Two weeks off!

1.7.10

As my first semester of graduate (or maybe gradual) school came to a close, I was looking forward to a break from all the work. In contrast to years past, I decided that this year I would stay inside New York State. I was home in Buffalo for a few days, flew to New York City to stay with some friends, and then went back to Ithaker with Jon Newman. It was nice to spend a few days of my vacation in Ithaker before heading back to work on January 6.

Anyway, I decided it would be best to tell the story of my vacation in pictures. Here it goes!

Since I can remember, we have always spent Christmas Day dinner with my mother's side of the family. My aunt and her family always have a huge tree decorated with bubbling oil lights and heaps of tinsel. The tree looks so pretty in the dark.

Aunt Diane, Mom Hensen, and my mother

Here's Aunt Diane wearing her new, frilly apron. I think she's wondering why I took this picture.

Sarah Jane and Yuki (You will notice all the mashed potatoes on Sarah's plate. She waits a whole year to eat Aunt Diane's famous twice baked mash potatoes--and her fudge.)

Gifts for the Cousin Gift Exchange

Here are all my cousins from front left: Miranda, Scott (husband of Carolyn), Erin, Taran, Carolyn, Tyler, Ashley (sister of Caitlin), Caitlin (girlfriend of Ryan), me, Yuki (friend of Sarah), Sarah Jane, Ryan. There were some really interesting presents but I was very happy to receive sea monkeys.

My sister's friend Yuki (which means 'snow' in Japanese), joined us for the Christmas holidays. Even though she had never played before, she beat us all at Barrel of Monkeys!

I arrived in JFK airport where I was greeted by my friend James. James and I studied printmaking together at Binghamton University. I really enjoyed my stay with him and his girlfriend Nicole in Brooklyn. We watched Planet Earth, played Super Mario, met up with Jon (Jon also knows James from art class), walked around Brooklyn, and caught up. Unfortunately, I was unable to go to any museums with them because they were closed. We did however, see an albino squirrel in the Prospect Park. I should also mention that Nicole is an absolutely amazing cook! One evening, she made us beet raviolis and spinach goat cheese salad. The raviolis were such a pretty shade of pink that I almost didn't want to eat them.

Here is James, Nicole, and me. I was really sad to leave them but promised that I would come back soon; especially since I learned about the fancy Kernel bus that goes to Manhattan every weekend.

Before heading back to Ithaca with Jon, I met up with a whole bunch of other friends including Stephanie, Edelbug, and Yuta. I also met some of Jon's friends from Connecticut. At one point, Jon came down with a 24 hour flu bug so we decided to stay in New York City for an extra day. We ended up taking the bus back to Ithaker on New Years Eve.

Jon Newman's Christmas Present (a t-shirt quilt)

Jon and I

Ta-da! It's Ithaca Falls!

Intense

Jon throwing icicles at icicles.

Spending time with Jon Newman is one of my favorite things. We went climbing at the rock climbing wall, watched several great movies, and he taught me a few things about math and Matlab. Just as he was about to head back to Atlanta, his flight got delayed and he had to stay an extra night. I'm just glad that he didn't have to stay the night in Philly. :)