interstellarglue

Things People Do When They’re Not in School: Part 5 – Go Snowboarding!0

Wowza. Today was lots of fun. 

First stop: Starbucks. I started out the day with some oatmeal and an eggnog latte (’tis the season!). 

When we got to Sierra, we got our rentals and paid for my snowboarding lesson.

This is Kyle and me trying to look hardcore. I wouldn’t mess with us!

We realized that we had a few hours to kill before my lesson started, so I decided to try to figure out how the hell to strap myself into my deathtrap (i.e. snowboard), and try to make my way around in the snow as best as I could. Kyle went snowboarding practically every weekend when he was in high school, and even though it has been several years since he has been, he picked it right up again! So he tried to teach me a few things, which only ended in me leaving Kyle (or him leaving me…). Kyle is a very smart person, and he knows the physics and aerodynamics (and whatnot) involved in snowboarding, and he thought that telling me these things would help me learn how to snowboard. As nice as that thought was, it was of absolutely no help (surprise, surprise, right?). I simply didn’t understand anything he said, and was left very frustrated (and bored. I hate science lectures!). After about ten minutes of this, he thought it would be a good idea to just get me on the lift, and he thought I would eventually figure it out. Yeah, that was not going to happen. There was no way in hell I was getting on that lift without first knowing at least the basics. This offended him, but I wasn’t going to budge. I told him to just go without me, as I saw a sparkle in his eye as he was watching people gracefully maneuver down the mountain. He didn’t hesitate for a moment, which was both cute and a little annoying. That was basically the end of my lesson with Kyle. 

My snowboarding lesson with the instructor was much more rewarding and a lot less frustrating. The instructor was really great – she knew exactly how to explain how to do things without getting too technical. It was so much freaking fun even though I was falling and flailing about. While I took several spills, only one was a doozy. I was going too fast so I dug my heel edge into the snow, and it stopped me immediately. I fell right on my ass/tailbone, and used my left hand to try to stop the fall (stupid! But trust me, your brain doesn’t work in moments like these). The fall was so hard that it jarred my head a little bit, and I was left with a bit of a headache. My hand actually didn’t hurt me until an hour later when the lesson was over and I sat down with Kyle. Gotta love that adrenaline and those endorphins! 

So, guess what? We didn’t even go on the lift during our first lesson. The instructor said that they teach you how to get on/off the lift during the second lesson. Ha! And Kyle wanted me to go on it first thing! Crazy bastard! We did, however, take a shuttle up to the top of the bunny hill, so we got to go down the bunny hill once. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it was! It was really challenging, but I was having a blast the whole time. Added bonus: it was gorgeous out!

I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

We’re already planning our next trip! I definitely plan on taking more lessons. I can’t wait!

Posted: Vacation

Things People Do When They’re Not in School: Part 2 – Party with Beautiful Women0

Going to Asia SF was the main event of our trip to San Francisco. The night was nothing short of fabulous. We had good food, drinks, company, and of course, drag queens!

(Pardon Kyle’s closed eyes and my devil eyes.)

(Pardon Kyle’s weird face and my devil eyes… again.)

There is a very unflattering picture of me with our fabulous waitress, but posting it will only draw attention to how much more fabulous a man in a dress looks than me…

After the show the four of us got into various shenanigans, and the night culminated in ordering pizza and me falling asleep on the bed when everyone else was still up. Worse party animal ever! Thanks for the great night Jenn and Shaun! And thanks for bringing a camera, as this night would have gone undocumented if it weren’t for you! (Kyle and I are lame and brought our camera charger, but no camera.)

Posted: Vacation

Things People Do When They’re Not in School: Part 1 – Relax in the Clouds0

Now that I’m out of school, I’m making every effort to enjoy my new-found freedom. 

Over the weekend, Kyle and I met up with Jenn and Shaun in San Francisco. It was a glorious weekend. One of my favorite things I did was relax on our balcony on the 27th floor of our hotel. Sure, we may not have been quite up there with the clouds, but we were at least in the fog!

My feet on the edge of our balcony:

Here’s the view from our balcony:

I could definitely get used to this.

Posted: Vacation

Sand in between My Toes0

I desperately wanted to get out of the house (and Davis), but I didn’t feel like spending a lot of money or doing a lot of planning. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what we should do, if anything at all. There’s been talk of going to Dillon Beach, the Academy of Sciences, the Street Food Festival in San Francisco, but no decisions were actually made. You see, I’m pretty burned out from doing research all summer, and school starts next Monday, so I’ve been feeling pretty bummed. I didn’t know if I should just stay home and relax, or get out and do something. Well, yesterday morning I decided that all I really wanted to do was go to the beach. So, to the beach we went! We got a pretty late start, so the first thing we did was fuel up on coffee.

I thought it would be fun to stop to eat lunch in Berkeley, so I googled “sandwich Berkeley” and found a place called Cafe Fanny. It had really good reviews, so we went there. I got a delicious salad with baked goat cheese, and Kyle got an open faced egg salad sandwich with sun-dried tomatoes. It was a great little place!

The traffic the whole was there was horrific. We didn’t understand why it was so bad on a Saturday afternoon. That is, until I saw a car with “Raiders Suck” and “Niners Rule” scrawled over its window. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I googled “49ers schedule” and found out that there was a game that night. It was pretty bad, but once we got over the bridge, it was much better. We finally made it to Ocean Beach, and I ran like crazy to the water. I had been DYING to do this:

Ahhhh, dipping my feet in the ocean felt so nice. I definitely needed that connection. Kyle’s serial killer-like tendency to not get dirty prevented him from playing in the water with me. I was bummed, but I didn’t care. The water felt so nice. It was a pretty cool day, but for some reason the water felt warm (Kyle said “that’s hypothermia talking”). 

I splashed around for awhile, and walked along the coast. It felt like I was in heaven. 

I even ran into one of these guys:

After I had my fill, we realized that we could still make it to the Street Food Festival before it closed. We got in a line and patiently waited for our turn – isn’t that what most people do? Well, not the cracked out couple that cut in front of us. They were so loud and obnoxious, but we didn’t want to start anything, so we just said “whatever” and kept waiting. Well, once the couple in front of us got to the front of the line, the cashier said that they were closing! So the couple that cut in front of us got to eat, and we didn’t. HA! Can you believe it? Oh well. We knew we were late, so it wasn’t the end of the world, but I couldn’t believe it. We ended up going to Herbivore, an all vegan restaurant that we’ve been to several times. We had a great meal and then headed back home.

All in all it was a nice little getaway. Every time we go to the Bay Area, we think about how much we would love to live there. Kyle is trying to convince me that I would like Mountain View, but I’m not sold, mostly because of its proximity to Sunnyvale (yuck!). In an attempt to persuade me, Kyle is going to take me there on a Friday. He’ll work from the Mountain View office that day, while I work on my thesis. We’ll stay the night and hang out there on Saturday. I’m glad I’ll finally get to see it for myself, because Kyle’s rhetoric is a little ridiculous. He knows I like Berkeley, so when I asked what Mountain View was like, he said, “It’s like Berkeley only way cleaner like Davis.” HAHAHA! We shall see…

Posted: Summer Stuff, Vacation

Pictures!0

Vacation Photos!

I couldn’t fit them all on my flickr page, because I don’t have the paid account, so I had to take some out. I will probably put captions on them tomorrow… but for now, enjoy!

Posted: Vacation

Looking Back on Our Trip: The Good, the Bad, the Embarrassing0

The Good:

• The food in Paris. Delish!
• Walking along the Thames and the Seine. This is where all of the life of the city is!
• The coffee! It’s so tasty! They don’t brew coffee like we do. They use espresso for all of their coffee drinks. There were a couple of times when Kyle wanted American-style coffee, so we hit up Starbucks, where they do make our kind of coffee (he’s a weenie). By the way, the food at Starbucks is way better in London than it is here…
• The weather. Although it did rain a lot (sprinkled more than anything), the weather was so nice. It was between 70-80 the whole time. I wanted to die when we came back to 100 + weather.
• The pubs. I’m no big drinker, but the atmosphere in the pubs was so enjoyable. Very laid back.
• The drinks. Again- I’m no big drinker, but the cider was so good in London and the wine was so good in Paris!
• The general atmosphere of both cities. London is very busy- there’s always something going on. Paris, on the other hand, is more laid back. Kyle and I felt so at home in both cities.
• The performers on the Metro in Paris! There were accordionists, violinists and even puppeteers on the Metro!
• Learning that the United States is not the center of the world. I’d like to say I knew that before, but I know even more-so now. 

The Bad:

• EasyHotel. This place made Kyle and I hate each other! It was so cheap though…
• The body odor! Oh my god, I can’t believe how stinky some people were! 
• Not having a hair dryer! I had to go out with wet hair every day.
• My feet. My feet hurt ALL OF THE TIME! It was miserable. I blame myself for not having supportive shoes. I wasn’t alone though. Kyle had blisters on his feet almost the whole time we were there.
• The plane ride. Isn’t it about time someone develops some sort of teleportation device? 
• The movies on the plane. The long plane ride is bad enough, but when you have to watch crappy movies the whole time, it’s even worse!
• Plane food. AHAHAHA! Since we’re veg, we had to eat curry both ways. I’ll never forget looking over at Kyle, and seeing his eyes light up as he ate it. He looked over to me and said, “this is pretty good!” I about died laughing. In all honestly, it wasn’t that bad, but it can by no means be classified as good. 
• Missing Pidden. And my friends and family of course!
• Coming home.

The Embarrassing:

• Being silly Americans. We were sitting outside of the Louvre watching the Eiffel Tower sparkling, and we started to talk about the new Batman movie as if it were a great masterpiece of cinema. I believe I even said, “it was so deep!” (I was tired, okay?) Then I look over to my left and notice that a woman was video taping the Eiffel Tower right next to us. So basically that woman is going to go home and watch her video of the Eiffel Tower, and she’s going to hear two ridiculous Americans talking about how “deep” the new batman is.
• Using public bathrooms. Kyle went “number 2″ in the Louvre, just steps away from the Mona Lisa. He was gone for a long time, and when he got back I said, “you did not just do that in the Louvre museum!!!”
• Going to the wrong hotel in London. The guy looked at us like we were morons, which I admit, was deserved.
• Not being able to understand British English. It was horrible! We speak the same language, but I had the hardest time understanding the Brits.
• Feeling sick during King Lear. I had to go outside a couple of times to get some fresh air, and the people were getting irritated with me. I made the right choice by just leaving altogether.
• Our experience at the movie theater in London. Everything was so confusing! There was a separate place (i.e. building) to buy the tickets, get snacks, and watch the movie! Plus, we thought the movie started at 7:00, but it actually started at 7:55, so when we tried to go in around 6:45, the guy basically yelled at us, saying that we were too early.
• There were a few times where we ran out of cash, so we weren’t able to tip cab drivers…
• Kyle peeing in a children’s hospital.

Posted: Vacation

The last days of our trip0

I’m feeling so lethargic, but I thought I should jot some things down about the last few days of our trip before I forget.

We overslept big time on our last day in Paris. I think I slept in until about noon or so. We didn’t manage to leave until about 1. We must have been exhausted. We grabbed (yet another) croissant and headed to the Musee d’Orsay. This museum begins where the Louvre ends. There were lots of realist, pre-impressionist, impressionist and art nouveau paintings! All my favs! Wee!!! Kyle actually enjoyed the Louvre more than the Musee d’Orsay, and I felt the opposite. What can I say, I’m a sap for impressionism. The thing that pissed me off was that everyone was obsessed with taking pictures of the paintings. I don’t understand what the point of that is… there are plenty of pictures of those paintings. The whole point of going to museums is to enjoy the paintings in real life. What bothered me about it was that I really wanted to look at the paintings up close, but people were so obsessed with taking pictures so I felt I had to back off. Anyhoo, it was a blast despite all that.

Next we decided to walk along the Seine and take in all of Paris. The sun was setting so we decided to spend our last night in Paris on a boat that went from the Eiffel Tower to the tip of the Ile Saint Louis. It was gorgeous, but what made the trip great was the tour guide. Her English was terrible and she sounded like a robot. Kyle and I had great fun imitating her. 

After the cruise we continued walking around the city and we came upon a gelato stand! I had coffee gelato and Kyle had chocolate (big surprise!). It was delicious! It was getting pretty late, so we decided to turn in for the night, as we had to leave relatively early the next day. 

The next day we pretty much went straight to the train station to go back to London. It was a good thing we did that, because getting through customs was pretty traumatizing. There were people everywhere and the British customs guy was pretty mean. He was drilling Kyle pretty hard with questions. Poor Boo. When we got back in London we went straight to the nearest pub. This was quite an interesting experience. Kyle had a hard time communicating with the girls at the counter. He ordered me a hard cider, but they gave us an orange juice with sparkling water in it. I seriously just chuckled out loud as I typed that. Why on earth did she give us that? I don’t understand! Especially because they had hard cider there! Kyle ordered a porter for himself, and she looked at him like he was crazy. She said, “we don’t have anything like that.” Kyle replied, “well… it’s on the menu…” She had a confused look on her face so Kyle just said, “whatever,” and he ordered something else. It was a very odd experience.

Next we went to the British Library. This was one of my favorite things we did. We saw some of Shakespeare’s original folios, as well as some of Wordsworth, Austen, Bronte, and Milton’s original writing. This was so neat- it was great to see that my heroes were actual real people that wrote down their stories with ink and paper. We also saw some of the Beatles’ songs scribbled on napkins and the back of birthday cards. It was so so so awesome. We also saw the original Magna Carta, and one of the original Gutenberg bibles. I know, I’m a nerd, but I thought all of this was so cool!

At this point, we decided we ought to check out the train schedule and get to our hotel near Gatwick airport. I was pretty sad leaving. I was realizing that our wonderful vacation was coming to an end. The train ride to Gatwick airport was nice. We got to see some of the English countryside. We got off at the Gatwick airport stop, and decided we would walk to our hotel, as it was less than a mile away. I can’t even explain how wrong we were when we thought this was possible. We asked about 4 or 5 airport employees how to get to the road and they each gave us different directions. We simply couldn’t figure out how to leave the damn airport!!! After about an hour, we still made absolutely no progress. We had no will power left at this point, so we decided to take an 11 pound cab ride to our hotel that was a mile away. Wah! We were pissed but we also didn’t care. We were just so glad to be in our hotel. We watched an episode of BBC’s the Dragon’s Den (fabulous show!), and then went downstairs to the restaurant for a couple of drinks. They were playing music videos from the 80’s, and Kyle and I had great fun making fun of them. I’m sure others weren’t amused by us. Oh well. 

The hotel had a shuttle that goes straight to the airport for only 3 pounds, so we were stoked about that. We were out of cash, so we went to the ATM outside of the hotel to get money for the shuttle, but for some reason, our ATM cards wouldn’t work! Since we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, there was no way we could get cash. MEH! So the next morning, we had to pay another 11 pounds for a taxi to take us a mile away. We were so irritated, but there was nothing else we could do. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We went through security and found out that our flight was delayed. This was a bit of a bummer, but it gave me time to shop! 

The flight was pretty bad. It’s pretty hard to sit and do nothing for over 9 hours. I watched Made of Honor (horrible beyond words), Kung Fu Panda (cute!) and the Cosby Show (hilarious!). Since our flight was delayed, we were worried that we wouldn’t make our connecting flight in Texas. We were pretty nervous when we were in the line for Customs. I thought the U.S guys would be mean to us and drill us with questions, but they weren’t bad at all. 

We didn’t see one Mexican restaurant in all of London or Paris (Kyle was going through withdrawals), so during our layover in Texas we got some veggie burritos for dinner, which ended up being completely disgusting. For some reason Kyle and I didn’t have seats together on our ride home, which made the flight horrible for both of us. I do have to give Kyle credit for dealing with a much worse flight than me though… Mine was bad because I was freezing and incredibly tired (but couldn’t sleep), but Kyle had to sit for 3 and half hours and listen to some guy blab his ears off. This guy talked about everything from geology to aerodynamics. Poor Kyle! Haha!

It was truly nice to get back home. It was even more nice to see my baby! I could tell she missed me as much as I missed her. It was great to sleep in our own bed. 

To be honest, I’m having a pretty hard time adjusting to normal life. I feel like I’ve been in a fairyland for 10 days, and now I’m back to reality, which is pretty hard. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get over it. 

I slept A LOT yesterday. And I watched a lot of Project Runway. A LOT. Oh god, I love that show. 

Anyway, the trip was a dream. It was even better than I could have ever expected it to be. And yes, I do want to go back. Anyone want to contribute to the Take Kyle and Tara Back to Europe Fund?

Posted: London, Paris, Vacation

Blogging from Home…0

Lots to update everyone with, but I’m far too tired. It’s 5:30 a.m. in London, so I feel like I’ve been up all night.

I did manage to unpack our suitcases though! I’m good!

Goodnight. I’m going to go die in my bed for a few days. I can’t believe we’re back in the U.S. of A…

Posted: Vacation

J’adore Paris Part Deux0

Yesterday was a wonderful day in Paris. We kicked off the day with another pain au chocolate (those things are crazy good). Then we took the Metro to the Ile de la Cite, and went to Notre Dame. We walked around for awhile and did the audio tour, which was pretty cool. The cathedral is breathtaking. We decided against going up to the towers, because they charged for it and there was a huge line. I told Kyle I really didn’t want to spend what precious time I have in Paris in a line. So we decided to stroll around the Ile de la Cite and then we took the bridge over to the Ile St Louis. My tour book guided us to a delicious place for ice cream. I had tiramisu, and Kyle had chocolate. It was divine! 

Somewhere in there we stopped for lunch. I had the pizza margarita and Kyle had a potato omelette. This was the first sit down restaurant we had been to in Paris. Our waiter was extremely nice and understanding of my inability to speak French. Who said that the French were arrogant and rude? I have found them to be quite charming. 

After walking around the Ile St Louis, we walked back over the Ile de la Cite and went to Ste Chappelle. This place was amazing! The walls are completely made of stained glass. Kyle’s friend told him he should go to the Latin Quarter, which isn’t far from where we were, so I suggested we walk over there. However, on our walk, I spotted the Louvre from across the Seine! It was pretty late by then, so I figured it was probably closing soon. I checked my guidebook and it said that admission to the Louvre is half price on Fridays, and it stays open until 10! Lucky us! So we went in, and we saw signs that say that after 6 p.m., people under 26 years old can get in for free! Yay! For once, we don’t have to pay! We did, however, pay for the audio guides, because those things really make the experience better. We did the “masterpieces” tour where we saw the Venus de Milo, Victory, and the Mona Lisa, among others. Then we walked around on our own and saw some other wonderful paintings. My favorite is the Raft of the Medusa.

The museum was closing, so we had to leave, against our will of course. Our feet were killing us once again, so we sat on the ledge of a wall outside of the Louvre. We sat long enough to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle. It was magical! There was a carnival going on right outside the Louvre. I mentioned going on the ferris wheel would be fun, but Kyle didn’t sound thrilled about it, so we found the nearest Metro to go back to our hotel. On our way from the Metro station to our hotel, we found a street creperie. I had been waiting for this the whole time we’ve been on vacation! Kyle had an egg and cheese crepe, and I had the crepe royale (nutella, bananas, crown royale and cinnamon- they were out of coconut). They were both heavenly. We seriously wanted to go back for more! The man making our crepes was extremely friendly as well!

We got back to our hotel around midnight, and I don’t even remember what happened after that. I was so exhausted, I must have fallen asleep before my head even hit the pillow!

Today, the only thing I have planned is the Musee d’Orsay. I’m jonesing for some French impressionist paintings. I’d actually like to go to the Musee de l’art moderne, but we really don’t have time. There are lots of other things I’d like to do as well, but I don’t want our last day here to be packed with things to do. As I’ve said before, the best part of enjoying a city is to relax and not have much planned. 

Paris is truly an incredible city. Simply sitting in a cafe, eating good food, and having good conversation is probably the most fun you’ll ever have. 

Posted: Paris, Vacation

J’adore Paris0

It was pretty late when we got to our hotel in Paris on Wednesday. We had to take 3 trains to get here from the Eurostar station. We did pretty well navigating the Metro system. Thank god we already had experience with the Tube, or I’m sure we’d still be trying to get here! The room is SO nice- at least compared to that coffin we were in before. Let’s just put it this way- the bathroom is about the size of our entire room in London! And we can watch CNN in English, which is pretty nice. After we got settled, I jumped into the shower because I felt disgusting, and Kyle went out to find food. He came back with two tomato and cheese panini and a bottle of wine. Yum! There are restaurants, cafes, patisseries, boulangeries, etc., EVERYWHERE! It’s insane! We’ll never have to worry about not finding a place to eat. It’s wonderful.

Yesterday was our first whole day in Paris. It’s really hard to believe we’re here. It’s so incredibly charming. The first thing we did was find a patisserie and got some pain au chocolate and espresso. We found a bench and ate our breakfast while doing some people watching. The pain au chocolate was ridiculously delicious. There are no words to describe how good it was. Next, we walked to the Tour Eiffel, and found a spot along the Seine to chill out for awhile. The Tour Eiffel is so much bigger than I expected. It’s quite a beast. We soon crossed the Seine and took a stroll to the Arc de Triumph, and then we walked down the Champs Elysses. We found a chocolatier, and Kyle had another espresso and I had some Sorbet peche (peach sorbet). It was so good! It was so fresh and natural tasting! Next, we walked to a nearby park to figure out what we were going to do next. Then, all of a sudden it started raining, so we ran to the nearest Metro station. We decided to go to our hotel for awhile, and then go out again. But we were so exhausted, and our feet hurt so bad that we decided to stay in for the rest of the night. We realized that we had been on the go since we arrived in London, and that we needed to take a much needed break. We stopped at a market and got a baguette, brie, cookies, wine and water, and then headed back to our hotel. The wine, by the way, was cheaper than the water we got- and it was just as good as a $15-$20 bottle we get back in California! We spent the rest of the night pigging out on bread and cheese and watching The Tudors. It was really nice. 

We only have 2 and a half days left in Paris so we have to make them count. I think today we’ll go to Notre Dame and Ste Chappelle, and then tomorrow we can go to the Louvre. There are lots of other things I’d like to see, but I’ve found that the best way to enjoy a city is just to walk around and soak everything up. 

I’m actually having fun with French. The people here are so nice! In fact, I think Parisians are even nicer than Londoners! I’m trying really hard to use French when we’re out, but they seem to have no problem using English with me. I’m starting to remember all sorts of words too. It’s funny, Kyle is really scarred when we’re out. He always makes me order for him! It’s cute. He’s getting better though. I made him order the baguette yesterday, and he did just fine.

Well, I’m going to take a shower so we can go out! A bientot!

Posted: Paris, Vacation