West coast update from the east coast: celebrate the holidays

As promised, I have another massive update. This will take you right up until I left for Pennsylvania.

We had a big, pre-Thanksgiving party to get a bunch of people together who are not locals. Many were our age and work at Dreyer's with Jeff. It was potluck so we took care of the turkey. Jeff didn't want to grab the insides so I saved the day!


For actual Thanksgiving, I took a flight over to Kentucky to see Marc. I hung out in the studio while he worked, we made Thanksgiving dinner, and at the end of the week, we hung out in Nashville, TN.

I LOVE playing Guitar Hero!!!
Downtown Nashville.
I can't get Yuengling in California.
Flight back to CA: The space between the clouds.

At the beginning of December, we took another trip to Las Vegas. We stayed right on the strip at the Flamingo and had a great weekend. We were also able to go to the Bodies exhibit which was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. When we returned, we decided to get a Christmas tree for the apartment. That was fun getting it up the stairs.

Penn State Christmas tree!!

I finished up my last week of school by giving finals for three days. We had shortened days and I was able to leave Friday night (Dec. 21st) on a direct, red-eye flight from LA to Philly. Now I'm just taking it easy and trying to relax before I have to begin the 2nd semester! Hope the holidays are treating everyone well, and all are in good health. My new year's resolution is to update this blog more often, even if it's just a blurb. If you are someone who reads this, please know I do appreciate the little notes you leave me. Knowing that people care to read about my adventures helps motivate me to keep doing this. Happy new year everyone!!

- Carol

West coast update from the east coast: San Diego trips

Hello everyone!

First let me apologize for my lack of updates the past two months. I've been well but extremely busy, as I'm sure you can understand. I flew back into PA last Saturday (the 22nd) and have been trying to see as many people as possible while I'm here. I am here for another week yet (the 5th), so I still have some time.

Before I left, I saved my life in photos from the past two months so I could share when I had a moment to sit. Well, now is that moment! As usual, all photos are taken by me, unless otherwise noted. I borrowed a couple from my roommate, Lindsey, when my camera was on the fritz. Enjoy!

At the end of October, Lindsey and I took a visit to San Diego. It was my first time there and the massive forest fires were still going on. A lot of people told us we were nuts to go down at that time but we had no problems. Here are a couple shots from that weekend... the first two are mine, the rest were taken by Lindsey:
Click on the picture above to make it larger. Note the writing and the reflection. The man in the wheelchair has one leg. This was not planned.
Above is Pyramid Lake which is on I 5 on the way back to Bakersfield from San Diego. It is a man-made recreation spot.

I took this photo at 7am when I came into school on October 29th.

These are some of my students working on a Poe project.

We took another visit to San Diego on the weekend of November 10th. My camera decided to cooperate this time around.

The following are photos of our ride back on the 101... also known as the Pacific Coast Highway. We took the train up the coast. Very cool.

Here is a video I took with my camera of Turkey playing with his slinky. Sorry for the poor quality. I knew he would stop if I turned on the bigger light.



Hope you enjoyed this long awaited update. I'll do another round tomorrow. :)

bike ride

I went on a bike ride today. I was out for about 2 hours. I biked all the way from my apartment down to the Kern River Parkway. I had to do some street biking to get there and it made me nervous because people drive like jerks around here. I used the marked bike paths, I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was going to get picked off by a Ford. After my near death experience, I followed a bunch of paths and found a sweet place called The Park at River Walk. I didn't bring my regular camera, but I had my cell phone. Here are some pictures I took:

This is the Brighthouse Amphitheater. I hope they have shows here soon. I think that would be super fun to go to. It reminds me of one of the plotzs they had for Musikfest, where the seats were cut into the hill. This one is just more modernized... Sometimes I forget about the governator.I like this view. There is a lot of pollution so it is hard to see the mountains, but I promise they're there! Funny how this is the third valley I've lived in. Most homes are ranch and are veryclose together. These little guys are everywhere. And where they're not, well, it's very brown. I would love to see a map of the irrigation system throughout the city. I bet it is insane.

Hope you enjoyed my biking pictures. Jeff estimated that I pedaled about 12 miles today. I will be paying for it tomorrow I'm sure.

- Carol

Photog

Buenos tardes mi familia y amigos!

A lot has been going on with me out here, hence the lack of regular updates. Fortunately, I have been taking lots of pictures, so this post will be primarily pictures, with some explanations. It is in chronological order.

<----Turkey the Hut.

If you haven't guessed, Turkey and I have random photo sessions. It's really hard not to with something so adorable.




This is what he does when he wants to be pet on the head.













Hahahaha. Ignore the white fluffs coming out of his 'tocks. He was at the end of a molt and that is just old fur. It's still a funny picture!

The first week of October was "Frontier Days" at school. Think homecoming, but for a brand new school - we don't have rivals yet! I have some great shots of students dressing up for the special days throughout the week, but I don't want to post them online. The picture below is Lindsey and I from the final day of the week, spirit day.

These are from our rally at the end of the day.

How many freshman can fit in the red bug? How many sophomores can fit in the white bug?
The freshman won with 17 people. My thoughts on this challenge: "Fun? Yes. Safe? No, what a horrible idea." I will end the rally pictures with a touching moment... Go Titans!





This next batch of pictures are from last Sunday. Jeff, Lindsey, another friend Kyle, and I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain. I haven't been to an amusement park for a couple years and we had a lot of fun!

We found an alum at Magic Mountain! As we sat down to our $8 bag of popcorn and $3.50 bottles of water, I noticed "Forever Penn State" on the back of another park-goer. I pointed it out and the four of us, being crazy Penn Staters, yell "WE ARE!!" Nice guy. Small world.

Who sleeps at an amusement park?? Oh yeah. This guy.

Kyle needs to pull up his pants. He also needs to look like he's not about to rob the Wendy's.I went to our pool on Tuesday the 9th. I know I haven't posted pictures of the apartment, but these can give you an idea of what the buildings look like. When I first got here the word that came to mind was "resort."
Each building has 8 apartments. One side has entrances A-D, and the opposite side has E-H. You can see the way 2nd floor balconies are set up. I like it. On a related note, the grass absolutely sucks.
This is my new bike. I ordered it two weeks ago and it finally came in. Good things come to those who wait: I got a free kickstand and water bottle + cage! It's a Trek Navigator 3.0. This is what they call a hybrid bike because it's good for road use and trail riding. I'm excited to scoot around the city with it. Hopefully Jeff gets his bike soon so we can check out national park paths.