Browsing Category: Travel

An Update from moi…

People! There is so much in my head. SO MUCH!! I’ve not posted in 5 months: I’m much more active on Instagram. I think that’s part of my issue, I really don’t see the point in this space anymore.

TL;DR —> Things are good. Crazy, but OK.
I’m in Grad School and heading this weekend to Paris.

People swear up and down that they still read blogs, maybe it’s just mine. It’s a very defeating feeling to put the effort into actual posts (not just these “Hi! I’ve been gone, here’s what’s happening posts”) and get no feedback beyond Instagram. It’s like….Why bother?

And….It’s a LOT OF WORK putting together a blog post with graphics and all the SEO nonsense. The only reason why I still have this blog (rather than my old blogspot one) is that we use wordpress for the distillery’s website.

I’m trying to get more comfortable with doing videos, because honestly when you disappear for 5 months, there’s a LOT to catch up when you’re typing it all up. Since my 4 year old has my phone, the computer video camera is shite, and I don’t have all day, here’s the bullet list:

  • Surgery recovery has gone well. My getting back in shape has not. I’ve done NADA all summer long. My eating has been sporadically good. I was up to 193, but managed to reign it back down to 185lbs.
    • My scar is still pretty gnarly looking, and it’s stretched some, which makes it wider and not as nice. I don’t think it had anything to do with weight gain, and everything to do with having been stitched up so tight.
  • In the Spring we officially decided on my going back to school to get my Master’s in Information Science School Library. The hypothetical on that is vastly different from the reality of going back to college.
    • I hate it. I don’t like the online aspect. I haven’t done a THING in our house (cleaning or quilts {trying to sell for $$$$} or anything)…it’s in shambles. I’m kinda hoping the husband cleans while I’m gone.
    • I’m not sure if I’m going to continue Grad School after this semester. It’s not hard, I’m fine with the classes. It’s balancing it with all the other STUFF in our life. PEOPLE! I have 5 kids, and all the schedules that go with that, that I’m trying to navigate.
    • If I had an end goal/purpose for it I think I’d be more down for grad school. The whole purpose is for me to potentially work in our kids’ elementary school as the librarian.
    • Ummm…I don’t even know if I want that work load, the cost of going back to school, I can substitute teach and make money and see my kids without the Master’s. New York’s laws are getting more fucked up, and there’s a very real chance that everyone will be coming home to homeschool in the next few years.
  • I’m heading to Paris this weekend with my sister, and a friend of her’s.
    • We don’t speak French. We have an AirBnB. I’m excited and nervous and kind of scared shitless about this whole thing. I usually travel with Matthew, and he’s the navigator. I can’t tell directions for beans.
  • My stress level has gone through the roof. Between grad school, kids, life, finances, all of it. I’ve been grinding my teeth so badly, that I’ve cracked one of my molars and need a crown, which we can’t afford. I have since got a new night guard, hopefully that will help.

I think that about sums it up. If you really want to keep up with me, visit Instagram. I miss this space and writing, but it just seems to be me in my own little corner, in my own little chair.

Aurevoir!

London Town – A Weekend Adventure

Last week Matthew and I took a whirlwind weekend trip to London! We’re not as cosmopolitan as that sounds though. I had found dirt cheap airfare a few months ago, and since we were going in the “Off Season” lodging was rather cheap by any standards. We flew out on Thursday night and came home on Monday afternoon.

I’ve been through London before, but never too London. After my jaunt to Dublin last year in January, I realized that a weekend trip to a city across the pond was totally doable and didn’t leave one feeling jetlagged and out of sorts (I chalk it up to the fact that you’re not there long enough to reset your internal clock). For Matthew and I to go away for more than a few days is an impossibility, but we realize the importance of getting away together.

I had wanted to goto Paris for a weekend, but Matthew, being the more prudent of us, thought it was better to try this weekend to Europe thing in a place that at least spoke the same language as me. So much for Paris.

We had a great time in London. We saw quite a bit of the city, if not the insides at least from the outside. A hop on hop off bus tour took a lot of the guess work out regarding transportation, and kind of meandered around the more well-known parts of London. This was in no way a trip in which you could see the whole city. It’s impossible to see any city and all it’s offerings in a long weekend.

What we did see:

  • Tower of London
  • British Library
  • Imperial War Museum
  • Covent Garden
  • Globe  Theater
  • St.-Dunstan-in-the-East Ruins
  • London by Night
  • Notting Hill
  • Portobello Road
  • King’s Cross (Platform 9 3/4)
  • Leadenhall Market
  • Paddington Bear at Paddington Station
  • Kensington Palace
  • Bus tour to Warner Bros Studio’s Harry Potter Set
  • The rest of the city was seen from the open top tour bus

We had a couple of great meals:

The one thing I really wanted to share with you about this trip is don’t let time limit you.

Just because something sounds crazy, don’t let that make you afraid to do it. I really had to sell Matthew on the weekend trip to London idea, but when we were on our way home, he was so glad that we had done it.

Honestly, unless we just want to wait until all the kids are grown and out of the house and everything is perfect, it’s never going to happen. And, at that point, we might be too old and ornery and set in our ways to handle a trip like this. PEOPLE! We walked over 30 miles in 3 days! That’s not for the faint of heart!

While we’re not looking to leave the country anytime soon again, it is fantastic to know that if we spend our time researching and doing the things geared for tourists, it’s completely reasonable to see some of the fantastic cities of this world. We really looked at this as tasting a small smackerel of a country.

To try and see the whole of England, or any country, in a weekend, isn’t even possible, but it is possible to get your toes wet in another culture.

Also, this weekend jaunt (of which I hope there will be a few more) gives Matthew and I head start on what countries we want to see more of and travel with our children to. It’s our hope that in 10-12 years, we can take our family to Europe for a few months and really world-school them. Let them see the places and experience the people that we’ve only read about in books. That’s what traveling is really all about, isn’t it?

**If you follow me on Instagram (@JessicaM.White) I’m slowly sharing more of the pictures from our trip.