I think the last time I wrote was May-ish, so I'll begin with June. The first weekend of June I made a 5.5 hour drive to Charleston, West Virginia, to attend a wedding with Dave. The wedding itself was sort of lame, but it was cool to meet Dave's parents and see where he is from. The highlight was that we made shark tanks for his parents and ourselves. The Kruskas loved them. All in all it was a really fun weekend, and I came home stocked with some frozen fish, recipes for hummus and mojitos, a bottle of oil for my car, and a cd of pictures from the weekend. Too cute. The second weekend of June a group of us went to Fayetteville, WV, to go white water rafting with the one-and-only JJ Gregg. He is currently spending the summer being a river guide for a rafting company there. It was really interesting to see him in action. He seems especially calm in the wilderness, which is cool, but he's definitely become a "rafting dude," if you know what I mean. It was another six hour drive each way, but it was a really really incredible weekend. The thing I realized over these two weeks is that I miss the wilderness TREMENDOUSLY.
Which brings me to the second half of June, which I spent in ESPANA with my mom and aunt. This one's for you, Alicia. I'll begin by saying that my flights got completely jacked, and I almost didn't make it to Madrid, but the basic goodness of a couple of true Samaritans got me aboard that plane. We spent our first weekend in San Sebastian, in the Basque region, where my brother was studying for 5 weeks. It was a gorgeous little town with some absolutely beautiful beaches. This was the only time of the trip that we saw my brother, so it was especially cool to see him speaking the Spanish and showing us around. He introduced me to a new drink, the calimocho (kalimotxo) = Coca-Cola and red wine. It's a little gross.
After San Sebastian, we flew to Barcelona, my personal favorite of our main destinations. The highlight there was seeing all of the Gaudi architecture. That man was trippy. Also, we did a cheesy but really enjoyable bike tour of the city that concluded on the beach with lunch and beer (for me) and sangria (for my mom and aunt). I got a sweet painting from one of the vendors on La Rambla (which, truth be told, was a little too crazy for my liking). While in Barcelona, we took a sweet half day trip to Montserrat, home to a tiny little monestary tucked away amid some spectacular cliffs. It was really cool to get out of the city and see some of the Spanish wilderness (did I mention that I love that stuff?).
From Barcelona we went to Madrid, where we did a lot more museum-ish stuff (i.e. the Prado). Madrid was fun, but felt a lot more like a standard city than the other places we had been. From Madrid, we took a day-trip to Toledo, which I loved just because of the layout of the city and the fact that they have preserved the architecture for so long. This is an absurdly superficial recap of my trip, but that's all I can handle in blog format. My favorite things to eat were vegetable paella & Manchego cheese with bread, both of which I enjoyed on multiple occasions. Believe it or not, my mom and aunt drank more alcohol than I did. They were trying to order wine at every meal, and I was like, WATER, it's hottttt. I didn't explore the nightlife at all, since we were abiding by the "early to bed, early to rise" rule, which was fine by me. All in all it was a really great trip. Thank you Alicia for the tips!
Life after Spain has been good as well. It has been really nice to be in DC for a few weekends in a row, instead of constantly traveling about (see: June). The one-and-only Kate Holley came down for a 5-day visit over the Fourth of July, so it was super sweet to get to hang with her and enjoy a nice balance of outdoor activities and R&R. Work is really good, except for a couple of things: 1) my best work friend, Lily, had her last day of work on Wednesday of this week; and 2) because so many investigators are leaving this summer, we are down from 8 investigators to 4 until we can hire some replacements. So work has been a little off the hook, but I still love it. I'm off tomorrow (Friday) because I worked a ton last weekend, and we have the best weekend ever planned. Dan Flynn is here for a day, so he and I are grabbing some breakfast, and then Julia and I are going shopping at the outlet mall, and then a huge group of us is going to see Harry Potter. Tomorrow we are spending the day at the pool, and we're having an awesome house bash tomorrow night. And Sunday will be Sunday. Should be a good time. All of the roommates are doing exceptionally well. Danny Arevelo got a job in DC (!), so he's living with us temporarily until he can find his own place. So that's pretty much the news here.
I hope all is well with everyone. Keep up the good work at life and etc.
Love,
L.Staley
After San Sebastian, we flew to Barcelona, my personal favorite of our main destinations. The highlight there was seeing all of the Gaudi architecture. That man was trippy. Also, we did a cheesy but really enjoyable bike tour of the city that concluded on the beach with lunch and beer (for me) and sangria (for my mom and aunt). I got a sweet painting from one of the vendors on La Rambla (which, truth be told, was a little too crazy for my liking). While in Barcelona, we took a sweet half day trip to Montserrat, home to a tiny little monestary tucked away amid some spectacular cliffs. It was really cool to get out of the city and see some of the Spanish wilderness (did I mention that I love that stuff?).
From Barcelona we went to Madrid, where we did a lot more museum-ish stuff (i.e. the Prado). Madrid was fun, but felt a lot more like a standard city than the other places we had been. From Madrid, we took a day-trip to Toledo, which I loved just because of the layout of the city and the fact that they have preserved the architecture for so long. This is an absurdly superficial recap of my trip, but that's all I can handle in blog format. My favorite things to eat were vegetable paella & Manchego cheese with bread, both of which I enjoyed on multiple occasions. Believe it or not, my mom and aunt drank more alcohol than I did. They were trying to order wine at every meal, and I was like, WATER, it's hottttt. I didn't explore the nightlife at all, since we were abiding by the "early to bed, early to rise" rule, which was fine by me. All in all it was a really great trip. Thank you Alicia for the tips!
Life after Spain has been good as well. It has been really nice to be in DC for a few weekends in a row, instead of constantly traveling about (see: June). The one-and-only Kate Holley came down for a 5-day visit over the Fourth of July, so it was super sweet to get to hang with her and enjoy a nice balance of outdoor activities and R&R. Work is really good, except for a couple of things: 1) my best work friend, Lily, had her last day of work on Wednesday of this week; and 2) because so many investigators are leaving this summer, we are down from 8 investigators to 4 until we can hire some replacements. So work has been a little off the hook, but I still love it. I'm off tomorrow (Friday) because I worked a ton last weekend, and we have the best weekend ever planned. Dan Flynn is here for a day, so he and I are grabbing some breakfast, and then Julia and I are going shopping at the outlet mall, and then a huge group of us is going to see Harry Potter. Tomorrow we are spending the day at the pool, and we're having an awesome house bash tomorrow night. And Sunday will be Sunday. Should be a good time. All of the roommates are doing exceptionally well. Danny Arevelo got a job in DC (!), so he's living with us temporarily until he can find his own place. So that's pretty much the news here.
I hope all is well with everyone. Keep up the good work at life and etc.
Love,
L.Staley
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