les animaux de aquitaine

as many of you know, i became a vegetarian (well, to be perfectly clear, a pescatarian-i'm still good on eating fish for now) last november. part of the reason for my decision was the realization that as americans, we are simply too far away from the food products we eat. we often don't internalize the fact that our cheeseburgers come from cows, our bacon comes from pigs, and our chicken nuggets come from....well, chickens. i had been cutting meat out of my life for some time, but after really considering the fact that meat comes from animals, i decided that i'm not interested in eating it any more. this might change in the future, but it is where i am now.

of course, like many other things, this mentality is very different in the rest of the world. i noticed that in rural france, people are very close to the animals they eat and use for milk and other animal-based products. in the US, our obsession with the idea that we need meat at every meal for "protien" has lead to the growth of commercial farming and poor treatment and living conditions for domestic animals. in france, the domesticated animals that we came across live with quite a bit more dignity than our animals do. here are just a few shots of les animaux from rural france! some were for food, and others were not, but were just plain cute.

i love hamilton, ny

while attending colgate, i didn't think too much about how wonderful  the small college town  of hamilton, ny really is! what a community. i won't deny that the community and the local economy are driven almost completely by the presence of the university, but still, a great town which some pretty great people call home.

while in hamilton for tim's sister's graduation, we caught up with the best folk singer in all the land, ed, at the colgate inn (newly remodeled!), and spent quite a bit of time walking around the town and the campus. it was the first time that i thought about what it would be like to live there-- and not be a student.

wonderful saturday farmer's market

colgate campus

downtown hamilton at the best time of the day

martha's vineyard in the off-season

it's SPRING BREAK for this graduate student! to mark the occasion, tim and i took a little bike trip to martha's vineyard. we'd both had never been there--and we lucked out with some incredible weather. in two days, we managed to bike almost the whole island and saw all the sights...oak bluffs, vineyard haven, edgartown, and gay head. the island was empty (it was, after all, a sunday and monday in the middle of march), but it was nice to get an idea of what it is like for people who live there on a year-round basis. not too much stuff is open!

http://www.harbor-view.com/

i could have spent a few more days here...

i just returned from a few days in mexico's riviera maya. although we were there for our "field studies in global consulting class" we managed to see quite a bit of the the area considering we were there for three nights. i also managed to completely fall in love and was tempted to skip the plane and stay!

previously, i would have thought that the riviera maya was just like cancun--large multi-story hotels, watered-down pina coladas, and late nights. the two areas do share the same airport, after all. i couldn't have been more wrong! centered around playa del carmen, the riviera maya is quiet and "beachy," if that is a word. playa del carmen has a bunch of small shops and restaurants, and many of the restaurants don't even have real doors.

we were taken on a visit to tulum, about an hour south of playa del carmen. i would have thought that tulum was just a bunch of tourist shops and vendors surrounding the gates of the mayan ruins at tulum. however, it  is more of a "yogi" destination--a no shoes allowed kind of place, with fresh fish, hippies, and small restaurants right on the sand. and as far as tourist spots go, it felt relatively untouched. i can't wait to go back!

i could eat breakfast here every day for sure.

downtown playa del carmen.

tulum-mayan ruins.

restaurant/hotel in tulum: http://www.zamas.com/

excusez moi, can you tell me how to get to the ice palace?

we stopped in for a visit to the brand new snow village during a short trip to montreal. the village includes a hotel, restaurant, bar, church, and conference space--all made out of snow. it is modeled after the icehotel in sweden. i've visited the icebar in stockholm before, but this place was on a different level! absolutely incredible.

kinda looks like you are walking on the moon!

http://www.snowvillagecanada.com/

a little inspiration on a monday morning...

life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. what seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. -henry miller

jordan: the switzerland of the middle east

my term paper for my international marketing class this semester is a "nation branding audit" where we are asked to analyze a country's efforts to market itself to the rest of the world. as i am focusing my research on jordan, i spoke to a member of jordan's national tourism board today to get some thoughts on what jordan has done in the past to promote itself, and how the nation is tailoring its efforts amidst the arab spring, the perception that the middle east is violent, and the resulting decilne in visitors.

jordan has so much history, so many exciting things to see and to do, and so much culture to share. and the violence going on wall street today trumps any protesting going on in jordan. but once people get it in their heads that a place is unsafe, it's difficult for any marketing effort to change their perceptions. well, here are mine from my visit (the one where tim joined me!) in june 2010:

the souk in amman

amman skyline at dusk

the treasury at petra- so many versions of this picture, but still amazing.

snorkeling in the red sea, aqaba

sunset on the dead sea

swimmin' in october

school has been pretty busy this semester. the weekdays are long--and both tim and i are usually working from 8am to late in the evening. saturdays have been the only day in the week for no work at all. a few weekends ago, my parents came to town, and we did a long bike ride from ipswich to crane's beach--i found the route in a nationwide biking magazine, so figured it had to be good. the water was chilly-but the beach was empty, and it was fun to be laughed at by the other people there. we ended our day with a trip to the lobster pool in rockport!

have you ever seen a zhorse?

took some time off from course scheduling and being a research assistant to go for a bike ride in cambridge, ny this weekend--and stopped on the side of the road to say hello to a very unique animal--he even let us pet his nose! didn't find the owner of the farm to hear the story--but i can't even imagine the circumstances that would bring a zebra/horse mix all the way to cambridge.

amazing patterns--i've never gotten this close to a straight up zebra!

harpoon point-to-point

i've been road biking for 5 years at this point, but it's been a way to work out--not something i truly enjoyed. after participating in the annual harpoon brewery point-to-point ride in windsor, vt with my family, i understand why so many are obsessive with biking (a la skiing) these days! a great day, a wonderful (hilly & tiring ride) through vermont, a great cause, and some good beers to to top it all off at the end of the day. nothing i could possibly imagine to complain about! i will definitely be there next year--and might upgrade to a longer ride!

we spent a few hours the next day kayaking down a portion of the connecticut river, with an outfitter attached to the path of life sculpture garden (a very interesting establishment that would survive only in vermont).

hops at harpoon's windsor, vt brewery

http://www.harpoonpointtopoint.com/