i think this world smells so good

After a month and a little bit of living in Birmingham, I’m becoming more and more able to orient myself around town.

It’s kind of weird though, I feel like I’m sort of on an extended vacation. Like when I get into Tuscaloosa, I feel like I’m at home, but I have to go back to Birmingham… where I’m on vacation. Anyways last night after seeing ‘The Hangover’ at the Summit, Andrea, Stephen, Brynnie and I decided to find the Vulcan and wander around the trails below it. It took us awhile to find it, but I was kind of impressed that I at least knew the general direction it was in and how to sort of get us there. We didn’t get to go up very high or get real close to the Vulcan — the largest cast-iron statue in the world, by the way — but we did get to see the spectacular, glittery view of Downtown Birmingham through the web of tree branches on the dark trail we wandered down. It was beautiful. I’d like to go there at some point and watch the sunset.

I read somewhere online that Crestline Bagels is the only bagel shop in Alabama? Can that be true? I mean, we DID have Einstein’s Bagels at Riverside on campus. So.. maybe that fact isn’t entirely true. Anyways I’m going there on Monday for breakfast I decided. Or maybe tomorrow. I feel like I haven’t done too much here this summer so far.  I was home in California for almost two weeks, so my goal is to experience as many things that Birmingham has to offer that I can. Like, I think it’s fun to look at the travel section of The New York Times, for instance, and see what they advise travelers to check out.

Oh and last fun thing — Andrea made us fried green tomatoes and peach cobbler for lunch today! Ah so delish. With a little hot sauce and ranch on top, ha. Just so amazing. No pictures of anything, though. So sorry.