Zai Jian!

That means "see you again".  And now, we fly.  See you all from the other side of the world.

I hope I can continue blogging in China so that I can give you a glimpse of what life is like over there.  But first, we have to survive the 13 hour flight.

Here's the last picture taken of us in the US:


And here's a bonus pic of Cora with her aunt and uncle that I just had to post:

NJ to DC to TX

Lately, I've done a little bit of travelling, but am ashamed to admit, not a lot of photo taking.  I spent two weeks in Jersey hanging out with my family and friends.  People often ask what I plan to do when I go home.  Mostly, I just lie around on the couch reading, go grocery shopping for my mom at ShopRite, do things around the house like re-plant my mom's front flower bed, lie on my bed and hang out with my sister, and even bake Peruvian alfajores to help my sister with her Spanish project...

 
Not very exciting, but very relaxing and enjoyable.

From Jersey, I flew to DC where Aslik met me to spend the weekend hanging with the Sliks and attend a family wedding.  We hung out, chatted, and played pinochle late into the night.  We also came away with one of the funniest wedding stories ever.

So the story goes like this...

On our way to the wedding, I used my phone's gps to find directions to the reception site.  Just to double check, I had my sis-in-law type the address into her phone as well.  Both phones agreed and we were on our way to the wedding.  We get off the main road and drive down a shady gravel road and arrive at this beautiful manor:

We walk into the entrance, are greeted with programs and get in line to sign the guestbook.  I'm holding the program in my hand and am noticing that there's a letter "F" on the program followed by the names "Brian & Crystal".  Confused, I'm thinking to myself that I'm pretty sure Andy's cousin Brian is marrying a girl named Liz and their last name begins with a "C".  Then we see a picture of the lovely couple and realize that we are at the wrong wedding!  We run out of this wedding, re-plug in the address in our phones and make our way to a different manor, just a quarter mile down the road.  Late for the actual wedding, we arrive just as the bride is about to make her entrance.  Not wanting to make a disturbance during her grand entrance, we hang back in the rear of the wedding area with another couple that also arrived late.  I commented to the other couple that we had just gone to the wrong wedding.  As soon as the bride appears, I hear the girl next to me gasp and say, "We're at the wrong wedding!".  Turns out, they were supposed to be at the wedding we just tried to crash!  We sent them off with directions to the right wedding and even provided them with a wedding program that we had held onto.  Definitely makes for a great story!

Anyway, we had a great time celebrating with the new couple.  Congrats Brian and Liz!

And to end, here's a pic of the two of us.  I think this is probably the last wedding we'll attend this year....whew!  

 

Now I'm back home in TX, getting back into the groove of daily life!

Wild Crazy 30th Bash

Our 30th bash was a trip to the fun and happening town of Ithaca, NY.  It's where we spent four years of our lives, where we met, and where we fell in love.  We were originally going to go to New Orleans, but it was a good thing we didn't because Hurricane Isaac rolled through town earlier that week and would have definitely killed our plans.  But, we had the wise foresight to opt for a trip down memory lane in good ole' Ithaca.

So, on labor day weekend (the weekend after my birthday and the weekend before Aslik's bday) we flew to Philly, then took a little turbo jet prop over to Ithaca.

Before I start my picture reel, I must preface them with the admission that in an effort to get this post written up, I have opted to post my pics sans photoshop.  I'm currently in NJ, but my laptop is home in Houston with Aslik.  I managed to upload all of my pics to flickr before I left so now I can still post them.  Posting pictures without editing kind of feels like stepping out without your makeup on...oh wait, I don't wear any makeup anyway! Ok, well then nevermind, I'm going to be shameless and show you the pics anyway.

So, our most important stop in Ithaca was our alma mater - Cornell University!

Listened to that clock chiming every hour for four years...

The top of libe slope - had to climb the giant slope every day my Sophomore year.
Aslik has no sympathy because he climbed that hill for 3 years!

Where we had our first lunch "date" as friends

Where Aslik took me on our first real date - it was a  fantastic(free)
Jewish dancing/spoon playing concert.  I believe we lasted about 10 minutes.

West campus view of the slope - I lived in the tower on the left my Sophomore year.

View of my Arts Quad from the top of the clock tower

One more look at the iconic clock tower and Uris library...spent countless hours studying there.
Aslik, on the other hand, never needed to study...no fair.

We even caught a rare sighting of the Big Red Bear on Ho Plaza!

We also visited one of our favorite spots - Robert Treman Park

Amongst our friends, this is known as the "Magic Spot".  It truly is magical
when you climb into the gorge and enjoy the waterfall up close.




While hiking, we saw these people walking their pet.....goat.  Seriously?!?


We drove out to Taughannock Falls, or, er....where Taughannock Falls is supposed to be. It's the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi.  However, because of the dry summer, there was no water.  Shocking!!

We spent some time driving along the Cayuga Lake wine trail.  We did a little bit of sampling, but really went for the scenery.  I made Andy do a photo shoot with me.

On the grounds of Sheldrake Point Winery

Sorry, the color of this one is so different from the one before even though it's the same scenery.  I changed the settings on my camera and couldn't edit the two to look similar.




Seneca Falls Episcopal Church

Of course we had to do a fun picture as well....I said gangsta pose and somehow I
managed to come up with my fobby pose.....maybe I'm going for fobby gangsta?

We had a fabulous time, ate great food, and got to enjoy a weekend in the nice and temperate climate of central NY.  Turning 30 wasn't so bad.....:-)

Lately

Once again, a month has gone by and I have neglected to post.  In the past couple of months, I've....

1. Moved across the world
2. Flew to San Francisco for a dear friend's wedding
3. Had my sister come out to visit
4. Signed a lease and moved into a permanent apartment
5. Took a trip out to Austin to spend time with family for the Fourth of July
6. Unpacked all of my junk

I have to be honest, I'm sort of glad I don't have any trips planned for awhile and get some time to just relax at home.  Moving is stressful and tiring, no matter how small or straightforward the move is.  But I will say, this is probably the easiest move I've done since I'm already somewhat familiar with Houston.  Moving is not my favorite thing to do, but I do enjoy living in new places and experiencing new things.

So, here are a few pictures of what's been going on lately:

One of my college roommates got married at Half Moon Bay near San Francisco.  It was a beautiful wedding!  I was debating whether or not to go for awhile because it was less than a week after we made our big move back to the states, but I'm so glad I got to go.  I got to spend some quality time with her and one of our other roommates...really made me miss the good old days.  It's hard for me to believe that we are all grown up and married now.  I think in my mind, college friends will remain in that stage of life forever :-)  It's also amazes me that no matter how far apart we are, or how long we've gone without seeing each other, when we get together, it's like no time has passed at all.

Walking down the aisle - isn't she gorgeous??

Ring exchange

                 

This was one of the funniest moments of the wedding.  My friend, J, who is deathly afraid of all insects, decided to release a box of butterflies at the end of the ceremony.  She basically hid behind her husband while the butterflies clung to the box, stubbornly refusing to fly away.  When he finally got the butterflies to fly, one of them flew straight into a lady's face who was sitting in the front row.

The new Mr. and Mrs. C!

They had a blackjack table during the cocktail hour where you could win some raffle tickets, it was pretty awesome.  I lost all my money...haha.

Before the big introduction

The new couple!

Me and my wonderful friends.  I love these girls!

Re-posing an old photo - 8 years later (did I really just say EIGHT??) still looking good :-)

Moving on, here are some pictures of my sister's visit to Houston:

I took her on a cruise around the Port of Houston.  It wasn't the most beautiful cruise I've been on, but it was  still pretty interesting, and the best part was, it was FREE!  They even offered a soda for everyone on board.  Pretty neat.

Here we are, having a fun time along the Port of Houston.

Being 14 years younger than me, I have a pretty interesting relationship with my sister.  I think of myself as her mini-mom, which according to her, can be a good or bad thing.  I'm obviously less strict than my mom would be, but probably boss her around more than she prefers.  I love watching her grow and develop her own personality.  Since I've played a big role in her life, it's funny when I see her exhibit traits and tendencies similar to mine....like acting crazy, or being inexplicably drawn to movies with dancing or any type of group choreography.  We're really similar in many ways, but different in others.  I can't believe she's 16 already!  She'll be driving in another year....yikes! I think I will always see her as my baby sister....even when she's 30.  There are just some things that never change.

        

Acting kooky

Don't think she's the only who acts kooky.  We sailed by some contraptions that look like "The Claw" the little green men from Toy Story worship.  Of course I couldn't resist doing my own imitation of "The Claaaaww"



We also took a trip down to NASA to check out the space center.  In all my time in Houston, we've never visited it before.  I'm glad we finally got a chance to do it!

Waiting in the blazing hot heat for the tram tour.

I hate that this picture is ruined by a little smudge on my lens...

Where the astronauts train in mock-ups of their shuttles

Me, Andy, the Saturn V shuttle and rocket, and the back of some kid's head.  Photo credit: my sis.

So, there you have it.  That's what I've been doing in the past couple of months.....that and unpacking like a mad woman.  The doc gave me some new drugs at a really opportune time.  They've given me a burst of energy the past week, which has resulted in the fastest unpack I've ever done!  Now I can relax in my organized apartment and, the most exciting part, begin sewing again!  It's been nearly 3 months since I last touched a sewing machine. *Gasp!*  Today marks my return to sewing - I'm so excited!

Sydney, Australia

After finishing 13 wonderful days in New Zealand, we flew to Sydney, Australia.  Andy used his reward points and booked us 3 nights at the Holiday Inn right in the heart of the main tourist area.  The hotel had a rooftop pool (it was a little too cold for us to go swimming), but the view from the rooftop was fantastic.

The view from the top of Holiday Inn - The building of The Rocks in the foreground and the famous Opera House in the background.

We got to spend the last few days of our trip exploring Sydney and the beaches nearby.  One of our first stops was the iconic Opera House:

View by day

View by night

We also took the Manly Ferry across the harbour to Manly Beach:

Sailing across the harbour

Manly beach

Some views during our walk along the Manly coastline

One of the public swimming pools by the beach

On our way home, we caught a beautiful sunset and I was able to get a few shots of Sydney in the sunset:

The CBD and the Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge

About to go under the bridge!

The next day, we checked out another beach - the famous Bondi Beach.  We've watched many episodes of Bondi Rescue, a show documenting the adventures of the lifeguards at Bondi Beach.  It was a little chilly so there weren't many people on the beach.  We didn't spot any of the famous lifeguards on the beach either...guess they were hiding out in their little hut.

The lifeguard shack

Beautiful beach

Bondi Icebergs and swimming pool

We did the Bondi to Coogee beach coastal walk which is about 6 km (3.72 mi) long.  It brought us by many beautiful beaches and cliffs.  It was a tough walk (for me), but we made it!

Taking a break to snap a photo while on the coastal walk

We were in Sydney on the weekend so we were able to attend a Saturday evening church service at Hillsong church!  It was a great experience.  The worship was fantastic (of course!), the message was good, and the people were super friendly.

On our last day in Sydney, we had some time in the morning before our flight left so we took a walk around the Sydney Botanical Gardens. 

One last shot with the famous Opera House and Bridge!

Another fantastic trip for the Sokoliks!  Writing these posts makes me wish I could just rewind time and do this vacation all over again.  It's just amazing how beautiful everything was.  You can check out the rest of my photos of Sydney by clicking on this link.  I promise this is a smaller album so you won't be overwhelmed by all the photos!  

Well, that pretty much wraps up our vacationing for awhile.  We're getting ourselves settled in to Houston now and tomorrow a very special visitor is coming!  I'm super excited!