So You Want to Go to Europe....

Here I am, a girl who has been to Europe all of one time, and I want to give you advice. Obviously, you're skeptical. That's okay, I would be too. I have very little expertise to speak of. However, my credentials include three weeks in Europe, three countries, six cities, numerous museums, churches, and tourist attracts, and (this is the big one) spending less than two hours of the entire trip in lines. Altogether. In the entire three weeks. You will wait longer than that in line at the Louvre if you go at the wrong time. 
Our trip was FANTASTIC, and absolutely the best time of my life. We didn't get pickpocketed or sick, we only got the slightest bit of jet lag, and we got delightfully lost (which is a must, if you wish to truly experience Europe). It also did not rain during our entire three-week escapade. Granted, that was all luck. If you are visiting England for more than a few hours, you are usually guaranteed to get some rain. 
I'm sure I will post about our trip multiple times, but for this first post, I'm going to let you know what I think helped shape our trip into the Excellent Adventure it was. 

1) We bought a good travel book, but we didn't spend the trip with our nose in it. 
If you spend the entire day following your book, you are only experiencing what other tourists experience, because they probably have the same (or a very similar) guide. If you get off the beaten path, it will very likely enrich your trip. Not to mention that it's easier to soak up the culture if you're not surrounded by tourists in fanny packs and socks/sandals. 

2)  Take pictures, but don't view your entire trip through a camera lens.
If you go to the Louvre, you will see breathtaking pieces of art, but you will also see tourists who insist on racing through the museum, photographing EVERY. SINGLE. THING. You can try to do that, but the Louvre is ginormous. If you manage to get a picture of everything, you deserve a trophy. Of course, in my opinion, that trophy should say, "What a waste of time," but whatever floats your boat, I guess. It's perfectly appropriate to take a picture of a piece of art or a landmark that particularly holds your interest. See? 

I LOVE this picture. I looked at it for about 10 minutes because it was just so interesting. (That, and the comments were in French, so it took me about that long to deduce what was going on: "Is the man getting stolen away by the guy in the cape? What is the caped crusader carrying? Are the younger guy's wife and children trying to protect him from the flying demon man? WHAT IS HAPPENING? Oh, wait, it's called Le Déluge. That sounds like it means "The Flood." OH! There's a flood! I see it now.")
The thing is, you can take pictures all you want, but I can guarantee you that pictures will not do these sights justice. Enjoy them while you can.

3) Do as many tourist attractions as you would like, but don't spend all your time on them.
This kind of goes along with #1. Decide what's important to you, and plan a time to do it, but then spend the rest of your time walking around. Yes, just walking around. Your feet will get tired, and if you were not wise in choosing your footwear, you will get a blister the size of a hubcap and you will whine and the hubs will say, "I told you that you should have brought better shoes," and you will say, "THE LOCALS DON'T WEAR TENNIS SHOES." Ah, but the locals also don't walk approximately 28572324 miles per day. Ahem. I appear to have wandered off topic. Anyways, seriously, walk around and go into the little shops or a pub (especially in London), or get some gelato (especially in Italy) and just soak it all in. 

4) Learn some of the language. 
Really, why are you so pompous and pretentious that you would expect the locals to speak YOUR language? Especially since we're from 'Merica, where we expect everyone who comes into this country to speak "Merican" (which, by the way, isn't even a language). I read horror stories from tourists who complained how rude the locals were, but while we were there, almost everyone was perfectly polite and very helpful. Any time the hubs and I ate at a restaurant, we greeted the waiter/waitress and tried to order in their language. Most of the time, they could tell that we spoke English, and they immediately switched over. Yes, you will probably cringe at your terrible accent, and yes, you will probably mispronounce many many things (my rule of thumb is that you only pronounce about half of the letters in just about any French word). But you will leave feeling like you conquered something, and that feels pretty good. 

There are so many more things I could go on about, but considering my post history, I probably should save them so I have something to write about from time to time. I guess the take-home point is don't be a typical tourist. Don't wear a fanny pack, don't yell when you're talking (seriously, I could always hear the American accents over everything else. Why do we talk so loud?), and don't buy food from places that have their English menus displayed outside (spoiler alert: their food is not very good, and their prices are very high). Try to live like a local, and it will be the trip of a lifetime.  
 

Sunday Scripture

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Sunday Scripture

I've decided, in an effort to motivate me to post more regularly, that on Sundays I will be posting a Bible verse that is meaningful to me in some way. We'll see if it works, or if I just get distracted and forget. I know that would not be surprising to anyone, as you all know that I am about as easily distracted as--hey, there's a flock of white pigeons outside my apartment (There really is. It started as one and now there are about 12. It's weird.)! Seriously, readers should be thankful that I do not blog my entire train-of-thought, because it frequently derails, and getting any semblance of a point across would take about 57 times longer than it already does. Anyways, before today's scripture, though, an introduction:

I'm still working on my 26 things list, but I have decided that one of my to-dos is either a Warrior Dash or a Tough Mudder event. I'm leaning more towards the Tough Mudder, because holy macaroni and cheese, Batman, how cool would that be? They SHOCK you. With electricity. Plus, you run through a fire maze and immerse your body in 30 degree water, which is almost cold enough to freeze Leonardo DiCaprio. This is something I need to accomplish in my life, and considering that my next few years may involve pregnancy, and I'm not sure 10,000 volts of electricity would be good for the baby, I feel like now is the time to do it.

The closest Tough Mudder is coming my way next April, so I started my training today. It's a good thing I started so early, because I barely made it through the weakest workout of the Tough Mudder bootcamp. I discovered that, contrary to popular my belief that I can, in fact, do push-ups, it turns out I can do a push-up before converting to the girly version. This brings me to the scriptures that I will be using as a crutch to carry me through: 

Isaiah 40:29-31
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak (that's me, guys). Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. 

Happy Sunday, everybody!

25 Things

So, it's been awhile. Sorry about that. You see, while on this exciting adventure that is my life, I decided to start a grad school program, and that has been taking up approximately 120% of my time. So basically, I'm in the negatives as far as free time goes. Also, I still feel really narcissistic writing about myself, because I feel that it's a bit pretentious to assume that people care what I have to say. That being said, this entire post is about myself, as will any others that may eventually follow, so if I want to keep up with this blog, I'm going to have to immerse myself in conceit.  So here it goes...

If you know me, you might know that last year I wrote a list of 25 things that I wanted to do during my 25th year. It was all based on this quote that I found that said, "To live, rather than exist." This inspired me to create yearly goals for myself as an attempt to live life to its fullest. 

Unfortunately, I did not complete all 25 things. You would think that given an entire year, doing 25 things would be a breeze, but life happens. However, I wouldn't say that the year was a failure. I was able to have a lot of amazing experiences, and I can look back with no regrets, and when it comes down to it, that's what I really wanted in the first place. So, without further ado, here are my 25 things:

Read 25 books
I love reading. I learned to read when I was four and I haven't stopped since. Sadly, most of the reading I do now is about psychopathology and ethical conflicts in psychology. Let me assure you, there is very little on this earth that is less interesting than ethics in psychology. It is about as far from 'reading for fun' as you can get. Unless, I guess, you are an ethical expert, in which case I would say to you, "Your life sucks." As you might have guessed by now, I did not complete this one. I did not even get halfway. I read 11 books from my list, ranging from Life of Pi (fantastic book!) to Love in the Time of Cholera (Not so excellent...I'm sure some like it, but it I am not one of those people). I'm supposed to read 26 books this year...we'll see how that goes.

Lose 7 pounds
Why 7? I don't know. Because it seemed like a good number. I almost completed this one. I was down 5, and then the school year started and my cortisol levels shot through the roof. Also, my hips apparently decided that I am hibernating this winter, and have started looking less Little Mermaid and more Jessica Rabbit. Rawr.  On a bright note, I still weigh 1 pound less than last year! PROGRESS.

Go to Europe
SUCCESS. I did this. It was one of the best times in my life. I will probably be posting about it at some point, because the hubs and I did Europe really well. The French were polite (with the exception of one man that YELLED at the hubs in French...it was the sexiest telling-off I've ever heard in my life. To be fair, the hubs did do something pretty stupid. But that is for another post!), we waited in line about 1 hour total during the entire three week period, and we spent less on our entire trip than some people do for lodging for 5 days. I don't care what your excuses are for not visiting Europe. Throw them in the dumpster and GO. It will be worth it.

Complete my Literature Review
Another success! I am completely fascinated with my study, but I realize not everyone else is, so I won't bore you with details. However, this was a huge hurdle to overcome, and I'm so thankful that it's behind me.

Run a 5K
This was the year to complete this task. Every weekend, someone else had run some sort of race, whether it was the Color Run, or the Zombie Run, or the Iron Man, or whatever, and posted their pictures to Facebook. They were on my newsfeed every day, taunting me. "You have the lung capacity of a 90-year old smoker," they mocked. "Your knees and ankles are ruined from years of being thrown around by them in cheerleading," they teased. And they were right. I stink at running. It is very likely that someone on crutches could beat me in a race. So, I didn't run a 5K this year. Someday...

Do a pull-up
I have never in my life done a pull-up. Have you seen my arms? They are the size of a 8-year-old boy's (although you might have noticed my fondness of hyperboles, this is sadly not an exaggeration). Another one that I didn't complete. 

Give up red meat
This one actually stems from the documentary "Food, Inc." I can't even eat cornish game hens, because they look too much like animals, so when I saw this documentary, it broke my heart. So I stopped eating red meat (I still eat fish and chicken, but it's because I can't cut out meat entirely. Plus, I'm scared of fish, so I have no sympathy for them). I did do this one, although my father seems determined to quash it out of me. Almost every time we visit, he grills some sort of cow or pig. And of course I usually eat it (I have no willpower to speak of). But I have not had sausage or bacon in over a year, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I had red meat this year. COUNT IT. 

Keep a plant alive for an entire summer
I had "grow an herb garden" but the hubs felt it was too ambitious. He was right. I didn't even buy flowers this summer. On the other hand, I saved a plant by not buying it. So I'm counting this one. 

Learn 3 Beatles songs on my keyboard
Haha, no.

Start sleeping on a grown-up schedule
What was I thinking? I'm in grad school!

Watch 25 movies
This was pretty fun, but I didn't finish it either (only 13/25). However, I have now seen the glory that is Monty Python and The Holy Grail, have been inducted into Fight Club (and just broke the first rule...whoops), and had Breakfast at Tiffany's. Overall, this one went pretty well.

Buy a really nice pair of jeans that fill well
This is harder than you would think, because I am pretty skinny, but I am also curvy and short. Jeans fit ok, but never well. This year, though, I actually found a nice pair of skinny jeans though that fit perfectly, so this goal was achieved! 

Learn some French
Oui, fin. Trés bien!

Get all A's in my classes this year
This was one of the hardest goals of my life, and is probably the reason I did not accomplish more on this list, but yes. Success!

Try a Maine lobster
Achieved! This was one of the more fun goals, because we took a trip to Maine last fall. It was beautiful and is now on my list of places I should live someday. You should all go. 

Finish redecorating my living room bathroom dining room ENTIRE APARTMENT
We have lived in this apartment for 3 years and there is still no cohesion to my place. The bathroom is a mix of birds and lighthouses, the living room is a blurb of globes and other random things I find at flea markets (like a Bach statue and a microscope), and the dining room is an area that is not used so much for eating as for storing all of my craft things and my sewing machine (which I am still not sure how to use). There is no organization to my life, but if you have read my previous posts, you would already know that about me. I have all these great ideas for my apartment, but they live on Pinterest. Maybe someday I will have both the time and the money to complete them. Hahahahahahahahahaha....haha...ha. 


Obviously I've only listed 16 of my 25 goals, but the post was getting pretty long, so I'll leave it at that. I only completed 14, but when I reflect on how incredible my year was, I have no regrets. I definitely recommend doing this; it's like a much more achievable (and therefore more satisfying) Bucket List. I'm currently making a list for 26, and I'll post that at some point. If anyone reads this and has any suggestions, let me know! 

An Open Letter to the Judgmental Pharmacy Worker

Dear Walmart Pharmacy Technician,

I understand your job is difficult. I, too, work in a retail setting, and customers are sometimes brutal for reasons I have yet to understand. I actually had one throw a coupon in my face, then turn around and scream, "WHATEVER!!!" when I sincerely told her to have a nice day. It happens. This is why I am always overly cheerful to everyone in the customer service industry. When I came to pick up my prescription, I was as sweet as ever. This is why I don't understand why you chose to loudly announce, "You're here for your birth control?" and shoot me a glare that you apparently use for those you believe have loose morals. I'm pretty sure you gave your previous customer (the elderly man still standing beside me...total confidentiality breech, by the way) the delight of his day, because he smiled at me in a way that gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Anyways, Walmart Pharmacy Technician, I am sorry that you don't seem to agree with my method of family planning. I will just assume you were having a bad day. Maybe you had a flat tire that morning, or one of your other customers spit on you or something (people can be so mean!). But just for future reference, my man put a ring on it almost 4 years ago, so there really isn't a reason for your obvious disdain. But even if he hadn't, I'm pretty sure there's nothing in your job description that says, "Judge your customers." Just a little tip from one customer service worker to another: most people are much sweeter to you if you are nice to them. Also, I'm pretty sure that Jesus wouldn't have looked at me like that. Have a nice day!

Love,
Monica

"A place that everybody hate, but you gotta see once"

I haven't written in a long time, I realize this. Every time I would start typing, all of these negative things would come out, like, "The weather in LA right now is at 73 degrees. Here it's 42." I really don't want my blog to become a place where I always vent. Nobody wants to read about a middle class white girl living in a small, somewhat boring town who has almost everything she could possibly want and yet whines about the one thing she doesn't have.
That being said, I still have my aspirations to move. This place has always felt like a layover between stops; I've never imagined settling down here without living somewhere else first. This town is way too small to hold my gargantuan goals and dreams. I still call the town I grew up in "home," and I think it's because this place has never been somewhere I planned on staying for an extended period.
I'd always told myself that I want to stay close to home, and I ignored that flutter of excitement that I felt whenever I thought about moving somewhere new. "I'll miss my family way too much," I would say (which is very true...I'm sure I'd miss them so much it would hurt a little bit). I also had "it's too expensive" in my arsenal of excuses. Besides, I'd been to New York before and didn't care too much for it. We stayed for about a week, and every day I felt like I should take 7 showers just to stay clean. Plus, when you are going out for your 3-year anniversary dinner and you get hooted at by construction workers (just like in the movies!!!) even though your husband is right beside you, it kind of ruins the romance of the evening. But when I went to LA, it just felt right. I know this sounds cliche and/or cheesy, but it felt like home. Even though the traffic was almost always moving approximately 0.5 miles per hour. Even though the homeless outnumbered everyone 2 to 1. Even though most apartments cost more per month than some used vehicles do. I fell in love with this place, the home of everyone from Tom Hanks to Conan O'Brien to Rebecca Woolf (who I am absolutely in love with. I kind of want her life.) to Carl, the old man with no teeth who gives crappy henna tattoos on Venice Beach.

Regardless of my love affair, everybody else in California hates LA. Every time the hubs and I would mention that we wanted to move to LA when talking to someone from California, we were met with overwhelming negativity. People hate it there. Angelenos are too full of themselves, the city is dirty, cost of living is expensive. I understand their concerns. It is kind of dirty. And it is atrociously expensive. And I'm sure some people are slightly full of themselves. But honestly, people here are not any better. I deal with more hateful people in one day at my current job during the holidays (in other words, now) than I dealt with in 2 weeks in LA.

The thing is, all of the awesome outnumbers the horrible. You can go snow-skiing in the morning and then go to the beach that very same evening. You can take a day trip to Vegas. You can eat Pinkberry while carrying Ikea bags into Anthropologie (which is my ideal day, not going to lie). You can catch a Conan show in the evening after spending the day shopping at a farmer's market where you can choose from a huge selection of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables (ok, maybe this is my ideal day). But my absolute favorite thing about LA is that you can just be. You are completely free to be, wear, do whatever you want, without judgement or negativity. In a town full of artists, expressing yourself in whatever way you choose is expected. Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who has spent her whole life battling insecurities about everything from her waist size to her academic achievements. I want to rise above that, take this huge risk, and do something completely different with my life than I ever expected. I want to force myself to jump out of the airplane. I know the thrill and the experience will be worth it. Now if only I could afford it...

Lost...

WARNING: This is not a happy post. It’s not light-hearted and positive, like the others. It’s actually a little depressing. Don’t judge me. It’s hard to have your entire plan of action uprooted suddenly. Look at the effect it had on Sarah Palin.

Haha. Sorry, that was me being slightly facetious. Anyways, don't be harsh. I'm pretty sure I'll be back to my bubbly, light hearted self tomorrow, but tonight, I need to vent a little. So, here we go:

From the moment the decision to stay was made, I felt one overwhelming emotion: relief. Relief that we were not going to pay a ridiculous amount of money to live in underwhelming conditions, relief that I would not be moving thousands of miles away from my family and friends, relief that I got to hold on to the familiar, the comfortable. But as the weeks have moved on, the relief has faded, leaving behind a bitter aftertaste of uncertainty. I had a set path, a plan, a goal that I was working towards when California was in the forecast. Although I was a little nervous about the unknown, and very unsettled about the costs, I had a purpose. And now, I’m disoriented, set adrift from my steady, albeit treacherous, course. The sense of accomplishment that accompanied graduation has suddenly derailed as I realize that I’m still almost as unqualified for the job that I’m seeking as I was when I started. I still have so much further to go, and the way to get there has suddenly hit a dead end. I have to turn around, make my way back, take a different fork, and start applying for Master’s/Doctoral programs for next year.

Pray for me, guys. This lost feeling is much worse than the nervousness I felt about LA. Finding a steady footing on a wall of ifs seems impossible. But although the competent, capable feelings of a college graduate did not come in the mail with my college diploma, as I expected, this ambiguity will pass. The hubs is taking the MCAT in the fall, and we’re both applying to graduate schools this winter. I know that with these steps will come some certainty, and I will be able to evict this unsettled feeling from the pit of my stomach.