Colorado

Sometimes, two countries just isn't enough to travel with someone. When Rocky and I realized we would both be home at the same time, we took advantage of it. I've been to Colorado once before, 10+ years ago, but hardly remember it. So I was excited to experience it as an adult this time around. 

We spent everyday in the car, driving to see something amazing.

Day 1:

Up on the same mountain, we went to Buffalo Bill's grave and learned all about his shenanigans. It was so fun learning about the Wild West!

Day 2:

Seven Falls

Hometown visit. Elizabeth, CO.

Day 3:

We took the light rail out to downtown Denver and had dinner and walked around the Mile High City!

Then, for the first time I saw a Major League Baseball game outside of Houston! I drank Coors Light and waved my Rockies rally towel. It was Colorado fabulous.

Day 4:
We drove out to the southwest part of the state to see Mesa Verde. I got to drive in the mountains, and it was so so pretty!

Scenic stop.

Sand Dunes

 Day 5:

I've never known much about Mesa Verde, so this tour was super interesting to me. I loved learning about the Pueblos and their mysterious past.

Cliff Palace

I remember learning about the Four Corners Monument when I was little and wanting to see it. Needless to say, I was way excited to finally see this!

Four Corners

Day 6:

We made the drive back up to the Denver area and stopped at Garden of the Gods on the way. The rocks here are so different than the others in the state. They were these beautiful tall red rocks that looked like they were all somehow defying gravity. I loved it!

Lots of playing around here!

The week flew by, but in a good way. I got to see so much and was so very happy to spend it in good company. 

4th of July

Celebrating America's birthday is so much better when you're stateside. I was so so happy to celebrate with some a my favsies this year too.

I went down to Friendswood to meet Christine and Matt for some 4th of July festivities.

I so love her.

Making me a snow cone! 

Perfection.

We went back to Matt's house and his mom had the idea to make this cake:

So of course, Christine and I came to the rescue and helped to create this "mess"terpiece. Check out those cake balls. They were a disaster..

It was pretty tasty, though!

Christine and I made this presh little thing too. 

We went back out to watch the firework show:

I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July. 

AMERICA!  ;) 

Happy June

I posted about Perhentian, but here's a couple of other things that made me smile in June. :)

KLCC hosted a super fab music and lights festival along with the big oil & gas conferences going on. Every night during the week the fountains and lights were on. I went multiple times cause I loved it so much!

The towers all beautiful and lit up.

Precious little part of the movie thing they played on the walls of the mall.

Fantastic show!

I turned 23! And I celebrated my birthday with some of the most incredible ladies. We went to Nero Teca for dinner and then out to my most favorite bars. I smiled all night!

@ dinner

My last night out before I left for the summer was filled with a Train concert and Changkat with my favorites.

Ready for Train!

They put on an incredible show!
I officially fell in love when he sang "Marry Me"
with the crowd and without his microphone.

He makes me smile. Saying goodbye is dumb.

I traveled with Jackson and my dad to TEXAS! I'm home for the summer and that makes me so so happy. 

A little picframe of the forever-long trip over here.
All new things for me- mountains in Turkey, desert in Qatar,
Arabic soda cans, and a 16hr plane ride. 

BEAUTIFUL Texas sunsets always make me smile.

Frozen pickle juice shots with the only crazy that loves them with me!

Bus Station Shenanigans

After spending a few days in this fab paradise,

Perhentian Islands

I hung out in a tiny area of a town, Kuala Besut, as a few of us waited for our 8pm busses.

When we arrived at the bus station an 4pm there was nothing but this girl making some sugar cane juice:

Little did we know, she was just the start of the little market-style shenanigans that were about pop up in the parking lot.

I had the best time walking/talking around, taking pictures and of course buying all the tiny and tasty treats.

Chicken Machata

The face we all made at one point or another.  It tasted alright.

Some awesome looking grilled chicken.

 My favorite:

Battered and fried bananas, honey, and peanuts.

Making the honey ones. YUM!

I loved this stall because of all the colors.
I had some of the pink and yellow rice. It tasted like nothing.

Pressed rice with brown sugar inside. Super cute. Kinda tasteless too.

Super yummy chicken satay with peanut sauce 

After saying "I have no idea what this is", he totally ate the whole thing. We never found out what it was, and I almost gagged.

Ear-looking fried thing. Germans be crazy.

There were these men playing this checker game on the benches of the bus station. I was taking their picture, and they asked me to come sit with them. So of course, I did. They were so cute! The one playing on the left was the "champion" and the other guy was adorably determined to beat him. 

After all the little tastes of happiness, we said goodbye and made the 8 hour bus trip back to KL. Such a fun surprise to pass the time!

Sunday Funday

When I was in college, Sundays were pretty much my least favorite day of the week. At the beginning, if I wasn't home, I would feel super homesick. If I was home, it was the day I made the trip back to school so the goodbyes were a bummer. After a semester or so of that, it became crazy homework day because I'm a procrastinator. And then it was lesson planning/quiz cramming/reflection writing day.
But now? I love my job, so there's no haunting "Monday is tomorrow :(" feeling. And I just feel at home here. Being blessed with some fab friends in this city just tops all that off to make Sundays awesome.

Even though we were missing some of my favorites, this past Sunday was perfect.

The ladies of the Latin American Embassies put on a Latin America festival. The area wasn't that big, so it was super crowded. And hot.

A bunch of countries were represented with these cute little booths. They were decorated with their flags and selling food & drinks to those of us pretending we were on a South American vacation.

Our first stop, Mexico and Brazil!

Caipirinha and tacos!

Chicken and cheese deliciousness.

This is my attempt to not be creepy. 
I wanted a picture of that cute spanish boy giving out napkins.

Made it to South America.. 

The cutest little plastic cup of wine with strawberries in it. 
Like a sangria. Loved.

Blurry, but watching a dance show in Cuba. 

My travel buddy!

After the festival, we headed over to the mall. I don't think I've shared my LOVE for the cinema experience over here. So here it goes: I pay 14 ringgit (less than $5) for my movie ticket, where I reserve a specific seat so even if I get in late, I'm not sitting in a crappy spot. Then I buy popcorn and a drink for maybe 7 ringgit if I go crazy, and get the big popcorn. They have magical popcorn here. It's a mix of normal salty with caramel popcorn and it's pretty much perfect. We saw Dark Shadows. It was weird. I liked it.

Ending the night at Overtime for dinner and drinks!

"Love the life you live. Live the life you love."
-Bob Marley