ALL ABOUT THE FOOD

So, my friend Erin just left this morning after a week-long visit (she was here for business and extended a bit to do some site-seeing) and now I have a little bit of time before I have to go to my ALL-DAY-LONG Saturday class (seriously, it's from 11-5:30 - who does that?), so I decided to give a quick update. I'll post about some of the other things, but just wanted to let you know about one of the greatest places to eat lunch if you are on the Mall. The National Museum of the American Indian. Yup, you heard me. They have a great cafeteria where you can get Native American food from various regions of the Americas. Even gluten-free! It was delicious. I got this great masa cake with black beans, peppers, and some kind of cheese sauce all over it. SOOOOOOOOO good. Erin got some kind of lobster cakes (bleh) that she said was good and some fry bread with a blueberry syrup. If you are in town, you should definitely make your way there!

Stormy Weather...

My drive to work this morning:

Okay, it wasn't quite that bad. But I do have to say that after avoiding flooded streets, spending 12 minutes trying to go 1 block, 3 major intersections with the lights out, Jeronimo Rd closed due to mud, multiple fire trucks and sirens, passing two accidents, and driving under one hanging wire - I finally made it. I do still love the rain, though...

PS - One perk of the weather is that the canyon people are coming out again into the real world. We usually only get to see them during the fires, so this is epic!

Magical Places #4 - Musee National du Moyen Age

Musee National du Moyen Age (Cluny) - Unicorn Tapestries

One of my favorite experiences while I was in Paris was a visit to the Musee National du Moyen Age (National Museum of the Middle Ages). Anna (sorry there's no link, she's gone private) and I rushed to get here on a rainy day toward the end of our week in Paris. It would be impossible for me to articulate the impact that these tapestries had on me and my views of artistic expression in the Middle Ages (which Anna will definitely appreciate). The Unicorn Tapestries are a six tapestries representing the 5 senses, and a 6th mystery tapestry. The viewing room (show in the bad picture above) makes the whole experience very intimate. There was also a sense of isolation added to the experience as the whole museum had scarcely any visitors that day. If you are in Paris, I would definitely say that this is a museum you should make time to visit. It's hard to see the magnificence of the colors and textures of these tapestries through pictures. Suffice it to say that I was immensely touched and impressed after 2-3 months of viewing countless tapestries across Britain in various museums and on sundry estates. Below is a picture of the 6th tapestry (the meaning of which is still unknown).
Although the Unicorn Tapestries were the most amazing part of that experience for me, and I walked through much of the rest of the museum in a daze, there were still so many other pieces of art that caught my attention. Here are two pictures of some other artifacts from the museum:

You can visit the museum's website here where you can browse through more of the collections or read in more detail about the tapestries themselves. Oh, and if I failed to mention it before, I hope you picked up that they are called the Unicorn Tapestries because there is a unicorn in each of them!

Magical Places 3

Cintsa (or Chintsa), South Africa

After our stay in Mozambique, 6 of us went on a week-and-a-half road trip through South Africa (which is a little sketchy safety-wise but turned out to be pretty amazing). We stopped at Cintsa on the southeast coast of South Africa for a night. We arrived at about 2am (which is NOT a safe thing to be doing in South Africa). Anyway, we couldn't find anybody to help us, so we just grabbed a room at the Buccaneers Backpackers Hostel and crashed. We awoke early in the morning and walked out to the balcony and were stunned by the view above. These pictures are altered in no way - it was amazingly breathtaking. The hostel itself was also amazing. Although there are camping sites, the actual hostel is like an eco-friendly hippie treehouse - so great! The next two pictures are of the hostel - if you are ever in the area you should not miss this piece of paradise (although you should be warned that the bathroom facilities are definitely coed).

The picture below is of Autumn and Jeff on the bridge on the way down to the beach. We also walked to the neighboring town to grab lunch. It really is a beautiful area. Not only that, but the monkeys in the nearby trees were pretty entertaining to watch.
Oh, and did I mention the quote on the hostel's website? "If buccaneers doesn't get to your soul, there is something wrong with your karma." Does it get any better than that?

Magical Places 2

Loch Lomond

After our Study Abroad Program finished in London, I rented a car with two other girls and we went on a whirlwind drive to Wales and then on up to Scotland before returning to Gatwick for our flight home. One of our stops was here at Loch Lomond. We stayed in one of the most amazing hostels I have seen. It looks great in daytime, but imagine arriving here after 10pm (it's up a deserted country road) and there being NO other cars in the parking area out front. There were a few lights on inside, just enough to lend it a distinctly eerie glow. We were the only ones staying for the night. After reading about the ghost on the hostel website, I have no doubt that if there is a hostel with a ghost, this is definitely it. Needless to say, we LOVED this place! It was most definitely amazing. I think we ended up staying there 2 nights. Here's a picture of the hostel:
While Jan got an exclusive tour at a local castle from her ancestral clan (Calhoun) that is now part of an extremely exclusive golf club and course, Katie and I decided to go on a hike. We took a little trail through these amazing Lord of the Rings-type forests and winding through beautiful Scottish hills and mountains. We ran across a couple of older men (late 60s or early 70s) on the trail who said that though they live on opposite sides of the country, they get together every year and walk around Britain. At the end of the trail, across the road was an amazing mountain that was shrouded in mist. We decided to climb up the mountain to get to the mist and eat lunch up at the top. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the top. All of those rumors about Scotland being wet were verified as our legs started sinking up to their knees in a bog-like mud. After a near-miss with a mountain goat (beautiful) and resignation at the ever-higher mist, we gave up and ate lunch about half-way up with an amazing view of the lake. We named it Mount Neverest of the Slip and Drip Mountains. We thought we were clever, anyway!

Magical Places 1

So I was just thinking about some magical places today (by magical I mean that they intrigued me in some positive way). Here are a couple from my long-ago Study Abroad. My own pics aren't digital and I didn't want to scan them in, so I found these on the internet.

Tintern Abbey, Wales

This abbey was founded by Cistercian monks in 1131 AD and is amazingly complete. This location also inspired William Wordsworth, who wrote a poem using it as inspiration which we read on the bus before arriving.
You can find the full William Wordsworth poem here.

Tintagel, England

Tintagel, one of the supposed birthplaces of King Arthur. The old castle ruins sit on top of these amazing cliffs over the ocean. I loved climbing around and the sense of isolation that the place held.

Couch Surfing

If I were, say, of the male persuasion, I would definitely consider this mode of traveling the world on my own. Sarah introduced me to couch surfing - check it out here.

Around the World...

Those who know me well know that I have a burning desire to travel. Some might call it an obsession, all I know is that it keeps me perpetually low on funds. For the past couple of days I have been battling the mother of all colds, and as I sit here breathing only through my mouth, I thought I would dream about possible future travels. For a while now I have been fighting the urge to visit Bhutan.
For those of you who don't know, Bhutan is really the last real Bhuddist kingdom left. It is situated at the base of the Himalayas next to Nepal, and is just absolutely beautiful. Due to a desire to keep their cultural heritage unchanged as long as possible by outsiders, Bhutan limits tourists to travel in groups directly with certain tour companies. All I know is that if I went I would stay here:


And would do everything to visit this monastery here:

Anyone want to join me? I would need some definite cash-flow first, unfortunately.

Africa Recap

So, I'm always thinking about Africa and my time there (even though it was over a year ago). I decided to periodically put some pics up on my blog, particularly since no one ever really saw them. Enjoy.

This was an old train at a museum in Maputo, Mozambique (I think it was in use up until the 70s or something)

I took this pic the first day out in Maputo over a wall. That's a chapa (our normal transportation) which are public taxis. Imagine 15-20 people smashed in there. This is a pretty typical scene. Hard to imagine it's the capital city, eh?

A fishing boat out in the Indian Ocean near sunset waiting for it's use early the next morning.

Two adorable little girls in a preschool we visited in a run-down church on the outskirts of Maputo.

Another little boy at that same school (you can see the school in the background). I love the little beanie, particularly since it was between 70 and 80 degrees outside.