Salt Lake City

April 2014

 

Lauren and I traveled from OMA to Salt Lake City, Utah (SLC). With the help of the Student Association, the Student Development Fund and the Psychology Department, we were fully funded to present our research at the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association.

 

Lauren and I began a research project in the fall of 2012 about Food4Thought, the backpack program I've been in charge of for the past 2 years. We have been diligently working through the research process (receiving approval from the necessary institutions; preparing, handing out and collecting surveys; entering and analyzing data in SPSS; and preparing a manuscript and presentation) over the past 2 years. We finally got all of the pieces together this past year, so you can imagine our excitement at finally finishing this project and presenting our information to the world.

 

Somewhere near SLC

The Great Salt Lake!

I tried to pay for my TRAX ticket with a $20, so I would have change.

Bad idea.. Little did I know I would get actual change. $18 worth of $1 coins.



This poster. Good grief. I set the tube down to buy my ticket and got distracted when I got all those coins. I didn't remember until we got to our hotel that we were missing our poster. Luckily, by the time we got back to the airport they were just getting ready to enter it into lost and found. Then, on our way back home I forgot to pick it up from the TSA scanners. Luckily (again), we had a nice TSA agent who did not subject us to a full body pat down. It's a miracle we still have the darn thing.

I'm not a basketball fan, but this is my favorite team. =]

Salt Lake City/ Park City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics

 

The Devereaux House

Would you just look at that view. Just look at it. 

Salt Lake Temple in Temple Square

Beautiful flower garden at Temple Square



Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Lauren and I happened to be in town on the night that they practice.

Although we are not LDS, it was still a great experience to listen and take in Temple Square.

Hey, when in Utah..

View from our hotel

Lauren and I with our beloved poster.



SLC is dead on Sundays. We had all day to explore and were planning to take a bus out to Park City to check out the old Olympic Park, but didn't account for no buses on Sundays.

 

 

We ended up finding a free science museum and found our selves making tornados,

playing with a giant maze thing,

learning that we would weigh 24,800 billion pounds on a neutron star,

and took a trip to the moon.

But how did we end up on Mars?

Mountains

So many mountains

 

It's no secret that Lauren and I love food. 

We took advantage of our new location to eat different food.

 Menu at Good Dog Gourmet Hot Dog Emporium (notice the Chicago dog!) =]

 Mac Daddy hot dog

 Preach it, taco truck.

 Bollywood movie and Salt Lake City's finest Indian Cuisine.

baṛhiya

"Every pizza is a personal pizza if you just try real hard and believe in yourself."

Settebello's Pizza

 

We also ate Mediterranean at Spitz (Döner Kebab and sweet potato fries with the aioli sauce!!)

and gelato at Capo Gelateria.  

 



My stats as of April 2014:

• 4% of the world visited
• Estimated mileage: 78260

War eagle!

February- March 2014

On February 27th, I left Nebraska to travel to Auburn, Alabama for the Universities Fighting World Hunger Summit. LNK-ORD-ATL. Might I add that the weather in Atlanta was absolutely fabulous. We drove from Atlanta, GA to Auburn, AL. On Friday, we had some free time so we drove to Montgomery. Montgomery is full of history, especially from the Civil Rights Era.

This perfectly sums up Montgomery.

Walking through Montgomery is like time traveling. 

I was standing where Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights greats have stood.

Standing where Rosa Parks got arrested. 

The infamous church, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Alabama state capitol

Scott and Ella Fitzgerald's home

 A true Southern meal at Dreamland: BBQ, homemade mac and cheese and sweet tea. 

 I met Aubie, the Auburn University mascot

Hanging out with the GreenTowers Team from Penn State: Dan, Jon, Jared, Dustin and Mike. 

"GreenTowers formed as a student team in 2012 with a mission to provide everyone the opportunity to grow their own food no matter where they live. By offering easy to use aquaponic systems combined with our unique vertical farming concepts, we are creating a world in which local food and healthy eating is the norm." 

-GreenTowers Facebook page

They are working on a prototype and the Kickstarter campaign will be up soon. Don't forget to check it out!

My time spent at Auburn University was wonderful and went by way too quickly. I met great people and I was sad to leave after only a few days. However, using my sly skills, I chose my flight completely based off of where the layover would be. =] I was able to spend at least a few hours in Chicago, which helped with being sad about leaving the South. Although, I could have done with out the Chiberian temperatures. 

Casablanca and Chicago are sister cities. Coincidence? I think NOT! =]

Papa Scott and I during my way too brief layover in Chicago.

Now to explain the blog title... At Auburn University, their chant is "war eagle!", similar to "GO BIG RED!" for Husker fans. War eagle is a very ubiquitous term and can be applied to almost any situation. 

War eagle!

My stats as of March 2014:

• 4% of the world visited
• Estimated mileage: 76650
• been to:
• 5 continents
• 11 countries
• 12 states

Lost in translation part two

January 2014

"Jas enjoy the frequent flyer miles going on a long trip" -GRANDPA DALE

In the time between returning from backpacking and my return to the States, nothing out of the ordinary happened. I do have a few pictures to share in a short and sweet post!

Zina by Babylone

This song is a favorite of my cousins and I. 

We listened to it so much that I learned all of the words to it!

Pizza from scratch

Abdelhamid and I

My henna

Imane, Aunt Karima, me and Fatima Ezzahra

Ismail, me and Fatima Ezzahra

Coast of Morocco

From CMN I flew to CDG and spent the night on a bench in the airport. That was an experience. Haha

The next day I flew to MSP and then back to the cold, LNK.  

I brought back henna supplies to the States and did some freelancing. Pictures from my 'portfolio' are below.

 

Short and sweet like I promised! However, the wait until I can return will not!

My stats as of January 2014:

• 4% of the world visited
• Estimated mileage: 74325
• been to:
• 5 continents
• 11 countries
• 11 states