The end is in sight...

So, since our internet isn't hooked up yet, I've had to wait until now to post anything...  But, everything made it in the apartment.  After hauling everything up to the 3rd floor of our building (there was an elevator, so it wasn't quite as hard as it could have been...), I was aghast at how much we had crammed into our poor, tiny Corolla.  Those 4 cylinders had quite the workout through the mountains, let me tell you! :)  Here is a pic of the mound of stuff (Bridget is in the picture because she also fit in the car... :)  ).

Our stuff and Bridget (unarguably the most valuable item in the picture... :)  )

But before we lugged our earthly possessions upstairs, we took a few pictures of the place without our stuff in it.  Here those are...

The fireplace and bathroom door

Part of the kitchen

The bathroom from a weird angle (Bridget shot this picture)

So, it would be hard to explain the whole layout without a bazillion pictures, but the apartment is a studio (~500 sq. ft.) with a big open room with attached bathroom (which houses a large walk-in closet) and the kitchen (that has far more cupboard space than our old apartment, so most of them are bare... for now).  It doesn't have AC and the heating is run through the fireplace, so we pretty much get to use all of the space (no bulky heaters or pipes anywhere).  We also have a small patio that we can use to grow plants (think mini-garden) or have a small propane grill.  Perfect for us! :)

After moving our stuff in, we turned around and headed right back out to.... go garage sale-ing!  We grabbed a quick lunch and then hit up a good handfull of local garage sales in search of some furniture or other treasure.  We picked up an IKEA table for $10 and it fits perfectly in our kitchen (of course we measured ahead of time...).  That was the extent of our success, but we saw a few things we were at least interested in.  The big items we need are a bed and a dresser, but they will have to wait.  We stopped at Wal-Mart and Safeway and filled our car (again) with groceries and headed back to start organizing everything.

We tossed in a frozen pizza to fuel up before we spent the last few hours of light putting things away.  We haven't purchased a lamp yet, so the main area (which doesn't have any built-in lighting) got dark quickly.  We had a small desk lamp, so that worked well enough to see. :)

Anyway, we stopped by two more garage sales this morning before and after church and got a nightstand and a dresser!  For $55!  And they will deliver for free!  So, we'll have all of our clothes arranged once they bring it by our place tonight.  So excited!  The church we went to is actually pastored by a pastor from our hometown in Illinois, and Bridget's family went to his church back in Illinois.  We thought about introducing ourselves this morning and saying that we moved all the way to CA to hear him preach again, but didn't want to wait in the line... :)

After church and garage-saling, we went back to our place (feels good to call it "our place" now...) and Bridget organized while I washed the dishes.  They sat in boxes for like 2 months in varying temperatures and levels of humidity, so I figured it couldn't hurt... :)

And now I'm chilling at the library using their lightening-fast Wifi before meeting up with some friends and checking out their church group tonight.  Totally stoked about it too! :)

Anyway, that's pretty much a wrap.  We're loving the area and the weather.  The weather is pretty much as good as it gets.  It's cool enough at night to wear a hoodie or sweater but warm enough during the day to shed the outerwear and enjoy the sun.  It kind of feels like a perfect spring day in the midwest, except it's like this everyday here... :)  Not trying to make you jealous, but you can always come visit... :)

So, I'm not sure how often I will post after this.  I start tomorrow and will most likely have a pretty hectic "boot camp" as they call it.  Bridget is already scouring the area for a job and will be busy with that and looking for free stuff on Craigslist (we still need a bed...).  :)  But thank you all for following along with our summer!  It was a wild ride and I don't think we would have changed a thing!

God Bless,
Jeremy and Bridget

Catching up...

So, where were we...  Oh yeah.  South Carolina.  So, the last night in SC, we all went out to dinner to Outback.  Aside from having to wait forever to eat (they messed up the reservation...), it was a good time with everyone before we started heading back (all three cars left at different times...).  Here's a picture of all of us. :)

The whole crew!

 After dinner, a bunch of us went down to the beach to find some crabs.  Armed with flashlights, we hunted and caught a huge bucket of crabs.  They weren't very happy and would scurry around in the bucket to try to escape, but we got a good 15 or so in the bucket before we let them all go. :)

Bucket 'O crabs

The next morning, a few of us got up early to watch the sun rise over the ocean. :)  Very peaceful start to what ended up a long day.

Sunrise

Bridget and I drove down with Bridget's younger sister and her husband, who live south of Chicago.  We left SC around 7am and made it back to her sister's place around 9pm, which isn't bad at all.  Then Bridget and I kept on going to make it back to Rockford for the night.  Before we left, I checked the weather because we drove through a storm in Indiana.  Everything looked good, so started driving.  About an hour later, it started raining cats and dogs.  It was raining so hard that I couldn't see the road, much less the exit ramps to get off!  I just tried to follow the truck in front of me.  After a minute or two, I was completely unable to see and figured out that we needed to get off the highway.  So, we pulled off at a Marriot hotel and I checked the weather.  A huge storm (a big red glob on the dopplar) had popped up out of nowhere.  So, we sat for an hour and waited it out.  By the time it was all said and done, we made it back to Rockford at 2:30am.  Exhausted, still soggy from running from the car into the Marriot and back, and most definitely glad to be safe and sound, we were out within minutes of making it back. :)

The next morning (technically later that morning, but whatever...), we ran some errands, spent some time with my family, packed the car, and spent our last night in Rockford at Bridget's parent's house.  In case you're wondering, here's how much you can fit inside a Toyota Corolla.

Not everything in the picture went, but pretty close...

Yeah, "loaded down" would be an understatement.  But I could see out the back and the sides, so it wasn't as dangerous as it could have been...  We took off from Rockford around 5:20am on Monday morning and drove to Colorado and spent the night with some friends who live in the mountains west of Denver.  We made it there around 9pm.  And we were up and at 'em at 5am Tuesday morning to make it the rest of the way to Sacramento, CA.  Our plan to go to the Grand Canyon kind of fell through for a variety of reasons.  First, we didn't have a place to stay in Palo Alto yet, and the stop would cost us two days.  We figured that apartment hunting should come first.  Second, we were completely geared for moving, not hiking.  So, we would have had to eat our meals in the lodge, stay in the lodge, and somehow dig out hiking shoes and clothes (that wouldn't be able to be washed until who-knows-when).  So, we skipped that part of the trip and just headed straight for Cali.
We rolled into Sacramento around 10:30pm on Tuesday night.  We stayed with a good friend (the pastor that married us) for the night and continued on to Palo Alto the next morning.  Here's a few pics from the road trip...

Sunrise in the rockies

Too bad California isn't "closer than it appears"...

The fish-eye mirror makes the clouds look really cool... (at least I think so)

Yep, 504 miles on I-80W.  And that didn't include the other 114 miles on I-80 after that turn!

So, somewhat dazed by this point, Bridget and I stopped at a Starbucks on Wednesday morning and made some phone calls and set up apartment showings for the afternoon.  We made the 2.5 hour drive from Sacramento to Palo Alto and had about 7 showings that afternoon.  We still had a few scheduled for Thursday morning, so we didn't turn in any applications on the spot.  The apps typically had a non-refundable fee, so we waited until we were sure. :)

We spent the night with another good friend who lives in Redwood City, CA, which is really close to Palo Alto.  So, we got up early and started the hunting first thing in the morning.  Long story short, we found a place Thursday morning!  It is a cozy studio that looks like it was just remodeled.  Hardwood floors and tile throughout, a nearly full-size kitchen (a must for us, since we like to cook - and Bridget is a really good cook!), a walk-in closet, and a patio!  And we move in tomorrow morning!  48 hour turnaround! :)  We didn't get very good pictures, so we'll have to take some more when we move in and post them. :)  But, it was a huge answer to alot of prayers that we would find a place so quickly!  God is definitely good. :)

So, after securing the apartment, we started looking around for all of the other things (grocery stores, restaurants, etc.) and updating our address for everything.  It's quite a process if you haven't done it recently...  Not all that fun to be honest...  But we're stoked to have a place and really excited to move in tomorrow and get settled into our own place after what seems like months of bouncing from here to there and back again...

And I start at Stanford on Monday, so we'll have 2 days to get the necessities taken care of.  Shouldn't be too hard. :)  There's an IKEA and grocery store less than a mile away and easy access to the freeway, so we'll do just fine.  We'll probably hit up some garage sales and Craigslist postings tomorrow for cheap furniture and stuff.  :)  It will be interesting...

But I should get some sleep so I'm all rested for the big day tomorrow!

Over and out,
Jeremy

The last leg...

I was hoping to post a little more about South Carolina before we left for California, but since we leave in roughly 6 hours, that just isn't going to happen...  So, the drive to California starts tomorrow morning.  We leave Illinois and drive to Colorado tomorrow (Monday) and then continue on to Sacramento, California on Tuesday.  The last leg will be sometime on Wednesday, depending on how late we sleep and if we can book any apartment visits (we still don't have a place to live yet... but God is good and will undoubtedly provide as always :)  ).

Anyway, all that to say, stay tuned and there will be more to come after we get settled in California (at least a little bit)!

~ Jeremy

It's been awhile...

So, I know it's been like two weeks since I posted... I sincerely apologize...  So, it's been quite the last two weeks... kind of.

The trip back from Bangkok was a nice 26 hour trip (plus or minus).  Only 8 hours in Helsinki this time. :)  But they had these really cool reclining chairs that were perfect for sleeping!

Bridget demonstrating the reclining chairs...

Aside from the chairs, Helsinki was pretty boring.  We had to go through another security check compliments of American Airlines.  It seemed a little pedantic to ask us where we packed our bags, when we packed our bags, when we bought our bags, if we'd been in possession of the bags since we packed them, etc.  But not a whole lot we could have done...  Anyway, we made it back and my parents and grandma picked us up from the airport and completed the trip back to Illinois.

The next week was spent running around Rockford, taking care of errands, responding to mail (including a notice for jury duty in Michigan the day after we got back), and running a generator.  Yeah, a big storm smacked Rockford and northern Illinois the morning after we got back.  We got strong winds for like 10 minutes and some heavy rain (no hail), but it was enough to knock 850,000 people out of power!  Bridget's parents and one of her sisters headed down to South Carolina that afternoon to visit some colleges before vacation the next week, and Bridget and I hung around and ran the generator to save the food in the fridge and ovens.  For the next three days. :)  Anyway, we were able to spend time with my family and take care of all of the things that need taken care of after being out of the country for a while month.

And then on Friday night (7/15), we took off and started the trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina.  We stopped at Bridget's sister a few hours south of Rockford for the night and took off in the morning once her husband got off work.  The 14hr drive was pretty uneventful and went quickly.  Vacation ensued immediately after arriving. :)

And since then, we've been "doing vacation". :)  Lots of fishing, playing in the ocean, swimming in the pool, and taking turns cooking dinner. :)  Bridget and I were even able to drive to Charleston to visit her friend Rachel and her husband.  We had a great time visiting and driving through the ritzier part of Charleston. :)

On Wednesday, a few of us (Bridget's dad, mom, sister, sister's husband, Bridget, and I) went deep sea fishing off the coast of SC.  It was a ton of fun.  We caught a ton of fish.   Red snapper, grouper, sea bass, cobia, shark, trigger fish, and ramora.  Some weren't big enough to keep, but we still took away over 60lbs of fish!  Here are a few pics.

Bridget's dad and brother-in-law getting ready!

Bridget's mom and sister excited for the day!

My red snapper

Bridget's sister's cobia

Bridget's dad's cobia

The bucket o' fish

Bridget's trigger fish

And tomorrow, we start our journey across the country.  We leave tomorrow (July 23rd) and spend a day in Rockford before continuing to Colorado and the Grand Canyon before making it to Palo Alto, California on the 29th. :)  Gonna be a great road trip!  :)  Gonna try to get some more pictures along the way!

Over and out!
~ Jeremy

Bangkok Day 2

Bangkok Day 2
7/9/2011
This was our last day in Bangkok, and Asia for that matter.  We had read about this massive weekend market called Chattachuk.  There were 15,000 individual stalls!  The web reviews said to get there early, so we got up around 8:30am to head over.  Unfortunately, Bridget didn't sleep well last night for some reason, so she was a little tired, but didn't let that get in the way of shopping! :)  We grabbed some iced coffee and a pastry on the way there.

And the market was huge.  I didn't take my camera because I didn't want to risk a pickpocket relieving me of it.  And I was guarding our money, so I didn't want to be in charge of two things (since holding the bags was going to be added to the list soon...).  So, no pix from the market.  Anyway, we walked through stalls full of all kinds of stuff.  Everything from T-shirts to modern art to home decor to DVDs to jewelry.  Alot of it was kind of junky, but there were some decent items for sale.  We didn't make it through the whole market by any stretch, but we did start seeing some repeating items.  And we had gotten what we wanted and were getting a little bored.  And I guess shopping isn't as much fun when you know you aren't going to buy anything.  I don't really mind walking around in the heat and looking at junk.  Kinda weird, but oh well.
Anyway, we took the metro back to the hostel and then had to figure out what to do next.  After going back and forth, we decided to go see the new Transformers movie to kill some time because our flight left at midnight, so we didn't need to leave for the airport till later.  We had done most of the touristy stuff we could do and we only had aboud 3-4 hours to kill.  So, the movie fit the bill.  Bridget liked it; I thought it was ok.  The theater was really nice and really loud, so it was at least entertaining. :)

After the movie, we ended up getting dinner with another friend of my adviser from Michigan.  His name is Supasit and he is a professor of mechanical engineering in Bangkok.  He also brought a friend, PK, (not his wife - not sure why he didn't bring her...).  Anyway, Bridget and I cleaned up real quick, and Supasit took us to a really nice seafood buffet at a fancy hotel in the area.  The lady from the hostel recommended it and gave us a discount, so that was nice. :)  And the food was amazing.  By far the best food we had on the trip.  Any kind of seafood (cooked or raw) was there for the eating.  I had fresh grilled tuna, three bowls of clam chowder, a mussels/pasta dish, shrimp nuggets of some sort, beef in a passion fruit sauce, bread with cheese, fresh shrimp, crab legs, lobster, etc. etc.  It was off the charts.  And that was before dessert!  Flan, chocolate mousse, hand-dipped ice cream, fruit fondue, fruit yogurt, etc. etc.  Oh man.  Totally gained back all of the calories burnt from walking the previous week, but it was totally worth it!  And Supasit and his friend ate alot too, so it wasn't like everyone was watching me eat the whole time.  We were all enjoying at the same time. :)

The four of us!  (Supasit, PK, Bridget and me)

Anyway, after dinner, Supasit drove us to the airport and dropped us off.  It was sad we didn't get a chance to meet up with Supasit earlier, but it was nice we got to meet up at all.  It kind of came together at the last minute, and we all enjoyed it. :)  Anyway, we checked our bag, headed to the gate, and the long trip home began...

Bangkok Day 1

7/8/2011
Bangkok Day 1

We decided to go explore the touristy parts of Bangkok today.  So, we got up at a decent time, grabbed some coffee and a pastry on our way down.  We took a taxi-boat that runs along one of the canals that runs toward the center of the city.  The boat lines run both ways and literally fly through the canals, spraying water all over the place.  We had to hold up tarps on the sides of the boat to keep us from getting sprayed.  And the water was an unsightly brown color, so nobody really wanted to get splashed.  Anyway, it was way cheaper than a taxi-car and was quite the experience, so we enjoyed it. :)

A boat pulling out of the station (it is much more intense in person...)

The view from inside...

Our first stop after getting off the taxi-boat was the Golden Mount.  This is a large Buddhist temple built on a hill.  The top is a gold dome with a brilliant gold spire at the top, which explains the name the "golden mount".  We walked up and got some good pictures of the tops of the buildings in the area. :)  We then walked over toward the "Independence Monument" and snapped a few photos.

The Golden Mount

The view from atop the Golden Mount

The ornate mosaic decoration on the top of one of the temple buildings

Independence Monument

After that, we walked to the national museum, mostly because I wanted to learn more about Bangkok and Thailand.  So, we spent a good two hours there.  It was really interesting.  Way back in the day, Bangkok wasn't the main city in the area.  A city to the north called Atthalya (or something like that) was the main city.  But with different rulers and conquerors over the years, one of the rulers began using Bangkok as a military base.  He used the natural waterways as protection.  Then another ruler ended up making Bangkok his "capitol" city and built the palace where it is today.  So, the history was interesting, at least to me. :)  No pictures inside, but I took a few of the exterior.
After the museum, we walked to the palace.  I didn't wear pants because it was like 95 degrees and sunny, so I couldn't go in (but I did wear shorts...).  Bridget wore her zip-away pants that turn into shorts and vice-versa, so she just zipped the legs back on and went in.  So, she took some pictures while I waited for her (in the shade, of course :)  ).  It was really nice inside of the palace area.  The king doesn't live there anymore; although he does have some events there.  Tourists can't go there during those times, for obvious reasons. :)

Palace shot 1

Palace shot 2

 After the palace, we went to another temple and saw the reclining Buddha (a popular tourist sight).  The temple was full of Buddhas everywhere.  And most of the buildings were covered with ornate mosiacs.  It was astounding how much time and effort it would take to do all of that work.  And the reclining Buddha was MASSIVE.  Most of the Buddhas weren't much more than double life-size.  But the reclining Buddha was at least 10x lifesize.  The top of the head was a good 40 ft from the ground and it was at least 100 ft long.  It was so big it is housed in its own building.  The scale is hard to get on a camera, but we took a few shots to try...

Massive Head

Shot down the body (the ceiling is at least 40 ft. high)

The feet

A shot the other way

After the reclining Buddha, we walked over to a park and rested.  It was getting hot and we had to figure out what to do next.  We were across the river from the Temple of the Dawn (Wat Arun is its official name), so we snapped some pictures.  It was another ferry ride away and we had spent awhile in the other temple, so we didn't go over.  After resting for a good half hour, we decided to head back towards our hostel and walk until we felt like getting a taxi.  So, we started walking.  About 45 minutes later, we stopped for an ice coffee and another rest.  This got us to the "Giant Swing".  Pretty clever name, I would say.  Unfortunately, swinging on it is illegal so its just a big frame sitting there.  But still photo-worthy in my book! :)

Wat Arun from across the river

Giant Swing

 From there we headed away from the city and toward the Victory Monument, which isn't too far from our hostel.  We arbitrarily decided on how much we would pay for a tuk-tuk ride to our destination, and, unfortunately for us, nobody would take us for that little, so we ended up walking almost the whole way.  We caught the metro for two stops to get us there quicker, since the sun was quickly setting by this point.  Which made for some cool pictures. :)

Sun reflecting off of building

Sun setting behind building

Victory Monument

But we eventually made it to the Victory Monument, just as the sun was setting.  There was a small market nearby, so we decided to grab some food there.

Dinner! (and a little sunburn on Bridget...)

While we were picking a table, we noticed some ominous clouds rolling in, so we picked a table underneath the metro line.  And just in time too.  It started drizzing at first, then it really started coming down.  We ate our chicken and waited for a break in the rain to get back on the metro.  Once we took the metro as far as we could, we started trying to find our hostel on foot.  We came from another direction last night, so we were trying to find it based on maps that didn't label much.  So, we ended up in a dead-end street when the downpour started again.  We could see people running towards us with big water drops hitting the puddled street behind them.  So, we ran to the nearest overhang and into the nearest restaurant.  Since we were taking up a table, we ordered some cokes and a bread appetizer (it was cheap). 

Snack

Once we finished our snack, the rain and let up, so we went back out and found our hostel. :)  Bridget was pretty tired by this point, so we headed to bed soon afterward...

Koh Chang to Bangkok

Koh Chang to Bangkok
7/7/2011

We had to check out of the bungalow by noon, so we had a lazy morning of packing and getting breakfast.  We got eggs and coffee. :)  We took off around noon and caught a taxi up to the ferry.  We made it just in time for the 1pm ferry.  We then caught the taxi back to the bus stop on the side of the road. 
We had about 30 minutes until the bus came, so we got some lunch.  I think we got cashew chicken and rice.  We weren't too hungry, so we just split one order.  The bus ride was rather uneventful, which is a good thing. :)  Aside from me almost dying, that is.  I was taking a drink of water and the first little splash of water went down my windpipe.  Before I had a chance to react, the rest of the water bottle was in my mouth.  So, I started gagging through my nose to avoid spraying an entire mouthful of water all over the bus.  I was literally drowning in my seat.  The convulsions lasted about 30 seconds until my eyes were running and my lungs had expunged most of the water.  I was then able to swallow the water in my mouth and proceed to properly cough the rest of the water out.  Needless to say, it was not very pleasant.  But I survived, which is all that matters in the end anyway. :)

We made it to Bangkok around 7:30pm and took the subway to the stop nearest our hostel and walked from there.  It wasn't too hard to find and we dropped our bags off before heading to the street for some food.  We got some satay and chicken and ate back at the hostel.  It was hot in the main area where we were eating, so we headed up to the dorm room once we finished.  Then it was teeth-brusing time and then to bed.
So, it was kind of an uneventful day.  Sorry... :)

Koh Chang Day 2

Koh Chang Day 2
7/6/2011

Today we went on a snorkeling trip to four islands to the south of Koh Chang.  There are actually quite a few islands around there, so we could have island-hopped all day.  But we didn't.  :)  The double-decker boat had probably 50+ people on it.  People of all shapes and sizes. :)  And the boat crew even handed out anti-sickness tablets.  Which was good for me because I forgot to take one before I left...

The snorkeling was really great.  Lots of fish and choral.  Pretty much everything you like to see when snorkeling. :)  We also got to go onto the beach in two of the islands, so we took some pictures on the beach.  The best way to describe it is to just upload a bunch of pictures, so here goes...!

Fish!

Plant-thing that opens and closes (and just so happened to be blue and purple!)

Pokey yellow sea urchin-looking thing

Sea turtle in a turtle conservatory

Feeding time!

Watch out for the sea urchins!

Really cool-looking coral

I wonder how the coral made that "5"... :)

Brown fish near the cool coral

Bridget in the fish

More cool coral

Bridget on the rocks

"Hey there!"

Chimney-looking coral thing

Us!

Amazing scenery

Another parrot fish!

Feeding time video!

After the snorkeling trip, we relaxed for a bit and then went out for dinner.  I got cashew chicken that was phenomenal.  The sauce had a slightly sweet, slightly burnt, mostly amazing kind of flavor.  Bridget got a cooked a shrimp dish.  We kind of mixed things up a little bit. :)

Dinner!

After dinner, the sun was setting, so we ran to the beach and got some pictures of the fiery sky.

Sunset over the palm trees

Sunset over the water

Sunset over the water 2

We decided to leave the next morning and head to Bangkok, so we did some packing before bedtime in preparation of another day of travel tomorrow...