oh, how we loooooved this place

cinque terre turned out to be one of our very favorite parts of our whole trip. it was AMAZING. here is why: cinque terre is a series of 5 small villages built right on the coast. these villages are so small that there are no cars- which, if you think about it, seriously limits what you can do in a town. the houses are built into the cliffs so everywhere you go, you climb staircase after staircase to get there. the sand is emerald green, the beaches require little-to-no swimsuits and the people are all so happy.

we took a litle train from pisa to the last of the 5 towns and set out to find a place to stay. this was impossible because we had no reservations and august is the peak of high season traveling for europeans- plus the towns are so small, you can only cram so many people in one closet. after much sweating and searching, we finally found a nice place to stay right in monterosso. we ate pizza on the beach and just spent the night soaking it all in and preparing for our hike the next day.
the hike of cinque terre takes you through all 5 villages, and it's not the easiest hike- as it is full of stairs and switchbacks that take you up one mountain and down another..repeat, repeat. the guide book says that a fast hike from beginning to end without stopping would take about 5 hours; however, knowing that we wanted to stop, swim, eat and enjoy each little town, cade and i planned out an entire day for the hike. we were glad we did!

the path was narrow and full of carved steps that had to have been carved by hand. nothing seems to be done by machine in this place. every once in a while little doors or small gardens and grape vinyards of the locals would be on the paths. it just seems frozen in time.

the trail was also interesting because it would take you into the trees and then jut out over the ocean so you are literally walking on the cliffs edge and have sights like this.

don't judge my headband. it was sooo hot that day and the only words i heard that whole morning as i was getting ready were my mom's cautions about my hair bleaching out in the sun. thus- the band.
anyway, the hike was going well and we were meeting people from all over the world on our way. as we made our way through, we decided to stop for a swim in vernazza in an attempt to combat the ridiculous amounts of sweat we were experiencing. this decision almost proved to be our demise....
we headed out to these lovely rocks you see below. there were other swimmers with their towels laid out and all their gear settled on the rocks so we thought it would be a nice little hang out for us.

plus-it was the perfect spot to dive into the water.

or lounge in the warming sun.

there was, however, one slight problem with the rocks.... after the swim, we decided to get our stuff together and get back to the trail. as you can see, cade was loving his life on his little rock, so instead of making him get up to put his clothes on, i figured i would just pass him his shirt and shorts. as i grabbed his shirt from a nearby rock, we both watched in horror as his glasses slipped off the top of the shirt and slid down a hole in the rocks -plop- right into the water somewhere underneath us.
my heart sank.
cade doesn't wear contacts and this was the only pair of specs he had on the trip. there was no way we were going to find those glasses. no way.
cade, always seemingly unaffected by bad situations, thought for a moment and then started climbing over rocks to ask a little girl if he could borrow her goggles. i had no idea how he was going to get down that deep or through one of the crevices, but sure enough, a few moments later, cade had somehow wiggled his way into the smallest little hole in the rocks near the disaster area. once his head disappeared under the rocks, i realized that he probably couldn't breathe and i started to panic, but i heard his voice down somewhere and the sputtering of water. he tried diving down a few times but it was dark and probably pretty dangerous. we didn't think there was even a chance...but as he was thinking there, he started to search out with his feet in the place he was standing, and by some miracle....there were his glasses. unreal. i've said it before and i'll say it again- cade's luck is insane.

some may call this luck, but i like to think it is because i was so worried, i was literally praying out loud as we were searching for them.
cade finally came out of the small hole alive- but full of scratches, bruises and even a big cut on his foot. what a hero.

despite his injuries, we trekked on. some parts of the trail were more modern...

and most, not so modern.

in manarola we went swimming again, carefully putting the glasses in cade's shoe. this place was a blast. there were lots of little cliff sides to jump off of and cade loved practicing his dives. a bunch of native kids were doing all sorts of tricks and cool dives off the cliffs.... which made my scream and awkward splash look ever-so-graceful, but we had a lot of fun swimming here.


honestly, no picture could ever do this experience justice. even if you have to save until you are 85- you should still go to cinque terre. the hike may be a little rough for you at that age, but still worth it.
(enter inspirational photo)

after the hike, we took a train back through the mountains to the town we were staying in. we ate yummy italian pesto and sank into bed. we were pooped! this last picture is right before we got on our train to head towards venice. we didn't want to leave- but the show must go on...

a little piece of pisa

originally, our itinerary called for a trip to pisa on the first day of our adventures- but we blew that when we missed our flight. my young-girl heart honestly thought i would never see the tower as it seemed too far out of our way. however, as we geared up to go to beautiful cinque terre, we found a train route that would allow us to go through pisa, stay for a few hours and then hop back on another train headed the same way. it was perfect!
thus, we didn't get a ton of pictures, mostly because we spent a lot of our time laughing at the ridiculousness of the hordes of tourists who lined the sidewalk with their hands in the air for the classic pisa shot. soo many people looking like this at the exact same time....

we didn't get the classic shot, but cade and i sure did enjoy our little adventure at the leaning tower of pisa.

our first real assault on italy: florence

florence was our next stop. cade and i decided that the majority of our trip would be definitely a budget tour of europe; however, before leaving we decided that one splurge would be sufficient as a sort of treat for us. we got a special offer for a four star hotel in florence that was really new age and we thought- why not... so we booked at UNA vittoria, a little hotel in the heart of florence. we loved it! it was full of mosaic tiling and our room was strangely lit with all these blue lights. there was a special pillow service where they would bring you any pillow of your choice from a list of like ten different materials and stuffings. we loved that- especially after wondering how many other thousands of backpackers had drooled on my latest hostel pillow. anyway- we loved the hotel. great breakfast, great location, great splurge. here is a picture of our room. i guess it kinda looks like a techno dance club with a bed.

after settling in our hotel we went out for some gelato and called it a night. we set off to conquer the sights early the next morning- but apparently we weren't early enough. the first place i wanted to see was the uffizi museum, which is hailed as one of the top art museums in the world. when we got there we realized our 'let's go europe on a budget' book forgot to mention the incredible wait you must suffer through unless you reserve your place in line at least a couple of days in advance. not knowing this vital information, we waited in a small line that never seemed to move for close to three hours. cade and i made the best of it by switching off line holders and exploring around the outside of the museum. unfortunately that left cade looking ever so handsome with my purse in tow.

cade and i also entertained ourselves by listening to harry potter on our ipod. this was a great way to pass line and train time throughout the trip and we really were engrossed in the book- so much so that cade started speaking in an english accent everywhere we went despite my protests and would repeatedly use the word 'wizengamot' because the word would get in his head. this led to more than one awkward moment as the only other people around us who spoke english were from britain, he would accidentally slip into potter pronunciation and give directions or bus info in a phony english accent to the english. usually i would have to pinch him to make him realize what he was doing and then he would come back to reality. a little awkward...

the uffizi was amazing once we finally cleared the line. one of the most famous paintings in the uffizi which has grown to be one of my favorites is botticelli's the birth of venus. it was huge! this painting also brings me to a new topic: nudity. i was always told the nudity was pretty rampant in europe and all the stories added up. it wasn't offensive but it is always an interesting moment when large groups of people gather around a sculpture of a naked man wrestling a bear or something and everyone examines it... the art was beautiful and it was fun to see such old architecture and way of life.
after the museum we wandered in and out of churches and art showcases always stopping for the occasional gelato. finally we made it to the statue of david- another nude statue that is so amazing. this picture is a replica outside of the uffizi museum and it is the only picture we have because you aren't allowed to take pictures of the statue itself. the good old japanese, however, didn't seem to apply to this rule. peace!


we ended the night at a nice outdoor restaurant where we ate authentic pasta with cream sauce. a nice end to an exhausting day in florence. overall i really did love florence. it is a beautiful city with the river running through and the old feel of everything is so different from anywhere we've been.

these last pictures are of the river and the bridge we loved so much. at night we gathered on the bridge to eat gelato, write a couple postcards and listen to a street band play.
i just asked cade for any final thoughts he had on florence to which he peeked over his tetris game and replied "loved it."

usa to amsterdam to brussels to bergamo

it is overwhelming to report on all of our many travels thus far. we have finally returned to our little apartment in belgium and are gearing up to start work on monday. yesterday, we called some family to check in and such and it seems people are somewhat interested in hearing about the trip so i thought i might as well dive into the depths of our adventure and pound out a post for you all...but mostly for my worrying mother. i figure i may as well start at the beginning of the trip and i will take you through in what i project to be a series of posts. don't be a hater.
our trip started early in the morning on the 25th when we packed our bags and headed to the airport only to arrive in belgium many, many hours later. i just asked cade how long it actually took but he just looked puzzled and started rambling off random times... this is due to the fact that cade and i completely lost the 26th- meaning, i don't think we ever lived it. this was obviously apparent as our ragged faces turned up in the brussels airport. we were told that someone from the company would be there to pick us up and take us to the apartment so we could drop our luggage off and prepare for our flight to italy. we scoured the place looking for a guy named kevin, who i had never met and cade had met like twice. panic started to set in as we realized nobody was there and we had nowhere to go. i kept eying anyone and everyone who looked the least bit american in an effort to convince them it was me they were looking for but seriously no luck. cade figured out how to use one of the airport phones and it wasn't too long before we finally found dear kevin who had been scouring the airport looking for us...he turned out to be one of the american looking people i stared down earlier. he drove us to our new apartment which is so fun and different. we have bits of sparse ikea furniture and a charming little kitchen...we are excited to make it our home. needless to say, by the time we arrived, we were pooped! our plane to pisa, italy didn't leave for like 4 hours so we decided to take an hour nap and get to the airport early- just to be safe. we set the alarm and passed out.....
for those of you who know me well, you may have already guessed what happened- we woke up like 3 hours later, blundered our way to the airport and missed our flight. what a start! we were able to catch another flight headed to italy that left as soon as we booked it, but instead of heading to pisa, we were on our way to bergamo- not really on our itinerary but italy nonetheless. fortunately, we had purchased a book called 'let's go europe: on a budget' which gave us the name of a little hostel in bergamo that has 24 hour reception. after a while, we found the hostel, bought some rolls from a vending machine and passed out again in our 8 person dormitory. we were the first to fall asleep and slowly as the night went on, more and more people sneaked into the room and into a bed. the time change threw us for a loop as cade and i both found ourselves wide awake at 4 in the morning listening to a dutch guy's snoring- neither of us aware the other was awake. it was interesting sleep in separate twin beds after sharing a bed for so long. it made me have horrible dreams that cade took one of the dutch girls in our room to the bar and left me alone in the room. i woke up mad at cade and it took my emotions a while to realize it was all a dream.

we decided that since we were in bergamo, we may as well see what it had to offer before we took off to florence- we had hotel reservations there that night. bergamo turned out to be a cute little town. we walked the streets, saw some churches and, after realizing how expensive everything is, bought a huge pizza that we ate for lunch, linner and dinner. then we set off for florence...

ciao bella

it really happened... we are in italy. it has been quite the adventure thus far. the past week we have spent our time touring through italy and loving every minute of it. this internet cafe has no port for our sd card- so sorry no pictures, but rest assured... some cool posts will come when we get a chance. so far we have visited bergome, florence, pisa, cinque terra and venice. everything we see is out of a book, i swear. today we spent the whole day getting lost in venice, which turns out to be very easy. we just got off the bus and started winding our way through canals and skinny streets all day with no real agenda. we would find cool antique shops, cute little ladies and the most gorgeous views of the canals. we loved every minute of it.
really- i apologize about not having any pictures but to satisfy your craving, i highly suggest googling cinque terra. we spent 2 days there and roughed out the hardest, most beautiful hike in the world. this place is AMAZING.
tomorrow morning we fly to barcelona to start our sweep of spain and hopefully there we can get some pictures going.
we miss all of you already and love you all.

first things first

this summer was a summer of firsts... cade and i moved into our first apartment together and have thus far survived our first 104 days of marriage (thank you facebook for that priceless nub of information). we went on our first family vacation, made our first married clan friends, lost cade's first wooden wedding ring, i cooked for the first time in my young girl life and we even volunteered as doggysitters for the first time... which resulted in some other firsts.


now we prepare to move for the first time- and as you all know, it's no small move. in 5 short days we will make our first appearance on european soil as we travel for 20 days through itay, spain and morocco- all firsts for us. after the whirlwind travel extravaganza- we will work in the same office for the first time in brussels. we couldn't be more excited about all of these incredible firsts and we are hoping all of you are considering being our first guests in belgium. we look forward to reading all your blogs while we are away and don't worry- we'll be sure to post all the pictures and experiences so you won't miss us too much.

My Celebrity Look-Alike

Ever since about ninth grade people started telling me that I reminded them a lot of a John Stamos. The phenomenon has gradually increased throughout the years, although some people scoff at the idea and don't believe me. I decided to put all doubt to rest and take the Celebrity Look-Alike Test. The results are found below...

we love the olympics

if any of you were hoping to catch a glimpse of cade and i over the next few weeks- you are out of luck. we will be glued to the tv watching all of the olympic action. we are nerds- but it is better to embrace it than to hide it.
already this morning i watched the women's volleyball match, usa vs. japan. you can imagine how my heart was torn. after living as a giant in japan for a stint, i had a hard time believing the japan team wasn't made up entirely of robots...women that tall don't exist there- trust me. but alas, the usa human giants prevailed, proving yet again that scientific robots will never compete with real human muscle. i still love japan...but go usa!

what happened to our blog?

i don't know what happened- but i went to my blog today and it was just an advertisement. can people change my blog? yikes! now i don't remember where i got my old background! i feel so violated.

meet me at the orange chicken

I love going out to eat. New environment, new food, no work…etc. There is, however, one type of restaurant I hate more than anything in the world: THE BUFFET. Now I realize that many people in this world love buffets, but there is something about them that gives me anxiety beyond relief. A buffet generally consists of warm buckets of substandard food that people end up gorging themselves on just to get their money’s worth. This vicious cycle usually leads to a condition I have come to call ‘rock gut’ or worse- something my dad and brother came to know quite well- the Norwalk Virus. Nothing about that description is appetizing to me in any way.

Now enter my anti-buffet arch nemesis: THE COUPON. A coupon is a tricky factor in the marketing world. It can make you do things you would not normally consider. In my case, through a simple half off coupon I was persuaded to enter Chinese Gourmet with Cade last Saturday night. I was hopeful- coupon in hand with a love for asian food- but the experience was not so tasty. Cade, on the other hand, was loving life. He immediately made friends with the entire staff who called him my ‘cute boyfriend’ the rest of the night. He also recruited a pair of Hispanic hecklers who would loudly criticize me if I walked past their table without enough food on my plate. ‘hey lady- you need to eat more! MORE!’ they howled. Cade giggled himself silly as he nibbled on doughy pizza. I hated my life more than ever. Rot gut quickly set in and I was in the worst mood. Poor Cade became the recipient of my frustration as I told him I wanted to leave.

As I was being a brat, I saw how sorry Cade was for the hecklers, his army of admiring asian waitresses, and even the crab leg he tossed in an attempt to make me laugh. He went to the bathroom to “make room for the ice cream bar” as I sat sulking. That is when I realized that Cade did all of those things to make the experience better for me. He was trying to make me happy in a situation where I was choosing to be angry. And by me choosing to be a beast, I was really making it hard for him to have a good time as well. It was while he was in the bathroom I realized how lucky I am to have such a loving husband- and also how glad I am for the principles of agency. We can choose to be happy and we can choose to be beasts- but if there is one thing I have learned from Cade more than all the others it is this- you make your own happiness.
I don’t think Cade and I will be making our own happiness at another buffet anytime soon- but nonetheless, I would like to thank Joo Syung, Daisy Ho, the Hispanic hecklers, the man in the American flag tee with the massive pile of crab legs, and all others who helped contribute to a great experience at Chinese Gourmet.