Good luck and wishes appreciated!

Kyle and I are taking the bar exam next week:  Kyle is taking Maryland, and I'm taking New York and New Jersey....thoughts and prayers greatly appreciated.  In the words of Ratatouille...LET'S DO THIS THING!!!

Pura Vida

Hello! We are back from Costa Rica! Kyle and I are...red as lobsters, ...splotchy lobsters, too. But before I digress, let's do a little update.

We left for Costa Rica last Friday. Now before you go off asking when I actually go to school, I'll have you know that it's my spring break. And Kyle did do work on the trip. We flew from IAD last Friday and landed in San Jose, where we promptly rented a car (with a GPS), and headed to San Isidro Del General for Alyssa and Jose's wedding! The entire reason we were in Costa Rica was for the wedding, and we planned a mini vacay beyond that :) Anyway, I digress. The drive to San Isidro from San JOse is about 2.5 hours. Well, when there's traffic, and it's pitch black on the side of the mountains with dense fog, it took us more like 4 hours. It was...nauseating, and I'm not one to get carsick at ALL. We arrived in San Isidro, and checked into our...hotel. It was an interesting little spot, I'll say. We were too tired to really care, so we just passed out and woke up the next day at noon. Lo and behold, it was 80 degrees outside :) Coming from a 17 degree Paris-Europe-weather...the 80 degrees was welcome. We had a really lazy Saturday before the wedding. Went to a local diner and had these AMAZING frozen cappuccinos and local Costa Rican fare, then shopped in the grocery store for some necessities. After that, we got ready for the wedding :)

Alyssa is one of my sorority sisters from college, and she was also my roommate and suitemate my sophomore and junior years. She is one of my best friends :) We actually met Jose in 2009 when we visited Alyssa while she was doing Peace COrps in Costa Rica, and that's when they first met. So...this is kinda neat that the entire circle ends with the wedding! The wedding was in a local church...up high on some hill, and there were SO MANY PEOPLE. It was a full mass....ALL in Spanish. The bridesmaids looked lovely (Ana, Hayley, Rachel (all Alpha CHi's), and Alyssa's 2 MOHs. It was a beautiful ceremony, very full of love!

Me + the BMs (Hayley and Ana) outside the church right before the ceremony.

Next up was the reception! The reception was literally LITERALLY on the side of the mountain. I thought the charter bus wasn't going to make it all the way up the mountain. However, being on the side of some mountain in Costa Rica, it was absolutely beautiful :) THe food was delicious, the beer was amazing, and HOLY CRAP can the Ticos (Costa Rican dudes) DANCE. They all tore up the dance floor with their salsa-ing and put us Americans to shame (the 20 of us who were there out of the 300). It was SUCH a fun night. We had a great time :) It was great to be able to see Alyssa and Jose and everyone else. Love!

Venue on the side of the mountain. Beautiful!

Our pledge class!!! Warner, Cowlishaw, Kenyon, Sudderth, Ng :)

Kyle and I with the married couple!

Kyle and I decked out to the nines ;)

The next day, we set off bright and early to pick up Sean and EMily from Liberia airport. It was about a 5 hour drive, and we made it at noon at the dot. Imagine that, hung over and sleep deprived on a road trip...we then went up to Tamarindo, where my boss has a condo that she rented to us for cheap, and...we spent the next five days there! We were in Tamarindo from Sunday-Friday morning. This is legitimately the FIRST real vacation Kyle and I have taken, I think, besides a Carnival cruise we took when I was 21. We had absolutely no agenda and nothing to do (which drove me crazy), but it was oddly relaxing at times. We explored Tamarindo beach, and went down to Playa Avenellas twice. The latter beach was BEAUTIFUL. Of course, Kyle, Sean, and I promptly got burnt the first day we were there, so the rest of the days were pretty painful. Emily and her superior sunscreen-application skills really put us to shame. We did a lot of beach time...some volleyball time, and a lot of reading/games. Specifically, bananagrams and taboo. Emily and I KILLED at Taboo. Example: Clue: "Oh, you can't count this" Answer: ALPHABET!" Yup. That's how high our ESP levels were.

Playa Avenellas and some amazing Guanabana smoothies

Relaxing

Intense bananagrams

Relaxing

Beautiful Costa Rican sunset outside our condo :)

We all left on Friday (yesterday). Bought a ton of coffee and a lot of cool dish soap (I know, weird, but it really is the best...this is how I know I'm getting old). We connected through Panana City, and ended back in DC at around 12:30, and by the time we got out of customs, baggage, and got home, it was 2:30am. I woke up this morning at 7am to take the MPRE, and...I have to say, that was not the smartest idea.

Now it's for real that we're settling back into a normal life. I'm prepping for a lot of people to visit me in DC in the next couple months, after which is graduation...so much to do!

Back to Reality

...and it sucks :P Kyle and I arrived back on American soil on Sunday afternoon, after spending a much needed couple days in England with our favorite Brits- Lou, Alison, Matt, and Sam. We were stuck in Zagreb when our connecting flight from Dubrovnik was delayed for a couple of Frankfurt passengers...long story, but Croatia Airlines made a HUGE mistake, and they will be hearing about it. We wasted a day NOT spent in London, and didn't get into England until 4pm on Friday, when we were supposed to have gotten in at 9am.

On Saturday, the girls spent some GREAT quality time together, with a wedding dress shopping spree in Canterbury for Louise, and then afternoon tea at Eastwell Manor. The entire time, the boys had a great time going to a brew pub!

Sipping tea like proper ladies.

Afternoon tea at Eastwell Manor. Just beautiful.

And of course there's a roaring fireplace.

Sam had cooked Sunday roast for us that night, which is by far MY FAVORITE English meal. SOOOOO good. It's good to know professional chefs ;)

The next morning, we headed to Heathrow Airport. It felt weird to be leaving Europe after being there for so long. Kyle and I were able to get on the same flight to DC, where he would connect to Buffalo. The entire flight, Kyle finished Hunger Games...yay! It was a pretty decent flight...a long and tedious 8 hours, and absolutely nothing exciting to report.

We arrived at IAD, and to our dismay, they separated me (exit DC) and Kyle (transfer to another flight) immediately, and we didn't even have a proper goodbye because they were trying to shove us into our respective trams :( So that was a bit hectic and frustrating. Plus the fact that Kyle didn't have his phone (of course he didn't...if he didn't have it in London or Paris, why would he have it in DC, right?). Anyway, everything was sorted, Chantel picked me up from the airport, Kyle got on his flight, and we went back to our normal lives...

I started back up with work and school immediately, and it was really bizarre being home! Kyle went back to work on Tuesday bc his firm actually respects President's Day ;) You'd think that living and working in DC, everyone would be more observant of President's Day, right? I would even trade a day off for taking an obligatory tour around the National Mall or something. Anyway...my jet lag was so bad for the first few days that I would wake up at 4ish and not be able to go back to bed at ALL. It was awful. So I would wake up and continue reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. It's intriguing, but definitely not my favorite series thus far.

The next couple weeks are going to be spent catching up on school, work, and friends. We are off to Costa Rica in two weeks for Alyssa's wedding. Tough life :)

Zagreb / Dubrovnik / Montenegro / Bosnia

So....we jam-packed a lot into the last 2 days. Originally, we had thought to go to Greece and Turkey, but with the current political climate, we scrapped that idea and decided on Hungary and Croatia. And boy, was that a GREAT idea.

So we wrapped up our last day in Zagreb exploring the old city, which is fascinating itself:

Church

Museum of broken relationships...interesting

San Marcos Church

I get tired of Kyle taking pictures....

After our morning in Zagreb, we flew into Dubrovnik, which is the southern tip of Croatia, and is surrounded by the Adriatic Sea. Flying into Dubrovnik was breathtaking. Our landing was great, and immediately, we were greeted by an amazing view:

Air Croatia landing

We decided to stay at the Hotel Exelsior, an excellent and amazing 5 star hotel that has a perfect view of the Old City, and a superior sea view. The picture below is literally taken from our window:

Can't ask for a better view than this

A couple steps from our hotel...

San Domenic Street. The beauty of Dubrovnik in the winter is that there are very little tourists.

Main avenue in the old city.

Church, etc.

Night view from our hotel window

DAY 2

Sunrise view from our hotel window...Kyle got up at 6:40 for this

For our second day here, we decided to forgo exploring Dubrovnik, and instead, opted for a day trip to Montenegro, and to pass through Bosnia on the way back. It was the best decision we ever made. Montenegro is just a beautiful, beautiful place. Very pristine and untouched, and very little tourists. Our guide, from Florio Cars (http://www.dubrovnikcars.com/), offered probably the best service and tour guide-ness that we have ever experienced, and we've gone through a lot of guides in different countries and continents. It was the most superb experience we've ever had in terms of hospitality and knowledge.

Town of Kotor in Montenegro


It took us for-f'ing-ever to hike up this high. Thought we were going to die since everything was in ruins.
High point

Town of Budva

Adriatic Sea. Love.

Welcome to Bosnia.

Our amazing ride for the day, and a superior view of Sunset, with Dubrovnik behind/below us.

Best meal we've ever had...local Croatian food!