Merri Musings

Trying this again...

2011-02-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

Taking a break from Boston this weekend by being in Florida, which I think is really good for me. Not only is it nice to experience temperatures greater than 30 degrees, but the past couple weeks have been incredibly confusing and I really felt like I just needed to get on a plane and have self reflection time away from my home. Being in Florida almost facilitates that in a way because being with my dad reminds me of a lot of things from my past since the house here is full of random high school and childhood memories and memorabilia that have been transplanted from Virginia. I have started bringing my viola here too and practicing after dinner was so oddly comforting for me tonight - a routine I used to have every day from ages 11 to 18.

It's interesting looking back on my last post which I really only wrote about a month and a half ago, because I felt like I had so much clarity then, and now things have gotten confusing awfully fast. The past couple weeks have been extremely revealing in just how difficult it is going to be for me in my life and my future to balance a relationship with my own needs, my friends, and of course my career. My desire to travel and shift cities every couple of years while I can is completely at odds with his desire to stay in just one city. Compromise is proving exceedingly difficult, and I have found myself questioning this more often in the past couple weeks than I perhaps ever have. I am trying to follow my gut, instead of trying to balance my head and my heart, since those take me in completely different directions.

I feel like I am at a crossroads, both with my career and with my relationship. There are any number of permutations this situation could take, and these past couple weeks have been an emotional roller coaster as I've attempted to navigate my feelings and balance them with distractions I know are nothing but bad for me. Thinking about the types of distractions I gravitate to also makes me worried about reversion to the type of person I was in college - so outwardly self confident, academically sound, and perfectly social, but deeply insecure when it came to guys. I am not sure that part of me has gone away; it may just be buried deeper these days, and it's really unnerving when it resurfaces, causing me to be giggly and buoyant one moment and so unbelievably frustrated and upset the next. I know that part of life is learning to weather these emotions so my resolve going back to Boston is to let the chips fall where they may and not try to force anything one way or the other.

I think that perhaps moving to Australia is the only way to gain clarity on this situation, and that's why I've set things in motion for that type of move about 10 months from now. I think that by doing so, though, I am also finally coming to terms with the fact that this one move by no means solves some of these greater issues that are causing me to toss and turn at night more than usual these days. A permanent place to settle down? The need to settle down at all? Timing of marriage/kids? Deciding right now to be with one person for the rest of your life, or wanting to make sure it's right by having other experiences first? Balancing your career with someone else's? All seem like entirely unanswerable questions.

So I will just let time run its course and see what happens. In the meantime, I resolve to try to go back to work with a clear head on Monday for my new case and not get distracted by things completely out of my control and realm of understanding.

Year in Review: 2010

2011-01-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

I wrote the following on the plane while going to Australia a couple weeks ago:

Well hello blog…it’s been quite a while. Like so many things that I used to do regularly in my life before I started working, it was so easy to let writing slip. But today I was talking with a good friend from work who mentioned how hilarious it would be if I wrote about all my baking and eating (while traveling) adventures, and I realized oh yeah, I actually did that for the last two years of college! So I opened up this blog and realized that at the very least, I can write a “year in review” entry for the eighth year in a row. It was a pretty fantastic trip down memory lane to look back on my blog entries from 2009 – the craziness of Duke, the excitement of a new relationship, the charm of Venice, the return to Australia, the move to Boston. One thing I was wrong about, though, was the expectation that 2010 would be a less fun and carefree year. Worried about my long distance relationship and the prospect of having to work all the time, I suppose it was natural to be apprehensive, but I have been pleasantly surprised by just how incredible a year this has been. True, there have been frustrations, long nights, difficult family situations, and moments of questioning, but overall, this has been an amazing year of self discovery and learning in all aspects of my life.

Some highlights:
- Work ski trip, where I first realized how close I would become to my peers and how incredibly fulfilling it is to work in an environment that is so social and friendly (other highlights would then be the 17 other social events that occurred…haha)
- Those funny managers and competent consultants that made the difficult cases bearable, kind of like laughing at everything when you are doing a problem set at 1 or 2 in the morning
- Travel to Australia and London and France and all the exotic perks of having an international boyfriend with an amazing family
- Discovering how my passion for travel can have a business outlet in learning about airlines and beginning to understand where I want to direct my career (baby steps, but it’s a start)
- Realizing that, at least at this point in my life, business travel is almost as fun as leisure travel. Living in hotels, playing the points game, earning status, getting everything paid for…nothing wrong with that!
- Seeing each member of my immediate family begin to move on with his/her life – be it moving to a different place or (finally!!!) selling my childhood home, which helped me realize how unimportant material things truly are
- All my trips to NYC and Duke and other places to see friends and have fabulous weekends catching up over fantastic food
- My fairly luxurious lifestyle in Boston which I have 100% provided for myself, which makes it all the sweeter
- Developing some genuinely close friendships with beautiful, strong, and diverse women at work who I hope to keep in touch with throughout our careers, wherever they may lead

As I went back over entries from this blog in the past year, it was illuminating and reaffirming how my words from months ago still resonate so strongly with me. My love of airports, airplanes, traveling, and genuine passion for discovery of new places through food and culture is every bit as strong today as it was a year ago. True, having a day to day job can constrain some aspects of this, but as I sit on this plane on the first leg of my four part journey to Bali (eeeee!!!), I am utterly content in the knowledge that I can still control the aspects of my life that bring me the greatest joy.

Now that I have lived independently in Boston for a full year, I have discovered a lot about myself and how I function in a relationship as well as on my own. I feel that I kept my resolution from last year of trying to constantly see the positive side of situations. The goodbyes in my relationship actually have gotten less painful as I have grown used to being apart rather than being together. Of course, questioning of what I want in life personally and professionally resulted from distance as well. I learned that life is not without temptation, but now realize that temptation and obstacles are probably put there for a reason and to teach me something either about myself or how I view my relationships. I think that over the course of the year, I grew more able to fully understand my strengths and weaknesses both at work and in my personal life, and by understanding them, my hope and resolve in the new year is to come up with the most effective strategies for working through them. As I head into what are sure to be two incredible weeks full of romance and discovery in Bali, Perth, and Sydney, I am so grateful for this turn my life has taken that enables me to have these exciting adventures with people I love!

I also resolve, as I did last year, to try to take a step back every once in a while and realize how fortunate I am to have so much – a fulfilling job, hilarious and meaningful friendships, a growing network of friends around the globe, and a wonderful relationship.
And perhaps, I will try to write a little more. Because self reflection is always more effective when it’s written down and I can look back on it months later and smile.

Here’s to 2011, which I hope is a year full of even more travel, self-discovery, and more defined direction in my career and personal life!

Looking back on this a couple weeks later, I'd like to make another tentative resolution to write in this blog more. It really helps me gain clarity on so many things.

2009: Year in Review

2010-01-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

As I sit here in London Heathrow airport waiting to go back to my life in Boston, I realize that it is time for my “year in review” entry, which is now in its seventh year running…haha. I have kept this blog for over a year and a half now and it was especially wonderful to look back on my reflections on 2008 just now. I wrote about how my even years (04, 06, 08) have tended to be not the best and my odd years (03, 05, 07) have been fantastic. True to that pattern, 2009 has without a doubt been the best year of my life, despite serious family troubles and navigation of various relationships. It really made me smile to see the following:

“I've almost stopped believing that I am even capable of being romantic or knowing how to be in a relationship. My main resolution is to get that optimism back. I want to have faith that I can open myself to possibilities in 2009! And I know that this is going to be the best year ever. There are things that I am helpless to change, like the problems of those close to me, but there are things about my attitude and life that I am making resolutions about. The most important is to be more optimistic about the concept of love in general.”

And, almost creepily fast after writing those words, I ended up in a serious relationship. As confused as this made me at first, I gradually gave up some of my more selfishly independent ways for the vulnerability – but also true joy – that comes with love. Obviously, Andrew has become a crucial part of my life and is one of the main reasons this year has been so incredible. I am extremely grateful to him for restoring my faith in love and showing me how good a relationship can be, no matter what the distance, when there is ultimate trust, honest communication, and of course, lots of laughter.

Of course, the introduction of a relationship into my life meant figuring out a tricky balance act among the relationship, my own personal priorities, and of course my friends. I was disappointed and hurt by some friends’ reactions to my newfound status and pleasantly surprised by others. I realized how different my friendships are, even among my closest friends, and how to best navigate those differences. Throughout the year, I dealt with the pain of my family breaking apart and just tried to be a pillar of strength for them. And I learned how tough a long distance relationship can be. The goodbyes will probably never get less painful, but I am proud to say that I am the only person I know who actually genuinely enjoys some aspects of a (super) long distance relationship.

Moving on to the positives, of which there are of course much more, other highlights of the year include:
- Organizing LDOC and every valuable lesson that leadership role taught me
- Alyssa and I making our apartment at Duke such a fun and relaxing place
- Graduation!
- EVERYTHING about my trip all over Europe and Australia. The art, the beaches, the sun, the ruins, the segways, the hotels, the hostels, the mishaps, the excitement. Seriously, everything.
- The ultimate lifestyle of travel and leisure that then ensued from July to October, which included visits to San Francisco, Pennsylvania, New York City, Montreal, Boston, Nashville, Dallas, Arkansas, Durham, and of course Sydney again. I will not deny the fact that the life I led is for me pretty much my ideal. What could be better than traveling to new exciting places to see my friends and spend time with them? It has been so enlightening and fulfilling for me to see the different paths that those closest to me are taking. Everything is so full of promise right now and it’s very exciting to see what everyone is doing post-graduation!
- Moving to Boston and realizing that I can create an entire lifestyle on my own and be an actual adult that is capable of furnishing an apartment, budgeting, making money, finding a fantastic roommate, and moving entire dressers into my apartment by myself.
- Being able to show my exciting new life to Andrew in Boston and then seeing him a mere couple weeks later in London for Christmas and New Year’s along with my mom and brother

On that last note, it was wonderful to be in London again, graciously hosted yet again by Andrew’s amazing parents. The combining of families was just a wee bit stressful for me, but everything turned out fine. I got to see a bunch of new things around London, too, including the Camden Markets (biggest markets I have EVER been to, and so funky and eclectic!), the Churchill War Rooms, and the National Portrait Gallery. Yesterday, we got to go on a helicopter flight to visit the Smiths’ friends in the country, so that was a pretty fantastic start to 2010, to say the least. New Year’s Eve was amazing, too – a neighbor set off an absurd amount of fireworks just across the street, so it was like our own personal really extravagant show! It was really cool to watch the highlights of the decade on TV in London, because obviously they have a totally different idea of which things were important than America does.

It’s hard to believe that it’s a whole new decade, and these next few years are going to be instrumental in shaping my career and other key aspects of my life. (Although I suppose that argument could be made for the past decade as well.) 2010 is definitely not going to be as fun and carefree a year as 2009, because that’s basically literally not possible. Nevertheless, I am hoping that I will gain valuable knowledge, learn what a working life is really like, and manage to keep up my relationships with people by strategically planning travel on weekends and taking my vacation days. I resolve to continue to apply my sense of optimism to all aspects of my life and try to see the best side in everything, and to try not to complain about the little things as much and instead just appreciate the bigger picture and how much I am fortunate to have. My relationship and friendships are better than I ever could have hoped for, and I am so grateful for that!

Cheers for this next decade and whatever it may bring!

NYC (In more detail the second time around)

2009-11-21T18:43:00.000-08:00

So, since I had really only been passing through and the previous weekend had mostly been devoted to Connecticut, I decided to go back to NYC last Wednesday with Sam, because this would be my last opportunity to just randomly be able to travel in the middle of the week in the middle of a workday. (And I snagged the mythical 1 dollar bus fare...how awesome is that?!) Abandoning my poor roommate again (I have promised to spend more time with her in the future haha), I eagerly headed back to the city with a lot of plans in place with various people. Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of seeing two Baldwins who graduated in '08 who I hadn't seen in a year and a half and my friend who reminds me a little of a nicer version of Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl. Thus, he knows ALL the coolest places to go in the city and we ended up at a speakeasy called PDT (Please Don't Tell). The entrance is located in a little hot dog shop in a telephone booth. You have to pick up the telephone and then they will let you in, if you have a reservation of course. We managed to snag a corner table and spent a lovely couple hours sipping on extremely pretentious, expensive, and DELICIOUS cocktails while catching up on life. Seeing my Duke friends always results in the perfect mix of intellectual conversation and gossip, and I just had such a fantastic time.

On Thursday, I had plans to have lunch with my grandfather, who lives in the Upper West Side, so I ended up taking the train from Sam's place in Long Island City to Times Square and then just walking the 45 blocks from there because I felt like it, stopping in whatever cafes or stores caught my fancy along Broadway. For me, New York is no longer about doing the touristy stuff, but just walking around as much as possible and trying to uncover new adorable shops and eateries every time I go. I spent some nice time with my grandfather and then headed to the East Village for some gluttonous exploration. I had heard a lot about this genius chef David Chang and his amazing noodle bars and their offshoots, so I naturally had to go take a look at Milk Bar, which led to me logging some pretty serious cookie purchasing/eating time. Now, I have eaten a lot of cookies, but these cookies were honestly probably the best I have ever had. Their innovative combination of flavors (cornflakes, chocolate chips, and marshmallows? I THINK SO), utter freshness, and texture in general were just to die for. You know that saying that a lot of people live by and is pretty controversial: "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels?" Um, people, I respectfully disagree. Those cookies taste FAR better than skinny feels.

Fortunately, I had just had a few blissful bites and walked around the corner when I spotted 16 Handles, a frozen yogurt place that has 16 flavors of yogurt and you can make your own combination of yogurt flavors and put on as many toppings as you want, and then they weigh it and charge you by the ounce. (Take that, Pinkberry...this is SO much better.) So I put the cookies away for later and had some blissful frozen yogurt. By this time I was feeling kind of like a pig (albeit a happy one) so forced myself to keep walking even though I'd already walked for like 2 hours and went all the way to Chinatown in the drizzly rain to look around because I can never get enough of New York's Chinatown. Exhausted after all this walking, I finally headed back to Sam's in the early evening to change and rest for a bit and then went out for a late dinner with Tyla at Momofuku, which is the original David Chang noodle bar concept restaurant. It was absolutely fantastic and I was so excited she suggested it because it was the exact place I wanted to go! His version of pork buns is absolutely sublime...I have never tasted such a creative take on the pork bun, which is already one of my favorite Chinese/dim sum foods. YUM. So we had a lovely evening and then I headed back to Sam's for some quality pre-birthday time with him watching Modern Family, which he just got me into...such a funny show!

Friday was Sam's birthday, and I was so happy I could be with him on his 23rd. (I can not believe how old we are getting, by the way. Before we know it we will be 25...quarter life crisis time!) It was so beautiful in the morning that I was able to go running in a t-shirt and leggings, so that was delightful. Then I went out to lunch with my good Baldwin friends Ahsha and Liz, whom I absolutely adore seeing because the two of them are so different (involved in M&A and clinical psychology) but we all get along so well. I walked and talked with Liz for a while afterwards which was wonderful and then went to a yoga class with Sam in the East Village, which was pretty crazy. Firstly, it was the most crowded studio I have EVER seen - literally packed wall to wall with yoga mats. Secondly, this is a class full of NYU people and actors in general, so they all felt the need to express themselves quite frequently. Luckily Sam had warned me before that the class might be a little noisy, but I still could barely control my giggling when the moans and grunts (of pleasure? pain?) started. As I am used to doing yoga in silence and at most noisily exhaled breath, it was just a bit disconcerting...but certainly an amusing experience. I am totally obsessed with St. Marks Place and the East Village in general.

That night, we had a fantastic dinner and I got to meet all of Sam's theater friends over a lovely Italian meal, and then we went to a wine bar in the East Village where we sat under heat lamps outside and watched the world go by. Boston pretty much shuts down at 1 or 2 am, but in NYC, things are as busy at 1 in the morning as they are at 1 in the afternoon. It's pretty incredible. It was just a wonderful day and evening and per usual, it made me really happy to be with Sam.

And then today, I got to see Ian and Shea's spacious place in Jersey City and then have Dim Sum with them in Chinatown in a super busy restaurant full of hundreds of people and carts wheeling everywhere, which was so satisfying. (I love dim sum done BIG.) Then we wandered around Spring Street doing a little shopping and then stumbled across a miniature cupcake place called Baked by Melissa. This was no joke the cutest cupcakes I have ever seen in my ENTIRE life. This is why I am obsessed with New York. Where else can you find 80 different frozen yogurt places, speakeasies, about a gazillion wine bars, and a tiny place that can sell 9 different flavors of tiny filled cupcakes for a dollar each (and they are literally the size of a quarter)?

In case you can't tell, New York makes me really happy. Maybe it's the fact that I was born in Manhattan that makes me feel inexplicably tied to this city - every time I arrive I automatically feel filled with a kind of joyously hectic energy. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I lived in NYC would I continue to feel the same joy that I feel pretty much every minute walking around the crowded streets. I know that I could not live the same way in NYC that I travel in NYC - I would become obese and broke (and the broke would probably happen before the obese, due to phenonemon like the cupakes described above). But I have SO much fun visiting there that it's hard for me to imagine becoming frustrated or overwhelmed while living there. I endlessly query my friends about the effect the city has had on them and reviews are mixed, so obviously, there is only one way to really find out if the city is for me, and for the time being at least, I am firmly tied to Boston. I was very sad to leave today, though. I do love that city, and it is like nowhere else in the world.

View of Manhattan from Ian and Shea's apartment!

Now it's back to NoVA for a while for a week filled of interesting issues, and then the job starts so soon! But at least I had yet another week full of fun, food, and fantastic friends!

Stamford-NYC-Boston

2009-11-16T14:33:00.000-08:00

Since the last time I posted, I have done quite a bit of traveling and my roommate has moved in! The weekend after I last posted, I began to feel both slightly bored and lonely, which are two feelings that I pretty much NEVER feel, so I planned a lot of travel to get myself out of my minuscule un-peppy time. Then that Sunday Chelsea moved in, and even though she actually had to start work the next day, which is crazy, we spent the evenings during the week getting to know each other and eating dinner together, which was great. The apartment really is far too big for just one person, and it's so nice to have company - after the whole roommate crisis, I am so relieved that everything has worked out so well and I am so happy with my situation now. We had our first major bonding experience when we went to IKEA in the middle of the week with a ZipCar pickup truck (yes, I drove a pickup truck haha), but we got there only about 40 minutes before it closed, so we basically had to do an utter mad dash through the store to grab the things we wanted. The apartment is now almost furnished though, although I would still say it is a work in progress because there are very few decorations in the main living area. It's amazing how much effort making an apartment looks nice takes...and it also takes such a long time! But now that I have been there for a whole month, it definitely feels like a wonderful home.

Anyway, on Friday the 13th, I began my semi-epic travel adventure which is only just ending now. I took a bus to NYC and then caught the train from Grand Central to Stamford, which ended up taking like 7 hours, but was a good 50 dollars cheaper than taking a train straight there, so since I am actually trying to be careful about what I spend, that was the better option. The somewhat annoyingly long trip was of course worth it, though, to see Alyssa and Dave and their super cute yuppie apartment in Connecticut! Alyssa and Dave are one of those couples that are so cute it just makes one happy to be in their presence. We made sweet potato gnocchi on Friday night, which were utterly delicious, and on Saturday they showed me the general cuteness of Connecticut. It is obviously pretty suburban, but there are some very cute streets and a lot of really high quality restaurants. Also, Connecticut has the greatest supermarket of ALL TIME. It is called Stew Leonards and it is actually hard to describe. It is utterly massive and has free samples of EVERYTHING. A lot of things are made right in front of you, from air popped rice cakes to popcorn to apple cider doughnuts. But the best part is definitely the animatronic animals and vegetables and dairy products that sing and dance as you make your way through the store. AMAZING. Seriously, we had the best time in this grocery store.

We also went to see 2012, which is the first movie I've seen in theaters for a really long time, and it was totally ridiculous but very entertaining a great rain to spend a rather drab and rainy afternoon. Then we went out to dinner at this place called Chocopologie which was obviously totally incredible. I am unabashedly passionate about my total addiction to chocolate, and the different truffles there were really fantastic and inventive. Their normal food was great too, but I mean, it was really all about the dessert. :) And also the company of course, which was wonderful. Alyssa and Dave were the first people to visit me in Boston so I was happy to be able to return the favor, and it's always wonderful to spend time with people who are so perfect for each other!

That Sunday, I took the train back to NYC, where I had brunch with Sasha and Irem, which was great. I love catching up with Duke people all over the city - it's so interesting to see where everyone is at six months after graduation. (You'd think I might feel bad/guilty that everyone else has been working super hard while I have been playing and traveling...and yet I do not at all. Oh well.) Also, the pure abundance of restaurants and excessiveness in general of the city never fails to bring a smile to my face and fill me with lots of energy. Then I spent the afternoon with Sam and went on a run with him because it was utterly gorgeous out (yay for winter not happening yet, by the way...that is totally awesome), and then we went to coffee with a friend from high school who I hadn't seen in ages so that was really fun, especially because the Washington Square area is impossibly full of cute coffee and tea places. Then I managed to have a quick dinner with Ian and Shea (soooo many people in NYC now, aahhh!) before I met up with Sam again and stole him away with me to go back to Boston!

For those of you who don't know, Sam and I have known each other since the age of three and talk pretty much every day, but getting to actually spend this much time with him in person is a special rarity. We have so much fun together but also each had our own things to do and other friends to see in the other's city, so that was great too. When we first came back to Boston on Sunday night I have to say I was embarassed for my city because it was literally completely deserted, and to a New Yorker, that is just a poor showing. But I was so happy that Sam ended up really loving the city. It was only after I came back from NYC that I realized just how different the two cities are. After being in the utter craziness and enormity that is New York, Boston seems tiny and tame. NYC is the cool, glitzy, popular kid; Boston is the more nerdy but earnest kid, with a charm that grows on you. :) (But I will not deny that New York is the cooler city, of course.) I took him to some of the touristy places and Mike's Pastry of course, and also cooked for him.

The craziest thing we did in Boston, though, was go to see this show called Sleep No More. It is done by this British theater company and basically combines the story of Macbeth with Hitchcock-like techniques to form a interactive (and totally creepy/terrifying) theater experience. It took place in a four story abandoned schoolhouse that we were free to roam around. Everyone had to put on a creepy white mask and you weren't allowed to talk. None of the actors talked either; they just expressed themselves through dance. The idea was that you could explore all the rooms of the house (all of which were elaborately done - insanely good sets!) and then follow whichever characters interested you. Unfortunately, because I do not have the theater experience that Sam does, I ended up not following any of the main characters and thus had a rather boring experience compared to Sam's...haha. Still, it was utterly amazing and unlike anything I have ever seen before - so crazy and cool!

Okay this is getting super long, so the second part of this post, which is trip to NYC part two, I will put up later!

Counting Down, Classical Music, Calculations, and Cynicism

2009-11-05T21:52:00.000-08:00

Counting down: I have 19 days left until my job begins. I can't believe how fast the time has passed! Obviously, I have to make the most of my time, so I'm spending it decorating and catching up with friends and going to the gym and just planned two trips to Connecticut and NYC...so excited! Each day doesn't seem to go by that fast, but as a whole I feel like life is just whizzing by and my days of "freedom", so to speak, are almost up. I know that I am now officially the last of all my friends to start a real job, but rather than feeling lazy or bored, I am just grateful for all this time I've had to discover more about myself and the world.

Classical Music: I went down to Virginia this past weekend for a fantastic night of classical music at Strathmore, one of my favorite venues (I got to go to the opening event way back in 2005...seems so long ago now). It was a Bach single concerto, a Brahms double concerto, and a Beethoven triple concerto, so a very cool and unique mix of music, with utterly fantastic soloists who I happened to be able to hang out with afterwards. :) It is such a joy for me to be able to talk with soloists who tour the world for a living, compare views on music and travel and life, and see what that kind of lifestyle is like. (As many of you know, I am endlessly fascinated by what a touring artist has to be capable of to travel so much...and although they are endlessly adored, when it comes down to it, it seems like it actually is just a lot of time alone in a hotel...although I still think it is way glamorous, haha.) It was an amazing evening and great also to be back in NoVA for a few days to see people like Lauren and Shea and hang out with my family as much as I could. Now I find myself practicing every day and listening to classical music all the time...I went to visit Will in Exeter, NH the other day (such a tiny cute town in the middle of nowhere!), and listened to classical music on the train ride there and back and happily admired the gorgeous fall foliage. It was so relaxing and fulfilling.

Calculations: This month marks the first month where I am officially tracking absolutely every dollar I spend and putting it into categories. This is an interesting yet sobering activity. I enjoy Excel so much that when I decided to plan these little trips to New York I then made a spreadsheet of all possible bus and train options and combinations, before realizing that the most I could gain from this activity was saving approximately 6 dollars. Even so, it's a good habit to get into, and it will be very interesting to see the categories that the most money goes to.

Cynicism: I have recently had a few thought-provoking conversations with close friends about the nature of long-term relationships in general that has led me to some confusing thoughts and questioning of love in general. We are at a time in our lives when we long to meet "the one", and yet when we do, many of us then regret it and wish we had 4-5 more years to look around and "just make sure". Everyone has a different outlook on whether humans are meant to be monogomous or not, or if someone cheats should he/she tell his/her partner, or if open relationships really can be okay. Sometimes it is disturbing to me, though, as someone who has gone from being very cynical to very open to the possibility of real love, that my friends can be so negative about romantic ideals, whether they are in serious relationships or not. If you want a relationship to work, and it is meant to be, then I believe both people will FIGHT to make it work. Love is not easy. Physical distance comes between people all the time, and in my opinion, geographic distance from someone is about a million times better than emotional distance. All that being said, though, I am still not convinced that there is just one "right" person for everyone - I easily could buy that each person could be happy with three or four different people for the rest of one's life.

Just some musings from a Thursday night...going to bed now. Or maybe to curl up in my super sweet Lovesac with a book while listening to Beethoven sonatas!

Happiness in Independence

2009-10-30T15:26:00.001-07:00

I have had a really fantastic past few days, and I can't express how good it feels to be living here on my own in Boston! This past weekend was amazing. Alyssa and Dave came to visit, and it was so wonderful to get to see her after such a long time. They are also probably one of the cutest couples I have ever known and so perfectly suited to be with each other, so it always makes me really happy to see them together and now that they live in Connecticut, I am going to be able to see them fairly frequently! I showed them all around the North End on Saturday and we got tons of pastries (yessss...every time a friend visits is an excuse for me to get cookies at Mike's Pastry, which has the most divine pistachio macaroons I have ever had in my entire life.) We went out to an adorable little restaurant on Newbury Street in Back Bay in the evening, and an AMAZING brunch at this place called North Street Grille in the morning on Sunday. Seriously, I am taking every single person who ever comes to visit me on the weekend to this place...it is that good.

So all that was wonderful, and then my weekend was made even better by the fact that by the end of the day, I had worked things out with the roommate situation! Her name is Chelsea, she went to Dartmouth, and we found each other on Craigslist, which is proof that yes, Craigslist actually can work. (And I got the best furniture off it too, so there, all you CL haters and harbingers of CL death and doom.) She moves in in a few days, and I am soooo relieved that I was able to get the situation resolved in the nick of time. But at the same time, it is been unbelievably great to totally have the apartment to myself these past couple of weeks. I forgot how happy being alone makes me.

That being said, though, I have been way more social this week and it has been so much fun...I got to see Alec and Caitlin (basically my only Duke friends here) on Monday, which was awesome, and my good friend Andrea from Duke is visiting right now. I love showing people the apartment and Boston in general, because I already feel extremely connected to the city. Last night, Andrea and I went out and had a great time - I always end up in fun situations and meeting all sorts of people and talking to strangers when I am with her! It's interesting how being in a relationship affects my behavior now when I go out. I have never been a partier and always felt awkward with male/female games and flirtation...it's just never been my area of expertise. Now that I am in a relationship and feel so comfortable with it and myself, I find chatting with people to be easier, I suppose almost because I am not worried about "messing up" or being awkward...haha.

I won't lie, I feel like I am living the dream right now...the whole city feels like it is right at my fingertips, and I love being able to explore on my own and with friends. Today, I went to a spin class with Andrea at yet another gym, and then went to the Haymarket "farmers" market where I got 8 apples, 4 oranges, 4 peppers, raspberries, scallions, butternut squash, tomatoes, lettuce, baby carrots, broccoli, and green beans for 10 dollars. Yes, that's right. Then I danced around listening to the Beatles in my kitchen while making some pumpkin bread to bring to Virginia this weekend, and the smell filled the apartment and made me think of fall and cinnamon and happy things...not to be too cliche here but this is really how I feel. :)

Want to feel like this too? Come visit me here! I still have a month before the job starts!

Beautiful Boston

2009-10-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

So, looking back on my last post, I have to say that I am pretty damn proud of the fact that I have accomplished or am in the process of accomplishing most of the things on that overwhelming list I frantically came up with about a week ago! Life has definitely moved at a pretty fast pace recently. The first night back from Australia was pretty hard...I missed Andrew so much and was so incredibly jet-lagged and confused that I went to bed at 3 and then woke up at 7. Not being able to go back to sleep at all, I frantically began packing for several hours, fell back asleep for one, and then decided it would be a good idea to do a class at the gym. After seeing spots and feeling faint once I got home from that, I just sat for a while and reflected on how ridiculous I can be. Then I gathered myself and packed for the rest of the day, taking breaks only to watch Top Chef. :)

On Friday, Danaan was an amazing friend and helped me pack the entire car, which took several hours. His packing skills are quite impressive and I would like to think mine improved exponentially by the end of the day, as I stuffed more and more jackets and clothes and pillows into teeny little cracks between boxes until literally nothing else could even fit in the car. Then on Saturday, my mom was generous enough to accompany me on the long drive up, which took about eight hours (with stops and some traffic though), and was almost entirely in pouring rain. So it was good I had company since the weather was terrible!

Luckily for me, I live in the most amazing building EVER and the second we got there, there was a doorman who was able to get us luggage carts and access to an elevator in the back to move everything in. It was far easier than I expected and now I don't think I'm ever going to be able to live in a walk-up building...problem. I then of course had the inevitable stunned moment when you are first inside an unfurnished apartment with boxes and bags galore and you just have to stare at it all for a minute:

One of the great things about this building, though, is that it is so gorgeous that it makes me want to live up to its standard and have a gorgeous apartment, so after a quick dinner at Wagamama (awesome noodle place that is like across the street from me!), I immediately started getting to work on unpacking everything that I could. By the end of the night, the kitchen and bathroom were ready to go, the TV and TV stand were set up, and all DVDs and books were unpacked. The next day, my mom had to leave, but in the pouring FREEZING rain (that eventually turned into snow, I might add), I was able to purchase a bed and get it delivered, thus actually having a legitimate place to sleep on only my second night here. And also, I did a massive grocery shopping trip (and when I say massive I really mean of epic proportions) before having to return the rental van. I also set up the living room so I could hang out there without having to have a couch...note the suave air mattress bed...

The whole week has really taken on a pattern of me getting something major accomplished every day and also having one or two major frustrations but moving past them! Here is a short and non-cohesive summary:

Monday: figuring out internet, realizing I did not have a wireless router, having ethernet not work, successfully getting Zipcar membership, finding good furniture on Craigslist to check out, finally getting internet to work by stretching huge ethernet cable across living room (very ugly)...
Tuesday: printer not working, figuring out how to use Zipcar successfully, making a Zipcar friend (Efram the SUV!), getting hopelessly lost and then found going to Quincy and Norwood to look at furniture and purchase it, bringing back coffee table successfully but then scratching it in bumpy car ride, flirting with various extremely expensive gyms and obtaining free trial memberships...
Wednesday: interviewing potential roommate, finding someone to hire to pick up huge bookcase and desk found on Craigslist, unsuccessfully trying to solve printer problem, getting stuck in MASSIVE traffic going to Norwood to pick up dresser and nightstands, successfully moving huge dresser into apartment all by myself!
Thursday: picking up wireless router and figuring out how to install wireless in my apartment (eventually to great success, yay!), picking up various odds and ends, getting desk and bookcase into apartment with help of moving dude

So now, my room looks very cosy and is almost entirely furnished and just awaiting decoration! The shared living space is still not furnished and probably won't be until I find a roommate, which hopefully will happen very soon (but I don't want to jinx it so I won't say anything yet). Despite the frustrations, I could not be happier to be here, and particularly to be in this utterly incredible building. I seriously feel like I am living the dream right now. I have wanted to live in the center of a city for so long, and I feel like the second I step foot out of my building, I am in the middle of everything, and it brings a smile to my face every time. I know that after people live in a city for a while they tend to get kind of jaded and bored with it, and I hope that doesn't happen to me anytime soon.

I walk one way and get to a Macy's and multiple huge stores, another way and get to multiple gyms, another way to multiple T-stops and tourist attractions, and so on and so forth. I just found out the famous Boston Massacre occurred outside of my apartment building. (!!!!) I love the sense of history here. I love the view from my apartment. I love the farmers markets with the seasonal produce that are minutes away from me. I feel like the whole city is at my fingertips and I am so grateful for the opportunity to explore it before my job starts. Most of all, I love being on my own. It feels so great to know that even though I am in a serious relationship, I can settle into a place by myself and figure out how to create a living totally by myself. I go to new classes at various gyms every day, cook every night and chill out watching TV and chatting with people, and wake up in the morning to gorgeous views of the city from my bedroom window. I feel like a real adult (almost)!!!

In summary, I LOVE THIS!

Back To America

2009-10-14T22:18:00.001-07:00

I am currently sitting in the airport in San Francisco, somewhat woozy and disoriented, but mostly extremely annoyed at the two hour delay of my flight back to the East coast. I am not exactly the kind of traveler who likes to waste time, and seeing that I am now back in the US and away from fairytale Australia, I really want to get home and start packing to move to Boston ASAP!

I can’t believe that I had to leave Australia, and I am certainly feeling numb about it right now, especially considering that I don’t know when I am going to be able to get back there again. Despite the fact that Andrew had to work on his thesis an absurd amount (and it is now insanely good, actually), it was so incredibly wonderful to settle back into that comfortable rhythm of living with him again that we had this past summer. I got to spend so much time with his mom and sister, which was wonderful, and cook and bake to my heart’s content. Andrew and I celebrated our nine month anniversary over the weekend by going to a really fancy restaurant in the city on Saturday and another beautiful restaurant on King Street the night before I left. Both evenings were absolutely wonderful and made me so happy and grateful for the relationship we have developed over the course of this year.

Having an international relationship definitely has some huge perks, as demonstrated by my play time in Australia and London, but obviously there are some rather large drawbacks too. I now constantly feel pulled between Australia and America. Although I have some great friends in Australia, there is no doubt that my best and closest friends are in America, and I can’t imagine my life without them. But unlike Andrew, my identity is not really based on my nationality at all. And out of all the cities I have been to, I still think that I may like Sydney most of all. This past weekend, I was walking down Oxford Street and exploring the Paddington Markets, and I just couldn’t get over how funky and eclectic each part of the city is and how I enjoy the atmosphere of the city so much. I love the way that the baristas in coffee shops will talk to me in such a friendly manner, and I love the smells and the sights and the displays in the windows. I love New York too, a lot, and I know I will grow to love Boston. (And I really love London too!) But I absolutely could see myself very happy in Sydney.

And as my job start draws even nearer, I find it completely overwhelming to think not only about my future and career, but also the future of my relationship and where it can physically be located in the world. It’s exciting but so daunting at the same time to think about how much is going to happen and how much is going to change over the next year or two.

Another thing that I did in the past couple weeks was take a bunch of yoga classes (there is an adorable studio just across the street from Andrew’s apartment), and I was amazed by how complete it made me feel. I so enjoy hardcore, high-energy workouts that I didn’t think I could really garner complete appreciation for yogic practices, but I consider myself a total convert now. Yoga is not only a workout (it can be HARD!), but truly replenishing to the mind and soul. I feel that in the past couple of weeks I have learned to hold a very uncomfortable pose and distance myself from the discomfort by breathing through it. I think I could really help myself by applying this attitude towards the stressful situations in my life – acknowledging their existence, and then breathing and working through it. I definitely need to find a gym in Boston that has yoga classes so I can hopefully work some of that into my schedule!

So, speaking of gyms, the search for a gym is almost as hard as the search for a roommate. In the next week, here is what I hope to accomplish:
- Moving into my apartment (thus, renting a van, driving eight hours, and moving all boxes…UGH)
- Getting cable and internet installed
- Finding a roommate
- Finding a gym (I have a spreadsheet of possibilities, and GEEZ are gyms expensive…ugh!)
- Getting IKEA furniture
- Beginning lengthy (but hopefully fun?) process of building furniture and setting up apartment
- Getting new work clothes, plus extremely warm winter clothes
- On that note, figuring out some more budget stuff…eeeks.

It’s a lot to do, but it will keep me busy, and hopefully that will keep my separation anxiety at bay. This uber long distance relationship thing is extremely difficult, but now that I know I can do it for about two months at a time, I know I can do it again, and the next time we see each other we will be celebrating Christmas and New Year’s in London!

A Little Too Close to Reality

2009-10-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

So as my time in Australia begins to draw to a close (yes, I still have nine days left, but I know it's just going to fly by), I am finding myself unpleasantly confronted by the realities of real adulthood that are marching nearer each day.

1. Moving to Boston. I think I dislike moving about as much as I like traveling. I am going to have to rent a van and drive all my boxes up there. Not looking forward to eight hours of driving followed by immense amounts of hauling, all with very little help.
2. Finding a roommate. The search is still on, yielding several possibilities, but nothing can really happen until I am actually in Boston. Which means that when I get back I pretty much have to move there IMMEDIATELY to start interviewing potential roommates.
3. Dealing with my real adult relationship (yes that's right). This includes figuring out an eventual compromise on a place to live, how to see each other when we are thousands of miles apart, etc.
4. Trying to figure out how to balance my priorities of my happiness and career, friends, family, and my relationship so that all get treated at least fairly equally. THIS IS REALLY HARD.

Okay, had to get that out, all these things have really been weighing on my mind recently. In more bouncy news, I've obviously been having a fantastic time here despite the fact that Andrew has to work almost non-stop every day. I've taken a few little trips to Bondi Beach (yum) and Watsons Bay (see pics below) to explore, and hung out a lot with his mom, which has been amazing. We have done SO much grocery shopping together (and I know this can be difficult to believe, but I think grocery shopping is the most fun thing ever), and we cook and bake all the time.

View of the Opera House from the ferry over to Watson's Bay...

I walked to the top of that cliff to get a spectacular view!

I absolutely adore the Sydney skyline from a distance, especially set against the foreground of all the moored boats.

Last week, the weather was incredible and I probably walked for at least an hour every single day just because I was enjoying being outside so much, but this weekend, the weather unfortunately took a turn for the worse, and it has pretty much been pouring and chilly every day since last Friday. On Saturday morning, though, I still got up early to go to the Grower's Market, which has all sorts of delicious samples of breads and fruits and jams and sweets. I walked back through Chinatown, happily gorging myself on the RIDICULOUSLY GOOD sweet rolls that you can pick up from any tiny bakery there. I can not express how good Chinese bakeries are here.

I've also been going to step and yoga classes, which are hugely different and both provide really interesting and invigorating workouts. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to cook every single day, and it's been such a great bonding experience for me and Andrew's mom. Below is a picture of a SACHERTORTE, the most complicated cake I've ever made. It has this glossy chocolate ganache frosting that was absolutely divine. I was so proud of it!

It is of course wonderful to see Andrew, and the time we get to spend together feels even more precious now than it did before. But we are definitely out of the fairy tale travel portion of our relationship (at least for now), and unlike this summer, this trip to Sydney kind of symbolizes the end of my carefree "gap time", as opposed to the comfortable middle of it. As soon as I return home, I will be thrust into all sorts of tense and grueling situations, and I'm struggling a little to find the positive. But being a real adult is about learning to cope with difficulties and deal with them in a mature manner, so that's obviously what I am going to try to do!

Safely in Sydney

2009-09-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

I am officially back in Australia! I am so incredibly happy to be here, but getting here was kind of crazy. It's a 5 hour flight to the west coast, and then about a 14 hour flight to Sydney from San Francisco. I was very prepared for this - armed with some powerful little sleeping pills, I took one at 2 am east coast time when I got on the flight and promptly conked out, waking up only slightly a few times and getting a pretty solid eight hours of sleep, which was awesome. The flight was pleasant enough until we were informed about half an hour before landing that there were very serious dust storms in Sydney and we had to be diverted to Brisbane. As someone who had been waiting about 2 months for her boyfriend reunion moment, let's just say I was not very pleased with this development, especially because I had no way of contacting Andrew. Fortunately, he is very clever and figured out when he woke up to a haze of red dust and gale force winds outside that this would probably affect the air traffic negatively.

While he and my parents traded frantic texts, I sat imprisoned on the plane with no way to contact anyone in Brisbane while it refueled (we weren't allowed to get off). After 2.5 hours of sitting and me practically finishing my novel that I had just started at the beginning of the trip, we finally took off and made the hour long flight to Sydney. However, once we were there, we ended up having to circle around until we could figure out how to land in the midst of this red dust storm that was so unprecedented and bizarre that it now has its own Wikipedia article. It was positively eerie to look out the right side of the plane and see perfectly blue sky and then look out the left side of the plane and see nothing but red clouds. When we finally descended, it felt like we were going into the Martian atmosphere. There was nothing but a sea of red dust and clouds, the turbulence was absolutely terrible (I definitely had a Lost moment...no crashing on mysterious islands please!), and I saw land literally two seconds before we were on the runway. It was definitely the most nerve-wracking landing I have ever experienced! I was beyond relieved and happy to be on the ground after 22 hours spent on one plane. (and not even in business class, I might add)

By the time I cleared customs, it was 11 am, about 4 hours later than scheduled, which all things considered was not too bad, although it felt like an eternity. In my flying time, I successfully:
-Read three large trashy magazines
-Watched four episodes of Mad Men and ran my computer out of batteries
-Ran my ipod out of batteries
-Read an entire novel (Enchanted, by Orson Scott Card...really good!)
-Read all material on plane cover to cover (airplane magazine, SkyMall magazine, DutyFree magazine...this was when I was getting desperately bored)

It was such a relief to fall into Andrew's waiting arms and spend the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing except watching Friends and cooking. The crazy thing is that I instantly felt like I was back home and that I hadn't even been away...we just immediately settled back into our old routine, which is wonderful. :) I learned later just how monstrous this dust storm really was...apparently around 5 MILLION tons of dust were flying around! It was an interesting reminder of how overwhelmingly alien and rugged Australia's outback is. Since I have never actually experienced the outback part of the country, it was a revelation to see it invading the cities like that.

Although I am pretty tired right now (it's like 11 pm here and normally I wouldn't be tired till 1 or 2 am), I think the jet lag for me is almost non-existent, mostly due to the fact that I was able to sleep so much on the flight and also probably because I have kind of been to Australia pretty recently...haha. I went to the gym today for a fantastic BodyStep class and cooked a bunch and enjoyed the perfect post-dust storm weather...stunningly blue skies, warm temperatures, and bright sun. I love everything about Sydney so much. Walking down King Street in Newtown, alternately smelling Thai food and freshly baked pastries, enjoying the comfortable bustle of people, and listening to that fantastic Aussie accent all around me, I feel that I appreciate everything here now just as much as I did two years ago.

I am SO happy to be back!

Return to Duke

2009-09-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

Most Duke alumni, especially those who just graduated, return to Duke for Homecoming weekend, which is in a week, but because I am going to be in Australia, I decided I was going to get in my trip back to my alma mater this past Sunday. Two of my best friends are still seniors there, and I wanted to see people who were still there much more than I would want to go to Shooters and Tailgate (typical Duke traditions which let's just say I am not so into) with my own class in a weekend of drunken reminiscing. After a very stressful last week involving family issues and Boston roommate issues (neither of which are resolved, haha), it was nice to take a break and go to Duke for a few days!

I have to say, I was not prepared for how nostalgic and bittersweet it was to be back. "I miss this" was my overriding thought as I went to Whole Foods (three times in three days, yes), bumped into people I knew all over the place, had coffee at Mad Hatters and Francesca's, went to Elmo's Diner, walked around campus, etc. But when I thought more specifically about what it was exactly I missed, I couldn't really place it. I don't miss the overwhelming workload, the constant stress, the unceasing social pressure, and the incessant need to schedule my life up one side and down the other to even have time for friends. But I do miss the people and the gatherings at those tried and true cute Durham places where we would hang out. (Plus, Durham opened a frozen yogurt place AFTER I left? Not fair!) I miss the Baldwins a lot. I went to lunch with the program directors and attended the senior class on Monday night which was wonderful. It's amazing how much more interesting academia is when you are not required to be a part of it anymore!

Seeing both Sara and Alex made my life, of course. Sara lives in the most amazing apartment ever, and Alex lives in an adorable house near East Campus. It was so wonderful to have quality (albeit scheduled) time to catch up with them! I found it hilarious how when I went back, I automatically reverted to Duke mode and literally had to schedule meeting up with friends...especially because I do a lot of one-on-one time with people, on both Monday and Tuesday, I was seeing a different person on the hour, pretty much every hour starting at noon. That is so Duke.

I was really happy to be able to spend time there after all my other travels, because the place is obviously so familiar and oddly comforting. The next time I visit, I'm sure it will be when I am already working, and things will have changed completely. And each year I go back, there will be fewer and fewer people I know, which is unnerving, but also the way it should be. Visiting there actually made me feel like a graduate for the first time, even though I still don't feel like a real person.

Speaking of not being a real adult yet, I continue my traveling saga by going back to Australia in THREE. DAYS. I AM SO EXCITED. I can't believe that two months ago, I had no idea how I was going to be able to not see Andrew for that long, and now it just feels like the time has flown by. (Obviously it kind of helped that I have been traveling every weekend for the past month.) It's going to be amazing to have that reunion, but also kind of weird, since it's been so long. I am glad that we've had this time apart, though, because I feel like I have regained some of the independence that you inevitably lose when you are with someone 24/7 for months on end. Plus, it is turning into summer in Australia, so just as weather starts to get cooler here, I am planning on going to all the gorgeous beaches Sydney has to offer!

In that vein, I am off to begin packing and primping...time to be girlier than usual. :)

Southern Loving Part II...THE DELTA

2009-09-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

So, in my tradition of the past month or so, I left last Friday for a lovely Labor Day weekend trip to Arkansas to see my dear friend Sarah from high school and her boyfriend Jacob, who are both doing the incredibly amazing job of teaching with Teach for America in the Mississippi Delta. They live in a house in Lake Village, Arkansas, a town with a population of about 2800. They actually keep quite a fantastic blog of the amazing things they are doing right here. Sarah is a fourth grade teacher and Jacob is a middle school art teacher!

But before I get ahead of myself...on Thursday night, I realized I had a ridiculously long layover (like 2.5 hours) in the Dallas airport on Friday and was grumbling about it before I suddenly realized that Taylor and Genna (AND TOBY!) could come visit me since they live outside of Dallas! I eagerly called Taylor and they were able to work it out so they could come see me in the airport, so that was seriously the best layover I have ever had in my life. The last time I saw them was February, and if you are a faithful follower of this blog (because there are so many haha) you might recall my absolute delight at meeting the adorable Toby, who was then about 8 months old. Now, at 15 months, it's remarkable how much he has developed and it was such an absolute joy to see him! (and his parents of course :) Although I must admit, it was a little difficult to get in more than a few sentences without either stopping to remark on how adorable he was, or having to stop him from getting into a destructive/potentially dangerous situation. How Genna and Taylor handle a toddler boy is beyond me...they are tremendously patient and wonderful people! In the time we spent together, Toby destroyed a bag of Cheez-Its, kept trying to steal the shot glasses in the convenience store, tried to eat some tea bags, and ran around at an astonishingly fast pace. I should also mention that Genna dressed up him up in a PENGUIN OUTFIT. TOO ADORABLE. See below.

Taylor is an INCRECIBLE photographer and the above photo is his handiwork! I am continually amazed by his skills and admire so much what he is doing starting his own company, which Genna is also helping out with. He has a gorgeous website, Eckstein Photography, and I know once his business gets up and running it's going to be enormously successful. I admire Taylor and Genna so much and am so proud of the Eckstein family in general - it was such an unexpected delight to get to see them and made me happier than words can say!

Anyway, I got into Little Rock around 6 pm, where Sarah and Jacob picked me up after driving TWO AND A HALF hours from their home. How amazing are they? Since they've been living in the Delta for a while now, they are used to driving really long distances to get where they need to go, but even so, it's incredible that they did that for me. :) We had dinner with her dad, who also happened to be in town, and then looked around the main street for a little bit before driving back to Lake Village. Since it was dark, I didn't get to see how beautiful it was, but the next morning, I was greeted by the sight of the gorgeous Lake Chico that is one block from their house:

The whole weekend was incredibly relaxing...as they've talked about in their blog, the Delta follows different rules for a far more mellow pace of life. I went to yoga class (btw, I do yoga like once a year, and I did it twice in one weekend) with Sarah in the morning, and then we came back to the house and they planned out what bread recipes they were going to make over the weekend. They have an awesome stand mixer and a cookbook called "The Bread Bible" and with the luxury of an extra day, they went just a little overboard. (but it was the most amazing bread EVER) In one weekend, they joined forces to make foccacia, baguettes, chocolate sticky buns, and MONKEY BREAD, which is this glorious bundt cake of bread involving lots of little bread balls dipped in cinnamon and butter and smothered in raisins and pecans. So deliciously sinful. As a bread maker myself, I have to say that I felt completely schooled watching them with their hardcore bread dough starters, getting up in the middle of the night to reshape dough, and working round the clock to bring the most delicious bread ever to life. SO AWESOME. Below is just one example, of the foccacia that Jacob made:

On Saturday evening, we went to a TFA barbeque so I got to meet some of their friends, which was great. I also got a fantastic view of the lake and was viciously attacked by approximately 97 mosquitoes. (I am still recovering from the bites. Wow.) Sarah and I left early and spent a couple of hours hysterically laughing as stalked people on facebook and reminisced over various emails from high school and college. I love having friends for so long, because with each passing year, the memories to laugh about just get funnier. :) Also, another random fun thing I did there whenever I felt like it was watch all of True Blood Season 1. It is seriously the best show ever and I am so obsessed with it, and it was made all the creepier and better by the fact that it is set in a tiny Southern town and I was actually in a tiny Southern town. So authentic. Haha.

On Sunday, we had another relaxing day (you have to realize that Jacob and Sarah's lives are normally insane, since they have the power to change people's lives permanently and have to plan out children's days every single day...amazing...so I'm sure they appreciated just being able to sit around and do nothing). In the morning, it didn't seem like it was too hot, so I decided to take a run by the lake since I wanted to take in its beauty while attempting to be healthy. It turned out that it actually was very hot and humid, and thus I returned to the house itchy and disgustingly sweaty but proud of myself. A cold shower helped, and I spent the rest of the day learning more about Delta life (and baking, obviously) and how different it is from the life I am used to on the East Coast. The poverty is extreme...but people are happy. It is a simpler way of living. Everyone is incredibly friendly. One of Jacob's students knocked on the door in the middle of the day just to say hi. You come over and invite your neighbors to barbeques...you knock on people's doors all the time, because they just hang out at home. It's astonishingly simple and fulfilling, and very hard to describe. Yes, I was utterly taken aback by the fact that the area is still pretty much in the Reconstruction era, with the concept of "separate but equal" still very much intact. Most of the main streets in the towns are devastated, with boarded up shops and no activity. Some of it is eerie, but there is a lot of beauty and friendliness there. It was certainly an experience like no other that I have had in the U.S.

On Monday, I got up super early (well for me, it's late if you are a schoolteacher) to go to yoga again with Sarah, which left me feeling SO relaxed and zen, and then we went out to lunch at a very Southern buffet type restaurant, which means that everything is fried and looks kind of nasty but actually tastes kind of good. Again, something you just kind of have to experience when you are in the South. Then, Jacob and Sarah took me to see the gorgeous cypress trees by the lake before we went on the long ride back to Little Rock.

It's just so beautiful...and everything is so flat that you can just see for miles! I was so happy to be a part of Sarah and Jacob's world for one weekend, and hope that I might even be able to find time to visit them again when I am working, because the atmosphere down there could not be more different from Boston. I admire them SOOOOO much for what they are doing and just think that they are incredible people, both separately and together.

Unfortunately, my zen state was shattered pretty much the second I left the airport, since my flight leaving Little Rock was delayed (btw American Airlines...I HATE YOU), and I literally had FIVE minutes to make my connection in Dallas. That's just the thing to get your heart racing at a healthy pace, haha. The rest of the week has been really stressful, with family stuff and my roommate in Boston suddenly backing out on me, so I have to find a new one, so the past couple days have been pretty emotional and crazy.

Hopefully, things will take a turn for the better soon, though, because I am visiting Duke on Sunday and can't WAIT to see all my favorite people there, and in ten days, I go back to Australia!!!

Southern Loving

2009-09-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Realized that somehow this blog accidentally didn't get published last week like I meant it to, so while I work on the next one, here it is:

So after lots of travel in the northeast, I headed back to the south last Friday to go visit MaryEllen (one of my favorite Duke people ever) in her new home in Nashville, where she is about to embark on the incredibly arduous and impressive task of getting both an M.D. and a P.h.D. Since she will be there for the next eight years, she actually bought a studio apartment that is absolutely amazing. Her building is in a fantastic location and her apartment is on the 19th floor and thus has a great view of the whole city! Plus, there is a spacious fitness center and a pool, both of which I got to use. I definitely could have moved in.

The whole weekend was just very relaxing and fun - I got in Friday night and we went out to a bar downtown with her med school class to celebrate the end of their first test. On Saturday, we went to a pool party at one of her classmates' parents house (they were away on vacation, haha so high school) to continue the celebrating. I got the chance to meet all her new friends and instantly approved...everyone in Nashville is super friendly and the culture at Vanderbilt seems really positive. I am so happy for her! In the evening, we went to another pool party at the director of her program's house, so I got the opportunity to see all these beautiful homes and backyards. (And I got to drive MaryEllen's new Smart Car around, which was SO FUN!!!) The weather was also totally perfect so it was just a great day.

On Sunday, we got up nice and late and then went to the best brunch ever at this place called The Pancake Pantry. I had these "sugar and spice" pancakes that were very cinnamon-y and served with applesauce, and I narrowed it down to that decision after considering 10 other delicious sounding options. We all know how seriously I take my Sunday brunching, so this place was an awesome experience and I definitely plan on going back. I didn't really get to be that much of a "tourist" in the city, persay, because I kind of preferred to take in the view from MaryEllen's spectacular apartment...haha. But I have a feeling I am definitely going to be back to visit again in the next several years because it is an incredibly welcoming place and I really enjoyed my time there. (In fact, as I was sitting contentedly by the pool Sunday afternoon listening to the background country music, I could even feel my extreme aversion to the country genre in general lessening slightly...crazy!)

In the evening, I also got to catch up with one of my favorite Baldwins, Anita, who graduated a year ago and since then disappeared into the black hole of med school. It was unbelievably great to get to talk to her and catch up on everything that's happened in the past year! Getting all the quality time with MaryEllen was incredible too, since I love being in her company and we never run out of things to talk about...particularly in the past six months or so, we've found ourselves in remarkably similar relationship situations, and that always makes very good conversation fodder. :) The only unsettling thing about this trip (and I suppose the next several trips I'll be making as well) is that when I see a person, I literally don't know when I am going to see him or her again! I know I can't travel forever and this job is inevitable, but it's amazing how much it is going to cramp my traveling style. I mean, seriously.

Speaking of traveling style, let me describe my day yesterday. This was not the original plan, but Sam was having an incredibly important showcase of his work last night in NYC and I decided I really wanted to go to see him do his Scarlet Takes a Tumble musical live. (It's just not quite the same on YouTube.) So, without further ado:

6:10 am: Wake up. Realize I missed alarm clock ringing at 5:40. Plane leaves at 7:10. Panic.
6:17 am: Run downstairs (fully ready) to lobby to cab that has thankfully waited for me!
6:31 am: Arrive at airport. Phew.
6:40 am: No security line. Already at gate. Gotta love Nashville.
7:10 am: Flight takes off, go to sleep
8:15 am: Arrive in Chicago's Midway airport for semi-annoying layover. Browse various bookstores and toy with the idea of buying more vampire books, but settle on finishing the one I was already in the middle of.
9:45 am: Flight to DC takes off, go back to sleep
12:15 pm: Arrive at Dulles refreshed, enjoy the fact that I have arrived at one of those mythical gates where you do not need to take the heinously annoying shuttle to get to the main terminal!
1:00 pm: Arrive home. Do laundry, work out in the basement, shower, quickly check email, and change clothes.
3:00 pm: Leave for the bus station in Bethesda.
3:40 pm: Bus leaves for New York City.
8:00 pm: Arrive in NYC. Delightedly realize that Magnolia Bakery (which I have never tried) is a mere five minute walk from The Duplex, where Sam is doing his show. Immediately head downtown, find the bakery, and splurge on two cupcakes - one red velvet with vanilla icing, and one chocolate with mint icing. Divine.
9:30 pm: In the theater, waiting for show to start...
10-12: Show! The first half was by another composer lyricist and was okay, but obviously Sam was who I came for and his part of the show was absolutely fantastic, complete with songs from Standardized Testing (an amazing musical he wrote based on our high school), and the fantastic mini musical Scarlet Takes a Tumble, based on the popular YouTube video. The crowd absolutely loved it, and seeing Sam up there performing made me positively beam with pride and happiness for him. I love having friends who are so insanely talented...watching someone like Sam come into his own is so inspiring and exhiliarating.
12-1: Post show excitement/me falling asleep with exhaustion.
1:30: Finally actually being able to fall asleep.

And then today I got up at 7:15 so I could take an 8:30 bus back to NoVA...phew! I am pretty tired out! I curled up in the basement almost immediately to indulge my True Blood addiction (so sweet) and have just been relaxing the rest of the day. I leave again this Friday to see Sarah and Jacob, which I am SO excited about!

Epic Trip to NYC and Montreal

2009-08-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize it's been so long since I've posted, but I seem to pretty much only post after I have made a trip of some sort, and after Boston, I spent 9 days at home. Now that I think about it, that was probably the last time ever that I will spend that much time at home, and I have to say, I'm relieved. Per usual, the atmosphere in the house is incredibly stressful, and it really gets me down after a mere four or five days, let alone a week. I spent my time doing three to four hours of cleaning a day, first in my room, and then in other areas of the house. I ended up coming up with about 30 bags of donations to various organizations of old books, software, clothes, and random toys. And the saddest thing is, the house literally does not look one bit different after carting away 30 bags of donations and probably 30 to 40 bags of trash. The amount of clutter we have here is unbelievable (although to be expected after 20 years), and I'm just trying to help my mom chip away at it one bit at a time.

It was also a huge trip down memory lane for me to go through my closet and organize (and throw away) the schoolwork I found since the age of 5. I have to say, seeing my work develop from age 5 to the work I did in high school was absolutely fascinating. It is almost frightening how intuitive and frank children of 8 or 9 can be. In poems and stories I wrote, I found eerily accurate things about the state of my family and indications of what my own personality was to become. I also was heartily embarrassed (and amused of course) at the tons of notes I kept from my friends and the incredibly revealing "autobiography" I wrote about my entire ninth grade year in diary style. Wow. However, I did find some inspiration for Larissa's wedding speech in one note I found from her, so really it's a good thing that I keep all these items! (Plus, it's the best blackmail EVER.)

Last Tuesday, I left for New York City on the start of an epic journey to visit Dukies, Sam, and be part of Larissa's wedding! After much debate over the best way to get to Montreal (taking flights is super expensive right now), Sam and I decided on renting a car, and thanks to my mother's fantabulous negotiating skills, not only did we get all the under 25 fees waived, but we also got a PRIUS. Which, by the way, is my new favorite toy and is SO much fun to drive. I happily drove up to Long Island City observing my fantastic gas mileage of about 48 mpg, and only had a brief moment of panic/annoyance when I accidentally went into Manhattan...but I was able to get right back out again and back into Queens. (I have never wanted a car anywhere near that city before so I'm impressed that I was able to handle it haha.) It was deathly hot and humid in the city, but I didn't let that stop my goal of seeing as many Duke people as possible. After an ecstatic reunion with Sam (duh), I got a chance to see my grandfather, which was wonderful, and then had dinner in the evening with Sam and Ian. Later that night I went out to a couple wine bars with my friend Josh from Duke who I hadn't seen in over a year, so it was fantastic to catch up with him! I love that every time I go to the city, I can do completely different things because there is always such a ridiculous amount of stuff going on and an endless array of restaurants and bars and locations to choose from.

The next day, after semi sleeping in, I went to the Carnegie Hall area to have lunch with my friend Liz, another Baldwin, which was so great, and then spent the afternoon catching up with Sasha and the evening catching up with Tyla and Matt. I love being able to see all my Duke friends in a totally different environment and see what they are all doing with their lives post graduation...it's so fascinating! But chasing everyone around Manhattan is a little more difficult than visiting people all over campus, so by the end of the day, I was absolutely exhausted and Sam and I went to sleep at like midnight, which was a good thing since we were trying to get an early start on Thursday.

On Thursday, we drove up to Montreal! The drive from New York to Montreal actually could not be easier, because it literally consists of one road, which goes straight through the gorgeous Adirondack mountains. Sam and I literally spent the first five hours of the drive just catching up with each other on absolutely everything, including, but not limited to: family, friends, marriages, relationships, careers, money matters, and contemplations on life. I can't think of many people who I could make a trip that long with and just want to talk to the whole time, but Sam is without a doubt at the top of that list. :) The only time we got bored was when we were forced to wait almost two hours to get across the border, which was ridiculous. However, we spent the time singing (or in Sam's case, harmonizing/being hilarious) and dancing, so it was all good. When we finally arrived at our hotel at about 6, we were informed that of course Larissa and Talia (sister + maid of honor) were running late and dinner wouldn't be till 8, so we got a chance to work out and settle in. We then went to this really cool restaurant called ChuChai, which is vegetarian, but they make tofu look (and even taste!) like beef, shrimp, chicken, and duck. It was not to be believed! Mostly, though, we were just excited to see our lovely bride to be (see below).

Unfortunately, the rest of the night kind of turned out to be a bust, since the family was staying at Talia's place and thus we couldn't really hang out and party there, and Larissa was super stressed with work related things and the fact that the McGill chapel was stupid and hadn't processed their paperwork. Sam and I were distressed to learn that everyone was so stressed out (Larissa couldn't even see us at all during the day on Friday!), so we decided to lighten things up by making a ridiculously tacky wedding gift bag to go along with our gift. After shopping all around on Friday (I absolutely love Montreal and how French/European it is...soooo many cute shops, restaurants, and cafes!), we went to a dollar store and got fake flowers and glitter glue, which we then plastered all over this formerly boring looking bag. Let's just say that Sam and I are pretty much the best wedding team ever. We had the most amazing time exploring the city and doing arts and crafts in our hotel room listening to music.

Then we went out to the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, which was at this incredible Indian restaurant that single-handedly has claimed the title in my mind of BEST NAAN EVER. I could not stop eating it. (I pretty much eat Indian food twice a year, because I am so full after a meal, I need like six months to digest it. No joke.) There were tons of people there from both sides of the family, Larissa and Vova were running around all stressed out, it was the first time the parents were meeting, and it was all just kind of overwhelming and crazy. So without further ado, Sam and I decided to kidnap Larissa for her last night of singledom and brought her back to our hotel room for a sleepover. And I think we all realized it was pretty much the best decision ever when we just lay in bed talking for a few hours about how much we've all grown since those days when we were 14 or 15. I could not have been happier that night, with two of my best friends in the world, just soaking in what a momentuous occasion this was. I am so happy she agreed to come with us and Sam pretty much gives the best pre-wedding pep talks ever, so I'll be counting on him when my day eventually comes. :)

The next day, miraculously, everything seemed to come together and before we knew it it was time for the wedding! Above is Sam and I being adorably color coordinated at Talia's apartment shortly before the limo came to pick us up. Larissa looked beyond spectacular. I decided that I had a previous life as a lady-in-waiting, because I fell into the role of helping Larissa into her wedding dress and shoes quite naturally...haha. I even did up all 40 miniscule buttons on the back of her unbelievably gorgeous wedding dress, some of which legitimately required tweezers to get them through the tiny buttonholes. Oh wedding fashion. Ridiculous. But the dress, like I said, was spectacular!

The wedding itself was just beautiful. It was in a small chapel at McGill and everything went off without a hitch. I realized that I have no idea how I am going to get married, because I was so emotional with happiness for Larissa that I would probably melt into a little puddle of tears on the floor if it was me...uh oh. I clearly have some growing up to do before I get married. :) It's hard to describe how happy and proud I felt seeing this dream come true for someone who I have been the best of friends with for 8 years now. We have had countless boy bashing times and giggling episodes together, and I can't believe that she is all grown up and married now! Seeing her with Vova, who is such a wonderful man and treats her so well, truly made me the happiest for someone else that I have ever felt in my whole life.

I was so happy to get a picture with the bride after the wedding too. :)

The reception was incredibly classy and tons of fun as well! The highlights were the powerpoint presentation Sam and I made about Larissa's love life in high school (yes, we actually did that, it was my idea, and yes, it was kind of the hit of the party because it was hilarious) and the AMAZING and unexpected choreographed Michael Jackson dance routine Larissa and Vova did for their first dance. The whole evening was just this delightful combination of friends and love and dancing and pure happiness. As someone who has only been to one wedding of a family member (but played at dozens of weddings for strangers), I just wasn't prepared for how emotional it would be to see someone so close to me having such an incredibly momentuous and meaningful event. But of course, this is just the first of many, so I'd better start preparing myself. :)

Sunday, Sam and I drove back to NYC, not getting stopped at the border for nearly as long but running into torrential rains, thus lengthening the trip by several hours. By the time we got back, we were absolutely emotionally drained and exhausted (especially after telling the wedding story to multiple people on the phone), but I still managed to sum up some reserves of energy to go see Irem, which was awesome, because she is this totally legit important investment banker now and I love it. Then I got up early on Monday to come back to NoVA, but I won't be here for long - I leave on Friday to see MaryEllen in her new home in Nashville!

I absolutely adore all this traveling and now that it's started, the time between now and Australia is going to pass ridiculously fast. Although sometimes I feel a little weird about the fact that I am going to be officially entering the real world far later than most of my peers (in fact, everyone who has been getting job offers start their jobs in like a week!), the vast majority of the time, I feel unbelievably grateful and happy for these opportunities to travel and see my friends in so many new and exciting places. And when I am home, I continually do the emotionally draining (but hopefully ultimately fulfilling) work of cleaning out clutter and starting to organize things for Boston. I'm not going to lie, it's a pretty sweet life. :)

My Time in Boston!

2009-08-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

So the past few days have been incredibly exciting, adventurous, AND productive! I could not have asked for more from this amazing trip. To tell you the truth, I flew up to Boston expecting to like the city, but not totally fall in love with it. No matter what, it is far away from Andrew, and that's hard, and I am also really scared about the weather. But I guess having semi-low expectations was actually a good thing, because it took me all of an hour to become pretty much instantly obsessed with the city. From the airport, I was easily able to take public transport to the hotel, and since it was still too early to check in, I headed straight out to explore, armed with one of the best gifts I have ever gotten (thank you Shea and Ian!), a set of "exploring Boston by foot" cards. That way, you can hold a card unobtrusively that zooms in on a particular area and not look like a total tourist.

I first went to the North End, since a lot of people had said I'd like it, and I of course fell instantly in love. It is by far the best "little Italy" part of a city that I have ever seen, and since I've just been in Italy, I think my opinion is all the more legitimate. :) Row upon row of adorable Italian restaurants with charming streets and specialty grocery stores and PASTRY SHOPS...oh the pastry shops. More on that later, but suffice it to say they are a little piece of heaven. After exploring around and getting some fantastic pizza, I headed downtown to see the building where I will be working so I could get oriented better...I had no idea it was that close to absolutely everything. Then I attempted to find this building that a friend of a friend (who deals in real estate, construction, etc.) wanted to show me an apartment in. I got kind of looped around (Boston has no gridlike layout, so it can be confusing for a first-timer), but eventually found it, and was beyond belief impressed. It was this incredible luxury high rise apartment building that had unbelievable views and huge apartments. The only catch? There was literally NO possible way I could afford a one bedroom, and seeing as I didn't have an immediate roommate, the only option was that I live with another person he had been trying to find an apartment for - a guy from Morocco. Now, I have never lived with a total stranger before, so I felt like I would have to think about it (and obviously meet him) before deciding. And I had never looked at apartments on my own before (aaahhh such an adult thing to do!), so I felt like I might be being naive by instantly falling in love with the first apartment I saw...but I instinctively felt I was not going to find anything better. Below is a picture of my work building (the super tall one, obviously) from the street outside the apartment I was at!

I was very confused, so I took a break after the realtor nicely gave me more of a tour of Boston to go back to the hotel, check into the room, work out in their tiny little fitness room (that did have flat screen TVs on the cardio equipment though), and oh, prepare for JASON MRAZ. Yes, I will admit it, the original reason I decided to come to Boston at this specific time in August was that it happened to coincide with his summer tour going through Boston. I have to say, though (and I know this is how it should be) since starting to date Andrew, I am not quite as obsessed with Jason. :) I also have to say that I was quite disappointed/disillusioned with how mainstream his shows have become and how large the audiences are. The best times I've seen him I have either paid nothing or next to nothing and had some of the most incredible concert experiences of my life, and this time I paid more than I ever have and had the farthest away seat I've ever had. Ugh. Plus, the set list consisted of such songs as "The Remedy", "Make it Mine", "Only Human", "I'm Yours", etc etc. (Although he has come up with a cool new calypso style of Remedy with his "Grooveline Horns", which must be a nice variation since he has probably sung that song almost as many times as I'm Yours haha.) It was just weird to see him and the band doing this whole choreographed routine that they clearly repeat all the time, when so much of what I love about him is his total spontaneity. Also, his setlist other nights on the tour just happened to be much better than the particular night I saw him. Ah well...he had a nice acoustic part of the set with Toca, sang "Clockwatching" from his second album which I've heard live, and Butterfly was fantastic per usual. So the concert ended much better than it began at least! And of course it was cool to see him in yet another location around the country. :)

The next day, I got the chance to sleep in before going out to lunch with Alec, which was fantastic because we honestly hadn't caught up in months. Plus, we went to Wagamama, which is one of the best noodle places EVER. (It is also in Sydney, so I'm kind of biased.) And, he introduced me to the best cannoli I have ever had in my life at Mike's Pastry. Everyone who comes to visit me will be going there with me. It is not up for negotiation. After that, I went to look at a studio in Beacon Hill, which was shockingly bad compared to the apartment I'd looked at the previous day but good as a point of contrast. And the Beacon Hill area is totally gorgeous and really fun to walk around, which I did for a couple hours after that. Another thing I really love about Boston is its sense of history, which you obviously don't get in most U.S. cities. The little cobblestone alleys and beautiful brick homes are absolutely picturesque and really fun to look at. Then I headed more downtown to the Chinatown-ish area, which was kind of disappointing because it's a little dirtier and didn't seem to be filled with awesome Chinese food like New York or San Francisco. Ah well. After that, I went to meet my potential roommate and we had coffee, and it went really well. So obviously after that, I wanted to take the apartment that much more...aaahhh!

In the evening, my mom (who had arrived by then) and I went out to a fantastic dinner at this restaurant called Myers + Chang, which is one of the best Asian fusion places I have ever eaten at. SO. GOOD. Then we went back to the hotel and I did a ton of research on North End properties and we set up appointments to look at both the apartment that I'd already seen and like eight North End places. So Friday was kind of insane. We looked at the original apartment in the morning, had a short break, and then went to the North End to see a bunch of different one bedroom apartments. Although I absolutely adore the area and feel like it's going to be one of my absolute favorite places to hang out and dine in Boston, I just couldn't see myself living there. It's not particularly close to a T, the neighborhoods have a ton of character but the apartments are very old, and I feel like I would get quite lonely living all by myself in one of the isolated (albeit very cute) little alleyways. Still, it was very enlightening, and also quite a good workout. (All the buildings were walkup, of course, so it felt like we climbed like 100 flights of stairs haha.) By the end of this crazy tour, we were absolutely starving, so we got this huge late lunch at an Italian restaurant and then waited for like 20 minutes to get cookies at Modern Pastry, which is this other famous bakery. The almond macaroons there are seriously the best that I have EVER had in my life...actually like a taste of heaven or something. On second thought, it is quite good that I won't be living in the North End since my diet would probably consist solely of macaroons and cannolis.

Anyway, by the late afternoon, my mother helped me come to my first real-life adult decision - to decide to sign the lease with Ali on this fantastic apartment! We were able to compromise to get the lease to start October 1st, so I am still essentially paying for a whole month when I won't be living there, but the fact that I have a perfect location and total peace of mind is completely worth that cost to me. If I were to try to find a great apartment in a few months, I would still have to room with a stranger to get a good deal, and I'm glad that I was able to meet someone now by pure chance who seems to have a very compatible lifestyle to that of mine. We celebrated by finding the Boston Whole Foods and an adorable fro yo place, and on Saturday morning we went to sign the lease! Can I just say, WOW, putting down first and last month's rent is a LOT of money. I am officially starting as of today to document all my expenses so I can see just where all my money is going. (The around the world trip is a lost cause, obviously, but especially once I start working I feel like I am going to be on a very strict budget.)

Above is me outside the lobby of the building. :) I couldn't be more excited about the apartment, and ESPECIALLY the location. I know that I am not a cold weather person, and having an apartment that is this close to my building is just going to make all the difference for me. I am SOOO happy about it and I can't believe it all fell into place so fast! We celebrated the actual signage of the lease by going to the Back Bay area (which I also instantly fell in love with) and going to lunch at a really nice terrace restaurant with my Baldwin great-grandbaby, Catherine! Even though she lives in Maine, she was able to drive down to Boston to see me, which was so sweet of her, and it was great to catch up. After that we just wandered around looking at cool art galleries and cute jewelry stores before heading back to the hotel area and the North End to wait on more lines and get more baked goods for the family. :)

So obviously, Boston was quite a success, and I am so excited to live there. I feel like it is a smaller and much more manageable version of New York, and I can't wait to explore it more once I get there!

Preview of upcoming travels later this month...
- New York and Montreal for LARISSA'S WEDDING!
- Nashville to see MaryEllen!

Back "Home"

2009-08-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

I say that in quotes because I really feel like now, more than ever, I call multiple places home. Obviously, the good bye to Australia and Andrew was even harder than I had anticipated, and now that I have been back for two weeks, I finally feel a little less emotional and ready to write. The first week away from Andrew after never having been apart for more than five days in our entire relationship so far was obviously quite difficult. However, it was wonderful to spend a few days in California with my mom, aunt, and uncle. On the Wednesday that I got back (which was essentially a 40 hour day because of the time difference), I blearily walked around Union Street in San Francisco and was happily distracted from my separation anxiety by this adorable specialty chocolate shop and jewelry shop. We also went to some fantastic little restaurants...a cute French cafe for brunch and an AMAZING really fancy vegetarian restaurant for dinner one night. (I forgot how obsessed I am with the Bay area in general and its bounty of organic food.) We also went to Carmel for a day to see an old friend of my mom's, and I enjoyed looking around at the adorable restaurants, art shops, and jewelry stores. And we went to the museum of modern art there, which had an amazing exhibit on Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams, in addition to all sorts of really funky sculptures (my favorite was the 220 black poodles surrounding a random baby...oh modern art).

So we flew home the following Sunday (on a United plane that was literally from 1982...thanks Andrew for making me aware that all U.S. airlines' fleets SUCK), and I spent the next few days unpacking and seeing people who I have dearly missed, so that was great. :) We are in the process of trying to at least start to clean up the house, since we are hoping to sell it in the next year. Now, we have lived in this house for 20 years, and my grandparents lived in an adjacent connected one for about 18. Needless to say, right now, this seems like a nearly insurmountable task. I started cleaning out my room last week, and after clearing out about 20 bags of trash, it literally looked exactly the same. (Okay, I suppose the closets and drawers looked more organized.) Still, this is a MONUMENTAL task, and I obviously want to help out, so every day that I am home, I plan on working on cleaning and organizing for at least two hours.

However, per usual, the environment here is not exactly what one would call relaxing, so I am also planning on taking trips pretty much every week (to continue my whirling dervish travel schedule, as my mother calls it). I kicked it off with a lovely trip with Cho to see Ellie for her birthday in Hershey, PA. I have never actually been there before, so it was nice to see her all settled in, and it's a very easy drive from this area, so that's great too! It's crazy that so many people are actually starting their real lives, whether it's in a job or an internship or grad school. I would say I feel like a bum, but I honestly don't...I just feel grateful for the opportunity that I am getting for this extended break.

Once I got back, I had a very busy rest of the weekend running around and seeing people. I got to see Larissa, my favorite bride-to-be, and her wedding dress, and seriously could not stop screaming in delight. (We have known each other for 8 years, now, and have seen each other all over the world, and this is just a really special time for her and I could not be more excited for this wedding.) Perhaps because about 95% of my cynical nature has been lost in the past few months, I can not stop thinking about the wedding (which is in less than three weeks!) and am so incredibly happy for her to start her new life with her fiancee. I also finally got to reunite with Sara in D.C! We went to one of the best frozen yogurt places I have EVER been to, which was obviously very exciting. And I have of course been spending hours on the phone catching up with everyone who I can't see yet, and that's been great too. Coming back to life in the U.S. was really disorienting, but now that I have been back for a few weeks, I am thoroughly enjoying socializing with everyone!

Next up for me is my first real trip to Boston, which is exciting and scary at the same time...

Scary because:
I am looking for apartments. This is difficult and a real adult thing to do. Ew.
Going to look for apartments means I really will be living in Boston for the forseeable future, which no matter what is very, very far away from Andrew. :(
Um, did I mention that I am looking for apartments, and have to figure out budgets, and whether or not I'll have a roommate, and AAAH IT'S JUST SCARY.

Exciting because:
Exploring a new city is always fun!
The weather is great right now
I am going to walk EVERYWHERE
I am going to see Jason Mraz tomorrow!!!!
Everyone who has lived in Boston or spent significant amounts of time there is totally in love with the city

So I'm sure I will have a great time, and it will be good for me to just start coming to terms with the life I'm going to be starting in November/December...I know it's going to come around faster than I could imagine.

Sweet Return to Sydney

2009-07-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

So it goes without saying that the past couple of weeks in Sydney have been heavenly. It barely even feels like I have left! I still know my way around perfectly, everything still looks the same, and I have easily settled into my "living in Sydney" routine...although it is slightly different than my independent single anything goes attitude of 2007. :) I have found that I absolutely love being domestic - shopping at produce markets, cooking the food, and cleaning and doing laundry. I don't think I could do this long term, but for the past few weeks, it has been quite blissful. I adore going into the CBD and shopping, looking at the Opera House and around the Rocks (I went to the most amazing food festival there yesterday), and just happily walking up and down King Street.

Certainly not my best shot of the Opera House, but it's here to just prove that I am indeed in Sydney. :)

Love that Harbour Bridge!

It's also been awesome to get back into going to the gym and I love the group exercise classes in Australia! (They are by this guy named Les Mills, and it's everything from stepping to weights to spinning, all under this very structured format and set to awesome bouncy music.) I realized I went to the gym five times in the past week which used to be a typical week for me but probably hasn't happened in like 4 months, so yeah...proud of myself for that.

I also got the chance to visit the L.E.K. office in Sydney and fell completely in love with it, and not just because of the building's absolutely spectacular view of all of Sydney. Looking back at my travel blog, I remember how absolutely devastated I was to leave Australia after my incredible study abroad experience here...and that was even before I had someone who I deeply loved here. I can not even imagine how difficult it is going to be to separate from Andrew, when we have spent the past couple of months spending every day together going through both wonderful and super intense travel experiences. I know these blogs over the past few months have been much more about the amazing things we've seen than the way our relationship has developed.

But suffice it to say that six months ago, I never would have seen myself where I am now. I have blogged often over the past four years about my issues with guys, my cynicism, and my unwillingness to believe that love really can find you. Now that I have found myself in an incredibly fulfilling, deeply happy, and very serious relationship, I can still remember all that cynicism but really feel like I have been able to let it go. I have never been happier, and to be around someone who so completely accepts me and loves me just as I am is just an incredible thing. When you find something like that, I firmly believe you should not let it go, and I am determined to make this work. That doesn't mean I don't think it will be very hard. I already find myself totally divided between the closeness I feel with my amazing friends and family and my deep love for both Australia and Andrew.

Us out this weekend at Lowenbrau, which is one of my favorite pubs in The Rocks...yay!!!

My priorities have completely changed since I took the job in Boston. I honestly don't know what I am going to do or where I am going to end up, and the hard knowledge is that no matter where I am, I am always going to be missing some people terribly. But the upside of that is realizing that I am starting to develop not just a national network but hopefully an international one too. True, my best friends are still mostly in the U.S., but I now know people in several cities in Australia, Germany, Canada, Finland, London, and more. When I went to college, I knew that no one would ever replace my high school friends, and that remains true to this day. I have gained another very valuable set of friends from Duke, and no one will ever replace them either...I suppose I will just keep adding sets of friends from the various stages of my life. In just the few short months since we have all graduated, everyone already seems to be doing so many different things. Once we all have jobs, how frequently would I even be able to see people anyway, even if I was living in the U.S?

Even so, moving all the way to Australia is a huge step and not one that can happen right now...but I do think it is a possibility in the future. As I thought it would, my travels throughout Europe and Australia have definitely affected the way I think about my country and my future there. I feel like most people who grow up in the U.S. (and hey, maybe in any country, but particularly in America) are too closed to the possibility of moving somewhere else and trying your luck in another place in the world. I like the northeastern cities and California and could see myself living in those places, but also absolutely adore London and of course Sydney. As I always try to do, I am just going to be open to multiple possibilities. In six months from now, my priorities may be totally different again...who knows. But for now, I know that for the first time in my life, I have found real love, and I am not going to let it go.

Just because I am coming back to the U.S. in no way means that I am stopping my frenetic traveling pace...got to keep busy, after all! On the slate for August is Boston, Montreal, New York City, and Nashville, and I have already planned a trip back to Sydney in September! I am my "gap six months", as I like to call it, and I am determined to make the most of it. And as much as I am sad about leaving here, I am certainly exciting for my reunions with friends and family and the prospect of new travel within North America!

Chilling in Perth: Part II

2009-07-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Our second week in Perth was full of relatives time. On Monday, we saw Andrew's grandfather and step-grandmother for a traditional Sicilian spaghetti meal (making the sauce is a yearly ritual and they serve the spaghetti with a hard-boiled egg and a sausage...AMAZING!). Tuesday night was his grandmother's (where we were staying) along with his aunt, uncle, and cousin. Wednesday night was hosted by his mother's sister and her husband at their lovely waterfront home, and Thursday was taking his other grandmother out to lunch for her birthday. The days we would mostly spend on the boat or around the yacht club, even if it was raining. Andrew is at his happiest when he is tweaking things around on the boat, and I was content to relax on my computer, go for a run to take in the gorgeous scenery, or occasionally go to the gym (for an outrageously expensive guest pass...damn you, expensive suburbs).

On Wednesday afternoon we also took the opportunity to go into the CBD of Perth to do a little shopping and look around, which was quite fun. We visited pretty much the only two tourist attractions, this ferris wheel ride and the Swan Bells Tower, which was corny but kind of fun.

The shopping district was small but bustling and I really enjoyed it. Perth is certainly a growing city, but it is still quite small compared to Sydney. However, it clearly has a magnetic pull, because everyone I know from there wants to go back at some point and all of their extended families live in the various areas around Perth.

On Friday, we went shopping in the morning for groceries for the boat with Andrew's friend Nick and then the three of us went to an island about 20 km away called Rottnest. This island is like the holiday playground of Perth natives, apparently - it's fairly large but there are no cars, so people bike around it. There are various bays all around the island where people moor their boats, and a couple of restaurants and grocery stores on the island. There are native animals there called QUOKKAS who are marsupials that only live on Rottnest...reminded me yet again of how incredibly cool Australia is in general. The boat ride over there was lovely and relaxing and once we got to a bay, we moored there and just enjoyed the beautiful weather throughout the afternoon. (finally, yay!) Andrew's other friend Adam joined us in the early evening and we made a short trip to the general store on the island before going back to the boat, where I cooked dinner! (Cooking dinner in a boat galley is super cool, especially because Andrew's boat has absolutely everything you could need for cooking.) As you can see, the sunsets there are beyond spectacular.

After dinner, I was subjected to one of the more harrowing experiences of my life when I naively got on the little powerboat Adam had brought with him so we could go around to another bay to hang out at the one pub on the island. As someone who has been on a boat a mere handful of times during her life and never one at night, I did not realize how out of my league this was. Armed with nothing but a small flashlight (boats don't have headlights, by the way), the boat began speeding haphazardly over the waves, crashing down after each one and frightening me half to death. (Apparently we went the same speed the next day and I was barely scared at all - when you can't see the waves that are about to hit your boat it's just a little more terrifying.) By the time we finally made it to the pub, I was bedraggled, wet, and more than just a little frazzled. The boys shook their heads over my lack of sea legs as I attempted to dry my clothes and hair in the hand dryer in the bathroom...what a disaster. We had a nice evening nonetheless and Andrew very graciously offered to accompany me on the 45 minute walk home since I had kind of refused to get on the boat again. Although it was chilly and windy, the walk home along the coast of the island was quite magical. Because it was winter, we really were just about the only people there, and it felt like we had an entire deserted island to ourselves. You can see the stars perfectly of course, and that combined with the crashing of the waves and the softness of the sand really makes for an enchanting evening.

The next day, we went around to a different bay that Andrew always used to go to throughout his childhood, and then used the smaller boat on the back of Anastasia (there are two - Ivan and mini Ivan) to go to the shore and explore. We climbed all the way to the top of some rocks and the view was spectacular!

After that, we had some lunch and then got all the gear ready to go scuba diving. Like with boating, these guys have grown up with it, but the only dive I have ever done was almost two years ago. I was more than a little nervous to say the least, but Andrew was wonderful. He helped me get on the gear and get down into the water, but it was up to me to control the panic that I immediately feel upon being forced to actually breathe underwater. I vaguely remembered what it felt like from my dive in the Great Barrier Reef, but it takes so much conscious effort to not think about what could go wrong. We weren't even that deep down, but it still took me a good 10 minutes to finally start to relax and enjoy the beauty of the reef that was just a 20 minute boat ride away from the bay we were moored in. Like I said in my travel blog from Australia, there is something incredibly intimidating about being in this otherworldly depths of the ocean. You are just one of the fish, and anything could happen...you are completely vulnerable. Adam and Nick explored the caves, and later told us they had seen a shark down there, so that was kind of unnerving. (You have to remember, my American friends, that in Australia, people die from shark attacks and other scary poisonous animals like every day. The danger is like EXTREMELY real. Eeep.) But I survived the dive with minimal embarassment and it reinforced my desire to get certified so I can actually know more about what I am doing and not feel so helpless!

We had a spectacular dinner that night (ask me about it via email or in person, I can't post the details here) and a very relaxing day on Sunday, listening to lots of music on the fantastic sound system (Perth also has the BEST radio hits station I have ever heard, with essentially zero commericial breaks...sweet) and hanging out on the back of the boat in the sun. We were so lucky to get such fantastic weather in the middle of winter, and I can only imagine if it were this good in winter how absolutely incredible it would be in summer. White sandy beaches, stunningly blue water, and an atmosphere of peace and tranquility all contribute to make Rottnest a really magical place. I definitely want to go back!

The next day, we flew to Sydney, where we have been for the past week. Being here feels like returning home, and I have been in absolute bliss going to all my favorite places - The Rocks Market, the Opera House, Paddy's Market, the David Jones Food Hall, King Street, and so on. Living and playing house with Andrew is also like a little domestic dream come true for me...but sadly, it can't last forever (at least not right now), and I am due to fly back to the U.S. in just a week. I might post before then, we'll see. I just wanted to post about the rest of Perth before I forgot! Seeing as I am in this incredible city that brings back so many happy memories for me, I am going to stop writing and go out and enjoy it!

Chilling in Perth: Part I

2009-07-07T05:50:00.001-07:00

I have spent the past couple of weeks reveling in the fact that I get to be in one city for more than three days and also being utterly delighted about the fact that I am back in Australia again! Our time in Perth has been very relaxing and enjoyable, and Andrew has been excited about showing me his hometown since the very beginning of the time we started dating. We flew there separately from London, since airline bookings are complicated, and I had the delight of being able to fly Emirates, which is hands down the best airline I have ever flown in my life. I have to say, after flying several international airlines like Emirates, Air New Zealand, Aer Lingus, and the like, I am absolutely embarrassed for the state of the airlines in the US. Not only are the fleets in the US incredibly old and outdated, but the technology available on international airlines is approximately 123098 times better. (Seriously, US airlines. BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES.) And I was stunned in delight to find the array of options I had on Emirates, even in economy! The flight attendants came around with little warm towels at the beginning of the flight, later delivered menus with choices for our meals (which were actually really good), and were super attentive and nice. And the touch screen I had at my disposal was absolutely unbelievable: a choice of at least 100 different movies, full episodes of about 50 different TV shows in all genres, thousands of songs that you could add to your own personal playlists, about 30 computer games, and full map capabilities where you could track the flight and even see the view out of the cockpit and below the aircraft through special cameras they have. AMAZING!

My flight connected in Dubai, which was also an insanely cool experience. Even though the local time was 1 AM, I have never seen an airport so busy. I pretty much walked around gaping at the number of people and shops in the airport. Normally you can pick up a little bit of the culture of a city from its airport but not much, but in this airport you could definitely pick up the exotic nature of the Middle East and the intense commercialism that represents Dubai. It was awesome. I got some sleep on my next flight, but not that much (that was really only because I could not stop playing with my touch screen), so I was pretty tired when we arrived in Perth. Luckily, that was around 6 PM local time and it was already dark (it’s winter in Australia for those of you who don’t know), so I only really had to eat dinner and go to sleep!

A little background on Perth: it has a population of about 1.5 million and is the capital of Western Australia, which is an enormous area of land that only actually has about 2 million people. (Population demographics of Australia fascinate me.) Andrew was born there and has lived there his whole life (until he went to study in Sydney), and absolutely all of his extended family lives there as well, which is an odd phenomenon for a person who has her relatives all spread out over the country. (And also, the two sides of my family do not mix at ALL, so it’s kind of weird to realize that everyone in Andrew’s family knows each other…haha.) Perth is definitely a city for those who love the water. It is situated on the Swan River and Indian Ocean (it is very spread out, with only a small central business district), and everywhere you drive, you get absolutely stunning views of the ocean and white sandy beaches. Andrew’s grandmother’s house (where we stayed the majority of the time) is in a suburb of the city and about a 5 minute walk from the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, which is where Andrew spent basically his entire life before going to college. Pretty much everyone is involved in water activities in some way, whether it’s sailing, yachting, scuba diving, or a combination of all of those. Andrew’s family has an absolutely gorgeous boat called Anastasia, which we were on every single day (even if we were just chilling at the jetty). It is the love of Andrew’s life and apparently like a third child to his dad…haha.

By an unfortunate and ironic turn of events, it rained every day for the entire first week we were in Perth. Andrew was so upset by this since he really didn’t want me to see Perth in the winter, but what could I do. When Andrew was in America, it didn’t rain in Perth for literally three months straight, so it was kind of funny that the day we got there, it started raining nonstop. We didn’t let that stop us from having fun, though! I met two of his best high school friends, and we spent a bunch of time the first few days hanging out on the boat while Andrew happily pattered around fixing things in the engine room and stuff. I was absolutely stunned by how amazing this boat is. I should have realized that it is really like a little house because Andrew and his dad actually lived on it for 8 straight months while they were sailing around Australia, but it didn’t really sink in how functional everything was until I saw it in person. It has a back deck with a table and chairs and a ladder up to the deck where the boat is driven. The upper deck also has another mini boat and couches where people can sit. The front of the boat has another boat which one would take on diving excursions and such. The inside has a full living room, kitchen (with fridge, freezer, two sinks, oven/microwave, and stove), three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Did I mention there is a killer good sound system that you can hear both inside the boat and out on the deck? And there are tons of hidden compartments everywhere (under couches, tables, floors, etc.) that contain ropes and buoys and diving equipment and so on. Everything is so compact – it’s absolutely beautiful and really comfortable too.

Anyway, I got to experience many aspects of boating firsthand, starting with just sitting on the boat and exploring it, and then later in the week getting to be on a sailboat for an actual (albeit casual) race! One of his best friends is a professional sailer and we got to sit on the boat along with the team as they did a social race on the river by the yacht club.

I have only been on a sail boat once before and really had no idea what to do, so I just huddled in the back and ran across the boat every time the boom swung back and forth, kind of terrified it was going to smash into me…haha. What I really was not prepared for was the way that the boat literally tips COMPLETELY onto one side when you are sailing at the correct angle into the wind. Thus, you absolutely have to be on the side of the boat opposite from the sail, or you would literally be IN the water. Kind of scary. But I knew I was in very experienced and professional hands, so mostly it was just extremely fun, and I loved feeling the wind as we zipped across the water. We also had dinner that night at the yacht club with Andrew’s adorably British grandmother, who we stayed with most of the time. She is super old-school British and adores Andrew, which is really cute to see.

Our first weekend in Perth, we first went to Fremantle on a Friday afternoon, which is a bustling suburb of Perth with its own small city feel – it has its own harbor, shops, restaurants, bars, etc. We went to the Fremantle Markets, which are honestly some of the best markets I have ever come across in my travels. They date back to 1897 (which is quite old for Australia) and consist of more than 100 colorful stalls selling everything from adorable soaps to jewelry to all sorts of delicious international foods to very fresh fruits and vegetables. I was absolutely delighted to browse around and find fresh food, since I ended up cooking dinner for Andrew and both his grandmothers that night.

The first Saturday we were there, we took the boat out for the first time since it was finally not pouring rain. I got to see how the boat was fueled and attempted to learn about all the correct start-up procedures. Luckily Andrew’s friend Adam was there so I just watched them do everything. Then Andrew drove us to the main city center of Perth via the Swan River! It was exceptionally cool getting to see everything from the water while being utterly comfortable on the boat. I have to admit, it was even more amusing to see the jealous looks of awe we were getting from all these old men when we pulled the boat up to a jetty right outside a restaurant and docked it there. We then had lunch, looked around a little bit, and drove back to the yacht club. Definitely a supremely cool experience. :)

This is getting kind of long so I will post one more entry about our second week in Perth as soon as I get a chance!

Coming up: relatives time galore and a deserted island paradise

Europe Adventures: Conclusion

2009-06-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

So, on Thursday June 18, our Europe tour was “officially” over. It was basically just a day of travel – I got up early and was able to find a gym at the sister hotel (yes, working out is now a privilege, I have never been so grateful for it), and then after a bit more last-minute packing we took a shuttle bus all the way to the Naples airport, which took like an hour and a half. Then we took a flight to Paris, and by the time we got to our hotel in Paris it was like 7 pm and it had been 8 hours since we left our hotel in Sorrento! It was very cool to start and end our trip in Paris because it really felt like we were coming full circle. (Also, Paris infuses me with enthusiasm and love for the world; this was reaffirmed the second I stepped foot in the city a second time.) This time, we were in Paris solely to go to its famous International Air Show, which we did on Friday when Andrew’s parents rejoined us along with one of his best childhood friends who is currently looking for jobs in Europe. We had a great time watching the airplane displays (although the exhibits on ball bearings and air conditioning units for planes were just a LITTLE boring for me), and then I had the pleasure of getting to go to the Galleries Lafayette with Andrew’s mother, who is a formidable shopping companion. :) (It was also great to just let the boys do their airplane thing.) Our hotel was right in the middle of the major shopping district so it was fantastic getting to shop (and by shop I mean look at things I can’t actually afford) because our trip before had really only involved tourist sites. We had a wonderful dinner on Friday night, too, which was delightful because I think it’s really difficult to find delicious food in Paris for less than 100 euros a person. I had this incredibly tender lamb with haricots verts and French bread…YUM.

On Saturday, we had a casual day seeing a few random things around Paris (it unfortunately rained most of the day). We toured the inside of the Opera House, which is absolutely spectacular. Of course, I have a soft spot in my heart for the magnificent Sydney Opera House (so excited to see it again so soon!), but I don’t think I have ever seen a better inside of an opera house than this one. It was absolutely spectacular. After that, we went to the Champs Elysses (where it was raining again, just like the first time we were there haha) and had a nice lunch, and then went back to the hotel and train station to take the Eurostar to Paris. (The train goes under the English Channel, which I was really looking forward to, but in typical fashion I fell fast asleep and missed the whole thing.)

We only had one full day in London to get ready to go to Australia, so things were a little hectic/stressful, but we managed to get everything done and packed and I also got to go to the Spitfields markets, which were really fun! It was sad realizing this dream month had come to an end, but it’s hard to be sad when you are making your triumphant return to Australia after almost two years. (And I was flying Emirates, which even in economy class is SUPERB.)

Obviously, more on Australia will be coming (I have been here for a week now), but I thought the best summary of our Europe travels could be with a superlatives list! So without further ado and in no particular order, here it is – enjoy!

Best first impression: Venice
Worst first impression: Naples

Coolest random experience: Seeing the Pope in Rome

Most annoyingly touristy place:
1st Place: Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
2nd Place: The Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris
3rd Place: Versailles near Paris

Best art experience:
1st Place: Michaelango’s David in Florence
2nd Place: Picasso’s Guernica in Madrid
3rd Place: Van Gogh’s self portrait in Musee D’Orsay in Paris

Most fun climb:
1st Place: Leaning Tower of Pisa
2nd Place: Up the hill to Piazzale Michalango in Florence
3rd Place: Eiffel Tower in Paris

FOOD related things…my favorite!
Best breakfast: Loaf of fresh bread and pastries overlooking the beach in Nice
Best lunch: Tapas in Plaza Santa Ana in Madrid
Best dinner: La Giostra (fancy restaurant owned by a Medici prince) in Florence
Best drink (this is based on PURE enjoyment of the drink, and the first two places are probably because the ruins were explored in SCORCHING HEAT):
1st Place: Frozen fresh squeezed orange and lemon juice after exploring Pompeii
2nd Place: Ice cold water after exploring Roman Forum
3rd Place: Bottle of red wine over dinner with Andrew our first night in Nice
Honorable Mention: Refreshing sangria in rooftop café in Madrid
Best food market: La Boqueria in Barcelona

Coolest tour:
1st Place: Segway-ing it up in Rome
2nd Place: Boat tour of bays around Nice
3rd Place: Walking tour in Venice

Best sleeping arrangements: The hotel in Sorrento with an incredible view from our own balcony!
Worst sleeping arrangements: Overnight train from Paris to Madrid.

Best accommodation location: Madrid and Venice
Worst accommodation location: Barcelona (and Naples, but just because it’s Naples)

Most impressive palace/estate:
1st Place: Versailles near Paris
2nd Place: El Escorial near Madrid
3rd Place: Palazzo Pitti in Florence

Favorite ruins:
1st Place: Castel S’Angelo in Vatican City
2nd Place: Roman Forum/Colosseum in Rome
3rd Place: Herculaneum near Pompeii

Best public transport: Paris
Most confusing public transport: Nice & Sorrento

Most breathtaking view
1st Place: Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower
2nd Place: Florence from the top of Piazzale Michalangeo
3rd Place: South of Italy from our balcony in our Sorrento hotel
Honorable Mention: Nice from the top of a hill (haha do not know what it is called)

And for some numbers and money related things…

Most expensive:
1st Place: Venice
2nd Place: Paris
3rd Place: Rome
Least expensive: Madrid

Most absurd (but totally worth it) expense:
1st Place: 28 euro ferry to Capri, 14 euro boat ride around Capri, and 10 euro fee to get into Blue Grotto itself
2nd Place: 15 euro peach bellinis in Harry’s Bar in Venice
3rd Place: 6 euros on two TINY cups of fresh squeezed orange juice in Versailles

Amount of money spent solely on bottles of water: ~120 euros
Amount of money spent on Roman ruins: 70 euros
Amount of money spent on museums: 100 euros
Amount of money wasted on stupid Eurail pass that doesn’t actually save you money: ~150 dollars
Amount of money spent in Laundromats: 30 euros
Number of postcards bought: 32
Amount of money spent on international service fee withdrawals: $125 (DAMMIT!!!)
Amount of wonderment and fun experienced: Priceless :)

Europe Adventures Part VIII: Southern Italy

2009-06-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we slept in (meaning till about the glorious hour of 9:15 or so) and had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel before going in search of the final chapel from Angels & Demons that we had not seen yet. Although we managed to find it, we had totally forgotten that it was a Sunday and thus mass was in session, so we didn’t get to see the statue we wanted to…but oh well. I think we made a good team doing our own personal Angels & Demons tour of Rome. :) We then spent a couple of hours on the internet back at the hotel just trying to figure out what we were going to be doing for our remaining four days. After we figured out how to get to the train station and Naples, which is the main hub in southern Italy to get to the beautiful coast, we set off. The train ride was fast and comfortable, and we got to Naples around 4.

I am now tremendously biased against Naples (see next paragraph), but at that point was going into the city with an open mind. I had both heard and read that it was a dangerous and dirty city, and the dirtiness certainly made an immediate first impression. There was trash everywhere and you could almost feel the pollution clogging the air. After unsuccessfully trying to find a bus that could take us to our budget hotel for about half an hour, we gave up and took a cab there. Our first warning sign should have been the fact that the hotel had a huge iron gate that was firmly locked, and you had to buzz in before you were even let in to a courtyard that had stairs that led up to another locked door. Shaking off the slightly uneasy feeling, we found that our room was actually quite large and comfortable, and we were getting a fantastic deal. (We had found the hotel through the Lonely Planet guide.) We dropped all our stuff down and, on a spur of the moment, headed off to find an underground tour of Naples. After getting slightly lost, we successfully found the office in a random back alley and had a really cool tour experience that led us 40 meters (that’s 120 feet for those of you who don’t know metric haha) under the city! There are all sorts of Greek and Roman ruins under the city, and an original Roman aqueduct was used in Naples until the late 1800s. How incredible is that???

After the tour, we went next door to a cute shop that made limoncello from scratch and got a personal tour of the process by the very friendly owner, so that put me in a really good mood. We were also able to find a delicious authentic Neapolitan pizza place for dinner (did you know Naples is where pizza actually originated?) and then made the mutual decision that we should get back to the hotel before it started to even get close to dark. We walked back along a large street, noticing rather disturbing things such as bullet holes in shop windows and discussing the Mafia and organized crime in general. Andrew is a really fast walker and I often struggle to keep up, so he was just a few steps ahead of me when it happened. Two BIG guys literally came out of nowhere, passed in front of me to my left, and TACKLED Andrew to the ground. I can not even explain how in shock I was. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, just that there were people seriously trying to hurt my boyfriend! I started screaming for people to help (there were people everywhere, it was on a huge road, and it was only just starting to get dark, it was about 8:30), but everyone just seemed to be staring. They struggled for what seemed like an eternity before a couple guys listened to my screams, ran up, and the muggers ran off down the street and escaped via a third guy on a scooter. SO SCARY!!!!!! It was only afterwards that I realized they were going for his watch, which is quite expensive. We were both totally in shock, and some nice random people came up and admonished him for wearing it out in public and made motions for him to put it in his pocket. We practically ran back to the hotel, gasping in relief when we got there. When we got back to the hotel, we told the person at the front desk we had just been mugged around the corner by people trying to steal Andrew’s watch, and you know what the first question he asked was? “Oh, was it expensive?” In a particularly stupid moment, I answered, “YES! VERY!!!” before Andrew dragged me off to the room.

I could not stop shaking, and now Andrew was convinced that because I had made the comment about the watch being expensive, the guys at the hotel were probably in league with the muggers and would come and try to steal it/hurt us in the middle of the night. (This did NOT make me feel better.) We ended up locking the door and barricaded it with everything heavy we could find in the room. Andrew’s wrist was bruised and scratched from where they tried to wrestle the watch off of him, but luckily the safety clasp kept it on. I was just so relieved he was all right. We both felt even stupider when we re-read the Lonely Planet book safety tips, which actually said verbatim: “Watch out for scooter bandits, who particularly like to target out-of-towners with expensive watches.” I think it definitely took us both several days to get over the shock of that happening. You just don’t expect something like that to happen to you, especially when it is not even dark and there are people everywhere! I shudder to think of what Naples is like after it actually gets dark. He called his parents to tell them and his mother was amazing and transferred us to a different hotel for the following night, but there was no way we were leaving that room that night, even though we didn’t feel safe. It was definitely the worst night of our trip by far.

The only good thing about horrible experiences (aside from the fact that you hopefully learn something, like in my case, not to be stupid and naïve) is that you know things typically will get better after them. We got up super early the next morning and took a cab to the new hotel, which was literally right across the street from the train station. Even though the area outside was littered with trash and syringes (yes, really), the hotel itself was clean and of much higher quality. We dropped our stuff off, had a quick breakfast, and continued with our original plan, which was to go to the ruins of Pompeii for the day. There is a train line called the Circumvesuviana, which as you may be able to tell from its name, goes from Naples to places all around Mt. Vesuvias, the famous dormant volcano which killed everyone in Pompeii when it erupted in 79 AD. The trains are slow, non air-conditioned, and rather uncomfortable, but they are the only way of getting around down there. The train actually broke about halfway there, but it conveniently stopped at the Erclano stop, which is where a smaller ruins site called Herculaneum is located. Both Lonely Planet and my dad had recommended it highly, so I suggested we go there first, and it ended up being a really good choice. We were able to get a guided tour of it, and it was absolutely fascinating.

Unlike Pompeii, Herculaneum was located right by the sea and thus was covered in a layer of mud instead of burning ash like Pompeii. Obviously, all the people were killed as well, but the different conditions led to this town also being perfectly preserved. It was absolutely surreal to walk around through this ancient town and step in the houses with beautiful mosaics, still perfectly intact. We saw wine shops with actual Roman amphoras, bath houses with the original mosaics and tubs, and even worn advertisements on the sides of buildings! It also had a great view of Mt. Vesuvius, as you can see below:

After a quick break for me to buy a hat (best idea ever) and grab lunch, we took the train the rest of the way to Pompeii, where we spent the afternoon exploring. I have to say, I am really glad we went to Herculaneum too, because Pompeii is so large that it is just quite overwhelming. It is obviously far more touristy and unfortunately, almost all the houses have locked gates in front of them so you can’t explore inside them. In addition, every artifact has been removed and placed in the Archaeological Museum of Naples, whereas you could still see some original things in Herculaneum. Nevertheless, the sensation of walking around this perfectly preserved town and knowing what happened on one fateful day in the year 79, which seems almost unfathomably long ago, is just incredible. Below is Andrew stepping onto the many stones they had in the middle of their streets so you didn't have to walk through sewage...ew.

We even saw some plaster casts they made of victims that were crouched or huddled in corners, which was quite eerie. When we had had enough of countless Roman houses and courtyards and temples and stadiums, we headed out and I got the best drink I have ever had, this frozen fresh orange juice concoction. Let me tell you, when you are COVERED in sweat and have just spent like three hours under hot sun with no break, a frozen drink is perfection in a glass. YUM. Anyway, we got back to Naples and literally ran across the street to our hotel, which we happily did not leave for the rest of the night.

Due to our immense dislike of Naples, we elected to spend our next two nights in Sorrento, which is further south. Even though we were flying out of Naples on Thursday, it wasn’t until the afternoon, which meant that we got to spend Tuesday and Wednesday nights in the gorgeous landscapes of southern Italy. When we arrived in Sorrento after a seemingly endless train ride in the late morning on Tuesday, I marveled at how completely different it was from the scary and polluted Naples. Andrew’s mom found us an incredible hotel there which was honestly the best we stayed in the whole trip…what luck! It was a little out of the way of the center of town, but had a rooftop pool and was on the top of a hill so it had an absolutely stunning view of the Bay of Naples.

However, we immediately headed back out so we could get a ferry to Capri (which costs 28 euros round trip by the way…absolutely ridiculous). It’s worth the cost, though – Capri is an island that basically consists of several cliffs rising straight out of the sea, and it is absolutely stunning.

The first thing we did when we got there was sign up for a boat tour around the entire island. The main attraction of Capri is the Grotta Azzura, or Blue Grotto. I had heard that it was expensive and super touristy but one of those rare attractions where it actually is worth it. When we approached it, I was surprised to find that there is literally no land around it at all – you have to approach it by water and the ticket booth is located in a row boat. We went in a row boat with two other people and a captain, and we literally had to lie flat in the boat so we could get into the tiny cave opening. It was so unexpected and exciting! Once we were inside, we could sit up and look around the cave that was lit by this unearthly, beautiful, pure blue light.

You are only in there for about three minutes, but the whole time, the various captains of the boats are singing in Italian and it is just kind of mysterious and wonderful. Apparently, the Emperor Tiberius of Rome used the place as his private swimming pool…how cool is that? We could see the private passage (now closed) in the back of the cave that led up the mountain to his palace. Those emperors definitely lived a pretty sweet life.

After that, we toured around the rest of the island and then had a very late lunch before taking a cable car up the mountain to the main town part and looking around at the cute shops before going back down and taking the ferry back to Sorrento. By that time, even though we were really tired, we decided to just walk all the way back to our hotel because bus systems confuse us. (Example: the bus is not coming. We wait 3 minutes. Then we walk to the next bus stop. Bus is not immediately there either. Repeat 10 times until we realize we might as well walk.) It took us an entire hour to get home, but that was mainly because we were enjoying looking at all the shops in central Sorrento. We had a relaxing evening enjoying the view and our fantastic hotel in general!

The next day was our last full one in Italy and we decided to take the bus along the Amalfi Coast. It is about ten times cheaper than the ferry and doesn’t even take that much longer! The only minus to bus travel is that it is extremely crowded and the buses go on the one road that exists on the Amalfi Coast, which is incredibly windy and extremely high up. It totters precariously along and even though I knew dozens of buses did this every day, it was still rather unsettling. We stopped at Positano first, which is an expensive, picture-perfect town that is literally stacked on a mountain with stunningly beautiful views. (Stunningly beautiful is really the best phrase to describe all of the places we saw in southern Italy.) We walked all the way down the mountain to the beach, looking at the cute shops along the way and stopping frequently to take in the brilliant view over the bright blue water that sparkled in the sun. Then we went back up the other side and caught the bus to Amalfi, a slightly larger town about a half hour further away. We ended up going to a small private beach there where you had to pay a cover to get in. This was nice because it meant it wasn’t that crowded and we got to go for a wonderful and extremely refreshing swim! Then we had lunch and looked around the town before getting on the bus to head back home. We were home by 6 pm and thus got to jump in the rooftop pool in our hotel before it closed. It was a really relaxing day (a welcome change of pace) and just a fantastic end to our trip!

Conclusions on Southern Italy:
- DON’T GO TO NAPLES! And if you must, don't stay there overnight!!!
- However, the rest of the towns there are beyond gorgeous (you really can’t just describe how beautiful they are) and have to be seen to be believed
- Despite extremely hot weather and inflated prices, each of the touristy sites there is more than worth it – you just have to be prepared for the conditions :)
- Boat travel is better than bus travel (but way more expensive)
- Huge cliffs rising straight out sparkling blue water never fail to make a stunning impression!

Europe Adventures Part VII: Rome

2009-06-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday (June 10), we left Florence (after I did my power morning museum tour, obviously) and drove down to Rome, stopping about halfway to check out another lovely medieval town, Sienna. After having been to several of these towns, I know what to look for – cute shops, narrow streets, and beautiful churches. The Duomo in Sienna was especially beautiful and the other interesting site was called the Piazza del Campo, which the Lonely Planet guide describes as a “giant kitchen sink” that slopes downward to the town hall and is surrounded by cute coffee shops. Once a year, they have horse races there and apparently it gets packed. We arrived in Rome fairly late in the day and were able to return the car (thank goodness, since the 20 minutes we did spend driving there were quite harrowing) and settle in to our hotel. We had several very busy days planned so we just had a casual dinner close to the hotel and went to sleep early.

The next morning, we did perhaps what was the most fun activity of the whole trip: A SEGWAY TOUR. Now, I have seen some people on Segways before (you know, the weird wheel-y gyroscopic things) and honestly, they just look like huge tools, but I have to say that being on one is one of the most fun things I have ever done. We got to the tour office at about 9:30 and learned how to use them in a small park, instructed by our tour guide Marcello. (Yes, so Italian. Love it.) I was quite freaked out at first and kept trying to balance myself, which is a bad idea, since the Segway doesn’t like that since it is supposed to balance for you. I got the hang of it within about 5 minutes though and soon was slowly going around the little park in circles. Then around 10 we went off for a whirlwind 3 hour private tour of Rome! We started at Circus Maximus (a stadium that was even bigger than the Colosseum but now is just pretty much an empty field) and went all around, getting a great view of aqueducts and other Roman ruins, the Roman Forum and the Piazza Venetio (spelling? King dude) before ending at the Colosseum. It certainly wasn’t the most informative tour I have ever been on, but let’s face it, it was all about the Segways. By the end of the tour, he had set ours to more “advanced” settings so we could go up to 20 km/hr instead of 12 km/hr and Andrew and I had great fun zooming up hills and sprinting as fast as we could before leaning backward to slow down. Plus, it was really amusing (slash kind of embarrassing) that in the especially touristy areas, everyone was taking photos of us and staring…haha. So, moral of the story is that Segways are an awesome way to get around, especially up hills, but are absurdly expensive to just be a little toy that you have fun on. Still, they are a LOT of fun…

After our tour finished, we got lunch in the Travestere area at a great cheap restaurant (that district is apparently where actual Italians eat) and then went to see the Pantheon, which was absolutely incredible. I was especially fascinated by the huge hole in the center of the dome, which is stunning in its simplicity.

The building has been standing for about 2000 years and I can’t believe how genius the Romans were at architecture and design. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at more touristy sites: the Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. (A lot of the places we looked at were really fun to see because both Andrew and I have read the book Angels & Demons recently and it was so cool to see all the locations described in the book!) We had originally wanted to get dinner kind of early because we were booked for an insanely early tour of the Vatican the next day, but when we went out of our hotel a little before 8, we were met but a huge crowd of people and a blockaded street. When we asked what was going on, it turned out that the Pope was about to come down the very street we were standing directly in front of! I was absolutely amazed at our luck and the chance to have such a unique experience. We stood there as the service finished and listened to all the beautiful choir music broadcast on speakers throughout the area as countless nuns, priests, and civilians filed out in a sort of pilgrimage procession in front of us. It was fascinating to see all the different robes of the nuns and priests, and the locals wearing everything from jeans and t-shirts to dresses and business suits. I am not Catholic so I am not sure if the day had a particular religious significance (I learned later it was some sort of holiday in Vatican City), but it was just incredible to literally run into a procession that finished with the Pope going by in his ornate carriage. No matter what religion you are or what background you come from, an experience like that leaves you feeling awed and respectful.

Of course, after all that, we didn’t end up getting dinner till about 9:30 and ended up back in our hotel at around 11:30 after lingering over hilarious Smith family stories…hehehe. So I was not too happy about getting up at 6:45 the next morning to catch a shuttle from the hotel to a tourist center so we could catch a bus to Vatican City. Because it is such an immensely popular attraction, it is nearly impossible to get in without being part of a tour group. We were thankfully able to bypass all the lines since we were part of a tour, but the group was absurdly large and the little earpieces the tour guide gave us to hear the information she was saying barely worked. Nonetheless, the galleries in the Vatican Museum were very impressive, if extremely crowded. I was most impressed by the ceilings, decorated in Trompe d’Oeuill style, which means “optical illusion” – they are painted, but it looks so three dimensional that I actually believed the entire ceiling was decorated with sculpture…absolutely incredible.

The crowning triumph of the Vatican Museums is of course the Sistine Chapel, which all walks through the galleries lead to. I had been excited about seeing this masterpiece for weeks and even more after I saw Michaelango’s sculptures in Florence, but I have to say that I was slightly let down. This was not in any way due to the artwork, which is every bit as amazing as I thought it would be, but just because the place was so jam-packed with people that I could barely move. In a place that is supposed to be sacred and silent, the constant buzz of chatty tourists was incredibly annoying. I tried to block it out and stared at the imposing Last Judgment fresco in back of the altar, trying to comprehend its magnificence. Unlike the ceiling frescos, which he did when he was about 32, Michaelango painted The Last Judgment when he was about 65, and it absolutely reflects the tortuous period he was going through at that time in his life. The painting is full of havoc and emotional and it is amazing to behold. Then I moved on to craning my neck upwards as long as I could to see the nine scenes painted from Genesis. I wish that I knew more about the specific details of these Bible stories, but even for someone with limited knowledge, the stories that they tell are utterly captivating. Michaelango’s frescos make the other frescos along the sides of the chapel look dull and flat, even though I would still consider them marvelous works of art. It just speaks to his talent that he can make the painting come to life and the figures look like actual sculptures – their realness just has to be seen to be believed. I saw a quote on the back of a book in a gift shop that said something to the effect of “I did not truly understand what human beings are capable of until I saw the Sistine Chapel.” Despite the annoying touristy feel of it, the Sistine Chapel is just one of those places that makes you richer as a person for having experienced it.

After that, we saw St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square. We started by going into the burial place of the popes, which was understandably a somber experience, and then moved into the magnificent basilica itself. The dome of it is so unbelievably large that you can’t help but feel incredibly tiny and insignificant next to all its grandeur and incredible artwork everywhere in the chapel. St. Peter’s Square also has that majestic feel, with its enigmatic obelisk covered in hieroglyphics at the center (Rome stole from Egypt SO much haha) and sweeping rows of columns. For such a small place, Vatican City certainly packs a large punch!

Once we went back to Rome, we had time for a nice lunch with Andrew’s parents before they sadly had to leave to go back to London. (They had some royal summons for various social events, you know, the usual.) After a brief rest, Andrew and I doggedly headed back out again to see the Castel de S’Angelo, which is the rumored spot of the Illuminati lair and a magnificent ancient castle. We did an audioguide tour, which was extremely thorough and very informative. Touring the castle made me realize what is so incredible about Rome: to be able to stand in a place where an ancient incredibly advanced civilization engineered marvelous things and to simultaneously be in the birthplace of Christianity is an experience you can’t really have anywhere else in the world. To know that you are standing in a hotbed of such multi-layered and fascinating history is just amazing! Two hours and many castle ruins later, we sat down with relief to dinner in a small pizzeria nearby and had delicious gelato before going back to the hotel completely exhausted.

But we had barely scratched the surface of “Ruins Weekend”, as I have now dubbed it. The castle on Friday was just the beginning of a rather exhaustive and deathly hot tour of various ruins of all sorts. On Saturday, we tried to get going fairly early, but by the time we had waited on line and finally purchased tickets to the Palatine & Roman Forum (a vastly shorter line than the one for the Colosseum, and the tickets are all inclusive of all three), it was about 11 am and well on the way to being the hottest part of the day. I thought I was prepared, with sneakers so I could do lots of walking, sunscreen, shorts and a tank top, and sunglasses, but after two hours with no shade except for ruined buildings and endless climbing up and down hills, the audioguide was not really registering with me and I was drenched with sweat and exhausted. Yeah that’s right, being a tourist is actually REALLY hard work…hahahaha. The Forum and the Palatine really were amazing, though, and seeing all the ruins of ancient temples and homes of Roman royalty was fascinating.

It was really dumb of us not to bring water in, and the second we left, we gratefully gulped down overpriced water from tourist stands and sat in the shade trying to catch our breath. Then we did the Colosseum, which was obviously not as taxing since it’s just one building. Thinking about the amount of people that died in that one arena is unnerving, especially when you realize it was all for sport. The Romans might have been incredibly advanced, but that part of their society definitely frightens me!

After all this, I was absolutely dead from exhaustion, and finally recovered slightly after taking a cold shower, refreshing my knowledge of Angels & Demons by skimming the rest of the book, and watching Friends. (I am so proud to have gotten Andrew totally addicted…hehe.) We managed to find a theater that was showing the movie in English and also was literally across the street from the church where the first cardinal was killed in the book, so that provided a really cool atmosphere to watch the movie in, obviously. Probably because I had literally just finished the book, though, I was kind of disappointed in just how far the movie deviated from it and made completely unnecessary changes. Oh well…it was still a cool experience and a great way to spend our last night in Rome!

So, conclusions on Rome:
- Out of all the cities we went to, it is by far the one steeped in the most incredibly vibrant and fascinating history, and being there, you really can feel it
- The contrast between the ancient Romans, with their emphasis on multiple gods and incredible feats of engineering, and the center of Christianity can also really be sensed when walking around the ruins and modern day Rome
- So much going on for so many different interests that it is totally easy for travelers like Andrew and me to be completely satisfied :)

Coming up: the most terrifying experience of our trip!

Europe Adventures Part VI: Florence & Tuscany

2009-06-16T14:33:00.001-07:00

On Sunday morning (June 7), we woke up super early so we could take a water ferry from our hotel to the mainland. The ferry ride was about an hour long (a little more slow than those glamorous luxury taxis) and we got to the mainland around 10 am, where we rented our hire car for the next several days! If it had been just Andrew and me, we would have continued taking trains, but since his parents were joining us, we decided a short while ago to get a car for the drive down from Venice to Rome, with a several day stop in Florence, of course. On the way to Florence, we made a stop in Maranello, a small town whose one and only claim to fame is that it has the Ferrari factory and Ferrari Gallera, the largest collection of Ferraris on display. You can only get into the factory if you own a Ferrari of course, so we checked out the gallery, much to Andrew and his dad’s extreme delight (and my lukewarm interest). Yes, it is definitely not something I would have done if I had been traveling by myself, but it was still a cool detour.

We got to Florence around 4, with just a slight amount of trouble finding the hotel since its name had actually changed. The hotel was really nice and comfortable, but slightly out of the way of the dead center of the city. However, it was right on the river, so it was a pleasant 20 minute walk along the river into the main district. As soon as we dumped everything at the hotel, I immediately dragged Andrew right into the middle of the city to go to the Galleria d’Accademia, which is where Michaelango’s David is located. Before finding the famous work, we viewed The Rape of The Sabines, which is unbelievably impressive, and also a cute side exhibit on various medieval and baroque instruments. Then we entered the room with the David, and I have to say it was near-spiritual experience for me. From the end of the hall, the sculpture practically glows with power and intensity, far overshadowing even the other amazing Michaelango sculptures in the hall. I seriously could not stop staring at it. The David is one of those sculptures that you hear about your whole life, but you just have to see it to believe how incredible it is. Beholding such genius is both humbling and awe-inspiring at the same time.

After that, we went to the San Lorenzo church area to look around the markets (I successfully bargained my way from a 120 euro bag to 30 euros…YES!) and then had dinner with Andrew’s parents at Trattoria Zaza, which is in an adorable little square near the markets. Thanks to Ellie’s recommendations, since she studied abroad in Florence, I definitely had my best dinner experiences there. The bread, the Chianti, antipasti, fresh vegetables, and gnocchi were absolutely delicious and exactly what I had thought Italian food should be like. Fully satisfied, we had a nice walk home and enjoyed the two English channels on the TV in the evening.

The next day was SUPER packed. Per usual, we got up early (I have gotten into a routine of never getting up later than 9, and typically around 8 or 8:30) and started out the morning by walking to Palazzo Pitti, the main site on the south side of the city. This was a palace taken over by the immensely powerful Medici family and is incredibly impressive. Unfortunately since it was a Monday we couldn’t get access to most of the exhibits in the actual palace, but we did have an extensive look around the gardens, which were incredibly ornate and huge, and offered fantastic panoramic views of the city. After that, we headed across the Ponte Vecchio, Florence’s famous bridge, which has adorable little houses built onto the sides of it which contain beautiful gold jewelry shops. It is very atmospheric and fun. Andrew's dad took this cute picture of us on the bridge:

After a quick snack in Piazza Republica, another lovely area filled with cafes and shops, we headed to Piazza Signoria, which is by the huge Uffitzi (Florence’s Louvre) museum and contains replicas of all the famous statues, so that is cool to walk around. Also, it was a historic gathering place for people, and I always like going to the main squares of the cities. Then we headed to the very center of the city, where the spectacular Duomo is. (On the way, I got this AMAZING gelato Ellie recommended, dark chocolate and raspberry…I am obsessed with Italian gelato, obviously.) The Duomo is the centerpiece of any Florence postcard and looks absolutely gorgeous, decorated with ornate green, pink, and white marble. Surprisingly, the inside is not nearly as pretty as the outside, though.

Anyway, after all this, Andrew and his parents were kind of exhausted, so they went back to the hotel, but full of Ellie-inspired energy, I decided to keep going. I ended up making the trek all the way to Piazzale Michaelango back on the south side of the city, which is a huge hill where you get a spectacular panoramic view of Florence from the top. The trek up was kind of exhausting, but the view was obviously more than worth it. It was so peaceful and relaxing to have a few moments to myself, just admiring the sheer beauty of Florence and the surrounding Tuscan hills.

Because we ended up seeing so much more than I’d planned on Monday, on Tuesday, we decided to make good use of the car we had and make the fairly short drive to Pisa. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, like the Eiffel Tower, is one of those tourist attractions that is always overrun but something that you just HAVE to see. It sticks out at you and you can’t take your eyes off of this example of engineering/architecture gone amusedly wrong. But the coolest part of this whole experience was that you can actually climb it! All four of us went up to the top through increasingly narrow and dizzying staircases – believe me, it is pretty unnerving to walk around the top of the tower and feel yourself going up and down because it is so obviously leaning. Plus, the view of Pisa itself is absolutely gorgeous…all in all, an AWESOME experience! After climbing down and regaining our balance, we checked out Pisa’s Duomo (the inside is actually prettier than Florence’s in my opinion) and Basilica, which has a very cool structure that lends itself to amazing acoustics.

This is actually not fake. That's how cool this place is. (And how good Andrew is at taking photos of me. :)

By this time, it was only midday, so we decided to head to Lucca, another cute medieval town, on the way back to Florence, but we then experienced a slight car problem. It turns out that the car ran on diesel, but we had put petrol in it when we got to Pisa. Shortly after leaving Pisa, Andrew and his dad realized their mistake, and immediately pulled into a service station. However, it was about 1 pm, and apparently everyone in Italy takes a lunch break until THREE THIRTY. Now, if I were with anyone else, I would have panicked to the max, but since I knew I was in the best hands possible (Andrew and his dad together can literally fix any problem), I just calmly sat down and read the Italy Lonely Planet book while Andrew’s mom got us ice cream and Andrew and his dad drained the car of all the diesel and then filled it with petrol.

After our little unplanned two hour detour, we still had a chance to spend a short amount of time in Lucca, which was enough, since it’s not very big. The coolest thing about Lucca is that it is a fully walled town and thus was able to defend itself very well against any attackers. It is also the birthplace of Puccini, which as a classical musical buff, I obviously find very cool. We had a nice coffee break in a cute square and did some window shopping in the narrow winding streets. Finally, we headed back to Florence in the evening in time for an INCREDIBLE dinner at La Giostra, which is a fancy restaurant owned by an actual Medici prince. It was dark and atmospheric, with lovely twinkling tiny lights everywhere and incredible food. We got this amazing platter of antipasti (I think every restaurant should have antipasti, stuff like bruschetta, proscuitto, and melon is just amazing) and I had a delicious very authentic risotto.

We did all our packing that night, and actually got to bed early enough so that I felt energized to wake up super early and head to the Bargello Museum before we left for Rome because Ellie really thought I would like it. Although most people go to the Uffitzi (and we unfortunately didn’t make it to that), there are such long tourist lines there that I was grateful for the fact that the Bargello is less well known. I found it absolutely fascinating because it shows the history of Renaissance and medieval sculpture, and since I was so utterly taken with the David, it was fascinating to see earlier representations of David by Donatello and also earlier sculptures of Michaelango. I am now totally obsessed with Michaelango and how controversial he was (like his Drunk Bacchus sculpture) and am just in awe of what an UTTER genius is capable of. So amazing!

So, conclusions on Florence:
- No better place than here in Italy to see art!
- Incredibly picturesque, with especially beautiful architecture around the Duomo
- AMAZING FOOD
- Lots to do there and in the surrounding areas, so I would definitely welcome the chance to come back to Tuscany and experience different things!

Coming up: Segway tours and Roman ruins

Europe Adventures Part V: Venice

2009-06-12T14:38:00.001-07:00

You know how when you travel, you have an image of a city in your head? And then when you get to the city, even when it is spectacular, there are parts of it that are a little unexpected? Like, Paris was incredible and beautiful, but had some really random, boring, or dirty areas, Monaco was just like I thought but actually slightly bigger and more confusing, and so on and so forth. My image of Venice, in contrast, was only enhanced upon my arrival. There are no words to describe the pure delight one feels upon stepping out of a train into a city that literally has no roads and no cars – just waterways and boats EVERYWHERE. It is the only city in the world that can truly say it is unique, and it is absolutely stunning. Out of every city I had been to so far, it absolutely made the best first impression on me, and I fell in love with it (and thus Italy in general) instantly. To add to our good luck, when we arrived last Thursday night, it turned out our hostel was a five minute walk from the train station, and we were transferred from our original 6 bedroom dorm to an available private one for the same price…SCORE!

So, I will attempt to describe how incredible Venice is, but it’s pretty difficult. It is an unending labyrinth of tiny waterways, grand canals, multistoried tiny buildings, and endless shops and markets. Make one wrong turn, and you find yourself on a different island, in another enchanting square. It literally seems like a city straight out of a fantastical, magical world. I found myself not able to stop grinning with delight upon each and every turn around its winding streets, adorable markets, and countless gelato shops (seriously, like every block). We ate dinner Thursday night at a little pizzeria and were able to look around enough to realize how much fun we were going to have, but then went to bed early so we could get up and find the hotel we were meeting Andrew’s parents at! (By the way, I will put a few photos up, but the majority of the good ones are on Andrew’s dad’s camera, so they will have to wait another week or so.)

Yes, Friday began “Phase Glamour” of the Europe trip, also known as Andrew’s parents joining us for a week in Italy and exploring in a style a little different from the one we had been experiencing for the previous two weeks. In the morning, we spent a good forty minutes confusedly traversing over several mini islands to get to the correct place for the hotel. This was exhausting because we were lugging all our luggage but also really cool because we got to walk through a lot of Venice, which is pretty much one big touristy open air market, combined with gelato shops and restaurants everywhere (aka Merri’s heaven). With only a brief stop at a patisceria for some unbelievably good pastries, we were covered in sweat but exhilarated when we arrived at the hotel (I am so proud of Andrew’s ridiculously good navigational skills). We freshened up and then went out to San Marco square, the most famous place in Venice. This square consists of a huge basilica and tower as well as wide open spaces, and it opens right onto the waterfront, where there are a large amount of yachts in addition to the usual gondolas, water taxis, and ferries that are present everywhere along the Grand Canal (the main canal that winds through the city). We enjoyed exploring around for an hour or so until we went back to the hotel and met up with Andrew’s parents in time for a late lunch.

In the afternoon, we looked at all the shopping around the commercial center and the Rialto Bridge (sooooo many adorable stalls), and then went on the best thing ever: A GONDOLA RIDE. Now, I know this is the quintessential thing to do while in Venice, but unlike many other tourist activities, such as looking at signs in Times Square or standing in front of the Washington Monument, this activity is actually way cooler than you ever could have imagined it. The gondolier stands on the back of the gondola, gently rowing on only one side of the craft, bending over to go under all the low-clearance bridges, and chatting in Italian with the other gondoliers. All you have to do is enjoy the experience of traveling along water instead of roads, admiring all the scenery in a way that you can’t see from land. Needless to say, I could not stop grinning in delight for the entire half hour ride. Later, we had a nice dinner at a cute place next to the hotel where Italian waiters had harassed us the whole day to try their food, and then went to bed early since we had a ridiculously packed schedule the following day.

Saturday, we started the day off by a quick look around the fresh produce markets by the Rialto Bridge, and then went to San Marco square for an extremely informative historical walking tour of Venice. Andrew and his family are really into these walking tours, and if you have the extra cash to shell out, they definitely make seeing the main sights in a city a lot more interesting, because you get all this cool background information on them. It’s even better when you have a native tour guide; ours was an adorable little Venetian woman with the cutest accent. We got to see San Marco square when it was flooding, which was absolutely eerie. The entire square was covered in water (about a food deep in some parts!), except for one very narrow pathway through which hundreds of tourists were struggling to walk through. This apparently happens twice a day during times close to the full moon, obviously corresponding to the high tides. Walking around the inside of the ornate and awe-inspiring basilica on a raised platform because there was water flooding the floor was an experience like no other. It definitely brought to the forefront the fact that Venice is a sinking city (it has sunk by 23 cm in the past century), because it was actually built on mud flats. So basically you need to visit it now because who knows what is going to happen in the next century! Seriously, the fact that the Venetians were able to create this massive empire and trading center from a tiny island is unbelievable.

After the walking tour, we had a quick lunch and then took a water taxi (more like limo, since they are ABSURDLY expensive, huge, and very pretty) to the Guggenheim museum, which consists of some of Peggy Guggenheim’s private works (mostly modern art). Although I have also seen the Guggenheim in New York, I can understand why she wanted some of her art in Venice and also is buried there. The whole museum was beautiful and my favorite part was seeing photographs of Peggy Guggenheim in her absurdly large house with all the art. So if you were her friend, you would basically go to her dinner party, and there would just be several Picassos on the wall. No big.

After exploring around that island for a bit (it was on the other side of the Grand Canal from San Marco square), we walked over a large footbridge to get back to the San Marco area, where we went to Harry’s Bar, this very pretentious bar that was the actual inventor of the fantastic peach bellini cocktail. Obviously, we all got them, and they were incredible. It’s always fun to go to a place where you know famous people go. (Ernest Hemingway, for example, frequented this place in his day.) Then, we went on our second tour of the day, this time by boat! This way, I really feel like we saw a huge amount of the island, because there are places you can only see by walking through narrow little streets, and there are other places you can only see by actually being on the waterways. On the boat tour, we also got to go out to the main waterway where you could actually see the mainland, so that gave us a great perspective on what a separate little idyllic place Venice is from the rest of Italy.

Obviously, that was a really full day, and I was so impressed with the fact that Andrew’s parents were power tourers just like us, and even walked faster than I could! By the end of the day, we were all kind of exhausted, so we had a chill night doing laundry (there was luckily a laundromat right down the street from the hotel), having a casual dinner, and packing. I have to say, I was probably sadder to leave Venice than any other city and it has overall been my favorite so far. Despite the mass crowds of tourists in places, it’s hard to describe it as anything but an utterly magical place.

Conclusions on Venice:
- Should be a stop on ANY Italy trip (particularly if you happen to have a significant other, with an obvious gondola ride planned on the itinerary)
- However, you must be prepared to spend absurd amounts of money. This is annoying but completely worth it
- It is impossible to describe the delight of seeing the amount of water and how efficiently the city functions with absolutely zero roads
- It is equally amazing to realize how the Venetians have an ancient empire and were a stronghold of trading circa 1000 despite their small size…after all, how could enemies conquer a city so utterly confusing to navigate?
- But, it is really eerie to realize how much the city has sank just in the past century, so visit before a freak storm happens or something!

Preview of next blog: we rented a car to drive down to Florence, stopping in Maranello to see the Ferrari gallery…

Europe Adventures Part IV: Nice

2009-06-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

Monday was a day of travel, with two four hour long trains taking us from Barcelona to Montpellier and then Montpellier to Nice. I am really enjoying this train travel thing, even though it takes way longer than planes, because the train stations are so conveniently located, and after our power touring schedule, it is actually really nice to have some time to just sit, relax, and do nothing. We arrived in Nice around 6:30 and after finding our small and modest hotel (but still totally one step better than a hostel, and really cheap), went straight out to the Promenade des Anglais. This is a street that runs all the way along the water and down the coast. Let me just say that I am really jealous that the French get to vacation to Nice, when all of us who live on the East Coast go to places like Ocean City or Myrtle Beach. Yeah, there is no comparison. For starters, the weather is almost always perfect in Nice, and the color of the water is astonishingly blue. The whole atmosphere in Nice, although somewhat touristy, also oozes of wealth, beauty, and relaxation. We walked all the way along the water until we got to the Cours Salaya street in Old Town, which is adorable and full of tons of restaurants that either are pizzerias or expensive seafood places…haha. We had a lovely dinner followed by REALLY fantastic gelato. (Definitely the best I have had on the whole trip so far, and it came in literally 90 flavors of gelato and sorbet, including flavors such as cactus, guava, passionfruit, lemon meringue, M&M, and nutella. I may or may not have eaten there every day we were in Nice…I mean, I had to try as many flavors as possible!)

Now, the only way of describing our day on Tuesday was that it was an EPIC FAIL. Looking back on it, it was absolutely hilarious how literally everything went wrong, and I guess we were due for one of those since all of the travel had been perfectly planned and executed up until this point. The day was great for about the first 20 minutes – we found a patisserie on our way to the beach and got a baguette and various French pastries.

Then things went downhill. I will now detail the day in bullet form.
- After asking Andrew to take a photo of me holding the baguette with the ocean in the background, I then yell at him for juggling the camera with various pastries. In consternation, he drops the camera. Camera is broken. I flip out.
- Various options are discussed for broken camera, which is clearly not fixable. Andrew’s camera works but is out of battery, and the charger is back in London in an unknown location in his parents house. We agree to try to find a charger for the camera and buy it somewhere in Nice.
- Go back to hotel to get Andrew’s camera so we can show it to people in the store. Attempt to take bus to get to the Old Port area so Andrew can look at boats. Neither of us understands the bus system, so we get lost and end up having to walk after getting out in frustration because bus moves so slowly in immense amounts of traffic.
- Finally find the port area, as well as a little place that sells tickets for boat tours of Nice. One has just left and the next is not until 15:00 in the afternoon.
- Decide to try to make the 15:00 boat tour, but first, try to find charger for camera somewhere in the middle of Nice. Andrew swears he saw a Virgin Megastore, so we should head in that general direction. “HURRY!” I say. The boat tour starts at 2 PM, and it’s already 12:30!
- Instead of trying to figure out any sort of public transport, we POWER WALK to the center of the city in flip flops, resulting in much pain.
- Realize in the middle of this power walk that even if we find a camera charger, we have nowhere to plug it into.
- Can’t find Virgin Megastore but do find an electronics store. After ignoring us, French staff tell us rudely that there is no way we can buy the charger without the camera. We do find disposable cameras, though, which I promptly buy.
- Manage to find public transport back to the port and are there by 1:15. Exhausted, we sit down at a café to have a coffee. Rude waiter completely ignores us, brings one water and no coffee, and then brings a bill including both drinks. We pay for half and leave in disgust.
- Realize that 15:00 is THREE PM, NOT TWO PM, so we actually would have had time to go to the Virgin Megastore. Am incredibly ashamed/embarrassed/annoyed. Try to go buy tickets for the 3 pm tour, only to find ticket office is closed until 2 pm.
- Decide to climb up hill to ancient castle where we will have a view of all of Nice. Go on exhausting climb all the way up and feel ready to collapse.
- View is actually more than worth it and absolutely stunning, but have to ask people to take pictures of us with embarrassing cheap disposable camera.
- Rush back down hill to get to boat office by 2:30. Are informed that the tour for 3:00 is full but we can get on an 11 am one tomorrow. FAIL.
- Disheartened, sadly go back to center of city (at least on the correct public transport this time) and find Virgin Megastore. They do not have any chargers.
- Andrew calls his dad who miraculously finds charger! We are meeting up with his parents in just two days so this is actually fine. Things finally start to look up.
- Go into a store to buy postcards. Leave store chatting when Andrew realizes he has no wallet.
- Race back to store. Wallet is totally gone. Frantically ask in several places where there is a police station. Are either ignored or met with mystified looks. FRENCH PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHERE THEIR OWN POLICE STATIONS ARE.
- Finally find someone who gives us directions to police station. Find station, only to be informed that this is not the correct station to report stolen wallets to.
- Give up. Go back to hotel so Andrew can report all stolen cards.
- In an attempt to be happy, go to beach. Andrew takes a refreshing swim and I lie with my feet in the water, finally relaxed.
- Salt water does not agree with Andrew, who begins sneezing uncontrollably.
- Go back to hotel. Use up all tissues in hotel. Go out to find pharmacy on the corner to get antihistamines.
- Pharmacy on the corner is closed. Manage to find another one and get medication. Commence search to find place with free WiFi because we have not booked a hostel for our first night in Venice before Andrew’s parents arrive.
- Ask at multiple places for free WiFi; are either met with rude stares or a “NON.”
- Finally find friendly bar where guy says “Oui!” after I ask “Est-ce que vous avez Wi-Fi?” We sit down, open computer, and find no internet. He then brings us glasses of WINE. I guess my French is even worse than I thought.
- After searching for an hour, finally just decide to go to the McDonald’s, which definitely has free internet. Thus, in Nice, I am eating in a McDonald’s. (You have to understand how much that hurts my pride.)
- Random lady, seeing we have internet, comes up to us and asks in a mixture of French and English if we can find some random hotel for her and all its information. She then takes over the computer for 20+ minutes while we stare in disbelief.
- Finally are able to book hostel after much research. However, we forget to write down the information for it, so we are now currently headed to Venice without knowing where it is. Oops.
- Walking home in exhaustion, we walk straight past our street and don’t realize it until a good 15 minutes further along the road. FAIL.
- FINALLY, go to bed.

So yeah, that was an interesting day. I learned from this that apparently Andrew and I do not work well when we do not have a specific plan. Thus, the next day, we formulated one, and it went much better. In the morning, we went on the boat tour of Nice, which was really fun and beautiful. We got to see the various bays around Nice and also all the unbelievably cool summer houses of the rich and famous. For example, Sean Connery, Elton John, Tina Turner, and Bill Gates all have incredible homes on the top of cliffs with little elevators going up to them from the water and such. It was like being on the TV show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous or something. Some of the houses had boat garages, all of them were palatial, and obviously they were all in absolutely perfect locations. I either need to know someone who gets that rich or get that rich myself so I can vacation in Nice in style the next time I go…haha.

After that, we made the bus trip to Monaco (only 45 minutes away) because Andrew desperately wanted to see the principality where the poorest person who lives there literally has like 2 million dollars. It was actually bigger than I thought it would be, but just as built up as I thought, with high rise buildings absolutely everywhere. We checked out the Monte Carlo but didn’t actually go in since they charge you 10 euros to even go in before you lose all your money at gambling…ridiculous. We also pretended we were rich and stylish by having lunch at a classy restaurant overlooking the enormous port, and then spent an incredibly long time looking at all the boats, some of which were not to be believed. Again, knowing someone with a boat in Monaco has become a life goal. By the time we got back, we were pretty exhausted from walking all over (it was also insanely hot and there was no shade anywhere!), so we got a cheap dinner and ate it back in the hotel while watching Friends and packing. It’s nice to know that I can bring my Friends collection all over the world with me; it’s just very comforting to have sometimes. :)

Conclusions on Nice (and Monaco):
- I could not live there permanently because the fact that they have unbelievably good baguettes for 1 euro and pastry shops on every corner (not to mention the amazing ice cream) would make me obese in approximately 2 weeks.
- However, a summer house/boat is an extremely good life goal.
- Rocky beaches actually have some advantages over sandy beaches, mainly in that I get no annoying sand stuck to me everywhere, which is actually awesome. However, the rocks kind of do hurt to walk on a lot.
- Old Town is an absolutely adorable area, and obviously the shopping in Monaco is fantastic too, but the only way to really do either of these places is on a boat for at least some of the time!

So now, we have spent pretty much the entire day on various trains! We had a brief stop in Milan which made a horrible impression on me (really bad food, and then I tried to find something for the train that didn’t look disgusting, and all the supermarket had was appalling looking food, ugh), but now are headed to Venice! The next two weeks are going to be BELLISSIMA. In particular, the entire next week, we will be traveling in style with Andrew’s parents, so I kind of can’t wait. We are also going to be driving down from Venice all the way to Rome (stopping in Florence for several days obviously), so it will be a different way of seeing the country! Although this moving every few days is pretty exhausting, there is nothing that beats the excitement of seeing a new city, and I feel like I’ve really started to settle into a rhythm of travel. I can’t believe this trip is halfway over already!

Europe Adventures Part III: Barcelona

2009-06-06T13:59:00.001-07:00

On Saturday morning, we got up super early to take an 8 am train to Barcelona from Madrid. (On the metro we of course saw people coming home from going out the night before, haha.) This train was definitely the coolest one we have been on; it went up to 300 km/hr and was very comfortable. I slept pretty much the whole way and before I knew it we’d arrived in Barcelona around 10:30 am. Now, I was very excited about our accommodation here because we had booked it using this site called “Top Secret Hotels”, which feasibly gives you huge discounts on four and five star hotels, but without telling you the name of the hotel until you actually book it and pay the money. So this is obviously kind of risky, but it’s fun too, and so we had booked these top secret hotels in several locations on our trip, of which Barcelona was the first. So yes, this hotel was absolutely beautiful and worlds better than any hostel. However, it was also actually in the middle of a ghetto. I am not kidding. This hotel was in a creepy semi-neighborhood area in the middle of NOWHERE. It was a good 15 minute walk from the nearest metro station, which was not even close to the cool part of the city. Oh well…the beds were amazing and it was so delightful to have a beautiful and clean bathroom that it almost made up for the terrible location.

After freshening up, we headed to the marina area of the city, and I instantly fell in love with Barcelona upon discovering that there are little markets and stalls absolutely everywhere you turn. Jewelry, art, antiques, food – all sold by cute little vendors – yes, this is absolutely my kind of city. After wandering around happily for a bit, we made our way up the La Rambla street, which is one of the best streets I have ever seen in a city. Full of lively vendors, music, and all types of stalls (from caricatures to flowers to jewelry to postcards to parakeets), it is incredibly entertaining and fun. One random and totally weird thing that I had never seen before were all the human statues (we must have seen at least 20 in one fairly short walk). Basically, people dress up hardcore (elaborate costumes, lots of face paint, etc) and stand COMPLETELY still, and wait for people to put money in a bucket in front of them. Firstly, this is weird and seems like it would take a whole lot of effort (although it is entertaining). And secondly, if there are human statues every few feet, how are you supposed to make any money?

By far my favorite part of the entire street was La Boqueria Market, which is this HUGE food market that sent me into a state of bliss. Perhaps the only other food market I have seen of this size is the Queen Victoria market in Melbourne. It was definitely among the best, if not the best, food market I have ever seen. There were stalls upon stalls of incredible fresh fruit and fresh squeezed fruit juices for unbelievably cheap prices. After a solid week of eating basically no fruit at all, this was pure joy. Strawberries, cherries, mango, pineapple, watermelon, YAY! There were also stalls of seafood so fresh that it was actually still alive (yeah, lobsters and crabs were just crawling around). And of course, there was some delightful chocolate and dessert places as well. Yeah, Barcelona definitely made a stellar first impression on me.

Coming out of the market, we actually ran straight into Matt and the guys he was traveling with, which was hilarious because we were planning on meeting up with them later but obviously didn’t expect to bump into them in the middle of the street! We made plans with them for later and then spent the afternoon checking out the famed Gaudi Sagrada Familia, which is the most unique cathedral I have ever seen in my life. It is still under construction and very hard to describe, so I will just put in a photo.

This Gaudi style architecture (art nouveau) is what the city is famous for and is distinctive, incredibly modern and fascinating looking.

Then we went back to the hotel and actually went to the beach for a bit (it was a 20 minute walk), which was nice, and then I got to work out in the fitness room (YAY HOTELS) and check out the rooftop pool and terrace as well!

Later in the evening, we went to La Font Magica, which is a fountain show set to music in front of a large palace museum at the other end of the city from our hotel (of course). This was pretty touristy, but actually amazing. Basically, for two hours straight, you listen to a mix of various types of music, from Tchaikovsky to One Republic, and the fountains are timed along with it. There are also lights that change color. Again, it’s kind of hard to describe how cool it looked; the best I can come up with is that it was kind of like a fireworks show in fountain form. Then, we were starving, so we had dinner with Matt and his friends. It’s definitely been cool randomly getting to meet up with a few other people I know who are traveling through Europe as well!

The next morning, we went to the Picasso Museum, which is the most popular one in Barcelona. I am just totally in awe of Picasso and all that he accomplished, and it was fascinating to see the artwork from the early years of this genius’s life and how it developed as he grew older. I really enjoyed seeing his sketches, prints, and ceramics, since I’d never seen anything like that in other museums. Suffice it to say that I am a huge Picasso fan now and really interested in learning more about his life in general. After that, we took a trip uptown to see more Gaudi style architecture in houses and apartments. It was really cool to walk down the street, just seeing normal looking buildings, and then suddenly a Gaudi-style one just JUMPS out of you because it looks so dramatically different from everything else!

After lunch and a visit to a really fancy chocolate shop, we found ourselves back on La Rambla and ended up going to the small but entertaining Musee de l’Erotica, which is a history of, well, you can probably guess. By then, we were just really tired out from the past several days so we went home early and spent the evening relaxing and packing in the hotel.

Conclusions on Barcelona:
- Definitely the most confusing public transport system yet. I absolutely adored how efficient and easy Paris’ was, and Madrid’s was pretty good too, but Barcelona’s totally confused me at first. None of the metros seem to connect in logical locations, and there are all these random trams everywhere…or maybe it was just that our hotel was in the middle of nowhere.
- Personality-wise, Barcelona was better suited for me than Madrid, just because of its tons of markets and entertaining streets.
- Madrid and Barcelona are definitely alike, though, in their relaxing culture of cafes and restaurants which all open up on the street, which is so fantastic for people watching!
- Its architecture really sets it apart from any other city I have seen…it is so distinctive and impressive!

Europe Adventures Part II: Madrid

2009-06-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

So now I am on a train from Nice to Milan and realizing that pretty much the only time I have to sit down and do extensive updates is when I am on these long relaxing day train rides. Without further ado, Spain adventures…

On Tuesday night (26 May) we took a night train from Paris to Madrid. The purpose of this is threefold – you have a whole day in Paris to explore, you have one night that you don’t even need to pay for accommodation, and you arrive in Madrid refreshed and ready to start a full day of touring there. Now, in theory, this sounds great, but in practice, not so much. We were in the lowest class, so the seats only reclined, and the footrests didn’t even work, so we were pretty much tossing and turning all night in increasingly odd positions as we attempted to get any sleep at all. Of course, arriving in Madrid was exciting and all, but we were by no means refreshed. Nonetheless, we powered through and saw a lot that day. Madrid is full of plazas – rectangular areas with great architecture and lots of cafes. The first thing I noticed about Spain is that no one really ever seems to work. At 1 PM, the cafes are full of people eating lunch. At 4 PM, they are still full of people eating lunch. By 5 PM, they are full of people having drinks. By 9 PM, the dinner process starts. At 11 PM, it is in full swing. And around midnight, people start thinking about going out, but the clubs don’t even get going until about 2 AM. Oh Spain.

That is Puerto del Sol, a very famous square in the heart of Madrid!

Anyway, that day, we saw a bunch of plazas, a cute little food market (yes, it is my goal to find them in every city), and the Palacio Real, where the Spanish royal family lived and still does, I believe. Apparently the palace has even more rooms than Versailles (over 2000), but the tour is only allowed to see a very small part of them. Nonetheless, it is every bit as impressive as French palaces, but just in a different way. Although after seeing room after room of impressive architecture and massive ceiling frescos and ornate furniture, I have to admit it all starts to kind of look the same to me.

Another great thing about our time in Madrid was that our hostel was in a perfect location – pretty much in the dead center of the city (although there were a lot of prostitutes all over that street, but that’s okay). After a brief rest at the hostel and finding a hidden place with the best paella EVER, we went to the Centre Reina Soffia, which is where there is a bunch of modern Spanish art, including Dali and Picasso, and most importantly, Picasso’s Guernica. This is the enormous painting that Picasso painted in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War that depicts terror and horror in his characteristic cubist style. I actually gasped when I first spotted it from across the room; it is that breathtaking. Unlike the Mona Lisa or other masterpieces in the Louvre, there was not an unmanageable crowd around this piece, and it was so large that you could just stand in different parts of the room and pick up totally different things about the work of art. I was probably more blown away by this painting than I have ever been by any other artwork. It is hard to describe how accurately and chillingly this painting represents the horrors of war. It was unbelievable!

Obviously, we were pretty tired after that, so after some rest at the hostel, we had a casual evening at a couple of bars sampling delightfully cheap wine and beer (compared with Paris, it was like half the price), croquettes (little fried things of goodness), and boccadillos (adorable little Spanish sandwiches).

On Thursday, we went to the Museo Naval in the morning because I try to find things in the guidebook that Andrew really likes instead of just finding food markets for myself. :) The most interesting thing to me in this museum was seeing a huge map of where all the Spanish explorers went in the 1400s and 1500s, as well as seeing the first ever map that included a representation of the Americas. After that, we found the Park Buen Retiro, which is a huge park on one side of the city where both tourists and actual Spanish people hang out, apparently. There is a beautiful lake in the center of it with a big memorial on one side to King Alfonso II, and you can rent boats and row them around the lake! Doing that was probably one of my favorite activities that we have done on the trip so far.

The weather was perfect, it was so relaxing, and rowing boats is also just really fun. Then, we went to the Plaza Santa Ana, which is lined with cafes, and upon inspecting all of the menus quite carefully, ended up at a place with absolutely amazing tapas. That lunch may have been the best meal we’ve had on the whole trip, and definitely the best one in Spain. For those of you who don’t know, I pretty much think tapas is one of the best food concepts in the world. I absolutely love trying lots of samples of various types of food, so for me, tapas is the ideal way to eat, and I went just a little crazy ordering. We had garlic bread with tomatoes and olive oil, vegetable skewers, meatballs, mushroom crepes, croquettes, and steak with caramelized onions, just to name a few off the top of my head. :) YUM.

That night, we were actually able to meet up with Lauren and some her friends who are also currently traveling through Europe! I really wanted to meet up with them not only because I obviously wanted to see her, but also because she is very good at going out till the wee hours of the morning, and being that this is such an integral part of Madrid culture but also something that I don’t really do very often, I needed the extra motivation. We all went to dinner at a really crowded place at the top of a random unmarked building which had a great view of Madrid, and then went to this club called Kapital, which doesn’t even open until 12:30 and has seven stories. It was ridiculous (and ridiculously expensive). Probably my favorite part of this club (aside from its seven levels of craziness) was the fact that on the main dance floor, there was a stage where two given people would be at all times – either two women or one woman and one man. They either wore frilly lingerie outfits, or in the guy’s case, no shirt, aviators, and really tight white pants. The women moved a little bit and did random dance moves, but all the guy did was stand there, occasionally moving a foot or bobbing his head. I can’t believe that this is those people’s jobs…hahahaha. It was a lot of fun, but I have to say the most exciting part of going out was getting hot chocolate and churros (another big Spanish thing) on the way home at 4 in the morning.

The thing about going out till late and the main reason that I don’t do it is that you are tired the next day and thus are not as productive. We didn’t get up till about 11, and then went straight to the only thing we wanted to do that day, which was the Monastery and Palace of San Lorenzo el Escorial, about an hour outside Madrid. This was built in the late 15th century by King Phillipe II, who was extremely religious. The entire site was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen; it absolutely blew my mind. It was like seeing an amazing art museum, architecture gallery, palace, monastery, cathedral, crypt, and library all in one! The artwork depicting religious scenes was unbelievably extensive, detailed, and fascinating. The quarters of the king and royal family, in contrast with Versailles, were actually quite sparse instead of opulent and glamorous, as the clear focus in this place was living a religious life and not an extravagant one. By far the creepiest part was seeing the mausoleum, where the bodies of every single member of the Spanish royal family since the 1400s lie, including a tomb for all the royal family members who died as babies. (AAAHHH!) The library was also amazing as it has an extensive collection of works dating back to the 12th century and several models of the solar system that show the Earth at the center of everything instead of the sun. It was a fantastic way to spend the day, and by the time we got back to Madrid, we were content to have a legitimate three hours or so of downtime (the first we’d had on the whole trip pretty much) to do laundry and sort through tons of photos.

So, conclusions on Madrid…
- Very metropolitan, almost reminds me of New York in parts
- AMAZING TAPAS!!!
- I love the mix of old royal culture combined with the newer Spanish culture of relaxation and partying
- The idea of plazas with lots of cafes with random people playing the accordion as you have your meal is pretty much my ideal setting for eating; no wonder the Spanish enjoy taking such long lunches!

Europe Adventures Part I: London and Paris

2009-06-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

I am currently on a train from Barcelona to Nice and this is literally the first time I have had some time combined with the actual energy required to start blogging about this trip! It hasn’t even been two weeks since I’ve left the States, actually, but so much has happened and I’ve been to so many amazing places that if I wait much longer before writing about them, I’m unfortunately going to forget a lot of the details. This trip has been a dream of mine ever since I came back from studying abroad and I have been saving up money my whole life without any particular goal of spending it, so this trip obviously provided the perfect outlet. Of course when I started my initial planning I had no idea I would be making the whole trip with a boyfriend, of all things, but I have to say it has made it a million times better. So really the learning experience on these travels is twofold – discovering incredible places that I’ve never seen before and learning about fascinating history and art, but also growing personally and discovering new things about my wonderful relationship.

Anyway, as the title says, this blog will mainly be about Paris. I am going to try to write a blog about every two cities or so, eventually comparing and contrasting them, and since everyone knows how absurdly long-winded I am, feel free to just skip to summaries at the end. :)

So, the first tiny part of our trip was London. I took an overnight flight there from Wednesday to Thursday, and this turned out to not be the best idea, since I was so excited that I literally slept for about one hour. Also, I was flying Aer Lingus (yes I know it sounds hilarious), the Irish airline, and not only was it cheap, but it had all this state of the art technology where you could play a ton of TV shows and movies on your own touch screen television. It is honestly a mystery to me JUST how much US airlines suck compared to the rest of the world’s. Anyway, on Thursday we had a pretty relaxing day, just unpacking some stuff and looking at some beautiful homes that Andrew’s parents are considering buying. The real estate agent they are working with sold both Madonna and Hugh Grant their homes so I got to see both of those – just another day in the life of the Smith family. (It is kind of high-end living and I can’t get over how exciting is is even though I already spent a week with them over spring break.)

On Friday, we accidentally slept till noon after setting the alarm wrong, and then spent pretty much all afternoon planning out logistics of our trip, including coordinating with Andrew’s parents so they can spend a week with us in Italy! I am incredibly excited about that now that it’s all planned, but it was kind of stressful trying to figure out all the hostels/hotels/flights/trains/clothes to bring and everything else. I felt like the whole trip had just kind of crept up on me SO fast!

In the late afternoon, I had the great pleasure of getting to go to the Chelsea Flower Show, which is this very prestigious annual gardening event which the Queen attends as well as thousands of other people. Basically, you walk around drinking Pimms (this amazing deliciously summery British drink) and looking at hundreds of posh gardening equipment stalls and all these unique creatively designed gardens by some of the best gardeners in the world. We saw tons of cool sculptures, beautifully designed food gardens, and even a garden made out of Pleistocene! (see below)

After that, we went to dinner at a really nice Thai restaurant, and later that night got to spend time with Andrew’s aunt, who is really young and hip and probably one of the coolest travelers I have ever met in my life. She has been SO many places and had all sorts of advice and interesting experiences to tell us about, so that really got me in the mindset for the trip!

Saturday, we got into Paris in the early evening after extensive last minute and panicked packing, a short flight, and waiting forever for our bags. The first thing we did was go straight to the Eiffel Tower and because the lines are so long to take an elevator up, we just decided to get in the short line to climb all the stairs. Well, this was a great idea in theory, and I do a lot of step and stairmaster workouts, but after a day of traveling, this was SO exhausting. Obviously, the view was more than worth it, and it was just so incredibly exciting to be in Paris! We had perfect timing, too, because by the time we got to the top, the sun was just starting to set (it sets so late in Europe, around 10 pm), so we were able to see the Eiffel tower in daylight, dusk, and then all lit up at night. It is such an incredible structure and every bit as impressive as I had imagined. There is something about being in Paris that just gave me this energy – it has such a romantic, artistic, exuberant feel to it!

On Sunday, we probably had our most power touring day of the whole trip. (We are actually kind of crazy and tour at a breakneck pace.) In the morning, we got up and discovered that right across the street from our hostel was this huge food market, so I went crazy with excitement, obviously, and had a field day trying to order all these things in French (I feel so shy talking to French people since I know they hate Americans, but hopefully they can at least appreciate that I am making an effort?). Then, we went to the Musee D’Orsay, which had an incredibly long line (the first time I have ever seen a line to get into a museum, actually, I think) and had a great time looking at the gorgeous Impressionist art. I am by no means an expert an art and pretty much consider myself to know almost nothing, but even I was absolutely blown away by the amount of famous pieces all within mere feet of each other – masterpieces by Van Gogh, Monet, and more. It is one thing to read about these pieces or see small photos of them in books and quite another to get to stare at them. It is humbling to be in the presence of such incredible talent!

Then, with no time to rest, we took a train straight out of Paris to see the imposing Versailles. This was also ridiculously crowded and touristy, but WELL worth it. The size and opulence of the estate is absolutely mind-boggling! Every single room in the enormous palace is decorated to perfection, and the gardens in the back must be full of at least 50 HUGE fountains and countless perfectly trimmed hedges and pathways. It was unbelievable! Obviously, after spending like five hours there though, we were completely exhausted, especially because it was really hot out. We collapsed back at our hostel for a while and then went back into the center of Paris to get a lovely dinner close to the Pompidou. It was around this time that I realized we really couldn’t sustain the kind of pace we were taking and had taken when we did London over spring break, because we are in for a solid month of just travel and we would actually collapse from exhaustion…haha.

On Monday, we took it slightly slower, going to some gardens, the Pantheon, and Notre Dame in the morning before having a leisurely lunch at a little crepe café and then getting Berthilion ice cream (widely reputed to be the best in Paris, apparently). Obviously when you are traveling with someone, you are going to have different interests – Andrew loves architecture and deeply intellectual things, and I tend to love food and markets and shopping…haha. But we intersect on a lot of stuff and manage to do things that both of us like in every city; we are definitely remarkably compatible travelers. After lunch, we did the Louvre in the afternoon, which, like Versailles, is incredibly overwhelming and intimidating when you first step foot in it. But I have to say I am totally impressed with us and the speed we covered the whole museum while still getting to see absolutely everything we wanted and additional really interesting things. I am really glad I went, obviously, even though it was quite exhausting, because like the Musee D’Orsay, seeing such incredible works of art all in the same place was unexpectedly moving to me. It was so amazing to see a history of pretty much every civilization represented through art. After this, we were completely exhausted, so we wandered around doing some window shopping in this classy area of Paris before having dinner at the heinously early hour of 7 pm because we were so tired and wanted to go home. (Another thing that has taken a little getting used to is having dinner at 10 or 11 pm, but after Spain, this is now no problem…but that will come in the next entry.) We stumbled into a little restaurant and were happily surprised with how nice the waitstaff was before realizing they were actually Italian, not French. Not surprising. (And also makes me more excited for Italy, haha.) Below is my best impression of a Mona Lisa smile...haha.

Tuesday was our last day in Paris, and it was unfortunately raining, but that didn’t put a damper on me as it usually does, because it is impossible to be unhappy in Paris. (Plus, we had gotten free internet at our hostel and I had obviously prepared rain-worthy outfits.) We took a look at some adorable food shops in the morning on the Rue Cler and got an AWESOME crepe (believe me, I tried a lot of crepes, and one thing I learned is they vary greatly in quality), and looked at the Arc de Triomphe and walked and window shopped along the Champs Elysses. Then, we went to Montmarte and saw the Moulin Rouge (so exciting!) and walked around the adorable narrow streets until we found our way to the marvelous Sacre Couer. The view of the city from there is just breathtaking, even in overcast weather, and the church itself was so peaceful and calming. Then we had a late lunch in the Salvador Dali square, where people shamelessly scam tourists for bad caricatures (we may or may not have been victims of this…I don’t want to talk about it haha). Finally we headed back to our hostel and then to the train station to take our night train to Madrid!

So, a few conclusions on Paris off the top of my head:
- LOVE the city. Love it even more with a boyfriend because it is absurdly romantic.
- So much to do there and so many different areas that it is impossible to see it all in just a few days, obviously
- French waiters are very rude and this makes me sad
- To get REALLY fantastic food in Paris, you either have to know about an out of the way restaurant or pay absurd amounts of money
- The artwork is absolutely awe-inspiring and humbling at the same time…just amazing

I am so glad that I have FINALLY gotten to go to this amazing city, and it was a fantastic start to the trip!

Beach Week and Graduation

2009-05-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

So as I finally sit in my kitchen with only a week to go until my world vacation begins, I honestly find myself at a loss for words (which doesn't happen often). I guess I'll just start where the last entry left off and see what spills out.

After my last entry, I spent the next couple of days starting to clean, helping Alex get my furniture, finishing up final emails, and organizing a few final last things. Then we went to Myrtle and Friday and had an absolutely wonderful five days. Unlike my senior beach week in high school where I literally gave a play by play of every single day (really? yes I really did), I think I will just sum it up by a typical day:
- Wake up at 10:30 or 11...and then fall back asleep till 12:30
- Breakfast; Andrew and I clean up entire kitchen and throw away 230598 beer cans
- Beach time! Or random exploring of Route 17 bargain stores before going to beach time
- 4 or 5 PM: Obligatory ice cream meal
- 7:30 or 8: Dinner (some places were better than others - we had experiences at Dick's Last Resort, where they write nasty things on paper hats and are MEAN to you and yet the food is absurdly expensive?!, a fun Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo, and an AMAZING waiter at Denny's after Spanish Galleon on Saturday night...hahaha)
- Late night: go out, go out, go out, or in Andrew and my's case, for the most part watch other people get drunk, go out to a few clubs, and sometimes visit other houses :)

It was absolutely wonderful, especially getting to spend time with MaryEllen and Brian - the four of us have a fantastic time together and it was really great getting to know them as a couple better too. It was also great to actually get to spend time on the beach and in the water and has only made me more excited for the legitimately amazing European and Australian beaches...hehe.

Then, there was the weekend of graduation. Included in this was:
- Baldwin ceremony
- Baccalaureate
- Mechanical Engineering breakfast
- Reception in the Duke Gardens
- Official Commencement (w/ Oprah as the speaker!)
- Official handing out of diplomas for all engineers in the Chapel
- Two super fancy dinners out w/ family Friday and Saturday nights (Magnolia Grill + Watts Grocery = HEAVENLY FOOD EXPERIENCES!!!)

So, even spread out over three days, this was absolutely exhausting. Juggling time with family, Andrew, and friends in addition to moving everything out of my apartment and going to all these things and trying to also keep my peace of mind was a little challenging, to say the least. However, the whole weekend overall really was quite wonderful, even if it was exhausting. The Baldwin ceremony was touching and funny, Baccalaureate was surprisingly non-boring, and the official commencement ceremony was actually quite exciting the entire time. (It was just the Pratt ceremony that took FOREVER...273 diplomas and each person having to walk across the stage and get a picture...ugh.) Having my proud parents there was touching and sweet for me, as always, and having an incredibly amazing and supportive boyfriend made everything easier as well.

What I was probably most surprised about the whole weekend was how even though everything felt so final, I did not shed a single tear at any of the events. For some reason, although I feel moved, I do not feel an incredible amount of sadness. I feel resignation for some friendships that I wish could have turned out a little differently, and wistfulness for knowing I just won't be able to keep in touch frequently with everyone who I adore, and nostalgia for all the incredible, amazing, reflective, learning experiences I had at Duke. But at the end of it all, this is the end, and it was our time.

Now that I am technically in the real world, though, I am still far from being a real adult. I started off my summer by traveling with Andrew to see Ian and Shea at UVA, Larissa and her family for a brief stint in northern VA, and NYC to see Sam. On Wednesday, we leave for Europe, and still have massive amounts of planning to do! I find it hard to really start on things, though, because things at home are extremely difficult, and perhaps the greatest sobering reminder of my adulthood is my interactions with my brother and parents.

Another thing that I have always done at the end of each year is write long, reflective letters to each of my friends. I have not written a single one and I am wondering if I did these letters for them or actually more for myself. If the latter is true, perhaps I have changed to an extent where I don't need these written reminders of my specific friendships with people? Or perhaps I really just had absolutely no time, or perhaps I took all the time I did have and chose to spend it with actual people instead of writing in a room by myself. Whatever the case is, perhaps I will get around to writing them when I have some downtime in airports, but I just didn't want anyone to think they got left out or anything. :)

This has not been the most comprehensive or self-reflective post I've ever done, to be sure, but that is because this time honestly is not as emotional for me as my graduation from high school. I know how good my keeping in touch with people skills are, since I've done it with all my high school friends, and I don't particularly want there to be a sad and solemn air of finality about this whole graduation thing. Not to sound cheesy, but this really isn't the end - it's a beginning, and I know there are nothing but exciting things to look forward to over the next several months!

I will be updating this blog as frequently as I can as I travel around the world, and hope to put various pictures and things on it as well. Now I just have to start packing...ahhh!

Post LDOC and Abrupt Life Changes

2009-04-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, this one will be shorter. So, after LDOC was over, I felt more relief than I ever have in probably my entire life. Also, Rowan (Australian in Austin) came to visit Andrew and me, so that was amazing! I slept for 11 hours that night, and on Thursday we took a tour of the lemur center (Duke's lemur center houses like 50 percent of all lemurs in captivity in the WORLD...crazy, right?) and just had a chill dinner and hung out.

Then on Friday, after much car trouble which my gallant boyfriend fixed for me (haha), we went to NoVA! Andrew and Rowan explored DC museums and monuments, and I got the best pedicure of my life. (That way, all parties were happy.) I just got to get away from everything Duke related for like a day (although home related things are never a walk in the park exactly), do some travel research, and revel in the fact that LDOC WAS OVER.

However, there was one more assignment: our heinous final paper for mechanical design. This got done Sunday night starting at 9 PM (the paper was due Monday morning at 7 am). There is nothing quite as fun as churning out a 45 page paper in like 5 hours with your favorite engineering men. And then going to Kinkos at 2:30 AM with Kyle and Alec to print said paper. ENGINEERING, I'M DONE WITH YOU FOREVER. SUCK IT.

More details of my EUROPE/AUSTRALIA EXTRAVAGANZA have been planned! Attention, world wide friends - Merri might be coming your way! The current plan (and all plane/train tickets are BOOKED, baby, although no thanks to my idiotic credit card companies who keep stopped all my purchases...ARGH):
London: May 20 to May 23
Paris: May 20 to May 27
Madrid: May 27 to May 30
Barcelona: May 30 to June 1
Nice and Monaco: June 1 to June 5
ITALY (Venice, Florence, Rome, and more maybe!): June 5 to June 19
Back to London and possibly to Paris again to see the Air Show: June 20 to June 22
AUSTRALIA (starting in Perth, moving to SYDNEEEEEEEY): June 23!!!
Back to US (super sad face): July 22. boo.

Then, yesterday, a super big life change hit me in the face as I was attempting to study GMAT stuff. A FedEx package came today informing me my start date has been moved back...TO DECEMBER 1.

Yeah, that's right. I suddenly have 3 additional months of vacation. It came as quite a shock. It initially seemed like way too much time and I obviously hadn't planned for this to happen - I want to get out there and start my career! But I am all about exploring different opportunities and when I really thought about it, when else in my life am I going to have the opportunity to visit my friends all over the country? Or travel the world? When I retire? Once I really buckle down and start my career, there will be few, if any, breaks. I need to take advantage of this time in my life right now, just live in the moment, and take nothing for granted, because things really can change at the drop of a hat. (and that goes for the economy, relationships, friendships...anything.)

So that's my musing of the day. I'm definitely happy. It's certainly mixed with nostalgia and bittersweetness, though...I have no more work or stress whatsoever, but I can't believe this has all come to an end. Tomorrow, I give Alex most of my furniture. That's when it is really going to start to sink in.

LDOC...AT LAST

2009-04-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

Well...wow. The last time I posted, it was not LDOC, I still had final projects and presentations, school was not done, and now, exactly two weeks later, I am suddenly facing six months of absolute free time. A lot has happened in the past two weeks, so I'm going to break it up into two entries, I think...haha.

To backtrack a bit:
The weekend before LDOC was great. I saw All of the Above (monologues about Duke women that are utterly fantastic) and DUI's Big Show (Duke comedy team which is hilarious), and on Sunday, Andrew and I went to brunch with Alyssa and Dave. This quickly turned into the BEST BRUNCH OF LIFE as guess who happened to be brunching with us? Why yes, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, because he is in Durham filming the movie Main Street (along with Colin Firth!), and she is his stunningly beautiful Victoria's Secret model girlfriend. Seeing as you all know about my celebrity obsession, seeing some up close was REAL fun for me. tee hee hee

Things abruptly went downhill Sunday night, though, with a disastrous LDOC meeting where we had to address the fact that we'd gone over-budget and this was apparently a big deal (even though it happened by twice the amount last year and has never actually NOT happened). What should have been a positive celebratory meeting turned into me fighting back tears of anger as negativity reigned supreme. (hahaha I am so melodramatic.) The next couple days were a blur of UTTER stress and tension and melodrama and pointless campus politics. I actually admire Andrew for putting up with me because when I am that stressed I know I am really not a fun person to be around. It was actually probably two of the most overwhelming days in my entire life, perhaps only exceeded by the week last semester when I had to deal with my grandfather's funeral, choosing a job, AND finals. Ew. Last week, in the space of two days, I had:
- A final paper for my failure class (written day it was due)
- A final big presentation for mechanical design (done night before with the four other guys in my group, all while they were drinking beer...pretty indicative of our work ethic all semester long)
- Deal with people attacking me from all sides on budget issues/other campus politics issues (I have decided I need to get WAY better at taking criticism before I can get involved in upper level management. Right now let's just say I take it way too personally.)
- Insane LDOC t-shirt handouts.
- Oh right, trying to pull off/oversee all logistics of THE BIGGEST DAY OF THE YEAR.

By the time Wednesday came, I'd barely slept in a couple of days, had not registered I'd actually finished college (since my classes actually finished on Tuesday), and was full of extreme nervous energy combined with disbelief over what I'd actually gotten myself into. And it was quite a day indeed. There were 30 mph winds, so all trash cans and recycling bins were blowing over, and I got pollen in my hair, ears, nose, throat, etc. My committee was spectacular and from a production standpoint, everything ran incredibly smoothly. In fact, I was blown away by how insanely organized and chill everything was...until about 3 PM. Suddenly, I looked out on the main quad, and it was like the whole campus had poured out there, everyone was getting wasted, and there was trash absolutely EVERYWHERE. I kind of started freaking out, and it only got worse. Our opening acts, as incredible as they were, didn't exactly encourage either sobriety or environmental sustainability. Here is what happened when Girl Talk went on stage:
OH MY GOD I'M ON YOUTUBE

What you cannot see there is that the stage started BUCKLING. When I leave the stage it is because Jordan is screaming at me to get everyone off. By this point, most of my committee and all of their friends are drunk, and this is kind of difficult to do. There then followed the worst half hour on my life, as I attempted to navigate among the mobs of people trying to get on stage (I could only let two people get on at one time), appease the screaming tour managers that were freaking out about their bands' equipment, stare in horror at the TONS of toilet paper being blown out into the crowd with these huge industrial blowers (thanks, Girl Talk people, apparently you didn't get the memo about how we are trying to REDUCE waste?!) and run out on the stage intermittently to drag people off. It was horrible and overwhelming and I am not going to lie when I say that I went into a bathroom right after that act and cried until I could pull myself together.

The rest of the concert went fine, and I got a couple moments of peace at the end when I happily got to sneak onto the back of the stage and watch Ben Folds perform, which was wonderful. (Gym Class Heroes were crazy. Travis, their lead singer, is INSANE and completely drugged out all the time and rode around our campus on a Segway at 1 AM until I convinced him to go to Shooters instead. No joke.) But other than that, I have to say I was pretty pissed off that I didn't receive any special perks for managing this concert - not a single autograph, no photos, no meet and greets. (Although my own special selfish gift to myself was having the Makepeace Brothers who have the best music ever, and we got a private show on Tuesday night, so that was kind of spectacular.)

The buildup to LDOC all year long was fantastic, and I have learned SO much about how Duke works by getting to interact with so many members of student groups, OSAF, and the administration. But I have to say, the day itself was not fun for me. Being in charge, that day, was an UTTERLY thankless task. I felt like a failure for not being able to change any aspects of the day even though I'd been working on it for months and essentially devoted my entire life to it this semester.

As I stood on the trash-littered campus at 1 AM, when 99 percent of Duke students were either back in their dorms, passed out, or out at some bar drinking more, I realized more than ever how disgusted I am by the fact that it is apparently acceptable in our culture here to get drunk, throw your waste on the ground, and expect other people to clean up after you. But there is only so much one person or even a committee of about 15 people can do to change an ingrained culture. I was so disappointed to see the day spiraling out of our control, and even more upset when the concert ended and the quad seemed as littered with beer cans and trash as ever.

I understand that for reasons of tour groups and the like, it is not possible to just leave the trash lying on the ground, but I wonder what the student reaction would be if the Grounds people didn't come in and clean up after us at 5 AM. Perhaps then some more people might realize how embarrassing it is that this kind of behavior is acceptable? There are so many things I love about Duke and its students, but I feel that LDOC, like Tailgate and other events, brings out an ugly side of our culture, and it is absolutely gotten to the point where I think more
people need to become aware of the waste they are creating and not expect other people to clean up after them.

And the thing is, Duke students...you can pretend all you want that you don't care and are crass beasts...but even the grossest of you are human at heart. (Well...there are some Dukies who are probably beyond redemption, haha.) I am not pretending to be a saint here, and I KNOW I am not the only one who feels this way. It's time for some more people to do something about it. And I'm graduating, so I hope some other people will step up.

Last Orchestra Concert

2009-04-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight was our last orchestra concert, and we played Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, basically having an abridged version of the play performed alongside by Duke students. It was by far the best concert I have ever played at Duke, and so it really was very bittersweet. I started thinking the other night about how I felt at the end of my senior year of high school. (after I wrote my last blog, I decided reminiscing was more important than sleeping and then read my old blogs from senior year of high school till like 3 am...bad life decision.) I still remember my last orchestra concert in high school like it was yesterday. We were playing Tchaikovsky's Symphony Pathetique, which is probably one of the most devastatingly sad pieces of all time. I was overcome with emotion in the first movement and basically couldn't stop myself from tearing up the entire piece. Luckily, this piece and play in general are HILARIOUSLY funny and just full of joy, but that didn't mean I didn't feel some emotion in certain parts of the night...when Professor Davidson was making a speech about the seniors before the concert or when we were playing particularly romantic and beautiful passages.

Like I said in my last post, music has and always will be an incredibly important part of my life. I can not accept that this was my last time playing in an orchestra, but for the first time, the future is uncertain. My viola playing and music after I graduate will be entirely left up to me, with no set agenda whatsoever. The thought scares me a little. But I am glad my time with the DSO could end on such an incredibly wonderful and happy note (literally)!

The only thing that saddened me was how none of my friends were able to make it to this concert. My dad came down from home, which was incredibly sweet of him and meant a lot to me. And I know that most of my friends here are not involved with music like I am, but more than that, it's representative of a greater phenomenon at Duke, where we get so caught up in our own INSANE lives and how much we have to do (especially at this time of year!) that we simply don't have the time to devote to incredibly cool performances like these. I personally regret how many amazing endeavors I know I've missed over the years...various fashion shows, theater shows, musicals, dancing showcases, acapella concerts...this campus is just so incredibly talented in so many ways. What I loved most about this performance was that the audience was the most diverse I have EVER seen. All of the actors were Duke students, and three football players played some of the funniest roles with such perfect comedic timing that it is impossible to describe. That makes me love Duke even more - that our athletes can get up on stage with an orchestra behind them, put on wigs, and dance around...and then recite advanced Shakespeare. You can not tell me that is not INCREDIBLY AWESOME. And thus, in our audience, aside from the typical crowd of octogenarians, we had the entire football team and all sorts of Duke students who have never been exposed to music like this before.

This marriage between music and theater was everything I could have hoped for. I think it was exactly how Mendelssohn would have wanted it to be. I have this weird thing about performing music where I like to imagine that the composer of the work is able to hear it from wherever he is now, and his spirit is somehow able to come back and experience it as it gets performed again and again over the years. I would really like to think that the spirits of both Mendelssohn and Shakespeare enjoyed what went on at Duke tonight. I know that I truly did.

Reflections on Relationships

2009-04-13T21:51:00.001-07:00

Ah, how did two weeks go by so fast? Suddenly it's April and the END IS NEAR. Obviously, this will result in and already has started a lot of personal reflection, but first, review of a few things, mainly MY SENIOR RECITAL...which was a week ago and a huge (albeit incredibly nerve-wracking) success! It was so exhilarating to play two full length pieces (Bach #6 and Walton) in such totally different styles, and really pound them out from start to finish. Thanks so much to those of you who were able to take the time out of your busy lives to come support me - it means more to me than you will ever know. Also my parents came for the weekend, which was so sweet of them, and it was great to see them down here! There are so many events happening right now for so many people that it is obviously impossible to make it to them all, but I know the special feeling you get when even just one friend is there to congratulate you after an accomplishment, and it really makes it all worth it. So mostly I was enormously relieved after all that was over, but it also kind of led to an emotional let down, making the next few days kind of emotionally difficult.

Last week was senior week, which brought up a lot of feelings for me - excitement, sadness, nostalgia, bitter-sweetness (yeah I know that's not really a word). It didn't really hit me until last week just how difficult it is to balance a legitimate romantic relationship with much longer-lasting friendships. (I say the word legitimate because I thought that I figured this balancing act thing was hard in high school, but I don't really consider my extremely limited and hilariously erroneous relationships back then to exactly be representative of the real thing.) Throughout my time at Duke, I have always been so steadfastly single and independent (and selfish, to quite a degree, as well) that I never really bothered to truly put myself in the shoes of someone in a relationship. Like imagining the correct way to raise children when you yourself are not a parents, it's quite easy to think about how you would handle balancing a relationship with other aspects of your life when you are not actually in one. In practice, well, theory does not really cut it.

I personally don't feel like I have changed my fundamental beliefs on friends and relationships at all since starting to date Andrew, but I am not sure that other people in my life necessarily see it this way. The ways that I see I have changed in the past few months is that I have become vastly less cynical, I actually believe that I am capable of not screwing up a relationship, and I have realized that compromise and trust are key...and that it's okay sometimes to really devote yourself to one person. I think at the start of any relationship, you worry a ton about what other people think. I worried about being not seen as single anymore, what my friends would think, what people in general would think when they saw us together...pretty much everything was a HUGE insecurity for me. I would like to think now that I have surpassed that. What truly matters is not what other people think - if they don't like him or don't like me when I'm in a relationship, but rather my opinion of myself and how satisfied I am with the health of the relationship. Like everything else in my life and my personality, it's always a work of progress. But I like the way that it's progressing, and it saddens me to realize that others may not see it as I do. One thing is for sure - when I am single again, I know I will not view others' relationships the way I did through the majority of college.

Relationships, not just romantic ones, take an enormous amount of time and effort. They are about working through each other's differences and learning to see the world through others' perspective. I feel that I put more time and effort into my relationships with people than I do with almost everything else in my life. (well, save maybe LDOC right now, haha.) Thus, I can't help but feel like a failure sometimes when a friend is upset with me, or I go too long without seeing someone (a Duke friend) or talking to them (a TJ friend).

I remember this point senior year in high school - feeling like I had a lot of friends in many different groups, but not feeling like I truly was a "member" of any one group of friends. It's funny how history repeats itself, for I feel the exact same way now. There are advantages and disadvantages to this, obviously - sometimes I feel really left out, but other times I feel so incredibly loved by lots of different people. In any case, it's definitely gotten to that point in the year when I am wondering who my friends will be for life. There are so many people who I enjoy spending time with at Duke...but it's a straight fact that I know I will put more effort into some relationships with people than they will with me, and they will eventually die out, as we just keep in touch less and less often. Doesn't mean they are not legitimate friendships right now, but it is knowing that fact that just makes me really sad right now.

On a happier note, I could tell pretty much three months into college that a core group of people from high school would be my friends for life, and now I am looking forward to being able to figure that out with a number of Dukies as well...and seeing where we all end up all over the world is going to be a source of such joy for me!

Beaufort 2009: Comedy of Errors

2009-03-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe that March is almost over. Since coming back from spring break the days have just flown by! I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated but not too much has happened...highlights are:

- I have realized that I literally have zero motivation to do any school-related work. It’s kind of a problem since there are two large projects for my engineering classes due in a few weeks and they are not even CLOSE to done.
- I am freaking out about my senior viola recital because I have never played two huge pieces in their entirety (a full Bach suite and the Walton concerto!) and it is in a WEEK.
- I am freaking out about LDOC because it is about four weeks away and there are so many logistics to figure out that I am ultimately responsible for that it is quite intimidating!
- I am trying to go to as many events as possible and see as many people as possible, obviously, while juggling a relationship at the same time...difficult, but doable do to the aforementioned lack of time put into any actual schoolwork. :)
- I got 14 out of the sweet 16 teams and was ecstatic but now my bracket is done because Duke and Memphis and Pitt lost. :(
- I signed up to take the GMAT for real. Ack. However I’ve gotten much more studying for it done now that I bring the study books to lectures!

This weekend was my last trip with the orchestra to Beaufort, South Carolina for a benefit concert to raise money for their cancer center, which has become a favorite part of the year for me. (I have been for the past four years.) I am not as close with the orchestra here as I was with my high school orchestra, but I love that this trip always brings people together in unexpected ways. So many things went wrong this time that it was actually hilarious. We were supposed to leave at 5 on Friday but didn’t end up leaving till 6, there was then a traffic jam on 95 when we were stopped for a full two hours, and then the bus drivers for some reason drove straight past the exit for Beaufort and we ended up in GEORGIA. We ended up getting there at about 2 in the morning, meaning that what should have been 5 hours on a bus turned into NINE. (Let me just point out that I could have easily flown back to London in that amount of time.) And all our hosts are 70+ years old and it was so sad that they had to be up that late for us! But it did afford us the opportunity to all watch a funny movie, listen to party music, and ultimately have a fascinating discussion on race relations, Duke, and the state of our country and the world for a long time. Conversations like that are by far the best when they are not forced and among people who really are racially diverse and willing to listen openly to one another. It was so gratifying and made me feel really reflective and grateful for the opportunity to be exposed to people from such different backgrounds who all share a love for music.

However, we did not get to our house at 3 in the morning, and they did not change our rehearsal, which was at 10 am the next day, so that was not fun. We also had to play with the Beaufort high school choir, which would have been fine, except the scores for our music did not match up, so we literally spent an hour trying to figure that out, which was absurd. We then went back to the house and I had the best nap of my life in the afternoon...haha. But the concert did end up going really well - we are playing Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream music, which I absolutely adore because it is beautiful and also really challenging, and we always get a really good reception from all the charming old people. :)

I also love going to South Carolina because the hospitality here is so unbelievable. I was happily able to stay with the same people I did last year, who literally minutes after meeting us gave us free reign of their guest house and the keys to their car. You just don’t find that brand of generosity up north, I think. Kristian and I, who have been roommates for the past three years, immediately took over the house and car like we had been living there for years...haha. It was just crazy because it felt like practically no time had passed since we stayed with them. These people open their homes to us for the weekend, give us tons of food, and throw this huge amazing reception for us after the concert with amazing catered food and an open bar. And after four years here, some of the people genuinely remember me and take an interest in my life and what I’m doing after I graduate, which is just really touching. This is the first of what I am sure are going to be many “lasts” over the next month, and it’s really starting to hit home how little time I have left at Duke...

On a happier/weirder note, one thing that is extremely amusing to me is the "South of the Border" stop between North and South Carolina. I am on the bus typing this right now and we have seen no less than about 20 signs (and this is in both directions) starting about 95 miles from the border advertising this place. It is difficult to describe how insanely odd these billboards are, but I will try. They are huge, brightly colored, and have a wacky phrase, followed by the words "South of the Border: X miles!" Some of these phrases include:

You’ll be tickled pink! (With a picture of a flamingo)
Shalom! (To attract Jewish people???)
World’s #1 Miniature Golf (Um, it is the best in the WORLD?)
Only inn with 24 hour security! (Really. The only inn.)
Around the world antiques! (Oh yes, for those antique fans)
You never sausage a place: you’re always a wiener at Pedro’s! (There are no words to even describe my reaction when I saw that one.)

The sad thing is that when you actually pass it, it’s just this huge compilation of buildings with empty parking lots. It’s like this sad abandoned theme park with huge signs and neon lights that no one actually goes to. Yet they somehow maintain enough revenue to continually pay for these huge billboards for 100 miles to the north and south of it. Fascinating.

Okay, that was my random tidbit for the day, I’m done now!

March Madness Predictions by Salary

2009-03-18T10:32:00.001-07:00

Well, at least Duke can win it all in this little contest...hahahaha.

I found this so entertaining.

LONDON!!! Part II: Last Three Days

2009-03-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

So I have to update on the rest of London before I get either too lazy and forget or too busy and have no time (both of these things could actually happen simultaneously, I'm thinking).

Tuesday: We took a day to go out of London! First, we visited Stonehenge, which was absolutely amazing. (In a pre-historic, random stones in the middle of nowhere kind of way.) Seriously, though, there is something about seeing these eerie looking gigantic rocks in the middle of a paddock with sheep around and one lone highway winding by that really makes one think about the history of civilization. We got audio tours so we could learn more about the history and it was fascinating to be listening to various facts as I actually looked at the site. The experience would have been infinitely better if I had brought a hair tie, though - it was INSANELY windy, and I essentially turned into Cousin It. Problem.

Then, we continued on to the city of Bath to tour the Roman Baths, which is their greatest tourist site. And for good reason - it is a museum that houses the actual ruins of a huge Roman public bathhouse and temple from circa 70 AD. Incredible! You just don't get history like that in America. As most of you know, I am far from a history buff, but there is something about learning true history standing in an actual location where events occurred that makes it so much more tangible and real. If you close your eyes, you can almost imagine what it was actually like back then, and they also do a terrific job helping you out with those images by reconstructing exhibits very artfully.

We headed back to London in the late afternoon, made somewhat cross by traffic and fuel in the car running out...but this temporary bad mood was instantly cured when I ran across an adorable frozen yogurt place called Snog (again, recommended by the amazing Sara), and literally told Andrew to just pull the car over so I could hop out and get frozen yogurt. Yes, I suppose I can be rather demanding. :)

Wednesday: My birthday! This was probably the best birthday I have ever had, honestly. Or at least in the top three. I was awoken by some absolutely lovely gifts from both Andrew and his parents - jewelry, mini cupcakes, a Harrod's apron...yay! Then I spent several hours on Regent Street making my way up from Piccadilly Circus (kind of the Times Square-ish theater district) to Oxford Circus, being TOTALLY overwhelmed by the sheer number of stores. Honestly, it was more than Melbourne, more than New York...I have never seen so much shopping in my life. When I just wandered off the street for a minute, I stumbled upon Carnaby Street and a whole NEW glorious melange of adorable stores and eateries. I was like a kid in a candy store. No matter what city I go to, I have to be given at least two hours by myself to browse its shopping district. It's not even that I buy anything (I never buy clothes, and normally just get some souvenirs for family or friends) - it's just that I so fully enjoy the atmosphere and walking around totally by myself soaking it all in. :)

Then it was back to the flat to change and go to HIGH TEA at the Lanesborough Hotel, which is this fantastic pretentious hotel with an equally ritzy high tea service. Obviously only the most ridiculous hotels can get away with this custom of high tea, where they serve you tea and pastries and charge as much as a full dinner or even more. But it is an experience, as any amateur foodie such as myself could tell you. It started with an amuse bouche of sorts, moved on to selection and serving of the tea, then tea sandwiches, quiches, and pastries, and finally traditional tea cakes and scones with clotted cream and preserves. I was in heaven. (Of course, I took pictures of all the food. I am totally nerdy like that.) On the way home, we browsed around in Harrod's (I love that we could just pop in whenever we wanted), and then later, we had a fantastic dinner at a fancy Indian restaurant, where Indian men brought dessert over to the table with a HUGE SPARKLER (not a candle, it was 100 times as big) and sang "HAPPY BIRTHDAY! *CLAP CLAP* HAPPY BIRTHDAY! *CLAP CLAP*" at the top of their lungs for at least 5 minutes. I was thoroughly embarrassed (in the best way, of course). And I also got a lot of facebook love, which is certainly appreciated too...so it was just an incredible birthday. :)

Lovely display in the dining room :)

Thursday: Last full day...so sad. I visited the L.E.K. office in the morning, which was great because it made me see how my future really could involve working internationally. Then I walked to the Kensington Whole Foods (again...thank you Sara!), which honestly was not quite as incredible as the Whole Foods in Austin, but was awesome - very tasteful and full of incredible baked goods and colorful produce and the like. Then in the afternoon, I went to the Tower of London, which was another incredible historic experience. Standing in the place where so many have died such brutal deaths is truly eerie. And looking at the Crown Jewels is kind of bedazzling, literally. I went on a really entertaining tour and it was so cool to actually be interested and engaged in history, something that I am normally not enthusiastic about at all.

Tower of London fortress and the Tower Bridge!

So then we headed home on Friday, in time for my family birthday dinner Friday night. (Yes, we actually had four birthday dinners in one week...haha.) We toured some of DC Saturday despite the rain and my heinous mood because of it, and got to see Nathalie, which was delightful, and now I'm back in North Carolina, ready for the home stretch of school.

Not only is it somewhat terrifying that LDOC is so close (simply because I'm planning it), it is also quite unnerving to think how little time we have left. Obviously I will post more on this later because I don't want to think about it right now, but I know I am not the only one who feels this way at Duke. I think so many seniors start to truly become socially comfortable right at the point when we realize we just need to relax and enjoy it...and by that time, we just don't have that much time left here! Don't get me wrong, I am TOTALLY over the school part of college (like, I seriously can not bring myself to work anymore at all; it's kind of a problem), but I absolutely would love this time period of sleeping in and hanging out with friends and fun conversations, from the meaningful to the superficial, to continue indefinitely. This truly has been the semester where I am the happiest, and it feels so genuine that I can't help but be amazed at my good fortune.

Enough gushing, off to catch up on TV. :)

LONDON!!! Part I: First Three Days

2009-03-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, the past few days have been packed with so much fun and exploration that I figured I had better write one entry half-way through the trip that describes it so I won't have as much to do at the end. (I am remembering my 3 entries for my week in NZ that ended up being about 10 pages long...I'd prefer to not have to do all that, but what can I say, I like to remember things and reflect about my traveling a lot!)

So, backtracking...

Wednesday/Thursday: Wednesday was a day reminiscent of first semester, with me literally being out of the apartment for pretty much 12 hours straight. LDOC meetings, viola lessons, seeing friends, and absurd amount of orchestra rehearsals and then the actual concert contributed to utter exhaustion...but then it was spring break! Andrew came home to meet my parents - this went quite well, and we even seemed like a kind of normal family. My mom cleaned up the house so much it was actually ridiculous and honestly it has probably never been that pristine in my whole life. :) (love you Mom! hahaha) I watched Lost and nearly had a heart attack from excitement. I went insane packing so we could leave really early the next morning!

Friday: Travel day. I love airports and planes, just see any of my other traveling entries for why. The flight to London isn't even that much longer than a flight to California - it was about 6.5 hours...just enough time to nap, read, and watch two movies. (I chose Twilight - dumb but entertaining, and The Changeling - CRAZY GOOD BUT SUPER DISTURBING.) Then we arrived in the evening and I got to see Andrew's parents AMAZING flat. Seriously, this place is not only beautiful but also in the best location ever - minutes away from cute shops in Chelsea, museums, and AWESOME department store shopping (aka Harrod's).

Saturday: Wake up bright and early for a ridiculously busy day...it was Andrew's birthday, so we had a gazillion things planned! We went to breakfast at a fantastic little French bakery, and then to the Borough Markets, which is London's biggest food market. (Basically, I need to check off everything on the list Sara gave me, because we are soulmates and like the same things, and she recommended this highly.) Then, we came back, stopped at the flat for like 5 minutes, and then went to no less than THREE museums: Science, Natural Science & History, and Victoria & Albert. By that point, we were truly exhausted, and only got like an hour of rest before heading out for the best night ever! We saw Wicked, which was AMAZING (I'd never seen it before and absolutely loved it!), and afterwards went to Annabel's, an extremely exclusive members only dinner and drinks club. (Andrew's dad has been a member for like 20 years...other members include Daniel Craig, Kevin Spacey, Princess Diana, etc...I mean, WHOA.) We had the best champagne and amazing steak and I just felt totally like royalty the whole evening - it was positively surreal.

Champagne toast at intermission...yay :)

Sunday: no time to rest, we had a full day planned for Sunday as well! We started out in the morning at the Imperial War Museum, which was Andrew's idea, but I actually ended up liking it way more than I thought I would. There was a very disturbing and emotional exhibit on the Holocaust, and it was so fascinating to see all the information on World War II presented from a British point of view instead of American. It is way more interesting to me to learn about history from other countries' perspectives through museums in the actual countries than it ever was to open a textbook in class. Then, we walked to the London Eye in the Embankment area for a fun touristy ride and incredible panoramic views of London (the highlight of which of course is Big Ben and Parliament...couldn't stop taking pictures!).

Then we headed to Tate Modern, which is an amazing modern art museum. I realized that in the past couple years, I actually legitimately enjoy and try to appreciate modern art way more than other kinds of art, and this museum's exhibitions were set up so masterfully it was just a pleasure to look at everything. Then we walked across the Milennium Bridge and took a quick look at the awe-inspiring St. Paul's Cathedral before heading home...at which point Andrew collapsed and I went back out because I absolutely had to hang out at Harvey Nichols and Harrod's for a bit. (YAY. Why are London department stores so much infinitely cooler than American ones? Also, why can't American department stores have food halls? Then they would earn my respect for sure.)

Monday: Today was helicopter ride day! Andrew's dad actually flies helicopters in his spare time, so it was with a bit of trepidation but mostly excitement that I accompanied the family out to a private airfield. After tons of waiting around to make sure everything was safe and such, we headed up for an exciting 45 minute flight over the English countryside and eventually landed on the Isle of Wight, where we lunched at a fancy little hotel right on the coast. So baller. I could not even believe I was flying in a helicopter!

After we got back, I also got the opportunity to take a long run around Hyde Park, which was a perfect way to end the date. I am so happy that Andrew realizes my need to be by myself when exploring cities and thus I have had my own time to reflect - one of my absolute favorite things to do in a city is explore its parks by running in them. It was so peaceful and I really enjoyed the imposing King Albert memorial in the park as well as the various ponds and fountains...I bet it's even more beautiful when all the flowers bloom in spring!

So far, there are honestly no words to describe how incredible this trip has been...it's like this ridiculous little dream that is actually happening. Tomorrow is my birthday and although it's a little weird to not be with my family or any of my friends from home, I can not imagine a place I would rather be right now. (The agenda includes lots of shopping and High Tea at a fancy hotel...eeeeee!) I absolutely adore this city and it's so different from the last time I visited it, which was the first time I had ever been out of the country. Larissa and I had the best time ever, but I am obviously way more independent and traveled now and thus think I can have a more complete enjoyment and appreciation for the magnitude and diversity of things to do in this amazing city. And L.E.K. is headquartered here, so who knows...I may actually end up living here at some point!

Okay, I've already babbled on for enough, so I am going to go read a book, and an update on the last three days of the trip shall come later this week!

Chilling in Durham

2009-03-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

So I haven't posted for almost two weeks because nothing really earth shattering has happened to me recently...I've been at a semi high level of running around, but honestly, I am way more relaxed and do far less work than I have ever done at Duke this semester. (which of course has resulted in me being way happier than I've ever been, haha)

Highlights of the past couple weeks include:
- Learning about wines with the sommelier from the Fairview at the Washington Duke Inn (managing wine tastings makes me feel like such a baller)
- Having some time to just relax by myself (aka bake and watch TV)
- Having dinner with some of my favorite junior girl friends and going out and dancing at Shooters with them and actually having FUN. Seriously, when I was a junior my second semester after coming back from abroad, I was miserable. These girls are not only happy, but also insanely fun to hang out with and I can not get enough of them.
- Our senior Baldwin check in dinner, where I positively SHOCKED the Baldwins and our program directors by going public about my non-single status. Hilarious.
- Baldwin gatherings in general...every time I hang out with even just one Baldwin or a small group of them, I'm reminded how much I love this program and it's really hitting me as we get closer to graduation what a strong and amazing network this is turning into! Give us 20 years and we will be ruling the world. Seriously.
- Really working things out with LDOC from an Earth Day standpoint. This is so exciting to me and it seriously feels like all my goals and dreams for this celebration are coming true! We should be getting some money from outside sources, we will be able to go carbon neutral, and every aspect of the event will be organic. GO LDOC COMMITTEE!!! Now I am sure after spring break I will enter a full on panic mode; however, right now I am in a very happy place. :)
- Learning a new routine in hip hop class!
- Having my sleep schedule totally disrupted by random trips to the airport to pick up Andrew from his various jet-setting, which caused my immune system to weaken and then I got kind of ill, but due to his care I have gotten mostly better, haha.
- The LIBRARY PARTY! This party reminds me of everything I love about Duke. So many people turn up, I always see a ton of people I know, and I just love that it is a party in the library. I took Andrew with me and he was quite tolerant of meeting like 203598 people in the space of about 1.5 hours.

Me and Andrew...

The lovely Sara and Lynn...

And Rosh and Cho in the "club area" that is actually my favorite study spot, haha

- Planning our London trip! Obviously, much blogging time will be devoted to what is going to be the best spring break ever. The plans currently include some of the following: Wicked, a helicopter ride, the Tower of London, HIGH TEA, awesome museums, and a trip to Stonehenge. I want it to be Friday RIGHT NOW.

But first, the following needs to happen:
- Orchestra concert
- Assignment completion (right, that whole school thing)
- An enormous amount of packing
- A full car ride home plus Andrew meeting my entire family (ohhhh wow)

On a totally different happy note, it snowed today, and it was beautiful. I love the randomness of our weather in NC...

I can not wait to hop across the pond. It's been far too long since I've been out of the country!!!

Learning to be less cynical

2009-02-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

Well, at least I like to think I am trying. :) I have had another wonderful week, and sometimes, when things are going so well, I can't help but see it as being surreal, or at least not sustainable. I am so used to hating Valentine's Day, listening to power chick/breakup music, and hating on various mannerisms of guys that having an abrupt change in mindset over the past several weeks has been rather unsettling, I must admit. (but in a good way!) This doesn't mean that I can't still do these things, but I truly am trying to tone down the cynicism of the bitter single me in exchange for a slightly less sarcastic but no less charismatic/ridiculous version. When I was catching up with Larissa today, we realized that I am a single person who has suddenly ended up in a legitimate relationship. Who would have thought. As such an open person, I was kind of surprised that I am finding it strangely difficult to talk about it, mostly because my identity has been so focused on ME and independence for nearly as long as I can remember, but I think I am ready to become at least a little more public about it. :)

Things that were fun this past week:
Hip Hop class per usual...we are learning a routine to a song called "Love Sick" that consists of lyrics like "Cry me up a river, boy, I hope you feel SO LONELY and that you MISS MY LOVING." It's actually ridiculously hard and I just practiced it in my room for half an hour. At one in the morning.
Driving up the side of a mountain on a gravel/mud road in western North Carolina and being slightly terrified
Skiing with Andrew!
Dessert on Valentine's Day...see below...(um wow)

LOST WITH SARA. Dinner with Sara. Trader Joe's and TCBY with Sara. LOST AGAIN. Actually, absolutely anything with Sara, because it is impossible to be around her and be sad or stressed in any way. :)
All conversations with friends from home that involved lots of giggling...haha.

Things I am getting super excited about in the semi-near future:
London over spring break!
Gym Class Heroes (seriously, have you listened to their music? They are so catchy, and we have them for LDOC. Oh yes we do.)
MAKEPEACE BROTHERS and how they are the sweetest most underrated group ever
LDOC going green - it's actually going to happen, and I am really proud.
Wine tastings going even classier, with professional sommeliers and everything

Okay, hip hop high has semi worn off, going to bed now.

Texas: Land of Contrasts

2009-02-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

So I am sitting in the Austin airport waiting for my flight and am reminded of how one of my absolute favorite times to write things is either in airports or on planes. I know this might sound weird, but I love the feeling of being in an airport so much. I am sure that as I travel more and more, especially for business, it will wear off, but I hope I will always be able to take a step back occasionally and remember what I love about the atmosphere of airports. They are so full of life, and you can see the entire spectrum of human emotions, from love and excitement at reunions to immense frustration and anger (haha). And I love the idea that in any airport you can just walk by all the gates (something I always do in order to scout out the best stores/food options) and see all the places around the world where you could go. Airports make life seem ripe with possibility. I am also intrigued by the subtle differences among airports around the country. For example, in the San Francisco airport, you can get about a gazillion kinds of salad, sushi, and all sorts of coffee. Here in Texas, my options seem to consist of seven different kinds of barbeque, Auntie Anne’s pretzels, and beer. Oh Texas.

I absolutely loved my trip here, and it was exactly what I expected it to be in terms of two places that are huge contrasts to each other. On Wednesday, I flew into Dallas to meet up with Taylor and Genna and meet their AMAZING baby, Toby! They were such wonderful hosts and so sweet to pick me up and take me back to the airport and everything. They have a really nice house in the suburbs of Dallas and a family that currently consists of far more animals than babies (but we’ll see how that develops over the next several years, hehe). They have four cats, one BEAST of a dog (Charlemagne, who is the sweetest dog ever but is like 200 pounds and definitely the largest dog I have ever seen in my life), five chickens (all named Henrietta!), and of course baby Toby. I have to say, before I met this child, my maternal instincts were basically completely dormant. The last time I spent extended time around a young child was when I babysat, and that was back in middle school. In our college environment, it’s not like we really get the opportunity to play with babies much, and I remember being really surprised when I visited Lauren at UVA that she and her housemates babysit and nanny for small children so much. Especially after learning how difficult it is to balance a career with a family last semester, I’ve become convinced that it is not necessary to have children to be happy.

All that being said, though, I instantly fell in love with Toby, who has the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen on a baby, and I could not stop staring at them. One thing I love about babies, aside from their utter innocence, is the way they can just stare back at you because they obviously have no idea of the social norm that it is not polite to hold someone’s gaze for an awkwardly long period of time. I think looking into a baby’s eyes is perhaps the purest experience one can have. Small children live so in the moment – they are so unabashedly HAPPY or REALLY SAD, and it’s just fascinating to watch. Genna told me so much about early childhood development and the ideas the two of them have on raising children, and it was really interesting. Taylor works on the weekends, so he had all the time I was there off, so I really got to see the relaxed pace of life they can lead, even with the enormous amount of care and attention that a baby requires. And watching their small but growing family, I realized for the first time that yes, I really might want to be a mother some day and have my own family, when the time is right.

Ahh, he is SOOOO CUTE.

We did some really fun activities – we went to a cute diner, an awesome Mexican food grocery store, watched Lost together (I mean obviously, thank goodness Taylor is a lost fan), went to a coffee shop and antique store, had a picnic in a state park (which was so pretty!), and went to the Dallas farmer’s market, which was AWESOME. I have never been to a farmer’s market that is so freely giving of a gazillion fruit samples. The berries were also really cheap, so by the time I left, I had consumed approximately seven pounds of fresh blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries, with tastes of pineapple, tomato, cucumber, watermelon, and cantaloupe thrown in. Yum. It was such a delightful experience to become part of the family for a few days and be immersed in their way of life. It’s amazing to me that people who are the same age as me are in such a radically different place in their lives, and what I love the most about that is that we can still come together and have a wonderful time and share our different experiences. They are very into sustainable living, so they have started composting, will be getting more and more of their own animals, and Genna is planning an amazing vegetable garden for their really cute backyard. I can’t wait to see the way their household develops over the years to come and I certainly hope to be a part of Toby’s life, since he is basically the most precious baby I have ever seen. :)

The Eckstein family!

So spending time in Dallas was wonderful and relaxing and enlightening, but then it was on to Part II of my trip: Austin! I had never been to Austin before and I would definitely visit again. It is such a crazy city. I was also particularly appreciative of my Australian hosts, Rowan and Mike, because they were so accommodating and generous. After spending time around Australians and foreigners, I have determined that they are just nicer than American guys (sorry, I am sure there are exceptions…or maybe I’ve just been exposed to too many of a particular type of American college guy, haha). Rowan came all the way to the airport to pick me up, and got me all situated in the co-op where they both live. I have never seen a co-op before and I think it’s an incredibly cool alternative to Greek life. Basically, every person in the co-op has a job, and they are a completely self-sufficient system, making their own meals, shopping, and cleaning. It definitely seems like a great situation to land in, particularly as an international student.

Me and the Aussies!

I got there Friday night, so we of course went out to Sixth Street, which is the area with an absurd number of bars. I literally have never seen anything like it, and I would like to think that I have been to a fair number of cities by now. They close down the entire street, and there are just like 20 bars all right next to each other – so many options! They all have different atmospheres and no cover charges, and a bunch of them have dancing, which is awesome. The only place that seems slightly like it is Adams Morgan in DC, but that just doesn’t have the sheer number of bars or magnitude of people. It was so much fun!

Saturday, we got up pretty late, which was nice, and then had a really busy day. One thing I really like about staying with guys as opposed to girls is we just tend to do more active things instead of just sitting around and talking (not that I don’t love talking too, it’s just a nice change). We played tennis for almost three hours (Mike managed to humiliate me on the court and then later on the ping pong table, but I put up a good fight I think), and then went to Guadalupe Street where there were a bunch of cool things that Taylor had recommended, like a really eclectic coffee house with awesome decorations, a cool vintage clothes store, a crazy toy store, and a sweet food co-op with all sorts of organic foods and quality bin candy (which we all know is my ultimate weakness…dark chocolate covered ginger? Yes please). We also found the place where Taylor proposed to Genna, so that made me really happy. :) Later that night, we went to a Mexican place with deathly strong margaritas, so that was fun of course, and then to an international party, so I got to meet people from Germany, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, to name a few. Yeah, so that’s pretty much my ideal night.

Sunday, Rowan and Mike were totally tired out (my pace of exploration can be exhausting, I know), and we were struggling to find something to do that did not require a car, so we eventually just ended up going to see the movie Gran Torino at this cool movie theater called the Alamo Drafthouse, where they have a menu and people who can serve you drinks or food the whole movie. They also had the most distinctive turn your cell phone off message I have ever seen: someone’s cell phone went off in the back of the theater, and then some dude came up from behind and SLIT HIS THROAT. Then it was like “Silence your phone. Or we will find you.” Um that is frightening. My phone was instantly turned off, that’s for sure. The movie itself was AMAZING, and I wasn’t even expecting to like it that much. Clint Eastwood is a certified badass and the entire storyline was fresh, unexpected, and incredibly poignant. I definitely highly recommend it. I am somewhat on my way to seeing all the movies that have been nominated for Oscars, but I still really want to see Slumdog Millionare and Rachel Getting Married. (And of course He’s Just Not That Into You, since that book has been my bible!)

After the movie, we waited for a bus for a really long time before we decided maybe it wasn’t running, so we ended up walking all the way back, which was a really long distance, but enabled us to walk over the bridge separating the north and south parts of the city and get a terrific view of the skyline at night. Also, on our way back, we stopped at the headquarters of all Whole Foods, and it was AMAZING. Seriously, most people know how obsessed I am with Whole Foods, and this location might even be cooler than the Union Square one in New York…it had the most ridiculous bulk food isle I’d ever seen, an insane candy counter, random food bars throughout the store where you could actually sit down and eat, and like seven salad bars along with sushi, pizza, and all the usual Whole Foods things. That totally made my night. However, eating chocolate peanut butter covered pretzels only helped a little bit when I watched Jason lose the Grammy to John Mayer of all people…UGH that made me want to throw up a little bit.

Anyway, Austin was amazing, and it was so wonderful to get to see my Australian friends again! I think I have hopefully convinced them to come see me in North Carolina even though our bar scene can not even come close to comparing (I now understand why people go so crazy at UT Austin). I loved that I got to see such radically different lifestyles on this trip and realize how different Austin is from the rest of Texas…haha. The whole trip was SO much fun, but now I am ready to get back to North Carolina for a while – lots of LDOC work to do, and I actually miss Duke a lot and am excited to spend time with friends again (and maybe actually do some work too). I am already looking forward to this weekend since I am going skiing in western North Carolina…hopefully there will actually be snow. I have rambled on enough for one entry so I’m going to stop now!

Just Dance

2009-02-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

I have signed up to take a hip hop dance class every Tuesday at a local dance studio, I can not even express how much happiness this one hour of time brings me. I really think that nothing has given me more body confidence than learning various hip hop routines. Just being able to get into the music and really concentrate on a dance while having fun is so awesome that I wish I could do it for hours and multiple times a week. I mean, let's be honest, I am about as white as they get...but feeling like I might be able to move my body a fraction as well as the AMAZING instructor is exhilarating all the same. And after I leave, I just want to dance and move to any music I hear. There is nothing better! I mean, being complimented certainly gives me body confidence too, and I've been receiving more of my share of that lately too, but this is something I can do for myself. :)

Tomorrow, I'm going on my TEXAS EXCURSION: Part I: Dallas with Taylor and Genna, and Part II: Austin with the AUSSIES!!! So. Excited.

Aggressive socializing and neglecting schoolwork = bliss

2009-01-31T22:44:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it's already February...the rest of this semester had better not pass this fast, but I know it's going to. I'm just trying to take advantage of everything that's great about Duke and the surrounding area, and it has been resulting in less sleep for sure, but that's way better than losing sleep because you're doing actual schoolwork or something. :)

Last weekend included a huge variety of socializing. We announced the LDOC lineup Thursday (Girl Talk, Gym Class Heroes, and Ben Folds, with special guests The Makepeace Brothers...WOOOOOOO!!!), so that was exciting since it got a lot of positive attention, and then at night a bunch of us went out to Sati's, which was awesome - senior nights are so fun! Friday night I went to see Rent with the girls at the new Durham Performing Arts Center, which is a legitimately awesome venue. And Rent of course was incredible, especially since it had some of the original cast members. The whole motto of the show is just about love and having no regrets and taking life day by day, which is something I have really been trying to apply to my own life lately, so it felt very timely and poignant. On Saturday night, I had the LDOC committee over to celebrate and baked like four different desserts, and then on Sunday, I had a bunch of girls over for brunch, so I was up preparing various dishes till almost 4 in the morning, so the point is that 1. I am crazy, 2. I was in a food coma by Sunday afternoon, and 3. I was completely exhausted by the socializing. haha.

I took it easy on Monday, though, started studying for the GMAT (and by that I mean taking half of a practice test and being horrified by my stupid mistakes...clearly some work needs to be done there), and then did some legitimate work on projects around Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday afternoon, I was obviously ready to take another break, so after class, I made it up to UVA for a pretty short but really fun and relaxing trip. I got to hang out with Shea Thursday night, and chill with Lauren and her roommates all day Friday, as well as accomplish the absolute NECESSITY of having Arch's frozen yogurt, dumplings, and crepes, which are three foods that are AMAZING in Charlottesville and my life is not complete without them. Seriously, my friends are really just an excuse to go there and have those amazing dumplings.

I headed back to Duke today, though, for an important meeting about the Baldwin program that is in the stages of being reviewed, since it is now at its 5 year mark! This program has been absolutely instrumental in developing my confidence and assurance over my time at Duke and I am incredibly invested in it for the long term, so it's really interesting to see how we can present it strategically to the highest levels of administration at Duke so they can see why developing strong women leaders will benefit the university greatly and differentiate it from other top level colleges out there. Just from being LDOC chair, I have learned a lot about dealing with various departments at Duke and seeing how things are connected or how things are slow and bureaucratic, and it's a very interesting life lesson for sure.

In other less concrete news, I've been listening to a lot of Rachel Yamagata ("1963") and Corinne Bailey Rae ("Trouble Sleeping", "Call Me When You Get This"), having fun looking up ski resorts in NC to see if I can randomly go skiing on a Friday, and also toying fairly seriously with the idea of going to London over spring break...hehe :)

Particularly happy these days

2009-01-28T22:12:00.000-08:00

I never could have predicted the day it would happen, but I once again am thoroughly enjoying my collection of romantic music after a verrrrrry long hiatus. Listening to my new playlist, making my bed, and packing to go visit friends at UVA tomorrow...with an assignment that is more or less done (but who really cares), and a new episode of Lost fresh in my head that is more confusing than ever...ah, life is good. :)

More substantive update to come this weekend once I am back from Charlottesville!

So happy right now

2009-01-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

I have just had the most fantastic week, and in particular the past two days have been a montage of one good thing after another...I am too giddy right now to go to sleep so I am just going to have write here instead!

Firstly, can I just say that I adore being a second semester senior with essentially no work. Or, work that can be done approximately one day/one night in advance to when it is due. :D This is also the first semester ever that I have had my lunch time free every single day, so I have of course immediately begun scheduling lunches with everyone in the world because this is my last semester to do stuff like this and I plan on aggressively socializing like it's my job. So I was proud of how many people I got to see and catch up with. In the past, one thing that has actually really bothered me about Duke is that it takes a lot of effort to actually see people and spend quality time with them, and I often feel like I am the one who really has to be pro-active about sending emails and finding time to see my friends amidst our hectic schedules. But now that I'm back in a good place about Duke, I've decided it really is more than worth it to put in that kind of time to figure out when I can see people, because it is so rewarding when it actually does happen.

The only low point of my week was having to work on this ridiculous random conceptual design presentation for our design class (although I love my group!), and then randomly getting horribly sick the morning we had to make our presentation (probably because 3/5 of our group was sick so there were lots of germs floating around our apartment). I had to drag myself out of bed and walk to class in the absurdly cold and windy weather that we have been having FAR too much of lately, so that was pretty miserable. But having people come over and hang out with me in the middle of the day and in the evening, followed by 10 hours of sleep, totally showed the random illness who was boss and I was essentially all better by the time my four day weekend started on Friday. :) (although I then did test myself by waiting outside in the cold today for the Georgetown game for 4 hours or so...again, though, TOTALLY worth it!)

These past couple days have really reminded about why I love my life here so much and how I can use the opportunities Duke has available to make myself so happy. I'm also in this interesting place personally where my Australian life and my American life are colliding, and although it felt weird at first, I am finally feeling like the kind of attitude I had in Australia might actually be able to slip over to the life I have now. (Which was something I wanted to do a year ago but that just did NOT happen when I got super stressed out...haha.) Yes, I still keep myself extremely scheduled and busy, but it's all with stuff I love doing, and I am making time to be with people who make me happy. Yes, it sounds like such a simple recipe for fulfillment, so it's funny how it's taken me this long to realize it.

I love that I could wait in line in 15 degree weather with people I don't normally hang out with this morning, marveling at how CRAZY Duke fans are, be in Cameron cheering on the team to an awesome win in the afternoon, back at my apartment doing laundry in the early evening, and then attending a classical music concert later in the evening with Zuill Bailey, my favorite cellist ever, who played three fantastic cello sonatas with Simone Dinnerstein, an incredibly talented pianist. (I should also probably mention that he is the brother of my high school orchestra director, so we kind of go way back, and he also is probably the most attractive famous classical musician in existence, and also that the cello really is the sexiest instrument ever. Even over viola.) I happened to run into my viola teacher at the concert and he invited me to a reception they were having afterward, so I found myself quite unexpectedly at the large and beautiful home of a rich Duke professor hobnobbing with classical music lovers and drinking expensive red wine. I met the director of Duke Performances and chatted with both the musicians, but in particular caught up with Zuill for ages which was SO much fun. Like I've said before, I just absolutely love those times when I end up in unexpected situations and have fantastic conversations. It is so rare that I get to talk with people who are knowledgeable and passionate about classical music, too, and to see someone famous who is so down to earth is wonderful.

So now it's ridiculously late but I am still for some reason not tired...but I need to go to bed and see if I can actually take stock of the possible work I might have tomorrow...haha.

Beauty and the Media

2009-01-10T23:25:00.000-08:00

I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tonight and have also been watching a lot of Lost in preparation for the FIFTH SEASON PREMIERE (yeah, I'm kind of counting down the hours), and I have to admit I have really started to wonder about the possible detrimental effects of the media on my own personal life. I am certainly quite dependent, like most people, on TV shows and movies for entertainment. I follow the occasional trashy reality show, read more than the occasional trashy magazine, and get completely and utterly sucked into actual genius shows like Lost.

But the worlds these forms of entertainment create for me are so fake. They are so beautiful and involving, but so not real. A movie like Benjamin Button really deeply affected me with what it had to say about the passage of time and how you might have an effect on people that you never know about. But it's also re-ignited my obsession with Brad Pitt, who is so ridiculously attractive it should not be allowed. And I see images like this in the movies, watch the beautiful (even when doomed) romances among the gorgeous characters in Lost, and whether I like to admit it or not, it has a subconscious effect on me. One that in conjunction with other factors of my life has somehow led me to be satisfied with the fake romantic relationships I see in shows and interested in the love lives of celebrities that I will never meet instead of actually letting anything romantic happen in my own life. I mean, I'm never going to find anyone as hot as Brad Pitt anyway. (And even if I think I do momentarily, he's probably not going to be the nicest guy. Just speaking from experience...haha.)

Then again I think, why can't I have it all? Don't I deserve someone who I am magnetically attracted to, someone who is musically talented, someone to have an adventurous and star-crossed romance with? But this doesn't exist in real life. I am searching for a perfect scenario that will never happen, and thus I am content to observe the beautiful people in the movies and live vicariously through that.

My point is, I suppose, damn you, media, for being such a blessing and yet such a curse.

Back at Duke :)

2009-01-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

I am SO happy to be back. For the first time, my class schedule is almost ludicrously easy. I have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and feel as though I have worked my whole Duke career to have this sweetness this one semester. I planned it out carefully, as I always do, in terms of priorities:
1. Friends and socializing (when I put the amount of effort into seeing people for lunches and dinners as I do towards the job search, it can get pretty intense. People, get ready for massive amounts of emails.)
2. LDOC!!!!! I literally spend 2+ hours a day on this. No one has any idea how much work goes into it, but I throw myself into wholeheartedly because honestly it has been the most rewarding and exciting thing I have done at Duke. (besides Baldwin, but Baldwin has never done one HUGE project or anything.)
3. Doing random things around the area, like taking cooking classes, going to more movies, shopping...just simple things.
4. Traveling to see friends in other places!
...
...
...
some number way down the list. School.

Seriously, I have never had this blase an attitude about classes before, but it was almost funny going to the two I had today. One is a huge group project, and it will teach me the actual engineering skills I guess one part of me always thought I'd learn, but now will never need. And the other is "Failure Analysis", where we analyze why metal breaks and stuff, with a professor who has been at Duke probably since before my mother was born. Not kidding. It should be fun/annoying.

The week has already gone very well - even when I don't have class, I find myself running around in the way only Duke can get me. Yesterday I was in LDOC meetings at the beginning and end of the day, cooking, skating, and standing in line for the Davidson basketball game with Alex! Our sweet reunion was interrupted by a HAILSTORM, followed by a 30 degree temperature drop, followed by GAIL FORCE WINDS. I have never been colder in my life. And then we didn't get in. So you just have to kind of laugh in that miserable a situation...haha. So we went back to my place and wrapped ourselves in blankets and drank tea and watched it on TV, which honestly was way better. I am SO happy the people from abroad are back and it feels great to just settle right back into a routine with them.

Then tonight I had a few people over for dinner and later went out to Sati's, which was a lot of fun. One of the things about Duke that I forget how much I appreciate (because it's easy to actually see it as a negative) is running into people who you really aren't close friends with, but get randomly excited to see anyway. Tonight was a night like that, where I caught up with a bunch of people who I don't talk to on a normal basis but was able to have really good conversations with. I think a college environment is really the only place that can happen, because things change in the work world. I know it could be seen as superficial here and I do think that many aspects of the culture here are agonizingly fake, but this semester, I am going to be all about appreciating the little things...having a great 5 minute conversation with someone who might not be your close friend, but is a wonderful and fun person nonetheless. We are truly lucky to be in an environment where such interactions can take place and where I know I am surrounded by such intelligent and creative people all the time, even if it is often disguised under a layer of intoxication...

Tomorrow my four day weekend begins! YAY!!!!!!

2008 in Review

2008-12-31T16:55:00.000-08:00

I have written a "year in review" entry every year on some sort of blog for the past six years, and it's pretty cool to look back on them and see how I've grown and changed and what has been most memorable each year. I've noticed that for some odd reason, my even numbered years have on average been much worse than the odd numbered ones, since about 2003. In 2003 I was a happy and giggly sophomore, 2005 was a year of best friends, graduation, and the joy of college, and 2007 represented exploration, independence, and utter happiness. In contrast, 2004 was a year of stress and heartbreak, 2006 was more stress and becoming cynical, and 2008, I realized, was overall really not a fantastic year. However, whereas with last year, I had a wonderful year that ended on a sad note (which kind of set the stage for this year), this year, it's been rocky and tumultuous, but ended on a very good note. :) So, some highlights:

- My 21st birthday party and my best high school friends coming down to Duke
- Jason Mraz concerts 1, 2, and 3 (yes I know I am ridiculous, I am not NEARLY as bad as some people), all of which turned my life around when I was most stressed out and sad :D
- Living on my own for the summer in beautiful California, and realizing I actually am capable of being a real adult and supporting myself
- Realizing which people I need to let go of, and becoming much closer with those who truly care for me and aren't there just because of convenient circumstances
- Getting a job!!!
- Seeing my high school friends grow up and branch out into totally different lives...so exciting

The world itself was not too happy in 2008. For the first time, I really saw how economic troubles and stock market dips can and will affect my future, as the job search was even more heinously competitive than usual, and I learned the tough way how to deal with rejection. A huge plus in the world, though, was getting so excited about the first presidential election I got to vote in, because I know Obama will have a huge effect on this country and the entire world in a time of desperate need. With the passing of my grandfather, my family entered a time of even worse dysfunction than usual; it's been very sobering having to deal with it and has caused me to understand some of the more saddening parts of adulthood in general.

Another very sobering thing I have realized quite recently is the effect of my family, in addition to circumstances at Duke and looking at others around me, on my views on romantic relationships. The relationships that I admire and respect are few and far in between, and I've come to believe that most people end up settling for something that is not truly wonderful. I am determined that this will never happen to me, but it's also part of the reason I have stayed steadfastly single for SO long. No matter what anyone else says, something that has become a vital tenet of my life and philosophy is that it is infinitely better to be alone than to be in an unsatisfying relationship in any way. I've almost stopped believing that I am even capable of being romantic or knowing how to be in a relationship. It was quite sad for me to look at my hopeful and optimistic attitude post Australia, wanting others to see the aspects of me that I love and cherish me for them, and knowing that this attitude was ground into the muck pretty much as soon as I came back to Duke.

Now, my main resolution is to get that optimism back. I want to have faith that I can open myself to possibilities in 2009! And I know that this is going to be the best year ever, seriously. I have an unbelievably great schedule, time to spend with my friends, an around the world trip, and a new city and job to look forward to. There are things that I am helpless to change, like the problems of those close to me, but there are things about my attitude and life that I am making resolutions about. The most important to is to be more optimistic about the concept of love in general. This is reflected in my other main one, which is to take care of myself more. I started out last semester well, but by the end of the semester, I had succumbed to staying up late, fueled with caffeine and copious amounts of junk food and sugar. Staying up until 4 am watching TV shows and eating is not a productive way to spend my time and I resolve to do less of this. If I am staying up that late, I want it to be because of a human connection with someone. (i.e. if I am staying up that late watching TV with a FRIEND, then that's okay. hahaha.) I resolve to be healthier and more social and enjoy this next semester to the fullest, because I know these next few months are going to be some of the best of my life!

Here's to 2009...the year we graduate... :)

Dysfunctional Holidays

2008-12-28T13:05:00.000-08:00

Ah, the holidays, a time to realize how dysfunctional your family truly can be...I know I am not the only one who feels this way, and each of us has our own peculiar quirks to our families that we forget about until we spend more than just a couple of days with them. (And when you talk about them with other people, they always seem hilarious!) For me, coming to terms with this has really occurred with full force over the past few days in particular. Let's put it in equation form:
Puppy with soul of devil + father obsessed with animals + mother who hates barking +
angry and tortured 17 year old brother + cheery Merri home from college = disaster

It is hard to stay positive when you see so many problems in a household, and realizing how my family has affected my views and love and relationships in general has been a hard personal lesson for me to learn. But despite everything, we actually had a nice Christmas a very chill day on my brother's birthday, so that was a relief. We went to see West Side Story on Christmas and it was INCREDIBLE and made me so nostalgic for our own production senior year of high school! I love that musical SO much. And I went with Sam to see Larissa's whole family and her fiancee, and we basically just reminisced about ridiculous stories from high school for several hours and couldn't stop laughing.

Which brings me to the point that I do have another family in the form of my high school friends, and as quirky and crazy as each of them can be as well (but that's just endearing, not frightening like in the above case haha), I was reminded of how spectacular we all are as a group when I had them over for a holiday dinner party before Christmas. It is so wonderful to see everyone heading in totally different directions...New York, Europe, Canada, all manner of grad schools and interests and jobs. It's hard to describe how much these friends mean to me. Some, like Sam, have known me since we were three; others like Julie, since about first grade, and most have known me since middle school or freshman year. These people have seen me grow and change exponentially, yet we always seem to grow in similar directions. Even when my closest friends start to lead lives that are completely different from my own, such as getting engaged, married, or even having kids, the bond that I feel with them never weakens, and I truly derive a sense of inner strength from the connections with these totally different, vibrant, and engaging people.

There's the generous and happy holiday spirit I was looking for...that's better. :)

Since when does Ryan Seacrest give love advice?

2008-12-24T12:49:00.001-08:00

So I'm driving to skating yesterday and Ryan Seacrest is on our hit radio station, and people are randomly calling in asking for love advice...like some guy who wanted to know what to do because he hates his wife but doesn't want to hurt his kid so maybe they should stay together for the holidays? I'm like, seriously? Maybe on one of those late night sex advice shows, but at 1 in the afternoon? Oh our society.

Speaking of hilarious things...

see more pwn and owned pictures

Thank you Sam for introducing me to Fail Blog...

At the kitchen table at 1 am...critiquing Cosmo

2008-12-18T21:59:00.000-08:00

I write this blog for myself, and it's pretty much all about me and what I'm thinking, so anytime anyone tells me they read it, I'm really quite pleasantly surprised that they are taking an interest in my life at all. I aspire to be like Jason Mraz in my blog entries - he writes about his life yet somehow manages to make every personal story applicable to the world. I've spent the past few hours buried in his old journals, fascinated by their eloquence and capacity for self-reflection. I do think I have the latter, so I will be working on the former.

I was delightfully busy seeing people earlier this week, but last night and tonight I've kept for myself, and it's nice to just sit at my kitchen table buried in my computer. Most of the time when I'm on my computer I am a waste of life just checking facebook or watching TV shows, but last night, I spent a legitimate three hours just researching sponsors for LDOC. Things are very slowly starting to come together and it's incredibly exciting. The passion that I have for this event is definitely representative of my greater intensity of feeling for the music industry than I have for pretty much anything else. Let's hope that I can somehow be a hotel CEO and a major rock star manager someday? We'll see where life takes me, but right now, I would say that is a strong eventual goal, haha.

Today I actually spent a bunch of time with my brother coming up with Christmas gifts for our parents...it was the best bonding time we've had in a while. And now I am going to use my awake time to look at around the world plane tickets...and maybe watch Lost. hehe.

I've also been spending time at the gym and thus have had the opportunity to peruse the latest glorious issue of Cosmo. It is amazing to me that when I was in high school, I got so excited about this magazine. The celebrities! The confessions! The sex tips! The red hot reads! For some reason I still have a subscription, and I need to get rid of it, because whenever I read it now, I either end up on the floor laughing hysterically, plain bored, or horrified at the images that get burned into our brains from teenagehood on of what women are supposed to be like. Cosmo is supposed to be all about empowering women too, so how can we explain these little tidbits:
"1.5 million vs. 25,000: the average number of eggs at birth versus at age 38"
- Thanks Cosmo, I love being reminded of my biological clock.
"Revenge of the Sluts"
- Great "real-life read" title. Very inspiring.
"The Single Girl's Bible", including "Get a Heavy Bag Down From the Overhead Bin" and "Decide ahead of time what you'll do when the ball drops and couples start kissing."
- Wow, that makes me feel fantastic about being single! I must be helpless, alone, and sad!
"It's Possible to Turn a Hookup Into a Real Relationship"
- Specially tailored for girls at Duke!

And to conclude, a stunningly sensual excerpt from their "red-hot read":
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Don't you know?" he said, putting his hand on her cheek. "I want you. I have for a long time. I want to have sex with you. And I think you want the same thing."

Beautifully put, generic romance novel man. I mean, I would certainly want a man who spoke to me so eloquently like that.

My point? I enjoy cynically critiquing Cosmo, obviously. I mean, how can you not, when things are just staring you in the face like that...

1 more semester to go...

2008-12-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

Now that I've been home for a couple days, it's really started to sink in that this semester is actually over! It's unbelievable how fast it passed by. I think that was mostly due to the fact that out of the 16 or so weekends in the semester, I was literally gone (aka not at Duke) for 8 of them. I love traveling, but I do feel that I missed out on a large part of social life because I was out of town so much and also so consumed with the job search. But that's all over now, and for the next nine months, I literally do not have a care in the world, aside from organizing LDOC, which is obviously something I am obsessed with and enjoy doing anyway. :) And overall, this semester was VASTLY better than last semester, despite the ups and downs of the job process and the occasional up till 4 am night hopped up on caffeine studying for a test or writing a paper. Most importantly, I think, I am going to have the absolute best second semester EVER, thanks to careful planning of coursework over the past few years...haha.

Places I got to go this semester:
- New York City (so much!)
- Atlanta
- Boston (my future home!)
- Home (a lot...haha)
- Berkeley and San Fran (ah Cali)

Things I've learned:
- I love apartments. And cooking. This bodes well for my future. :)
- I tend to take rejection personally...but a lot of the time, rejection happens because a person is not the exact right fit for a particular situation, and it would help me to get a better understanding of that, both in personal and professional situations.
- Jason Mraz euphoria combined with caffeine is a winning combination for doing well on finals, tests, and papers. Thus, I need to strategically go to his concerts at stressful times in my life. :D
- Even if things don't work out quite the way I thought I wanted them to, I end up being happy in any resulting situation, due to the fortunately cheery nature of my personality
- Having a high powered career and a fulfilling personal life at the same time is a difficult, if not near-impossible undertaking

To the last point, my class on Women and the Professions (my Baldwin capstone seminar) really changed the way I see the world and my outlook on going into a career. It's made me realize that at this point in my life, when I am young and unattached, having a fulfilling career is my absolutely top priority, and I am really excited at the prospect of doing work that is very interesting to me. But I know that at some point in the future, I am going to want and need a fulfilling personal life (read: relationship), and that's where I draw a blank. Like I alluded to in my last post, Duke has taught me how to think, not to feel. I have learned a lot of negative and discouraging information about how hard it is for women to really reach the top in the business setting and still be able to maintain a family or a satisfying relationship. But that makes me all the more determined to accomplish it in the face of adversity, because no one can say that I don't enjoy a challenge.

And in terms of my own friendships, I am very very happy with them right now. I am determined to make my friends even more of a priority next semester, though, and can't wait to throw random dinner parties and cocktail hours like EVERY WEEK. (Yes, I have four day weekends every week starting in January...glooooorious.) What I love most about my "networks", so to speak, is that I feel that both my Duke network and my TJ (high school) network are so powerful and interesting in totally different ways. I just can't wait to see what we all go out and do in the world! My friends will be scattered all over the country doing totally different things, from business to art to law to medicine. And as I see the beginning stages of our careers starting to form, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of optimism and hope for the future and what our generation is going to accomplish.

We are going to be amazing. And as for my own personal life, it's pretty sweet when my top priorities this break are planning LDOC, organizing social gatherings, and planning my around the world trip this summer. More musings on the year to come, obviously, as 2008 draws to a close...

Welcome to Duke Elementary School...and all about Boston

2008-12-09T22:59:00.001-08:00

Oh, last week of classes and finals time. It is a ridiculous part of the year that is insanely stressful, yet I always look back on it and am amused by how much fun I am still able to have during these couple of weeks. Coming back from Thanksgiving was rough. I faced a week of a presentation, two papers, two ENORMOUS lab reports, and a test. Plus an impending job decision, family disasters, and dress rehearsals and a concert. How do college students deal with an enormity of stress like this? Well, over my time here, I've noticed that although academically we may be far superior to younger children, in many ways, Dukies pretty much regress back to elementary school, at least emotionally or in the way we deal with our relationships with each other. Instead of seeing this as pathetic, I have decided to just be amused by this and roll with it. Some examples...

Elementary school: play a game like MASH where you make cute little matches of people in your class
Duke: take engineering girls and guys, add ridiculous places on engineering quad, graphic body parts, and things you do to a lemon. MUCH more fun than studying for heat and mass transfer.

Elementary school: make flashcards for history dates
Duke: make flashcards for dimensionless engineering constants. Play rapid fire games to try to memorize them.

Elementary school: go into a science lab and play with magnets
Duke: go into lab to design a control system for levitating a ball within a magnetic field. Play around with sliders until ball MAGICALLY LEVITATES. Do not understand why, but create an entire lab report about it.

Elementary school: pass notes surreptitiously in class
Duke: form huge group Gchats during lecture and very obviously laugh out loud and cough at random times (and play games)

Another valuable lesson I learned last week was to NEVER EVER eat chocolate covered espresso beans before writing a paper. I got the paper done by about 2 am, and then was up till 4:30. It's amazing how many more caffeinated and sugar-related bad decisions I make around this time. However, by Thursday night, I was pretty happy...it was a struggle, but overall the week was enormously successful, and everything was completed triumphantly.

Then Friday it was off to Boston for LEK's sell weekend...now I have to say that before going to Boston I was about 80 percent set on taking the job with Accenture in San Francisco - and then after just a couple hours talking with people in the company, I was 80 percent the other way. It really was crazy how fast it happened. Obviously, the king size bed in the gorgeous hotel room and the five hours of wining and dining (cocktail hour, three hour dinner, multiple bars with table service and really fine quality alcohol...haha) helped, but when it came down to it, I realized that a lot of the things LEK was talking about were things that very closely align with my own personal values and goals for the next few years. And that is ultimately what clinched it for me. I see a lot of similarities between my choice of LEK and my choice of Duke four years ago, and while I was initially happy but not ecstatic about Duke, I obviously grew to absolutely adore the place, and I feel like the same is true in this situation. I also love that I am so open to living wherever that I can end up in a city like Boston when I never had intentions of even considering a city that cold...haha. But from the little I've seen of it, I already love it, and I am so excited to get to know a new city and eventually call it home!

The most exciting thing about this decision (well there are a lot of exciting things, actually) is that I am now officially DONE with this entire process and can have an unbelievably awesome second semester of senior year!!!!! My priorities:
1. LDOC LDOC LDOC
2. My friends! Socializing, Aycock reunion, seeing my best friends back from abroad, etc.
3. Traveling - to Texas, to UVA, to Princeton, Haverford...and planning my around the world trip next June and July! (My job won't start till next September...GLORIOUS.)
4. Oh right, schoolwork. Whatever.

But once I returned to Duke Sunday night I did at least attempt to buckle down and focus on getting through these few days of finals (which frankly are way less stressful than normal classes). Which is why Alec and I have probably spent 15+ hours over the past few days listening to absurd amounts of music and learning absurd amounts of material and engaging in (healthy) belligerent competition as to who knows more. (sometimes about school, sometimes about soundtracks) One final was finished today, another will be finished tomorrow, and then I have to write one final paper. And then an AMAZING winter break will begin...I can't wait!

So in summary...Duke makes us learn but also makes us act like elementary school students, which is okay when we are trying to be less stressed. And does it prepare us for the real world? That is probably the subject for another musing....haha.

What a beautiful mess

2008-11-29T15:27:00.000-08:00

So, after my second Jason Mraz concert of the month, I would officially describe myself to be a beautiful mess. (everything I say now is obviously going to be a Mraz reference haha)

Beautiful because:
- The concert was INCREDIBLE. I mean, really out of this world and completely different from the concert I saw in Berkeley. He played a lot of older stuff, like Dream Life of Rand McNally, Unfold, Sleeping to Dream, Older Lover (hilarious), 1000 Things... It wasn't so much an acoustic concert as it was an opportunity for him to play different music. For most of the songs he had his band but also played songs by himself and with Toca, and ended on a really slow and thoughtful note with The Boy is Gone.
- His ENTIRE EXTENDED FAMILY was there. I probably talked w/ his dad for like half an hour in the afternoon, and learned all about how they had this huge Thanksgiving w/ his opener Lisa Hannigan and her friends, and all the combined families (his parents are divorced). And my mom ended up sitting near his mom! (I of course stood DEAD FRONT AND CENTER since we had gotten there 7 hours before the concert...hehe.) It was really surprising but he actually played Love for a Child (a very personal song about his parent's divorce) in front of his whole family...my mom was like uh I really wanted to look at his mom but that was kind of awkward. Anyway, every conversation I have with his dad (yes, it's like my third time talking with him) pretty much makes me fall in love with his whole family even more because they are so shockingly normal and all American and also incredibly adorable and loving. I can't even believe that his father like actually recognizes me...score one for me hahaha.
- Being front and center was like pure and utter bliss. There are no words to describe what an intense rush it is for me to see him perform so up close. He is just so hilarious and especially because his family was there he was talking and interacting with the audience a ton, and it was just really special.
- The way he lives his life and brings joy to so many people is just a complete inspiration to me.

A mess because:
- I am apparently not his biggest fan. Believe it or not people, there are WAY CRAZIER people out there. Like the woman who has seen him 112 times. All the people on his message boards. And I know I have a life and can't spend all my time on this, but due to my intensely competitive nature, I am pretty much feeling like a loser right now. BUMMER.
- I am in post-concert lovesickness withdrawal. :( :( :(
- In the next week I have: a presentation, two papers, a huge lab to do, five LDOC meetings, and a test, and I haven't done any work because I am too busy pining away
- I am going into consulting but desperately want to be a rock star impresario who runs an amazing venue and concert artists and then becomes friends with them
- I want a lifestyle that I know I am just not on track to have, and it's hard to explain, but it physically hurts me that I can't have it. Every time I get a taste of it I just want to hold on to it forever, but I know deep down even if I did drop everything and just follow the tour that wouldn't really get me what I want.

It's very very hard to describe. And honestly there is not a single soul out there who understands how I feel about this whole thing 100 percent because I'm not even sure I understand myself.

So next week is going to be hard, but armed with my leftover euphoria I am ready to tackle it, even if that means up staying up ridiculously late every night fueled by Jason Mraz and caffeine to do what it takes. (which incidentally worked super well the week after the last Mraz concert, I got A's on both tests...hahahaha.) Life IS wonderful, I will be grateful for everything I have, and I will attempt to combat my lovesickness somehow.

CEOs, Times Square, and Thankfulness

2008-11-27T21:40:00.000-08:00

Wow, the last two weeks have been kind of insane. With the semester wrapping up, a lot of family stuff, more traveling, and a job decision looming, the next 10 days are very promising of a slight panic attack. I guess, just like the last time things got stressful, I must rely on Jason Mraz euphoria (I'm seeing him in an acoustic set tomorrow in Richmond w/ my mom, YAAAAAAY!!!) to get me through it!

But quick recap...
Went home for a quick trip two weekends ago, then back to Duke for all of four days before coming home again last Friday. Those four days were full of ridiculous amounts of viola practicing and LDOC stress, as I tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to begin securing as much money as possible for the budget. Alec and I also realized we are SCREWED on our lab project as we have not actually learned anything in the class. However, this made for one of the most entertaining moments of my life, when we somehow managed to make a ball shoot straight up into a magnetic field by typing in random lines of code from all our other labs this semester. Oh engineering.

So then I had one night at home, which I spent watching like 7 TV shows, and then had to wake up heinously early on Saturday morning to get to NYC for the International Business Conference I attended through Tuesday. Even though it didn't start till Sunday, it was more than worth it getting there on Saturday because I got to get an early check-in at the absurdly gaudy and fantastic Mariott Marquis in Times Square, work out in their amazing fitness center overlooking Times Square, explore China Town, take a nap, and go to a performance of On The Town with Sam! So that was all amazing and basically I am obsessed with New York. It was a little bittersweet being there and loving the city so much while knowing I won't be living there for at least five years or so, but at the same time, perhaps I can keep New York up on my pedestal precisely because I won't be living there.

Anyway, the conference was absolutely incredible. I can not even believe that Princeton undergrads completely organize and pull off an international gathering of students with 60 executives and CEOs that literally costs a quarter of a million dollars, all through corporate sponsorships. I was unbelievably impressed and had SO much fun. I just wish I had known about it sophomore or junior year so I could have made some potentially really amazing connections, but even so, it was very inspiring and interesting. Some highlights...
Sunday: Heard the president of Universal Studios speak and chatted with the CEO of the Morton's Steakhouse chain over food samples; learned about entrepreneurship, had a very engaging conversation with a tipsy high up person in the airline industry...hahaha
Monday: Heard Andrea Jung, one of the most powerful women CEOs in the world, speak and got to talk with her personally afterward (SO COOL SO COOL SO COOL), met the president of the Food Network, got to see the Food Network TEST KITCHEN AND STUDIO, where they were taping a segment of Rachel Ray's show (she seemed irritable and I later learned she is like an alcoholic and drinks Grey Goose on the rocks all the time...so hilarious)
Tuesday: Did a lot of intense work on a HBS case study for American Express and presented with my group of really cool people from all over the country, heard the CEO OF STARWOOD HOTELS (like the best hotel chain ever) talk about innovation in companies

So basically it was absolutely inspiring to me, but also made me hyper aware that all the stuff we have been learning about the inequality of women in leadership positions in class is COMPLETELY true. Out of the 60 executives at the conference (a very good representation of business today), only 5 were women, and only ONE was a CEO. Out of the top Fortune 500 companies, only 13 women are CEOs! I made a point of talking to all the male CEOs that I could. They were all married, with children, and when the children were born, their wives would either go part-time or opt out of their careers to raise the children. So it was just very sobering seeing that we we learn in an academic setting in class is actually completely true in the real world. The one woman CEO had children but was divorced; the same situation was true for the female president of the Food Network. It's not going to be an easy road. But I know our generation is going to be different in fighting for gender-neutral policies so men can take time off for having children just like women can, and I am more determined than ever to make it to the top, even though I'm not sure how or in what industry...hahaha.

Tuesday night I flew home, and since then I have unfortunately been doing no work but fortunately watching high quality TV and movies (and the 4th season of Entourage that they just GAVE us at the conference...sweet), seeing my fabulous friends, and cooking and baking a LOT. :D

I always do an entry on Thanksgiving about what I'm thankful for, and this year it would be...
- JASON MRAZ and how I love him and how he makes my life good :) (yes, that totally is going first)
- Having a secure job locked down for next year despite the financial crisis (yes, that is probably more important than loving Jason Mraz, but whatever)
- My unbelievably wonderful friends, both at Duke and at home!!!
- My eagerness to independently travel and explore new locations and situations
- Having a delightful, thought-provoking, and fun roommate (even if she makes me live extremely unhealthily...haha)
- Achieving more of a balance in my relationship with my brother
- My ability to have successful one-on-one relationships with members of my family, even if we don't all work as a unit
- The fact that I am going to have the best last semester at Duke that the world has ever known, due to LDOC chair-ness (EEEEE!), lack of classes, and commitment to making friends my number one priority

Taking a step back and realizing how much I have to be grateful for is an exercise I should do more often, because every time I do, I take a breath, realize what a wonderful gift my life is, and renew my vow to myself to enjoy every moment to the fullest.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Growing up

2008-11-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I am struck by what the concept of growing up really means. Often, being at Duke is a sharp contrast to the real world that we are supposed to end up being prepared for at the end of our time here. I certainly have learned many skills that I plan on using in the real world, but most of them I haven't learned in class. And I feel that relationship-wise, I have actually regressed. I mean, in the real world, I don't think that people dress up in ridiculous costumes, drink absurd amounts, and randomly make out with each other in a parking lot (the typical Saturday phenonmenon here known as tailgate).

Things about growing up that have excited me lately...
- Having two legitimate job offers to choose between. San Francisco or Boston? Big company versus small? More friends versus less? Connections versus no connections? The list goes on and on. And people can give me advice, but ultimately I will be making this important choice that is really going to start to shape my future. Okay, I guess that is equally as scary as it is exciting.
- Knowing I have figured out how to take care of myself. I know I can be fine on my own. Doesn't mean I don't need my support network, but I do feel I am equipped with basic survival skills here.

But mostly, I've been dealing with sobering thoughts on what growing up really means:
- Having to take care of your parents. Or having to support them when you are actually emotionally stronger than them. This is an unknown concept to me that I am only just beginning to deal with, and it's kind of terrifying.
- Realizing when a friendship has fizzled, and not hopelessly grasping after it, but just letting it go. (This is also really, really painful.)
- Figuring out when you are more invested in a relationship than the other person. This seems to happen to me ALL THE TIME with guys, whether they are my friends or I want more than that. Perhaps it is just because I have such good girl friends and they have spoiled me, but lately, I have been getting super frustrated with the fact that people who I want to be supportive of me just aren't. What do you do? Tell them? Fight for it? Or just accept it and truly treasure the relationships where the friends are there for you...not just when it's convenient for them.

When I'm going through a difficult time, I tend to not just bring it up out of the blue. People need to ask. And even if I don't want to talk about it, I appreciate it when someone takes a genuine interest in my life. I mean look at me...I post my personal thoughts to the world - clearly I like clamoring for attention just a bit, haha.

So when I all I hear about is the superficial, I crave more. And in this Gothic Wonderland, things seem to be superficial just a bit too much for my taste sometimes.

p.s. this is not to say i want to have deep conversations or be serious all the time. i like to have fun too! (see pics of me at tailgate for proof. hah.) but right now i am just in a somber mood.

YES WE DID!!!!!!!

2008-11-04T20:42:00.001-08:00

I am so proud of my country, for the first time since I can really remember...the last time I felt any semblance of passion for my country was on September 11 2001. So it's been a while. It is so amazing that the first time I got to vote, I got to be a part of a hugely contested state, and was a part of making history. This is a defining moment in our nation's history, and it's so exhilarating to be involved! I have never felt as passionate about a political campaign. Obama truly represents the American Dream, and inspires me beyond belief. We are going to actually get respect from other countries - the US is not actually going to continue down the road to hell. :)

Honestly, I can't even express in words how incredibly significant this day is and what a huge step this represents for all of our lives.

SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!

Mesmerizing Mraz

2008-11-03T21:55:00.001-08:00

True to what I said in my last post, this has indeed been a cathartic sort of weekend. I find myself rejuvenated, relaxed, and eager to return to a positive and happy state of mind. And yes, this is all due to Jason Mraz. If you have not seen him live, there is just no way you can understand the profound effect he has on me. I love recording my thoughts immediately after seeing him in concert because it is so satisfying to look back on my pure utter happiness in times when I am not feeling that way. I always seem to be fortunate enough to go to his concerts at fairly difficult or stressful times in my life, and my afterwards, my entire attitude just does a 180 and no matter what is thrown my way, all I have to do is close my eyes and recall that feeling of unadulterated contentment when I see him perform, and it really does make it infinitely better.

Yes, I know I am lovingly seen by my friends as being somewhat (or utterly) crazy. Who else would fly across the country for a weekend? I really enjoy being able to pick up and do things like that, though. Whereas most college students go crazy by partying really hard or drinking excessively, I prefer to do things like this, so it’s my own particular brand of crazy. :) I left Friday afternoon, got to Berkeley Friday night, and thoroughly enjoyed both my layover in the sexy new Jet Blue terminal in JFK and the five hours of TV I watched on the flight. (When else do you get to watch literally ALL of the 100 scariest movie moments? What a great way to celebrate Halloween.) When I got there, I had the amusing experience of being able to go to a frat party with Rhett, where I was entertained (and by entertained I mean disturbed also) by the phenomenon of Greek life in general and the lengths that girls go on Halloween to look absolutely as slutty as possible.

Saturday, the weather was depressingly rainy, which killed my plans for browsing farmer’s markets or taking a nice run around Berkeley or SF. Instead I just watched the Cal football game on TV in Caitlin’s sorority house, which was actually nice and relaxing, especially since it rained like half an inch in three hours. Ridiculous. Then I spent the night at my aunt and uncle’s in SF, which was lovely. I of course did absolutely no school work whatsoever, but did make good headway on narrowing down applications for the LDOC Committee, which was actually exceedingly difficult. (All I want to do is get Jason again but I’m afraid the student body might not agree. Do I need to become a dictator here? Haha I am very tempted…)

And then today was the CONCERT! Lidiya thought I was crazy for getting in line at like 11 (the concert didn’t start till 3), but when I got there, there were already like 200 people ahead of me! I was devastated, but luckily by the time the doors opened, I was able to cram my way into a second row spot to the left of the stage, and as more and more people crowded in, I got closer to the center, so it ended up being a FANTASTIC view. I absolutely love concerts – making new friends, seeing the kinds of people who show up, and obviously the music itself. I always really enjoy Jason’s opening bands too, because they are his friends, and he tries to spotlight interesting women artists as well. The first band, Two Spot Goji, was from England, had a cellist who looked like Jim from the office, an endearingly accented lead singer, and charmingly catchy music. His other touring partner, Lisa Hannigan from Ireland, looked like an adorable china doll, a fascinating voice totally at odds with her look, and a band that played instruments from glockenspiel to accordion!

So this was all fine and wonderful, but obviously I eventually got impatient for Jason, considering I had been standing on my feet for about 6 hours at that point. Of course, once he came out, I was reminded how I would stand on my feet, in any weather if necessary (luckily the rain totally stopped even though it was predicted to rain more…Jason just brings the sun out basically) for days on end if that is what it takes to see him. This was my fourth time seeing him, and each time has been completely different. This was exciting because it was the most polished concert tour that I’ve seen yet, specifically for the new CD – when I saw him last April, he was singing songs from We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things, but the CD hadn’t come out yet so I didn’t know them by heart yet like I obviously do now. There were more lighting effects than I’d seen before. (the theater had a capacity of probably about 2000 or 3000 and it was totally packed, so his image was actually projected on a screen behind the stage for those farther back) The screen also showed photos and texts that people from the audience could send in via phone – what a cool concept!!! He is constantly coming up with genius innovative ideas like that.

Anyway, he opened with Make it Mine, which is actually the exact song I predicted he would open with, and sang almost every song off the new CD, except for the middle ones which are less well known. Because I’ve taken so many photos of him in concerts before, I decided to focus on taking video (when I wasn’t staring at him in utter admiration). As always, I have the dilemma between wanting to record how amazing it is so I can look back on it and wanting to FULLY enjoy the moment. I was able to compromise, though, and got some great videos while also putting my camera away and just dancing and singing along with him. (One of the trademarks of a Jason concert is just how much he involves the audience – he makes them sing and dance, and improvises songs and hilarious little speeches all the time.) He also sang The Remedy, a song about Mary Jane (so amusing and obviously totally appropriate for Berkeley – how great), Life is Wonderful, 1000 Things (yay I love that song!), and No Stopping Us. A Beautiful Mess was particularly touching, and he made a FANTASTIC addition to Live High where they had pictures of Obama on the screen when he sang the second verse (I try to picture the man who always has an open hand, see him as a giving tree, etc.). Dynamo of Volition was hugely full of energy and I loved how he made the audience dance with him. (Jason Mraz dancing during a concert is pretty much the best damn thing ever. You just have to see it to believe. :)

Every single part of the concert was sublime, but what REALLY made my night was that I was so close that we definitely made eye contact at least five times, and he winked at me like three times. I pretty much almost had a heart attack from excitement. :D His attitude on stage exemplifies every characteristic that I am attracted to most: confidence, humor, modesty, passion, and kindness. And unlike many other artists out there today, I truly believe that Jason Mraz lives and breathes the values and ideas he sings about. It is so utterly touching to see a true artist, one who exudes his love for music and love for the world and people in general with every breath put into every song. It is an absolutely beautiful (and sexy) sight. I am so happy that more and more people are realizing what an incredible person and artist he is, and I’m pleased every time I convert one of my friends to a total Mraz lover, but at the same time, the more famous he gets, the more inaccessible he becomes, and that makes me really sad.

His final encore was Butterfly, which was the icing on the cake of the perfect evening. That song is everything that I want someone to think of me – passionate, sexy, and sophisticated, and it never fails to put a huge smile on my face. It was all over much too soon. Despite the fact that he sang for an hour and a half, I would really have appreciated at least another couple hours – for every amazing song he did sing, there

So after the concert I got to have dinner with Lidiya, which was wonderful, because it was great to see that our lives continue to follow parallel tracks (we have been hugely stressed out with interviews, etc.). I’m sad I didn’t get to spend more time with her but it was just nice to see the apartment again and be back in Berkeley, which does feel like a home to me after spending such a great summer there. And now I find myself on a red-eye flight back to Durham, connecting in JFK again. I am happily writing this instead of sleeping. I have so much to do – two tests this week, LDOC interviews, tons of studying. But in the grand scheme of things, is it really something to stress about? I shouldn’t worry about a thing…because every little thing is gonna be all right. :) And this truly is the effect that Jason has on me. He is so much more than just a musical act for me – he is a true inspiration.

I won’t hesitate no more, no more
It can not wait, I’m sure
There’s no need to complicate
Our time is short
This is our fate
I’m yours

Edit: Now I am back in Durham and made it through the day on pure euphoria...haha red eye flights are disorienting... :)

How I love Australia...

2008-11-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

I just read the following on CNN:

In western Australia, the rate of HIV infection is the highest in the nation. When public health nurses were looking for an effective way to distribute condoms, someone suggested trees.

Young people in the countryside hang out under trees, making it the perfect place for nurses to hang condom-filled canisters.

Over 3,000 condoms are taken each month. Residents said grabbing condoms from trees was convenient and private.

I need to start planning my trip back there RIGHT NOW. :)

Wallowing a bit

2008-10-28T23:01:00.001-07:00

Ugh, don't know why that previous post had its content get all messed up. Too bad I don't understand html at ALL and therefore have no idea how to fix it. I am the worst engineer ever. :)

Anyway, I am now back in Durham after a surprisingly fun weekend with my endearingly dysfunctional family (drug lords, international travelers, cute little cousins I've never met, etc.). It was great getting to be in NYC again, seeing Sam two weekends in a row, and hanging out with family I literally haven't seen in 10 years. This can be quite awkward at first.
Nick (my brother): Merri, you should just get drunk.
Me: Glass of wine please! *accepts white wine, sniffs, tastes* Oh, I believe this is Chardonnay. (I totally have skills with wine tasting now thanks to the course I organize...yay!)
Nick: Okay, gimme it. (I then hand it over.)
Scene at fancy lunch: Nick drinks wine, talks with only cousin who seems to actually have life experience. I talk with my two girl cousins in middle and high school.
Middle school one: I hate middle school boys. They are so annoying.
High school one: No, high school boys are bad too. They are so immature!
Me: Hmm, wish I had some good news for you girls...

Anyway that was really entertaining. But overall I have definitely been feeling very low about myself. I can't help but judge a lot of my self worth on this interview process, which just hasn't been very successful for me. Now I feel like I'm doing badly in my classes and I barely have any motivation left to even try to bring my grades up. (Or go to bed to actually get sleep for my morning class, which is what I should be doing now instead of writing in this.) But one thing I have realized about myself is that sometimes I just need to take the time to wallow in some bitterness or sadness before I can pick myself up and move on. So that is what this week is for me.

Unfortunately, I don't think that a lot of my friends (or even my family) get this about me. Perhaps it's because even I don't know what I want in the way of support at this time. I am frustrated when people don't reach out to me and ask how I'm doing, but I don't actually want to talk about it. I feel like a total failure but don't want to seem like I'm fishing for compliments on how great I am or something. I feel like people don't know how to deal with me when I'm upset. I can't seem to show my vulnerability here - I want to just lean on someone, or ask for a hug, or comfort, but I'm worried it might sound weird. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Sam, but it sucks that when I'm here I can't even feel comfortable asking for a hug from a guy? I feel upset that no one picks up on my angst (and yes, it is just temporary, but it's real), or if they do, they choose to ignore it. Just acknowledge, ask if there is something you can do, and then move on. But give me a hug first. Chocolate can only go so far. Sometimes I really do need human comfort. And when I realize that I lack that, it just sends me further into angst mode.

When I feel down about myself, it's easy to start hating little things about my personality or body and everything just starts to slip. So that's why it's extremely important for me to invest the time in situations that turn that around. First example: tonight, I had a ton of work to do on a presentation, but I took three hours off to see a documentary "America the Beautiful" and participate in a discussion with the director. It was absolutely AMAZING and an incredibly good use of my time (even though clearly it is now way too late and I should be asleep). Basically, it made me see even more than I already have that the fashion industry and cosmetics industry make their money off of women feeling bad about themselves. It is utterly horrifying and I can't believe how ingrained it is in our society that we are just USED to it happening! I know that I might appear to be really up in arms about women's issues and that a lot of people think they just don't exist, but they DO. I love being passionate about this, and trying to inform people of injustices that are still so prevalent absolutely everywhere in our workplace and our society. Ignorance is bliss, sure, and learning a lot of this material through the Baldwin class and documentaries like this is certainly sobering, but in the end, awareness is what will lead to enlightenment and the first steps in solving these overarching societal problems.

Secondly, my life is about to be turned around this weekend when I see JASON MRAZ IN CONCERT IN BERKELEY. Firstly, I get to go to beautiful Cali, secondly, I get to see my friends and my aunt and uncle, and thirdly, I get to see him?! It shall be an amazing weekend, if I can manage to survive this week first!