Wednesday, April 28, 2004
new orleans or bust
i am packing again. i love packing. the only thing better than packing is doing laundry. i love doing laundry.
it was a gorgeous 28C here on monday so i don't want to hear any more crap about all the rain that seattle gets-y'all can just bugger off. of course, today we did have some sort of freak storm that knocked over loads of trees and cut power to tons of people and hailed ridiculously... but, fortunately, i was shopping at ross so it didn't bother me one bit :D
right. back to packing. t-4.5 hours til i have to go. i hate packing!
luv.m
it was a gorgeous 28C here on monday so i don't want to hear any more crap about all the rain that seattle gets-y'all can just bugger off. of course, today we did have some sort of freak storm that knocked over loads of trees and cut power to tons of people and hailed ridiculously... but, fortunately, i was shopping at ross so it didn't bother me one bit :D
right. back to packing. t-4.5 hours til i have to go. i hate packing!
luv.m
Saturday, April 24, 2004
home sweet home
ah, it is so great to see the beautiful trees! and to see real clouds and smell the rain... ah, i am so happy to be home :D minus the fact that i feel like death warmed over, which i am sure that all of my compadres are also experiencing. so, lots has happened since my last post after the russia trip. in short, formal school is done and i am chilling for a couple days before heading to new orleans for the next part of my adventure.
the tp presentations went really, really well. lots of hard work was expended but it all turned out well in the end. of course, leaving my classmates was super hard because everyone is so awesome. so, of course, i was a total wreck on the last night (ha! actually, i started crying weeks ago-hehe...) -i am NOT good at goodbyes. and it's really because i've had this excellent opportunity to get to know really funny/smart/kind/etc. people from all over and they are going to do such awesome stuff and it's really just so neat that i've had the chance to know them. plus, i just fall in love with everyone that i meet so it makes saying goodbye that much harder. oh, my heart is broken today...
we went shopping today! costco, walgreen's, bellevue square, mervyn's, some other place, and PCC. and... i even made cookies that i can eat :D i am so happy to be back in the land of healthy organic food where i can buy all these great non-dairy, non-wheat, non-gluten products! hah, i AM normal again-yay!
but, i am still ridiculously tired which also means that i am crabby. rar. i hope everyone else is getting rested before the start of the next phase of fun! take care everyone and come visit me in new orleans... woohoo!!!
luvsandhugs.m
wikid! i just discovered that my fav german radio station, bigFM, does live webcasts... supa sweet!
the tp presentations went really, really well. lots of hard work was expended but it all turned out well in the end. of course, leaving my classmates was super hard because everyone is so awesome. so, of course, i was a total wreck on the last night (ha! actually, i started crying weeks ago-hehe...) -i am NOT good at goodbyes. and it's really because i've had this excellent opportunity to get to know really funny/smart/kind/etc. people from all over and they are going to do such awesome stuff and it's really just so neat that i've had the chance to know them. plus, i just fall in love with everyone that i meet so it makes saying goodbye that much harder. oh, my heart is broken today...
we went shopping today! costco, walgreen's, bellevue square, mervyn's, some other place, and PCC. and... i even made cookies that i can eat :D i am so happy to be back in the land of healthy organic food where i can buy all these great non-dairy, non-wheat, non-gluten products! hah, i AM normal again-yay!
but, i am still ridiculously tired which also means that i am crabby. rar. i hope everyone else is getting rested before the start of the next phase of fun! take care everyone and come visit me in new orleans... woohoo!!!
luvsandhugs.m
wikid! i just discovered that my fav german radio station, bigFM, does live webcasts... supa sweet!
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
CCCP
it's raining! the weather is absolutely fabulous and spring is in the air. i couldn't be happier! but, that really isn't what you want to hear.....
russia is freakin' cool! we left for moscow early wednesday morning and got back late on sunday. getting there was sorta uneventful (well, i almost missed the bus but that is not anything new) and i slept the entire way. we stayed at the Izmaylova Hotel so of course Jojo was singing "is my lova lova" for an age... brooke and i saw the awesomest sunset the first night before we spent the next 8 hours freezing to death. we changed rooms the next day because it was cold even with our big puffy jackets on! btw, it was like -10 degrees celsius or something plus this biting wind that just made you (me!) want to cry. welcome to spring.
on thursday we went to star city and it was pretty neat. got to see lots of mock ups there but the coolest thing was the centrifuge. it is the largest indoor one in the world and it was crazy. apparently the first time they used it, all the tiles fell off the ceiling because of all the wind turbulence inside the room-haha. love the forgotten contigencies.
we went to energia on thursday afternoon and got to sit in an actually space-flown soyuz capsule! wow! i can't believe it! they had this crazy museum with all of these actual space-flown hardware (read: the first artificial satellite, the second artificial satellite, the third artificial satellite, the first manned satellite!....) completely ridiculous in that a) we were the only ones there b) nothing was roped off-we could touch everything and c) it was all real! wow. so, i bought patches and stickers and stuff and got lots of pics of course....
but, the trip just kept getting better.... we went to krunichev space center (KhSC) on friday mornining. omg, it was unbelievable! we got to be in the room where they are assembling the proton rocket (formally known as the "integration room") and it was just awesome. the thing is so huge and the fact that we were within a couple feet of it all was the super neatest thing ever.
on saturday morning, we went to the moscow aviation institute were prof tolyarenko used to teach. as per the rest of the trip, we got to see real space-flown stuff and it was all shoved into this tiny room, just sitting there waiting to be admired. i'd say that we did a pretty good job of it! man, all i have to say is serious props to nikolai for hooking us up with the coolest trip ever and obviously getting us into places that we could never have seen without him. thanks!
that was the "space" part of the trip but moscow is not completely about space... even though they did put the first man into space ;) the coolest things about russia are: a) how nice the people are b) the awesome subway system they have c)the sheer amount of crazy old history that is just everywhere. it is also a totally scary place. the people sorta look like they might kill you in a back alley (i didn't actually feel threatened but i heard so many stories about it so it was in the back of my mind...) and there are all the flashing lights and techno music blaring above grocery stores at all hours of the day and night. yay for 24-hour stores again, but c'mon! the music is a bit unnerving. i'd prefer to walk in peace! it's also nice to be in a place where the whole french-staring problem doesn't exist. i realized that i've gotten immune to it here in strasbourg, but it was so nice to not feel like my personal space was violated by some stranger 4 feet away :D
i bought a russian leather and fur aviator hat simply because it was so cold that i would have surely died without it. it is really, really cool but i'm sure i wouldn't have gotten it if it hadn't been so bitter there... so, i guess it is a good thing it was so cold :P the absolutely coolest thing that i bought is a wedding gift for a my kool kat kristi so i can't tell you about it here... check back in october for full details! i'm so excited about it and i don't know how i'll keep the secret for so long.... argh!
it was so cold there that i really didn't go out too much at nights. fighting the cold all day made me super tired (plus, there was no way i was going to risk eating at a restaurant and i couldn't be asked to sit through a meal when i was starving too) so i usually just chilled by myself in the evenings and went to the market to find food. diet coke is not so big there (surprisingly) and bread is really, really cheap (unfortunately).
the coolest thing though was the kremlin. or rather, the churches in the kremlin. they are so beautiful on both the outside and the inside! once again, i was rendered speechless. definitely on the order of magnitude of the italian churches-just a different style. wow.
JEPH just walked into the computer lab and made my day! i am so excited to see him and he is going to stay through the end of module 4-yay! big smiles from me of course :D
i really need to do work so i'll keep updating you later so for right now, i must say ciao!
luvs.m
ps-anybody want some polenta?? i accidently made like 3 liters of it last night... haha. at least it was tasty :D maybe now i can put an end to these last 3 weeks of dizziness.
russia is freakin' cool! we left for moscow early wednesday morning and got back late on sunday. getting there was sorta uneventful (well, i almost missed the bus but that is not anything new) and i slept the entire way. we stayed at the Izmaylova Hotel so of course Jojo was singing "is my lova lova" for an age... brooke and i saw the awesomest sunset the first night before we spent the next 8 hours freezing to death. we changed rooms the next day because it was cold even with our big puffy jackets on! btw, it was like -10 degrees celsius or something plus this biting wind that just made you (me!) want to cry. welcome to spring.
on thursday we went to star city and it was pretty neat. got to see lots of mock ups there but the coolest thing was the centrifuge. it is the largest indoor one in the world and it was crazy. apparently the first time they used it, all the tiles fell off the ceiling because of all the wind turbulence inside the room-haha. love the forgotten contigencies.
we went to energia on thursday afternoon and got to sit in an actually space-flown soyuz capsule! wow! i can't believe it! they had this crazy museum with all of these actual space-flown hardware (read: the first artificial satellite, the second artificial satellite, the third artificial satellite, the first manned satellite!....) completely ridiculous in that a) we were the only ones there b) nothing was roped off-we could touch everything and c) it was all real! wow. so, i bought patches and stickers and stuff and got lots of pics of course....
but, the trip just kept getting better.... we went to krunichev space center (KhSC) on friday mornining. omg, it was unbelievable! we got to be in the room where they are assembling the proton rocket (formally known as the "integration room") and it was just awesome. the thing is so huge and the fact that we were within a couple feet of it all was the super neatest thing ever.
on saturday morning, we went to the moscow aviation institute were prof tolyarenko used to teach. as per the rest of the trip, we got to see real space-flown stuff and it was all shoved into this tiny room, just sitting there waiting to be admired. i'd say that we did a pretty good job of it! man, all i have to say is serious props to nikolai for hooking us up with the coolest trip ever and obviously getting us into places that we could never have seen without him. thanks!
that was the "space" part of the trip but moscow is not completely about space... even though they did put the first man into space ;) the coolest things about russia are: a) how nice the people are b) the awesome subway system they have c)the sheer amount of crazy old history that is just everywhere. it is also a totally scary place. the people sorta look like they might kill you in a back alley (i didn't actually feel threatened but i heard so many stories about it so it was in the back of my mind...) and there are all the flashing lights and techno music blaring above grocery stores at all hours of the day and night. yay for 24-hour stores again, but c'mon! the music is a bit unnerving. i'd prefer to walk in peace! it's also nice to be in a place where the whole french-staring problem doesn't exist. i realized that i've gotten immune to it here in strasbourg, but it was so nice to not feel like my personal space was violated by some stranger 4 feet away :D
i bought a russian leather and fur aviator hat simply because it was so cold that i would have surely died without it. it is really, really cool but i'm sure i wouldn't have gotten it if it hadn't been so bitter there... so, i guess it is a good thing it was so cold :P the absolutely coolest thing that i bought is a wedding gift for a my kool kat kristi so i can't tell you about it here... check back in october for full details! i'm so excited about it and i don't know how i'll keep the secret for so long.... argh!
it was so cold there that i really didn't go out too much at nights. fighting the cold all day made me super tired (plus, there was no way i was going to risk eating at a restaurant and i couldn't be asked to sit through a meal when i was starving too) so i usually just chilled by myself in the evenings and went to the market to find food. diet coke is not so big there (surprisingly) and bread is really, really cheap (unfortunately).
the coolest thing though was the kremlin. or rather, the churches in the kremlin. they are so beautiful on both the outside and the inside! once again, i was rendered speechless. definitely on the order of magnitude of the italian churches-just a different style. wow.
JEPH just walked into the computer lab and made my day! i am so excited to see him and he is going to stay through the end of module 4-yay! big smiles from me of course :D
i really need to do work so i'll keep updating you later so for right now, i must say ciao!
luvs.m
ps-anybody want some polenta?? i accidently made like 3 liters of it last night... haha. at least it was tasty :D maybe now i can put an end to these last 3 weeks of dizziness.
