In Loving Memory, my cousin Brad

Bradley Birkinshaw, 31, quietly passed away from Wolfram Syndrome on Wednesday November 12 at his home in Riverton, Utah. He is the son of Robert and Lonnie Birkinshaw, born 18 November, 1977 in Idaho Falls Idaho. He was discovered to have a rare disease at age 10 that presented many challenges. He accepted his opportunities bravely and made it a point to accomplish his goals in spite of potential road blocks. He is an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Cottonwood High. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Family History Mission where he met his eternal companion Ruby Finneke. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple four years later. He received his certificate of graduation from the Salt Lake Community College as a computer technician. He worked for many years as a teacher's assistant at the Jordan Valley School, caring for the disabled and autistic students. He is an example of faith, patience, and love to everyone he meets. He is survived by his wife Ruby, parents, sisters, Jennie (Jason) Towery, Park City; Rebecca (Capt Robert) Allen, Tucson, AZ, Julia (Ken) Childs, St. George, UT and his twin brothers Daniel and Andrew, Taylorsville, UT. He also has 2 nieces and 2 nephews. He is preceded in death by his twin brother Robert, his sister Sarah and paternal grandparents.

Autumn in JERSEY...ahhhh!

For fall break (kind of...a bit before) I went with a good friend from my program at school to New York. However, we stayed at a beautiful hotel in Jersey majority of the time due to a little business that she was doing. So besides NY, we also spent a bit of time in Jersey...mostly shopping! Anyway, just wanted to post some of the most beautiful pictures from our drive that we would take every morning...GORGEOUS!!!

New York, New York!!!

I finally did it! I took my first trip to the Big Apple!! I can't believe with all the traveling I've done that I hadn't ever really been...I mean, you can't really count the 20 hour layovers where you go out in the city and see one thing, eat and then head back to the airport. This was a real trip...a whole week in NYC!


Scarlett has been to NY a number of times, but was so nice to go do all the touristy things again with me...she was a great tour guide actually! We walked around everywhere and saw majority of the touristy things you can see!
On our boat ride out to Staten Island, we met a few other people whom we ended up hanging out with the rest of the day and night. The three of them live there, but originally are from all over. We had a great time with them though!


We also did a lot of shopping and of course, being two students of Public Health went out the the UN headquarters. I was really bummed because the tours were only going to one of the rooms (the rest were closed)...so we opted out of the tour...guess I'll have to go back! Or better yet, work there!! Funny thing, every person that walked by with a UN badge, Scarlett and I would sigh and express how envious we were/are! We spent a good two hours in the UN bookstore! haha Wow...nerdy! I loved it though!

Besides all the rest of the touristy things to do, we also went to Wicked, which is always great! I was so excited to see this on Broadway in NY, but I think I liked the LA cast better! We also ate the most incredible food!!! We made it a goal to eat different ethnic cuisines each night. So we thoroughly enjoyed food from South Africa (all I have to say about that is MALVA PUDDING!!!!), Turkey, Morocco, Italy, Cuba, and Romania (Jewish)...and I ate seafood! I know, I'm coming a long way!




Other than that, we just had a good time walking around enjoying ourselves. We would take a bus in from Jersey (minus the last two days that we stayed in Manhattan), which was ever so convenient! There was a bus stop across the street from our hotel, so it worked out perfect! However, Sundays the buses don't run as late, which we realized later on in the evening that Sunday we were there...so we jumped on the subway and got to the station as quickly as possibly just to find we had missed the last bus back to Jersey by 3 minutes!!! :( So we spent the next 3 hours riding trains and getting ripped off by taxi drivers trying to get back to South Orange!



I also got to see a few friends while we were there. We went to dinner in Brooklyn with my friend Mariah from high school that lives out there...and I also ran into Sara, whom I dance with, she was there visiting too! ha ha Overall we had a great time and Scarlett was so much fun to travel with!

NEWS JUNKIE

GUYS!!! I have turned into a total news junkie!!! What is wrong with me! I am pretty sure the news doesn't change that often, but I still check BBC and CNN 800 times a day! I have always loved the news, but this is out of control these days...I get the news online, then go watch the 10 o'clock news if I am home or skim through the newspaper! Unbelievable Sherrie...get a life! You know, some people have their addictions to Hollywood news...I suppose mine is to the world news? Just as bad maybe? Maybe not....but still!

Happy Birthday Grandma Larsen!!

It has been almost a month since Grandma's birthday, but I just had to write about it! I am currently semi-living with my Grandparents, which is fantastic, but there is NOTHING better than spending Sundays at their house. There is always family stopping in and coming and going. We are all pretty close, especially all the cousins around my age, so we always have a good time!
Anyway, for Grandma's birthday we had a big family birthday party for her...and the parties may not be as grand as they used to (I have about 65 cousins on that side...big family, but many have moved away), but this was no less fun! I just have to say she is one of my most favorite people...and not just cause she is my Grandma! I just love and adore her so much! She is always keeping me laughing and I'm so grateful she always has her house open to me! Oh and did I mention that she makes the world's best chocolates!?! Well she does! Anyhow, we all had a good time with her on her birthday, with lost of good food!

ScHooL!

This post is putting me at record postings in a week I think! And I still have a few other things I want to post about! Anyway, but I saw this on a friend/classmate of mine, on her blog and thought it was very appropriate and approving to how I feel right now about school! ha ha It has been midterms and I have been so on edge on so stressed out! Two of my classes are data analysis type of classes and WHOA! It's just intense and tedious and even though I do love school and love my program, I have just been feeling SO burned out the past few weeks.

PLUS, on top of that, I had been planning to apply to a PhD program at Tulane...the only program in the entire country that I could find that I REALLY wanted to do a PhD at. It was SO fitting...it not only had the International Public Health, but it combined that with International Development. The classes within the program are SO awesome and the professors have SO much experience in the Global Health realm. Anyway, my friend Scarlett and I called down there the other day to get the rest of the info we needed before submitting our applications...bad news! :( Turns out they only accept people into the PhD program that have at minimum 1-2 years of experience! I am so bummed! So I guess now it's back to the idea of having to enter the "real world" when I graduate this spring and work full time. It's going to be sad and really strange not being in school full time and not even really having the option of it until I get some field experience. BOO!! Oh well..such is life! Anyway...here is the vid I wanted to post that I thought was so great! haha


via videosift.com

And some more EUROPE PICS

Alright, here are the rest! These are all from France (I had to consolidate a lot!! haha) We did a festival in Martigues, France, which is GORGEOUS!!! It is known as the Venice of France. There wasn't a lot to do there, but it was beautiful just walking around and spending most of our time with the other groups at the festival (and eating yummy Turkey kebabs!). Tiff and I spent most of our time with the Argentinian guys, which was a big challenge to my rusty Spanish, but it was a lot of fun! However, we got to know majority of the groups...there were really great dancers at this festival and everyone was a lot of fun to be around! The other groups were from Cuba, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Canada, Ireland, South Korea and Zimbabwe, as well as a local group to the region of Martigues...and each night we got to dance with them at an amazing stage that was set up in the canal! Yes, our stage was in the water! It was a beautiful venue and people apparently paid a lot of money to come watch the shows. It's so great doing folk dance over in Europe, where it is truly loved and cherished and the people absolutely love it (it's not just the nerdy thing it is over here lol).
The other excitement of the festival was getting to do workshops with Joanne Doyle, who is the ex-Riverdance lead! How cool is that!? She is one of the nicest people I have ever met!! We were also able to see some of our friends from Confolonnes, France that came down to visit us...we met them last year in Italy at a festival we did there...so we got to spend some time with them too. We stayed in host families during our 10 days in Martigues...and I just have to say that our host family was fantastic!!! They were so great and so sweet! They had a really nice house and put the three of us girls (me, Tiff and Hailey) in a nice big room. We had fun BBQing with them and swimming and spending time getting to know them.
We also went to Marseilles and spent a little time there. Marseilles is such a big city, but is so beautiful! After we left that area when the festival was all over, we went to Carcasonne, France, which was absolutely fantastic!!! We had SO much fun in this cool place! It has the old castle still but the city is built all inside the castle walls (well not all of the city, but a small portion. So we stayed at a place right near the castle and did lots of shopping and wandering around. It was great!

EUROPE PICS...starting with SPAIN

Okay...I have SO much to catch up on!!! I still am in need of posting pictures from my Europe trip...so i'll make a few different posts from different areas. So, here are pictures from Spain! We danced at a festival in Burgos, but also spent some time in Madrid and Barcelona. We had a really great time and met some really awesome people at the festival! There were groups from Benin, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, Bolivia, Chile, Poland and a few groups from Spain, in addition to us. We got to be really good friends with the group from Turkey...ah I love them and miss all of them so much!
We started out tour this year in Madrid and spent minimal time there and most of us were fighting jet lag pretty bad! However, we still had a good time and got to see a lot of the city! Tour also ended in Spain...in one of my favorite places, Barcelona! What a great city!! So much to do and see, plus the beach, loads of shopping...and my favorite...LAS RAMBLAS!!! I don't care how many times you go to Spain...Las Ramblas is always a good time! It's a long street full of shopping, vendors, food, and entertaining people galore! I love people watching there, it's fantastic!! Anyway, since I had seen most of the big things to see in Barcelona, I spent much of my time shopping and at the beach!! It was great and I loved every minute of it!

Why NOT!?!?!

Alright...so as you all know, I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Europe. I was there with my dance group, where we danced at a folk dance festival in Southern France (Martigues). We had a lot of fun (and I WILL post more pictures...no worries) but there is one thing I discovered while I was there....in my next life....I will DEFINITELY be and Argentine tango dancer, no doubt about it! I mean, why not!?! There were a few of us girls that hung out with the group from Argentina and got to be pretty good friends with them over the week. They were AMAZING dancers! We had a good time with them...and got a kick out of their English (as I'm sure they did with my Spanish!). Quote of the trip was "I like your trash." I just have to tell the story really quick cause it makes me laugh SO hard to this day! I was literally rolling on the ground when it happened! So Enzo, one of the Argentine guys we hung out with, couldn't speak English at all really. One day though he heard a few of us girls tell one of the Irish dancers that we liked her dress...so he thought he'd tell her too (even though he had no idea what he was saying)...and it came out "I like your trash." I kept trying to explain to him in Spanish what he was saying and he truly attempted to say dress...but it just didn't quite work out for him, plus he thought the other was funny, so it stuck! He said it to us the entire rest of the festival...loved it!
Anyway...so here are a few pictures (aka my reasoning for wanting nothing but to be an Argentine tango dancer in my next life...you can't say it's not sexy!)

A walk down memory lane!

Well here is the beginning of what will be probably a few blogs about my most recent adventure on the other side of the globe! I am going to start with the end of my trip, because that is the part I have my own photos and am not depending on getting my photos from anybody else! This was the part of my trip that was a walk down memory lane...back to Romania it was!

As many of you know, I did a semester abroad in Romania 5 years ago (I can't believe it's been so long ago). Romania feels like home away from home because of the experiences I had there during my 4 months I was living there. I have been so blessed with the opportunity to go back to visit as many times as I have...this was my third time going back to Romania and fourth time in Romania overall! The Romanians think I'm nuts for continuing to come back...but how could I not when I have such fabulous friends there, not to mention the cutest little orphans ever that mean so much to me!! So I don't make this a novel, I'm going to try to stick to my top 10 favorite things about this section of my trip.
1- Getting to see my orphan "babies"! This had to be one of the best and most emotional parts of my trip. My semester back in 2003 there was working in a children's hospital and an orphanage. I grew to love these little kids SOOOOO much and it was so wonderful to see their bright smiling faces again! There were many still there, but many have been fostered out and a few that have passed away. It was very bittersweet going back and seeing everyone...some look great and are doing well, others not so hot. The best part though, of course, was seeing my little Larisa! She was 2 when I was there before, now she's 7 and so big and can talk! It was wonderful to see her!



2- Getting to see Mario. Mario was the facilitator while I did my semester. She is one of my heros! The woman is AMAZING!!! She has been through a lot and stands strong on two feet. I wish I could be more like her. I went to her house though and chatted for awhile with her and just spent time with her. She has such a positive outlook on everything...she's the perfect person to talk to with any struggle cause she can put such a positive spin on it! LOVE HER!!

3- Getting to stay for a few days with Ioana in Cluj and seeing all the folk dancers! 2004 Clog America was hosted by a Romanian folk dance group and then Clog America hosted them in Utah in 2005. Tiff and I spent a lot of time with them when they were in Utah and my parents hosted 4 of them. So I finally made it back to visit them. It was AWESOME! They threw me a big party the night after I got there, with traditional Romanian-styled BBQ with lots of mici! I was able to do a lot with a few of them...we went to the mountains and went shopping and just hung out and had a good time catching up!

4- ROMANIA in general...makes me so happy to be there...I love riding the train, meeting new people, learning more about the country, culture and people, and more than anything seeing the countryside!!


5- The hospital! I spent a day back at the children's hospital I worked at before, which was wonderful. The kids were all different, but had the same feeling and I loved every minute of it! It looked so nice in there, they've been redoing the entire thing, floor by floor and it's look great, but still smells the same!

6- Going to church...this was awesome because I got to see some really good friends that I became acquainted with during my time there. Above all, it was SO wonderful to see the Stoica family! I was very sad I was unable to spend more time with them, but it was SO wonderful to see them, even if it was just for a bit. They are a fantastic family and such great examples to me!! I was also able to see a couple others, which was great! And on my walk there, I saw the boys that used to play outside the villa, one of which used to tell me I was his girlfriend. They are all grown up now, into their teenage years...crazy what 5 years does to people!!!

7- Spending time with Costy, his gf Elizabeth, and his wonderful family. Costy's mom moved out to the countryside up the street from his Grandmother, where it is SO beautiful!! It takes you back about 150 years with the horse doing all the labor work, water coming from the wells, oodles of flea bites, and fresh country air! I LOVED it out there and loved just relaxing with everyone, especially costy's sister...she's such a great person and I love her to death! I also go to enjoy his mom's AMAZING cooking!!! WOW!! I have missed the good traditional cooking his mom is SO good at!

8-Iasi! This was my city and I just LOVE walking around! I spent Sunday afternoon off on my own...just wanted some time to myself. I spent the previous 3 weeks constantly with my dance group and wanted some alone time! So after I went to church, I walked around the city...bought some yummy food that I had been craving and some delightful goodies to take home and just wandered past my old apartment and all the other places we loved going to...my fun little trip down memory lane! I even saw the old dog that used to follow us...we named him Elvis and he's still alive and kicking it right their in Targu Cucu neighborhood! Oh how I missed my girls though on this day. I had AMAZING roommates and a wonderful group of girls during my semester here and I wish so much that I could have all of together for a day in Iasi again! The good times! Playing nertz, cooking, the mold, shopping, internet runs, crying, laughing, sharing the culture and amazing experience with them...I wanted them to be there remembering it all again with me!


9- People are amazing...doesn't matter where you are, but I love Romanians! They are so great! I met a few girls on the train and even though my Romanian has gotten really shakey (not that it was stable before) but I love still going between bad english and bad romanian if that means getting to know new people! I met a few girls on my dreadful 9 hour train ride from Cluj to Iasi and it was SO fun! Also, my taxi driver that took me to the train station...he used to be a street kid back in Ceauscescu days...people have SO many cool stories to tell once you get them to open up!

10- I love sundays in Romania. I love being able to walk down to a shut off Stefan cel Mare and walk past church after church (mostly Romanian Orthodox) and hear the chanting and watch mass...I love it! I love all the different things that are there that aren't back at home!


Overall, I had a fantastic time in Romania...some of the emotions from 5 years ago came back with certain places or people I visited, but it was perfect! I love my friends there and am so happy I get to go back to visit from time to time!
Sorry...this still ended up being a novel! :)