Sunday, January 30, 2011

Around the world in 18 days...

Dear hecklers, you know who you are, I haven't been posting in my bloggy blog, because I'm way cooler than you and have been traveling. Also, China blocks blogs - so there's that too. Anyways, here's your update. Enjoy.


Christmas
Coming in to Christmas was a little rocky. I know I'm a big girl and everything, but this is the first Christmas I've spent away from home. And, at home we have a very specific way of celebrating Christmas. And, there was no way I was going to be able to replicate that this year. It wasn't home, but it was still good. Christmas Eve I started out getting drinks with friends, which turned into a Christmas part back at my apartment. Small, crowded, and very boozy. I opened presents with my parents over Skype, put present under our Christmas tree (both compliments of my ridiculous (wonderful) parents), and finally kicked the last guest out of the apartment around 4:30am. On Christmas morning I went and made eggnog with a foodie friend, although I ended up skipping the party at which it was present. Then came home, opened presents with the roomies, and watched movies all day long. It was glorious. My favorite part of the whole holiday was late on Christmas Eve after I had placed the present from my parents to my roommates under the tree. I thought that those would be the only presents for anyone, but more and more just kept showing up. Some from Tomas, my roommate and teammate, some from Ula and Sylwia, "the Polish girls". It was great to see Santa at work so far from home.

New Years
This one passed relatively quietly over a 13 hour movie marathon. Hooray movies!

Although the fun thing about both Christmas and New Year's is that the Mongolians claim that they don't celebrate Christmas, but there are Christmas decorations and trees, and Santas everywhere! But, if you ask a Mongolia what they're for, they're respond "New Years." They are "New Year's Trees" And, every time I would think. "No, you silly Mongolia, there are no trees on New Year's. Those are CHRISTMAS trees..." Oh well.

Conference
After 3 months of planning, and a lot of blood and sweat (not so many tears, that's an AIESEC China thing...) we pulled it off. 3 days of trainings, dancing, companies, and scant potty breaks. The facilitators did a great job, the organizing committee pulled it together and did a fantastic job, and of course, the delegates were wonderful. AIESEC Mongolia has officially had it's first AIESEC conference. And, it went over very well. I'm so proud of my AIESECers taking responsibility and changing their reality. You go guys! Like my gramma said, "So, you're changing lives and stuff, huh." Yeah, gram, I am. It's okay, they're changing mine too.

Italy
Yum.
I finally got to see my parents for the first time in 7 months, and we didn't even kill each other. Hooray! And, I didn't kill them, even if I did have to play tour guide for a week. Silly parents.
We covered Vicenza, Rome, and Venice. Mostly we just hung out in Vicenza I got a healthy dose of all of the *wonderful* things about American culture on the Army base, and decided I don't need that again for a while. But, Peggy (family friend) was great in putting up with us and sending us on our way. Thanks Peg!
After a few days we drove down to Rome and stayed in a little bitty hotel right.next.to the Vatican. Seriously, I could have spit on the outer wall of the Vatican. If, ya know, I wanted to go to hell. Did Vatican Museums (and didn't get lost this time)and saw a bunch of stuff. The best (new) was Rafael and the School of Athens. Suhweet. Sistine Chapel is always awesome. Actually got to walk by JPII's tomb this time, but it was quick because there were a BUNCH of nuns praying at him and I didn't want to block their prayers... Day 2 in Rome was spent walking the whole city from Vatican to Coliseum to Trevi Fountain to Santa Maria della Vittoria. Got to see the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. So. Awesome. Her with her tricksy little cherub. Then back to Vicenza for a night to regroup and on to Venice. Sigh. Mostly we just wandered around the city. Spent some time on Murano looking at glass. Skip the glass museum if you have the opportunity - so not worth it. But, I did finally find a statue that I've been looking for all three times I've been to Venice. Not a well known one, just a simple statue of a dude sitting on a stack of books - it was in a book I read a while back. So, win for me. And, finally got to go into San Marco. So, obnoxiously golden. And, the originally horses are inside, upstairs. So cool, so. cool.
I've also decided that I way prefer to be an off-season traveler. Way less tourists, lines, etc. Better for sightseeing, better for moods.
After a few days in Venice it was time to take off and start the second leg of my journey.

Shanghai
I guess when you travel a lot you can eventually expect something to go wrong or weird. Lost baggage, irritating passengers, mechanical issues - eventually you run into something. Well, I certainly did on the way to Shanghai. (And, I'm not just talking about the smelly dude I had to sit next to for 10 hours to Beijing. He smelled homeless, honestly. And, he had terrible breath...) No, when I finally got to Beijing and got on my flight to Shanghai, that's where the fun started. So, we're sitting on the runway waiting to take off when the voice of god (or an attendant) comes of the speaker announcing that due to mechanical difficulties we are taxing back to the gate. They offload all 300-400 of us back to the terminal to wait for further instructions. Lots of angry Chinese people are yelling angrily in Chinese. (A very scary noise for you who haven't heard it. Almost as scary as Nigerian accents. Actually, I think the worst would be an angry Nigerian yelling in Chinese.) After about 45 minutes they herd us back on the bus to get back on the plane. And, I'm pretty sure it was the same we're-having-issues plane we were on before. But, we're still not leaving. After a while, god comes back on saying that there is an issue with a passenger and the police are on their way. Oh good. It turns out that one of the angry, yelling men was also and angry, punching man. Someone punched a security guard and was in custody. The kicker, needs-anger-management wanted to get back on the plane and all of the attendants were flipping their shit because they didn't want him on board. Duh. HE PUNCHED A SECURITY GUARD. You can't punch security guards. That's against the rules. Anyways, I think they finally came to a decision that he couldn't get back on the plane and we left for Shanghai. Three hours late. No big deal.
Being in Shanghai at the conference was cool. It was the most relaxing AIESEC conference I've been at but, I was also sick and dying for most of it so whatever. Yay fever! My body got significantly happier when I told it that I was bringing it back to Mongolia. Silly body. Don't you know there's smog and cold here?

Anyways, I'm back to the land of smog and ice now. Hooray! Back to work! Which I'm actually very excited about. There's a lot to get accomplished in the next few months before we move on to different things. For me, that will mean moving to Australia to work for AIESEC there. I'll be based in Sydney, but I'll get the chance to travel a bit. (And, if I can swing it International Congress in Kenya...but I'm not counting that egg yet).

There, that should keep you kids busy for a while. :)