Blog News

Hi everyone!

I have some news concerning my blog. In preparation for my trip to Russia this December, I have migrated my blog to a new webpage at http://ksyvarth.wordpress.com/. From now on I will be making all of my posts to this site instead of the old site. If you are on my e-mail list, you will still receive notification e-mails of my blog posts as usual. Under this new format I will be sending out the notification e-mails from my personal e-mail account, so feel free to respond to the e-mail directly. Also, if you know anyone who would like to be added to my e-mail list, please let me know.

This week's post is up on the new blog here. I hope you enjoy! 

A Quick Trip to Toronto

This week  I headed over to Toronto to get some things done for my trip to Russia, meet with my advisor, and celebrate the launch of the student journal I edited this past year. It was a quick trip, but it was great to see some of my Torontonian friends.

Of course I couldn't resist the opportunity

to drink my favorite coffee from Red Rocket

Coffee every morning during my trip. Yum!

The leaves were beautiful while

I was there. Unfortunately, it 

was quite cold--not great 

weather for a stroll. 

This poor moustached pumpkin

seems to have met a premature end. 

Fortunately, Toronto now has a compost

program, so he won't get thrown into the dump.

More leaf peeping on the University

of Toronto campus!

On my last night in Toronto, my

friend Chris and I got gigantic ice cream

sandwiches from a local bakery (not 

pictured). As if we didn't have enough

sugar in our systems, they also gave us 

free cupcakes! 

The flight home from Toronto was rainy...

But I arrived to blue skies in New York! 

I'm going to be spending the next few weeks hurriedly planning for my trip to Russia, but I hope to keep taking photos and updating you all here on Sundays! 

A stroll through central park

October has been beautiful up here in New York, and the leave are starting to turn all over the city! This weekend, I took a little stroll through Central Park to enjoy the changing leaves.

I love the crunch of fallen

leaves under my feet! 

The San Remo building surrounded by 

early fall foliage.

 Towering elms along the

Central Park mall. 

The bright red and orange trees

are my favorite in the fall. 

Central Park south

I hope you all are enjoying the fall as much as I am! This week I'll be heading to Toronto for a few days. I'll try to take some photos while I'm there, but the week is already filling up with meetings and events. 

Rich and Kristina go apple picking!

Rich and I had a relaxing weekend in New Jersey the past few days. We got a chance to enjoy some of the best fall things: lots of pumpkin-flavored foods, football, leaves, and of course, apple picking!

It was a gorgeous, breezy, cool day, 

and the apples were ripe for the picking!

We were lucky because the orchard

had one of our favorite varieties 

available, Stayman Winesaps. 

There were so many great looking

apples, we had to make sure not 

to pick too many since we had

to carry them back to the city with us.

In the end we still had about 10lbs

of apples! Good thing they stay

well in the refrigerator! 

Dr. Richard Karpowicz Jr.!

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind for Rich and me. On the last Wednesday of September Rich defended his dissertation and officially completed his PhD! This past Wednesday Rich and I were busy moving into a new apartment and getting settled in. We are both still recovering from the craziness of the past couple weeks, but I am so excited and proud of Rich and all that he has accomplished. He has worked so hard over the past 5 years, and it is wonderful that he is finally Dr. Karpowizc! Below are some pictures from his post-defense party.

Opening some champagne for 

a toast! 

Rich and his dad discussing the details of the 

defense. (His dad has his PhD in chemistry too!)

Rich with his sister, Stephanie, and his mom. 

The true emotion post-defense: exhaustion. Rich

with his good friend and lab mate, Teresa. 

An exchange of smiles between Rich and his 

advisor. 

Je voudrais Ladurée

It has been a busy week once again here in the city, but still I made time for a bit of fun. This past Friday I got to attend and photograph the open water swim around the Statue of Liberty. Next year I will be swimming this race for sure! It looked like so much fun. On Saturday Rich's sister, Stephanie, came to visit and we hit up some of our New York favorites including the famous maison de macarons, Ladurée. Although we paid a steep price for these Parisian delicacies, I think they were well worth it!

Swimmers readying at the dock before jumping into

brisk 72-degree waters. 

Swimming past the New York skyline! If you look

closely the swimmers are the little white dots in 

the water.

We were treated to a spectacular return on the

ferry right as the sun was setting. 

For display only: A tower of multi-

colored macarons at the famous 

Ladurée bakery. 

These scrumptious confections are made by sandwiching

a ganache, cream, or buttermilk filling between two

delicate meringue cookies.  The word is these 

French treats are shipped daily from Paris to 

the New York location on the Upper East Side.

Stephanie and Rich both loved the macarons, 

especially the salted caramel flavor.  I made a similarly happy 

face when sampling the lemon and rose flavors.

Summer is drawing to an end and as much as I hate to say it, I'm actually looking forward to it. Fall will bring a less demanding work (lifeguarding) schedule for me, which means more time for work (dissertation). Plus, this will be the first year ever that I'm not going "back" to school! I'll be staying here in New York for the majority of the fall season! 

A visit from mom, dad, and Robert!

Mom, dad, and Robert were here over the weekend and while it was a very short, whirl-wind visit, it was a lot of fun.

We had enormous sandwiches at the famous Katz's

deli. There must have been about a pound of 

meat on each sandwich! 

We explored a quirky community 

garden on the Lower East Side. 

We visited the new WTC to 

check up on its progress. 

We visited the museum of Natural History and 

saw lots of dinosaur fossils. 

Mom and Robert had a philosophical conversation

about wooly mammoths and the way they drank water.

We also went to our favorite restaurant, Kitchenette, saw Jersey Boys on Broadway, went to The Russian Tea Room for appetizers, ate bagels (and pizza!), had brunch in Greenwich Village, visited the hotel I work at, and went shopping at my favorite tea shop, David's Tea (whew!). It seems we hit most of the important things, especially the culinary stops. I'm so glad we were able to spend some time together in the city!