Recently in Travel Category

Most of my friends already know this, but I'm not what you'd call a "sports guy". Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy sports, but when I make time for sports, I tend to focus on playing them versus watching. However, my general lack of enthusiasm for sports didn't stop me from attending what the Observer stated in 2004 as number 1 on the top 50 sporting things you must do before you die list.

I was a bit worried about my safety after reading about some others' experiences, but they must have been even bigger cowardly nerds than me. Although the crowds were very enthusiastic, there wasn't even a hint of violence (maybe things would have been different if I was wearing red and yelling "Mi Vida es River!").

For your viewing pleasure I posted a few pictures of the match and even put together some video...

I went on a bike tour around Buenos Aires on Saturday. It was a nice overview of some of the more touristy parts of the city in one good swoop. I also got some nice pictures.

I have now had two full days in Buenos Aires and have already jumped right into some activities thanks to the other non-Argentinean Accenture people located here. Lucky for me they had already planned to attend a Flamenco show including dinner, music and dancing... so I crashed the party. A meal of tapas, a few many glasses of wine, and some stunningly intense dancing a led to a great first night out in Buenos Aires.

I took some pictures and some video:

If I have talked to you in the past year and you asked me what my plans were for the next few months, I probably responded with something like 'I don't know' or 'I'm just waiting'. This was primarily because I was waiting to join a volunteering program called Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) that has been difficult to get lined up.

Well, I finally have a different response to that common question. Today I am writing from Arlington, VA where I am starting an ADP project with Ashoka Changemakers. I am taking a significant cut in pay in order to provide my skills to an organization that makes a direct impact on improving the lives of people in developing nations. I am very glad that I am in a point in my life where I am able to do this.

I will be working in the Washington DC area for the next month or so and then plan to move the project to a location somewhere in South America (most likely Brazil or Argentina). The entirety of the project is 4 months long, so it looks as though I could be in South America for up to 3 months.

Last weekend I went with a group of colleagues/friends to Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe. We drove out very early Saturday morning so we could have two full days on the slopes. The trip surpassed all my expectations especially since we were not even sure we would be able to go earlier that week. Luckily, Tahoe received about two feet of snow on Wednesday and was able to open on Friday.

Other than just the skiing, it was great to get to know some of the people from other teams on the project. We were able to exchange different perspectives on the project and have some fun too. I have posted pictures from the trip (Thanks to Bart for having a camera that takes pictures in the cold, unlike mine).

On the biggest shopping day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, I decided to drive back to Minneapolis from Cedar Falls, IA. Normally this drive takes me 3 hours to complete. However, on this particular day I spent an additional hour stuck in traffic.

Although the road conditions were quite good, the other drivers found it necessary to gaze at the vehicles in the ditch from when the conditions weren't so good. Anyway, I'm home safe now with an additional hour of Bejeweled practice on my phone.

So if you can't tell from the previous postings, I recently took a trip to Washington D.C. My gracious host Katie was nice enough to take me and my German friends (Torsten, Marcus, and Thomas) around to tour the city. Since this was my first visit to my Capitol, I had to see all the basics as I'm sure you can tell from my photos.

I arrived on Friday morning after taking the red-eye flight from San Francisco. Due to my poor sleeping arrangements on the plane, Friday was pretty much spent catching up for work and sleep. Saturday we started at the Capitol and finished off at the Vietnam Memorial. After our site-seeing, Katie had a barbeque at her house and invited quite a few friends. The next day was spent recovering from a long night before and seeing the last few sites.

White House, originally uploaded by mwklein.

My first look at the White House.

Last weekend I completed my big race. Luckily Greg Elston wrote a great little piece about it that I will just quote. Additional photos can be found at: [Pictures]

"Get your Ass over the Pass" - That was the motto and the goal for anyone entering the Wild West Relay. The relay is one of the most challenging relay races in the United States, which covered nearly 195 miles over some of the most mountainous terrain in the country. The relay started in Fort Collins, Colorado and wound it's way through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains into southern Wyoming before heading south over the Continental Divide at the Rabbit Ears Pass to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

A team of your Accenture colleagues from the Kaiser Permanente NPI engagement successfully completed this relay challenge last weekend. In completing the challenge, the team, captained by Brian Burton, personified "High Performance Delivered" as they finished in second place in their division, narrowly missing first place by a scant ten minutes. The team completed the relay in 32 hours and 4 minutes, more than an hour quicker than their optimistic time estimate.

The team included:
Brian Burton
Greg Elston
Doug Peterson
Gloria Romeo
Angel Chu
Lindsey Friedman
Charlotte Nichols
Michael Klein
Dan Bryan
Bryan Uzzell
Cheryl Flaherty
Rita Rodriguez
Alison Pflugrad
Noel Ramathal
Michael Ojalvo
Tony Romeo
Laura Chicchi

Bryan Uzzell led off the first leg of the race at 6:00 AM on Friday morning at an elevation of nearly a mile above sea level. The team proceeded to attack each leg of the race eventually reaching an altitude of more than 10,000 feet, nearly 2 miles above sea level. In addition to the reduced oxygen at that elevation, the team conquered significant uphill and downhill runs and temperatures that ranged from 85 F degrees down to 40 F degrees as they ran around the clock to complete the race.

In order to complete a challenge as large as the Wild West Relay, a team of volunteers was required to support the race as well as manage the runners. Dan Bryan, Cheryl Flaherty, Noel Ramathal, Rita Rodriguez, and Tony Romeo (Gloria Romeo's husband) did an exceptional job of supporting the team. In addition to staffing a checkpoint on the race course, these folks worked to make sure all the runners were well taken care of throughout the race. The team certainly would not have been successful without the efforts of the volunteer team.

Back Row (left to right): Doug Peterson, Michael Ojalvo, Dan Bryan, Michael Klein, Bryan Uzzell, Brian Burton, Noel Ramathal, and Charlotte Nichols
Middle Row (left to right): Laura Chicchi, Gloria Romeo, and Lindsey Friedman
Front Row (left to right): Greg Elston, Angel Cho, Rita Rodriguez, Alison Pflugrad, and Cheryl Flaherty
(Tony Romeo not pictured)

As the team participated in the race, they promoted goodwill for Accenture as the exemplified sportsmanship by supporting numerous teams by providing water to runners as the temperatures on the second day peaked at more than 80 F degrees:

Laura Chicchi and Michael Klein provided water to unidentified relay runner.

As important as completing the race, everyone walked away from the race with no injuries and a great sense of accomplishment. The team also had a great time in completing the race as evidence by preliminary plans to participate in next year's event.

Please congratulate your WWR Team for their tremendous accomplishments this weekend.

After work this past Friday, I went up to Lake Tahoe with a group of coworkers for some skiing. Friday night we spent cooking up burgers and sipping some beers, preparing for the next day skiing. Saturday morning, bright and early, we hit the slopes of Northstar Mountain. The Sierra Nevada skiing was excellent, but still no Rockies.

If you were ever wondering what the bars were like in Leeds, the following website might give you a little insight: uk.tilllate.com If you are really clever you may even be able to find a few people you know in the pictures (that is, if you know someone who is currently living in Leeds).

Last weekend I went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany with a bunch of colleagues. From what I can tell, Oktoberfest is the celebration of beer and that's what we did - celebrate beer. On Friday night, after checking into the hotel, we went to the Hofbrau house to kick off the celebration. We enjoyed some liter beers and some traditional German food (I had a big pretzel). After the Hofbrau house we went to a club to meet up with the rest of the group. It was a great deal, 10 euro cover with 1 euro drinks.

The next day was the first day of Oktoberfest, so we headed down to the fair grounds. We had a table reserved in one of the tents from noon to three. We had a really nice big meal and liter beers and then headed off to the party in one of the larger tents. We had our fair share of beer by about seven or eight o'clock and headed back to the hotel but not to our rooms... the hotel bar was as far as we made it. We stayed drinking in the hotel bar until about midnight and then called it quits.

On Sunday, we took it a bit easier, checked out of the hotel, and walked around Munich. We had lunch in a very nice old German restaurant and then continued to roam the streets of the city centre. After seeing a couple cathedrals and squares we decided to have a walk through the park. Along our way through the park, we saw some surfers and naked people to wrap up a very productive day. Then it was back to the beautiful weather Leeds had to offer (65 degrees for the high of the week, cloudy and rainy).

Pictures of the whole weekend are available here. I'm in the U.S. this weekend and then on to Rome!

Over the next few weeks I will be traveling quite frequently. Next weekend I will be going to Munich for the first weekend of Octoberfest - this will most likely consist of a lot of beer. After Germany, I will be back in Minneapolis for the weekend, and after Minneapolis, I will be meeting up with a friend in Rome for a Saturday through Monday weekend. I hope to continue this chain of weekend travel up until the time I leave the project.

I am currently planning on wrapping things up with my project in Leeds at the end of October. There is still a small chance I may remain in England for a little while after this time, but as always nothing has been decided yet.

A couple weeks ago I went with a few coworkers to Nice to visit our former manager, George. Jean-luc, Haissem, Torsten and I arrived on Saturday in Nice to the 30+ degree weather (86+ Fahrenheit), palm trees and beach. The weather remained perfect the entire weekend and was a welcome change the pitiful climate that England has to offer.

On Saturday, we arrived to Nice in the afternoon, picked up our rental cars and went straight to the beach. We had some lunch and then picked up Torsten from the airport. For dinner, we went to George's girlfriend Christell's flat between Nice and Cannes. As Christell is French Italian, she prepared a great Italian dinner. After dinner, we went up into the hills to another coworker's villa for a party.

Sunday was more relaxed as we rolled out of bed around noon, hit the pool and were finally ready for lunch around 2:00. We did some chilling along the beach and then decided to go to Cannes for the night. We went into the hills of the old town of Cannes for dinner on the street. The atmosphere there was probably the one of the best dinning experiences I have had to date. After dinner, we went to Bar 4 U which was a nice trendy little bar with girls dancing on the bar and everything.

Monday we again hung out on the beach for most of the day. Jean-luc and I went on a mission to take some pictures while Haissem and Leila got tan. On this night we decided to go to Monaco for dinner. Monaco is home to a well known formula one track and a whole lot of money. Parking our car, we were lucky enough to see a Mercedes SLR, a few Bentleys, a few Ferraris, and an Audi prototype. Though Monaco itself is quite beautiful, the boats in its bay had to be the most impressive. The boats were as large as apartment buildings and looked nicer than any home I've ever been in. We had dinner along the bay and then went to the casino (I couldn't go into the casino because I was wearing sandals).

I've posted a whole sbunch of pictures from the weekend, but none from Monaco as we all forgot our cameras. I must give some credit to Haissem and Torsten as I stole some of their pictures for my site as well. Also, check out a little video look of the beach.

Yesterday I went to Birmingham to see the Selfridges & Co. building and do some shopping. The building was fairly interesting and the shopping was crazy; there were a whole lot of people and stores. Of course the Bullring Shopping Center didn't come close to the Mall of American, but the outside of the building was cooler.

Last weekend I was coaxed into another weekend in Barcelona, and let me just say I'm very glad I am such a pushover. The weekend was brilliant. Both sunny and warm; something I haven't experienced for almost 10 months.

The trip started Friday night with some paella and wine along the beach, and then we did some wadding along the ocean. Saturday we went to the Sagrada Famillia and the beach (the beach was my particular favorite for its sun, water, and women). Saturday night we were about to call it an early night, but decided a couple drinks wouldn't hurt. During our search for the perfect night club, we heard a very loud crowd. With a little more attention, we discovered the crowd was a bunch of Americans (I guess that's why they were loud) on a pub crawl. Since we fit in so well with our American accents, we decided to join them, and after a long night, we arrived back at the hotel at the early hour of 4:00am.

Our Sunday was cut short by the long previous night, so we only had a couple of useful hours before we had to catch our flight. We decided to have some tappas, and the receptionist at the hotel recommend the perfect place. It was at this restaurant with absolutely no tourists (minus us) where I had the best seafood of my life.

If you'd like to see the weak pictures I took from this weekend, click here.

About two weeks ago I set out on a continental European vacation with three friends from ISU (Megan, Megan and Abbie). The itinerary was quite simple, approximately two days in each of the following cities: London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Leeds. I met up with the girls in London on the 24th of June and headed out the next morning for Paris. Paris was quite simply beautiful, but first let me rant about the trouble we had getting there...

We awoke at 4:00 a.m. to catch our flight from London to Paris. Things went quite smoothly as we caught the bus from the hotel to the train station, and from the station to the airport. Again our arrival into Paris was met with only minor problems up until our arrival at Gare du Nore, a train station in the city of Paris. Our plans were to catch a cab from the station to our hotel only a couple miles away. Exiting the train station we were lucky enough to see the Olympic torch run by. Seeing the torch was quite nice, but the traffic it caused was not so nice. The traffic prevented us from catching a cab and forced us to take the metro. After figuring out how to navigate the metro, we finally arrived at our hotel only to find that there was a problem with our room, and we were put in a different hotel. Two times a cab was called to take us to the other hotel, and both cab drivers refused to take us to the hotel. Only after a ten minute argument with the receptionist did the second driver finally agree to take us to the other hotel. So the four of us with 6 suitcases crammed in the tiny cab and finally made it to the hotel. Total time for the whole trip from London to Paris hotels: 12 hours.

Both Paris and Amsterdam were great! We had an exceptional time touring the cities and seeing the sites. Particularly memorable sites were the top of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Champs-Elysees, the Ann Frank House, The Bulldog and the Heineken brewery.

Pictures from the trip are here (I hope to get more soon!)

A week and a half of American company has come to an end. Eric and Bethany caught the morning flight back to the states, leaving me to myself. During their time in the country, we did a fair bit of traveling and had quite a good time.

Last weekend Amsterdam was the destination for three days. Due to poor flight times, we only had one full day in the city, but we tried to make the most of it. We went to the Van Gough museum, the Heineken brewery, the Ann Frank house, and the Red Light District. After Amsterdam, we spent the day in York visiting the York Minster Abbey, the castle, and a couple pubs.

This weekend we went to Edinburgh for two days. Of course, this was my second trip to Edinburgh, but this trip was much different than the last. In addition to seeing the castle and Calton Hill, we made it to The Scotch Malt Whiskey Society, the National Gallery, the Royal Museum, and had some great food. The best was the scotch purchased: A 11 year old 102.5 proof single malt bottle of "Marzipan Smoke", one of a few hundred produced (Cask 122.1).

I guess I wasn't in the picture taking mood; consequentially, there aren't many from the past two weekends. Eric, if you have any you would like to add, please let me know. [Pictures]

Although my posting can be considered less than frequent, as of late, it has become rather nonexistent. For those of you concerned with my livelihood, I am writing to calm your fears and tell you a bit about what I have been up to.

First of all, I went on a last minute holiday weekend trip to Barcelona a couple of weekends ago. The ticket was offered to me the night before our departure, and given the tremendous deal I was presented, I couldn't pass it up.

I really enjoyed my time in Barcelona. The city was beautiful and very interesting, and there was a variety of things to see and do: The beach, museums, Sagrada Familia, food, wine, and street performers. Although we had a three day weekend, I wish I could have had more time to see everything I wanted to in the city. Therefore, if anyone is interested in a trip to Barcelona, name the time (as long as it is before August) and I'm there. On a side note, I would just like to applaud the fine holiday makers in the UK for their generosity (I don't even know if there was a reason for the three day weekend).

While I'm not traveling, I spend most of my time working. Things around the office have picked up quite a bit, and I never have enough time to complete everything I want to get done. Other than work, I have been watching movies that came out in the US months ago, trying out restaurants, visiting various clubs, and generally just relaxing.

I look forward to some friends visiting me here in Leeds in the next month or so. While they are here, I have plans to go to Amsterdam, Edinburgh, and Paris. Any suggestions of other must see cities in Europe are always appreciated as well.

It is official. I have now visited two countries (actually three if you want to count Canada, but who would want to?) I took the past weekend to fly to Prague. That is in the Czech Republic for those who don't know. Anyway, I spent all day Saturday and Sunday enjoying what Prague had to offer which just happened to be great beer, illegal liquor, impressive architecture, and cheap everything.

Upon our arrival to the fair city, we were famished and decided to grab some genuine Czech food. Though I have no idea what the actual name of the dish I ate was, it seemed to be a meal of cabbage, roast duck, potato dumplings, and bread pancakes. We then set off to see the sites.

We went up to the largest castle in Europe, which is not a traditional castle; it is just a wall. A very long big wall, but it was just a wall. A tower on the top of Petrin Hill was the next to be visited, followed by the Charles Bridge which was built in the 17th century. From there, we decided to stop seeing the city and instead start tasting it.

This brings me to the most important part of my trip to Prague, the beer. Czech beer is unbelievably good. My best recommendation is to stay away from the light beer (some restaurants only have light beer) and go straight to the dark. It doesn't seem to matter what brand the beer is, and I couldn't pronounce it anyway, so just dark is the way to go.

I guess my whole trip to Prague can be summed up in the picture below: A drunken bum just fishing for a good time... or a rat. I couldn't tell.

I was lucky enough to have a 4 day long weekend this week. Due to the high costs of traveling on a holiday weekend and to prevent boredom, I rented a car for the weekend. This was by no means a small feat for me as I normally drive on the right side of the rode, and I can barely manage to make a manual transmission car to move which pretty much accounts for all cars in England. Furthermore, the roads in England are never straight for more than 100 meters.

To my rescue came an Australian colleague who is comfortable driving on the left/wrong side of the road and had a few years experience with a manual transmission. On the first day I revisited York and practiced my UK driving. York was nice; my driving was not. From then on all driving was done by my Australian friend.

The second day we went to the north coast of Wales where I was reacquainted with the ocean. We started at the town/village of Flint, stopped in Colwyn Bay, and ended at the Menai Bridge. I quite enjoyed the pub food and ice cream at Colwyn Bay (it was late afternoon and I had no lunch). The downside of this journey was the time spent in the car. One-way to the coast took about 3 hours. [Pictures]

The last day we went to the Fountains Abbey and the How Stean Gorge. The abbey was quite remarkable as it sat in a valley, along a river, with beautiful water gardens surrounding it. We also had a chance to drive on some real English country roads, many only wide enough for one car. After the abbey, we went to the How Stean Gorge. Not much to say about the gorge. There was a gorge we climbed around in it. [Pictures]

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I have been very lazy or busy during the past couple weeks (more so the former). Furthermore, there has been little to write about. I spent an uneventful weekend recovering from my travels back to the US, coding some tools at work, and trying to entertain myself at night.

I have had several requests for pictures of my apartment, so I finally put some up. The apartment isn't bad, but it still isn't home. I miss comforts such as high speed internet, more than 5 TV channels, and more than anything... my bed.

The European thrills have pulled me in; the exodus of the hooligan inside has brought me to a soccer match in the fair city of Leeds. Now, I know it is called football in Europe, but even when I use the proper European terms, I leave the non-Americans confused. It seems as though all non-Americans assume when the dumb American kid uses the word football, he is talking about American football, but are very quick to correct/point/laugh when the term soccer is used. Therefore, in sticking with my true corn fed American roots, I will use the term soccer. Laugh on Brits...

Not to bore you with semantics of my day to day European language, I did attend a riveting match between Leeds United and Manchester City. The lastly ranked Leeds United is in desperate need of wins to avoid elimination from the UEFA Cup. In a close game won by a penalty kick (a questionable call at that), the lastly ranked team, pulled their ranking up to second to last.

You will have to excuse the lateness of this post as I did not find the time to write it on the day of the match (Monday). Time has been found though on my near 9 hour flight back to Minneapolis, where I will spend a long/short (depends how you look at it) 4 day weekend.

I decided to take leave of Leeds this weekend and head to London. Upon my arrival I was greeted by gale force winds that nearly carried me back to Leeds. This experience provided me with two realizations about English fashion. For men, the spiked messy look was not created by stylists, but by the casual use of hair gels and London winds. For women, hats are not so much a fashion accessory, but a necessity to prevent a mass of tangled fibers; though I have yet to discover how they keep the hats on.

I spent Saturday visiting the naval battleship HMS Belfast, London City Hall, The Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, and the Tate Modern Art Museum. The Tate Museum exhibition was extremely enjoyable. I spent over three hours there browsing the pieces. After the museum, I had a brew at a local pub and finished off the night with a little meal in a family Indian restaurant.

Sunday, I made my way from my hotel situated next to St. Paul's Cathedral, along the River Thames to The London Eye. From The Eye, I crossed the river to Westminster Hall and Abbey, of course, stopping to take a picture or two of Big Ben. From there, I walked through the Buckingham Gardens to Buckingham Palace and saw the Changing of the Guard. I was a bit tired of museums at this point, so I walked aimlessly down Piccadilly Circus.

After a couple of hours of not knowing where I was going, I decided to go to the British Museum. This museum is by far the largest museum I have ever been to. In the three or so hours I spent there, I do not think I even saw a quarter of the museum. The museum is a tribute to English colonialism's pillaging as it owns ancient works from all over the world. I finished up the trip with a visit to Covent Garden, and a great traditional Italian meal.

Edinburgh was the choice destination this Saturday, and it was a great choice. Two Australians accompanied me on the journey. We traveled three hours by train, saw a bit of the ocean, and then started around the city. We started at The Scott Monument, a memorial to Sir Walter Scott, the author of Waverley, and climbed the extremely tight spiral stairs to the top.

Next we walked up The Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle. Inside the castle we saw a war museum, watched Mons Meg announce one o'clock, saw the crown jewels, walked through some prison cells, and saw the war memorial.

After the castle, we walked back down The Royal Mile towards the palace. We were a bit short on time, so we skipped the Palace and walked up the hill to the City Observatory. The observatory was surrounded by memorials and had fantastic view of the city.

The reign of free breakfast, a freshly made bed, and a newspaper at my door has ended. I have been yanked out of the hotel that has been my residence for the past month, and chucked into an apartment.

My new place is a two bedroom, two bathroom flat plush with all the comforts (TV, DVD, dishwasher, washer/dryer, and fully furnished). It sits along the Leeds canal and appears to have a nice view, though I have not yet seen it during daylight. I miss the constant care of the hotel, but on the other hand, having a place to hang my hat is very nice as well.

I spent the past weekend in Leeds, and the past 5 minutes writing that poem (Pretty amazing writing, huh?). Well, this past weekend I toured the Royal Armory Museum and found some English nightlife. Most of my time was spent walking around Leeds, acquainting myself with my home for the next few months.

And as always, there are pictures...

Today I made my way to the city or York, about a 40 minute train ride from Leeds. The plan was to visit The Dungeon, but upon arrival, we decided otherwise. A group of kids caused the walls to spit at us, and The Dungeon appeared to be more of a haunted house than a historical attraction. Consequentially, we left and went about the town.

Given our late arrival and the cancellation of our plan, we decided to go to the Yorkminster Abbey. This was an excellent decision as the abbey was beautiful. The abbey was not running tours on Sunday, so we just browsed around on our own.

Outside of the abbey, at the city market, I tried some Danish pancakes with powdered sugar, whiskey, and syrup. That's right wiskey! And I must say they were excellent.

Make sure to check out pictures from the day...

I feel as though I should update folks on the status of my in England, but I do not have any real interesting stories at this time. Therefore, I'll just answer some common questions here...

How are the accommodations?
Quite nice. I am staying in the Leeds Marriot about 7-8 blocks from the office. The hotel is nothing out of the ordinary though I do have two irons and two hair blowers which I find odd. I'm taking a break this week but starting this weekend I plan on making use of the exercise room and pool.

How is the city?
The city is much different than any I've ever visited before. My knowledge of the city is limited to the City Centre which is the heart of the city. Given this, the best comparison I can make is to the streets of Disney Land. All the streets are small (but so are the cars), and the buildings look very old. American influence is everywhere: on TV (I've seen CSI, Friends, Simpsons, Sex in the City, etc), restaurants (My window faces a McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut), and music (50 Cent seems to be really big). I have not made it out much yet, but I hope to change that soon.

How is the work?
The work is not very complicated, but there is much to do. I am lucky enough to be limited to 45 hours a week right now, but while I'm at work I remain very busy. My role is not well defined so it allows me to focus a bit more on the things that interest me.

How can you be contacted?
Email and IM right now, but in the near future I will probably get a mobile phone. The hotel phone is extremely expensive to call from (93 cents a minute for local calls or $1.90 for a toll free call). I will have a local Minneapolis number route to my mobile here which has free incoming calls (essentially making it free for someone to call me from Minneapolis), but I'll have more news on that when I actually get a phone.

Sat. 1:00p (CST): I arrived at the Minneapolis airport.

Sat. 1:30p (CST): Checked into the flight and passed the random security check. This gives me a solid two hours to wait for my flight (Lessons learned: Cabs do arrive on time, and you do not need more time to check into an international flight).

Sat. 3:15p (CST): Fall asleep before flight takes off. My sleep during the flight was uninterrupted (thank you Andy for the recommendation of sleeping pills) with the exception of a restroom break until the morning snack was served. The morning snack was welcomed as I slept through dinner.

Sun. 5:30 (GMT)Arrived in Amsterdam. Bummed around the airport. Bought some British money.

Sun. 9:30 (GMT)Arrived in Leeds after a 50 minute flight. Made my way through customs, met a colleague who happened to take the same flight, caught a cab to our hotel.

All these events have taught me that long distance travel is a boring process and should be avoided as much as possible. I will most likely be returning to the US for a four day weekend in the next month, but only so I can fly a friend to me the month after.

I have been holding off saying anything about my traveling afar, but today I received enough confirmation that I feel somewhat confident in saying what's going on. First of all, I wasn't lying before when I said I was going to the UK. I was told, "Sounds great. There shouldn't be any problems". Unfortunately, there were some problems, and my case for going to the UK was suddenly thrown up the political chain.

Enough with the unpleasantness, I received an email today telling me to book my travel so that I can arrive by the 16th (less than 5 days); this was welcomed news to my otherwise very uneventful daily routine.

I will be in the city of Leeds, population 700,000+. I will be staying in a hotel at first, but an apartment is in the works.

Hopefully, I will have time to travel on the weekends and see some of the great sites Europe has to offer. Additionally, some friends will be making visits to Europe, and I hope to meet up with them for some fun. If anyone else feels like making a trip to visit, just let me know... I should have at least a place for you to crash for awhile.

Came across this neat little site that lets you plot the states you have visited. Soon I may get to plot which countries I have visited, but right now that would be a much less interesting map (Canada is barely another country). So these are the states I've been to, let me know if I'm missing one.

I was once told if I didn't like the government we have, I should leave. Well, I'm taking that advice and leaving the country.

That's right, in the next couple of weeks I will most likely be leaving for the UK (London?). I can already hear the gasps of relief, but before you go throw a party, I must warn you I will most likely only be gone for six months. Plus, I will be able to travel back for a weekend at least every two months.

So you may be questioning why I'm leaving. To keep it simple, it is for work. They pay me to do it. Oh yeah, and I will be singlehandedly reforming their entire health care system. Well, it might take a few more people than just me.

This past weekend was spent in Kansas City to visit my friend Steve along with some other visitors to KC: Eric and Bethany (see gangster below).

After a wonderfully long drive through the gorgeous plains of southern Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, I knew the weekend could only get better. And it did just that. Our entire group won money at the casino, toured the fantastic free art museum, and caught a movie. On top of all this, I had my first experience with Ethiopian food, drank some fine scotch, and saw the largest Sears sign (or at least it better be because this one was huge).

All in all, a good weekend.

Things have turned around, and I'm on the road again. Livin' it up on the west coast, eating shell fish, and walking along the beach. Of course, this is just for approximately two hours a night when I'm not working.

Last night I was lucky enough to dine at the California Pizza Kitchens. During my freshman year of college, I worked for the imitation of this Californian chain, and I must say the real thing is much better. I may be partial though since I did not find much enjoyment in my term of employment there.

I will no longer make unsupported claims as to what state I will be in next week, but I will say I will be in either California or Minneapolis.

The flight was long, the cold was gone, then I was like, 'What is going on?'

Later, after my white rap delirium, I figured out that I was in California. Though the warm weather and palm trees clued me in, it was the extensive talk of movie stars and governor reelections on the radio that really clarified things.

By day I reside in Corona, working and trying not to sleep. By night I reside in Newport Beach, eating and enjoying the sleep. That is right; contrary to my last post, I am in Newport Beach, not Manhattan Beach. The reason? It halves the commute time to and from Corona each day (Translation... more sleep).

I will be returning on Friday from my adventure ready to enjoy my new bed. Most likely I will not be returning thereafter... Sorry folks, I only get one week of fame.

The word has come down from above... I'm going to California. On Monday I will be taking leave of the cold fall weather of Minnesota and arriving in the 80 degree weather of the "Golden State".

Accomidations will be provided by the wonderful Manhattan Beach Marriot, a full hour drive from our work site. I assume this will provide me with ample time to enjoy the fastinating views of movie stars and police officers. Along with admiring the citizens of LA, I plan to try some local eateries and see the beach... maybe even the ocean.