European Vacation: Day 4

It has rained twice since we've been here, which is very uncommon from what we hear. It never lasts more than an hour or two and is very warm, so I don't mind. It cools things off- it's only been in the high 70's since the first day. Perfect weather.

Today we started off at the Picasso museum. The line was very long, and winded down very narrow streets. The streets were very picturesque and I took a lot of photos. The museum was great: it told about the history and showed a lot of his early work which included some very detailed drawings.

One of the many winding streets we took to the Picasso Museum

We then bussed (or Metro'd) over to La Sagrida Familia, which is too intricate and incredible to accurately describe. This building has been under construction since 1882, and will continue until at least 2026. The archways over the two non-main entrances are nearly complete and the construction on the main entrance is just begun. The construction has lasted so long that renovations and updates are happening alongside construction. Another four towers have yet to be built, which will double the height of the building, and the majority of the infrastructure of the interior is complete, but even the floor is not complete yet. The building is so enormous that it could fit another church completely inside its main room.

One of the entrances, and the oldest part, of the church - this one depicting Jesus' birth

Once Gaudi died, other architects took up the project of completing the church. This entrance depicts Jesus' death.

Inside the church - still under construction, but very beautiful.

Even the ceiling of the main sanctuary is intricate

We then went to Park Guell, which is located on top of a hill. Earlier in the week, while at the beach, Krysti and I joked about climbing said hill and taking photos of what we only assumed would be a fantastic view of the city. Well, fast forward two days and we did just that. The park is laid out with a lot of trees, in which parrots perch and sing, and the multiple paths lead from coves of benches amongst palm trees and cacti to rocky stairways and winding paths that lead up the hill. At the top of the hill, there are many benches, tables and chairs on which to rest along with the most beautiful view of the city. Krysti and I sat up there for a long time and just discussed our lives and the wonders of our visit and nature itself. We joked that if we climbed to the top of the hill there should be someone to shake our hand, so we giggled and shook hands once we reached the apex of the climb only to turn around to see there was another small hill behind us. We didn't climb the last part (it looked to be on private property), but we still bore witness to a very exquisite view of the city.

The entrance to Park Guell - designed by Gaudi, who was well known for using this mosaic approach

The entrance to Park Guell

It's a parrot!! In a tree!

The pathways in the park were so beautiful

The view of the city from the "top" of the hill

Congratulating each other on our hike to the top

Once at the bottom of the hill, we made our way via bus to a small cafe near our hostel. I was not really impressed, but at least I felt like it wasn't microwaved. Tonight is a low-key night in preparation for our trip to Italy tomorrow. We did meet some boys from LA and Boston staying in our hostel who went out tonight, but we had our fun last night, even if we came home much earlier than everyone else. Given what we've accomplished over the past three days, I'm surprised we even made it that late.

European Vacation: Day 3

We started off the day with a trip to a local cafe down the street. It was amazing, and possibly the best croissant that I've ever had. We then traveled to La Boqueria market, although along the way we did some shopping. Everything is so cheap here, at least to what I'm used to! 1.50 Euro for wine?! heck yes.

"La Boqueria" - an open air market selling all types of fruits, meats and vegetables - including fish with heads still attached!

We meandered the streets of La Rambla, pushing past tourists and street performers. There were performers anywhere from costumed flamenco dancers, magic tricks, dragons (men in costumes), and men making noises with these noisemakers that make you sound like a squirrel on crack. Also, we could have purchased our very own chipmunk in a cage. Somehow, I don't think that airport security would appreciate me bringing a live chipmunk into the US.

A view down the picturesque winding streets of Barcelona

"La Rambla" performer - it is apparently not offensive to depict Native Americans in this way in other countries

We later moved toward La Eixample, a more trendy portion of the city (see: Uptown, Minneapolis) and continued our shopping. One of the major attractions (besides the McDonald's...eew) was the Gaudi Casa Mila, a house with an exterior consisting of no right angles whatsoever unless added since the original construction. Inside, we got to tour the rooftop Grotto and see amazing views of the city, an an apartment on the top floor that had been furnished for the period in which the building had been built. It reminded me of the Titanic - same time period.

Street view of "Casa Mila" - to me it looked like a coral reef

Me, on the rooftop of Casa Mila

The dining room of "the penthouse"

We eventually got back to our hostel and changed into evening "going-out" clothes, and headed out for tapas at a local restaurant at 9PM. Fortunately, they were still serving and the tapas were amazing! The idea is order one or two to yourself or order more to share. Krysti and I also went through a bottle of wine each, so we were feeling pretty good.

Krysti and me: looking good and ready to party!

We then headed back to the beach, along which were many "discos" (clubs) where we danced until 3AM with many attractive Spaniards. Although propositioned a few times, Krysti and I headed back alone leaving the party still going strong. We had a nice chat with our cab driver and attempted to return to "Pizza Hot", the pizza place we spent long evening at the night before, only to find it had closed for the evening (makes sense - it is after 3AM). Tomorrow we hope to see Park Guell, the Picasso Museum and La Sagrada Familia.

European Vacation: Day 2

(still on the plane)

Well, I managed to sleep (kind of) on the plane. It feels a little weird to be waking up at what I still think is midnight, but the excitement of landing is pushing me through it.

We're here!!

(evening, in Barcelona)

We managed to get to our hostel without too much trouble, in fact our hostel is very comfortable and has, in addition to a private room for the two of us, a rooftop terrace with chairs and tables and a common room in which we met a few of the other travelers from Australia, Sweden, USA (New York), and Ireland.

Our "cozy" hostel room

Today we meandered around Montjuic, and around noon we walked into a very local restaurant. There was a helpful chef that knew broken English that helped us out, showing us what to order and which bus to take to our next destination. We rode the cable car across from the Castilla down to the bottom of the hill all the while appreciating the sky view of Barcelona, most notably "La Sagrada Familia" stretching up into the sky.

The Fort Montjuic

A panorama of the Barcelona skyline

My first time on the Mediterranean!

The day was topped off with my (and Krysti's) very first swimming adventure in salt water, and a three hour stint at an Indian pizza place where we watched Bollywood music videos and chatted up the staff while it rained outside (which is apparently rare, but occurred 2/3 nights there). It ended up being so much better than we could have imagined at the restaurant (that had been closed) to which we had planned to go. I had my fill of wine and Krysti her fill of what she (to this day) claims is the best coffee she has ever had. After three hours there, we finally said goodbye to our new friends and entered a Gelato place which was also incredibly tasty. Later, we stopped in the common room and met our co-travelers, as mentioned previously.

Tasty gelato!

It's now been about 32 hours since I last slept, so as you can imagine, I'm exhausted.

European Vacation: Day 1

I know, I know. It's been a while since I've posted and since I've actually been on this trip. Because of the travelling we were doing and due to the fact that I would only be gone for a week and a half, I elected not to bring my laptop and "blogged" each day on paper in order to transfer it later onto a blog post. I'll post another entry with what has become of my life of late, but for now please enjoy my tales of my whirlwind European vacation with a very good high school friend of mine, Krysti.

Day 1 (AM- Chicago):

Somehow I managed to sleep last night. The flight to Chicago went well, I ended up next to a chatty businessman selling organic chicken from Coleman. I'm a little nervous and excited for the next few days. I was reading the Barcelona travel book last night, and got myself too excited. It's going to be soo beautiful!

(AM - en route to Barcelona):

Krysti had to check her carry-on luggage at the gate, but the crew refused to allow her to pick it up after the flight (we had a layover and needed to switch flights in the US). After talking to one of the attendants, he conceded that she could scan her luggage tag at the gate of her next flight. He was very amicable and told her that all beverages were free (ie. beer, wine, liquor) for that flight, for her trouble. Upon arriving at the next gate for our flight to Barcelona, the people at the gate were rude and refused to help us. We finally left her baggage claim sticker with another helpful flight attendant, who replied in the positive after checking with the baggage handlers that her luggage had successfully made it onto the flight.

I get to wear these wacky, attractive TED hose, thanks to my "tour de Fairview" last Fall. I feel so stylish wearing them, but it does make my legs feel oddly nice. More weird, but nice. At least I get to claim an aisle seat for medical reasons (I need to walk around every couple hours)!

The Pale Blue Dot

The following is an excerpt from Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. The voice-over is Carl Sagan describing a photograph of the Earth taken by Voyager I.

http://gizmodo.com/5513783/the-world-would-be-better-if-everyone-watched-this-video

I'm not sure if the world would be better if everyone watched this video, as the title claims, however I do hope that those who do watch the video are able to take a step back in their lives and appreciate what it is attempting to say. Our life is nothing but an atom on a speck on a flea in the ocean of time, and what we do with our minuscule portion of time here on this Earth should be spent wisely. It's incredible how meaningless our own lives become, that we are less than an insignificant figure, on the scale of the galaxy.

Strawberry Plant: update

IT SPROUTED!

Olympics

I love the Olympics. Although I'm not well-versed on the history of the games, I love the sportsmanship and the comraderie of the athletes.

For example, during the games in 2006, a Canadian cross-country skier was participating in a sprint during which her ski pole broke. The importance of this lies in the fact that without two poles, she would likely lose the short race. Seeing this, the Norwegian cross-country ski coach threw her a spare pole from his own team so that she may finish. He thought nothing of this besides the fact that he figured it was the right thing to do. True sportsmanship like this is simply not seen in any national sports, and I really miss it.

Even the fans watching the games exhibit a lower degree of patriotism seen in most other matches. Although I'm positive that each fan wishes for their own country's representative to win, each time an athlete falls and is potentially injured, the fans of all nations hold their collective breath. It's a refreshing change from the times I've worn a Minnesota Gophers hockey jersey in downtown Madison and was told to "fuck myself" from the sixth floor of a dorm building by an inebriated freshman student. Although intense support and blind faith in one's team can be both thrilling and entertaining, I am glad that we have something like the Olympics so that we as sports fans are able to step back and appreciate the abilities of all the athletes, disregarding what nation they hold citizenship to, and the competitions for simply what they are.

Life Experiment: Grapefruit Consumption

I've never eaten a grapefuit before. Although I'd heard that they were delicious, I was afraid that I would not enjoy them and thus had never tried it. Similar story with grapefuit juice. In a recent fitness center program one of the challenges for the week was to purchase a fruit and vegetable that I'd never tried, and therefore I ended up with a grapefruit.

Procedure:

Apparently grapefruit is commonly eaten several different ways:

Procedure A:
Eat grapefruit by peeling rind off and separating and consuming the individual slices, much like how an orange is eaten.

Procedure B:
Cut grapefruit in half. Dig out meat of fruit with spoon (or if you're fancy, a grapefruit spoon with small tines on the tip), taking care to separate meat from thick rind and dividers between slices. When all fruit has been consumed, squeeze juices out into bowl and drink. Optionally, sprinkle sugar on top prior to eating.

Procedure C:
Slice ends of grapefruit and peel with knife (like an apple). This separates the fruit in slices and releases it from the rind. There is a technical name for this that escapes me now.

Experimental:

After deciding that Procedure C seemed too complicated, I decided on Procedure B (mostly because this is how I've seen it eaten on TV). I opted to disregard the sugar at first, in order to experience the complete flavor of the grapefruit. I did have a packet nearby, just in case it was too much for me.

During the experiment, I found that it was much easier to eat the grapefruit alone, over a bowl. There are a lot of juices under pressure that once a spoon is used to dig into the fruit, shoot at the user and the surrounding area. Also, wetnaps are nice to have to remove the sticky juice from not only your hands but your wrists and forearms as well once the process is completed. Otherwise, head straight for the sink.

Results/Conclusion:

I found the sugar to be unnecessary. The grapefruit was tangy and sour, however in taste was very similar to that of an orange. Since I like tangy, I was fine without the sugar, however I would recommend it to those of you with sweeter teeth to take the some of the bitterness out. I enjoyed it very much and would buy again.

Edjumicatid

While reading through old blog posts, I am finally realizing how poor my grammar is. I apologize, but I am not fixing it because it makes me giggle.

Callidge dugree FTW ...

Strawberry Plant

I planted a strawberry plant at my cube today. We'll see how this goes..

It's supposed to stay in a sunny location and the soil is supposed to be kept damp. I've been minorly (let's see how it survived the winter) successful in not killing a grape vine, so I'm hopeful for my strawberry bush. I also realize that at some point it's going to have to come home with me, I'm just hoping it gets to that point where it's too large to fit in my cube and I need to start anew.

Good luck, little plant. May you make me delicious fruit.

Happy Birthday, Jesus

Health Care Bill

As frustrating as the entire process of health care reform has been, I feel like there is one major positive attribute of it all. Without the frequent attempts to stall the piece of legislation and the constant media attention, Americans would not be discussing the bill so frequently and would likely be less involved in politics. Not only this, I believe that the entire process that the bill has gone through has reeducated (and in some cases educated) the general public on how bills are passed into law.

As surprising as it is to note, without the senators digging in their heels and using every trick known to them to stall voting on the bill, people would not be interested and the bill would also simply pass without national recognition or involvement. Think about it, this is probably one of the most hotly debated issues among people today- and not just the bill itself, but the process it has gone through. A year ago, I doubt that I could remember back from my 9th grade Civics class and schoolhouse rock learnings how a bill became law. More importantly, I really didn't care. Thanks to the media attention garnered, and the constant stalling, I and many other Americans know and care once again. Also, I should note that having a politician boyfriend has not affected my interest so much but has more or less been an exceptional resource when I don't understand some of the terminology or just need someone to explain my views to.

Here is hoping that the newly garnered interest in American politics will lead to something positive. However unlikely that may be.

today, I feel like a horrible girlfriend.

blagoblag

This made me laugh, heartily



Make sure you read what the mother has to say.

In the life of Beth:

Christmas is coming, I'm completely done with shopping and such, I'm not looking forward to driving home in a blizzard, but whatever. I'm excited to see some people as they come back from grad schools around the country, and even the world (ha! I get to count my friend that lives in Cambridge, UK). Driving up North should be fun, MN is supposed to get a blizzard starting that day through the weekend. Good thing I will have good company!

We're having a New Year's party this year, I can't begin to tell you how excited I am for it...

On not dying:

I had a recent "scare": (and it's not even Halloween!! heh, heh)

Tuesday evening, while watching District 9 (so good!!!), I felt a sharp pain in my side. It didn't really go away, but only hurted when I took a breath. Therefore, I concluded it must be a tic or a cramp in my ribs or diaphragm, and it should go away with a good night's rest.

it didn't.

The next day, when it was still hurting, I decided that it might go away if I stay active and walk it off. Not only did it not conform to this belief, the pain worsened that evening. While in the throes of pain deciding whether or not to go to the ER, I figured that since I had lived with it for 24 hours now, it could wait another 8-10 and I could get it checked out in the morning.

The next morning, I took myself to an urgent care clinic. Lesson learned #1: When you have chest pain, and say so to the urgent clinic, you immediately get a lecture on how you should have gone to the ER. oops. After about 4 hours of tests to make sure nothing was wrong with my heart or lungs, I was sent to get an "echo" done of my heart due to a slight abnormality in an EKG. After the echo results came back that everything was normal, I was told that I had pleuritis (an inflammation of the lung tissue), to take anti-inflammatories, rest, and go home. About 7 hours later. Lesson learned #2: When going to the doctor with chest pain, don't expect to go to work that day.

The pain lessened, due to the anti-inflammatories and vicodin. I went to work the next day (which was Friday). At work, my cell phone (which was on silent) rang but I didn't hear it (hence: silent), which ended up being the doctor trying to get in contact with me. He tried calling my mom (my next contact) but the only phone number I gave for her was our home phone number in Hibbing. She was at work. Not being able to get in contact with either, and seeing a potentially fatal condition, my doctor called 911. I'm pretty sure cops came to my house, but there was no one here to be sure of that. He eventually found my work number and contacted me that way. Turns out a D-dimer test that I took the previous day was not normal as he had thought, but was actually abnormal. The d-Dimer tests your blood to see if it had recently clotted- commonly used to test for PEs, or heart attacks. I was sent to the ER.

After convincing my boss that I would have someone with me and that he didn't need to drive me and sit with me (I have an amazing boss, by the way), I started out to pick up Chris who had to cancel most of his busy day for me. On the way, I called my Dad, who I had supposed to be in an airplane, who picked up. Turns out he had just gotten off the flight, was in Minneapolis, and was just looking up at the screen to see that his flight to Hibbing had been cancelled when I called. Needless to say, I picked up my Dad, told Chris to un-cancel his appointments and see me later, and headed to the hospital.

At the ER, I was treated to my first CAT scan ever. Not really an experience I would like to repeat. The CAT scan came up positive: I had a few pumonary embolisms (PEs) in my lungs. This is serious, and is often fatal, and usually only occurs in people over 40. I had it, but they had been caught early, were small, and were on the edges (sides) of my lungs. Needless to say, I was admitted to the hospital.

Upon hearing the words "PE" my mom drove like a maniac down to Minneapolis in a downpour and even got lost once, and still made it to Burnsville in about 3 hours. I'm happy she was not pulled over. Lesson learned #3: Mom drives fast in emergencies.

I was put on the "fast track" in the ER to get admitted, partially because I'd already been fully checked out by a doctor, and probably mostly because a bunch of people with the flu (by the way, if you have the flu, stay the hell away from an ER unless you're dying) were sitting in the waiting area and they sure as hell didn't want me to get that too.

Once admitted, I was subjected to poking and prodding at least once every 2 hours to make sure I was still alive. I was put on a de-coagulant and blood thinners. The PEs, as I was informed, in someone my age were either a result of pregnancy (not in my case!), genetics (no again!), or birth control. I've been on the pill for about 5 years now.

At the hospital, I was monitored constantly to make sure I wasn't going to die from the PEs, and was visited by my doctor from Thursday who not only apologized, but also gave me his cell number and informed me that his clinic was taking measures so that something like this was never missed again the first time around. I was also called by my boss who was worried about me, and I was able to speak with both my grandparents, Chris' mom (who is an ER nurse), and a few friends who had called. Chris of course was there, and was so incredibly supportive. I feel bad that I ended up destroying his first weekend off. And, of course both my parents were with me the entire time. It didn't matter, I felt like an invalid and wanted out.

That night, I tried to sleep and suddenly realized that hospitals are really houses of torture. If you're checked every two hours in the day, that doesn't stop when you're asleep. Couple that with an injection that would have been nice to pair with checking me with vitals, but it wasn't, and getting blood drawn again that would have been nice to pair with checking my vitals but wasn't, and one can easily come to the conclusion that I got no more than 1.5 hours of undisturbed sleep. The doctors and nurses even seemed surpried that I was "up and about" at 6:30 AM. What the hell? It's not like they were going to let me sleep anyway, I figured it would be better for all of us if I just stopped trying. I am now really sick of the food network.

After meeting with my doctor in the morning, I was informed that if everything continued to look ok, I would be released that evening. A nurse came in later to try to tell me that I would probably stay another day, which put me into tears. Turns out she hadn't talked to the doctor- I was getting released! Lesson learned #4: communication sucks in hospitals.

After a quick lesson in how to give myself the shots I needed, I was forced to sit and wait for everyone else to let me go. After two hours, I paged the nurse to see how much longer it would be. She asked "well, when would you like to go?" . What I want to know is why that is even a question. I told her I wanted to leave as soon as possible- did she think I wanted to hang out there all day? They're nice people, but the poking and prodding had to stop. Plus, I wanted to sleep that night.

Finally, about 6PM that night, I was allowed to leave. After a happy dance, Chris and I were treated to Green Mill pizza and I said goodbye to my parents. I'm home now, and I'm on medications that people my age rarely need to take. But the moral of the story is, that I'm better, and I'm not going to die.

Beth update

It's been so long since I've updated, guess the whole blogging thing hasn't been working out so much.

Especially since I've gotten a twitter account (@bkiesel). So much easier. I told myself I would only get it if I could call it "twatting".

Since my last blog:

I graduated from college. I made it! I felt so triumphant that day, except when I fell down the stairs before the pre-ceremony for the chemical engineering department. Well, at least it didn't happen in front of the entire IT class.

I went to Boston with Chris. It was amazing, we walked the brick trail going through most of the tourist sights in Boston, toured "old ironsides", visited Harvard and MIT, and had a fantastic dinner at a little Italian restaurant in little Italy.

I started working full-time at Ecolab. Since starting, I'll have one patent (from my work from last summer) and possibly another. I made a dish detergent for Europe, which will be implemented next year. I'm generally making the Earth a greener place one soap at a time, by using biodegradeable and green materials to replace problematic ones.

I started playing softball in an Ecolab beer league. We took first place in the playoffs! I managed to hit a few, and I only struck out once in the last two games. I guess it comes back quickly.

I moved! To uptown, with Towey, Denise and Scott. We live in an enormous duplex with a landlord that is very young (in his late 20's we think) and therefore can be a little... irresponsible? Nevertheless, every major issue has been taken care of swiftly. Two girls just moved in next door with three dogs. It's nice to see puppies in the back yard, however they tend to poo all over the place. It would be nice if they cleaned that up. Otherwise, great neighbors.

That's been the general swing of things, nothing too incredibly exciting. I'm depressed that many of my friends from college are no longer living nearby. It's really starting to sink in that there are people I may never see again, it seems especially real now that the UMN just started. I know I'll see the people that I stay in touch with, it's just very sad to not be able to run down the hall and grab 5-8 people and have an impromptu get-together. Fortunately, I still live with three of my friends, and there are a few sprinkled around the area that still live here. It's just quieter than I'm used to. I miss you guys.

House hunting is frustrating. Especially when we don't know what exactly we want.

Maybe it's just this time of year...

I feel like I'm being taken for granted by a good friend.

I have a friend, call them "Bob", who I've supported and become very good friends with over the past four years. I can tell Bob pretty much anything. We get along great, and used to hang out a lot.

I have another friend, call them "Jerry". Jerry is awesome. Bob thinks Jerry is awesome too, so much in fact that they like to hang out and study together. None of the above is in any way a problem, nor is it a problem with either Bob or Jerry. In fact, I think it's awesome.

My problem is that whenever I suggest doing something with Bob, they go and do the very same thing with Jerry. Which is fine, if I were invited, but I'm often not. It really becomes an issue when I have a great idea for a party, would really like to see a movie I've never seen, or even just really want to do something. I don't even always hear about it from Bob in the first place, either. I get to hear about the two of them doing something secondhand from Jerry who wonders why I'm so mad I wasn't invited, and is often surprised to hear that it was my idea in the first place.

It's not that I'm mad that I'm not invited to things, I've started hanging out with some of my other friends- partially because they actually leave the building once in a while, partially because I feel like I'm wearing on my other friends, and partially because I like to be with Chris- and therefore I'm not always here to be invited. It's the principle that it was my idea in the first place, that I was the one who recently brought it up, and that the thought of calling to invite me never occurs to Bob, and Bob gets irritated when I don't invite him to do things, which is pretty rare on my part.

So, in short, I feel taken for granted like I'm in a one-sided friendship. I've not approached Bob about this and I'm not sure how or that I'm actually going to. I might just be throwing myself a pity party, who knows.

Sigh, buck up: little soldier.

Yay! Learning to text-blog!

Unsure

So, graduation is coming quickly. In a week. I'm not ready yet! I'm really excited at the prospect of not taking exams or needing to purchase books. I'm just not ready to be a real person yet. I am, however, ready for the paychecks!
I recently received a roommate request via my friend's fiance. I am waiting on a few of my best friends to get jobs and live with me. Honestly, I don't know what to do- I would rather keep waiting but I'm not sure I want to take that chance, given the current luck of my friends and the state of the economy. I'm not ready to give up on them though, that sounds way too harsh. I don't know what to do.

I can't wait to go to Boston. I've really wanted to see the east coast for a while, and don't think being shipped to Delaware for 24 hours for an interview counts, as I was there for an interview and did no sightseeing. Really, really, excited. Next trip: NYC/Ithaca with C and Nic about this time next year. Maybe.

It's really depressing when I think about who I'll be staying in touch with after school ends. The reality of it is that I'll probably still talk to C, Kyle, Scott and Joe, Nic because he'll be with C, Becky, Molly, David and Caitlin because they'll be around here, Ben because he's living with Chris and Jill because she's dating Ben. My point is that outside of people who are convenient to stay in touch with, I'll only keep in touch with C, Kyle, Scott and Joe. There are many people here who I consider to be my friends that I'll probably never see again. Goodbye, 7th floor MBH, forever.

On a side note, I started a twitter: http://twitter.com/bkiesel
Not entirely sure that it was a good idea, but I'm conforming to society once again. Also, it's an interesting way to be fed the news in the morning.