Etoile2B's VirtualTourist Home Page

Send Photo to a Friend

Edgar the Gargoyle

My Travel Style

The thing I probably enjoy the most in life is travelling. I have always been fascinated with other cultures, languages and people. Every time I get back from a trip I am itching to start a new adventure. I spend a lot of time planning trips in my head that I unfortunately don't have the time and money to take in reality...Yet...

My travel style is pretty broad. It ranges from backpacking to lying on a beach in Ocho Rios with cabana boys bringing me Mai Tai's. I think there is a time and place for every kind of travel style, so mine changes depending on my budget, mood, and travelling companions. I could be comfortable and happy sleeping in a 12 bunk hostel in Budapest or dressing up for a four-star meal in Napa. Most of the time the most important thing for me is to assimilate into whatever culture I am experiencing as much as possible so I can learn as much about different people and places as I can. Of course there are always exceptions to every rule!

I found Edgar the Gargoyle in Nurnberg and fell in love. Too bad I couldn't fit him in my suitcase.

Send Photo to a Friend

Getting ready for a night out in Vegas!

Where in the World am I today?

Wondering, aren't you? I can't believe I've been back in Los Angeles for over four years now! 2008 brought Marc and I to Costa Rica for a week. I'm still working on those pages. I took a girl's trip to Las Vegas, a camping and wine tasting trip to Santa Ynez for Marc's birthday, visited to Chicago for Kerry's wedding, took a jaunt to New York City and several trips to San Francisco. The big trip was celebrating my 15 year UWP reunion with Cast B, this time in Tucson, Arizona... in the summer! We didn't pick the location but we made the best out of it! As always I am working on building my pages but there never seems to be enough time, does there? I am so busy with work! At least I'm traveling a little for work this year.

Send Photo to a Friend

Just a few members of Cast B at our Reunion 2003!

Upcoming Adventures

On the Agenda:
In January 2009 we're going to Kauai, Hawaii with my family for a trip! And then Marc and I will continue on to the Big Island for a few days alone.

In July of 2009 we're going to Michigan with Marc's family for his dad's 70th birthday to revisit his old haunts.

Exciting news! In August I will be taking my mom to Australia for two weeks. This has been a dream trip for both of us. I'm buying tickets and then we're going to start researching our trip. Who knows where we'll end up! Right now we're thinking about a few days in Sydney and some wine country and then perhaps flying north to Darwin and exploring from there since it's a good time of year to be in the Outback. Suggestions are definitely appreciated!

Then Summer of 2010 will be jam packed... Cast B will be meeting up in Copenhagen, Denmark for our 17th year reunion! It's a Cast B '93 only midterm event between our 15 and 20 year UWPIAA Reunions. Marc and I are also considering South Africa for the World Cup but Europe and Africa in the same Summer might be too ambitious.

And the trip to India got moved... again...

Send Photo to a Friend

View of Cancun from the air.

My Dream Trip...

Right now, in my own little dream world, I am planning a trip around the world. The more I think about it the more I think I could make it happen. Who knows... I keep planning different routes and researching round the world tickets. Right now I have my heart set on a little bit of Africa and a whole lot of Australia and Asia. Especially the Islands along the way. I am a scuba diver and would love to dive my way around the world. Spots that especially intrigue me at the moment are the Seychelles, the Maldives, Easter Island and Southeast Asia. But that's just the beginning...

Send Photo to a Friend

Our Official Cast Picture

Hang on... who are these crazy Cast B people?

When I was 18 I embraced the opportunity of a lifetime and spent a year traveling with Up With People. (Up With People was recently restructured into WorldSmart - omitting the show and focusing more on global awareness and education.) Basically Up With People was an international student organization in which people from all over the world between the ages of 18 and 27 travel together for a year. In each community we visited we stayed with host families and staged and performed in an original 2 hour show that showcased a variety of topics from education to AIDS awareness, cultural diversity to environmental issues. The shows changed every two years. Our show was called World In Motion. The show was the catalyst that brought us into each community, but our main goal was to promote cross cultural communication (hence living with host families), community involvement and global awareness, therefore for each two hour show we performed we would partake in a minimum of 4 hours of community service targeting the needs of each individual community, hopefully showing the residents how they could give back locally. Up With People was a non-religious, non-political organization that was founded in 1965 as Sing Out! Five diverse and dynamic casts would leave from Denver, Colorado (operations moved here from Tucson, Arizona in the summer of 1993) each year - three in August (Cast A, B & C) and two in January (Cast D & E). I was a member of Cast B 1993 - 94. My cast traveled to 103 cities in 7 countries (10 including our study groups, spin-offs and layovers) and had the most extensive tour in the history of UWP in the country of Mexico, spending almost 3 months there. My cast had a very atypical UWP year, but because of that we have a special bond that surpasses any other cast I've seen. We started the year with about 150 members (both staff and student) representing approximately 35 countries. It was probably the most difficult year of my life to date but ultimately the most rewarding. Every five years the UWP Alumni Organization hosts our reunion where we have the opportunity to see our friends from our cast and the other casts we rehearsed and lived with in Denver as well as casts from other eras. My cast has also started the tradition of planning Cast B reunions in between the UWPIAA sponsored reunions so we can see each other as a group more often. The majority of my cast also keeps in touch on a regular basis thanks to the wonders of the internet. We've had a cast listserver running since our first year off the road. I am fortunate enough to live in close proximity with several members of the cast now that I've moved back to LA and we socialize on a regular basis. I am very lucky to have these people in my life. I am updating my travel pages to include our tour. Since it has been so many years since I was on the road they might end up being more like a scrapbook than anything. We'll see how this project turns out! If you want to follow the adventures of Cast B start in Denver and follow us from there...

(This is actually a huge project so it's going to take a while for it to all come together properly. I'm starting with getting the framework up and I'll flesh it out from there. In the words of my friend Loly (from Mexico)... "B patient babies!")

Send Photo to a Friend

Descanso Gardens

Picture of the Moment...

Okay, so this is something a little new. I thought I would call it picture of the day or week or something but I didn't want to put any stringent time parameters on it. I'd rather change the picture when it feels right... so it's just the picture of the moment.

Recently my mom (Yo Dini) was in town for a visit and we took a trip up to the Descanso Gardens one Saturday afternoon. It was gorgeous outside and the flowers were in bloom. We decided to take some hikes off the beaten path at times, which afforded great views and a brief respite from other visitors. They were also having a huge plant sale so I ended up with some new additions to my little urban garden.