The US of A

Tomorrow, Sept. 2, I will be flying back to the US after 7 months abroad. I will fly from Athens into New York City, where I will spend a few days, and then I will travel to Washington D.C. for a bit.

I'm pretty excited actually...

Mask of Agamemnon (16 cent. B.C.)

Yesterday I went to the Archaelogical Museum. Very interesting. I usually skip such museums, but I figured that if I went to one anywhere outside of Greece, much of its collection would just be imported from here, so why not go straight to the source. I saw an incredible amount of sculptures, jewelry, pottery... All visualy impressive, but simply amazing when you look at the dates and realize that everything is 2000+ years old. Puts things in perspective. Memento mori...

The best part of the museum was the price though. I lost my student ID with my wallet back in Beijing, but I have a 'Fortbildungsausweis' (outside training ID) from my summer in Germany. The ID doesn't have a picture, but it lists my info and although its not technically a student ID card, it functioned as one for me in Germany. I just had to say that the training, the internship, was mandatory for my study in the US and I could usually get by. The problem is that the card expired when I left Germany, and the expiration date is listed plainly on the card. The card is all in German though, so I have been able to use it throughout my travels in Europe, as people generally can't read it, and most of the time they don't care anyway, they get paid the same whether or not they sell me the adult or the student ticket... Anyways, so two days ago I tried to use the card for the Acropolis, for half price off admission. I was rejected twice. Once, the guy said it was expired, which is true, but come on... The second time, the person said that it didn't have a picture and told me that he couldn't read it and it didn't look like a student card. I was pretty pissed, as this was the first place that I had been denied a student discount, but I ultimately figured that 12 euros was not a ridiculous amount to ask to visit the foundations of Western Society. I begrudgingly paid.

Yesterday though, I went to the museum and tryed to get a student discount: regular admission was 7 euros, the student price was 3. Based on my performance the day before I wasn't too confident in my chances, but I decided that it was worth a shot. I told her " 1 student" and she asked for my ID card. I handed her my German one and she looked at it and asked where it was from. I told her "Germany" and she said that it was free for me. EU students got in free! Awesome....

Last night I watched the sunset from atop the Acropolis. Beautiful.

Cool, I'm going to the beach...

Athens

I arrived in Athens, Greece yesterday and just walked around the city during the day. I visited the Acropolis, with the Parthenon, Temple of Nike, and the Theater of Dionysus. Impressive structures, amazing when you consider their age and significance. Everything is currently being renovated/restored though, so all of the ruins were covered in scaffolding, which somewhat detracted from the experience and made it harder for me to let my mind wander and imagine myself ther 2000+ years ago (although maybe they had cranes back then).

Last night, purely by chance, I stumbled upon a mass governmental protest. I was just meandering through the city center and wandered into the Syndagma Square, where the Parliament building is. Suddenly I found myself amidst a mass rally, surrounded by thousands of people all dressed in black, which coincidentally I was wearing too. People were holding banners, parading, chanting, and passing out flyers. My spider sense told me that something was going on, but the flyer that I was handed was Greek to me (sorry...) so I wasn't exactly surre what the demonstration was about.

Although I saw no Bush effigies, I was somewhat hesitant to ask after the rally's purpose for fear of being exposed as American in the middle of an anti-American occupation of Iraq protest or something, but after about 30 sec. my curiousity won out and I asked one of the girls handing out flyers.

The demonstration was in protest of the Greek government's delayed/non-reaction to the 200+ fires raging in Greece. Over 180,000 hectares have been burnt and 64 people have died. The fires are now being fought, with massive EU support, but the government's initial paralysis has been/was being highly critisized.

A state of emergency has been declared and they fires have been labeled a "terrorist act", as so many were started simultaneously. Conspiracy theories abound, with the fires simultaneously the work of the Greek mafia, the Greek government, home-grown or Turkish terrorists, etc. There is a lot of critism towards the state of emergency call, as many critics believe the government is using the fires as a political weapon and are trying to create an environment of fear in the lead-up to next month's national elections.

During the rally there occured what sounded like 3-4 big explosions of some sort. They happened near the Parliament building, which I was far away from, so I'm not entirely sure what actually happened. It freaked me, and all of the people I was standing by, out though, and we all walked away for a while, but apparently it was nothing of any substance because we all walked back about 10 min. later and nothing had changed.

Today I'm going to check out the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the National Archaelogical Museum. There are a couple of beaches about 45 min. outside of Athens, so tomorrow and Saturday will probably be beach days, or I might take a ferry to one of the nearby islands. Tubular.

Turkish politics

I'll expound on what I wrote earlier...

In May, the Turkish military and the main secular opposition party blocked Abdullah Gul's candidacy, a block legitamized by a high court ruling. This blocking promted a national election, in which the populus voted overwhelmingly for Gul's AK (Justice and Development) party. On Tuesday the Turkish Parliament voted him in as Turkey's President.

An economist by trade, Gul formerly represented the now defunkt openly Islamist Welfare Party (banned by the military in 1997). amd mpw represents the AK party. A conservative and religious man, he possesses a middle class background and hails from Turkey's consevative, religious Anatolian heartland. Due to his background, he is somewhat of an outsider in Turkey's Western-leaning, secular, upper-class dominated political scene.

Few Turks, so I've read and heard, want a religious government, but they voted overwhelmingly for the AK party, in power since 2002, simply because it has done well running the country.

For the past 84 years, since its inception in 1923, Turkey's government has been controlled by secularists. He is the first president in Turkey's history to come from a non-secular party, and his election is the first time that a party has prevailed against military opposition. When first nominated as a candidate, secularists staged mass rallies and the military threatened to intervene. The military has ousted four elected governments since 1960. None of Turkey's military commanders attended Gul's appointment ceremony.

Although he has consistently denied possessing any sort of Islamist agenda and has emphasized his commitment to Turkey's secular values, many view his as a potential threat to the separation of religion and politics in Turkey...

Actual update

I'm in Istanbul right now. Interesting city, which might become even more interesting here soon with the recent election of openly Islamic Abdulah Gül as Turkey's 11th President. Turkish law explicitly requires a strict separation of religion and state, i.e. secular governance, but Turkey's 99.8% Muslim population lawfully voted in a very outspoken Muslim from an Islamic party. Contradictions abound. We'll see what happens.

Turkey has been neat, met some great people, had some great experiences, I'll elaborate here soon.

Tomorrow I'm flying to Athens, which hopefully won't be greeting me with flames...

Barcelona

22.August.2007 - 25.August.2007

I only spent three days there, but Barcelona is probably my favorite city in Spain, and one of my favorites in Europe.

La Sagrada Família was the most impressive thing that I have ever seen. It is simply incredible, awesome, amazing, just stunning. Wow. Moreover, it's not complete. Started in the 1890s, it's not predicted to be finished for another 30-50 years. Gaudí's Nativity facade is unbelievably beautiful. The intricacy, the detail, the novelty! As I stared up, transfixed, I could not stop smiling, just stupidly smiling, it was so unreal, so magnificent. Although not in keeping with Gaudí's Modernisme (Art Nouveau/Surrealism) plans, Subirachs' Passion facade is also striking, wonderful.

Gaudí's Casa Batlló and Park Güell were also thoroughly enjoyable.

I spent two mornings on the beach, fantastic, two days soaking in the most intoxicatingly vibrant, colorful, infectiously upbeat and jubilant atmosphere imaginable, fantastic, and two nights partying until 5am, fantastic.

The city was overrun with tourists, but the Spanish, the Catalan, presence was always there, raging.

Although not my own, I love the Roma/gypsy style that the Spanish have, ubiquitous throughout the country but perfected in Barcelona.

I checked out the avant garde Fundacio Miro, a museum/gallery dedicated to the Barcelona artist Joan Miro, which houses his and many other younger artists' highly experimental works. Not my cup of tea, but a worthwhile visit.

I visited the Picasso Museum. His most famous pieces hang in the Reina Sofia and other such elite galleries around the world, but the museum in Barcelona presents a life-spanning overview of his works. Starting with teenage sketches, the museum moves through all stages/movements of his artistic life, really giving a detailed summary of the artist and his repertoire. I knew only The Old Guitarist from his blue period and his cubist stuff, so I was able to see completely new sides of him. It was enlightening.

Incredible, incredible city. Go to Barcelona!

Valencia

Valencia was fantastic. I was originally planning to travel there to visit a Valencian friend that I knew from Mizzou, but unfortunately it turned out that he was going to be in Dublin at the time. I still wanted to see the city though, as I studied abroad in Alicante, a city in Valencia the region, and while there I heard many great things about Valencia the city. I somehow never made it up there though, and therefore, friend or not, I wanted to go.

The first day I walked around the city quite a bit. Previously a river had run through the city, but it has since dried up and the bed has been converted into a huge park that runs the length of the city. (city city city ? ? ?) Its filled with palms, flowers, bushes and other greens, statues, fountains and beautiful walkways, and was packed with joggers, walkers, bikers, roller-bladers, loungers, everyone seemed to be there There was also a skate park there, really impressive. At the end of the park was the Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciencies, a huge complex housing an IMAX theater, a planetarium, a science museum, an aquarium, and an opera house. I didn't go inside any of them, but the buildings themselves were amazing. The architecture was ultra-modern, futuristic-looking; the buildings could have been grounded spaceships. All of the buildings were a brilliant white and were surrounded by crystal clear reflecting pools and fountains. Other buildings throughout the city were very interesting as well, rising and cutting through the sky at various angles and in various shapes. Really visually pleasing.

Excellent paella and wine that night.

As Valencia is on the Mediterranean, I spent the next day entirely on the beach. Not that I was in any way unhappy before I went there, but the being on the beach just elated me, my spirit/mood/disposition was risen soooooo much. Slightly burnt, not quite bronzed, but extremely happy by the end of the day.

I stayed in a great hostel and met some great people. That night I went on a tapas tour with a bunch of people from the hostel. Great night. Delicious tapas, Cruzcampo, Paulaner, and tequila blend very well. A few Italians came out with us, and as they only spoke Italian, I spoke, or tried to speak, a lot of Italian that night. When spoken at a snail's pace and accompanied by hand gestures I understood most of what was said to me, but I all but crashed and burned when attempting to reply, to formulate sentences of my own. One year of Italian six years ago simply did not suffice. The attempts were fun though, and appreciated.

I enjoyed Valencia so much more than Madrid. The city was smaller, I guess therefore superficially more intimate, more personal. The city reminded me a lot of Alicante: the people, the beach, the food, the pace, the language. The influence of the Valencian language was definitely present in Alicante, but secondary to Castillian Spanish, whereas in Valencia, Valenciano held primacy. All signs were in Valincian first, Castillian second.

Really nice place, laid back yet full of vitality. Beautiful city.

Corrida de toros

The bullfight was interesting. I'm glad I saw it, but I would not be one to frequent the events. It was pretty gruesome actually.

There were 6 bullfights, meaning 6 different bulls. Every fight was essentially a scripted copy of every other, but with a different matador each time, and the behavior/size of the bull varied with each fight.

I thought that a bullfight consisted of simply a single bullfighter and bull, but no, there are many other ingredients.

Each fight followed a pretty elaborate script:

First the bull would be let out and 2 bullfighters would stand at 3 separate "corners" (forming a triangle) of the ring. One of the three groups would brandish their capes and entice/taunt the bull into charging. The bull would then run over, run through the cape a few times, then the bullfighters would run behind a protective outcropping, with their heads still visible to the bull, but to where the bull could not reach them. Then the group from the opposite side would begin calling/taunting the bull and it would race across to the other side and the situation would repeat itself. This worked to tire/frustrate the bull.

Second, a man on horseback with a long spear would come out and the bull would be led over by one of the bullfighters to it. The bull would then charge and ram the horse (which was blindfolded and was wearing some sort of protective blanket, which I am sure protected it from being cut up by the horns, but I imagine the horse is pretty bruised up the next day), and the rider would fight it off by kicking it away and stabbing at its back with his spear. The bull would finally give up the fight and then be distracted and led away by a bullfighter with a cape. It would charge the cape a few times and tire itself out, and then would be led to the other side of the ring to another rider/horse, which it would once again ram and receive another series of stabs for its efforts.

By now the bull was is visibly exhausted and bleeding profusely, and 3 to 4 new bullfighters would stand, one at a time, in the center, brandishing two, hand-held spears, which I guess are hooked at the blades' ends. The bull would rush the center-standing bullfighter, who would sidestep the charge and jam the spears into the bulls back. This situation would repeat 1-3 times, depending on the condition of the bull.

The bulls chest would now be heaving, it would be gasping for air, its dried tongue hanging 6 to 12 inches out its mouth, 4-8 spears would be hanging off its blood soaked back, and streams of blood would be running down its legs, staining and puddling in the sand below. The matador, with a small, red cape and sword, would walk to the center of the ring and compel the bull to charge a few times, after which he would stand in front of the bull, defiantly, sometimes even placing his hand on the bulls head, once the bull lacked the strength/willpower to continue on. The matador would then walk away, with his back to the bull, then about face and entice the bull to charge one last time. When it charges, the matador would thrust the sword, down to the hit, into the bulls back. The bull would collapse, and the matador would stride over, unsheathe a small knife, and deliver the deathstroke with a swift, powerful stab to the bull's nape.

The first fight was a bit hard to watch, I was not ready for all the blood I guess. I felt bad for the bull too. Obviously the bull was just brought in to die, but I felt like it was given no chance, especially since every bull was dispatched of cleanly, with no injuries incurred by any of the fighters. After about the second fight I just settled in and enjoyed the spectacle though, somewhat secretly hoping that the next fighter would get gored.

One of the bulls was spared though, as it was really entertaining, it even tried to jump the ring's walls into the crowd at one point.

The odds are stacked against the bull, undoubtedly, but I still gotta give respect to the bullfighters. It takes a lot of something to get in there. All of the bulls were over 1000 lbs, and when they charged, they were amazingly quick, and I witnessed the impact when they collided with the horses. Substitute man for horse, and well, it wouldn't be good. Especially the fighters without the capes. When a fighter has a cape, the bull would charge that, but those with just the two spears, well, the bull was gunning straight for them. Sidestep the wrong way...

As I said, the experience was interesting. Definitely made more so by the cultural aspect of it. When I think of Spain, I think of bulls. Its hard not to among the thousands of black bull silhouettes, usually against a red background, that you can see on T-shirts, flags, posters, signs, everything across the country. There were definitely a lot of tourists there, but the majority of the crowd was Spanish, and not surprisingly mostly male. I hadn't been to one before, so I'm glad I saw it.

Olé!

Madrid, España

I flew in from Zurich to Madrid on Thursday, Aug. 16. I made my way from the airport to my hostel by subway. I had to change lines three times, and the second line was completely crowded. I was one of the last passengers to board and I had to squeeze my way in amongst the throng with a daypack against my chest and a backpack on my back. I was pressed up against the entrance doors. I wasn't wearing my concealed traveler's purse and my wallet was in my front pocket. Precisely due to the location of my wallet I felt a bit uncomfortable with all of the people so close, but my backpack inhibited me from making any room for myself. I reached down to put my hand in my pocket, but was surprised/horrified to find a hand already there. The man next to me had his jacket covering his arm and had reached into my pocket. I swept his hand out and pushed him away from me. I then shoved my hand into my pocket: my wallet was there but my passport was gone. I grabbed the guy and screamed 'jilipollas dónde está mi pasaporte!' (where's my passport asshole!). He threw up his arms innocently and my mind just raced, if I lose my passport I am f-ing dead! His two friends closed in on me, trying to clam me, I figured he had passed it to them. I reached into my other pocket: it was there. I let go of him and said 'ok, ok, está bien'. All three smiled innocently, said 'no problem', and made room for me to make my way to the back of the subway car. They got off at the next stop.

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Wow. That was pretty stupid of me. I was wearing shorts with fairly open pockets, I shouldn't have been carrying my wallet and passport in them, but as I said, I had just gotten off the plane, perhaps my mind was still somewhat in the safety of Zurich, and I definitely wasn't expecting a crowded subway car. If I wouldn't have found my passport, I don't know what I would've done, but I wouldn't have let the guy go, at which point his friends would have probably jumped in, and that would have been joyous. That was close, that was stupid.

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The rest of the day went really smoothly... I checked in, took a shower, washing both the sweat and the nerves away, and just walked around the city at night, orienting myself and taking in Madrid. It's splendid.

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Today I went to Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, a modern art museum with works from the 20th and 21st centuries, including many Dalis and Picasso's Guernica. Probably one of, if not the, most enjoyable art museums I have ever been to. Tomorrow I am going to check out the Prado, and in the evening I'm going to a bullfight. Neato.

Zurich

The Limmat River running through Zurich, with the Alps in the distance.

On Monday Aug 13 I traveled from London to Zurich, Switzerland to visit one of my roommates from Argentina. He is German, but he has been living and working in Zurich for the past 5 years.

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My flight from London was delayed over three hours: 1) problem with the plane so they had to fly a new one in from Glasgow, 2) someone got sick on the plane and a medical team had to rush in 3) there was an unidentified piece of luggage onboard so we all had to disembark as they searched/checked the plane. Awesome. So at 9 pm rather than 5 pm I touched down, and as the evening was somewhat shot, we just had some beers on his rooftop terrace, which offered a scintillating view of the city at night, then went to a bar on the river, then ended the night with a few more beers at his place over conversation of global politics, America's and Europe's respective roles in the world, anti-Americanism, and Switzerland. Both great and insightful.

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Zurich.

The next day we toured the city a bit on foot, then rented bikes, for free, and rode around the city for a bit before deciding to ride up Uetliberg Hill to the observatory platform for an overview of the city. The ride up was wonderful, extremely peaceful. We were alone for most of the ride and the scenery was gorgeous. The path was a bit steep at times, but we didn't mind as we had battery powered bikes that augmented our pedalling and made the climb really easy... All good things must come to an end though, and about 3/4 of the way up both his and my battery died. Then it sucked. The bikes were extremely heavy, and with the batteries dead, they wer just dead weight. The path steepened as we approached the summit, to the point where we were unable to ride the bikes and ended up having to drag them along with us as we hiked the rest of the way.

View from Uetliberg observatory platform.

That night we went to a different bar on the river and met up with one of his friends that lives in the same apartment building. He is half American half Swiss, but grew up entirely in Africa. It was really interesting hearing about his experiences in Africa, and also hearing about what he is doing now. He developed some kind of satellite pinpointing system and is using it to send electronic textbooks to schools in Africa. He is working with a computer company that will be selling laptops for $100 to schools in Ethiopia, and he is going to travel there next month to set everything up. Last year he ran a sucessful pilot program in Ghana, where he grew up, and now he has investors backing him and he hopes that it will spread throughout Africa. Interesting. He can't wait to get back there, he said that Africa just gets in your blood, the continent just pulls him back.

Bar alongside the Limmat River.

The next day we went to the Zurich Art Museum, which contains works by Lichtenstein, Dali, Picasso, as well as the largest Munch colection outside of Norway. Nice. We then went to a bar along the river and sunbathed for a bit before walking down to a bridge and jumping in. We were carried by the current and floated back down to our stuff. Rinse and repeat. Refreshing.

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That evening we went to a bar that had an open-air cine night. The film shown was a French movie from the 50s or 60s and titled 'Die Verachtung' (The Contempt) in German, I forget its original French name. It was good, but somewhat depressing. The whole atmosphere was great though, cool bar with an artsy crowd.

Swiss Army pocket knife goes high-tech.

Zurich as a city is beautiful, idyllic, everything seems unreal in its perfection. The city is spotlessly clean, the houses stately and well-maintained, and I was so amazed that people could actually swim in the river. The Spree, the Main, and the Danube weren't putrid, but no one was swimming in them, or was about to. The surrounding scenery is incredible as well.

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The city is also extremely safe, women can walk alone down dark alleys at 4am no problem. Because the city is so safe and absent of real crime, soft drugs are also tolerated, the police nit pick at the little stuff. They'll break out the ruler to measure how many centimeters you are outside the lines of a parking space, or harass you if your bicycle isn't secured properly.

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My friend, and his German friends, also said that the Swiss populus is a bit unfriendly to foreigners. Not unfriendly in a superficial way, they're courteus and all, but a bit closed to outsiders, its hard to build friendships. My friend is German and his live-in girlfriend is Hungarian. They have both lived and worked in Switzerland for five years, but all their friends there are foreigners. They get along fine with their Swiss colleagues at work, but that's where the relationships end, not extendin into private life.

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Before I arrived my friend wrote me and said that the weather was projected to be horrible during the time I was to be there, but I had wonderful luck as the weather was perfect. It had rained for two weeks straight before I arrived, and it was raining the day I left, but whilst I was there God was smiling on Zurich.

Anarchy in the UK

Tower Bridge.

On Friday the 10th I traveled from Amsterdam to London. I had been to London before, for about 4 days in 2003, but I had a friend there whom I had met in Argentina, and it was just a hop across the pond from Amsterdam, so I decided to go. During that first trip I did most of the requisite touristy stuff, so this trip lacked a frantic need to run around and see everything. I did some touristy stuff, but it was mainly just a relaxed, and consequently authentic, weekend in London.

I arrived around 7 pm, was met by my friend, and we headed straight to the pub, backpacks and all. We went to what I was told was one of the top five pubs in London and met up with about 15 of her friends. It was really nice. The pub is a gastro pub, meaning that you can eat there too, and is run by the world famous chef Gordon Ramsay (who I have to admit that I didn't know beforehand). The English have a reputation for drinking, and drinking heavily, and my experience that night was a nice introduction to the English binge-drinking culture. I hadn't yet had a chance to change my money, so I was without any Pounds and thus without means to pay for my drinks. No matter: she and her friends were extremely generous and kept my glass full all night. I hadn't had a chance to eat dinner either. No matter: we ordered a pint of prawns (many of whose shells were clandistinely placed in one of her friend's messenger bags). The party moved from the pub to her place and raged till about 4am, fueled by gin, beer, and a 35 Pound order of Dominos Pizza.

Ummmmm, pint of prawns.

The next day we were a bit slow getting up, but finally managed it. After jump starting our day with a few cups of tea, we went and checked out the Tate Modern museum: AMAZING and FREE! She had worked there for a year and a half as an events manager before traveling to South America, and was therefore pretty knowledgeable about the museum and its contents. I had a private tour basically. In the foyer there was also a free exhibit on world cities that was quite good. From there we just walked around the city for a bit. We saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, walked through a market, saw the Monumentm which was built to memorialize the London fire and intended to serve as the center of the city, with all of London's roads radiating from it (didn't happen), and also some interesting buildings in downtown London, some old, some new, all of whose names escape me.

Swiss Re (Gherkin) building, with Lloyd's building on the left.

This was really interesting, each level of the building is suspended/supported from the floor above, so they are demolishing the building upwards.

That night we went out to see her boyfriend's band at a local pub. It was a great show. He played drums in an 8-man folk-rock band, and I really enjoyed the set ( www.myspace.com/decadesaudio ). The following act was an all-girl Sex Pistols cover band called the Bitch Pistols. Very entertaining to say the least. They were all joking that they were glad that they didn't have to follow that, as there's nothing like a good dose of folk to kill a raging, anarchic, angst-ridden punk buzz.

Decades and the Bitch Pistols, for the first time ever together and live and on stage...

My friend lives really close to the Arsenal's Emirates stadium, and on Sunday Arsenal played Fulham. The game wasn't televized, but we listened to it on the radio, and since her flat was so close to the stadium, all we had to do was open the windows to feel like we were right there amongst the action. Really, it was tremendous, you could hear the crowd chanting, booing, screaming, it was really cool. Arsenal, who was pre-season ranked 4th, was losing to Fulham, who was ranked to be relegated, 1-0 for most of the game, but in the 83rd minute they got a PK, which they converted, and the crowd, and the friends that I was with, just went wild! I'm pretty sure the flat shook! Then in extra time Arsenal was able to put one more in to win the game 2-1. I think the mood of the day would've been pretty grim had they lost, but as it was everyone left the flat in good spirits.

After the game we went to Highgate Cemetery, an expansive 37 acre cemetery seemingly ripped straight out of a horror movie, with crumbling graves stacked one upon the other and everything overrun by trees and folliage. It was awesome though, beautifully mysterious by day. The cemetery is home to many of England's, actually the world's, elites. Amongst other prominents we saw the grave of Karl Marx, with a tombstone containing about a 10x-larger-than-life bust.

The man himself.

After getting our morbid fix for the day we traveled to Hampstead Heath Park and climbed to the highest point of the city, which offered a spectacular view of London in its entirity. We made our way down and hit up a pub for some cider and a quick snack. We were joined by some other friends and spent a good few hours there. My friend lives with 2 other girls and they were planning on cooking a big dinner that night so she left a bit early to go help them prepare. I stayed at the pub and continued to enjoy the great cider and conversation. Around 9 pm we went back and had a fantastic lasangna dinner, and then watched the British movie 'Layer Cake', with Daniel Craig, and a few episodes of the British TV series 'Extras', with Ricky Gervais of 'The Office' fame.

View of London from Hampstead Heath.

The entire weekend was great. It was great seeing my friend again ad all of her friends were wonderful to me and struck me as extremely witty, intelligent, and engaging. We enjoyed great 'banter.'

Going to Amsterdam in the new year, top gear there...

I amste-(me)-rdam

From Muenster I took a train to Amsterdam. My plan was to meet up with another intern from the Transatlantic Program who was coincidentally there at the same time. He had already booked a hotel room for himself and two visiting American friends, and I was planning on crashing on their floor. The problem was that I had just found out about his travel and housing situations that daz, and I had just emailed him my travel info just a few hours before I was set to arrive. I didn't know if he was going to get the email that I had sent him, and he didn't have a cell phone, so I was a bit worried that I wasn't going to be able to meet up with him and that I was going to have to go hunting for something on my own, at 9:00 pm during the high season. I just crossed and assumed everything would work out... It did.

I arrrived and set out fin the direction of the hotel. As I was making my way there, but still quite a ways away, I suddenly heard my name shouted from across the street. It was my friend. By complete chance he and his party were returning at the same time as I was arriving.

Dam Square and Koninklijk Paleis.

I had planned on just crashing on his floor, but the hotel was such that the guests had to leave their keys at the front desk when departing, and they had to be buzzed back into the building when returning, with video surveillance monitoring the front door. (I suppose to discourage guests from bringing in prostitutes, and to keep the potentially drugged-up riff-raff out). Anyways, so I wasn't able to just stroll in as I had planned, and insted had to argue my way into the room and pay an extra fee to make it official. It turned out to be more expensive than if I would have just stayed in a hostel, but it was well worth it, as the place was nice and I was able to explore and experience the city and its legalities with friends rather than alone.

Not only did they spell 'brewery' incorrectly, but they misspelled 'Budweiser'!

I was only in Amsterdam for one full day, but I was able to see quite a lot. We went to the Rembrandt house, which houses many of his and his contemporaries' works, to the Van Gogh museum, to many cathedrals and palaces, and generally strolled along the winding streets and canals. Pretty city. We tried to visit Anne Frank's house, but we would've spent the whole day in line.

My friend outside the Van Gogh museum.

At night we hit the town and made a point to walk through the red light district. The district literally glows red. Every street within the district is lined with windowed doors framed with red fluorescent lights. Inside the doors are scantily-clad sirens seductively soliciting sex. The environment was really interesting, with the crowd a mixture of drunken/drugged groups of guys, curious tourists (including guided tours, elderly grandparents and all), and lone stags on the prowl. They were few girls (outside the prostitutes), and the girl that with us, my friend's friend from the US, was none to thrilled with the district's goings-on and frequently voiced her disgust with the male gender. I found it interesting. The district was completely non-intrusive and free from touts and harrassment, the women just sold themselves. To me, I guess it was like visiting a zoo. We walked through the streets in long processions and stared at the women, many of which weren't bad, through the glass. The district is lined with bars and coffee shops, adding a background of music and marijuana smoke to the proceedings.

Images from the red light district.

I really only had time for a quick, touristy, superficial glimpse of the city, but from what I saw Amsterdam city is really nice.

Canal by night.

Muenster

On Monday the 6th I traveled from Budapest to Muenster, Germany. There I visited a German friend who was one of my classmates in China. It was really nice seeing him again, and the city itself was pretty nice too.

Muenster's town hall.

Muenster is a smaller town in Nordrhein-Westfahlen and is about 1300 years old and the site of the signing of the Treaty of Westfhalia ending the Thirty Years' War in 1648. It is one of the only German cities destroyed during WWII that elected to rebuild itself completely true to its antebellum form. Due to this decision, Muenster lacks the 50s' cookie-cutter office and residential buildings ubiquitous throughout the rest of the Germany. Laughed at at the time, the city is now lauded for the decision, as the downtown is consequently quite stunning. The university there, with approximately 50,000 students, is the 3rd largest in Germany. Party due to the student presence, the city has a 2:1 bike to person ratio, the largest in the nation.

Chillida's "Toleranz durch Dialog" (Tolerance through discourse) at the site where the Treaty of Westphalia was signed.

The first night we just spent at his apartment: we grilled, drank, and caught up on what had been going on for the past four months.

As my friend wasn't too confident in his Muenster-expertise, the next day we went on a professional city tour. The tour was nice, and informative (see info above). We saw where the Treaty was signed, the townhall, and the city's many churches/cathedrals, and we heard interesting anecdotes, one concerning the Anabaptists' takeover of the city in the 16th Century. When the city was recaptured by the Bishop's forces, the leader, who had 16 wives, was killed and his boy was suspended in a still-hanging cage from the tower of the church so that his remains would not be buried and his spirit would never find peace.

Later on that day we traveled to nearby Essen and visited Zollverein, a World Culture Site and the home to the once-largest coal mine in the world. The facility was constructed from about 1910-1930 and was used throughout most of the 20th century. The coal supply has since dried up and the mine is no longer in use. The main buildings on the site have been converted into a museum and the periphery buildings house an art gallery and traveling exhibits. We toured the facility and everything was pretty interesting. One of the most interesting things is that the facility is still intact. As an energy producing plant, I would have thought that it would have been a prime bombing target during WWII, but apparently it was spared due to two factors: 1) the mine was the largest and most modern of it's kind at the time and was used, and was wanted to be continued to be used, as a template, 2) its construction had been financed by American capital, and its capital investors weren't too keen on seeing it leveled.

Zollverein

That night, more of the same: met up with a few of his friends for dinner and drinks. Much good food, much alcohol.

The next day we did as the Muensterans do and took a quick bike tour of the city before I caught my train. All in all, great trip.

Budapest

So I'm in Dortmund right now, killing time until I catch a train to Münster in an hour or so.

Budapest (Pest side)

I just spent the last weekend in Budapest, which was really nice. I took a train there from Schwaigern on Friday, 10 hours of pure joy, and arrived around 9. I stayed there with an American friend that I met in Tokyo. She is working there as a financial analyst and has been there since May. I arrived, dropped off my stuff at her place, and then we hit the town. First we went over to one of her co-workers places and pre-partied a bit. Her co-workers/friends were all really nice. There were two Americans there, a co-worker who had been in Budapest for about 6 months and his girlfriend who was working in Budapest as a free-lance journalist, one French co-worker, and then three Hungarian co-workers. We just sat there and drank, conversed, chilled. It was nice. We discussed the merits or Neil Diamond, the philosophy of Ann Rand, Hungarian economy and history, and the color and versatility of Hungarian swear words. From there we all jumped into one of her co-worker's nine-seater vans, and whizzed down the streets jamming to the Rolling Stones. There is a German movie called Sonnenallee which deals with East Berlin youths in the 1970s who rebel against the DDR by listening to "dissident, Western" music, and in one scene the a 15 year old is overjoyed when he finally recieves a copy of "Exile on Main Street" (a joy that is shortlived as the album is destroyed by a Russian soldier in the following scene). The van was straight out of the seventies and on the streets there in Budapest there are a lot of old Soviet cars, I couldn't help but recall that movie as we raced down the streets listening to "Rocks Off." We parked and walked to a packed outdoor club. The club was rocking, rocking with really bad 70s, 80s and 90s pop/dance hits. Ok, that's unfair, the music wasn't bad, just really, really, played out. Someone explained to me "imagine that in 1989, after the fall of the Soviet Union, someone just gave Hungary a box with all of the music that they had missed out on for the last 40 years and said, 'here, have fun' " So now they're still reliving for the first time all of the music that they missed. I found the explanation both humorous and insightful. The atmosphere in the club was great though. At about two we left the club and walked to a themal bath that was next door. That was amazing. It was 2am and we left a club to go relax in mineral baths, ice baths, steam rooms, and saunas. The baths had been around since the 15th century. We stayed there until the place closed at four. Amazing.

The city of Budapest was formed in 1873 through the amalgamation of the three cities of Buda, Obuda, and Pest. The Buda side of the city lies on the West bank of the Danube river and Pest lies to the East.

On Saturday we walked around the Pest side of the city all day. We saw the Parliament, a towering Gothic structure modeled after the UK's and standing 96m tall, a number that symbolizes Hungary's millenial aniversary. We saw St. Stephen's basilica, the largest church in Budapest and the home of St. Stephen's mumified right hand. We also checked out the Great Synagogue, which is the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world. The entrance costs $8 though, so I just admired it from the outside.

Millenium Monument in Heroes' Square

That night we once again met up with her friends and we went out for an authentic Hungarian dinner topped off with shots of Palinka, Hungary's treasured 100 proof schnaps. It's basically a national drink, so culturally I was glad that I tried it, but physically.... Whew, it tasted like really, really cheap/bad vodka, and as it was the end of the meal and I had nothing to chase it down with, the taste lingered with me for about the next half hour. I guess there are many ypes of Palinka though. Ours was of the straight variety, but there are others flavored with honey or fruits which are supposedly much better.

Alongside the Danube, with the Buda Castle in the background.

After dinner we bought some beers from a convienience store and just walked alongside the Danube. The view from the river is beautiful at night. Everything is lit up: the castle, the Parliament, the many churches, and many impressive bridges. It's really spectacular.

One of the best parts of the night was when we were buying our drinks. The American guy in our group picked up a bottle, a jug actually, of $3 sangria, twist-off cap and all, and as he was checking out he asked the cashier, jokingly, if the bottle "was a good year?" The cashier just stared at him somewhat bewildered for a few awkward seconds, then explained to him "that's not wine." His girlfriend immediately told him to stop making jokes in English because no one ever gets them, but I really appreciated it. We drank the sangria warm, against the label's recommendation, and it was splendid, something like a really sugary Hi-C with a kick. The funniest part was that the next night we went out to a club that supposedly had great sangrias, and when we ordered them the bartender pulled out the same bottle. Hilarious. Although I must admit that served chilled and garneshed with fruit it was somewhat of a completely different drink.

Chain Bridge as viewed from the Castle District.

On Sunday I crossed over to the Buda side and explored the 800 yr. old Castle District, a World Heritage site, which contains the Buda Castle, three museums, the Matthias Church, the Fisherman's Bastion, and about three million other things. The district is situated on the Vorhegy Hill and offers an incredible panoramic of the city in its entirity.

Understandably, the city really reminded me of Vienna, with its majestic opera house, its plethora of cafes and churches, and similar stately boulevards and architecture. Although the capital may not be as clean or well-maintained as its Western counterpart, it is still quite impressive, and as it doesn't yet use the Euro and is still somewhat off Europe's beaten path, its both a bargain and relatively absent of the tourist droves.

As the heart of the country and home to about 2 million people, the city is bustling. There seemed to always be something going on. At four, when we left the Turkish bath my first night, the streets were still crowded. It can be peaceful though too. There are beautiful parks round the city, and earlier today I relaced in both the soothing waters of the Szechenyi thermal bath as well as amid the lush greens of the City Park.

Outside of the Szechenyi thermal baths.

Tonight I am going to be traveling to visit a German friend who was one of my classmates in Beijing. I haven't seen him since the beginning of April, so I'm excited about it...

Travel Plans

As I wrote in the last update, right now I am in Schwaigern visiting my Au-pair from my childhood. It’s been fantastic seeing her and her family again, they’re all so nice. She is married and has two kids, in 2nd grade and kindergarten, respectively, and her whole family lives here. Her parents live next door, her sister lives across the street, and all her aunts, uncles, cousins, live a couple of blocks away. There is always a lot going on, it's like a family reunion everyday. This is actually the 6th time I have visited her here. Wow! The first time I came was in 2003 before my study abroad semester in Spain, and I could speak about 2 words of German. It's really neat now, especially in comparison, because I’ve reached a point where we just speak the entire time in German. The German spoken here is really a dialect though, so often when I speak to her parents or relatives my Au-pair has to translate things into High German for me. It’s funny.

Tomorrow I’m going to leave here though and begin traveling around Europe. My itinerary, for now, is Budapest, then Münster (a university city in Germany), then Amsterdam, then London, then Zürich, then Spain (Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona), then Istanbul, and then Athens. Should be great!

Auf Wiedersehen

So right now I am in Schwaigern, a small town in Southern Germany, visiting my Au-pair and her family. I finished my internship in Frankfurt on July 31st and traveled here early yesterday morning.

Frankfurt am Main

My experience in Frankfurt, in Germany, was really great. The internship maybe wasn’t as challenging as I would have liked, and as far as engineering goes, I really didn’t learn too much, but I worked with great people, I definitely improved my German, and I gained international working experience, so all in all it was nice.

Cathedral in Frankfurt.

As I wrote before, part of my job dealt with working with apprentices and interns. The age range was about 17-21, and some had traveled to, or spent time in, the US, but most hadn’t. Most were really curious about the US and asked a lot of questions, many of which were really funny. Their view of the US, aside from politics, seemed to be completely based on the American movies, TV shows, and music that make it across the Atlantic. These media are everywhere too. Most all of the movies in theaters are American, 75% of the music on the radio is American (I bought a portable radio to listen to German on my way to work, and was extremely disappointed when I couldn’t find a single station that wasn’t playing music in English), half of the sitcoms on TV are American, and MTV, with NEXT, Flavor of Love, and My Super Sweet 16, is just as popular here as in the US. The thing is, the apprentices that I worked with, granted they’re young, but they watch movies with gratuitous violence, or hear a rap song about gangs, guns, and police brutality, and they think that is how it is in the US. I hate to think of the wonders that Flava Flav and 16 year-old spoiled brats are doing for the world’s perception of American culture.

Michael Moore documentaries and ‘Supersize Me’ are also really popular. I was asked many times ‘Is everyone in the US really so fat?’ or ‘Is it weird seeing so many thin people here?’ Ha! Our ranking as the fattest country in the world is definitely a well-known fact, a fact that ‘Supersize Me’ added visible, albeit one-sided, credibility to. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I guess I’d say that in comparison to the US the German population is generally thinner/in better shape, although Germany is the fattest country in Europe, so the difference isn’t as stark as say it is with Spain. I was also asked constantly about guns: Do I have one? Do my friends all have one/two/twelve? Can 10 year olds really buy them? My boss would even joke about these things. My first week he said ‘no, you can’t be American, you’re too thin!’, and he jokingly asked me a few times ‘Did you bring your gun to work today?’

Frankfurt am Main

I was also asked, ‘is it strange not really seeing any black people here?’ I guess if you watch American movies or TV shows, most of which take place in urban areas like NY or LA, every 2nd person is black, and if you watch rap videos on MTV, every person is black. I hadn’t really though about it, though as hailing from Broken Arrow, OK and Columbia, MO I never really found myself surrounded by color. Compared to Germany though, America is really a racially diverse place. I looked it up, and the US is about 65% Caucasian, 13% African American, 13% Hispanic, and 3% Asian American. Germany is pretty white. There are blacks of course, but few, and I’d say probably about 75% of the ones that are here weren’t born here, but rather emigrated from Africa to find work. The largest minority group by far are the Turks. WWII greatly reduced the male population of Germany and after the war many Turks entered the country as guest workers. The families of these workers stayed, and then more came, to where now there is a large Turkish community in basically every city in Germany. The thing is though, these communities are basically autonomous, as the Turks really haven’t assimilated. The communities are Turkish communities within Germany, not really integrated into the German society. Many don’t speak German, or at least not well, and, partly due to this, many are poorly educated. Many also retain traditional Muslim/Turkish societal/cultural values, which sometimes conflict with those values held by both the traditional and the progressive sides of German society. That's not to say it's totally their fault, in a lot of ways it is really hard for integration to happen, but that's just what is going on, and conflicts do tend to arise. I haven’t personally experienced anything, but I know that there is definitely tension, and you hear it expressed.

None of that is to say that the Germans are racists though. Far from. In almost all of my experience here I’ve found the Germans to be incredibly open-minded, progressive, and tolerant. There are still ‘Nazis’ of course, but these are a very small minority. There is a Nationalist Party here in Germany (as Germany is an open democracy), and although it is illegal for them to officially use the word Nazi, everyone knows that that is what the party is. This party had a political rally outside of Frankfurt a few weeks ago, and there were actually far more protestors than there were demonstrators.

Since WWII Germany is really wary of showing national pride. If someone were to say, ‘I’m proud to be German’, he’d probably be labeled as a Nazi. That is why the World Cup was so great last year, and its lingering effects are still so great. People could/can be proud of their country without being labeled as Nazis. They could/can brandish flags and show national pride without being labeled national socialists.

Frankfurt is really an international city though. It’s the financial capital of Germany and people travel from all over the world to live and work here. Sitting in the subway you can hear, alongside German, English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, various African tongues, and a myriad of other languages.

I went to a few clubs here, some HUGE, some small, all pretty nice. All of the clubs play mainly house and techno though, which takes some getting used to.

The weather hasn’t been too hot here pretty much all summer, with rain just about every day, and the last few weeks in the 60s. Last week though, one day when the weather was really nice, I went to a beach club with a friend after work. It was great. The club is a peninsula that extends out into the Main river, and the ground is covered with sand, there are volleyball courts, cabanas, lounge chairs... it is a beach in the heart of the city. Half of the people were wearing swim- the other half were wearing business-suits. We just ordered a few hefe-weizen beers, kicked off our shoes, laid back and went on a mini-vacation.

I’m definitely going to miss Frankfurt. It’s a great city, I had a great experience, and I made some great friends.

Random: I am so very impressed with Germany’s recycling and environmental protection programs. They're incredible. I guess the environment is one of Bundeskanzlerin Merkel’s big issues in international politics, so she’s really pushing reform.

Kurze Reise

Tonight I am going to take a night train to Prague, Czech Republic, and then from there I will travel to Vienna, Austria and then spend the day in Salzburg, Austria on my way back to Frankfurt next Tuesday. Should be fun!

You've got to love the German work schedule. I work 35 hour weeks, and I'm only working for 2 months but I get 5 vacation days. Awesome!

Deutschland

On the roof of the Reichtag, Berlin

So right now I'm in Germany, I've actually been here for about 2 months now, yeah, I've been slacking a bit about updating this...

Kitschy David statue, art museum, and Kölner Dom (from behind), Köln

Right now I am in Köln, Cologne, for a mid-term seminar for the Transatlantic Program that I am participating in. I arrived last night and met up with one of my classmates from my language school in Argentina. He is in his mid-thirties and works for a bank here in Köln, and was in Buenos Aires to improve his Spanish as he has clients in Nicaragua and Panama. It was great to see him again. He lives right in the heart of the city and he showed me around a bit and then we went out to a typical "Kölnisches" restraurant and ate way too much and drank quite a lot of Kölsch (the beer here in Cologne).

At 6:00pm today I am going to meet with the rest of the students from my program. I'm pretty excited about it actually. They are all really nice and I'm interested to find out how they've all spent the last month here.

My roommate from Alicante, to my left, and I in a bar in Berlin.

I arrived in Germany from India (tangent: I tried to give blood two days ago, for the first time in my life, but couldn't because I had traveled to India in the last 6 months. That sucked. I was nervous about giving blood, so I guess that got me out of it, but it was disappointing. I stole some stickers though, so I can lie and say I did...) Anyways... I arrived in Berlin on May 16th and stayed with my German roommate from my study abroad semester in Alicante for a few days. It was awesome to see him again. The last time I had seen him was a year and a half ago when I traveled to Germany with my sister, and I hadn't really spoken to him since then, but it really seemed like no time had passed at all. He took me around the city a bit, showing me some of the more off-the-beaten-path sights. Over the course of the three days we played a few heated games of chess in a cafe, played a few drunken games of pool in a bar, and played some fast-paced, 9-player, running-around-the-table games of ping pong with some of his friends in a park. (I found out later that he was a member of a table tennis team when he was younger, yeah, he was good).

Tour of the Reichtag with the TA Program.

On the 19th I started the Transatlantic Program. The program is F-ing awesome. I still question why I'm here taking part in it, I think my German professor paid someone off. Our schedule for that first immersion seminar is as follows: Schedule for the visit of the U.S. student delegation to Germany It basically consisted of language training, inter-cultural training, presentations about working in Germany, educational presentations about German politics, economy, history, and culture, and we met with various businesses and government agencies. We also took day trips to Hamburg and Rostock, which were cool. I hadn't taken a German course or really spoken German in over a year, so at first everything was a bit overwhelming, but it was fun. I am really enjoying speaking the language again.

I'm working right now at Continental Teves in Frankfurt. The company is great, huge and world-recognized as a leader in its field, so it'll look great on my resume, and my bosses and "co-workers" are really nice, but my job isn't really anything to brag about. I'm working in the technical training department, so I'm just working with apprentices who are going through something like a vocational high school program to become mechanics, mechatronicians, or electricians, and with interns who are studying either electrical or mechanical engineering. What I'm doing is translating a bunch of documents, helping the apprentices/interns with their English, or with math, or questions about their assignments, random odd jobs (for instance yesterday I built a cabinet), and just playing with the machines in my spare time: drilling, milling, and turning. My boss really believes that a big component of the apprentices' education is English, so he has them give presentations in English every week, write monthly English reports, and he hired me to help them with their speaking proficiency. He's planning on sending some of them to one of Continental's branches in England for a bit in the future, so he's really preparing them for that. Continental's training program is really incredible, I'm so impressed with how much these kids know. It's actually a really prestigious apprenticeship though, as my boss told me that this year over 500 students applied, and only 16 were chosen.

Römer Platz in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt from the Main river.

Frankfurt as a city is great. Some people told me before I arrived that the city was ugly, just an industrial, working city. The city, as most cities in Germany, was destroyed during WWII and was subsequently quickly rebuilt with practical, functional buildings, many just cookie-cutter, which sacrifice aesthetics for practicality. Then later on a lot of sky scrapers were built, something unique for Germany, prompting some to nickname the city Main-hatten (as Frankfurt is on the Main river). I really like the city though. The skyline I find magnificent and the view from the river, especially at night, is breathtaking. Also, a lot of the buildings that were destroyed during the war were rebuilt in the same style, so although they are not authentic in age, they still give the city a classic feel and really give the impression that you're walking through a centuries-old city.

Old opera house in Frankfurt.

I don't actually live in the city proper, but rather in a suburb called Eschborn. It's a suburb, but you wouldn't really know it as everything in Germany is so close together that you can't really tell where one city ends and the other begins (Germany is about the size of New Mexico and has a population of over 80 million).

Having a beer at my friend's place.

My German friend from Beijing, he of "Dude Where's my Car" fame, lives in Frankfurt and I emailed him when I arrived and gave him my cell # here. He called me up and asked me where I lived. I told him "yeah, well, I don't really live in Frankfurt proper, but a little outside the city, in Eschborn, actually in Niederhöchstatt." "No way," he said. I figured he was going to say "Come on, what are you doing living there, that's so far away!," but he said "No way, I live in Niederhöchstadt!" "Yeah, where do you live?" "On the street Schöne Aussicht." Now it was my turn, "No way, I live on Schöne Aussicht!" It turns out we're neighbors. Pure coincidence. I met him in China, hadn't talked with him in two months, moved to a metropolitan area of over a million people, and now we live right down the street from eachother. The world can be a small place sometimes.

At the opera, Mozart's Zauberflöte

I've done a lot since I've been here in Germany. I've been to two operas: Mozart's Zauberflöte, and Der Tod in Venidig (Death in Venice). I went to the NFL Europe's World Bowl between Hamburg and Frankfurt with Meat Loaf as the the half-time show. "I would do anything for love, yes I would do anything for love, I would do anything for love, but I won't do that, no no, NO I WON'T DO THAT!" It was great. Incidentally the NFL Europe has lost about 50 million euros each year since it was founded 10 years ago, so the NFL in the U.S. has decided to pull the plug on the league. That means that I saw the last game ever. Wow. I saw Bright Eyes in concert in Wiesbaden, which was amazing. He played almost entirely new songs, which I didn't know as I don't have his new CD, but it was a great concert in a Blue Note-type venue and I drank, danced, and sung my heart out. Connor was as sexy as ever. Last weekend I went to a museum called Dialog im Dunkeln (Dialogue in the Dark), which simulates the experience of being blind. It was an hour and a half long tour through different rooms that simulated being in the city, the forest, on a boat, in a cafe, etc., all in complete darkness. It's amazing how much everything changes without sight. It was really interesting. A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to Baden-Württemberg and visited my German Au-pair from my childhood. She took care of me and my siblings for a year when she was in her 20s and I was 6. She is now married and has two children, which are growing up so fast! She and her family are so sweet and it was nice to see them all again.

World Bowl in Frankfurt.

I work about half the time in German, have a lot of German friends, and am taking a German course in the evening, so my German is getting a lot better. Das freut mich!

Random: UFC 73 is this weekend and is an awesome card: Marquardt-Silva, Nogueira-Herring, Ortiz-Evans, Sherk-Franca, etc. The event is titled "Stacked" and it really is...

India

India: 08.May.2007 - 16.May.2007

From Thailand I travelled to India. I arrived in Delhi on Tuesday, May 8th at 2:00am. Yeah, crazy hour, but that was the only flight available. The travel agent told me that that was somewhat normal for India, something about trying to beat the heat or something. I asked Lavanya about it and she said she didn’t really know, but that she, at least, hadn’t ever had a flight like that. Oh well. It didn’t matter too much to me, but I was staying with Lavanya’s late-sixties/early-seventies year old uncle, and I wasn’t too thrilled about my first impression being making him stay up until 2:00 to come and meet me at the airport. He did though, and was really nice about it. After we made it home I collapsed into my bed at around 3:00, thinking that I would have to wake up in two hours to catch a bus at 6:00 for an all-day tour of the city. I think Lav’s uncle noticed that I was completely exhausted though, and was kind enough to let me sleep in. I woke up around 11, thereby missing the tour, but we into the city for a while later on, just to sight see a bit and to go out for lunch. That was to be my sole relaxed, non-rushed day in India.

The next day I did get that 5:00am wake up call and at 7:00 I was sitting on a bus, staring out the window waving goodbye to Dehli. I was on a packaged, two day sight-seeing tour of the bottom two corners of the “Golden Triangle”: Jaipur and Agra (Delhi being the uppermost). The tour, although rushed (I think we saw about 937,892 things in some 40 hours), was great.

Sight #1 of 937,892.

The first day we traveled to Jaipur, where we saw Birla Mandir, Jantar Mantar, the Maharaja Palace, and the Amber (Red) Fort. All were incredible, and all are now a blur in my mind. We went by them all at about Mach 4. The following day we set off at 4:00am and made our way to Fatehpur Sikri and then to the Agra Fort. From there we traveled to the daddy of them all, the Taj Mahal. The Taj Majal was incredible. I had seen dozens of pictures of it beforehand, and I knew that it's always listed as one of the wonders of the world, but I really wasn’t expecting for it to be so beautiful. The first thing that struck me was it's size. It is massive. When you first walk into the grounds through the main gate you are far away from the actual structure. In between you and the Taj Majal is a huge garden, with avenues of trees, multiple flower beds, multiple fountains, and a raised marble water tank that runs the length of the garden and leads you to the reflecting pool at the base of the mausoleum. It looked big from afar, but it just got bigger and bigger as we got closer. Standing at its base, the mausoleum sits atop a marble base so as to raise it up and make it appear larger, and to allow it to be seen in its entirity from afar, and also it serves the practical purposes of supporting the structures and housing the actual graves, I was just overawed. It was breathtaking. Taking off my shoes, I made my way up to the center tomb. You could walk inside and see the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal, the deceased wife for whom the mausaleum was built, and Shah Jahan, the grief-stricken emporer/husband who commissioned its construction. The surrounding interior walls were adorned, from floor to domed ceiling, with incredibly detailed decorations of flowers, plants, and passages from the Quran, all of which were formed by the insertion of carved precious gems into the marbled walls. After the Taj Majal we breifly flew by Sikandra and Mathura before arriving back in Delhi around 11:00pm. The sights were great, but the best part of the tour was the sweet, bright yellow tour hat that we all got to wear! Well, at least for the first day, then the clasp on mine broke and no one would sell me theirs...

Taj Majal baby!

The following day I was up early again, this time for a sight seeing tour of Delhi. In some 11 hours we saw the India Gate, Birla Mandir, Raj Ghat, the Parliament House, the Lotus Temple, the Indira Gandhi Memorial, the Nehru Museum, and the Ghandi Museum, which wasn't actually a museum but rather a huge park that housed his grave. Ba-Bamm!

Lotus Temple.

Ghandi's grave.

The following day I flew from Delhi in the north down to Chennai (formerly known as Madras) in the south where I was greeted at the airport by Lav's mother, who was in India for about 2 months visiting family. From the airport we drove to Lavanya’s mother’s parents’ house, where I met Lavanya’s grandparents and other various family members. One of her cousins/uncles (I’m not sure which) took me out on a quick tour of the city on the back of his motorcycle. That was an experience. I think, for my sake, he eased up on the speed and drove a bit more cautiously than normal, but we still just raced down the streets. It was exhilarating, but my life definitely flashed before my eyes a few times. The traffic in India is crazy, and a bike was obviously a much more convenient alternative to a car, as you can weave your way through the ever-congested traffic, many times with two cars occupying each one lane, but I imagine that the life expectancy for motorcycle drivers is probably about half a year. We drove through the city and made our way to the beach, which is one of the widest in the world. Lav’s cousin told me about how, in 2004, he was batting in cricket in the parking lot where we were standing when his concentration was broken by screams coming from the beach. He looked out towards the ocean and his gaze was met by that of the hundreds of fleeing swimmers that were racing towards him, desperately trying to escape the massive tidal wave that was bearing down on them from behind. He dropped the bat and raced into the center of the city, vaulting over a police barricade wall some half a kilometer off the coast that, a few seconds later, was struck by the pursuing wave. Over 300 people died that day on that beach. He said he still felt uncomfortable being there. For me though, the beach was great. I’ve already written that it was one of the widest beaches in the world, but it is incredibly long too. I think the whole of eastern side of Chennai is a beach. Looking to my right and then to my left, the sand just stretched on and on, seemingly without end, although admittedly the view was heavily obscured by air pollution. It was in the evening so the beach wasn’t at all crowded. The cool, refreshing ocean breeze, the unhurried, rhythmic ebb and flow of the waves, and the smells of the salt water, of the ocean and its entire periphery, combined and soothed. It was peaceful. We sat alongside the shore and talked for about half an hour, until a wave finally came that broke against the bank at our feet and soaked us. It was fantastic being at a beach again.

Wading in the tide at the beach in Chennai.

The following day I went on a bus tour of Chennai and its surrounding sights. I saw 3 different temples, all of which were incredible, a somewhat-eroded seaside temple/shrine, also impressive, sandstone ruins dating back some thousand years, interesting, and then we capped off the day with a trip to an amusement park, less than spectacular. It was funny, because at all of the sights Indians would come up to me and ask me to be in pictures with them or with their children, to the point where one time a line actually formed of Indian families waiting to take pictures with the white guy.

Interior and exterior views of a temple.

As I'm not Hindu, I was generally not allowed inside the temples themselves, where the actual religious ceremonies took place, but I was allowed in the courtyards.

Seaside Temple.

The next day I had the chance to go to an Indian wedding ceremony. It wasn't the actually wedding ceremony itself, but rather somewhat of an engagement ceremony, where the fathers of the bride and groom, respectively, sat down along with two Brahmen and performed some sort of religious ritual to unite the families and promise their children to eachother, the whole while with the betrothed son sitting beside. Then the bride-to-be came out and was presented with gifts and then she sat down with her betrothed and a further ceremony was performed. It was all really interesting, and I felt really lucky, honored actually, to be there. It was an important ceremony for them and for the family, and I was just some random white guy that came and crashed the party. Everyone was super nice to me though, and I was given a VIP seat right in the front. I visibly enjoyed all of the proceedings, and I think everyone else enjoyed that. I got a lot of smiles at least. I think many people were as curious about me as I was curious about the ceremony. It was great, a truely authentic Indian experience which I am glad I had the chance to see.

Pics from the ceremony.

The final day we took a trip to Pondichery, which is the capital city of Pondichery the territory, a former French colony that still maintains a lot of French influence, including French architecture, French as an official language, and one of the highest concentration of Catholics in India. The city was neat, and really pretty. We walked around and saw a few temples and Ashrams, I got to befreind an elephant, and we walked along the beach during the evening. During the day, before going to the city proper, we traveled to Auroville, which is an autonomous city/state/nation created as an international, self-sufficient, harmonious living community. ( http://www.auroville.com/ ) It was interesting, but strange. It was created by "The Mother" and really just seemed like some sort of idealized communist commune without the anti-capitalist political rhetoric. All I could think about when I was there was "Lost" and the harmonious living community there, and Cartman from southpark saying "I hate hippies."

Elepahant blessing me in Pondicherry after I gave it a ruppee.

Ghandi statue in Pondichery.

Just about everyone in India, save for Lavanya’s family, asked me for money. Every beggar’s eyes lit up when they saw me on the street, and when I would exit the buses on tours or wander away from Lav’s family when out with them, I would be attacked by beggars, salesmen, and sometimes just regular, everyday people who would tell me that I'm rich and should share. I would either politely refuse or ignore the beggars and ordinary people, and I tried my best to ignore the sales-men, -women, or often, -children and try to simply walk by them, but they were usually relentless. They would mob me, run around me and shout out one ridiculously high price after another, and if I tried break through the crowd, to walk or run away, they would grab me and hold on to me. When ignoring didn’t work, I would firmly tell them no, or mock them if I was feeling sardonic: “Oh wow, I’m your friend!”, “Really, special price for me?” , “Wow, really, hand made? Did you make his too? It looks surprisingly exactly the same..” If they tried to grab me I would brush or push them away, but everything got to be too much after awhile.

I was one of two white people on my first tour, and I had a window seat in the back. When we would park anywhere all of the vendors would see me through the window and would wait patiently as all of the Indians exited before me, and then pounce upon me as soon as I got off. One time, at the Red Fort in Jaipur, I exited the bus and was immediately assaulted by a group of about 10 men and children who were trying to simultaneously sell me postcards, carved elephants, and shoe shines for my Asics. We had to walk about 5-10 minutes to the fort from the bus, and the whole time I was besieged. I first ignored them, then told them "no", then tried to push them away, all to no avail. To say that I was growing agitated would be an understatement. Finally, with no end to the harassment in sight and with the attraction, whose interior usually meant sanctuary from beggars and vendors, in close proximity, I made a mad dash for the gate, shrugging/flinging off the teaming throngs of vendors and beggars screaming out to me and grasping hold of me trying to hold me back. I hurdled myself over outstretched arms and legs and dove through the gate and into the courtyard. They didn’t stop though, they had followed me in, and were screaming at me now in even louder, more agitated voices. Everyone was calling me crazy and yelling and throwing up their hands, the kids were pushing me and the gypsy women, who were previously seated feigning aging decrepency were up on their feet and pointing, along with the others, and screeching something about my shoes. I thought they were still trying to push the shoe-shines. I was somewhat stupified that they were able to follow me in and I tryed once again to run away. I made it over to my tour group and someone explained to me that I had to remove my shoes as there was a mosque in the inside of the fort. "Oh." I took off my shoes and apologized and explained that I had meant no disrespect and that I hadn't known. The kids/men/gypsy women wanted none of it though and were still calling me crazy along with multiple other profanities in both English and Hindi. Wow, I felt pretty embarrassed, and actually bad. I'm not religious or anything, but I don't want to disrespect another person's beliefs. It was really just a complete mistake on my part, and their castigations seemed more in reaction to my unwillingness to buy from them earlier than anything else.

Indian guys have an interesting habit of holding hands. Nothing homosexual about it, just really friendly.

India was incredibly dirty. Beijing was a clean room by comparison. On every roadside there were piles and piles of litter. It seemed that people just threw their waste everywhere. The tourist attractions were pristine, and parts of the countryside were alright, but the conurbations and their immediate surrounding were many times just disgusting. India's air was cleaner than China's, but that's not saying too much...

It was amazing to me how much English was spoken in India. There are so many different languages in India, and although Hindi is the official Indian language of the union, it is only spoken by about 40% of the population. English really seemed to me to serve as the national unifying language. When not in the local language, printed advertisements were all in English. Commercials on TV were in English, the national and international news stations were all in English. Menus were in English. Radio DJs many times spoke in English. It was incredible. Lavanya’s uncle, who originally comes from Madras but who has lived and worked for over 40 years in Delhi, where Hindi is widely spoken, can speak Hindi enough to get by, but can’t read or write it. He worked in English though, and most everything written that he encounters in everyday life is either written directly in English or at least translated into it. The English in India is so interesting too. It is definitely Indian English. The vocabulary is about the same, more British than American obviously, but the accents are so strong that it seemed so foreign, almost like a different language. I guess English is a foreign language to most Indians, or at least a second language, but it’s a national language, and one that Indians don’t just use with foreigners, but one that they use to converse amongst themselves. The bus tours that I went on were for Indian tourists. When I was in the North the bus was filled with South Indians and when I was in the south it was filled with Northerners, I was one of maybe three foreigners on each tour. All three tours were in English though. The news was funny. I watched CNN India, in English, but with Indian news anchors and reporters, and I had to strain to follow the reports. For me, a native American-English speaker, the Indian accent was so strong that it was many times hard to follow two Indians having an English conversation. But for them intra-communication was easy, they all spoke Indian-English, and they all spoke with basically the same accent. I imagine that it is somewhat analogous to me travelling to some remote village in Ireland, and listening in on an Irish-English conversation (for the sake of argument saying that the speakers use an American-English vocabulary), and not being able to make out a word, even though it’s English. It was interesting.

I always hear/read about India in the news, about it's booming IT industry and it's soaring economic growth. I imagine places like Bangalore and Hyderbad and transforming themselves into really modern cities with high living standards. Chennai and Delhi didn't strike me as anything such. The cities just seemed chaotic and the chaos, poverty, and polution reminded me more of Bolivia than China, with whom India is constantly being compared. Both cities were dirty and the poverty of the populus was striking. Really, I couldn't go anywhere without a trail of beggars behind me, and many times those that weren't begging looked just as harried as those that were. Homeless people were lying everywhere, and dirty, mal-nourished children would alternate between begging for food and kicking rocks in the street. India's economy is booming, but from what Lavanya's family told me, and from what I saw, it's not trickling down. The per capita GDP is US$820. India is cheap, but not that cheap. With a skyrocketing population growth, and with most of that growth not coming from the elites of society, that GDP probably won't be increasing to much anytime soon...

India, for me, was great. It was incredibly interesting and incredibly beautiful. All of the sights that I saw were amazing, and all of the people I met were kind, outgoing, and eager to share their culture with me. Lavanya's family was perfect. Their hospitality was more than I could have ever hoped for. They set me up on awesome trips, fed me very well, paid for just about everything, let me ride shotgun, did my laundry... They treated me like part of the family, or, rather, more like a favored child from the family, the one that gets special treatment. I'm really glad I went. India was a completely different side of Asia. The heat was even ok. It was over 100 every day, but I found it kind of nice, and I definitely left with a rockin' farmer's tan as a souvenir.