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By Jess, August 6, 2009 11:21 am

When a friend invited me to her house in New Jersey for a weekend trip, I accepted without much thought. I needed a break from my 60-hour work week, and New Jersey was the excuse I needed. But who knew that the Garden State would turn out to be my summer paradise?

I’m just as surprised as you are. I’ve driven through New Jersey a dozen times or more but have never noticed anything worth stopping for on the Turnpike. It’s not surprising considering my New Jersey knowledge consisted of the following:

1. New Jersey music obsessions include Bon Jovi.
2. It’s Guido central. See “My New Haircut.”
3. There is a disproportionate amount of Georgetown students from New Jersey.
4. New York is better.

And the list goes on. Still, the allure of a break from DC life was stronger than my half-joking prejudices.

Being far from home and family, I am easily won over by any situation involving a.) family togetherness or b.) motherly love, so spending time with not one but TWO Italian families was a micro paradise. I was showered with love and attention from heavily accented and heavily tanned women while their own children, my friends, looked on. Is it strange that this is part of what made my vacation great?

I also adored the beach. I grew up in Northern California where the beaches are plentiful but hard to access. Drive over a mountain to a cliff, find parking, descend cliff via shoddy stairs, sheepishly remove sweatshirt, and boldly enter frigid waters. When we went to the beaches of the Jersey Shore, we drove on FLAT terrain, pulled into a parking lot, and walked on FLAT ground to the sand only seconds away. My preference for the East Coast just keeps growing…

The nearby Seaside Heights boardwalk was a scene straight from the 1980s. The signs, the colors, and sometimes even the fashion. Everyone, young and old, had tattoos. And more importantly, everyone had a pack of cigarettes next to their SPF 4 sun tan lotion. I had my SPF 50 ready to go.

I’m back from Jersey now with a new appreciation for the so-called Armpit of America. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” I didn’t get a tattoo, but I got a decent tan, smoked a cigar, and hung out with Italian Americans. That’s a great vacation, even if it was only a weekend.

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By Jess, August 26, 2008 8:48 am

Funny article in Slate entitled On Not Owning A Vacation Home by Timothy Noah. Read in full here.

I do not own a summer house. The summer house I don’t own has not been in the family for three generations. It’s a simple, shingled affair, weathered and dear, with fishnets not hanging from the ceiling, duck decoys not arrayed on the shelves, and a large, yellowing map of the area, festooned with incomprehensible nautical markings, not stuck to the wall with pushpins not manufactured in 1954. I love the scent it doesn’t give off of mothballs mingled with mold.

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By Jess, August 4, 2008 2:30 pm

I haven’t posted in a while so to avoid summarizing the last three weeks of my life in an overwhelming monster post, I’ll slowly post some highlights.

First up: the Cape. Although I’m viewing this whole summer as a vacation, my trip up to the Cape was my only formal vacation of the summer. I flew up to Boston, proceeded to complain about my basement sleeping arrangements, and then realized that the entire thing had been redone during my yearlong absence from the states. Even though I’m “all grown up,” these moments always tend to remind me that I am the baby of the family.

We headed to the town of Brewster the next day, and I set off on a mission to win back (assuming I’d lost it due to absence) the love of my two little nephews. A few frisbee tosses and splashes in the pool later, I had succeeded.

In the next two days, we played some tennis, swam in the ocean, and rode bikes (see picture). Nothing overly elaborate but fun even so. Somewhat strangely, I managed to watch two jearjerkers during my vacation: Brokeback Mountain and Million Dollar Baby. I guess a good cry is always welcome.

That’s all for my Cape summary. Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for all the the birthday wishes! Contrary to popular belief, a 3-week hangover is not responsible for being MIA on the blog.

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By Jess, April 6, 2008 7:55 am

First, a bit of business. I have reached the limits of a free Flickr account and rather than upgrade to a pretty account, as pretty as they are, I’m switching to my dormant Picasa account. Shockingly, I encountered a fair amount of problems uploading the web albums and had to resurrect my troubleshooting skills. Who knew there was any flaw in Google at all?

So now I’m in the process of organizing albums from past trips. Here’s Sardinia and the Amalfi Coast in pictures and from a while back, Amsterdam, Paris, and Gtown’s Spring Break in London.

Now onto the Amalfi coast vacation. Much like Sardinia, this trip offered an experience that differed from the typical student travel that I’ve been doing and will be doing for the rest of break. There weren’t really museums to visit, although we did visit the Archaeological Museum in Naples. Never before have I been surrounded by so many phallic images. Penis pendants on necklaces, penis earings, flying penis statues WITH penises, penis wall adornments, and of course erotic frescos and statues, all from Pompei. Naples was the only real city we went to on the trip, and I think we were all glad that it was a brief visit. Besides for the garbage on the streets, check out this TIME photo gallery to get the full and shocking picture, I was a little taken aback by the traffic. Never before have I heard sustained honking and beeping for such a duration of time. It was a fun experience though.

Naples was only one day out of ten, but it’s hard to recap where I’ve been. Most of the towns on the Amalfi coast are very small and vertical with windy roads connecting them and they tend to blend in my mind unless I have a certain restaurant or villa to distinguish one from the other. We stayed in two villas in a town called Positano, supposedly the most vertical town in the world? In Italy? Facts are fuzzy. Right outside our door (literally) was a hike to Ciello (I think), an extremely small town directly above us. 2000 steps later, we were there and having lunch in a small trattoria where we could see the three famous rocks of Capris. Ok, I won’t go through everything and everywhere I went, but highlights include Pompei, the small hike up and around Mt. Vesuvius, the stair hike, and the drive around the island of Capri. Food and gelatto were another major highlight. I was constantly well fed, tummy well-stocked with local seafood, pastas, tomatoes, and mozzarella.

The Medved’s know how to vacation and have a good time, and I was lucky enough to be along for the ride. I’ve got to say, I haven’t laughed that hard on a daily basis since I’ve been back at Georgetown and that was a good feeling to have again. It was also nice to be around “family” again; they weren’t mine but I felt adopted for the time being.

So now… I rest for a week and sort out my business. In good news, I will be back in DC by June 16th and semi-employed. Alright. A picture says a thousand words, so check ‘em out. Hope to talk to everyone while I’m back in London.