M@ Around The World

I'm coming to you all live from my dad's living room where the Christmas tree is beautifully illuminated with the miniature multi-colored light bulbs, the fire is in full blaze, and our traditional Christmas movie, " The Ref " (with Dennis Leary and Kevin Spacey ) is playing on the big screen LCD TV. Today was the 3rd day of Christmas in our family which means my brothers and I arrived this morning and have been playing Parcheesi , eating amazing hors dourves, drinking ;-), and going in the hot tub all afternoon. What a way to pass the holiday :-D Luckily this month hasn't included too much traveling other than a trip to Boston to have dinner with one of my three best friends, Craig; a trip to New Hampshire to visit my college buddies; and a couple trips home. Every year my friend Craig has a holiday dinner as his way of saying thanks to all of his friends for another excellent year on Earth. I've been blessed to be able to make it out every year even whe...

Winter finally struck the Great Northeast this weekend with blustery blizzards dropping a fluffy layer of pretty white snow all over this region of the US. The temperatures had been dropping steadily over the past several weeks so it was only a matter of time before the precipitation turned from wet rain to freezing rain and finally to snow. A couple weeks ago I went out to Los Angeles, CA to visit Logan and my friends from NBC Universal : Paul, Erick, Jayzen, Michael, and Tim. It was funny to see people in thick winter coats when the temperature there was in the 60°'s (F). I told my friend Paul, who's originally from NY/NJ, that I was disappointed that he had to wear a coat at all in that weather. Haha I guess I should give him a break since he's been in LA for almost a decade. :) Paul gave Logan and I a tour of the Universal Studios Theme Park and Backlot where several movies and TV shows are filmed. It was great to get a tour from someone on the inside as opposed to the...

The past couple months have been wild with trips, visits from friends, conferences, award ceremonies, emergency "extreme audits®", and weekends in New York (City and Upstate). It's hard to believe all of this took place in the span of 8 weeks! Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep up with myself and blog about each one individually, but here's a brief update on where I've been and what I've been up to! For all of these events there is a photo album on http://pictures.brooksny.net . Check them out as you read through! Sept : 9/8 : My college buddies were having a reunion barbecue in Albany on Sat the 8th. I had an event to attend (and by attend I mean plan, organize, and run :) in Connecticut, but as soon as it was done I drove up to NY as fast as possible (within reason of course :). I surprised most of them because I had told them I couldn't go due to my other event. I actually thought this was going to be the case, but when I found out that I'd be ...

After the summer Corporate Audit Staff conference in 2007, my friend Taufan (who I affectionately refer to as "T") and I took a long-awaited trip to San Francisco, CA for Labor Day weekend prior to starting our end-of-year reviews. We arrived in Palo Alto, CA (just south of San Francisco) late on Thurs the 30th of Aug and stayed in the Westin near Stanford University. Throughout the weekend our travels took us to San Francisco, Sausalito, the Muir Woods Monument (Marin County), Monterey, and Half Moon Bay. A local girl we met on Sat night told us we saw the “real” California (as opposed to Los Angeles). :) I’ll include some pictures throughout this blog entry, but feel free to check out the several albums uploaded to http://pictures.brooksny.net . There are some videos interspersed throughout them as well. Aug 31: Stanford U, San Francisco, Sausalito Our first day of adventuring began early in the morning of Fri, Aug 31. T had spent many summers growing up in the San Francisc...

For my end-of-the-trimester vacation in August, I decided to take a trip back to Atlanta for the week to visit Frank (my brother) and Franco (my "fourth" brother). I also planned on visiting other friends that I didn't get to see when I breezed through Atlanta a month prior. The original plan was to arrive first thing in the morning on Mon the 20 th and go back to Albany on Fri the 24 th at night. That would maximize my time there and amount of potential fun to be had. Little did I know when I made these ticket plans that both the start and end dates/times would change... Monday: A quick swing through Stamford (CT) on the way... About two weeks prior to leaving, I was having a discussion with the HR manager for the program I'm involved in at work. She and I were planning a new module for our employee orientation sessions. This "Diversity Panel" would introduce the various employee groups for special interest groups such as African Americans, Women, Gay/Le...

A Much Needed Weekend at Home On Fri, Aug 3, I started the long journey back to Upstate NY from Mexico City, Mexico. Although my driver arrived just after 9:30a CST to pick me up, I didn't arrive until after 11:30p EST to the great Albany International Airport. The Luggage Situation If you've never entered into the United States of America through the famed Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, let me describe the process to you in one word: NIGHTMARE! After arriving at the gate, one has to walk half a mile (it seems) just to get to the passport control / immigration area. Unfortunately for me, there was a line at the passport control wrapping through several of the lanes. After wrestling through that jungle and being officially welcomed back to the US, I raced down the escalators to the baggage claim area. Another delay and a half later, I was grateful to see my luggage gliding up the beltway undisturbed and happy. Now, keep in mind that at this point I had traveled internati...

Finally a Great Adventure On Sat, July 14 my co-worker, Henrik, and I left our hotel at 8:30 am to have a day-long adventure seeing different sites around Mexico City. We signed up for the combination Mexico City / Teotihuacan Pyramids tours with our hotel concierge and although it meant waking up early on a Saturday, we were psyched to get out and about around here. First Stop: Zocalo Plaza After being picked up, brought down into Mexico City by a tour-company transport, and being "sorted" into our vans for the day, we zoomed off through the streets with out tour guide describing everything that was flying by us through the windows. See the previous entry about driving in Mexico City for kicks :) We arrived at the main plaza, referred to as Zocalo (although technically the word zocalo refers to any plaza). Here the three main attractions are the Placio Nacional (main government building), the Metropolitan Cathedral (one of the oldest Catholic cathedrals in the city), and the...

A beautiful day in our neighborhood... Today my co-auditor, Henrik, and I met up with some other auditors in the region to take a look at the surroundings in "La Ciudad de México" (Mexico City). Our local expert, Ideli, picked us up from our home in Stadía Suites around noon and whisked us off, east, to the city. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride... First, let me tell you a little about driving in Mexico...it's nuts!!! Concepts such as speed limites, stop lights, the right of way, and general defensive driving are lost on the citizens of this fine country. :) Luckily Ideli is a native and knows all of the ins and outs of driving around here. I do admit, though, that I had to close my eyes from time to time. Haha! A simpler life... We took a quick swing by the Sheraton in downtown to pick up another auditor, Charles (yes there are many of us...over 400 to be exact ;), then we headed north to check out one of the smaller, more cultural areas of the city. We arrived and took a quick ...

Much has happened since last we met... At the moment, I'm writing from our old familiar surroundings in Stamford, CT: the Stamford Sheraton. The past several months have been a whirlwind! Let me give you some highlights... February : After the last post, the gang and I went over to Brussels, the capital of Belgium for a fabulous weekend. Rajat, Shalima, January, and even Reyna all joined me for that adventure. We saw all around the city, the main square, and the castle! On Sat night, January, Reyna, and I went out on the town. It was awesome. Reyna was the belle of the ball there! All the guys were looking as she walked down the streets and we even got into the club without having to wait in line! Haha! Check out the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/MattJBrooks/070218TripToBrussels March : The first weekend of March I headed out to Florence, Italy (or Firenze as the Italians call it) to visit my "Aunt" and "Uncle" Stephens. Firenze is my favorite city...

One Saturday Evening... ...in early February, my colleagues and I decided to see the some more sites of Paris.   We started our adventure around 4p by taking the train over to Notre Dame et Blvd St. Michel.  After an awesome meal in a little restaurant called "Maison Blanche" (where we had real French fromage fondue for the first time!), we took to the streets to see what we could see.  ( Click here to get the full album of pictures ) Notre Dame Cathedral Our first stop was the famous cathedral Notre Dame.  There were tons of people there, including one couple who had just gotten married!  We took a plethora of pictures outside before going in to check out the ornate interior.  There was actually a service in session when we walked in, so we blended in with the many other tourists who were being as quiet as possible while gawking at and taking pictures of the artifacts inside.  ( Check out this video I took while inside ) After our silen...

Biennvenue á  Paris! I arrived in Paris, France on 30-Jan for my four month stay with the Corporate Audit Staff at GE.  While the first few days were dedicated to getting down to business at work, my colleagues and I got to have some personal time on the weekend to explore the City of Love.  Check out this link to see all of the pictures from the weekend. Sat: Le Tour Eiffel, Le Arc De Triomphe, Le Champ De'Lyse On Sat we started our site-seeing extravaganza with brunch near the Eiffel Tower.  We ate at Le Grande Corona (no, not the beer :).  After some great food and a coffee or two, we popped over to see the Tower itself.  We wanted to climb to the top, but the line to buy tickets combined with the line just to start ascending were so long it would have been the only thing we could have done that day and that's to say we would have gotten in before they closed!  Instead we decided to take a bunch of pictures and walk over to the Arc de Triomphe.  Th...