Laura in Germany

Yo. I am in Germany.

This is how I got here:

In case you can't tell, that's plane, airport, plane, train. Then there was another train, but it was uglier, so I didn't draw it. The train that I did draw was pretty cool. It went along a river which may have been the Rhine. Sometimes if you looked out the window there were castles. No big deal. I didn't take pictures of them because I didn't want the four bike-tripping Hamburgers (not hamburgers) I was sitting with to think I was THAT much of a tourist. But they were pretty cool, which is why I drew you a picture.

I arrived here after two nights of sleeping on airplanes. Because I couldn't get my key from the housemaster until the beginning of the next week (surprise!) I stayed with an American exchange student who was nice enough to put up with me for the weekend. Then on Tuesday morning I went and talked to the Hausmeister in German and got my key and moved into my very own room. I am living in a dorm and it smells like smoke and sometimes looks like it too, and I am not sure how to flush the toilet properly all the time. Fortunately, the smell of cigarettes reminds me of Europe and Costco, and I am getting better at the toilet thing, so I am quite happy with my situation. My room has a sink and a view of the park. Also, after an hour and a half-long wash cycle in the German washing machine, my socks have never been cleaner.

It's a pleasant half-hour stroll into the city, made pleasanter by a stop at the bakery for some breakfast bread, where I've been going every morning for German classes-- our real work hasn't started yet, so things are pretty chill. In the afternoons, sometimes we go on planned adventures.

I don't have any good pictures of the climbing forest. As you can't see, the climbing forest consists of obstacle courses suspended from trees, including lots of logssuspended from cables, ziplines, a sled, and other scary things. I did not fall once.

Last Thursday we went to the three country corner. I don't understand why this is a big deal, because Europe has lots of three country corners, but it was fun.

See? This was the best of three attempts at a heel-click photo. You can't see my feet, but it is safe for you t

o assume that my heels are six inches off the ground and clicking. As you can see, the three countries represented were Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.

The three country corner happens to be a stone's throw away from the highest point in the Netherlands, 327.5 meters tall. I have climbed the tallest mountain in a whole country. Shh, don't hate.

We climbed a tower while we were there, because, as the reverend Mother said, "Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow till you find your dream," and she was right. We were greeted at the top by this dreamy view:

The red thing pointing towards Belgium is a telescope.

From the tower we could also see a rooftop upon which a multitude of obese cats were napping. I have included a picture of them, and also one of some friendly German cows we encountered, because cows and cats are kind of a thing for my posts.

Laura in California

I am now in the international terminal of Logan waiting for the Lufthansa people to show up so I can check my bag and go through security and wait some more. This strikes me as a good time to tell the internet what has been happening in my life.

I spent the last two weeks at home. Many of my friends were still in school, so much time was spent with the family. Some highlights follow.

My mom's birthday was right after I got home. To celebrate, we drove up to Point Reyes, the home, you may recall, of the tule elk. We saw no elk, as we did not visit the elk reserve. Instead we climbed a small hill in our car and picnicked on the top of it. There was a good deal of fog below us, and very little above us, which means there wasn't a nice view, but we still got sunburned. Nevertheless, it was a nice picnic. We had croissants from the Bovine Bakery, a favorite haunt of people on bikes. Once when we were small we saw Robin Williams there.

The next day we went to the San Francisco Ferry Building for the farmers' market. We bought some whole wheat flour from a man who had ground it himself! Fancy that. For all its locavore appeal, it didn't make very nice bread. Possibly because I winged it. Kids, it's a good idea to

follow the recipes. They are there to help you.

Fat Blackie Garfield lost another tooth. He had to go to the veterinarian to have it pulled. He is now down to one canine. This makes it difficult for him to groom himself properly. This is a picture of him. It looks like he only has one eye in the picture, but that is not the case. I chose this picture because he looks especially silly in it. The vet put Blackie on a special diet. The new food is supposed to help his dandruff problem.

On Monday we decided to be spontaneous. We went to Yosemite. This is a four hour drive. I drove us up New Priestly Grade, which is kind of like Rainbow Road in Mario Kart, only it's not in space. You will be happy to know that I did not drive off the edge. There is also an Old Priestly Grade, which is even more deathlike. I used to lean toward the uphill side whenever we went down it.

California got a lot of rain/snow last winter, so there was lots of water in the waterfalls. We

walked in to Bridalveil Fall, and got drenched in the mist from the falls. This is a picture of a different waterfall. I took it through the roof of our car. It represents the clash between civilization and nature. I took it with my phone.

On Tuesday, my last day before I left, my mother, my sister, and I went to a coffee tasting. Some coffee beans dry with the fruit on them and some are washed of their fruit before they are dried, and this makes the coffee taste fruity or not. Also, peaberry means the berry only made one bean inside, not two. I learned this. I also learned how to slurp coffee so that is sprays gently across the palate. You just kind of slurp.

Then last night I got on a red-eye and flew to Boston. Whee. I didn't talk to anyone, because I like to sleep and I don't like people. But the two people who were talking behind me were both MIT students. This reminds me that I had a brass rat moment while comparing butters at the Berkeley Bowl. Actually I think it was a MIT sweatshirt moment, but whatever. It was kind of fun.

This is a picture of dusk on the golden hills of Moraga. In this picture, the hills are golden with mustard plants. In a month they'll be golden with dead grass.

My Life and a Little Bit More

Where to start... well, first an explanation for Sumin:

On Friday night after my finals were over, the Muses went out for dinner and karaoke, lot's of fun, and we ended our adventure waiting for the Saferide in front of ZBT at about 11 pm. Through the door, I spied what appeared to be a creature known as a Sumin amidst the deep jungle of packages and frat brothers... but I couldn't be sure. As I squinted my eyes through the darkness and into the bright building, it only became clear that it was indeed the rare species at the last moment before it disappeared deeper into the recesses of the forest. Fearing to lose my group and miss my transport (and also awkward social situations had I still been mistaken), I dared not follow the adorable beast. Instead, I sought to communicate with it remotely and coax it to come out into the open. I found that unfortunately I did not have a record of it's tracking number, despite my theoretical security clearance to know such things, and before I could think of another strategy the transport arrived to deliver us back to Base Camp MIT. I lamented the loss of this opportunity, but resolved that I would find my one-of-a-kind dear again if it took all summer (which apparently it will since I missed its departure from its former dwelling place).

In other news, I made a huge mountain of stuff in the triple when moving out of my room in an hour and a half, cleaned it up a little bit, then spent the week packing up LMF while neglecting my own copious amounts of stuff... leading to a mad dash to get myself ready to leave. Oh well, so what if my shirts in storage aren't folded as well as they could be.

Of course, the week wasn't ALL work. I went out to dinner with people, ate lots of froyo, watched movies, and made scrumptious dinners twice with JJ, who I'm sure most of you have met by now. Also, I'm pretty sure that one of my menus next year will include the mildly candied mango yams that I invented the recipe for on one of these occasions. You know, when life gives you mangoes and sweet potatoes...

Getting closer to the present day, on Saturday Daniel, Teresa, and I packed my suitcases into the trunk of Daniel's car before hopping in the cab and driving off to look for adventure. We met up with Ashley Brown and Michael, and Julie and Luis, in NYC and hung around Central Park for a while before having a delicious dinner and going to see Catch Me if You Can, the first time I've ever seen a show on Broadway! It was a very exciting experience, and it was also interesting to be in the city when it wasn't cold outside...

On the way back to Daniel's house the highway decided that it wanted our drivers to fall asleep at the wheel and kill us all, so it proceeded to make our exit disappear. Luckily, Ashley and Daniel had more willpower than the glorified piece of asphalt over which we rolled and we found our way without any fatalities.

After a good night's sleep and a nice breakfast, we were on the road again. I was dropped unceremoniously at the Newport airport before my car-mates rushed off to the train station. Actually that's a highly unfair statement, I just like the word unceremoniously, in reality we all said a nice, though hurried, goodbye.

The airport was a breeze, relatively small compared to what I often see and quick to get through security. About an hour later I was boarding my first propeller plane for a short flight to Philadelphia. It turned out that the second leg of my journey was the more interesting, however. I managed to get on the plane and stow my bag relatively early in the boarding call for my section, so I sat down to get settled. After a while a young woman in the aisle pointed to the window seat next to me and said "I think that's me". I, of course, got up to give her room to get by, and as I did, she asked me if I was allergic to cats. I said no, not thinking too much of it, I mean maybe she'd been handling cats and had hair all over her clothes. Then I heard a mew from what looked to be her carry-on bag, but on closer inspection was an animal carrier! She was bringing her cat with her from Philadelphia to Seattle! The cat's name was Angus, as I found out in further discussion, and he meowed occasionally for attention throughout the flight. I saw his head once when she was feeding him in the bag, very cute.

My parents and I had a bit of difficulty finding each other at the airport, as my flight got in 40 minutes early, so they missed me at the gate but all the info boards said I was on-time, so they didn't think that was possible. Anyway, now I'm back in Bremerton, and it's not as hot as Boston but it is sunny, and all I've got to do for now is get off my bum and find something useful to do with myself... I'll keep you posted on how that goes... :)