You know how I roll...

...on four wheels, for many, many miles.

I did another one of those quick trips to Virginia. Actually, like I wrote last time, I did two. The first was for the Muddy Buddy 10K in Richmond the first weekend of this month. That was a really good time! I joined forces with a good friend and last year's partner, Brian, who thankfully is not super competitive, thus allowing my slow self to have a good time and not worry too much. It was excellent catching up with him and his family, but I did a lot of driving that weekend, since I was in the midst of finals. I ended up staying with my older brother and his wife outside of Philly for the two nights following the race in hopes that the few hours less driving I was doing would be put to good use on my final paper. Regardless of how said final paper turned out, it was nice to hang out with them for a few days before heading back to Rutgers to administer final exams to my students.

If the circle I drove it that weekend wasn't large enough, how about this past weekend? This is my new personal record for solo distance driving in a day, due to my poor planning. The former record was my trip to Northern Virginia and back in a night; this time I went to Richmond, then further north in New Jersey than I started, then back to Toms River over the course of the weekend-- just over 800 miles total, but just over 550 of them were between Friday morning and the wee hours of Saturday. I had a choir concert, a retreat at camp, and these two friends coming into Richmond from Mali and Montana all in the same 72 hour period. It had to be done.

After choir rehearsal on Thursday night (which ended about 9.45), I drove to my friend Amanda's place in northern Maryland and spent the night, to knock a couple of hours off the Friday travels. Thank goodness for her! On Friday morning, I drove to Richmond to meet up with Jeremy and Brendan, who I haven't seen since November 2008.

Jeremy, myself, Brendan

Our friend Taylor was also in town for the occasion, as well as Brendan's girlfriend Paige. The five of us went out for lunch and wandered around the city of Richmond for several hours while other people were at work. There was the Virginia Art Museum, frisbee in the park, and finally people got off work and congregated at our friend Justin's apartment in The Fan. A few other people I knew in college were there, so it was a lot of fun to see people, but especially the two who moved so far away.

About 11PM, I headed out, destined for camp. My dear friend Cheryl was leading the Jr. High retreat this weekend, and I really needed to be there for it. I arrived at about 5.30AM and crashed on the couch in my soon to be home for the summer before going to breakfast at 8 and helping work the retreat for the rest of the day. (I napped at every opportunity, but definitely slept like a champion the following night!) The retreat went really well. Cheryl is amazing, the weather was beautiful, and it was really nice to see everyone at Johnsonburg.

I drove home late Sunday morning for my choir concert in the afternoon, which went well. We sang Faure's Requiem among other awesome pieces. I'm glad I could be part of all of these things, though I definitely felt it the next day and will not be attempting any other completely insane trips like this any time soon. When I got home, my dad was singing that Johnny Cash song "I've Been Everywhere" to me. He said we need to rewrite the words for me. He may have a point.

Now, did you catch the part where I said soon to be home for the summer? It's true. I'm about to start packing, and will leave for camp in the morning. After a lot of thinking, I decided to work in the kitchen there this summer while finishing my Master's thesis. I'll be living in a little cabin called Lakeside... obviously by the lake... with my good friend Lauren and a pair of crazy cats. I am sure this will result in a lot of adventures, and think this blog may transition into just a general life adventures blog, not exclusive to travelling hundreds of miles in order to make an entry. This is in part because I'll be staying still for a while (which I guess is relative in the grand scheme of things when it comes to me-- I'm going to Worton, Maryland on a mission trip at the end of June with my home church's Jr. High youth group). At the end of a not-really-that-long-while, I'll actually be heading to Malawi (sort of southeast-central Africa) to do a bit of mission work for a few weeks. This will be at the end of August. I'm pretty excited, and have already had all of my shots. My life is getting to be one big adventure these days! Stay tuned, won't you?

geography adventures

Adventures inherently involve geography-- that's kind of the point of this blog. However, I spent the last week in the Washington, D.C. metro area attending the American Association of Geographers annual meeting. I did quite a bit of couch surfing (thanks to Paul, Scott, Alison and Scott) and quite a lot more catching up with good people.

I drove down on Wednesday morning with a few friends from the Rutgers Geography department. We checked into the conference, which was up in lovely Adams Morgan in the city. We wandered around the National Mall a bit after registering.

The rest of the week was a mix of catching up with excellent people-- a bunch of my friends from college came into D.C. on Friday night to go out with another friend from college who was at the conference and me. I got to catch up with old professors as well, which is always awesome.

On Monday, I visited my dear alma mater, Mary Washington, in Fredericksburg. My friend Hilary had just gotten back to Virginia from Utah late the night before, and joined me to wander around campus and town. It's amazing how much changes in such a short time! Renovations everywhere, new developments across the highway from the original campus block, the geography department is in "diaspora" mode following the movement out of their home building into trailers, and their movement from those trailers upon them partially collapsing under all the snow this winter into other random offices and buildings. It was lovely to see town.

I had a really nice visit to my favorite commonwealth! It's always good to see old friends and enjoy the lovely region. I'll be returning twice more in the next month: once for the Muddy Buddy during the first weekend of May, and again a week and a half later to see two friends coming into Richmond from much further away than I'll be coming.

failing to plan is planning to... have an excellent adventure!

I really don't do this every weekend, just last weekend, and this weekend... and some other times... everything turned out rather nicely considering I didn't really plan anything past arriving in Virginia around noon on New Year's Day...

I spent New Year's Eve with my older brother and his wife and some friends just outside of Philadelphia (a mile from where I went last week!). They're pretty fun, although they don't exactly encourage a good night's sleep... we watched the Jersey Shore "marathon" (3 episodes does not a marathon make, especially when I knew the Twilight Zone marathon was on...), which could be an entire post in here about how it's not actually about us here at the shore, just the crazies who come visit in the summer... arghrghhh.... but anyway. Lovely time in Willow Grove!

The good night of sleep would have been useful the next morning, when I drove to northern Virginia, but I made it safely to Alexandria where my friends Alison and Scott live. (Last time I saw them was their wedding weekend! Hooray!) We went down to Fredericksburg together to enjoy lunch at my favorite Chinese food place (where the waiter still remembers me and wanted to know where all of my music department friends were, and what I was doing there...) and eventually meet up with our friend JT, who is home for his short winter break from his grad program in Nottingham, England. We snacked at the new University Cafe because all the awesome places I love were closed on New Year's Day, but eventually Capitol Ale House opened, where we had dinner and a drink. Beer of the day: Terrapin's SunRay Wheat.

After a good visit, I spent the night at Scott and Alison's and headed into D.C. for the following day. None of my friends were awake/functioning when I first headed in, so I went to the Smithsonian African Art museum by myself and wandered around for hours, really taken by the current exhibit of Yinka Shonibare's work. He does a lot of interesting things with headless mannequins, Dutch wax printed cotton, and political statements of sorts. My favorite was called Scramble For Africa. It's a dozen of said headless mannequins (representing the mass beheadings of the French Revolution and/or various rulers not using their heads and brains) dressed in late Victorian clothing made from said Dutch wax print cotton, arguing around a table with a map of the African continent on it. It was pretty cool.

Also, I found a random weird tree near the Smithsonian Castle. The Wollemi Pine. It's considered a living fossil, and scientists thought it was extinct until the mid-90s! Tree of the trip. It was about 20 degrees with wind chill of single digits in D.C. due to gusts above 40mph, so it's not like a whole lot else was green and identifiable during this trip (though this tree had a little sign next to it, explaining its significance, truthfully).

Eventually, people woke up. I met with a few other former Mary Washington Geographers and associates, Taylor, Scott Z. and Tim. We went to the National Building Museum and went through two exhibits: one about the history of the parking garage, and one about the development of the city of Washington, D.C. It was pretty cool, but we were mostly baffled as to why such a small set of exhibits was in such a huuuuuge building-- turns out it's the former Pension Department, which we still question as to why it was located in such a huuuuuge building. Interesting, though mostly being utilized as an indoor park in the chilly weather. Kids everywhere playing with blocks and toys.

We took the Metro to the Court House stop and had an early dinner at a sweet place called Earl's. I am liking Northern Virginia more and more all the time. I had the Mona Lisa, which is eggplant with mushrooms, peppers, provalone and pesto mayo on fresh bread. So good. I metro'd back to my car and drove back to New Jersey, total mileage around 550 if you include Scott and Alison driving me to Fredericksburg and back from Alexandria... this entry could be subtitled "the 500 more". Good weekend!

and I would drive 500 miles, and I would drive 500 more...

About a year ago, I made a whirlwind roadtrip to Williamsburg, Virginia and back, prompting my friend Paul to make a comment about how of course I'd travel 20 mph in my sleep, in response to me telling him I'd driven about 750 miles in 36 hours (see the subtitle of this blog!). The tradition continues.

From the time I got my driver's license, I have apparently been known as the girl who would drive a few hours to see someone for a little while. I didn't realize I'd been typecasted this way till this weekend, but apparently it's super true. Some of my earliest roadtrips were to meet up with some of my friends who I used to go to summer camp with (Dan, Greg, Sarah and Alice). The last time we all saw each other was New Year's Day 2004. Greg and I currently live closer than ever, and he recently challenged me to meet up with him before New Year's 2010. I accepted, and raised him one-- we get the band back together! (No, we didn't actually have a band, but that would have been awesome.) We tried our best, but the stars didn't quite align, mostly because Dan can't read a calendar, but we like him anyway and as a result, hung out with him.

I drove out to Abington, PA to meet Dan and Greg for lunch on the 26th. It was great to catch up! The weather was cold, rainy and overall miserable, and if the stereotype about me is that I drive a lot, the stereotype about Dan is that he's never dressed for the weather. That photo from 2004 is us pretending to be Mummers on Mummers Day. Please note, Dan is wearing a blanket that I often keep in my car, because on chilly New Year's Day, he did not have a sweatshirt or jacket. He met Greg and me for lunch and a beer and had a scarf, but no coat or umbrella, so we stayed at the restaurant for about 3 hours. Good visit!

Straight after that visit, I headed south to Fairfax, Virginia, to celebrate my college roommate Brittany's engagement to her longtime boyfriend Adam. Hooray! I ended up driving back to Toms River that night, total mileage for the day was just shy of 500 miles. The trip was planned poorly-- I expected to be meeting Dan on the 27th but he was flying out of Philly that day; I thought the party was in the afternoon on the 26th, so I didn't think it was totally ludicrous to drive back that night... ah well. I got home alive at 3.30AM. Poorly planned, but well enjoyed!

The next day, the rest of the stars aligned and I saw the rest of my old camp friends. I drove to the Rumson-Fairhaven area to pick up Sarah. This was a trip I made many times in high school-- Alice is from the same town. This, and me telling Sarah of the previous day's adventures, prompted her to inform me that yes, driving everyone and staying in touch with everyone is kind of my M.O. That's not the worst character trait ever, I think?

Sarah and I took NJ Transit from my apartment by Rutgers, and successfully got on the same train as Greg, who was coming from the Hamilton station. We met up with Alice when she got off work and headed down to the Village to a place called The Blind Tiger, where we enjoyed a few rounds. Small and loud, but good beer selection and great company!

Beers of the travels found here. Mostly wheat beers, which I really like!

Then I stayed still and caught up on sleep for a day.

Then was the annual Johnsonburg reunion. I did a little bit of volunteering this summer, and probably wouldn't have gone up, but I drove my friend Tim, who worked there the full summer and knew way more of the current summer staff than I do and also had an interview (same Timmy I visited in Minnesota). It was nice to spend some time with him since he has a short winter break. And I got to visit with a few other people who live at camp who I've missed. All in all, another good day.

Total mileage since Christmas: about 850. So not quite 500 miles plus 500 more, but definitely have not been sitting still. I'm heading out to my brother and sister-in-law's in Abington for New Year's and will be spending a couple of days in Virginia after that, so more travels on the way!

Snow, don'tcha know.

Ok, I haven't actually heard anyone here in Minnesota say "don'tcha know" but they do totally have exactly the accent I thought they would. I dig it.

So what am I doing in Minnesota, with a week left of classes and plenty of work to be done?

My friend Timmy attends St. Olaf College in Northfield, just a little south of Minneapolis. They have a super major Christmas music festival every year. He was able to score an extra pair of tickets and kindly gave them to our now retired choir director and myself. So I'm out here listening to incredible music left and right and generally hanging out for a few days.

Don't get me wrong, every time he has a rehearsal or something, I've been grading papers galore. I did a lot of work leading up to this trip, and am actually in far better shape than I thought upon my return to finish up the semester just fine. I opted to leave my laptop home (am currently borrowing Tim's while he sings in night 3 of Christmasfest, which his parents are attending) and have enjoyed the change of pace. St. Olaf is out in the middle of nowhere-- time seems to go a little slower (it also helps that my body just never adjusts to time change, even an hour difference).

Also, St. Olaf is such a great school. It's a small liberal arts school run by the Lutherans (Norwegian ones, to be specific). They have an outstanding music program (though much to my dismay there is no geography). It's got great campus dining. AND MY FAVORITE PART, CLEARLY: so environmentally friendly. Everyone seems very concious of turning off lights and recycling stuff. The sandwich place on campus serves everything on real plates, with real silverware. Their building renovations include a lot of local, renewable resources and/or recycled supplies. The bathrooms have those magic flush toilets that you have a short flush/long flush option (use your brain, you can figure out why). Also, all of the toilet paper, paper towels and napkins are made completely from recycled fibers. And finally, there is a very lovely wind turbine at the edge of the campus that apparently generates 1/3 of the energy for the campus (which makes me wonder why they don't just build 2 more, but at least they're trying!).

Other things about Northfield: it snowed the first two days I got here and the temperature hasn't been above freezing. The town motto is "Cows, Colleges, Contentment" even though there's way more corn than cows. Northfield is also home to the Malt O Meal factory. It smells like Cocoa Puffs here constantly!

Beer of the trip: Summit Extra Pale Ale. I'm not usually crazy about extra pale beers, but Summit is a Minnesota brew that my uncle had at Thanksgiving (in NJ) and it was fine then, so it was ok now too.

I fly home tomorrow morning to Newark Airport. My home church has its Christmas concert tomorrow night. I'll be up there in the alto 2 section singing Handel's Messiah and other carols, twice in a row. Intense. I have just enough time to get home, shower, and make it to warm up, assuming my flight isn't delayed. All along though, my choir director has joked that surely there wouldn't be a problem in Minnesota's end; if it snows, they know what to do. It's Newark that would fail under any sort of weather pressure. So Newark, listen up. I'm counting on you.

Despite going from 60 degree weather in NJ (yes, unseasonably warm) to 20 degree weather in MN, I am really enjoying this trip and it's allowing me to relax a little before the absolute final stretch of the semester. After all, after this I only have one semester left... it'll be a pretty busy spring semester so I'm not sure when I'll travel next!

a more crystal clear image of NOVA

Live, from Northern Virginia!

I'm in Virginia for the weekend for a wedding (Alison and Scott, Mary Washington Geography 2007). They are lovely people and super wonderful together, and I couldn't be happier for them!

But it was also a great excuse to visit Virginia again. I love New Jersey. I love New Jersey a lot. But there will always be a special place in my heart for Virginia.

ANYWAY. My good friend Paul was kind enough to put me up for tonight here in Alexandria, VA. In fact, he took a half day so we could hang out in Washington this afternoon. We walked to the Metro from his apartment and didn't do much in D.C., just took a long walk around the mall and up to The George Washington University before taking the Metro back to NOVA to meet another friend of ours, Jill, in Crystal City for happy hour. Beer of the day: Backdraft Brown Ale. Really, really good. And Crystal City Sports Pub is really nice. Beautiful ADD inducing setup for games. Good food. And most importantly, decent selection of drafts.

ANYWAY. I've always had this rather negative perception of NOVA. In fact, I frequently say that if I end up in Washington after I graduate, I would live in Washington if at all possible rather than northern VA. The traffic is terrible. There's too many people. It's too expensive. Too suburby. I hated driving through northern Virginia to get to Mary Washington, and that was cutting through as quickly and quietly as possible. Well, shame on me. I'm always the one telling other people to avoid the interstate, and here I am, delightfully surprised by Paul's neighborhood.

He lives just a few minutes away from the interstate, between the really hoity toity area and the really opposite of that area. His digs are nice and his rent is reasonable for what he's got. There are food establishments within walking distance. Very awesomely, he is only a block away from the Metro, which means easy access to lots of other really wonderful places in the D.C. Metro area. I still view the overwhelming majority of NOVA to be really overwhelmingly crowded and expensive (weird, since I come from Jersey), but am happy to discover a more walkable, quiet area hiding in the midst of it all. Maybe I could handle something like this someday? But in the meantime, I'm grateful to my friend and his couch.

a New York state of mind...

A few nights ago, I went to see Sondre Lerche play at the Bowery Ballroom in the city. I'd never been before. It's a neat little venue in downtown Manhattan, near Chinatown. While kind of bummed that he didn't go on till 10PM and my dudefriend and I had to catch a bus up at Port Authority at 11.50, I really enjoyed Mr. Lerche's music-- he's just a Norwegian guy who loves his guitar and singing.

However, that 11.50 bus has a bigger story to it. Tom and I took the bus into the city from Saddle Brook, where he lives, and got our return trip ticket upon our arrival at Port Authority, figuring on leaving the show around 11.15 to get back. We left just moments before 11.15, got to the subway station, bought new subway cards... and missed the D train by moments. Literally. Moments.

And then we waited for the next one.

And waited.

And waited.

More than 20 minutes later, another orange train heading north came, but there was no way we'd get to Penn Station, transfer to the A, C or E heading north, get to Port Authority, and get up four stories before 11.50.

We didn't get there in time. Thankfully, another bus left sort of in the same direction within half an hour, and my dear dear friend Heather was kind enough to come out and pick us up. The next morning was, after all, Tom's first day back in the classroom (he's a high school math teacher).

Why do I tell you of this mistimed journey? Well, I find that more often than not I somehow screw up leaving the city, whether it be by missing a bus, or a bus leaving early, or missing the last train... but really, it got me thinking. What about all of those stories about people who were running late to work, or whose transit was running late, or something came up that prevented them to getting to the World Trade Center 8 years ago tomorrow? Sometimes a couple of seconds is all it takes to throw you off. Tom and I sprinted up the stairs to that D train, getting to the platform just as it pulled away. How frustrating when he had to wake up and teach the next morning! And how frustrating was it for all of the people who spilled coffee on themselves and had to change, or whose cars wouldn't start, or whose kids got sick and had to stay home from school... just amazing.

I think it's important to remember the day and the people, but I also think it's really important to move forward. Life goes on. People go to work tomorrow, or people like me have the day off (don't worry, I'll be doing work, I have plenty to do for EDGY this semester, among other things), or people have birthdays (happy 25th Meggo!)... and through it all, NYC will still be there, not sleeping...

home again

Long, challenging trip home, but I arrived safely Thursday night.

Things I do actually miss about Mexico:

• Manzana Lift- I've never been a big soda drinker, but carbonated apple juice at the end of a long day of work? SO refreshing.
• Bugambilias- We've been over this.
• trying new foods straight off the tree/vine/plant/whatever- including, but not limited to pineapples, tamarinds, dog balls fruit, various types of oranges, coconut, guanabana, sugarcane, passionfruit...

There were plenty of other things I really enjoyed, but it's nice to be home. I had milk with dinner that night. I had Guinness last night. I've been to the beach. Life is good. I'm home for a week before heading out to a suburb of Pittsburgh to lead a large group of junior high kiddos on a housing repair mission trip.

Tree of the forever: the ugly ol' pitch pine, so near and dear to my heart!

dia ultimo

Last day in Mexico! My bus departs from Chetumal at 11.30PM for Cancun, about a six hour trip. My flight is at noon tomorrow.

This morning I woke up at 5.30 without an alarm. I was able to doze for a little while longer, but have been up for good since around 6. I guess I'll sleep like a champion on that bus.

This morning we went to the market so I could wander around, admire all of the tropical produce and take a few photos. We went out for empanadas for brunch. Apparently, typical Yucatan (the state and sort of the peninsula) food is empanadas made with chaya, a kind of leaf, and filled with cheese. We enjoyed these and some agua de jamaica (a sort of juice made with the jamaica flower, aka hibiscus tea according to a quick google search) before heading to Ecosur for the day. Shortly we'll be having a Skype conference with my advisor. In the meantime, we're having cake in the work room for Alex's birthday (this space really is like the cart lab at Mary Washington!) The rest of the day? Lunch at Ecosur, as cooked by Doña Rosa. I guess I should pack. (We know I have a history of doing this last minute, see: before this trip, before Canada trip, etc.) I bet my father, who will be picking me up at the airport, would also appreciate me showering before I depart. We may have dinner with Birgit (our EDGY person at Ecosur, if you recall). Just little things like these for the rest of today.

It's been yet another pretty excellent adventure.

Tree of the day: casuarina. I've had my eye on this all along. It's an invasive exotic... but it looks like a sort of pine tree. We know I love my pine trees, so this is in honor of me returning to my homeland, located snugly between the ocean and the Pine Barrens.

last day in the field

If I've seen any trend in the bracken so far, it's that the stupid fern doesn't grow well in dense forests. (I call it stupid because it's mean and kills everything else growing near it and cows and people's livelihoods.) Since Petcacab and Polinkin are a forestry ejido, I didn't expect to see a whole lot of the stuff. However, no easy day for us. The first patch that we visited took an hour to drive to down a 22km (that's about 12-13 miles) long dirty road. It was enormous and the ejidotarios insisted we hike through it rather than drive along it. It was a pretty hot day, and many ticks later (ugh, gross) we made it through and travelled back down that road to get to the other patches. We came to another large agricultural plot that had some bracken mixed in it, and again the ejidotarios insisted we hike through it. Alex dropped us off at the start and drove the truck to meet us at the end. It was around 1PM, and the sun was draining my will to live. Just as my head started pounding and I thought I couldn't possibly sweat anymore, we got to the end of the patch, where Alex was waiting with water and the announcement: this was the last patch.

The last patch!

I finished my field work!

With 24 hours to spare!

To celebrate, we checked out Belize's free zone and later went out for dinner in Chetumal. The original intention was to have Chinese food, because how hilarious would it be for the American girl to order her dinner in Chinese, in Mexico? But two of the Chinese retaurants were closed, and the third didn't serve my kind (vegetarians). We settled on quesadillas and beers, which were really, really good. Beer of the day: Modelo's Leon. This brings me to an important point: why hasn't there been a beer of the day in Mexico, like there was in Canada?

I like beer. I like trying new beers, especially local beers. That was my goal in Canada. Here in Mexico though, there is little variance, and no such thing as local breweries that I've found. I've tried plenty of beers, most of which you can find in the US: Sol, Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate, Modelo, but they're all Mexican lager. Nothing else. I've tried a few "dark" beers, aka Mexican lager with a drop of molasses in them: Negra Modelo, Modelo's Leon, Bohemia Classica. But really, little variance. And, while one cold beer is very refreshing after a hard day of work, the second beer combined with the heat and humidity made me understand why I see so many people laying around in hammocks in the afternoons.

This brings me to my next point: aside from my family and my friends, what am I most excited for upon my return to NJ in just a few more days? It's a toss up if I'm more excited about a cold glass of milk with dinner (they only sell the boxed Parmalat-type milk here, which did not agree with my stomach at all), or a cold Guinness. The funny part about Guinness being one of my favorite beers? I wasn't crazy about it when I tried it for the first time in Northern Ireland. But I digress. Regardless, being in Mexico has been a really great experience (except maybe the scar I now have on my neck and chin), but I am looking forward to being back in New Jersey (for reasons beside Guinness, of course!).

tree of the day: the lovely ficus in Polinkin's town square

I should be working right now but I don't feeeeeel like it!

Today was a productive, albeit frustrating second to last day in the field. Finally made it to Los Divorciados. I suspect that's one of the less poor ejidos; this assumption based not only on the facts that there are tin roofs and more recent paint jobs on the houses, but also that you can't see all of the stray dogs' ribs. These have been frustrating people to work with. Not 16 hours after we visited to get permission to work did we find ourselves there with no one aware, much less available to help us with the damage transect and bracken work. Members of our team have now visited a total of five times, but the work is done. Our ejidotario was a bit frustrating though. Around noon, he told us there was no more bracken. It was hot and sunny today, so we went to a store in town to get some cold sodas. As we pulled up, he said there was still another road full of bracken we had to visit. So we skipped the Coca Colas and went back to work for nearly four more hours. The time spent working is not the problem. The ejidotario said at nearly every patch of bracken, "This is the last one, but there's one more down there, too." Arghrghrakghdfg.

Also, can we discuss this photo?

Regardless, it's done! One ejido left! Petcacab and Polinkin! Tomorrow!

Tree of the day: ramon, easily recognized by its buttressed trunk

The skies are clear so perhaps I will take my field notes to the roof to type and think about...