Days 126-127: New York with family

So our great US family road trip has gotten off to a rocky start. We've learned many lessons. Such as:

• Be a traveller, not a tourist (i.e. don't buy a New York Pass, go on bus tours, or get around via the sightseeing bus). We ended up wasting a lot of time, and didn't make the most of our trip. Walking or subway is always faster!
• Take the weather into account before going up the Empire State Building! Here was the view yesterday:



From the 86th floor. A patch through the fog...






From the 102th floor. We bought the upgrade, not realising that it was zero visibility. Woops.

• Shit happens! The weather was just not on our side today either, and my parents didn't even get to see the Statue of Liberty which they were really looking forward to since it was actually stormy. And then, when they tried going to another museum, they got there 2 minutes after it closed. So unfortunate. (I ditched them after the failed attempt at seeing the Statue, and went to the Museum of Sex instead - which was actually pretty legit!). But hopefully this means that the rest of our trip might go a bit more smoothly?
• Try and see less, and see it better. I personally would prefer less photo-taking and more engagement.
• I don't think I could live in New York. Just wayyy too many people (aka tourists like me :P). But I haven't seen enough of it aside from Times Square, which is not really representative, so I should reserve judgement!
• US roads are so dark at night and pretty scary to drive on in the dark, especially with pouring rain. Even my dad, the expert driver, was finding it difficult to even stay in the lane!

But of course, there are always things that make me smile, like:

1. The moment we drove into the parking lot at Princeton even though a sign said "Do Not Enter' (you were supposed to drive to the next entry) and my mum was just like, "Well, I guess we have to enter". LOL.
2. Princeton is stunning.



Chapel. Someone was playing the organ beautifully inside. A moment of peace.









Dad and I under our Chinese zodiac animals.









Awesome fountain. Photo does not do it justice.

3. Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum!!!! So much awesomeness. I was literally confusing real people for wax models and wax models for real people.







4. Getting a really helpful reply from an academic I reached out to regarding a book chapter he'd written. He generously sent it so I could read it since I won't have access to a university library till August.
5. We had dinner at Hangawi, a Korean vegan restaurant!!! The food and the ambience made for an excellent and very satisfying experience. It was probably the highlight of my visit to New York this time. I will definitely come back next time I'm back in New York (I'm sure I'll have another opportunity to return). I recommend the stuffed shiitake mushroom appetiser especially.

Day 79: Diana Damrau is Perfection

What went well? 

1. Went to New York again to see La Sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera. It was definitely the highlight of my week (along with Frozen, of course!). I initially booked my ticket purely because I wanted to see Diana Damrau perform, not because I knew anything about this opera, and it was totally worth it. I also happen to be working on a song from this opera now, so it was extra useful to see Diana perform it, and also to see it in context. I was completely awestruck by her performance. She has such complete mastery and command of her voice, and can sing in any position, even while dancing, without compromising the quality of the singing. She also has such a charismatic and elegant stage presence, and is an extremely soulful performer. Plus, she cartwheeled across the stage during Ah! non giunge (it's a very happy song)....it was so funny. I am such a fan. Just wow.
2. Went to a vegan place for lunch, just 5 minutes away from the Met Opera House. It was great, and still feels like such a luxury to have so much choice.
3. Started creating a Prezi for my class presentation on my research paper progress for my mindfulness class, and it was actually pretty fun. I love Prezi. I feel like it's a way to really creatively express ideas and draw connections. Here's a sneak peek:

What did I learn? 

• I gained a much deeper understanding of the background behind Ah! non credea, Amina's aria in La Sonnambula. There's nothing like actually seeing the show and the relationships between the characters and how the plot plays out, to understand what the song represents and what needs to be communicated within it.
• A meta-analysis by Zoogman, Goldberg, Hoyt, & Miller (2014) suggests that in young people, mindfulness has larger effects on psychological symptoms (e.g. anxiety, depression) than other outcomes (e.g. attention, mindfulness, quality of life, social skills), and that mindfulness has bigger effects on clinical than non-clinical populations.

Day 64: Mindfulness in Education Network Conference - Courageous Schools Workshop

What went well?

1. Got a lot of interesting ideas out of the Courageous Schools workshop today, even though it was somewhat different than expected. More on this tomorrow. I felt very mindful today. Was also inspired by the day to write a blog post on mindful communication - watch this space! I do have more thoughts on the day, but will share them in tomorrow's post after the whole conference!







2. Another great vegan dinner. This is probably one of my favourite things about the US, tbh - the ability to find really nice vegan food really easily. Practiced mindful eating.



3. Got an email from my mentor in Melbourne inviting a few of us to coffee with her and to possibly work with her on a positive psychology paper. I'm obviously not in Melbourne at the moment but still find it heartwarming that she's making such an effort to engage keen students and to mentor us by providing this kind of opportunity, and hopefully I can still be involved via email etc.
4. The library at American University doesn't require student IDs for entry, so I managed to get a bit of work done there after the conference.

What did I learn?

• Expect transportation dramas. Leave way more cushion time than you think you need. After my taxi didn't show up, Uber saved me again and I got to the conference only 20 minutes late, but it was more expensive than it needed to be.
• Travelling is improving my confidence/risk tolerance. Walk 30 minutes alone in the dark? No problem! Jaywalk? Sure! Sleep in a room with a bunch of random travellers? Why not, it's cheaper! No need to plan transport ahead of time, Google Transit/Maps will get me there! I don't know if this is a good thing or a stupid thing. But I believe that with common sense and situational awareness, it's really ok.

Day 63: Durham, North Carolina...and first hostel experience

So, my flight got delayed so it's now nearly 12am and I'm not yet at my hostel for the night. Need to get decent sleep before conference tomorrow so this post will get written tomorrow!

But while I'm waiting...some WWWs today:

1. Really enjoyed seeing Duke University's campus. It is super green and beautiful. Especially appreciated their impressive chapel and the huge garden they had.
2. My plane landed safely. That is always a good thing.

Edited 14/03/14!

Here is the proper post.

We got the bus from Richmond in the morning to Durham, North Carolina. Arrived at noon, got lunch, spent a couple of hours exploring Duke's campus, then left for our flights back to DC & Philly, respectively. So yeahhhh we literally spent less than an afternoon in Durham...possibly ill-conceived (mea culpa!), but hey, at least we can tick another destination off our bucket lists! Plus, Duke actually was very beautiful. Look:

Sarah P. Duke garden!

This garden is huge!! And probably unbelievably beautiful when the flowers bloom in Spring.

Even the Admissions office is cute.

Duke Chapel.

This place is about as big as St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. It's HUGE!

Pretty building.

Duke apparel is cheaper than Penn's.

And if you're really keen, you can even buy Duke chairs! 

Worst photo ever. Posted just for lulz. Visited the Cameron Stadium (basketball). It was pitch-black, but at least I know that they're environmentally friendly, not wasting light when there are no players on the court!

Thought I might as well wander around the psychology/sociology building. Was hoping to get a sense of the kind of research taking place here.

Such as this. An interesting topic indeed!

This made me smile too. Mentoring should totally be recognised more at Melbourne (and higher ed in general). Mentors are awesome!

Another pretty building.

So that was all fairly smooth sailing, until the evening, when my plane got delayed for about an hour, so I didn't get to my hostel in DC until nearly 12am. And when I got there, I was greeted by an EXTREMELY frazzled manager. I mean, this dude was frazzled to the max. Why? Well, due to errors in their system, they screwed up royally and totally overbooked their hostel, because various sites kept advertising their beds even though they were booked. This has been going on for about 2 weeks. Since I'd arrived so late, I didn't get the bed I booked (they gave it to someone else), but they managed to find me a bed in the incomplete hostel they were renovating two doors away. For a moment there I was actually worried that I was not going to have a bed for the night, because they actually had to turn people away after a certain point. So it ended up ok. But the dude seriously needs to stop complaining to every single customer (he's still doing it!!) about how shit the situation is and how he needs to fix it and how it's a total nightmare...I felt like I was giving him therapy or something ("Sounds like it's been really stressful"), and it was 12am! I do appreciate his efforts in trying his best to make sure everyone got a bed though, even if it meant calling up every hotel/hostel in DC and being resourceful with using spaces that hadn't been completed yet.

What did I learn? 

• Shared shuttles aren't necessarily faster than public transport. I was totally mehhhhhing at the thought of a 1 hour journey on two buses to get to my hostel from the airport, which would have got me there just before 12am. So I decided on a whim to go for the shuttle bus that was at the airport, and it got me there at about 11.40am. So, it wasn't that much faster and at $29, nearly 10x more expensive. Possibly more reliable, comfortable and safe though.
• Travelling is definitely an opportunity to practice mindfulness and acceptance. There is great value in a mindset that I realised could be a gratitude exercise - let's call it the "could be worse/at least I have ___" exercise! "Sure, I booked a bed in a four-person dorm and ended up in an unfinished 8-person dorm, but hey it could be worse, at least I still have a bed, a working toilet, and running water!!!" Also, I realised that my 4-day hike around Lake Waikaremoana over summer definitely helped build some resilience and tolerance for not-so-ideal conditions. Bare-essentials accommodation on hikes kinda make hostels (which I just overheard someone saying, "this is like a homeless place", LOL) feel like luxury hotels. Almost. My standards for being satisfied have dropped dramatically, apparently.
• Apparently, Chicken & Waffles, together, is a thing. Weirrrrrrd!

Day 62: Richmond, Virginia

Today was a day of perfect timings for everything, plenty of nature, and good food! Although the main reason we came to Richmond was basically because it was on the East coast and we randomly picked it off the map, we found plenty of things to do here and had a pleasant day.

What went well? 

1. It was an early start. We got up at 5.50am to catch a 7.30am bus to Richmond. We got to the train station at about 6.30am and were wandering around looking lost because we couldn't find the actual station, but someone kindly asked what we were looking for and pointed us in the right direction, and we caught the train on time and therefore got to our bus on time.
2. Enjoyed sight-seeing in Richmond. We walked to Maymont estate, and walked around the sprawling, peaceful grounds and a tour of the mansion.










3. Also, went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts! I can't believe this place was free too. Very extensive collection, and so interesting to see how much art varies according to time and place. Was also really impressed by the work they had on display from some high schoolers (the first three pictures):



The artist who drew this was 14!? Wut.



Clever.










...art?










4. Public transport in Richmond was super cheap. It was only $1.50 from Maymont to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and only $1.75 to our hotel (which was over an hour away by public transport - it would have been a 15 minute taxi ride, but we chose to save that money and put it towards good quality food since we didn't really have anything better to do in the evening).
5. The weather generally worked out really well. It didn't start raining until midday, when we'd walked around most of Maymont, so went and took shelter on the mansion tour. Then it rained while we were in the art museum and really pour when we were on the buses, but generally wasn't that bad when we were actually outside. Thanks, weather!
6. Found a great place for dinner (the HappyCow app has served us very well, showing us all the veg-friendly places close by). I got this miso tofu dish, and it was probably the best meal I've had since I've been in the US. I was inspired!

7. Satisfied my cupcake cravings induced by the sadness of Georgetown Cupcakes running out of vegan cupcakes yesterday. We walked down the street after dinner since we had some time to kill before the bus arrived, and found Carytown Cupcakes just down the street! And they had vegan cupcakes, woo!! So I got a lavender vanilla one and an apple cinnamon one. Totally savoured the lavender one, it was actually a perfect cupcake - perfectly moist, fluffy, and yummy. You would not be able to tell at all that it was vegan, and I can say that honestly since that statement does not apply to all vegan baking!!

8. Saw this on the street too and thought it was cute:

9. Our hotel was really, really good value! We stayed at Days Inn Richmond and it was only $45 for a double room. Yes, $22.50 each. Actually cheaper than an actual hostel. Including free wifi and free breakfast! Highly recommended!

• 
  
10. Proof-read the final study design for the new positive intervention we've been working on in our Positive Psychology lab!! It's actually super exciting to see it finally coming together and getting ready to be submitted for IRB approval and then unleashed onto the public!! Wheee!!

Woah that was a lot of WWW's. Hey, what can I say - it was a fab day!!

What did I learn? 

• You have to pay a $1 "exit fee" to get out of the metro system in DC. What!
• If you look sufficiently lost, people will help you :P
• Carytown cupcakes are awesome.
• Apparently, according to Victorian etiquette, it was not ok for two women to converse for more than 15-20 minutes. Bizarre!
• Just read that an Obesity gene has been identified, apparently. I find these genetic developments very interesting to follow, because it really creates questions about determinism, free will, and personal responsibility. What proportion of variance do genes account for? How much control do we really have? Hmmmmmm...

Day 61: More Washington DC!

What went well? 

1. Got a lovely dose of nature and flowers this morning at the United States Botanic Garden. It was musically themed!

























2. Visited the Franciscan Monastery. Highly, highly recommended. I'm not religious but was very impressed by the church and found the tour interesting. The interior was magnificent and gave me shivers. It's definitely worth a visit.







  

3. Visited Georgetown Uni (very briefly). It's tiny, but cute!

What did I learn? 

• Georgetown University has a dedicated meditation room/building on campus!

•  
• Georgetown Cupcakes is a seriously thriving business. This is how long the line was (and generally is) - about a 15 minute wait:



People wait this long just to get cupcakes?!

• Also had a very bizarre encounter in the line. This random woman behind us from Dallas started talking to us about how excited she was about the cupcakes (because I was expressing my excitement about how they actually had vegan cupcakes too - prematurely, since they'd run out, sadface), and went off on a rant about fatasses in the US and how she didn't want to pay for them...republican?? Also very, very loud and expressive. I was wondering if that was (stereo)"typical" of someone from that area, but my friends later were saying that they thought she was probably drunk because there was just no social filter whatsoever. Plus, just as we finally got to the counter, she disappeared, even though she'd been so looking forward to getting a cupcake! So. Bizarre.