i.heart.marble.runs.

While i may not have mentioned it here, i've become seriously addicted to building marble towers. My little friend T has a few boxes of these fantastic quadrilla marble run kits, and after a brief period of avoidance (i admit, i was slightly intimidated), i've now fallen head over heels in love. Not only do i love planning out and building these towers, but all three kids (3.5, 5.5, 7.5) can quite literally spend hours entertaining themselves. This is definitely one of those hard-to-tire-of toys that can be rebuilt in endless configurations. I think my "play" teacher would approve.

back.to.school.

School started back up on september 2nd, and the most exciting part was seeing my friends again. After spending a significant amount of time together each week, i was going through child life friend withdrawal for the past four months! In terms of school stuff, the classes themselves will be interesting, but the internship is the real learning part. Due to a scheduling change, i now have classes three nights a week; tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. This means that my internship hours will happen monday nights, many friday nights, and a lot of weekends. This weekend, for example, i'm working saturday from 2pm to 2am, and sunday from 6pm-2am. While the late nights might make some people yawn, my night-owlish tendencies will complement it nicely. It's also the time when it's busiest. Plus, i'll have time to work during the day (for $, as opposed to the free work i'm doing at the hospital). To date, i've "worked" two shifts in the emergency department (ED) and love it. My supervisor seems like a perfect match for my learning style, and i've already picked up several tricks that will be useful once i have a real job. This internship will nicely round out my past internships in radiology and inpatient care, and give me a fairly broad range of experiences. Perfect!

cape.cod.

My parents and sister were down at the cape for a whole week. Unfortunately, kevin and i had to work, so just joined them for the weekend. Luckily, the weather was beautiful, and we had a fantastic time! As should always be the case, our first stop (after settling in) was the beach.

After a swim and some sun, we walked home and found this little guy hopping around the yard. Bunnies have always been one of my favorite things about the cape. Hi peter!

That night, the kids were dropped off at the (no reservations and long wait) restaurant in order to secure a table. We had a couple of drinks, and won $10 on a scratch ticket that paid for most of our drinks. Score!

Sunday morning brought more great weather and golf for my dad and the three of us. Of the four of us, our dad was the only one who'd ever played golf before. That meant he was the lucky duck who got to teach us! He was a great sport even though we were, eh, challenging students! With a little nurturing, kevin could give our dad a run for his money.

The temperature was a little cool for the beach, so we opted for a trip to the wellfleet flea market which takes place in the drive-in parking lot. After some dinner and a few games of yahtzee, cribbage, and cards, kevin and i made the drive back to boston. Luckily, the way back was an expected 1.5 hours- not the three hours it took us to get there!

champ.a.damper.

KillerB posted this on the hose. Jen and i just watched it and were both laughing so hard we cried. I had to post it here too.

big.shirl's.big.party.

Ever since the fandango puppets came out, shirley wanted to have a puppet making birthday party. Her husband asked if she was five, but still she persevered, and this was the year. If you couldn't already tell, it was a huge hit. Below, jessica and shirl work hard on their puppets.

I started early, so was able to make two puppets. The girl was my first attempt. I think she came out well, but she was definitely a primer for my creative juices. I love my pimp, particularly his chest hair, gold chain, earring, and toothpick. What a stud.

Here we have them all lined up, ready for a picture.

After filling myself to the brim with the delicious treats, we played some guitar hero. I hadn't played in forever, and remembered how much i love it. People came and went throughout the afternoon and evening- here's the group that was left at 7pm.

So much fun! Great food, great drink, and great company! Happy birthday big shirl!

beatles.

The b's went back to hong kong on august 6th- one day after they left last year. This time was much easier for everyone- in part because it had been done before, but also because they will be back for christmas. Regardless, i wasn't happy about it, so was glad to have an activity to do with my sister that evening. Earlier in the day, my mom had called and offered us tickets to see paul mccartney at fenway. Fantastic! I remembered seventh grade when my parents went to see him. I was jealous, particularly of the t-shirt my dad picked up. So, we took the bus down and found our seats behind home plate. We made a quick stop at the food stand where we opted for the $4 ice cream instead of the $9 beer. Soft serve twist in a cake cone- my favorite.

Soon the other seats filled up. We had an assortment of characters surrounding us. Notice the family in the bottom right- they all have orange ear plugs. We also had several older patrons who entertained us with their singing and dancing.

It started to get dark, and we could see the stage better. I can't stress how cool it was to see him and hear all the beatles songs in fenway park- definitely better than a typical concert hall or something.

Here are the remnants of the fireworks. They shot out from the stage, and the top of the roof. I like the citgo sign in the background!

Now that kevin has a grown up job and lives in the city, we got him to meet us afterwards for a drink. Here's a picture of the two of them- both looking their best.

So mom, thank you very much for giving us these tickets, and dad- thank you very much for giving them up. We don't think you would have liked it very much anyway.

house.stuff.

During their few weeks stay, the b's bought a vermont house. Super exciting. Since they plan to head up there when they're back for christmas, a. spent her entire two weeks buying furniture, linens, and other house stuff. Since i wasn't working for much of her stay, i tagged along with her and the girls. On one trip to jordan's for mattresses, e found this comfy therma rest. It wasn't out with the rest of the beds, but in its own little room complete with artwork, a tv, and a soothing starlit ceiling. The other two joined us, and as we all discussed how comfortable the bed was, a "sleep technician" asked if we wanted the presentation. We spent the next ten minutes in a dark room with a soothing voice/video presentation selling us on the therma rest. There was even coordinated bed movements. I almost fell asleep.

bee.

Even though i'm back in the states, i haven't felt like i've had much down time. The b's have been here the whole time (they leave tomorrow, boo), so when i haven't been working, i've been hanging out with them. This coming weekend kevin and i are driving down to the cape to meet my parents and julie for the weekend. Kevin and i will be there just for saturday and sunday, the rest of them will be there for a week. The following weekend i'll be in nyc. If evil hadn't skipped out, it could have been a good chance to meet up with the hose folks to give killerb his prize from china. As it stands, i'll be seeing "billy elliot" (which is supposed to be fantastic) with my aunt, and potentially heading to the hamptons on sunday for a two day visit with friends. Before i know it, school will be starting, and my internship will take up any remaining free time. If i hadn't spent two months bumming around in asia, i might be overwhelmed.

relationship.trouble.

Though it's a little premature, i've been spending a lot of time debating between cars. My favorite little jetta, vivian, has been giving me some trouble recently, and i'm hoping she can hang in there until september of 2010 when i'll be in a better position to buy a new one. Vivian only has 80,000 miles on her, but is 9.5 years old and it's starting to show. Though i've loved her, i haven't loved the cost of fixing a vw, and have been feeling pressure to make my next car more worry free. This means a more "generic" car, ie- a honda, nissan, or (mechanic pete's favorite) a toyota. I have nothing against these cars, and find their reliability and low cost of repair very comforting. However, i wouldn't be excited about one of these, and would see it simply as a way to get from one place to another. My relationship with my jetta, problems and all, has been exciting from day one. I love driving her. Love how she looks, feels, pretty much everything about her. It makes me sad to think about settling for a car that wouldn't give me the same feeling. Plus, in a real relationship, aren't we supposed to choose true love over the safe choice?

That being said, i wouldn't go for another vw. My current car of choice would be a saab. Specifically, a 9-3 in either fusion blue metallic or carbon grey metallic. Though it would cost me more in the long run (and the short, i'm sure) i think it would be worth it. Plus, according to pete, the saab is less trouble/cost than the vw, so it would feel like an improvement to me no matter what.

navigation.

I hung out with the girls for the two days that they couldn't arrange other coverage. One of those days we invited my mom in and decided to do something we'd been talking about for years. We took the T downtown, each of them picked a place they wanted to go to, and using a map, they had to get us there. L. was up first, and really took to the idea. Looking at street signs and navigating the map, she got us to the public gardens for the obligatory ice cream (from the ducklings soft serve truck) and our yearly ride on the swan boats (just in time to see all the little babies on their island!).

M. brought us to faneuil hall for some quality street performers and a trip through the shopping areas.

and to finish the day off, e. brought us back (navigating from memory as opposed to actually reading the map) to the common for a swim in the frog pond and some water color painting.

forth.o.july.

Andrea and i have a long tradition of hanging out on the forth. This year was no different. We packed a picnic, and trekked over to larz anderson park. The food was delicious (as you might surmise from this picture...)

and the location was also ideal...

Afterwards, we went back to her porch, and waited for it to get dark. In hong kong, it stays light until 7pm, and then gets pitch black in about 15 minutes. In boston (on july 4th), it's light out until 8:30ish. I was so tired (since i'd been home for all of 31 hours) we had to light the sparklers a little early. We managed to go through six boxes, and had a great time of it. Here's an action shot to finish things off.

random.stanley.

This is one of the four dehumidifiers in the house. As you can see, it's about half full. They need to be emptied twice a day, or we all suffocate.

I'm standing in front of the entrance to the house, and that's the beach straight ahead. Nice.

Another view from the roof on a very cooperative weather day. Yay for no haze!

You can often find snails or slugs hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the garage entrance. This is no small fellow either, he's about the size of a key lime.

And finally, one more picture from my favorite place, stanley main street. It's so clear you can even see some of the outlying islands!

light.show.

Finally uploaded all my hong kong photos to my computer at home, so thought i'd throw in some quick posts recapping things i never mentioned.

Hong kong has a nightly "light show" that occurs at 8pm on the kowloon and hong kong island sides of the water. Yes, it's touristy, but it was one of the few things i had left to do. So, during my last week there, i met a. at work, and we took the mtr to the kowloon side, hung out in a bar, and watched the show. Happy i did it, but far from amazing. Here are a couple pictures.

Though the wine was tasty, we decided to try some place else for dinner, so went to one of their favorite restaurants, yung kee, in central. It's apparently known as one of the most famous cantonese restaurants in the area, and didn't let me down! For those of you who like the leftover food pictures, here's another one.

I ate the rest of the prawns on the bus ride home (a. had to go back to work) even though food and drink are not allowed. Soooo delicious!

new.nano.

As i've mentioned on facebook, a. and i have been doing the p90-x workouts. Though i hated them at first, now that i can do them (and can feel the difference in my muscles), i love them. My nano died over there, which gave me the excuse to get a new one (that has video capabilities, thus allowing me to bring the workouts home with me). I sat at the store and looked at all the color options. My definite favorite was the green, but since my old one was the same color, i had to mix it up a bit. I finally settled on the blue one, added the videos, and brought it to the gym the morning of my flight. It was an "arms and shoulders" day, and despite a.'s crazy memory, she couldn't remember some of the exercises. After using the nano to review, she was very impressed, and decided she would buy her own. This morning, i woke up at 10:30am and checked my email. Seven minutes earlier, a. had sent an email asking for help getting the videos onto her new nano. After talking her through it, i asked what color she chose, and she said blue. 

"Oh!" i said, "we're twins!"

"What?" she asked.

"We're twins," i repeated, "mine's blue too."

Apparently she'd also really wanted the green one, but thinking that was the color i had, thought it would be better to keep things less confusing, and went with blue. So now we both have our second choice color, and have to keep them straight to boot!

home.again.home.again.

Jiggity jig. Here are a few random things that relate to home.

1. My flight was a bit rougher than my flight to hong kong. I flew through san francisco, and due to the fantastic boson weather, ended up at the airport for 5.5 hours. What made this painful was the fact that i was there (and trying to stay awake) from what was 2:30-8am hong kong time. Were i on a plane, i'd have been able to nap a bit. Though i have never really been able to sleep, a few 15 min cat naps seem to work wonders for me, and limit any potential jet lag. I finally got to boston around 1:30am, and wrestled with all the other delayed passengers for luggage before meeting up with my wonderful parents (who refused to let me take a cab home!).

2. Thanks to facebook, i knew the boston weather had been crappy for about 5 weeks straight. Since i had adjusted to temps in the 90's, super strong sun (and the resulting tan despite being religious with 55 spf sunscreen), and high humidity, i was a little concerned with coming back to the cold wet weather. I bundled up in fleece, pants, socks, etc. for the flight, so when i emerged in the middle of the night, i wasn't as freezing as i thought i might be. I was still cold though.

3. I think it's funny how everything that used to be familiar looks so strange after being away for so long. Roads, houses, colors, etc. Everything seemed darker to me, except the green stuff. That seemed much lusher and brighter, though that's likely because of the previously mentioned weather.

4. Smells again. The smells of houses and cars were so strong and obvious to me after coming back. The scents must be filed away in the memory somewhere. I think this is the case for most people too- not just connected to my strong sniffer.

5. Hong kongers drive on the other side of the road. I didn't drive while i was there, but i did spend a considerable amount of time in cabs, on buses, and with p. in the car. My impulse quickly became to drive rotaries in a clockwise direction, and to take soft rights and hard lefts. Vivian (my car) stayed with my parents while i was gone. This was so they could have an extra car should kevin or julie be around and need to drive. Because my parents are saints (which must make me one too, right?) they had vivian's clutch replaced and her oil changed while i was gone. Driving a car with a new clutch when your old one was really bad takes some getting used to. So, while driving home for the first time this morning, i had to consistently remind myself that i didn't want to die. Shift, soft left, counterclockwise at the rotary.

6. I spent the afternoon weeding the garden. It was ridiculous. I never got around to planting all the veggies, but did completely clean out the vegetable garden. The entire thing was jam packed with weeds that reached mid- thigh. It took quite a while to tame it down. Thanks rain. Though it's too late to plant from seeds, i'm hoping to find some plants somewhere and hopefully get some tomatoes (etc) going for early fall. 

7. The weather today was my idea of perfect. 83 F, 0% humidity, sunny, with a very light breeze. I could handle this all the time.

birthday.trip!

P. and the girls went back to boston a week ago. When i bought my tickets (about, um....four months ago now), they weren't sure of their plans. If i'd know they were heading back early, i probably wouldn't have stayed so much longer. Luckily, they didn't decide this until i was already here, so i ended up with ten days just with a. This past weekend, she took me to macau for my birthday, and it was fantastic. The little that i'd heard/read about macau suggested that it was primarily for gambling, etc. Since i've never been a huge fan of casinos, i probably wouldn't have otherwise gone here. As it turns out, this was one of my favorite places of my entire trip. Because of its portuguese background, it has a very european feel but with some asian mixed in. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we grabbed our umbrellas (since it was raining cats and dogs, much like i hear the weather in boston has been) and set out for senado square, the ruins of saint paul's cathedral, and the a-ma temple. 

Senado square- look how amazing the streets are!

Ruins of st. paul's cathedral.

We stopped and ate lunch at (what turned out to be) a well known hand rolled noodle place. I ate something which i now can't remember the name for- a very tasty porridgy type soup. I think it began with a g. Here are our leftovers (my "g" stuff is in the bottom right corner):

Continuing on, we ate samples of two of their well known foods- jerky and almond cookies, and then watched a man making the cookies. (He takes this really crumbly mix, then forces it in moulds before tipping them out for cooking):

After the rain picked up and thoroughly drenched us, we went looking for flip flops (we both had on leather sandals). A. found a pair of giraffe print crocs (ballet style), and my big feet and i had to stay wet (though the people insisted that size 8 was okay for me). While the rain could have been a huge bummer, we just laughed and laughed at the hilariousness of it all, and decided to put off the a-ma temple until the next morning. Instead, we headed back to the hotel, changed, and took a cab to coloane (on the other side of macau) for dinner at fernando's, a great portuguese place. Typically one must wait in this courtyard for about an hour until being seated.

Our timing and the weather helped us out on this front, and we were seated right away. After stuffing ourselves with fish, portuguese salad, bread, prawns, pork ribs, and sangria, we rolled ourselves back to our room and crashed. Here are the leftovers.

The next morning, we woke up early and  worked out in the gym. Then we showered, dressed, and sweated our way down to the a-ma temple (which was super neat and goes way up a hill- not like most temples which are in one building).

Then it was a brief a/c break in a cab back to coloane to check out the a-ma cultural village and the a-ma statue. This was all on one of the highest (or the highest) hill/mountain in macau, and was a very windy drive up- good thing we weren't walking. Luckily, there was a little breeze up there which helped dry our clothes slightly. Both sites were also great. 

After finishing and realizing that we weren't far from fernando's, we voted to return for lunch, having an entirely different meal (except for the sangria, of course- can't pass that up). This time i got the entire experience- waiting in the courtyard, drinking our sangria, and waiting to be seated. After a leisurely lunch (during which time it rained and then stopped), we walked to the "black sand" beach, stuck our feet in, and decided to walk the length of it to a nearby hotel where we grabbed "coke lights." 


With an hour before our 6:30 departure time, we cabbed it back to the hotel, snuck into the gym, and sat in the sauna for 15 mins before showering and heading out. Not only was it another great mini-vacation, but also a great time to get some rare alone time together.

multicultural.question.

I should preface this entry by mentioning that i have an overly sensitive nose. Even when i was a kid, i could tell when an aunt was over because i could smell her perfume....from the opposite end of the house, and on different floors. People used to tell me that i should be a professional smeller, but alas, this talent has gone largely unused. It does come in handy from time to time, though i haven't practiced my identification abilities as much as the actual smelling ones. Anyway..

I've been in hong kong for a while now- almost 7 weeks. During this time, i've smelt lots of things. One thing in particular that really turns my stomach is the smell of asian men's sweat. Not b.o., but a slightly sweet/vinegary smell that's purely from the sweat glands. I don't know if this is a universal asian male thing, or if it has to do with the climate, food eaten, etc. Does anyone have any input? I'm wondering if this is something that other people pick up on, or if it's just due to my oversensitive nose. Thank you.

shenzhen.

Remember all my stress about getting a chinese visa? Well, i got one (with the multiple entry i was so sure i needed), and until today- one week before i leave for boston- i hadn't used it. Silly, really. I decided i had to at least cross the border once, and since my free time is now limited, i took off for shenzhen today. Shenzhen is a 60 minute train ride from central- nothing big. You go through departure/immigration/customs there, then you're free to shop in the cheap shopping mecca. I've heard mixed reviews from many people about shenzhen. Some love it, others not so much. I'd been forewarned about the hassling there- people grabbing your arm to pull you in their store, calling out "missy! missy!", but that's just part of the experience, plus i became an expert on this form of sales while in southeast asia. The only difference there is that they call out "lady! lady!". 

My trip was doomed from the start. Thinking it would be easier that switching trains three times (which turned out to be incredibly easy), i took the ferry across to hung hom, planning to walk from the ferry pier to the mtr station, thereby only needing to take one train. I left a.'s office, and just missed one ferry. 20 minutes later, a second ones comes, which i get on. During the 10 minute ride, it starts to rain. Great- i have no umbrella because the weather said no rain. Disembarking on the kowloon side, i realize that the mtr station is further from the pier than i thought, and i have no umbrella to walk it with. Grrrr. After a 15 minute wait, i'm back on the ferry returning to central. One hour and 20 minutes after leaving her office, i walk right through it again to get on the mtr at central. The next 60 minutes of transit go remarkably smoothly, and i arrive at the border ready to go. Next up was customs. Now, i've been going back and forth through customs and immigration quite frequently, and have become very adept at filling out my H1N1 form and arrival/departure card. I even have my passport number memorized! But this was a whole new experience. I didn't have a pen with me, which put me at a serious disadvantage from the get go. So i was waiting in lines of pushy chinese people (sorry evil, but they're very pushy!!), trying to use one of the two pens available for filling out forms. I had to fill out the H1N1 form twice- no clue why- and the whole process took me forever to complete. Once i walked out the door of the train station, the hassling began. At first it was just like in cambodia- someone would attach themself to you and talk, talk, talk, while you either ignored them or repeated "no thank you!" as you walked away. I prefer the latter as i like to be friendly and represent my country well. This was effective outside the building, but once i got in, it was a different story. The five floors of the mall were literally packed with little shops, and their owners (or workers) stood outside, grabbing your arms and trying to pull you in. There were so many people continuously calling "missy! missy!" that i wasn't able to give them my "no thank you!" and smile. I was completely overwhelmed and annoyed (my sister julie would have freaked out big time). To add to all this, my atm card wouldn't work here, so i couldn't withdraw any chinese money. Therefore, if i wanted to buy anything, i would have to charge it.  What's the point of charging a $3 pair of earphones? So i walked through the entire place, yanking my arms out of their grasp, and went straight for the train station. Another headache getting through customs, and i was on the train headed back for hong kong. I grabbed a gin and tonic at dinner before meeting up with a. for the cab ride home. That made me feel much better.

lamma.island.

Today i took a trip to lamma, the third largest island of hong kong. It's cute and little, with some poor villages, and lots of hiking paths. I took the ferry into yung shue wan, and walked the 1hr 20 min "family trail" to sok kwu wan. While the views were fantastic and the sky was bright blue and sunny, it was hot hot hot, with a ridiculously high humidity level. I was drenched within minutes, and reconsidered my original plan of a second 2 hour circle hike from sok kwy wan. Luckily for me, i decided to do it. I was already soaked, and would otherwise have 3 hours to kill before the ferry left. Though paved as well, this was a harder hike than the first one, going up and down steep hills, often using stairs to help out. But the views were incredible, and since it was a weekday (and no normal person would hike in this weather) i had the whole place to myself. I made it back to sok kwu wan with an hour to spare, just enough time to enjoy a fantastic lunch- steamed grouper, alive when i ordered it. Definitely the best fish i've ever had!

Part of lamma from the trail.

The perfect beach. I want this to be mine.

Me. Being hot. Very hot.

Pink flower. It rained in the morning (before i got there) and then became the clearest day i've seen here. I like the raindrops on the petals.

A weirdo looking flower.

I guess there wasn't really anything to show this guy to scale, but he was pretty big! If you look close (on my screen, at least), you can see his web. There were a bunch of them on the trails in lamma.

A village.

Bananas!!! Growing in a real banana tree!!

My lunch- aka, the most fantastically tasty and fresh fish i've ever eaten. I want another one. Growl, growl.

Boats in the sea where i ate lunch.

Rainbow restaurant- my lunch stop.