Corner View : White

White is, believe it or not, a combination of all colors. This isn't the case with paint, obviously (making black as the absence of color interesting- yes?), but is the reason that when you put a prism up to a light, you see a rainbow reflecting out the other side! An uncle of mine is a professor of chemistry and taught me this as a child when I asked him what the difference was between black and white. My sister-in-law, also a scientist, recently confirmed. Bet you wanna be part of the fun discussions in our family, eh!? We're cooler than it sounds- promise!

Traditionally, it represents purity and innocence. In Asian cultures, though, it represents mourning and death.

Carte blanche, directly translated, means "white card." It indicates surrender or giving someone else full responsibility.

And I seem to remember something from a history class about painting chimneys white, but I can't recall the meaning of it. Help me out if any of you know this one!


To see what others conjure up when they think of this color, check them out below. Thanks to Natsumi for the theme of the day, and thanks to Spain Jane for the Corner View creation!

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, allison, lise, cate, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, aimee, sunnymama, jenell, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian, athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, kelleyn, iris, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b, victoria, kathryn , lisa, liza, juliette, braja, mulot, anne, lucy, leonor, elizabeth, helene, dominique, shokoofeh

Corner View : Out the car window

Driving around Washington, D.C., you are likely to see:

__ __
Russell Senate Building_____Department of the Treasury_____________Capitol Hill

Jefferson Memorial

But since many people don't drive around The District, rather, they take the metro, here's a bit from that view:

__

Inside a metro station________________Rosslyn, Virginia as seen from Yellow line

To see what others around the world look at from their windows, check out:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama, amanda, ali, jenell, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian, athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, kelleyn, iris, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b, victoria, kathryn , lisa, liza, juliette, braja, mulot, anne

Properties of Perks

Ahhh caffeine. I was hoping that grad school wouldn't change my lack of addiction to coffee, but a few weeks in and a recent gift of a French Press, I may be losing that battle. If anyone's trying to break away from it, after a few days of coffee, try drinking lots of water in place of caffeine. You'll have to get up and go to the bathroom so many times that you're plenty awake! (There's the option of decaf-- and to see if it really is decaf, there are caffeine test strips.) Caffeine actually blocks a molecule in your brain that induces sleep, and a caffeine buzz includes increased heart rate and opening / constricting blood vessels, which is great for someone needing to pay attention in class or when studying long hours. I could get into Arabica vs Robusta coffee, but that's probably another post entirely! Most of us have heard the story of how coffee was discovered, but if you haven't, here goes my interpretation:

Coffee is indigenous to Ethiopia, where the legend originates. Kaldi, a goatherd, observed his goats snacking on the red berries of a bush and then becoming rowdy. He was curious about their behavior, so Kaldi nibbled on the berries as well, and his results were similar to that of the animals. A monk noticed these behaviors and thought that the effects of this bean could be good for his long-praying friends, and he then brewed the world's first cup. Consumption spread from Ethiopia to Northern Africa to Arabia, and on.

And today, it's a worldwide treasure, transforming social centers in Europe first (starting in Venice, and the first coffeehouse opening in Oxford, England). In places like Turkey, it's just as much a staple as is bread or water. As with globalization of anything, those who produce it are often brought to light if they aren't being treated properly. This time, the effort to control such a disconnect is with Fair Trade Coffee. Fair Trade focuses on paying producers a fair price for their crop and hopefully encouraging production methods that are environmentally friendly and sustainable, and fostering relationships between the triangle of those involved: producers, traders and consumers. (October is Fair Trade Month!)

Some tidbits about this delicious drink:

Brazil produces more coffee beans than anywhere else in the world.

Darker roasts generally (surprisingly) have less caffeine than lighter roasts. Why? Because the roasting process burns off their caffeine faster. Lighter roasts allow the bean to retain the aromatic oils that give it its delicious flavor. Oily-appearing coffee actually has a bitter taste.

Café au lait is half coffee, half scalded milk, and light brown in color.

Espresso does not, in fact, have more caffeine than drip coffee. The brew-time for espresso has it in contact with water for a shorter period, allowing less caffeine to be extracted. It does, however, have a stronger flavor.

It's the second most valued commodity, after oil.

Kopi Luwak runs about $200/lb. What's unique about this particular coffee bean is that it's digested by a civet then scooped off the ground before roasting. (Translation: a cat eats the bean, someone follows it around until it poops, scoops that up and gets to cooking so you can pay a small fortune to drink a cup. In fairness, you'd have to pay me a lot to follow a cat around until it pooped something I intended for others to consume, too!)

Caffé latte is hot espresso with steamed milk. And it's my favorite!

Coffee trees exhaust soil fertility, requiring the old to be replaced with new, which often means developing new land, which can be a problem in places like Brazil where the rainforest needs restoration, too!

Café Americano is equal portions of espresso and boiling water.

Cappuccino is espresso with steamed milk/cream and milk froth on top. Its name derived from the hood worn by Capuchin order of friars, cappuccio, in Italy. The Italian drink went on to be named such because it was similar to the color of the habit of the Capuchin friars.

Ground coffee goes stale 100x faster than whole bean coffee.

Macchiatto/Macchiato is an espresso drink with a teaspoon or two of steamed milk on top.

Watching the world wake up from history

Chain blog? I got this from Nicola and thought I'd do a DC version! Bonus: who can tell me why I chose this particular title for this particular blog?

Making : unending To Do lists, friends
Cooking : BBQ pork for sandwiches
Drinking : water
Reading : a book on presentations for my Business Communications class, articles for next week's papers, statistics for next week's tests, and if I'm lucky, the current Newsweek...
Wanting : our boxes to be emptied and the things in them to be organized
Looking : for work a few hours a week that would pay me decently and interest me moderately plus
Playing : Taylor Swift videos on YouTube
Wasting : frustration on Comcast to get back with me. it's not gonna happen! wish I had the power of Heather Armstrong!!
Sewing : a stitch in time saves nine? I do need to repair the buttons on some shorts...
Wishing : i were much, much better at time management
Enjoying : being back in school, living here, the experience of this at the same time as my husband, friends in the area, studying...
Waiting : for school work to give me enough of a break that i can pick out the computer i need and order it
Liking : the new chairs and bench look at our dining room table
Wondering : what it'll take for me to really get good at what i enjoy and still be able to do what i enjoy less
Loving : life! all the prospects for the future are exciting, especially when i have a great spouse to share 'em with!
Hoping : i can be an effective leader in student government and get a few big things accomplished
Marveling : at the amount of capital around this city. no pun intended.
Needing : a few things for the kitchen, a massage, to not have student loans...
Smelling : zucchini bread being heated. mmmm!
Wearing : pj pants and a camisole
Following : my interests
Noticing : how long it really takes to watch a football game and how quickly the day passes if you do it
Knowing : that I can do this!
Thinking : that Barack was right about Kanye. what was he thinking!
Bookmarking : where we are in so many different areas- home, school, relationships, plans
Opening : my textbooks and binders and e-mail, again and again; my mind to new people and different ways of their worlds
Giggling : at the guy in class who wears too-thin shirts that show more than anyone cares to see!
Feeling : pleased that our maintenance crew is so quick to fix any little thing the same day we report it!

Corner View : September

I have joined Spain Jane's Corner View. The theme for this one is "September."

My first thought for this is all that happens family-wise for us: grandpa's birthday, wedding anniversary, anniversary of losing my grandmother, brother-in-law's birthday, husband's birthday, and I was the third one in my family born on the same exact day (great grand father, mother, me).

Then I think about all the fall indicators arising here. (Pause: without the eleventh day of this month, America would not be so many things that it is today. I have to acknowledge the lives lost and the lives changed eight years ago this year, especially as the Pentagon is now my neighbor.) Growing up, it was the start of sugar cane season and especially the local Sugar Cane Festival, which wouldn't be complete without a fais do do. Getting older and having moved away, it was an appreciation for the colors at the start of the fall season. And now, as a graduate student, it's when school really gets underway. Phew! So much happens in just one month!

To find out how others ring in the ninth month of the year, check out:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,

caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama, amanda, ali, jenell, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian,

athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, kelleyn, iris, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa

What I've Learned

Having been in DC for just over a month now, and graduate school for three weeks, I think it appropriate timing for a benchmark on what I've learned since beginning this chapter:

-Eating at home 98% of the time is cheaper, mostly easier, and not nearly as boring as I thought!
-There's a Maryland/Virginia/DC snobbery, though you can be in all three places in less than fifteen minutes over a short, couple miles spread. We're still figuring this one out.
-Most "credible" news sources have holes in most of their business articles. Enough for me to write two papers per week on them. Wow.
-The more work you're given, the more bang for your buck you're getting. If for no other reason, you're forced to make an executive decision on what's important enough to rank on your priorities list.
-Accounting is only boring if you don't understand it. So says my professor, anyway.
-My dad is single-handedly one of the most impressive businessmen I've ever known. And somehow he's still an outstanding parent to boot. I need to learn to juggle as much.
-The guy who answers all the teacher's questions is an ass. Especially when he doesn't know the answer-- talks a lot without saying anything.
-My great-grandmother really knew what she was talking about when she said (translated from Cajun French) that, "You can't learn anything with your mouth open."
-It doesn't matter how much you have to do around the house... depending on your workload.
-The first few weeks of b-school required as much reading as law school. I imagine more calculations, less reading in the future.
-People here don't care if you've worked/studied on two other continents. They've done it for longer and in somewhere more remote with the Peace Corps, so don't use any experience abroad as "one unique thing" during an icebreaker. Stick with being from where Tabasco sauce is made!
-Craigslist is usually more work than your time is worth.
-Most of your classmates are competitive and pretty smart, thus knowing yourself is key as much as having a big picture perspective is a strength.
-Commuting during rush hour is a beast.

This draws me back to the most recent day when I felt completely relaxed and responsibility-free: May 29 in Hawaii. The movers had packed up our entire house, put it in boxes and crates, and off it went for a Pacific-crossing ship. We moved into a Waikiki hotel and I literally had no concerns- and there was even someone to make my bed! I bought a chick magazine for mindless reading and was browsing the article on successful femmes describing themselves in 100 words or less. It got me thinking: how would I describe myself in 100 words, or how would I want to be described? Well, I got busy again and never finished the assignment. But here we are, new beginnings all at once, and I think it wise to create a definite mark, worthy of referral in the future.

How would you describe yourself in 100 words or less? What would you want others to say? Give it a couple minutes of thought. What kind of benchmarks would you say you've passed in the last chapter of your life?

Europa!

As promised, here's the scoop from our European adventure! We visited seven countries in about 6 weeks. It was really phenomenal! While we hit many hot spots, we were trying, in part, to see as much as we could in order to decide which ones were worthy of a longer, more in-depth vacation. Hands down, our favorite place was Scotland. I'll start at the beginning.

We took a military flight from Andrews AFB (DC) to Ramstein AFB (Kaiserslautern, Germany, about an hour from Heidelberg). Because we were taking a military flight, we couldn't be sure which one we'd get on or when we'd arrive in Europe, so we couldn't do the advance planning that the OCD side of me finds comfort in. Thus, once we were in Germany, we planned the next two weeks of our summer. Looking at all the options, there was a reasonable flight into Glasgow. It went a little something like this:

"Hey, you wanna go to Scotland?"
"Oooh that sounds cool!"
"There's a flight tomorrow night into Glasgow."
"Yeah, let's do that!"

We were both pretty excited about it! I have ancestral roots there (and, in fact, was excited to see my maiden name on signs in several places!) and we thought it would be nice and off the beaten path a bit. We landed at the Glasgow airport and called the hotel for our shuttle bus. "I'll send the driver now. Be waiting at stop 2A," the receptionist said. We walked all over the Glasgow airport and nearby bus stops. We asked every janitor, sales clerk, policeman, and possible information authority we could find. No one could give us the right info. Finally, one genius said, "What's the address of your hotel?" Um... wait a second. How many Glasgow airports are there? Ding ding ding! We're at the wrong airport! How does that happen! Hilarious! No really-- who flies into the wrong airport! So we had to get on a train that would bring us to a station on the other side of town where we could catch a cab to our hotel. On the train, which was about a half hour ride, we met the absolute nicest couple. They told us where we would get off of the train, gave us recommendations on what to see while visiting, and apologized for not having more space in their car to bring us to our hotel (and seemed quite genuine about it). Bonus: everyone here talks like Shrek!

We spent our days in this part of the UK visiting the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art (GoMA), taking a city bus tour, walking along the River Clyde. We even watched tennis star Andy Roddick beat Andy Murray (a Scotsman) with both Canadians and locals, which was when all Scots lost all manners and kindness we had seen. We took a train to Edinburgh and visited a scotch distillery, St Giles' Cathedral (where an adorable old man was doing his weekly volunteer work and gave us a piece of his endless knowledge about the history of this amazing place), and Edinburgh Castle. We had outstanding service at our hotel, unending kindness at restaurants, and incredible niceties from locals at every stop. We often discussed the validity behind many folks from Scotland having settled in the southern part of the US versus many folks from England having settled in the northern part of the US and the truth to some stereotypes.

The Squinty Bridge (Left)
A bagpiper (Right)

From Glasgow, we took a train on down to London. Other highlights from our adventure include:

London
Seeing our dear friend Kurt who was finishing up a summer clerkship there. Don't think we would have seen him had he not been finished with work. It's a hard working city!
I was surprised at how taken aback I was by Westminster Abbey.

Along the walkway to Buckingham Palace (Top)
Parliament and Big Ben (Lower left)
Along the Thames with Big Ben in the back (Lower right)














Spain
The running of the bulls (Fiesta de San Fermin). Awesome! We lost so much sleep doing it, but would certainly do it again. A 400-year old tradition still going strong.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (the beginning of my love affair with Jeff Koons' work!)

Jeff Koons' "Tulips" (TL)
Comin through! San Fermin Festival! (TR)
Italy
Gelato, of course!
The adorable streets of the ever-unique Venice

Rome was packed with tourists, so it
was easy to find an American to take
our photo in front of the Colosseum! (TL)
The Last Supper (TR)
Ahhh Venezia! (LR)


Czech Republic
Getting the tour from high school friend of mine
We spent a lot of our time here getting work done for school before we were to see friends

A jazz band on the Charles Bridge (L)
Inside the main square (R)



Switzerland
Catching up with a friend from my husband's exchange student days in Germany
While we didn't partake, I found it interesting to learn that Switzerland's laws on marijuana are more lax than even Amsterdam. The smell of it in public was quite strong! We also saw a couple sitting on a courtyard bench, mid-weekday afternoon, just feet from children, doing coke. That was a first!

The guys being silly (L)
Castle in Baden (R)


Germany
Getting the historical tour of Frankfurt through the eyes of the church
Visiting their first wine fest of the year (and our first ever) with Matt and Ellen

The Wegners in Frankfurt during our church tour (L)
Loved this statue in Darmstadt gardens! (R)
Us with our favorite residents of Daubenbornerhof! (Bottom)
















And so it went! We are now back to the US and reality. As much reality as a pair of grad students can have, anyway... It was a wonderful trip. People ask me if I like DC so far and I tell them that I do, but after this summer, I feel as if it's just another new city we're visiting, but everyone here speaks English!