2012.....Is it really the end??

Recently, I returned from a very relaxing vacation to the Western Caribbean. On my journey, I was lucky to visit Tulum Ruins in Mexico. How to the spirtiual center of the Mayans. Tulum was like their library housing all the great discovery and information the Mayans discovered. Resting on a cliff over looking to turquoise blue water of the Caribbean, Tulum is anything but ordinary.

Angel, our guide for the afternoon, impressed me the most. I was touched by his passion and love for his heritage. The sheer knowledge he had for his culture and past was remarkable. If everyone cared as much as he did about their culture, the world would be a better place. Descending from Mayan heritage, Angel told us a lot about what made the Yuctan unique. Also, he informed us that the whole 2012 thing is a scam. He said the Mayan culture has never predicted the end of the world but the Mayan calendar just resets itself on Dec. 22, 2012. Shew! Hopefully, he is right.

The beach at Tulum was breathtaking. The crystal blue water, the white soft sand all surrounded by the contrasting jagged dark rock cliffs and rocks in the water created what my eyes always envisioned paradise to look like. I think the visual created a thought of a physical description of how opposites really do attract. In such close proximity, two vastly different terrains in one-spot working harmoniously together. A visual Yin and Yang. I think in life people give up to easy when there are opposing sides. I think a lot about relationships, mainly because its an area I am so weak in, but if more relationships focused on loving someone for their differences and accepting them. Like minded people aren't meant to be together. A person will never grow or be interested if there isn't a challenge.

Ending our day in Tulum, I decided to stop at Senor Frosty's.  A small restaurant outside of the ruins. I ordered 3 grouper fish tacos. The tacos were absolutely delicious! Grouper followed by layers of avacado, rice, cliantro, ei ei salsa & a splash of lime juice created a fiesta in my mouth! They were so yummy, very spicy but worth it! More Adventures to come highlighting my most recent trip!

My New Year's Resolution

This just in......I am a horrible blogger. I think I have narrowed it down to two things. 1.) I have about as much free time as the President 2.) I am haven't quite even figured out in life what my "specialty" is.  All these "bloggers" have somehow created a niche for themselves. What the heck is my niche? Geesh, I can't even figure out what I want to be when I grow up, how am I going to narrow it down to a blog topic.

So with this new year upon us, I am going to take advantage of my voice and put my fingers to work and try to document more what my "niche" is. I see so many blogs filled with ideas and words from people who have no idea what they are talking about. Me, I don't want to be like that at all. So, with that I'll start with the only "niche" I know I am good at, interesting stories ;)

Hangzhou, China - April 2011

After a long day touring Suzhou, "Sunny's Home Town" (our tour guide Sunny, ever time she mentioned Suzhou it was either introduce or followed with the words, my hometown, this is important later in the story.), we traveled south to the small suburb (a couple million people) of Hangzhou. Now on the way things got interesting. Our tour bus, filled with middle-aged couples, elderly people seeking their travel dreams, middle-aged bachelors, and us youngsters. Now, anytime you can get two beers for a dollar, well, things will get interesting.  As we started on our drive to Hangzhou, Julie & I decided to make our two hours interesting by spending some dollars and drinking some Shangsui, chinese beer. Needless to say by the end of the trip filled getting Shangsuied and a fellow travelmate bought sake at the reststop we were feeling pretty good by the time we reached Hangzhou. Along the way proved interesting as we took a slight detour into the factory country of China, where all our goods & services are made.  We ventured a huge tour bus into a narrow town filled with astonished passerbyers who obvioulsy weren't use to seeing Americans come through.
   The bus was stuck in this very tight street and for about ten minutes of pulling forward and reverse, I sat wondering how a bus full of thousands of dollars of goods could not get stolen and overthrown by all these people. USA against the rural Chinese.  Needless to say after 15 mintues, we were back on our way and drinking every time Sunny said, "her hometown."

Later that evening,  in the midst of the evening hours, we went to a local bar with none other than a group of Chinese singers singing all the classic American hits from the 1970s. Of course, they weren't ready for what I'd like to call an epic dance number to "Stayin Alive."Let's no forget about karaoke, I still regret not singing some Fleetwood Mac, oh well next time, right? Although, I didn't go out that much in China, the night we got Shangsuied, was hard to forget!

Stories from My China Adventure: Part One

Recently, I traveled to China and it was an amazing travel experience. I loved everything about it! The most exciting thing was being in an environment vastly different from the one I see daily. I was absolutely amazed at how clean Beijing was and how with 20 million people the sidewalks were as clean as downtown Charleston's streets. Beijing seems to go on and on, the city itself is miles and miles wide.

One of my favorite experiences was having lunch at a local families home. The food was AMAZING!!! We walk into this small house where there is one bedroom and one sitting room. The meal consisted of authentic Chinese food the locals eat everyday. We dined on a Chinese cabbage slaw, eggplant with cilantro and soy sauce, pork meatballs, rice, and spicy tofu. There were several things we had that I am not quite sure what they were but they were delicious!! Also, that meal we got cold coke vs. the other meals were are soda was a room temperature.

The meal:

The Summer Palace was one of my favorite places we visited in Beijing. As you walked through the gates, your ears start to hear the sounds of a chinese flute and your eyes start to see the visual of weeping willows, cherry blossom trees, and ancient architecture. We were lucky to visit China in the spring season because the new growth on everything made a beautiful landscape.

Taking Slow Steps............

Who are you suppose to be? That is a question I deal with daily. It's a confusing time in life to have some many options and the pressure with how is my life going to be affected by these decisions. The decisions aren't even huge that overcome me, sometimes the smallest anxiety overcomes me with a thought that if i would have eaten lunch a place B instead of place A, would I have met Mr. Right? 

The other thought that crosses my mind is have I made the right decisions in my life? What if I went to WVU instead of Marshall? What if I got my MBA at another school besides UC? All these past decisions would they have led me in the same exact place. I have always worried about life far more than I need to and at the same time look at life as one huge adventure. I want everything. I don't just want to be alive, I want to live. 

At one point does my quest to live become obsessive? In the midst of this quarter-life crisis when will I know that the time is right to accept my accomplishments are enough?