So…We’re Home

Before we left on the trip, I read quite a few blogs of people who went on RTW trips, and I noticed one thing that they all had in common – no matter how diligently they posted during the trip, nobody really posted much after they got back. And I thought to myself, “I won’t do that. I’ll let everyone know what it’s like after we get back! I don’t want them to worry that we’ve become homeless and jobless and are slowly starving to death while dreaming about going to Namibia!”

Um…yeah. That was the plan. But now I get why no one writes after they get back. You see, there’s this thing called REAL LIFE that takes up a lot of time.

A page from my econometrics notes.

Kids, don’t go to grad school. You’re just asking for pain. I thought matrix algebra and I parted ways to our mutual benefit after sophomore year of college. Ditto for partial derivatives. Boy, was I wrong. And being in a relationship with them is even worse and more demanding than I remember. Kids, if you think you like math, get a PhD in economics. If you think you like economics, think harder.

…

So here’s what else has been going on in our lives since we’ve gotten back. REAL LIFE has taken over. Kevin just had his first day of work last Monday after 14 months off. I’ve been in school for a month and a half. We’ve moved to a new city, furnished and decorated a new apartment and are now contributing, upstanding members of society.

Oh, and we got two kittens.

(That back wall is filled with photos from our trip. There is one large photo missing because we broke the frame. Don’t worry, I would NEVER arrange a wall of photos like that with a huge blank spot.)

I painted all the curtains myself. This was before school started.

So, back to the kittens. Here’s what happened. We had always planned on getting a kitten and a puppy when we got back. I think this was partly so we would have an incentive to come home. The plan was to get a kitten after we got settled in Charlottesville and to then get a puppy in late October/early November – and being the fiscally responsible people that we are, we agreed that we would wait until Kevin had a job before we got any pets at all. Well, I convinced Kevin that it would be ok to get a kitten even if he didn’t have a job, because kitties don’t eat THAT much, hey, you need someone to keep you company while I’m at school all day, let’s just go look at them, we don’t have to get one, and SHE IS SO CUTE! So that’s how we ended up with Sofia, a teeny-tiny, beautiful gray kitty. Unfortunately, it turned out that Sofia was a very sick little kitty who died after just two days with us. I had never had a cat before so I was completely blown away by how much I loved her after just one weekend together. (It probably helps that she was the sweetest kitty ever.) We both had a tough time for a little while after that, but we eventually decided that we needed to get a new kitty. So we went back to the animal shelter to look at kittens. But none of them were right. And so we went back again a few days later. And this time we found the right one – the only problem was, the right one was actually TWO right ones.

Meet Penny and Cairo. I dare you to tell me you would have only taken one home.

I don't even know which one this is.

A favorite spot.

Admittedly they spend a lot of time trying to kill each other. I like to think that's how they show they love each other.

Also, sometimes I worry they're the devil.

If personality is anything to go by, Cairo is definitely the first-born twin who likes to bully/take care of his sister – depending on his mood. Penny is the adoring little sister who always wants to do whatever Cairo’s doing, which annoys him to no end. The kitties are adorable and awesome, and I giggle uncontrollably every time I come home and see one – then two – little heads poke through the curtain and stare at me as I walk up to our apartment. It’s amazing.

So we’re doing really well. We both really like Charlottesville, we’re making friends and settling in, we have the two best kitties in the world (when they’re not busy being the devil), and really, despite this whole grad school thing, I don’t think I have any reason to complain. But still – part of me wishes we were on the road.

One of the reasons we took this trip last year was to “get it out of our systems.” You know, travel a lot now while we’re young with no responsibilities and THEN settle down and be real adults for the next 30 or 40 years until we retire. But that’s not what happened. Instead, our list of places we want to travel to is now longer than it was when we left. There are so many things left to see and do, and I’m determined that we eventually do it all. I’m harassing Kevin to think about getting a PhD and become a professor so we can both have summers off to travel. I wave away his comments of, “But I don’t like teaching” with the response, “You don’t know that! Besides, it’s mostly research!”

I think my campaign is working.

So though this is the last blog post of the trip, it’s definitely not the end of our travels. I’m already planning a trip for next summer.

Thanks again for reading! (Aren’t you glad I wrote this? Aren’t you glad you know we’re not homeless and jobless and slowly starving to death?)

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Getting Visas (Part 3)

New York City – August 6, 2009

About a month ago, Zhou and I wrote about our first visa adventures in Washington DC (Part 1 and Part 2). As much of a disaster that trip turned out to be, we were at least able to write about what not to do when getting a visa. Today we attempted to get our China visas in New York City.  By the end of the afternoon, we had become closer than we’d have liked to (1) two random European people, (2) three of the four Chinese visa tellers and (3) the manager of and several workers at the Lucky Strike bowling alley.

(1) This morning we woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (no, I do not keep up with kids’ lingo these days), ready to explore the Big Apple. Since Zhou and I had learned what not to do during our previous experiences, nothing could stand in our way this time. We knew everything you could possibly know about getting a Chinese visa, probably more than Confucious himself. First though, we had to get to the Chinese consulate.

After picking up Zhou’s car from the shop, we caught the 10am train into New York City with the intention of getting to the consulate by 11:30. We boarded the train in the front row – the row that has two seats facing forward and two seats facing back, with about a foot of leg room in between. As we sat down I asked Zhou if people were really expected to sit down facing each other with that little leg room. It almost seemed illegal – I actually felt claustrophobic with the other seat wide open. She assured me though that only families could be comfortable that close together, so we put on our iPods and went to sleep. When I awoke, several people were standing in the aisle, but no one had dared tried to sit across from us. Then the train stopped. Not at a scheduled stop, but because of a TTJ (train traffic jam). This train carries thousands of people each day smoothly into the city, without delay. Yet for one hour we had a delay. That in itself wouldn’t have been so bad, since we had plenty of time to get into the city. Then the worst happened.

A large European woman and her medium-sized teenage daughter showed up. The lady said something which I did not understand, and then they began pushing their way into the seat across from us. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. Sometimes I don’t even like to get as close to Zhou as they were getting to us. But they had pushed my legs so far into Zhou’s lap that I couldn’t get out. I could hardly breathe, and my body tensed up seeing the proximity of their body parts to mine. I did the only thing I knew how – I began to stare at them. What’s more awkward than staring at a random stranger while your knee is jammed against their hip? To Europeans, apparently lots of things are, as they continued to sit and look uncomfortably comfortable. Not a great way to start the day.

(2) We ended up making it to the visa office by 1:30, an hour before it closed. This place was a zoo! Except the cute baby giraffes were replaced by angry Chinese people, and instead of monkeys there were an inordinate number of police officers. Amidst the sea of English-less papers and signs, we finally figured out where the forms we needed were, and we sat down in the lengthy visa application line and filled them out. Windows 2 – 5 were open.

Window #5: “You guys will need to fill out an address you’ll be staying at while in China.” An address? We didn’t have one yet. We called Zhou’s dad and he gave us one. Back to the back of the line.

Window #2: “Mr. Curry, you’re all set. Ms. Zhang, we will need to see your previous Chinese visa since you were born in China.” Previous Chinese visa?  Zhou didn’t have it – it was at home. Maybe we could pretend she wasn’t born in China? Shoot, it was on her passport. We called her sister, Amy, and she said she could fax it to the consulate. Back to the back of the line.

Window #4: “Sorry, you cannot use our fax machine. You will have to find another way to get it.” Great, it was now 2:15, just 15 minutes before close. We went outside, dejected by the wasted day.

(3) We looked around outside for someone or something that could help us. There was nothing for miles. Then a light from heaven shone down on the building across the street: a Lucky Strike bowling alley. It was our only shot, so I told Zhou we should go inside and ask them if we could use their fax. I think she was ready to give up on the day, as she didn’t really want to try it. I made her do it anyway (I still occasionally have that power since we’re not yet married). After talking to several workers at the alley (all very helpful, might I add as a promotion to Lucky Strike), we were allowed to use their fax machine. Amy had the documents ready to fax.  2:22 – nothing.  2:23 – nothing. 2:24 – Amy called back, the fax was sent. We rushed to the manager, who went back to get it for us.  2:25, 2:26. We got us our papers, all smudged and not at all legible since faxes never really work in my experience, but they were there. We ran across the busy street, a la George from Seinfeld playing Frogger, and slipped in the entrance two minutes before closing.

Window #5: We got our visa applications submitted.

Afterword: the visas should be ready in a week, after which our friend Rachel is picking them up for us. When she offered, she was definitely being nice, but to wade through that office without speaking Chinese – she’s definitely going above and beyond, so thank you for that. We owe you a huuuge favor in return. But with this task out of the way, there’s not much remaining between us and our first flight across the Atlantic!

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Picture of the day: Only in New York… it takes three policemen to retrieve one clumsy pedestrian’s keys from the sewer.

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Fried Bologna and Bacon (On a Stick)

Columbus, OH – August 5, 2009

Ah, the magic that is the Ohio State Fair. Where else can you buy a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, see a life-size butter statue of a cow being examined by a vet AND pet a llama? That’s right, NOWHERE.

Anyway, I spent most of the afternoon shouting in an awestruck voice to everyone in earshot, “They have FRIED [insert any food] here! How great is that!” For some reason, unlike most other people I know, the “I get it” switch in my head works on a huge delay. Sometimes this is good, like when you’re at the Ohio State Fair and you are repeatedly excited and surprised by the varieties of fried things they have, and you keep thinking “Wow, they have steak on a stick AND fried garlic mashed potatoes! On a stick! That’s so crazy!” But sometimes this is bad, like when you get off on the wrong floor of your apartment building and go to your apartment door and try to use your key which doesn’t work, and when did we get that welcome mat and what was up with those pots of flowers next door? But luckily for me, at the fair there was no need for me to explain to our downstairs neighbors that no, I was not trying to break into your apartment, and yes, I really am that clueless sometimes. Really.

Fried foods on a stick

Outside of the fair food, I’d have to say the best part of the fair was the games and the petting zoo. Yes, I said it. The petting zoo. Because I am really just a 10-year-old. They were selling food pellets and little plastic containers of carrots to feed the animals in the petting zoo, and I righteously refused to buy any food to overfeed animals that were being cooped up in little cages and forced to deal with grubby little hands grabbing their ears and horns all day. I wasn’t going to perpetuate this horrible practice! But then Chanary found a quarter in her purse, and I was standing next to the llama, offering it a handful of pellets. Its tongue tickled my hand.

We also won a few little stuffed animals from a balloon popping game. I think the game was rigged, because there was no way you could really lose, they puffed up the balloons so much. That was a nice departure from the normal, impossible-to-win carnival game. At one point Kevin and I were just standing around near a guy yelling in a mic for people to come up so he could guess their ages (we were waiting for Hadley and Chanary, who were buying some form of fried something), and he looked in our direction and shouted, “LITTLE GIRL WITH THE BEAR! I’LL GUESS YOUR AGE! YOU CAN WIN A PRIZE!” at which point I turned and looked all around me for the little girl with the stuffed bear and then realized that she. … Was me.

Chanary and I with our new fuzzy little friends

A bunny and some people we know

And did you know that there is such a thing as a PIG RACE? This also came as a big surprise to me, but I tried to hide it and pretend like I knew the whole time that of course there would be a pig race. I mean, it’s the Ohio State Fair, why on earth WOULDN’T there be a pig race, right? The thought is just laughable! But really, it was one of those things that was totally unexpected to me, and I laughed so hard in my head when Kevin looked at the time and said very seriously, “We should head over, we’re going to be late for the pig race.” It’s just not a sentence you can say at any other time. I wish it were though.

All in all, the four of us had a really really great time, especially me. There’s something about being at a fair and being surrounded by all those rides and games and fried things that just made me feel so happy and want to skip around. I highly recommend it.

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Picture of the day: I call this piece “Self-explanatory”

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Puzzles for Postcards

Solve This Anagram and Carry a Big Stick:

“An old folk relives one rant”

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Scrabble Log

Games: 55
Zhou WPLB: 28; 367; 315; SENIlES
Kevin WPLB: 27; 368; 397; sETTINGS

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A Wedding and a Reunion

Los Angeles, CA – July 25-29, 2009

Sometimes I’ll stare at a globe and marvel at how big the world is. It’s amazing the distance that we’ll cover, the places that we’ll see and the experiences that we’ll have. Yet our aggressive 11 month schedule doesn’t even come close to scratching the surface of the world available to explore.

Sometimes though, I think it’s a small world after all. This was never more evident than it was this morning:

Zhou and I were sitting in LAX waiting out the delay on our flight home (through Dallas). After killing some time killing the LA Times Wednesday crossword puzzle, I walked across the terminal to check on the status of our flight. Having just overheard that Steve Zahn was in the airport after his interview on Conan the night before, I spent a little extra time moseying around hoping to touch him. When I finally decided to head back to my seat, I spun around and saw a familiar Asian face approaching. Since all of us look alike, Zhou and I had thought we had seen this person on the beach before, and embarrassed ourselves when calling out her name. I decided to say nothing.

“Kevin?”

“Lily!”

It was Lily, our friend and Zhou’s old roommate. Of all the places in the world, we happened to bump into her over 2,000 miles from either of our homes, in a large crowd of people trying to get away from LA traffic for good.

If we hadn’t overheard that Steve Zahn, a person I actually don’t really care about at all (sorry Steve), was walking around, we might have missed Lily.

If her flight hadn’t been delayed five hours and ours one, we might not have seen each other.

If I wasn’t looking particularly awesome that day, Lily might have mistaken me for Keanu Reeves and she would have walked on by.

It really is a small world after all.

The reason, though, that we were in Los Angeles was my cousin Michelle’s wedding to Hrvoje (insert your own pronunciation here). It was here that I realized how great it is to be a Curry. We can easily disguise our lack of friends with our propensity for being a part of a large family. Thanks to the hundreds of Michelle’s family members running around, her wedding will be hard to top (however, since it is a competition we’ll make sure ours is better).

Speaking of competitions, my family attended a taping of Jeopardy! yesterday. It was here that I realized how nerdy a Curry can be. During the break between the second and third shows of the day, my brother and I met Jimmy and Sarah of the Clue Crew. The Clue Crew! I was amazed at how they haven’t let their immense fame get to their heads, as they seemed genuinely excited to be talking to us. Needless to say though, I was nearly frozen in awe that we were talking to Jimmy and Sarah of the Clue Crew. The Clue Crew! When this blog becomes huge and either of you reads it, can you please send me your autograph? I would have taken a picture but there were no cameras allowed on set.

Image taken from here.

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Picture of the Day: Steve jumped into the ocean from the Santa Monica Pier… or did he?

[End of daily post, read on for a quick travel update]

Since leaving Los Angeles, Zhou and I have returned to my parents’ home in Indy and once again entrenched ourselves in travel planning. Just yesterday we purchased a netbook. Thanks to the advice we’ve received from everyone, we decided on the Asus Eee PC 1005HA. The major specs that made this decision for us: (1) longest battery life of any netbook on the market, (2) better video and sound than the others we looked at, and (3) 160 GB hard drive. Once we have had time to play around with it, we will post our review in an upcoming gear section of the blog.  Which brings me to…

The new blog! You were probably directed here from our blogspot address, and we thank you for taking the time to come. If you’ve subscribed to the old blog, we apologize for making you switch, but there were just too many slick features here that we couldn’t pass up.  Our original plan was to create our own website, but upon further research we just don’t have the time right now to put in the work. (How can two unemployed people not have time? For those of you who have jobs, unemployed life is harder than it looks!) Zhou found this site and we both decided it’s time for a change. New last name for Zhou, new blog for us. Right?

Just as a note, pretty much everything on the blog remains the same as it was on our blogger site. However, Zhou has expanded her classic “Recipe for a Round-the-World Trip” post, so you can find lots of good new detail by clicking on the “Planning a RTW Trip” tab at the top of this page. I did and trust me, I’m now a better person because of it.

Anyway, hope you enjoy our new look. If you hate it, please let us know!

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Puzzles for Postcards

Rhyme Time! (Solve all three)

A novel way of promoting good deeds
Fat Tony’s crustacean friend
A sudden wealth of poem parts

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Scrabble Log

Games: 55
Zhou WPLB: 28; 367; 315; SENIlES
Kevin WPLB: 27; 368; 397; sETTINGS

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Ice Cream and Sangria

Charlottesville, VA  - July 3-5, 2009

We spent 4th of July weekend with the alliterative Jing and Jeff in Charlottesville. Guess what we did?

a) spent an afternoon at Monticello
b) went for a hike to see the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi
c) went vineyard hopping in wine country
d) relaxed poolside
e) all of the above
f) none of the above (this is the correct answer)

What’s that phrase about good intentions?  I’m not sure, but whatever it is, it probably applies here.

And even though we didn’t visit Monticello, I can tell you that Thomas Jefferson is responsible for bringing french fries to the United States. Apparently, people had only eaten potatoes boiled before this because they thought they were poisonous otherwise. I can also tell you that John Adams thought Thomas Jefferson was being pretentious by serving those new-fangled french fries. I learned this from listening to public radio. I’m sure we would have heard all this on the Monticello tour as well.

Anyway. So what DID we do this weekend?

We drank.

Giant glass of homemade sangria

We ate.

Jing and I with our Friendly’s ice cream – I got ALL of the cherries

We hid behind fire hydrants.

Yes, this is a normal-sized fire hydrant.
Yes, Jing and I are just that small.
No, I’m not sure why we did this either.

The four of us (Jing, Jeff, Kevin and I, in case you forgot) also played a LOT of games of spades. If you don’t know what spades is, I like to think of it as bridge for dummies. The only reason this analogy doesn’t work is because I know nothing about bridge except that Warren Buffet is good at it and it involves bidding and partners. Which is also true of spades.

We also played a bunch of Mario Kart on the Wii. I don’t have much to say about that except DARN YOU DRY BONES!! HOW DOES YOUR KART GO SO FAST?

We also played a lot of Cranium and Taboo. I won’t say who won the games, but I will say their team name rhymes with “the curls” and not “the toys.” And that the team is pictured above hiding behind a normal-sized but giant-looking fire hydrant.

Speaking of rhymes, we’re going to go ahead and give Steve the point for the last puzzle. He got the first one (“Farmer Charmer”) and the last one (“Blazer Appraiser”) right, and I was going for “Best Dressed” as the answer to “The Superlative Look” and “Mentor Center” for “A Place Where Advisers Gather.” But his answers of “Supreme Beam” and “Board Ward” work, even though they weren’t what I had thought of originally.

Aaaaand this is why I don’t write the puzzles.
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Picture of the day: I believe that Kevin’s gesture can most accurately be described as “okie dokie.”

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