Life, the Universe, and Everything...

Leaving Grand Canyon

2011-07-31T03:05:00.004+02:00

I didn't bring my external hard drive with all the photos home from work; so much for that plan for a project this weekend (though if I were really dedicated I could re-download or re-post the relevant pictures from Shutterfly since I went to the trouble of backing them all up there!)

However, I don't have photos from our last evening at the Grand Canyon anyway since we were saving camera batteries, and I do have a lovely story to share.

After recovering from our big hike and spending the afternoon trying to write up our experiences (while Mike drove around the park to see the train again from a better angle and took in a Navajo dance presentation), we returned to our camp for a nap before our planned cook-out dinner. The site next to ours had been vacated, but new neighbors were starting to set up, and we awoke to the sound of tent-pegs being hammered into the dirt and the occasional snatch of conversation... auf Deutsch. We had heard plenty of foreign languages at the national parks, including quite a bit of German and what may have been Dutch (or perhaps unintelligible German dialect since I really only have a decent grasp of Hochdeutsch, the non-region-specific version.) Until now, we hadn't had much reason to strike up a conversation, but I thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves to the neighbors.

By the time we went over, only Dad was left minding the tent as Mom and the two little boys, probably 7 and 10 or so, had gone off to see some sights. I found out that they were on a 6-week excursion from München (Munich) to a whole bunch of U.S. national parks, and in fact the boys had gone to check in and get badges for the Junior Ranger program they were participating in during the trip. We made small talk until I dropped my bombshell: did the boys know what s'mores are? I made an invitation to visit our campfire later that evening if they wanted some firsthand experience with this truly American delicacy.

We set up our fire and had dinner shortly thereafter, while our neighbors did the same. The kids repeatedly looked over from their picnic table, as if to check on our status and see if we were setting up for the fun yet. Mike and I read for a bit to wait for the sun to go down a little more, and kept the fire going. A little while after they finished their dinner, the boys had some kind of project going on. When it was finished (and with encouragement from their parents), they eagerly approached with a small package taped to a piece of paper in their hands.

Here is the card that they made (which we will keep forever):

Vielen DANke
Für Das Essen!
DANIEL Florian

That's "Many thanks for the food!" Signed, Daniel and Florian. The antelope is cut out from some park publication or other, while the package was attached on the left and wrapped in several layers of paper towels (with lots more tape, for good measure). We chatted about s'mores (they had seen a "s'mores kit" at the park grocery complete with marshmallows already on sticks, so they were passingly familiar with the idea) while I opened the gift, which was... a rock! It was pinkish and wedge-shaped, and unfortunately I don't have a picture because it is currently with my parents (along with several keepsakes purchased on our trip that were left behind in their hotel room when we returned to St. Louis). Needless to say, I realized immediately how precious a gift it is for little boys to give up a member of their carefully curated rock collection. I'm sure their folks loved the idea since rock collections can be tricky for the weight restrictions of international travel...

Mom (Sabine) and Dad (unfortunately I now can't recall his name) came by after they cleaned up the rest of their supper dishes. Sabine had studied abroad in Milwaukee during college and her husband likewise had a perfect grasp of English, so Mike could follow along as we switched back and forth. Florian, the older boy, wasn't quite brave enough to try out the English he'd been learning in school, so the boys regaled me in German with stories about school, their trip, the junior ranger program (showing off a binder full of badges), and of course their impressions of the entire s'more-making enterprise. Quoth Daniel when I explained the etymology of the name s'more: "Mehr und mehr und mehr und mehr und mehr!!!" (Translation is exactly what it sounds like.) My German is rusty enough and they were so excited that I caught a little over half of their continuous babble, but we had fun!

As the fire started to die down, they departed to try and catch the evening ranger lecture at the amphitheater, which they were eager to hear despite the language barrier. We were getting ready for bed by the time they came back, but I hoped we'd be able to say goodbye before we left for our return trip to Albuquerque the next morning. As luck would have it, they were stirring a bit by the time we had loaded everything into the car and were about to leave. Since we were done with the camping portion of our trip, I ran over and offered the remaining chocolate, half bag of marshmallows, and box of graham crackers for them to keep. Daniel and his dad were up, so I made my offer and the dad grinned and said he'd have to check with the boss... and turned around and asked Daniel if he wanted to accept our offer. He shrugged shyly. (Dad: "Ich glaube er meint 'Ja,' aber gerade ist etwas schüchtern...") When I handed over the stuff, Daniel shot back into the tent to tell his brother all about their good fortune!

The whole experience more than made up for our bad luck with camping neighbors on the first night at Mesa Verde, plus we got a really cool rock!

When I get the rest of my photos together I'll conclude the story of our trip, including hopscotching back to Route 66 as far as Albuquerque, and then returning to Edmond, OK for my brother's wedding, a little bit more of Route 66 back to St. Louis, and finally our triumphant (though sadly somewhat smelly) return to Chicago!

Now, with pictures!

2011-07-29T21:52:00.003+02:00

We're back in Chicago! I've added in the photos for the last two posts, so stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to our adventures!

Exploring Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon

2011-07-18T22:57:00.039+02:00

***UPDATE: now with photos!***

If you haven't yet, scroll down and read the previous post first. I just put it up but backdated it to the time of writing.

There's so much we've seen in the last couple of days! ~~Unfortunately I only have enough computer power/time to write text, so uploading pictures will have to wait.~~ We managed to get up and get going for our only entire day at Mesa Verde on Saturday, and even got an apology after breakfast from one of the gentlemen who was staying with the noisy neighbors (the one who had legitimately attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to quiet his party the night before; apparently they didn't realize our tent was so close to their fire ring because they arrived after dark.)

Driving up to the mesa top to start our day was somewhat less nerve-wracking than getting into the park, partly because it was Mike's turn to drive!

There are acres of forest along the way with dead trees, remnants of many different forest fires that have struck the park over the years.

Even on our way up, we stopped for some neat overlooks. One old trail called "Knife's Edge" (a continuation of the trail in the picture) used to be an actual road carved into the side of a ridge! Sometimes cars fell off.

We were pretty high up!

After a stop at the visitor's center, we took the morning tour of Balcony House. This is one of the most exciting pueblos to visit because it involves climbing a 30+ foot ladder to get into the site, squeezing out through an 18-inch tunnel, and climbing back to the top via more ladders and handholds cut into the sheer cliff wall. The ancient Pueblo people didn't even have guard rails and chains to make the climb more safe, but even with those modern precautions the ascent is plenty terrifying. Byron, our tour guide, was witty, knowledgeable, and understanding of any misgivings for first-time visitors! Here he is explaining the uses of various native plants, including yucca (seen under his arm), prickly pear cactus, pĩñon pine, and spruce.

The alcoves that the dwellings are built into are natural formations, made by erosion of sandstone. Water seeps through the porous stone until it hits a bed of dense shale, where it is forced to flow laterally out of the cliff side. Over eons, it cuts out an overhang above the spring. This spring is one of two that supplied water to Balcony house, but it is greatly diminished by the addition of paved parking on the mesa top above the cliff.

Here's the infamous entry ladder!

And the balcony which gives the dwelling its name:

Before the actual tunnel, there are a couple of other crevices to fit through:

The tunnel is only a couple of feet high at either end, but actually has enough room to stand inside as you go through the passage.

And finally the ladders and rock wall to get out!

We got lunch and wandered around Spruce Tree house, which is one pueblo you can access without a guided tour.

In that site, they have reconstructed a kiva complete with roof and ladder down into the space that visitors can enter.

After driving back up to the visitor's center and getting tickets for another tour, we drove the Mesa Top Loop and checked out the archaeological sites and overlooks. The people who lived in these sites on top of the mesa settled there as early as 600 A.D., and moved down into the cliff faces by 1200 A.D. From one overlook, we could see as many as a dozen individual dwellings in the opposite cliff face, including Cliff Palace, the single largest dwelling in the park.

We caught an evening tour of Cliff Palace, with 150 rooms (dwelling and storage) and 23 kivas! One of the leading theories as to why the residents left these places is overpopulation. Even this site could only maintain about 100-120 individuals, and most sites were much smaller. The inability to support a growing population combined with a sustained drought in the later 1200s caused the family groups to seek better places to live, and there they stayed. While other native tribes that came into the area later knew about the dwellings, their religious beliefs prevented them from moving in and using the existing architecture (they were concerned that the spirits of the previous owners would give them too much trouble).

Existing rock falls that were too big to be cleared became part of the building!

Exiting cliff palace, we also got to see some more carved hand-and toe-holds that the original owners used to get to their farms on the mesa and back down. These folks were half farmer, half spiderman!

After a long day of climbing, hiking, and driving the mesa we had a cookfire dinner at our campground. I was very pleased to find that my s'mores-making skills honed in girl scout camp are preserved to this day (the goal is perfectly even caramelization - browned, never blackened - of the outside of the marshmallow and completely melted inside.) Our second night at the campground was perfectly quiet as our previous neighbors had already moved out!

We left early Sunday for the Grand Canyon via Monument Valley, which took us out of Colorado and through a corner of Utah on our way to Arizona (bypassing Four Corners, but we've now been through all of the relevant states and called it close enough.) Driving downhill out of the mesa was only marginally less terrifying than driving up, but Mike was a trooper and we kept the car in low gear the whole way.

We took lots of landscape and rock formation pictures along the highway. We saw Chimney Rock, which brought back some Oregon Trail memories from grade school:

Then we crossed the state line into Utah:

Where there was even more interesting geology to take in:

Some of them inside of Monument Valley proper even have whimsical descriptive names like "Mexican Hat,"

"Owl Rock,"

"El Capitan,"

and "Elephant Feet."

We stopped for lunch in a roadside pulloff (where a cow and calf stood and watched us from across the road - being a cow must be pretty boring).

For some reason Mike thought a photo of unshowered, car-rumpled me standing by the side of the highway eating a sandwich was required, so maybe the cows were on to something:

We also got our first taste of the summer "monsoons" in the southwest: fast, hard thunderstorms that can pour out water so fast that flash flooding is a real danger! The version we drove through was just a baby storm, and we could even tell when one cloud ended and the next began by changes in the intensity of the rainfall.

The rain cleared up as quickly as it appeared:

We made good time (and gained an hour again once we crossed out of Reservation lands and into National Park lands), arriving at Grand Canyon National Park (south rim) at around 2pm. We passed the Little Colorado River canyon on our way in, and could only imagine what a bigger gorge would look like!

Soon enough, we were able to see for ourselves. The size is absolutely mind-boggling. We stopped for our first view along the road in to the campground:

Here's a zoom shot to show the river:

We had a further adventure before even arriving at our campsite. A car was stopped along the road in front of us, and a ranger vehicle was parked facing the other way with flashing lights. One of the rangers was out of the vehicle, waving a cloth and trying to shoo away a huge elk buck that was right alongside the roadway!

It took off for the forest, but not before running towards us and passing us within a few feet of the car! For a minute I was afraid it would charge!

We set up camp:

And then we cooked dinner (chicken quesadillas this time), followed by a walk to the rim, heading along the Rim trail to stake out a place to watch the sunset. Cloud cover was thick above us but there was enough of a break to the west to make for a lovely view.

Mike was more than a little wary of my choice to leave the trail and sit on the rocks, but he came around eventually:

Little lizards on the rocks caught the last of the day's rays:

The time changes have been in our favor in terms of getting going in the morning, so we were breakfasted and at the trailhead ready for our exploration of the Canyon by 8am. Based on the description in the guide ("best views for a relatively short hike") we elected to descend via the South Kaibab trail. The intermediate day hike to Cedar Ridge is about 3 miles, 2-4 hours roundtrip (with a shorter 1.8-mile jaunt or longer 6-mile trek also recommended... hiking all the way down to the Colorado river, 13.6 miles via this route, is strongly discouraged as a single-day adventure). What "relatively short" doesn't cover is depth. This is one of the steepest trails, with a total descent of 1200ft just to our Cedar Ridge stopping point. We took our time going down, but it was cool and shady the whole way which was quite helpful.

Ready and raring to go:

Don't look down! The trail had 3 or 4 big sets of switchbacks to ease the descent, but it was still fairly steep at times:

Starting to get the hang of this, and grateful that my boots have good traction in dust and gravel:

Once we got over the sheer drop-off, there were indeed some really lovely views on the way down:

Almost there:

Proudly posing at Cedar Ridge:

We took in the view, including a couple of baby ground squirrels frolicking nearby:

We began our ascent at around 9:30am, and right around then the clouds broke and the sun finally started beating down with a vengeance... just in time for a steep uphill grade! While it was early enough in the day that parts of the trail were still well-shaded, we were glad for our early start and wished we'd gone in even sooner! With lots of water breaks and rest stops along the way, made our way back to the to the top. One of our stops was to make room for the ascent of a mule train:

At a few stops we were pestered by adult ground squirrels. One saw us eating granola bars and kept edging closer, at one point even sitting up and begging on its hind legs. Mike made some noise to scare it off, since it's not safe for these animals to lose timidity around humans. Another one left us alone, but I suspect it's been fed by hikers before because it's the fattest one we saw in the whole trip.

We finally emerged at the top around 11am. Dusty trails make dusty boots!

We both felt pretty good despite the strenuous hiking, so we decided to ride the shuttle the long way around to see more of Grand Canyon Village (including the train station where the trains still run daily from Williams, AZ). Unfortunately I began to feel a little under the weather as the bus ride wore on (we had to wait for the bus in full sun for about 15 minutes, and then when we got on the starts and stops began to get to me). I don't usually have to deal with motion-sickness, but what started out as hunger pangs and the start of a headache bloomed into nausea and fuzzy-headedness quickly... but not quickly enough to change our minds and get off the bus before it was on the westbound loop. I was able to hold it together until the stop at the entrance to the campground, but with another 15-minute walk to the campsite still to go I had enough and had to be sick. I plopped down on the ground to rest and had Mike run in to the campsite entry station to see if the rangers had crackers or chips, because as soon as my stomach was empty I had a major salt/carbs craving. One of the rangers came out to check on me (just in case it was serious) and Mike ran on ahead to get the car and come pick me up. Her knowledgeable diagnosis was electrolyte imbalance and a bit of hypoglycemia, which is apparently as much of a problem as dehydration in the park, since lots of people are concerned about increasing water intake but many don't think to increase food! We had brought a few granola bars and some jerky with us for the hike, but had finished them off on the climb and didn't have anything left by the time we got on the bus. My problems were addressed as soon as Mike arrived with a bag of tortilla chips. I felt much better immediately and we headed back to the campsite for a full lunch.

I've spent part of the afternoon in the cafeteria/lodge to check email and write this (and put up the previous post), which was perfect timing because an afternoon rainstorm rolled in right when I arrived. It's looking much clearer now, so our plans for another campfire/cookout are on! Tomorrow morning we leave to drive back to Albuquerque, via Flagstaff and more of Route 66. Between a full day's drive tomorrow and the next day to get back to Edmond, OK for my brother's wedding, I'm sure we'll be glad to return the car and let somebody else do the driving for a while!

Arrival and camping at Mesa Verde

2011-07-16T08:30:00.009+02:00

(Note: I wrote this post, below the asterisks, but wasn't able to upload it due to problems with WiFi at Mesa Verde proper, so I've backdated it.)

*****
After a small setback, we arrived safely in Mesa Verde yesterday! This might be the only post for a while because I managed to fry my car adapter (which I was planning to use to charge my computer.) The rental car's 12V lighter plug blew the fuse on the device, so we bought some replacements and put in a new fuse… which promptly blew. I switched in another replacement and tried the other outlet… which didn't blow, but the converter box made a sizzling sound while the light blinked off, accompanied by the odor of frying electronics. So much for that plan!

I've got lots of pictures of northern New Mexico and the way into Colorado, but we have plans for lots of activities today since it's our only full day at the Mesa, so they'll have to wait for later!

**Update: Later is now! This is The Future!**

We went from desert mesas...

through desert scrub land...

past interesting rock formations...

and as we got closer to Colorado we started seeing more trees...

and green fields, and mountains...

and even more trees and mountains! It was amazing how crossing the state line really did seem to coincide with a drastic change in the landscape.

Our last stop before the park was the valley-nestled town of Durango, CO, where we picked up some last-minute supplies before heading up to the park.

You can't miss Mesa Verde (literally, green table).

The park itself covers several different mesa tops and the valleys in between, and is most famous for the cliff dwellings constructed by the ancestors of the pueblo peoples of the American Southwest. Their modern-day descendants may very well inhabit the pueblo village we saw with Mindy in Santa Fe.

The road up into the park was steep, windy, and slightly terrifying as we got up in altitude (I'm not accustomed to mountain driving quite yet) but we found our campsite without a problem, and managed to set up almost without incident.

Unfortunately, after the tent was set I stepped on some uneven ground and my sandal strap broke! So it's hiking boots or flip-flops for me until we get back to Albuquerque.

We walked around the campsite locale and cooked our first camp meal by filling folded tortillas with cheese and pre-cooked beef and wrapping them with foil. Along with chips and salsa, our camp quesadillas made a halfway decent kitchen-free meal.

As evening fell we took a long walk around the various campgrounds in our loop, observing a herd of mule deer out to graze.

No deer here, just a nice shot of the remaining sunlight on the hilltops:

We ended up at the amphitheater for a ranger talk on the history of archaeology at the Mesa Verde Pueblos, particularly the influence of Swedish scientist Gustaf Nordenskiold. It included some vintage photos of the pueblos before excavation, which were a very different sight from what we expect to see today.

The one really unfortunate thing was a bad interaction with our neighbors at the campground. Park rules include quiet hours starting at 10pm, but at the campsite next to us they were still playing music and talking loudly at 11. Because we were hoping to get an early start today, Mike asked them, perhaps tersely but not rudely, to turn their music down. They turned it off entirely but then spent the next hour and a half complaining loudly about us (from literally 10 feet away from our tent) and decided to fill the time with a game of Taboo. Mike and I love Taboo, but the game involves sounding a buzzer when you say the wrong clue, so it really wasn't the best time for that. I don't want to have to call the park authorities on them since they already obviously resent us, but the camp store doesn't sell earplugs so we'll see what tonight brings.

For whatever reason the campground store wifi isn't letting me access google sites, so I may have to bank this post for now and put it up later. I guess there will be lots to say when I can finally post again!

Route 66 Santa Fe day trip

2011-07-15T05:59:00.012+02:00

Mindy took us to Santa Fe for a day trip to see the city and do some shopping. I'm counting it as a continuation of our road trip, since an older alignment of Route 66 went through Santa Fe before a vengeful outgoing politician had the bypass route through Albuquerque built! We followed as much of the old road as we could on our way there.

But first, we visited the Academy, where Mike's cousins went to school (6th-12th grades). It's a big campus to make room for the middle school, upper school, and additional athletic and educational facilities accommodating some 1400 students.

We did see the occasional signs of the old road on our way northeast from Albuquerque.

Much of the route is now surrounded by Indian territory, including a number of pueblos (villages). We saw the remains of some old-style adobe houses (in various states of repair).

Mindy's job as a pharmacist has taken her into the pueblos to serve the native population, so we pulled off the road to drive through San Felipe pueblo. Photography is forbidden within the town, but among the gravel-paved village were some really interesting gems. We saw the round adobe kiva, an enclosed space that is used for religious and social ceremonies that are obscured from outsiders. There was also a stunning adobe church with murals on the front face. The people of San Felipe, like many tribes, adopted Catholicism from the Spanish, and practice a complex blend of Roman rites and native ritual.

One thing we could photograph, leaving the pueblo proper, is the tribe's major business investment.

Santa Fe is a pretty town, particularly in the vicinity of the Plaza at the Palace of the Governors, the old main square. Even new architecture is done in the pueblo style to maintain the original appearance.

After getting lunch we parked close to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis and checked out the church.

The beautiful baptismal font was particularly lovely.

We headed to the La Fonda, a historic old hotel in Santa Fe that was bustling with activity.

The front desk:

These light fixtures are a modern take on an old-fashioned art form. Punctured tin was used for lamps when glass was expensive and hard to come by, and increasingly complex puncture designs became a means of artistic expression.

Part of the seating for the hotel restaurant is in an enclosed plaza with a balcony.

The view of St. Francis from La Fonda and the Plaza:

We walked through the Plaza, which is surrounded by shops and, on one side, the old Palace of the Governers. Along the front of the palace, under a shady walkway sits a row of native artisans selling jewelry and other small items. Only Indians are allowed to set up their wares along the walkway, and most if not all are the actual craftspeople who produced the objects for sale. We walked by once and checked out the items, and a collection of small decorated pots caught my eye. Unfortunately the seller wasn't there at the time, but when we came by again later I bought a small round pot with a notched edge (unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture before the seller wrapped it up for me!) The significance of the shape molded into the edge of the pot is a representation of the stairs down into the kiva.

Santa Fe has a number of museums, and we opted to visit the Georgia O'Keefe museum. There was a curated exhibit on the reciprocal influences of photography and painting, which was inspired by O'Keefe's marriage to photographer Alfred Stieglitz and the way their respective artistic visions were shaped by the relationship. (Again, unfortunately, no photos allowed!)

After the museum we visited the Loretto chapel. No longer an active church since the Sisters of Loretto sold the property, it functions primarily as a museum.

The most famous sight in the chapel is the "miraculous staircase," a spiral stair constructed without central or external supports. The story is that the sisters prayed a novena for help constructing a way into the choir loft (ladders being too unladylike), and at the end of the novena an unnamed carpenter showed up at their door and began construction. The resulting stairs were a technical marvel, but he left before he could explain his technique or even get paid for his labor.

The bannister was added after the fact to make the stairs more safe, but a mock-up image shows the original appearance of the staircase.

Before leaving Santa Fe, we got ice cream and took a walk along Canyon Road, a long stretch of road containing many art galleries.

Mindy obliged us and took a picture of us together.

There were several neat sculpture gardens, including this awesome wind garden! Photos don't do it justice but I failed to get a video of the sculptures in motion.

Driving back to Albuquerque on the highway, Mindy pointed out the Old Chief, who you can see lying down in the distance with his hands on his chest.

On the southbound road, we kept a sharp eye out for "the Notch," a cut into the top of a high ridge that was made to allow the passage of old Route 66. A dirt roadbed is still visible threading through the cut.

We spent last night finishing our laundry and re-packing for the camping portion of our trip. I expect internet access to be intermittent at best over the next four days (two nights at Mesa Verde and two at the Grand Canyon!) so there may or may not be posts over the next several days, but I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and save my stories for later!

Route 66 road trip day 3 - on to Albuquerque!

2011-07-14T17:19:00.016+02:00

Our "Tucumcari Tonight" was perfectly pleasant. In the morning, we had more of a chance to explore the town, which is chock-full of great retro motel signs and filling station murals, putting us in the Route 66 spirit.

A morning view of the garage bays at the Blue Swallow Motel. Each has its own mural, including this adorable tribute to Pixar's "Cars."

On the recommendation of our hotel owner, we had breakfast at Kix On 66, a wonderful upgraded diner. Breakfast portions were so big we would be able to skip lunch!

There were interesting sights up and down the main drag.

Even the abandoned lots were interesting to look at.

Before we left Tucumcari, we stopped in to check out the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum, the public educational arm of Mesalands Community College's paleontology department. For a small school in a small town, they have a really great collection!

Fluorescent minerals before...

...and after!

I never knew trilobites had horns!

The museum is adjacent to the paleo lab, where ongoing projects are under way.

The school also has access to a brass foundry, so many fossils and skeletons in the museum are brass casts, often allowing for a "hands on" experience with interesting finds.

After exploring the museum, we were back on the open highway and en route to Albuquerque!

We didn't take much time as we passed through Santa Rosa, NM, but we tried to keep an eye out for familiar buildings; supposedly the landscape and architecture featured in Pixar's "Cars" is based on locations in town!

The other major sights between Tucumcari and Albuquerque are a couple of bustling tourist rest stops.

We got ice cream at the Flying C Ranch, where among other tchotchkes and souvenirs one could pick up a refrigerator-sized box of assorted fireworks ($499.99), a mounted buffalo head and shoulders ($5000), or even an entire full-grown free-standing taxidermied buffalo ($19,999.99).

The next tourist stop was Clines Corners, but we didn't feel the need to stop.

Later on the road was a third example of the Route 66 tourist mecca, but one that has fallen by the wayside. About all that remains of the Longhorn Ranch (according to our guidebook, once the glitziest of them all) is a worn and lonely sign.

As we made our way, more interesting geography became apparent. These rounded hills are the preserved cores of volcanos with the outer layers eroded away.

The road began to wind and curve among brush-covered hills as we approached Albuquerque, which is nestled at the foot of the Sandia Mountains.

Once in town, we saw many remnants of old Route 66 businesses along Central Avenue.

We came back that way with Mike's Aunt Mindy and got to see a few more local landmarks, including this crazy house by architect Bart Prince.

We spent the evening with Mike's relatives, having dinner at a restaurant at the bottom of the tramway up the mountain. My camera battery gave out before we were treated to a great view of the sunset, but I have lots of pictures from today's day trip to Santa Fe with Aunt Mindy. But that will have to be another post!

Oklahoma to Texas to New Mexico, road trip day 2

2011-07-13T15:42:00.028+02:00

Yesterday took us on the longest day's drive on 66 (at least until our return trip from the Grand Canyon): Clinton, OK, to Tucumcari, NM via the Texas panhandle.

Our guidebook's entry for Clinton made mention of the Tradewinds Motel, although spotty reviews online prevented us from booking a reservation there, so our overnight after Lucille's was in an Econolodge in Clinton. Passing by the next morning, though, it seemed busy and looked nice enough from outside. Maybe we'll try it if we're ever back this way!

In the morning our first order of business after checkout was to visit Clinton's Route 66 Museum.

Out front at the museum was a tiny modular diner. These buildings were apparently available to rent at one time; the unit would be delivered to the renter's site and 10% of profits were due to the traveling rental company agent monthly.

It's a compact little diner!

The museum exhibits include modern and retro Route 66 signage, and maps of the road's original construction connecting local roadways as well as alignment changes over time.

I was amazed to learn that, in Oklahoma, at least, the initial construction was carried out by local farmers who earned $1 per day for road work, with an extra $1 if they could provide their own mule team! Children hauled water to the site for the workers ($.10 a gallon). Later, construction assistance was less voluntary, with the state levying a "road tax" on men who couldn't provide the mandatory 5 8-hour days of road work per year!

The gift shop was full of memorabilia, so I picked up some cute sunglasses. We also got a Route 66 antenna ball (unfortunately we can't use it on the rental car!)

Before we left Clinton, we went to lunch at Del Rancho, a nearby restaurant that recommended itself by the sheer number of work trucks in the lot. The food was as good as expected, but we also quickly realized that all meals were served in working man's portions! It took us a moment to notice that we had to use boothside phones to order our meals back to the kitchen.

After lunch we hit the highway again and set out for the Texas panhandle! There were again lots of great road signs along the way and some other sights, including a really neat railroad overpass,

an underpass below the highway that was swarming with swallows (you can almost make out their mud-daub nest on the inner walls),

and new landscapes.

Right at the state line is the town of Texola, which is pretty much a Route 66 ghost town. A few buildings look like they may be inhabited, but most are tumbledown and empty. The signs of life we did see indicate that the inhabitants have/had a sense of humor!

On the wall:

There's No Other Place
Like This Place
Anywhere Near The Place
So This Must Be The Place

In Shamrock, TX, we saw the gloriously restored 1936 Art Deco filling station at the U Drop Inn.

McLean, TX, was home to another gem of a refurbished 1930's-era station.

In Alanreed, TX, there was yet another well-maintained filling station, as well as a "Main" street and numbered cross avenues despite the fact that the area is about as populous as a country lane!

Compared to Oklahoma, Texas landscape seemed a little bit more open and the dirt a pale rosy pink.

However, we were surprised by a sudden region of canyons that disappeared as quickly as it came into view.

We diverted further off the highway for another Route 66 ghost town at Jericho.

Finally, just in time for dinner, we made it to our next major stop, Amarillo, TX. Here we stopped to eat at the famous Big Texan Steak Ranch, a restaurant and motel with all sorts of kitschy tourist amenities. The Big Texan is famous for a 72oz Steak Dinner (that's 4.5lbs of steak, salad, bread, a baked potato, and a shrimp cocktail!) which costs $100 unless you complete the Big Texan challenge and consume the entire meal in under 60 minutes. A 6-seat raised table with wall-mounted timers is set up for contestants, and while we were there 3 contenders were giving it a try (two teenage boys and a large man in gray monk's robes!) Nobody succeeded, this time.

Leaving Amarillo, we made a stop at a piece of artwork called the Cadillac Ranch, a stonehenge-like line of cars half-planted in the middle of a farm field and spray-painted wild colors. Apparently it is recommended to bring your own can of spray-paint and contribute to the artwork!

Further out from Amarillo it became hazy, and we drove through some puddles on the road and realized it must've rained. We could see the remaining storm off to the north, with clear skies to the south.

A couple of towns in Texas, Vega and Adrian, claim the honor of center point of Route 66 (by mileage, however with alternate alignments it's hard to pin down the exact middle between Chicago and LA). The Midpoint Cafe is located in Adrian.

The distant storm stayed with us as we continued towards New Mexico,

but the sun also broke through pretty spectacularly.

We reached the New Mexico state line by 8:30ish and gained an hour crossing into Mountain time.

The storm in the distance had all but abated, resulting in a pretty lovely run-up to sunset.

We also began seeing mesas or buttes in the distance almost as soon as we had crossed the state line.

The land changed again and looked more desert-like, with lots of scrub bushes dotting the hillside.

Our actual sunset was almost entirely obscured by the clouds.

It was still light enough to make up more and more mesas in the distance. I believe this to be one side of Mt. Tucumcari.

We arrived at our destination, Tucumcari, NM! The main drag is dotted with motels and Route 66 businesses, many closed but a few restored and still active.

The neon road signs still in operation made a pretty sight as night fell.

We had made a reservation at the Blue Swallow motel, a restored road motel with 15 rooms and attached garage bays. We found out when we arrived that the proprietors, a married couple, had recently bought the business and moved down from Michigan just two weeks ago! We're not sure who was running the place when we booked the room a month ago, but apparently the transition was pretty smooth!

Mike said hello their two friendly golden retrievers with a "Hi, Boomer!" to the younger dog. It turned out that he must look like a Boomer, because that is indeed his name! He and his companion Bessie are apparently the official greeters for all visitors at the Blue Swallow.

Our room (#11) didn't have the original furniture, but it was cozy and cute with some nice vintage touches.

After a pleasant night in Tucumcari, we're currently en route to Albuquerque on the last leg of the Route 66 road trip portion of our journey. I'll save today's experiences for another post!

Ooooooklahoma!

2011-07-12T16:29:00.010+02:00

Our rental car fully kitted out with a bunch of water bottles and granola bars, Mike and I departed Edmond, OK, yesterday afternoon. The first leg of our Route 66 journey was fairly well-populated, since it skirted downtown Oklahoma City. The road even provides an iconic approach to the state capitol building.

The view of OKC was perhaps not so photogenic, but we could see the tops of the taller buildings.

On the other side of the city, we started seeing interesting road signs and architecture, particularly passing through the remaining downtown sections of a number of small towns.

The more rural parts of old 66 basically follow highway 40, running alongside and at times close enough that we could see the interstate traffic just across the farmland. Oklahoma has been hot and dry so far this summer, like much of the southwest, so we even got to watch a dust devil spinning off in the distance.

The road is narrow and paved with a rosy concrete. The old bridges and service stations along this stretch are the main points of interest in our guidebook. One "camelback" bridge over a river valley is 3/4 of a mile long! We were keeping our eye out for Lucille's, a service station that was famous for it's hospitable proprietor. When we saw a similarly shaped-building we doubled back for a photo...

Only to realize a bit further down the road that the previous stop was another unnamed service station that had been converted into someone's house, when we found the real Lucille's!

In Weatherford, OK, an entrepreneur has recreated Lucille's into a restaurant, constructing a much larger-scale version of the building and adding dining rooms to either side (one side as a steakhouse, the other as a diner). This is where Mike and I stopped for supper on our way to our first overnight stop in Clinton, OK.

Clinton is the home of a Route 66 museum, so that is first up today. After that, we're on our way to Amarillo, TX for supper, then Tucumcari, NM to stay at a refurbished historic Route 66 road motel!

(Hopefully) minor technical difficulties: please stand by

2011-07-11T13:16:00.010+02:00

First, congratulations to Ben & Jessica, and we wish them numerous and joyful years together!

Between a celebrant who had known both participants well since high school and Ben's choice to write and perform his vows as a song (accompanying them on guitar), the ceremony was touching and personal.

The few pictures I have from the day are not mine; I had a minor technical setback on the eve of the wedding. I decided it would be a good idea to clean off my camera's memory chip for our vacation, so I wanted to transfer my photos (90% of which were pictures of cats... literally every photo I have taken of the boys since we brought them home a year ago!) Because of the massive number of pictures in my collection (mostly from our wedding), I save pictures on an external hard drive, which iPhoto indexes. It's a pretty smooth workaround for the most part, but apparently this means that using file>import does NOT transfer the files to the external drive; I managed to "import" thumbnails of my pictures only to discover that the originals were nowhere to be found! Unfortunately, I had emptied the chip prior to this realization.

On the day of the wedding I picked up a replacement memory card at Walgreens, with the hope that I could get a new, larger capacity card and preserve the "blank" one to attempt a recovery of my lost pictures. I didn't realize until we were on the way to the church, however, that the replacement didn't work. Apparently it was an "HC" card, which was incompatible with my rather elderly camera. We zipped into another Walgreens after the ceremony to try and fix the problem (where the helpful clerk pointed out that I had been sold the wrong card for my camera) and purchased a standard card. I tested it in the store, at first getting an error message, but after formatting the card and taking a test picture it looked like we were good to go. Until, that is, we got to the reception. The error message returned, and the only way to get the card working was to format it again. Obviously, having to wipe the card every time one turns on one's camera is less than ideal. I fiddled with my camera for a while, but the problem only got worse: soon the error message was constant and I couldn't even reformat the card again. The card worked fine in another camera and the pictures I had been able to take were still on it, so I thought my camera was done for (and, of course, I had purchased a new rechargeable battery pack for it only days before!)

Thankfully last night I finally had the opportunity to try and recover the deleted pictures. I found a free utility and was able to figure out how to use it (amazing since I'm slightly terrified of working in the command prompt) and save all my kitty pictures!

I still haven't figured out what settings I need to monkey with in iPhoto to get it to import the full files to my external drive, but at least I saved my pictures. Plus, the original memory card is available again, and apparently it does not give my camera indigestion, so I have a working camera again. I also borrowed my mother-in-law's camera for use on the trip (since mine was still unusable by the time we left Wichita) so I think we'll be in good shape from here out!

Speaking of the rest of the trip, there have been other developments besides my camera issues! The wedding reception was a great party, even though one of the hall's air conditioners broke down on a near-record high temperature day! (Wichita hit 108 degrees, two degrees below the highest ever recorded.) Many braved the warmth to hit the dance floor, including Grandpa Nigh!

Grandma cut a rug as well (unfortunately not pictured) and was awarded a CD of Glenn Miller hits by the DJ for her trouble. Mike and I opened up the floor when dancing started and got an 80's mix for "winning" the unannounced "dance contest." We stayed until the end of the night, emerging into a bout of heat lightning that was sadly devoid of cooling rain.

We spent the following morning with Mike's extended family at Grandma and Grandpa's house, until around noon when my brother and his wife-to-be picked us up. Serendipitously, Katelynn's grandparents also live in the Wichita area, so we went out to lunch with them and then spent the afternoon at their house, chatting about our families, our jobs, his career in engineering, and telling pet stories (Steve and Katelynn had brought their petite dachshund Sadie along for the visit).

In the early evening, we hit the road for Oklahoma City (more specifically Edmond, OK, where Katelynn grew up). Her parents are traveling, but they had generously offered for us to stay at their home and borrow their camping equipment. Steve and Katelynn took us to Pop's in nearby Arcadia for dinner, the first major Route 66 landmark of our journey (I'm not going to count the "Route 66 museum" in the truck stop in McLean, IL on our Megabus trip to St. Louis, because that was basically a hallway with glass cases full of pamphlets on the wall!)

We lucked out and got a table right away and had our first "road food" burgers, but the focus of the place is soda. There are over a dozen flavors that can be mixed into fountain drinks; I tried a peach Sierra Mist, while Steve and Katelynn added blueberry and blackberry, respectively. Mike decided to try the local root beer, Round Barn, which is named after another Arcadia Route 66 landmark located just up the road.

In addition to mixers, Pop's has a huge selection of bottled soft drinks for sale in an entire wall of refrigerator cases, organized by flavor. Mike and I were excited that the root beer section filled an entire case and then some! We consider ourselves connoisseurs to a certain extent, but they had a few even we haven't tried. Familiar stock included St. Louis favorite Fitz's, Chicagoland's Goose Island (Mike's current all-time champion) and Gale's (mine), as well as IBC, Virgil's, Dad's (which we haven't tried) and several more esoteric options including Judge Wapner's root beer (??!!). On our way back through Edmond in two weeks we may have to purchase a mix-and-match six pack to sample the variety! There was also a wide choice of ginger beers/ales, birch beer, and even Almdudler! (Almdudler is an Austrian import that is most like a ginger ale, and a favorite of Mike's from visiting his mom's side of the family growing up.)

When I woke up this morning to say goodbye to Katelynn and Steve before they left for work, I was surprised to find that my computer battery had failed to charge despite being plugged in all night. Luckily the problem was the battery itself rather than the laptop or charger cord, because I could still use it plugged in with the battery removed (in fact it started up more easily with the battery out). It's not an old battery, either, so I was a bit worried we'd have to find an Apple Store along the way and see what they could do. Now it looks like that won't be necessary because I think an SMC reset has fixed the issue. I don't know if it's just that my 5-year-old laptop doesn't travel so well anymore or if it's related to all the heat we've been in lately, but I'll be glad if we can get through the rest of the trip without any technical disasters!

Wedding in Wichita

2011-07-09T17:54:00.004+02:00

We arrived in Wichita yesterday evening, riding from St. Louis with Mike's parents for his cousin's wedding later today. We got into town just in time for the bride's family cookout at their lovely home. Amazingly, it was below 90 degrees with a breeze, which made for a great evening on the shady deck and back patio.

It's been very nice to see all of Mike's cousins again. Compared to my sprawling side of the family it's a small bunch (3 families with 2 sons each) but get-togethers are rare; the last time everybody was in one place simultaneously (at least that I've been party to) was for Grandma & Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary reunion in Cuchara, CO, 8 years ago! Mike's "little" cousins are all grown up now and getting ready to head to college, so it's a bit of a different dynamic this time around (100% fewer piggy-back rides and 75% more significant others, for starters).

Somehow (and I'm totally willing to pin this on Mike's aunt Carrie, though she may demur) Mike and I were pegged as "entertainers" and asked to provide a brief musical interlude. Without a guitar handy, a cappella was the only option. Luckily we've been singing together for 3 years with The Catatonics, so we were able to pull off a couple of songs. "Lullabye of Birdland" loses a bit with the middle parts missing, and we had to cover more ground to bridge the gaps in "Come Go With Me," but I think we made it work with the stripped-down versions and did the occasion justice for the bride & groom to be! Tonight at the wedding and reception we have no official obligations, so it's nice to have a chance to contribute a little something on the fly.

Mike's brother missed the cookout but joined us later last night after flying in from Las Vegas, where he's been participating in his first World Series of Poker events. He's an online poker whiz and won his spot in Vegas through an online tournament championship. When I asked him what he's learned so far from the experience, his reply was "Don't let the guy next to you peek at your cards." Apparently some aspects of live poker tournaments are hard to prepare for from a computer terminal!

It's another lovely day in Wichita, if a bit warmer than yesterday, so it should be the perfect evening for a celebration!

Blog reactivate... road-trip-o-rama

2011-07-08T15:08:00.003+02:00

It's been a while!

The kittens are big 1-year-old cats now (Sammy tips the scales at a whopping 14.5lbs, while Max is an athletic 9lbs.)

I'm going to try to resume posting, at least for the next couple of weeks as Mike and I are on vacation. We could call this a belated honeymoon (not that bumming around Chicago for a week doing touristy things was insufficient) because we are finally taking our long-planned Route 66 road trip! Or at least a portion of it...

While we aren't going to drive the whole length from Chicago to LA, we will be driving a southwestern portion of the road from Oklahoma City, OK, to Albuquerque, NM.

Our itinerary so far: we took the bus from Chicago to St. Louis last night.

Next up: driving to Wichita, KS today, and enjoying Mike's cousin's wedding this weekend.

Beyond: Oklahoma City; Clinton, OK; Amarillo, TX; Tucumcari, NM; Albuquerque; Santa Fe, NM; Mesa Verde, CO; the Grand Canyon, AZ; and finally back via Albuquerque to Oklahoma City for my brother's wedding! (And probably many points in between as we stop at all the ridiculous Route 66 tourist attractions we can find along the way.)

Watch this space for updates and photos over the next two weeks.

Now: more cats.

2011-01-06T14:49:00.003+01:00

It appears that this site has devolved into cat photos and videos. The internet has won.

Here are the boys, doing some of their favorite things.

That is all for now.

Cat training made easy

2010-06-26T18:10:00.003+02:00

Max, it turns out, is a pretty smart cookie.

(link)

Maybe in 6 months we can have him doing the laundry and washing dishes.

I'm still trying to figure out what Sam can learn to do. We'll start with "stand up and beg for treat" and go from there.

Day Two: Kitten Invasion!

2010-06-14T04:12:00.004+02:00

The boys are settling right in around here, and have already claimed dominion over some choice perching positions. I suppose it is common for felis domesticus to exude an air of ownership over everything they touch.

Sam is still a little bit skittish at times. Mike thinks his eyes have a permanent look of concern about them.

Kitten action shot! Max is still the more playful of the two, but they both can get really into a good chase-and-tumble.

Our place is pretty wide-open in layout, but these guys are so small and sneaky that they are constantly able to appear as if out of thin air from behind and under furniture and around corners. Max in particular gave me a start this afternoon. We had all settled down for a siesta, but when I came back to the living room, only Sam was curled up under the hutch. I looked everywhere, and started to get a little worried that Max had gotten somewhere that he shouldn't and wound up stuck. A few minutes after calling Mike in to help with the search, I heard a muffled *thump* and then Max himself came out from below. Our suspicions were confirmed a short while later when he turned up missing again; he was napping on top of my placemats, having finagled himself through the gap at the rear and into the hutch's drawer.

I'm excited to see how else they manage to surprise us in the coming weeks!

Sam & Max come home

2010-06-13T02:03:00.005+02:00

On Memorial Day weekend, Mike and I went to the local animal shelter and applied to adopt a pair of kittens. Everything came together (paperwork and clean bills of health) so we got to bring them home earlier today!

They are brothers or possibly cousins from a cat colony that was found earlier this spring. There were multiple moms and litters, but all of them were grey or orange tabbies and probably related. The foster mom who had them for the last few weeks told us that they instantly touched noses and started wrestling and playing when they were reunited, and now they cry if they are separated for too long. Their best estimates are that they are about 13 weeks old, and they clock in at a lithe 3.5 lbs each.

Max, the gray, is definitely the more outgoing so far! He was first out of the carrier and first to approach each of us. He's also first to investigate noises and pounce on moving toys. So far, he seems to like head scratches and purrs up a storm.

Sam is the orange, and we haven't seen as much of him yet because he retreats to the carrier at the slightest disturbance. The foster mom told us he's a cuddler and followed her around incessantly before Max arrived. He'd even stop eating and come back for more petting before finishing his food!

Hopefully I'll get better pictures as they come out of their shells a bit! They both are tabby striped fading into spots towards the tummy, with lighter paws and belly. They've been in the bathroom for a few hours to acclimate, but haven't ventured out into the wider world now that the door is open. The afternoon siesta is winding to a close and they'll probably get playful as the evening progresses, so we have high hopes!

Froggy & Fishies! (click to feed)

2010-05-27T21:59:00.002+02:00

A New Undertaking

2010-05-15T06:18:00.009+02:00

Mike has been working on a number of projects lately, one of which is doing a bit of freelance a cappella arranging. We heard from a friend that Imogen Heap was seeking vocal groups to perform as her accompaniment for her song "Earth" on her current tour.

He passed that opportunity along to one group he has provided arrangements for, Chicago Vocal Authority, and they decided to audition. He wrote the arrangement. (Link)

Hopefully we'll find out in the next few days! The Chicago concert is May 23.

P.S. Those with a YouTube account can join the audition group and vote... it may not make a difference, but it can't hurt!

EDIT:
They got it! Great job CVA, and I'll add video later if we get a link!

EDIT 2:

Turducken 2009!

2009-12-16T23:42:00.014+01:00

Mike has been a part of making a Turducken (turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken) for the last couple of years, and this year we decided to organize and host our very own Turducken party last weekend! It's kind of a huge undertaking, but lots of fun and definitely delicious.

We were smart in a couple of ways this year: first, we ordered the poultry well in advance and paid to have the (20lb) turkey, duck, and chicken deboned by the butcher. Our acquaintances who did the deboning in previous years weren't participating, and neither of us felt up to the challenge of spending a couple of hours with a very sharp knife to prep the birds! Second, we got a couple of packs of turkey lacers, which made sewing the thing back up again significantly easier!

The whole process takes about 3 days, the way Mike does it. He picked up the meat from the butcher and covered all 3 birds in a large sterilite bin with a few gallons of brine (kosher salt and water, basically). The bin went in the fridge and the birds brined for about a day.

Mmm... brine and raw poultry:

During that day, Mike slaved over a hot stove to produce the 3 stuffings we layered between the birds. The cornbread/chowder with fresh cilantro, black beans and spices was a big hit, though the (turkey) sausage stuffing and rice pilaf with cranberries were also very good!

That evening, we had our "build party" with a few interested friends. Julia, Kelly and Jamie had no idea what to expect, but I think everybody had a good time.

Mike and Julia getting ready to lay out the turkey:

A bit ghastly, but soon it will be very yummy:

The cornbread/chowder stuffing goes first as Kelly and Jamie look on:

Now for the duck, which had fallen apart into chunks in the brine but still worked out:

On with the turkey sausage stuffing, followed by the chicken:

And then the cranberry rice pilaf:

Messy hands! Maybe next year I'll gank some lab gloves before the big day...

A beautiful sight, all the layers in place:

And now the reason why we need 5 people for this part of the process: one to take pictures while the other four roll the stack up and sew it closed! Previous iterations took much longer than this year, since they involved actually sewing the turkey meat together with a large needle and cooking twine. The poultry lacers cut it down to less than 15 minutes and held it all together amazingly well!

All laced up and ready to rest in the fridge until tomorrow. We barely lost any stuffing, to boot:

Okay, maybe a tad overstuffed, but a later step will take care of the gap in the closure:

We used a clean cutting board to heft the frankenbird into the roasting pan:

I love how demure it looks sitting in the pan with its ankles crossed.

And here is Mike's favorite little secret! A grand total of 3 pounds of thick bacon layered over the surface of the bird... This prevents the skin from taking too much heat and drying out, and simultaneously provides its own juices to keep the meat extremely tender. Since the thing is in the oven for about 12 hours, it's either this or continuous basting all day long:

Totally protected:

The whole thing went into the fridge for the night, and build team was congratulated on a job well done and dismissed. We were planning on serving the following evening at 6pm, so Mike and I were up at 5:45 the next morning to fire up the oven and get it started. The poultry has to reach 165° to be safe for consumption, so we estimated 12 hours and 220° would get it there.

Here's a few hours in, with the bacon starting to crisp nicely:

And we've made it, just in the nick of time because the guests will begin arriving very soon:

Here's the whole thing out of the oven:

In one last step, we peel off the bacon and start carving the bird-roll. Last year the bacon wrapping was basically inedible because it had been baked rock-hard (along with the wings and less meaty parts of the drumsticks), but this year's slices were thicker, fattier and held up much better:

We had somewhere close to 25 people in our apartment to share in the feast (and bring side dishes and desserts) and the portions worked out just about perfectly! The only problem is that it was such a hit, we'll have to be careful about invitations for next year... everyone who tried it last weekend are already looking forward to the next one, and folks who couldn't make it heard such rave reviews about it that they can't wait to try it now, too!

Yum!

New digs

2009-10-04T21:04:00.006+02:00

I figured out how to get my camera working again (charging batteries turns out to be the key...) so here are some photos I just took of our new place, now that we're mostly settled in!

First our lovely living/dining room space:

And the kitchen! Complete with dishwasher:

Also the huge basil plants... a big change from the pictures from two posts ago (back in May):

Froggy bathroom:

Mike in the office:

Cozy master bedroom with so much closet space:

We love it so far!

Change is good

2009-09-12T17:20:00.003+02:00

Mike and I are in the midst of packing up our lives to move to a new place, just north of the city and about 2 miles from our current apartment. We had an opportunity to rent a larger, nicer place from a good friend, and the deal was too good to pass up. In the last two weeks we managed to find someone to sublet our place through the rest of our lease, get paperwork hammered out and signed, and accumulate dozens of boxes. Now we have one week to pack up, and I'm completely amazed by how much stuff two people can accumulate in such a short amount of time. Not to mention how it's crammed into a relatively small living space. (I'd post photos of the initial pile - which consists of only the partial contents of one room! - but my camera is momentarily out of order.)

There is an interesting calculus in trying to get as much done as early as possible... some things obviously can sit in boxes for a week (or longer) and not be missed, but others are less easy. I'm considering laying out a bag, packing as if for a week's vacation, and living out of a suitcase as the boxes pile up around us. Should we eat out on the last day so I can crate up the pots and pans?

I've never enjoyed the disarray of moving, the unsettled feeling of being in between stages in life. The work of actually heaving stuff around isn't too bad, especially when there are plenty of helpers. I'm pretty decent at playing "furniture tetris" in a moving van, so that part verges on fun. Still, I'd rather set up shop somewhere and have to do this again as infrequently as possible. I'm excited enough about the new place, though, to feel that this whole rigamarole is ultimately worthwhile, even in the midst of it.

Hopefully I'll still feel that way by the end of the week!

Springtime project!

2009-05-18T00:15:00.006+02:00

Mike and I have been in nesting/home improvement mode in the last few days. We've been polishing furniture, moving it around to mop and polish the floors, and generally making things sparkly and shiny. This afternoon we went "thrifting" to try and find some window planters, with decent success (okay, not at the thrift stores, but Marshalls saves the day!)

A few weeks ago there were $1 herb garden starter kits at Target, and I've been craving fresh basil since our last grocery store plant bit it with a case of spider mites.

Cool random fact... these bugs have a unique life cycle in that females are diploid like most organisms while males are haploid (have only 1 copy of each chromosome). That means a single female can lay unfertilized eggs, which develop into males, and from there they can spawn a whole colony! Neat!

Well, unless they are eating your garden.

Anyway, my seedlings had finally reached the point where the tiny plastic greenhouse was too small, so I needed to re-pot them. The tin pots we found came in sets of 3 with a drainage tray, but the pots themselves weren't vented, so first I had to spend half an hour with a hammer and a nail making some holes. A layer of glass stones (salvaged from our wedding decorations!) in the tray provides an escape route for excess water.

I don't have much plant re-potting experience, so the hardest part was teasing the seedlings apart from the root-and-soil clump they had formed in the tiny pot. I soaked it in a cup of water and gently separated them with my fingers, so hopefully enough roots are intact that these suckers will actually grow!

After all of our cleaning yesterday, I felt a bit guilty about the mess... but not too guilty...

And here's the finished product! Looks like Mike will be putting basil on everything after a while. (That's one way to get him eating some greens...)

Yum!

Breaking News: Man Eats Vegetable

2009-04-05T16:49:00.003+02:00

Self-proclaimed "meatatarian" Mike N., 26, of Chicago, was observed last night eating a stir-fry which contained measurable amounts of Brassica oleracea, or the common broccoli. Witnesses state that, although he voiced concern and appeared discomfited at first bite, he finished the dish without dire consequences.

"I'm shocked and amazed, but definitely pleased," reports the man's wife. "I don't know if this is going to become a regular thing, but it's a step in the right direction.

The man himself was unavailable for comment, since he's busy taking a shower.

Board game night

2009-03-31T23:15:00.004+02:00

Mike and I had about a dozen folks crammed into our apartment last Saturday night for food and board games, starting out with A Touch of Evil and Puerto Rico (which I only lost by 1 point!). Our stash of games has been steadily building, especially since last Christmas. However, we quickly realized that only a handful of the titles we've accumulated can be played with two people (Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride are my current favorites)... and even those play with an entirely different dynamic and new strategies when more people are added to the mix. Thus, we've started hosting a monthly game night with friends in Chicago.

The menu included prosciutto panini sandwiches (Mike's culinary contribution), winter pear salad and a gruyere/swiss fondue (mine), as well as bread, veggies, and fruit to dip, plus fancy cheeses, beverages, and dessert brought by friends. Hopefully we'll be able to keep up the interest (we had grad school folks, a friend from Kenyon, and various roommates and significant others) and do it again soon, especially as winter finally leaves!

Today, I stumbled across an article online about the genesis of another of our favorite games, Settlers of Catan. I didn't see the byline until the very end, but the author is Andrew, a friend and fellow fulbrighter who lives in Berlin. Board games... bringing friends together!

I'm ready to be done with this class...

2009-03-13T03:39:00.005+01:00

I'm taking a course for my training grant, and as useful as it's been to hear so many experts weigh in on the salient features and our scientific ambitions regarding Alzheimer's disease, I'm ready to have my time back for work in the lab! I'll present my final paper on Monday, but there's lots to be done to polish it up so I can submit it by tomorrow night... and I've been working on it for what feels like ages already.

I need a break... so it's back to blogging! Here are adorable pictures of my cousin Lauren and her husband Neal's little (so big!) boy, Brian, from our visit to Michigan on Valentine's day weekend:

There's another one with more of my Grandma in it two posts down, from when I originally wrote about the trip.

Chamber Singers in Chicago!

2009-03-07T18:11:00.006+01:00

The Kenyon College Chamber Singers stopped in Chicago on their tour this year! Well, technically Oak Park, but that's close enough that Mike and I were able to catch them on this past Wednesday night. It was fantastic! I couldn't stop grinning the entire time, and I was amazed to see that I've sung about half the current program. I guess I'm far enough out from graduation that Doc has cycled some pieces back into rotation... although the madrigal that started the concert, Bennet's All Creatures Now, is actually in the current repertoire of the Catatonics (the grad a cappella group I sing with these days). The whole program for those who are interested:

I. All Creatures Now - John Bennet

II. Yihyu leratzon imrei fi - Ernest Bloch
Jubilate Deo - Orlando di Lasso
Faire is the Heaven - William H. Harris
At the round earth's imagined corners - Williametta Spencer

III. Tebye poyem - Sergei Rachmaninoff
Ñe ímamï inya pómoshchi, op. 25 - Pavel Chesnokov

IV. Four Shakespeare Songs - Juhani Komulainen
1. To be, or not to be
2. O weary night
3. Three words
4. Tomorrow and tomorrow

V. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz, op.29, no.2 - Johannes Brahms

(intermission)

VI. Trois Chansons - Claude Debussy
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder!
Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin
Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain

VII. Signposts - Eskil Hemberg
Signpost I
Signpost II

VIII. Un jour vis un foulon qui foulait - Orlando di Lasso
Ich stund an einem Morgen - Ludwig Senfl
The Turtle Dove - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Do not pick my rosemary - Allen Hoffman

IX. Sizongena laph'emzini (two Zulu wedding songs) - arr. Mzilikazi Khumalo

X. My Lord, what a moanin' - arr. Adolphus Hailstork
Ride on, King Jesus - arr. Edward Boatner

It was especially nice to hear again some pieces that aren't on the CS CD's I have, since those are foggier in my memory than the ones I can listen to at will. I have recordings from my own time in the group of the both di Lasso pieces, the Chesnokov, all three from Debussy, and the Vaughan Williams. The Bloch was recorded on As Torrents in Summer (96-97... as well as the Bach's huge Singet dem Herrn ein Neues Lied which we sang my senior year that didn't make it onto In Concert). However, the Khumalo isn't on any of the recordings I own, including the recording of the live concert in Rosse Hall from senior year when Dr. Khumalo came to visit the choir. I believe we sang it on tour Sophomore year (I can't find the program to check that) but it didn't make it onto Luna so I hadn't heard it since then. The South African music in a CS concert is always a fun time, since there's often a bit of dancing involved. It was great to see how much fun the choir was having... for the first time from the audience's perspective!

I also got to talk to Doc and Kay again, and a few other young alums in the audience. I'm old now, though. I only knew one of the current singers, and she's a professor's kid I knew from church who was in high school while I was at Kenyon.

And of course the final piece was Doc's arrangement of Kokosing Farewell. There was a special treat to be had there, though. Apparently last year Doc began a new tradition of inviting alums to join the singers on the risers for Kokosing. I had no idea this was coming, and almost fell over Mike in my rush to get up there and join the group! I only wish I hadn't been fighting a cold at the time, since I felt obligated to sing as quietly as possible so my croaking wouldn't take away from the piece. What a grand feeling, though, to be on those risers again in a lovely church with Doc conducting in his carefully crafted fashion, coaxing every familiar ebb and swell into place.

Great Valentine's Day

2009-02-23T01:17:00.007+01:00

A post! Whoa!

Last weekend was great fun, and a wonderful first Valentine's Day since Mike and I were married. My folks drove up to Chicago and brought us along to Michigan to spend some time with extended family and attend a fun event... my cousin Sarah played the role of Giannetta in Opera Grand Rapids' production of L'Elisir d'Amore by Donizetti, otherwise known as The Elixir of Love. The production was very entertaining with a highly talented cast, and it was great to be able to see my cousin in her first professional role. The plot is romantic with lots of opportunity for humor, and like much comic opera every character finds a happy ending. It was great to be there to support Sarah and see how proud and excited her family was for her performance.

I also invited a college friend, Nick K., to meet us at the performance and catch up a bit since he's living in Grand Rapids these days. We lived on the same hall freshman year at Kenyon and got to know each other pretty well because we were both involved at church, but aside from a longstanding facebook "poke" tradition we haven't kept in touch much in the intervening four years. He and Mike and I wandered around snowy downtown Grand Rapids after the show looking for a bar or café with decadent chocolate desserts, suffered a minor setback when I thought I'd lost my I.D., and wound up at a chain restaurant (but at least one with decadent chocolate desserts!)

The other very exciting part about the weekend was meeting a new addition to the family. My cousin Lauren (one of Sarah's sisters) and her husband had a little boy in November. Brian is extremely cute and eating very well (as demonstrated by the fact that at 3 months he's in 6-9 month baby clothes already!) My grandma was with us for the weekend, so she officially met her first great grandbaby for the first time. It was interesting to listen in when my cousin Melissa got her reminiscing a bit about her own memories of young motherhood. I wish I could post a picture or two, but I forgot to get out my camera... it'll have to wait until my mom can figure out how to email me the ones she took!

***UPDATE***

What a cute little butterball! Here's me and Grandma Doris (now Great-Grandma) with Brian! "Who the heck are all these new people??"
*** end update***

Oh, and as for celebrating Valentine's Day as a married couple, Mike stepped up to the task admirably, surprising me with a purple sprig of flowers (from the dollar store, no less!) before we headed back to Chicago.

Full photo album now online...

2008-10-20T18:09:00.003+02:00

That's right, 3600+ pictures from the wedding. The full slideshow clocks in at about 2 hours. Extreme.

You can find it at my Shutterfly site

So... scavenger hunt time!

Alaina making a goofy face OR Mike blinking=1 point
Food on face OR ducks=2 points
Italian gesticulation=4 points
Alaina gettin' low=5 points
Alaina funny face AND Mike blinks (same picture)=10 points
3 or more people blink simultaneously=12 points for 3 (+3 per additional blinker)
Alien invasion OR giraffe=a million points

What's your score?

Ace in the hole

2008-09-25T22:35:00.005+02:00

So I call Mike after I get out of my qualifying exam, to tell him I passed. His response?

"Duh!"

(It went really well. I only cried a little bit at the very end.)

***UPDATE 9/26***
I don't intend the above comment to make my husband look at all insensitive... I came home yesterday evening to a surprise candlelit Italian dinner for two with jazz accompaniment (Dave Brubeck and Getz/Gilberto) and Mike in a suit & fedora. He wouldn't even let me do the dishes.

A snippet of wedding fun

2008-09-01T01:26:00.003+02:00

Wedding: done.
Married life: so far so good!

We didn't have a videographer to record the goings-on at the reception, but we did have a quick-thinking coworker of mine in the crowd with a rather good camera phone! Thus, a short clip of our first dance has been documented for posterity:

Also, if you haven't seen the photos yet, there is a temporary gallery here. It should be live through October 26, 2008. When I get the digital files I'll make a Shutterfly album.

Multimedia content, ho!

2008-07-16T02:36:00.003+02:00

Yes, I still remember that this blog exists. Posting, however, has slipped below my priority radar... that's what year 2 of grad school and planning a wedding will do, apparently. With regards to the latter, I now need to add a new talent to my CV. Check it out:

Sweet, sweet success

2008-02-03T04:56:00.001+01:00

Distractions

2008-01-29T05:11:00.000+01:00

First things first: I need to exorcise this ridiculousness. Mike sent me a link to a video and it was funny the first time, but now this song has been stuck in my head all day:

So, what else is new, you ask? I'm taking a break from finishing my reading for class tomorrow (luckily I only have to read one more journal article of seven to be discussed in 90 minutes of classtime... who knew neurotransmitter receptor characterization could be so unbelievably boring? Certainly I had never suspected such a thing!)

Wedding: we're down to a little over 6 months of planning time. We still need: caterer/menu, cake, rings, "engagement" photo, menswear, hair/makeup/accessory plans, finalized address list, invitation design, more stuff for which to register, finalized liturgy and music/musicians, song ideas for the reception, hotel block reservations, honeymoon plans... and probably a whole bunch of stuff I'm completely forgetting. Whew. I won't even try to remember and list what we have accomplished so far, but I think that one is at least as long. (That's a good thing, right?)

In other news, I have half of a dining hutch! Certain... difficulties were encountered during assembly, despite the best efforts of the build team. It's a bad sign when the accompanying instruction packet enjoins one to "feel confident that this will go smoothly and give years of enjoyment." Also, "we have designed our furniture with you, the [redacted big-box store... let's call it 'Bullseye'] guest in mind. Our clear, easy to follow, step by step instructions will guide you through the project from start to finish." That's as backhanded a characterization of customer base as I've ever seen. Sadly, it's probably fair... though I do insist that our problems with "back rail bottom=1C" stem from faulty manufacture rather than inherent incompetence of the assemblers. There exists no rotational state for the component such that its hardware actually matches the orientation as depicted in the instructions, and I defy anyone to prove otherwise.

Whew. Ranting doesn't change anything, but at least I feel better. And now I have the energy to read about the structure of the glutamate-receptor ligand-binding core in complex with kainate! That's win-win!

Old news

2007-12-20T18:23:00.000+01:00

This is at least a couple of weeks old, but I saved the image and I'm still pretty proud, gosh darn it!

La la la!

2007-12-04T03:14:00.000+01:00

Last night was the 15th Annual Messiah Sing-Along at St. Ignatius, a church in my neighborhood, which I attended with a friend from my a cappella group. My sight reading is more than a little rusty, but it was nice to tackle a major choral work... especially in a beautiful 90-year old church with a rich, full acoustic.

The church's concert choir led the way through the more obscure sections, though we in the pews held our own especially in the Hallelujah chorus! The orchestra and soloists were delightful to listen to. I actually worked on the Alto Air "O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion" in voice lessons in undergrad, but this was the first time I'd heard it performed live, and it was wonderfully done.

In another interesting turn of events, the woman I wound up sitting next to was very personable and we struck up a conversation before the concert got under way. As it turned out, she was born in Germany in a small town not too far from Göttingen, though she was only a couple of years old when her family moved to America. I got to practice my German small talk; always a pleasure!

I'm definitely going back next year!

Christmas came early this year!

2007-11-29T06:29:00.000+01:00

Since coming back from Thanksgiving break, something wonderful has happened...

I've recieved my copy of "In Concert," the Kenyon College Chamber Singers CD comprising recordings from junior and senior year ('03-'04 and '04-'05). I've been listening to it pretty much nonstop, because it's wonderful. I'm fairly certain that my fellow public transit passengers wonder why I'm grinning at everybody all the time, and I know the checkout boy at the grocery store felt a bit put upon since I was humming the alto line of Sweelinck's "Gaudete Omnes" with one ear-bud in while he attempted to complete my purchase... but I can't stop! It's intoxicating to relive the music, to anticipate the swell of each familiar crescendo and feel the gentle restraint of 50-odd voices carrying a line pianissi-issi-issimo. It's part of my life that brings me great joy and pride, and having a lasting reminder of our efforts and accomplishments is a boon beyond compare.

For any fellow CS alums who have not yet purchased a copy, do so! Here's the track list to whet your appetite:

How Can I Keep From Singing? -arr. Ronald Staheli
Gaudete omnes -Jan Pieterzsoon Sweelinck
Ave Maria -Jean Mouton
Adonai ro'i -Judith Shatin
I will sing of life -Adolphus Hailstork
To His Music -Andrew Rindfleisch
Sometimes I Feel -arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker
Mundi renovatio [Renewal of the Earth] -György Orbàn
Lux aetera -Steven Bartek '04
Gaudeamus igitur -Jetse Bremer
In beauty may I walk -Jonathan Dove
Warum ist das Licht gegeben den Mühseligen -Johannes Brahms
Véñiki [Brooms] -arr. F. Rubtsov
Mata del anima sola -Antonio Estévez
I love my love -arr. Gustav Holst
Umahlalela [The Loafer] -arr. Mzilikazi Khumalo
Kokosing Farewell -arr. Benjamin "Doc" Locke

I'll admit to a slight twinge of dissapointment that our 2005 rendition of Bach's "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" didn't make the cut, but given the quality of what made it in I can see how devoting 15 minutes of the CD to a single piece when combining two years' worth of material would have been impractical. (Luckily for me I've gotten used to singing along to the '96-'97 choir's version on "As Torrents in Summer!")

In other awesome news, here's hard proof of my vocabulo-rifficness, via FreeRice:

This screen cap is a bit small, but look carefully... that's right, a natural 49! I actually got the two subsequent questions right as well and came within a single answer of the much-coveted 50 before missing and losing it! For those of you playing at home, the correct answer is freeze-dry
(Highlight above to reveal! Ooooh, special effects!)

Everybody should go play some more, especially with the new tracking features. Maybe someday they'll also add a "your most frequent level" category... I still spend lots of time at 44, but 45s and 46s are becoming more prevalent, and it would be nice to track my progress.

Word games and a good cause, oh my!

2007-11-13T22:26:00.000+01:00

Try the FreeRice vocabulary game! According to the site, it's rare for anyone to get beyond level 48 (of 50). Two thousand grains in with no dictionary and I'm consistently hitting level 44 and occasionally making a run all the way up to 46, only to hit a string of toughies. Can you do better?

Fancy dress!

2007-09-17T22:41:00.000+02:00

***Disclaimer: I've made a bargain with Mike that he WILL NOT peek if I provide a link to photos of the dress. I trust him, so I'm going to post it. (Plus, I'll know. Sitemeter generates a record of outclicks. But mostly, I trust him.)***

I was back home in St. Louis for the weekend, with a single goal: find the dress.

I expected the process to be at least moderately difficult. After all, there are quintillions of options, and so many of them are lovely in different ways. I had gotten some ideas from the "fashion show" portion of the St. Louis Bridal Expo a few weeks earlier, such as useful terminology: drop waist, gathering and ruching, various neckline, skirt, and train styles, taffeta vs. chiffon vs. a bunch of other fabrics... I also had the sketch that my friend and eventual roommate Grace had made for me waaaaay back in our freshman year at Kenyon. Of course I knew it was silly to show up with a sketch for a dress that doesn't exist and ask for the closest thing, but it wound up in my "wedding stuff" filing folder nonetheless, between pamphlets for DJs and information on photographers.

It wound up being a whole group of us at the shops, which I had anticipated. My maternal grandma, mom, my aunt Kristin and her kids... Justin, who was understandably bored, and flower girl Kailyn, who amused herself by trying on dresses of her own... until (horror of horrors!) she learned that she didn't get to take each and every one of them home with her that very day.

Aside from that unfortunate moment, I did find a potential winner at the first shop; a beautiful chiffon dress with spaghetti straps, a ruched corseted bodice feeding into a crystal-edged split-front overlay skirt that was very flattering, and an absolutely gorgeous crystal-studded train (which we didn't even notice until the dress was on!) The design company was called Impressions. It was a different style but the same fabric as my mother's own dress, and very light and airy for a summer wedding.

I wanted to look at another shop that carried a specific gown I'd noticed at the bridal show, just to be sure. The gown in mind was unique in that it had a colored ribbon (with many color choices) underlaid behind the beadwork in the bodice and that continued down and made up the inside of a split train. I found it again, but the cut of the dress didn't suit my body shape. I tried on a few others while we were there, and one of them fit amazingly. It was by design company Sophia Tolli, and it had lace straps, ruching and lace applique on the corset-back bodice, and a fuller skirt with an interesting pouf of bustling to one side. The pouf was pretty, but located right at hand height where it could be constantly smashed and fiddled with, knowing me. Still, the fit was so flattering that I thought it warranted further consideration.

Grandma and mom and I wanted to have a look, for comparison's sake, at the selection at a chain store that has been described by friends as "the Wal-Mart of bridal stores." Unsurprisingly, they were right. While I'm sure that I'd be able to find a beautiful dress there with some effort, our initial try-ons weren't promising. The store attendant insisted on measuring me (since "most women wear the wrong bra size") and proclaimed me a B-cup. (Not since high school!) She brought me a strapless undergarment in that size, and true to the saying, they ranneth over. She also insisted that the styles in the store were "french designs" and thus ran small. If I fit in a 10 in another store, I'd definitely need a 12 here. Pretty much every dress she brought out was oversized, so I had to look past the crappy fit and try to imagine every dress in my own size. The helpful feedback consisted of pressing me to list what I liked/did not like for each dress I tried on. Some features that I was interested in, like corseting instead of zippers, were "going out of style," which was why they didn't have much of a selection with that detail. (This was patently untrue based on the selections at the previous stores.) We didn't stay very long, and didn't add any dresses to our list.

Since the following day was Saturday and shops get busy, we tried to plan ahead and call to reserve a fitting room for yet another store. It turns out that only two stores in the St. Louis area carry Sophia Tolli designs, and this second store also carried the first dress from Impressions that I had liked. I could compare them back-to-back at a single location.

We arrived soon after opening, and it was full of brides-to-be and their friends and family, so we got started on our own and I had to wait a bit for mirror time to look at the dresses. We looked around for other options as well, and I did find a fairly simple two-tone strapless satin dress that everybody liked, but I thought satin would be too heavy for early August. I found the Impressions dress and a couple of other dresses from that company, none of which were as good as the first one. Then we figured out that they didn't have the specific Sophia Tolli gown I had tried on the day before, but they had a selection of others from the collection, which I decided to try.

By then it was late morning and the store had started to clear out, so we had more space and assistance from the staff, which was very nice. Both of the Sophia Tolli dresses were beautiful. The second one that I tried on was my grandmother's favorite... when I pointed out that it was more expensive, she wanted to pay the difference herself! It was a beautiful full A-line dress with beaded straps and crisscrossed taffeta draping from the fitted bodice to partway down the skirt, which gave way to a tulle underskirt at the front. The back of the dress was also very distinctive, again corset-style at the top while the taffeta draping from the front continued into drapey bustling with a crystal accent partway down the skirt and leading into the train.

That was a gorgeous dress, but as soon as I saw it on I wanted to get back into the dress I had tried on just before! I think Kara and I both knew it was special, since she commented on it in the dressing room (before I saw it in the mirror) and we definitely shared a look once I had a chance to see the whole thing. I felt that it made me look like an elegant piece of statuary, or the figurine on some kind of fancy award... but in a good way. It's just me, I guess. The funny thing is that of all the dresses I tried, it was the closest in overall shape to the sketch that Grace drew way back when. She was really on to something! When I had asked at the other stores to try on dresses in that shape, and I had been told that it only flatters very tall and thin girls, so I shouldn't even try it. So much for that!

We ordered it in diamond white, which is like a pale ivory. Here's the link that Mike isn't allowed to click!

New date... 8-9-08!

2007-09-10T23:30:00.000+02:00

So as you may have noticed, Mike and I finally set a wedding date. I selected it myself after consulting with one of the co-administrators of my program, so that I'd have enough time between my Qualifying Exam and the ceremony to take care of last minute plans, stay sane, and even actually enjoy myself. I wanted the wedding after the test, with at least two weeks between the two.

Of course as soon as I take the time to e-mail all sorts of people to let them know about the wedding date, I'm informed that my Quals have been moved from the first half of August to mid-September! Luckily we hadn't yet signed contracts with DJs, photographers, caterers, and such... just set up the church, hall, and celebrant with my home parish.

Quals are a pretty big deal in my program. It's a huge oral exam and research talk that determines my status as a PhD candidate in good standing. Also, the test is administered by a faculty panel, which is why scheduling them in summer is such a big deal. It turns out that even university faculty like to go on vacation every once in a while, when they can find time in their already busy schedules.

That and the fact that I want to take advantage of group prep sessions with my peers (which will work out better if we're all taking the test at about the same time) led me to decide that the easiest solution was to move the wedding... not back to the fall, since so many guests and participants are still students, but earlier in the summer with at least a month between the ceremony and the exam. It's not as ideal as the original plan, but it's survivable. We'd be able to schedule a vacation/honeymoon for after the test, as well.

So... the new date is August 9th, 2008! It's still a Saturday. Locations are the same as before, and I'm also staying on top of the changes by updating the wedding website. The date is more solid than ever since we've shelled out for deposits at the church and for a reception DJ this week... and I've gotten some assurance from the powers-that-be at school that they will work around MY schedule this time if the test date jumps again for any reason!

365 days and counting

2007-08-24T17:54:00.000+02:00

I'm not a day late... It's a leap year!

At long last

2007-08-06T16:27:00.000+02:00

It's been official for a few days now, but I have a lab!

Do you... Walk?

2007-07-31T17:59:00.000+02:00

My apartment rated an 83 out of 100 on this nifty site. How about where you live?

And speaking of nifty sites, Mike and I are putting together our wedding website at http://bakerandnigh.weddings.com. So far we've got our work cut out for us filling in the details, but we are having fun with a round-robin semi-fictionalized account on the "Our Story" page. Check it out!

So much! Vacation, work, and wedding planning!

2007-07-24T16:24:00.000+02:00

First things first, California was wonderful... and action-packed. (All of the pictures have been uploaded to my Shutterfly albums.) I flew out with my friend Amrita on Tuesday afternoon (the 10th), and despite threats of delays from the start we managed to arrive in a timely fashion. It was a looooong day; adding 2 hours from Central time made rental car complexity, driving direction issues, and the lateness of dinner disproportionately frustrating, but Wednesday was much better.

We got up "early" (still later than I'm up for work, Chicago time) and headed to SeaWorld for our big adventure in the "wild arctic" exhibit. Feeding seals and walruses and looking at polar bears from "backstage" was only the warmup for our plunge into icy salt water to see beluga whales up close and personal. The trainers told us about the behavioral training tactics used with the animals and showed off some of their best "tricks," including, of course, the ones where they squirt, splash, and otherwise drench the hapless observers. We were in the water for a total of about 25 minutes, which was certainly long enough at 50 degrees farenheit!

We stayed at the park exploring exhibits and rides until the afternoon, when we took a lunch break downtown in San Diego's historic gaslamp district at a Mexican restaurant Amrita recommended. It seemed like a trendy little part of town, with plenty of food, shops and boutiques. As evening approached we made plans to travel to LaJolla and find a beach where we could bum around. Instead of the traditional sandy coastline, we inadvertently stumbled into an area with surf-worn sandstone cliffs, overhangs, and rugged shores full of tide pools, where we stayed until sunset.

On Thursday morning we set out for old town San Diego, to check out gold-rush era buildings... and shop after shop of kitschy old-time souvenirs. Actually, we started off by taking a walking trail to the Presidio site, a fortress/mission that marks the earliest Spanish colonial presence in the area. We stayed in old town for lunch, and finished the day by heading back to SeaWorld to take in more exhibits and shows.

On Friday I set off bright and early on my own to catch a flight to Sacramento, where I met up with Gilberto, a very good friend from Kenyon. We dropped of my luggage and spent a little time with his family at his parents' house before taking off to see old town Sacramento, a nice little shopping district in authentic old-west buildings.

We caught up over a snack at a local restaurant called BJ's, and then headed back to his folks' house for a fantastic dinner made by his dad: fresh salad with avocado, a delicious seasoned salmon dish, and a fantastic shrimp ragout. I don't cook often with shrimp, but I regret that I didn't ask for the recipe then an there! We went out to catch the 5th Harry Potter movie after dinner, although unfortunately I was still on Central time and I zonked out right around the Weasley twins' raucous withdrawal from Hogwarts. I'll have to catch it again to see the second half!

On Saturday morning I went out in Beto's neighborhood for a short run while he ran some errands. We had decided to go back to Oldtown to check out the Railroad Museum and buy some souvenirs. I got to meet his friend Rashad, and then we went home to eat the leftovers from the previous night's fabulous dinner before setting off on the 2 hour drive to San Francisco. We arrived after dark and had a great view of the skyline, though unfortunately my pictures were too blurry to save.

Sunday morning we set off early after a hearty breakfast at a diner near Beto's apartment. We went to Mission Dolores, the oldest church in California. With perfect timing, the Basilica next door to the original church was having Mass when we finished exploring the museum.

We drove to Castro, the historic gay neighborhood in San Francisco, and then made our way to the de Young museum in Golden Gate park, which had spectacular collections of modern art. We travelled to Haight street, hippie central, to get lunch, and I bought myself an absolutely ridiculous pair of earrings.

As repayment for our visit to Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard in St. Louis the previous summer, we went to Mitchell's for the best ice cream in San Francisco. If you ever have the opportunity, I recommend the passionfruit sorbet! We also went to Ocean Beach so I could dip my feet in the Pacific, and then we made plans to go to dinner with Beto's Aunt Kim and her four highly energetic kids, which was loads of fun. I slept well after a busy day!

On Monday, we went back to Golden Gate park to visit the Japanese Tea Garden, which was very serene before the packs of visitors arrived.

We spent the rest of the day at notable SF landmarks, including Lombard street, the world's crookedest road:

Coit Tower, with its fantastic view of the city and the bay:

And Little Italy, where we found a great café for lunch. Then it was on to the Golden Gate Bridge, which was a bit foggy but cleared up on the half that we walked:

We briefly visited Fisherman's Wharf to check out the souvenir stands, where Beto saw this and had to take a picture for my sister:

We ended the day with a visit to Beto's younger sister Ariel and her boyfriend, where we played some Mario Party on the Nintendo Wii and then went out for dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant:

Tuesday was spent riding roller coasters, eating gross fair food, and singing Karaoke at Great America amusement park. We tired ourselves out pretty thorougly, so we left a bit early, visited with Beto's Aunt Maria before attempting the drive back to Sacramento.

I left Wednesday morning to make the long flight back to St. Louis, landing in the early evening. I was expecting a fairly relaxing weekend at home, but that was not to be. Dr. G, my current advisor, had left a message on my phone while I was in transit, informing me that the committee for a training grant in aging and dementia would accept a proposal from me even though I haven't had my qualifying exam. They wanted to see what I could write, and possibly hold a position for me on the grant for my third and fourth years in the program. This was huge news, because Dr. G and I have been hard at work ever since I started in his lab, trying to find a source of funding to allow me to stay and do my thesis research as his advisee. The catch, of course, was that the committee was convening to read applications on the following Monday.

So much for my calm weekend at home, especially when I quickly realized that one of my pieces of luggage - the one containing my notes and important lab papers - had not arrived with me in St. Louis. I had to fill out a claim at the airport and hope against hope that it would come in sufficient time to get my proposal written. I probably hadn't worked under a similarly hectic deadline since senior year at Kenyon, but luckily things came together; I tracked down rec letters, worked on updating my CV, and with the delivery of my missing bag I had a first draft emailed by Friday night... and rewrote about 5 more times before Monday, including on the road with Mike on Sunday. It was actually a good exercise just to write a proposal and organize my ideas, since the project I came up with could actually make up the bulk of my thesis if I stay in the lab. So, yay!

Between all of that, Mike and my mom and I actually did find time to visit reception hall possibilities for the wedding, and come to some decisions. There are still plenty of details left to work out, but we've reserved a date at my home church and at the parish hall for the reception: Saturday, August 23rd, 2008. Official save-the-date mailings will hopefully commence shortly, as will wedding party and music organization. (Hint to friends and family with musical inclination... Mike is composing a choral setting for the Mass, so we'll definitely need a couple of singers on each voice part and probably someone to act as musical director as well!)

Now to decide what to do for our pre-niversary! When I asked my dad what he and mom decided to do to celebrate the date a year before the wedding, he said that he asked her why they couldn't have just gotten it done that year... Still, having a date more than a year away is much preferred to no date at all. Here's the countdown:

Wahoo!!!

Vacation!

2007-07-09T05:54:00.001+02:00

I'm leaving Tuesday night, going to California for a little more than a week... including what is already shaping up to be a fabulous visit with Gilbert and his family. We had a great time over his trip to St. Louis last summer, and I can't wait to pick up where that left off, except with beaches this time! Photos to come on my return!

After that, I'm flying back home for a long weekend of a portentous nature... looking at reception halls and setting a wedding date. Eek! For reals!

Should be mad updatez when I get back...

Rating

2007-06-29T20:41:00.000+02:00

Somehow I'm not surprised.

More race results

2007-06-25T19:44:00.000+02:00

After yesterday's post, I spent the afternoon with an awful headache and didn't get much done... but I think Laura and I are going to try and keep it up, and possibly sign up for another race later this summer. The complete and official race results are posted here.

By way of summary, Laura and I actually came in at 35:37 and 35:38, respectively, making us the 24th and 25th finishers in Women age 20-24... and they only list through 25th place in that category in the "Age Group Awards" page, so we were last in our division. Overall, that was good enough for 840th and 841st overall out of 914 runners, and 363rd and 364th in Women out of 405 competitors.

It's a start. We'll be better next year!

42

2007-06-24T19:06:00.000+02:00

... was the number safety-pinned to my shirt. We took off in the middle of the pack and came back in with apparently the "last big clump," according to my spectator-in-waiting. We stopped to walk twice, probably about half a mile in total, which leaves about 2.6 miles of actual running. Clock time at crossing the finish was 36:17, although I have to wait for them to tally the radiochip device on my shoe for the real duration.

I'm still alive.

I still hate running.

I think I would do it again.

I'm INTERNET FAMOUS

2007-06-21T22:58:00.000+02:00

Okay, not really. But there is a vaguely embarrassing video interview from last year's Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology meeting in Berlin, where I gush unreservedly about how cool it is to live abroad and do AD research. It's here, and the video quality is rather over-compressed... at least, I hope I don't look that bug-eyed in real life. Also, I should email them about spelling my name right... sigh.

By way of follow-up to my last post, I'm officially in my new summer lab. And it's awesome so far on all counts, except of course the fact that scientific research in many fields, including mine, is in a funding drought. I'm doing my darndest to find a way to stay in this lab, though. We'll see...

The 5K I'm running is also this weekend, Sunday morning. I'll try to remember to post, if I survive.

A new season.

2007-05-18T21:03:00.000+02:00

I need a change. I'm going home for the weekend for my sister's graduation, which is good... but I need something bigger. I need a break from classes, and a new lab.

Basically, I found out in the last week or so that none of my 3 rotation labs this year have the space or funding to take me on as a thesis student. Other than classes, my job this year is to find a permanent home to do my Ph.D. It's not that I haven't had good experiences, but had I known going into it that all three of the labs I worked in were hard up for funding, space or both, I may have made different decisions.

I'm mostly sour because it's the Prof's job to weigh his or her ability to take on students and share that upfront, and one of mine made a misjudgement and then backpedalled after I -- after several students, in fact -- started working for him. We're still expected to come to lab and work on our projects, of course. It's a little disheartening.

Realistically, I'm not the only student in my program right now in this situation (which doesn't necessarily help any of us, but we're not alone.) Summer lab rotations are an option, and I've jumped right on the task of contacting other P.I.'s (that's "primary investigators" for non-sciencey types) with research that interests me and, hopefully, the resources to take me on. I intend to have a summer plan squared away by the end of the quarter. I've interviewed with one promising lead so far, although more options wouldn't hurt.

There needs to be a bulletin board or a personals ad system in science to hook up grad students with researchers. "Student, good pipetting hands and blot technique, seeking Assistant Professor with funds for neurobiology of degenerative diseases. Pref. downtown, new faculty OK, no despots." Maybe I should shop that to matchmaker websites.

Oh yeah: Still running. Still mostly hating it, particularly from the point when I wake up in the morning on running days to the point where we stop running. Although, the realization that I don't have to run again until the day after tomorrow! is a pretty good feeling. Our route has increased to 2 miles, of which I can do about 1.5 without stopping if we take a pretty slow pace. I guess that means my endurance is going up, since I've never in my life been able to make such a statement. I still don't know about 5k, but we've got a few more weeks.

Week 1, so far so good, still hating it

2007-05-04T00:38:00.000+02:00

I thought I'd offer an update on the training regimen, since it appears I'm actually sticking with this little project (see previous post if you have no idea what I'm talking about). The protocol involves running a set distance Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (for this week and next it's 1.5 miles, though we do allow a few short walking breaks) and an hourlong walk on Sundays.

We started last Saturday, so today marks the end of the first week. I was noticeably sore on Sunday and Monday, but since then it hasn't been painful. Believe it or not, I still hate running with the burning passion of 10,000 suns. Most of what is going through my head as we go along involves contemplating every single little bodily pain as it arises, listening to the horrific cacaphony of my own breathing, and wishing we could stop. Pretty much every moment.

I went to the campus health center and got a new prescription for an albuterol inhaler, which is likely to help with the wheeziness and feelings of shortness of breath. I was on the medication for reactive airway back in high school when I couldn't shake a chronic cough, and those symptoms seem to be coming back since I got over my last cold, which just makes it that much harder to breathe. I hate taking the stuff since it makes me feel like I'm overly caffeinated all day long, but for now I'm going to try it on the days that we run.

Hopefully I'll be able to break out of these negative mental patterns and enjoy the weather, the scenery (our weekday route takes us right along lake Michigan in Evanston) or *gasp* maybe even the process itself as my body acclimates. We'll see...

Trying new things

2007-04-26T05:10:00.000+02:00

Those who know me well: prepare to be shocked and amazed.

Laura, another student in my lab, has convinced me to sign up with her to run a 5K in June. We are going to train together, which involves a regular weekly schedule of waking up early and running before work.

That's right. Running. The bane of my athletic existence, such as it is. And I'll be waking up extra early, and paying the $25 race entry fee... just for the privilege of engaging in one of my least favorite activities of all time.

Exercise for its own sake has never been a part of my life... it's something that happens occasionally in the pursuit of other things. I don't really count my stint as a ballroom dancer at Kenyon because my practice attendance was pretty sporadic, and I did it for the fun and social interaction more than for working up a sweat. Biking to get around last year came pretty close, but for me it was primarily about transportation and I rarely rode around for exercise purposes, and I've barely used my bike this year (I did ride to work and back yesterday for the first time since the weather changed, and got a flat tire for my effort!) Sticking to a regular schedule with this is going to be a challenge.

The one nice thing about all of this is that Laura hates running too, so we can commiserate the entire time. There will be LOTS of commiserating. But hopefully also support and bonding. Wish me luck!

Celebrate!

2007-04-23T03:29:00.000+02:00

I had been hoping to organize some kind of group event for my birthday tomorrow (24! whoa!) with my classmates... but instead, we have a big class assignment and a midterm this week. So, my celebrations will consist of a class debate and attending a talk by scientist and author Jared Diamond on the evolution of world religions. Dr. Diamond gave a really good talk at Kenyon after his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed came out, and I'm pretty pumped about the topic as well.

From the on-campus advertisments:

How can religion be defined in such a way as to encompass all of the customarily recognized religions, while excluding other things not normally considered religions? Does religion require belief in God, the supernatural, or eternal moral principles not of our own invention? What do traditional Catholics, atheists professing themselves to be members of organized liberal religions, and tribespeople believing in spirits share with each other that they don’t share with believers in ghosts, astrology, and non-religious moral codes? Dr. Diamond shall argue that religion has encompassed at least four independent components that have arisen or disappeared at different stages of development of human societies over the last 10,000 years.

I'm anticipating a pretty cool evening. Happy birthday to me!

Spring Break!

2007-03-20T01:06:00.000+01:00

My second quarter of grad school is over... I'm halfway through year one! More than halfway, even, if I can find my thesis lab without adding a fourth rotation this summer. I met with my Spring quarter advisor this morning, and so far it looks very promising. That's all I'll say for now, because of course I'll need to get into the work and the lab dynamic first.

St. Patrick's Day weekend is very green in Chicago, and it was made even more so by my sister Kara's visit... our main goal was to get $25 front-row seats to see "Wicked," the musical, in the ticket lottery. We had four chances to try for it over her three days in the city, but we were super lucky and her name was the second called on our very first attempt, Thursday night. I've owned the soundtrack for a couple of years, so finally seeing the show was fantastic! We even had time between the lottery and the show to check out nearby Millennium Park:

We spent Friday downtown, exploring Michigan avenue's finest chocolate stores, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and dusk at the Sears Tower Skydeck:

The fact that Kara looks so much taller than me next to the Sears Tower is probably some kind of optical illusion:

You can't see the stepstool in her picture. Yeah, that's it. The stepstool. I swear.

Saturday was the annual dyeing of the Chicago river and then the St. Patrick's Day parade:

Kara even got kissed on the cheek by a passing leprechaun, though sadly I didn't turn my camera on in time to catch it. That's what she gets for being a redhead on St. Pat's, I guess!

Speaking of hair, it was one of my goals this break to get a haircut, so I tried out a place in Evanston this morning. It's probably not short enough for Grandma Jean's taste, but I'm very happy with it!

Now to write my second rotation report and enjoy the rest of spring break!

wow.

2007-02-22T19:09:00.000+01:00

So Kenyon has lost another first-year student... and apparently he did the same thing I did freshman year, vasovagal syncope early in the morning in the dorm bathroom. I, however, came out of it merely concussed. I just read the Collegian article and it shook me up a bit.

I don't really know what else to say... there's an even stranger connection, because his last name is Gottinger, which is almost certainly derived from the name of the city in Germany where I lived last year.

I never met this young man. He sounds like a wonderful person. He and his family will be in my prayers.

Checked off the list

2007-01-26T04:21:00.000+01:00

My fall rotation report.

Finally!

('Bout darn time, too.)

Memories

2007-01-24T03:27:00.000+01:00

I've got plenty of reading to do... but reminiscing is an enjoyable diversion.

Deutschland fehlst mir!

From my weekend with Emily in Tübingen:

The street sign is the important part, of course:

(Frog alley. If only I could live there...)

New Year's Tally

2007-01-08T05:53:00.000+01:00

This may be a little late out the gate, but I feel like a bit of stock-taking since it's near the rather arbitrary start-point of the 365.4-day planetary orbital cycle.

Good things, from the most recent to old news:

Quarter 2 of grad school is getting started with a bang, and I'm excited about the material in class and in my new rotation lab. Molecular bio is spiffy, as is neuroanatomy!
Coming back to my apartment after break felt like coming home. It's nice to feel settled-in in a new place, and it definitely happened faster this year than last year.
Christmas! Seeing family and friends back in StL - particularly catching up with some folks after a long time - was a great way to bring back happy memories.
Speaking of reunions, I went back to Kenyon for one night in early December to attend the Cornerstones fall concert... despite the truncated stay, I got to check in with the Guitar crowd, see a great show, catch up with old friends, and attend the afterparty in Snowden with all the current 'Stones! (I have no idea if Robbie K. reads this, but what a pleasant surprise to see another alum from the "old crowd" on campus again! It was great to have someone with whom to bum around, commiserate over the changes since we left, and celebrate our time on the hill. Apparently I'm not the only one drawn back to the Chapel like a moth to a flame, and spending a quiet hour there with an old friend really made it feel like Kenyon.)
Carolling with the Catatonics right before break was splendiferous... but I'm always a sucker for singing at nursing homes. If the PhD thing doesn't work out, maybe that's my true calling.
Surviving my first quarter at Northwestern! Not to mention new friends, new places, and new ideas...
I can't help but think that my quick transition to Chicago living is significantly aided by Mike's proximity. After 5 years of distance, I'm like the proverbial kid in a candy store every time we get to be together, which is practically every weekend. I realize that someday I'll become desensitized and won't leap for joy at the prospect of divvying up the housework (this weekend we vacuumed AND bought deeply discounted Christmas decorations! yay!) but for now I'm still totally enthralled by folding shirts together. That does quite a bit to perk up the day-to-day, or week-to-week, routine.
2006 had some major landmarks... Roomie Jen and cousin Sarah's weddings, moving to Chicago, not to mention finishing up my year in Germany. It's surreal to think about where I was this time a year ago. I'll admit that I don't spend lots and lots of time pining for Deutschland, although any brush with German language or culture makes me smile. I also know that the entire experience has left its indelible mark on me. So many of the adventures I had over there were nerve-wracking challenges that left me feeling weak, alone, and scared... but I went ahead anyway, and even as I was hard on myself for being afraid, I was learning how to deal with those feelings. I'm more self-aware, confident, and adventurous now, and I have learned to recognize and apply those traits positively.

I don't want to do a parallel list of bad things from the past year, so I'll avoid that. Instead, I do want to list a few "special intentions," as it were, in lieu of formal resolutions.

I know it's breaking the rules to include stuff from 2007, but my friend Bethany's wedding was this weekend. That's not the bad part, of course! I had planned to attend, but unfortunately I couldn't be there for it. I hope it went well, particularly the musical contribution by current Cornerstones and alums!
I have a few friends who are going through tough times, and I wish them comfort. You guys probably know who you are. I don't have any magic words to make things instantly better, so I'll offer my friendship and hope it helps.
I'm realizing quickly that my chosen career path requires a certain amount of ambition and just plain elbow grease. I need to keep the former stoked in order to maintain the latter.
Reunions are grand and all that... it's lovely to reconnect with folks after a few years and pick up right where you left off, but it also reminds me how nice it is to enjoy their company in the first place. Keeping in touch is fun and easy! I should initiate that more often.
How about some ideas, the thrust of which head towards circling the general area of... wedding dates!?! Huh? Let's start with the year and narrow it down from there.

Lab early. Must sleep. 'Til next time!

The most wonderful time of the year

2006-12-13T04:08:00.000+01:00

I've been getting into the holiday spirit this week. Carolling with the Catatonics, visiting the Christkindlmarket downtown, baking cookies (mmm... Elizabeth's great Snickerdoodle recipe) and last but not least, decorating my apartment this weekend with Mike!

Check it out:

You can barely see in the photo, but the ridiculousness of our little tree is impressive. Mike bought it on sale at the end of the holiday season last year. We were a little surprised to find that the base section had colored lights since the box showed white ones... and then we unwrapped the top section. Which did have white lights. Even better, several branches remained dark when we finally got it plugged in. There were no hooks included in the ornament box, so we had to adapt some paperclips to the task. Still, it's our little pathetic tree. Awww...

The heat is on...

2006-12-04T05:51:00.001+01:00

woah-oh-woah-oh!

(I'm a nerd. But a warm and happy one.)

Brrrrrr...

2006-12-04T04:06:00.000+01:00

I was feeling bad earlier this week for folks back in St. Louis (parts of my family included) whose power got knocked out by an ice storm last week, but apparently I should have saved my pity for myself. I went to bed last night noticing that my radiators weren't putting out much heat, and woke up to an ice-cold apartment this morning. Three phone calls to maintenance (or their answering service, since it's Sunday) were apparently fruitless... no returned calls or helpful visitors. I'm bundled up in four layers on my own sofa.

I should mention that it's illegal in Chicago to maintain an apartment temperature under 68 degrees during the day or 66 degrees at night. I wish I had a thermometer.

Did I mention that the local news just said tonight will be the coldest night so far this year?

Results & such

2006-12-02T02:27:00.000+01:00

It's not official, but I think I aced my final and the take-home as well. Yay for not failing grad school! Also, after a week of hard-core book-hitting, I'm finally allowing myself to plug the TV back in. Whew.

In other news, I've got big plans for next weekend... heading to Gambier for the Cornerstones fall concert! Not only is it my first chance to get invited up to sing "The Stone" after the last song, but it will be my first return to that lovely hill since the festivities of May 2005. I'm flying up on Friday and returning to Chicago on Saturday, so I hope I have enough time to track down everybody I want to see on campus. Also, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be decent. The flights are direct, at least, which would make delays less of a big deal but still unpleasant.

Oh, and my Thanksgiving was awesome. My sister had the fabulous idea to take me to see "Spamalot!" at the Fox, and the whole family ended up coming along. T-day food at Grandma's: good. Getting up at a quarter to 5 to shop the day after was as appalling as ever. In all, a fabulous week even despite car troubles on the way there and Mike's disappearance to Wichita. 2 weeks to Christmas break!

T-minus 18 hours...

2006-12-01T04:03:00.000+01:00

...until my second big exam of the quarter. Third if you count the take-home, but I can't: a take-home is open book, there's no pressure of the clock tick-tick-ticking the allotted time away, I can put it away when it gets frustrating and pick it up later when I start feeling smart again.

Gotta nail this one. Wish me luck.

Ewwww

2006-11-15T05:38:00.000+01:00

I apologize in advance for the subsequent content, but I really need to vent right now.

First off, I don't generally have a problem with bugs, or any creepy-crawly things. I can happily share my living space with arthropods from numerous subphyla. Give me your arachnids, your myriapods, even plain ol' insects and I don't bat an eye. Through many of my teenage years I lived with a box of feeder crickets in my room for my pet frog. Unlike some members of my family, a harmless silverfish doesn't cause me to freeze and holler at the top of my lungs for somebody else to come and kill it. (Warning to those of you who do exhibit such behavior: Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, stop reading right now.)

BUT.

I draw the line at roaches. In my mind they're dirty and totally unwelcome in my living quarters. Since I'm living in an older (rehabbed) apartment building, though, I understand that this may be beyond my control. The management has already come in and sprayed a couple of times since I moved in. Funnily enough, my first two incidents with roaches in my place happened in the week after these fumigations.

I suppose I should recap the first one... a single roach, apparently living in my doorjamb. I'm pretty sure I saw the same one twice, since it was sitting in the exact same position, a few inches down from the middle hinge, two days in a row. If it hadn't run for a hole on the floor at the base of the door (on the outside, thank goodness) I would have probably never seen it. It got away, but I consoled myself that it was merely at the threshhold of my living space and tried to forget about it. A few days later, however, I came home and started washing the breakfast dishes I'd left in the sink... when one scuttled out from under a dish and down behind the stove. I ran to get a roach-killer (aka tennis shoe) but I was too late. I finished washing up, re-washed the contents of the drain tray and the tray itself, and swore not to leave things in the sink. I moved the shoe back into my room, though, and when I walked back to the bedroom after a few minutes there it was (or possibly another one, perish the thought!) on the floor next to my sneaker. Splat.

They came and sprayed again last week. I thought things would simmer down. Ha.

This morning, I made my usual instant oatmeal before heading into the lab. I opened the trash to pitch the paper packet, and something was moving. That's right, one of the buggers had gotten into my trash and was living it up in there! I grabbed the bag, because that sucker was going out to the dumpster whether or not I had a full trashbag. Grab twist tie, seal bag... double-take. There's a teeny tiny beetly bug, maybe twice the size of your average black ant, sitting on another twist tie in the little handy pile I keep right next to the sink. There's several teeny tiny beetly bugs, actually. Waving their itsy bitsy antennae as if they own the place. I grab a tissue and commence wholesale slaughter, carefully moving the ties out of the way and examining them to make sure I don't miss any. Something like 25 bugs die by my hands in a few short minutes, and that's when I get to the bottom of the pile and find it... the spent egg case. That's right, they're breeding on my kitchen surfaces!!

Now, I keep a clean place. I vacuum regularly, don't pile stuff on the floor, never had more than one meal's worth of dishes waiting to be washed, wipe down food prep areas after use, and my kitchen trash has a lid (though apparently that won't stop them.) Except for the contents of the fridge, all of my food storage is in a pantry apart from the kitchen on an upper shelf. I simply can't fathom why these creatures can't go reproduce in some dank and damp space between the walls somewhere. Why my kitchen counter?

And I worry that if I call and see if the management will come spray again, it will just get worse. The dratted bugs will set up a dayspa in the bathroom, or start putting their family photos on my fridge.

Ugh. Just... ugh.

We're taking over the world...

2006-11-14T02:32:00.000+01:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
13
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Distractions are fun!

2006-11-02T17:30:00.000+01:00

I don't want to talk here about how my monster exam came out (if you really want to know and haven't heard from me already, you'll just have to track me down...) but I did promise a friend that I'd post a link this weekend for a brand-spankin'-new internet time-wasting venture of his.

Thus, without further ado:

Kiss or Diss

Enjoy!

Whew...

2006-10-28T01:07:00.000+02:00

I have officially survived my first grad school exam.

I won't know how I did until Tuesday, but I do know that everybody (or at least everybody who took the test on the dowtown campus) came out of the test feeling a little jangly. It bodes well that we all found it difficult... at least, I'm taking heart. It makes the 5 points lost for totally blanking on the identity of a single protein more palatable. Seriously, two questions dependent entirely on our recall of one tiny molecule, which by the way took up about 7.3 seconds of lecture time this whole semester?? I guess that's grad school for you.

Until Tuesday then, I'm going to have a great weekend!

Winter again? Already???

2006-10-13T21:29:00.000+02:00

It was 30-odd degrees outside yesterday, and I got snowed on while waiting at the bus stop. This and the never-ending German winter of last year (dragging through, oh, March) make this past summer, officially, the shortest of my life. Not to mention the last, since grad school and real life apparently expect me in lab, working, year-round. Not that I didn't work over summers in college... but I still call it the end of an era.

In more positive news, I'm definitely recovering from the killer cold that hit me this weekend. I'm not quite 100%, still coughing and secreting, but I've managed to catch my classes, get work done and spend some time in lab. Hopefully the upwards trajectory will continue.

At least there's clear blue sky outside my lab window at the moment. Maybe I'll just pretend it's still warm out...

Sicky McSickerson

2006-10-08T23:12:00.000+02:00

All hail the first cold of the season, and is it ever a doozy. It possibly didn't help that I had a late night on Friday with friends and didn't make it home until 2am, and then spent Saturday afternoon and evening riding rollercoasters with Mike and his brother Pete at Six Flags Great America. The payment for my enjoyment, sadly, has been more-than-sufficiently extracted over the course of last night and today. I even had to call in sick on my very first Sunday singing with the church choir, when I was supposed to do the psalm, too. On the plus side, it was a fun weekend, and Mike's folks were kind enough to stock me up on soup and orange juice on the way home last night, for which I'm abjectly grateful. I also got a few other snacks, my leather coat, a couple of throw pillows, and two decorative glass thingamajigs. Hear that, germs?? I have objets d'art, and I'm not afraid to use them!

For future reference: Sudafed 12-hour and several mugs of Earl Gray are diametrically opposed to my pursuit of a nap.

Also: Remember to disinfect, fumigate, autoclave, and/or exorcise belongings later. Particularly keyboard.

I'm a lazy blogger

2006-10-04T20:41:00.000+02:00

Well, lazy may not be the best descriptor since I am, in fact, keeping fairly busy with school, lab, and all that good stuff. What's new, you ask?

I've joined the graduate school a cappella group, "the Catatonics." We've had a rehearsal or two so far, and it's low-key and fun. It's just one night a week, which is apparently just about right for my schedule. Oh, and I've already been made assistant VP and - get this - assistant webmaster. I haven't even seen the website yet, but hopefully it's got a good template I can work off of. (Tim, expect an email if I'm in over my head...)

The Fundamentals class has a homework set every week for the first unit. We've had two so far, and they're fairly intense... like, Itagaki take-home exam intense. (Kenyon neurobio/cell bio survivors know what I'm talking about, right? "Try to do the whole thing in one sitting." Ha!) The good news is that the powers-that-be are fine with credited group work, so the new tradition is a Monday night group. The first iteration consisted of a quick dinner at a restaurant in Evanston followed by hard-core work at a local coffee shop, which was fun. The second meeting, though, was awesome. I decided to take a cue from my Kiel friends' fabulous dinners and invited everybody over to my (handily central) place for a fajita fiesta, with fresh salsa and all the trimmings. I didn't make my own tortillas or guacamole from scratch like the amazing Mikey and Leslie, but I must credit that historic, nay, epic meal as my inspiration, particularly where the joys of fresh cilantro are concerned. I hope that I've started a regular tradition. Not everybody has the space to cook for 5 or so people, but maybe if we make it a potluck next time...

Mike and I have also started an alternating weekend visit between Chicago and DeKalb, which is simply lovely. Running errands together, cooking and doing dishes, watching movies and going to church together may seem rather quaint, but it's the together part that makes it special, particularly after last year. I love the fact that he can be a part of my regular life, even once a week. My current task is to get used to the new pattern... I need to titrate my emotional response to hellos and goodbyes down to an acceptable level, now that they happen just about every single week. Five years is a whole lot of pent-up missing someone to tap into, but thankfully it's already getting easier now that that chapter is finally coming to an end, however slowly.

Weather has been stormy this week, but I'm hoping for a few more chances to get out on my new bike before it gets too nasty out. I've already made one ride from my apartment all the way downtown, about an hour's ride, with someone from my program, and I want to try to learn the safest street route to Evanston and make that trip as well. I don't know that I'll ever regain the amazing biking muscles I developed in Göttingen with that city's ubiquitous dedicated bike lanes and trails, but I'd rather not lose them altogether sitting on buses and the El!

Class starts in half an hour and then I have to get up to Evanston for Catatonics rehearsal, but I still intend to complete my online photo collection from Germany and take (and post) some shots of my apartment, Chicago, and DeKalb. Expect that soon!

Link of love

2006-09-14T06:58:00.000+02:00

I haven't made any progress towards getting my fiancé on Facebook, but he did finally succumb to the siren song of blogging. What can I say about this fabulous guy? He's the best ever, a total keeper, and I'm one lucky girl.

Without further ado:
Go here, and add it to your regular blog-reading schedule.

But don't get your hopes up, gals. He's all mine.

Sweet, sweet wireless... plus ruminations

2006-09-13T06:02:00.000+02:00

Ah, yeah, I feel better now. My apartment is now fully hooked up and operational, internet-wise. Actually, I've been online for a couple of days already, thanks to the Super8 across the street's unsecured connection... for whatever reason, it stopped requesting a password when my computer tried to link in this weekend. I don't know if it was a policy change or a mistake, but moderate internet functionality did much to assuage the residual frustration from my wireless router shipping rigamarole of last week.

I did promise some pictures of the new apartment. I think I'll hold off, though, as my folks are coming up this weekend with curtains, which can only add to the homey-ness of the place. Otherwise, the creature-comforts are largely taken care of... I even took the time last week to orange-glo every square inch of floor space I could get to. Shiny and happy. Plus I can walk around barefoot now without acquiring a protective patina of construction dust on the soles of my feet.

I've survived my Ph.D. program's orientation retreat, the graduate school's orientation seminar, and another day of institute orientation to the logistical side of registering for classes, looking for rotation advisors, and whatnot. Another meeting tomorrow morning with my shiny new advisory committee and a meeting in lab with a potential fall-rotation advisor or two is on the docket for tomorrow. In the evening, there's essentially the Northwestern version of the fall Cabaret called the All-Cappella concert. The supremely laid-back (no audition process, no concerts per se but the occasional nursing home gig) grad student group is seeking sopranos. I hear some of the other groups also take old folks like me, so it's a good chance to give everybody a listen and see what's out there. Friday is class registration, and classes officially start Wednesday next week although we have a Monday seminar thrown in for fun.

In other words, I finally have a schedule to fill my time. And it's WONDERFUL! Being busy again is like some kind of holy grail... maybe not at the level of senior year at Kenyon, because that bordered on pathological, but I'm ready to focus and work hard and start accomplishing things again. Maybe it's not a fair assessment, but I still find myself thinking that F-bright, though an accomplishment in and of itself, was unproductive in the end. Sure, I can say I lived abroad. I can say I made strides with a second language, experienced a new culture, made friends and had a taste of independence. I learned to cook, at least a bit. All of that is valuable. But in terms of where my goals and aspirations lie, the research side of things was not the focal point I had hoped it would be. Now, that side of my life is coming back into view... and I'm realizing that I missed it. Arguably, also a valuable realization.

I'm also really pumped about the first-year Fundamentals course. The way it's been described to me, the format is very similar to Intro Neuro as I experienced it: in-depth topics with well-versed faculty, plenty of topical variety, challenging material thrown at us at breakneck speed, while we attempt to get as much of it as possible to stick. Maybe it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I'm anticipating more mental stimulation than you can shake a stick at, and it makes me happy. I already visualize myself riding the El home, mind a whirlwind, everything around me coming in at an entirely new perspective as though the top had been lifted off the universe to let the light come pouring in. Good college courses gave me that feeling on a regular basis, and some of my clearest images of Kenyon - familiar faces, lush trees, genteel buildings, the sky in Ohio winter and spring's aquamarine and oh so many other hues - are evoked from the perspective of strolling down middle path lost in the marvel of the previous hour or so's in-class experience. I can't wait to recapture that, and I'm confident that I can.

Enough gushing. I do have to sleep so that I make it to tomorrow's obligations. I'm sure I'll have sweet dreams.

In withdrawal

2006-09-07T04:40:00.000+02:00

Just to keep everybody up to date, I'm settled in at my new apartment in lovely Rogers Park, a north Chicago neighborhood. The difficulty at the moment, however, is my inability to set up internet service I'm already paying for thanks to a certain major shipping company's difficulties in delivering the necessary setup components. Hopefully this will be resolved shortly and I can stop tearing my hair out...

When things are up and going, I'll post some pics of the new place... and probably my assesment of the whole "grad school" transition. Hopefully a happy one.

Sigh. I miss my internet.

Ich lebe noch!

2006-08-16T19:07:00.000+02:00

Things that have taken place since my last post:

Germany lost the semi-final to the eventually victorious Italy, in a disheartening but mercifully quick series of end-of-game goals. I didn't bother to watch the final.
The Göttinger Uni-Chor und Orchester had a successful Summer Semester concert, consisting of a really well done Shostakovitch Cello Concerto and Mendelssohn's Lobgesang. We got to sing in the Aula on Wilhelmsplatz, which is a beautiful hall despite some acoustic issues and the oppressive heat, which required the opening of multiple windows and even more acoustic issues. I still haven't done much research into choral opportunities for non-music students at Northwestern, but I'm fully convinced that I need to find something if only for my own sanity.
I didn't have a goodbye party per se at Studentendorf (I didn't really give my dorm-mates enough warning before my departure to arrange another Karaoke party, which was fine by me because they had threatened to start using the German pop songs and even the playing field!) but I did have a nice evening making sushi in the common room. I had been intending to try out my sushi supplies earlier that month but never got around to it, so I ended up using a whole pack of seaweed paper at one go just to use it up. Result: two humongous platters of sushi. I had a good time fobbing off individual pieces on everybody who came in to use the kitchen, and then invited Katha to help me try and polish off the rest of it. She brought out a bottle of plum wine and we made an evening of it, which was very nice for my last night in town. The next day I checked out and called my cab to the Hauptbahnhof, but before I left she and Peter gave me a going-away gift: more gummy candy, a book, and a burned CD. So nice!
I went to Frankfurt the night before my flight home, treated myself to a final dinner in Germany (at least for this year!) at a nice restaurant close to my hotel. Hauling two giant suitcases (20 and 30 kilo, or 50 and 70lbs, respectively) plus a huge camping backpack and my computer case... was less than fun. I left the bigger suitcase overnight in a locker at the Frankfurt Hbf so I didn't have to walk it to the hotel, and navigating escalators to the S-bahn and in the airport the next morning was also rather horrific... but I made it, as did my belongings.
The flight was fine, and I randomly met my high school gym teacher (famous quote: "Girls, men are pigs and they'll only try to take advantage of you.") on my layover in Chicago. He was taking the same overbooked flight back to St. Louis on his way back from a student trip to Amsterdam. Wierd, but kind of neat.
Within a week of coming back home, my family and I went up to Michigan for my cousin Sarah's wedding. It was so much fun to see everybody again! The weather was perfect and the ceremony was lovely, as was the bride of course! We also had time to run around the beach at Lake Michigan, which is always a blast... oooh, next year is going to be fun.
Speaking of next year, we left Michigan after the wedding and headed down to Chicago to find me housing for next year. Argh, stress... plus probably some residual jetlag. Driving around Chicago is a ridiculous proposition to begin with, and driving to look at places in the western suburbs from our hotel in Rogers Park on the north side was a chore. Plus, most of the places we found in the newspaper and online were in rather downtrodden neighborhoods. Janet had another scare as well, blue screen of death and everything. She has since resumed functioning, but lack of computer access also didn't help the housing search much. In the end we focused the search on the neighborhood around the hotel, which had been recommended by students in my program. It's between the Evanston and Downtown campuses on the Red line of the El, and the place that I found is right on the lake. It was actually across the street from the hotel we were staying in, and I called the number on the sign outside initially to get a basis of comparison for the price range of the neighborhood... besides the location, the apartments have been freshly renovated, and it was decently affordable. It's further from Mike in DeKalb than I would have hoped, but even with Chicago traffic it's a heck of a lot closer than Gambier, OH and Lawrence, KS. Not to mention St. Louis, MO and Göttingen, Germany.
My folks headed home later in the week, while Mike and I rented a car and stayed in town for Jen (my college roomie of two years) and Marc's wedding. I had agreed to serve as an usher but was delighted to have the opportunity to "help out" in other capacities as well... making her late for her final dress fitting, working with Jessie to oraganize a scad of friends to decorate the Love Machine (TM) for their departure from the church, dancing like a maniac to the great swing band at the reception, and giving her brand new husband vaguely salacious hotel lobby backrubs to name a few. She definitely appreciated my presence! Actually, it was a great opportunity to reconnect and I for one had a blast seeing so many Kenyon friends again: Tim, Jessie, Robbie, Becky (and her bro), Ginger and Sean, Rachel and Uri.
Getting back to St. Louis from Chicago was another adventure... Mike and I returned the rental car and rode the El and a bus down to the Museum of Science and Industry, where we mostly looked at trains. Due to my sleeping in a bit, a busy rental place, and delays on the train we didn't get to the museum as early as we had hoped. We got back to Union Station to catch our bus home just in time... and then had to get our luggage out of the locker we had stowed it in that morning, which was a technologically advanced piece of work - piece of something, at least - which asked for thumbprint verificiation of our unlock code. Thing was, the dratted machine had never asked for a print when we got the locker in the first place, so it had nothing to verify it to. The man in charge of the lockers took his sweet time getting there to help us, and I was convinced that we'd miss our bus. Ha. Ha ha. Luckily for us, Megabus was running about 2 hours behind schedule. This is a discount bus company, so they had passengers to at least 3 or 4 different cities waiting out on an unmarked sidewalk by the train station in the hot summer sun. The bus finally arrived, but the AC was barely functional and made a constant dinging sound, which apparently was a warning that the transmission was having issues. We had a break at a rest stop before Springfield, which was fine... then we loaded up to leave. The driver went around the back of the lot to get back to the roadway, but didn't notice the gigantic crater-sized potholes in the gravel. Long story short, the back end of the bus wound up axle-deep in a gravel pond. We disembarked again to see if the lightened load would do any good, and stood around for almost an hour until a kindhearted trucker chained the bus to his cab and yanked the bus to safety and solid ground. We were supposed to arrive at 9pm, and actually got in sometime after midnight. Whee.
Elizabeth (funny that I still think of her as "Elizabeth from Leipzig" even though she's originally from Arkansas) and most of her family were in town for a weekend, so I met up with her on the 6th. We had fun commiserating the mortifying process that is the Fulbright end-of-year report. ("How many publications and public speaking opportunities have you had over the course of the year? Are you famous yet? How do you intend to become famous and credit your success to the Fulbright program? Give fascinating examples of how you, personally, forged an indelible cultural bridge between the US and [Insert Host Country] which will persevere for the rest of recorded time and possibly save the world. VALIDATE TO US THAT WE HAVEN'T JUST PAID YOU FOR A YEAR OF VACATION, FER CHRISSAKES!")
Last week, I had a visitor from out west. Beto came to St. Louis to visit and see the sights! In about 5 days we wound up fitting in Six Flags, the St. Louis Zoo and a bit of Forest Park, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, the Arch, Missouri Botanical Garden and its current Chihuly exhibit, the Central West End, my high school, the Cathedral Basilica, the City Museum, and the MUNY's closing-week production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which was awesomely cheesy in all the right places. We also hung out with Therese, and she and Beto were both huge hits with one another. I am now honor-bound to make time to get out to Sacramento for a visit at some point in the future.
Janet is officially getting pensioned off to whatever uses my folks can have for her. This is actually the first post I've written on a new addition, a brand-new shiny MacBook. So far I'm calling him Statler, but when Boot Camp is on and Windows is up and running he'll also be Waldorf. Get it? Dual OS? Aaaaah, the wittiness of it all. I almost blew a gasket yesterday thinking my family's wireless connection was incompatible, until I remembered the old "dollar sign" trick from H-drive access in Kenyon's mac labs. Silly, silly, nonintuitive Apple tricks!

Which (finally!) brings us up to the present, minus some unfortunate gaps particularly in the "family vacation in Deutschland" area. I've been buying stuff and making a pile of things to bring to Chicago, although the serious packing and sorting through old stuff has yet to begin in earnest. I'm meeting a bunch of the St. Louis crowd tomorrow night, and then heading to DeKalb for the weekend with Mike and his folks to help him move. I'll only have until the following weekend to get everything in order for my move, so time is actually rather short. I guess that means I should quit typing and do something useful with my time. I hope to get internet access set up at my new apartment as soon as possible, but if I dissapear for another while that might be my excuse. Tschüssi, all!

Accounting for myself

2006-07-04T14:13:00.000+02:00

I'm still alive, as is dear old Janet, I swear! So I suppose the only excuse for my complete abrogation of posting duty is that I've been decently busy for, oh, the last month and a half or thereabouts. Family visits, adventures with Mike, World Cup excitement (Germany plays Italy tonight in the semi-final, in fact) and almost a week of concerts and city life and just a bit of laying about on the beach with friends in Leipzig... oh, how the time has flown! I'm left with a checklist of stuff to be accomplished before I head home, a backlog of about a thousand photos to upload to the Shutterfly page, and the growing suspicion that the next 11 days are going to whip past me faster than the World's Roundest Soccer Ball (tm) zooms along it's 11 meter path and slides past a goalie's desperate hands.

Oh dear, does that make me the Ollie Kahn in this scenario? Part of me is unconsciously slipping into that role already... It's my last visit to the Krebs family, my last Uni-Chor cantata and concert, my last train trip to visit friends, my last chance to take pictures of the Gänseliesel early in the morning before she's surrounded by tourists and punks with dogs. Will this be my last time doing laundry in these crappy washers? It's reminiscent of the pre-nostalgia I felt in my last few days in Gambier. Not as deep, perhaps, but just as singular, just as ravenous for meaning and memory.

I do mean to get my thoughts in order and provide a full report of the sights and sounds, tastes and feelings between Kara's birthday (May 23, family's arrival in Germany) and Mom's (tomorrow, happy birthday!) if only to have a record for myself... but this is not that moment. I have to go grocery shopping and perform other menial tasks of daily life, though with a certain amount of (undue?) perspicacity in anticipation of yet another Life Transition.

Oh, and happy Independence Day. There.

Hmm, a month later...

2006-05-22T02:45:00.000+02:00

Well. I took quite a break from writing, now didn't I? Sorry about that, things got busy with the start of the semester and the old 'puter is getting slow... for a bit I thought it was my internet connection here, but now I'm pretty sure that dear Janet is trying to tell me something. She had her first "blue screen of death" and unexpected restart recently, which is never a good sign. I'm depending on her to last through the end of the year here, but my plan to hold off on a new laptop until I pick a thesis lab is going to have to be pushed up a bit... don't tell her I said that, though!

Anyway, I want to get a rundown of what I've been up to jotted down before I take off on yet another massive adventure. My family arrives Tuesday morning bright and early in Frankfurt, and we have a whirlwind tour of Germany planned over the course of two and a half weeks, followed by a few days in Austria with Mike and his relatives... and I'll be staying there with his family until June 11, which brings me to almost three weeks of vacation. Mike will come back to Göttingen with me for a couple of weeks, and we're also planning a long weekend in Florence, Italy during his visit... which means missing even more class, but I'm humongously excited about the opportunity!

I'm not taking the time to add pictures at the moment since it's already late and if I crash Janet this will never get written, but there are lots of new photos on the Shutterfly page, particularly the Göttingen album. Check it out if you like visual aids.

So, my last post brought things up to the weekend before my 23rd birthday. Whew. I forgot to plan anything until the afternoon before, at which point I started text messaging friends to see if anyone wanted to get together for a nice sushi dinner in town. Pat and Claire said they could come, and Claire invited Judy, an Australian friend from her German class, and her German boyfriend Ollie. We tried the other sushi place in town this time, which turned out to be a little bit classier but also harder on the wallet... after dinner Claire and I got ice cream and then went to Villa Cuba for Amaretto Sours, the first drink of a looooong night. Pat texted us from the Irish pub where he'd met up with some friends so we headed that way. Folks were already in fine form by the time we arrived, and several rounds were bought... then someone had the fabulous idea to tell the band that there was a birthday in the house. That was fine for me, since they had me send my friends up front to lead a sing-along and then gave me a free CD!

The drinks continued, including some strange shot with coffee beans floating in it and, particularly cruel, a round of Absinthe. Thankfully "real" (i.e. opiod-compound-containing) Absinthe is illegal in Germany, but this ersatz version was plenty disgusting. Rotten licorice flavored, super high proof alcohol... ugh.

I slept in Sunday morning, but felt surprisingly okay despite having probably quadrupled my previous highest single-night alcohol intake experience (which wasn't too high to begin with, but still...) I had no trace of a hangover, though. Then, at around 2 in the afternoon, I was invited on a mountain biking excursion with Martin. Despite the fact that I biked around town all year, I didn't know if I would be able to handle it, but I wanted to give it a try. I borrowed one of his bikes and we set off on our expedition up a fairly big local hill. It doesn't qualify as a mountain in my mind, but the lookout tower at the top should have had a humongous view had it not been fairly hazy that afternoon. At some point along the way I mentioned the previous night's festivities, and I think Martin was rather surprised that I was on my feet, let along mountain biking the next day!

On that Wednesday Claire and I started a new tradition after she told me that there is a mini-golf place in town and we found it and gave it a try. I did horribly, of course (55 on 18 holes) but we made plans to go back every week.

The following weekend (April 29th and 30th) I made a visit to Tübingen to hang out with Kola, which was wonderful! I arrived in time to go to Stuttgart for an opera on Friday night, so we saw Mozart's Le Nozza di Figaro. I had sung the Countess' role in a duet from this show (Sull' Aria) in a friend's senior recital last year, so of course it was cool to hear it performed by professionals. Like most theatrical performances here the set design was fairly modern as were some of the costumes, but there were also more "classical" elements, particularly the costuming of the Count and Countess. It fit well together, though, and the principal players were fantastic. Sung in Italian with German subtitles, yay!

Kola and I spent the rest of the weekend in Tübingen, wandering around a huge market and by the Neckar river on Saturday and visiting the Schloßmuseum on Sunday to see the HUGE collection of antiquities. Compared to the region around Göttingen, Tübingen is very hilly place, with large chunks of the city built on fairly steep slopes. I'm sure it's treacherous in winter, but I found it absolutely gorgeous. The river was particularly nice... you can rent paddleboats or gondola-type craft and go for a ride! Sadly we didn't have time to give it a try.

On the 3rd of May I bettered my mini-golf score by 4 whole points. Yay! The following weekend Elizabeth came to visit from Leipzig, ostensibly to visit the Bach Institute at the Uni and do some work, though it turned out to be closed so we were forced to simply hang out and have fun instead. Schade! I showed her the mini-golf course and we played a round... 46, even better! On Friday night we saw a play by Brecht in the Deutsches Theater, "Der Aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui." Like the last piece I had seen at the DT, there were plenty of wierd modern elements. I wasn't really familiar with the show at all, though I knew it was supposed to be a mockery of Hitler's rise to power. The actors were very good, but we left the show a little confused and it took some time to figure out what had actually taken place, and connect the dots to historical events.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon in rehearsal for Sunday's Bach Kantate with the Uni-Chor, which was BWV 102, "Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben." The opening choral section was very difficult, and thanks to the semester's schedule we had only two weeks in which to learn it! We ended up scheduling a couple of extra rehearsals to make it happen, and I think it went fairly well all things considered. Elizabeth is studying Bach in Leipzig and was familiar with the work, so I asked the director if she could join us for the final rehearsal and the performance, which he was fine with after I gave my word that she'd be able to learn it quickly enough... I only wish I had such reading skills!

I invited Min Jung, my friend from Chor and classes last semester, to mini-golf with Claire and I on the following Wednesday, the 10th. She doesn't speak very much english so I was a bit concerned that we would all be able to communicate, since Claire and I haven't really used german together, but it was great. I shot a 47, which was okay.

On the morning of Saturday the 13th I took off once again for Leipzig, in order to see a concert organized by several current Fulbrighters there (including Jen and Elizabeth) to showcase interplay.exchange, a German-American music initiative. Elizabeth's parents were visiting at the time as well, so I got to meet them and even kidnap them for museum exploration while she was in rehearsal for the concert! We ended up going to the regular Saturday Kantate at the Thomaskirche, and I had an absolutely unbelievable Kenyon moment... Elizabeth had told me that there was a Bach association conference going on in Leipzig that weekend (she was busy and sadly missed it) but I mentioned that we had a Bach scholar at Kenyon, and it turns out she had heard of Professor Sanders from Bach association publications. Anyway, I noticed a familiar profile about 8 rows in front of me during the Kantate, and whispered to Elizabeth that I thought I saw Reggie in the church. When the music was over I zipped through the crowd to say hello, since I knew him pretty well after eating together at German Table through most of my junior year. Sure enough, it was him, and he had even noticed me coming into the already-packed church before we found our seats. He was heading to Berlin the next day so we couldn't invite him to the concert, but randomly seeing a Kenyon person in Leipzig was amazing enough!

The concert, "spiel eins," was the following afternoon, and of course it was a world-class show. I expected as much after the performances at the Berlin conference a couple of months ago. I got to hear my Kiel friends Jen and Amanda again, and Elizabeth played piano and harpsichord. The first piece was J. S. Bach, Kantate Nr. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Länden, which particularly featured Jen and Amanda. Such Profis! Then we heard Partita for Wind Quartet by Irving Fine, a 20th century American composer. I had never heard of him before, but the piece was absolutely thrilling, with individual lines for the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and french horn running seemingly rampant most of the time and then suddenly interspersed with very tight moments when everyone came together.

The second half started off with Liebeslieder für Hohestimme, Op. 195 from Carl Reinecke. The three short songs were very sweet. Then came Luxury of Superstition, a composition from current Germany Fulbright grantee Paula Matthusen. There was plenty of interesting dissonance, and I thought it was cool that Jen's vocal part was integrated within the texture of the whole ensemble and sharing equal weight with the instrumentalists. The final piece was Wagner's Siegfried-Idyll, lush and opulent and utterly Romantic. I haven't heard a large amount of Wagner (though I have a passing familiarity with some of the better-known operatic themes thanks to Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd) but I think I'll have to start seeking it out.

I had to hit the road pretty much immediately after the concert ended, unfortunately. It was lovely to see so many friends once again (Meghan and Andrew from the Kiel group were also in attendance) but I had to get back home in order to throw together a presentation on Germany's conservation movement for my Interkulturelle Landeskunde course, since I was supposed to meet with my teacher on Monday afternoon to go over my talk. Ugh, was that ever a headache! Granted, it was my own fault for going away for the weekend when I had work to do, but it didn't help that my computer problems picked up significantly every time I opened powerpoint to work on the presentation! I ended up having not much to show at the meeting, but I managed to throw things together at the last minute (as per usual) and aside from some technical difficulties which were actually NOT on my end it went pretty well. I've never had to give a talk in German that was longer than 10 minutes before, and this was easily 25 even without the fancy slides and photos, so I was glad to have survived and gotten it over with on Wednesday!

I started planning the Italy trip and talked to Mike on Thursday, which was our last "official" phone call night until I see him in Austria. I won't say that the time has always felt like it was flying by in the last 5 months, but it's amazing to think that I'm so close already. We've been arguing via email about a certain well-known topic for a bit now (ever since he sent me this, the weasel!) and it took quite a bit of energy... the back-and-forth of email rebuttals finally numbered 20 or so (and can provide the full transcripts to anyone with an interest, especially if you're on MY team...) but anyway, I think I finally got him on the ropes when last we spoke. I generally dislike conflict and could never seriously consider a legal career, but by golly am I stubborn when I know I'm right!

This weekend was the Chor Probewochenende, so I spent all day Saturday and the whole morning today (or I guess yesterday by now!) in rehearsal for our second Bach Kantate (BWV 45, "Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist") and our major concert work, Mendelssohn's Lobgesang. Once again I've self-selected into second soprano, and I'm still amazed that my voice survived the weekend... I still feel like our warm-up routine leaves something to be desired, and I have bad support habits (or rather, a lack of any support habits at all!) when reading new or only slightly familiar pieces, which was pretty much all weekend. I will be missing a few rehearsals thanks to my pending travels, so I don't know if I'll ever feel as comfortable with the music this semester. I'm sure it will be fine, but perfectionist tendancies die hard. On a more positive side, I ended up baking a couple of batches of brownies and a giant batch of snickerdoodles (from Elizabeth's recipe!) for the Probewochenende party, which were a huge hit. Even better was hearing all of the various attempts at pronouncing the word "snickerdoodle." From now on every time I miss an umlaut I'll just take a moment and remember... snickerdoods, snickeldoodle, snickedoo...

I spent this afternoon at the mini-golf place with Claire and Judy (whom I met at my birthday dinner) and shot 38, my best yet! The gentleman owner also asked me if I needed a blue or green scorecard... the blue ones cost 2 euro and are for adults, while the green are only 1 euro and for kids. Yet another person shocked to hear that I'm 23 already... Tonight was packing for the first leg of my trip and sorting stuff that can be sent home early with my folks, and tomorrow I'm meeting up with Claire and Laura for lunch. Claire will be out of town when I'm in Göttingen with my family, and then by the time I get back with Mike she'll already be back home in Dublin. I've also got to call a potential relative in Weimar to see if they have any family history information, and hopefully to organize a meeting when we get there. I've got class and Chor tomorrow night, and then Tuesday morning bright and early I head to Frankfurt to meet Mom, Dad, Kara, Steve and Grandpa Wuensch at the airport!

I suppose I should sleep, then... I don't know when I'll have time to write again, but I'm sure there will be plenty to say!

Still catching up... April 14-19: Easter with Em, and Berlin (again!)

2006-04-27T19:28:00.000+02:00

I had an awesome Easter weekend, starting on Friday the 14th when Kola arrived in Göttingen for a visit! We had an Ostermarkt in town, which turned out to be rather similar to the traditional Weihnachtsmarkt except with more animatronic bunnies:
Actually I haven't really heard about Ostermärkte outside of Gö, so I think it's a local thing... another chance for folks to set up a booth and sell crazy crafts and foodstuffs while kids run around and ride the seasonally-themed carousel and gorge themselves on sweets. I wonder why it hasn't caught on everywhere else...

The highlight was some kind of hard-core Christian youth group whose members were handing out flyers and postcards, mostly because it was completely outrageous: they had a guy in a santa suit and a large wooden cross to which was tied a poor innocent stuffed bunny... near as I could tell, they were staging a protest of sorts against the secularization of Christian holidays. Right, because that's exactly what you want to have to explain to a 5-year-old at the Easter fair. I do think the message has merit, but the venue was a little inappropriate. I also mentally docked some points for a feeling of anti-ecumenicism I got speaking to some of the members... I was asked if I understood the true meaning of Easter, and I responded that I darn well better after 15 years of Catholic school, but they didn't seem to think that counted for much. I got invited to their next meeting with the explanation that they were against all those hoity-toity rules, traditions, and regulations that some less-hip churches adhere to... Again, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I'm just addicted to the incense, though... I saved the flyer anyway.

Anyhow, I picked up Kola at the Bahnhof and we checked out downtown and saw some of the festivities (and had the best ice cream in town) before heading back up to my place. I pointed out the Planetenweg landmarks we saw along part of the way... there are a series of metal signs representing the solar system along a westward artery from the train station, with distances and size supposedly to scale. I've seen the sun and all of the closer ones, but haven't had the chance to find the outer planets yet. Suffice it to say, I recently found out that I live pretty darn close to Uranus. (Insert "your mom"-type humorous response here, guys! I'm looking at you, Ricebag!)

We made a fabulous stir-fry and spent the evening catching up and of course mooning over all things Kenyon, especially the Cornerstones. What a great feeling to be able to share those memories with someone who knows them all as well as I do! I still wish I could've gotten a visit in sometime this year, but thank goodness I had such a fabulous alternative!

Saturday morning was sunny and gorgeous, so we went back into town and were happy to find everything open on a holiday weekend. We had pizza for lunch at Arul's, and then went shopping for dinner supplies (quesadillas, which is no small task over here. Thank goodness for the "international foods" section in the supermarket!) and baked goods for Easter morning, including a chocolate-covered bunny cake and a pair of Osterlämmer, little lamb-shaped cakes.

We walked our groceries home and then I called my host family to wish them a happy Easter... and hopefully get invited over for a visit, which was indeed the consequence. We picked up a flower to bring them and wandered up to Weende for delicious homemade Küchen and lots of conversation, which was great fun. Every time I go back for a visit I'm pleased to realize that my language skills are actually improving. It's still strenuous to try and listen to 4 conversations at once in a room full of native speakers, but I remember going to bed every night completely exhausted from simply talking to Christina and Wolfgang over dinner. Things are much better now.

We went home and cooked our fabulous pseudo-mexican meal and then stayed up half the night listening to Cstones and some Chamber Singers music and discussing school, life, and all the big stuff.

The next morning we ate our Easter treats and then headed once again into town, although it was overcast and things were mostly closed. We stopped in at the Jacobikirche and Johanniskirche to look around, found the Nikolaikirche locked and ducked into a cafe for lunch... mmm, crepes! Since it was drizzly out we stayed there until it was time for the evening service at the Michaelkirche. I hadn't been to Mass there before, and although it wasn't too full it was nice. Then we headed home and finished off our leftovers, and got ready for the next morning's trip to Berlin!

The original plan had been for Kola's friend Ashli to come to Göttingen, but after Kola had to make a surprise return to Tübingen (after her wallet was stolen in Rome!) plans got shifted and Ashli and Em were going to reunite in Berlin. I decided on the fly to tag along for the first couple of days of their visit since I didn't have much else going on. Our reservations at the hostel were already made, but we weren't scheduled to check in until midafternoon on Monday, so we had a few hours to kill after our arrival. Since we were at the Zoo Bahnhof I recommended the zoo or the aquarium, both of which I had seen during the March conference. The lines to get into the zoo were humongous (I guess since it was a holiday weekend) and since we didn't have the whole day we opted for the aquarium.
Oh no! Kola's about to get eaten by the creature from the black lagoon! Luckily some other tourist taunted it and the monster ate him instead. We made it out alive...

I also remembered this time to get a photo of the placard with the German name for White's tree frog:
Coral finger?? Is coral particularly sticky? I certainly don't think that's a visual reference. (Awww, but he's still sooooo cute!)

After the Aquarium we went to check into the hostel and meet Ashli. As a Douglas Adams fan, I can heartily recommend the Heart of Gold to any hitchhikers that find their way to Berlin... and even if you forget your towel, they've got you covered! They will also lend you sunglasses (??) and reading material for a small deposit.

I sent a message to Andrew, another friend from Kiel, proposing dinner and a movie on Potsdamer platz (where they show many films in the original language.) As it turns out he and some other folks were already planning to see The Inside Man there, so we made plans to meet them either at the movie or after, depending on what movies were available. We had a lovely dinner and thought we were going to miss the start of the film, but Andrew and Jen, who was also in town, caught us and we got tickets just in time. I'm actually glad that I saw the movie in English, because I think I would've gotten pretty lost in a German version.

We hung out a bit after the movie and then Kola and Ashli and I decided to head back to the hostel, since it was a moderately long walk and it was already dark. We did pass the Brandenburger Tor on our way back, which I hadn't ever seen at night. Very pretty!
We planned out Tuesday and hit the sack, since the crux of our plan was a major 4-hour walking tour of the city. I'd already seen many of the signs on previous visits, but I still learned a few things along the way. I was actually glad that I'd heard about Berlin's historical landmarks previously, because it's quite a bit of territory to cover and our guide was rather new... so we got a smattering of factoids and anecdotes with no overarching story to tie them together. Not exactly the best introduction to the city, but at least we saw all the important stuff.

And like I said, some things were new to me as well, including the supposed site of Hitler's secret underground bunker. There are no signs of any kind because nobody wants to create a rallying point for neo-Nazis and sympathizers. Now it's just a little playground behind an apartment complex.

We headed back towards the hostel and found a nice Thai restaurant nearby for a late lunch. The waiter was really talkative and wanted to know where we were from, what we were doing in Germany, what we studied... We had him take a couple of pictures since he was so nice. I need to get a copy from Em of one that I'm in!
After our meal we stopped back at the hostel, and got free t-shirts. Cool! We decided to wander to Alex and check out the Fernsehturm (TV tower.) I'd never been up to the top and the view had been highly recommended on our tour, so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately the day had turned overcast and rainy so things were a little hazy, but it was still neat:
Of course, it had also been a long and full day and we were understandably exhausted:We did find the World Clock after a little bit of wandering, and then Andrew met us again with a restaurant recommendation for dinner, this time a Vietnamese restaurant. Lecker! He had to leave the next morning to catch an early ferry for another adventure, so we found our way back to the hostel yet again... with a bit of map consultation. I'm still fairly proud of myself for maintaining the role of navigator with minimal panic and a reasonable degree of competency, considering it was my fourth visit to Berlin!

I had to catch a train the next morning back to Göttingen, so we made plans to wake up and do our goodbyes then. My sleep was disturbed a little bit by a snoring hostel roommate (nobody in our party, of course) but I still managed to bet back with plenty of time for the Einstufungstest for second semester... and like I already mentioned, I managed to get Oberstufe, so I must've slept well enough!

I still want to cover last weekend's Geburtstag escapades before I take off on my next adventure tomorrow morning (visiting Kola and Ashli in Tübingen!) so I guess stay tuned!

Catching up... April 7-9: Bonn & Köln

2006-04-25T17:49:00.000+02:00

I have to go back in time almost three weeks to chronicle my recent adventures, but hopefully I won't make a habit of this... Anyway, I spent the second weekend of April at a Max-Kade-Haus reunion with Meghan and Patrick, the other Kiel Fulbrighters who lived in my dorm there. I arrived in Bonn on a gorgeous Friday afternoon and dropped my stuff off at Meghan's super-awesome lab (highly jealous!) and then Patrick and I wandered around the city while she finished up the day's work.

Bonn is apparently Beethoven's hometown, which I hadn't realized until I arrived! Anyway, with this shot and my Leipzig photo with JS Bach, I now have a budding collection of photos with awesome composers. Now to track down Mozart, or Mendelssohn or Brahms...

We stopped in at St. Martin's Basilica (Münsterbasilika), a gorgeous 13th century church, and went to see part of the University. While we were around town, we tried to track down Beethoven's birth house as well. This proved to be slightly difficult, as at least one of the handy tourist-friendly streetsigns was pointing entirely in the wrong direction!
We did find it, eventually, and got some quick photos outside before heading back to meet Meghan. She took us on a bit of a guided tour, including the Kufürstliches Schloß, an 18th-century Bishop's palace which now serves as the main University building. We stopped in at Bärenland, a gummy bear shop, and then Chocoladen, which is exactly what it sounds like, a chocolate store! I could have stood inside all day just inhaling the smell... since the day had cooled off a bit, we had gourmet hot chocolate outside and then headed down towards the Rhine.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I love cities with rivers! I feel instantly at home somehow, probably since I find it much easier to navigate a new place with a large aqueous landmark. Across the Rhine from Bonn is Beuel, which is more of a suburb nowadays than a separate city. Anyway, Meghan took us to see the Kennedybrücke (subject of the single worst German pun I've ever heard: "Ich kenne die Brücke") and pointed out the sculptural adornment seen below:

Closer inspection reveals this little guy, wagging his bottom across the river towards Beuel:
Apparently the financial support for the building this bridge was a source of contention between the two cities, and in the end Bonn had to foot the bill for its construction... but they certainly got the last word in!

The three of us headed back to Meghan's and recreated our fabulous Max-Kade dinners together in the classic fashion... stir fry! We also planned Saturday's day trip to Köln.

Of course I had heard about the magnificence of the Kölner Dom, but guidebook blurbs are no preparation for the apogee of Gothic architecture. It is the city's dominant landmark, and the cathedral's north side is the very first thing one sees exiting the Hauptbahnhof. All the pictures I took from that perspective wound up horribly backlit, so here's a panorama from the southern side of the building:Of course there's nothing to do but pay the €2 (€1 for students) for the opportunity to climb some 509 steps to the top of the south tower. Whew! We caught a good time, though, and managed to get to the top without any major traffic jams in the narrow stone spiral staircase, quite a feat since over most of the distance the traffic is two-way. The Stau (traffic-jam) we passed on the way back down was awful, and made even more horrifying in sections when the waiting climbers gravitated to the outer wall where the handrail is, forcing us on parts of the descent to take the much steeper inner wall. I came very close to chewing people out auf Deutsch right then and there; sadly I'm not German enough to really pull it off, although I did manage some very pointed whimpering and the occasional polite yet hopefully guilt-inducing shriek of abject terror. All that notwithstanding, the view from the 157-meter spire is breathtaking:
We did manage to make it back to solid ground unscathed, and then set out through the Innenstadt in search of lunch. After a couple of side trips and map consultations we found something nice, and then set off again to check out a museum. Köln has a fairly well-known chocolate museum, but since I'm coming back with my folks and Meghan had already seen it, we ended up going for the art in Museum Ludwig next to the Dom, including a Dalí exhibit centering on La Gare de Perpignan ("The Perpignan Train Station") and a really amazing photo exhibit called "Für Immer und Ewig/For Ever and a Day?" which contained pictures from "the world's most photographed" including Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Elvis, Muhammed Ali, and Ghandi.

We headed back to Bonn to meet up with some of Meghan's roommates from last semester for dinner, and she and I ended up learning how to roll sushi! I haven't tried it yet by myself, but I've bought about half the supplies and certainly intend to give it a try sometime in the near future. We got plenty of practice!
After gorging ourselves we played a few games, including a 20-questions variation in which we wrote the names of famous people on post-it notes and adhered our new identities to one another's foreheads, and then tried to guess our own character. Then there was a quick and crazy game of Pounce, which I first learned from Grace at Kenyon... although it was played with special decks of cards that were color-coded and only numbered through 10, and was called "Libretto" for some strange reason.

I had to head back to Göttingen on Sunday, but the three of us decided to fit in a little bit more sightseeing in Bonn that afternoon. On the bus into town, though, I was once again mistaken for some kind of preteen... I attempted to buy my fare, and the driver disbelievingly asked if I needed an adult ticket... less than a month before my 23rd birthday! I swear, if that ever happens again I'm totally taking the discount!

We ended up going down the "Museum Mile" past the Palais Schaumburg, the previous home of West Germany's first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer. Here's his head, which is also along the way:
Okay, it's not his real head, but it is a pretty creepy-looking representation thereof. To make matters worse, the sculpture also has reliefs of symbolic objects on the back. Adenauer is another of Bonn's favorite sons, since he is responsible for bringing the seat of government to the town during the east-west split... He got elected and decided he didn't want to commute. Berlin is once again the capital city, but there are plenty of reminders left in Bonn, many of which are now ministries of various sorts. There is plenty of political history, though, which is why it's a fitting location for the Haus der Geschichte. This museum is basically a walk through modern German history since 1945... and is there ever plenty to see! It was really cool to associate objects, images, and sounds with my understanding of Germany's development since WWII, and the exhibits provided a great sense of the massive scope of political and societal change here in the last 60-odd years. Plus, they have an actual moon rock!

I caught an evening train back home in anticipation of a day back in lab! Sadly, monday wasn't much of anything... I tried to look busy for the visiting deans whom I never even saw, and didn't get any further in terms of getting back on the project for this semester. Granted, now that classes are starting up again and given that I'll be distinctly less available when my folks and Mike and his family arrive in about a month, I've rather resigned myself to *gasp* a semester without lab work... although I can't say for certain that I wouldn't drop all sorts of other stuff and head off to Erlangen if things started looking promising... sigh. I can always dream.

Additional posts forthcoming about my Easter and travels with Kola and my birthday weekend, hopefully before I head out on my next adventure on Friday!

da da da da da da da da BACKLOG...

2006-04-21T17:07:00.000+02:00

(Title to be sung to the tune of the Batman song. Y'all know the one.)

Aaaaah! I actually had to jot down NOTES from my Bonn/Köln trip of two weekends ago so it doesn't all fade away into the bottomless memory pits of my mind (although at least the pictures are already uploaded)... and then there's Easter weekend with a special visitor and some amazing food, followed by a spontaneous and out-of-this-world return to Berlin...

But all that will have to wait, you see. Since yesterday, I am on a quest. It is a quest of utmost importance, and is both dangerous and difficult. Also, I kind of suck at it. Nevertheless! All 3.7 of you will just have to anticipate the continuation of my adventures with bated breath until AFTER I succeed!

This may take weeks...

Especially since this weekend is my Birthday (23! Ah! Maybe people will finally stop mistaking me for 12!) and classes resume Monday. Oh, holy mother of pop-tarts! Before I forget, the biggest news of all! I did it, I really did it! I tested into OBERSTUFE! Grammatik II, here I come!

And now back to my regularly scheduled questing... And to anybody who takes on the challenge themselves and beats the dratted thing in under 5 hours (consecutive or not): feel free to gloat in the comments section, but I reserve the right to accuse you of making out with monkey bottoms and enjoying it.

Frohe Ostern

2006-04-16T11:52:00.000+02:00

I promised myself I'd write my Bonn/Koeln post BEFORE Kola got here, and then completely and totally failed to get around to it in a timely fashion. But it's COMING. I promise!

Meanwhile, she arrived Friday afternoon and we're having a ball! Today we have plans to eat Osterlamms and chocolate bunnies, and then get ice cream in town. Sounds like my kind of day! There's a Katholisches Hochschulegemeinschaft service tonight as well. Tomorrow morning we're going to Berlin, and then I'll come back Wednesday morning... hopefully in time for my 1:00 Einstufungstest for second semester German classes and my 7:00 audition for this semester in the Uni choir.

So I guess more details will have to wait until later next week. I've realized this morning that after the next two weekends, I have plans ALL THE TIME until my family arrives on May 23. So maybe Italy won't happen this year... unless Mike wants to go to Rome some weekend while he's in Europe. He leaves at the end of June, and then two weeks later it's already time for me to head home. Wahnsinn!

Now that Em and I are (gloriously) reunited I'd like to hit Tuebingen and the surrounds for a visit, too... maybe the weekend after next? Wow...

Aber Deutschland hat ein Superstar schon gefunden...

2006-04-04T18:22:00.000+02:00

*****UPDATE: I've been informed that the embedded player doesn't work for everybody (yup, that would be MY family still using friggin' Windows 98...) so go here if you don't see anything below. If that doesn't work, sorry! Also, I'm travelling again this weekend, this time to Bonn and Köln (Cologne), so more adventure updates are pending!*****

Ho...ly... CRAP. Queen of the Night, at that. I'd say it speaks for itself, really.

But Ricebag, how do you find this stuff??

Deutschland sucht ein Superstar...

2006-04-03T12:25:00.000+02:00

That's the title of Germany's American Idol equivalent. I think last night's mondo-Karaoke session was plenty of practice and I'm ready to sign up for the next round of auditions. Ich wird Superstar!

Okay, not really... but why didn't we think of this in college? My friends totally got on the Dance Dance Revolution train (some folks from my circle more than others) and it made for some great parties. Plus, most of the folks I associated with could actually sing, including those who thought they couldn't... (I'm looking at you, certain someone who still owes me a duet, whether it be Sir Elton & Kiki or or Huey & Gwyneth.) So that's it. Five-year reunion comes around, I'm totally bringing a Karaoke set. Right here, right now, I'm throwing down the glove: Kenyon Reunion 2010 Idol. Who's with me??

In other news, this same someone seen above has also seen fit to bestow a miraculous cure for my nascent Protestant tendencies. How can I keep from rejoicing in Catholicism, when this exists??

My goals for the day... convincing my laundry to dry itself in a timely fashion (main tactic: squinting meaningfully at pants) and getting on the German equivalent of Facebook... Dear Lord, how far I have fallen!

Pub crawl, Opera, Lutheranism... oh my!

2006-04-01T20:51:00.000+02:00

I am once again remiss in my posting duties... I've been back from Leipzig for several days now, but stuff keeps happening. For example, I was hijacked by my dorm-mates for an hour and a half last night during prime blogging time to test out Katha's new Karaoke system, which she got for her birthday yesterday. More on that later...

I suppose I should go all the way back to last Friday night... The Gö-team met up once again, plus Claire, for a nice sushi dinner in town. Somehow, a glass of wine or beer with the meal turned into a ginormous pub crawl, and we went to three other places for drinks afterwards. The triumph of my evening, though, was finally sampling the much-coveted Amaretto Sour at Villa Cuba, the one place in all of Germany that I've found the drink actually the menu. It didn't exactly match up with my expectations (the ones at the Grill basically taste like liquid Sweet Tarts candies, but this version must've had grapefruit juice in it or something) but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. And regardless of how I look in the photo, I wasn't drunk!

These guys, on the other hand, I can't exactly vouch for...

I eventually got home after 2am and still had to pack for my trip to Leipzig, and my train left the next morning before 9am. It was a great night, though. I met my first German trekkie as well! It was a surreal moment; folks exchanged contact information, I saw his email address... "Locutus. Like, Locutus of Borg??" and we spent the next five minutes quoting at each other and laughing hysterically. Nerd heaven! I'd say it was an all-around success!

Of course on Saturday morning I missed my original train and had to catch the next one, but I still rolled in a little after noon. A second umbrella had to be sacrificed to the gods of "Alaina can't possibly keep track of all her crap on the train," but otherwise it was uneventful (if a bit delayed.) Jen (from Kiel) and Elizabeth, a musicologist from Arkansas whom I met at the Berlin conference, were there at the station to meet me. I dropped my stuff off at Elizabeth's place and then got to see a little bit of the city. We met up with Jen again at the Thomaskirche, hoping to catch the usual Saturday afternoon Bach cantata (every Saturday afternoon! How cool is that!) but it turns out they had an organ vespers on schedule for this particular week.

We paid the €1 fee and were treated to an hour of fabulous music from Max Reger, good ol' JS himself, Franz Tunder, and Olivier Messiaen. I had to have my picture taken with the statue outside, as the man himself is buried at the front of the church (sorry that the photo is kind of upside-down!) I thought the Uni-chor in Göttingen was hot stuff with our twice-semesterly cantata schedule, but that's nothing compared to the Bach-lovin' that's all over Leipzig. Want to hear every single cantata and possibly most other pieces of music the man wrote over his whole lifetime? Simple, just live here for a couple of years!

We stopped for Kaffee und Kuchen, did a little shopping, and then Elizabeth and I went to see more of the city. The Nikolaikirche is most famous as the original site of weekly peaceful protests, or Montagdemos, at the end of the DDR era in 1989, since the church was the only place where the Stasi police didn't hold sway.

As awesome as it looks from the outside, the inside is truly stunning, with massive columns topped with green palm fronds. It was closed by the time we got there on Saturday, but I finally got some pictures of the inside on Sunday morning. But as for the rest of Saturday, Elizabeth and Jen and I made a lovely pasta dinner with snickerdoodles (gotta get the recipe!) for dessert, and hung out until Jen had to leave in order to rest up for the following day's performance. Elizabeth and I ended up chatting until the wee hours of the morning, which was great fun... well, until we realized that we'd have to get up early the next day!

Despite it all, we woke up on time and I was treated to a fabulous experience... we went to church at the Thomaskirche! I haven't been to a Lutheran service since high school (it was part of a "world religions" class project and the assignment was to sit in on another Christian denomination's worship.) Elizabeth's family had actually converted to Lutheranism from Baptist a while ago (fascinating story, and part of the reason we were up so late talking!) and I'm completely jealous that she gets to attend these services every week! For starters, the Thomanerchor, one of Europe's most famous male choirs, provided most of the music. These guys first got famous under JS Bach's direction between 1723 and 1750, and they were AMAZING.

A quick rundown: Introitus was Hugo Distler's "Gott ist unsere Zuversicht" from "Der Jahrkreis" op. 5; the Kyrie was a glorious (if anonymous) setting from the 10th century; after the first reading was a piece entitled "Wer sich nach seinem Namen nennt" by E Mauersberger, who was also Thomaskantor from 1961 to 1972; after the homily we heard "O Jesu, nomen dulce" from Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) with a glorious alto solo (I can see why this boy-choir thing was so popular); the service was concluded with a JS Bach organ piece, I. Allegro "aus dem Concerto a-Moll nach Antonio Vivaldi BWV 593." Of course we stayed for communion and heard yet another organ piece, "Jésus console les filles d'Israel qui le suivent" from Dupré's Stations of the Cross. It was completely beautiful, and it totally didn't matter that I hadn't even heard of any of this stuff beforehand... Good thing I'm not living in Leipzig, though, because if I could hear music like that every week I might just go Lutheran! (Kidding mom...)

It was a royal Luther-fest of a morning, though. Our next stop was Wittenberg, as the Mitteldeutsche Kammeroper presentation of "Hänsel und Gretel" was put on at the Wittenberg opera house. It's officially known as "Lutherstadt Wittenberg," since it was here that he taught, preached, raised his family, and on October 31, 1517 nailed a certain famous piece of paper to the door of the city's Schloßkirche. Of course they have all 95 theses on display at the side door... click here for a hopefully readable (English) image of the accompanying plaque.

Elizabeth told me it's a hoot and a half to see the city during the annual "Reformationstag" celebration, with folks dressing up like Luther, his family members, and his compatriots and generally having a fine old time. I missed this year's celebration, but it probably wouldn't have been in the best of form to heckle at the burning of the papal bull which threatened his excommunication in 1520. Hmmm... I'll still be around for the next annual reenactment of his wedding in June...

Oh, and here's the man himself, entombed since his death in 1546 at the Schloßkirche where it all started. Across the way is his good buddy and supporter Philipp Melanchthon (not pictured). Sorry about the fuzziness, I guess I'll just have to go back some time to get a clearer picture! We also had time to check out the Marienkirche, with another famous altar from Cranach (the elder). Elizabeth was a great source of Luther-lore and info, and apparently at this church he converted the entire congregation with a single sermon.

We had lunch in town and then headed off to find the opera house for Jen's performance. She filled a dual role as the Sandmännchen/Taumännchen (Sandman/Dewdrop fairy?) who puts the kids to sleep out in the woods and then wakes them up again only for them to stumble upon the evil Witch's tempting abode. The Witch was one of my favorite characters in the end... not a sympathetic role, of course, but the actress was just so deliciously evil. Jen told us on the train ride back to Leipzig about the performances they had done for schoolchildren, and how the most vociferous (and charming) audience response was always enthusiastic boo-ing for the böse Hexe.

We got back and cooked a fabulous dinner for six (myself, Elizabeth, Jen, another Kiel friend Andrew, James who studies Oboe in Leipzig, and a visiting friend of his from the U.S.) consisting of yummy homemade mac and cheese and salads (plus more snickerdoodles and of course homemade brownies for dessert!) and I made plans to run over to Dresden the next morning to see the Frauenkirche... but I ended up staying up too late once again and decided to spend another day in Leipzig. Elizabeth continued to play the role of the fabulous hostess, and showed me even more of the city. We met up with James and his visitor (her name is unfortunately escaping me at the moment) at a café, then made plans for additional sightseeing.

One of the big items I had read about is the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, a memorial to slain German soliders in the 1813 Battle of Nations against Napoleon's forces. It's huge, imposing, bombastically nationalistic, and as Elizabeth so aptly put it, "a fabulous example of everything that was wrong about the 19th century in Europe." A huge basin in front of the ziggurat-like building is used as a skating rink during the winter.

The sandstone-colored figure on the front of the building is St. Michael, who is depicted glowering down over his slayed enemies and basically telling the world not to mess with his 'peeps. Of course Hitler and his ilk ate this kind of stuff up with a spoon and capitalized greatly on the sentiment.

Inside, if possible, is even creepier. Even on a warm spring day the stone walls shut out the heat completely so it felt like walking into a huge refrigerator. The main chamber, with the imposing arched windows, contains giant symbolic statuary, massive mercenary figures with gigantic muscles which are supposed to represent the inherent strength and power of the "Volk." Unfortunately the reconstructed panorama I put together rather fails to convey the scale of these herculean dudes (and at least one dude-ess, symbolically breastfeeding some monstrous babies) but the informational display panels under the windows were at least 10 feet tall, if that provides a sense of the size. I was about ankle-high to the statuary.

The view from the top, however, is pretty nifty. Also much warmer than inside. We paid the €1 fee for elevator service to the middle level (that's below the green-covered scaffolding) and then skipped the tip-top since we had arrived just before closing time (and it would have been quite a few stairs). Still, we could see basically all of Leipzig.

Elizabeth and I split up from James and his friend and headed back into town to see if the Mendelssohn-haus was still open. It was, luckily. Several of the rooms were restored to the period of his residence, and the others contained exhibits which included letters, the family silverware, and an actual lock of his hair. (I was probably a bit more excited than was warranted at the chance to use Mendelssohn's bathroom... unoriginal of course...)

We grabbed leftovers and headed over to James' apartment for dinner with the same crowd as the previous night, and as I had decided to take a train out the following morning I once again had a fabulous, if late, social evening with Elizabeth. I have to go back in May when Jen and James and some other folks have organized a Fulbright recital, so I already have plans to check out the Stasi museum in Leipzig, finally see Dresden, and maybe even make an excursion into the nearby Sächsische Schweiz if time allows... And Elizabeth needs to come to Göttingen to do some research, and we both seem to have the travel bug at the moment, so hopefully we'll get to do more adventuring together in the near future!

I got back to Göttingen uneventfully on Tuesday afternoon, and things have been relatively quiet. Well, except that Katha got that Karaoke machine for her birthday which had to be set up and tested last night, and of course I had to participate. I'm at a bit of an unfair advantage since all the songs are in English, although Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" was tricky enough even in my mother tongue! There's also some kind of party in the works for tomorrow night. You need a can of mace and a big stick to keep me from making a fool of myself when there are 80's pop tunes to be had, so I anticipate a fun night.

Oh, and I need to call Christina (my host mom) since I bumped into her at the bank yesterday but we were too busy to really catch up... Spring cleaning bug has hit as well, plus there's laundry to be done... I don't have any specific travel plans hanging over my head at the moment, but after the whirlwind last two weeks I hope to rectify that soon! I'm also still not sure what's up, if anything, with lab stuff for 2nd semester... but I find that I'm not particularly worried at the moment. Blame it on the sunshine, I guess, and the fact that I really do feel like I'm in the homestretch! Developments, as always, to be posted as they... um, develop! Also, this is the second post today AND I updated the Dortmund trip post with photos, so enjoy!

I love my alma mater!

2006-04-01T14:07:00.000+02:00

Okay, humongo-awesome Leipzig post is on the way, I promise. (Something about being kidnapped by my dorm-mates for a couple hours of Karaoke last night made it difficult to make the time to finish it up... hmm...)

In the meantime, the thing that I most love about Kenyon College is the unabashed willingness of the community to engage wholeheartedly in wonkish dorkery... and have an awesome time in the process. I have a million examples, from the annual Catholics vs. Protestants kickball game, to Prof. Shutt's halloween ghost tours, to pizza-fueled friday afternoon Psych department jam sessions, to campus-wide performance art contests, to the 24-hour mass reading of Ulysses on the Kokosing (and I have the T-shirt to prove it!)

But I think this one takes the cake.

But the most important part is definitely the original video.

Sigh... Farewell, old Kenyon, fare thee well!