Lake Erie looks so fine in the rain

Greetings from Cleveland, O-hi-o. For the umteenth time I will say that we need Caribou Coffee in the City on the Edge of Forever, where the coffee house culture is worse than lame. It is non-existent. If Cleveland has cooler coffee houses than we do, there is something seriously wrong.

Dear Caribou,

When I go to visit my in-laws, you are my refuge, my shelter in the storm. Your real dark chocolate mochas with 2-percent and no whip are my saving grace on a rainy day in Cleveland. What can I do to convince you to come to my town, where we have only two Charbucks, a Panera in the middle of Consumer Sprawl, a lame bookstore cafe in the mall, and a snooty hipster-ridden local chain whose baristas would sooner spit in my eye than make me a cappuccino? Please, please come home with me! I know I sound like a desperate stalker, but you must understand how much a mocha brightens my life when the sun hasn't shone in days.

Love,
Ms. Bizarro

Singin' in Korean

Don't forget I'm in Korea - follow me at Adventures of the Jade Monkey!

The Jade Monkey Rides Again!

I've dusted off my travel blog in preparation for going to Korea. You can follow my exploits there: Adventures of the Jade Monkey. This blog also includes my adventures teaching in China in 2004. Keep checking back there for updates in June!

Korean food makes me glisten

Tonight Bizarro and I went to a Korean BBQ restaurant in "college town." My Korean film maker/professor friend cooks there as a favor to his friend the owner. Tonight we had spicy pork and chicken with the MOST delicious side dishes (cucumber kimchi, regular kimchi, fish cakes), and freebies (mandu for appetizer, rice drink and some kind of tiny icecream balls for dessert). Wow. That was a lot of food. But more than that, it was a taste of my upcoming month in Korea. Real Korean food, and cute little sweet things for dessert. Cuz in Korea, it's not good unless it's cute.

-^^- kk

I cannot frickin' WAIT to get to Korea. The saunas, the kimchi, the noraebang, the soju, the random pick-up badminton in the streets. One month from now I'll be in NYC, heading to the airport for my long-ass flight on a big-ass plane.

Speaking of big asses and saunas, I have to start exercising every day so I can feel slender and sleek in the all-nekkid bath house.

Nekkid.

Stuck...

...and not happy about it. What's a traveler to do?

Of course this is a metaphor rife with life lessons and pithy quotes and Buddhist teachings.

But at the moment I'm talking about actually being stuck in the f'ing airport. I was supposed to take a 6 a.m. flight to Boston, but it was canceled. Not for the reason you're no doubt thinking of. (But Ms. Bizarro, the Nor'easter...) No, I was informed that it was canceled 3 hours before take off for "maintenance." If you're good at math, you can figure out that that meant I received an automated message from U.S. Air at 3 a.m. I then spoke to a representative who booked me on an early afternoon flight through Philly. Okay, well it meant less of a day with JET, my dearest friend who I essentially booked this flight to see.

I finally fell asleep at 6 a.m. Got up around 9:30, made breakfast, took my time, got to the airport in plenty of time, and after I checked in, got through security and got comfy waiting for boarding, the announcement came that the flight was 2 hours delayed. They announced this at 12:15 for a 12:30 boarding time.

And so now...stuck. In the airport with the screaming baby and his very ill mother a couple rows from me. They are a pair, these two hipster parents. I feel a little bad for them, and for the bambino (a toddler, not a real infant). But I also feel bad for me because I was supposed to have been in Boston an hour and a half ago. And I'm here, instead.

So now we've got later connecting flights out of LaGuardia, one of which will hopefully get us to Boston. And I strongarmed the U.S. Air ticket lady to give me a later return flight (Saturday instead of Friday) since I'd lost an entire day thanks to them. They tried to make me pay for it but I raised a mild tsunami and they eventually caved.

This means, however, that some lucky family member o' mine will have to get me to Logan by 6:30 a.m. on Saturday (I hadn't thought that far in advance - with spring breakers coming back to college it's going to be a mad house). Soooo I probably just traded one nightmare for another, right? I hope not. Bizarro and I have plans for our anniversary on Saturday.

This is a whole lot of venting because right now this is my only outlet. But let's take this being stuck thing to a whole...'nother....level. Being stuck is a state of mind. Yes, it's true, I cannot do much about my physical situation. I have options - stick this out and hope to God I eventually reach Boston, or cancel the entire trip and stay home for spring break. Other than that, I'm at the mercy of U.S. Air. I can be angry and indignant and walk around with a cloud over my head (which is tempting, I admit), or try to make the best of an unhappy situation. This is the reality of life in the air. Reality is what it is.

However, being the kind of person who always sees opportunities for optimizing, I would like offer this airport a few pointers:
- more outlets
- food options in the terminal (aside from coffee and lollipops)
- more seating
- more than 2 air carriers (U.S. Air and Continental Express)

That is my constructive criticism. It is much more helpful than a wanton rant.

And I really don't know where or how to end this post. I think I'll just sort of drift off into the ether...

Vive le cap francais!

A quick shout out to Annie, who is in Paris and Berlin (Not at the same time, though. That would be physically impossible.). I'm excited for her trip, and I hope to hear all about her fantastic travels in her iniminiminimible style. I told her to be wary of stinky French men, and to devour as many sexy German men with chiseled jaws who ski and drink good beer as possible, on my behalf.

Up-upstate

Back from a delightful weekend in what I consider to be Upstate New York's finest city. I used to live there, oh, about ten years ago or so. Bizarro and I spent the day there with our friends T&L, and although the weather was dismal (no lilac viewing in the city park, or wandering the gorgeously gothic cemetery), and we didn't make it on time for the short films of the film festival, we enjoyed the day immensely. After driving around for a while, T. asked me if there was anywhere in the city I HADN'T lived at one point. I moved around a lot between grad school and jobs, so it did seem that I had lived in most of the major areas of the city and suburbs. Truth is, I'd love to live there again. The place has cleaned up well over the last ten years, and there are amenities that I crave and cannot fulfill here in Ogreville (for instance, a coffee shop with ambiance that doesn't scream "I am woman, here me roar" (yes, I spelled that wrong on purpose), or "Vegans taste better"), and of course, an actual pub with real food and drink.

Photos coming soon, promise.

I will write more about the "where do I want to live?" question soon, too, but right now I really have to get to sleep.

zzzzzzzzzzzz