Travel

Whoa…

30 September 2011

California, Food and Drink, Grad School, Lifestyle, Music, Oakland, Photography, Travel

You don’t have to worry anymore, guys, I’m not dead. 2011, the year of many transitions, has kept me from blogging. More accurately, all of the reading and writing I have to do for grad school is keeping me from blogging. Since I last posted, Alex and I flew across the country and settled here in Oakland, California. We found a great apartment, full of character, in a 1920′s (pink!) stucco building in North Oakland. We live close to about 7 or 8 coffee shops, a boulangerie with fantastic baguettes (and more good coffee), a few yoga studios, and a bunch of vintage boutiques. Très charmant. Not as much of our apartment is decorated as I would like, but hopefully I can make it happen in little bits and pieces.

Three mornings a week I’m in a classroom at the Mills College lab school with 2 and a half to 3 and a half year olds. I’m in five early education classes, and I audit one dance class (which, I swear, is solely responsible for maintaining my sanity). When I’m not actually in the classroom or in my own classes, you might find me in the library with my nose in any number of books or articles, or clacking away at at one paper or another. I try to sit outside in the sunshine to do my reading as much as possible. The Mills campus is really quite beautiful, and I try to take advantage of the warm California sun as much as possible. On weekends we try to do fun things. We started out using Zipcar all the time, but since decided that freedom and flexibility would be worth the extra pennies to buy a car.

Our new chariot! Gene Carmesan (of course) is a 2010 Toyota Corolla. He’s a champ. So far, with the help of Zipcars, public transit, and Gene, we’ve explored Alcatraz, Muir Woods, the Bear Republic, Russian River, and Lagunitas breweries, Joaquin Miller Park. Gene also took us into San Francisco for a great James Blake concert (not quite as good as the US debut in Williamsburg, have to say…).

My sister, bless her heart, carried Harry on a cross country flight. She’s got the battle wounds to show for it, to be sure. Harry is now comfortable, which means he’s back to being a jerk most of the time. He has his moments:

One of the highlights of my summer (aside from getting married and moving across the country, of course), was receiving Jasmin Ortiz’s fantastic photographs from our June 30 Brooklyn Municipal Building wedding and neighborhood bar festivities. The shot below is just a sneak preview. More will be posted at Emily. Alex. Wedding(s). very soon.

With that, a catch-up post, I will leave you for now – hopefully for not quite so long this time. Have a wonderful weekend!!!

The Great Windship Heritage

9 August 2011

Photography, Travel

1 Comment

For what seems like forever, my dad and stepmom have been sailing off the coast of Maine for a week each summer. This year, their 10th trip, they finally brought us along. Dad, Annie (stepmom), Alex (husband), Casey (sister), Melanie (friend), and I all packed our duffles and boarded the Schooner Heritage in Rockland at the end of July. We sailed for six days with 24 other passengers, five crew members, and two captains. We hauled lines, chopped vegetables, hosed the anchor, furled sails, listened to stories, watched for porpoises and seals, made new friends, climbed aloft almost to the top of the mast, drank lots of coffee, and tied many knots (among so many things!).

It’s hard to convey the beauty of a schooner in words, but, I assure you, the Heritage is a stunning vessel. The following photographs hardly do the experience justice.

These last two photos are from the last morning of the trip when I climbed aloft. My sister snapped these and I’m glad she did – being atop the mast, 70ish feet in the air was an absolutely amazing experience. I’d have stayed up there all day if I could’ve.

______________________

More of my photos here. The Heritage has a detailed website with everything you could wish to know about the vessel and her captains.

BIG CHANGES!

3 May 2011

Lifestyle, Travel

1 Comment

The past several months have been soul-searching and momentous and life-changing and I’ve had to keep it all from you. Sorry. I won’t try to write a synopsis about it, because, well… do you really care? I will simply tell you about the results:

GRADUATE SCHOOL!!!!!!!

This fall, I will be entering the Master’s program in Early Childhood Education at Mills College. To save you from a Google Search, it’s here:

In Oakland, California!!!!!!!! And I couldn’t be happier. The program is absolutely amazing and I’m so eager to learn more about something I do every day. Is that dorky? Yes. Who cares? Not I. Teaching preschool is the single most challenging thing I have ever done, and for that, I love it. I get bored and frustrated if I’m not kept on my toes, and who better to keep me on my toes than a classroom of little ones. The children I have taught over the past three and a half years have been a tremendous inspiration – I’m so grateful to them and to the teachers who have guided me along the way.

It’s terrifying and thrilling and completely overwhelming to think of packing up our lives and moving across the country, but Alex and I are excited about the prospects of a new city and mild weather and a different pace of life.

To top it off, here’s what my academic life will look like:

Yeah, hi. Gorgeous California campus. Beautiful buildings. Children frolicking in sunny fields. Yup. I’ll take it.

This obviously means a lot of big changes (as the header would have you know), and I’ll be sure to document them appropriately. Don’t you worry. More soon.

I’d like to coat everything I eat in either phyllo or feta or Greek honey.

30 March 2011

Food and Drink, Photography, Travel

1 Comment

Here we go! Below are the photographic highlights of our incredible trip to Greece and Turkey. Those in attendance: Me, Alex, Alex’s parents, his brother Matt, and Matt’s wife Leah. Here’s a brief itinerary so you can see just how we covered so much in a week:

Tuesday Morning to Friday Morning: Athens (including a Thursday afternoon trip to the shore to see the Temple of Poseidon)

Friday Morning: Board Cruise Ship

Friday Afternoon: Mykonos

Saturday Morning: Kuşadası, Turkey (Excursion to the Ancient City of Ephesus)

Saturday Afternoon: Patmos

Sunday Morning: Heraklion, Crete

Sunday Afternoon: Santorini

Monday Morning: Flight home to New York

We ate well, admired beautiful sights, did a lot of walking, and ate more. We met a Greek friend of a friend in Brooklyn the weekend before our departure and he gave us suggestions of great places to eat and must-try dishes (obviously a man after our hearts, traveling for us is all about the food). His suggestions were perfect for us, and we ended up eating our way through Greece. I’d like to pretend that all the walking and sightseeing balanced out the caloric intake, but I feel a little pudgy now. We did have souvlaki twice in one day and didn’t hold back on any of the other meals, why would we? I’m off to the gym as soon as this is posted.

Feast your eyes, readers!

Clockwise from top left: ruins of the Theater Dionysos, ruins of the Acropolis, ruins of the Temple of Poseidon, ditto, and ruins of a carafe of wine at Το Καφενείο an absolutely amazing place for mezedes (Greek tapas).

Images from the open market in Athens. This place is huge and stinky and loud, but totally awesome to walk through for 10 minutes.

The street animals in Greece are lovely: totally not bothersome and surprisingly healthy-looking. The cat and dog on the left are in Athens. The little guy on the right was in Heraklion, Crete. He was very yawn-y (which was very cute) so we named him Yanni. Turns out he really liked us and almost followed us back to the ship. We may have ended up bringing him home if pets were allowed on the boat.

Oh my lordy, the lamb souvlaki in a pita with perfect tomatoes and creamy tzatziki. I rest my case, your honor.

On the left, Mykonos. On the right, Patmos. Both totally stunning and laid-back. Our trip fell during tourist pre-season, so nothing was busy, everything was quiet, and the weather was still wonderful. Temperatures were in the mid-60′s every day, perfect for doing a lot of walking without getting boiled alive.

The Ancient City of Ephesus in Kuşadası, Turkey. Our tour guide, George, was hilarious and knowledgeable, but my capacity for absorbing history was maxed out in the first 20 minutes of this tour (I had already absorbed a lot in Athens). The city was built by a general of Alexander the Great, and Sting played at the gigantic theater on site (a lot more recently than when it was built, obviously). Yup, that’s all I got. That and if we missed our bus back, we would be paying $85 for a cab back to the ship.

After our tour of Ephesus, George led us through the city to a Handmade Turkish Rug Co-operative. All of my don’t-be-a-sucker-tourist alarm bells were going off when we were herded into a tiny room and given wine (at 10am) and a fast-paced and super-polished lesson on Turkish rugs (the kind of smoothness where the Turkish man who lived in San Antonio for 12 years and spoke almost accent-less English asked if he was saying the word “cotton” right… mm-hmm, ok. But I did love the way he said it, it was more like “cutton” but better). Also, the whole thing was perfectly choreographed. Dudes were rolling out rugs and spinning them with the utmost style. The woman pictured above was making a small silk-on-silk rug that will have over 600 knots per square inch, and will take her a year to finish. Fortunately, we got out alive and with our valuables. Though, Alex’s parents have a new rug to find a spot for in their home! And if I decide to go for a Turkish rug someday, I know just where to go.

Yes, folks, this treat was as good as it looks. The morning we were in Heraklion, Crete, Alex and I chose not to go on the historical tour of the Palace of Knossos. As I said, I was all historied out. Instead we wound our way through the city streets to Liontaria Square and ate one of the highly-recommended dishes from our Greek-friend-of-a-friend. BOUGATSA. Thin layers of phyllo stuffed with cheesy custard (like a thicker, more savory ricotta), sprinkled with cinnamon, and drizzled in honey. We split one and then ordered another, and right now I wish I could recommend to past-Me to order a third. The little restaurant, Kipkop has been in business for 1922, and the sidewalk tables were filled with late-middle-aged Greek men, that is until the bells rang for church, anyway.

Aaaaah, Santorini. Once arriving in port on the tender boats, we got to choose between riding up the 1000-foot cliff on donkeys or in a cable car. Because there were six of us, we chose the cable car, but next time Alex and I will take the donkeys. The lighting was so dramatic that afternoon- bright warm sunlight and ominously dark clouds (that never amounted to anything except for a stunning backdrop for photos).

More Santorini, because four pictures don’t do it justice. Eight doesn’t cut it, either, but I have to try. Alex deemed it “indescribable,” and I have to agree. You really have to see it for yourself.

There it is, ladies and gentlemen. A 39-image recap of our trip to Greece (and Turkey). If that doesn’t quite satisfy you, there will soon be 175 images on my Flickr account for your perusal. More food, more sights, more street animals.

You can bet, now that we’re stateside, we’re going to scout out the best souvlaki places in the five boroughs. And if we can find bougatsa, that too.