Julie's Adventures Part II

My mom is back in Bali/Jakarta and sent me some pictures so I thought I would post them for those who are interested.

Mom celebrating her first night back in Bali (you can tell she has spent some time in Wisconsin):

At a cultural dinner meeting in traditional Balinese dress. She said there was a performance of Bali dancing which included lighting a pile of coconut husks on fire with kerosene, and a guy rolling around in them.
Here she is with a Mariachi band, she makes friends fast. Hopefully she doesn't join the band and never come back! It looks like they want her to stay.

summer starts

The weekend was a success! I slept, ate, read, put one foot in the freezing water and hung out in the sunshine up at Three Lakes, fulfilling all my goals for the weekend! My grandparents cooked some delicious meals which included (but are not limited to) pancakes and bacon for breakfast, traditional Wisonsin brats for Memorial day lunch and baby back ribs for dinner. There were also some pretty impressive thunder storms at night which I enjoyed watching from the comfort of the couch. Now I feel the summer has truly started!

Last night was Laura's last in America so we met up one final time on the Memorial Union Terrace. I was surprised at how many people were there but not really because it was warm and breezy by the lake. Now she is on her way back for her last 6 months in Samoa.

I'm back at work for the rest of the week but I don't mind because on Saturday I'll be headed home to Chapel Hill for a week! I will also (hopefully) be getting a camera finally so I can take lots of pictures as I find my blog boring without them!

Jealous

Grades are in and I did quite well, it's weird that I'm doing better in graduate school than I ever did in undergrad or High School but I'll take it!

This weekend I am headed up north to the cabin. I'm super excited to see my family, my camp friends and just relax, something I haven't done in quite a while.

Last night a bunch of us met up with the Borealis girls who are in town for the next week taking care of the last details of their trip. I am SO incredibly jealous. As you can read from their website the five of them are beginning their second 95 day expedition through Canada to the Artic Ocean. The first was in 2005 and they traveled 1200 miles from Saskatchewan to the Artic Ocean (raising money for camperships at Camp Manito-wish, Click here for their blog)

I was amazed at how calm, confident and unfazed they seemed. Granted they have done a similar trip before but they are heading off into uninhabited and untouched wilderness for the entire summer, I know I would be going crazy with nervous excitement. I can't wait to live vicariously through them via their blog this summer.

Maybe next summer there will be a trip for me (Mali? But first you have to teach me to paddle and all that hydrology sciencey stuff :) )

Halfway there!

On Wednesday I wrapped up my first year of grad school so I am half-way done with my masters! Finals were pretty brutal and I studied for them like I've never studied before. I put in lots of time at the library and my brain was pretty fried by the end of it all.

Now I am working full-time over the summer and trying to get used to the idea that I won't be going up to camp and spending a full month outside (unless you count sleeping in a tent as being "inside"). It makes me pretty sad but it just means I'll have to make the most of the time that I'm not at work. I also decided that working in an office without any windows is a good thing because then I can pretend its raining out! (Hey I'm just making the best of it!)

This weekend was a great end to a horribly stressful week. On Friday I met up with some friends on the terrace (Laura was back in town because her sister was graduating), we relaxed for a few hours enjoying the sun and the beer. Later we feasted on brats and listened to a friend's band. On Saturday there were more graduation festivities: a cookout at the park and an open bar at the Madison Club. We took full advantage of the situation and had a great time unselfishly celebrating our friends' accomplishments :) On Sunday my improv class had a party so we ate and played some games. It was quite a weekend of free food and drink, the money I was saving was squandered however when I filled my gas tank for the first time in two months (I'm not sure how I got away with that, I think taking the bus everyday to work actually does make a difference.)

Next weekend I'll be making my first trip of the summer to northern Wisconsin and hopefully spend some time at our cabin in Three Lakes. Yay summer!!

Gullible

I was just informed that the picture of Mali's mom with Johnny Depp was photoshopped...this is the second time someone has fooled me in this way (click here for the first).

However Mali was also tricked so I don't feel quite as bad!

Almost done...

My two hardest finals are next week (epidemiology and biostats) so I'll be spending an exciting weekend holed up at different study locations (coffee shops, barnes and noble, borders and maybe even a library if I can make myself). The exams are Tuesday and Wednesday and after that I am free!!!

Well at least free from school, I'll be upping my hours at the Pop Health Institute and start work on multiple projects. I will also be re-starting my job at Environmental Health News where I work as a Web Researcher. My name is listed as a current employee on the site even though I haven't worked there in exactly a year so maybe they knew I couldn't stay away. It's a fun job that starts between 5:00-6:00am (depending on when I wake up) and usually lasts until 8:30 or 9:00am. My job is to run different Google news searches on various hot environmental health topics (such as global warming or water quality) and see what has come up in the news either late the previous night or early that morning. Then I check where the story originated and post it to the site. It's fast paced and fun and all the while you chat with your co-workers online. The best part is they can't see you so you get to work in your pajamas!

Tonight I'm going to a BBQ at my boss's house, hopefully it won't get too crazy as I plan on studying later...but you never know with those Public Health people!

epic weekend

The weekend began on Wednesday when my very good friend Laura came to Madison from Samoa where she is a Peace Corps Volunteer (click here for her blog). I hadn't seen her for a year and a half so it was very exciting to meet up with her and her sister Mary for sushi (something Laura has been craving and was on her ominous "list of things to do in the US"). We met up downtown State Street at a restaurant called Takara. Mary also brought along some of her friends to dinner and the 6 of us ordered enough sushi to fill a boat! (Well a boat serving platter at least). We celebrated Laura's return to the States with sake bombs (a shot of sake placed onto two chopsticks that sit over a cup of beer, you pound the table, the sake shot falls into the beer and then you drink!).

Thursday was a friend's birthday so after my improv rehearsal (we had our show on Sunday) I met up with the camp crowd at the Crystal Corner bar to watch another camp friend's band called Dan Andreas Fault play. They were great!

Friday was Kelly's fabulous fondue-a-polloza birthday party. She made delicious chocolate and cheese fondue and had strawberries, breads, cake, marshmellows, etc to dip. It was quite the spread of food. She also somehow has a full bar in her kitchen, seriously, you name it she has it. After the party I went to meet up with some more camp friends visiting from out of town at the Essen Haus where we polka danced and drank German beer from boots into the wee hours of the AM.

Oh that Julia!

Saturday I awoke early to a phone call from Julia. She, Tracy, Jesse and Peter and I all planned to go to the Farmers Market and then watch Laura and Mary play rugby (UW-Madison women vs the Alumni). I ended up meeting them at the Come Back Inn for brunch. When I arrived they all had Bloody Marys and a side of bacon each! They explained that by ordering a side of bacon, their drinks were only a dollar each. I ordered a side of eggs and everyone got a round of toast. But as we were waiting for our food to arrive Jesse came rushing in and explained that he had been asked to referee the rugby game...which started in 20 minutes....and was 20 minutes away. We got our toast to go and enjoyed "toast in a box" on the way.

After being held up by some sort of Marathon that went directly past the car we wanted to drive to the game we finally made it around 10:30am (and didn't hit any runners)!

Jesse refs the game in a cool shirt. That is Laura doing some kind of Samoan dance ritual that no one understands...not even her.

Hanks sisters, enemies on the field but brought together again by beer and chocolate chip cookies.

After the game we got some food, took a little tour through the Capital and some folks hit up the infamous Mifflin Street Block party which involves drinking lots of beer and trying to avoid getting arrested which I guess about 400 people failed to do.

That night we went to see Sean's do stand-up comedy and then harassed some people who were working at the Johhny Depp movie shoot (part of which is happening at the Capital). They were driving a Universal Studios truck but no Johhny was in sight. :(

UMM except for Mali's MOM who met him up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin!!!!! (They are filming all week so I'm going to creepily hang out around the Capital and see what happens....)

JOHNNY DEPP!!!!!

Sunday was my Improv show!! We got there around 4pm for warm up and BLTs at the Coliseum Bar. At 6pm it started and was really fun. Lots of friends and family showed up to support us and it was a great way to end our 10 week Beginners Improv class. We are starting the Intermediate class this summer, so there will be another show if you are sad you missed it!

Now it is Monday and I have a really busy week and a half. I have a Final Thursday and 2 next week (plus other homework and a paper). There will def. be more fun pictures from the weekend to come so I'll be sure to put them up soon.