On the Road to Somewhere : January 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

Backblogging: December & Christmas in the States

This December 5th Cody and I celebrated our four year anniversary in Singapore. Cody had planned a lovely evening for us with dinner and tickets to see the Nutcracker (that's what we did the weekend we got engaged as well). It was wonderful to get to spend it in our new country and even more amazing to get to spend it together. I think we have both learned a lot about each other in the last four years and while it hasn't always been easy we have stood by one another and the Lord has held both of us up. I sincerely hope that I can say the exact same thing at our 65th wedding anniversary!

We went to India as you may have read about here and then spent two days packing in Singapore before flying home to Texas. Cody and I are able to say that we are blessed with large families and good friends that work so hard to accommodate our scheduling needs so that we can see as many of them as possible. We were able to see almost everyone and truly enjoyed every second that we were home. You really can't replace people- especially our people.

We had about six Christmases and drove: Houston-Fredericksburg-Austin-Dallas-Tyler-Hico-Dallas-Hico-Houston. Cody's dad, Ricky, is so generous and lets us borrow a car to put all those miles on when we're home. We have some pictures below from our three week trip and to be honest I've been going through withdrawals trying to get used to our Expat life again. I keep failing by ordering Mexican food...never a good idea when you're not in Texas or Mexico...it's just disappointing. Trying to remember to fully live in the present because I know I will really miss this incredible lifestyle when we're back home for good. In the meantime, the visits make the distance bearable and I'm just so thankful to be able to call two places home for the time being.

Love,

Christie & Cody

Dinner at Supply and Demand

Traditional Anniversary: Flowers and Fruit

Wedding Day December 5, 2009

Christmas in Fredericksburg, Texas

Finding the pickle ornament at Jordan's house

Cody and Jordan made brisket

Our sweet Vizsla Lauren

Grandboo giving us a prophesy lesson

Farrar Cousins and Grandboo

"Camping" with baby brothers William and Jackson

New Year's Eve with Dad and Amanda

My beautiful Mom and GrandNonnie

She knows we're about to leave. So sad.

Absolute Christmas Chaos to unpack

Backblogging India: Delhi, Agra, Jaipur- December 2013

You guessed it! Cody had a work trip in India this December. We decided to take advantage of that location and plan a holiday around the, "Golden Triangle". We spent the first week of our stay in Bangalore at the Marriott hotel. They picked us up from the airport and drove us about an hour through incredibly dark and twisting streets; that was an adventure in itself. The hotel is beautiful...you just have to go through bomb security and metal detectors to get into it! We spent our first night and woke up early because we had a one day tour set up. Our guide took us to several temples and we really started to soak up the sights and smells of India.

Cody worked at the AMD office for a week and then we flew from Bangalore to Delhi on Air India where we were picked up by Indian Holiday, PVT (a recommendation from John and Halie) and taken to the Shangri La- a beautiful hotel! Our tour guide met us in the lobby the following morning and we began the real tour. We had the same driver for the entire trip, but were provided with a local guide for each city we visited. They were all wonderful and gave us a wealth of information about the sites we were seeing as well as prearranging tickets, transfers, etc. Usually I am the one planning all of those details so it was fantastic to have it all thought out for us! India can easily be described as a colorful and vibrant country. Everywhere you turn there are bright colors and smells; not to mention delicious food. The women dress in the most elaborately beautiful saris and the people were incredibly friendly! We were taken all over the three cities and saw amazing places that we've only ever read about. We usually started our tours in the mornings, finished late afternoon, and then drove to our next destination by late evening. In Agra we stayed at the Radisson Blu and in Jaipur we spent the night at the gorgeous ITC hotel.

It was certainly a trip filled with luxury and excitement for us, but was also another eye opener for just how much hurting there is around the world. We brought small bills and snacks to pass out to the needy around us, but it just didn't feel like enough. We were taken back to an almost Biblical time seeing so many beggars and even people with leprosy. These are things that we are able to forget when we're in 1st world countries, but just outside of the hotels we were staying in there were people that may not have even had a place to sleep that night. More than anything it was a reminder to give when and where we can and to continue to be thankful for what we have at all times.

Love,

Christie & Cody

Tipu Sultan's Palace

Bull Temple Bangalore

Qutab Minar

Humayun's Tomb

Adorable school kids that liked my hair

Wasn't just the kids that liked the blonde hair

Jumping for joy at the Taj Mahal

Built to remember a love. There with mine!

It was breathtaking

We had to wear protective shoes

The original Chevron print..and my shirt!

Red Fort Agra

Wind Palace in Jaipur

Elephant ride to the Amber Fort

Genius to put mirrors and different color carpet. The palace changed colors.

Beautiful paintings using semi-precious stones as the paint

Rajasthani palace officers

We had to do it. We even touched them. Terrifying.

"When in India"

Backblogging: Thailand November 2013

We spent Thanksgiving in Phuket, Thailand this year. Since we were unable to go home to be with our families we decided to do a quick getaway instead. We were able to go diving for the first time since we got certified and visit some of the places that we went to on our honeymoon 4 years ago. One of the highlights was going to Tiger Kingdom and playing with full grown tigers and their babies! We're lucky to live no more than two hours from some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world. We actually landed back in Singapore the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and were invited to spend it with our friends Dawn and Quinn & Phil and Jess. Again, lucky to have friends from Texas even on this side of the world!

Love,

Christie & Cody

Got to love hotel points

Baan Rim Pa Restaurant

Beautiful baby Tiger

Christmas Card worthy?

Joe's Downstairs

Sunset in Phuket

Heading out to dive with Bubba Diving

Phi Phi Islands

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Backblogging: Taipei, Taiwan & Beijing, China November 2013

This November Cody had two work trips: one was in Taipei, Taiwan & the other in Beijing China. There is only one picture from Taipei on this post... that is because eating Xiao long Bao at Din Tai Fung and drinking Pearl Milk Tea was practically all we did there. Those are two of the things I know we will really miss once we are repatriated! In Taipei we stayed at The Gloria Prince hotel...I wouldn't recommend it, but our usual hotels were booked and it was a last minute trip. It was an, "experience" that I'm OK not repeating.

Living in hotels sounds very luxurious and in a lot of ways it is, but one of the challenges of traveling 80% of the time is what in the world to eat. I relate it to foraging for food...if you don't believe me just try walking down the street, reading signs in Chinese, trying to identify what you're ordering, and then figuring out the currency conversion to pay for it. It's for all of those reasons that I typically find a grocery store as soon as we check into our hotel and I eat a lot of oatmeal, fruit, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. :)

It was close to freezing in Beijing when we were there and so we were able to wear our warm clothes! (Always a plus) We even got one day of blue skies while we were there! Other than that one day we should have been wearing air pollution masks to deal with all of the smog. When we arrived we had a one day tour scheduled with Tours by Jessie so we were able to see quite a bit of the city-pictures below. Other than people really wanting their picture taken with us, seeing the Great Wall was the highlight by far! We also did something different on this trip by bringing in the book of John in Chinese and giving it to the different people that we interacted with. We later learned that bringing in Bibles is not strictly legal, but our hope is that some people will get to read God's word and maybe even come to know Christ.

Love,

Christie and Cody

Din Tai Fung in Taipei

Tiananmen Square

Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall

Alpine slide down the hill

Chinese Pancake Stand

Right outside of the Forbidden City

People wanted their picture with us

Monday, January 20, 2014

Backblogging: Europe October 2013

Since a picture is worth 1,000 words, especially when they're mine, I'll just give a quick summary of our trip to Europe this Fall.

Cody had a work engagement in Riga, Latvia for almost two weeks at the beginning of October. I couldn't help but notice how "close" Latvia is to the rest of Europe...so we added on an extra week of travel and got to see some of our favorite places! We absolutely enjoyed every second of the glorious weather while we were there. Singapore is extremely hot and humid so any opportunity to wear a jacket is amazing!

I'm lucky to be married to someone who feels the same way about touring that I do. Our time is equally divided between seeing the sights and eating the local cuisines! We flew from Riga to Milan, Italy where we caught the train into Florence. The next three nights and four days were filled with wine, cappuccino, gelato, pizza, museums, and art. We took a train from Florence to Pisa, Italy where we were able to see the Leaning Tower before catching our flight to Paris, France.

Paris is one of my favorite places on Earth. There is just something special about this city! Call me a romantic, but the croissants taste better there and spending the day with Cody at the Louvre and the night holding hands in front of the Eiffel tower before heading back to our rented apartment is my idea of perfect. That is pretty much all we did for the two days that we were there!

Some of our good friends, Kate and Danny, have an Expat assignment in Brussels, Belgium. We took the train from Gare du Nord and a little over an hour later we were drinking delicious beer and heading to one of our favorite band's concerts. (Goldfrapp) They were incredible hosts, even making us a traditional French dinner at home one night and seeing familiar faces is so awesome! How can you not enjoy yourself when the place is famous for: Beer, Lace, Waffles, Frites, and chocolate?

We had a lovely trip as you can probably tell from the pictures below!

Love,

Christie

Riga, Latvia