Links: the sciencey, the silly, and the spectacular

Sciencey:
Those of you who have worked in any sort of medical research lab are undoubtedly familiar with HeLa cells- the first human cell line that is still commonly used for in vitro studies. However, the story of Henrietta Lacks, from whose tumor the cells originated, is largely unknown. A new book by Rebecca Skloot aims to change that- here's an excerpt. Even thought I'm not much of a non-fiction reader, I found the article fascinating and will definitely pick up a copy of the book at some point.

Silly:
Nothing's funnier than someone overreacting to a joke about concealed weapons! (thanks, cupcake)

Spectacular:
Web-goddess extraordinaire Kris has outdone herself with the prize to this year's Oscar Contest....oh yes, Twilight-themed sock monkeys, complete with a sparkling and broody Edward. I really hope I win.

FYIF!

Apologies for the sparse blogging as of late- I don't have an internet connection where I'm staying and since I sit literally side by side with my boss (our "desks" are actually just one big table that we both sit at), I probably won't be doing much online tomfoolery at work. Which will likely do wonders for my productivity.

So yes, the first week of life in Australia has been good. On the upside, I really like my new job and new coworkers and especially my new boss. Yay! On the downside, I still haven't found a place to live- the Metafiler friend and her boyfriend who are hosting me are great, but I'm looking forward to getting settled in somewhere more permanent and closer to the hospital, as it's currently an hour-long commute. Little did I know that Melbourne is notoriously difficult when it come to apartment hunting, and I'm moving in right when all the students have descended upon the city for the start of the academic year (a la September 1 in Boston, although I'm definitely trying to avoid living in the Allston of Melbourne) so the whole real estate system is kind of a mess. I'm scouting out a few more potential places this weekend, so hopefully I'll get something (ideally with an internet connection!) lined up by next week. In other news, it's still warm and sunny and beautiful. People here love good coffee so there are lots of cafes (and they all offer soy milk! thank you lactose-intolerant Asians!), and an astonishing and somewhat mystifying number of hair salons.

In other news, about six months ago, I started getting a lot more spam comments on DCoE. I've been pretty vigilant about immediately deleting them, but after spending a couple of weeks in transit, they've started piling up. In the past, I've resisted using one of those verification tools for comments just because I don't want normal commenters to be disuaded...even though it only takes about 3 seconds and certainly won't dissuade the worthy commenters, right? RIGHT?

Coming soon:
A book review! Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann- it's fantastic.
A post on accents and how I ended up with a lettuce sandwich for lunch. (Which would have been the tragedy of the week had I not bought a summer scarf at the outdoor market and then lost it on the tram the very next day. SAD FACE.)
and some other thoughts....um, the killer whale story? I'm obsessed.

DCoE: Live from Melbourne!

So, after a long-ass flight (BOS to SFO to AUK to MEL) I finally arrived on Friday. I flew most of the trip on Air New Zealand and thought they were good- everyone gets their own personal tv screens to choose from with dozens of free movies and shows (I watched The Last King of Scotland and whole bunch of sitcoms to lighten the mood). I also had signed up for a lactose-free meal, which was fun because I had totally forgotten about it until my meal arrived special delivery ahead of everyone else's. Yeah, suckers! Oh, and they serve nice New Zealand wines as well, so bonus points for that. On the downside, it's a 23 hour journey, not including layovers and time change. Gross. On the upside, it's hot and sunny and beautiful here and the people are quite pleasant and have cute accents. The driving on the left thing will take some getting used to- I've had occasional fleeting moments of panic when a car passes by and OH MY GOD THERE'S NO ONE IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT! oh wait that's the passenger seat.

I'm currently scrambling around doing all those things one needs to do when one changes countries- new phone, new bank account, and now I'm in the midst of the Great Apartment (whoops, Flat) Search of 2010. Although I'd prefer to live alone, it isn't exactly practical considering the fact that I don't currently possess anything other than a bunch of clothes, a laptop, a cooking scrapbook, and Old Spotty. So, apparently that life window of "sure, I'll live with strangers" that I deemed closed around age 27 has been reopened. Until I find something, I'm staying with an internet friend from Metafilter and her boyfriend- a situation way more normal than it sounds; they are super nice and the place is great. I haven't hunted for apartments since Eri found the old East Broadway digs back in 2003, so I've forgotten what a pain in the butt it is. I probably should have allotted a few more free days for the task, but I start my new job tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Australia Bound!

Well, it's been a hectic last few days in MA, with the highlight definitely being my going away party at Lir last Saturday night. You know how when you used to go out during college and you knew everyone at the bar? It was sort of like that, minus the lousy fake IDs. I don't want to get all sappy, but I feel very fortunate to have so many wonderful friends in my life. So thanks to everyone who stopped by for a drink or three, especially those of you who traveled from afar and also Ern for getting me an Edible Arrangement and a Croc-themed gift. Nothing says "goodbye and good luck" like your most hated inanimate objects! Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the party- a group shot organized by Sue and, well, hair moustaches. Boom.


So, yep, tomorrow I'm moving across the globe for a new job (and my first ever Real Job...sayonara, stipends!) in a city where I don't know a single person. I suppose I should be feeling excited, nervous, and a little bit sad, but it hasn't really hit me yet. And in case you're wondering, DCoE will continue on from Down Under- it'll be sort of like Saved By The Bell: The College Years (not really). For now, I'll leave you with a song, because despite the Australian allure of sunny weather, strange animals, and adorable accents, Boston, you're my home.

The Standells- Dirty Water

Friday Song of the Day: a two-fer!

So I'm officially in Freak Out mode as I prepare for my upcoming move to the other side of the world. Bags to back, boxes to store, minivan to sell, people to see, grant proposals to finish...eek!

So how about some nice peppy music to get me (and you) motivated on a Friday morning?

A couple of people have asked me if I've heard Vampire Weekend's new album, Contra, yet. The answer is no, I don't have the album yet but I've heard a few tracks and I like them. They certainly get bonus points for the album's title- a nod to The Clash's Sandinista!- even though it carries unintended weight for people who happened to have lived in Nicaragua.

Vampire Weekend- Cousins
The Clash- Police on my Back

FYIF, everybody! Looking forward to seeing a bunch of you this weekend.

Minivan, megafun

One task I have left before I leave is to sell my old minivan. I became the official owner of the van in 2006, but it has been in my family since its creation in 1996, so we have a long history together. Oh minivan, even though you are missing a hubcap, your heat smells like gasoline, and you occasionally stall on right turns, I'm going to miss the fun times we had together. Like the road trips we took where all we had to listen to was Billy Joel's Storm Front and my mom's cassette tapes. Or the time the guillotine-like action of the sliding door almost killed my friend Kevin as he puked out the door on his 21st birthday. Or the ten thousand times passengers told me your clock was wrong and I patiently (okay, impatiently) explained that it doesn't continue to keep time when the engine isn't running. Sure, you don't have a cool reputation, but when it came to driving half my soccer team to a game, you were the perfect vehicle. Your book value is $750, but I know you're worth a lot more that that!

Feeling crafty

Despite my better intentions, I have never been particularly good at arts and crafts. However, I bought a Mexican bingo set a couple of months ago and had been meaning to do something with it. So instead of cleaning and packing, I spent the day on a framing project, and it was quite enjoyable. Fortunately for me, my new roommate (my cousin Myles) is a student at Mass Art and has all sorts of X-Acto knives and rulers. I went to AC Moore and picked out some frames (on sale! Then again, I've never been in AC Moore when they weren't having some sort of a frame sale.) and mat board- they didn't have the size I needed so I decided to cut my own...a risky endeavor as I am admittedly clumsy. However, after a few tries, I managed to cut the mat board to the right size without severing any digits. Woohooo!

Here's the finished product:


I always liked the heart card for being realistic and grotesque instead of a puffy cartoon heart. I ended up framing three different cards as a gift (oh hi I'm a surprise wrecker), so someone will soon get their very own Corazon, Mano, and Borracho (!). You've gotta love a children's game that includes The Drunk Man as an image.

Book giveaway!

I've finally started inventorying my possessions to figure out what I want to bring to Australia with me (not very much), what I want to keep here in storage, and what I want to get rid of (a lot). First of all, I own four wigs, which seems a bit ridiculous. I also found dozens of nail clippers- I keep buying them because I can never find one when I need one, and now all of the sudden there is one lurking in every single drawer or box I open.

Since I won't be hauling my books to Australia with me, I'm going to hold on to a few favorites and give away the rest. I figure I'd check with people I know before dropping them off at Goodwill, so if you want any of them, leave me a line in the comments and I'll figure out how to get them to you. Here's a list of titles:

Netherland- Joseph O'Neill
Dracula- Bram Stoker
Holidays on Ice- David Sedaris
Me Talk Pretty one Day- David Sedaris
What is the What- Dave Eggers
The Four Agreements- Don Miguel Ruiz
Lady Chatterly's Lover- DH Lawrence
Valley of the Dolls- Jacqueline Susann
Cloud Atlas- David Mitchell
Flowers in the Attic- VC Andrews
The Iliad- Homer
The Aeneid- Virgil
On The Road- Jack Kerouac
Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings- Maya Angelou
The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway
Midnight's Children- Salman Rushdie
Blood Meridian- Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men- Cormac McCarthy
The Road- Cormac McCarthy
One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen
Selected Poems- WB Yeats
Angela's Ashes- Frank McCourt
A Town Like Alice- Nevil Shute
Ordinary People- Judith Guest
Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer- Joseph Conrad
The Barrytown Trilogy- Roddy Doyle
The English Patient- Michael Ondaatje

A recipe, a movie, and a song

Recipe: 1. Last night I made this Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili. Easy, healthy, and tasty, although not particularly photogenic. It's pretty hearty for a vegetarian meal, too.





2. Movie: The Big Easy (1986). Set in New Orleans, this crime drama stars a young Dennis Quaid as a charistmatic police detective and Ellen Barkin as an assistant Disctrict Attorney investigating police corruption in his department. So it's sort of like an episode of Law & Order, only with steamy romance. The Big Easy is very entertaining and Dennis Quaid was fantastic, but hey, I'm a sucker for a tall man with a cajun accent. The soundtrack is excellent as well and captures the New Orleans sound with cajun, zydeco, and R&B music. I'm definitely going to order a copy before I move to the land of massive shipping fees.


3. Song: I've been on a big Kinks kick lately- there's so much more to them than songs about transvestites and kids beating up Santa. Here's one of my favorite tracks (right click and save as to download):

Victoria, by the Kinks.

Book Reviews

During recent flights and train rides, I polished off two books that have been on my To Read list for a while.

The first was The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. Set in 1919, this historical novel is very different from Lehane's usual modern day mysteries and crime thrillers, such as Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, although the setting remains the same- the city of Boston. Lehane's novel attempts to capture the spirit of that age using two interweaving protagonists- Danny Coughlin is a popular and headstrong cop, the oldest son of a respected Irish-American family in Southie and Luther Laurence is a black laborer who moves to Boston from the midwest and ends up working for the Coughlin family. Oh, and Babe Ruth is a character as well. However, what sounds like a recipe for triteness actually works, and the story is sustained by the extensive details that provide historical context- the Spanish flu, the molasses flood, the budding labor movement and corresponding anti-Red paranoia, Italian anarchists, racism, and the Boston Police strike are all vividly described. The result is an interesting and informative portrait of a dark and uncertain time in Boston's (and the entire nation's) history. I enjoyed The Given Day and felt like it taught me a lot about an era that I previously hadn't given much thought.

The second book I read was What is the What, by Dave Eggers (sort of). As explained in the preface, What is the What is the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee who told his story to Eggers, who then transformed what he heard into a book, approximating Deng's voice and using him as the central character and narrator. The resulting mixture of fact and fiction is spectacular, an astonishing tale of survival in which we see the best and the worst that humanity has to offer. I loved it and recommend it wholeheartedly. Achak is a child living in a Dinka village in southern Sudan when his peaceful village becomes a immersed in a larger conflict- a rebel army, the SPLA, has sprung up to fight off the fundamentalist Islamic government who have taken hold in Khartoum, the nation's capitol. The town is targeted for destruction in a series of brutal raids- Dinka men shot, houses burned, Dinka children captured and turned into slaves. Achak escapes and eventually finds himself among a group of over a hundred small boys, led by a schoolteacher named Dut who has decided that walking to Ethiopia is their best chance for safety and survival. The journey is long and treacherous- boys die of disease and hunger, are killed by lions, are shot at from helicopters. Dut does his best to keep them out of sight from both the government-sponsored bandits who want to kill them and the rebels who desire to turn them into child soldiers. Eventually Achak ends up in Kakuma, Kenya, a refugee camp and virtual city, with a population around 80,000. His journey is told through a series of flashbacks and memories, as Achak now lives in Atlanta under his Christian name, Valentino, one of over 3000 "Lost Boys" who were granted political asylum by the United States. The book vacillates between terrifying and touching- the horrific violence seems like something apocalyptic, straight out of The Road, but it's real. However, throughout the story, beacons of light and generosity appear, from Manute Bol (Dinka tribesman turned NBA player) to Jane Fonda's daughter Mary Williams to people like Phil Mays, who acts as Valentino's sponsor and aids him in his adjustment to life in the USA. I was most impressed with the character of Dut, an ordinary man who willingly took on the responsibility of leading hundreds of children through a war zone. Through the story of Valentino Achak Deng, What is the What personalizes the plight of the refugee, and this is the book's great triumph. All proceeds from the book go towards the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation. The government in Khartoum remains in power and is now waging similar destruction in the Darfur region of western Sudan- for more information, go here.

R.I.P., J.D.

Jerome David Salinger, you were a gifted and weird man who, in the end, wanted nothing more than to be left alone, but thanks for writing the greatest coming-of-age novel of all time. I read The Catcher in the Rye for the first time when I was about fourteen and absolutely loved it, the whole thing- the tone, Holden, the narrative, everything. It's pretty amazing that a book written in 1951 can still knock the breath of teenagers with its poignancy decades later. I later read Salinger's other work and enjoyed it almost as much, especially the compilation Nine Stories with the haunting "A Perfect Day for Bananafish."

oh, and here's a letter from Salinger explaining why he wasn't selling movie rights for The Catcher in the Rye. (link blatantly stolen from Kelly's facebook page)

Last days in Vienna

When it comes to traveling, I prefer to stick in one location for a few days (preferably one with a free place to stay) rather than do a whirlwind tour with a different stop every day. A week in Vienna provided had plenty of time to hang out with my family here and explore different areas of the city. On a rare sunny day, my cousin and I climbed the steeple of St. Stephen's for some lovely views of the snow-covered city. I returned later for a tour of the catacombs, which was creeptastic. All of the former bishops of Vienna were buried underneath the church, as well as parts of the Habsburg royal family- literally. Their innards are stored in urns at St. Stepehen's, their bodies interred at a second church, and their hearts buried at a third. Deeper into the catacombs are rooms filled with skeletons- some from the Black Plague, and some from when the church was used as a public burial ground during the 1700s- the wooden coffins deteriorated long ago, and all that remains are stacks of bones and skulls. Fortunately for you all, photos are prohibited.


I participated in some of Vienna's cheerier traditions including eating wiener schnitzel (who doesn't love a piece of fried meat approximately the size of a large pizza?) and attending a classical music concert at the Musikverein.


I also met up with an Austrian friend whom I met in Australia (check out his awesome photography blog and scroll down for some cameos of me in the outback) and wandered through the funky 7th District, which was a nice change of pace from the more formal First District.


The city has fantastic public transportation that is a combination of old-timey streetcars and a modern underground subway- the best part is that everything runs so frequently that you rarely have to wait for more than five minutes. (Boston, you're on notice!)
I'd definitely recommend Vienna as a city worth visiting, although next time I'll probably go when it's warmer. I did go running through the snow in the Augarten, a huge park near my aunt and uncle's.

Check out the one of the enormous Flak towers- when the Nazis occupied Vienna, they constructed anti-aircraft towers that still loom ominously over the park. Since they are constructed from uber-reinforced concrete, it would be difficult to take them down without causing significant damage to the park. surrounding buildings, so the city has left them alone

Another thing I enjoyed about Vienna was the abundance of cafes- these people sure like their coffee and cake! The whole city was filled with pastry shops, from upscale places to the chain Aida, which seems to be the Viennese equivalent of Dunkin' Donuts- they are all over the city and always packed, and resemble something from the 1950s, with retro pink uniforms and seating at the counter. Unfortunately, I was allergic to everything on the menu, so I stuck with a cup of coffee. Unlike in Germany, where beer is the cheapest beverage on the menu, Austrians always serve a complimentary glass of water alongside coffee or tea. The only downside is that everyone in Europe still smokes, so you can't go in any sort of restaurant without your clothes and hair stinking.

More Vienna

I've spent the past couple of days exploring more of this impressive city. My favorite building and the one in the picture is the Rathaus, or City Hall, which looks more like a giant castle than a place to pay your parking tickets.

On Sunday night, my aunt and uncle took me out to a delicious dinner at a local traditional restaurant, where we tried a couple Austrian favorites- weiner schnitzel (breaded and fried meat. Yes, please!) and a beef broth soup topped with sliced crepes.

I took a tour of the Habsburgs' Summer Palace, Schloss Schönbrunn. According to my aunt, it's better than Versaille because the rooms are still furnished. The House of Habsburg ruled over Austria and central Europe for six centuries and were known for acquiring territory through politics and marriage rather than on the battlefield. The wife of Napoleon and Marie Antionette were both Habsburg daughters married off at a young age, and a whole lot of the girls ended up with cousbands, i.e. husbands who are also cousins, a trend popular with monarchs as well as rural southerners (ba dum bump).

Vienna is famous for music above all else, and today I lucked into a visit to the Vienna Boys Choir school. The choir has been in exsitence since the 1400s and consists of boys ages 10 to 14 (they get kicked out when they hit puberty) who live and train at the school and spend about three months each year traveling the world to give performances. Attending a musical boarding school at such a young age must be a very strange way to grow up. I saw one of the rehersals today and was amazed by it- they seem like ordinary kids until they start singing, and suddenly they transform into something downright angelic. Good thing for these boys the creation of eunuchs has fallen out of fashion.

In Austria

After a couple more days in Germany (for additional accounts of the weekend in Berlin, complete with better photos and better commentary, check out what Molly and JR had to say), it was time to move on from the cozy town of Weiden and save the buddymollys from unpleasant aftereffects of my bier and sausage diet. They did decide to accompany me to Munich for a visit to the Dachau concentration camp memorial on the outskirts of the city, and for that I was glad- I felt like it was something I should see during my time in Germany, but hadn't been looking forward to going by myself. The site was eerie and sad as expected, but the best word to describe it is chilling- we've all heard and read and seen pictures of the Holocaust, but it's a different feeling to actually stand in such a horrible place.

After a night in Munich that included bier and currywurst and a trip to the famed Hofbrau Haus, I boarded the train for Vienna. My aunt, uncle, and cousin live right in the heart of the city, and they've been encouraging me for years to come for a visit. In spite of the cold weather and mostly gray skies, the city is absolutely beautiful. On Saturday, we walked around the First District downtown and saw all sorts of gorgeous and historical buildings- even the department stores are decorated with statues and carvings hundreds of years old. We saw some of the Hapsburg crown jewels (not to be confused with the family jewels, mind you), the church where Napoleon was married, the Winter Palace, and the famous St. Stepen's catherdral- I might go back there to check out the creepy skeletons in the catacombs.
That night, we watched the 1949 British movie The Third Man which was filmed in Vienna- it was an appropriate choice given the fact that I had walked through the same areas earlier that day, and the film itself was interesting- a thriller about racketeering in Vienna after WWII- like Berlin, Vienna was also divided into sectors controlled by the Allies.


Today, my aunt and I went to the Belvedere museum (pictured at left) to see paintings by Vienna's most famous artist, Gustav Klimt, including The Kiss. The downside of vacationing in January is the gray and cold weather, but the upside is the fact that it isn't crowded at any museums or tourist hot spots. Likewise, the downside of using an Austrain keyboard is that the z is where the y should be, leading to manz tzpos, but the upside is the ability to make umlauts, which everyone knows are Äwesöme.

Dresden

On the way back from Berlin, the buddymollys and I stopped for a day in Dresden. The city is split in half by the Eble River- the old town (Altstadt) is filled with churches and palaces built during the 1700s when the city served as the capital of Saxony. (And all this time I thought Saxons were British- whoops!) Almost all of the old town was destroyed on a single night in 1945 when the allies firebombed the city during WWII. Kurt Vonnegut was a POW held in Dresden at the time and references the event in one of my favorite books, Slaughterhouse-Five. The city has since been rebuilt and restored. New town, or Neustadt, is located north of the river and is a funky, modern area filled with shops, bars, and all sorts of ethnic restaurants- Molly wanted to move there by the time we were through.

After WWII, Dresden was part of East Germany, and you can still see the remnants in a few big ugly concrete buildings that apparently served as the inspiration for Boston's own City Hall. We also spotted a communist mural (how very Shepard Fairey) as well as pedestrian lights with the beloved Ampelmännchen- the East German "little traffic light man" who has remained popular following unification.

Ich bin ein Berliner

I spent my first weekend in Germany with five friends in Berlin, and we had a wunderbar time. In addition to its history, Berlin is known for its fun nightlife, and we did our best to experience both aspects of the city (although we didn't make it to the fetish club-maybe next time). We saw the Reichstag building, which houses Germany's parliament, and the huge and impressive Brandenburg gate- the chariot on top was stolen by Napoleon in 1806, brought to Paris, and was restored to Berlin after Napoleon's defeat in 1814. We proceeded through the gate into the former East Berlin and stopped at the Pergamon museum that contains archeological treasures including the altar of Pergamon (we're sitting on its steps in the photo) and my favorite, the Ishtar Gate- an enormous structure made of blue tile that once stood at the entrance to Babylon.



Once we finished our Berlin field trip, we bopped around the bars and restaurants for several hours to sample Berlin's fine beers and cuisine, including currywurst- a delicious sausage smothered in ketchup and curry powder. Mmmmm. When it came to the bier, I may have been a little overenthusiastic but thankfully recovered enough to venture to the Berlin Wall on Sunday. Much of the wall has been torn down, but there remains a 1km stretch that doubles as a modern art gallery.



Overall, Berlin lived up to the hype- it's a huge, vibrant city with a lot to offer, and I easily could have spent a couple more days touring around. Maybe not in January, though- despite the German people's reputation for efficiency, they have not yet mastered the art of snow removal; even in the main districts, the sidewalks weren't cleared and everyone ends up tromping through dirty snow.



Update: My first bier review is up on Beer Crusade.

In Germany

I arrived yesterday morning and spent the day walking around Munich before catching the train to the buddymollys town in rural Bavaria. It's cold and covered in snow here but the scenery is quite pretty, especially in the countryside. My utter and complete lack of German hasn't been too much of a problem except for when I ordered lunch in Munich and ended up with a giant pile of bologna with pickles and onions on top. I also had to change trains in Nuremberg within my six minute layover, so I basically accosted a German man and showed him my ticket and he nicely helped my find my train and made sure I got on the right car- a lot of the trains split during the journey, the front half going on one route and the back half to another locale, which could have been very problematic.

Off to Berlin for the weekend! I can't figure out how to post pictures on this computer but will add some photos and beer (or bier) reviews early next week.

Prost!

And now for an important announcement- I have been invited by the beer bloggers at Beer Crusade to serve as a guest correspondent while on my travels through Germany and Austria. I will be sampling the region's finest biers and reviewing them on the Beer Crusade site. Bocks and Hefeweizens and Marzens, oh my!

European Vacation

Tomorrow I take off for a two-week vacation in Central Europe. I hear northern Germany is actually quite balmy in January. No, really! Okay, not really. I arrive in Munich and from there take the train to a small town in Bavaria where the buddymollys live. This is the most daunting part of the journey, as I have to get myself from the airport to the train station in Munich and then change trains in Nuremberg, and the only German words I know are ones a German soccer teammate used to shout during games: Wunderbar! Ya! Scheisse! From there, we'll be heading up to Berlin for the weekend to meet up with JR and Jessica and Lawrence. Then, I'll tool around Germany for a couple of days with the buddymollys before heading back to Munich and continuing on to Vienna to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousin. I've never been to Germany nor Austria before so I'm definitely looking forward to the trip, and I'll be posting updates and pictures whenever I have the chance. To start with, here's a little gem that someone alerted me to on Facebook:
Oh yeah, it's an awkward years photo throwback featuring one of my travel companions.

If I finish packing today, I'm going to watch my latest arrival from Netflix, Good Bye, Lenin!, to get me in a Berlin state of mind. It's kind of like a New York State of Mind, with a lot less Billy Joel.

Dinner party, Julia Child style

Ever since I moved into my grandmother's house I've been wanting to put the fine china to good use. So I invited a few friends over for dinner on Saturday night and took on an ambitious cooking project- Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon. How very Julie & Julia of me. I found copies of the original recipe as well as instructions for the brown-braised onions and sautéed mushrooms on this cooking blog and went to town. I used regular old American bacon instead of a chunk of bacon cut into lardons, but other than that, I followed the recipe to a T, serving it with the recommended boiled potatoes and buttered peas. It was a pain in the ass to make, and it took all frickin day, and I can't even pronounce it properly so I was just calling it French Beef Stew....but...it was delicious!! Seriously, the beef was flavorful and delicious and so tender- it practically melted in your mouth. The picture does not do it justice.

I also made a plum torte for dessert and it was super easy and very tasty, even though I kind of screwed it up by using regular plums instead of mini Italian ones.