Year 1: complete

I was asked a few days ago what it was that I dislike so much about the Netherlands, besides the never-ending flatness and the fact that it's 'the size of a postage stamp.' I quickly assured my friend that, while I'm not such a fan of the geography here, the Dutch have been incredibly helpful and considerate since our first day here (remember our magical metro adventure with all of our crap?). I love the Dutch.

As I've previously mentioned, much of my issues with the Netherlands (and the majority of Europe, to be honest) stem from the shear number of people. There isn't the space you get in Alaska, where even the biggest cities (discounting Juneau, since there physically isn't room) have a massive footprint. In fact, the Anchorage city limits are larger than those of Minneapolis. F'real.

Don't get me wrong, you can feel like you're surrounded by people in Alaska, and it can be claustrophobic. But there is also a sense of space even within the cities that I've never found elsewhere.

The thing I miss about Alaska is the space.

When we get home, we're going to get a couple kayaks, get on a river, and (if we do it right) not see another person unless we're passing a boat ramp/put in. If we do it really right, we won't even see that. If we wanted (and I do), we could go up to the Brooks range, or the Deltas, or one of a myriad of other places and hike out in any direction for days without meeting another soul. This feeling, this amazing, invigorating, peaceful isolation, is something I can't adequately describe.

Being in the Alaskan wilderness helps me find myself.

And god knows I could use a reminder of that right about now.

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Anyway, we are now in Kalymnos for two much anticipated weeks of climbing, swimming, and having no obligations. I might get around to a thrilling update. We'll see.

Guilt-driven, super overdue blog post

Holy crap I've somehow managed to go 2 weeks (almost 3) without an update. I have no idea where time is going, but I'm pretty sure my brain is going to be mush by the end of this week.


That's right, this is the last week of exams before that magical, mystical thing called 'summer break' happens.


We are prepared for the post-exam experience (mostly). This involves:

- a set of double ropes for Kalymnos multi-pitches
- international drivers licenses for scooter rental
- a set of climbing shoes that won't demolish feet on a long multi-pitch. Mostly broken in.
- a set of kick-ass, super aggressive climbing shoes to be a boss and send those 6b/c tufa routes. But definitely not the multi-pitches, cuz I'm attached to feeling in my toes.
- 21 quickdraws plus 9 extendables
- 4 super sweet multi-pitch routes picked out
- swimsuits
- sunscreen
- a GoPro

Greece is going to be awesome.


We also changed Ev's plane ticket back to the Netherlands from Alaska so he can stay in Fairbanks and work in the office for a month. Something about getting some extra projects and making sure they remember he exists (not like he has a shortage of work).



I am so ready to be done with school. I am mentally and emotionally destroyed after this past year.






And that's it for the guilt-driven blog update. This has been an insane quarter and (obviously) it's wrecked havoc on my previously mostly-regular posts. Sorry about that. Hopefully I'll be better about it after my brain cells have time to recuperate.

The much-anticipated, super tardy summary of why friends are awesome.

I spent an hour and a half writing this update last week two (three?) weeks ago, and then it proceeded to delete itself when I tried to publish it. Round two is not as good. So here it goes.
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It has been a wonderful couple weeks. I'm not even sure where to begin.... chronologically, I suppose.

Paris
Our journey to Paris had two purposes: meet up with Colin (!!!) and celebrate my 25th birthday. We accomplished this by hanging out with Colin for 4 days, wandering around Paris (we rapidly decided that the touristy areas suck (not actually surprising) and are best avoided to the largest extent possible).

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Things I really need to remember when traveling
1. Pretty much all big European cities are the same: some beautiful structures and history, insane number of tourist traps, narrow streets, and lots of cigarette smoke.
2. Also, lots of people.
3. I strongly dislike large groups of people.
4. Tourist attractions are not worth it. Sorry, entire family, but they're not. The shear number of people alone makes them unpleasant, and, honestly, there are usually other things to see that give a better feel for the actual city.
5. You can get discounts on tourist attractions when you're an EU resident under 26.
6. Cities are really, really dirty. And smelly. Probably because at some point you have to vent the sewers to avoid buildup of gases that can, ya know, combust in large enough quantities. Also, I would put money that most of the storm water drains straight into the sewer, cuz storm sewers aren't a thing.
7. I really need to travel to places where I can get away. From people, from cities, from everything.
8. I really need to stop traveling to cities.
9. I miss vast quantities of nature where I can dawdle off and not see another person for days. And mountains.
10. I should probably get screened for lung cancer when we move back to the States.

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We arrived in Paris and met up with Colin. I came to terms years ago that I'm the other woman, and probably always will be. Oh well. Such is bromance.

We stayed in an Air B&B apartment in the Latin Quarter. Fyi, if you're staying in Paris, the latin quarter is the way to go. It's super close to the Bastille, Pantheon, and Notre Dam.

Our first night we decided to pick up a bottle of wine (because France) and sit on the Seine. We didn't have glasses, so we were super classy. But we fit right in.

Thursday (the 14th) was my birthday. Naturally my parents messaged to wish me happy birthday and ask what we'd be doing. Dad was amused by my response. Mom... well, she had a bit of a problem with our lack of glasses.

I had to tease my dad a bit, since he managed to not once, but twice mess up my birthday this year.

My birthday mission was simple: find this cholocatier and get some delicious French chocolate and find a nice bottle of champagne. So off we went on a 'wander around Paris and see the sights' adventure. As we walked through the square at Notre Dam, we noticed that there was no line and it was free. So we said what the hell and checked it out.

Cathedrals are pretty cool. They tend to get built in parts over loooooooooong periods of time, so the architecture from different periods blends into the facade. We were pretty lucky to make it in before the crowds arrived. I have personal space issues.

The stained glass was pretty fantastic. Cathedrals tend to be pretty dark (duh), and the stained glass adds a bit of color (although not as much light as a regular window)

And then we wandered.

The Pont des Arts bridge is estimated to have millions of 'love locks' on it. On 1 June Paris officials started cutting them off because the weight of the locks is causing structural problems on the bridge. That is a lot of locks.

We also managed a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower. We pretty much used the day to scope out the Louvre, Arc de Triomph, the Luxor Oblisk, and the Champs Elysees among other things.

Friday morning we struck out on my annual birthday run. For the last five years or so, Ev, Colin and I have got for a run on my birthday. This year we were a day late, but it was worth it.

We started running around 9am figuring we'd go for an hour or so and meandered through a nature park/zoo near the apartment. Then we crossed the river and ran along a canal. Eventually we decided it was time to turn around and get some breakfast. We were 45 minutes out from the apartment but figured we could navigate ourselves back. We wound through back roads, crossed a couple bridges, and got royally lost. Finally we broke out Google Maps and proceeded to be 5km away from the apartment for the next hour an a half.

We got back a little after 1.

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Reasons I love running
1. You can go as long and far as you want. You can push yourself until you want to pass out, or have a leisurely pace you can maintain for a marathon. It's incredibly therapeutic.

2. Runners are super supportive of each other. You nod when you pass, give a thumbs up or a smile, maybe an encouraging word. Who needs a support group when you can have a complete stranger give you the extra little push you need.

3. You can explore parts of cities and places you would never see as a regular tourist. And it's awesome.

4. It's not a big deal when you get super turned around. Worst case scenario you walk a bit.

5. You talk about your bowel movements. A lot. Every time you go out.

6. Did I mention you get to explore? And talk about poo?

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After our little detour(s), we all took a nap. When we woke up we grabbed some bread and cheese and a bottle of wine and headed over to the Eiffel Tower for a picnic. It was pretty fantastic. After we finished we dawdled up to the base of the tower towards the insane number of people to check out the line to take the stairs up.

The line was freaking huge.

We didn't stand in it.

Look, Mom, glasses!

Walking back into the park, we noticed the no alcohol sign. Oops.

Saturday morning we got up early and went to the Louvre. We'd talked about getting the fast-track passes to avoid lines and get into a bunch of museums and stuff, but apparently we all hate tourist attractions and decided it was a much better financial choice to just show up early.

It turns out that under 26 EU residents get discounts on stuff. Ev and I got into the Louvre for free.

We wandered around for an hour or so, dawdling through the Egyptian exhibit and the Mediterranean section, then the French sections with furniture from Napoleon and Marie Antoinette and massive gold-plated mirrors and jewels. Crazy stuff.

The sections were deserted. I was reminded of Machu Picchu at 6am on New Years Day when we had the place to ourselves. It was magical to wander this huge site and not see another soul for hours.

Eventually we were ready to leave, but figured we had to go see the Mona Lisa because we were in the building and I'm not sure would have been able to live it down if we didn't.

It turns out everyone in the Louvre was in the Italian Art Gallery. 

Taking pictures of the art instead of looking at it.

Hundreds of people, taking pictures of a painting instead of looking at it. What. The. Hell.

I worked my way to the front of the crowd at the Mona Lisa and looked at it for a couple minutes. It's a pretty cool piece of art, if a bit over-hyped. I actually got bitched at for looking at it instead of taking a picture to 'look at later.' Isn't the point of art to admire, rather than take a crappy photo of so you can prove you were there?

Ugh.

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All three of us were pretty shell-shocked after the Louvre. We're all from pretty small towns (well, Fairbanks isn't that small anymore, but you know what I mean) and have a hard time with big crowds. So off we wandered back into the Latin Quarter.

The wine shop we had been to the night before on our way to the Eiffel Tower had an amazing selection of very old, rare wines. Ev wanted to go back and look more, since he thought he had seen a bottle of 1970-something for a price we could (kind of) afford. 

I cannot do justice to this shop. The shop owner remembered us and asked how the bottle from the previous night was. When it became clear that we were interested in a pretty nice, old wine he discreetly shut the door and proceeded to ask us what kind of wines we liked, what we were looking for, how old, price range... he knew how and where the wines had been stored. And then he made a recommendation. 

1971 Chateau Haut-Simard Grand Cru St. Emilon Controlee (bordeaux blend).

So we picked up another baguette and headed to the river.

We neglected to consider that a 44 year old cork might be hard to remove. It only took about 20 minutes, 3 people and some serious paranoia. 

See, Mom, we can use glasses!

The wine was fantastic.
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Sunday we got up early and walked to the Catacombs. Colin did a quick head count and we were an hour early and 150 people back. Sweet. Only 200 people are allowed in the catacombs at a time, so we figured we were good.

After almost 2 hours in line, we gave up.

Tourist attractions suck.

So we wandered some more, then got on a train and headed back to the Netherlands. And proceeded to have a looooooooooong work and school week.

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Paige showed up Wednesday morning from her trip to Israel and Berlin. She walked into our apartment, looked around and went 'I'm going to cook for you and clean your house.'

She then proceeded to feed us nonstop, do all the dishes and make our kitchen spotless.

I don't think anyone has cooked for use since we left Alaska. It was really, really nice.

Best houseguest ever.

Peanut butter pie. Kind of the best food ever.

I took her into Delft Wednesday since I only had once class and we wandered. It turns out Paige really likes cheese. And clogs.

Thursday she wandered around Rotterdam and checked out the zoo. Then came back to the house and made pretzels and pie.

It's probably a good thing Paige doesn't live here. We would get so fat.

Then we took her into Amsterdam for the full Dutch experience and put her on a plane back to the states. It sucked seeing her go. I really miss family and it was incredibly nice to see her. We'll see her again in July when we go to Denver to run a half marathon with her, but that feels so far away...

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The next two weeks consisted of school. Lots and lots of school. Exams are already upon us (next week is the study week!) and there's no lull in the homework and Matlab code that's been churning out all quarter. I'm kind of surprised Ev's still here, since I'm never freaking around and when I am I'm so fried I'm basically a vegetable.

Friday (yup, we're finally up to this past weekend!) Colin and his girlfriend Morganne arrived for the weekend. Saturday morning Owen arrived (I met him at Centraal Station and spent 20 minutes wandering around trying to find him. We really should have arranged a meeting place ahead of time). Owen is one of my closest friends from childhood (and onward) and I cannot express how awesome it was to see him, even if Bree didn't make it over because her flight got changed last minute. After finally finding each other, we all headed up the the beach in Den Haag. They managed to be here for the three nicest days of the year and we enjoyed wandering in the sun. We talked about going in to Amsterdam but were just as happy to stay home, drink some scotch and catch up.

I love friends. Even when their timing for a visit is... less than ideal. Stupid school.

Owen had to head back to Belgium yesterday morning (at the buttcrack of dawn) to catch his plane home, so Ev and I dragged Colin and Morganne around town while we ran a couple errands. Then we picked up some bread, a bunch of spreads, cheese, and veggies and had a lovely picnic in a nearby park.

Have I mentioned I love friends?



And now it's back to school and the terrifying rush before exams to finish up everything and freaking STUDY so I can actually pass everything this quarter.

I really don't know how much more school I can take. Hopefully the summer break helps some.



So there's the super-late update of basically the last month. Next week will probably be... well, let's be honest. Non-existant. But we'll see. Maybe I'll do some procrastination.

Fancy New Toys: Abbott FreeStyle Libre Flash Sensor

Last week I was the happy recipient of one of the new "flash" glucose sensors manufactured by Abbott. Having read some of the reviews for it (an especially good one can be found here), and after my prior experiences with the Medtronic Enlite sensor, I was looking forward to trying out something more low-profile and "dumb."

A bit of background before I get going:

As you have probably figured out by now, I live a pretty active life. Running, hiking, climbing, etc. are a big part of my life. In order to do this, I have developed very good control over the past 20-something years (my A1C's have been between 5.9 and 6.2 for quite a while). In other words, I'm not the target demographic for continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) or sensors, which are generally marketed to people with poor control or who are trying to become (or are currently) pregnant. My  motivation for a sensor is simple: I want to be able to track my blood sugars when I'm exercising in order to improve my performance and push my limits. It's difficult to do this using only finger sticks, since you don't get trends.

So shortly after Medtronic released their Enlite sensor in the US, I got my hands on one. Unfortunately, while it has some very nice features like the threshold suspend and continuous glucose feedback, it proved to be extremely pressure sensitive and the adhesive wasn't up to par for my regularly sweaty skin. The pressure sensitivity proved to be a deal breaker. The Enlite is approved for use on the abdomen, which means it is prone to pressure from pants, underpants, bending, waist belts, etc. This wouldn't be a big deal, except when exposed to external pressure the sensor loses its calibration and gives false readings. Then you get alarms, have to re-calibrate it, and, often in my case, the sensor only lasts a couple of days rather than the 7 it's supposed to.

In short, the Enlite CGM isn't designed with athletes in mind. Which is fine, but it means that I stopped using it because it was getting very, very annoying.

The Flash sensor is different from the available CGM's because it's, well, not a CGM. You get a hand-held reader that you scan the sensor with to get a "flash" reading. So basically, it's a substitute for finger sticks and doesn't constantly transmit data to an insulin pump or reader that can alert you to low or high blood sugar levels and cause alarm fatigue.

The sensor starter kit arrived in a surprisingly small box containing the reader and two sensors, approved for 14 days each.

The reader is smaller than an iPhone 4s and weighs nothing, which is always a good thing. It has one button and a touch screen. Pretty idiot proof.

Because I live in the Netherlands, I got the Dutch edition of the sensor. I attempted to change the language, but I get Dutch, Norwegian, and what appears to be some variety of Slovik (don't even ask, I don't know). Luckily the instruction manual had lots of pretty pretty pictures for those of us who can't read Dutch, and once again Abbott wins major points for an idiot-proof product.

The sensors come in boxes containing everything you need to insert it, up to and including an alcohol swab. Assembly is easy: the grey thing contains the external transmitter bit, and the single-serving coffee creamer thing has the needle and actual sensor. You unscrew the clear lid, peel back the plastic cover, and push the sensor into the adhesive.

Abbott claims insertion is painless. I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to big needles (and regularly have problems when inserting my insulin pump sets as they end up in muscle. Insulin delivery into muscle burns, by the way). Medtronic claims the Enlite insertion is mostly painless, but my personal experience disagrees with that. From what I've heard from Dexcom 4 users, there is some discomfort with insertion with that, too. So I was pleasantly surprised when the sensor inserted and I didn't feel a thing.

Chalk one up for Abbott.

The transmitter is bigger than I thought it was. The reviews pretty uniformly said it was about the size of a 2 euro piece. As you can see below, it's a bit bigger than advertised, but still the lowest profile I've seen on a sensor.

The other big difference between the Flash sensor and the other sensors currently available is that it doesn't require any user calibration. Theoretically, after the initial 60 minute period (where I assume it does it's thing as far as calibration, etc) it's good to go.

Because the Flash sensor is only available in Europe, the units are mmol/L, rather than the mg/dL I've been using for the past 20 years. The conversion is fairly easy (multiply the mmol/L by 18 to get to mg/dL), but I've obviously got some adjustment that needs to happen. While the sensor appears to be pretty close to my finger stick readings (generally within 15%), I'm not taking corrections off it yet, simply because I need to become more comfortable with the units and develop more confidence in the sensor before taking insulin. This is not a criticism of the sensor, since it seems to be quite consistent and indicates trends (always a plus), but rather my well-developed sense of paranoia. I suspect over the next week or so I'll develop more trust in it.

Besides accuracy, the most important feature of sensors (in my mind) is the adhesive. In the past, I've resorted to super-gluing them on in order to get more than 2 days worth of readings. Furthermore, I tend to develop a rash from the adhesives, sweat them off (lame), or (unfortunately regularly) rip them off on stuff. The Enlite was better than some of the sensors I've used for doctor visits (not the insta-feedback ones, but the ones you put on and then download a week later so your doctor can look at them) as far as resisting a bit of pull when caught on stuff, but the adhesive could not handle sweat. Once again, the Flash sensor has impressed. Probably because of its lower profile, it is less prone to catching on things and when it does, seems to stay attached. In fact, the resilience of the adhesive is more in line with my insulin pump infusion sets, which can take a lot of abuse. Over four days I put the adhesive to the test during several runs, the usual (aka huge) amount of biking, and climbing.

Unfortunately, the adhesive wasn't strong enough to resist a rope raking across it when I took a pretty impressive fall at the top of an overhanging route and slammed into the rope. The sensor flew off, barely missed Ev, bounced over a railing to the landing, bounced over that railing, and hit the ground right next to an unsuspecting belayer. Amazingly, I didn't realize I'd lost the sensor until I finished the route and was being lowered, an impressive feat given the unsurprising amount of damage traumatically removing needles can do.

This did, however, provide an opportunity to check out the size of the sensor itself. Once again, I'm impressed with how small it is (and how painlessly it goes in and comes out).

All in all, even after being traumatically removed after 4 days, the Flash sensor managed to be the longest I've ever had a sensor stay in and calibrated. I suspect it had at least 5 more days of solid adhesive before starting to peel up around the edges (based on my experience with infusion sets and various other things that are supposed to stay in for a long time and never do).

I should note that, like all CGM's and sensors, the Flash sensor has a lag between the reported reading and actual blood sugar. This means that it is a useful tool for indicating upwards or downwards trends, but shouldn't be relied upon when you're low. If you're dropping fast check your blood so you can correct. I know I'm beating a dead horse (this is glucose sensor 101), but because the Flash sensor is more of a meter replacement, it can be easy to treat it with the same level of trust as your actual meter. Additionally, I strongly suggest doing a finger stick or two a day to make sure it's holding its calibration.

As of right now, the only downside to the Flash sensor (as far as I'm concerned) is the price. Each sensor costs 60 euros and (theoretically) lasts for 14 days, assuming it holds its calibration. While advocacy groups in the EU are working to get it covered by insurance, right now it's a hefty investment. My hope is I can continue to afford them, but if I keep ripping them out I suspect I can't.

And thus concludes my (probably unexpected and a bit uninteresting for my regular readers) review of my shiny new toy. I'm pretty excited about the potential of this sensor for athletes and hopefully it will be approved by the FDA soon.

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UPDATE

Amazingly, the sensor stayed on for the entire 14 days. The adhesive around the edges started peeling up a bit around day 9, but never got to the point where I was worried it might fall out. I did, however, notice that the calibration appeared to become a little off around day 10 (I had a couple false lows and it sometimes seemed to think I was running around 180 mg/dL when I tested at 120 (for example)).

Week of firsts

It's been a week with a couple firsts in it.

For starters, I wore a hole in a (new-ish) pair of jeans from biking so much. Discovered that during class yesterday when I looked down and saw, well, not pants. Maybe I should give up on pants and get some jodhpurs like you ride horses in. A reinforced crotch/inner thigh is probably a good idea.

Secondly, I officially failed my first class ever. Luckily, exams are offered twice a year and you can retake them until you pass. The (hopefully) passing grades overwrite the failing one, so there's no official record on your transcript that you suck at test taking. I'm not super happy about this, especially since I thought I did ok on this exam. I went and talked to the professor, who sat down with me for half an hour and went through the exam with me, so I know what I did wrong. Actually, I feel a lot better having done that, since it was mostly stupid little things and a massive misinterpretation of a question that screwed me. Hopefully I pass the retake at the end of June.


There's a lot of homework, coding, and report writing this quarter. Plus this little gem that showed up in my inbox yesterday after a lecture riddled with math errors (that are present in the notes and study material provided by the prof):

So confidence inspiring.



Anyways, we're off to Paris in a couple hours to meet Colin and do stuff and things. The bucket list currently includes the catacombs, Louvre, Eiffel Tour (duh), and a run along the Seine. Plus whatever else we run across that looks like a good time.

You know what that means! The next blog update will have a little more content. Probably.

Quarter of the Holiday Weekends

Up until last weekend, we have had a grand total of 0 holiday weekends.

I'm starting to think the Netherlands is trying to compensate for that hell-ish-ness. 

So far we've had Kings Day (the weekend of the last blog post, 3 days), Liberation Day (this weekend, 4 days. This one celebrates the defeat of Germany during WWII, or so I've been told. Once again, I haven't bothered to follow up on it), and finally Ascension Day and Whit Monday (next weekend (aka birthday weekend), 5 days).

So in other words, I basically don't have classes on Mondays.

Which is cute, because if I'm not off traveling, I'm doing school. Actually, that's pretty much true regardless of the day of the week. This quarter involves a lot of time-intensive classes. And Matlab.

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Upon discovery of this new long weekend, Ev and I decided to get out of town and go somewhere new. For a change of pace, we opted to take a train to a cheap destination. So we ended up in Köln (aka Cologne), Germany. 

Köln is about 4 hours by train from Rotterdam and famous for a massive, ornate cathedral that dominates the center of town. My mind was blown by the details of the cathedral, and even more so by the elaborate lattice-work that makes up the towers. I've never seen anything like it. It's pretty incredible seeing sunlight streaming through the church towers.

The details of the stonework are mind blowing. Every surface of the cathedral has ornate, stunning carvings. It's hard to believe that this was constructed in the 1200's (well, I think it was finished in the 1700's, but that's because it kept being added to).

The stained glass is amazing. And, unsurprisingly, hard to get a good picture of.

After a very brief discussion, Ev and I decided that the Inca's have nothing on the stonework in Europe during the same time period. Although this is probably due to the availability of tools and a more developed, centralized economy (plus, you know, large sums of money or its equivalent). 

Saturday was spent walking along the Rhine. There is a lovely trail along the river that made us wish we had our running shoes. We meandered upstream for about 4 hours, marveling at the speed of the current and the sweet little stream barbs installed as erosion control measures.

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Engineering aside

Stream barbs are pretty cool.

Essentially, stream barbs are trapezoidal protrusions into a river channel at an upstream angle, usually constructed of big rock (rip rap) or some other hard material not prone to erosion. This introduces flow interruption and a hydraulic jump that causes eddies and sediment deposition on the leeward side of the barb. This results in slower flow along the section of bank and thus reduces erosion.

This is a major over-simplification, but works for the basic concept.

As I said, stream barbs are cool.

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And then we heard about the chocolate museum. And because we are basically children had have no self control, we went there.

In my defense, it was actually a museum (a much better call than the Nemo Science Center we went to in Amsterdam which was targeted at people 20 years younger), and had exhibits on the growing and exportation of cocoa beans, how they are processed, the steps for actually making chocolate, and packaging/marketing over the years. I have to give them props for placing a big emphasis on the conditions of the people who farm cocoa and the discussion and explanation of the various 'free trade' labels. My conclusion is, in short, buy free trade chocolate because it decreases the human-exploitation in chocolate production. 

They had a greenhouse simulating the ecosystem where cocoa trees grow. It was insanely hot and humid. Which is, I suppose, pretty accurate. 

And what chocolate museum would be complete without a chocolate fountain? That's right, NONE OF THEM! Just fyi, it was delicious. 

There was also some very cool exhibits about the evolution of the chocolate molds and how they are used.

Unsurprisingly, we walked out of the museum really wanting chocolate. Luckily, there is a chocolate cafe right next to the exit. It's almost like they know about people like me.

Again, and I really must emphasize this, I have the self control of a small child.

chocolate raspberry cake. It. Was. Awesome.

And then we went into the museum gift shop and proceeded to buy chocolate. 

As someone who really enjoys delicious chocolatey goodness, I've noticed a few things while living in Europe. Namely, each country seems to have a preferred type of chocolate. The easiest examples are the truffles. The chocolates we got in Lyon (France) were very rich, dark, and sometimes slightly creamy. Fruit flavors were infused or mixed in to the filling, which was primarily chocolate rather than a cream or fruit gel-y thing. The truffles from Köln were much more intensely fruity, with the predominant flavor often the fruit rather than the chocolate. Which was still pretty amazing. The German chocolate also seems to have a smoother texture, but I'll need to do more taste-tests to verify this. 

I like chocolate. Obviously.

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I should probably get back to work/school. This quarter's classes are all pretty interesting. In fact, they're the classes I've been looking forward to all year. Coupled Processes in the Subsurface (apparently the hardest class in the program), Soil Dynamics, Soil Structure Interaction, and Embankments and Geosynthetics.

Have I mentioned I have a grand total of no actual free time? The holiday weekend trips are probably not a good idea. 

Not like that's going to stop me.

Next weekend we go to Paris and I become another year older. Maybe we'll do something romantic. Or, more likely, slightly inappropriate. 

El Chorro Smells Like Rosemary

I've been putting off writing a blog post because it means I'm back in the real world.

I don't wanna be in the real world.

Mostly because El Chorro is beautiful and has mountains and smells like rosemary. This is because there are wild rosemary bushes all over the hills. It's kind of amazing.

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Last week Ev, Jesse and I went to Spain. We flew in to Malaga (about as south as you can get without being in Africa), then took the train to El Chorro. For those who aren't in the know, El Chorro is famous for two things: the Caminito del Ray, and the rock climbing. We went for the climbing.

And it was awesome.

Looking through the climbing guidebook before leaving Rotterdam, we (well, mostly Ev) picked out a multi-pitch that looked pretty good and is a top 50 route for El Chorro (always a sure sign of a good time). Upon some additional research, it came to our attention that this 4 pitch, easy grade (4+ to 5) climb was extended another, oh, 130m and is now a 10 pitch climb with a 6a+ crux at pitch 10, followed by an 11th "pitch" that is, and I quote a review of the route, a "superb scramble to the summit, really worth while." To each their own, I guess.

Escalada Arabia: Rogilio is kind of in the middle of the wall between the two small peaks

So we had an objective: climb a 250m route with the hardest pitches at the very top (5, 5+, and 6a+. Fun times.). We ended up with a half day of beautiful weather and, more surprisingly, time on Wednesday when we arrived, so we checked out a crag near the place we were staying, a mere 10 minute walk away. To be clear, that's the dream.

The crag we ended up on is pretty new (as in the last couple years) and not in the guidebooks. So we did what Ev and I end up doing a lot of the time anyway: eyeball the bolt lines and pick out something that looks fun and doable.

After a couple hours of climbing, we scoped out the big objective, were told it was an hour hike away, got some dinner and sacked out.

The plan was to get an alpine-ish start and hike out to Rogilio at 7am. We were up and ready to go, but the weather wasn't being decisive about what it was doing. It was a) dark, and b) lightly raining when we woke up, so we crawled back under the covers and checked the weather every 15 minutes or so in the hope that it would stop it.

Around 8:30 we decided to risk it and headed out. The rain gods were with us, and the skies started clearing as we approached the wall.

250m is kind of intimidating when you're standing at the bottom looking up.

We drew straws (well, blades of grass) to decide who got the first lead, then proceeded to have Jesse link the first three pitches since they were super short and easy. Ev lead the next two, then it was my turn. After my lead we started leading one pitch at a time, since they got more technical moving up the wall. To my chagrin, there were several hanging belays. Fyi, hanging belays are not a great time for prolonged periods of time.

there are a shocking number of pictures of me in this hanging belay (I was sitting there for almost an hour). This is, amazingly, the most flattering by far.

I got the second to last pitch (5c-ish), which was a fun little corner. And then came the crux.

Climbs are graded based on the hardest move on the route, so theoretically a climb can be 4a 99.9% of the route, but the 6a move means it gets a 6a grade. In the case of pitch 10, the crux move was the first move off the belay. Jesse worked it for a bit but couldn't pull it, so Ev took a shot.

He made it look easy.

I kind of hate him sometimes.

But the view of the valley from the belay was beautiful.

There was a bit of an adventure hauling the backpacks up the pitch before I climbed it, since we had decided it was too hard to climb the pitch with a pack on. Apparently the boys had a pretty elaborate setup at the top, but they weren't able to document it. Something about having Jesse on belay.

I was pretty excited to pull the crux my second try and top out. I was almost as excited to go pee after spending 6 hours on the wall.

As is often the case when you're at the top of something tall, the view was worth it.

The walk off was pretty fun, too. We saw an ibex! Actually, we saw 3 ibex. They might have been a family of some sort.

The next day we checked out another crag that happened to be full of Brits. I love listening to British climbing slang. The best was "it's a right proper jug fest central*, mate!" The American equivalent is "it's a jug haul!"

We climbed a couple routes, but it was getting hot and the crag was crowded, so we decided to hike out towards the Caminito del Rey to get a closer look. Plus, our feet were not thrilled about being stuffed back into climbing shoes the day after a big climb.

So we hiked, and it was beautiful.

The big bridge of the Caminito del Rey. Quite impressive. We actually looked into hiking it, since it reopened at the end of March after being closed for repairs for 5 years or so, but it's booked until July. JULY. That's a lot of planning ahead.

Objective of the hike: check out the big cave. We almost made it. There were bees. Lots of bees.

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Saturday we did another half day of climbing and took lots of pictures, since there weren't many taken during the multi-pitch. So, without more ado, have some climbing porn.

And now I present..... my favorite picture of the trip:

Ev does crazy eyes in a way that's, well, crazy.

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This Monday is King's Day (literally the monarch's birthday. Until recently, it was Queen's Day, and when they got a new King who's birthday is in winter it was decided to keep the date of the holiday the same since holidays with good weather are better. Or so I've been told. I didn't actually bother to do research on this), which means no school for me.

Of course, that's meaningless, since I already have lots of homework and not enough hours to do it.

Shocking, I know.

But we have a long weekend in Paris with Colin coming up, then my kid sister will be here for a few days, then Tae, and then we get to go back to Alaska for a month-ish.

YAY PEOPLE!

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* Jesse has corrected me. It was "jug central," not "jug fest." My bad.