The Mount Desert Island Tick List

Last week saw Mum and Jim arriving in Maine again just in time for a long weekend so we headed up the coast (in fog) to Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park. On the way, we stopped at the gorgeous coastal towns of Rockland and Camden, taking the time to poke around the boutiques and the wonderful Farnsworth Gallery. The gallery is home to 3 generations of Wyeth's paintings along with other artists who have at one point stopped here to be inspired by the craggy coast line.

As the name of this post suggests, we arrived on Mount Desert Island with a long list of 'must dos' so on Saturday we started to check them off, feeling much more inspired as the fog lifted and revealed the true beauty of the place.

Visit Sand Beach - check - although it will probably be too cold to swim...not for my mother (can you see the little head bobbing on the waves?) but definitely for me. Only the toes got wet!

Hike along some of the trails and see the vistas - check

Visit Bill and Ben's Chocolate Emporium for Grand Marnier ice cream - check

Visit Jordan Pond House for afternoon tea of popovers and jam - check. Popovers are basically Yorkshire puddings. An interesting combination but very yummy!

Climb Cadillac mountain (in a car, thankfully, as it was at 4:30am) to watch the sunrise over the bay - check

Bike the carriage trails around the park - 1/2 check...we walked instead. They are beautiful trails closed to cars. We headed off round Eagle lake then climbed Conner's nubble for fabulous views.

Eat Lobster at Thurstons on the far tip of the island - check. Mum's first (and I think last) full lobster experience. We ordered, practically picked the one we wanted to eat and then waited as it was boiled alive before it was  served to us in all its pink glory. Let the massacre commence...

We also walked across the causeway from Bar Harbor to Bar Island and took a mail boat ride to the Cranberry Isles. A wonderful way to spend a weekend!

I am a triathlete!

Run bike swim bike swim bike bike bike run run swim bike run run run run swim bike...the story of many an hour over the past few months whilst getting myself ready for my first triathlon. Luckily I have also had a training partner. Kalie, whilst not doing the tri herself, kicked my butt up many a Cumberland hill on foot and bike and also lent me a fantastic Liv sized road bike for the event itself. The only drawback of the bike was it having clip in shoes so I had to learn how to clip in and, more importantly, clip out. This was not so easy at first and led to two rather splendid crashes whilst stationary. I have some nice bruises and a scabby knee to show for it! So lots of preparation later...

The day dawned without a cloud in the sky. I set up my transition station with my bike, bike shoes, helmet, trainers, spare clothes and met my neighbours.

Then it was off to the pool to wait...and wait...for my turn. The swim was short - 325 yards/ 13 lengths - and there were people assigned to each lane to count and drop an orange board to indicate when you were on your last length. When my wave was called, I claimed a middle lane along with another woman. As we stood and waited for the people in our lane to finish, we were horrified when the lap counter was too slow to react with the orange board, the man had already flipped and missed it so ended up doing another 2 lengths. Not only that, but the other person in the lane did the same as he knew the man was faster than him so assumed he had 2 more too...we both looked at each other aghast and told each other to COUNT!!!

Anyway, she was on the ball after that and we were fine although the swim was rather frantic and crazy especially at the start. Once 6 mins and 39 seconds were over, it was a jog outside to throw on my socks and shoes, a panic over the fact I couldn't do the clip on my blooming helmet and then I was off. I thought I'd be bothered about being wet but actually I didn't give it a moment's thought. I was only interested in powering off and making sure the people in front were getting closer to me not further away. Kalie had told me highest gear possible and push it so I did. My thighs were killing me after about 2 miles but figured I'd worry about the run when the time came! Thankfully intersections on the course were manned by the police so there was no need to stop until I crossed the dismount line 13 miles (42 minutes) later. Apparently I averaged 18.5 mph (the statistics could make a person seriously nerdy). My legs were by now a combination of jelly and bricks. I managed to transition quickly into my runners but then my weird muscle pop-out happened from my stomach...only a small reason to panic. Oh well, I jiggled a bit and it was ok so then it was off at a snail's pace on the run. An evil hill was a killer, baby steps the whole way up, but at least coming back down allowed my legs to flush out and I could kick up a gear to make it across the finish line in a miraculous 22 minutes 50 seconds! Hurrah!

I had set myself the goal of 1 hr 30 mins and realised from the clock that I had beaten that but was surpised my final time was 1 hr 15 mins 18 secs. 18th overall, 1st in the female 20-29 category. A job well done! I even got a massage and stretch out at the end from a very hunky doctor. Only problem now is I want to do another and I'd like a nice road bike...

Small town Maine

Today is Sarah my housemate's birthday so at the weekend we went to her parents house in Oxford for an early celebration. Kindly enough, the people across the street decided to set off some fireworks which drew us all out on to the front steps (about 12 of us). Periodically, they made some pretty impressive bangs causing us to oooh and ahhhh. I was surprised by this as I learned fairly early on that fireworks were illegal in Maine but apparently various places have just voted to make them legal. Anyhow, no sooner had the last firework exploded and the neighbours drawn down their garage door, two police cruisers turned into the drive. Cue a very stereotypical small town American cop easing his way out of his cruiser, hitching up his pants and saying 'nice fireworks'. Apparently the sight of us all standing round led them to believe that it was us causing a noise nuisance. Perish the thought! Fearing immediate deportation, I scurried into the house. It seems that whilst fireworks are now legal, in reality only the silent kind are permitted. Hmmm...maybe we should fly in these crack cops to fight the pre-bonfire night explosions in Abington Park!

On Sunday I went to see a woman called Temple Grandin talk at the University of Southern Maine about her life with autism and she was fascinating. She spoke about how she sees in pictures and compartmentalises all of her experiences into boxes. Where, if asked to envision a church steeple, we would likely think of a generic steeple, she would open boxes in her mind of different steeples - famous ones, local ones etc. She also talked about how important it was that her parents pushed her to develop her social skills but in ways that interested her. The insight was really useful for working with both children with autism and their parents. HBO recently made a film about her (called Temple Grandin) which I haven't seen but comes highly recommended. It tells the tale of her struggle to be taken seriously when she presented people with her designs for humane cattle pens and entries to slaughter houses. By thinking like an animal, she was able to isolate little details that scared the cattle and altered these to make processes better for the animal and therefore more successful. She is now widely regarded as a true expert in her field. As she put it, 'Not bad for someone who was labelled mentally retarded'.

I have also been a volunteer at the soup kitchen again. Walking around Portland in the nicer weather, it seems that there are more people than before who are homeless and it was rather depressing seeing the sheer numbers that came through the door last night. At least they have somewhere which consistently has good quality food and support available.

Race photos and statistics have been released for the Esperanza 5K. There was 1 UK runner, 1 German runner and 287 Americans. At least I was first for my country!

Cinco de Mayo

On Saturday, I experienced another American celebration, 'Cinco de Mayo'. I have it on good authority from the Mexican Fulbrighters that this is not celebrated in Mexico, however, Americans use the day as an excuse to drink a lot of margaritas and cervezas and eat a lot of tacos, chips, dips...Sounds awful doesn't it?

We decided to enter into the spirit of things and head to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and cocktails. When we arrived, we were showered with beads and...moustaches! We popped in to the supermarket on our way home and Sofie decided we should wear our facial hair, so we did. It was lots of fun watching people's reactions as they did double takes and then creased up laughing.

Sadly, I couldn't indulge in too many margaritas as it was up at the crack of dawn on Sunday for a 5K run through Cumberland to support the local charity 'Safe Passage'. The story behind the charity is inspirational. It was set up by a woman from the next town when, after a time working in Guatemala City, a friend took her by the city's rubbish dump. She was appalled at what she saw: young children being forced to scavenge from a massive rubbish dump in order to earn a living for their family. Instead of talking about how awful it was, she did something, immediately selling her car and using the money to start making changes. Her charity now provides many children in Guatemala City with free education and also supports their families in other ways too so they can afford to have their children learning instead of earning. The event was really well supported by the community and was lots of fun, especially as the sun was out after days and days of dreary grey and rain.

However, this joy wasn't set to last as of course we had a field trip booked for today to the Maine Wildlife Park. It peed it down consistently for our whole visit so many of the animals stayed in hiding and the kids got soaked...

Oh well, we learned a lot about identifying the skulls of different animals and I saw my first moose so it wasn't all bad!

Oh and there was also a scary bear loose in the park...

Falling in love with the Windy City

Chicago has stolen my heart this weekend. What a great city! I flew in on Friday for the end of year Fulbright conference. Luckily, there were no delays with flights this time and the whole thing was painless. It was an easy trip on the L to downtown, dropped off my bags in my fabulous hotel room (only a slight improvement on last week’s accommodation!) and then set out to see some of the city.

First stop: Anish Kapoor's 'Cloud Gate' (known affectionately as The Bean) for some fun with the camera.

Fascinating to walk round, through...

                                                             and look up!

Eventually I managed to tear myself away and head onwards and over the river, spotting a very inconspicuous Marilyn Monroe... 

I then cut back and followed the river walk round until I got to the Sears/ Willis Tower – the tallest structure in the Northern Hemisphere. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to go to the top, so I joined the queue which thankfully they make as painless as possible by having various interesting facts displayed around the walls, my favourite of which was “It only took 3 years to build the Sears Tower (in the 1970s) whereas it took the Egyptians 20 years to build the pyramid”…two very comparable feats! We then got shepherded into a theatre to watch a short film which gave a brief history of Chicago. The original city was built of wood and was virtually completely destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of… Instead of abandoning the city, developers set about rebuilding and wow…what a city! It has continued to grow and has been at the forefront of architectural design. Finally, it was up in the lift to the 103^rd floor at ridiculous speed where I then joined the masses peering down on Chicago. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an outdoor observation deck but you could step out onto these completely encased glass ledges where all you had between you and the city below was a few inches of transparent glass. Not for those with vertigo!

By the time I returned to the hotel, it was time for dinner and it was great getting together with all the other Fulbrighters to compare stories and experiences. I don’t think we drew breath for hours…

We spent most of Saturday talking together about returning home and how to cope with not being special anymore. It was great to mix more with the Mexican, French, Hungarian and Czech teachers and hear their stories…some very interesting! All groups did presentations about their experiences which was fascinating. The prize for the best one went to the Hungarians and the Czech’s – watch this space for a link to the video if you fancy a chuckle. There was a lot of head nodding in agreement as we watched!

Fulbright kindly arranged an architectural boat trip along the river for us in the late afternoon so, bundled up against the wind (you really do see how it got its nickname), we sat up on deck and admired the views. The guide was a volunteer who spoke for 90 minutes almost non-stop. She was incredibly knowledgeable!

   

The black tower in the picture on the right is the Sears Tower. Apparently the design was conceived using cigarettes. The architects positioned them at different levels and imagined how it might work as a building.

 

Having braved the top deck for the whole time, we were then absolutely frozen and rather peckish so we hurried along to soak up some more Chicago culture…deep dish pizza (and beer) at Gino’s, a Chicago institution. It was incredibly good and lots more fun to hear about everyone’s adventures as we ate, laughed and stopped off to see the sights at night on our way back.

 

Sunday saw us finishing off our conference where they tried to prepare us for homecoming and reverse culture shock. I have to say I had a little tear in my eye as I thought properly about going home….but I’m not going to dwell on that now. Back to adventuring…

Team UK

Certificates awarded, I was free for another couple of hours before needing to head to the airport so I tramped up the Magnificent Mile, a shopping haven, and just had a quick pop in shops which don’t exist in Maine, then weaved my way back through the city looking for an ice cream place. No such luck, but I did stumble upon a couple more Chicago gems including the Picasso sculpture that I read about with my class in Picasso’s biography.

My final stop was the Art Institute of Chicago. WOW WOW WOW! It was AMAZING! It knocked the Philly art museum (and most I’ve ever been to) out of the water. The collection of art was truly incredible, I can’t gush enough. I fell in love with Matisse and oohed at Picasso, Calder, Klee, Giocometti, Magritte, Warhol, Pollock, O'Keefe…the list is endless.

The Art Institute is also home to Chagall's America windows

All in all I loved Chicago. A city of culture and skyscrapers.

On another note, this week I had a MAJOR car panic. The emergency engine light came on in the car when I pulled off the highway. That was enough to get me flapping and I was sooooo relieved to get home without anything bad happening. When I relayed this story to people, they all told me not to worry, it probably wasn’t anything major. Thankfully, they were right and Jeff, who I bought the car from, is ridiculously handy and seized my absence this weekend to check it out and fix it all up. Phew! There’s nothing like a bit of car trouble to remind me I’m absolutely useless. All’s well that ends well!