Go Big Red!! UNL/Husker Fans Gathering in Boston!

Hello everyone!

Shawn, one of my roomies, and I were in Chi Omega Fraternity together during our undergrad years, and when we realized that another UNL Chi O lives in Boston as well, we knew we had to meet up  =)  Kirstin and I were in the same pledge class, and it was so much fun to get together again and reminisce about our time together at Chi O  =)

For this occasion, we met up at the Porters Bar and Grill to watch the Huskers kick butt.  

There is no official UNL alum group in Boston, but this one might as well be one!  There were so many husker fans, and it was so fun to be back in that game day environment.  Kirstin, who was a Husker cheerleader, led the way when the school song played  =)

I have to say, the food at the bar was pretty good!  I don't drink, so I can't vouch for their beers, but Kirstin and Shawn really enjoyed their beers as well.  Can't remember what they were, but they had cinnamon and sugar around the rim!  hah

It was such a fun night reconnecting with old friends, watching the Huskers among incredibly energetic and invested fans, and meeting new people!  That's the great thing about being from Nebraska, especially being in other cities now.  Once people realize that they are all from Nebraska, it instantly opens up a very friendly line of conversation, and in no time, everyone is hanging out like they're old friends  =)  

I was never a huge football fan during my time at UNL, but I genuinely enjoyed watching the game at the bar with everyone.  Something about the energy, the collective gasps and the groans and the happy shouting during touchdowns...  It was really quite exciting  =) 

Oh, and btw, we won, so that makes everything that much better of course  ;)  

It was a wonderful night, probably the most 'college-y' night I've had in... many years  haha and I can't wait to see and hang out with more Bostonian-Nebraskans sometime soon!

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend, and ave a wonderful start of the week tomorrow!
thanks for stopping by!
--Janny

FALL BREAK!!!

Hello everyone!

I know it's not Tuesday, but there's a blog post going up!  what?! gasp!    shocking, I know, but we're on fall break!!!  yay!!  hip hip horray!

ok, so fall break at Rice isn't really that big of a deal (just monday and tuesday off) but it coming right now, at this point in the semester, is really truly a godsend.  

now that I don't have to worry about classes, I can really focus on my recital cramming!!!  haha..  eh.. heh..

Anyway, before I go dash off for that, I wanted to share 2 photos from the last week or so.  It's been really wonderful because I've had visits by 2 friends from different parts of my life, and musical journey so far. One friend is actually from the Seattle area, but funnily enough (yes, I just used the word 'funnily') we didn't meet there originally.  We met right here in Texas, actually, at a place called Round Top because we were placed as roommates (along with Meredith) at the summer festival.  

Interestingly, Round Top at about the halfway point between Austin and Houston, and just guess where Grace is living right now.  yup.  in Austin. Funny how these things happen like this, isn't it?

omg! look how young we look!  ahh!! this was us 5 years ago! and you know the craziest thing about this photo of friends from Round Top?  3 of the people (me, Emily, and Christiano) are actually at Rice!  We're all at Shepherd School of Music pursuing our Master of Music, and Grace is also in Texas at UT Austin, and of course, Timmay and I are in the Meadowlark Trio together  =)  They say the music world is small,,, but seriously, I'm beginning to really experience how tiny it really is.

roomy photo at Round Top

 Anyway, she came to visit Houston, so of course, we had to go catch up and stuff  =)   (She's visited before and you can see the posts from her visits here and here)

It's always so nice to get to catch up with Grace, and I can't wait for the next meet up!  =)

Then, just a couple of days ago, I got a message for Julien saying that he would be in Houston!  He goes to school at Texas A&M, but was here for a conference, so of course we jumped at the chance to catch up.  I briefly took French while I was at UNL because I just really love that language, and everyone in my circle of my friends was taking French.  So I hopped on the bandwagon and took French 101 for a semester.  It was such an incredible class, and at the end we all really became a big family.  Our professor Monsieur Kwambamba would bring his son, his wife would bring us food while we were in class, and we would generally have an incredible time together.  Anyway, that is how I got to know Julien.  He was studying French (his Master's degree) and he actually taught Alexios.

Funny how we both graduated from UNL and then ended up in Texas!  =)  gotta love the Nebraskans! Nebraska will always be a very special place in my heart, and it's always nice to see people that I got to know there again.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!
--Janny

Old Lincoln Favorites

Hello everyone!

When I was in Lincoln last weekend, I had the chance to revisit a few of my favorite restaurants!   I can't tell you how many hours I have spent at these places, and they have provided me with amazing memories for the past 4 years of my stay in Lincoln.

The first night I got there, we made a beeline for Yia Yia's Pizza.

There are countless pizza places around Lincoln, and I have tried many of them.  However, again and again I come back to Yia Yia's.  They are delicious, pizzas are always more than enough no matter how many of us go there (their family size is HUGE!!), and the best part? They are cheap!!  I think we once had a meal there for under $4 each when we went as a group and shared. 

Though they have many many different flavors, my favorite has to be the BBQ Chicken Pizza, and that's what we got that night  =)  As you can tell from the photo below, they load it up with toppings!  My favorite is the jalapenos which is rather odd because I usually can't do spicy, but man, on this pizza?  Incredible!!

TOMAS!  enjoying the first piece

I also love their decorations.  It's so quirky.  It kinda looks like they put whatever they could find in a flea market on display in an organized chaos kind of a way, and there's something really kinda charming about that  =)   I especially enjoyed reading this poster about the Vanishing Sacred Elephant for the first time. 

 "a real live ponderous elephant" eh?  haha   

The next day for lunch, Alexios and I went and visited Grateful Bread!!!  Love this place!

We were lucky that day, and they were open!  They keep rather odd schedules (I think Mondays they are closed,, and then some other odd times they are closed,,,) and I can't tell you how many times I have driven there only to find that they have decided to be closed for the day...  However!  If you are lucky enough to find it open, I would highly highly highly recommend this place!  =)

It is a tiny restaurant owned by one family, and every time I have gone there in the past 4 years, I have been greeted by the same person behind the counter.  Their decor...  well, pictures are worth a thousand words, right?

this bench = the essence of this place.

Their menu changes every day, but one soup always stays the same: the Moroccan Tomato.  It is incredibly rich and savory, and I have never tasted anything like it in my life.  It's definitely a must-try.  I think I have gotten Moroccan Tomato almost every time, but this trip, we didn't get the soup because we wanted to try something different.  I can't remember what we got exactly, but it was one of their mac and cheeses, and Greek Lentil soup, as well as their Cheese Scone.  

Ready to work!

man... I'm drooling just looking at it.  I have never liked mac and Cheese.  Ever.  I have tried to like it so many times because it smells so wonderful, but I was never able to succeed... until I tried their mac and cheese.  I finally like mac and cheese!!  Hallelujah!  haha 

but their mac and cheese is the only mac and cheese I will eat.

The Lentil Soup was really awesome as well, especially with the cheese scone.  mmm.   I may have gotten the soup just so that I could get the scone, but either way, both were delicious!  I also would have loved to get my hands on their brownies, but they were sold out  =(   If you have never tried their brownies, it is a must.  It's so rich that I can only finish like a quarter of it at a time, but man..  it is seriously heavenly...  

Their food is incredibly filling, so it took us a very long time to finish everything (as in I quit after the first 10 minutes, and Alexios worked on them for the next hour by himself haha) but finish we did!!  It really was quite the achievement.  Next time, we'll probably only get one dish for the two of us.  Lesson learned.

If you get hungry, and you just happen to be in Lincoln, NE, now you have 2 more options to consider!  ;)

Thanks so much for reading, and have a fantastic weekend!

--Janny

Branched Oak Lake

Hello everyone!

On my last half day in Lincoln, a couple of my friends and I visited the Branched Oak Lake to cool off.  It's been so weird going from the 50-60 degree weather in Seattle to 90 degree weather in Lincoln,, and then coming back to wearing sweatshirts from wearing bikinis..  I think my internal thermometer is rather miffed  haha

This half day was spent finishing off a huge bag of chips with salsa and guacamole, playing Amazing Labyrinth (which we learned how to play the night before, and then played non-stop for the duration of my trip there), playing frisbee, soccer, and volleyball, swimming, and watching Tim and Alexios wrestle in the water.  So basically, it was the perfect Nebraska day =)

Branched Oak

The Amazing Labyrinth!  it gets really intense. I mean, just look at the boys. Have you ever seen them concentrating so hard on something?  haha

Nothing like some water volleyball to cool off

and of course, you need some bromance.

It was such a fun afternoon, and I only wish I could have had more than 1.5 days in Lincoln.  I would have loved to see more of my Lincolnites, but with such a tight schedule, it was rather impossible.  Perchance next time  =)

If you are ever in Lincoln area during the summer, I would highly recommend visiting this lovely lake!

Thanks so much for reading!
--Janny

Exploring Camera + Park

Hello everyone!

After the aforementioned SD card tragedy, I conducted a through search of my camera functions to see if there was any setting on there that could get my deleted files back.  Though I couldn't retrieve those files, I did find that my trusty little Cannon can do quite a bit of different things in terms of photo taking!  So, I went on a photo taking spree! a rebound of some sort perhaps??   haha  

It actually worked out perfectly since Alexios took me to the Pioneers Park to celebrate my weekend in Lincoln!  So here are some footages of our trip to this lovely park!

Look!  A monkey! In the woods of Lincoln!  =)

This was as adventurous as I got lol

bubbles!!

and along the way, we found these pillars.. so naturally, we spent some time goofing off there  =D 

stage 1 of the climb.                                               stage 2.                                                      I made it!!!
taken with the toy camera effect  =)

super hero pose

Fly!!

action shots!

Thank you Pioneers Park and the Pillars for such a fun afternoon!  =)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

--Janny

Wedding Weekend!!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the absence during the weekend.  There were two major reasons for this:

1.  I accidentally deleted all of my photos from my SD card.  I was devastated--people had to console me for hours kind of devastated--because I didn't have a chance to upload all of the pictures to my computer before it happened!  That meant that all of the pictures of the wedding (and trust me, there were many) were gone... and I was so excited to share the wedding with you all because it was so wonderful!  =(

2.  I didn't have access to my blog.  For some reason, I think perhaps it had to do with the internet connection, my computer wouldn't let me look at or do anything to my blog while I was staying at my friend's house.  It was strange...

But now that I am back at my house in Seattle and have sort of come to terms with the loss of the pictures, I am ready to write once again.


Emily and Joel's wedding was incredibly beautiful.  From the getting ready in the morning to the running through the bubbles at the end of the reception, they were so in love with each other that they were practically beaming the whole time.  It was so fun to get to see the whole process, and when Emily changed into her dress, she was so beautiful that it took all of our breaths away.  I don't think I have ever seen her happier than she was that day, and her joy was infectious.  I only wish that I could have seen Joel's face when she walked down the isle!  I was playing the violin so I couldn't see very well, but I am sure it was priceless   =)   I also loved how they put their personal touches on their wedding; Emily was wearing white sequined Toms, and Joel was wearing sneakers that he personally designed.  Such an artsy couple  ;)

I am so happy that I could have been a part of such an incredible wedding, and I wish Emily and Joel Dykema the happiest of marriages!!  Have fun on your honeymoon!!

The lovely couple  =)

Thanks so much for reading!!
--Janny

~There is no place like Nebraska~

Hello everyone!

I am back in good old NE!!!   One of my closest childhood friends, Emily Larson, is getting married tomorrow, so I came to celebrate with her.  I have shared so many fond memories with this girl--having dance parties to Hamster Dance, playing Lord of the Rings game on Gamecube together (we were like 12.  It was cool back then), spending hours on the piano playing duets together, eating everything with peanut butter  including Doritos and Oreos (straight line to heart attack, yes, but we used to love it so much!), comparing grades after every test and always trying to one up the other (I think we've already established that I was a nerd, so you can probably imagine my delight when I found a fellow nerd!)...  It's so crazy to think that she is getting married, but I am soo happy for her!  Her and her husband-to-be are incredibly adorable together  =)

To celebrate her last day as an unmarried woman, the girls had brunch together, Em opened up some of her gifts, watched Bridesmaids, experimented with hair for tomorrow, etc, etc, but I forgot my SD card, so the only photos I have are from their dress rehearsal...  So here are a few pictures of the dress rehearsal!

The adorable couple!

The beaming bride-to-be and her father  =)  so sweet!

The whole crew.  I get to play the violin for her entrance  =)

So close to being husband and wife!

Stay tuned for the photos from their wedding tomorrow!  =)
Thanks for stopping by!
--Janny