The Whiteboard Couple

Working in the bay area & surrounded by such talented friends & colleagues, it is impossible to escape the feel of the silicon valley. It took me 2 years to get up to the speed of the silicon valley. Well now, not only is it reflected in my work life but also in my personal life. Shubho my beloved husband & I always had affinity towards collectively brainstorming solutions for problems. And rigorous whiteboarding sessions helps us understand each others point of views far better.  We both highly agree that whiteboard is visual, extremely flexible, quick, dirty but super efficient. This eventually got us using a whiteboard as a tool in our personal lives as well. :)

Like most couples we like to plan some parts of our lives so that we do not get lost in life's craziness. Tadaaa... Enter the Whiteboard!!! As individuals we both have different ideas, plans & also have our own priorities. Using a Whiteboard helps me be on the same page with Shubho & focus on a couple of goals that we both agree on. This process is not that simple as it sounds. As we list down, each individual item they go through some intense discussions of pros & cons, some logics & emotions, some fights & arguments to come to an actionable, concise list. 

We all know that there are hundreds of processes made by thousands of people to achieve one single task. But nothing matters if there is no fruitful outcome of these processes. Gauging and acting upon these whiteboarding sessions is a constant process. This gives us an opportunity to clear any misconceptions between us. As we move from what to how & when, we begin building a deeper understanding of where the other person is coming from and that helps each of us broaden the horizon of our individual perspectives. After each of these white boarding session I feel a sense of an achievement. This makes our relationship stronger & intimate.  

A simple whiteboarding session helps bring clarity and creates a very honest reflection into each others silly brains. Not that I am saying that you should whiteboard with your partner but if you want to try something new & add some spice in your life, and also be at the same page with your partner .... why not?

My Bae!

A good friend knows all your stories. A best friend helps you write them...

Yes, that's true.. I am writing my first travel story because my friends helped me write this.

Before I landed in Greece with my 3 other girl friends Divya, Neha & Stuti, I thought Greece is one of those romantic destinations where a couple walks hand in hand and spends their honeymoonish-vacation-sorta-thing.  But, I was wrong.

Let me take a step back, the whole planning/travelleing thing really started somewhere in mid August'15. Dibs, Ne & Stu were together out somewhere in mumbai (maybe getting drunk), and I called them (very excited) up to talk gibberish. While we were chatting they suddenly told me about their plan to visit Leh Ladakh together sometime this October and I was like why am I the only one left out?(was a rhetorical question because I live in America). That's when they suggested if I wanna come along they can change their destination to Greece!!! Hah..

We did some research on weather and stuff and everybody agreed unanimously on Greece. With a lot of to and fro about the insane plans we eventually traveled to Greece - the 3 of them from Mumbai, I from SF.

(L->R) Stu, Me, Ne, Dibs!

Journey Begins....

Athens reminded me of Mumbai because of its traffic, parking on the road,  narrow lanes with "decent" hotels, 2 wheelers, cabs and a lot of foreign tourists :) Greece is very famous for its historical sites and especially Athens being its capital has most of the important ones. We visited Acropolis museum, Ancient agora, Roman agora, Parthenon (temple of Athens), Temple of Olympus Zeus and Olympic Stadium. More than the place and architecture we enjoyed the hikes/walks to these places. All these historical places were destroyed during an ancient war. (Pls don ask me which year..lol) Everywhere we went all we saw was a bunch of tall columns and an open space whether its a temple or a stadium. I do not remember the place as much as I remember our photo sessions at those places, trying to get our "jump in the air", biscuit breaks, eating Indian breads and snacks while walking, talking and chilling. This made Athens memorable.

A ferry ride took us to Mykonos which is a very laid back, scenic place. After reaching to Mykonos island I felt I am on a holiday as people, place and surrounding suddenly changed altogether. We hired a vintage convertible and drove to our Villa :) yes, it was a beautiful, serene place with a gorgeous view of a sea. This was again a perfect setting for me to sit, relax and chat with my besties about life, love and luck. We explored beaches, shopped in the super market for fruits and drinks, danced to the tunes on table tops of beach shacks, visited a monastery and swam in the pool and the sea. Cherry on the cake was having Maggie at the dinner table and discussing the next day's plan. We rescheduled our Santorini trip by a day. 

Ta-daa! Santorini it is. Another ferry ride, I guess by the end of this ride I was done with ferry rides of my life. We took an Airbnb in Santorini which was located in a town called Perissa. Our Villa (Bird Villa) was somewhere in the interiors of Perissa and was somewhat deserted. It was eerily quite during the nights with a cat meowing somewhere in the background ( Yes, we were surrounded by greek cats) and the Hill view from the villas had a perfect setup for a Pretty yet scary Ghost house type-a movie. On our first evening in Santorini we drove to the Thira market i.e downtown of Thira. This place had a bunch of restaurants and clubs and a lot of local shops & boutiques. We had our dinner at some local joint and hit the clubs. On our way, we found a theater named White Door Theatro which presents a Greek wedding show. We inquired about it and left to explore the local clubs. We had a great time in Murphy's (club that we liked). They played some good music and we ordered happy hour drinks and danced on the tunes of some local and english music. Life felt Good! Next day we drove and hiked to Red beach, had some cheese and wine at Santo wines - winery in Santorini with scenic view to the blue sea and sky and islands.  We headed to Thira market for Lunch. Obelix served some nice wraps and burgers. (Ne... had some special experience at Obelix which she can share with you if you are her favorite) :D. After some yummy food we left for Oia to view the sunset.

Stu at Oia!

Oia is the place where you will see the postcard picture of Greece and I guess this place indeed is for honeymooners. The churches, that perfect White and blue and the post card images you have always seen Greece as is in Oia. You can thank me later. :P

This view was the perfect end to the wonderful day. We spent the next day on the excursion to some local volcano and hot springs and one epic ride on donkeys (yes DONKEYS!) to Thirassia. Commuting on a Donkey is a traditional but the most bumpy way of getting around Greece... time and again you will find places where you can hitch a donkey ride. Its fun. I recommend :). The best part of the day is yet to come... the "Greek Wedding" show. Yes, we decided to attend the Greek wedding show at white door which we enquired about earlier (Check out a video here). The show was musical and funnnnnn performed by some great local artists. We were part of the act as a guest and had an opportunity to break some traditional plates by smashing it on the floor...(No we werent drunk at the wedding... it is a part of tradition at Greek weddings). We danced on greek music and had some good greek food and this day was about to end perfectly but BUMP!

Dibs woke up in the morning with a swelling in her ankle. We wrapped a crepe bandage around her ankle (luckily Parashar knew how to wrap that) however, we were not sure about the sprain but we all thought its a sprain but Dibs kept smiling so that we don freak out (I guess, I was in denial that something has seriously gone wrong here)....

Scuba-duby-doo!!! We signed up for scuba diving in Santorini. This was our last activity of the trip and were very excited about it. Our trainer was really patient with us. We (Parashar, Stu & Me) took lessons and practiced Scuba diving for a couple of hours. We thought we were ready to dive in and we head outt to the sea. My first ever experience of scuba (I dunno swimming, which apparently was not going to be a problem) BUT.. when I stepped into the water I chickened out...Nope!! Just could not.. I need to write a different story about how I feel about water and what it feels to be under water. hahhahahaha...... (and to also to be married to someone who thinks he is a fish)!!!

Got a picture of me in scuba gear and I was happy and satisfied and checked off Scuba Diving from my list. (Geez)!!!

I am so glad that I went on a trip with my BFFs and this trip has checked off a lot of to-dos before my Turning 30 Bucket list.

Oh Wait! Dibs went back to India... got her ankle checked... and figured she had a fracture... She had a cast on for 2 months. Guess Greece followed her back... but she says it was totally worth it...!!! :P

Heres a short video of all the Fun we had... Hope you enjoy it...

October 2015

                                                                                                                                                              ...Neha...