Afternoon Tea with Emily

This year, CU and UC-Berkeley were in cahoots and decided to align their spring breaks perfectly.  How fortuitous for me and Emily!  We decided to nab some afternoon snacks at the Dushanbe Tea House, and visit them for "Afternoon High Tea"...this means the whole 9 yards: white linens, tiered treats, and dainty pastries.  It was DELICIOUS.

The beautiful tea house...

Mmmmm tea....

Emily ordered a "display tea"....this means they pour it in a clear glass, and as it steeps, it "blooms."  So cool!!  This is what it started out looking like:

By the time it was done, it looked like this:

Super cool.

The snacks started with a mini salad in endive:

...and then came the amazing three-tier tower of treats!

 The top plate had all of the sweet treats on it.  Cake, homemade truffles, and cinnamon rolls.  The middle plate was savory, with lamb empenadas (for me) and veggie tomato pesto puffs (for Emily), and cucumber and chive sandwiches.  The bottom plate had lemon scones and artichoke purses.  The dainty-ness of all the foods had us fooled for a bit...but after plate two, we were so stuffed that we needed to take a breather before tackling the final tier.  

The entire gorging process took about two hours, but it was worth it.  SOOO delicious.   It was awesome seeing Emily again, and we talked about a possible visit since we'll both be on the West Coast this summer!  Hooray!

Blizzard 09

Wow.  Last time this happened was two years ago...CU closed the entire campus this morning--too bad I'm already on Spring Break!Is my car supposed to be there?

I love these technicolor apartments...they just painted them last week!  It's a nice contrast to the snow.

This is what happens when the snow plow shoves everything in front of our bike rack.  Thank goodness my bike is inside.

Finally!

A few weekends ago, we did our deployment flight test. After 7 months, 4000+ man hours, and countless internet meme jokes....it all paid off!

The Miniature Aircraft Deployment System works. It works!

We hit some snafus, and weren't able to deploy all four, including our autopilot-enabled plane. However, we think we know where the problem lies, and it is great to see this project a success. The project received lots of attention from within and outside of the university, and it feels good to get recognized for our hard work. It's not over, though, and it's back to work after Spring Break!

SWE Regionals

I accidentally went the entire month of February without Blogging...WHOOPS! I figure now, while I am trying to do my CFD homework, is as good as any time to do some catching up. :)

The first weekend of February I spent in St. Louis for the Society of Women Engineers Region i Regional Conference. It was a lot of fun, and we snuck out of some workshops to see the arch!

The first night, there were all sorts of welcome activities. That included life-sized Rock-em Sock-em Robots!



I went with three other girls from CU. Here they are at the bottom of the arch! It is surprisingly huge when you get up close.

The little space pods that take you up to the top are ridiculous...Natalie was pretty accurate in describing it as a "bad Sci-Fi movie"...ha!

Speaking of Natalie, I finally got to reunite with her! She is finishing up at WashU, and we meet briefly for some coffee and reminiscing.


No pictures of the actual conference, as that was probably not something worthy of photographing. :) Lots of networking, lots of learning, and lots of fun! Thanks, St. Louis!