theedorks's blog

Europe Book Guides

More Research!

Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2007: The Travel Skills Handbook (Rick Steves)

Frommer's Europe (Frommer's Complete)

Europe on a Shoestring (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)

The Smart Traveler's Passport: 399 Tips from Seasoned Travelers (Paperback)   by Erik Torkells

100 Places Every Woman Should Go (Travelers' Tales) by Stephanie Elizondo Griest

- adhd

Europe Part 2

Just thought I'd bump this up from the previous entry (that included all the research):

adhd
Personally, I'm deciding between:  Paris, France (in addition to all the obvious reasons, Before Sunset was filmed there!); Budapest, Hungary (suddenly interested me tonight, apparently has the most shopping centres in Europe lol), and somewhere in Italy (Florence? Venice?). 

edit :: I'm about 99.9% certain that this is my choice.  I even looked up the filming locations for Before Sunset haha.  I only request that we ride on the same boat (Quai de la Tournelle & faces Notre Dame) they did and possibly visit the bookstore (the Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore).  Then klepto mentioned Moulin Rouge and of course there's the Eiffel Tower .. so yes, I think this is it for me! =)

tourettes
Ok, making decisions is not a good thing for me.  Why can't we take, say... 2 months off, and go back packing through Europe?  Hahaha- I wish.  Anyways, destinations for me, since adhd chose Paris and/or Italy (which I want to go to both), I say Greece and/or Ireland.  Greece because of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and well, the pictures from there would be amazing.  Ireland because of the whole castle, fairy-esque theme :)

klepto (except it's really adhd c&p'ing from an earlier convo since someone won't update!! hehe)
budapest, prague, or some obscure little known town in a country somewhere =P

In lieu of The Nanny Diaries... sigh

Hey dorks... so instead of doing work, my crazy head is thinking of non-work things.  Haha.  So, like that episode of Friends, I'd like to ask, who would be on your list of 5 Celebrities You Would Be With?  Don't worry, you don't have to laminate your list :P

tourette's

1. Channing Tatum- Serious Eye Candy, great dancer, sensitive yet brooding in She's the Man... sigh
   
2. Tom Welling- Can't wait for Smallville to start again
3. Chris Evans- Sigh... The Nanny Diaries- Harvard Hottie :P  (swoon)
   
4. Ryan Reynolds- finally saw how he looked in Blade Trinity
   
5. Wentworth Miller- seriously hoping he's not gay

OH NO!!  How can I forget:  Niall Matter!!!  the highlight of watching The Best Years!  hrmm... I think he may have to replace or at least tie Ryan Reynolds :P

Do we see a reoccurring theme with me?  Dark hair and light eyes... sigh  :P

next!

adhd's

1. James Franco -- I think everyone knew he'd be my #1 ..
   
2. Chris Evans -- .. though after seeing The Nanny Diaries, he may be my newest fixation :) So hot!
   
3. Channing Tatum -- His dancing in Step Up. The half-nakedness in that Saints movie.  Need I say more?
   
4. Ryan Gosling -- So cute in the Notebook and so good in Half Nelson
   
5. Christian Bale -- Liked him since his Little Women and Newsies days =P
   

Honorable mentions: Milo Ventimiglia, Brad Pitt, the boys of OTH!

bipolar's
1. John Krasinski - can't wait till season 4 starts!
2. Christian Bale -  my dark knight =P
3. Ryan Gosling - enough said.
4. Jesse Metcalfe -  so cute!
5. Niall Matter -  my eye candy on The Best Years =)

Let the Europe planning begin!

We've been talking about our whole 4-cities-in-2-weeks Europe trip basically since we got back from Myrtle Beach.  And like tourettes already pointed out, if it took us 6 months to plan a trip to South Carolina .. we're going to need a lot more time for Europe.  (And yes, I know - I still need to get my passport.)  So I figured I'd open up the conversation and planning on our blog.  According to About.com's 6 Months Before Your Vacation - Planning Your First Trip to Europe, we first have to pick our destination. Well, destinations. 

So more research! I googled what would be the top destinations in Europe to visit and came across three pretty good sites. 

Travel + Leisure | 2006 Top Cities Europe
1.    Florence   
2.    Rome   
3.    Venice   
4.    Istanbul   
5.    Kraków   
6.    Paris   
7.    Prague   
8.    Siena   
9.    Seville   
10.    Barcelona 

The Curmudgeon's Guide to the Best Vacation Cities in Europe (I didn't c&p everything from the site)
1.  London, England
Best Bets: British Museum (free), Tate Modern (if you like modern art), Victoria and Albert Museum (Decorative arts), Buckingham Palace, Westminster Palace. The list seems endless, especially if you have only a few days, as most folks do.

Up and Coming: Little Venice, St. Katherine's Dock (restaurants, clubs, cafes)

2.  Amsterdam, Holland

Best Bets: Munching at an Indonesian rijsttafel, wandering along the canals and through the Royal Palace, Rijksmuseum, and Van Gogh Museum. Heading off to the red light district and cafes may suit the free spirits and self-proclaimed, um, sex anthropologists (who should visit the Amsterdam Prostitution Information Center for the down-to-earth scoop) . And of course, Anne Frank's house to end it all on a thoughtful note.
Up and Coming: Reguliersdwarsstraat is the hippest street for nightlife--for a good time...try saying it three times briskly.

3.  Paris, France
Best Bets: Those who walk the line between starving artists, Henry Miller fans, and traditional foodies will be glad to know that the traditional literary salons are not completely dead. You'll pay more than Henry Miller did. Otherwise, the city is your oyster: hit the Louvre, gawk at the Eiffel Tower and tap your feet to some jazz in the Montparnasse.
Always an odd treat: Place Pigalle's sex museum (yes, they had--and recorded--sex way before Hefner and digicams). Then there's catacombs and sewers and all manner of offbeat Paris stuff to upon which to fritter your tourist dollars away.

4.  Venice, Italy
Best Bets: Take note of the contrast between the opulent Doge's Palace and the nasty prison on the other side of the canal. Then again, anything touristy can be magic in Venice--it's just a crazy anachronism in a precarious environment. You need to see it. No one can explain it, not even Italo Calvino.
Up and Coming: Most folks never visit the La Serenissima's maritime roots at the Naval History Museum. Pity.

5.  Florence, Italy

Best Bets: Yes, go ahead and see David. The disproportionate body leaves me cold, but I wasn't looking at sweet Davide from defeated Goliath's perspective--where the exaggeration would make sense to me. That's why I'm a curmudgeon, but a practical one: I like the covered market. Still, the Uffizi houses the premier collection of Italian Renaissance art, the Ponte Vecchio is the most photographed bridge (with...shopping!), and the Duomo hosts Brunelleschi's dome and Giotto's bell tower (go downstairs in the Duomo for ancient history, climb the dome for views of the city).

6.  Rome, Italy

7.  Madrid, Spain

Best Bets: Tapas in the evening, and maybe later you'll feel like eating somewhere along the Hemingway trail (maybe at Casa Botin or another of Madrid's top restaurants). Visits to the Prado and then on to the Reina Sofia--where you'll see more modern art like Picasso's Guernica--are good bets for the art lovers.
Up and Coming: Madrid's restaurant scene, in the doldrums since Hemingway wolfed down his roast suckling pig, is undergoing a Renaissance of its own. You'll eat late though--things don't start moving until 11 or so in the summer.

Europe's top 10 cities for summer fun (didn't c&p everything from here either)

1. Culture fests in Athens and Rhodes
2. Arts a gogo in Barcelona... and the beach
3. High-octane Budapest
4. Hurling in Dublin
5. Drums and drams in Edinburgh
6. Lush Lisbon
7. Beach life in Paris?
8. Merrymaking in Reykjavik
9. All-night dancing in Rome
10. Film firsts in Venice
    

Personally, I'm deciding between:  Paris, France (in addition to all the obvious reasons, Before Sunset was filmed there!); Budapest, Hungary (suddenly interested me tonight, apparently has the most shopping centres in Europe lol), and somewhere in Italy (Florence? Venice?).  

Which cities are YOU guys considering?

<3, adhd

Ok, making decisions is not a good thing for me.  Why can't we take, say... 2 months off, and go back packing through Europe?  Hahaha- I wish.  Anyways, destinations for me, since adhd chose Paris and/or Italy (which I want to go to both), I say Greece and/or Ireland.  Greece because of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and well, the pictures from there would be amazing.  Ireland because of the whole castle, fairy-esque theme :)

2 down, 2 more to go
<3  tourettes

BOYCOTT JUICY COUTURE! YOU’LL LOSE OUT ON MONEY AND PATIENCE, AND NOT EVEN GET CLOTHING FROM IT!!

I want to share with everyone my recent experience with Juicy Couture.  Considering that they are a sub-company of Neiman Marcus, I believed that they were a company that would care about their customer’s satisfaction and wanted to make sure that their customers are happy and treated with respect.   However, after dealing with their Customer Service Center several times and being charged unnecessary fees for procedures I was unaware of, I believe it is imperative to boycott Juicy Couture.

I ordered a skirt from their website on August 16, and received it in the mail August 23.  It turned out that the size I ordered was too big on me, so I wanted to exchange it.  Just exchange it, not return, but EXCHANGE it. On the packing slip provided, it mentioned that I would be reimbursed the cost to send it back.  So, I sent it back the next day using the packing slip.

After not seeing a status change on my online account and not hearing back from Juicy, I decided to call them to check the status of my exchanged skirt on September 13.  It turns out that they didn’t have the size that I wanted and would give me a refund for the skirt.  I was fine getting reimbursed for the skirt and accepted the fact that I lost out on the shipping fee.  But then when I asked how much I would be getting refunded, it was less than the price that I expected.  I questioned what the fee was for, and it turned out it was for my sending the skirt back to EXCHANGE it for a different size, but because they didn’t have my size and the original skirt wasn’t damaged, I would have to pay the cost to ship it back because it was considered a return. Juicy did not give me the option of giving me the skirt back. They did not let me know what they were doing with my skirt and decided for me that I would be returning it. I should have been given the option to get the skirt back for no additionally shipping fees.   Essentially, I lost money from all of the shipping fees, and got absolutely NOTHING for it.  

I called the Customer Service number twice and explained to two different people the situation to see if I could get reimbursed for the second shipping fee. Of course, they said that I couldn’t, so I told them if they are going to charge customers unnecessary fees and automatically return items to be exchanged, they should let them know.  I also told them if I had known that I would be charged the extra fee, then I wouldn’t have bought the skirt to begin with or that I would have it and gotten it fixed myself. At least I would have a skirt to wear and not just lose money.  

On the last phone call I made to Customer Service, the woman who answered was completely nasty to me.  I was explaining to her the situation and she basically gave me the tone of “so, what do you want me to do about it?”  and told me that they don’t give refunds on shipping charges.  I told her it wasn’t my fault that they didn’t have my size, and that I was initially going to exchange it and not return it. She said they sent me the size I requested and it wasn’t their fault it didn’t fit me.  When she said that, I asked her if I could speak to a manager or supervisor. Instead she told me she was going to send this as a note to an executive.  I asked her if there was a way someone can contact or find out if my complaint was filed with someone. She told me they have no contact information for executives and they don’t contact customers (well, clearly they don’t- considering I had to call them to find out about my non-existent skirt).  So I told her fine, and I was on the actual website and I read word-for-word that the Juicy site says ”We want you to be completely happy with your order,” and that I was not satisfied at all.  To pay that much money for clothes, and add to that the expensive initial shipping fee and additional fees because clothing didn’t fit or wasn’t in stock, which isn’t the customer’s fault, is unfair.  I also said I don’t want another customer to be as unhappy as I am and lose out money while not having anything to show for it.  I warned her to let the executives know that I will be posting my complaint online about the shady shipping fees and unsatisfactory treatment I received from Juicy for everyone to see. She asked then me to verify my information, so I told her my name and started to spell it because it’s an odd spelling. Then, she cut me off and said nastily, “You don’t have to spell everything out, I just need to verify your information, what’s your address”.  I gave her the info and just said, “OK, fine.  Bye.”  And hung up.  

Now, if I had lost that amount of money and not gotten a physical object from it, I would have preferred if it all went to charity, and NOT Juicy Couture.  They have shady extra shipping fees do not update you on the process of your items, and some of their customer service representatives have attitude problems.  Spread the word, even boycott, or just PLEASE use extra precaution when dealing with Juicy Couture online.

Attention dorks!

WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE UPDATING ?!?

.. er, not that I'm yelling or anything.  But yeah, remember #5 -- "No matter where any of us are, we must write to all fellow dorks whether through vox, email, comments, actual letters, etc. no matter how much fun or busy we are." -- HINT HINT. 

Okay seriously, you don't have to blog .. this is just my crazy way of saying I miss you guys and feel the need to get some communication going somehow.  I get that everyone is probably all sorts of busy and stressed.  Besides, you know me, I love blogs.  Sometimes.

As you can see, brand new layout.  Thought the site needed a change plus I really like that picture of them together laughing.  If you pay close attention you might notice something rather interesting between that picture and our own profile photo.  You get a gold star if you figure it out! (Tourettes, you are not allowed to participate - you got the sneak peak of the site!)

Anyways, hope everyone is doing well.  You're in my thoughts as always =)

<3, adhd

Summer Mini Reunion

at noodle gourmet

It's been a busy, stressful, uneventful at times, crazy yet fun summer (at least for me). And not to get all mushy, but the one thing that was definitely missing -- our theedorks hangouts. Can you believe that we were all together only one day this whole summer? But .. it was a very fun day.

Part 1. Loren, Tida and I drove to Upper Montclair for lunch at Cuban Pete's. Great atmosphere (very authentic looking decor), good food .. and possibly skeevy waiter. Haha. He made a couple poor attempts at flirting with us (ie., What country are you from? Err, this one?), was nice enough to take a picture of us, and then placed his hat on Loren for one of the photos. Therefore inciting one of her germaphobic fits. I thought Tida and I were going to burst out laughing right there and then (sorry woman!).  It was a very funny moment.

Part 2. Afterwards, we headed over to the Garden State Plaza for some shopping. We tried to be good and were actually semi-successful (c'mon, it's us and shopping!).  We also decided to buy the fourth "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" book since we couldn't wait for the paperback and have officially made it another one of our traveling objects.    Tida and I finished it already; Loren and Carina - you must read ASAP! Then we headed over to pick up Carina at the bus stop for the next part our day.

Part 3. So, who makes a 45 minute drive to Rutgers just for Chinese food and bubble tea? We do! Nothing like taking a tiny trip with my three best friends in my new car with the music blasting.

Fun times as usual. Can't wait til the next the hangout (which will probbably be in December). But in the meantime, we need to start blogging again! So, next dork =P

<3 adhd

PS.  I just realized that I blogged on here as if I was writing for ww.net.  Is that weird?  I hope not!

i wish we were back in boston

No reason for posting this picture other than the fact that it's a great one of us. Definitely one of my faves. I love our fancy dinners. Anyways, just wanted to let you guys know that I officially ordered our brick. Came out to $150 total (as an "anonymous" donation to TCNJ), so it's $37 each. Unfortunately we don't get the mini-brick replica right away but rather when it's closer to being placed in the alumni grove. Boo. I guess we'll have to wait before putting our traveling brick and nail polish together. I suggest that we get a cute little box for our traveling objects =) Not to mention talk about our future trips (Vegas? Cali? Disney world? EUROPE?) aand hopefully have new posts from other dorks (*ahem*).

i heart you guys. and klepto, we missssss you!

adhd

Picture!

One of the many pictures taken during our weekend getaway in Boston. This is from our second day there and eating breakfast in the hotel before leaving to explore MIT and Harvard.

PS. I love how Vox and Flickr work together!

- adhd

Gotta order that brick ..

We haven't talked in full detail about the brick in a while so here's all the information about it:

1. Bricks ordered by June 1, 2007 will be part of the fifth phase of bricks placed on campus.  These bricks will be viewable at Homecoming 2007!
2. Bricks are available in 4x8 inch and 8x8 inch sizes and are priced at $150 and $350 respectively.
3. Each brick includes a free mini brick replica which will be mailed to you after the brick is placed.
4. For more info or to make your own preview brick, go here.

Based on our conversation during the car and past emails, this is what I came up with:

Brick

Brick2

What do you think? On the 2nd, I couldn't  decide if it looked better with or without the colon.  But you get the point.  Coment with your thoughts!