The story of these pictures is below on my Sep 5th entry. Crazy story and one never to forget on my birfday no less!!!

Coolest birfday gift ever...

The day before my birthday (sep 4) I got to do one of my favorite things during this time (US OPEN night session!!). Little did I know that I would bring in the first few hours of my birthday together with Nadal, Ferrer and some 15,000 crazy new yorkers..front row!!

The tickets I got put me waaaaay up in the nosebleed seats (no different than any other year really). The matches started super late due to a long day session. So while we waited for the gates of Arthur Ashe to open I got to see Andy Roddick and Nadal on the practice courts real close..very cool!

Once we got in Serena and Justine were set to play a blockbuster quarterfinal before Nadal and Ferrer were gona slug it out. The ladies match didn't start until past 8pm and so the guys match didn't start until after 10pm. By the time the second set finished it was almost midnight. We were going to head home when we saw a bunch of people rush the courtside seats below, so we said 'what the heck, let's go!'. When we got down there they were giving away courtside passes since half the stadium was empty by this time. SO we ran down got out passes and grabed the closest seats to the action...front row!!!!! We couldn't believe it, it was crazy how close we were to these dudes! At that point we said 'screw it we're staying here until the match is over!'.

So after emptying my 4G media card getting some sweet shots and watching Ferrer pull a huge upset over Nadal we finally went home...at 2am! Happy Birthday to me!

Normandie, France

Another part of France I got to see was the beaches of Normandie.

J'aime Paris!!

Last spring my sister Natalia and I went on a fabulous trip to Europe for a few weeks. Our first stop was the absolutely beautiful city of Paris. I think this is one of the most photogenic cities I know. We had a great time and here's just a few of the hundreds of images I took in the city of light:

Japan/Korea 2002!

I was going through my archives and found some from my first trip to a World Cup in Japan and Korea in 2002. These two countries were fascinating and the people absolutely amazing. I actually had a couple of girls go about 15 minutes out of their way to take me to where I was trying to go! 

Ecuador vs Italy - Ecuador's first game in a world cup EVER. For a country as small as ours this was a momentous event and I had to travel all the way to Sapporo to experience it! Unfortunately we lost 2-0. :(

Ecuador v Mexico - Ecuador's second game. Started off amazing when we scored in the 3rd minute but then it all went sour when we let Mexico come back and beat us 2-1. :(

Ecuador v Croatia - Our last game, we had nothing to lose and so went out and played like we deserved to be here. We won 1-0 and left the stadium and the world cup with our heads held high. Next time it would be different....

I got to experience the second game vs Mexico with my dad. I think it was a dream come true for both of us in many ways! 

These guys didn't know a lick of italian and probably didn't even know any of the players but they jumped on the italian bandwagon anyways!

After the first round games in Japan I took a flight to Korea and experienced soccer Asian style. The atmosphere for that game against Italy was amazing.

I took a chance to do some sightseeing and got to go to Deajeon and see some cool places.

After the game vs Italy my friend Cristina and I stayed up till 4am in the streets of Seoul celebrating with the whole country. For one night I was korean!