Scenes from the Start of 2014

I ended 2013 and started 2014 with my favorite ladies from home, Caitlan and Kristen.

 Kristen lives around the fields and woodlands of Bristol.  On my way out I stopped to take photos of leftover hay bales and her neighboring alpacas.  I wished them a Happy New Year.

What a pleasant surprise it was to return home with two letters from France!  One, from my host family in the countryside of Normandy, and the other from my friend Nutta.  She is from Thailand but I met her through tennis lessons at the University of Rouen.  It's been two years now since I've traveled to France, and I would love to go back and ride the trains through the country side again, pick up fresh baguettes each morning, and play soccer with my host brothers who are growing up so quickly.

I'm spending this week more or less on the road for career fairs in Boston and New York City.  However, aviation transport is terribly unreliable this time of year-- cancellations throughout the country because of snow storms on the east coast.  So here I was, trying to fly to Boston from Rochester and they send me to Detroit, and then my flight was cancelled.  I spent a frustrating few hours talking in circles with flight representatives, and vying for a spot on flights.  The Detroit Wayne County Airport, at least, is well-designed with psychedelic transit tunnels and in concourse A there's a raised express monorail that brings you from one end to the other.

After a going back and forth in the airport all day I finally booked a flight to Boston, took a bus to Newbury Port, and Kat picked me up and brought me to her house in Amesbury.  She is one of my classmates from St. Lawrence and we studied together in Shanghai last spring -- I don't know what I would have done without her.  New England is freezing right now, but so idyllic.  It's my launching point into Boston for the job interviews Monday, then NYC on Thursday.

And finally, a visual guide of not only 2014, but general life resolutions:

I hope your 2014 is off to a fantastic start!
Listening: Explosions in the Sky radio on Pandora