Project 365: Day 78

Look! It's me, standing behind a totally sweet (and not at all to-scale) sand-castle model of the Giza Plateau! Alan, Gonzo, AJ and I went to the Milford beach, which was hosting a sand-castle competition, and this was of course my favorite entry. The one below was almost certainly the best sculpture there, though-- some of these people had truly impressive talent.

After that, we went to the free Sister Hazel concert on the Green, which was pretty great. AJ sort of fell asleep in my lap, while Alan, Marcus and Taylor danced and the drunk lady behind them tried to join in.

Project 365: Day 77

BHouse spends another thrilling Friday night, this time bluebooking.

Project 365: Day 76

 

Ah, The Hill. What a thriving part of New Haven! I had to go down to the Hill Health Center to get a vaccination for Hopkins, because no one else would see me. It took three-plus hours in which I got bounched from nurse to nurse and never actually saw a doctor. It was a vivid illustration of the miriad ways our health care system needs reforming. But of course, this was the highlight of the whole trip:

So wonderfuly expressive!

Project 365: Day 75

Yale: Under Construction at all times.

Project 365: Day 74

Harry Potter Premiere!

Project 365: Day 73

A slight cheat; a few minutes before midnight waiting for the metronorth at Harlem-125th coming back from Chicago.

Project 365: Day 72

Project 365: Day 71

Two of my favorite pictures from my graduation party! There are plenty more-- Claire posted them on her facebook.

Project 365: Day 70

I met Errol for lunch. We got some sweet Thai cart, and ate on the Green. The weather was just about perfect. All in all, a quite good lunch! Then off to NYC and then home for the weeked.

Project 365: Day 69

Sadly, this picture doesn't really capture the movie magic that was going on in the library. I guess someone was making a promotional video or something? Anyway, it enlived the library a little bit.

Project 365: Day 68

The hot sauce I snuck back into the country. We only brought carry-on bags, so I stuck the hot sauce in my bag with my shampoo and such. It's more than 3oz though, so my bag got flagged going through American security. The security guard looked at it, and looked at me, and said "It's good." And thus I was able to get my hot sauce! I put it on my dinner tonight and it was oh-so spicey and oh-so delicious!

mexico, coming soon

I'm too tired to deal with real blog posts now. But! Photos are up on facebook if you want to look there. If not, come back tomorrow and there should be more photos for you.
To whet your appetite:

Project 365: Day 67

This is my mosquito eaten leg. They devoured me! Damn Mexican mosquitos. So itchy! I woke up the last few nights I woke up in the middle of the night because it itched so badly. It's getting better because a doctor told me to start taking much stronger meds for them.

Project 365: Day 66

Waiting in the Cancun bus station for our bus to the airport. Near the beginning of a very long day of travel after an amazing trip.

Project 365: Day 65

So, when you think of Cancun, this is what you think of. The beach was amazing! The water is the most incredible blue-- really, I thought all of the photos were enhanced or something. But no, it's just that color. The sand was soft and white, and the surf was pretty intense (by my standards, at least). And the flags were red, which meant that technically we shouldn't have been swimming at all. And really, "swimming" isn't quite right. We waded out into the water and played in the waves. The surf was full of sand and seaweed, and it snuck into hair and swimsuits and such. (Ask AJ about a great quote from that one. hehe.)

After we got tired of fighting the waves, we decided to take a walk along the beach. So pretty, but covered in kind of horrible looking resorts. (We were on a public beach, with the rest of the non-resort crowd. It was nice to be on a beach in Mexico with Mexicans.) We decided to try to find some Mayan ruins that I'd read about, but we ended up on the bus again. At a whopping $7.50 mxn (~$0.60), it was a great way to get around the city.

When we got to El Rey (the site), it was closed. We were about to go try to find the bus back when a guy sitting outside started talking to AJ in Spanish. I'm not sure exactly what he said, but he had the keys and led us into the site via a crazy underground passage. We got in, and he pointed at the ticket booth, and asked us for the admission fee. Since it was about $3 each, we gave it to him, and he let us in.

 (That's AJ pointing to an iguana, if you can't tell. They're pretty good at hiding in the scrub, but they were scurrying everywhere on Cancun island.) We had the site completely to ourselves, except for the bajillions of iguanas that have burrowed into every concievable nook and cranny at the site.

Pretty great, even if somewhat dubious. Of course, the site was nestled into the corner of a resort and a big, wild looking golf-course. It's not that often you get to spend some time basically alone with buildings that are nearly 1,000 years old. It was a neat way to spend the evening of our last night in Mexico!

Project 365: Day 64

Naturally, on the 4th of July, what could be more patriotic than visiting ancient Mayan ruins? We sojourned from Merida to Chichen Itza on a second class bus, which was amazing (in hindsight, if not so much when we were on it). Eventually, we made our way back to Cancun to stay the night there.

 

Here we are standing in front of El Castillo, or more properly, the temple of Kukulkan. 

  

And the neat structure at the end of the ball court at Chichen Itza. The court is the largest so far discovered, and it is indeed huge! I have absolutely no idea how anyone could manage to play anything, let alone anything like the descriptions thus far offered for the ancient Mayan game, on a field that huge, especially without shade and in the heat. 

  

We also visited (but alas, did not swim in) the sacred cenote, or sinkhole. The huge sinkholes in the local limestone often hold a lot of fresh water. The Mayans threw offerings to the gods into this one, though not into all cenotes. 

 

This picture was taken before the others, but I felt it belonged down here. I took it from our second class bus between Merida and Chichen Itza. The bus was cheap, but it took forever since we stopped in every village, crossroad, and plenty of times where we saw only scrubby trees. I really liked this one, though, because it combines several of my favorite aspects: the gorgeous trees with bright red flowers, the great colors of the houses, and the well-made shrine to the Virgin outside.

Project 365: Day 63

This photo is a bit more of a candid than it was supposed to be... taken by a local guy handing out coupons for the restaurant in the hotel in the background. We spent Friday wandering around Merida, shopping and sightseeing and meeting interesting people. We met a guy who instructed me on Panama hats, then "guided" us to the "right shop" where another guy told us how they were made and I ended up buying one. It remains unclear to me if I got ripped off.
Eventually, we went the very same restaurant (in the background) for dinner. It was our first taste of the amazing Yucatan cuisine, and we met a Mexican guy named Jean-Luc (yeah... his mother is Italian, he said, as if that made it all obvious). He ended up sitting through most of dinner with us, giving us further pointers on what to see and do and buy, and telling us stories. By far the best was when he began to describe his encounters with aliens. He spoke English well, but sometimes he got excited and slipped back into Spanish-- one such (amazing) moment included a full, leaping pantomime of one very strange encounter with aliens/electricity(?) on light poles in Merida. He advised us to look it up-- he reported it to CNN, the FBI, etc, and best of all, there is a video on YouTube. Not very intelligible, but it does make his jumping around the restaurant make a bit more sense. The video.

More of central Merida. That's a neat, old cathedral. Not the oldest in the Americas, though-- that's a few blocks away.

This one. It's very imposing, and not very pretty. It's built out of the ruins of the Mayan city that stood on the site before the Spanish arrived. But it is old! Jean-Luc informed us that it's a very rich church, because it's old. All the high-society folk get married there, apparently.

Project 365: Day 62

 

AJ and I arrived safely in Cancun, and took the first of many such photos. We ate, and then bought our first bus tickets to get to Merida. Merida is about 4 hours away from Cancun by road-- it's the largest city in the Yucatan, with a population of nearly a million people. It's also the capital of Yucatan state, and not very touristy. 

Here's a map, if you're curious! 

 

And the main square of Merida, as we walked toward our hotel late Thursday evening.

Project 365: Day 61

 

My "special project" at work: catalog these 1725 or so rolls of microfiche. 

Project 365: Day 60 (part II)

It's been counting down the days until Mexico!

Project 365: Day 60 (filler picture!)

Ok, readers. This picture is a cop-out. I know that. See, what really happened is this: The picture I'd been intending for today has been in my mind for over a week. It's at work, on my desk. It's fitting, if not compositionally striking. So, I brought my camera to work, as I bring it everywhere. But the battery died. So I brought it home at lunch, changed the batteries, and went back to work leaving the working camera on my desk. Oops! Anyway, I will get this picture, though it will not be taken today. Instead, I give you everything I'm taking with me to Mexico.

Which gives me a great segway to this-- I'm going to Mexico! I'm not taking my old crappy camera with me, so I'll be snapping away on AJ's camera. This means that you should not expect any more posts until Tuesday, July 7 at the very earliest, and perhaps later. And Mexico pictures may be somewhat delayed by the minor fact that they'll be on AJ's camera, and headed to Ithaca and not New Haven after we head back stateside. But! The pictures will be great, I promise!

Project 365: Day 59

God Says No. Not entirely sure what the deal is with this book, though the description off Amazon.com only makes it more interesting:

Gary Gray marries his first girlfriend, a fellow student from Central Florida Christian College who loves Disney World as much as he does. They are 19 years old, God-fearing, and eager to start a family, but a week before their wedding Gary goes into a rest-stop bathroom and lets something happen. God Says No is his testimony — the story of a young black Christian struggling with desire and belief, with his love for his wife and his appetite for other men, told in a singular, emotional voice. Driven by desperation and religious visions, the path that Gary Gray takes — from revival meetings to "out" life in Atlanta to a pray-away-the-gay ministry in Memphis, Tennessee — gives a riveting picture of how a life like his can be lived, and how it can't.

Project 365: Day 58

Project 365: Day 57

Wooster Square farmers market! Hurray! The weather was gorgeous, and I got some delicious cheese to have with the bottle of sherry (yes, sherry) that I bought yesterday.

Project 365: 56

That's a wedding invitation. To Robbie's wedding. Adorable, and beautiful, and scary at the same time!!

And a bonus photo of something clever I saw:

Project 365: Day 55

 

Fire drill! Great break, especially because the weather was amazing (finally!). 

house

So, after much angst, I think I'm going to end up in House A. Pending a credit check, I've got th room I wanted in that house, which is partially furnished, which will be easy! It's close to my department, and easy to get to and may or may not have a parking spot.
So, that's a good start!

In less exciting news, it looks like JHU beurocracy is even less managable than Yale's. Like Yale, JHU is quite decentralized, and to do things like get the free health insurance I was promised... hoo boy. It may take some doing! But first I have to clear Yale's system, and go through DUH to get records sent and stuff like that.

Project 365: Day 54

We did A LOT of grocery shopping today. We spent about $300. Yikes!

Project 365: Day 53

JJJ and I went to a sweet Latin concert on the Green. It was great-- much better than staying in the library for lunch like I do a lot of days.

Project 365: Day 52

Our balloons are kind of... flacid here at BHouse... oops.

Project 365: Day 51

Did you know that Joe dips his apples in tomato sauce? Isn't that strange?!

Help!

Dear friends,
I would like your help! I found two places in Baltimore and can't decide which to live in. I want your opinions, but time is of the essence, since I promised them both a response soon.

Things they have in common:
~price is about the same
~location is essentially the same. Same neighborhood, two blocks from my department, less than 10 minutes walk to the library, 15 to the gym. They're a block apart on opposite sides of the main street that goes through campus.
~great kitchens. big, nice, modern, clean, totally functional, with gas ranges! 
~washer and dryer in the house
~neither has central air, window units only.
~They're old row houses, late 19th century. At least one dates to 1886, and the other is likely pretty close to that date.

House A:
~small rooms
~new windows and lots of new things. new door, etc.
~gorgeous decor-- house is owned by a designer, lots of framed art, etc.
~pretty formal. Formal living room (with TV, couches, etc though) and formal dining room (complete with china cabinet!) not sure how easy it would be to have other people over.
~a cat
~cute little deck, container gardens, grill
~partially furnished bedroom (which means that I dont have to buy everything right off the bat-- bed, dresser, etc)
~possible off street parking spot
~3 more unknown roommates, probably not students, probably mixed genders
~live-in landlady who knows her houses/maintenance, etc
~storage in the basement

House B
~ tons of space. i would get two rooms (a bedroom and an office, likely) and a private bath. The bedroom has south facing windows.
~house inhabited by 4 (i would be the 5th)  students-- all in the sciences or med school, all girls
~relaxed atmosphere, they have Sunday bbqs and a pig roast (!) in the fall. it's like students live there-- not partiers, i think, but students.
~eh deck, but a little yard. one of the girls is trying to grow things (herbs, tomatoes).
~my rooms are not furnished at all
~small closet
~street parking only
~somebody lives in the basement (one of the 5)
~ADT security system
~ a bit drafty, but not too bad.

Project 365: Day 50

  

Hopkins! In the rain. Of course. But that's the library, my second home of sorts, in the future. 

A fun set-up on Charles Street in Baltimore, outside a neat shop that I'm going to go back to basically every time I need a gift or something neat for a female. The owner, Byran, was pretty great and he makes neat hipster jewelry.

 

A fantastic pizza-like food (a la BAR's mashed potato pizza) at Joe Squared, in a not-so-amazing part of Baltimore. The food, on the other hand, is amazing. And the owners are from Rochester (hey Rosa!) but unfortunately there isn't a branch there.

A perfectly representative photo for today. Monsoon season seems to follow me all over the place. This is somewhere in Delaware (I think?) in the pouring rain.

Project 365: Day 49

Ah, scenic New Haven, as seen from the train station. All the other pictures I have from today were so depressing and not worth it... hurray for the faded industrial glory of the east coast.