It all began on Monday evening. My friend Elizabeth from the ward had a farewell dinner at Broadway Diner (the same place I had my birthday dinner). A whole bunch of people from the ward came. The BYSA ward LOVES to do dinners together, and the Broadway Diner is definitely a favorite.
Everyone at the diner for Elizabeth's going away
Some cute desserts they had in their case! I could NOT get myself to eat one after working with mice all summer!
The next morning, I got to sleep in. Sleep in, meaning I slept until 7:30, not 7. It's all I could get myself to do. It felt nice for a weekday. Elizabeth needed help moving that morning, so I went up to her place in Charles Village and helped her move. For some bizzare reason it got me really anxious to move back up to Logan! After we were done, Elizabeth and Emily drove the truck full of her stuff to Elizabeth's new home in VA. My friends Sabrina and Christian, who also helped move, and I all decided to go out to lunch. We went to Chipotle! They're all over in Baltimore, and are seriously all the rave from some people. As far as I know, they don't have Chipotles in Utah, so I had to eat at one while I was here. It was kind of on a back-burner bucket list in my head. It was pretty good. It was like Qudoba. THEN, we went and got ice cream at a place that was actually on my bmore bucket list. Dominion Ice Cream. They make ice cream out of vegetables. For real. There is a whole serving of veggies in the ice cream! I had spinach ice cream, and sweet potato ice cream! And it was seriously sooo delicious. The spinach ice cream tasted just like vanilla with all the other spices they put in it to mask the spinach taste, and the sweet potato tasted like sweet potato pie.
Me and my veggie ice cream!
All of the delicious veggie flavors they have to offer! They didn't have them all out when I was there, only a few of them. I think garlic would be interesting...
Wednesday brought all new adventures. By far the day that I crossed off the most things from my list. The overall goal of the day was to get a collection of pictures called “A Day in the Life” (blog post soon to come!) which means that I had to go ALL over Baltimore, doing average stuff in order to gather the photos. I did that, and oh so much more!
As I began the day walking down Charles Street in Mt. Vernon (the neighborhood in which I live), I walked by the Baltimore Basilica. I walked by it each and every single day on my way to work, but not once did I stop and see what it was. It knew what it was from the signs, but not much else. From my previous knowledge, I knew that it was the first cathedral in America. Pretty cool, eh? I saw that they were doing tours for $2 in forty-five minutes, so I decided to wait.
The signs that I would see on my way to work everyday telling me what the building was
During my waiting time, I went to the Enoch Pratt Free Library, which was across the street. The Enoch Pratt Free Library is the chain of public libraries in Baltimore available to anyone and everyone. So what made this one so special? Well, this library happened to be THE first free library! Cool eh? Yeah. AND it’s huge! It might be the largest free library (but don’t quote me on that one…). It covers an entire city block. I walked in, and I wasn’t expecting much, since it was a free library in Bmore. Well, it was beautiful!! Hard granite floors at the entrance, nice gate entrances to each section of the library, and the movie section had a part with a way gorgeous ceiling. Not much else cool, the contents were just that of a library, but the structure of it was great.
Outside the library
Inside the library
Then it was time for the tour of the cathedral. It was me and the tour guide. Kind of awkward. It was an old lady with white hair. During this tour she found out that I was an engineer, and a mormon, so she totally tried to cater the whole tour to those two facts. Which, I suppose was nice, but it was seriously extreme. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful. I can’t believe that a place like that exists in downtown Baltimore! And that I passed it every day on the way to work! In this first pic, you can kind of see what it looks like on the inside, but it was just so spectacular. The dome was the best part.
The outside of the cathedral. This is the opposite side of the street from where I would normally pass.
Inside the cathedral. I'm standing right under the huge dome, so you can't see it in this photo. The small dome-ish thing in the back gives a hint of what the big dome is like.
Some of the bishops clothing
Next I got to go visit the Peabody Library. I had been wanting to do this for a long time, but I just have never had the chance. The Peabody Institute is the music school for Johns Hopkins, and that campus is located in Mt. Vernon. It’s where I would pick up the shuttle everyday to go to work at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The library they have there is enchanting. The library in the movie “The Beauty and the Beast” was in fact based off of this library. I had seen pictures, and heard rumors, and I was yet still blown away when I walked into the room. G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S. So amazing. I wish I could be a student there so that I could do my homework THERE! The books there are only available from the first level. All other books are archived and have to be retrieved by an employee and can’t be removed from the library.
Then I took the shuttle from Peabody the opposite direction than I would normally take it to work, and I went to the Homewood undergraduate campus of Johns Hopkins University. I didn’t have a goal in mind other than to just look around. I walked around their campus for a while, and it, along with everything I had seen that day so far, was beautiful. All the buildings were made of a red brick and looked nearly all identical. There were lots of trees, and the sidewalks were red brick. I found the Biomedical Engineering building, and I went inside. It was very prestigious looking. They had lots of photos of important people lining the walls. Lots of people walked by in lab coats and looked at me weird. I felt like I didn’t belong. Like they all knew one another, and I was the outsider. I didn’t stay too long. But I felt an urge to begin studying….Good thing school starts next week.
The Biomedical Engineering Building at JHU
I took the shuttle then to the hospital for one last visit. When I got there, I realized I had no purpose in mind. Which was totally lame on my part. I took some pics, which I guess was the overall purpose of the day, but that didn’t take too long. So then I left.
The Children's Center Tower, the building where my lab was located within the hospital
In front of the dome at JHH
I took the Hopkins shuttle, then the Charm City Circulator and went down to the Inner Harbor. The ONE DAY in Baltimore that I didn’t have my umbrella with me (literally, the ONE DAY, I took it to work with me literally everyday…East Coast rain is unpredictable. But the weather said 0% chance of rain. Usually it always says 10% due to the humidity alone! I totally thought I was for sure safe. WRONG!) IT STARTED TO POUR! Crap. I took shelter by standing by the side of a building that had a small ledge about 2 stories up that was covering me barely. It kept me mostly dry. I stood there about 20 min while there was a constant downpour. It sucked. Lesson learned. From that day forward, I will always have my umbrella with me in Baltimore.
The rain.
Once the rain died down, I went to the Gallery. It’s a mall in the Inner Harbor. It’s not huge, but it’s really pretty. I didn’t buy anything, it was more to just waste time. I only spent like maybe 45 minutes there while it rained some more.
The Gallery
Once the weather outside had mostly calmed down, I was safe to walk along the inner Harbor over to the Hard Rock Café. I had really wanted to go there for a while. And I got to go. All by myself And I don’t regret it. The guy at the door when I told him it was just me, told me I could have a seat at the bar. I’ve gained an East coast attitude according to some in my ward, and it showed right then and I told him I wanted a table. And I got one. And then I think my waitress thought it was weird I was alone. But I didn’t care. I seriously had a great time there! I was so happy! I’m so weird. I ordered this really fancy drink to start off. It was the best thing I have ever tasted. It was a mango coconut thing, with strawberry syrup all around. SOO delicious. Then. A turkey burger (with sprouts on it!), and a salad. Then, for dessert, a mini cheesecake. Best dinner ever! I ate it all. I must have been starving because I don’t eat all of anything lately due to my decreased appetite. I’m glad that was on my bucket list.
Then I went shopping around to the little shops at the Inner Harbor. They’re always so cute. Super touristy. And I’m kind of anti-Baltimore-tourism because it creates SUCH a false impression of what Baltimore really is like, but it’s still fun anyway.
I was going to catch the Circulator home (it had kind of gotten dark…my mother would be upset if I didn’t…otherwise it’d be a toss up between the bus and walking based on my laziness profile). I had about 40 min before the Circulator stopped for the night. As I was walked to the stop, I saw this performer dude on the Harbor Place stage. He wasn’t super stellar or anything, but for some reason I was drawn in by his singing. That’s what creates a good performer though. I sat and quietly contemplated my journey here in Baltimore for the last few months.
It’s been three months since I’ve been home. That long since I’ve seen most of the people I love. Three months since I’ve been in a familiar place. I have changed SO much. I think maybe some of my friends will wonder if I’m a completely different person now than I was before. And the answer to that is a definite yes. I’m going to have a blog post whole subject coming up as well. I’ve been compiling a list of things that I’ve learned In Baltimore, and how I’ve changed. I’m excited to complete it, and to post it as well I don’t know why this performer suddenly brought this out in me. I think it was because it was after such a long, busy day in the city that I had then grown accustomed to. I had gotten around that whole day with absolutely no problems, and nothing even seemed new or exciting to me Baltimore wise (like, culture and what not) because I’m so used to it by now. I’m scared for the culture shock going back to Utah!! Jk, I won’t notice a thing I’m sure. But this performer let me sit down for a moment and realize this, and let me think about how far I have come, and how Baltimore has helped me so much to learn and to grow. I’m such a better person now than I was three months ago.
At 8:40 I had to catch the Circulator. There was 20 min until it quit running, and it was totally dark by this point. (sorry mom!) I waited at the stop. No bus. I kept waiting. It HAD to be there any minute. It’s that feeling that you know that once you leave it will come. Well. I waited until 9:10. At that point I lost all hope. And I walked home. (super sorry mom!!) But I walked a safe route. Well lit and traveled. And it was only 9:10 at night. I made it home safe. Public Transportation fail.
Thursday rolled around, and I had planned to go the Maryland Science Center. It was the thing on my Baltimore Bucket List that I was looking forward to the most. I got there about an hour after they opened. The first thing that I noticed is that the main crowed that was there were children under the age of 12. Darn. Well. I was still stoked. There was “fun for all ages” available.
I found most of my excitement through the planetarium shows. I went to three of them throughout the day. One about the constellations in the sky right now, a cool laser show, and one on dark matter. I went through every single exhibit that the Science Center had to offer. I atleast glanced at every single scientific thing, and read most of them. I did some of the hands on stuff, but only the super cool ones. All the lame ones I let the kids do. I went to a 3-D show about the ocean, and that was cool too. Overall, it was a great experience, but not nearly as great as I had hoped.
View from the Maryland Science Center
The Maryland Science Center
So excited to go inside!!
Laying on a bed of nails
The questions in front of the cell section of the science center that I was happy to know every single answer to. Atleast the basics anyway.
This is why the science center is so cool.
Waiting for the 3-D IMAX show
I met up with my roommate Megan after the Science Center and we went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! It was our last outing together as roommates. I love Megan SO much! I don’t know why I was so blessed to get her as a roommate, but I was. We had lots of fun being together. And of course, we had excellent cheesecake to top off the evening. I got White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. It was to die for!!
Friday!! Art day. I went to the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) with my friend Heather! It’s a free museum with LOTS of really great artwork in it. It was cool to see…don’t get me wrong, but let’s be honest, I’m really not the artsy type. I appreciate art (I really do!) but I’m not an art museum type. I like to look at bright colors and stuff, but not sophisticated paintings like we saw in the museum. We went through the whole place really fast.
Some paintings by Claude Monet
"The Thinker"
Then we went out to lunch together (are you sensing a theme of this week yet….LOTS of eating out) at a place in Charles Village that has pita stuff. I don’t remember what it was called. But it was good
Later that day, I decided to take a bus (the #11) up to Towson and go to the mall up there. I heard that the mall there was really big and was super great! The bus ride up to Towson from my place is almost an hour long. I figured it would be a good time to get some last MTA experiences in, so why not? I got on the bus, and the money machine wasn’t working. Free bus ride for me!
When I got to the mall, everyone was right…it was HUGE! Four stories tall of store after store after store! And the length is about twice that of the Layton Hills Mall. So, if you do the math, that’s four times the size of the LHM. And about 1000 times the size of the Cache Valley Mall ;) I don’t know what was wrong with me, but I totally wasn’t in the mood for shopping then. Which sucked since that’s what I went there for. I did have a purpose in mind however. I REALLY need a new purse. I thought for sure I could find one in that mall. Nope. I’m too picky. I didn’t look for anything besides purses. Which makes for a boring mall trip.
BUT I did find one golden gem in that mall…a LUSH store! I found a Lush store years ago, I don’t even remember where. They make handmade cosmetics, but mostly bath products like bath melts, and bath fizz things, and soaps, etc. I LOVE their stuff. It’s way expensive though. When I found the store, I was super excited! The store employee was laughing at me because of my excitement. I ended up buying two things, and it cost me almost $15 just for those two items.
The LUSH store!!
I decided it was time to go home. I had only spent an hour and a half in the huge mall. There was a #11 bus scheduled to come soon, and they only leave every hour, so I decided to catch that bus. Knowing my luck, it was pouring rain outside. I had my umbrella, and I ran to the bus shelter thing. I sat there for about 10 min. I saw a #55 bus drive up. When that bus drove away, I saw a #11 on the back of it. It must have changed numbers while it was stopped (Towson is a main bus stop, and the beginning of the #11 route), and I MISSED the #11! I didn’t want to wait another hour. I sat there because I was so angry and I didn’t know what to do. Then. The #48 drove up. Because I am proud of my knowledge of the MTA, I knew that the #48 route went by my house, so I knew that I could hop on that bus! I would have to walk about 5 blocks home from the stop in downtown, but that was okay. At that instant, I was very happy that I knew my MTA bus routes Granted, I’m not nearly as good as Emily Clay. If I were to live in Baltimore longer, I would aspire to become like her in that particular skill, but alas, I no longer have a need for that skill anymore.
Then Saturday came along (it is now Sunday (and has been most of this time that I’ve been writing), so I am speaking of this as if it was yesterday…because it was). I had one big, major thing left to do still. And that was to PACK to go home! Packing was an adventure. I thought it would be super easy because all I had to do was to pack every single thing that I had. None of it was to be left behind. Well…easier said than done. I had to pack most of my things on Saturday, because I wouldn’t have enough time today to get them all packed, but at the same time, I use most everything that I brought every day. I couldn’t pack my bed for instance until this morning after I had slept on it last night. The activity I thought would be brainless definitely was not. I worked on that most of the day. Which included getting rid of my furniture to some of my friends, and cleaning up the apartment some.
I took a break from cleaning in the middle of the day to go down and accomplish one last thing on my bucket list. The World Trade Center. The World Trade Center in Baltimore is the spot where you can go up to the observation level and see views of the entire city. $5 to go up. And let me tell you, it was totally worth it! There are windows all around, so there is a 360 degree view of the city and of the Harbor. It was absolutely spectacular. I loved it so much because I knew what everything was. I sat up there for a long time just looking at things. It was almost another one of those tender recollection moments. You could even see a small corner of my apartment towers from there, which I thought was fun!
On the elevator up to the top of the World Trade Center in Baltimore!
From the top of the Tower! You can see a corner of my apartment building right by my head :)
Later, after more cleaning, was something very special that I had planned. My very last farewell dinner with everyone in the ward. Like I mentioned before, the ward loves doing dinners together, and my friend Bree and I had planned one for me on Saturday night for my last night in Baltimore. It was at Golden West Café.
In order to get there, Heather and I had to take the MTA. It would be my last MTA experience of my stay in Baltimore…and let me tell you, it was a good one! It was the #27. A bus I had never taken before, so I didn’t know what to expect. The bus stop was close to Lexington Market, so it was slightly sketchy in the first place. We didn’t have to wait long because the bus what actually on time (what…!?). We got on and there were three other people on the bus. A black lady near the back, and two black guys near the middle. Heather and I get on, and immediately, one of the guys shouts out in a loud voice “HEEEEYYY!!! How’re ya doin’!!!” I glanced at him, kind of glared at him so that he knew that I knew full well what was going on, paid my money, and then sat down near the front. Heather sat near me in a seat where I would have to look in their direction in order to talk to her. As such, I didn’t talk to Heather during the bus ride until they got off. The whole time, this guy and his friend were trying to talk to us. Clearly talking to us, and swearing every other word. I didn’t respond. The guy closest to us (the dominant one who was talking most the time and talked to us when we got on) had a large cooler with him). He kept opening it and pushing it towards us. I could only see this from the corner of my eye. I once decided to take a glace over at it, and the cooler was full of live crabs! And this dudes friend had a whole bunch of crab catching equipment with him. At one point, the dude said “I wonder how much it would hurt if I threw one of these crabs at somebody” (with a few more vulgarities than that, along with a bunch of mocking laughter). At that point, I was scared. I still didn’t look at them. Luckily, these guys decided to get off. As they got off the bus, they said goodbye to us, and I looked them in the eye with my new strong east coast glare letting them know I didn’t appreciate what had gone on. When the bus drove away, they flipped us off. I love Baltimore And even more so, I love the MTA What a great last MTA experience! Here’s the best part: Heather was totally oblivious to almost all of this!! All she caught onto was when they said hello to us, and goodbye to us! Oh goodness. She REALLY shouldn’t be in a big city ;) This was just as bad as when we got invited to the frat party when we were waiting at a bus stop once!
[SIDE STORY: (because I don’t think I blogged this. And I’m sitting on an airplane with nothing better to do, and this deserves to be blogged.) So. It was after institute one night. Me, Heather, and Emily all had to take the MTA # 3 home. The neighborhood that the church is in isn’t the greatest. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. Institute gets out pretty late, and the bus that comes next is at 9:26pm. We waited in the church until 9:15. We figured this would be an ample amount of time to get to the bus stop, exp. Since the MTA is always late. We wanted to go to the stop down the street (rather than the one across the street) because it was well lit and in a well traveled intersection (Alameda and 33rd). As we were walking inbetween the two bus stops, the #3 came speeding down the road! It was EARLY! What the!? We missed it!! The next bus wasn’t until almost 10pm. We had no other choice but to wait. So we did . At a sketchy intersection. Late at night. In the dark. 3 white girls. The locals behind us were having a bonfire in their BBQ, and playing Red Light Green Light with their children. Every 10 seconds a car would come through that would have the bass loud enough to make my heart pound a bit. A car even sped through the intersection, lost a hubcap, and kept going. Classic Bmore. The highlight of the evening by far though, was when a bunch of young black college aged guys pulled up in a car blasting hip hop music with their windows rolled down. They shouted to us. Emily and I looked away. They called out and invited us to the frat party they were going to that night. We didn’t respond, and they eventually drove through the intersection. Once they were past, Emily and I cracked up!! Best ever. Heather was oblivious to what had just happened. Haha! We constantly refer back to this story. END OF SIDE STORY]
Anyway, we made it to Golden West Café 20 min early because the bus was actually on time. The plan was to be right on time because I expected to the bus to be late. But we were early, so we sat and waited for everyone to arrive. Lots of people came! It was seriously tons of fun! And the place was totally cute and quirky too! I’m glad I chose that place. Totally hipster, but I really liked it! Don’t worry, we got a ride home that night, so we didn’t have to ride the #27 back home :)
Everyone at Golden West for my farewell dinner
Me and Sabrina! We both got tres leches for dessert :)
After that I just had to pack, pack, pack! I didn’t sleep much last night because after this last week I have an awful habit of staying up late. And then I woke up early so that I could get ready for church and then pack everything that I had to do day of.
It’s been such a stormy day today in Baltimore. I like to think that it’s because Baltimore is crying because I’m leaving
My last day at church was sooo sad! I’ve LOVED the BYSA ward so much! I never ever EVER thought I would say this, but I really don’t want to go back to my Logan ward! Gah! I said it! And I LOVE my Logan ward more than anything!! I’ve just grown so fond of the BYSA ward. It’s incredible how much love can grow with people in such a small amount of time. I feel like they’re my family. They were my family for the summer after all. I’m apart of them! I don’t want to leave! Saying goodbye was hard. But I know I’ll be back to visit them, so it wasn’t as hard as it should have been.
I frantically finished packing when I got home. I hope I did everything right. I’ve remembered since that I didn’t wash out the drawer in the bathroom that I used. Oh well. I hope Megan will forgive me for that. Heather came over and helped me finish things up, which was SO helpful! And then Sabrina drove me to the airport! I love her so much! Thanks Sabrina!!
I met my mom at the airport. She flew out here (yay for free flight benefits!!) to help me check all of my luggage and get it all home for free as well. So nice of her. I love my mother! I’m now on the flight home. I don’t have internet access though, so this will be published AFTER I actually get home (WAY weird to even think about at this point). I’m excited to go home though! I’m excited to get a breath of dry air, see the mountains, and get a face full of kisses from my dog!
P.S. This blog WILL continue after I get home!
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