Defense and Thanksgiving

By defense I don't mean the chant they yell at basketball games... I had my Ph.D. defense this past Monday (Nov. 22nd) and I passed! My family flew in as well as good childhood friend, Thaidra, former co-worker, Jacopo, and my boyfriend, Clark. They made it a special experience. After my talk we went to my favorite hibachi grill. Then we played some games back at the house. The game session relieved some interesting opinions people have on issues. For example, one of the questions was, "if what one issue could be enforced the world would be a safer place?" My sister put legalizing marijuana, thaidra put no guns, Clark put safety belt enforcement (partly b/c I never wear mine), I put no robbery (partly b/c I never lock my stuff). There is no denying if weapons were removed the world would be safer. After the game time we ate some more! My church friends had a thanksgiving potluck.

After Thaidra and Clark left, I had thanksgiving #2. My roommate, Melodie, invited me over to Beaumont for Thanksgiving again. It was absolutely delish! Her family is so funny and lively too.

sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

Did you think that was just asaying?... well I know from first hand experience it's unfortunately not just a saying. After a week at a conference in Austin, a day waterskiing in Somerville, Clark and I decided to stay in Houston so he could get his flight out the next day easily. It was about 11pm and I just wanted a cheap motel/hotel near the airport. First motel was $60...to high. The next motel, Symphony Inn, was $50. It was run by Indians who didn't know a lot of English...but it should be fine for a short night right? Well I guess the first clue should have been our "no smoking" room had ash trays and little match boxes in the middle. So I went down and asked for another "no smoking" room. They just came up with a smoke-be-gone spray and sprayed it all over the room and said, better? Oh man, really? Whatever, it was fine. So I thought. After the next night in my bed in College Station I woke up with red bites on my back! After closer examination of my bed I found one! I found a bed bug! They are about 3 mm in length and 2 mm in width. With a tiny black head, long antenna, and striped butt. Yikes!!!

Need-less-to-say instead of fixing my vessel and getting the data off the computer from the experiment I did yesterday, I spent today cleaning my room. It is not a little process (esp. to do alone). You have to clean the whole room first. Then take off the mattresses. Vacuum very well. Then do all your laundry (all clothes, sheets, towels, etc.). Buy bed bug spray and spray the bed frame, wall borders, picture frames, mattresses, etc. Also buy waterproof covers from wall-mart to conceal any remaining bed bugs in the mattress (they can not get through). After all this resemble. ... I really hope they don't come back.

Perspective

So I am procrastinating and saw these pictures. Totally something I want to try sometime. Pretty neat, no?

Time doesn't stop for you

This summer was good, Clark came to visit/work here in College Station, we went to a Jack Johnson concert, ran a 5k in Galveston, and got my car repainted. However, my plans of making the deadlines to graduate by December were slashed. I still hope to be done by December (i.e. have defended and completed my dissertation to satisfaction)...but won't graduate until May, 2011. Sometimes I feel like this PhD comic image is reality. Just one foot in front of the other.

France for Spring Break (Round 2)

March 18-28, 2010 I was able to fly to Marseille, France as I had a year ago. It had been 3 months since I had seen Clark in person. He welcomed me at the metro station, La Rose, near his apartment. Back at Clarks apartment I realized Clark had gotten food for me he knows I like (i.e. smoked salmon, cheeses, diet coke, chocolate, etc). In Marseille I was able to meet Clark's church friends as we helped stain pews. We also went on a lovely hike near Clarks apt.
The majority of our time was spent in Corsica. After a short 12 hr. fairy ride we landed in Bastia, Corsica. I say short b/c we slept most of it since we had a cabin with 4 beds and a portal window! After checking in to our hotel we went to the "i". It reminded me of all my travels with my family! There we learned about a bike rental shop a few blocks away. So we rented 2 Mt. bikes for 35 euros. Since it was only 10am Clark told the man we would be back way before their closing time at 6pm. However, when I heard him say it only took 1 hr. to ride 1/3rd the way up Cap Corse (the upper peninsula of Corsia) I had set on going to the very tip! So 72 km (45 miles) and an excellent pizza at the tip of Cap Corse later we returned our bikes at 5pm! Even though it was hilly, it was really a nice bike ride!

The next day we packed up and took the train to Corte. We really didn't know much about Corte in fact we decided to stop there b/c the train ticket seller suggested it above all the other places on our way to Ajaccio and Clark said it was in the guide book. Turns out it has a really new/modern museum and an awesome castle/fort. We were even able to catch an American film, In the Loop, during the film festival. It was nice to just relax and watch a movie with Clark again.

The next day "the nomads" packed up again and headed for Ajaccio at 8am. Its a good thing Clark can read French otherwise we could have missed the little note that said the train is not running go to the bus area instead! After getting our hotel de Paix in Ajaccio we took the bus as far down the coast-line as we could. We scoped out the waters for good snorkeling spots and hiked up a large rock overlooking the sea.
The last day in Corsica we snorkeled (with full body wetsuits of course) near the bus stop, Neptune in Ajaccio. Although the water was clear the overcast made shadows in the water. Going over these dark masses made me a little scared. I was glad Clark was there to grab his hand and swim with him. After 2 hrs. snorkeling I had to poop really bad! I was practically running to anything nearby that looked remotely open. Finally we found a place. It was a restaurant called L'Arjadne plage. This ended up being the best food we had during our whole trip! It also had a great view of the small waves crashing on the shore. We would definitely recommend this place! Plus it has a good flusher.

Back in Marseille we went on a walk to the most lovely water I have ever seen. I was as if I was in one of those magazine pictures of exotic places. Except the water was really cold and there were people. Including a young man in his whitey tighties running around. Regardless it was an awesome place! In downtown Marseille Clark got a nice haircut from a Metro guy that reminded me of Edward Sissorhands! To end the evening we picked up a pizza from a mobile truck. The cool thing about this is he had a wood burning stove in his truck! Of course I took a candid picture of him (and probably embarrassed Clark).

On my way back to the airport I got the royal treatment as Clark took the 1.5 hr. bus, metro and bus again ride from his house to the Marseille airport with me. We arrived 30 mins before my flight took-off. This was perfectly fine since the 1st flight was only going to Paris and it is a small airport. I like the rapid turn-around time! Especially when I know there is someone willing to help if something doesn't go according to plans :)

December 2009

It’s my turn to write the blog post this time. Heather and I got back from our European Christmas vacation a few days ago. It began with me meeting her at the airport (eventually…). It wasn’t that her flight was delayed, but that her bags missed the flight entirely. It seemed like forever because I was so looking forward to seeing her.
We decided to wait for her checked bags, but to get some lunch in the interim. After a leisurely lunch and a little more waiting around, we had her bags and were off to Florence (aka Firenze) by train.We arrived in the evening and found the hotel without much trouble. The owner was very nice and set us up with a notated map and dinner recommendation. We had a lovely dinner and walked back to the hotel without seeing much of the town – we found out later that we probably missed some good Christmas lights. The next day, after a nice breakfast, we were off to see the city. We went to the Duomo and up into the top of the cupola, where Michelangelo painted the ceiling. Pretty cool.

We walked some more of the city, seeing the squares and the ponte vecchio. I thought the sign about please don’t put locks up was particularly out of place amongst a surrounding of locks.

In the afternoon, we continued on to Pisa to meet with Jacopo. The next day we saw his defense, I wouldn’t say we heard it though, as it was given in a lecture hall that wasn’t isolated at all from the commotion of previous graduates celebrating in the hallway. It went well, and from what I understand, Jacopo got a perfect score plus honors!

That night we celebrated with a huge, wonderful dinner with his family and roommates. The next day, we went to the mountains with Jacopo, Jacopo, and Cal (Heather’s brother – who caught up with us the evening before as another stop on his round the world tour). Also, that’s no mistake – we really went with two Jacopo’s. One is the one many of you may know, the other was his roommate.

In the mountains we did some snowboarding. There was some minor drama when Heather got separated from her group and didn’t make it back at the agreed time. Turns out she was a little lost and got some bad directions. I found her at the ski rental shop in the process of getting directions back to the hotel. The other drama was my overreaction to a wipeout where I hit my head at the end of the second day. I had a headache that didn’t go away and began to fear it was significant. One interrupted dinner, one doctor consult, one hospital visit, and one CT scan later, I was essentially given the okay and out 15 euros. I plan to try snowboarding again though. This time I lasted 2 days instead of just one. I’m curious to see whether it’s 3 days (increasing by 1) or 4 (doubling each time) that I last the next time.

After snowboarding, it was back to Pisa and then on to Rome. In Rome, we were able to meet Luca and spend an evening and a day with him. Good to see him and eventually find him and the hotel. Rome’s roads are awful in that most are restricted access, preventing Jacopo from taking anything remotely like a direct route to our intended destination. Also, in addition to the unfortunate rain, Jacopo’s friend was unable to meet up with us because her flight got canceled. We did get an extensive tour of the back streets though on our walk to dinner. On the following day, with Luca and Cal, we were able to tour the Coliseum and see some of the Forum and Paletine hill.

Cal left before Heather and I on his train to Zagreb. We were able to go to “Trevor” fountain and see Piazza de Espagna with Luca before we had to depart ourselves to catch our flight to Zagreb. However, it turns out we needn’t have gone quite so early as that flight was ultimately delayed 2.5 hours.

Igor and Jelena were wonderful hosts, loaning their apartment to us, and allowing us to experience alone the joy of waking up at 5 or 6 something in the morning to Cal’s arrival to let him in. After a little extra sleep, we were introduced to the city of Zagreb. We had a wonderful dinner with Jelena’s parents and a night on the square with their friends in addition to a tour of Igor’s offices. On our way to Zadar, Cal, Heather, and I saw Lake Plitvice and its famous waterfalls. A heavy snowfall a few days before had the water really flowing and really cold. The park was also nearly empty as it was Christmas Eve.

On Christmas day, we awoke in Zadar and exchanged gifts. Among other things, I got some wonderful slippers that I’m wearing as I write this to keep my feet warm. We saw the river Krka and its waterfalls (again out of its banks) and had a nice dinner at the roadside restaurant nearby (the only place we could find open).

The next day we saw the smallest town in the world (Hum – really, that’s its name…), though perhaps it’s now just formerly the smallest town in the world as its done further downsizing of its services. We also got to see “Motourvun” twice before seeing Split.

We spent one more night in Zagreb before Heather and I flew back Rome and Cal caught the train to Warsaw, Poland. In Rome, we spent just an evening before Heather flew back home to see Nevaeh. I had an extra day in Rome to see the city and the Vatican before flying back to Marseille…