On my last full day in Berlin, I signed up for a far happier tour than of the previous day: Sanssouci Palace and Potsdam. Our first stop after about an hour on the train from Berlin was Potsdam. Potsdam was a planned city where the Prussian kings and German Kaiser lived until the early 20th century.

It's Zoey's birthday today! I can't believe this little nugget is turning 5 and that I've had her for 4.5 years now. We've moved across the country together and are about to do it again. Something I've been wanting to add to the blog for a while in a photo diary of her. I take sooooo many pictures of Zoey, but don't really post them anywhere. So, from now on, she'll have her own little photo album which I'll update whenever I take new pictures, rather than posting them individually. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the past 5 years.

One of the experiences I was most looking forward to in Australia was diving in the Great Barrier Reef. As I wouldn't be spending too many days in Cairns, and would be both flying in and out of the city, I was unable to actually dive with an oxygen tank, but chose to snorkel instead. I signed up for the Cruise and Fly Reef Tour through Expedia, and it was an incredible experience.

To kickstart my Australia trip, I wasted no time hanging around. My first flight was from NYC to Vancouver, Canada. I left NYC on 1/1 at 7PM and arrived in Vancouver 6 hours later, or 9:40PM local time. It's funny thinking that was the short leg of the trip. Whenever I fly from NYC to Seattle, or my family comes to visit, I always think it's such a long flight and how crappy it feels. But, since I was flying halfway around the world to Australia, this first leg felt like no big deal.

Nothing like a blizzard to make you find any excuse to not go outside. I've been fortunate in my 1.5 years in NYC to not really experience a crazy winter. My first winter here, we had one snow storm, where the city shut down Friday through Sunday. It was great! There were no cars in the streets and the snow was actually powdery snow, not ice blocks. Zoey loved running around, and it wasn't too cold out.

I've mentioned this before, but Zoey is the ultimate troublemaker. And surprisingly enough, she understands when she's done something wrong, and looks all guilty. Everyday she reassures me that dogs can in fact be mischievous, doing something they know is wrong just for the heck of it. Let me paint you a picture of how I've come to this conclusion.

Just after I moved to NYC, I cancelled all my subscription boxes. While I was in save mode, the main reason was really that I just didn’t have time to try all the samples from my Birchbox or that I couldn’t finish all the cookies from Barkbox. However, I did continue to try and swap items through My Subscription Addiction, while continuously reading the new reviews. One box I’d been wanting to try for a long time was the PopSugar Must Have box. Every month when I read the review, I loved every item that was in the box and tried to swap for it. So, when I saw the spoiler alert for the January box, I decided to sign up. Unfortunately, it was too late and I started with the February box, but it’s still awesome!

As NYU gives us the whole month of January off to pursue recruiting, I spent the past week in San Francisco through a school tech trek. We visited twelve companies in four days, so lots to take in. Here's my take on the recent trip:

Zoey is an interesting creature. I've documented a few of her weirdness, but I've never really talked at length about why she cracks me up. So I though I'd share something she did last summer that not only made me cry from laughing but also got me to stop eating goldfish crackers. You know the one. When you open a bag, you can just smell the overdose of cheese used to make it. Then, if you have more than five crackers, your fingertips now show it, likely an orange-yellow color. And lastly, and typically unavoidable, the crumbles on your clothes, the couch, the floor. But, Goldfish crackers are one of those childhood staples, that all Americans learn to like growing up. Well, Zoey didn't get that memo.

I can't believe it's been more than three months since my last post! I knew moving to New York and starting my MBA would be a bit of a whirlwind, but people weren't kidding when they said first semester is rough. I feel like I've barely had time to catch my breath but at the same time have had the opportunity to do so much. 

Like I'd mentioned in my previous post, in order to get Zoey to New York from Seattle, we had to drive cross-country. It was an incredible experience. We'd complained in the past about how long the 4-5 hour drive from Seattle to Spokane WA was, twice a year for four years while I did my undergrad at Gonzaga. Preparing to move to New York, we knew we had at least 40 hours to go! Let that sink in for a minute.

I realize that it's been quite some time since my last post. While I haven't actually published anything in close to three months, I have still been very active in blogging. My last post for Mother's Day was that delicious Pinata Cake. Shortly after, June and July were a whirlwind. So I figured I'd recap what's been going on this summer and why it's taken me so long to come back!

With Mother's Day this Sunday, I felt like the whole week I was being bombarded with messages about gifts. Good thing I've been on point lately about getting my gifts ahead of time. It never ceases to amaze me how some people wait until the last day though. I was at the mall on Thursday night and a guy walked in to a store and asked the attendant next to me what he could buy that was small and light for his mom since he'd have to ship it Friday morning, overnight, across the country. These types of holidays can't really sneak up on people, they're pretty much the same day every year. You know, you only had 364 days since the last one to find a gift......

This was a full week! I've been getting better at remembering to save any interesting articles in my blog as I go through the week, so I have lots to share this Sunday. I've also been getting really into Pinterest, so there are just more opportunities to find interesting articles as my feed is customized for me. So let's jump right in!