A Year in Review: 2011

Chris and I have been blessed with a wonderful year, filled with many adventures and changes.  I thought I would do a quick recap of some of the highlights of 2011 as we look forward to beginning 2012.

January: We left for Maastricht, The Netherlands for our three-month study abroad trip. We also traveled to London and Bath, England on a group trip with our program.

Chris and I at Stonehenge on our group trip to London.

February: The highlight of February was spending Valentine’s Day in Paris with Chris. We had so much fun exploring the city and spending time together. We also visited Berlin, Potsdam, Cologne and Munich in Germany, Salzburg in Austria, Brussels in Belgium and Lyon, Dijon and Strasbourg in France.

Chris and I near the Eiffel Tower.

March: In March, we celebrated Carnaval in Maastricht. It was so fun to be part of the celebrations. We took a day trip to Amsterdam before the festivities. We also got a full week off from school so we visited Prague in the Czech Republic and Vienna in Austria. We then met up with Chris’s family in Zurich and visited Interlaken, Grindelwald and Bern in Switzerland. The next weekend we met up with Chris’s family in Paris and went to the Louvre and visited two castles in Loire Valley. Then, Chris and I took a day to visit Bruges in Belgium and then headed to Gent, Belgium to meet up with my friend Kim! It was so great to see her again. Chris and I took one final trip to Heidelberg, Germany before our month of travel.

April: We finished school at the end of March so April was our month of travel. We took a night train from Paris to Madrid and visited Madrid and Barcelona in Spain. We then headed to Nice and Marseille in France, visiting Monte Carlo while in Nice. After France, we begin our wonderful tour of Italy, visiting Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Capri, Cinque Terre and Stresa. Chris and I finished the month of travel with a relaxing day in Annecy in the French Alps.  We returned to the United States in late April.

Me in the beautiful Cinque Terre.

Chris and I in Barcelona.

May: In May, Chris and I both graduated from Baylor! Though we were sad to leave Baylor and our great apartment in Waco, we were excited to start the new phase in our life. I also started a new travel blog- www.pinkvalise.com. I have been writing three times a week for the blog. 

Chris and I graduated from Baylor!

June: Chris and I moved to our new apartment in Dallas. I also started working at a public relations firm.

July: Chris and I got our sweet puppy, Skyler, on my birthday. She is a corgi mix. We had fun adjusting to our new role of dog parents.

Our sweet puppy Skyler.

August: Chris started med school! He has enjoyed his first semester as an MS1.

September: Skyler graduated from puppy training! She was so cute in her graduation cap.

Skyler graduated!

October: The big event of October was Chris’s white coat ceremony. We also went to the State Fair of Texas.

November: Chris and I went back to Baylor for Baylor Homecoming!  We got to meet up with friends and watch Baylor beat Missouri. It was so great to be back for a weekend. We also got a few days off to spend Thanksgiving with Chris’s family.

December:  We traveled back and forth to the Waco area a lot- I was a bridesmaid in Katy’s wedding and then the next weekend we headed over to spend Christmas night and a few days after Christmas with Chris’s family.

We had such a fun 2011, traveling around Europe and getting a new puppy. We are excited to see what 2012 holds for our little family.

Settling into the Big D

Hello friends,

It has been a month since we have moved into our apartment. Here is a quick update on what we have been up to. I will try to update in more detail as soon as possible.

• We moved into our new apartment. It's in a great location, with everything we could possibly want or need close to us. 
• I started a new job. Monday will be my fourth week. I work for a public relations company, but my boss is also launching a new high-end perfume and candle fragrance line in October so I have been designing the boxes and bottles and working on the website. I have also been doing a lot of social media to try to get people excited about the brand. 
• Chris and I have moved my travel blog to its own domain. You can now find it at www.pinkvalise.com. It was a lot of work to make the transition, but it has been worth it. I love the new layout and I still enjoy writing for it every week. 
• I still write for the Examiner. You can find all of my articles at http://exm.nr/lQ6gGe. I would really appreciate it if you would look as I get a little bit of pocket change in return for each page view. 
• Next week is our "super week"- our birthdays and anniversary. I have been working hard to make it special for Christopher since he will be starting medical school in four weeks. [He doesn't like to hear that.]

I hope everyone is doing well and I will try to update in more detail in the future. 

With love, 

Olga 

Living in Limbo

Chris and I have been living with his parents while we wait to move into our apartment in Dallas. It has been nice to get to spend time with them.

Chris and I have also been able to spend more time than usual with each other. It has been so nice to just be able to hang out and watch TV together, especially since that time will be hard to find with Chris starting medical school in the fall.

Other than that, I have been writing a lot. I still update three times a week on my travel blog, pinkvalise.blogspot.com and have recently started writing for the Examiner. On the Examiner, I get paid per page view on each article so I would really appreciate it if you had a look.

My examiner page-http://exm.nr/lQ6gGe

My latest article about Paris-http://exm.nr/krP5jD

We are moving to our apartment tomorrow so I will post some pictures when it is ready.

Love,
Olga

Beyond Baylor: Adjusting to Life as an Alumna

We graduated last Saturday. On to our next adventure!

I never realized how hard it would be to leave the university that I had grown to love. I take after my father, and I am usually eager to jump to the next chapter of my life. With Baylor, however, I don't want to let go. My heart breaks every time I remember that I will never have class on Baylor's beautiful campus again.

I suspect that part of my difficulty in letting go lies in the process of packing away our apartment. I love to move from one place to another, another trait that I received from my father. However, with the 15 times that I have moved in my life, I have always detested the process of packing. I even despise packing for travel. It is one of the few things in life that I procrastinate. This time, I have actually done a fairly good job of packing ahead of time, but the closer it gets to the date we move, the less I want to finish the process. Perhaps it is because a part of me wants to stay, and I feel like when I done packing, our move is a done deal. 

With my family after graduation.

The best part about moving to Dallas is being close to my family. Even though they currently live two hours away, we haven't been able to see each other much since Chris and I got married. I recently saw them for the first time in four months, after studying abroad in Europe. We are going to be living about 30 minutes away from my parents so it will be nice to meet them up for dinner without a four-hour roundtrip.

Chris and I next to the beautiful Pat Neff hall.

Even though we are leaving Baylor at the end of this month, I plan to come back as much as possible. I can't wait for Chris and I to attend Homecoming, basketball and football games and other events as alumni. Baylor is where Chris and I met, fell in love and got married at the beautiful Armstrong Browning Library. Baylor is forever weaved into our lives, even when we are not physically on campus. 

A New Chapter: Graduating and Moving to Dallas

Hello friends.

Life has been busy since we have returned from Europe. I have been getting everything together for graduation, looking for a job, packing up the apartment and looking for apartments in Dallas. It's amazing to think that this chapter of our lives is coming to an end.

I wouldn't trade my experiences at Baylor for anything. At Baylor, I fell in love, got married and embarked on an unforgettable journey with my husband. On Sunday, we found a wonderful apartment in Dallas to continue our journey. Though I know it won't be easy with Chris starting medical school in August, it will be nice to be closer to family for a while. We are moving in June so everything is coming up quickly.

I have also been busy with my new travel advice blog. I love to write and help people so I decided to try a new project. You can see my blog at pinkvalise.blogspot.com.

I hope everyone is doing well. I haven't forgotten about doing posts about every city we visited. I will start those up again sometime in June probably, when I have more time.

Love,
Olga

Back in the United States: Reverse Culture Shock

I have always thought that reverse culture shock was a funny term. Surely three months in Europe wouldn't make me forget about what life in the United States was like. Boy was I wrong.

After not sleeping for 48 hours, my exhausted state found being back in the United States strange. On the way to the parking garage in the airport, I even commented, "Wow, everyone speaks English here."

On the way back to Texas!

In the spirit of being back in the United States, I have created a list of things that made me excited when I got back to America.

You know you have been in Europe for three months when:

• You are excited to get free refills.
• You are amazed by the size of drinks at restaurants.
• You always want to ask how much it costs to go to the bathroom.
• You are so excited to eat Tex-Mex and Texas barbecue. 
• You don't have to ask if someone speaks English.
• You drive, even if a place is 200 yards away. (I almost just put meters here. There is obviously still a lot of Europe in me.) 
• You are surprised when a stranger smiles at you. 
• Your back is still hurting from the 40-pound backpack you carried around for months.
• You want to take a day trip to another country for a few hours but realize Mexico is too far away.
• You feel like you can buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks without breaking the bank.

I am currently working on editing my photographs and will have more blog entries about various cities on the way. I am also working on a new travel blog project, called pinkvalise. [pinkvalise.blogspot.com] I am going to work on it over the weekend and hopefully start updating regularly starting Monday. 

We had been awake for over 48 hours here. On our way to Itasca from the airport.

Hiatus for Backpacking through Europe

Hello dear friends,

Tomorrow at 2 p.m., I will be leaving for a 19 days of backpacking through Europe. I will be unable to blog while backpacking because I will not be bringing my laptop, but I will post many entries about our adventures once I return.

For those interested, our itinerary is: Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, then Marseille, Avignon and Nice in France, then Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Capri, Cinque Terre and Stresa in Italy and ending up with a day in Annecy, France.

I hope everyone has a great three weeks. I will post as soon as I can.

Love,
Olga