24 Hours

I have officially been in Baltimore for over 24 hours now. What an accomplishment :) To recap my day thus far: it goes somewhat as follows.

Breakfast: vanilla almond delight cold cereal, check. Make my bed, check. Unpack, while listening to Hairspray's "Good Morning Baltimore," check. Here is my cute room: my bed, window, closet, and small table and chair. The closet door has no easy way of opening it, I just have to pry it open. Natalie thinks this place was built in the 1920s and my closet door might be one of the original doors. I really like that idea, mainly because of how much I adore the 1920s.

                     

Just for proof that I might disbelieve later, I took a picture of my suitcase BEFORE I unpacked it. See? It all fits in there, somehow. I thought I was pretty clever Tuesday night for making it all fit so neatly.

Meet Willow.
Willow is Natalie's cat that prowls around the house. Natalie never lets Willow into my bedroom, so if the door is barely left open it is like new territory to Willow. The funny thing is that she practically races to my room with me. I've always won so far, that I know of. . . . She is a playful cat and can jump really high. Oh man, I sound like I am turning into a cat person. I'm not. I promise. I love dogs; especially my adorable little dog, Tiki.

Anyway, back to my checklist; shower and get ready, check. Make brown paper bag lunch, check. Pack and repack my backpack, check. Load my pockets, check. Recheck that I have everything, check.

Seriously, that's how I felt this morning. I walked out my front door, map in hand and a giant smile slapped on my face. Time: 9:18 a.m. Good morning Baltimore!

I walked a couple of blocks to find the Charm City Circulator's Green route stop closest to me. This is most likely to be the bus stop that I frequent every morning. I waited at the stop for a few minutes before a bus arrived. Since, I had no idea how frequent the buses came, I decided it would be worth the wait if a couple other gentlemen were waiting as well.

The Charm City Circulator is a free city transportation system that has three different routes; the green route goes from Fells Point and Harbor East to Johns Hopkins, the orange route travels from Harbor East, Inner Harbor, and University of Maryland Medical Center, and the purple route covers Federal Hill to Penn Station with Mount Vernon and Inner Harbor in between.

The green bus stopped, and I hopped aboard. I thought I would see how far my commute would be, so I resolved to ride the loop. At one stop, a couple girls got on and stared at me when I didn't get off at Johns Hopkins like almost everyone else. I think they might have been confused at my consistent smile that I couldn't completely wipe off my face, however hard I tried. I noticed some brochures at the front of the bus, but I forgot to grab one when I got off (some guy was sitting right in front of them, obstructing them from reach). I got off close to my original starting point and walked west a few blocks, just to explore the city a bit. Taking in as many street names and trying to remember how to orient myself was surprisingly not as difficult as I had prepared my mind for. Then again, I did have my map out this entire time. Nothing screams tourist louder than sunglasses, map in hand, and a huge grin.

I made my way to a purple route stop and rode the Charm City Circulator north to Mount Vernon area. I stopped at the Washington Monument and the Peabody Institute. When I talked to Lori (my coworker that came to Baltimore last summer), she told me about the Peabody library. I was sold. I don't even think she knows that I was so interested. Once I got off the bus, I marched right over to the Peabody Institute.

The institute is a musical arts school that is closed for the summer, but the library remains open for tourists. I was so excited! I walked through the doors of the library, and it almost took my breath away. After standing in awe for a couple of minutes, I talked to a librarian at the back. Anyone can read the books, they are all old classics, but no one can check them out, and no one but the librarians can go up the levels. I want this job! I could totally be content as a librarian at a breath taking library retrieving, shelving, and caring for really old, awesome books. Count me in! Since I was there, I had to make them get something for me, so I asked for a book called "Cancer: what everyone should know about it." A librarian retrieved it for me (I think it was on the sixth floor) and set it on these nifty foam cut outs in the shape of an open book. I am guessing that helps keep the binding in good shape.

I spent a good couple of hours reading that book. It was over three hundred pages long, and I only got to page 85 before I needed to get up and move. Since it is really hot and humid outside, (humidity: I've heard the word before, but now I am just coming to understand what it really means . . . its like being where an indoor pool is with clothes on, but all of the time, it's weird) the buildings have the air conditioning turned up to full blast. After sitting in one place for so long, I only could take so much shivering. It is summer for Pete's sake!


Outside I admired the Washington Monument and a beautiful church. Absolutely gorgeous.

I started to make my way back to my apartment. Purple route, change to orange route, change to green route, walk.

I had to laugh at myself today. At one point during my walks in between buses, I glanced down at my map. As a looked at the sidewalk in front of me, I jumped a little when I saw a man sleeping against the brick wall. It would be a rough life to be homeless. I hope he had a bit of luck today.

One other thing I feel that I should mention, during this adventure of mine, I observed that traffic lights are not regularly followed by pedestrians. Actually, they are NEVER followed by pedestrians. People just watch to see whether a car is coming or not and walk across the road. It doesn't matter if the thru traffic has a full green light or not. People just walk.

So, back to my story, I realized that I was standing out A LOT as I would stop and wait for each of the lights to change. A woman on her cell phone walking at half a mile an hour would pass me and just walk into the street. I passed her when the light changed, but she would catch up as I waited for the next light. I was slightly amused. Several blocks later, I don't know where the woman went, I did a truly Baltimorian thing: I crossed the street on a green light!

Now, before all of my dear Utahans get upset at me, please try to see how this is playing out. I am stopping at every street corner and waiting for a light to change even when the coast is clear. Now everyone is thinking I'm crazy (and who isn't in Baltimore?) for not moving when I can. I did look both ways before I crossed. I was safe about this, but I did a rebellious thing to fit into Baltimore culture. Sort of. Ha! Well, in any case, I hope you all smile.

I ate my lunch at home. I know, a paper bag lunch that I took the time to make and then ate it at home anyway. How silly. I had forgotten about food until I got back, and then it seemed a little overboard to go back out just so I could eat my lunch. Oh well, better luck next time.

Natalie got home shortly after that, and I showed her the assortment of brochures I had collected in one day. I ended up getting some on the Charm City Circulator after all, and a cute little summer events calendar for a park by the Peabody Institute.

We went for a walk which was lots of fun. Since this post is getting lengthy, I think I tell you about it in a different one.

Natty Boh

Wow! There is so much to see and do, I hope that I will be able to become decently acquainted with the area before my time is up.

As I flew into Maryland, two thoughts surfaced above the rest: almost everyone has a pool, and there are a lot of trees! My plane had actually arrived twenty minutes early, and the deck was not ready for us, so we waited in the plane for twenty minutes. I was thankful when I picked up my luggage, nothing had gone wrong there. I think one of my fears is having my luggage lost after a flight, like if it did not make it onto the plane somehow or was sent somewhere else. That has never happened to me, and of all things to be afraid of it sounds kind of lame. Anyway, I found my luggage and Cammy picked me up from the airport and found my apartment for me. On the way she pointed out details of the surroundings and told me about weekly evening events. 

Once we arrived at my stop, she dropped me off (there really was no place for her to park) and I met Natalie, my roommate. Natalie is adorable. She showed me around the house and took me for a walk to the grocery store. I hadn't even given my stomach a second thought since I set foot on Baltimore soil --- actually I guess concrete is more appropriate in this case. Now I didn't think there was any dirt, you know soil, in Baltimore other than immediately about the trees and in some flowerbeds, but it turns out that Patterson Park is a few blocks from where I live. After our grocery store excursion, and me eating three PB&J sandwiches, we strolled to Patterson Park. 

The park is very large, I think it was originally 200 acres, and I am not sure if still is, but it has a variety of accommodations for everyone. We stopped by the community garden where Natalie's sister just got a plot (the wait list is seriously three years long) and Natalie helps her take care of it. Apparently, the gardeners have to worry about rabbits and snails. Natalie and her sister have put up a short metal wire fence to keep the rabbits out, and crush egg shells around the plants to keep the snails away. Once the plants were watered, and a bit of kale was harvested, we sauntered by the lake. The lake has multitudes of ducks in it, and small fish and turtles; people love to throw breadcrumbs in the water and watch the ducks waddle over to them. There are probably so many ducks in the lake because of all the people bringing food there. 

I remembered that I forgot to bring my camera with me as I was trying to absorb all of the information that I could. (Sorry, I just plumb forgot.) The park is beautiful, I will get some pictures to show y'all (as Lanetta would say; Lanetta is my South Carolinian roommate at Utah State). 

We walked home down a different street and Natalie told me about "Natty Boh." Natty Boh is kind of the unofficial Baltimore mascot if you will. Short for National Bohemian Beer, it started here and became Baltimore's official beer. The symbol, a man's head with one eye, is not trademarked and is on almost everything. It is a way of showing true Baltimorian status as I understand it. Since I didn't bring my camera, here is a picture I found online of the building that started this conversation. 

As you can see, Natty Boh or Mr. Boh is the head on the top of the building. We could see him from the park. 

Well, it is finally dark here and although I don't feel tired yet, I should probably try to get to bed. Maybe I can change my Utah time schedule to fit the local time in Maryland. There is a two hour time difference, and I have a lot of exploring to get done tomorrow. 

That's my first half day in Baltimore!

In Flight

Baltimore here I come! I am in flight as I write this, so this actually won’t be posted until I am in Maryland. Fifteen minutes ago, I was on the ground in Salt Lake City and now I am in the air over Wyoming! I would think this unbelievable, except for the fact that I am experiencing it right now. Airplanes are fascinating. In four hours I will have traveled two thousand miles. What a crazy thought. Not only that fact, but the extent to which they have been commercialized also astounds me.

The last few days have passed at just the right pace. I was able to enjoy my time without going insane just waiting to get moving. I watched Sense and Sensibility with my sister and cousins as a girls’ night on Sunday. I went to a touching Memorial Day Service at the local cemetery on Monday and chatted with several cousins that I have not seen for quite some time. That evening, I went on a night run with my brother (yeah, I did that) which we ran 2-3 miles: I have not heard from him what the official distance was yet. On Tuesday, I ate Café Rio with my family as a celebration for my birthday, since this will be my first birthday away from home. I don’t think I have ever celebrated my birthday a month in advance, so I made it a new record. I also heard the sounds of a horse and a rooster yesterday, right across the street from me. I have a guess that it might be a couple months before I hear those sounds again.

I didn’t sleep well last night. A stark contrast to my regular habit of instantly sleeping as my head touches my pillow; I struggled to turn off my brain. I woke up a couple times during the night and again ten minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I think it is safe to say, I am excited!

A bit of commotion before I left for the airport involved an attempt to open the fire safe to retrieve important documentation for my employment. I was a bit distraught when the key was nowhere to be found and my flight was to leave in two hours. (A big sorry to my family for being grumpy, please don’t hate me for too long.) Luckily, we were inspired to go to a locksmith who had the safe open in five minutes. Next stop: the airport. We reached it just in time. After giving my mom a quick curbside hug (sorry Mom, I love you), dropping off my luggage, and conquering the security checkpoint, I rushed onto the airplane just before takeoff.

Little television screens are placed every three rows on each side and shows our current speed at 551 mph with a temperature of -65 ^oF outside us. A piece of metal not more than four inches thick is between me and the outside air. If it wasn’t there it would be really cold, really loud, and I’d be falling for quite some time. With a flicker, the screen displays a movie for all of the passengers. Complimentary snacks were served. I got apple juice and cookies. The cookies taste like ginger snaps with a large “DELTA” embossed into them. Thank you Delta, I don’t think I would have remembered what plane I was on, had you not reminded me on my cookies.

I just realized that when I land in Baltimore, I will have lost two hours. Yep, two hours of my life gone. Just like that. I have no other say in the matter. Oh well, I’ll gain them back on my flight home. Two extra hours added to my life. I wonder what I’ll do with them. It’s like storing away two hours for a couple months. That’s an interesting thought.

I no longer know where I am at. The screen is occupied with the movie and outside the window is a blinding white. Maybe I’ll try to sleep, although I doubt I’ll be successful at that endeavor. So long fellow Utahans (is that how it’s spelled?), I can only wait for what lies in store at the end of this plane ride.

Until then,

Elizabeth 

Chapter One

My life begins now. The past 18 years, 10 months, and 23 days have contributed to my unwritten prologue. In less than six days I will be on a plane headed from Salt Lake City, Utah to Baltimore, Maryland ready to start the biggest summer of my life. 

This blog holds the sole purpose of documenting my journey as an intern in the Stanley Summer Scholars Program at Johns Hopkins University. I plan on updating the happenings in the life of Elizabeth frequently enough in order to roughly outline my wonderful summer adventure.

Friends and family, I put a disclaimer here: I may be a perfectionist, but I am not an English major, and as such will probably have misspellings, poor grammar, sloppy sentences, and the works. Please excuse the dysfunctional tendencies of my speech. With that said (or written in this case), I hope that you will enjoy my story just as much as I will enjoy taking the plunge.

"Once upon a time . . . "