Hi from Cape Town

Quick hello from Cape Town! I got here early this afternoon without
incident. It was quite a journey, though surprisingly not as tiresome as
I thought it would be.

This has been a crazy trip so far...
- nearly getting strip searched in Tijuana by the Mexican police
- nearly missing my flight to London and having to beg the airline
check-in person to mail my rent check for me in her free time since there
weren't any mailboxes to be found
- partying in london til the crack of dawn with joy and missy
- two (so far) long-haul overseas overnight flights
- a great chunnel train ride to paris
- a reunion with old friends there
- now I'm in S. Africa

Yesterday was okay, hung out in Paris by myself. But it was cold and
dreary, and I had only brought a light coat. It was hard to pack for a
trip that has included San Diego, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and now Cape
Town. I can't believe it was only 7 days ago that I was at JFK flying to
CA. Seems like a month ago. I woke up from a nap this afternoon and
literally didn't know where I was.

Anyway, in Paris I actually saw an attraction or two, despite the policy
that Kenny, Katie and I had in Ireland ("No attractions, they're the
worst"). Went to the Zoo in Paris and walked what seemed like miles.
Flew overnight and slept through the night and actually felt really good
when I woke up. Maybe it was the glass of South African red wine and the
Ambien, thanks to a dear friend.

Cape Town is BEAUTIFUL, though I haven't seen much yet. I rented a car
and made sure to buy the whole insurance coverage. The last thing I need
to is screw up driving a stick shift car with my left hand and driving on
the left side, as they do down here. So far so good, though I still
haven't parallel parked. This place reminds me a "little" bit of SF in
the sense that the coastline is so nice and the mountains seem to surround
the city. But just a little bit.

I'm staying at this nice little guest house, where I was greeted by 3 cute
dogs who have followed me everywhere. One of them wouldn't leave my bed
when I needed to take a nap, so I had to coax her down. Her name is Baby
and she leaps on you constantly. After a quick nap I spent an hour
walking around this cute beach village in which I'm staying, called Sea
Point a few minutes outside of downtown, trying to find an ATM that will
accept my debit card. None so far, but at least they are allowing me to
use the credit cards. At least I won't be begging in the streets later.
The weather is nice - sunny and about 75 or so. Wearing flops and shorts
after freezing, nearly to death, in Paris feels so great.

I think its time to sit by the pool and to read about Cape Town for the
very first time. I never plan things in advance. Hope everyone's doing
well. I miss you guys and see you soon. I fly back on Saturday and can't
wait to see everyone, and Sweeny too.

Love Scott/Buds/Gringuito

Crazy Travels!

So what I'm about to tell you is just going to reinforce your doubts of my
sanity. I'm about to embark on a crazy month of travel. I hope to see
some or all of you along the way! I have completely enjoyed a few
weekends in a row in NYC with the great friends that I have made or become
closer to in the past year or so. But JFK, SFO, and LAX airports have
been asking about me and seek my return visit! So I will do just that,
and more. But my dear NY friends, no worries - I love you and will
maximize my weekends here and

So I've decided to tack on a quick jaunt to South Africa (Cousin Courtney,
wanna come?) to my already crazy travel schedule coming up. I have polled
several of you on whether I would be nuts to go there for just a long
weekend and no one really balked. It was between a) Paris/Spain/Morocco,
b) Paris/Portugal, or c) Paris/Cape Town. Through much soul-searching
and inspiration from you guys, I have chosen "c"!

So anyway - I thought you would get a chuckle out of this schedule, and I
hope I see you guys while I'm on the road...

Tues Nov 7th, Antonio and I fly to San Diego. I will be there for work
and Antonio has never been to CA. We have the whole day to check things
out. On Wednesday he is going to go home to Mexico for a few days. I
will see Mike Copping down in SD, I hope!

Friday Nov 10th, I will fly from San Diego to LA, and then to London for
my friend Joy's husband's 40th bday party on Saturday night, thanks to her
Virgin Atlantic friends and family airfare. Sylvia - I hope you can come
to the party with me, out by Heathrow at the Sheraton.

On Sunday Nov 11th I am think I am heading to Paris to visit my friend,
Florent, who is there on business but lives elsewhere in France. Haven't
figured that part out for sure yet. Florent - I will email you tomorrow.

On Monday, Nov 12th I am flying to Cape Town, South Africa from London,
where I will do my best to maximize my time down there. I figured "what
the heck" since I'm able to use miles and the flights are overnight
(sleep, sleep). I'm going to lean on you, Chip, to see as much as
possible. And Bryan - You have to connect me with your friend down there,
as well as any tips since you are a South African!

On Friday Nov 17th I fly back to London overnight and connect to a
JFK-bound flight on Virgin.

I will be SO happy to land in NYC on Sat the 18th. And will love to be in
town until Thanksgiving five days later, when I am flying to Rochester to
be with family for a couple days.

Anyway - Good times!!! Love you all and hope to see you all soon!!!!

G-times in Ireland

Hi from Ireland! I flew into Shannon Wed morning. After landing from
a red eye, I realized that my phone-less friends underestimated by 2
hours how long it would take to pick me up there. I waited out front
while speaking with Wayne in Russia, the only one awake since it was only
8am here. I was asking him for advice on how long to wait before
either renting my own car and doing my own thing or flying to some other
place like Spain or Morocco, right then and there. He convinced me to
chill for another hour and they finally arrived.

Unshowered from my flight, I joined them for a quick visit to a castle
near the airport with an adjoining recreated medieval village. We paid
our euros and went straight for a pint before seeing the castle, which
was nice. This has been our only sightseeing trip, which is fine by me.

We proceeded for 3hrs to the country home that one of my friend's
fathers had rented for a year for some reason. The town, while on the
ocean, was deserted bec its off-season. The house hasn't renovated since
1965 - brown plaid and flower carpet, rabbit ears for the one channel on
tv, brown kitchen fixtures, no heating, etc. We had no choice but to
hit the 4 pubs and were literally the only customers in each, with the
exception of one...he must have been the town drunk. If you've ever
pictured an old Irish drunk man with a crinkled face with exaggerated
features and pointy but pudgy chin, talking to himself at the bar, with 2
pints always lined up ready to go, you've pictured this guy. It was
sad.

Later that night we tried to grab dinner somewhere but no restaurants
were serving. So kenny whipped up some fancy grilled cheeses on the
skillet and we sat by the fireplace until we fell asleep for 12 hours.
Kenny had told us he thought the house was haunted, as he thought he had
heard a girl screaming in the middle of the night before. That made
for a freaky run to the bathroom in the middle of the night for me, esp
with the sounds of the whipping wind and the rain storm outside!

Yesterday we decided to throw in the towel and drive to what we heard
was the "hopping" Galway. After a grueling, rainy 4 hr drive through
countless roundabouts and small towns, and my migraine, we arrived in
Galway. It is a beautiful, tiny little city with medieval curvy stone
streets and a nice town square. Our room overlooked a little, but raging
river. Being that our drive took so long and it was dark, it was time
to go out for the night. Aside from the club recommended by the hotel,
where we paid cover charge, were overcharged for weak drinks, and were
surrounded by people young enough to be our kids, we were surprised by
how few people were out. We instead decided to grab Chinese and ate it
our beds while watching The Sopranos until 2am. Slept through our
wake up call and only woke up at noon when the fire alarms went off in the
hotel for testing.

We felt sufficiently introduced to our second Irish city and ready to
move on. Being very tired of driving we decided we would cut our losses
by ditching our rental car and flying straight to Dublin. That plan
didn't come to fruition when our rental company's desk was abandoned at
the one-room Galway airport that had cows in front. We thought about
invoking our total insurance coverage and just "losing" the car or
ditching it in a parking garage. If they called later to ask where it was we
would just say "I KNEW I forgot something!" But we took the high road.
Or the slow road, as it turned out. We threw our luggage back in the
car we hoped we would never see again and jumped back on the N6. So
here we are, counting down the km's til we arrive in Dublin, a day ahead
of original schedule.

Apparently Dublin is a very crazy fun city were everything is open late
and people love to party. So I think we'll be in good shape.

Love to all and hope you enjoyed this little update on our adventure in
Ireland!

People on the subway

You see ALL types on the subway - it really blows my mind. This photo looks like a cross-section of subway riders, when in fact it was our assortment of get-ups for Julie's Prom Birthday. But the subway is no less interesting...I want to capture a few memorable ones before I forget them...

- the guy with ROUND feet, wearing special round shoes on both feet
- the cute black mom with her three little kids with corn rows; two of the kids had to sneak through the floor-to-ceiling turnstile with me because she had already gone through and left them outside the turnstile to their defense- they were the cutest tiny things
- the tiny tiny little lady sitting next time me wearing ALL pink, from bows in hair, to make-up like Tammy Faye, to the socks with pink beads
- countless hotties about whom I could spend all night writing
- the several people that I have seen more than once on the same route, which is total coincidence
- the blind guy with a seeing eye dog whom I have seen more than once walking through the cars with signs on his back talking about his need for cash; I cringe when I see the two of them passing through the cars

Those are just a few of the standouts but I will write more later. I need to keep better tabs on this journal!

Looking back on a year in NYC

I woke up this morning and Sweeny knew something was up. First of all, I rarely get up before 7 or 8am. Nor do I wake up before my alarm goes off. For some reason I woke up at 6am on my own – maybe I programmed myself before going to bed or maybe I am just getting old. Anyway, secondly, I started packing like mad for the 9am flight to San Francisco for which I was going to fly standby. The sight of my suitcase coming out of the closet used to drive Sweeny to jump in circles. However, now that I have been perpetually traveling all over the place my suitcase never finds its home. In fact, today I had to clear clothes out the appropriate suitcase that were left since the last trip to SF a couple weeks ago. But even worse, the suitcase I used for Brazil almost two months ago remained unpacked until last week. Remaining in permanent standby mode is Sweeny’s reality now.

I am amazed that ten months have passed since I first moved to New York City and I think time is just flying. I remember my first day as a resident. One challenge that all of travel presents is that it is harder to develop a sense of community when you’re always out of town. However, I feel that I have been extremely lucky in creating such an environment with my friends there.

NYC is definitely different from SF in that you don’t just walk out your door and expect to run into at least a handful of familiar faces. It is a lot smaller, though, than I ever could have imagined. With each passing day or week it feels more and more at home. I remember thinking very differently of the city when I would visit. You would arrive with your ATM card in hand ready to max out your time as well as your bank account while you were there. You might land on a Thursday afternoon, throw your things in your hotel room, race out to the bars, stay out until four, drag yourself to a meeting on Friday, and then tear through the nightlife options the minute the meetings were over. Sometimes Okko and I would even fly out on the 7am from JFK back to SFO only so we could enjoy a full Sunday night until 4am – giving ourselves an hour to pack before jumping in the cab and then going straight to work upon landing.

Living in NYC is so much different. I remember feeling stressed if I were staying at someone’s apartment and didn’t feel like I could relax there. And if in a hotel you felt the internal pressure to get out and experience everything the city has to offer. Now I am perfectly content staying in, having a glass of wine, and watching the 11pm Seinfeld before heading off to bed. Let’s hope that complacency doesn’t get the best of me, though. I need to make sure I go out at least half of the nights that I am in town if I am ever going to have a date or two lined up.

In the coming month and a half I am really going to have to work on maximizing my time like the NYC tourist I once was because I’m in town less often than many tourists I know.

Ok - enough of that for now!

Farewell to Brazil (for now)

hi everyone!

i am still here in brazil. Having a blast! 90 degrees here and dreading the cold of NYC but so happy to see everyone again and to get back to work, no really, Chuck!

a little sad bec. my vacation is coming to an end after 2 weeks and i'm excited to go home - those mixed emotions at the end of a trip... esp. because tomorrow i'm on my own all day since all my friends will be gone by then. will have to create my own fun i guess.

yesterday and last night were awesome. went hang gliding for the first time ever, with Kenny. it was totally cool - when we got to the top of the mt. we freaked a little bit with the view. but once we got geared up and ready it was perfect. you hold onto the lead guy (who had been doing this for 19 years) and you run off a platform, essentially running off a cliff. craig and I always joke about jumping off a cliff after a bad day or something - but this was the real deal! views were spectacular - of green mts and ocean, and islands, and mansions below with pools, and golf courses. we landed on the beach about 25 mins. later and went right to the beach for the rest of the day, where we were joined by chip, wanderlei, lucas, and lucas.

later we thought we would celebrate the last night for wanderlei, chip and kenny with a dinner party, which chip and kenny agreed to host. so much fun as kenny and the kitchen crew attempted to create a brazilian dish, which turned out really great. drank wine and enjoyed tons of laughs and chatted in 3 different languages, as we were also joined by our brazilian friends.

each day has been marked by about 6 hrs. on the beach where we are served drinks with the snap of a finger. with the exception of last night we have gone out to party almost every night - my NYC friends better not drag me out to Hiro on Sunday when I land - well, ok, fine! with carnival, most of the partying was in the streets with sweaty people dancing having a blast.

guess what I'm doing today and tomorrow? going to the beach again - so predictable I am! bec. the sun is so hot i am using an umbrella most of the time like many others. so don't expect a golden bronze tan when you see me next!

time to help wanderlei pack - very sad he is heading off, followed by chip and kenny this evening. but i suppose being sad tonight and tomorrow while on my own in rio is the price i have to pay for an awesome time with great friends, new and old, two weeks of relaxation and laughs - a good problem to have. wish everyone could have joined in - looks like we need to start planning the next int'l trip the minute I land! and i have to get the most out of my 5 year brazilian visa!

michele - i have everyone down here saying "how cold's your skol" - seriously - i do!! thats the beer of choice on the beach :-)

bom tarde!!

xo scott/budsie/escothe/scottie

Bom Dia Do Brasil!!

Hi you guys - Quick hello from Brazil!! Having a very fun time here and now entering my second week. The first week was amazing in Salvador, which is in Northeast Brazil. We spent each day at the beach where they rent you chairs and umbrellas, bring you beers and waters, and water your feet with watering cans to keep them cool.

At night we partied in Pelorinho and met so many new people - including the "ladies of the evening" and the pickpocket children who loved chatting with us and practicing their limited English. Of course the minute I tried to scold one of them for trying to steal my camera his English somehow became much worse! Aside from them hardly anyone spoke English. On the last night there we partied on the street for their first night of Carnaval and had a BLAST with my friend Mario - whom just randomly saw me in the crowd because of my "yellow" hair. He is from Brazil and I was friends with him when he lived back in SF. So random and fun and he showed us the ins and outs and hooked us up with a last minute room so we could shower before heading to the airport for our 5am flight.

And that's where things went down hill - well, at least temporarily. My body either rejected the awful fast food we scarfed down at Salvador airport or the tap water I drank in the morning. I spent the ENTIRE day yesterday in bed sick and watched Carnaval on TV. How awful!

But now I feel a lot better and Wanderlei is landing soon, and we plan on meeting up with Kenny and Chip. Things are looking up today and I'm about to go enjoy my first calorie in about 36 hrs! And hopefully double doses of Carnaval Rio style!!!

Off to the beach for an hour before meeting up with Wanderlei -

Beijos from Brazil!