Tuesday, August 30

Grocery Shopping in Boston

Finding good deals on grocery items isn't an easy task in Boston. I have definitely learned a lot about how to be a smart shopper in just a few weeks. Here's how the process went.

-First stop: Stop & Shop -- this is owned by Giant, so I thought the prices would be pretty decent. Attempting to stock up my fridge since I had nothing, I went to one close by. I came home with juice, 3 bananas, and a loaf of bread... not exactly "stocking up". Everything was way more expensive than back home! Even ramen noodles were more expensive! I did find out that you can use a Giant card at the Stop & Shop, and it works just fine.

-Attempt #2: Shaw's -- this must be a northern thing. Their prices were better... if things were on sale, then they were prices that I would be willing to pay when I was living in D.C., but they weren't sales that rivaled the "good" sales in D.C. They do double coupons up to 99 cents, though!

-Third try: Target -- their food prices seem pretty stable to what you'd see in other areas. Their sales on food are nationwide, so that is another advantage. I found a few great buys on clearance items, but not everything at Target is always a great deal.

-Numero Quatro: Market Basket -- finally!! I was talking with my landlord and his wife about the best place to buy groceries. They highly recommended Market Basket as having the most reasonable prices in town, and although I have to drive a bit of a ways to get there (meaning it is a weekend-only kind of place), I was actually able to stock up on food! Some of their prices are even lower than what I have seen in D.C. (although some are still higher). At least I will now be able to eat more than just PB&J all the time!

-#5: Trader Joe's -- I can walk there, and there are always a few staples that I like to get: 100% durum semolina pasta for 99 cents a package, their tasty minestrone soup, frozen naan, and jarred masala simmer sauce.

So, it took a while, but I finally found some places in Boston that will be able to serve my needs as a poor graduate student while still eating semi-healthily. Now the challenge is to see whether I will have the time to actually eat once I am loaded down with law school classes!

Sunday, August 28

Sandbridge

For my birthday weekend, Michael and I took Sonja to Virginia Beach. We met up with my parents and had a great time at the ocean. The most exciting part about the weekend was that we had the opportunity to take Sonja to the beach for the first time!

Virginia Beach
If you've spent time at Virginia Beach, you probably know that the beach is lined with highrise hotels, and it can be really hard to find a spot to lay on the beach among so many people. The water also tends to be pretty brown and murky from lots of sediment perturbation. Not exactly the most ideal beach for me (if I'm going to a beach with lots of highrises, I'd much rather be in South Beach Miami),  but much closer to me than nicer beaches like the Outer Banks of North Carolina.


Since there are rules against bringing dogs to Virginia Beach during the busier times of the year, we decided to make the short 15-20 minute drive over to Sandbridge. Although technically dogs are apparently not allowed there either, the rules are much more relaxed, and there were other dogs on the beach too. It was so exciting to see Sonja on the beach, because she absolutely loved it! Seeing her so excited and running up and down the beach with Michael made me really wish we could have had her off of the leash. She wasn't even scared of the water! I am definitely looking forward to taking her back to the beach again.

I had heard good things about Sandbridge before, I was so glad to be able to see it myself; it reminded me of a much smaller Outer Banks. It doesn't have all of those highrise hotels, and there are streets of cute beach houses lining the shore. The best part for me, though, is that you get a large area of the beach to yourself! No fighting other beach-goers for the best spots. No annoying lifeguards blowing a whistle ever 10 minutes. And free parking on the neighborhood streets!  If you are in Virginia Beach and want a more secluded feel, I would definitely recommend hopping down to Sandbridge. Michael even found me a great birthday treat - we bought some blue crabs and had them for dinner -- one of my favorite memories from going to the beach when I was growing up!

Friday, August 26

Truck Rental

For my 9+ hour journey to Boston from D.C., I figured that I needed a rental truck to haul all my stuff from the condo to the new apartment - I definitely can't fit all of my belongings into a Prius! Now that I've had this experience with rental truck companies, I think I have some helpful advice for others who may be considering this option for a move.


1) Look up different companies online to find out their best prices -- they will vary company to company. Since I was doing an inter-city move, the options were fewer than if you are just moving within one city. Most companies won't rent you a moving van in lieu of a truck if you are returning it to a different location.

2) Make the reservation a couple of weeks in advance if possible -- there'll probably be fine print when you make the reservation saying that you can only change or cancel it up to a day or two in advance. Here's what I learned that can really save you money: After you've made the reservation, call back and say you want to cancel to use another company. They want your business, and they don't want to give it to a competitor, so they will reduce your price. I had a 12' Penske truck reserved for $450 (the most competitive online price), and called to tell them to cancel because I found a better offer on a Uhaul van. They reduced the price to $250 -- a huge difference! If I hadn't done this, I never would have known that you can haggle with these rental truck companies.

3) Be prepared to pay dearly for some gas. Ouch. We made it all the way from D.C. to Connecticut on one tank of gas, but I paid $175 to fill it back up (gas was ~ $4/gallon at the time).

4) When you make a reservation for a certain-sized truck, you may in fact receive a larger one. My reservation for a 12' ended up with 16' truck -- way more than I needed! But when I expressed dissatisfaction to the manager, he threw in some extra tape and other supplies, which was nice. And supposedly, the 16' gets the same gas mileage as the 12'.

5) I never realized before just how many roads there are that do not allow trucks. These rental trucks qualify as real trucks, so you have to stop at the weigh stations and can't go on roads that say "no trucks". I also had never noticed the road signs before limiting trucks to only certain lanes of the highway.

Thursday, August 25

Arrival in Bean Town

So, I'll admit it. I was trying really hard to stay blog-active this month, but it really didn't work out. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the primary one is that I just picked up and moved to Boston!

I'll post a little more about the area of the city I'm in during another post, but I would like to say that I'm very excited that I am fully moved in, except for 3 boxes! My dad helped me move up here on the 15th, and since then I have been working really hard to get everything organized and put away -- while at the same time working my full-time job remotely.

I can tell just from my few experiences at the grocery stores in Boston that food is going to be a real challenge for me here. Since I have prices for a lot of products memorized for what was a "good" price is in Virginia, there will need to be some change in expectations. I'm used to going through the weekly circular and picking out items that are about 50% off, and then using a coupon on top of that when I can. Here, it seems like food sales are not actually a bargain, and not much is on sale. It will definitely be an adventure figuring out where to shop.

My apartment situation is a bit unorthodox (in a good way!), and thankfully one of my first meals was made by my landlord's wife. She is an Italian-born immigrant, so her pasta was amazing! :) Plus, I didn't have any food yet, so I really appreciated a home-cooked meal.

Yum!

Wednesday, August 10

Yipit!

I just found out about a new deal website!

Check out Yipit. It is a deal aggregator that collects daily deals from hundreds of different sites and recommends the best ones for you based on your preferences. From the sound of it, this could save a lot of time looking through all of the daily deals at so many deal websites, and it could provide you with deals from ones you might not know about yet.


Tuesday, August 9

Pollo Guisado

One of my absolute favorite foods in the whole world is pollo guisado. It is delicious, fall-off-the-bone tender chicken in an amazingly flavorful broth. You can look up a bunch of authentic recipes online, but this is how I make my own version in the slow cooker, in somewhat of a "healthified" way. All the ingredients you may not have, you should be able to easily buy in the international section of most supermarkets or definitely in a Latino supermarket, for very little. They are also good ingredients to have around to flavor other dishes (especially the adobo).

Ingredients:
  • 2-4 heaping spoonfuls of sofrito (either buy the can or make it using a recipe online)
  • 1-2 packets of sazon goya
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 2 cups water
  • A few tablespoons of adobo seasoning (buy or make your own blend with seasonings you already have)
  • 2-3 carrots
  • 1 onion (yellow or white)
  • Chicken (any cut) equivalent to 4 chicken leg quarters, with or without skin/bones










Start out by locating your slow cooker/crock pot. If you have a small one, you can always halve the recipe, but I have a large one so I like to make a lot at a time. Add the water, sofrito, and sazon to the pot and mix them up to combine. Smell the broth. If you want more flavor, add some. At this point, you can crank up your crock pot to get it heating up. Generally, go with the high setting if you are leaving it for half a day, or the low setting if it can cook all day.

Next, prepare the chicken. I used bone-in chicken leg quarters and cut them up to separate thighs and drumsticks.  I took the skin off to make it healthier, but it will be more flavorful if you leave the skin on. You can also do this with more lean cuts of chicken (like boneless skinless chicken breasts), but just remember that fat adds flavor! Once you have the chicken prepared, sprinkle each piece with adobo on all sides, and add the chicken to the slow cooker.


 I prefer to add the pepper, onion, and carrot towards the end of the cooking process (about 2 hours before I'm going to eat it) so that they aren't too soft, but that's personal preference. Cut the veggies up into bite-sized pieces before adding them in. You can always add them sooner if you won't be around until you're ready to eat it, too. If you get around to it, stir the contents of the crock pot every so often to get all the flavors melded together.

 At this point, your home will smell like heaven... Yum. About 20 or so minutes before you're ready to eat, cook up some white rice (just not the sticky kind) in your rice cooker. I went with basmati rice, because I had some around. Now add some rice to your plate or bowl, and top it with the pollo guisado (don't forget to add some of the broth!). Eat up.

A more authentic variation on this recipe would be to add chunks of potato in with the chicken to cook, but I was trying to reduce the number of carbs in this meal. Make this recipe your own by adding different veggies (red pepper, etc). Enjoy!

Friday, August 5

Allergies

I wasn't one of those kids who didn't eat their vegetables. I actually like most vegetables, and always have. During the holidays, we always had seaweed salad, california rolls, and other foods you wouldn't normally see next to the turkey and mashed potatoes. My parents always encouraged me to try any kind of food. Eating is something of an adventure, and I consider myself to have had a pretty broad range of experiences with food -- raw beef, pork, egg, lobster, and shrimp; sea cucumber, snake, alligator, etc. I think these experiences are the reason why I am so bothered that after all of these years without any food allergies, one suddenly crops up.


Knowing that I have a food allergy kind of scares me as far as trying other new foods in the future. What if the next time I try a food that I happen to be allergic to, the reaction is much more severe? What if I am allergic to all the other fruits in the same genus? I'm still going to try new and different foods, but I probably won't be quite as uninhibited about it. This new-found allergy is to jackfruit. The national fruit of Bangladesh, in case you were wondering. After chomping down on a few morsels, I was thinking "yum, how tasty"... and then these weird sensations started happening. My throat started getting itchy. I started experiencing discomfort when swallowing. Then it felt like there were needles in my throat. Not a good sign, obviously.

I swallowed a few antihistamine tablets, took a nap, and felt better once I woke up. Let's hope this same thing doesn't happen with any future food adventures.

Tuesday, August 2

World Market Explorer

Do you like shopping at World Market? I'm really excited about what I just received in my inbox!

Apparently if you join the World Market Explorer Rewards Program, you'll receive a $10 reward during the month of your birthday! I was already pretty happy about getting e-mails every once in a while with 20% off any purchase, but this birthday reward doesn't have any requirements other than "Valid on minimum pre-tax purchase of $10 or more" and that it has to be used by the end of the month. I will definitely make a trip to World Market very soon. Especially with how reasonable their prices are on kitchen items!

Monday, August 1

Happy August!

Since it's August, I decided that such a lovely month deserves a little bit of a theme. I've been doing a lot of cooking at home lately, which involves trying to plan ahead with meals and using mostly items that can be stored long-term to buy them when they are the cheapest. The fresh produce and perishable items I buy dictate a lot of what I am making.

By grongar via Wikimedia Commons
So this month's theme is food!

I'm going to try and put some of my best ideas... many of them being modified versions of recipes I've found on different websites. The fewer [quickly] perishable ingredients, the better. Items like shredded cheese and salad dressing I don't really consider perishable, because they tend to last a long while before going bad.

This Creamy Seafood Lasagna recipe from Food.com went over very well with my family. Since I make mine using a 9x9 baking dish rather than a special lasagna dish, I end up halving the recipe. For three people, that amount lasted for two meals when I had a small side salad or bread served with it.


Yum!
The [relatively] expensive ingredients: I buy imitation crab meat and shrimp and freeze them when they go on sale at Harris Teeter, buy one get one free or better. Most of the other ingredients were ones that I would already have anyway, except for half-and-half and ricotta cheese. When I saw both of these items go on sale at the same time a couple of weeks ago, I knew it was time to try out the recipe.

The changes: I didn't' have an onion, so I just left that out. I used wheat flour instead of all-purpose to try and make it a little healthier. I also added a little less half-and-half and a little more canned chicken stock for the same reason. Looking through my freezer, I found some squid and added that in to the seafood mixture. Instead of buying mozzarella and parmesan, I just bought one of those bags with the mixed Italian cheeses. I also used dried parsley rather than fresh. When making the ricotta mixture, I also added some Italian seasoning to flavor things up a bit.

The preparation: For those of us relatively new to cooking -- layer of sauce, layer of lasagna noodles, layer of ricotta mixture, layer of seafood -- Repeat -- add cheese to the top. The end. If you know the general idea of making a lasagna, the only differences about this one are that you have to make the sauce rather than opening up a can and the meat portion isn't already in the sauce. It doesn't actually take very long, either. Just follow the recipe and make any substitutions you want. Because the shrimp and squid I used for this were raw in the bag, I just added them that way to the lasagna and they cooked up just fine in the oven.

Wednesday, July 27

Resume Thoughts

Lately at work, my coworkers and I have been looking over some resumes for a new hire. There were certain things that I was surprised to see... (and also surprised not to see) that I think people could learn from. It was nice for once to have the perspective of the scrutinizing future-colleague rather than attempting to critique my own or a friend's resume. Obviously not every person who looks over resumes of potential hires will notice the same things, but nonetheless I think it is an interesting and helpful exercise to point out some of my thoughts as I was reading through. Some of these things are kind of harsh, but it is the honest truth of what I was thinking, so better to know than be totally ignorant of what message you may be sending to potential employers. I would think that some of this might be obvious, but I guess not since people are submitting resumes with these issues...

  • If you are only a few years out of college (let's say, 5 years or less) and choose not to put your GPA on your resume, my assumption is that you left it off because it's not very good.
  • Don't have much related work experience? Then you should list the coursework you've taken within the field and add information to a section on "Experience" with any kind of technical skills you gained during that coursework (field labs, experiments, senior projects, etc). Put the most relevant courses for the specific job first in the list.
  • When there are grammatical or punctuation errors in your resume, I'm assuming that you have that same lack of attention to detail in your other work. So you have bullets detailing some experience -- well, don't end the third bullet with a period and none of the others with one. It just looks sloppy and unedited.
  • The all too frequently underutilized "Objective" section: If you have one, don't make it lame. Most of the ones I've read basically say in a few more words, "I would like a job, thanks." Well, we already know that because you've sent us your resume. Either make it meaningful or leave it out. Also, don't make your objective basically state "I'd like a job so that I can get other better jobs in the future." Especially for employers that are worried about employees only staying for a few years, this is only hurting you.
  • If you're submitting a writing sample, choose an example for which your name is not the fifth author listed. Preferably, choose something for which you are the only author. Otherwise, it's very hard to know whether I am reviewing the candidate's writing or someone else's.
  • Put the most important stuff first. Seeing a bunch of detail about some unrelated job or volunteer work before the important stuff could mean that I don't keep reading the details of the other stuff you actually want read.


Friday, July 22

Grocery Shopping

So, I do recognize that the title of this blog post may cause some people to flee immediately. Who cares about grocery shopping, and what is there to discuss on a blog, really? Well, in case you've been living under a log and haven't heard about this "extreme couponing" craze, it can be actually quite satisfying. Who doesn't like getting really great deals on stuff that you have to buy anyway (like food)? There are all kinds of guides out there on how best to organize your shopping so that you can save most efficiently and effectively, but here is my own personal take on what works for me.

1) Grocery Gadget - This is a free app I downloaded off of itunes for my iPhone. Get it (yes, it works for Androids too). You can sign up and access your grocery list either through the app or through the online portal when you're on your computer.

2) Weekly Circular - I shop for groceries primarily at Harris Teeter; I used to make a trip to Giant once a week too, but under detailed comparison found Harris Teeter to be superior as far as the price goes for all but maybe one or two items that I buy. Other than Harris Teeter, I only tend to shop for groceries at either Target or the local H-Mart (Korean grocery) -- but those stores only for specific items.

3) Online Shopping Cart - I hate when the weekly circulars only tell you "buy one get one free"... that still doesn't tell me how good of a deal I'm getting. If I type the item into the shopping cart, I can find out for sure how much the non-sale price is and what the sale price is. It even provides the nutrition info so that I don't have to go searching around the internet to find and compare products.

4) Coupon Binder - I was just putting all of my coupons into a little checkbook-sized folder, but I had a challenge remembering what was in there. After deciding to try the coupon binder approach -- which involves using baseball card protector sheets purchased on Amazon and organizing the coupons alphabetically-- I have gotten a lot better at actually making sure I use the coupons I have in conjunction with sales.


5) Wunderlist -  This is another free app that helps me keep things organized and has an online version too. I have a whole "list" set up for grocery coupons; each item in the list specifies the product brand, specific item name, coupon amount, and I place the expiration date under the task "due date". As I build up a larger selection of coupons, this will help me keep them organized and also provides me with a quick list that I can look through to see if I have a coupon for a particular item. You just have to be good about updating the list when you use the coupons.

Once a week when Harris Teeter sends me the weekly circular, I open items 1-3 and 5 in tabs on my browser. Starting from the circular, I create a grocery list from sale items that a) I actually need b) are a good price and ideally c) have a coupon to go with the sale. Sometimes they will try to be tricky and say "sale!" but the sale price is only 10¢ cheaper than the item would be regularly, so not exactly a great deal. I really try to keep this in mind and make a goal of saving at least as much as I spend. Although this doesn't always happen, I think it's a good goal to try and reach. If you can stock up on items when they are on sale, especially for shelf-stable items, it really helps to reduce the overall grocery expenditure. And once you get used to what kind of prices are good in general, you'll be in a much better place in the future for knowing when to buy and when not to.

For right now, my biggest weakness/problem when it comes to grocery shopping is making sure that I look around for coupons. There are a lot of websites available where you can print your own coupons, and I am really bad about doing that. I should also look at manufacturers' websites when I'm making up my list to see if they have coupons, too. Kashi and Seventh Generation are two brands that come to mind that usually have coupons available when I take the time to look.

Tuesday, July 19

Creating a Candy Bar

Being that I was a bridesmaid in one of my best friends' wedding not all that long ago, it also necessarily involved throwing a great bridal shower. Along with all the decorations, games, and regular food, we created a candy table that ended up looking really great, if I do say so myself. :)

If you've never done it before, it can seem like somewhat of a daunting task with all of the different elements, but I think I've now got a good handle on the best way to get all of them to come together and look really great. I decided that it might help someone else out there to have some tips on making this aspect of a bridal shower, wedding, or really any event come together as smoothly as possible, even when you are on a budget like me.

Candy Buffet!

1) Ok, so you've decided to do a candy bar for your event. Wonderful idea. Your first task is to keep your eye out all the time for whimsical glass jars, bowls, and containers to use. If you go to some of the more expensive places, you can end up spending your life savings on glass containers... so don't. Enlist the other event helpers to check out their local thrift stores for unusual-shaped glass items. You'll want ones of different heights and shapes, so keep that in mind. The display will look the best if you can keep all the containers with the same clear glass theme. The places I had the most luck finding these items at reasonable prices were:
  • Thrift Stores (Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.)
  • Craigslist (make this website your best friend! it really pays off -- make your own "looking to buy" ad, as well as checking ones from sellers.)
  • Your mom/aunt/friend/other person who already has these items for you to borrow
  • World Market
  • HomeGoods Store -- I had never been into one of these stores before this project, and it's got a lot of cool stuff! The glass containers are some of the most reasonably priced with the largest variety you'll find at any regular kind of store.
2) Choose a color scheme. The presentation will be much more eye-catching if you stick with 2-3 color options. Our colors were blue and green, obviously, but it can be a bit of a challenge to find candies that are in that range -- you'll just have to think outside the box for that one and come up with unique ideas to stay as close to homogeneous as possible with the colors.

3) Find scoops to scoop up the candy! This was the hardest thing for me to find. Everywhere I looked online seemed to have very expensive options. In the end, I found very nice metal scoops at World Market, along with a few others from a local dollar store and thrift store. You may also need tongs or a cake server -- so check with friends and family, or go to World Market for those too.

4) Create or find labels to label each candy type. Our maid-of-honor found a really cute set of labels made especially for a candy table from a local party supply store, with three different display formats: cards folded into a "v" to place directly on the table surface, labels attached to popsicle sticks to place directly into the candy, and ones with ribbon to tie around the outside of the container. Obviously each display format will not work for every type of candy, so it was easier for us to go through the options the night before and pick which containers would have which labels and candy type, so that we didn't have to worry too much about figuring that out the day of the party.

5) Find the candy and other items for the candy bar! Depending on where you live, it can be a bit of a challenge to find bulk candy to put in the containers. Living in Virginia, we had the most luck at Wegman's and Martin's. It got a little annoying at times to pick out the candies with the blue or green wrappers from the bulk bins, but it looks a lot nicer in the end, so it's worth spending your time doing that. I spent a lot of time figuring out if it was more expensive for me to purchase the candy in-store or online, and by far it was cheaper in-store. Even with certain websites offering discounts and/or free shipping, it still wasn't worth it.
Here are some helpful ideas for items that you can make for a candy bar, and the ingredients/colors used can be interchanged depending on your color scheme:
    • Double Blueberry Pie - I actually made this with blackberries for the party, but again with blueberries later. It's a really delicious pie and very refreshing with fresh berries on it. If one of your colors is red or pink, try raspberries or strawberries.
    • Cookie Balls - Use food coloring to make the white chocolate coating the appropriate color for your scheme. I used regular double stuf oreos instead of the mint, but either would taste great.
    • Chocolate-Covered Pretzels, Sugar Cookies - Do the same thing with the food coloring as for the cookie balls.
    • Mochi - This is a delicious Japanese dessert that is really easy to make. Use the basic mochi recipe with food coloring to make it whatever color you want.

6) Set up the display, and enjoy eating your creation! Yum!

Friday, July 15

Patagonian Adventure

It's hard to believe that it has been almost a year since my trip to Argentina. It's also hard to believe that I've been working at the job that sent me there for over two years. After thinking about it, I really should appreciate the opportunities that I've been given over those last two years, because it is a blessing that I've been able to do some of these things at the beginning of my career. Yes, there have been a lot of challenges and frustration - but any job can get stressful at some points. There's a lot to learn from dealing with these interpersonal relationships on a quasi-professional level. But I suppose that there are coworker-related challenges no matter where you work, unless you have no human interaction at all. And that's not exactly ideal either.

Some of the best memories I've made over the past two years have been while on work trips; I've made some really great friends that I wish lived much closer to me and that I could see more often. I've gotten to see Amsterdam, Paris, Oslo, and Buenos Aires. And there's no way I could have afforded to visit all of those places in such a short time span if I hadn't had the opportunity to visit through work.


View Argentinian/Chilean Vacation in a larger map

One of the most memorable trips was to Argentina in August 2010. I spent about a week in Buenos Aires attending the Standing Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) meeting, and I used up a week of vacation time to travel around Patagonia once Michael arrived. From Buenos Aires, we drove to Bahia Blanca, and then west across the entire country. Argentina is vast, and much of it is remote. Outside of Buenos Aires, the roads listed as highways on the map are one lane in each direction, which is always fun when drivers are passing huge trucks on the wrong side of the road. It's definitely an adventure to drive in Argentina.

Los Alerces Parque Nacional
My parents had booked their timeshare for us to use in Esquel, and our first stop was Los Alerces National Park. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous -- huge mountains as a backdrop against a huge lake. Pictures honestly don't do it justice. It's so remote that there are only dirt roads in most of the park. There are also a few people who live inside the park and farm sheep and cows.

Our next stop was San Carlos de Bariloche, or just Bariloche. It's basically like the Aspen of Argentina -- some very high end shops, and definitely not where you want to be if you are planning on taking advantage of generally how cheap it is to eat out in Argentina compared to the U.S. Bariloche is a town/city on the edge of another beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. We ended up finding a very authentic German restaurant for dinner, which was delicious.

Bariloche
From Bariloche, we began our adventure to cross into Chile. I won't go into too much detail about our frustration, but we had a very hard time crossing the border. The only person working at the border who spoke English was very helpful/friendly - but oddly enough, his English was very good because he plays online video games with Americans - that's his only practice at the language. I thought it was a bit odd that he was using curse words as every third word until I realized that he probably thinks that all Americans talk that way. It's just a product of the people he has learned English from. So, after finally making it across the border, it was pretty amazing to see the change in the landscape. Apart from an ominous-looking volcano at Puyehue National Park, the land in Chile is very fertile with lots of farms and rolling hills.


After a quick stop in Osorno, we headed to the coast -- upon reaching the dock at the little town, I asked a random old man for any good restaurants in the town. It was very exciting when he suggested the little seafood place right next to where we were overlooking the bay, which was run by his son and his son's wife. And the food was absolutely amazing. Although there was a bit of a communication issue when the lady kept saying what we were eating was called "loco". The only thing "loco" means to me in Spanish is "crazy"... not a type of animal. The word wasn't in the Spanish dictionary, either, so I just ate it - and it was delicious. Very fresh. And after returning home, I found out that loco is a type of Chilean abalone.


Once we were done with dinner, we realized that we wouldn't be able to make it back to the border with Argentina before it closed. In this area of Patagonia, there are a ton of little cabanas along the road, so we stopped into a few to ask about vacancies. We finally found one that was available for the night, and we stayed in a very cute cabana with two bedrooms for $25/night.



We headed back to Argentina the next morning. Deciding to see as much of Argentina as possible, we took a different route back to Buenos Aires, through Trelew and Puerto Madryn. The part of Argentina we drove through was breathtaking - basically like driving through a version of the Grand Canyon due to its vastness, just less deep.


I've never driven so much in a short period of time as this trip. For some reason I have the ability to not fall asleep while driving, even taking the "graveyard" shift... so I was always driving from around 2-5AM. Our rental car was very interesting... and not in a good way. It had no airbags, and it made this incredibly annoying high-pitched whining sound all the time. I'm fairly certain that I can no longer hear noises at that pitch, but I guess I had to have some kind of memorable "battle wound" from such an adventurous trip. After driving for about 24 hours straight (switching off with Michael), our trip ended with an exhausted half day in Buenos Aires before my flight back home.

Yum, pera.
There is a pear soda you can buy in Argentina that is absolutely refreshing and delicious. I really wish they sold it in the U.S. -- it's called Aquarius Pera. Argentinians definitely love to eat meat -- so I'm not so sure it would be an easy fit for vegetarians. The highlights of most menus were red meats -- beef and lamb, especially. The food is delicious, though. Argentinian wine is very good, and it's very cheap when you buy it locally.





As you drive along the roads, there are a bunch of little shrines along the side with little statues like this one. Our Argentinian friend at the border explained that some of these are just for prayer, but many of them are set up in remembrance of someone who has died at that location from a car accident.

I think the thing I love most about Patagonia is that it seems somewhat untouched. There are very few tourists (especially during the winter, when we were there). It just has this feeling like it is unexplored. Even though we were foreigners and rode into some poverty-stricken areas of towns at 2AM, we never had any dangerous experiences. Everyone I asked for help went out of their way to do so -- like the police officers who let us follow them to where we were staying in Esquel, or the shopkeeper in Cholila who patiently waited for me to ask him the same question over and over in Spanish and then repeat what he said back to him to make sure I understood.


If you're looking for a location where you can learn about a completely different culture, meet incredibly friendly and patient people who won't get frustrated with your limited Spanish abilities, and spent an ample amount of time in a country where you can really get your money's worth, Argentina is the place to go. Some of the meals I had would have been 2-3x as expensive back home. Buenos Aires has the feel of a European city without the price. The Argentinian countryside is amazing and incredibly remote. I've never seen as many stars in the sky at once as when I was there. I saw sunsets with colors that do not have a name.

A selection of more from our thousands of pictures from this trip, and some from Buenos Aires, are available here.

Monday, July 11

SUP.

A month or so ago, I found a great deal on BuyWithMe for a standup paddleboarding (SUP) tour for two for $63. Michael and I redeemed the coupon on Saturday. SUPs are basically like large surfboards that you can stand up and paddle on. You can always sit on it and paddle too, if you're tired of standing.

We drove out to Chesapeake Beach, MD for a very early 7:30AM tour... and it takes an hour to get there.


View Chesapeake Beach, MD in a larger map


We arrived at the marina, and Camille met us there to start the tour -- just us and the tour guide! We paddled around the marina and down a little river for a while to get used to the feel of the paddle boards. The scenery was beautiful, with egrets and blue herons. Apparently the early morning tour was so highly recommended to me because of all the wildlife to see at that time of the day. It was quite warm, but the breeze coming off the ocean kept us cool.



Once we had fully acclimated to using the paddle boards, we paddled out to the bay. The movement of the water took a bit of getting used to, but it's a lot of fun. We got to go pretty far out in the bay and got a great view of the coastline. We finished up the tour by paddling up to a beach, and Camille had a wonderful breakfast prepared for us as part of the package. I definitely want to try SUPing again.


Apparently Chesapeake Beach used to be a very popular vacation destination for DC-ers, but the railroad that used to connect it with D.C. no longer runs. There's actually only one hotel in the area which burnt down around the time the railroad stopped running (it's rebuilt now), so that didn't help either. I would really consider this to be a great little getaway from the D.C. area -- it's relatively close, has a great beach, and is a very cute, quiet little town. Plus, you can try SUPing and kiteboarding through YK Kiteboarding.

Thursday, June 30

National Arboretum

It's strange to think that you can live practically right next door to something of great historical importance, and end up not seeing it for the years that you are there. While others may visit it from around the country, or around the world, someone living so close by just never goes to appreciate it.

I am one of those people.

I had a bunch of family in town this weekend, and we were looking for something to do that didn't involve a museum. So we ended up going to the National Arboretum. I seriously had no idea that this place even existed, but it has some fascinating artifacts/collections.

-The original columns and stairs from the Capitol building, which Abraham Lincoln stood on!


-The best collection of bonsai outside of Japan - some of them are more than 100 years old.

-A lemon tree with the biggest lemons I have ever seen.

-Very hungry koi fish that you can feed.

-Lots of other things that I didn't have time to check out, like the National Grove of State Trees, the trolley that takes you around to all the different areas, and the azalea gardens.

Another great part about it: it's dog friendly! And I really like being able to take my dog places.

Wednesday, June 22

This American Life

If you've never listened to This American Life, there are a lot of amazing and powerful stories that you're missing out on. You can listen to all of their past episodes for free on the website, or put them on your ipod. What I like so much about this program is that I feel like I am getting something important and interesting out of it every time I listen. Some stories teach about important topics (like detailed explanations of what exactly caused the financial crisis), and others spark a lot of emotion from hearing about someone's story. Although I haven't had the chance to listen to all of the series (some of the recordings go all the way back to 1995), there are a few that I have heard that stick out vividly as the most compelling:

Stories about people who have the right to remain silent... but choose not to exercise that right—including police officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who secretly recorded his supervisors telling officers to manipulate crime statistics and make illegal arrests.

A kidnapping victim in Colombia spends his nights listening to a radio station that plays messages from the families of the kidnapped. That and other stories of people held captive—by criminals, by paperwork, and in one man's case, his own body—and the ways they try to cope. 

Five reporters stumbled on what seems like a basic question: What is money? The unsettling answer they found: Money is fiction. 

Stories about people who take the bait, and those who place it. Including the story of man who tries to investigate a neighborhood crime and ends up in jail himself. And the story of the pitfalls of luring customers to a make-believe pizza delivery place.