The Adventure Continues at...

The adventure continues at http://jjsandiego.j2schilz.com

UCSD - We Have a Plan

Joe here.

We wanted to let everyone know that we now know where we'll be spending the next couple of years. I've accepted UCSD's offer of admission. UCSD is a fabulous school, and will be a good environment in which to complete my undergrad.

Incidentally, this does mean I was not accepted by Stanford. Stanford would have been a beautiful campus and a good program to attend, but in the long run would have given me only a marginal benefit in grad school, etc. I view the whole thing soberly; we made some interesting choices after my enlistment that can't be unmade, but I now have an opportunity to demonstrate my focus and skill at a great school.

We're looking at living in Hillcrest after a visit to Chateau Dolan. There's a regular UCSD shuttle between campus and UCSD Medical Center-Hillcrest. Additionally, this places Jenny in close proximity to her plans....

[Enter Jenny] Hi, y'all.

I'm going to be attending City College to complete the technical/ vocational certificate to be trained as a photographer. I'll also complete the fitness specialist certificate so that I can teach exercise classes as well. And I'll be taking some business courses so that I can branch out on my own with the photography after I work as an apprentice for awhile.

I've been spending the past 6 years out of high school trying to figure out what I want to do. I've tried various majors and never felt strongly enough about any of them to finish with a degree. But now with Joe on an academic path, it leaves my options a little more open. So I'm going to get some job skills in stuff that I love and just go to work! Sounds pretty good to me ;)

Oh, and I may try to join the City College cross country team :)

-- That's all for now. We'll be in San Diego late on the 16th or very very early on the 17th :)

The last few days in Juneau

Sorry for the delay in the posts, everybody. Jenny here. We were so busy last week with finals and papers and finishing my basket, and then finally packing, that we didn't have time to spare for blogging.

But I intend to make up for it :) We have much to show you.

First -- we went whale watching! We used Dolphin Tours and we had a great time. There weren't a whole lot of whales out since it's early in the season, but we saw maybe 6 humpback whales on our trip. The pictures are a little far away, but just look at the beautiful view. It was a perfect day for being out on the boat.

This is Herbert Glacier viewed from the Lynn Canal... (crooked because it was shot backwards out a window of a moving boat!)


... which is what your see here (The Lynn Canal). I wore my GPS watch on the boat and Joe figured out how to make a Google map out of it. Nifty huh? So here was our trip on the boat! The sharp turns were when we spotted a whale and raced over to see it. Very exciting.


View Larger Map


Then on Friday we rented a car and drove out to the end of the road :) There are only 40 miles of road in Juneau and we drove to the very end of it. There's a sign that says "End" and a bunch of unplowed snow over what looks like some kind of (unpaved?) access road. So we turned around and went to see....

The Shrine of St. Terese, Catholic Church. Built on a little bitty island in 1938 with the stones near the beach


Here you can see the little causeway they built for easier access to the church. It's totally hidden in the trees -- It reminds me of the elf city on earth where Kate Blanchette's character lives :P (I know, total nerd, and I couldn't even remember the name, and I'm too lazy to look it up, so there).

I digress. Here is one of the neat stations of the cross they had all around the church.
The church still gets used and there are cabins on the beach and a lodge for retreats. Very pretty place.

--

So we had our little tourist adventures. :) Finally. At least the weather was nice for us.

Practice Makes Perfect

Dudes, look what Joe and I did this weekend:


Jenny here -- Want to see what nearly all of our earthly possessions looks like?


We've been called "bohemian" by a few ;) Actually, I think we're just lazy and don't want to deal with moving hassles. We have a small storage unit and a couple various boxes at parents' houses, but we're planning on downsizing that as well when we return. I must say that it definitely nice not owning furniture when one moves a lot.

Anyway, we had a practice pack up to see what we would be bringing with us and what we'll be donating. Just two weeks to go here. We were stressing a little bit about packing, so we decided to just go for it. Almost all of our kitchen stuff was bought here and is staying here. We packed up our books to ship off to wherever we'll be for the next few years (sure wish those darn colleges would make up their minds quicker!). But now we have two weeks to get everything else in order. We'll have to pack up again of course, but it was a good exercise. We feel better now :)

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It was snowing like crazy a few days ago and has been sunny and beautiful ever since. In fact, the afternoon, after the downpour of a foot or more of snow, was sunny and warm. Almost 50 degrees! Crazy Springtime in Juneau. Apparently this is normal. :)

I've got a run today and we're going OUTSIDE. 12 miles of lovely sunshine... and hats and fleece vests and gloves :) But it is supposed to get to 50 again today - let's just hope the wind doesn't ruin it and make it freezing anyway.

Have a great day!

What month is it again?

Mouths all around Juneau are collectively hanging slack.

We just got about 6 or 7 inches of snow overnight (judging by the snow piled on the roofs of the cars this morning). On April 17!

It has been green and rainy with lovely little blossoms sprouting up everywhere, new ivy climbing on the trees, a little bit of color coming back -- then we had some blizzard action yesterday afternoon -- and finally this:



This is what January and February looked like. Actually, March too. And now April too :)

While everyone else is worrying about the snow tires and studs they already took off their vehicles, and the shovels and other snow paraphernalia already put away until next season, Joe and I say:

Bring on more snow! We won't have this again for awhile! :) Less than three weeks until we leave. We're a little sad to go, but the snow will see us out :)

10k and Snow in April

Jenny here - totally separate events on separate days, but both great nonetheless.

I ran a 10k with my friend Johanna over the weekend. It was my first! Sounds kind of funny coming from a girl who has run a marathon. (10k = 6.2 miles) :P We ran it WAY too fast. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I got a nifty GPS running watch that tracks up and tells me how fast we're running, how far we've gone, etc. Very cool. So this magic watch told us on that morning that we were running a 9.5 minute mile... Which is a significantly faster pace than our usual 11 minute mile :) Oops. Well, everybody else was running that fast so we went with it. We were walking toward the end, but we had fun anyway :)

Me in front of the Mendenhall Glacier

Johanna and me excited for the race to start - can you tell?
(We are two of a kind I tell ya)

Then tonight, Monday night, Joe and I made taco salad for dinner. I made the ground seitan and Joe sauteed it up with taco seasoning. Topped it off with some tomatoes and olives over a bed of fresh spring greens. See, Moms, we're eating our salad! No boring salads for us.


I try to take pictures of Joe whenever I can, because more often than not I have to surprise him to get a normal photo. I lingered too long this time. He crossed one eye at the very last second, "Just in time so you couldn't chastise me," he said, completely self-satisfied:


We're already into April. That didn't stop it from snowing today though. With our time in Juneau coming to a close we've planned a couple tourist trips: taking a ferry to one of the nearby cities (and see some whales!!) and renting a car for a couple days to drive out the road a bit. Should be fun - pictures will follow.

Now we're going to settle in with a movie and our new favorite dessert: soy yogurt parfaits - layers of yogurt, oats and/or granola, frozen blueberries or raspberries, and drizzled with agave nectar. YUM.

Have a great night :)

Accepted at UCSD

I just wanted to let everyone know that I found out this afternoon that I've been accepted into UCSD. We're still waiting on Berkeley and Stanford of course, but this is a real load-off because UCSD is our third choice and a school I'd really be excited to go to. Now I don't have to sweat out any more rolling admissions, and I can hunker down for Berkeley on the 30th and Stanford on May 15th.


Thanks again for all of your support!

--Joe