My Adventures: August 2008

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Collards and Bumble Bees in Atlanta, Georgia

8.31.08

For the past few days I have been hanging out with my good friend Jon Newman in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia. Today was the first day that I remembered to take my camera out with me. Since Jon's classes just started, most of my time has been spent going into school with him. I had a chance to walk around the Georgia Tech campus on Thursday and I also checked out some of Emory the previous day. It's really interesting to walk around Jon's labs. Most of the time it's hard for me to understand the research posters lining the wall but it all makes me think of how great it would be to go back to school again; which is something that has definitely been on my mind the last few months and will continue to be as Fall 2009 enrollment deadlines begin to approach ever so quickly. Besides walking around his labs and school, I have been studying Japanese and preparing for the GRE test.

So far all the people that I have met her are very kind and friendly. Jon's roommates Keith and Nate are both really nice guys as well as all the people in Jon's labs. They have been really nice to let me hang out in the office while Jon is hard at work. Jon's diligence amazes me. One day I only hope I will be as assiduous as him.

Jon and I rode bikes (I borrowed Keith's bike and Nate's lock) to this little "whole in the wall" restaurant called Eats. The menu was really simple; all you had to do was pick out the different sides you wanted. The Southern home-style food that was served there was quite appealing to my taste buds and not to mention my wallet.

I ordered the three veggie plate with a side of black beans, collards, and baked sweet potato. The corn bread was also included with the meal. Jon ordered Jerk Chicken and a few sides that he said were absolutely amazing.

After getting some food, we continued our bike ride to The Atlanta Aquarium. When we got there we realized how busy it was because of the holiday weekend. In the end we agreed that it wasn't worth it to go on such a busy day. We would go sometime next week when everyone was in work. Instead I suggested that we go to the Piedmont Park Botanical Gardens that I had wanted to visit during my last visit but couldn't go.

Jon-bug

Sheila-butterfly

Inside the Chrysalis

Bumble Bee Close-up

Wasp Close-Up (This wasp was approximately 2.5 inches long in total!)

This frog wouldn't budge despite Jon's pleas.

Here, Jon is demonstrating how to use the Singing Stone. If while you're singing with your head inside the stone and happen to hit the correct resonating frequency, "the result is a harmonious feeling of well being" according to the sign in the garden. Jon said he experienced "a harmonious feeling of well being".

Garden Gnomes

Architect, engineer and artist Tim Prentice, designed just about all of the contemporary sculptures in the garden. Each unique sculpture used the wind to it's advantage. As a result, the movements of the pieces of art work were very interesting to watch. According to his website, he concentrates on "kinetic sculpture". He is "trying to concentrate on the movement, rather than the object."

Geometric Lilly Pads

Spiny and Dangerous Lilly Pads

Traditional Lilly Pads

It's difficult to see but my finger is a centimeter away from a curly vine.

Frog and Jon

The Tropical Rain Forest Greenhouse

Giant Palm Leaves

Strange Vines

I owned this plant while I was in Japan. It is called Antharium and is native to Hawaii. I nearly thought I had lost it this winter until just before I was about to leave for America it started to blossom. Unfortunately, I had to give it to Hiroko before I could see the blooms.

Jug Plants in the Alpine Greenhouse

Unknown Alpine Plant 1

Unknown Alpine Plant 2

Two Venus Fly Traps With Dinner Included

Sky-Scape of Downtown Atlanta (The tallest tower is the Bank of America tower.)

Jon and me

I also wanted to include this video of the Venus Fly Trap in action!

I'm 23!

8.23.08

This past Thursday, August 21st, was my 23rd birthday so I decided the best way to celebrate 1. being home in my motherland and 2. the day of my birth was to be together with fantastic friends and family. Taran, my younger cousin on my mother's side, also had a birthday coming up so we decided to have a joint celebration. It turned out to be quite a fun event and several family members and friends showed up for the fun. Of course, we made a lot of food and I even had a chance to make some authentic Japanese food for my family and friends to try. I made a choice of salmon and wakame (seaweed) or sesame seed onegiri (rice balls), miso soup (with tofu, onions and potatoes), and Ryoji's famous avocado cucumber salad. Everyone bravely tried each of the dishes and many people seemed to really like them. We also had a chopstick race where players had to use only chopsticks to move as many gummy bears from one cup to the next as fast as they could. If I'm not mistaken, Miranda and Carolyn tied the game! They even beat me!

Kate and Ali helped my mother and I set up for the party.

Grandma and Grampa (or as they affectionately like to be called "Gram and Grumps")

me and Ham (Alyssa)

From left to right: Aunt Rita, Mom Hensen, Uncle Rob, Taran, Aunt Deb, my mother, Miranda, Carolyn

If I could choose any cake in the world to eat everyday for the next year, I would choose carrot cake. It is my favorite type of cake, but I'm sure many of you already know, it is much more probable that I would choose ice cream over cake when given a choice (in general). For this party, I decided to make vegan carrot cake from the recipe in the Binghamton University Food Coop Cookbook. In my opinion, it turned out very delicious and I think everyone else was in agreement. In this picture, my mother is helping us cut the cake. If you look closely you can see Mark Turley behind her. Also in this picture is Kate, Ali, Taran, Mom Hensen, and Carolyn.

This was taken just after the gummy bear race. Miranda and Carolyn were the first to finish moving their 10 gummies from one cup to the next using only a pair of chopsticks.

Random Shout Out: I would like to thank Kate, Ali and Mark for traveling so far just to come visit me! What a great birthday present to have such amazing friends like you. :)