Per aspera ad astra

Now I know you’re thinking (or maybe just I’m thinking), it’s been three weeks or so since Louise left, so I must have a pretty compelling reason for not posting. Entirely untrue.

Now I did go to Linn and Chelsea’s End-of-Summer party, which was relaxing and fun and allowed me to see people I hadn’t seen in a while…

I did wait an hour in line for a $1 burrito at Pancheros…

I did drive up from Florida with my mom in the car that she won an auction for on eBay (which is now mine and, very appropriately, named Q) For the record: driving through Florida is long and stupid. Especially in heavy rain. Here’s my mom enjoying all the hours that are the “Sunshine” state.

And me celebrating when we finally get out of the State.

The first gas station in Georgia was probably the best, for a couple of reasons. First..

2.55 for gas? What is this? Second…

This adorable sign in the bathroom. (The bottom reads: “The perfect gift for the man who has NOTHING and the woman who wants her fancy tickled”). Lastly…

So in case you were worried about a felony conviction, it’s coo’.

You probably want a picture of my car too. Hm. For some reason I haven’t gotten around to it. Suffice it to say that it looks almost exactly like this and I love it. Anyway, back to the things I’ve been doing this past month-ish…
I did get a job (full-time! benefits and all!) at Cornell as the “International and Off-Campus Program Assistant”… which is pretty damn exciting. (I start Monday. A little nervous? Yes.)

And I did get a beautiful, well-lit apartment which is both pet-friendly AND has an indoor pool/fitness center. (More pictures forthcoming after I actually move in- Saturday!)

But other than that, really, I’ve been a pretty lazy schmuck these past few weeks. Don’t believe me? Ask my dogs. They’re the only living beings in the world who have been sleeping more than I have lately.

While I was bored one day in Vladimir, I went on craigslist and stumbled across a listing looking for someone to tutor and host a student from France for three weeks. I did some rudimentary background checking on the organization, but everything seemed in place, so I sent off my resume and heard back from the local organizer right away. Blah blah paperwork and a few months later, a 16 year old French girl (Lou, short for Louise) was standing at the arrivals gate in O’Hare. I love the Internet.

No, really. We had a fabulous time together. She was listed as mid-intermediate on the initial email, but I quickly discovered that she’s pretty close to fluent as-is (when you can use a word like “pedantic” properly in conversation, you’re fluent), which made tutoring pretty simple. At any rate, we spent most of our time exploring the “too beautiful” city that is Chicago, and so most of this post will be Chicago photos. Enjoy!

Views of the city from the top of the Sears Tower.

Of course we saw the Bean

…and got caught in the rain running to Water Tower Place

…and took silly pictures with statues

Lou’s favorite was the Museum of Contemporary Art (which I affectionately call the “This is How I Feel Inside” Museum), so here’s a couple pictures of that.

(Okay, that’s not art, it’s the stairs, but the difference is nominal)

Her favorite part of the whole city, however, was all of the different styles of architecture.

We accidentally found this staircase that led to this area, and it was a beautiful time of day.

She really wanted to take the boat tour, which I hadn’t done since maybe the 5th grade, so I agreed. (Good choice. Advice: Get the 2-for-1 coupon from Metra on Wendella for the 90 minute)

Seriously, this city really is ten different kinds of beautiful.

Especially at sunset.

Or just walking the streets at night.

Of course, outside of the city, we had our fair share of entertainment. Lou went with my sisters to the Renaissance Fair up in Wisconsin (while I was otherwise preoccupied with one of my KAX sisters getting married), we moved my sister into college, and of course we went to a baseball game. (Lou went to the bathroom during the 7th inning stretch. I don’t think she understands the awesome of it.)

She also spent some time with the twins that my sisters and I babysit.

After three weeks of solid English speaking and teaching her gems like ’slacker’, ‘procrastination’, and ‘jerk’, it was time for Lou to go back from whence she came. (Which is Lyon, France, for the record.)

We took one last photo all together (sans my away-at-college sister) and bid our latest friend ‘Au revoir’!

It’s been awhile, I know. And you’ve missed me. Well, no worries. I’ve got your Summer ‘07 mass update, starting right here.

After I got back from Russia, I was in a pretty constant state of motion to and from various places. After my 4th of July Iowa trip, I went to St. Louis for a wedding. Pretty decent 5 hour drive down the dregs of central Illinois and we arrived to this pretty sight.

After checking in, I even managed (somehow) to cute myself up after the long ride and was smashing at the wedding. Like you expected any less?

Lest I convince everyone that I’m a girl, we also hit up the science museum downtown, where I met T-Rex of Dino Comics fame.

Between Illinois, Iowa and St Louis, I managed to get my fair dose of the Midwest this summer. Through a stroke of luck, my mom managed to get me a deal on airfare, so a short while later, I hopped on a plane to see my friend Becky in Seattle. Despite the fact that she lives there and studies at UW, she conceded to doing a bunch of touristy things to entertain me. As much as I love the Sears Tower, the fact that you can go outside on the Space Needle is a huge plus for Seattle.

I’d been to Portland before (and loved it), so I had a little experience with West Coast-ing it. My conclusion? Seattle is essentially Portland, but bigger.

Some views from the top of the Space Needle. The top is obviously the center of the city while the bottom is looking west-ish at the Olympic Mountains.

We spent a lot of time walking around, stopping by 7-11 Kwik-E-Mart to celebrate the Simpsons movie and get Squishies…

The first Starbucks (ever) to get some tasty corporate caffeine…

Pioneer Park, home of homeless folk, cool statues…

and the Jesus bus.

We made a final stop at the public library is downtown, in one of the coolest library buildings ever.

All in all, 5 stars for Seattle. Time to move on.

As much as I love looking at the traffic creep by as I go to O’Hare, this view en route to the airport is just a little better. (That’s Mount Rainier, for the unsure). At Seatac, Becky and I said goodbye to rainy sunny Seattle…

And hell-o to sunny rainy Las Vegas. Seriously, climate change, weather gods, whatever, they messed up this vacation. Seattle was unusually warm and bright and Vegas was, well, grey and cool and dreary. Fortunately, we met up with Piell for drinks at 10..

and all was bright in our world. We proceeded to do all the typical things 21-year old girls do in Vegas.

Yes, we gambled. Yes, we drank foot-tall daiquiris and dollar margaritas.

Yes, we allowed slightly skeezy drunk old men to take pictures of us.

Yes, we shopped for things we couldn’t even afford.

Yes, we signed up for the Player’s Club soley for the free buffet we got.

Yes, we saw Elvis. Hell, we even got a picture with him. Maybe that’s because we were all matching.

Yes, we took photos (and our free drinks!) everywhere.

Yes, we made fun of everyone not as cool as us. (Just kidding. They’re actually marveling at the fact that the revolving doors have no knobs.)

And of course we treated ourselves to the finest in adult entertainment (By the way, well worth it)

Hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas until it gets splashed all over someone’s blog, right?

Anyway, a fantastic time was had by all, Becky went back to Seattle and I returned to Huntley to begin part 2 of my summer adventure, avec Frenchie.