ATW in 156 days
I have just finished booking my around the world flights, leaving London on January 20, 2010 and returning back to London on June 25, 2010 . . . yes, that's correct I'll be back in America in time for July 4th, my favourite holiday!!
Here is a brief run down of my travels for those of you who are interested:
Jan 20 - leave London, England
Jan 21 - arrive Kigali, Rwanda
Jan 31 - leave Nairobi, Kenya on an overland adventure to Jo'burg, South Africa visiting
Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia - getting to see things like Masai Mara Game Reserve, Serengeti National Mark, Zanzibar, Victoria Falls, and Kruger National Park
March 2 - arrive Sydney, Australia
April 12 - arrive Ports Moresby, Papua New Guinea
April 26 - arrive Christchurch, New Zealand
May 23 - arrive Santiago, Chile for an overland adventure to Rio, Brazil visiting Argentina and Uruguay
June 25 - arriving back in London, England - probably rather knackered ;)
For those counting this means I get to add 11 more countries to my list of places I've been around the world.
Well I will keep you all updated, but for now that's all I've got, off to Helsinki, Finland tomorrow for an apparently cold & rainy weekend . . . can't win them all right?
Labels: ATW, countries, future, travel
Friday July 10th - where has the week gone?
I had some topic I wanted to discus, but of course as the day as progressed I've now forgotten it! I apologise for not being better with my updates, but it's summer, we've had a few days of real summer weather & the last time on my mind has been coming inside to sit in front of my computer & type. Also the fact I don't have internet at home has drastically reduced the amount of time I spend on the computer, which all in all I reckon is a good thing!
Oh, now I remember, I wanted to tell you about how wonderful my boss is! Yes, that correct, he's amazingly awesome - actually thinking about it I can't recall ever having a non-wonderful boss . . . yup, that's true, I've always had really fantastic bosses, sure hope this trend continues :) Back to the point, he's so awesome, I wish I could bring him to the US with me! I told him that I've been thinking of moving home at the end of the year. He said he'll do everything in his power to keep me here if he can, but that he understands how hard it is to have family far away (he's Aussie) and that if I decide to move back I will get a fantastic reference from him & will be greatly missed. He also said he wants me to get a work permit for next year, cause just in case it takes me a few months to get a new job at least I can still have this one & he'll pay the £1000 for it - how awesome is that??
Labels: future, work
a post for a mate who's on bed rest
My first roommate at Norwich University is pregos & due October 10th (3 days before her birthday), but since Baby G is apparently so excited to meet the rest of us, she's been put on bed rest. I promised her I'd try to post a few times so she'd have something to read since she can't go back to teaching & isn't allowed to do much aside from sit or lie down - I'm guessing it's just as frustrating as when I was limited post knee surgery.
So I don't have much to discuss today, but this morning I was busy working. Okay not lab working, but working on plane tickets. I found that Ryanair had a great sale on so I booked 2 set of tickets, Venice, Italy and Porto, Portugal.
First trip will take place October 31st to November 2nd and it's to Venice, Italy with Mindy (American mate who works for Bank of America here in London)
Second trip is November 14 - 16th to Porto, Portugal with Jaiden, John, (my Aussie mates from the pub who house sat for me) and Kaylie (Aussie mate who I met through Jaiden)
Has anyone been to either of these locations? Anyone have any recommendations for hotels, must see places, or just as important places to avoid?
Labels: future, travel
One of my life decisions has been made
for the moment at least . . . My boss asked me to stay for another year, finish off my grant & hopefully write a paper on my project & be second author on co-worker's paper - after LONG debates with myself & talking it out with family & friends from around the world (and I do mean
around the world, UK, Iraq, USA, Germany, Australia) over the past 3 weeks I've finally made the decided to accept the 2009 contract.
I know this might come as a surprise to some of you, since I was pretty dead set on coming home in December and joining the peace corps. But I really, really wanna get a paper out of this project (I've decided it's one of my "goals" - one of many things I've learned from
Zee) & it will give me a chance to look into other options before making some sort of quick decision to switch careers without balancing out all of my other options.
I just sent an email to a mate of mine in
SoCal & realised how busy my life has been over the past few months & what's still to come, here's a quick recap:
- June 19-July 14th i was state side for my dad's 70th birthday, my NU roommates wedding, visiting my sister before she moved from CT to TN, visiting my cousins & aunt who i only see once a year & going to an interview with the peace corps
- rest of July was spent working like mad for a HUGE presentation about future funding at work (see below for outcome on that one!)
- August 13th my sis arrived for 2 weeks visit
- August 15th i had my mate Jim's wedding up in Nottingham
- August 22-25 my sis & i went to Prague and met up with my dad
- August 27th - Sept 1, two of my mates who are living on a base in Germany came to visit
- Sept 1st my dad arrived for a 3 week visit
- Also on Sept 1 - my boss announced we got funding for 2009, so I'm working on getting yet another visa so i can stay till Dec 2009 :-)
Still to come on my whirlwind life is:
- Today, Sept 2nd, I'm meeting my godmother & her husband for lunch (they're in town just for a few hours)
- Sept 6th, Dad & I are off to Oxford to visit family friends for the day
- Sept 15-18th I'm in Edinburgh with my dad for a Harvard Business School reunion (his obviously not mine)
- Sept 20th I'm spear heading the 1st ever Norwich University European Alumni meeting
- Oct 1-14, I'm off to Rwanda (http://www.itafari.org/)
Aside from that life's been rather boring - HA HA HA HA - just kidding
Labels: decision, future, holidays, work
jabby, jab, jab (okay only 2 jabs & 24 pills)
But the jabs bloody hurt!!! Funny story about how I ended up getting jabs . . . I went looking for a new dress for Jim & Beck's wedding this coming Saturday since I heard that some stores had good end of summer sales on (like
Coast and
FCUK) and as they are just round the corner from work I figured I'd give it a go,
but sale prices mean they went from £145 down to £95, so in my mind it's not such a good deal, PLUS I do have a dress which I can wear :-)
On my way back to work I remembered I promised my mate Nim that I'd get her a black pashmina so I grabbed that from the street vendor outside of Russell Sqaure Station & then also remembered I needed to get my
Yellow Fever jab,
Hep A booster, & anit-malaria's before I go to Rwanda in October. Now that might seem like a bit of a random thought when shopping for dresses, but on the way to the
Brunswick Centre, there is a travel clinic attached to an
STA Travel store . . . so I popped my head in to make an appt and lucky me they had an opening immediately :-( Filled out the forms, signed my life away, got 2 jabs in my left arm, two twelve pack boxes of
Malarone, my yellow fever certificate and I was set to go. When I went to pay for all of these fun filled things, they announced I get 10% off everything in the store . . . did I need anything? NO, did I want anything? maybe . . . found the Lonely Planet Guide to Prague and picked that up since I'll be going there weekend after this one with Dad & Patty, not that 10% off a £10 book is that much, but every little bit counts!! Too bad that discount doesn't make your arm feel any better. I did read that the potential "worst" days will be from day 4 to 7, which after I'd had the jab I calculated to be Saturday through Tuesday, maybe that was poor planning on my part, but whatever, it's now done & over with & I don't have to worry about it anymore :-)
Labels: future, jabs, shopping, travel
major changes to come in june 2009
Just got an email from my Peace Corps Regional Recruiter saying she's nominated me for:
Program: Health Degreed
Region: Sub Saharan Africa
Program Info: All nominees must be learning French in preparation for service. All nominees encouraged to gain HIV/AIDS experience prior to departure.
Stage Range: June, 2009
How exciting is that?!?!?!?Aside from that my holiday thus far has been fantastic, as you know dad's party was amazing with all the people who came from all over and apparently dad must have some sort of connections with the weather gods because it didn't rain during the party times.
I left upstate NY after a visit to Saranac Lake to see my former boss for a chat at Blue Moon Cafe. It's always great to see him. He taught me a lot whilst I was working with him & then when I announced I wanted to go to grad school he stood by me 100% (even was the one who pushing towards applying to LSHTM). He's been so supportive of everything I've done since we met in June of 2001 AND a big plus he makes an effort to get together (unlike some other friends of mine who can't be arsed to make a date to meet up). Okay back to the point we met up for brunch & had a great catch up chat. I also ran into a great mate of mine Eric who just happened to be there as well. It was great to see him since he wasn't at work that day so I'd have missed him if I'd dropped by like I'd planned to. I also had the chance to see his son who was graduating from HS that day & to meet his girlfriend who I'd heard a lot about but being so far away hadn't yet gotten to meet.
After that I ran down to Scott's Florist to meet with my mate Kathy & then we went back to Blue Moon to see my mates Betty & Kate (bonus as I hadn't planned on seeing them, but news of my arrival traveled fast in such a small town). Following those chatting sessions we headed to meet my mate Dan for lunch. During which we ran into another mate of mine Kristen. Do you believe me now when I say it's not a big town? She & I had a 5 min catch up while Dan & my mom were sorting out seats & drinks. After a long lunch we walked mom's dogs & headed back home. I'd had a horrible cold & so we didn't want to stay up north too too late, plus my sis was coming back from CT & we didn't want her to arrive at an empty house.
The rest of the weekend we spent celebrating my 30th birthday, yes yes I know my b'day was in January, but since none of my family was there to celebrate with me we had it during the weekend. Mom, Patty & I went shopping in Saratoga. Auntie Ann, Patty & I went out on Schroon Lake for a few hours both days. Dad cooked dinner one night & we had homemade chocolate chunk walnut brownies with vanilla ice cream another night - YUMMMMMMMMM.
On Tuesday Patty & I headed to NYC, stopping along the way to see Paul in Westchester for lunch before hitting up Lou & Jeremy's place on W 52nd. We had a great evening with them & on Wednesday I had my interview & then Patty & I buggered outta the city (WAY too hot in NYC for me!) We met up with my best mate Kristen & her husband PJ for a wonderful Mexican dinner before driving to Patty's condo in CT.
Yesterday we woke up early got picked up my rental car, went to Lowe's & got flowers for potters & wedded her front garden area. That evening we drove to Old Saybrook for dinner with Aunt Pat & Diane at Bill's Seafood in Westport, before I headed to Wallingford to stay with my wonderful mates Anne & John. When I arrived to my surprise Katie came out to greet me, which was just awesome! She just finished her masters in May & is in limbo at the moment but we got to catch up on her internship in the Philippines. We of course couldn't shut up once we got going so we were up till 1.30am.
Today I slept in till 9am & have just been vegging out with Katie, Anne, John & Matt who arrived around 1pm. We had charcoal grilled cheeseburgers, cold slaw, potato salad, tater tots, and red/white/blue frosted cupcakes :-) Later we're going to see the fireworks.
Tomorrow I'm going to see Matt's "new" house & on Sunday I'm going to see Kev, Sylwia, Owen, Maya & Grace and best of all Sylwia, her sis & I are going out alone . . . first time ever - a girls afternoon - yeah!!!!
Hope you're all doing well & enjoying your 4th of July, I really just wanted to give you the PC update, but then figured as the Sox Yanks game had such a long rain delay I had time to give a full up to date report. That's all for now
Labels: future, holidays, jobs, peace corps
Who's ready for June?
I know the weather here is not ready for a calendar date of June first on Sunday! Where did April & May go?!?!? The weather here still feels like March, so it makes it really hard to imagine JUNE will be here on Sunday . . . time flies when you're old - I mean having fun ;-)
In other news I'm starting to plan a trip for my August bank holiday weekend - ya know that's what I do when I'm bored at work - I look up cheap flights (
LOL) - looks like
Stockholm or Budapest it will be . . . now just need to find inexpensive
accommodation & a guide book and I'll be all set - my mate Karen (who I went to Rome with in early May) will most likely be joining me on my adventures - yeah!
TGIF!!
Labels: friday, future, travel, weather
When I grow up I wanna be . . .
a question I've been asking myself a lot recently! Can I see myself doing research 30 years from now . . . not so much. Why you ask? Well to be honest I'm not totally sure, but to the best of my ability I think that I don't find it to be as rewarding as I would like it to be. I've thought about this quite a bit & asked advice from lots of my mates here in the UK and abroad. Here is the email I sent out asking for their thoughts on my thoughts:
Seem to have been bitten rather hard by a travel bug, here is the update: In May I'm off to Rome for 1st bank holiday & then to St Petersburg for 5 days at end of month, 2nd bank holiday probably going to the lake district (northern England) June 11-15th I'm in Berlin for a conference, June 19th headed home till July 12th. August 16th in Jim & Beck's wedding in Nottingham. September Dad & I are in Edinburgh, Scotland for a few days. October possibly gong to Rwanda. After that I'll be totally skint, but hopefully have cool photos & fun stories to tell from it - but don't expect any Christmas presents - LOL.
Aside from that I've got another meeting with the people who fund me on May 15th & I HAVE to prove I'm worth funding cause at the moment they want to cancel my grant in December. This being said I'm thinking more & more about not staying past December. Maybe it's the crap weather we've been having or maybe it's me finally getting "home sick" if you can call it that after nearly 3 years, but I've been thinking more & more about moving state side sooner rather than later. I'm still up in the air about what to do with "the rest of my life". I'm still in search of a possibly a new job where I feel like I'm making more of a difference. I know the possibility of me finding a cure or vaccine against the disease I work on is NOT going to happen anytime soon. Not sure that time frame is working for me - if you get my drift. It's weird, it's not that I'm not having fun here, it's just that I sorta feel like I'd like to see my family & friends more often than once a year when we're all rushed at Christmas & I have to rush to see them all in just 1 week & share them with other friends & relatives who are in the same situation (if that makes any sense). PLEASE, PLEASE don't mention this to anyone I work with or put any sort of message which could be seen by them (ie facebook), I don't want to jeopardize anything here, in case I decide to stay past December. Any thoughts???I received lots of replies, primarily saying "I will support you in whatever you feel you want to do" which was not really the answer I was looking for, but appreciate that you're being supportive in my time of need. But I did get one really really good reply, which I'll share with you now:
If it helps at all none of any of your contemporaries back here seem to know what they want to do either; K and M want desperately to move back up north but M hasn't received any job offers yet and is making great money working here. K.......well you know. S can't decide if he should stay with NYPD or move back to CT to work in Manchester or East Hartford, etc. TM likes working and living in Boston but now his wife wants to move back to Oregon and T wants to live in VT. I can't decide if I want to take a job with our plain clothes investigative unit, move up north, join our SWAT unit, stay where I am, etc. JC doesn't know what he wants to do other than he is enjoying teaching. WR wanted to build a house in Keene Valley, but then he decided he would go live in Utah for six months and we haven't seen him since.If it helps the decision making process at all TW is about to get a job with NYPD so I'd say living in the city is a bad idea on the grounds alone that they are going to give that little goofball a gun.
So that's where it seems we all are. Never happy or content with ourselves and I don't think we would have it any other way. I will say this though I love my job and look forward to going to work everyday and I don't see that changing anytime soon so you see it's not really work at all. Beyond any advice I could give you about being home sick and away from friends and family I would offer that you should make sure you are still happy with your career. If not than you definitely need a change. As far as friends and family go I'm sure we'll always be "around".
Enjoy the travel and keep me posted on what's new.
-pjcThis mate of mine always has an excellent perspective to give. He was the one who when I wasn't sure what to think after my parents got divorced & I was feeling really lost said to me, "Sara, they did what they thought was best for you & Patty at the time. They never intended on hurting you - any lies that were told were said with the best intention . . . and look at you both now - turned out pretty well in my opinion." He was right then and once again he's hit the nail on the head. I'm not so much missing my friends & family as they're always "around". I'm not lacking in friends in the UK - I'm just lacking in my job. So back to the drawing board I go . . . where it will lead I don't know. What I have figured out is I want a job where I feel like I'm making more of an impact. No I don't want to save the world or get a Nobel prize (I mean those would be nice, but a bit out of reach of reality). I just think a job where I feel there is more reward is what I'm leaning towards. Teachers can see their students learning. Cops arrest "bad guys" and help little old ladies. Plumbers fix leaking pipes for people. I LOVED working at boy scout camp - I helped scouts to learn leather work, woodworking, and how to ride a horse. Since then I haven't felt like someone has benefited from the research I've done - I know small steps have been made, but given the choice I'd prefer a larger step be made & seen my me. So I'm going to keep mulling this over in my head & see what I come up with. Maybe even try to speak with a life coach or do some sort of aptitude testing - who know . . .
Any comments/questions/advice is more than welcome.
Labels: advice, feelings, friends, future, jobs, thoughts, unknown
