Wordless Wednesday

Ban-i-Amir, Afghanistan's first national park

barbeque season!?

That's what I thought when I checked my blog list this last week and saw "barbeque season" in one of the headings. I quickly realized this was from an Australian food blog I read, and it is almost BBQ season (summer) for them. Still, it inspired me to make a BBQ tofu pizza for dinner last night.

Yesterday, I escaped the football madness in Lawrence (as I do most home game days in the fall) and went to Kansas City. I stopped by City Market for produce and listened to a cowboy sing that was reminiscent of a drive through the Grand Canyon this summer where my mom and I bought a CD titled "Cowboy Songs" (at this point in the drive, my mother had resorted to trying her hand at Tuvan throat singing, which the acoustics of an enclosed vehicle are simply not good for, even if you know what you're doing).

For a study break today, I went to sit at the lake to enjoy the weather, and the insects.

The sludgy mud doesn't have quite the same effect as the beach, but the water was surprisingly warm!

On the upside, there were plenty of butterflies out.

the weekend

This weekend was the Oceanbeach Street Fair & Chili Cookoff. I only participated in the street fair aspect of it because I do not enjoy chili one bit. It was incredibly crowded and it took me 1.5 hours to go the 10 miles from my house to the beach on the trolley and bus. Oceanbeach is known as the "seediest" beach in San Diego. I completely agree, although they've also got a great farmer's market and this festival wasn't so bad either. (As long as you don't walk under the pier, you'll be okay.) It's also one of the more popular surfing spots.

I spent most of my time scoping out surfboards in stores and on the water.

I've made it my mission to find or make a wind chime while I'm in California. There's a store in Old Town that is full of every kind you can imagine:

I happen to think this is pretty great too, though I'm not sure what it would sound like:

At the place I am housesitting this week, there is a giant wind chime made from three-inch-thick cast iron I-beams. Of course with it being so heavy and the lack of anything other than a little breeze, I never heard it and didn't know it was there until I saw it today. I tried it out and it sounds great, and would be perfectly suited for the Kansas winds!

I spent a lot of time in the garden today, pulling weeds and doing turtle inventory. There should be four, I believe. I only found three, and one was lodged between a plant pot and a brick. I thought he had gotten stuck there and died, but he was sleeping apparently, as I found out after tickling his foot.

In the evening, I cooked some miso soup and baked some honey almond cakes, recipe courtesy of my sister. I found these adorable cupcake liners at Ikea for only $1, but while baking there was no cupcake tin to be found, hence the puzzle-piece blob cakes.

                                                          Still, my roommates seemed to like them!

sea lions & a sunset

sea lions

  a lovely evening at La Jolla

Happy World Oceans Day!

Today I found out that the hordes of adorable sea lions around here are actually considered a problem for boaters. I was so excited to see wild sea lions when I first got here, and I was unaware how many there are along the coast of San Diego, but it's their migrating season now.

Apparently, not only do they enjoy the rocky cliffs along the water, they also enjoy relaxing on boats.

That orange construction netting is suppose to keep them off and the larger male sea lions can weigh about 600 pounds, so it's easy to see how they can damage the boats. The city has people working to move them by using water hoses and nudging them off with long poles, but I read about how they will slide off when they hear people coming and just wait under the boat until they leave!

good morning!

today's venture: a hill-mountain hike

The highest point in San Diego is named Cowles Mountain, after a rancher who lived in the area in the 1800s. It's only about 1500 ft high, but you can see a fantastic 360-degree view from the top. The west side of it is a rock cliff, a former sea cliff actually, from thousands of years ago.

This is not the west side (the west side would be the ocean, not more mountains), but it is a rock cliff.

 I made two trips up today. The first to scope it out, and the second to see how long it takes. It's only a few miles from my house, so I plan on making it a regular part of my day (running around here has not been so successful with all the traffic and people in general). 

The protected area it's in is very dry and desert-like with no trees, and the trailhead signage tells me that this is what southern California is naturally. No palm trees and pretty flowers! Just lots of dry dust.

It was all steep switchbacks toward the top and with runners (and stumblers) flying down and around the corners on their return, I was sure I was going to get knocked off the trail into the prickly scrub brush. I've never seen so many people fall down on a trail before either, but dust-covered rocks make for a slick descent.

we're on our way!

My dad and I have passed through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and
most of New Mexico so far on our drive to San Diego. It was a long drive today, and we have the same thing on the agenda for tomorrow.

The only thing I have to say is that eastern Kansas looks like a rainforest compared to Oklahoma and Texas and a lot of New Mexico. There's not much green around here! Only brown grass and dust, and no trees-- only super-sized shrubs. In some areas, it looks like it never recovered from the Dust Bowl.
Either that, or it's starting all over again.

 

Needless to say, a lot of our drive was quite boring.  That is until we got to Albuquerque and saw some hill-mountains.

Now we are at a hotel in Grants, New Mexico. It's a small place, where the Subway closes at 8:30 (literally as we were walking to the door), and the only other two choices for dinner are Asian Super Buffet and Taco Bell. Well, I just finished my chalupa, and I've decided I'd like to go swimming, so that's all for now!

farm party!

Ah, the end of the semester. Only a week left of classes, but I'm already finished with work-- at least work in the classroom. The students take their proficiency test tomorrow, so I'll spend my Saturday morning as a proctor in the silent monotony that is that final test. Today, however, was our Level 1 party, and what a wonderful day it was! We went to the family farm of one of our teacher's and spent the afternoon outside enjoying the perfect weather. We also do "awards" at the end of the semester for students, teachers, and student assistants (like me). Mine was "Best at Paying Attention to Students". Earlier this morning, we taught a few students the song "Down By The Bay" and so did a performance for everyone, which included our own lyrics. It was quite fun!

We played frisbee!

We roasted marshmallows! (And you should have seen the look on one student's face after I scooped up my half-burned marshmallow after it had fallen off into the fire and ate it)

Some people played soccer. (And you can see what one teacher described: "the monk has monk shorts")

What a fantastic group!

the snowpocolypse

What a fantastic blizzard that was! Still, it did not seem nearly as bad as they made it out to be. I suppose other areas may have gotten it worse. It seems like this winter we haven't been able to get a break between the melting of snow and the coming of even more. Here's a great satellite photo taken by NASA of yesterday's storm:

NASA images 

At work on Monday (with international students whose home countries include quite a range of environments), we had to make sure the students understood just how much snow there could possibly be. Of course the five students from Tibet (a.k.a. the Land of Snows) seemed unfazed, whereas some of the others were in disbelief. At times I wonder if some of these students have any idea what Kansas is really like before they come here. We had to warn them of the wind chill, and frostbite, and what shoes to wear, good socks, etc. I hope they all came out of it alright.

After shoveling the snow in front of the house this morning, I went on a much-needed snow hike, about 6 miles, which felt wonderful after being shut in all day yesterday. It's too bad I don't have cross country skis, because the fields would have been perfect for it! As it was though, the drifts made it somewhat difficult to discern deep and shallow snow. It wasn't uncomfortably cold though, and everything sure was beautiful!