BERMUDA: Ferry Reach aka Fairy Reach and Hamliton

SUNDAY

Sunday Lama and I were up bright and early to meet her friend for a 9 mile run.  Casual.  His name is Tiago, which I remember by thinking of the parrot from Aladdin.  It was beautiful weather for a run, and they ran at a nice pace.  So I chugged along to keep up.  It was fun to talk to him about his impression of Bermuda and it was a lovely route.  

Highlights: Lama walking into a random gas station to ask for water & going into the ocean to cool off but actually ice my knees cause the water is frigid and not really warm. At all.  

Then we ran off to church-love a little palm sunday Jesus.  After zipping back to casadelama, we met up with a big group of her friends for SUNDAY-FUNDAY! We bagged the original nature walk, and instead decided to go to Ferry Reach (which I thought was Fairy Reach... I find the difference in names to be a let down). But before our hike, a drink was clearly required.  We headed over to the Swizzle Inn for Swizzles--the motto is “Swizzle Inn... Swagger out.”  A Swizzle is, of course, a Bermudian classic featuring Rum and various juices including pineapple and orange.  They’re deceptively strong. 

 Ferry Reach was a lot of fun.  It rained essentially all day... not the tropical paradise I was anticipating.  However, umbrellas (borrowed) in tow we scampered all around Ferry Reach.  We saw some BIG clown fish and a man of war jelly fish.  Lama offered to pee on me if I got stung... what a kind friend.  Thankfully, that did NOT need to happen.  It was just simply a stunning hike, and I enjoyed the exploration!

MONDAY

Monday morning Lama and I headed into Hamilton, which is where she works.  I was given a tour of her building by her friend in the maintenance department. Checked out the CEO’s office, went on the decks, everywhere! It was really cool.  Then I was sent on my merry way to explore Hamilton.  Sofia gave me some directives as to what I MUST visit (ex: museums in

the town hall) but mostly I just checked things out.  I walked through Par la Ville Park, which some website told me was a must see, but turned out only to be a pleasant park.  Nothing special... expect that there were chickens just... cruising around.  No one else thought that was weird.  Lama got off of work at noon, and that’s when we really got to work.  

That afternoon we: went to Fort St. Hamilton, climbed to the top of the church tower, went the the aquarium/zoo, went to Sofia’s favorite spot of the island (which is this massive tunnel/archway), and went to an arboretum.  We saw so much but were really goofy during the whole time.  Like... I climbed all over a cannon... and climbed on top of a wall, and looked ridiculous. Wait. It seems that Sofia tricked me into doing silly things while looking elegant and classy herself.  Suspicious.

Spring Break 2013: BERMUDA

This past April, I went to visit Sofia Bianca Lama in Bermuda.  It was my first legitimate spring break trip EVER (it only took 17 years of education), and I have to say it lived up to all my expectations.  Not only was Bermuda absolutely lovely, I had the best time hanging out with Lama.  She has built a wonderful life on the little island in the Atlantic and has many charming friends.  Lamski is also a superb host-- she made sure I saw all the sights, did everything I wanted to, and generally ensured I had a blast.  She is the BEST.  And possibly was a dictatorial tour guide in a former life.

A few background facts about Bermuda... none of which I knew before my SB13 trip.  First, it’s pretty far north and it isn’t in the Caribbean. It’s basically as far north as North Carolina... who knew.  Therefore... it isn’t nearly as tropical as you’d imagine.  I stubbornly insisted it

was going to be warm and packed accordingly--a mistake of course.  It wasn’t cold exactly, but it wasn’t shorts weather without the sun.  whoops. Second, the beaches are PINK.  Not hot pink but a soft, subtle pink.  If you pick up a handful of sand, you can see the pinkness, which comes from the coral and shells and stuff.  Also, it’s a British Colony. So a lot of people speak in accents and say ridiculous British things.  There’s also a Bermudian slang which I can’t imitate at ALL (probably because I can’t really understand what’s being said).  Lama’s pretty good at it though.  Aaand, many people don’t drive cars but ride mopeds, scooters and motorcycles instead... and insist upon calling them bikes. Sidebar-this realization blew my mind.  Sofia’s brutal “bike” accident of this fall suddenly made a lot more sense with this understanding.

I’m going to handle this trip by positing bit-by-bit.  I was on the island for almost a week having the time of my life with Lama-and she really kept me on the hop.  So I can’t possibly cram this into a  single post without skimming over details and places and pictures. 

SATURDAY

I arrived mid-afternoon on a Saturday.  My flight left at some ungodly early hour, so I’d been up for ages and was incredibly tired.  Lama scooped me up from the itty bitty airport and we went on our merry way.  I quickly changed into shorts and we went on an island drive with Lama’s friend Earl.  I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the window! The whole island is just absolutely gorgeous--so green with the most stunning turquoise water,

OH! Island fact! People get their tap water from rainwater.  So all the roofs are white with these crazy layers which funnels the water into their water tanks.  I’m not totally sure how I feel about this green way of life, but took great pleasure out of the look on Mom’s face when I told her. Sheer horror.  But it’s gorgeous, because the walls are painted various bright colors with sparkling white roofs.

We stopped for a quick drink at patio bar in Somerset, where I experienced my first island

specialty: the Dark and Stormy. I am pretty sure it’s Rum and Ginger beer.  It was delicious.  We then headed off to the Sand Art Competition Award Ceremony (Which Sofia’s team won!) and then hit up a quick food festival and did an Earth Hour walk in Hamilton.  Earth

hour is an hour in which all power is supposed to be shut off and you’re supposed to do something eco-friendly. Pretty neat! Prior to the walk I was SUPER cold (see earlier statement about refusing to believe that it was going to be anything other than warm) and so we nabbed some fleeces. 

After the walk, I experienced the joy of “biking” (Ridiculous. it’s a scooter not a bike)  with Sofia.  Sofia’s bike is banana yellow! I rode on the back, and stayed as still as possible.  If I moved really at all she would yell at me.  Apparently they don’t balance well and a wiggly passenger makes it hard to drive.  You know what’s hard? Trying to stay perfectly still when you’re trying to see EVERYTHING and your helmet is really heavy.  Don’t worry though--we didn’t die and I figured out how to stay mostly still.

Fall Break!

This fall break was the best I've ever had. 

I left late thursday night and caught a red eye to NEW YORK CITY!! It was my first time to visit NYC so I was very excited about it, but also nervous. I mean, what if it didn't live up to my expectations!?

Day!

My first day, after  quick tour of Columbia, Miah and I headed straight to Times Square! It was every bit the hustling bustling center I hoped it to be. I was surprised by how small the New Years ball is. I guess I expected it to be bigger, which is funny cause I've always seen the zoomed in view on tv... if I'd really thought about it I would have known it to be smaller. We had such a great time wandering around. I was over excited to walk through the M&M store, and then Miah took me over to the Library for a walk through. I really enjoyed it, and it was a little flashback to my fall in Europe. You know, it was grandiose, and a little over the top. I loved it.

Night!

We then headed back to Morning-side so that I could take a much needed nap. Miah and I had big plans for a Broadway show, but I could barely keep my eyes open at 1pm. Weird that 5 hours of intermittent airplane sleep wouldn't be enough... haha. Anyway. That was excellent. We then headed back to Times Square to get some broadway tickets. We snagged some tickets to West Side Story, which were expensive even though they were half off. Well... expensive for a college student. I'd never seen it before, well other than the movie, so I was very very excited. We studied it in my broadway musical class, so I was working hard to remember everything. I could only drum up a could of facts, so I guess I'll have to be patient till Christmas and get out my notebook. The musical was very well done. The dancing was just fabulous. I was shocked when Anita got raped, cause I had not idea that happened. I guess it makes more sense now... I always thought it was overly dramatic that Anita says Maria isn't coming after they push her around a little. After I got over that shock, I really enjoyed the show. It was great! I was very pleased with our selection. We walked around for a little bit, but not too long cause I was very very cold. I was amazed by how bright Times Square was at night. The sun was certainly down, but it was still so bright!

Trump Tower

Grand Central Station

The next morning, Miah and I headed to one of his favorite bars that has 25 cent wings on Saturdays. I absolutely am obsessed with wings so I was all about it. They were amazing, and even though I wasn't in Buffalo, I really liked eating them at least closer to their founding. (Oh wait... NEW LIFE GOAL: Eat Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, NY). We then walked around Columbia a little more and stopped by a Cathedral, which was fun. I miss cathedrals in my life, though it was a shock to exit onto a busy street instead of the MunsterMarkt. Then we visited Grant's tomb. I now FINALLY get the joke! Who's buried in Grant's tomb? Grant AND his wife. heh heh heh. Clever, clever. After another nap, we spent the evening crossing off things on my list of must sees.  We went to Grand Central Station, Trump Towers, and Rockafeller Center (rink and all). One of the big things on my list was to play on the gigantic piano in FAO Schwartz. It was such a great store, I'm obsessed. Unfortunately they were closing, so I didn't get to play on it. Guess I have to go back!! That night we went out with some of Miah's friends, and made it to a jazz bar! Pretty cool, but the best part was that we took a taxi to and from!

Sunday was a relaxed day. Slept in late, and the Miah had lost of homework too. So i got to pretend I was a student at Columbia for a day. I really wish I could be, but that ship sailed the fall of my freshman year. Ohhh well. At least I got some work on a paper completed. That was good. Then we headed to Central Park! We'd walked by before, but it was always dark before and I didn't want to die. So I was THRILLED to finally get to go inside. We went in through sheeps garden pasture or something. I don't remember, but it was fun. I really really really liked central park. We stood and listened to some music, and then some comedians who reminded me a little bit of something in the renaissance festival. But not renaissance at all. Hmm. That's a poor description right there! Then we walked down to the water by the Boathouse, which was of course beautiful. We ended up sitting under a tree on a hill looking over a bridge. Then it was dark so we walked out of the park past Yoko Ono's flat, and by Strawberry Fields. Embarrassing, but I was really hoping for strawberries. We caught a quick, and yummy, dinner at Gray's Papaya. It was, of course delicious. We got some dessert at Pink Berry, which is apparently everywhere but WA and the mid-west. So delicious, so healthy.

Lady Liberty

Greta & Adam

Monday I went on my own adventures while Miah was in class. I headed to Fordham University for my first law school visit. I really enjoyed it and am both excited for and am dreading my school search. I then met up with Greta Hanson who was visiting her boyfriend at NYU. We had a nice lunch and then adventures around Wall Street. We were trying to go to this coffee shop where BIG apparently goes all the time, but we couldn't find it. And then he was spotted heading there, and we weren't there and it's all very heartbreaking. Sortof. I was excited to see the NYSE and Tiffanys. We also walked through a reaaaally old cemetery (which Greta was pumped about) and walked past Ground Zero. That was a little chilling since it's just a huge whole in a city that has every inch filled. The memorial looks like it should be pretty neat. Then the two of us walked down to Battery Park and creeped on the Statue of Liberty. I do wish that I had gone to Ellis Island, but the water was super choppy as it was an extremely windy day. I'm alright with my decision not to. The the boys met up wit us for a quick dinner. We all walked over to China Town for dinner. I found the experience to be a little overwhelming. Unfortunately I was unclear as to what China Town is about, so I didn't get myself any cheap copies of anything. Or anything that OOPS! fell off the truck. We had a... vietnamese? dinner that was alright. I love Pho, but I wasn't ready for the lungs and stuff in it. I like my plain old beef kind. I'm a little pathetic. It was a fun evening though. 

Tuesday was a bittersweet day. I really liked the city, and there were a lot of thing I wanted to do but didn't get to. Like sit on the Met's steps, or seeing Starry Night at the MoMA.  We had a nice lunch, and then hung out on Columbia's campus till Miah had class. I ate... AN APPLE IN THE BIG APPLE!! Yessss. And then I hung out while Miah was in class, generally pretending as though I belonged there. Afterwards we each got a HUGE piece of delicious greasy NY cheese pizza. It was to die for, and I ate more of it than Miah. I consider that a great success. We ate them overlooking Riverside Park, where we fed some crazy bird bread and pitted them against one another. Awesome.

It was an absolutely amazing trip. I was so happy the entire time and had a blast. I cannot wait to go back. And who knows, maybe I'll be there for school next year! How great would that be!?

Best. Week. Ever.

I've had an amazing week. A lot of accomplishments, a lot of fun, a lot of big moments. I will start from the beginning.

Monday: I turned in my first paper of the year. I was pleased with my work and considered it a success.

Tuesday: Had my second calc exam, which went well. The afternoon with Tatum was great fun. My first landmark life moment happened with her! I dropped Tatum off at Liana's friends house. It was my first time driving a baby anywhere, and it happened super smoothly. She was very happy the whole ride and I am pleased. Here is the Tator-Tot with the balloon we have in our house. Whenever she is upset, it makes her happy. Mink and I covet the balloon for its magical powers.

Wednesday: Got back an exam from the week before and the essay I'd written for monday. I'm pleased with my scores. I even aced an essay within the exam, which out professor said rarely happens. GO ME. Then I headed to work, for what I thought would be an uneventful evening of calls. Nope! I am now hired as a deputy field organizer for the Washington State Democrats! BAM. Basically, I'm going to get paid for what I'm already doing! I'm absolutely thrilled. And THEN I met some people from the official side, who I blew away with my outstanding work ethic while I was making calls. I found out that Nikki has strongly recommended me for the spring official side internship for Patty Murray. Basically, I've secured myself an internship for the spring- given that Patty wins the election!!!

Thursday: I went and saw the pre-law advisor who soothed some of my fears about law school. And he said just with my GPA I can get into 50% of the law schools out there. I have to wait for my LSAT score to figure the rest... but hey! I only need to get into one to become a lawyer.

Friday: I MET JOE BIDEN! He came into Tacoma for a Get Out the Vote rally with Patty Murray and Christine Gregoire, and a couple other WA democratic Gems. He was an incredible speaker! Afterwwards a couple other people from the campaign and I ran out to shake JB's hand. He gave me a nice shake, and then I was trying to take a picture of him with my cell phone, and he grabbed it, handed it to a secret service guy, and leaned in for a hug. It was amazing. He smelled SO good. And then Patty Murray recognized me! Epic. Such a great day!!

Saturday: I got up bright and early for the LSAT. I thought it went pretty well. You know, it's funny because when people ask how it went I generally respond it went well. And I actually enjoyed taking it. It was fun! I enjoyed all the logic puzzles and stuff. I am so so so so so excited and nervous to get my score back in November! Eeek. Then I headed to the Homecoming football game for an hour. I missed the end of the game, but... I mean it was 35-0 linfield at half or something like that so... it's not like I missed a nail biter. I missed it, because I had to hurry home to get ready for my friend Erienne's wedding!  Erienne looked absolutely stunning! The wedding and reception were beautiful and we had a fabulous time. I must admit jumping around to all the country classics alongside the cha cha slide was awesome. I was legitimately super sore the next morning. I can't believe I'm old enough to be going to my friends weddings, but I'm sure loving it!

Sunday was blessedly slow. It was my first day on the job as a DFO. It was super fun, and I enjoy working with the two guys I'm in a legislative district with. Thank goodness, cause we're going to be spending a lot of time together!!

Looking ahead:
- I'm going to start writing my personal statement! Topic: All the things I never thought I'd learn Life-guarding!
- FALL BREAK!! This is the spring break I've never had, so I'm going big. Can't wait! It will be a joy to have some time off from school and the campaign!

What a weekend!

I had a really amazing weekend. Things are so busy with school and lacrosse and the Patty Murray Campaign  during the week that it's a huge relief to make it to 5pm on fridays!

But let's look back at my week. Wow. Ummm yeah. Very little happening during the week. I made it to the Matador for some chips and Salsa FINALLY. I'd been craving it for so long. And I had an exam and a project due. Both of which I feel pretty great about. That's pretty much it.

Moving on to the fun stuff: as I think I mentioned last post, I had a lot of firsts this weekend.

Mink, Cat, Pave and yours truly!

Friday night, a couple of us girls ventured down to the sound to jump in. I was hoping to jump in, but we ended up just running in! It was amazing, we decided that we're going to all go again in the spring. I really am planning to jump in off a pier, but I insist I go with someone who's done it before. I don't want to go so badly I'll risk injury. Here's the before and after picture!


Then Saturday was another HUGE  night. Three very exciting things happened:

First: I initiated myself into being a ducks fan. Pav said I earned the right to call them my ducks too, as I commentated a quarter for her and Pearce. So now I can saw I love my ducks. Also, watching that made me consider going to a big school for law. Like... get the big experience after the small one here at UPS.

The Party

Second: I attended my first Bachelorette party. My friend Erienne is getting married this coming saturday, which also means that I'm going to my first wedding. At least, she'll be my first friend to get married. It was so much fun.

First slot machine EVER.

Third: I went to my first casino! It was unreal. We started the evening off at the Surf and Turf buffet. Oh my god. Amaaazing. There was all you can eat Crad. I felt like I ate and ate and ate. Probably cause I did. Also, I tried Lobtser for the first time. Not a huge fan... but it was probably cause I had just eaten a bound of crab. Then we went out onto the floor. Pearce, Pav and I rocked the slots. I did really good at first. I think I probably won 20 dollars, throughout the night... but obviously played till I had nothing left. It was fine, cause I wasn't trying to win or anything. And then we finished out the night on the dance floor at Club Sno. It was super fun to just dance with the girls. I was made for casinos. I love the bright lights, and noises, and excitement. Awesome.

 Sunday Jen came down from Seattle and we made scrumptious jam. Of the Strawberry variety and our own concoction: pumpkin apple spice. They're so so so good.

Coming up:
-Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Murray with a GOTV rally in Tacoma!
-LSAT
-Erienne and Ed's wedding.

I sense a trend

Just like last fall, I have found myself super busy and forgetting to update. Only this year, my adventures are a lot less spectacular.

This fall has been so busy. I feel like my time is both super busy and slow. I guess it goes in chunks of time. Anyway, let's be systematic about this.

The internship has been great. I'm becoming much more comfortable with the staff and am having a great time. It's a pretty close race, so I cannot wait to see what happens. We have a super exciting event coming up, which is a Get Out the Vote Rally with Vice President Joe Biden. It's coming to be amazing. I cannot wait! I am working the event, so I should be able to meet him. I'll be sorely disappointed if I don't. In other news, I have met Patty a number of times now, and she's amazing. I adore her, and I think it's great to be working for a woman who is wonderful and stands for great things. Check out what she posted on her facebook!

My classes are great. It's funny though, cause I love what I'm doing in each class. I think the classes are interesting, and I like doing the homework. But I'm just finding myself annoyed with exams. Like, yes, I am in fact aware that much of my learning happens the days before and exam... but still. Things are swiftly approaching mid-terms so the workload is jumping. My wine class is so much fun. We had our first tasting the other week. It was really interesting. We had six different Rieslings, and I was amazed by how different each tasted. Pretty neat.

Each week, Mink and I babysit our coaches daughter. Tatum is so so cute. She's about 6 months old now, so pretty soon she'll be able to crawl. But not yet. Last Tuesday she played with a pink cellophane balloon for 20 minutes. Literally. It was great! Babies are so much fun... but I'm glad she leaves after a couple of hours with us!

My future is also heading for me at high speeds. I'm playing around with the idea of making a gap year to work in DC for a year before I go to law school. I'm nervous because I don't know what kind of law I want to pursue AND I'm not sure where I want to pursue it. That being said, I'm working on it. If I get into an amazing school... I am SO there. Here's the plan. I'm brainstorming personal statements now, and am generally working on getting my ducks in a row. I'm taking the LSAT on October 8! And my goal is to have everything in by Thanksgiving at the latest! I can't believe I'm making these huge life decisions. It's absolutely crazy!

And miscellaneous other life events include being entirely gluten free for an entire month, which expires october 20th. So far, so good. I found a great "tequila bar" downtown that has amazing happy hour nachos, which I prefer to get with sangria. Tequila? Pass. Also I've started watching Friday Night Lights. I'm somewhere in season 2. Aaaand I like to sing "Don't Stop Believing" at Karaoke. 

I have a couple of great events coming up:

-Swimming in the Sound

-Bachelorette party with trip to a casino (which will be a first. Also, since when am I old enough to have friends getting married?!)

-Go Kart Racing

Whale's tales

Things are busy here. I'm busy with school. I'm busy with PFPM. I'm busy with lacrosse. But things aren't quite busy enough. I don't know.

This weekend I had an amazing experience with my cousin Jen, whale watching! We drove up into the San Juan Islands (Well we drove to Anacortta and took a ferry to the islands) and it was simply amazing. Once we got there, we went to our campsite, which Jen had chosen for us. It was called "Glamping." Basically, we were in this great big canvas structured tent that had a bed and a futon. It was so much fun, though there were some gigantic spiders that kept it real. Then we headed out to watch for whales. We got these big suits to protect us from the spray and keep us warm, but also to help us float should we go overboard. Jen, Paige and I chose the front row, or the "Cowboy" seats as our guide explained. We zoomed out into the water, and I was on an intense creature watch. Those stupid bull whip kelps really tripped me up a lot. We ended up going really quite far, not stopping for anything. We finally arrived by Port Angeles (omg twilight ahha) and found 4 humpback whales. They were apparently originally swimming together and then split up. So we first watched the momma and the baby. They were pretty cute, I must admit. Then we left the other whale watching boats to pursue the second pair. Those two were fun! And then they swam around us and under the boat which was so so cool. They were gigantic! I absolutely loved it.

The next morning we woke up to the pleasant, relaxing sound of rain pounding down on our tent. We were all surprised when we left for the mess tent that it was a light rain, not the downpour we were expecting. Then we wandered around the island, making a fragrant stop at a lavender farm, and an interesting time in a whale museum. Whales are so cool.

Now I'm back at school. Things are really picking up. I have my first exam this week, and my first wine tasting for class. 

Ooh, I've created a bucket list for the NW. You know, things I want to do before I vacate the region. I'm really excited about it. There are some really cool things on there, like Climb Mt. St. Helens. Expect more to come on all the exciting things on the list.