Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Oh Yeah!


We start off in Amsterdam:After a transfer in Budapest, Hungary, we arrive in Sarajevo, BiH:
See the old bridge in Mostar, BiH:
Relax in Dubrovnik, Croatia:
Experience the beauty of the Dalmatian coastline in Korcula:

Wind things up in the big city of Split, Croatia:

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Three Weeks With Henry

Derek and I both fell in love with the same individual. A triangle of sorts, but a happy one: a golden retriever named Henry.
I took care of my landlords' dog Henry for three weeks while they were on a Rick Steves' tour in Italy. He is the best dog in the whole world. I'm not exaggerating.
What fun we had! Dog parks, a hike and a splash in the mud at Sauvie Island, watching windsurfing and drinking beer at a dog-centric pub in Hood River, mojitos on the deck upstairs, a hike and swimming at Lost Lake, and dog parks galore. Henry even found a girlfriend at the Gabriel Park dog park: a cute, shiny black poochie named Luna.

One of his most endearing points was that he stomped his feet and raced through the house when he was excited. He memorized the distinctive sound of Derek's car, and would run to the front door to meet him before he even parked his car.
Goodnight Henry, we love you. Looking forward to our next adventure together!

Friday, May 21, 2010

I Totally Forgot About This Idea

Surprise, Surprise, having trouble finding a job. I know I am not alone in this problem. Seriously, even a volunteer position never called me back. But suddenly, while cooking asparagus a la Julia Child and simultaneously drinking martinis, I remembered that [back when I had a job] I had wanted to hit Ken Forkish up to ask for an internship at either his bakery or pizzeria. He used to be on Facebook, but now I can't find him on there, no email address, so I guess I'm going to have to do it the old-fashioned way: snail mail letter. But reflecting upon this, it seems somehow appropriate: old-world traditions for making bread, pastry, and pizza meet old-school method of communication. I mean, back in the day, Jacques Pepin's daughter used to head up the evening dinner service at the bakery. So tomorrow, when I am martini-free, I will draft the most convincing letter ever about how much I love the craft, and want to learn about it, and hopefully, this will be my entrée into the culinary world. We'll see.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Winding Down

It's the last regular week of class before the reading period, and then finals begin. Am I relieved? Yes. Am I super confident and prepared for finals? No. But that's what the reading period is for.
What am I going to do this summer?
  • Take care of Henry for three weeks! I'm looking forward to having a doggie friend.
  • Find a job? Hopefully.
  • Go on vacation? Definitely. Maybe Japan, as Iceland is looking obviously unreasonable. Maybe a national park. Maybe Ecuador.
  • Take a class to get ahead? I think it's probably too late to register, and frankly, I don't want to. I need a break.
Any other ideas?

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Santa Cruz/San Francisco


The coast near Santa Cruz is pretty, and I had a fun trip, although it got off to a rough start due to a bit of projectile vomiting. But after that passed, it was fun. The first night, we saw a San Jose Sharks game. In NHL games, they really do spontaneously get in fights (not in college games). The next morning, I was feeling normal, and we initially toured around the Santa Cruz beach a bit.







Heading out of town, we drove along Big Sur, which is possibly the most impressive coastline I've ever seen.
The cows there are even rich, living on expensive ocean-view pastures. I think they're the ones in the "Happy Cows Make Good Cheese" commercials.















Wending our way back north, we take the "scenic" route, which was essentially a pitted dirt road that winds up, up, up a hill, across to another hill, through private property, and right before it joins up again with the highway, we see a spectacular view of Bixby Canyon Bridge (Death Cab for Cutie song, remember?)
Back on the road, we clamber through a free state park....






And finish off at an ancient mission in Carmel. Time to meet Derek's parents for Mexican seafood and margaritas. It was an excellent day.
The next morning, we take a quick tour of Capitola, a cute, little town near Santa Cruz.

These flowers were everywhere:
We end our Santa Cruz segment at the Boardwalk. Yes, I rode the roller coaster, but my eyes were closed most of the time.
On to San Francisco! Derek's parents drive us up there, and we have a really excellent Japanese lunch together, do a little shopping at a Japanese dollar store, and then tour the Asian Art Museum.

That night, Derek's parents head back down the coast, and we have dinner at a Spanish restaurant on Belden Place. This is a miniature version of the Flower Street in Istanbul, except the hostesses trying to entice you to their restaurants here are significantly less pushy than those in Istanbul.



After dinner, we meet up with some old high school friends of mine, Thierry and Choi. I haven't seen them in over 10 years!
We all eventually ended up at a weird bar called Lefty O'Doul's. Divey? Yes. Entertaining? Definitely. The couple pictured below came in, sat down, and placed their own flower arrangement in the center of their table. It was kind of weird. Our waitress never really waited on us, but rather just told us that food was self-serve, and then sat down at her own table and resumed eating.
For our last full day in San Francisco, we go to the Mission district to meet up with Derek's cousin, have lunch at a really good Salvadorean restaurant, and then streetcar-it to the Academy of Science, which has a very impressive rainforest setup, complete with birds and butterflies flitting about. Pictured below is a tree frog.
I told you there were butterflies!
The Academy of Science also houses a pretty cool aquarium with unique vantage points...




...as well as a rare albino alligator.


Traipsing though Golden Gate Park:


After a rest back at our hotel (Hotel Abri--very nice and well located), we take the cable car up to Nob Hill, peek into the Tonga Room ($5 cover charge just to go inside and order a drink? No thank you!), and hike up and down to Russian Hill, were we enjoy the imminent sunset with a couple of saké cocktails at a corner cafe.



We finished off the evening with a dinner in Chinatown, and dessert in North Beach, which I had never seen at night before, and was very lively.

Fun trip!