choses de la vie et de l'amour

My Moroccan Experience

2006-01-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

Pictures are here

Andy and I left for Morocco Friday evening, the 30th of December on a night train. We slept in couchettes, which were actually quite comfortable. We awoke in Hendaye, France and switched onto the Spanish train company in Irun. Here we had our first layover of one hour, and I had my first glass of really good orange juice. The small cafeteria at the train station had its own machine that took whole oranges and juiced them! One train ride later we were in Madrid, where we stayed for the night to celebrate New Year’s eve. We thought ahead and booked a hotel room, which was a really smart idea because almost all of the hotels were booked for the night. The hotel was called Hotel High Tech President Castellana, and it was amazing. There were blue neon lights under the bed, and a photo of a naked woman on the glass in the bathroom. We forgot to reserve a restaurant, so we found a grocery store and made two delicious sandwiches for dinner and followed it with a bottle of wine and some chocolate. All of the workers in public transportation, and many restaurants took the night off to celebrate so we couldn’t count on the metro and finding a restaurant was that much harder.

The following day we awoke at 7am to catch our 8h15 train to Algerciras. Walking to the train station we walked past many people dressed up in suits and black dresses coming home from dance clubs. There were a fair number of middle-aged people out too, which was slightly surprising because I can’t imagine my mom and dad getting dressed up to go out clubbing until 7am on New Year’s eve. I think Spain just knows how to party.
While waiting in line for the ferry from Algerciras to Tangier we met a French woman named Laurence who is living in Morocco. We also met two guys (Dilip and Kevin) from Los Angeles, CA, and a backpacker from Australia named Jenn. We purchased our ferry tickets and waited to board. We recruited another English speaker named Mark, from the Netherlands, while waiting and we had such a good time talking with one another we spent the next few days together. All of us except Laurence who went back to Meknès, while we travelled to Marrakesh. On the ferry we had to get our passport stamped. There were two lines, one for women and one for men. I followed Laurence in the women’s line and she told me to take Andy’s passport to get it validated. Apparently many women get their masculine travel partner’s passports stamped. I went through the line again with Jenn, so we could get the passports of our masculine travel friends stamped too. The woman in front of us had a stack of at least 16 passports, so we didn’t feel too bad with two each. The men's line looked like it would last for an hour, at least. I imagine that some men spend the whole two hour trip standing in line.

When in Tangier we walked past the hoards of taxi cab drivers meeting us at the port to find a taxi driver who would give us a fare less expensive than what was originally offered us to the train station. The train from Tangier to Marrakech was a night train that left around 9pm and moved slowly through the night getting us to Marrakesh around 9am the next day. The couchettes were sold out, as were all of the 2nd class tickets, so we purchased 6 first class tickets and found a dinky restaurant at the train station to eat dinner. The train ride was very entertaining, and at one point we put all of the luggage on the floor of the train car and spread out Mark’s sleeping bag on the luggage rack so Dilip could sleep on it.

Dilip and Kevin had a room reserved at the Riad Njeema Lounge in Marrakesh, so after our taxi cab driver dropped us off a few blocks from the Riad I asked a boy if he knew where it was. He was very helpful and showed us how to get there, winding through the maze of houses that exists in many Moroccan towns. Andy and I stayed at the Riad Njeema Lounge with Dilip and Kevin for the first night. We all went searching for another hotel for Jenn and Mark and found Hotel Essaouira, not very far from the square “Place Jemaa-el-Fna.” Andy and I stayed at this hotel our second night in Marrakech. The Place Jemaa-el-Fna was always busy. There were snake charmers, people with monkeys who tried to get you to “touch the monkey” or take a picture with it for money. Food was easily accessible. Throughout the day there were at least 20 carts of orange juice makers. They took fresh oranges and squeezed them in front of you. The taste was incredible. The unappetizing part was that to wash the glasses they simply rinse them in a bucket of cold water behind the cart. There were also carts of dried figs, nuts, and dates. Tasty? Yes. Flies? Yes, I became good at spotting carts with no flies or fewer flies before purchasing my sticky dates to eat. At night there are about 80 food carts that open serving up snails, sheep heads, tajines, couscous, salads, rice, seafood, lamb and chicken brochettes (I think this is their name.. kind of like a mini shisk ka bob). When we walked through the different stands the stand owners would grab your arm to try to get you to sit down. One stand, took Jenn’s arm and pulled her up behind them to take a picture. The ploy worked and we ate at this stand. The stand across the way was really upset that we didn’t choose them and throughout our meal they actually gave us the middle finger and said, “fuck you” while staring us down. Geez. No wonder they didn’t have many clients.

There is something called a souq in Morocco. There is nothing like it in the US, so it is a bit difficult to compare for easier understanding. The souqs in Marrakech are long, windy, and jammed full with anything and everything. There was a leather souq, a fruit and nut souq, a jewelery souq, a clothing souq, a slipper souq, a carpet souq, a fabric souq, an antique souq, a ceramic souq, etc… They were very entertaining to walk through, but I got tired of everyone asking as you walked by to, “Come, have a look… just look. We have good price. Student price.” Being white in Morocco is a bit difficult because people automatically think you are rich. Even if you are a student or a backpacker who only has 30 Euros for next month’s food, you are thought of as rich. This can be a challenge, because when you do find something you want, you know you are going to get ripped off. Everything in Morocco is bought via bartering. It is the Moroccan way. I became better at it by the end of our trip, but I really appreciated seeing the fixed prices at the grocery store, Monoprix, in France on my return.

We decided to move on to the next town in Morocco, and after some tearful goodbyes Andy and I went to Essaouira, a town on the west coast. We purchased a bus ticket with Supratours. The bus was full of tourists, and was very clean. We arrived in Essaouira and when we got off of the bus we pushed our way through locals with carts offering to push our luggage to our hotel for money. Essaouira is a walled city, and no cars are allowed inside of the walls. Probably because there is no room for them on the narrow roads. Having no vehicles zoom past us while walking added charm to the city. We found a hotel, Hotel Majestic, and dropped our things off before heading out to explore. We walked to the water and saw the sunset over the fishing boats. Dinner was at a stall where fresh caught fish were displayed and after you choose which fish looks good to you, they are weighed and then grilled. Served with some bread and lemon, it was a delicious meal. As we were walking back to our hotel we got sucked into a store, well, really someone asked to see Andy’s sunglasses and after Andy let him look at them he took them into his shop forcing us to go inside. We drank mint tea and spoke for a while in French and English. Then they tried to sell us Berber jewelery, which was quite beautiful, but they started bartering so high that I politely said thank you for the tea and I would like to leave now. I’m glad we left because later on our trip we found the same jewelery for a fraction of the cost.

The following morning, around 6am I got sick with diarrhea. I’m not ashamed to say it, because I think it is a pretty common occurrence for tourists who are not accustomed to the food in Morocco. I’m not sure why it happened, I ate so many different things it is hard to point to one specific food. I have a feeling it might have been because I tried eating a sea urchin, which was not cooked, and later I realized it is a bottom feeder (this fish sucks up crap from the bottom of the ocean and the water was probably polluted). We went to the ocean wall and I hung out there for a few hours after I was sure I couldn’t possibly expel anything more from my body. We had tickets for a bus to Taroudannt early that afternoon, so I took some pink bismuth and hoped for the best. This bus, unlike the bus from Supratours, was dirtier. I found the back seat, dirt and all, quite comfortable and spread myself out to keep my stomach happy.

In Taroudannt we stayed at a hotel for $7 a night. It worked out fine, but when we decided to stay at a nice Riad, Rida Myriam, the next night we were both much happier. There was heat and warm water there, which was a nice change from the hotels with no hot water. I think I was going on day 3 or 4 without a shower when we checked in. (On a side note, I usually washed my hair in the morning with ice cold water to maintain some cleanliness). Taroudannt is known for their silver, so we went in search of a silver ring and gifts for people back home. There were not as many tourists in Taroudannt, which worked out wonderfully for Andy and I because when we purchased things it was easier to bargain with them. I felt like they didn’t start out with an ungodly price like they would have in Marrakech. Andy and I picked out a ring and bracelet, and Andy found some nice looking wood items in a shop. We drank mint tea with the wood shop worker, Mohammed, before starting to barter. That evening we ate dinner at our Riad. I think it was the best Moroccan dinner I had during my stay there. We started with a nice lentil/tomato based soup, followed by filled eggplant and zucchini, with a chicken tajine for the main dish and then sliced oranges with cinnamon for dessert.

The next morning we walked through the medina, I met a really cute little boy who let me take pictures of him without asking me for money afterwards, and then we walked to the taxi/bus station to move to the next town. Here we couldn’t find a collective taxi, one that fits 5 passengers and the driver, so we had to hire a grand taxi (collective taxi) to take us to Ourzazate ourselves. Usually you take the price of one person in a collective taxi and multiply it by 5 to hire out the whole thing. This taxi driver was very friendly and invited us to his house for lunch, as it was on the way. We accepted and met a Peace Corps volunteer, named Meredith, who is staying with him and his family for two months. They served us a really good pasta dish and tajine with little meatballs. The family has a farm, so the meal was accompanied by fresh squeezed orange juice and oranges for dessert. Meredith told us many things that we didn’t know about the culture. For example, the family has three girls and one boy. The little boy is 4 years old and he can have whatever he wants. If he wants a chocolate bar for breakfast, one of the girls is given money and asked to go to the store to fetch him one. Men have a lot of power in their society and I have the feeling this family kept trying to have a baby boy, because without one things wouldn’t be the same. Meredith told us how to eat properly, which is difficult because it means eating with only the right hand, not using silverware (use bread instead to pick up little morsels of food), and not rubbing your fingers in the napkin they give you (the napkin is just for catching crumbs rub fingers in the bread). Also, one shouldn’t lick their fingers until the end of the meal. We also learned holding hands in public is looked on as shameful, and Moroccan women never sit at the cafés, they are reserved for men only. The Moroccan women don’t go out after dark, and always eat at home.
We continued on our way, catching another taxi from Ourzazate to Tinerhir, where we were dropped off in the middle of the Todra Gorge. I was told on the telephone while speaking to someone at the hotel earlier in the day that while they don’t have hot water, they do have room heaters. We were very happy to see a glowing space heater in our room when we arrived. When we woke up in the morning, the electricity wasn’t working and we could see our breath when we exhaled. Turns out they use a generator and turn it on only when a tour bus comes by, or when they promise that they have heaters in the rooms (only for a few hours though…).
We ventured out into the Todra Gorge and started hiking. Two English speaking girls were coming from the other direction so we said “hello” to start a friendly conversation. It turns out that one of the girls goes to UW and we have a mutual good friend in common. It was an experience that reminds you that it really is a small world. They met up with us a few hours later to give us a lift into Tinerhir (the Todra Gorge is about 10 km outside of town). We then took a taxi to Erfoud to purchase a bus ticket to Fès for later in the week. The same taxi driver then drove us an hour and a half more to Merzouga, where we stayed at a hotel called “Chez Julia.” Around this time we learned that there was going to be a religious holiday a few days later, where they sacrifice sheep and then eat them. This put a kink in our travel plans, because the bus tickets I just purchased were useless because the bus company was going to be closed. There is a pretty good story here, but it is a bit confusing to describe. Basically the person who runs the bus company ticket office where I purchased the tickets, remembered after he sold me the tickets that they were going to be closed, so he called his brother in Merzouga to come find us and refund us our money. It was a great example of how important family and friends are to Moroccans.

The next day we took a camel trek into the Erg Chebbi, the area in the desert with the largest sand dunes. We only rode 7 km on the camels, but my legs were pretty sore from straddling the immense animal. We hiked up a sand dune to watch the sunset and then ate a chicken tajine dinner with our guide. He only spoke French (and Arabic, and Spanish) so I did some translating throughout the meal so Andy could understand him and he could be understood by Andy. Fun fact: There is such a thing as camel insurance, for those who run camel tours. We did a short night hike up the sand dunes and then went to bed. We didn’t have sleeping bags, but the camel wool blankets that they provided us kept us pretty warm. The next morning we hiked up the dunes again, ate breakfast and then rode the camels back into Merzouga.

We caught a cab from Merzouga to Rassini, we shared a collective taxi with the same brother that came to refund us our money. He helped us get a taxi from Rassini to Er-Rachidia, almost getting into a fight with a faux guide (someone who tries to help you while making a profit). In Er-Rachidia we caught a private bus going to Azrou (a city one hour away from Fès). In the bottom of the bus, along with a nap sack that we checked were three sheep and one chicken. I found this really humerus, and when stopped you could sometimes hear the sheep bawwing. They must have known that the sheep killing religious holiday, Eid al-Adha, was coming up and were making noise because of it. The bus encountered a snowstorm, with about 5 inches of snow. I think that Morocco doesn’t get snow that often, so people don’t know how to drive in it. Also because the roads were so small, the bus wouldn’t have been able to make it very far. So, our bus, along with a line of vehicles in front and behind us stopped for a few hours waiting for the sun to come out and clear up the snow. Andy spread out on two seats, as did I and we did our best to get some quality sleep. We woke up wondering which city we were in. It was Azrou, and we hurried to get off of the bus. As soon as we got off of the bus we found out there was another bus going to Fès, so we hopped on it before it left. I hurried so much getting off of the first bus that I forgot my wallet. I think it fell out of my pocket while I was sleeping and slid under the seat. Luckily Andy had a copy of my passport and credit and debit cards so I was able to call a number and have them cancelled.
I’m glad I emptied out my wallet before heading to Morocco, but I still lost a cool picture of Andy taken from a 100 year old camera in Cuba, and some cash.

We found a nice Riad, Riad Louna in Fès and took a shower before walking the streets of Fès. We walked in a cemetery and then sat down for lunch at a café. We sat next to a friendly Australian couple named Claire and Brad and we befriended them and spent the next two days together exploring Fès. Many things were closed because of the religious holiday, so we did a walking tour of the city, stepping over pools of blood in the streets, covering our mouths while passing the impromptu barbecues made out of old bed mattresses cooking sheep head, and I tried to avoid watching people squeeze the inside of the intestines out into buckets. They keep the intestines to use as sausage wrapping. They also eat the brain and (I think) the eyes. There were countless sheep skins laying around, sometimes inside out, sometimes right side out. There were also burned horns every so often in rubbish piles. I found it kind of disturbing, but then again, I am not Muslim.

The following day we went to the famous tanneries, covering our noses with fresh mint leaves made the stench bearable. They use pigeon dung, along with a bunch of other things, natural and toxic to dye leather hides. Then we went on a shopping frenzy. This being the last city of our trip, we loaded up our bags with various items such as a carpet, tea pot, tea glasses, coffee beans, scarfs, and even nice ceramic/porcelain bowls and plates. We ate dinner at the restaurant in our Riad and were joined by a gentleman named Rene, who used to work for the UN. He was an interesting fellow and had quite a few stories to tell.

The next day was our last day in Morocco. We woke up and took a petit taxi to the train station, then took a train to Tangier, then a boat to Spain, then a bus to Algerciras, then a series of trains to Paris. We managed to catch an earlier train from Irun to Paris than expected and we got back at midnight Saturday the 14th of January. It was interesting to note that as we left Morocco, everything looked so clean. The train station in Tangier, with it’s dinky restaurant looked spotless. Before I remember thinking it looked like the equivalent of a Denny’s with a dirty inside. Now, after experiencing a bit more of Morocco with the dusty streets and eating street food (vendors selling sandwiches and the like in the streets) this place looked classy. We also had a few hours in Spain where we ate at a cafeteria, not a real cafeteria it was more of a small place that served tapas and beer, but man, the tapas and beer tasted really good. I also remember thinking that they probably use soap to wash the dishes there.

Overall I would give Morocco 3 out of 5 stars. For a developing country it felt safe. After learning more about the culture we realized that there really wasn't much theft. People would leave their produce out in the vegetable souq, covering it with a tarp and some rocks. It is a great way to see Africa, and I would go back again.

Stockholm, Sweden

2005-11-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

photos are here

Maggie, Vivian and I went to Stockholm, Sweden for four days. Our journey started on Thursday, October 20 th at 7am. One tram, one train, navigating the Paris metro, one bus shuttle, a two hour delayed flight, one more bus shuttle, and then the Tunnelbahn (subway) in Stockholm later we arrived at our boat hostel in Stockholm. It was an all day affair to get there, and we learned why we got our plane tickets via RyanAir so cheap.

The flight was entertaining because it was so different from any other flight I have taken. It was two hours delayed, and their slogan on a sign in the Paris Beauvais airport is, "RyanAir. The on-time airline." We didn't have a seat number, it was "free seating" so we stood in line and then ran out onto the runway to get a good seat. During the flight they sell snacks (Viv bought a small can of Pringles for 2 Euros to ease some of the hunger pain), and lotto tickets to win a mini-cooper. When we landed in Sweden, the plane was going pretty fast and we weren't sure what was going to happen.

When we finally walked into our boat hostel, it was around 22h30 and we were hungry! We found our cabin with a bunk bed and pull out couch, unloaded our stuff and walked to Soddermalm in search of food. The Thai restaurant that was supposed to be open until 1am closed at 11pm, so we kept walking. We found "Mest" at 11:50pm, and the doorman asked the cooks if they would stay open to make something for us. They agreed, and shortly after we were eating delicious Swedish food. I had some seafood pasta and an apple juice (apfelsoft is the name I think).

Friday we awoke to clouds but no rain. We ate breakfast at the hostel, and then walked to Gamla Stan, the old city. The buildings there were fabulous. The color scheme was almost always yellow, pink, red, and orange. We saw the changing of the guard in front of the palace, and stopped inside many of the shops. Maggie was in search of a gold necklace for her sister, who had visited Stockholm the summer before. We found the store, and the necklace and I got to witness how someone examines a piece of gold jewelry before buying it. I'm not much for jewelry (except for the necklace I've been wearing the last two years from Andy) so I was happy to learn how one goes about buying it. It is something I wouldn't have learned on my own. We went to another Island of Stockholm and saw the Moderna Muskeet, the modern art museum. It was huge! I saw a photo exhibition of Diane Arbus, Lisette Model, and Christer Strömholm. It was put together very well. Dinner was at a Swedish Pizza place. We didn't want to pay €1.50 to check our coats (which is required at most restaurants) so we found a pizzeria that was mainly for take away but had a nice little place inside to sit and eat.
€6 later we were super full and ready to go back to our hostel to drop off our packages from the day. We walked to Soddermalm, while Vivian and I played a counting game. I counted the number of people that wore tight jeans with boots, and Vivian counted the number of blond haired girls. After 15 min, she was around 40, I was around 30. We found MONDO a Swedish nightclub. The band that played was so-so, they sang in English, which made it easy to understand, but the first song that we heard was about LSD and not very well written.

Saturday we woke up and the first thing I heard was Maggie saying, "Wayne's!" I thought she said, "Rains!" because that was what it was doing outside, but no, she was referring to Wayne's coffee shop that we passed the day before. We got ready with our rain coats and headed over for what Maggie says was the best cup of coffee she's had since she's been studying abroad. I went back to the hostel to meet up with some Swedish unicyclists to tour the city via one wheel. Hakko, Felix, Hycken, Andreas and I rode to Gamla Stan, witnessed the changing of the guard, which Andreas explained to us because he had been a guard for his military service a few years before. He had never actually entered the Palace even though he spent one summer outside marching around it. We seized the opportunity to change that, entered the palace and Andreas took out his juggling balls and started juggling. We rode to the center of Stockholm (really industrial and 70ish), to the town hall where we did some artistic riding, and finally to a juggling practice to avoid some of the rain. Hycken took some photos of our ride and posted them on his site

Many many thanks to Hakko for organizing the ride, Peter from unicycle.se for letting me borrow a trials uni, and the other Swedish unicyclists for showing up despite the rainy weather.

The evening we spent walking around and eating Indian food. Sunday morning we woke up early to start our voyage back to France. It rained every day we were there so it was nice that the weather in Paris was wonderful. I actually took out my sunglasses while we walked around. We ate lunch/dinner, saw the Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, and then headed to the Montparnass train station to go back to Nantes.

A funny quote worth mentioning:
« Il y a un bistro chaque 10 mètres à Paris! » (There is a bistro every 10 meters in Paris!)
--Parisian Police officer, responding to our inquiry if he knew where the Starbucks next to the Montparnass Train station was. He didn’t know what Starbucks was, so we explained it was an American bistro where one can purchase coffee. No one in Paris knows Starbucks. Very different from the US.

Highlights of the last month

2005-10-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

pictures are here

*Matt and Megan's Wedding (including the trip there and back)
-Seeing the most important people in my life (Andy, my parents, my brother, my family and friends)
-Delivering «Lavender» in Uptown with Matt the day before his wedding (He claims it is a tax write off for his company)
-Going to REI. I really miss that store
-Matt and Megan's wedding ceremony-- short but sweet
-Dancing with my 86 year old grandmother
-The multiple dance trains that went in and around the barn that was rented for the evening
-Seeing my mom and dad so proud of Matt
-Seeing Rx, Andy's dog
-Seeing take away coffee cups at Dunn Bros
-Eating Noodles and Company (my favorite restaurant in Minneapolis)
-Riding the Muni course at Andy's farm
-Using my own computer
-Seeing my American unicycle friends at Jenny Lind—the same gym I practiced in for hours during high school
-Celebrating my 21st birthday with them after unicycle practice at Applebees.
-Getting homemade chocolate chip pudding cookies and granola from my mom to bring back to France.

*Angers
-Seeing a 14th century 100 meter long tapestry that I learned about in my high school French class
-Visiting la jardin des plants
-Visiting la maison d'Adam

*Chez Hubert et Roselyne
-Having a fantastic French dinner at Hubert and Roselyne's apartment. We started talking at 19h00 and finished eating and talking at 00h30 (only because that was when the last tram ran).

*Normandy
-Visiting a D Day beach
-Visiting the American cemetery
-Visiting the war museum in Caen

*Uni Nantes
-Riding Muni with Nantes unicyclists the last two Sundays in a row. 1st at a killer cross country mountain bike course and 2nd along l'Erdre and some hilly paths near Nantes.
-ACUN (Associan du Cirque de la Université de Nantes) every Thursday from 15h-17h30.
Always a lot of fun.

*Random French sightings
-Headbands are back in fashion, a lot of guys with long hair will wear a headband to keep it out of their face.

Noticable differences in France

2005-09-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

I have posted many pictures of my adventures here in France on my smugmug site. Check it out for visual stimulation.

Noticable differences in France:
-There is a lunch hour for everyone
-Hardly anyone eats in the streets or in class
-Grocery stores close between 7:30-8:30pm and are closed Sundays (no such thing as a 24 hour super market here)
-No one signs the back of a credit card/debit card, and no one asks for photo ID when checking out
-You purchase plastic bags when checking out at the grocery store, or bring your own
-There are aisles of cheese and wine in grocery stores
-One large grocery store, Leclerc, has 15 different kinds of baguettes to choose from
-I usually go to the bakery once daily. Today I went twice
-French people give “bisous” or kisses on the cheek when they greet someone
-French guys approach girls. In the US, girls approach guys more often (according to a French man I met in Nice based off of his experience in the Bronx in NY)

Dinner:
-Bread with dinner is always placed on the table, not on your plate
-Cheese follows the main dish with wine and bread
-Fruit and/or yogurt follow the cheese
-When sitting at the dinner table, always keep your hands on the table or in plain sight to everyone at the table
-Dinner starts around 7 or 8, not 5:30 or 6

-Everything is in 24h, military time. Always.
-Always say “Bonjour” when entering a shop/restaurant
-Always say “Au revoir” when leaving
-When starting a conversation, each person must acknowledge the other with “Bonjour” or “Bonjour Monseiur/Madame” then the conversation can continue. Even if it is an emergency, the polite, French way is this introduction. Then you can explain that you were run over by the tram and lost one of your legs.
-There is public transportation that works well (trains, buses, trams)
-To do laundry, we sign up a day or two in advance for a time slot. You must arrive 5 min early to pay 2 Euros and get some laundry detergent
-Our sheets are exchanged once montly for a new set
-There is a point in the day when “Bonjour” changes to “Bonsoir” When to change is still mysterious to me, so I wait until I hear someone else say “Bonsoir” first
-If a French person says they will do something later, or call you later, they will
-The University of Nantes does not have as many computers as UW. There is one comp. lab with 18 Mac computers and in the library each student can sign up for two one hour session per week to do research. Also two ½ hour sessions each week to check e-mail. You must not check e-mail on the research computers, because the librarians will say something.
-Say “Bonjour” and “Au revoir” to the people at the front desk of our dorm ALWAYS
-Smokers. Lots of them. Today we had a 10 min. break during my 2 hour grammar class so our professor could have a smoke…
-Dog poop. Lots of it on the sidewalks
-Desserts and sweets are not as sweet as in the US
-Home made gelato. Amazing fantastic stuff
-In general a French home has only a clothes washing machine and no dryer. Clothes are hung outside or on a drying rack to dry
-At an advance-premier showing of a French film often the director and a few actors/actresses will come and have a Question and Answer session after the film. I saw “Les Ames Grises” and met Jean-Pierre Marielle. There is a photo of us on my smugmug site.
-Grapes always have seeds
-Gas is 4 times as expensive as gas in America

Photos!

2005-09-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

Finally I have found a nice internet cafe to upload photos. The man working behind the counter even let me download Picasa for ease of viewing. :)

I posted an album with pics from after the Alps Unicycle Tour under the "Unicycle" section of my smugmug page and the rest of the photos are under the "France" category.

I got to meet Loic, and five other Nantes unicyclists yesterday. They are very friendly and I think they will be great people to learn French from. I was showing Helene how to do hop on wheel with the best French that I knew and I found it amusing. I didn't know all of the words necessary for telling someone how to do it, but after showing her and explaining with gestures it was no problem. She got 12 hops by the end of the night. ;)

Tomorrow the unicyclists are going to meet again for a "balade" or a ride through Nantes.

Check out the photos here: www.unirene.smugmug.com

Joyeux Anniversaire à moi !

2005-09-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

I arrived at Anne-Sophie's place in Paris late on the 1st of September, with just enough time to celebrate her birthday. She lives about 10 feet from the Champs-Elysee and after dropping my suticases off in her apartment and making an omlet we walked outside to see the top of the Eiffel Tower lit up. It lights up every hour, and we caught the midnight showing. Then we found a few birthday tarts and went back to her apartment to prepare for the following evening's picnic.

September 2nd included sleeping in, a trip to the Arc de Triumph, moving my suitcases to the hotel where the University of Washington students met, and a picninc in the 10th arrondisment of Paris along a canal. There were around 20 people that came, with about 6 unicycles . After everyone had finished eating, we did some unicycling in the street and along the cobblestone path (very hard to do there). I borrowed someone's shoes and unicycle and tried to demonstrate some skills to the best of my ability with borrowed shoes and uni. At midnight they sang Joyeux Anniversaire (happy birthday) with a lit candle and poured me a shot of tequila, saying (in englihs), " you can drink ! " . In France the drinking age is 16, and most of the night we spoke completely in French, so I found this comment amusing.

The 3rd , my birthday, we spent a mjority of the day moving from Paris to Nantes. We arrived at the Gare (train station) at 5:25pm, and checked into our hostel. We ate at a creperie for dinner and after some of the people in our group went out to La Maison (a bar with each room ressembling a different room of the house) to celebrate mon anniversaire (my bday). There was a carnaval going on in downtown, and two of my friends and I went up and around in it.

Nantes has a beautiful downtown with a large cathedral, an art museum, many cute shops, restaurants, etc. I even spotted a boulangerie (bakery) that makes its own gelato. From what I have seen of the university thus far I think it is smaller than the University of Washington. There is a huge difference in the number of computers in computer labs here. I am in the only one and it has 18 macs, some of which don't work. A few of the people in the UW program brought their computers along, and I am hoping to use them to look at the photos I've taken and then go to an internet cafe to upload them onto this blog or my smugmug site.

Sunday the 4th we spent some time wandering around downtown and then a few of us went to a garden for a huge garden show. The evening went fast, a handful of us studied for the following morning's placement test. I spent a few hours reading over some french notes and writing paragraphs in French which helped calm my nerves and get me mentally prepared.

Monday the 5th we woke up at 6 :30am to get our bags to the university and get to the examination room for a 9am exam. The first part of it was written, so we had to answer three questions in 45 minutes to the best of our ability. The oral section we took today, Tuesday the 6th . The afternoon involved moving into our dorms, and going to LeClerc – a kind of upscale Walmart to get things for our room. I really like my dorm room. It is a single with a large mini-refridgerator, a small full bathroom (shower, toilet, and sink), a desk, a bed, and storage space. I already have two different kinds of cheeses inside of it and one bottle of rouge wine from the area.

Tusday the 6th began with our saying goodbye to Helene, our program coordinator, who is leaving for the US early tomorrow morning. We then had our oral examinations (a 10 mintue one-on-one conversation with a woman). Mine went pretty well, I even had the chance to menton the Alps Unicycle Tour. I also had a t-shirt in my bag so I pulled it out and showed her which countries we rode through. This afternoon we discovered the computer lab and went downtown to get our montly tram pass and shop at the Fnac. A short campus tour followed. I was lucky enough to see the unicycles in the closet at the Halle de Sports that the unicycle club here uses while in session. Things will start picking up in the next few weeks and I am looking forward to unicycling with other unicyclists again.

Aix-en-Provence et Nice

2005-09-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Aix-en-Provence

After everyone from the Alps Unicycle Tour had departed, I took a train from Geneva to Lyon, where I had a five-hour layover before catching a second train to Aix-en-Provence. I walked into downtown and visited a beautiful church there. As I was sitting close to the front, looking at my tourist map of Lyon I noticed the people in the pews stand up. A priest was walking down the aisle and was about to start mass. So, I spent a demi-heure (half-hour) watching a Catholic mass in French. It was the first time I had attended mass in over two years, and I remembered enough about how a mass worked to understand most of what he said. I didn't know the direct translation for the prayer "Our Father," but I understood enough of what he was saying to figure it out for next time.

The train from Lyon to Aix-en-Provence was full, and I had a bit of trouble putting my Coker in the luggage wrack. I ended up just laying it against the full luggage wrack and it seemed to stay there without any problem during the train ride. I met Anne-Sophie about 6 minutes after my train arrived and her mother and aunt picked us up from the station. The next three and a half days I spoke almost completely in French. It was amazing. I was introduced to my first French dinner that evening, which started at 10:30pm and lasted until 12:30am (after having an infusion—kind of like tea—and looking at some old pictures). We had four courses, first a salad, then an omelette, then cheeses and bread with yoghurt, finally fruit (including fresh figs from their fig tree out back).

The next days included the following:

--A visit to Aix-en-Provence with Anne-Sophie and her mother, Edith. They are amazing tour guides
--Playing with Capucine and Blanche, Anne-Sophie's nieces
--Swimming in their pool
--A picnic sur la bord de la mer (by the sea) in a small town called Cassis, followed by a walk around the port and some time spent listening to a jazz band play
--Driving from Puicard to Toulouse along the sea side for an enjoyable view and to speck out the roads for the next Unicycle Tour
--Many questions in French from me that started with, "Comment dit en Francais…" (How do you say in French…..insert an English word here).

Nice, very nice

I met three of my friends from UW in Nice last Friday night. We rented an apartment here for six nights and have enjoyed thoroughly vacationing. Some of the things we have done:
--We figured out that between all four of us, we have visited 16 countries this summer
--Copious amounts of time tanning on the beach
--Rented a sea kayak
--Jumped on a trampoline at midnight next to the Mediterranean Sea
--Went dancing to a disco to celebrate Corrine's birthday and stayed out until 5am
--Took a day trip into Monaco (saw the exotic gardens, a huge casino, an aquarium, the beach and a ton of really expensive cars)
--Read on the beach
--Ate tons of gelato
--Created beautiful dinners that lasted for hours on end

Chamonix, France

2005-08-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

Today is a day off in Chamonix, France. We rode into France yesterday afternoon from Italy. As I was riding through Italy I felt that there was a lot of machoism. I stopped to use the restroom at a small gas station with a pit bull in front of it. The man nodded me in the right direction and I used a pretty smelly bathroom. Italy is beautiful, but I think the next time I visit I want to go to the southern part.
Anne-Sophie (President of the French unicycle Federation) came in late last night and is spending today with us and will leave tomorrow. I am looking forward to visiting with her in the south of France (Aix-en-Provence) next week. Her parents have a house there. I am feeling more reassured that my French works fine and I will be able to meet French unicyclists.

Enjoying Austria

2005-08-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

It is the end of day 2 of the tour and I am sitting in an Internet
Cafe in Lech, Austria. The scenery, food, and company have been
amazing. Tomorrow we will ride about 80 km into Switzerland. The
following day is a day off, which I am looking forward to because I
will be able to sleep in and enjoy everyone's company while not
unicycling. I am feeling pretty strong, but I have a small issue with
saddle soreness.

Today was only 26 km (15 miles) and we arrived at our final
destination at 12:30pm. After showering we took a gondola up to the
top of a nearby mountain to eat lunch in the clouds. The hotel we are
staying at has a sauna room in the basement which includes the
standard sauna, a misty sauna with herb scented water, two cool
showers (sprinkling you like rain from above, and spraying you from
the side), an ice room (with ice in and a bucket of water hanging from
the ceiling which you can pull down on to get a cold burst of
goodness), a tanning bed, a relaxation room, and a massage room
(unfortunately not working today).

We have not had any luck finding a way to connect our laptop with the
Internet to post daily updates. Hopefully tomorrow we will find
something and the people following the tour on the website will be
able to see some pictures of this fantastic place.

Munich, Germany

2005-07-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

Things I learned while in Munich

how to say, 'excuse me', 'do you speak English', 'thank you', 'i love
you' and 'good bye' It is easy to get around via the u bons (subway
stations), unicycle, and foot.

This morning Andy and I woke up around 6 am (gotta love jet lag), put
our unicycles together, ate breakfast (rolls with jam, cheese, and
nutella and muesli) and set off for a unicycle ride in Munich. We went
along one of the Rivers and found a place to go swimming. The water
was really clear and the weather was perfect for swimming. It was also
my first experience at a partially nude beach. There were some people
with swimsuits, and others that did not want any tan lines.

This afternoon we met up with Dana, Laura, Kim, and Joe and walked
from our hostel to Marionplatz (the center of Munich). Dana, Andy, and
I went to Dachau Concentration Camp. There were a lot of feelings
associated with being there. The creepiest part for me was walking
through the old gas chamber. They actually never put it to use, but
right after the gas chamber room was a holding room for dead bodies,
the next room contained four machines to cremate the bodies. I guess
some prisoners were hung in front of these machines and then cremated.

We had dinner and are fighting off falling asleep early because of jet
lag. I have a ton of pictures and when I get a chance I will post them
on my blog, or my new website www.unirene.smugmug.com

45 km ride in Hutch

2005-07-21T19:49:00.000-07:00

I went for a 45 km ride tonight in and around Hutchinson. I rode in with Andy who stopped in Hutchinson for about an hour and a half and continued on my way. I ran into a crop duster, which I thought was going to kill me because of the way it would fly right over the road and come right at me on the road (AWESOME adrenalin rush), Andy's mom, Joan, as she was biking into town, and then Andy. It was a great ride because of the things I kept unicycling across.

2005-07-21T19:48:00.001-07:00

A crop duster that flew right next to me.

2005-07-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Self-portrait at the cemetery on Vale.

2005-07-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

I ran into Joan on Underwood Ave. going into Hutchinson

2005-07-21T19:46:00.001-07:00

A bridge Andy and I stopped on

2005-07-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

The cemetery on Vale St.

Irene's Going Away Party

2005-07-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

I have some amazing friends. Kate and Rachel threw me a going away party last night. There are a few pictures from the night below. Daniel made a CD with a 45-minute song that he mixed and it provided excellent dancing music. The whole ordeal lasted about 9 hours, and I can honestly say it was one of the best farewell parties I've ever attended.

2005-07-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

Irene and Maggie

2005-07-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

Seth, Rachel, Daniel and Matt

One mile climbed in elevation

2005-07-18T00:45:00.001-07:00

This weekend John Childs, Jeff Sloan and I climbed Hurricane Ridge in Port Angeles. We left yesterday and stayed in Port Townsend with John’s Parents. It is a good thing that John didn’t tell the Seattle Area Riders how nice and hospitable his parents are, or everyone would have wanted to come along and stay over. Ruby, Jeff’s girlfriend drove to Port Townsend yesterday to “pretend to be tourists” with us in downtown Port Townsend. We walked along some of the piers and got Ice Cream and sat at a pub to drink lemonade and beer. We ate a wonderful dinner at John’s parents place. His mom is a vegetarian, and they shop at a local food coop, so the food was well suited for my vegetarian needs and organic! We crashed around 10pm, and woke up this morning around 5:30am to pack and enjoy an awesome breakfast that John’s dad made for us.

We drove to Port Angeles and parked as close as we could to the straight of Juan de Fuca, hoping to find a spot to dip our tires in before gaining a mile in elevation from unicycling up Hurricane Ridge. We couldn’t find a good spot, without jumping a fence and falling down a short cliff into the water, so we started from about 15 meters above the waterline. The visitor’s center at the bottom of the Ridge didn’t open until 9am, but we stopped to use the restroom. Jeff fixed a leak in his air seat with a patch kit, and luckily it stayed inflated for the whole ride. The first 10 km of the 30 km climb to the top is an average of 7% grade, the middle section 5% and the final section 6%. I am glad that the steepest part of the ride was at the beginning, but I was a bit concerned because it was challenging to keep a decent pace without my heart rate going through the roof. We took our first long break after 10 km, and already we had gained 500 meters in elevation. In the past I have done many short hills to gain as much elevation as possible. This ride was great because you just kept going up, continuously gaining elevation. The ride became more challenging at the 1200-meter mark, and Jeff felt a bit of the elevation and the physical exertion required climbing 1200 meters in one day. Up to today, my largest gain in elevation in one day was 1250 meters, so I was pretty damn impressed that Jeff was doing so well going up the ridge to this point. He caught a ride the rest of the way to the top and we met him there. We arrived at the top of the Ridge with 1550 meters climbed in about 3 hours of riding time. The view at the top of the ridge was incredible. It was a beautiful day, so you could see all of the surrounding mountains. We hung out at the top for about 2 hours and then started our descent.

Leaving the top visitor’s center there was a sign that read, “Steep grade next 18 miles, Use lower gears” which I found amusing. We flew down the ridge, making it to the bottom in 2 hours. I really enjoyed the views on the way down, and the fact that my hear rate had gone from averaging 160-170 to 102-119 beats per minute. I used my break, but even so my knees started to hurt after 13 miles. I don’t think I used it enough as I should have. When John and I reached the lower visitors center, we had about 80 meters to climb in order to reach 1620 meters gained (a vertical mile) so we set off back up the ridge until we had enough to say that we joined the mile high club (the unicycling upward version, of course). Going up was easier for us than going back down. I think going downhill takes a lot of concentration and as John put it, “Unicycles are meant for pushing forward, not restraining,” and restraining is exactly what we did for 18 miles down the ridge.

When we got back to John’s car, we sat in the nice soft grass right next to it. I was a bit concerned because John didn’t seem to be moving very fast and I thought he might have been bonking. I asked him if he was OK and he replied, “I’m just enjoying this really soft grass. I wish I could grow grass on my unicycle, then it would be so much more comfortable.” I started laughing knowing exactly how nice it would have been to have the comfort of cushy, thick grass to sit on. We stopped in downtown Port Angeles to grab dinner at an Indian restaurant. Then we started our drive back home. There was about a 3-hour ferry wait for both the Edmonds-Kingston and Seattle-Bainbridge ferries so we drove down to Tacoma and back up to Seattle.

Stats:
Distance: 65.42 km
Average: 13.2 km/h
Meters climbed: 1607 m
Average grade: 5%

Pictures are here

2005-07-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Ridge

2005-07-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

A photo collage of my weekend

1250 meters climbed in one day!

2005-07-10T22:55:00.000-07:00

Today I checked off the “climb 1250 meters in one day” goal on the July training sheet for the AUT. I was planning on going to Bainbridge Island, but I decided to stay closer to home. I spoke to John Stone on the phone yesterday as he was nearing 1000 meters climbed and he said he was going to try for 1250 today. I am so impressed that he does the same hill over and over in order to gain elevation. This morning I didn’t feel so great, so I decided to train the John Stone way and I rode over to the Shilshole Bay area in Ballard. I went up the switch back hill near Golden Gardens Beach 9 times, and the hills surrounding the area 3 or 4.

Highlights:
· I remembered to use sunscreen, partly because some skin on my face is starting to peel (not attractive)
· I remembered my rain jacket
· I made the 1250 meters climbed in one day goal!
· I borrowed a Torker seat from Steve and I noticed a decrease in the amount of saddle soreness today while riding
· I pushed myself mentally and physically even though I had doubts that I could do the ride. Today reminded me of the morning after sleeping under reindeer skin near the Svartisen Glacier, during the Norwegian Unicycle Tour. That morning I awoke to face a full day of riding without getting quality sleep, and I had diarrhea. I remember that was a really tough day to get through. I think my mental attitude has evolved since then and today I pushed myself even though I could have gone back to UW and relaxed all day.

Lowlights:
· It rained on and off all day
· My stomach did not feel healthy this morning at all. When I reached 500 meters climbed, I seriously debated whether or not to go on.
· My knees are really sore. So sore after 500 meters that I would unicycle up the switchback hill and then take the stairs down. At the end of the ride I had to walk up the hill from the Burke-Gilman trail to my dorm. I think this has to do with either: (a) my break not being set correctly, therefore not used (b) a muscle imbalance or (c) the fact that I climbed and descended 1250 meters today
· I bought a bunch of food from PCC because I thought I was going to Bainbridge Island. Then I decided to stay close to home and I had to carry the food on my back and in my Coker pack. The lowlight part of this was that it weighed me down considerably.

Interesting comment: Two metro sexual men drove by me on my way up the switchbacks and yelled out the window, “We love you!” I took it as a compliment, as sweat was dripping down my face with salt circles forming around my eyes.

Number of business cards given out: 3
Number of encouraging remarks: 15+
Number of strange glances because I was repeating the same hill over and over: at least 7.
Best songs from my Ipod: Ani DiFranco, African dance mix, Faithless (always gets me through during tough times), and the story from This American Life called “The Fix is In.”

2005-07-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

This is part of the switchback hill that I climbed 9 times

2005-07-10T22:53:00.001-07:00

One part of the stairs I descended to get to the bottom of the hill

2005-07-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

I took this picture on the way down the stairs

2005-07-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

My odometer read 1250 meters climbed and I was so stoked I kissed it!

Redmond Derby Days

2005-07-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

Today I participated in the Redmond Derby Days. I caught a ride with Steve D. and participated in a short parade around Redmond, a show and the ceremonial opening of the bicycling criterion. The mayor of Redmond (a jolly woman) welcomed us to Redmond and thanked us for agreeing to do the first lap of the race. There were 5 Cokers, and 1 Big Wheel (the size of which I’m not sure…maybe it has a 42” diameter). I think the training for the AUT is paying off because I came in first. Dan, Sabin, and Mike did a trails demo near the BMX biking area. It was really well received, and the BMXers were very impressed.

2005-07-09T23:04:00.000-07:00

The BMX bikers bike's in the side mirror of Steve's truck

2005-07-09T23:03:00.004-07:00

Dan jumping over three people

2005-07-09T23:03:00.003-07:00

Mike doing the ramp

2005-07-09T23:03:00.002-07:00

Sabin doing a uni-spin

2005-07-09T23:03:00.001-07:00

Dan and the ramp

2005-07-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

Kiri

2005-07-09T23:02:00.003-07:00

Sabin jumping from the table on the left to the table on the right

2005-07-09T23:02:00.002-07:00

Sabin hopping these sandwich boards

2005-07-09T23:02:00.001-07:00

Dan doing some uni-spins

2005-07-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

Dan riding the ramp

2005-07-09T23:01:00.002-07:00

Sabin

2005-07-09T23:01:00.001-07:00

Dan, Sabin, and Mike

2005-07-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Sabin jumping off of about a 7' drop

2005-07-09T23:00:00.001-07:00

Jeff Sloan attempting the ramp

2005-07-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dan, just before he grabbed his wheel and stuck his feet out for a second

2005-07-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

BMX rider

2005-07-09T22:58:00.001-07:00

BMX rider

2005-07-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

BMX rider

2005-07-09T22:57:00.000-07:00

BMX rider

2005-07-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

BMX rider

Unicycling and the 4th of July Weekend

2005-07-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

I just posted this on the AUT rider's blog, but I thought it was so impressive that I would post it here as well. The rating system might not make sense to everyone, but it is a program that combines elevation gained and distance ridden, and if you unicycled the day before or not.

Here she is:

This past weekend was crazy Coker wise. I completed a large chunk of the training goals for July.

Friday, July 1st: D: 41.10 km, meters climbed: 109, rating: 47
Training goals completed: 10 km time trails, 25 km without any breaks, day 1/5 of 40 km in a row
Saturday, July 2nd: D: 100.36 km, meters climbed: 631, rating: 183
Training goals completed: 150 rating in 1 day, 200 rating in 2 days, day 2/5 of 40 km in a row
Sunday, July 3rd: D: 54.44 km, meters climbed: 236, rating: 104
Training goals completed: 300 rating in 3 days, day 3/5 of 40 km in a row
Monday, July 4th: D: 41.1 km, meters climbed: 255, rating: 67
Training goals completed: 400 rating in 4 days (I was at 401), day 4/5 for 40 km in a row
Tuesday, July 5th: D: 40.00 km, meters climbed: 105, rating: 50
Training goals completed: 5/5 days of 40 km in a row! (My odometer read 40.00 and I hopped off my Coker and pushed it up to my dorm. My crotch thanked me.)

Total Distance: 277 km (173 miles), meters climbed: 1081 m (3243 feet)

I can honestly say I have never been as saddle sore as I was during the last few days of riding. I lost some skin from a part of me that was meant for pleasure, not pain, and I have discovered that wearing black underwear is the best solution to not getting blood stains. Blood stains from being a hard-core unicyclist that is, not because I am female.

I am proud of myself for completing some of the harder goals, and I am looking forward to riding more. I am thinking about getting the 1250 meters in one day taken care of this coming Sunday. John Childs, a Seattle Area Rider, and I are thinking about Cokering Hurricane Ridge, it is a 17-mile uphill ride where you gain a vertical mile (about 1600 meters in elevation) and is between a 5%-7% grade. That will be a cool experience.

4th of July

2005-07-06T00:32:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the 4th, Hamed, Kate, Yost, Cathy, Rachel and I made dinner at Hamed and Yost’s place. Then Rachel and I bicycled (yes, bicycled… I took a break from unicycling to let my saddle soreness heal) over to Jake Ryder’s place to watch fireworks with a bunch of bicyclists. Rachel and I ran into Seth, one of our friend’s from freshman year who we thought had vanished. The view of the fireworks was great, and the mood of the party was pretty chill.

2005-07-06T00:31:00.000-07:00

A fire truck came rolling through the streets and tore off the front bumper of this car. His choice of parking location was pretty sketch. He was pretty upset when he got back to the car. I think he called the police and said it wasn't his fault....next time I recommended parking farther away from the corner.

2005-07-06T00:29:00.000-07:00

Our view of the GasWorks fireworks.

2005-07-06T00:28:00.000-07:00

A view of downtown Seattle with fog from the fireworks

2005-07-06T00:27:00.000-07:00

Coming down the bridge out of Magnolia I stopped to take a picture of the killer view. It was a beautiful 4th of July. By the time the ride was over, I was pretty sun-kissed.

2005-07-06T00:25:00.000-07:00

A self-portrait in Magnolia on the 4th of July.

The 3rd Annual Issaquah Ride and Feed

2005-07-04T01:55:00.000-07:00

Today was the 3rd Annual Issaquah Ride and Feed at the Blackwoods. They know how to host an excellent party. I Cokered from UW to the Wilmot Gateway Park where I met up with Bruce Dawson. We continued on to The Blackwood’s in Issaquah. My total distance was 54.44 km and 236 meters climbed. During our ride from the Wilmot Gateway Park to the bottom of Inglewood Rd. (where a big climb started) I rode Purple Phaze for almost the entire time. I was averaging between 10-13 miles per hour, and Bruce was keeping up with me on my Coker with 5-1/2 inch cranks. I was very impressed. I could tell he was breathing harder than normal, but the 13 miles per hour didn’t seem to faze him. For comparison, on Friday I did a 10 km time trial to complete one of July’s training goals for AUT and I averaged 13 miles per hour during that 10 km. I didn’t try speaking to anyone, but I don’t know if I would have been able to because I was so focused at riding that speed.
We arrived at the Blackwood’s around 12:30pm just as everyone was suiting up to go for a MUni ride. I stopped in back to snack on the wonderful assortment of food that the Blackwood’s had on their picnic table. Everyone came in back and started eating because we couldn’t start riding without John Childs there so we took the opportunity to graze. Once JC arrived we took off; it was probably around 1:30pm at this time. We rode the trails near the Blackwood’s house, stopping to play around at an area with some stunts and fallen trees. I ended up watching and photographing because I was (and am) extremely saddle sore from the past few days of riding. Jan, Marie and I headed back to the Blackwood’s to get first dibs on the hot tub. The hot tub was wonderful, about 103 F; it felt like the perfect temperature. Then the food started to come out. There was grilled Copper River salmon, pulled pork (I even tried a piece that Tom B recommended), spinach salad with strawberries, mandarin oranges, and almonds, chips and dips, bread with a nice creamy dip, corn on the cob, lemon meringue bars (when the bars were all together you could see the unicycle Marie had created with food coloring), and tiramisu (thanks to Tom J). There was so much wonderful food I probably missed something. The jugglers participated in two person, three person and four person passing. G3o brought a bunch of trials stunts that they set up in the street, and there was even a mini bike with a cone course. Oh yes, and there was even a hammock to relax in while food digested. When it came time to go for the second round of riding, a good handful of riders expressed interest. Then some time passed and the group diminished. People started leaving around 7pm.
I was lucky enough to get some leftover tiramisu and artichoke dip (homemade by Marie), which I brought over to Rachel and Kate’s place to store in their refrigerator. They both enjoyed sampling the food.
Many many many thanks to the Blackwoods for hosting such a fun event!

Tom Blackwood posted some pictures here, in the Unicyclist.com galleries.

2005-07-04T01:54:00.000-07:00

The artistic swirled unicycle in the key lime bars that Marie made.

2005-07-04T01:53:00.002-07:00

The Blackwood's front yard

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Abram

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g3o about to go down one of the logs. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see someone spray painted "Poop Log" onto the log. I don't know why, but it has been there for at least a year now.

2005-07-04T01:51:00.000-07:00

Maria and Bruce working on Mountain Unicycling over some rolling dunes

2005-07-04T01:50:00.001-07:00

Abram on the mini-bike cone trials

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four-person passing

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Hanging out in the hot tub

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Marie, finally finding some time to relax in the hammock. She made wonderful food.

2005-07-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

Miles made a really cool sign that said "Welcome to the 3rd Annual Ride 'N Feed 2005" but by the time I got a picture of it someone had erased part of it with their fingers.

2005-07-04T01:47:00.000-07:00

Jan B kicking booty while learning to hop up (or not hop, depending on who you ask) onto the board

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Sara D watching unicycle trails

2005-07-04T01:45:00.000-07:00

g3o trying to do a 180 uni spin from the ground to a crank grab. If you look closely you can see his whole family in the picture. Sorija is sporting the diaper and Jenn is leaning on the car.

2005-07-04T01:44:00.001-07:00

Jenn, pregnant and proud of it!

Rockin the Lake Washington Loop

2005-07-04T01:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 2nd I rocked the Lake Washington Loop with three of my bicycling friends. Rachel, Catherine, Dan and I circled the lake within 10 hours. Stats for Rachel and I:
Distance: 100.36 km (62.36 miles)
Meters climbed: 631 m (2070 feet)
I met Rachel at her apartment at 8:15am we left around 8:45am and tried to meet up with Catherine and Dan. They weren’t sure if they were going to do the whole loop, so Rachel and I decided to do it on our own. We stopped at a bookstore to purchase a map and with a little searching I found a good map book that showed the areas around Lake Washington in great detail. That was one of my best investments. The Lake Washington Loop signs became more obvious after we reached the southern tip of the lake but until that point we would have gotten pretty lost without a map. Rachel and I started riding and we took a break right before Kirkland. Catherine and Dan came riding up behind us (to our surprise) and we rode the rest of the route together. We stopped at a park in Kirkland and then for lunch at a café in Bellevue. I enjoyed Matzo ball soup with a Matzo ball that was the size of a newborn infant. We rode past the Boeing plant and Renton Airport. We decided our next stop would be at Seward Park. Catherine and Dan had more energy than Rachel and I so we rode in the back and when we arrived at a park we thought it must be Seward Park. We took a 15-minute break there and then when leaving realized it was actually a puny little park (which I can’t even find on the map right now), which was named after a city in Israel. So, we rode to Seward Park where Catherine and Dan were patiently waiting for us. The last 15 miles I thought were the toughest because I was getting pretty fatigued, but I started enjoying the ride when I realized where we were in relation to the I-5 Bridge. I had Cokered in that area before and I knew we weren’t too far away from UW. When Rachel and I got back the turn to her apartment my odometer read 95 km. We didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to do a metric century so we went a few miles down the Burke Gilman and then turned around.
We dropped our cycles off and walked (waddled) over to QFC to purchase some food for dinner and some sort of desert (we figured we deserved a grand desert after such a long ride). We ended up spending $35 in groceries for one dinner. We made nachos right away so that we had something to eat while preparing the main dish. I cooked shrimp for our appetizer. Rachel made cocktail sauce with Heinz chili sauce and horseradish. For the main dish we took a plate, put a lining of spinach on it, covered the spinach with cheese tortellini, covered the tortellini with a tofu/pepper/tomato scramble, covered that with marinara sauce and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. We were already full from our pre-dinner but we were champs and cleaned our plates. Then we whipped out the two containers of ice cream that we bought (2/$5 – can’t pass that up after 100km of riding) and began to eat until we couldn’t fit any more food in.
I waddled home (pushing my Coker up the hill to my dorm) and fell asleep shortly thereafter.
One of my highlights worth mentioning was passing the time with Rachel comparing our saddle soreness. One of my favorite quotes from Rachel (around mile 45) was, “I’m kind of glad my crotch is so sore right now because it is keeping my mind off of how tired I am.”
There were also a ton of bicyclists that passed us on the trail, most likely because the STP is next weekend and the Lake Washington Loop is a good training ride. Whenever someone would ask me if I was doing the STP I replied, “No, but when you see my friend Bruce yell “Bruce Bruce Bruce” (said with a fighting voice).”

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The food I brought with on the ride

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Irene and Rachel, right before Catherine and Dan caught up to us

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Restroom picture

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Group shot in Kirkland

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Rachel, still going strong

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Catherine

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Dan in the caf�

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I liked the look of this leaf. The plant was outside of the caf� where we ate lunch.

2005-07-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

Lake Washington from our tiny little park with an Israel city name

2005-07-04T01:35:00.000-07:00

This sign was on a building in a park where we took a rest room break. I thought it was pretty funny at this point in the ride (about 47 miles in)

2005-07-04T01:34:00.000-07:00

Our excellent dinner

June elevation goal completed

2005-07-04T01:32:00.000-07:00

On June 28, 2005 I rode from UW through the Arboretum to the I-90 Bridge. I took this picture looking down at the bridge. Right as I hopped off my unicycle to take a break Andy called. I thought he had wonderful timing because the last time I did this route was with him in April and we ended right at the spot I was looking at from above. I was pretty tired during this ride, mostly because I had stayed up late the night before studying for my first French 301 exam. The best part of this ride was completing my goal of 5000 meters climbed for the month of June.

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view of the I-90 Bridge

Happy Birthday Yost!

2005-07-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

Cathy, Rachel, and Kate threw a surprise 20th birthday party for Yost at Kate and Rachel’s place on Sunday June 26th.

2005-07-04T01:29:00.000-07:00

Spicher, Hamed, Yost, James, and Rachel

Bruce's Birthday Bash

2005-07-04T01:26:00.000-07:00

Bruce had a huge 40th Birthday celebration at his home in Woodinville, WA. I decided to Coker from UW to his place (about 33 km). Along the way I ran into a cherry stand. Up to this point I had been eating about a pound of cherries a day, and I decided to continue the trend. I bought some cherries and Cokered while eating and spitting out the pits on the side of the road.
The party was Hawaiian themed and when I arrived I heard the sound of Hawaiian music and the smell of good food. The Dawson’s went all out and roasted a whole pig, had a couple caterers, had a slushy machine with an alcohol mix (I’m not sure if it was margaritas or something else), and my personal favorite, a chocolate fountain. I tried the pig (the first time I had voluntarily eaten meat for about 3 years). It was pretty good, but I felt strange looking at the dead pig lying on the table. The pig was about the size of Rx (Andy’s dog) and that creeped me out a bit. The chocolate fountain was surrounded by a wide variety of fruit, marshmallows, and pulled apart angel food cake. There was one gentleman who stayed near the fountain for a good hour joking around and enjoying every piece of chocolate dipped whatever. They had a movable fire pit, which we all ended up huddling around. We stayed until 1:30 am and then JC was nice enough to drive Abram and I back to UW. The Dawson’s know how to throw a killer party. Many many thanks to Bruce, Helen, Marie, and Sarah.

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Cherries from the cherry stand I stopped at

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Abram rockin the portable tightrope

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the chocolate fountain

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Later in the evening someone replaced the pig's apple with a beer bottle

Critical Mass

2005-07-04T01:18:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 24, 2005 Rachel and I participated in Critical Mass. Critical Mass is a kind of bicycle protest which takes place in cities across the nation (or continent… Canada participates too I think). Everyone meets on the last Friday of every month to ride through the downtown area blocking traffic. To my knowledge we obey traffic laws, but if the leaders of the pack go through a green stop light and it turns red while the whole pack is moving through participants will block traffic to allow everyone to cross and maintain group unity. We met at Red Square at UW and then cycled to Westlake Center where there were probably 100-140 other cyclists. There was a concert just starting up where we met. It ended up being a Christian Rock Concert. I think they were mighty surprised that so many people showed up. We left and rode through the streets of downtown Seattle, past Pioneer Square, the ferry terminals, across the Ballard Bridge, through Freemont, up University Way and to Green Lake. At this point Rachel and I decided to split off. We ended up going 35.36 km (22 miles) and gained 225 meters (738 feet) in elevation. I got to meet Jake Ryder, founder of .83 a bicycling group that meets up and does fun rides like midnight Green Lake Races.

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Rachel at Westlake Center

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starting our ride

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Cycling

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Self-portrait of Rachel and I

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A block away from Seattle's waterfront

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Seattle's trademark, The Space Needle

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Going through Seattle Center

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Crossing the Ballard Bridge