Hearst Castle!

While back in California on Christmas break, my mother decided it would be fun to take a mini family vacation. She decided on place we had visited when we were very young and could therefore barely remember, Hearst Castle.

Heart Castle is about a 5 hour car trip from our house, although after driving 7, 8, or even 11 hours in one day on our cross country robotics trip last summer, 5 hours was a breeze.

We stopped along the way at several places, making the drive seem less intense. This included my father's old dorm building at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where we slyly held the door open for a young woman who was moving back in, after she had slid her ID card to unlock the door, and then walked in behind her.

The best place we stopped however was Hot Licks, which my mother saw on TV Food Network (or California's Gold, I can't remember). They were featured in a segment because of their one specialty item...bugs.

These crickets and meal worms came in a variety of flavors, including ranch, sour cream and onion, and cheddar cheese.

These are the chocolate covered meal-worms we ate at lunch.

DELICIOUS!

We then walked around the beach for a little while.

The next day we headed to Hearst Castle (which was built by newspaper mogul William Randolf Hearst, for any New Yorkers who may have never heard of the castle) to take just one of the many tours of the place.

This is the Neptune Pool, with the original marble ladder handle things. Some of the sculptures were created for Hearst specifically, where are others (like the relief in the tympanum above the left columned structure) are from actual ancient times.

By the way, I would totally spend my fortune on priceless artifacts to decorate my pool with.

Oh, hello there! You look familiar from my lovely art history class last semester! Just like many other things at the castle (obviously, I totally just used the word tympanum, 6 months ago I would have had little idea what that was). Everyone should have to take one art history class in their life, simply so they can appreciate what they see in architecture and in museums.

Another pool. Indoor this time.

You would think that seeing a bajillion dollar castle would be the highlight of our trip. You would think wouldn't you? But you would be wrong!

Because this was totally the highlight of the weekend.

ELEPHANT SEALS!

HUNDREDS OF ELEPHANT SEALS!

Screaming at the top of their lungs.

Sleeping lazily.

CUDDLING WITH THEIR BABIES!!!!!!

Did I mention screaming at the top of their lung?

AND THE BABIES? This one was sucking his flippers moments before.

The babies would yell at their mothers that they wanted to nurse, and the mothers would act completely annoyed before rolling over for their pups.

We spent a really long time there.

Then we went to dinner at this adorable little restaurant with twinkle lights and a very boho vibe (at least on the porch).

Apparently it was silly hat day, and anyone who was wearing a silly hat got a free dessert. My mom asked the bus lady if, since we were not locals and had no idea that silly hat day even existed, if she could make a hat could we get a free dessert. The bus lady said yes, and my mom proceeded to make a hat out of her napkin, being the former Girl Scout leader that she is. But alas, the actual waitress refused her her free dessert.

But it didn't stop me from having the BEST piece of pumpkin cheesecake EVER!!!

On our way out of town we stopped at the poor man's Hearst Castle for a peek, but we were there too early for a tour.

The monarch sanctuary.

And Pea Soup Anderson's, which is actually just called Anderson's, but everyone calls it "Pea Soup" Anderson's because of their world famous pea soup.

And then we were home. All in all, a wonderful trip.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

So I've been home for over four weeks now, and I have been way too busy to even think about updating this blog.

Anyway, now I have a lot of catching up to do!

First of all, I had a wonderful Christmas. The day before I made silly gingerbread cookies!

A bride and groom, which were horribly decapitated on Christmas Day :( , a Team 399 member, an elf, Santa, and a guy in his PJs.

On Christmas Day I received many lovely gifts from my parents, but this year I had even more fun giving gifts to my family! I probably spent a bit too much money, but I didn't mind. I found out at the beginning of December that I will be working 15-18 hours a week next semester WOOOO!!!!!!

After we opened our presents we have a delicious and very filling brunch with some family friends; Holly, the teacher in my mom's classroom, and her husband Marlin, and the Voraceks, who we know through Robotics.

This is Dave and my dad, in a very picture perfect moment!

Brad, Me, and Caitlin!

I honestly don't remember what else we did that day. My mom had planned to make a lamb dinner, but we were all too full from brunch, so we made our "Christmas Dinner" on Sunday. I'm sure we just lazed around all day enjoying the holiday.

I had originally planned to have a very quiet night at home on New Years Eve, but then Danielle, Kellie, and Ari ended up coming over to celebrate. It was still a pretty quiet night, however. We played board games and drank 4 bottles of apple cider, which comes out to a little more than 1 and 1/3 of a bottle for Kellie, Danielle, and me, and about 1/3 of a bottle for Ari.

We had a wonderful night, laughing hysterically due to the sugar high we were on, taking silly pictures with photobooth, and watching the ball drop at midnight.

So although my holidays were pretty uneventful, I wouldn't of had them any other way.

A REAL Winter!

So last Saturday night Long Island experienced a blizzard. You would thinking that coming from California that this would have been my first blizzard... it was not.

I had a little experience with blizzards from the one we were stuck in in Denver, Colorado this March. We were there for a Robotics Competition, the first day of which was canceled because of the weather. We then had to walk back to our hotel, which was a little less than a mile, right in the middle of the blizzard.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the aftermath of the blizzard. Unlike my fall pictures, I was not trying to be artsy at all with these, my hands were too cold. Therefore they are also not photoshopped to make them prettier or anything.

So here is the Winter Wonderland I had for a couple of days.

Winter Break

After 14 papers, 19 tests, countless pages of reading, way too many French exercises, piles of flash cards, hours upon hours of studying, and a fair amount of coffee I'm so ready for winter break!

I'm typing, and posting this as I'm flying over Ohio. I can't get over it.

Christmas Dinner #1

So the other night Alicia, Nicole, and I decided to have our very own Christmas dinner, where would relax from all the hard work of studying for finals, catch up on things we had been too busy to talk about, spend some quality time together before we all headed home for the break, and of course, to exchange presents.

Since cooking takes way too much time and effort when you live in a dorm building, we decided to go out to dinner. Of course what better food to eat to get you in the Christmas spirit than Chinese food?! So we chose P.F. Changs, where neither Nicole or Alicia had eaten before.

Besides the ridiculously low "mood lighting" and the waiter taking his sweet time with getting us our food, the evening was great.

We were able to fill all that time between ordering and getting our food with great conversation that makes me realize how much I love these two girls!

Of course after a delicious dinner and some good conversation it was time to open presents!

I got Nicole and Alicia each a silver necklace with three hoop charms that read "faith", "hope", and "love", and Guatemalan 'Worry No More Dolls', with which you tell your worries to, place under your pillow, and the worry person will take your worries away. When I purchased each of these gifts 25 cups of food was donated to starving children.

Nicole got Alicia a beautiful silver necklace with a heart charm inscribed with a quote about friendship, it was actually the same necklace that my friend Candace and I bought one of our tour guide trainers, Jackie.

Nicole got me an adorable purple (although I thought it was brown because of the lighting in P.F. Changs) boho-chic messenger bag.

Then Alicia got both Nicole and I body spray from Arie, lotion, and some stuff from Bath and Body works.

Then we decided since it was only around 30 degrees outside, we would go and get ice cream from Cold Stone.

It was a great night!

M.I.N.D.S. Party!

So all Honors College Freshman have to take a class called Modern Condition (I this semester and II in the spring).

Basically it is a philosophy class where we read parts of the Bible, Darwin, Smith, Ford, Hitler, Dostoevsky, Kirkegaard, etc. and then discuss it.

It really is a very enjoyable class, even if it is my hardest by far. There are five different teachers who teach it, four of them are pretty straightforward with the different philosophies we read. My teacher, however, really makes us think outside of the box. We talk about how the ideas we are presented relate to our own lives, we have arguments in the class, and we are free to ask questions, no matter how off topic they are.

Basically what I am trying to say is that my Mod Con class was the best Mod Con class this semester.

Here is the proof!

Professor Costello (my professor), decided not to have a final, just to have us turn in a final paper and we would do a final discussion.

So we decided to have a bit of a party at the same time! Everything was planned without his knowledge, and we promised ourselves we would explain to him that we didn't want to interrupt the class, we just wanted to eat while the final discussion was going on.

Of course we couldn't just bring in regular old junk food! So hence, the party of the M.I.N.D.S. was born.

MINDS standing for...

Marx

I (as in us)

Nietzsche

Darwin

Smith

Our treats included, Veneer Theory Cookies (chocolate chip cookies with kisses on the inside. You know, a light happy center with a dark and cruel inside?), Nietzsche Cupcakes (cupcakes in ice cream cones, they are an illusion), Bourgeoisie Brownies (because they had a lot of sprinkles), Darwin's Evolution of the Cookie and Marx and Smith Cookies (cookies in an array of shapes, amount of cooking time, number of chocolate chips, etc. to symbolize different things like equality, competition, extinction, variation, and evolution), Ford Factory Pretzels, and of course plenty of Diet Pepsi to go around (since Costello has a cold Diet Pepsi every single day in class).

Professor Costello thought it was hilarious! He loved it! He even made the Dean of the Honors College, Dean Garner, come in and take a look. He too, thought it was hilarious.

Here is a picture of our epic-ness. Clockwise from the bottom left corner- Natalie, Me, Amina, Courtney, Greta, Matt, James, Chelsea, Professor Costello, Maddie, Kaitlin, Lara, Mayet, Raven, Marissa, and Caityn.

Most of us will be in Costello's Mod Con II class next semester, but I'll miss the people who won't be!

Who knew college would be so silly?!

Christmas Parties!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!! Tonight I went to two little parties here on campus, and it really got me into the holiday mood!

First I had the Circle K Christmas Party!

Here are all of our secret Santa presents. We wrote down a couple of things that we wanted or liked on a card since many of us don't know each other too well. I drew my friend Megan's name from the hat, and bought her the book "Running with Scissors" like she asked for, as well as a pack of Christmas tree shaped peeps!

REAL NON-CAFETERIA FOOD!

Just some girls from the club!

Nicole got a nice set of gloves, a scarf, and a hat from her Secret Santa. She was very excited! This was after she didn't want to do Secret Santa at all because she didn't "need" anything. I explained to her that that wasn't the point of Christmas at all! It was just supposed to be fun! She gave in... after I filled out her card and dropped in the bucket at last weeks meeting.

My Secret Santa actually turned out to be Megan! I actually suspected it was her or one of her friends, since when we went out to dinner for a friends birthday party the other night she was asking me about what books I wanted to read. She gave me Frankenstein, because she loves it and I had told her I have never read it, and The Glass Castle, which is one of her favorites.

Then I headed back home and joined my building in our holiday party!

Candice decorated a stocking, with some difficulty.

Kim and I take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other with our Canons. <3

We take a picture of all the tour guides at the party!!!!!

Sammy and this other girl spend most of the time making this gingerbread house, lol.

And now I have tons and tons of homework to do! Please comment and subscribe!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Thanksgiving

So obviously I couldn't afford to spend $300 to go home for 4 days this Thanksgiving. Luckily we have some extended family (my mother's cousins) who live in New Jersey that were kind enough to invite me to their house for Thanksgiving!

So after I got off work on Wednesday I took the 4 trains necessary to end up in Rutherford, New Jersey. By the way, it was a snap, considering I had never even taken the New Jersey Transit before!

Thanksgiving was great! There were about 16 people there, plus tons of wonderful food! Everyone kept saying I was going to tell everyone back home how crazy they all were, to which I insisted "they are exactly the same back home!"

Around 11:00 Thanksgiving morning, as we were putting the turkey into the oven, a real live turkey was barking at us out on the deck! It was hilarious!!!!!!! They quickly scampered away, but still, how fitting!

The best part of the trip, however, was getting some quality baby time with their 8 month old son, Andrew!

Seriously. I took 49 pictures in 3 days. Guess how many are of food, decorations, or adults.

0.

That's right, because he is just TOO CUTE!!!!!

Look at the little Thanksgiving bib!!!!

He is such a happy baby!

Italian Food and Comedy!

Last Sunday, to celebrate Nicole's 18th Birthday, we went into the city for a night of great italian food and comedy!

It was a pretty self-explanatory night, so I shall let the story be told in pictures.

Nicole and I on the train into the city.

We have different phones from different carriers, but our cases are the same type. We tease that they are married, and that Nicole's is the woman because it has curves.

We met Alicia and her boyfriend Henry in Chinatown and then walked to little Italy, where we found this restaurant. It was located at the back of a cigar shop, but it had amazing food! Nicole is Italian, so she would know!

Then we went right across the street to Ferrara's for Italian desserts. Henry and Alicia shared sherbet because Alicia is allergic to dairy, and Nicole and I each had some gelato.

Outside of Ferrara's.

Then we left Alicia and Henry and made our way to the East Village for the comedy show! We had about 40 minutes to spare so we found an adorable coffee shop nearby and we each had a cup of coffee while we waited. I wish I had a picture to show you, it was very chic! Then we headed to the East Ville Comedy Club! We actually got in for free because Nicole found an online promotion. There was a two drink limit, however, which ended up totaling $13 each for Nicole and me. We didn't complain though! The show on its own would have cost us $25. I guess they supposed people will come for a free show, and then spend a lot of money on alcoholic drinks. They lost money on us of course. Even if we had wanted to drink (which we didn't!) the second the waitress saw us she said "you guys don't have to bother getting your ID's out, I know you aren't drinking."

I ran out of eyeliner AND mascara the day before. :(

The show was AMAZING!!!!! We recognized some of the people from Comedy Central and other shows!

F Train back to Midtown. I don't know what is going on in this picture.

Is that you?

So I LOVE Art History! Like, a lot. I really do soak up all of the information I learn in class, and most of the time the class is pretty serious.

Sometimes, however, Catherine and my favorite thing to do is talk about who in modern day resembles the portraits being shown to us.

For instance, Caracalla (who totally killed his brother to avoid having a threat to the throne, and as Catherine says, sure looks like he could "kill a fool") looks a lot like Victor Krum from Harry Potter and Gerard Butler.

This is probably my favorite resemblance though! Oh, disclaimer, I mean no offense to anyone with this, promise.

Take a look at this mosaic entitled "Christ as Good Shepherd" which is the entrance wall mosaic of the Mausoleum of Gall Placidia in Ravenna Italy.

Beautiful right? Now look at the sheep.

Look really hard.

Who does this remind you of??????

BUCKBEACK!!!!!!! The Hippogriff!!!!!!!!! Yes? No?

I officially have to add a Harry Potter tag now, since it has been mentioned twice in this one post. lol.