Home for the holidays...

Sitting aboard my Delta flight from DTW to LAS and enjoying my free wifi, I feel very contemplative about what led up to this very odd occurrence!  Most of my decisions regarding this day relate solely to the immense amount of travel I did this fall including about 8 weeks out of the country.  Naturally this helped me along to my Delta Skymiles goal for the year, but since I also was able to gain Silver on Continental, it left me less than a thousand mile short from retaining my Platinum status on Delta.  So here I am on flight 2 of 3 on probably the weirdest flight routing I have managed to put together within the country.  It all started out with a 3:35 alarm. My first leg of the trip was from PVD to DTW and left at 5:45 a.m..  While I despise getting up early and being on quite possibly the earliest flight I have ever taken, it was a necessary evil in order  to get home at a decent hour.  Flight number 2, the one I am on currently takes me from DTW to LAS.  Yes, LAS as in Las Vegas(though I am most disappointed I will not be leaving the airport).  I hope to land around 11:15ish local time and then turn around for a 12:15 departure for ATL.  So at the end of the day I will have been on a 3 different planes for over 10 hours.  I'm feeling good for the moment, but check back with me when I finally arrive home.

Other fun developments are that I have found two of my favorite cold weather beers: Widmer Brothers' Reserve Brrrbon and Southern Tier Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout.  While they certainly would not be my first choice of brews to enjoy on a Summer's day on the back porch, they are perfect for sitting on the coach and watching the snow fall.  If you have a cold winter's evening and fancy a pint, I recommend one or both of these!  Colorful soccer shoes are also working out well.  I've been playing defense more than I've wanted to, but I still managed to net 2 so far and help out with a few assists. Happy Holidays!

Xmas Lights and Blueberry Thrill

Just brewed a new batch of Beer: Blueberry Thrill and put up the Xmas lights for the year!  Overall a pretty successful Friday afternoon.  First Christmas party of the year Tomorrow!  Happy December!

Coco is back, all is right with the world...

So as I sit here watching Conan, it makes me feel that something about the world is right again.  Last week's election still happened, the economy still sucks for the most part, the past 2 days have felt like winter, and I haven't won the lottery.  On a more exciting note, I think I joined an indoor soccer team!
How about these for some new indoor kicks???

Am I joking? Who knows?

The End of Travel Season

While the leaves try and hang on the trees for a few more days here in New England, another season has gone by unnoticed by most.  That is the admission recruitment travel season.  This one has been one of my busiest to date complete with 2 months overseas and another few weeks of visits around this area.  I've already talked about my busy Fall in Asia and less than 1 week ago, I arrived back from a 3 week trip to Central and South America.  There is something definitely comforting about traveling in an area of the world where you can communicate in the native language!

Definitely I think the highlight of the trip was Brazil being as that I hadn't been there before and it was fun country to hang around in.  I don't think my Portuguese speaking skills were up to par, or more accurately I mean my Spanish with a some what of a Portuguese accent.  It was still fun when I actually was able to somewhat communicate in a language that is foreign to me.  Just a quick trip highlight in terms of countries I visited: Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Brazil.

All in all no complaints except for the fact that I have to retire my passports for a few months!

Around the world in 30 Days

After a quick stopover in LA on my way to Asia, I am back on the move.  Just getting to LA was exciting enough with my opportunity to sit in the Business Elite cabin on Delta on my way from DTW to LAX.  I started writing this post sitting on a Singapore Airlines flight from LA to Tokyo in Raffles Business Class.  Now I must say that this is the way to fly.  I have never been served so much food on a plane or been as comfortable as I am on this flight.  I think that I could get used to this.

I spent about a month in over 10 countries all across Asia and the Indian subcontinent.  I met hundreds of students and say some really cool things.  It was a great way to spend a month, even though I start to miss simple things like drinking out of the water tap at any given stop.  I got to spend a few days in Singapore, my favorite city on earth, right during the pre-events for the Singapore Grand Prix, which my favorite driver Fernando Alonso won!  We stayed at a beautiful hotel in almost every location we visited, but my favorite by far was the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore (perhaps you are sensing a trend). 

A location that I was really surprised by was Kathmandu.  When I worked at Rollins I was fortunate enough to bring two amazing students from there to campus that are having successful careers at Rollins and it had been somewhere I had been meaning to travel to.  Whether it was visiting the Monkey temple where you could see tons of monkeys just hanging out amongst the idols and statues on the top of this hill or flying around the Himalayas for a sunrise look at Mt.  Everest.  Definitely a unique and interesting place to visit on this trip. 

I initially wrote that my first trip on Singapore was such an amazing experience, but then on the way back I got to fly in their brand new business class on the 777-300ER, which is the longest airplane in the world!  Of course over the years I have spent most of my time on Delta flying the friendly skies, but I must say I have found my second favorite airline and with all my flying have found myself as a Star Alliance elite member as well!  If Delta or any other US carriers had service and amenities anything like those of Singapore, the world would be a much better place.  

Overall it has been a very fun and productive month and in only a few days I will head back out on the road to Latin America!  

How quickly summer ends...

 After what only seems like a few weeks, summer seems to be coming towards an unwelcome conclusion.  The weather is still quite warm and sunny, but you can just sense that sooner than later that will come to a halt.  Late Summer/Early Fall in New England is quite often seen as the nicest time of year, but sadly enough I will have to miss most of it do to my extensive International travel that I will be involved in (not that I'm complaining about that).  It has been quite a while since I have written on here and a lot has happened in that time.

Most notably the triumphant victory of Spain in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  Spain has been the team closest to my heart ever since I visited the country in high school.  The love they have for soccer is not unique to their country, but it seemed they had claimed every prize soccer had to offer with one glaring exception.  No longer does the escudo on the Spanish red jersey sit without being adorned by a golden star.  It was also quite a site for the outcome of the matches to be decided by a cephalopod named Paul or Pulpo Paul.  He had a perfect record during this years tournament in matches involving Germany and the final match with Spain and Holland.  The tournament also saw too early of an exit from the USA, but they did show promise that this can be improved upon in the future.  Watching their 2nd round game with my countryman in Burlington, VT.  I noticed how much we far we have come as a fan base in support of our national team.  It is almost impossible to believe that we have to wait another 4 years until we can enjoy a spectacle of that size.  I guess I'll have to just settle for the European Championship in 2012!

I have also gotten a chance to do some traveling around Vermont, upstate New York, the Muskokas, ATL, and Tennessee this summer.  Burlington was the first stop of the summer and one I had really be excited to check out since I'd moved up here.  It is a really up and coming city with some great food, beer, and of course ice cream.  After Burlington, we headed over to Lake Placid.  As it is the home of the miracle on ice, I had to stop at Herb Brooks Arena.  Went up to Canada to celebrate the Birthday with friends at a cottage.  Visited the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN and finally spent some time with the family in ATL.  I know that was a very quick rundown of my summer vacation, but I could go on for pages with all the details and I don't have that sort of time right now.   

This summer was one of the fastest ones I've experienced, hopefully the rest of the year doesn't go by as fast.  I only have a few weeks before I head back out of the country, time to enjoy the last moments of summer I have left.

Don't Tread On Me

One of the most stressful runs through the first round of any world cup to date, the USA has clinched as the winners of Group C in the world cup and advance on to the next round. The USA scored 2 goals after being down 2-0 to Slovenia to tie the game and keep their hopes alive. The following game they won in the 91st minute by of course a Landon Donovan goal! In the past 2 games USA has had 2 goals disallowed for phantom calls making our run to the next round much more difficult! Once this afternoon ends, we should know who we face in the next round! Whoever it may be, they should be ready... we're angry... and you won't like us when we're angry! Our team has showed that they don't give up until the final whistle blows, and this truly American characteristic will hopefully keep our team moving forward in the knockout round

Deja Vuvuzela!

Every 4 years the world stops for almost the entire month of June surrounding one sporting event. That event of course is the World Cup. In most countries this is seen as the most important thing that takes place for the entire year, watching your country compete for the world's biggest prize. I have made a point of pretty much tuning in for as many games as I can for this fantastic event since the world cup was in the USA in 1994. I was lucky enough to be able to see a game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX during the 1994 World Cup and really this was my first big exposure to world soccer. Even on family vacation in Hilton Head, SC I made my family pull over in order to see the penalty shoot out between Brasil and Italy!

As I became more of a fan of the World Cup, I watched Brasil lose out in France '98, triumph in Japan/South Korea '02, and an all European final in Germany '06 between France and Italy. This year it has already started with some great big games and also some major disappointments. I am hoping for a great result from the USA and Spain, but it has already started poorly for Spain with a tough loss to Switzerland. In the second week there was certainly a better showing for both the USA and Spain with both teams either winning or being robbed of one. By the end of the week we will know the outcome of the group stages, with already huge news of France collapsing over huge controversy and failing to do more than draw a single match.

While I could continue spouting my World Cup passion and excitement for days, I am just going to let the drone of the Vuvuzelas do the talking as I go watch another game!

The End of Winter: A Love Story

I had not been on a snowboard since December of 2005 at Blue Mountain, and for me this had been a very depressing fact. In the years between, I had my shiny blue board ready to go, but I just couldn't manage to get close enough to a snow covered mountain during ski season. In the Fall of 2009 I knew that this had to change. I looked at my snowboard sitting idly in the corner of our guest room and it stared back longingly. All it wanted to do was get out of the house and get onto some white, fluffy, powdery snow. As you can guess, it did not take much convincing for me to want to do the same. I dusted off my old Burton step-in bindings, checked out my old boots and realized that they no longer fit. I fired up my laptop and went online to see where I could get a new pair of step-in boots. As it turned out, step-ins were no longer something that Burton makes so I needed to start fresh.
Our story continues this past December, where I found at Burton store in Orlando some outrageously low prices on 2009 boots and bindings. This would really be my saving grace and the kick start I needed to get back on my board. I picked me up some camouflage boots and chromed out bindings and I was set to return triumphantly to my board and fix it up for the season. At this point I was set, now all I had to do was find a suitable weekend to get out there and ride.

The day finally come on January 17th, 2010 at Gunstock Mountain in NH. My snowboard, the snow, and I were finally reunited. I didn't realize how much I had been missing out until I got back on that board! The five years absence seemed like no time at all and I was feeling as comfortable as ever. The added fun of teaching Jeanne some of the finer points of skiing (which I admittedly haven't done since age 12) really made my first day back a great one.
This would be just one of many days that I would spend on the snow this winter and spring. We enjoyed mountains in 3 different states including Gunstock and Loon Mountains in New Hampshire, Mount Wachusett in Massachusetts, and our last weekend of the season at Stratton in Vermont. I was happy as ever shredding down the mountains, Jeanne has really gotten the hang of skiing, and overall it really was just a great season out on the slopes.
As I sit out on my back deck over looking the ocean and enjoying some beautiful spring weather, I can't help but think about the great times we had on the snow this winter and really am starting to miss them already. I guess it is that time of year to put the board and skis to bed until next season... only 8 months until December!

Oh wait! I just read that Mammoth Mtn. in California is open until July 4th since they had a total of 41 feet of snow this winter! Encore? I'll have to clear this with Jeanne first!

A long, strange trip!

On my way back from Hong Kong to Boston, it was really a journey worth talking about on its own. I left my hotel at 5 am for my return journey. About an hour and a half later I was through security and off to the Delta lounge. In Hong Kong, Delta uses the Qantas Lounge which was quite nice! Had a little breakfast and then off to Tokyo. Tokyo had some strong cross winds so we had quite an interesting approach in our A330, but we were able to land with no problems.

The next step of the journey did not go so smoothly. Our flight from Tokyo to New York went well for the first 12 hours. About an hour before our scheduled landing, we were told it was going to be bumpy on our way in. Fine. So we start our descent. About half an hour into it, Captain announces that we are moving into a holding pattern. So we circle for about 40 minutes and then the captain says we are going to try and make an attempt at landing. Here is where the fun begins!

For about 30 minutes, we descend and ascend continually, bouncing around in the grey skies with no sight of the ground. As much as Suddenly the roar of the 777's huge engines pull us dramatically upwards and away from our approach. I guess at this point that we've aborted our landing and are going to try again. The pilot comes on and informs us that we can no longer attempt our landing at JFK since we've used up too much fuel in our holding pattern and would have to be diverted. At the time he was not sure where we would be going, but I was hoping that Boston would be the place due to the large Delta presence. In the end I was right and we made a b-line for BOS and landed there about 30 minutes later. Even our descent into Boston made our difficult landing in Tokyo seem like a piece of cake.

After we were on the ground in Boston, we taxied to Terminal E to join 5 jumbos that were already there sitting and waiting for a gate. The pilot then told us that the plan was to refuel as soon as possible and then head back to JFK. Well this was certainly disappointing since my destination was only 100 yards from where our plane was sitting. After about an hour and a half of waiting on the tarmac, we were told our flight was now canceled and that we would be waiting for a gate to open up and then we would disembark to go through customs in Boston. Fantastic news for me, because with all of the waiting it seemed like I would actually get home early. By the time we actually got a space at the gate it was about 7pm which was my arrival time into Boston in the first place. So in the end, by getting my flight diverted into Boston I wound up not losing any time to get home! All in all, this trip took me about 24 hours from start to finish and by the time I got my bags, I was quite ready to be home! The above picture was taken of my plane sitting on the ground in Boston, while I was sitting inside of it waiting for our gate! Quite the beautiful plane! There were about 6 777s on the ground in Boston, a few A340s and even an A380 that had been diverted from JFK. This made Boston have about the best lineup of jumbo jets that the city has ever seen! From an airline fan's point of view, quite the cool turn of events. Thank you to Delta and to the crew at Logan for making this difficult situation quite smooth and tolerable.

Beyond the great wall!

For the last two weeks, I have been in the Middle Kingdom (中国)and one of it's Special Administrative Regions. It has been a great, long trip and I've gotten a chance to experience a lot in my short time there. China is really a very interesting country, not only politically, but also from a point of view of just trying to get around as a westerner. I visited Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou on the mainland and also Hong Kong. Each region was definitely very distinct and unlike other countries, there was a really such a difference between the mentalities and development of the different cities. One thing I noticed is how many International showcases have been in China in the past 2 years. This I think has been key to a lot of the development of the country and really something great to show off all of the great things China has to show off.

Beijing was my first stop and I really felt rushed going through it. It seemed like there was so much that I didn't do and see while I was there but I really did do a lot while I was there. It's funny to say but work definitely got in the way of my sightseeing in that case. I wound up visiting 5 different schools while I was there and saw lots, so I was quite busy up until I left for Nanjing. So what did I see you might ask? The Great Wall, Olympic Site, Olympic Water Sports Park, and Hongluo Temple. So not everything, but certainly a good sampling for my first visit. It was really amazing to see how well developed the city was. The good thing about me not seeing everything is that it gives me a great excuse to go back.
Nanjing was my next stop and I was really only there for 36 hours. The weather was quite poor and I was starting to feel a cold coming on so I didn't see too much. I did my school visits and then caught up on some sleep so I was ready for my next destinations. When I was leaving Nanjing, I was treated to some wonderful snow. Just when I thought by leaving the northeast I would be away from winter, but no such luck.
After leaving snowy Nanjing, it was off to snowy Shanghai. Shanghai was another great example of fantastic China. The weather when I was there wasn't fantastic, but I did get a chance to walk around the city. It reminded a lot of Tokyo in that there were just skyscrapers everywhere! The only real disappointing thing was that there was a lot construction around the Bund making walking near the river not as pleasant as it could be. One of the cooler experience I had there was going to a "tea tasting" with some locals that I met while walking around. We went to this place that had 200 types of tea to taste and some rituals to do whilst drinking it. My next stop Guangzhou. This was my shortest stop of the trip with 2 school visits and they right back to the Airport. Just in the change from Shanghai to Guangzhou I liked how it seemed like I was going from a cold coastal climate to a warm tropical type environment. Definitely a welcome change!Hong Kong was my last stop and really the difference between this and mainland China was really quite substantial. Just the change of which side cars are driving and it seems to change everything. Hong Kong reminded me a lot of Singapore, but with a bit more natural beauty. Much easier to get around as a westerner and without speaking Chinese of any sort. I was only there for 2 days, but I feel like it was a great look into to this amazing place. I had my school visits on Thursday and did a bit of looking around on Friday. The only thing I missed which I had really wanted to see was the huge Buddha on Lantau Island. I was about to go after a morning tour of Hong Kong, but the weather was just really cloudy and I had to pack for a wicked early flight the next day.
Overall the total trip was a success both professionally and personally. I had been waiting for a long time to finally make it to China and Hong Kong and I really was happy with my experience. It was a long journey to get there and an even longer journey to get home (more on that later), but I am ready for my next adventure!

Why can't I get a Kingfisher on Kingfisher??

After a long college fair in Delhi, we loaded everything into a bus and headed to the airport for our flight to Mumbai...we had a quick flight on Kingfisher (where you are not able to be served a Kingfisher on domestic flights) and after a long bus ride we arrived at our hotel in Bombay.

We spent a lot of time in traffic in Bombay, it is a densely populated and the roads are not awesome. Once we figured out that the Sealink would take at least 30 minutes off of a lot of our journeys, the tedious sitting in the back of a bus became a little bit faster. We spent about 2 days here but most of it was consumed with work. We did get a chance to go to Doby Ghat which is the neighborhood of Bombay most well know for its unique laundry facilities. People here literally beat the dirt out of clothes and this seems to be the big laundry facility of choice for many local companies. It was a great cultural experience and was a good non-work related activity for the city. On our last night in Bombay, a bunch of us sauntered over to this great karaoke place that was a few blocks from our hotel. We butchered about 10 different songs including we are the world and were pretty much the most obnoxious people there, but it was fun!

After we left from Mumbai, we flew down to Bangalore for a quick 36 hours before my trip was over. College fair, school visits, final dinner and then a 2:20 am flight to paris and then that brings me to today. Now back home and hopefully avoiding this supposed snowicane!

Only 1411 Tigers left in India...

I am in the midst of spending just over a week in the second most populous country on Earth, which is another new destination for me!! It only took about an entire day of travel to make it from Boston to Paris to Delhi to even begin this adventure. En route I got to travel in the upper deck of a 747 which has always been something that I have wanted to do, so I got to check that off of the bucket list.

My first day in Delhi started with a trip to the Red Fort of Delhi and a visit to Gandhi's memorial. My only regret from my trip to delhi is that I did not have another day to visit the Taj Mahal, but it does give me a great excuse to go back and visit again!

As soon as you step off the plane or turn on the tv here in India you are bombarded with advertisements explaining how few wild tigers are left in India. So of course they show tiny tiger cubs that look sad and of course how can you not want to help them out... anyway to learn more check out save our tigers, hurry or it might drop to 1410....

Delhi was a great first stop in India and now its off to Bombay/Mumbai!

DC, Luke, and the first batch of home brewed beer!

So last weekend, we got a plane to meet up with my parents in Washington, DC. It was freezing in RI, but clear and certainly not snowing. As soon as we landed in Baltimore, the flakes started to fall and then by early afternoon there were at least 6-8 inches of snow covering the DC streets. While most times of the year it should be the opposite and we should have left snow to go to a place without any, but this time, no such luck!

We spent most of the time hanging out with my family and my cousin's place and hanging out with our friends in DC. We spent less than 36 hours in DC, but they were all fun! We hung out at Rocket Bar in Chinatown, where people had a strange obsession with Big Buck Hunter...

Back in RI the week has been pretty low key, with one exception. We opened our first batch of beer which had be sitting in bottles conditioning for about 2.5 weeks. The beer was a nice easy drinking Witbier! We also bottled our second batch, which will be an American IPA. Finally we put the 3rd batch in the barrel, "Cold Morning Maple Wheat Beer". This is the most exciting one so far. The rest of our Witbier and IPA will be enjoyed at Jeanne's birthday later this month!

I'll be heading over to India in 2 weeks and China in just over a month!

Spring Skiing in January!

So this weekend we decided that instead of trekking all the way up to NH or VT for skiing, we would stick close by and check out Mount Wachusett. It was an absolutely picturesque day much more fitting of late spring skiing than late January! It will be a couple weeks before we get a chance to head back up to another mountain, but I think we will be heading towards NH this time.

In other big news, Friday was the last night of the Tonight Show with CoCo. It's sad we had such a great show going and now we have Leno back and no Conan at all. The finale was awesome with great guests and of course the Will Ferrell and friends version of Free Bird was a great way to end the show, especially with Conan rocking out on guitar.

Also last night we saw Up in the Air. It sure hit home with my frequent stints in the airport and my frequent flying! American Airlines and Hilton certainly got some good advertising out of it! I think even though I feel like I fly tons, I certainly won't be hitting 10 Million FF miles in this lifetime! Great movie though.

Off to DC next weekend!

Guess who's back... back again...

It has been about 6 months since I've added anything to this blog, and I feel it’s about time to get back into it. It feels like I really have been all over the place in the past couple months. When I looked at my old entries, it took me a while to figure out what direction I wanted to go with this blog since I'm no longer searching the world for future Rollins students. I am however continuing to travel the world and do things that I really enjoy, just from a different setting!

This fall I moved up to Rhode Island to work and recruit students internationally at Roger Williams University, but that is not what I feel like writing about. I traveled to some cool parts of Latin America including a new country and a couple new cities where I hadn't traveled before. I went to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, which was a new destination for me, as well as Mexico City, Mexico and Guayaquil, Ecuador. I met some good people along the way, spent some time on the beach in Montañita, Ecuador. Basically I really enjoyed my time down there!

The last couple of months have gone by way too fast and 2009 ended faster than I expected. 2010 has kept up the pace and before I know it, we’ll be in April. This spring I am continuing on my world travels with visiting the two most populous countries on Earth. I will be traveling to both India and China in February and March respectively. These are two places that I’ve been hoping to go for quite sometime, so I’m quite happy that 2010 is the year that I get to take advantage of that

My travels haven’t been limited to outside of the country. I have spent sometime in ATL, DC, around RI, and FINALLY out to the mountains in NH to get back on my snowboard after 5 years! Last weekend I went to Gunstock and this weekend I hope to check out either Sunapee or Loon Mountain. This is something I was really missing living in FL, so I’m glad I can take advantage of it now that I am in New England.

Last but not least, I am also starting to brew my own beer! Thanks to a wonderful Christmas present, I have bottled my first batch and get to taste it in less than 2 weeks! It is a Belgian style Witbier that is sitting in bottles and carbonating naturally. In the barrel is an IPA that will be ready to bottle when the other is ready to drink. This is pretty exciting to be since I have been touring around various microbreweries and have wanted to try it for the past couple years.

So I guess what I decided to write about is my travels and what goes on in my life. I think that I get to see and do cool stuff, so I should share it. I'll see how it goes and if that doesn't work, I'll try something else!

I’ll do my best to not be a stranger…happy 2010…