It's Been a Year....I know

I kind of fell off the blogging band wagon and I do realize my last post has been over a year ago.  Recently I have traveled to Brazil for work which has given me more motivation to write.  Plus, this saves me from repeating and writing the same story to all my friends and family.  I will try to write a brief synopsis of each of my assignments over the last year since they were all in the States.  Pictures will be available for viewing on my Picasa page.

Chicago, Illinios
I had a six month assignment in the engineering department at work.  Since I had travel for a year and a half prior to being stationary, I had forgotten what it was like to be able to plan events in advance more than a week.  During this time, I was able to go to four weddings, visit Tom in Trinidad multiple times, see my newborn nephew and run a 10k race with my bro-in-law, visit my parents on Thanksgiving, go on a ski trip to Colorado, and much much more! But by the end of this temporary assignment, I was ready to get back on the road for a bit.

Lake Charles, Louisiana
By March, I was back on the road and back to Louisiana.  The assignment originally was only 10 days but turned into one month.  I ended up working straight 12 hour night shifts for more than half of this time so did not explore too much.  Went on a two hour swamp tour where I saw lots of birds and even a few alligators...ate alligator for lunch afterward.  Drove to Beaumont, TX to visit some fellow friends/co-workers on an assignment there.  I was even able to get probably five feet away from an alligator, if I got closer he would hiss at me....and those suckers are fast.  Did not want to take any chances.

Toledo, Ohio
Straight after Louisiana, I traveled to Ohio.  Again, this assignment was longer than expected as are most assignments.  Also, two friends and also co-workers were in the same town at a different refinery on an assignment.  I tried many yummy restaurants because of them.  The Art Museum I checked out in town had a very interesting glass blowing demonstration.

Long Beach, California
This assignment was awesome because it was in California and only 45 minutes from my grandparents. Since I had to take a safety class the Friday before I was supposed to go to work, that gave me the weekend off.  Saturday morning I went on a whale watching tour where I saw two groups of grey whales (both a mom with her baby), common dolphins and bottle-nose dolphins.  That night, I headed up to see my Grandparents.  Ate home cooked meals and yummy fruit from my Granny's garden.  Surprisingly, this assignment was a lot shorted than actually expected.

  
Corpus Christi, Texas
Last minute trip to sunny Texas.  My first weekend there, I went to the beach and got burn extremely bad.  Ate really good Mexican food while there and went to a local bar and heard a different kind of country music -  forgot what they called it exactly.  I was even able to see Tom and go to a friend's wedding - a perk of working on assignments in the States.

North Padre Beach

Santos, Brazil
I finally went out of the country again and Brazil is not a bad place to land :-)  I arrived at the end of June and have loved every minute here.  It's winter time here but luckily stays anywhere between 15-25C (60-75F).  Things are super expensive here - shopping, groceries, restaurants, transportation, etc.  The food is delicious and the people are super nice!  I am slowly learning Portuguese.  Portuguese and Spanish are somewhat similar but unfortunately, I took German in school and do not know a lick of Spanish.  The town we are staying in is on the beach and our hotel is only a couple blocks away.  Have taken full advantage of running on the beach multiple times!  On my first long off - I took a trip to Machu Picchu, Peru with a friend/co-worker who is working in a different area of Brazil on assignment.  That post is forthcoming!

Santos, Brazil from Ilha Porchat