VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!!

Now get to a polling booth and do it! Wait out a long line if there is one!

I don't care your political party or for which candidate you're voting. Well, I do, but not as much as I care that you respect one of your most important rights as an American and VOTE for whom you believe deserves to represent our nation.

This is such a unique right, and for women especially, one we have worked hard to earn.

Please be informed and know how our country will be affected by each candidate's presidency.

Please, please, please-- GO VOTE!

Hallo aus Deutschland!!!

Hi everyone!!! Sorry it's been a little bit since I updated. Glad to hear everyone is safe post-Sandy. Wild seeing all the photos online of the destruction and terrible aftermath! Jeez...

So, I am now in Germany, OFFICIALLY on the final leg of my trip! As much as I am loving the travel, it is really a terrific feeling being able to have an official under-one-week countdown started. I have just met up with a group with whom I'll be doing this German tour, and I'm really looking forward to that change of pace. A- The group seems AWESOME! We have all gone out for dinners the past two nights, and then stay up talking afterward back at the hotel. Really fun, young, ambitious group. So terrific! B- It starts to get lonely when you're traveling solo! I am a major, major fan of alone time and will often appear like an ahem, la-hooooser (*Jim Carey voice*) because I will be totally find spending a night solo than out and about. But when it gets to the point where nearly every meal is spent alone and there's nobody to share your fun adventures with, you really crave some good company. C- We are traveling to a different city every day with this trip, so we are busy, busy, busy! Time goes by a whole lot faster that way!

I should give Seoul a little wrap-up and say that it was so beautiful. The last day, I walked around their Olympic park, which was gorgeous. Their foliage looked so terrific (I'm chasing foliage in each country-- I love it!!!), and it gave me time to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a bit. The amount of people is staggering, so people are always pushing to get to where they need to be, whether it's in the subway, on sidewalks, or in stores. It seemed so offensive to me, but I know it's just a difference in culture. Another difference: everyone shares food from common bowls, but uses their own utensils. I hadn't really realized how different this was (and I was totally cool with it) but the more I thought about it, the more I realize that nearly every dish in the US that you'd share you'd be expected to scoop out your portion and leave it as such. But in Seoul you just keep picking at all the side dishes with your own chopsticks throughout the meal. (Not sure if I mentioned in this post, but every meal comes with side dishes. Even at the food court, which unlike US food courts actually has really awesome/ quality food, you will get a small kimchi-- pickled cabbage, their main side dish, served with everything-- and soup and probably some other type of picked veggie. Lots of fermented food products!) It was a great trip in Seoul. Lots of very kind people. Here are a couple of pictures from the Olympic park, and the chrysanthemums in the Buddhist temple I mentioned before. I went back to practice one time the night before I left.

BUT I AM SO EXCITED TO BE BACK IN GERMANY!!! Ah man I have just been SO happy to be here. Just walking to breakfast and being outside I am grinning ear to ear. There is something about the European culture that I just find so incredibly lovely. It always inspires me to adopt some of their habits back home, from the amount of walking to the great food and balanced eating (full-fat, hearty dishes, but REAL food and such quality, healthy food... minus my nutella obsession) to the love of art and innovation. Ahhhh it is so great!

Forgive the second round of all-caps, but I MET UP WITH LUTZ!!! My German host brother from EIGHT years ago! Oh how I love these old connections! It was so fun to get together, and felt like not a day had gone by! I was talking to my mom and saying how it is such a unique opportunity to have not seen each other since high schoolers (I studied in Stuttgart for five weeks after sophomore year, then Lutz came to live with the Kozzers for six weeks after that) and now to see one another. We are almost adults, a concept which is very strange to me. We are both in serious relationships, and so happy in them, so it was fun to talk about that. We're both aware of what we want to do in the future academically/ regarding our career. We just have a new awareness and maturity (don't laugh... I DO have some maturity ;-p ) that is so cool to witness. While we've kept in touch via Facebook and email, it's just wild to meet up again.

Have done some fun stuff, too, while here. Walking a lot!!! And in the morning I've been running in the English Garden, which is a huge park right near my hotel! Score =] I swear, every block on the street I want to take another picture because everything is so gorgeous. I've gone to the modern-art museum, some cathedrals, eaten amaaaazing food (there's a great central market where we had lunch two days ago). Even the unofficial tours are terrific, just to look around and drink in the culture and beauty of the surroundings.

Well, gotta run-- busy morning!!! Lots of love to all, and I'll update soon!

xoxo

PS- great job being you-- thumps up! =] (from a statue in Seoul)

a couple photos, at last!

This isn't a ton of photos because I can only upload ones taken on my iPad (and most are on my camera right now), but here are a few to enjoy!

Chocolate-tomato candies, anyone? I like chocolate. I like tomato. But this??? Ew!

Ahhhhh, my newest obsession! Can't find them in Korea though! Green-tea KitKats!

View of Seoul from my hotel.  The large river there divides the North and South sides of the city, and is called the Han River.

More Seoul! 

The view from my gym-- good inspiration to get there, huh?! This looks out on the aforementioned Buddhist temples. That is a giant statue of the Buddha.

A cool statue I found.

Uncle Kev, I thought of you when I saw this little pup on the street. I think you SERIOUSLY need to invest in some pup-size ave-iators!!! hahahahahaha (Shea, what do you think?!)

LOVE to all

I'm constantly on CNN.com over here and watching as Sandy destroys so much of the East Coast. Thinking of everybody and sending as much positive energy as I can muster. Please stay safe. Terrible feeling to be so detached from this craziness, but thinking of everyone nonstop.

Sending all my love... Any and all updates would be appreciated!

xoxoxoxo

Commenting

Hey guys!

I know a few of you were having trouble commenting on the blog, so I think I helped fix that and make it so anyone can comment. Let me know (via email, I suppose) if you're still having trouble. But in the meantime, ask questions or leave comments as you wish!

<3

The Seoul purpose of this trip...

hahaha. get it? sole, seoul? oh man.

Okay, so I'm super tired now, but here's a quick synopsis of Day numero uno in Seoul:

-Met with the sweetest woman, a woman with whom the Academy works. It was a work meeting, but we hit it off really well and she was just so kind. Gave me tons of advice for my trip here (good food, where to do the best shopping, historic and government sites to visit, etc.), and took me out for a bombdiggity lunch. The stove is built right into the table, so raw meat, onions, and mushrooms are brought to your table and you put them onto the burner (the table's sunken in where the burner is) and cook them yourself. No oil, just fresh meat/ veg. Sweet soup (sweet potato and rice), mashed pumpkin, cold noodles, kimchi (water + spicy), sliced hot peppers, sauteed greens, and salad were all sides. THEN they brought us more soup at the end. I was way too full at the end of the meal. I may meet up with this woman again for a concert Saturday night.

-The fruit here is so good. As part of my room upgrade I got a fruit plate delivered to my room. Ate an apple for breakfast and it was the largest, crispest apple I've had in a long time (thinking of you, Betsy!!!). Plus a sweet, juicy clementine. Fruit's a big deal here, often taking the place of a baked good/ candy dessert. I most certainly don't mind.

-As I was working out this morning (in, might I add, the nicest gym I've ever been in) I look out upon a temple and a massive Buddhist statue. So tonight after another meeting, I decided to explore, not even originally intending to see said statue. Well, I walk RIGHT across from my hotel and come across the most brilliant display of mums (chrysanthemums) I've ever seen. It looked like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland or something. The flowerpots were arranged in swirls and stacked in rows. I'm going to try to figure out uploading pics tomorrow so I can show you because it is really something else. The whole flower display (there must have been tens of thousands of mums there) led up to a temple whose entire ceiling was covered with white Chinese lanterns. Really magical looking. There were candles and incense lit, and it was very spiritual. People bowed deeply in front of all the statues, and the mood was serious and respectful.

After I wandered the grounds a bit more and saw some monks, a huge tiled area for outdoor meditation (extra cushions were stored so you could meditate whenever you want), and some more temples, I heard chanting. I looked around and saw that one of the temples had a meditation being led by a monk. The place was pretty packed, probably 50 people worshipping. I don't know what caused me to go in, but I just went in, got a cushion, and sat in a seated yoga position. This is a little personal, but I think it's worth sharing to demonstrate the environment in which I found myself... I lost it. I just became so overwhelmed by the beauty everywhere, the power of the voices chanting, the feeling that so many things in my life had clicked together and I was exactly where I was for a reason, that tears just started flowing and flowing. I wasn't sad by any means, I was more happy and just experiencing so many emotions at once. I bought and framed a card last year that had a quote on the front that read, "You are exactly where you should be. You are doing exactly what you should be doing." I couldn't get that line out of my head throughout the whole practice. I stayed for the rest of the meditation, which was 45 minutes (the whole thing had been an hour, but I had stumbled in late). I know to some that may sound really cheesy, and it's a little strange to share, but there was something so immensely unique and beautiful about the whole evening there.

-On a much lighter note, the tea that's drunk here is a brown rice/ green tea and it's super yummy.

Okay, time for some sleep! Korea's in the same time zone as Japan, so I'm still 13 hours ahead of you East Coasters.

love- court.

Peace out, Japan!

Okay, so apologies for being a little slacker here the past few days. It felt like a whirlwind wrapping up in Tokyo and then moving on to Seoul, where I am now. First off, I would like to say that green-tea kit-kats (same inside, but instead of the chocolate coating it's this green-tea flavored frosting/coating) are unbelievably good and seriously addicting. Please. Cut. Me. Off. Well, after just one more... ;-p

Let's finish up Tokyo first. My last full day there I had some of the best meals I tasted in Tokyo. NOODLEFEST 2012, baby! I had learned my lesson about getting around with public transportation and left quite early for my afternoon meeting. Two extremely kind Australians explained the map system (you don't get precise addresses on streets like in the US and Europe. Instead, everything is in grids divided by district. Pretty confusing, even for natives.). So I found where I had to be a took a little stroll to get some lunch. I went where I saw the most people which ended up being a great idea. It was a shop that sold udon noodles, which are fat, delicious rice noodles. Nom nom nom. They-- like every noodle in Asia apparently-- are quite sloppy to eat. In fact, at noodle restaurants it's pretty standard to see disposable bibs on the table because when you slurp up the noodles you make quite a mess (and slurp is an understatement... American table manners are out the door, which is actually quite fun once you get over being self conscious about being so sloppy and slurpy). Anyhow, these noodles were housemade, simmering in a broth, and mixed with chicken, veggies (bok choy I believe), and a poached egg. You get a massive bowl and go to town. Oh I think I will dream of these for a long time. And because I'm sure you're curious, yes, I did in fact look really, really good in the bib. Almost too good.

The second meal that made my tummy so happy was fresh ramen! Not like the ramen we get in the US when our bank account is running scarily low. No, these are fresh noodles that are plumper than those aforementioned ones and they are topped with various veggies, meats, and eggs. The meal I got had pork roast, half of a hard-boiled egg, and some mushrooms. It's pretty cool at these noodle shops in that you pay before your meal at what is essentially a vending machine. It has buttons with Japanese writing describing the foods (or sometimes, if I was lucky, pictures), so you pick the one you want, deposit your money, get a ticket, and wait for your meal to be served. I didn't know any of the words on the machine, and the waiter didn't know much English/ how to describe each item to me, so I asked him what his favorite was, and that was that.

The next day-- my last one in Tokyo-- was pretty crazy. I had a great meeting at a school in the moorning, but the school itself was a bit farther than any of the others I'd visited, about an hour away. I was scheduled to get a bus to the airport at 12.10 so that was my deadline to get back, but at the train station on the way back things got rough for me. I was a few yen (essentially a few cents) short of a train ticket, so I went to use my ATM to get some money. Well it wouldn't work at the first two places I tried. So I went to some banks to exchange some US dollars. No good either. I tried to explain my situation in very slow, hand-gesture-accented English to a couple to bum the 4 yen I needed. No go. So that's where I started to freak out. No cab would accept credit card. I didn't know how I was going to get back, and then I'd miss my bus and be late to the airport and yadda yadda yadda, my mind went in a thousand directions. It really broke me down that nobody could understand me, and I was pretty stranded. I finally walked a little farther and tried another ATM and miraculously this one worked. I thought I would cry with joy. I caught the train, but was way late. I had missed my bus. So I checked with the concierge and the next bus was already booked full. Luckily, however, there was a last-minute cancellation, and I got on that bus and to the airport with plenty of time. I got so worked up when I got stranded though, it really shook me up and took awhile to get out of that antsy mindset.

Buuuuut then I got to Seoul and things turned around. My room got upgraded, so I am kindasorta living like a queen right now. I know it's a little dorky, but when you're living out of a suitcase, it feels SO good to have a good place to come back at the end of the day. More on Seoul in a bit!

love- court.