This is my Yosemite summary. We left Friday.
First of all, Yosemite Valley is really BIG. Not only big, but tall. There are these mammoth walls of granite towering in sharp curtains that ripple throughout the valley. The trees are mostly evergreens, and there are a bunch of amazing Sequoias (sequoias are the really big thick trees. Generally not as tall as redwoods). There are rivers and bridges and waterfalls.
We were staying in this place called Housekeeping Camp. Housekeeping camp has these tent-cabin barrack like things. Like, picture a small cabin, typically house shaped, made of some sort of plaster stuff - except the roof is a canvas sheet, and the front wall is cloth with an opening. The cabin is divided by a thick wall - some other random person is on the other side. Inside the half-cabin (which is about as wide from door to wall as a small bed is long) is one small twin bed and a bunk against each wall. There is also a shelf. Then ABOVE this tent-cabin is a sort of canopy thing - also house shaped, but bigger - fastened to a high wooden fence enclosing an area with a table like you see in restaurant patios. The fences have three gaps. There is a fence on each side.
Housekeeping Camp was very Housekeepingly. There was a laundromat and a shower house and a convenience store. It was actually pretty cool, although I wasn't looking forward to the shower. (Also, prices were amazingly reasonable at the store)
Yosemite had this huge bear thing going. I never actually got to SEE a bear :(, but you had to keep really high security. The trash cans were these huge metal things with heavy doors and safety clips. We had to store all of our food - and "food" included toiletries, tooth brushes, and basically anything that might smell the least bit scented - AT ALL. There was this complex lever system we had to operate to open our metal box things. On the last night I was about to close it and the metal hook SLAMMED down on my fingers and pinned them into the box. I couldn't get them out and I started screaming and Benjamin freaked out. I finally removed them and they got all purple and swollen.
Anyways, our first night we didn't do much. We rented bedding and set up stuff. We put things in the bear box. We unpacked. Then we walked across a bridge and along this beach of a pretty river and looked at Half Dome - this famous half of a big granite lump on a mountain ridge. It was cool. Then we came back and Dad started boiling water to expand our Lasagna dust into a food-like substance. The lasagna was actually pretty good, but it wasn't really lasagna. It was sort of curly noodles in sauce with some sort of meat. Afterwards I helped Mom wash the dishes with shampoo (we had forgotten soap. Oops!)
Then we got ready for bed in the bathrooms and piled on layers of fleece and things for warmth. I had claimed the top bunk, but Benj and I shared the bottom one together that night. It made it warmer, plus we had our combined blankets.
B had named our tent cabin Fort Nobear.
The next day we had some rather sticky cereal in condensed milk. The condensed milk wasn't all that bad. It was very sweet and rather thin. After getting dressed and sunscreened and all that, it was time for our first hike. We took this Yosemite Shuttle thing to "happy isles" where lots of hikes are found. The Happy Isles are actually these two islands that you could see if you walked far enough down a road to a bridge or something.
We were hiking to two waterfalls. Vernal and Nevada. The journey to Nevada falls was about 7 miles round trip, and we weren't exactly sure how far we'd get. We wanted to at least SEE Nevada.
At first the trail was a rather pleasent sloped road with trees and large boulders on the sides and huge peaks of granite circling everything. We crossed a bridge over a river, which was very exciting. On the other side of the bridge was a water fountain and a restroom. After that the path wasn't a road, but a more typical hiking path. This was more fun to me. So it was steeper for a bit and then we passed another bridge. The river was prettier here. Still not that exciting.
Then we got to Vernal. Vernal was HUGE. It was really wide and very, very, tall. So that was cool.
Except then we had to go past Vernal. And the way to get past Vernal was to grapple up this narrow, steep set of stares carved of stone pressed right against this huge cliff. And these weren't just steep narrow terrifying steps - they were wet and slimy and slippery. And long. With no railing or anything. And I was freaking out about having to come back down these steps and Benjamin was bouncing all over the place which was terrifying, and it was just very bad. There was a rainbow though. Bonus points for rainbow.
When we finally got to the top I was feeling rather faint and so luckily there was a large flat rocky area to rest up.
We sat on a log in the shade and ate our ClifBars. Then I used the bathroom. It was a small wooden shed with a toilet designed kind of like a porta-potty and no sink or anything. The toilet didn't have a messy swamp bottom like a porta-potty, though. In fact, it didn't have a bottom that I could see. It was just this long, dark empty tube. Dun dun DUUUUUN.
(The toilet paper situation was really irritating, because although there was plenty of toilet paper, the rolls were padlocked onto this slab of wood, making the process of unwinding a strip of toilet paper painfully hard to endure.)
So on we went, towards Nevada. The path was not to bad here, mostly flat, if bumpy, and slightly woodsy. There were a TON of squirrels everywhere. They weren't shy or anything. We would be eating and they came basically right up to us and just hung out. The squirrels had slightly different heads and a remarkable un-floofy tail.
We got to a place were we viewed Nevada for the first time.
It was pretty cool. A lot thinner than Vernal. It got all misty at the bottom, but no visible rainbow. Sigh. Anyways, the rest of the path was this see-saw back and forth up these steep pebble steps against the cliff by the waterfall. We passed a ton of people wiping out on the trail. We took lots of rests, until finally I sort of broke down and refused to go further. B and Dad went on up, and after a long rest and an apple each, Mom and I headed back down to the foresty place to wait. It took forever for them to get back down. Benjamin was very proud.
So we headed back. Don't you think it's IRRITATING when the trails don't loop? So you know you're only going to have to come back. No real sense of progress. Loopy trails are better.
Anyways, we walked, and I was worried about going DOWN the slippery stairs - called the 'Mist Trail' - especially if we would have to go around other people. Luckily, Dad found an alternative. There was another winding path that would lead uuuuuup and then back dooooown. It added an extra mile or so to our journey, but to me it was worth it. So we went up. The path here was see-saw, but it was more gradual, less rocky, and less precarious. We stopped to rest and snack in occasional patches of shade.
Finally, after like half an hour we were up.
Then it was time to go dooooown. The down trail was irritating, for two reasons. One, the now asphalt path was coated in a slippery dust, and it was easy to skid. Two, the path was covered in horse dung. But it wasn't too bad and I certainly preferred it to the Mist Trail, although Benjamin did not. There were lots of sequoias on the path. There were lots of road workers stopping sequoias from collapsing segments of the path.
Finally the dooooown trail met up with the first bridge and we headed back to the bus stop.
It just seemed so much longer going back. Miles and miles of sloping concrete that should have stopped ages ago. Uuuuugh. When we got to the bus stop, we were not alone. A crowd of other hikers were there too. We piled on and I snagged a seat. It was unbelievebly crowded.
I was behind some EXTREMELY aggravating old ladies.
We missed a shortcut stop and endured nearly the entire bus route on the bus. Like, 30 stops or something.
When we got home FORTY FIVE MINUTS LATER we basically wiped out and read until dinner.
The next day (after a very cold night) it was time for another hike. This one - if we walked the whole trail - would be 14 miles round trip, rather than the 8 we did yesterday. Luckily, we did not intend to walk the whole trail. We probably ended up walking... 7, maybe? Anyways, I was expecting to enjoy this one a lot more than the one yesterday, because it was flatter and more remote. Like, we passed 10 groups on the trail (or rather they passed us). So we get out of the car, and the mosquitos promptly eat us alive as we put on sunscreen
Then we walked down the trail to the lake (which was our starting point) and discovered that we had to cross a shallow pass of the lake - right through the water. It was maybe 15 feet? More? And like, 60 degree water (which btw is a whole lot colder than 60 degree air). We took off our shoes and muddled across. It was SO COLD. I thought my feet would explode, plus pebbled were digging into them.
Then I spent like 5 minutes rubbing mud off my toes.
Benjamin got a piggy back ride.
After that the trail was great. It was nice and cool, with a breeze. The path was gentle. We were planning to hike until we got to the top of this ridge, where there would be a great view of Half Dome and other stuff, but there were really nice mountain views the entire way up, different from yesterday. We stopped to have elevensies. Meaning a Cliff Bar each. I proudly saved half of mine for half an hour later.
Pretty much right after that we started heading up into rocky territory. Steps and ramps of stone carved in swirls were easy to confuse with snow melts that also came drooling down the mountain. The path was often flooded with large puddles. Trees were less frequent here. Luckily, so were the mosquitos. I loved finding alternative routes around wet spots.
About 40 minutes later or something we came across our first patch of snow. We were like, aw, that's cool. We had been stopping every other minute basically, at this time (mainly because of Benjamin). The oxygen was so thin that it was hard to breath and we tired easily. Benjamin wanted to stop, but he didn't want more of us to go on without him. So we rested again, and we each had an apple. We saw a lizard and a large fluffy marmot.
Many minutes after that, we came across a large snow blob encroaching on the path. Then another. Then a bloated slab smothering a large chunk of the trail. This persisted. It was my job to find alternative routes (I was starting to get really tired too), but once or twice taking steps across the snow was unavoidable.
We were SO CLOSE and none of us wanted to turn back now. (Dad generally didn't want to turn back - he had no problem continuing on further) There was just this final lump on the mountain that just never got any further.
We started getting a little desperate. The snow scared me because it was frozen all slippery. We could barely discern the path (although Dad got very good at tracking footprints) so I would just scrabble up the mountainside, regardless of rocks and shrubs, until I could spot the best way to meet up with the path again without crossing as much snow as possible.
Several times we disagreed about where to go, so we just basically headed up. The path was not very helpful. I climbed this stretch of avalanche which was basically a ton of large rocks and small boulders poured together off a slope, but eventually I had to admit that going around would probably be wiser.
We had entered the timeless lump now, which was full of trees and pine needles and snow. By now the others had resigned to trekking across the snow, but I still resisted. After many false paths and frustrations, I started freaking out.
I looked up at the top of the Lump - so close! - and decided just to claw my way up. So I did, and I was low on oxygen, and physically exhausted, and I just snagged through all the pine cones and logs (this part was very steep) and I went higher and higher and I could just barely see the view, but I refused to stop, until I saw that there was ANOTHER lump and I would half to walk past all this stuff. Then I slipped and slashed my leg on a rock.
I sort of curled up into a ball and started hyperventilating with this really loud scary machine sound, and thus did not hear my family yelling for me for a very long time. When I finally heard and responded they were like "THE PATH IS OVER HERE" and I had been going up the WRONG SIDE OF THE FREAKING LUMP.
I was like AAAGH and so I struggled sideways down the slope (I hate walking sideways on a slope) And I kept slipping on snow and crashing into logs and stuff. I was sort of breaking down. Finally I met up with my family and I was not happy. Then Dad showed the way through ALL THIS SNOW and we finally made it to the top of the lump.
At first we couldn't even see the view because trees were in the way, but we found some boulders with a nice view. We ate our Cliff Bars. Then my parents noticed the blood dripping down my leg and freaked out. I was sort of resentful about this entire thing.
But there was a view, and there was food, and after a while I calmed down. I did NOT want to slosh and slip and crash my way back down this mountain. I just pushed that thought to the back of my mind. Instead, I watched mom grind dirt into her new hiking sun hat to make it look more experienced (while the rest of us scoffed and mocked her). I watched Benjamin take pictures (I had forgotten my camera).
And you know what? The other side of the mountain was just a whole lot ... greener. I'm serious. It was this gentle foresty incline into the valley. There wasn't a trail there, though, so we assumed there was a rift or something we couldn't see.
We acclimated for a while, and lowered our pulse.
Then we had to accept the way back.
It was a lot easier. A lot a lot easier. I know it's straining on the knees and all that, but this was a LOT BETTER. For one, the path was making a lot more sense to me. For another, I had become more comfortable with the snow. Thirdly, Benjamin had found both of us hiking poles (which I had been desiring).
My stick was named Bernard Cactavius Bumberspoot. He preferred to be addressed by his middle name. So down we went. I had to pee, but that was okay. I held it in. Finally we were in the forest. It felt SO CLOSE, but it was like the Lump all over again. I guess that happens once you get back to the easy part of a long hike. You just want it to END already, but it just DOESN'T. You don't remember it being that long. At least I didn't.
Then, finally finally FINALLY, we were back at the lake, which of course we had to cross. Benjamin did it on his own this time. I was even more traumatized, because I had accidentally walked on the pebbly side of the passage (WTH, why is there a pebbly side to a lake ?!?). Oops.
Then, as we tried to clean our feet in the water, the mosquitos ate us alive (again) and all this moisture from the moss I was sitting on soaked into my pants and made my butt soggy.
But I was happy now. It was over, and the way down was fun.
Deep breath.
We went back to camp and ate some turkey soup (which was way too thick and goopy) and chicken with rice (which had like, a gram of chicken in the entire bag. I certainly couldn't find any chicken in my scoops) and Beef Pasta (which was a bit to cheesy for my taste).
Good, but not great. I preferred the "lasagna" from the previous night.
But then we had Raspberry Crumble, and it was warm and very good.
The next day we packed up and left for Santa Cruz.
I never got to see a bear.
PICTURES TO FOLLOW
(Okay, I need to put away this lap top cuz we need to move now. Another long drive. Sigh. We don't actually have a lap top with us, so I will try to complete this post with the iPad once we get to the hotel. I WILL tell you guys everything.
It's been really hard to concentrate with this Elvis Impersonator driving around our hotel - long story.)
For now,
~Julia
P.S. Missing kittens like CRAZY!!! URGH!
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Brother Book: Episode 2
SCENARIO: Brother is sitting on sister's panda. Panda is risking being squished, suffocated, or malformed. :(
BAD BROTHER:
Me: OMG! Brother, you are squishing my panda!
Brother: (looks up with contempt and disregards comment)
Me: BROTHER! Get off of my panda!
Brother: (continues to ignore sister)
Me: HELLO!
Brother: (shifts weight on panda and smirks)
Me: Mom, brother is squishing my panda!
Brother: Hehe, no I'm not! (Picks up panda and throws it across the room)
(panda lands in fireplace)
Me: AAAGH! PANDA!
(sister dives for panda)
(brother slams into sister, grabs panda, and throws panda out the window)
Me: AAAAAGH!
(panda is run over by a car)
(panda is rather squished but still intact)
Me: BROTHER!!! OH MY GOD!!! PANDAAAAAA!
(panda does not respond)
Me: MOOOOOOOM!
Brother: (snarls) NO!
(shoves sister out the window)
(sister is run over by a car)
(brother uses sister as plant fertilizer and puts panda back in her room)
OR
Me: OMG! Brother, you are squishing my panda!
Brother: That's right - hahahahaha! I am turning your panda into a robot with my robotizing-panda pants!
Me: NOOO!
Brother: Hehe.
Panda-bot: Beep. Beep. Boop.
Me: NOOOOOOO!!! PANDA!!!
Panda-bot: Master, I am ready to serve.
Brother: Muahahaha.
Me: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Me: Wait till my father hears about this!
Panda-bot: I AM YOUR FATHER!
Luke: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Me: Wait - WHAT?
Brother: Panda - KILL SISTER AND LUKE SKYWALKER!!
Me: Oh no!
Darth Panda: Kill sister and (dramatic inhale) Luke Skywalker (dramatic exhale).
Luke: Die, Darth Panda! You are not my father!
Darth Panda: Look inside yourself Luke, you know that it is true. (dramatic breathing)
Luke: NOOO!
(Luke whips out light saber)
Me: What the heck is going on???
Darth Panda: KILL KILL KILL!
Luke: DIE!
(Luke lunges with light saber)
(Darth Panda knocks the light saber aside. It flies out the window)
Luke: Oh no!
Riava: Don't worry. I won't let the panda hurt you.
Darth Panda: STEP ASIDE FEEBLE JEDI
Riava: I won't let you hurt these innocent people. You have caused much too much damage already. Come back to the light, Anakin Panda-walker. You can still work with the Jedi!
Brother: Don't listen to her Darth Panda! You are Darth Panda! You are invincible!
Riava: YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!
Brother: AND YOU ARE A ROBOT PANDA!
Darth Panda: Beep - SYSTEM OVERLOAD.
Robotizing-panda pants: Beep. Overflow error.
Brother: NOOOOOO!
Panda: Yay! I am a free Jedi Panda once again!
Brother: YOU! (attacks Riava)
(epic battle ensues)
(Riava wins) (duh)
(Everybody cheers and we throw a Riava-is-awesome party)
OR
Me: OMG, Brother, you are sitting on my panda!
Brother: AAAAAAAAAAGH!
(Kills me with an axe)
GOOD BROTHER:
Me: OMG! Brother, you are squishing my panda!
Brother: Oh horrors!
(Brother immediately retrieves Panda)
Brother: Oh, Panda, I am sincerely sorry! How can I ever fully express my regret?
Panda: Don't mention it. It was an accident.
Brother: No, I insist! Here I will present you both with these apology cupcakes!
Me: Thank you!
Panda: This is very kind of you, Brother.
Brother: It was the least I could do.
MY BROTHER:
Me: OMG! Brother, you are squishing my panda!
Brother: (no response)
Me: BROTHER! Get off my panda!
Brother: (grunt) Fine. (Removes panda)
(throws it on the couch)
Me: Don't sit on my Panda any more!
Brother: I won't.
BAD BROTHER:
Me: OMG! Brother, you are squishing my panda!
Brother: (looks up with contempt and disregards comment)
Me: BROTHER! Get off of my panda!
Brother: (continues to ignore sister)
Me: HELLO!
Brother: (shifts weight on panda and smirks)
Me: Mom, brother is squishing my panda!
Brother: Hehe, no I'm not! (Picks up panda and throws it across the room)
(panda lands in fireplace)
Me: AAAGH! PANDA!
(sister dives for panda)
(brother slams into sister, grabs panda, and throws panda out the window)
Me: AAAAAGH!
(panda is run over by a car)
(panda is rather squished but still intact)
Me: BROTHER!!! OH MY GOD!!! PANDAAAAAA!
(panda does not respond)
Me: MOOOOOOOM!
Brother: (snarls) NO!
(shoves sister out the window)
(sister is run over by a car)
(brother uses sister as plant fertilizer and puts panda back in her room)
OR
Me: OMG! Brother, you are squishing my panda!
Brother: That's right - hahahahaha! I am turning your panda into a robot with my robotizing-panda pants!
Me: NOOO!
Brother: Hehe.
Panda-bot: Beep. Beep. Boop.
Me: NOOOOOOO!!! PANDA!!!
Panda-bot: Master, I am ready to serve.
Brother: Muahahaha.
Me: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Me: Wait till my father hears about this!
Panda-bot: I AM YOUR FATHER!
Luke: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Me: Wait - WHAT?
Brother: Panda - KILL SISTER AND LUKE SKYWALKER!!
Me: Oh no!
Darth Panda: Kill sister and (dramatic inhale) Luke Skywalker (dramatic exhale).
Luke: Die, Darth Panda! You are not my father!
Darth Panda: Look inside yourself Luke, you know that it is true. (dramatic breathing)
Luke: NOOO!
(Luke whips out light saber)
Me: What the heck is going on???
Darth Panda: KILL KILL KILL!
Luke: DIE!
(Luke lunges with light saber)
(Darth Panda knocks the light saber aside. It flies out the window)
Luke: Oh no!
Riava: Don't worry. I won't let the panda hurt you.
Darth Panda: STEP ASIDE FEEBLE JEDI
Riava: I won't let you hurt these innocent people. You have caused much too much damage already. Come back to the light, Anakin Panda-walker. You can still work with the Jedi!
Brother: Don't listen to her Darth Panda! You are Darth Panda! You are invincible!
Riava: YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!
Brother: AND YOU ARE A ROBOT PANDA!
Darth Panda: Beep - SYSTEM OVERLOAD.
Robotizing-panda pants: Beep. Overflow error.
Brother: NOOOOOO!
Panda: Yay! I am a free Jedi Panda once again!
Brother: YOU! (attacks Riava)
(epic battle ensues)
(Riava wins) (duh)
(Everybody cheers and we throw a Riava-is-awesome party)
OR
Me: OMG, Brother, you are sitting on my panda!
Brother: AAAAAAAAAAGH!
(Kills me with an axe)
GOOD BROTHER:
Me: OMG! Brother, you are squishing my panda!
Brother: Oh horrors!
(Brother immediately retrieves Panda)
Brother: Oh, Panda, I am sincerely sorry! How can I ever fully express my regret?
Panda: Don't mention it. It was an accident.
Brother: No, I insist! Here I will present you both with these apology cupcakes!
Me: Thank you!
Panda: This is very kind of you, Brother.
Brother: It was the least I could do.
MY BROTHER:
Me: OMG! Brother, you are squishing my panda!
Brother: (no response)
Me: BROTHER! Get off my panda!
Brother: (grunt) Fine. (Removes panda)
(throws it on the couch)
Me: Don't sit on my Panda any more!
Brother: I won't.
Monday, May 28, 2012
West Coast
Okay, so I'm leaving San Francisco tomorrow morning. We're going to Yosemite Park where we are camping out in a tent-cabin thing by the curve of a river in a valley. We are equipped with pans, cups, Cliff bars, condensed milk, and dehydrated raspberry crumble.
So far San Francisco has been fun. We've stayed at my aunt Diana's condo type thing with her chihuahua Peanut. B and I have slept on couches with fuzzy blankets.
It's the 50th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. That means carnivals and parades for normal people, and crowds and traffic for me. We were going to go to this cool thing called the Exploritorium (I don't even know what that is, but it sounded neat) but we decided not too because it would be partied up on nearby streets.
Instead we've basically just been walking around. Saturday we basically just hung out at my aunt's house. She's been having back problems, so she has this really cool thing called an 'Inversion Table' - which is a board thing balanced just right (you adjust it to your height) that claps around your ankles in this brace contraption, and you can then hang upside down against the board. Apparently this is very good for your vertebrae. I have pictures, but I won't be able to load them off until after the trip.
Sunday we walked through the Golden Gate Park and around the Ocean Beach (which is a bunch of blocks down from my aunt's house). It sucks that the water is so cold here, because you can't swim in 60 degree water!
Then we went to Japan Town - which was EPIC. Most of Japan town was inside this bridge-building thing. There was a really cool Japanese bookstore with lots of magazines, books, and manga. There were also some restaurants. In Japan, restaurants have plastic models of each dish in a display window outside the restaurant, which actually seems really helpful. The plastic food looked good anyways.
Then there was a shop of little stationary and paper goodies. It was heaven for my nerdy little brain. There were colored tapes and note books and pens and staplers and erasers and fans and paper robot things and clip boards and all sorts of overpriced simple stuff that just really made me HAPPY.
Especially the expensive tins of paperclips shaped like animals (Cats, ducks, alligators, HIPPOS!!!) My heart broke with the Hippo Clips.
Anyways, I got a pretty little notebook - nothing especially Japanese, but just a souvenir of all the things that were in that little shop.
We had Korean Barbecue - which is SO GOOD. They bring you rice, sea weed soup, and lots of bowls of little goodies to go on your rice. Then they bring you marinated meats and you grill them. YUM!
Today we hiked around on these ruins of some sort of stone water park thing by Seal Rock and all these cliffs. The ruins were very cool and fun to explore, although it was kinds of scary because they were flooded by all this murky water. It was extremely windy all over, but you get used to the cold pretty quickly. Benjamin went scaling all these gigantic cliffs and things and I climbed a couple large rocks myself. It was hard because there was a ton of the sand on the rocks, so you had to scrape the sand of each foothold for five minutes before climbing up.
Then in the afternoon we explored the best beach ever - it was really pretty with fun sand and lots of pretty flowers we hiked around. The wind was great. A bunch of people were hang gliding. The sand was nice and powdery to slip around in. Tide was coming back in at this point, so Benjamin and I would go to the area of wet sand and try to finish drawing patterns and then running away when the tide got to close. We would follow each wave back down the beach and then would be chased away.
Then we chased Peanut over all these trails with sand and wild flowers and I felt all ROBUST and ADVENTUROUS. It was seriously very cool, and the ocean view was amazing.
Things are going fun!
So far San Francisco has been fun. We've stayed at my aunt Diana's condo type thing with her chihuahua Peanut. B and I have slept on couches with fuzzy blankets.
It's the 50th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. That means carnivals and parades for normal people, and crowds and traffic for me. We were going to go to this cool thing called the Exploritorium (I don't even know what that is, but it sounded neat) but we decided not too because it would be partied up on nearby streets.
Instead we've basically just been walking around. Saturday we basically just hung out at my aunt's house. She's been having back problems, so she has this really cool thing called an 'Inversion Table' - which is a board thing balanced just right (you adjust it to your height) that claps around your ankles in this brace contraption, and you can then hang upside down against the board. Apparently this is very good for your vertebrae. I have pictures, but I won't be able to load them off until after the trip.
Sunday we walked through the Golden Gate Park and around the Ocean Beach (which is a bunch of blocks down from my aunt's house). It sucks that the water is so cold here, because you can't swim in 60 degree water!
Then we went to Japan Town - which was EPIC. Most of Japan town was inside this bridge-building thing. There was a really cool Japanese bookstore with lots of magazines, books, and manga. There were also some restaurants. In Japan, restaurants have plastic models of each dish in a display window outside the restaurant, which actually seems really helpful. The plastic food looked good anyways.
Then there was a shop of little stationary and paper goodies. It was heaven for my nerdy little brain. There were colored tapes and note books and pens and staplers and erasers and fans and paper robot things and clip boards and all sorts of overpriced simple stuff that just really made me HAPPY.
Especially the expensive tins of paperclips shaped like animals (Cats, ducks, alligators, HIPPOS!!!) My heart broke with the Hippo Clips.
Anyways, I got a pretty little notebook - nothing especially Japanese, but just a souvenir of all the things that were in that little shop.
We had Korean Barbecue - which is SO GOOD. They bring you rice, sea weed soup, and lots of bowls of little goodies to go on your rice. Then they bring you marinated meats and you grill them. YUM!
Today we hiked around on these ruins of some sort of stone water park thing by Seal Rock and all these cliffs. The ruins were very cool and fun to explore, although it was kinds of scary because they were flooded by all this murky water. It was extremely windy all over, but you get used to the cold pretty quickly. Benjamin went scaling all these gigantic cliffs and things and I climbed a couple large rocks myself. It was hard because there was a ton of the sand on the rocks, so you had to scrape the sand of each foothold for five minutes before climbing up.
Then in the afternoon we explored the best beach ever - it was really pretty with fun sand and lots of pretty flowers we hiked around. The wind was great. A bunch of people were hang gliding. The sand was nice and powdery to slip around in. Tide was coming back in at this point, so Benjamin and I would go to the area of wet sand and try to finish drawing patterns and then running away when the tide got to close. We would follow each wave back down the beach and then would be chased away.
Then we chased Peanut over all these trails with sand and wild flowers and I felt all ROBUST and ADVENTUROUS. It was seriously very cool, and the ocean view was amazing.
Things are going fun!
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Riava Fighting Analysis
Okay, so I promised you all a video with Riava's "moves". And I finished it. So I know that flashy fighting computer games might not be your "thing" for several of you. (I did get a clip of Riava fighting a bug rather than Empire soldiers, which results in a lot less gun blasts and random other flashes and numbers.)
So, the introduction is Riava confronting Lord Vivicar. Backstory: A bunch of Jedi Masters were going insane because they were taken over by a Shadow Plague. The Jedi masters were going insane and they all mentioned 'Parkanas Tark' and that 'The darkness was coming'. We discovered that they had all been taken over by this plague by the Sith spirit of its creator - and they were forced to abandon their companion, Parkanas, behind to die.
Well, it turns out Parkanas survived. Parkanas IS Lord Vivicar, the sith infecting all these jedi for revenge.
I was going to make the conclusion a separate clip, but I'm worried about them exporting before I have to leave.
I'm gonna post this to let you know I tried, just in case. Hopefully I can at least get the documentary clip thing up. It's not TOO long. If not, know that I'm trying!
YEEEEAH IT FINISHED!
Okay, I'll start loading it on....
agh error.
hang on.
Okay it's uploading....
SIX MINUTES TILL I HAVE TO GO AAAAAGH.
Okay, I'm gonna go put on my socks. AAAAGH.
OHMYGOD
It actually WORKED. Phew. And with one minute to go!
Alright. Posting this. Stick with me here! :)
PS Yeah, I have to turn off the computer now. This sucks, because it now says there are only seven minutes left. I'll see if I can procrastinate...
So, the introduction is Riava confronting Lord Vivicar. Backstory: A bunch of Jedi Masters were going insane because they were taken over by a Shadow Plague. The Jedi masters were going insane and they all mentioned 'Parkanas Tark' and that 'The darkness was coming'. We discovered that they had all been taken over by this plague by the Sith spirit of its creator - and they were forced to abandon their companion, Parkanas, behind to die.
Well, it turns out Parkanas survived. Parkanas IS Lord Vivicar, the sith infecting all these jedi for revenge.
I was going to make the conclusion a separate clip, but I'm worried about them exporting before I have to leave.
I'm gonna post this to let you know I tried, just in case. Hopefully I can at least get the documentary clip thing up. It's not TOO long. If not, know that I'm trying!
YEEEEAH IT FINISHED!
Okay, I'll start loading it on....
agh error.
hang on.
SIX MINUTES TILL I HAVE TO GO AAAAAGH.
Okay, I'm gonna go put on my socks. AAAAGH.
OHMYGOD
It actually WORKED. Phew. And with one minute to go!
Alright. Posting this. Stick with me here! :)
PS Yeah, I have to turn off the computer now. This sucks, because it now says there are only seven minutes left. I'll see if I can procrastinate...
Monday, May 21, 2012
Don't Meow at me Like That
So, last Saturday, I was going to volunteer at Furkids.
Mom dropped me off in front of the Petsmart at Midtown. I went inside. When I got to the little cat adoption room thing, the door was open, but no fencing was up and nobody was there. I was like, what the heck, and I went inside. Cammie, my surrogate cat, was there. Everyone of sleeping, except Isabella, a really needy, jealous grey tabby - only a year old. I came in there and she started meowing at me. I tried to pet her through the cage thing, but she was not satisfied. I wasn't sure what to do, so I just waited for Jenni, my shift-partner, to show up. I tried opening the cabinet thing with what I thought was the correct combination - "XYZ", but that didn't work, so I mixed up XYZ a bunch of ways because I was almost positive that that was the code.
Isabella meowed at me imploringly.
Then these two people showed up and came in the little room. They entertained Cammie for a while and I was suddenly thinking that the guy might be adopting her! But now, they looked at the cage below her (which I had thought was empty) and the woman was all "Yeah, she's in there."
I was like, "well that's WEIRD." Then I looked over the woman's shoulder as she unlocked the cabinet. (Turns out the combination was XWZ - oops.) She got the keys to the cages and a cat carrier from above. Now that I knew the combination, I went over and looked at the cage below Cammie's. It was STILL empty. I figured that the Furkids people must have been talking about a different cage. Then the woman walked over to that same cage, unlocked it, and the guy reached behind the littler box and scooped out the tiniest kitten I have ever seen by the scruff of her neck. She was sort of a tortie, with coloring a little like Sasha's only browner. She was about the size of my fist, curled up a little like a hedgehog.
I was stunned. O.O
O.O
She was ADORABLE. I was sort of in shock. Apparently she had been abandoned at the Petsmart earlier that same day, and was being transported to the main center.
(BTW - check out the furkids website! There are a ton of new kittens that are just so cute! Those little calicos Skittles and Sweet Tart.... Those ones photographed in baskets.... I love Sasha and Maya, but apparently all kittens melt my heart. :) kitten pictures << Check out all those bundles of joy right here! They are all so cute....)
Anyways...
At this point I knew the code, so I followed the people to make sure they had left the store, and then I snuck back to set up. I broke into the cabinet thing - LEGALLY. I am a Furkids volunteer, I just forgot one digit of the code.
Anyways, I lugged the fencing around the enclosure and then let everyone out. Isabella first. There were several new faces. Panther, a really sweet black tom. Claudia, a cuddly, shy calico with a really beautiful pelt.
The one who stood out to me was Carter, a cloud colored scruffy guy with really long hair and a long skinny neck.
Mom dropped me off in front of the Petsmart at Midtown. I went inside. When I got to the little cat adoption room thing, the door was open, but no fencing was up and nobody was there. I was like, what the heck, and I went inside. Cammie, my surrogate cat, was there. Everyone of sleeping, except Isabella, a really needy, jealous grey tabby - only a year old. I came in there and she started meowing at me. I tried to pet her through the cage thing, but she was not satisfied. I wasn't sure what to do, so I just waited for Jenni, my shift-partner, to show up. I tried opening the cabinet thing with what I thought was the correct combination - "XYZ", but that didn't work, so I mixed up XYZ a bunch of ways because I was almost positive that that was the code.
Isabella meowed at me imploringly.
Then these two people showed up and came in the little room. They entertained Cammie for a while and I was suddenly thinking that the guy might be adopting her! But now, they looked at the cage below her (which I had thought was empty) and the woman was all "Yeah, she's in there."
I was like, "well that's WEIRD." Then I looked over the woman's shoulder as she unlocked the cabinet. (Turns out the combination was XWZ - oops.) She got the keys to the cages and a cat carrier from above. Now that I knew the combination, I went over and looked at the cage below Cammie's. It was STILL empty. I figured that the Furkids people must have been talking about a different cage. Then the woman walked over to that same cage, unlocked it, and the guy reached behind the littler box and scooped out the tiniest kitten I have ever seen by the scruff of her neck. She was sort of a tortie, with coloring a little like Sasha's only browner. She was about the size of my fist, curled up a little like a hedgehog.
I was stunned. O.O
O.O
She was ADORABLE. I was sort of in shock. Apparently she had been abandoned at the Petsmart earlier that same day, and was being transported to the main center.
(BTW - check out the furkids website! There are a ton of new kittens that are just so cute! Those little calicos Skittles and Sweet Tart.... Those ones photographed in baskets.... I love Sasha and Maya, but apparently all kittens melt my heart. :) kitten pictures << Check out all those bundles of joy right here! They are all so cute....)
Anyways...
At this point I knew the code, so I followed the people to make sure they had left the store, and then I snuck back to set up. I broke into the cabinet thing - LEGALLY. I am a Furkids volunteer, I just forgot one digit of the code.
Anyways, I lugged the fencing around the enclosure and then let everyone out. Isabella first. There were several new faces. Panther, a really sweet black tom. Claudia, a cuddly, shy calico with a really beautiful pelt.
The one who stood out to me was Carter, a cloud colored scruffy guy with really long hair and a long skinny neck.
Furkids had rescued Carter from a bush. He had gotten stuck there because his hair was so long. :)
Anyways, I then got very sweaty releasing all the cats and dragging cat trees outside the room and cleaning litter boxes and stuff. Plus I would FREAK OUT whenever a staff person walked by.
It was intense. I was glad when the volunteer for the next shift showed up.
The Plan
So here's the "deal"
I haven't posted yet this month. I do have several posts planned out and in progress, so I will tell you what to look for right now. (Btw, my blogger account just switched to the new posting format and it is MAJORLY WEIRD. I miss the old one!)
So, I'm just going to lay it all out.
In no particular order.
1) Well, you guys know I've been trying to compile a kitten video. For a while I just filmed a bunch of random cute behavior, but it's really hard for me to know where to start with these things because there's SO MUCH that they do and so much that I can't all film which seems futile and unfair. I do have a lot of footage, so I'm splitting it into three chunks: Likes/Dislikes, Daily Routine, and Around the House.
These might be posted separately, it depends how much time they each seem to be taking. I'm already pretty far with Likes/Dislikes, so hopefully I will have that up by the end of the month. I'll get them all up here eventually, I promise!
We also have a cat tree now. Dad made it! He used several yards of black fabric, several puffs of polyester, and 97 feet of rope! I'll probably just throw in some pictures of that with this post.
2) I want to do a summary of the weekend (focusing on Furkids and a pool party I went to yesterday as well as the newest gash on my leg), which won't involve pictures or anything like that, so I'll try to just toss that in there this afternoon, if I show constraint and manage not to tell you guys everything at school already.
3) I took a video of Riava being awesome, and I want to share it with you guys! You'd think that would be really easy. You just take the video(s) and put them in an order that makes sense. Maybe add a title thing. It's actually harder than that. I want to make this as easy to watch as possible for you non-computergame folk out there. There are a ton of numbers that flash up all over the screen as we fight, and there's some stuff around the edges, so I'm thinking about how to make this most appealing. Right now I'm planning to show one opening clip, and then do a bunch of slow mo and labeling on another, to point out all her moves.
4) I've started a thing about locker cleaning. At first I was just going to do a bunch of pictures, but then I made a little animation thing... you know how these things get out of hand. Now I'm thinking I'll combine a bunch of stills with animation. I don't think the animation will take that much longer really - most of the stuff is really simple. Status on that: planned out, progress on animation, still need to do the stills.
5) MYSTERY POST!!! Ooooooh. This is actually a very concrete idea in my brain, but aside from thinking it through, I haven't made any progress. It's gonna be one of those posts when I start rambling about concepts that don't really make sense and probably make some scientific mistakes in the eating habits of praying mantises.
...
That's a weird plural. Mantises.
Anyways, this will require a lot of illustration, which means effort. Since I'm already contributing most of my effort to the other projects, this is probably the least likely to happen WITHIN THIS MONTH. It will get up there eventually.
6) Will I do a summer thing? Who knows? I wouldn't want to be redundant to Clarissa's blog. I'll try to figure something out.
7) I'm going to California on the 26th for about a week. Huzzah. I might post once or twice from there, it depends.
8) I have a draft for another Brother Book thing, but I haven't posted it yet because I didn't want it to be just an excuse when I wasn't able to post. I do plan to continue it.
Also - BIG QUESTION...
So, I've had a streak of five posts a month. Do you guys feel I should actively keep that - as in not going OVER it? Because I know it's cool and all that, but it's only 60 posts a year. It's up to you guys. I don't really have a problem with stockpiling excess for the next month, but I'm not sure how to plan for the California thing....
Let me know in the comments!
See you at school...
~Julia
I haven't posted yet this month. I do have several posts planned out and in progress, so I will tell you what to look for right now. (Btw, my blogger account just switched to the new posting format and it is MAJORLY WEIRD. I miss the old one!)
So, I'm just going to lay it all out.
In no particular order.
1) Well, you guys know I've been trying to compile a kitten video. For a while I just filmed a bunch of random cute behavior, but it's really hard for me to know where to start with these things because there's SO MUCH that they do and so much that I can't all film which seems futile and unfair. I do have a lot of footage, so I'm splitting it into three chunks: Likes/Dislikes, Daily Routine, and Around the House.
These might be posted separately, it depends how much time they each seem to be taking. I'm already pretty far with Likes/Dislikes, so hopefully I will have that up by the end of the month. I'll get them all up here eventually, I promise!
We also have a cat tree now. Dad made it! He used several yards of black fabric, several puffs of polyester, and 97 feet of rope! I'll probably just throw in some pictures of that with this post.
2) I want to do a summary of the weekend (focusing on Furkids and a pool party I went to yesterday as well as the newest gash on my leg), which won't involve pictures or anything like that, so I'll try to just toss that in there this afternoon, if I show constraint and manage not to tell you guys everything at school already.
3) I took a video of Riava being awesome, and I want to share it with you guys! You'd think that would be really easy. You just take the video(s) and put them in an order that makes sense. Maybe add a title thing. It's actually harder than that. I want to make this as easy to watch as possible for you non-computergame folk out there. There are a ton of numbers that flash up all over the screen as we fight, and there's some stuff around the edges, so I'm thinking about how to make this most appealing. Right now I'm planning to show one opening clip, and then do a bunch of slow mo and labeling on another, to point out all her moves.
4) I've started a thing about locker cleaning. At first I was just going to do a bunch of pictures, but then I made a little animation thing... you know how these things get out of hand. Now I'm thinking I'll combine a bunch of stills with animation. I don't think the animation will take that much longer really - most of the stuff is really simple. Status on that: planned out, progress on animation, still need to do the stills.
5) MYSTERY POST!!! Ooooooh. This is actually a very concrete idea in my brain, but aside from thinking it through, I haven't made any progress. It's gonna be one of those posts when I start rambling about concepts that don't really make sense and probably make some scientific mistakes in the eating habits of praying mantises.
...
That's a weird plural. Mantises.
Anyways, this will require a lot of illustration, which means effort. Since I'm already contributing most of my effort to the other projects, this is probably the least likely to happen WITHIN THIS MONTH. It will get up there eventually.
6) Will I do a summer thing? Who knows? I wouldn't want to be redundant to Clarissa's blog. I'll try to figure something out.
7) I'm going to California on the 26th for about a week. Huzzah. I might post once or twice from there, it depends.
8) I have a draft for another Brother Book thing, but I haven't posted it yet because I didn't want it to be just an excuse when I wasn't able to post. I do plan to continue it.
Also - BIG QUESTION...
So, I've had a streak of five posts a month. Do you guys feel I should actively keep that - as in not going OVER it? Because I know it's cool and all that, but it's only 60 posts a year. It's up to you guys. I don't really have a problem with stockpiling excess for the next month, but I'm not sure how to plan for the California thing....
Let me know in the comments!
See you at school...
~Julia
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Last Day
Today is the last day of my adventure!
We are going to the Bronx Zoo today. I can't wait to go to the zoo! The original plan was to go to the Empire State Building, but that didn't really appeal to me.
I am excited!
This zoo has snow leopards, platypus, and camels.
Oh my.
I am very exited! I keep saying that! I guess that's a sign that I should post this!
I'll take a lot of pictures.
I hope the platypus is out.
We are going to the Bronx Zoo today. I can't wait to go to the zoo! The original plan was to go to the Empire State Building, but that didn't really appeal to me.
I am excited!
This zoo has snow leopards, platypus, and camels.
Oh my.
I am very exited! I keep saying that! I guess that's a sign that I should post this!
I'll take a lot of pictures.
I hope the platypus is out.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Catch-up
Oops.
Got a little behind.
Apologies. A lot has been going on!
We'll see how far I get with this tonight.
I'll start with yesterday.
Well, we were supposed to take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island that morning. But we got there and the lines were huge - all coiled around the block all over. The estimated wait was three hours or something. Then a work boat capsized near the Statue of Liberty and there were all these helicopters and the ferries were ultimately suspended until future notice.
We decided to try again today and instead we went to the Natural museum of History.
The museum was HUGE. I mean, there was really no way that we would get to see it all, so it was pick and choose. We were scheduled for the noon planetarium show, so until then we just hung out on the first floor, reading about the Big Bang and measuring our weight on various stars and planets on these little scales. Then we went In this special elevator up to a large dark waiting room where we were lined up against the walls before being funneled into the "Planetarium Sphere", to which we were directed by a creepy GlaDOS voice.
"Please file into the Planetarium Sphere. Do not linger in the exits. Remember, there is no bad seat to view the universe."
The planetarium show was very good. It was about stars. There wasn't that much that I hadn't already read, but it was presented in an extremely cool way all the same.
After a short lunch in the cafe thing, we headed towards American Mammals.
...
The exhibit was very impressive, but disturbing. There were the most complex dioramas of animals. Full of very large, very real taxidermies. And gosh was I disturbed. Ugh. I mean, it was amazingly detailed, but... I mean seriously. They had baby tigers in there. Not just tigers. Otters, deer, lions, buffalo...
I mean, who would go out and shoot a family of tigers to stuff them and put them in a case and label them with a plaque about how endangered they are? I mean, if I was a tiger, I would not want may premature body to be forever staring out at a ton of gawking children with eyes that aren't even mine.
How as that even legal? It isn't. So how did they get them? I mean people have taxidermies rhinos and stuff from before that was illegal, but who would want a stuffed baby tiger in their living room? Who would go out and kill them? How would the museum acquire five stuffed baby otters that just happened to be lying around on eBay?
...
Enough ranting. Point being, that was disturbing, but the exibits were well done nonetheless.
There were exhibits on different cultures - ancient cultures from each continent - that were very cool.
And the mineral exhibit! It was HUUUUUUGE!!! I had to walk around in ther forever to see al the cases. Minerals are so cool. The bubbly ones and the cubic ones and the puffy ones, and the gems.... I really love opals. Black opals, fire opals... All of them. Amazing.
There were tons and they were all amazing. I do have pictures.
And that was that!
The museum was cool, I think. I wish I could have seen more of it. But I have not gotten over the baby tigers.
We went back to the hotel through central park, which was cool. The weather was nice so we just hung out by the lake and talked. On the way we purchased a bag of c- um, vegetables. Yeah. From a cart. Then we went to our hotel to rest.
The dragon fruit was just sitting there. In a bowl. On the table.
And I was like, you know what, let's eat this thing. And I just had this instinct to peel it. So I did and inside was this slippery white oval thing completely peppered with small black seeds. We cut it and each took a piece.
I went first.
It was weird.
Kind of like a soapy kiwi, but very mild, not really sweet, kind of a faint hint of diluted citrus. It was almost as if it could be triggering every taste bud at once, but so barely that you could barely tell. It was just really confusing. Each bite bamboozled me all over again.
I guess the after taste is a little sweet. Maybe. Or maybe it's sour. Or savory.
Point being, we needed to rest up for what came next.
Broadway.
YAAAY!
Exciting-ness. First we took a bus into Times Square where I walked around feeling small. It was packed at people, and I got rather phobic, but the space was so big that it helped a little, although that doesn't always help. I guess the buildings were so tall that it really worked out. Of course all the buildings were glowing and sliding and buzzing.
Plus Nokia was releasing the new smartphone in about half an hour and so there were all these TV cameras and I sort of jumped around in front of them. Then I realized I was in a tight pack of people also jumping around and I freaked out.
After a while we started walking to the theatre.
We were seeing Wicked!
I had neither seen nor read Wicked previously (Although I got the gist of it) so this was a big deal for me. I wasn't quite sure what it would be like.
It was AMAZING.
We had a cluster of seats at the very edge of the fifth and sixth rows. I was worried this would be really irritating but it was actually great viewing. We couldn't see all of the set on our side going into the stage, but that really didn't matter. Overall I think the seats were great, if not possibly the best we could have hoped for (closer to the middle) but I was able to really lock in. No tall person was blocking my view.
The curtain was a map of Oz. Above the stage was the large dragon clock thing. The curtain went up and it started writhing and glowing. It also did that when magic happened.
The show was captivating. It was wonderful. Everything about it. The costumes, the set, the effects, the actors, the characters they played, the singing, the dancing... The plot.
The actors were wonderful. Glinda. Was. Hilarious. I feel sorry for anyone who did not get to see that actor. She was just spectacular.
I was able to really lock in to Elphaba.
By the end I felt so glued. I was really feeling the emotions. Sometimes when I watch a movie and something dramatic happens, I tend to unconsciously mirror the facial expressions of the characters. I'm happy to say that did not happen, but I was really moved.
Our actresses for Elphaba and Glinda were Jackie Burns and Chandra Lee Schwartz.
(by the way, I noticed that blogger actually recognizes Elphaba as a word! Yay!
I think my favorite song was Defying Gravity. It was all good though.
Yay.
Then today we tried the ferry thing again. We got there nearly an hour earlier and the lines were nearly as long ( it seemed at the time ) But we waited it out. The whole hour and a half of it. Then a security tent. Then finally the ferry.
It was very fun on the fairy. I was slightly worried that I might become seasick, but I didn't, and I really enjoyed the motion of it actually. It was really windy.
Then we passed the statue of liberty. Not much to say about that. You guys all know what it looks like. Well, it looked like that. I did find the torch very impressive. Big and gold and shiny - torch like! The Statue was very impressive. Although I have to say, I just have always pictured it a lot bigger up close. I mean, it is very big. But I guess I have to be right against it to get the full effect I'm looking for.
We did not get off at that stop, instead going to Ellis Island, where we walked around in the museum for two hours. It was Scotland day or something, because these guys in army suits came marching over with bagpipes to play as we got off the ship. Then these Scottish dancers danced around outside. Scottish dancing is a lot like Irish step dancing, only a bit more in the legs, generally more in place, and I found the movements a little more geometric in the legs.
There were also three harpists playing gigs inside the museum.
And a bunch of Scottish flags outside.
Always, the museum was cool, but in a way I felt it kind of lacking. I had hoped to feel that sense of connection through history, feeling the space and the floor where thousands of immigrants - including Zaslaws (or Zaslofskis or however their name was then) - had poured through to a new country. But I just didn't get that. There were fancy glass doors and the floors and walling had been redone and I didn't feel connected at all. I couldn't plug this new remodeled space into Ellis Island. It just wasn't that space to me. As if some people decided to wreck Ellis Island and build a museum in it's place.
That made me a little sad.
Anyways, after the first floor and part of the second, I was worn out, so I rode escalators up and down for a bit and then went outside to listen to the bagpipe people until I was supposed to meet the grandparents in the lobby at three. But I went in the lobby early and it turns out my Grandparents were worn out too, so we leapt onto the leaving ferry.
There are three ferries. Miss Liberty, Lady Liberty, and Miss New York. We rode the liberties to and from. A ferry comes every twenty minutes.
Then we got back to rest up for our Seder, which would start at 4:30.
Got a little behind.
Apologies. A lot has been going on!
We'll see how far I get with this tonight.
I'll start with yesterday.
Well, we were supposed to take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island that morning. But we got there and the lines were huge - all coiled around the block all over. The estimated wait was three hours or something. Then a work boat capsized near the Statue of Liberty and there were all these helicopters and the ferries were ultimately suspended until future notice.
We decided to try again today and instead we went to the Natural museum of History.
The museum was HUGE. I mean, there was really no way that we would get to see it all, so it was pick and choose. We were scheduled for the noon planetarium show, so until then we just hung out on the first floor, reading about the Big Bang and measuring our weight on various stars and planets on these little scales. Then we went In this special elevator up to a large dark waiting room where we were lined up against the walls before being funneled into the "Planetarium Sphere", to which we were directed by a creepy GlaDOS voice.
"Please file into the Planetarium Sphere. Do not linger in the exits. Remember, there is no bad seat to view the universe."
The planetarium show was very good. It was about stars. There wasn't that much that I hadn't already read, but it was presented in an extremely cool way all the same.
After a short lunch in the cafe thing, we headed towards American Mammals.
...
The exhibit was very impressive, but disturbing. There were the most complex dioramas of animals. Full of very large, very real taxidermies. And gosh was I disturbed. Ugh. I mean, it was amazingly detailed, but... I mean seriously. They had baby tigers in there. Not just tigers. Otters, deer, lions, buffalo...
I mean, who would go out and shoot a family of tigers to stuff them and put them in a case and label them with a plaque about how endangered they are? I mean, if I was a tiger, I would not want may premature body to be forever staring out at a ton of gawking children with eyes that aren't even mine.
How as that even legal? It isn't. So how did they get them? I mean people have taxidermies rhinos and stuff from before that was illegal, but who would want a stuffed baby tiger in their living room? Who would go out and kill them? How would the museum acquire five stuffed baby otters that just happened to be lying around on eBay?
...
Enough ranting. Point being, that was disturbing, but the exibits were well done nonetheless.
There were exhibits on different cultures - ancient cultures from each continent - that were very cool.
And the mineral exhibit! It was HUUUUUUGE!!! I had to walk around in ther forever to see al the cases. Minerals are so cool. The bubbly ones and the cubic ones and the puffy ones, and the gems.... I really love opals. Black opals, fire opals... All of them. Amazing.
There were tons and they were all amazing. I do have pictures.
And that was that!
The museum was cool, I think. I wish I could have seen more of it. But I have not gotten over the baby tigers.
We went back to the hotel through central park, which was cool. The weather was nice so we just hung out by the lake and talked. On the way we purchased a bag of c- um, vegetables. Yeah. From a cart. Then we went to our hotel to rest.
The dragon fruit was just sitting there. In a bowl. On the table.
And I was like, you know what, let's eat this thing. And I just had this instinct to peel it. So I did and inside was this slippery white oval thing completely peppered with small black seeds. We cut it and each took a piece.
I went first.
It was weird.
Kind of like a soapy kiwi, but very mild, not really sweet, kind of a faint hint of diluted citrus. It was almost as if it could be triggering every taste bud at once, but so barely that you could barely tell. It was just really confusing. Each bite bamboozled me all over again.
I guess the after taste is a little sweet. Maybe. Or maybe it's sour. Or savory.
Point being, we needed to rest up for what came next.
Broadway.
YAAAY!
Exciting-ness. First we took a bus into Times Square where I walked around feeling small. It was packed at people, and I got rather phobic, but the space was so big that it helped a little, although that doesn't always help. I guess the buildings were so tall that it really worked out. Of course all the buildings were glowing and sliding and buzzing.
Plus Nokia was releasing the new smartphone in about half an hour and so there were all these TV cameras and I sort of jumped around in front of them. Then I realized I was in a tight pack of people also jumping around and I freaked out.
After a while we started walking to the theatre.
We were seeing Wicked!
I had neither seen nor read Wicked previously (Although I got the gist of it) so this was a big deal for me. I wasn't quite sure what it would be like.
It was AMAZING.
We had a cluster of seats at the very edge of the fifth and sixth rows. I was worried this would be really irritating but it was actually great viewing. We couldn't see all of the set on our side going into the stage, but that really didn't matter. Overall I think the seats were great, if not possibly the best we could have hoped for (closer to the middle) but I was able to really lock in. No tall person was blocking my view.
The curtain was a map of Oz. Above the stage was the large dragon clock thing. The curtain went up and it started writhing and glowing. It also did that when magic happened.
The show was captivating. It was wonderful. Everything about it. The costumes, the set, the effects, the actors, the characters they played, the singing, the dancing... The plot.
The actors were wonderful. Glinda. Was. Hilarious. I feel sorry for anyone who did not get to see that actor. She was just spectacular.
I was able to really lock in to Elphaba.
By the end I felt so glued. I was really feeling the emotions. Sometimes when I watch a movie and something dramatic happens, I tend to unconsciously mirror the facial expressions of the characters. I'm happy to say that did not happen, but I was really moved.
Our actresses for Elphaba and Glinda were Jackie Burns and Chandra Lee Schwartz.
(by the way, I noticed that blogger actually recognizes Elphaba as a word! Yay!
I think my favorite song was Defying Gravity. It was all good though.
Yay.
Then today we tried the ferry thing again. We got there nearly an hour earlier and the lines were nearly as long ( it seemed at the time ) But we waited it out. The whole hour and a half of it. Then a security tent. Then finally the ferry.
It was very fun on the fairy. I was slightly worried that I might become seasick, but I didn't, and I really enjoyed the motion of it actually. It was really windy.
Then we passed the statue of liberty. Not much to say about that. You guys all know what it looks like. Well, it looked like that. I did find the torch very impressive. Big and gold and shiny - torch like! The Statue was very impressive. Although I have to say, I just have always pictured it a lot bigger up close. I mean, it is very big. But I guess I have to be right against it to get the full effect I'm looking for.
We did not get off at that stop, instead going to Ellis Island, where we walked around in the museum for two hours. It was Scotland day or something, because these guys in army suits came marching over with bagpipes to play as we got off the ship. Then these Scottish dancers danced around outside. Scottish dancing is a lot like Irish step dancing, only a bit more in the legs, generally more in place, and I found the movements a little more geometric in the legs.
There were also three harpists playing gigs inside the museum.
And a bunch of Scottish flags outside.
Always, the museum was cool, but in a way I felt it kind of lacking. I had hoped to feel that sense of connection through history, feeling the space and the floor where thousands of immigrants - including Zaslaws (or Zaslofskis or however their name was then) - had poured through to a new country. But I just didn't get that. There were fancy glass doors and the floors and walling had been redone and I didn't feel connected at all. I couldn't plug this new remodeled space into Ellis Island. It just wasn't that space to me. As if some people decided to wreck Ellis Island and build a museum in it's place.
That made me a little sad.
Anyways, after the first floor and part of the second, I was worn out, so I rode escalators up and down for a bit and then went outside to listen to the bagpipe people until I was supposed to meet the grandparents in the lobby at three. But I went in the lobby early and it turns out my Grandparents were worn out too, so we leapt onto the leaving ferry.
There are three ferries. Miss Liberty, Lady Liberty, and Miss New York. We rode the liberties to and from. A ferry comes every twenty minutes.
Then we got back to rest up for our Seder, which would start at 4:30.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
The Journey Continues
Good morning!
It is exactly 8:00 in room 1907.
I woke up pretty early, and I've been looking out our window. It's great to be on the 19th floor. You can see everything, but it is like a pop up book rather than a map.
People are already bustling. Walking to school and work. A bunch of trucks have been driving around to deliver fruit and stuff. Taxis are everywhere already. I wonder if taxis have routes, where they drive around in circles until someone flags them down, or if they just randomly drive.
I think being a taxi driver would be kine of fun. Hearing your clients conversations. Wondering who they are and what they're doing and why they are here. I kind of like taxis. You know, in the taxi last nigh, there was a little taxi weather report on the screen, and they had this little lavender bunny bounce around the weather charts and stuff. It was so darn cute!
Pigeons are walking around....
Wow. So many people in New York. It's weird that I'll even maybe see some of them again. And they don't even know I'm here watching them.
...
I so did enot think of that while we were walking around yesterday!! Hmm. Normally I'm really aware of things like that. I will certainly be today! With so many windows, that will be a little overwhelming. So many windows. So many cars. So many people!
And all these doorst and stuff on the roofs! I pretend there are secret labratories behind the doors on the roofs. I've also been making stories for people living in the apartments behind the windows above the sto re across the street. I have them all written down. It's a soap opera waiting to happen!
I also discovered that the buses have numbers on them, like Chicago. I'll post a list later. see you after Chinatown! At least I think that's what we're doing first....
9:37 at Hotel Beacon
Wow! That was a long day!
I'm sorry I haven't updated, but this is the first time I have been home all day. I'll break the day up into sections. I guess I will publish this post after each one so you guys can ca tch at least one of them. Hopefully.
THE SUBWAY
Uuuuuugh!!!
Sooooooooo crowded. Ugh. And loud. And crowded.
There were so many people all going places. When we got on our first train, it was so packed that we barely managed to squeeze through the doors. I mean, not Tokyo packed, but crowded. very. I was in that ackward position where I couldn't quite reach any of the poles and I kept bumping into people. Eventuallyafter a couple train transitions, I managed to snag a seat on a slightly emptier train. On the next stop, the person next to me left, and I slid into the middle of the seat, feeling satisfied. Then the train pulled out and I slammed into the little barrier thing. Hard.
Several people were busking in the station. That always depresses me, even if they're happy middle class folk. I feel so guilty for not supporting them when they are giving me this music!
Anyways, I freaked out at the thought of entering the subway again, but on the way back it was rather empty and I enjoyed it. I really like motion, actually. Riding in cars, trains, planes and buses is just fun to me. We managed to stay on one local train the entire way back. It s longer on the local train, but I enjoyed it.
There's something that just seems so comforting about that being your routine to get to and from work. The subway. Public transportation. In your business suit and all that. With coffee or a scone or something that you picked up on the way.
LITTLE ITALY
Little Italy was cool.It was vey pretty and full of color. It was also full of restaurants. I'm not sure how any of the restaurants survive. I mean there is nothing but restaurants. No Italian shops or anything. Tons of restaurants.
And the guys outside the restaurants were just really annoying. They would stand outside and are all "Wanna eat here?" I mean, they were very polite (and in some cases, Italian) about it, it was just so irritating!And pointless.
I mean,you can see that I have turned down every other guy on this street. That could be for two reasons. Three, I guess.
1. I don't like Italian food.
2. I am already planning to eat somewhere. If that's you, great, you do not have any reason to ambush me. If not, you jumping out at me will not make a difference! please stop wasting my time!
3. I'M NOT HUNGRY!!!
Little Italy was cool, though. Nice and cultural. Bright and colorful.
CHINATOWN
Chinatown was extremely big! There were lots of stores with small fronts going deep into the building. They were full of sparkly colorful fans and carvings and such. Here was occasionally some stuff that wasn't really Chinese, like tourist shirts and stuff
Chinatown smelled very good. There wasn't a ton of restaurants, but the ones that were there made the streets smell nice over the heavy traffic.
We ate in a very small place. It was small, but popular. Lot's of people came there after us. It was good! I had a noodle soup with beef and herbs and stuff. The restaurant was really cool, because you could see this little staff cooking the entire time!
They would come out of the tiny kitchen thing with bowls of stuff and mash it and add seasoning on the little counter outside or whatever. This wasn't really to put on a show - they were just being efficient of space.
And then the guy in the kitchen was Hans pulling all these noodles! It was amazing. He would take some dough and just pull it into dough strands. Then he'd bring the strands together and pull husbands apart and the noodles would already be twice as thin! It was amazing. He was extremely good at it. The noodles and the soup tasted delicious.
Btw - I totally ate all the noodles with chopsticks! It was hard. I've eaten stuff with chopsticks before, but these would all wriggle out, so I had to lean low over my plate.
Anyways, then we left and kept walking, and came across the Chinatown Icecream Factory, which we had read in our little touristy book thing had the beat ice cream in NYC.
And it totally did. It was delicious! My too flavors were mocha chip and almond cake. They were both excellent, but I think I enjoyed the almond better.
We bought a dragon fruit and some large grapes from a little market someone had set up on the street.
LOWER EAST SIDE
We had a tour of the Lower East Side scheduled for 2:00, but on the way, we ran into this other small tour going inside the remaining preserved tenement building - 97 Orchid street.
We went inside and it was really cool. There was all this really old woodwork and tile patterns. Some nice metalwork on the ceiling in doorways. There were these oil paintings on the canvasy walls. The stairs were fun. You could see it was all dented and polished from being used decades.
Tenement buildings, for those of you who have forgotten your fifth grade education, were where immigrants would pile into tiny apartments with very harsh living conditions.
The tour guide was very good.
Then we met up with our own tour. We met up at this center with a bunch of books that was this education center about the Lower East Side. Then we walked around looking at architecture and temples and such. We talked about tenement buildings and construction and living opportunities and schools in Lower East Side, mainly since immigration.
There were a ton of different places of worship for many different religions. Some temples held multiple religious. The tour guide talked about Taoism and Confucianism, and I was very satisfied because I had just learned about those religions! Apparently today was a holiday (I am afraid I am not certain of the name of the specific religion. I don't want to
accidentally say the wrong one.) We saw incense burners outside this one Temple hooding a mix of religions. It was very interesting. We had actually seen people burning these shiny gold and silver envelopes in this oven earlier. Out on the street. I suspect that was for the same holiday.
We also passed a large synagogue that some photographer had built. It was pretty impressive. There was a large circular window with a design. The photograph had rearranged a Star of David to look like a camera shutter. That was great. It was subtle.
The architecture was very interesting - how it changed with the time. People just kept wrecking the old stuff and building up, higher and higher.
It was very cool, but it lasted two hours. Agh. My feet were dead, so we took a taxi to the Brooklyn Bridge, even though it wasn't that far away.
It is exactly 8:00 in room 1907.
I woke up pretty early, and I've been looking out our window. It's great to be on the 19th floor. You can see everything, but it is like a pop up book rather than a map.
People are already bustling. Walking to school and work. A bunch of trucks have been driving around to deliver fruit and stuff. Taxis are everywhere already. I wonder if taxis have routes, where they drive around in circles until someone flags them down, or if they just randomly drive.
I think being a taxi driver would be kine of fun. Hearing your clients conversations. Wondering who they are and what they're doing and why they are here. I kind of like taxis. You know, in the taxi last nigh, there was a little taxi weather report on the screen, and they had this little lavender bunny bounce around the weather charts and stuff. It was so darn cute!
Pigeons are walking around....
Wow. So many people in New York. It's weird that I'll even maybe see some of them again. And they don't even know I'm here watching them.
...
I so did enot think of that while we were walking around yesterday!! Hmm. Normally I'm really aware of things like that. I will certainly be today! With so many windows, that will be a little overwhelming. So many windows. So many cars. So many people!
And all these doorst and stuff on the roofs! I pretend there are secret labratories behind the doors on the roofs. I've also been making stories for people living in the apartments behind the windows above the sto re across the street. I have them all written down. It's a soap opera waiting to happen!
I also discovered that the buses have numbers on them, like Chicago. I'll post a list later. see you after Chinatown! At least I think that's what we're doing first....
9:37 at Hotel Beacon
Wow! That was a long day!
I'm sorry I haven't updated, but this is the first time I have been home all day. I'll break the day up into sections. I guess I will publish this post after each one so you guys can ca tch at least one of them. Hopefully.
THE SUBWAY
Uuuuuugh!!!
Sooooooooo crowded. Ugh. And loud. And crowded.
There were so many people all going places. When we got on our first train, it was so packed that we barely managed to squeeze through the doors. I mean, not Tokyo packed, but crowded. very. I was in that ackward position where I couldn't quite reach any of the poles and I kept bumping into people. Eventuallyafter a couple train transitions, I managed to snag a seat on a slightly emptier train. On the next stop, the person next to me left, and I slid into the middle of the seat, feeling satisfied. Then the train pulled out and I slammed into the little barrier thing. Hard.
Several people were busking in the station. That always depresses me, even if they're happy middle class folk. I feel so guilty for not supporting them when they are giving me this music!
Anyways, I freaked out at the thought of entering the subway again, but on the way back it was rather empty and I enjoyed it. I really like motion, actually. Riding in cars, trains, planes and buses is just fun to me. We managed to stay on one local train the entire way back. It s longer on the local train, but I enjoyed it.
There's something that just seems so comforting about that being your routine to get to and from work. The subway. Public transportation. In your business suit and all that. With coffee or a scone or something that you picked up on the way.
LITTLE ITALY
Little Italy was cool.It was vey pretty and full of color. It was also full of restaurants. I'm not sure how any of the restaurants survive. I mean there is nothing but restaurants. No Italian shops or anything. Tons of restaurants.
And the guys outside the restaurants were just really annoying. They would stand outside and are all "Wanna eat here?" I mean, they were very polite (and in some cases, Italian) about it, it was just so irritating!And pointless.
I mean,you can see that I have turned down every other guy on this street. That could be for two reasons. Three, I guess.
1. I don't like Italian food.
2. I am already planning to eat somewhere. If that's you, great, you do not have any reason to ambush me. If not, you jumping out at me will not make a difference! please stop wasting my time!
3. I'M NOT HUNGRY!!!
Little Italy was cool, though. Nice and cultural. Bright and colorful.
CHINATOWN
Chinatown was extremely big! There were lots of stores with small fronts going deep into the building. They were full of sparkly colorful fans and carvings and such. Here was occasionally some stuff that wasn't really Chinese, like tourist shirts and stuff
Chinatown smelled very good. There wasn't a ton of restaurants, but the ones that were there made the streets smell nice over the heavy traffic.
We ate in a very small place. It was small, but popular. Lot's of people came there after us. It was good! I had a noodle soup with beef and herbs and stuff. The restaurant was really cool, because you could see this little staff cooking the entire time!
They would come out of the tiny kitchen thing with bowls of stuff and mash it and add seasoning on the little counter outside or whatever. This wasn't really to put on a show - they were just being efficient of space.
And then the guy in the kitchen was Hans pulling all these noodles! It was amazing. He would take some dough and just pull it into dough strands. Then he'd bring the strands together and pull husbands apart and the noodles would already be twice as thin! It was amazing. He was extremely good at it. The noodles and the soup tasted delicious.
Btw - I totally ate all the noodles with chopsticks! It was hard. I've eaten stuff with chopsticks before, but these would all wriggle out, so I had to lean low over my plate.
Anyways, then we left and kept walking, and came across the Chinatown Icecream Factory, which we had read in our little touristy book thing had the beat ice cream in NYC.
And it totally did. It was delicious! My too flavors were mocha chip and almond cake. They were both excellent, but I think I enjoyed the almond better.
We bought a dragon fruit and some large grapes from a little market someone had set up on the street.
LOWER EAST SIDE
We had a tour of the Lower East Side scheduled for 2:00, but on the way, we ran into this other small tour going inside the remaining preserved tenement building - 97 Orchid street.
We went inside and it was really cool. There was all this really old woodwork and tile patterns. Some nice metalwork on the ceiling in doorways. There were these oil paintings on the canvasy walls. The stairs were fun. You could see it was all dented and polished from being used decades.
Tenement buildings, for those of you who have forgotten your fifth grade education, were where immigrants would pile into tiny apartments with very harsh living conditions.
The tour guide was very good.
Then we met up with our own tour. We met up at this center with a bunch of books that was this education center about the Lower East Side. Then we walked around looking at architecture and temples and such. We talked about tenement buildings and construction and living opportunities and schools in Lower East Side, mainly since immigration.
There were a ton of different places of worship for many different religions. Some temples held multiple religious. The tour guide talked about Taoism and Confucianism, and I was very satisfied because I had just learned about those religions! Apparently today was a holiday (I am afraid I am not certain of the name of the specific religion. I don't want to
accidentally say the wrong one.) We saw incense burners outside this one Temple hooding a mix of religions. It was very interesting. We had actually seen people burning these shiny gold and silver envelopes in this oven earlier. Out on the street. I suspect that was for the same holiday.
We also passed a large synagogue that some photographer had built. It was pretty impressive. There was a large circular window with a design. The photograph had rearranged a Star of David to look like a camera shutter. That was great. It was subtle.
The architecture was very interesting - how it changed with the time. People just kept wrecking the old stuff and building up, higher and higher.
It was very cool, but it lasted two hours. Agh. My feet were dead, so we took a taxi to the Brooklyn Bridge, even though it wasn't that far away.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)