Happy New Year

HI EVERYONE and WELCOME to my blog and New Years letter!
(regular blog readers just consider this a recap of the past year) :)

I had such good intentions of actually sending out a "Christmas letter." I even started writing it the beginning of December, unlike the past couple of years where I haven't written any letters, and I figure people will probably stop sending me their letters if I never actually make contact as well. That was the point of THIS letter, that I never got around to writing (too much holiday flying, so sorry). So this has turned a slightly belated New Years blog post, but it's better than nothing, I hope. Enough of the excuses...feel free say hello and to leave a comment at the end if you like.

I hope you are all well, I haven’t talked to some of you in quite a while, but thanks for keeping me up to date with Christmas letters and birth announcements and all. I really have appreciated you keeping in touch and have loved seeing what you are up to. I would, of course, have sent announcements to you if I had wed or birthed anyone. But instead, I will tell you what I HAVE been up to!!!

I am still working as an international flight attendant for Continental Airlines. I LOVE it. It’s crazy, I never would have guessed that I would have done this or liked it, but it is great and works for me.

A bit of what I have been up to the past year:

My sister Alicia came to visit me in January. It was very cold. Too bad she had to experience New York City for the first time in single digit temps.

In March I moved to from Newark to Harlem in New York City. If you don’t know NYC that well, it’s not scary like you might be imagining. It’s actually a really great place to live. I love living in New York, there’s always something to do, and I love all the culture and diversity here. I have been able to see lots of Broadway plays and take people around the city when they come to town. But I get to travel often and come back to Utah often too, so it’s nice, because then I don’t miss anywhere too much.

In April, my friend D’Arcy and I went to Spain for a whirlwind vacation. We forgot to plan time to eat or sleep. We drove throughout a good portion of Spain which was both beautiful and terrifying (really narrow roads). We went from Barcelona to Valencia to Granada to Tangier, Morocco to Cordoba to Toledo (where I drove on the smallest roads EVER) to El Escorial to Madrid, plus a bunch of other small cities, of which I do not remember their names. All we ate was JAMON (ham). My Spanish improved and I learned the importance of eating “para llevar” (to go). We were there during Holy Week, which is the busiest and most expensive time of year to go (brilliant choice of vacation time!), and we found ourselves forced to stay in 5-star hotels for a few nights because those were the only places that had vacancies. But I really, really loved Spain.




My friend April stayed with me for a little while and we went to Long Beach, New York.

In May, summer flying started. This basically means that I worked ALL the time, which since I like my job, is not too bad. I went to Stockholm, Sweden, where it stays light till almost midnight, and is one of the cleanest cities in the world. I went to Frankfurt, Brussels, and Lisbon, Portugal, where I kept getting upset that I couldn’t understand anything because Portuguese is close enough to Spanish where I think I should, but different enough that I can’t understand anything. Then in July and August, I just started going to Paris. I went there more than anywhere and realized I better learn more French. I also went to Rome with Clara and Brian for 5 days, since they moved there for the summer.

In between all of this, I also go to the UK and Ireland ALL the time, so much that I should have dual citizenship, or at least get a break on the horrible exchange rate or something.

I really love the Belgian Waffles in Belgium.

Me and my old roommate Laura on the metro in Paris. Laura LOVES public transportation.


In October, I went to Switzerland on vacation with D’Arcy. We went to the Alps, Zurich, and some other small towns that I can't pronounce or remember all of them, but I know they involve taking a very small cable car up a mountain.


In family news, my sister Alicia got married a year and a half ago to a fantastic guy named John, and my brother Brian’s wife Clara is pregnant, and having a boy in March. They don't have a name yet, so I’m calling him Maximo (they lived in Rome for the summer, so we've been thinking Italian). My parents are thrilled to be getting a grandchild, since I have not supplied them with one yet. I got Christmas off this year and was able to be home for a few days, which was fantastic.

I hope you are all doing well, thanks for the cards and email updates.

Love,

Michelle