boston bakery and beers

so this one time ellyn came to boston. and that same time jared came too. good times were had. the end. just kidding! i have SO much more to say! so first. ellyn arrived on friday, and it was very warm. i'm talking in the 50's. we didnt even need to wear jackets during the day! cray.zay.

ellyn sort of already mentioned what we did, so i will just tell a story through pictures. cause i mean, a picture is worth a thousand words, am i right? am i right?!

saturday jared arrived, and we were looking for stuff to do, so we went to the public library. i don't know how we ended up there though cause all three of us hate libraries...

sweet lanterns!

ellyn gazing into the courtyard. magnifico.

after the libs we went shopping and then to see the feltaults, but i have no pictures, so we'll just skip to sunday. for brunch we went to this famous bakery in boston called flour down by the waterfront before going to the harpoon brewery. it's an awesome place in a fun location. however. upon arrival, we found out that it was right next to the boston children's museum.

once we stepped inside flour, it became immediately apparent. kids.were.everywhere. jared's face explains it all.

i took a vid with my phone, but the sound quality sucks. i'm sorry! i'll get my secretary to transcribe the audio stat.



the food was really quite delicious though. despite the hectic atmosphere, we enjoyed the sammiches and the sticky bun (for which the bakery is famous). see below.

it's ellyn!

it's the sticky bun mentioned in the video!

after eating, we went to the harpoon brewery down the street.

all smiles!

i have to admit that it was better than the sam adams brewery tour because you got to see more of the brewing and bottling process. i think everybody should judge for themselves though by coming to boston. do it.

kegs galore
sweeeet bottling conveyer belt. i felt like i was watching "how it's made" (olivia shout out).

all the fun had to come to an end though because ellyn left us on sunday to go to nyc to go back to egypt and blah blah. (come back!) anywhoozle, while we were down by the water after the brewery jared and i bought some delicious scallops that he cooked for dinner. i was actually quite impressed with his skills. hopefully being able to cook and owning a successful snow cone stand on the beach (jared's dream) come from the same skill set. only truth and time will tell all.

note the glass with the feet.

well jared was here until tuesday so on president's day we went to chinatown for lunch and then saw a triple feature. i wanted my chinese friend leo to come with us (duh), but he was working so i asked him for a recommendation to get good chinese. he suggested the gourmet dumpling house, and it was delicious. i bring all of this up though because we had to sit next to the fish tank. and i mean literally, there were fish staring at me the whole time. we decided not to get any fish entrees...

this guy really wanted to hang out with these guys, and i really wanted these guys to stop looking at me while i ate.

well all in all, it was a great weekend. i am sorry this was so long, but i warned you i had much to say! i miss you all, and i love you very much.

post-revolution revelations.

hello, frens. after some general confusion about my whereabouts and future plans, i thought it was time to update everyone. so i'm back in cairo after being gone for what felt like a really short time when i was in the states, but now that i'm back i realize was almost a month. unreal.

at any rate, i went to athens (as y'all saw in olivia's blog) and the northeast corridor for a hot second before i left to come back. i didn't take any pictures in boston (cause i suck) but becca has some winners (and some video) on her phone that she needs to upload cause they're ridiculous. we had a great time with jared, too and got to go see the feltaults (my second family) out in topsfield for dinner one night. so much snow in boston. so. much. snow.

i went to nyc after that and spent a couple of nights with julia before i flew out of jfk. it was great to catch up and literally just hang out and do nothing with her. flying back to cairo was somewhat surreal, but went pretty much as expected on egyptair. i landed and met my driver and immediately had a smile on my face. i had missed this place and all its weird quirks. i noticed more military on the streets than normal, but less than had been here during the revolution. people seem happier and for the time being things are stable and functioning. egypt has a long road ahead of it and it'll be interesting to see what happens in the coming months. but what's sure is that the egyptian people feel emboldened by what they've accomplished and more than anything they're happy mubarak is gone and ready to transition into something new.

i am so excited to be able to finish out this internship- nobody likes a quitter. but in all seriousness, the thought of not finishing what i'd started here was super stressful and i definitely needed some closure. it feels right to be back in cairo playing drinking games on the terrace with the other egypterns and complaining about our jobs, the bus, and our low pay. it's great to be back at work and to be able to see my work relationships through to the proper end of my time here. and honestly, it's good to be back here because i really believe its where i'm supposed to be at this moment. not forever. but right now.

love.

Highwire

So I realize that some of you have not been to the new (and not necessarily improved) Highwire. Welp, Ellyn and I spent about 7 hours there on Friday. No big. She was playing with our new Flip video camera & caught this wonderful shot of the carpet...Really Highwire? Un-stained cedar booths & cheesy hotel carpet? Other than those minor, poor aesthetic choices, it's still highwire & still great.

Ritzy Tits

FYI: This post is written by Whit and Al so please tally us both for this one.

So- Wanda Wamp came and partied hard in DSizzle this past weekend. We ate way too much (including the caramel birthday cake we devoured in about 32 hours), and just overall caught up since it had been so long since we saw her. She and Al went to the Air and Space museum and saw a planetarium show about Black holes. Very cool. Pictures coming soon from Wanda.

So, Ritzy Tits is the new catch phrase coined by the ever profound Whitney Jacobs. Ritzy Tits can be used when refering to anything fancy, hoity-toity, glamorous, or just flat out obnoxious. We have all taken to this phrase and have done a great job of working it into our vocab. For example, when Wanda and Al were shoe shopping for two hours, we walked into BCBG and Wanda was overwhelmed by all of the Ritzy Tits merchandise displayed.

For a non- Ritzy Tits subject, Al is about to have a NEPHEW!!! Whoop- whoop! Lauren Tucker McCrary is officially having a boy baby due June 26th. Actually, some of you may not know that Whit will also add a nephew to her pre-existing Auntie duties. Ryn and Shannon are having a boy come May.

Also- Whit and I are sitting here talking about chocolate and she asked if I liked Crunch bars. Really? Who actually prefers Crunch bars? I feel like they are the reject candy in the candy dish. I would prob opt out of choc if there was only crunches left. SOOOO, Whit insists that we have a poll and if you actually prefer Crunch Bars, please write something refering to Crunches on mine or Whit's wall. I realize this is a ridiculous request....but please humor Debbie Ann- she doesn't believe that Crunches suck.

Love Love to all- anyone come visit anytime! We are totes the hostess with the mostess these dayz.

anastasia magic...in the hospital?

Last night I was working... under the cover of darkness... ok sorry a little much. im tired and about to go to sleep, but had to let yall know what happened. it made me so happy.

so the hospital where i work plays classical softly through the halls of the hospital... sometimes its legit classical and sometimes it's instrumental. last night when I was in the hall, i heard a familiar melody... and yes it was "at the beginning". yall would've loved it! made me miss yall and are sick nasty dance partys.


much love... i gotta sleeeeeeep.

so you think your life is boring...

and then a revolution happens. sorry i've been kind of MIA. understandably, i was without internet for a week and a half and then battling reverse culture shock since i've been back. so yeah. the revolution. i'll start this off by saying that no one thought this was coming like it did. on january 24th, me, ty, and sarah sat in deal's, our favorite neighborhood pub, and talked about how we couldn't imagine that anything that significant would come of the rumors that the next day, national police day, hundreds of people would demonstrate downtown. we, and hundreds of other specialists, reporters, other co-workers, really anyone with an opinion on regional politics just didn't see the Egyptian people rallying enough to make a protest effective. we were obviously very wrong. and the next week and a half saw incredible protests, violence, uncertainty, and a lot of tenses days and nights waiting.

for all intents and purposes i was definitely safe the whole time and never really felt in harm's way. but the tension of being under house arrest for 15-20 hours a day and only being able to sit on our roof and watch the helicopters and fighter jets circle. or listen to the crowds from Tahrir Square. or look down below at the looters and neighborhood watchmen going at it to protect their shops and houses. it was frustrating to say the least. it was exhausting and trying and definitely more affecting than i initially thought.

the decision to leave or to stay was just as tumultuous to make and i went back and forth with my parents all week long. i was frustrated because there's really no way to know what was going to happen. every day was a roller coaster of stagnation turned into escalated violence back to calm. things changed in minutes and we never knew what was going to happen next. so making a decision about whether or not to walk away from the internship, to leave and hide out in europe for a while and come back, or to just leave and hope to come back someday. ultimately, it made sense to leave on thurs, feb. 4th and try to come back if i could.

i'm glad to be back. it's nice to have a little vacation and destress at home. but honestly, it was really hard to leave. it felt like i was punking out on the people i work with and live with and the Egyptians that i've become close to over there. like i should be there with them through the whole thing, even though it's not my fight. in the end, i'm excited to go back (i bought a ticket for february 21st) if its possible and safe to do so. as we speak, i'm watching CNN's coverage of Tahrir and state tv in Egypt is reporting that Mubarak will address everyone tonight and it's possible he'll resign. if that's the case, i'm sad i'm not there to witness the celebrate, but i know it'll be a different Egypt to go back to.

the coolest thing about this situation is that this is what i studied. this is what i spent four years at UGA writing about and learning about and wanting to be involved in. it's so incredible to have witnessed a part of this and to hopefully go back and witness the transition into a stable, new government for the people who have wanted this for so long. this changes so much in regional politics and its pretty freaking awesome to be this close to it.

anyway, i wanted to give y'all the story. there are more funny anecdotes about living through the revolution that will come out in time. but i wanted y'all to know how much it affected me and how excited and anxious i am to get back to cairo and finish out my internship. hopefully, it'll be safe and secure enough for me to be able to do that. i'm going to put a link for the editorial i wrote for the Williamson Herald today. it's groundbreaking journalism. (c:

i'm going to athens this weekend! i'm so excited to see everyone and generally just have a weekend in athens to have fun. walkers, the loft, and trapp are a must. i love you guys! i hope you're all doing well. if i was made of money i would go on a cross country tour to see you all. but, alas. we'll have to all wait our turns.

love love love.

Williamson Herald Article

life... is a road...

Austin and I at the RUF tacky Christmas party

Hey ladies,

Sorry I've been MIA. Ellyn, thanks for the encouragement to get back on this thing.

Life for us has been quite the busy past few months. December was great but a blur. I worked my regular schedule for a month in 3 weeks so that we could have a week off to head to GA.

We spent a few nights crashed on the floor at the turrells, which was great fun. I celebrated my 23rd b-day with Ike and Jane donuts (so good), presents (so good), time with friends (so good), austin took me to shokitini which was SO good! We then got to meet back up with the turrels with last resort deliciousness at trapeze and a round at trapeze. It was so great to be in the ATH, but it made me miss all of you... seriously. Memories flooded back-- dancing in the brumby bathroom (which i hope we can have a reunion when we are 30 and repeat?), poplar dance partays, good food... ok yeah i just miss yall.

The Turrells at trapeze

Us on Clayton St at Christmas time... I know yall all love this one!

Presents on the air mattress for my birthday (to give you a glimpse of our slumber partay... austin got me elf and rockin brown boots )

we then headed to mac-town aka macon, ga to spend some time with the royals. It was good to see them and to spend time there. MOst of the clan got to be in macon minus Lauren+Stevie because their baby boy was in the NICU during Christmas. Our other precious nephew (kate and carson's baby) was there... Holden- and he is a baller

We headed back just in time for me to get a shift in, have christmas eve off, then work christmas night. Austin and I celebrated christmas at our duplex before heading to zachary for a brief christmas before i worked... austin got me some legit presents... as pictured--he got me a new BIKE!

January has come and gone, which is crazy. We are doing well, have been busy with my job and RUF events starting the semester off. We are excited about a new semester. Austin has learned a lot about how to do his job and it's cool to get to see him be an intern. My job is alright, hoping to relocate in april but will prob be there till october (please pray for direction with that...).

Anyway... dont want to bore you with updates from life here. seriously anyone come visit whenever...

I will try to share funny quotes from my patients-- favorite one from last month: "The bible is like a laxative, it puts me right to sleep."

with that im out,
nurse ace

ps this was our Christmas tree (note: Chick-fil-a cow as our angel)

Waddup.

Hi!  So things in DC are going well, January came and went without too much snow (although my school did get a couple snow days).  One day schools were closed, Rachel and I went to the Museum of Natural History, which was lots of fun.

This past weekend, Grace, Brittany, Anna, and Tatum came up to visit DC!  It was so fun to have them all here at once, and I had a good time showing them all of our favorite places- cupcakes at Baked & Wired, pizza at Fireworks, walking around Georgetown, brunch at Kitchen (a good restaurant in Glover Park), etc.etc.  One highlight of the weekend is that I lost my voice on Friday :( and I sounded like an aging folk country singer/ chain smoker.  All the kids at school I think were scared of me.  Good times, hehe.

This weekend, as she's already mentioned, Wanda will in fact be coming up to DC!  And this Saturday is my sister's 25th birthday....so I got tickets for us to see Beach House at the end of February.  Can't wait.

I love all of you mucho (that's Spanish).

XOXO,
Gossip Girl