June 30 2010 - Laundry Day

Hello there,

So I slept in again after going to sleep at about 4am yesterday or rather earlier today. I was actually in bed by about 2.30 but the whole Eclipse thing had me so excited that I just couldn't sleep.

So when I was finally up, I unpacked Johnny the backpack and tried to sort out the clothes that had to be wasched. Then I decided that everything smelled like backpack and that I'd just throw everything in the wash.

While the clothes was washing/drying I watched the two movies I had bought in San Antonio when I was with Melodye (One was good, the other was kind of stupid) and went out with the dog (It was freaking HOT)

Later Sunshine picked me up to go shopping to have BBQ tonight. In the store I picked up some hsir dye to try and lighten up my hair.

Sundhine's friends came over and we eate while watching So you think you can dance.

Later that night, I tried to watch the season finale of In plain sight. The computer drove me crazy, It took me almost 2 hours to watch a 45 minute shoe. So that had me in a not so good mood already and then, the stupid writers decided to finishe the season in such a freaking stupid way I wanted to scream and throw my computer to the wall! TV Shows can be really frustrating but of course, we love them!

xoxo

June 29 2010 - Finally Finally Finally Finally Finally Finally Finally...... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone

The day has finally come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well actually the day of the days is tomorrow but let's start at the beginning

Bubba and I slept in till 11am, I haven't slept that long since I've been in the States. We had breakfast and spent the afternoon watching movies and playing xBox.

At around 5.30 Sunshine came home from work to pick us up to go eat at Chipotle (LOVE IT). But before that, we had to make a stop at the mall, why?

Well, there's a movie theater at the mall and if you noticed the date, it's June 29th which means tomorrow is June 30. What happens on June 30? I can not believe you haven't marked that day red in your calander!!! The Twilight Saga Eclipse premiere is on June 30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Meaning: midnight showings!!!!!

We had briefly considered doing the Twilight experience. The Theaters were showing all three movies in a row starting at 6.30pm, but we that would have meant no Chipotle so NO :) Sunshine had ordered the movie tickets online in the afternoon so we just had to pick them up.

So we walk into the theater and believe it or not, people were already standing in line for the midnight shoe, it was about 6pm (In the States there is no seat assignment in theatres so if you want a good seat you better be there early) We learned that all the shows at midnigth were sold out (thank God we had our tickets already). And let me tell you this, they were showing the movie in 12, yes 12 theatres and all 12 rooms were sold out, can you believe this? It's crazy!!!!!!!!! But hey, I understand everyone who couldn't wait the least bit longer then they have to, to see that movie.

So with our tickets in the pocket, we ended up at Chipotle. It still tasts as good as I remembered. The one thing that struck me though, I ordered water and paied over 2 dollars for it, buying softdrinks with free refills was only a little bit over 1 dollar. I think this is totally crazy, I really don't believe this!

After the mexican food, we went to a place called Purple Kiwi. I love this place. You can buy frozen yoghurt there in all kinds ov flavours like birthday cake etc. Then you can top it up with cookie dough, m&ms, fresh fruit, chocolate chips etc. It tastes simular to ice cream but it's not, how cool is that???

Then, Sunshine dropped Bubba and me off at the movie theater. It was about 8.30pm. So we still had over three hours to wait. We had cards and played poker :) at 9.45pm they let us into the room and we got the best seats in there, but still, we had some time to beat. We spent it playing Who wants to be a millionaire on Bubbas IPod. I also eavesdropped on conversations some kids were having. Well it wasn't even eavesdropping as they were yelling across the room. I wrote some of the stuff down they were saying cause I thought it was funny. So in the row behind us there were some girls who had just picked up to black guys and made them come to the movie with them. At one point all but one of the guys were gone to get popcorn ok so here we go:

guy ( about 17): Great who am I talking to now?
girl behind him: Hey you can talk to me.
guy: who are you?
girl behind him: Brianna
guy: Do they call you Bree?
girl behind him: yes or B and sometimes B-Anne and you? (Oh how cool ur nicknames are :) )
guy: Chase and they call me Chase.
girl behind him: That's my friend, her name is Kitty, like Kitty Cat. (Did she really just say that???)

(...)

girl in another row: Hey what's your name? (What's the deal with everyone wanting to talk to this guy, he's not even hot!)
guy: Chase
girl in another row: Oh that's soooo cool! So Chase are you Team Jacob or Team Edward? (Did she seriously just ask him that? I mean did she really think he had read the books?)
guy: I don't know, I haven't decided yet. I'm Team Chase! (Of course you are)

(...)

guy: Hey where's your boyfriend?
girl behind him: He's at home.
guy: How old are you anyway, thirteen?
girl: Nooooo I turned 15 this year.
guy: Oh does he still have to sneek out to come see you, how cute.
girl: Am I cute? (?????????)
guy: I guess! (ups! :))
girl: You guess? We are so done!

It just made me feel like this girls were all stupid! The way they talked and acted all girly girl! It really had me LOL!

And then, FINALLY, at 12.01am it was time and it was AWESOME and I want to go back and se it AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN...............

Sunshine picked us up at 2.15am after the movie. Back home Bubba finished packing his luggage cause he had an early flight to catch to go see his Dad in New Mexico. I set my alarm to go to the airport too and then spend some time downtown, maybe go to the sixth floor museum, but of course, I slept through it :)

Anyway, there's only one thing left to say, ECLIPSE ROCKS!!!

xoxo

June 28 2010 - Trip to the Aquarium

Hello there,

The first thing I did this morrning was pack all my stuff cause I would be moving to Sunshine's today.
Dalton had football camp this morrning but as soon as that was over, we drove to downtown Dallas to visit the Dallas World Aquarium.

That place is more like a zoo then an aquarium, it's really beautiful in there and they have a whole lot of different animals, not just water creatures but also monkeys and birds.

It really feels like walking around in the jungle.

The coolest thing is those kind of tunnels you can walk through and you can see the fish swimming over you. They also have a tunnel like that for the shark tank.


Sandy and Dalton


Doesn't it look like they are flying?

We were at the shark tank in time for their feeding, however, it was not as spectacular as we hoped it would be. Those sharks just didn't seem to be hungry!

They also have a turtle in the shark tank:



and then we found those, smaller, well behaved cuties



But my absolute favorite was definitly this beauty



Befor heading back home we stopped at the Dallas Hard Rock Cafe to get my T-Shirt :) YAY!!!!!!

As you can see, those two were pretty tired after the aquarium experience so they took a nap on the 30 minute drive home :)




When we got there however, they were awake again and took me and Sandy to the little lake they have in the neighberhood (on a golfcart, that was fun) to go fishing. We didn't stay very long, we were barely there when we heard thunder and saw lightening, so we returned to the house. That's where Sunshine picked me up that night.

We drove to here house in the rain. I had never seen it rain like that in Texas before. At the house Bubba and I spent a good while playing soccer on the xBox, needless to say that I loost all the time, I was however really proud of myself when I mad atleast one goal!
We finished the evening by Brangelina shooting at eachother in Mr and Mrs Smith.

xoxo

June 27 2010 - Discovering Dave and Busters

Hey there

We spent the morning at home today. Just hanging around, relaxing, watching TV and surfing the internet.

In the afternoon we drove to the big mall to go to Dave and Busters. Sandy's niece Sunshine has a son, Bubba, who was celebrating his 13th birthday there.


Sunshine, Bubba and me (obviously :))

I had never been to a Dave and Buster's before so I did not really know what to expect.

The place has to stories, the top one is more for adults. It's a restaurant and there is a bar with billiard tables etc. The lower level is like a giant game room. SO what you do is buy a kind of card that allows you to play all the different games there are. They have trivia games, basketball games, wheel of fortune kind of games and many many more. There's also this game with the huge crawl where you have to try and fish a stuffed animal out of a 'bucket'. Sandy won a San Antonio Spurs teddy bear and the two boys each won a giant boxing glove, one in blue and one in pink.


Sandÿ's new Teddy

Yesterday, Sandy had told me about chocolate martinis and I was eager to try one. So we hit the Dave and Busters bar and ordered. Of course the girl wanted to see my ID. I handed her my driver's license. She looked at it for a while before asking me where I was from. When she heard I was from Switzerland she started speaking to me in German, not perfect German but I totally understood her. That was kind of cool.


She mixed our Martinis and let me tell you, omg, I love chocolate martinis!!!!!!!!

That night at home the boys decided they were in the mood for pizza so we ordered pizza over the phone and had it delivered to the house. That's another american thing I really wanted to experience. It was awesome :) (I know I'm weird :) )
We watched the Daytime Emmys (Emmys for soap operas) and then, I got to watch the new True Blood episode on an actual TV instead of a computer screen!!!!

Oh and I have a new favorite ad, here's the link, watch it, it's worth it (maybe it's on Swiss TV too):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ0M9CBEkw0

xoxo

June 26 2010 - Shower Time

Hello there,

So today was an exciting day for me. I got up early and got ready to drive to Waco with Sandy, Dalton and his friend.
What's in Waco? Well, one of Sandy's friends, Lacee was having a bridal shower today.

Here in the States people host bridal showers for the bride. Basically, it's an event where there's cake and snaks and drinks and the bride gets presents. Her party was a lingerie party. So all the presents were lingerie, her cake said "Lacee's secret" and everything was victoria's secret pink.

The girls had spent yesterday night in Austin for the bachelorette party and told stories about that. It was a looooooot of fun believe me. And just so you know, I want one of those showers! :)

The thing that struck me is that basically all her friends who were there were around 22 and they all have a big rock on their finger. They are all engaged or married already. I did feel kind of old :)

We got back to Celina around 9.30pm (it's about a 2 hour drive) and I was really tired so it was off to bed for me pretty soon after getting back home.

Anyway, it was a really cool day and I was so happy Sandy took me there.

xoxo

June 25 2010 - Good to see you again Sam, I really missed you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello there

After sleeping in this morning me and Sandy hit the road to run some errands in town. We went to a store called hobby lobby which I absolutely fell in love with. My dad would hate it cause its full of stuff to decorate your house. Dad would say they are things that stand around and collect dust. Anyway, one more thing I wish we had back home. I think I said "I want to move here" at least 5 times a day in the last week...

Then we went to Sam Moon. I had been to this store two years ago. It's a chain that only exists in Texas, maybe even only in the Dallas area and it's heaven. Full of cheap accessories, hand bags, wallets, jewelry, luggage etc. Girls check the the homepage (I'm in the area till july 2nd so hurry if you see something on there u absolutely need!)

http://www.sammoon.com/web3/product.asp?cat=handbag&tempcat=Totes_bag&sub=sub

I found a little clutch for the wedding and a new wallet and ear rings... LOVE IT!!!!!!

that's it for now

talk to you soon

xoxo

June 24 2010 - Welcome back wierdness

Hey y'all

Ok during that time in San Antonio, I had already forgotten that there are wierd people took the bus. There were two bridsnest haired backpackers who immediately made friends with a black gay guy. They had a lot of fun during the whole trip and were not the least bit quiet which I personally think is so disrespectful at 2am in the morning when people try to sleep.
And then behind me sat a red haired/beard guy who started talking to me via cell phone. He would write down something on his cell phone and then show it to me... hello can't you speak like normal people?

We got to Dallas at 3.15am. The bus to McKinney wouldn't leave till 6.30am so I had over 3 hours to kill. Red haired guy was back with his phone asking me (still through his phone) if I wanted a sandwich or something to drink. And I know now you're probably all thinking 'maybe he couldn't talk' but he could speak, I had heard him on his cell phone. Oh an of course he was going to mckinney too so I was stuck with him sitting next to me all this time. On my other side the black guy from the bus had taken a seat and started sewing.

I finallt got to McKinney where Malodye's sister Sandy picked me up.
After getting Johnny home and picking up Dalton (her son) we dropped him of at football camp and then had breakfast. Mmmmmm chocolat chip pan cakes.
We spent the afternoon watching TV and surfing the net. I also had a long nap after my sleepless night in the bus and the Dallas station.
We had dinner in a chinese restaurant I had noodels with veggis, very good again.

That's it for now

xoxo

June 23 2010 - Relaxing last Day

Hey there

Today was definitly my last day in San Antonio. I decided it had to be a lazy day. After sleeping in and breakfast Melodye went to clean the church and I made myself at home infront of the TV.
I watched wedding shows till she came back around around 1pm (with a short shower interruption :))

We had tamales for lunch I LOVE tamales. for those who don't know what they are, you only need to know that they taste amazing and otherwise, there's still wikipedia :)

Then it was time to pack Johnny again. I managed to put everything into my backpack just the way it was before, how amazing is that.

For dinner tonight we had sausage that Melodye and Mike made themselves, really good, and coconut pie for dessert mmmmmm.

Melodye drove me to the bus station where my bus would leave at 10pm. There I saw some Amish people and one of the woman had a Longchamp bag, is something wrong with that picture? I didn't think they have stuff like that! Well, good for her I guess.

Now all there was left to do was wait for the bus.

xoxo

June 22 2010 - Figuring out Greyhound

Hey there

So today was supposed to be my last full day in San Antonio before moving on to the Dallas area 2morrow. The plan was to have relaxing stay-at-home day after going to the grocery store first.

As always, I loved shopping at HEB. I can walk through the store like 10 times and always find something I had not seen before. So that was fun.

Back at home I sat down on the computer to see when in the morning the buses would leave. I found out there were only 2 possible buses. one at 5 in the morning and one at 10 at night. You know me, I like to sleep so I decided to take the one at 10pm. After having calculated my budget yesterday night I decided that I wanted to try to avoid staying at the expensive hotel in Savannah GA. That meant, going over my whoule travel route again. It took me forever. Everytime you think you got it all figured out, one thing doesn't work and you have to start from the beginning again. How annoying. But the feeling after everything is finally right is just great and you know it was worth spending over 3 houers in front of the computer screen.

After dinner Melodyes dad came over and we had an interesting deicussion about different school systems and what is wrong with them. That really ws fun!

Tomorrow will definitly be my final day in San Antonio. Won't be my last day with Melodye's family though, next I'm visiting her sister Sandy, can't wait!

Talk to you soon

xoxo



sleep in grocery store changing route watch tv

June 21 2010 - Into the Wild

Hello there,

So this morning I had actually set my alarm. We wanted to go to the San Antonio zoo today and as you know, it gets pretty hot around here so we wanted to go early. On the Internet it said the zoo opens at 7.30am. We had decided to leave the house around 8.00am.
When we got there, it was 8.45. Suprise Suprise, it was not open yet!!! Turnes out it's only open that early for members. Luckily we only had to wait 15 minutes to get in, which really wasn't bad.
With a map in hand, we started our trip to Afrika, Australis, Asia etc.

The first cages (cages actually sound bad, the animals really weren't in what my picture of a case looks like but I can't think of a better word right now) we came across seemed to be empty. Looks like the animals in San Antonio like to sleep in too!
But then finally, we met the Leoperd they have. It is absolutely beautiful!!! (I'll post pictures soon). We also saw a whole lot of different kinds of birds and fish.





The newest part they have is called Africa live. It's like its own park. You can walk in and be really close to the elephants, the rhinos and hippos, there's also an aquarium etc. It was really great. That was probably my favourite part of the whole zoo.





After having spent time in the "oh I love this place" part of the zoo we went to the next exhibit. Did I love it too? Not so much! What was it? The reptile house. And those of you who know me know I can not stand snakes! But there were also salamanders and animals like that in there so it was ok.

The las stop before leaving was the aquarium. Pretty cool stuff in there too: Baby seahorses, Turtles, Jellyfish, Sharks....







It was Monday so back home, it was time for me to watch the latest adventures of Sooki Stackhouse & Co. I really love True Blood!

Today was really a perfect day, had a lot of fun and saw a lot of things.

that's it for now, talk to you later

xoxo

June 20 2010 - The Little Red Barn

Hello people,

This morning Melodye and me went too church while Mike went to meet his mum. Church was over way faster then it is back home, I liked it, it was really relaxed.

Back home we changed to go meet Mike and his side of the family at a place called "The little red Barn" Let me tell you this, it was definitly not little. It's a really big place that can fit a whole lot of people and yes, it is red :)
Maybe it was so crowded because today ws father's day. We don't celebrate that back home and I do actually wonder why, we should!
The whole menue is written down on the walls, I thought that was really cool. I ordered chicken fried steak. The fries that came with it was really awesome, nothing like the fries you get from McDonald. Did I mention that the waitresses walk around in Cowgirl costumes? Well they do, all of them.

talk to you soon

xoxo

June 19 2010 - Canadian Dinner @ Kate's

Hello there

this morning we drove over to La Cantera, a great outdoor mall. There we met Karen, her daughter Kate and her daughter Camille. We started the morning at the Starbucks in Barnes and Nobels where I had (believe it or not Sarah :) ) my first Strawberry and Cream frappuccino this summer. It still tasted as good as I remembered.

Then we went through the different shops, tried on clothes and looked at shoes and handbags. Love it. We ended up at Tiffany's! Melodye and me even tried on jewelry there. It felt wierd to try on things in such an expensive store, but definitly good wierd, I will do it again :) I tried on the cutest necklace ever and I was tempted to buy it. But, I also wanted to try and keep up the "don't shop till New York" idea. So I decided to buy the necklace but in New York. And of course, I also decided, that my fisrt Tiffany's thing should come from the famous 5th Avenue store in New York. So I'll play Audrey Hepburn in July (right Fabienne?).

We had lunch in a really cool pizzeria. The pizza was excellent. For dessert, we had ice cream from the ice cream place next door. They have the coolest flavours, cheese cake, tiramisu, wedding cake, meringue, cookies and cream, chocolate.... you can imagine how hard it was to decide which one to actually order.

We were back home at about 3pm. After a nap we got ready to drive over to Kate's house for dinner. So we packed my cake and Melodye's pea salad into an ice box and got on the road. The road was a bit bumpy and we were a bit worried about the survival of the cake. At our destination we found out that it still looked fine.

We had a great night with really good food and in great company, again, thank you all for coming, it was great seeing you all! Here some insights of the night:







Driving back home was an other adventure. There was a pretty bad accident on the road so it took us much longer to get there but we eventually did :)

That's it for now, talk to you soon

xoxo

June 18 2010 - Didn't expect Miley would make me cry

Hey there

As most of you know, Melodye is not the only family I have in San Antonio. We had made planes to meet up with the others tomorrow and have a (that's how I call it) canadian dinner, meaning, everyone brings something along. I decided to make a meringue rasberry cake. So after watching say yes to the dress, Melodye, Cassidee and I went to the grocery store to shope for ingredients. We weren't sure if we'd find rasberry but you know what?, they were the first thing we saw when we entered the store.

Back home Cassidee and me had some lunch and then left to go to the movies. We went all the way across town to see The last song. It had been out for a while here, that's why it was only shown in one cinema. It was a dollar movie. You don't know what that is? Well, neighter did I. But now that I know what it is, it goes on the list of things I want to have in Switzerland too. So, when movies have been shown for a while at the theater, instead of just quitting showing them, they are still shown in dollar movie theatres. Which means, you go see an "older" movie and pay very little money for it. I saw this movie for 1.50$!!! Can zou imagine that???? 1.50$ I had never seen a movie at a real theatre for 1.50$!!!!!!!!!

I was sceptical about the movie though. I normally love Nicholas Sparks movies but the last one, Dear John, really wasn't good at all, it was actually boring. So I didn't know how this one had turned out plus, it had Miley Cyrus in it and I really am not a fan of her.
It turned out the movie was absolutely fantastic. I cried almost through the whole thing but it was totally worth the 1.50$. It would also have been worth the regular price. So if you haven't seen it, run.....

here's the trailer to get an idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-5WnVHYeTs

Back home, I got started on my cake. I had some trouble to get the meringue of the baking parchment but it turned out ok. Also, it was the first time I made it with fresh rasberries. Back home it's always frozen ones, fresh is just to expensive, here it was ok. Can't wait to taste it tomorrow.

Finished the day by watching the first two episodes of the new season of say yes to the dress (yes I am an addict!)

xoxo

June 17 2010 - Along the River

Hey there

This morning I actually got up before ten. We planned to visit the Pearl Brewery and then walk the new part of the San Antonio River Walk.

For all those who need infos about what the river walk actually is, here we go:

The San Antonio River Walk (also known as Paseo del Río) is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath downtown San Antonio, Texas. Lined by bars, shops and restaurants, the River Walk is an important part of the city's urban fabric and a tourist attraction in its own right.
River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel sidewalks lined with restaurants and shops, connecting the major tourist draws from the Alamo to Rivercenter mall, to the Arneson River Theatre close to La Villita, to HemisFair Park, to the Tower Life Building, to the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Pearl Brewery.

The Pearl Brewery isn't actually a brewery anymore. They turned the whole building into a place for buisnesses and shops. It was reallz intresting to see that.



The River walk is beautiful. Walking along the river, admiering all the flowers growing along it and also looking out for the cool art work that hangs under the various bridges. It was really impressiv.



We also came across an huge old house, I would buy it anyday! It's kind of a meeting point for veterans. According to all the tabels and the other stuff outside, they must have some pretty nice parties there :)


If ur ever in town, feel free to visit me, I've got enough rooms avaiable!

We had one more stop to make. Two years ago, Melodye, her mother and I had eaten at Gunther House. There I bought a cake mix which I brought home, everybody loved it so I wanted to get one this year too. We had a hard time finding the place again, but after driving around for about 20 minutes we got there. I almost bought the wrong mix but eventually we left with exactly what I wanted. I know you'll be happy Alex, as far as I remember you adored it.

Back at home we were glad to hope into the shower to cool off. It had gotten pretty hot out there.

Later, Melodye's niece Cassidee, who had been in town for her college orientation showed up and had dinner with us, followed by a very confi TV evening.

xoxo

June 16 2010 - No pixels on TV

Hello everyone,

To day was a rest day. Sleeping in, and hanging around.
American TV is pretty coool, there's no time when nothing I want to watch is on. NCIS, Little house on the prairie, Dr.Quinn, Full House, Sabrina the Teenage witch and sooo on...
I decided to watch Dr. Quinn reruns and I reallt enjoied it.

Then it was time to go for a swim in the pool. Very refreshing.
It was wednesday today, which means, new In plain sight episode!!! I had never seen it on an actual TV, but only on the computer, so that was a cool new excperience, watching Mary MacCormack and Frederick Weller without all the pixels :)

Talk to you soon

xoxo

June 15 2010 - David's Bridal, dresses, dresses and more dresses

Hey there,

So I slept in this morning. I can't tell you how great it is to sleep in a good bed! Since I get to go to a wedding this summer (I even get to be a bridesmaide) I'm all about weddings these days. Melodye introduced me to this show called "Say yes to the dress" (Love it) and that's what we watched this morning.

After that, we got in the care and drove to David's Bridal, the bridal store where I had ordered my bridsmaids dress. We went in to go and try it on. I had ordered it over the phone and wasn't quite sure if I got the size right, so we went and tried it. Guess what, IT FITS!!! and I love it, it's beautiful.

ok so this is the dress....



...and this is the right color



We spent a good while in the store, looking at all the different dresses. Thank good I'm not getting married anytime soon,I couldn't decide what kind of dress I'd want, there's so many beautiful gowns!

Then we went to a nice little mexican restaurant which had just opened and served enchilladas, beans and rice for only 3 dollars. Of course they also had chips and salsa. Did I ever mention that I am in love with maxican food? Well, I am!

Next on the list was a stop at the grocery store. I was impatient to get there. There's just something about american grocery stores that amazes me. They're big and have everything you could ever want, including 5 dollar dvd's (I was good and only bought 2)! It really was great

That's it for now, talk to you later

xoxo

June 14 2010 - San Antonio

Hey there

I got to San Antonio really early this morning at like 6.30am.
The bus ride was ok, not a lot of people on there, meaning two seats for me and some sleep.

I wasn't at the bus station for long before Melodye got there to pick me up.
Back at the house I was really happy to find a normal shower (after the one in Denver!). After that, we sat down in front of the TV and eate the best ever watermelon, I wish we would get some like that back home.
I fell asleep on the sofa for a good while. We had great dinner (YAY real food) and then I was off to bed already again, looking forweard to a great big bed!

That's it for now, talk to you soon

xoxo

June 13 2010 - In plain sight, the office of the US Marshal's Witness Protection Service

hello there

It's quite funny how fast people copy each other. I was standing in line to get on the bus to Albuquerque when a guy came up to me and asked me if that was the bus to Colorado Springs. So, i said yes and he was gone again. But just giving one person one info turned me into the informant for everybody. Like 5 other people came up to me asking questions about their buses, which gate they had to go to where they would have to change buses etc. How would i know? Do I look like a greyhound person. Of course that's not what I told them. I did try to help out but just by sending them to people who actually know the answer to their questions.

Another observation I made. Guys, please, do not wear white hot pants!!! Big No!!!

So I got to Albuquerque at 4am this morning. The bus ride was quite interesting. I met a group of hispanic ladies, I don't really know where they were from but anyhow, I got to practice my spanish, good excercise.

I had barely gotten both feet out of the bus when the security guard came up to me asking how I was and where I was from and that he thought my accent was cool and that my backpack was awesome blablabla... I had barely slept and felt aweful, I really didn't feel like flirting at 4am!

The plan was to wait for 6am and then go walk around downtown Albuquerque. So at six I went up to the counter to get my ticket to San Antonio. The guy, Martin, informed me that it was full and that they didn't know if they were gonna have a second bus at the same time and that I should come back later to ask again. So a little bit panicked I sat down again and waited. I wasn't gonna leave the station without a ticket in my bag.

Mr. securtity was back again asking me how I was holding up (he knew my next bus was at 11am) I told him I didn't have a ticket because the bus was already full. then he promised me he would show me how to get on the bus first. what a nice guy :)(It's always good to be on good terms with security!)But i still needed a ticket. so nice guy said "go to the counter and ask for Michael he'll sell you one" unfortunately, Michael did no such thing and told me to wait.

20 minutes later I had my ticket was buying a drink before hitting ABQ. and here again security guy turned up and told the girl on the check out to ask me where I was from, which she did which meant I had to tell my story all over again. Security of course managed to sneek in the boyfriend question.

When i had finally made it out of there I walked around town and almost the first thing I saw was what I had wanted to see. The sunshine building:

One of my favourite shows, In Plain Sight, is filmed in Albuquerque and this building is used as the office of the US Marshal's Witness Protection Service in the show.

Then it was almost time to go back to greyhound, I really didn't want to risk missing my bus!

Well, that's it for now. I'm on the road to San Antonio to see the family, can't wait!!!

Talk to you soon

xoxo

P.S. I forgot to mention: IT'S NOT RAINING!!!! I CAN WEAR SHORTS!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)

June 12 2010 - First crisis over and here comes the rain again

Hey there

So yesterday night I got of the bus in Denver after having spent the day in Colorado Springs. I hadn't really slept for like 2 days and all I wanted now was a shower and a bed. My thoughts while walking through the city to get to the hostel? Wow, I love Denver, it's really pretty. When I got to the Hostel though, that changed drastically and all I wanted to do was leave again.

So the hostel is nasty and I mean it. But let's start in the beginning. First, they told me they only take cash, no credit cards, ok I can live with that even if it annoies me I mean seriously, no credit cards?
Then the guy showed me up to the room. I looked inside and thought, 'ok, not the nicest, but it's ok, it's not a hotel after all'.
Then I sat on the bed and 'oh my god. It was like a trampolin, horrible I was worried I'd fall out during the night.
Then I wanted to check my mails and my computer didn't work for some reason which nearly gave me a heart attack. So I decided to give the labtop a break and shower first.
When I saw the bathroom I seriously considered not taking a shower, it was really, really nasty and it smelled, I'm not exaggerating, like shit and I'm usually not fussy about cleaness in hostels, but that was just too much.
But well, I really needed that shower. When I unpacked my sewing bag I realised that my whole shower gel had leaked and everything was soaked with it. And that was it, I seriously could have cried right then and there.
So I tried to keep calm, washed everything including myself and gave my labtop another try. The computer worked thank God and I even found an internet connection so that was the first good thing about the hostel, they really do have wifi in the rooms.
I spent the rest of the evening checking all my Greyhound timetables (of course meanwhile there had been some changes) and blowdrying my sewing bag before going to bed.

This morning I woke up and it rain. I always thought Colorado was like in the desert but apparently I was really wrong about that. I checked out but got to keep my room key (although I had already gotten my deposit back) so that I could leave my backpack in the room and get it back later. So I hit the city in the rain.

After grabbing a hot Starbucks I made my way to 16th Street Mall.





It's a street full of restaurants and stores. They even have a free shuttle bus that runs up and down the whole street. You'd never get that in Switzerland.

Next stop was...



... yep, Hard Rock Cafe

I already ran out of reading material (I only brought two book) so I went to Barnes and Nobels to change that. Check out what I bought:



Yes, Twilight in Spanish, I thought maybe I would improve if I read a book I almos know byheart in english.

After that, I walked to the capitol, it has a golden roof, but look yourself.



I don't know why I have a thing for capitols, I just love to look at them, they're always impressiv buildings.

Then I went back to the hostel, that's where I am now, to get my things to go to greyhound. Tomorrow, ALBUQUERQUE!!!

Talk to you soon

xoxo

June 11 2010 - Drugs, Skateboarders, Pregnancys, Ambulances, Delays, Reboards and Greyhound

Hello there,

First of all, yes, I kept true to my word and just looked and didn't buy anything yesterday :)

So yesterday night I went to the Greyhoundstation to take the bus to Colorado Springs. There I met Claudette. She's probably in her fourties or so. She told me she came in on a bus that morning but that it had been so late that she missed her connection.

Now, if you've gone Greyhound before, you know that you have to line up to get into the bus, it's kind of first come first serve. So there are two doors. One is for reboarders. Those who have to get off the bus because it's being cleaned and get on the same bus again. They are aloud to go in first with the reboard pass the driver gives them. The second door is for those who start their journey there, in this case Salt Lake City.

I clearly belonged to the second door. Claudette on the other hand was aloud to doot 1 even though she didn't have a reboardpass but just because she had been sitting around there for 16 houers. So we decided to sneek me in as a reboarder too. It took some persuasion but in the end I got on with Claudette.

In the bus station we had also met a 20 year old skateboarder who seems to be leading a pretty crazy life. He's travelling around with his skatboard and his 'always high' mum's credit card for which his rich stepdad pays. His only worry at that moment was where to hide his drugs so the security lady wouldn't find them. He finally decided his shoes where a good place.

Three rows behind us in the bus (that had left half an hour late) where three 'girls' who didn't know each other but had found out they all had something incommon, they were all pregnant. So in the middle of the night, one of this girls insisted that the driver called her an abulance because she wasn't feeling well (could have to do with the fact that she was about 300 pounds and had just eaten McDonalds stuff at 3am). So we pulled aside and waited for the paramedicas to get there and of course we lost time again.

When we finally made it to Denver I had just enough time to switch buses. Now I am in Colorado Springs, which is really beautiful with Pikes Peek and everything. I'm walking around the city and enjoing the sun.



Does somebody remember the Dr. Quinn episode where she climbed up Pikes Peek? I think it looked way higher on TV than in reality!


The Pioneer Museum of Colorado Springs!


Streets of Colorado Springs. I have to say, I really like it here!

I don't even have to carry my backpack because suprisingly it fit into a locker at the Greyhound station. At 3.40pm my bus is going back to Denver where I will visit the next Hard Rock Cafe. Talk to you then.

Oh before I forget. This is for those who took the Romance on the Road seminar with me. Look what I found. Does the name (obviously without the temple in the end) remind you of something?



xoxo

June 10 2010 - Where are all the people?

Hey there

So it's hot in Utah, and I mean really hot, I love it. When I woke up this morning it was raining cats and dogs but now it's just beautiful.

As you probably know, Salt Lake City is like the homebase of the Latter Day Saints otherwise known as Mormones. So of cours most of the sights here are kind of related to them, like their huge office building and the convention center:




And of course, Temple Square which is actually quite pretty. There was a wedding going on there. I thought I could catch a glimps at the bride but no luck.





I have to say, I find Salt Lake a bit confusing. There's nobody on the streets anywhere and restaurants don't open till 11.30am. weird. Oh and every single woman I see is wearing a skirt! Is that just coinsidence?

Another nice thing to see in the city in my opinion is this:

That's a train station that gives me the feeling of being in the wild west!

I found a mall!!! And that's the first time I entered real stores since I've been here. but I've been good, I just looked and haven't bought anything. I'm trying to keep that up till New York. That was also the plan last year, it didn't really work out then. Hope it goes better this year :)

And for everyone at home, that's what shopping looks like in the States!

Right now I'm sitting in Starbucks having my first real coffee since I've been here and let me say, it is sooooooo good and I soo needed it.
The girl told me there was no free wifi here but I can use the internet from the apple store next door, so cool.

Next I'm gonna go to the best store ever, Forever 21, let's see if I can keep the 'just look, don't buy' thing up. Then it's already time to head back to the hostel, get Johnny (that's my backpack) and head back to greyhound. Next stop, Colorado Springs! (Maybe I'll run into Dr. Quinn :) )

Talk to you soon

xoxo