Tivoli, My Happiest Place on Earth : Day 2

So today. We woke up this morning, shrugging off the last of our jetlag (though an afternoon naptime might still be the norm). The delicious buffet breakfast included meats and cheeses along with yogurts and pastries... We're going to be spoiled.

We tried getting into Radhus (the town hall) today, but it seemed that a private engagement shut it down. So we meandered through the flea market and marching and dancing exhibition in the 'platz' outside, and began roaming the side streets.

We glanced at Christianborg (and the 'slot' there, palace for you that forgot) from across the canal after seeing some old houses and churches (like, 16th century old).

I wanted to make sure we were in Tivoli for the Marching Boy's Band concert at 2, so we paid for our entrance to my new happiest place on earth.

The Tivoli Gardens was described as part amusement park, part botanical garden, part beer garden by our guide. I would agree. We've meandered past outdoor cafes with drinking Danes (and probably others joining suit), fountains, roller coasters, and patches of grass perfect for napping.

And we did make it to the concert. But underneath our sunglasses, pretty sure our eyes were closed despite the marching music.

So we found a grassy area to sit for a bit. Then we went to a beergarden where we played "count the blondes" and "admire the children." And Alisa's quote of the day: "You can't talk when I'm about to do something epic."

We saw a pantomime, then found another grassy area (this time with chairs) and had some hotdogs and "pomme frites" (French fries). Then we started getting really cold. So we slept again. 

So I had looked up a schedule of events, and there was a concert at 21:30 and a light show at 23:45, so we basically kept being cold, wandering, and eating between being entertained.

The concert was good. Quite a few dancing Danes this time. Nabiha was the singer, and, while she sang totally in English, we had no idea what she was saying otherwise.

And we also couldn't tell which songs (if any) were hers and which were covers. She did "Black and Gold", by Sam Sparro, and one called "Internet Love" that I might have heard before.

The light show wasn't anything impressive, and the heart waffle with "soft ice" (soft-serve ice cream, but a bit lighter, almost Cool Whip tasting) was yummy, but I'm probably too excited for the delicious breakfast buffet tomorrow. 

Retake : Day 1 (with more style this time)

So I realize I have been slightly enigmatic and incoherent in my posts. I made the decision to only bring my iPhone on the trip, since my laptop's weight-to-usefulness ratio is steadily declining. Thus I have been typing away on my touchscreen (since we're too lazy to find an Internet cafe). This (and the hotel's slightly weak wi-fi) can also explain the lack of pictures.

So, in an effort to make this more coherent, I'll start back at yesterday. We left our hotel at 4:30 after our nap (and it was still sunny as ever... Gotta love those Northern latitudes) and started along a wonderfully long pedestrian route. We stopped for some crepes with banana and Nutella, before continuing on through the small bunches of well-dressed, mostly blonde, tall, and skinny Danes (and the under-dressed, bag-toting, photographing tourists like ourselves).

It was particularly noticeable how much we stood out when a young woman walking by asked us (in English) where we were from.

We were both hesitant to answer, since she was peddling tea rose bags, but she was more interested in being our friends than selling us tea roses (thankfully). After a bit, we exchanged email addresses, and continued down the Stroget.

The rest of our afternoon/evening consisted of strolling, as we went by the Nyhavn ("new canal") to find public alcohol consumption everywhere. We went through the Amaliehaven and Amalienborg Slotsplads (a garden and a castle plaza). We deviated through Churchill Park, built in a pentagon around Kastellet (a fort complex). We went back out by the canal, and posed by the Little Mermaid (singing songs from the little known Hans Christian Anderson musical the whole way).

On our way back (at slightly dusky 10pm), we found a restaurant slightly within our budget range (less than $20 per entree) and raised a glass (outdoors, by a heater, on Stroget) to our tired feet.

One thing I love about travel is the reminisce travel experiences it brings up. Alisa talked about Italy, and the crazy number of people with dogs. I talked about Turkey and the crazy number of stray dogs.

 After we had finished the meal (but not before we finished the wine), two gentlemen asked about the heater. I invited them to have a drink and a chat, and our Minnesota friends began conversing away about their printing business and our travels.

So that is a clearer, more coherent version of what happened yesterday. 

Og : Day 1 (again) in Copenhagen

So we'll continue to talk about Day 1, since I didn't really mention anything beyond the fact we had landed. The flight here was good (for me), but Alisa had a crying baby that kept her up for most of the 7ish hours. Customs was no big, and we had pretty much figured out how to get to our hotel. The one hang-up was figuring out the PIN for credit cards (because apparently all of them have one.)

We checked into the hotel, and went around the corner in search of food. There was a bit of sticker shock ($25 for brunch?) but we ended up at a very sunny sidewalk cafe. Alisa couldn't keep her eyes open behind her sunglasses, so it was back to the hotel for a three-hour nap.

We woke up refreshed (though I was a bit sweaty) and headed down the 'storget' (I'm missing some accents and spelling it wrong, but it means 'stroll' and is a pedestrian street.) We were approached by a friendly Dane. She chatted us up, then we were given some hints for nightlife and such.

A long stroll to the Little Mermaid (and the super beautiful park that surrounds it) and we were foot-weary. It took some looking, but we found a place with meals for less than 100 DKK or about $20). A bottle of wine and two Minnesotaeans later, and we were back to the hotel. Still not knowing any Danish besides 'ya' (we think means 'yes') and 'og' which means 'and.'

Shrute Attack : Day 0 and 1

Alisa and I are in Copenhagen, to begin this post on a high note. Travel was easy thus far, and we haven't encountered anyone who doesn't speak English (which is good, because the guidebook doesn't give a lick of useful Danish). What seems like both this morning and weeks ago, though, was a bit difficult.

Alisa's cat Shrute apparently doesn't like me very much. For the few days I was at her house, he would alternate staring and stalking me. I am a threat (or he just remembers the last time I was around and decided to make him my lap-cat). So he'd been on edge all week, so when the pet carrier came out, so did the teeth.

I decided to stay out of the way at first, since we hadn't had a good history. However, an extra set of hands was potentially useful for holding open the cat carrier.

To keep a short story short, Alisa has open wounds and Shrute is going to be taken care of at the house for a bit.

Naptime! We have some Friday-nighting to do later!

Parsimonious: Urban Dare Pittsburgh

A few weeks ago, I saw on the CMU Explorer's d-list an e-mail about a Groupon for the Pittsburgh Urban Dare. I'm an Amazing Race aficionado (mostly in that I really want to be on it with my sister Valerie), and since this was described as "Amazing Race in a day," I was super excited.
I asked my adventure buddy, Danielle, if she wanted to do it with me, and it was an enthusiastic reply once she figured out what it was as well.
The competition started at a pub by Southside Works. Public transportation there is iffy, and we were on a bit of a time crunch, so we rode bikes down to the river and across the Hot Metal Bridge.

We got there a bit late, but got out team number (156) and listened to the instructions before the craziness to get the clue sheets. Here was the sheet of clues:

1. Jack Nicholson won the Academy Award for Best Actor in this 1975 film. Get your picture with the magic shop that has part of this film's title in its name.
2. The field is no longer there, but part of the outfield wall remains. Bill Mazeroski hit a home run over this wall to win the World Series in 1960. Go to there for your spellbound dare.
3. If you can't run with these, stay on the porch. Get your picture in front of the coffee house that goes by this name.
4. PHOTO HUNT: Get a picture of two people not in the race reenacting the famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Get a picture of three people doing see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. For photo hunt and bonus, you may not use the same person more than once.
5. He defeated Muhammed Ali in the fight of the century. Get your picture in front of the saloon that goes by his nickname.
6. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Get your picture in front of the cafe that goes by his name.
7. Nobody knew who Mel Gibson was until he appeared in this 1979 movie. If this picture were shot in Tijuana instead of Australia, maybe it would have been called this. Get your picture in front of the restaurant with this name.
8. Go to the park overlooking the river next to (a device for establishing a horizontal plane. It consists of a small glass tube containing alcohol or similar liquid and an air bubble.) (LI DIVIDED BY XVII) for your three-legged dare.
9. Get your picture with a neon sign that says Free Smells.
10. Since we are in Steel City, go to the Steelworkers Monument for your wheelbarrow dare.
11. Get your picture with a WWII torpedo.

5:00 Minute Bonus - Take a picture of a group of five people posed as if they were shooting a box and arrow.

The rules let you use whatever technology you wanted. Danielle began calling people, and I started surfing the web to start getting some clues (or checking our guesses) to the clues. The clues weren't in a sensible order for location, so that was part of the planning as well.

(If you want to try to solve these for yourself, I suggest stopping here. Good luck!)

So we began to piece things together. Once we got a few that were down Carson Street we took off (running) and began. However, we were stuck on the #11 with a torpedo. I suggested that we follow some people (since my guess was that there was a torpedo on the submarine downtown), and we ended up across the 10th Street bridge and going up the never-ending staircase to Duquesne University. We headed back into Oakland via bus (you were only allowed to use public transit) for some of the clues we knew about. By this time, we had found a picture of the torpedo with Pitt campus in the background, so we knew it was near where we were. It just took a friendly group of Pitt students to point us in the direction of Soldiers and Sailors Hall.

Our "spellbound" dare was adding up the numbers corresponding to the word on our Passport (which was parsimonious). We found a bus back to Southside to finish up our last couple clues, and ran in for our finish time at 2:04:27 (but with the 5:00 minute bonus). However, we had forgotten to run across the river for our final dare!

So, out we went again, and spent 18 more minutes getting across the bridge, chewing some bubble gum, and coming back. I was pretty exhausted, and my cross-country running partner Danielle was kind enough to let us walk for a bit. Our actual final time was 2:22:25.

They sent out everyone's times. By my count, there were 270 teams; our first (though incorrect) time put us at 47th. Our actual time would have put us in 95th. I'm still awesomely proud of us.

We found a place that had beer, ice cream, and outdoor seating, and celebrated our completion. My shoulders are sunburnt and my calves are still complaining (and we had to bike back up to CMU), but I would do it again in a heartbeat!

For the curious, here was our final submissions in the order we went to them in (and the answer to the clues): 

1. Jack Nicholson won the Academy Award for Best Actor in this 1975 film. Get your picture with the magic shop that has part of this film's title in its name. The Cuckoo's Next Magic Shop

5. He defeated Muhammed Ali in the fight of the century. Get your picture in front of the saloon that goes by his nickname. Smokin' Joes Saloon

4. PHOTO HUNT: Get a picture of two people not in the race reenacting the famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Get a picture of three people doing see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
(Probably not proper to put strangers' pictures on the web, yeah?)
9. Get your picture with a neon sign that says Free Smells. Jimmy John's Sandwiches

7. Nobody know who Mel Gibson was until he appeared in this 1979 movie. If this picture were shot in Tijuana instead of Australia, maybe it would have been called this. Get your picture in front of the restaurant with this name. Med Mex

5:00 Minute Bonus - Take a picture of a group of five people posed as if they were shooting a box and arrow.
(These were the same great Pitt students that tracked down that torpedo for us!)
6. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Get your picture in front of the cafe that goes by his name. Hemingway's Cafe

2. The field is no longer there, but part of the outfield wall remains. Bill Mazeroski hit a home run over this wall to win the World Series in 1960. Go to there for your spellbound dare. Behind Schenley Plaza
11. Get your picture with a WWII torpedo. Soldiers and Sailors Hall (which was having the non-Pittsburgh Pitt student's graduation that day)

3. If you can't run with these, stay on the porch. Get your picture in front of the coffee house that goes by this name. Big Dog Coffee

10. Since we are in Steel City, go to the Steelworkers Monument for your wheelbarrow dare. Steelworkers Monument at Tunnel Park

 8. Go to the park overlooking the river next to (a device for establishing a horizontal plane. It consists of a small glass tube containing alcohol or similar liquid and an air bubble.) (LI DIVIDED BY XVII) for your three-legged dare. Park at Level Three (this is the one we missed)

I was pretty happy with how well I know Pittsburgh by the end of this. And pretty impressed with how well I kept up with my peppy little partner!

Ocean-Hopping: Summer Travel Plans

I've been spending a lot of my energy looking into the future, both short-term (graduation, summer plans) and "long"-term (moving to Virginia, starting a job, travelling to Ghana).


This is great, because I love knowing what I'm planning and being able to look forward to it.


However, this also means that I'm feeling torn between the present and the future. It is not quite a roller-coaster of emotions, but more a simultaneity. I'm both excited to be leaving soon and start this next crazy chapter, but also bitter sweet about my final weeks left.


This weekend is Carnival, the spring Homecoming of CMU, and a few of my alum friends are headed back. In that way, it is comforting that I won't completely disengage once I leave campus... CMU will always be my alma mater.

The boat we'll be staying on in Stockholm!

This post was originally going to be about my summer plans, but it turned into an introspection. I guess might as well throw the plans in now too:


May 20th to June 5th: Denmark, Sweden, and Norway with Alisa


June 5th to June 19th: Scotland and London with Alex


June 19th to July 18th: Seattle with the family (though I might drive down to Portland)


July 18th to August 4th-ish: Italy and other western Europe with Mom and Valerie


August 4th-ish to August 7th-ish: North Carolina for a wedding


August 7th-ish to August 19th-ish: Family vacation around the South-east U.S.


August 22nd: First day of work at APT in Arlington, VA!


(and for good measure)
January 4th-ish to January 11th-ish: Volunteering in Ghana (delayed from Spring Break)

Orchard Robot: My Senior Human-Computer Interaction Design Project

So I think I mentioned something about my senior project a while ago in my "list of things to blog about." And since I have some fun pictures from that, might as well give you an overview.

So I'm double-majoring in Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction. I explain the second as a combination of design, user testing, technology, and psychology. "Human factors" and "user-centered design" are also thrown around in describing it.


There are four groups with four to five people each, and each has a client we are serving. Our client is the Comprehensive Automation of Specialty Crops group within the Robotics Department at CMU. There is this vehicle thing that can drive down the rows of trees in an orchard by itself. So they are putting a lift for people on the back of it (so the people don't have to drive), and we are in charge of creating controls to modify the settings.


In the middle of March, we had a great day out at Soergel's Orchards, testing the vehicle and controls with the "Wizard of Oz" method (meaning that we just pretend that the controls are changing the settings of the vehicle when actually it was just our advisor steering.)


After a few times back and forth down the line, and a few times using different controls, we got the data we wanted, and began our next iteration. Right now, we are in the final week of a final design (that is actually going to control the vehicle!) There are a few technical snags, but I'm feeling pretty confident.