PLACES: a list

For around a year I've had a list of places I want to visit/have visited. Some of these locations are places I frequently visit but can still consider really cool, such as New York. Alsoooo, airports don't count as having been to someplace(referring to LAX + Reykjavik).

Alaska
China

Edinburgh

Bermuda

New Zealand

Moscow

Hawaii

London

Chicago

Barcelona

Paris

Rome

Los Angeles

Grand Canyon

Amsterdam

New York City

African Safari

Hong Kong
Iceland

Tokyo

Dubai

Zurich

B.C. (Canada)

Seeing Fall

9/8/12

Over the past two weeks, despite the disgusting heat and humidity, I've been getting out of the house for school. This summer I sometimes didn't get out for days at a time, but I still managed to complain about the humid weather cursing the planet. Now that I actually interact with the outdoors on a regular basis I have a rightful reason to complain; THE WEATHER TRULY DOES SUCK.

Worse than the fact that summer's have--and will always be--hot is that I'm starting to see the leaves change. The transformation is gradual, and sometimes only one leaf on a tree is auburn, but still. When the leaves get pretty before the weather gets bearable, fall flies right by. Boo-hoo.

9/9/12
Wow, last night there was a crazy storm and when I woke up this morning, everything was beautiful and 60 degrees. For at least today the above paragraphs do not apply. Happy (maybe/almost) Fall! 

A Nice Song

Autumn + Manhattan

la cocotte staub

In early July while on a quick trip to Pittsburgh, this was purchased.

Sunset

My favorite aspect of writing is that you can transform your thoughts into words, and those words can be altered and edited to make a beautiful product in the end. But whenever I have a thoughtful message to share with the internet I get stuck trying to transform my thoughts into eloquent words. So I don't end  up writing anything.

A contributing problem to my lack of motivation to write is that the blogs I follow are absurdly amazing at getting a message across via a keyboard. By reading their blogs, do I achieve a sense of accomplishment, as though I've created the content I'm--in reality--yearning to own? I dunno. Quite possibly, I'll never be able to write like the particular person I'm mostly referring to.

I've felt this way about words for a while, but what really brought this subject to light is my 2013 school orientation (which I attended just last week). My S1 English teacher was blabbering on about how the first semester of Honors English focuses on writing, not analysis, which I'm perfectly fine with.    Et le prof had the class do a warm-up, and I got so scared that I'd have to read out loud what I wrote, which got me thinking about the above sentences.

It's interesting how little thoughts take so long to explain and understand once words get involved.

Margate, Bay View; 8/18/12

Wine Country

Hello & welcome to the FINAL INSTALLMENT of the N. Cali Project.

We stopped in a cute town on the way to Quivera. I bought these cakes at a bakery and took a picture of them. It turned out like that *points to above picture*. No editing needed.

I absolutely adored Wine Country. The orchards were beautiful, the air was so clear, and there were chickens!

If you clicked on all these posts, I sincerely hope you enjoyed looking at the images. I hope to post more photos of my travels in the future, but not for a little while. At the moment, this blog has a severe case of photographic overdose.

8

San Francisco.

This man (who, by the way, has no teeth), upon noticing me and my sister walking up to the pelican, offered us to pet the bird. (To clarify; the pelican is not owned by this man. It follows him around, looks at him, but is not a domesticated animal.) We hastily declined. And then ran off to the Golden Gate Bridge.

One of my favorite YouTuber's, Marion, made a video documenting her favorite part of Los Angeles...downtown LA. While I appreciated the video, I never understood what it was like to prefer the 'plain and boring' financial part of a city. The financial district of San Francisco showed me what that meant, and I definitely prefer this part of San Francisco to any other.

SUSIE CAKES. Best bakery I've ever been to. Nicest employees I've ever met. Convenient-ist location  to our apartment.

'Ulcatraz. [Pronounced: Yule-cuh-traz]

The fanciest diner I've ever been to. Also the best. I got some good ole' macaroni and cheese.

All in all, I didn't like San Francisco. I have always, and will always continue to aspire to living in a city, but not San Francisco. It's not like New York, Paris, or London (all of which I've had the pleasure of visiting). The three cities just mentioned are considered the greatest in the world--and with good reasoning. I don't feel the way I feel in New York or Paris when I walk through the streets in San Francisco.

I never want to leave New York. As we arrived at SFO, I was relieved that I was leaving.

BIG Sur

These tree roots remind me of the crazy trees in The Wizard of Oz. Now that I think about it, a lot of things in California remind me of the arts...Carmel/Hansel, Lobos/Seuss, Pfeiffer/Oz

Here we have Pfeiffer Beach. I'm so glad we went here early in the morning (while the fog was still blocking the sun), because without the fog, it's just a beach with big rocks. The fog adds an element of fantasy, mystery, and beauty.

Many miles later, we took a small hike in a forest. I don't remember the name of the forest, but I do remember a special bird we [cleverly] named Bluebird. Bluebird likes to be fed almonds.

This is the end of the nature-y parts of the trip. Boo-hoo.

Stay tuned next week to find out where Phase 8 will take us. Thank you, and goodnight.