The best pictures from 2011:

Ingredients:

• One pound of pasta (I like bow-ties, penne or ziti, or something short like that)
• One or two (depending on preference) regular-sized packs of mushrooms
• Two green zucchinis
• Two yellow summer squash (They look like the green zucchinis, but they are yellow. As their name implies, they are in season in the summer and early fall)
• A pint of cream
• 8-16 sun-dried tomatoes (again, depending on preference)
• Some good parmesan cheese, grated
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil

Directions:
Wash and chop squash and mushrooms into nickel to quarter-sized chunks.
Coat the bottom of a large saucepan with oil. Warm the oil for a couple of minutes. Unlike water, oil does not boil when it gets hot. (If it is boiling, you are about to start a kitchen oil fire.) So after a couple of minutes, if the air above the oil is warm, you are good to go.
Peel and press (or chop) garlic and put it in the saucepan.
Sauté the garlic, stirring frequently — keep a close eye on it because garlic burns very quickly — you don’t want it super-brown.
Add chopped mushrooms and squash to the garlic and sauté until soft, stir off and on to ensure that nothing sticks to the pan. If you need a bit more fluid in the pan, you can add olive oil and or a touch of white wine. Shoot, I forgot the first step in this recipe, which, like most, involves pouring yourself a glass of wine (in this case, white, because you can cook with a bit of it).
Start water boiling for the pasta. Add a bit of salt and olive oil to the water — salt for taste and olive oil to decrease the likelihood that the noodles will stick together when they are added.
Add the noodles to the water once it is at a steady boil.
Cook the pasta until it is al dente (which, in Italian means, “to the tooth.” So, it should be soft, but still have a texture in your mouth — you should feel it between your teeth), then strain and set aside.
Cut the sun dried tomatoes into large chunks.
TIP: The vegetables sometimes release lots of water in the pan, if you notice that you have lots water in the pan as the squash are starting to become soft, you can either pour it out or add a bit of flour to the water — just a touch — which will help it thicken up. If you add flour, stir vigorously right after you add it so that it does not form chunks. Once the squash are soft and you have dealt with any extra water, add the cream and sun dried tomatoes and stir until everything is warm.
Turn off all burners and serve the sauce over cooked pasta. Top with cheese and salt to taste.

We returned last week from a 10-day journey to Argentina. An amazing week, but we were traveling, as opposed to vacationing. We started our trip in Buenos Aires, where my sister, Kelly, is studying abroad and was willing to serve as our talented tour guide.

I knew Buenos Aires was a real city (as opposed to a quaint Latin-American town), but I had not understood that it is significantly larger than New York City. So, more than anything, it feels like a big city. There are about four Argentinian pesos in a US dollar, but prices are generally adjusted upwards, so things seem to cost about what they might cost in the United States, though less than what they cost in New York City. Thanks to Kelly’s great advice, we rented an apartment for the week through Flats in Buenos Aires, which worked out well — though as a note to readers, read your contract carefully — you need to have lots of USD on hand for the rental fee and deposit when you get into downtown Buenos Aires. We stayed in a beautiful area, Las Canitas, full of cafes, restaurants, shops and parks.

Saturday — estamos in Argentina
We arrived Saturday morning. The first order of business was finding some ATMs in order to compensate for failing to bring enough dollars to pay the deposit on our apartment. Argentinians are very weary of their own currency (there is a great Planet Money podcast on the Argentinean default of 2001), and as Kelly explained, most Argentinians like to keep a decent supply of USD. Once the currency issues had been resolved, we spent the afternoon acclimating. We ate dinner at Campo Bravo, where we were introduced to an Argentinian custom of only receiving two menus for the three of us, so that two people always had to share, which was fine, cute even, but a bit awkward. It was an oddity that we dismissed as random at first, but was repeated throughout the trip. We had a wonderful dinner of, you guessed it, parilla (food from the grill), and Malbec, along with some wonderful pasta casera (hand-made pasta). After dinner, we got ice cream at Kelly’s go-to heladeria.

Sunday — the fine things in life
We had brunch in Recoleta and then spent most of the afternoon wondering around Kelly’s favorite open-air fair. Afterwards, we made the obligatory trip to Cementerio de la Recoleta. Where we saw the graves of both Eva Peron (Evita) and Domingo F. Sarmiento — one of the most progressive Argentinian presidents. We had an early evening reservation for wine tasting at Anuva wines — which was a highlight of the trip for me. We learned that Mendoza had excellent years in 2002 and 2006 and wines from that region are great bets in those vintages, though they can be very hard to find, especially in the states. Wines from Mendoza generally age for only about 10 years, so the 02s are on their last legs. We also learned that in addition to Malbecs and Torrontes, Argentina makes excellent Bonarda and Chardonnay, particularly in Mendoza, but also in Patagonia and other areas. Following our wine tasting/drinking, we went to La Cabrera, “Uno de los mejores secretos guardados en Palermo” (one of the best kept secrets in Palermo), for one of the best steak dinners ever — though I think the secret is out.

Evita's tomb

Monday — tourists and tango
We took the autobus touristico (tourist bus) around the city. The bus provides headphones that you can plug into a variety of jacks so that you can hear the city tour in your language (English, French, German, Spanish, etc.). We got to see the Obelisco, which commemorates four events important to Argentina’s independence from Spain, Plaza de Mayo, named because Argentina declared independence from Spain in May (of 1810), and La Casa Rosada (the pink house), Argentina’s version of our White House, though la presidenta only works there, but does not live there. The house is rose-colored because there were two primary political parties when it was constructed — one used the color red and one used the color white and the colors were mixed to diffuse political strife. La casa rosa is asymmetrical, which I heard them say on tour, but because we switched buses in our effort to get to La Boca, we were, by that time, on a Spanish-only bus and I couldn’t understand the explanation for the asymmetrical presidential house. Further internet research suggests that it’s asymmetrical structure is because two buildings — an original governmental building and a post office, were merged to create the pink house.

Dan on el autobus turistico with el obelisco

Erin with La Casa Rosada

We disembarked the tourist bus in La Boca — the neighborhood pictured in most quintessential Argentinian postcards. We tried to find a restaurant in the area that had been recommended by a friend, but police turned us back toward the tourist area because “van a robarle” (those guys will rob you, using the cognate for our benefit). La Boca is one of the not-so-safe areas of the city. Once turned around, we got into a cab, but the cabbie was kind enough to inform us that our restaurant was closed that day, so we ate lunch in the tourist square, while watching a couple of tango shows.

Erin and Dan in La Boca

Erin and Kelly in La Boca

Erin in the tourist tango pose

We then took a cab to San Telmo — the “true birthplace of tango” where we again sat at a cafe and watched a tango show in the square. At this point in our trip, Kelly had introduced us to the Porteno drink, un submarino. Portenos are people from Buenos Aires and submarinos are one of the things on that long list of things called, “where has this been all my life?” It’s a large (preferably clear) glass of warm, frothed milk, served with a 4-6 oz serving of high-quality dark chocolate. The chocolate is your “submarine.” Drop it in, stir it up, and vuala — “hot chocolate,” Argentina style.

Now thoroughly chilled from our outdoor seating throughout a cloudy, 50-something degree day, we headed back to our apartment. And Kelly, bless her heart, suffering from “I’m a poor study-abroad student” syndrom, suggested that we take the collectivo bus back to our neighborhood. It only cost about a quarter and took about 45 minutes, but we were so cold and tired from the day that it was difficult to stand up the whole time. The moral of this story — when in Buenos Aires, take a cab, just look for one of the “Radio Taxis“, which are better regulated by the government. The cabs, of all things, really are pretty cheap and standing, tired and cold, for 45 minutes, probably isn’t worth it. Another thing about Buenos Aires — Portenos take their “siestas” seriously. Most shops are closed between 2PM and 6PM and most restaurants are closed between 5PM (the end of lunch) and 8PM (the beginning of dinner). So, when you get back to your neighborhood around 5PM, don’t be surprised when EVERYTHING is closed. But on this day, a siesta suited us just fine, and we pulled on our hoodies, turned up the heat in the apartment and napped before dinner at one of Kelly’s favorite restaurants, Novecento .

Tuesday — Kelly’s 21st birthday
Kelly went to class and Dan and I had an “old-person day.” We took a cab to the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires – MALBA, which provided a beautiful, sunny, outdoor area for our morning cafe. Argentina gives Italy a run for their money with their cafes — espressos, lattes, cappuccinos, cafe americanos con leche (our go-to) — all are excellent. But, what really gives Argentina an edge is that a coffee is never, ever served alone. By default, it comes with a cookie (yes, a cookie), and a shot-glass-sized agua con gas (sparkling water is the default and you must specify if you prefer aqua sin gas — but who would?). However, while the MALBA has an excellent cafe, the MALBA is closed on Tuesdays. After the security guard turned us away, we looked to our trusted Lonely Planet Travel Guide and Dan found another art museum — Colleccion De Arte Amalia Lacroze De Fortabat. We took another cab across Buenos Aires traffic to this museum, which had the added benefit of being located on Puerto Madero, a beautiful section of the city that we hadn’t been able to see on our tourist day the day before. The art collection at the museum was impressive and the views of the port were distracting. Once we had run through the four floors of art, we walked along the port and got a helado, because, as we had read in Lonely Planet, social etiquette required being seen eating ice cream at all times. After a walk along the port, we grabbed another taxi back to the supermarket by our house in order to pick up provisions for Kelly’s birthday party. Our rented apartment had a great kitchen and Kelly had a bunch of study-abroad friends who hadn’t felt at home in a living room or had a home-cooked American meal in a long time, so we planned to make a dinner of vegetarian pasta for her friends. The party was excellent. Kelly’s friends were a riot, the pasta was decent and full of vegetables that were much cheaper in Buenos Aires than in the states, there was a hilarious roast accompanied by guitar and the essential ingredient to a 21st birthday party — dancing in the living room.

Erin and Kelly on Kelly's 21st Birthday

The roof of our building on Kelly's birthday

Wednesday — Vamos a Patagonia
On Wednesday, we headed to Patagonia to see los pinguinos (penguins). We had considered the twenty-hour bus ride, but we were happy with our decision to take the two hour flight instead. I was allowed to carry my cafe para llevar (to go) through the metal detector at security once the guard took a look in the cup — out of curiosity more than anything — Argentinians mostly don’t take their coffee to go — yelling at a barista, paying with a debit card and rushing out the door is generally not part of their culture, and consequently, simple morning coffee breaks often take at least an hour. We arrived into a cold and rainy Puerto Madryn. Our transport dropped us at our hostel, we were shown to our room, and I put on my long underwear — I didn’t take them off for two days, even though yes, it is spring there. We stayed at Chepatagonia hostel — the room was clean and well-priced, but what really made the place was the knowledgeable and helpful owners. Maru gave us a map and helped us orient ourselves in the city. She described the various tours to see the wildlife and set us up with a tour to Punta Tombo the next day.

Dan and Erin at the hostel

Thursday — Sea lions, Dolphins, Penguins, and Llamas, Oh My!
Penguin Day. Our tour guide picked us up from the hostel at 8:00AM. We stopped in Rawson to see some dolphins and bonus sea lions on our way to Punta Tombo — the protected nature reserve where each year, about a million magallan penguins make their nests and hatch their chicks, right next to the walking trail. We arrived about two weeks after the females had arrived, who followed the males by 2-4 weeks in order to give the males an opportunity to (re)claim or build their nests. Penguins are serially monogamous and they had mostly coupled up for the year. A few couples had already laid eggs. The males and females take turns sitting on the eggs while their partner walks up to a half-mile to the ocean to hunt for fish. The eggs will hatch in the next couple of months and in March, all of the penguins will make their way to the sea. They won’t touch land again until next August. Once we returned to Puerto Madryn, Dan and I walked on the cold and windy beach for a bit and then we all got ready for an upscale dinner at Placido — which gave me an opportunity to try the famous Patagonian lamb, which I had heard a lot about but found fairly standard; the restaurant was nice overall.

Erin and Kelly in the Dolphin Boat

Sea Lions!

Dan Taking Pictures on the Dolphin Boat

Dolphins!

Everyone at Punta Tombo

Erin and Kelly and Penguin

Dan with Penguins

Erin with Penguins

Dan and the Patagonia Coast

Give way to Penguins

Giving Way to Penguins

Kelly and her Penguin Friend, Fernando

Friday — alfajores, alfajores, alfajores and a whale.
Alfajores are the quinessential Argentinian treat — two cookies layered with dulce de leche and then, sometimes, covered with chocolate (white or dark), or merengue, or anything else you an imagine. I had tried one so far on the trip, but had decided that it was high time to try some more. So, Friday morning, we woke up, checked out and stored our bags at the hostel, and made a bee line for Havanna cafe — Havannas are ubiquitous in Argentina. We had our first alfajor with our coffee. We then proceeded to meander back towards our hostel stopping at every bakery on the way to try their alfajores. Though far from aficionados, we came to recognize the qualities that we most liked about alfajores and our preferred ratio of chocolate to cookie to dulce de leche. After our alfajor tasting, we walked along the beach, which had warmed up considerably under the bright sun. As we looked out across the ocean, we saw a whale. I saw the blowhole first but then we got a chance to see its back and tail fin. The whale sighting nicely completed the trip. We flew back to Buenas aires that afternoon.

Saturday — a taste of Argentina
We used our last day in Argentina to get a taste of all of our favorite foods. The morning started off with a traditional cafe (with aqua con gas) and medialunas — breakfast croissants with which I’d fallen deeply and madly in love during our time in Argentina. They come plain, with chocolate chips or soaked in honey, but they are always good. Kelly then led us on a stroll through the largest park in Buenas Aires (similar to Central Park in New York City) and then to an empanada restaurant for lunch. After empanadas, we stopped at one last heladeria for hazelnut and chocolate ice cream.

Erin with cafe americano con leche and medialunas

Dan and Erin in the park

Erin and Dan eating helado on Saturday

An amazing trip, made more amazing by Kelly’s expert guidance. But it did leave us wanting another week of vacation.

Stats:
+ 3 lbs
+ 5 bottles of wine
+ 3 boxes of alfajores

Dan made an excellent “best of” photo album with all of our best pictures from the trip.

I am posting an ad on Craigslist…

Looking for an Erin; I lost my Erin and I don’t know where she is. I need a new Erin soon as I am sad with out her. I have her dog, so replacement Erin will have to like dogs and dog walking. If replacement Erin comes with cooking and cleaning skills, that is a plus. I do most of the cooking for current Erin, but she does have a few specialties like meat sandwich, which you will be responsible for. Lost Erin had a good sense of humor and would put up with most of my shit, this will be expected of new Erin as well, if you think I am too shitty, realize that this is a progressively funded relationship, so I have to pay about 10% more, but Erin replacement has to put up with 10% more shit, so it evens out. New Erin should like to travel and be willing to help plan our future trip around the world, being a travel leader is advisable as I will likely get tired and scared and spend the entire trip at an internet cafe reading about the countries I am in. Please reply as soon as possible, old Erin is still missing, and the dog and I need dinner.

Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Me, and my grandma's cousin, Irma, where my grandma grew up

Grandma and Grandpa can still cut a rug, at the West Point Reunion

From my experience, there are three major deciding factors:
First (and most importantly) — are there people working or teaching in the department who do the kind of work that you want to be hired to do when you finish? Are there people there who will help you get where you want to go? Could you see yourself either working with the people in the program in the future, or at least doing their kind of work?
Second — does the school have the specific track or program you are interested in? Grad school is much different from undergraduate programs in that it is a professional training school. Graduate school will prepare you to do very specific tasks and take very specific jobs. Whereas undergrad is often about learning how to think and how to learn, grad school is about learning how to manage a needle exchange program, how to analyze public heath policies, or how to set up a health clinic in a refugee camp in Libya.
Third — cost, especially if you are thinking about a program like public health. Unlike medical school or law school, you almost certainly will not earn a six figure income after you graduate. Given that a lot of post-graduation salaries with a public health degree are in the $30,000 — $50,000 range, you do not want to be in so much debt that you cannot chill and enjoy life a bit when you finish, so the financial aid that you are offered is important.

What about location?
Yes, I think that is also important, but maybe not as important as the first three items that I outlined. I have narrow experience with this, but I can offer some insight on what it was like for me to be a grad student in New York City.
Mostly — it’s hard, like really hard, with moments of complete awe thrown in from time to time. I didn’t live in student housing when I went to Columbia, and it might be easier if you do, but the housing is pretty hard to get in NYC. If you don’t live on campus, the rents are often astronomic. Further, Columbia’s School of Public Health is in Washington Heights, which is not glamourous the way you might imagine if you have ever watched Sex and the City, though it does have a great immigrant population that is incredibly friendly. The grocery stores are less than ideal; there is a lack of good fresh fruits and vegetables and it is almost impossible to find something like sun dried tomatoes. And like I said, doing things in NYC is hard — buying a gallon of milk is hard, unless you have it delivered, and buying a used couch off a friend is nearly impossible. (How are you going to move it if no one has a car?) All your furniture needs to be delivered. Also, Washington Heights is way, way, up town, it’s at least an hour to time square, an hour and a half to the lower east side, and two hours to Brooklyn (if you take public transportation), so even though you are right near EVERYTHING, it can all feel slightly out of reach. A person who lives in Washington Heights and has a girlfriend in Brooklyn will refer to it as a long distance relationship. New York City is darker, cloudier, rainier and way colder than I imagined. And even though I grew up in Colorado, I had never worn long underwear as regularly as I did in NYC, because not only is it rainy and COLD, but you have to walk around a lot (especially, if like me, you are working and going to school and trying to have even a little bit of a social life). The apartments have roaches (even the student housing) and both of the places I lived became infested with bedbugs. It’s totally possible to live comfortably in NYC — to shop at very nice grocery stores, take cabs around, go out to AMAZING dinners, see great shows, get your furniture delivered, and live with minimal roaches and bedbugs, but it takes way more money than I had.

All that said, I made great friends in NYC, from all over the world. I spent whole evenings sitting on rooftops, drinking red wine and eating chocolate and contemplating the world with my best friends. I went out to great brunches, ate the best dinners of my life, saw phenomenal shows, went to the coolest clubs, and spent days just hanging out at the UN — experiences that you don’t get if you go somewhere where it is easier to live. I also loved my immigrant neighbors in Washington Heights — I love that the nephew of the bodega owner on my block got tears in his eyes and said that he would need at least a week to plan my good bye party when he heard I was leaving and that the Dominican Democratic political activist who owned the hardware store on the next block offered me advice on everything from my career to starting a family. And I loved the morir sonandos that you can buy on the street. But I always felt like a tourist (a good tourist), but still, it never really felt like home.

One of my favorite things about going to grad school in NYC is that everywhere else I will ever live will feel really, really easy. $1500 for a one bedroom on a tree-lined block of DC?? Sign me up!! That, and because I really wanted to know what it was like to live in the city, and now I do.

So, there is some advice to the masses that are making this decision in the next couple of weeks. What do you think are important considerations? Did I miss anything?

Dancing on a roof in Mexico

Kissing in Mexico

Jumping on a roof in Mexico

Last night, Dan proposed to me in front of the Capitol.

I worked kind of late on Friday, a usual thing for me since there is just always lots to finish up at the end of the week. I walked home and arrived around 8:30. I was greeted by a very excited puppy dog who was contentedly munching on a bone. Dan had fed and walked the pup and told me to get ready for dinner because we had reservations at one of our favorite places in the city, Bistro Cacao, where we last ate on our four year dating anniversary. I got ready quickly and we headed out to dinner. As per usual, the food and drinks were amazing. When we left the restaurant, Dan told me to follow him, in the opposite direction of our place, and let’s not forget that it was pretty cold here last night. We passed a bar on the corner where I thought we might be heading. Then we passed another restaurant/bar that we had talked about trying sometime (called The Monocle, which we like mostly for its name). It was the last business in sight. We kept walking and headed towards the Senate office buildings. By now, I had a sense that something was up. After a few more blocks, Dan looks up and says, “I got a bit turned around” — classic. We walked another block and I pointed out the Capitol. Dan said, “great” and we headed right for it. As we walked up along it’s right side, I told myself to try to remember this moment and I remember clearly looking up at the Statue of Freedom. Dan put the to-go box down on a pile of snow and rummaged through his coat pocket. He pulled out a box and then threw his ski jacket down on the snow. He got down on one knee, and said something like, “Well, I followed you out to this city, so I figured it made sense to do this here, in the center of it. Erin Ashley Miller, will you marry me.” By then, I was laughing, and I said yes. He said, “well, then let me put this on.” After a bit of hesitation as I tried to remember which hand these things go on, he slipped it on to my ring finger. We kissed for a bit in front of the Capitol and started walking towards home, though, by then, I was no longer cold.

Engaged

The Ring

I woke up this morning and realized that aside from feeling the ring on my finger, nothing really felt too different — kind of like after you have a birthday and someone asks if you feel any older — “no, I feel pretty much like I did yesterday.” I explained this to one of my best friends, and she said, “yeah, you should know that’s pretty much how it feels when you get married too.” And, well, I suppose that’s perfect.

Check out Dan’s post and see more pictures.

I am happy to have a (small) evergreen tree, decorated in lights, (and stuffed with presents) in homage to this day when we finally begin to get a bit more sunshine.

Dan and I are headed to PV (Puerto Vallarta) for Christmas, where we are meeting up with his mom, brother, and sister-in-law. It is predicted to be a high of 79 degrees there on Friday.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

In January of 2005, I followed three other students through an arch-covered ally, rolling my large suitcase down the crumbling stone steps that led to our new apartment on Via de Aquila, Perugia, Italia. Two of my future roommates, Crissy and Dave, also hailed from the University of Colorado. Over the next five months, we spent sunny afternoons sitting together on le scalie leading up to the duomo, watched the English movies at the opera house on Tuesday nights, and ate six-hour dinners with our Italian friends. We bonded on long walks to nowhere in particular, and while searching for garbage bags to drape over us as we stood on one island or another, our packs loaded on our backs, and the rain pouring down on us.

Recently, I caught up with my fellow study abroad alumni. Crissy Codi is a full-time yoga instructor in Denver, Colorado. She recently finished her graduate degree in sports and performance psychology and was a counselor throughout graduate school. She eventually hopes to do a mix of counseling and consulting. For now, she does a lot of cycling, snowboarding and yoga. I am living and working in DC after finishing my graduate degree in public health at Columbia University. I am currently serving as a special assistant at the Department Health and Human Services and working on policies related to the implementation of the recently passed health reform law. All we know about Dave Savier “Dave Save,” is that he sometimes appears at Anthony’s pizza in the early hours of the morning.

Go Barbarians!