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/

what we need now

i never thought i'd read something like this in the harvard business review. i thought this article was pretty well put. it describes well the balancing the human "survival act," as it's called in the article, with our higher values.

"So how do we learn to rise to our best selves more often?
The first answer is to acknowledge how often we fall short of the ideals to which we aspire — and how much help we need in living them more fully. We need humility in place of hubris, and even a sense of shame, where it's warranted, as a spur to behave better."

philosophers would probably get into this being a very "human" conundrum...as most animals wouldn't have to debate about self-interest vs. generosity. but seems like something we all grapple with, all the time. brings to mind that e.b. white quote:

i arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. this makes it hard to plan the day.-e.b. white (we'll let it slide that he's a cornell grad.)

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/08/what-we-need-now.html