interesting Posts

20Oct
0

The 43 United States of America

J and I were having a discussion the other night about the states in the US. I’m not sure how this came about, but we realized that somehow despite being citizens raised in the US, we didn’t think we could identify all the countries on the map.

So we took a challenge: We printed out 2 copies of the US map. It had the states drawn in, and we gave ourselves 15 minutes to write in all the names. No list of states either – everything had to be done from memory.

I filled in as many as I could off the top of my head. Some were easy – like Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, Texas, and of course the west coast. Then I had to stop and think. Is New Mexico the one closer to Texas, or is that Arizona? Is Kansas on top of Nebraska or below it? I counted up the number I was 100% confident of and it came out to exactly 25. So 25 hopefully good guesses here I come!

About halfway through the 15 minutes I had filled in a good majority of them, but there were 10 I still couldn’t identify. I mean, let’s face it. I’ve been to NY once. Recently. I’ve never been anywhere else on the Northeastern seaboard. And I’ve never learned the shapes of those states (some states are easily identified by their shape – Kentucky looks like a chicken leg, Louisiana is an L, etc) because they’re so freaking tiny that there’s just a bunch of arrows pointing to them.

I did my best, but after 13 minutes I stopped. I had filled in 43 states and left the other 7 blank. Yes, I could only name 43 of the 50 states off the top of my head.

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Posted by Caro in Random, Travel, discoveries, interesting and tagged with
15Aug
1

Faith

Mario sent me this picture

(click image  to see all of it – I can’t get it to not cut off…)

Basically this is saying: Ignore reality; just believe whatever we tell you. What kind of advertisement is this? Perhaps it’s a cult. Either way, I’m totally fascinated by their method of trying to get people in the door.

Posted by Caro in interesting
24Jul
0

Search and Rescue: Mexican Edition

A couple of weekends ago some friends and I decided to take a mini road trip to San Diego for a 311 concert. Rather than just going down for the day, we decided to make a weekend trip out of it. Despite some obstacles along the way (like not having a place to stay until the day before hand, among other things!), once we got on the road everything was ok.

We got a really late start, so got in pretty late on Friday. We went straight to the Sandbar to help Sandy properly celebrate her birthday. The next day, we went on a pub crawl in PB to continue the celebration. Just as we were walking to the first stop, Brett got a call from another friend of ours. She was frantic, but since I wasn’t on the phone I had no idea why.

Turns out her mom went down into the deep cuts of Mexico to visit some family, and forgot her Green Card. Not thinking this was a big deal, she had her daughter – my friend – fax a copy down to her. The Mexican travel authorities said this was not sufficient. So Meli went to the airport where her mom would be arriving, and gave them the Green Card to scan into the system. But again, the airline in Mexico said this was not sufficient either. Next idea: just sneak over the border. Apparently that family has been doing it for years lol. But that wasn’t an option either. After all, she can’t be her risking her legal status by doing something stupid like that.

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Posted by Caro in Random, Travel, family, hilarious, interesting, money and tagged with ,
05Jul
1

Ancient Ruins

Xavi offered to take us on an adventure during one of my last days in Spain. The quest: see the ancient Greek (6th century BC) and Roman (1st century BC) ruins. These excavated cities were only a short drive up the coast.

I love archaeology so when I heard ruins I was hooked. Petra too. We decided to avoid the heat and lazily spend the afternoon at the shore. Of course I had not planned for this and had not had time to douse myself in SPF so I did get bright pink, but it was worth it. Especially since this bright pink decided the next day to be a part of my “tan” rather than a burn. Sweet.

For lunch I had a cheese and bacon sandwich on a baguette. YUM! I also rediscovered Fanta Naranja, and that they make a Fanta Naranja Zero.

YUM!

YUM!

After more swimming it was time for the ruins. I should also mention that the port-a-potty system here rocks. They flush!! Anyway, the ruins…

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Posted by Caro in THE trip 2009, Travel, cool, discoveries, interesting and tagged with ,
04Jul
0

People Watching

On the 4th of July I had hoped to go out and do something. But due to a lot of factors, by the time I made this decision Petra was already in bed. I decided that rather than sit around the apartment by myself, I would hit up the streets of the Costa Brava and find some entertainment.

It didn´t take long.

I just wanted to sit somewhere and maybe have a drink while watching the people go by. However, I have a fear of going to a restaurant, particularly one in a foreign country, and sitting down at a table by myself. Not to mention that here you seat yourself at most restaurants, but not all of them. So I was definitely nervous about it, but decided I just had to conquer the insecurity and go out and do it.

I finally found an ok, non-intimidating looking restaurant and had a seat. I ordered a glass of wine and started watching the people. I realized I hadn´t picked the best of locations, but it would do. And oh were there lots of people to see!

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Posted by Caro in Food, Random, THE trip 2009, Travel, cool, fears, hilarious, interesting and tagged with
04Jul
1

Misc Other Sites in Barcelona

Two places of interest that don’t fit anywhere else in this blog: The Barcelona Cathedral and La Sagrada Familia.

Two very different places, yet both very noteworthy. Our first day of sightseeing, Petra and I tried to go into the cathedral. However, I didn’t bring anything to cover up my shoulders, so I wasn’t allowed in. Again, I’m one of you. I used to go to church in tank tops at home. Can’t I just get some kind of a card that says “She’s Catholic. Allow her inside” that I can use whenever? Anyway, that’s a whole different issue. I guess they’re more conservative in Spain!

under construction....boo!

under construction....boo!

We finally got to go in another day, and it wasn’t as great as I thought it would be. I mean there was cool stuff, but I didn’t see how it was significantly different to 1. be a cathedral vs. just a really big church or 2. require super conservative clothing in 100 degree weather. (more…)

Posted by Caro in Animals, THE trip 2009, Travel, cool, discoveries, interesting, rants and raves and tagged with ,
28Jun
2

A Nutella and Pants Sandwich

Petra and I were all set to head to Paris, or so we thought. I booked our flights there and back, set up our hotel, and despite arriving I to the cuttiest of the 3 Parisian airports, I found us an amazingly priced shuttle service. 36 euro roundtrip per person. I figured it was cheaper because it dropped us at the Arc di Triumf rather than our hotel. In all my planning, I neglected to get us to and from the airport in Spain. I guess I assumed we would take the bus into Girona? Either way our flight was early and that wasn’t an option.

We were pretty frantic the day before so we went to the library to book a shuttle. How expensive could that be?

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Posted by Caro in Food, Random, THE trip 2009, Travel, fears, hilarious, interesting, rants and raves, weird and tagged with ,
27Jun
1

El Mar

The ocean – or rather the Mediterranean Sea – is absolutely AMAZING! I’m pretty sure that at many points in my journey I would have gladly taken a dip in any body of water, but I was certainly blessed with what I got.

The sea is impressively clear. I could always see my feet. And it is cold. Not like frigid so you need a wetsuit, but refreshingly perfect on a sweltering day.

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Posted by Caro in Random, THE trip 2009, Travel, cool, interesting and tagged with
20Jun
1

Museum of Sex: NY

New York also has a little known (or at least I’ve never heard of it) museum dedicated to sex. Having time to kill and being totally interested as to what might be contained here, J and I ventured in.

Warning: This blog post definitely contains ADULT content, in the form of text and pictures. Continue at your own risk :)

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Posted by Caro in Animals, Random, THE trip 2009, Travel, discoveries, hilarious, interesting and tagged with
18Jun
1

American Museum of Natural History

J and I could have easily spent the entire day here. It was THAT amazing. I had heard that the dinosaur exhibit was a must-see, so we headed there first, after we wasted our time in some movie. First and foremost, this movie was called something along the lines of “The Great Ocean” or whatever, which led me to believe it would be about, you know, the ocean. Fact: this movie should have been called “Sardines in South Africa” because it was actually just about the sardine farming practices in South Africa, and the ways in which sardines have evolved to survive attackers. I mean it was interesting, but not what I had paid to see.

Anyway, back on topic. Dinosaurs. They were just as great as I had hoped. Lots of fossils, plus they even had dinosaur eggs! I had never seen one, so this was pretty cool.

A few unhatched eggs

A few unhatched eggs

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Posted by Caro in Animals, THE trip 2009, Travel, interesting and tagged with
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