The backup plan: St. Louis!

Marshall wearing his seatbelt in the back

We did end up driving west; just not as far west as we had planned! We left Pittsburgh after Labor Day weekend and drove to Chicago. We ended up leaving a lot of stuff behind in Pittsburgh that we had been hoping would fit in the car. The car was a LOT smaller than we had anticipated…

We spent four days in Chicago catching up with friends and family. Marshall met his cousin Marley the cockapoo for the first time and went to the beach on Lake Michigan. Jon and I ate deep dish, explored Evanston, and hung out with high school and college friends. After spending time  in the city with friends, Chicago is looking more attractive than ever, and I’ve actually found a lot of jobs to apply to there in the past two weeks!

Then we drove to St. Louis, where we’ve decided to stay until one of us gets an actual job offer. We decided that driving all the way out to California and spending all of our money on a sublet was dumb; instead, we’re staying with my parents and saving our money for a real move. We’re continuing to apply to jobs all over the place, including Toronto!

We don’t know how long we’ll be here, but we’re happy to be in St. Louis. Every day we’re applying to jobs, networking, and keeping each other motivated. I realized that this is the first time in my life that I have been unemployed. Even as a student, I’ve worked since I was 15. I’m really eager to get back to work, especially for some of the awesome international education jobs I’ve found.

On the agenda for the next week: Blues preseason game in St. Louis, City Museum downtown, Tower Grove farmer’s market, visiting Natalie in Lawrence KS, Penguins preseason game in Kansas City, and continuing our trek to every single independent coffee shop in the St. Louis area!

In memory of Chloe Rose

Less than two years ago, we said goodbye to our dog Casey. This week, Chloe reached that point in every old doggie’s life where being old just hurts too much. In 1996, my mom found Chloe at the Franklin County Humane Society around Valentine’s Day. She was not small, but she was still a puppy, so we guessed she was about four months old by that point. I’ll never forget the moment she popped out of a box in the middle of the kitchen when I got home from school. “Surprise!” said mom. Oh, what a surprise this funny pup would be!

 

on julie's bed, one of her favorite places (as long as julie wasn't in bed, too)

 

We named her that night as a family. We chose something cute to match Casey. I think for as long as Casey lived, though, Chloe thought that her name was both Casey AND Chloe because when we said “Casey,” they both came running. Chloe was full of energy and could jump like no other little dog I had ever met. We liked to keep the dogs in our big kitchen during the day while we were all away from the house, and we blocked off the doorway with a child gate. Chloe would jump over the gate, of course, but also jump back INTO the kitchen when she heard us coming to the door. My dad eventually built a half-door that she could not jump over, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t try.

 

road trip to arkansas with her best friend casey ("the two toddlers")

 

Chloe’s breed still remains a mystery to us. She absolutely looked like a poodle with her curly, rough hair and pointy nose. But her color changed every few years. She had very dark brown spots when she was young, and those faded as time went on, eventually becoming nearly grey. It took us a while to figure out Chloe’s personality, too. She never liked being picked up. She was not interested in meeting other dogs, and really only liked Casey. Her favorite moment of the day was when the mailman came, when she would bark her head off and paw at the mailbox until we opened it up. She was timid when meeting new people, and really only warmed up to some of our closest friends. But she loved being around us. When we got home, she would run into the living room and roll around on her back like crazy on top of toys and bones. She would grab a toy and start flinging it around the room. She was never really interested in including us in the celebration, but we could see she was happy.

 

always a good girl in the park

 

Chloe did a lot of other things that puzzled us. One time we were out of town and she was staying with someone else at a house a few miles away form our neighborhood. It was Fourth of July and a parade in the area had a bunch of noisy firetrucks. In classic Chloe fashion, she freaked out and jumped the fence. The dogsitters searched and searched and couldn’t find Chloe. Eventually they went to our house just in case, and right there in our backyard was Chloe. We’ll never know if she found her way home on her own, or if someone found her and dropped her off. In any case, she was a lucky dog.

 

who wouldn't want to scratch that fuzzy head?!

 

She lived a long, lucky life. She had hip problems for a long time, which made her really dislike being picked up. We tried to respect that, but she was also just too darn cute! About a year ago, her hearing started to go. Then her eyes. Then her teeth started falling out. Then this week, her legs really stopped working and she stopped eating. She lived as long as she could. The thing that makes me happiest about the end of Chloe’s life is that she perked up for a couple months of summer. She was not seeming very happy during the cold winter, but my parents got her hair cut in the early summer and said she was like a brand new dog. She hopped around the backyard garden (as much as you can hop at age 15) and relaxed in the sunshine. That’s how I’ll remember Chloe: hopping in the sun, smelling the flowers, and staying close — but not too close! — to the family that knew just how to scratch her head in the perfect place. Thanks for being our funny, curly girl, Chloe.

Chloe Rose Barbier Bularzik: November 13, 1995 – July 15, 2011

And then I took a little time off

No posts for three weeks? Oops. I think I’ve gotten to the AND THEN period of this school year. Lots of things are happening really fast. I’m finishing my thesis, applying for jobs, turning 26, going on spring break, going on a second spring break, hosting friends from around the country, and very possibly moving in three months. So my AND THEN story can start like this: First, Rachel came in town, and then I applied to a job I really want, and then Rachel came in town again, and then I worked a big event at school, and then we drove to St. Louis, and then we drove back to Pittsburgh, and then it was my birthday, and then Jon gave me a mandolin for my birthday. Photo highlights below! More AND THEN coming soon…

jon and rachel, extremely bored in the cathedral of learning at pitt

dad can't keep his eyes open, but clancy finally learned how to sit and stay (in downtown st louis)

the lovely grand hall in st louis union station

The little dogs of Beijing

One of my favorite things about walking around my neighborhood in Beijing was seeing all of the adorable little dogs prancing in step with their owners. Rarely on leashes and never interested in meeting me, these dogs still baffle me. Why don’t they run around and chase the other dogs, or the birds? How are they trained so well? Is there some Chinese secret to dog training that we are missing out on? No doubt, these owners put a lot of time and love into their dogs. Many times I witnessed owners wiping their dogs butts after a poo, or sharing some of their delicious human food at dinnertime. The New York Times has captured some of the dog love in a recent article.

While high pet ownership is an interesting result of the economic boom, I really wish a reporter (or better, a dog trainer) from the United States would find out the secret behind Beijing’s perfect doggie behavior. People often say the one-child policy makes Chinese babies spoiled and misbehaved. But when it comes to dogs, they act like angels. I need to know this secret! All in all, it makes me feel very comfortable with the idea of bringing my dog to China. Once I asked Marshall if he wanted to go to China, and he got really excited. (This is probably because I asked him in Chinese, and Chinese tones are a strange sound for an American dog to hear.) Plus, he fits the Beijing police size requirements of under 14 inches. Feichang hao!

nihao, china! i'm the perfect size!

United States of Adjustment

It’s been almost two months since I left Beijing. Leaving was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. But looking back, getting on that plane alone in Pittsburgh back in May with the destination of Surabaya, Indonesia, was pretty freaky as well. In both cases, I had to just shut off my brain and go where my plane tickets told me. If I had let myself think about it, I probably would have never gotten on that flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo, or from Shanghai to San Francisco. Clearly I get way too emotional about coming and going. Stop crying. Turn off brain. Look at flight time. Proceed to airport. Don’t think about anything.

I only lived in Beijing for 10 weeks, so to say that I’m homesick and still not adjusted to being back in Pittsburgh seems absurd. But the way I lived in Beijing felt so comfortable that I could have very easily stayed there permanently. I hated leaving Beijing because I was literally leaving behind a life that I had made: a neighborhood, a job, a school, and incredible friends. Living there was so invigorating that I nearly forgot it was temporary.

But it was temporary. And I can’t complain. My time since China has been full of great people and places. Jon met me when I landed in San Francisco and we visited with my cousin Brady and his family and my good friend Lauren in Berkeley. We rented a cute blue beetle bug for a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway to Los Angeles. I was a lame-o and slept through a lot of it, because a 10-hour road trip the day after flying through 9 time zones is not a good formula for staying awake.

 

within the first day of being back, i got sunburned

 

We made a few stops along the way, most notably Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara. Santa Cruz was one of my favorite cities when I made this trip with my family years ago. We stopped there for breakfast this time, and I imagine very few of the city’s wacky residents were actually awake that early.

 

alone on the santa cruz beach

 

 

california is pretty, blah blah blah. there was a hostel at this lighthouse!

 

We stopped in Santa Barbara because a very rare and crazy thing happened. We were passing through that lovely city at the exact moment that my friend Stephen arrived there by bicycle after riding across the entire United States. Yup, he biked across the country and just happened to end his journey at the same place I was ending mine. He rode for this awesome organization called Bike and Build. He and his team rode from Boston to Santa Barbara in 68 days, stopping to build houses along the way. They were celebrating their achievement in a beach-side park when we found them. Congrats, Steve!

 

on the beach with the very accomplished cyclist

 

 

their trailer full of supplies. yeah they stopped in st. louis!

 

Santa Barbara was not the end of the fun for Jon, Stephen and I. We met up again in LA before Steve got on his plane back to South Carolina. We also got to meet up with my cousin Nick who lives in San Diego and my cousin Mike and his wife who live in LA. We stayed with Jon’s best friend Heinz and ran around the city with Ashley, the newest and fanciest resident of LA. We also had a Korean dinner to die for with Jon’s wonderful aunt Zooza. Now that was enough to keep me awake.

 

i'm being mistaken for sushi

 

 

nevermind. these guys all just have a licking problem. poor ashley.

 

 

chinatown LA: where i am officially allowed to be cheesy

 

Since I’ve been back in Pittsburgh, I’ve tried to get my head back in the graduate school game. It’s been a lot harder than I expected, and I’m still not totally focused. My thesis topic is… to be announced very very soon! There have been other important things going on, like my first trip home to St. Louis in 2010. Jon and I spent a couple days in St. Louis and a couple in Oktoberfest-ing Hermann, Missouri, for my good high school friend Alex’s wedding. We got to ride along with the wedding party on the Hermann Trolley, so I got to take some pretty cute photos. Congrats, Alex and Nick!

 

photog action! alex and nick lookin gooooooood

 

 

falling off the swings is bad luck (they didn't fall)

 

 

me, alex and nat for alex's last moment of singleness

 

And finally, my parents got the silliest dog ever. Meet Clancy:

 

Clancy joined the family in May. He's 3 years old, cuddly, adorable, and ridiculous.