| 032: Halloween |
[13 Nov 2007|08:34am] |
Pumpkin Patch and Corn Field off Highway One
A few weeks ago Jess came to visit me and we drove north on highway one. There is a cute little pumpkin patch out there with a corn maze so we took some photos, we also stopped at the rafter house.
( autumn in all its glory )
So Halloween was two weeks ago. It was a dramatic night, Erik, Travis, Jagoda and I went downtown. Jagoda and I didn't really want to go because it was freezing and there were too many grabby drunk men, but the boys were all for it so we went anyway. I'll put it this way - i was designated driver for the night so it basically sucked. I was cleopatra, and lazily recycled my princess leia costume. Jagoda was a sexy nurse, Erik was a mummy, and Travis impaled a flamingo.
Jagoda and I on pacific ave
( halloween 2007 )
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| 031: Greece (Amorgos, Folegandros and Serifos) |
[21 Oct 2007|07:33pm] |
Greetings from Santa Cruz. Erik and I are back and taking classes again. I'm in all psychology courses with about 300 pages of reading every weekend, and europe seems like it was years ago, but I never finished updating you all on the rest of our trip.
We had a "rich" traveling experience..and a lot of shit went very wrong.
1. While we were in belgium I got a bladder infection. For those of you girls who have ever had one you know how painful they are. I sat in a Belgian hospital for 4 hours waiting to be prescriped cipro (which is what i had asked for in the first two minutes of being there, since i've had one of these before and knew what i needed). I finally got it and then had to walk a half a mile to a pharmacy and get the meds.
2. Erik and I were flying from Amsterdam to Athens and stopping in the middle to change flights in Milan (Italy). Our first flight on Alitalia (who just went out of buisness a few days ago) was delayed and so we missed the second and had to spend 7 hours in the airport.
3. When we finally got to athens at about 2 in the morning, our luggage never arrived. We didn't get it back until almost two days later.
4. Erik's lap top was stolen.
5. Erik got really sick (bedridden for 3 days) when we were in Folegandros.
On the bright side we took a lot of photos :)
an extremely beautiful monastery that was built in the 9th century.
( Amorgos )
The next island we went to was folegandros which barely had any people on it, and also had the coolest church i've ever seen up on a hillside with a ridiculously zig zaggy staircase.
erik staring down over one of the sides of the island.
( folegandros..and lots of goats )
The last island we went to was serifos which was really cool, and had a really awesome village at the top of the island.
one of my favorite photos taken in greece.
( serifos )
and finally me and erik in athens
( 3 )
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| 029: Amsterdam |
[26 Aug 2007|06:46pm] |
I'm sitting in the Lucky Lake hostel in the countryside outside Amsterdam. I spent the day biking around little villages and swimming in a huge, cold and very refreshing lake, we arrived here this morning after a few days in the actual city. It's breathtaking, this was so worth all the hours of working at the boardwalk, sooo worth it. Next on the list is Paris, then Belgium, and then Greece.
1.
Taken in a tunnel going under the freeway, it is Erik as we were on a bike ride to a neighboring village.
( Amsterdam )
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| 029: Lava House |
[09 Aug 2007|03:28pm] |
There is a house in Tiburon that runs along the ocean, it was never completed but the foundation stands and there are thousands of imported lava rocks from hawai that are hand placed to create caves and formation. The man who was having it built killed himself before it was finished, and since he died, no one has bought the property, probably because it would be ridiculously expensive. The image above is of one of the lava formations.
( Pictures from the past week )
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| 028: July |
[22 Jul 2007|09:06am] |
It's been a while. So far, summer has been more intense than the the entire school year combined. I go to psych stats 3 times a week at 8am for 3 hours each time, and I also work a 36 hour week as a ticket lead at the boardwalk. Last night was one of the first small get togethers I've been to all summer and it was fun and nice and comfortable. I tried extasy for the first time, last night. It felt sort of like coke but lasted 6 hours. I probably won't do it again, but it was enjoyable.
( Pictures from Last Night with Appropriate captions )
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| 026: Oh my darling, you are gone and lost forever |
[20 May 2007|10:19am] |
| [ |
music |
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air - left bank |
] |
dimeo lane has been cleaned out and boarded up.
They are turning it into a farm, at least that is what it looks like. I dug up my negatives and contact sheets from France, Costa Rica, and the summer after senior year. I tried to scan them in. The contact sheets scanned great, the actual negatives not so much, as you'll soon see.
Arenal, Costa Rica
The way I take photos has changed a lot since then. And it was only 2 years ago.
( negatives )
This post is going to be image heavy, since i've been going out and taking photos again. Erik and I went on campus a week ago to do long exposure light photos. All the ones i'm in I took using a self timer, tripod, and squeeze light.
( lights )
Then I went to the hidden beach and the rafter house with erik. It was on our way there that I found out the sad news about dimeo lane. They took out all the artwork that the guy put in it, you can tell because you can see into the windows of the house from afar and the wall paper is ripped off and the main door is covered in wood.
Erik took some pictures of me in a white dress by the rafter house, and then we went to the hidden beach on highway 1.
a very cute caterpillar
( the )
1. me sitting on the rafter house remains.
( a lot more where this came from )
so..which one should I use as my new default picture? help?
anyway.. this post took me way too long to do. if you comment then I thank you greatly.
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| 024: Valley Fair |
[08 May 2007|10:19pm] |
hello ladies (and very few boys)
This week is already moving fast. Yesterday Jagoda and I went to San Jose together and stopped by the valley fair mall, which has a forever 21- and a large amount of other stores.
( purchases )
and I pose a question that i doubt anyone will do but... post a picture of your favorite outfit as a comment. i want to see!!!
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| 022: I make the same mistake as last year |
[23 Apr 2007|02:41pm] |
As some of you know, UCSC goes fairly crazy on 420. Thounds of people gather in the porter meadow under a giant cloud of smoke and the cops stand off to the side accepting that there is nothing they can really do to control the crowd.
I would love to show you pictures of it that I took. But I can't. Why? Because I didnt take any, because (once again) I ate a pot cookie and slept through 4:20 for the second year in a row. You would think I would have learned my lesson but no...
So instead I will post a very short video someone shot of the porter meadow:
that is to give you an idea of what it looked like.
I did take pictures earlier in the day before the cookie kicked in.
people gathered in the quad, this was around 2:15, before too many people had gathered in the meadow.
( just a couple )
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| 021: Places and what they mean |
[17 Apr 2007|09:21pm] |
Walking down the streets of San Francisco, I paused and looked through the blinds of a building I normally would not notice. Inside of it were rows of switches and buttons, only 6 inches away but separated by an inch of glass that meant I was not welcome inside. It looked nice though.
I crave Paris, it's streets and markets and well dressed women. I miss being far away from here and days going slow enough to catch up. I can't beleive it is already past mid april. It seems like my whole life is shooting towards this trip to europe in four months. I need a house, I need to get A's, I need to pass Psych 2 this summer, I need to save money, I need to relax.
( some )
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| 020: Lists |
[09 Apr 2007|02:37pm] |
Classes have begun, and this is what i'm taking:
1. Intro to Cultural Anthropology: (for the second time to replace the D I got freshman year,
this time with a cooler teacher.
2. Pre Calculus: I took Calculus senior year of high school and did not take the ap test
because, well honestly, I don't think I would have passed. Now two years later I have
regressed after receiving a 30 on the math placement exam. (A 31 would have placed me
into Calculus. So it's pretty easy, and required for the psych major.
3. Asian Art: Power and Presence: taking this for my HAVC minor.
So, no psych classes this quarter which is really depressing. I am officially a pre-psych Major which means that once I take Psych 2,3 and 10 I will be declared psych. Then I will have to go to grad school.
It is good to be back in santa cruz, using the downstairs shower makes everything so much better, also the fact that I am moving out of the moldy house in two months brightens my day a great deal :) In june I will be moving into a 2 bedroom apartment with Jagoda, probably this place on Walnut st, and I can't wait. It is going to be so clean and we will have a dishwasher (SUCCESS!) and garbage disposal. I don't know if I mentioned but i've been without either all this year and it has been baddddd. Other than that I have enjoyed living with the ladies of the chestnut house and in general had a fun time. I just wish our house was more structurally sound, and less moldy/smelly/dirty/old.
I am sitting in the hungry slug right now during my break between havc and pre calc and they are playing some great music in another language.
OH YES! my job. MY job...
Bad things:
-extremely fast paced
-many customers are rude/annoying/drunk
-we have to enter credit card prices into a calculator and i always fuck up and have to start over
-i get really tired
-my throat is dead by the end of my shift
Good things:
-I get paid! (yeah duh, it's a job but still...)
-Free rides (that i haven't taken advantage of, because working there kind of kills the idea of fun)
-the booth is air conditioned
-I get to sit down the whole time
-my coworkers are very nice to me
-REALLY cute little kids that stand on their tip toes and peak up at me
I also really love this dress from american apparel:
I have bought it in crimson, bright blue, the color in the photo, grey and black. I wear it with jeans, tights, leggings or nothing at all. I totally recommend buying it, everyone i've ever seen it in looks really good.
Well this was a long update. I really need to catch up on my lj reading. I must do this soon instead of writing so many entries.
Love,
Valeri
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| 019: I am now 20 years old |
[03 Apr 2007|11:10am] |
I'm back in Santa Cruz!
Break was really fun, although there were some people I really wanted to see but didn't get to =(
It was my birthday on saturday, for dinner I went into the city with my parents and erik and ate at my favorite restaurant on Belden Place called "Cafe Tiramisu". I love it because the little SF alleyway reminds me so much of the places I ate at in Paris.
here is a photo erik took of me in the alleyway
( some group shots from my birthday )
Also I went back to the greenhouse with Nicole and took photos of her in different outfits. I'm only going to put a few of them in this entry, the ones that are my favorite.
( about ten )
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| 018: Nicole is an amazing model |
[28 Mar 2007|09:28pm] |
Hi guys :D
It is spring break, classes are over, I'm working at the boardwalk on weekends except for this one since it's my birthday! I got A's in all my classes this quarter, so the parents are very happy.
I got home monday with Jagoda's adorable rat Cecilia, I think my mom likes her even more than I do because she's come into my room every day to play with her in the office. My dad is terrified. I think it's very cute.
Monday night I relaxed at home, also my mom took me birthday shopping, I got a few shirts and a jacket from anthropologie. Tuesday I got sushi with nicole and her boyfriend ben, and then hung out with seth afterwards which was super awesome because I hadn't seen him in yearsss and we had a great conversation. We also ran into Shawn Walters who had an awesome jacket with books on the inside of it. Today I got to hang out with Katharine and Chelsea on 4th street in San Rafael and saw a bunch more people I knew, then Nicole and I went to the abandoned greenhouses and I took photos of her there.
( One very pretty girl in a very glassy atmosphere )
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| 017: Dimeo Lane part II |
[14 Mar 2007|11:30pm] |
I went back to Dimeo Lane today with Erik and Jesse. I wanted to do some portraits. Erik wandered around the whole property taking photos while Jesse and I went to the house and took photos of each other. I also explored some of the buildings I hadn’t really been in before.
I first went inside an old greenhouse, a lot smaller than the ones in larkspur but still pretty cool.
there were pots everywhere.
( photos around the area )
And then I took a bunch of photos of jesse.
laying on the floor of the slanted room
( portraits of jesse and myself )
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| 016: Rafter House |
[14 Mar 2007|10:48am] |
I drove down highway one past Dimeo Lane and parked on the ocean-side of the highway. There is a rafter house (at least that's what i call it, it is the skeleton of an old house) by the side of a large field and I wanted to photograph it. I was by myself, and a little scared because I saw some cars parked up ahead of me, one in which there was a man. I decided to brave it and walk past. I cautiously approached by taking photos of the crop field and ocean in the distance. When I walked by his car I glanced over. He looked about 65, with grey hair and a thin moustache. He smiled and urged me to go to the house, "you're allowed to go there you know". I smiled and said thank you and kept going. There was no fence to jump, just some plants to climb over. It was a peaceful place.
I walked inside. There were two buildings, separated by a cement staircase with a rail (it didn't go anywhere), which made me wonder what the house had been used for in the past. The second room was covered. This is a view looking out the second room at the large space.
( color and black and white, graffiti and broken wood )
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| 015: Berkeley |
[12 Mar 2007|04:00pm] |
Last weekend I went to berkeley to visit Nicole and my parents, I had a good time, and I loved Nicole's apartment.
the gorgeous nicole on her white rug
( random berkeley photos )
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| 013: The Boardwalk |
[08 Mar 2007|05:50pm] |
So, I'm offically hired as a ticket cashier at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk!!
I start probably next weekend, and I'm very excited :)
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| 012: Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Greece |
[06 Mar 2007|10:26am] |
The tickets have been bought, reservations at hostels been made, we just have to buy the eurail pass and then it's done.
Totals:
1 ticket from SFO to Amsterdam: $1,127 per person
1 fixing of the mess up of our names entered in on airfare.com (DONT USE THIS SITE EVER THEY WILL SCREW YOU OVER): $150 per name (so $300 in all)
1 Eurail Pass between Paris, Belgium and Amsterdam: $205 per person
9 nights in Amsterdam, 2 Nights in Belgium in youth hostels: $340 per person
3 nights in Paris with dad's friends: Free! YAY!
129387192837 hours of transportation around cities: probably a LOT. 1 dollar = .76 something euros... Europe>Us
Stay in Greece with Parents and Erik: Free!!
So, this will all occurr starting august 20th. Which means i'm going to be working a lot of hours this summer. I'm so excited though. Erik and I have been talking about doing a trip to Europe since last year, and it is finally coming together. It will be nice to see Paris again, I've missed it a lot. I don't remember much about my last visit to Greece since I was seven at the time but I do remember it being very beautiful.
We will be flying to Amsterdam, staying in the heart of the city until the weekend when we'll go to a lake on the outskirts from friday and saturday night and then come back to the middle of the city for sunday and monday night. Tuesday we'll take the eurail down to Paris and stay with my dad's friend's family, who live in an apartment in the middle of the city, a few metro stops away from Montparnasse. We will stay there three nights, then take the eurail to Brussels, Belgium, stay there for two nights, then take the eurail back to Amsterdam, stay there one night and the next morning we will fly to Athens and meet up with my parents. We will go "Island-hopping" for two weeks and then fly back to Amsterdam, spend another night, and leave the next morning to go back to the states. I can already see myself having panic attacks trying to make it to these places, flights and hostels on time. Paris should be somewhat relaxing though since I sort of know my way around. I can't say the same about anywhere else though. What I DO know, as i'm sure you can imagine, is that I"ll be taking A LOTTTT of pictures! i'm not going to bring my laptop but i'm going to bring an external hard drive that I can put all my photos on. Or something like that.
Does anybody have any tips about traveling around these places? Or have any advice on how to get from the airport in amsterdam to the city? Is it true that there is a train station under the airport?
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