How to Travel from Moscow to Calgary: An Illustrated Adventure
So here’s Calgary, right?
Here’s how far Calgary is from Moscow.
How do you think I would fly from Moscow to Calgary?
Well, the nearest international airport is in Spokane, which is here:
Reasonable route:
Would you agree?
Well, here’s how you actually get from Moscow to Calgary:
Dafuq, Alaska Airlines?
Also, all the layovers in SeaTac are like SIX HOURS LONG. Like I haven’t spent enough time in that airport.
(I know, I know, pointless complaining.)
Maps (they don’t love you like I love youuuuuuuuuuu…)
Well this was cool to do.
What the colors represent:
- Red: states/provinces where I’ve not spent much time or seen very much.
- Amber: states/provinces where I’ve at least slept and seen some sights.
- Blue: states/provinces I’ve spent a lot of time in or seen a fair amount of.
- Green: states/provinces I’ve spent a great deal of time in on multiple visits.
I like how I’ve been all over the West Coast and the Great Lakes area, but very few other places (I went to Boston for that APS conference in May 2010; my grandparents used to live in St. Louis).
I also realized after making this that I’ve also been to Washington, D.C., but since that’s its own thing and not technically in a state, I decided to leave it as it is.
If you click here, you can make one of your own!
It’s like the portal to Crayola’s secret lair
That’s the prettiest freaking thing I’ve ever seen. And it’s in Yellowstone, too. I was FREAKING THERE when I was a kid; why wasn’t I shown this natural wonder of spectacular gaudiness?!
When I die, please chuck my ashes in there. If it’s not illegal. Actually, throw half of me in there, the other half around Leibniz’ grave.
Incidentally, at my funeral, no one is allowed to wear black. Neon that place up, I want it looking like a rave party.
Deal? Deal.
More airport shenanigans
Blogging from Sea-Tac again! I’ve spent most of today trying to get my essay less than 10 pages. There’s no way in hell that’s happening, so my workshop group’s just going to have to deal with 11 pages. They’ll live.
Cutting this is making me sad!
Anyway.
So you know how Word can be set to automatically change :) and :( into actual little smilies/frownies? Screenshot:
Did you know it can also make a “meh “face?
I was typing something in my essay a few hours ago and I accidentally pressed the : and | in conjunction and this little dude popped up:
I’d never seen him before!
Am I like totally behind the curve on this, or is this new to any of you guys, too?
Haha, sorry. I needed to take a little break from working on stuff. I also have to churn out NaNo nonsense later today as well.
WOO! Three hours left!
Airport Wi-Fi FTW
Ahoy, fellow internet-goers! Claudia here, blogging from scenic Sea-Tac Airport.
Currently, the weather’s pitching a hissy fit and it’s foggy and cold and wet (SURPRISE SURPRISE). The bottoms of my pant legs are wet, my hair looks horrible, but I’m going to see my mom in approximately five hours!
PARTY TIME!
I need to study for calc/write my essay/do my trig homework/grade papers/get lectures ready/get homeworks ready/email people, but I’m going to just draw instead.
TAKE THAT, RESPONSIBILITY!
Travellin’
If I were to rank the places I’ve been in terms of how much time I’ve spent there, it would go as follows:
- Moscow, ID
- Vancouver, BC
- London, ON
- SeaTac International Airport
Seriously. 99% of the time I fly, I have to fly through Seattle. 99% of those times, my layover is 3+ hours. Today, it was about 4 ½. It’s cool, though. I like that airport. They’ve got these awesome rocking chairs in the main food court thingy and they face a huge window looking out at all the runways/planes. They also rotate the artwork exhibits that are in the terminal hallways quite often, and they’re always pretty great.
ANYWAY.
I’m headed to Moscow! I’m actually in SeaTac right now; I’ll be home in three hours or so. Our old gang needs to get together and “party” in the basement.
And now I’m going to work on some stats stuff. I slacked off majorly and didn’t start my Stats Weekly posts at the beginning of the year (for various reasons); I’ll try to get it up for the midpoint of the year.
Vroom!
2011, you need to end
I swear the plane from Seattle to Tucson took a detour to Miami, ‘cause that was the longest flight EVER.
But now I’m here. It’s like 60 degrees. It’s really, really nice to see my mom again.
I’ll take some pics; they’ll be up soon.
Edit: PICS!
I Coulda Been a Container
I’ve been up since 4 AM Eastern Time yesterday (Saturday). It is now 1:30 AM Pacific Time on Sunday. London to Chicago to Las Vegas to Seattle to Pullman to Moscow. Six hours in Las Vegas.
Party in the USA.
In other news, the Chicago O’Hare Airport has some pretty badass lighting going down in Terminal 2. Evidence:
If I ever end up with tons and tons of money? This. On every ceiling in my house. 24/7.
30-Day Meme – Day 23: What your last dream you can remember was about.
I had this really weird H. G. Wells-esque dream about a scientist who is somehow able to go into the future like 10,000 years. He finds out that a disease had destroyed a whole generation’s worth of humans’ eyesight and, for some reason, all subsequent generations’ eyesight as well. Therefore, everyone he meets is “blind” (and their eyes are bound over by these weird webs of skin and eyelashes explained loosely by crazy awesome dream science) and they become fascinated with him when he describes to them this thing called “sight.”
Not unlike the “in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” adage, the scientist soon realizes that these individuals (who are living in a land that has once again become rich in resources that are scarce in the time of the scientist) can be taken advantage of because they cannot see him. He begins to pilfer from them, lightly at first, and then begins to eventually shape and alter parts of their routines and culture in order to get them to procure for him all these valuable resources. Little does the scientist know, however, these people have developed this sort of “extra sense” that allows them to “see” what the scientist is doing to them. They wait and play along with him for awhile to get him comfortable in the environment, then a bunch of them eventually capture the scientist and he is subject to quite a graphic and disturbing bit of torture involving the people injecting all these weird chemicals into the scientist’s eyes. It was…odd.
That’s all.
We’re in ON!
WOOHOO, we finally made it!
My mom and I got to London this afternoon (no trouble at the border, though my student visa is going to be a pain), drove around, found my dorm, unloaded all my crap in seemingly record time, experienced the wonder that is the Real Canadian Superstore yet again, got a desk at WalMart, and are now hanging out in my dorm room. Which, by the way, seems nothing like a dorm room and more like my old apartment.
I like it here so far.
Pictures to come whenever I get everything organized and find my camera cable.
Are we there yet?
Today was a long day. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Right now we’re in Kalamazoo, MI and are going to make a break for the border tomorrow.
Oh yeah, and this:
McDonald’s in Spartaaaaaaaaaaa!
OH YEAH, and I realized that I suck at life and forgot to post July’s music stats way back when. So here they are.
Graph of genres:
Average song length: 3:19
The Five Star: Good Life by OneRepublic
HOLY FREAKING PRESIDENTIAL BUTT GOBLINS
DUDE.
MOUNT RUSHMORE.
GO SEE IT.
CAPS LOCK.
Look at how freaking spectacular this is:
Look at their eyes. Closer pic:
This was the greatest thing ever. I totally recommend going if you’re ever anywhere near Rapid City, South Dakota.
We also went to the Presidential Wax Museum, which was creepy and impressive at the same time.
It’s MILLARD FILLMORE!!!!
Fun times.
Oh, and for anyone wondering, this is what Sean was referring to in his comment on my Facebook post:
Doesn’t the dictionary always put pearls before swine?
So within the last month I have been to:
– the largest state
– the most populous state
– the least populous state
Today, in addition to a touch of Wyoming, we went through the entirety of Montana and a bit of South Dakota (we’re hanging in Rapid City right now).
We also were passed by approximately 4 million motorcyclists who were on their way to the big Sturgis Rally.
Proof:
And guess what? We’re going to Mount Rushmore tomorrow. FREAKING EXCITED. I’ve always wanted to see it and I finally get to.
YAY!
OFF!
And so the adventure begins.
Moscow (Idaho) to London (Ontario).
Today we drove from Moscow to Bozeman, MT. My mom and I went to this trippy retro Dairy Queen for dinner (it was like a car-hop but without the cars; we walked up to the outdoor window and ordered and they called us up). We were there for about five minutes before it started freaking POURING with tons of thunder and lightning. It was pretty awesome.
Here are two other pics.
Last day in Moscow
Total re-addiction to OK Cupid = accomplished.
Oh, and here’s the route for the next six days:
Wednesday: Moscow, ID to Bozeman, MT (~450 miles)
Thursday: Bozeman, MT to Rapid City, SD (~460 miles)
Friday: MOUNT RUSHMORE, OMFG (PRESIDENTS!)
Saturday: Rapid City, SD to Rochester, MN (~575 miles)
Sunday: Rochester, MN to Kalamazoo, MI (~494 miles)
Monday: Kalamazoo, MI to London, ON (~266 miles)
Hob-Nobbing with the Elites of the Ship
Wow.
So apparently on every cruise, Princess picks out the 40 people who have logged the greatest amount of cruising days, gathers them in a room for a super deluxe fancy luncheon, and thus creates a super concentrated cluster of snobbery at sea.
This time around, my dad was invited (he’s gone on 13 Princess cruises, somewhere around 130 days or so) and took me as his guest.
These are people who have traveled the world via cruises, and they were exchanging all these stories about the African Cape, South Asian adventures, language mix-ups and faux pas in Europe, and airport disasters.
At one point, one of the ladies at our table turns to me, looks at my obviously inferior gold card*, and goes “and where have you cruised, young lady?”
I was like, “uh…Alaska.”
Lady: “where else?”
Me: “…Alaska.”
Lady: “Oh. Well, that’s nice.”
She’d been cruising for like 200 days total or something.
Anyway, it was this super swanky thing at which I totally didn’t belong, but it’s interesting to see how people with the means to spend
that much time cruising actually interact with one another. Some were total snobs about it, others seemed like perfectly reasonable and nice people.
Ooh, and I also went to see a cooking demonstration put on by the head chef and head Maitre d’. Picture!
They were funny.
Tomorrow: Victoria, BC!
*You get a blue card if this is your first Princess cruise, You get a silver card if you’ve cruised twice, a gold card if you’ve cruised more than twice but less than 15 (I think) times, and a black card for 15+ cruises. There were like three gold card people there.
Monday 25
So because I suck at life, I totally forgot to take a video today before it got dark. But I did bike (stationary, of course) 10 miles and ran 5 miles early this morning. I would have run for a longer stretch of time, but the little recreation center on the ship was getting super crowded and I figured I should give up my treadmill to someone else.
And today they had CANTALOUPE out, which made me super happy ‘cause I had trouble finding fresh cantaloupe in Vancouver and I freaking love it.
Tonight was formal night. Here is a pic of my pretty dress that I bought for $7 at Goodwill. Goodwill rules.
THAT IS ALL! Ketchikan tomorrow.
HEY
California to Seattle today. I’m sitting in the Red Lion hotel near the Seattle airport, screwing around and waiting for tomorrow when we take a limo to the ship. Because I have internet for what is possibly the last time in a week or so, I shall use it to give you some facts about the cruise ship we’ll be taking as well as some facts about Princess itself:
– The Princess line was made famous in the show The Love Boat.
– Princess has 16 operating ships. Their next ship to be put to work, the Royal Princess, is scheduled to sail in May 2013.
– Princess offers cruises that involve crossing the Atlantic as well as cruises lasting over 150 days that go all around the world.
– The Sapphire Princess was built in 2004 and holds up to 2,670 passengers (plus 1,100 crew).
– It has 18 decks, is 951 feet long, and cost $400 million.
– Its sister ship is the Diamond Princess.
Check out the Princess website to search their cruises. It’s fun!
TRAVEL
WOO, off to California for the first stretch of my journey up and down the west coast of the United States! My dad and I got bumped to 1st class, which was awesome. I’ve never flown first class before, and there was enough leg room or me to stretch my legs out all the way and barely reach the seat in front of me. Seriously (though I admit I’m pretty freaking short).
Also, my grandma (who is 84 now) hasn’t changed in appearance in like the past 30 years. If I age like my father’s side at all, I’m going to look exactly the same throughout the latter half of my life.
OKAY PLAN CHANGES
OKAY PEOPLE, it looks like my plans for the second half of July have drastically changed. As you may know if you keep up with my blogging, my dad’s father (my grandpa down in California) died in January. Due to the suddenness and unexpected nature of his death, we were unable to procure me a ticket to go down and be present for the funeral. Because of this, my dad and I promised my grandma that we would find a time this summer to go down and be with her for a few days. Therefore, my dad informed me today that from the 19th to the 22nd, we will be heading down to Brea to spend some time with Grandma Mahler.
THEN he informs me that he was able to snatch up two last-minute tickets on the Sapphire Princess for a week-long cruise to Alaska. He wants to get his Princess black card (you get super perks if you’ve cruised for a certain number of days) and I freaking love cruising, so that was a nice and unexpected surprise. We’ll be flying to Seattle straight from Brea on the 22nd, spend the night in the Emerald City, and then board the Sapphire Princess and be cruisin’ from the 23rd to the 31st.
Awesome? Hell yes. Though I am a bit upset that such a large chunk of my time in Moscow is being cut, who the hell can complain about getting to travel? I also want to see my grandma; it’s been a long time.
In This Blog: Claudia Jumps Out of a Plane
Dudes…that was so amazing.
My mom, for a late birthday present to me, bought me a tandem jump at Skydive Arizona today.
Jumping out of an airplane at 13,000 feet is a lot more peaceful than people would generally imagine, I think.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, here is my Facebook album of related pictures. Added pics here, ’cause I wanted to!
If any of you ever get the opportunity to skydive, freaking do it.
Yay.
Claudia’s Arizona Adventures: Day 1
Aaaaaand now I’m in Arizona.
I’ve spent like 10 hours on planes/in airports within the last 36 hours, which is more than I’ve slept in the same period of time.
I saw the stars tonight for the first time in like 4 weeks. I like it down here already.
I also apparently look about 16, as I was stopped three separate times today by people needing to “check if I was old enough” to do various things, including flying alone (I’m not kidding), getting a complimentary cocktail (for using my dad’s Horizon Gold Member miles, haha), and by another stewardess who, for whatever reason, decided it important to inquire about my age.
Fun day.
Claudia’s Trans-Canadian Adventures: Day 3
So there won’t be any Canadian Mall installment this week, mainly because I’m nowhere near a mall and am instead in an airport.
So ladies and gentlemen, I give you Canadian Airport – London International Airport!
Yeah.
It’s like Moscow/Pullman, but a little bigger. And the weather changes in a nanosecond.
So I’m flying to Toronto (45 minute flight), sitting around in the Toronto Airport for about five hours, flying nonstop to Vancouver (5 hour flight? Something like that), then leaving tomorrow morning to fly to Phoenix to visit my mom and her boyfriend Kurt.
It’s a good thing I like flying.
And chilling in airports.
Talk to you all when I get reliable internet at some point…not sure when that will be.
Claudia’s Trans-Canadian Adventures: Day 2
Dear University of Western Ontario,
You are a creepy hybrid and I think I’m in love with you.
Seriously, both the campus and town are some sort of freakish, almost impossible combination of Moscow/UI and Vancouver/UBC.
I like it here. The bus system seems reasonable, it’s not raining, people actually have their own senses of style instead of all wearing the same coat, the same boots, and the same scarves, and…oh yeah: THE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT FREAKING RULES.
It’s the second largest in Canada and has a tier 2 ranking for philosophy of science (which is pretty awesome, considering there is only one school in tier 1). There’s also a special institute called the Rotman Institute of Philosophy to which you can apply and get a special office in a separate part of the building with a bunch of other phil of sci dorks. How awesome is that?!
Other bonuses:
- It’s not raining.
- The rec center. Holy crap, it’s amazing.
- You can RENT AN OFFICE IN THE LIBRARY. Your own library home. Holy Jesus crackers.
- Prices! They’re reasonable!
- There’s a Pita Pit here. There’s one in Vancouver, too, but it’s downtown and too far to go for sexy pitas.
- It’s not raining.
- The local stations seem to really like Futurama.
- You’re encouraged to take classes outside of the phil department if they apply to you.
- They have a marching band!
- The layout of the grad student housing rooms is almost identical to the layout of my apartment here.
- Did I mention it’s not raining?
It was a good day.
It looks like it can be a good future.
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