Life Update 2.0

Exploration has been fairly limited, so I thought instead that I would leave everyone with a life update.

Eating: Strawberries. For whatever reason, the strawberries this winter have been excellent.

Drinking: A lot of water! We have also been enjoying Goose Island Ten Hills Pale Ale and Allagash Midnight Bret Ale. Both of these are excellent. We recently tried the Guinness Blonde American Lager, but it was rather dull. It is a drinkable beer, but it really does not hold a candle to the original Guinness stout.

Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. The novel has been awarded Italy's Chianciano Award, France's Prix de Meilleur Livre Etranger, Venezuela's Rómulo Gallegos Prize, and the Books Abroad/Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Marquez won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature in 1982. I have to be honest, despite its numerous awards, I am not a huge fan so far. This is partly because the book is a little too surreal for my liking and partly because one the themes is incest. I will finish it for the sake of finishing it, but I will probably not re-read it any time soon.

One book I recently finished and thoroughly enjoyed was From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury. It was unlike anything I had ever read before and it is rather hard to describe. I am not even sure what genre it belongs to other than the overarching genre of "fiction". I would definitely recommend it.

Watching: Friends. At this point, who isn't watching it? One of my friends and I will be digging into The Paradise: Series 2 next week!

Doing:...a lot within the community. Christopher and I have become really involved in our church. Last week I also attended part of the Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day. That was a neat experience and I would recommend that everyone in the area attend the events hosted by the University of Maine Humanities Initiative.Also, we seem to be constantly hunkering down for a snowstorm.

Anticipating:...the many, many events to come. With the arrival or spring comes a flood of conferences, parties, concerts, events...oh, and just my thesis defense and graduation. No biggie.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the Super Bowl!

The Portland Art Museum

The colder weather makes it difficult to visit new places. When there is a negative twenty-four degree windchill you do not really feel like venturing out too much. Christopher and I did brave the weather a few weeks ago and visiedt the Portland Art Museum. I mostly wanted to visit the museum because they had a British art exhibit with six hundred years worth of art.

Queen Elizabeth I.

One thing that I really enjoy about the Portland Art Museum is that there is a great variety of art. If you like modern art, head to the third and fourth floors. If you like art from the nineteenth century and before, stay on the first and second floors. I think this makes it a museum that a number of people can enjoy.

This was our favorite painting. The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius by Benjamin West. My sad little camera phone does not do it justice.

This was from the fourteenth century and by far the oldest work in the museum.

Hadlock Pond- Acadia National Park

Our friends Rhonda and Charlie gave us a pass to Acadia National Park for Christmas! We decided to use our pass two days after Christmas. We drove toward Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island and hiked around Hadlock Pond. The trail around Hadlock Pond intersects with one of the carriage roads which leads up to Bald Peak.

 

The hike was ridiculously gorgeous. The day was clear and in the forties. We had an unusually warm Christmas, so many of the plants were still alive and kicking. We thoroughly enjoyed our hike and cannot wait to return to Acadia.