Vienna (and work, and summer is somehow over)

I do not understand how this summer is over already.  What on earth happened?  Last thing I knew, the spring semester was drawing to a close and I was looking forward to having the summer to get some work done, and suddenly it's the start of the fall semester already.  Argh!

On the bright side, I did get some work done, though.  I resubmitted my Monster Paper (fingers crossed), and I also started a new paper with my former office mate (which is to be submitted in about two weeks), and I also got some really awesome results on a project I've been working on with J.  So things are rolling right along, just in time to start applying for jobs again.  I'm kind of looking forward to the jobs thing now that the Monster Paper is in.  It was really hanging over my head, and now I just feel like, "Okay. Let's DO this."

I also traveled!  How could I possibly go a few months without flying across the country a few times?  (I couldn't.)  Shortly after I got back from El Paso in April, I went to a conference in New Jersey for a week, then I drove back to State College and caught a flight to the west coast so I could spend some time with J (and friends who have now left Berkeley - for good!).  So I was in Berkeley for two weeks in late May/early June, and then I was in State College for a while, and then J was here for two weeks while I worked on Monster Paper (although we did get a chance to do some stuff while he was here, including spending a few days in IL), and then I went to Vienna for a week for another conference.  I just got back late on Sunday night, in fact, and it was a very cool experience.  I still feel kind of weird about going to Europe for a week, and my body doesn't deal with it very well (although I've found that a little bit of melatonin really eases the transition for me), but it was a great opportunity and I took quite a few pictures while I was there.

So without further ado: Vienna.

the Rathaus (City Hall)

Tee-hee!  We did not go there.

Google Translate tells me that this means, "Shit, the ka is hit."
Thanks, Google.

The pedestrian crossing signal is apparently two people holding hands with a heart between them?
That's lovely and everything, but what a weird thing to put on a crossing signal.

The hugest vat of sauerkraut I've ever seen, at the Naschmarkt (open air market).

The back of Schönbrunn Palace.  It's like Versailles, but Germanic.

The gardens at Schönbrunn.

Squinty-eyed selfie at the gardens at Schönbrunn.

Super close up cheetah at the Schönbrunn Zoo.
I have very mixed feelings about zoos in general, but this was a pretty nice zoo, at least.

Emperor penguins! Chillin'.

View of Vienna from the suspension bridge at Schönbrunn Zoo.

The front of Schönbrunn Palace, as I was leaving.

Inside of Café Central. Thanks for the recommendation, K!

My favorite museum was probably the Freud museum, which is in his family's former apartment. There was a HUGE statue of a naked body hanging from the ceiling in the middle of a rather small room (complete with huge and, shall we say, prominent genitalia) and it was pretty hilarious to watch people try to navigate the room and look at the exhibits without staring at the giant penis. Extremely Freudian.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to visit Mozart's house, but I did walk by Beethoven's apartment, and that was pretty cool. It was a really neat city, and I hope I'll be able to go back sometime.

I'm gonna go for a walk now before it gets too dark and chilly.  (What's with the chilly air today?  It can't be fall already!  Aack!)

Lassen National Park

We went to Lassen Volcanic National Park!  It was super cool.

East Coast Road Trip

We went on a road trip!  Rather than tell you about it, I'll just show you some pictures for now.

Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah

Shenandoah

Shenandoah

the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

the Washington Monument

the White House! it was actually kind of lame

the Capitol Building

I just got back from Geneva last night, and am headed out to California on Wednesday.  (Hooray!)  The Geneva trip was truly excellent, and I expect the California trip will be as well.  I have a lot of work to get done before I leave, but it's really fun work, so I'm looking forward to it.  I'll post a proper update at some point too, probably.

Niagara Falls

I'm back!

I'm back because I'm home and don't know what else to do with myself, because I don't want to work tonight --

-- phone call from my postdoc advisor.  Turns out I don't have to teach next semester if I don't want to! So now I have to decide if I want to teach.  Interesting. --

Anyway, yeah, not working any more tonight because my grant isn't due until Tuesday, and it's actually in pretty good shape.  It's not quite there, but I have several days to make what are some relatively minor edits and additions at this point, so I'm just about done worrying about it.

So I might as well tell you about my trip to Niagara Falls!

I didn't drive up with the express purpose of seeing Niagara Falls, of course.  I went to go visit my friend!

M is originally from Buffalo, is a current grad student at Berkeley, but is back in Buffalo for this semester.  I drove up to visit her a few weeks back, and it was such a beautiful drive.  Man, driving through the Appalachians and up into western New York with fall in full swing… not something I ever thought I would experience, but it was absolutely gorgeous, and I'm so glad I got the chance to do it.

So seeing M was wonderful, of course (I really miss her!), and she was super excited to take me to see Niagara Falls, which is like a 15 minute drive from her house.  Isn't that crazy?  I can't even imagine growing up right by Niagara Falls.

The pictures really don't do it justice.  The amount of power behind that incredible amount of water is absolutely mind-blowing.  It was surprisingly scary, actually!

So I had a wonderful weekend, and it was a really neat experience, and really nice to catch up with my friend!

I also just downloaded these pictures from my phone, and there was this one from the Color Run, a 5K I did back in September:

It's weird; you can't tell at all from this picture how much weird chalk-paint I had on myself.  That… was maybe an experience for another post.

Anyway, Niagara was awesome, I live in a really gorgeous part of the country, and I am really happy to have a car so that I can get out and see it!

Speaking of that, Jevon was here a few weekends ago, and we went back to Fallingwater so he could check it out, and so I could try to get a better tour guide this time!  I think the trip was a success on both counts.

Okay, that's probably enough from me for now.  Two posts in one day, imagine that!

pretty stuff from my phone camera

I have a car!!!!

It is so exciting!  I love it!  And now I can go wherever I want, whenever I want!

I also snapped two nice photos of campus on a whim the other day.

It really is a very nice campus.

I gave my colloquium talk yesterday, and then I bought my car (which was a minor ordeal, involving a surprise trip to the DMV to get a PA driver's license... at least that's over now), and then I finally got home around 6:00 and just zonked out for the night.  I knew I was tired, so I didn't set my alarm for this morning, and I woke up at 11:00 am, which I haven't done in, like, years.  I usually can only do that when I'm sick or something.  It was totally weird.

Then I ate some zucchini muffins and drank some tea, curled up on my new couch and watched a movie, and then went for a 6.5 mile run to try to tire myself out.  This evening I drove out to Wegmans, everybody's favorite grocery store 'round these parts, and also stopped by a furniture store to scope out some rugs, and by Michael's to pick up some crafting stuff.

Now I'm home and I'm actually pretty tired, so the longer-than-usual run (and the pumpkin beer I picked up tonight) must have done their job.  I might watch another movie!  And then bright and early tomorrow morning, I'm heading out to see Falling Water, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright house in southwestern PA, with my neighbor and fellow language researcher at PSU.

Man, today feels really good.  Things are good.

Yosemite

We added another National Park feather to our cap this weekend: Yosemite.

I'm still pretty tired from our two hour hike yesterday, and I'm not sure that typing up a big long narrative would really do the place justice anyway.  Suffice it to say that Yosemite is absolutely gorgeous, and if you ever get the chance, you should go.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

These first ones are actually from the drive home last night, as the sun went down.  California is a really beautiful place, and I will miss drives like this.

And this is where the Yosemite ones start (in case it's not obvious):

National parks, man.  They are truly a national treasure.

Now I'm back home and it's time for another week of dissertating... but first, a slow and deliberate evening jog to enjoy the beautiful weather, and perhaps an evening of Game of Thrones...

Go Wugs!

We lost again, but it was still pretty fun.

random phone pictures

I tried to capture the coolness of the view out my kitchen window this morning, but my phone camera just didn't cut it, and my good camera's battery was dead.  The rain/fog was really awesome, and then there was this strip of blue sky below it, and below that you could see San Francisco.  I'll try again sometime, now that my battery's charged.

A car parked on the street right by my house.

Pelicans.  Chillin'.
(See the guy perched on top of the outhouse structure?)

An awesome display in someone's front yard as I walked home from campus the other day.  In retrospect, I totally should have played with the dinosaurs and signed the guest book.  Probably would have made some kid's day.

I'm really tired, but I don't know if I can sleep yet.  I had a really productive day, despite the fact that the amount of time I spent working was fairly short.  I heard back from the IRB (finally!) and I don't have too much to change about my dissertation study before it gets approved and I can start collecting data.  So I did all my revisions and re-submitted my protocol, and I'm hoping I can start collecting data in November!!  Wow, I typed that and then realized it needed an extra exclamation point, because it hadn't really sunk in yet, but that is really exciting!

I also roped an undergraduate research assistant in to recording the voice stimuli for my experiments, and we set a time to meet later this week, and my friend who's drawing my picture stimuli is hard at work on them, so they should be ready to go in the next week, too.  I also managed to do a little bit of writing today, and am hoping to have my methodology chapter done (or at least in working order) by the end of this month.

We lost our softball game tonight, but I was still really proud of us.  We played totally respectably against The Best Team in our league (they actually recruit players... ugh) and had a pretty good time, too.

And then I walked all the way home (it's a bit of a hike from the softball field), and some of the packages I ordered with birthday gift cards had arrived.  Yay new dishes and silverware!  And then I read through a dissertation chapter written by a friend of mine, because she needed feedback by tomorrow.

So now it's time for bed, and sleep, hopefully, and an early start tomorrow.  What a day!  Good night.