Ireland over Easter: March 21 - March 25

~~Ireland: March 21 - March 25 ~~

After coming back from my interviews in Colorado, I met nate in the airport and we headed to Ireland- land of whisky, Guiness, and shades of green! We had an amazing time- we mainly drove and drove and drove- exploring castles and the fabulous hillside. We particularly loved the Dingle Peninsula and the town of Inistioge where the Circle of Friends was filmed. This country is spectacular!!! One of Nate's best friends in London, Mike, gave us all the scoop on his home country, making the trip even better!

Sheep!
Ahh... the ocean
Castle by the ocean The Jameson Distillery- Nate's heaven
Inistige- where "Circle of Friends" was filmed
Gardens
I made Nate jump at this fabulous old castle and ruins


The Dingle Peninsula- a heaven, but a windy heaven!

Stockholm, Sweden: March 1- March 4

~~Stockholm, Sweden: March 1 - March 4~~

I went to Stockholm directly from Helsinki to conduct interviews with a firm. I spent Sunday wandering around the city and taking a boat and bus tour due to the very cold weather. Stockholm is an absolutely gorgeous city- I could definitely spend more time there! I particularly loved the morning in the park as it was incredibly quiet, misty and a bit eery. Unfortunately, nothing was open, not even to grab a cup of coffee, but I prevailed and even made it through the day without one:). Stockholm is, of course, a city of water. Usually the boat tour has to break ice during the winter, but their winters are getting warmer and warmer, with very little (if any) ice.
The last picture is of the changing of the guard- I was yelled at by one of the people pictured because I apparently ventured into somewhere I shouldn't have:)! In any case, I got a front row seat:)!

The very stern looking gentlemen in the center behind the woman yelled at me!

Helsinki, Finland: February 18 - March 1

~~ Helsinki, Finland: February 18 - March 1 ~~

In late February I went to Helsinki to do 2 case studies and interact with colleges at the Helsinki University of Technology and VTT. It was wonderful to see snow again, but the locals were disappointed due to a lack of snow, which apparently helps brighten the winter. I found it an excellent location to work in, but spent one day in the city sightseeing on my own and one evening with a friend from HUT, Kirsi. I loved the church that overlooks the city (pictured immediately below). The last picture was taken from the "fish" marketplace which wasn't selling any fish! I also ventured to Vartaas with a colleague, Mervi, from VTT to do a few more interviews.

Norway

~~Norway: March 5-10 ~~

Well, we said we would start going back to fill in the missing pieces, and my parents really wanted me to do Norway, so here it is:)!
I arrived in Oslo to do a few interviews, explore the city a bit and then fly to Stavanger to meet Nate (we had not seen eachother for ~ 3 weeks). Stavanger was fantastic! We stayed in Tones house and took a ferry boat to Skudneshaven to see the place where my great-grandparents grew up- it was justs fantastic! So amazingly beautiful. Sometimes you feel like your soul is at home in a place you have never been before and we felt a bit like that. Too bad it is so bloody expensive!
We flew back to Oslo on Saturday night and spent the night and next day with Nate's friend, Andres, who he knew from Australia. On Sunday, we had lunch with my relatives (pictured in the first picture below). The last time I had seen them was when I was around 3, so it was quite a joyous reunion! Afterwards, we went to one of the biggest events of the year in Oslo-Holmenkollen ski jump. We were able to see it before it gets torn down and completely rebuilt. On Monday, I had an interview that Nate attended in an amazing home in Oslo before checking out the Viking Ship Museum to check out how I get some of my hot blooded stubbornness that got me through construction:)!

My relatives in their home in Oslo

Nate and Andres at the Ski Jump

Attempting the pose at Skudneshaven

Somewhere around my great-grandmother's old home on the North sea

Fantastic Skudneshaven

Chiang Mai

~~ Chiang Mai, Thailand: May 2-4 ~~

Chiang Mai was definitely my place of adventure and discovery on this trip! Leeches, Elephants, Motorcyles and Massages were part of the game. Brian met me at the airport and we had a wonderful Thai dinner before heading to the street market and ending with a wonderful Thai massage (combination of yoga, chiropractic and massage- not exactly relaxing but quite beneficial!)

Unfortunately, I through all of the body benefit out the window as the next day I trained to be a Mahoot, or elephant owner. Thailand's has a long relationship with the elephant- they were used for logging, transportation and war. Thailand's made political deals to avoid colonization- some of that consisted of giving land to the French and providing wood to the British. After the logging industry stopped to regain some of the 80% vegetation it lost, the elephants (and their owners) were out of a job. Due to the food consumption that an elephant requires, this meant starvation, abandonment and killing the males for the ivory. A new industry was born to accomodate and rehabilitate these elephants and keep them from destruction- tourism. So, for a day, I took care of my elephant for a day- including health inspections, bathing, scrubbing, brushing before learning commands and how to mount the elephant (via foot, trunk or laying down) and taking a long ride to a waterfall for lunch. I swam with both elephants to clean him off again before heading back. Elephants are fantastic! They are wonderfully graceful- negotiating slippery hills and small bridges with amazing ease. I felt that my elephant was protecting me by holding my legs back with his ears down the steep ravines (there was not a saddle- I was riding "bareneck":)). I went a bit overboard on the pictures..... enjoy!

Brian and I eating our Thai lunch in banana leaves

After swimming with the elephants

Feeding and getting to know one another time

My, you are dirty!!

Lets go!

Apparently I took too long with the first bath, so Brian had to help!

Thailand

~~ Thailand: April 22- May 8 ~~

The Grand Palace

I love these flowers!

Wat Pho- The largest reclining Buddha

Ahh....Thailand- for me this was a place to recover, write a conference paper and get a bit caught up (but that is never truly possible- too many ambitious goals for myself!)

In addition to working, on Wednesday and Thursday I spent some time exploring the area surrounding Brian's, my uncle-in-law, apartment which I am staying in and saw some of the malls, which are apparently a major attraction due to air conditioning! On Friday, I went to the river to catch a boat to visit the temples, or Wats, as they are called. I started at the Grand Palace, which seemed to be neverending, filled with sparkling gold and buddhas. The Emerald Buddha is located here- he is actually carved out of green jade and was discvoered in Chiang Rai in 1434. It made a few travels before arriving at the current destination at Wat Phra Kaew. I also saw the largest reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, and took a river taxi to visit Wat Arun on the other side. By this time I was utterly dehydrated and sampled some of the amazing Thai food. I love it so much that I decided to enroll in a 1/2 day Thai cooking class! On Saturday I went to the large and overwhelming weekend market where I got lost quite a few times! Besides my cooking class, I mainly worked, slept, and ate (I discoverd the wonderful dessert of Mango and sticky coconut rice!! Mangos are in high season here!) before heading to Chiang Mai to visit Brian over May 2-4.

Cooking with Fresh Coconut - Yum!

The food we picked up at the market