Hakuna Matata

My friend Dmitriy went home to Russia on Saturday. We had one last sushi fest on Newbury Street and a walk through the Public Gardens. It has been fun (and challenging) trying to remember my Russian. It is also different trying to have conversations about things other than religion. ;) Dmitriy works very hard and dreams big. He will do great things in his life. Good luck!
Saturday night, I was able to go see The Lion King with my friend Dave. Disney does incredible things. The costumes and scenery were unbelievable. The music is so much fun too.

Also this weekend, my friend Becca, who is getting married, asked me to come try some hairstyles for her daughter Madeline. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Carnaval

As if we weren't cold enough in Boston, a group of us decided to make a little weekend trip to Quebec City in Canada. It was Carnaval time and Valentine's Day weekend, so perfect timing. We left Friday night, stopping at the Methuen Family Restaurant for dinner. Yeah, enough said. The random comment award was for, on seeing a road sign, "I hate driving through moose." :)

Our first stop on Saturday morning was at the Hotel de Glace, which was celebrating their 10 year anniverary. Can I just say amazing! The only other ice hotel is in Sweden, with this one being the largest igloo in North America. The rate to actually stay the night is $300 - 400 for a plain room or $600 for a suite, with the most expensive room being $1000, but you get a private sauna. Before you go to bed for the night, you first get yourself really hot in the sauna, then crawl into the sleeping bags rated for -30 degrees C. The temperature does stay at -4 or -5 degrees C inside, regardless of outside temperature. You need to sleep in synthetics (or naked... I hope they're cleaned) to keep the air inside the bag warm.

Charlotte, Mollie, Leah, Rachel, Alison, Sarah, Camber - We asked this older gentleman who spoke French to take the picture... it took a few tries to figure out where the button on my camera is, then discovered it was on the video setting. Oops!

All those people are gathered around a SLIDE! which yes, we all tried out. Snow clothes are actually quite slippery and we zoomed down quite quickly.
The ice they use doesn't come from the river or lake, but is made in a factory and shipped to the site. For the decorative ice, osmosis is used to remove all the impurities from the water and make the ice clear. It is then shipped in big blocks that are used to make furniture like this.

This is the beautiful chapel in which they have around 35 weddings each year. Because the building melts every year and is not permanent, they can only have government officiaters, not religious. This means that most of the weddings are gay weddings.

There is even a nightclub at the ice hotel, serving drinks in what else but shot glasses made of ice. At least you know your drink will be cold.

The lights used are LED lights so they don't give off heat. Some of the rooms have fireplaces. Great to keep you warm, right? Wrong... they would melt the building, so they are double insulated to not give off heat. Just for ambience. Many of the rooms were decorated with different themes and were so fun. This one was my favorite, with ocean animals sculpted into the walls and underwater looking lights to complete the feel.
Next, we headed to the actual Carnaval. A lot of people were there braving the freezing temperatures and there were actually long lines for everything. We did see some fun ice sculptures, then went on rafting... you know, like sledding but in a giant raft.

I love this picture of us waiting for the raft. Mollie's hair was caught by the frigid wind just at the right second. It was cold on top of that hill!

This is an ice castle. Cool, but not so exciting after the ice hotel.

Parking was scarce and traffic was pretty heavy, so we ended up getting separated from the other car and had lunch on our own. (Just as a side note, portion size in Canada is so much better. My meal was actually the right size for one person and it cost less. It took a second to not feel cheated when the food looks so much smaller on your plate, then common sense settled in and it was fine.) We ended up finding eachother at the carnaval, but they had already done the carnaval, so we split up again deciding to meet later. Darn expensive international cell phone rates! It is times like this that I wonder what I ever did without a cell phone. I can't believe I went all the way through college, being very socially active in a sorority, without the ability to call anyone away from home. So crazy! Anyway, we were freezing very soon and were ready to leave, but had to wait to meet up with the group. Brrr!

For dinner that night, we decided to try poutine, which is a specialty in Quebec. We found a place called Ashtons and headed over to try it out. My Canadian friend told me that it is the ultimate comfort food. Little did I know that she thinks its gross. French fries and cheese curds covered in gravy. Would you try it? I actually didn't think it was bad. ;)After dinner, we made a pit stop at the local grocery store, Loblaw. I'm pretty sure the owner's name is Bob. Arrested Development anyone?

The next day we walked around Quebec City. It was seriously so charming, with a European feel. I loved all the cobblestone roads and stone walls and bridges.
We had delicious crepes for lunch. We needed another French treat before heading back to Boston. I didn't realize how many people in Quebec only speak French. There was a little bit of a communication gap there.
Thanks to my friend Rachel for planning this trip for us!

The drive home was pretty exciting. My right front tire kept losing air, so we had to stop several times to fill it up. Slightly worrisome. Also, when we drove up to Canada, it was well into the evening and slightly snowy, so there weren't really any police on the road. On the way home, it was early evening, but felt later because it gets dark so early in the winter. I got pulled over, but was hopeful that Mollie's skills would be able to talk us out of it. She is usually able to, unless it is a female cop. Guess who came to the window? Yep. Bad news for me.

Refinement of Polished Societies

Thanks to Winston, who, although recently married, still organizes a Pride and Prejudice ball for the singles wards. Costumes optional, but we had a good group show up.

Someone who attends MIT secured this lovely hall for us to dance the night away. Although not technically the right time period, I pulled out my Elizabeth Swan dress. Close enough, right? Keira Knightly played Elizabeth in both Pirates and P&P.

I was out of town the last time there was a dress-up ball (for which they actually had a live band). So glad I was able to enjoy this one!

Communication Error

A few weeks ago, I met a Russian boy at church. He is here studying English for four months. One night, he asked his Chilean roommate to help figure out why the wifi on his laptop wouldn't work. This roommate is very good with computers. Unfortunately, both of their English skills are limited, but luckily I happen to know a little Spanish and Russian. Can I just say it was a little bit confusing for my brain? Translating Spanish to Russian and vice versa was not easy... especially about computers when the computer's operating system is in Russian. Not something that really comes up in any of my casual conversations. There were several points when I was speaking the wrong language to the wrong person and got nothing but blank stares from the person I was talking to and laughs from the person I wasn't talking to. It reminded me of trying to talk to my Bolivian abuela in Spanish when I got home from my mission. Words would come out in Russian and she would just look at me funny. When I studied German in college, before I knew Russian, words would come out in Spanish. I think my brain only switches between English and Foreign Language... which is why they all get jumbled up.

We tried several different things to fix the computer with no luck. In the end, there was like an on/off switch on the bottom that needed to be switched. It was that easy. Go figure!

Jack's Place

My dear friend Sue is leaving Boston soon. In all her Boston years, she'd never been to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, so we decided to go as a little goodbye to her.

Pat, Me, Sue, Mollie

Some of my favorite displays were actually about Jackie. Look at the adorable cartoons she drew in her scrapbook.

Here is one of her dresses. I love her classic, elegant style.

This is Rhonda and me in front of a piece of the Berlin wall.

You know, even though I'm not a Democrat, I think that JFK was truly inspiring. But let's face it, he would probably be the most conservative Democrat in Washington right now. He did so much in such a short time that he was President, from the Space Program to the Peace Corps. I think this quote sums up well.

Elephant Walk

My company decided that since the holiday season is so busy, our annual holiday party is held in January after all the rush is over. This year, we went to the Elephant Walk on Beacon Street. They serve an interesting combination of Cambodian and French food and have adorable elephant decorations everywhere.

It's nice to have social time away from work and always good to see the wives and significant others.

The food was terrific, but dessert is always the best part. Love the little elephant cookie. :)

Socialism

My sister referred me to a survey panel a couple of years ago. The gist of it is, you get points for surveys that you take, then trade them in for great rewards... like the nano ipod Jess got for her son. (If anyone wants in on it, let me know and I can send you a referral e-mail.) As part of this panel, occasionally they'll send me products to try for a month and then tell them what I thought. I've done a facial moisturizer and this week I received a shower cream. This is the packaging it came in:
When I opened the box at work, Mike saw it and it bothered him a little. He likes to play devil's advocate in our mostly politically conservative office, and will often tout more liberal points of view. After seeing this non-descript, homogenous packaging, though, he changed his mind. He told me that if he ever started saying socialism or communism was a good idea, all I had to do was pull out this shower cream and he would concede. Can you imagine if all the products on a shelf at the grocery store looked like this? Or if there were only one product to choose from in the first place? No thank you!

Presidential Failure

When we heard that President Obama was coming to Boston for a rally for Martha Coakley, my roommates and I decided to try to see him after church... we tried to be inconspicuous, since we're really Republicans. ;) On the other side of the street were rallyers for Scott Brown.We got off the train at North Eastern and saw the beginning of the line, then after half a block, how it snaked around this plaza...... then down this block......then around the corner, down one side of this street and back around the other side......and a little bit around the corner again, where we were finally able to get at the end of the line. Needless to say, we didn't get in to see Obama, although we may have seen his limo drive by. ;)It was a little too cold to be standing out there too long in nylons and heels anyway.

Chopped

I had a Groupon at a fancy salon in the Back Bay, so I decided to go with a short style again. This was the cut I loved that my hairstylist in Utah, Melissa, gave me five years ago. (If she were still cutting hair, I would schedule appointments with her whenever I was home... but alas, I have had to do without her amazing skills since she moved to California at the same time I left for Boston.)

This is how it turned out. So fun and sassy. I know I'm going to miss ponytails though.

Welcome 2010

When I got back to Boston from my Christmas trip, all of my roommates were still gone. So I was home... alone... all by myself. So I spent much more time in my pajamas watching tv, 'cause at least then I could hear people talking. After the second day, I tried calling some friends who live nearby... but they were also still out of town. On the fourth day, it was New Year's Eve, so I tried reaching out to even more friends, but by 7 p.m. still hadn't found anyone in town where I could tag along. I resigned myself to ringing in the New Year alone, maybe even already sleeping... which I haven't done since I was little. Just about then, I got a call from Daryl, who had not been planning on celebrating New Year's Eve, but he and his roommate were willing to go to a movie. Aren't they sweet? We decided on The Princess and the Frog at Boston Commons. I got there a little early and walked around the park a bit. I had been feeling tired of the city... the hassle of parking, the terrible winter weather, not having any friends... It's funny, though, because every time I actually go into the city (working on the South Shore affords me little city time), I fall in love with it allover again.

People were walking all around for First Night Boston. Some were a little tipsy, but everyone seemed happy and excited. I could feel the energy in the air and it made me smile to just be walking through the park, listening to the live band playing at the grandstand. It was a good New Year's Eve.

I do have to show you the sorry Christmas lights in Boston:

They don't hold a candle to Temple Square!