Peace out, Naptown.

I have approximately seven hours left here (am I packed? of course not!) and am so dang excited to be going back to school.

Even though the circumstances were less than ideal, and there were probably more days that I wished I were in Laie than not, it's been nice being around here too. This is the most time by a long shot that I've spent here since I left three years ago and I've been reminded of how much I love it. Annapolis is beautiful, and there are people here that mean the world to me and because of the much extended visit, I got to spend lots more time with them than I would have otherwise. I got to go to my little sister's birthday party, meet up with my host sisters from my last family, visit DC with another exchanger, drive down to see family in Virginia, hang out with my sibs a bit, and enjoy the company of some of my favorites from high school. My life is good.

So, Annapolis, I'm not sure when I'll be back, but thanks for the good times.

Now back to the land of longboards, late night beach jams and bonfires, new friends and that awesome aloha spirit.

"The Ladies' Resort to the Ocean."

...that's what they called Ocean City up until 1870. Who knew?

As appalling a statement this may be, from the time I moved to Maryland when I was pre-elementary school, until just a few weeks ago, I had never been to the Ocean City boardwalk. Some friends and I were wanting to hang out, and one of them tossed out the idea to drive the two and a half hours out there and spend the day seeing what there is, so off we went.

It's a typically kitchsy beach town with all sorts of fun little game places set up along the board walk, all of which are totally set up for you to lose both your money and your faith in your ability to beat six year old girls at anything. As a side note, should you see some really awesome, incredibly large Charmander stuffed animals, they are not worth the $50 you'd have to pay to buy one instead of win them. Sad.

Pictures!

This lovely shark is sticking out of one of the buildings -maybe Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum?- and it moves! If that doesn't epitomize kitschy beach town, I don't know what does.

The beach was absolutely packed. That fact, along with my inability to go in the water made me miss Hawaii and my north shore beaches pretty badly. Luckily, the company was enough to make up for it.

Probably my favorite part of the day was wandering around taking pictures on an empty beach, with my friends jamming in the background. It was a great way to end the day.

On Being a Tourist

I often think of my life in terms of pre-Hungary, Hungary and post-Hungary, and always feel a little strange when the three collide. The last week in July was definitely one of those collisions. For all that my family and some really good friends are still here, Maryland is very much a pre-Hungary place for me, and having an exchange student friend come visit now, when my life is decidedly post-Hungary was wonderful, but brought up all sorts of mixed emotions. I was thrilled to see her, and to be able to reminisce, speak Hungarian (which is komolyan one of my favorite things ever) and catch up on everything we've been up to since my departure two years ago. It also reminded me of how much I miss the place and the people that were such a huge part of my life. I am grateful every single day for the opportunity I had to go spend that time over there, for the things I learned, for the people that helped me get there, and for who I became and how I changed while I was there.

...I meant for this to stay pretty light, whoops. Anyways. She was here with a couple of friends for the first part of the week, and that Tuesday we all went down to DC together. They'd been the day before and seen all of the monuments, so we went to Arlington National Cemetery. I've visited before, but not for a while, and was reminded of why that place is so great.

For all that I love Hungary, I'm so very glad to have been born an American, and can't ever express enough how much I appreciate all those who have worked hard to make this country what it is. Even with all it's flaws (and I'll admit, there are plenty of those), it's a great place. Growing up near the capital has it's pros and cons- I remember being dragged down to visit this museum or that memorial when I was a kid, and didn't have a say in the matter, but once I got to the age where I could go down there on my own, I didn't because I always thought I'd have time to do it later. I didn't, and am a little disappointed in myself that it takes someone else coming here to do touristy things for me to go down there and be reminded of how awesome it is.

Summer vacation!

I hadn't planned to take a break, but some other things came up and blogging wasn't exactly a priority. I've still been pretty busy participating in all sorts of grand adventures, and of course, taking photographic evidence of it all. There are still a few days left before my return to school, so I'll try and get caught up on the summer out here before I get back to Hawaii and return to my daily postings.

Artscape!

Artscape is the country's largest free arts festival. Baltimore shuts down a couple of streets for the weekend and replaces traffic with tents filled with artists, craftspeople and fashion designers. From noon to ten at night, there are constant performances- in the Lyric Opera House, inside UBaltimore or Maryland Institute College of Art buildings, on various stages, and on the street. It's a veritable smorgasbord of delights for your eyes, ears and taste-buds.

I went up there on Saturday the 18th with Dan and Ellen and the fish-eye attachment for my camera. We caught the Chinese gymnast show in the Lyric as soon as we got there, then spent the rest of the day meandering.

The place was positively packed.

One of my favorite parts of the whole festival was the Art Cars. There were quite a few there- from Hawaiian themed to a Yellow Submarine. I love Mondrian's work, and was so excited to see this one.

Camp Liza, as my aunt called it, ended on Friday.

I spent the week finding fun things to do with a five year old boy and a seven year old girl, both of whom are incredibly energetic, inquisitive and all around delightful. We took trips to the library, the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, the park by their school, another fun park a little further away that had mini-golfing, a train ride, a carousel, lots of trails, a playground and ice cream, and to a paint your own pottery place. On top of that, we played lots of Uno and Clue and plenty of Spider Solitare, and I was also resoundingly beaten in the numerous tic-tac-toe and Pokemon battles they conned me into. Really, they had incredible persuasive abilities, add that to being completely okay with making up their own rules and I had no hope at all. The kids seemed to make it through unscathed, but I was exhausted, in a very good way, by the end of it.

Luckily, I had a four hour car ride to get a bit of rest, before stopping by to see more family- this time my step-dad's parents and brother and his family. I always love visiting them (and I'm not even saying that 'cause they read this blog! :D) and this trip was no exception.

This time, however, there was something else besides visiting that I got to do, and that was to go meet a guy from craislist to pick up a camera and a couple of lenses.

Oh yes.

The camera is another Pentax SLR that I doubt I'll use, and the lenses were really what I was after. Since getting my camera in February (thank you again and again and again, Dan, Ellen, Q, Flo and Theresa!), I've just been using the kit manual focus 50mm lens. Now I have that, along with a 70-300mm and a 28-80mm. On top of that, I'd ordered a fish eye lens off of ebay earlier in the week, and opened that as soon as I jumped in the car on Saturday.

Oh yes.

I've been playing ever since.

This evening, I dragged my little brother off with me so I could do some night shooting (and be safe should we encounter questionable characters, he is a ninja afterall). Mainly I was just doing lens comparisons and figuring out what I wanted from each of them and getting a little more comfortable. That at least was the goal, and it was working out wonderfully until my batteries died. D'oh. (Note to self, never, ever, ever again go shooting without an extra set of batteries. That is dumb.) I got some fun shots in before that happened.

The World War II memorial, all lit up.
I went through and did this shot from the same position with all of my lenses, just for comparison.


Looking over the Severn River bridge, towards Annapolis. Taken with the fish-eye.

I've been down in Virginia since Sunday, helping watch two of my cousins so my uncle can make the world a better place.

Today, I took the youngsters to the park and enjoyed playing with them and watching them interact with the other kids. It got me thinking about how great these kids are, and what a wonderful job their parents have been doing raising them.

I like to think that my parents sent me out into the world filled with the right stuff to make it to the top in whatever I end up doing, kind of like that balloon (I'll admit, it's an incredibly cheesy analogy, but I wanted to link the picture in somehow). My hope is that should the time come when I am raising my own kids, I'll be able to provide them the experiences, skill sets and background to be honest, empathetic, happy, independent, intelligent, contributing members of society, and know that when I let go of them so they can float off on their own, I can do that with confidence in their ability to make good decisions in whatever it is they choose to do.

Heck, I'd settle with having half of those attributes myself.

Catchin' Up

The first full week I was back here in Maryland was my mom's family reunion. My grandmother had rented a few condos/apartments for the twenty-seven of us, and we spent the week enjoying each other's company, eating, laughing, splashing around, paddle-boating, boating and tubing. All in all, it was quite delightful. I hadn't seen a lot of the family for more than three years, and finally got to meet the three beautiful kids my aunt adopted.



I love my family, and spending time with them (especially in such a beaaaautiful place) is wonderful. I'd enjoy being able to see everyone, but it's a bit difficult, so we make the most of the reunions every other year.

Later this summer, I'll be heading out to Utah for a weekend to celebrate my paternal grandparent's 50th anniversary, and I'm quite excited about that one as well.

Happy Birthday, America

Some of the highlights of the day:

The local parade, which included the usual things as well as larger than life paper mache sharks,

drumming bananas,

silly handouts,

true, yet amusing, statements,

sparklers with the family,

watermelon, and

forgetting my tripod for the fireworks, and missing the whole show while talking to a friend I haven't seen in a couple of years.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to live all over this great country and to enjoy the many freedoms provided. I appreciate more and more the freedom of speech we have, that we can speak out when we disagree, and that we have a culture that encourages that. I am so glad that I've have the chance to live elsewhere and to see the contrasts in all sorts of things, that help me see the positive and the not so positive in both.

It's a practice birthday!

Tonight I got to see Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, the Sesame Street characters, Natasha Bedingfield and the Jersey Boys perform on the Capitol lawn for the dress rehearsal of A Capitol Fourth concert. Our patch of grass was a little far and didn't give us the greatest view, but for free, how much can you complain?


And how adorable are my little sisters?

It's summertime!

You know how I know?
Rita's!

It's an essential part of every summer trip home. Today, I got a free mango gelato, thanks to my family's habit. (Newly acquired since I left, how unfair!)

I also know it's summer time because while I was waiting for my sister so we could take some pictures, I was viciously attacked by at least twenty mosquitoes, and ended up with more than a couple dime sized welts. That part isn't nearly as delightful as the Rita's though.