Spring and Summer Happenings

Spring/Summer happenings

We have been long overdue for a post so the result will now be a annoyingly long update. Yay yay, lucky johns family blog readers!

First stop: Israel!
We still felt pretty burnt out from planning and experiencing India so we didn't have a lot of energy to do all the logistics ourselves. It was a quick 3 day trip that we only decided to take because Zar had to be there the week after for a conference. So, we took a different organized tour everyday. The first day was Jerusalem. The tour guide was less than great and kept calling us "friends"...I didn't dig it. There was just way too much to see in just the Old City alone, and we barely grazed the surface. But wow, what amazing stuff: via de la rosa (the stages of the Jesus baring the cross), mt of olives, holocaust museum, western wall (whaling wall), and the church of the holy seplechre (where Jesus was supposedly crucified). The second day we did a tour of Masada and the Dead Sea. Masada was king Herrods fortress where a small sect of Orthodox Jews held out a year longer against the Romans before killing themselves so they wouldn't be enslaved. The Dead Sea was just a cool and fun experience...you really do float! It is also a thing to cover yourself with this black mud stuff, still not sure why, but it made for some fun pictures! On day three we took a tour of galilee and Nazareth. It was awesome to see the places where Jesus grew up and performed so many amazing miracles. Our tour guide for this day was superb. He was so so knowledgeable and gave us some interesting insight into the Israel-Palestine dispute.

Second stop: Prague!
We went to this cool city with our best friends here Gabri and Tracy on a groupon. Although we had a blast, I don't remember much about the city itself. Some highlights....big beautiful castles, lots of old historic Jewish synagogues, terrible food, a bizarre black/neon light show, and lunch with the American ambassador to the Czech Republic (he was a close family friend of Gabri's....of course). The most memorable moment was on day 2 of the trip....finding out I'm pregnant!!! Surrrpriseeeee!! After spending an hour in shock sitting on our friends' bed the reality hit us and excitement, and nervousness set in! (Ill come back to the pregnancy stuff later). After finding out that bit of news it consumed our thoughts and conversation the whole rest of the trip....hence I don't remember many details!

Third stop: Istanbul!
Zar's mom came to Oxford to visit us again, so during her visit we went with her to Istanbul. It was a rough trip for me because I spent most days with constant nausea, exhaustion, and headaches. I sucked it up and made it through. The most amazing part of this city was the architecture. At this point we have seen a lot of amazing churches and buildings, aside from the Taj Mahal, these mosques were the most beautiful and impressive. So simple and elegant and so not European looking! It is also an amazing place because you are able to see the influence of three of the most powerful empires all in one place.

Last stop: Greece!
We started this trip in Athens. It is a huge city, but most of the sites worth seeing are within an 30 minute walk from each other. We had scheduled 2 days there, but we probably could have done everything in 1. So, we slept in, took leisurely walks, ate long meals, and enjoyed the sites slowly! Most of the sites in Athens are ruins of the ancient city. We also went to the archeological museum which had some pretty sweet stuff. After Athens we came to The island of Crete! Ahhhh....heaven. A couple highlights from our time here include: 1. Getting picked up by our taxi driver holding a sign for Melanie Tavala.  I made a huge huge deal out of them getting our name right due to what happened in India, so we thought it was hilarious that they still got it wrong.  2. We were the only ones staying in our small hotel so we really got to know the owners. They had stalked me on facebook and found out that I was pregnant.  They touched my belly several times. It sounds wierd and inappropriate, but it was pretty cute and they were very very sweet.  3.  On the beach being topless was very common.  We spent a good 30 minutes trying to figure out if this one topless person was a man or a woman. Turns out it was a woman. 
We had almost 4 whole days here. The weather was amazing, the people were nice, and it was a great last trip for me and Zar together. We spent most of our days sitting by the pool/beach. I read a book, and Zar worked on his med school application essays (he has to write 3!!!). Initially Zar was really stressed out about the timing of this trip because he has a lot going in lab with only 9 weeks to do it in, and med school applications to work on. It turns out that this was the perfect time and place for a vacation. Zar had great, uninterrupted time to work and I got to read right next to him! At night we watched Greek movies (My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Troy) and loooots of Arrested development! We leave this afternoon and I'm pretty depressed about it. We had forgotten how amazing the sun really is.

Other random bits of info.... I only have 4 days left of work. YESSSS! I can say with confidence that only tears of joy will be shed when I leave that place. I leave England for good 8 weeks from today. I am shocked that it went so fast, sad to leave this crazy lifestyle, but sooooo anxious to be back in US and see all of you awesome peeps. With my time left on this side of the world I plan on chillin, working out, reading, packing, enjoying visits from Kathleen (and going with her to Ireland) and my best friend Lindsey and her husband Mike, and spending some last times with our new but amazing friends. Zar plans on, "wraping up my research and applying to med school"..sounds fun, huh?? I am now 16+ weeks pregnant. I have fiiiiinally been throw up/nausea free for about 8 days (I wrote this prior to our bus ride to the airport.  Days without throwing up: 0)! I have another ultrasound in 3 weeks....we are DYING to find out the sex!!! With every week that passes we get more excited!

Well, that's all folks. We can't wait to see you all so soon!