Two more things... (or three!?)

Well hellllo ladies.

Two posts in less than a week. I am putting you girls to shame. (Of course, my overall posting history is not as impressive as others.)

Life in Athens is sweet and wonderful. Mom was actually in town this week. Bobby is in “bass hell” so she drove north for a few days so rest and relaxation. I was happy to receive her considering I had news to break & needed consultation on a potential lease for fall.

So the news is that I will be getting my masters this year! Often people who want to specialize in a specific type of law get joint degrees. Since I want to specialize in natural resource law (aka water, forestry, Department of Interior-related issues, and agriculture), I will be getting my Masters in Natural Resources from Georgia. Fall 2012 I will start law school. I could not be more excited!!

As far as the lease for fall, I will be living on Cloverhurst Court starting in August. I’m just smitten with it. It’s a little baby house, almost like a little tree house (according to Mom) or a camp cabin (according to Olivia). Both descriptions are dead on. Again, I couldn’t be more excited.

So that sums up my news. New school program, new house, and new baby. Life is good. I hope everyone else is truckin’ right along.

Much luvs.

(OH! One more thing. Andrea is engaged! But no bridesmaids. I have to hand it to her, she is smart keeping it simple while she finishes up law school.)

Stork News: It's a Baby Boy!!

Finley "Finn" Michael Jacobs has arrived. At 9lbs 4 oz. and 22 inches long, he introduced himself to us at 2am this morning.

Sadie is thrilled to be a big sister. Her sass is amazing.

eye heart yall

i was just sitting here reading/catching up on our sweet-a blog... and i had this thought pop into my head "this is awesome!". I am thankful we actually all committed to this thing... it's so good for me (and im sure all yall can attest to this) to get to sit down when I onlly have a little free time, and hear the wonderful/hard/bad/good/funny things going on each one of your lives. It just brought a huge smile to my heart. Just wanted to say- thank yall for sharing your life with me! I get a lil homesick every now and then (and by homesick, i mean i miss my friends.. badly!). Anyway, will post soon on updates in our life...

muuuuch love,
ace face

True to your heartttt, you must be true to your heart (Thank you 98 Degrees & Stevie Wonder)

Hellllo peeps.  So my life's been good lately, DC is finally starting to warm up and everything is in bloom which is pretty!  Work's going well, I've been praying a lot about where God is calling me to be, and the are a couple of jobs I'm trying to apply for- maybe doing admissions counseling with schools.  Pray for that transition and that I will know where I should be.  

A couple weeks back, Rachel and I visited Lindsey and Rebecca in St. Louis!  It was freezing cold, so we didn't do all that much exploring around the city.  But we did go to City Museum at night, and they turn off the lights and you get to go around with flashlights- which was awesome!  I felt like the biggest little kid eva.  It was so fun to see Lindsey's and Rebecca's lives up there, we went to church, walked around Wash U's beautiful campus, and met all their friends.  

This past Sunday Al, Whit, and I went to our favorite vineyard (read: only vineyard we've gone to here)....Three Fox.  We spent the whole day there, swinging on the tree swing by the creek, sitting by the fire pit, and having a picnic in the back of Al's car.  We finished off the day by eating gross amounts of biscuits and fried food at Cracker Barrel.  Good times.  

I'm way excited about being down in Athens for LIV's exit show!  I'm looking forward to seeing those of you all that will be there, and I can already taste Mama's Boy.  Mm.

Well.  That's about all I've got.  I love you guys lots and stuff.

Mary

maturity

all this can be yours...

hi from California!!

hey friends :)

So I have been MIA on here for quite a while. My apologies! I have made it safely to California after a 3 day long, very intense drive across America with Keeley.

We had a lot of fun and actually, it went quicker than I thought it would. We left Friday night and by Sunday night though, when we got stuck in a SNOW STORM in CALIFORNIA on a MOUNTAIN, we were ready for the drive to be over. It was ridiculous. I was on hour 13 of driving for the day and my leg (literally) started shaking uncontrollably on the gas pedal. It was bizarre and scary. It was late and dark and raining VERY hard. We had absolutely no idea we were going up any sort of incline and then all of a sudden out of nowhere there were huge snow flakes hitting the windshield, then more and more and more until the entire road was covered and there was so much snow that it had completely covered the exit signs and everything. It was frightening, but we made it out alive and to the hotel that was only 30 miles away but circumstantially 2 hours away. Crazy.

There is so much to tell y'all that I'm getting a little overwhelmed. So I think I'll just give you the cliff-notes version and fill in holes later! Davey and I are settling in really well here and are enjoying each others company a lot. I think I was a little scared we might have some problems since a lot can change in 3 months apart. For the most part though, we've both changed for the better and appreciate each other more than before :) It's so great to be back with him!


It's really beautiful here. We joined the Monterey Bay Aquarium last weekend and have already been twice this week. It's so awesome. Davey and I stared like little kids at the sleeping giant octopus for 15 minutes straight. The weather is nice here, mostly sunny and warm when the wind isn't blowing, but usually it is blowing so it's a little chilly. We've hung out with some of Davey's friends from class and they are all really nice! We went out with them last weekend and a bunch of them had just recently turned 21....they were so drunk and then 2 of them (a guy and a girl) started making out on the street. I was the DD and you could hear slurping noises coming from the backseat. RIDICULOUS! haha

I'm a nanny right now and I love the 2 little girls I'm taking care of. They are twins and almost 3...so cute! Their mom is really cool and I've spent a lot of time talking to her these past 2 weeks. I'm currently job hunting and have some good leads at the moment. A couple childcare jobs and 1 personal assistant job that sounds awesome... like $20/hour awesome....

That's all for me! I'll post more when more happens. We don't have our furniture shipment yet, but as soon as we get it and get everything set up i'll post pictures of the house for y'all!

facts.

when suffering from food poisoning/stomach bug/someone trying to kill you the SECOND time since you've worked at AUC, you know what the best medicine is?

imported crunch bars. just thought everyone should know.

love,
me.

RIP. DC.

Well as most of you know, my time in D.C. is finishing up, and I will be moving back to Georgia in April. Should this come as a surprise to any of you, I apologize for sucking it up as a friend and not notifying you sooner. Here's the skinny...

My last day in the Kingston office will be Thursday, April 21. When we come down to Ath for Liv's exit show, I just won't return to D.C. I'll be staying with my parents until May 18 when I move to Athens, whoop. Job, question mark. Who is going to sublease my room in D.C., question mark. However, both of these subjects do have leads.

Through a referral, I have been talking to the lady who runs Howard Properties in Athens about helping her out. This could be interesting so keep your fingers crossed. As far as subleasing my Wise Street room, a fair amount of people have shown interest but no takers yet. I'm praying this is sorted out by the end of the week.

On the flip side, I made the most delicious carrot cake this weekend. While my talent is over flowing and slightly obnoxious, I take no credit for this masterpiece. Instead, I hand it to the fabulous recipe. For your tasting purposes, this recipe can be found by clicking here. I found it while browsing through the latest and greatest edition of Southern Living. Comes highly recommended (the recipe and the mag, def).

A few other random things to wrap this baby up...

Al and I g-video'ed with Ellyn the past week. Great chat, great chat. While discussing screen shots, we both captured lovely pics...

And last but certainly not least, I'm obsessed with Lupe Fiasco's song The Show Goes On... click here to listen to this won-d-ful song.

Deep thoughts by Whitney.

Later Gators.

YAYAYAY

I just found my Nantahellya t-shirt.  It's been missing since this summer (and by missing I obviously mean stowed away in a secret compartment in my suitcase).  Today is a good day.

honestly

because i gave up facebook for lent, i had to find someway to share this with people. so when i was studying, i somehow navigated to chocolate chip cookie recipes (surprise).

i came across one titled, "Dark Chocolate Shard Cookies".

i mean, come on. who puts "shard" in the title of, well, anything?

honestly.

callin baton rouge

well, not much is new around here and necessarily worthy of an update...but let's see what I can tell you. The weather here is crazy and fluctuates constantly... which is great and frustrating. It was 75-80 mutliple days last week/early this week...last night it was like 38 and tomorrow the high is 74. Not really sure how all that works, but ok.

We are still enjoying life here, although we miss athens and friends (mmhhmm enter: yall). We joined the PCA church here 2 weeks ago. Austin is still learning better how to do his job. It has been weird to be on the other side of the internship. RUF here can be discouraging and frustrating at times since there are not a lot of students who are committed to it... a lot of the students are involved in multple ministries. All that to say, we are still adjusting to the differences.

As far as friends here go, we have made some good friends and good couple friends but it is definately heard to socialize wiht my work schedule. We are inconsistent at best, and kinda of have to be due to my nights working and other nights with RUF events. It has been at time times frustrating as it seems difficult to build community, but we are trying to be better pursuers of it.

my job is ok. pretty sad and depressing at times as I see people actively dying every time I go to work. I'd appreciate yalls prayers as it is hard not to let my job really effect me. I hope I can re-locate in October, but there are a lot of factors that go into that. I do wish I could share some funny stories with yall, but they are funnier in person... old people will crack you up (sorry kristin for the agism).

So, for those of you attending Olivia's exit show... I am 93% sure I will be there WOOT WOOT! My april schedule hasn't been posted (which makes me 7% unsure), but I did ask off for the weekend. I can't wait to see several of your faces. I....MIIIISSS..... YOU... ALL!

much love,
ace face

ps. nantahellyeah... brings tears to my eyes. It's about that time.

pss Congratulations to our own Olivia Tuhrell!!! so excited for you--hope you are practicing your espanol. Maybe we should all try to incorporate some into our blog... ya know, help livs out?

boston bakery and beers

so this one time ellyn came to boston. and that same time jared came too. good times were had. the end. just kidding! i have SO much more to say! so first. ellyn arrived on friday, and it was very warm. i'm talking in the 50's. we didnt even need to wear jackets during the day! cray.zay.

ellyn sort of already mentioned what we did, so i will just tell a story through pictures. cause i mean, a picture is worth a thousand words, am i right? am i right?!

saturday jared arrived, and we were looking for stuff to do, so we went to the public library. i don't know how we ended up there though cause all three of us hate libraries...

sweet lanterns!

ellyn gazing into the courtyard. magnifico.

after the libs we went shopping and then to see the feltaults, but i have no pictures, so we'll just skip to sunday. for brunch we went to this famous bakery in boston called flour down by the waterfront before going to the harpoon brewery. it's an awesome place in a fun location. however. upon arrival, we found out that it was right next to the boston children's museum.

once we stepped inside flour, it became immediately apparent. kids.were.everywhere. jared's face explains it all.

i took a vid with my phone, but the sound quality sucks. i'm sorry! i'll get my secretary to transcribe the audio stat.



the food was really quite delicious though. despite the hectic atmosphere, we enjoyed the sammiches and the sticky bun (for which the bakery is famous). see below.

it's ellyn!

it's the sticky bun mentioned in the video!

after eating, we went to the harpoon brewery down the street.

all smiles!

i have to admit that it was better than the sam adams brewery tour because you got to see more of the brewing and bottling process. i think everybody should judge for themselves though by coming to boston. do it.

kegs galore
sweeeet bottling conveyer belt. i felt like i was watching "how it's made" (olivia shout out).

all the fun had to come to an end though because ellyn left us on sunday to go to nyc to go back to egypt and blah blah. (come back!) anywhoozle, while we were down by the water after the brewery jared and i bought some delicious scallops that he cooked for dinner. i was actually quite impressed with his skills. hopefully being able to cook and owning a successful snow cone stand on the beach (jared's dream) come from the same skill set. only truth and time will tell all.

note the glass with the feet.

well jared was here until tuesday so on president's day we went to chinatown for lunch and then saw a triple feature. i wanted my chinese friend leo to come with us (duh), but he was working so i asked him for a recommendation to get good chinese. he suggested the gourmet dumpling house, and it was delicious. i bring all of this up though because we had to sit next to the fish tank. and i mean literally, there were fish staring at me the whole time. we decided not to get any fish entrees...

this guy really wanted to hang out with these guys, and i really wanted these guys to stop looking at me while i ate.

well all in all, it was a great weekend. i am sorry this was so long, but i warned you i had much to say! i miss you all, and i love you very much.

post-revolution revelations.

hello, frens. after some general confusion about my whereabouts and future plans, i thought it was time to update everyone. so i'm back in cairo after being gone for what felt like a really short time when i was in the states, but now that i'm back i realize was almost a month. unreal.

at any rate, i went to athens (as y'all saw in olivia's blog) and the northeast corridor for a hot second before i left to come back. i didn't take any pictures in boston (cause i suck) but becca has some winners (and some video) on her phone that she needs to upload cause they're ridiculous. we had a great time with jared, too and got to go see the feltaults (my second family) out in topsfield for dinner one night. so much snow in boston. so. much. snow.

i went to nyc after that and spent a couple of nights with julia before i flew out of jfk. it was great to catch up and literally just hang out and do nothing with her. flying back to cairo was somewhat surreal, but went pretty much as expected on egyptair. i landed and met my driver and immediately had a smile on my face. i had missed this place and all its weird quirks. i noticed more military on the streets than normal, but less than had been here during the revolution. people seem happier and for the time being things are stable and functioning. egypt has a long road ahead of it and it'll be interesting to see what happens in the coming months. but what's sure is that the egyptian people feel emboldened by what they've accomplished and more than anything they're happy mubarak is gone and ready to transition into something new.

i am so excited to be able to finish out this internship- nobody likes a quitter. but in all seriousness, the thought of not finishing what i'd started here was super stressful and i definitely needed some closure. it feels right to be back in cairo playing drinking games on the terrace with the other egypterns and complaining about our jobs, the bus, and our low pay. it's great to be back at work and to be able to see my work relationships through to the proper end of my time here. and honestly, it's good to be back here because i really believe its where i'm supposed to be at this moment. not forever. but right now.

love.

Highwire

So I realize that some of you have not been to the new (and not necessarily improved) Highwire. Welp, Ellyn and I spent about 7 hours there on Friday. No big. She was playing with our new Flip video camera & caught this wonderful shot of the carpet...Really Highwire? Un-stained cedar booths & cheesy hotel carpet? Other than those minor, poor aesthetic choices, it's still highwire & still great.

Ritzy Tits

FYI: This post is written by Whit and Al so please tally us both for this one.

So- Wanda Wamp came and partied hard in DSizzle this past weekend. We ate way too much (including the caramel birthday cake we devoured in about 32 hours), and just overall caught up since it had been so long since we saw her. She and Al went to the Air and Space museum and saw a planetarium show about Black holes. Very cool. Pictures coming soon from Wanda.

So, Ritzy Tits is the new catch phrase coined by the ever profound Whitney Jacobs. Ritzy Tits can be used when refering to anything fancy, hoity-toity, glamorous, or just flat out obnoxious. We have all taken to this phrase and have done a great job of working it into our vocab. For example, when Wanda and Al were shoe shopping for two hours, we walked into BCBG and Wanda was overwhelmed by all of the Ritzy Tits merchandise displayed.

For a non- Ritzy Tits subject, Al is about to have a NEPHEW!!! Whoop- whoop! Lauren Tucker McCrary is officially having a boy baby due June 26th. Actually, some of you may not know that Whit will also add a nephew to her pre-existing Auntie duties. Ryn and Shannon are having a boy come May.

Also- Whit and I are sitting here talking about chocolate and she asked if I liked Crunch bars. Really? Who actually prefers Crunch bars? I feel like they are the reject candy in the candy dish. I would prob opt out of choc if there was only crunches left. SOOOO, Whit insists that we have a poll and if you actually prefer Crunch Bars, please write something refering to Crunches on mine or Whit's wall. I realize this is a ridiculous request....but please humor Debbie Ann- she doesn't believe that Crunches suck.

Love Love to all- anyone come visit anytime! We are totes the hostess with the mostess these dayz.

anastasia magic...in the hospital?

Last night I was working... under the cover of darkness... ok sorry a little much. im tired and about to go to sleep, but had to let yall know what happened. it made me so happy.

so the hospital where i work plays classical softly through the halls of the hospital... sometimes its legit classical and sometimes it's instrumental. last night when I was in the hall, i heard a familiar melody... and yes it was "at the beginning". yall would've loved it! made me miss yall and are sick nasty dance partys.


much love... i gotta sleeeeeeep.

so you think your life is boring...

and then a revolution happens. sorry i've been kind of MIA. understandably, i was without internet for a week and a half and then battling reverse culture shock since i've been back. so yeah. the revolution. i'll start this off by saying that no one thought this was coming like it did. on january 24th, me, ty, and sarah sat in deal's, our favorite neighborhood pub, and talked about how we couldn't imagine that anything that significant would come of the rumors that the next day, national police day, hundreds of people would demonstrate downtown. we, and hundreds of other specialists, reporters, other co-workers, really anyone with an opinion on regional politics just didn't see the Egyptian people rallying enough to make a protest effective. we were obviously very wrong. and the next week and a half saw incredible protests, violence, uncertainty, and a lot of tenses days and nights waiting.

for all intents and purposes i was definitely safe the whole time and never really felt in harm's way. but the tension of being under house arrest for 15-20 hours a day and only being able to sit on our roof and watch the helicopters and fighter jets circle. or listen to the crowds from Tahrir Square. or look down below at the looters and neighborhood watchmen going at it to protect their shops and houses. it was frustrating to say the least. it was exhausting and trying and definitely more affecting than i initially thought.

the decision to leave or to stay was just as tumultuous to make and i went back and forth with my parents all week long. i was frustrated because there's really no way to know what was going to happen. every day was a roller coaster of stagnation turned into escalated violence back to calm. things changed in minutes and we never knew what was going to happen next. so making a decision about whether or not to walk away from the internship, to leave and hide out in europe for a while and come back, or to just leave and hope to come back someday. ultimately, it made sense to leave on thurs, feb. 4th and try to come back if i could.

i'm glad to be back. it's nice to have a little vacation and destress at home. but honestly, it was really hard to leave. it felt like i was punking out on the people i work with and live with and the Egyptians that i've become close to over there. like i should be there with them through the whole thing, even though it's not my fight. in the end, i'm excited to go back (i bought a ticket for february 21st) if its possible and safe to do so. as we speak, i'm watching CNN's coverage of Tahrir and state tv in Egypt is reporting that Mubarak will address everyone tonight and it's possible he'll resign. if that's the case, i'm sad i'm not there to witness the celebrate, but i know it'll be a different Egypt to go back to.

the coolest thing about this situation is that this is what i studied. this is what i spent four years at UGA writing about and learning about and wanting to be involved in. it's so incredible to have witnessed a part of this and to hopefully go back and witness the transition into a stable, new government for the people who have wanted this for so long. this changes so much in regional politics and its pretty freaking awesome to be this close to it.

anyway, i wanted to give y'all the story. there are more funny anecdotes about living through the revolution that will come out in time. but i wanted y'all to know how much it affected me and how excited and anxious i am to get back to cairo and finish out my internship. hopefully, it'll be safe and secure enough for me to be able to do that. i'm going to put a link for the editorial i wrote for the Williamson Herald today. it's groundbreaking journalism. (c:

i'm going to athens this weekend! i'm so excited to see everyone and generally just have a weekend in athens to have fun. walkers, the loft, and trapp are a must. i love you guys! i hope you're all doing well. if i was made of money i would go on a cross country tour to see you all. but, alas. we'll have to all wait our turns.

love love love.

Williamson Herald Article

life... is a road...

Austin and I at the RUF tacky Christmas party

Hey ladies,

Sorry I've been MIA. Ellyn, thanks for the encouragement to get back on this thing.

Life for us has been quite the busy past few months. December was great but a blur. I worked my regular schedule for a month in 3 weeks so that we could have a week off to head to GA.

We spent a few nights crashed on the floor at the turrells, which was great fun. I celebrated my 23rd b-day with Ike and Jane donuts (so good), presents (so good), time with friends (so good), austin took me to shokitini which was SO good! We then got to meet back up with the turrels with last resort deliciousness at trapeze and a round at trapeze. It was so great to be in the ATH, but it made me miss all of you... seriously. Memories flooded back-- dancing in the brumby bathroom (which i hope we can have a reunion when we are 30 and repeat?), poplar dance partays, good food... ok yeah i just miss yall.

The Turrells at trapeze

Us on Clayton St at Christmas time... I know yall all love this one!

Presents on the air mattress for my birthday (to give you a glimpse of our slumber partay... austin got me elf and rockin brown boots )

we then headed to mac-town aka macon, ga to spend some time with the royals. It was good to see them and to spend time there. MOst of the clan got to be in macon minus Lauren+Stevie because their baby boy was in the NICU during Christmas. Our other precious nephew (kate and carson's baby) was there... Holden- and he is a baller

We headed back just in time for me to get a shift in, have christmas eve off, then work christmas night. Austin and I celebrated christmas at our duplex before heading to zachary for a brief christmas before i worked... austin got me some legit presents... as pictured--he got me a new BIKE!

January has come and gone, which is crazy. We are doing well, have been busy with my job and RUF events starting the semester off. We are excited about a new semester. Austin has learned a lot about how to do his job and it's cool to get to see him be an intern. My job is alright, hoping to relocate in april but will prob be there till october (please pray for direction with that...).

Anyway... dont want to bore you with updates from life here. seriously anyone come visit whenever...

I will try to share funny quotes from my patients-- favorite one from last month: "The bible is like a laxative, it puts me right to sleep."

with that im out,
nurse ace

ps this was our Christmas tree (note: Chick-fil-a cow as our angel)

Waddup.

Hi!  So things in DC are going well, January came and went without too much snow (although my school did get a couple snow days).  One day schools were closed, Rachel and I went to the Museum of Natural History, which was lots of fun.

This past weekend, Grace, Brittany, Anna, and Tatum came up to visit DC!  It was so fun to have them all here at once, and I had a good time showing them all of our favorite places- cupcakes at Baked & Wired, pizza at Fireworks, walking around Georgetown, brunch at Kitchen (a good restaurant in Glover Park), etc.etc.  One highlight of the weekend is that I lost my voice on Friday :( and I sounded like an aging folk country singer/ chain smoker.  All the kids at school I think were scared of me.  Good times, hehe.

This weekend, as she's already mentioned, Wanda will in fact be coming up to DC!  And this Saturday is my sister's 25th birthday....so I got tickets for us to see Beach House at the end of February.  Can't wait.

I love all of you mucho (that's Spanish).

XOXO,
Gossip Girl

gettin' it on!

10 days 6 hours and 37 minutes (I made the hours and minutes up, okay?...) until I get to have sex again!!! Yoohooo! (Davey's mom's dinner call, of course)

hahah...felt like I had to say this. Who else is going to say something outrageous like that on here?? It's why you all love me...hehe

But anyway, more importantly than that even, I get to see MARY, ALISON, AND WHITNEY!! in 4 days...count 'em, 4 days!! I am so excited to be reunited with part of our little group and only wish that we could all be together :( We will do it up in style though in honor of y'all! Ellyn, I especially wish you were going to be there and not in danger in Cairo :( Can we get a supper club update on your situation?

Went to Asheville this weekend with mom and Keeley and it was lots of fun. Kim was being her usually crazy self and Keeley and I just laughed at her. The weekend would not have been complete without mom forcing me to do a photoshoot on the bed in our hotel room, trying to get some nice cleavage shots to send to Davey at boot camp.....unbelievable. Oh, you would like to see that you say? Well here you go...

So ridiculous. I may or may not send it....
So, we went to see the Biltmore and it was my first time there. That house was unbelievable! Have any of you been there? It's amazing. I felt like I was on a dream version of House Hunters (y'all know that's my favorite TV show, thanks HGTV!). The library was probably my favorite room and rivaled the magnificence of the library in Beauty and the Beast (yes, the Disney animated movie), mostly because it actually exists. You better believe that multiple times during the tour I said "ahhhh! This is like Beauty and the Beast"

Us in front of the Biltmore

Me in the Lobby of our very nice hotel- Mom did girl's weekend right! Plus, I'm sporting my new skinny jeans..I'm trying to stay with the trends y'all! Alpal, you can give me some professional pointers on how to rock these when I come visit.

So that's about all I have right now. I have a lot of things in the works- moving to Monterey, finding a house, getting some work lined up out there, finding out more about Davey's job and training- but have no official news to share at this time. So I'll hold off until then! Just know that I love you all and miss you all quite a lot. Stay safe everybody (Ellyn) and warm (Becca)!

P.S. Shout out to Anna Caroline who has hooked me up with Callie, her wedding photographer. Callie lived in Monterey while her husband attended DLI and has been helping me with house hunting, finding jobs, and telling me all about the area. She has even handed me a couple of nanny jobs on a silver platter, which is ridiculous! I already have nanny work in Monterey through May! You're the best AC.

spring time! wait what?

hello beautiful ladies...

i am working on a blog with the summary of my life for the past 2-3 months...but thought i would share this...

it is a BEAUTIFUL day here! feels like spring... it's 71 degrees (sorry becca and anyone else who is cold)...just seemed appropriate to post after the weather report from becca.

this is just an invitation or more a display of why you should come visit.

love!

will be posting soon.

miss. each. one. of you!

it's how cold?

-3 degrees cold. and the feel like? -23 degrees. at least the high is 14 today!.. it is, as they say in sweden, a stand between your pants day.

eheu. i live in the northeast.

but i just wanted to say hello before i go walk to work! i'll blog more later.

love you all.

maybe i broke the blog

(the picture is of cairo at dusk after i climbed up a minaret in the oldest mosque in cairo over christmas break! whooo.)

with my rancorous new year's eve blog, but i'm breaking the silence. ladies! let's get back on this thing. things in egypt are rolling along. my job is super busy right now. i'm basically doing two people's jobs right now, but such is life. it's actually chilly here and i'm wishing i had more coats to choose from. i need to go shopping. this is turning into a stream of consciousness blog. i'm going to go with it. the next four months are going to lovely with visitor's in ole cairo. february brings tyler and amber from saudi to visit. i really couldn't be more excited about seeing my brother and sister-in-law. it's been a long 5 months with no family time for the echols. and you all know how obsessed we are with each other. plus, i think tyler's been especially homesick so it'll be good for him too. march brings julia on her spring break from nyu. that's also been a long 5 months of no julia-ellyn time so i know it'll be good. i think she might go into shock in egypt, but hopefully she'll enjoy herself. i know she will. april is robyn from singapore and aaron from baton rouge. i'm so excited to have two of my friends coming at the same time from different places and during my birthday! what a sweet birthday present. and then last (but CERTAINLY not least) becca and alison in may. i am SO AMPED to have you 2 grace cairo with your lovely faces. it'll be sex and the city 3: cairo. just kidding. but seriously, let's take the city by storm. other than that, i'm just about to start arabic classes again for the semester. i'm excited about starting with a new teacher and a new schedule that'll hopefully be more conducive to me not hating my life. the old schedule was just too exhausting week in and week out and really took the fun out of it. additionally, we've started actually hanging out with some legit egyptian friends so conversation practice has been more frequent and more fun. it's nuts to think that i've lived here for almost 5 months. what a crazy but awesome time it's been. it's definitely been harder than i thought, but has also taught me a lot about myself and what i want to do in the next year or so. i'm hoping to end up in D.C. and looking at jobs at the moment. it's hard to try and apply/plan for jobs this early out, but i want to keep some options open. i really miss all of you dearly and cherish any time i get to skype/vid gchat with y'all so hit me up!

i hope you're doing well wherever you are. i miss yo faces like whoa.

love. love. love.

you win new year's eve. you win.

oh my. it's been too long. and i've been avoiding posting about my new year's eve for a lot of reasons. but i've decided it's time. unfortunately there are few pictures of the evening (thank god) but i'll try and paint you a picture with words. new year's eve in cairo eludes most of the population here in terms of the way we normally celebrate it, but the wealthier, more western cairenes know what they're doing. covers for clubs in cairo on NYE run anywhere from 200 LE to 1700 LE ($40-$300) and obviously since we make a little over that last figure in a month, the club scene was not really one we wanted to get into. enter: our friend sherif.

sherif is a recent AUC grad who volunteers with marnie at the desert development center where she works and has since worked his way into our group of friends. he's wonderful. studied at UCLA and Harvard and a pretty westernized guy, but also just lovely and a great host for us. so sherif had some friends that wanted to party and we wanted to party so we combined forces and decided to throw a house party on our terrace. there was booze and drinking games and like 10 of us partying, but it was kind of going slow and by 1am the girls (these 2 american girls sherif brought who sucked) and this other guy wanted to go dancing. by that time, we were all at the point of being easily convinced. so they left and sherif volunteered to drive the rest of us to meet up with them.

we piled 6 of us in a mercedes sedan, uncomfortably at best, and headed out. that in itself was ridiculous, but marnie's cousin was visiting as well and bless his nineteen year old heart decided he had to pee the minute we got onto a bridge and couldn't hold it. to avoid the panic attack that was coming quickly we encouraged him to get out of the car in the middle of the bridge and pee into the nile. he opted for the side of the road and we spent a good ten minutes giggling fiercely as bill ran across traffic and peed behind a tree. ridiculous.

finally, we were informed we weren't going to a club after all, but to the girls apartment in a neighborhood like 10 minutes from where we live. which was obviously ridiculous that we had even left our apts if we were just going to go to someone else's, but whatever. so we get to the girls apartment and proceed to have a raucous dance party on their patio the size of a small bathroom.

at 4am, mama ellyn decided it was time to pull the plug on everyone and we proceeded to get a cab back to zamalek and sing top 40 hits to the cab driver the whole way home. when we arrived at the apt i gave the driver way more money than was necessary and then got into a fight with him in arabic about the price. i will say this, alcohol improves my arabic immensely.

i know that doesn't do nearly enough justice to explain the night and it probably sounds less insane than it was. but believe you me, i spent the ENTIRE next day on my couch in pajamas nursing a whiteny-esque hangover. terrible.

needless to say, i was exhausted this sunday at work and needed another 2 days to fully get the wind back in my sails. i'm not proud of how nutty it was, i'm just kind of impressed that cairo has brought out a party-side of me none of us have ever seen. maybe its the fact that every day is a struggle here and when you get the chance to let loose it kind of over takes you? not sure. but if any of you make it over here, you'll get a first hand lesson in surviving cairo, and then maybe this will make sense.

i love you guys. happy 2011.

The Horn, The Horn, It Sounds So Forlorn

Ladies,

It has been too long since I've posted. Our holiday was really enjoyable, mostly because Andrew didn't have to work since he's on a school schedule! woohoo. The end of my semester was crazy busy so the break was much needed and enjoyed. We began with a trip to Thomasville for Manning & Lindley's wedding. T-ville was rather charming and we stayed in the kick-A "pond house" out in horse-country. The woman who owns it runs an antique store so everything in it was at least 100 years old (minus the microwave)--it was unreal. pictures don't do it justice.

Without further ado, our Christmas break in pictures:

Since we were already half-way to Tampa, we went and stayed at the Don Cesar resort to celebrate our 1 year. It was kind of ridiculously ritzy and we felt a little out of place, but nevertheless, we lived it up...ordered room service, visited the hotel bar, got snacks from the in-room fridge...all things i've never done before, of course. Oh, and did I mention the hotel was massive and bright pink? Just my style.

Then we visited Becca, Nathan and the kids for a couple of days...

We also went to the aquarium with Hace & Sally...

My two Christmas gifts from AT:

- some sweet grandma slippers

- my DUVET from anthro...shout out to Alpal for getting him the hook-up

Then we were off to NYC...Christmas with the Terrells was really fun, but we def overstayed our welcome...We were so antsy to leave after 9 days. Joseph & Whitney came up for New Years and we spent it with our good friend from high school Brandon Harris who lives up there now.

Sorry for the long post...love you and miss you all very much. Whit, selfishly, I'm so sad that you aren't moving back here anymore :(. Everyone, post more pics from holidaazee. lerve youu gals!!

p.s. I think i'm coming up to DC with anna , tatum and grace...last i heard anyway. I'll let y'all know!

hot tub time machine.

Hi my beautiful friends!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Years. I am glad that you all just hung out on New Years and were low key, DC girls, cause that's the best! Y'all know Wanda never has a problem staying in on the couch watching bad tv...for hours. But, alas, I actually did something this year and it was fun! In an effort to avoid getting depressed and sad on my first New Years in 5 years without Davey, I got proactive and made plans and bought a ticket to the New Years party at the Adventure Science Center. Yes, the children's science museum. Unfortunately (but fortunately for the exhibits) we were not allowed to go into any of the really cool areas, which is understandable since drunk people and delicate objects don't mix well. It was an open bar and lots of people were there. They had a dance floor and a DJ and they were giving out free "space walk" rides (how that goes better with drunk people, I am not sure). I went with Bracey and Carter as my dates, but there were some others girls there that I knew too. Overall is was a success! Here are some pictures...




Now to the title of my blog post. Tomorrow marks 3 weeks since I've seen Davey and the reality of his absence has really begun to set in this last week. I'm not exactly realllyyy sad yet, but am beginning to get a little bit lonely and miss him in waves, especially when I'm doing something that I wish he were there for. But overall what's gotten me this past week is that I am basically living my single life all over again and it's weirding me out!

I feel a little bit like I'm in an alternate universe and that I turned the dial back a few years. I mean, at this moment I'm sitting here at my parents' house, eating cereal in my bed, staying up too late on the computer doing absolutely nothing, etc. etc. Pretty much I have immediately regressed back to my former self. This is probably a pretty unique opportunity to have as a married woman, since you don't usually completely separate from your husband like this unless you're divorced. I must say that my first impression of this new re-singleness is making me feel 2 things...1) Grateful for this opportunity to see how much I have enjoyed being married to Davey and spending time with him this past 1 1/2 and 2) Tired, because I am going to bed so late because I can't stop playing on the computer!! It's terrible. Really, it is.

Well that's all for now. I'm so looking forward to seeing you DC girls so soon!! Whoop. You 3 are single-handedly getting me through January...no pressure! Also, I posted a new blog about Davey's time at boot camp on my page if you want to check it out! Since he left I've been able to talk to him 2 times for about 35 minutes each, which has been nice.

Love you all!