adventure | The Scamp Abroad

The Scamp and Beantown: Day 3

Posted on February 28, 2015 by erranteditor

I have a thing for zoos. I love them. Every time I visit a new city, the first thing I look for is whether or not they have zoo. As it turns out, Boston does have a zoo.

As it turns out, I chose to visit Boston during Snowmeggadon, and the thought of visiting a zoo in 8 feet of snow made me want to cry a little (okay, who am I kidding, it made me want to cry a lot). Monday in Boston was a whopping 3 degrees, and that made wanting to be outdoors for an extended amount of time impossible.

Luckily Boston has an alternative to the zoo that is just as good.

According to the website:

The New England Aquarium, which opened in 1969, is a global leader in ocean exploration and marine conservation. The Aquarium is one of the premier visitor attractions in Boston, with over 1.3 million visitors a year, and a major public education resource.

As it happens, the exhibit right now is all about my favorite animal.

I love penguins. My cousin is a marine biologist, and works for an aquarium, and I am constantly begging him to bring me home a penguin. So far, he is saying no, but I am optimistic that I can change his mind.

The New England Aquarium is on the warf, and on any other day, I would have loved to see the view, but seeing as being outside hurt my face, we only stayed outside long enough to buy tickets and run inside.

I loved the aquarium. The penguins were adorable, the staff friendly, and fish colorful and exciting. Sus is naturally curious and had me cracking up at all of the questions that she was asking. She was worried about being eaten by a starfish, wanted to know what everything ate, and made the men feeding the penguins laugh at everything she wanted to know. The marine biologist feeding the penguins was mighty cute, so I let her ask as many questions as she wanted.

When we had gotten our fill of fish (and sadly abandoned our plan to bring a penguin or two home with us), we trusted lonely planet and went off to Chinatown for some dumplings. Chinatown was amazing.Having never been to China, I imagine the layout here is very similar to a city in China.

The Gourmet Dumpling House was easy to find, and before we even sat down, the waiter presented us with a pot of hot tea and some menus. While we were deciding what to eat, we snacked on scallion pancakes that tasted like little bits of heaven.

Thank you Google Images for supplying the photo. I ate all of them before I remembered to take a photo

We ordered chicken wanton soup and vegetable dumplings. The last time I had Chinese food this good was when the lovely Sophia made dinner for us in Edinburgh. The restaurant had more staff than diners when we were there, and there was rapid fire Mandarin being spoken everywhere you turned. The staff was laughing and teasing each other while they sorted and cleaned fresh produce, and wrapped some sort of dumpling (The waitress was nice enough to tell us what it was, but I have since forgotten).

This was by far the best meal that I have ever had. There were 10 dumplings in the bowl, and I kid you not, I ate seven of them. I’m not sure if it was all the walking, or the fact that it was my first meal of the day, but everything about this meal was amazing. Sus had to roll me back to the hostel. I would go back to Boston just to go back to the Gourmet Dumpling House.

The Scamp and Beantown: Day 2

Posted on February 27, 2015 by erranteditor

Sus and I decided that the day needed to be dedicated to all things Harvard. We quickly learned the difference between Harvard Avenue and Harvard Street, and we successfully navigated both the subway and the bus system. The one thing that impressed me about Boston was how easy public transportation was to navigate. We got everywhere we needed to be, and did so with little fuss.

When we made it to Harvard I really wanted to be impressed. On paper, Harvard is an impressive school.

Harvard at a Glance

ESTABLISHED

1636

FACULTY

About 2,400 faculty members and more than 10,400 academic appointments in affiliated teaching hospitals

STUDENTS

Harvard College – About 6,700
Graduate and professional students – About 14,500
Total – About 21,000

SCHOOL COLOR

Crimson Specs

LIVING ALUMNI

More than 323,000, over 271,000 in the U.S., nearly 52,000 in some 201 other countries. See the alumni website for more information.

HONORS

47 Nobel Laureates, 32 heads of state, 48 Pulitzer Prize winners

MOTTO

Veritas (Latin for “truth”)

REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS

5,083 acres

LIBRARY COLLECTION

The Harvard Library—the largest academic library in the world—includes 18.9 million volumes, 174,000 serial titles, an estimated 400 million manuscript items, 10 million photographs, 56 million archived web pages, and 5.4 terabytes of born-digital archives and manuscripts. Access to this rich collection is provided by nearly 1,000 library staff members who operate more than 70 separate library units.

FACULTIES, SCHOOLS, AND AN INSTITUTE

Harvard University is made up of 11 principal academic units – ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The ten faculties oversee schools and divisions that offer courses and award academic degrees.

Under 8 feet of snow….it sort of loses its appeal.

I think another reason that I was underwhelmed was because the University of Edinburgh has ruined me for all other schools. The thing I liked about the campus was everyone was wearing Harvard shirts, people were super friendly, and there were an abundance of international students. Cambridge is a proper college town, and walking around the shops of Harvard Square was a lot of fun. Being that Sus and I both love books, we stopped in a great bookstore on the square.

When I was a kid, I thought Harvard was the be all, end all of schools. I wanted to go there. While I enjoyed the tour, and thought the campus was beautiful, I am not so sure I would have really enjoyed being a student there. While there is a sense of campus pride, and the people seemed nice, there is also a definite competitive atmosphere that lingers. I would rather have a collaborative learning experience, rather than one based on constantly trying to best my classmates.

We ended the night following the advice of Lonely Planet and visiting Little Italy for some pasta.

Lonely Planet did not let us down.

Carmelinas was truly amazing. The restaurant was small, and beautiful, and the food was great. I highly recommend the Puttenesca should anyone be lucky enough to eat there.

Behind the restaurant was a little bit of history. Paul Revere House sits quietly and unassuming between apartment buildings. It was closed, dark, and covered in snow, so the picture is not one that I took, but the house was impressive, and the history behind it makes the academic nerd in me giddy.

According to the Paul Revere Memorial Society:

The home was built about 1680 on the site of the former parsonage of the Second Church of Boston. Increase Mather, the Minister of the Second Church, and his family (including his son, Cotton Mather) occupied this parsonage from 1670 until it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1676. A large and fashionable new home was built at the same location about four years later. Paul Revere owned the home from 1770 to 1800, although he and his family may not have lived here in some periods in the 1780s and 90s. After Revere sold the home in 1800, it soon became a tenement, and the ground floor was remodeled for use as shops, including at various times a candy store, cigar factory, bank and vegetable and fruit business. In 1902, Paul Revere’s great-grandson, John P. Reynolds Jr. purchased the building to ensure that it would not be demolished. Over the next few years, money was raised, and the Paul Revere Memorial Association formed to preserve and renovate the building. In April 1908, the Paul Revere House opened its doors to the public as one of the earliest historic house museums in the U.S. The Association still oversees the preservation and day-to-day operations of this national treasure.

One day I will have to go back and take a tour of the house.

After all the walking and all day outside, we were back at the hostel and in bed by 9pm. I have not been asleep by 9pm since I was in high school….

The Scamp and Beantown: Day 1

Posted on February 27, 2015 by erranteditor

Only this girl would book a trip to Boston during the worst snowstorm the city has ever seen. Eight feet of snow is no joke. I took a red eye, and landed at 8 in the morning, and after an hour subway ride, and a ten minute walk in the ice and snow, I made it to the hostel that would serve as home for a few days. I was so tired by the time I got to Boston that I didn’t even notice the cold.

This was my first hostel experience, and I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into. I have a lot of friends who stay in hostels, and very few of them have horror stories, but when I got to the 40Berkeley, I was happy that it was in a safe neighborhood, and was reasonably clean. The room reminded me of the dorm I lived in in Scotland (well, a less clean version) complete with the shared bathroom and uncomfortable cot bed. I was scared that the extreme cold weather would make the room extremely cold, but when I settled in,, the room was a tropical paradise. I was sweating in five minutes, and when the mysteries of the radiator knobs alluded me, I actually opened a window.

It was snowing….

The neighborhood streets had been plowed, and small paths had been cleared on the sidewalks, but it was still hard to get an idea of what anything looked like.

By the time Sus arrived, it was late afternoon, and both of us were too tired to any real exploring. I knew that I could be in Boston without going to Cheers, so we walked through the Boston Commons, and had a bite where everybody knows your name.

The Boston Commons may be beautiful, but all I saw was 8 feet of snow.

Chicken II made his first trip out and about, and he enjoyed Cheers.

In the dark, with snow flurries and jet lag, I was worried that I would not enjoy my trip. I punctuate my life by the adventures that I take, and I was worried that if I did not enjoy the trip, then my mood would not improve.

Then I remembered the gratitude challenge. The challenge for this week was how I am feeling 9 weeks in. While I was worried I would not have fun, I was grateful to be out of California for a few days, and for the chance to experience the snow and Beantown.

I’m really not sure how I feel yet at this stage of the challenge. There are days when I feel like I am becoming a more grateful person, and that I am being reminded of all of the good I am surrounded by, and then there are the days when I feel like running over everyone I come in contact with. I’m hoping as the weeks go by, I will hold onto the positive feelings and become a more grateful person.

The Scamp and the Gratitude Challenge: Week 6

Posted on February 8, 2015 by erranteditor

The city that I live in.

La Habra, California is a city with more Pitbulls than people and a liquor store on every corner. When I came back almost two years ago, it was the first time I had lived here in almost ten years. The city covers 3.376 square miles and has a little over 60,000 people. It is in the Northwestern corner of Orange County, which means I can pretend I’m Orange County cool without being Orange County ditsy.

It is hard for me to be grateful about the city that I live in since I have been trying to get out of it since I was 18 years old. Don’t get me wrong, there are way worse places to live, and La Habra did provide me with an education that was good enough to get me to a good college. The city provided me with my first job shelving books, but most of the people who live here grew up here, they work here, and they will die here….and they are perfectly okay with that.

I feel like a caged bird here. I am a flamingo in a flock of pigeons here.

While that seems to go against showing my gratitude for the city, I am in fact grateful. If it was not for the caged feeling that this city gives me, I would never have gone away to college, never moved to San Diego, and never ended up in Scotland.

Everything for me always comes back to Scotland. Scotland is the one place that I could see myself living for more than 3 years, and the one place that I really felt at home. I might never have gotten to Scotland had it not been for La Habra. My wanderlust has taken me far outside of the city limits, and has exposed me to so many great places and so many great people. I am grateful for La Habra for showing me the type of life I want to lead, and the type of place I want to live, and for being full of students that I can help with grammar and writing until I can get back there .

The Scamp Whats and Ifs

Posted on January 26, 2015 by erranteditor

Tomorrow I have to go back to work. I have been off for 6 weeks, and I am not sure that I am ready for the vacation to end. The last 6 weeks have been tough. Since I cut ties with the EDD program, I have been trying to figure out what is next for me. The community college Gods are smiling on me and there are an abundance of full time English positions opening for the fall of 2015. There are 250 people applying for each of these positions, but I am hopeful that my application will stick out to someone on one of the hiring committees at one of these community colleges.

Of course, talking to a lot of my friends who are also applying for these positions, I am starting to worry a bit. A lot of them have great relationships with their professors and with the people that they teach for now. I do not have this. I have a very strained relationship with the college I last attended, and I am too new in my job for anyone to really know my name. I’d much rather that my application was judged based on my skills, qualifications, and relevant teaching experience, rather than what someone who I worked for a couple of years ago. This further showed me that I am not good at the game of politics that exists in the field of higher education. I just want to be in a room teaching students how to write and help them progress in their academic career. The application process, the way I have to “sell” myself is very hard for me.

This whole process, and the last 6 weeks has caused me to utter two words over and over: What if?

As Romcom Letters to Juliet notes:

“What” and “If” are two words as non-threatening as words can be. But put them together side-by-side and they have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life: What if? What if? What if?”

what

(h)wət

pronoun

1.

asking for information specifying something.

“what is your name?”
2.

the thing or things that (used in specifying something).

“what we need is a commitment”

determiner

1.

asking for information specifying something.

“what time is it?”
2.

(referring to the whole of an amount) whatever.

“he had been robbed of what little money he had”

adverb

1.

to what extent?

“what does it matter?”
2.

used to indicate an estimate or approximation.

“see you, what, about four?”

if/

conjunction

introducing a conditional clause.

synonyms:

on (the) condition that,provided (that),providing (that),presuming (that),supposing (that),assuming (that),as long as,given that,in the event that

“if the rain holds out, we can walk”

2.

despite the possibility that; no matter whether.

“if it takes me seven years, I shall do it”

Noun

a condition or supposition.

“there are so many ifs and buts in the policy”

What if I do not get one of the full time positions? What if I do not get a position in Scotland? What if I never get to finish my PhD? What if I do not make enough money each month to pay all my student loan payments? What if I can’t find full time work and have to live with my parents for the foreseeable future?

These what ifs are starting to stress me out. They are keeping me up at night, making me doubt myself, and keep me in the doom and gloom that I have been trying so hard to get myself out of for the last two years.

Tomorrow I get to go back to the job that I love. I’m excited that I get to spend another semester doing what I love, and once the papers start coming in, I know that it will keep me from all the crazy “what ifs?” that are floating around in my head.

One thing that I would like to note: I was able to take the countdown of my time in the program off of my phone. I feel like I’ve been released from prison, or that I have been rescued from a deserted island. Deleting that countdown from my phone allows me to put countdowns for fun things, like my upcoming trip to Boston and the summer trip to Spain.

Celebrating the little things.

The Scamp and Latvia

Posted on November 27, 2014 by erranteditor

I made a mistake when I was in Helsinki….I didn’t have a plan. I thought I was part of a tour group, when really the tour company provided an hour long tour around the city and then dropped us off in the shopping district for 8 hours. I did not have a map or really any direction, and while I had a Lonely Planet guidebook, it was not much help.

I decided that my time in Riga would not be like that. I spent the four hour bus ride reading about some of the things that I wanted to see, and booked a hotel in the center of the action. I grabbed a good map from the front desk and used Google maps to make a list of how to get to each of the places. I got into Riga around dinner time, and was absolutely knackered from the whirlwind few days, so after a quick bite to eat, I took advantage of the really nice hotel bathtub and my copy of the Bell Jar. I was asleep pretty early and woke up the next morning excited to start the day.

There was really only one thing that was on my list of place to see in Riga: the only synagogue in the city. After Riga was occupied by the Nazis, all the synagogues in the city were burnt down on July 4, 1941. The Peitav Shul was the only synagogue in Riga to escape the common fate because it was located in the Old Town and there was a risk that the fire would spread to nearby buildings. During the war the synagogue was used as a warehouse. After the war it was learned that the eastern wall of the synagogue, where the bookcase with Torah scrolls (Aron Kodesh) was located, had been concealed. The synagogue did not disappoint. It was absolutely breathtaking. The rabbi let me in and allowed me 30 minutes alone in the majestic space.

In all honesty, I could devote an entire post to it. I felt peaceful in there, and felt a small connection with family who I will never get to meet, but may have gone there. Latvia was never on my radar as a place to visit, but when my aunt told us that that was where our family was from, it became a place of interest for me.

In addition to the synagogue, I saw all of the tourist attractions. By far my favorite was the Cat House. The legend has it that the wealthy tradesman who commissioned the building was refused membership of the Riga Tradesmen’s Guild, mostly just called the Great Guild. The central element of both versions is the anecdote that seeking retribution the tradesman had two copper statues of angry-looking cats with arched backs and raised tails placed on the turret rooftops with their tails turned towards the house of the Great Guild, situated across the street.

I could live in a house like that. The Riga Cat is also somewhat famous.

I also visited the oldest set of houses in Riga, as well as the Freedom Monument and a beautiful Russian Orthodox cathedral.

I took a hundred pictures. I walked around for hours admiring the views, and because I had a tourist friendly map and a plan, fell in love with the city. It reminded me a lot of my first few days in Scotland. I had a map, and my ipod. I wasn’t worried about getting lost, and I was happy to be on an adventure. I put on some of my favorite playlists and allowed myself to really get a feel for the city. I ended the day with pelmeni, only the most delicious dumplings ever, and then a Skype chat with some of my favorite ladies from Scotland. All in all, it was a great little excursion and just what I needed to curb my wanderlust for a bit.

The Scamp in Helsinki

Posted on November 25, 2014 by erranteditor

I will never make fun of my mom and her love for guided tour vacations again. I like to go on solo adventures, and I love exploring new places, but exploring a place where I don’t speak the language and the map doesn’t exactly make sense does not lend itself to a good day of sightseeing.

I went on a mini guided bus tour of the city, but then had a whole day to myself to wander around alone. The day started off with a cruise from Tallinn to Helsinki

I did not take this photo. My butt was on a boat at 7 am and the sun was not out yet. This is what the boat looks like though.

I spent the day wandering through the maze of shopping centers and looking at the beautiful architecture. I had a really hard time reading the map, so I made a few circles before I was able to find some of the museums.

The only problem was that most of them are closed on Mondays.

opps.

I was able to see some of the wonderful architecture

My favorite part of the day in Helsinki was visiting The Temppeliaukio Kirkko (Rock Church) is a thrilling work of modern architecture in Helsinki. Completed in 1969, it is built entirely underground and has a ceiling made of copper wire. According to Sacred Destinations:

The Temppeliaukio Kirkko was designed by architect brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen. Construction began in 1968 and was finished a year later in 1969. The architects chose a rocky outcrop rising about 40 feet above street level, and blasted out the walls from the inside.

The Temppeliaukio is now most commonly known by its English name, the Rock Church or Church in the Rock. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Helsinki and frequently full of visitors.

The church was beautiful. It was peaceful and quiet, and surprisingly warm inside. Chicken and I sat among the other tourists and said a quick prayer before we moved on for the day. I would have stayed there a lot longer if I knew I wasn’t going to be able to read a map.

It is funny to me that I got lost in Scotland a lot that first month. Not once did it bother me. I had my ipod and a playlist of good music and I would laugh at myself and the things I stumbled on accidentally. That was not quite the case here. I was a little discouraged that the map let me down, and not enough people understood English well enough to help me. After awhile, I was tired of wandering alone, and wished I had someone there to take funny pictures with, and someone who would help me pose chicken in front of all the landmarks.

I’m now in Latvia, and I am going to try and break the cycle and read a map in Latvian tomorrow. I have a Lonely Planet guide books, a map of the city, and a mission to locate a Jewish Synagogue that was only spared during WWII because of how close it was to Old Town and where the Nazis were occupying. Lonely Planet also suggests I go on an art walk, which I think sounds like a great idea. If I had enough time, I would have planned a trip to the national park outside the city to tour the castles, and bungee jump from a cable car (don’t worry mom, there is not enough time for that to happen).

I’m excited for a scamp around the place of my mother’s people, and a chance to eat some very yummy pelmeni.

The Scamp and a Jetplane

Posted on November 21, 2014 by erranteditor

The day has finally arrived. Tomorrow I will be on my way to Estonia for a week.

Not only do I get to spend time with one of my favorite people in the world, but I have an action packed week full of interesting destinations and culture, art, and history galore. I plan to detail my journeys for the next week. My mom has given me her camera which means I will have high quality photographs of my adventure.

See ya later California!

The Scamp Makes a List

Posted on October 6, 2014 by erranteditor

The Scamp Plans a Visit

Posted on September 29, 2014 by erranteditor

In 54 days, 11 hours, and 29 minutes I will be on a plane to Estonia.

This caged bird is getting a week of freedom. My credit card is sad, but my heart is happy. I will get to spend a week with one of my best friends, and get to explore a new country. I don’t care if it snows, or if none of my other friends can make it, the week long break from all that is going on in my bubble here is worth it.

The countdown keeps me going. None of the drama of the program, my frustrations with the research job, or any of my feelings about being home seem that bad when I know that in 54 days I get a break.

This marks the third year in a row that I will not be home for Thanksgiving. I am extremely thankful for the chance to escape my gilded cage. I cannot wait to plan my adventure. I have already decided to visit Helsinki, and Latvia. My family is from Latvia, so I think seeing my roots for a bit might do me a bit of good.

The only thing that would make this trip perfect is if some of my friends from Scotland can come along as well. A year without seeing each other is far too long.