A weekend in NYC

 Hello friends! Here is the highly requested New York City trip blog from yours truly. So basically I just popped up for a weekend to meet up with some friends from CTY because YOLO. I'm going to break down everything I did because I know people like every single little crummy detail (especially the Marrs).

I got in around 7:30 and my roommate (Claire) from CTY who lives in the UES picked me up from LGA with her whole family because they were coming down from their house upstate (rich is an understatement). We then went to Korean barbeque in Flushing, which was my FIRST time at kbbq because Mom doesn't eat meat, so... But anyways it is also on the NYT top 100 restaurant list and I think is number 91 or something for those who want to look it up cause I KNOW y'all are nosy. Anyways it was very good and then we went to her FIVE bathroom apartment on Lexington and 85th. The rundown is basically two people live in the UES and two people live in NJ, so the NJ people came in for the day and then the three people coming in from other places stayed with the New Yorkers. People arrived the next morning and all seven of us convened at Claire's house for Pio Pio Peruvian chicken because one of the guys is Peruvian and wanted it. It was VERY tender and the sauces were chef's kiss. We played some Avalon (a card game) and some poker as one guy brought his whole poker case and everything. Then we went out and first down to Chinatown. First stop was some bubble tea place that I do not remember the name of but that was very good. Then we went to Mei Lei Wah, which is a viral pork bun place that originates in Taipei. I got a pineapple pork bun (ikr genius combination) that had PERFECTLY tender meat and a PERFECTLY crispy pineapple crust things. Also, if you've been to Asia you know that the pineapple buns don't actually have any pineapple in them and only slightly taste like pineapple. After that we were very hot, so we made our way back up to Claire's apartment and played more poker (Texas Hold Em for those who are curious). We went back out to get Los Tacos (I got pork and it was SO GOOD) and then went to the Magnolia Bakery in Grand Central to get the banana pudding because I've been obsessed with banana pudding recently. TBH, it was good and really buttery but ICL (means "I can't lie" for you older people) it's definitely overhyped. Then we went back to Claire's and were basically just playing poker and Cards Against Humanity (its like Apples to Apples but insanely inappropriate and 17+) until 11 when the guys left to go to their apartment. The next day we got Pop Up bagels, the bagels that went viral for the "rip and dip". Very good bagel. We played even more games (we were in a game theory class at CTY, ok!) and then went to Grand Central again to drop someone off at Amtrak before going to a soup dumpling place called Nan Xiang, I think. We raced back to the UES and I picked up four Levain cookies to bring back (a condition that I MUST go from Mother Dearest) and then I grabbed my stuff from Claire's apartment before taking the subway up to 125th and the bus over to LGA. I must say, the buses are very annoying in NYC because they're always late because of traffic. Like, I was standing in the BOILING SUN for 20 minutes because it was late. Anyways, I had lots of fun and am planning to go back in October!

There is the post for you nosy people (and merely interested parties) and I hope you enjoyed it!

Visiting three continents on one trip

During our trip, we visited Europe and Asia (Istanbul straddles the two continents) and Africa. Our journey home started with a 1.5 hour drive from Wayo Green Camp to the Lobo airstrip. Along the way, we came across a herd of elephants, led by a matriarch and including several youngsters.

We flew in a small Cessna to the Seronera airstrip, where we transferred to a Dash-8 to fly to Arusha. From there, we took another small Cessna for a short hop across the city to the Kilimanjaro Airport. We stayed at Kili Villa that night, where a chef prepared samosas for snack and a nicely plated pork chop or fish for dinner. As we were the only guests that night, it was like having a our own house with a chef. We were picked up at 1:30 am for our airport transfer. We endured a 7-hour flight to Istanbul and then an 11-hour flight to Washington, DC. We are now back home and have six more days of the anti-malarial medication Malarone ahead of us.

Sick in the Serengeti

On Thursday, we drove to the airstrip in Manyara and caught a 12-seater Cessna to the Lobo airstrip in the northern Serengeti. On the way to Wayo Green Camp, we saw a male lion napping on a rock. With some urging from Siena, he got up briefly and relocated for more napping. A nearby lioness didn't budge. Siena spied a giraffe right along the road.

My diarrhea started in the morning, and it struck Erich and Siena in the evening. Jasper avoided the illness, possibly because he was on antibiotics for an infection of a wisdom tooth pit.

Only Jasper and I were well enough to go on a long walk the next morning, while Erich and Siena remained in the tent. We went with a guide who carried a rifle and a park ranger who also carried a rifle. We found a Marabou stork who let us get unusually close while it fished in a pond. We patiently waited and watched it catch and eat three fish. Jasper followed it to get photos, reassuring it, "Bro, I'm not trying to steal your fish."

During the rest of the walk, we saw tons of zebra, wildebeest, topi, elands, and other antelopes. At one point, the ranger thought he heard a lion, but it was an ostrich, who makes a similar sound. We found the ostrich, and he ran away at the sound of us crunching through the grass. On foot, we were able to hear and smell the animals in a way we couldn't from a vehicle. We observed that zebras bray and bark, the savanna is covered in poop, bones are scattered and picked clean by hyenas, and hundreds of zebras and wildebeest make a stampeding sound when running away from us.

After 6+ miles and 5 hours, we returned to camp for lunch. The marinated, grilled skewers of cauliflower and paneer, panzanella, and leafy salad with mangoes was one of the best lunches we've ever had.

In the late afternoon, Jasper and I went for another walk with the guide and ranger and saw more zebras and antelopes, along with two hyenas. Jasper did push ups outside his tent when we returned.

As Siena missed two meals and had a fever, the camp manager was worried about our health and arranged for us to speak to a doctor. She recommended azithromycin and Imodium for all, along with anti-nausea and anti-cramping meds for Siena. In the end, we administered our Z-pack to Siena and another one, donated by a couple at the camp, to Erich. The three of us took Imodium as well. The camp prepared chicken broth for Erich and Siena. She was reluctant to eat but tried some. I was very happy to hear her reaction, "Why is this chicken broth so good?"

After a full night's sleep, everyone was feeling better this morning. All four of us went for a guided walk up to a ridge opposite the camp. From this vantage, we could see herds of wildebeest, zebras, elands, and topi. We also stopped by a warthog den, termite mound, and freshly killed wildebeest.

During our afternoon walk, we came across a giraffe, who took off running as soon as she noticed us. We later spotted her with her baby. We also found a lot of baboons.

Ngorongoro

On Tuesday morning, we toured the market in Arusha. Some of the vendors fist bumped Jasper as we walked past. The produce, legumes, and live and dead meats were dazzling.

We drove a few hours on a highway and then on very bumpy dirt roads to Crater's Edge Lodge on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater, which has some of the richest and densest wildlife in the world. Our rooms overlooked an expansive view into the crater.

At this point, I realized my phone battery had swelled and posed a fire risk. I had to ditch it at the lodge to avoid taking it on a flight, so we are now relying on others' photos.

We had a nicely plated, four course dinner and then retired to our rooms, which had been heated by fireplace and warm water bottles in the bed to take the chill off the cool temperature at 7600 feet.

The next morning, we headed into the crater at 6 am to beat the crowds. We saw gazelles, zebras, buffalo, hippopotamuses, lions, wildebeest, elephants, hyenas, ostriches, and more. It was thrilling to see them in their natural habitat!

Later in the day, we went for a hike on the rim led by a ranger who carried a rifle and taught us about the flora and fauna. After breakfast this morning, I found our door blocked by a zebra.

We're now at an airstrip waiting for our flight into the Serengeti. I'm not sure if we'll have wifi there. We bade farewell to our guide, Simba.

Arusha National Park

On our last day in Istanbul we took the ferry over to the Asian side of the city and ambled through a market with lots of shops and restaurants. We had fish wraps and a fish sandwich at a tiny stall where Jasper was convinced that we would get food poisoning from the lettuce. In the afternoon we caught our flight to Arusha in Tanzania.

We arrived in Arusha at 2:00 a.m. and went to the Rivertrees Inn to fall into bed. After a slow morning of breakfast workouts and naps we met our guide for a canoeing trip in nearby Arusha National Park. Along the bumpy road we stopped to see buffalo, warthogs, antelopes, baboons, a blue monkey, and giraffes. Here I'm just showing a photo of the humans I saw.

We canoed across Small Momella Lake, one person and one guide per boat. We saw egrets, cormorants, a python, bushbuck antelopes, water antelopes. and giraffes. On the way back out of the park, we had to run several gauntlets of baboons on the road.

Back at the inn, we reunited with Erich, who had just completed his hike down Mount Kilimanjaro. Over dinner of Swahili style tilapia and a lamb pilaf, he regaled us with tales of the challenges and joys of climbing the mountain.

Istanbul and Constantinople

On Thursday afternoon, Jasper, Siena, and I drove to Dulles and caught a flight to Istanbul. Erich is currently climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and we will all meet in Tanzania in two days. We arrived at our hotel in Sultanahmet around dinner time and found a nearby touristy restaurant for cheese pide and kabobs. Our hotel room has a king bed and a small twin for the "kid" in our party. It's about five-and-a-half feet long, so as suggested by Siena, I'm sleeping on it since I'm the one who actually fits on it.

This morning we had our free breakfast on the hotel's terrace and then went to the rooftop to take in the splendid view of the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Bosporus Strai, and regions beyond.

Walking through the Grand Bazaar, with its 4,000 shops, was overwhelming. We then smelled our way to the Spice Bazaar, which was smaller but still overwhelming.

For lunch, I found a place with an amazing fish wrap sandwich. It had grilled mackerel, a lot of fresh lettuce, delicious sauces and spices, all in a flatbread that was also grilled for only $5.

In the afternoon we joined a guided tour to see and learn about the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, and the Basilica Cistern, which range between 500 and 1500 years old. It was very hot, and we welcomed the chance to visit the cool underground cistern.

For dinner we went to Mr. Dumpling along a pedestrian-only restaurant street and then tried kadayif, which is made of shredded pastry dough, pistachios, and syrup, chocolate baklava, and another pastry recommended to us by an employee, at a famous dessert shop. Jasper got gelato afterwards, too.

Seven-hour ride on Amtrak

Siena took the train back from Baltimore to Roanoke on Friday afternoon/evening. I bought her an "adult" ticket, claiming she was 16, so she could actually travel by herself. Amtrak allows 13-15-year-olds to travel by themselves but only if they arrive before 9:30 pm. Her train was due to arrive at 10:13 pm. She showed her ticket to the conductor, and no one asked for an ID, so it all worked out fine. She complained about the long ride, but a flight would have saved only an hour because there are no direct flights from Baltimore.

She had a blast at CTY and really bonded with her classmates, so much so that she decided to use her miles to fly to New York City for a mini-reunion over the weekend of 1 August. She showed me worksheets and notes from the class; it was very interesting, high-level math about matrices, logic, combinatorics, and calculus.

We hit Plato's Closet yesterday to stock up on khaki-colored clothing for our safari. Three of us (Erich is at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro) went to dinner at Eastern Divide Brewery. Today, she went to Our Daily Bread for brunch with Grandma, while Jasper was working, and she made salt rolls in the afternoon. Each one is loaded with a pat of butter in the middle, in addition to the butter in the dough. Jasper is working two more days, and Siena is planning to work a few days, go to the gym, and take her driver's ed test before we leave on Thursday.

Domino's celebration

In the midst of pain and a diet of food that required minimal chewing due to having his wisdom teeth removed, Jasper declared that he would celebrate his return to normalcy by ordering a pizza from Domino's. The time arrived approximately 10 days post-surgery. He used various coupons and deals to get two pizzas, a box of garlic bread bites, and a box of cinnamon bread bites for $22. After eating half a pizza, he decided that maybe he actually preferred food with higher quality ingredients.

We spent Saturday afternoon cleaning up the model train table and preparing to donate it to an appreciative recipient. He's keeping the trains he received from Grammy and Grampy many years ago.

He has been working up to 40 hours per week, getting a new checking account, getting a credit card, and preparing for college. He got his first choice of a pre-orientation program: Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO). I believe they'll be going hiking, backpacking, and/or canoeing.

Siena called to tell me that her Mathematics of Competitive Behavior class has a government and economy and that she ran for president and won. She gets to issue one executive order during the term and is planning to implement inflation today, so I hope your investments are heavily in inflation-protected bonds. Unlike other CTY camps she has attended (Roger Williams near Providence and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles), the one at Johns Hopkins allows the students to roam off campus. While cruising the streets of Baltimore last weekend, she found a $50 bill. She told a counselor about it because she rationalized that it probably belonged to an international CTY kid...who else would carry a $50 bill? No one ever stepped forward to claim it, so she got to keep it. She'll take the train back to Roanoke on Friday.

Losing wisdom

Jasper had his wisdom teeth removed last week. The oral surgeon prescribed a mix of ibuprofen and other pain killers on a schedule that required him to wake up in the middle of the night. He's eating lots of apple sauce and other soft food.

Siena flew to Baltimore to attend a three-week session at CTY. She's taking Mathematics of Competitive Behavior. Apparently, when the 14 students in her class were asked why they were taking the class, most people expressed their interest in learning game theory. She said she wanted to be able to beat her mom at games all the time. That's our girl!

Surfing in San Diego

We followed Jasper's activities in Taiwan mainly through his and Lucas' Instagram posts. We discerned that they hiked Elephant Mountain, visited Taipei 101, journeyed to the town of Jiufen that inspired the movie "Spirited Away," stopped by Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall, biked along the river and through National Taiwan University, slurped dumplings at Din Tai Fung, went out for hot pot twice, downed an enormous breakfast of soy milk and Chinese donuts, cruised the night markets, drank cocktails at a rooftop bar, and mogged. He returned on the 16th and was able to go standby on some earlier connecting flights, eliminating two 8-hour layovers and making it home at least 12 hours earlier than expected. Here's a screen grab from Jasper's Instagram:

Meanwhile, Erich returned from Idaho, and Siena and I left for San Diego last Saturday. We're at a Residence Inn within walking distance of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, just south of UC San Diego. On Sunday, we ran down to La Jolla Shores Beach to scope out where she would be attending surf camp for the week. We went to H-Mart for lunch in the Korean food hall, opting for eel stone pot bibimbap. For dinner, we waited in a long line at The Taco Stand in La Jolla and then waited even longer for our tacos. They were good and cheap. I dropped her off at surf camp on Monday morning. After it ended around noon, she picked up a sandwich at The Cheese Shop and then walked 2.5 miles back to the hotel, uphill and lugging a wet wetsuit. Grammy and Grampy arrived that afternoon and took her to the Birch Aquarium.

We met at the Grill at Torrey Pines Lodge for dinner. They picked her up from surf camp the next two days, and they went to the fancy UTC Mall for Din Tai Fung and shopping. We hit El Puesto on Taco Tuesday for half-price tacos.

I worked a short day on Juneteenth and picked her up from her last day of surf camp. She enjoyed it a lot and expressed interest in doing it again.

We went to La Jolla Cove for lunch at a Thai restaurant and then strolled the coast amid the stench of pelicans and sea lions. She tried on pants at Prana and picked up a sweatshirt at a souvenir shop. We drove to Torrey Pines Reserve to hike along the bluff, enjoy the sunny ocean views, and glance at the rare pines that Erich would have helped us appreciate more. In the evening, we returned to La Jolla Shores to meet a bunch of co-workers and their kids for a pool party and pizza. Today, we're planning to track down Taiwanese shaved ice and then grab omakase for dinner.

Siena's first job

My lab needed to update our chemical inventory, which required tracking ~100 products in the lab, finding the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) online for each one, and uploading the SDS to a folder. To optimize my students' and postdocs' time, I asked them to take pictures of the products and said a fairy would take care of the rest. Siena is the fairy. I hired her as a Virginia Tech employee at $13/hour to work on this. It took her about 4 hours. My project manager AJ needed help with disposing of hundreds of chemicals, so we enlisted her to help with this task, too. She has to enter information into a database, print a label, and attach the label to the item. She complained that the work is boring and said she should be paid more. Ha! I responded that the alternative was asking customers, "Do you want fries with that?" Upsides of the job are that she's learning some chemistry, and the hours are totally flexible. Her main activities of the day are exercising, taking summer school PE online, and studying The Art of Problem Solving to prepare for the American Mathematics Competition with an eye on the Research Science Institute in a couple of years (all of this was completely her idea). On a related note, she requested a subscription to Physics Today, a magazine of the American Institute of Physics. She's serious!

Last week, she accompanied me to Washington, DC for a work trip. My research team was presenting some interactive exhibits at a science-fair like event. For those who are curious, it will be described in a forthcoming article in The New York Times. She acted as a runner for us while we were setting up. She made two trips to CVS to pick up supplies, and most importantly, she walked to Levain Bakery to bring back half a dozen cookies to keep us fueled. She even joined us for happy hour, mainly because she wanted to try the excellent Georgian food at Supra. While I was busy the next day, she hung out at the Air and Space Museum.

Jasper is currently somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. He left early this morning for the airport with his friend Lucas, and they flew through Dulles and San Francisco on their way to Taipei. Here are some more graduation photos that we just received: