Yay for winter break!

here's a slideshow from the holidays - it includes my tour of the Library of Congress with Joy and then more Abellas than you know what to do with! happy holidays and season's greetings!

Snowed in...

Seriously... the snow needs to stop. I want to change my statement and say that I DO like snow. I'd like to be able to play in the snow. I would enjoy this last round of snow if it weren't finals. :(

Today I stayed in... I wasn't about to get in the car and sit in traffic. The last storm we had this past week, I was stuck in traffic for 2 hours just getting home from school! Besides, I needed to stay in to write.

I've got 3 papers due this week. And then I'm DONE. About time, too. I've been getting restless (of course) and I'm ready to drive to DC and home. And I'm ready to go to Spain. :) CAN'T. WAIT.

What I'm not looking forward to? Researching NGOs for my second year practicum. At least I know where I'd like to go: Nepal. And I kind of know what I want to focus on: Girls' Education. It's a good thing I have a month off from school to think about other school things.

I used to like snow.

I really did. Back when it would fall and school would be canceled. Or when you didn't have to do anything but play in the snow or stay indoors. Now I have to drive in it. And go to class (not outdoors, of course...). Snow is only fun if you get to see it from inside where it's warm... or when you get to play in it. Gordon seems to think I've asked for this winter. And I guess I did -- I did move to Boston with the knowledge that they have snow.

Snow is also bound to be more fun when finals are over. Hard to believe the semester has come to a close. No exams for me (luckily)... however not lucky is that I now have 5 papers to write. It'll be over soon... and that's what gets me through the days. Well, that and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Yay for having a Dunkin Donuts so close! America may not really run on Dunkin Donuts, but I sure as hell do.

Gordon meet Boston. Boston, Gordon.

So last week Gordon came to visit. It was his first time in Boston (I'd say it's his last except he promised to come visit in the spring). We had a great time as always. We're just silly together! Who else would sit with me for a few loops on the trolley tour? :)

We hit the good stuff - the spots I like - Harbor Islands and Wagamama's. Finally got up to the North End, though we skipped out on Mike's Pastry because I forgot the name and then there was a line and I don't do lines. Went to see the Red Sox play at Fenway. While neither of us are fans of the Red Sox, we do enjoy baseball and baseball stadiums (not to mention the hot dogs - though we don't like that they use sandwich bread as a bun).

Gordon got to meet some of my friends so that was cool. The weekend felt really short, but I guess because we had so much fun. Pictures are posted to the left.

this is what grad school is like?

It's been a few weeks since school started... and I guess I can deal with this. I like my classes for the most part and I like the people. It's not that bad.

I'm a little overwhelmed at times. I had a big assignment due this past week where I was freaking out about citations -do you know how long it's been since I've cited anything?? There's tons of reading, and sometimes I don't think I'm getting it at all. Other times, I'm bored out of my mind just looking for something to do. No one really mentioned that part when I signed up.

In the past few weeks, I've landed a job at the local (well, sort of local) REI. Finally, after years of wanting to work there (hello, discount and pro-deals!), I finally get it. :) Hopefully, I won't be too stressed out trying to balance school and the job. The people at REI seem pretty flexible, so that's good. As long as they realize I came to Mass to go to school and not to primarily sell gear. Speaking of gear, I wonder how many pairs of Chacos I'll need to pro-deal...

Being back at school reminds me of how everything always boils down to high school. Whether your in undergrad, grad school, or hell, even the Peace Corps, it always seems like there's drama that is just unnecessary. There's always rumors (which some are true, some aren't), there's always secrets, and there's always an in group. I try to stay away from that whole in group/out group thing, but it is interesting to watch it all play out.

So far school is going well. Gordon is coming up this week, so that'll be exciting! :)

And so it begins

After having a weeklong orientation, classes have finally started. My first class of the semester? Econ on Thursday nights from 6-9. So unlucky, but I guess it's good that it's only for half a semester. My program has module classes that meet for half semesters (module I at the beginning, module II at the middle of the semester) alongside a few full semester classes. So what am I taking?

Monday
Rights-based Development (mod I)
Monitoring and Evaluation (mod II)

Tuesday
Sustainable Energy (mod II)
Ecology (mod I)
Gender & Development (mod II)

Wednesday
Framework for Development (full)
Planning & Implementation (full)

Thursday
Masculinity & Gender (mod II)
Economics (mod I)

Written out like that... it doesn't seem like this semester is going to be too bad. I'm trying to get most of my required courses out of the way so I can take fun classes next semester. It's hard to pack it all in to one year because there are SO many interesting classes. I'd like to take as many gender and ecology classes as I can because those are the most interesting to me.

Orientation was a little frustrating... but just because it was so long. I thought it would be a week of name games, but it wasn't too bad on the forced togetherness. I'm a little tired of the "what is your name? where are you from?" conversation, but I'm sure I'll get to know more people in my classes. I've met some really cool people so far and it's great to know that there are people out there that are somewhat similar to me. Working at the PR firm before was like hitting a wall - wanting to do good, but not being able to because it's not the bottom line.

In the middle of orientation, I celebrated my 26th birthday. I went out with some new friends and caught up with an old friend. :) I don't really do birthdays, so it was nice to keep it low key. Looking back, 25 was a pretty good year. Different, but good. I don't like to stay around too long in one place, so it's nice to have my 26th year in a brand new place with all new people.

Maine really is the way life should be...

So about 8 years ago, I went up to Maine to meet up with some friends I had met on my Europe trip. My parents drove me up from North Carolina on a 16 hour roadtrip. It was me and 3 other girls (Katie, Stephanie, and Amanda) meeting up in Stephanie's hometown for a small reunion of sorts.

This past weekend, I went back up to Maine because now that I'm living in Massachusetts, it's only 2 hours away. The great thing I've learned about New England is that EVERYTHING is in driving distance. If you decide to go one place, why not drive a little farther to see something else while you're at it. In the case of my last roadtrip, I decided to drive all the way up to Acadia National Park and stop in to see my friend Stephanie on my way back down.

I love national parks. I think it's one of the best things about the United States and I wanted to finally visit the first national park east of the Mississippi (true fact, the NPS says so). I have to say that Acadia NP may be my second favorite national park - second, of course, to Glacier National Park in Montana. Maine is a lot like Montana... except it's got that rocky coastline putting one both at the beach and at the mountains at the same time. After rushing to the park to get a nonreservable campsite (yes, Mom, I camped by myself!) and setting up my camp hurriedly so I could get back to exploring... I drove along the Park Loop road and stopped along the way to check out some of the sights. Park Loop road is like GNP's Going-to-the-Sun road, except not as scary and not high. I went up to the top of Cadillac Mountain for a great afternoon view of Bar Harbor (you kind of have to use a Maine/Boston accent when you say it) and the Frenchman Bay. I devoted the rest of the day to driving the loop more than a few times and stopping to see Thunder Hole (a cool inlet that at the right time sounds like a thunderstorm when the waves crash), Sand Beach (the only sandy beach in the area - the rest are rocky!), and the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse.

After camping in the rain (no worries, my tent was dry thanks to my rain fly), I got up at 4:00 to drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain again... this time to see the sunrise. It was densely foggy and windy when I got to the top. Luckily, the fog cleared for a good 20 minutes as I watched the sunrise over Bar Harbor and the Frenchman Bay. This is the first place to see the sunrise in the United States!

Since I was up, I thought I'd drive along and hit the cool spots again, though it was like I had the whole park to myself since it was so freakin' early. I stopped by Thunder Hole again to see if I would finally get to hear it sound. It did. :)

After packing up my campsite, I started on my hike on the Bear Brook trail to the summit of Champlain Mountain. It was a great hike... though I must say that hiking, while it's fun by myself, it's more fun hiking with a friend (Katie!). Besides, how many self portraits can you take... well, I took many.Made a quick stop in Bar Harbor - for an hour because parking was a highway robbery total of $5/hour! Then I headed down to Poland, ME to stay with Stephanie and her new family! Poland, ME... yes, where Poland Springs water is from. Cool fact: Stephanie has Poland Springs water straight from the tap!!! Awesome.

Stephanie, her husband Rick, and their cute little boy Andrew brought me to the Auburn/Lewiston Hot Air Balloon festival. It was really cool getting to see the the balloons and the hot air at night, though I think Andrew was a little overwhelmed. :)

The next day, Stephanie, Rick, and Andrew set off to Old Port - the historic part of Portland. It was super cute with lots of cool shops and restaurants. I think I could live in Portland... or at least outside of Portland since it's expensive there. They also brought me to Ocean Park to the beach and then back to Auburn to a family party. It was great hanging out with Stephanie and her family (her parents and sister are great!!). Later on, we went to a driving range and played miniature golf in the dark. :) Since it was the last roadtrip of the summer... why not take a more scenic route and go through the White Mountains in New Hampshire. I drove to the top of Mount Washington - a stop on the Appalachian Trail and the home of the highest recorded winds (213 mph in 1934) - where it was snowing, foggy, windy, and cold. It was great! Middle of August and I got to see snow and ice... and almost blow off a mountain! After coming back down, I saw a moose that had just caused a motorcycle accident on the roadway. crazy.

All in all... a great roadtrip and a great way to end the summer. Seeing Stephanie was great! And since Portland is only 2 hours away, I know I'll be seeing her soon. :) School starts next Thursday... and orientation starts this Friday. Here's hoping I get excited somewhere along the way...

Boston on hold... and catch up

Since my last post I've explored the area a little more. Here's what I've found:

Salem (yes, the Salem - as in the witch trials) is a very strange town. A cute and very touristy place, there's more to do there than there is in Waltham. Thought about getting my palm read, but when I found out that it was $30 for a 15-20 minute reading, I said no thanks! Plus, it smelled too much like patchouli EVERYWHERE (much like how I think Boone is like). Tip: you can get your palm read for at least $5 in DC. I liked that Salem is very walkable and has a great museum (not the witch museums, those are more like the Pirates of the Carribbean ride meets storefront churches) the Peabody Essex Museum. Got a tip from Mom about the origami exhibit there and it was really cool.

Witch Trials Memorial - 19 benches for the 19 people executed during the trials. Each inscribed with a name of the accused.

Origami of a wizard.

Waltham (where my school is and where I am now) doesn't really have a lot going on. There's two main streets of interest - Main (imagine that) and Moody. On Main Street (Rt. 20) it looks like there's 2 pubs/taverns that look kind of cool. My walk on Moody St. did nothing for me and took me all of 30 minutes. I had ice cream at Lizzy's (okay) and went into the comic book store. I left the comic store shortly thereafter because Fantom Comics it is NOT.

Tried to find the Boston Rock Gym... that was a disaster. Next time I'll try to use the interstate rather than backroads - especially when it's raining. I never made it to the climbing gym.

Burlington AMC movie theater. It has come to my attention that there aren't very many stadium seating movie theaters in the area. Seriously? You want me to watch a movie with someone's head in my way? Oh how I miss the Regal in Chinatown (DC). Even the Uptown in Cleveland Park isn't like this! However, I did see HP5 again (I've been on an HP kick since FINISHING book 7 - more later) and saw Hairspray as well. While I love Zac Efron, I'm more excited about High School Musical 2 than I was about his almost no speaking role in Hairspray. I did like the movie, though. It was cute and I even liked a few of the songs.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED READING BOOK 7...then again, why haven't you finished yet???)I finished the book in 2 days (one was spent reading on Spectacle Island)! I liked it. Was it my favorite? No. I still love Goblet of Fire. Was it worth it? Yes and no. I think JK Rowling took the safe route in finishing the book. Gordon says, "Well, it IS a kids book." So it's understandable, but I still found it anticlimactic. I did enjoy the parts with Ron and Hermione and the most upsetting part was early on when Ron left! I can't wait to see what they do for HPaDH in the movies. I have NO idea what they can possibly cut out. And I did see the goat in HP5, Jen.

So that's what I've done... I'm going to DC and NC for the next week and half. Oh happy driving times for me. I'll be seeing HP5 again (but on IMAX this time, though not IMAX 3D which kind of sucks), seeing the boy and the girl from Once sing, and hanging out.

Think I'll go to Boston... Think I'll start a new life...

Boston skyline from Spectacle Island

Yeah, odd how that Augustana song came out right around the time I got into grad school. So I've made the big move (though, it will probably only be for the year) up to the Boston metro area. Doesn't have the same ring to it as the DC metro area, but why not try another city on the east coast?

The whole family got together (plus Gordon) to help me move on Saturday. What a long trip that was! We got everything moved in to my apartment and now a few days later and my room is all set up - pictures hung and everything! As I mentioned before, I have 2 roommates and the apartment is great! It's like a Chapel Hill apartment except in New England!

Yesterday, I ventured into Boston to see what's what in the city. Also, I heard that Mandy Moore was playing in the city, so I had to go see - because I heart her! She sang only stuff from Wild Hope (her new and completely different album). Someone rudely yelled out for her to sing Candy, but honestly, that song was CRAP. Here's a clip of her singing "All Good Things" - my favorite song on her album.

So after going to her free concert at the Prudential Center (they have shops there, though I only went into the B & N), I went up to Faneuil Hall for some Boston sightseeing and people watching. Faneuil Hall (if you don't know) is a big marketplace and with shopping and eating. I would liken it to Covent Garden in London, but with more touristy things.

Faneuil Hall with Samuel Adams statue.

Big highlight: Wagamama! A great noodle bar from London that just opened their first two American stores in Boston (lucky!). DC needs to get a Wagamama and Boston needs to get a Five Guys. Just found out the closest Five Guys is in Connecticut! Grrrr.

I also took the ferry to one of the newest National Parks - the Harbor Islands. On a tip from Katie, I decided on a whim to take the ferry out to Spectacle Island which boasts a great view of the Boston skyline. It's true! The ferry ride out to the islands is cool (it was nice to watch the city drift away) and they run pretty often, so you can stay for as long or as little as you'd like. I even got to see the pebbly beaches (not too rocky, Jen). The island is actually built on top of a landfill (but you wouldn't guess it as it looks like pretty clean). Learn more about Spectacle Island here. Anyway, I definitely want to go back and check out the other islands and get in some hiking and possible camping (before the winter hits that is). I didn't get a lot of time on the island because I had to go check out Mandy again back in the city.

Me on Spectacle.

After the beach excursion, it was on to the Borders in Downtown Crossing (another large shopping area) to see Mandy give an interview, sing a couple of songs, and sign cds. The interview I wasn't too interested in because it was conducted by a life coach and I don't know how I feel about those. Especially ones that are emaciated and fake looking - what kind of advice can they give?? I waited in line (not too long, because I don't like to wait in lines) to get Mandy's autograph, but it kind of sucked because they weren't allowing pictures with her. I'm not really one for autographs, but since we were denied pictures (much cooler) I'll take it. Though... I didn't like having to buy another copy of Wild Hope - that's all she would sign and I forgot my copy at home!

So that was my trip into Boston/slightly stalking Mandy Moore. :) I definitely will be going back into the city this week to do the other touristy things (best to get them out of the way early on) like the Freedom Trail, Harvard Square, and the Museum of Fine Arts. I also want to get back to the Harbor Islands and check out Little Brewster Island (oldest lighthouse site in the country -1716).

It is still kind of weird to be living here and not just visiting... and I'm still freaked out about starting school!

Kennedy Ate Here... but who cares?

from the DCist.

Walking around in Cleveland Park yesterday, I noticed that Yenching Palace had a business closed sign up on the door! While I have heard the rumors and known that Yenching would be closing, I was always hoping that it wouldn't be true. I love that place! The owners were always so nice and were always happy to see me and Gordon order our take out.

It's amazing to me that a place that is so rich in history could be closed down. And for a Walgreen's... when there's a CVS down the street.

Don't know about Yenching Palace? From their menu:

"During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the Yenching Palace was one of the meeting sites of the personal intermediary of President John F. Kennedy and the Emissary of the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. It was at the last of these meetings held at the Yenching Palace that final terms were agreed upon which ended the crisis and avoided war."

See. This place was so cool! The food was great (their spare ribs AWESOME) and the staff and owners were super nice! The building itself is pretty - very frozen in time art deco with classical music playing inside.

After reading this article in the Washington Post, it looks like the owners are getting out of the Chinese food business because of health/family stuff. However, they own the building and they'll be leasing it out to Walgreen's. So yay! At least the family will still get money from Walgreen's.

Yenching... I'll miss you!

Scavenger Hunt Winners... again

winners!

While some may think it is dorky (and I don't think it is)... Jenny, Gordon, and I are scavenger hunt winners again! We did another Watson Adventures scavenger hunt - this time in Fells Point, Baltimore, MD and came out on top.

We did one last year at the National Gallery and won - beating older and supposedly wiser teams. I'm sure they were wise, however, I like to win. And my team wins.


Jenny and Gordon think I'm very competitive and I'm sure others would say the same, but I don't think it's a bad thing. Who doesn't like winning?? And I don't mind if you want to play to just have fun, but I'm playing to win, so that makes it much better for me if you don't want to win.


Our scavenger hunt this time was a secrets of Fells Point hunt. There were, I think, 4-5 teams. We were given 2 hours and 22 questions. Joy likes to think that her hunt a few weeks ago was harder, because they had to solve a mystery. I say ours was probably just as hard since Gordon and I had never been there and Jenny probably didn't remember a lot of the places. Also, ours was harder because it was in a neighborhood and not in some museum that Joy has been in a thousand billion times.

We had to take a few pictures along the way. Luckily, Gordon and I like to be silly and don't mind taking weird pictures of ourselves... and Jenny plays along. So here are few that helped us win (the hunt judge liked our name - The Fast and The Curious - and our pictures).


Task 1: Act out a show/movie that has been filmed in B'more. Gordon and I acting out Homicide.


Task 2: Act out your team name. Gordon as the fast, Jenny as the curious.



Task 3: Act out a superhero deed. Gordon as the Hero (I let him be the hero) saving me from an oncoming car (not really, it was parked).



Here's a picture of one of the answers we didn't get. It was very much a hide in plain sight kind of answer... and we missed it! Even took the picture of Gordon and me by a car right under it!




They have hunts all over the east coast. I'm thinking of seeing if I can do one in Boston, or maybe even hosting a hunt myself. It seems easy enough and you get to see what everyone writes as the answers! You can check out their website here. It's a fun DC metro kind of thing and they have hunts in Philly, Boston, Baltimore, and NY.

Take Me Home... Country Roads

So a couple of weekends ago, Gordon and I roadtripped out to West Virginia. Not the most obvious of choices when one thinks of roadtrips, but we were looking to get out of the city one last time before I move up to Mass.

After ditching the idea of going to New York (because I dislike the place. Sorry, Joy.), we decided to head out to WV because we'd both only ever really been to Harper's Ferry with JrNYLC - every Monday. We went to Berkeley Springs, WV, because we'd heard that it was really cute. What's there to do in BS, WV? Well, not a lot. As the name implies, there are some springs - famous ones at that. George Washington liked to take in the waters in Berkeley Springs. I think that may be all it is famous for actually. But it IS a cute town.

Our first stop however was getting back to my outdoorsy roots and going hiking. Here's the odd thing about West Virginia: being close to DC (like an hour to an hour and a half), you get a lot of the "weekend warrior" types. You know the ones that think that outdoorsy is wearing rainbow flipflops and stepping outside of your car. The ones that are used to driving up to the panoramic vistas and thinking they've never seen anything better. It's one of the things I dislike about DC. Anyway, so Gordon and I went to the Cacapon State Park which was supposed to have great trails and a big lake. We thought, hey, we'll pick up a trail map at the park HQ and be on our way for a few hours. That's so NOT what happened. Somehow we ended up lost on the roads through the park... which somehow ended up at the lookout. The lookout where a platform was built to get a better look at the pretty view (seriously). A platform. Luckily the view was pretty good... though I don't think it needed an unnatural eyesore of a platform to see it:

view from the top

Gordon and I drove back down the mountain and said forget the trail map, let's just go. So we hiked for a little bit on the Ziler Loop trail. Now, I haven't been hiking in quite sometime. I'm not as young as I used to be... nor in shape. Even before I was a slow hiker, but this time I was making us stop every few minutes! We hiked up the mountain some more, however, and found a good lunch spot on some rocks. After enjoying our bought from Food Lion sandwiches (poor planning on our part), we decided we should probably head back because we didn't know how much time we'd have to check out town and make in time for our 4pm reservations at the springs. So we hiked out and went to discover town.

Gordon and I on the trail

The thing is... there's not a whole lot of town to discover! Their downtown which everyone told us was cute... WAS cute, but also only 2 blocks long. We stopped hiking for this? Now, I come from a pretty small town, too, so I was thinking cute, historic, pedestrian friendly. Berkeley Springs however was cute (and overpriced boutique shops and restaurants), historic in that Geo. Washington liked to go there, and there was all of 2 crosswalks on the main drag (which is also a state highway and busy with mack trucks). The springs? The center of town at the Berkeley Springs State Park - the smallest state park and where state park includes a public pool.

see? told you he was here.

I had my first massage experience after taking in the waters at the springs. The massage was pretty cool for being a person that does not like people touching her. The roman bath was pretty cool. The state park offers the best deal in the area on spa stuff - a 20 minute private roman bath, 30 minute full body massage, and 5 minute shower all for $45. I would do it again. What I wouldn't do again is get a pedicure. As much as I don't like people touching me, I like even less people touching my feet. I thought I'd use the pedicure as a way to get over my phobia... but no. I still don't like people touching my feet even if my toenails are now a cute silver color.

Lucky for Gordon and I for our night in town, we had reserved tickets for a local play. Lucky, I say, since there really is nothing to do in the town (you can only sit at the springs until dusk anyway). The play was The Nerd. It was hilarious!! So funny and not what I was expecting it to be.

The next day, I had that pedicure that I didn't like and then we left town. Stopped by the farmer's market on the way out -- all 6 tents. That took up like 2 minutes. With the car still our's until evening, Gordon and I headed to Charlestown Races and Slots and lost money. Seriously, a huge room with nothing but slot machines. It's like Vegas but without the high rollers. However, I did end up liking the place, because it was SO seedy, it was awesome!


We ended up going back to Charlestown this past Friday for the evening as well... and losing more money again. Gordon won some, but it doesn't count because he didn't give me any.

Who Says You Can't Go Home...

Though I don't call New Jersey home (I'll leave that to Bon Jovi), I do call North Carolina home! A few weeks ago, the three of us went down to visit the old alma mater UNC-Chapel Hill. Gordon and I just hung out and went to the zoo with his brother and around the old school. Jenny was busy writing a story. Check it out...

School's Out

And here's a couple of pictures from the NC Zoo in Asheboro (no pandas here, though still a good zoo.)

Spots that aren't in Jenny's article that shouldn't be missed in Chapel Hill:

- Pepper's Pizza (my FAVORITE place to eat in CH - has now grown up and moved to an actual real restaurant space on Franklin St.)
- The main quad on Sunday morning or pretty much any place on campus on a Sunday summer morning. Carolina is at it's second best without anybody around. (First best is bustling with college students before the 12 o'clock classes).

T-13 days

I submitted my letter of resignation today. While it's been known for awhile, it's still kind of weird to think that I am actually quitting. I'll be moving up to Massachusetts in July and then school starts in August. Whoa.

I'm not sure what I'll do once I move up to Waltham. I suppose to could try and get a retail job-- go back to my outdoor gear shop ways and try to beg for a job at REI. It looks like there's a couple within 20-30 mi of my apartment. There's also a couple of rock climbing gyms that could also be possibilities. I'm excited to get to know a new place. It'll be good to get the lay of the land before I start school so I won't be too freaked out. Maybe if I start climbing again, I'll make some new friends before school starts.

Statue at Brandeis

I'm not excited about moving... but I'm not moving too much stuff. Pretty much just clothes and a bed. I pushed my move in date so I could watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix here in DC. I'm a dork, yes, but it's much better to see HP5 with people I know than not. Besides... I want to see it at the Uptown (the best place to see a big movie in DC).

You can see the trailer here - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer

i love this kid!

some Tai Shan footage... he's SO big now! He'll be 2 on July 9th. He's so cute.

How come people don't visit Missouri?

Gordon and I went to visit Katie this weekend! We had a TON of fun (of course... there's only fun times with Katie!). We went all over Missouri and even ventured into Kansas for a little bit (but we hurried back out as soon as we could).

Katie says there's not much to do in Missouri, but Gordon and I (and I'm pretty sure, Katie, too) were exhausted after our trip! Kansas City is the city of fountains and my first trip to the city I saw only 1 fountain. This time, I may actually believe that it IS the city of fountains as I saw definitely over 10. Some observations about Missouri's fountains/statues:

- they like horses. I asked Katie what the horses were about, but she didn't know. I don't know either. UNLESS... it's going back to the whole homesteading/western expansion era. hmm. possibly.

- they really honor their firefighters. Seriously. Every fire department I saw had statues of firefighters. Katie says that firefighters are heroes and should be honored. I agree, but just pointing it out.

- Kansas City and its fountains are like Philadelphia and its art. Everywhere you turn, around every corner, there's a fountain. However, I found KC to be quite cleaner than Philly (but I hate Philly).

We went to the Great American Barbeque Festival. We got there before the midwest crowds descended upon the place, so it's like we had the whole place to ourselves. The barbeque was GREAT... and American. haha. It was a lot of fun even if there was a crappy 80s cover band.

Katie took us to the Nelsons-Atkins Art Museum, a surprisingly good museum. I say surprisingly good, just because would you have expected it? It had some good works by Calder, Renoir, Monet, Manet, etc. A lot of good sculptures, too. The Asian art was also a good collection. Apparently, the Kansas City must-see art are these giant shuttlecocks (haha) in the sculpture garden of the museum. Very whimsical and interesting. I recommend taking pictures of yourself like your holding a shuttlecock in your hand. We did.

We went to the Liberty Memorial which offers a great view of the city. I enjoy any skyline view - it gives a better sense as to how big the city is and help put it in perspective and shows you landmarks so you can't get lost (scratch that, easier to get un-lost). :) We walked around the Plaza (the high end shopping area. Think Rodeo Drive but in middle America). I bought the Paul Shirley book, but missed his book signing. If you don't know who Paul Shirley is, you can check him out here (he's funny and cute - of course, I like him!).

Katie drove us across the whole state (past many many many porn stores and billboards) to St. Louis to see the sights and go to the Cardinals game. Katie got to catch up with her friends from school and I got to FINALLY see a Cardinals home game - and in the new Busch stadium! The stadium is awesome, the Cardinals are great (even if they aren't playing consistently well this season), and we all had a lot of fun. Even when they had a rain delay with 1 (ONE!) out to go. The Nats decided to play some baseball and try to rally in the 9th inning, but with the heavy rain not letting up, they covered the field. Then they uncovered the field. Then they covered the field. Then they uncovered it again and started throwing fresh dirt between the bases. And it kept on raining. So we left and stayed at Katie's friends' AWESOME victorian house which made me consider settling somewhere and buying a house. But then I re-thought that and decided no. The Cards finished playing the game sometime later. They won. YAY! :)

We saw the Arch with all the rest of the Memorial Day tourists and then headed back to Kansas City (with a stop at Mizzou and Shakespeare's Pizza - yum). Completely pooped (yes, pooped) we baked cookies and stayed in (my perfect night in) and watched movies. Yesterday we went to see Katie's family for lunch before heading out. I love Katie's family. If I were living in the midwest, I'd want them to hang out with. Her family is SO much fun!!

I had such a fun time hanging out with Katie!!! I wish we lived closer together. Maybe after grad school we'll move to Seattle and have more Julie and Katie fun times. Besides, she likes Gordon too... so he can come along if he wants. :)

When we got home... we thought (silly us) it'd be a good idea to watch Pirates of the Carribean 3 at the Uptown. A good movie. Long, but good.

Mad about TV

This week are the network tv upfronts where they tell the public about what's on this fall. It's a time for shows to finally get renewed or cancelled. It's a time to show us what looks good and what's worth recording (or TiVo-ing if you're into TiVo).

However this time around, there's been nothing (as of yet) to get super excited about.

Friday Night Lights was renewed (YAY!) but it's been put to a crappy timeslot at 8pm on Fridays. Seriously? Fridays? Thanks, NBC for bringing back a quality show-- one that needs to get viewers, but already has the critics on their side. What better way to get viewers than to put a great show on Friday night when almost no one is watching TV!!! Why did you have to bring it back, NBC, if you were going to put it in a suicide timeslot? Just so you can get all of us who are hooked even more invested and then you'll take it off your schedule after a few bad ratings?

CBS canceled Jericho. Another good show, that yes, maybe was slow after the long hiatus, but was a good show. So now we'll never know what could happen after a nuclear holocaust. The season (now series) finale left us with them fighting it out to save their town-- a little Angel-esque, but even Angel is finishing the story in comic books. CBS says that Jericho wasn't performing even though it had a pretty solid following in the beginning. CBS shouldn't have waited so long to put it back on the air (ABC did the same with Lost and got the same results-- but would you cancel Lost? Of course not.) Maybe the network execs shouldn't put such long breaks in the middle of intense tv shows.

ABC took Men in Trees off of the schedule this spring and didn't let them finish their season... even though they had finally gotten viewers after Grey's Anatomy (don't even get me started on that crappy show). So they brought Men in Trees back (yay!) but also put it's original timeslot of 10pm on Friday. Really? When it didn't get a good following in it's first run in that timeslot? The network knows it doesn't work, so why try it again?

I'm still waiting to hear if my other show on the bubble, Supernatural, will be coming back to the CW. I mean, it's the CW... what ELSE will they put on that network?? Chances are with the way things are going... another good show will bite the dust.

But what's in store for the fall? Prepare yourselves for another slew of television's worst -- 2 shows based on Lipstick Jungle? Didn't we already have Sex and the City?? A spin off of America's Co-Dependent Women, I mean, Grey's Anatomy? A show based on the Geico cavemen? Do you think it'll be funny beyond a 30 second commercial?

ABC Fall Preview
NBC Fall Preview
CBS Fall Preview


I don't think that network executives actually watch tv. How did they feel when their favorite tv show got dumped from the schedule in the middle of the season? How about when they became invested in one really good show only to have it pulled in the second season?

While I will be giving up on TV next year because of studying (we'll see how that works out)... am I really going to be missing anything important? Have the network execs really given up on providing quality television for whatever next celebrity reality show sells (really, Skating with Stars)? Will there be anything other than CSIs -- maybe a CSI: NO ONE REALLY CARES? Can we see something other than America's youth embarassing themselves over trying to be the next idol, model, etc? Somehow I think I'll get out of school and still see the same crap television that's just recycled and repackaged for the next year. Great...

UPDATE: Supernatural was renewed. :) Yay!

I'm a Travelin' Wo(Man)

Another delayed post. I've been super busy and traveling all over. Well, not all over, but for the past 2 weekends and then another 2 weekends straight in May!

Two weekends ago, we took a roadtrip to Pittsburgh, PA. Why Pittsburgh? Seriously, because it was there. Pittsburgh is one of the few cities up here that none of us have been to. Surprisingly enough, P-burgh was actually very interesting.

There's a lot of museums to go to-- random ones, like the Andy Warhol and there's one about the French and Indian War. We went to the Andy Warhol one and saw some of his great works. I'm not a fan of Warhol really-- maybe it's the drugs and the sex with everyone, I don't know. But I like his "Silver Clouds" installation. Silver balloons floating around an empty room. Very fun!



We also went to the Heinz History Center to see an exhibit showing all of the Pulitzer prize winning photos. What did I learn? To win the Pulitzer, you have to shoot something sad and depressing. Looks like none of my photos of silly faces is going to be winning a Pulitzer anytime soon.

We also got to tour the Heinz Field-- where the Steelers play. Obviously, I'm not a fan of the Steelers, really, as I dislike football (unless it's the Dillion Panthers on Friday Night Lights). The stadium was still very cool to go around and see. Got to go right down to the field, go into the Steelers locker room, sit in the super expensive club seats. The place is HUGE, but I suppose most NFL stadiums are.

On the way back home, we stopped off to see 2 Frank Lloyd Wright houses. We're big on Frank Lloyd Wright houses. We saw his famous Falling Water house and his lesser known, cheaper Kentuck Knob. Falling Water was what you'd expect-- very cool and interesting. Kentuck Knob was also cool but in a different way, like someone could actually live there. Falling Water is one of those houses you'd love to have, but wouldn't really be able to live in it. Kentuck Knob has cool sculpture garden and a more lived in kind of feel to it.

So that was Pittsburgh.

This past weekend, Gordon and I drove up to Waltham/Boston to go apartment hunting for me. We left Friday night (without any sleep really) and got into Waltham at 6am -- 3 hours ahead of my first apartment viewing! After seeing 5 apartments, sleeping in random parking lots just trying to get ANY sleep at all, and driving all over Waltham... I've found a place that I think will be very good for me. I'll be living with 2 girls in a very nice apartment complex (almost like the cute new-ish ones in Chapel Hill). I'm very excited, though the decision between places was really hard! :( Luckily everyone was understanding and I got to make the decision without feeling too guilty.

I got to show Gordon my new school-- Brandeis University. It's a very cute campus. Nothing like Chapel Hill, but I guess not a lot of schools are going to be like it. I bought a t-shirt that says Brandeis, but in Hebrew! How cool is that? I'll post a picture soon.

We also got to see Fay!!! Yay, Fay! She's living in Brighton and going to BU for Public Health. I'm really excited that we got to see Fay since we haven't seen her since we've been back in the states. I'm also superexcited that she'll be in the area for a little while when I move up to Waltham.

So now that I'm back in DC for the next 2 weekends before my next two trips, I plan to sleep and recover. Well, sort of. Next weekend, we'll be volunteering with Servathon 2007/Greater DC Cares by rebuilding a nursery playground. We'll also be catching up on movies-- Hot Fuzz (Have you NOT seen Shaun of the Dead???) and Spiderman 3 (so we can finally end the madness that is Tobey McGuire as a superhero).

Check out the pics from my Pittsburgh and Waltham trips.

I'll Take It!

So if you don't know already... I love panda bears! Tai Shan, the cutest baby panda here at the DC National Zoo is my super favorite animal. However... there's a new baby bear that's been getting a lot of attention lately: Knut, the baby polar bear. If you haven't seen him in the news or on CuteOverload (the funnest website ever!), you've been missing out on this new bear that's giving Tai Shan a run for his money-- maybe.

Knut was born at the Berlin zoo... however, his mom rejected him and so animal activists were demanding that the bear be killed. KILLED?! They think that if he were out in the wild and his mom rejected him, he would die. I love animals-- baby ones are the best-- and I wouldn't kill it just because it's mom can't or doesn't want to take care of it. So now the cutest little polar bear will be sent to a different zoo (wouldn't it be cool if it was the DC National Zoo???? Tai Shan and Knut could be BFF!). If they can't find a zoo to take little Knut in, I will. I would gladly raise a little polar bear (especially since I can't raise Tai Shan). I'd much rather have a baby bear (panda or polar) than a baby human, for sure.

Knut's got such a cutie face-- like a little grandpa. And who doesn't like baby animals? People without a heart, I'm sure. Enjoy the couple of videos of the cute Knut romping around and Tai Shan back when he was a mere babe.

Hockey at it's best

So maybe it wasn't the Flyers (oh how I loved the Lindros days), the Rangers (I liked them with Messier in the net), or even the Penguins (who doesn't like the Mario Lemeiux story???), but the Capitals game on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning was pretty exciting!

I've never been to a hockey game, though, I would say that I like the sport. I'm not one to follow the Stanley Cup finals or track draft picks (I don't even know if UNC had a hockey team-- I'm guessing not). Pretty much all I know about hockey, I picked up from the Mighty Ducks movies (classic!) and the Cutting Edge (another good one). The game on Sunday was pretty exciting-- and I wasn't bored at all. The score was 7-1 in the end, so there was even a lot of scoring (which you don't get at soccer games, or even all baseball games). I saw a guy get a hat trick (3 goals in one game) and saw another come close. We saw a fight-- what everyone wants from a live hockey game, but doesn't always get. I would have preferred a bench clearing fight, but those are pretty rare (and I'd rather see one in baseball anyway), so I'll be okay with only 2 guys fighting. :)

Another cool thing about the hockey game-- besides the W, the fight, and the hat trick-- the music is way better than at basketball and baseball games. It was kind of like listening to 106.5 the End (if you live near Charlotte, NC, you know what I'm talking about)-- all 90s alternative rock. I half expected to hear my favorite band of old Bush, but instead they played Prodigy and who doesn't like "Smack My B*tch Up"?

Gordon and I wondered if the Russian mafia shows up to Caps games. We're pretty sure they go to the Rangers games-- though looking at their roster, perhaps it's the Czech mafia that supports the team instead. There's a couple Russians on the Caps, but I don't know if there's enough of a Russian community around here for the mafia to be out and about. Either way, no one near us was part of any mafia that we could tell. There was a cute little girl though that had a ton of energy and really liked to spell C-A-P-S. I don't really see her as being a mob boss. :) We did however see a really cool Russian Ovechkin jersey (he plays left wing)-- it's always nice to get to use my Cyrillic skills! I think my favorite Capital is Olie Kolzig (the goalie from South Africa). He's getting on in hockey (and pro-sport) years-- he's almost 37!-- and been with the Capitals for 17 seasons!

Here's to some more hockey games while I'm still in DC. Go Caps!

O Say Can You See Fort McHenry?

So on a whim this past weekend, we decided to go to Baltimore. None of us are really fans of Baltimore-- their baseball sucks, it's not really (probably never was) the city that reads, and there's nothing much outside of the inner harbor. Besides, Gordon and I spent many nights in Baltimore sleeping in the Maryland Science Center with JrNYLC.

But it was a nice day... and we were restless. So we went to Baltimore and decided to go check out Fort McHenry. Some background information about Fort McHenry (for those of you that don't know):

During the War of 1812, the brick fort defended the Baltimore harbor and stopped a British advance into the city. Surrounded by water on three sides and far enough from Baltimore to provide protection without endangering the city, it was the valiant defense of the fort by 1,000 Americans that inspired Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and amateur poet, to compose the Star Spangled Banner, originally entitled Defense of Fort McHenry.

--http://www.baltimore.org/fort_mchenry.htm

Fort McHenry was pretty cool. It's a fort-- so it's very fort like. And there's actual ramparts, though we saw nothing bursting in air. We had a lot of fun posing with cannons and jail cells (see pictures to the left).

It's good to know that there's other fun things in Baltimore. You should check it out.

best band to see live...

Guster. Saw them a couple weeks ago at the 9:30 Club and once again, they put on a great live show. If you haven't been, you should go as soon as they get to your city. If you haven't heard of them, you should give them a listen. Going to their concert is like hanging out with your friends and having a sing along in the car on a long roadtrip. :) I wouldn't say that they are my favorite band, but I would say that they never disappoint. I've seen them 5 or 6 times now and I'll probably see them again whenever they come back again. I'd really like to see them in Boston (that's where they're from-- they all went to Tufts).

Anyway, check out their myspace page and go see a show.

http://www.myspace.com/guster

I actually did make it back from the PI

It's been forever since I posted here, but after the Philippines and Hong Kong it's been non-stop craziness! The Philippine Islands were great. The night in Hong Kong was really cool! I had a really fun time. I won't post the whole trip in here, but I will add the photos (there's like hundreds--I'm not kidding).

Things to remember: Religious festivals (Sinulog) in religious countries (the Philippines) may lead to human stampedes, everything's cheap in the Philippines, resort stays may be something to look into, throwing up on a plane is NEVER fun, who knew Hong Kong would be so cheap and cool and kind of cold, US Customs officers are NOT friendly, NOT courteous, and ARE jerks, and Viva Pit Senor!

Since the Philippines... Katie AND my parents came to visit (YAY!), it's been non-stop Peace Corps volunteer reunions, everyone and their mother comes to DC all at once, the Eastern Shore is very cool-- and very quiet. I've taken tons of pictures, so take a look if you really need to catch up with me. Or really catch up with me via email/phone/smoke signals/etc.

Peace Out... I'll be better at blogging.

One thing I remember from Uzbekistan

A very cool bollywood club song that I heard ALL the time in my favorite restaurant in Jizzakh (my site). This song always came on the tv (all the good restaurants had one) and I always wanted to buy it, but could never find the CD. Baby H-- yet to have a CD here in America, but was the coolest music you could find in Uzbekistan (though not on CD).

Here's the video:


http://www.markacadey.net/mcn/audio/india/films/html/hindi-video-mere-naseeb-mein-baby.htm


And it's available on iTunes if you like it... just look up the title: mere naseeb mein

Tonight-- drive to NY. Tomorrow night-- fly to the Philippines. Word. So weird that it's finally time for this vacation. Couldn't come at a better time. :)

Next Stop: the Philippines

So next week, my family is going on our second family vacation in 6 months-- the Philippines. Back to the homeland. It'll be my first trip to the PI (Philippine Islands-- there's over 1800 of them) and my second trip to a developing nation.

This trip is causing a stir among the family because the PI isn't just any regular trip. My dad wants to see his classmates (as always), my mom gets to see her family that's still there, and the three daughters? 2 of them are stressing out and I'm okay with it. Jen and Joy have been freaking out the past week because of what will we do in the PI? where will we stay? what should we bring? I figure everything will work itself out-- and I knew Jen and Joy would want to plan things anyway. That's how London worked, too.

What am I looking forward to? I've never been to the Philippines, but from pictures it looks cool. I'm not one for hot weather, but it shouldn't be unbearable. A balmy 82 degrees last week and should remain steady at 82 for this week, too. I really want to go to the bazaar there because I miss that from my Uzbekistan experience. You can always find cool local stuff at the bazaars. The exchange rate is good-- that's what I love about developing nations, everything's cheap! $1 = 48.87 pesos. There will be some cool stuff to see in the Philippines, too-- Magellan's Cross (for full backstory click here), Sinulog (a festival for St Nino-- he's huge in the PI. See pictures of Sinulog 2005), Bantayan Church, but here's my favorite:

Merman Discovered in Cebu, Philippines

(you gotta see these pictures! scroll down when you get to the page)

I'll post again after the trip. We've got a layover in Hong Kong that we're all pretty excited about as well...