Beijing in Less Than a Week!!

So, on Friday, William's boss expressed that he should go to Beijing for a training conference for the week of the 16th. William went to Beijing a few years ago with his family, but I have never been yet. Since my dissertation draft is done and I don't have a job, this is the perfect opportunity for me to check out the city. I will have 3 full days to see the sights and so I am super excited to finally go. We've bought our tickets so its final and I am headed up to SF to the embassy tomorrow to get same day visa service. My sister was just there last summer and so she gave me some suggestions on what to see and do. It looks like I will be going on two Viator day tours- one to the Great Wall of China at Badaling/Ming Tombs, and then the other day going to the Forbidden Palace/Summer Palace/Tianamen Square/and Temple of Heaven. I'm also planning on visiting the Olympic sights like the Bird's Nest, Water Cube, and the Opera House with the underwater entrance. If anyone has any other recommendations, let me know! I might skip the Beijing Zoo- I want to see the pandas (but I hear that the conditions are terribly inhumane and so I don't know if I can handle it).

25 Random Things

I was tagged by several dear friends to do this on facebook and so I thought I'd post it again for those not a part of that social network. The purpose of the note is to write with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you

1. I'm a picky eater- I've gotten much better over the years but there are still some things I have issues with.
2. I love sweets, especially ice cream. I ate 18 scoops at the Scooper Bowl in Boston 2007
3. I haven't done the half-gallon ice cream challenge- I'm afraid that I might get sick and lose my love of ice cream.
4. I LOVE school. Yeah, I'm one of those few people who literally cried at the thought of missing school. I made my parents allow me to go.
5. I have perfect attendance K-12 and have only met like 2 other people who have ever had that- one of whom is my husband. I found this out on date two and knew that we were meant for each other.
6. That being said, I really had a tough time writing my dissertation. It just required so much mental energy to process 1,000 newspaper articles, plus medical and sociological journal articles.
7. I love to read, which was instilled by my parents who would buy us whatever book we wanted as long as we would read it.
8. I loved reading so much when I was a kid I used to bring a flashlight so that I could read in the car when it was dark to not waste a moment.
9. My favorite book when I was a kid was the Babysitters Club Super Special Number 1 where they went to Walt Disney World. I read that book so many times that it was falling apart. Ann M Martin, the author did a book signing in SLC and I went and took that book and had her sign it- it means so much to me.
10. I used to have these huge coke bottle glasses when I was in elementary school. I hated them so much that my mom let me get contacts when I was in 7th grade. I have NEVER worn my glasses out "in public" since then. I only wear them in the evenings when I take out my contacts to go to bed.
11. I love my wedding dress- I am dying to wear it again sometime. Why is it that we can only wear it once when it is the greatest dress
12. I had my dream wedding- it literally was the perfect day.
13. I actually like living in a 500 sq ft apartment- its enough room for us, prevents us from spending a lot of money to fill the space, and is less for me to clean.
14. I've ridden a camel in Morocco
15. I've been to Europe 8 times. I still need to go to Greece though . . .
16. I love London- "when a man is tired of London, he's tired of life"
17. I unofficially study art history- I love to appreciate art even though I can't create it
18. Vincent Van Gogh is my favorite artist- I made a pilgramidge to his museum in Amsterdam.
19. I love to eat out. However, its not as good to do take out and bring it home- it loses its presentation and also some of the flavor
20. I miss Boston . . . but not the bitterness. The weather here in the Bay area is unbelievable.
21. I'm finally going to make it through the entire Bible this year- I've read bits and pieces but never the whole thing. I'm in Deuteronomy right now
22. I'm lucky in that I love my family and my in-laws- they're all so great!
23. I have no idea what I'm going to do after I (hopefully) graduate this year.
24. U2 is my favorite band of all time- it was super fun to go to Ireland and visit the Clarence Hotel in Dublin
25. I love my life (especially since a dissertation draft is done), my family, and friends.

Sprinkles Cupcake Fever

So, I've been to Sprinkles cupcakes TWICE in less than a weeks time. I'm kind of obsessed with them right now. And how can you not be when you get to eat them with these adorable wooden SPORKS. I really think that everything tastes better with the spork. Here's my current ranking of their cupcakes.
1. Vanilla Peppermint (only available at Christmas time- what a shame)
2. Eggnog (again, only available at Christmas)
3. Vanilla (nothing plain about this kind- just great flavors)
4. Carrot
5. Banana
6. Black and White
7. Red Velvet (I was very disappointed with this- it was good, but really not on par with the
other ones)
I'm sure that I will definitely be making other trips, although it means that I will be making many MORE trips to the gym . . .

View From the Bay

I really like the local website and tv show detailing events and other interesting things in the bay area. I used to watch the show (its on daily at like 3pm) but then I discovered that they put clips, recipes, and information about all of their segments online. Each segment is labeled so that you can watch just that part and look at the information. They have recipes from local restaurants, tips on Valentines Day gifts, relationships, books, and Bay Area events. For example, on Tuesday (2/3) they toured See's Candy Factory and demonstrated how they make their chocolates. On Monday (2/2) they had a live excerpt of the show about ballroom dancing going on here, Burn the Floor. This is one of the ways that I find out about many of the local adventures here.

William's Eagle Quilt

One of the true priceless treasures that we found while unpacking William's stuff is the Eagle Quilt that his mother made for him. It has a square of every one of the badges that he earned as well as the Eagle in the center. His mom spent so much time and effort making this quilt- probably as much time as William spent earning his Eagle! And she then did this for her other two sons. We are so thrilled that this treasure survived being in storage and not being damaged by the flood.

Beard Papa's

We have a new favorite sweet shop here in the Bay Area. Its called Beard Papa's and they have THE BEST cream puffs I've ever had. Its been here in Northern California for several years but they originally started over in Japan. I had wanted to go there for awhile and we tried several months ago after the Frida Kahlo exhibit and it was closed so I went yesterday after the Contemporary Jewish Museum. They have the shells pre-made and then you request which filling you want (vanilla bean, chocolate, and flavor of the week) and then they fill it while you are there so its fresh. I had gotten one for me and William so we didn't eat them until later that night but they were still so good. The vanilla bean cream filling inside is AMAZING. Just the right amount of sweetness and flavor. We will definitely be back to one of the locations, and there is even one closer to us in Cupertino so we can get our cream puff "fix" anytime we want.

Contemporary Jewish Museum and Andy Warhol

In celebration of finishing my dissertation, I went up to San Francisco to go to the remodeled Contemporary Jewish Museum and their special exhibit "Warhol's Jews: Ten Portraits Revisited." Today was the last day of the exhibit so I was lucky to catch it. The exhibit was great- they had all of the final portraits lined up all in a line. They also had several of the earlier versions as well as the sketches that he used to overlay some of the photo screened prints. Warhol selected 10 Jews that he felt best represented the 20th Century- I was able to see the long list that he chose from. What I had not realized is how much Warhol worked to get the "perfect" print. In the exhibit, they showed that he made upwards of 25 images changing the backgrounds, colors, and textures before he settled upon each one. They had a video slide show showing these different iterations of each photo and I liked some of them better than the ones he chose. My personal favorite was the one of Louis Brandeis. Brandeis was the 1st Jew to be on the Supreme Court and the university I attend is named in his honor.

All I know is that he would be so disappointed by the actions that are being enacted by Brandeis right now. The university has been hit HARD by the declining economy, especially since many donors gave their money to Madoff so the President decided to SELL off the amazing collection at the Art Museum. What a tragedy! I still hope that it doesn't happen because it really goes against why Brandeis was established- to provide a venue to explore learning in ALL its forms.

The architecture of the building is AMAZING. They completely redesigned it and it reopened this past summer. Daniel Liebskind was the architect and he managed to maintain the old architecture of the building while incorporating modern elements into it.

Its hard to tell from the photo, but he added the blue glass structures to the building in the form of the Hebrew characters L'Chaim meaning "To Life." I love this pyramid structure that houses the gift shop