I'm Baaaack! (warning LONG!)
I’m baaack! Hello all! Sorry for the long delay in posting again, but things have been busy with lots of changes in my life. As many of you know I FINALLY finished school out near San Francisco, CA, took some time off, and have now started working in Houston, TX.
After a wonderful TE sendoff in September, I handed in my dissertation and packed up my apartment. I then set off to South America for 3 weeks. The first week I was in Buenos Aires for a friends wedding. It was a ton of fun, and quite a crazy experience! The wedding wasn’t until 9:30 pm, we finally ate around midnight, dessert/cake came out around 3, pizza and beer at 4:30, the American’s finally crashed around 6 am, was in bed by 6:30 am! And this was when the Argentinean’s were just getting ready to start playing soccer! It was also nice because I was there with some of my best friends from Stanford, some of whom were getting ready to move to London, so it was great to spend some more time with them.
I then headed to Peru for 2 weeks. What an amazing place, I will definitely be going back! Hiked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, went down into the Amazon basin, and did a 3 day rafting trip on the Apurimac river. Amazing time, and a great group. This was my first trip with a tour group, and (at least for Peru), I would highly recommend GAP Adventures, they were great, and have a great philosophy towards sustainable tourism. I even had a nice little vacation fling with a guy in my tour group So that is always fun!
Got back from Peru at the beginning of Oct, was in CA for ~ 24 hours, and then started driving to Houston. First night I only went to LA due to jet lag, and was able to see one of my cousins. The next night went to Flagstaff, AZ where my parents were as my Dad’s conference for work had just finished. Stayed one night with them, and picked up my Mom for the rest of the drive to Houston. The next day we took a detour in New Mexico to head up to the Trinity Historical Site….this is where they tested the atomic bomb during WWII and it is open to the public 2 days a year. Pretty interesting. Made it in to Houston 4 days after I left CA, and 5 days after I got back from South America! Took the next day to find an apartment (found one in 1 day!), and then took my mom to the airport.
I took the next 10 days to get things sorted in Houston, got my TX driver’s license :-o, my furniture got delivered, and then I headed up to MN (where my parent’s live) to go on a family trip to France for 10 days. We spent a couple of days in Paris before heading up to Normandy. By this point I was sounding really sick and was hurting from coughing for the past 2 weeks (a small bug I picked up in South America had settled in my chest, and probably developed into walking pneumonia) The heavy antibiotics finally started kicking it while I was in France, but I feel bad for all the people on the airplanes with me! I know I wasn’t contagious, but I sure sounded horrible!
Had a great time in France. Did all the D-day sites up in Normandy, which was really powerful, and then spent some time up in Brittany also.
Finally got back to Houston for good at the beginning of Nov. and started work at BP on Nov. 5. Work is going well, and I am getting settled in. Things are really going to pick up in the new year, but started out quite slow, which was nice.
I already have a number of friends in Houston, many from CA, and some of whom are also cyclists, so have been spending quite a bit of time with them. Been riding a bit here, but right now I am focusing on my running as I am running my first half marathon on Jan 14 (the Houston half-marathon). I am also in the process of looking for a new road bike (yippie!) I have test ridden the Trek Madone, Specialized s-works and ruby, a couple of Felt and Cervelo bikes, a Lightspeed, and still have to go and ride 2 orbeas. Right now I am leaning towards the Ruby Pro… have to go back and ride it again as it was the first total grin inducing bike I had ridden, and just want to make sure it is THE one. Might even do that tomorrow or this coming weekend.
So, as you can see…I have been busy, but I have been lurking a bit (though not as much as in the past). I am glad to be back, and I miss my CA riding buddies and all the great riding you have out there! TX Rider and I have tried to meet up to ride, but hasn’t worked out yet, hopefully in the New Year….
I will do better about posting, and will keep you up to date on the new bike! Also, if you are interested, a (large) selection of my photos from my travels are on my picasa page: www.picasaweb.google.com/ellen.mallman
Sorry, this turned into a novel! Happy New Year everyone!
Ellen
Aka DrBadger
