Coming Soon....CUBA – July 2007

Location:

Travel Buddies:

Overview:

PUERTO RICO - April 2007

Location: San Juan, Fajardo, Culebra, & Vieques – Puerto RicoTravel

Buddies: Judson Girls – Grande Foot (stephie), Grande Mole (jaja), Grande Tooth (cay), Teta Grande (bel), Grande _____ (yoks), Pescado Grande (me)
Jerry “Birthday Boy” Orellana, Jeff Ho, Lynn & bf, Gerard

Overview: The Judson Girls went to Puerto Rico for Jerry’s 30th Birthday. This was the first time all 6 of us were together on a vacation adventure! Jerry wanted to have a destination birthday for his big 3-0…relaxing & partying in PR is definitely a great way to enter your 30’s! We stayed in Old San Juan at the Hotel Milano for the long weekend getaway. We enjoyed the days on the beach and took ferries from Fajardo to Culebra & Vieques…what wonderful little islands off the main land! We also had a chance to visit El Yunque, the National Rainforest....we hiked & enjoyed the waterfalls…malamig! In the evening…we salsa’ed the night away at our old faithful, the Nuyorican & other fine establishments. It was a great trip with the chicas de Judson…many more great memories were shared!

Guest entry from Stephie Chang:

JUDSON TAKES PR

...so after 10 years of friendship, the judson girls FINALLY decided to take a vacation together... of course, we've travelled together before, but someone was always missing... until NOW!... and what a trip it was...

...let me give you a little background on JUDSON... it all started many moons ago when the G-CAPS (aka "4 filipinas and 1 japanese girl living at campbell hall who bestowed upon themselves a lame name") invited little old stephie to be their 6th roomate to live in the JUDSON suites on busch campus... 6 GIRLS - ONE BATHROOM... you do the math... from that day forward we were INSEPARABLE ... we took classes, partied, ate, slept, shopped and studied together... three of us pledged the same sorority... we shared clothes and boys... two of us have even kissed (if you can call it that)... "she was all teeth!"... lol... and i refuse to divulge anything further...

...needless to say, we've shared countless memories... and our return to PR (for some of us, their 4th time!) was just another opportunity to create more... below are some lame/funny moments... we're putting the really good stuff on our travelling pants...

Part I: JUDSON TAKES PR - "good grief"

cay and stax outshining the locals @ nuyorican

lohan waiting for the girls at the completely opposite and wrong end of the airport

cay, ja, yoks, bel and lohan passed out on flamenco beach while stax spent two hours on the phone booking the bioluminscent kayak tour

not going on the bioluminescent kayak tour

stax: "i can't wait to go salsa dancing!"
lohan: "stace, PLEASE STOP calling it 'SALSA DANCING'... it's just 'SALSA'"
stax: "i can't wait to hear salsa music!"
lohan: =0

yoks and lohan really getting into the live HS Band on the ferry

that slutbucket local who practically sat on lohan while we were on the ferry and looked at me like I WAS doing something wrong

ANDRES!! "i'm gay too!"

WALGREEN'S COFFEE

yoks assisting cay w/ parking the rental car by standing outside and directing cay right into another car... that was not just a dent... the fender was CRACKED... good job girls! you win the judson award for DOH!

Judson's rendition of DO-RE-MI

stax being a crankster

stax sleeping w/ her mouth open

lohan SERVING stax because of her unecessarily rough tone

lohan crying after =(

stax and lohan talking it out at the El San Juan

that new yorker w/ GINORMOUS TATAS... why was she even TRYING to get on that floatation device when she had two of her own!?

tooling around in the ESJ pool and that fricken waterfall.... NOT THE LEAST BIT SEXY!

when they said there was nothing on Red Beach in Vieques, they weren't kidding

lohan killing an anthill full of ants... oopsy poopsy... they never knew what hit them

those nasty sour oranges that we bought from the vendor on vieques

ja and lohan going to pick stax up a cup of coffee at that coffee stand... "tres cafes pequenos por favor"... turning around and seeing the miniature foam cups... i felt like a giant

ordering ham, egg and cheese "tortillas" thinking they were something special

ham, egg and cheese tortilla = omelette

bel running into that guy from her town who was wearing THAT SHIRT

stax asking those two girls @ ESJ: "do these swimming pool bands get us into the clubs?" ... WHO DOES THAT?!

stax: "excuse me... where is your bano?"

the mechanical bull

...time for dinner... to be continued...

Part II: JUDSON TAKES PR - "wifebeaters and pink skirts"

CHICAGO – February 2007

Location: Chicago, IL and Mount Prospect, IL

Travel Buddies: Work @ RSG in Chicago. Visited Nate from HFH, Paige, Cristian, & Kim from Grow.

Overview: I went to work at a vendor in Mount Prospect, IL and stayed over the long weekend to enjoy the below zero degree weather & watch the XLI Super Bowl in which the Chicago Bears battled the Indianapolis Colts. The game was a good time, but the Bears were not triumphant...the town was still buzzing regardless of the wind chill factor!

• Most famous line said on my trip to Chicago stated by everyone I met:
  "Stay warm its cold out there.....Go Bears!"

TAHOE/SAN FRANCISCO – January 2007

Location: Kirkwood in Tahoe, Costa Noa, & San Francisco

Travel Buddies:

Overview:

ECUADOR – December 2006

Location: Quito, Santo Domingo, & Galapagos Islands

Travel Buddies: Amanda Bullard, Lisa Verpleough, Tracy Ong, Nate Riegler, David Costa, Peter Villata, Brad Cope, Brad Stewart, Dan Harris, Dan Price, Cathy Stork, Jillian Garcia, Jeffrey Short, Greg Pumple

Overview: Another amazing trip with Habitat for Humanity. We worked in Santo Domingo for 5 days, stayed in Quito for a few days & 9 of us went to the Galapagos Islands. Ecuador is a beautiful, mountainous country. Galapagos is one of the most beautiful & uninhabited places I’ve been to. The serenity of this place is exquisite.

• Before using a highway call someone to check if the road is open…Ecuadorians may be on strike and block the only road to your destination.
• When building a house in Ecuador, you must have Wheelbarrow Pedro on site…nobody has wheelbarrow skills quite like him.
• Building a HFH house in Ecuador es muy dificil…too much rebar & cement & twisting with the key.
• One’s forearm can become extremely sore just by twist, twist, twisting the wires to the rebar.
• Mixing a 10-8-2 cement mixture for a HFH home (10 sand, 8 rocks, & 2 cement) is entirely too much for one batch!
• Balloons come in handy when taking pics of Miguelito…it’s like an Ecuadorian fig leaf.
• There is not enough bug spray in DEL MUNDO to keep the mosquitoes away in Ecuador…and there is definitely not enough anti-itch cream to stop scratching!
• La Mitad DEL MUNDO is no exactly the center of the earth…it was measured in 1736 & was later found to be inaccurate. Museo Solar Inti Nan is supposedly the real site of the equator.
• Toilet Flushing Theory a.k.a. the Coriolis Force is a hoax! The Coriolis effect which causes weather systems to veer right in the northern hemisphere & left in the southern hemisphere has no effect on small bodies of water. The toilet flushing clockwise or counter clockwise is due to plumbing, eddies in the water, shape of the basin, & other factors.
• La Finca de Emilio es Cien Porciento Natural…No Quemicos!
• Oranges, Cocoa, & Rubber in Ecuador es el major en DEL MUNDO!
• You can buy 2 dozen roses for $1.00 in Ecuador and they are the best in DEL MUNDO!
• Cuy is an Ecuadorian delicacy which is a guinea pig…tastes like duckish chicken.
• You can fit 15 gringos in the back of a pick up truck and occasionally forget about them when driving too fast!
• Never grab sugar cane from the top…you will have mas espinillas that can blend with blonde arm hair eastily, making it muy dificil to take it out!
• Be cautious when walking past an Ecuadorian bus stop…its made @ Ecuadorian height…it might just smack your head…if you are 6’3” and hit it, well then you deserve it.
• Ecuadorian wine is NOT the best in DEL MUNDO!
• Avoid Tex-Mex and Margaritas in Ecuador…es NOT el major DEL MUNDO!
• The condor is the 2nd biggest bird in Ecuador…only second to the KFC chicken!
• Nate & Amanda do the best “DEL MUNDO” in the world!
• Do not drop water on the second floor of a restaurant…the patrons on the first floor will get wet.
• Do not take someone else’s sea sickness prescription patch…your mouth will be dry & your pupils extremely dilated causing you to look like a shark!
• The person playing P.I.G. doing all the yapping is always the loser!
• Being concerned about the tree house caretaker’s sleeping habits will also make you the P.I.G.
• When sleeping in the tree house you can bless people sneezing in the other room.
• C in Latin America means caliente…not cold!
• Hold your nose jumping off water falls or bots!
• Flash photography in the tortoise ranch will get you 5-10.
• Never call a sea lion a seal, a sea star a starfish, or a lava cone a mountain…OK FINE!

WISCONSIN – October 2006

Location: Waukesha, WITravel Buddies: Work @ Delzer

Overview: Another trip for work to Dairy Land!

• You can create your very own mahjong crew in Waukesha, WI in a French crepe place! 1 Asian from New York & 3 middle age Caucasian women from Wisconsin! We can also knit in between matches!

SAN FRANCISCO – August/September 2006

SAN FRANCISCO – August/September 2006

Location: Hayward, CA – San Francisco, CATravel Buddies: Work @ Best Strategy

Overview: Trips to SF for work, got to hang out with SF friends & attend Jennifer & Kaveh’s wedding!

• Margaritas at ______ when you order by the glass are entirely too strong!
• Pay attention when following someone for directions, you may end up pulling into a strangers driveway!
• You can find Maverick’s with proper directions…this is California!

GREECE – August 2006

Location: Athens, Mykonos, & Santorini (Thira)

Travel Buddies: Ja (tzanelle) & Cheryl (erifili) & me (erotisis)

Overview: Beautiful country with exquisite views in Santorini, great night life in Mykonos & amazing sunsets on all islands! Greece is a great country to visit, next destination in Greece I would like to go to is Rhodes, Ios, & Crete.

• In order to get a tan on the Greek Islands you must use carrot extract…the usual SPF 30 from USA just doesn’t cut it. You will need to be in Greece for at least 2 months if you don’t use the carrotean!
• If taking inter island ferries, only book the large boats…the smaller, cuter boats just may tip over scarring the bejesus out of you and making you nauseous the entire ride.
• Do not ask too many questions when ordering from waiters…just order damnit, don’t’ you know what you want to eat?
• Mousaka….good, Souvlaki…good, freddoccino…good, sea bream, gavro, horta (dandelion), pitas (gyros), tsadizki….all good!
• Be extremely cautious on the Thromo of Death…that road is crazy! There are no sidewalks, insane bus drivers, smart cars, atvs, & motorcycles coming from all directions!
• If men on the beach are wearing tighties and showing all their junk, they are not necessarily a poof.
• Please do not expect much room in a European hotel bathroom. Also be aware that shower heads are handheld…you have a 90% chance of it getting out of your hands & soaking the entire bathroom!
• Be wary of a greek couple that hesitates to take a picture of stupid americans. You may get a roll of the eye & refuse to look at them across the table for the rest of the night. =\ to top it off the idiot husband closes the camera instead of taking the pic.
• Our new favorite house song is “World Hold On” by Bob “Bubba” Sinclair. Greeks/Italians love Seven Nation Army house version…even if the club doesn’t play it, they will sing it!
• When asking for directions in Greece it will only take you 2-3 blocks per inquiry. Be prepared to ask multiple times to reach your destination! Nobody knows where Thromo Mousson is in Athens.
• The Aegean Sea: super salty, but does make you extremely buoyant & the fish tasty. no swell, thus no waves, tide does not change, great for daily swims for Team America & being a beached whale!
• Don’t bother packing heels when traveling to mykonos or santorini…cobble stones everywhere. Even with flats & flipflops there is still a possibility to fall on your ass!
• Going on vacation with Cheryl for the second time, without much interaction in between i should understand when she says “you know me”.
• A typical bus ride in mykonos goes something like this…bus is packed, driver is not paying attention, begins talking on the phone, then starts hitting on girls on bus , and continues smoking a cigarette. All this happening simultaneously!
• If you must take a bus at 6:00 am after partying hard all night be prepared to chase the door of the bus. When the bus driver finally opens the door expect to be squashed as you try to get on yelling for your 2 traveling buds to get on too.
• Aussie is pronounced with a zed.
• Vanilla Restaurant in Firostefania is a great restaurant! Great food , great service, & everyone is so friendly!

CABO SAN LUCAS – July 2006

Location: Cabo San Lucas, MexicoTravel Buddies: Ja, Yoks, Bel, & Andrea

Overview: Cabo is a pretty place with a lot of good surf breaks. It was a nice, relaxing vacation with my girls. Night life was okay, but we did a lot of activities during the day to make up for it.

• Only get good surf instructors like Tito Hernandez from Baja Wild that are not into long boarding. He will stay with you the entire time & really help you out. Most instructors stay with you for the first ½ hour then ditch your ass & ride all the waves…but they are hotties!
• Do not put 2 small Asians in a kayak together…the wind and currents will push you in the wrong direction & you will be drifting uncontrollably to the main land!
• Do not nervously laugh when being drifted to the main land…Pedro will tell you “this is serious girls, it’s not funny”
• Try not to make CABO signs like YMCA in the pool…you will look like foolios!
• When you stay at a spa hotel like bel & andrea you will smell eucalyptus the minute you enter the building.
• Cabo Taco is cabo’s version of Surf Taco in NJ.

HOUSTON, TEXAS – May 2006

Location: Montgomery & Houston - Texas

Travel Buddies: Carmelo, Alex, Julia, Loren – Stewart & Melissa

Overview: