Clap your hands if you're working too hard...

This is a pretty accurate depiction of my life. Homemade cheese is the focus, and there is a bunch of crap I have to do looming in the background.

I made ricotta this week, which marks both the milestone of me using a candy thermometer and cheese cloth for the first time. Oh, and making cheese. I feel invincible. Dare I say that I am moving on to mozzarella next? I should probably look into how involved it is first...

Scout hung out with me for the cheese making process. Every time I checked on her she was doing something hysterical, like sleeping perched on the top of this chair.

Making a sour face, from atop of the chair, of course.

Or making her way inside my folded blanket, without unfolding it at all, mind you, to take a little cat nap.

Miss Nell and I foraged for nettles in Discovery Park on Wednesday morning.

It was fall at its finest.... even though nettles are kind of a spring thing. Whatever. Look at this excitement!

Lovely Nell looks kind of like a melancholy clown juggling leaves, doesn't she?

What a wonderful week....

mwamwa,

Allie

A few pictures per week...

Heyyyyyy everyone. I'm going to try out a new blogging format. Just a few pictures per week. Maybe some weeks I'll include a little explanation of the photos, but I probably won't for the most part. Just a few pictures per week... let's give this a go...

Meet Scout. She's my neighbor's cat, but she hangs out with me a few times a week. She appeared right when I was in greatest need for something cuddly to curl up on my lap, and cuddle she does with great gusto... I'm very thankful for her (mostly) quiet company.

Freshly baked acorn squash and apple muffins, nestled in a basket, awaiting their journey to a dear friend's home, where they were lovingly gobbled by a gaggle of costumed Seattle transplants...

Days 7, 8, and more...

I'm having trouble writing a blog post right now. I just don't feel like writing.

It's times like this that I'm glad I got a good camera.

Frozen waffle made into french toast dipped in pancake batter and fried again, anyone? Alfred's culinary prowess amazes me.

And this is his Mom's recipe for fluffy egg nests. Awwwww! Best couch surfing host ever!!

Mount Rushmore!!!

It was pretty amazing, actually. I really enjoyed South Dakota.

Cemetery in Wyoming!! Yes!!

Devil's Tower in Wyoming.... Creepy. Ominous. Yes.

Sooooo, now I'm in Denver. I'll be hanging out here for a week, so don't expect too much doing of stuff. That is, until next weekend when Catie and Derek get married!! Eeeee!

Besitos,

Allie

Day 6: South Dakota

Ohmygoodness, I just loved this day.

Mitchell South Dakota boasts the title of being the home to the world's only Corn Palace. Ta da!



And we just happened to arrive during the annual Corn Palace festival.



We marveled at the palace, which is redecorated every year with new murals made out of various varieties of corn and other grains.



We sampled the local delicacies. Meredith went for a hot dog.



And I gave deep fried pickles a try. They were alright, but I won't be having them again. It seems like the local philosophy on food is to do as much to it as humanly possible before putting it in your mouth. When faced with a cucumber: pickle, batter, fry, dip in ranch dressing. Yes.



Then we stumbled upon a MASSIVE antique store. I staggered around, overwhelmed beyond words, for about an hour. I wanted to buy EVERYTHING. I just couldn't decide. It was so good that it became torturous... does that make any sense? Probably not. Anyway, I picked up some kitchen gadgets and a book that none of you would even believe. Ask to see it when (yes, WHEN) you come visit.



Then we hit the Badlands.



Pretty!



We ended the day in Rapid City at the home of Alfred, our couch surfing host. We hit it off right away and soon found ourselves chatting into the night about our own respective Long Island Italian American families and Jewish grandmothers. (Yes, we both have those!) Stay tuned for more about Alfred and his culinary genius in day 7's wrap up!

Besitos,
Allie

Days 4 and 5 in pictures

DAY 4: INDIANA, ILLINOIS, IOWA


Corn!!


Food made from corn!!


Iowa!!



Meredith lost 5 baht trying to get her country singles fix. According to the maintenance guy at the truck stop, the machines are a scam and don't work, so there was no way that Meredith could have scammed them by using Thai money in place of a quarter anyway. Direct quote: "How could this be happening to me? It's really sad..."


Ames, Iowa! We visited the lovey Carla and Todd there. Carla was our Spanish teacher and Todd was our co-worker in Chile. They were also fabulous friends. I missed them a ton after they moved to the US. It was really great to see them!

Downtown Ames....

More downtown Ames...


DAY 5: IOWA, SOUTH DAKOTA

Saying goodbye to Carla... :(
The open road...


Colors!!!


Antique shop!! Yes!!!

Hello.


Aaaaaaaand, on day 5 we stayed with some really great Couchsurfing hosts in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Matt and Pam were very generously willing to take us into their home with only a few hours notice. Before Pam even got home from work, Matt took us around town and gave us a great tour of the city. We had no idea what an interesting place this is and we are really glad we came. Did you know that Sioux Falls actually has a waterfall in the middle of the city??? It has 77 parks and is the 6th most bike friendly city in the country. Sculptures cover the downtown area and each year they are auctioned off and replaced with new works of art from artists from around the world. Without Matt and Pam we would have never learned so much about this gem of a city. Thanks, Matt and Pam!!!

Besitos,
Allie

Road trip: Days 2 and 3

DAY 2: PAUSE IN PITTSBURGH

We were planning on spending this day in Pittsburgh with some of Meredith's friends from college. Of course, we were planning on doing all sorts of fun stuff with them, like visiting museums, checking out the budding artist communities just outside of town, exploring downtown, and eating ethnic food. Well, as stated yesterday, Meredith drank some bad gas station milk on DAY 1. Instead of being tourists, we took her to the hospital. Luckily, Pittsburgh is full of them! I'm very happy to say that she received a very favorable prognosis and will be back to 100% very soon. Still, DAY 2 was spent nursing this lovely lady back to health. You know, iconic 80s movie, chicken broth, the works. To be honest, I needed a day to relax too. I wandered around the hood and took some pictures....

Urban blight is so photogenic!! Swoon...

Ms. M.'s friends live in the loveliest little post-industrial working class neighborhood....

...and they only pay $900/month for an ENTIRE HOUSE. I'm about to pay that for a shoe box in Seattle. The house from the backyard with Kate, one of Meredith's friends.

The house was so cozy and filled with all sorts of vintage furniture and fun randomness.


Berry making dinner for those of us that could hold down solid food... fresh basil from their garden!

Oh, and they live on Gangwish Street....



DAY 3: PITTSBURGH, OHIO, INDIANA, OH MY!

This morning we got off to a slow start. The lovely Ms. M. was feeling decidedly more chipper so we got some Ethiopian food and checked out the Andy Warhol museum before hitting the road.

(Aaaaand, now the internet is failing me so I can't upload more pictures.... Soon there will be more!!)

We drove through the entire state of Ohio and it was pretty uneventful. I didn't even take one picture.

Then we hit Indiana and realized that we are totally not on the east coast anymore. People talk funny and they sell Jesus license plate holders at the gas stations.

We stopped to spend the night in South Bend, home of Notre Dame University, really wide streets, and apparently not much else. There were about a million hotels right off the highway and we stopped into the first off-brand one we saw to check out the price. Even with a discount, the place was still out of our price range. I asked the receptionist if there was anything more economical nearby. He winced, sucking a hissing breath of air through his teeth. Then, fear entered his eyes...

"Not one that I can recommend" he said.

"Urhhmmm, okeyyy." I replied. "Well, this is a little more than I can afford, so..."

"Most of the hotels around here aren't safe. Definitely not the Howard Johnson.... The only one that isn't completely completely dangerous is the Motel 6."

We thanked the guy and left a little confused, wondering what completely completely dangerous actually meant and wondering if we should go back and ask him exactly what kind of danger we're talking about...

We found the Motel 6 and checked in through the bullet proof glass of the "night counter." There were a few people in the parking lot, and we were looked at very suspiciously by all of them. I think there was one guy with a prostitute in his car, a harmless looking guy walking his dogs, and a few college aged looking kids seemingly on a road trip. We got to our room and I wondered why I was so afraid of everyone. Surely we've both been in much more dangerous environments. We met in Valparaiso, for goodness sake. Ask most Chileans what they think of that and they will likely express their surprise that we weren't robbed in the process of having our first cafecito.

Meredith had a good insight when she said that her street smarts don't work here. I know that we are still in our own country, just a few hundred miles from where we grew up, but it is very different here, in both tangible and squishy, uncertain sort of ways.

Anyway, we're still kicking. Here's to hoping that we make it through the night!

Besitos,
Allie

On the road again. (And Day One of Allie's Newest Adventure!)

Sooooooooooo, I kind of disappeared from the blog after I left Chile. (You've all heard this story before...)

I kept feeling like I had to write some sort of conclusion of my experience in Chile. I just couldn't. I needed more time to process. Time to figure out what I felt, where I was going, where I even was and why...

And, yeah. I still don't know anything. I was a little concerned about reverse culture shock, but I experienced next to nothing. The closest near traumatic cultural disaster was my first trip to the grocery store. I just wanted everything, but I couldn't decide what I should actually purchase. All the options were overwhelming. Even more so was that I knew I'd be able to find all these interesting and diverse items again. If the store sold out of coconut milk, they would restock. In Chile I had been known to buy 10 cans of coconut milk at a time because I knew that once they ran out, it would most likely been gone forever. Sooooo, I ended up going home with canned chickpeas, feta, and plain yogurt. Nothing that you could really make a meal from, and I don't even like yogurt.... Hmmph. Anyway....

I spent the summer in the US working as a Youth Specialist at the Broome Country Urban League's Summer Enrichment program. It had its ups and downs, to put it lightly, but it turned out be a very valuable experience. If I could live through that and still want to be a teacher, I feel confident that this desire is not just a whim. This reassurance is exactly what I wanted to get out of a summer job. So, yay!!

Some of the little angels:



The building:



The logo is actually an equal sign in a circle. As you can see, the building is in pretty bad shape. The organization is actually in such financial distress that they are in danger of having to close down.

More pictures of my summer with the little snuggle-muffins can be found here.

Well, now I'm on my way back to Seattle. I started the cross country drive yesterday with the lovely Ms. Meredith, former Chile roommate, by my side. We had a turbulent first day, as Meredith managed to consume some questionable chocolate milk from a roadside gas station. She's almost better now, after a quick spin by the hospital this morning, and we'll be ready to hit the road again tomorrow afternoon.

I'd like to document this trip on the blog. I hope to post pictures, and maybe even a little commentary, every day or so. Aaaaaand, I'll start with that right NOW.

Day one: Binghamton, NY to Pittsburgh, PA

The weather sucked...



Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that I found a produce store while stopping for gas. TURKS TURKS TURKS! No Turks in sight. Meredith was perplexed.


Pretty dill fireworks...


Pumpkins?!?! It's Fall?!? Already????


Ugh, I can't stop taking pictures of produce. Please forgive me.

More to come....

Besitos,
Allie