Friday, September 7, 2007
the "co-op"
My new living place began as a spark of imagination (amongst an endless amount of fellow sparks) in Keveau's head. He had the idea to gather some like-minded friends into a rental agreement for the duplex next door to his purple-shuttered home. This partially happened as some undergrads continued their lease on one side contrary to our vision. Stephan (we'll, he has yet to fully move from D.C.), Seth and I have laid claim to the plentiful hardwood footage of 401 Keller St. While we have big plans to cooperatively share anything we can think of across the small side-yard, so far Dalton spearheaded the effort with some tasty Baba Ghanoush and later pesto (both with ingredients from either their CSA farm share, the garden plots across the street, or from a local grocery store dumpster (not kidding). We had an amazing impromptu falafel dinner last week before the Appalachian Porch Party. I'm proud to say our Porch Party sported a couple sets of overalls, some moonshine/rum distilled in the front yard and a bonfire in a wheelbarrow. With a little muscle from Ken, the guys successfully installed our new porch swing. Bella, Dalton's mostly Beagle doggie and Keveau's cat Conga hang out at our place on a regular basis to do their part.
the next chapter
Is there anybody out there?
I begin this blog as a travel journal. Now I'm not traveling. I guess you could say I'm not home either though. I'm in State College, PA. I seem to have inspired Russell to make a blog for his upcoming travels. Now I'm inspired again to put some better writing up on this page. I had grandiose expectations for my would-have-been wonderfully written summer in Europe travel epic. Instead I rushed through borrowed or paid for computer time, hoping to keep family and friends up to date, letting them know I was still alive even if I had no idea where I would be on a train to the next day.
I spent a gorgeous few weeks after my travels house-sitting for Kurt and Masha, some of Russell's friends who were in Russia for a month. They own a wonderful little Victorian house outside of town (and there's not that much town to be outside of here), filled with Kurt's artwork and handcrafted wood furniture by another friend. Amish buggies drove by every morning. Red, the cat, woke me up every morning with his teeth and claws starting at my feet and working his way up. Russell and I spent most of our time in the garden, brimming with veggies and flowers, behind the house. Beyond the garden - only a corn field and forested ridge line.
Russell and I moved out of the house-sitting gig into my new place.
I begin this blog as a travel journal. Now I'm not traveling. I guess you could say I'm not home either though. I'm in State College, PA. I seem to have inspired Russell to make a blog for his upcoming travels. Now I'm inspired again to put some better writing up on this page. I had grandiose expectations for my would-have-been wonderfully written summer in Europe travel epic. Instead I rushed through borrowed or paid for computer time, hoping to keep family and friends up to date, letting them know I was still alive even if I had no idea where I would be on a train to the next day.
I spent a gorgeous few weeks after my travels house-sitting for Kurt and Masha, some of Russell's friends who were in Russia for a month. They own a wonderful little Victorian house outside of town (and there's not that much town to be outside of here), filled with Kurt's artwork and handcrafted wood furniture by another friend. Amish buggies drove by every morning. Red, the cat, woke me up every morning with his teeth and claws starting at my feet and working his way up. Russell and I spent most of our time in the garden, brimming with veggies and flowers, behind the house. Beyond the garden - only a corn field and forested ridge line.
Russell and I moved out of the house-sitting gig into my new place.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
back
Hi everyone,
I just arrived back on American soil last night. My last few days in the UK were awesome. My trip to Wales with Pritesh and James on Saturday was fun filled as well as educational. We had rented a car for the full weekend, intending on camping, but the day we were to leave, massive flooding began around various parts of England and Wales. So we opted not to join those getting helicopter lifted out and instead of camping opted to leave a day later and drive there and back in one day instead of two or three. It's about a 4-5 hour drive from Cambridge to the Center for Alternative Technology on the central coast of Wales. The Center was very cool with educational displays on all sorts of sustainable living topics for energy, architecture, water, transportation, waste, etc. We spent over four hours looking around there. I talked the woman at the information desk into showing me the reedbed wastewater system which provided some useful insights for my thesis research - well until I was bitten by a fire ant and had trouble forming more questions through the pain. After the center we drove through part of Snowdonia national park and then along the coast with views of old stone walls separating squares of sheep pastures (the sheep are all color coded with spraypainted dots) on rolling bluffs above the water. Sunday I went punting with Pritesh and another of his friends. Punts are these little boats somewhere between a canoe and a gondola that are all along the canal in Cambridge. No proper visit to Cambridge is complete without punting. Instead of paddling, you must stand on the back of the boat and push with this huge pole on the bottom of the canal. Pritesh's skills improved by the end of our ride after saying he had fallen into the water last time he went. I tried too and managed only to hit a few walls and other boats. The sunset light on the old colleges was amazing.
Monday I wandered around London for a day, making mental notes of all the spots I need to go back and spend more time in such as the Design Museum and walk around Waterloo. Tuesday was a seriously long day of travel. I woke up early to take a 2 1/2 bus from Cambridge to the airport. I met up with Mike and Brian in the check in line. When at the counter, we were offered a voucher deal to take a slightly later flight that still arrived in Philadelphia in time to catch our second flight plus offered us 407 pounds!!! So we took the cash, almost 800 dollars US, had some celebratory drinks hanging out in the London airport and still had another layover in Philly, not getting into State College until around midnight. Mike and Brian had taken a ferry across the channel the night before from Amsterdam to come straight to the airport in London, so we had all been traveling for many continuous hours by the time we were done at what felt like 5 or 6 am. Whew. My luggage managed to miss the flight out of Philly, but was delivered this morning, so not to bad. It is good to be back though. Give me a call soon to catch up!
Nicole
I just arrived back on American soil last night. My last few days in the UK were awesome. My trip to Wales with Pritesh and James on Saturday was fun filled as well as educational. We had rented a car for the full weekend, intending on camping, but the day we were to leave, massive flooding began around various parts of England and Wales. So we opted not to join those getting helicopter lifted out and instead of camping opted to leave a day later and drive there and back in one day instead of two or three. It's about a 4-5 hour drive from Cambridge to the Center for Alternative Technology on the central coast of Wales. The Center was very cool with educational displays on all sorts of sustainable living topics for energy, architecture, water, transportation, waste, etc. We spent over four hours looking around there. I talked the woman at the information desk into showing me the reedbed wastewater system which provided some useful insights for my thesis research - well until I was bitten by a fire ant and had trouble forming more questions through the pain. After the center we drove through part of Snowdonia national park and then along the coast with views of old stone walls separating squares of sheep pastures (the sheep are all color coded with spraypainted dots) on rolling bluffs above the water. Sunday I went punting with Pritesh and another of his friends. Punts are these little boats somewhere between a canoe and a gondola that are all along the canal in Cambridge. No proper visit to Cambridge is complete without punting. Instead of paddling, you must stand on the back of the boat and push with this huge pole on the bottom of the canal. Pritesh's skills improved by the end of our ride after saying he had fallen into the water last time he went. I tried too and managed only to hit a few walls and other boats. The sunset light on the old colleges was amazing.
Monday I wandered around London for a day, making mental notes of all the spots I need to go back and spend more time in such as the Design Museum and walk around Waterloo. Tuesday was a seriously long day of travel. I woke up early to take a 2 1/2 bus from Cambridge to the airport. I met up with Mike and Brian in the check in line. When at the counter, we were offered a voucher deal to take a slightly later flight that still arrived in Philadelphia in time to catch our second flight plus offered us 407 pounds!!! So we took the cash, almost 800 dollars US, had some celebratory drinks hanging out in the London airport and still had another layover in Philly, not getting into State College until around midnight. Mike and Brian had taken a ferry across the channel the night before from Amsterdam to come straight to the airport in London, so we had all been traveling for many continuous hours by the time we were done at what felt like 5 or 6 am. Whew. My luggage managed to miss the flight out of Philly, but was delivered this morning, so not to bad. It is good to be back though. Give me a call soon to catch up!
Nicole
Friday, July 20, 2007
the rain
A rain storm is hindering activities here in Cambridge today. James, Pritesh and I are postponing our trip to drive to Wales until tomorrow when the storm should be past since driving and camping in the rain is not so ideal. Check out www.cat.org.uk to see the Center for Alternative Technology that we'll hopefully make it to tomorrow. Wishing you nicer weather over there.
Nicole
Nicole
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Italian beaches to rain in Cambridge
Monday night in Bologna John threw a little dinner party for my last night in Italy with some of his friends and roomates. We ate chickpea curry and pita on the roof of their apartment building and looked at Venus and Jupiter through Johns's telescope. After a lot of wine, good company, and 4am pasta, I saw the sunrise over Bologna, a perfect red ball lighting up the town. Andreas, John's German roomate who is now more Italian than German, suggested a trip to the beach town of Ravenna, so we caught a 7am train and spend the morning and afternoon laying on rented lounge chairs under a beach umbrella and running throught the hot sand to the warm water. Although not one of the nicer beach areas of Italy, I can say I did make it to the beach in Italy now. I rather sleepily packed and ran around from bus to bus to airport and arrived late into London after an hour flight delay. My old friend from Australian times met me at the airport and since an angry crowd was waiting for a broken down bus to Cambridge, we had a free taxi ride back to Pritesh's apartment where I have a great place to crash for the next few days. James is coming down from Sheffield on the afternoon train in a couple of hours, so the three of us will have a little runion from our days of backpacking around the Outback this evening. Plans for the next few days are a little up in the air, but they will involve some time in London and a trip to Wales, perhaps over the weekend.
Ta,
Nicole
Ta,
Nicole
Monday, July 16, 2007
Rome in a day
Ciao!
On Thursday I took a train to Pisa for just a couple hours on my way to Florence (Firenze). I thought about asking a random stranger to take my picture in the pose looking like I was pushing the tower over, but it just seemed far too cheesy sine there were thousands of others doing the same thing all around me, so I just sat in the lawn around the leaning tower and equally amazing churches next to it watching the crowds. later Thursday I met John at the Firenze train station and we camped at an amazing campsite on a hill overlooking the whole city, arriving just at sunset (I have about a hundred photos of the sunset reflecting on the river with all of its bridges and the light on all of the church domes and tile roofs). We spent Friday exploring the streets and Piazzas of Florence, sampling much pizza and gelato, then took a train to Roma. The campsite in Roma was not quite as well located and we had an adventure of trains and buses and walking along busy roads with no sidewalks to get there, but it worked out fine as budget accommodation anyway. Saturday we walked all over the city to all of the major sights including the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon (which I was particularly impressed with), and the Colloseum (which we caught at sunset for some great photo taking). The vatican city sights were closed Saturday afternoon through Sunday, so we didn´t really go inside anywhere, but otherwise covered all the major attractions in a day. Sunday we took a trip to Tivoli just outside of Rome to see Villa d'Este which I´ve studied in landscape architecture history courses. Actually my whole trip in Italy has been giving me flashbacks to lectures studying this piazza or that villa, so many of the sights I´ve been going to I will recognize and start remembering design facts about which is neat (my professors would be so proud). Villa d'Este is known for its amazing fountains which were engineering feats in their day and equally impressive now with sprays spewing and trickling out of all kinds of sculptural compositions. My favorite was the row of a hundred animal face fountains. We took a train back to Bologna last night and I will probably have some less ambitious days to rest up for my last week in the UK today and tomorrow. I´ll be back in the US late on the 24th so I´m looking forward to catching up with everyone then!
Ciao!
Nicole
On Thursday I took a train to Pisa for just a couple hours on my way to Florence (Firenze). I thought about asking a random stranger to take my picture in the pose looking like I was pushing the tower over, but it just seemed far too cheesy sine there were thousands of others doing the same thing all around me, so I just sat in the lawn around the leaning tower and equally amazing churches next to it watching the crowds. later Thursday I met John at the Firenze train station and we camped at an amazing campsite on a hill overlooking the whole city, arriving just at sunset (I have about a hundred photos of the sunset reflecting on the river with all of its bridges and the light on all of the church domes and tile roofs). We spent Friday exploring the streets and Piazzas of Florence, sampling much pizza and gelato, then took a train to Roma. The campsite in Roma was not quite as well located and we had an adventure of trains and buses and walking along busy roads with no sidewalks to get there, but it worked out fine as budget accommodation anyway. Saturday we walked all over the city to all of the major sights including the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon (which I was particularly impressed with), and the Colloseum (which we caught at sunset for some great photo taking). The vatican city sights were closed Saturday afternoon through Sunday, so we didn´t really go inside anywhere, but otherwise covered all the major attractions in a day. Sunday we took a trip to Tivoli just outside of Rome to see Villa d'Este which I´ve studied in landscape architecture history courses. Actually my whole trip in Italy has been giving me flashbacks to lectures studying this piazza or that villa, so many of the sights I´ve been going to I will recognize and start remembering design facts about which is neat (my professors would be so proud). Villa d'Este is known for its amazing fountains which were engineering feats in their day and equally impressive now with sprays spewing and trickling out of all kinds of sculptural compositions. My favorite was the row of a hundred animal face fountains. We took a train back to Bologna last night and I will probably have some less ambitious days to rest up for my last week in the UK today and tomorrow. I´ll be back in the US late on the 24th so I´m looking forward to catching up with everyone then!
Ciao!
Nicole
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Ciao from Italy!
Ciao!
I´m having a great time in Italy, enjoying some beautiful Mediterranean weather, reminding me of home. I spent the rest of the weekend in Bologna. John showed me around some amazing old cathedrals and piazzas and pointed out the university he´s doing his PhD work at - the oldest in Europe. He has five other roomates which speak English to varying degrees and are super friendly, trying to help me plan out my day trips. There are all sorts of free concerts and other events every night here, but so far we end drinking wine on someone´s balcony with John´s friends and roomates instead. I´m trying to learn a bit of Italian which seems far less challenging than the other languages I´ve been encountering, especially with all of its overlap with Spanish. Yesterday I took a day trip to Ferrara, a great town just half an hours train ride away. I toured a huge castle and cathedral there. Then I tried a local cuisine specialty, little pasta pouches shapped like floppy hats filled with pumpkin with a butter and fresh sage sauce, in a cafe overlooking the cathedral piazza. Today I´m headed to Modena (where all the balsamic vinegar is from) for a few hours and then am meeting John to go to a concert tonight back in Ferrara in a small Piazza. Tomorrow I´m heading to Pisa and then Florence where John will meet me after work to camp outside of Florence. Then we are going to Rome for the weekend, also camping at a campground just outside the city to be low budget. Since I hadn´t planned on coming to Italy on this trip, I´m all of the sudden realizing how much there is to see, especially of the villas and piazzas we study in landscape architecture history courses. I don´t think I´ll have much trouble filling my next few days with sights and filling my tummy with more great pizza, pasta, and gelato. I´ll fly to London late on the 17th for my last UK leg of the journey.
Ciao!
Nicole
I´m having a great time in Italy, enjoying some beautiful Mediterranean weather, reminding me of home. I spent the rest of the weekend in Bologna. John showed me around some amazing old cathedrals and piazzas and pointed out the university he´s doing his PhD work at - the oldest in Europe. He has five other roomates which speak English to varying degrees and are super friendly, trying to help me plan out my day trips. There are all sorts of free concerts and other events every night here, but so far we end drinking wine on someone´s balcony with John´s friends and roomates instead. I´m trying to learn a bit of Italian which seems far less challenging than the other languages I´ve been encountering, especially with all of its overlap with Spanish. Yesterday I took a day trip to Ferrara, a great town just half an hours train ride away. I toured a huge castle and cathedral there. Then I tried a local cuisine specialty, little pasta pouches shapped like floppy hats filled with pumpkin with a butter and fresh sage sauce, in a cafe overlooking the cathedral piazza. Today I´m headed to Modena (where all the balsamic vinegar is from) for a few hours and then am meeting John to go to a concert tonight back in Ferrara in a small Piazza. Tomorrow I´m heading to Pisa and then Florence where John will meet me after work to camp outside of Florence. Then we are going to Rome for the weekend, also camping at a campground just outside the city to be low budget. Since I hadn´t planned on coming to Italy on this trip, I´m all of the sudden realizing how much there is to see, especially of the villas and piazzas we study in landscape architecture history courses. I don´t think I´ll have much trouble filling my next few days with sights and filling my tummy with more great pizza, pasta, and gelato. I´ll fly to London late on the 17th for my last UK leg of the journey.
Ciao!
Nicole
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