The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down

After my interview at Lehigh University, we took the bus into NYC for the weekend. We have been wanting to go back to NYC for awhile because there were some things we missed before (like the Rockefeller Plaza tour). During our last visit, we spent a lot of time sightseeing, but Josh knew I would be worn out from a week of travelling, so this time we focused more on shopping and shows.

Josh has been dying to see Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark basically since it was announced.

He even made up words to one of the songs, some sample lyrics include:

I am not a wolf

I am not a shark

I'm just Spiderman

Here to turn off the dark

There's no need to fear

It'll turn out alright

Because to "turn off the dark"

Means I'll turn on the lights

We also saw:

A play about a writing seminar, starring:

He really does

And also went to:

A play about racial tension and family relationships, starring:

Apparently I just barely missed Psych night. Sad face.

We wanted to spend some time here:

The Natural History Museum

Where we saw a lot of bones:

Dino bones in the entry

Elephant bones in the Asian exhibit

And Triceratops bones in the dino exhibit 

We also saw:

The tiny exhibit featuring things from the area in which Josh served his mission (Ecuador)

Animal pelts

And bison (I was trying to get a feel for what my internship would be like if I ended up in North Dakota)

Then we walked through Central Park, which is just across the street from the Natural History Museum, and saw:

Strawberry Fields

Beautiful skylines

The ice skating rink

And one very fat and very angry raccoon

Josh wanted to make an effort to eat only stereotypical NYC-style food, which included:

The Carnegie Deli

Where Josh ordered this monstrosity:

Pastrami on rye, which was more like a whole pig between two pieces of bread

And also:

Pizza folded in the traditional east coast way (having been born in Wisconsin, I had to opt out because, as well all know, pizza is meant to be sturdy and deep dish, not flimsy and folded)

And my personal favorite:

We did other things too, like:

Fulfill Josh's geek quotient

Wait for the subway

Breathe through our mouths in subway cars that smell like pee

Take our friend Pam out to dinner at Pam Real Thai Food

Drink an absurd amount of Sprite

And take pictures from The Top of the Rock

It was here that we took this picture, with the aid of the glare from the plastic wind screen:

We also went to the Charging Bull, where there was a ridiculous line to stand in if you wanted to take a close up picture. We stood in it, of course, but couldn't get a picture together. So instead we did the smarter thing and just took a picture from across the street:

Finally, we spent our last morning at the 9/11 Memorial:

The South Tower

The North Tower

The museum, still under construction

Josh also went on his own adventures, which included:

Running across the Brooklyn Bridge in the cold

Finding the firehouse from Ghostbusters

Finding the exterior of the "Friends" apartment

And visiting Washington Square Park

This will be our last trip for awhile. We had talked about doing a temple tour of the southern states, but it's looking unlikely that I will be able to get time off. Responsible face.

Internship Adventures: Pennsylvania

I realized today that I should probably finish up with pictures from our recent trip for my internship interviews because Match Day is in a week. I may or may not feel like talking about internship interviews on the 24th, depending on how it goes, so I should share this now!

My third and final in-person interview was at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. 

I have wanted to live in Pennsylvania since Josh and I took that trip to Hershey and Philadelphia in 2009, and Bethlehem is a super cute town. 

However, there is a big hill in town, and the founders of Lehigh University decided to build their campus right onto the side of it. Josh had booked us in a hotel that was close enough to campus so we wouldn't have to rent a car (we could just walk on over), which meant that I had to walk through campus to the counseling center, uphill, in heels and a dress. 

It doesn't look steep in this picture, but, trust me, it was unpleasant.

 By the time I got to the counseling center for my interview, I was pretty sweaty and gross. It was cold outside, which actually makes it worse because being outside wasn't so bad, but going inside with the heater going, I just got flushed and yucksy.

Here I am, looking unhappily sweaty, right before my interview:

The counseling center is in the attic of an older building, which makes it a bit dark and oddly spaced, but it also gives it tons of character. 

I loved Bethlehem, and I really liked the Lehigh counseling center. And even though I would have to not wear heels ever in order to get around campus, I think the Lehigh University campus is gorgeous. All of the buildings look like they were once cathedrals. 

The other thing that is nice about Bethlehem is that it is approximately 80 miles away from NYC. After my interview was over, Josh and I said goodbye to PA and took a bus to NYC for the weekend. More on that later!

I had such a hard time with my interviews because, with the exception of one that I will not name, each time I met with people or talked to them on the phone (which was the case with a few of my interviews-- they didn't do in-person interviewing), I became really excited about going there. So Josh had to endure an entire weekend of "When we live in Bethlehem, we can do blah blah blah." (Mostly the "blah"s = shopping). I would be thrilled to match at Lehigh, but mostly I would be thrilled just to match at all!

Internship Adventures: Texas

Our next stop on our crazy journey was Texas, which makes the fourth time in less than a year that we have visited. We spent the weekend with my sister and her family in Austin, then spent Monday in Dallas shopping and eating food. Texas food is uh-mazing. I would get so fat if I moved there because I would be constantly eating out.

Also, I love the shopping, but loving the food and loving the shopping don't mix well together, because by eating the food I will never be able to fit in the clothes!

Texans are extremely proud of being Texans. They put the Texas star on almost everything, like their overpasses:

It didn't happen this trip, but on a previous trip to Texas we stayed at a place that had a waffle iron in the shape of Texas, which is awesome.

Prior to my interviews I was given the advice to visit the interview site before the actual interview so I could be sure I'd get there on time. So the night before my interview, we visited the counseling center. I had to wear my jammies because I left my jeans at my sister's house. 

The UT Dallas campus is gorgeous, breathtaking, and in the middle of nowhere. It was founded as a graduate school to train people to work at Texas Instruments, and it's still more of a math and sciences school than anything else. 

Here is the student center, which is a relatively new building, and which houses the counseling center:

I can't really say how the interview went, just because it's hard to tell sometimes. It rained a lot, which felt just like home. Here I am right after my interview, feeling slightly overwhelmed from the experience:

I love Texas and would love to live closer to my sister. I have even already experienced a Texas summer, so I feel pretty prepared. Exiting!

Next stop: Bethlehem, PA!

Internship Adventures: North Dakota

To complete my doctorate, I have to do an internship. To get an internship I had to apply for and then interview with various places. I had two phone interviews (which I won't talk about because I don't want to jinx anything) and three in-person interviews. I applied to only college counseling sites, but I looked at my internship year as a chance to live anywhere in the country. So I chose places where I probably wouldn't normally get a chance to live.

First stop: North Dakota!

We flew into Bismarck to attend the temple. Our luggage somehow disappeared between Portland and the Twin Cities, which caused stress (it was found again before we left for Grand Forks, but we didn't know this yet), but this did not stop us from seeing the sights of Bismarck, which includes:

The airport!

Dinosaur bones in the airport!

The biggest draw in Bismarck is the capitol, which is (by far) the tallest building. 

North Dakota is unique in that there are these guys:

And apparently elevator technology has not yet reached their hotels. (Thankfully their hotels aren't very tall, but my luggage was heavy!)

Here I am right before my interview:

Overhead lighting is not great, but take my word that I was looking very hirable that day

It only snowed for the last hour or so that we were in Grand Forks, but it was pretty cold. I loved the counseling center and I wouldn't mind it at all if I matched there.

After my interview we drove to Fargo to fly out the next day for Texas.

ShepAlder Temple #45: Bismarck, North Dakota

We traveled from one end of the country to the other in the past couple weeks in order for me to go to various internship interviews. One interview was at the University of North Dakota counseling center, and I convinced Josh that this was the perfect opportunity to visit one of the temples we never thought we'd see: Bismarck!

This temple was dedicated in 1999 and is a smaller temple, similar to Fresno, Medford, Palmyra, and Detroit. It's the 61st operating temple and is pretty plain, so I don't have much to say about the interior. However, the temple workers were beyond nice and we chatted with some of them for awhile. They wished me luck on my interview (which was the next day) and I think it helped that we started our trip with the temple.

It was extremely windy and our luggage was unaccounted for, but luckily we had planned ahead and brought appropriate clothing in our carry-ons. Josh had to change in the parking lot of the stake center because he was dealing with other stuff and forgot to change in the airport. 

We found the temple easily. There isn't much to Bismarck, though we were thankful it was a beautiful day since we were so worried about snow.

We flew into Bismarck specifically to attend the temple, so the fact that our luggage was lost was worrisome because we had to head to Grand Forks for my interview the next day and might not have been reunited with our luggage until Fargo or Texas. But as we were leaving, Josh listened to his voicemail and our luggage had reappeared at the Bismarck airport! So my fear that I would have to wear some cobbled together outfit rather than the one I had planned was allayed.

Have you ever...?

Have you ever had a moment that you knew was absolutely life-changing? I get that sometimes with people, where I realize, "Oh, this is the point where I realize I will not be friends with that person." Before that moment, I thought we might be Besties, but now I know it was never to be.*

I had a moment like that this past week during internship interviews. Going into the interview, there was a chance I would have ended up there, but during the interview there was a point where I realized it just wasn't going to happen. I considered just calling it a day, picking myself up, and ending the horror show (okay, it was more like an uncomfortable dinner with acquaintances), but I just kept going. Because everyone hates a quitter. And, also, I couldn't think of anything more clever to say than "Alder, OUT!" And there were no tables to flip over. You know, mature stuff.

I can't say more about it since I haven't matched yet, though you can look forward to all sorts of Tales of Awkwardness in the future if I do (though if I don't, then forget about it because I'm going to be way too depressed). No matter what, though, you can expect upcoming pictures from my Internship Adventures. My interview schedule has taken me literally across the country, so we turned it into a thing that includes temple #45.




*It happens the other way, too, where I have a moment where I realize that I have just found a friend soulmate. But those are, sadly, less frequent.

Piecakes 2: Return of the Piecakes

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We celebrated at our house the way I usually celebrate things: by making cupcakes. I finally re-attempted the cupcakes that look like pies. They turned out better this time.

Red velvet. Mostly food coloring. True story.

Josh forbade the usage of orange M&Ms because he said it too closely resembled OSU colors. So I ate them.

 In the cupcake caddy.

Like always, Josh made his ribbon jell-o and it was a big hit.

Josh is suspicious about the quality of this turkey.

 Bonus Picture:

This has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it's cute. The cats just can't get enough of Josh.