Three Chimney's Horse Farm

Three Chimney's Farm is a Thoroughbred  horse breeding farm in Kentucky. If you know anything about Kentucky, you knew a visit like this was coming! Horses and bourbon are a Big Deal here y'all.

We got to visit and have the president give us a tour. (Pic from Patterson Flicker page.)

Now there is a lot about breeding horses I never thought I wanted to know, but it's a very lucrative part of the Kentucky economy.  They have breed a U.S. Triple Crown Winner (Seattle Slew) and other various winners (Smarty Jones, Chris Evert, Big Brown, if horse names mean anything to you!)

It started off as a family farm that hosted other peoples horses during breeding and racing season and then slowly expanded. They now own and breed their own stock as well as host others. The cost of breeding is super expensive to someone who doesn't know anything about horses. Stud fees range from $3,000 to $35,000 for this season!

$35,000 just for the DNA of a horse!!! It doesn't have any proof of any excellence or anything! You can look at their virtual stallion brochure for 2013 here: http://www.threechimneys.com/brochure/#/1/.

Also, breeding is much more complicated than I had originally thought due to horses mating season. Some horses are even shipped Down Under to breed in the off season from North America!

This lucky guy was getting a bath right as we left:

See you around the globe!

Ashbury Challenge Course

Yesterday (August 23), as part of our orientation the first years (aka my class) went to Ashbury University's Challenge Course. A little about the course (taken straight from their website):

The Asbury University Challenge Course is designed to support leadership, personal skills development, and self-confidence in an alternative setting. Sometimes referred to as “Experience-Based Training and Development,” a well-designed program can be an appropriate vehicle for addressing process issues that can frequently get in the way of group effectiveness and goal accomplishment.

We all thought it might be a little awkward to go, since we had just met about 3 days ago (not counting our economic bootcamp that many of us had participated in), but it wasn't. In fact it was an AWESOME day with lots of fun team  building activities.

There was both a low and a high ropes course. The low ropes course was misleading, it only had one set of ropes. Everything else was on the ground, but involved balance or communication. It was really a get to know you and your future classmates. It helped us build trust among the people we will be working with for the next three semesters. It was something that will pay off as we also learned how to communicate with each other (and learned some names to boot!).

One of the things we did was a trust walk, where one person was blindfolded and the other person led them around by directions only. Here's an action shot:

The low course showed us how we can have a really high learning curve, but then things speed up once we get the hang of things!

Then there was the high ropes course...this one was all about you. And your comfort zone and pushing your boundaries. Now I'm not one to say I'm afraid of heights, but I do definitely respect them! So when you are attached to a small rope and not just ziplineing, but rather walking across little wobbly boards. It was a lot more difficult than I expected. The only thing that kept running through my head was "I hope this is ok with my heart!" and "this is out of my comfort zone. This is what they said it was about." and "You can DOOOOO it!"

The best part of the giant swing part of the high ropes course. Yup, a giant ropes swing. Of course I had to do it!

Here I am listening to the nice man walking me through every little thing he is doing as he unhooks me from the only thing keeping me safe and hooks me onto a swing. A Swing. Too bad pictures don't come with the sound of my heartbeat and how I was asking if this was really what "out of my comfort zone" was all about!

You can't even hear the scream of utter terror! But it was so exhilarating!

See you around the globe!

*Photos credit of Patterson School Flicker Account*

Patterson School- University of Kentucky

Hello faithful readers!

Starting this fall, I will be attending the Patterson School at the University of Kentucky. This is a 3 semester graduate program that I will focus in diplomacy.

What's diplomacy? What can you EVER do with a degree like that? You might ask. Well, diplomacy is the bread and butter of foreign affairs. Be it with diplomats (think the place that John Kerry runs) and Ambassadors or with multi-national corporations or with non-governmental relief organizations. In other words, any place that needs communication, negotiation, or a cultural reference understood- diplomacy is your go to person.

One of the cool benefits of the Patterson School is the many exploratory trips you will take to go see different corporations in Kentucky, and around the country. Be on the look out for these updates! In addition, I, of course, will be doing some exploring of my own with my hubby and visiting friends.

See you around the globe!

Honeymoon Cruise Day 1: Embarkation

After returning from Macedonia, my boyfriend and I got married after 8.5 years of dating in July 2012. We had to postpone our honeymoon until our jobs would let us. That meant we didn’t get to go until about 9 months later or about April 20, 2013. We decided to sail with Carnival Liberty on a Eastern sailing. This will be my 4^th sailing with Carnival and Bobby’s 2^nd. It allowed me to become a gold member of their VIFP program (Very Important Fun Person aka Carnival’s rewards program).
It left from Miami, which let us leave at 6am and drive down on the day of. We had a friend of ours, pick us up and drop us off at the port so we didn’t have to pay the ridiculous port parking fees (think $20/day or $140 total). We were lucky enough to buy the Faster to the Fun (FTTF) passes. These allow us to have quicker boarding, quicker tendering, dedicated guest services lines and quicker debarkation. They cost $50 per stateroom, but this was the best $50 we spent the entire cruise! If these are offered on your cruise BUY IT NOW! No kidding, I’ll let you know a little of each as things go on in the cruise, but it was totally worth it.

While the FTTF would have allowed us to board at 11 am and have our room ready, we decided to sleep in an extra hour or so at home. We arrived at the Port of Miami around 1pm. We made it through all of the lines and on board the ship by 1:45pm. We breezed through security and getting our sail and sign card, only to be held up at the picture taking line. FYI carnival, you need to have a FTTF line here as well. All in all, it was super easy. Our room was ready when we boarded, so we dropped our stuff off and went up to Lido deck to get some lunch! Sadly to say, Carnival has dropped the ball a bit on their food. The Lido buffet has increased from the horribleness it was the last time we sailed in 2009, but the dining room has decreased. As a vegetarian traveling, it was difficult to find foods to eat on Carnival that were healthy, delicious and not Thai 4 star curry hot. If you are a carnivore, you will find lots of food to eat that is super high is quality, but not so much on the other vegetarian options. After eating at Lido we went to look and see if our bags were in our rooms, and lo and behold they were. We changed into our swimsuits and went back up deck to make our good bye calls and take some pictures of us leaving. We sat up on the Serenity deck, which was awesome to discover. The Serenity deck was a 21+ deck , which meant no screaming kids and no super loud music. As a side note there is also a adults only pool and whirlpool on the Aft portion of the Lido deck.

Next up was the muster drill, which Carnival has changed to not having muster stations where we have to bring life vests and sit in a location to having us stand on the deck in rows while they wait for all >2,000 people to be absolutely silent and demonstrate how to buckle your life vest. There was a bratty kid and stupid parent next to us complaining the whole time. While I won’t rant about how instead of letting her kid know how to safely do something, she just told him how to circumvent the system. Anyways, we had some more time and went back to the Serenity deck to relax, but by this time the sun had gone away. L We hung out there, took a nap and enjoyed the hot tubs. We decided to have a late seating dinner and will never do this again. It is painfully long and you miss out on all of the evening entertainments. Take the early seating or your time, in our opinion.

Dinner on cruises is often referred to as cruise casual. It is basically anything but jeans and swimsuits is fine. We take the opportunity to dress to the nines almost every night. But we are usually in the minority. Our tablemates were awesome- near our age and other couples. One set ever showed up, but there were three couples that ate everyday (including us). We had fun servers including two from Indonesia and one from Hungry. They were funny and very attentive. They learned what we wanted and helped every night. I can’t really remember what we ate every night, mostly because it wasn’t that memorable for me. The desserts were yummy, but my stomach kept messing up and I would have issues with nausea. The other two couples would order about 3 or 4 appetizers and at least 2-3 main entrees. We mainly just ordered one. There was a new thing called didja which was new and unique things people may have never tried (frog legs, escargot, sushi, alligator). Which, hey when its free- and you eat meat- why not?

They had a Welcome Aboard show that night, with some dancing and awkward games. There was a newly married couple on board who had been married on the ship earlier in the day (they were SUPER drunk). The shows were cool throughout most of the cruise and we enjoyed them. We did however crash a bit early that night!

See you around the globe!

 

As some of you might remember: I can longer post pictures on this blog unless I pay Google large ssums of money, so here are the links:

Pictures on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.453085221437347.1073741829.301683946577476&type=1&uploaded=56#!/media/set/?set=a.453085221437347.1073741829.301683946577476&type=3

Pictures on Google+: https://plus.google.com/photos/109467512900079693876/albums/5872015935323949121?authkey=CJDN2eaLrvT5Jg

Four days of good bye...

As the title of the post suggests, we faced four days of good byes before we all left. At this point, Daniel was already back in Arizona and we hadn’t seen Naum in a few weeks. While an emotional time for us, it was also just what we needed for closure. We started off in Tetovo with Jen’s last kids club at the American Corner. They gave her so many gifts, so many kids loved her. And boy the car was packed! We barely had any room to sit.

On the 2^nd, we had out last goodbye party. It was at our lovely little kebab place we found. Everything with food for what felt like 40 for pretty cheap. We had a blast just sitting around talking with everyone. A nice mixture of people just mingling. We then went out to a club afterwards. It was a perfect MK ending to the year.

After a day of packing and just hanging out with friends, we spent the next day relaxing at a spa. We all had massages and either a pedicure or a facial. The prices were so great I wish I had done this about once a month. We all then went to join Erin at Ajana’s. This was one of the first places I ate at in MK and one of the last ones. It was touching and difficult to understand how 9 months had already passed. We saw Lizzie off to Bulgaria where she was going to catch her plane.

My last day in Skopje was spent hanging out at home and with new friends. I made sure to go see Hyun and Vancho one last time. As well as my friend from Macedonian 2025 before I left. Jen and I had made up our mind to not go to sleep before leaving thinking it would help us re adjust to US time zones. I think it did help, but boy was it super hard to do so! I have to admit, that I think the bit of wine and coffee helped us both.

We headed off to the airport at around 2:30 in the morning. The last bit was epic! We had been told by United that whatever we got to take over the Atlantic, we could take on every leg of our trip. We already had to pay for three suitcases so we went and paid for them, then we stood in line to check them. We also had our two carry on’s, which we thought were fine. Then we went to security….and we were only allowed one bag. At this point we didn’t want to pay for another over limit bag for our 4^th checked bag. We tried explaining what had happened and got mad, threatening to complain to United…speaking really fast in English at the same time (I felt a little bad afterwards) but I think they decided to left us go just to get rid of us. We kept talking about how we were going to complain to United until we got past security…we looked at each other, laughed and said there is NO WAY we are complaining…this was the best last minute gift from MK.

The planes were nice and almost empty the whole way home.  In case you don’t remember, we had to go from Skopje à Vienna à Zurich à New York à Houston/Chicago à Home. The first transfer was super easy…Switzerland was a bit, well stereotypical….line and directions and organization and comfy waiting locations and free wifi. And we had to go through security all over again. I thought Erin was joking when she told us about them looking at her weird with her glass bottle, but no they totally did. We barely had time to get through the airport before the plane loaded. We had to go through one last security checkpoint where they asked us questions about “Have you had your electronics repaired recently?” I mean is there a terrorist out there going “I only accept and repair electronics that are flying internationally so I can set you up to take the blame and blow up the plane?” oh well, it wouldn’t totally surprise me. We had a whole row to ourselves on the transatlantic! Totally nice. It was hard to say good bye in New York, but we knew we would keep in contact over FB.

It might be sad, but the first thing I bought was Auntie Anne’s Pretzels…delicious and American. When I got into Houston, I was dead. I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid of missing my flight, I couldn’t eat because I could barely stay awake, but I needed food. (Chili’s with a veggie burger and fries). And then my plane was a bit delayed.  But eventually (or so it felt) I made it on the plane and was finally going home.

It was nice to be home, to see family and friends. But I still miss the lifestyle of Macedonia and the food. I want to go back. I will go back, who knows when, but it will happen.

See you around the globe!

Three days with friends

After arriving back from my travels through three countries, I went to pick Lizzie and Jen up at the airport and drop Jen’s sister’s suitcase off. Jen’s family had all gone home and the three of them went to Venice! Now Jen’s sis was joining the rest of the family in London- Lucky Ducks! We had lunch there before waving good bye to her and heading back to Skopje.  We basically headed straight to Tetovo from the airport. There wasn’t a whole lot of things to note, just general happiness and excitement and lovely weather!

The next day (May 30^th) was a huge day for Jen! She had organized a donation of about 10,000 books to local schools around Tetovo. There were so many people who helped her achieve this feat, and so many people who were in love with the outcome. They gave out free books to the kids of the area. When I say there was a crowd of people- there was a gigantic crowd! But some many people were so happy to get English books. (American Corner Tetovo FB pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151146848331959.535808.105986446958&type=1) It was a blast, but really long and standing on our feet and tons of little kids trying to get lots of books. But we kept smiling through all of it and had so much fun!

The next day (June 1^st) we relaxed, helped Jen pack and took a short trip to Mavrovo. We knew wanted to try to go see this national park and what was supposed to be beautiful. Like most natural places in MK, it didn’t disappoint. We had a bit of trouble finding a place to park and go see the lake just because there wasn’t so many signs about where to go to get to the lake. We just laid out on a rocky beach and listened to the  waves, after finding a spider the size of my palm, I couldn’t lay there anymore and went to explore and walk around the lake a bit. After about 30 minutes, we decided we needed to go back just because we felt like it was necessary to get everything done. We wanted to drive all the way around the lake, because, well, we could. It was a bit difficult in one area, because the road actually went through a PARKING LOT…like seriously? Well, it was relaxed and they even fell asleep! There were so many vacation homes around the lake and closed down resorts.

We decided to go to this gas station and get bread and cheese. We drove about 20 minutes out of our way for really delicious bread and cheese. It is that good. Just that good. I wish I had known about it sooner than when I did actually find out about it. The trip back was uneventful and it was finally starting to sink in that we were leaving.

Explorations of Eastern MK

Facebook photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151136787624018.529292.581054017&type=1&l=a09481e24a

 

Upon waking up in Sofia, I started my last long drive back to Skopje that I would take. I found I loved the symmetry between arriving at Sofia when I first came to Macedonia and when I was close to leaving- I was making the same trip to Skopje but this time I was doing it on my own. The day was perfect- the temperature was great and the sun was shining. It was a bit hectic to get out of Sofia. I was searching for the next big town and it was a bit difficult to see the signs and the gps failed me. Eventually, with a keen sense of direction, I found my way out of the city and on my way to MK. The roads were virtually empty after Sofia. I loved being able to just take in the country side as I drove, blaring the radio (not really understanding a whole lot, but hey).

Once I crossed the border (no problems and no fun stories), I stopped often for pictures and just to look. Following signs and the handheld map, I made my way towards the stone dolls. Legend goes that these dolls were a wedding party that were cursed by the forsaken other bride. She turned them into rocks. There are supposedly about 120 stone figures and range in size up to 10 meters high. Scientist say that the figures were formed 10 million years ago my tectonic erosion. Chose to believe either legend, but locals swear new ones appear every year or so. On the road back to the dolls, I kept just saying- well the signs said to go this way, so it must still be back this way and over this scary little bridge and through the field. And I was right. Suddenly there was the entrance to the “park.” I guess there is sometimes an area that sells food (or used to) and an area to picnic. But for little alone me, I just walked over to the dolls and made my way up to the top to photograph them all.  Tons of nature and relaxation. I wanted to just sit and read and just look around, but I felt the need to get going so I could get back to Skopje before dark.

On the road again, this time I was headed to an ancient observatory, recognized by a registry of historical sites. Part of the renovation of the area around it was sponsored by the US Embassy. I made my way following signs and around tons of little corners and mini villages (avoiding kids and goats). I made it up to the site and thought, I will just hike the rest of the way- knowing it was a bit far, but thought it would be nice since I had made great time….However, there were about 8 bees per square foot and I am allergic to bees. Haven’t been stung my one in a while, but didn’t want to try it out on a hike all alone in a foreign country. So I got back in my mini car and tried to drive up the mountain. Not so great of an idea due to recent rain, but I didn’t get stuck and decided that pictures would just have to suffice for this trip. I was able to get some pictures of the observatory and when I go back to MK (and have a 4 wheel drive), I will actually walk up the top of the observatory.

I made my way back to Skopje, just in time for the afternoon traffic. Parking in Skopje is always interesting. I’m sure there are actually parking laws, but no one seems to follow them. So I always try to find a way to park and hope not to get a ticket….this time was no different, but it was always an adventure.  I was able to just relax the night away and get ready for the next part of our adenture!

See you around the globe!