Chapel of Love

About a week ago, Erika and I were reunited.

And it was great. I miss my best friend a lot. A lot, a lot.

Erika was able to fly up from South Carolina for the weekend for the purpose of going to the wedding of Justin Slager and Laura Hawkins.

And that was also great.

To be honest, I wasn't all to worried about saying goodbye to a lot of my senior friends this school year because I knew that I'd see them at Justin's wedding. And I did. And it was great to see everyone. And to see Justin and Laura get married of course.

Their ceremony was beautiful and I totally want Pastor Mark to do my ceremony too. Justin (at least, I'm assuming it was Justin) put together a slide show of the couple before and after they met and it was super cute. And then the groomsmen "lost" Justin's ring. His face made it look like he didn't think it was that funny, which surprised me because he thinks just about everything is funny. I dunno. Maybe he thought it was funny and I was just sitting too far back to really know anything :)

Their reception was pretty hoppin' too. There was great food and cheesecake and line dancing. That was sooooo funny to watch.

As for the present that Erika and I got them, you won't understand it if you haven't seen The Office. We got them an exercise orb (red), a makeshift Jello mold, Jello, and scissors (to put in the jello in the jello mold and then eat them out and pop the exercise orb).

And yes. All of what we got them was on their registry.

Except the jello and scissors. No one in their right mind would put those on a registry. That was just our own creative touch.

So that's pretty much it. She's already back to SC and I'm bored again.



Not too much is interesting after South Korea and Aruba (yeah. i know i'm rubbing it in a bit...ok...maybe a lot). I'm waiting for my job to start back up at good old Blockbuster. Yay.

Welcome to Detroit

Just once, I'd like to arrive at Detroit Metro on the same day that I was scheduled to arrive.

I hate delays.

Especially in the Miami airport, because it is FREEZING. Blech. I for sure peaced out Miami. Good riddance.

Ok. Not too much happened, but I want to tell you 2 things.

One, we saw the a man who could have straight up been the father of Beans, from the Disney Channel show, Even Stevens. It was incredible.

Two, a girl fell down the escalator and it was terrifying. I wanted to cry. Seriously.

You could see it coming from a mile away. She stepped on 2 steps at once and when the escalator went down, she kind of teetered, and then she tumbled - like somersaulted - all the way down.

I don't know how my dad made it down the side stairs that fast, but when my dad's on the move, you best be gettin' out of his way, because he's a colonel and he will take you out. No joke.

But he got down on the scene. The girl's skirt got stuck in the escalator and was dragging her into the crack between the floor and the stairs. Her shoe also got stuck and was being sucked into the bottom of the escalator. She was just laying like a rag doll, bleeding from her knees. They had to rip part of her skirt off in order to keep her from getting even more hurt.

Seriously. It was terrifying.

I mean, it could be funny - once it made it to America's Funniest Home Videos or something - but not today. Yikes.

She got up and was being tended to. She looked kind of dazed and they didn't stop the bleeding by the time I left. They called an ambulance, though, so at least she got taken care of.

So, that's pretty much it.

I'm home and it feels great.

Welcome to Detroit.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Ok, Jessica's in Aruba.

Let's all take a moment and be insanely jealous of her.

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Well that was fun. Time to get back to the lives of people who don't travel the world in a span of 4 weeks. Like me.

My internship. I promised I would update when I had something to report. And I do, now that I've been working there for 3 days. It's pretty alright so far. I've gotten to do a logo, and some graphics for their website, so those were fun. But the downside is, I still have to do typical intern-y type stuff like putting information about their company into 500 water bottles for the baseball game they are sponsoring. And make spreadsheets w/ all the info on how well their website is doing. But, you win some you lose some. And it's still better than Dairy Queen. :)

For Father's Day this year, my dad, sister and I went to this place called Stoney Mountain in Georgia. And it was super cool. This mountain... is a big rock. Literally. We took a skyride up to it, and we could see for miles around - Atlanta looked sweet. (Brian, if you happen to read this, yes - I was right outside of Atlanta, I would have called you, but I figured you wouldn't really be interested in hanging out w/ my family all day).

After hanging out at the top of the mountain and watching the people who had walked up the mountain (haha, suckas - shoulda taken the sky rail), we walked down and checked out the festivities down there. Oh, I forgot to mention: there is a carving in the mountain too. It's kinda like the confederate version of Mount Rushmore except not quite as big. There's Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and.... shoot, I can't remember. Google it if you want. Anyways, there was this thing called the Sky Hike, and that was super sweet - it was basically a high ropes course. I'd never been on one of those, but - like I said, super cool.

So that was the excitement that was Father's Day.

And that's that.

Oh. One more thing. In my short experience, the guys down south are much bolder than the guys up north.

And that's that.

Spanglish

1st of all, the fact that I (Jessica) knew this song title is due to Justin Slager. I guess he's not the worst. Today anyway. But he'll never know that b/c he doesn't read this blog.

So, today we went on a tour of the island and our bus driver was soooo funny! Everything he said was a mixture of Spanish and English. He said to us "My English not perfect - But I do it anyway."

See? Funny guy.

On top of that, while we were on the tour, some guy behind us honked at us and passed us, so naturally, my bus driver's reaction was to flip the guy the bird. Yessss.

He also asked us if we wanted to see his house, and my dad says yes. He then pulls up to this "house" that's 2 feet tall and about 4 feet wide. Seriously? :)

This guy just cracked me up. And you all know me when I crack up. It was uncontrolable. So at least it was just my family and the bus driver on the tour. But it was cool, b/c everytime I would laugh, the bus driver would say, "Good joke!" and start to laugh too. As soon as I get a chance, I'm gonna post a picture of me and my brother with him.

What a great guy (Still won't tap that, Andrew).

Back to the Spanglish thing, though...I just want you all to know that on a scale of 1-10, my 4 years in HS spanish has helped me out about a 1.33. Thanks, Riordan.

On a seperate note - Erika and Kate - the Olsen twins have gotten smaller. Ever since they went abroad for a couple weeks and ate less and exercised more, they dropped a couple sizes. If you haven't seen pictures yet, you will - they've lost weight for sure. Weird, huh?

Paradise

Seriously. It's great here. This is honestly what the view from my window looks like.

I know you're jealous.

Because if I wasn't here experiencing this, I know I would be.

My number one goal while being here is to get an even tan for Justin's wedding (don't worry, Andrew. I'm wearing SPF 50 to avoid skin cancer).

But it's great being on the beach. Even thought it's REALLY hot, it's windy here. Not breezy. Straight up windy. That has it's ups and downs, but it keeps the hotness from becoming unbearable.

Not too many exciting things have happened thus far. Except that Taco Bell's here serve fries instead of the xtra soft taco in their value meals. It's weird, but it's ok. They even taste good dipped in the fire sauce.

So, I just want all of you to know that not only am I on the best beach in the world right now, but they've also shown High School Musical 2 and Hairspray on cable. Yesssss.

Mm Bop

Yesterday, Kendal and I (Erika, since Jessica's still traveling the world) went to a baseball game. We watched the Greenville Drive. They are a farm team for the Boston Red Sox. And there were a number of reasons why it was spectacular despite the 11-0 loss. I know, pathetic.

1. They kept playing awesome songs from the 90s. Mm Bop (Hanson), Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls (TLC), Welcome to Miami (Will Smith), and I Saw the Sign (Ace of Base) were the most notable.

2. There was a lady there wearing a banana clip. Between the songs and that - blast from the past.

3. Kendal and I were in the lower section. As I was watching the pathetic performance, I saw something fall and hit a little boy out of the corner of my eye. It didn't hurt him. In fact, I don't think he even noticed. His dad did, though. He looked down at this boy and up at the upper section a couple times. And then he shouted as he picked up whatever fell, "Did somebody lose a shoe?" Hah! Yes, it's true. A shoe fell from the upper deck. Hilarious.

4. Kendal spilled our coke all over the blonde bimbos in front of us and their boyfriends. Hahaha. I know I probably shouldn't get joy out of this, and at the time it was kind of embarassing. But! That's what you get for wearing little skanky mini dresses to a baseball game. :)

5. It was Friday the 13th. So, to get us all in the mood, the.... well, I don't know what to call them... MC type guys came out and danced to The Thriller. Yessss.

6. They also danced the Macarena. Yessss, again.

7. A lady tripped down the stairs. I know, much like the Coke spilling, I might be a horrible person to get joy out of this, but come on! Who doesn't like to see somebody fall. :) And she didn't hurt herself. So it's all good.

8. Hot Dog! At a ballpark. Enough said.

9. There were fireworks after the game. Even though they were no Comerica Park fireworks, they were still pretty sweet.

10. This was more amusing than anything else - after the game (remember, pathetic - 11-0), the fans still applauded! That right there shows ya the difference between Greenville and Detroit. I'm pretty positive that if the Tigers had "played" like that, there would have been more boos than applause.

So that's why the game was super awesome.

Also. I started my internship yesterday. But it was really uneventful... I'll post when I have something interesting to say about it.

So Sick

I (Jessica) HATE flying. Especially if my flight is 14 hours. I will never travel again. Until tomorrow, anyway.

Yesterday, my flight left South Korea at 6 pm and we landed in Atlanta at 6:45 pm same day. I got super sick though and am kind of glad that our flight got delayed so that I could recoup a little.

We were scheduled to leave Atlanta at 9:00, but didn't leave until 12:15 (ish. i was tired and sick and don't really know). Thank goodness that was only a 2 hour flight.

Tomorrow, I have to leave the house at 5 am for flight to Miami and then have another flight to Aruba like 8 hours later.

Lucky me. (sarcasm on the flying, for real on the aruba part)

Right now, I just want to be home.

But my mom promised that to help me with jet lag, she'll let me sleep on the beach and she'll just turn me over every 1/2 hour like a rotisserie chicken. Yes.

I just want to lie on the beach and eat hot dogs. That's all I've ever wanted.

(For those of you who just missed it, I just quoted The Office. I really don't think I want to just eat hot dogs on the beach.)

P.S. I know that these pictures have nothing to do with this post, but I just like to show off

Back to You

This is Jessica.

And I'm coming home. :)

Devil with a Blue Dress On

Hey there, everybody! I know. It's been a long time since I (Erika) updated. But my life just isn't nearly as exciting as Jessica's in South Korea. Here I am, though! Yay!

So. What have I been up to?
As the title suggests, I have been acting like the devil and wearing a blue dress.

Ok. Not really at all. But! I did buy 2 new dresses for 2 of the 3 weddings I am going to this summer. And dress shopping really is so much fun. Dresses are the one thing that I actually enjoy going to try on. Shirts, pants, bathing suits... all just a hassle (yes hassle, Andrew) to try on. But my sister and I had a blast trying on all sorts of dresses. And I fell in love with 2, which, ironically, we didn't take a picture in either one of those.... And! The best part is - one was $35 marked down from $70, and the other was $15 marked down from $50! Yessss. I love deals. :D

And, just for the record - I am also reading a book by Frank Peretti, who likes to write about demons and devils. So the relation of the title to my life is 2-fold. I am just that cool.

Also. For those of you who have been living under a rock, the Red Wings WON the Stanley Cup!!! That pretty much makes my summer complete right there. No, I'm not kidding.

In other news, I got an internship that I'm suuuper excited about!! It's for a communications company in downtown Greenville - which is the prettiest downtown anything ever. I'm going to be working on some of their graphics stuff. I'm not really sure what that means yet, but I'm still super excited. It's way better than working at Dairy Queen again, as much as I love ice cream. :)

I finally saw Clear and Present Danger. So good. Next assignment - Patriot Games and The Hunt for Red October. Love those Jack Ryan movies.

I also saw Kung-Foo Panda. Which, believe it or not, was good. I wasn't really looking forward to seeing it to be honest, it looked kind of dumb to me, but I went with my sister who can't see lots of movies yet, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was funny. And I liked it. I also got in for FREE! So, again - love bargains - that made it even better.
Here's the story: the deal was that Kendal pays for the tickets, and I pay for the popcorn and pop. She said to the lady, "2 for Kung-Foo Panda" and the lady said, "Ok, that'll be $6.50" I thought that sounded awfully cheap, but didn't really think much of it. So the lady gave Kendal the ticket(s). And we went in, gave the ticket(s) to the ticket person. She said, "That'll be theater 11 on your right," and handed us back 1 ticket stub. Huh. That's weird. Only one stub? Then we started putting all the pieces together and realized that we both just got in w/ only one ticket. Hah! After the movie, we went back and did the "right" thing and told the guy at customer service that we needed to pay for another ticket, but he said it was their fault so we didn't have to pay. :) yesss. And then he tried to get us to describe the lady that let us in... but we felt bad for getting her in trouble so we acted like we couldn't really remember what she looked like.

And that's that.

Peace out.
:)

Stop and Stare

One more week.

But that means one more week of memories.

Here's a recap of what's happened this past week:

- We had to take cab to Gygne Ju and a cab driver cussed at us in Korean. He didn't know that Amanda knew how to translate though, but to summarize, we're "Fat American B******" and then pretty much all of the other words were thrown in there too.
- We went to a palace, and Amanda and I were chillin' and all of a sudden, we were MOBBED by middle school Korean kids. They loved us and said they wanted to marry us. When Kris joined us, one of the boys pointed at me and him and then said "kissy, kissy!" For the record, we did not give into peer pressure.
- Some of the middle school boys dress like Kanye West and wear those RIDICULOUS shutter shade sunglasses. One boy was even wearing suspenders.
- We have gone to Outback Steakhouse 3 times now :)
- Kris had an allergic reaction to something and got all hopped up on Benadryl, which he had never taken before. He's fine now.
- We went to a Buddhist temple and saw a monk get rushed to the hospital because he passed out.
- We found hobbit holes that were actually tombs for kings. But they seriously looked like hobbit holes.
- Walter broke a wall, and to quote Dave, "Relics! You're ruining antiquities! They're hundreds of years old!"

That's really all I can remember right now. We head out to Busan tomorrow where we'll go to the beach and we'll see a Korean baseball game (hopefully the weather picks up, because it's CRAP right now). Then it's back to Seoul andthen back home.

I can't wait to eat some homemade chocolate chip cookies :)