had a house party in a while, so we scrubbed the place down and invited everyone over. I'm a big fan of giving people a theme for parties, so we recycled an old idea we had a few years ago called Halfway to Halloween. From the invite time to the party is approximately halfway to Halloween, so the idea is to ask people to wear half of a costume. It's a great ice breaker to get the conversation going.

Everyone who came really put in a lot of work in their costumes and made the evening very fun. Julie and I went all out - if you're not going to do it right for a party at your own house, when will you? We were the best of both worlds, and split the girl and guy right down the middle. :) Darren, of course, bucked the trend and had a real half-assed costume, and Shac, who flew down from NorCal, was definitely in costume - he had hair!

I also enjoyed Shagma and Velgy (Scooby Doo's Shaggy and Velma, but Kelley and Zach mixed up the bottoms and Zach wore a mini skirt all night!), the Rock Band characters in real life (emo all the way!), the sign twirlers, Princess Peach and Mario, the referees, the half army guy, 60's girl, the football and basketball players, Minnie Mouse, the porn stars, and the people in various stages of undress (nice!).

Hope to see everyone again soon.

Quick trip to San Diego

This past weekend Aaron played in a volleyball tournament in San Diego, so we made a quick trip down south. We got to stay with my Aunt and Uncle which was great - it had been so long since I'd been to their place that I didn't even recognize it! They fixed a great meal and we caught up over a glass of wine. More photos from the tournament are here.

We came back Saturday evening after Aaron was done with volleyball so that we could go watch our friend Minh's band, More Cowbell, at the Viper Room in Hollywood. He rocked!! I was really impressed with how well they did - especially considering they all have day jobs and this is just one of their 'hobbies.'

Redondo Beach volleyball with the Lakers (Aaron)

I just wanted to share my Saturday morning with you. My friends and I are playing in a little beach volleyball tournament next weekend. Now, I know that it's not typical to "practice" for a dress-up-and-drink tournament, but we wanted to take advantage of the early fall good weather and play a little beach ball. We all agreed to meet over at Knob Hill in Redondo Beach. I arrived and we had a good size group there to play.

I'm warming up and I see this EXTREMELY tall man meandering down the stairs to the beach. He's got a scraggly beard and there's another guy with him, and I'm thinking, "Hey, wait a minute... Holy crap, is that Pau Gasol? Whoa! Cool!" And then he and his buddy get to the bottom of the stairs, and they start walking toward us. (Whoa!) And then they started warming up with us!

We played beach volleyball with the Lakers' star center Pau Gasol and his buddy, feisty 3 point specialist, the Machine, Sasha Vujacic! It turns out that Sasha lives in the building nearby, and that Pau is building his house nearby. They were both really cool and were eager to have some fun scrimmaging with us.

Both players are definitely basketball players first, and the team we were scrimmaging against was clearly not as good as our team. Pau just stayed up front in the middle all the time, and Sasha wanted to set. Our team played its usual rotations.

Let me tell you, it is very intimidating to line up across a 7 foot basketball star. That was the first rotation of the game, and I went up and blocked his first hit. :) (As I said, basketball is definitely his first love.) We played 4 games, and we went up against each other many times. As the day went along, he blocked a few of my hits and I got some more of his too.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera or my phone anywhere nearby, so no pics, but it was definitely a highlight of my extended summer!

UPDATE: I was emailing with the guys after the day...
Me: Dude, I can't even come up with anything clever to express how cool it was that we were playing vball with Pau and Sasha. It's a little intimidating to line up across an NBA all-star center! Hopefully, none of the other teams will have Chris Kaman on their teams this weekend.

Justin: I think there was one rally where Aaron blocked Pau 3 times in a row. Each time, Pau threw out some awesome random profanity. F-ing Hilarious.
Good times. Wish I could have stayed longer.

Humanitarian Day

For the past little while Aaron and I have talked about volunteering more and giving back. We also recently both read The Soloist by Steve Lopez - an excellent book that draws attention to the homeless problem in LA (a movie is coming out soon, too). So when I got an email through work looking for volunteers to help with Humanitarian Day distributing items to the needy on skid row, it struck me as something we should consider. Aaron was game, so we went for it. It turns out that the day was organized by the Islamic Society of Irvine which meant two things: 1) we were definitely in the minority, and 2) they weren't serving the volunteers lunch since it is Ramadan and Muslims are fasting.

Aaron and I volunteered to help with surveys. After the homeless went through the 'fair' and collected their items we asked them questions about if they liked the event, which of the items we offered they needed the most (most said the blanket, second place was the hygiene kit), how long they've been homeless, etc, etc. We got a little insight into the lives of these people who certainly do not have it very easy. Some were just released from prison, others were addicts, many just said they simply couldn't get or hold down a job.

Asking these folks all these questions really just opened up others in my mind. Had they simply drawn a bad hand in life or were they wreck less and careless? Did they not have a good family to take care of them? Would that make a difference? Is there any hope for them to get their lives on track?

At least we helped meet some of their basic needs. And every single person I talked to was sooooooo appreciative. So, we did make a very small difference and I feel pretty good about that.

2 Years

Yesterday Aaron and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary - keeping it relatively low key. We exchanged gifts and ate a candle-lit picnic on our 'grass' in our backyard. Aaron planned it all out and kept it a surprise. With the hints he gave me (I always ask for a million hints when he has a surprise up his sleeves) I thought we were going for a picnic in the mountains where he proposed. So, I was half right with the picnic part. :)

I received flowers at work, too. Here's how our conversation went once I received them (paraphrasing, not word for word):

Julie: "Aaron, thank you so much for the flowers! They are beautiful."
Aaron: "Uhhhh, did a card come with those flowers?"
Julie: "Oh, yeah, I guess so... I didn't even look. Why?"
Aaron: "Because I didn't send you flowers and I'm wondering who did!"
Julie: "Hilarious! Let me open the card."
(finds and opens card)
"No way! Such ironic timing! These are from my new Director at work welcoming me to the team!"

Okay, so I'm clearly not trying to become a movie writer... as that dialogue is pretty crap. But you get the gist of it. So, yes, I haven't posted anything about it yet but I have a new job at Deloitte. Same company as before... still in marketing... but now on the national team rather than the regional team. Good times! Here's a low quality photo taken with my cell phone.

Mini Monache High School reunion

I know not everyone is into the whole Facebook and Myspace thing. And I get it - I'm not exactly a heavy user. But a couple of weeks ago I found a couple of long lost friends from high school online. And it turns out that they live within walking distance to me! So bizarre! So, over the weekend we had them over for brunch along with another friend who happened to be in town from Sacramento. It was fun to catch up and I hope we all get together again soon.

H-O-R-S-E

On Monday evening Aaron and I played what I imagine is the first of *many* games of H-O-R-S-E on our new basketball hoop. Our awesome friend Darren helped put it up.

Bad photo but great concert!

Aaron and I went to the Jack Johnson concert with a couple of friends last night. We didn't bring our camera so this is the best photo I've got - taken from my camera phone, which is clearly NOT meant for nighttime use. Jack Johnson holds a special place in our hearts because not only is he awesome but we chose one of his songs for our first dance at our wedding - Better Together. It's not one of his better known songs so I wasn't surprised that he went through the whole show without playing it, but I was a little bummed. Ah, but not to worry! He returned to stage for what turned out to be a 3-song encore and played our song as the very last one.

Long weekend in Portland

This past weekend Aaron and I were up in Portland to meet baby Hadley for the first time. We got in lots of Carson-time, fit in an overnight trip to the coast, saw Nate & Amanda's home for the first time since they were official owners, and simply hung out with my mom, brothers, and sisters-in-law as much as we could.

Little Hadley was totally precious - slept like an angel for hours and hours. She did exactly what a 6 week old is meant to do: sleep, eat, and poo. But she was extra cute doing it!

We brought Carson a remote control car that was left over from the PhatNoise SWAG room. Aaron kept hoping Carson would call it 'PhatNoise Car' but it stayed known as 'gray car.'

At the beach we went for walks, played in the sand, did a little window shopping on the main street, stopped for ice-cream, and made a bon-fire to roast hot dogs and make s'mores.

It was nice to take such a long weekend. Thank you to Deloitte for sending me to Phoenix so much this past year - Aaron and I were able to use two free flights to get to Oregon!

New Patio!

We had a stamped/colored concrete patio put in earlier this month and were so excited to make full use of it, so on Sunday we had most of the southern California contingent of family over for brunch on Sunday. About 20 people - parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins all made their way and shared some good food. It was nice to see everyone and catch up a little. Oh, and we celebrated my birthday some more. :) Sorry, no photos from the brunch, but here are some of the patio being installed.

The cane

Sunday morning an older woman came to our door asking if she could please have some of the oranges from our tree in the backyard. She knew some of the previous owners and apparently had come often to harvest oranges in years past. Aaron and I thought it was a little strange but being nice people we agreed and she met Aaron around back. Plus there is no way we would be able to eat all of them. I was in my robe still (it was early and it was my birthday so I didn't have to get dressed early if I didn't want to!) so I didn't go outside to meet her. But after our bike ride that afternoon I noticed that she had left her cane propped against the tree.

Two days later and she hadn't come back for it yet so I decided I would play detective and put together the few clues that I knew about her (she lived on Wellsley, was shorter, older, and carried a cane) and try to find the owner. Plus this gave me the excuse to meet some of our neighbors! Aaron and I are terrible in that we barely know anyone around us. With our recent backyard work we have gotten to know Dave who lives directly behind us but he's pretty much it. So, here's who I met this evening:

1) I finally got to put a face to the owner of the coveted house on the corner. I've admired it when I go past (great landscaping, well kept home, awesome red door, entertaining patio out back with twinkle lights) and wondered who lives there. Turns out to be a relatively short, thin, married guy. Didn't meet his wife - but being the sleuth that I am, I noticed his wedding band. Probably about our age and as I suspected (based on the coolness of his home) he seemed to be the kind of person we would hang out with.

2) An older Japanese man had just left his house to take his dog for a walk so I intercepted and asked him about the street. He didn't know anyone of the description in the 1700 block so he suggested I go down a block and try in the 1600's. He seemed to know most everyone as he described the various families on his block.

3) An older Romanian woman (shoot - I've already forgotten her name) who worked at UCLA for 24 years, speaks 7 languages, has a son who is married - Detective Julie noticed his wedding photo on the table - and is a ob/gyn. She had taken a fall 6 months ago so she couldn't come to the door but invited me in. I was greeted with something like "Oh! Such beauty! Please, come in sit down and visit." I politely accepted all of her compliments (duh, who wouldn't!) and in exchange I sat and talked with her for about 15 minutes. She kept knocking on wood for good luck and sweetly reminded me that Romania is Dracula's country. She was sharp (I heard several of the 7 languages she spoke) but did end up repeating herself and asking me the same questions. Where did I live, where am I from, what is my name, why did I have a cane with me? She made me promise that I would come again to visit and that if I did she would teach me whichever language I wanted to learn. Considering the joy I brought her with just a few minutes of my time, I think I might.

4) I skipped the door that had a note taped to it saying "Please do not knock, children are napping."

5) Someone who appeared to be the housekeeper or nanny and politely said it didn't belong to anyone in that house.

6) A middle aged woman who had been watching the Olympics was pleased to meet me but didn't know anyone that fit the description I was looking for.

7) And ah-hah! A man who I would guess was 55 or 60 (with really bad teeth) was smoking on his porch. I crossed the street and asked him if he knew who might own the cane and he smiled and said it was his mothers. He couldn't believe I would be so nice to go door to door to find her and he asked if I would like to see her. So into their home I went (they must have lived there forever - it was crazy in there) and back to her bedroom where she came to the door and was so grateful! She could obviously move around without her cane - after all, she did get home somehow on Sunday - but was so glad that I brought it back. Her son said that they have been enjoying the oranges and that he squeezes one for her each day. They offered to have me stay for some tea, but I declined so they walked me to the door and chatted with me on their porch for a while. They are from Egypt and told me that Aaron's name means that he must be rich - that if you wanted to compliment someone about being wealthy you called them Aaron. Something about how his room is all made of gold. I'll ask my friend Catherine at work who is also from Egypt about that folklore.

Anyway, all of this took about 45 minutes of my time this evening. As I walked home I felt really good about myself and the good deed I had just done. I don't imagine that I'll have another excuse of being able to bring a cane door to door, but I would like to continue to get to know our neighbors.

Birthday weekend

This weekend I celebrated my 29th birthday. On Saturday night we went to the Hollywood Bowl with some friends and saw LA Phil's version of Les Mis. There was a lot more action on stage than I thought there would be considering it was the 'in concert' version. Everyone was in full costume and they acted out all the scenes as though we were in a regular theater but some songs were shortened and the dialogue was cut out.

Today I slept in a little and when I woke Aaron made me breakfast. We went for a bike ride around Santa Monica with our friend Darren and stopped for a picnic lunch. This evening Aaron and I went to my favorite local pizza spot - Pit Fire.

Thank you to everyone who has wished me a happy day - I have certainly had one!

Booze + costumes + beach volleyball = 6-man!

Each year during the first weekend of August, Manhattan Beach hosts the International Surf Festival and for the past several years Aaron has played in the volleyball tournament. Eighty women's teams and eighty men's teams all choose a theme, drink a couple of cocktails (hidden in Gatorade bottles - shhhhhhh), and try to play some volleyball. Actually, the level of play is very high... most of the teams who go to the second day have AVP or ex-collegiate players.

This year Aaron was on "Team Hot Rod" themed after the movie. They rocked and made it to the second day! Click here for more photos.

Lots-o-photos

Click here to see all of our photos from our trip! Captions have been added to many of them, too.

First harvest!

This past weekend I pulled the first of what I hope to be *many* pieces of vegetables from our garden. A couple of gorgeous zucchini, a yellow squash, and some yellow pear tomatoes. I didn't realize that we had yellow tomatoes - I was waiting for them to turn red. :) I made a zucchini and garbanzo bean salad to bring to our friend Rosemary's new place over the weekend. Was delicious if I say so myself! Check out the size of this one - it's huuuuuuuuuuge!

Book Club

For the past year or year and a half I've been part of a book club. It's girls only and we meet about once every six weeks or so. I like that it more or less forces me to take some time out of my jam packed schedule to read, I've been introduced some really awesome books, and it's been great getting to know this group of ladies.

To share those books with you, I've added my first 'widget' to my blog - from Shelfari.com. As long as I keep it updated, it will show you the books that I have recently read. It's supposed to also include my rating and comments (if I've added any) but I'm not sure that it's working properly.

Let the good times roll!

This week I am at a training in New Orleans for work. It's the first time in pretty much forever that Deloitte has put this kind of investment in their marketing organization and I will say that it feels good. The best part of course is meeting people face to face for the first time - many of these people I have only known by voice through many many phone conversations since we are from all over the US and India. There are about 110 of the 700 here.

Of course the whole time is not spent in session. Last night was a welcome reception and then a few of us from my old role went for drinks on Bourbon Street. This one guy Tom has been to New Orleans plenty (lives in Chicago now, but his wife is from here) so he was more or less our tour guide. Tonight we have a large group dinner and on our way there they have arranged for us to participate in a Second Line - a traditional brass band parade. Looking forward to seeing all my Deloitte colleagues dance!!

Last night in Europe

Our last night in Europe was spent in London, which gave us a chance to see a couple of other friends who we didn't catch on our first night two weeks earlier. I got my old UK mobile phone up and running which made it much easier to try to coordinate. Thursday night we went out for drinks at Occo (Arif & friends local hang out) and late night dinner at Monkey & Me (the only place still open by the time we were ready for dinner, soooo tasty!)...

And Friday morning we went to Roman's flat to visit and meet his son Caspar before heading to the airport to catch out flight. We were sorry to miss Emily as she was at work but Caspar looks just like her!

Home - safe and sound

We made it back to LA this evening... all travels having gone smoothly. Will update the blog with photos and more stories over the weekend. We did arrive home to some fun news - our niece was born! Jason and Amy had Hadley Scout Drews - 6 lbs 3 oz - 19.5 inches. Here's a photo borrowed from their blog - such a sweet pea!

Orphans at camp

This morning was a special morning as we were invited to visit a camp where about 75 orphans spend their summers. For the past two years my dad's organization has been developing a relationship with this particular orphanage and several of the people with us recognized a number of the children from their past visits.

The camp was built in the 1930's and doesn't have many modern amenities but the buildings are in relatively good shape and nicer than what I think many of us expected. Still, the children bring up their water from the well and chop the firewood to keep the cabins heated if needed. The orphanage director explained that she would rather have the orphanage moved out here permanently rather than spending the majority of their year in the city. This was for a couple of reasons: 1) the children seem to behave themselves better while here because they get a lot of exercise and fresh air plus they are further away from the temptations of the city, and 2) this is more relevant to the type of life they will likely live when they 'age out' of the system as they will likely be very poor and not able to afford living in the city.

When we arrived we were greeted with some traditional Latvian snacks and then given a tour of the grounds. The little ones (my guess is ages 2 - 6) were coloring on the porch when we arrived to their cabin. Once they warmed up to us - a process sped up by the offer of American candy that my Aunt Gwen brought - they took us by hand and showed us their toys. Aaron was a massive hit as he let many of them chase him around in the yard!

The older kids (ages 7 - 18) were also enjoying some recreation and we toured their cabin as well. Afterwards they took us to their dining hall and some of the girls performed some Latvian folk songs, the orphanage's anthem, and a popular song. Then the entire group taught us a number of Latvian folk dances - they were simple enough that we could all easily join in the fun.

Aaron and I are the youngest on the tour - by a whole generation - so many were teasing us asking if we were going to adopt 1 or 5(!) of them. Others said that since Aaron was such a hit with the kids that if he wanted to stay behind as one of the directors that I'm sure he would be welcome. :)

It was a bitter sweet experience. Heartbreaking because I of course left thinking about the empty parts of their hearts that only a family can fill. Also a little sweet because they seem to be in good care - the orphanage director certainly sees it as her personal mission to keep these kids well cared for as best possible. Also, the interest and the support that the people from our group are showing to help alter the course of some of these kids lives for the better gives hope. I am certain that there are other children who aren't even as lucky as these to land in such capable and warm hands.

I guess I am a choir nerd

Today was the opening ceremony to the big Latvian Song and Dance Festival. It happens only once every 5 years and is certainly something that you can experience nowhere else. The day started with a parade through town where all of the groups who are participating in the festival wind their way through the streets in their traditional outfits singing and dancing. We watched the beginning of it, visited for a while in the hotel (some of our group's rooms face the street that they walk down), grabbed lunch, walked through the park/festival craft booths, took a nap, went to city hall to meet with some of the orphans who are connected to my dad's program, and left there for a church service around 5:00 pm it was *still* going on. It started at 11:00 am and likely finished around 6:00 or 6:30 - holy CRAP that is a long parade! And some of the spectators watched the entire thing! After the church service with the orphans we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went to the opening ceremony.

For the opening ceremony imagine the Hollywood Bowl outdoor amphitheater but way more massive. Sondra, the city official who has been taking us around, told me before the show began that they just finished remodelling the stage about a week ago and that they were all very nervous that it wasn't going to be ready in time for the big event. Aaron and I estimated that for the beginning songs there were about 3,000 people on stage! A few songs later about 2/3 of the people left the stage and thousands (not exaggerating) of kids ran up on stage for several song and dance numbers where they were also joined by a Latvian pop star. The kids left the stage, others joined back in, and about 2,000 people continued with the singing.

All of the songs and introductions to the songs were of course in Latvian but even though we did not understand the language we were able to appreciate the massive coordination and talent it took to put on such a show. My choir nerd side certainly has come out - I was one of the only that wanted to stay when the group decided to leave at about 11:30 pm. At that point it appeared we were only about 1/2 way through the program and not every one was in it for the long haul.

I found the performers to be so talented and the singing amazing. Even with literally thousands of voices on stage, the clarity of their tone and diction and was so on point that you could understand every syllable and hear the beauty of the music as written exactly by the composers as though it were only a few voices. I don't imagine that I will have the opportunity to hear or experience anything like again that anytime soon.

Latvia!

We made it to Latvia yesterday and found our way easily into town. Our hotel is *right* in the center of everything. Such a beautiful city! It's pretty much what everyone would think a European town to be - cobble stone streets lined with cafes and shops. I'll need to try to make this one short but in case people were wondering what we've been up to I thought I would write in a couple of highlights.

Since our last post in Berlin we went on another bike tour - this one around Potsdam the Prussian palace from days gone by. Huge, old, and beautiful.

Once in Riga we went straight to meet up with the group for dinner. I was surprised to see the Deloitte office just a few blocks down the street. Dinner was at this Disneyland-like place. Games and rides for the kids. Restaurants and live music everywhere. We were up in the second floor of the windmill for a very civilized meal complete with a string quartet providing ambiance. After dinner we made our way to the beer cellar for some dancing and then walked around the grounds.

This morning we went for a trolley ride in a trolley that has been restored from the turn of the century. Ausma our Latvian/American host says that it was brought out of commission just for us! We then had a tour of the Art Neuveou (sp?) architecture by a Latvian student. She brought us up to speed on the style of architecture we were looking at. Afterward we found ourselves at a bread and honey market and stopped for a drink before making our way back to the Old Town for a very leisurely lunch. There is soooooo much live music in the city right now! All for this song festival that happens only once every 5 years. We are so lucky to have entertainment around every corner!

This evening Ausma was able to get very special tickets to a concert in a church that was originally built in the 13th century. Musicians come from all over the world to play here because of the acoustics. There were nearly as many musicians playing as there were audience members! We left the concert at 11:00 pm and walked out to a sky that was lit like it was dusk. We're so far north I'm not sure that it will ever get completely dark tonight!

The Jewish Museum

This morning, rather than sleeping half of the day away we arranged for a wake up call from the hotel. They phoned at 9:30 as requested, but we still didn't quite manage to get out on the 'road' until about 11:30. But hey, we're on vacation! And besides, the sun hasn't been setting until about 9:30 or 10:00 so we still have loads of daylight to see the sights.

We decided to head towards the Jewish Museum, on the way taking our time to stop for some lunch and window shop. Still not excited about buying too many souvenirs considering the exchange rate but I enjoy browsing and Aaron indulges me. And I indulged Aaron as he sat in some of the new VW's and Mini Coopers at the showrooms.

The Jewish Museum was impressive - large and very educational. The focus was on the Jewish people and their history in Germany, which of course eventually covered the holocaust, but it started waaaaaaay back in time. Obviously since marrying Aaron I have become more interested in the Jewish story. Also he was able to bring some context as to where his family may have fit into the story the museum was telling.

Another thing that Aaron pointed out to me was the part where the display explained Judaism's influence on Lutheranism. Turns out that Martin Luther borrowed the idea of education for all from the cornerstones of the Jewish culture of the importance of being able to read the scripture. Just reading slightly different scripture.

After the museum we relaxed in the courtyard - I enjoyed a grapefruit juice/hefeweisen beer and Aaron munched on a turkey pita sandwich.