MIMM – Page 3

Blog Friends, a Musical and Dance Show: MIMM 106

May 1, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

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Hey there and happy Monday!! These days, weekdays and weekends are kinda a blur for me as I job search and am back home. After a week at home and sorting through my things, still downsizing, I am ready to get back into a routine of working again. In a week I am moving to Binghamton, NY and I have been working on applying to jobs so hopefully I find something soon. Meanwhile, let’s look at what I was up to this weekend at home. Thanks Katie for the link up.

It was a very rainy and cold weekend, like 40 degrees outside. Oh and our heat is broken at my house so we have 2 space heaters working overtime and moving from room to room. Basically my room is 63 overnight but that’s not so bad when you are in bed with all the blankets, it just makes it hard to get moving in the morning because you don’t want to leave the cozy bed. Hopefully this rain passes soon, the end of the week and weekend look good. I would rather not have to do my long drives next weekend in the rain so hoping the weather gets better.

On Saturday morning I was supposed to meet up with Susie for a walk for National Infertility Awareness Week, but due to the rain, Susie decided to just do brunch. Most people canceled but I met Ellen from My Uncommon Everyday and enjoyed brunch with her and Susie. I finally got to try the Pancake Flight Susie has posted a few times on her Instagram as we met up at Orange on Clark in Chicago.

orange on clark pancake flight — pancake flight

After brunch, we happened to be down the street from Molly’s Cupcakes, which is my favorite Chicago cupcake place, so I had to make a stop and get the Cookie Monster and Smores Cupcakes to go. I am going to pretend it is summer with that smores cupcake. Cookie Monster is my absolute favorite. I have had a few different cookie dough cupcakes from different cupcake places and Molly’s still wins as the best. Who doesn’t like a cookie dough filling?!

Once I got home, I made a list for the grocery store and headed out to get some veggies and meat to make stir fry. Usually my dad makes stir fry in his wok on the grill but with the rain and crazy wind, that wasn’t happening. My dad was also busy with work, so I worked on roasting Brussel sprouts and sautéing veggies in a pan. I marinated some chicken thighs for about a half hour and then cooked them in the oven. I will find any excuse to use the oven after not having one for most of our 4 months travel. Plus with no heat in the house, using the oven is always good too 😉 .

veggie stir fry and skittles — skittles checking out dinner

My dad was happy to come home right as I pulled the chicken thighs out of the oven. I guess the only thing I have to work on is keeping everything hot when I cook things in batches. The Brussel sprouts were cold after everything was done and while I don’t mind eating them room temp or cold, others might.

We had the cupcakes for dessert, I had half of each and my dad ate the other halves. Then we headed out to my high school to see the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Apparently my parents both like that musical, but I had never seen it and had to familiarize myself with the story line a bit. I hadn’t been in my high school auditorium in 9 years since I graduated (this makes me feel old), so it was a bit weird to be back, but my high school definitely does great performances and the main leads were amazing singers.

As soon as I got home, it was off to bed. I think that was my first night in a week staying up past 10pm! I slept like a rock too, so that was good.

Sunday morning I was up at 7 which is better than the 6am time I have been waking up. I’m sure the rainy cloudy morning helped me sleep in. I made some breakfast and then waited until 9am when Kohl’s opened and headed out. I needed some new sneakers as I threw mine out after my trip (well worn) and I had $15 in coupon rewards. I finally decided on a pair of the Gel Flux 4 Asics. I previously had the Gel Flux 2. I have been wearing Asics since college now and they work so I haven’t changed.

When I returned from the store, I worked on blog posts for a while before having some lunch and then heading out to my friend’s dance show.

Following the show, I headed over to my friend’s house and somehow we ate a snack and talked and 4 hours went by. I figured by then it was time to head home as she had studying to do and it was getting late. It was great to catch up though as I obviously had so many stories after 4 months of travel.

All in all it was a great and busy weekend. Great time catching up with friends and doing indoor activities since it was raining and 40 degrees. Now that it is May (I still can’t believe that), I hope the weather starts to get a bit warmer, I mean, at least the 60s would be better.

What’s your favorite rainy day activity?

Stomach Bug, Dublin and Home MIMM#105

April 24, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

It’s 5am Sunday morning as I write this and I am just wide awake. I managed to stay up until about 10pm Saturday which is 4am Dublin time and only slept for just over 5 hours. After rolling around and trying to get back to sleep for a while, I just decided I needed to get up and do some writing. At least a 6 hour time change isn’t as bad as a 15 hour time change (Australia), so I am pretty sure in a couple days I will be back on central time.

I haven’t written a MIMM post in a while so I thought today would be a good day to link back up.

So Wednesday evening, my last night in Barcelona, my stomach was just unhappy and yet I drank a mojito anyway (that probably didn’t help). Wednesday night sleeping was rough because my roommates left early in the morning (2am!!) for their flight and my stomach was keeping me from sleeping. I’m not sure of the cause but I wasn’t sure about the Barcelona water even though labeled safe. I mostly drank bottled at least and I think my immune system was just weakening from my poor eating and I probably caught something. It seemed to progress from sneezing, sore throat and then to my stomach. I also walked nearly 40,000 steps on Tuesday, the most ever in a day for me and my body ached (a combo of tiredness and being sick).

Thursday I had a plane to catch to Dublin. I ate some oatmeal as that is usually fine on my stomach, but still multiple trips to the bathroom before leaving my hostel. After breakfast I didn’t eat until making it to my hostel in Dublin, so I went about 8 hours or so without eating. Nothing looked appetizing at the airport and I wanted to make it through my flight. Luckily it wasn’t too bad of a flight and podcasts helped me to pass the time.

My hotel in Dublin had an amazing view right in the center city area. It was also next to a grocery store with more American foods than I had seen in a while. It was so nice to be in a city where signs were in English again and the Dublin people were all very nice just like people had told me.

My stop in Dublin was just under 48 hours and I will tell you cereal was probably half of what I ate there. I also continued to buy bottled water even though the Dublin water is safe to drink, I wanted bottled because of my stomach.

I knew I was tired so I relaxed Thursday afternoon in the hostel watching Mother’s Day on Netflix (the person next to me on the plane ride was watching it and I recognized some actresses and realized I never saw it). Eating cereal and rice cakes and watching a movie for a bit was great.

I decided to sign up for a dinner and a show that happened to be across the street from my hostel. I wasn’t sure about the dinner part, but I also didn’t want to totally miss out on an Irish experience. I picked over the dinner and the chicken was good. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more if I was feeling better. My body still ached and sitting for a while didn’t help. Finally the show began and I really loved the music and the Irish dancers. I left a little early though so I could get to bed.

Friday morning I had a walking tour at 11am, so I took the morning to rest. I slept until about 8 and then just pulled out my laptop to catch up on youtube videos while I munched on cereal in bed. I was actually glad I bought cereal because my hostel served breakfast but they closed off the kitchen so if you wanted to make your own breakfast, that wasn’t an option which I didn’t like that.

The rest on Friday was definitely needed and by the time of my walking tour I was feeling a bit better. My body finally didn’t ache which was good. I met a couple girls on the tour and we ended up chatting in between our tour stops. Our tour guide was so funny. Definitely would recommend Next City Tours.

At the end of the tour I ended up tagging along with the two girls thinking we would find lunch (though I was still unsure about my stomach). The girls ended up tagging along with some other guys and eventually we found ourselves at a pub around 2pm. We chatted away for a while and I said bye shortly after 3. The pub didn’t have much food and I don’t drink beer so I hadn’t eaten since breakfast yet again.

I then checked out a dessert place I passed Thursday evening and picked up a cookie. They had vegan ice cream which I realized shortly after ordering my cookie. I know cookies are probably not the best option for “lunch” after being sick, but I still wanted it.

I thought about how I should eat some real food, but instead walked back to some of the tour stops to check out inside tours. Unfortunately it was about 4 by this time and the guided tours were sold out, so I just took some more photos and also checked out Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. While walking I found this place called Chopped and got a BLT wrap.

I ate it back at the hostel as the first actual meal, besides breakfast, since Wednesday basically. After a bit more walking, I took the rest of the evening to relax and pack my bag for the last time.

I was up early Saturday morning, around 6:30am, since my other roommate was getting up early for a tour anyway. I polished off the box of cereal and got ready to leave. It was nice to have energy again and my stomach was finally getting better.

I caught the 8am bus to the airport and made it through security and US pre check by 9:30. I had plenty of down time at the airport which was better than when I felt I was cutting it close in Barcelona. We boarded around 10:40am and I was seated in an aisle and the last row right next to the bathroom which I was kinda happy about just in case. Luckily my stomach was good the whole 8 hour flight so I think this bug is pretty much gone.

I watched 3 movies I hadn’t seen on the flight, La La Land, Storks and Jackie. All very different and all pretty good. La La Land honestly didn’t impress me that much though.

We landed around 2pm Chicago time so I had plenty of the day left. I was so happy to take my US phone out of airplane mode for the first time in 4 months and start texting people. #itsthelittlethings

Once I got home, I unpacked, started laundry, ate some homemade baked beans my dad made and headed to Whole Foods with my mom. It was wonderful to be back at Whole Foods and of course we picked up about 10 items not originally on the list. I can’t wait to get back to cooking and baking, especially after food has been so unappetizing for the last few days.

I had a long list of things to get done and I think that is what kept me up until 10pm even though I barely slept on the plane. I sorted my currencies and made an interesting comparison.

I need to start writing a list of all the things I need to do so I don’t forget items as quickly plans are coming together, but I think I will give myself about 2 weeks in Chicago before I start my drive to move to Binghamton, NY. Can’t wait to catch up with friends around home and in between work on job searching, which will probably be a little easier with my US phone number working again.

I know the stomach bug thing is not very marvelous, but seeing a bit of Dublin sites was fun and I was happy the plane ride home went smoothly. Also ironically I think I lost those 5 pounds I wrote about in this post, thanks to the stomach bug at the end.

I am happy to be back in a familiar town, my childhood town, and just meet up with friends while I have this time and in between working on adulting like taxes that I delayed and getting an oil change for my car and of course job searching…not so fun stuff but after all the time off and being so free, I am somewhat ready for more of a schedule and routine again.

Do you enjoy routine or being spontaneous?

I’m definitely more of a planner and routine person, but with the travel, I sat back and relaxed about it. I think because I had more time with not working, it was easier to do that, but when working and having more responsibilities it feels more comfortable to have a plan.

It’s a Small World MIMM #104

February 13, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Today our week in Melbourne comes to an end and we pick up our campervan to head to explore the Great Ocean Road and the outback for a couple weeks. We enjoyed our campervan and the convenience of it in New Zealand so we decided to rent one for Australia. I won’t lie, I have enjoyed the week in the same place, but I think it is time to get moving again and see more. Melbourne is a great city and I will get to more about that in another post.

This weekend we squeezed in remaining tours and did lots of walking through Melbourne to soak everything up. Joining up with Katie today for MIMM.

Friday included a tour of the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail) and walking through the State Library.

Saturday I actually got to sleep in for the first time since our arrival. I have been going to 7am workout classes during the week and my body was happy to have a break this weekend because my legs were soooo sore. It was a relaxed morning and we headed out around 10am. We had plans to take a trolley to a shopping center but then saw the schedule that they weren’t running. Then we noticed there were free walking tours of Melbourne, so we hopped into that tour. I wish we had discovered that earlier in the week, but it was great for our last weekend. We then saw the trolleys going which was confusing, but we were happy with our tour.

At 10:30am, our walking tour began. We started at the State Library and then made our way to the Old Melbourne Gaol that we visited Friday. Our tour guide, Laura, gave a brief history about the jail, being built in the 1840s (one of the few remaining buildings from that time, since Melbourne was settled around 1835 by the British). We also heard more of the story of Ned Kelly (there are a few movies about him and the Kelly gang) executed in the Melbourne jail.

From there we headed to the Carlton gardens, getting a glimpse of the Royal Exhibition Building again. We then walked to the old Parliament building and the Princess Theater which has a Victorian design. Then through China Town (the oldest standing China Town as the original oldest was San Francisco but that burned down at one point). We took a quick break at the Queen Victoria shopping area which has a food court, so we got some sushi rolls and I got a Mrs. Field’s cookie.

The second half of the tour took us through some of the Melbourne art streets and down little alleys with a bunch of cafes popular for brunch. Brunch is a big thing in Melbourne and so is coffee. While there are a couple Starbucks around, apparently Melbournians prefer café shop coffees and some Starbucks have even had to close with not enough business. There are lots of areas where walls are painted by Graffiti artists, but it is totally legal. The businesses allow an artist to get a permit and paint their walls. You can tell Melbourne is known for their art and culture.

We ended the tour along the Yarra River. The tour was 3 hours long and I successfully hit my 10,000 steps for the day. After the tour, we hopped on the trolley for a few stops back to the State Library and quickly walked over to the Carlton Gardens again. We got tour tickets for the 2pm Royal Exhibition Building.

Royal Exhibition Building Melbourne — inside the Royal Exhibition Building

The building is still used for exhibitions and even for RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)’s exams. It was weird to see a picture of rows of desks lined up in the building. The building was built in the 1880s and during the 1900s parts of the building were torn down and some burnt down. There actually used to be an aquarium on the east side as well as a ballroom. Beginning in 1988, the building underwent major restoration and took about 12 years to complete. They actually had someone come in to peel away layers of paint and match original colors and designs. The building looks amazing and it is so huge. It is weird to imagine that what stands today is only maybe a quarter of what used to be of the exhibition.

As we exited from the tour, I noticed a guy wearing a Northwestern shirt. I asked him “do you go to Northwestern?” He said “yes I graduated in December 2016.” We got to talking for a bit after the tour and I was telling him how I grew up in Evanston and that Northwestern was like my backyard. He is traveling for 6 weeks and heading to New Zealand soon, so we told him about all the cool places we went in New Zealand and how you can never have enough time. It was really cool to find someone that knows the area where I grew up and the guy was just shocked that he met someone from the Evanston area. Our talk pretty much made his day and he plans to look for a job in Chicago when he returns to the states. Pretty cool highlight of the day and goes to show just how small the world is.

After we parted, Brian and I had to figure out what to do next. We just spent 4 hours in tours and didn’t even have a proper lunch. Since it was already 3, I wanted something snack like. We decided to head on the City trolley we planned to take originally in the morning and hop off near Flinder’s station to go to Young and Jackson Bar. Our tour guide had mentioned it because it holds the painting Chloe (the naked lady). We arrived and headed to Chloe’s room where we did indeed see the giant portrait of Chloe.

Brian got a beer and we shared a plate of dips to start. Then as Brian searched the menu, he saw a mojito listed that we had to try, seeing as we try mojitos at different restaurants. With the mojito we decided to get 2 sliders, chicken for me and some calamari for Brian.

Everything was very good and I felt comfortable in the classy bar room. It was quiet so we could chat and simply enjoy. I almost count it as an early Valentine’s day celebration, since we don’t know where exactly we will be then.

Around 5 we headed back to the hotel. I prepared sweet potato and Brussel sprouts to roast in the oven. They took about 20 minutes and were so delicious!! We have been keeping veggies simple with just throwing together salads and as much as I love those, I missed having brussels and sweet potatoes. They also paired perfectly with the rest of our leftover pork.

Once we hit our food coma for the night, we relaxed a bit and then headed up to the hot tub on the roof. There were about 6 people already in the hot tub and we enjoyed chatting with some other travelers for a couple hours. Before we knew it, it was 9pm, and I was getting tired and turning into a prune in the hot tub. We headed back downstairs to get ready for bed and I enjoyed writing and reading for a bit. It was a successful busy day with lots of socializing which was nice.

Sunday was a less busy day. I enjoyed sleeping in again and then in the morning, Brian and I headed to the Old Treasury building (another building we found out thanks to our Saturday tour). We saw the volts and learned more about the gold rush era from the 1850s to 1860s in Victoria. Since the Treasury building wasn’t constructed until the end of the 1850s, it wasn’t completed until about 1862 when the gold findings slowed down, so they do not actually know if much gold was kept in the vaults. However, the building remains a beautiful piece of history and it is nice that they have a free museum.

By the time we finished there, it was about noon, so we walked in search for lunch. We decided to go to Chinatown. I got a cucumber salad and dumplings while Brian got some soup, a chicken dish and fried rice. We split the rice and we were both stuffed before all the food was gone. We took the rest back to the hotel and it worked out to be for our last dinner so we didn’t need to buy food.

In the afternoon we headed down by the Yarra River and checked out the Sustainability Fair going on. Then we headed to the ACMI (Australian Cinema for the Moving Image). They have a few free galleries you can check out about motion pictures developing over time and gaming from early Nintendo to current PlayStation games. It was a cool exhibit and I learned about a few TV shows and Movies that involved Australian people. One such TV show was Bananas in Pyjamas. Movies include Legally Blonde and Babe.

From there we quickly checked out Melbourne Central which is a food court and shopping center. We discovered Cupcake Central in the food court. They had regular size and mini size. We opted for 2 mini sized cupcakes which were quickly eaten (after a photo of course).

In the evening, we relaxed, finding some movies on tv, Matilda and Blended and ate our leftovers for dinner. We also stopped by the bar next to our hotel since we got free drink coupons and played a couple rounds of pool.

It was a good weekend and then it was time to pack up again. Time to hit the road for a couple weeks and continue seeing more of Australia.

What did you do this weekend?

SuperBowl Monday In Melbourne: MIMM#103

February 6, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Hello everyone!! Coming at you from Melbourne now.

It’s already Monday here and we just finished watching the Super Bowl. Wow that was a crazy game. I am not very into sports, not even the superbowl, but Brian wanted to head to a bar and watch the game. So it’s superbowl Monday here and the bar opened at 7:30am for the 10:30am kick off time (local time). We got there right when the kick off started. The bar had American food specials, like nachos, chilli dogs, and wings. Since it was also breakfast time here, they had Hotcakes (or pancakes) too. I enjoyed some pancakes and bacon for my breakfast #2 since I ate my first breakfast 2 hours earlier.

Brian enjoyed some beer and I enjoyed 1.8 liters of water… yep in the time we were there, I got myself a jug and drank the whole jug myself. Basically I drank half a gallon of water. I needed water as I get dehydrated at times while traveling like last night on the plane. Our plane was at 9pm New Zealand time and a 4 hour flight, but we went back 2 hours so we landed around 11:30pm local Melbourne time. I slept a bit off and on, on the flight, but was happy to be in our bed at 12:30am.

Since we will be in Melbourne for a week, it gives me a chance to establish a routine. I looked up yoga studios in the area and found a yoga, pilates and barre studio a 15 min walk from our hotel. Even though I went to bed at 12:30am, I woke up at 6:30 and headed off to a pilates class at 7am. I almost didn’t find the place as I was one street off, Little Lonsdale vs Lonsdale street… but I found it in time and was happy to join a small class to start my morning. The intro offer is good for unlimited classes for 2 weeks, but I will only be around a week. I plan to do at least 5 classes, every 7am one and that brings each class to a little over $10 instead of the $25 drop in rate per class. My legs have remained strong throughout this trip so far but my arms need some work. In other words, planks were killer this morning.

So my Monday included a workout, grocery shopping, figuring out the kitchen in my hotel and watching the Super Bowl. After the half time we headed back to the hotel but found the channel on our tv in our room and I finished watching. Brian decided to nap as he didn’t sleep well so I decided to check out the free wifi in the lobby and hang out for a bit. I must say, it is nice to get back to writing. I can’t believe how many posts I came up with in the past couple days with internet again. I will likely not have much internet after this week as we will be on the road again through Australia this time, but hopefully I can pop in from time to time. I will definitely be updating Instagram.

Now it’s time to take the rest of the afternoon to plan out things to see in Melbourne. It is nice that we take a chill day every now and then. I also have to leave you with this beautiful sunset picture from right before we took off from New Zealand Sunday night.

Thanks Katie for the link up.

Did you have a Super Bowl Party?

What did you do this weekend?

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