Watching the Weather

The bulk of my excitement over the past few weeks of studying has been watching the weather.  I sit in a room on the eighth floor of Belfer, occasionally glancing up from my books and finding that the clouds have moved.

Clear day

 Cloudy day

 Hazy day

Rainy day

Quick Jaunt to Minnesota

During my weekend in Minnesota, my favorite quote by far was the following:  "It's only getting down to 10 degrees tonight.  We don't need coats!"  Take that, whiny New Yorkers!

Just Because I Can

Of all places, I never thought I'd be able to post from 35,000 feet.  That's right, I'm on the plane right now.  We just passed over Sault Ste. Marie en route to New York, so there was a nice view of Lake Superior/Michigan which unexpectedly popped up through the rather unrelenting cloud cover.  Anyway, I'm sure this is boring, but it was a novelty so I had to do it.  Hopefully I'll post tomorrow about my all-too-short trip home to Minnesota once I get my pictures loaded.  Until then...smooth flying!

Norway: The Rest

Yes, it's taken me a while, but I'm finally ready to finish off my Norway adventure. (In my defense, we've had 4 tests over the past week, and I've knitted approximately half of the body of a Norwegian sweater in that time. Be impressed.)

I left off with our return from Sognefjord. The rest of my time in Norway was spent in Bergen. In general, the city was quite quiet, because Holy Week is a holiday for Norwegians as well. In this spirit, most had vacated the city in order to stay in their cabins on the fjords or in the mountains, leaving the city (and its shops) deserted, to some degree. However, we still found plenty to do. For example:

We visited Edvard Grieg's house. This is the inside of his "composer's hut," which was behind the house, down a small hill, next to the water. Notice that he frequently sat on Beethoven's sonatas in the hopes that inspiration and greatness would transfer via osmosis.

We hiked up Ulriken, Bergen's tallest mountain. The day started clear...and then it began to rain...and then a thick cloud descended on us, making it impossible to see more than 20 feet ahead. At the top, we could see nothing, but then -- miracle! -- the cloud cleared for 5 minutes, giving us a spectacular view of the city.

We browsed the tourist shops in Bryggen, the old port area. Norwegian sweaters abounded.

We went to church at St. Paul on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. Here, on Easter, the crucifix has been uncovered, the Easter candle has been lit, and simple bouquets of daffodils adorn the altar. Beautiful.

Speaking of Easter, we had quite the Easter celebration. Becca invited several of her friends (almost all of whom were also international students who, unlike the Norwegians, were still in Bergen for the holiday) to come to the apartment for sweets, games, and Easter activities. All day Saturday, we shopped, cleaned, and baked in preparation for the big gathering.

All in a day's work: 8 dozen cookies, 2 bowls of pasta salad, 2 dozen scrambled eggs, 30 hard-boiled eggs, 2 coffee cakes...

...and 2 pies!

The party was a huge success. We ate until we could eat no more, and then we decorated eggs, played Uno, played charades, and tried a mystery-whodunnit type game that one of Becca's friends taught us. (Because it obviously matters, here was the outcome: Becca and Erlend were both arrested for a crime that I actually committed. I used my botanical research to buy a potent poison in Brussels from a time-traveler from the future. I slipped the poison into William Shakespeare's drink at a party I was hosting, because I couldn't stand his misogynistic ideals after hearing of the fabulous notions of women's equality from my time-traveling friend. And that is how Shakespeare was murdered.)

Finally! A clear view of Bergen from Fløyen. This is the Sentrum, where we spent most of our time.

On my final day, we climbed another mountain, Fløyen, with Raanan and Erlend. This one was much tamer, with a paved path the whole way up. There were so many people out enjoying the holiday and the on-and-off sun, just like us. I flew home the next day, slightly delayed but otherwise smooth. After becoming used to the rain, snow, and clouds in Bergen, I was caught slightly off-guard by the sunshine, blooming flowers, and 80-degree days that greeted me back in New York. I can't believe the trip went so quickly; I am so lucky to have such an incredible friend in Becca. I truly felt at home with her, and we had a wonderful time spending time with each other, catching up, and having a few adventures. What a wonderful way to spend Easter!

The smiles say it all.

Spring

Spring came a week early. For 5 days straight, New York was blessed with clear skies, abundant sunshine, and warm breezes. Perhaps we deserved it after that ridiculously destructive (as far as the apartments are concerned) storm the previous weekend. Every afternoon, after classes were done, my classmates could be found playing frisbee, throwing footballs, reading books, playing guitar (or, in my case, ukulele), and basking in the sweet sunshine. I'm not being entirely honest. Sometimes it was during classtime, not afterwards. (Did I skip class? Well...maybe...but it was so warm! And so beautiful! And it was a 2-hour-long class on statistics, which I already knew! And it was the only class I've ever voluntarily skipped! Well, I take that back. I did once skip Astronomy to buy combat boots. But I digress...)

Saturday was the nicest of them all: 70 degrees and absolutely clear skies. I took my studying materials to Central Park and then failed to study for most of the afternoon. Instead, I enjoyed the sights. There will always be rainy days for studying.

Central Park was crowded with people happy to finally come out of their winter lairs.

Good to know the bees are hard at work already.

Nothing says spring like daffodils.

Weekend Potpourri

When it rains in the Bronx, the Einstein student housing complex turns into a giant vortex of doom. It rained yesterday. The 40-m.p.h. gusts were translated into hurricane gales in the wind tunnel that is Einstein housing. The windows here don't have great sealing (i.e. no sealing), and even in the absence of wind, I feel a healthy draft flowing through my room. Yesterday, that was translated into violently shaking windows, wildly rattling doors, and the pleasant but havoc-wreaking burbling of water seeping in through the nonexistant window seals only to be momentarily spurted by the draft onto the floor.

Bubbling windowsill water

Unhappy, warped kitchen floor -- with happy mold underneath

It didn't stop me from going into the city, as I usually do on Saturdays. Yesterday, I had a new adventure when I donated platelets for the first time. The blood center staff were unexpectedly reluctant to let me do it; they didn't believe me that my veins would be good enough to withstand the constant cycling between drawing and returning blood for 75 minutes. I was persistent, however, and they were pretty desperate for my valuable O- platelets, so they finally acquiesced. I had a very strange sensation of tingliness accompanied with occasional chills and numbness during most of the hour and 15 minutes, but everything went well otherwise, and I was fine as soon as I got out of the chair. Weird.

The wind was bad in the city, too, but it was isolated to certain sections and streets. As I approached East 86th Street from the south, I could see that I was walking into a wind tunnel. I'm not joking: compared to the (relatively) calm breeze on 3rd Ave, the straight-line winds (made exceedingly visible by the rain that was steadily increasing) looked like something out of a movie, and I needed to turn and walk straight into them. Umbrellas were useless. Abandoned, mangled umbrellas littered the sidewalks. I was in for a cold, wet afternoon. My raincoat soaked through, my jeans were shiny from the water, my hair was plastered to my face, and the only part of me that wasn't wet were my feet, happily toasty in my rain boots. Maybe that's why I was so chilled while giving platelets.

Back to the apartments. In addition to the flooding (which was very mild in my apartment compared to some others'), the buildings always suffer from the wind in another way: the doors. My building always seems to have the worst wind effect compared to the others, so the sliding door is taken out of commission, forcing us to use the regular pull-handled door. That's not a huge deal, but the wind has a nasty habit of making it shut very quickly, and sometimes unexpectedly. Today my wrist almost got crushed as a gust of wind took the door out of my hands. Luckily, I pushed my elbow out in time, so it was my upper arm that took the brunt of the blow. I don't normally bruise easily, but I have a pretty big spot developing there. My diagnosis? Inappropriate bruising due to lack of platelets. COOL!

Finally, today is Pi Day (you know, 3/14...3.14...nerdy pi), so this afternoon my friends and I had a Pi Day celebration by eating pie! My contribution:

Blueberry. The best.

How to Stay Warm

Northern Minnesota is beautiful any time of the year, and winter is no exception. However, it requires a certain amount of...persistence. To avoid being miserable during skiing and lakeshore exploring, suiting up required the following elements:

- 3 layers of socks
- Snowboots
- Spandex
- Sweatpants
- Snowpants
- 2 long-sleeve shirts
- Long-sleeve hooded shirt
- Fleece jacket
- Heavy winter jacket
- 2 layers of gloves
- Scarf
- Hat
- Ski goggles

...and I am still convinced that ski boots need to have built-in heaters, because I couldn't feel my toes after approximately 1.5 runs down Lutsen in the -20 degree windchill.

But for the views, it was worth it! Some samples:

Enjoying the beautiful (but cold) view of Lake Superior from the top of Moose Mountain

Chilly lake, but not yet frozen

Just because the lake wasn't frozen over didn't mean the surrounding areas were untouched

Bubbly ice

A New Year's sunset

Split Rock Lighthouse: classic

The air was so cold that Lake Superior itself was steaming.

There'snow Place Like Home

...and nothing better than having the ability to build a GIANT SNOWMAN.

Hard at work

You look familiar...

A well-built snowman

Fall in the Big City

The pictures will do the talking.

Peaceful street near the Church of Notre Dame

Is this really the city? North woods of Central Park

Conservatory Garden in Central Park

The ravine

I cannot get over how peaceful the city can feel. A block away, people rush about their business, hailing cabs, boarding buses, and running to catch subways. Here, none of that is present.

Beautiful trees of Central Park from the top of Rockefeller Center

From the Top of the Rock, the Empire State Building and a minuscule Statue of Liberty

Skating at the Rockefeller Center? Yes, it started a month ago. Seems a bit anachronistic in the 70-degree weather.

Fishermen at Orchard Beach (in the Bronx!)

Orchard Beach provided a slightly more "wild" side of nature than Central Park

The view from the top of my apartment building: The beautiful trees and homes of Morris Park and the skyline of the big city

A Word about Words

I realized that some of you may be curious about the title of the blog. First of all, I really like storms. REALLY like storms. What's better than some sweet, booming thunder? Also, I find the idea of keeping thunder in a crate amusing.

In all honesty, though, I shamelessly stole the phrase "crate of thunder" from the second verse of the Air Force song:

Minds of men fashioned a crate of thunder,
Sent it high into the blue;
Hands of men blasted the world asunder;
How they lived God only knew! (God only knew!)
Souls of men dreaming of skies to conquer
Gave us wings, ever to soar!
With scouts before and bombers galore.
Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force!

It seemed to fit my personality.

One more word about the Air Force. In preparation for my training, I've been reading through the OTS Manual, a 91-page document explaining all the rules and regulations pertaining to COT. In true military style, every detail is covered, in detail. On one hand, I'm a little bit worried about the amount of it I'm going to forget, but on the other hand, it certainly has led to a few gems of quotes. My favorite so far: Trainees will ensure they are making proper use of their time by always having something to study with them. Examples include...the Handbook of Warrior Knowledge (known as the “Talon”). Well, at least I know we'll be kept busy.