Remembering New York and 9/11.

I skipped zumba today, to stay on the sofa watching the 9/11 Memorial live on tv.

I was in New York 1½ month before the 9/11. July 28th. 2001, I celebrated my birthday by taking a guided tour on a bus in New York. The bus took us under the WTC. We headed to the Statue of Liberty, where we took pictures with the Manhattan Skyline and WTC in the background.

 Picture taken from the Empire State Building,  July 2001

10 years later, July 2011, I returned to New York.

Me at the Empire State Building, July 2011... The WTC is no longer in the sky line

In July 2011, Ground Zero still had major construction work going on.

Watching the Memorial on tv today, I was pleased to see that the memorial park is now ready for use.

I guess I have to go back to New York some day, so I can actualy see the park and not just the cardboard template from the 9/11 Memorial museum!

R.I.P. to everyone who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks!

I've been to New York & Montréal

I apoligise for the lack of updates lately, but I've had a few things to deal with. All good, thank God.

To start with the most recent. I just got back from a trip to NYC and Montreal. It was awesome. The main goal for the trip was... Shopping, of course. It's been 10 years since I last was there, so I also took the trip as an aniverssary trip. Last time I was there, the WTC were still standing, but 1½ month later, was 9/11/2001. I'm so thankful that I had returned home safely. Especialy since I was flying from Logan air port in Boston, which was also where the 9/11/ planes took off from. A Bostonian actualy told me at the time, that Logan airport had so much bad karma, that something bad always happened. We did have a minor problem when taking off, as my friend seemed to have been checked in as another friend, whom had already left on an earlier flight. Anyway, I'm thankful to have been without any further problems.

We saw all the tourist sights such as Times Square, Central Park, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, The Statue of Liberty, China Town. We also went to a mall in Queens, went shopping in Harlem and many more places.

I was hoping to bring home some new zumba sneakers, but a vist to both Sansha and Capezio, didn't leave to any purchase. I did find a few cute dance tops. One of them reads "I live for dancing." :) I will post a picture later.

While being in NYC, we also went to see Macy's big 4th. of July firework. It was awesome. 1 show would've been enough, but because they were doing it on the Hudson river, they had 7 firework displays and we could see all of them. It was awesome.

We stayed at a brand new hotel that had just opened in the beginning of June. The Yotel hotel. It was only a few blocks away from Times Square. We stayed at the 15th. floor with a great view. I recommend the hotel to anyone going to NYC.

July 1st. I made sure to go buy something very special on-line. The ultimate zumba experience was being put up for sale that day. Mr. Zumba himself, Beto Perez will be having a zumba master class in my country. It is so cool that he is actualy coming to my small country!! I'm so excited. I feel that zumba has changed my life and always wanted to grab the opportunity of meeting him once I had the chance. Well, it's coming! October 1st. I will join his master class in the capital of Denmark. Funny thing is. October 1st. is also my zumba instructor's birthday. I know that he will not be in Denmark at that time, as he's moving to Brazil in September. But hey, what great way to honor him, right? Beto, Zumba and me having a party on my instructor's birthday :)

After NYC, we took a train to Montreal to spend a couple of days there as my friend was attending two U2 concerts. I spend the time shopping and having a look around the city. Well, I didn't see much of the city as I was already tired from the week in NYC. I also went to see the Bio Dome one day, as I love animals. I loved it. I know it was not exotic animals, although they did have a small section with animals from the rain forest, but most of the animals were animals you can find in the various climates of the world. I saw animals that I never saw in any zoo before. Such a great experience! 

I didn't catch much sleep on the way home to Denmark. After a long trip abroad with many things to think back on, I just couldn't sleep on the plane ride home. Instead I killed some time watching "Black Swan" - the movie I was too scared to watch at the movies. I hate scary movies, but by watching it from the seat of the plane, I was able to look at the passenger in front of me's movie, so it was a pleasent way to both kill time and watch a scary movie. Afterwards I watched something crazy as "Gnomeo & Juliet."

As I got back home, I decided to see if I could avoid jetlag, by staying awake till night time. I thought I succeded, but then, then following night, I could only sleep for 1 hour and I was very tired at work. I still feel a bit tired, but hopefuly the jetlag will be over with this week-end.

Exciting news!

It's Sunday evening and I promised myself that I would turn it in to a tradition, that I would soak my feet in a hot foot bath once a week. Well, Sunday seems to be the best day for a tradition like that, as I often stay home that day. Well, this week I bought foot bath salt for my weekly footbath and I'm currently soaking my feet. It feels great.

I've been working by the computer all day today. I have been making invitations and surprises for my parents' 25th. anniversary. July 22nd. is their anniversary, so they asked me to make the invitations, since I usualy make those because I love to play with photo editing. My neck hurts from being on the computer all day, so once I'm done writing here, I will definitely lay down on the sofa for a bit, before going to bed.

Monday I went to latin mix and dance fit, making sure to take it slow so I wouldn't injure my ankle once again. It worked. I was walking fine the next day. Tuesday night I went to the movies with my friend. We used to go to the movies a lot on Tuesday nights as I was able to get tickets 50% off that day. Well, I used to go to the gym on Tuesday for the past many weeks, but since the Tuesday dance fit class has been taken off the schedule, I now have time for the movies again. We went to see "Water for Elephants." A great movie. It made me realise, that I haven't been to a circus in ages. I must've been a kid when I was last in a circus.

Monday my friend asked me if I wanted to go with her on a trip to NYC and Montreal this summer. Usualy I need time to think things through.. But when she asked me again when we were at the movies and she said she would only give me one more day to make up my mind. I started thinking fast. I love NYC. I haven't been there in 10 years, so now would be a good time to go back. She's single, I'm single and none of us has any kids. I don't know who would ever go with me on a trip like this in the future. So I decided it was time to grab the chance when it's here. So... I'm going to NYC and Montreal this summer!! :) We bought the tickets the next day.

Wednesday I went to the samba class. I got there in time to work some machines first. I'm focusing on my arms, cause zumba and dance seem to be enough exercise for my legs and butt. The machines I use are for arms and back, so I think I'm covered for now. before going to the gym, I stopped by town for 20 minutes. I passed a second hand shop and saw a beautiful set of vintage dinner and coffee china. It was a bit expensive, but I just couldn't leave it alone. I bought it 5 minutes later. Of course I couldn't bring it to the gym, so I picked it up the next day. I'm only going to use the china for special occasions. I love vintage china dinner service. They just don't make pretty patterns like that any more, and that's why I bought this right away. My mom has a set, too, that she bought from someone many years ago. We use it for special occasions like Christmas eve, New year's eve and birthdays. I think that is what I will be doing with mine, too.. However, I will be incooperating pieces of it every now and then. I got 86 pieces in total!! Should something break, I won't cry as I only paid 2 $ a piece, when you look at it. So realy, I think I did good, eventhough it was a lot of money to spend, that I could've spent in NYC. But again, this was too good a chance/ offer, to pass by.

Friday the 13th. realy was a "Friday 13th." at work. We were all stressing from the very morning, later someone had to leave work in a hurry as his son was rushed to the hospital... Before lunch, we got an unannounced visit by the Working Environment Authority. We had nothing to be afraid of, but when we were told, that they came to look for a certain folder that we filled out a while ago, we were all running around trying to locate it.. Well, we found some of it, but he said we needed to fill out some more papers, but he seemed satisfied to find out that we knew where those papers were after all. When he was finaly gone, we decided that it was time to treat ourselves with something nice for lunch.. So yeah, it was a stressful day at work.
At zumba, my cousin presented me with her new dance sneakers and told me that the woman who sold her the shoes, said hi, as she knew who I was. My other cousin sent me a text message asking me when and where I go to zumba. I hope that some day she will join us. I was always overweight and I see how my cousins grow up. It must be something in our genese, that if we don't take care of our body, we will end up overweight and even fat.. Cause although I lost a lot of weight, I am still overweight and I will probably always be, but atleast I'm fit now!
Zumba was great as always Friday. I wore a sweatband for the first time. I was not realy using it as a sweatband, but more like a hair band. I hate that I have to use 5-6 bobby pins in my bangs everytime I'm at the gym. Using the sweatband, I only had to use one. and my theory worked. The sweatband is what I'll be using from now on! As I walked into our zumba studio at the gym, I heard the instructor say "so next Friday, there will be a special dance event with zumba, samba and fun." Friday the 20th. of May is a national holiday here in Denmark and I am going to my cousin's confirmation party that day, so I knew I couldn't join the event. I felt so bad.. Untill I heard him say the magic words "from 10-12" - then I still had hope. Normaly at a confirmation party, you go to see the kids in church, but because the churches are too small, me and my brother is only invited for the party afterwards, which is a 2 PM. That leaves me plenty of time to go to the dance event and dress for the party afterwards.
My  friend invited herself over to my place after zumba. We ordered pizza since that seemed to be the easy solution as we got home to my place late. She crashed on my sofa and the next morning we both took the same bus. Actualy she lives right next to the gym, so as I went to my Saturday morning zumba class, she went home. She also signed up for the Dance Event next Friday and as she lives right next to the gym, I asked if I could shower and get ready for the party at her place, and she said yes.

Well, with the dance event, my next week seems very booked. I didn't think I would be going to zumba Friday, so I squeezed in something Tuesday instead.

Monday I have my usual latin mix and dance fit.
Tuesday I noticed a class at the other gym being changed into latin fit, with the instructor that I have for samba at the other gym on Wednesdays. So I signed up for the Tuesday Latin fit class.
Wednesday I have Samba. Friday I have the 2 hour dance event and Saturday morning, my usual Zumba class.

After buying the flight ticket to NYC and Montreal, me and my friend have both been coming up with ideas of things to see, places to go and things to buy while we're over there. I notices, that the dance sneakers I use for zumba has it's own shop in NYC. Well, the makers of the shoes, does. Sansha. They also sell dance clothes, so I hope I'll be able to find it and possible buy some new shoes. I already contacted the shop and they replied right away with which shoes they would recommend for zumba. Good service.

So you see, I have a full schedule next week, with a lot of things on my mind. Still planning my parents' anniversay, a surprise for my cousin's confirmation party, figuring out what clothes and make-up to wear and plan my trip. I think I will be extremely tired next Sunday, but hopefuly I'll have an awesome week!