remain alert

Ahoy,

So our logic that zipped us through London was that we have eurail passes for all the countries on our itinerary except London, London is boring (according to A's friend from London who is skeptical of everything), and we figured it would be the most like home. Sometimes a piece of home is not too bad. There is nothing like the hospitality of the French to make you want to go scurrying back to boring, familiar London with your tail between your legs. But alas, we began this journey with only the intentional direction of moving forward, and with our Dino companion as my witness we will persist. And we will make it home one way or another.

Winter travel is seeming more tricky than we originally perceived. I guess the holiday season really is upon us with plenty of folks scrambling home to meet the frenzy of another holiday gathering. Winter does not trump holidays, and people will continue traveling regardless of the season. There is no off-season for tourism in Europe because it doesn't really get cold enough, and maybe people are less pansy.

Our Lyon - Rome connection was fully booked, so this little snafu had us initiate plan b, which was a flight to Rome instead. The airline or airports cancelled all flights today, hopefully our flight tomorrow won't be cancelled.

We remain flexible, caffeinated, and aware of puppies.

faithfully fortunate,
jt

wonky hours

Ahoy,

Sometimes people don't believe me when I tell them I don't take naps. Or they are astounded that I continue to exist and function. And then! And then! They outright clutch their pearls when I tell them I don't drink coffee either. Far be it for me to approve of your habits, but there are things I have been programmed not to do. Taking naps is one of them. This is typically not a problem because I rarely put myself in the position to have the opportunity to take naps. Courtesy of SAS, I've been conditioned to fall asleep on bus or train rides. Now I find myself with the opportunity to sleep for at least 5 hours in the middle of the day from Paris to Lyon. So I bring to you my 3am rantings as a result of the extended nap I had today.

Things like this throw off my circadian rhythm. Jet lag has never really been a problem for me, and we've recently theorized my possible genetic fortitude for fully functioning at fewer hours of sleep. I'm not sure what latitude and longitude London is on, but I'm accustomed to certain shadows at certain times of day. Despite the rumored doom and gloom of London, the sun did come out. It looked like 4 in the afternoon when it was noon. Of all things that have not affected my circadian rhythm, where the sun is in the sky is not one of them. For this reason, I think it would be really strange to ever live in London.

wide-eyedly rambling,
jt

London calling

Ahoy,

London will have to wait once again for my presence to grace it's lovely cobbled streets. Stumbling over the stones, we recognized much of the architecture as our own. With the first immigrants hailing from the UK, it is clear they did not take as much creative license in the New World as some of my colleagues today in urban design. Nonetheless, the uneven pavement did not keep us from seeing the usual sights - Big Ben, London Bridge, the Queen (I'm kidding, we didn't see the Queen)' etc.

I'll forever remember London as the city of mismatched proportions. It seems the place was built for folks with a smaller stature. Everyone was so TALL, and the spaces they had to fit into were so small. It was a touch comical - like clowns in cars at the circus.

Everywhere we went, I couldn't help but be reminded by Harry Potter. I'd remember to look the other way to jaywalk, sometimes not a hair too soon, as a double decker bus came rumbling down towards me. It's just like that scene from the movie where Harry, Ron, and Hermione have to squish in between the buses in London.

royally dazed,
jt

take off

Ahoy,

Let me preface this by confiding in you that this was my first time flying across a major body of water. Having said that, i think you will excuse the jazzercise pounding in my chest when I tell you we flew over the (expletive) ocean!!! Miles of ocean, not terrain, under this tush.

Can we please talk about the first class treatment on our budget ticket deal? Two meals and all the fixings. The flight is less than 6 hours long, which is scarcely enough time to watch all the free movies we want (which we didn't't). They gave us toothbrushes and socks. Now that's class. Folks, flying domestic has it's thrills and frills, but at the end of the day Virgin Atlntic has stolen my heart.

dazzlingly docked,
jt

find me here

ahoy,

12/13___ night departure Newark, NJ to London

12/14___ arrive morning London, UK

12/15___ depart morning to France, stop in Marseilles or Avignon

12/16___ Lyon, France

12/17___ Lyon, depart overnight train to Rome, Italy

12/18___ arrive morning Rome

12/19___ Rome

12/20___ depart morning to Florence, late train to Venice

12/21___ Venice, Italy, depart overnight train to Brussels, Belgium

12/22___ arrive morning Brussels

12/23___ depart morning to Bruges, mid-day train to Paris

12/24___ Paris

12/25___ Paris, depart overnight train to Barcelona, Spain

12/26___ arrive morning Barcelona

12/27___ Barcelona

12/28___ depart morning to Madrid

12/29___ morning flight Madrid to SFO (stopover in Chicago)

nearly booked,

jt

upcoming

ahoy,

This is a test for if I want to post while I'm away this winter. I'm not bringing my laptop, but A will have his iPad. We'll be zipping across the continent so fast I don't know if I'll remember it all. I hope I will have time to write to here for memory keeps. Our schedule is just about finalized, and I'm in the process of booking accommodation so we don't have to sleep on benches in the park, though that seems to be the trend these days. Besides, A and his thin California blood starts quivering at the thought of 50 degree temperatures.

spirited away,

jt

feastivus

Ahoy,

For Thanksgiving this year, I went to visit my aunt and cousins in Boston. Sometimes I think it was just a shame I didn't grow up with these cousins, because I think we would have been close. They're just a hair older than me, which is just old enough for me to idolize. And maybe I would have followed them around worshiping the ground they walked on, because I feel like I was lacking in this kind of figure growing up, though I don't think it was to my detriment. I'm just saying I might have been someone different. They're really great people to chat with and have the funniest insights.

The highlight as always with Thanksgiving was the food! My goodness, the food! They own a restaurant, so they always do the whole feast thing with free reign over the whole restaurant. They had 2, count 'em, 2 deep fried turkeys and 2 things of prime rib - the stars. I'm more into the sides: peas(!!!) corn, mushrooms, stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta, mashed potatoes, cornbread, baked potatoes, baked taro, baked sweet potatoes salad, gailan, rice. And, it's Boston, so they have to have a ship-ton of seafood. They had 3 huge sacks of clams, and made clam chowder from scratch, clams casino, bacon wrapped scallops, deep fried scallops, deep fried soft shell crab.

And then! Dessert was an entire meal by itself. There was death by chocolate, apple pie, lemon pie, sweet potato pie, oatmeal raisin cookies, cinnamon buns, mini cheesecakes, white cake, butter pecan cupcakes, don tot, sponge cake. Oh, my goodness, so much food.

But then, later that weekend, my aunt made haw gao and taro cake(!!!) from scratch. She's definitely the cool aunt.

reminiscently plump,
JT

soggy tomatoes

Ahoy,

Christmas is upon us! Come one, come all! To celebrate the arrival of the holiday season! Amidst the wind, rain, and snow - Halloween happened. As planned, I threw together a tomato costume. I was happy with it despite the strawberry confusion none of us anticipated. Blood sugar likely will spike the day after, so I'm on lookout for cavities and diabetes.

The highlight of the Halloween weekend in DC was playing Christmas carols and cutting out paper snowflakes. Founding Fathers Farmers was delicious and I loved the style and design in the restaurant. Some people say they only care about the food at a restaurant, and I'm sure that's a major focus. But I think that service and decor also play large roles in your experience at a restaurant as a whole. I'm a sucker for big exposed wooden beams and heterogeneous rock walls.

forestedly motivated,
JT

Peter's Kill

Ahoy,

Haha! I got on the list for the van to go climbing this weekend! Many kudos to the rock climbing dieties for circumstances that caused other people to drop their names!

I'm usually one of the early or on-time people. I woke up at the unGodly hour before the sun came up to go to school and wonder if I was in the right place because no one else was there. Seeing as how it was the unGodly hour of daybreak, it would be reasonable to believe that was why campus was desolate. If I keep up my punctual habits, it is easy to see myself eternally wondering if I'm in the right place.

I had lots of fun. The landscape in the Northeast was breathtaking in the most literal sense of the word. It is unlike anywhere else I've been. In California, it was always a lot of Redwoods or desert and rocks. There's a sea of deciduous trees in New York. The leaves had started to change colors, so there were reds and golds and greens of every shade that were just starting to change. The woods were on fire. It's amazing to me how many different landscapes and types of environments that exist in the States. The incredible variety and diversity makes everywhere seem so unique and worthy of travel. How am I ever going to see it all? And that's only in the States. My experiences seem like so few and insignificant. How will I ever do it all?

clingily pinched,
JT

flying bologna

Ahoy,

So I thought I'd start keeping a record:

- Red Skirt Fiasco of 2011: I put my red skirt in with our lights. The dye is still running apparently. It dyed our clothes pink. And then the bleach took out pink, but left it yellow still. I will remain forever regretful for ruining his graph paper button-up.

- Endless Lettuce Incident of 2011: A decides he wants to ask for the whole box of lettuce, just to see if they'd give it to him. We were eating lettuce for more than a month. I knew when he grabbed that box, he'd eat it for one day, maybe two tops, and then get tired of it. Situations like those do force your culinary creativity to start churning.

- Banana Bread Fiasco of 2011: I forgot to add the eggs to the banana bread wet ingredients. I was wondering why it was so dry as I was spooning it into the baking pan. Half an hour in the oven and I realize I had forgotten the eggs. I pulled the pan out and added the eggs directly into the mix. Lo and behold, A was so gracious to proclaim them deliciously edible.

- Brownies 2 ways Fiasco of 2011: I used the normal recipe from the box of Nestle Tollhouse cocoa powder. It came out dry and not fudgey. It normally does. It looked dry going into the pan. This was odd because I always use this recipe and it always comes out excellent. For comparison, we made microwaved brownies in a mug. K liked it, but A and I thought it tasted too much like vegetable oil. Unsuccessful brownie expeditions. 2 ways.

That's it for now. I'm sure more will turn up.

mischieviously malfeasant,
JT