photos
Road Trip to Seattle, WA › Summer 2003
my friend parker was going home to olympia, wa for a few weeks before school started up again (for him, not me), and invited me along for the ride. since i was working part-time, i could just up and leave for a few days. so i did. we camped along the way in fowler's campground near mt. shasta, and at crater lake in oregon. then we chilled in seattle for a day. what a beautiful place! explains a lot about parker too...
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Italy › Summer 2003
after graduation, i decided that i deserved a break. so i took one, and went to italy with my friend mary. we spent a week in florence, a few days in cinque terre, elba (where I was sick so didn't see much), and rome. italy is wonderful. the food is to die for (i cried during the meal in corniglia, one of the towns in cinque terre), the people friendly and gorgeous, and gucci is so cheap! (okay well, when you get half-off because your friends with an executive, then its at least affordable.) definitely a star vacation. though after 3 weeks, i was ready to dress functionally and have things be efficient and work the first time you try.
oh, and mary's camera broke on day 1, so these pics were taken with a cheap-o disposable thing. sad they're so crappy.
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Aloha Lake › Fall 2002
a group of us decided to do a little backpacking in the desolation wilderness near tahoe. california is great! you can go camping into october with a 30 degree bag and not freeze. nice.
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Malaysia & Singapore › Summer 2002
a friend of mine from my days at gap lives in malaysia, so I went for a visit. stupidly, i only went for a week, and didn't really get a chance to do everything i wanted. oh well. my first trip to asia was fantastic. i decided after this trip i'm gonna let other people plan what i do on vacation. such little stress -- just go!
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Barcelona, Spain › Winter 1999
tickets are cheap in the winter. flying from detroit to barcelona was only about $300. this meant i had to go. this also meant that there were so many connections that it took over 19 hours to get home and when you stay in a hostel, a good nights sleep is pretty much a no. but it was worth the pain. the most jam-packed 4 days you could ever imagine, and a beautiful city. props to gaudi.
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Grand Canyon › Summer 1998
after spending some time in europe, i realized that i had seen very little of my own country. so i decided to hike down into the grand canyon. my first backpacking trip and it was damn hot! food never tasted so good as the egg salad on white bread when we got back up to the rim.
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Moscow & St. Petersburg, Russia › Fall 1997
after spending two months in finland, i traveled for a few weeks in russia. quite an interesting experience as it was right before their economy totally crashed. such hope and such desperation as the same time. plus being awoken at 2 am by people with guns yelling at you in russian was a total flashback to movies of my youth. i think i got kinda scared for a second. but they only wanted my passport.
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Tallin, Estonia › Summer 1997
travelling to estonia from finland is so cheap, you have to go. i spend close to $60 for two days, including transportation there and back. crazy. plus, i got to stay in a hostel that was connected to a strip club. a bit noisy, but amusing for one night, certainly.
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Lappeenranta, Finland › Summer 1997
after graduating from u of m for undergrad, I was totally unprepared for a real job, so i did something much cooler. i worked for a professor at the lappeenranta university of technology doing research on foreign investment on transitional economies. i learned tons. but unfortunately, finnish wasn't really one of them. berlitz taught me the only things I remember -- 'can I get an english newspaper?', 'is the coffee hot?', and 'is the door open?'. i don't know why i would need these sentences, but i liked the way they sounded. finnish is certainly the cutest language i've ever heard. it makes me feel like skipping.
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 where I worked.');)
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