So I've returned after lots of traveling by plane and car for the last couple of months and it feels good to be home. But I love exploring new places and old and have been lucky to see 3 totally different parts of the world in the last 2 months alone: France, Seoul, Korea and the Black Hills of South Dakota.

First I was off to France for a couple weeks to site see and have a couple meetings with my French music manager. Alex and I started off in Paris and made ourselves stay awake to turn the time around. We did a pretty good job walking all the way from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower in time to take pics of the shimmering lights and see it in all of its nighttime glory. We traipsed around the town the next day ending the evening with a friend at her house for dinner and then to Pink Paradise to meet with Groove Productions about possibly doing shows in Paris. We'll keep you posted on that. The next couple days were all about seeing Paris and having good food. For once I wasn't jonesing for Starbucks partially because it's crazy expensive there and also the French have lovely coffee. After a few days in Paris seeing the Louvre, Eiffel Tower in daylight, Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge in Monte Matre and much more we headed to the Loire Valley to see all the chateax. I'm definitely a chateaux person and love seeing those ancient castles including one we stumbled upon which turned out to be the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty. Then off to Burgundy to sample wines and visit Dijon, yes, the dijon capital of the world. After a few days there we headed back to Paris. I even got to use some of my rusty high school French while there. Way too much to tell about each place but suffice it to say that France is a beautiful place and I hope to visit again.

Next was back in LA for about 2 weeks before heading to Seoul, Korea with Michael Downey and Tanner for our short 3 show tour. It was a long 12+ hour flight. Who knew it was so far away. Ok, I guess I did but I can say a 12 hour flight feels a lot longer than even a 10 hr flight. Seoul is a very modern city and unfortunately doesn't have a lot of old architecture left after being conquered over and over by China and Japan. But what's left is beautiful and I loved seeing the palaces and a beautiful Buddhist temple as well as Seoul Tower. Jinny, our translator and new friend spoke excellent English and was more than a huge help to us, she was awesome in every way. She even helped me negotiate when purchasing a new digital camera since mine had broken after many drops while in France. I could never have made a transaction like that without her. Michael speaks some Korean so that helped when ordering food especially although whenever he tried to order green tea no one seemed to know what the heck he was talking about. We first tried bibimbap which is a rice, vegetable concoction in a very hot bowl with a raw egg thrown in. The idea is to mix the egg and cook it when they set it down. It's pretty good but spicy too. The second day Tanner and I tried the spiciest thing I've ever had on the planet. I don't even know the name but it's a soup with veggies and stringy beef that was so delicious but at the same time so hot that we could barely take it. Our noses were runny to say the least. One thing I learned is it's very rude to blow your nose at the table. (I think that's rude anywhere really) But because of all I read up about Korea on the plane and constantly telling Tanner and Michael about what to do and not to do while there, Tanner began to call me THE SOURCE. I'm sure I drove them crazy with my constant info. Anyway, we played in the same area of Seoul on all 3 shows but at 3 different clubs. Freebird, F.F. and Ta. I have to say Ta was my favorite as the vibe was the best and the club had a very cool Indian decor and world music vibe. Hope to go back there again. Michael, Tanner and I were very impressed with the Korean musicians from the other bands. Being from LA we see all levels and the kids (20 yr olds mostly) we saw in Seoul were very accomplished musicians and very gracious to us. I'm happy we made some new friends including the band Funny Boom who were awesome. Again, so much to tell about Seoul and our trip but it could be a book so I'll leave it here for now. I hope we make it back to Seoul again.

I flew back from Seoul on a Monday afternoon and first thing Tues morning was in a car with Alex driving to the Black Hills of South Dakota (20 - 21 hours of driving) to spend Thanksgiving with my sister Margie, her husband Ryan and their two beautiful kids, Presley and Landon along with two of my brothers, Tom and Bobby. We had a lovely Thanksgiving day eating great food and in the evening doing our normal family tradition of seeing a movie. We saw Casino Royale which I really liked and then stuffed ourselves some more afterwards. The next day some site seeing since Alex had never been to the Black Hills. I'd grown up there but it had been years since I'd done site seeing and it's always fun to show my home area to someone who's never been there. First to Mount Rushmore to see the pres heads. It was cold so we didn't linger long outside. Next to Crazy Horse Mountain where they're carving a whole mountain. It's taking FOREVER since it's not a government project. At least they've gotten the head done. It's literally taken them 50 years to get that far so it's unlikely we'll see that finished in my lifetime. It's still need to see as it's way bigger than Mt Rushmore. The next day was a visit to my grandpa who at 88 yrs old is as feisty as ever. He's fairing pretty well since the death of my grandma in Aug after 62 yrs of marriage. After our visit we took a driver around the Black Hills to Custer, Hill City and didn't get to see the Needles because the roads are closed for the winter. That night off to the Stone Pony for some Karaoke hosted by my aunt Olivia. That was so much fun as I haven't done karaoke much with my family. The next night was the best though as Alex and me, Margie, Ryan, Bobby and his wife Rachel and Tom and Brenda all went up to historic Deadwood to do some more karaoke, watch live music and visit the Saloon ..10 where Wild Bill Hickock was shot. Alex and I did a little gambling and came out ahead on the blackjack tables. One thing everyone partook of except me was to drink a shot called Red Headed Slut out of THE SPOON. It was this gross iron spoon that is never cleaned out and people do shots out of. Rachel was the first to do it and so I applaud her for that. Next was Ryan then Bobby and later Margie, Alex and Tom. I just didn't have it in me. Too yucky. However most of us had gin and tonics all night since they tasted like Christmas trees and we though that was festive considering the season. Anyway, we had a blast and were home at the decent hour of 2am. One more day in Rapid and then a more casual drive home to LA visiting Devil's Tower in Wyoming, the Desert Sand Dunes in Colorado and a drive through a snow storm in New Mexico before visiting the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest in AZ.

SOOOO many sites I've seen in the last couples months. I know there are probably a lot of details I'm leaving out of this update but as I said, if I wrote more it would be a book. I'm sure this is long enough any way for those of you who even took the time to read this. But I feel blessed and which everyone was as lucky as me to get to see so much. I do advise anyone who has a chance to travel to just get out and do it. There's nothing like seeing the world.

Next on the agenda: Rome for Christmas and Malta for New Years. Check back after the new year for details on that trip. Also, hope to have some new music recorded and up on here soon. Will keep everyone posted about that.

Happy Holidays!!!!

Xtina aka Christina