depo! depo!

a lot of people have raised their eyebrows when i mention that i drove to cape cod by way of atlanta. seems a bit out of the way, but really, as a close stopping point full of family and good food there was no reason to pass it up.
plus i got to go to "The World's Largest and Most Engaging Aquarium!"

and boy were we engaged, the time flew by a little too fast. also i don't know how much i even learned to be honest. mostly it was just fun to watch all the fish swim. i did learn that rays are my new favorite sea creature, they just move in such a fun way. though this lil spiny guy was also hilarious. Natalie's favorite:
the moon jellies were also pretty fun to watch, since the tank changed the color of the light so they changed through the whole rainbow. they were right across from the jellyfish, and i encountered one of the most annoying museum workers i have ever seen. this man was right in front of the jelly tank the entire time that we were there (at least 3 hours) and he stood right in front and tried to direct people on how to take the best picture. which i admit is sort of nice. but then he would show off his pictures and keep repeating the same thing over and over (and over) again. to the point where i almost snapped at him "I know how to take a picture buster!" and i am not really ever a snappy person.
when the Georgia Aquarium advertised as being the largest i was a bit skeptical, and then when we walked into this huge entry way i thought maybe they were cheater-pants who built a HUGE building for their teeny tiny fish. but then we got to this tank
this is just a weeeee part of it. this tank held 3 whale sharks for goodness-sake! plus a bunch of rays, and one big ol' manta ray! it was not as cute as the others though, and looked like it had crazy fangs. speaking of crazy looking: cuttlefish. hearing it i think i always thought they would be cuddly. but no, these guys are hilarious, luckily we got there just as they were finishing up the feeding so most of them were swimming all about and being crazy. though the one lil guy that was full was showing off his camouflaging technique. though a nearby museum patron told her daughter that it was sick, obviously since it was pale and on the ground. emily pointed out it was camouflaged and pointed to a darker one in a shadow to prove it. i read the sign and affirmed that it was one of the 2 things mentioned about these fish. the woman just told her daughter they would hope it got better and walked away.
ITS DORIE!!!!!
watching these tropical fish just made me miss the finding nemo fruit snacks... i actually found an old wrapper in my stuff while packing and started craving them!
overall the museum was awesome and we ended the day with some more fishy activities.

on the road again

the time has come for me to once again begin a journey eastward. it is almost 5pm, and i am hoping to leave my house in 14 hours, so it makes sense that my room looks like this:


and actually, that is only a part of it, and doesn't look too bad. you can atleast see some of the floor there....
well i am going to get back to packing.
but based on the following facts:
- i am starting this trip with a post
- i am traveling with emc
- i don't start work for another month
THERE WILL BE MORE POSTS SOON. hopefully full of beautiful pictures and hilarious stories. unlike this post which had neither of those things.
oh, i'll make it better:

p-town throwdown

every spring nature's classroom invades provincetown - i had been hearing about "the throwdown" since i first got to nc. i had been to provincetown before, with ruth, zoe and pete. for an afternoon of walking and poking our heads into shops. i wasn't quite prepared for the debauchery of spending and evening drinking, buying drinks for strangers or enjoying drag queen karaoke!
and what better cure for a hangover than a boat ride...
i wasn't too hungover, and since i've never been motion sick before i wasn't surprised when there was no sea sickness!


a whole group of nature's classroom teachers set out on the boat. a few had been on whale watches before, but it was my first. in fact its the first open sea boat journey that i've ever been on.





and as you can tell not only where the whales so close to the boat, but they are pretty awesome too.


the boat basically took us to an ocean preserve, which sounds sort of odd, but it makes sense. shipping boats cannot use the area, which helps protect the animals that live there. on the way back to solid land a few people took naps.

scranton-icity

so while i have driven east many a times, and through Pennsylvania before, i had never been this close to Scranton! and as they say there "ain't no party like a scranton party". so i felt like i had to make a little detour. mostly i drove around for a bit. i did get out of my car to take some pictures. but there was no Dunder Mifflin around.
oh well!

my bags are packed...

well almost everything is back to being packed up! just like it was over two months ago when i headed back east the first time this year. except since i am now taking the first leg of my journey by plane, it is a little different. i have 2 pieces of luggage to check, 4 boxes to have my mom send, and my backpack- full of laptop, books, extra clothes & 3 cameras.

tomorrow is technically already here, and boy do i have a LOOONG journey in front of me.
1) flight to columbus ohio.
2) somehow get myself and all luggage downtown to find the greyhound bus station
3) take bus ride to mansfield ohio.
4) get ride to pro auto body
5) make sure the 9,000+$ being spent on fixing the car worked out
6) drive to cleveland

and from there i still have a 10 hour drive to ivoryton!

but after that i'll be out of this weird limbo that i've been in, and life will resume.
though many trips across this half of the country are pretty normal nowadays.
all i'm hoping for is to be able to have some more 'travel'like adventures on the wast coast, and continue this life of mine.

more like sliding

well its been over a year since i've posted, and i've traveled to some of the same american cities as before, and stopped in a few new places. i've definitely kept on the move.

that (and the fact that since i got julio one and half years ago i've put 20,000 miles on him) has led me to reboot this sucker. though sort of in secret since who knows who reads this, or knows about this or what not.

my plan (and please, someone hold me to it!) is to update with new travel stories:
the places, the people, the candy

as well as update and fill in the gaps (israel, spring breaks, hiking trips)
because lots of ridiculous things have happened to me, and continue to happen. and in my old age (22!) my memory has begun to fail me sometimes. so this "trip" down memory lane will hopefully help me and entertain you.

and the new posts may just clue you in on where i am and what is going on with me!

masada....because you gotta

we woke up bright and early to get out of jerusalem and on with our journey. though it wasn't too bright yet. in fact while waiting on the bus for late people (they hadn't been woken up, eeep!) i got to see the sunrise out the back window. and this bus ride was pretty unfortunate; in general - because of people being sick and missing things, and having 8 israeli soliders with us, suddenly there were no longer ANY extra seats. i had been the middlest person on the bus, so i ended up grabbing the last 'window' seat (so i would have a place to lean) but it was the back left corner. so there wasn't actually a window, and there wasn't really any leg room so i ended up feeling pretty squished and not able to sleep. but any uncomfortableness i went through this morning was NOTHING compared to this afternoon.

anyways, so we drove into the desert, i was trying my best to look out the window and see everything i could, but when we got off the bus, it was incredible. just a breathtaking view, some palm trees, the dead sea, the dessert, other mountains and masada. our favorite and best 'tourguide' Michael was back and so we did another circle of name, place & something special (the two i'd used in prior circles were my hives and my love of raw garlic) and so i informed everyone about my preparedness for the day (snacks, chocolate-covered espresso beans & sunscreen).

i failed to mention the other 25 pounds worth of unknown stuff in my bag, or even to realize how bogged down i'd be eventually, but at this moment it was fine. but not for long, about halfway up the mountain i started getting tired, and i'm out of shape - but not that bad! and then about 2/3rds of the way danny grabbed my bag, gasped at the weight and proceeded to laugh at me for being such a fool. Babs had even offered to switch bags earlier and i refused. so i continued my madness and made it up the whole thing, i was practically the last person up. but it was good practice for the big hike the next day!

at the top of masada we got a mini-lecture from Michael, and i'll be honest i had heard the word 'masada' before, but i knew pretty much nothing. this just made all the information new, though also a bit over my head. someday when i'm a scholar of Masada i'll tell you everything, but that day is not today.

we went over to the southern cistern (we actually did a lot of cisterning while in israel) and it was pretty incredible. besides the amazing beauty of the place, we happened to be there at the right time for the sun to be streaming in thru the holes in the top, and it cast an awe-some light. all the better for Tamar and Mati to put on a hilarious fake meeting between King Herod and Eleazar ben Simon ( i think? someone correct me if i'm wrong!). either way, it was an informative but mostly funny argument.

then dave taught us all about pigeons and doves and dovecoats. we also got to see the ramp that the Romans had built up to the side of the mountain in their eventually winning attempt to topple the jews there/here. and seeing the ruins of roman camps is just kind of insane, especially for an ex-latin student, i know way too much about the romans. this was also the first day of Michael pimping ol' Josephus and his book the Jewish Wars (which is on my reading list now). apparently he is the only source for a lot of jewish history. going anywhere with Michael was like having a history book with us, he would tell us story after story about things that had happened to the jews, and you all know how i love history classes, it was pretty much sitting in an amazing place and hearing the stories about what had happened there, exactly where we were, but thousands of years before.

then after some free time to walk around, we all met back up, and recieved an amazing performance.