My last blog in Korea...

OK, so I am here in Korea at 3:30AM, on my last night/morning... TRYING to stay up as to alleviate my jet lag when I return tomorrow. AAAHHHH!!!! That sounds SO good right now!!!!!

This year has been ups and downs, but it has been GREAT!!! I treasure EVERY moment, good and bad. I will never forget the amazing people I have met this year. I look forward to the years ahead to grow as friends with all of them!!! CHEERS to you all!!!

Next stop... NYC... literally! I will be home Wednesday night and I need to go RIGHT to bed as I have a audition for Carousel the next morning!!!!! I sent them my headshot and resume' by email and said I was interested but that I wouldn't be home from Korea till March 1st. I wasn't sure when they were having auditions as the posting just said "late Feb/early March". They wrote me back saying that March 1st was the final callback for Carousel, and if I could come they would like to see me (for the role of Carrie Snow) and would give me an appointment time for that day. I said GREAT!!! GOTTA LOVE THIS BUSINESS!!!!!! I am going to be a bit jet lagged, but I will be there and ready to go!!!!! I am SO excited to get back to auditioning again!!!

Alright, back to packing up my life here in Korea!!!!!

See you all soon...

Smiles!!!

~Tamara

This is a picture from our last big party here at EV... Thanks Korea for a fabulous year!!! I will NEVER forget it!!!!

Pics from my Guam trip...

I just returned from Guam '07 GIRLS TRIP!!!! It was AMAZING!!!!! This was my "CONGRATS for making to the end of the year!" trip. Nothing but good friends and warm weather. These pictures are not in chronological order, but I will tell you what is happening in each one.

OK, here goes...

This was on the boat ride over to Cocos Island... it was REALLY windy!!!

This was our balcony of our suite. The pic you are seeing is the reflection of us in the doors. Check out what is behind us... nothing but water!!!! Waking up to that was awesome!!!

This was our last night out. We all bought red dresses for our last night there. We stopped traffic... LITERALLY!!! As you can see we went to the Hard Rock for dinner.

Us sitting on the beach on Cocos Island. It was a bit posed if you can't tell...

Ah sunburn, gotta love it. When I took off my bikini, it was like I was still wearing one!

This was at Tumung Beach earlier in the week. It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

A GORGEOUS sunset!!!

We literally watched the sun disappear into the ocean. God has indeed created some AMAZING things!

Look at how the clouds reflect in the water!

Just a cool pic!

"Breaker, breaker 1 9 392... we have a call" :) We visited the local fire department and they let us play!!!! YAY!!!!!

I WENT PARA SAILING!!!!!!!! If you haven't done it yet, DO IT!!!! It was so freeing!!!

See that little yellow boat down there, that was where I started. I am up in the air taking the picture!!!! SO COOL!!!!

This is what the water looked like... crystal clear and beautiful!!!!!!

This was one night when the sky just opened up for about 20 minutes and down poured. It was incredible! The rest of the week it was sun, Sun, SUN for us!!!!

This was when we first arrived in our hotel. This was the view from the bedroom!

Lucy thought she would be cute and take a picture of me RIGHT when I woke-up.

Cocos Island. Angela went to the snack bar area and asked if we could have coconuts to drink. They said sure, went and picked some, cracked them open, and gave them to us. FREE!!!! It is a rough life, but someone has to live it... I gladly volunteer!!!!

These bull statues were EVERYWHERE in Guam. This was late one night, we needed to stop to get gas and it was there. So we got a pic!!!!

At the airport on our way back to Korea. We are exhausted!!! Even though we are pretending to be sleeping, it was a LONG DAY!!!!

"CHEERS!" to you Guam, you were grand to us!!!!

Last thoughts on India...

How do I even begin to summarize such a trip...

It was one of the most amazing things I have come to experience thus far in my life!!!... Hands down!!! It was a trip that really made me look at what I have in life, and realize how blessed I am. It also made me realize how little one needs in life to survive. When I was getting ready to leave for India, I remember one big concern I had... "How am I going to survive without a hairdryer for 9 days? I don't have a hairdryer that will work in India? Hopefully the hotel's I stay in will have one!!!" Really!?!?!?! Come on Tam!!!! People don't have food, homes, parents, shoes and you are worrying about a HAIR DRYER!!!! Now don't get me wrong, I still value my hairdryer, for sure!!!! But it just makes you think. I guess the best way to say it is that India put things into perspective for me. I STRONGLY recommend everyone to visit a "third world country" at some point in their lives... it is LIFE CHANGING!!!

Day 8 - Delhi, India & Travel Day Seoul, Korea

Day 8 - Wednesday/Thursday January 24th/25th, Delhi, India & Travel Day Seoul, Korea

Today was our last day in India!!!!! :(

Well, this was my second day in Delhi, but TashM's first. SO, we went to some of the places that I went to that I knew TashM would like, and also to a new some new places. We checked out of the Hotel Ajanta, got back in the taxi with Denish, (my first taxi driver) placed our luggage in the taxi, and were off to tour Delhi.

Here is the street when you walk out the front door of our hotel. Not so bad now, but imagine it at night with a TON of people and fires and all. Kinda scary. But I digress...

We were off to "Humayun's Tomb". Again for me, but the first time for TashM. I remembered how amazing it was for me, so I wanted TashM to see it!!!! Plus, now I had a friend to take my picture infront of things... hehehehehe!!!!

Here I am being sassy to TashM, she was sassy back and took a pic of me. HA!!!

If you can't tell by all of my pics thus far, I really dig this standing in the doorway for a picture thing...

Now while I am clearly pretending to be scared here, in all fairness, the stair well was PITCH BLACK!!!! This is a good example of the theory that you can find something new each time you explore. This was a stair well that took us to a pretty cool place...

But first I encountered a slight problem again... I know I am tall, but COME ON!!! hehehe

The doorway let me to this... a BEAUTIFUL view!!! TashM took a pic for me!!!

Here is another entrance to yet ANOTHER part of the tomb. The architecture was awesome!!!!

We make this look good!!!!

The darn pigeons were everywhere... it's like they were stalking me!!!! "Shhh, maybe they won't see me in my BRIGHT PINK SHIRT!!!!" HA!!!

Take time to hug a tree!!!! The funny part of this picture is it took TashM FOREVER to take it, and all I kept saying to her was "HURRY UP!!! There are bugs on this tree!!!!" She just laughed at me!!! What a great friend!!!! Grrrrrrr!!!!! hehehe

On our way out... TashM said smile, for the 500th time, and I did... I am just SO FUNNY!!!!

The next place we went to was INCREDIBLE... it was "....". YUP, I can't remember... UGH!!!! I haven't done too bad though. I remembered all but one!!!!!

Here is a picture from the inside of one if the ruins.

Another area inside the ruins. The stones were indescribable!!!!

Here is a picture of some of the pilars. They were so detailed and beautiful!!!!

Me in front of one of the pieces of the ruins.

"Romeo, Romeo... Where for art thou Romeo?"...

I'm SO STRONG... Are you intimidated? YOU SHOULD BE! My pink shirt gives me power!!!!

This was a cool picture TashM got of me going up the stairs capturing the ceiling too!!!

I was DETERMINED to climb up to the hole! See me at the bottom? That is as far as I got!!!

That was it for touring scenic places in India for us. SO SAD!!! Now we were off to our last shopping area... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! We don't want to go back to EV!!!!!

Shopping was quite an adventure!!! Where we shopped was in the supposed "rich" area... "Karod Market". It was full of western stores and western people. Along with army men with HUGE GUNS!!!! I am not talking about muscles either, guns that shoot and kill people. We went around and shopped up a storm. My best bartering happened right before we left. I needed to get a cheap bag to put all of my souveniers in for the plane ride home. We had passed a guy selling athletic bags earlier, and we went back to him. There was this blue and black Adidas bag that would have been perfect. I went up to him and asked how much he wanted for it. He said "750 rupies". I laughed out loud!!!!!! And started walking to the next guy 10 feet away with the same bag. He called after me and said "How much do you want to pay?". After about 5 minutes of bartering, I got the bag for........ drum roll please....... "150 rupies". Now before you think that I ripped them off, 1) they wouldn't have sold it to me if they lost money, and 2) they were trying to rip me off.

Here is a picture of me RIGHT AFTER I bought the bag. I was VERY proud of myself!!!

Now we were off to the airport, time to go back to Korea. Denish took us, and we made it there in record time. I didn't notice, but TashM said that he looked REALLY sad that I was leaving. We had, at the beginning of the day, started calling each other brother and sister. It was SO endearing!!!! Anyway, we said goodbye to Denish and thanked him and wished him well!!!

The next hurdle was getting TashM on the plane. I don't think I told you, but she wound up getting a temporary visa to let her into India when hers was lost, along with a emergency passport. We weren't sure how that worked with her coming back to Korea or if that was going to cause any problems. It was just really important to get her out of India. If she got stuck in Thailand it wouldn't be as bad, but India is REALLY scary on your own... TRUST ME!!!! We got to the ticket counter and there were some minor delays, and I had to check her bags under my name, but they checked her through Bangkok, Thailand. When we got to Bangkok, she had to re-check in there. This was fine as we had a rediculously long layover...

I was exhausted!!!!

We re-checked Tashm in at the Bangkok airport, and we were off to Korea, or so we thought. Little did our travel agent care to inform us that we had another stopover in Taiiwan... WHAT?!?!?! SO ready to be back in my apartment!!!!! Not to mention, economy class on internation flights is rough. On top of that, we had these two kids behind us that would not stop kicking and pushing our seats, but especially TashM's seat. The parent did NOTHING to stop them.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally, TashM turned around and stated that it had to stop, NOW!!! The Dad was slightly in shock and the kids were scared a stranger was parenting them. Needless to say, they stopped almost completely after that. (with the exception of the normal 'kid getting bored' kick, which is fine)

About an hour into the flight there was a DRUNK MAN who was convinced that he had to get off of the plane immediately as he missed his stop!!!! It was REALLY scary at first, but then after he calmed down it was quite funny!!!

I would like to point out, we left Delhi, India at 10pm on January 23rd and arrived Seoul, Korea 5pm on January 25th. (we lost a day going back)We were not only exhausted, but we didn't smell too nice either... eww!!!When we got to Korea we had been up for over 48 hours!!!! UGH!!!!!

India, you were good to us!!! Thank you and Goodbye!!!

Day 7 - Agra, India & Travel Day/Delhi, India

Day 7 - Tuesday, January 23rd - Agra, India & Travel Day/Delhi, India

TODAY IS THE TAJ MAHAL!!!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

So we started off the morning with SHEER EXCITEMENT!!! We were up BEFORE SUNRISE!!! We set the alarm for 5AM!!!!!! Can you belive I got up that early?? All we had been talking about up until now was the TAJ!!!!! BUT, before leaving, we had to get a picture of...

The SCARIEST HOTEL EVER!!!!! (cue REALLY SCARY MUSIC!!!!)

Before leaving the hotel, I made sure to get a picture with Ram. He was our tour guide for all of India, with the excption of Delhi where Denish took us around.

And we are off to the TAJ!!!!!

Here is a pic of TashM and I around 6:30am infront of the Taj. It is still misty and foggy around the Taj, but all the same INCREDIBLE!!!! It almost looks like we are standing infront of a blue screen doesn't it?!?!?!? I PROMISE we were there!!!!

Here is a pic of the Taj around 6:45AM. Notice the reflection of it in the water throughout these pictures too!!! AMAZING!!!!

Cool picture that is WAY too posed. I would like to say in my defense, there were these "professional" photographers that took our pictures and posed us. And when I say posed, I mean POSED!!!! They moved our legs, arms, bodies, fingers... it was HYSTERICAL. Especially when they would do it to the older men. SO FUNNY!!!! We decided to just use our camera's and take the same picture for free. We actually wanted to buy one of the two of us together infront of the Taj, but we couldn't find the guy at the end. Ah well, we still got PLENTY of pictures!!!

"It's pretty cool, isn't it!?!?!?!"

The Taj looked a little crooked, so I decided I would be nice and straighten it... hehehehe

The fog made it so mysterious...

See the "X" in the bottom center of the picture... THAT'S ME!!!!!!

Our morning at the Taj was quickly ending, and before we knew it, it was time to head to our next place to visit.

TAJ YOU WERE EVERYTHING YOU MADE YOURSELF OUT TO BE!!!

On our way out of the Taj, we decided to catch a "Rickshaw" back to Ram. So this is a picture of our "Rick-a-shaw" driver... trying to pull us up the hill...

This was our reaction to it...

Next we stopped at "Sikandra"...

Here is a picture of me taking a picture of TashM, and a really cool building behind me... hehehe

This was a tree in the palace that had to be HUNDREDS of years old!!! It was SO AMAZING!!!

Here is a picture from another angle of the palace that I was standing infront of... Can you see the antelope???...

Here is the other side, NOW you can see the antelope. hehehehe

Next we were off to "Agra Fort"...

Here is a cool shot of it from the inside... The pillars were EMENSE!!!!! Taller than me, and that is pretty darn tall if you ask me!!!! HA!!!!

Here I am "trying" to be cute and sneaky... TOTALLY posed!!!!!

This was inside one of the temples inside the Agra Fort. The was was SO beautiful!!!!! It was just so detail oriented and intricate!!!!

This is one of the area's that royalty would rest on, thus why I am resting on it.... ;)

If you look REALLY far in the distance, beyond the fog/pollution, you can see the Taj... Can you see it???

Here is a cool shot TashM got of me and the view. Sometimes it is nice to enjoy simplicity...

"I LOVE INDIA!!!!!"

How cool is it the light in this picture!!! Nothing was done, it is just how it was!!!!

This is just to show the massive size of ONE of the SMALLER buildings!!!!

Now being tourists, we have come to expect people wanting to take our pictures. Not because of our incredible beauty, but because we look like MONSTERS to them. It is usually parents wanting us to take pictures with their kids. Which usually, the kids start crying because they don't want to be with the "wierd scary monster" by themselves. However, today was a new experience...

We were literally FLOCKED by about 20 'new friends' here. They just kept coming and saying "Can I?"... "Can I?". This was how the group started, and more just kept coming and coming and COMING!!!! It was HYSTERICAL. We had to at one point say, "Sorry, we have to move on." hehehehe No fear, we weren't rude at all. Actually, they followed us the rest of the way through the fort!!!! HA!!!!

Here is a picture of a lovely Indian woman puting her heart and soul into her work.

This is a breathtaking picture of the fort from a distance through the pillars.

Next we were on our way to a "required stop", little did I know what was in store... We walked into this beautiful and RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE store.

Here are some of the Sari's that were on display. They ran somewhere around $1500 USD. I wish that I had gotten a picture up close of the intricate beading... it was INCREDIBLE!!!!

Cue Effy... Now Effy is one of the sales guys there. He KNEW that I wasn't going to buy anything as I said "I won't be buying anything." He still INSISTED on me trying on a Sari. I said sure as long as he understood I was NOT buying...

Here is Effy thinking that he was going to put the Sari on me... NOPE! hehehehe

I prefer a professional to do it... cue the women. If you look at the picture, he had no problem watching...

Here I am, all wrapped up in a traditional Sari. As I said, I did not buy it. However, just for your information, that piece of material on me went for around $900 USD!!!! WHAT?!?!? On to the next.

Our last visit for the day, we visited "Itimadud-Daula". This was a beautiful place...

The temple itself was SO WHITE that the sun blazing off of it made it blinding! After about 15 minutes of my eyes getting used to it, the beauty took me over.

Here is a picture TashM took of me in front of a part of it... LOVE THE STAIRCASE!!!!!

Here is TashM and me trying to be creative with our picture taking... Can you tell which one is me??? I will give you a clue... Look for the shadow of the black bag I wore throughout the trip. Got me?... I am on the right. hehehehe

I had to post this picture as it has a ironic story to it in my opinion... We were walking outside of this BEAUTIFUL temple, and we are told that we HAVE to go into this room as it is the most beautiful of all the rooms in the temple. It was the most gaudy and tacky room. (in my opinion, for whatever that is worth) It was a room full of decorative, what I would describe as, Christmas lights. It is so interesting to me the difference in taste. While it was 'nice', it in NO WAY compared to the beauty of the palace outside.

Funny story of the day... We have both realized at this point that people in India want tips for EVERYTHING!!! They think that all foreign people visiting India are rich and we just hand money out for anything and everything. Now we have come to experience this in MANY WERID WAYS!!!! One example is us handing our camera to someone and asking them to take our picture, they ask for money. Another, they just start walking with you, un-invited, and show you nice area's, they want money. The best was at our rest stop today, we went into the bathroom, and on the way out the person showed us the door as we were leaving. They followed us out and asked for money!!!!! For showing us the door!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?! And to top it off, we were in the ladies room and it was a MAN!!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! NEVER a dull moment!!!! I love life!!!!!!!

We left the palace, and continued on our trip back to Delhi, India. 6 hours of driving!!!!! AAAHHH!!!! We got back to the hotel well after dinner time. When we got to the Hotel Ajanta, we said goodbye to Ram and thanked him, checked in, I checked email that I hadn't done yet, and went to bed. I passed out easily!!!!! And yes, TashM had "Agra Belly".

Tomorrow is our last day in India.... :(