The Dudley Dilemma

2008-09-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a long long time but the summer went by quickly and I didn't manage to take very many interesting pictures.

We did have a crazy hail storm in the middle of August. The ice chunks were enormous!

James and I spent quite a bit of time walking or running with Dudley on the dirt roads and trails near our house. And fish and chips with our parents fattened us up. Below is James with his parents Chris and Lynn.
Oh and how can I forget . . . we camped near Burlington VT. Our neighbors had a spotlight on their RV that shined into our tent which was awesome and the people next to them had a satellite so that they wouldn't have to miss any of their favorite shows and a projector so that they could watch them outside. Not the kind of camping I'm used to but definitely an interesting experience.

Vermont

2008-08-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

We hiked pinacle
Stayed in a apt with one of James' friends from Cornell with an awesome view.
Back in Plymouth James spent a misty morning on the pond.

2008-08-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

Ears

Storm

2008-07-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

We had a big storm last night. There was a tornado warning but luckily it missed us and we just got hit by a thunder storm. It was intense and we lost power for a few hours. It is still super humid but slightly cooler than it has been the past week or so. I missed summer thunder storms when we were out west.

Summer

2008-07-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

Life is tough.Lips

nose

Eugene to Plymouth 2

2008-07-02T18:10:00.001-07:00

The last two days were a bit rough. The car broke down in Monticello Minnesota. We brought it to a local shop at 7 am and they were able to fix it for us on the spot. It was a bit of a patch job but it held for 2000 miles so I'd say they did a nice job. We were on the road by 10am and made it to a town just west of Toledo. The final day was quite long but we made it to Plymouth by 9pm and got in a swim before bed. As you can see, Dudley is psyched about the new digs.

Eugene to Plymouth

2008-06-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

All packed up.

Dreaming of the road

North Dakota

Motel 6, Super 8, Best Western

2008-05-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Eugene is in the Willamette Valley which the native american's named more aptly "the Valley of Sickness and Death" The allergen counts here are insanely high and I've developed allergies for the first time in my life- brutal. I ran out of my medicine yesterday and this morning I wolk up with swollen eyes. I took the picture below after using my eye drops which brought down the swelling significantly but as you can see I'm still fairly puffy.

Brazil

2008-05-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

Okay so I went to Brazil a year ago but my parents tell me that my blog is extremely boring and I should add more stuff. Since my life is not all that exciting I've decided to post some of the pictures from my last trips.

Above is a favela (squatter settlement) in Rio. I happen to be writting a paper about favelas right now for my Anthropology of tourism class.

James caught an itty bitty pirana on the Rio Negro. I ate some while making a very dignified face. Hee hee.

Though the sun shone most of the time, there were occasional downpours . . . and my parents were prepared!

Brazilia was really interesting. The architecture was very cool and the city was built around the car so it was difficult to get around on foot. We were there on the weekend and the city felt really empty. Perhaps it's true that everyone leaves on the weekend to visit family in other cities.

This is a market in Salvador. I think. . . .

Italy

2008-05-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

James studied in Macerata, Italy for 3 months last spring. I went to visit for his last week.
The pictures below are taken at Maracua, the cafe close to school. James spend many a languid afternoon sipping esspresso there. Well okay maybe not but it does sound nice.

There were these funny water fountains all over town with potable, deliciously cold water.

It was really really hot! This is in James' bedroom where he slept in a hammock bed .

I went on a few day trips while James finished his final project. The church below supposedly holds the house of Mary. It's in Loretto a small town few hours by bus from Macerata. I was harrased by the police on the bus ride because I didn't realize that I had to punch my ticket when I got on the bus. The officer was upset because there was another passenger who had no ticket or identificaiton. I had a difficult time explaining my situation in italian to the police officer. Compounded by the fact that i had no idea what the address of James' apt was. I finally made him laugh explaining that the apt was above the pharmacy on a street with lots of cars. How much of my italian/spanish interpretation he understood isn't clear but anyway he let me off the hook. I was glad that I happend to have a copy of my passport. Then after things settled down I realized that we had just passed Loretto. I asked the bus driver who confirmed and let me off in the middle of nowhere so I could hoof it back. Anyway the town wasn't that special but I met lots of nice Italians that day who spoke no english.

After my day of adventure I decided that I deserved a day off. So I took the train (far more straightforward) to Civitanova to hang out on the beach. it was strange. The beach was covered with these chairs for miles. You had to pay a nominal fee to reserve a chair for the day. It was actually quite lovely and the umbrella was crucial.

We spent two days in Rome before heading back to the US. Our friend Iain treated us to an awesome hotel on the outskirts of town for our wedding gift. The hotel was absolutely beautiful and it was in a nice quiet neighborhood walking distance from the center of the city.

Unfortunately James got sick the last night in Rome so he spent the evening in the bathroom and still felt under the weather the next morning when we caught our flight home.

China

2008-05-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

I went to China this fall for two weeks with my MBA program. I didn't take very many pictures.

My friends Monica and Emily. notice the Bamboo scaffolding.

2008-05-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

james dudley and I went hiking. Pela stayed home and cool, blu not so much.

2008-05-17T19:31:00.000-07:00