I have a difficult time deciding on a favorite season, but when it comes to spring in New York I must admit that for all the pros, I can think of very few cons. Flowers everywhere, with such a vibrancy as everyone slowly emerges from a season of black wool and boots to colorful sundresses and sandals. A time when picnics supplement dinner reservations and productivity slowly gives way to long, meandering walks in the park. After months of dismal weather the sun emerged over the weekend showering the streets with a explosion of petals as trees burst forth with blooms and buds. Because I've been in "thesis mode" for the past several weeks, it took a little convincing from Andras to put down the books, step away from the keyboard, and emerge from my academic ... read more

Vancouver Island is beautiful, especially once you start moving away from the strait and venture closer towards the coast of the Pacific. Wild berries, eagles, seals, crashing ocean waves, water worn pebbles, the sound of gulls riding a current and the fresh scent of fir and pine. Magnificent! It's as if all the quintessence of the northwest has somehow been condensed and put on display for all to see and experience in one spot - which really, if you think about it, is what transforms a location into a locale, particularly one visitors might desire to visit. The lure of such imagined Northwestiness was too strong to resist, especially for two Northwesterners, and even when our actual experiences failed to align with our anticipated ones, the lovely thing about memory is that you can conveniently neglect ... read more

Christmas in New York is unsurpassed in terms of a uniquely metropolitan experience - the lights, sights and iconic holiday displays. The rest of the winter is rather miserable, unless, of course, you come with the express purpose of enduring the cold, snowy, slushy mess that is Manhattan. I did not, and having spent the past two winters with my nose in a book or my fingers on a keyboard while staring out into the dark, dreary cloud layers, pounding out thoughts to finish off the semesters, I could not prevent the feelings of claustrophobia setting in. But (there's always a but) when all was said and done, after my extremities had thawed and there was no longer salt-laden ice melt threatening to ruin the hems of my pants with every venture outside, I realized that ... read more

When Andras and I first arrived in New York back in August, it was with an anticipated mixture of glee (at having never been to NYC before), uncertainty (at the prospect of settling into to an entirely new environment), and sorrow (at having to say goodbye to each other at the end of the trip). I had already made a reconnaissance trip back in July to sign a lease and meet my new roommate, whom I would be living with while I attended graduate school at NYU, so for me this trip was all about the big move. For Andras, it was his week of vacation to help me get settled in before we embarked on our hardest journey to date - a long distance relationship separated by over 2,000 miles of the sprawling North American ... read more

We've been hunkered down riding out the extremely uncharacteristic winter weather for the past week or so, and it finally looks like it's going to let up this weekend. Who would have thought Seattleites would actually be looking forward to a forecast of 40F and rain. One of the news reporters this morning commented that we'd be waving the white flag of surrender to Mother Nature but it would just blend into the background. After a series of snowstorms have hit the area, we're waiting out the longest stretch of snow this area has seen in several decades! I'm not complaining. I love snow and miss that we don't regularly get a blast of white powder raining down from above every December. Transportation has been a complete mess for the past week though, what with the ... read more