Delphi and Meteora

This post begins a series on my trip to Greece. Having arrived in Italy on Monday the 17th, on Friday the 21st, being an expert (in the four days I was here) on the local trains, I returned to the Rome airport and flew to Athens. The reason for the the trip to Greece, other than to see Greece, was the wedding of two students I taught back in my New Jersey years. But those pictures will come later.

I started by signing up and joining a 2-day bus tour to Delphi and Meteora. The first you've heard of and studied. The second you might have seen but might not have heard of. The bus tour, usually I'm totally against them, but this time I just wanted to sit back and do nothing about worrying about how to get places and dealing with people who didn't speak English. I put my travel in the hands of the tour and it was two days of relaxation. Pictures of Delphi....

The Sanctuary of Athena, at the lowest elevation on the side of Mt. Parnassus, is where the visitors to the Temple of Apollo and the Oracle, as well as participants in the Pythian Games, gathered before ascending to the Temple.

This was the treasury the Athenians built upon a major victory. Like many structures here, it was destroyed. This re-creation was built by the city of Athens in the early 1900's.

The columns from the Temple of Apollo

The columns again

The Temple of Apollo

The stadium used for the games are located at the highest elevation of all Delphi structures.

Being a Geometry teacher, I'm amazed at the circular seats the Greeks were able to contruct

After the first day, I, and the three other Aussies who, like me, chose the 2-star hotel and not the more expensive option, had a great conversation about the differences between the two countries. They were fascinated by California's problems, were quick to admit that Obama was unknown because during his inauguration their country was consumed by the major fires there. Their great comment was in summary to America's problems, "well, that's what happens when you have rushed democracy." I also learned to rules of cricket and the three were kind enough to simulate a game on the dinner table using toothpicks and the salt and pepper shaker. I'm still fuzzy on some of the macro issues, such as why matches might take days, but I know that it's the ultimate insult to be called a "chukka" or without the accent, "chucker."

Day 2, pretty spectacular. The reason why you may have seen the monasteries of Meteora are that a James Bond movie has been filmed here.

The buildings are monasteries of the Eastern Greek Orthodox religion built on top of rock formations above the plain of Thessaly in NW Greece

Built between the 12th and 14th Centuries, these could only be reached by rope. In modern times, steps have been carved into the towers for most of the dozen or so monasteries. However, a couple are easily reach because a road is built and a bridge links to the building itself.

Chimneys from each "cell" in the monasteries (which actually also house nuns, but still called monasteries).

Stairs leading to the monastery shown below

Looking down on the town of Kalambaka below.

For you cat lovers, feral cats live throughout the Meteora rock formations.

Lastly, according to Wikipedia, the bank Linkin Park has an album called "Meteora.". Anyone think there might be a connection between the two?

Via Cavour 77

Here you go, pictures of the apartment in which I will be living this year!

The five windows on the top floor from the corner are mine, as well as two going from to the right (one is not shown). The middle floor is the school so my commute is not literally walking down a flight of stairs.

View from my window.

Via Cavour 77. This serves as the entrance to the building for my apartment and school.

The front door of the apartment from the stairwell in the building.

The "salon" to my apartment. You are looking into the master bedroom.

The master bedroom. The closet in the far corner is HUGE.

My living room, with fireplace.

Living Room looking into salon and master bedroom.

Kitchen (Yes, it's a bit out of focus)

My first home cooked dinner in Italy. The pesto was store bought, not homemade.

My bathroom. According to previous tenants, the shower drain develops quite an odor over the course of time. It's something I'm going to have to do battle with.

The stone spiral staircase guests take to get to their floor of the house.

Guest bathroom on left and guest bedroom on right.

Guest bedroom

So, am I not kidding when I say I have plenty of room for guests? COME VISIT!!!

24 Hours in Italy

24 hours ago, or about, I landed in Italy. First thing I noticed is that the baggage at Fiumicino is handled by different unions. If you fly Alitalia, your baggage is handled by that airline. Flying in on SwissAir, my bags, as well as the flight coming in from Damascus was handled by "FirstGate", whoever that is. There was a third union I saw on the board. Weird. I wonder if that's how it's done in the United States as well?

Having been in Italy just a year and a half ago, I knew how to get to the train station and buy a ticket. To get to the city of Viterbo, you have to take two local trains. First take a train to Rome-Trastevere station and transfer to the Viterbo-Porta Romana local train. The second train stops some 18 times before getting to the end where one gets off. The whole trip takes 2 hours from the airport.

I was met by the SYA host family Eleonora. It's actually a short 10 minute walk to the school from the station but the significant thing is that you enter into a walled city. I now live in a walled city!!! You will see pictures of my apartment in the next day, but it is so large that the guest bedroom and bath are on a different floor that you have to take a spiral stone staircase to. I'm NOT kidding.

My first evening in town, I grabbed a spinach and ham (I simply pointed at the menu about 2/3 of the way down and its what I got) pizza, and then strolled through town and found a bunch of gelaterias and had my first gelato. One can walk around the entire walled city in about 40 minutes.

This morning, I got up, unpacked my backpack and suitcase and went out shopping. I found a great fresh produce stand where the owner was so kind to teach me the names of the fruits and vegetables I bought. I also found the "supermercato" to buy my toilet paper, toothbrush and frozen peas. I'm still on the prowl for my local bakery, meat and cheese store and newspaper stand, but all in good time.

I just returned from obtaining my cell phone. The Italian teacher, Alessandra, was kind enough to register the phone in her name to be able to qualify for some discount (I think). Even though the man at the store knew I didn't speak or understand any Italian he kept looking at me and talking and talking and talking. He didn't shut up. I am wondering if he's married because I would be getting earplugs if I were his spouse. I have a phone number that is temporary for 10 days and then my permanent one kicks in. I'll reveal to you all that one when it actually activates.

Ok, so I'm going up to cook some lunch. My plan this afternoon is to hop on one of the local buses and ride the entire line. Then spend part of the day working on translating the comic book Alessandra gave me. Maybe the next time I post there will be some Italian phrases I'll kick in!

Blueberries for Ernie

I think the story of the blueberry form is best told through pictures. So here goes....

Amos H., youngest son of my college friend Bill H. and his wife Amy.

Blueberry field in Maine here on Red House Farm. Blueberries grow so well in Maine because the soil is so rocky and therefore have no competition from other plants. Yes, basically blueberry bushes are the low plant on natural selection totem pole and are winners here.

Red House is an organic blueberry farm, therefore the berries are considered "low bush." The berries grow best when the plants are new buds, that's why there number of berries are so great. To get new buds to sprout, the fields are burned after a harvest and therefore are on a two-year cycle. The berries are so numerous because of the hand weeding that the farm does in the winter and spring as the bushes are starting out.

Step 1: Rake

Step 2: Fill box

Step 3: To the Winnowing Shed

The winnowing machine at rest

Step 4: Dribbling the blueberries into the winnower. The dribbler is the point guard of the winnowing operation. Depending on the quality of the berries (i.e. are they too mushy and squished or are there too many stems) the dribbler has to maintain the right pace for the pickers below.

Once the berries go "down the chute", a fan blows out all the leaves and branches. The downward moving belt guides the heavier and nicer berries down to the second belt while whisking the lighter/smaller berries out the back. 30-40% of picked berries are rejected at this stage.

Step 5: Pick through. Sitting for hours on end (sometimes) picking berries is tough. You're looking for squished, small and discolored berries. Once the belt is turned off and you look at the belt, it appears to move backwards. Totally a mind blower.

Step 6: Boxing and Delivering! 230 Pounds of blueberries ready for delivery to a local coop. The majority of Red House blueberries are delivered to a local coop and CSA. However, about 1/3 of blueberries are sold via pre-order for pick up by local residents. Red House boxed 300 or so pounds of blueberries a day.

However, these are premium blueberries for personal consumption. A majority of berries are harvested for a local company which doesn't care about the visual quality of the berries as they will get these other not-so-perfect berries into yogurts and pancake mixes. Red House takes some 500+ pounds of these type to an outfit called "Coastal Blueberries". At the end of the season, Coastal will determine a price per pound and credit the farm for the amount they delivered.

For those of you wondering, Amy and Bill both teach and make the bulk of their income that way. Running the blueberry farm in the summer is a work of love and also earn enough income to send their three kids to school.

Here the berries are marketed at the local coop!

Family photo at the coop from a few years ago.

The red house of Red House farms.

I spent the week sleeping on the enclosed porch seen here.

The kitchen! It's amazing how well one can eat while on a farm! The food tastes so much better. It's true!

Less that 5% of food I ate the week I was here was processed.

A tomato and potato blight has moved through New England. Here is Bill burning the tops of potatoes.

The boys had just received the game of Risk for one of their birthdays. I was roped into playing.

They were so obsessed with it that for most of the week we would play while winnowing by rotating out the player who was not involved in a battle. Alas, I have to admit that I introduced trash-talking to the boys of Red House. When I starting saying "Man-Up" and "Bring-It-ON", they looked at me funny. But by the end of the week, they had clearly learned the essentials of goading each other and followed my lead in taking great joy in eliminating a player off the board. Their parents asked me to hide the game by the end of the week. Boys, if your reading, the Risk game is under your parents bed!

Afternoon swims at a pond around the corner occurred almost daily!

The boys with Noah of Lubec, ME. Noah is from Down East and worked for Red House for the week. Turns out he knows former students of mine from Lawrenceville from Lubec AND went to college with two HRS students I know. Perhaps my world is too small.