keeping you in the loop

hello friends!

as you all know, i'm in alaska.  in doing my best to pack light, i decided not to bring my computer on this adventure.  while i love my macbook, it is definitely not the lightest thing to carry around (especially not as i'm running through airports).  thus, i'm restricted to blogging from an iDevice.  again, while i love both my iPod and iPhone, for some reason, they do not like to let me blog.  this tragic combination of no computer + fickle iDevices has made it terribly difficult for me to tell you, in detail, how amazingly gorgeous alaska is.  

so here's the solution. follow me on twitter! you'll see to the left, that i've added my twitter feed.  go ahead and "join the conversation" to follow me on twitter directly and to see more than my 4 most recent tweets.  

of course, i'll still be giving recaps of my adventures but this way, you can keep tabs on me while i'm out and about and all over the place.

x! 

i'm going to alaska.

so a while ago, i gave you all a preview about what i was up to this fall.  then i got busy actually doing it all and haven't shared an update.  sorry about that.

today i leave for alaska, my first major adventure of the fall.  the current plan is to fly to anchorage and in a few days, hop in a car with my friend, S, and drive back to virginia.  but that's not all - S wants to go ALL the way down to new orleans and THEN back up.  now, i'm not sure how your US + canada geography is but canada is huge and alaska is very very far away.  this endeavor will involve driving almost all the way across canada and reentering the usa around north dakota.  let's just glance at this map over here to the left. see alaska, obviously top left and then north dakota is in the middle (it's a green state) and virginia, way east (yellow).   last night, S said the total mileage estimate was some enormous number like 6,000.

so. yeah.  S has recognized that i have never driven in a car longer than 6 hours and even that wasn't all that recently -- he's worried about me.  i've put it out there that i may want to be dropped off at a major airport along the way to jump ship.  then S will have to continue on his own and that will be sad, but i just might not be able to handle it. 

i am feeling incredibly unprepared for this trip and i can't pinpoint why although there are many factors that could be contributing.  first of all, we'll be camping in the canadian wilderness for about a week; i've been camping before and i've spent lots of time in the snow, but i have not done both of these things together.  do i have the right clothes? am i going to be freezing? i'm fully prepared to wear every article of clothing in my backpack while sleeping in a tent.  but still, i'm nervous.  the nerves i have are very different than any i had before unplanned trips last year, in fact, i was always more excited for unplanned things last year, but those trips were predictable.

it could also be that i've never done anything like this (camp in canada OR drive across the country) and it's just so vastly unknown that i can't wrap my brain around it.  everyone has been telling me that this will be an amazing experience - a cross country road trip! when else will i have the chance?! and apparently we'll be "chasing autumn south," and fall is my favorite season, chasing it could be fun.  my friend, A, told me yesterday that there's just something about a road trip that can't be described adequately; the passing views create a gorgeous panorama that you can't possibly recreate, you only know how beautiful it is if you're there, looking out the window (i wish i remembered exactly how eloquently he said that) -- and we all know how i feel about a good bella vista.  

it's not that i'm not excited, because i am.  i know it will be an incredible experience that i might not ever get the chance to have again and that's exciting.

stay tuned, hopefully i'll be able to update along the way.  i can tell you how cold i am, how beautiful the sights are, and how excited i am for a shower.   

x!

filling up the passport

after paying a ridiculous sum of money to have extra pages added to my passport, i realized that i had achieved my goal of filling up my passport before the expiration date in august 2017.  i set the goal for myself in the fall of 2009 and did not expect to complete the task to quickly!  living on the border of the EU last year really helped me rack up the stamps (mainly from the frequent visits to croatia).  

so now i'm ready to tackle the goal again.  i've still got 6 years until expiration and now i have 52 fresh pages.  to get started i'm going to alaska and canada in 2 weeks and then thailand in october.  that's right, big things are about to happen.  

stay tuned! 

x.

ps, don't you want to get postcards from canada and thailand? just click the "donate" button to the left and help me out with postage :) 

cronicles della mia cucina: brooklyn dinner party

last week, in new york, i got together with some friends i hadn't seen in a while; we gathered at one girl's brooklyn apartment for dinner.  i was in charge of wine, D was in charge of delicious baked goods and J brought the ingredients.   since i was the only guest who doesn't live in the city, we spent a lot of time talking about me and my last year in trieste.  it was nice to be doing what we did so much of last year with a new group of people.  it was comforting to be cooking with friends while i was talking about cooking with friends on via della guardia.  we talked about trips i had taken and made plans for new trips; our conversations flowed just as they had in italy - with the help of italian wine.  and it was especially fun to learn that i'm capable of cooking delicious things that don't involve pasta (thanks for the delicious recipes, J!)

shrimp and avacado salad with crispy tortillas

adapted from here

ingredients: 

tortillas sliced into strips

5 tbls olive oil

kosher salt & black pepper

1.5 lbs peeled & deveined large shrimp

1/2 tsp cumin

2 tbls fresh orange juice

2 tbls fresh lime juice

2 romaine hearts, sliced (about 5 cups)

1/4 small cabbage, thinly sliced (about 3 cups)

1 avacado (or more, avacados are yummy)

directions:

heat oven to 400 F.  toss tortillas with olive oil & salt; spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until golden and crisp (7ish minutes)

in a large bowl, toss the shrimp with cumin, salt, and pepper.  heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  cook the shrimp until golden and cooked through. 

in another bowl, combine the juices with 3 tbls of olive oil, salt, & pepper.  add romaine, cabbage, avacado, and shrimpg.  toss to combine; top the salad with the crispy tortillas and serve!

roasted corn with manchego and lime (YUM)

adapted from here

ingredients:

6 ears of corn

2 tbls olive oil

2 tbls unsalted butter

kosher sald & black pepper

1 jalepeno, finely diced

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 lime, cut into wedges

1 cup finely grated manchego cheese (YUM!)

1/4 cup thinly sliced chives

2 tsp finely grated lime zest

directions: 

preheat oven to 450 F. roast unhusked corn on a baking sheet, turning occasionally, until heated through and crisp-tender (about 15 minutes). let cool, shuck corn and cut kernels from cobs.

heat oil in a large skilled over high heat.  add corn kernels and saute until heated through and golden brown.  add butter; stir until melted. season to taste with salt and pepper. 

transfer corn to a large bowl/platter; sprinkle jalepeno and crushed red pepper flakes over.  squeeze lime wedges; sprinkle with cheese, chives, and lime zest. 

check me out!

hello friends! guess what? we're featured in this months issue of the South Roanoke Circle - south roanoke's own neighborhood newspaper! 

you can download an electronic copy here and check it out (page 11)!

the article is a modified version of this post from last september, it's so crazy to think that was a whole year ago! 

x!

the joy of snail mail

 in the past few weeks, i've been spending a lot of time organizing my room in my parents' house.  in it are boxes upon boxes full of unorganized things from the past 6 years of my life.  in order to effectively live in this room while i'm not gallivanting somewhere else, i must unpack.  as a part of this process, i'm cleaning out drawers and other spaces to make room for everything that must come out of boxes.  one of the most entertaining drawers that i've cleaned out has been my nightstand drawer which was FULL of notes i received from friends during middle and high school.  no doubt, these notes were passed to me during class, in the halls, or put on my car for discovery at the end of the day.  many were folded in intricate origami patterns and some were written so cryptically, i had no idea what the message was.  rereading them brought back so many memories of weekend parties, crushes we had on so many different boys, and many other things that have slipped from my memory since high school graduation; i was so glad that i kept them all, reliving each one of them was hilarious.  

yesterday, i was telling a friend about my note drawer discovery and i was surprised to hear that he had a similar (but much smaller) old collection of notes from years back and had recently reread them in a fashion very similar to what i described.  we reminisced about high school, how much time had passed, and how much we had changed since and he posed the question, when's the last time you passed a note to someone!? and i realized that i still write notes all the time.  

no, i'm not folding them intricately and passing them during class, but i write and send notes to friends and family all the time.  many of you are lucky to be on my postcard-recipient list to which i'll write you colorful and (i hope) exciting postcards from my travels and to those of you who sent me handwritten greetings in italy, i always reciprocated.  it's true, though, that we are a dying breed and it's much more likely to send (and receive) an email, text message, or some other form of electronic greeting than an actual letter in the mail.

i recently passed along a challenge to talk to people and now i'm extending it to include the act of sending a letter because what a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters.  you can't reread a phone call [liz carpenter].

along with this challenge to you, i want to send even more postcards during my travels!  in the states, a postcard stamp only costs 29 cents but postcards themselves can cost anywhere from 25 cents to more than a dollar.  that, my friends, can add up.  and then all over the world, international postage varies.  for example, to send a postcard from italy to the united states costs 1.84 euro which (with the current exchange rate) equals $2.57.  when you add in the cost of the actual card, that's more than $3 a postcard!  just thinking about the quantity of cards i sent out last year and how much money i must have spent in total boggles my mind (i don't think i'll do the math, i know it was a lot).

so, i'm asking you all to help me out.  if you like postcards, donate to my postcard fund!  if you appreciate the dying art of snail mail, help me to keep it going!  to the left of this post, underneath my "about me" section, you'll find a button labeled donate.  all you have to do is log in through paypal and very securely send some postcard money my way!  your thoughtful donation will be much appreciated!  


and don't forget to take the time to sit down and write someone, they'll appreciate the thought.


x! 

talk to strangers

in this day of text messages, email, and ten thousand other ways of communicating, how often do you actually talk to people?  one of the greatest things i learned during my travels last year was that strangers only exist if you let them; by striking up random conversations with people i don't know, i met some of the most interesting people (and they gave me some of the best travel advice!).

since returning to the states, i find that people are less interested in random conversations with strangers.  i also find myself succumbing to the ease of sending an email or a text from my iphone instead of actually dialing someone's number.  thankfully, the daily GOOD's september challenge arrived in my gmail inbox (ironic?) and has helped me reexamine my ways.

this month, they are challenging everyone to "connect with people" and i am on board.  check out the video below to see what all the fuss is about.

my favorite part, "don't just write on someone's facebook page, CALL THEM!" 

as GOOD's senior editor, cord jefferson writes, "the goal is to remind you not only of how tight-knit communities can be, but also how big the world is, and how easy it is to lose track of someone you know and love."  

in this day of excessive internet use, it may seem simple to keep in touch with everyone you have ever known with just the click of your keyboard.  the world's extensive connectivity also can make the world seem so small sometimes; how often do you play "the name game" and find out you and a stranger have a mutual acquaintance?  but when you actually think about it, the world really is an enormous place and how often do you genuinely reconnect with old friends?

so pick up the phone, and give someone an old fashioned phone call, make friends with your neighbor, and send some underrated snail mail. 

:)