Back in the City

~ Highlight of the Day: Successfully navigating the Old City without a professor ~

 

After four hours of class this morning, an awesome lunch, and some security orientation, they set us loose on the city! It was a bit intimidating, but our group stuck to familiar streets and stayed close to each other, and didn't go too far. It was a lot of fun to just idle our way down the street, stopping here and there at the shops and asking the shop keepers about their merchandise. We didn't cover a lot of ground, but we talked to people. Every now and then a merchant would recognize us as BYU students, and they'd say "for BYU, only two shekels" or "BYU, best milkshakes here!" We're apparently known as the 'Mormon University', and in orientation they told us that if we ever need to take a taxi back to the Center we should call it that, not the BYU Jerusalem Center.

 

And I found plenty of Ouds, one of which I will definitely end up bringing home. Apparently actual instrument quality ouds are large. . . shorter than a guitar, but much deeper, so I'm not sure how I could get it back home with me. You can find small ones, but they're the Near Eastern equivalent of the $40 pink ukuleles. If I can't find anything better I might settle for that. . . I'll definitely mull over it for a few months.

 

Well, tomorrow's the Sabbath for us. It will be a bit weird having Saturdays and Sundays reversed, but I think I'm going to like it.

Rehoboth

~Highlight of the Day: Talking and listening to music on the way to (and from) the beach ~

I have now swam in both the Pacific and the Atlantic! Only three more to go :)

I can also say I have experienced Wawa, the great convenience store that is, in so many ways, so much more. It is apparently the place to know out here in the East.

Me at Rehoboth beach. . . with a Wawa sub :)

It's been a long long time since I've been to a sandy beach you swim at. I think it's been about 7 years actually. So I'd forgotten some important things like:

1. Sand gets everywhere.

2. Shaving right before getting into salt water has never ever been a good idea.

3. Walking in sand takes effort. Running in sand doubly so!

4. If you don't jump with the big waves you'll be getting a face full of sand.

Rehoboth: It's  a weird name - It's also biblical. I was actually just reading about this the other day - Isaac dug a well, and a neighbor's men claimed it. So instead of fighting over it he moved away a bit and dug another well. His neighbors claimed that one as well, and did the same with a third. Finally he dug a well that they did not bother him about, and this one he called Rehoboth. It means something, but I forget. . .

In town we saw all kinds of brightly colored houses and shops. I think I could see myself living in an obnoxiously painted little shop on the waterfront, selling ukuleles :)

Blue and Yellow were made for each other.

And It Rained, and Rained, and Rained. . .

~ Highlight of the Day: Sleeping in and waking up to rain! ~

Our float down the Brandywine river was canceled today. . . it's just not as appealing in the rain. Instead we drove out to the Jenkins Arboretum for the iris sale. I have never seen so many iris' in my life, it was fantastic! They had a room full tables of them, sorted by color, which was great because I was on a mission for the perfect yellow iris. Here's what I came home with:

They wrote the cultivar right on the foliage, how brilliant is that?! I will have to remember that if I ever run an iris sale :) The cultivars I got were 'Red Skies', 'May Debut', 'Kentucky Derby', 'Again and Again', and 'Indian Chief'

After neatly cleaning out the sale we walked around the arboretum for a bit. Apparently their thing is azaleas, because they were everywhere. That, combined with the light mist-like rain and mossy paths made me feel almost right at home - honestly it was so much like Washington I could almost fool myself into believing it. . . I think I'm going to design a pond with lilly pads in it for my parent's yard. And I need to try and grow a pawpaw tree there too.

Oh yes, I harvested my Brandywine tomato, the one that could feed China for a week it's so big:

And just in case you haven't noticed yet, the uke seems to pop up in pictures where ever. So of course I included my ukulele in a picture of my tomatoes.

Speaking of tomatoes, I am still on a quest for a reasonably priced dvd of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". I must watch it. soon. So if you stumble across one, let me know!

Homesick. . . Sort Of

~Highlight of the Day: Getting to sit in the Scott Amphitheater and finding my phone ~

I started off this beautiful, relatively cool day with slipping on the good ol' size 9 waders (it's the smallest size they've got) and taking a nice refreshing dip in the lake :) The algae wasn't that bad, but it still took us all morning because it's in little pieces that the pitchforks can't really pick up efficiently. If you ask me it's because we're selecting for small clumping algae, and it's reproducing fast enough for us to see the evolution ;) If you ask the lovely IPM Rachel* (She's in charge of us algae skimmers ) it's because we're doing our job well and the problem's being minimized.

Then it was off to the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College. You may recognize this picture if you've ever flipped through a landscape design book:

I must say, I was beyond impressed with the campus and it's grounds. The whole place is beautiful and stunning and well thought out. Every space is different, but commands respect in it's simplicity and purposefulness. I absolutely loved it. If you get a chance to go, take it.

And on top of the breathtaking public garden spaces they have green roofs on the dorms! You can't see much of them unless you actually go up onto the roof, but they are so cool.

I don't think I'd mind dabbling in green roofs a bit. . . I do hope and expect that the demand for them (and therefore experience with them) will continue to grow. If I don't end up working with them as part of a career I'll definitely keep it in mind for any future house planning I may have :)

By the way, did I mention campus was gorgeous? Apparently the buildings are made of a local stone called Wissahickon schist. . . I think Wissahickon is a nearby river. Anyway, being on a campus made me totally homesick for BYU. I know I'm going to think I was delusional to say so, right around finals week in a semester or two, but I can't help but feeling a sort of longing for classes and classmates and . . . and. . . even homework. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for that last bit there. Maybe the heat is getting to me :)

Oh yes, and I harvested my first zucchini today, and made my favorite totally-changed-and-not-even-healthier-plotsky out of it. That didn't even use a fourth of it though, and I've got two more out in the garden on the way. . . I'm going to be eating a lot of zucchini!

I'd like to thank my fabulous roommate for
offering to take a picture of me and my zucchini :)

* There are so many Rachel's out here. There are four in our area of Longwood - IPM (integrated pest management) Rachel, Research Rachel, Rachel the Seasonal (or R Squared), and me. At church there's at least 3 or 4 more. . . On the Row they call me Ukulele Rachel, which I am totally ok with :)

One Productive Thursday

~Highlight of the Day: watching a Pileated Woodpecker check out all the trees around the porch ~

I accomplished two very important things today. First, I learned how to play the intro to More Than Words by Extreme on ukulele, which included learning a new way to mute/hit the strings (yay for new strumming patterns!) Second, I watched the Goonies. For the first time. Ever.

I feel rather accomplished :)

A Day Off!

A day off! How exciting! Here's what I did with it:

7:15am - check phone, realize everyone else had been working for 15 minutes, also realize it's cold enough to use my sheet and blanket for the first time in weeks

7:16am - roll over and go back to sleep a very content intern

8:46am - check phone, figure almost 9 hours of sleep was good, start mentally preparing to get out of bed

9:15am (ish) - finish morning routine, get on computer, check email and fb and the price of silver (it's still dropping)

9:40am - realize I'm starving

9:43am - eat granola while reading O Jerusalem. Such a good book.

10:15am - play ukulele


10:20am - start the 6th episode of Downton Abby.


11: 08am - finish the 6th episode, resist starting the 7th (and last!)


11:09am - decide Anna is my favorite. She doesn't make frustrating mistakes, she's just kind.

11:10am - walk out to the garden and begin weeding

12:40pm - try to start the riding mower (it's our house's week to take care of it)

12:42pm - fail to start the mower

12:44pm - begin weeding again

1:35pm - start 7th episode

2:38pm - finish 7th episode, check when 2nd season is available. . . not till July 7th.

2:42pm - begin weeding. again.

3:40pm - meet everybody comming home from work, ask them how to start mower.

3:45pm - take part in trying-to-start-the-mower party.

3:50pm - finally find someone who knows how to start it. begin mowing

6:09pm - finish mowing (it's a cool riding mower, and I was pretty good at it after the first hour :)


6:11pm - begin to remulch garden paths

7:23pm - begin watering with fish meal water (it smells like wet dog when you dilute it)

8:05pm - finish watering and rolling up the hose (it's like wrestling with a nasty sea creature. . . )

8:10pm - discover milk has become yogurt!?! it was perfectly fine this morning, and doesn't even smell sour. . . the big question is, is it safe to eat? I'll keep you all posted. . .

8:15pm - hang out on porch and play ukulele

9:20pm - head inside with intentions of being in bed at 10pm

9:46pm - get off of facebook

9:47pm - start blog post

To The Ohio. . . and Back Again

Friday night I left with a group of 60-some young single adults on a bus bound for Kirtland, Ohio. About 15 hours of driving, two hotel breakfasts, three slices of pizza, two chapters of 'O Jerusalem', and one testimony meeting later I was right back where I started! Well, maybe a little more sleep deprived and spiritually fed :)

We first went to the Kirtland Temple:

Did you know the walls used to have more of a blue hue
 to them, the roof was red because of whatever they
dipped the shingles in, and the doors were
 an olive green? It's hard to imagine. . .

Yeah. I wore my neon yellow Gravely shirt :)

The Community of Christ did an excellent job of the tour and history of the place. It was interesting hearing the stories without the usual Latter Day Saint lingo.

After visiting the temple we drove the short distance to the LDS Kirtland visitor center, where the saw mill and the N.K. Whitney store are.

 I remembered most of the tour (led by the wonderful sister missionaries :) from a family trip several years ago (especially the sawmill, cause it's so cool!), but this time they told us the story of Orson Hyde, the man the Whitney's employed to watch the merchandise (their upstairs storage was worth something crazy, I forget how much). He had thumbed through the Book of Mormon, read some verses, and declared it a fraud. For the next year or so he preached against it, until one day he felt a 'prick in [his] heart'. So he actually read it, found it to be true, and was baptized.

This is where Orson Hyde slept with the inventory
 on the second level of the N.K. Whitney Store

Here's the cool thing - He was then called on a mission to the city of Jerusalem. His companion gave up and turned back before they even got out of the United States, but he continued on and served for three years as the only missionary (as far as I know) the church has ever had in Jerusalem. There's now a garden there named after him, and when I'm there in the fall, you will see pictures of it :)

My ukulele has now been to the beach.

We wrapped up the day with a little Lake Erie, which was great once we found it (we detoured to a ranger station and a water treatment plant first. . . )


I came away from this trip with a deep sense of gratitude for the immense sacrifice the early saints suffered for their faith. If I were asked to sell all I had, my business and/or home, to help pay off a church debt, would I do it without doubt or hesitation? Would I stay stalwart in the face of immense physical trials? Even when those trials take the lives of my loved ones? I am in awe every time I try to contemplate the strength of will and testimony the early saints must have had. We owe so much of what we have today to their perseverance. So 15 hours of bus time, two sack lunches, two really late nights, and one rainy Sunday morning later I have a greater respect for the faith of those who lived my church's history, and a resolution to try a little harder to be a little better :) 

Of Strings!

So after 9 months of obsessing over lutherie and indulging my need to use power tools, I am officially announcing the arrival of a beautiful new tenor ukulele into the world.
 

Complete with hippie gig bag, it is my only link to the world of stringed instruments this summer. And believe it or not, it actually sounds good! I did the final string up the day before I left for Pennsylvania. And now for your further enjoyment, more pictures:

 

The abalone inlay around the sound hole came pre-shaped, but the fact that Dad was able to figure out how to route a channel that fit it perfectly is, I think, most impressive.  

 The inlay on the headstock is olive wood from Israel. My parents brought it home with them from their two week trip, and I'd never done much with it because it's such a dense wood. But lo and behold, it worked well with the walnut!

Speaking of olive wood, here's the breakdown of materials: 

• neck/headstock - mahogany 
• soundboard - engelman spruce
• back/sides - claro walnut
• bridge/fretboard - bubinga
• tuners - rosewood
• headstock varnish - walnut and olive wood
• nut/saddle - corian 

And there you have it. A homemade ukulele. I was going to figure out how to use my web cam to post a video of me playing it so you could hear it. I was even motivated enough to download software and learn how to use it, but my poor computer seems to chew up the sound a bit before spitting it back out, so the video sounds nothing like listening live. Sorry! you'll just have to live in suspense* till I find a cheap solution (if one even exists. . . )  

* from now on all you'll be thinking is "what could it possibly sound like?!? I have to know. . . "