BaLtiMoRe RoLL

BeRlIn, 2

We stayed in Berlin for three days after the Brazil-Croatia game, but yet it is probably the city I saw the least of because I holed myself up in the hotel room for two of those days working on a dissertation chapter. (Which I handed in - woo hoo!! This is the final-first-draft version of an analysis that I've been working on forever and which I completely hate at this point, but apparently I have to hand this thing in or no one will ever know what I've done.)

Right outside our hotel window was a courtyard that functioned as a playground for a nursery school all day long, so my dissertation work was accompanied by the joyful shouts of screaming German children. They had built a platform around the big tree in the center of the courtyard and the kids literally ran around and around and around it for hours. And then, just to make sure we were really enjoying all the noise, one morning they decided to fix the platform at 7:30 in the morning with a chainsaw. Followed by hours of screaming children. I really should have gone to find a cafe to work in, but my battery power isn't what it used to be and neither is my wallet (to pay for the coffees to justify my staying in a cafe for hours), so I just closed the windows and kept working. It seemed to work though, since I got the thing done.

My working, sadly, left J to wander around the city without me and he spent his time at the Pergamon Museum (because he's J and loves stuff like that) and wandering around the Fan Fest that they set up at the Brandenberg Gate.

But I did allow myself to leave the hotel at night.

After my first day of work, we met up with our friend Christiana, who lives in Berlin. (We know her from when she did a semester of research in Baltimore, and shared an office with me and J.) It was so great to see her, and really nice to be able to meet up with someone who lives there and knows where to go. She introduced us to a cute neighborhood called Kreuzberg, where we met up at a bar, sat outside and had really amazing pizza, and watched Germany beat Poland. (I didn't bring my camera, so no pictures.)

After the second day of work, I met up with J and Lostgal to watch some of the games at the Fan Fest at the Brandenberg Gate (so see, I did a little bit of sightseeing!). On the giant screen in front of the gate, we watched England play... someone. Too many games, too few brain cells to remember them all! But I do remember that it was a fun atmosphere. I have to say that I had been a little apprehensive about the crowds and potentially crazy soccer fans, but everything was pretty controlled and all the fans were really easy going. I guess I was expecting something really tiring like a Preakness infield party with drunkenness and fights breaking out, but it was more like a hippie folk festival in terms of people's friendliness and good moods and general consideration for everyone around them.

After the first game of the evening, we wandered over to a nearby neighborhood (which I forget the name of, but is famous, and I really should have just looked it up) to try to see the new modern art museum for an hour or so. But it took us longer to get there than we thought, and by then we would be missing the Sweden-Paraguay game and since it was the World Cup, well, the art museum lost out. Still, it was a cool area to wander around in, with all the really modern (and famous but I don't know by who) architecture.

So no art, but we did get to see the game. Which means of course, more fan photos.

And I leave you with this bizarre sign that we were sitting near. I wonder if Hyundai knew that their ad would be placed on such an awkward structure. It was really freaking me out to keep seeing this guy staring down at us with his face impaled with a street lamp. Creepy. I think the ad says something like "too high for you?", to which my answer would have to be yes. Whatever that might mean.

And then on the third day in Berlin, I didn't do any work so I have more pictures to show! Of the wall! I will save them for the next post!

BeRlIn

{You may have to keep refreshing the page to view the whole post and to see comments. I think by only loading up the first half of my posts, Typepad is insinuating that I post too many photos...}

The day after the US-Czech Republic game in Gelsenkirchen, we took a train to Berlin, where coincidentally our friend S, and the two friends he was traveling with had somehow ended up with reserved seats right in front of ours. Or maybe they just try to confine all the Americans to one car. :)

And then there was a treat waiting for us in Berlin - fourth row tickets to see the Brazil-Croatia game at the old Olympic stadium. I took so many pictures that someone behind me asked if I was a professional. No, I was just blown away to have Ronaldo and Rondaldinho running right past me...

     

GeLsenKircHen

After a relaxing weekend in Belgium, my cousins drove us to Germany at 200 km/hr while I tried to sleep in the car and imagine I wasn't in imminent danger of a highway accident. Fortunately, we made it safely and on time for the first US game in the World Cup against the Czech Republic in Gelsenkirchen. There we met up with Lostgal, our friend G who now lives in the Czech Republic, and a few other people.

It was totally surreal to see them after so many months, now in Germany and surrounded by a sea of US and Czech Republic fans. I wish we had more time with G, but I am glad we even got to see her for an evening. (And hopefully she will come to visit us in Philly soon?) Lostgal, on the other hand, was with us for a while. We traveled together to Berlin and then to Kaiserslautern for the next US game. I am so jealous of all of her recent travel, and it was great to be a part of it for a week!!

So there we were in Gelsenkirchen, a place I had never heard of until the US was scheduled to play a game there. I wish I could tell you something about the place, but I can't even visualize it. From the moment we got onto the train in Essen to go to Gelsenkirchen, all I remember are fans everywhere.

I had thought there were a lot of fans at the World Cup four years ago in Korea / Japan, but when we hit Gelsenkirchen I was amazed at how many more fans had come to Europe. It makes sense that there were thousands more European fans here, but I am not exactly sure why there were so many more US fans. It's probably partly because Europe is closer and maybe there are a lot of Americans who are already over here. I also think that people think that Japan is more expensive to get to and travel in, though in our experience that's not actually true. And maybe soccer is getting more popular? I'm really unable to judge because it wasn't until I started dating J that I had any clue about soccer. I hadn't even known that the World Cup had been in the US in 1994!

The other thing that amazed me when we hit Gelsenkirchen, and was true for our entire trip, was that Germany wasn't nearly as efficiently prepared for the World Cup as we'd expected. In Korea there were always random buses and extra trains and cordoned off routes, but in Germany we seemed to be mostly piling in with the regular commuters. This was the scene at the train station in Gelsenkirchen. We decided to take a bus instead, but then we hit so much traffic in the center of town that all the fans on the buses decided to get out and walk the remaining way (45 minutes) to the stadium.

(I didn't take that picture. It was taken by my cousin's husband who is Dutch (Indonesian, actually) and hence really tall, so holding the camera up over his head gave a much better view than the shots I was getting of people's hair.)

The game itself was not bad, but it was disappointing to lose 0-3 to the Czech Republic. I started to worry that by the next game we'd already be out of the World Cup. Still, it was fun to be there and the fans provided me with constant photo fodder.

Unfortunately there was a glass wall in front of us which meant that I had to bob my head around the rail and the supports. Kind of annoying for seats that weren't supposed to have an obstructed view. But with a telephoto lens, I had a nice closeup view of the corner. (That is Pavel Nedved, one of the Czech star players, taking a corner kick.)

After the game we went into Gelsenkirchen to a restaurant called "New Orleans" (where G's Czech boyfriend's sister's worked as a waitress), where I had a burger and a Bloody Mary. Way to integrate myself into the German culture. :)

And the next day we were off to Berlin.

BelGiuM

So much for blogging the trip!

I'm in the Manchester airport again, sitting at the same table we sat at last time and enjoying the free wireless. We have a whole night ahead of us before our flight leaves tomorrow, and our plan is to stay up and work here in the airport. (Sounds fun, doesn't it?) But right now, J is somewhere watching the England-Ecuador game and I'm just listening to it from afar. From the cheers and groans, I'm guessing the score is 1-0 with a recent near goal miss by England.

Before I get to work, I figured I would start posting some of the photos from our trip. We started off in Belgium, visiting my cousins. Although they live pretty close to Brussels, we didn't go into the city this time because my cousin's daughter was visiting for the weekend. So we spent most of the weekend eating amazing food (they buy everything from local bakeries and butchers, so it's all as fresh as can be), playing games in the backyard, and going for a walk around the woods and farms nearby.

It's pretty, n'est-ce pas? Actually, my cousins live in the Dutch speaking half of Belgium, but I have no idea how to say that in Dutch. We tried to pick up a little Dutch while we were there because my cousin's daughter only speaks Dutch, but it's really hard! And now after two weeks in Germany, I have forgotten pretty much every phrase or word I learned. And I can't say my German improved either. :(

On OuR WaY

J got us the cheapest tickets possible to Germany this summer, but... it involved leaving out of Philly (we thought we might live there by now), an 8 hour layover in Manchester, and a flight on a separate carrier to Brussels where we're first visiting my cousins. So we've been traveling for over 24 hours now and we're still only in England. Fortunately, we are able to pick up free wireless here and we're sitting right near an airport pub where J can pop in and watch the opening game while I sit and work on my dissertation. (Seriously, I make more progress on this thing whenever I'm on vacation. I think that says something...)

So it's been kind of exhausting, but I'm glad to be getting work done and at the same time I am traveling! We had some time to kill in Philly, so we wandered around Philly's Chinatown and had a really, really good lunch at Rangoon, a Burmese restaurant on 9th Street. (Really good.)

And although being at an airport isn't exactly getting to see the sights, it is fun to be surrounded by other travelers. One of the tables near us kept attracting groups of 8-10 guys, all dressed in the same t-shirt that they had made up for the World Cup (e.g., their names and a number on back, and a drawing of beer steins on the front), drinking lots of beer. We got here at 10:30 am and that table has pretty much had people at it all day. In fact, come to think of it, most of the people around us have been drinking all day long.

I think I'll save the beer for later when it won't make me pass out.

(P.S. Thanks for all your nice comments about the wedding!)

Wedding

All right, I couldn't resist throwing a few pictures in here. These are not the ones that were taken by our photographers (our friends Chiaroscuro and ViSuaLLy MiNDed) because they have so many pictures and haven't had the time to go through them. Those pictures will eventually end up on our wedding wesbite. But these are for those of you who are like me, and can't wait that long.

Also, apologies to the photographers of the photos I have used here - I have taken great liberties with your photos by cropping, cloning, and adjusting the lighting and contrast in Photoshop! While having the ceremony set against the backdrop of the Hudson River was very pretty, it certainly made for some really difficult lighting with bright sun blasting off the water and casting all of us into shadow. So I've tried to adjust the photos to bring back as much detail as I could.

They're also resized, and now I think they're too small, but I don't want to go through and resize and upload them all again... Hopefully the version you get when you click on the pictures will be large enough. I'll probably post larger versions of these on our wedding website.

And apologies also for the length of this post. This is more for the people who weren't able to come than for the people who were there!

Saturday, May 26, 2006

If you can get someone else to do your hair and makeup on your wedding day, I highly recommend doing it. Yes, I know it's pretty much a given that you will get it done, but I considered doing it myself to save money and hopefully end up with a more natural look. But then I came to my senses. And even though my makeup was less natural than I would have liked and my hair was a little too overdone, I think it was better than the understated look I'm sure I would have done for myself and I didn't have to think about it at all. I didn't have to retouch anything, play with the curls, put the flowers in my hair differently - when it was done, it was done, and we were ready to go. Highly valuable when you're indecisive and prone to lateness, like me.

In fact, even with going to the salon we ended up running late. The salon simply didn't have enough people to get us in and out of there fast enough, and we didn't help matters by getting lost on the way there. (My parents live way out in the middle of the woods and my sister's navigation system and cell phone couldn't find service, so once we were lost we were pretty much on our own. Though, bringing a map other than the vague one we printed out from Mapquest might have helped.)

Because we were running so late, and because the wedding site didn't provide anywhere for me (or anyone else) to change, we arrived at the wedding site with everyone else in their dresses and tuxes, and me still in my jeans. When we pulled into the parking lot, my mom waved frantically for us to come park over by where they were all waiting for us, seeming to think we simply couldn't see her and so that's why we were driving across the mostly empty parking lot to park on the other side. But no, our plan was to park behind the tallest car we could find (thank you Jeep) so that I could quickly change into my dress before anyone could see me. As fast as I could I peeled off my regular clothes, while my sister tried to help me into my dress without letting too much of it drag on the ground. I'm sure it was quite a ridiculous looking scene, but thankfully no one but my sister and I were there. (I think my photographers were disappointed to miss that moment, but they had gone ahead of me to scout out the site.)

It wasn't until hours later that I realized why I felt so unsure of how I looked in my dress with hair and makeup. It's because I never saw myself before heading out for pictures and all the rest of it! It strikes me as kind of crazy now that I didn't even slip into the bathroom on the site to check myself out, but everyone told me everything looked right and I just decided to believe them. What was I going to do about it anyway? :)

It wasn't until I arrived on site that I heard that J's brother hadn't come. He'd been awake when I left, but apparently was feeling even worse than the night before with a high fever and vomiting. Talk about the worst timing ever to get sick. So unfortunately we had to go on without him there.

My sister, who was in Maid of Honor mode from the moment she woke up, spent the next hour or so directing me around, keeping me from saying hi to the people who are already arriving and forcing me to eat a peanut butter sandwich. She knows me well and knows that I would simply wander around, oblivious of the time and forgetting to eat!

We managed to get a few pictures in, but people were starting to get restless, so we decided to cut the pictures short and move along with the ceremony. And suddenly I was nervous and felt rushed because we hadn't actually walked through it! (When we "rehearsed" the night before, it only consisted of me pushing people around my parents' living room and telling them when they were going to walk and where they were going to stand, and that was it.) I was nervous about the ceremony we had written that I hadn't heard out loud, other than talking it out with J. I was nervous to have everyone's eyes on us as we said our vows to each other, even though that was the whole point of this shindig! And worst of all, J was not there when it was time to go because he was already stationed up front with Colliculus (our officiant) waiting for the rest of us to walk down the aisle towards them.

officiant and groom (Photo by Lisa)

But the music started and we were off. The best man walked my grandmother down the aisle to her seat, and then came back and walked my mother down the aisle to her seat. My sister (and Maid of Honor) walked next, followed by my ten-year-old cousin as our "Ring Girl". (She preferred "Ring Girl" to "Ring Bearer" and made sure to correct her younger sister every time she called her by the wrong title.) Next up was the flower girl, who carried a basket of petals and when she reached the back line of seats, started thrusting them out in front of her to scatter them around. It wasn't delicate, but it was certainly adorable. And then my dad and I walked up and I was glad we didn't have a huge guest list because the walk turned out to be quite brief. Within a few seconds I was standing up at the front, worrying about the hair that was being blown into my face and sticking to my lip gloss. (Isn't it funny the things you can be thinking about at a time of otherwise seriousness?)

So here we are. (Photos by my uncle Dale.)

best man and grandmother		best man and mother

ring girl		flower girl

bride and father		bride, sister, and flower girl

ceremony

I relaxed as Colliculus started to read the ceremony. We knew he would have the perfect gravitas to pull it off well, and he did. And when he stumbled over words (probably typos I left in the script), he just laughed them off and everyone laughed with him. The ceremony started out with a funny story, which got people laughing and then moved on to more serious talk about family and love which started to really get me feeling emotional. My sister did a reading for us that was very, very nice and then it was time for the vows.

Colliculus handed us our written vows, and in that moment (because we hadn't decided this ahead of time) I was chosen (or did I chose?) to go first. It struck me as best because I thought if I had to hear J's vows first I would choke up. I figured that going first would allow me to get through mine. But no dice. I got two sentences in before I choked up and could not go on. I am very interested to see the video of the ceremony to see if it really happened as I remember it - I remember what felt like the longest pause ever as I flailed my arms and felt unable to speak. I thrust my vows at J and managed to get out, "you go." He laughed and said he wasn't reading mine, and I noticed that the guests suddenly seemed as choked up as I was. It was kind of funny and emotional and embarrassing and totally fine all at the same time. So J made a joke about that being just a preview, and then read his vows to me. He managed to get through them rather well, and then I read mine. I think I still choked on the last line, but I did get through them.

wiping my tears while J makes a joke (Photo by Dale)		still wiping my tears while J reads his vows (Photo by Lisa)

reading vows (Photo by Jenny)

Next up was the exchange of rings. When J held out his hand, I just repeated what Colliculus asked us to say. Notice anything wrong with this picture?

(Photo by Jenny)

I didn't. But the rest of our guests did and started waving frantically to J. Yep, moments after Colliculus explained the tradition of wearing wedding rings on the left hand, I had placed J's ring on his right hand. (In my defense, his right hand is on my left side! And that was the hand that he had held out to me. Not that that is much of a defense...) Well, after the crying through the vows, a light moment was called for, and this seemed to do the trick. (And of course, Jenny was taking pictures through the whole thing!)

(Photo by Jenny)

Well, all's well that end's well, right? And the ceremony definitely ended well.

(Photo by Dale)

After the ceremony, in spite of our having planned not to do a receiving line, one formed anyway because we kept saying hi and hugging the people who were coming up to us. It was kind of nice actually because we got to greet all of our guests before everyone spread out during the cocktail hour.

A few minutes later, J's brother showed up! His fever had broken and he had taken the last car at the house to drive himself to the wedding. We were sorry he missed the ceremony, but thrilled that he was able to make it. I could tell he still wasn't feeling well, but over the next few hours we could see him coming back to life. When he could, he talked and ate... not sure he danced though. And when he was tired, he sat at the DJ table and helped coordinate what was playing when, which was great because I didn't give a second thought to the music. (That was J's job.)

And then there was much dancing, drinking, and eating for the rest of the night... Our first dance was to "Meant to Be" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Our first course was a sake cured salmon gravlax that was extremely good. We took pictures on the steps of the mansion on the site as the sun was setting. We had a fabulous buffet dinner that I only ate bites of and later regretted missing! We got five speeches: a short introduction by my mom, a loooooong story by my dad detailing how all the wedding planning had gone, even talking about how he went shoe shopping for hours with me and my sister, an impromptu speech by J's brother (this time it was his turn to get choked up), and two wonderful speeches by my sister and the best man. We had a dessert buffet with a chocolate fountain and fereeny (an Afghan dessert), and I was so hungry at this point that I treated myself to two plates of dessert.

It was a beautiful night that went exactly as we had hoped. I had been a little worried that it would seem pointless since we were already officially married, but it really was a completely different event than when we signed the paperwork in Japan back in Nov '04. Having everyone come to celebrate this with us and witness our vows to each other was very meaningful, and we are thankful to all the family and friends who were able to come. (And of course we wish that J's whole family could have joined us, but we understand why they couldn't. I know that some of you are reading this, and we appreciate your love and support. We were certainly thinking of you!)

first dance (Photo by Dale)

Next up is a name change, a trip to Europe, finishing our dissertations, and a move to Philly... my head spins just thinking about it all...

WaLkINg ArouNd CampUs

Wedding post still to come, I promise (with pictures even!) ...

Today I went to the health care center for what I hope will be my last visit there before I move. First, I met with the person who is helping to resolve some bills that I paid that I shouldn't have (they were coded wrong and so my insurance had refused to pay). I used to work in a benefits office and I also did some "freelance" claims work (for a cancer patient whose claims had snowballed out of control) so I know what a pain it is to follow up on insurance claims. I am sure that since I already paid these claims, the billing office is in no rush to get the insurance company to pay for it now and then have to deal with reimbursing me. I might have forgotten it too, but it's $140 (over two years) and I am looking forward to getting that money back one day!

Then I met with the nurse I always go to, and she is so sweet she actually hugged me goodbye when I left. I really hate going in for check ups (because they're usually gynecological), but she is very gentle and nice and always chats with me for a while, so she knows all about my grad program, getting married, etc., and I know all about her family and kids. It almost made me sad to leave. I hope I have such good luck finding a doctor in Philly.

Afterwards I walked around campus with my new camera (!). I headed over to the water lily pond because I was thinking I might take a picture of the fountain in the center of the pond and frame it as a goodbye / thank you gift for my advisor. (Does that seem like a nice gift? Or is it weird, because it assumes she'd want to hang my photo, when it's possible she may not even like it?) Well, I don't think I got a very good picture, but I had fun anyway taking pictures of all the pink lilies that covered the surface.

Later I met up with some friends from the department and I mentioned to M that she might want to check out the pond because the lilies were in full bloom. A look of realization instantly crossed her face, and she asked, "was that you I just saw lying on the ground near the pond taking pictures?" It's funny, because I had been laying on the ground in order to get low (since this camera doesn't have a flip out viewfinder), and it occurred to me that it might look funny but then I reasoned with myself that no one I knew would see me. Oh well, at least she would have done the same thing herself and completely understood!

And now I'm just racing to get as much work done as I can because in three days we are leaving for Europe! We'll be visiting my cousins in Belgium and then going to the first games of the World Cup in Germany. I'm stressed because I still have a lot of work left to do, but excited because I looooooooove to travel. And we'll get to meet up with Kelly and our friend G, both of whom have been out of the country for far too long!! So I am really, really looking forward to this.

I UpGradEd!!

While I wait to hear back from some people about whether I can post pictures of them from the wedding, I thought I'd update you on the story of my camera upgrade. The one I listed on eBay sold for $585, which comes out to about $550 after eBay and PayPal fees. (My reserve was $500, so I am really happy with the price I got.) Payment went through successfully and so unless the guy paid with a stolen credit card and there's a chargeback (which I doubt considering he runs a camera store, albeit possibly a shady one according to resellerratings.com), the money should stay in my account and all should be fine. So I sent the camera off, feeling a little nostalgic but ultimately excited.

A few days later I ordered the Canon EOS 350D / Digital Rebel XT. After the $100 rebate, the cost of the camera is about $650 with the kit lens. So all in all, I spent $100 to upgrade to a dSLR. Not bad!

Photo from dpreview.com

So far I am completely in love with this camera. Having been using Chiaroscuro's Canon EOS 300D / Digital Rebel, I already feel completely comfortable with this camera. The only difference is that I think the lens I got with this camera is better than the Sigma kit lens she used to use with her and this camera has a lot more functionality enabled. Yippee!

I am totally thrilled to pieces.

Rehearsal Dinner

We had a beautiful wedding. I don't have any pictures to show you because I didn't pick up a camera practically the entire time, but we will eventually post pictures on our wedding website. (Email me or leave a comment below if you want the link.)

The weather was incredible, everything went as planned, and it was just lovely.

It's too much to write about in one single post, so here's the first installment...

Friday, May 26, 2006

On Friday night we had a rehearsal dinner that was 1% rehearsal and 99% sushi making. J and I wanted something casual and inexpensive, and of course, we could think of nothing more fitting than sushi. My sister offered to organize it all and due to her planning, it went swimmingly. Also, she and her boyfriend gave us a super awesome rice cooker as a wedding gift, which we put to use immediately.

After the dinner, all the other guests who were in town already came by for coffee and a whole buffet of desserts that my mom had been preparing for at least a couple of weeks. It was so crowded and I was so full of sushi that I never even saw the dessert table (but that's ok, because we've been eating those desserts ever since).

It was incredible to see the house filled with everyone we knew - family members and friends from everywhere. It was really humbling that everyone came to celebrate this with us. I also started to get my first taste of how impossible it is to talk to everyone, but I also discovered that we didn't need to be entirely proactive because people kept coming up to talk to us.

Also, J's brother had come up for the wedding, but he couldn't participate because he was laid out with a 103 degree fever. Not fun! I felt so badly that he'd traveled all that way only to be lying deliriously in and out of sleep while there was a big party going on downstairs.

It was definitely a fun night, but at the same time I was a little stressed because J and I hadn't finished writing our vows. I'd pulled some sample stuff from the web, but didn't really like anything I had found. By the time everyone left and we got to writing them, it was around midnight. J had some wedding music stuff to finish up and I worked on pulling the rest of the ceremony together (though apparently not well, as there turned out to be lots of typos) and searching around online again for more sample vows. I still couldn't find anything I liked, though I managed to pull together one paragraph that we decided we would be the final paragraph. But were still having trouble coming up with a first paragraph that would be personalized for each of us to say. We tried composing them separately, but that didn't really get us very far. Finally J came over to me and we just started talking about why we loved each other, why we were marrying each other (again), and suddenly our vows came out of that. That was almost entirely all J's doing because I was feeling like I would never come up with something good enough, but he just made me talk and he typed out what I said, and eventually we both came up with our vows. It's almost funny now that we struggled so much to find the perfect elegant words, and then in the end what felt right was simply to say what we wanted to say to each other. It was 3 am by the time we were done, but I think we both felt good about them, and we were both able to sleep easily that night.