If you've ever dated in Utah...or wanted to date...

You should read the latest entry from my friend Kristen's blog. So funny. It's titled: "And the husband goes to..." Her blog address is:
http://breadcrumbsofsanity.blogspot.com

You don't come to Mykonos to sleep.....

I'm in love (and not with a boy, we've already decided they are not worth our time remember? Although, I do have a good story about boys that I will tell you in just a minute). So, I am in love with Greece, more specifically the Greek Islands. We went to Athens for a day and the sites were as cool and rich as the history behind them, however my true love came when we arrived in the Greek islands. We took a ferry here to Mykonos and stopped at 2 other equally adorable small islands on the way here. The love began as we pulled up to the port and from the deck of the boat I could see all the beautiful white washed buildings with the bright blue or red roofs and painted shutters. From every spot in the city you can see at least 10 Greek-orthodox churches, each of which could only accommodate 7-8 people standing at any one time. I haven't yet figured out if each of these churches is in use, or if each church belong to 2-3 families or why exactly there are so many and why they are so small, but I love it. The town is small and the streets are so narrow that cars are not allowed within the city center, so everyone is on foot. The total population of the island is about 15 thousand and about 7-8 thousand of them live in the city Mykonos (where we are staying), so they all know each other. The sunsets are amazing, the food is wonderful, there are hundreds of little boutique shops, pelicans wander the streets like they own the place, and the people are friendly. The most common words I have heard here are "you don't come to Mykonos to sleep" and that is another reason why I love this town. In the days I have been here I have never seen the streets as busy as they were at 10pm last night. Every store was still open, restaurants were just starting to seat people and music was playing. Bars and night clubs are popular here and are open from 10pm to 6am. This is the only hotel in all the places we are staying this month that doesn't provide breakfast, and that is because no one would ever be awake to eat it!

Today we spent the day at the beach (I wore sunscreen dad, don't worry). The water was still a little chilly, but I have never seen a clearer ocean. The owner of the beach/resort came up to me and offered me a job. He says he offers a free room at his hotel, 2 free meals, 2-3 days off a week and you make about 80-100 euro a day. He is looking for people from June to September. I am seriously considering it.....

I can't believe I have been missing out on this great place the whole first 25 years of my life! We ran into an American woman on the ferry coming out here, she's in her 60s and retired. She said she first came out to Mykonos 39 years ago and has been coming back ever since. She now lives out here for 6 months of the year (may-october) and everyone in town knows her. I'm envious of her life. Tomorrow we head to Santorini, another beautiful Greek Island to spend some more time on the beach and to take some more pictures of white washed churches with blue roofs and doors. (The windmills are the signature of Mykonos)

As for the story about the boys. Last night some Greek boys convinced us to let them buy us a drink. When we arrived (don't worry mom, we didn't drive in the car with these guys, remember there are no cars allowed in the town?) at the very trendy bar that overlooked the ocean and Apollo's birthplace the sun was just setting into the ocean. The guys laughed when Maren and I both ordered a coke to drink, but they laughed even more when they found out I had been a missionary in Italy for a year and a half. I think mostly because they realized that we weren't the kind of girls that were going to go out party with them all night, or maybe I just don't seem like the kind of girl that would actually serve a mission, I don't really know, but in any event they thought it was rather humorous. Being the good missionary I was however, I turned our encounter into a first discussion (minus the prayer part). It felt just like I was back on Sardinia with Rebekah again teaching guys discussions over pear juice. Although the night probably didn't turn out exactly how the guys were hopping it would turn out, for me and Maren I think it went much better than expected.

Nile Cruise

The Nile Cruise. A great time. I wasn't exactly their
typical guest--the cruise was mostly full of retired
couples and/or families taking their holiday. I, in
my awesome 3 backpacker outfits, didn't fit in so
well when joining the troops in the dining hall
where the women were in heels and nice jewelry.
I'm not one to worry too much about that sort of
stuff, but I certainly felt a little uncomfortable at
more than one of the dinners.

Ancient Egyptian history isn't something I've
spent much time studying, but it is so fascinating.
Seriously. Their temples, statues, tombs, they're
all enormous and intricate and many still have
their original colors. Unbelievable.

I'm back in Cairo now trying not to get killed in
the taxis or walking on the street--seriously, this
place is crazy.

We're leaving right now to meet my cruise buddies.
There was a super cool bunch from New Zealand
and Australia. We tended to spend most of our
time together as we were the folks without spouses
or children. We all ended up in Cairo after the cruise
and are meeting up for a night on the town.

My new adventure

My new adventure involves no sugar until June 9th. Why June 9th? Because I'm not allowed to talk to Thomas (my rule) until then, so it gives me a random date in the future to work toward. It's 5 weeks away. The real goal is to just get off sugar. I think I eat more when I eat sugar because I constantly have cravings. I know it'll be hard the first couple of days, but I'm determined to stick with it and make a dent in my goals to get in better shape this summer.

I also found a dress that I think I want to wear for Kristin and Steve's wedding in August...but I cannot reveal that information at the moment. It was absolutely gorgeous and fit perfectly, but...I'll probably wait a while...I actually told Kristin that any of us who come to the wedding might just come all dressed the same so that people think she made us her bridesmaids. She said she thought that would be hilarious. But I doubt that anyone else will want to do that with me, so I may just have to look absolutely fabulous on my own.

All right, I'll keep you all posted on the no sugar adventure.

NGO

I have some interesting coworkers. Anna, the most interesting one who also has a hot boyfriend that she met on LDS Singles, is the one I will most likely become besties with. She wears jeans to work (which gives me the long awaited green light) and large earings and bracelets. She's a lot like my friend Jill Dempsey, which is only to her credit.

Jeff used to do investment banking at Lehman Brothers, but has taken a hiatus from money making before he goes back to business school and, eventually, back into money making. He is very typical of every guy I have ever known that is in banking or consulting. Saracastic, intellectually funny, talks with his hands, wears glasses, works a lot and very likely is missing a soul underneath the interesting exterior. This Jeff might though, I only say that because he took time off to work for a NGO. Not something I would typically expect.

Lizze has been in Bangalore for 9 months and is moving next month to the Phillipines to do research on a Fulbright scholar. She's the most enthusiastic person I have ever met. Obviously I'm hoping that will end and her real personality will come out. She's the kind of girl that wears sarees and no make-up because she feels like an Indian woman. She will probably continue to wear the sarees even in the US. She's that kind of quirky.

Tori has been based on the Seattle office, but is on a partnering tour through Bangalore, the Phillipines and Africa. She just announced today that she will be returning to Banglore to live permanently for a year after this tour. She and Jeff knew each other in the Seattle office and I'm pretty sure there's some sort of relationship happening there. Nothing has been confirmed, but Anna and I gossiped about it a bit tonight. We both think it's well on it's way, if it hasn't happened already. One of the major hurdles is that Lizzie stays over at the Guest House a lot, where both Tori and Jeff live along with Anna. Maybe she doens't sense the obvious flirtation, or maybe she thinks Jeff isn't a good catch. Hopefully there will be drama to come.

These 4 people make up the Americans that are around my age. The most interesting thing about them is that they have all these "principles" that they live by. None of which I relate to. They are vegetarians, or have been. They are vegans, or have been. They think that buying a large mansion in Hawaii is unjust to the indigenous people there and, therefore, something they wouldn't do. They categorize people with adjectives like, "typical NGO". Whatever THAT means! Also, they seem to think that living in another country and helping the poor through non-profit work is a worthy life long pursuit.

This is where we don't really mesh. I like capitalism. I like money. I like the pursuit of money. Did I hear something about treasures on earth or treasures in heaven? I can't recall. But honestly, I think that capitalism (well, besides the Church) is the answer to abolishing poverty. I'm not sure how effective this public sector really is. I know they have given a lot of money in micro-franchising which has pulled thousands of women out of poverty, but is this the best way to do it?

That's why I like the housing project I'm working on. It's a money makind endeavor. It will demand high returns to the investors, but serve the poor by providing something they want to buy, something they need and something they can afford all in one. By addressing what they already have money for, turning them into consumers by offering an asset that will increase their producivity, I think that's the winning combination right there.

But, who am I to judge? As soon as I get out of this country, I'm going to Whole Foods, I'm going to get a already needed pedicure and I'm going to probably stop by Starbucks for a steamed milk with sugar-free flavoring syrup. I'm not moving to Africa to live in a mud-hut and train people on water sanitation. The water wells are probably better off without my "help" anyway.

Made of Lameness

Sarah, Erin W., Michelle Crane, Sarah's sister Debra, and I obviously had nothing better to do last night at 10 p.m. so we went to see Made of Honor. I heard it was cliched and that there was nothing new and original, that it was totally predictable...if I hadn't been sure of that before, sitting next to Davis helped open my eyes to that fact. :)

It's not an incredibly painful movie; it's just boring because you know what's going to happen in every scene. And it's cheesy. And you have to suspend your disbelief the whole time. But if we were still in school and sitting on Kyle's couch in the girls' house on a Thursday night multi-tasking, it wouldn't be awful to have it on.

Have you guys ever seen Mystery Science Theater? It's this show where you see a movie as if it's being shown in a theater and there are three people at the bottom of the screen. You see the back of their heads as they watch the movie and all they do is make fun of it the whole time. That's kind of how we were, which actually made it pretty fun...but the people in front of us hated us.

Church and Braids

Church yesterday was nice. I got called out to give my testimony at the end of sacrament meeting (long story), but I was grateful for the opportunity. It's just nice that where ever we go, there is a church family who loves and cares for us, and who knows the same truths that we do. I had similar feelings to Rachael. Just strengthens my testimony that this is God's work.

I got braids today. 4 bags of weave, 4 hours, and some flame torch thing later, my hair looks awful. Mama Charlotte was insistent that this particular lady come to the house to do my hair, instead of me going to a salon. I tried to get out of it, but she was insistent. The problem was, she didn't have any pics for me to show her what I wanted, and she didn't speak english. So it looks pretty bad, and I have no idea in what condition I'll find my hair once this is taken out. A flame? Was that really necessary?

The other volunteers come tomorrow. Let the games begin...