The Storm

Happy New Year's Eve!

Strawberries

Thinking about snack foods today. Chocolate-covered strawberries on a stick are the ultimate snack food. The ultimate walking-while-you're-eating, ripe-strawberry-delicious snack food. They're awesome. Trust me.

Pea Pods

Why don't we have markets any more in the US? The only markets I ever see are yuppified farmers markets that sell produce for about twice what you pay in the grocery store. In most countries the market is much cheaper than any thing that you buy in a store that has to pay for a building lease, electricity, and employees. How off track are we as a country if it costs more to sell fruits and vegetables in a market with no overhead costs, instead of selling them to a supermarket?

Plaza Mayor

The Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain.

Flower

Flowers are pretty awesome. Hope you enjoy this one.

Pitlochry

Sometimes you need a sign to point the way back to civilization.

Today I'm driving from Tallahassee to Chicago with my brother. Here's to a safe journey.

Cookies

Merry Christmas!

Presents

Christmas Eve is upon us, and whether or not you celebrate Christmas, it is still a holiday in the United States. Sometimes I have trouble getting excited about Christmas. I think that the purpose of Christmas is to help us reflect on our lives and to be thankful for what we have. In this way, Christmas is the non-secular, gift-giving version of Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving was a month ago, so I'm not feeling the need to reexamine by life again so soon.

I really get into Christmas when I'm living in other countries that don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Not only are Christmas traditions different in other countries, which excites me all by itself, but without Thanksgiving to force some self-reflection and ritualize holiday cheer, I am certainly ready for a celebration by the middle of winter.

Presents are definitely the best part of Christmas. The food can be either amazing or amazingly bad. Holiday parties have their ups and down. But presents are really the focal point of the day. The most memorable part of Christmas Eve for me is sitting around the Christmas tree and opening presents together as a family.

Now you may be thinking, silly Andrea, don't you know that you're not suppose to open presents until Christmas Day? Well, culturally-insensitive friend, in Germany it is tradition to open presents on Christmas Eve and not on Christmas Day. Since my parents are mostly German in background, we still uphold this tradition and open our presents on Christmas Eve.

This picture was taken in Germany at my host parents' house on a Christmas Eve many moons ago. The presents are all waiting patiently to be opened and enjoyed. The candles (yes, real candles) are all lit. And today, in that same house there are presents that will soon be opened, and I really wish I could be there.

Swan

I love how contemplative this swan looks. That is how I feel right now. Contemplative.

Rio de Janeiro

This is the view of Rio de Janeiro that you get when you go up to see Christ the Redeemer. Pretty spectacular, huh?

Portrait

This is my friend Alison. I don't remember why she was waving a broom in my face, but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time, since I took this picture. You can check out her blog of adventures in South American here.

Christ the Redeemer

When you stand just beneath this statue it is easy to see why it is so iconic. Below the statue is the entire city of Rio de Janeiro, and above it only sky. It's hard to see in this picture, but the entire statue is really a giant mosaic, made up of small white tiles.

Beware Of Horse

I think the sign says it all.

Ceiling

How often do you really look at the ceiling? I think if mine looked like this I would look at it way more often.

Hot Springs

I really love this picture a lot. I hope you like it too. And as beautiful as this pictures is, New Mexico is even more beautiful.

The Windy

Another picture of the Windy, the boat that I lived on this summer. From this angle you can see the port side bow, and if you had X-ray vision that could penetrate the steel hull you would be able to see my bunk down in the fo'c'sle. Now before you tell me that "fo'c'sle" can't possibly be a word, let me say that first of all it is an abbreviation of the word forecastle, and second of all, Wikipedia agrees with me, therefore I am right.

In other news, I am flying home today. And because I want to avoid unnecessary baggage fees, I am only bringing one carry-on with me. If it doesn't fit into my backpack, then it's not coming along. I think this will be an interesting trial to see if I can really travel without lots of unnecessary things.

Block Party

Typical Block Party fare.

Portrait

This is my friend Britt. You may remember her from this post. She's pretty amazing. Pretty and amazing, both at the same time. Right now she's off in Utah doing silly things.

She's actually doing important things. I'm just bitter that Utah stole her away from me.

Stupid Utah.

MoMA

So I think we've established by this point that I love museums. Especially art museums.
And the Museum of Modern Art is a pretty awesome museum. Just thought you should know.

Ayutthaya

I don't know about you, but I'm going to go out and make a snowman today.

Kebabistan

Epic eating experience in Turkey, thanks to Britt.

Tall Shipping

 

 View of Chicago from aboard the Windy.

Dancing Shrimp Salad

In Thailand, there was this market that took place everyday in the street behind our research building. One day I went with one of the Thai students to look for my dinner. (Market food is the best in Thailand.) After inspecting the many fruits and vegetables, and carts of soup, and piles of noodles, I came across this bag of shrimp salad. Except there was something wrong. These shrimp were still moving. They were still alive!

Now I try to have an open mind about food in foreign countries, and I am not a vegetarian, by any means. But I usually draw the line at eating live food. I pointed this shrimp salad out to my friend and she replied, "I don't like these shrimp. They dance on my tongue!"

From then on, I have thought of this as dancing shrimp salad, and I'm a little sad that I didn't try it.

Daddy Long Legs

If you're like me, then you are irrationally creeped out by spiders.

I don't know why, but spiders just make me jump up and down and yell "Eeeeeeeeh!", and then I have to make sure that they have not bitten me or laid their spider spawn in my ears, or something ridiculous like that.

All spiders do this to me, except, for some reason, daddy long legs. Maybe because they have irrationally long legs and irrationally tiny bodies, which somehow calms my irrational fears that they will bite and then lay their eggs on me. Who knows? But Daddy long legs and I – we're tight.

They are majestic in their own way.

Portrait

I present another portrait of Maraja. I am actually really proud of this one. It is not a bad photo, but I think the editing really makes it pop. You can see the original below for comparison. This is the first photo that I used different layers and filters to create the final effect. Finishing this photo was more work than I usually put into my photo editing, but the outcome definitely makes this a useful technique to use more often in the future.

Grass

No words today. Almost.

Tower of Macaroons

This is the tower of macaroons that CHANGED MY LIFE. Not really. I feel more that they represent a joyful tower of awesomeness, inspired by the presence of macaroons in my life. Basically I love macaroons. Such a silly word, macaroon.

Mini Pumpkins

Everything worth having comes in miniature. That is my wisdom for today. Not very wise, but there you have it.

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall has some really fantastic graffiti. But I didn't take these pictures in Berlin. These sections of the Wall were transported to Washington D.C. as part of an exhibit about democracy's triumph over communism in Europe.

There was even a toppled statue of Lenin.

I had to visit during orientation before heading off to Germany as an exchange student. Orientation was held in Washington D.C. with the idea that maybe American exchange students should learn a little more about their own country before they go represent it abroad. Go figure.

Fountain

The fountain in the courtyard of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Happy December

Here's hoping that we finally get some snow. If I'm going to freeze my butt off, it should at least look like a Christmas card outside.