Shadow Box Fun

Alright folks, I have been on two major trips across the world; Australia in 2008 and Egypt in 2012. From both of my wonderful trips I kept a few items to help me remember the trip as the years pass. Since I was able to have a little bit of free time before rotations start I decided to start marking items off my to do list. First item up was these two shadow boxes and I was even smart enough to remember to take pictures along the way as well. Go me!

1--Buy a shadow box that will fit all the contents you want to add. I wanted to add scrapbook paper behind my souvenirs so I stuck with a 12x12.

2--Buy paper, stickers, and whatever other kid of decorations you want to add. Unfortunately good 'ol Hobby Lobby didn't have any pyramid, sphinx or other egyptian stickers so I just stuck with the paper.

3--Next, gather all your souvenirs  you want to add and try to make them all fit on your background paper. As you can tell I had a lot of junk priceless memories that I was trying to add in the box. So many that I forgot to add a picture of me from the trip. Epic Fail. After you have everything you want begin to glue or pin it down. The next part is the tricky part, making it all fit in the box. I had a few loose items I didn't glue down, but wanted to add at the bottom.

4--Here are the final versions of my two trips. One added bonus to making the boxes, was remembering all of the memories of the trip along the way. Also, now that I am done I realized I never added a date or the name of the cities I visited. I will probably go back and add a piece of paper on the back of each with both those items and anything else I noticed I forgot.

--Egypt 2012--
Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan, Cairo

--Australia 2008--
The Gold Coast

What are some of y'alls favorite trips you want to capture in a shadow box to hang on your wall?

The Great Baggage Extravaganza

Have patience with all things. But, first of all with yourself.

-Saint Francis de Sales

As most of you already know, on our trip to Egypt our luggage got lost.  Yes I said lost, not delayed, not temporarily missing but lost!! For the first three days of our trip we didn't not know where our luggage even was. It was last scanned leaving Atlanta and went MIA after that. Finally on day four we found out it was in fact in Cairo in the Air France office. Seems like that would be a relief right?!? Wrong! Even after we found out where the bags were we still were unable to contact them. After 2 days of constantly calling Air France they finally picked up the phone. Finally on the evening of day 7 our luggage was officially in our hands again!

Now that y'all have a general idea of the timeline we were working with I'll share some of our stories. First thing, bless the reception committees (RC) hearts, we quite frankly annoyed the crap out of them. We got to the hotel around 1:30 am on August 2nd and were told just to contact the RC later that day about the luggage issue. The next day when we reported in we kind of got the run around, not intentionally of course, but between our luggage issue and the other 500 plus participants problems they were a little swamped! When we checked in the next day we talked to Moataz, which for some reason I  kept calling him Cojax (Sorry doll, I am terrible with names!). Moataz took a copy of our passport and luggage claim to give to the next person. We came back around noon and were told nothing new, but come back around dinner time. After we came back that night we met up with our saving grace himself, Hamza.

Our two favorite Egyptians!
Me, Mohamed, Hamza, Miss Artesia

Hamza is without a doubt one of my favorite people I know and it is not just because he helped get our luggage back either! Throughout all the baggage junk he was very calm while dealing with me, despite my slight loss of my cool at moments. He also offered to drive us to the airport at midnight to look for our bags. After Hamza had been talking to the airport security about our luggage whereabouts for an hour, he finally motioned for us to bring him our passports (past the security door)! Without even thinking I started walking towards him digging in my bag for my passport. Suddenly I hear the security guards shouting at me in arabic and english to get back and running towards me as if I was a seriously a threat to national security. Come on bro! Well this night ended in disappointment again without any luggage luck!

The next day Miss Artesia and I were looking for Mr. Hamza all morning to check for updates about the luggage. Finally found him in the afternoon and true to my nature I started to harass him about "ignoring" us all morning. Finally he just apologized, and said "I was in a car accident this morning." He said it so nonchalantly as if it was not a big deal. Immediately the mom in me showed up and started grilling him to see if he was ok, what happened, etc. Luckily for him he was not hurt and there was very little damage done to the car. He had actually fallen asleep at the wheel from his lack of sleep while helping to make the congress run as smoothly as possible. When talking about it I found out that he and Mohamed (our second saving grace in Egypt) were average 1-2 hours a night. I am sure most of the reception and organizational committees were getting that amount of sleep as well, but my heart just went out to them. They put on such a great conference on so little sleep. Props ladies and gentlemen, YOU ROCK!

My days were slightly running together at this time, but on to our new friend, Mohamed. Mohamed was also gracious enough to offer to drive us out to the airport at 1 am the next morning. Just like the past we found out no luck with the luggage, still being held hostage by Air France. Like the night before we went back to the hotel to get on the internet trying to figure out our next plan of attack! In the mean time that we were working our best to find our luggage from Egypt, my parents being the angels that they are were working their best from America to file reports and try to find our luggage as well!

Luckily for us, on day 7 of no luggage, our bags finally came in! Yes you heard me right, they finally came in and you want to know the good part? Our bags actually weren't the last of the conference bags to come in! One of our new friends luggage did not come in until a few days after us, bless his heart. I know I have kind of went on a rant about this luggage nonsense, but in all honesty it was a great life learning experience and I am extremely grateful for all our help we had! I can say that now that I am back home with anything I need just an arm length away.

That's right you guessed it... Our beautiful luggage! YAY

Since this blog has kind of been a downer I thought I would recap with some of the GOOD things that came from losing our luggage.

First, we were able to see how easy it really is to make due with what you have. We were able to last 5 days on two pairs of pants and two tops each. Yes I know you are probably thinking I sure hope y'all washed your clothes and yes we did. Well in the sink with shampoo until we were able to get a spare set and send it to the laundry services. Never in my life have I pictured myself saying this, but I would have loved to of had a washboard with me. Haha future note: Pack a washboard in your carry on with a small bottle of detergent, oh well along with a few sets of clothes too! 

Secondly, we were able to get to know two outstanding guys and have first hand experience with the wonderful Egyptian culture. As I have said before everybody we met in Egypt, whether it was the hotel receptionist or the airport security guard (even though you tried to tackle me) they were all great! Also, if we hadn't of lost our luggage we probably wouldn't of had the opportunity to spend more time with RCs and OCs, so yay for that!

Third, since we did not retrieve our luggage until after the auction night we had some American goodies with us. I had brought some New Mexican salsa to add to the gift bags and along with all the candy Miss Artesia had we were able to make some goody bags from Hamza and Mohamed as a small token of appreciation. I am sure it was not much to offer, but hey it's the thought that counts right guys?!?

Finally, we decided that the moral of our trip was to work on our patience. I know that may seem a little ironic to go on vacation and have to work on patience, but here me out. Throughout it all I think we did learn a great deal more than we had of it. By the time day 7 had rolled around we were both adapting pretty well with what few options we had and probably could have made due in any situation that presented itself our way. It really opens up your eyes and shows you that you really do not necessarily need all that junk that you brought with you. Even though we were doing just fine with what we had, we sure were glad when we got our luggage. Also we started to take more pictures once we weren't wearing the same set of clothes every other day! :)

The funny part about the entire deal was that when we were in Atlanta flying out to begin our trip, we had eaten dinner at Pei Wei. After our meal both of us eagerly opened our fortune cookies and found two fitting fortunes for our soon to be trip. My fortune read something along the lines of a great adventure is about to be at your door step. Obviously we both assumed that it was our trip as a whole and smiled about the coincidence. Miss Artesia's fortune read something along the lines of you soon will learn a great deal of patience. Ironic right??? Little did we know that her fortune would be just as fitting as mine by the time our great adventure was over! Well folks that just goes to show you that even though you may get 100 fortunes that don't necessarily seem to fit, there is always that chance that one of those will be more accurate than you can imagine.

I apologize for the lengthiness of this blog, but there is just too many good things from our trip to keep this baby short! I hope you all had a terrific Labor day weekend and we will talk to you soon loves!

Things I Have Learned in Egypt

The more that you read, the more things  you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

-Dr. Seuss

No matter how cool your clothes are and how much you fan yourself, you will be constantly sweating. It's hotter than heck there! In fact one of the days it was over 125 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't know if you heard me, but it was 125 degrees of miserably hot weather! No matter how much water you drink you are still sluggish and dehydrated? (Future reference for those going, make sure you take electrolyte packets you can add to your water!)

Egyptian drivers are crazy! Half of them do not use headlights, road lines have no purpose, and traffic laws basically mean the same thing to them as telling a little kid not to have fun at Disneyland! Even after having spent several hours in a bus or car I am still not used to it! I certainly am glad I am back in the US with our traffic laws, and believe me I never thought I would say that!

Just by being from America Egyptians automatically love you and assume your name is Shakira! I don't know how many men we had tell us I love you or I have been waiting for you my entire life. We even had a few of them ask to be our boyfriend/husband and were disappointed to hear about our fake boyfriends we had back home. "Oh you boyfriend a very lucky man."

All of the staff at the hotels, restuarants, and sites were very helpful. Even when you are those two American women who lost their luggage (which we were referred to as) and need to use the phone or get a taxi out to the airport. I was amazed that even though I could tell that they were getting annoyed by us at times, they still were very helpful and always happy to "serve" us as they called it. They were such wonderful people!

Egyptians never sleep! Whether you are up at 3 am or 11 pm there is always people up and moving around. you could tell the signs of exhaustion on the reception committee's (they were the ones you went to if you had any kind of issue) faces, but they always greeted you with a smile and were happy to help. When I asked one of them if they ever slept he said, "Not too much, maybe from 5-10. We are too busy living our lives to spend lots of time sleeping!" Man what a great outlook. If I wasnt slightly addicted to naps that would be a great thing to pick up on.

Egypt time always late. If you're on time you're early and if you're late you're on time. The entire congress and tour things were constantly running late. It got to the point that us Americams would show up exactly when it was supposed to start and still be super early!

For those of y'all who aren't country or do not know what a steer blower look likes you probably won't get this so feel free to skip this one. The best way I can think to describe this is by simply saying... You might be country if the first thing you think about when you see the hair dryer is... steer blower!

To follow that up with... You might be a tourist when you compare all your egyptian experiences to Sex in the City 2! For those of y'all who have seen the movie you would be pleased to know there are several similarities to the movie!

While we are talking about being an American, I came to the conclusion on this trip that I am a spoiled brat from being raised in America. Some of the simple things we take for granted every day, others across the world don't have! It is really sad that I had to travel half way around the world to truly see how abundantly blessed I am. I am actually going to write a blog later on about some of the little things we realized we were truly greatful to have, so stay tuned. In the mean time take some time to thank God for all your many blessings today!

Sorry it is taking me so long to update the blogs, but unfortunately school has to come first!

Hope y'all are having a great week lovelies!

Hello Americans!

It sure has been awhile since I have talked to y'all, so hellooooo! If you are tuning in today looking for a recap on Egypt you are going to be slightly disappointed. I am just going to give y'all a quick rundown on some of the trip highlights.

I must say this trip was certainly an one of a kind, eye opening experience. I have never been to any where in the middle east so I was very excited for my trip! I set the expectation bar pretty high in my head before we even left the good 'ol USA!

Our first interesting experience happened in the Atlanta International Airport. As Miss Artesia and I were grabbing a quick bite to eat when I spotted a tall (first thing that caught my attention) man carrying a USA bag in a USA track suit. Immediately I thought how cool would that be if he was going to compete in the Olympics. Being the country girl that I am I decided the polite thing to do would be introduce myself simce i had been staring for a good 3 minutes or so. So after "slightly" stalking him across the food court, my short 5'3" self finally caught up with him. Sure enough I was staring at 6'9" Jeremy Scott from Norfolk, Nebraska!! Jeremy was on his was to London to compete in the pole vault. After a little chit chat I was going back to my seat feeling pretty good about myself. (Unfortunately, I did not realize in a short 24 hours this would all change.

After we arrived at our final destination we found out our bags were indeed missing! Awesome right?!? Well after 7 days we were finally able to get our luggage. Man what a relief! This topic is too big not to have its own blog so stay tuned for that!

The conference was such an amazing experience! We met so many wonderful pharmacy students from across the world and learned about pharmacy on so many different levels. I was fortunate enough to have been able to teach a workshop on Generation Rx during the Scientific Symposium. It was awesome to share one of my favorite projects with the entire world. You will hear more about all the events of congress on my upcoming blogs so keep on reading!

After our 10 day congress we went on a 10 day post congress tour! We figured we might only be in Egypt once so go BIG! Earlier in the year I gave a short rundown of the sites we would be seeing, you can check that out here. Even though the trip was slightly different than the plan it was still amazing! I cant even think of the right words to give justice to to the rich history I saw. Yall should definitely add that to your bucket list!, I will have pictures of the sites coming soon along with a rundown day by day.

Well all in all it was an amazing trip as I have mentioned numerous times. I apologize for this one being so long, but i just have so many great memories j am looking forward to sharing with yall! You can pretty much expect all the future blogs to be pretty lengthy so definteky grab a snack before you sit down to read them. There are certainly some funny stories in there. Oh and just fair warning my classes started back up the day we flew back go,w so bear with me if it takes awhile to get these blogs posted.

I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!

We are back!

For those of y'all I do not have on facebook, we are home safe and sound! The trip was absolutely amazing and we have so many wonderful stories to share. Also, I started school the day I flew in so I will be slightly behind when adding my blogs about theses adventures. Please be patient with me and I will update blogs as they are wrote!

I hope y'all are all having a great week!

Travel Update

Miss Artesia and I are in the airport fixin to start our day and a half journey across the world to Egypt! I will do my best to keep y'all updated, but in return I ask you to pray for us to have safe travels and return home safely!! For those of y'all who have me on facebook I will probably keep that updated better so be on the look out for updates! Hopefully I can update a few pictures along the way :)

--Pharmer Girl

Friday's Letters

Today we are hooking up with Ashley for her Friday's Letters series.

Dear Egypt Although I am getting SUPER excited and counting down the days (25 days to be exact), I am running around like a crazy person getting ready for you. So with that being said, you better be even more awesome that I am expecting. Also in preparation for you I watched Sex in the City 2. Yes I know it is not exactly the same, but it is the Middle East so I still count that as a win.

Dear Pool I know we had a lovely relationship this past week and I sure have missed you this week. We will meet again in the near future and I promise we can continue working on my lovely tan. Until then my love.

Dear Mrs. Texas I am so glad I got to see you this weekend! Gosh I have missed you. There are so many wonderful thing happening in your life and I can't wait to be apart of them. Love you doll!

Dear High School BFF I had an absolute BLAST spending the 4th with you! It has been entirely too long since I have seen you and next time we need to make sure its not near this long. I am so glad that no matter how long it has been we always pick right up from where we left off. I am so happy to hear you are doing great and I look forward seeing you soon.

Dear 50 Shades of Grey Trilogy First off, I am loving your books. I wish I had time to read all day, but then again I would read you wayyyy too fast and be done. So thank goodness my life is hectic enough for now that I still have some of the final book left.

Dear Laker Lover I know you are probably having withdraws from me, but we will soon be together again. I am getting really excited for the float trip! It will be an epic vacation! Get ready sweetheart, get ready! It's going to be like the old days. You know what that means.

Dear Silver Nail Polish I am very glad I bought you last week. I am just loving you and get a silly smile on my face when I look down and see you on my toes. Keep being awesome my friend.

Dear Sewing Machine I know we have had a love hate relationship in the past, but I have a serious amount of sewing to do in a short amount of time, so please please please with a cherry on top, lets get a long. Thanks for your cooperation doll!

Dear Weekend THANK YOU for finally making your appearance. I sure have been looking forward to you for the past 5 days!

A Call for All World Travelers

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on,

deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. --Miriam Beard

Well friends if you remember a couple months ago I mentioned I was going to be traveling to Egypt at the end of the summer for an international pharmacy conference. In preparation for my trip I have been trying to set up ways to communicate with my loved ones back home while I am away. I heard about Google Voice as well as Skype. I do have an iPhone and plan on taking it with me and using in Airplane mode. I have been experimenting with both so far and this is what I have found....


Google Voice
In airplane mode connected to WiFi, I have been able to send text messages, but have yet to figure out how to receive a call or voicemail without switching back to my service. One of the reasons I like this application is the fact I have a different phone number and landlines or technological challenged individuals could use to call me or leave a message.


Has anybody had any experience with this application? Suggestions?


Skype
In airplane mode connected to WiFi as well, I have been able to send messages as well as make calls. This seems like a logical solution, but as always I like to know all my options.


Also any helpful travel suggestions y'all have picked up along the way are more than welcome!

I hope y'all are having a wonderful week!

Egypt: Let the Planning Begin

Well considering it done darling!

Y'all know the feeling when you decide to go on a grand adventure or yearly vacation? It’s the perfect combination of sheer excitement mixed with a ton of planning and dash of frustration. Well that is exactly where I am right now. I am beyond excited for my trip to Egypt with Miss Artesia, but the planning is driving me crazy!

I am not sure if y’all have ever been to Egypt, but there is a lot of planning that goes into international travel. Plane tickets, registration for the conference, post congress tour, Egyptian visa, cancellation insurance, travel insurance, vaccinations, blah blah blah, the list goes on forever!

So in the mean time I thought I would share some of the fun stuff I have planned for my trip, with y’all. After my conference is over, I am going on a 10 day tour all over Egypt. Here is a little break down of the fun we are going to be having!

In Hurghada: I will either do a 2-days diving course program or a snorkeling and submarine program.

In Luxor: I will visit the Karnak Temple, Hatshepsut Temple, and Colossi of Memnon.

In Aswan: I will visit Kitchener Island, the High Dam, the famous obelisk of Aswan, Phillae Temple, and Edfu Temple.

In Cairo: The first day I will visit the Egyptian Museum, the Pyramids and the Sphinx, and Khan Al Khalily bazaars. The second day of Cairo's program will include introduction to the different religious relics in Cairo, I will visit the hanging churches, Salah El Din Citadel, Sultan Hassan Mosque, El Refa’ey Mosque, and Amr Ebn Al A’as Mosque.

In Alexandria: I will visit Alexandria library, Qayetbai Citadel, and El Montaza Palace.

If any of y’all have ever been to Egypt or know someone who has and you have any suggestions I would LOVE to hear them! :)

Hope y’all are having a wonderful EASTER weekend!