Greetings to all from Manila

I apologize for not posting something earlier. It was my intention to provide daily updates of my activities here in Philippines. Here is a shot of me making faces with one of Em's nieces.

And here is a photo of our hike into the depths of the Philippine jungle. We crossed paths with large pythons and monkeys swinging from tree to tree. Well not really, but it was fun nonetheless.

Merry Christmas from animal farm

Hi everyone,

I hope you're doing well, wherever you are! I made it back to the Netherlands, where it’s the first 'white Christmas' of my life. Pretty exciting, but also pretty cold. I don’t have pictures of any special travels so instead, I’d like to introduce you to our family pets, which are all a bit confused by the snow.

I wish you all a merry Christmas!

Marieke

This is ‘Piepertje’, our new little cat who suffers from ADHD. He has chosen our car engine as his main sleeping place, and stays there even when we’re driving.

This is ‘Sammie’, our little tiger, who gets annoyed by Piepertje’s ADHD:

Here is the boss, Child Goose, who is almost as old as I am:

These are brownie and Annemarie, who is named after my sister-in-law:

This is Sheep and his own little house on the background: mind the windows at sheep height :)

And this is our duck who's pretty cold:

Christmas Lights

This year my sister and I decided to put up Christmas lights on my parents house so I got to climb around a bit. It was surprisingly enjoyable. Plus, when I get up on the highest point of the roof I could see the ocean in the distance which is pretty awesome.

Packing for the winter break

Checklist:
Speedos (✔)
Sunblock (✔)
Sunglasses (✔)
Havaianas Sandals (✔)
















Did I miss anything? I don't think so. :)

Have axe, will plumb.

Actually it was a reciprocating saw, but whose counting.

<<<< Not there. Keep chopping. All the tenants know (or could know) is that its leaking under the house.




Arg. Where is it?




Gusher.



All fixed now.. Back to my couch and remote.

See world; the well-rounded ARE students spend their holidays in an exciting variety of ways. Enjoy your travels peeps.

Break time - mandatory blog posting starts Monday

Hey Team-

Since it's break time, mandatory blog posting starts this coming Monday. Let us all know how much pork you ate in Manila, how cold you were in Chicago, how many inappropriate comments you made in D.C., etc etc. Photos encouraged. Here's one from post-finals celebration yesterday, to start things off...

Hope everyone has a good break!

Marshall

Headbanging in San Francisco

Hi guys!
It's been so quiet here these days. Looks like everyone is having a busy semester up to now, hum? Fortunately, I could take a little break last Sunday for a rock n' roll evening at The Warfield, a classic venue in a beautifull theater buid in the 20's, to see The Cult. Awesome show by true rock stars! Here are some pics. Enjoy it.

The Cult!




















Billy Duffy















Ian Astbury





























Crowd surfing!

Summer in China

Hey Guys! Here is my regular vacation routine: San Francisco- Beijing- Lianyungang (my husband's hometown)- Guilin (my hometown)- Beijing- San Francisco. I spent the whole June with my parents and friends and enjoyed wonderful Chinese food. Everything was so familiar that I even forgot to shoot photos. However, I would like to show this picture to Marshall.
This is the typical scenery of Yangshuo (a county of Guilin), which is on the back of RMB 20 Yuan (about 3 dollars).

King's Canyon and Belize

Hello everyone!

After Marshall's post on non-posters I almost put up some pictures of Giannini, BART, hummingbird cafe, etc, to summarize my summer but then thought I should wait until I did something more blog-worthy. Finally got out of the bay area to go camping in King's Canyon a couple weeks ago and also just got back from a little vacation in Belize. My big summer trip is still upcoming though, as I'll be going to Paradise next weekend!!!

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Gina

Kyle's kickass wedding video

hey guys-

kyle is way to modest to post this, but in case you haven't seen it you should check out his kickass wedding video.

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