Happy Leap Year Day!

I like leap years because it's a good time to reflect on time past. New Years and birthdays are also appropriate times to reflect however those reflections are from the year past. At least with Leap Year, it provides the chance to see where I was four years ago, recollect on 2004 and remember what a great year it was.

My life consisted then of:

• being the uber-workaholic.
• being the uber-single girl (i.e. the mild version of "Samantha" from Sex in the City)
• understanding the true meaning of worry. This was the year that my dad went to Iraq.
• becoming an independent. It took awhile for me to understand the value of a dollar and what it was like to live outside of my parents hold.
• an adventurer.

This was the year I turned twenty-five which allowed me to do a lot of new things which included...




• being the bridesmaid at my best friends wedding






• an Emmy nomination








• east coast traveling which included the lost wallet debauchery






• skydiving!









• Kauai travels








• first and only tattoo








• Dad came home safely








• lasik - freedom from the glasses and contacts





Taking the trip down memory lane after four years makes me smile, it gives me the opportunity to reflect, discover old photos and dust off the memories of time past. I prefer the reflections of time past with leap year. Thinking of fast forwarding to 2012, I wonder what I will remember about 2008.

"Life is what happens to you...

...when you're busy making other plans." - john lennon

So how far ahead am I allowed to start planning? I don't have my life planned out however I do have up until the end of 2010 planned out and it scares yet excites me at the same time. So am I busy making plans? Yes and the plans are wonderful, exciting, challenging, nurturing, foreign, exhilarating and scary. They are also plans combined with my loved one and that scares the bejesus out of me too! But it's a new lesson I've learned about love: it's okay to look to the future and do some planning.

I know that a lot can happen between now and the beginning of 2010 but this it is something that allows me to day dream. Without giving too much away, the short term (yet semi-long term) dream is: quit the job. Travel to Europe in April heading east towards Moscow. Once there, take the Trans-Siberia train through Russia, Mongolia and China (just thinking about this makes me super-dooper excited). Venture towards Vietnam in time for the Hue Festival in June and meet up with my parents. Tour through Vietnam for awhile, head into Laos and Cambodia. Once in Cambodia, do some volunteering through United Planet for a couple weeks. Then head to Thailand where we can relax and unwind from the journey on a small island. From that point, the planning ends. We might end back in the States or end up living somewhere in Europe.

Now of course, life happens when you're busy making other plans. So these are our long distance dreams. And not until next year will I start believing that this dream will become a reality because who knows what will happen with life. However I am the kind of silly person who envisions these things because thinking positively about it helps (*disclaimer: I have seen "the Secret" however I have always been the kind of feel-good-hippie person who believed in this kind of thinking before "the Secret" became tainted by being on Oprah's book club).

I'm excited about returning one day to Cambodia, a truly amazing country that I feel in love with. Although I wonder what other countries I might fall in love with...









•ta prom temple, cambodia•

drinks after work?

I never realized how much of a staple this was when I lived in La La Land. After a long and stressful day at work, we would all release the chain tied to our ankle and head out to the local bar for some beer and greasy fries. Although the majority of the conversations was work talk, it helped to release all the bottled up frustrations we had. I miss those days. Not the stress, frustrations or poor hell of my old job. I miss the days of hanging out with my coworkers after work and enjoying a cold Guinness.

I work at a small ad agency in San Jose now. Small might be an overstatement considering I work with six other people. The work load isn't too stressful and no one takes their work home. They are also all married with families so the concept of heading out for drinks after work is only a distant memory for them.

I think that I need to start an after work drinking group for people who can't go out drinking with their co-workers... Oh wait, isn't that considered a bar?











•mmm beer•

accidental photos

I surf through all these blogs and many of them have "themes." It makes me wonder if I should consider morphing mine into some thematic "blog form" and maybe at some point, there will be that shift. However as I learn to allow my thoughts/writings/photos become accessible to the public blog world, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and that's just spewing out what comes out of me.

So on that note, here's at least a series of something. I'm by no means a photographer. In fact, I own one point and shoot digital camera and know hardly anything about the bells and whistles. However I do consider myself an accidental photographer because there are times when I just happen to capture a photo that even surprises myself. Here are just a few taken over my summer 07 adventure through Europe and Asia. Maybe I'll post more accidents as they come.

• London Underground during rush hour. I love the angles in this photo but I think that for those who have been in the underground during rush hour, space is limited. I am surprised that I captured this blank space during their busy times.

• Park Montjuic, Barcelona. Captured the bird at the right moment along with the puff of cloud that looks like the sun.

• Las Ramblas, Barcelona. I did a walk by with this photo, not even looking into the viewfinder to take it and the alignment of the art and the windows from the buildings are almost parallel.

• Hoi An, Vietnam. I am not sure why I like this photo, perhaps it's all the layers of fishing nets, palm trees with a hint of the palapa.


• Hue, Vietnam. I snapped this photo while I was on the back of a motorbike. Although you don't go too fast on the motorbikes, I was surprised at the clarity and bright colors of this photo.

• Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi. A very serene sitting in Vietnam, the sun had just set and everyone was gathered around the lake enjoying their evening meal. The composition of this photo really makes me smile.

• Ayunthaya, Thailand. My eye tends to lean towards these perspectives. These meditating Buddhas was during the Kathina Ceremony which is the time of year when new robes and other offerings are given to the monks.

• Taipei, Taiwan. This foot path is based off reflexology and you walk barefoot across the path and can sit at the bench, putting pressure on the points that ail you. This walk was a bitch and the pain was so excruciating that I could only walk a short distance. Maybe I had a lot that ailed me during my trip?

• Taipei, Taiwan. There was a botanical garden that sits below the National Museum and on the third floor is a tea room. This photo was taken just before I entered the museum which ended up being a great haven from the 2 hour storm that drenched the city. This is my favorite photo and signifies the final part of my trip.

things to do list- version 1.1

We all have them, the grocery list of life of what we want to accomplish. The list is ever growing in the back of my mind but it's something to get started with.

• learn Dutch. It's a slow process trying to learn a new language in your late twenties however as long as I learn the basics, it will help with the transition at the point of time the bags are packed for the "next big step in life" step.

• brush up on my Vietnamese and Spanish. I understand enough Vietnamese and Spanish to get by however I am ashamed at how "Americanized" my Vietnamese is so I need to work on that. Best way to learn is the live in the country though or at least travel for a significant amount of time (goal date: 2010).

• run the marathon. It's a huge feat that I want to make a reality. There is also a lot of dedication and training that is involved in it but I'm the kind of person who needs the extra boost, that additional motivation and perhaps running in a pack of other sweaty people will push me even further. Registration starts April 12th for a 28-week program. So I have about a month and a half to think this through fully.

• finish my hang gliding adventure. On my twenty sixth birthday, I decided to treat myself to an experience with the birds. I suited up, strapped up against my pilot, only to have the winds kick in and be denied of this experience. It was a true tease but everything happens for a reason. This adventure can be done really easily in Sylmar, my parents home so I'm thinking a Spring excursion there will help get me in the air again.

So it's a mini-list right now but that's acceptable. If this list was too long, than I wouldn't ever be able to accomplish anything from it. This way, it's short and I'm sure that by the year's end, at least one or two of these items can be taken off my things to do list.

great photo or great photoshop?

one year, seven months later

So apparently, I've had a blogger account since 2006 and it has been dormant. Why resurrect it after so long? Part of it is voyeurism, I am a "next blog" clicker so I always read what people all over the world write and in the back of my mind, I think that I need to start writing again. I did a mildly decent job of writing of my Around the World adventures (ebbets.whereareyou.net) but even so, I look back and almost wish that I wrote a little bit more, shared more of my experiences or posted more pictures. But like almost anything else in life, I learned and figured that it was time to take the dust off this site and start writing in it a little more frequently.

Few thoughts come across my mind during this evening besides the prior statement of dusting. I've just learned that my boyfriend has never sucked helium out of a balloon in order to make the funny voice. He's 30. How does a child grow up without learning the wonder of the magic voice that one gets from sucking air out of a balloon? That was a staple growing up at the children's party (sans the scary clown). Maybe it's the culture thing, he did grow up in a small town in the Netherlands.

It took me about an hour to figure out this website. I'm not the most web savvy person so I love how Google simplifies everything out which is great but considering it took me half an hour to figure out what my "website URL name" would be was a little frustrating. I was denied everything that I wanted so I had to become creative and go with the Dutch equivalent of my nickname: sleutelkaas = kimcheez. It's a nickname that I haven't used since the college days and was actually derived from kim-chee (given to me by the mean girls in elementary school), I guess that nickname still makes me laugh internally.