Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving break was seriously awesome.  It was so great to have a break from school, work, and get the opportunity to see family that we haven't seen in a long time!  The food was fantastic as expected, and even though I have eaten thanksgiving dinner like 6 times since Thanksgiving I still just love it.  We got to see the Lundgreen side and the Jensen side of Ki's family and it was fun to see familiar faces, and even meet some family members that I have never met before.  Grandma & Grandpa Jensen were good enough to let us stay with them for a few nights in Circleville, and Grandpa even gave me the history tour of Circleville.  I feel like an official member of the Jensen family now :) 

It is going to be hard to get back into the last couple weeks of school with all the final projects, papers, tests etc after the break.  Luckily it helps that I know I only have 3 weeks of school left ever!  That is a pretty nice light at the end of the tunnel if you ask me :)  I am glad that I chose to stick with school and that I will have a degree even though school has never been my favorite thing, and that getting good grades hasn't really come easily to me.  I don't think I will ever have a major career, but I feel like I have learned a lot, learned how to do things that I hate that are hard, and it also just feels nice to have accomplished my goal of graduating from college. 

In honor of this Thanksgiving season, here is a list of a few of the MANY things I am very thankful for this year :)

1. My very cute, supportive, understanding, and ever patient husband.  I am imperfect in so many ways, but he loves me regardless.  I honestly don't know what I would do without him.  I get sad when he has to work late because I get SO excited to see him by the end of the day, but I am grateful for how hard he works and that he has a good job.
2. Amazing family.  We are blessed to have supportive loving family on both sides, but this year I am feeling especially grateful for my parents.  We are currently living in their basement and they have been so good to put up with us.  It has been a huge blessing this semester to have my mom around all the time and I don't know if I would make it through the week without everything she and my dad do for me.  I also have been feeling grateful lately as I have reflected back on my schooling that they have paid for my education, and been supportive even if I am not the "brightest bulb in the bunch" :)
3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I am so far from perfect.  There are still so many things I continually fall short on, but I am grateful that I know I can continue to repent and keep trying to be the best me I can be.  I am grateful that I know my purpose in life, that families can be together forever, and for the hope that the gospel gives me in everything I do.
4. Health and Strength.  I feel blessed for the health I have had this semester.  It has been a busy one since I am trying to finish up all my internship hours and class requirements, so I am very grateful that I haven't been sick!
5. Friends.  I have some really supportive amazing friends.  This list of course includes my awesome family, but my other friends who also have a huge impact on my life you know who you are!  Thank you, a million times over, for everything you do and of course for making life that much more interesting.

These are just a few of the bigger things I am thankful for since to list every small thing would take much to long.  I mean the list would start saying things like:  dishwasher, washer/dryer, that chocolate was invented, back massages, food, microwave, my car, car heaters so I don't freeze on the way to work at 5am, my phone, pink fuzzy socks that always keep my feet warm, my pink key chain that  helps me not lose my keys, etc.  You catch my drift that this list would soon get tedious to write don't you? 

Well I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving Breaks as well.  Good luck with work, school, Christmas shopping, or whatever is that is on your to-do list for this week!

Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Disclaimer: another picture-overload post.

Our journey to Switzerland tested our train transferring abilities to the fullest.  We first took a train from La Spezia, Italy - to Milan, Italy.  There we had a three hour gap before our next train, so we put our backpacks in the train stations luggage storage station, and headed off to see the "Duomo" church that is famous in Milan.  But first, before tackling Milan's subway system, we sat down and ate because as always - I was hungry.

My cute husband, and the most delicious pasta I ate the whole trip!  I seriously wish I could recreate that pasta.

We made it successfully to the Duomo via subway!

Milan's outdoor shopping mall.  It was SO hot.  I am pretty sure we went through like five water bottles in the three-hour layover.

 After our little excursion in Milan, it was back on the train.  This train took us from Milan to Spiez, Switzerland.  It was the most beautiful train ride ever.  Seriously.  Ki and I debated whether we could ever seriously move to Switzerland... but then I realized I would miss my family too much, and that I suck at learning foreign languages. :)  Bummer.  The train from Milan to Spiez was by far the best train we rode on the whole trip.  It had air-conditioning!  In fact, it was so air conditioned I had to wear my jacket, and my delta blanket.

Ki on the nice swiss train.

All bundled up.  It was a shock to the system to be somewhere with air-conditioning again :)

 The following two pictures I almost died trying to take haha.  As we got off the train in Spiez, the sun was setting and it was getting dark so fast, but I really wanted to get a couple pictures of the beautiful lakeside town.  So while Ki went to see what platform our next train left from, I ran across the street from the train station to the bridge to get a few pictures.  Only... I forgot to check and make sure that no cars were coming before I ran across the road... Ki about had a heart attack :)  The guy in the car that almost hit me was probably thinking "stupid American tourist".

The picture I almost killed myself trying to get.

picture #2 that I almost killed myself trying to get.

From Spiez is where the real train transfer fun began.  We took a train from Spiez to Interlaken; a train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen; a bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stetchelberg; and a cable-car up the mountain from Stetchelberg to Gimmelwald.  Wow I was a tiny bit stressed.  All the train rides were already only like 5 minutes apart, so I wasn't too surprised when we missed our bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg.  

This wouldn't have been so stressful if it weren't for the fact that it was 11pm, the next bus didn't come for another hour, and we HAD to check in before 11:45 at our hostel in Gimmelwald.  I was freaking out, truly I was.  Only I held it all in, and just sat on a bench at the bus station instead of freaking out visibly, cause I could tell Ki was already stressed too.  When Ki is stressed I have learned its better to just be quiet and let him come up with a plan otherwise my stress adds to his stress and it makes the situation much, much worse. :)  

So there I sat on my bench trying to stay calm when all of the sudden out of nowhere this one single car drives past us, then the driver pulled over, then reversed back to the bus station.  Hallelujah!  The man driving the car rolled down his window and asked if we knew that the next bus to Stechelberg didn't come for another hour.  We said yes, but that we really needed to get to Stechelberg because we had reservations at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald.  He then proceeded to say that it was lucky he had been at a conference in a nearby city, that he worked at the cable car platform in Stechelberg, was actually on his way there now, and could take us with him.  OH MY MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!  We knew then and there that our families must have been praying for us while we were gone :)  Seriously.  How lucky is that?  He just happened to have a work meeting in a different city on this day of all days, was on his way back to the cable car station in Stechelberg for his night-shift, and could give us a ride.  This dear soul saved us.  A little dramatic?  Maybe.  But I could've kissed him.... ok not really.... but I really was SO grateful that he was nice enough to pull over and offer us a ride.  Total life-saver!

To make a long story somewhat shortened - we finally arrived in Gimmelwald at 11:42 - three minutes before the front desk closed.  We checked in, bought some pasta and pasta sauce from their little food shop, and sighed a deep sigh of relief!  We made our pasta in the guest kitchen, did our dishes, and then promptly went to bed.  We were thoroughly pooped.  We slept like rocks that night even with all the loud partyin going on downstairs where a lot of the other guests were playing games/at the bar drinking/being really loud.  (Also, random detail that I just want to remember is that the room we slept in was shared with 14 other people!  It was kinda weird, but a memorable experience for sure.) 

Because we had arrived so late at Gimmelwald we had no idea the beauty that we would wake up to.  Oh my gorgeousness.  I love Switzerland, SO SO much. We spent the day exploring Gimmelwald, and then doing lots of hiking of course!

The sun peeking over the Swiss Alps in the morning.

Another view: we took a gazillion pictures.  In fact we were so busy taking pictures that we missed breakfast, and ended up having to eat cookies that we bought at the little snack shop haha.

The cable car that is the only means of transportation up to Gimmelwald.

Ki at one with nature :) haha

Ki & me outside our hostel

Ki & me in front of the Mountain Hostel

We took a break from hiking/exploring to come grab some lunch :)

After lunch it was back to hiking!

Taking a break to catch our breath after walking all the way up the hill from Gimmelwald which you see below.

Me hiking to the waterfall

We made it!

Ki got pretty good at taking pictures of us :)

Taking a snack break at a little stream.

Ki wanted to bathe in the river - until he felt how cold it was.  Then he settled for being a mountain man and drinking straight out of the stream.  So far we haven't seen any negative side effects from the water :)

We kept hiking, up and up and up!  Look how far down Gimmelwald is!

Ki doesn't love to hike, but he was a good sport and let me go as far as I wanted.  I love him so much for this!

We bought a little package of swiss goat cheese from this lady.  She had so much cheese!

That night we had pizza back at the Hostel restaurant, played some card games, and laid out our plan of attack for the next day.  What a fun, beautiful, theraputic day in the Swiss Alps we had!  It would have been fun if we could've stayed an extra day, but there was still so much more we wanted to see on our trip so we decided to stick to our plan and leave the next morning.

The view from our train as we were leaving Lautrebrunnen, Switzerland.

As we left Switzerland - we successfully backtracked without missing any of the cable cars/ buses/ trains.  We even grabbed some food at a grocery store in Interlaken in our 30 min break between trains so we wouldn't starve on our way to the next destination.  Success.  Speaking of next destination, we were now headed to Salzburg, Austria!  Or so we thought...  this day turned out to be the longest, most miserable day of the trip.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  This is a post for another day.  I think I've hit my picture maximum for one blog post :)  Not to mention it is 7:30 on a Saturday night, and now that my mandatory blog post for the week is complete, I would really like to go hang out with my cute husband now.  Hope you all have a good weekend!

Cinque Terre, Italy

I am going to jump back into updating about our Europe Trip we took this Fall.  It is taking me forever, but I really want to try and get it all documented so I don't forget about some of the small fun memories.  Be prepared.  This post will likely have a picture overload!

If you remember back to this post I had left off after just arriving in Rome from Bulgaria.  After enjoying our first large Italian meal the night we arrived in Rome, we hit the hay pretty quick.  Traveling is sort of exhausting!  But in a good way of course :)  The next day we woke up bright and early to head to Rome's train station to activate our global train passes, and take our first train ride to our first Italian destination - Cinque Terre, Italy.  Being the amateur train travelers that we were, we didn't know you had to reserve seats on Italian trains.  Luckily the train conductor (is that what they are called?) let us on the train anyway and we sat in empty seats whenever we could, although we stood/sat in the aisle of the train for a pretty large chunk of the five hour train ride to La Spezia (the connecting city to Cinque Terre).

Once we arrived in La Spezia we decided to get some lunch before trying to catch a train to Cinque Terre.  Because of the craziness of trying to figure out whether or not we'd be able to get on the train from Roma to Cinque Terre that morning, we had been inadequately prepared with snacks or food for the long train ride.  The inner bear in me was threatening to come out in full force, so we decided we needed food pronto ;)  Mostly for my sweet husband's sake haha.   After stopping at the cutest little family owned pizzeria I was able to take in the beauty of La Spezia much more effectively.  I decided I loved this part of Italy right away!

After lunch in La Spezia.  Heading back to the train station with our packs.

 Now for a little information on Cinque Terre.  The Cinque Terre is a portion of the coast on the Italian Riviera that is a National Park.  "The Five Lands" is made up of five villages:  Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.  We had reservations to stay in Riomaggiore for two nights.  It was one of the only places we made a reservation because I really wanted to stay there, and we heard that it gets pretty booked in August.

The first glimpse we had of the Cinque Terre coast on the train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore where we were staying.

 After getting off the train in Riomaggiore we had to ask for directions to our hotel's check-in address probably three separate times.  All the old Italian men that were lounging about tried to be very helpful, but somehow we still ended up getting lost a couple times.  However we finally found our way!  After we checked in at the main office, the man in charge had an Italian teenage boy lead us to our room which I assumed would be just up the street, or around the corner.  Boy was I wrong!  We winded up side streets, in between buildings, and hiked up steep stairs with our backpacks on for probably 15 minutes (although it felt a lot more like 30 minutes I was so tired!)  Wow.  The Italian boy seemed amused as Ki and I huffed and puffed the whole way.  He however made it look like a leisurely walk, and even smoked a cigarette on the way.  Have I mentioned how hot Italy is in August!  We were both sweating like crazy and pretty winded by the time we finally got up to our room.  But our gorgeous view made it all worth the trek!  Ki could never get over how blue and gorgeous the water was.

Ki at the base of the city where we checked into our room.  Little did he know what he was in for!  haha.

An example of the side streets, and steep staircases we winded through to get up to our room. 

The incredible view from the balcony of our room!  We had no idea when we made reservations we were getting such a great view.  We assumed it would be kind of ghetto since we were sharing a bathroom with 4 other rooms.

Another view from our room.  It shows the terraces that they used to grow their crops.  Lots of vineyards.

 Because Ki and I were by now very sweaty, we decided to put on our swimsuits, and start heading back down to where we could hop in the ocean to cool off.  I love oceans and sunshine!  I was very excited.

Heading down for a swim

Another beautiful view.  We took SO many pictures.

Cute little fishing boats.

On the way to the beach.  The buildings looked like they were all on top of each other.

Enjoying some beach time!  Please ignore the women seated behind us.

 The beach was glorious after our long sweaty hike.  We ended up relocating to a different spot that allowed me to get some sun, but that allowed Ki to sit in the shade.  Haha he thought the arrangement was perfect.  He just doesn't see the appeal of tanning.  I love my fair-skinned babe :)  Ki swallowed his fair share of salt water that day, but we had so much fun!  That night we went to dinner, and ended up making friends with and sharing a table with a Canadian couple.  It was fun to make friends that also spoke some English!  I wish we had a picture with them, but we didn't take our camera with us to dinner.

The next morning we decided to do the 5-city hike through all 5 of Cinque Terre's cities.  It starts out on a path from Riomaggiore to Manarola called lovers lane.  The landscape was lovely and peaceful in the morning, and our early start allowed us to get started before the intense heat hit.

Ki on Lover's Lane

Manarola in the distance.  You can see the train tracks as well for those who don't want to walk the whole way.

The fence along Lover's Lane had been decorated with lots of ribbons and padlocks symbolizing people's love.

We stopped for some chocolate filled croissants for breakfast in Manarola.

Somewhere between Manarola and Corniglia.  It was starting to get really hot!  Little did we know that a 400 stair stretch was coming just before Corniglia.

The 4th city Vernazza.  It was so lovely.  Probably one of our favorites! 

After all that hiking we were pooped, and starving!  We stopped to grab some delicious lunch.  Ki of course got pizza.  I opted for a tomato and cheese sandwich.

 Between Vernazza and Monterosso we decided to just take the train.  We were super hot and sweaty, and wanted to get to the beach!

Monterosso Al Mare's beach.  This city had the best beach.

 We were really excited to go swimming at the beach when we finally arrived, so we set our stuff down, and were just about to jump in the ocean when the lifeguard came and told us that we had to pay to be at this beach, and that this section was full.  LAME.  But he told us to continue further down on the beach and that we would be able to get a spot there.  We walked and walked but every section of this massive beach was full.  I was puzzled that it could be full because there were so many umbrella's that didn't have any people under them.  I was hot and sweaty and getting really grumpy that nobody would let me swim!  After a half hour of people turning us away because the beach was "full" we decided to just take the train back to Riomaggiore and go swimming where we had gone the day before.

After enjoying our swim, and quickly doing our laundry, we rushed to make it to our dinner reservations that were in the city Manarola.  It had been highly recommended by an Australian couple we had met the previous day, so we had made reservations earlier that day when we hiked through Manarola.  We had also been compelled to make reservations somewhere because the previous night we waited an hour to get into the restaurant to eat.  Too bad we had to waste time doing our laundry.  Otherwise we could have enjoyed a romantic stroll at sunset on the way to dinner, instead of running.  It turns out that laundry is even more annoying when on vacation :)  We were so sweaty by the time we got to the restaurant it was slightly embarrassing.  It really made me miss air conditioning!

I quickly snapped this photo from Lover's Lane as Ki and I literally RAN to make our dinner reservation. 

Our yummy dinner.  I was disappointed that the salad I ordered didn't come with any dressing haha.  I am such an American.  Ki was brave and got the fish.  Once he figured out how to get the bones out he said it was pretty good!

That concludes our day and a half spent in the beautiful Cinque Terre.  It was honestly so gorgeous.  Ki says it was the most beautiful part of the trip.  I think I thought Switzerland was more beautiful, but honestly they are so different its hard to compare!  I just love me some beautiful mountains and gorgeous blue lakes like the ones that Switzerland is famous for!

Next stop:  Gimmelwald, Switzerland!

16 days...

There are only 16 days until Thanksgiving Break.  I am so so excited!  First of all because we haven't seen Ki's family in a long time so it will be so fun to see everyone again.  Second of all because I don't have to think about school for 5 glorious days :)  Third of all because um hello!  I love to eat.  Love it.  In fact the other night I dreamed about Thanksgiving dinner.  It seemed so real!  I swear I could taste the food.  I was quite dissappointed upon awakening to realize it wasn't Thanksgiving quite yet.  Ever since I was little I've always loved meal times, it was never hard to get me to eat as a child.  In fact Ki jokes all the time that he knows when I start getting grumpy that he needs to feed me asap!  :)

My next matter of business to report is that I have been having the craziest dreams lately!  They all seem so much more real for some reason too.  Unfortunately even the nightmares.. those nights are not so much fun.  I woke up crying one night, I don't know what is causing it but it is strange.  I have always had dreams but these are crazier.  Also Ki and I have been married for 2 years and he says I have just recently in the past few weeks started sleep talking.  Weird!  Oh.  I've also started this nasty habit this semester called grinding my teeth like crazy in my sleep.  It drives Ki crazy :)  he says it is becoming worse then fingernails on a chalkboard for him haha.  So first on our walmart list this week is teeth guards for me to wear at night so (a) I have teeth by the time I am 90, and (b) for Ki's sanity.  I think it is just coming from stress but... who knows.  It isn't like I have never been stressed before, but I guess I am just not handling it very well this semester.

Anyways, I have to get back to other homework.  But I hope everyone has fabulous weeks!  Just think, Thanksgiving break is almost here!  We can do it.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.