Summer Adventure 2: Washington, DC

So, I realize I did not post much over spring break. I blame that on my boyfriend, who came to visit during the second week off. But you know what? Between blogging and spending time with the significant other, I am glad I spent more of my time doing the latter, and not the former. So no regrets.

Rather than blabber on about what we did, I will give you the sparknotes version, and post some pictures from spring break. For context: one day we went to Monterey, CA. The next day we went to San Francisco. The last day, we went to Napa, CA and Berkeley, CA. The pictures are assorted pictures from those trips. Here they are:

View of the Pacific from The Great Highway, San Francisco

View of ruins along the coast. They look ancient, but are only about 50 years old. Used to house pool complex of some sort

The Cliff House. Iconic and old San Francisco establishment, dating to before the 1906 earthquake. Used to be quite built up and fancy, back in the day

Awesome view of the sunlight setting over the Pacific

Wildlife chilling off the coast of Monterey, near the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Beach and ruins of an old dock at Cannery Row, Monterey, CA

Famous Chinese gate at the entrance to Chinatown in San Francisco

I did accomplish one nice thing over spring break: my ongoing quest to find a legit Chinese wok finally came to an end. The boyfriend and I finally found one in Chinatown in San Francisco. The nice lady even threw in a free pair of long Chinese cooking chopsticks. So you know, that only took looking in three different Chinatowns in three different cities over a 3000-mile span of the entire country.

Then spring break ended. And I came back to school. I arrived the day after Easter; I guess some people were getting in the spirit over break, because I found this on display in the library when I got back:

"Jury of your Peeps"

Not going to lie, seeing that was kind of awesome. Whoever made that is my new best friend.

So school started, went on for about five more weeks, and then reading week and finals. I am now done with another year; another one bites the dust, and only one more to go.

I finished on Thursday with my last final, and by Saturday I was on a plane to Washington, DC, to settle in and start my internship with the government. In theory I start on Monday, but some of my paperwork hasn't cleared as of Friday, so I may not be able to go in until later in the week. Kind of annoying, but if I can't go to work, I guess I will go to the National Gallery or something.

Haven't done much since arriving here. I got in later yesterday evening, so kind of just hung out. Today I unpacked and ventured to the nearby Target, to stock up on some supplies I didn't bother packing. Then I went on a reconnaissance mission to figure out how to get to work, so I do not end up lost and late for work on whatever day it is that ends up being my first day. I have been to DC before, but I always forget how epic some of the buildings are. They aren't very tall (due to a rule in place since the city's founding that no office building or anything, can stand higher than the Capitol Building. But what the buildings lack in height, they make up for in heavy stone architecture of imposingness, engraved quotes of weightyness, heavy quasi-Greek/Roman statutes of allegory, and intense-looking, huge doors.

The other thing I forgot, but then was reminded of, about DC is the absurd crosswalk timers. When the "walk" sign is on, it also helpfully counts down the time you have until the light is going to change. While most crosswalks I have seen counting down in other cities give like, 10-ish seconds, it is not unusual for the timers to give 30 second, 45 second, 60 seconds. And it is not just a few crosswalks. Like every crosswalk gives a ridiculous amount of time to cross what, 10 or 15 feet. I don't get it; are there a lot of really old, slow people in DC? I remember when I was last in DC, the spring break of my senior year in college, my boyfriend and I were endlessly amused by these crosswalks. Glad to see not much has changed.

Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print. As I get around the city more I will post more pictures. So it all begins.

If War is Hell...

Then moving is Purgatory.

I apologize for my absence from blogging, but I have spent the last week under a pile of boxes, trying to create a cohesive apartment from a pile of CaCa. My boyfriend and I finished hanging the wall decor today, so after 8 days, one late-night wall-painting session, many bent nails, and another huge bookshelf later, we are about 90-95% "there." When the apartment is all put together (still waiting on a wall painting and some cleaning/final organizing), I will of course post pictures. I do have to say, even more so than the other place, this apartment feels like a "real" person apartment.

This whole process has been a nightmare, though. First there was the crazy move-in, and my freaking out a bit when I found out some of my furniture was nic'd up from it. Then the slow progress made putting everything in its place and organized, having to clean boxes and boxes and boxes out of the apartment, getting a new (HUGE) bookshelf because my boyfriend is a library. I think this move was harder because we were combining both my boyfriend's stuff and my stuff, instead of mostly my stuff plus some of my boyfriend's clothes, so there was a lot more crap to wade through. But in the end, it does feel more like "our" apartment, which is nice. I of course was stressed beyond belief the whole week. My mother, to her credit, raised me in a pretty much immaculately clean household. While I am not as fastidious as my mother, I do thus tend to have a higher clean (or at least organized) standard, so living in chaos is very personally stressful for me. I was not happy. I am now happier because our apartment now actually looks like one.

The neighborhood we are in is interesting. Only a few blocks west is cutesy Andersonville, with many little boutique-y stores and restaurants. Andersonville is also apparently Chicago's "little Scandinavia" (or what is left of it), so it will be an opportunity to get re-acquianted with "my people" (Norwegian Pride, b*tches), with a splash of some Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food places. And yet all the way there, and a fair ways south, is apparently "new Chinatown," which is really more like "new Chi-Kor-Viet-town," with some random Italian restaurants dotting the whole way. So, in a weird way, its almost like where I was in New York: Surrounded by Asian and Italian food. Except Chicago is, ya know, cleaner. So I am looking forward to exploring and getting to know the 'hood.

That's pretty much it for today. This really crappy week is behind me, and I am calm again. In conclusion: I hate moving.

Speaking of New York, I will be in New York in less than a week, and then back there again less than a week after that. I got some callbacks from OCI, which definitely also helped calm me down, as for a while it was either radio silence or rejections from the firms, which kind of made me feel like a tool. So hopefully despite being real whirlwind trips, the callbacks in New York will go well. It would be super sweet to be in New York again next summer. And since the firm gigs would be paid, and my boyfriend's job is a school-year thing, maybe he could come hang out in the city with me as I sublet a place or something. So will keep my fingers crossed.

Got to go now: now that the place is finally together, we are actually cooking dinner, rather than eating out or getting takeout. Yay!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

So, I made it to the Bronx Zoo today, and despite some mild shadiness in the two-and-a-half blocks between the subway (actually, really El stop, since halfway through the Bronx the subway stops being a subway) and the entry to the zoo, it was actually fine (something I have learned about New York: have an I-am-pissed-off and unpleasant face, and people will leave you alone. Good defense mechanism). And I am glad I went. I am always a sucker for animals, if you couldn't tell from this blog, and this place had quite the selection, way more extensive than the Central Park Zoo, and surprisingly not much more (at least if you got the general admission ticket. With some of the add-ons, or the "full experience" ticket, it could start to get up there price-wise). Anyway, it was a nice afternoon, although now I can barely move from stiffness brought on by 3.5 hours of non-stop walking. But it was worth it. Rather than me blabber on, I am just going to let the animals do the talking, since they are the stars of the show.

Entryway to the Bronx Zoo from Boston Ave. in the Bronx

The first animal to greet me, were camels. Camels are silly animals. They do a really exaggerated chewing motion, and it is entertaining. I actually went on a camel ride around the ring. I am glad I didn't get spat on

Don't know what kind of bird this was, but it looked suitably exotic. Something from Asia, since that was the section of the park I was in at the time

An Asian species of crane, drinking from some skeezy-looking water

Big Kitty (aka Snow Leopard... no, not the OS) taking a silly nap

"Ugh. I gotta learn to lay off the weekend parties. All those rum-and-cokes make for a really unpleasant Monday, ya know? What, you thought all those drinks in those commercials were "soft?" How else do you think we get through 30 takes for a 30-second shot?"

Polar bear totally flaked out. Don't blame him. The North Pole New York in the summer is not

Tee-hee-hee. Polar bear bum. He's being silly. I thought this was absolutely adorbes

A baboon of some type. They are kind of intense in person, actually

Cheekeh monkeh!

Some Ibex (Ibi?)-- which are basically Savannah goat-type animals

So, there were like, all these peacocks, just chillin' all over the zoo. Not in enclosures, just allowed to roam free. Is this normal? They didn't give a shit about humans being there, either. I think they excepted us to move out of the way for them, in typical peacock fashion

Some kind of Savannah deer-like animal. From the "African Prairie" habitat enclosure. Many different species of animals put all together in one

Including lions. I have always wondered how like zoos, when they put predator-type animals and prey-type animals together in the same enclosure, prevent the predators from, you know, eating the prey, when clearly that is not the goal...

King of the jungle, man. That dude is not to be trifled with

When I first saw the lions, that old familiar song popped right into my head and, well, I can't resist:

Now good luck getting THAT out of your head for the next two hours :)

Peacock sighting number 2

Giraffes. What to say, other than that they are pretty bamf animals just generally

Freaking peacocks, again!

Some exotic-looking white bird

No trip to the zoo would be complete without seeing the pink flamingos

You know there are more plastic pink flamingos in North America, than there are actual pink flamingos in the world? That is sad, both for what it says about the status of pink flamingos as a species, and for what it says about the tastes of the American public

Lemur! Silly lemur, eating food while hanging upside-down

...Because this isn't terrifying at all. Nile crocodile, looking like he is going to eat you

Ring-tailed lemurs just chillin'

Another cool looking bird. Don't know the species

Tortoises native to Madagascar. I always thought tortoises were bigger

C'mon, lil' dude. Don't be shy, some say "hi!"

Some cute red-tailed mongeese(gooses?). Cute, that is, until they take down an MF-ing king cobra...

Some red lemur-like animals hanging out behind a mini waterfall

I got to watch the sea lions get fed fish. They were very excited to get fed. It was adorable

Another sea lion hamming it up for the onlookers

PENGUINS!

Not sure what he was, but this guy was a handsome looking fellow, so I took a picture. Some kind of sea bird

Puffin!

Another regal-looking bird, I think in the crane family

The stork. Poor guy looked kind of lonely in his habitat by himself. I felt bad for him

Vultures...are frickin scary birds. You should have seen the wingspan on this thing. Not surprising that they are descendants of freaking velociraptors

Bald Eagle, aka 'Murica, aka USA! USA! USA! Seems appropriate since it is Olympics season

Grizzly bear was hiding behind a fallen tree, trying to cool off in his little pond

Can kind of see his head peeking up from behind the log

Getting up-close and personal with a tiger. Thank god there was glass

Hands-down my best picture of the day. And a fitting end to the day, as well

And again, on that note, because I can't resist:

And with that, there was my day at the zoo. Very fun, but also very tiring. I hope you enjoyed viewing these pictures of the animals, as much as I enjoyed taking them.

If you are interested in visiting the Bronx Zoo, you can find the information at the zoo's website.

The Bronx Zoo is located at:

Bronx Zoo
2300 South Blvd
Bronx, New York

There hours are as follows: March 31-Nov. 4, they are open Monday - Friday 10:00AM-5:00PM, Weekends & Holidays 10:00AM-5:30PM. Fall/winter hours are: Nov. 5 - March 29, daily 10:00AM-4:30PM.

This is family-friendly entertainment. Bring the kids!

And finally, lest you think I didn't do anything Sunday, I did in fact go out and explore Chinatown a little more in-depth (sad, considering I live on the edge of it). I wandered around the (very) crowded streets, and even managed to pick up a few things I had been wanting, namely: some steel chopsticks, some of those ceramic Chinese soup spoons (which are far superior to regular spoons for things like soup), and a Chinese tea set, ceramic. Which, considering that was a fair amount of stuff, did not set me back too much. Chinatown prices I guess. You know what was ridiculous, though? My boyfriend has been wanting a real cast-iron wok to cook with (he is a foodie, and a pretty intensive cook). So I thought, New York Chinatown: logical place to find such a wok, I will look there and have an authentic one shipped back to Chicago. Damn, you would have thought I was looking for the Holy Grail. I only found one shop that had them, and then they were ovepriced. I talked to the BF about it, and we both decided we could get a better one for less online. It was just sad.

Anyway, here are some shots I took down some of the streets of Chinatown.

The unfortunate thing about Sunday was, it was super hot and super humid. I kept drinking fluids, mostly water, but just could not keep up. I think I got pretty peaky and dehydrated, in the end. After Chinatown, I went over to the Antiques Garage Flea Market in Chelsea, but I really only could stay for about 20 minutes before I literally had to find an air-conditioned Starbucks, and just sit for awhile. Otherwise, I was getting very parched and a little light-headed. But, I did manage to find a cute decor piece for the apartment before I had to abandon ship. So not all bad.

Still can't believe tomorrow is my last day in the city. It's gone way fast. I had a blast, and I am sorry to see it go. But, on to the next thing. Can't beat the clock, in the end.