I think the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills) should be renamed to the ITBS(I Think Bryan's Sick) because wow...I have been sick for the last 2 days and it was bad. So here's the story. Monday, I went to school feeling just fine, had a professional development training afterwards to go to until 4:30 and then after that, went out to tennis. While out at tennis, I felt really exhausted...but thought it was just because of the heat. So I came home at 5:30 and took a shower, and was really really tired, so I thought, "I'll just take a nap." So I fell asleep around 5:45 and didn't wake up until 6:00 AM. When I woke up, I thought, "hmmmm...that's odd. I just got 12 hours of sleep! So I got up to go and make a nice breakfast for Kara and I since I had the time. I went out to the kitchen, got a drink of apple juice. Went into the bathroom to run a shower, and that's when it hit. I fet soooo tired and I got really nauseaus. I thought I was going to pass out, and then I proceeded to...well...I won't go into those details because, well, let me just say I won't be drinking apple juice anytime soon.
So I knew then that something was wrong. Naturally, Kara came in to see if I was okay, and I wasn't, I was sweating like crazy, really achy, and just not doing well, so I went back into bed and she called in sick for me. Luckily, we're taking the ITBS test all week, so I didn't have to worry about major sub plans, so I was able to sleep and rest more. So I rested...and rested...went to the doctor somewhere in between resting...and basically slept all day yesterday. Went to bed at 9 last night, woke up at 9 this morning...still resting at 10:38. I think I got hit with...big money...c'mon....big money...and STOP...A DOUBLE WHAMMY. Do you remember that game? I think it's called, Press Your Luck...reminds me of my Grandma Handley. Anyways, yeah, I think I got hit with both a cold and a bacterial infection. So I'm coughing, sneezing, throwing up, and you know, the other stuff. So...that's what I've been up to...just recovering. As long as it's not Malaria, I'm fine. I have to admit I was worried for a little bit yesterday, but have been taking my malaria medication so it would have been pretty wild if I got Malaria.
So anyways, thought I would share that with you. Oh...in other news...I hear the recruiting video I worked tirelessly on for the past few weeks is available for download at www.aislagos.com. I guess it's somewhere in the employment tab or something, so go check it out! I don't think they have the AIS Cribs on there yet and that's by far the best part of the video. Check it out if you get a chance.
I hope you enjoyed! I'm going back to sleep. Byebye.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Just a random blog
So last night, I decided not to watch the playoffs. I can't even stand that the Seahawks were knocked out by the Bears. I have a lot of respect for the Bears, but c'mon...Da Bears? On another note, we wanted to say hello to everybody. We haven't been able to access too much of the internet lately; they have this new web filter on our network, so we're on lockdown. They've actually fixed it recently so that we can get on Skype and things like that only after 4:00. So anyways...we'd also like to say "Happy Birthday" to my mom - the BIG 5-0 on January 23rd! Whoo hooo. Finals were last week and so we were pretty slammed with those and grades are due this Wednesday so I'll be cramming those in when I get a chance. In between finals, grading, and everything else, I've been working on the Recruiting Video non-stop. It's coming along very nicely and that's due on Wednesday as well. When I'm done with that, it'll be a nice break from the post-school-day job (Been going strong for 2 months now on this video). Hope everybody is well and we'll talk with you soon!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Our trip in a really big nutshell
Alright, so we're back! We made it. Our Voyage was Bon (French?). We had an amazing time and would like to talk about some of the highlights from our trip so here it is in a nutshell...a really really big nutshell. If you have an hour, read this now. If you don't have an hour, print it out and read it when you have little bits of time. It's really long so take your time and enjoy. If we looked really tired over break, here's why! We really had a good time and thank you to everybody who took the time to see us or went out of their way to see us, that was really great.
For those of you who we didn't get to see over the break (all 2 of you), here's a quick run-down of what we did.
Dec. 15th;
4:10 P.M. - Left AISL for the airport. Strangely enough, our flight left at 11:00 P.M. and so I wondered why we would leave roughly 7 hours before take-off. We would soon find out.
6:10 P.M. - After 2 hours, 5 bags of plantain chips purchased in the Go-Slows, and one mean hand-carved game of Mancala bartered for from the bus, I found out how long it can take to get 20 miles in Lagos as we arrive at the airport.
8:10 P.M. - After waiting in the baggage check line, which is actually a "thorough search and seizure of anything super valuable in your bag" check line for an hour or so, we make it through the security checks and get to wait in the lobby of the airport while millions of expat children without nannies were running wild.
10:00 P.M. - Our flight was supposed to leave at this time...but nothing ever leaves on-time in Nigeria. (Another note, worthy of attention - In the US, you board from the back of the plane forward, so they usually seat first class, then start the regular passengers. Nope, not in Nigeria. They give you colored cards and seat you by color, but apparently that doesn't matter either. It's "everybody pile up against the jetway and not listen to a single word the airline attendants say and just hope they go away while we pile around them" seating.)
Dec 16th -
5:30 A.M. - Arrive in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We have a 7 hour lay-over so we decide with the Rainbolts, Westerburs, and Maria Ridenour, to go into Amsterdam and eat some breakfast.
11:00 A.M. - Get back to Schipol-Amsterdam International and find out our flight was delayed until Sunday which really irked us because we were so excited to get home.
3:00 P.M. - After getting our free hotel arrangements made, eating a Big Mac, and finding our luggage lockers (which took an hour to locate) so that we could get our carry-on stuff, we made it to our hotel.
4:00 P.M. - Shower and a nap
8:00 P.M. - Wake up and eat with the Rainbolts and M. Ridenour
10:00 - Went to bed.
Dec. 17th -
5:30 A.M. - Woke up and got ready to fly
6:00 A.M. - Got to the airport and made it through the checkpoints without problem. I would like to add that the day before, we had our passport stamped a good 6 times as we left the airport, re-entered, left again, and then this morning, re-checked in for our flight.
9:00 A.M. - Finally, we leave Amsterdam on our 10 hour flight back to Seattle.
10:30 A.M. - Make it through Customs at Sea-Tac in record time, get to the baggage claim to crying mothers and happy fathers and sisters and of course, our dog King was waiting for us in the parking garage in our car!! Talk about a great homecoming. We weren't super tired, so we went to go see our neice and nephew, Anna and JB sing in their Church play and it was just awesome!! We were so proud.
At this point, I'm not going to hour-by-hour describe the trip as it was merely for effect earlier to emphasize how grueling the first part of our trip was.
Seeing our family was a pretty exhilirating experience as was the entire flight home just waiting to see them. Neither of us slept a wink and hoped to power through that first day home. When we got home, we had jackets waiting for us as we had just made the transition from 33 degrees Celsius to 33 degrees farenheit in less than 24 hours. It was really cold to put it bluntly. We didn't have any cell phones, so we decided to drive down to Kara's parents place and back up to my parents place that night and we were successful; helping us to power through the rest of that first day back.
Dec 18th, 2006 - I had my last immunization! Whoo hooo. Then we went to Sumner High to see my sister teach and get 1500 Naira stolen from us...BAD SUMNER KIDS.
Dec 19th, 2006 - My dad's and John Wright's birthday. We celebrated that night. Kara would like you to know that she got her hair done that day...she was so happy!
Dec 20th - We made it to Mt. Tahoma this morning to see our old students and colleagues and it was just a great welcoming by all of the above. We really enjoyed ourselves, and Kara then went to hang out with Andrea Parker and had a great day. I hung out at the 'rents place all day and just relaxed! That night, we went to the Bakke's place and had Christmas with their entire family and shared stories and presents. It was a really nice night.
Dec 21st - Kara hung out all day with Jen in Seattle and I did a bunch of Christmas shopping. That night...I don't know what I did, but it wasn't much!
Dec 22nd - This morning we ate breakfast with a couple of former students, Kim, Catie, and Tabethia. It was fun to hear stories from their experiences in college, work, etc.
Dec. 23rd - Went down to Kara's parents' place, but before that, went to Kits Camera's to pick up one mondo 200mm-500mm lens for our safari we're planning on in April. When we got down to John and Pam's we waited for Dave and Andrea to get there so we could eat Swiss Fondue...a Haberlin family tradition and of course, one of my favorite family traditions as well now. P.S. If I could have this every night and not have to worry about dying from way too much cholesterol, I would.
Dec. 24th - I don't even want to talk about this day - The Seahawks lost and we were there...enough said. When we got back to my parents' place, my dad's side of the family was there and so we had our Christmas Eve dinner and hung out with the Slater side of the family. I got a great gift card to Best Buy, and Kara got some starbucks coffee stuff. It was cool to see the family and show them pictures of our trip and also to give Tammie her wine ornament thingee.
Dec. 25th - CHRISTMAS!!! OOOOh, I love Christmas, and Santa was SO GOOD to us this year. We thank everybody for those and are truly appreciative of them. Favorite gifts - Kara - Her new watch, a great super-soft robe, her #12 Seahawks Jersey Bryan - My I-Pod player, the office Seasons 1 and 2, and the box of beef jerky to bring back to Nigeria, the laser pointer pen, the Jelly Belly bin, gift card to Simon retailers, Picture frames with pictures of Kara's side of the family including a great picture of Kara and I at our wedding, and pretty much everything else, it was an amazing Christmas. This evening, my mom's side of the family came over and it was a blast! We were really excited to see Shane and Mandy (Who drove clear from Spokane to be at the party and left early in the morning) Trevor, Dana, and Camryn (could she get any more adoreable?), Uncle Mike sans new girlfriend Young Kim who we have yet to meet. My uncle Mike is currently watching the very spoiled, extremely overweight son/cat of Kara and mine, Julio. He's not big-boned, he's just fat. Uncle Larry and Jeff came and it was great to see Larry up to his usual harassing of my mom for the #12 Seahawks bag they got with their season tickets. He'd been working 17 hour days since the major storm so it was good to see him on one of his few days off. We also saw Jodi, Nick, and Andrew and were going to have to wait until the 2nd of Jan to see Alex, but looked forward to that. Megan's boyfriend Neal(who moved up from pending to approved status that morning with our cool teaching book he got us) stopped by and spoiled my sister even more than she already is already by getting her a Coach wristlet (I didn't know what it was either) and some shoes. Spoiled!
Dec. 26th - Haberlin Family Christmas. It was so great to see all of our Neices and Nephews...we had been looking forward to this day since August 7th of this year when we had to leave. The kids are getting so big and Ben was a little apprehensive about me holding him so I didn't get to bond too much with him, but it sure was great watching him walk, and listening to Jessie's stories and playing laser tag with JB and watching Anna play with her American Doll bed stuff. We ate well, having Prime Rib (which made it two nights in a row) and playing Nintendo DS, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and passing the time in enjoyment. This is exactly why we came home!
Dec. 27th - Alright, we realized our time was winding down at this point but continued to make the best of our time. We met up with Eric and Boo this evening for dinner at Claim Jumpers, updates on their two new children who are now officially Bakke's as per the courts. We then went to that new Will Smith movie which was AWESOME, Pursuit of Happyness (yes, that's how it's spelled).
Dec. 28th - Kara hung out with her mom in Seattle all day, and I played video games with the guys (Josh and Dave) ALL DAY LONG...and it was AWEEEESOME. Thanks guys.
Dec. 29th - This evening, we hung out with the Haberlin's and Wrights before they left for Florida. It was another enjoyable evening with the neices, nephews, and brothers and sisters.
Dec. 30th - Went down to Kara's parents' place and relaxed...peace and quiet...very little movement on our part, just quiet, 6 acres of peace.
Dec. 31st - New Years Eve, we (Kara, myself and Dave) went to Josh O'brien and Rency's place and caught up with a ton of our friends from Spanaway. It was so fun, after that we went to my cousin Shane and Mandy's place and had our first kiss of the New Year and first New Years kiss of our married lives at the stroke of midnight!! The neighbors were blowing off fireworks so we went out and celebrated with them and made as much raquet as possible to let everybody know we were happy to start the new year.
Jan 1st - Slept in today, were supposed to go to North Bend and only made it to the Auburn Supermall and got some cool stuff and ran into who of all people but my Uncle Mike!! We still didn't get to meet Young Kim as she was shopping in the Nordstrom's Rack and there was no way I was going in there again after being in their when we arrived and getting lost in the sea of shoes and women's clothing. The funny thing was we went to this imported from Africa store and saw things that we could buy for 20 dollars over here selling for hundreds. These guys are making a killing over there! P.S. I made the best chili ever for dinner this night. YUM.
Jan 2nd - Busy day started with going to Mexican with our cousin Alex, seeing Julio our FAT cat, seeing Uncle Mike (2 days in a row!!), Going to Cold Stone Creamery (awesome), and then off to Ms. Gill's house for dinner with our former administrators from MTHS. It was a long, but really fun day, we left my parents' house at 11:30 am and didn't get back till 10:30 pm.
Jan 3rd - Started this morning off with Robert and Denise Erechar having breakfast with them. It was so good to see them before we left. We also said our goodbye's to my family and made our way south to Rochester to spend the last few days at Kara's parents' place. That night, we got to see Dave one more time and just generally spent the evening with family and friends. This was one of the tougher days of the trip, but also what we signed up for when we took the job and decided to come home for Christmas, so we dealt with it and took it in stride. Still a really hard thing to do.
Jan 4th - Went down to Kara's parents house after a morning of errands including getting all of our prescriptions filled (which was a huge pain with Tacoma School District being closed for what seemed like every day over break. Since when do the big wigs up at the district office get days off like teachers?) Anyways, today was probably the hardest for both of us because we had to drop King off at my parents' place and he didn't want us to go. We were petting him and he put his paw up on our arms as if to say, "Nope...not this time." So yeah...talk about a tough one. That night we packed, ate a GREAT dinner at the Ram with Kara's parents, got some shopping done for last minute things we hadn't purchased yet, packed, and watched The Office which is the single greatest show of all time. I don't care what you think really, I don't think it's humanly possible to watch season 1 on DVD of that show, and not be hooked. If you don't believe me, try it. Season 2 is on DVD at Best Buy also, so when you get hooked, you'll have 26 more episodes to watch.
Jan 5th - Back to the airport...ugh. Fiasco city. We got there with 3 hours till our flight. It took every minute to get to the terminal. We got stuck with some guy named Don from Northwest who refused to check our 5th bag of luggage that we purposely made a point to request earlier this year. Seems KLM and NW, the "Skyteam Alliance" isn't so allied and forgot to communicate to each other that we were going to Lagos, not Amsterdam. So our 5th piece of luggage was only guaranteed to get to Amsterdam. Now you would think that if the luggage was tagged to LOS (Lagos), it would make it there. But Don seemed to think that the guys who put the luggage on the plane were going to count everybody's luggage, and regardless of what the tag said, take off their 5th piece. I told Don to tag it but he wanted to drag the process on for an hour or so. Finally a supervisor told him to, and he did, but not before telling us that the baggage guys were going to make sure that our luggage would be left in Amsterdam and we'd have to find another way to get it from Amsterdam to Lagos. What a liar. But for 26 hours we were stressed that our luggage would not make it to Lagos.
Saturday night - We got into Lagos around 7:30 P.M. or so and from there fought our way through the airport, waited an hour for our bags, fought our way out of the airport, almost got hit by cars, fought our way through the parking lot, almost got hit by cars, fought our way to the bus, had to convince a guy with no legs that I could take care of my own luggage and didn't need him to carry it for me, and finally, made it onto the bus at 8:30 or so. 45 minutes later, we were safe in the comfort of our flat, unpacking all of our cool new stuff, and getting situated. We made it home and it felt good. We stayed up for a few hours, trying to adjust to the time, and fell asleep around midnight.
Sunday morning- I woke up around 4:30 to listen to the last 2 minutes of the Seahawks game (AWESOME VICTORY!), and then fell back asleep only to wake up again at 7:30 at which time I went in to work. I got a ton done and adjusted very well to the time difference. We hired a driver and will see him for his first day of work on Tuesday. All in all, it was an amazing vacation. By the end of Sunday, I was good to go, Kara was still adjusting a little, but on the whole, was doing alright. Fell asleep at 8:30 and woke up on Monday and went to work!
So that was our trip, in a nutshell!! I hope you enjoyed the reading. We'll talk to you again soon!
For those of you who we didn't get to see over the break (all 2 of you), here's a quick run-down of what we did.
Dec. 15th;
4:10 P.M. - Left AISL for the airport. Strangely enough, our flight left at 11:00 P.M. and so I wondered why we would leave roughly 7 hours before take-off. We would soon find out.
6:10 P.M. - After 2 hours, 5 bags of plantain chips purchased in the Go-Slows, and one mean hand-carved game of Mancala bartered for from the bus, I found out how long it can take to get 20 miles in Lagos as we arrive at the airport.
8:10 P.M. - After waiting in the baggage check line, which is actually a "thorough search and seizure of anything super valuable in your bag" check line for an hour or so, we make it through the security checks and get to wait in the lobby of the airport while millions of expat children without nannies were running wild.
10:00 P.M. - Our flight was supposed to leave at this time...but nothing ever leaves on-time in Nigeria. (Another note, worthy of attention - In the US, you board from the back of the plane forward, so they usually seat first class, then start the regular passengers. Nope, not in Nigeria. They give you colored cards and seat you by color, but apparently that doesn't matter either. It's "everybody pile up against the jetway and not listen to a single word the airline attendants say and just hope they go away while we pile around them" seating.)
Dec 16th -
5:30 A.M. - Arrive in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We have a 7 hour lay-over so we decide with the Rainbolts, Westerburs, and Maria Ridenour, to go into Amsterdam and eat some breakfast.
11:00 A.M. - Get back to Schipol-Amsterdam International and find out our flight was delayed until Sunday which really irked us because we were so excited to get home.
3:00 P.M. - After getting our free hotel arrangements made, eating a Big Mac, and finding our luggage lockers (which took an hour to locate) so that we could get our carry-on stuff, we made it to our hotel.
4:00 P.M. - Shower and a nap
8:00 P.M. - Wake up and eat with the Rainbolts and M. Ridenour
10:00 - Went to bed.
Dec. 17th -
5:30 A.M. - Woke up and got ready to fly
6:00 A.M. - Got to the airport and made it through the checkpoints without problem. I would like to add that the day before, we had our passport stamped a good 6 times as we left the airport, re-entered, left again, and then this morning, re-checked in for our flight.
9:00 A.M. - Finally, we leave Amsterdam on our 10 hour flight back to Seattle.
10:30 A.M. - Make it through Customs at Sea-Tac in record time, get to the baggage claim to crying mothers and happy fathers and sisters and of course, our dog King was waiting for us in the parking garage in our car!! Talk about a great homecoming. We weren't super tired, so we went to go see our neice and nephew, Anna and JB sing in their Church play and it was just awesome!! We were so proud.
At this point, I'm not going to hour-by-hour describe the trip as it was merely for effect earlier to emphasize how grueling the first part of our trip was.
Seeing our family was a pretty exhilirating experience as was the entire flight home just waiting to see them. Neither of us slept a wink and hoped to power through that first day home. When we got home, we had jackets waiting for us as we had just made the transition from 33 degrees Celsius to 33 degrees farenheit in less than 24 hours. It was really cold to put it bluntly. We didn't have any cell phones, so we decided to drive down to Kara's parents place and back up to my parents place that night and we were successful; helping us to power through the rest of that first day back.
Dec 18th, 2006 - I had my last immunization! Whoo hooo. Then we went to Sumner High to see my sister teach and get 1500 Naira stolen from us...BAD SUMNER KIDS.
Dec 19th, 2006 - My dad's and John Wright's birthday. We celebrated that night. Kara would like you to know that she got her hair done that day...she was so happy!
Dec 20th - We made it to Mt. Tahoma this morning to see our old students and colleagues and it was just a great welcoming by all of the above. We really enjoyed ourselves, and Kara then went to hang out with Andrea Parker and had a great day. I hung out at the 'rents place all day and just relaxed! That night, we went to the Bakke's place and had Christmas with their entire family and shared stories and presents. It was a really nice night.
Dec 21st - Kara hung out all day with Jen in Seattle and I did a bunch of Christmas shopping. That night...I don't know what I did, but it wasn't much!
Dec 22nd - This morning we ate breakfast with a couple of former students, Kim, Catie, and Tabethia. It was fun to hear stories from their experiences in college, work, etc.
Dec. 23rd - Went down to Kara's parents' place, but before that, went to Kits Camera's to pick up one mondo 200mm-500mm lens for our safari we're planning on in April. When we got down to John and Pam's we waited for Dave and Andrea to get there so we could eat Swiss Fondue...a Haberlin family tradition and of course, one of my favorite family traditions as well now. P.S. If I could have this every night and not have to worry about dying from way too much cholesterol, I would.
Dec. 24th - I don't even want to talk about this day - The Seahawks lost and we were there...enough said. When we got back to my parents' place, my dad's side of the family was there and so we had our Christmas Eve dinner and hung out with the Slater side of the family. I got a great gift card to Best Buy, and Kara got some starbucks coffee stuff. It was cool to see the family and show them pictures of our trip and also to give Tammie her wine ornament thingee.
Dec. 25th - CHRISTMAS!!! OOOOh, I love Christmas, and Santa was SO GOOD to us this year. We thank everybody for those and are truly appreciative of them. Favorite gifts - Kara - Her new watch, a great super-soft robe, her #12 Seahawks Jersey Bryan - My I-Pod player, the office Seasons 1 and 2, and the box of beef jerky to bring back to Nigeria, the laser pointer pen, the Jelly Belly bin, gift card to Simon retailers, Picture frames with pictures of Kara's side of the family including a great picture of Kara and I at our wedding, and pretty much everything else, it was an amazing Christmas. This evening, my mom's side of the family came over and it was a blast! We were really excited to see Shane and Mandy (Who drove clear from Spokane to be at the party and left early in the morning) Trevor, Dana, and Camryn (could she get any more adoreable?), Uncle Mike sans new girlfriend Young Kim who we have yet to meet. My uncle Mike is currently watching the very spoiled, extremely overweight son/cat of Kara and mine, Julio. He's not big-boned, he's just fat. Uncle Larry and Jeff came and it was great to see Larry up to his usual harassing of my mom for the #12 Seahawks bag they got with their season tickets. He'd been working 17 hour days since the major storm so it was good to see him on one of his few days off. We also saw Jodi, Nick, and Andrew and were going to have to wait until the 2nd of Jan to see Alex, but looked forward to that. Megan's boyfriend Neal(who moved up from pending to approved status that morning with our cool teaching book he got us) stopped by and spoiled my sister even more than she already is already by getting her a Coach wristlet (I didn't know what it was either) and some shoes. Spoiled!
Dec. 26th - Haberlin Family Christmas. It was so great to see all of our Neices and Nephews...we had been looking forward to this day since August 7th of this year when we had to leave. The kids are getting so big and Ben was a little apprehensive about me holding him so I didn't get to bond too much with him, but it sure was great watching him walk, and listening to Jessie's stories and playing laser tag with JB and watching Anna play with her American Doll bed stuff. We ate well, having Prime Rib (which made it two nights in a row) and playing Nintendo DS, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and passing the time in enjoyment. This is exactly why we came home!
Dec. 27th - Alright, we realized our time was winding down at this point but continued to make the best of our time. We met up with Eric and Boo this evening for dinner at Claim Jumpers, updates on their two new children who are now officially Bakke's as per the courts. We then went to that new Will Smith movie which was AWESOME, Pursuit of Happyness (yes, that's how it's spelled).
Dec. 28th - Kara hung out with her mom in Seattle all day, and I played video games with the guys (Josh and Dave) ALL DAY LONG...and it was AWEEEESOME. Thanks guys.
Dec. 29th - This evening, we hung out with the Haberlin's and Wrights before they left for Florida. It was another enjoyable evening with the neices, nephews, and brothers and sisters.
Dec. 30th - Went down to Kara's parents' place and relaxed...peace and quiet...very little movement on our part, just quiet, 6 acres of peace.
Dec. 31st - New Years Eve, we (Kara, myself and Dave) went to Josh O'brien and Rency's place and caught up with a ton of our friends from Spanaway. It was so fun, after that we went to my cousin Shane and Mandy's place and had our first kiss of the New Year and first New Years kiss of our married lives at the stroke of midnight!! The neighbors were blowing off fireworks so we went out and celebrated with them and made as much raquet as possible to let everybody know we were happy to start the new year.
Jan 1st - Slept in today, were supposed to go to North Bend and only made it to the Auburn Supermall and got some cool stuff and ran into who of all people but my Uncle Mike!! We still didn't get to meet Young Kim as she was shopping in the Nordstrom's Rack and there was no way I was going in there again after being in their when we arrived and getting lost in the sea of shoes and women's clothing. The funny thing was we went to this imported from Africa store and saw things that we could buy for 20 dollars over here selling for hundreds. These guys are making a killing over there! P.S. I made the best chili ever for dinner this night. YUM.
Jan 2nd - Busy day started with going to Mexican with our cousin Alex, seeing Julio our FAT cat, seeing Uncle Mike (2 days in a row!!), Going to Cold Stone Creamery (awesome), and then off to Ms. Gill's house for dinner with our former administrators from MTHS. It was a long, but really fun day, we left my parents' house at 11:30 am and didn't get back till 10:30 pm.
Jan 3rd - Started this morning off with Robert and Denise Erechar having breakfast with them. It was so good to see them before we left. We also said our goodbye's to my family and made our way south to Rochester to spend the last few days at Kara's parents' place. That night, we got to see Dave one more time and just generally spent the evening with family and friends. This was one of the tougher days of the trip, but also what we signed up for when we took the job and decided to come home for Christmas, so we dealt with it and took it in stride. Still a really hard thing to do.
Jan 4th - Went down to Kara's parents house after a morning of errands including getting all of our prescriptions filled (which was a huge pain with Tacoma School District being closed for what seemed like every day over break. Since when do the big wigs up at the district office get days off like teachers?) Anyways, today was probably the hardest for both of us because we had to drop King off at my parents' place and he didn't want us to go. We were petting him and he put his paw up on our arms as if to say, "Nope...not this time." So yeah...talk about a tough one. That night we packed, ate a GREAT dinner at the Ram with Kara's parents, got some shopping done for last minute things we hadn't purchased yet, packed, and watched The Office which is the single greatest show of all time. I don't care what you think really, I don't think it's humanly possible to watch season 1 on DVD of that show, and not be hooked. If you don't believe me, try it. Season 2 is on DVD at Best Buy also, so when you get hooked, you'll have 26 more episodes to watch.
Jan 5th - Back to the airport...ugh. Fiasco city. We got there with 3 hours till our flight. It took every minute to get to the terminal. We got stuck with some guy named Don from Northwest who refused to check our 5th bag of luggage that we purposely made a point to request earlier this year. Seems KLM and NW, the "Skyteam Alliance" isn't so allied and forgot to communicate to each other that we were going to Lagos, not Amsterdam. So our 5th piece of luggage was only guaranteed to get to Amsterdam. Now you would think that if the luggage was tagged to LOS (Lagos), it would make it there. But Don seemed to think that the guys who put the luggage on the plane were going to count everybody's luggage, and regardless of what the tag said, take off their 5th piece. I told Don to tag it but he wanted to drag the process on for an hour or so. Finally a supervisor told him to, and he did, but not before telling us that the baggage guys were going to make sure that our luggage would be left in Amsterdam and we'd have to find another way to get it from Amsterdam to Lagos. What a liar. But for 26 hours we were stressed that our luggage would not make it to Lagos.
Saturday night - We got into Lagos around 7:30 P.M. or so and from there fought our way through the airport, waited an hour for our bags, fought our way out of the airport, almost got hit by cars, fought our way through the parking lot, almost got hit by cars, fought our way to the bus, had to convince a guy with no legs that I could take care of my own luggage and didn't need him to carry it for me, and finally, made it onto the bus at 8:30 or so. 45 minutes later, we were safe in the comfort of our flat, unpacking all of our cool new stuff, and getting situated. We made it home and it felt good. We stayed up for a few hours, trying to adjust to the time, and fell asleep around midnight.
Sunday morning- I woke up around 4:30 to listen to the last 2 minutes of the Seahawks game (AWESOME VICTORY!), and then fell back asleep only to wake up again at 7:30 at which time I went in to work. I got a ton done and adjusted very well to the time difference. We hired a driver and will see him for his first day of work on Tuesday. All in all, it was an amazing vacation. By the end of Sunday, I was good to go, Kara was still adjusting a little, but on the whole, was doing alright. Fell asleep at 8:30 and woke up on Monday and went to work!
So that was our trip, in a nutshell!! I hope you enjoyed the reading. We'll talk to you again soon!
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