mad world.

A while ago, a friend of mine posted this little vid. It's one of those short ones that you kind of think about afterwards for a long time. It's a good one. Watch it if you'd like. Or don't. Either way.

In other news, I've been on a serious jazz/jazz-influenced music kick lately. It's all I study to nowadays, and I seem to be doing a lot of studying. No worries, I still break out the Lord of the Rings soundtrack if the homework's really intense. Intense as in the-paper-must-be-finished-TONIGHT!! kind of intense. Forth Eorlingas!! It sounds a lot more epic than it looks, trust me.

some other neat things to do in minneapolis.

Minneapolis is a pretty neat place. If you should ever get the chance to go there, you should definitely do/experience some of these things. This is just a continuation of the other Minneapolis post that was on here somewhere.

Note: I realized that most of these have something to do with food. Conclusion: I ate a lot in Minneapolis. Fact: I eat a lot every day of my life.

11) Go to A-Z pizza. It's a farm in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin that just happens to have a hopping pizza kitchen as well. They grow all their own ingredients, and have lots of really beautiful acreage. And the pizza is delish.

12) Zip around some cornfields in an old red convertible.

13) Get breakfast at Al's. It's a little dinky place in dinkytown with a row of stools at the counter, a really long line, and some of the best pancakes I've ever had. Classic.

14) Get seafood at Stella's. They have really great rooftop seating to boot.

15) Go to the Harbor View Cafe in Pepin, Wisconsin. They have amazing food. AMAZING. Not to mention it's in Pepin, which is not only beautiful, but is also the birthplace of Laura Ingalls. You know, the Little House on the Prairie books? Please tell me I'm not the only one who read those books. Man, I loved those books when I was little. I even had a pioneer Laura Ingalls dress, I kid you not. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you definitely missed out. To be completely fair though, I was a funny kid, and I mean the kind of funny that would be totally into things like books about Laura Ingalls.

Pepin Lake

Harbor View Cafe.

16) Hike the bluffs in Wisconsin. I don't remember where they were, but they were gorgeous!

17) Some other great restaurant's: Annie's, Potbelly's, Loring's Pasta Bar, Psycho Suzie's, Chino Latino, Cafe Latte (amazing dessert).

18) Go to the Jazz Festival!! This is INCREDIBLE if you like jazz. And if you don't like jazz, it's still pretty cool. I got to see The Bad Plus, and they were INSANE. Plus, it's free.

The Bad Plus

19) Go to the Canterbury horse races. It's especially great if you go when all the food trucks are there. I got a Korean bbq burrito and it was worth every penny.

20) Go to the Farmer's Market early on a Saturday morning! I wish I could have gone more often. Lots of flowers, good food, and fresh produce.

21) Check out the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I was actually so impressed with their art collection.

22) Experience the Midwest Tomato Festival. It culminates in a large tomato fight, which is actually pretty fun despite being a little crazy.

my roommate and i post-tomato fight.

23) Go kayaking on the Rice Creek Chain of Lakes. Super beautiful and serene. Not too many people. A nice break from the city.

24) Go boating/tubing on one of Minnesota's many many big lakes. So much fun. My arms were sore for a couple days.

Everything else on this list is kind of specific to my personal experience. But hey, if you decide getting glasses in Minneapolis is the thing to do too, all the more power to ya.

25) Work related things that were kind of cool: I got to make butter and cheese on a bench-top scale. I also got to tour one of Land O'Lakes' plants in Spencer, WI which was interesting. I got lots of free butter and cheese. I love butter and I love cheese, so it was a win-win. Getting to the point here finally, I also got to work on a really cool and interesting project and present my results three different times (R&D, corporate, and Analytical).

being all science-y and stuff. 

26) Cool things I bought: new glasses, old books, a DSLR, an iPod, a real suit, and a massage. I do not regret a single one of those things.

27) Things you should avoid: car problems. I got my car towed three times while I was there. I replaced my engine and my battery. I also got cussed out for the first time for blocking traffic when my car died, which would have been kind of funny if I hadn't been so mad that my car had died again. You should also make sure you always know where you are as to avoid certain areas of Minneapolis. Every time I went running, I would see this tall building with multi-colored panels and I would always wonder what it was. I thought about running that direction one time to find out. Then I discovered that they were called the crack stacks, and that it would not be a good idea to go running in that direction. See what I mean?

Basically, if you're in Minneapolis, you should make some friends and go do stuff!

Me, Amanda, Brooklynne, Andi, and Kelly.

busy never felt so good.

I go to the library until midnight about 4 nights every week. That one night of the week I don't go is what usually reminds me of why I need to go the other four nights. 

Like right now. I have an overwhelming amount of homework to do and stuff to study that I'm behind on, and yet I'm scribbling on this blog. I think I tend to enter into a state of denial once it gets really bad. 

I'm living in the Spanish House right now. It was actually quite the adjustment at first. I don't think I was prepared for how big of a time commitment it is. I think my Spanish is definitely getting better though. Or at the very least, my Spanglish is. That's...bueno. Right? To be honest, the only-spanish-allowed-in-the-house rule really isn't too bad, although it probably helps that I have an awesome roommate who doesn't care that I tend to stop conjugating my verbs late at night. 

Anyways, getting back on track to what I really wanted to say. So living here means that every day, people ask me "Como estas?" 

And I always say, "Bien." (There's 22 people in the Spanish House, so that's a lot of "bien's.") 

Because I am. It's still good to be back, even though I feel busier than I ever have before. Every day is a busy day and every day is still a great day. Interesting, huh. That opinion might change after next week's midterms, but you know. Ride the wave while it lasts.

Well, here's me signing off and jumping back into trying to decide what I want to write my research proposal on. Here's to reading more papers on the effects of amylase on polyphenols in carbohydrates within a heating process. Here's to not falling asleep just yet.

Excuse me, what I'm really trying to say is here's a really really great song by a really really great band. 

Minneapolis is cool. Part 1.

Well, I spent the majority of my summer in Minneapolis, doing an internship and living the life. It was awesome. I lived in an old house with 11 other girls and it was actually pretty amazing, other than the mold in the bathroom and the ancient plumbing and the dishwasher that didn't work for the first couple of weeks.

My internship was for Land O'Lakes and I worked in their Research and Development department. I learned a huge amount and actually had quite a bit of fun. I couldn't have been put into a better group (I worked with SuperSpreads)--my coworkers were all really patient people who were more than willing to teach me how to do things and they were funny to boot. There was a group of LOL interns who had all relocated and we all became really good friends.

Lots of cool/new things happened. Here's a list of some of them, in no particular order. Some of them have pictures, others not so much. There's gonna be a couple of posts on the Twin Cities--mostly because they're just so great and there's just so much to do there.

1) Ate at Travail--it's a molecular gastronomy place that served us a 10 course gourmet meal. Delish.

one of the courses at Travail.

2) Indie band concert/album debut. I bet you've never heard of them. Haha, just kidding. We saw The Daredevil Christopher Wright, We Are the Willows, and Kalispell. It was actually a pretty cool concert.

3) Dave and Busters. It's an arcade. This is only significant because it was at Dave and Busters where I finally scored enough tickets to buy a giant stuffed finger that says Minnesota Gophers on it. And that is significant because about 99% of the time, I'm the girl who walks out of the arcade with an airhead and two tootsie rolls. In fact, my stuffed finger currently resides on my bed--that's how proud I am of it.

4) Running!! Minneapolis has tons of really great running trails and my roommate (Brooklynne) and I really got into that. My longest run there was 15 miles. I wanted to die, but that's a record for me!

Lake Calhoun--one of the lakes we ran around.

5) Lots of exploring dive-y lugares and finding new adventures in unexpected places. .

Karaoke.

6) Tried a Juicy Lucy. Minneapolis is famous for them. Basically, it's a cheese-stuffed hamburger. Plus, we tried them at The Nook, which supposedly has the best Juicy Lucys around and has been featured on the Food Network.

Juicy Lucy in hand.
with Amanda and Brooklynne.

7) Explored the Guthrie Theater!

the view from the yellow room.
that's stone arch bridge right there.

8) Volunteered at Feed My Starving Children--super cool experience.

9) Went to the Basilica Block Party--saw Matt Kearney, The Head and the Heart, Train, and Cake. The Head and the Heart--ohhhh my goodness, so good. Cake was also really great.

Def got rained on at the BBP.
so glad i was wearing a white shirt.

10) Fourth of July fireworks on the Stone Arch Bridge.

with Brooklynne and Amanda on the bridge,
before it got too crowded.

la playa, zanzibar.

Bienvenidos a Parte 2 de Zanzibar.

We got off the bus and walked out to this:

Just a little piece of paradise is all.

I spent the next two days reading lots of poetry on the beach. I also finished a memoir, did some napping, swimming, exploring. I went for a couple runs along the coastline--absolutely epic. We had such a cute little beach house. Sam and I walked into it while Jeff was bartering with the manager. We were both thinking, "I don't care how much it costs, we're staying here."

home sweet home. 

You don't know how beautiful that bed looked.
And that bathroom!! Increible.

We went snorkeling which was awesome until I kept getting stung by jellyfish. That part of it sucked. There's nothing quite so claustrophobic as being aware of a jellyfish stinging you and you can't get it off of you and your face is underwater and all of a sudden you feel like you're surrounded by jellyfish. Ugh. After that happened three or four times, I just got back on the boat.

The sunsets were some of the most gorgeous I've ever seen. Ever.

Things would get interesting at night. I was reading outside on the beach one night with my headlamp and some dude came up to me and asked if I was by myself. I said no, and pointed out Jeff who was up a little behind me. Jeff shined his flashlight at the both of us, and the man instantly told me he was a guard and was just there to make sure I was safe. Riiiiiight.

I decided to go inside and go to sleep when somebody walked right by the foot of my chair in the nude--I'm assuming to go skinny-dipping. I didn't realize that was what was going on at first, so I looked up and the headlamp showed said individual in all their glory. I looked around and realized that we were the only people outside and it was weird. So I resisted the urge to burst out laughing and calmly walked towards my hut instead.

These couple of days on the beach were awesome. I'm usually almost always extremely busy, and even if I'm not, I'm thinking about how I should be being busy. It's been a long time since I've been bored in a good way. I couldn't have done school or work even if I'd wanted to, so I didn't feel guilty in the slightest for being 0% productive. So I had nothing to do--and I'd take a nap because I felt like it. It was great. I was definitely ready to get back to work and being productive at the end of the stay, but having that time to just recharge was definitely needed.

Sean and Nick both peaced out a little before the rest of us due to their flights leaving earlier. Jeff, Sam, and I were all leaving the same day (May 31st), so we got to stay at the beach for a little longer. The day  before our flight, we went back to Stone Town for the night. I explored Stone Town a little bit more by myself, bought a souvenir, and other such things.

That night, we went to that one really good restaurant in Stone Town (its name I have forgotten) and got the hands-down best meal in Africa. A chicken cashew curry of some sort. It was ahhh-mazing.

deliciousness.

The next morning we took the ferry back to Dar to catch our flight and if you really want to know more about that, I wrote about it here.

And that finishes up Africa. Or at least, that's all I'm going to say about it on here, other than "Yes. T'was an adventure." EL FIN.

Stone Town, Zanzibar.

Well, this is me taking a shortcut. This is me finishing up my time in Africa through just posting a bunch of pictures that hold some pretty cool memories--and maybe explaining them a little bit. This is me cutting corners and hoping that it won't matter in the long run.

This is Part 1 on Zanzibar. Welcome to a little piece of paradise.

Pulling into Stone Town on the ferry.

We stayed in Stone Town for the first couple of days. Stone Town is awesome. It's full of windy alleyways (you WILL get lost--it's inevitable) and this cool cultural mix of all things African, Arabic, and European.

Wandering around. 

Chilling by the harbor. 

Stone Town

Old colonial palace that is now a museum.
Stunning views off the top floor balcony. 

Christian church. 

We watched part of a wedding that was going on inside this church. But don't let this Christian church fool you, the majority of the population is still Muslim. One of the speakers for the call to prayer was right above our hostel window, as we discovered when we were suddenly woken up at 5:00 in the morning. 

Dinner our first night in Stone Town.

After dinner, we ended up relaxing at our hostel for a little bit. Nick and I ended up going out later that night though to check out the night market. The night market was incredible--it was held right next to the harbor and had tons of cheap, delicious food. Lots of seafood, naan bread, crepes, falafels, "Zanzibari pizza," fresh fruit, shawarma, and more.

The night market.

We spent the second day we were in Zanzibar going on a Spice tour.

Coupla pics from the Spice Tour

After we were done seeing all the spices, they fed us a very African lunch that was actually quite delicious. We ate it on the ground of a little hut structure.

Then they showed us a beach. Before we got to the beach, they showed us an underground cavern that supposedly held slaves back in the day. It was a pretty dank place, full of muggy, damp air and weird bugs and slimy things. 

Then we walked to the beach. However, said beach had millions of jellyfish everywhere and we didn't even take our shoes off, let alone touch the water. 

pink jellyfish. 

Welp, folks, this is what dehydrated jellyfish look like...

After we got back to Stone Town, we rested for a little bit, and then we split up to go explore the city. Nick and I looked around the old fort (super awesome art museum in one of the tower garrets), toured the museum, and saw lots of really cool things.

We all met up once it got dark to eat dinner at the night market (good life decision) and then got smoothies at a really great restaurant. I have no idea what the restaurant's called anymore, but needless to say, it was also a very good life decision. 

zambian christianity.

Emmanuel is the pastor of one of the churches in Kasama, Zambia. He helps out with the charity as well, and he was a wonderful friend to have during our stay there.

We visited his church one Sunday. The Sunday school lesson came first. It was all about whether women should be permitted to wear pants. The general consensus was no, unless she had to for work or something. I sat there listening, and I couldn't stop thinking about how I was so so so grateful that my long skirt had been clean that morning and that that was what I was wearing at that moment. That could have been awkward.

The singing came next. The singing was awesome. It was all in Bemba, but the lady next to me had a hymnbook and I figured out pretty quick how the pronunciation worked for Bemba (it shares the same alphabet as English). So I clapped and swayed and sang and had no idea what I was singing, but all around, it was still pretty darn fun. The lady next to me was very impressed. Or that's what she told me anyways.

The sermon was in a mixture of Bemba and English. The lady next to me translated parts of it for me. The best part of that chunk of time wasn't even the sermon though. The young African woman next to me was holding a week-old baby in her arms. I could not stop looking at that baby. It had beautiful skin, a cute little pug nose, perfectly shaped cherub lips. It was maybe the most adorable baby I've ever seen (with the exception of my little seester, of course). And then when the woman stood up half-way through the sermon to chase down a little boy, she handed me her baby with a smile. I got to hold the baby through most of the sermon. It was one of the most heart-warming feelings I've ever felt. She was just such a helpless, innocent, beautiful piece of humanity--and I was cradling her in my arms.

After church, you shake hands with everybody. Everybody. It's just a long line of hand-shaking, and after you get done, you join the line and continue shaking hands with everybody who's behind you.

Geoffrey attends Emmanuel's church, and we got to meet his mother as well as his sweet fiancee. Both Geoffrey and his fiancee have wonderful voices and they had sung together during the service. Beautiful. It was so cool to get to meet his fiancee as Geoffrey talks about her all the time. He's currently saving up for her dowry (They really do use the cow system. I can't really remember, but I think he's paying five or six cows to his fiancee's family to marry her).

Our group (sans Nick) with Geoffrey's mother, Geoffrey's fiancee, and Geoffrey.

Later that week, Emmanuel had us over to his house for dinner. His wife and children ate in a separate room--definitely a reminder of the cultural difference. They prepared us a meal of some traditional dishes. Nick and Jeff had eaten at his place earlier in the month and told the rest of us that we got off easy (no ants or anything else that was too weird). We got a picture with him and his family.

el grupo con Emmanuel and his family.

Right before we left, Emmanuel talked to us for a little bit in which he thanked us for our service. He told us that he knew it was a sacrifice for us. He had spent some time in Germany, so he told us that he knew and understood what we were giving up to be there. 

It made me feel a little guilty, honestly. That he was thanking us for giving up modern conveniences for a month while he lived without them permanently. That he was so hospitable despite knowing how we really lived our lives. See, most Africans assume that we are richer, just because we are American. But they don't really know how we live. How does someone who has lived out in the bush for their entire life imagine a skyscraper,  a typical American middle-class kitchen, a computer game? They don't. But Emmanuel has seen it and so he knows. And it just felt so backwards for him to be thanking us. It seemed backwards for his family to be serving us dinner, to see that customary smile break across his face and across the faces of his children. 

I've learned perhaps more than ever that international development is such a complicated issue. That there is much to be done. But I've also learned that it's possible to be miserable in almost any situation, rich or poor. It's also possible to be happy. 

Chishimba Falls

On one of our last days in Zambia, we visited Chishimba Falls. It was BEAUTIFUL.

Before we drove to the falls, Tobias and Geoffrey stopped at the grocery store--they were going to give us a real African BBQ experience.

When we finally there, I hadn't been planning on going to see the actual falls (lame, I know) as I was running quite low on cash and I still had a week to go in Zanzibar. However, when the head honchos decided to let me pay the significantly cheaper "Zambian" entry price, I ended up getting to see them after all.

For that singular achievement, Geoffrey ended up giving me a Bemba name--Mutale.

first set of falls.

one of the sets of rapids. 

pathway to the second set of falls.

second set of falls. i could have stayed right here for ages and ages. 

I was really glad I got the chance to see the falls. I guess if I hadn't, I wouldn't have known what I was missing really though. It's sad, but honestly, pictures just don't do things like that justice.

While Sam, Sean, and I were out exploring the falls (Nick and Jeff had seen them earlier before the rest of us had gotten to Zambia), Tobias and Geoffrey were busy grilling a chicken and some strips of beef.

eating lunch.
Tobias is the one on the left and Geoffrey is the one on the right. 

We ate the food, burning our fingers and all that jazz. It was good--as long as you got the meat that was fully cooked. I'm a slightly paranoid American, so I was little wary of anything that looked even slightly pink.

It was a good way to start finishing up our stay in Zambia. Tobias and Geoffrey are seriously awesome people and great employees of the charity, and it was fun to just hang out with them and the rest of the group.

a sea of children.

I think this was the last school we visited in Zambia that was out in the bush. It was probably one of my favorite schools. I have no idea what is called anymore--oops. I guess that's what I get for never writing in a journal and waiting three months to write about it.

The charity we worked with sponsored teachers to come all the way out here and teach. It was just so cool to see these kids learning and smiling and laughing. Their happiness is just infectious.

A sea of adorable children!

SO MANY HAPPY KIDS.

These children are just adorable. They don't speak much, if any, English, but they will still smile at you and shout "MZUNGU! MZUNGU!"

Sometimes they're really shy and they won't make eye contact. Other times they'll just slip up behind you and put their hand in yours. They'll follow you around and if you smile at them, they'll shout and laugh before running away.

Sean brought a couple bags of candy with us from the States and we handed it out to them once they were seated back in a classroom. They sang songs for us--there were so many of them and they all sang so loudly that it was almost painful.

Sitting in class. 

Lots of happy kids with their "sweets."

I honestly think that is one of my favorite memories in Africa. Listening to those children sing.