the exoticism of shitting donkeys

renewing

2011-04-02T03:02:00.004-05:00

my passport expires on sunday. i'm a little sad about giving it up, both for the dozens of stories it indexes and for the one that it's missing. (australia, you elusive beast, i vow to make you the first stamp in the new book.) within the well-worn pages are stamps from egypt, libya, and japan. three places very much in the news these days and, though the visa dates might indicate otherwise, still very vivid in my memory.

on the flip side, i was elated to learn that nowadays you can submit your own passport photo; you're not at the mercy of the drugstore photographer, nor out ten bucks. but oh, the pressure! smile, no smile? hair up, down? too light? too dark? does my head fit within the prescribed 1" to 1 3/8" frame?

freedom can be paralyzing.

2001 (i still have that sweater)

2011

restoration

2011-01-22T00:17:00.001-06:00

gearing up to revive this here corner of the world wide web, to catch up and move forward on all things i love about travel, when i came across this:

travel writing: why it sucks.

i hereby vow never to use the words/phrases "oasis", "beaten path", or "land of contrasts".*
and not to suck.

* n.b. purposely following british style of interior quotes because, well, it just looks better.

Next Stop

2009-02-10T14:13:00.001-06:00

españa!

barcelona, to be precise.

last spring break ever.

ole! ole!

DC Wrap Up

2008-09-14T21:36:00.003-05:00

Before it completely escapes my memory!

My last Sunday in DC was low key... until I went to see Eddie Vedder at the Warner Theatre. (If you don’t know me, you don’t know my love for the Pearl Jam, and how pumped I was for this.) First off, what a lovely venue. Felt so regal. Eddie’s on a solo tour, just him and his guitar(s) playing his own tunes. Lots from Into the Wild, which I have yet to see, though the Netflix envelope is sitting on my dining room table. He also snuck in one PJ song — Porch — and, to my supreme delight, three Dylan songs. Girl From North Country, Forever Young, and All Along The Watchtower, his second to last song where he was joined by the drummer from Fugazi! Bad. Ass. In typical Vedder fashion, his between-song banter was thoughtful, hilarious, stammered, and potent. His story about ‘surfing’ in the Potomac had it all. Guess you had to be there…

Monday, Monday... Lazy bones. Packed. Walked to and around Dupont Circle, ate the worst Thai food of my life, and got harassed by a homeless man. Two of my classmates from last year had just moved to DC (with many more on the way), so I met up with them for some drinks. My bike broke on the ride home. Some how the chain became lodged between the chainring and the outer casing of the chainring (don't know the term), there by bending the whole thing. Can't believe I didn't take a photo. RIP, Schwinny.

Tuesday, last full-day in town... Met up with my ol' pal Jim from high school for lunch, thereby bringing my DC excursion full circle as he was the very first soul I saw when I arrived. From there, it was a whirlwind museum tour. I had a very disciplined agenda, though.

First stop: Jim Henson's Fantastic World. What an amazing man. I believe the show is down now, but trust me it was fabulous. Not 'dumbed down' in any way, as a Crayola-hued exhibit space featuring fuzzy puppets might lead you to believe. The curators did an admirable job of presenting JH's vision, mission, and worldview in a most accessible, engaging, and fun way without being over pedantic or elementary. I most appreciated the inclusion of his early, pre-Muppet work, from comically un-PC commercials starring a primordial Kermit to Time Piece, one of his many more 'experimental' films.

Next: Permanent collection at Hirshhorn. I'd seen The Cinema Effect twice, but the museum closed before I ever made it to the top floor. Eh.

Next: Afghanistan at the National Gallery. Also been here twice without making it through the special exhibits. Nice exhibit, great story, gorgeous artifacts.

That evening, my housemates (minus one) and I went out to West End Bistro, Eric Ripert's DC restaurant. Of the mind that I would eat pretty much anything prepared under the hand of that man, I had the halibut. Yes, Maria the vegetarian of 13 years ate a fish. And it was delicious. Apres ça, we met up with our fourth housemate for dessert at Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. I had the apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. Also amazing.

And that, as they say, was that.

Back in Chicago

2008-08-21T13:10:00.006-05:00

Arrived home yesterday, with 146 pounds of luggage in tow. (The Southwest folks were kind enough to fake the weight so i was charged $50 instead of $100 for the overage.) Now I'm re-adjusting to the size of my apartment, which seems so contained compared to the whole house I just inhabited. Also, my cat forgot me.

My last days in DC were some of the best, solidifying even more that I will be back, if only to visit. Several of my grad school classmates just moved there, with more on the way, and we hung out a few days before I left. Nice to see familiar faces. (The ride home from the bar is when my bicycle met its unfortunate fate.)

I ticked through my checklist of sites to see before I leave with a shocking degree of efficiency. Last Saturday (16th), I hit a matinee at the E St Cinema — Man On Wire, which was fabulous, and not just because it was French (though, that always helps...). From there, it was off to explore Penn Quarter and Chinatown. My housemate (err... former housemate. sniff.) raved about the National Building Museum, so I had to check it out. Plus, there's an Eero Saarinen exhibit up. The museum is nice, the shop is fantastic, but the building is really the thing to see. Definitely one of the more photogenic structures in DC.

They used to hold all the State dinners here

Post-NBM, I walked around Chinatown. All two blocks of it. Every Chinatown must be marked with a gate, and DC is no different, except for the Gallery Place shopping plaza encroaching directly upon it. Very commercial, very touristy, very blah.

Nestled in the madness is the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum, two museums housed in one space. Not knowing much about the collections of either, I was expecting room after room of presidential paintings and second-rate American art that didn't make it into the National Gallery. I was very pleasantly proved wrong. The Portrait Gallery had some fun exhibits -- Recognize! (hip hop and portraiture) and Bally Hoo (poster as portrait) -- in addition to the presidents.

Harry Bertoia's daughter contacted me about using this photo!

Next: Sunday.

bad news

2008-08-18T23:55:00.004-05:00

my bicycle is no more.

riding home from foggy bottom tonight, somehow the chain became lodged between the two front chainrings, so tightly that it bent the metal cover over the chainring. it's now shaped like an egg, and locked to a pole at 14th & K. (fitting that i should 'break down' near my old office.)

i suppose no better time than now, 36 hours before i'm scheduled to leave town. makes a sad scene that much sadder.

note to self

2008-08-18T23:46:00.003-05:00

remind me to tell you about:

1. fallingwater / the castle / my birthday
2. last day(s) at internship
3. museuming
4. eddie vedder

August Eve

2008-07-31T22:01:00.006-05:00

Here we are on August eve, and I've less than three weeks until I return home to Chicago. This is madness to me. Where, oh where has the time gone? I've barely scratched the surface on museum visits; woefully under-explored the culinary scene (also due to budget constraints...); not lost those ten pounds I packed on over the winter (although biking almost everyday makes me feel OK about that); and, shamefully, not finished my thesis.

Tonight my housemates interviewed some people to take my place, and it brought home the reality that my pretend world is coming to an end, rapidly. My stay has always had an expiration date, but I never expected it to be bittersweet. Attachments have been made; habits formed.

Still, the thing about DC that gets me, that makes me hesitant about any long-term prospects here, is its transience. Very few people are from DC; most come to town, put in a few years time and then pack up that experience and take it where they really want to be. Based on several conversations, this is not a unique observation by any means. But I suppose when you're one of the folks who stays, it's interesting to see all the new faces coming to town, all the new possibilities for new pals to fill in the gaps left the ones who've moved on. I've always been that person, standing by while good friends — best friends — came and went through Chicago, frustrated at my own static existence. Now, I can't say that I know if it's any better on the flip side.

Today I Met My Senator

2008-07-24T20:07:00.008-05:00

No, not that one. The other one.

This morning I rose bright and early to experience the DC commute I feared most: the 8AM Metro ride to Capitol Hill. A parade of Blackberrys and brown-nosed interns. Shudder.

For me, no Congressional hearings today; instead, I went to the Illinois Coffee, coffee and donuts with my members of Congress. Senator Dick Durbin holds this little town hall meeting for visiting constituents every week while Congress is in session. Rep. Jerry Costello joined him.

They talked about all of the expected issues: gas prices, energy costs, employment, infrastructure, youth and violence. I was decently impressed with both of their responses to crowd questions. Dick Durbin has this warm, trusted grandpa demeanor; you just want to believe everything he says, that the world really can be a better place, and the government can help.

After the meeting -- completely packed with at least 100 people -- we had the chance to meet our civil servants and have our picture taken with them. Of course, everyone else was there with their family or school group, and then there's li'l ole me, hanging with the politicos all by myself. They email the photos; should have mine in 6 to 8 weeks.

Also: Wednesdays are for flat tires, I'm learning. Second flat in a week -- although far less spectacular than the first, simply a slow deflate overnight. This time I had the good folks at City Bikes supply the labor as well as the materials, and wouldn't you know, there's a ton wrong with it. I was cajoled into replacing the rear tire, which was more or less stripped bald and the likely source of my leak. $38.05 later, back on the road.

Week in Review

2008-07-20T20:23:00.005-05:00

Mon: Congressional research, failed webinar
Tue: Bill Ivey, sunburn
Wed: flat tire, Kennedy Center
Thu: NEA, cake @ work, mediocre pizza
Fri: deadlines, homesick, not seeing Dark Knight
Sat: Pilates, new tire, thesis research
Sun: thesis research, microwave Thai, 1h43m phone call with long-lost friend

Sunday Morning Bike Ride

2008-07-13T18:06:00.008-05:00

Before it got unbearably hot, I set off on a li'l bicycling excursion around town. DC has a wealth of bike paths looping in and around the city, from downtown to Virginia to Maryland and back again. I headed for the Mount Vernon trail, which leads all the way to -- you guessed it -- Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. I only went as far as Reagan National Airport before heading back to the city. All in all, about a 13-mile ride from start to finish. The path moves really quickly, wasn't crowded or steep, and passes by all the sights from across the Potomac, as well as skirting Roosevelt Island, a future adventure. My Schwinn graciously modeled for me...

approaching the start of the path, near the Key Bridge crossing from Georgetown to Arlington

under the bridge

watching airplanes land is oddly soothing

train debris under the 14th street bridge

Yesterday I went to the Eastern Market.

All in all, a good weekend. Now, the magnitude of work that looms before me has hit like a landing airplane.

One Month Downs

2008-07-11T22:55:00.007-05:00

But of course, nothing is shiny happy people all the time. Here are a few of my not-so-favorite things:

6. The humidity lives up to the hype.
5. The bus has vinyl seats. Humidity + sweat + vinyl = swamp ass.
4. Metro cars have vinyl seats AND carpet. Yuck.
3. Metro stops running around midnight on weekdays.
2. Dearth of good spicy food.
1. The three little incessantly barking jerks next door. They should not be allowed to be called dogs.

One Month Ups

2008-07-11T22:28:00.006-05:00

Today marks my one-month anniversary with Washington, DC. I celebrated by going to my first Nationals baseball game. Completely astonished, once again, at the utter ease and quickness of getting around, I made a list of DC highlights so far. Here are a few of my favorite things:

10. Walking. The most walkable city I have ever lived in.
9. DC Metro, for when I don't feel like walking.
8. Juice Joint.
7. Sweets: at home, at work, on the streets.
6. My porch, and all it looks out on.
5. Street signals all have timers for the crosswalk.
4. Having a regular routine.
3. Reconnecting with my old pal from high school.
2. An internship with actual, impactful work that will live on once I'm gone.
1. Biking to work takes less time than the bus.

The Best Thing I've Seen All Day

2008-07-07T18:52:00.005-05:00

Danse! Danse! Danse!

Cultural diplomacy at its finest... And a pretty sweet way to see the world.

NYC Weekend

2008-07-07T11:34:00.009-05:00

July 4th has never ranked high on my goodtimesfun list. Yes, BBQs are fantastic, hanging out is great, and who doesn't love a day off? It's the fireworks that get me. In Chicago, amateur explosions commence at least a week in advance, very often directly in front my house, behind my house, above my house, and continue until the Indiana contraband runs out. How about securing that border??

Nevertheless, I decided to make a 'holiday' of it this year. Equally inspired by the desire to visit friends and to avoid being friendless in DC, I hopped a bus to New York City — my first experience aboard those fabled East Coast buses. There's the Chinatown bus, the so-called "Jewish" bus, Bolt Bus, Megabus, and the one I ultimately settled on because they pick up a block from work, Washington Deluxe. And I gotta say, I am a happy convert. Traffic blew, but what do you expect on holiday eve? The bus was clean, with comfy seats and foot rests, air-con, and free wi-fi. Even the bathroom surpassed expectation.

After noodling around Brooklyn for a bit, we watched the fireworks from the roof of my friend's friend's place, a guy who also happened to go to my high school.

While I pride myself on blending in with the 'locals' when I travel, I am not above being a straight-up tourist. I wholeheartedly embraced the role on Saturday. First stop was a jaunt over to the Brooklyn Museum to check out the Murakami exhibit, although the rain and longer-than-anticipated bus ride killed my motivation to actually go in. Just as well: that is one gift shop I did not need to browse. I poked around the piece in the lobby atrium, then left to meet a friend at the farmer's market in Grand Army Plaza.

this is how i looked when i got off the bus

After some delicious bread, cheese, and fresh apple cider, it was off to lower Manhattan to hop a ferry to Governors Island.

What a fun little side trip! We packed a picnic and snacked amongst the creepy little bald-headed man-baby sculptures. The officer's living quarters felt eerily like The Others compound from LOST, an open park of quaint two-story yellow houses with sprawling porches. You can enter the Admiral's house, empty save for some artwork of the island, but the other doors are locked up. More outdoor sculptures, an empty chapel, theatre, YMCA.

Currently on view right as you approach the island is one of Olafer Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls installations.

The island is open Wednesday thru Sunday and it is free, as is the five-minute ferry ride to get there. Last ferry leaves for the island at 3PM.

Post-island adventuring, a little stroll around Wall Street and the financial district grew into a six-hour walk around all of lower Manhattan. I love long walks, as you may have noticed, and I'd never really spent much time around this side of town. This is the NYC of my mind, not the Disneyland of Union Square. Soho, Chinatown, Little Italy, Greenwich Village... hit it all, with stops for snacking, of course. Green tea waffles are my new street food obsession, that I will crave until the next time we meet. Got my requisite slice, which, while not amazing, was scores better than any pie in DC. Our weary feet wound up in Times Square, closing out the evening with Wall•E. (A movie I was completely skeptical about, but I was delightfully proven wrong.)

A little locked-out misadventure at 1AM nearly spoiled the day, but delectable brunch at Counter cured any lingering grumpiness. I'm a sucker for flavored butter.

The bus ride home was completely seamless, and so fast. Barely four hours, compared to seven on the way up. I know I'm completely late to the game, but for the five people who HAVEN'T taken a weekend bus ride, it's highly recommended. I'm thinking of going to Philly next weekend.

So, while the fourth is still not my favorite, it's certainly got its redeeming features and is a pretty perfect recipe for fun, if you've got the right ingredients.

And now.... back to work!

This Week's Assignment

2008-07-02T23:30:00.004-05:00

Researching and preparing a report on federal legislation and advocacy efforts for the arts in healthcare. Still loving my job.

Monday Night

2008-07-02T23:20:00.004-05:00

My DC social calendar is determined by who is on tour. After all the weekend hubbub, pals Oxford Collapse were in town at the Black Cat. And they'll be back in August!

Around Town

2008-07-02T23:07:00.000-05:00

Hanging with the cuz.

Cure for Homesickness

2008-07-01T22:59:00.007-05:00

Busy busy busy busiest weekend yet. An incomplete sentence recap will have to suffice for now. I'm tired. Photos to come.

Family and the boy in town, plus my cousin who lives a couple of hours away.
Red Rocks Pizza.
Learned the hard way that absolutely nothing is open downtown on weekends. Not even Saturdays.
94 degrees.
NASA @ Folklife Festival. Held a shuttle tile. Signed a shuttle wheel that will be in the Smithsonian.

Water.
Monuments.

Gatorade.
Martin Puryear exhibition at National Gallery. Formalism is refreshing. More time next time.
Hot.
Chinatown.
Hotel rest stop.
Dinner @ Jaleo. Delicious. I ate a mussel. Everything tastes good in butter. Didn't care so much for the scallop. (Not in butter.)
Early night. See "Hot".
Second trip to zoo in the AM. Pandas still asleep.
Lions and tigers eat lunch.
Hot.
Hot dog vending machine. Are we in Japan?
>
Race to brunch at Tabard Inn. Also delicious. Mmmmm, donuts.
Walked around Georgetown.
Hot. Crowded. Blisters.
Family go home. (Aww.)
Nap.
Boy and I go meet friends for eats and drinks.
Mmmmmojito.
Slowest food service ever.
Drinks @ Wonderland Ballroom.
Sleep.
Early Monday.
Boy go home. (Aww.)

"Dumber than this, our country shall not get."

2008-06-27T18:10:00.010-05:00

Today I attended the 164th Meeting of the National Council on the Arts, the NEA's advisory council. The tri-annual meetings are open to the public, and if I lived in DC year-round, I would go to all of them. The Council is composed of artists, arts execs, and general patrons of the arts. The NEA sometimes seems like this nebulous, remote agency, but the meeting put a face on the federal body that brings art to the people. It's chaired by the chairman of the NEA, Dana Gioia.

After talking shop, a presentation on the NEA's latest and largest project, The Big Read, began. Putting aside the somewhat ironic fact that the National Endowment for the Arts is sponsoring a literacy program, while the National Endowment for the Humanities is concurrently sponsoring a visual arts program, it was an inspiring presentation about the potential of this country to better itself — precisely what both of these agencies exist for.

(I suppose this makes me an elitist. I think we should all aspire to read more, do more, be more. We can always find ways to improve ourselves. I want a president who thinks so, too.)

The talk started out on an abysmal note: Less than 50% of Americans read for 'fun'. This isn't all that surprising, since I'm one of those folks who should actually read more. Don't get me wrong — I love books, but I'm a painfully slow reader, which often discourages me. Add the mountain of reading for grad school, and the last thing I want to do is read more on my 'free time'. But, I'm trying. I've read half a collection of short stories since I've arrived, and just started a novel. Commuting is great for reading.

Anyway, I digress.

The Big Read aims to make sure that that percentage does not get any lower. As Mr. Gioia stated, with The Big Read, we can draw a line and say [the title of this post].

I won't regurgitate the whole presentation here, but I'll share what I found most interesting. Assuming you all followed that convenient link, you know what the Big Read project is all about. One of the communities participating is Norman, Oklahoma. Over the course of two years of Big Read-ing, public library patronage (the # of adults checking out books) has increased by 23% overall. The citizens of Norman voted to voluntarily raise their taxes to increase library funding by 50%. Their program also featured the most hilarious promotional tie-in for Bless Me, Ultima.

Another element of the project which instantly caught my eye, cultural diplomat that I am, was the international component: Big Read Russia, Big Read Mexico, and the most extensive, Big Read Egypt/US. One criticism leveraged against the program was its emphasis on American authors to the exclusion of many many fantastic non-American authors. In this program, participating organizations in the US read Naguib Mahfouz's The Thief and the Dogs, while the Egyptian orgs read Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Grapes of Wrath. While book selection is always going to be debated, I think this is a really interesting approach since literature is such an excellent entry into gaining some perspective about another culture.

I also must say that the NEA employs the nicest people on the planet. I was talking with one of my new colleagues, and an NEA rep came over to introduce himself because he'd never seen us at any other NEA events. Then I met their director for research, also amazingly friendly and chill (and he gave me his card). Then yet another lady came over to introduce herself, and to complement my shoes. NEA is good people.

So, this overly drawn out post is just another way of saying, I'm really loving my internship because I get to do things like this.

Two Weeks

2008-06-26T07:00:00.003-05:00

I am one-fifth through my time here in DC. When you fractionalize it like that, time seems much smaller than it is. I'm more homesick than I planned (because, of course, you can plan for these things), but at the same time, I'm embracing life here. Living in a new city, I've sort of adopted a new lifestyle. I'm a notorious homebody, but I've yet to turn down an invitation to go out here (not like there have been many...), and I'm making a concerted attempt to get in shape, girl.

Thus far, at the two-week mark I've...
- Visited the zoo and the Hirshhorn
- Made new friends and reconnected with old, old, old ones
- Attended two Senate markup meetings (Specter, Leahy, Byrd, Inouye, Feinstein... but no Durbin. Boo.)
- Watched (and waited, impatiently) Dick Cheney's motorcade roll by
- Met the president of a cultural NGO from Mexico
- Not quite mastered the Metro, but getting there
- Been to Virginia three times, Maryland once
- Learned that a travel tube of toothpaste lasts at least two weeks

Certainly much more will be added to that list this weekend, because I have my first visitors!!

The Love Affair Is Over

2008-06-25T07:16:00.001-05:00

It's going to be 92 today. I'm already sweating.

Oh Yes I Did

2008-06-25T07:12:00.001-05:00

...and totally got caught doing it.

Saturday

2008-06-22T18:55:00.002-05:00

I took a four-hour walk.

yes, that is an elephant sprinkler, and yes, i want one

after four hours, i deserved some love

Friday

2008-06-22T18:07:00.009-05:00

Work was pretty slow on Friday, as most everyone was off at our annual convention. It was a lovely day, so I took a long walk at lunch.

McPherson Square, my new lunch spot

Tourists ride around on segways. I'm sorry, unless you're Job Bluth, it looks ridiculous and gets in my way

After work, I went out to the aforementioned Jazz in the Sculpture Garden and then to After Hours at the Hirshhorn Gallery. So much fun!

Jazz was PACKED. It's very much a picnic outing, and every square scrap of green lawn was occupied. Heavy on the young professional crowd. Met up with housemates Zach and Anthony and Zach's girlfriend, Maria. We both commented on how weird it is to say our name out loud, being the only Marias in our respective social circles. Anthony's friends Mike and Ryan also came out—yep, that Ryan (see previous post). After some snacks, some laughs, a pitcher of sangria, and barely audible jazz, we headed across the Mall to the Hirshhorn. (Which I keep wanting to spell with a C.)

Within five minutes of walking into the party, I run into the only other person I kinda sorta know in DC: Jesse's friend Jason who I met at a wedding last summer. Is DC really this small?? And to top it off, he lives in my neighborhood! So pumped.

The new exhibit at the Hirshhorn, the Cinema Effect, Part II (I missed Part I) had some really, really interesting work, and some kind of boring work. I will definitely be checking it out again, so I'll save my review for when 1) it's not packed with drunk people and 2) I'm not drunk. But I particularly enjoyed the pieces by Runa Islam and Francesco Vizzoli.

All in all, it was a night of seeing some sights, meeting awesome new people (between Anthony's friends and Jason's), and getting to know my housemates some more.

Meet My New Bike!!

2008-06-22T17:58:00.004-05:00

A beat-up little beauty of a Schwinn, on loan for the summer from my new pal Ryan. My first bike in Chicago was a Schwinn Caliente, although that one was pink. Let's just hope this one doesn't get stolen.

So, what have I been up to besides eating cupcakes and getting free bikes from strange boys? I believe a weekend recap is in order.

The Love Affair Continues

2008-06-22T07:39:00.004-05:00

It was about 85 degrees today, and still, my housemate made a pie. A completely delicious summer blueberry pie.

Earlier, I discovered the vegetarian/vegan cafe and bakery up the street. Then I passed by Cake Love and had to stop in.

And then, at Target, they were giving away free pints of ice cream. My favorite flavors, too.

And on the walk home from Target, I passed a "Bake Sale for Obama". Now, ordinarily I would stop to support two of my favorite things, but with a Cake Love cupcake and a pint of ice cream in my bag, and a pie waiting at home, it seemed a bit much, even for me.

DC has figured out my weakness, and is pulling out all the stops to exploit it.

(I also joined a gym today.)

DC Weekends

2008-06-21T16:20:00.008-05:00

On the weekends, our next-door neighbor pops open his garage door in the alley and cranks up the stereo inside. I'm pretty sure it's audible for at least five blocks. He plays a mix of classic soul, some R&B, and Spanish music.

This, apparently, is the caveat, the asterisk to my awesome porch. The music is completely inescapable. But I can't even get mad about the numbing volume level, or the blatant intrusiveness of it all (forget about trying to play my own music—my wussy computer speakers don't stand a chance).

All of the backyards of our city block meet up in the middle, so I can look out at the backs of houses from the streets to the east, north, and south from my porch view. People come out from their own yards, chatting it up with each other. With the tunes, and the intoxicating smell of BBQ all day long, it's like a block party every weekend out there.

(This must be a best-of-the-80s CD: 'Eye of the Tiger' just finished playing, and now 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' is on.)

A Little Dose of Home

2008-06-19T19:02:00.007-05:00

Chicago pals Mannequin Men were in town last night, playing not too far away at the Black Cat. My first DC show!

My school chum Andrea came out to meet me. She's in DC for a couple days preparing for a summer program in Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast. (Nope, not jealous at all, not one bit.)

Then tomorrow after work, my housemates and I are going to Jazz in the Garden at the National Gallery of Art, then to the Hirshhorn After Hours. Yay, culture! I should finally have some snaps of the actual city, too.

This Time, With Plants!

2008-06-19T19:01:00.001-05:00

I swear I do more than just take photos of my porch.

(The Day After) My First Day as an Arts Advocate

2008-06-17T22:05:00.007-05:00

Postponed because my internet connection wasn't working last night. There wasn't much to report on anyway. Like all first days at a new job, it involved a lot of paperwork, training videos, 'here's the copier and here's the fax' tours, and meeting 50 people whose names you forget 30 seconds after shaking their hands.

It also poured rain when I left, and I had no umbrella.

I did, however, get taken out to a nice lunch (Georgia Brown's) and got a spiffy new bag and keychain. My commute was less than 30 minutes door-to-door, and I caught the bus immediately both ways. Everyone in the office is genuinely nice and interesting and weird.

my new office

Today was much more exciting, not the least because it was a breezy 75 degrees with sun. After an intro meeting with the vice president of policy and research (my cup o' tea), I finally got to sit down with my new supervisor and find out what exactly it is the "Government and Public Affairs" intern does.

Turns out, some pretty neat stuff.

Sure, there's the requisite tedium inherent to any internship, but my minutiae appears to involve number crunching. More fun.

I'll also be sitting in on some Congressional sessions next week, as the Senate mark-up begins on the Interior appropriations bill (which encompasses the NEA, one of our primary interests, of course). The House approved a $15mil increase in the NEA's funding for next year; now it goes to the Senate. Ms Maria Officially Goes To Washington!

I also have a mini-project researching Barack Obama's arts policy committee, which includes my former supervisor and a professor who works closely with my old museum.

My long-term summer project is to review and revise my organization's federal resource guide for international cultural exchange. The State Department's position and funding for cultural exchange seems to vary year to year, so the existing document needs some updating and analysis. Woohoo!

this is the first time i've ever had a cubicle. it's empty and sad and right next to the noisy copier

Also: there were two homemade cakes in the office Monday, and two more cakes today!! (Including one from my housemate/co-worker's mom, but I'll tell you about that in another post.)

So far, I am liking DC a whole lot more than I thought I would.

Eleventh Heaven

2008-06-15T11:41:00.001-05:00

First Impressions :: My Neighborhood

2008-06-14T08:27:00.014-05:00

I'm coming up on 48 hours since I arrived in DC. The transition has been surprisingly smooth, and I feel unsettlingly settled. I'm comfortable. Maybe it's a testament to my adaptability. All these years of traveling alone have prepared me well to move to a city where my friends number exactly one.

I also believe the attenuated period of adjustment has something to do with my new neighborhood, Columbia Heights. It's charming and colorful, and just dirty enough to be interesting. The mix of people reminds me of Hyde Park and Humboldt Park, two neighborhoods I'm very familiar with in Chicago, while the look and feel reminds me of Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn: brightly painted rowhouses with front yards, some meticulously manicured, others overgrown with weeds. And with awesome burritos right down the street, I'm home.

Columbia Heights is also undergoing gentrification/urban renewal/whatever. Bling to the west; blight to the east. All of the expected big box names -- Target; Bed, Bath & Beyond; Staples; Starbucks; Marshalls -- lumped into a shiny boring complex. My housemate tells me it opened only two months ago.

I went to New York City about a month ago, and I remember being surprised and somewhat dismayed that in a span of like twenty blocks, I passed by two TJ Maxx/Linens 'n Things behemoth shopping centers, followed by a few Jamba Juices, Old Navys, and a DSW. Now, I have no claim to be fussing about NY's suburbanizing urban landscape given I've been there maybe half a dozen times, but that experience coupled with my DC move is bumming me out. Everywhere looks the same. Yet, because everywhere looks the same, I feel 'at home' immediately. Bleh.

Christopher Hitchens writes about lost Bohemia in this month's Vanity Fair: "On the day when everywhere looks like everywhere else we shall all be very much impoverished, and not only that — we will be unable to express or even understand or depict what we have lost."

Despicable as I often find his views, this rings true today. And yet, I would be lying if I said I wasn't elated that Target is a five-minute walk away.

Postcards from Washington :: Day 1

2008-06-13T18:35:00.003-05:00

Three Months Later

2008-06-13T16:52:00.007-05:00

As I sit and sweat in sweltering Washington, DC, it's easy to forget that there ever was a time when I felt cold. But cold, cold, cold I was, oh so freakin' cold, on my "spring break" to Berlin and Stockholm. If I close my eyes, I can almost feel the cool, pelting hail and the crisp, blinding snow.*

Brrrrlin

Snowholm

*Actually, that's just the water I squirted into the fan spitting back in my face.

hi there.

2008-03-15T15:22:00.004-05:00

remember when this used to be a travel blog?

well, grad school happened so i haven't been traveling much. in the shamefully undocumented nine months since my last post, i've visited costa rica, montreal, michigan, and new york city. alas, that was all before school started.

this, however, is why they invented spring break.

just in time for the dollar to hit an all time low against the euro, i'm headed off to berlin and stockholm for a respite from the reading 'n writing. (saving the 'rithmatic for next year.)

stories and photos to follow in a timely fashion. maybe.

Turkey 04: Hot Air Ballooning

2007-06-07T12:17:00.002-05:00

18 May 2007 (Friday)
9:45 AM
Pamukkale, en route to Ephesus

I am pleasantly shocked at how much is powered by solar energy. From tiny villages to the biggest cities, solar panels on every rooftop, some more conspicuous than others, sitting beside water tanks warming in the sun. It's impressive. Almost too impressive... Must be a law, or an ordinance, or maybe it's actually cheaper.

This is fast becoming the "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" trip. The past two days have been packed sunrise to sunset.

Back to Cappadocia...

- First night, dinner at S.O.S., and it was so great. Tons of food for 10 TYL. Awesome bread, salad, crazy good fries, and our entreé, the "pot kebab": Veggies (for us) cooked in a sealed clay pot that we hammered open at our table.

Terrible photo because I forgot my flash

We talked with the son of the restaurant's owner for a while... Or rather, he talked, we listened. Not in an annoying way, he was just so full of energy and excitement about everything it was hard to interject. I keep saying it, but everyone is so unbelievably nice here! And not just helpful nice, but genuinely interested and funny nice.

- Next morning, 16 May, we're up at 5am for our balloon ride. I have literally been waiting my entire life to ride in a hot air balloon. Mama, boyfriend, best friend... All scared of heights. Our ride took us out to the balloon-port, a big field near the UFO Museum.

(Wonder if that's where some of the content comes from... Mr. UFO Caretaker peers groggily out his window upon waking, his vision not yet focused, he sees a huge, sailing orb in the sky....)

There were several other companies setting up shop, too. We were riding with Sultan, who had two balloons taking off that morning, lying on their sides filling with air. They just use giant fans to fill them! One was not filling so well. It was not ours. Our pilot — all balloon drivers are licensed pilots — was named Ishmael. Jolly guy. Our basket, or gondola, was packed, maybe 16 people, including a group of old Korean ladies who were all the same height, same hair, all wearing red.

That's my ass climbing into the basket

Didn't even feel the balloon take-off, just all of a sudden we were airborne, skimming the earth, clipping some trees. At one point I counted 21 balloons in the sky. Then we went higher and higher until the few people on the ground were mere specks. We were maybe 1000 meters? I'm not sure, unfortunately. In any case, it was like a live version of Google Earth, the way we zoomed in and out, sailing up and down, in and around valleys, even breezing past someone's bedroom window. Guess that's the risk you take when you live in a fairy chimney.

That's our hotel!

Balloon in the valley!

Landing was impressive, if only for the complete randomness of it. Because you're at the whim of the winds, you can never precisely plan your route, and certainly not your landing site, so when you see something good, you go for it. In our case, we dropped right down in the middle of a road, blocking traffic for a sec (one driver got out to take photos... I imagine a hot air balloon landing direct in front of your car is always a novel experience no matter how many float overhead on a daily basis). The ground crew travels around following you as close as possible, and they were right there when we set down. Ishmael lifted the balloon up again, and with a crazy sharp precision that trumps even my most spectacular parallel parks, sets the balloon basket snugly into the flatbed of the crew truck. See, the baskets are far too heavy to lift up, even after all us tourists crawl out, so they have to land it on a vehicle. Amazing.

After a successful flight, champagne toast! At 7 AM on no breakfast! All right! We got flight certificates.

Back at the hotel, exhilarated and exhausted, we packed in breakfast before jetting off for our 9-hour Cappadocia tour extravaganza. Yowz. Killing some time hanging with the house kittens (maybe a month old?) and the free internet. Oh, in addition to the solar energy, Turkey is completely wired! There's wi-fi all over this remote mountain town.

Tour tales to come.

Turkey 03: Arrival and Göreme

2007-06-05T09:34:00.001-05:00

15 May 2007
6:00 PM
Göreme, Cappadocia

Already twenty-four hours to catch up on. This is going to be a long trip. Bullets for a tired brain:

- Found Gail immediately in Istanbul! I was running late (plane delayed), so I took a taxi from the airport to Sultanahmet. 25 lira, when the Metro is 2. Boo. Had fun chatting with the cabbie, literally looking up every word as I spoke it to him. We talked food, gas, Chicago Bulls, George Bush, and sunglasses. Not bad for my one-hour crash course in Turkish on the plane.

- My first Turkish dinner was Indian. The man with the fancy shoes from my plane was arriving as we left! (I may not have mentioned him.... On the short flight from Zurich, there was a very, very tall man sitting behind me who stretched his legs straight down the aisle, almost into my seat. He was wearing fancy shoes.)

View from the Indian restaurant

- We booked a hotel for our return to Istanbul in a week or so, then took the Metro back to the airport for our nighttime flight to Kayseri. Cappadocia! So excited. Didn't see much of Istanbul in my glorified layover, mostly out of choice. Want to save it for next week when I have time.

- We were super early to the airport. Us, and many Japanese tourists. Slept on the bench. By this point, I've been up for a day and a half. The plane ride was fine, not full so we had our own row. Ate a salad, at midnight. Stole the turquoise fleece Turkish Airlines blanket. There was a bit of a luggage scare upon landing in Kayseri. The airport divides luggage by citizenship.. How they know, I do not know.. We must have been marked at the airport. Anyway, we were waiting and waiting on the foreigners side 'til there was nothing more coming down the chute. Ours got sent to the locals.

- Our ride to the hotel was waiting for us when we finally emerged, with a sign, with my name spelled terribly wrong. After a speeding, swerving, star-studded, hour-long drive through pitch black darkness, we arrive at the cave hotel. It is crazy awesome. Like a fairy-tale tower, we had to march up what seemed like a thousand steps to me at that point. Adorable built-ins, fancy fixtures, weird but hot shower.

This is what we first saw of the Cappadocia landscape:

This is what we woke up to:

- Six hours of sleep to wake in time for breakfast. They had a great spread. Cheese, breads, borek, cereal, omelets, fruit, yogurt, olives if you're into that sort of thing. We took our time.

- Made all kinds of arrangements for tomorrow: Hot air balloon ride at 5 AM, followed almost immediately by a 9-hour tour of the whole region. Crazy tired already. It's a very touristy itinerary, but why not. Not like I'll be back here in a week. We also booked our overnight bus to Pamukkale. 35 lira, cheapest accommodations yet. Also got out hotel there for the following night, for 25 Euro! I am loving the cheap.

- From Kelebek, we walked to the Göreme Open Air Museum, which contains a series of Byzantine churches carved right in to the rock. Frescoes ranging from ehhh to amazing. Lots of tourist groups, French, German, Spanish, Japanese. Hot. Very hot. Climbed a lot.

- On the walk back, we went to the UFO Museum. (!) The man running the joint (and undoubtedly the man-behind-the-Martians) had to power-up the lights and spooky music for us. Quite possibly the best 3 lira I will spend on this trip.

- When we got back to the hotel, we moved rooms. Our first wasn't available for two nights. It's still very cute, fewer windows, but there's a weird smell. Hmm.

- We're now sitting out on the terrace, writing postcards (and journals). I really need a set up like this at home: raised platform, all cushioned and draped with rugs, billowing canopy, looking out over the mountains. Really good for napping...

Turkey 02: Switzerland

2007-06-04T20:42:00.000-05:00

14 May 2007
2:35 PM
Over Croatia

Halfway through the second leg to Istanbul. Just got served something Hot Pocket-esque, and it hit that proverbial spot. Famished. This is also a nice plane, with a very diverse mix of passengers. Young folks and families looking like they're heading for holiday, Turks returning home, and a gaggle of Japanese tourists. I had to surrender my cozy window seat to a sick passenger. Trying to learn Turkish in the span of an hour. Turkche beelmeeyorum? Evet? Hayir? Vegetarianeem. How you say, hopeless?

Zurich was lovely for a moment. Bought an adapter and... a Swatch! A Swatch from Switzerland! But like a dolt I went and bought one with no numbers on it, so I'll still have no idea what time it is.

All accounts make it seem like getting to Sultanahmet will be a breeze. Let's hope they're right. Haven't memorized the word for "Help" yet.

Turkey 01: On The Plane

2007-06-04T20:19:00.000-05:00

13 May 2007
about 8:00 PM
Just outside of Chicago

(About that "about" time: First order of business upon landing in Zurich... BUY A WATCH. Seems the thing to do in Switzerland.)

The moment when you realize this thing that you've been speaking of for months, that has existed solely in your mind up to now, that sounds so exotic when said aloud but in reality terrifies you a bit, that moment just hit me about ten minutes ago. I'm alone on a gigantic airplane going to Turkey. (Well, Switzerland first, but who's counting.)

The realization or feeling in and of itself didn't surprise me. It was the subsequent thought: I'm really glad there's someone to meet on the other side. This traveling alone business is getting old.* Or maybe I'm just getting old. Either way, my spontaneous, semi-stranger traveling companion Gail arrived in Istanbul yesterday, so I'm headed directly to the Blue Mosque to meet her.

*Note: However, I would do Paris alone again in a heartbeat.

Flight update.... I am loving SwissAir. First time flyer, and I expected it to be a notch above the rest since that's just how the Swiss do. The agents were very polite and helpful, as are the flight attendants. Duty-free catalog kind of rules pretty hard. Then there's the entertainment system...

In addition to the in-seat TVs (YAY), the controls, usually just built into the armrest, pull out like a remote control! This is a new one for me. On top of the usual movies, TV, and radio, there are games. And not just games... trivia. Turn the controller sideways, and the buttons are arranged like Nintendo. I've already played the surprisingly and refreshingly difficult trivia, which has a vs. mode so you can play other passengers! I'm easily amused.

Only bummer... The movies suck. And the ones I've seen, thought they sucked, too. Watching "Children of Men" again because it's the lesser of several evils (including "Catch and Release" and something awful with Renee Zellweger). As fate would have it, my very disappointing dinner — which smelled divine, but tasted drab — was served at the very moment that Ki gives birth in C of M. Bon appetit!

First Come Photos...

2007-05-25T16:57:00.000-05:00

...then come stories.

324 Ways To Shoot Turkey

Where I Been

2007-05-25T13:09:00.002-05:00

Create your own travel map

maria has traveled to: Antarctica, Argentina, Bermuda, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Egypt, Falkland Islands, France, Germany, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Libya, Mexico, Monaco, Peru, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, United States Virgin Islands

Jet-Set Jet-Lag

2007-05-23T14:30:00.000-05:00

I spent yesterday (aka The Longest Day Of My Life, clocking in at a mere forty-four hours) in four countries on three continents. Sounds exotic, but in reality, kind of sucks. But I'm home, and very glad for it.

Also very glad I did not spend my last days in Ankara, or they could very well have been my last days.

Ankara blast was suicide bomb

merhaba!

2007-05-19T12:58:00.002-05:00

ı'm ın turkey! kıllıng some tıme at an ınternet cafe, on a weırd turkısh keyboard that ı don,t quıte have the patıence to correct. we're waıtıng for our overnıght bus to ıstanbul... savıng some tıme and cash travelıng by nıght. only two days left! so far, as expected, turkey ıs amazıng. storıes to come.

ın the meantıme, here's somethıng. as a gıft to my mom and her man, ı found a nautıcal map of antarctıca and color-pencıled ın what we saw ın the locatıon we saw ıt. ı thınk ıt came out pretty rad.

Ruler and jar for scale

Fishies

2007-05-04T17:45:00.000-05:00

New(ish) sitebits article!

Things to Sea in Japan: The Kaiyukan Aquarium

(I love a pun.)

Talkin' Turkey

2007-04-27T13:34:00.000-05:00

The E of S Ds is headed to Turkey! For a glorious week in May, we'll be a whirling dervish of Anatolian adventures.

Breaking with routine, we're taking a rather haphazard approach to planning and banking on the "book as you go, it'll be cheaper" rumors to be true. However, the E of S Ds needed to sate the OCD gene just a little, and made arrangements for the first few days. After landing in Istanbul, we're immediately hopping a plane to Kayseri, in the fairy-tale chimney region of Cappadocia. Easily one of the Top Three destinations in the world for this gal. For two nights, this will be our home.

And we will definitely be doing this:

16 Days to Departure

Googling

2007-04-15T16:32:00.002-05:00

Every month or so, I Google myself to see what I'm up to on the internet. (C'mon, you do it, too.)

Apparently people actually look at and borrow my photos. Thanks to the Procellariiformes people for actually crediting me! They grabbed a shot of a Thalassarche melanophrys I took in Antarctica (that's a black-browed albatross for the ornithologically-challenged).

Last row, last photo.

Departure Eve

2007-04-14T11:00:00.001-05:00

For my last full day in L.A., Mike and Celeste collectively had the brilliant idea for me to rent a car since, as we all know, it is very near impossible to navigate the city without one unless you're in to taking three buses and a mile walk to get to your destination. And then another three buses and a train ride to get to your next. For $32, I scored a shiny new Subaru Outback. That's less than round-trip cab fare from C's house to, well, anywhere.

I had planned to check out the Watts Towers, but mid-day traffic jams and unease about getting lost in Compton by myself nixed that idea. Instead, I turned off the 110 onto the 10 to hit up my secret #1 want-to-see place on this visit: the Six Feet Under house.

What I didn't realize was that the house sits on the corner of a busy street, so I circled a few times before parking kitty corner to get the best stalker view. Yep, I'm officially one of those people. People actually live there, so I wasn't about to get out and start walking around their lawn, no matter how much I wanted to go spy the awesome coach house. I'd never cut it as an investigative reporter.

On the way back to Echo Park, I decided to get myself a little lost to see if I could find my way again. I went by Dodger Stadium and Elysian Park, where the giant palm trunks lining the park road look like brontosaurus legs; toured Silverlake and Los Feliz; and finally stopped at The Coffee Table for amazing mashed potatoes.

In the evening, Celeste, Tasha, and I went to Cinespace for the premiere screening of a sorta-pilot TV show featuring our friend Nora. Afterwards, we migrated next door to Star Shoes where C's friend was DJing while studying for a gameshow I am now set to get on, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? I succeeded in stumping the Yalie several times over. What's up Ivy League??!! While the music played, a painter was busy creating an ever-transforming scene on a light box. Blink, and it was gone.

A few Manhattans later, I was getting very loud so we retreated to the front of the bar since everyone was very, very serious about the art/music performance in the DJ room. Camera antics ensued. We excused ourselves and headed to Cafe 101 for some diner grub to sober up.

L.A. Story

2007-04-13T15:43:00.002-05:00

Monday, I went on a solo adventure. C had work and I had cabin fever, an even more apropos term since her place is nestled in a mini-forest and looks like a treehouse.

no, that's not her actual house

First stop was the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA to check out the WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibit. So far as I know, it's the first comprehensive "retrospective" of early feminist art. I'd seen a lot of the pieces either in books or postcards or flyers. One piece was straight from the Art Institute of Chicago. I was impressed with the depth and breadth of the exhibit, but I just wasn't as WOWED by the content anymore. Maybe it's because I've seen so many of these that I'm over-saturated and under-whelmed? Or that these once revolutionary themes have since been adopted, adapted, re-interpreted, and simply played out over and over in contemporary artwork? Or have I just become a lazy, apathetic feminist? The exhibit takes up like 2/3 of the entire space, so gallery burn-out may also have been a factor. For working in museums, I have an embarrassing low tolerance for them. If art was food, this was a 24-course tasting menu, when I was in the mood for tapas. If I had more time, I would go back.

I also didn't really get the title. My slang-ridden vocab immediately thinks of, "Yo, that show was WACK. Lame. Played out." Or else comic action, like onomatopoeia. I know I'm missing some reference. Was that an acronym from the 60s/70s?

There are/were some amazing panels and lectures with the show, including Angela Davis (!) and a discussion on visual culture, race, and globalization. I would have been really amped to go to some of those.

I also discovered a Francesca Woodman catalog in the giftshop... for a mere 75 bucks. Flipping through the book, which is amazingly detailed and is basically her whole life in 250 pages, I saw with clear eyes how much of my college work (and countless others, I'm sure) was a sad attempt to mimic hers, which, as much as I adore her photos and always will because of the time in my life that I discovered them, they're still the work of a college student. Like hearing Bikini Kill for the first time when you're 14, then listening again ten years later and still loving the truth and passion and energy, but realizing the structure of the music is actually rather plain. Yeah. Still want that shit, though.

Anyway. I digress.

Oh, but let me digress a little bit more. The exhibit occupying the remaining 1/3 of the museum space was really, really interesting: Critical Space by Andrea Zittel. She talks about the "social construction of needs" incorporating architecture, design, fashion, environment, sustainability, and efficiency. I thought the pieces were smart and had a sense of humor while tackling head-on a lot of "big" issues, without being so overt about it. Juxtaposed with the Wack! exhibit, where nothing is subtle, it's a very austere, almost serene space.

from the MOCA site

MOCA was very conveniently located in Little Toyko, next door to the Japanese American Museum and across the street from the shopping plaza. Bliss! I showed impressive restraint, however, and bought nothing save for the most gigantic smoothie I've ever had for $4.50.

From there, I wandered up 1st Street, towards downtown, which I didn't realize at the time. (I took a cab down to MOCA because time was running short, so I didn't have the greatest sense of where I was.) When I think L.A., I never think downtown. Apparently no one else does either, since it was pretty empty save for the business folk and homeless people. Saw City Hall, the Courthouse, Civic Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, some other theater, and the Disney Music Hall designed by Frank Gehry. Spent some time hanging about the Lipchitz sculpture fountain outside Chandler Pavilion, which must be on some must-see list for Japanese tourists.

As usual, my camera was just an extension of my head, and when it wasn't attached I must have had a really dopey, dreamy look on my face because people kept talking to me. One guy jokingly asked if I wanted to carry his suitcase since I looked so comfy lugging my giant-ass tote bag, while another chipper fella — who looked like someone I know, so I guess I was staring at him — asked if I got any good shots, then left saying, "My, it's a beautiful day." What?? Where am I?? Who knew L.A. was friendly. Granted it really WAS a nice day. Sunshine trumps urban ennui.

Just when I was feeling that uncomfortable, stressful kind of lost, and about a minute from dropping another $20 on a cab, Mike Mo called and came to the rescue. We went for tasty Mexican eats and beers. Then I came home, talked to my boy, watched Saw, and went to sleep.

Good day! I said it last time, and I'll say it again: I kind of miss L.A. Still not for me, though.

California Love

2007-04-12T22:09:00.000-05:00

Rest of the story to come, I promise. For now, photos!

City of Angels / City of Sin

2007-04-10T13:06:00.000-05:00

I'm in Los Angeles, visiting my HLP Celeste. I've been here almost a week, going home tomorrow. Already. How do "vacations"* do that, seem so epic with no end in sight at first, then like that you're leaving in twenty-four hours and scrambling to get to the lingering items on your to-see list?

(*Given that I got no job, I feel bad calling this a vacation, since I guess I've been vacationing for four months.)

On my first full day here, I went to the Huntington Botanic Gardens with Celeste's assistant Lindsey (Lyndxe). You know me and gardens. It was free day, which meant every man, woman, child, grandparent, tourist, and their brothers were there. We managed to see and photograph the jungle and desert gardens before complete annoyance set in.

I like how painterly this photo turned out

Gardening was followed by grilled-cheese gluttony at the Brite Spot diner, which was followed by seeing Man Man at The Roxy.

On Saturday, we took a little field trip to Las Vegas. I've never been, so I was amped to check out the neon spectacle. We stayed in Old Skool Vegas, on Fremont Street, a few miles away from the over-the-top theme park strip of Las Vegas Blvd. Fremont Street has an amazing array of like classic 40s and 50s neon signs of showgirls and cowboys and mermaids. Walk in the opposite direction, and you hit the Clark County Detention Center and Courthouse, and about a dozen bail bond joints. Ahhh, Vegas.

I didn't gamble a cent, or see any titties or Celine Dion, but I still had a blast. Hit the buffet a few times. Made like a tourist and bought a custom-airbrushed tank top with my name on it. I miscalculated sizes, so it's teeny like a total hoochie shirt. Very appropriate.

We had the unfortunate luck of coming to town on the weekend of the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was literally racing right outside our windows starting at 6 am. The streets were converted to a race track, so you had to climb across an overpass to cross the street. Balls.

Time for coffee now. I'll update the rest later.

Dog Blog

2007-03-24T17:44:00.001-05:00

Finally spit out the Westminster Dog Show details.... The Final Report.

Alexandria Article

2007-03-09T22:27:00.001-06:00

I wrote a short piece about the new library in Alexandria, Egypt for a travel website called sitebits.com. Check it out.

New(ish) Blog

2007-02-21T00:19:00.000-06:00

i started another blog a while back. mostly about what i'm doing in and around chicago during my temporary unemployment. looky here:

free days and matinees.

jetBlew

2007-02-18T17:06:00.000-06:00

for christmas, the boy got me tickets to the westminster dog show in new york — i know, amazing, right? (there will be a post on that later.) the bestgiftever even came with plane tickets on jetBlue, which is finally serving chicago. i was eager to check it out after all the raves.

flight there: totally awesome.

the forty-channels-of-TV in your seat beat out my bookclub book for in-flight entertainment, while the unlimited snacks were a shock to the system after flying The Majors, with their $10 snackpack, for so long. our selection included chocolate chip cookies, doritos mix, biscotti, and the jetBlue signature blue chips. between the two of us, we had one of each.

flight home: total hell, with snacks.

it was wednesday, valentine's day, the day the snow hit new york city. luckily, we were not among those who spent upwards of nine hours trapped in the plane on the runway. our flight was just flat-out canceled that day. after diligent status checks online, we went back to JFK the next day under the impression that our 9:50am flight would indeed take off.

and take off it eventually did..... 13 hours later.

i understand that there is nothing you can do in the face of a snow storm, and that flights are among the first things to get effed up. however you can do something to communicate problems to your passengers. in the event that you could actually reach a customer service agent on the phone — the automated message told you they were experiencing heavy call volume, then promptly hung up on you — they would tell you to check the website, which indicated that your flight actually took off ten minutes ago. of course, the rumors were running rampant about what the problem might actually be. (all the planes are frozen to the runway, only one runway for the entire airport, no crew members, etc.)

flights were being canceled left and right, except for ours, of course. dangling that thread of hope. we were the one and only flight to chicago still on the board. the departures board lit up every few minutes to tell us we were leaving at 10:25. then 11:50. then 12:05. then 1:20. then 4:50. on and on ad naseum. we were kind of hoping they would just cancel the damn thing so we could make alternate plans. (which at one point involved a 12-hour bus ride, a border crossing, and a spontaneous visit to my hometown.)

to their credit, the jetBlue folks we actually spoke to (including airplane techs wrangled in to help with damage control) were very patient and earnest, and the snacks and drinks never stopped flowing.

above all, i'm just shocked that an airline is taking this long to bounce back from what, in all honesty and i'm not just saying this because i'm from buffalo, was not that bad of a storm. what is going on??

jetBlue, those first two hours were fun, but i just don't think this is going to work.

also, on a different note, i've resigned myself to the fact that i will probably not finish updating the antarctica trip. just know that, oddly enough, the ice sparked a fire for life in me that i hope stays burning, and i can't wait to go back.

The Day After the Best Day of the Trip

2007-01-01T23:13:00.001-06:00

November 29
6:19 PM

i'm not doing so well with the journaling this trip. so many interruptions that can't be ignored. last night, it was the elusive emperor penguin sighting that dragged me away (three times) and had the whole ship riled up. champagne for everyone! i haven't even mentioned petermann island, charlotte's bay, and devil island, each one more amazing than the next.

11:13 PM
En route to Elephant Island

almost too tired to write. lots to catch up on though. the seas are choppy, the stablizers are not in place, and i've yet to put on my sea-sickness patch. let's hope for the best. today was much less eventful than yesterday, so here's a 48-hour recap.

after our exciting morning at esperanza, we had an "expedition afternoon" yesterday, meaning we had no set itinerary, we were just sailing around exploring, looking for the best landing spots. we parked the ship at devil island. thousands upon thousands of adelie penguins, but for the first time the natural scenery may have trumped the wildlife. the sky, the clouds, the ice. so perfect.

also for the first time, i sat with the penguins, just watching them for an hour or so. there was a leukocytic adelie in the mix — all white (sorta). observed the "changing of the guard" routine at the nests, mom and dad swapping egg-sitting duty. little pengy picking up rocks bigger than his head to bring to his lady on the nest. it was fun, and a great learning experience to just watch how they live.

(notice the oversized rock in the mouth of the penguin on the left)

we went on a short zodiac cruise before heading back to the ship. sea ice and pack ice all around, looking ever-so spectacular under the bright blue skies. penguins on the ice floes added a very hallmark effect.

after our recap, briefing, and dinner, the search was on for the emperor penguin. such is the fun of an open expedition — we just set a course south through the weddell sea, basically on a wild-penguin chase, looking around every iceberg to find the little bugger. you see, emperor penguins, while not "rare" per se, nest deeply inland, seventy miles or so from the sea (remember the march of the penguins?). at this time of year, the chicks are fully fledged and the adults are returning to sea to feed. a new emperor penguin rookery was recently discovered further down the weddell sea, so our fearless expedition leader and captain were banking on a few of those adults swimming this far north by now. we had 'round-the-clock watchmen, and they vowed to wake us up even at 4 AM should an emperor be spotted.

lucky for those on watch, one was spotted relatively soon after dinner, during our flaming bananas foster dessert party.

jonathan our resident ornithologist was the one to spot him, perhaps as it should be. he's seen upwards of 7,000 birds in his lifetime (and he's only 38), but never an emperor. i don't know the odds of actually finding a lonely bird sitting on some ice in this giant sea, but there he was and it was pretty amazing. the ship just erupted in commotion, announcements over the loud speakers, cameras blazing. i'm surprised the ship didn't tip since all 100+ of us were leaning over the one side. he was just a tiny little speck far out in the ice, but in reality, he's about 3-4 feet tall weighing 90-100 lbs.

(find the emperor penguin)

our little friend didn't stick around long, however, as he tobagganned and slid into the water. alas. oh, but wait... there's another one. not long after our brief encounter with the first guy, another emperor was spotted napping on an iceberg, dead ahead of the ship. this was the winner. this little pengy just lazed on the ice, despite a monster hunk of metal creeping up on him with one hundred red-jacketed weirdies with cameras staring at him. he really paid us no mind until olaf, our captain extraordinaire, gave the penguin's berg a gentle nudge (well, as gentle as a six-deck iron ice-breaking ship can be). the emperor instantly stood up, to the delight of our cameras fifty feet away. proof again that i need a zoom lens.

like i said, today wasn't nearly as exciting as last night, perhaps due to the fact that i'm completely exhausted (went to bed around 3:30, up at 7:45) and hungoverish. the weather is poopy, too. paulette island was today's stop, and it is COVERED, absolutely COVERED in the shit of 100,000 pairs of penguins. really disgusting. lots of cute baby seals, though. thomas got some great underwater film of them.

after lunch and a nap, vanessa and i went out again, for some reason, for a zodiac ride around goulan (sp?) island. very foggy, very misty, got cold very quickly. spectacular berg formations, though. geoff the geologist was aboard for color commentary again.

Resume Posting

2006-12-28T18:57:00.000-06:00

Esperanza
Originally uploaded by missmaria.

Monday, November 28
12:20 PM
Antarctic Sound, heading to the Weddell Sea

I talked to Jesse today! For less than the price of a payphone call in the States... Nuts!

First stop: Esperanza! It's actually an Argentinian military/research base on the eastern edge of the Antarctic Peninsula. Basically, Argentina is setting up camp (school, hospital, church, etc) and positioning itself to make a claim for Antarctica, or least a decent portion of it, should it ever come down to that. Currently, Antarctica is governed by a treaty signed by 43 nations. However, with the earth's oil and fresh water supplies running down in the face of ridiculous demand, it's only a matter of time before some boisterous Texan steams his way South with an oil drill and a blow dryer.

Anyway.

There were also a few colonies of adelie penguins mingling with the people, who live there year-round for one or two-year appointments. Babies have even been born here, though the last was in the mid-1990s. (Some speculate that Argentina purposely brought a pregnant woman down to the ice so it would be born there. The kids are even given Antarctic passports.)

The nice folks on the base welcomed us into their "casino" and fed us fried dough cookies (of which I had about seven. no joke) and juice. They had a pool table and foosball table. I forgot to mention that among the expert photographers and mountain climbers, we had a world foosball champion aboard the ship. I also got my "Argentina Antartica" patch for my absentee suitcase and made the aforementioned phone call via their worldwide phonebooth. Must be a military subsidy for the phone bill...

We're back on the ship now, where we just saw an enormous, as in like two square miles enormous, tabular iceberg.

Evidence! I was there!

2006-12-20T21:51:00.001-06:00

As of today, we are not down with O.P.P. in my posts — I finally finished editing my own photos. Check it out:

Antarctica (and some Argentina)
Falkland Islands
Santiago + Andes-by-Air

The rest of the journal entries are a-coming... There are these little, nagging things called grad school applications getting in my way.

Trying to Keep Up

2006-12-17T22:33:00.002-06:00

Sunday, November 27
12:20 PM
Deception Island

Now 12:25.... OK, let's do this later.

4:00 PM ("later")
At sea, en route to the Antarctic Sound

Adventurous day at Deception Island! (And beyond, which is why this journal entry has been put off several times today.) The island is an active volcano, with a steep and craggy shoreline and very choppy waves. As we approached, small rock formations jutted out from the sea, just off shore (think Goonies rock), dubbed "sewing machine needles" by one map.

Now we had to get on land. A zodiac jaunt worthy of a big-bang wham-bam amusement park thrill ride slammed us up onto the pebble and pumice beach of Baily Head. This is a huge, as in hundreds-of-thousands huge chinstrap penguin colony, and our landing site was actually an on-ramp to the penguin highway. Access to the sea is limited because of the aforementioned steep shoreline, so there is literally a thoroughfare of penguins marching in line to get there. They appear to abide by conventional rules of the road, one lane heading to the sea, one lane heading back. It was a very orderly operation — no fenderbenders so far as I could tell.

We merged onto the highway when there was a gap in traffic (with the odd chinstrap here or there stopping to let us pass). Initially I thought the chinstraps weren't as cute as the gentoos or adelies. However, their little stout, old-man waddle-waddle-hop routine won me over. But jeez, these guys littered every single melted surface of the mountain, hundreds of feet above sea level some of them. I think there are about 100,000 nesting pairs at this site. PAIRS.

After mingling with the birds for an hour or so, we got to the main event: a four-mile hike from Baily Head to Whaler's Bay. (We had the option of getting back on the ship and sailing around to the next landing, or walking there. I needed the exercise.) Vanessa and I signed on, and Mr. Mount Everest came along, too. I hiked with Mount Everest! He and I were the only ones to slip on the loose earth at the beginning. Many of the folks along were seriously experienced hikers, and then there was me. The first icy, sleek, slick, steep, loose incline had me thinking I made the wrong choice in hiking it, but about halfway up, when we hit the snow, I hit my stride. Even with my nose running like a faucet.

Our maximum elevation was about 1,000 feet above sea level. The "Survivial of the Fittest" walk took us over snow, ice, dirt, volcanic ash, streams, guano, mud, fog, and sand. I got a little lonely and desperate along the way, mostly because of my stupid snotting nose. Nothing worse than being sickish 15,000 miles from home in friggin' Antarctica. But I pressed on! (Oh yeah, and saw a leopard seal chasing some penguins from up above. Think he got one.)

Kevin our hiking leader (and resident Ice Guy) is a fun/ny dude. Geoff the Geologist was along for the walk, too, as were George, JD, and Karen. The staff here is really excellent, if I haven't said that yet. Googling all of them when I get home. I need to get brilliant at something. I want to do this and get paid.

Back to the story... We made it through the cold and fog and wind to the pinnacle, the crater of the volcano, really. With timing that couldn't be more perfect, we made our descent down into Whaler's Bay just as the ship bearing all the non-hikers sailed through Neptune's Bellows.

vanessa and the hiking crew

After peeking at some nesting sheathbills through Neptune's Window, I headed down to the beach. Whale bones strewn all about. Abandoned hangars, warehouses, and equipment sat rusting away. An eruption in the late 60s (or maybe early 70s) wiped out the station and extended the coastline, so all the buildings sit oddly inland.

I got real tired, real fast, and needed to blow my nose a lot, so I came back to the ship, warmed up, and ate lunch. And two slices of key lime pie.

Just upon getting settled in (and warmed), it was Antarctic swim time at Pendulum Cove. Being a volcanic island, Deception has some hot springs. The water was boiling at the edge, but barely above freezing five feet out. I had no desire to join the polar swimmer's club, so I snapped pics of the swimmers from shore. Thirty-four in total took the plunge. On the zodiac ride back to the ship, we spied a snoozing crabeater seal.

Now we're on the ship, headed... somewhere. There's a talk in about ten minutes, the historian. He's a great storyteller. We all sit transfixed as he tells the tales of Antarctic expeditions past. After his talk, there's a photography presentation that I've been looking forward to hearing/seeing.

Lonnnnnnng day.

Shopping in Antarctica

2006-12-17T21:38:00.000-06:00

Saturday, November 26
11:00 AM
Port Lockeroy, approx. 64º S

Just got back on board. it's only 11 and already I'm exhausted from four hours of activity. Dressing in all that gear saps up a lot of energy. First landing spot was Dorian Bay / Wiencke Island. More gentoo penguins (and the associated stink), a few skuas, and an old hut used by the British Antarctic Survey now maintained and stocked for use as an emergency refuge. Geoff the Geologist worked here back in the 1960s and 70s, and his photo is still on the wall!

Beyond the hut, there was a 250-foot hill, the top of which is actually several hundred yards of an ice flat that is the runway / landing strip for planes bringing supplies. The intrepid and adventurous among us (which usually I am, but once again I was afflicted with frozen toes and a sniffly nose) made the long trek halfway up the mountain ridge that began its ascent at the end of the airstrip. The view was marvelous in all directions, at all heights, so I don't feel like I missed out on too much.

The swiftly shifting clouds exposed and concealed the electric sun, making for constant set changes in the landscape below. Think Monet and Rouen, then take all of his paintings of the cathedral, at all those times of day and year, put them in a flip book and fan it out. That's about how rapidly and drastically the scenery changed. Who knew static mountains could be so dynamic? In a matter of an hour, there were dozens of shutter-tickling views, mountaintops poking in and out through the clouds. The color of the water also morphed from a steely gray, to indigo, to navy.

When I couldn't take the cold anymore, I hopped in a zodiac for a nice, wet, bumpy, freezing ride over to Port Lockeroy, a smaller island around the corner from the Bay. It's a British station still in use, though primarily as a tourist trap. Tourist trap! In Antarctica! But they do have a post office, so I sent off about two dozen postcards via the British P.O. (Once ashore, we learned that the ship marks up postage 150%...)

The landing dropped us right in the heart of a gentoo rookery. Closest I've been to a penguin yet, I think. (Can't help breaking the fifteen-feet rule if it's physically not possible.)

The island is rather small, so after a bit of shopping (more postcards) and shooting (more penguins) I came back to the boat. I'm feeling a little sickly and tired, not to mention hungry, so I haven't been very vocal or fun or sociable today. Antarctica's kicking my ass a bit. One hour to lunch.

Death of a Dictator

2006-12-10T23:53:00.000-06:00

let me interrupt the slow-but-steady uploading of my journal entries from the trip for a real-time post: HOLY CRAP, am i glad that i left santiago last sunday instead of this sunday, or that señor pinochet was gracious enough to hang on for a week before dying. some of the news clips i've seen show riots and fires right outside my hotel.

while the photos would have been amazing, and it would for sure make for an unbelievable travel story, being in the midst of an out-and-out riot, on top of the lost luggage/bandit taxi fiasco upon my arrival, just might have hit that final nail into santiago's coffin for me...

First Landing

2006-12-10T04:09:00.002-06:00

Friday, November 24
around 9:00 PM
Lemaire Channel, Antarctica

I can barely remember this morning, or rather, the fact that I am still in the same day as this morning. I am exhausted, but this blasted twenty-hours-of-daylight routine lures me awake all the time. The sun never quite sets, just sort of dips below the horizon, dimming the sky. No stars for me.

We began today with a(nother) 4:45 wake-up call, Buffet breakfast. Oh wait, breakfast was put on hold. Scratch that. 4:45 wake-up call to get us up and out and on land by 5:30. Neko Harbour was the site of our very first Antarctic landing, right on the continent, not an island.

A welcoming committee of little birds in tuxedos greeted us at the shore, but not before we were hit with their... er... excremental aroma. Curious little buggers, the Gentoo penguins. Exquisitely ridiculous when ambulatory, not just their waddling walk, but the little hops and adorable stumbles. But in the water, they are some smooth operators.

An equally photogenic and entertaining critter napped along the shore: a blubber slug (sometimes known as a Weddell seal, but on this trip: blubber slug). He delighted our camera lenses with a head roll here or a tummy scratch there.

Next, we witnessed a small calving of a glacier, like a giant ice cube breaking off from a gianter ice block and dropping into a completely gigantic glass of water. (Or, like a cow giving birth to a calf, just lettin' it drop. Hence the term, "calving".)

Oh oh, back up.

We were brought to shore not by the Clipper (our ship), but by her fleet of Zodiacs — inflatable rafts (like a solid, no BS white-water rafting raft) with motors. Rather terrifying, completely exhiliarating ride. And effin' cold.

Now back to land.

We climbed a short distance up to the nearest peak/lookout point. Our feet punctured the soft, melting snow, dropping us as deep as our knees in some spots. After a bit, you just learned to step in other peoples sinkholes. After reaching the top and snapping some pics, I was feeling a bit tired and not in the mood to high-step it back down the way we came up, so Vanessa and I made like penguins and slid down the face of the mountain on our tushes.

(Let me clarify: I scooted, then slid, then ate shit and somersaulted head over ass down the face of the mountain.... I hear there are photos, which I will try to procure.)

First Antarctic landing? Brilliant! Excellent! (Our South African friends are already influencing my vocabulary.)

Now... Back at the ship for breakfast and a nap, out again shortly thereafter for a Zodiac cruise around Paradise Bay. All I have to say is ice, ice baby. George was our Zodiac driver, he's great. And fun, with giant crazy 'chops. Geoff the geoloist was aboard for color commentary. We poked our boat in and out of little coves until all my extremities were numb to the core. Saw another Weddell Seal (the aforementioned snoozing blubber slug). Also napping. Saw a dead, rather icky jellyfish, some Antarctic shags (nothin' like a good shag in the morning......), and some badass icebergs and glacier formations. Those li'l rafts can haul ass, too.

Back to the ship once more, for lunch and hopefully some relaxation, only to be summoned shortly thereafter for an extra bonus landing at Petermann Island. The weather was absolutely phenomenal, and Mike our Expedition Leader wanted to take full advantage of that, which, while exhausting, was really awesome and exceptional that they are so flexible with the itineraries. When else are we going to be here?? (Though, for some of the passengers, this is their 6th or 7th trip...)

Petermann Island has this neat, "natural" dock, basically a ramp of rocks. The island is populated by about 5,000 gentoo penguins, and maybe 1,500 adelies. (I'm learning to distinguish the species..) They are kind enough to share their island with some humans, too. An American research team is camped out there for a few weeks studying the birds' breeding patterns. Person and penguin seem to co-exist in peace.

There is no love lost between the pengies and the brown skuas, however. We watched as a male pengy sitting on his nest, protecting his egg was ambushed and double-teamed by two brutish brown skuas. The flying birds used their aviator's edge to harass the poor Gentoo from above, tugging and biting his tail, but to the little stationary pengy's credit, he snapped back pretty fiercely and held his ground without leaving the nest. The skuas gave up and moved on to pester another pengy. Nature in action! More fun with the black-n-white birdies ensued, then it was back to the ship again.

Dinner tonight was to be a BBQ out on deck, but it was moved indoors because of the bitterass wind. I definitely have a a sun/windburn already.

And that was today, in a very small nutshell.

Holiday at Sea

2006-12-10T03:57:00.000-06:00

Thursday, November 23
4:12 PM

I just realized that today is Thanksgiving. Turkey dinner with the usual fixins is on the menu tonight. I think I'll have pasta.

It's hard to imagine the complete chaos that is unfolding in airports and dining rooms and football fields back home right now, as we're floating through the most remote, isolated, and pristine place on the planet. A most unholidayish holiday. I'm into it.

Closer

2006-12-10T03:50:00.001-06:00

Thursday, November 23
2:00 PM

Land in sight! Land in sight! We're officially in Antarctic waters, passing through the South Shetland Islands en route to the Peninsula. (I think we just cut between Snow and Smith Islands.)

Water and sky are melting into a continuous palette of gray with only the white surf cast off from the ship breaking the monochromaticism. Lumps of snow-drenched rock can be seen in the far distance, and yet already, after only two days at sea, the sight of land seems strange. We're pressing further south, in what feels to me like an epic quest... Shackleton and Scott and Amundsen-esque. (Granted, they didn't have breakfast buffets and a gift shop on board.)

This morning we were treated to a watershow by a few humpback whales, with an accompanying airshow by several Antarctic birds, some quite rare as we were told. The tiniest taste of what is yet to come...

First Impressions

2006-12-06T22:10:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, November 22, 2006
15:39, Drake Passage
12:39, Chicago

np: Leonard Cohen, “Songs of Love and Hate”

Finally, stable power and some time to sit. Stomach mildly settled, though it could blow at any moment. Currently sailing the eerily calm Drake Passage en route to the Antarctic Peninsula.

This notoriously rough sea is treating us well this day, but of course I’ve just jinxed our fortune by saying that. It is still another day to reach our destination. Who knows what the waters have in store for us as the horizon bobs in and out of view from my stateroom. Kind of ironic that the only “smooth sailing” thus far has been on the sea itself. Now that I’m in better spirits, I won’t go too much into my disastrous arrival, as it’s pretty indelibly etched in my memory.

The first 24 hours featured lost luggage (concern…fear… panic… desperation…); swindling taxi drivers (anger… fear… stupidity… surrender…); exorbitant long distance phone call charges; extended-family feuds; emergency shopping in a Santiago department store for replacement clothing; shoddy completion of a Princeton application; and a 4:45 wake-up call.

The 24 hours since then have been sublime, even given the 4:45 wake-up call to fly down to Tierra del Fuego. There was a slight delay in deplaning in Ushuaia due to some international miscommunication, but despite being held captive on an Airbus for over an hour, the group remained in generally good spirits. Our time in Ushuaia began with Argentinian barbeque. (Completely wasted on me…) Lunch was followed by a performance, featuring our adorable servers. Just as in Libya, the boys are the featured dancers. Girls are at least allowed to dance, but they served as little more than window dressing, cheerleaders to the boys boot-tapping antics. I try not to judge.

During the course of lunch, the skies poured rain, but we intrepid folks (or perhaps the ones who know we’ll probably never be here again) embarked upon a misty tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park. By the time we reached our destination, the sun prevailed and lit up a Patagonian paradise. It’s a pity we didn’t have a day or two to hike around the mountains.

After too brief a tour, the bus wound its way back to Ushuaia and to the docks where we would board the Clipper Adventurer. Ushuaia is surprisingly populated (60,000) and developed (Honda & Mercedes dealers, shopping districts, mines, golf courses, etc). We arrived at the docks, and after weaving through colorful blocks of freighter boxes awaiting shipment, we climbed the gangway stairs to our floating hotel, and were greeted with warm chocolate chip cookies. Always a good sign.

Our stateroom is cozy. I feel like I’m camping. Between my mom and Vanessa and Falabella department store, I’ve been able to scrape together enough clothing. I think. The travel company tracked down some waterproof boots and pants for me. Amazing. Of all the trips to lose your luggage on… If one can make it through ANTARCTICA with this little amount of “stuff” (albeit mostly borrowed), one can certainly make it anywhere else in the world on a backpack. I’m curious to see how I will pack for my next trip.

The crew of the ship is fantastic. Zegrahm certainly draws the heavy hitters: the first American to climb Mount Everest, and the first human to summit K2; one of the best nature and wildlife photographers in the world; a world-class geologist who spent years conducting research for the British Antarctic Survey; a top ornithologist; and so on. We've made friends with a lot of the staff, already. Jonny is best bros with Jonathan, The Bird Guy, and another birder himself. Sitting next to him in the National Park, I got my own private ornithology lesson. Gretchen is very nice, down-to-earth and reminds me so much of Rachel. She and I are literally and figuratively in the same boat: she lost her luggage, too.

Woke up around 8:30 today just in time to grab a bagel and some fruit for breakfast before Jonathan’s lecture. He spoke on albatrosses, a talk that looked rather dry on paper, a talk I considered skipping because we all know my feeling on birds, but a talk that in the end, I felt I should go to given that this is what I’m here to do. It was brilliant! He is an excellent speaker and very clearly engaged the group into his passion. After the talk, I immediately went up on deck to watch the birds trailing the ship. Then there was a talk on ice by Kevin, which was very fun. He’s a little hokey and a little corny, but it works. Reminds me of someone, but I can’t quite place it.

Now, I’ve just woken from a nap and I’m currently skipping a talk by the guy from the Audobon Society. But lucky for the lazy and sick, lectures are broadcast over the ship’s PA system. I am very happy that my laptop is working because I do not have a paper travel journal. It is charging well, although slowly and hotly.

That’s about it for now. I’ll wax poetic later. Just wanted to get some of this out.

Gone South for the Winter

2006-12-06T21:52:00.000-06:00

South. The Ice. The White Continent. Antarctica.

Call it what you will, I'm now back from down below — and let me tell you, it's colder in Chicago than it was at 66 degrees S latitude. Also, the Coreolis Effect is still very much in effect. I'm now working diligently to edit my photos and post some stories... Stay tuned.

so i'm a bad blogger.

2006-11-04T16:04:00.000-06:00

in my defense, i haven't really gone anywhere lately or had the time to even see where i COULD be going. all that is about to change, however, as 1) i just quit my job so there (in theory) will be more time for writing and 2) my next voyage is a mere two weeks away. TWO! wow.

where to, you ask?

i'm giddy with photo-op anticipation.

testing!

2006-06-20T12:17:00.000-05:00

get on the bus

2006-05-22T16:56:00.000-05:00

the good airfare deals are growing ever fewer and farther between, putting a damper on the goin-places routine, so i was a little more amped than usual to hear about the arrival of the megabus to chicago. i'm not an avid bus rider (see: motion sickness), but for going to those not-so-far-away places, you can't beat the $1* fare, each-way. i'd even spring for the $3 and $5 fares; avoiding the road rage alone is worth the extra bucks.

a day trip to the milwaukee art museum to see the masters of american comics and toulouse-lautrec exhibits is on the books.

(*plus $.50 reservation fee)

at long last, photos!

2006-05-16T00:35:00.000-05:00

finally finished editing and uploading photos from the trip.... go have a look.

that's the edited version, checking in at a mere 250. there's a full 1,000+ photo album if you're that interested...

figures.

2006-05-15T11:59:00.000-05:00

as of today, the US officially deems libya one of the good guys. hopefully that will ease up the visa-application mess, which is still a mess two and a half months after i got mine (a mere week before my departure).

US Restores Diplomatic Ties to Libya

Stowaway posts

2006-04-12T09:48:00.000-05:00

I just found a couple of posts squirreled away into the netherlands of my hard drive, covering the last day in Egypt and the first in Libya. May be redundant and old news at this point, but I thought I'd put them up anyway. See below.

And I'm still working on the photos! Hope to have them ready tomorrow.

Lost Post 2

2006-04-12T09:42:00.000-05:00

Saturday, March 18
1:24 pm CST
9:24 pm Libya, Susa

We made it. I’m in f@#king Libya.

Took us two and a half hours to cross the border at Sallum in Egypt. No problems, just a long wait. Never once saw a customs or immigration agent.

Our drive west along the Libyan coastline took us through some of the most godforsaken land I have ever seen. Completely desolate, trash-ridden desert. Plastic bags blown up against barbed wired waved like desert flowers. Burned out abandoned cars (“dead cars”) littered on the fringe of the road. Coyotes and camels alike scavenged. A sea of nothingness.

Today was also the first day of the ghibli, the hot desert winds that kick up a lot of sand. Sandstorms are not enjoyable. We made a pit stop where I experienced the most vile toilet yet. Our drive was probably three times the length anticicpted, always “only one more hour” or “it’s just 50km to the hotel from here.” Try 250 km… Anyone here look at a map lately? Morale was definitely down, the mood on the bus a complete reversal from that in Egypt. Everything was rather comfortable and familiar and jovial on our little caravan there. I miss Walid and Hashim. I think we all do.

We did not do any touring today, as we pulled into our hotel close to 8 pm. There were some highlights of the bus ride, entirely astronomical though. As it was setting, the sun became a completely white round ball in the sky, like a glowing superball. You could look right at it (though I’m sure it was still bad for you). Never seen a sun like that. Then, after the sun had completely disappeared, the stars made their entrance. So many, so clear. Orion jumped right out. Been a long time since I’ve seen stars like that, and that was still along the highway with some light emanating from the cars. The desert is going to be amazing.

My cell phone is not working here, contrary to what I was told. Also, my voltage converter blew a fuse so I have no way to safely charge my phone or my computer or my iPod. I’m running on 15% power here and two bars on my phone. This is causing me much consternation. My lifelines to my life are slipping away from me. I must find someone with a converter that I can borrow for an afternoon.

Day 10, and homesickness is setting in.

Lost Post 1

2006-04-12T09:41:00.000-05:00

Friday, March 17
9:43 am CST
5:43 pm Egypt, Marsa Matrouh

If only you could see what I’m seeing. I’m usually not one for beaches, palm trees, and sunsets, but I’m usually not staying at brand new five-star beachfront hotels on the Mediterranean either. The hotel is completely empty except for our group. The whole town is, really. Marsa Matrouh is asleep nine months of the year, until refugees from the hotter lands invade in June. We’ve got about two hours until dinner, so I’m making efficient use of the balcony. My room faces west, towards the sunset. Cameras are ready.

It’s fitting that this idyllic corner will host our last night in Egypt. Starting from the hustle and madness of Cairo, we’re ending with the calm and stillness of the sea. (Calm except for the obnoxious chatter wafting over a few terraces away. Don’t you people need quiet time??) I’m sad to be leaving Egypt, and our awesome guides Walid and Hisham. They stay behind at the border, and we meet up with our new guides (and bus) in Libya.

We left Alexandria at about 7 am this morning. I ignored the 5:30 am wake up call and snoozed til 6. Rolled out of bed, packed, showered, had all my bags downstairs and on the bus by 6:30. Still in time for breakfast. I’m getting pretty good at this.

First stop was Abu Mena, a holy pilgrimage site for Coptic Christians, dedicated to St. Menas, and the first of our five UNESCO sites. The skies were perfect, yet again, making for some nice photos of the newer monastery complex. The remains of the old sixth century monastery are still there (which is what we went to see), you just have to take a nice little walk through rocks, mud, sinkholes, and sludge to get there.

Then we went to El Alamein, a WWII battle site. We visited one of the memorials, an Allied cemetery. Very calm, very lovely, very moving in its starkness. Some of the epitaphs were quite sad. The ages of the soldiers were engraved on the stones, some as young as 18. History just repeats itself. You’d think we’d learn to play nice by now. Most of the soldiers were killed in a battled waged for control of north Africa in October/November 1942. The Allies won.

Our travel agent, based in New York, is coming to Libya with us. She met up with us today after Abu Mena. We stopped in the middle of nowhere in the desert to literally pick her up from the side of the road. That just how things are done here.

The bulk of the drive followed right along the Mediterranean coast, and I swear I’ve never seen more beautiful water. I think I said that ten years ago in France, too. We had to wait for permission from the inspector to get to our last site, so we crashed a hotel lounge to use their restroom and their bar. (Last night for alcohol!) I wandered on down to the beach. The sand is bone white. The sea is turquoise.

Wish you were here.

Alitalia Flight 626

2006-04-05T10:43:00.000-05:00

Monday, April 3
About 3:30 pm Libya, 7:30 am CST
In the vicinity of Greenland

According to the flight monitor, we've got over four and half hours to go still. I hate return flights from Europre, always during the daytime so it's impossible to sleep. Wouldn't mind so much if I had slept at all last night, which I didn't. But, I'm going home. I can't believe I'm going home. Wasn't I just saying I can't believe I'm here? There? Where am I?

I don't feel that the time passed extraordinarily fast, as most tend to say on the return journey. As some points it downright slogged along. But that's how life goes, too. I think the past week in the desert, I really got into a semi-regular set routine. We shifted location once, but it was more or less exactly the same surroundings. And of course, as previously stated, I've actually had time to get to know some of the people (Libyans, that is) along the way rather than do the meet-and-greet over and over again in each respective city. These kids, their enthusiasm was infectious and just the thing to make it through the last leg of the trip. Comraderie transcended the language barrier. Abrahem, the ringleader of the bunch and the best driver with the best car with the best music in my opinion, even stuck around the airport with us in Sabha til our flight left. I get sad and mad when I think of how they would probably be treated, simply based on their appearance, if they came to the US.

Vegetarian meal was once again flubbed, not surprising given the absolute chaos at the airport this morning. Ten hour flight, roll and a fruitcup. Oh man, five hours to Mexican food. Can't wait.

Genius that I am, I packed my gum, sleeping pills, and headphones in my checked bag, so sleep is not looking likely, and my ears are popping like mad.

Almost there...

Acacus sunsets

2006-04-05T10:34:00.000-05:00

Saturday, April 1 (holy crap it's April)
7:56 pm
Acacus Mountain Camp, Libya

It's just before dinner, and, perhaps inspired by Salem's birdseye perch across the way, I watched the sun set from the top of the highest rock I felt comfortable climbing in bare feet. When the blazing bulb dropped below the horizon, the wispy cottony clouds refracted magenta, violet, and gold. I watched until the pinks disappeared, then lay down flat on the smooth black stone looking straight at the sky until every star was visible. The idle din of chatter and the buzzing camp generator notwithstanding, it was the most peaceful moment I've had yet on this trip. Maybe even ever.

More later. Time for second to last dinner in Libya.

Been through the desert on a horse with no name...

2006-04-05T10:13:00.001-05:00

Thursday, March 30
9:28 pm
Ubari Camp, Libya

Three more days. Then the journey home begins. So excited, I can taste it.

The past 24 hours have been rather taxing, on mind, body and spirit. We spent a total of 8 hours driving today to visit ONE site for an hour plus lunch. The drive was arduous, the terrain unforgiving. Fumes, kicked up dust and sand, broiling hot. A quarter of the drive took us over a minefield of scattered shattered rocks, a landscape Herodotus appropriately referred to as "the end of the world" and is now known as the Ocean of Stone. My driver for today, Mohammed, ably navigated the protruding obstacles, but not without jolting my back and stomach in every direction. It was a drive that led me to thinking, what in the hell are we doing out here?

The rocks littering the flat flat FLAT ground are black like lava on top, earthen red on bottom. Not sure what the story is on that, but I snagged a few specimens to ask those that might. Our epic trek came to a bumping halt at lunchtime, high noon, at which point it was decided to forego the meal and go straight to the site, under the sizzling sun. Animals incised in the rock face. Yay. I love me some giraffes, I do, and it's cool they're here and they're 8,000 years old and well-executed. But, I and my 2,000 parts did not deem it worthy of 8 hours of vehicular hell, enhanced ever more by the voracious flies.

The enterprising Tuaregs (the nomads of the Sahara) made sure to set up shop just beside our picnic table. I swear, they must have a secret smoke signal or something because they have materialized out of thin air to sell their wares at just about every stop we've made, including the gas station! Persistent bunch, they are. Most speak French, too, so I've had reasonable success on the bargaining table.

Came back to the camp, exhausted, deflated, sand-ridden. Had a little drama with a sick traveler. French chef asked for my telephone number (??) after dinner. Ugh. I wrote a whole entry about that situation in my head in the car today. It'll find it's way onto paper soon enough. For the first time on this entire trip, I was scared.

Bon soir.

Nearing the end

2006-04-05T10:04:00.001-05:00

Saturday, April 1
10:12 pm
Acacus Camp, Libya

Though technically we will be here for another full night, this feels like our last night in Libya, and thus the trip. Crazy. We spend all day into night traveling tomorrow, first driving from the desert to Sabha (thankfully no hotel stay there...), then a night flight to Tripoli, then the first leg of our voyage home begins at 4am, if not sooner. There will be no sleeping tomorrow night in the cushy Corinthia bed. I'll never get up.

Today was spent on the road, again. Scenery was, for the most part, jaw dropping. Temperature, idly scorching. (The thermometer in the car read 42 degrees C. That's about 110 F.) We were traveling into the depths of the Acacus Mountain range to see some ancient rock paintings. We've been seeing these images on paper and reproduced in museums throughout the trip, so it was coming full circle to see them in situ. With the end of today, I officially retire my "archaeological shoes". Thanks, Onitsuka Tiger!

A part of me is sad, and maybe even not quite ready to be leaving. This past week in the camps has been really fun, and I've grown quite fond of the boys driving us silly folks around to these remote locations at the end of the world to look at rock scribbles. It's a familial atmosphere, still a boys club by all means, but they're good-natured kids doing the best and making the best of what they've got. (And given that they're all about my age, they're a welcome respite from the incessant talk of ailments, medication, and grandchildren among my group...) I'm going to miss them all, each one having such distinct personality traits. Salem and Abrahem were my homeboys to joke around with, Khalim's like the Libyan Justin Timberlake with a thousand-watt smile, Khalid's the wildchild, Abdullah and Mohammed have this quiet, dark intensity that melts when music plays, Awad is the reluctant leader of the pack. None of them spoke English, but we still managed to communicate in broken Arabinglish. My Arabic vocabulary is in the double digits now. Yala bina!

Some of the boys: Khalid, Awad, and Abrahem

Sahara

2006-04-05T08:55:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, March 29
about 6:45 pm
Ubari Camp, Ubari Sand Sea, Sahara, Libya

We've arrived at the first of our desert camps, and oh what a ride it was getting here. Another one of those jaw-dropping, never in my life would I dream I'd be doing this moments. (I'm happy to note that despite the abundance of those moments, each is just as thrilling as the next. Not jaded, yet.) Our desert chariots greeted us at the door to our hotel, which I was elated to be leaving. We reached the edge of the desert in about ten minutes, and from there it was a rollercoaster of undulating sand dunes. Seriously. The Jeeps roared up and over the hills, sometimes at 50, 60 degree angles. Butterflies in the tummy, cool breeze blowing through the windows, racing through the sands, bump bump bump. Unfrickinreal. The landscape is two colors: sand and sky. Nothing else, anywhere, in any direction. I'm hurdling mountains of sand in the Sahara in a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by a Libyan named Abrahem who doesn't speak English. WTF, is this my life?

Oh yeah, and then around noon there was a little astronomical occurrence that was garnering a bit of fuss -- a total solar eclipse. Some groups came to Libya to specifically witness those four minutes, but it was just a pretty nice side benefit for our trip. Our location was about 150 miles from the total path, so we saw about 85/90% eclipse. Still pretty cool. The sky turned an eeerie shade of blue/gray and Abrahem had the special glasses you need to look straight at it.

After our impromptu science lesson in the sand, more dune-buggy antics ensued. One of the 4x4s got a flat, and I wish I timed them because I've never seen a tire changed so fast in my life, in the desert sand no less. like to see the NASCAR chumps do that.

We stopped at the four main Ubari lakes, sprawling oases rising out of the sand. They are stunning! Palm fringed and completely calm and still (except for the unabashed Germans swimming in their skivvies), with amazing relections of the surrounding trees and towering dunes. They're as salty as the Dead Sea. Postcard material, no doubt. The weather has yet again been amazing, not too hot and downright cool at first, very little wind.

Our convoy of six 4x4s (plus the grub truck) works really well together, each of them looking out for the others. It's enthralling to watch the other cars up ahead scale a steep wall of sand only to find yourself doing the same ten seconds later. The drivers are fantastic, brothers and cousins and friends all of them. At our frequent stops, they goof and pal around like ten year-old boys, and that spirit extends to the sands. No doubt they'd be going at double speed over these hills if they weren't toting a bunch of old folks (+ me) around the desert. They've all already learned my name (thanks to Salem, I'm sure). Wish I spoke Arabic! The chef at our camp is Moroccan, and speaks French, so I can parler avec him a bit.

Camp. WAY exceeds expectations. I have my own tent, and when I say tent think mini-circus big top. Two centered poles anchor the enclosure, and the circus-hued cloth drapes down about ten feet to the ground around the perimeter. Two twin beds, at least twelve feet apart, center table (with bowl of almonds and raisins and a banana), two side tables, armoire-ish thing, overhead light, POWER OUTLET, lantern, and two sitting chairs and a table outside. Facilities are way above average, too. Flushing toilets! Haven't seen the showers yet, but I hear there's hot water and good pressure. There's a 24-hour bathroom attendant, too.

All in all, this is just amazing. Reflecting on the past two or three days, the things I've seen and experienced and the people I've met -- I'm pretty effin lucky.

Sun is about to set. Can't miss this!

Saharan sands surrounding our camp, at sunset

Ew.

2006-04-05T08:53:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, March 28
11:43 pm
Sabha, Libya

OK, I take back what I said about the Zliten hotel. That's like the Four Seasons compared to this. Forget Saran wrap, I'm looking for dead bodies. I bet this place has an hourly rate, if you know whaddimean.

On the road, again

2006-04-05T08:47:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, March 28
5:57 pm
Driving through the Sahara to Sabha

I've unknowingly and regrettably stumbled into the world headquarters for Celine Dion fans. This is a new kind of hell.

Favorite rip-off, lost-in-translation items:

- Crust toothpaste
- Boreo cookies
- S & Ms candies
- Tayo Auto & Suzy trucks

and the winner, listed on a hotel laundry checklist:
- breast hanger

Immersion

2006-04-05T08:46:00.001-05:00

Monday, March 27
11:38 pm
Ghadames, Libya

I just watched the sun set over three countries from the top of a Saharan sand dune. Then I danced with costumed Libyan boys. Good night.

Ghadames

2006-04-05T08:04:00.002-05:00

Monday, March 27
2:53 pm
Ghadames, Libya

Unlikely as it seemed at the outset, Ghadames just may be my favorite city so far. Reason #1: We've just returned to the hotel for a siesta, because the whole town shuts down until the evening to escape the afternoon heat. That's my kind of thinking.

The drive here yesterday from Tripoli was long, but not so arduous. To break up the journey, we made a couple of stops: an old granary and the little town of Nalut. Both had remarkably preserved and intricately constructed granaries, little storerooms built one on top of each other giving the overall effect of a giant anthill. Traditional Berber mud architecture, but it looked like a big sand dune with holes. I climbed up to peek inside the dark chambers, and some still contained amphoras, the large clay storage jars.

Qasr al-Haj

Nalut

The stretch of road between Nalut and Ghadames gave us our first real glimpse of the desert, the Grand Erg Oriental. These region is called the Jebel Nafusa. Rippling piles of sand, sun bleached plateaus, smatterings of palm trees around scant oases. And, several herds of stubborn camels crossing the road, stopping traffic. Watching a spooked camel gallop out of the way of a blaring horn never failed to amuse.

Mohammed leaving our hotel

We arrived in Ghadames at about 6:15 pm. The majority of the town shares the mudbrick architecture of the sites we saw en route. I've never really been to the southwest, but a number of people compared the two, especially the terrain. Our hotel just opened six months ago, part of The Colonel's directive to increase tourism. It's lovely here, not only clean and liveable (no saran wrap needed), but comfortable and architecturally interesting. Meant to mimic the style of the old city.

Which it does to a tee. This morning, after a visit to the Ghadames Museum and some requisite shopping, we walked through the labyrinth of covered mud brick walls and alleys that comprise the Old City. The entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage site. No one lives there now (though it was inhabited until just two or three years ago by a woman who insisted she was born there, she was going to die there). But, the homes are still privately owned and it's used as a retreat from the summer heat. Outer walls are about a meter thick, 90% of the spaces are covered, with just a few slots for light, so it feels air-conditioned.

Courtyard at Ghadames

It's really a visually amazing place -- emphasis on maze. Benches are built right into and of the same mud brick as the walls along the "streets", as are the bed platforms and tables in our hotel. There are mosques, schools, and meeting places. Daily life was incredibly, almost shockingly segregated (as it still is today... had to check my principles at the door). Regarding publicspaces, only men are allowed at the mosques and in the meeting places; women are confined to the top floor and THE ROOF. (Except for designated times at the mosque, where I think I heard our guide say their main purpose was to clean.)

Our lunch was a surprise. Rather than stopping at restaurant as usual, we were led to a fully decorated traditional home, still in use (at least as a tourist stop), with carpets and pillows lining the floor, mirrors, baskets, tapestries and other handicraft adorning the walls right up to the ceiling.

We sat on the cushioned floor to eat, and our meal was brought out on large round silver trays with legs. Five to a tray. One of the local craft specialities are these brightly woven conical food covers, though they look more like little hats to me, so we got to see them in action. They're almost too pretty to use. Cousous and veggies (and lamb for the omnivores). It was so fantastic! One of the more "authentic" experiences yet.

Followed closely by my donning of the traditional Tuareg head scarf. I bought one at one of the many shops in the old city, thinking I'd give it to someone, but Salem (our security guy, pronounced "solemn", not like the cigarette) insisted on wrapping it up for me. It was kind of awesome, I'm digging the look. He was also wearing a scarf so we struck a pose for the cameras. I think all the old ladies in our group are crushing on him and his tight pants. He's becoming my homie on this trip, despite speaking about six words of English. Then the tables turned, and Libyans were taking pictures of ME. We ran into a group of teenage boys and all wanted their photo with me. Very cute. I would see them again later that evening.

As we wound our way through the districts of the old city, we'd pass a Japanese group every so often, filing past each other like opposing baseball teams exchanging forced pleasantries. I said konnichi wa and two ladies got all excited and held up the line.

Shoemaker in the shops

Then, at one of the many, many shopping stalls, we met a little boy named Mohammed, probably about two or three and the son of the craftsman. I got all Angelina Jolie and kind of wanted to take him home with me. The biggest brown eyes you've ever seen. Didn't make a sound, didn't move an inch. My kind of kid.

Now we are about to head out into the Sahara via 4x4 Jeeps to visit a haunted castle and watch the sunset. After that, it's dinner and a dance performance. I'm amped.

home!

2006-04-04T19:52:00.000-05:00

got in to chicago yesterday afternoon. exhausted. exasperated. excited. got my ice cream and guacamole fix; sushi tomorrow. final report and the first batch of photos tomorrow, too.

oh yes, the reason i'm here...

2006-03-25T09:57:00.003-06:00

i forgot to tell you what we did yesterday. oops. luxury is blinding.

Leptis Magna theatre

the entire day was spent touring Leptis Magna, THE site of sites in Libya. it's phenomenal. magnificent. colossal. the city dates to the 7th century BC, but its heyday was the Roman period, during the reign of Augustus in the early ADs. at its peak, it was home to 80,000 people. it is by far the most complete ancient city we've visited, and it's only half excavated!

there are several intact arches, including the impressive reconstructed arch of septimius severus (a Roman emperor said to have been from Leptis). a grand theatre stretching three storeys high, with a killer view to the water. hadrianic baths which must have been an amazing structure in its day... giant outdoor swimming pool, cold baths (covered by a vaulted ceiling with turquoise and blue mosaics), warm baths, hot baths, changing area. wow, it's massive. and there were marble latrines! roman and punic marketplaces, with the ancient measuring devices still in place. and... a coliseum!

Leptis latrines

Coliseum view

close your eyes and you could picture battling gladiators, roaring crowds. it's dug right into the ground, so you approach it from above. just beside, between the coliseum and the sea, is the hippodrome, another site for races and contests. it was said that spectators would wander from one event to the other via a passageway between the two. of course, i was hellbent on finding it. i dropped down the cliffside into the hippodrome (of which not much remains), skirting some tricky rocks and sand, and meandered until i found the tunnel... which leads you straight out onto the field. it's soooooo neat. so neat. looking up at those seats, it's just immense. our whole group was still up on top, and i heard them shout, "there she is!" i yelled up, and my voice echoed throughout the whole stadium, which seats 16,000 people. they all snapped pics of me posing gladiator-style, so hopefully i'll get one or two. so neat.

then we went to the on-site museum, which had a lot of exquisite statues and mosaics they were wise to remove from the elements. however, the ridiculous highlight was the two-story triumphant portrait of Mr. Qaddafi himself in the lobby, greeting his people as they come through the door.

then we went to the icky hotel in nearby zliten and had yellow food for dinner. i watched a james bond flick and went to bed at 9:30.

zliten does have some pretty spots, however. see?

like i said before, tomorrow we ship off to the desert, which i am quite certain is not yet wired for internet. pretty sure my cellphone is going to be useless, too.

first stop is ghadames, an 8-hour drive to the southwest. it's a major desert trading post town, a stopping point for caravans. we get in pretty late, but still in time to catch a traditional dance performance. kinda amped for that. i bet it's beautiful.

from there we go... somewhere else whose name escapes me, but there's a hotel. it's after THAT that we pile into the 4x4 Jeeps and bounce over sand dunes til i vomit from motion sickness. four nights of camping out in "comfortable tents". i did get confirmation that there are beds, we're not actually sleeping on the ground. i'm getting really freaked out about the heat. it was hot at leptis, the hottest day so far, with bugs, and i was miserable. this will no doubt be worse.

one of the areas we're going to, the ubari, has the most stunning lakes rising from the sands. i can't wait to see those, hot and bugs be damned. and the acacus moutain region, which is right on the algerian border, also looks amazing. the famed prehistoric rock art, the main focus of our excursion down there, lives on the rock canvas.

this has been like three vacations in one. egypt seems like months ago now.

at home in opulence

2006-03-25T09:42:00.002-06:00

back home! ... in tripoli, that is, at the corinthia. i'm getting far too attached to this hotel.

it initially seemed cruel to make us go from lavish indulgence to last night's well, let's be honest, dump in zliten (we were hunting for saran wrap to cover the beds.. i ended up making a cocoon out of a seemingly safe blanket from the closet). it just makes me appreciate this place even more.

and holy crap: i scored a junior suite this time. it's bigger than my apartment. just when you think it doesn't get any better... damn. let's compare:

zliten:
- cracked toilet seat
- stained bedspread
- no light bulb in the lamp
- dim, buzzing overhead lighting
- drip drop of hot water
- full stream of yellow cold water
- mosquitoes
- had to keep curtains wide open to get A/C, street light pouring in
- quarter-size dollop of sauce on my spaghetti

tripoli:
- TWO bathrooms
- TWO TVs, including a flat screen in the bedroom
- TWO seating areas beside giant picture windows with a 24th floor view of the sea
- L-shaped desk as big as my office
- high-class toiletries (all of which i will be stealing)
- real terrycloth bathrobes
- complimentary apples, nuts, and chocolates on the table

my job is hard sometimes.

this is really just to soften us up for what's to come: two night's of spartan accommodation before the camp out in the sahara.

back to real time posting.. for now

2006-03-23T12:12:00.003-06:00

Thursday, March 23 (I think..)
8:12 pm, Tripoli

I'm losing track of what day it is.

Tripoli has been FUN. Yesterday we got to explore the city, which was not only a welcome break from hiking over ruins all day, it meant a change of SHOES. Hello sandals!

We started off as a group at the Jamahiriya Museum, the national museum of Libya. First few floors are filled with archaeological artifacts found from throughout the country from way back when to not so long ago. It's a beautiful museum, very well arranged and displayed. But all of the labels are in Arabic... As is everything in Tripoli, and most of Libya. One of Qaddafi's edicts I suppose. Keep out the Western influence.

Qaddafi's VW bug

We had a guide through the archaeological floors, then we were left on our own. I wandered up to the top floor, history of the military and Libyan Resistance. Our guide insisted on coming with, and I see why. Gone were the loafing college kid museum guards. Up there, it's men in suits watching your every move. I was too self-conscious to take a photo. We were greeted by a gigantic photo of Qaddafi at the top of the stairs, then taken through the resistance against the Italian occupation and the rise of The Colonel. Helloooooo propaganda. There are two galleries devoted entirely to gifts given to the man. The next gallery is full of photos of him shaking hands with various world leaders and fan letters from his people (wish I could read Arabic...). Then there's the oil room. It was a little creepy, to be honest. Even creepier is that those galleries share the floor with the taxidermy, so in my attempt to flee the Libyan SS guards, I run into a gazelle being chewed by a coyote or something. No happy nature scenes here, folks. Our guide made a specific effort to point out the oddities case: two-headed cows, three-legged chicken, a sheep with no eyes. No thanks! Ran back to the lobby.

Then the fun began.

We wandered through the old city, where all the suqs and shops are located. Not as chaotic as the one bazaar we happened upon in Egypt, but this was primarily tourist stuff; that one was actual functional goods for everyday people. I finally got to flex my shopping muscles. Mohammad, one of our guides (actually, our only since Linda fired the other guy) came along with me to assist with the pricing... We tore through that joint. My arms were full in about 15 minutes. Still need to get some gifts for people though.

Tripoli is a lot more, eh, advanced than I expected. People here are much more stylish than in the rest of the country, and Egypt even. The clothing is much tighter. Women still wear headscarves, though not as much as in Egypt, and almost all are drenched in makeup. The catcalls have resumed. Maybe I should wrap my scarf around my head instead of my neck. Thinking about looking into a fake wedding ring, too. After touring today, we had the afternoon off. I hung out at home, as I've taken to calling our hotel, then went back to the suq on my own. (It's really close to the hotel.) Of course, everyone else in the group had the same idea so I strolled around with a few people once I got there.

Oh yeah, touring. The reason I'm here. We went to Sabratha this morning, one of the sites to see in Libya (the other being Leptis Magna, tomorrow's destination). It's another huge site, very well-preserved, right on the Mediterranean coast, as all of these sites are. The shining star of this spot is the theater, which has been impressively reconstructed. Three storeys tall, beautiful carvings and reliefs still in tact. The weather was once again amazing, so the beige stone really popped against the sea and the sky.

Wall mosaic at Sabratha

Now, I've just returned from my urban exploration. Thinking about taking a bath and ordering room service. Why not?? I'm getting a little sick of being around people, which is not to say that I want to go home (though I am counting down the days... 11 to go), I just want some alone time.

Tomorrow we drive east to Leptis Magna, where we'll be all day. It's far enough out that we're staying in a local hotel instead of coming back to the palace. Bummer. But we'll be back here the night after, which is the last night of the "official" tour before the extension into the Sahara begins. Some people will be going home. The rest of us will be heading south in 4x4s over the sand dunes.

handwritten post, no. 3

2006-03-23T11:56:00.002-06:00

Wednesday, March 22
3:38pm, Tripoli

Sitting in the lobby of the swankiest hotel I've ever been in, let alone STAYED in. Yowza.

RECAP!

I think we left off at Qasr Lebia, still in Cyrenaica/Susa. From there, it was on to Ptolemais, the site that the OI partially excavated in the 1950s, and that has only been 10% excavated overall. The sites here are leaving a bit more to the imagination than in Egypt, mostly due to the absence of inscriptions. You could have the same pile of rubble in Egypt, but there'd be hieroglpyhs scrawled all over.

We had a great guide through the site, a city founded by Ptolemy I. What was interesting about it (to me) was the clear evidence of of roads. People WALKED here. You can see the major intersections. Most of the area is reduced to rockpiles, save for some exceptional spots, but the roads persevered. Roman speciality, right? You could even seen the curbs sometimes. Oh, and the chariot wheel tracks were still visible! Really brought the place alive-- evidence of actual human USE. Towering temples and statues are great, but a bit sterile. There was also a swimming pool in the main palace. Guess the Ptolemies found time for leisure between their many scandalous escapades. The cisterns were the highlight, though. Vast cavernous underwater vats for fresh water storage. We got to go down exploring.

The little gift shop was also the first sighting of the famed Qaddafi watches. I held off, figuring I'd get a better price in Tripoli (and I have).

After Ptolemais, we went to Tocra/Taucheira. The only memorable feature of this site was our guide. He was FABULOUS, in the most fabulous sense of the word. Totally clad in traditional Libyan garb, flowing tunic and pants with a decorative robe over top, turban wrapped on his head, but completely Western accessorized. Ray Ban sunglasses (think 80s, Risky Business-era Tom Cruise), bling bling silver watch, constantly ringing cellphone, cigarette dangling from his lips. And of course, he's an actor! Knew every stone on the site though.

After the site, we drove to Benghazi, the largest city in the area. Ate dinner at a Turkish restaurant then were hustled off to the warehouse they call their airport for our flight to Tripoli. That was an experience.

It was nearly 11 when we got to our hotel in Tripoli, and I was all ready to crash. Then I saw my room. I feel like a little kid lost in a five-star hotel. Giant fluffy bed, sofa, arm chairs, desk, armoir, TV entertainment center, separate bath and shower, all brand-new, all marble, all smartly decorated, view to the sea. Chocolate on my pillow! I've been craving dark chocolate for over a week now.

And the best part: my cell phone service kicked back in. Return to civilization!

handwritten post no. 2

2006-03-22T14:08:00.002-06:00

Tuesday, March 21
about 10am, somewhere in Libya
On the bus

We left Susa this morning, en route to Benghazi where we will board an evening flight to Tripoli. Along the way, we stop at three sites: Qasr Lebia, Ptolemais, and Tocra.

We've just left Qasr Lebia. (Qasr is Arabic for castle. Or maybe I should say castle is English for qasr.) The site was small, but really interesting, most of all for the marvelous whimsical mosaics found there. You approach the qasr from the bottom of the hill, and it looks like a little sanstone Lego castle. The landscape is peppered with bright, blooming trees and shrubs, while spring flowers (poppies, mostly) sprout underfoot. The weather is perfect. The mosaics originally resided in the eastern church, but have put under cover in a small museum. Wildly colorful, thematically varied depictions of animals (as predator, prey, and lollygagging creature) dominate, bu there are also scenes of humans (gods and mortals alike) and castles and the lighthouse at Alexandria. I suppose "folk" is the term for the content.

Leaving the site, we bumped into the French group staying at our hotel, yet again. I swear we're going to see them all the way to Tripoli. Meals at the hotel are quite the international affairs: French, Germans, Italians, Canadians, and us Yanks. Actually, one of our people was chatting with a Canadian who said, "I thought Americans weren't allowed in Libya." Bet that's a selling point for some folks.

Going back again, yesterday (Monday) was pretty great. Our first stop was Apollonia, right across the street from the hotel. More Roman and Byzantine riuns, all very lovely, but its location is unreal, perched on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. So pretty, agagin. The wind was hot and fierce, though. Gale force, blowing me over a few times. (They were blowing all night before, too. Woke me up several times. And what I had initially said was rain coming down turned out to be, in fact, SAND. Pelting our hotel all the way upt o the 7th floor.)

After Apollonia, we boarded the bus for the most picturesque drive. The view was stunning. Just when I think that sea can't get any more striking, it does. Our second stop, L'Atrun had the most amazing scenery seen yet (I took at least three dozens photos so you'll see). Rolling green mountains dropping sheer down to the water below, which is so crystal you can see the rocks continue below. Dare I say, it was breathtaking. The site has two churches, probably the most exquisitely located places of worship. The marble was in excellent condition and parts of the structures have been reconstructed.

And then, when the elevating temperature and winds had just about gotten to me, a cool, sweet breeze floated up off the sea. It was delicious. I stood on a rock for a solid ten minutes taking it in.

Next stop, Ras al Hillal. Another Byzantine church, or what remains of it. Nice mosaics, but by this point I'm a little churched out.

Last stop before lunch (yes, all this before lunch) was a brief peek at the largest cave in Africa. It was pretty cool, plus now I can say I've been to the largest cave in Africa. So huge, though I have no basis for comparison since I'm not a cave-dweller. Local farmers still use it in the winter months; you can see the smoke charred on the walls from their fires.

Last site for the day (after lunch) was Slonta. Not really a site, actually, more like a curiosity. It's a little area, about 200 sq. ft., of reliefs carved right into the stone. A grotto I think it was called? The scenes are intriguing, weeping and moourning people, the four seasons, a cow, a crying boy. No one really knows what it means or even to when it dates, but it is unlike any rock-cut scenes anywhere else in Libya. You have to rely on your imagination a bit to see some of the images, though. It's like Magic Eye in the rock.

Came back to the hotel and it was still early so a couple of us walked into "town." Caused a bit of a stir walking through the main strip (all of two blocks with about two dozen shops). Got some good shots of the curious and mostly friendly people, including a butcher and a baker (but no candlestick maker).

Then I ate three chocolate covered cream puffs at dinner and went to bed. Moo.

handwritten post, no. 1

2006-03-22T13:34:00.002-06:00

Sunday, March 19
9:13pm Susa, Libya

From here on out, looks like I'll be writing my journal the old-fashioned way -- by hand. I'm too afraid to turn on my computer. Sparks just flew when I plugged the power cord to the adapter in the outlet. Not going to risk frying my baby. But, it's down to about 13% power and I need to be able to dump my photos... Memory card is full. Hope that doesn't suck up too much juice. Batteries are also dead in the camera, but the battery charger seems to be working OK. So did my phone, although it got quite hot. (Another thing I can't risk losing.) Forget about the iPod.

All these technical difficulties are only adding to my mounting tension. I want Mexican food so bad. Basically I just want anything that's not hummous, cucumber, and bread, so bad. I want my clothes. Very sick of wearing the same crap over and over, even if I do do that at home. Most of all, I'm getting homesick, and missing someone a lot. The absence of cellular service, contrary to what I was told, is making that worse. Didn't feel so far away when there was the magic of text messaging. I need to call my mama, too. Things were much easier in Egypt...

Which is not to say that Libya is bad, save for the barren wasteland at the border. It's quite lovely, actually. Just very foreign, to everyone. No one is quite comfortable yet.

The area we are now in, Susa, is a verdant fertile seaside town, home to some magnificent ruins at Cyrene and Apollonia. (It's the ancient region of Cyrenaica, a name that still sticks today.) There are mountains, the Jebel Akhdar, speckled with trees (trees!) and bushes, wide expanses of green farm in the valley, and -- it rains. Raining right now, in fact.

Our guides, Khalim and Mohammad, are also very friendly and jovial, cracking jokes already. I feel bad trash-talking their country, which they obviously take much pride in and revel in sharing tidbits of info on. I've already been offered Arabic lessons and a place to stay if I really want to get to know Libya.

SIDE NOTE: That just reminded me about my waiter yesterday morning in Marsa Matrouh (that seems like eons ago...). I got to breakfast, late as usual, and ate alone, as usual. The waiter came by with coffee, etc for me, then came by again to chat. What is your name, where are you from, how old are you (his name is Mahmood, he's 27). Then he says, you have very pretty eyes. Amazing the key phrases one learns of a foreign language... I complimented him on his English, which was actually quite good, and said I'd like to learn Arabic someday. He says, "You touch me... and I'll touch you Arabic." I snickered and said sure thing, didn't have the heart to correct him.

Anyway, back to Libya.

Oh, I think I forgot the rest of Marsa Matrouh. Nothing much happened since we were there just to sleep, but it was BEAUTIFUL. The town is a total resort destination, beach houses and hotels up and down the Mediterranean coast. Being that it's still winter/spring, the whole place was deserted. Think we were the only ones in the hotel (which was brand new). Didn't take away from the amazing beachfront view though.

OK, now on to Libya. Our hotel in Susa is all right. Also brand new (tourism is new here), but very stark. When I'm in a good mood, I think of how much worse it could be. When I'm in a bad mood, it feels like a prison and I want to cry. The walls are sterile white, very little adornment. It's so empty, the room echoes. You can hear every noise in the hall and from adjacent rooms. The winds are so loud outside, it's howling clear across my room to the door. Something smells in the bathroom. Fridge is empty. Dim, dank lighting. But, the bed is comfy and has a fuzzy blankie like mine at home. Food is ehh, but they compensate with dessert.

Today we spent all day at Cyrene, a vast Greek/Roman complex. A whole city, really. Beautiful mosaics, fantastic sculpture (now in the on-site museum). My favorite aspect of the site, however, was the presence of nature. It's like an open-air museum, you can climb all up on the ruins (which you could NEVER do in the States or even Europe). Grass and wildflowers and trees have just grown up and around the rubble, simply taking back their natural land. I love when nature wins.

To add to that, we had a wildlife element. Here we are, touring millenia-old historic sites, and we turn a corner, and there's a cow. Just hanging out, chewing on some grass. Cows roam freely about the site, a natural lawn-mowing service. I saw a turtle ambling through the brush, too.

Our guide at the site, a Libyan man, worked on the initial Italian excavations for twelve years, beginning in 1970. Really interesting guy, excellent English (which he spoke with an Italian accent).

Lunch was good. Couscous and veggies. Here is where Libya wins: Our bus here (after trading in the shack on wheels that plucked us from the border) is so much better than the one in Egypt. It's like being on an airplane, in Economy Plus.

OK, sleepytime.
(read: my hand hurts from writing.)

return of the internet!

2006-03-22T07:16:00.002-06:00

Wednesday, March 22
7:16 am CST
3:16 pm, Tripoli, Libya

Well kids, I'm in Libya. The past three nights before Tripoli were spent in a town called Susa, in the eastern part of the country. The Libyan equivalent of the sticks from what I observed. Nothing, anywhere, for miles. Stunning scenery along the Mediterranean though. I wrote out a few entries about those sites (by hand, as my computer is dying and I'm afraid of Libyan voltage), which I'll transcribe later tonight.

The actual entry into Libya was more or less anticlimactic. Took us about two and half hours to cross the border on Saturday. What we crossed into was perhaps the most godforsaken land I've ever laid eyes on, exacerbated by the fact that we were driving right into a sandstorm. Hot, sandy, fierce winds blowing over barren, desolate desert. There was a collective drop in enthusiasm around the bus, as I'm sure we were all thinking, "what the f&*k are we doing here??"

Things could only get better from there, and they have. More to come later. Now: a visit to a few mosques, walk through the old town of Tripoli, and a shopping trip to the bazaars!

P.S. The Corinthia Bab Africa is the nicest hotel I have ever been in, and will probably ever be in, in my life. If the dark chocolate on the pillow wasn't enough, the free internet sealed the deal.

Almost forgot!

2006-03-16T14:06:00.001-06:00

10:08 pm Egypt

One of the women I sat with at dinner tonight, who I hadn't had a chance to really talk to yet, is a lawyer who works with the Special Victims Unit in New York City.

I think my eyes bulged a little when she casually dropped that bomb. I hope my cellphone goes off when she's around. (Yep, it's the L&O theme song...)

Stabbing Westward

2006-03-16T14:01:00.001-06:00

Thursday, March 16
1:02 pm CST
9:02 pm Alexandria

I went to dinner. But, it was a buffet so I could quietly exercise my right not to gorge. Hard to resist the dessert table though, especially after getting cheated out of ice cream earlier today.

Well, this is the last night in Alexandria. Have to pack everything up, again. Five-thirty wake-up call tomorrow.

This is also possibly the last time I’ll have internet access. We start our drive towards Libya tomorrow, stopping at El Alamein (site of a decisive WWII battle, I’m stoked for that) en route to Marsa Metrouh for a night’s rest before the border crossing sometime Saturday. No idea what the internet situation, or any situation for that matter, will be like over there. I’ll take notes and tell you all about it in April.

tisbah al-khayr!

P.S. I wish foreign words were admissible in Scrabble: Arabic’s got a shitload of Q with no U words.

I am so sick of eating.

2006-03-16T13:40:00.003-06:00

Thursday, March 16
10:27 am CST
6:27 pm Alexandria

Another huge lunch, at the same place actually, just upstairs in the “fish” restaurant (yesterday was the “chicken” restaurant). I thought I had escaped the onslaught by denying the fish to two different waiters, left to munch on mezze (appetizers like hummous, baba ghanouj). Nope. Just as I finished my meal’s worth, the head waiter comes out with a big bowl of pasta, followed by another waiter with a plate of French fries. A vegetarian meal here apparently consists of every dish on the menu sans meat. I intentionally skipped breakfast this morning because I was grossly overstuffed from last night when it was a plate of steamed veggies and rice, spaghetti in tomato sauce, and fries – on top of the soup and mezze everyone else had! Then I get skimped on dessert because they think I don’t eat dairy, so while everyone had ice cream, I got fruit. Probably for the best. I must have gained ten pounds already, despite all the walking. Thinking about skipping dinner tonight and just ordering soup to my room.

Our day ended a little early today, a welcome change. Bus rolled up to the hotel around 4 pm. Unfortunately there really isn’t much to do around our hotel. We’re at the very end of the strip, the Corniche, bound on either side by more hotels or apartments buildings. No shopping. I’ve yet to really experience an Egyptian bazaar. Souvenirs will have to wait for Libya, though I heard shopping kind of blows there, too. There MUST be Qaddafi crap.

First stop was the catacombs of Kom el-Shugafa, a huge burial complex with some fantastic carved and painted tomb decorations. The chambers go on and on, for multiple levels, one room leading to yet another. You could get super lost in there. We weren’t allowed to. (I wasn’t wearing proper exploring shoes, anyway.) Photos were not allowed inside, so I bought a book with some nice shots.

Then we went to Pompey’s Pillar a few kilometers away. It’s a big slab of pink granite about 30m tall surrounded by a couple of sphinxes. I think Heroes’ Square in Budapest is much more impressive. This was a bit boring, like someone just put up a tall column. There isn’t much decoration on the column itself. The pillar is actually a monument for Diocletian, not Pompey. (My Egyptian and Greco-Roman history knowledge has quadrupled on this trip.)

THEN, we got to go the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the new library “inspired” by the great library of yore/lore. Just opened in 2002 in a really neat round building that has letters from 120 languages, ancient and modern, from around the world etched into its outer façade. It’s part of Alexandria’s revitalization project. (Trying to regain its status as a world cultural center.) Our tour guide spat out dozens of little factoids, most of which I remember but probably don’t need to clog up this space with.

The reading room is seven storeys and awesome. Lots of natural light. Perhaps the Norwegian architect wanted to make good use of that precious natural resource that his country lacks half the year. I would never get any work done in there, though.

We already talked about lunch.

After lunch, we only had one site left, Kom el-Dikka. There’s a Roman Odeon with the “sweet spot” still in tact. When you speak from the center stone your voice echoes perfectly through the theatre. Sounds a bit like when you’re speaking into a telephone receiver and you hear your voice echo back at you. (Or what you finally realize is your voice…) While I tested out the acoustics to confirm this, I refrained from exclaiming, “Are you not entertained?!?” Saving that one for the Libyan amphitheatre. The site also had a mosaic museum, called The Villa of the Birds, and some more artifacts that have been excavated from Alexandria’s Eastern Harbor. Water erosion is creepy, faces just melt off.

Oof. It’s almost time for dinner and I can still taste lunch. What to do… I should go socialize for a bit, given that I’m working and all. Hisham keeps covering my bar tab so maybe I’ll take advantage of that while I still can: no alcohol in Libya!

footnotes, addendum, etc

2006-03-15T13:35:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, March 15
1:41 pm CST
9:41 pm Egypt, Alexandria

i'm mostly writing these entries on the bus, on the go, so i'm not too keen on spell checking. hanging up my grammar police hat for this one.

also, all the photos are uploaded at low-res so i don't exceed my bandwidth. so they look really crappy, but trust me they're only a little crappy. hi-res full photo album (over 600 already...) will come once i get back home.

i just ate a five-course meal and i wasn't even hungry. egyptians take it personal when you don't finish what's on your plate.

amazing alex

2006-03-15T09:48:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, March 15
9:50 am CST
5:50 pm Egypt, Alexandria

I know I've well exceeded my limit on the use of the word "amazing" to describe something. But, it just is! I suppose you could easily insert awesome, stunning, breathtaking, cool, neat, etc at any point.

i'm sitting on my balcony watching and hearing the waves crash ashore, and it's amazing. I've taken the same photo at least ten times. It's a view, but more a feeling, that I don't want to forget. Something about being in Alexandria. This city is oozing with history, you can (well I can) just sort of feel it in the air, yet its odd in its lack of physical proof. What city is more fabled than the legendary Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great, stage of the Cleopatra, Caesar, and Antony saga, home of the world-wonder lighthouse and the greatest library in the ancient world? But there's virtually no remaining evidence of any of it, and what does remain lies at the bottom of the harbor. Except for this statue of Isis, recently brought up fom the depths and believed to be from Cleopatra's Palace:

There is totally different vibe in this city from Cairo. I wouldn't even know they were in the same country. On the whole, Alex is more, for lack of a better word, cosmopolitan. Cleaner, by far. I actually saw trash bins. More orderly, less overt poverty, though I did see homeless for the first time. (I think everything is run down enough and everyone is moving so fast in Cairo that you can't tell.) The walkway along the sea is awesome. Alex is a very long city, not very deep, so the bulk of the development is just off the shore. Five million people live here. Another six million show up in the summertime to escape the heat of Cairo and cities further south. It also rains here, which helps to clean up the streets, which are paved, not dirt.

We started the day at the Fort of Qaitbey, which is believed to be the site of the Great Lighthouse. Well, let's back up a smidge. After a lovely sunrise, the skies turned the most fantastic shade of blue; pure cerulean, not a cloud in sight. The drive to the fort took us right along the shore line and through centuries of architecture. The fort is a bright beige stone that just GLOWED against the blue sky. It was pretty cool in an of itself, but the building and the views out into the harbor and around the whole city were just, well, amazing.

As usual though, it was the people around the site that made it memorable. There were dozens of schoolkids running around the fort, probably on a field trip. They all shouted out hellos to us, and tested their one phrase in English, "what is your name?" The more advanced of the group delved even further with, "where are you from?", "how old are you?", and --yet again -- "are you married?" Like my own attempts at throwing out a phrase or two of a totally foreign language, they did not understand any response beyond yes or no. They all knew the word for camera though. Hams, all of them! Kids are kids are kids, no matter where you go. I got a lot of really cute shots of them all, cuz of course as soon as one kid started to pose they all came a-runnin'.

After the fort, we went to a tomb (the first of many...), this one was the Necropolis of Anfushi, 300 BC or so. Pretty neat stuff, death's not really my thing though. What was intriguing is that we saw that the fine art of trompe l'oeuil, or its current incarnation as "faux finish", is by far not a modern innovation. The folks designing this tomb were a little short on marble and other fine stones, so they just painted the rock they had to look all fancy. What's even more interesting, is that in this particular tomb, the faux finishers were not even the first to come up with that idea: they painted over an even earlier wall pattern lined to look like rectangular slabs of granite.

The National Museum of Alexandria was next. Very well labeled in contrast with the Cairo Museum. Also housed the bust of Akhenaten that I find so striking. I didn't know it was there, so that was a bonus. Bought the catalog.

Again, made friends with the Egyptian schoolchildren outside. (Oh, that's their other stock phrase: "I am Egyptian.") Took a few more photos of the kids posing with some of our people on the tour. One of the girls spoke impeccable English, asked us the usual questions and went on to welcome us to Egypt and wish us a good journey. She asked for my email address, which I responded to with a total blank look cuz I had no idea what she was saying. How often does a 10 year-old Egyptian girl ask for your email address? And she pronounced it, "emmel". I ended up giving it to her once I deciphered the request. It'd be cute if she wrote, my little Egyptian email pal. (Is that creepy?)

My little friend is the older girl in the pink sweater

Lunch was three courses of pure indulgence. Just as I was nearing the unbuttoning point from the main course, out came the dessert cart. Yes, cart. At lunch. There's a patisserie just next door to the restaurant, and they deliver. Profiterol in dark chocolate sauce, holy crap.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up by tomb after tomb after tomb BUT, and this is where I got kinda into it, we made a little side trip, not on the agenda, not advertised to the public, not even open (more paper persuasion) to a tomb that may, according to reputable sources based on logical assumptions, be the proposed tomb of Mr. Alexander the Great himself. It's a phenomonal structure of solid, as in one piece, fine alabaster, located just on the outskirts of an Italian Christian cemetery where some texts indicate he may have been laid to rest.

There is no way to prove the hypothesis right or wrong. The evidence put forth by the proponents of the theory posits that, because of the extremely fine and high quality nature of the material used for the tomb, the fact that the stone was hauled up 900 miles to Alex from the area of Luxor, and the general story about his death and subsequent burial, this is a tomb that most *certainly* housed a person of great stature for all of eternity, and *possibly* could have been the man himself given all the location and other variables. Pretty effin cool, eh? The tomb sits in a little backlot overrun with weeds. No one goes there.

View from the bus: Fishermen walking along the Corniche at sunset

So now, back at the hotel, watching the sun set over the Mediterranean. I love the sound of waves. Missing all of the people I wish could be here to see this, too. I don't get the feeling of the trip flying by, which is good and bad. I was told once I reach "hump day" (halfway point), time will fly. I say, that may be the case usually, but we will be in the Libyan desert at that point, and after three weeks away from home, camping in the sand might be the last thing anyone wants to do. I'm taking bets on who in the group is going to break first.

i was right

2006-03-15T00:24:00.001-06:00

my ass is sore from climbing all those rocks yesterday. makes me feel a little less gluttonous for making second and third trips to the buffet tables. (most of our meals have been buffet so far.)

off for our first day in alex. first stop, the fortress of qaitbey.

good morning, alexandria

2006-03-14T22:29:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, March 15
10:30 pm CST
6:30 am Egypt

I stand corrected

2006-03-14T15:13:00.002-06:00

3:14 pm CST
11:14 pm Egypt, Alexandria

Egypt is a forward thinking country when it comes to internet access. Free for all! Including me. Well, not exactly free. But available. Wireless in my hotel room in Alexandria. Woohoo! Awesome time for my voltage converter to go on the fritz.

Since the last entry, we made a couple more stops on our very long voyage to A. Stopped at the monastery, very interesting. Then at the site where the Rosetta Stone was found. The fort was actually closed, but some paper persuasion got the guards to open up the gates for us. Very interesting and all, but my favorite was meeting the little kids playing around the fort.

Arrived at the hotel at about 7:15pm, just in time for our 7:30 dinner. My hotel room is a vast improvement over last night, despite being much smaller. Little balcony on the 6th floor overlooks the beaches and the Mediterranean Sea along the Corniche, sort of like Alexandria's version of the Riviera.

It is now past 11, and though we have a 7am wake up call (it's been 5:30 for the past two days), I need to get some sleep.

Progress

2006-03-14T14:09:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, March 13
7:41 am CST
3:41 pm Egypt

I think I’m the only person on this tour with a camera using actual film. Sad.