An animated clock!

The last day in Munich involved Marienplatz, where we spent most of the day walking around and eating.

We saw the Glockenspiel at the Rathaus go through it's motions twice. It was rather amusing, and the food was really good, but there was so much more to see of Munich.

We walked around Marienplatz and went into the local cathedral and a bunch of tourist shops. I did enjoy the beer garden that we went to for lunch where I had a radler, which apparently just means beer combined with some other drink. Mine involved lemonade. I also had another pretzel, which just made Munich wonderful.

The next day saw a long drive back to Zurich that took most of the day. Not much was done after arrival, and I departed the next day.

I know this is a late entry, as the last ones from my trips tend to be, and I know that there isn't too much in this entry, but hopefully the Glockenspiel video was worthwhile.

Apparently, Austria was also involved in my European adventure this summer.

After yet another long plane ride, I landed in Switzerland. We rented a car and my dad had the joy of driving it from Zurich to Solothurn. We stayed the night in the tiny, slightly boring town. The next morning we went to visit my grandmother's cousin who is a nun living in the town. We had lunch with the relative and the rest of the retired nuns. Everyone was extremely hospitable, it was a lovely morning.

We then drove to Erstfeld, where I got the pleasure of meeting other cousins of my grandmother and their families. I met a ton of family that I didn't even know I had; it was the warmest of welcomes, too.

The next day, I saw where my family used to live and where they kept their animals. The family still owns some of the property and still has some sheep.

After we saw the sheep (and the two yaks that protect them), we had lunch. I was taught an accordion bass line. I need to edit the video before I put it up because my mom didn't know how to stop the video on my camera...

Then we went up a funicular to the top of a peak and saw a manmade lake, which was quite picturesque (agree?).

After that, we went to the Devil's Bridge, which has a legend behind it that the people that lived in the area couldn't construct a bridge, but the devil said he would do it for the price of the first soul that crossed. The people outsmarted the devil and sent a goat across first. It's also the sight of a battle between Russia and France during the Napoleonic wars. That being said, I went to Russia (because they own a small bit of land where they commemorate their victory).

Dinner was filled with family again, which was just wonderful. Everyone bent over backwards for us and were just so thrilled that we could come. It was such a tight feeling of family. It turns out that the family that stayed in Erstfeld keeps expanding in the area, and no one seems to move too far away, which keeps the knowledge of the history fresh.

This morning we said our goodbyes and headed to Windsbach, to see the town that my grandfather was born in. Along the way, we drove through Austria, which was unexpected. We also seem to have driven along the border Lichtenstein. It really is a tiny country.

Windsbach took forever to get to because the autobahn is just a bad plan. Anyway, Windsbach wasn't anything special. We walked around a bit, had a late lunch, and went on our merry way to Munich.

Yes, I notice that the dust speck in my camera is now worse than it was. I really will get it fixed soon.

Munich, so far, seems like any other city: there is a ton of new construction and too much traffic. However, there is a beer garden right down the street from our hotel... Of course, that was the first thing that we did after checking in to the hotel. Highlights of that include old men stumbling out muttering obscenities and soft pretzels larger than my head.

I plan on checking out this large, animated clock I've heard about...

The end of a Brazilian adventure.

To finish, I skipped out on a few days of the conference to see the city. I actually have something to say here about Rio!

Wednesday, I went shopping in the morning and didn't really come across any good tacky souvenirs, but I did come across some nice crafts. After that, I went up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain to have a picnic as the sun set. That was a lovely experience because I got to ride in the suspended cable car four times!

After that, I went to a soccer match at the local stadium, which is supposedly the largest in South America. To tell the truth, the game sucked because no one scored, and the one team was just not that great.

Even though the playing of the game left much to be desired, I did enjoy watching the people, especially the ones that thought fire was a good plan.

Aside from watching people, I ate. Unfortunately, the food was a bit on the disappointing side. I just had popcorn and a popsicle. Don't get me wrong, they were good, but I just hoped I could try something new.

Today, I went to see Jesus on his perch high above Rio (Corcovado). On the way up the hill, I got to ride in another fun vehicle, a sort of train. While on it, a samba band boarded and played for us.

I then found myself at the base of a huge statue of Jesus. I wish I would have counted all of the people that had their hands spread like the statue and were having their photographs taken in front of it.

After Corcovado, I went on a tour of the Rocinha favela just outside of Rio de Janeiro. The first stop was a samba school right outside of the favela. I'm a bit confused by how the people that live in the favelas don't have to pay taxes, but have samba schools that compete in Carnival with elaborate, expensive floats and costumes...and have cable and internet...

Anyway...
A picture will be added soon. I'm having trouble with the upload.

There were streets where I could take pictures and streets where I could not. I also had to be aware of the fact that there were people just carrying guns around with them. I was told that I shouldn't be alarmed because they won't hurt tourists because they don't want cops in their neighborhood. I was taken up and down winding roads. I met some prominent citizens that do things like after-school art classes to try to keep the young kids out of gangs. It was an extremely interesting experience that will be hard to forget.

The next day, my final day in Rio, I went on a tour of two of the observatories of Rio. They had small, but important telescopes, as well as some extremely rare scientific instruments. I was quite pleased as I enjoy looking at old science things.

Later that night, I flew away from Rio. I got home yesterday and am leaving tonight for Switzerland and Germany. I'm excited, but tired.

Ilha Grande: Yet Another Island Paradise

After a long week of conferencing (four days), we cut out on Friday to go to Ilha Grande. Aside: For those who care, my talk went fine on Thursday. I completely forgot how to describe the light output variation due to non-radial pulsations, but I stammered something out that was right and continued. I also attended a Young Astronomers Lunch and met a senior astronomer who seemed impressed by me. I was impressed by her and all of the helpful things she had to say.

Moving on...

After a walk, a metro ride, a taxi ride, a bus ride, another taxi ride, and a ferry ride got me to the beautiful Ilha Grande. It is a lovely island off the coast of Brazil that can be best described a

s paradise.

We found a hotel and walked around the little town to find dinner. The next day we w

ent on a boat tour to go sit on beaches, swim, and snorkel. While snorkeling, I found a fish that changed color as it swam next to different parts of the coral reef.

After doing that all day, we wandered around town, and I ate the best meal I've had here: street food. I had a Blue Lagoon drink (I went snorkeling in the Blue Lagoon earlier, so I thought it was appropriate). It was limes crushed with sugar, some blue alcohol that I can't spell the name of and am too lazy to look up, and vodka. It tasted like candy, very strong candy, but I think it's my new favorite drink (yes, it has displaced the vodka and cranberry, which also tastes like candy). It was recommended to try it with a base of lemonade and less vodka. I think I might enjoy it more that way...

Also on the menu was chicken-on-a-stick, covered in breadcrumbs, as recommended by the vendor, and slathered with garlic sauce, also upon recommendation. It was delicious. I also had a dessert that was three strawberries covered in fudge then covered in a chocolate shell. So good. I then followed that by a scoop of hazelnut and a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream. My stomach was thrilled. I could have done without the drink, but I couldn't find a non-alcoholic drink vendor on the street.

OK, so...lots of sun, fish, boats, and food for that day. The next day, we took another boat to a prime surfing beach. I sat around in the sand and jumped in the waves most of the day. We also walked through a bit of rain forest, which was painful because it was steep, and I had on a backpack. My knees were not thrilled with me.

After that it was time to say goodbye to Ilha Grande. Before I said my goodbye...I got another strawberry dessert! Oh, gluttony...

We took a speed boat back to Brazil as the sun set and a van to the door of our hotel. This was so much a better decision than how we got to the island...

This week I will be going to a soccer match in what I'm told is the world's largest stadium, going to observatory tours, going to see Jesus on the hill, going to another famous hill, and going to markets to shop. There will be a little bit of conference in there, too.

An Elusive Rio

There has been a whole lot of conferencing going on and not much else. Today, I gave my little talk about non-radial pulsations, and I only stumbled on the words once.

A few days ago, we had the opening ceremony that featured some traditional Brazilian dances, captured in this video.

I haven't seen much of Rio yet because of the conference, but I will take a day or two off from the conference next week to see the sights. I did spot Jesus from the conference center, however. Truthfully, he's pretty visible from most places in Rio, but this was the first time I could get a picture. He's on the top of the highest peak in the picture.

I plan on going up to that peak as well as the "famous" Sugar Loaf Mountain, which apparently involves a nifty cable car ride. It is reported that souvenirs can be purchased at these places. I'm so excited for that.

This weekend I'm going to Ilha Grande, so I'll have to report when I get back. It's an old prison island off of the Brazilian coast. The prison has been destroyed, but the island is supposed to be fantastic. I'm so excited!

Exhaustion and eating: the typical way to start a trip.

After flying to Houston from Newark there was a long layover. Fortunately, the flight I was on from Houston to Rio de Janeiro was the first-ever non-stop flight flown by Continental on that route, so they had a little reception by the gate that included cupcakes. I had one (left).

The ten hour flight to Rio seemed to drag on and on. I slept quite a bit, but not enough. We landed, and the gate that the plane was pulled to was broken, naturally. There was some more taxiing and then finally departure. That final delay was just a little insult to injury at that point.

So then it was a taxi ride into Rio! We drove all through the city and saw a huge spectrum of quality of living in the different areas.

There was time for showering off airplane-stench and brief napping, which was followed by extensive eating. We went to a seafood restaurant where we had shrimp, crab, and lobster concoctions. My favorite were the shrimp wrapped in cheese, breaded, and fried. I also got dessert, which was an unidentifable fruit wrapped in a pastry shell. All of the waiters were old men who didn't seem to care that the only Portugese that we know is "thank you", which was a relief even though conversation was difficult.

We then checked in with the conference and walked along the beach. To the right is the view from Copacabana beach as the sun started to set. The water is warm and inviting. As a direct result, my pants got very wet.

Instead of going into the ocean at that point, I went swimming in the hotel's rooftop pool afterward.

I'm exhausted, and it's not even 8 p.m.

Santiago, smog, and airports.

The few days I spent in Santiago at the end of my trip were relatively uneventful. I walked around the city a bit and saw a few sights.

I went to a visual arts museum, which had a nice collection of modern art, as well as an oddly placed permanent exhibit of crafts from Chilean history. After spending a few hours there, I relaxed in a pretty park for a few more hours before dinner.

The next day, I went to San Cristóbal hill to see an unforgettable view of the city. That is smog obscuring the view of the mountains. There really are mountains beyond the smog. I promise.

There were multiple ways up the hill: a funicular (incline), a suspended cable car (think: ski lift), and multiple roads. I wanted to go up on the lift and down on the incline. This, of course, was not possible. I was told something in Spanish about the lift not functioning. All that I understood was that I had to use the "Parque Bus" instead. That was disappointing.

At the top of the hill there was a smoggy view of Santiago as well as a fourteen-foot tall statue of the Virgin Mary. Naturally, there were also a lot of craft vendors.

After spending some time on the top, I took the funicular down. Happily, this was functioning. I then walked around Santiago a bit more.

The final day that I was there, I wandered around and watched people. I had no specific destination in mind. It was fairly relaxing.

That night I went to the airport and had one last serving of fried mashed potato balls and strawberry juice.

The only issue was that my suitcase got to Newark before I did, which confused me when it wasn't on the luggage carousel.

The moai certainly have top-notch topknots.

I'm extremely dissatisfied with the fact that when I went to my blog on Easter Island, it registered as mainland Chile and not in the middle of the ocean.

Since I had to use internet cafés on Easter Island, I saved this update until now. Anyway, going from the mountains to an island in the middle of the ocean is a drastic change.

I came back with sunburn, in spite of applying lotion. I've been in Santiago for a few days and have been feeling under the weather. With any luck, I'll be better off tomorrow before I fly home. I think my journey back to Newark is going to be somewhere over fifteen hours.

Easter Island was formed by some now-dormant volcanos. As a result, it's made up of volcanic rock.

I got there in the early afternoon. It rained heavily right after I got picked up from the airport. The lady that runs the inn where I stayed greeted me with a flower lei. It also rained just about as soon as I tried to walk into town. On Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, there is one town. It is so small that there is no possible way one can get lost. The town, Hanga Roa, is littered with restaurants, souvenir shops, and questionably real moai.

After walking around the town, I went into the national park that just so happened to be right next to the inn. The sun was setting, and I found some stone statues just hanging out. It turns out that all of the moai were knocked over when the long-eared people were overthrown by the short-eared people who were enslaved. I couldn't make this up if I tried. This means that some of the moai that are now standing were broken when they fell and were put back together with cement. A lot of the moai are also missing their hats, or topknots.

After deciding not to walk further into the national park and save that for another day, I went back to the inn and watched the sun set.

The next day, I went to Orongo, which is part of the national park system, and one of the two places where you have to pay about $10 to walk around. Orongo is where the civilization after the moai-making civilization lived. This is on one of the extreme ends of the island. It is also on the edge of one of the volcanic craters.

The people of Orongo slept in these shelters. They have tiny entrance ways and are thought to only be used for sleeping and nothing else.

While waiting to get on top of one of these houses to see a view of from the very edge of the island, I talked with a host of an archaeological show to be on the Travel Channel that was waiting for his film crew to get some shots.

When on top of the house, I saw a lot of engravings that did not come out very clear on camera. I also had this fantastic view into the volcanic crater.

I spent two hours at this park that only took about twenty minutes to walk around. I got there by taxi and asked the driver to come back in two hours. Thankfully, he came back because it was a long walk, even for the small island.

There was more walking around Hanga Roa after this point, and some pictures were taken with moai.

There aren't any moai pictures from that day here because the next day I got on a tour all over the island and took plenty. If anyone else ever goes to Easter Island, I have a tour guide that I can recommend...even if you speak Spanish.

The tour stopped at six different places on the island. The first was an ahu, or alter, where the moai were all pushed over because of the overthrow I mentioned earlier. In the foreground is a topknot. The moai stood over the graves of probable leaders or otherwise important people.

The second stop had a few interesting features. These include a cave that was used as shelter (some Rapa Nui still use it for camping), a treacherous path to some topknots behind the alter that we weren't supposed to see, a tiny moai (thought to be for a royal child), and one moai that was not carved specifically to the tribe's needs. The last moai is purposed to be one of the last moai delivered because it did not have the eye sockets carved out for coral eyes. It is thought that the moai were all carved in the same place (pictures to come), transported to the specific seaside location, and then carved to resemble a specific person.

The third stop was the moai "nursery". It is where all of the moai were carved from the volcanic crater. As you can see, the moai are peppered all over the landscape. The crater has moai carved to all different stages. Here, all of the moai look identical (with the exception of the single short-eared moai and one of the island's two female moai). Over time, the landscape has eroded, and many of the moai partially buried, some completely. We also went inside the crater where moai were also being carved before they were abandoned. I can't even think of the words to describe seeing all of these statues just sitting there.

The fourth stop was a reconstructed ahu. The Japanese reconstructed the alter of fifteen moai. These were clearly fixed with cement. This is somewhat acceptable since they were hit by a tsunami at some point in the past. Not pictured is the scattered remains of most of the topknots for these. There were also a lot of engravings here, some of which are thought to represent the sacrificed children that were eaten by leaders.

The fifth site boasted yet another fallen moai. There was also the amazing magnetic stone (likely to be a meteorite). The most amusing aspect of this stop were the chicken coups. There was a little hole on the side that the chickens would be shoved through for the night. At this point, I was pretty tired of looking at fallen stones.

The sixth and final stop was a beach that had yet another alter. This one was interesting because of all of the engravings that remained. If you look closely in the stones holding up the moai, you can see some engravings as well as a moai head. Here I also stood in the Pacific Ocean eating a cheese and shrimp empanada.

That was pretty much the end of my Easter Island adventure. The next morning I ate breakfast and got on a plane back to Santiago.

Taking flight: parrots and planes.

Today consisted of driving down the mountain to La Serena's airport. The drive down was spectacular. We drove through a layer of clouds, which I thought was going to be awesome until I realized it was just like fog. In fact, it was the same thing as fog...just higher.

During the drive some parrots flew over the valley. By the quantity, it seemed as though it was a whole flock. They were fantastic in flight. I have never seen such beautifully colored birds in the wild. Unfortunately, I could not get a picture.

In La Serena, there is no radar at the airport, so planes can't land or take off in the fog. Today there was no low-lying fog so the plane could fly out. This hasn't been happening too much in the last few weeks.

After getting to the hotel in Santiago, dinner was had right down the street. The food here in Chile is incredible and ridiculously cheap. I restrict that to the food I've had outside of the observatory. Dinner tonight consisted of chicken stuffed with asparagus and almonds on top of an avocado rizzotto. I'm not even going to try to describe the flavors. I also had pisco sours and strawberries in hazelnut liquor for dessert. It was just such a pleasant meal.

Photographs don't do the sunsets justice.

I find it hard to keep track of dates while observing. The whole inversion of night and day is not something I would want to do for a career.

Since it was all cloudy here for the last two days, I wasn't actually observing. Tonight it's clear, but the air is really turbulent.

Without further ado, an installation of pretty pictures awaits!

Here we see the view (during the day). Not surprisingly, these are The Andes. If you look close enough you can see the lovely dust speck on my lens. I need to get that cleaned.

Anyway, as the days go by the amount of snow on other mountain peaks changes. We get none. This is probably a good thing, even though I like snow.

I'm changing my little blog profile picture to this one. The telescope I'm standing next to in the old one I didn't actually use. This is the telescope I'm using, the CTIO SMARTS 0.9m telescope.

I don't actually look through anything there. I sit in a control room and play with computers to make it do what I want it to. The only time I go up there is to fill the camera with liquid nitrogen to keep it cool and to take silly pictures. Anyway, there's a camera on the end of the telescope that is connected to the control room. That's a quick enough explanation for it.

There are some pretty amusing foxes up on this mountain. They get close enough to humans to beg for food and do cute things like roll around in the parking lot. They are adorable and greet new visitors to the mountain at the shuttle.

The only other animals I've seen are birds (large and small), an ant in my bathroom, and some viscachas that watch the sun set with us.

What is a viscacha? This is, if you can find it near the center of the picture. They're little animals that sit on the rocks and watch the sun set. They look like rabbits. They hop around after the sun sets for a little while. It is pretty cute, I can't deny that.

This is the view (at sunset). If I hadn't taken this picture myself, I probably would call this image fake. The colors are actually more brilliant than this. It's just stunning.

During the different times of the day, the mountains take on different colors. It's really just something that needs to be seen and cannot be described.

To go along with the ridiculous sight above from a few days ago, is last night's wonderful sunset. This has been the best sunset yet. They keep getting better every day. The clouds make it so pretty. However, the clouds prevent observing. Sadly, I think I'd rather have a cloudless sunset. When it's cloudy we resort to playing card games all night. Near the end second consecutive night of clouds, the card playing started to seem excessive.

Sadly, I only saw this next view once. Last night/this morning, my fellow observers had the brilliant idea to stay up until dawn. This sunrise was ridiculous. I thought the sunsets couldn't be described with pictures or words. The sunrises can't even be imagined.

After waking up late and sleeping poorly, I doubt we'll do this again; however, It was entirely worth it.

Observations begin, and I'm already tired with most of the night to go.

Yesterday, after I blogged, a bit of time was spent in La Serena. I went to the market in La Serena with those observing with me and spent some money. I got a few souvenirs. Everything is ridiculously cheap here (really tasty Argentinian steak dinner with a ton of vegetables and three drinks--one of which was water--for about $25).

La Serena is definitely not a thriving city. Travel guides advise against being alone and female in the city. That's interesting because I'll probably have to do this alone at some point. It's really not a bad place, as far as I could tell.

I've had to give up on exchanging money. Today was a holiday so the office that I may have been able to do that in wasn't open. That's the worst thing that's happened thus far. That's not bad.

Today we took the hour and a half drive up to Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. About half of that was spent driving on a long, winding mountain road. It was spectacular. The view is fantastic. The mountains have the slightest hints of red and orange in them, barely noticeable in this photograph. It doesn't hold a candle to Roussillon, France because the colors aren't as striking.

We watched the sun set after dinner, and it turned all of the rocks this brilliant shade of red in the fading light.

I am now in the middle of the first night of observing. I am not about to complain. I am in Chile at an observatory. This situation is amazing.

It is rather chilly in Chile.

I have arrived in Chile!

La Serena was only three flights away from Newark. Only.
We did get to watch the sun rise over the Andes on the long flight from Atlanta to Santiago.

I am beyond tired and am about to head into La Serena for a little exploring. The only problem is that I brought money to exchange at the observatory, and the lady that might be in charge of that is nowhere to be found. Then again, they might not even exchange money here anymore. No one seems to know if this can occur or not.

More to come!

A long weekend of eating, or my trip to Chicago

I had been to Chicago only briefly a few times before. Once was an astronomy club field trip to Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin and an afternoon in Chicago. The two other visits I had been in O'Hare International Airport for obvious reasons. I really like the crazy tunnel between terminals (mimicked in North Carolina's Charlotte airport).

This time, I got a long weekend. I spent the weekend with one of my roommates from my senior year of college. Her quaint apartment in Lincoln Park was very welcoming.

My flight from Philadelphia was delayed, so I finally got to her apartment sometime around midnight. It didn't take me too long to find my way out of the airport to the train station. I was impressed with my city-navigation skills.

Since my hostess has a real job, I was left alone the next day (Friday). I went to Lincoln Park, which I found on the first try. I wandered around one of the ponds for a while and came upon the zoo. Lincoln Park has a bunch of areas to roam. Before entering the zoo, I stopped the Lily Pool where I smelled some lovely fragrant trees and watched some ducks and turtles.

After the Lily Pool, I found the zoo. I commend Chicago highly for having the sense to make the zoo free. It's really a brilliant idea. I walked around looking at various animals and found my way to a plant conservatory that was filled with some stunning plants, including a whole room of orchids (some--not those pictured--smelled like coconut).

I spent much of the day wandering around the zoo. At the end of it all, I felt much like this tiger.

I met up with my kind hostess, Stephanie, for dinner. We had the best potato pancakes ever as well as the largest matzo ball in matzo ball soup (Frances' Deli). After being sufficiently stuffed we watched a movie then got ice cream. Good planning.

On Saturday, we visited Chicago's farmers' market that's held in Lincoln Park. We waited for something like an hour to get fresh crèpes. It was entirely worth the wait.

The Art Institute of Chicago was the next stop. The draw was taking tacky Ferris-Buehler-inspired photographs (staring deeply at pointillism and such). We looked into some Van Gogh then headed to the children's book illustrations and photography exhibits.

The next stop was Cloud Gate and Millenium Park. We walked around some fountains and statues. There was then a series of ridiculous photographs taken in front of Cloud Gate...The Bean. I include a tame one--namely one only of The Bean.

After that it was time to find some Chicago-style pizza, which we annihilated. Another movie was watched that night as we were pretty much useless from the cold and the over-eating.

Sunday saw a trip downtown to take an architecture boat tour on the Chicago River. We took a lot of pictures of buildings. The tour guide was extremely knowledgable and probably commented on every building we passed. I enjoyed this one because the yellow dome is a dirigible dock. Seriously.

The boat took us to the lock to the Lake Michigan and we had a brief glimpse of the lake and Navy Pier. I'd been to Navy Pier on a previous visit so we skipped that attraction.

We visited the larger-than-life American Gothic statue and took a series of ridiculous pictures there, too (I am tying his shoe).

Then we went to the Hancock building and stared up at it. Another time I will go to the top. That was followed by more eating: cupcakes and Mexican take-out.

I left Monday after breakfast wishing that I could stay longer. I quite enjoyed my visit to both my friend and Chicago. I will have to return to see both again.

Trips to come!

I am happy to announce that I will be traveling a lot this summer.

May 7th-11th: Chicago, IL
May 19th-June 6th: Chile (La Serena, Santiago, Easter Island)
August ??-14th: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
August 16th-23rd: Zurich, Switzerland and Germany

I haven't purchased plane tickets yet for Brazil, but I will in the coming days. I found out that I am getting a grant of $500 of support from the International Astronomical Union (the meeting I'm attending) as well as a grant to cover my plane tickets from the American Astronomical Society. This just means I get to go down there for longer!

New York City (Better Late Than Never) and Snowy Ocean City, Maryland

I briefly went up to New York City last month, and I suppose I should include that in here.

I visited a friend from Ohio Wesleyan whom I hadn't seen for far too long. We met up Friday night after she found me in the Port Authority. We had a late dinner at Brasserie Les Halles, which is where Anthony Bourdain (of Travel Channel's No Reservations) was a chef for some time. Overall, I was impressed, but my stomach couldn't take anything too risky in French cuisine because it was around 10 p.m. by the time we started eating. I was also annoyed that my carry-out did not include my delicious French fries.

Saturday night we went out to a restaurant in Queens called Cheburechnaya. The food was Middle Eastern, Russian, and delicious. After that I got dragged to a Korean karaoke facility. That was interesting to say the least.

Much of the trip was spent discussing our past adventures and the possibilities for the upcoming trip to Chile (which I just booked my flight for a few days ago!). By some stroke of luck I encountered a friend from middle school that goes to Lehigh waiting in the bus line to get back to the Lehigh Valley. He kindly let me in line with him, otherwise I would have had to wait for the next bus.

Overall, it was a good trip that involved a lot of eating.

I mention that I am in Ocean City only so I can show this picture. I love it when it snows here. There is no movement except for the flurries and the bay. A group of ducks goes by once in a while. I remember more dramatic scenes with the bay frozen from when I was little.

Southern California

I was sad to leave the quaint city of Sacramento ("Old Sac" pictured to the left). I certainly see the appeal of living there. It lacked the hustle and bustle of the next city on my list. I will note here that the biggest drawback of California is that everything is so expensive, especially the food and the associated tax.

I flew into LAX and had the only flight on this trip that didn't have some sort of problem. After figuring out that my flight's luggage was coming up on a different carousel in the baggage claim than advertised, I waited for a shuttle to Long Beach. I eventually got on one with a frantic astrophysicist and had the sheer pleasure of sitting in the front passenger seat after realizing my undergraduate research advisor was sitting in the back.

I didn't see too much of Long Beach. The American Astronomical Society meeting took up most of the week. I did walk around the vicinity of the conference however. It was very commercial, but extremely pretty and well-kept. I was impressed, but then again, it was the area surrounding their huge convention center.

My stay in Long Beach included seeing a lot of palm trees and boats, walking in uncomfortable shoes to a lighthouse, eating far too much restaurant food, and sticking my feet in the bitterly cold Pacific Ocean (on a foggy morning).

On Thursday, a mid-afternoon trek to Los Angeles was in order. During this little trip, I was reminded how this area inspires people by seeing references made in songs that I listen to frequently. Coming from the girl that studied in Aix-en-Provence, France because it's in a song by The Decemberists, this shouldn't be surprising. The first reference I noted was on the ride to and from L.A. Both drivers took the 405, yes, they really do refer to it as THE 405. They do that for all of their highways. "405" is the title of songs by both Death Cab for Cutie and Eve 6. That was only the beginning. After my friends and I checked into the hotel there, we found a bus to get us up to Santa Monica (Everclear) via the Pacific Coast Highway (as referenced in Don Henley's "Boys of Summer", which was covered by The Ataris at the very least), which is also known as California One (The Decemberists). Aside from all of that, we walked around Santa Monica's pier, shopping district, and beach. A friend of mine that lives out there met up with us and showed us a little bit of the town.

Overall, it was a great experience. Naturally, the fact that my trip to California cost me next to nothing makes it even better.

I did have some fun flights home, too. The first one went into a 40-minute holding pattern while Chicago's O'Hare had an "emergency" that I never found out what it really was. People in the airport were told it was because of the snow, but no one seemed to believe it. Curious. After that, it was back to Allentown on another plane that didn't have potable water. I can't help but wonder if it was the same plane as on the way out. On both legs of the journey I had the whole row of seats to myself and some jerk decided to take that joy away from me by sitting in the aisle seats. Don't they know that I intentionally picked those seats because there was no one else in the row? As payback, I blocked their view of the window. It was cloudy, anyway.

Northern California

It turns out that California is not always sunny.
I am in Sacramento, and it was foggy and cold yesterday. I didn't plan for that.
Today the sun is shining, thankfully.

I had two interesting flights yesterday. The first one wasn't too bad, but there was the announcement of "Our hot water heater isn't working, so there is no running water in the bathroom sink." The second had "Our auxiliary power is inoperable, so we're going to need to start up one of these engines here at the gate. It'll be a little while. We notified the pneumatic air team that we were going to need them, but they haven't arrived yet." I was also sandwiched between a man watching Welcome Back, Kotter on his portable DVD player without using headphones and a guy with books about learning a language, which I could not determine. The latter passenger also had his Bible handy and seemed rather nervous about the flight. Neither said a word, unless it was requesting something of the flight attendants.

Sacramento is a quaint little state capital with a lot of charm. There are good places to eat, but not much to see unless one wants to spend the day museum-hopping to all American history museums, gold rush themed, of course. Since my trip is overly educational as it is, we're just going to wonder around the city. Today holds a walk through what I hear is referred to as "Old Sac".