The Carousel Mall

Or, as it's currently known, Destiny USA. I think that name is silly.

I went to this mall twice during my stay in Syracuse. Once with my beau and Jean shortly after we arrived, but we didn't have much fun. Jean still has leg issues, and she's also got back problems - so she didn't want to walk the entire length of the mall. My beau also generally dislikes the mall, so he wasn't much fun when I wanted to explore. We stuck close to Jean and ate at Uno's, Jean's favorite restaurant.

What I saw of the mall in the first trip wasn't much different than the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga (near Buffalo). Most of the same stores, same structure. A big mall is a big mall. I think they're even owned the the same controversial figures, who apparently seem to enjoy building on swamp land.

rope course

We (my beau and I) went again later with Sarah, after hanging out on campus while she was in class. Sarah was an excellent guide to the Carousel Mall. She didn't take us to any big stores, but to the strange little ones - like the 99 cent store in the basement with the wide assortment of cheap and interesting things. I bought a GIANT shopping bag there.  I also bought a small loose-leaf tea-pot as a gift for Jean, at the recommendation of Sarah, who thought that a housewarming gift was an excellent idea. I agreed. Sarah took it upon herself to buy some loose-leaf tea at Teavana to use with it, and she bought the gift-bag, too.

The mall does have some pretty awesome things in it. For instance, there's a large rope course. When we went, it was covered in children. I imagine it's that's it's normal state. There's also a large go-cart track, and some sort of rollercoaster simulator. I was actually pretty impressed.

  

Go-cart course

Outside the rollercoaster simulator

International Festival on campus

Hanging out with Sarah (the human) was one of my initial reasons for traveling to Syracuse. In fact, I'd been trying to visit her since this past summer when she returned to school.

She's a fun person. When we're together, we normally wander around aimlessly and eat foods from small restaurants, which I normally find intimidating - but she's crazy about tiny little foreign food places and people like her - so I feel less socially intimidated when I'm with her.

One of the more interesting things I did in Syracuse was actually going to an international festival on campus which she was participating in as part of her Study Abroad project. She went to Puerto Rico for most of the past Summer, and had a lot of fun trying new things and hanging out on the beach.

Anyway, the International Festival was something she had to do a lot of preparation for. She made a dish with plantains called mofongo, and lots of empanadillas, a fried beef stuffed pastry. The entire festival was culturally-themed backdrops for lots of food, and the food was definitely the star of the event.

Puerto Rico was by far my favorite country represented at there, although I did eat lots of other interesting foods from other students like a pickle and (raw) herring sandwich, on Amsterdam's table, and a dessert with pears cooked in wine which was quite enjoyable. I believe that was from an Eastern European country, but I can't remember which one. It's a shame. Was it Moldova?

I may have a bias, though. The night before the event I helped Sarah make some of the empanadillas. I already knew they'd be delicious. Apparently they're sold everywhere you go in PR. It's like going to any continental American city and finding a burger.

Settlers of Catan

While in Corning, we had the opportunity to have a game night with Jean's cousins. They brought pizza, and we ate the leftover pasta salad that Jean made the day before.

There were six people at game night, and apparently Settlers of Catan is made for four players, so they brought an expansion pack. Honestly, I didn't really expect to have any fun. I don't like competitive games, but Settlers of Catan isn't vicious. Anyone can win something with anyone else's roll of the dice, so there's always something to look forward to. I very much enjoyed playing.

What I think is most fascinating about Settlers of Catan is how popular it is. I've only heard of it within the past year or so, but I daresay that it's trendy. It's 2013 and we have a trendy boardgame.

I didn't win, but my beau and I did have fun playing with the pieces while everyone else was setting up. I thought I should share our artwork with you.

Does he look Aztec to you?

Stonehenge

An opportunity

Hours after we learned that Jean had been evicted, Sarah contacted me on facebook letting me know that she might know someone who was in need of a roommate on very short notice.


It's impressive how quickly Sarah responded. The apartment, inhabited by two classmates of Sarah's, was in Jean's price range and included utilities. I'll refer to these roommates as Elle and Essie.

Elle is actually an acquaintance of Sarah's roommate, so for Jean, this is a connection through a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend. 

I answered some questions for Sarah about the circumstance's of Jean's eviction (I fully understand why eviction would be a red flag). After relaying enough information to show that Jean was reliable, I got the contact information for Elle and Jean called her the next day.

A photo of my beau in Corning

I don't do well under stress, so to see others reacting so competently was impressive for me. I can't imagine how I would handle such a serious situation. Jean was stunned, yes, but she was far from broken.

I will admit that her support network is better than mine. My parents have always made it known that they would be no help whatsoever, and whatever my problems are, they're my fault. That's probably why I have such a hard time asking for help. I don't expect help, I expect criticism. I just drown. I didn't even know it wasn't normal to have no help, or that there was any use in putting up a fight until I met my beau.

Eviction

After a couple days in Corning, Jean got a text message informing her that she'd been evicted already, two weeks prior, on the first of February.

I can probably reveal more details later, after she has a full assessment of her options, but yes - she did everything right. The landlord knew she was in Buffalo in the hospital, he didn't mail her any notification there, they'd spoken on the phone to confirm some details, and she was mailing her rent checks from the hospital. Apparently he'd sent her "notice" to her apartment door in Syracuse.

He did everything wrong.

He also threw out all of her belongings.  Which, from what we read about eviction law immediately following the news, was also  the wrong thing to do. It should have gone into storage.

Jean was stunned by everything that had happened. Thankfully she wasn't alone, and our laptop screens were quickly filled with tabs and tabs of State and City eviction law, as well as Craigslist for looking for apartments available immediately.

I also asked Sarah, via facebook, to ask around and see if she knew anyone who needed a roommate.

I have such trouble imagining the sense of helplessness that Jean must have felt in learning what became of her home and belongings. Her own description of the event goes something like "my whole life is in my truck."

Corning (part 2) - The hike

Heading out

The frolicking lady of the house

Chewed by a beaver

A snow covered beaver dam

Chewed by a beaver

Deer tracks

Corning, NY (part 1)

The house in Corning is pretty much exactly my dream house. That house belongs to some of CJ's family - and her brother was house-sitting because they're off on some European adventure. I'm so envious.

First of all, the house is beautiful. Five bedrooms, two bathrooms, lots of natural light, hard wood, and it's very well taken care of. We had the benefits of high speed internet and a well-stocked fridge, as well as two freezers stocked with veggies grown on-site and other various things which were labeled with the date they were added. It was wonderful. We were welcome to everything.

Other things which made it a dream house included the finished basement, and the many acres of land they had to roam around on. The idea of having property you can hike on is a wonderful one, indeed. There was even a beaver-dam on site. I think I'll do the hike we went on with CJ's brother as an entirely different entry.

And speaking to my love of this house and the warm fuzzy feelings I felt therein, I must mention Sara. Sara is the beautiful elderly lady of the house, and one of the sweetest dogs that it's been my pleasure to meet.

Sara

What was most remarkable about Sara to me was how happy she seemed. I'm sure she missed her humans, and she certainly had some skin and joint issues, but she was so gentle and kind that her happiness glowed. Something about having all of that land and such good caregivers who neither spoiled her nor deprived her of the occasional pizza crust seemed to make her a very peaceable dog. She was used to long walks in the woods with her humans and evenings by the fire place.

 She also, despite her advanced age, still happily played with her toys.

I wished so badly that my dogs could know that life. I wish that I could.

The trip

Snowy trees along the way

The car ride to Corning, NY, the first trip on our journey, was more pleasant than could be expected. There wasn't much to worry about, the day was beautiful and bright and snowy, though the roads weren't icy. The car was packed so that there was barely room for me in the back, with Grizzy the cat in her carrier on my lap.

We stopped for coffee before the journey and were more or less set for the hours on the road. 

We did attempt to let Grizzy roam the car, but she's not the sort of kitty cat who'll sit on your lap for the ride. She gets nervous in the car and would prefer to find a place to hide - which naturally made us quite nervous. So poor Grizzy was condemned to her kitty-carrier for the duration of the journey, alternating between crying and napping depending on how flat the road was and what was in the radio.

Fun fact: Grizzy the cat enjoys Simon and Garfunkel.

Grizzy

Purpose of our trip to Syracuse

Our friend Jean recently got out of the hospital after spending around two months in Buffalo with family after some fairly serious and enlightening surgery on her leg. She's in the clear now, but she was having issues for quite a long time.

I'd give more details, but it's not my business to share and honestly, she could make a blog of her own medical odysseys any time she wished. Perhaps she should. That would most certainly make it to my blog roll, when I create decide to have a blog roll.

Anyway, the purpose of our trip, while it was mostly to have fun, was also partly to help Jean get re-acclimated to her apartment and to help her figure Syracuse out, because though she's lived here for a long time now, she hasn't done much and has honestly been bored out of her mind.

Since I have a friend who's a student here, Sarah (not to be confused with Sara the dog, who's also pleasant, small, and dark-haired), I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to show Jean around.

My beau and I were also thrilled for the opportunity to get out of Buffalo for an adventure anyway.  We love Buffalo, at least I do, but there's a lot of stress waiting for me back home. It's wonderful to feel free for a short while.

An uncertain trip to begin with

A photo from the initial car ride.

When we first left for Syracuse, there were already a number of uncertainties. Thankfully, as my beau and I are unemployed, we had no qualms about a long uncertain trip. There's no big issue with deadlines or people to deal with - only our funds, which are admittedly quite limiting.

The first uncertainty: Length of trip. Estimated at about two weeks, but the trip length was really as long as we wanted, so long as our eventual end date coincided with our friend's work schedule and ability to drive us home to Buffalo from Syracuse. A subset of this is the uncertainty of how much of our trip would be spent in Corning, NY.

The second uncertainty: limited funds. This is quite an issue, but staying with a long-time friend of my beau's, this didn't appear to be too much. We can contribute in other ways, and so long as the visit was under a month or two, she didn't expect rent.

 The third uncertainty: How much time should I divide between my friends?

So far it seems like a fairly decent trip, but some unusual and quite startling things have happened which shook all of us, proving that nothing is truly certain.