Bath and Stonehenge pictures are online! Check them out here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=406648&id=701905001&l=2f73c2cc5b
I had to get those pics up this week, because this weekend begins a flurry of travel activity that will pretty much consume the month of April... and I am SOOOOOOO excited!!!!! Of the first 18 days of April, I will be working 6 of them. Pretty sweet deal, right? Two three-day weekends in a row courtesy of USAFE, then taking 4 days of leave to add onto the third weekend. Where am I going? I'm so glad you asked... ;-)
First up (in 3 days!) is Warsaw, Poland. My two excellent travel buddies (Alex and Martin) and I will be flying into Lodz, then taking a train to Warsaw. Exact plans for sightseeing are still slightly up in the air, but we have a hotel room two blocks from city centre and will be meeting up with a friend of Alex's who lives there and can show us around. I am a little nervous about knowing zero of the Polish language, but Alex was a Russian major in college and says Polish is similar... and I may pick up a Polish phrase book before we go.
Weekend #2 is tentatively planned for Newcastle, England. Supposedly a very cool town and a beautiful train ride to get there from here. No reservations have been made yet, but I am pretty sure it is going to happen... more on this as decisions are made! :)
The day after I get back from Newcastle (Monday April 12th), I will be working a half day at work... and then flying out of London to meet Carrie in Trieste, Italy!!! Originally, she was just going to visit here after her TDY in Italy, but we talked more and decided it would be fun to explore Italy together too! We will spend Tues/Wed sightseeing in Trieste and nearby sites, then both fly back to England on Thurs. Thursday night and Friday, I'll be showing her around the area and visiting some cool sites, then Saturday we will get to hang out in Cambridge with Carrie's cousins Mark and Kathryn (they were the ones who I visited in Cambridge when I first got here). Then Carrie will have to fly out on Sunday.
I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!!!! :-D I can't wait to hang out with Carrie again, and she will be my first visitor here! (Which reminds me, I need to clean the house... haha) April is just going to be amazing. There is a lot of work to be done before, during, and after, but I don't think anything is going to darken my mood in the near future. :) I ran 12 miles yesterday even though it was raining and I was minus my running buddy, but I did it and therefore am still on track for the marathon.
By the way, I am sure you noticed the change in the blog background... I thought it was nice and spring-y. :) Hope you like it!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Spring!
Happy Spring, everyone! I celebrated with a beautiful 10-mile run yesterday on the official first day of Spring. It felt like spring, too… I ran in Bury St Edmunds again with Martin, and when we got to Abbey Gardens to stretch, there were people everywhere enjoying the sun and warmer weather – kids playing soccer (football if you’re British), several other runners, and people eating ice cream from the food stand. Even the Garden itself seemed to be celebrating the arrival of spring – the flowers are all starting to bloom and the grass is a much brighter green. Everywhere around here is starting to remind me of when I first arrived in August, with the longer days and greener vegetation. Can you believe it has been 7 months?!?!? I know I can’t…
I think I mentioned in the last entry that I wanted to do more traveling, so here’s an update: I am going to Poland the first weekend in April! How’s that for random? One of the intel girls, Alex, asked me if I wanted to go for our 3-day weekend. The idea surprised me, since Poland was not at the top of my destination list, but after a moment of thought… why not??? Why not take advantage of being somewhere that I can randomly decide to fly to Poland for the weekend and get cheap plane tickets? So I will be in Poland from 2-4 April. Woohoo! Not much specific planning has happened yet, but we are flying into Lodz and taking a train to Warsaw, where we have a hotel room two blocks away from the city center, where I am sure we will have no shortage of things to see and do.
Speaking of traveling, I also have to tell you about my Bath and Stonehenge trip a week ago! Pics have made it from my camera to my computer, but not from the computer to online yet, so I will have to post that link when I get them uploaded. The four of us girls left Lakenheath early afternoon on Saturday and arrived in Bath by late afternoon. We checked into our hotel and decided to walk through town and go to the spa that night.
So.... I was kind of nervous about the spa. I mentioned this last time, but... I just don't really see myself as the "spa" type of person. A spa sounds like a place for people who enjoy wearing not much in the way of clothing (if any), spending a lot of money to have weird things done to their bodies, and eating/drinking weird expensive things. Okay, so maybe that is a pretty bad stereotype. But I'm a T-shirt/jeans/flip-flops girl who (almost) never wears makeup or jewelry. I don't like the idea of people I don't know touching me, or the idea of walking around in a bathing suit. Give me a mountain to climb or a castle to explore while other people sit in spas.
But then we went to the spa... and I have to admit it was actually fun. We didn't get massages or anything, but the other girls and I spent a very enjoyable two hours watching the sun set from the rooftop pool, trying out all the scented steam rooms, and floating around the big bubbly hot tub. I decided that it would be a very good thing to do after a marathon, since it was so relaxing. So, I may or may not be planning to look up spas in Edinburgh. 0:-) Does this mean I am a "spa" person? Well... maybe I just learned the truth of the phrase "don't knock it until you try it"!
Anyway, we walked back to our hotel that night with plans to get up and sightsee in Bath in the morning before setting out for Stonehenge. We spent all morning and into the early afternoon touring the ancient Roman baths, walking around the town, and visiting several cute shops. Here is a picture of me from inside the Roman baths, with Bath Abbey in the background:
I was looking forward to seeing Stonehenge, though I had been told by several people that it was not very exciting. And, I can't necessarily argue that, after seeing it... but it's just one of those things I wanted to see, you know? It's world famous, even if it is "just a pile of rocks". We were lucky to have good weather, though it was very windy. It's kind of funny how quickly you come up on the site... you're just driving along the road, and then all of a sudden, there's Stonehenge. You could drive right by it if you weren't looking for it.
We stopped and picked up an audio tour handset, then walked around the trail circling the stone formation. The audio tour made it more interesting, but I was distracted by the multitude of cute fuzzy sheep grazing in the fields surrounding us. After we all took a bunch of pictures to prove we had been there, we headed home. Here is what I think is my best picture of Stonehenge:
I don't have anything planned for this weekend (mainly because I'm on weather standby again), but in two weeks is Poland, three weeks is another 3-day weekend with several travel possibilities being discussed, and four weeks is when my college roommate Carrie will be visiting! I am super-excited about all of these things, and I hope the weather continues to cooperate. Marathon training continues, and I am pretty happy with how that is going. I am less sore today after 10 miles than I was last week after 8, so I think that means my body is catching up to my training pace. 9 weeks til marathon weekend in Edinburgh!
I have another big item to discuss, but I think I'm going to wait until next time when I may have more news... (I'll give you a hint: it has something to do with how much longer I get to live in England!) For now, I need to go ice a birthday cake for someone in the weather flight (gave me an excuse to bake my favorite Funfetti Spring cake mix!), and get to bed. Good night!
I think I mentioned in the last entry that I wanted to do more traveling, so here’s an update: I am going to Poland the first weekend in April! How’s that for random? One of the intel girls, Alex, asked me if I wanted to go for our 3-day weekend. The idea surprised me, since Poland was not at the top of my destination list, but after a moment of thought… why not??? Why not take advantage of being somewhere that I can randomly decide to fly to Poland for the weekend and get cheap plane tickets? So I will be in Poland from 2-4 April. Woohoo! Not much specific planning has happened yet, but we are flying into Lodz and taking a train to Warsaw, where we have a hotel room two blocks away from the city center, where I am sure we will have no shortage of things to see and do.
Speaking of traveling, I also have to tell you about my Bath and Stonehenge trip a week ago! Pics have made it from my camera to my computer, but not from the computer to online yet, so I will have to post that link when I get them uploaded. The four of us girls left Lakenheath early afternoon on Saturday and arrived in Bath by late afternoon. We checked into our hotel and decided to walk through town and go to the spa that night.
So.... I was kind of nervous about the spa. I mentioned this last time, but... I just don't really see myself as the "spa" type of person. A spa sounds like a place for people who enjoy wearing not much in the way of clothing (if any), spending a lot of money to have weird things done to their bodies, and eating/drinking weird expensive things. Okay, so maybe that is a pretty bad stereotype. But I'm a T-shirt/jeans/flip-flops girl who (almost) never wears makeup or jewelry. I don't like the idea of people I don't know touching me, or the idea of walking around in a bathing suit. Give me a mountain to climb or a castle to explore while other people sit in spas.
But then we went to the spa... and I have to admit it was actually fun. We didn't get massages or anything, but the other girls and I spent a very enjoyable two hours watching the sun set from the rooftop pool, trying out all the scented steam rooms, and floating around the big bubbly hot tub. I decided that it would be a very good thing to do after a marathon, since it was so relaxing. So, I may or may not be planning to look up spas in Edinburgh. 0:-) Does this mean I am a "spa" person? Well... maybe I just learned the truth of the phrase "don't knock it until you try it"!
Anyway, we walked back to our hotel that night with plans to get up and sightsee in Bath in the morning before setting out for Stonehenge. We spent all morning and into the early afternoon touring the ancient Roman baths, walking around the town, and visiting several cute shops. Here is a picture of me from inside the Roman baths, with Bath Abbey in the background:
I was looking forward to seeing Stonehenge, though I had been told by several people that it was not very exciting. And, I can't necessarily argue that, after seeing it... but it's just one of those things I wanted to see, you know? It's world famous, even if it is "just a pile of rocks". We were lucky to have good weather, though it was very windy. It's kind of funny how quickly you come up on the site... you're just driving along the road, and then all of a sudden, there's Stonehenge. You could drive right by it if you weren't looking for it.
We stopped and picked up an audio tour handset, then walked around the trail circling the stone formation. The audio tour made it more interesting, but I was distracted by the multitude of cute fuzzy sheep grazing in the fields surrounding us. After we all took a bunch of pictures to prove we had been there, we headed home. Here is what I think is my best picture of Stonehenge:
I don't have anything planned for this weekend (mainly because I'm on weather standby again), but in two weeks is Poland, three weeks is another 3-day weekend with several travel possibilities being discussed, and four weeks is when my college roommate Carrie will be visiting! I am super-excited about all of these things, and I hope the weather continues to cooperate. Marathon training continues, and I am pretty happy with how that is going. I am less sore today after 10 miles than I was last week after 8, so I think that means my body is catching up to my training pace. 9 weeks til marathon weekend in Edinburgh!
I have another big item to discuss, but I think I'm going to wait until next time when I may have more news... (I'll give you a hint: it has something to do with how much longer I get to live in England!) For now, I need to go ice a birthday cake for someone in the weather flight (gave me an excuse to bake my favorite Funfetti Spring cake mix!), and get to bed. Good night!
Monday, March 8, 2010
More Daylight
I admit it… I have been a very bad blogger in the last couple weeks. Don’t feel left out, because apparently I have also been bad about checking my email, since I had two from my mom this morning asking if I was alive. Oops… sorry Mom. So here is a blog to prove to all of you that I am, in fact, alive. ;-) The base is doing a big exercise this week, and last week was crazy busy getting ready for it. Two weekends ago, I was on weather standby and got called in to work both Saturday and Sunday, which was not too fun and meant I didn’t do much else interesting that weekend. I did put Dover pictures online, so here is the link, though I am guessing most of you on Facebook have already checked them out: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=392098&id=701905001&l=5066889e9e (P.S. The link should work even if you are not on Facebook.)
Last week was good, though busy. On Wednesday, I had lunch with a bunch of other Lts, most of whom I have met through my intel friends from Red Flag. I really like getting to know new people, and it was a fun lunch hour that turned into a planning session for outings over the next two weekends. Friday morning, my squadron ran in a base 5K, which I was really excited about. Official marathon training for my May 23rd Edinburgh (Scotland) full marathon began last Monday, so I have been running more and was looking forward to a little competition. I was happy with how I ran, but irritated that the course turned out to be only 2.7 miles (a 5K is 3.1). Poor race organization, in my opinion, plus it should have been announced at the beginning so there weren’t people walking around afterwards thinking they took 4 minutes off their 5K time (not me, thanks to my Garmin GPS watch). Anyway, despite the distance foul and the frigid temperature, it was still fun to get out there and run with the squadron and others on base.
On Saturday, I went out to dinner with a bunch of my new friends at an amazing restaurant in Bury St Edmunds. You may remember Bury from my two sightseeing expeditions there back in August, most notably Abbey Gardens, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, and the extensive Saturday market. I now know three people who live in walking distance of the Bury town centre, so it is the perfect location to meet up and walk to all kinds of restaurants, pubs, and entertainment, not to mention the historical sites like the Gardens. Saturday night, we met at a restaurant called Benson and Blake’s, which had the most incredible sweet potato fries I have ever eaten. I should have taken a picture, they were that good… haha. :) After dinner, we visited a few pubs, one of which had a live band playing that wasn’t bad.
Sunday was my first “long run” day for marathon training, and Martin offered to do my 6-miler with me on a nice route he knew in Bury, so we went out to run in the late afternoon and it was GORGEOUS. Though it was cold, the weather was clear with little wind, and perfect for running. We ran to Abbey Gardens for a warmup, stretched in the shadows of thousand-year-old abbey ruins, then set off for 6 miles past the towering cathedral, through the picturesque town, and out a long paved trail past fields of sheep and some rolling hills. This was one of those runs that reminded me of why I love running, especially as the sun was setting on our way back and turned the sky pink and orange behind the fields and cathedral profile. Amazing. :-D
Believe it or not, it really is starting to feel like spring here. The most noticeable factor is the amount of daylight rapidly increasing. For several months, I have been driving to and from work in the dark, as the sun would rise after 0800 and set before 1600. Now, it is daylight by 0630, and stays light until after 1800. It is really motivating for running, and just puts me in a better mood overall. It also has me itching to start traveling more on weekends again! This weekend, I am going with a bunch of girls for “Ladies’ Weekend” at a spa in the historic city of Bath. We are going to tour Bath, hang out at the spa, and also visit Stonehenge, which is in the same area. Though I have never been to a spa and am not really sure it is my kind of thing, I’m excited for the new experience, sightseeing, and getting to know the other girls better.
I kind of feel like my life has been in a time warp since returning from Red Flag a month ago. Work has been so busy, and then with so many old friends gone and getting to know new ones, it is like life has never returned to “normal”… and that’s not necessarily good or bad, just something I am trying to get used to, and it has made the last month fly by. I’m excited about the possibilities coming with spring, like travel, races, and visitors. All that plus the good weather and daylight has me in a good mood even though it was a long Monday at work, so I hope it continues through the long week of this exercise!
Last week was good, though busy. On Wednesday, I had lunch with a bunch of other Lts, most of whom I have met through my intel friends from Red Flag. I really like getting to know new people, and it was a fun lunch hour that turned into a planning session for outings over the next two weekends. Friday morning, my squadron ran in a base 5K, which I was really excited about. Official marathon training for my May 23rd Edinburgh (Scotland) full marathon began last Monday, so I have been running more and was looking forward to a little competition. I was happy with how I ran, but irritated that the course turned out to be only 2.7 miles (a 5K is 3.1). Poor race organization, in my opinion, plus it should have been announced at the beginning so there weren’t people walking around afterwards thinking they took 4 minutes off their 5K time (not me, thanks to my Garmin GPS watch). Anyway, despite the distance foul and the frigid temperature, it was still fun to get out there and run with the squadron and others on base.
On Saturday, I went out to dinner with a bunch of my new friends at an amazing restaurant in Bury St Edmunds. You may remember Bury from my two sightseeing expeditions there back in August, most notably Abbey Gardens, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, and the extensive Saturday market. I now know three people who live in walking distance of the Bury town centre, so it is the perfect location to meet up and walk to all kinds of restaurants, pubs, and entertainment, not to mention the historical sites like the Gardens. Saturday night, we met at a restaurant called Benson and Blake’s, which had the most incredible sweet potato fries I have ever eaten. I should have taken a picture, they were that good… haha. :) After dinner, we visited a few pubs, one of which had a live band playing that wasn’t bad.
Sunday was my first “long run” day for marathon training, and Martin offered to do my 6-miler with me on a nice route he knew in Bury, so we went out to run in the late afternoon and it was GORGEOUS. Though it was cold, the weather was clear with little wind, and perfect for running. We ran to Abbey Gardens for a warmup, stretched in the shadows of thousand-year-old abbey ruins, then set off for 6 miles past the towering cathedral, through the picturesque town, and out a long paved trail past fields of sheep and some rolling hills. This was one of those runs that reminded me of why I love running, especially as the sun was setting on our way back and turned the sky pink and orange behind the fields and cathedral profile. Amazing. :-D
Believe it or not, it really is starting to feel like spring here. The most noticeable factor is the amount of daylight rapidly increasing. For several months, I have been driving to and from work in the dark, as the sun would rise after 0800 and set before 1600. Now, it is daylight by 0630, and stays light until after 1800. It is really motivating for running, and just puts me in a better mood overall. It also has me itching to start traveling more on weekends again! This weekend, I am going with a bunch of girls for “Ladies’ Weekend” at a spa in the historic city of Bath. We are going to tour Bath, hang out at the spa, and also visit Stonehenge, which is in the same area. Though I have never been to a spa and am not really sure it is my kind of thing, I’m excited for the new experience, sightseeing, and getting to know the other girls better.
I kind of feel like my life has been in a time warp since returning from Red Flag a month ago. Work has been so busy, and then with so many old friends gone and getting to know new ones, it is like life has never returned to “normal”… and that’s not necessarily good or bad, just something I am trying to get used to, and it has made the last month fly by. I’m excited about the possibilities coming with spring, like travel, races, and visitors. All that plus the good weather and daylight has me in a good mood even though it was a long Monday at work, so I hope it continues through the long week of this exercise!
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