Mission Clothes

Since I leave for the MTC in FIVE DAYS (panic!) I'm packing all my stuff. But before I pack away my mission clothes, here are a few pictures so you'll know what I'll look like for the next 18 months.

Shopping for skirts was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I almost gave up all hope of finding skirts that were long enough and resort to muumuus. Lucky for everyone, I found some cute skirts in the end. I got most of them from Sorella Bella.

These are not the shoes I'll be wearing most of the time. My real mission shoes look like the kind diabetics wear. They're so ugly. But soooo comfy.

Just five more days, and then it's auf Wiedersehen! I'm so excited!!!!!!

Down the Rabbit Hole

I’ve been obsessed with Alice in Wonderland lately. I decided it was high time I read the book, and I quickly fell in love with Lewis Carroll, as well as his original illustrator.

To me, New York City is quite a lot like Wonderland. It’s confusing, there are strange people and it’s easy to get lost. But it’s also fun, exciting, filled to the brim with imagination and becomes exponentially more enjoyable if you’re willing to just “go with it.” Who knows, maybe next time I eat one of those street-vendor falafels it will make me shrink or grow.

In any case, I decided to have an Alice in Wonderland-themed day (or perhaps Kristin in Wonderland), where I visited all of the Alice locales I could find around New York City.

The first stop: the famous Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park.

It’s a particularly charming statue because there are always children climbing on it. I think it’s rather appropriate. The man who donated the statue wanted it that way. It’s in honor of his late wife who “loved all children.”

Next up, after a looooong stroll, I stopped in at the 50^th street station (on the 1 line) where there are some fantastic Alice in Wonderland murals:

I ended the day at an adorable café called Alice’s Tea Cup (102 W 73^rd Street), where they had every kind of tea imaginable, delicious sandwiches, highly tempting desserts and – of course – a lot of awesome Alice memorabilia.

The Queen of Hearts made some tarts. And I ate them. (Shh, don't tell.)

A couple of days later, I met a poet in Washington Square who did “poetry while you wait” and I engaged him to write me a poem. When he asked for a subject, I said, “New York City as Wonderland.” He busted out this awesome poem:

Deutschland!

I realized I never blogged about getting my mission call to Frankfurt. I'm really excited to go to Germany! So excited, that I made a Germany inspired collage today, which I'm actually quite proud of:

I am also trying to teach myself German, and with the help of Rosetta Stone it's coming along quite well. I can now say some very useful phrases, such as:

Ich heiße Kristin. Die Fahrrader sind gelb. Diene Katze is auf dem Tisch. Ist das Ihr Hut?

(My name is Kristin. The bikes are yellow. Your cat is on the table. Is this your hat?)

Obviously those are key phrases to know. I figure I'll be completely fluent by next week.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine

So, I was on my way home the other day and went one subway stop too far so I had to walk, but I was glad I did, because on the way home I discovered this AWESOME cathedral!

So then I turned the corner to get a better look and discovered that it was only a side building to a much bigger cathedral
It’s called the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. Luckily I had my camera on me, and I was able to join all the Asian tourists in some picture-taking.
Also, I’m pretty sure that’s George Washington in the middle of this door:
In the back they had this really cool sculpture garden, the most awesome of which was this epic sculpture of St. John:
I’m pretty sure St. John is holding a giraffe. Don’t ask me why. Here’s a more epic picture:

Where I Live

I finally have pictures!

It’s Sunday so I’m going to try to catch up on all the things I meant to blog about. Anyway, I’m all settled in now and I snapped a few pictures. This is where I live:

And this is where I work:

This is my room:

The furniture, most of the decorations, and even the bedspread belongs to the girl I’m subletting from. The Beatles poster is -- of course -- mine. It’s the only decoration I brought with me.

Here’s the outside of my building. I’m on the top floor.

Here’s the view! Lovely lovely.

More posts coming; I did some cool stuff this weekend.

NEW YORK!

I'm here! It's very surreal, actually. Every time I get on a subway I feel like I'm secretly in a movie.

I don't have a lot of pictures yet (it turns out I brought the camera without the memory card. Fail.) but needless to say, it's awesome! I walked past the Empire State Building on my way to work this morning and nearly wet my pants. Also, my apartment is across the street from Central Park. Literally across the street.

Work is good so far. Everyone is really friendly, and the projects they're working on sound really exciting! My boss actually gave me and the other intern tickets to the Yankees game today, which was pretty awesome (the Yankees won). Anyway, kind of a short random update.

New hero: http://www.thesartorialist.com/photos/52710Bike06610Web.jpg

I want to make these: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/06/root-beer-float-cupcakes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+smittenkitchen+(smitten+kitchen)

this was me in high school: http://xkcd.com/747/

These are tea towels, and they are ADORABLE:

http://www.todryfor.com/towel.asp?id=66

http://www.todryfor.com/towel.asp?id=189

http://www.todryfor.com/towel.asp?id=191

And that is all.

The Gorgeous Gorge

Since I’ll be leaving Oregon soon, Jessica and I took a trip down the Columbia River gorge so I could get my fill of green. It was BEAUTIFUL. We started in Troutdale and got on the Historic Highway and drove past dozens of waterfalls. There are 66 waterfalls in The Gorge – some small, some big (like Multnomah). We mostly stopped for three: Latourell Falls, Shepperd’s Dell Falls, and Multnomah Falls, of course!

The drive itself was stunning, surrounded by forest, catching glimpses of the Columbia River and the occasional flash of a waterfall. To give you a taste of the loveliness, I’ve put together a collage-o’-green:

At Latourell Falls, I decided I’d get as close as possible to the base, which was cool because the wind the waterfall generated was pretty intense. I also got completely soaked by spray, though. :)

Multnomah Falls was beautiful, as always, and Jessie and I took turns taking pictures of each other up on the bridge. Here are my favorites:

(Jessica, lookin' cute)

(Me being a dork)

All in all it was a lovely trip and the perfect way to see some of the gorgeous Oregon landscape before leaving for New York City. The best part was that I got to spend some fun time with Jessica!