Viva Las Vegas

Labor day weekend I was able to go to Las Vegas with Kathi and Alana. We did Vegas on a budget, so no fancy hotel, no booze, no male strippers, and no crazy show! Not that we would include all of those things listed, just some. Well we drove to Vegas in 6 hours and even had time to stop and look at the Hoover Dam, which Kathi had never heard of before, but there were TONS of tourists there! We then made our way to the place we were staying which was with my mom's cousin Lorrie and her husband Bobby. They are the nicest people you will ever meet in your entire life! It was so nice of them to let us stay at their house, and cook food for us! The first night wasn't really a "Vegas" night, we hung out with Lorrie and Bobby and Lorrie's son's family and went to his house for dinner and had it with the missionaries. The meal was amazing and it was fun talking to the missionaries, one of them was really outgoing and the other one had only been on a mission a month and it showed, he was really hesitant to say things. After our scrumptious dinner we drove down the strip so Kathi and Alana who have both never been to Vegas could see it all lit up at night. I was exhausted that night so we decided to get a good night's sleep before doing anything crazy! The next morning we parked at Treasure Island, which is kind of in the middle of the strip, we decided down to the New York, New York, never a good idea to walk anywhere on the strip! It takes forever to get anywhere! We took tons of pictures of all the hotels and looked at the uber expensive shops inside the Caesar's Forums. There were 2 free shows with the statues in the Caesar's Forums....they were really weird! But like I said we did Vegas on a major budget! So anything offered for free we were there! We saw the water show at the Bellagio that is really cool and FREE! After walking down one side of the strip we had to walk back to my car, so we walked on the other side, saw the Lions inside the MGM Grand. We went into the M&M store and saw the Red M&M, we took a picture with him! We then went into a Grand Canyon Store, where all these creepy dead statue things were, Kathi got some souvenirs there. We went to the Coca Cola store and did the drinks around the world, which was really fun and interesting. They are all Coca Cola products but taste sooo different than what we are used to. The one from Italy had an after taste that tasted like vomit and all 3 of us had to hurry and drink one of the other drinks before we threw up! Also there was a drink from Germany and Kathi told us how they made it! Most of them were way too sweet to drink more than a sip! We took a picture with the Coca Cola Bear, he is creepy looking and he tried to eat my head! After that we continued to walk and walk and walk until we finally made it back to my car, drove to Lorrie's for dinner, she made us food again! Seriously she is the best! After dinner we took it easy and then when it got dark we went back to check out some more free stuff to do at night and to see the strip again at night. We saw a free circus act at Circus Circus and then gambled, lost 5 dollars in 5 minutes, that was fun. We saw the Sirens of T.I., which is basically sluts dancing and lip syncing on a ship and then the pirates-not hott men jump on their ship at the end and dance around with them. It's free. Then we tried to go see the Bellagio Volcano show, we never did, oh well. The next morning we got up, got dressed, thanked Lorrie and Bobby profusely for letting us stay there and cooking for us! We were gonna go to a buffet, we got there too late and it was too expensive, so we went to Islands for lunch. Going home it took us an hour to get over the dam, which sucked but we made pretty good time after that! Well since I am not into drinking, partying, and being slutty, Vegas is not for me, not my favorite place to visit!

Pictures from the trip:

Hoover Dam

Alana and Me

Kathi and Me

The Mirage

The strip

Looking fly on the strip

Caesar's Forums

Elvis!

One of the creepy statue shows

That is a real diver in the fish tank

The water show at The Bellagio

Playing with the Lion CubYep he is just chillin in there with the Lions

Elvis! Again and Michael Jackson lurking in the background

Coca Cola, M&M Store, and The weird Grand Canyon Store

Channeling Elvis

These kind of things were everywhere in the store

M&M store

Check the Polar Bear getting ready to...

Eat my head!!!

Coca Cola Drinks from around the world

Circus Act

Gambling

The Strip at night

Waiting for the Volcano Show we never saw

The infamous Las Vegas Sign

Kathi the German

Four years ago this thanksgiving will be the anniversary when we had a girl from Germany come live with us. Over these four years she has become one of my very best friends actually more like family who just happens to live in Germany. Well these past two and half weeks Kathi (Katie) came to visit us! It was so much fun having her around again! It has been four years since she has been here and I think she loved catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and meeting some of my family members who didn't exist when she was here. And my family and I definitely loved seeing her again! Well we were busy, busy, busy these past weeks with school, visiting old friends and going on 2 major road trips! The first week she was here we had a family dinner, hung out with my crew, (yeah I have a crew), met this guy I was "set up" with (that was awful), hung out at Ryan & Morgan's house, Kathi met Roman their son, he was scared of her. We also made it over to Chris & Krista's house, she met their kids, Lilly for the first time and the last time she saw Morgan and Ava they were 2 and 3 months, they are 6 and 4 now. She hung out with some people from high school while I was at school or doing homework. Luckily the whole time she was here I only had school Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 3, so we hung out after that and the days I didn't have school. Labor day weekend we went to Vegas, which will be a separate post, and the following weekend we went to San Diego, also will be a separate post. The last week she was here we tried to fit last minute visits and things to do in. We went to the batting cages at her request, when she lived here we had young women's softball so I took her there to test her out and she still has the skills! My brother Ryan and his son Roman came along too and Roman wanted it to be his turn in the cage the whole time but Ryan found an alternative thing for him to do and he had so much fun! We ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel with the crew, also went to the lake that day with Jim Langford, his son in law Jason, Jason's two boys, Ashlee Brown, and her dad! It was super fun! It was my first lake trip here, I have been to a lake in Germany, but this was my first time being on a boat on the lake! Ashlee and the 2 little boys were the only brave enough ones to go cliff jumping! Also we had cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory the last day she was here, and hung out with a ton of people at Elspeth's house, she was having a "The Office" party. This morning at 4:30 we headed to the airport, her flight left at 6 and we said our goodbyes, we will definitely continue to stay friends she is such a sweet, fun person! I am so glad she wanted to come back to visit!

Pictures from the 3 weeks:

Family Dinner (Candid Shots courtesy of Kathi)

Having Hefty American Meals

(the little boy is Roman)
Eating Yummy German Chocolate and Jell-O

She brought us 7 pounds of straight chocolate!

Arizona Animals-Geckos at my house

Batting Cages

Being Awesome!

Saguaro Lake

Cliff Jumping

Last Pic of the day

Hotel Vs. Hostel

While traveling through Europe I stayed in many hostels, some were sketch, most were decent, and a few I would highly recommend to anyone traveling! I am going to San Diego in a few weeks and do NOT want to pay for a hotel! I am jobless and therefore completely broke because I spent the first half of the year blowing my money on all things European. Totally worth it though. Anyways I was thinking what if I stayed in a hostel in San Diego! Great idea! I did it a lot in Europe I never felt unsafe in the hostels, and they were cheap, so why not?! I looked on a website I have grown fond of www.hostelworld.com, I found a hostel for $21 a night, with free parking, breakfast included, and I could stay in an all female dorm room. So why not! It sounds perfect....well I have never heard of anyone staying in hostels in the United States, before I looked I didn't even know we had them! I am still debating whether or not I should do it. It would be so much cheaper than a hotel and staying in a hostel you get to meet other travelers around your same age doing the same thing you are! I think that was my favorite part of the hostels in Europe, I met so many people from all over the world! My one regret was not hanging out with a few of them, but next time I go to Europe I will definitely get to know my roommates better! If anyone has ever stayed in a hostel in the United States let me know what you thought and if it's a good idea to do so!

First Day

Well I originally was only going to use this blog for stuff about traveling and where I travel to, because who wants to read about my boring life....probably no one, practically no one reads my blog anyways, but I am going to write about it anyways, at least for today. Well today was my first day of college having Hotel and Restaurant Management as my major. My first class was in fact Intro to Hotel and Restaurant Management, my teacher seems so cool! Him and his wife travel the world! That is exactly what I hope to be doing with my life....without the teaching part. So I am sitting in class with the rest of the students and in walks this guy who is sweating profusely...it is only 9 am in the morning, and the heat was not that bad today. He comes in is wearing all black(first mistake), sweating profusely, has the greasiest slicked back hair ever known to man, and his hands are shaking. He continues to sweat and shake the entire class period. It was a little disturbing to say the least. My next class was Accounting and my teacher decided he wanted us to tell jokes every class period because Accounting is boring, his words not mine. He told a pretty lame one. After that I had Microeconomics, this teacher I can already tell goes on tangents, so that will be fun. My final class of the day was Computer Information Systems, a bunch of annoying freshman and me. This class will probably drive me crazy just because of the freshman. The teacher was the strangest looking person I have ever seen, I am not trying to be mean but he looked like a characterature, no joke. He also admitted to liking 2pac so I think we will get along! After class I tried to find the bookstore at SCC because by the way that is where I am going these days. It was too hot and I was too lazy to do it so I thought I would head over to The Textbook Store across the street from MCC, they only had one book I needed. After I purchased that hella expensive book, I headed out to my car and this boy walked by and waved at me, I waved back. He then proceeded to walk by my car again and mouth something, so I rolled down my window and said "what?", he then came up and the conversation went down like this....
"What's your name?" -Parking lot boy
"Bethany"-Me(obviously)
"Hi I'm Jeff"-Parking lot boy
"Hi"-me
"Are you in a hurry to get somewhere?"-PLB
"Yeah kind of, I gotta get home."-Me(totally lying)
"Can I give you my number?"-PLB
"Sure"- Me
Writes me his number on my receipt for my book
"What was your name again?"-PLB
"Bethany"-Me
He then walks away and waves goodbye to me, he wasn't that cute and it was kind of random but I was flattered to say the least. It was a good start to my new semester of school.

Shark Week=New Travel Destination

Shark Week is probably my favorite week of the whole summer! My obsession with Shark Week began when I was ten years old, I believe my mom read something in the T.V. Guide about it and told me I should watch it. Well 12 years later and I haven't missed a summer yet! I know it has been a few weeks since Shark Week has been over, but I just got done watching the shows this week. See I have this wonderful thing called DVR-Digital Video Recorder, I record everything I watch on t.v and then fast forward through the lame commercials! It is seriously the best way to watch t.v.! Anyways after watching the show Great White Appetite I decided that someday I am going to travel to the coast of South Africa to see this:

Seal Island

Great White Sharks jumping completely out of the water to attack seals! How crazy would that be to see in person!?! Now don't get me wrong I do think seals are one of the cutest sea animals, right up there beside dolphins, however this is part of the ocean life food chain. And I want to see it up close and personal because I think it is so fascinating and would be so amazingly cool!Hopefully one day I can blog about actually being there and show my own pictures! I will definitely make it happen!

Boring.

Lately I have been feeling like my life is the most boring and worthless thing ever! I have officially today been home from Europe for 2 months and am missing my life there desperately! While I was in Europe I had the most exciting life I have ever had! I traveled all over an amazing country, I spoke another language fairly well for not ever knowing it before, I looked the best I had ever looked, I met people from all over the world, and I traveled to 9 countries within 5 months! Now that I am home I am unemployed, fat, losing my italian and bored out of my mind! My plan of attack when I got home was to get a job, save money for a semester, and then go to culinary school. Well my plan changed...I am unable to get a job because every employer in the east valley decides to ignore my generic online application that I am sure they receive from millions of people. (I don't blame them how can you make a meaningful impression for a job online?) Secondly, I decided I like cooking but would rather devote my self to a career of travel, so I have decided to change my major to Hotel and Restaurant Management with an emphasis on international travel. However, the advisors at NAU decided that they didn't really want to help me out until 2 weeks before school starts, so I could be potentially unemployed and not fulfilling my new major requirements because of lack of communication on NAU advisors part. Hopefully next week when I call back the advisor who actually responded to me, I can figure out my life and be on a track to a more exciting life than I have had this summer.