Here is a happy song to hear on a lovely snowy day such as today!

Last night I headed over to the Music Hall in Portsmouth with Marc to attempt to see Stephen King's sold out appearance. (The Music Hall is almost identical to the Carolina Theatre for those who know what I'm talking about.) The tickets had been sold out for months, the theater members had bought them up completely even before they hit the public. But Stephen King is a hero to me, I totally idolized him for most of my life and even used to sit for hours writing bad horror fiction as a teenager until I realized I was no good at it.... So I thought I would head down to the theater anyway and try to score some scalped tickets. The plan totally worked! Immediately I bought one from the desk that someone had *just* returned and then Marc scored a FREE ticket from some guy sitting outside after he overheard us lamenting about needing one more. We didn't get to sit together but we were in the same basic place, both seats were in the right center balcony, with what I think was an excellent view.

There was a small opening band that played some "Stephen King theme songs" such as Sleepwalk and Don't Fear the Reaper. Then the man himself came out and read a passage for 20 minutes from his new book Under the Dome. The book is about a small Maine town that suddenly finds itself trapped under an invisible yet impenetrable dome... and the chaos that ensues. After he read, Virginia Prescott from NH public radio came out and they sat and did a pretty long interview. He talked about his alcoholism and early years and which movies of his books he liked and disliked and what super power he would want to have. He was quite hilarious. And even responded appropriately to a loud, raucous guy from the audience, saying sarcastically "Yeah, man, I remember my first beer too!" Everyone had a good laugh and the guy shut up. I especially liked when he talked about book awards and critics being too snobby and pretentious (he was criticized a few years ago when he received a National Book Award - *gasp* not to a horror writer!). And I love what he said about the Dark Tower. It's always been his favorite story, his favorite cast of characters and so during the interview he talked about how he was thinking of going back to Midworld in a future novel because its just such a good place and a safe place. And he said that there were people out there who didn't understand what Midworld really was, but he was glad for those of us who do know that feeling and do have that place. Ah, Stephen King, you're amazing.

After the appearance was over, I rushed out and down from the balcony because I had heard mutterings that there were a few signed copies of Under the Dome left over. I managed to squeeze into the mob and throw my money down to get one of the last dozen books they had. A night well spent, for sure. I think the next few books on my reading queue will be Stephen King's....

Stephen King requested that no photography or recordings be taken, so I took a picture of the awesome Music Hall bathrooms instead. Aren't they great?

To make the night even spookier, the moon was huge and almost full and when I got home and in bed, the coyotes started howling like crazy...

Yay for another marginally successful Thanksbirthmas. I really do love getting Christmas out of the way early so that I can relax and actually enjoy the real Christmas when it comes around. No traveling, no shopping, just cozy nights at home decorating the tree and baking and hanging out. Speaking of which, we got our tree yesterday! Went down to the cut-your-own farm and paid $35 for a 9 or 10 foot tree. Its a blue spruce and quite beautiful. I'll take some pictures when we actually get it in the house. You just can't get better than a 10 foot live tree inside for the holidays, the smell is intoxicating. And after Christmas the limbs and needles go into our compost and the trunk gets split up for bonfire wood, totally re-usable. Driveway is getting re-graded today and the wood stove will be installed soon. Just need to get the snowblower working and should be ready for the winter! Although it doesn't at all feel impending. 60's at the end of November? Unheard of.

The trip to NC was entirely too stressful and full. I didn't get to hang out with anyone enough, and some people I didn't even see altogether. I stayed with Jes and Nana, which was cozy and they did well to make me feel comfortable. But the situation is still full of stress and anxiety which rubbed off on me. The animals at the house aren't well taken care of, which made me quite depressed. There is a cat that is totally friendly and loving, but is not allowed in the house and will not be taken anywhere to be adopted. And the horses are just hating life right now. They don't like walking through mud or living in mud but they have no choice. And nobody likes them very much. I know part of that is the "Southern way" but it just doesn't make me feel good. The Holiday party was much fun, I had great conversations and got to catch up with many people. Jes and I looked quite fabulous if I may say so.


(haven't gotten around to
taking red eye out yet....)

I did feel like the entire week was one big getting ready session for the party, we baked and cleaned A LOT. But I *think* it was worth it. I spent Thanksgiving day and parts of a few other days with the family. My sister was in town, and I had fun hanging out with her. Again, it feels like too short of a trip, but what can you do... I got some really nice thoughtful Christmas presents, including tons of makeup and lotions and girly stuff (going to do a manicure soon!) and some good books. Plus my sister got me cute sweaters in awesome colors and my parents bought me a stainless steel rice cooker! No more burny rice on the bottom of soup pots. :)

In other news: 2 weeks left until my talk at the AGU conference in San Francisco. It is stressing me out because I don't actually have any results yet, but one can always hope it all comes through in time. Bonus: one week paid vacation in SF, can't beat that.

I have also been informed that I am indeed going to Antarctica after all. In January. Good thing somebody bought me the Lonely Planet guide to Antarctica!! I've already started reading it. I promise to blog lots from the ice. :)

new fridge came today... no more living out of coolers on the floor! yay! it cost way too much and i spent the least i could. but it is here, it is shiny and black and it is way better than the old falling apart fridge.

game night was last night. lots of people, lots of board games, pizza & beer & handmade muffins and shortbread! i totally won one game of Monsters Menace America with my enormous eyeball monster. and my Cities & Knights expansion was used for the second time ever.

i am heading down south on a plane tomorrow, which of course means that the last few days have been jam-packed with last minute things to take care of. so i'm exhausted, as usually happens before trips to Greensboro. :( but the trip is something i've really been looking forward to. i have so much to do while i'm there, that i feel like i'll barely have time to breathe. but hey that's the holidays, right?

taking a cue from jes on this one...

if anyone is supremely interested in what i would like for xmas or thanksbirthmas, this should give you some idea.

basically, i have spent all my money this past year on tools and machines and house stuff. that's what moving into your first house does to you. so this year for presents all i want is the opposite of all that, the things that i have not been able to spend money on. such as:

candles
jewelry
lotion/soap
nail polish
you know, girly stuff.

oh, and also some semi-decent throwing knives and/or throwing stars to practice with. :)

i am so looking forward to NC this year. officially, i will be there from monday night (23rd) to saturday afternoon (28th). but in those few days i have my birthday on tuesday, thanksgiving on thursday, the Holiday party on Friday and i'll have to fit xmas with two families in there somewhere. i will also be staying out at nana's house so won't be in the city all the time. relaxation! food! holidays! party! can't wait.

pretty boring weekend really. well not to me, but to anyone who would want to read about it.

saw "The Men Who Stare at Goats" friday with sarah and marc. made me realize that film students should not be allowed to graduate from school until they learn how to end a movie well. but it was quite funny in the other parts. worked outside on the yard saturday (sand pile and fire pit) and learned how to use the old hand truck in the barn with a pulley and lift on it. watched Bram Stoker's Dracula for the first time ever that night. (i know, i lived under a rock apparently.) love gary oldman even more after seeing that film. sunday hung around outside some more (such beautiful weather here!) and then took apart my bathroom sink trap to clean it, which is really among the more terribly disgusting things you could choose to do on a nice sunday afternoon. sunday night was 5 hours of dance practice for Diwali. we're getting pretty good though! the festival tickets are all sold out to the public, so looks like standing room only again this year. should be a good one.

culinary note: garlic herb cheddar and honeycrisp apples... my favorite combination currently. try it.

Last week was dubbed the Meghan sandwich business week by Sarah, since we saw Meghan on both Monday and Friday in Vermont. Monday was the Andrew Bird show. We picked up Meghan at Dartmouth and drove the long haul to Burlington where we ate a glorious feast at Al's French Fries (Sarah's "grilled cheese" consisted of a piece of american cheese on a hamburger bun and some lettuce and tomato thrown into a plastic ziploc bag). The show was great of course and even the super tall lumberjacks all around didn't get on my nerves *too* much. We drove back to Meghan's barn near Dartmouth and spent the night on couches, yay! The next morning we went to the cute little breakfast place in Thetford (Marc, the boss, used to live there) and then drove straight back to UNH and arrived at work at a not too terrible hour. Random fact: the breakfast place had a wall of postcards and I spotted one from Greensboro, NC!



Thursday was the Halloween party at the Bat Cave. We had a bonfire, cheesecake, pumpkin bars, cupcakes, caramel apples and lots of great costumes. Click here for pictures. The weather was nice, the dogs behaved and it was a fun time all around. My batwoman costume came together nicely, it was mostly leftover from my Boogie costume... I just had to make a new mask, which turned out even better than the original mask. I didn't get any pictures with my own camera, but I'm trying to track down some from other people's cameras. Yay for Halloween! Friday marked the end of the 1st official Meghan sandwich business week with a trip up to Dartmouth for a science meeting. I had little to nothing to offer to the meeting since I wasn't involved with that particular rocket at all, but my boss insisted I go to present these other results from an entirely unrelated rocket mission. It turned out okay though, despite my doubts, and I got some good feedback after all. The boss drove me back home that evening, since Sarah headed straight for Vermont after the meeting. And I didn't even have to talk about the decision tree! Hooray!

Saturday was actual Halloween and it was spooky weather, all windy and rainy. I stayed in with the roommates and watched horror movies and ate pumpkin cheesecake!


Health note: I don't have swine flu yet, even though its apparently running rampant through NH - yay!

Dog note: Edith (aka Fatso) is doing so well. She comes to work with me most every day and is making good progress in our training sessions. Did I mention how much I love my dog??

this morning as i lay in bed trying not to wake up, i dozed and had a super strange dream that i kept coming back to each time i hit the snooze button. i had somehow signed up for a service that was meant to "de-clutter my life" several months ago. one day i came home and almost everything i owned was gone, except for a few clothes and things i used every day. i found out from my roommates that some men had come with an authorization by me to take away all my stuff and i realized it was this simplify your life company. i didn't know they would do that, so i was really angry, but then felt quite ashamed at being so angry over the loss of material things and then felt a little relief at having all the burden of my stuff just taken away. is this a sign that i should empty my space of useless things?

around 6pm, after it was full dark, marc came inside the house after taking the dog out and told me that there was a man yelling for help down the road. i grabbed my phone and ran outside and there was indeed a man screaming so i called 911. then we walked down the road together, with me on the phone with the operator, to find the source. the guy sounded very distressed and just kept yelling "HELP!" over and over. we met another one of our neighbors on the street who was just leaving his house to investigate the commotion. the cops arrived the same time as we discovered the yelling person. it was a neighbor 2 houses down from us, an elderly guy with only one leg who had gone out in his mechanized wheelchair to get the mail and the battery died or something so he was stranded out in the dark and in the rain. so we all helped push him back inside his house. at least it wasn't some terrible accident like a car that spun off the road, as we had feared! that was the first time i've met that neighbor, but we are thinking of stopping by again sometime and bringing him some food, or bones for his dog. he lives all alone, poor guy.

after that excitement was over, we headed to the theater to see Zombieland. it was pretty wonderful. i love woody harrelson in this movie. of course i always love woody harrelson. it was also really bloody, yay! there was even a cameo by Bill Murray! plenty of blood and gore to satisfy me, and lots of laughs, so i was happy. who doesn't love a good, light-hearted zombie movie?

I had a crazy obsession with Where the Wild Things Are when I was a child, I had tons of Maurice Sendak books and even have autographed copies of some. So I've been yearning to see this movie since I heard about the possibility a couple years ago. It was definitely as wonderful as I had hoped it would be. This would have totally changed my life if I saw it as a child. I love how Maurice Sendak is telling parents to "go to hell" when they complain that it's too frightening for their kids. The movie was honest and beautiful, I loved the music and the actors and the presentation of the wild things. Go see if you haven't already. I've found myself howling a lot more often since that night.

Saturday I went to the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, NH with Sarah & Ben(nie and the Jets). We saw literally hundreds of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns along the streets and on towers.

There were decent enough fireworks that we watched from a shaky death-trap of a parking garage. And we saw Meghan(!!!) with a troop of unfriendly Dartmouth buddies. There was also the best company name ever: Baybutt construction. "We'll build it, no buts about it!" <-- (that slogan was made up, not real!) A disappointing moment came when we tried to find pumpkin pie and realized that there was none left in the entire festival.

However, we appeased ourselves with a trip to the local Mexican restaurant for a late night dinner. It was an interesting time: we saw a yuppie couple position their huge Margarita glass in their baby's hand so they could take a funny picture, and I made a friend in the bathroom line with a tiny Thai guy that worked there, also the food was pretty good. On the walk back to the car, we had a good laugh at this outdoor display for the Christian Science Reading Room:


Does this remind anybody else of Darkwing Duck? "I am the terror that flaps in the night..."


Sunday was the Avett Brothers show in Boston with Sarah! Ben had to be at his bus to go back to Albany by 5, so we left NH at 2:30-ish. And he still had to run to catch it on time! It was snowing like crazy in Boston, though, so that made all the traffic quite pretty but quite slow. After Ben left us to dash for the bus, Sarah & I rode the metro to the House of Blues stop and wasted time in a bookstore and a Qdoba until the concert doors opened. Despite the ridiculous number of super tall guys in our eye lines, and the spastic guy and drunk girls singing behind us, it was a great show. The Avett Brothers have no end to their enthusiasm and humbleness. Last time I saw them was a couple years ago in the Stone Church in Newmarket, which was a much smaller show when they weren't as popular. It was nice to have the intimacy of the small church show. But I also liked the energy in the huge place this time. Yay Avett Brothers!!!

I didn't use the flash for pictures, out of respect for the no photos rule. So here are some blurry shots of the band:




Here is a pretty good video of one of their songs that night that somebody posted to YouTube: Head Full of Doubt, Avett Brothers - Boston House of Blues This is one of their less bluegrass-y/folky songs, on the new album. We were standing on the floor in front there. I am absolutely in love with the cellist by the way. He is amazing. Look at him play! Wow.

Oh and here's another one that is not as good quality but it shows their energy: Laundry Room, Avett Brothers - Boston House of Blues Watch him kick that cymbal at the very end. Hell yeah.

This weekend was a three day weekend (yay!!) since white people love to immortalize the terrorists of history in national holidays. But the past is the past and I got the day off, so thank you Christopher Columbus, you imperialistic son-of-a-bitch. Friday I just chilled at home and went "oh my gods I've been back almost a week and jet lag still has a hold on me..." My bedtime was something like 10pm that night. Saturday was more fun. Marc and I joined Sarah and Ben in a trip to the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, MA, one of the finest county fairs around if you believe what you hear. (But of course it doesn't hold a candle to the ones down south!)

The fair was pretty nice though, once we got there over 2 hours later... The drive down 95 was not even an hour. But as soon as we hit the local roads off the highway, the traffic became first annoying, then ridiculous, then it was insane and finally unreal. At one point, we literally sat and watched a spider crossing the road - rooting for it and crying out when the cars so callously almost ran him over. He made it over safely, lucky little guy. And that was probably the high point of the drive in. That we were sitting still long enough to witness this death-defying arachnid is proof of the torturous traffic jam we found ourselves immeshed in. It was pretty clear what caused the jam by the time we made it the few miles from the off-ramp to the fairgrounds. The parking attendants were mostly jerk off kids who just kinda milled around doing not much of anything. Where is the work ethic of our youth? (More on that subject later...) The fair was filled with animals, barns, games & rides (which I did not participate in), award-winning produce, K-9 dogs, fancy chickens, the Cavies!!, calf petting, and the FOOD! I ate so much and it was all so good and so bad at the same time.

Ok, here is one example of the kind of people that go to the fair (besides the obvious external features: fat, clumsy and wearing the finest redneck fare they could dig up)... we went to the pig barn to see the big pink and black blimps waddle around with their young running around their feet (these are the pigs i'm referring to, not the people) and there is a long line to go in and file past the pig cages. So we wait in line at the back, patiently, and get our place inside finally to see the cutie piglets and mommas. The other side of the barn is open as well since that is where you exit and there is also a huge red and white sign that announces "EXIT" at waist height. But does that stop any of these fine specimens of human beings from entering? Nope. They just wander in, with their hideous children and then act all indignant when nobody lets their little kids in front to get a good view of the pigs. And they all stared right at the sign before they went in the wrong way. And they could all see the long line going out the entrance of the barn. Marc and I decided later that this would be a good test to see if a person should be allowed to breed. If they see the sign, think about it and then walk the wrong way into the pig barn, instant gas chamber. (Just a joke, P.S. Everyone calm down) I got cider donuts, a caramel apple, local honey and made my own beeswax candle. It was a good fair.


Sunday consisted of Marc and I going to brunch at Pepperland, and then I ran off in the afternoon to UNH to start dance practice for a couple of dances I'll be in for the Indian Diwali festival. If you've never been to a Diwali fest, look up the one in your town, probably at a university and go. It's coming up soon. Last year I had a blast and I offered to be a dancer for this year so they held me to my word and now I'm in a Yoga dance (very slow controlled poses, holding two burning candles in my palms) and a traditional folk dance called Rajasthani (lots of twirling with big skirts on and bellydancing type moves). I danced for 4 hours and promptly came home to fall asleep. By the way, back to the miscreant youth topic of earlier, while at Pepperland we witnessed possibly the worst busboy ever doing absolutely nothing to hurry and clean off the tables while many groups of us were waiting to be seated. He was a snot-nosed little 16 year old and he must have been the owner's son, because honestly there's no other way he wouldn't have been fired by now. The worst part was when we were finally seated and the kid goes over to his hipster friends at the table next to us and says "Hey guys, I just got the best idea for a song..." What a jerk. You do not go visit with your friends while you're supposed to be working and you definitely don't go shoot the shit with them while other customers can see and hear you. I messed around a lot on the job when I was a teenager, but it wasn't while there were customers around! Maybe we would not clean when we should have been cleaning or steal some frozen chocolate covered cherries from the back. But when you're around the customers, you act right. Kids these days don't get that. Grumble grumble grumble.

Monday was my day off but I went and did a bunch of errands such as taking the trash to the dumpsters and stopping by the farm to get apple cider and more cider donuts. Marc made a wicked greek calzone for dinner too.

In other news, I am NOT going to Antarctica this year. Possibly in January or possibly next December. The NSF pulled us from the list after it became known that one of our instruments was not sending data properly and was therefore deemed inoperable. Actually, this is excellent news for me. I was not looking forward to spending another 4 weeks away from home and missing Christmas. And also I now get to attend the December AGU this year and spend a week in San Francisco, all expenses paid.

Um, pictures of the Trans-Siberian trip coming to facebook soon, possibly today, possibly tomorrow.

And remember what we learned at the fair this year, kids:

My trip is totally ending for real~! I'm coming home on a plane tomorrow. Well to NYC at least... staying with my friend Heather for one night and then taking the bus back to Boston the next day. Both sad & excited.

Yesterday I spent time hanging out in some museums including the always favorite Mucha Museum, so gorgeous. I met a new friend in my dorm from Canada (Natalie) and we went to see an English movie in the evening called "9." Tim Burton had a hand in it so I was expecting great things, but it was only okay. I really like the physical animation and the coolness of the characters' appearance.. they consisted of little mechanical doll figure things with brass and zippers and buttons. And I like the whole theme of religion vs. science - the main antagonist is a Pope-like figure who is blind to science and goes to great lengths to stop the truth from coming to light. Of course science wins in the end and oppressive religion relents. I like when movies and books for children try to put that message forth, since let's face it, historically organized religion has done nothing but terrorize scientists, burn libraries filled with centuries of knowledge in the name of God and scream heresy every time a new theory is a presented that doesn't follow a literal interpretation of their own twisted bible. Anyway, the movie had good intentions but it lacked a real passion and the characters/plot were really 2 dimensional. Oh well.

Today was Czech pastries and tea in the morning, then palaces and gardens all day, and some shopping with Old Town square live music in the evening. One of the nicest places I went was called the Loreta - it's a Czech shrine or maybe you could call it a temple. It has been the site of pilgrimages for several centuries since it contains within its walls a holy statue called Our Lady of Loreta who supposedly works miracles. The statue is housed in a replica of the Virgin Mary's conception house (weird) and it just seemed garish and uninteresting to me. But upstairs they had a treasury filled with diamond and pearl encrusted Pope stuff like the robe thing they wear and the Pope hats and the weird thing they carry which looks like a big starburst on a stand with a hole in the center. Don't know what that's even supposed to be for, but it's very pontiff-y. Also, in the main chapel were creepy full skeletons, clothed and wearing wax death masks... making an appearance alongside the body-less cherub heads and other unsettling decor. I decided that I really like the long-necked Jesus and Mary paintings and statues. They look so odd, like dinosaurs or the loch-ness monster. And the ones with the rolling eyes are the best/creepiest. There was even a long-necked Jesus on the ceiling of a chapel in Moscow that had really tiny T-Rex arms in the painting - it was hilarious, but of course we got in trouble for giggling and were shushed by an angry Russian lady. I think the chapels and churches and shrines interest me far more than they would if I actually believed in the religious part. Was is most enthralling is the sheer audacity that these religious leaders must have had to amass all this awesome wealth in one place while their people were starving or being persecuted or dying in the streets. Its just amazing to me (and totally depressing) that these places are covered in gold, paintings and statues everywhere... I mean they were commissioning art and ordering silk from Asia and diamonds and jewels while the people they were supposedly there to help were just withering away. It is disgusting to me and so of course it fascinates me. And the creepiness is another attraction.

So Czech people are way nicer than Russian people in general. Most don't scowl when you try to speak English to them. And everyone knows *some* English. Unlike Russia where everyone just rolls their eyes when you say "Hello" and then they kind of stare at you until you say something they understand. Otherwise they just ignore you until you go away.

I like the traffic lights in this part of the world, because the green light starts to blink before it turns yellow. No more running yellow lights! You have a warning even before yellow and definitely plenty of time before red. Very cool idea. I'm really going to miss all the people I met on my trip and didn't have time to get to know better or did get to know halfway and now wish I lived near them so I could continue to have them in my life. I'm staying at the best hostel in the world called Miss Sophie's and if anyone ever goes to Prague you must stay here! Okay, no more until I arrive home. Wish me luck on the never-ending flight followed by the never-ending series of buses to get to NH...

Actually I'm in Prague, but they spell and pronounce it like "Praha." And damn am I glad to be here. For one, it means I'm 3 days from flying home and for another, it means that I'm back in the civilized world for good! I never thought that I would describe Prague as an especially logical and coherent city but compared to Russia and Asia it is *Western*, it is Minnesota, it is normal. I'm happy. The excitement of traveling alone through the last leg of my trip wore off when I missed my train to Minsk on Wednesday due to the refusal of anybody to communicate in English (or even sign language!) and due to my inability to read Russian. I was told by the train ticketing agency that my train was called "6A" but it was actually train 027 so when I showed up to the station I could not find train 6A listed on any boards and showing the platform. I tried to ask sooo many people - employees, conductors, everyone... but they were all quite mean, some even laughed at me and as I was just about to break down finally one guy told me "gone" and made a sweeping motion with his hand. I checked the time and sure enough it was after the train departure and I had missed it! But I calmed myself down and went to like 4 more ticket windows to first get a refund, then get sent to another window and another when nobody spoke English... they would just look at me and say "Net" which means no. Finally one lady just tried to help even though she didn't speak a word. She understood that I wanted to go to Minsk and she wrote down the times and everything else she said I just answered with "Da" which means yes. But I managed to get a ticket for later that day and it was actually half the price of the refunded original ticket because I would be riding in 3rd class "Platzcart." It was quite the experience though. And I was next to a very very nice Belarussian man who spoke little English but tried to talk to me and include me in the conversations with other passengers. He was so awesome. He even woke up at 1 am to help me off the train at Minsk although his stop wasn't for another 5 hours.

This was the really scary part because I was getting off the train in the middle of the night in a strange city with absolutely no concrete plans for accommodation. I had set up a couchsurfing deal with a cute couple but then my train got switched so instead of getting there at 8 pm as planned, I was arriving 5 hours later in the night. I had emailed them this but had not got a response before I had to leave Moscow. So I had no idea what would happen. But they were amazing and showed up anyway at that hour!! They were there to meet me on the platform and they walked me to their apartment building which was quite close. They fed me cakes and tea and we talked for a while even though it was so late and Marina had to get up way early for English classes. They were like 22 or 23 and Max was a computer programmer. They had a wonderful bed in a guest room set up for me and the really great part was their devil kitten named Musik who played with me and my shoes. Oh and Musik loved to attack my winter hat and then carry it around the house. I love tuxedo kitties! The next morning Max walked me to the bus station and bought me a bus ticket and put me on the bus to the airport. They were amazing hosts and I'm so grateful for them! I will send them a care package when I get back to the states.

Prague has been cool so far, didn't do much last night as I was dead tired. But I made it to the hostel without incident and ate wonderful Mexican food with the Cholula on everything!! I so missed having hot sauce in Russia... This morning a nice Croatian boy in my hostel dorm bought me breakfast and then left in a run to catch his train to Berlin. So I'm just going to go out alone today and see some gardens and squares and maybe a church or two... all free stuff of course!

So I'm leaving Russia (in about 5 minutes so this will have to be quick)... I had an amazing three days in Moscow, more details will have to follow at a later date. But as a summary, I split off from my travelling group and was much better off. I decided to tour Moscow alone, but as I was walking around Red Square I ran into the three lovely Australians that I had met on the train from Mongolia. They invited me to come around with them and their super nice tour guide (i.e. head honcho) Marina, so of course I accepted. Spent three days with the group, had a blast, stayed in a hostel called Chocolate Hostel with some really nice people, spent much time talking to tons of other travelers and the Russian guy who works the desk, made some friends.... Saw: the Red Square, Kremlin, St. Basils Cathedral, Church of Jesus Christ the Savior (or something like that), a Socialist protest in the park, souvenir market, Vodka museum, changing of the guards at the Eternal Flame memorial, GULAG museum (made me cry), lots of churches with creepy pictures of Jesus, disgruntled Russians, really really nice Russians, a symphony performance featuring the most famous Russian conductor, lots of Russian food (unfortunately... :).... the whole trip was excellent!

Sam the girl, Sam the boy, and Brodie (the Aussies) were awesome tour buddies. I want to go to Australia now and see Sam's house - she has horses and a greyhound!! Things I missed: the sculpture park filled with old statues of Lenin and Stalin, Lenin's dead body, sending postcards.

I will be able to write more when I get to Prague in a couple days, and then I'm home October 4th~! Can't wait, although I do love this travelling lifestyle. Off to catch my train just in time.... there were no (NONE!) hostels in Minsk so I found a lovely couple on couchsurfing.com who would host me. They responded last minute and they're even meeting me right off the train! Yay Belarus.

Got to Russia after a 1.5 day train ride. The first night was loads of fun, with a party going on in our train cabin for the early evening. I didn't get good pictures but some others did and I'll get them off their facebook pages. I managed to get split up from Gene and Adam, thank god, and landed in a cabin with three Australians who were on a tour through the Trans-Siberian that they all booked independently. So the three of them had not met until they started the tour. They were quite interesting and fun. There was a girl there, so it was nice to have some good female company for a while. Unfortunately, I landed in Irkutsk the following morning with a bad case of food (or maybe water) poisoning. Gene ended up being very mean to me, as in leaving me behind while we were walking to the hostel and yelling at me for being sick. I spent the whole first day in bed, and throwing up. But it ended by that night.

Some of the girls in my bunk room were extremely nice and concerned and gave me some electrolyte powder to un-dehydrate me. The next day I wandered around the entire city and saw some squares, the huge diverse food market and the Chinese market where I bought a scarf and gloves. I met some really nice British girls who took me out to Italian food that night. No Lake Baikal since our train was leaving the next afternoon. There was just no time.

I'm about to get on the train for THREE days and three hours. And this time I'm stuck in a cabin with Adam and Gene for the whole time. I might end up going crazy for real! But there were some friends I met on the Irkutsk train who might be on the same Moscow train, so I'm just hoping....

I'll write when I get to Moscow!

The past seven days have been spent in the Mongolian desert, south of Ulaan-baatar. The journey was beautiful, exciting, lonely and thoughtful. I jotted a few hurried notes each night, except for the last few, since I was feeling quite ill. Below I have transcribed my journal from the road. Please excuse all bad grammar, hyperboles, long drawn-out descriptions of goats and all other offenses.


Day 1. The road is not a road in any Western sense of the road. Bumpy as all hell and made entirely of sand and rocks, it is literally two parallel ruts cut through the landscape by countless vehicles over the years. The roads meander here and there, never a straight line but a fluid path following the contours of the land. Stopped to view some sort of enormous vulture-like bird that must weigh almost one of me and stands higher than my waist. Perhaps the inspiration for Jim Henson's Skeksis? They ran on two legs as we approached, like lumbering old men. We stopped four hours later to visit what our driver, Baatar, called a "lake." But it was little more than a watering hole. There was, however, a nice rocky mountain overlooking the scene below. I chose to sit on a rock in the shade for a while and calmly watch the Steppe. I found a Mongolian version of a stinging nettle plant, much to the displeasure of my right hand. There were some horses and cows down at the pond, wading and drinking. Here's the exciting part... presently four Mongolian horsemen came riding down from the distant hills, and across the plain to collect their herd. They dress in regular clothing except for the Mongolian riding boots and the large whips they hold abreast. Watched as they rounded the herd and flushed them together towards home.





That evening we arrived at a small house surrounded by a few Gers, one of which turned out to be ours for the night. [Editor's note: a Ger is the Mongolian word for a yurt i.e. a round semi-permanent tent in which daily life in Mongolia is carried out] We met the very pleasant family and played a few rounds of frisbee with the toddler, who could neither throw nor catch to save his life. A smaller, androgynous child was even worse off, barely being able to walk and mostly floundering in the sand. I watched as the old women milked the goats then we were served dinner (delicious!!) of milk tea and rice and potatoes seasoned quite spectacularly. [Ed. note: My driver was awesome and totally accommodating with my vegetarian lifestyle, diligently mentioning to each host family that my dinner was to be sans meat. And the milk we had was always different - I've now tasted horse, goat, sheep and camel milk, camel being the superior taste.] Finally we were invited into the shack to sit with the family and watch a Mongolian boxing match on their b&w television. Even out in the bowels of the Mongolian countryside, they managed to obtain solar panels, car batteries and a satellite dish in order to pass the nights huddled around the Box of Ultimate Entertainment.


Inside of Ger


First family

Day 2. The next morning, I rode a horse for a while with a Mongolian boy guiding us along the plateaus. And off to the next adventure... about 5 hours later we arrived at the second family's dwelling. They weren't exactly friendly like the first one, so I occupied myself with a solitary walk to a distant rock formation. Dinner was cabbage dumplings for me and goat liver dumplings for my two companions. The liver ones were vile enough that my veggie ones were soon consumed by the group. After, we drank vodka and played cards with Baatar into the night. Ah, and I almost neglected to mention the devil goat! This being was truly the embodiment of pure evil, in manner and in appearance. The grotesque creature was less one eye, leaving a simple black socket left to gape at us in a most deranged way. Its twisted horns mimicked its twisted body, the whole gnarled picture completed with two large cancerous growths protruding from each side of its matted and mange-covered belly. The insidious figure lingered long in our doorway, staring menacingly and refusing to stumble on its way. I believe we eventually threw one of the hideous liver dumplings at the creature in some sort of futile attempt at appeasement. This four-legged Beelzebub was not mentioned in the tour orientation. Nevertheless, we escaped with our souls intact, although I'm quite sure the horrible visage of the devil goat himself will appear as a demented apparition to each of us, in turn, on our eventual deathbeds.




There are a lot of dead things in the desert

Day 3. Skipped the morning camel rides, feeling... unwell. Saw the site where many dinosaur bones used to be. All were excavated and taken away of course. Made it to the Gobi! Massive sand dunes, 7 km wide and 100 km long - a vast expanse of barren land, covered in the finest sand I've ever touched. The sand has the feel of velvet. Seeing sand like that, it's easy to imagine why the ancients deduced that a grain of that sand would be the smallest possible existing particle.



The dunes are incredible. They are strikingly beautiful and amazingly geometric. I look at them and see math and nature in perfect step. They are impossible to mar or imprint. Every footprint, every mark on their smooth surface is gone in a matter of hours. The malleability of the dunes is unending - the past doesn't last in the sand.



Day 4. The next day Baatar, our driver, wrestles Adam in the match of the century upon the golden sands of the Gobi. The following pictorial account says more than words can manage.








Round two...




The inevitable champion!

Picked up hitchhikers on the way to the old capital city in Southern Mongolia. Sickness descends upon me. Some flu or another. Contracted in Beijing and incubated in the hot sands of Mongolia. I am fighting this plague with every ounce of my strength but it has weakened my constitution terribly. I can barely sit up straight or carry on a coherent conversation at this point. Nyquil or Sudafed are beyond comprehension in this Soviet throwback of a town. I was hardly able to locate adequate cough drops, although I did manage to procure a mysterious powder that seems to promise health and well-being. We shall see, I'm to ingest it presently. I'm hopeful though, as the store clerk managed to throw together enough broken English to say "make you go sleep."

Day 5-6. [Ed. note: These last few days were not recorded as I was too ill. I managed to take a few walks though, so some of the pictures are shown below.]


Rocky mountain near Ger on 5th day


"White Mountain" on 6th day, which is actually quite red



Day 7. Back to UB today! 7 days with no shower is my own personal record. I'm feeling better, but still sick. Trying to keep up my strength and get all my nutrients. After the looooong trip home, I showered for what seemed like an hour and then headed off to the vegan restaurant in UB to fill up on tea, fruit smoothies, fresh veggies and sweet/sour seitan with rice. It was totally what my body was craving.

Tomorrow we leave for Russia. After two days on a train we arrive at Irkutsk and Lake Baikal where another adventure to an island is planned. A freak snow storm is set to hit UB tomorrow so hopefully our train will make it out, and not a moment too soon. Fingers crossed....

Day number one: After arriving in China and meeting Gene's friends, Adam and Claire, we all went to Tianamen Square to see it after dark, and ran into a very nice toothless man who tried continually to sell us a tourist book of postcards or a Mao book of quotations. Adam tried nicely to explain to the guy that Mao killed 70 million Chinese, but the guy (speaking no English) thought we were naming a price for the book and got all excited, saying "70? Ok! Ok!" We tried to just leave him, but he ran after us, lowering his price and screaming "50! 50!" That's China.

Day two: We slept (barely) and got up at the crack of dawn to make it to the Great Wall tour mentioned earlier. It was a very beautiful piece of the Great Wall, not at all crowded with tourists and surrounded by empty landscape. Well worth the short trip to China. That night we all but collapsed as we made it back to the hostel and slept but again not for long before having to wake up at 5am for the train to Mongolia.

Day three: The train!!! Below is a picture of our adorable little green train that brought us to Mongolia after only 30 short hours.

We were in the second to last car and had a cute rotund Chinese conductor that we dubbed "The Panda." Or rather, the nice French couple next to us did the naming. The Chinese part of the train right was the first day... we had lunch and dinner served to us free of charge but both meals were exactly the same, consisting of meatballs, cabbage and potatoes covered in a weird brown sauce. And the she-males that ran the kitchen car were quite angry and rude. They intentionally sat us (and other people who came in later) at a table only to come up a few minutes later yelling at us to get out and sit at this other table. They also yelled at a small child that he must finish up NOW, even as his dad was trying to help him eat the last of his rice. They were pretty much horrible human beings. I ate little and subsisted off the snacks I brought aboard. In fact, everyone was rather starving by the time we reached the Mongolian border around midnight. At the border, we had to leave the train for 3 hours while they switched out the wheels (different sized tracks in Mongolia) and did the customs checks. The weird part was when we happened to glance out the window before de-boarding and noticed the Chinese custom officials examining tree branches with their flashlights across the train platform. Why? Why anything in China. Nothing makes much sense there. After boarding we talked more with the next door French couple, hung out with our bunk mates, drank some vodka and went to sleep.

Day four: Woke up to the sounds of Russian yelling outside the door at 9am, realized that we were totally in Mongolia... the landscape had changed completely from mountains and foothills to flat, flat plains with nothing except a lone yurt every now and then. Or some yaks or camels hanging out. Our bunkmates were two other americans who actually turned out to be quite fun. Mike from Vermont and Joe from Atlanta. Though they weren't exactly true yanks because Mike had just come from teaching in Korea and Joe was born in Indonesia and lived in Russia recently. We played many rounds of Rummy and had some good conversations about theology and traveling. Today is still day four for me. We made it to Ulaanbaatar and found a free ride to our guesthouse in the middle of the city. Gene's friend Adam is arriving by plane later tonight to meet us, since he decided to stay one extra day in China and forego the exciting train adventure. Ulaanbaatar initial observations: people much much less mean than in China, grocery stores are much better (there's cheese here!), lots of very attractive people, old buildings but modern people and lifestyles. We are in the middle of planning our trip to the countryside. It will consist of four or five days of traveling by Jeep and horseback around to different nomadic families and hiking to some cool places. I'm extremely excited by that part. For four days, a trip such as that only costs about $90.... yes, that is US dollars. Pretty neato. The unfortunate part about Mongolia is that it is cold and I mean really freezing. We had to immediately go out so Gene could buy shoes (having only brought along flip flops) and we're heading out again to buy gloves and a warm jacket for Gene. It's not unseasonably cold for this time of year and I prepared pretty well but it is a shock. At least the trees are absolutely gorgeous... they have all turned yellow and red already. Jessamyn was right! I guess I do love fall in Asia as much as in America. This place is pretty great so far, I'm liking it as much as I liked Thailand a few years ago. Plus you just see camels standing places occasionally. I heart Mongolia.



Chinese subway


Zipline


Camel!!

I hit the ground in weird, busy Beijing on Monday and now am about to leave on Wednesday making it possibly the shortest stay in China in history. But that's okay, the big city is a bit much for me to handle. The 12 hour flight from Canada was grueling of course, but I slept through most of it. That night we had good Sechuan food, and I found my friends at the hostel without much incidence. The next day we went 4 hours outside of Beijing on a bus to see an old, rarely visited part of the Great Wall. It was incredible, we hiked about 7 miles until our feet nearly fell off and then took a zipline down over a reservoir to get to the end. Incredible. Have to sleep for about 4 hours before catching the train to Mongolia! More to come when I have more time.....

wow... i leave for siberia in 3 days!! that's insane. i have so much left to do and not enough time to do it. added to the general stress of leaving for a month long trip in foreign countries (including sketchy visa companies who finally are releasing my passport from its hostage situation and sending it back to me today) is the stress of getting all my health stuff done for the Antarctica trip that is happening this December for work. apparently, they require a clean bill of health in order to allow me on their precious continent, and i mean *squeaky* clean. so this week has been a nightmare, filled with pokes and prods (5 shots so far, and i didn't even get the blood drawn yet) EKG machines and the always uncomfortable pelvic exam. but so far, i'm a paragon of good health so at least it's nice to hear that.

the plan is that i leave from Boston on sunday and arrive in Beijing the following day. Gene and his friend Adam (my travel mates) will meet me at the airport, though gods know where because i can't find an online airport layout to save my life. without cell phones or computers, trying to find two guys in city of millions will be damn near impossible. but i'm sure it will work out. from there, we spend just a few days in beijing, then take a bus to Mongolia where we'll spend 5 or 6 days in the wilderness with some crazy hill people and horses and donkeys. then it's onto the train to get to Russia. we stop in 2 cities in russia, irkutsk and moscow (with a possible side trip to ulan ude), and at one point we stay on the train for i think 3 days straight. have to remember to bring a deck of cards!! (any other suggestions from those of you who've been on long trips are welcome! i was almost considering getting a travel version of Settlers of Catan...) from moscow, we take the train to the country of Belarus and finally arrive at the village of Gene's family. this is the most anticipated part of the trip: living and working in a little farming village with real people for a whole week. that is pretty much the entire itinerary. from there, i fly to prague where my layover lasts for 16 hours, so i'll get a hostel bed in old town and see the city for one night. then its the long flight home. and my complete trek around the world will be completed: flying west from boston to toronto to beijing, going by land through asia and russia, and then flying east through europe and back home. around the world in 31 days. so psyched!

a week and a half before i leave this puny country and head for bigger and better countries! at least bigger. China, Mongolia, Russia and the diminutive Belarus. oh, and don't forget my one-night-only layover in Prague, the coolest city ever. i have way too much to do before i go, as always. and i will miss my house, my life and my puppy dog and cats so much. usually, though, the way it goes is that i will be home before i realize it and won't have much time to miss anything while i'm away, whisked around through five countries in 4 weeks. i predict the most memorable adventure to be the week in a rural village in Belarus, staying with my friend's grandparents and helping on the farm. but i'm also greatly looking forward to the horse/camel adventure through the Mongolian countryside. the cities will also be nice (Beijing, Ulaanbaator, Irkutsk, Moscow, Minsk) but they will also be overwhelming and a little scary. the train rides are going to be amazing... sometimes spending days without stepping foot from the train car.

preparation is a bit tricky, since it will be super hot in some places and near to freezing in others (Mongolian plateau). packing everything needed for one month in a backpacking pack will be challenging, but doable. i also have bought some things specifically for the trip, including a secret belt to hold money underneath my pants, a lightweight duffel to use to safely get my backpack straps through the airline conveyor belt system and pair of great vegan hiking boots (Zappos.com rocks, by the way! their customer service totally blew me away). all my ducks are in a row as far as visas, passport, credit card travel notifications, etc. i will try to blog frequently using internet cafes. but my laptop will of course not be accompanying me on the trip. i am bringing my ipod, fully loaded including several long audio books, and my digital camera, but that is it as far as valuables. and honestly, if both of those are stolen, i'm out maybe $200 seeing as how they are both a couple years old. if i can't take pictures and block the sounds of the cavorting drunk russians on the train, then i'll be in sad shape. so i'm taking those two little conveniences of technology along, but that's all folks. if you'd like a super neato postcard from any of the aforementioned countries, leave me your address below or email it to me. it will all be taken car of. and FYI, capital one is the only credit card it seems that doesn't charge any international purchase fees (they waive the standard 1% Visa charge). sweet!

p.s. livejournal, which *is* a blog, doesn't recognize the word blog as a real word. it came up flagged in the spellcheck. what the hell? here are the suggestions they gave for what i should have said: "bog, log, blag, bloc, biog, bldg, blow, blob, blot, clog, flog, slog"

This past weekend I went canoe camping on an island with some Dartmouth folks and Sarah. I reckon it was good practice for the kayak camping trip I have planned for this weekend, which will be somewhat more strenuous. Hanover was beautiful, the Connecticut river was cold and refreshing and the Dartmouth canoe rentals weren't too expensive. Good thing! Because when Sarah and I attempted to rent the cheap-o canoes from UNH, they had already "closed the register" 10 minutes early and we were not allowed to rent. Those jerks. Add to that the idiot cop who insisted I was parking in the no parking zone at the Hannaford store, even though I explained that my parking brake was not engaged and the car was running. To no avail! He demanded that I leave the area, just as Sarah was exiting the store to jump in my car! More jerks. But the island camping was pleasant, our trusty canoe "General Tripper" was steadfast and the river swimming was most excellent. Even though we ran into yet more jerks who were speeding around in their speedboat flipping canoes or (in Brian's case) water-logging them. We overheard the rather biting conversation that happened between the speedboat jerk, a recently flipped canoe-er and a second nice boater who was telling the asshole off for drag racing in the Connecticut. Dinner was yummy and the fire was pretty well fed, but Sarah and I mostly just hung out by ourselves, not quite fitting in (or wanting to) with the Dartmouth crowd. Ha, even though she's an alum. In the morning I made pancakes (which just flies in the face of "keeping things simple" and so pissed off one of our camp mates) and they were delicious! We shoved off in our canoe first (despite being recently berated for still having our tent up while the others had all packed theirs up already) and actually made it back to shore upstream before anyone else! We were definitely the wimps of the group, but we prevailed by leaving early and even made it to ground just before the swift and steady Cocksackie. Again we opted for more swimming, from shore this time. However, the dock didn't open for a good 30 mins so we sat around waiting for the lifeguard to show up and when she did, she immediately soiled the swimming area by lifting the upstream rope and letting all the accumulated flotsam and jetsam float in. Why? Well, from my slight argument with her later I gathered that she thought she was helping, as the crud tended to attract birds. While we didn't see a single bird, we did see quite a lot of floating grass, foam, sticks, leaves and even a corn stalk and an errant water lily. Ah well, these youngsters don't know their asses from holes in the ground. We left for home quite nicely exhausted and sunned. On the way home, Sarah managed to supernaturally channel her future elderly self by falling asleep almost continually. Good times! Photographic evidence below.


"It's just like we're in Last of the Mohicans!"




Also, there was a period of six days where my mom came to visit me in NH. We went to Boston one day and I took some cool pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2205973&id=25004150&l=fccef27e56