Bare essentials of safety from Air New Zealand

Really? Body Paint? This may be false advertising.

Pictures of Maine

So here are the two pictures that I wanted to share with you from Maine. First is the lobster shaped pager that they gave me so that I would know when my order was ready.

AND...the awesomest sign EVER from Soakology.
Yes, it's a moose sipping tea and soaking his feet...errr...hooves.

Sidenote: Plan for State domination has been derailed do for some unforeseen circumstances. 1) Black raspberries are in season in PA and so my mom and grandma will be baking pies together in PA this weekend...it's like the stars have aligned. 2) There are still plenty of seats available to good places like the Bahamas and San Juan and stuff for July 4th weekend. Who are these people that are staying home? AirTran is offering really cheap flights...go somewhere.

Maine Points

Wow...look how my bloggage has gone up due to AirTran's inflight Wifi. It does promote productivity afterall! (PS In business class again...WOO). So here are some thoughts from Maine.

1) I really don't like lobster that much. It's not even the whole lookin' like an animal thing. I just don't like it so much. I'd much rather have scallops or crab or something.
2) Foot sanctuary = awesome. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I have a picture of the sign that I'm going to post when I get home (it's going to be almost like a picture book blog post so that I can just post all the pictures that I couldn't post when I was on the road).
3) Portland is kinda a weird city. Kinda weird in that it has that New Englandy charm about it, but is also kinda trashy and citylike. There's graffiti and trash all over the place and super aggressive street people. I saw a beggar heckling a woman with a baby stroller. That's like hardcore.
4) New Hampshire had a sign about the size of a county line sign when you crossed the border that just said "New Hampshire." Really? That's the best you could do. Why doesn't Vermont just swallow you up and put you out of your misery?

My plan for state domination might be derailed as I'm contemplating going back to PA next weekend cause my mom will be there. Also the 6:15 flight to Memphis isn't looking so great, so I'd have to leave at like 11:30 pm and get in WAY past my bedtime. If I do go to Memphis, is it obligatory to visit Graceland?

Lobster Update

I went for it (and I'd post a picture of the lobster shaped pager if I had brought the cable for my camera). Ordered a full boiled lobster dinner at the Portland Lobster Company (and actually the picture on the top of their website is pretty much where I sat and that's what my lobster looked like-- without the mussels though). Grossed me out to a point that I can not even describe. I ate it though, but NEVER AGAIN. And now I smell like lobster. Ew ew ew ew.

The First Blog from 30,000 Feet

I'm on the plane to Portland, Maine (AirTran has WiFi on all of it's airplanes...yes, that was a gratuitous AirTran plug.) I got upgraded to business class. WHICH IS AWESOME. Flying for free in business class? Are you kidding me? The thing I love most about business class is that instead of getting handed the bag of pretzels or peanuts or biscuit cookie thing, they show you a basket of goodies that you get to pick from, so I had a granola bar and some Pepperidge Farm Milanos. Oh yeah, the free booze is pretty nice too.

Psychotic Thought of The Day

This isn't so much a psychotic thought of the day as it is a psychotic realization/confession of the day. Whenever I type/write the word bananas, I sing "Hollaback Girl" (aka the "This Shit is Bananas" song) in my head to make sure I spelled it correctly. Thank you, Gwen Stefani.

My Plan For State Domination

On my bucket list (which you will know all about if you read my blog posts from China...ahem) is to visit all 50 states. I currently sit at 25, but expect that number to drastically shoot up as I plan a conquest of 8 states in 3 weekends.

Here is an outline of my plan. The lynch pin of everything is flying into a city that is relatively close to a bordering state.

This weekend Portland, Maine and catch New Hampshire along the way. (Side note: I'm having a lobster dilemma. One of my classmates recommendations while in Maine was to just eat as many variations of lobster dishes as possible. Duly noted, but...and I can't believe I haven't blogged about this before...food that resembles the animal it came from grosses me out. Meat with bones in it, crab claws, etc. I'd rather someone process the shit out of it and then give it to me. Shrimp with tails are the only ones that I'm pretty ok with and I'm not sure why that is. Standard preparation of lobster tail is boiled and served in the tail part. I'm scared I'm going to order it, and it's going to creep me out too much to actually eat it....I'll keep you posted..ha, posted, cause it's a blog).

Next weekend: Memphis, TN The power city because I can also rock out Mississippi (how fun is that word to type!) and Arkansas.

The following Monday, I'm supposedly going on a business trip to Milwaukee. I say supposedly because I was told to put it on my calendar, but haven't really heard much more about it. If not, I'll just pick up Wisconsin at another point this summer.

Fourth of July weekend, I was originally thinking of going back to PA, but I just found out that the majority of my fam is not going to be there...plus I have to continue to roll through states...so that might not happen (also flights into MDT aren't looking very promising). I have two other plans for the holiday weekend, so that I have flexibility in case the flights turn into a bucket of hell when everyone realizes they have a four day weekend. Option 1) Kansas City, MO and pick up Kansas or 2) Wichita, KS and pick up Oklahoma. I know. Neither of these are real thrilling, but really...isn't that why they're still on my list to begin with (and also why there's like 50 seats available on their flights on a holiday weekend)?

So that's the plan. That will bring me up to 33 states hopefully with trips to some part of Texas, Seattle, and Minneapolis looming in July.

The Rest of the Concert

I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport right now hoping to get to Orlando tonight. It's funny because I'm simultaneously hoping people made their flights and missed their flights. (Made their flights earlier, missed the flights I'm trying to get on (or their connectors to get to Atlanta.) I thought I'd tell you about the rest of the Styx/Foreigner concert.

The concert venue was BIZARRE. It was an amphitheater in a park. The weird part was that it was "table" seating, which meant that there were plastic tables in between the rows of seats and people brought full picnic lunches some complete with centerpieces. I'm really going to have to step up my picnicking game next time). The other weird part was that no one seemed to really care that there was a concert going on. Everyone was just chatting away (or dancing ridiculously). When I picked up our tickets at Will Call normally, if there's backstage passes included (which there were), there's a little slip of paper telling us where to go. This time...nada. So I did a little investigation and found out that as I had thought even though our passes said "After Concert" it actually meant after Foreigner's set. So we listened to Kansas who was first...ehhh...the Foreigner, but mostly we talked to Ralph, the gay guy that was sitting next to us.

We headed backstage, and it was also a different meet and greet than I had ever been too. First of all, there was only like ten total people there to meet the band. No one really gave us instructions (unlike REO Speedwagon where there are practically orders). There was food set up for the band. Some of the band members just kinda wandered in and got some food and sat at a table. Joy and I played it cool and while everyone else raided the fridge for drinks (Not ok) we sat there and waited patiently. One of the random people who had come backstage, took the one random weird watermelon soda that was in the fridge. You know that was in some one's contract and shit was going to hit the fan later. All the caterers gave each other a sideways look every time someone reached into the fridge. Eventually Jason Sutter the drummer came over (it's funny because when I requested tickets, I actually thought Jason Bonham was the drummer, but he's apparently now one of the 28 former members of Foreigner...not kidding, 28...check wikipedia), and we chatted and took pictures. He was very nice. On the way out, Styx was actually already on stage. That was kinda cool because we could see the band from the side of the stage. We didn't really stay for Styx (even though I still have a mega crush on Tommy Shaw.) It was past my bedtime and I was in some random part of Atlanta, so I decided to head home instead.

Foreigner Concert

I have more to post about this concert, but for the moment I'll share with you possibly the single most entertaining moment of the evening. Sorry, it's sideways. I'll work on fixing that.

Night Out in the ATL

After a semi-rough week at the new internship, it was good to have a night out on the town. Originally it just started off with dinner plans with Lauren, a friend from Wake who is also interning in Atlanta. After hanging out on her screened in porch for a while eating veggies, drinking beer and having her dog lick my toes, we decided to go find something for dinner. We ended up at this place called Neighbor's because they had a great patio, and it was a beautiful night in Atlanta. I discovered my new favorite beer, Stillwater Blue, which is a blueberry flavored beer...really? blueberries and beer all in one bottle? Genius!

After finishing dinner and a few beers, the interesting part of the night really kicked in. There was a summer fest down the block and so we went to check that out, but it was already over. Onto plan 2, buy beer at a nearby convenience store and walk back to Lauren's. It was apparently, unbeknownst to us, 12:01am, and they would not sell us beer because it was officially Sunday. Grrr. Plan 3: Lauren says she has "some beer" back at her apartment which I decide is probably more than enough since I eventually am going to need to drive home. On the walk back to Lauren's, we are flagged down by random guys in the street who invite us to a party at a house. We go to the party, and it is an all out party. There's a professional DJ and two disco balls hung on plywood over the patio with spotlights strategically shown on them and a whole slew of kegs. We got more beer, and I spent the next hour or so talking to a guy who's an environmental consultant which was both entertaining and educational (I know, right? me talking about the environment? crazy!) Got home about 1:45 am. Great night.

It Smells Like Boy

Well, I'm in Atlanta. And pretty much moved in. For those of you that don't know, I'm living in a really cheap house that's set up basically like a dorm. Individual rooms, communal kitchen. Like I said it's really cheap, in a great location, includes internet, utilities, etc. and he's letting me pay only for the time I'm here. So I'm here like 2 months and 1 week, and I don't have to pay for an entire extra month.

The only issue is...it's like a boys dorm. There's about 15-20 people living here and only one other girl (who I've yet to see...I'm wondering if she's a made up girl that they just tell other girls about so that they'll move in). The hallways smell like boy (and not in the good cologney boy way). I've been making myself like a walking air freshener: spritzing with body spray or lathering up with lotion every time I go out of my room. The majority of the guys are tech/engineer/science geeks from Georgia Tech. I met some of them yesterday and they're nice but extremely shy. The communal areas are pretty much an absolute mess. I'm not exactly a neat freak, but.... Let's just say I'm not planning on doing a lot of cooking in the kitchen. And I joined a gym, so I'll be showering there in the mornings before going to work.

My room on the other hand is super cute in an kitschy, eclectic sort of way. It has an exposed brick wall on one side and apparently one of the tenants left a huge three foot wide, framed, floor to ceiling mirror here, so there's that. My landlord tried to tell me that "most residents don't even use their air conditioner and just open a window with the fan on." First of all, there's no screens in the window and a huge tree outside. I wouldn't be able to sleep because I'd be fearful a squirrel or stray cat would jump in. Second, this is ATLANTA. If you think i'm not going to use an air conditioner that you've provided me with. You're wrong.

Mmmmm, Tastes Like Chicken

Yesterday, Danielle and I had a very disturbing conversation (well, disturbing to me) about how she would eat me, and that I would most likely be processed into a chicken nugget type format.

Why chicken nuggets? 1) Because there's no way I'd be delicious enough to be dark meat and 2) There's not enough good parts of me to be strips, so I'd have to be nuggets.

During the same conversation she also told me that my face was crooked and that I have a hump. I may need some new friends.

I've Been Brainwashed

Here's just another example of how Notre Dame brainwashes its students. I'm reading a book from the Notre Dame mystery series. In it one of the characters says what dorm she is from, and I found myself immediately judging her. Really? I'm judging a fictious character based on what dorm she fictiously says she's from. (I'm not going to tell you what dorm either, so that all you ND people can mull that over yourself for a while).

Epcot Center on Crack

Today, we got to go to the World Expo in Shanghai, which can best be described as Epcot Center on crack (or on steroids which is the PG version that I used for the school's blog). There is a lot more to blog about, but it's kinda late and I'm sleepy, so I'm just going to blog about one thing. The stores at the Expo sold passports that you could get stamped at each country. However, this sign was outside of the Ireland pavilion.

Joy and I decided that they got drunk and lost the stamp and can't figure out where it is. Those Irish!

Sorry

I know. I know. I haven't posted in like forever. We've been having REALLY long days and I've been saving my creative juices for the school's official China blog, so check that out through the link on my facebook page.

Traveling with Joy

That's the person not the emotion. PS That picture is the non-steep part of the Great Wall, not the super hero part that I did. (Please reference the "official" China blog. The link is on my facebook page. And for extra bonus points you can try to guess the words that Andy gave me to work into those blog posts....most of them are fairly obvious.)

China has been interesting and traveling with Joy to China has been even more interesting. So first off Joy took a medicine to help with her flight anxiety....with a glass of wine. (hey, free booze on the flight to Beijing, can't pass that up. tranquilizer or no tranquilizer). Anyway, she pretty much lost 14 hours of her life. However, I did not realize this. She was completely functional for about 5 hours of that...though slightly angry. She does not remember ANY of this. There was about a half hour conversation that we had, dinner, and some excellent chocolates that she does recall. But she doesn't remember getting stuff out of the overhead bin, eating the carrots out of my inflight meal, complaing loudly about the rude people standing in front of us, stretching her legs in a swimming scissor kick type motion or the entire drive from the airport to the hotel. The other extremely funny part was when she was reading something and fell asleep for about 1 second. Long enough to drop the paper. She then immediately woke up and said "what just happened?" HILARIOUS.

So then today, we went to the Great Wall, and Joy was like a celebrity. There were little Chinese people pointing and taking pictures of/with her. (I even got in a picture with her and a Chinese person too...I could be in some person's scrapbook someday). Apparently, in the touristy places there are more people from rural China who haven't seen an African American before. And only if I had red hair, it would've been a dynamic duo. Luckily Joy took it all in stride. We've also created our own theme for the trip complete with hand gestures: One world. One dream. (It was on a big sign by the Great Wall and we liked it/liked to make fun of it, so we stole it. I'm not really sure what the one dream is yet, though.)

OMG China

Yes, I'm leaving for China tomorrow. It's crazy. I feel like I'm forgetting something and am also getting dangerously close to the 44 pound weight limit for luggage within China. I am taking my laptop, but am also an "official" blogger for the school (check out my facebook page to get the link to that), so I'm not sure how much time I'll have for extra blogging on here...I'll try though. I feel like I'm walking a fine line with the school's blog...trying to be myself (aka dripping with sarcasm) and simultaneously be school appropriate. We'll see how this goes.

Atlanta, Part 2

So I'm actually sitting in the MBA lounge right now writing this and waiting for my final class of first year to begin. Yes, I could've stayed in my apartment on my comfortable purple couch and written this, but there are clothes strewn around a suitcase sitting on my living room floor right now and that was cramping my creativity.

So Atlanta, Part 2. I slept in in the morning (well, slept in for me) and then went to go find my new apartment. I was a little scared about this because the rent is super cheap and one of the Airtran guys made a comment about not going out alone at night. Yes, the outside is sketchtacular (you can feel free to use that word as needed) and kinda looks like a crack house, but inside it's really nice (and again really cheap), so I think I'll be ok. Plus with all the traveling I'm planning to do this summer, who needs a place to live.

From there I decided to do some shopping, though I didn't buy anything. I had lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen (which I love). I wasn't really feeling the shopping vibe. I was super super tired, so I went back to the hotel and was inspired to have a massage. Yummy. Except apparently the masseuse had scratchy nails or something because when I was showering off I realized I had red scratches all over. Kinky.

For dinner, the Airtran people took me to FAB a super swanky French bistro. I had assumed that they had been there before, but obviously not as my French skillz were called into play to translate some of the menu items. In between our appetizers and soup/salad course, they brought finger bowls for us to rinse our fingers in. None of the Airtran people knew what they were, but I did and looked like a high class genius. I swear our party of 5 must've had a bill close to $1000. We had pre-dinner cocktails, a couple of bottles of wine, several appetizers (including a mixing bowl sized container full of the best mussels I have ever eaten), soup/salad, and pretty pricey entrees. I was so full by time I got home. But it was absolutely delicious.

The next morning I was going to go work out in the hotel's fitness facility in the morning, until I realized I had no socks (I always forget socks for some reason), so instead I walked to a Caribou coffee to get a bagel and coffee. I then drove to the airport, returned my rental car, flew back to Raleigh and drove back to Winston. All in all a very good trip.

Atlanta, Part 1

I'm splitting my awesome trip to Atlanta into two more readable (and more write-able parts). AirTran told me that I had to come to Atlanta to be background checked and drug tested and if I wanted to spend some time to get to know the area, then I could do that too. I had decided that this would be like a mini-vacation for me, which I desperately needed.

I had to drive to Raleigh because AirTran doesn't fly from Greensboro, so that was like an hour and a half drive, but not bad. I was waiting in the gate area when they called me up to the desk and handed me a boarding pass for first class. Wow...my first trip as an A+ platinum rewards member, and I already get a free upgrade. I think the best part of first class for me was the little snack basket that you get to pick from, so instead of just getting pretzels, there were bags of milano cookies or trail mix or about a dozen other snack items better than pretzels. (Disclaimer: Snack basket was the best part because I didn't partake in any of the free booze.)

Arriving in Atlanta, picked up my rental car that they had provided for me and then got lost on my way to the office. They had e-mailed me google maps directions that told me to get on 279, but no one knew where 279 was. I had a GPS in my rental car, but it wouldn't let me put in the exact address (address was 3200, GPS only let me put in 31 something.) I eventually found it. We went to lunch at the Marriott where they had a pasta stir fry bar very similar to the one in the ND dining halls (how I miss you North Dining hall). Back at the office, I filled out some paperwork, got fingerprinted and saw my very own cubicle (which already had my name on it and everything).

From there, I had to get drug tested. I'd never had been drug tested before, and had no idea how hard core it is. Making you lock up your stuff and washing your hands while the woman watches. Crazy. After all that was taken care of, I went and checked into my AWESOME hotel. My room had it's own doorbell.

Isn't that insane? When housekeeping came the next day to bring me more towels, not only did they ring the doorbell, but when I answered they asked for permission to come in. What hotel does that?

For dinner we went for sushi at Zuma which was pretty good except that it wasn't with rice or in roll form or anything. It was just raw fish which is my least favorite preparation of sushi. It's a texture issue, so that was a little disappointing. At dinner, the AirTran people informed me that their goal was to make sure I "have the coolest internship at Wake Forest" which I fully support. They asked me all sorts of questions about what I like, what bands I like, what sports I like, do I smoke cigars, and would I be opposed to going to the Bahamas (uh...no!) so that they will be able to cater to my every whim. oh yeah, I also found out that my free flight privileges transfer to a friend, so Joy and I will be traveling EVERYWHERE. After dinner, we went to this improv comedy show at Dad's Garage which was hysterical.

The Word of the Day

I'm taking a ridiculous entrepreneurship class called Creativity and Feasibility as an elective this mini (a mini = basically a quarter of the year). The syllabus basically went out the window on Day 1, the professor has told everyone that they would get either an A or an A- and everyone (including the professor) usually shows up about 15 minutes late. Usually I spend this class period e-mailing Andy who is not in this ridiculous class, but rather is next door in a probably non-ridiculous class on Six Sigma.

Last week as part of our regular e-mailing back and forth Andy told me that he would give me bonus points if I could work the word "unicorn" into class discussion. Not one to back down from a challenge, I, of course, did. I found this to be an exciting little challenge for me and actually helped me pay attention to class more because I had to try to figure out when to work in my special word. I decided that this should be continued.

Today's word he gave me was "anemone" and sadly, I failed. I even had a perfect place to fit it in. They were talking about partnerships and I was going to work in a comment about symbiosis and a clown fish and an anemone. Perfect, right? I unfortunately have difficulty saying the word anemone and by time I had correctly formulated it in my brain, the discussion had shifted and my moment had passed. So now, I'm 1 and 1 which doesn't make me very happy. Can't wait to see what word I get on Thursday!