Tuesday, November 25, 2008 

Warsaw

We had a lot of fun in Warsaw! It was snowing when our plane landed and was really cold the whole time we were there. The snow was beautiful though and we just layered a lot to stay warm. I got to try some traditional Polish food during our stay but we mostly ate out at American restaurants. Yes, I actually went all the way to Poland and then ate at McDonald's and KFC both of which are places I don't even like to eat at when I'm home in Oklahoma. The Polish food I tried was delicious and the McD's and KFC...well, those two weren't my ideas. Here are a few pictures we took in Warsaw...


Old Towne



Tomb of the Unknown Soldier


Palace of Culture


This is a park that we walked through while doing some site seeing. I thought the snow was pretty. The ground was a little slick but I made it all the way through without falling (if you know me at all you should be very impressed by that. haha)


Jason and I at the train station getting ready to head to Vienna



We took a lot more pictures than this but I'm having trouble uploading any more of them to blogger. We had a lot of fun site seeing and visiting with the people at the church. They were kind enough to prepare a turkey dinner for us on Sunday in honor of our Thanksgiving holiday.

We also bought some souvenirs (some of which we had to ship home). Going to the post office in Warsaw was an adventure in and of itself. Nobody there spoke English so we had some trouble purchasing things like bubble wrap. I'm hoping our packages make it to their destination...but there's really no way to know if we even filled out the forms correctly. So, Mom & Laura...if your Christmas presents don't make it to you that's probably why.

Sunday, November 23, 2008 

PARIS

Well, it's been an exciting trip so far! The fun started in Oklahoma City...we saw Barry Switzer at the airport and BJ Novak was on our flight to Atlanta. Okay so I didn't walk up to him and ask if that's who he was but he looked way to much like him for it to be a coincidence. I couldn't stop watching him in the airport because he was sitting at our gate. I wanted to take a picture of him from where I was sitting but that may have come across as a little weird and creepy. haha. But how often do you see celebrities in the OKC airport?

As you can imagine, I already have lots of stories to share about the things we've done and seen in Europe so far. But I don't have a ton of time to sit and write them down right now (the trip is only half over so I have more exciting things to do than sit on the internet) so I will just share a few pictures with you.



The Louvre


Notre Dame


Eiffel Tower

Moulin Rouge

(They were doing some kind of renovation on it so we couldn't get a great picture)

We walked all over Paris the first day we were there. Seriously, we walked from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower. As if we weren't tired enough by that time, we walked up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower too. We actually thought we bought tickets to take the elevator thing to the top. But once we got inside the gate we realized that we had just purchased tickets to walk up. I can't believe you have to pay to walk up the stairs!! They should have paid us to do that since we had to do all the work...haha. We took a ton of pictures and saw as much as we could in the time we were there.

We still have a lot more walking to do around Warsaw & Vienna.

Monday, November 10, 2008 

umbrella

Is there such thing as an umbrella engineer? Or have there been studies done on how to make umbrellas in order to most effectively keep the user dry? How about a study on the best materials to use in making an umbrella?

I’m not a collector of umbrellas nor have I ever spent much time thinking about them or analyzing the way they are made. However, I will have to admit that my umbrella was on my mind this morning. It was pouring outside on my way to work today and my windshield wipers were moving at warp speed. When I pulled into the parking lot at work I gathered my things and grabbed my umbrella before getting out of the car. It was raining so hard that I knew I would get wet but I wanted to make an effort to keep my hair dry. As I stepped out of the car there was a huge boom of thunder and flash of lighting. I knew the lightning was close and the umbrella I was holding in my hand had a metal pole. So I had to quickly decide whether I wanted to be soaked by the time I got inside my office or risk getting struck by lightning. I risked it!! I managed to make it inside without being struck by lightning although I was still soaked…all except for my hair which made me happy. One of my coworkers was not as lucky as me. Her umbrella flipped inside out in the wind and she ended up getting wet…hair and all.

So I got to thinking…why do they make umbrellas out of metal? I mean, there’s a good chance that when it’s raining outside it’s also storming. Why not make the umbrella out of plastic or wood? When there’s lighting the last thing you want to have in your hand is something metal, right? Also, is there some material that would stand up to the wind better? Or at least something that wouldn’t be permanently bent or broken if the wind flipped it inside out? Perhaps someone else has already pondered all of this and come up with a solution. In that case, I am way behind the times and unnecessarily exposing myself to the risk of being struck by lightning by carrying around a metal umbrella.

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