CHICAGO, IL -- Well I'm back to this frigid winter wonderland. It's actually pretty nice today - the sun is out, so it is not so depressing, though the wind chill right now is -1. Anyway the good news is that I got another 6 mile hike in yesterday morning before leaving to Sky Harbor, our flight was on-time (a rarity when flying in or out of O'Hare in winter months), and I'm actually on-pace to finish everything I need to get done. Also, only 24 hours to the 2009 NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field! I have 3rd-base side seats, 7th row in the Upper Deck (so I'll have a good angle of the entire rink, will be semi-protected from snow and wind). Should be an amazing experience! We're planning on arriving 3 hours early to take plenty of pictures in the neighborhood around the ballpark, and buy all the merchandise (jerseys, hats, sweatshirts - you know the drill).

Then, after the Hawks rock the Wings, it's off to the races. I need to get home, change out of my 14 layers and into travel mode, finish packing, and head straight to O'Hare. From there I'm flying to Newark, and basically pulling an all-nighter. My flight gets in at 12:30AM on the 2nd, and our road trip up to Montreal begins at 6:00AM on the 2nd. Hence it seems increasingly likely that we'll simply head to Rutgers and fill up from the grease trucks, then maybe a 2-hour nap if lucky before breaking out the GPS and hitting the road north. I don't think I'm driving, so hopefully I can pass out for a bit on the 7-hour drive (though I tend not to be able to when I'm in a new place, trying to soak it all in).

So that's my next 48 hours... I'll keep you posted!

Why would I not want to work and live here for awhile?

SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- Lets recap my past week here in Arizona. Yes, getting in was a total pain, but it was 100% due to the fact that we were departing from O'Hare in a snowstorm. So yeah, 5 hour delays suck, but we were in bed after eating and unpacking by 1AM - not terrible. Then for two days it rained. Nope, not kidding, it actually rained here in Arizona. And for anyone who has ever experienced rain here, you know that when it rains in Arizona, it poors in Arizona. Regardless it was Christmas Eve and then Christmas, so it is not like much was open anyway. Normally it's perfect for hiking, which we obviously did not do, but I got a run in and we went to the movies (saw Yes Man - better than expected, 7/10).

Since then we have done one major hike every day in picture-perfect weather. 60s in the valley, 50s in the mountains and higher-elevations, not a single cloud. Did Pinnacle Peak in Scottsdale two days ago, a combination of trails through the McDowell Mountain Soronan Preserve including Sunrise Peak yesterday, and Spur Cross Trail in Carefree today. All of them are longer than 4 miles; today was 6.5 miles. Pinnacle and Sunrise are shorter but have over 1,000 feet in net elevation gains, whereas today was longer but only maybe 400 feet up or down. Tomorrow the weather should be great and we'll either hike Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, a classic vertical challenge that we've done some 15-20 times; or we'll hike in the Fountain Hills area on a longer but flatter route. Either way the weather should be great and it'll be a beautiful day. Then Tuesday morning I'll do a 5 mile run before the airport and back to Chicago.

Besides the hiking we've done some other things as well. Spent some time at the community pool and also in our yard-spa. Made it out to Glendale last night for a Phoenix Coyotes game at the Jobing.com Arena, which is already 5 years old but seems to be brand new. Beautiful arena but the game was terrible - the Coyotes were rocked 4-0 by the inferior LA Kings. The area outside the Arena was very cool though - everything is oversized and it reminded me of Vegas to a large degree.

We've also been steadily adding things to the house. New blinds, dishes, pillows - basic things really. I've been marking all of the new restaurants we've been trying to the GPS as well as all of the new trails and towns.

I might update again from here tomorrow or Tuesday morning; otherwise back to Chicago and then home for a few days. Winter Classic is New Years Day, and then after the game I'm off to the airport to New Jersey, and the morning of the 2nd driving up to Montreal. I'll try to keep you posted!

The picture, by the way, is one of eight attempted balance crossings over Cave Creek on the Spur Cross Trail. Great action-shot, and the best part is that I managed to not fall in!

Leaving Madison

MADISON, WI -- Well, I am done with classes! No more lectures, discussions, or seminars ever again. All I have is two finals and then I am done, done, done. Crazy but time has flown by, 3 1/2 years and all. My two finals are Monday and Wednesday, and then I'm taking my first car-load of stuff down to Chicago.

The good news is that someone finally signed the lease, so I'm off the hook Jan 1-May 31. I still need to find someone who wants the apartment June 1-August 14, so if you know anybody who wants to live in Madison this summer do be in touch. Though hopefully the people moving in next week will simply want to stay around and take the rest of the lease. But 5 months are covered and I feel a lot better about that.

Not a whole lot going on right now. I'm cleaning up, sorting out a lot of trash, and taking some pictures before I start to pack a bag. I still need to do some studying, but I spent 4 hours in the library doing that yesterday and it's hard to focus that much on something still 2 more days out. I still need to go to the bookstore and sell back the books I don't want to keep, but I'll probably wait until after my final on Monday at least to do that, so I can take those books back too. The Bears already won Thursday night, so they aren't on tomorrow, and neither is Storm Chasers (my new favorite show on Discovery Channel). Like I said, things are kind of boring for the first time ever.

I am applying for grad schools, so that has kept me busy. But I'm actually done with all of the online information sections and essays - now I have to keep up on sending in my official transcripts as well as making sure my professors get their recommendation letters in on time. The good news is that one of them submitted everything to all 5 schools this morning, so I'm 1/2 or 1/3 for all 5 schools now. Just need to work on the other two...

The schools I'm applying to are: Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, Oxford, and London School of Economics. My goal frankly is to get accepted to any one of them. If I have any choice, I'll consider it extremely lucky. All of the programs are similar - public policy/public administration/international policy, some combination of the above. I also applied to Teach For America, 2 jobs at the UN, a handful at the State Department, the Foreign Officers Exam, the UN-Enrty Exam, the GRE twice, and some other jobs as well. So far out of the 40ish total applications I've sent out, I was turned down once by a high-level State Dept job, and have 3 in-person second-round interviews for 3 similar environmental advocacy jobs.

Anyway that's all for now. The travel plans are the same as before. Rio is looking like a go for March 11-22. For sure the 14-22, but I'm going to tack on a few days early to do some personal travel with family.

Will keep you posted! Any advice on Montreal would be great, the trip is coming up in only a few weeks! The picture is from Nitzana, Israel in August.

Great Bear pictures, updates

MADISON, WI -- As promised, here are some more pictures. These are from my late-July trip to Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. The lake trout was the biggest I caught at a nice 22-pounds, making it the heaviest fish I have ever brought in the boat. The midnight sun was actually at 1AM, a phenomenon that is made all the more impossible to believe given that we are now less than two weeks from the darkest day of the year (December 21)... the beauty in these pictures is currently one of the most inhospitable places on earth. Finally, there is a picture of a moose that I shot from the boat one afternoon.

Travel updates: none, except that it is becoming more likely that I will indeed be making that trip in March to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We secured a grant that is cutting the trip price by $200, and it looks like I'll have miles to pay for the otherwise very-expensive flight. The overall trip will still be expensive but by fundraising I hope to cover it. Last spring I went on an alternate break to Nicaragua, which I was able to offset by fundraising, and that trip was more expensive than the post-grant, post-miles cost of Brazil.

Will keep you posted! Next flight: December 23!

I'm Baaaaaaaaack!

MADISON, WI -- First off, my apologies for not following through with my travels last summer. I have many great memories that I know will stay with me, and in time I'll tell them through this blog. After Boston, indeed I did make journeys to the Arctic Ocean (I jumped in!), San Francisco, and Israel.

Since then, I've been here in Madison wrapping up my final semester at the University of Wisconsin, and I'm happy to say that I'm graduating two weeks from tomorrow!

As for what I'm doing after graduating, well, the short-term answer is, you guessed it, I'm taking a few more global adventures! I currently already have plane tickets booked for three, so here they are:

December 23-30: Scottsdale, Arizona
December 30-January 1: Chicago, Illinois (including the 2009 WINTER CLASSIC at Wrigley Field, which I am lucky enough to have tickets for)
January 1-7: Marlboro, New Jersey and road trip to Montreal, Quebec
January 7-14: Chicago, Illinois
January 14-22: Washington, District of Columbia for the 56th Inauguration of President Barack Obama!!!!!
January 22-future: TBD

That said, I know on February 24 I'll be in New York, San Francisco, or New Orleans, and it is looking like I'll be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil somewhere around March 15-22.

My advance New Years' resolution for 2009 is to actually keep this blog updated. If anybody is actually reading this, I'd be interested to hear your comments or suggestions, especially regarding things to do/see in the cities listed above. Thank you!