~`~Gonzalez Family`~`

2011-05-26T14:38:00.001-07:00

Random 2010

2011-02-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

*oh yeah, we're fierce*

So, I haven't been posting very frequently, and there's too much to catch up on! Here's a summary of our 2010!

We bought a house, and then we learned some of the joys of homeownership! We mainly worked on taming the garden this summer, when we were in town, and look forward to doing more as it warms up this year.

*taking a break!*

*picking mulberries for mulberry pie-yum!*

We traveled fairly often, attending weddings and going on vacation to: Montreal, Ft. Lauderdale, North Carolina, Ludington, New York, Philadelphia, and Ohio! Bryan and Laney got married in November, and we are so happy to have a new sister!

*Ft. Lauderdale*

*North Carolina*

*Family vacation in Ludington- at the altar where our parents said "I do" 30 years before!*

*with the beautiful bride, Laney*

*meeting up with good friends from around the world in NYC*

For the holidays, we surprised our family in Ohio by driving there unannounced for Thanksgiving celebrations, and flew to Colombia to celebrate Christmas and New years.

*after Thanksgiving at Bryan and Laney's house*

*in Colombia, with the whole family*

Whew! 2010 was a great, and very exciting, year. I have a feeling 2011 is going to be a good one too!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-05-31T17:15:00.001-07:00

I recently gained another year-- one year older, one year wiser (let's hope!). We had a wonderful time celebrating!

PART ONE

Julian took me out for dinner and dancing at a bar that plays salsa every Tuesday. It was a late night for us, but it was fun to dance and spend time with good friends!

*dancing with my amazing husband*

*with Gio and Carlos Miguel*

*wonderful friends!!*

*there was even a performance!*

*eating part of Julian's hamburger, which was tastier than mine :) *

PART TWO

Julian took me to a soccer game for my birthday! (DC United vs. AC Milan). The game was great, with several highlights, such as Rondaliño from Brazil bicycle kicking the ball into the goal, only to have the ball hit the goalpost and bounce right back out! We were amazed by the enthusiasm of the fans, who jumped enough to make the stadium shake, and who never stopped their drum-beating and flag-waving during the entire game. Plus, DC won!!!

*crazy fan section*

*go Ronaldiño!*

*not really the final score... but it looks good!! the final score was 3-2*

Mulberry Pie

2010-05-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

*it's ready for the oven!*

We have three mulberry trees growing in our front yard. Two of them don't have berries yet, but the other one is dropping black, juicy berries. I had never had mulberries before, but when we found out that they're sweet and safe to eat, we harvested the first crop of mulberries! Last night I baked a mulberry pie (which was delicious)- a very proud moment since it was my first fruit pie (with a lattice top, even!) and it was even more delicious knowing the berries came from our yard!

Now I'm spotting mulberry trees on my way to work and in our neighbor's yards... most people dislike mulberries because they stain, so maybe Julian and I will provide a neighborhood service of picking the berries :) Pie all summer long, yum!

*my wonderful husband, picking mulberries*

*proudly displaying our haul*

*time to make it into a pie!*

*fixing the crust*

*nice and warm- time to eat!*

New Windows

2010-04-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

*new windows!*

We decided when we first bought the house that we wanted to take advantage of the government rebates for energy savings and replace our original (rope-pulley) windows with new, energy-efficient windows. Although I was sad to see our unique windows torn out, we're very happy with our new windows!

*goodbye old windows*

*hello new windows!*

Happy 2 Years!!!

2010-04-19T17:42:00.001-07:00

*love pancakes :)*

Julian and I celebrated two wonderful years of marriage together earlier this month. After the craziness of buying our house and moving in, we decided we would have a much-deserved day of rest. We slept in, had a nice romantic breakfast, and then went to see Avatar (great movie!). We had dinner at an Irish restaurant to try something new-- we shared a Shepherd's Pie and a quesadilla (in case the Shepherd's Pie was not very tasty). It was a wonderful, relaxing day, and we look forward to many more anniversary celebrations together :)

*Julian brought me a new flower to plant for each year of our marriage-- a great surprise!*

*happy with our new flowers!*

*anniversary brunch*

*Julian is enjoying his love pancakes*

Our Home

2010-04-01T04:22:00.000-07:00

*proud new home-owners!*

We're finally in our new home, and semi-unpacked! It looks wonderful, and feels wonderful to be in our little place. We're very happy with the paint colors-- it feels much warmer here than in our white-walled apartment :) We're already learning the joys of owning a home, with a leaky shower faucet that we're repairing to little ant friends in the kitchen... but they really are joys because it's exciting to have our own place to fix!!

Here are a few pictures of our new home:

*Julian and Dad, hanging out in our living room*

*kitchen!*

*our bedroom*

*guest bedroom*

Home Sweet Home

2010-02-28T16:32:00.000-08:00

*our new home, the left side of the duplex!!*

After about year of searching for houses, we finally found one that we loved and had been waiting a couple of months to see if our offer was accepted. In January we found out it was, and the fight began! Julian fought with everyone involved in the process to keep them from adding "junk" fees, and he was extremely successful. The Lord blessed us a LOT by lowering the price considerably, a wonderful blessing and surprise!!

This weekend, we finalized the sale!! It is taking awhile to sink in, since we're not moving for another month, but we're very excited to be homeowners. Now comes more work to fix up the house and make it into a lovely home!

Come visit!!

Misc. Winter 2010

2010-02-28T07:28:00.000-08:00

We've stayed pretty busy this winter! We were going through the steps of buying a home, and we were snowed in from 2 blizzards! We still managed to have a lot of fun :)

*Washington Wizards v. Miami Heat. Miami was amazing!*

*Bryan and Laney came to visit!!*

*Our romantic fondue dinner for Valentine's Day*

*enjoying yummy fondue*

*Julian with a percussion instrument made from a donkey's jaw*

*with a member of Creole, a musical group from San Andres (a Colombian island) that we saw at the Kennedy Center*

August 22, 2009

2009-12-15T17:58:00.001-08:00

*looking forward to our future*

We finally had our church wedding! We were so blessed to have family and friends from all over the world join us as we renewed our vows in a "wedding" ceremony. Unfortunately, not all family was there (Julian's dad was denied a visa), but we know they were all there in spirit.

Here are a few pictures from our day:

*with parents and grandparents*

*laughing with my funny husband*

*with our wedding party*

*at the spot where Julian asked me to be his girlfriend, and later, his wife*

I love AppleTree

2009-05-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

I am really blessed to be working at AppleTree Institute. It's amazing to be working with people who know and love what they're doing, and to really feel like we're able to make a difference in the lives of children. Research in the early childhood years shows some pretty powerful things. First, before the age of 4, the brain will have the largest amount of synaptogenesis (the process of making new connections in the brain) for language. So, the period from 2-4 is the period of the largest language growth that will ever happen in a human. Unfortunately, research also shows that the amount of language growth that occurs depends largely on the amount of exposure a child has to different experiences and to language itself. Sadly, the amount of language a child hears differs vastly across socio-economic status. The chart below shows the number of words heard per hour across 3 socio-economic classes. So, by the age of three, professional class children heard more than 3x the amount of words as public assistance children.

This directly impacts the amount of words a child will use. The next chart shows the amount of words used by children at the age of three, again divided by socio-economic status. You can note that in comparing the two charts, by age three, the professional class children are using more words than the public assistance class adults.

This is all to say that by age 3, we can predict with depressing accuracy if a child will pass their 4th grade reading tests, and even if they'll graduate from high school. (These data are from Hart & Riley, 1995).

This is why early intervention is so important. We're in the process of collecting our end of the year assessments for all of our students, but the general trend that we see so far is that the children at risk for reading failure are able to learn, and to learn more quickly than those not at risk, over the course of our high quality preschool program.

The Obama administration has quoted the fact that for every $1 invested in early childhood education, we'll save $7-10 dollars. Some people may wonder where these amounts come from. Basically, 3 very large studies consisted of thousands of at-risk students have been carried out across many years (some have followed students from the womb to age 30). For students who are at risk and receive high quality early interventions, such as a high quality preschool education, they can continue on in school with few problems. However, those who don't receive any interventions are often places in special education for reading and behavioral problems. The amount of money we can save by putting in place high quality preschool programs versus failing our kids (mainly African American and English Language Learners) and sending them to special education saves about 7-10 dollars for every 1 dollar spent.

Although I knew very little about the importance of early childhood education, I am a convert and feel very passionate about what we're able to do. Frankly, it's amazing to see a child (at age 3!!) write his/her name, talk about rhyming words, identify all of the letters and the sounds that they make, all while having fun and playing. I love my job :)

This is the website of my organization. http://www.appletreeinstitute.org/

I work for the DCPEL (DC Partnership for Early Literacy). :)

Nationals Game!

2009-04-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

*at the stadium, with our new Nationals baseball cap bowl*

A few weeks ago some friends from church offered us their tickets to a Nationals Game-- they have season tickets and couldn't go, and didn't want the tickets to go to waste. We snatched them up and took off!! The seats were amazing-- super close at the 3rd base line. Unfortunately, the Nationals lost, but we had a fun time.

*Julian and the stadium*

*the presidents racing*

*Zimmerman, the famous pitcher*

Cherry Blossoms

2009-04-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

Every spring the cherry blossom festival brings hundreds of thousands of tourists to DC-- one week DC is pretty empty, and the next week even the sidewalks have traffic jams. Julian and I went out one beautiful Sunday afternoon after church to see the blossoms. The weather was gorgeous and there were performances for the festival, so we had a nice lazy afternoon under the sakura trees!

*pretty blossoms*

*washington monument through the blossoms*

*by the yellow flowering bushes*

*by the tidal basin, on the way to the jefferson memorial*

*julian at the jefferson memorial*

*at the jefferson memorial*

*nuzzling at the tidal basin :) *

Conferences

2009-04-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

My job has allowed me some great professional development opportunities-- every month we have many professional development sessions locally, and we also travel to various conferences to stay up to date on the latest research. In the last month I went to two-- the ERF conference in Seattle, Washington and the SRCD conference in Denver, Colorado.

The ERF (Early Reading First) Grant conference was for all schools/groups that had received this grant from the government. The new grantees come and learn from the top speakers in early literacy and from various schools/groups who had the grant previously. We were lucky to have had the grant before-- therefore we were there presenting as well as learning for our new grant. I got to present along with a few others from AppleTree, and it was a great overall experience to learn about the grant, the politics, and to see how well AppleTree is doing. It's not really overstating it to say that we're one of the top preschool programs in the country!

Pictures from Seattle:

*by the poster announcing our presentation*

*space needle!*

*at the top of the space needle*

*view of seattle from the space needle*

The SRCD (Society for Research in Child Development) was a completely different experience. It's overwhelming, with hundreds of thousands of

people attending and about 40 presentations going on every 2 hours. You have to pick and choose what you want to hear, with topics ranging across all areas of child development from birth to adolescence. It was interesting to see the different types of research-- some very controlled and not applicable to real life, and some highly applicable research that is "messy." Some researchers were a little snotty about their work and I felt the difference between academia and what I'm doing now. I have to say that I'm very happy to be working in a place where we back things with research and theory, but we're very much living in the real world. My coworkers aren't fighting to see who can publish the most or who has the best credentials. (Not that all academics are like this, but there were a lot at the conference). I left the conference early to come celebrate our first wedding anniversary :)

Pictures from Denver:

*bear peeking into the conference center*

*view of mountains from my hotel room*

Theodore Roosevelt Island

2009-03-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Julian and I wanted to get out of the apartment and walk somewhere (although it was really cold out..) and so we went to the Theodore Roosevelt Island, situated between DC and Virginia in the middle of the Potomac River. Because it was freezing, the island had very few visitors and so we got to enjoy the peace and quiet until our faces were too frozen and we had to head inside.

*julian and teddy*

*julian in front of the island*

*in the other direction, julian in front of rosslyn, va*

*by the river*

*julian on the rocks*

*sweet*

Chinese New Year!

2009-02-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Julian and I went to the Chinese New Year celebration in Chinatown. It was packed there, with tons of people excited to see dragon dances, chinese drumming and 5 story fireworks! Unfortunately, the fireworks weren't set off because the fire department detected a gas leak-- the crowd was very disappointed because you had to wait 1.5 hours after the parade had ended before they were supposed to go off. But, the parade was entertaining and it was fun to see everyone dressed up and celebrating!

First Day of Work!

2009-02-16T11:34:00.001-08:00

I've now been working for 1 month! I'm getting used to the schedule, and feel more confident about everything that goes on at work. We have a ton of professional development, which is great because the atmosphere is one of constant learning and growth for everyone. I still don't have a desk yet, due to a few communication mishaps, but it should come this week so I'm very excited to finally get organized. I've been using a kiddie table to work at, which is ok but a desk for an adult will be much better :)

I took the following pictures of myself on my first day. I also got hives that day from the sweater I was wearing, which has 10% wool in it. Wool usually bothers me, but never that much, especially for a wool blend.... I haven't been able to wear it since :(

Valentine's Day

2009-02-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a terrific celebration for our first married Valentine's Day!

First we saw Peruvian Scissor Dancers and an exhibition on the power of chocolate in the afternoon. I didn't realize that the dancers would actually be holding a pair of scissors-- they use them as percussion instruments, kind of like playing spoons.

*Scissor dancer-- you can see the scissors in his right hand (photo by Jeff Malet)*

*video 1*

*video 2*

*scissor dancers*

*My lovely Valentine*

Later, we had dinner at my favorite restaurant (Sweetwater) and then went dancing! It was a great day!

*at the balloon-filled restaurant*

*happy valentine's day!*

We are one

2009-01-19T12:44:00.001-08:00

*the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial (pic from the NYTimes)-- we were to the left, past the trees*

To celebrate inauguration, Julian and I went to the We are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial, where we got to see President-elect Obama and his family, as well as the Bidens. The crowd went crazy when Obama walked down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Michelle, since it was a surprise appearance. Obama and Biden both gave speeches on the hard work ahead, and the need for unity in the country. Tons of celebrities were there to celebrate America, and to promote unity among the country. Actors read tributes to America and celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. and various presidents, and singers sang patriotic tunes. Altogether it was crowded (75,000+), cold and really fun!

*Julian and me with Obama in the background!!*

We were standing pretty close to one of the jumbotrons, so we got to see the action in detail, but the Memorial was pretty far away. We could see tiny figures moving around through the trees, but that was it. Some of the most memorable parts were Elmo getting the crowd to chant "we are one," after which the number one came out angrily, declaring that he was one. Garth Brooks got the crowd jumping and warmed us up with the song Shout, which was good since most of us were freezing!

*the main stage, the Lincoln Memorial*

*We're standing about 1/3 of the crowd away from the Lincoln Memorial-- there were a LOT of people there*

*Julian and Tom Hanks*

*me and Queen Latifah-- notice my Hope pin (Julian found it for me on the ground haha)*

*Shakira, Usher and Stevie Wonder performing at the We Are One concert*

*me and Beyonce, the last artist to perform*

*there were tons of police out for inauguration weekend, with these fancy motorcycles*

*on our way back to the metro, we passed a statue of Simon Bolivar, the South American revolutionary who led the revolts to free Colombia (and other countries)*

*stuck at the intersection by the White House-- we jumped up on a lampost to survey the situation-- the road was blocked off and we were trapped there with a HUGE crowd of people... we made it to the metro after shoving our way through the crowd!*

I'm employed!

2009-01-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

*Julian took me out to dinner after my second interview, when I was unofficially offered the job!*

I got a job!! I received a call on Christmas Eve, offering me (officially) the position of English Language Acquisition Manager for a few preschools. I happily accepted and thanked God for my Christmas present (in fact, I had been praying that I would have a job by Christmas-- perfect timing, as usual!!).

So, now I'll be working for Apple Tree Institute (to go to the website, click here), a non-profit organization geared at improving education for all. I'll be working with the early literacy programs in four preschools sponsored by this organization, and will be helping parents and teachers figure out the language aspect of learning and literacy so that all of the children will be ready for kindergarten. I love the premise of Apple Tree-- instead of trying to remedy the academic gap which exists for underprivileged kids, some African-American kids and bilingual kids, they want to prevent it from starting through early intervention.

Although I'm really excited about the job, I start on Monday and now instead of the excitement bug, I'm getting the nervous kind-of-want-to-throw-up bug. I know deep down that it'll probably be ok, that the first day is always nerve-wracking, but I just want to already be at the point where I'm used to having a job and I know what I'm doing. I think it'll take some time though..... Pray for me on Monday please!!

Anitha's visit

2008-12-22T16:39:00.000-08:00

*anitha and me in dc!*

Last week Anitha (from my EMCL program) came to visit me (and another friend) in DC! It was the first time we've seen each other since our courses ended in July, and we were very happy to see each other, even though it was only for a couple of days. We had a nice time hanging out, eating, walking through DC and chatting. Anitha invited me to have lunch with a friend of hers, Mukta, and another friendship was born! Julian and Anitha finally met, although they didn't get to spend much time together. Next time, since Anitha is living in Philadelphia for awhile. We're planning to visit her something this spring :) Here are some pictures from our time together:

*after a delicious lunch-- mukta, anitha, me*

*anitha, me and Julian*

*anitha in front of the white house*

*anitha and the national christmas tree*

*anitha and the washington monument*

*anitha and the capitol building*

My thesis is complete!

2008-12-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

Woohoo!! My thesis has been officially accepted and I received a good score, so I'm happy :) Finally, the days and days of reading, studying, analyzing and writing are over! Now I just have to mail the bound copies and wait for my diploma in the mail. It's strange to not have any more corrections, any more articles or statistical tests to run. But I think somehow I'll manage to go on with my days!
The job hunt is still on... but I'm supposed to hear back from one place today, so we'll see how it goes..... please pray for a job for me!

Even while working on my thesis, I was able to make room for a lot of fun events and friends! Here's a sample of photos:

Our friend Corrie celebrated her birthday with lots of salsa:

*julian and corrie dancing at her birthday party!*

*with good friends (herber, zuzi) at corrie's birthday party*

We went to NYC for Thanksgiving weekend to visit my friend Olga and to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade:

*with kermit, Macy's parade*

*thanksgiving day in central park*

*eating hot dogs with our lovely hostess in central park*

*radio city music hall!*

Then Leah Vincent came to visit:

*leah's stepmom designs the national tree, so i was luckily invited to the white house tree lighting ceremony-- here with leah in front of the ohio tree*

*all lit up*

*with leah v*

With SonMas, our salsa rueda group:

*julian, zuzi, me, sarah, mein!*

I was a wise man in a live nativity:

*live nativity*

*julian gaining some wisdom from the wise "men"*

*all the animals were christmas-y*

Residency

2008-11-21T05:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had an interview with the USCIS (US Customs and Immigration Services) in order for them to check if our marriage is legitimate. We brought all of our forms, pictures, letters, bank statements, etc. as proof, but our Immigration Officer didn't need to see much of it. She asked us random questions, such as Julian's mom's name and birthday. Then she asked how we met and why we wanted to marry each other. She was very friendly and funny and approved our case without any hassle. Julian is now a resident! SO, the looong and sometimes stressful paperwork process is over (for two years)!!!

In other news:
9 days left for my thesis......... It's going to be tight......

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T12:37:00.001-08:00

Happy Halloween!

On Tuesday night we went to a salsa club for a Halloween party dressed as Neo from the Matrix and a fairy. It was fun to see all of the costumes (Sarah Palin won) but it was difficult to dance because of all of the people and because of my fairy wings which kept hitting people... But it was a nice time anyway.

On Friday we were going to go out to another Halloween salsa event, but we were running late and after we missed the free entrance time, we decided to go out for milkshakes instead. That night we were the Matrix couple-- Neo and Trinity.

On Saturday we went with some friends from church to a corn maze. We split into teams and raced through, trying to find all of the clues to a puzzle in order to win! Unfortunately, it was a really difficult maze and Julian's team was the only one that found all of the clues. The other teams gave up after 2 hours of searching in corn. Afterwards we went to church, then to a friend's house for chilli and Catch phrase.

It's been a nice weekend :)

Happy Birthday Julian!!

2008-10-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MI AMOR

Last week was Julian's birthday (32!! the opposite from my age!)-- on October 23/24. Yes, he has two dates, ask him sometime-- it's a fun story :)

On the 23rd we went out for dinner with our wonderful roommate Nereida and her parents, who are here visiting from Puerto Rico, and then did a little shopping. We had a really nice time together: Nereida's dad especially loved the chicken at the restaurant and would eat nothing else, and Nereida's mom (who is lactose intolerant) enjoyed a BIG bowl of lactose free ice cream!

On Friday we went out for dinner with friends to a restaurant called Caribbean Breeze which also has dancing later in the night. The food was good, and Julian was surprised with a birthday dessert. We were lucky to have the dance floor to ourselves (mainly because it was sticky...) and got to dance salsa rueda. Unfortunately, the DJ had a very large mix of genres, so there was a lot of 80s dancing, the electric slide and so on in addition to the Latin dancing that we had been
looking forward to.

*at dinner: Sarah, Herber, Corrie, Julian, me*

*Sarah, Julian, Herber*

*me, Jannett, Julian, Mustaq*

*excited*

*mmm cake!*

*the men: DeMonta, Herber, Julian, Mein, Mustaq (everyone is from a different country-- I love it)*

*the ladies (minus Jannett): Sarah, me, Zuzi, Corrie*

All in all it was a great time to spend with friends!! Happy Birthday Julian!

October in DC

2008-10-21T06:05:00.000-07:00

This month has been full of working on my thesis, searching for jobs, a little wedding planning here and there, and a lot of fun. Although I really enjoyed living in Europe and traveling over the last year, it's nice to put away the suitcases and not buy plane tickets every three months.

Mom and Dad came to visit earlier this month, and although their trip was short, it was filled with a lot of nice memories. Mom and I went wedding dress shopping and bought a beautiful dress, we walked around the national mall, saw the WWII memorial, walked along the river basin, went to a live butterfly exhibit, ate at Union Station, etc. It was a fun-filled weekend!

*eating dinner at their hotel (Julian and I cooked)*

Last weekend Julian and I went hiking with a couple from Peru, Gio and Carlos. Julian knew them at Ohio University and they've been really wonderful friends here in DC. We spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Great Falls National Park:

Colombia!

2008-10-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Finally I've remembered to add more pictures from Colombia!
I've made two photo albums, which are linked

here

and

here

Please feel free to browse a small selection of my fabulous month in Colombia! I took so many pictures of fruit and flowers and people and different things that make Colombia so unique.

My experience was so wonderful mainly because the people that I met were so incredibly warm and welcoming. They didn't make fun of my Spanish, but overly complimented it and would encourage me to try again if they didn't understand me. Julian's friends all told me how great of a friend he has been to them, even after not seeing each other for almost 5 years.

We met cousin after cousin after cousin. I couldn't believe that his family was so big, until I learned that each parent had 7 siblings. 14 aunts and uncles make a lot of babies! There were even new cousins who Julian hadn't met before.

The food was very different-- lots of breads and dishes made from corn, lots of meat, and rice every day. Every day we would have an oatmeal drink called Avena (which I'm learning to make) and fresh fruit juices that have crippled me for life from drinking any kind of concentrated juice.

We were pampered. Julian's mom was so happy to have him home and to finally meet me, that we were a little spoiled... I have to say that I didn't mind at all, although I did want to help more. I was shooed out of the kitchen if I was trying to do dishes, so I learned to be sneaky to help as much as I was allowed.

I went on walks with Julian's mom, where we talked about Julian, God, love, family, and differences between Colombia and the US. It was such a blessing to have quality time alone with my Machita, who has such a sweet and fun disposition.

Julian's dad liked having me there too-- we ate lots of cookies together. He was very interested in sharing Colombian desserts with me (in part because he enjoys the desserts so much and it gave him an excuse to eat them). It was fun to hang out with him, and especially to see him interact with our nephew, Cristian, who he was always poking and teasing.

Cristian was especially kind to me and spoke very slowly, with lots of gestures, until I finally understood. We did tend to break things together... While we were playing with a volleyball we broke a lamp, and while we were at a friend's house we jumped on a trampoline and it ripped down the center. But other than that we had a lot of fun together.

Monica came home during the last few days I was there, which was a nice surprise because originally she was going to stay in the US longer, and I wouldn't see her because she was going to leave the US while I was in Greece. Although she was really busy with school, we still got a chance to go out in the city together and go to a salsa festival.

The only troublesome part of Colombia was my lack of independence. Because my Spanish isn't fluent, it was a bad idea to go off on my own, in case someone wanted to take advantage of my not understanding something. Towards the end, I was allowed to go around the neighborhood on my own, although I never stayed out for very long.

Those are just a few of the many experiences I had in Colombia. Next time we go, I look forward to having better Spanish (I hope!!) and being able to travel a bit so I can see more of the country. The people living in the large valley between the Andes mountains (where Cali and several other smaller cities are located) are incredibly warm and open to guests, and so friendly.

airport

2008-09-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

*beautiful Cali, Colombia*

I'm on my way to Greece, during my never-ending airport hopping journey. I left Colombia yesterday morning, very sadly, then flew to Panama, then to DC. This morning I left DC for NY (where I am now) and tomorrow morning I'll be in Athens, Greece. From there I'll take a train to my conference on Saturday! I think after this I won't want to travel for quite awhile. So far there haven't really been any snags in my travel plans other than being taken into screening by the anti-narcotic police in Colombia (who apparently thought I was a drug mule... I was x-rayed and came out clean!). Other than that it's smooth sailing (so far, cross your fingers!)

I had a fabulous time in Colombia. Julian's family is so wonderful and amazing, and they welcomed me with open arms. We got to see a lot, but most importantly I got to meet a LOT of family and some good friends. More pictures will come, probably when I'm supposed to be working on my thesis ;)

Here are a few:

*our first day!*

*with lots of colombian paraphernalia*

*el gato de cali*

*with niece Valeria, nephew Cristian and Donna Raquel*

*with my new primitos*

*giggling with Mamita Lucrecia, Julian's grandma*

*dancing with Cristian at a cousin's wedding*

*Machita on her birthday*

*fantastic dancers at a salsa festival*

*with the amazing chiquitina dancers*

Saludos desde Colombia!

2008-08-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

I´m in Cali, Colombia, with my husband and his wonderful family. I don't think I'll be able to add pictures now, but I'm taking many and will share them when I have more time. If you want to contact me, emails are welcome, or you can call Julian's house at 011-572-430-6932.

Athens

2008-08-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

*Julian and Monica with Tom and Anne Walker*

Last weekend we made a whirlwind trip to visit Athens, Ohio, to visit some friends/family and to show Monica where Julian and I studied and where he lived for almost four years. Herber came with us, and we spent a very short weekend relaxing at the Walker's, hanging out with friends and walking around Ohio University. The long drive was exhausting (and on the way to Athens we got a bit lost in the back hills of West Virginia), but it was a really wonderful opportunity to show Monica a really special town, and it was refreshing for me to be back in Ohio. I loved seeing the farms and the country on the drive. It was really weird to be in Ohio and not see family, but there will be more trips in the future when we have more time!

OU:

*the linguistics building, my old home*

*where we'll have the wedding ceremony!*

*we ran into friends alberto and margarita by the library!*

*at night we met friends for a drink-- daniel, hiuyin, me and julian*

*married couples: maria, carlos, me and julian*

WALKERS:

*anne cooking delicious Colombia breads for our brunch*

*bartley was bothering the chickens*

*giant garden!*

*giant apples*

*mmm pears!*

*hiking in the woods*

*visitors and hosts*

Sightseeing around DC

2008-08-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

Since I've been back we've been trying to do a lot of fun things in the DC area, since we only have about 2 weeks left with Monica. What's in two weeks? Well, in 2 weeks Julian and I are going to Colombia! I bought the tickets last night-- I'll fly to Colombia for about a month, then to Greece for a week and a half-- then no more traveling for awhile! While we're really excited to go to Colombia (I'll meet his parents for the first time and he hasn't been home in 4.5 years), it's bittersweet because Monica will be here until September, alone. So we're trying to make the most of our time together, and have been going to beaches, museums, going out dancing, and hanging out together.

We went out dancing at a local club called ECitie:

Later that week we went to a huge club called Ultrabar in downtown DC-- it had 4 floors and was like the clubs you see in movies-- a massive group outside waiting to get in, lots of lights, smoke and security guards. Luckily, we were on the guest list ;)

After the club we walked around the area and saw Chinatown.

*spy museum*

*national portrait gallery*

*chinatown!*

This past weekend we went back to the beach at Chesapeake Bay, at Breezy Point. The water was kind of dirty there, but there were nets to keep out the jelly fish. Sadly, the net didn't keep out a little jellyfish which stung Monica :( Luckily I knew that you should pee on the sting to ease the pain!

Then we went to Baltimore! It was a lovely city, until we got a parking ticket and realized that our car had been broken into. Monica's purse was stolen, as was Julian's GPS. The police said they must have known we had a GPS because they can see the ring of dirt left by the suction cup which holds it onto the windshield. Then they found Monica's purse hidden in the trunk. Although we had a really nice time in Baltimore, it was a bit ruined by the theft...

*after dinner we listened to a ragtime band at the harbor*

*then we rented a dragon paddleboat!*

This coming weekend our plan is to make a quick trip to Athens, Ohio so Monica can see where Julian and I studied and meet his host family, the Walkers. Our last weekend here, we are hoping to go to Ocean City. Plus we have to make more small trips around DC!! A lot to do, but a lot of fun!

Home again!

2008-07-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

*Monica, Leah and Julian Gonzalez*

I'm back in the USA! After 4 days, my jet-lag is officially gone. It's been wonderful to be back with my husband, and finally I have gotten to meet his sister. Of course I miss the EMCLers, and I've experienced a bit of culture shock with small things (so many cars, where are all the walkers and bikes? dogs aren't as well-trained and are on leashes!, strangers are super friendly and smile at you when you walk by! there aren't bakeries on every block!, etc).

We've been spending a lot of time seeing the area, since Julian's sister, Monica, is here for the summer and is really busy working during the week. So on the weekends, it's a whirlwind of taking pictures, driving to see new places and mainly having a lot of fun.

Last Saturday we went to Sandy Point State Park in Maryland to enjoy the beach at Chesapeake Bay! After an afternoon of sun and surf, we drove to Annapolis and spent the evening walking around the historic downtown-- it's so beautiful and peaceful there by the harbor.

*on our way we saw a big chair*

SANDY POINT:

ANNAPOLIS:

*in front of the replica of a 1760s schooner, which patrolled the waters to make sure taxes on imports were made properly*

*on the side of the schooner-- later a man yelled at monica for trying to climb onboard... whoops!*

On Sunday, we went to a picnic/potluck at some friends' house, then to the Smithsonian American Indian Museum and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

*with new friends*

AMERICAN INDIAN MUSEUM:

AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM:

Auf Wiedersehen Berlin!

2008-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

*cafe with kristina*

My last full day in Berlin! It seems crazy, and although I'm very excited to go home, leaving is bittersweet. I love it here in Berlin, and I'll miss my classmates a lot. We'll all see each other again in Greece, but other than that we're all going our separate ways. So, these last few days I've been going into the city and exploring a bit more, but mainly trying to spend time each day with EMCLers. Now I just have a bit more packing and cleaning to do, and then tomorrow I'm off for a long day of traveling!

*communication museum with Mixaela and Olha*

*robots in the communication museum foyer*

*mailboxes*

*telephones*

*hanging mail wagon*

*gendered communication*

*cafe, with Daria and Mixaela*

*memorial in sidewalk to those killed in the 17th Juni demonstrations*

*zoo gate, downtown*

*nikolaikirche, potsdam*

*dome, nikolaikirche, potsdam*

*Peter and Paul Church, Potsdam*

*last day on campus in Golm! (notice the heavy jackets-- it was freezing!!)*

*"Mother with twins" Sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz (an artist from Berlin), outside of the Käthe Kollwitz museum*

*"The survivors-- Fight the war!" a famous sketch by Kollwitz-- after losing a son in WWI, much of her work revolved around death, suffering, revolt and war*

*Enjoying a Berliner Weisse-- Grün, which is apple flavored beer*

*with kristina in front of the Gedächtnis Kirche*

*goodbye house*

*goodbye bathroom*

*goodbye kitchen*

*goodbye bedroom*

EMCL BBQ

2008-07-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

*EMCLers + professors*

As an end of the year celebration, our coordinators organized a barbeque for the EMCL students and professors. It was held lakeside, at a boat house, and we all brought delicious food from our home countries. One of the most special memories was a boat trip-- we all got in a canoe and rowed together while a rowing instructor beat the drum. We laughed so much, some sang, and we all savored the sun setting while out on the water together. It was a great night, but bittersweet, as many of us won't see each other again until our conference in Greece. We've all gone through so much together-- classes, moving from country to country, traveling, planning a thesis, going through red tape, etc. We've all been reflecting on how incredibly blessed we have been to study and travel together, and in such fantastic locations. It was a wonderful celebration, and we're all really looking forward to our time together in Thessaloniki in a few months!

*me, Anitha and Mixaela's sister Sula*

*Daria and Olga*

*Yifei in the picnic area*

*me, Daria, Kristina*

*most of the girls, it's a bit sunny*

*me, Dr. Obler (one of my thesis supervisors), Daria and Mixaela*

*Professors: Loraine Obler, Dorit Ravid, Barabara Hoehle, Ria de Bleser and Shyamala Chengappa*

*Dr. De Bleser opening a thank you card from the group*

*getting into our canoe... *

*rowing (mostly) together*

*following the drum*

*making it around the lake made me feel tough*

*"american barbeque mallows" (according to the bag)-- they tasted the same, but they lost their shape and melted once they were warm*

*Anitha is teaching me Indian dancing*

*practicing Greek dancing for the fall*

*beautiful sunset, beautiful night*

last days of EMCL (classes)

2008-07-15T10:06:00.000-07:00

This week marks the last week of courses in the EMCL program, and in my life (as of now). I had my last exam (ever) on Monday, and have a few more courses to go, but no work!! I would say I'm free as a bird, except I have the tiny little thesis thing to go... But I'll think about that after this week.

Sadly, since classes are ending, our time together is as well. Libei left today, Weichun is leaving tomorrow, and then we all start dropping out (of Berlin) like flies. Since our work has lessened and our time together is growing short, we've been spending more time together which has been very nice. I have to say that I'm very glad that we'll have our conference in Greece in the fall, so we don't really have to say goodbye to each other now. We're thrilled to be able to say, See you in Thessaloniki (which, by the way, is on a beach. Also, our hotels and food are paid for by our program!)

Unfortunately, I seem to have caught a cold. I hope I can kick it so I can enjoy my last week in Berlin to the fullest!

*anitha on a stranger's motorcycle, displaying some fantastic graffiti of berlin*

*in front of a giant wad of ?*

*berlin ran me over, but i survived*

*brandenburger tor made of chocolate!*

*deutscher dom, gendarmenmarkt*

*berliner bär*

*at the girl's apartment to watch a movie: felipe, libei, me, anitha*

*jewish museum, which recalls the history of german jews from the roman times to present*

*the jewish museum is well-known for it's superb architecture from daniel libeskind. from above the building looks like a thunder bolt, with an empty void in the middle. there are towers, tunnels and gardens all signifying meaningful events in jewish-german history*

*jewish museum*

*Garden of Exile, from above: the garden forms a perfect square from above, but walking through it makes you feel a bit dizzy and disoriented, as displaced jews did when they were exiled into new cultures*

*in the garden of exile*

*fallen leaves exhibit, jewish museum: you were supposed to walk on the faces, which clinked together eerily*

*the emcl gang at masala, an indian restaurant, to celebrate ryan and david's birthdays*

*the birthday boys, eating their birthday ice cream*

*ryan and dave with their birthday presents to each other: a david hasselhoff cd and a butcher's axe. these boys are classy.*

4th of July + Aphasia Conference

2008-07-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

*Happy 4th of July!!*

Happy 4th of July from Berlin!

I didn't really celebrate, although I did wear red, white and blue. On the 4th and the 5th, my classmates and I were invited to attend a cross-linguistic aphasia conference. This basically meant that on Friday and Saturday, we attended presentations from researchers and PhD students who had conducted experiments looking into various aspects of language used by brain-damaged people. Information was given from Dutch, German, English, Korean, Spanish, Basque, Shona, and Greek. It was fantastic and made me momentarily want to be a researcher. Although technically research is the path that I am headed towards in my current program, I don't plan on following it, at least for now. The current plan is to get a job and gain experience doing something other than being a student, and then later if I miss the academic world, I can return. But I'll miss conferences where we hear about the latest research...

Anyway, after the conference, we were taken out to dinner by our program (thanks EMCL!) where we all had a nice time. The second day we all had lunch together, then took a bus tour of Potsdam, which was highly informative and entertaining since our tour guide was very sarcastic and witty while telling us the detailed history of a rather tumultuous town.

*professors at dinner*

*felipe, olha, olga, kristina, daria and elif ready for our bus tour!*

*enjoying the beautiful weather atop the bus*

*nikolai kirche and potsdam city palace, under construction and surrounded by an archaeological dig*

*former royal stables*

*building with mosaic from the communist era*

*nauener tor*

*back of schloss sanssouci, which means without worries in french*

*i like this picture of daria and elif-- so beautiful!*

Flashback: Milano-Ohio

2008-07-03T12:05:00.001-07:00

So I finally moved the pictures from my old camera to my computer (thanks to Olga who lent me a cable) and discovered that I had a ton of pictures from my last days in Milan and from part of Christmas break in the States! Here's a flash from the past:

Beautiful Milan, decked out in its Christmas finest!

*duomo*

*shopping gallery*

*inside shopping gallery*

*the children's nativity production at my church in Milano*

On my last weekend in Milan, Olga and I went to the top of the Duomo, where you can see the hundreds of statues atop the spires as well as amazing views of the city.

On our way to Sidney, we stopped in Athens and spent time with the Vega family (Carlos, Maria and Karen) and another Colombian friend, David. We made traditional Colombian food: buñuelos, natilla and pandebonos. Little did I know that later that day, Julian would propose :)

*Maria and Karen, with plates full of natilla waiting to be eaten*

*buñuelos, and pandebonos*

*Carlos, Karen, Maria, David and Julian enjoying our brunch*

While we were in Ohio, we visited the wonderful Medina family, who are good friends of Julian. The family is musically gifted, and so most rendezvous with them result in a jam session of some sort.

*first they played in the living room*

*then they brought out the more serious equipment*

*Julian played the guiro*

France!

2008-06-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was my last European trip... for now :)
I went to France to visit Mary Holmgren, who has lived there for the last year teaching English to elementary students. It was so wonderful to see her again, and luckily we were in Paris at the same time as another high school friend, April Ward who was traveling with her boyfriend!

On Thursday I left Berlin bright and early. I arrived in Paris and spent the morning and part of the afternoon exploring Paris on my own. I made it around surprisingly well for not knowing more than a handful of words in French! That day I saw the Notre Dame, the Pantheon, The Luxembourg Gardens and the Eiffel tower before I took a train towards the ocean to Mary's town, Caen.

NOTRE DAME:

PANTHEON:

*video of Pantheon*

LUXEMBOURG GARDENS:

TOUR EIFFEL:

*video of eiffel tour*

The train station was an interesting experience.... As I was eating a sandwich, I broke my tooth on a hidden seed in the baguette. Then there was a technical problem with the board which shows which platforms are for which trains, so I and about 200+ others missed our trains. I ended up waiting there a couple of hours, but I got a lot of practice using a few French phrases (mainly "parlez-vous l'ainglais?")

I arrived in Caen and was delighted to see Mary! She had organized a small welcoming committee consisting of some of her friends and delicious snacks. We had a nice evening talking and walking around the beautiful town in Normandy. Caen is gorgeous-- a lot of it was destroyed by the war, but it's been rebuilt nicely and has a wonderful atmosphere.

CAEN:

The next day we went to a small choir performed by some of Mary's students in the afternoon. They sang a few French songs and two English songs (Imagine by John Lennon and Hello Goodbye by the Beatles) which Mary taught them. It was really cute-- 2nd-4th graders singing, "imagine all ze people.."

*video of kid's choir*

After the choir concert we stopped by a dentist to see if they could somehow fix my tooth, although everyone Mary had called wouldn't give us an appointment. Luckily, the receptionist thought Mary's French was sweet and told us to wait in the waiting room until the dentist had a bit of free time. About 20 minutes later he put a temporary covering on my broken tooth-- for free!! (I've since had it fully repaired at a dentist in Berlin). God is good :)

Later we took a bus to a nearby town called Ouistreham, which is right on the English channel. We walked along the beach, which is a beach of Normandy but not one of the ones involved in D-day, we put our feet in the cold cold ocean, and we ate crepes.

OUISTREHAM:

Saturday we got up very early and traveled to the palace of Versailles, which was the home of Louis XIV-XVI and Marie Antoinette. As we walked around the palace grounds and the beautiful gardens, period music was playing. We rented a canoe and rowed through the large reflecting pool. When I say rowed... I mean, we rowed but not super well at first. All of the other canoes had men rowing and lazy women gazing about. We worked hard and eventually each rowed with one oar, although the entire time we rowed the canoe backwards and almost collided with several boats. As we were heading back to the dock, a little boy (about 4 years old) in his dad's canoe shouted in french to his mom who was rowing a different canoe that she was worthless because she was rowing the canoe backwards. She pointed our boat out, saying that we were doing it the same way so it must be ok. I guess we were worthless too! It was so much fun though, and one of my favorite parts of the trip!

VERSAILLES:

*video of versailles*

Later we went back to Paris to meet April and her boyfriend. After we were reunited, we walked through the city to the Louvre and the Champs Elysees, which is a famous road.

WALKING THROUGH PARIS:

*Pompidou building-- inside out*

*hotel de ville, town hall*

*it was the sales time of year in paris-- it only happens twice a year, so stores were packed*

LOUVRE:

CHAMPS ELYSEES:

OPERA HOUSE:

After April and her boyfriend left to find their housing for the night, Mary and I walked back through the Latin quarter, enjoying the sunset by the beautiful river La Seine.

LA SEINE:

*mary by the oldest bridge in paris*

After it got dark we took a bus to the airport where we stayed the night in order to save some money and be adventurers. We didn't sleep much because it wasn't super comfortable, but it was fun nonetheless! Overall it was a wonderful weekend and I really enjoyed my taste of France!

*in the airport*

Eurocup!

2008-06-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday night Germany beat Turkey in the semi-finals!!! I went out with my friends to watch the game at Brandenburg Gate, but unfortunately too many people were there and the police wouldn't let anyone else through. We ended up watching the game at a biergarten downtown, which was still really nice and exciting. The game was fantastic-- Germany and Turkey were tied for the majority of the game, both scoring towards the end. In the last minute of the game, Germany scored the winning goal!! That night was crazy here, with Germans yelling and singing, with painted faces and flags draped on their bodies and cars. The trains were jam-packed full of people singing either: Deutschland, deutschland, deutschland or Finale, oh oh, Finale, oh oh oh oh. It was pretty easy to join in, and when I left for France the next day around 5 am I saw people heading home in their German colors.

*the Turkish and German fans by the Brandenburg Gate. Maybe it's a good thing we didn't make it there.... it looks crowded.*

*by the Siegessäule on the way to watch the game*

*watching the game in a biergarten*

*Anitha*

*Libei and Anitha celebrate Germany's victory!*

*Happy Germans in the Biergarten*

*happy Germany fans*

The final game was between Germany and Spain, and although I had planned on watching it, I was super tired after my trip to France and ended up sleeping all day. So, I missed the first part of the game and watched the rest online...Sadly, Germany lost. I don't know that much about the technicality of soccer, but it didn't seem as though Germany played very well. But at least they made it to the finals!

Random Berlin

2008-06-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Thursday nights the museums on Museum Island remain open for an additional 4 hours and cease to charge for admission. This is why the only time I have and will ever go to the museums is on a Thursday evening, because who wants to pay when it could be free??
Last Thursday, I went to the Pergamon Museum, which is basically the recreation of a Greek temple: the Germans took the ruins of a temple from Greece and reassembled a decent amount of it within a museum.

*on the stairs of the temple (i'm in orange)*

*view from the top*

*a model of the original temple*

*close-up of the statues on the outer-walls of the temple*

*greek goddess*

*ryan and his "greek twin"*

*intricate floor mosaics-- the tiles were so incredibly small*

Next we went to the National Gallery, which houses paintings from the 17th-19th century, focusing on German artists.

*tom, kujtime and ryan outside of the gallery*

On Friday I went with Kristina and her fiance Jeremy to the Turkish market, which is by far my favorite market in Europe. It's super crowded, the men at the stalls yell out prices and try to get you to taste their fruit, and the smells and sights are from all over the world. Best of all, everything is really affordable, unique and fresh.

*kristina and me at the turkish market*

Then I went to Schloss Bellevue, a palace in the center of Tiergarten, where the Bundespraesident lives. I happened to be there when some diplomatic party was being held, so there were police everywhere and a drum and trumpet corps playing on the front lawn.

*drum and trumpet corps in front of schloss bellevue*

*along der Spree, one of the rivers in Berlin*

We've also been enjoying the Eurocup (although I didn't watch that many games at first). Now it's getting exciting, and my prediction is that Berlin will self-combust Wednesday evening, when Turkey plays Germany. The Turkish population in Berlin is HUGE and the Turkish fans are the rowdiest I've ever seen.

*the UEFA Eurocup!*

*germany's striker, warming up-- i just like that he can jump really high*

Parties!

2008-06-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

We've been having a lot of birthdays in our group, therefore we've been having parties. Also, the European Cup is currently going on for soccer (or fussball), so we've been watching games here and there, although I've technically only watched one.... Every night they have games, and you can hear people honking and celebrating the victories of their countries. Naturally when Germany wins (which they've been doing a lot of) you hear the most noise, although the Turkish fans know how to celebrate too!

*kujtime invited us all over for tortillas to celebrate her birthday. They were delicious!*

*rooting for the Dutch team (who won!): Elif, Felipe, Mixaela, Anitha, me*

*anitha, me, mixaela*

*happy friends: weichun, kujtime, cindy*

*somehow we were convinced to dance salsa.. ryan, david and felipe all danced with me. i'm laughing because ryan was shaking his hips a lot to entertain everyone*

*then anitha did some indian dancing for us*

*Later Lars joined in*

*drinks with two of our professors from the netherlands-- Dr. Bol and Dr. Bastiaanse. Dr. Bastiaanse will be my thesis advisor. Sadly, you can't see either of them in the group pic*

*Greek dinner: tom, anitha, yifei, felipe, me, cindy, libei, weichun*

Other than that things in Germany and moving along steadily. We are all planning our thesis time now, meeting with professors and trying to juggle our large work load (10 classes!!). I'll be writing my thesis with my professor from the Netherlands, although I'll be writing it from DC. My thesis will be about African American dialectal speakers of English, and how certain grammatical features might be changed in aphasia, when they have language disorders due to brain damage. Originally I planned on staying in Berlin a bit longer, but today I decided it would be nice to be home to write my thesis, and so I bought a ticket to go home at the end of July. I'll have to come back to Greece for a conference in September, but other than that I'll be back home. I feel a little nervous about the decision, but mainly I feel very excited to see Julian again :)

!Barcelona!

2008-06-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

I spent a four day weekend in Barcelona, visiting my Spanish brother Hector. I had a fantastic time -- I loved the city and the company and would go back any day. My Spanish even improved. By the end of the 4 days, I had picked up two often used words: joder and vale. Vale means, ok or alright and is used by everyone. Joder can be translated as a 4 letter word beginning with f, but it doesn't have the same connotation-- you can use it with almost everyone, or at least in casual situations.

Since Hector is a working man, I spent parts of the days on my own in the city, doing the touristy things, and I'm proud to say that (for the most part) I found my way around without any problems, and could do basic things in Spanish. I'll put some of my pictures here, but since there are a lot, here are links to see more:
album 1
album 2

On Thursday, Hector taught me how to make Catalonian sandwiches, called pa amb tomàquet (Barcelona is in the Catalanian district of Spain, so the people speak Catalan in addition to Spanish and most locals have a strong Catalonian heritage), which involves rubbing a juicy tomato on bread, drizzling with olive oil, and then adding the normal toppings. They were delicious!

Then I went to the old downtown, where I saw tons of touristy things, and loved them all.

*in front of casa mila, also known as la pedrera (the quarry) by architect antoni gaudi*

*casa batllo by gaudi*

*la rambla, a famous street now filled mostly with tourists*

*placa reial, the most beautiful square in barcelona. the lamposts are designed by gaudi*

*video of the cathedral*

*inside the cathedral*

*monument to christopher columbus (he's pointing east though...)*

*the arc de triomf*

The next day, my touristy agenda consisted of going to the famous church La Familia Sagrada and the mountain Montjuic, which hosts a castle, museums, the olympic statium and many gardens. The church was gorgeous.

*La Sagrada Familia (the sacred family)-- this side of the church has the birth facade, telling the story of Jesus's birth. The other side of the church features the passion, the death of Christ*

*La Sagrada Familia, the Passion scene*

I couldn't find the proper train entrance to get to Montjuic, so after consulting a map I decided that it wouldn't be too hard to just walk to the mountain. In theory, I was correct, but in practice, I made a very silly decision. I ended up walking a LOT, only to find that the paths I expected to connect did not, and that the paths that would usually exist were under construction. So, I walked about halfway up the mountain, then back down, then to the train station where I finally succeeded in finding the proper train. The main issue was that I had bought new shoes, so my feet were in a ton of pain by the time I found the top of Montjuic, making it difficult to walk around and explore all that it had to offer. But what I saw I really liked, so in the end it was ok.

*view of barcelona on the way to montjuic*

*jardin miramar, on the side of montjuic*

*in the Olympic Stadium*

That night Hector had a small dinner party for his friends, so I got to meet really friendly and interesting Spaniards, who taught me about some helpful Spanish phrases, the history of the Spanish flag, typical Spanish jokes, etc.
Saturday we had lunch with Hector's family, which was one of my favorite things-- they were so lovely! His grandparents cooked delicious food, and even though communication wasn't so easy, I think we all really enjoyed each other's company.

*Hector's family: Hector, Aunt Montser, Mom Puri, Grandma Isabel, Grandpa Rate*

Later, I went to parc guell, which has a beautiful view of the city as well as more works by Gaudi.

*parc guell*

*the gaudi bench in parc guell-- the mosaic is made out of glass bottles, porcelain faces from dolls and other "trash"*

*sitting on the gaudi bench*

At night, we walked around the city, then went to a birthday party for some of his friends at a chinese restaurant. I was surprised and delighted to find out that the restaurant gives little gifts to their customers-- all of the girls got bracelets!

Sunday we woke up late and got breakfast from one of the local bakeries, then ate in the quiet and relaxing streets by the technical school.

*breakfast*

I was sad to leave, having had so much fun exploring the city and spending time with Hector. Barcelona is such a beautiful city, but I didn't find it to be too touristy or "unreal"-- it was just a historical city with some great features and a relaxing atmosphere. Altogether, my trip was the perfect combination of touristy sites and everyday life, with a Spanish brother thrown in :)

Neues Palais

2008-06-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

The University of Potsdam has several campuses. I happen to study at the ugly one, in Golm. Golm itself isn't so bad, but the campus is..... a modern ugly construction site. It smells a little bad too. Kristina likes to point out the taunting way that the recorded train voiceover says, "We are now arriving in train station Golm."
Campus in Golm:

BUT I get to take two classes in another campus, in Neues Palais (New Palace). As the name suggests, there is a palace there. It's so beautiful, with gardens, pathways, palaces, statues, fountains, etc. I wish I studied there all the time.
Campus in Neues Palais:

East Side Gallery + Stasi Museum

2008-05-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

Today I went with Anitha and Mixaela to explore some of the historical elements in Berlin. Of course, Berlin has an incredibly rich history, particularly involving the division between East and West Berlin, which was kind of the theme for the day. The first thing we went to see was the Oberbaumbrücke, which is a bridge built in the 1700s and connected two districts of Berlin-- one from the East and one from the West. The bridge is now a symbol of unity, and one of the landmarks of Berlin. One of the coolest aspects of the bridge was pointed out to me by Hector, our Spanish exchange brother: there are neon signs which play rock, paper, scissors with each other at night (you can see the circles where the hands go on either side of the arch on the bottom of the bridge).

Next, we went to see the East Side Gallery, which is where portions of the Berlin Wall remain. It's very chilling to see the wall, although now there are no guards, mines or dogs guarding it. Some of the famous graffiti remains, although tons of tourists have written their names on the wall, covering up some of the nicest parts.

After that, we went to the former Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit-- Ministry of State Security) headquarters, which is now a museum. The Stasi gathered information about citizens who were deemed a threat to the state, which basically meant anyone who might be speaking out against the government, who listened to Western radio, who smuggled Western products into the East, etc. They bugged their fellow citizens, took photographs, had secret microphones, would arrest and interrogate people suspected of threatening the security of the East German state. Basically, they were snitches, and not at all well liked. After the wall came down, the headquarters were pillaged and many documents were destroyed. They had files on everyone they had been watching-- extensive files. After a lot of protests from the German people, the documents were made available and you could go read your own file, detailing every activity made during the time they were watching you.
For a really great movie which involves the Stasi and this time in East Germany, I highly recommend The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). It's a fantastic movie and really accurately chronicles life in East Germany, and specifically the Stasi.

*me and anitha in erich mielke's former office-- mielke was the head of the stasi*

*"we are everywhere"-- the stasi were secret police and many citizens were their informants-- it was speak openly to anyone, anywhere*

*hidden microphone in a fake rock-- the stasi had a lot of unique spy ideas*

*"thoughts are free," "that's what you think"*

*"freedom for my documents," graffiti on the former security checkpoint at the Stasi headquarters*

Hand Art

2008-05-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

*Guido turning a hand into a cat*

The Italian artist, Guido Daniele, was recently featured on Animal Planet, and pictures of his work are being circulated throughout the internet. He does a lot of different artwork, but some of his most popular involves transforming hands into animals. You can watch a video of Guido painting a hand if you click here.
Here are some of his creations:

*Congratulations Bryan and Laney!!

2008-05-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

On Monday, May 27, 2008, Bryan Overholt proposed to Elaine McLoughlin in Athens, Ohio (the capital of romance for the Overholt children). Of course, she said yes. It's so exciting! Now I'll have 2 sisters-in-law :) I've always wanted sisters, and I think my sisters-in-law are wonderful women.

Congratulations to the newly engaged couple!!

Birthday Flowers

2008-05-27T08:27:00.001-07:00

Julian sent me a birthday surprise-- a bouquet of beautiful flowers!

Julian's Salsa Rueda Group

2008-05-27T00:32:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday Julian's Salsa Rueda Group (SonMas) presented at a Salsa festival. They look really great and I look forward to dancing with them in the future!

Happy Birthday!!

2008-05-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to me and dad!! I am now 23, dad is a ripe old 49!!

*the birthday celebrants*

*HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME--my gifts: shoes, belt, cookbook, luggage locks, national geographic best of international faces book, necklace, 2 pairs of earrings, 3 greeting cards, amplemann keychain, amplemann bag, spanish birthday letter*

On Friday night I celebrated my birthday with my classmates here. We went out to dinner at a German restaurant a couple of blocks away from my house, then had dessert and a little wine/tea at my apartment, then half of the group went out dancing at Havana, a latin nightclub.

Dinner was really nice, especially since we were the only customers there for most of the night. The staff was really flexible with us, especially with the vegetarians or those that only eat certain kinds of meat. The only problem I had with the restaurant was that when I made the reservation, the waitress said, "Oh, it must be your 18th birthday!!" Um, no. That was 5 years ago. It's not the first time people have thought I was so much younger than I am-- in Bremen I ordered a beer, and they carded me. In Germany, the drinking age is 16. So, at 22, they thought I was 15. I'm not really thrilled about it, and my classmates carried out the joke by toasting to my 18th birthday :)

*a slightly dark picture of dinner! me, weichun, olya, kujtime, ryan, mixaela, daria, cindy, anitha and felipe (kristina took the picture)*

*part 1 of dinner (later I had schnitzel and bratkartoffeln)*

*weichun and me at dinner*

*cindy, daria and anitha*

*kristina and me at dinner*

At my apartment, we just relaxed for a little while with some ice cream, tea and wine. It was really wonderful to have people over-- no one had seen my apartment before, and I was thrilled to have energetic guests! While we were all hanging out, I was talked into demonstrating belly dancing, as was Olya, and then Anitha was coerced into showing us Indian dancing. Luckily the two guys who came along were in the other room the whole time.

*kujtime, anitha, cindy and olya at my house!*

*showing the little bits that i know*

*now it's olya's turn to belly dance*

*anitha's indian dance-- it's sideways at first.... sorry...*

Lastly, I went dancing with Kujtime, Felipe, Ryan, Anitha, and Michaela. We went to a latin nightclub, but since we were there kind of early, the music wasn't the best. But we all had a great time letting it loose on the dance floor!

Sunday, my real birthday, I went out early to walk around and then go to church. The church was really great, and it was my first time there. I had met a couple of people in a Bible study who went to this church and I'm really glad they invited me. Everyone was super friendly and genuinely happy to see me there. I think I met over 20 people from around the world, and the service was given in 3 languages (in German, with small areas of the congregation translating quietly into Chinese and an African language). Unfortunately, I didn't realize how long the service would be (4 hours!!!!) and had to leave as soon as it was over for my date with Julian. I promised that next week I would stay for cake and talk to everyone afterwards. It was a really nice birthday present from God to meet other Christians who were so passionate about Him and about others!

Later, I had a movie date with Julian :)
We call on Skype, make the webcam picture of each other small and watch the same movie from the same website, while we watch each other at the same time. This week I get to pick the movie: Vantage Point.

*waiting for our movie date to begin*

Cemetary again

2008-05-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

*pretty grave-gardens*

Today I went for a walk and ended up going back to the cemetery. It's such a beautiful and peaceful place, with so many little paths to take! I brought my camera this time and snuck a few pictures along the way. Here are some more pictures from the hidden sanctuary.

*a path in the cemetery, with neat hedges sectioning some of the grave-gardens*

*these watering holes are spread throughout the cemetery, to make the gardening upkeep easier (especially since the graveyard doubles as a park of sorts)*

*the ueberholz family-- possible (very distant) relatives?*

*an artistic gravestone, with abstract art*

Karneval der Kulturen

2008-05-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Cultural Carnival (Karneval der Kulturen) took place in Berlin this weekend, and I went for a bit in the afternoon with Kristina and her roommate, Gabriel. One of the highlights of the carnival is the parade, in which cultural groups or clubs perform, or display themselves in some way. It was really sunny, and so we didn't stay for the whole thing, but what we saw was very entertaining. Brazilian groups dominated the part of the parade that we saw, so there was a lot of energetic samba and capoeira going on. Here are some pictures and videos of the festival:

*we just arrived and are happy to see so much action!*

*the carnival brought out lots of fun people-- this guy wasn't in the parade...*

*the parade is coming!!!!*

BRAZILIAN GROUP

SCARY PUPPET GROUP

SERBIAN GROUP

TUBE PEOPLE

(video)

STILT GROUP

POLISH CERAMIC GROUP (a theater company)

DRUMMERS

MORE DRUMMERS, with Donald Duck yelling "more money, faster cars, more things, etc"

ANOTHER DRUMMING GROUP

BOLIVIAN GROUP

(video)

Hamburg

2008-05-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

*Hamburg*

*the Hamburg group: tom, kujtime, olha, olga, felipe, mixaela, kristina, me and anitha*

This weekend I went with 8 of my classmates to Hamburg, a city in north Germany. Hamburg is the home of the Hamburger, in two ways. First, a person from Hamburg is called a Hamburger, so of course Hamburg is their home. Second, the sandwich type of Hamburger originated from the Hamburg steak, which is from Hamburg. Besides that, Hamburg is an important port town, both historically and still today. It has the second largest harbor in Europe (Rotterdam has the largest) and is the second biggest city in Germany. We had to take a 4 hour train to get there, so we only got a taste of Hamburg, but a nice taste. Here are some photos of our time there:

*in front of the Rathaus (city hall)*

*anitha and me by the fountain in the Rathaus courtyard*

*felipe in front of the nikolaikirche, which is now a memorial since it was bombed during WWII*

*at the harbor*

*video of musicians at the carnival by the harbor*

*anitha, olha, olga and kristina on our boat tour of the harbor!*

*at the binnenalster*

*hamburg through leaves, with the binnenalster lake in the foreground*

Cemetery

2008-05-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today I went for a long walk in and around my neighborhood, enjoying my day off of classes and the warm sunshine. I purposely got "lost" several times, trying to find interesting things in the nooks and crannies. As I was walking I saw several people going in and out of a park-ish area, which was gated and fenced. I saw the park sign-- a picture of a tulip-- and decided to explore the park. Soon I found out that it's a park....... but also a cemetery, which is weird. It was the most beautiful cemetery I've ever seen, with neatly arranged flower beds, nature paths, benches and fountains, and graves. Each plot was like a mini garden, with fresh blooms and artfully arranged plants. Best of all, it was quiet and peaceful. There weren't many people walking around, so I'm actually not sure that it's acceptable for people to go on their evening walk there. Most people I saw were tending to the graves/garden.

As I left, I noticed the signs on the gate:
WAS IHR SEID, DAS WERDEN WIR (what you are-- the dead, we will be)
WAS WIR SIND, DAS WARTER IHR (what we are-- the dead, you will be)

Hmm in English it doesn't sound as nice actually. But basically, on one side of the gate was one perspective-- we will be what the people inside are, dead. On the other side of the gate was the other perspective-- what we are (dead) you await. It's striking in German anyway.

I also saved a bird today. It was stuck in the stairwell, one landing below mine. The courtyard is always open, since it doubles as a pathway between the actual bakery and the shop of the bakery. I made a path of open doors and windows for the poor bird and shooed it out. I hope it's ok... it kept banging into the window trying to get out, so there might be some brain damage. Someone needs to build a little MRI machine for birds.

Tomorrow is a (LONG) day trip to Hamburg! 4 hours in the train each way.... I think we'll all be dead tired once we get back. But Kristina just reminded me of some great news--- no class on Monday!!!! Pentecost is a holiday here, so public places, like universities, are all closed. Which means more time to sleep, relax, work, try to find a job and work on my tan.

Steglitz

2008-05-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

To go back home from campus, I take about 3 trains. On the last train, the stop before mine is in the center of a district of Berlin called Steglitz. It's usually bustling with shoppers and people at little cafes, and so I decided to get off there and walk around, then walk the rest of the way home. Steglitz was beautiful, and I found a cheap shoe store (although I refrained from buying more shoes...). Then I began my long journey home, which I assumed would be fairly quick and painless, just a nice 30-45 minute walk.

Well, rather shortly I noticed that the streets weren't straight as I had assumed, but curved and sort of zig-zagged around, so I started following my basic intuition as to where my house was. Mistake number 1. Then I noticed a park, and since I had been looking for parks near my house (and thinking that I was near my house) I made a "short" detour into the park. The problem with the park was, that it kept looking like it ended. I would get to a street and cross it, then realize that the park continued on the other side of the street. I cross a river twice, somewhat realizing that I didn't recall a river anywhere near my neighborhood. Then I saw the train go by and had the brilliant idea of following the train line. I kept walking, and although I recognized street names I had no idea if I was going the right direction or not. Finally I saw a bus stop. Germany is a wonderful place, in that the bus stops all have maps. Once I saw the map, I realized the following:

So, I hopped on a bus to go back to my section of Berlin. Whoops! Then, I missed my stop on the bus and had to walk back a couple of stops, but all's well that ends well! Now I know where the park is and I know that it's a monster of a park. It's a nice place to get lost in actually, as long as I go the right direction once I exit the grassy fields.

Happy May Day + Zoo Trip

2008-05-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

*I befriended a pelican at the zoo*

Today is May Day (May 1st), which is celebrated in Bavaria with may poles, traditional dress and dancing. In Berlin, there are lots of demonstrations and drunk people, especially since May 1st is also man's day here. Groups of men drink together all over the city (meaning in the streets, on the trains, everywhere since it's legal to drink anywhere here), so I'm staying in tonight.

As a side note, there are a lot of strikes going on now. The last couple of weeks the postal service had been striking, yesterday the bus/tram strike began, and most surprisingly the police are also striking. I was told that it's very uncommon for organizations to strike here in Germany, but I suppose once one group strikes everyone wants to.

To celebrate May Day, I went to the East Zoo of Berlin with my friends Elif, Basak and Freddy. It rained a bit in the morning, but by the afternoon the weather was gorgeous! We saw a lot of exotic animals at the zoo, and it was especially nice since it's spring and nearly every animal had a baby version.

*me and freddy, elif's conversation partner who showed us around the zoo*

*elephant!*

*and a baby elephant, so cute!*

*baby giraffe, mama giraffe*

*zebra*

*video of panther babies playing*

*tiger*

*baby cheetah*

*proud lion*

*peacock*
*monkey*

*croc*

*elif and me in the tropical house*

After the zoo, I went off on my own to explore Alexanderplatz. They were having a Finnish festival there, and were selling Finnish goods in small booths. There were a lot of people out and about today, since it's a holiday and most people don't have to work.

*Red City Hall, Alexanderplatz*

*Marienkirche, Alexanderplatz*

*Neptune Fountain, Alexanderplatz*

Dresden, Germany

2008-04-27T03:37:00.000-07:00

*olha, kristina, olga, and me in dresden!*

My friends and I have discovered a beautiful thing: the happy weekend ticket. For 35 Euros you can travel with 5 others anywhere in Germany, but only on the weekend. This makes it really cheap to travel to nearby German cities, so this weekend we went for the day to Dresden.
I didn't know much about Dresden before we left, other than the fact that it was almost completely destroyed by the Allies in World War II. During the day, I found out that one of my favorite German authors, Eric Kaestner, is also from Dresden. It's a beautiful city, and its art museum houses famous paintings from Italy, Holland, Germany and Spain. Kristina was especially thrilled, because she had always dreamed of seeing one particular painting, the Sistine Madonna by Raphael, and it is located at this gallery-- she got to check one dream off her list!
The only problem with our trip was the time-- it took 3 hours to get there, and we only had 6 hours in the city, so although we saw a lot, there was a lot more to see and explore. But the weather was beautiful and the company was great, so all in all the day was a big success!

*we passed golden fields on the train-- they're weeds, but they're beautiful*

*flowers around the city*

*inside the Kreuzkirche (church of the cross), which was destroyed in 1945*

*altar of the kreuzkirche*

*in front of the rathaus (city hall)-- the statue of a woman is a monument to the women who rebuilt the city after WWII*

*in front of the frauenkirche (women's church) which was also destroyed by the war and only rebuilt in 2005*

*olha, me and kristina by the river in dresden*

*in front of the opera house*

*kristina is so excited to go to the art museum!*

*the Sistine Madonna by Raphael*

*this was my favorite: The Chocolate Girl by Liotard (Kristina surprised me after with a magnet of the painting!)*

*~`*~Gonzalez Family`*~`*

Random 2010

Happy Birthday to Me!

Mulberry Pie

New Windows

Happy 2 Years!!!

Our Home

*Home Sweet Home*

Misc. Winter 2010

August 22, 2009

I love AppleTree

Nationals Game!

*Cherry Blossoms*

Conferences

Theodore Roosevelt Island

Chinese New Year!

First Day of Work!

Valentine's Day

*We are one*

I'm employed!

Anitha's visit

My thesis is complete!

*Residency*

Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Julian!!

October in DC

Colombia!

*airport*

Saludos desde Colombia!

*Athens*

Sightseeing around DC

Home again!

Auf Wiedersehen Berlin!

EMCL BBQ

last days of EMCL (classes)

4th of July + Aphasia Conference

Flashback: Milano-Ohio

France!

Eurocup!

Random Berlin

Parties!

!Barcelona!

Neues Palais

East Side Gallery + Stasi Museum

Hand Art

***Congratulations Bryan and Laney!!**

Birthday Flowers

Julian's Salsa Rueda Group

**Happy Birthday!!**

Cemetary again

Karneval der Kulturen

Hamburg

Cemetery

Steglitz

Happy May Day + Zoo Trip

Dresden, Germany

~`~Gonzalez Family`~`

Home Sweet Home

Cherry Blossoms

We are one

Residency

airport

Athens

*Congratulations Bryan and Laney!!

Happy Birthday!!