theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for June 2007

Good times

filed under: my so-called life, travel

The last couple of days have been amazing. I can’t begin to describe how wonderful it is to have my family here with me. It feels so RIGHT!

After the unexpected delay of their arrival, J and I went to the airport on Friday at noon and shortly after the plane landed, we could already hug and squeeze each other [thanks to US Immigration in Canada before boarding!]. As you can see on the first photo [taken at the airport], we are all glowing :)

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We took my parents and my cousin to their hotel to drop of their luggage and then drove back to our apartment for a quick tour ;) Since J and I hadn’t had breakfast yet, we took my family to Café 50’s for the first American lunch with burgers and sandwiches. The rest of the day, we spent at the beach, took a walk from the Santa Monica Pier to Venice and back and then finished the day by taking a ride on the Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel :)

Saturday morning, we met my family at their hotel and then went with my Dad to pick up their rental car – a Ford Edge. Nice car!
We then took the Pacific Highway 1 heading towards Ventura. Unfortunately, J couldn’t join us on Saturday. We stopped in Malibu at the “Malibu Inn” for a hearty breakfast. The Malibu Inn is famous for its breakfast entries that are named after movie titles and a nice interior design with hardwood floors and a beautiful bar. My parents instantly loved the place and ambience :)

We took a walk on the Malibu Pier afterwards and then drove to Ventura where we checked into their hotel and then visited J’s parents.

We went out to dinner with J’s Mom that evening [J’s Dad wasn’t feeling well] and ate at “Jonathan’s Mediterranean Cuisine” in Downtown Ventura. It was a great night.

Sunday morning, I picked up my parents at their hotel and we drove back to LA to pick up my bags before we left for Flagstaff/Arizona. It took us about an hour to get out of the LA city limits and then, with diminishing traffic you could also feel the temperatures rising while we were driving into the desert. It was a nice drive though and we made it to Flagstaff in about 7.5 hours.

We stayed at the “Fairfield Inn”, the same hotel that I stayed at when I went on the US trip with my geology class in 1998. It was a nice dejá vu. We had some dinner at “Sizzler’s” and then headed to bed right away.

We got up at 7:30 a.m. the next morning and had a Continental Breakfast at the hotel. I have to say that I am quite impressed with how much continental breakfasts have changed in the last couple of years. While most hotels used to offer no breakfast at all or, if they did, it usually just consisted of coffee, toast and jam, the continental breakfast has improved at many places. There was cereal, yoghurt, bagels, cream cheese, toast, jam, muffins and Danish, and fruits as well as coffee, tee and different juices.

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We explored the historic Downtown area of Flagstaff in the morning and then headed for the Grand Canyon.

We stayed at a hotel in Tusayan, right outside of the National Park area. Since we were a little too early for check-in, we got some towels at the Front Desk and decided to take a quick dip into the hotel pool :) It was quite warm, but a little windy, so it was really nice.

At 3 p.m., after checking into our room, we got a Park Permit and then drove into the Grand Canyon National Park. On the way to the parking lot, we could already catch a glimpse of the Canyon – breathtaking! I’ve heard some people refer to the Grand Canyon as “a big whole in the ground” before, but for me it has a great fascination and I think the view and the geology of this place are exceptional.

The National Park Service offers free shuttle buses within the National Park area which is a very convenient service, because you can hop on and off the bus at different locations to enjoy the view and/or walk along the”South Rim” [and catch a bus some place else]. We walked along the “rim trail” and had a beautiful view of the Canyon. We also saw quite a few different animals like squirrels [of course ;)], chipmunks, lizards, colorful birds and even a condor!

 

 

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After getting some drinks and salty snacks [as the Grand Canyon guide suggests ;)] and a short rest, we took another 2 km-hike to a view point where we waited for the sunset.
Sunrise and sunset are the most beautiful times of the day to be at the Grand Canyon, because the light changes so quickly and bathes the Grand Canyon in an amazing light and set of colors. It was beautiful!
The shuttle bus took us [and a whole bunch of other sunset viewers] back to the parking lot afterwards and we were back the hotel at around 9 p.m. – just in time to still get a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant.

So far, so good the update – as for the lack of posts in the last couple of days, you can probably guess that we’re having the time of our lives and are enjoying every minute :)

Impatience

filed under: excitement, family

Yes, I admit it. I am an impatient person. I can’t help it.

My Dad called a couple of hours ago to let me know that their flight from Paris was delayed and that they didn’t make their connecting flight in Montreal :( They won’t be getting into LAX before tomorrow around noon.

BUMMER!

I’ve been antsy all day and couldn’t wait to see them at the airport tonight and now I have to wait another 14 hours.

I guess I will survive. They have 3,5 weeks to make up for it ;)

P.S. Because I had to kill time this afternoon, I did the whole beauty program: I took a bath, dyed my hair and did a French manicure and pedicure. Now I am all ready for my visitors :)

I like it…

filed under: excitement, family

…when countdowns are coming to an end.

Don’t get me wrong. I like countdowns and the anticipation of a big event is definitely almost as exciting as the event itself, but let’s face it: It just builds up the excitement and the best part comes when the waiting is over.

My parents will be here in 48 hours. Wow! :)

The last couple of days, J and I kept talking about their visit, what we want to do with them here in Los Angeles and where we want to take them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Westwood is called the “New York” of the west coast, or so I heard, and there’s a great selection of shops and restaurants in the area. You can find every culinary treat your heart desires. I think we picked out more restaurants than there are days of their visit, but that just adds to the fun of deciding where to go, doesn’t it?

Since I haven’t started working yet, I’ll be able to travel with them quite a bit and I am very much looking forward to that quality time with my parents and my cousin. On Sunday, we’ll leave for the Grand Canyon. My cousin is going to be so impressed :) It is his first time in the US and I am sure he’ll be quite overwhelmed by the size of this country.

Even though I might not have much time for updating, I’ll try to write here as often as I can to let you know how their stay is going – but I am sure you’ll understand and be patient :)

A visitor from home

filed under: friends, fun!

This afternoon, J and I headed for the airport. We were going to meet with one of my friends from Germany. Well, he’s actually the brother of my ex-boyfriend Thomas, but we have always gotten along really well and when he emailed me a couple of weeks ago that he would be coming to LA in June, I was really excited.
I hadn’t seen Stefan in quite a while and it was a little awkward at first to see him “here” in Los Angeles. It’s kind of strange to see people on the other side of the world that you’ve so far only seen in a very well-known environment back home. You know what I mean?
Stefan is actually here on business for a week, but he’s our first visitor from my hometown nonetheless and that’s exciting.

So we picked him up at the airport, picked up his rental car and headed for a Japanese restaurant here in Westwood to have some dinner together.
He was clearly tired after the long flight and due to the time difference [it was already 3 a.m. local time in Germany], but he was in a very cheerful mood and we had a great time catching up. He and J hit it off right away. Stefan works in the “audio” business and therefore J was really eager to talk with him about sound equipment :)

Unfortunately, we only had about 2 hours together, because he was tired and had to drive another hour to get to his hotel in Anaheim where he’ll be staying for the next week and where he’ll be attending an international convention. He’ll have a busy schedule the next couple of days – but maybe, if we’re lucky, he’ll be able to squeeze in another dinner sometime this week. That would be nice :)

We once again realized how nice it is to have good company and we clearly need to make some new friends.

Home sweet home

filed under: excitement, my so-called life

The last three days, we spent cleaning our apartment. I am talking about “serious cleaning”. The apartment has been “ours” again since Sunday, our temporary roommate moved out and we felt the need to rearrange some furniture [we have a living room now!] and really clean this place up and make it “livable”.

It took us two days.

You know, I come from an area in Germany where a lot of “open mining” is done, so I am used to some “dirt” in the air and windows get dirty quickly – but let me tell you, Los Angeles can easily compete. Our window sills are always! dirty… and don’t get me started on the windows themselves. After I cleaned the windows from the inside on Monday, I took a step back and asked J ‘does that look remotely clean to you?’. He asked back if I had cleaned the windows already or if this was a joke.
Well, it wasn’t a joke. I thoroughly cleaned the windows from the inside, but since you can’t open American windows [just slide] and there is this screen in front of them, it was impossible for me to clean the windows from the outside and this is where most of the dirt is. My Mom will probably throw her hands up in horror when she sees that next week, but hey, it really isn’t my fault. I already called our landlord to ask if there was a window cleaning service for our apartment complex [I have yet to hear back] or if we have to hire someone ourselves. Seriously, I am really not fussy about dirty windows, but ours really need cleaning bad! And it took me at least 1,5 hours to clean each one of three venetian blinds, because I had to wash off each individual blind separately. This is a tedious job for the proverbial someone who killed mother and father!

We rearranged the furniture in the living room and now even have an expandable dining table with up to 6 chairs [right in front of the bay window :)]. This is something that I really wanted to set up before my family comes, so we can have dinners at our house and don’t have to try and fit 5 people around a much too small kitchen table.

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our living room [click for more photos]

We cleaned the whole kitchen as well. I don’t know how thoroughly the apartment was cleaned before we moved in and/or how much time J spent cleaning up when he moved in, but there was a lot of dirt in the cabinets, on the shelfs. Just gross! Now it almost feels like I don’t want to use the kitchen anymore, because everything is clean and it will only become dirty again in no time!

Bathroom and bedroom were finished yesterday and today I did the laundry. Now it feels like we have a completely “new” place :)