Paddle Boarding: Malibu

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Last weekend a few friends and I took a stab at paddle boarding up in Malibu. We signed up for a two hour "tour" with the Malibu Surf Shack, so with the help of their amazing staff we were able to make it out past the (terrifying) 5-7 foot swell that was breaking on the beach and out into the peaceful open sea. The weather was perfect, and once I figured out how to keep my balance...it was almost even relaxing.

We couldn't have picked a better day to go because as we were paddling out towards what appeared to be some possible sea life in the distance, we suddenly were in the middle of a huge school of dolphins! There had to have been 30 or more dolphins in the water, and a flurry of sea gulls and pelicans overhead, with one lone seal trailing behind the group. It was amazing and completely surreal.

*I didn't bring my camera out while were were paddling, so the pic above is from when I was at Eresos Beach on the isle of Lesbos. It's the very beach where the poet Sappho was born, so, as you can imagine, there were many women there.

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Wednesday. August 18. Rodrigo y Gabriela. The Greek.

There's not much more to say, except possibly to apologize to my date for promptly forgetting about him as soon as the music started.... sorry! Seriously, I was completely entranced for the entire two (plus) hours of their show. And not only did we get to listen to Rodrigo y Gabriela, but they also had a few pretty amazing guests perform with them for a few songs as well; Shenkar (Violinist of Shakti), Robert Trujillo (of Metallica), and Al Di Meola!

Check out the youtube videos below to get an idea of the amazingness of the evening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3etMZK8iNU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivbpZsx6pn8&feature=watch_response

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_dyHWyScOc

Aviero, Portugal

One of the best things about working in Spain was how little time I actually had to spend working! On top of only being contracted to work 12 hours a week at my school, just about every other weekend was a "puente" (a long weekend) so I had a lot of free time. I miss those days...

For one of the many long weekends, a few fellow language teachers and myself took a little road trip to Portugal since we were only about an hour from the border. We visited Oporto where, much to our chagrin, it started incessantly raining one afternoon (after we saw the men gambling in the park.), so to seek shelter from the elements, and to remedy our spirits, we spent the rest of the day wine tasting. Yum.

We saw the fishermen above as we were driving from Oporto to Aviero.

Sneak Peak: Home

I just had an amazing weekend: Bass Lake, family time, Mariposa Art Walk, bike ride in Yosemite...

More pics on the way!

The Flashdance

It's been about 6 months since Jenn and Eric became The Reids. Hurray! It was a wedding like non other I have ever been too, by far the most fun, and the musical artistry of their DJ, The Flashdance, definitely contributed to the amazingness.

Anyway, a few weeks ago The Flashdance was mixing at Malo in Silverlake so we were able to relive some of the good times by shaking our booties and eating delicious tacos and margaritas!

This is My Town

The Dodgers played the Giants on July 19. They lost. But check out the view from the parking lot!

Nafplio to Athens

Some days I can't help but think about Greece. Apart from Chile and Spain, it's the country where I've spent the most time, so it holds a special place in my heart.

My first two weeks in enchanting Hellas were spent with an old roommate in her hometown of Mytilini on the island of Lesbos. She and her adorable mother fed me delicious, possibly even life changing, homemade cuisine that I dream about to this day. I took a little ferry ride (10 hours...) back to the mainland and roamed around Athens for a few days where I single handedly fended off men named Apollo and drug dealers until my college friends Tim and Jolene met me. Tim and Jolene had just finished their first year of their Peace Corps service in Niger and were also, coincidentally, vacationing in Greece. We had planned to make our way around the Peloponnese peninsula, but once we arrived to our hotel in Nafplio, with air conditioning AND TV, we decided to scrap our ambitious travel rout and rest our weary traveling bones for a while. We stayed there for the rest of the week, until we had to go back to Athens to catch our flights out of the country.

When we were leaving Nafplio to return to Athens we hopped on the bus at the bus stop outside of our hotel rather than backtracking to the main station in the city. With most buses in Greece you can buy a ticket on the bus, so we were surprised to find out, after we had boarded and and the bus was on its way, that we needed to have purchased tickets in advance, and that all of the seats had already been purchased... Essentially, we got kicked off the bus an hour or so later at the next stop so we could properly buy a ticket. It was not embarrassing at all...haha. Above is what it looks like to be an American tourist freshly kicked off a bus in a random city in Greece.