April 25: Last Coffee Hour

It was the last coffee hour of the year!

I love when the flags are hung like this!

January 20: Gold Level

It's official.  I've renewed my gold level status at Starbucks for another year.  In order to keep gold status, one must purchase 30 drinks (or items) over the course of the year.  My gold level expires August 29th, 2014.  Thus, I needed to make 30 purchases by then to keep the reward level.  Clearly, I made it with time to spare.  The disadvantage of making it to gold level early, is that the drinks I get between now and then don't count for gold level status for the next year.  But, I will still get my free drink ever 12, and the other perks.

January 19: Starbucks 78@Loop 10

Spent the day working at Starbucks, this time so friends joined me!

January 13: Starbucks Goofed

I waited and watched as the barista called name after name, drink after drink.  I stopped listening after awhile and got caught up writing.  A few minutes later, a guy came up with my drink, apologized about forgetting to make it, and then offered me this... a free drink next time.  Woohoo.  Thanks Starbucks.  I wasn't mad about it, it totally happens, but so nice of them to go above and beyond.

January 7: Toothcase

Yesterday I went to my dentist (LOVE him) for a cleaning and x-rays.  No cavities! Additionally, they also gave me this handy tote for my toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss.  Yes, it's pink and sparkly.  It also has a handy pocket to put your next appointment card.  Anyway, today I got to use it!

I'm strange. I love brushing my teeth.  I love flossing.  I also love coffee.  So in order to keep the stain on my teeth to a minimum I am going to try and brush after I drink coffee.  Thus, this handy tote will travel with me in my purse or bag.  :)  They say that those with good oral hygiene are healthier overall.  It's probably because those of us who are crazy about this are also crazy about other things in our life too…like not eating partially hydrogenated oils.  Yep, guilty.

Also, the hygienist used a new form of fluoride this time, a varnish.  This crazy stuff is suppose to be really good and strengthen your teeth from the outside, however, it also stayed on my teeth a crazy long time.  I brushed for four minutes last night and again this morning to try and get all the stuff off.  Definitely felt like I had sweaters on my teeth.  Ewww.

January 5: Free Starbucks

Spent most of today working at Starbucks.  I am much more productive when I have few distractions.  Also, it helps when you get a free drink (let's not talk about how much coffee you have to drink in order to get a free reward ;).

November 29: Last Day in Los Cabos

Every morning I would wake up, by 6am and be wide awake.  Around 7:30am I would head to Megan's parents suite.  Why?  Well, I LOVE coffee and since Megan was still sleeping, I'd go over and join her dad for coffee in the morning.  We'd sit on the porch, drink coffee, and DeAnne would join when she awoke.  I really enjoyed getting to chat with her parents in the mornings…and who doesn't love doing that over a cup of coffee with a beautiful view?

Friday was our last full day in Los Cabos, so that evening one of the guys working at the resort took us out for 'authentic' Mexican food.  It was yuuuummmmmy.  The homemade tortillas were the BEST!

November 22: Coffee Hour

Today was the last coffee hour of the semester and hosted by our office.  We offered students the opportunity to fill shoe boxes for operation Christmas child and students responded!  We filled 71 boxes and students were extremely creative in writing and designing cards.  We had about 275 people show up, despite being the Friday before a week off for Thanksgiving.  It was a wonderful way to end the semester and coffee hours for 2013.

October 27: CV

I spent much of the day at Starbucks working on turning my resume into a curriculum vita.  It took far longer than I thought, but luckily some good tunes and a (special & free) pumpkin spice latte accompanied the writing.  Here's to finishing my cover letters next.

Leaving Cape Town

On Sunday morning, June 17th approximately 80 students, Chase, Lori, Christina, and I headed to the airport for the trip back to Atlanta (Chase & Lori headed to France)!

Those rearranging to meet weight requirements

Christina and I are ready to head home (bitter sweet)!

I had to get a picture with Ish. Sad it was on the last day. He's a remarkable man.

Leaving Cape Town (this was actually taken by a student as we arrived; but still an amazing photo with the South African flag on the wing and table mountain in the background!)

On the way out to Cape Town, we had a 12 hour layover in Frankfurt. Thankfully, the layover wasn't that long on the return, however, it was still long enough to leave the airport and head into the city!
Sharanya and Claire in front of the train station

We found  a nice coffee and pastry place to have breakfast!

The pastry place where we had breakfast

Haha! Reminded us of home, even in Germany!

We were in the heart of the city

DB: a really large train station in the heart of the city

Random: but the walk and don't walk are green & red (no little white man telling you what to do)

Old fashion departure flight board; Frankfurt is one of the busiest airports in the world

Back in the airport with our train tickets.

And then we were on our way home.  We left Cape Town at 10:30am on Sunday and arrived home in Atlanta at 4:30pm on Monday.  Calculating time difference and travel, we estimate 38 hours of travel almost 21 hours on a plane.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, my luggage, however, was not there to greet me.  I took some comfort in the airline knowing it wasn't going to arrive :/  Yet, I was nervous because I brought back a couple of bottles of wine (and I was hoping the delay wasn't due to some sort of luggage catastrophe).  But the luggage arrived on Wednesday! WOOHOO!

All in all the trip was a great experience, but I was happy to have my feet on the ground and to sleep in my own bed...and even better when my luggage and me were both safely home!

OBM (repeata)

Old Biscuit Mill has quickly become a favorite place on Saturday mornings.  The Saturday before week four, I was talking with Christina and realized she had yet to visit the OBM! Ah! (Christina is my roommate for these five weeks in Cape Town). So even though it was a crazy grading weekend for me (service week had eight assignments for them to complete in their big blue books)...I took a few books with me and we headed to the OBM.

Now everyone rants and raves about the eggs benedict...and although I don't like runny eggs, we decided to split a plate (just to say we tried it).  And the verdict is (drum roll please)...

I still don't like runny eggs...and I make no exception for this eggs benedict.  People think I'm crazy, but Christina wasn't too fond of it either.  That's okay, there are plenty of other delicious treats and savory goodness at the OBM that they can have their egg benedict! ;)

Another delicious treat we discovered this time was the chocolate ice cream from the Chocolatire. It's fresh, homemade, and they cover it in chocolate sauce that hardens...it's delightful!

Even as I sit here and realize that Saturday is coming, I'm filled with excited and sadness as I realize it will be my last trip to the OBM. 

Signing off with mixed emotions.

Oh Happy (Satur)Day! (Week 2)

The students are divided into three groups: Sprinboks (rugby), Bafanas (soccer), and Stormer (rugby).  Chase and I represent the Stormers and during our second week in Cape Town, the Stormers headed off to adventure week to go on safari, shark cage diving, ride elephants and more.  YES, I'm jealous.  But it was also a nice week for Chase and I to lounge around and... get sick :/  Despite being sick, the week was filled with walks, grocery shopping, enjoying may sunsets, and a trip to the waterfront to work.  

A picture of us early Monday morning to see them off!

Saturday mornings are spent at the Old Biscuit Mill (OBM).  It's a great open market with all sorts of goodies and treats!  

After staying in line for-e-ver, the power went out when I was NEXT in line to receive my coffee.  Apparently, there was a fire that shut down power somewhere nearby.  Bummer.  I was excited about some delicious coffee with my banana and Nutella crepe!  Don't worry, the crepe was delicious!

Tiffany, Mallory, and I at OBM!

After OBM, a group of us went to promote the wine & bread for the Amy Biehl foundation. A portion of the proceeds to go help the foundation which provides after school programming in the township of Guguletu. We sold a couple bottles...and I bought one too. The individuals selling the bread sold it all!

And that was the end of week two, and it was good!

Excited Face!

Last weekend was exactly what I needed for my spirit!  My friend Tiffanie had been at a new professionals conference in Atlanta at Emory and planned to stay through the weekend and visit me in Athens! We had a good time roaming through Atlanta, walking around Emory's campus (beautiful), driving through four other colleges (some accidental and some on purpose), touring UGA, watching a movie, introducing Tiff to FRINGE, enjoying a leisurely Saturday morning which involved favorite coffee (from Common Grounds) and chocolate chip pancakes.  Leisurely mornings are my favorite, especially with a favorite friend!

Here are some pictures from Tiff's visit!

Tiff LOVES the Olympics so we visited centennial park.  Below are the Olympic rings that shoot up water.  The kids were having a BLAST.  Tiff was not so sure about it. :)  I tried to convince her to join in in the fun. Ha.

Tiff next to the torch! They're huge! She kept asking if I could get someone to turn them on for her.  Oh how I missed Tiff's face! :)

Tiff could total be in the Olympics. Maybe for long distance running?

So centennial park had all sorts of 'quilts' in remembrance of the Olympics.  This one was definitely the most, unique.  Can you pick out Tiff?

After visiting centennial park we headed to CNN.

We found Kenn Star on the CNN highlights board.

Tiff with her President (of Baylor).

Some nice lady asked if we wanted a picture together! Yay!

We just had to find a picture of Anderson Cooper, Tiff's favorite.  Here she is imitating his face in the picture.  They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.

This is as close as we got to seeing a flame.

The next two pictures are random! As we were walking around downtown Athens, we stumbled across this...the spirit of Athens.  Just so strange and very random.

When we were walking around UGA and downtown, I had a brilliant idea.  Well...I think it's brilliant.  Uga's are present all over town, some have glasses, others are painted with outfits, etc.  I've thought it would be fun to get some pictures (at some point) with some of these clever little uga's.  (this is where my brilliant idea comes in) I've decided that when people come to visit, we find a uga dawg and get a picture.  This also means that my dad, sister, mom, and Megan will need to come back for another visit so we can grab a pic with an uga. :)

Tiff humoring me! :)

 

I was so grateful for the time with Tiffanie!  This year has been full of transitions and it was so nice to spend the weekend with a dear friend!  I miss her face!

Ps. for those of you who don't know Tiff, first, you're missing out, and second, she loves and frequently uses the word face!