AJulToSparkle's Xanga

the time is 10:43, do you know where your children are?

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:42:43 GMT

the time is 10:43pm and i just heard it run by very quickly...

point proven

The Ice Cream Crack Truck

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:47:27 GMT

So every night, between 9:30 and 10, there is an ice cream truck that drives by playing the tune (that i know as) "Do Your Ears Hang Low?"
This truck is very reliable to drive by... but it kinda gets me thinking... it only drives by late at night. How many ice cream lovin kids with very cool parents would be out this late to buy ice cream? I highly doubt its enough to support an ice cream truck to drive around at these gas prices.

so my conclusion is that it is indeed not an ice cream truck, but a Crack Truck that makes a very good living in our gang infested neighborhood.

golly i love chicago!

my princess....

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:37:30 GMT

I miss my little princess, Chelsea Morning... she was such a good dog for us, as a family, for over 16 years. She was old and had lived a very good life of sleeping, eating, and being pet. She was a bit on the dumb side, but i liked her that way.... she was flexible because of it, making her the only animal out of many (less fortunate) pets to survive the McKenney family. She was cute... especially when she got excited and wagged her hind end around, making her look like a flopping jelly bean. Aw she was a good dog....

but alas, old age and sickness hit our dear princess rather suddenly and the costly operation was out of the question... so we (or more my mom and rich) decided it was best to put her down.

i still get hit with a pang of sadness when i see the dogs in the airport... i don't know why its just the airport that hits me hard... because i see dogs on the street all the time and we have one here in the house.... but it makes me tear up and smudge my makeup when i see kids with their canine family members...

i just gotta remember that Chelsea lived a very good life... there are so many dogs in the world who have never experienced an ounce of love... and chelsea got loved and spoiled by the boatload. I miss her...

more exciting stuff!

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:41:14 GMT

ALSO! i just found out that my friend from Puebla, Adriana, is teaching deaf students in the Port of Veracruz ceramics... she says that it was my influence that moved her to work with los sordomudos (the deaf-mutes). I'm so excited to go and visit her class one day!! She also wants me to send her some videos of signing in ASL to help her out with her kids. So, thats my new mission, to find some useful videos to send her

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:22:41 GMT

just got back from a tour of veracruz, mexico. My mom and i went to the port of veracruz, in the southern part of the state, and spent 1 night and one fake night there (the fake night is cause we got in ridiculously early from the all night bus on the first day). We took a tour of the city, watched the Jarocho dancers in the Zocalo (or town square), and ate our fill of seafood. The city is beautiful, but since its on the coast, its quite warm and humid.
Then we tramped up north to Papantla, the town of Vanilla and the Voldadores. I don't believe there is another town in the world that does Vanilla horchata the way Papantla does it. They also have El Tajin, the archeological site, about 20 minutes (on a chicken bus) from town. My golly, that site is absolutely amazing... i was in such a grumpy mood till we got there because i had been wanting to go there for a year and a half but never made it... and it felt like my mom was trying to do anything possible to avoid going into the site (i know its not true... but it felt like it). Once we got sunburnt and saw as much as we could handle, we headed back to papantla to watch them initiate "Cumbre Tajin" which roughly means "Celebration of Tajin", the festival that we had no idea was happening the week we were there. For that reason, the hotel cost about twice as much as it usually does. This was my second time in papantla which was my second time papantla was having a huge celebration that filled all the hotel rooms.
Now, i must admit, this is something i've recently noticed and find quite odd... but when i am in large groups of people for a long period of time i get emotionally drained and stressed out. This festival wasn't helping... so for that reason (and a few others) i convinced my mom that we needed to go to Jalapa. It was nice to be back where everything was familiar, there weren't such large crowds, and it was significantly cooler (because Xalapa's in the mountains.... where veracruz and papantla are not). We did the standard stuff, walked around town and through the university, then went to the museum of anthropology and callejon de diamantes. My mom loves (and i can't emphasize that enough) that Callejon... or Artisan Alley. We ate at a comida corrida and hung out with a few others from the hostel. It was basically a walk down memory lane, but without any of my friends because they were all gone for Semana Santa (Easter week is a huge deal down there... most people get the week off)
The next day we were off to Mexico City (or DF, districto federal) to catch our flight. We left at 2:30 am and took the red-eye bus into the city... since we got there so early, we went to the Frida Kahlo museum. A girl from the hostel who lives in the area, Coayacan, told us to not be scared of the city and gave us directions... so we took the metro there and meandered through the town till the museum opened up (if any of you have traveled to mexico, you'll know that nothing believes in being open early... or early to our standards.... the world starts moving around 9am, when the coffee shops finally open). After i let my mom roam the town square for a few hours (like i mentioned above, i can't handle large groups of people when i'm over tired) while i watched the bags at a semi-secluded corner of the square. Then we ate and caught a taxi to the airport!
Once at the airport, everything was easy-breezy... we got seats in first class and drank our ways to LAX... where we ran like bats out of hell to the united terminal (roughly one mile from the international terminal) to catch the last flight of the day to SFO. Once we got to the gate, life was good as we got our seats. In SFO, we dragged our tired little selves and our huge backpacks to wait one hour for the bus.... remember, our day started in Jalapa, at 1:30am.... and i had been out till 11pm the night before with an old friend. At this point, i was supprised we didn't kill each other and we rolled ourselves into my apartment at 1:00 am.
after checking flights for my mom to take back to pennsylvania the next day, we finally went to bed... only for me to be woken a half hour later by the crew desk to send me to Taiwan.

i'm sure you can imagine how excited i was to hear that in a few hours, i'd have to stay awake for another 16+ hours serving people Not just any people though... but several hundred Taiwanese people who don't speak much English and have very different cultural norms when it comes to touching (or pulling or poking). As much as i love the international flying, i would have paid someone to let me have their Dallas 2-day trip.

so, just a few short hours after i went to sleep, we woke up and sent my mom on her flight to chicago and i headed to briefing to find out i was working in "The Village" aka, Economy... yee haw . One flight attendant just calls economy "Hands and Mouths".
Oh, and the babies on this flight! Now, we flight attendants aren't bothered too much by crying babies... it kinda helps us stay awake.... but what a crying baby does to other people drives us up a wall. First, it makes the mom walk around the cabin the entire flight... not a big deal except when we are doing a service. Secondly, it keeps people awake and wanting to get away from aforementioned baby... so they are standing in our galley, crowding us and talking and asking for drink upon drink. Now, i know its my job to provide them with anything to make them comfortable, but i'm cranky and my galley is becoming a large crowd of people. I thanked the lord when we hit a few bumps and the captain turned on the seatbelt sign. Shortly after my prayer of thanks, i gestured out "Seat Belt" to all the non english speakers and shuffled them all back to their seats. Phew...

we arrived in Taipei and i had a fabulous layover of doing basically nothing. After i slept forever, i walked around the neighborhood and met other FA's for lunch at a local buffet style restaurant... we went to the market (funny story there) and back to the hotel to sleep. Ahh.. it was a nice layover.

Ok, my funny story at the market. This little market isn't like most markets... most markets have one of two common themes, clothes/shoes/purses or food. This one had a fish stand next to beauty products, next to shoes, next to mystery meats, next to chickens, next to preteen clothes. Can you get a good picture of what this kind of market looks like? Well, a vague idea is more than enough. So i was walking down, looking at shoes and clothes and stuff and i hear a "skwaaaak". I look straight up to see a man holding a black chicken by the feet and bending the head all the way back to the feet so he can hold them both in one hand, then he takes a knife to the neck and i cover my eyes. Once i look back, the head is dangling and the man is laughing at me.

i don't believe i can go to Taipei without seeing one animal be killed.

i'm not a vegetarian or an animals rights activist or anything.... but as i was browsing the non-animal related items.. i never in my life expected to look up and see that.

Well, that was my long adventure.... now i'm just recovering and waiting for the crew desk to give me the Hawaii turn i see on the list of potential flights. A "turn" means we go to Hawaii and back in the same day.... yay.... just what i love, a long haul of vacationers!

(hehe, i promise, there are flights that i do enjoy very much... but everything gets annoying when i'm tired and trying to pack for a move)

i should leave it at that and go to the gym. Hope you enjoyed the stories!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:02:14 GMT

i uploaded pictures. Most of the pictures are on bethany's camera... i need to somehow figure out how to get those from her... but they are in existence. so enjoy the few i have!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:34:17 GMT

its been almost a month since i've updated this thing... i don't really have too much to report on though.

I went to new zealand to visit with my dearest twin sister, bethany, and her new extended family. Wellington, the capital of the small country, is at the southern tip of the north island. So, on a clear day, we could see the south island! My good friend Livio lives on the north part of the south island... i could almost wave to him

Since my sister and I are rather strapped for cash... we hung out in wellington and i did almost all there is to do in windy welly. Daniel works in Weta Studios (the studios that do all the special effects for Peter Jackson movies) and gave us a semi-guided tour... if you know daniel, you know he doesn't put much effort into impressing people...
While explaining a Aslan statue from Narnia: "This is a lion, you know its a lion because it looks like a lion"
*Sigh* thanks Daniel

It was amazing stuff i saw in there... but i signed my name to a paper, promising that i'd keep whatever i saw in there a secret. So thats what i gotta do... but if you ever find yourself in wellington, be sure to check out Weta Studios

Bethany also took me to two beaches and they were both very windy. I think she has pictures of it... i gotta remember to get those from her.... The first one was loads of fun, climbing rocks and such. I've found that one of my favorite things to do is climbing rocks... not really rock climbing with the ropes and stuff (which is fun, dont get me wrong, it just exhausts me very quickly). I just love climbing over rocks... i feel young, agile, and really accomplished when i get to the other side

i also spent time with the cutest little thing since sliced bread. Bethany's niece, Bethany. (long story short, Baby Bethany was named after Auntie Bethany a few years after baby B.'s parents met us in Europe). It just melted me like butter every time she ran up to me in the mourning and gave me a "cuddle" then pulled back and while still playing with my hair asking me in her ADORABLE Kiwi accent, "Are you Auntie Bethany or Auntie Juliana?" (i'm aware thats the longest sentence ever.... don't judge me)

What else did we do? A little bit of wine tasting a few hours north of wellington... i'd remember the name of the town if i could bother myself by getting up and looking for the paper... but its a small town north of Welly with delicious white wines. Ok, James, who is my sister's, husband's, brother's, wife's, brother and his girlfriend took us up there. I know thats a mouthful, but theres no "quick" way to explain how we're related... i bought two bottles of wine, one of which i accidentally left in Sydney (opps!).

hmm... what else? Wanna know whats interesting about New Zealand? I'm not sure if this is common across the country, but in the supermarkets they use their supermarket card to "sign out" a scanner that scans all the items as they place them into the bags they brought along. So they go around, scanning all the food they are buying, and at checkout they just hand over the scanner that has a record of all the food in their bags. The cashier doesn't even look over the bags, she just scans the scanner into the computer and then Bethany (or the consumer) pays. Just like that!

actually, it seemed rather complicated... but hey, who am i to judge?

*Random note* I'm listening to the "Across the Universe" soundtrack... it reminds me of my mom, but with a twist... which is why i like it

Lets see... what else do i have to say about New Zealand?
~Marmite= yuck
~Sand flies leave painful bites
~The US dollar is very weak
~Its hard to imitate the Kiwi accent
~The whole country is very eco-friendly
~People actually compost there!
~Qantas Airways (Airlines?) have very friendly staff
~Air New Zealand is also very friendly
....actually, any non-US carrier has very friendly staff...
~The brown boys in New Zealand (aka, Maori) are very cute

Thats that about new zealand!

now, onto more recent activities.
nothing really has happened, but i will report that a Deaf woman approached me last night because i was wearing my Gallaudet University sweatshirt. It was exciting because i realized i still understand ASL and i'm not loosing as much of it as i thought i was! I was seriously down on myself because i'm letting that slip (as well as my spanish)... but its not as bad as i thought! And i know that my spanish will come back to me as soon as i get back into a spanish speaking country (or have a layover in LA )

oh, i just thought of something, but it slipped my mind.

thats right! I'm moving! I just got my transfer to Chicago, so i'm gonna commute there and have my crash pad at my cousin's house and commute to Allentown. Actually, Allentown won't be till this summer so i'm going to be temporarily living in chicago again.... the place i swore i would never return to after training. It should be better this time around, my cousin doesn't live in a corporate park and i can eat whatever and whenever i choose (hurray!)

That seems to be bout it. A nice long blog to keep ya'll (or whoever still reads this) up to date on the happenings of my life. Its been a long time coming

"Falling, yes i'm falling, and she keeps calling, me back again"

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:36:00 GMT

i'm going to chicago to see my cousin and get my hair cut then off to Allentown, PA to visit with my bestest's (and future roommates) for a few days only to come back here before the 10th when i work for a few days and take off for NEW ZEALAND!

whos excited for a cute hair cut??

whos excited to see her favorite cousin??

whos rediculously excited to see her other half??

ME ME ME!!!!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:05:31 GMT

december was a rather downer month for me... it was hard having bethany in new zealand for our birthday and having to work on both my birthday and christmas was kinda tough emotionally... but i've recovered

i'm now totally enjoying my flying benefits.... since the last post i went to visit a friend in Maui... but i flew into honolulu and stayed in a hostel for two nights. So i rented a bike and found a beach with an incredible lack of children. I got a great tan and met lots of new people.

tomorrow i have a trip to Taipei again... I'm super excited, i hear they have a great zoo and an awesome museum that i'll have to check out....

alright, its late and i gotta get up early. Peace!
~jul

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 06:57:02 GMT

a rather lonely birthday.... december makes me miss the east coast