Trip to Iceland, inevitably with copious photos of gorgeous scenery

I got back from an incredible long weekend in Iceland last night and have been wanting to post photos, but am having trouble whittling the number down. This is the issue of traveling with a talented photographer. I've decided to make two posts to break it up a little to disguise the fact that I'm posting around 30 photos. Thus this post will be of the day trips we took around Iceland and the next one (probably tomorrow) will be of just Reykjavik which was our home base for the weekend. Iceland in winter is a fascinating place (as I'm sure is Iceland in summer, but I have no frame of reference there). It stayed dark until about 9:00 in the morning (an inconvenience we mostly avoided by being unable to properly operate the hotel wake-up call system and sleeping until 9:30 every day), but the sun wouldn't set until 6:30 or 7:00 at night which is actually later than it sets here. This is because Iceland is set to Greenwich Mean Time despite being significantly west of the prime meridian, although I'm not sure why that is.

But that's all kind of boring, isn't it? On with the photos!

We went on an all day tour on the Golden Circle (which is far as I can tell is just marketing language for a route that is popular with tourists and takes you vaguely in a circle). The first stop on the tour was at Pingvellir, a national park in the middle of a rift valley. It's where the Viking Parliament was established in the early 900s. I think our guide said something about them choosing the place by throwing an axe in the water and choosing the spot based on where it landed, but I can't find that verified in my cursory google search. It's probably true though.

There's me a Pingvellir. Standing on the same ground as Viking warlords past and tourists present.

Pingvellier is also home to Pingvallavatn, the largest fresh water lake in all of Iceland. It is also one of the clearest freshwater lakes in the world (I think because the volcanic stone strains the glacial water or something). The point of this picture is to show how clear it is--look at all the Icelandic Krona that tourists have thrown in and how clearly you can make them out! Because it is so clear, it is a popular place for scuba diving. There were even people diving when we were there despite the weather. Icelanders are a very hearty people. I think it's partially because they leave their children outside in their strollers when they go into coffee shops to meet up with friends. Walking around we saw tons of strollers outside cafes, and it wasn't until I heard a baby crying that I realized they contained children. This is both a testament to how safe Iceland is (our guide said there are around 1 or 2 murders a year) and how much Icelanders just don't give a shit about the cold. Perhaps if my parents hadn't coddled me by taking me into restaurants with them in the winter than I wouldn't be the type of weakling who wouldn't go snorkeling in a freshwater lake in February.

The next stop on our Golden Circle tour was Gullfoss or the "Golden Waterfall."

Here's the lower part of the falls. I could have included about 20 more pictures of this waterfall, each special in it's own way. I'm just saying, you should take a moment to appreciate my restraint.

This was somewhere along the road on the Golden Circle, but mostly I just dig this photo. Naturally, I can't take credit for it.

Our next stop was a geothermal area. The main attraction was Strokkur, a geyser that goes off reliably every 5-7 minutes. Unfortunately, its spurts were short lived and very difficult to photograph. Any attempt just led to a photo of steam. I won't waste your time with such inferior imagery, but we did get some lovely ones of the rest of the hot springs.

I've always had a soft spot for hot springs. The unique coloring, the delicate wafting of sulfur, the fact that if you step off the designated pathways you could die; there's just something very special about them.

After the thermal springs we went to a nearby thermal spa (not pictured). Basically the steam rooms were just little huts they built over some hot springs. Thus they had no way of controlling the temperature or telling you which one was the hottest. And sometimes you'd be relaxing in a nice steam room and suddenly find you were boiling up and unable to breathe. The thermal pools were very nice to laze around in though. And after the spa we were treated to a delicious lamb dinner with a chocolate mousse for dessert. I can now say that Icelandic chocolate is something to write home about, and I can see why Puddin' goes that extra mile to acquire some.

Post lamb eats, we concluded our tour by going in search of the Northern Lights. I'm sorry to say there is no attached picture of this because we completely failed to see them. There was total cloud cover that night. We decided to try our luck the next night and go out with a tour group that only leaves if there is a good chance for clear skies. We were rewarded for our efforts with clear skies, but sadly the solar activity did not put on a show. We saw some awesome stars though! I've decided Northern Lights tours are very much like whale watching tours. You trade the discomfort of sea sickness (in my case) and cold winds for the discomfort of standing in the dark in below freezing temperature with your neck craned to the sky. And instead of searching a seemingly endless ocean for signs of surfacing cetaceans, you stare at a canvas of stars willing yourself to see the start of a green tinge and trying to avoid any lights that might destroy your night vision. Basically, it's incredibly frustrating, but no doubt totally worth it if you actually see the elusive humpback breach or the apparently equally elusive Aurora Borealis. Originally, 2012 was supposed to be the peak year for solar activity, but now they think 2014 is the real peak year. I might give you another chance in 2014, Iceland, or I might just defect to Manitoba.

The next day, we went horseback riding over the lava fields near Reykjavik. The Icelandic horse is a unique species that has evolved independently of other horses because other horses are illegal to import. They are just tall enough to be considered horses and not ponies and are sturdy and short in stature. Perhaps the coolest thing about them is they have an extra gait beyond the normal walk, trot, canter, gallop business called the tölt. It's similar to an amble, I think--basically a four-beat gait that's faster than a walk but smoother than a trot. Unlike on many trail rides, they let those who felt comfortable try out some of the gaits and go a bit faster.

The lava fields we rode over. It's hard to get the beauty in this photo, but it's truly an alien landscape. Green from lichen and with short birch trees and shrubs as the only other growth.

My horse was named Jaspar. He was more interested in burrowing into my jacket than getting his photo taken.

After a day of horseback riding, we relaxed in the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's most famous geothermal spas. You can't really tell in this photo, but it's a brilliant blue color because of the silica. You can also rub the silica on your face as it's supposed to be very good for your skin (although very bad for your hair). Another perk of the Blue Lagoon is the swim-up bar.

Okay, I hope that wasn't too exhausting. Tomorrow's post will cover the time we spent chilling in Reyjkavik, the capital, and actually only, city of Iceland! Stay tuned.

Everything's awesome and nobody's happy

I promised a run-down on my trip to Richmond, VA, and a run-down of my trip to Richmond, VA you shall receive! However, it will not be today because I'm waiting until my parents send me some photos of the occasion (and am actually hoping they will read this very blog post and thus save me an email). In the meantime, I'm updating anyway because no one is at my office right now because who would come into the office the week between Christmas and New Years? Thankfully, unlike last week, they left the heat on for me.

At any rate, the topic I'm choosing to write about while slowly amping up the anticipation for stunning photographs of a Richmond Christmas (seriously, I haven't technically seen them yet, but I'm expecting photographic fireworks), which is only tangentially related to my trip, is air travel. I'll try to make it more interesting than it sounds.

My flight yesterday was supposed to be leave a little before 1 and get in at 2 (actual air time is about 45 minutes, but they have to account for 30 minutes of taxiing and being delayed apparently). Anyway, we were on the plane exactly on time and even pulled away from the gate a little early, so I was both surprised and optimistic to think that both legs of my trip would be perfectly on schedule. Of course, that was not to be due to a storm coming through New York that caused traffic to back up in La Guardia. We were told that we would be sitting on the runway until 2 to see if the airport in New York would let us land, and if not, we would go back to the terminal and deplane. The reaction to this was a plane full of pissed off people. I can't help but think part of this reaction was a result of the usual post-holiday crankiness felt particularly by those who see their families once a year for a reason and are all too happy to finally get to head for home after an uncomfortable weekend. But from my perspective, the protesting seemed a little much.

One woman in a plaid coat kept flagging down the flight attendant to ask more questions about the delay. Plaid coat had recently gotten off the phone with her friend/family/therapist in New York who had told her that it wasn't yet raining there. She preceded to tell the flight attendant this and that she really didn't understand why weren't leaving now so as to get ahead of the storm, as if her phone contact's weather observations would really supersede the ruling of the air traffic controller. To her credit the flight attendant just nodded and smiled and, apparently, brought this woman's concern to the pilot, who then explained in detail on the loud speaker how airports work and how air traffic might be affected by an approaching storm even if it could not yet be noted by laymen on the ground. Plaid coat then spent the rest of the grounded hour on the phone with various people talking about her anger for all of the following: La Guardia, the Richmond airport, the city of Richmond, airplanes, and stupid people. I thought it was nice of them to let us turn our phones on to contact people and let them know we would be late, but overall, I think the waiting would have been a lot easier if at some point they had made up a need for people to turn off all electronic devices again. Although, had they, I would have missed the plaintive whines of the young woman behind me asking whoever she was talking to "why do these things always happen to me?"

The positive thing about being delayed on the airplane instead of in the terminal is that it allowed me the chance to peruse the entire Sky Mall holiday catalogue yet another year in a row. Which leads to the following questions:

Who's idea was it to try to sell adult footie pajamas with sex appeal?

If anything shouldn't this man be more offended if people assume this muppet fuzz is coming from him rather than his "Flair Hair Visor"?

Why? And also, why $24.95?

Luckily, our flight was not canceled and after being delayed for an hour, we were released by the ground crew to soar above the clouds. And remarkably, even after being delayed an hour I reached New York hours before my sister who had left from Richmond by train several hours before me. I guess there's something to this air travel thing after all. The whole experience reminded me of this Louis CK interview about, among other things, whining on airplanes. So I guess this whole post was really just an excuse to post that link.

Anyway, I'll post soon with details about my Christmas in Richmond (surprise sneak peak: we ate a lot), just as soon as I get photos from anyone who was there and took photos and wants to send them to me!

A Photo Journal: Treasures of Texas Edition

Those of you truly faithful readers might have noticed I was absent from posting this last week. I didn't announce my leaving because I was pretty sure 99% of my readers knew where I was and who I was with. Also, just in case any of my less faithful readers wanted to take the opportunity to burgle my apartment, which may or may not actually be located in Astoria. At any rate, this year, as always, July heralded scorching weather, displays of patriotism, and summer vacation. My exotic vacation locale this year: Houston, Texas. Also: Austin, Texas. Actually, really a fair amount of central-ish small-town Texas as well as the Gulf Coast region.

The central focus of the trip was family. That's not entirely true either. It's fair to say the reason for the trip was family, specifically my sister and I and our significant others uniting at my parent's house for the week. However, the central focus of the trip--as with any vacation--was most decidedly food. Each meal naturally led to the discussion of what the following meal should be to best complement the current one. The gluttony was only paused when our styrofoam contained leftovers could no longer fit within the bounds of the refrigerator, and we were forced to consume them before continuing the food odyssey. It was glorious!

Per the usual, I'm (mostly) avoiding showing pictures of people (who aren't me--I sold out my privacy a long time ago) in them. However, if you are one of my readers who might have a personal interest in seeing one of the lovely full-family photos taken on this trip, email me and you will have some forthwith!

Where we spent the bulk of the 100 degree afternoons. This is what makes Houston, a city with the humidity level of Vietnamese jungles, a habitable place.

The Fanthorp Inn in Anderson, TX (population: 208, and yet somehow still the county seat). This building has been around since 1834 which (by Texas history standards) is really old. They also have a model stage coach on the property (the inn used to house stagecoach passengers and drivers delivering mail) and offer rides. Sadly, the Fanthorp Inn Historic Site will be closing in September, so if a trip to Anderson, TX is in your plans for the late autumn, you might want to push that up.

We journeyed to Galveston Island to go to the beach. While there my boyfriend and I created this sand face. It originally started out as a portrait of me, but the concept was abandoned when it started to take on Cro-Magnon features. I chose this photo rather than many showing the actual beach at Galveston because while the water is delightfully warm and great for swimming, this particular part of the Gulf Coast is not a conventionally attractive shoreline.

Nevertheless, the Galveston beach is a great reminder of my childhood.

Another fond memory of my childhood: making tamales. Although skipping the traditional lard, our tamales are delicious and totally worth the 2 days of cooking that go into making them. Although I'm not sure I can really say that as it's really my mom who does the lion's share of the meat preparation while the rest of us just jump in for shuck stuffing at the end.

The Art Car Museum is a treasure of Houston springing from the annual Art Car Parade. This particular vehicle is made almost entirely of spoons and other cutlery.

Another Houston gem: the beer can house. Created by a retired upholsterer and beer drinking enthusiast who began siding his house in beer cans in 1968. It is now an art piece although the artist himself says of the work, "Some people say this is sculpture, but I didn't go to no expensive school to get these crazy notions."

Some of the aforementioned gluttony. It doesn't look as formidable here as in real life, but believe me, this is quite a pork chop.

This photo requires a jump from Houston to Austin, but it seemed a fitting follow-up to the previous photo. We saw this porker in an Austin resident's front yard near the place we got drinks on South Congress.

The Capitol in Austin, a building my sister describes as "pink." The Texas Capitol is the largest in gross square footage of all state capitols and is second in total size only to the national capitol in Washington. I'm including my source for this fact because certain Californians doubt its veracity.

Barton Springs, in Austin, is a spring-fed swimming pool that stays consistently 60 degrees around the year. Very refreshing on a 105 degree day! Apparently, it's also the only known home of the Barton Springs salamander, an understandably endangered species.

Overall, I had a lovely trip. It was wonderful to see family, old friends, and to make one new one. Now it's back to the daily grind, but I should remain pretty relaxed for at least the next day or two.

Oh, the places you'll go!

I just wanted to bask in the glow of those apartment photos for a while. Rest on the laurels of pictures neatly hung and shelves dusted of potentially hazardous construction residue. I appreciate all the lovely comments and emails from friends and readers, most of them New Yorkers lusting after my newly acquired counter space. The new place certainly didn't take long to feel like home.

Weirdly though, having the whole "place to live" thing nailed down and having a place I feel comfortable and relaxed in, has inexplicably left me with a yen to travel. Unfortunately, having just spent most of my disposable income (and some of the less disposable stuff) on moving expenses and an endless supply of allen wrenches, my current trip plans will have to stay more in the realm of fantasy. That said, I can't stop looking at travel locations and mentally salivating over the possibilities. So I guess this post is more for me as a reference. I just thought I'd write down some of the places I'd love to visit whenever my travel budget revives itself. Although if anyone reading is looking for ideas to put your travel funds towards, perhaps this can benefit you as well. Just remember where the idea came from when travel companion choosing time comes around. I can be a very agreeable Sherpa.

Tanzania/Mount KilimanjaroThis is a very recent addition to the list. I'm not usually one of those people who sees the tallest anything and then wonder what it would be like at the top. My hiking experience is relatively limited. It took me 10 hours to get out of the Grand Canyon (although, I have to point out, there were some environmental factors like 104 degree heat that affected my speed there). Still, the people I've known who climbed Kili have said it wasn't that bad. And "not that bad" is enough to get me on board when I've been looking for reasons to head back to Africa.

BoliviaA good friend of mine lived in Bolivia for a couple of months last summer and came back with some incredible photographs. Prior to this point, Bolivia was only really known to me as the place Butch and Sundance go to be shot (er, spoiler alert?). After seeing her photos and hearing all her tales of this land-locked South American nation, it's now officially on the list. It's also home to the most dangerous road in the world. My friend did that. I, however, would stick to the salt flats.

Patagonia
It's funny because I always thought of myself as more of a beach person than a mountain person, but I'm noticing a theme here. I'm only putting them in this order because once I'm in Bolivia anyway, it just makes sense to head on down to southern Chile and Argentina. I like fjords, glaciers, and lakes, and this region has them all. I also have somewhat of an obsession with Antarctica, but this might be as close as I could get for a while. Sadly, choosing places that are incredibly far away is not conducive to budget vacationing. But then again, this is a fantasy list, so I may as well go for the moon (only not literally, because the idea of strapping my head down to sleep in low-gravity conditions really freaks me out).

Thailand
Now obviously, I wouldn't go all the way to Thailand just for the beaches...but I can't say I'd avoid them either. This is in Raillay Bay in the province of Krabi. It's apparently far enough away from Phuket to avoid the tourists who have more specific reasons for going to Thailand. Most of what I know (from a tourist perspective) of Thailand travel comes from stalking some girl's facebook photos. From those, I glean: delicious-looking food, waterfalls, and the prospect of a just-touristy-enough elephant ride through the jungle.

Yukon Territory

I've been to Canada a handful of times, but never to the far north. Basically, seeing the Northern Lights at some point is definitely on my list. Seeing polar bears would be fun too, but I think I might have to go further north and east for that? At this point, I have to admit that I'm not 100% where polar bears live--just that you probably can't go too far north.

Five seems like a good number. I think if I start saving now, I should be able to start planning the first trip for sometime in 2014. For the record, I do have more local trips in mind and several places in Europe that I'd like to visit too. These don't make the list because I could actually manage them in the foreseeable future. And what's the fun in dreaming about that?

Hailing from Britannia!

I've proudly returned from merry old England. The trip was a much-needed break, and I was pleased to meet a number of wonderful new people. Per the usual, my travel writing will rely on the valuable crutch of photos. Bill Bryson I am not, but I can operate a simple point-and-click. For the most part.

After a lovely six hours of enjoying the hospitality of British Airways and an even lovelier hour on the Underground, we arrived at the Royal National, a hotel that seemed to hope its guests would overlook the lack of expected amenities because of its convenient location. Admittedly, it was conveniently located by the British Museum which we stumbled to first on this first sleep-addled day. All pictures from this first day make me look fairly out of it. Also, blog readers will get a rare chance to see me in my glasses, as the first thing I did on getting to the hotel was lose one of my contact lenses. At the museum, they let you touch a replica of the Rosetta Stone. Naturally, they don't allow the public's grubby fingers on the real one.

After the museum, we wandered down to the South Bank. My boyfriend's 8-year-old niece made us promise to go on the London Eye, but we decided sitting for that long would probably cause us to pass out, so we skipped it. Hopefully, she doesn't read my blog. You can't tell from this picture, but this was actually an absolutely beautiful day. Mostly blue skies--just evidently not at this moment. Whoever said London is dismal in February is mostly right, but our first day was a welcome exception.

We walked along the bank past sand artists on the Thames and the restored Globe Theater (oddly beset by some sort of furry convention) and wandered into the Tate Modern. Currently there is some exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. It's a collection of 5 million individually crafted porcelain sunflower seeds. Apparently, you used to be able to walk on them before it decided that was potentially toxic. This photo pretty much sums that up. Please feel free to use it as a jumping off point for your discussions of modern art, Communism, globalization, and the future of China in the comments section.

My boyfriend's aunt and uncle were kind enough to drive us out to Windsor Castle for the day. (For the record, they were also kind enough to invite the whole family over for a party, make delicious Persian food, ferry us to and from Oxford and a number of other places, let us stay in their home for most of our trip, and provide us with a full English breakfast every morning. But these are more just things I need to remember for the thank you card.) At any rate, Windsor Castle was quite impressive. The queen was present while we were there, but, not surprisingly, we did not meet her. We were, however, there for the changing of the guard.

Observe, Henley-on-Thames, where the largest (or at least, most important) rowing race occurs, the Henry Royal Regatta. Of course, it occurs in the summer, but it's still a pleasant place to walk in February. Interestingly, the regatta at Henley appears in the movie The Social Network which I happened to catch on the plane over. Thanks, British Airways!

After a journey around Hyde Park one day, we decided to take in tea at the Dorchester. This is an experience I very much recommend. All the finger sandwiches you can eat! Also, some excellent scones with clotted cream and a selection of pastries. The photo of me actually drinking tea showed my bad breeding and atrociously poor tea drinking technique (my pinkie lacked the proper lifting), so please accept this photo of scone eating instead. You can't screw up scone eating.

I'm not sure what to say about it, but I couldn't not put up this picture of Trafalgar Square. The National Gallery there was enjoyable, although they kicked us out to close it shortly after we arrived.

Mid-week we journeyed by bus up to Sheffield in South Yorkshire to see the many sites of this former stainless steel industry capital. Also, and perhaps more importantly, we visited a friend of mine from college. Those unfamiliar with Sheffield may recall it being the setting of the film The Full Monty. My friend, knowing we were eager to take a break from cities, took us to the Peak District, a national park composed of verdant hills and dales. We launched our Peak District tour from Castlton, a small town a short bus ride from Sheffield. As the name might suggest, they have the ruins of a Norman castle there.

The judgmental woman at the information center said we lacked the proper footwear to do this walk. We proved her wrong.

Some sheep.


I could post an endless quantity of pictures from that day because they are all beautiful, but I shall limit it to those three. I'll post the rest online soon though, so let me know if you'd like the link. At any rate, I had a wonderful time this past week, which I'm afraid pictures just can't fully capture. It was fun to meet so much of my boyfriend's family as they are all such friendly and welcoming people. It was also great fun seeing my friend again, seeing where she's studying and living, and meeting some of her friends and housemates. We tried (and failed) to impress them by cooking a southern feast. Turns out chicken takes a long time to fry and "biscuits" don't really translate.

Anyway, thanks for reading about my experiences! This was a bit longer than I intended...so I'll just blame the jet lag.

I bet James Franco wouldn't have made it to 30 days

I've promised to give you updates on my p90x progress, and the 30-day mark seemed like a good place to make good on my promise. That's right, as of today I am one third of the way done with the program. Amazingly, I've found time between making batches of ridiculously unhealthy (and, by extension, ridiculously delicious) cookies and have yet to miss a day. Getting up at 6 am everyday has helped with this. Sadly, that streak is about to end as I'm taking the next week or so off (more on that in a minute), but I will be picking up phase 2 on my return from vacation.

Impressions thus far? I haven't noticed any major changes in my physical appearance or overall fitness. Perhaps if I actually played a sport or did anything routinely that required physical fitness, I would be better able to gauge if my performance had improved. A severely obese smoker would have no problem finding the lung strength to play the tin whistle, so that's no real testament. I do note that I don't get winded going up the stairs to the 5th floor of my office anymore, but I also feel it more in my legs (especially after the p90x Legs & Back dvd. One-legged wall squats are deadly). I took my 30 day progress pictures, but I won't be posting those. To actually see any results I have to show way more skin than I'm comfortable displaying on the internet.

In lieu of my actual progress photos, please except this reasonable facsimile.

Aside from physical changes, I've noticed more subtle ways Tony Horton (p90x's energetic host) is influencing me. Litte phrases, that I think of as Tony-isms, have been leaking into my everyday vernacular. I certainly say "bring it!" in a challenging tone more often than I used to. I also have taken to heart his frequent axiom: "do your best, and forget the rest". Actually, having now seen many of the dvds at least 4 times, I'm starting to remember all of Tony's jokes and witticisms, and frankly the more times I see them, the funnier I find him. Tony (according to Wikipedia) originally moved to LA to be a comedian and actor but, when that inevitably failed, he became a personal trainer to the stars.

I've learned to associate the different routines with Tony's commentary. The Shoulders & Arms routine is the one where he seems high and compares large backwards arm circles with flexed hands to a "pterodactyl backing out of danger," naturally with the appropriate sound effects. The Legs & Back routine is the one where he does his Groucho Marx impression by making up his own one-liners about exercise. My personal favorite Tony bit is what I call the "soup test." In several of the workouts, one of the ballistic stretches is called "stirring the pot." Basically, you hang down and circle your arm as if stirring a giant pot of soup. Every time, Tony asks the other people in the class what kind of soup they're stirring. Correct answers can range anywhere from lentil to split pea or even tomato basil. However, Tony is not above correcting those who answer this question wrong. One p90x grad says she's making lobster bisque which Tony wastes no time in telling her is not on the p90x nutrition plan. Oddly enough, in another video Tony himself says he is making lobster bisque, but quickly specifies that it's for someone else. These are the kind of mind-games and melodramas that I find fascinating at 6 am when I'm all sweaty and confused.

Anyway, I'll update you again in another 30 days when I'm 2/3rds of the way through. Actually, it will be more than 30 days because, as mentioned above, I'm taking a week off before starting phase 2. I'm certain Tony would not approve, but I have non-refundable plane tickets to London and that completely outweighs my devotion to fitness. That's right--it's vacation time! Thus, you won't be hearing from me in the next week as I'll be far too busy drinking tea and eating fish and chips. However, I do promise pictures and tales of British adventures on my return.

A cat around town

Back in college, my friends bought a puppet from a dollar store in Conway, Arkansas. This tiger, who we named K-Tiger as related to a dorm feud (the story behind which is a bit too long to go into here), subsequently appeared at most of our parties sophomore year. We dressed her up in construction paper t-shirts with uniquely anatomical designs on them and posed her in the usual array of college party pics. This may sound slightly strange, but it is really just the natural result of liberal arts students living in small town Arkansas (in a dry county, no less!).

After college, K-Tiger moved with one of my friends to Oklahoma where she (both tiger and friend) have been residing for the last few years. I'd all but forgotten the puppet (who is famous enough to have gotten her own facebook profile with close to 30 friends), until my friend started posting pictures of her seeing the sites of Tulsa. As all my friends from college are now living in far-flung places and don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, she suggested we mail K-Tiger around to visit new cities (and perhaps even foreign shores). A sort of Sisterhood for the Traveling Dollar Store Tiger Puppet, if you will.

I was the first to receive K-Tiger in the mail a month or so ago and was happy to see her again. She seemed to have aged since last I saw her. There is a touch of dirt under her chin; her fur has lost some of its luster, and she has a slight tear behind one paw. The hard-living seems to have gotten to her since her wild, college partying days. She seems to show all the wear and tear, while I, Dorian Gray like, maintain the youthful glow that still gets me carded at the wine shop on my block.

Since I devoted some time to this project, I thought I would share with my blog readers some of K-Tiger's adventures in the Big Apple.


K-Tiger and I enjoyed a nice visit to the Met (actually, we just popped into the Met gift shop and then popped out to take this picture, but who's counting?). I would have gotten a better picture that didn't feature that random guy so prominently, but I was getting slightly wary of the strange looks I was getting from tourists.


This was supposed to be a shot of K-Tiger climbing the Empire State Building a la King Kong, but due to some miscommunication with my photographer, the waning daylight, and the fact that I did my p90x arms and shoulders workout that morning and couldn't stretch my arm high enough--this is the best I could do.


K-Tiger chilling at the Plaza. We tried to go to nearby Central Park but she found it a sad excuse for experiencing actual nature.


Just a couple of cats, out on the town. Er, well, in my living room. Naturally, these two got along famously.

That about wraps up K-Tiger's big city adventures. I was actually quite thankful to have her warming my hand, as it's been pretty cold here these last couple of weeks. Sadly, K-Tiger will soon be leaving me to go to her next destination: Sheffield, England. I will be personally escorting her in a few weeks, not because I don't trust Fed-Ex, but because I deserve the vacation and I want to visit my friend. I hope none of you will think the less of me for spending my week cavorting with a puppet.

Mexico City in (about a dozen) photos

I returned from the large and wondrous capital of Mexico on Friday, but haven't gotten a chance to blog about it yet because I was at home enjoying the less large, but still wondrous, joys of Texas. Now that I'm back in Astoria (or more specifically, right now: at work in Manhattan), I have the time to devote to chronicling my wonderful trip. I had a lovely time visiting friends in Mexico City who I hadn't seen in nearly 2 years. They were wonderful hosts and drove us all over the enormous city (for sense of scale: the city and metropolitan area are over 3,000 square miles, and the city has a population of nearly 20 million). I ate delicious food in unnecessary quantities all while foolishly promising myself that the next meal would be a "light" one. According to my friend Alex, Mexico currently surpasses the noticeably pudgy United States in obesity levels. I didn't seem to notice quite so many fat people as I did in Houston, but I could certainly see that if I personally spent too long there, I would likely balloon up with all the deliciousness around me.

But rather than speak about my trip and fall into the trap of only detailing what I ate, instead I'll give you what you really want---photos!

This is the lovely house of our wonderful friends. This is the interior courtyard where later in the week (when I probably should have photographed it again) they planted some beautiful rose bushes in the bed to the left. Also, I should point out the black square in the upper left side is not my fault--it's not a camera strap as it might appear, but rather the end of a wind chime. So I guess, by not framing the shot better, it really is my fault. I'm actually not sure why I'm drawing your attention to it...

One of our first stops on arriving was to the National Museum of Anthropology which is full of artifacts from the different cultures of Mexico. I took a shine to this bird man. Apparently, dressing up as a bird was a cultural trinket the Aztecs borrowed from one of the many cultures they conquered. Perhaps it added insult to injury when, after conquering them, the Aztecs took on their festival ways, but dressing as some sort of bird and dancing around is certainly a custom that is worthy of adoption.

The explanation (thankfully offered in English) disavowed the apparently previously thought theory that this intricately carved monolith was an Aztec calendar. But sadly that was the most memorable part of the explanation, and I have no idea what it actually was used for. Far be it for this blog to spread misinformation, so I can say with perfect confidence that at the very least this large artifact was never used as an Aztec calendar. It is, however, still known by many as "the Aztec Calendar." Those readers more familiar with anthropology and Aztec artifacts, or even those just willing to google, are free to comment with a more precise explanation.

I had heartily hoped to come out of this trip with a new facebook photo of me standing in front of some of the technological wonders of Mexico. Unfortunately, this one doesn't pass inspection because in my haste to get a shot without sunglasses, I ended up with some heavy squinting. It's hard to win with full sun pictures. At any rate, I've decided it's, at the very least, good enough for blogging. This photo is of me in Teotihuacan standing on the Temple of the Sun. The, somewhat smaller, Temple of the Moon is right behind me. These date to about 200 BCE (I think?). Also, and this is really neither here nor there, that hat only cost me 10 pesos.
Here's a picture of the Temple of the Sun (it's much easier to photograph when you're not standing on top of it). I took this one partially for scale, as you can see all the people climbing up it. You can also see the incredibly ominous clouds surrounding it, which about 10 minutes after this photo was taken would open a deluge on us. The people climbing up in this picture were probably the ones stuck at the top during the ensuing downpour and hail.
After escaping the rains of Teotihuacan, we were ready for lunch. We ended up driving through the torrents (or rather my friend Alex, who is an intrepid driver, did) in a circle for about 20 minutes trying to find a certain restaurant. At many points during the search, I wondered why we were passing by about 70 perfectly decent restaurants. When we finally found our destination, I understood why we had persevered. The resturant, called La Gruta, was inside a cave. Truly a magnificent eating experience. I'm not sure this picture really does it justice, but you get the idea.

On our next day, we went the opposite direction, to the far southern part of the city to an area called Xochimilco. This is the most fertile part of the city known for its beautiful plants. It is also home to large canals where you can rent boats to be pushed leisurely down river. During the trip, boats approach you selling everything from corn to chips and candy apples to music and jewelry. It's a very relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Here are Alex and I sunning ourselves on the edge of our boat, Lupita. She was a fine boat. Unfortunately, I was unperpared for this trip by not decking out in my "I heart New York" and Panama hat finery. So really, Alex is doing all the work in this picture.

This is another picture that suffers greatly to the real thing. We visited a former convent in the town of Tepoztlan outside of Mexico City. The structure was enormous, but the most memorable part was an enormous chapel in which everything was brightly gilded. Naturally, flash was not allowed. I did the best I could on my "museum setting," but a lot of the beauty is lost. Nevertheless, I like this photo a lot, so I'm including it. If you ever find yourself in Tepoztlan, this church is very much worth the visit.

I wish I could take credit for the glorious composition of this picture, but really it is one that Alex took. It is from the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (or Three Cultures Square), called such because you can see three periods in Mexican history there. In this photo you can see the remains of the pre-Columbian City of Tlatelolco (later, I think, conquered by the Aztecs), the church of Santiago Tlatelolco built in 1525, and of course the modern buildings of Mexico City. You can see them all nicely in this picture! For clarification, the wall in the foreground is part of the ancient city.

On our last day in town, we visited the historic downtown of Mexico City. Here is the Fine Arts Palace where they put on ballets, operas, and other cultural events. In addition to being stunning on the outside, there are a series of murals, by Diego Rivera and others, on the inside. There is also a magnificent crystal curtain made by Tiffanys on the main stage, but unfortunately, it was under renovation, so we couldn't see it firsthand. Oh well, that's just one more excuse to go back!

On our last night in town it was Isobel's birthday, so we went out for a nice dinner. Here you can see me, my mother, Isobel and Alex and Anibal up top. It was an enjoyable end to a wonderful trip, and fittingly, involved eating copious amounts of delicious foods.

Naturally these 12 pictures are just a drop in the bucket compared to the 200 odd pictures I (or Alex) took. I should have those loaded on a photo sharing site soon, so let me know if you want the link. Overall, I had a wonderful time and am thankful to have such generous and welcoming friends to visit in this beautiful city.