This Summer

It seems like Google has all the answers. You type in anything and out pops a whole list of possibilities. Unfortunately it doesn't have anything worthwhile to say when I type in "Kirsten's perfect job" or "What Kirsten should do with her life". It's kind of like using your car clicker to try and open the front door.

Since God doesn't appear to be using Google as a portal to tell me his will, I've been ambling about the best I know how. My friend Shannon helped me get a job at a press company and gallery that she worked at. Although I've been glad to have an excuse to be done at the pool, we both hate it and were each other's only dose of sanity throughout the day. Unfortunately she (along with a few others that I liked) were let go so I am stuck alone in this crazy environment for another few days waiting for my internship to end. Some days I seriously consider moving to Bali because I don't know if I can handle sitting on my bum in the cold office listening to CNN and working on completely menial tasks all day - I just know that one day I will snap and next thing anyone knows I own a Vespa Rental company on a random island.

As for Jordi's job front, he's crazy busy as usual, finishing a climbing gym in Temecula for his brother and starting multiple more local jobs in the next week. So far, so good for Sacher General Contracting, which is a huge blessing (and probably a large reason why we aren't already in Bali).

The highlight of my summer hands down was a week in Cayucos with my whole family. Cayucos is the perfect little town where everyone can be happy doing something or nothing. It was great to be able to talk to any member of my family with zero aforethought. A question to ask a sibling could pop into my head, and all I had to do was ask it!! No emails, skype, time differences, etc - so nice.

Another highlight has been that unlike last summer, this summer has been mostly sunny and beautiful, affording us plenty of perfect beach days, which is my favorite thing in the world. Nothing like surfing in warm water and reading in the sun all day!

Other fun summer goings on: My best friend since 3rd grade, Corrie and her husband came to visit which is always so much fun! It's amazing how well we get along after all these years.

Little Sister Stephanie is now Impressive Pilot Stephanie, but mostly I'm just glad she's home, allowing us summer coffee and beach dates.

Well, I may not be God or Google, but even as I continue searching for a job I don't hate, our life is constantly blessed by family and friends as we work hard and play hard. A Chinese proverb I recently came across said, "Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still."

Jobs and Family

Jobs and Family - some of the most important things in life, and our lives are full of both at the moment!

A few of you have enquired after my new job at the press company. It focuses mainly on photojournalism, so I learn a bit about photoshop, photography and world news every day! Photographers, newspapers or agencies from all over the world send in their pictures every day, and we resize, caption and organize them all, putting them up on the website and sending them directly to clients. Most of the pictures are either News, Entertainment, or Sports. I know way too much about the Mexican soccer league after captioning hundreds of their pictures! I also get to caption pictures from the Cannes film festival, the Tennis Pro or Formula One in Monaco. I learned all about the Danish Royalty while looking them up online so I could correctly tag them in some pictures.

Anyways, it's a bit monotonous and tedious, but for now I'm glad to be done working at the pool and am hoping that this is a stepping stone to something even better :)

Everyone I work with is great, and one of the best parts is the location - a five minute walk from our house!

Jordi is working hard at the moment helping his brother and partner build their second climbing gym, this one in Temecula. He also put an ad in the local newspaper and has already received callbacks! So far, so good for Sacher General Contracting :)

On the family side of things:

My oldest sister Andrea and her husband Scott came back to California from Cambodia for a summer long "furlough" in which they will be visiting all the churches that support them, as well as catching up and connecting with friends and family. It is the nicest thing in the world to have them home, and I love being able to call and text my sister at my convenience! When they go back to Cambodia, they will be living in a remote and rural area, learning how to plant rice, immersing themselves in the language and culture - I doubt I will be able to text her at that time...

Soon after the Swards came back, my little sister Stephanie graduated from LeTourneau University in east Texas. She is now a certified pilot and has a bachelors degree - wow, how am I related to that?? She is so cute and impressive with all her mechanical and aeronautical knowledge! And I am so excited that she is now back living in California! Flight to Catalina, anyone?

My mom wanted to take advantage of having us girls all home at the same time, and took us all to Palm Springs this last weekend. It was so much fun catching up on life, shopping, lounging by the pool, and going for bike rides. On the way home, we stopped in downtown Palm Springs to walk around and get lunch. I always forget how much fun it is to hang out with so many sisters - we're so alike! And what a great Mom for organizing it all! :)

This last weekend our brother came home as well! Aaron hasn't been back from Australia in nearly three years! It was so nice to see him, and he got to spend the night with Jordi and I in San Clemente before we took him to the airport (he flew to San Francisco to meet up with Melissa and her family).

Anyways, we get to see more of all of them next week when we all go on a family vacation/reunion to Cayucos. Can't Wait!!!

Being Back

I haven't written since we've been back from Argentina and South America! Unfortunately Being Back isn't as exciting as Being Gone. I love Being Gone - it usually means travel, seeing and learning new things, interesting places, exploring, eating, relaxing, and spending all day long with Jordi! Being Back means work schedules, cooking, cleaning the house, arguing about the endless things there are to argue about, going for jogs, and filling up the calendar. Of course it also means hot water showers, a clean bed, and all the other fantastic comforts of home....pro's and con's.

Anyways, I wanted to give you an update on the past couple months!

When we came back from our trip, we came back to a roommate. My brother Aaron in Australia works at Burton, and one of his coworkers was getting transferred to Irvine, California. Burton had already transferred Laura from Austria (her home) to Australia, and now they wanted her talent in Irvine. Aaron asked us if she could stay with us for a bit while she figured out where to live, and we said "Sure!" So when we came back, Laura was all moved into the guest bedroom, and working full time at Burton in Irvine. She lived with us for the next two months and just moved out to Laguna last week! We came to love our Austrian roomie were sad to see her move, although luckily she is still close. I loved having a new friend, a yoga and jogging partner, and I even learned some new recipes from her :)

Jordi worked on a whole bunch of estimates the first few weeks we were back, and now he in full swing working on a few different projects. He's been blessed with steady work and loving his job.

I've been working at the pool and intently looking for other work. Just last week I was offered a full time paid internship for the summer at a press company downtown! I think it will be a great opportunity to learn more and a chance to do something different from lifeguarding and teaching lessons!

Another thing I've been up to is starting my new blog: What Wonders Await the Wandering Ones - partly to give me a place to write every week, and also to document new things I discover :) If you haven't already, please check it out!

http://wondersawait.blogspot.com/

My 26th birthday was in April, which was fun. And in May we got to see all our Mothers and Grandmothers on Mothers Day. We also got to see Scott and Andrea, who just came home a few days ago, and will be here for the summer! We are super excited to see Stephanie, Aaron and Melissa all this summer as well!

Well, I guess Being Back can actually be pretty good - especially when it means I get to see my whole entire family in less than a month and am starting a new job in less than a week! :)

Argentina

Argentina is a fabulous country. It's vast and beautiful, it has mountains, hills, plains and lakes. The food is good, the wine is good. The cities and towns look and feel European, and the architecture is in many places beautiful and impressive. The people are friendly, although hardly understandable with their almost Italian accents, dropping every other consonant and blending it all together with "jjjshh" sound. Our week in Mendoza and Buenos Aires was pretty much just plain fabulous. Very little drama, very little sickness, very much exploring and relaxing.

I was still a bit sick the first couple days in Mendoza, so was still living off of saltine crackers and Orange Soda (I have to say, I can't complain about the 'sick diet' - I actually quite like it).

Our second night in Mendoza, after a full day of meandering the streets, parks, plaza's and wistfully watching everyone else eat and drink at the countless sidewalk cafe's and restaurants, we decided we were feeling well enough to actually go out to eat. We went to a super nice sushi restaurant and successfully consumed Miso Soup :)

The next day was more walking through the leafy cobblestone streets, figuring out how to get our laundry done, figuring out how to get to Buenos Aires, finding new parks, and eating ice cream.

The day after was a Sunday, and we were planning on going wine tasting in the Mendoza vineyards I see so often on labels. We had heard that they were rather flat and not much to look at, not great compared to Napa or the Central Coast. But we figured if the wine was good, who cares about looks?

So Sunday morning, after our usual breakfast of incredibly sweet rolls spread with thick dulce de leche and washed down with some nescafe, we headed out to the bus station. We got on the bus and started bouncing down toward the town of Maipu, where most of the vineyards and olive orchards are. We bumped along through dirt roads and entered the small, dusty town. We got off in the middle of the town, and immediately noticed how deliciously quiet everything was. Hardly any cars going by, hardly any people about, and no business open (except the ice cream store, of course). I immediately found a park bench to lay down and soak up the sun and quiet.

Jordi looked in our guide book, where he read that everything closes on Sundays. Including Vineyards. So our grand plans of wine tasting in Mendoza suddenly morphed into a dream as I slept on the sunny park bench on a quiet Sunday morning. In all honesty, we weren't

that dissapointed because something about taking dusty, bumpy bus rides to and from dusty, albeit delicious vineyards, does something to hamper your wine tasting motivation. So we decided we'd have to make a trip to Napa to make up for it, and after our nap returned to Mendoza for some urban wine tasting. We went first to Park Hyatt, the biggest and most beautiful hotel in town, right on the main plaza. We sauntered in and found their extensive wine bar.

It was some pretty amazing wine, I will readily admit. I can't recall ever drinking a Malbec, but that's pretty much exclusively what Mendoza produces, and it's definitely a new favorite.

We then found an awesome bistro with a pretty garden area for some delicious lunch and more Malbec.

Unfortunately that night was our overnight bus ride, so we had to gather our stuff and troop to the bus station (It started to rain, and the station was miles away, but of course Jordi didn't think we needed a taxi. I thought about revolting, but figured I might as well get the exercise and utilize our backpacks...)

Unlike Bolivia, this time our seats did go back as far a the agency had promised, and there was an accessible bathroom as promised, and we even got food! The only bummer was a dubbed Adam Sandler movie. Of course it was a stupid movie that I probably didn't miss out on, but I cannot stand dubbing, and all the TV stations and even the bus just love dubbing. Argentina must have swarms of dubbing offices in order to produce all the hours of dubbing that goes on in that country.

Anyways, the trip was about as good as you can ask for, on a 13 hour bus ride.

We got into Buenos Aires in the morning, once again forgoing the luxurious taxi ride, and instead cramming in the subway with hundreds of other sweaty Argentines to get to the center of town.

We already picked out a hostel we wanted, and luckily they had room there. It was a big, old mansion that had been converted into a hostel called the Art Factory. Everything was painted, down to the water tower tanks, and there was a huge rooftop terrace with a kitchen/bar and hammocks.

Books, couches, free tang, and free internet kept us entertained after naps and showers.

We wandered around the cute San Telmo area, which used to be a rich neighborhood until a disease sent everyone running upriver, and the mansions of San Telmo became partitioned apartments and hotels for the artsy middle-class. All the streets were either cobblestoned, or paved over (you could still see the cobblestone) with lots of bakeries, ice cream stores, and parilla restaurants. We got lunch at a sidewalk cafe with leafy trees and a wide cobbled street. I thought I'd be daring and order a salad. Unfortunately, the dressing was definitely flavored mayonnaise, but oh well. At least the ice cream desert was amazing! :)

That night we went to a 'secret' bar where there was no sign or anything, you just ring the doorbell and are buzzed in. We then walked up some long dark steps until we reached the top floor which was a bustling little restaurant and bar, with a pool table in the back. We snagged a window seat, and got to look out over the street as we sipped our cold, cheap beers in the

warm, smokey room.

The next day we spent the whole day doing a walking tour of Central Buenos Aires. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we saw statues, parks, government buildings, theatres, the Presidential offices where Madonna sang in the movie Evita, monuments, pedestrian streets loaded with cafe's, an old mall from the 1800's, street tango, astounding cathedrals and more! It was an incredibly easy and fun city to walk around in, with soooo much to see! We stopped twice - once for cafe con leche in an old cafe with leather chairs and fantastic old waiters.

The other was for ice cream. I don't eat ice cream since it doesn't agree at all with my stomach and it usually isn't worth the calories to me. But oooooooh my gosh, this was the most incredible ice cream I have ever tasted in my entire life. It was so good that I ordered a big cone intending to share, but decided I most definitely wanted it all for myself after the first lick. It was so good that even though I felt horribly sick afterwards, I went back for more the next day. It was so good, that I didn't care about breakfast or lunch, I just wanted ice cream. Its so soft and rich and creamy, not at all icey or light. It comes in the most basic and the most exquisite of flavors. I can't tell you what flavors I ordered, since I just pointed at ones that looked good, but they were so amazing!! The flavors were so fresh and quality. Like the chocolate was made from the best chocolate and the strawberry was made from fresh strawberry and the other flavors were made from fresh ingredients, even though I don't know what those would be.....

Anyways, moral of the story is that if you go to Argentina, eat ice cream. In fact, I would suggest going to Argentina TO eat ice cream.

And the amazing thing is that all day long you see people eating ice cream cones, but they are never fat and this is probably because they walk everywhere! (sigh) If only California had better public transportation, and you didn't need a car to get everywhere :( Then we could all eat more ice cream.

That night we went to a Tango show, which was underground in the "oldest cafe in Buenos Aires" We sat at tiny tables, elbow to elbow with everyone else, sipping wine and eating bread while watching the loud tango show. It was very different from the Flamenco show we saw in Madrid, but still really fun and very impressive. I swear those girls have knees that bend both ways.

The next day was pouring rain, but still warm. We walked for a very long time to get to La Boca, a colorful Italian immigrant part of town that I have heard much about and was curious to see. Unfortunately it's incredibly touristy, and along with the colorful buildings and cobblestone streets, it felt more like Disneyland than a neighborhood! It was fun to see it though, although we didn't want to hang out there too long. We spent the second half of the day in swanky Palmero on the north side of town. This was SUCH a cute area!! The zoo, botanical gardens, and acres of park are all located in this area as well. There are tons of super cute shops, wider streets, and green leafy trees. It felt a little bit like being in France, or somewhere nice in Europe. We read about a good parilla restaurant in the neighborhood that we decided to check out. As soon as we started walking down Guatemala street and the restaurant sign read Don Julio (my beloved flute teacher) I knew this was going to be a good place. We stepped off the cobblestone into the bright yet cozy brick restaurant, walls covered with wine bottles and leather hides, and a huge Parilla grill front and center. We spent the rainy afternoon with a room full of other Argentines enjoying the amazing grilled meat, potatoes and more potatoes, and great Malbec.

It was by far the tastiest and most memorable meal we had treated ourselves to, and the bill came out to around $40 - not bad considering our steaks alone should have cost at least that! Argentina in general was obviously not as cheap as Bolivia but noticeably cheaper than the US.

Anyways, after wandering the adorable streets for a bit, we headed home on the subway. Our hostel was having live music, which we watched for a bit. Later we went out for one last heavenly ice cream, and then we had to pack our bags to leave early the next morning.

Now that our stomachs were finally feeling better and we were having such a grand time eating and exploring, it was sad to have to pack up and go. I would have much preferred to get some treats from the bakery and go see the famous cemetery at Recoleta the next day, but instead we had to take a taxi and three flights home.

Don't cry for me Argentinaaaa! (Although I might cry for you!)

Across the Andes

Leaving Santiago and driving towards the Andes reminded us both of driving through much of California. It was dry, the weather was beautiful, and grape vines and olive groves covered the landscape, with low hills in the distance.

Then we began our ascent into the massive, barren mountains....

This was not fun on a bus!

We passed a couple glaciers!

And Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the America's at almost 7,000 meters. It did not look inviting, and good luck to anyone trying to climb that thing!

We came to an indoor border crossing, since most of the time it is snowing in the pass. It wasn't snowing when we were there, but it was plenty windy and freezing.

It was a completely different border crossing experience than at Bolivia. Very quick and efficient and all around painless. And thankfully we didn't have to pay the Reciprocity Fee to enter Argentina since apparently it only applies when entering Buenos Aires by air. (Most South American countries charge Americans what America charges them to enter the U.S. Hence there are not many American tourists as it can heftily add up!!)

Coming down on the Argentina side was absolutely beautiful! It was a bit more green and lush, with horses and fields, lakes and mountains...

We got to Mendoza around 9 or 10 p.m. We thought it was time for bed, but when we got into town, everyone was sitting out on the sidewalks and in restaurants having dinner. After an hour of hunting for a hotel, we finally found one and collapsed for the night (dinner would have to wait!)

Santiago, Chile

There we were in Santiago - on the one hand we were both stomach sick and exhuasted, but on the other hand it was so nice to be in a bright, bustling almost European feeling city. The weather was great, felt exactly like California, the air felt so good and breatheable, and it was a pretty and modern city with beautiful old buildings and plaza's.

The first day we mostly napped, watched TV, ate saltine crackers and drank my triumphantly hunted Gatorade. We had to take the metro to the bus station to buy tickets to Mendoza, which wiped us out for the rest of the day.

The second day we were both feeling well enough to walk around the city. After a delicious breakfast of a couple crackers and Gatorade, we set off. Santiago is an easily walkable city - most of the main buildings, parks, plaza's and markets are all in the same area. There is also a huge pedestrian street, which has tons of shops and restaurants and is fun to walk down.

Jordi eating the omnipresent Mote con Huesillo - a sweet peach nectar with corn. Sounds weird, but people ate/drank it like their life depended on it.

Playing and watching chess is a happening pastime

Relaxing in the huge, shady park

Fresh Chilean Sea Bass (and some live music) at the Fish Market

We walked around and saw all the sights, stopping for Huesillo, a rest in the park, and fresh fish at the market. So although we hadn't planned on spending much time in Santiago, we really enjoyed getting to see it a bit!

That night was another exciting night of dubbed TV and me feeling sicker. I really do think that dubbing should be illegal. Do you think Adam Sandler has his own personal dubber, so that every movie he is in he sounds the same?

Anyways, the next day we packed up our things and headed out to the bus station for our journey across the Andes!

Valentine's Day

As I was slouching on the side of the street in La Paz blowing my nose, Jordi asked me which way up or down the street I wanted to go exploring. I said the only way I wanted to go was back in the hotel where our backpacks were being stored to ask for a room. He agreed $35 was a good price to pay for at least a couple hours sleep, and deemed it my Valentines Day present, which was fine with me.
We were given a room, and instead of traipsing around La Paz until it was time to go to the airport, I quickly fell asleep, waking up at 1 a.m. for the taxi ride to the airport.
I woke up feeling horrible, and once we got to the airport it was all I could do to get to our departure gate before I collapsed on the benches. Jordi checked our bags and got us through security while I either layed on the tile floor or on benches somewhat following his progress.
We finally got on the plane where thankfully I got a row to myself and fell asleep.
We landed in Iquique, and once again I flopped and crawled on the tile floor, following Jordi through customs and security onto our next flight to Santiago.
(We were super lucky to have a layover in Iquique because a direct landing in Santiago would have cost us $140 each, according to our research!)
Anyways, we landed in Santiago, by which time I was at least feeling well enough to stand up and walk without pain. We grabbed our stuff and booked it out of the airport before anyone could charge us $140, and were feeling very excited we had escaped the fee.
Our plan was to then go to a bus stop and get a 7 hour bus to Mendoza, Argentina. We didn't have any books on Chile or Chilean money, and were only planning on spending a couple hours to maybe a night there.
We got into a taxi and asked the driver to take us to the bus station. Jordi remembered he didn't have any money, so we stopped at a gas station ATM. Once at the station, the driver asked for 65,000 Chilean. We were retarded and didn't know the exchange rate, and gave him what he asked. Once at the bus station, all tickets were sold out for the day, and Jordi realized the 65,000 Chilean translated to 135 dollars.
I thought we brought it upon ourselves by not knowing the rates, or checking the ticker, but Jordi was so mad he could no longer concentrate on busses, and ushered us back into a taxi to the airport to go look for this sneak.
I sighed and resigned myself to our vengeance task.
We paid the driver $10 and found our terminal, although we didn't see our bald, fat taxi friend. We reported to the airport police, who were very sympathetic and thought he would probably be long gone by now, but gave us a pamphlet of tourist tips, one of which was to only take "official" taxi's, and not just any taxi.
We collapsed at a cafe as we wondered what to do next. I got up and was wandering around when I thought I saw him, holding up a taxi sign. I stopped and stared, and one of the plainsclothes police that had helped us before asked if I saw him. I said it looked like him, but I wasn't sure....just then, like a flash, Jordi ran past us both, grabbed the taxi driver by the shirt and started demanding our money in Spanish. I ran to help him - the driver was trying to get away! But he was old and fat, and we didn't let him get anywhere. He was telling us to calm down, and that he'd take us to his car and pay us back. I yelled to the police, AYUDANOS! and the police came and intervened. I had to go back and watch over our luggage, but they took Jordi and the driver back to the car where he paid Jordi back everything. The police filed a report for us, and told us we were very lucky he wasn't a professional, and to watch out when we get to Argentina because things are worse there.
We were so happy and "justified", and I was very proud of Jord for coming back to try and get this guy, and I'm glad we did before he scammed more people!
Anyways, we decided to just get a hotel for the night and worry about bus tickets later. We took a bus to the center of town, put on our packs and trecked around in the heat looking for a hotel. (which I didn't mind because I was so happy about being able to breathe normal air, finally) We finally found one within our price range, and as soon as I took off my backpack, I flopped on the bed and didn't move for hours.
Jordi eventually woke me up to go get some dinner. We walked for a bit and went to an Italian restaurant, where we were definitely the only tourists. All kinds of people came in carrying flowers or teddy bears, and we realized it was Valentines Day.
"Still??" I asked. I couldn't believe it was still the same day.
I could barely eat, as I still felt pretty sick, and we went back to the hotel and quickly fell asleep.
Until Jordi woke up violently and viciously sick in all sorts of ways. Apparently something he ate didn't agree with him, and he was up for hours in the bathroom. At 4 a.m. we were out of water, and I had to force myself out of bed to go look for some. Thankfully, the hotel had some bottled bubbly water, which lasted us a couple more hours, but wasn't ideal.
I forced myself out of bed a bit later to go out on the town looking for supplies. I walked for at least an hour, but came back victorious with cold water "sin gas" and gatorade!
What a Valentines Day saga! Jordi spent the rest of the day not quite as sick, and I didn't feel well either. We read Alice in Wonderland to eachother, watched a lot of TV and drank gatorade. We had to trek to the bus station to buy tickets, and in the eveing I found some Miso Soup take-out, but that was our day. My mother wisely instructed us to lay low until we were feeling well enough to travel, so we stayed in Santiago another two nights.