An Ice Castle
...well, an abandoned, roof-less, scarylooking and half boarded up ice-castle-apartment. That's what sits on 53rd and Woodlawn now. Last night/this morning there was a terrible fire which pretty much destroyed the whole apartment building (luckily no one was injured). Tonight I drove by it twice and it is craziness! Due to the water from the fire trucks, the whole [now]skeleton building is covered from 3rd floor to bottom with icicles and lots and lots of ice. The trees out front look like artwork covered with heavy ice, and the walls surrounding the apartment looks like some winter fairy blew a frosty breath over the area. I hope someone snaps a few pictures because it really is amazing.

If Dean can't even keep his staff and has problems with this finances now how does he expect to do this if he was president?

Don't forget to microwave your sponges!

I Just Like This Sentence
The world's news makes its way back to us here on the West Coast of America, riding a sort of reverse jet stream and settling over us in the course of the day like volcanic ash from a distant eruption: the battles already fought and decided, the deal already made, the deaths of luminaries duly noted. --August Kleinzahler
It is true in a sense.

Wahoo! Someone came to my blog searching for "I Love Portland". :o)
I definitely do.

Because I love Maps so much:
visited 26 states (50%)!


create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Here's where I have traveled to:


create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide
Thanks Ruthie for the site!

WTF
Yes I did say that in class today without even thinking. Since when have I said that?: never. Strange. I shocked myself.
I'm proud of Mihra and Audrey, who had more courage and endurance today than I. In freezing (and I mean COLD and snowy) weather this afternoon they participated in the annual UofC Polar Bear Run and ran through the quads naked. Yes naked. Along with about 30 other girls and boys. I wish I would have done it. I half regret it.
This evening was fun and productive...watched the Polar Bear Streak, took a 30 min psych test for $8, worked on GIS in Crerar and did two labs, participated in Evensong (a Gregorian chant service) at Brent House with IVCF, attended the Muslim Student Association's Islam 101 discussion (think Bible study, only it was Quran study), caught the bus over to the Shoreland to see the end of the sixtyeights set and hung out with Ruthie and Parker, then headed over to Mihra and Audrey's apartment with Carla and Parker and had a nice time chillin and talking there. All in all a great night!

Happy New Year, it's now the year of the monkey!
And here's some good news to start it off with.

The State of the Union

Luxury and Comfort
Sheepskin leather coats are so warm and snuggly!
Even more awesome than my coat: Salvation Army Receives Gift of $1.5 Billion

Two friends with new blogs:
Adelle, and her portfolio. [Check out her artwork].
Jabin.

I wish to be a healer, mother, teacher.
A Comfort, A Prayer
I can only imagine the beauty of this song:

"Fear not, the time is coming
Fear not, your bones are strong
Fear not, help is nearby
Fear not, Gula is near
Fear not, the baby is at the door
Fear not, he will live to bring you honor
Fear not, the hands of the midwife are clever
Fear not, the earth is beneath you
Fear not, we have water and salt
Fear not, little mother
Fear not, mother of us all"
-The Red Tent

So the UC Republican minutes ended with "TRUNKS UP!", which made me think of the Jungle book and elephants on parade, which made me think of watching a movie, which means I'm not focusing on my structural geology, which is bad.
ok back to work.

American India Service Corps:
An answer to a prayer!! After reading this blog over the past few days and realized how strong my desire is to return to India (or a similar place in the world) and work on some kind of service project I had been spending much of my time this morning researching ways that I could return. I-to-I seemed great, but too expensive; I don't have the money to pay to work somewhere, it needs to be free or paying me.
And then I got a forwarded email from my roommate which included information about the 2004-2005 American India Service Corps Fellowship. It seems too perfect to be true. The best opportunity ever! 9 months, teamed up with an awesome NGO, and paid to help out! It would be a dream come true. I'm going to apply..the deadline in January 31st. The only problem is that the program starts Sept1st, and Nicole's wedding is the 25th. I doubt there's no way to get around that deadline but I'm going to try my hardest to apply and then we'll see what happens. Wish me luck!

An Ocean on Mars = Shrimp for Americans?
Who Wants My Shrimp?
..because I dislike them, and if you believe this, I can claim my very own on March 15th. lol.

Gilda's Club
I participated in the UCSC Day of Service this morning and afternoon. It was (sort of) a flop. Although themed around "Justice" in honor of Dr. King, we ended up not having much to help out with due to the timing of our visit, but we helped out the best we could on the tasks we had. My team, which consisted of about 8-10 of us volunteered at Gilda's Club, which is a non-profit organization that functions as a support community for people whose lives have been affected by cancer: children, coworkers, friends, family, and the cancer patients themselves. They have many services and they are all completely free: yoga, art, aromatherapy, cooking classes, cosmetics, dance, support groups, pottery, etc. The club started in New York City when SNL actress Gilda Ratner passed away due to cancer. It doesn't provide therapy services, but provides basically anything else you could want. It's now an international non-profit with 17 locations.

Friday Night
Tonight was fun and productive: I finally got to see friends who I haven't seen in a long time and for once had meaningful and unrushed conversations (which seems to be so hard to come by these days). After IVCF (which was great!) I had a nice long chat with Amy and Megan, two very cool ladies. Following large group I headed over to Meg & Trish's apartment where they were having a casual dessert and drinks party. Meg showed me her pictures of Uganda, where she was studying abroad for the past three months (yes, I'm envious!).

Cartography
The neatest thing of all was in their dining room where they had a World map, a map of the Phillipines and a map of the United States on their wall. On each of these maps were tiny post-it notes. Everyone who comes over gets to place their name and a little message on a country, state or other certain place where they've been for over a month (or which is very significant). I placed my notes on Oregon, Nova Scotia/New Brunswick/the Isles de la Madeleine, India, Iceland, Alaska and the Bahamas.
I've always had a fascination with maps and geography, even though I'm such a typical American who really is pretty ignorant of many countries in the world (note: this will hopefully change soon with me taking three geography classes this quarter!). My apartment bedroom has one wall covered with maps as wallpaper. Some are geologic maps of Brazil, but most are topographic maps of Japan from the war. I think that these ones are especially cool because they all say For use by War and Navy Department Agencies Only, Not for Sale or Redistribution.

Celebration!
I submitted my application to the US Fish & Wildlife Service. It's a long shot for me to get this job because I'm sure more qualified people will apply, but I would *love* to have this job. I'm excited. I really hope I can get an interview!

Check Him Out
After listening to only four songs I can seriously say that one of my new favorite musical artists is Teitur Lassen. (Thanks Samantha!). He's from the Faroe Islands, and really--what could be cooler than that? ;o)
He's going to be playing at Martyrs Restaurant & Pub February 28th and 29th in Chicago, $15. Who wants to join me?? I definitely want to go!

Love in the Stacks, an example of just how nerdy the UofC is. Although, I have to say, this is kinda appealing..I just might attend. ;o)

POSITION: Biological Science Technician (Wildlife)
DUTY LOCATIONS: 1 vacancy Portland, OR
Seriously folks, this is the perfect job for me. I just found it, and now I have by midnight tomorrow Friday Eastern Standard Time to apply. Yikes! Wish me luck this would be AWESOME!

Earth as Art--The Sequel
"More amazing than another Rocky comeback. More beautiful than Charlie's Angels 2. More entertaining than another installment of The Matrix. Earth as Art 2, the second in the series of award-winning remote images of the earth is now available online at http://edc2.usgs.gov/imagegallery/."

"While you have time left, find a place where you can live out your dreams," she says. "Even if it is on top of a mountain or in the middle of a desert."
Spring Break Death Valley people: go support this woman! :o) Go to one of her shows.

Touching the Void
I loved this book when I read it. Thrilling, scary, and well written. And now there's Touching the Void the movie which has a free advanced screening at Piper's Alley at 7:00pm on Tuesday the 27th and a talk with the climber/author/screenwriter himself. Who wants to go with me (because I am definitely going...even by myself)!

I hope all the Frats read this on campus
This is one of the best letters-to-the-editor that I've read. Check out what The Maroon, my school newspaper received and published in their January 13th issue:

A few days ago, I passed a fraternity house which advertised a “White-Trash Party,” encouraging guests to come wearing “mullet” haircuts. Of course, I appreciate this attempt to spread awareness about Appalachian culture and that of poor whites in general, as these are under-represented groups at this university. Nonetheless, I wonder why this ethnic group has been singled out for such treatment. In the future, in order to prove their good faith and commitment to diversity, I challenge U of C fraternities to celebrate “Black-Trash,” “Latino-Trash,” “Indian-Trash,” and all other cultures of the poor and oppressed. Perhaps it would be admissible, even, to celebrate a “Rich, White-Rubbish” party, in which guests wear the letters of their favorite fraternity.

Or, if I have misunderstood the intent of those who organized this event, I hope they will correct my error.

Joseph Grim Feinberg
First-year graduate student in
anthropology

Fun
wearing vibrantly colorful Jamaican and Mexican traditional dress +
Acapella birthday singing +
german chocolate cake +
ice cream +
= surprise birthday party for my wonderful roommate

I love Public Transportation: Praise for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
Even though the fare raise for the CTA is not good news for us poor college students, the CTA has made me happy with one thing: the Chicago Card is now free when you buy it before March. Check this out if you're in Chicago.
Update: I just called and with registration (giving them your name and address) they will send you a free Chicago Card. And it is mailed to you in two days! You can get a $0 balance, or add money with a credit card.
Also, a surprise: with the fare hike from $1.50 to $1.75 now, the transfers are only 25 cents now instead of 30, and best of all, surcharges for express buses are dropped! Now I may actually be saving money considering I take the 6 Jeffrey Express all the time. Hurray!
Also, while I'm on the subject I'll let all you Hyde Park people in on a little secret. The 28 Stony Island bus is actually an express (speeding up to head north after 47th), which goes down part of Michigan Avenue and ends at Union Station. From the people I've talked to no one seems to realize this, and I didn't even know about it until just this year. There's plenty of easy options to get downtown.
Portland has just added a new feature to track all buses and lightrail trails to get up to the minute schedules that can be accessed by cell phones. Chicago should follow suite.

Things are looking up. My semi-final schedule for the moment:
GEOG 25500 Biogeography
PHED 16042 CPR/First Aid/AED
GEOG 28400 Intermediate GIS/Cartography
GEOG 20100 Cultural Geography
GEOS 21900 Intro To Structural Geology
CRP/First Aid/AED is just for fun. I've already fulfilled my PE requirement, but I've always wanted to know these skills, so I thought it would be a good thing for me to take this quarter. The biggest problem with my schedule is that Biogeography lecture cuts into Structural Geology's lab by 30 minutes, so I'm going to have to be late each week, which makes things difficult. But I hope it works out ok.

this quarter sucks
.

Give Eden mosquitos and you have created Alaska
What a [true] quote!

i'm stuck in minneapolis. i was supposed to have a connecting flight through here, but as it turns out after 8 and a half hours in msp and three of the flights i was booked for got canceled (only 0.25 miles of visibility, snow and freezing fog in Chicago), the only option left was to fly out tomorrow at 1pm. sooo. this could be the worst airport experience ever for me. but it's not so. of all the cities to be stuck in this is the greatest one!
Now toured St. Paul and Minneapolis, ate a huge burrito at Chipotle, explored a really neat outdoor store in Minneapolis, watched Chicago and now I'm sitting in an apartment on the campus of Bethel College, where I'm spending the night with my best friend Kate! What could be cooler than that! :o)