Well, here’s another piece I put together. It’s by no means a definitive bucket list, but it has quite a few things I’d still like to do on it. Hoping to see Ballet West this year (perhaps around the holidays), and boy still has never driven the Alpine Loop in autumn. I also really want to hike Mount Olympus together soon. Maybe we can do that this summer.
Merry Christmas!
Tenny (you’ll remember her from Halloween) and I took these photos to use on our Christmas cards. Sometimes it’s hard to get in the holiday spirit when you live in Southern California and the sun stays out all day. Needless to say, I am missing the snow and Christmastime in Ukraine. However, I think we did a pretty good job setting the mood, though we didn’t realize those lights we have wrapped around us would burn. That came as quite a shock.
Wherever you are in the world and whatever holiday you are celebrating, I hope you are able to enjoy this special time with people you love.
with love in Christ,
genevieve! (and tenny too!)
Last June I fell down the rabbit hole and ventured into Wonderland with my friend Joy. It was a gloriously sunny day and I was able to enjoy the sensation of my bare feet frolicking on perfectly green grass.
(Technically these are the Huntington Gardens, but I felt like I was Alice for the day. That’s all that matters, right?)
We had been planning this trip for quite some time because we wanted to visit during the springtime. I’m so glad we went in June because the gardens were absolutely beautiful and the weather was unbeatable!
I love trees. This one was a little sappy though.
I pretended I was in England as I took a turn about the rose garden. And that the entire Huntington was my personal grounds. A girl can dream, right?
Amazingly intricate branches…
I submit this little gem as proof that I am not a ballerina.
I just couldn’t resist. That’s pure glee right there.
bon voyage,
genevieve!
Happy Halloween from Thing One & Thing Two! I just went trick-or-treating with my roommate (Tenny) and we loaded up with enough candy to last us a lifetime! (…though it probably won’t with our track record.) We were a bit worried that people would turn us down for being too old, but it turned out that the local Los Angelinos were exceedingly generous and loved our costumes. One even said we were the best he’d seen all night! I hope you enjoyed the holiday in some way! (Remember last Halloween?)
Time to go wash the blue spray out of my hair! Did you dress up?
bon voyage,
genevieve!
p.s. If you don’t understand our costumes, they are characters from Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat :).
p.p.s. Summertime posts coming eventually; I’d like to say soon but I can’t promise. School is busy!
I went to Redding in April to visit my aunt Jody for a weekend, and I had such a great time! We always have fun together; people always tell me how similar I am to her, a fact I don’t mind or dispute. Anyway, one fun thing she took me to do was segwaying! I’m not exactly sure what the correct terminology is here. Did I ride a segway, or perhaps ride on a segway. Maybe I even drove a segway! I think I just might prefer the all-encompassing verb, segwaying. It was a great time and I got to check something off my list of adventures I want to have! You can never go wrong there.
Let’s just address the elephant in the room. Helmets. Who likes them? Nobody I know. There are zero things cool about them, and then they go and give you helmet hair and make you look like you’re wearing a big egg on your head. They also make you very conscious of every bit of double chin you still might have from your recent (who am I kidding, it was four months ago!) carbo load in Ukraine. Sometimes, like on motorcycles, they probably seem pretty justified. At least outsiders understand why a person on a motorcycle, which can go pretty freakin’ fast, would wear a helmet. On a Segway? Yeah, not so much. Plain and simple, I felt like a dork. This is only amplified by the fact that you are told that it is impossible to fall off a Segway. I guess there is always the possibility of hitting your head on a tree branch and by golly, I am a proponent of Safety First.
Redding’s world-famous (so I’m told) Sundial Bridge. It crosses the Sacramento River and really is a work of art.
You’re probably thinking, “Wow, she is so skilled. Segwaying with one hand and perfectly photographing herself with the other.” Well, that would be true except out of our group – which consisted of me, three people over fifty, and our guide – I was the only one to crash. Not quite sure if it was before or after this photo was taken, but I either had no idea what I was in store for or didn’t learn my lesson. We were going down a hill and turning. Did you catch that? Two things at once. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, especially since Segways are kind of counter-intuitive, at least according to my intuition. No big deal, I just ran into a bush at the bottom of a hill. Didn’t fall off and got out all by myself thankyouverymuch. Probably a good thing I was wearing my helmet just in case.
There was a pergola with flowers in bloom, so of course we had to snap a few shots!
This ice stuff was so good. I got a flavor that was something like an orange creamsicle, something I don’t taste much as a vegan. Really yummy!
bon voyage,
genevieve!
Literally, the Los Angeles Zoo! I’m not 100% sure about how I feel about zoos, but I had to visit one for my wildlife conservation class, so here are some of the resulting photos!
I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the meerkat area was right after you entered the zoo. These little guys are so active and have really funny personalities so they are fun to watch. Just look at how he’s sitting on the rock! Chubby rear :)
I tend to like itty bitty birds rather than big ones like flamingos, but they are definitely a really pretty color!
Check this guy out, basking in the little patch of sun. I honestly think he was enjoying the attention :).
Koalas are just the cutest. I’ve never met a koala so I don’t really know their temperaments, but they just make me want to cuddle. I kind of think they wouldn’t like that too much though.
Gorillas always highlight the weirdness that is the zoo for me.
Orangutans too…
It’s always a weird feeling seeing animals existing in zoos after you have watched them live life in a much more natural way. People might never become interested in animals like lions though if they have never seen them. Double-sided coin.
Of course, it’s a must to take a photo next to the map :).
I didn’t get any good photos of the real-life Asian elephants, but I really loved these figures they had. They each represented different places: like Thailand, Cambodia, China, etc.
If I got this gift at a white elephant Christmas party, I would be ecstatic!
See Canyon to Prefumo Canyon is one of the most beautiful drives ever. I love the winding hills and reaching the top to star-gaze in the middle of the night, or else getting a wonderful view of the county from SLO to Morro Bay at sunset.
You can see Morro Rock (on the left, in the bay) out at Morro Bay. It was such a clear day following the rain!
See those solar panels? Yes, a few lucky people live up here and see this every day.
Joy was trying to fix her hair, but I love the candidness of this shot :).
This is probably my best jumping shot ever. I have a lot of room for improvement, that’s for sure.
This may just be my favorite place in the world.
Avila beach is the main beach near SLO (there are a couple other smaller ones that some locals enjoy more). I love it because it is only a short drive past the hills, about seven minutes, and then you arrive at the gorgeous Pacific Coast. We got lucky and enjoyed the beach on the one semi-warm day that weekend.
They have changed this place so much. It used to be a quaint little beach town that looked pretty old, but that was part of its charm. Now it is definitely more geared towards tourists. I will admit that it looks adorable and the pedestrian areas are really nice, but I’m never a huge fan of change, especially if it means making a place attract more people. Oh well, I guess that’s the main industry of the region.
I did enjoy the bubbles, I’ll give them that :). (It’s like I’m about to eat one!)
Walking out on the pier is one of my favorite pastimes.
In all honesty, the ocean kind of freaks me out. I like to think of it as reverence more than fear. It’s gorgeous and beautiful and there are so many magnificent colors under that surface, but I just don’t know if I’m meant to be down there. I’ve snorkeled a couple times and wasn’t too fond of that whole method of breathing/choking on inhaled water. There have also been shark attacks and sightings at this beach, which is always something I think about if I’m kayaking. It’s not like I’m mad at the sharks, I pretty much feel like it’s their turf. I don’t have fins or gills, what am I doing out there anyway?! (If you feel comfortable in the water, more power to you. I like mountains.)
Apparently I can’t sit still and look pretty like Joy can.
Underneath the pier is another one of my favorite spots. I love the look of all the poles, algae, mussels and starfish against the greenish blue of the water.
This picture reminds me of how much I LOVE my new camera. It’s nothing amazing, but it has twice as many megapixels as my old one and almost three times as much digital zoom. It’s like when you didn’t even know you had bad eyesight until you see through glasses. Everything is so crisp and clear – if only I had it during my trip to Ukraine!
Starfish!
Just look at those hills! That’s were we’re going next. I love them, so much. From February – May they are as green as can be.
Stay tuned for more beauty from the best county (or at least in the top five) in the world.
Mine is San Luis Obispo. I love this place, especially when I get to take friends and show off my lovely little town and its surroundings. Over Presidents’ Day weekend Joy and I headed north from LA to SLO and had a really great and relaxing time. Joy couldn’t stop mentioning how fresh the air is and how easy it is to breathe. Los Angeles is lacking in nature. Plus, San Luis Obispo was recently found to be the Happiest Town in America, so that’s pretty cool too :).
First, we had some fun thrift store browsing…
Then I took Joy to see the mission, which is in the middle of downtown SLO. It’s always fun looking at this from a tourist’s point of view, rather than just walking by  without recognizing it.
I love the flowers on the walls,
and the courtyard out back
One of SLO’s biggest claims to fame is Bubblegum Alley. I’ve made my mark there quite a few times, but it’s pretty impossible to find anything unless your artwork is massive. There isn’t much explanation necessary:
(I love this guy.)
More to come!
I have so much family right now, it’s crazy. Family in America and here! My host parents are Julia and Ruslan, and they are fun people. We also have a cat named Max who was fun at first but is now actually pretty annoying since he just meows all the time and other times swats at me. I think he has cabin fever big time. I’ve even met my host aunt, grandparents, great-aunt and cousin.
We went to dinner the other week and they were speaking Russian to each other so I just stuck some fries in my mouth. My host dad followed suit, much to my amusement and a we got a fun picture out of it!
Walruses!
After dinner we took a “family photo” by the Christmas tree at the mall :).
Julia, me & Ruslan
On Thanksgiving, I skyped a bunch of family back home, so here is that photo! Sorry if you didn’t want this on the internet, but you guys are all just so cute. Â (It was seven a.m. their time.)
Just this past week I got my host parents and parents together over skype and we got a couple cross-cultural family photos!
After this conversation, we had a little Photobooth session. Ruslan thought it was especially funny and he couldn’t stop laughing. It was a fun evening.
And last week, when I started feeling pretty sick, I got a package from my parents. It included gifts for my host family and a couple goodies for me! Just what I needed :).
Yay for family!
Wanderlust & Go 