i'm baaaack! didja miss me? i know you missed me terribly. anyway, hope all of you had a lovely holiday season... i hope you also all got some sort of vacation time to enjoy it!

my vacation.... well, i started out with a field day down at pinnacles to see a condor release with the ventana wilderness society. unfortunately the winds were pretty high and the weather wasn't great, so the condors decided they didn't want to leave their enclosure. the actual release finally did occur on january 6, though. that night, liz, marla, and i went to see the third and final installment of the lord of the rings. yay! it was awesome. the last half hour of goodbyes and stuff is kind of draggy, but the rest of the movie is very very cool. i'm glad i got to see it before i left on my trip.

saturday, my parents and i left for our cruise... we got stranded in denver because the flight attendants didn't show up for our flight, but we made it to new orleans early sunday afternoon. we boarded our ship, the norwegian dream, and got settled in. zoltán and i had our own cabin, which was nice.

onboard the ship, we quickly found our crew of people-- all the 20-somethings that were on board with family! :) we ended up meeting up every evening in dazzles (the "nightclub") and partying until the wee hours... we started going up to the 11th deck instead, once we discovered that the dj really sucked. we requested some pearl jam and outkast, which he said he didn't have... then proceeded to play both artists the very next night! *sigh* anyway, the 11th deck party crew included: kim (30) and kristi (25) from vernon, british columbia; jason ("biggs", 21) from san antonio; shawn (26) from st. louis; james (22) from birmingham, alabama; kristin (23) and dustin (19) from cleveland, tennessee; justin from iowa; brian (25) from nyc; and my brother and myself. i got along fabulously with kristi and shawn (and pretty well with the others, too) and we all had a really good time. some of us also met up in new orleans after the trip, and continued our party trend in the crescent city.

the ship excursions ended up being mostly a bust-- the cozumel trip got cancelled, so we just walked around town. we stayed in the touristy area, which was somewhat disappointing, but we had a decent meal at a restaurant with a cool xylophonic band. i bought a lovely turquoise and silver bracelet too (i'm a sucker, i swear). honduras was sort of a bust because tabyana beach was set up purely for tourist imports. however, the drive through town and around the island was beautiful and quite interesting. i'd be very interested in going back to honduras (the mainland) for an extended trip.

belize was by far the highlight of the trip-- we took a riverboat up to the mayan ruins at lamanai, stopping along the way to see lots of interesting fauna (crocodiles, iguanas, tons of birds, etc.). i tried to take pictures of some of the animals but i'm not sure they'll come out. the ruins were really cool too, and our tour guide, mario, was very informative and interesting. the lunch served was authentic belizean food, and we got to sample some of the local liquors too (peppermint, anise, and coconut rum. yum!). my central american trip in the future will definitely focus on belize and honduras. :)

cancun was supposed to be snorkeling, but it was pouring so we cancelled the trip. zoltán and i took off for the port and spent the day exploring downtown cancun (the non-touristy part). we had an excellent lunch at a place called pablo's, with real mexican food... not that cali-mex stuff we have. the parents found an afternoon snorkel trip to go on once the rain cleared up, so they had a good day in cancun too.

new orleans was crazy! we went out on sunday and monday nights, and it was still a raging street party. i can't begin to imagine what it's like for mardi gras (nor do i think i ever want to experience it). granted, people were in town for new year's and for the sugar bowl, but still. as i walked around with my $4 half-gallon beer and watched people strip-tease for beads, i realized that this truly is the town that never sleeps. unbelievable. it was much fun though, and i would likely go back (just not at mardi gras time!). i love the fact that there's a plethora of live music, and there's always something to do (and to drink). we ate out at some very good restaurants (alex patout's on st. louis street had fabulous stuffed mushrooms and crab cakes, cafe du monde's famous beignets were delish (so much so that we went back for seconds!), and the crawfish bisque at cafe sbisa was quite tasty, too. now i have to go back to my pb&j sandwiches and bean burritos after being cuisinally spoiled for a week and a half. no!!!!

new year's was okay... went to a party at the westin st. francis on union square with kat, setareh, mark, and friends. it wasn't exactly the party i was hoping for, although we did get to watch the embarcadero fireworks from the 32nd floor of the hotel. my liver needed a break from the past nine days of partying, so i was one of the designated drivers... probably a good thing though, seeing as drinks were $9 a pop! *sigh* what a rip.

so, now i'm back at work for a day, and i'm thinking about heading to san diego for the weekend with liz and marla. hopefully i'll get to see kristin, jonathan, and anu at some point along the way, but it'll really only be a day and a half so i'm not sure how much we'll get to fit in...

RIP Anna Lisa Warga, December 28, 2003.