here.to.here

new.blog.

2010-08-13T15:19:00.000-04:00

i.heart.marble.runs.

2009-09-18T22:33:00.003-04:00

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.

2009-09-16T22:10:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-09-01T08:38:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-08-27T17:53:00.004-04:00

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.

2009-08-26T09:12:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-08-23T11:38:00.001-04:00

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.

2009-08-22T10:12:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-08-05T22:38:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-08-01T15:45:00.007-04:00

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.

2009-07-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-07-25T11:29:00.004-04:00

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.

2009-07-25T11:15:00.003-04:00

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.

2009-07-25T10:51:00.004-04:00

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.

2009-07-03T20:15:00.004-04:00

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.

2009-07-03T19:09:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-06-29T05:12:00.010-04:00

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.

2009-06-26T05:10:00.003-04:00

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.

2009-06-25T08:00:00.008-04:00

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.

2009-06-24T19:45:00.005-04:00

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.

spa.day.

2009-06-22T05:58:00.004-04:00

The girls got out of school while i was off gallivanting in malaysia, cambodia, and thailand. They were therefore in prime form for some activities during the day. Since l. had received a pedicure set for her birthday, the three of them planned a "spa day" to which i was the number one guest. They had their bathroom all set up with supplies. It looked like this:

First up was my pedicure. I sat on the edge of the bathtub with my feet in warm scented water. Since i'd just had my nails painted, l. used her pumice stone to scrub the bottoms of my feet, and then gave me a great foot massage before slipping a pair of socks on my feet. That looked like this:

From here, i moved to the nail station where m. washed and patted my hands. After allowing me to choose lotion, she massaged my hands before applying a base coat, and top coat of nail polish. That looked like this:

After the pedi/mani, i was brought to the massage section for a full body massage. M. was again in charge, and let me tell you- her little hands have quite a lot of strength to them! When i told her she could have a future as a masseuse, she asked it she'd make a lot of money. I told her she should keep her options opened. Here she goes:

After the massage, it was on to hair and makeup. This was e.'s area of expertise. After being told that she had to keep it light (if she didn't want me washing my face before going out for the day), she settled on some neutral beige and browns. The end product was actually surprisingly well done! (The glitterish stuff in the picture was not dusted in at time of photo.) It looked like this:

The hair situation also went better than expected (despite the pulling and pinching), though i do look like a seven year old here:

All in all, spa day was a success. I'm hoping to schedule another one when i'm back in the states.

battle.of.the.wills.

2009-06-21T00:10:00.002-04:00

Here e. is at the kitchen counter next to the bowl of noodles she insisted she wanted. She slept for a little bit before waking up crying.

my.birthday!

2009-06-20T23:48:00.004-04:00

My travel plans were specifically scheduled with birthdays in mind- mine and the two oldest girls. Not wanting to be alone in southeast asia for my birthday, i made it back to hong kong late the night before. In the morning, i was served pancakes and my latte before spending most of the day by the pool with the girls. We took walks down to stanley market in the afternoon, and p. allowed me to choose dinner that night (roasted chicken, green beans, and a newish concoction- a tapas type dish with chorizo, potatoes, and onions. Mmmmm.). A. brought home a selection of cakes from mandarin oriental, the perfect conclusion to the meal! For my birthday present, a.'s taking me to macau for the weekend when the girls and p. are back in the states. I can't wait!

My birthday cakes!

conclusion.

2009-06-20T23:13:00.002-04:00

My goodness, it's been far too long since i've updated this poor neglected blog! Busy, busy, busy. First of all, here's a link where you can check out my pictures from the trip. I uploaded them all to facebook, and am not inclined to spend the time posting them here, so if you're interested- check them out here.

The rest of my trip was fantastic. After i left off with my last post, i made it to the airport and flew the one hour flight to bangkok without incident. I made it to my guesthouse and was happy to find the "boutique" review of the place was dead on. Teak floors and beams in a beautiful old building with a cute little coffee/bakery place at the entrance. Jaesun, the new friend i'd met in siem reap (and toured the temples with) had arrived in bangkok a couple of days before me, and we'd discussed meeting up for the day on monday. We managed to find each other at the train station and (along with another new friend briana), took the train 1.5 hours to ayuthaya, where we found more temple ruins, and i took an elephant ride!! Returning to bangkok by 3pm, we walked through chinatown, grabbed dinner at a noodle place, and found some markets to peruse. Briana returned to her guesthouse, and jaesun and i took the ferry up the river (snapping photos of wat arun, etc. at night), and then walked through banglamphu- the "backpacker" area. The rain (which it appears to do in the evening for a few hours) made everything feel cleaner and gave my photos a nice light.

Tuesday morning, i got going early to see wat arun and wat pho (two more well known of the hundreds of temples). They were interesting, particularly wat pho, which contained the reclining buddha. It was HUGE. I met up with jaesun after finishing the temples and we saw the grand palace and grounds. The only word i have for this is "glittery." The amount of effort that must have gone into (and still go into) creating and maintaining these grounds is staggering. Though the admission price was steep, it was worth seeing.

One note i'd share with anyone planning to visit this area, is that it's imperative that you physically go to the ticket counter in the grand palace to confirm if they're open or closed. I was told by three completely different people that the palace was closed to tourists because of a buddhist holiday. One of these men was a tuk tuk driver (and therefore trying to get us to pay him to take us to other sights), but the other two men were wearing official palace uniforms and were still trying to pass us off to tuk tuk drivers. DON'T LISTEN TO THEM!! Everything the guidebooks tell you about scams, etc, is true. Jerks. While tuk tuk's are the way to travel in cambodia, they're to be avoided in bangkok!

After the whirlwind morning, i took a quick shower before heading to the airport for my return to hong kong. I was safely in the house by 10pm, just two hours before my birthday (in this time zone, that is).

phnom.penh.

2009-06-14T02:14:00.002-04:00

After finding my hotel and doing some laundry, it was only 3pm, so i had some time to see the sights. My main goals were to go to the genocide museum, and do a walk around the riverfront, visiting the palace and temples. The genocide museum was further away and opened the latest (5:30pm), so i took a tuk tuk over there, planning to do the rest in the morning.
Before i started to plan this trip, i hadn't heard of the khmer rouge or their reign of torture and murder of 25% of the cambodian population between 1975 and 1978. Even having read about it since then, i was not prepared for how hard it would be to visit this museum. In 1975, the khmer rouge took over a school, and made it into a jail/torture/killing station of sorts. This building is now the museum, and looks very similar to how it was found in 1978 when the khmer rouge were run out, containing images, items, and descriptions of the experiences from that period. I felt physically sick being there, but read every last piece of information, and didn't leave until it closed two hours later. It's amazing to realize that this happened just 34 years ago, and has had a drastic negative impact on the entire country. After that emotional visit, i decided to pass on the killing fields, having seen enough of what these people went through.
Today (the next morning), i packed my things, and set off to tour the palace before seeing the temples in the area. I'd checked the timing, and knew the palace was open to visitors until 11am, and then from 2-5. Since i will be leaving at 2pm for the airport, i planned to go there first. Unfortunately for me, they were not allowing visitors due to a visiting diplomatic group. They'd shut down the entire street, and wouldn't allow anyone to take pictures. I managed to sneak a few before they caught me, but am bummed not to have made it inside the walls. Instead, i walked up to wat phnom- one of their famous temples- before making a stop at the post office and spending some time at the market. I'm very happy with my decision to stay an extra day in siem reap (and lose one here). The tourist attractions are limited here, and can be finished quickly. The orphanage definitely was the right use of my time!
Must run now- off to bangkok!

bus.ride!

2009-06-14T01:56:00.002-04:00

My original bus ticket from siem reap to phnom penh was for friday morning at 9:30. Since i was heading down a day late (and therefore missing a day in phnom penh), i figured i should take the 7:30am bus on saturday to make the most of my time in phnom penh. The guys at the guesthouse (where i booked and then changed my ticket) told me i'd be picked up at the guesthouse. What they didn't tell me was that i would be picked up at 7am. At 7am, i had just woken up, and was packing my stuff before heading down to breakfast. At 7:20, i went back to the room, used the bathroom, and brought my stuff down to check out. At 7:25, i gave them my key, and asked where i should wait. At 7:26, i was in a tuk tuk flying to the bus station, barely making the express bus to phnom penh.
The $10, six hour trip was more comfortable than i'd pictured. True, i'd splurged on first class which bought me air conditioning and a bathroom, but being a third world country, i'd anticipated much worse. It was rather bumpy at times, and i was awoken from my nap as my head bounced off the seat. It wasn't until we were 20 minutes away from phnom penh that the real action started. The air conditioning shut off, and the bus stopped. It became sweltering in about 30 seconds. After a few minutes, everyone got off and stood on the side of the road (which was shady, thank goodness). There was some mechanical problem, and we all watched as the literally pried a door off of the bus (must have been jammed). After 30 minutes, it was up and running, and we made it to phnom penh with a good story to tell.

house.of.peace.

2009-06-12T03:47:00.003-04:00

I was supposed to take a bus to phnom penh this morning at 9:30, but i couldn't leave! Since i hadn't booked my room in phnom penh yet, i just switched my bus ticket to tomorrow, and booked an extra night in the guesthouse here. I did this for two reasons. One, max has been volunteering at an orphanage here for two weeks (and has another one to go) and loves it. Obviously, i couldn't skip the temples yesterday, but really wanted to go spend a day at the orphanage. Two, i love siem reap, and love that i've made two friends who are fun to hang out with. If i left for phnom penh without visiting the orphanage, only to end up doing everything by myself, i'd be really sad. So here i am- back in the guesthouse after six hours with the adorable kids at the cambodia house of peace. I'm heading back around 4:30, but needed to tie up some loose ends on the travel front, and max takes a few hours break as well. I don't think i could have made better use of my time. It was unbelievable to see how this orphanage ran, and how happy and welcoming the children were. I was in charge of teaching time to a small group. We drew an analog clock on a board, and practice telling time- five minutes past six; fifteen minutes to three, etc. It was a great experience no doubt, and we even got to eat lunch with them- a tasty chicken, rice, cilantro, etc soup. All this means is that tomorrow, i have to get up early to catch the 7:30am bus ride down to phnom penh, where i'll have to squish everything in a little more!

i.heart.siem.reap.

2009-06-12T03:19:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was buuuuusy. Got up around 7 and grabbed breakfast downstairs before heading out to see the temples. I'd reserved a tuk tuk driver the day before, but was kind of bummed to be doing it myself since i'd have to foot the entire $15 bill myself (for an entire day out and about!). When i went back to the room to put sunscreen on, i ran into one of my roommates who, it turned out, was also doing the temples. She's from korea and will be travleing for a total of 10 days or so- much like me. We decided to go together which made it much more enjoyable. She'd already seen two of the ones we saw (she bought the 3-day pass), so knew enough about them to share. We started at 9am and went to angkor wat first. This definitely has the most impressive appearance from the front, and though it was interesting inside, it was not my favorite. From there we went to angkor thom where we saw bayon, baphoun, phimeanakas, terrace of the elephants, and terrace of the leeper king. These were all impressive, but bayon moved up to my top pick. Then to others including ta keo, ta prohm, banteay kdei, and pre rup, before heading to phnom bakheng for sunset. My favorite was undoubtedly ta prohm, which some of you may recognize from that angeleina jolie movie, tob raider (i never saw it, but will have to now). This temple was not cleared out, and apparently looks like the rest of them did when they were discovered. There are trees, and not little ones either, growing from the tops of buildings with roots wrapped all around the stones. It was one of the few times i've felt speechless. Amazing.
We got back to the guesthouse around 7, and met my other new friend max (from montreal) for our trip to the night market. She and i had talked to some guy who had a "fish massage" the night before, and was raving about it. We decided to do the same. For $3, you get to stick your feet into a pool filled with little fish. They proceed to suck on your feet and eat the dead skin and dirt, making them much cleaner and smoother. This was the weirdest thing i've done. It was super ticklish at first, but quickly became strangely enjoyable. We were only supposed to have 15 mins, but we were in there for almost and hour (during which time we convinced countless others to join us!). After our massage, we walked through the night market, picking up a few items to bring back with us, before grabbing a late dinner at a street stand nearby. Tired.

(I'll be uploading pictures when i get back to hong kong. These computers clearly have viruses, and it was reported that someone uploaded his pictures only to have everything erased. Boo!)

kuala.lumpur.to.siem.reap

2009-06-09T23:39:00.003-04:00

As i write this, i'm sitting in the computer room at my siem reap home. I arrived about an hour ago (it's 10:40am right now) and thought i'd check in before heading out for the day. Since i haven't really written much from kuala lumpur, here's a quick summary of what i did:

I got to kl late monday afternoon, found my guesthouse in the rain, dropped off my stuff, and headed out again. I stayed on the border of chinatown near the central market since i needed to get to kl sentral (the main transport hub) early this morning. So, i walked through chinatown and all their street stalls (where i seriously considered buying a "real" tiffany's necklace just for fun, but didn't), then went poking around in central market which is inside (and air conditioned!). They have a bunch of batik fabrics, artsy stuff, and some food places. I also ate dinner there- a bowl of thai curry noddle soup. Tasty. Tuesday morning i got up early and took the "T" four stops to KLCC where i stood in line for tickets to the petronas towers skybridge. I got one for the 3:15 time slot, so had six hours to "kill" until then. I had briefly considered finding my own way around, but after talking to an australian woman while in line, decided to pay the 38RM (about $11) for the "hop on, hop off" bus. Six of these buses follow a 2 hour loop through all the major tourist attractions and other hotel areas and you can hop on and off as you please. There are also headsets that allow you to get info about the area you're in. This was the perfect solution for me as it allowed me to see many areas that i wouldn't have otherwise made it to (lake/orchid gardens, butterfly/bird parks, national palace, etc.) I also went up the kl tower- though it was hazy because of the heat and humidity. On my way back to the petronas towers, i started talking with another woman waiting for the bus. Turns out she's a photographer and has been traveling all over the place since october. She happened to have her journal with her and was able to give me names of places to visit, eat at, and stay in for the rest of my trip! Fantastic! The trip up to the skybridge was great (and free!) and showed a 3D movie first that explained the history of the towers. While up there, it started to thunder and i could clearly see bolts of lightening shoot down to buildings. Crazy! After some more putzing around (and dinner), i went to bed early since my flight was at 7am, with a 1 hour bus trip to the airport- which meant i needed to leave the guesthouse by 3:30am. Ya.

So that's it so far. You'll all have to wait for pictures since i don't want to upload them from random computers. Now i'm off to walk around town a bit. Bye!

k.l.

2009-06-08T11:10:00.002-04:00

I'm in kuala lumpur! Got here around 5pm, dumped my stuff in my room, and spent the next 4.5 hours walking around. Let me tell you...it's HOT here. I thought hong kong was bad, but this is ridiculous. The good news is that by my calculations, i should lose about 10 lbs in sweat over the next week.

po.toi.

2009-06-07T07:51:00.004-04:00

Today we went on a boat ride to po toi- a small island off of hong kong island. The b's friends have a company yacht that they get to ride around on, and i happened to be in the right place at the right time. We were picked up at the dock in stanley, so only had to walk down the street. The girls and their friend played below deck while the grown-ups drank champagne up top. After a bit, we arrived at po toi and had lunch at this fantastically scrappy seafood place. It was delicious. The kids ran around on the beach and collected sea glass and coral while we ate. After lunch, we hopped back on the boat and went to the other side of the island where they dropped anchor so the kids could swim in the ocean. The weather was perfect and the breeze helped cool us off. On our way home, we lounged around on the padded bow while the kids snuck chips and pretzels. The whole escapade took about four hours and couldn't have been more perfect. I think i want this life.

The super delicious restaurant.

Walking from the dock to the restaurant.

One of the crew guys hoisting the anchor. He used a hose to spray it off so the salt water (from the south china sea!) didn't cause long term damage.

Grave stones on po toi.

A shrimp boat. They shine the lights in the water at night and attract shrimp.

Coming home:( Stanely main street and the pier.

leaving.on.a.jet.plane.

2009-06-06T11:15:00.003-04:00

On monday, i will be leaving for a trip. First i'll go to kuala lumpur, malaysia for a few days, then to siem reap, cambodia for a few days, then phnom penh, cambodia for a few days and lastly, bankok, thailand for a few days before heading back to hong kong by june 17th. It will just be my backpack and myself, and we'll be taking the hostel route. I have to say, i'm quite nervous about it, which is party why i'm so glad i'm doing it alone. I don't like when things make me nervous, and tend to make myself do them until i'm not so nervous anymore. (Case in point- platelets. I hated having a needle in my arm for an extended period of time. I got so mad at myself for resisting donating because of it that i forced myself to go back over and over again until i was fine with it. Although now i'm deferred for a year, but back to the point...) What i'm nervous about is not being by myself in a new place, or worrying about safety, but is based more on the unknown. I'm not a pessimist, but i do like to know what to expect, what i'm doing, etc. Not being able to control every possible situation in advance makes me worry about finding my way around, having access to cash, etc. I think it will be really good for me to prove to myself that even if i get completely lost and no one speaks english, i'll be able to figure it out. It won't be all that overwhelming! Staying in dorms will also be a good way to force myself to socialize, since i'm such a wallflower and all. I'm sure i'll have some access to the internet, but am not sure how regular it will be. Don't worry about me unless you haven't heard from me by the 17th. I'd never miss my birthday!

comment.away.friends!

2009-06-06T11:07:00.003-04:00

I've had a few requests to change the privacy settings on the comment section so you don't have to jump through hoops to comment on my blog. I initially set them this way for two reasons. One, i didn't like ending up with some random non-related comments or ads posted and Two, i like to know who's reading and commenting (instead of everything just saying "anonymous"). So, i'm switching it back for a trial run of one month. If this appears to increase the ease in commenting (and therefore the number of comments) without adding a bunch of anonymous postings, i'll leave it that way. If not, i'll try to readjust things to make everyone happy.

bad.angel.

2009-06-04T19:43:00.004-04:00

In hong kong, while they rarely have commercials during tv shows, they do play them before movies. One animated commercial was played before angels and demons, and while i didn't understand it (in cantonese with no subtitles), i could figure out the basic premise, and it was hilarious. On one side of a room is an older, less attractive woman with two children- each sitting on one side of her. On the other side of the room is a young, gorgeous, scantily dressed model-type woman. Also in the room is a judge, who is reading the last will and testament of the older woman's deceased husband. Though i couldn't understand what he was saying, it was clear that the dead guy had left all/most of his money to the floozy. The camera pans upwards and shows the husband, now an angel, hanging out on a cloud and drooling over the floozy. Panning downwards again, we see the wife chug a red bull, sprout wings, and go kick the crap out of the angel husband. Well done!

**Update! Evil found it on youtube! I looked, but without luck. Maybe it's because i don't speak/read/write chinese.

ouch.

2009-06-04T05:35:00.005-04:00

On monday, it was sunny. I decided to go for a run outside instead of sticking with the gym. I took my normal route- down to the beach, run up and down the stairs three times, cut through stanley main street, and walk up the hills. This day, i got to the point where i usually turn around, but it was so nice out, so i decided to continue down another road before heading home. It quickly became very narrow and the sidewalks disappeared, but i kept going. The view was unbelievable. If i'd brought my camera, i'd post pictures. Instead, here's a map that shows my route. Needless to say, with all my breaks to appreciate the views, it took me much longer than i'd anticipated. By the time i managed to crawl home, i was super parched and sweaty. I was so sweaty i could feel the salt on my face. Gross. I chugged some water, threw on my bathing suit, and went for a quick swim.

By monday evening, i was already paying for my unplanned hours in the sun. I had a pretty decent sunburn both from the run and the swim (even though it was a short one). Tuesday was another beautiful day, but i was forced to spend it at the ifc mall- wearing pants and watching a movie. I'm already starting to peel- hopefull i'll have recovered by the time i head out for malaysia, cambodia, and thailand on monday!

View Stanley run in a larger map

hong.kong.zoological.and.botanical.gardens.

2009-06-01T01:49:00.004-04:00

On saturday, it did not rain. Hallelujah. L. had a birthday party from 12-5, m. had ballet from 4:45-5:45, and a. had to go into the office. I wanted to do something fun with someone (since it was the weekend after all) so i convinced e. to go to central for the afternoon. The plan was to go shopping (nowhere exciting- just needed a pair of linen pants from h&m) and then trek up to the "zoo" since neither of us had made it there yet. We rode the bus, getting off right in front of a.'s building. Since we were so close, she said she'd be up for a quick visit before we continued on our way. E. managed to leave with some money to buy little things for herself and her sisters. I left with a diet coke and crackers. After i bought my pants and e. bought sunglasses and hair accessories, we walked uphill (very uphill, too) to the zoological and botanical gardens. While it wouldn't be possible to spend a full day here, the hour we spent watching monkeys swing, alligators nap, and birds squawk, was perfect. We even got ice cream cones from the ice cream vendor, and made a quick stop at the playground before heading home. Since e. is the youngest, i rarely am able to spend time alone with her. It was nice to have a day alone when she didn't feel pressured to compete with her sisters.

Lemurs. They were black, white, and fuzzy and kind of reminded me of skunks.

The "cool" monkey cage. This is where all the fun guys hung out, swinging from ropes, the ceiling, pretty much anything they could get their hands on. We watched them for a while.

Inside the educational center. First is a fish skeleton (obviously), then a chicken skeleton, and finally a pigeon skeleton. They had each bone labeled with a number, and the list underneath described what it was.

E. checking out info on pollination. Notice her sunglasses and purse (you can't see her necklace here). She's very fashionable.

I realized i didn't take many pictures of the botanical part, but trust me, the whole place was beautiful. This is a big fountain that reminded me of dandelions.

kid.food.

2009-06-01T01:37:00.003-04:00

I just found this picture that was taken during my weekend with the girls. We went to their favorite pizza place for dinner one night. This was no papa gino's. The pizzas are fancy (my favorite has lots of leeks, parmesan cheese, and garlic) and super tasty. The kids menu (piccolo menu) includes smaller grown-up pizza along with the typical cheese and pepperoni. The girls' favorite part of the meal comes after they've finished eating everything. That's when they're served a bambinoccino, pictured here (in e's tiny hand)

Apparently it's warm frothy milk with a sprinkle of chocolate. Tasty.

dragon.boat.races.

2009-05-29T12:07:00.003-04:00

Thursday was the chinese holiday of tuen ng, during which the dragon boat races take place. They happen to occur 0.01 miles down the street at stanley main beach. Apparently 10,000 people come to stanley to take part in or view the races. Luckily, we could see from the roof deck which saved a lot of pushing and shoving. They started at 8am and finished around 4-5pm. Around 8pm, i decided to walk down to stanley main street to check out the festivities. The place was packed- with a live band, mass quantities of very lubricated people, and trophies. I'm glad i made it down there even though i was by myself and it was raining. It was quite easy to meet people!

One view from the roof deck.

Another view from the roof deck.

Stanley main street.

A group of 60 racers (three teams total) who used our garage for a preparation spot. They gave the girls hats and posed for pictures afterwards.

A lovely tennessee boy named zach.

lantau.island.

2009-05-29T11:28:00.003-04:00

On wednesday, the forecast said more rain. I decided to see a movie (in part because i wanted more of that fantastic popcorn). First though, i went to the gym. I had to make it quick since e. also had a poetry celebration at 10. I walked to the gym in the rain, and during my 45 mins there, the clouds blew away and the sun came out. A. met us at the school, and in the cab ride to central, she pointed out that i should take advantage of a nice day during rainy season, and go to lantau or lamma island (which i had been talking about doing next week). I hadn't prepared for this (no reading, checking time schedules, etc), but decided i needed practice flying by the seat of my pants. I was wearing good walking shoes, and while i didn't have my camera, i did have a.'s iphone which would be satisfactory in the photography department. So, i hung out in her office for a bit and looked online. While i was interested in seeing lantau, i was thoroughly impressed with the trip- much more than i anticipated. After taking the ferry over, i hopped on the ngong ping 360 cable cars and took the 25 min trip to the tian tan buddha and the po lin monastery. Though the fog rolled in while i was there (and some rain followed soon after), it was absolutely one of my favorite hong kong activities so far.

Some of my little tourist friends took this picture on the way up.

The tian tan buddha. It was huge. I could see it from the cable cars!

My favorite of the statues surrounding the buddha.

The po lin monastery. You can even see a monk in there.

On my way back. How crazy is this fog! It was also crazy windy up there- sounded like a hurricane and was more than a little scary suspended in mid air blowing around! That path you see down there continues the entire length of the cable car track and appears to be an option if anyone wants to walk the trip. I'd probably die.

man.on.mtr.(aka.the.T).

2009-05-27T08:01:00.003-04:00

In boston, if someone were to walk around wearing one of these face masks, we'd all think he/she was a) weird b) undergoing cancer treatment or c) weird. In hong kong, people all over the place wear masks. They sell them in every store and at every market for cheap. No one stares, no kids point and ask what's wrong (in fact, they're often forced to wear them as well), it's completely accepted. I don't get this! Not only do they look strange, but they're not comfortable! Anytime i spent time with kids on precautions (when any non-family member entering the room needed to put on a gown, gloves, mask, etc) i was counting the minutes until i could take the thing off. Is swine flu really worth all this?

horizon.plaza.

2009-05-27T07:40:00.004-04:00

A. bought this fantastic leather bag at a strange outlet/furniture/antique mall place called horizon plaza. I covet this bag and when i found out how (relatively) little she paid for it, i started dreaming of buying it with some of my birthday money. Horizon plaza's not easy to get to by bus, so i waited until p. was making a trip that way and tagged along. We went yesterday. It's hard to explain this place (and impossible to imagine) but basically, it's a sketchy looking building that's 28 floors high (though no 13, 14, or a few others). The elevators run up the middle of the skinny building, you get off on the highest floor you're interested in, and take the (sketchy) stairs down as you go. There were tons and tons of cool looking (and cheap) furniture/antique stores, but clearly i wasn't in the market for furniture. There were also a few clothing stores with some nice deals. Sadly, i wasn't able to find the bag, but will keep my eyes open from now on. Here's a picture of a store I found amusing. Check out the name.

tasty.

2009-05-26T02:44:00.003-04:00

The first night i was here, the girls ate this lemon ice/sorbet/ice cream type substance that was inside an actual hollowed out lemon. I had a taste and it was delicious. Then i forgot about it. Sunday night, i took them to a neighbor's house for a party. They had a good time because they ate crap for dinner and got to run wild with the other kids- making roasted marshmallows on the roof deck, etc. I had a good time because i got to drink wine with other grown-ups (from all over the world) and was reintroduced to the lemon concoction. This time, they also had a coconut version- coconut ice/sorbet/ice cream inside a half a coconut. I don't typically love coconut, but accepted it when it was offered to me. Let me tell you....it was fantastic. I looked for them at the grocery store yesterday with no luck. I'm going to have to ask around pretty soon.

*Update- turns out the lemons the girls had two weeks ago came from the same friends who hosted the party on sunday. I plan to ask where they came from tomorrow.

ex.er.cise.

2009-05-25T01:17:00.004-04:00

I've been using the gym at the american club fairly regularly. The gym consists of many machines all lined up facing a wall made of windows. I have been meaning to remember my camera so i could post pictures of the view (which is freaking amazing). I managed to remember it today which was great, but it was raining, so the pictures are not quite as exciting as they'd typically be. I prefer the elliptical since it's the only machine that doesn't require metric conversions. (It took me quite some time to realize that the 15 i was lifting for shoulders was not lbs, but kgs. I felt much better about myself after realizing this.) So anyway, here is what i look out to from the elliptical each morning.

Now just imagine it without the fog (and the window reflection!).

bowling.

2009-05-25T00:57:00.004-04:00

P. and a. went to kyoto this weekend, so i was in charge of the girls. Saturday, m. had a birthday party and ballet, so was gone most of the day. I planned to take the other two somewhere fun. Instead, it rained all day, so we stayed home and putzed about. We did go out to dinner on stanley main street- that was lots of fun. When we woke up to find more rain on sunday, i immediately started looking for inside activities. The movies were out since there was nothing appropriate playing, but i found a place to go bowling in kowloon. I may have previously mentioned feeling comfortable finding my way around kowloon, but this place was in a completely different area that i was not sure how to get to. Since e. gets motion sickness, we couldn't take the ferry (the only straight shot as far as i could tell), but I determined that if we switched buses a few times, we could end up in the right place. Since i couldn't stand being cooped up in the house for another day, we got our flip flops and umbrellas and decided to make a go of it. Surprisingly, we got there in under an hour, and were treated to bowling hong kong style. Take a look at the sweet soccer style bowling shoes:

Some things i didn't take into consideration were the facts that the lightest ball was 6 lbs (which was big for a 35lb e.) and that there were no "kid rails" to keep the balls from becoming gutter balls. The constant scores of zero could have led to frustration and tears, but instead, they took the slightly embarrassed laugh-at-myself approach. This made the occasional 1 pin (or surprising 9-1 spare by l.) much more exciting. Look how excited we all look here:

Since we had to walk past the movie theater to get to the bowling alley, the girls convinced me to get some popcorn as a snack on our way out. They insisted that hong kong movie theater popcorn was extraordinary, and they were right. The "chocolate" sweet popcorn was easily the best i've had. Mmmm. To top the day off, we even made it home safely and went to a neighbor's party.

another.picture.for.evil.

2009-05-22T19:54:00.001-04:00

(and nora, andrea, et#1)

shoe.search.turned.busy.day.

2009-05-21T00:42:00.004-04:00

I drove to work with a., took the ferry to kowloon, and went searching for new running shoes yesterday. It didn't work out so well since asian people have tiny feet. The largest size i could find was an 8.5 US. But since i was already there, i decided to use the day and see the parts of kowloon i missed last time- namely the bird market, the flower market, and the fish market. I also revisited some places, including the jade market where i bought a $7 necklace. I initially thought it was fake (but at $7 didn't care- i just liked it), but am now thinking it could be real. I walked from a.'s office in central all the way up to the bird market, dilly dallyed around, and walked back (taking the ferry across the water, of course). I was beat by the end of the day (totaled about 9 miles according to mapmyrun.com, not including all the back and forth between stalls, etc), and unfortunately, it was rush hour, so i had to fight my way through hoards of people in the street and on the ferry. Luckily, a. hadn't left work yet, so after sitting in her office for a bit (ah...sitting), i hitched a ride in her cab again instead of taking the bus back.

Fish in the goldfish market.

Bagged fish.

From the flower market.

Caged birds in the bird market. I sat for a bit and listened to a parrot sing and say hello to people.

In any public park or sitting area, there are always groups of men watching games- chess, mostly. Here's a picture i managed to snap without looking too obvious.

a.boat.

2009-05-21T00:27:00.004-04:00

Boats are constantly coming in and out of stanley. I took this picture the other day, but never uploaded it until now. I like it. I think it adds character.

he.made.me.think.of.evil.

2009-05-19T10:56:00.004-04:00

This skinny guy was hanging out in a park. He was chewing on whatever is on the ground below him (looked like a piece of bark to me), and took a break for a yawn or something. I thought he looked like a tiger growling, so i made it the wallpaper on one of the b's laptops. A few hours later, p. asked where the puking cat came from.

my.idea.of.heaven.

2009-05-18T12:05:00.006-04:00

I was both happy and sad to see this. Happy, because it was the second time i made it into a "real" store. Sad, because i couldn't justify spending any money.

my.monday.

2009-05-18T11:36:00.005-04:00

I went for a four mile jog/hill/stair sprint (outside and on the beach) and it was HOT. It therefore felt like a much better workout than it probably was. Tomorrow i'll stick with the gym.

After taking a shower, i hopped on the bus down to central where i checked off some tourist stuff. I'm about to pass out, so i'll just upload the pictures. Ask questions if you have any (i'm always up for some "company" over here!).

Fabric on the second floor of western market.

Incense coils hanging in the man mo temple on hollywood road.

Dried fish, etc in the dried fish market (or maybe the ginseng market).

Nothing in particular- just a street from up high.

The central/mid levels escalator.

science.schmience.

2009-05-18T11:26:00.002-04:00

They had a "mad scientist" party for e's birthday at the american club. I was pretty impressed. They did some cool stuff for a room full of seven year olds. Here's a picture of the basic dry ice fog, but there were lots of other pictures that had too many faces in them (i have no clue who the kid looking at the camera is in this one). Let me just say though, thank goodness a and p just had girls. 50% of the boys at this party were OUT OF CONTROL!! Kicking, goofing around, being little punks...i get that boys and girls are different, but this was ridiculous. I had to walk away before i smacked someone.

By the by, isn't the "assistant" (the asian guy standing with the main scientist woman) perfect for the part? Not only is he asian (which is key (no offense)), but he has the glasses, the hair part, the lab coat, and...an accent. I wanted him to start making jokes up there, but he was on the straight and narrow.

birthday.weekend.

2009-05-16T06:47:00.004-04:00

No new pictures to post. Yesterday i went for a long walk around stanley, and then we had m.'s birthday sleepover. I really miss spending so many hours with six eleven year olds. Luckily, a. had bought pop rocks, dip sticks, and flinging frogs as part of the gift bags, so we enjoyed those along with some tasty wine while the girls giggled. Today was l.'s party, but a two hour time frame helped minimize any potential discomfort, and everything went smoothly. Afterwards, a., p., l. and i played mario kart on the wii for three hours. It was enormously entertaining. They just left for a black tie event, so i'm hanging out with the girls and their helper. Tomorrow's e.'s birthday party at the american club. I'll get a two month membership there to help my exercise goal along. I have far too much free time to come up with excuses, particularly with p.'s cooking to push me in the opposite direction.

kowloon-day.two.

2009-05-14T05:59:00.005-04:00

P and i zipped over to kowloon today. He had to pick up some things from his tailor, so he showed me the bus/mtr route, took me to lunch at a noodle place (surprise!), and then we parted ways. I walked through the ladies market, the jade market, another market (that had lots of delicious looking fruit/veggies along with some not-so-delicious looking dried fish and pigs feet), kowloon gardens, took the star ferry back to central, and the bus back to stanley. It was a fantastic day out, and now i feel completely comfortable finding my way around hong kong.

Central- from the star ferrry.

Ladies market.

Jade market.

The other market with the fruit, veggies, dried fish, and pigs feet. (Please note the sign on the upper left.)

Birds in the aviary in kowloon park.

day.one.

2009-05-13T00:07:00.001-04:00

(*I'm not interested in spending the time necessary to figure out how to change my location (aka time and date stamp) so to determine when i'm posting from my trip, add on 12 hours.)

After going to a string recital at the girls' school, i spent the morning walking around stanley, the section of hong kong where i'm staying. I walked through stanley market, saw the tin hau temple, murray house, stanley main street, etc. Here are some pictures since i'm not up for long descriptions.

Stanley market.

They were filming something here. I walked through from one direction and was wond ering what they were up to. When i walked back from this direction later on, i saw the sign (that yellow one) that announced the filming. Huh.

A sign telling you where to go.

2009-05-13T00:06:00.001-04:00

Boats.

A flower shop and a neat tree in stanley market.

A quiet (and shady- phew!) beach.

Stanley main street.

Murray house (and blake pier). Originally a government building in central, it was taken apart, numbered, and put in storage for sixteen years. When they rebuilt it in stanley, some of the numbers had rubbed off and after finishing construction, they had 6 extra columns. Ha!

some.highlights.from.my.24.hour.trip.

2009-05-12T17:54:00.004-04:00

1) Arrived at logan around 4:30. Waited in the baggage check line for 55 minutes and watched 15 hong kong high school kids try to check their luggage. Each of the 25+ pieces was so heavy that they could barely drag them onto the scale. Needless to say, there were clothes and open suitcases all over the place while they attempted to repack in the middle of the airport. After a while, they were able to get them down to a reasonable weight where they could pay the over weight fee. It was like a television show.

2) The flight from boston to new york (which was on a tiny plane) was full of grown-ups and one three year old named jeffrey. Jeffrey was not happy to be on the plane and screamed from start to finish. Luckily, i was sitting pretty far away. The flight attendant made announcements to "ladies, gentleman, and jeffrey" and thanked everyone else for their patience with her competition. Ha ha!

3) Feeling hungry while in JFK, i went searching for something to eat. A picture of a yogurt parfait at mcdonalds looked tasty, so i decide to give it a shot. While waiting in line, i noticed they posted the calories next to the items. Yogurt parfait came in at 160. Everything else? At least 400 calories. The "big breakfast" came in at a whopping 1350! I don't know how people could order this and not feel sick while eating it.

4) On the 15 hour trip from new york to hong kong, i slept a total of maybe 3 hours, but in 30 minute increments. When i wasn't sleeping, i was playing games, reading, and watching movies. I caught up on marley and me, the curious case of benjamin button, and a few other shows. The greatest part? I found a new wallace and gromit episode called "a matter of loaf and death." I never knew it existed!

5) Arriving in hong kong, i heard them announce what sounded like my name. Turns out my luggage didn't make it on the boston flight. Since i saw it sitting with all the other luggage right outside our airplane, i can only assume that the hong kong youth took up all the room. It was delivered to the house by 11pm, and saved me the hassle of lugging it around until then.

Two of the "hong kong youth" looking at the calories in the big breakfast.

t-21.hours.

2009-05-10T08:49:00.004-04:00

It's getting down to the wire, and surprisingly, i'm pretty ready. I started organizing myself last weekend- typed up my word check sheet, pulled out all my packing stuff, figured out what i needed to pick up, etc. I worked a ton this week, but managed to start making piles and pick up sunscreen, bugspray, ranch dressing, and other last minute things. Yesterday and today were set aside for laundry, errands, and hardcore packing. So, sat morning i was up early and pulled an energizer bunny. Since i didn't have time to just hang out, i dragged eva with me while i printed pictures and dropped off a mother's day present to t's mom. As a nice treat after a full day of stuff, we got pedicures at my favorite nail place. Earlier in the week, i'd mentioned to jen that i wanted to get one, but didn't want to spend the money before taking vacation. I came home late friday night to find a birthday card with a pedicure gift certificate- since i'll be gone for my birthday, she surprised me with it now. So nice!

eva's.pedicure.

my.feet.

spare.change.

2009-05-04T21:30:00.003-04:00

In preparation for my upcoming trip, i gathered both change jars i've had sitting on a bureau and dumped them out on the rug. I had my friend t. and his two siblings help me separate everything into piles, and then we tubed it so i can deposit it tomorrow morning. How much do you think this pile totaled?

mail.box.

2009-05-04T10:18:00.002-04:00

I've had many requests for postcards lately, and will do my best to send some out during my trip! Because i have a few other things going on right now, i need anyone who wants some mail to send me his/her address. I'm sure i have most of them, but this will make it easier to have them all in one place and to have access to them in asia. Also, i won't feel guilty for forgetting anyone! Send me an e-mail with your info, and i'll send a postcard your way!

visa.schmisa.

2009-05-01T00:19:00.003-04:00

When you fill out the application info for the chinese embassy, you can request a single entry, double entry, or multiple entry visa. If you're flying into china, traveling around china, and leaving from china, you only need a single entry. If you're doing the above, but also want to take a trip to, say, vietnam, you need a double entry. If you're living in hong kong for 2 months (hong kong is not considered china), and plan to bee bop around china quite a bit, you'll need a multiple entry visa. The general consensus was that it would be unlikely that the chinese embassy would grant a multiple entry for a tourist visa if i didn't have a previous single or double entry visa. The visa service didn't even have a spot for it in their paperwork. However, the possibility of having to limit myself to two trips to mainland china (which is quite close to hong kong) over two months made me sad (plus, it's the same price regardless of how many entries they grant you), so i wrote a little note in the comment section that said something like, "I am requesting a multiple entry visa. I will be staying in hong kong for two months and would like to take several short trips into mainland china." My passport arrived via fedex today with an M in the entries spot. Now to start planning all my weekend getaways!

good.news.

2009-04-30T01:04:00.003-04:00

Malarone was covered! $60 for 29 pills. Definitely preferable to $8 each. Should be arriving within the next week or so.

i.have.company.

2009-04-28T22:49:00.002-04:00

A. showed up sunday night just before midnight. She has a conference in chicago this weekend, but figured she'd come a bit early to catch up with people in boston (and to help with the 12 hour jet lag). It was very strange- hard to believe i hadn't seen her in almost nine months, the longest (by far- like eight months far) i've gone without seeing her in the past eleven years. Luckily, i've kept busy, so it wasn't as painful as it could have been. Pretty soon, i'll be spending two months with all of them. (Only thirteen days to go!) When i was planning to leave on may 4th, i even tried to convince A. to fly back to hong kong with me. Apparently, she values first class more than a 16 hour long chat with her favorite stephanie. At least i know where i stand!

it's.nearing.the.end.

2009-04-26T23:11:00.003-04:00

...and i'm ready for it. Just one more week to go. This weekend was ridiculously beautiful, and since it made me wince to think about spending the entire thing inside working, i made myself a deal. Finish my work on saturday (mowing the yard, errands, the final, my journal entries, laundry) and have sunday off. I did it, so today i got up bright and early and spent the day with eva at her family's place in swampscott. It just happens to (literally) be in the most beautiful spot in the area- at the tip of a little peninsula. Her backyard consists of a nice thick lawn, rocks, and the ocean. The day was perfect, and we walked what must have been miles along the beach and boardwalk, stopping for some snacks and an open house. Her mom picked us up and took us out to lunch in marblehead (fish and chips, of course) and then we walked about that area for a while. The best part of the day was being with eva, and being able to catch up in a non-school related way. I'm so lucky to have her as my friend.

In her backyard. It was windy.

At the open house. The condo was only $1.3 million. What a steal.

On the beach during our morning walk. The house is at the end of the point that's behind us.

i'm.excited.

2009-04-25T10:34:00.004-04:00

I really want to be outside right now because it's beautiful. Unfortunately, i can't yet because i committed to finishing three of the five essay questions left on my final this morning, and i'm only done with two of them. I'm great at procrastinating, so i decided to post some pictures of places i'll (hopefully) be visiting in vietnam. These places are so beautiful that i get giddy everytime i see them. Then i'll get back to my work, promise.

halong.bay.vietnam.

sapa.vietnam.

travel.clinic.

2009-04-23T23:02:00.003-04:00

I almost forgot about my vaccination appointment today. I remembered at 10:40 that i had a 10:30 time slot. Luckily, i was headed to the mgh travel clinic which is conveniently located in the same building where i was sitting. Everyone else was running late, so i wasn't shot or kicked out. I was expecting to see a nurse who would take 5 minutes and stick a few needles in my arm. Instead, i met with the doctor who spent a full half hour going over everything with me. He covered the obvious stuff- no un-bottled water, no fruit unless i peeled it myself, etc, but he also pointed out some stuff i didn't think of- no fruity drinks (there goes that margarita i was planning to have on the beach), and bug spray with at least 25% deet at all times. I was impressed- totally worth the $25 copay. I got the hepatitis A shot and the typhoid vaccination pills. Next on the list are the malaria meds. I somehow ended up with an insurance plan that has a $200 deductible for regular pharmacy orders. I've managed to avoid this by getting all my meds through express-scripts in a three month supply. The doctor sent in my malaria prescription with the hopes that they'd approve it (though it's not a three month supply). If not, i get to cover three weeks worth of $8 per pill per day. Anyone have any extra malarone?

mystery.solved.

2009-04-20T19:04:00.002-04:00

My neighbor earl is great. He always comes by to say hi, and makes me feel loved. It's a good thing too, because he's a punk. He routinely kills small animals, and not just mice and birds. A big rat was in the driveway a while ago, and his five year old sister pointed out a headless squirrel. I think i've determined why he's so violet, and it's not just instinctual. Earl's (almost) two year old brother is abusive to him! I witnessed him kicking earl several times, and chasing him around the yard. The poor thing knew he'd be in trouble if he fought back, so he just took it. I may have a new houseguest pretty soon.

my.day.

2009-04-19T18:56:00.002-04:00

Today, as i sat inside working on my final, i heard some commotion outside. Looking out the window, i saw my five year old neighbor running frantically up and down the street, crying hysterically. Apparently she couldn't find her mom. A car i didn't recognize pulled up along side her, she got in, and the car drove off. I almost rubbed my eyes to make sure i was awake. I threw shoes on and ran outside to see what was going on. Their house was unlocked, but no one was home. A bird chirped, otherwise it was quiet out. After checking in with two neighbors, a small crowd gathered in the street. Then the five year old's family rode up on their bikes, just as the car pulled up. Turns out it was all a misunderstanding. She was playing with a friend at the park while her family went for a bike ride. She got home with her friend, walked down the street, couldn't find her mom, and freaked out. She ran around, her friend's grandmother pulled up, and she hopped in. So it all ended up working out fine, but i almost had a heart attack.

squeak.

2009-04-14T00:03:00.000-04:00

Did i mention we had a mouse in the house? I was cooking with T a few weeks ago when he pointed at the floor and said (very excitedly), "yook! yook at that!" A little gray mouse was sauntering across the floor, and ducked under the fridge. I called the exterminators and they showed up with snap traps, sticky traps, and more bait stations. I assured the man that i was perfectly capable of disposing of any mouse that was caught by such traps. Each night, i came home and surveyed the traps, only to find them empty. Apparently the mouse was not intrigued. Yesterday, before heading to my parents' for easter, i went down to the basement to switch a load of laundry. The laundry room smelled funny. I thought about all the poisoned bait traps that were all over the basement, and began looking for a rotting mouse carcass. Here's what the easter bunny left me:

It may have been the smell, the fact that this mouse was all wet and squished in the drain, or the combination of the two, but i began to seriously regret assuring the guy i could deal with this. Within a split second, i mentally went through the list of people i could conceivably recruit to dispose of said mouse, and came up with 0. When i realized that it would be me, i managed to get my wits about myself and came up with a plan. With rubber gloves pulled up to my elbows, i found two wooden skewers (since i would be disposing of anything that touched the mouse) and used them like chopsticks to move the mouse into the waiting bags. After the whole kit-and-caboodle was in the outside garbage, i proceeded to bleach the entire area, and then spent an hour sanitizing anything a mouse could have conceivably touched, nibbled, pooped on, scurried over, etc, etc. Needless to say, i didn't get any school work done (as planned) before leaving to celebrate easter. As it was, i only had fifteen minutes to shower and get ready. Blech.

4.weeks.left.

2009-04-13T21:47:00.003-04:00

About a month ago, i bought my plane ticket. With 59 days to go, it felt so far off, and all the things i needed to do before leaving weren't high on my priority list- staying afloat in school and my internship seemed much more pressing. That was 31 days ago. Now I have just 28 days until my lovely parents drop me at the airport at 4am. TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS! I still don't have my visa (but am much closer thanks to a fantastic cousin who can print me an itinerary), i still haven't received any vaccinations, i still don't really know where i'm backpacking to once i'm there, and i still haven't put much time into thinking through what i'm bringing (in terms of clothes, shoes, luggage, etc, etc). I'm a tad overwhelmed. To boot, i still have three weeks left of school which includes 12 days at MGH, three days in class, and a ginormous amount of busy work (papers, finals, papers, logs, papers, journal entries, etc, etc). I think it will all come together though. I'm making a priority list- first is the visa, and second are the vaccinations. The rest of the stuff can come together or not, either way it will be fine. Once i'm there, my longest stretch for travel time will only be 11 days, so i'm trying to decide where to go. I'm between cambodia/southern vietnam or laos/northern vietnam. I can't decide. Any input?

egg.

2009-04-10T21:29:00.002-04:00

In honor of the upcoming holiday, the little guy helped me dye easter eggs. It was super fun. I always buy up a few packs of dye right after easter. They're on sale, and then i have supplies to dye eggs whenever i want. It's much more fun to eat a hard boiled egg if it's turquoise as opposed to brown or white. Why not do so in october as well?

fall.2009.

2009-04-06T22:21:00.003-04:00

Though it's only april, we're already interviewing for our fall internship placements. I was matched with tufts floating in the operating room, as well as newton wellesley in the emergency department. I had both interviews today- one at noon and the other at 8:30pm, and they both went very well. I was initially fixated on working in an OR, but have come around to the idea of the ED. After seeing both locations and meeting both child life specialists, i think that the ED would be the best fit for me. This is in part because of the hours (never before 10am as opposed to 6:45am three days/week), in part because of the location (driving 15 mins to newton instead of taking the T 45mins to chinatown), and in part because of the medical focus (more broad procedural stuff that will supplement my inpatient and radiology experience). That being said, i'll have a fantastic experience in either place. Though the supervisory style may be very different, they are both great child life specialists who will provide a great internship placement. I'll let you know once i get the final word, though that probably won't be until may:)

cheers!

2009-04-02T23:13:00.007-04:00

In radiology, we make kids drink barium*. They love it (not really). The first time i watched a barium swallow on a poor thirteen year old girl, the radiologist kept asking her to take large mouthfuls and swallow all at once. She puked. Other kids have managed to keep it down, but only by sucking on a lollipop in between sips. Only once have i seen an eighteen monther suck it down and cry when it was taken away (and that's only because he was starving as they're not allowed to eat for a while beforehand). When we describe it, we use words like "chalky" and "thick like a milkshake" and play up the fact that they get to pick the flavor. In reality, i had no clue what it was actually like. So i decided to try it, and today was the day. For a long time, the only two flavor options were strawberry and chocolate. Chocolate was the recommended flavor since it was real Hershey's syrup. The strawberry was purchased from the supply company and arrived bright pink in an industrial sized bottle. The technologist decided to mix things up a bit and a bottle of vanilla flavoring joined the other two. A tech and one of the radiology residents were as curious as i was, so we mixed up a cup and poured shots in three medicine cups. Bottoms up! I can't say it was anywhere near as bad i was anticipating. Not pleasant by any means, but not something i'd be vomiting up either. Now when i convince kids to drink it, i actually know what i'm talking about. Score.

(* Barium sulfate is mixed with water and flavoring (chocolate, strawberry, or now vanilla!) and is sipped through a straw on the fluoroscopy table. This allows the radiologist to see (via xray imaging) sections of the GI tract, and highlights issues like reflux or gastric emptying issues.)

april.fools.

2009-04-01T13:32:00.003-04:00

Google's so funny. Last year it was custom time, and this year it's gmail autopilot. There have been many others in years past that you can check out here. Apparently those googlers are quite the jokers!

diagnose.me.

2009-03-27T20:51:00.003-04:00

For as long as i can remember, certain foods have made my mouth sting. Spinach and walnuts were always culprits, but over the years, new foods were added to the list including bananas (particularly the stringy parts), raw broccoli and cauliflower, grapes, pineapple, tomatoes, and plenty more i can't think of right now. Everything has its own level of stinginess. Walnuts are the worst (so i never eat them), pineapples in the middle, and bananas (if i remove the stringy parts), broccoli, cauliflower, grapes, and tomatoes are more mild. I'll still eat most of them (except walnuts), but have recently noticed things starting to bother me more. Tomatoes, for example. I love tomatoes. I grow them in the garden, eat them with fresh basil, add them to a sandwich, etc. Wednesday night i had one with dinner and my mouth stung horribly. It makes me quite sad to think that i'll soon be limiting so many of my favorite foods. Why is it that the healthy stuff has to bother me? It would be much nicer if i reacted to tostitos this way.
So, my assumption (and what i've been telling people all these years) is that i have a mild allergy to certain foods. After talking about my latest issues last night, i started to wonder what exactly i was allergic to- what the foods had in common. After some time on the internet, my best guess is that i have oral allergy syndrome. Basically, it has to do with pollen proteins and similar food proteins. Though i've never seen an allergist (and it looks like tests for these food allergies are not very accurate), i'm definitely allergic to pollen. And since i can eat fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes and still get the stinging, i know it's not a pesticide reaction. However, there are still some things that don't fit 100%. For example, i definitely experience stinging on the roof of my mouth and on my tongue (it feels like having a thousand irritated taste buds)- not an itching or burning as is usually the case with oas. Also, the symptoms don't go away as quickly as they're suppose to with oas, but slowly diminish over about 20 minutes. Finally, my foods don't line up with specific pollen allergies (for example, allergy to ragweed pollen can result in reactions to banana, cantaloupe, cucumber, honey dew, watermelon and zucchini. I can eat everything but bananas without a reaction). Regardless, i can't seem to come up with something else that fits my symptoms. So, if anyone is looking for a way to kill some time (work's not that important), go ahead and do some google-ing, and make sure to let me know if you come up with something more likely. Until then, i'm going with this one.

grate.adventure.

2009-03-25T14:23:00.004-04:00

We have a franke sink. It's quite deep, and has a grate that sits midway down and keeps the dishes/pans/etc out of the dirty water. This is particularly helpful when coupled with a garbage disposal (and therefore the food scraps in the sink too). The grate is stainless steel and is coated in a thick clear plastic to reduce rust. At some point over the last five years, someone must have sat a too warm pot on it causing the plastic to melt and eventually, the steel to rust. It was looking pretty gross. So, a few weeks ago, andrea and i were making rounds at home depot, lowes, tile stores, and a plumbing supply store. I brought the rack in hopes of replacing it. Our first stop, home depot, wasn't successful. I carried it throughout the store, asking different people, finally realizing that i'd have to go to a speciality store or special order it. We both loaded up the car and went off to our next stop. A little while later, i was throwing something else in the trunk, and didn't see the rack. Turns out i lost it somewhere, but we were both perplexed. Not being able to trace its path through home depot clearly, we ended up being out of luck. We went back and checked the cart, but with no luck. Luckily, the item number for the sink was in the house file, so i was able to locate one online which shipped out soon. I managed to live without a grate for a week, but it was tough.

write.your.own.caption.

2009-03-23T00:19:00.004-04:00

A recent picture of mandy and me swiped from andrea's facebook page.

number.fourteen.

2009-03-19T22:35:00.002-04:00

I donated platelets today. Tried to would be more accurate. They think the vein infiltrated because the return pressure kept cranking up (though it didn't really hurt like it usually does when it infiltrates) so they returned my cells and called it a day. This way i can go back next week and don't get deferred for months at a time. The exciting news was that i'm now at 14 gallons! At 8 donations per gallon, i've had 112 successful donations not counting the many times i've lost pressure, infiltrated or had a bad stick. The sad news is that once i go off to asia, i won't be able to donate for a year, mainly because of the risk of malaria. This makes me very sad. While it wouldn't be a big deal for most people, donating had become an important part of my life. I've seen all these guys every other week for years and it's strange to know i'll miss out for so long. So it goes though. I guess i'll have to find another way to help kids out!

impatient.

2009-03-17T23:11:00.003-04:00

I haven't put a ton of time or effort into this yet, but i'm thinking that my backpacking escapades will send me to southeast asia. Mainly, cambodia, and vietnam, maybe laos and thailand too. Evil's link to the cambodian tree houses definitely helped tip the scales in this direction. Who wouldn't want to stay in a fancy tree house for $25 a night, with breakfast included to boot! I meant to get a travel book last weekend, but didn't get around to it. I read my lonely planet and rick steves europe books cover to cover before that trip and found my two favorite places (chamonix, france and cinque terre, italy) because of it. A. sent me an e-mail yesterday mentioning how perfect the weather is there, and talking about a hike called dragon's back that we'll do when i'm there. It's mostly a ridge hike with amazing views and a fantastic outdoor thai place at one end. I am so excited that it's hard to contain myself. The last time i felt like this was when i was ten or so. It was the night before christmas (and all through the house...) and i could not fall asleep for hours. I felt like i was going to jump out of my skin. With just under eight weeks to go, i don't know how i'll survive!

T-59.days.

2009-03-13T09:57:00.002-04:00

I bought my ticket to china! After watching the fares like a hawk over the past few months, i finally bit the bullet and will be leaving at 6am on monday may eleventh, coming back on thursday july 2nd. I figured getting up at an ungodly hour (maybe 3ish?) to fly there would be a good way to start the 20 hour trip. If i'm exhausted to begin with, there's more of a chance i'll sleep on the long flight which would make the 12 hour time difference easier to adjust to. Plus, the trip to the airport will be zippy.

I talked to the b's, and mentioned that my plan is to travel around a bit while i'm there. A. suggested sticking with mainland china because i wouldn't have to pay airfare traveling from place to place (which is where most of the money would be spent). I haven't done any research on this yet, but welcome suggestions. Just remember that i have no income, so will be sticking to more economical places- off the beaten track perhaps.

My next item to deal with is getting a visa. While i don't need one for hong kong, i will for mainland china. Since i'll be there for almost two months, i'll likely go back and forth a bit, so would ideally get a multiple entry visa valid for six months (as opposed to a single or double entry). I hear there may be some restrictions on this, though it looks pretty straightforward on the chinese embassy's website. The main thorn is that it appears i have to either go to nyc in person to apply, convince someone else to do it for me, or pay an agency/travel agent to take care of it. And, they're only open from 9:30am-12:30pm M-F. Boo. Since funds are tight to begin with (and i want to save what i have for my trip), i may try to take the fancy $10 bus down there the day before good friday, get my visa that morning (since it appears to be open), and head back that afternoon. If anyone knows a better way to take care of this, let me know!

So that's it! Can't wait to be there and see my girls!

observations.

2009-03-10T10:07:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was when a new post was due, but it was a busy day. It's technically spring break, but I decided to shadow two other child life specialists to add to my hours. From 8:30am-1pm i was in the proton therapy center. I'd heard so much about this that it was great to actually see the process. I saw three port accesses and kids going under anesthesia (which i'd seen a little of, but not so close together), and then the whole room/set up where the proton beam is used. It was particularly interesting because mgh is one of the few hospitals in the world that has proton therapy. I zipped to wheelock to meet with the field placement folks to talk about my next internship site, then back to mgh from 3-11pm to observe in the emergency department. Though it was a slowish night (apparently unheard of for a monday evening), it was the perfect amount for me- not too overwhelming! Because of slower bus/T schedules at night, i didn't get home until 12:15am and crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow!

run.

2009-03-07T23:04:00.000-05:00

This coming week is vacation week. Many people from my program are going somewhere warm, either back where they came from (which happens to be warm), or to someplace like florida. I thought about how nice it would be to go visit my friends in london, but knew i wouldn't go. Though the flights are fairly inexpensive right now, i would have to factor in the money i'd be losing by not working. That would make it an expensive trip. So instead i'm hanging around here, getting stuff done. Since it sensed my disappointment, the weather decided to perk up today. Though i was inside for much of it (working, blah), i did get in a 2 mile run. While the day was beautiful, the run was pathetic. It had been three months since i'd done anything other than school work, and you'd think i'd never run a day in my life. So it made me mad, and now i'll be forcing a 30 min running time slot into my morning at least three days a week (since everyday would be unrealistic). Hopefully the weather will cooperate and give me more 60+ degree days, but since this is new england, i'll be prepared to hop on the treadmill as well.

intern.ship.

2009-03-05T23:47:00.002-05:00

I'm suppose to be working on a paper right now, so this is just a quick update about my internship for those who care (probably mom, dad and grandma).

The inpatient floor (m and t) has been busier with some older kids who can actually do stuff. This is good. I've been able to do more "real" child life stuff with them and have even been to some meetings that have to do with research studies on the floor (statistics!).

Radiology (th and f) is my favorite. I started out observing all the prep and distraction during procedures, then moved up to distraction for vcugs, then prep for vcugs, and today i added an iv start/injection distraction in nuclear med, as well as mri prep to my list. Both went very well and gave my confidence a boost.

For my mgh project, i'm putting together a glossary of the most common diagnoses seen in radiology (and a few from the floor as well), and so far the list totals 40ish. Not surprisingly, i love doing this and have learned a bunch about the most common childhood cancers, inflammatory bowel diseases, pdd, etc. Good stuff.

The craziness is that we're halfway through this internship already. We've even been contacted about setting up our next internship which will take place in the fall. I'm hoping for an operating room or emergency department placement. For now though, it's back to this paper. I'm tired.

pee.you.

2009-03-03T20:18:00.003-05:00

My new commute consists of taking public transportation for about an hour. I love it. It's become my "free" time where i get to read fun books (aka- not school related). I've already read three; unaccustomed earth, three cups of tea, and a map of the child (which was really a school book, but a fantastic read non-the-less). I used to get rather anxious being on the T with lots of people squished in, and wouldn't sit down if it meant touching people on either side of me. I've grown a lot since then, and now am thrilled to get any seat at the end of the day regardless of who i'm squished between. Recently though, i've been stuck with smokers. They seem to flock to me- sitting in front of me on the bus, plopping next to me on the T- and every time i catch a whiff, i want to throw up. I don't get why people still smoke now-a-days. It's so passe and everyone knows it'll kill you. I vote for separate substandard T cars that all the smelly people have to use. I don't need their stinkiness to rub off on me. Blah.

productive.

2009-03-01T22:06:00.003-05:00

I have a paper due friday, and since i'll be working all week, this weekend was my time to get it done. Did this happen? No. Saturday was very productive, in a non-school way. I picked andrea up at 9am and we drove downtown for a haymarket trip. Mike's pastries came first, of course, but the sad news is that they'd run out of their rock candy sugar stirrers. I rarely add sugar to my lattes, but look forward to doing so at mike's. Alas, i survived, and gathered up my fruits and veggies for the coming weeks. I also restocked my spice cabinet at the middle eastern store. I found i like their curry better, and at $2 a bag (which fills a whole foods spice jar 2-3 times) you can't go wrong. I bought two bags of ground cloves and one bag ground ginger for my mom so she can make lots and lots of good luck cookies. Tasty.

Then it was on to building 19. This store has the potential to scare the crap out of me, but at times can be a treasure chest. A few years back, a. and i picked up some cheap temporary rugs there and when andrea mentioned needing one, i suggested this place. Not only did she pick up a very nicely priced oriental for under her new dining room table, but i grabbed a few 18"rug squares (think flor tiles) at $1.99 a piece to duct tape together and use as a large door mat. Treasure chest it was.

After a quick stop at the fabric store, i dropped andrea off at her place. Since she had an assortment of purchases, i helped her carry them up. One thing led to another, and the next thing i knew, we were ripping up her bathroom floor. She'd been talking about laying a new one over the existing tiles, but i convinced her that it wouldn't work. Too many loose tiles and too uneven. It took us an hour and was the most satisfying work i've done in a while. The best news? The original floor (which was buried under the boring one) was adorable, and is in impressively good shape. One section will need some work, but the rest of it looks great.

Today consisted of morning bookclub, a call home, and working on lots of non-paper related school work. The good news is that i'm done with everything else for a while and will just have this paper to focus on. I guess i'll have some late nights this coming week.

lent.

2009-02-27T21:59:00.002-05:00

Nope, i don't go to church every week (sorry mom), but some traditions are so ingrained that i feel obligated to acknowledge them. I planned to get ashes on wednesday before class, but then realized that i was heading in early to have my picture taken for the graduate webpage. I didn't think the photographer would be thrilled with a smudge on my forehead. Instead, i tried to think of something realistic to give up for the 40 days of lent. In years past, i've intended to copy my sister and give up junk food, but my self control will never be at the same level as hers. So, after some thought, i decided to give up pasta. This was my reasoning:

It's neither too difficult nor too easy- i'll be able to stick with it for the full 40 days, but will definitely miss it.
I eat far too much of it, particularly recently (about 4 nights/week), mainly because it's easy and quick and i'm tired.
It will force me to come up with new dinner ideas that are more meat based (except on fridays, of course).

It's been three days so far, and so good! Hopefully i won't eat it by accident. That already happened when i finished my leftover chicken/veggies for lunch today, only to realize i wasn't suppose to eat meat. Oops.

I also promised that during lent i would do my best to update this neglected blog every other day. They may be short posts, but they'll be here.

donor.room.board.

2009-02-25T08:24:00.001-05:00

I finally remembered to bring my camera and take a picture of my blood donor board for e.

oscar.

2009-02-22T16:12:00.002-05:00

I'm about to head over to my friends' house for our annual oscar night. This will be year 11! While i've spent some time with them recently, many years we don't see each other at all, so it's nice to have a built in excuse to hang out. Usually i make a serious effort to see many of the nominated movies- at least all the best picture ones. This year was probably my worst year yet, having seen just two movies- slumdog millionaire and the reader. I caught slumdog a month or so ago with angela and eva, and squeaked the reader in yesterday with shirl. I'd intended to watch milk and/or doubt last night or today, but went out with eva last night (in an attempt to improve my non-existent social life) and worked on school stuff today. So i'll add them to my netflix list and catch up later. I did fill out a ballot, so we'll see how good i am at making predictions on movies i haven't seen!

i'm.famous!

2009-02-03T19:23:00.000-05:00

Click here, and scroll down about halfway!

day.two.

2009-01-22T22:55:00.002-05:00

Fantastic day. Fantastic. It was my first day in pedi-radiology, and i love it. I want to work in the radiology dept after graduation. Part of the reason i love it so much is because a majority of the job is preparation based (as opposed to other areas that may be more play based). You talk to kids about what's going to happen, and give them other material- photos, medical equipment, dolls, etc- that helps you demonstrate what they'll experience. The day started with a young child who needed an mri. After that was a vcug, and towards the end of the day was a barium enema. I won't go into the details, but it was good stuff. Not only do i love watching how the child life specialist is able to prep, distract and reassure children (thus allowing a 4yr old to stay awake and still for a 45 min mri rather than needing to be sedated), but the medical part absolutely fascinates me. Watching computer images from the mri as they are taken, seeing xrays of the large intestines as the barium made it visible- it was great. Even if my feet and legs are so tired from running around all over the place for the whole day! Maybe i should have been a doctor.

first.day.

2009-01-21T09:17:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was my first internship day. Last night i slept for almost 10 hours. I was tired. I even slept a full 8 hours monday night (before my first day) but the mere act of getting up at 7am started me off on the tired side. Despite being tired, my day was great! It started off meeting with my two supervisors and reviewing info and expectations. Next was pet therapy- a little dog came to visit patients. Then i zipped up to occupational health for four shots- a tb test, the flu shot, tdap, and hep b (the first in the series). My arms are sore today. We caught the inauguration, then off to a meeting with a child psychiatrist to discuss patients for an hour. From there i had an hour break for lunch, and finished up reviewing diagnoses and tests. Shirl was at mgh earlier, and was nice enough to spend two hours on charles street so we could meet for drinks at bin 26. Rob met us an hour later and we had a tasty dinner. So fun!

my.date.with.myself.

2009-01-19T11:20:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was the boston youth symphony orchestra's performance of figaro at harvard's sanders theater. Initially my mom was going to be my date, but the big snow storm (what? snow in boston?) made driving in, or even to the commuter rail, impossible. So i called a bunch of people and e-mailed a few more, but everyone was busy or with similar driving issues. Since i love classical music, i figured i'd go by myself, and i'm really glad i did. After an hour long bus and T ride over there, i got all cozy in my two sixth row seats and heard the story of figaro- one i wasn't familiar with. The kids were fantastic, and accompanied the opera singers beautifully. They even had translations so you could follow along with what they were singing. After the three and a half hour performance, i treated myself to wine, dinner and dessert at finale. I had a gift certificate so completely enjoyed the free meal. I've never been one to shy away from going to a movie or dinner by myself, but often don't have the opportunity. It was nice to sit quietly and enjoy the music and meal without having another person to distract me. Maybe i'll start doing this more often.

school.update.

2009-01-15T22:22:00.005-05:00

I love my classes! The intensive one- bereavement care- will be more than halfway through by saturday evening, though i'll still have two big research papers to write. The other two, clinical issues in child life programs and a seminar course which goes along with the internship, will continue every wednesday from 4-9 until april 29th. I'm definitely more excited about this semester. Not only will i get first hand experience during my 400 hour internship, but the classes seem like ones i'll learn a lot from, and will have fun doing so. The part that's not fun is ordering and paying for all the required books. Instead of ordering them straight from the child life council website, i spent some time checking libraries, half.com, and amazon. I managed to borrow five from the library, and bought five others for big discounts through various online sites. My biggest deal? A $25 book for $0.97 (plus $3.99 shipping). I'll have to get three more for the membership price through c.l.c. but that's still a decent discount off non-member prices. Hopefully they'll all get here fairly quickly!

back.to.school.

2009-01-12T21:14:00.003-05:00

Classes start tomorrow, and it's about time. Breaks are nice, but the lack of school work made me lazy. I didn't get anything done since i had so much more time to do it. It was easier to put off until later. First up is a five meeting course with my favorite teacher. It's tuesday and friday nights from 5-9:30, all day saturday, and the following friday and saturday. A lot at once, but it's a good way to chop up a 3 credit course and have it done with. Wednesday my regular two courses start (4-9:15) and i'll begin my internship at mgh on the 20th. I'll be on the pediatric inpatient floor two days a week and in radiology the other two days. (Weds are off due to classes.) I'm nervous, but excited. It will be good to actually do what i'll be doing when i graduate. Granted, with an advisor or two, but practice none-the-less. Will update everyone once things get started.

scary.

2009-01-12T15:47:00.002-05:00

I haven't been to the dentist in forever. The last time i went, he told me i had three fillings that were separating from the tooth, and that i'd need crowns (which run about $1200 each). Ouch. So i avoided the dentist and decided to recommit myself to my fanatic brushing/flossing/mouthwash routine in hopes that my teeth would hold out a while longer. I got quite good at avoiding the dentist. At first i told myself it was because i didn't have dental insurance, but i picked that up in september and it wasn't until today, four months later, that i actually sucked it up and made an appointment. Thursday's the day. I'm absolutely terrified. I think that my new plan should be to marry a dentist. Their hours aren't crazy, they make a decent salary, and i wouldn't be able to put off appointments any more. Anyone know a cute single dentist who's under the age of 36 or so?

happy.birthday.jess!

2009-01-11T20:12:00.004-05:00

Today is jessica's birthday, and last night she had a bunch of people meet up at drink, a newish bar on congress street. I was on the fence about going, but portia had taken the night off, so we decided to T it together. When snow was predicted and other boys were coming, her husband ed offered to drive down. We hadn't told jess we were coming, so surprised her when we showed up a little before 10. We all sang her happy birthday at midnight, and then trekked through the snow back to the car. So fun!!

laura.jessica.me.portia.

movies.and.glasses.

2009-01-09T13:24:00.003-05:00

Last night i saw slumdog millionaire. Yes, it was as good as everyone says it is. Yes, you should go see it now if you haven't yet. It was playing at coolidge corner at 3:30 and 9:55. I couldn't rally to make the earlier one, but convinced eva to go with me to the later one. She had class until 9:30, so i'd leave at 9:10, pick her up on the way, and make it with time to spare. At 9pm, i checked in on facebook. My friend angela was on, so i im-ed her to say a quick hi. I've known her for 11 years, and though i don't see her often anymore, we've stuck with our once a year oscar party. This february will be year 11. It's tradition now, but it's also a fail-safe way to see each other at least once a year. I mentioned that i was leaving to see slumdog millionaire, and she mentioned that she wanted to see it too, so i picked her up along the way!
I somehow started talking about my wine glasses i found for my cocktail party. Most of you have seen them (and have had a drink out of them by now), but for those of you who haven't, here's the story. I wanted to have real glasses (as opposed to plastic) at my party, and was considering renting them. On a whim (after hearing portia and shirl talk about it) i stopped by the christmas tree shop to see if they had anything promising. As it turned out, they had a special shipment of speigelau glasses for $1.99 each. I happened to have a coupon for 20% off the total, so after going to three different cts, i scored 33 glasses for $1.60 each- cheaper than i could have rented them for. And they're not just regular thick-rimmed glasses. Because i've been spoiled by drinking great wine out of fancy glasses, i now have trouble enjoying anything from a non-crystal glass (crystal glasses have thin, even rims, and glass glasses have thicker, less even rims). So these babies are nice crystal with fantastic rims and a great ring. I love them.

who.said.30.was.too.old.for.sleepovers?

2009-01-09T01:12:00.004-05:00

I had some company wednesday night. Portia and shirl trekked over in the snow to cook fish with me. On the menu? Tilapia with a garlic curry rub, roasted pepper salsa to top it off, and a side of asparagus. Dessert was brownie/peppermint ice cream sundaes.

This all came about a few weeks ago when i mentioned that i was scared to cook fish, and someone suggested we add cooking to our planned sleepover. It's funny. I'm great with soup- can make anything following the recipe or improvising- i've never been intimidated by it. Fish though, probably because i was never a huge fan of it, has always been a little scary. So they came to help and it turned out great! We even had a good breakfast in the morning. Portia made the blueberry muffins i missed out on last time! Next is shirl's turn. We're making homemade pasta and some sort of sauce- can't remember what kind right now.

presents!

2009-01-04T23:50:00.008-05:00

As we all know, i have an obsession with orla kiely bags. It's been the case for many years now, and i've built up quite the collection. However, i've recently realized that the reason i love her stuff (great colorful patterns, laminated canvas which is easy to wipe clean, etc), is also the reason i have issues when it comes to "going out" bags. When the need arises for a small clutch (weddings, bar nights, etc), i'm out of luck. I either use a favorite red/pink flowered number, or shove my license, cash and a credit card in a pocket somewhere. It became apparent that i needed to pick up a neutral brown or black clutch.
During one of our haymarket trips, our waitress at mike's commented on my wallet (which is...surprise, surprise...orla kiely). She told me about a store around the corner, shake the tree, which sells orla stuff, so saturday morning we zipped in. I love this place. Not only did she have orla bags, but also great housey stuff, some clothes, jewelry, perfume, and a bunch of beautiful leather bags. After my second loop in the store, i saw it....the most beautifully perfect clutch ever.

It managed to be neutral, but with personality. I was in love (especially with the four fun finger holes!). As it so happened, my grandmother had sent me a check for christmas. While the sensible thing may have been to put it in savings (since my income for the next six months will be $0), i wanted to get something special with it so i would think of her when i used it. Until i saw this clutch, the runner up was a le creuset pot. Not the case any longer. I'm now the proud owner of this new favorite. Thanks grandma!
I knew the black one would serve me well for years to come, but thought that my next purchase in the bag department would be a brown clutch. Then i'd have all my bases covered. As luck would have it, i opened this christmas present from my friend cindy tonight...

How creepy is that!!! She's always been a great gift giver, but this was almost eerie. It's another perfectly me bag. It's kind of olivey/brown, and the top part folds over and is held closed with two hidden magnets. Now i'm going to have to go out more to use these new members of my little family! Here they are together- the brown one closed and the black's strap tucked in.

bowl.baby.

2008-12-31T19:31:00.004-05:00

After most of the kids moved out of my parents' house, one of our yearly christmas presents was a family outing to a show (lion king, etc), grabbing dinner beforehand. This was mostly because we didn't see each other as much as we'd like, so it was a nice way to combine the present and the quality time. Two years ago, instead of going to a show, we were blindfolded and driven (not really blindfolded, but may as well have been) to a mystery location. We were all guesses for a while there, but without success. Our first stop was at a little italian restaurant someone had recommended. From there, we drove another 20 mins until it was obvious where we were going...bowling! We had such a fantastic time that it's become our new tradition. While the shows were fun, bowling lets us talk and be competitive (kids against grown-ups) which all of us, our mom in particular, loves. This year, i had the best three games of my life. The first round the four kids totaled 503, and i pulled my highest score yet- 147! I felt bad since kevin also hit his highest of 135, but still lost to me. The second round i had 109, and my final was 117. I considered becoming a professional bowler- purchasing the ball, the shoes, etc.- it could be fun! Then brian pointed out how you can always tell the professionals from the every-once-in-a-whilers because they're in peak physical form. Case in point, the beer bellied fellow next to us who was clearly in need of a personal hygiene class. He got strike after strike and even showed my mom how to hit some buttons on the computer to show her the best angle to bowl the remaining pins. He also talked excitedly about his upcoming trip to vegas for some bowling thing. Maybe i'm better off sticking with my current schedule of once yearly bowling.

pop.pop.

2008-12-30T18:15:00.000-05:00

The kids' christmas present to my mom and aunt was tickets for the whole family to go to the pops. We got my dad something else since tickets to the pops probably weren't on his list. I'm not a fan of plain old unwrapping of tickets, so i made the two of them go on a hunt to find their present. We wrapped an index card telling them to "find 14 out of place items on the tree and unscramble to reveal the location of clue number 2." The out of place items were letters cut from magazines. After a little while (and some hints), they came up with this:

Clue number 2 had a music staff with notes spelling out "dad face." It took us a while to come up with this since there are only 7 letters in the music alphabet. After rubbing my dad's face for a bit, they found clue 3 on the back of a photo of their father. That sent them to the backgammon game in which the tickets were hidden. So much more fun than wrapping them in a box!
As for the pops, they were fantastic! It had been several years since i'd last gone, and i forgot how much i liked it! This might have to become another yearly present! Here we all are...