6 posts tagged “friends”

At the bottom of the sidebar on the right you'll find a recently-created list of the blogs I follow. Most of them are my friends, but some are blogs whose content I have occasionally found to be interesting or useful.

Andy** - Andy is traveling around the world in two years. Track his progress by reading his blog, which is full of anecdotes, observations, photos, and sometimes movies.

Angie* - Concise posts with interesting links.

Cecilia* - the adorable daughter of this guy.

Christina** - "Life in the Real World" described by a fellow twenty-something and UI grad out on the East Coast.

Claire*** - In French. Updated with photos and posts about our life as UC Berkeley students.

Emily - A former (I no longer play, but she does) fellow violinist who does fun things and travels.

Hippo - Basically, Hippo does what I do. Except for when I don't have time to update...

Jayne* - A law student at The University of Iowa. Expect wit, acute observations, humor, and a recipe for a mixed drink here and there.

Jerry*** - I've mentioned him before.

Moana*** - Posts about food and life in the United States as a UC Berkeley student. In French.

Ransom* - Not sure how to describe this blog accurately. Sorry. I like reading it, though.

Sam - Photography from a guy with some pretty sweet cameras with surprises from time to time.

Zach* - Currently blogging about the top 20 albums of 2007.

Happy reading!

* I know this person from being in Quiz Bowl at the U of I ^

** I know this person through my involvement with The 10,000 Hours Show, which originated in Iowa City but is now divided into 10K Eastern Iowa, 10K Central Iowa, 10K Madison, and--I believe--something called 10K USA or 10K National.

*** I know this person from UC Berkeley ^

^ Chances are that the person is funny, articulate, wicked smart, and knows how to program.

On Friday, I went to Mountain View to visit my friend Greg.  At the NASA Ames Research Center, I got to see the cab that all astronauts practice in before they ever actually go on a real shuttle, saw the 'Marscape' that was made to resemble the Mars landscape, and saw how big the world's largest wind tunnel actually is.  Here are some pictures:

The world's largest wind tunnel

Here is one side of the ginormous wind tunnel.  Can you find me?  In the same picture, that face has doors that open up to let planes in and out.  Holy cow, was it humongous!  I wasn't even standing close to it, or else you probably wouldn't have been able to see me!

Afterwards, we drove from Mountain View to Santa Cruz.  The drive was amazing.  Seeing huge, rolling hills covered with towering redwood trees while driving on windy, twisty roads created an overwhelming sense that nature--not man--is the dominating force on this planet, the way that everyone should feel.  It was truly gorgeous, but it's hard to explain.  I was too busy staring open-mouthed and reveling in the beauty to take pictures, but if you're ever in California, the Santa Cruz mountains are definitely worth visiting.

Once we were at Santa Cruz, we went to the beach just as it became dusk, and walked around on the boardwalk.  Here were some sea lions under a pier at the beach:

Sea lions

This is what they sounded like:

The next day, we drove through San Francisco, which was pretty foggy, and then to Santa Rosa, where the landscape began to change but was still pretty.  On our way back from Santa Rosa, we stumbled across a chaotic-looking farm of animals, which I think was either a ranch or nursery for geese, sheep, Brahmas, and an emu.  The man running the place let Greg and I have big loaves of old bread to feed the animals, and it ended up being a lot of fun.  Here are pictures:

Then we drove back to San Francisco and ate dinner on the pier before Greg and I drove to Berkeley to drop me off before he headed back to Mountain View.

Something really cool that I like about being in California: being able to pick juicy plums from trees and plump, sweet blackberries from bushes on the sides of sidewalks and streets to eat.  It's so amazing.  The weather here is also fantastic.  No bugs, crisp and chilly in the mornings and evenings, sunny and clear in the middle of the day.  Also, I now have a bike (thanks to Greg!), so I can go exploring further and faster than the few miles I can walk every day before getting tired.  I hope everyone is doing well!  I hear Iowa is pretty hot and humid...

I think this spring break was the first of my undergraduate years that I didn't spend working or doing work in Iowa City.  Was it worth it?  Yes.  Breaks are almost always worth it--they're good for you mentally and physically, although I wish I could follow my own advice sometimes.  But back to spring break. 

[edit 3.29.2007]: I was feeling kind of down when I wrote this post, so I apologize if it didn't sound like I had too good of a time.  So... I went to New York City to visit my friend Sharon, who I hadn't seen in almost 5 years.  She's probably one of the sweetest, cutest people I know and I can't believe how much of an awesome tour guide and super gracious hostess she was.  No wait, I can.  She's just that great.  On top of that, I got to see my friend Jace, who I haven't seen in awhile.  Touring one of the most famous cities in the world with amiable company was such a memorable way to spend spring break, and here are some details of my trip.

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I Left Cedar Rapids and flew to Chicago.  Then I flew from Chicago to NYC.  Above is the view from the airplane on the second leg of the trip.

I arrived at LaGuardia Airport and waited for Jace, who was also flying from Iowa to visit Sharon.  We three met at a summer camp in 2002 (how cute, huh?) and have kept in touch ever since.  I'm not joking when I say I only like keeping in touch with the good ones.  Such good people.

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We ended up going to Cafeteria for dinner, and I had their mac and cheese.  It was pretty yummy.

That night, we hung out at two of Sharon's friend's places--Adam's and Joe's.  Then we all (a group about 8) went out to a bar that was playing cool music like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah instead of the typical crappy hip-hop you'd find in most of the bars around here.  There were a couple of guys in the back of the bar saying funny things (hmm, at the time?) like "Hey, gimme your scarf... I wanna be a metrosexual too!"

Day Two:

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Time for some pretty touristy stuff.  Or maybe not.  We got bagels and coffee from Murray's Bagels, then walked to the Flatiron District to eat in the park and see the famous Flatiron building.

Then we did a bit of walking around and saw a lot of famous buildings and areas, from Rockefeller Center to the Trump Tower and the Apple Store on Fifth Ave. 

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Then we went to Central Park--it was such a beautiful day.  These were elm trees specially picked for the park, I learned from Sharon.  I learned a lot from Sharon when I was in New York.  Anyways, I thought the trees were pretty awesome.

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Next, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes part of an Egyptian pyramid and the Temple of Dendur.  This is inside of the room where the Temple of Dendur was housed. 

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This is where we took a two hour break to sit down and talk, and I took a picture of our shoes...

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On our way out of the museum, we caught some street performers who put on a pretty good act.  Above is a photo from when they were collecting money and said: "...do not be intimidated by the size of these bags."

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Later, we walked through Times Square and Jace noticed this funny and clever combination of billboards.

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That night, we stood in line to get free tickets to an Upright Citizens Brigade show.  We ended up getting them (they're limited, hence the line), and it ended up being a really funny show to end the night well.  I would recommend trying to catch a show if you're ever in New York City and enjoy improv comedy.



Day Three:

The next morning, we went to a place called Café Grumpy for coffee.  The face that they had for a logo was pretty sweet:

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Then we walked around quite a bit, just seeing different areas in the city, and eventually ended up in the financial district.  We saw Ground Zero of the World Trade Center attacks, which is still under construction.  Sharon also took us to two different spots where we were able to see the Statue of Liberty and have a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge.  This is where it's awesome to know history as a tourist, because you can get more out of your trip and appreciate the significance of certain things.  I learned this when I was in Europe, although there's just so much that I'll never know!

When we got back to Sharon's apartment, she took us up to the roof of her apartment building, which had a great view.  Again, such a gracious hostess!

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That night, we went to eat dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant that was classy and sit-down, yet had a dj spinning dance music up high behind the back wall of the dinner area... haha.  After Jace took this picture, the dj gave us a peace sign.  I also took a macro shot of the candle at our table because I thought it was pretty...

Day Four:

We went to the Museum of Natural History, where there were impressive exhibits for mammals (with big elephants), rocks (with real asteroids), and reconstructed dinosaur skeletons.  I was really happy and pretty excited when I found the dinosaur that I did a project and report on in 2nd grade, the Dimetrodon:

Dimetrodon!

 

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Then, we stopped by Billy's Bakery for yummy cupcakes and Stella's for delicious slices of pizza.

Yummy.




This was also our last day in the city with Sharon... sad.  But she needed to have a spring break of her own, too, and Jace and I had to take separate flights to our next destinations.  Here was the sunset on clouds as I was flying out from New York City and back to Chicago:

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This is my friend’s webcomic that makes me laugh a lot.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

Happy New Year's!

edit [1.06.2006]: some of my favorites are #'s 9, 16, 29, and 76