things recently learned about the internet

1. The European Union has given funding to Babbel.com, an online language learning website (via New York Times). I'm looking forward to trying it out for French -- it looks cheaper than other similar websites, and sounds generally effective (also, of course, I need to get back into the French In Action series -- I need to know how the story ends!). 
2. The Internet is made of cats (via rathergood.com).

 

cold, snow, lakes, etc

In Madison, WI, Speef and I walked on the lake (!!!), while others were sitting around tents and ice fishing. Being in Madison & Chicago over break was a good call. It made it so that when I got back to Syracuse, I felt like the 31F degree weather was sweltering. It doesn't help that my walk to campus is up an slight incline, so by the time I'm 2/3 of the way to school I start taking off extraneous layers (gloves, hats, scarves).

On a related note, I'm worried that my sojourn in Syracuse will make it so that I talk about nothing but the weather (seriously -- people here love explaining the lake effect to non-native-Syracusians). I'll work on integrating other topics into my conversations.

I'm in class now, where we're learning how to blog. So this is my valiant attempt at blogging. Woo!

Syracuse: I don't understand your weather (part 1)

Uh, what? "Snow Freezing Fog"?? Is the snow freezing the fog? Is there snow AND freezing fog? Has the snow frozen into fog? Has the fog frozen snowflakes and people into place all over this city?

Yesterday it was 60 here.

PDX-CHI: Dear Amtrak Empire Builder, we need some time apart.

List A: A list of things that were not that great:

1. Frequent electrical failures, and, thus, constant delays. Every now and then the train would power down (either moving or stationary) and there would be no air/electricity/whatever. Sometimes during these episodes they would make an announcement saying that they were "working on it" and sometimes not.
2. Smell of burning oil/brakes(?) each time the train slowed down to stop. I don't think this was there the first day on the train, but days #2 and #3 were unfortunately smelly.
3. The cafe car ran out of everything. The first day I asked about t-shirts and cheese&cracker trays. None! The second day: no red wine! The third day: no veggie burgers. The third day with 3 hours left on the train: an announcement that the cafe car would be closing in 15 minutes and everyone went down in a mob. I got coffee and some hot water for tea (deciding not to be alarmist, not to stock up on food, even though Joe and I had run out of edible supplies) but the lady in front of me ordered two hot dogs, and then, upon learning that after her order only two would remain, swiftly ordered one more. The guy in front of her got the last bag of pretzels.
4. Train was generally in a state of being two or three or four hours late. We were supposed to get to Chicago at 3:55, and I'm typing this at 5:41. Still on the train. Nearing Milwaukee (i.e. maybe still two hours away?). [edit: now: Chicago ETA 7:50? four hours late!)
5. Not showering for two days.

List B: A list of things that were not entirely bad:

1. Got a free slice of mint-chocolate mousse pie. Not sure why. Maybe because there was no electricity (see List A, item 1). I'm not sure that we were supposed to be given the pie, per se since after that a conductor-type-guy walked by and, after hearing us coo about the cake, asked if it was chilled, felt it, and acted dubious as to it's acceptability for eating. Joe promised that we wouldn't get sick from it and I snatched it back.
2. Discovery of new and awesome soup combination: beluga lentils from Trader Joe's mixed with butternut squash soup from Trader Joe's + a mini thing of half-and-half, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Yum.
3. Managed to occasionally snag wi-fi from open networks near train station stops. Yay for five minutes (or less) of email and news reading!
4. Adventure. Spending over two days on a train is pretty thrilling.
5. Trying to figure out if the semi-hearing impaired older man sitting diagonally in front of us was loudly talking to his girlfriend or his daughter on the phone. Whoever it was, he generally referred to her as "baby" or "baby girl." I'm still not entirely convinced either way. Choice excerpts:

• "Yeah, call me Daddy, I like it when you say that -- your daddy loves you!"
• "I can't believe that I'm coming all this awful way, across this barren plain to visit you! [...listens...] "It was a joke, you're supposed to be happy when I say that!"
• "And I just needed a reason to call you! What's that? I don't need a reason? What about to kiss you? Do I need a reason for that?"

portland (also)

By the way, in addition to that last post, I would like it to be said that Joe and I managed to spend Christmas in the only part of the country without snow. Ha!

merry christmas! from portland!

First, for the record, although most of my photos are of food that I ate while here, Joe and I did do other things. Mostly involving walking, looking at signs (Portland has amazing signs. there must be a sign preservation society of some sort here), going to a million vintage stores, regretting not buying things at vintage stores, going back to vintage stores to maybe buy the things we regretted not buying, and then being devastated when the stores were found to be already closed for the holidays. So, yeah, vintage stores and eating.

Oh! And microbreweries and brewpubs!



This beer at Lompoc was an IPA with 100 international bitterness units (IBU). IT was bitterly delicious. Yum.

As far as eating went - everything was delicious. At Broder, a Swedish restaurant, we ended up eating four breakfasts (paid for three, got Danish pancakes free!) and talking to the owner or manager who was extremely nice. At Hot Lips pizza, we got a slice with butternut squash sauce and hazelnuts. Amazing! Another cool thing -- foodcarts! Including a food cart that sold deep fried mac and cheese bites. Which are now my new favorite thing in the world.



Other non-food item of interest about Portland: people's dogs here have more sweaters/jackets/ponchos per capita (can I say that? does that work) than probably the whole state of Texas. Joe and I were convinced that the people here thought that it would be cruel to take a dog out without a sweater. Seriously. Every dog.

And, so. Being here has convinced me that Portland is probably the best city in the USA. Now Joe and I are at Powell's books (giant bookstore! open on Christmas day!) hanging out for a bit until it's time to go get on the next train. This time: in coach. For two nights!

chi-pdx (added notes)

Also! Just remembered: As we were getting off the train, somebody said that they were hoping that the wounded chef would get out of the hospital "in two days or so." What happened?!