The Life of H. Ernest Chen

Capodanno Cinese, 2012 Anno del Drago

2012-01-15T02:05:00.000-08:00

This past week was QUITE a social one, I'll just say that two consecutive nights of "Circle of Death" were tough on the body. So, this Saturday, I awoke at 1230PM, went to lunch at 1530PM and then walked up the Corso to Piazza del Popolo to observe the Chinese New Year's festivities. First off, I LOVE how in Rome, and in most cities in Italy, there is a public space almost every huge gathering takes place. In Rome, when something big is happening, it's almost always at Piazza del Popolo (Piazza of the People). You can pretty much assume that it is. When I heard about the Chinese New Year's festivities...I knew where to head.

The parade took place up the Corso around 2 (they had to be finished with it before the evening Passiagiata). And then there were a few hours of exhibitions, etc. I arrived around 5, only getting to see the last hour, and then the pretty impressive fireworks.


These daylight pictures are pilfered from the "Browsing Rome" website, but I just wanted to show some of what it looked like with light.

Here's the stage, facing the Pincio gardens.

The emcees for the festivities. What was awesome was that everything was in both Mandarin AND Italian, and when I didn't understand one language, I could use the other.

Of course there were different martial arts exhibitions, but I was surprised (not sure why) to see non-Chinese involved. I guess I would see that in the United States, but I've always thought the Italians to be less interested in non-Italian activities. In addition, the Piazza was FULL to the brim and almost the entire audience was Italian. I was impressed....which is probably me being a bit hard on the Italian people to begin with.

My favorite, of course, were the acrobats. Amazing! But the hour and a half I spent at the festivities only made me MORE excited to head to Beijing this fall. Looking forward to it more and more each day.

Technology Resolution

2012-01-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

Not REVOLUTION but RESOLUTION, this being the first post of the 2012 year and all. The genesis of this post comes from installing a fax machine for my grandparents. Back story....

My 92 and 94 year old grandparents still lived independently, much to my mother's dismay and a total test to her patience. To compound the situation, my grandmother is essentially deaf, can not hear the phone ring, but does not acknowledge her hearing difficulties. Communication with her is TOUGH. My grandfather who can hear, but has lost a great deal of mobility, has become so incredibly passive, that getting him to do things is in itself a challenge. I could go on about the difficulties of elder care, but you get the drift.

My aunt in San Diego has taken on the responsibilities of bill paying, insurance and paperwork. Much thanks to her for that. However, this requires sharing of documents and information, which in our modern day, one just says to oneself, PDF's and email. Done! But this is my grandparents you are talking about, and the only computer in their lives is the early 1980's vintage Apple IIC sitting in their basement. So, let us move down the technology ladder, to the fax machine, which is our chosen solution to communicate and transfer information back and forth.

On New Year's Day, I installed a fax machine at my grandparents' house. I pulled it outside of the box and the immediate reaction was, "Take it away, we do not need that". After it was installed, the next step was to teach my grandfather how to use it. Lesson 1, how to receive a fax. Dedicated land line for the fax? You have got to be kidding. We have to teach him how to switch between fax and telephone mode. Sending faxes, actually a bit easier, but still requires calling my aunt and having her turn on her fax machine. I could see in his face HOW foreign this contraption was, but he did it. Now he just needs practice.

Then, this morning, in a total surprise, my grandfather called and was going over the instructions I left for him and wanted to go over them with me. As a teacher, I could totally hear in his voice when something made sense to him. He understood that the receive button was the long oval black one (It is also the only function button showing as I taped over all the over ones). Anyone up for faxing with my grandfather and grandmother?

So back to the issue of resolution. I have been accused, and rightly slow, of being slow to adopt new technology. No iPhone for this boy. Twitter? I have an account but I never use it. Updating this blog to having RSS feed or searchable index? You think I would tackle it, but it has not happened yet. But watching my 94 year old grandfather take on a fax machine? Inspiring. Perhaps it is time to switch from my hotmail account to actually using my gmail account. Ok, maybe this is too radical a step.....

Galleria Spada

2011-12-18T06:39:00.000-08:00

Right around the corner from my morning bus stop is Palazzo Spada, so on this lazy Sunday morning, I went out for pizza at my favorite place in Trastevere and then wandered over to Palazzo Spada to see Borromini's famous "forced perspective" colonnade.

Palazzo Spada, right around the corner from my Ponte Sisto bus stop.

The famed "forced perspective" colonnade by Borromini. The statue appears to be 60 feet away......

....but is actually only about 25 feet away. The docent standing at the statue is NOW taller than the columns. It's all about perspective and Geometry.

I didn't really understand it until I went upstairs into the actual gallery and looked out the window. Turns out Cardinal Spada, the owner, had the opportunity to purchase the strip of land next to his palazzo, extending his property by the width of one house, or in our case, the length of the colonnade.

Here's another look at the "width" of the added strip of land.

If you want to see a video clip of the basics of the Geometry of the colonnade, check out this video clip.

Naples (2 For 1 Trenitalia Saturdays)

2011-12-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

Trenitalia is running a special 2 tickets for the price of 1 on Saturdays, so D and I took advantage of this and bought Frecciarossa (the express train) tickets to go to Naples for the day. It's an hour each way. I've been to Naples before, but the first time was a few years ago with SYA and it was a tour in Italian and I didn't understand a thing. The second and third times were just pass throughs to see Herculaneum/Pompeii/Vesuvius and Capri. This time, we got there around 1015 in the morning and walked around the ENTIRE part of central Naples and I really felt like I got a sense of the city. Just like everyone says, its loud, raucous and CROWDED, but I felt safe and comfortable.


To understand Naples, one has to understand that the city and the famed soccer player, Maradona are one. He played here and brought them two championships Shrines to him are everywhere.

Our goal was to walk the city and then end up a the world famous Naples Archeological Museum, but we didn't make it. However, we did go into the small, but quite prominent Cappella Sansevero. It's "capolavori" are this "Veiled Christ" (its marble)


"Disillusion" Both are amazing!

We walked the famous Spaccanapoli (Naples splitter) which divides central Naples into North and South. Here at the western end is the Piazza Gesu Nuovo and the church of the same name. I love the texture of the facade (pyramids).

This ornate tower is baroque monument to the counter-reformation.

Naples City Hall....part of the Facebook revolution


*Castel Nuovo. I like how they filled in the area between those two turrets with a Roman Empire style arch.*


*Central Naples is flat down by the sea. There are hills surrounding the city (there are many funiculars) like the one shown here. That building is a monastery.*

Occupy Naples? The line "Noi sappiamo..." translates to "We know where to get the money!"

Naples...high quality and quantity graffiti. "Berlusconi and the rich cry" The 2, stands for the 2 "scudetti", or soccer championships that Maradona brought to Naples.

Piazza del Plebescito. "Do not lose hope Naples"

Here's the Naples we know from the movies. The Spanish quarter with the tall buildings all so close together. The laundry hanging everywhere. Two of our favorite moments of the day happened when just walking around. The first was a man on a Vespa which zipped by us, then he circled around, whistled, parked and then looked up to be greeted by his family on the balcony. The second was seeing an older Neapolitan woman open up her window and sell gum out of her front window. Running a store right from her living room.

Turning around from looking west to the Spanish Quarter, on the other side of the road, just a slew of fascist architecture, which I like because its just so.....simple in its message.

Umm, what's a windmill doing in the middle of Naples. And look at the panels on the apartment building behind it. "Labor is GOOD!"

Along the way....lunch. Of course, Neapolitan pizza! This is a "famous" pizzeria. Lots of locals and tourists, like us.

It's for purists. Margherita and Marinara only.

The obligatory food shot before the chow down!

The weird thing about Naples for me was that I was lost during the day....TWICE. That NEVER happens. I could get my bearings but I didn't know where we were and it didn't help that we didn't have a physical map, only the map on the Kindle. As D has learned, when I am lost, I internally FREAK OUT. I'm going haywire inside. Then, when I figure out where I am, I instantly calm down inside. Turns out, guidebooks are BETTER when actual books because it's just easier to look at maps when they are on paper.. Lesson learned.

Brussels, Belgium

2011-12-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

Belgian Flag (backwards, I know)

After stopping in at my second AirBnB lodging (another awesome one, I'm SOLD), I headed over to this location. Being the geek that I am, these buildings are the European Parliament buildings.

The reason for the visit was to see the new European Parliament Visitors Center, the Parliamentarium. It's free and a good history of the genesis of the EU and the many functions it plays. What is most interesting is I call it the first "iPhone" museum. The visitor guide was like an iPhone where there was lots of scrolling and flipping through screens. The coolest gadget (although not necessarily coolest information) were these carts, that you rolled around a giant map and everytime found a sensor, it told you a story.

Grote Markt, the heart of Brussels.

Brussels....with Anch! He invited me to join him for the weekend of Christmas Market Shopping! And, to boot, he won us VIP tickets to Carmina Burana.

Turns out it was Carmen, as a ballet and then Carmina Burana, with ballet. I liked the former better.

Belgium is the home of TinTin. Throughout Brussels, on the sides of buildings are large cartoon murals. There is also a cartoon museum, but I didn't make it.

I particularly liked the self-reference of this mural!

Yes, Belgian Waffles were consumed. AND fries, with MAYO.

The culinary highlight, as suggested by my awesome host, was at a food market. She called it a Moroccan pancake. It was a crepe, filled with goat cheese, olives, figs, peppers and then drizzled with honey.

YUM!

Final stop, the Atomium which was built for the 1958 World's Fair.

View from the base, looking up.

After a 45 minute wait for the elevator, Anch and I were at the observation level in the top atom. At this point, I wasn't so impressed with the experience and certainly expected MUCH more talk about chemistry.

But then came this cool part, where we got to take the stairs down from one "atom" to another through a "bond"

In one of the atoms, apparently, you can get into another "atom" pod and lounge around, maybe even sleep for the night? Plus, the pods can be suspended in the air.

Going down....

Ok, so the Belgians are STILL all about the 1958 World's Fair. The VERY cute guy with glasses in the picture with Sinatra is King Baudoin (in 1958) of Belgium. I'm strategically blocking on the woman in the picture, who must be his wife. Thanks Anch for playing along to get this photo!

Logarska Dolina

2011-11-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

A great game.....followed by a long drive back to Slovenia to the remote, and WAY off the beaten path, the Logarska Dolina. Dolina, in Slovenian, means valley. I made reservations at a hotel in the Logarska Dolina, but we arrived at 2AM in the PITCH black and went up to what we THOUGHT was the hotel. D rang the bell many times but there was no answer. We resigned ourselves to sleeping in the car until daylight. Turning on the car to get heat a few times over the course of the morning, we managed a few hours of sleep. As the night turned to day, we found the hotel and checked-in. Our little car sleep saved us some money.


This is what we woke up to, the Logarska Dolina.

After a few hours of sleep in a real bed, we got up and took a drive on the panoramic road.

D doing her best Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music!

This part of Slovenia is just south of the Austria/Slovenia border. Over that ridge....Austria.

Along the drive, we saw this ladder, so you know we had to climb it.

The view from our "tree bench"

This is the view of the Logarska Dolina, from the panoramic road, on this beautiful day, was the BEST moment!

Flanking Logarska Dolina, are two parallel valleys. Here's the Matkov Kot.

Back down in the Logarska Dolina, here's whats at the "end", a wall of rock.

Logarska Dolina at sunset...such an amazingly beautiful corner of the world. Definitely one of the top places I've visited while in Europe.

Udinese-Roma (2-0)

2011-11-29T12:13:00.000-08:00

After the drive through the mountains and the Soca River valley, we headed west, back into Italy (and again being able understand the language, it's amazing how sharp the language boundary is) to attend the Udinese vs. Roma game. This was the reason for the entire trip!

Walking through Udine Centro, I saw the team bus and had to take a picture of it.

Stadio Friuli. I always get asked "why Udinese?" I think it's the underdog streak in me. Udine is a town of 100,000 people, about double the size of Viterbo, but has managed to be a team that has been in Serie A since 1995. It is the little team that has held its own against the big boys, Inter, AC Milan, Roma, etc.

And I, like a lot of people, thing Antonio Di Natale is AWESOME. By the way, I now own his jersey. He's been loyal to this club and city. A year ago, Juventus (who I think of as the evil Yankees of Serie A) tried to buy Di Natale, but he refused the trade!

We sat one section over from the "ultras." No knives or fights!

"SALUTI CAPOLISTA!!" A win over Roma brought Udinese to the lead of Serie A. I have to reveal that, Udinese played the first game of the weekend, so its lead was temporary.

The end of game salute to the fans from the players!

The Julian Alps and the Soca River Valley

2011-11-28T14:27:00.000-08:00


Driving northwest out of Bled, you get to the way Northwestern Corner of Slovenia (and thereby the former corner of Yugoslavia), turn south at Kranska Gora to head into the Julian Alps over the Vrsic Pass. Note, the day was cloudy and overcast until we made the turn. Perfect clear skies for the rest of the trip, perfect for high mountain views.

But first, a detour to see the Planica Ski Hill, which is the 2nd largest ski hill in the world. Many, many world record ski jumps have occurred at this location. Someday, I'm going to learn to ski jump!

The road up to Vrsic Pass from north to south has 50 hairpin turns, 24 up, and 26 down. The turns are paved with cobblestones for better traction.

The Vrsic Pass is called the "Ruska Ceska" or "Russian Road" as it was built in 1915 by Russian Prisoners of War held by the Austro-Hungarians during WWI. The A-H's needed this road built to supply their troops on the other side of the pass who were battling the Italians. More on this to come. Many Russian workers died in avalanches and so the survivors built this in honor of their brethren.

Although this isn't the actual pass (it's to right of this shot), this is was what the Russians faced.

Picnic time at Vrsic Pass....in the SUN!!

As you descend from the pass, you are heading south into the Trenta Valley. Here is a view back towards Vrsic Pass.

The valley makes a sharp turn to the west.....(note this being late fall/early winter the sun was low, sometimes not even getting to the valley floor.)

.....and we are at the eastern end of the Soca River Valley. This valley is historic for being the location of the front (known as the Isonzo Front) in Italian during WWI.

Between 1915 and 1917, the Italians and the Austro-Hungarians fought 12 battles in this valley and in these mountains. Why you ask? Turns out the Italians were miffed that that A-H's were granted Italian speaking areas in an earlier treaty. After initially declaring neutrality in WWI, the Italians declared war on A-H to get those lands back.....and more.

That IS the color of the Soca River. It's got a marbley white quality it to it.

A gratuitous picture of me.

Throughout the valley, you see cemeteries and graves of soldiers who died on the Soca front.

This cemetery, back on the other side of the valley, is one of the most poignant war cemeteries I've ever visited.

Moving south down the Soca River, at a critical narrow juncture, stands Fort Kluze. Those openings are pointed at.....

.....this vista. Or to shoot at any attackers coming up the valley.

Across from the Fort, are rungs to aid in a quick getaway?

In the town of Kobarid (Slovenian) or Caporetto (Italian) there is a museum which explains the wars of the Isonzo Front. As you can see, a great deal of fighting was done in the mountains, and in most cases, the A-H were in position and the Italians were attacking hill. 11 Battles of the Isonzo Front...it was a war of attrition.

But it was the 12th Battle of the Isonzo Front, also known as the Battle of Caporetto that changed EVERYTHING. The A-H's called in the Germans for help. In a surprise attack, the Germans used poison gas and "blitzkrieg" fighting methods to push the Italians (who still relied on top down command decision making) back 25km in one day. It was the worst day in Italian Military history. This here is the very moving Italian memorial to the Battle of Caporetto. One thing D and I noticed is that the names of the deceased are in alphabetical order. We joked that it had to be the work of the Slovenians!!!

The Isonzo Front was the site of Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms", which I read in preparation for this trip. It's awesome to think that Hemingway drove these same roads and saw these same views...although in much different circumstances.

Thanksgiving 2011 -- Slovenia

2011-11-27T14:36:00.000-08:00

Teaching at an American school, we get the traditional 4 day Thanksgiving holiday break. 4 days? Where to go. I was poking around the Internet back in early October and was checking out the Serie A schedule and saw that Udinese (my team, as you all know) was playing at home, in Udine, on Friday the 25th of November. Usually, Serie A games are on Sunday so this was a special game......and then I find out that Udinese is playing Roma and it's official, I'm headed to Udinese for the game. If you look at a map, you'll see Udine is right on the border with Slovenia and that becomes the destination for this Thanksgiving day break. First stop, Lake Bled.


Hawaii? No, Slovenia. This is "Slap Savica" or "Savica Waterfall" at the far western end of Lake Bohinj, a more remote and less commercial lake in Northwestern Slovenia.


Thanksgiving day itself was overcast and cloudy, but the lake was calm and we see the reflection of a mountain in Lake Bohinj.

Lake Bled is about 3.5 miles around in circumference, but it has cliff faces jutting directly up from the surface of the lake and has a castle looming over it.

Here, on the foggy first day, is a view of Lake Bled from the castle. Right there in the lake is a small island, with a church which brings the charm factor "over the top" according the Rick Steves' guide. I have to agree.

The next day, in the morning, the sun was trying to peek through and we went along the path near the island. The stairs of the island come right down to the shoreline. This island is known for being the wedding capital of Slovenia and it is tradition for the groom to carry the bride up the steps.

No motorized boats are allowed on Lake Bled, so getting to the island is only by these "pletna" boats, which are rowed by families who pass down the boats (and the plans for the boats) from generation to generation.


No motorized boats, you say? Well, turns out that Lake Bled is the rowing capital of Slovenia. Lake Bled, because it is sheltered by the mountains to the west has little wind and is ideal for rowing. The world championships of rowing have been held on the lake four times, most recently in 2011!

The area has produced numerous world and Olympic medalists in rowing!

Turns out the place I found to stay was right above the training center.

I used, for the first time, the website AirBnB, to find this one bedroom apartment. It was PERFECT, quaint, and cost 40 dollars a night. If all AirBnB locations are of this quality, I'm sold!

For those who remember him, Josip Broz, aka Tito, was the legendary figure who held together the six distinct and separate republics in one unified Yugoslavia up until the country started to break up in 1990. The first country to gain its independence was Slovenia, the northern most of the six republics. Here is Tito's villa on Lake Bled.


Taking a stroll along the ground of the villa.

In a ballroom on the second floor of the villa there is a huge mural extolling Tito and the Yugoslavia. Up in the left corner, the attack by the Nazi's on Belgrade and in the center Tito rallying the people of this region (Yugoslavia) to bind together as a country.

Defeating the enemy...the Nazi's

The ideal of Yugoslavia, the farmer and the worker in the shadow of an industrial factory being led by a woman with a child on her shoulders carrying the flag of Yugoslavia!

Ala Tito, sitting and enjoying the view from the terrace with the Island of Lake Bled in the background!

Translation Services

2011-11-19T05:04:00.000-08:00

This is a story that I've been waiting to blog about for a few months, because I've been waiting for the final chapter to unfold, which it did last night.

SCENE 1 (Late August 2011) -- Courtyard of the Quad at AOSR.
It was late afternoon, and I was finishing up some things at school and headed to the bus to go home. I'm about to exit campus when I see a young Chinese girl being huffy with her father. I comment, in Chinese, because I assume they are Chinese, that I used to be just like her with my father. The father turns around and starts talking to me in RAPID fire Chinese and stuffs some papers in my face and I figure out it has to do something with enrolling his children into the school.

I walk the family over to the main office building and find the admissions officer, who has already tried talking to the father that payment of tuition doesn't mean entrance into the school, that there is an actual application process involved. However, the previous conversation between the English speaking admissions officer and the Chinese speaking father had gotten little of this point across.

Now here we were again, but this time I'm playing interpreter. Chinese to English and vice versa. Turns out, as I learned, is that the family has a son (L) who has been at AOSR for six years and is entering 6th grade. The son was with us. The daughter (G) was enrolled at AOSR back in Kindergarten and has been back in China for the past four years and speaks NO English. Dad was trying to enroll G into the school by communicating through L. L, being a 5th grader last year didn't understand what he was doing (and rightly so) and was doing everything though his teacher. As you might expect, lots was lost in communication and transit and the admissions office didn't speak with Dad about G.

Those papers Dad was sticking in my face was were faxes confirming the school had accepted two 8,000 Euro wire transfers, which the Dad thought was payment for the first semester for both his students. The school took the money thinking is was the entire years payment for L. This is where the big miscommunication happened. Once we got that sorted out, it was back to square one and Dad still wants G enrolled in 4th grade.

BUT, the 4th grade for the fall is oversubscribed and there aren't any spaces available. The admissions officer says this but couches the excuse with "there is an application process" and "you just can't buy your way into the school" and "G doesn't have language ability in English". So, the compromise is, enroll G in an English immersion program for the fall, and see if a space opens up in the Spring. As the paperwork is being filled out, G's birthday turns out to be 2001, which is actually a 5th grade birthday. We unravel that one of the miscommunications is that L, the brother, kept saying that G was trying to get INTO 4th grade, but meant to say, she had FINISHED 4th grade.

Well, lo and behold, the 5th grade, expands from two to three sections and there was space for G. And just like that, all the arguments about why the school couldn't take her are out the window, and the money is accepted as G's first semester tuition payment and welcome to our newest 5th grader. (Sketchy, I know).

The Dad is incredibly grateful to me and the next day brings me a huge beautiful plate (and gifts for EVERYBODY) and invites me to dinner.

THOROUGHOUT THE FALL
The school has a HUGE proportion of students that are Italian-Chinese. The parents, usually merchants, don't speak English or Italian and so simply pay the tuition and send their kids, but the school is NOT serving these parents. Communication is done in only English and Italian, so these parents simply don't know or are isolated.

But now, the teachers know that I speak Chinese and throughout the fall, I'm called on to help translate with parents. I've made phone calls from the nurses office to tell parents to get their kids glasses and even had to try and tell a Chinese mother that he should have his kid tested for diabetes.

SCENE 2 (November 18th, 2011 at school)
G's fifth grade teacher calls a parent conference with the Dad and asks me to translate. The briefing from the teacher is that G, is incredibly smart, but seems to be neglected at home. There is little love and affection for this girl and that anytime it is shown to her, G soaks it up. I've noticed it too, that when I see her on campus, she runs to me, hugs me and won't let go. The reason for the tardiness of this meeting is that Dad has been out of the country since the first week of September and G and L were theoretically living with her mother, although that has been called into question. After the meeting, Dad asks me to come to dinner. I'm free, so I say yes. He tells me to meet him at 730 at a place in Rome's "Chinatown."

SCENE 3 (November 18th, 2011 at an Italian Restaurant)
I show up about 15 minutes late to the address given to me and I'm whisked away in a huge Mercedes. I'm thinking I'm going to dinner with the family at a Chinese place. Nope, we park and enter a very fancy Italian restaurant. And we're NOT with his family, but I'm one of seven people at the table. On my side is myself and two other Chinese men in their late 40's, early 50's. On the other side, three 20 something Chinese girls. At the head of the table Dad. I know I'm in for an evening.

The food starts rolling and it's very high end. LOTS of seafood, in fact EVERYTHING was seafood. I slowly but surely start unraveling the stories of the table. First and foremost, I learn what Dad does. He, like most Chinese in Italy are from Wenzhou in China. Dad came to Italy about a decade ago and started and import/export business. He established his family here but a few years back, he started doing all his business on the China end and so lives the majority of his time in China, while his family is here. One of the other men at the table (both work and have stores and businesses here in Rome) revealed at at the peak of the economic boom a few years back, Dad was selling about 10 containers of merchandise A DAY for a few years in a row. Dad is LOADED, and it was revealed he more than a few homes in Italy. That is nothing to say about what he owns in China.

Then there was the drinking. Being a guest I couldn't say no to the wine (by the way even I know he had bottles of very expensive wine....Brunello from Montalcino, and the table finished 5 bottles) and was toasted constantly. I strategically always kept wine in my glass but he would make me finish it and then refill. By the second course, I had to claim that I would throw up if he kept making me drink. It actually kind of worked.

The men started asking me about my wife. I told them I was single and left it at that. But they didn't leave it at that. They kept hounding me, asking me if I wanted a Chinese girl or a white girl, and if I did, to contact them for a set up. This lasted on and off for about 15 minutes until I came up with a brilliant plan. I told them I had gotten divorced just before I moved to Italy in 2009. They asked me about her, and I was vague, telling them we were together only for a short time and that's why we didn't have kids. So, any girl out there want to play my fake ex-wife?

Another crazy thing was these three young women. One is a business woman from Taiwan. The men kept ragging on Taiwan and making this woman chug wine all night. They clearly were trying to get her drunk. This Taiwanese girl spoke English and translated for me when I needed it. I needed translation because the accent and dialect these men speak was at times incomprehensible to me. I would be able to understand some, but some words I had no idea.

But, at one point, one of the other two girls finds out I speak Italian (or a bit) and it turns out SHE is 22, and was sent to live in Italy by her parents at 15 and speaks fluent Italian. We share stories, she's impressed by my Italian and how after only 2 years I know 50x more than these other Chinese men who have been living here for over 5 years. We start dishing on the guys in Italian and there are times when she translates the dialect for me directly into Italian. So here I am, getting some Chinese dialect translated for me into Italian. There were times when I was going back and forth between Chinese and Italian for minutes at a time. It was AWESOME. I was on fire. The amount of wine I had probably was a big help.

So Dad then starts BRAGGING about how much he can drink. He says that back in China he drinks three times every night. He has an early dinner, a late dinner and then when they go out "kariaerka". I was like "what?" and then it dawns on me he says "karaoke" because he mentions that the "kariaerka" in Italy is old and not fun. I'm fearing at this point that my evening is going to continue with karaoke and drinking, but the two non Taiwanese girls make an exit. Then the party breaks up and I'm offered a ride home in the big black Mercedes. I, however, decline, when Dad reveals to me as we're walking up the stairs that he's had a great deal to drink. I know, I saw it. I tell him it's easy for me to walk to the bus and catch it home. And for those of you who know me, and drinking, yes, I DO nod off on the bus home.

However, Dad says in parting to me, that next time, dinner will be at his home and it will be Chinese food. I think I have to say I'm looking forward to it.

Berlusconi E' Dimesso

2011-11-13T02:10:00.000-08:00

Let's take the term "Arab Spring" and change it into "Mediterranean 2011". Tunisia, Egypt, Libya all toppled dictatorial leaders....and now, 12 November 2011, Italy has managed to get Silvio Berlusconi (and you all know that I find him a great speaker) to peacefully resign. And I was there.....kind of/almost.

My friend Lance and I were talking a tourist stroll through town. Walking back from the Colosseum back to my apartment, takes one through Piazza Venezia and down Via Plebescito to Vittorio Emmanuele II.

And we come across this crowd of people

Since we're near Palazzo Chigi, where there are ALWAYS cameras outside of the front door, it HAD to do with Berlusconi.

And the police confirmed it for us.

I was THERE.

This entrance/exit to Palazzo Chigi (the residence of the Prime Minister of Italy) where the crowd, Lance and I watched for any activity. Note there are NO plants by the doors, which become important later on.

This is looking east up towards the Quirnale, where earlier in the day the Italian parliament passed the financial austerity measures which was the lynchpin of Berlusconi's deal to resign.

Lots of black windowed BMW's entered, most of the time we in the crowd shouted "BUFFONI" or "A CASA"

Lot's of television cameras as well. Lance and I were standing on some planters for 2 hours, between 1830 and 2030.

More police arriving....great anticipation.

Then, all of a sudden all the action moved over to another street and everyone moved. Our "front row" seats became less important as it turns out there is a back entrance/exit to the Palazzo (of course) and the Carabinieri, police and crowd moved to a corner.

Lance and I stayed patient, hoping for action.

Every once in a while, a light would come on in the 1st floor windows or people would peek out....but at 2030, it was cold and we were hungry so we went to get some food promising ourselves we would return.

Alas, we didn't. Got home, and saw THIS picture on the internet and were KICKING ourselves, because we were RIGHT there about 4 meters to the left of that black SUV. But wait, what are those plants doing there? There weren't plants next to the doors we were watching. Phew, this was the back entrance, where no one was allowed to pass. Lance and I didn't miss the big action. But we didn't go back after dinner, so we missed out on the street celebration. So, a little "lame" on our part.

Michelangelo's Moses

2011-11-06T13:02:00.000-08:00

This past summer I read "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (I remember this book sitting on my Dad's shelf in the living room when I was a kid), which is the fictionalized autobiography of Michelangelo. It's the kind of book my Dad would want me to read but only now, 41 and living in Italy, did I read it, and I couldn't put it down.

One of the major works (and disappointments of Michelangelo's life) was the pared down commission to create and carve the tomb of Pope Julius II. I have a tangential connection to Pope Julius the II because he was born Giuliano Della Rovere and here in Rome, I live on Piazza Della Rovere. The story goes that just after Michelangelo shows the world his David in Florence, Pope Julius II brings Michelangelo to Rome and commissions him to carve his massive three story tomb, on which there would be some 40 statues and placed in St. Peter's. The money stopped flowing, Pope Julius II died in 1513, and in 1545, the tomb was finished simply as a facade and placed in San Pietro in Vincoli church, where Della Rovere was once a cardinal. The tomb contains Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses.

November 1st, is All Saints Day in Italy (maybe all over Catholic countries?) and a national holiday. Being in Rome, I can just hop over on the bus and go see a Michelangelo in the city. Part of life here....

The not so impressive facade of the church San Pietro in Vincoli


The name of the church comes from the legend that these were these chains housed here were the ones that bound Saint Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem.

The tomb of Pope Julius II, commissioned in 1505, this here is the final product finished in 1545.

The brilliance of Michelangelo is his ability to bring out inner feelings of the piece. We can "see" into the soul through the eyes.

Marmore Falls

2011-10-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

Stolen from WIKIPEDIA

"In ancient times, it fed a wetland that was thought to bring illness (probably malaria). To remove that threat to the city of Rieti, in 271 BC, the Roman consul Manlius Curius Dentatus ordered the construction of a canal (the Curiano Trench) to divert the stagnant waters into the natural cliff at Marmore. From there, the water fell into the Nera river below. However, that solution created a different problem: when the Velino river was in flood stage, its water flowed through the Nera toward the city of Terni, threatening its population. The issue was so contentious between the two cities that the Roman Senate was forced to address it in 54 BC. Cicero represented Terni, and Aulus Pompeius represented Rieti. The Senate did nothing about the problem, and things remained the same for centuries."

The Marmore Falls were a stop on a weekend trip through Umbria. The falls are turned on twice a day. My friends and I watched the falls from OUTSIDE the pay area. Still pretty spectacular....and to think, they have been around for 2,200 years. Another point in the"THE ROMANS WERE AWESOME" column.

Venice Biennale Part III

2011-10-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of the Biennale took us to the second exhibition sight, the Arsenale, which is the old (I think still functioning) naval shipyard in Venice.

The country pavilions were contained in these "warehouses"

These colored pipes in the Turkish pavilion I thought were derivative of the Pompidou Center in Paris.

But, the cool thing about them is that it is a working desalinization system!

Saudi Arabia Pavilion

There was a pavilion dedicated to the connection between Latin America and Italy. Each Latin American country (even if they had their own pavilion) exhibited at the group pavilion. One of the most interesting films (mostly I found videos to be not interesting but this one from Colombia caught my attention) talked about the circle of war and had an Obama lookalike dancing around with the filmmaker. You had to be there to see it.


An example of the need to read the text accompanying the exhibit. These just look like piles of dirt, but upon closer inspection, they are revolutionary texts from Chile that were buried and more recently uncovered when a new house was being built. Perhaps a statement on the way we lose history over time?

This artist, had gold filling put in his/her mouth in Latin America and then went to Berlin to have a doctor remove them. It's an metaphor for the Europeans/colonial countries removing natural resources from countries. WOW!

The Italian Pavilion, which used to be at the Giardini is now here at the Arsenale. It was large, and I found it to be just so jumbled, it felt like being at an artistic department stores. Just too much and too many different artists in the space...and the space was enormous.

There was one large exhibition on the mafia in Italy. I thought this was an fascinating way to represent Italy.

The last pavilion we entered before heading home was the Chinese Pavilion, which was located in an old tanker storage warehouse. The installation was the white tube which you walked through....

...and saw Western text (as apposed to Chinese characters) fall like snow. I thought it was a cool effect, if not an unoriginal concept.

Venice Biennale Part II

2011-10-20T03:38:00.000-07:00

The Germany Pavilion, of which the most interesting part was it being called "Egomania."

Tucked in the corner of the Giardini is the Canadian pavilion, which was covered by this big "poster". To me...a big who cares. The exhibition inside didn't improve in my opinion.

Oops, I missed the British Pavilion (the exhibition inside was again, meh) because I was intrigued by what I saw through the door of the French Pavilion.

There was also this "film slot machine" where if the same three parts of a face all came up to form a real face, the person who pressed the button won something. Regardless, this huge film machine was awesome, and the sound it made was mesmerizing.

A remnant of political history, the pavilion of Czechoslovakia.

The only thing of interest I saw in this pavilion. I'll use it as an example of similarity in my Geometry classes.

The Uruguay Pavilion was a former maintenance facility.

Skipping over Australia, we cross the canal to see the Facist era set of pavilions, such as Egypt.

The Greece Pavilion, its classical facade was covered up by this wood slat front.

And the Greek exhibition was an experiential one....walk in, silence, water, take a right turn and back outside.

Hmmmmm.....

The Romania Pavilion

The snark.......

....found on the walls of the Romania pavilion didn't come through with the exhibition.

More politics, the Yugoslavia pavilion is now the pavilion of Serbia. The exhibition about the drab life in Belgrade was a bit depressing.

Simulated water in the Venetian Pavilion

DD, having lived in Brazil when younger was excited to see the exhibition in the Brazilian pavilion. The disappointment of what we saw became the running joke. "Does putting fish heads in a box of sand constitute art?

The exhibition in the pavilion was a piece about an artist trying to build a salt bridge (not sure if it was a metaphor or for real as I was getting tired) but outside, I thought this was more powerful.

Right in the middle of the action, with the prime real estate, Gli Stati Uniti d'America!

Not sure what most of the exhibition was trying to convey, but this working ATM that played organ music when being used was great.

Outside the US Pavilion. Too bad there wasn't an actual runner on it so we could see the piece in action.

My favorite pavilion, from an architectural point of view was the Hungarian Pavilion!

Walk in and you see two people in a video singing about, what in context is a car crash. Not sure why until.....

You walk to the other half of the exhibition and see this. I liked how there was kind of a mystery involved.

Three Western European pavilions line the walk towards the former Italian exhibition space, which has moved to the other location. Holland here, turned it's pavilion into a theater space.

Spain's exhibition was supposed to be an ongoing performance piece, but nothing was going on while we were there.

The last pavilion of the first afternoon, Belgium

Huh?

So, it turns out the artist puts glass over media, and paints as the picture moves.....and then once the glass is removed it's just a mess. Kind of like the way our news is when removed from any context. Another DD interpretation.

After the Bienannle, we decided to walk to Fondamente Nove from where we would take a boat to Burano for dinner at a restaurant a friend had suggested. We walked by the hospital of Venice and here's a water ambulance.

I love finding stuff like this where you can find out how cities function.

This is just the appetizer!

Venice Biennale Part I

2011-10-18T13:23:00.000-07:00


When you arrive in Venice at 1AM after a delayed flight, your reward for traipsing through the city is getting to Piazza San Marco and having it ALL TO YOURSELF.

The view from the traghetto on our way to the Biennale

Who would ever have thought that when I moved to Italy I would actually make a special trip to go and see art....modern art at that. The Biennale is one of the most famous art shows in the world. It's held every two years in Venice and is currently in its 54th exhibition.

Have ticket.....time to see some art!

Every country is invited (at least I think) to present at the Biennale. Countries which are more recent additions to the Biennale , such as Thailand here, are given presentation spaces throughout Venice. Thailand showed at a restaurant just outside the main exhibition space, the Giardini.

The Thai Pavilion was all about NAVINLAND, which is a community of citizens of the world who have the surname Navin....or subscribe to the tenets of the artist, Navin. I wasn't sure, but it was certainly an interesting start!

Here in the Giardini are the exhibition spaces of the countries that have been at the Biennale for many years. Each country here has a building, as one might expect there are mostly European countries here, but there are some unexpected countries that also have permanent exhibition spaces.

First up, the Swiss pavilion. I'll let the pictures do the talking.


Next up, the Danish pavilion, which had a theme of something like "the power of the spoken word"

The part I found most amazing was this carved wooden floor....

....which had pictures of many people (politicians and religious leaders) who are anti-gay, anti-islamist, etc. We all know who this is!


Geert Wilders, one of the 32 faces on the floor, the Dutch politician who is known for his anti-Islamic statements. DD, my travel partner, being the English teacher, stated, that we walked on these faces because they have hit their ceiling and we need them as a "floor" to improve the world. Heady words indeed.

Moving down the way, we have the Venezuelan and Russian Pavilions.

After the intensity of the Swiss and Danish pavilions, it was nice to have a light-hearted moment.

This wall art is made completely of folded paper! The Russian pavilion, had little that I found interesting. But the pavilion itself was BEAUTIFUL.

The Nordic Pavilion

The Nordic Pavilion is jointly owned and operated by Norway, Sweden, Finland and I think Iceland. This year Sweden presented.

About the only thing I found interesting was the trees around which the pavilion was constructed. It keeps with the Nordic theme of being in harmony with nature. Those blobs on the ground, looked like moose droppings to me.

Next up, Japan!


I stepped inside and was hit with this graphic motion picture. I wasn't sure if the curved surface was real or an illusion.

I was totally engrossed by the piece. DD thought it might have been some sort of reference to the earthquake and tsumani that occurred this spring.

Right next door, in a pavilion totally enclosed by glass windows, was Korea (South Korea)

One of my favorite pieces of the entire Biennale, was a movie and set of pictures of Korean soldier is flower camouflage. More to come...

Giardino di Ninfa

2011-10-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

The Gardens of Ninfa is located about 40 km southeast of Rome. A brief history. The town of Ninfa, located along the Appian Way, was prosperous in the 1100's. In 1297, the town was purchased by the Caetani family and then in the late 1300's the brothers of the family went to war with each other, the town was ruined and eventually emptied of inhabitants. Those events are the genesis of what we see today, whcih is a bunch of ruined buildings that have been overgrown by nature, and with some planning in the past hundred years, and plantings or roses and different plants, there is now a 21 acre garden. But the most spectacular part for me was the amazingly clear river that runs through the grounds.

The gardens are open the once or twice a month April through October so getting in is an ordeal. I happen to see an advertisement in the newspaper for a day trip, so I called and DD and I were on our way. Alas, apparently the best time to go is in the late Spring when all the flowers are in bloom, but this beautiful clear crisp fall day was pretty good itself. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The second part of the day, which after the gardens was total "gravy", was a visit to the nearby hilltown of Sermoneta, which was having its annual second Sunday in October celebration of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. A resident of the town was a significant player in this Battle of Lepanto, but in my Wikipedia search on the Battle, I find no reference to the Duke who was so featured in the posters throughout town. That being said, there was a "renaissance festival" with displays of artisan crafts and skills, but most fun was the sword fighting demonstration.....and participation!

Sermoneta, Italy

A Day in my Rome Life

2011-10-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

Each morning I catch a bus and take it a few stops down to Piazza Trilussa and I cross over the famous Ponte Sisto bridge.


As we move deeper into the fall, sunrise over the Tevere.

Looking north.....St. Peters.

As I finishing walking across the bridge, I head right towards the "BAR"

My new bartender.....Carlo. He makes a mean latte macchiato.

AOSR runs a bus system for students and teachers! The Lungotevere bus picks us up at 743AM! Our bus route, is the most subscribed (about 25-30 riders) so we get an actual luxury bus!


The high school eats lunch last....and I always come through the lunch line as one of the last people (because I don't teach after lunch, I can take my time) the mensa gives me LOTS of food, but the drawback is that sometimes I don't get the really good desserts.

I have started bringing a tupperware to take home half the food for my nightly dinner!

330PM and the school parking lot is full of school buses ready to take students home. It's an amazing dance as you watch students look for and run for their buses. It's also really helpful for me when I need to go after school to different parts of Rome, I usually can find a school bus that takes me near where I'm going!


And then the buses take off!

Most afternoons, I don't take the school bus home, but I stay at work to do school or go swimming at the pool five minutes from school.

The pool, although expensive per visit, it's ALWAYS wide open.


But it's the CLEAN SHOWER and GREAT HOT WATER and PRESSURE that makes it even better!!

My usual method of transportation to get home is by public bus. I always change here at Piazza Mancini.

A Fall Weekend Picking Fruit

2011-10-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, after proctoring the SAT's at school, I headed up to Viterbo for the first time in a month. Beautiful fall weather, watching the Roma-Atalanta game with Alessandro, hanging out with Mario, Yvonne and J, picking fruits and nuts and an afternoon pranzo at Anna's made for a peaceful and glorious weekend!

Those of you who have visited will recognize these two key players! Isn't J a young woman already!

Myself and J in front of her Dad's house. J is at that stage where she doesn't kiss or hug, the best we can all get is a head butt on the chest!

Sunday morning, Y and I went to her friend (and J's godparents) house in Cura. This is the "guest house"

I include it because this is the frescoed ceiling inside. Turns out these friends of Y, are art restorers and restored the ceilings in Villa Giulia in Rome. This was their practice space!

The main purpose of this morning was to pick apples, but the "orto" was filled with all kinds of other fruits and nuts. These are buds of......

.....the hazelnut.

The hazelnuts fall to the ground and then they get vaccumed up.

What's this ugly fruit rotting on the vine?

They are WALNUTS. So, we don't care for the fruit (which is sometimes turned into a liqeur), but it's the bit, which contains the walnut. The dark nasty looking fruit falls to the ground, you peel off the black part and get the pit.

Pomegranate! I didn't know they grew on trees, but now that I think about it, it makes sense.

I remember back in the day when kiwi were an exotic fruit. Now, they're everywhere and even grown here in Italy.

When Function Simply Can't Overcome Bad Fashion

2011-10-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have visited me here in Italy, have had me point out and rail against what I deem to be the UGLIEST car ever built, the late 1990's version of the Fiat Multipla.

When I see the car, I can spot it even from the rear, it sends shivers down my spine.....because I have to look at the front, even if I don't want to, I am simply unable to NOT look at what you are about to see.....

The front of the Fiat Multipla has not two, but THREE sets of lights. The lower two, aren't so bad, but it's that set right below the windshield that makes the car look like fat man with three chins. Plus the top set of lights are slightly pointed to the outside, making it look even more "not normal"

I saw four Mulitpla's within 30 minutes today and I took pictures of all of them. Here, looking from the side, I think gives a better idea of what's going on. It is as if Fiat took a previously designed top and bottom parts of different cars and plopped them together. They didn't in anyway help bring the two sections together. For a country SO obsessed by the "bella figura", Italy's leading car maker produced and "EPIC FAIL"

Yes, the answer is yes, I've actually ridden in a Fiat Multipla. Because of their size and spaciousness inside, they are often the choice of taxi cabs in Rome. The car seats six comfortably, but even the door handles, so bulky and seemingly like safety bars in a shower, are unattractive.

Another of the Multipla's I saw, gives the FULL effect of the heinousness of this car. I'm not sure if this car was a different year/model, but it gives the complete "shivers down the spine" effect for me.

Lastly, I did an internet search on the Fiat Multipla and it came up as Time Magazine's 50 Worst Cars of all-time. Here's the write-up:

"Multipla" is a time-honored name for Fiat. The company made an adorable microvan by that name in the '50s and '60s, based on the Fiat 600. The Multipla that appeared in 1998 was anything but adorable. With its strange high-beam lenses situated at the bottom of the A-pillars (base of the windshield), the Multipla looked like it had several sets of eyes, like an irradiated tadpole. It had this weird proboscis out front and a bulky, glass cabin in back, and the whole thing was situated on dwarfish wheels. I rented one of these in Europe and it worked beautifully, but it was just so tragic to look at. The Multipla (and the Aztek and the Consulier GTP) reminds us that cars cannot just work beautifully. They have to be beautiful. At least they can't look like this."

I could not have said it any better!

Hey, you want to go to Paris?

2011-09-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesday September 20th. Lunch. I ask "work spouse" DD about a weekend trip to Paris. I knew the answer would be YES. And we were off.....


Hello, Paris!

The genesis of the trip came from a Facebook exchange I had with Vern (left) who mentioned that he was going to be in Paris for his birthday with his boyfriend Anch. Paris and birthday....of course I'm there.

The four of us spent the afternoon walking along the Promenade Plantee Park, which is an old elevated railway turned into a pedestrian walkway....think NYC's High Line.

One of the things I love about Paris is not only the people watching, the the "building watching." This building with naked men along it has a police station on the ground floor.

I'll take the apartment with that top terrace!

DD and I committed to a "carbs and proteins ONLY" diet this Paris weekend. We did pretty well! The reason there are so many more pictures of me than normal is because DD is willing to play photographer.

After our walk, Anch and Vern had to take care of some errands so DD and I went to Montmartre.


Sitting at the highest point in Paris, Sacre Coeur is the "star" of Montmartre. It was actually only finished in 1870 and there has been someone praying continuously since that time.

It's something to do to rub the foot of St. Peter's. In both Sacre Coeur and St. Pierre-de-Montmartre.

Looking down the backside (North) of Montmartre.

Here we have St. Denis, the patron saint of Paris. Legend has it that in 250AD, when the Christians were being persecuted, Denis had his head chopped off, then promptly picked it up and walked another 10km, preaching the entire way.

Three times I've been to Paris in the past six months. Perfect weather each time. Sunset light in Montmartre......

Who's Dalida? I certainly didn't know, but in asking my European colleagues back in Rome, they all swooned. Turns out she was an Egyptian born of Italian descent who was a naturalized French citizen who was a HUGE singer in the 50's, 60's and 70's. She brought DISCO to France. Sadly, she committed suicide in 1987 and this bust commemorates her in a plaza near her home in Montmartre.

We'll have to thank DD for taking one for the team here. Art gallery and I was hungry. I spied munchies and barreled my way in right to the spread. DD tactfully spent a few minutes talking to the artist about the "inspiration" of the work. Really, we both just saw sponges dipped in water colors thrown onto canvas.

At the base of Montmartre, the famed Moulin Rouge.

Vern's birthday dinner took place under the beautiful cupola and lavender tree of Brasserie Bofinger (Yes EC, it was a repeat!) in the Marais, near Bastille.

Protein......steak tartar, which I LOVE!

Sunday morning, perfect weather and time to rent bikes and ride through Paris.

I WISH I had a yellow shirt/jersey on as I am doing my best Lance Armstrong impression riding my bike up the Champs- Elysees.

We'll depart from Paris with this beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero.

Americans Meet Italians, Italians Meet Americans

2011-09-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Moving to a new city, the key to feeling connected is meeting that crucial person who opens up a who new social side of things. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been lucky to meet a colleague DD, who has introduced me to her friends and that has made all the difference in this first month here in Rome. I'm over the first hump, and on my way to a grand life here.

So last week, SS IMPLORED me to set up a get together at local outdoor summer club (called All'Ombra dell Colosseo, which is as you probably translated, right in the shadow of the Colosseum) so my American colleagues at school might could meet his Italian friends. Plus, most of the American's I brought were.....female. SS was in heaven. I kind of felt like a pimp, but hell, it was fun.

Myself and "work spouse" DD

DD and SS


*SS and SOME of the colleagues I invited*

Italians and Americans mixing it up


Yes, I'm dancing. Over on Facebook, it was called "the salmon", but I renamed it "the blender"

JF, new Chemistry teacher AND from Seattle and myself

Left is Mishu (nickname) and SS

SS, Pino and myself

Copertino, Italy

2011-09-19T12:08:00.000-07:00


Myself, SS and IM eating Carbonara with "bastoncini"

As I revealed in my last post, I've made some Italian friends here in Rome....somehow I've fallen into a crowd of phramacists. Two of my friends are SS and IM pictured above. IM is from a small town in Puglia called Copertino (seriously, Google map this to see where we were!), and this past Saturday, September 18th, was the day of San Giuseppe born in Copertino and the patron saint of air travelers, aviators, astronauts, people with mental handicaps, test takers and weak students. Just like Viterbo has its Santa Rosa, Copertino celebrates San Giuseppe.

IM invited myself and my colleague, and proclaimed work spouse, DD, down for the weekend. This was Wednesday of last week, DD and I sitting out for our usual leisurely lunch start talking about actually going to Copertino for the weekend. Oh, the dangers of a laptop, wireless Internet, and Facebook. We sign on to Facebook, and IM is online. We confirm we have a place to stay at his family home, we research all variations of transportation options and with few credit card numbers and 40 minutes later.......we've booked ourselves a flight from Rome to Brindisi, have a car rented and plan on returning to Rome by driving through the night Sunday to arrive at work in time to teach on Monday morning. CRAZY.....but this is what live is about. Carpe Diem!

Pranzo! Amazing food cooked by IM's Dad dishing out the food. That's DD on the left, IM's brother center and IM sitting right.


After starting with mussels, an a primo of spaghetti with "vongole", next was a fish stew....


...followed by an herb stuffed fish called "triglie." No dinner was needed after this AMAZING meal.


*Late afternoon was spent swimming in the beautifully clear waters of the Ionian Sea, near Porto Cesareo.*


The night before San Giuseppe's day, the town is LIT up in these massive light displays. It's like Las Vegas has been transported to this town of 30,000 in the heel of Italy!

The entire town was out, music, vendors and of course....food. We were out until 2AM, as IM, having grown up here, knew everyone and since he lives in Rome, everyone wanted to hang out!

Sunday......I slept in, while DD and IM went to watch the parade in town. Then, of course, another amazing Pranzo. Mortadella wrapped around peppers, fresh mozzarella and prosciutto crudo around figs were just the starters. Fresh pasta for primo, then stewed baby goat and roasted goat for the main course!

IM, myself and DD at the beach Sunday afternoon.

The festival ended with a fireworks show, "fuoco artificiale". I post this picture to remember how amazing it was to be standing in a field in southern Italy with friends watching fireworks.

So it is a weekend like this that encapsulates my living here in Italy. Great food with friends and getting to meet locals completely off the tourist track. The fact that DD and I then drove back to Rome (6 hours) and arrived at school at 5AM, took a two hour nap in the car and then taught all day is just part of the great adventure! Here's to more experiences like the festival of San Giuseppe and places like Copertino.

First Full Weekend In Rome

2011-09-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Rome on the 23rd of August knowing no one in this city. Yeah, yeah, I lived up in Viterbo which is an hour and a half away, but here in the big city? I moved here with no community. It was my largest fear that I would get lost here and feel lost here without direction. I've had three weekends here since I've been back. The first weekend, I headed up to Viterbo on Saturday to see Anna. The second weekend, I also headed up to Viterbo for Santa Rosa. On Sunday the 4th, my friend Mary Bentley arrived in town as my first official visitor to my Rome life. For all you out there who are reading this......if you travel as one or a couple, I have an extra bed right here in the center of everything here in Rome...you can map the address, which is Piazza della Rovere 109.

But this first full weekend gave me great hope for my year (or maybe more......) here. If things come together as well and as nicely as they did this past weekend, who knows. It all started Wednesday afternoon at school. It turns out that there is a group of about five teachers (of which I am one) that by luck has it we never teach the period after lunch. So, as most teacher get up to go to class, the group of us sits there and spends an extra half an hour in the sun, lounging and eating slowly. One of the group, an English teacher named DD (keeping names undercover these days) invites me to a get together on Thursday night. I accept, thinking that it was going to be a bunch of fellow teachers, but it wasn't. It turned out to be a going away party for one of the members of a group of friends of her new boyfriend. It was at one of the classic Roman summer outdoor bar/dance clubs near the Colosseum and it was 98% Italians. This is where my ability to speak some basic Italian comes to bear fruit because I could pretty much hold up my end of the conversation. I know my Italian isn't nearly as good as the English spoken by my friends in Germany/Holland, but the Italians tell me I'm pretty good, so I'll take the compliment. We're all hanging out, toasting and just enjoying in the evening, when DD and I start talking about all the new teachers at school this year. DD mentions that a number of them are young and pretty and SS's ears perk up. I mention that the next day, a couple of them are throwing an aperitivi at their apartment and SS (I have to give the guy credit for having balls) asks me point blank if he can come. I say sure, let me check with the hosts and I would text him the next day.

Now it's Friday, I put in a long day, stay late and prep all my classes for Monday, which is my habit. No work on the weekends! There were a number of expat happy hours scheduled for that night (along with the aperitivi, it was to be a full night), one of which was the American International Club of Rome happy hour. I had heard that this was a good group to get to know, so I invited another friend of mine EE (it's weird all my friends have first and last initials that are the same) to join me. We arrive and it was WAY dressy and looked it was Greenwich, CT transported to Italy. We left within five minutes. EE and I wandered around the city for an hour before meeting up with SS to head to the aperitivi. SS is THE MAN. He actually followed through! We had a great time at the get together and SS is asking me to give his number to one of my colleagues! In bed at 2AM.

Saturday morning, I got up to go to the Italian Health Office to change my doctor from the one I was assigned in Viterbo to one here in Rome. I had gone to the office once before a few weeks ago, but they didn't realize I was NOT Italian (is my Italian that good, no can't be) and so I don't require the city residence card, which others in the EU are required to have. I went back to that office and all was good and I was about to be assigned a doctor when they asked for my address. It turns out that even though this office I was at is closest to where I live, I am in another district, which is on the other side of town. To give a Seattle equivalent, I live around Northgate and should go to NW hospital, but I am actually assigned to The UW hospital. Whatever, I head over to the other office, and successfully register as a temporary resident of Rome (it was way easier just to keep Viterbo as my permanent Italian residency and be a one year resident of Rome....so if I stay, I have to do this every year) and now Dr. Pietro Corttegiani, you are my doctor. Nice to meet you...someday I hope soon. After the office, I was just wandering back to the tram when I saw a sign for the Museum of the Liberation of Rome. It was a former prison run by the German's when they occupied Rome during from September 1943 to June 1944. Further wandering led me to San Giovanni in Laterano, the great cathedral which is the official seat of the Bishop of Rome. I wander in.....sit down......and take a nap. It was cool inside, and no one was going to bother me. It was a nice hour.

That evening, I had planned on hanging out with another colleague BS. While he was in transit from his place, DD texted me to a dinner at her place. So BS and I spent the evening hanging out with a bunch of Italians, again. I'm LOVING meeting Italians and being with them. One of the highlights of the evening was one of the girls refusing to eat some pasta made by SS and his friend (and DD's guy) IM. The gave it to her, and she just picked at it and called them idiots. You had to be there. Later in the evening, another colleague BB (another double initial) came to hang out and mentioned that he was going to go paintball on Sunday with friends and I was welcome to come along. Being as it's a good policy to say yes to everything, I agreed to do so. The evening wound down, and my walk home was literally in front of St. Peter's Cathedral and the Square.

Sunday morning and it's off to paintball!!! BB tosses me a helmet and I get on the back of his motorino. And we're weaving our way through the traffic in Rome, and I'm feeling completely Italian. The paintball session turns out to be the birthday celebration of a friend of BB's. There were only six of us, so we played 3 on 3. For 20 Euro, we played for three hours. I have to admit, I suck at it. I have no aim, I can't really run fast, and I'm a chicken. My first instinct is to hide behind the barriers, whereas BB is standing tall, taking aim, attacking and hitting me and thereby eliminating me. But it was fun. Two more Italians were there, first was G?, who's birthday we were celebrating and AC, who turns out to be BB's neighbor and also the chef who runs the #1 cooking school in Rome as rated by Trip Advisor. Yeah, here I was spending my Sunday afternoon playing on the same paintball team as the famous cooking school owner. So amazingly....Roman!

So I have to admit, after having a weekend such as this one, I'm feeling much better about life here. I know that it can't ALWAYS be like this, but having a good one here right at the beginning makes me feel a whole lot better. I've still got some things to work out, but I'm close to getting my medical certificat (hello Doctor Corttegiani) so I can go to the pool and start working out. I'm thinking about taking an Art History class (I've seen an Italian one advertised, but maybe one at the local American University) and hope to find a regular crew to play cards with! Oh and of course there are the sports bars so I can watch....football

The American Overseas School of Rome

2011-08-31T13:44:00.000-07:00

Here you go........day before school starts campus tour.


The address of the school is Via Cassia 811 and is located at the northwestern corner of the city, very leafy and almost suburban feeling. The school is across the street from this bus stop, which is where I get off when I don't ride the school bus.

The main entrance to the school with the guardhouse.

The first thing you see on campus, not a great first impression, is the school parking lot. Watch for a coming post when I blog about the school bus system. This parking lot will be featured PROMINENTLY.

Up the stairs out of the parking lot and you come to the corner of the quad. Here at the NE corner, the two wings of the elementary school intersect.

This is the wing (the eastern side of the quad) that has the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade classrooms.

On the western side of the quad, is the oldest building on campus (it used to be someone's residence) called the Villa. The Villa houses the Middle school (grades 6-8) and administration. Behind the villa is the athletic field.

The two story high school building is on the southern edge of the quad.

This breezeway (the SE corner of the quad) connects the Villa with the main entrance of the High School. The gym is on the other side of the wall of art.

The classroom I've been assigned is the first one you come to one the first floor of the HS building. My name plate was attached to the door today. It's the first time I've ever had my name on a classroom door in 16 years of teaching! I do, however share my classroom.

My classroom is assigned the name "HS0", yeah I teach in Room 0. The history behind that is that the room has 2 doors. The room across the hall is Room 1, and in the old days, the other door to the room was used as the entrance, so the room was Room 2. But the former teacher, wanted the entrance door changed, so it became Room 0 and there now is no Room 2.


The southern edge of the campus sits on the edge of a greenbelt, which is what my classroom looks out on. Along the steep slope, the school has built an outdoor amphitheater, which is right outside HS0's windows.

On the ground floor, right below the room in which I teach, is the school cafeteria. Teacher's lunches are subsidized by the school so we only pay 30 Euro cents to each lunch!

Vancouver 2011

2011-08-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

Generally the Chen family goes to Vancouver, BC for one reason......Chinese Food. It's not like we can't find Chinese food in Seattle, but, well, it's just BETTER in Canada.


King Crab (Boy am I looking more and more like Chester)

Marlene, two EC's and the crab

Coming it at $46 Canadian a pound, this six pound crab was eventually turned into three separate dishes. The first, was the legs cooked with LOTS of garlic!


The top dish, was the goop inside the shell made into a sauce with rice and the bottom dish was the body of the crab (cut into amazingly easy to eat pieces) cooked with more garlic


The real reason for the trip to Vancouver (and thereby my going through the pains of getting my passport card) was to see Carlos' movie, which I financially backed and was filmed at both Chen households in Seattle

Director J.T. on the left and Producer Carlos on the right


The two guys on the right are Brent Corrigan (Sean Paul Lockhart) and Charlie David


Richard Harmon (going to be majorly famous mark my words) was the younger Danny Reyes in the movie. Turns out, I hung out at his house having drinks the night before the showing of the movie.

Myself and the actor who played the good guy, Sean in the movie.

Check Judas Kiss for more information and where it's going to play near you!

Everything Goes My Way

2011-08-28T09:19:00.000-07:00


Mom Summer 2011

Everything goes my way, that's what my Mom said during my month long visit to Seattle. It is pretty much 100% true. Here's a rundown of the chores I had to take care of while home and the result (there's a pretty good example of "getting what I want" near the end, so read through if you want to be amazed.

First off, the second day I was home, my Dad had scheduled a meeting with his financial adviser at Fidelity. Since I use the same guy, I tagged along and reviewed my financial plan. It appears everything is in working order and I am one of those who has been little affected (in terms of day to day living) by the financial downturn.

Second task. Refinancing my home in San Francisco. Turns out that Chase owns my mortgage, which means that I could go to the same refinance guy my sister used and things went smoothly. One hitch was that the underwriters wanted to see a copy of my condo agreement. Not a problem EXCEPT it is locked in my fireproof safe, which at the time was under the stairs at my sister's house, BUT there was no key. With a little sleuthing on the internet and a phone call, it turns out that the safe I own does NOT require a notarized letter of ownership to get a replacement key, I simply needed to give them the code on the lock itself and pay for the shipping and I had the key! BONUS. After answering a few questions about my employment in Italy (it was confusing that I am changing jobs within the country) I have been approved for a new 20 year fixed mortgage, that increases my monthly payment by $88, but takes off six years of payments. Once it is all approved stateside, I will sign documents here in Italy.

Third task. Payment of my taxes. Or.......non payment. Turns out, I will pay no taxes EITHER to the United States NOR to California. The main reason is that of my investment in Judas Kiss, my friend Carlos' movie. The trip to Vancouver to see the movie will be in the next post. Turns out, because I get to deduct that amount of my investment (my tax adviser point blank stated, "if you can do this again, DO IT") and so my total tax burden is $0. OK, there is ONE thing that turns to not be in my favor. Because I essentially have no taxable income (foreign earned income is not taxable) I am not allowed to contribute to my Roth IRA. Therefore, I had to ask Fidelity to withdraw my 2010 and 2011 contributions.

Fourth Task. Obtaining my Italian Visa. This was predicted to be a huge task. On the 28th of July, my "Nulla Osta", or permission to work in the country of Italy, arrived in the mail. On the 2nd of August, I had an appointment with the Vice-Consulate of Italy posted in Seattle. Because I have gone through this process before, I knew that Italian's LOVE paperwork. They ask for a copy of something, I knew to bring 5 copies. The vice-consulate stamped my paperwork, application, my "nulla osta" and swore that I had presented myself in person to him. Then I sent all the the documents to the San Francisco Consulate of Italy. The great thing here is that I did it ALL BY MAIL. I did not have to fly to San Francisco. The fact I did this by mail, turns out to be critical to a later task.

Fifth Task. So, when I was looking over my personal items, I realized that my California Drivers' License expires on my birthday in January, 2012. It would have been easy to renew my license by mail, but all the mail going to my San Francisco address gets returned because I no longer live there. I could have tried to use a friend's address to do it but that meant changing all my mail to go to a new address. So, it came to me, why not just use my parent's address (I have a built in forwarding service) and in the process become a Washington State resident. I go to the Office of Licensing, wait only 45 minutes, and because I had a Washington State license when I was younger, I was still in the system and I got my old license ID number, registered to vote and became a resident all within an hour and a half. On a final note, the clerk at the office was giving me lip for moving back in with my parents at 41. I informed her it was because I lived in Italy......then she shut up.

Sixth Task. It's a small one, but indicative of my luck. I have a pair of beloved sandals that were falling apart, both the straps were ripped and the soles were completely worn down. Got them fixed! And a pair of my favorite shorts had a broken zipper. Mom found a place to get it replaced.

Seventh Task. (more like.......well, it was a gift). For some reason, Mom thought my white MacBook was REALLY old. Not sure the number of years she was assigning to it, but, she was under the impression that it was rickety and almost non-functioning. Truth be told, it was a mere three (maybe four years old). But it was working just fine. Maybe needed a tune-up. To my sister's chagrin, I got promised a new computer.....and I am now the owner of a new MacBook Pro. THANKS, Mom.

Eighth Task. Medical Appointments. It's been 9 years since my accident and my Dad made an appointment for me to see Dr. B, the one who reconstructed my feet. I took x-rays, he looked at them for 20 seconds and declared everything just fine. No problems, except for random bone spur on the top of my right foot, which is caused by two of my bones fusing and causing another to push up. It doesn't affect my walking, but it does explain why when I tie my shoes too tight, by the end of the day, the top of my foot hurts. Saw the eye-doctor, who now has, on-file, an up to date prescription for me. So, if I need new contacts, I can just order them and have them sent over. (FYI, I'm one of only 5% of contact wearers who wears hard contact lenses, who knew!) And I saw the dentist, who says I definitely need to floss better and to get a periodontal cleaning.

Ninth Task. Getting to Vancouver on August 13th to see Judas Kiss. This is the "I get what I want story." Two things were working against me. I need a passport to get into Canada, BUT my passport was in San Francisco for my Italian visa. There are enhanced driver's licenses available, but they take two weeks to obtain and I had three days. I went to the Canadian consulate and asked whether or not I could enter Canada with a photocopy of my passport. They said they would, EXCEPT that the US wouldn't allow me back in with only a photocopy, therefore, their regulations say that if the home country won't let you back in, they won't let a person in. Things were looking BLEAK. But then, I was thrown a lifeline. As I was leaving the Canadian consulate, one of the women, stated I should look into a passport card. What is a passport card? It is a card that allows for land and sea travel in North America. BINGO. I went to the passport office in Seattle, and got the information on what I needed to obtain. Application, check. Photos, check. $115, check. Copy of Drivers License, check. And a copy of my birth certificate, CHECK. Lucky that my Dad is so organized that he had it in the family safety deposit box. I obtained the passport card on Friday the 12th for travel to Vancouver, BC on the 13th.

Lastly, I got to spend some time on Cape Cod before heading back to Rome. I flew from Seattle on the morning of the 19th and landed in Boston and spent time with my friends Keith and Paul at their Cape vacation rental!

Everything turned out just how I wanted it......and somehow I always get what I want.

The International Baccalaureate

2011-08-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

United World College in Montezuma, NM

The summer trip back to the United States began with a weekend in NYC and then a week long conference in Montezuma, NM. I was there for an International Baccalaureate (IB) training seminar. The new school I'm teaching at, The American Overseas School of Rome, is an IB school. Never heard of IB? Neither had I. For most American high school students who desire to go to a institution of higher learning in the United States, a diploma from a accredited American high school is sufficient to enroll. However, for students who go to high school abroad (and in many cases sons and daughters of American citizens living abroad) having and IB diploma is what they need show that they have achieved a certain level of proficiency. Well, it turns out, an IB diploma blows an American high school education out of the water.

How does it work? After what is the 10th grade year, any student at an IB accredited school can elect to enter the diploma program. For the next two years, they take six two year classes. 1) English 2) Foreign Language 3) Humanities/Social Science 4) Experimental Science 5) Mathematics (there are three levels, but a student must take a Math course) and 6) Elective. Along with this, there is a Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class required as well. To earn a diploma, a student must write a TOK paper, a extended essay (research paper) and pass all six exams (two or three parts each) to be taken in May of their senior year.

Even though it was not in my contract to teach IB, I asked the school to take on the challenge. I have been assigned to teach the 2nd year of the highest level of Mathematics. It is essentially BC Calculus, but there I must also prepare the students for the exam and review all the material they learned in their first year. One challenge is that in their first year, there were topics taught (mainly Vectors and Advanced Matrices) that I have never taught.

The Montezuma Castle originally was a resort built in this area because of the natural hot springs. Purchased by the World College, it was converted into the main school building of the school in the early 1980's.

The conference itself was a bit underwhelming. Many of the 9 sessions were things I could have learned in a handout. I wish we could have spent more time working on teaching techniques and practice problems. And where is Montezuma, NM? It's an hour outside of Santa Fe. The conference was held at the Armand Hammer World College of the Americas. What was strange was that usually at the these conferences I find my "crew" to hang out with, but for some reason it didn't happen this time. It's so high school, but it's always nice to know there is someone to each lunch/dinner with, but I usually just spent time with my Math group by default.

After the conference, I took a trip to Taos, just because I've heard so much about it.

The Taos Pueblo


*The Taos Canyon*


*The Taos Canyon Bridge, which is the 5th highest bridge in the United States*

After Taos, I spent a great weekend with my friend Jay H., who was kind enough to host me for the weekend. We ate good New Mexican fare, saw a play, a movie and before taking off for the airport, he and I took a tour of many of the sites where they film the show Breaking Bad.

(FYI, this is the first post I am making without using HTML code, but actually posting pictures using the Insert button. Thanks, Marl!)

Leaving Viterbo

2011-07-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

I sit here in the SYA back office for the last time. I just left Anna having eaten my last pranzo of homemade gnocchi. I am about to stop by for a last caffe with Max at Bagalino's and then head to the train station with a one-way ticket to Rome. It will be strange not to use the BIRG, the roundtrip that always gets me back to Viterbo.

I am sad, REALLY sad to leave Viterbo. Sono proprio Viterbese! Yes, I know I should be excited to live in Rome, having the world-class city at my doorstep. But why is it that I can't let go of the fact that I'm leaving this place, which has been home for two amazing years.

While I was swimming today, I kind of realized why it hurts to leave. It's because I completely engrossed myself in this experience. I traveled, I was outgoing, I made a few friends here, but mostly, I immersed myself fully that I fell in love with life here. I am going to miss living at Anna's, because it was home. I'm going to miss my colleagues, I'm going to miss Bagalino's, Pizzeria DJ, Monastero, Latteria L'Antica, the Viterbo-Rome train, the Larus Pool, the list goes on and on.

I'm scared that I won't find things that I love this much in Rome. I hate the feeling of having to start ALL OVER again. I worry that I won't find a favorite bar, that I'll feel lost in the big city, that I won't be able to foster the relationships that I made here. This feeling of loss is probably as close to the feeling of love I have ever had.

Now, it is heartening to know that I've felt this way before. Intensely great and rewarding experiences (all ones in which I was completely 100% involved in, such as Governors' School, those for FTE experiences, Lawrenceville to name a few) all came to an end and I had the same feeling of intense sadness for them being over. But, I know that they did eventually go away and I look back on them with incredible fondness. So, this too shall pass. I know it will.

It comes to an end. But I leave with great memories, a true hometown in the country of Italy and somehow along the way, I began speaking Italian comfortably.

It's time to fly back to the United States for the six weeks and then return to Rome in late August. If I can dive into life there 75% as much as I did here, it will be great. However, for now, I'm just going to be sad for a few days.

The GR20 -- And The Choice Not To Finish

2011-07-04T04:48:00.000-07:00

I love the outdoors and I love to hike. So, when I heard about the famed GR20 hike, 180km, across the length of Corsica, I put it into the back of my mind to someday do it. Well, this summer, I carved out two weeks to do so and signed up with a British outfit (I had joined their group for the Morocco trip last winter) to tackle the trail. The suggested time is 15 days, but the outfit cut out one day, and then squeezed 14 days into 12.

However, after three days, I realized this wasn't for me. Now that it has been about five days since I stopped, I've had time to reflect on my decision and although I am sad that I chose not to finish, the reasons I did elect to terminate my trip (note which word I am NOT using, because language is important) appear more logical and correct with time, and they also "feel" right. As I've become older, I've learned that I am much more intuitive and trust my gut more often than I was younger, or at least I am more conscious of being one who trusts my "intuition."

Here's why I chose to end my journey:

1) I didn't have walking poles. Something as basic as this was a huge issue. They are optional, but it turns out they would have been quite useful in providing balance and distributing the weight from my legs to, at times, arms.

2) I wasn't feeling any joy. And sometimes dread. Each night, before the next day, we would review the next days plan, and the first three days were each scheduled for 9 hours, which because of my slow pace, ended up being more like 11 hours. We would leave at 630AM and finish at 530PM. Knowing that it would be such a long day (and there were no scheduled rest days) made it a huge daunting "task." And it shouldn't feel like a task.

3) I wasn't feeling any elation. Usually, at the end of each hiking day, I feel this great sense of excitement and accomplishment when I get to the end of the day. I wasn't having those moments, I would arrive and then, because time was running short, have to take care little tasks before dinner (granted I didn't have to cook dinner it we were at refuges which cooked for us) and then right to bed. There wasn't anytime to actually savor being outdoors, because we ended so late in the day.

4) Personal Safety. Yeah, this was a big one. We were often hiking on open faces that had some sheer drops. Plus were were rarely on flat ground, generally going up and down "mountains", across them and then, as I termed it, putting ourselves through human body puzzles, getting through rock spaces. It's fun, but not as much as I felt like I was doing it. Then the descents were incredibly steep and my legs weren't used to it. On the third day, in the morning, we had a descent in which my left leg basically would no longer hold any weight. It was scary. After a rest, I made it, but downhills were really something I dreaded and feared that my left leg wouldn't hold out.

5) I'll call this, "the check-off factor." There were 12 of us in the group. I would say that for a majority of them, they were on this trip to "check-off" the GR20 from their list of big hikes they've accomplished. I don't begrudge them that goal, but it make it seem as though the hike was a "task" and not a "joy".

6) Scenery....repetitive. After three days, I feel as though I had seen the scenery that I would see for the following nine days. It was pretty enough, but not enough to push me forward for another nine days, and through the "pain".

The mountains of Corsica. The GR20 goes through 180km across the spine of the island. You see that mountain in the distance, we climbed over that.

The Col de Bevella. We climbed over that "notch" just to the right of the spires, then down into the valley and then up to the spot where I am taking the picture, which is at 7,000 feet.

A look back at the 2nd day hike. The "notch" in the ridge in the distance is what we climbed through, then down, up, down, and then across the ridge which is out of the picture to the right. The hiking was so intense that I didn't have opportunities to take out my camera and take pictures during the day. Mostly because I was too tired and there were places that I simply had to concentrate so much on staying on my feet.

And, I wasn't the first of our dozen to leave the group. One member slipped on the first day and twisted her knee. We had to carry her pack up the last hill and then she was helicoptered out. I didn't want to be the second to have to call the helicopter.

Here's what my knees looked like after three days. The rock was pure granite and every time I slipped, or scraped my knee as I climbed over/around something, a new scratch. I'm going to have some good scars.

I ended at day 3, because it was a place where we were on a road and had access to our bags. This man, Augustine, was the transporter of bags to the next stop. I hitched a ride with him and since he spoke Italian, we had a great couple hours. These four hours together with him might have been the highlight of my trip.

After Augustine and I parted, I hitched a ride down to the capitol of Corsica, Ajaccio where I spent a day at the beach....

.....eating good seafood and took a tour of Napoleon Bonaparte's birthplace.

I'm still thinking about the trip, but it's almost a done deal. I'm sad because I wanted to do it, but happy that I did the right thing for me. How many times have I been a teacher and suggested a student not do something or to admit they weren't ready for it. I was able to make this decision without external prompting. I also take responsibility for not doing enough prior research on the trip. I really should have read more about it and done my due diligence. Lessons for the future......

Berlin

2011-06-25T01:46:00.001-07:00

After the Museum, I spent evening and the next day wandering the city. If in Germany, it has to be CURRYWURST. In this case, deep fried with Potato Salad.

When in Berlin, one has to make a visit to the famed Checkpoint Charlie. That, along with a visit to the Museum of the Berlin Wall the next day, got me thinking about who I am. If I had been an East German citizen, would I have been one of those people who risked everything to get out? Or would I have been passive and simply accepted it, and even liked, the order and rigidity?

I'm scared to admit that there's a 50/50 chance I would have been the accepting citizen.

Can it really be today, 20 years after the wall, that the advertisement right at Checkpoint Charlie is for an Apple product? And in the area below the billboard, where the stations and used to be is now a makeshift beach where people can go for drinks? Amazing.

Brandenburg Gate at night. Peaceful and beautiful. Berlin has such great amazing old architecture and some crazy new stuff.

This block sculpture park is the Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe.

All I could think about was how fun it would to play capture the flag here.

Walking around town, I loved the stop and go signs.

How could you not be cheered up by the jaunty green man!

Pergamon Museum

2011-06-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

Berlin! First stop (because I got on the bus going the wrong direction and therefore stuffed my backpack in a locker) the Pergamon Museum

So, this is the model of the Pergamon Altar. The alter, at Pergamon in modern day Turkey, was constructed in the 184 BC by Eumenes II in honor of the goddess who brought the Pergamene's victory over their enemies.

Here you can see the altars location within the city of Pergamon.

Here at the museum, the western side of the Pergamon Altar has been reconstructed. It's awesome and so amazing to be able to climb up the stairs and walk all around it.

Beyond the great structure itself, is the frieze that runs around the entire temple. While on the steps, facing west, the museum has reconstructed much of the eastern frieze. The entire frieze is a gigantomachy, the defeat of chaos and giants by the Olympian gods. Here we have Artemis throwing down and a giant/serpent.

The frieze is HELLENISM at its finest. It's the movement and emotion in contrast to the static and "emotionless" of classicism. Here on the right, we have Athena, with her left hand, lifting up a giant by the head before throwing him to the ground, while with her right hand she beats off an attack with her shield.

Notice the goddess with the calm face and the pain/terror on the gods face.

The frieze even is squeezed into the area bordered by the steps. Here the ocean gods are forcing the enemy towards the mouth of a waiting lion.

Here, in another room, is the reconstruction of the gate to the Temple of Athena, also excavated by Pergamon.

Just seeing the Pergamon Altar would have made me happy, but I step into the next room and find the Market Gate of Miletus. Created in the 2nd century AD and was the grand portal to the towns central market. It is so well preserved because it was buried in an 12th century earthquake.

And the hits keep on coming with the reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. It was constructed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 575BC.

The door here is the 8th door to the inner city of Babylon. Actually, the one reconstructed here in Berlin is the SMALLER of the two. The larger one is in storage.

This is the reconstruction of the processional walkway leading to the gate. The actual processional walkway was actually wider.

One of the lions (there are also dragons) that guard the door. Each brick was individually fired and glazed and set into place.

The Germans, back in the early 1900's were quite active in archeological work in the Middle East. There is a great islamic art section. Here is the wall of a Umayyad winter palace commissioned by Al-Walid II in 743BC.

The Konya Prayer Niche

There was a great exhibit about a private art collection that was bombed during WWII. The collection was broken into pieces like this.

It's amazing how the historians can piece together the original piece. Can you imagine finding fragments of a frieze and then trying (such as the gigantomachy of the Pergamon Altar) and then piecing it back together, without actually knowing what the original picture is?

A last view of the amazing Pergamon Altar. One great event that happened during my visit to the museum was I met a fellow Bay Area museum goer. We ended up hanging out during our museum stay and then met up for drinks the next day.

Bauhaus and Lutherstadt Wittenberg

2011-06-23T01:41:00.000-07:00

Leaving Leipzig with the goal of reaching Berlin, I got on the train headed for Lutherstadt Wittenberg, but while reading my guide book, I saw that if I took a small detour I would end up in the town of Dessau, which is famous for being the home of Bauhaus architecture. So, in the spirit of, "follow where the wind takes you", I made the detour and stopped off in Dessau to walk through the Bauhaus campus of Gropius.

This is the backside of the original Bauhaus "Bauhaus". What I take from this is that when these buildings were first designed and built in the 1920's, they were sparse and non-detailed in comparison to the richly ornamented buildings of their predecessors.

They are stripped to their essence, radical for their time....

...they seem just kind of "run of the mill" today. But to put myself into the shoes of a citizen in the 1920's and having only seen the highly detailed stuff from before, this must have been radical. I guess that's how we might see those Frank Gehry buildings today.

Martin Luther, yeah THAT Martin Luther.

Here in the Saxony-Anhalt Region's town of Lutherstadt Wittenberg (formerly just Wittenberg) was where on October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther posted his famous 95 theses criticizing the Catholic church.

I arrived in the early evening and took a walk around town as the sunset. Beautiful. Here's the Stadtkirche, in which Martin Luther gave many a sermon.

This is the tower (added after the 1500's) of the Schlosskirche which is across town and where....

....on these doors, Martin Luther posted his famous 95 theses.

Ok, actually, that was a picture of the real door. The church is undergoing renovation and this is what it really looks like.

The evening I was out walking around, there was some kind of performance going on and I ducked into the back to listen to some religious music (I think, or it was opera). But one of the best things of the night was I was out at a cafe getting tea and cake and it turns out the cafe I was at was run by Sicilians who had come to the former East Germany because ten years ago, there was a demand of Italian food and gelato (much like the same migration of Italians to West Germany after WWII). They were so happy to meet an Italian "speaker."

This small chapel, right next to the Stadtkirche, is the Corpus Christi Chapel, in which in 1518, Martin Luther appealed to the Pope to set up a council to try Luther as a heretic.

In 1520, at the place of this oak, Luther burned his document declaring his excommunication from the Church. Man, the early 1500's were full of action in Europe with both the Renaissance and the start of the Protestant Revolution. Whew.

I like this statue of Martin Luther that I found in my hotel.

Life Behind the Iron Curtain and Leipzig Today

2011-06-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

In a museum about life during East German rule of which I forget the name is this chart showing the number of East German citizens that fled to the West each month between 1949 and 1960. The units on are in thousands.

Here are the beautiful buildings of Leipzig today.

In 1954, the DDR raised production target levels without raising incomes. The citizens rioted in the streets and the government responded with military force. A sign of times to come in Hungary and Czechoslovakia and Poland.

July 18th, 1961 -- Four Thousand East Germans fled to West Berlin in one weekend. Weeks later, up went the Berlin Wall.

A sign in West Germany calling to help their brethren in the East.

The city of Karl-Marx-Stadt voted to return to its former name of Chemnitz after Germany reunited.

There is tons of construction happening in Leipzig and Berlin and probably most cities in the former East Germany.

Museum at the Runde Ecke

2011-06-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

This building at Leipzig's Runde Ecke (Round Corner) was the home to the city's Stasi Headquarters. For some reason, I've been fascinated by life behind the Iron Curtain, most probably because growing up as a teenager it seemed so "off limits" and "far away", but mostly because I know it was SUCH a different life than one I experienced growing up as a teenager in Seattle.

The KGB was the secret police in Russia, but East Germany took the entire concept of State Security, based on the KGB, to the nth degree, as you will see.

The Museum at the Runde Ecke has kept the Stasi main office in Leipzig in the exact condition it was when it found and opened up by the peaceful protesters in December 1989. Those Stasi's LOVED their linoleum!

Right as you entered the offices, here's the wall that greets you!

"Imperialism -- The Enemy of the State of Socialism"

EVERYTHING was monitored and filmed. There were security cameras at everypoint, here at the entrance.

The Stasi monitored schools to identify youth that would be ideal future Stasi members. They looked for students with no family in the West and then fit their "model", which basically meant Aryan Male and German. Here's a kids "application" to join the Stasi youth program.

The plan once you entered into the "program."

The Stasi were still signing up youth on October 31st, 1989 even as their world was about the end within a few weeks.

The organizational chart of the Leipzig area Stasi office. Each little town had a center and reported to the central office here.

The Stasi taped peoples phone conversation. The tapes they used were generally ones they confiscated from peoples packages from the West. Nice reuse policy.

The Stasi had a huge operation where they steamed open peoples letters and read them and then sent them onto the addressee. It was all in a fear having their citizens undermine and dissent from the State.

This sheet lists prices of different items in the west, and in the east. Some person has written, "So, where is this then" referring to an item on the list. This snarky comment probably got this person a Stasi file.

The wiretaps the Stasi used. Their desire to control and gather information probably kept then at the forefront of technology is my guess.

Cameras......

....to take photos, and LOTS of them.

The Stasi kept track of every western car that came across the border. Photos, photos, photos.

The Unofficial Informants were the cornerstone of Stasi information gathering. The Stasi would identify a person to be an informant. They would approach the person and pressure the person into serving their country. Often times, these informants would be rewarded with gifts as enticement. But my guess is that most would really have no choice but to report on their friends, neighbors and family. I wonder what I would have done had I grown up in East Germany and been confronted with the proposition of being an informant. Would I have capitulated?

One way that the Stasi "got" people they suspected is to have them come into the office and when questioning, have them sit on a cloth to pick up that person's "scent." Then use that "scent" when they matched it with the person operating "against" the state.

"Decomposition" This was the Stasi's way of ruining your life. If they wanted to, for whatever reason, they could make sure you didn't get a job, or have all these bad things happen to you, to ultimately demoralize you and basically break you. This was a systematic procedure they was approved and actively used against its own citizens.

Data cards, everything was recorded.

This is just a partial list of the armory that was located in the Stasi Leipzig office. It's like they knew they were going to get attacked. That top line does say 8,060 hand grenades.

The East German government dissolved at the beginning of November 1989. For the next month, the Stasi systematically began destroying its files. The protesters set up a committee at the beginning of December 1989 to halt the destruction of the files. This was successful and now the files are open and anyone can look at their file if they have one.

The Stasi used a bunch of these machines to turn the data into the "pulp balls" you see on the left. But many of they files were simple ripped up into pieces and put into bags. Today, there is a set of people who are piecing together those pieces, they are called the "puzzle people."

Here's the Runde Ecke today. It was here in Leipzig that the peaceful protests started in East Germany and eventually brought down the police state government. It was on the sidewalk here in front that the 1989 candlelight vigils were held and eventually accomplished their goal.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

2011-06-21T00:18:00.000-07:00

Both guidebooks I carried (ok one was on the Kindle) to Germany raved about Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is about an hour and a half by train away from Nuremburg.

Charming little town........ok, I need to realize that I've seen ENOUGH of these in Italy, who do it better in my opinion.

This was kind of cool. In the gardens of convent/church was an herb garden, 3 crosses? Watch out!

The city is walled on three sides, with the fourth side being the cliff along the Tauber River.

The highlight for me was actually just walking the town walls. It was pretty neat.

As one might guess, it's a trinkets and small gift lovers HEAVEN. There is a major Christmas ornament/gifts vibe here.

That combined with quiet charming town, was overall.....MEH! Sometimes you win, when you travel. Sometimes, not so much. Beautiful town, but it wasn't what I was exactly looking for that day. After a few hours, I went back to Nuremburg.

The National Socialist Party and Nuremberg

2011-06-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

Most of us know about Nuremberg and the Nazi's because the War Crimes Trials were held here, but I didn't know (and maybe you didn't either) that the Nazi Party held its yearly rally here at grounds designed and built specifically for the Nazi Party Rallies of the Third Reich held every year starting 1933 up to 1938. The 1939 rally, scheduled to start on September 2nd, was called off due to the invasion of Poland.

The reasons for the rise of the Nazi Party its place in German political and social history have a great display and the Documentation Center. The center is located in one part of a Nazi era building, but notice how there is a line going through the museum. It symbolically slices and "crosses out" the ideals of the Nazi era.

Here's the entrance to the Documentation Center and how the "arrow" cuts through it.

The most interesting part of the visit is a walk around the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. This was the plan, but only certain parts of the grounds were actually completed before funds were diverted towards WWII. Notice stadiums and in the distance the tent city for housing the participants.

This building is the "inside" of the unfinished congress center, which was to be a covered arena.

This is what the finished product would have looked like.

Here's the congress center from the outside.

The German Stadium model. It was designed to hold 400,000 (yeah that's 5 zero's) spectators.

Here's the German Stadium model from the back. From here you can see Hitler's love of classical/neoclassical architecture.

The party built partial models in locations away from the grounds, but this is as far as they got here at the grounds. Their hole is now a lake.

Walking around the grounds, you come up to a bunch of sets of stairs.

Climbing up, here's what I saw. It's a mess because it turns out a huge concert was held on the Rally Grounds the weekend before I got there. I guess it's logical reuse.

What I stumbled onto was the Zeppelin Field. The field could hold 100,000 standing soldiers and 60,000 spectators. The Zeppelin Field was used for parades and roll call for Hitler Youth.

Here's a photo from the Documentation Center taken from a Zeppelin Field rally.

This is the tribune which the spectators faced. It's based on the Altar from Pergamon (wait for further pictures in a later post). Parts of the tribune were destroyed before historians stopped it declaring the tribune and the entire grounds a historically significant place.

Here's what the tribune looks like today.

AMAZINGLY, it's open to the public and you can climb right up the stairs and stand right there at the podium.

Over on the other side of town is the Nurnberg Court of Justice

It was here, in the year after the end of WWII, that an International Court of Justice held a trial for the leaders of the Nazi Party.

The proceedings were held right here in this room, Room 600.

In this picture are some of the 20 defendants, the leaders of the Nazi Party/Government. That's Gorring on the left in the glasses and Hess right next to him.

The process at Nurnberg led to the creation of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Here I am Courtroom 600. This is the BEST of the set of pictures the docent took of me. This is why I don't have other people take my picture.

Over there on the left is where the defendants sat.

One last thing that gives me a connection to this Nurnberg process. It turns out that Uli's Dad, when he was 21 years old, was forced to join the party and was assigned guard duty at the famous Dachau concentration camp. After the war, he sat trial here in Nurnberg (maybe not this room) and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. It was in 1953, after he served his 8 years, he moved back to Spiegelau, met Uli's mom and started a family. You can do a google search and find the trial proceedings and the verdict.