Motivation

It was like a switch was thrown...

She went from a few hesitant steps to double-timing in in about fifteen minutes. All I needed to do was give her a little bit more motivation.

Surgery and a Bunch of Videos

First, a few shots of Annemieke. She is learning new things all the time, and it is a great deal of fun to watch. We made a couple of trips to the zoo recently- once with my family Easter weekend, and once since then. I'll attach a few photos I've taken since our hike, and upload some random videos I shot of Mieke.

I/Travis had a stapedectomy surgery performed on my ear a week ago Monday, which means they took out my calcified stapes (stirrup) bone and replaced it with a prosthetic. It was an outpatient procedure, though I'd never been under general anesthesia before. Given all of the other help issues people in the family have had this year- stents, brain inflammation, broken hips, spinal surgery, radiation treatment, and aggressive cancer, it seems rather insignificant. I was back at work in a few days and I feel great.

I can't hear much from my left ear since the prosthetic hasn't "opened" yet (it generally takes two to three weeks), plus it is stuffed with packing and my ear is full of fluid. It will be a few weeks before I will be able to hear much, and know how much hearing I got back. There is a small chance the prosthetic shifted (3%) but there is no way to know for now. The biggest downside is my list of restrictions, which includes not picking anything up over 10 pounds. Annemieke weighs about 18 pounds now... so we've been doing floor play, and the nanny is staying until bedtime every night. It is an expensive solution, but I don't want to risk having to go back in for a touch-up surgery.

I can't thank Judi enough- she's been superwoman taking on extra duties- taking care of Mieke AND me, and taking on extra duties around the house, as well as going to her own job. I am also extremely grateful to my parents, who came up on Saturday and watched Mieke while Judi was at work- AND cleaned the house and helped out in so many ways. Compared to what others in the family are dealing with, the past eight days have been a walk in the park for us, but it is still not easy.

Annemieke is still learning new things all the time. We made a couple of trips to the zoo recently- once with my family Easter weekend, and once since then. I've attach a few photos I've taken since our hike, and upload some random videos I shot of Mieke.

And since I use YouTube, I'll just link the videos. They are just Annemieke doing random things. We found the exact same "Frog Music Table" thing Chris and Nay have at the used baby toy store, and since she enjoyed it so much we bought it for her.

"Water": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQOYPT6Z9b4

"The Wall": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrc707EGIAw

"Flowers": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIAj8Zpnxq4

"Sharing": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1gMSdPh3Ts

"Stairmaster": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C04yDCJW_E

"Dancing Girl!": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOp1Pk-U5fs

"One Page Book": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtLK-FCMjgc

"Yogurt Wizard": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCUs6SGuPuw

Mission Trails in Green

Judi, Annemieke and I went on a nice hike after breakfast this morning through the Grinding Rocks Loop of Mission Trails park. We got some coffee for the trip, put Mieke in the Ergo, and headed into the park. It is very nice to live so close to the park and the visitor center, we were there in three minutes (and I have been hiking the Cowles Mountain trail more lately as well, since it is so easy to get to and the Ergo makes it easy to take Mieke). It was a wonderful, cool, overcast morning which are my favorite hiking conditions. There was a cool humidity in the air that filled the entire gorge with an herbaceous aroma of sage and other scents.

I have not seen San Diego this green in a very long time- at least since the winter 2004/2005 rains, and this may be the greenest I have ever seen it. Since November there has been at least a little bit of rainfall every seven to ten days, interspersed between unusually warm and sunny periods, which has kept all of the flora growing. Flowers are exploding everywhere, to the regret of my sinuses, though delight of Mieke who very much likes them. Everywhere I looked in the park I saw all sorts of plants in numbers I have never observed, and a throngs of flowers. We're due at least one more storm which is expected to roll in tomorrow, so we should get a few more weeks of this green before it is baked into summer brown. We also saw some intrepid baby cottontails and numerous birds.

Here are a few shots from the hike, with a link to Picasa below for some additional shots.

http://picasaweb.google.com/arlanthe/2010Apr11MissionTrails#

Seismic Disturbance

Well, we’re back. I’ve been meaning to resurrect this blog for some time, starting ohhh… about a year ago. Actually living life seems to get in the way of blogging about it however, but I finally decided that there is never going to be a “good” time to sit down and create updates, and that I will just create blog posts here and there as I can. There certainly is plenty for my family to blog about though- these pages are stagnant not for lack of news.

It is interesting that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube seem to have supplied the “connected” among us with a sort of immediate gratification in posting pictures, videos, web links, and snippets of personal news. These are great tools, but there is something lacking in the abrupt and constantly shifting nature of these services. Blog posts seem like a better method of going into a topic in more detail, even if it takes a little bit more effort and the audience is smaller. (Though I am still a huge proponent of using an RSS feed, such as Google Reader for those of you with Google accounts, to monitor blogs and other web pages).

So of course the big news this week is the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck South of Mexicali on Easter Sunday. Judi, Annemieke, and I all felt it in San Diego. Judi had a rude awakening from her nap, and Mieke and I were sitting at the computer when it struck. It was the strongest earthquake I have felt in San Diego in the 10.5 years I have lived here, and was the strongest I’ve felt since I lived in the Imperial Valley (which is where the epicenter was, on the Mexico side). It lasted for quite some time, and the building swayed a great deal and creaked and popped. Nothing appeared to have fallen over, and there was no damage. A series of aftershocks followed, several of which we felt through last night.

My family was actually headed back to Brawley from visiting us in San Diego when the earthquake struck (Brawley being not too far North of the epicenter, along the same San Andreas fault complex). They had almost arrived back in Brawley when the earthquake struck, having just gone down Carter road three minutes before the event. The image below shows Carter road in the immediate aftermath of the quake- note the main canal on the right overflowed its dirt banks, and flooded the road with water and mud. That spot is where my family was driving three minutes before the quake. Their house was tussled some, but there was no major damage, although apparently some streets in Brawley were flooded with water from all of the swimming pools that overflowed. My uncle Joe, 20 miles closer to the epicenter, reported that the water came out of his pool higher than a person “like a tidal wave”.

Leiden and Delft

We also went to the smaller tows of Leiden and Delft, outside of Den Haag.

Leiden is a small but attractive university town that straddles the Rhine as it meanders through Holland. The river is split into a "Y" in town, with the center of town coinciding with the convergence. The University of Ledien is very old, having been established in 1575 by William I of Orange. It has been home to a number of famous Dutch artists and scientists both ancient and contemporarty. Rembrandt was born and went to school here (note his surname: van Rijn "of the Rhine"), painter Jan Steen was born here, as was Willebrord Snellius, of "Snells Law" fame- another important optics theorem you owe thanks to for everything from binoculars to fiber optic technology. Newton made great advances in optics, but the Dutch pretty much owned the field for a century leading up to him. Also, the "Leyden Jar" was invented here, shocking! (That last sentence was a double entendre. The Leyden jar was essentially the first capacitor, it stored electric charge. Hey- if Judi posts, you get wit and language. If I post you get physics, deal with it).

I also never knew until stumbling across several plaques that this is where the second Mayflower pilgrims lived before setting sail for the Americas (though they did make a a "pit stop" in England to use the bathroom on the way). There are some exiled puritans buried here who never made the second Mayflower trip, including many children, and several English language puritan churches were run here for quite some time. Several American organizations keep the graves, plaques, and American historical sites maintained. Pictures to follow, as usual.

Delft is famous for its characteristic porcelain appropriately named "Delftware". When you think of "fine China" you may think of painted blue porcelain dishes, possibly with windmills and flowers on it. That is Delftware. This is also a very nice town, and it is obvious that its main trade and claim to fame are its ceramics. The Royal ceramicists also work here, and we bought a piece from there. We wandered the town, meandered through the shops, had a great lunch, and at the end of the day we headed home.

Den Haag

This last weekend Judi and I had a rental car, so we took advantage of that and spent a few days in central Netherlands. First we spent some time in Den Haag (the Hague), which is the hoofdstaad of the Netherlands, I believe. In the Netherlands the capital is Amsterdam, but the government is based in Den Haag. This is of course where the international war crimes tribunal is located, among other famous international institutions.

We walked around town quite a bit, and it is a very attractive place with old churches and houses, and modern museums and shopping. We walked past many embassies under shady lanes. I wanted to park our car in the Swiss Ambassadors parking spot, where a sign reads “Parking for Swiss Ambassador Only” and snap a photo, but Judi barred me from causing an international incident. We passed the Escher museum, the big central fountain, and went inside the Oude Kerk (Old Church). It is a nice church, and I received an unexpected surprise when we ambled unexpectedly to the final resting place of Christiaan Huygens. He’s a “big name” in physics, especially optics, as well as astronomy, music, mathematics, and philosophy. He was surely one of the Netherlands greatest prodigies.

We also toured the Mauritshuis, permanent and temporary home of many of the finest pieces from the Dutch masters. Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Vermeer, and many more are well represented. Two of the most famous paintings in the building, which I shall paste below, are Rembrandts “The Anatomy Lesson”, and Vermeer’s “Girl with Pearl Earring”. In all of our tours of the museums of Northern Europe, I have developed a particular fondness for Vermeer and Jan Steen, and wonder why they don’t receive more attention.

There is a story related to Judi in this. The observer in the painting in the center, looking forward, is an ancestor of Judi's. I'll have her edit the post so she can explain it.

Later in the day we went to de Pier which means... the Pier. This pier is a sort of “double decker” pier, with glass walls creating an envelope between the two levels, so visitors can walk on top or stay sheltered inside in bad weather. Out at the ends of the pier are a cafe (poffertjes!), a multi-story restaurant, and an arcade. We had a dinner of mussels and frites, and as it turned out our server was an American born, Dutch raised sort of dual-citizen who hops back and forth between the U.S. and the Netherlands. I had to ask him where he was from, because his English was very, well, American. We walked some on the beach, caught the sunset, and even watched a red fox skate along the sands into some beach dunes that seem to be set aside as a reserve. It is a very gorgeous city.

Science and Rugby

We made on last trip into Paris this last weekend. It was actually to complete a school project, which required a visit to an informal science institution (ISI), so I planned a trip there with one of my classmates who happens to be another expatriate living in Paris. The Paris science museum is massive. It is a large three story complex, with a submarine and geodesic IMAX dome as separate structures on the grounds. It is easily the largest science center I have ever visited. There were exhibits on genetics, orchids, automobiles, energy, light, the space sciences- you name it. Two large children’s centers within the building alone were rather large. My classmate Elizabeth and I were able to get our research completed. Judi met up with us later after she did some shopping at the huge mall at the south end of Paris.

The other significant even of this trip, after our dinner in the Latin Quarter, was the rugby grudge match between France and England in the semi-finals. We were actually unaware that this rugby game was to take place in Paris, but on Saturday evening there was no question that the air was crackling with energy. Blue, white, and red face paint abounded, as did capes of the colors of France and banners of France and the team. We tried to get into a British pub to meet up with Elizabeth, but every pub was already packed and there were three times as many people in the streets as there were indoors. The streets themselves turned into a rowdy party zone. Large monitors broadcasting the game were swarmed by thousands. In most places when French icons came on the screen the crowd cheered, and when England came on the crowd jeered. The exception were the few English pubs that displayed the colors of England openly (all of the pubs were actually very clearly labeled by either a French or English false façade). I noticed the Irish pubs threw their lot in with France.

We soaked in the energy for a little while, chatted with some Brits on the street who couldn’t get in anywhere either, and eventually made our way back to the hotel where we watched the game in the hotel. I was downstairs during the latter half of the game, where a mob of South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis, and two other San Diegans were watching the game. (By sheer coincidence there were two San Diegans, separately, staying in the hotel and watching the game. We were the only Americans there). An Australian narrated and let me in on what the heck was going on. All but the one Briton in the room were cheering for the French, because they believed the English team to be thoroughly arrogant, plus well- you know how it is with former British colonies. The French narrowly lost, much to the dismay of all of the French people and team former-British-colony. It was an energetic night.

Wrapping it up in Italy

Our last few days in Italy included a thorough visit to the Uffizi Galleries, the most important museum in the country. It houses works from the "greats" of the Renaissance, including Leonardo, Raphael, Botticelli, Michaelangelo, among others. Perhaps the most famous paintings there are both of Botticelli's masterpieces: the Birth of Venus and Primavera.





We also went to the Accademia, and saw many great sculptures, including David. It really is as impressive as they say it is. We planned ahead and preordered tickets for the opening hour, and arrived early to get in line. As such, when we went in we went straight to the masteriece and had it to ourselves for a full five minutes before the room filled up.

We continued to wander the streets of Florence for the remainder of our trip, eating at various excellent restaurants, stopping into bookstores and pubs, and even toured a local grocery store to get a feel for what the locals do.

On our last day we went to Pisa, and of course saw the famous Leaning Tower. Yep, it sure does lean. Actually, the tower itself is fantastic, and one of the few Pisan towers to survive the bombing during World War II (it is said that once the city bristled with such towers). It is situated next to the Pisa Duomo. We basically saw the entire town, since the train station is on one side of the river and the tower on the other.

We headed to the Pisa airport, and hopped back onto our budget Ryan Air plane to take us back to Brussels, and miraculously we caught the last train between Brussels and Gent at somethng like 1:00.

Santa Croce and Science

Santa Croce is repository of the who's who of Italian dead people. It is an amazing cathedral not far from the river Arno, and we spent hours looking at the graves, wandering through the cloisters, and examining the many works of art on display from the likes of Donatello, Gadi, and Giotto.

All of the tourist literature name Michelangelo the most significant person interred in the cathedral. His elevated coffin and carved tomb was fitting indeed, and it was amazing to see it. But the truly most significant person in the cathedral is none other than Galileo Galilei, the pioneer of classical physics and mechanics, torch bearer of the Copernican revolution, and first modern astronomer. It was fantastic to be able to pay homage.

We also saw the tomb of Dante Alligheri, whose "Divine Comedy" is an all time classic. Not far from Dante was Machiavelli, yet another famous Florentine. The tombs and monuments of Marconi, inventor of the transistor radio, Enrico Fermi, discoverer of fermions, and the composer Rossini were also present.

Rounding this little visit to the remains of Galileo was a visit to the Museum of Science History. There we saw many of the original instruments of Galileo himself, along with three stories of displays on science and technology, with special focus on Florentine and Italian contributions. On display were original Leyden jars, tools of Alessandra Volta, numerous other scientists, but most famously the compass and telescope of Galileo. The original objective lens from his telescope was on display also. I can now say I have gazed through the lens with which the moons of Jupiter and rings of Saturn were discovered. The most Galileo centered component of the exhibition was a piece of Galileo himself- his preserved finger on display in a jar for the world to see.

Sienna

We made a day trip out of the medieval town of Sienna, based on various recommendations we’d received, as well as on the details of our travel guide.

Sienna is a charming Italian town built high in the Tuscany hills, overlooking some very scenic terrain. It is famous for it’s very restrictive attitude toward cars (they aren’t allowed in the city center, which is nice), and the biannual Palio event. It just so happened that we showed up during the Palio, and it made the trip hat much more worth it. After taking the train from Florence to Sienna, we walked up the hill into the city to find the deep streets of the city blanketed in heraldic banners. People were walking to and fro wearing broad scarves with the various flags emblazoned on them, representing the neighborhood from which they come. There are 17 neighborhoods in the town, and each was clearly demarked with the corresponding flag. Some of the neighborhoods are “the Dragon”, “the Fox”, “the Goose”, “the Wave”, and “the Eagle”. I feel sorry for the people who live in the neighborhood of “Wood” or “the Snail”.

The Palio itself is a very short series of events, where “riders” are chosen from each contrade (neighborhood) to represent their borough. There are several heats and a finale. The town square is turned into a racetrack and covered with sand, and thousands of onlookers watch the race. The best part about the race is that the track is shaped like a half moon, so riders often fall off of their horses when making the ninety degree turn in front of the tower. We had the good fortune to observe this happen in true Sienna style (I think it was the rider from the Wave neighborhood). All day the streets, seemingly cut deep into the shadows of the tall facades of the city, were thronged with people in the best sort of festive manner.

We bought some bread, olives and olive oil, cheese, and a local type of pastry and made a lunch of it on the back steps of the Duomo del Sienna. We also took a complete tour of the cathedral itself, as well as the crypt and museum therein. Among the highlights were the remains of St. Clement, tied up with golden ribbons in a little glass box, and some other bits and pieces of dead people. The same was true of the cathedral of Santo Domenico, wherein the preserved head of St. Catherine was on display to see. Yes. The remarkably well preserved and creepy severed head of St. Catherine, was on display in its own little alcove.

This was one of my favorite stops in the whole trip, and I would come to Italy for this town and event alone. This web page has more info on Sienna, as well as some interactive pictures.

In Italy

So we’re finally back in Belgium, after our five week journey to the U.S. We re-adjusted to the time, language, and food differences and things are back to normal.

We spent a week in Italy for our “official” summer holiday, which we can now dole out in a couple of installments. We flew via a company called “RyanAir”, a low budget carrier in Belgium that gets the job done for less by stripping services from its flights, and charging for each bag carried. Given that we travel light, and the flight was only ninety minutes, the only adjustment was the complicated journey to the Charleroi airport. We landed in Pisa and immediately took the train to Florence.

The city is amazing of course, though not overly large and we were able to walk across the entire historic center in about twenty minutes. The Duomo of the cathedral is the largest and most impressive building in the city, but the city is also filled with other churches, palaces, and museums. Our first stop at a historic building was to the “Palazzio Piti”, the palace owned by the Medici family. There are several museums inside, and we were able to go through many of them. The costume museum was fascinating, particularly the clothes on display removed from some of the corpses of the Medici’s themselves, centuries after their deaths! The royal apartments were on display, which included works by Raphael, and other renaissance masters. We had time to walk through the large Boboli gardens behind the palace, and see the porcelain museum as well.

I drank a cappuccino every day, and we ate Italian food every day, of course. After lunch and some gelato, we continued exploring the architecture of the city until finally returning to our apartment to get some sleep. We rented a room with a small bathroom attached to it, which itself was part of an apartment complex that had been converted to “hotel rooms”. It was small, but clean and very comfortable.

Photos: The Duomo and Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge across the Arno not destroyed in the war.

International Diplomacy with Extra Curry

Late in June we had another international dinner for the expatriate employees at Bekaert. This was the week the U.S. and Russia were sniping at each other over the proposed missile shield in Eastern Europe. It was also the week congress called out China on trade and civil rights practices. And of course, more harsh words were tossed around with Iran over their nuclear plans, and Iraq weapons issues.

So as a joke, the organizers sat me across from two Chinese people, and between an Iranian and a Russian. Our table was jokingly referred to as the “evil empire” table. There is something really amazing about connecting with people whose nations are ideological foes. Our respective nations quibble and spit harsh words, but in the company we’re all on the same team and joke about it. It strikes me that perhaps international businesses accomplish diplomatic goals that Departments of State have a difficult time achieving. Either way, it was a grand night and an evening of cultural exchange.

Apparently the Chinese learn quite a lot about America history (I was impressed, it seemed they knew more than the average American). I was warned in advance to beware of the tendency of the Chinese to get colleagues and customers and business partners inebriated, because they feel that is when you learn most about a person. Being rather temperate, and having been warned ahead of time, I sipped my wine exceedingly slow and drank water liberally. Ha! You are foiled, paper tiger.

I’ve known the Russian fellow for quite some time (he came to San Diego before we moved to Europe), and he is a very soft spoken, polite intellectual type who has no use for politics. He actually graduated with his Ph.D. from the University of Akron (a hotbed of polymer activity), and lived in the U.S. for many years. We also joked together about world leaders and international politics.

The Iranians were very Westernized, and we talked about that. The wife of the employee doesn’t wear a burqua (actually, there seems to be large swaths of Muslim Europeans who view Islam liberally, and act that way. You just don’t read much about them because they aren’t very newsworthy). As business minded people, they feel barriers should be torn down and not constructed.

The organizer was an Indian, and so we had dinner in an Indian restaurant that was very good. It was in the neighborhood of “Little Turkey” in Gent, and was apparently quite authentic.

Level 3!

I've made it into level 3 "Nederlands voor anderstaligen"! These courses are so intensive it has pretty much become my whole day. Once again, in the new class we have an interesting mix of people. One of the first exercises in the class was to go around and interview each other to see if more than one student came from the same country. We have people from Canada, Thailand, China, Portugal, Australia, Kenya, Romania, Poland, India, and Peru. Once again, I'm the only American. As for pairs, two from Turkey, Morocco, Indonesia, and Iran. There is one girl from Kosovo, and one from Serbia, one of whom feels that they are from the same country, the other of whom immediately disagreed. At that point the teacher quickly changed the subject!

The class it taught completely in Dutch now. Our teacher is great, she enunciates really well, and doesn't speak too fast. She also has a very expressive face, and occasionally makes gestures so I understand her really well. Which is good, because there is a lot to learn! So far we know how to introduce ourselves and give basic information about ourselves. Theoretically we can make basic comparisons, speak in the perfect and imperfect past tense, talk about our likes and dislikes, order food and drinks, reserve a hotel room, go to the doctor, conduct our banking, ask for and give directions, and understand a little bit of museum tour. In real life sometimes people ask me to repeat myself when I order a cup of coffee, so who knows.

We haven't yet covered the future tenses, which sometimes makes conversing with Travis at home a little challenging, but I have enough trouble remembering the word order, proper grammar and conjugations as it is, so I'm not in too much of a hurry. Every day I sit in class from 9am to noon, then go home, sometimes stopping to do grocery shopping on the way. I usually give myself a break over lunch, and then spend the rest of the afternoon doing my homework. I also try to look up the words in the next days' lesson that I don't already know, so I can pay attention in class, instead of frantically leafing through my dictionary. Then I make dinner, Travis gets home and I spend the rest of the evening trying to teach him what we learned that day, hounding him to say things to me in Dutch, and generally making a complete pest of myself. I'm also working on reading a Dutch comic book series, and I try to read a few newspaper articles a day, too. There are so many words that I don't know yet, so it's hard to say how much progress I'm really making. I know I've reached at least a small milestone now, though, because when I heard people speaking Netherlands Dutch instead of Belgian Dutch they sound really funny to me now!

Comic Art

It’s been awhile since our last post, mostly because out lives have been relatively boring lately. No major trips, no fun mishaps, everythgn has been more or less work, school, and language classes. The summer will certainly bring more interesting episodes with all of the activity we’ll be doing.

That being said, this weekend we did hop over to Brussels for a day. We decided to finally go to the “Belgian Center for Comic Strip Art”, which contains informative, historic, and collected displays of the Belgian “strip” tradition. They also have other European and American originals in their archives. As most of you know, Judi and I are consumers of the format and it was interesting to see comic development in Europe. Belgium paralleled the U.S. in creating syndicated “strips” as they are called here, and began creating books of collections or “albums” (a local term) at about the same time. One of the most famous comics locally, the youth oriented “Archie” like comic Spirou, began distribution in the graphic novel format in 1929, the same year the first “The Funnies” insert appeared in the U.S., and seven years before The Funnies albums appeared.

The Belgian strip (along with their French counterparts) was an extension of the spirit of Art Nouveau. As the artistic movement fell out of vogue, the strip market nonetheless continued to grow and the popular art form, both in syndication and graphic novels, became marketable. There are series still running after many years here, for young and old, and all of the local comics are translated into both Dutch and French. Strips are one of those cultural ties that both Flanders and Wallonia have in common- both regions (and Brussels) produce artists and they all by and large form one national industry identity.

Of course, there are spheres of influence of all of the comics. Most Belgian comics are popular only in Belgium and France. There are some, however, that are known world wide. Two in particular- Tintin and The Smurfs, are well known in the U.S. The Smurfs (1963+), were created by Peyo, perhaps the most famous of all Belgian strip artists, and are of course the little blue forest dwelling kabouters (gnome-like creatures) that eventually claimed a cartoon and merchandising empire. Tintin, “the everyman” adventurer and his dog Snowy, were created by Georges Remi in 1946 after the end of WWII.

Does Whatever a Spider Can

In continuing our tradition of watching key Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and comic-book blockbuster “midnight showings”, Judi and I purchased tickets for the Gent special event for Spider-Man 3. We bought the tickets the previous week in a last minute bid to get seats for the three film screening. Spiderman one and two were shown back to back starting at 7:30, and at 12:01 Spider-Man 3 began. Thankfully May 1 is a holiday in Europe, so it was easy to pull off. As you’ll see later, we needed the extra time.

The kinepolis in Gent is amazing. I always assumed Americans would have the best multiplexes since we pretty much invented the movie industry and dominate the overall market. The kinepolis quite honestly put the best I have ever seen in the U.S. into the margins. The long, broad hallway along the screens is lined with distractions. They have a wall-screen panel of video game consoles that anyone can pick up to play Soul Caliber II, racing games, or whatever else is plugged in at the time. People lay sprawled in dozens of bean bag chairs in the little alcoves, watching film shorts and upcoming attractions on monitors as they wait to enter their hall. There are several mini stores in the theater, which include traditional fare such as popcorn (kettle corn!), sodas, and nachos, to a separate candy store and even a bar. All seating is assigned, so there is no worry about being separated from your group, or having to force a row to “squeeze in” to eliminate the heterosexual chairs. (Heterosexual chair. Noun. Slang. The unoccupied chair between two persons of the same sex.) The theaters have special events too, such as women’s night, and the monthly Nestle night, where the hideous giant NesQuick rabbit dispenses free choco to the children.

The movie itself was pretty good. We decided it wasn’t “great”, each for our own reasons, but it was a respectable end to the series unlike the closing third film of another comic book movie trilogy. The ending-that-shall-not-be-named. We’ll just substitute “X” and call it “X3”. There were many story threads running through it that made the movie rather long, but I appreciate the fact they didn’t shirk on story.

The most… interesting, and ironic, part of the evening was the fact that Judi and I had to play Spider-Man after we got home. The busses stop running at midnight, so we walked back from the theater to our apartment. Somebody had locked the outer door, and our keys weren’t working in it (it tends to jam all the time). That door has been notoriously picky before, and once I couldn’t get it open and had to wait for someone else to go through. After forty-five minutes of messing about trying to unlock it and looking for hidden keys, Judi declared we could use a ladder. Yet no ladder was to be found. So I walked around the block to the construction zone, disassembled a piece of the modular fencing there, and dragged it around to the front of the building. I leaned it lengthwise up against the wall and climbed up into the second story window, which was thankfully still open. I couldn’t get the door open from the inside, so much to Judi’s dismay, she too had to play spider and climb up the improvised ladder. And she did it in a skirt! Judi is hardcore.

We slept well that night.

Say what?

I am enjoying a day or two off after the end of "Nederlands voor Anderstaligen" the level one intensive class I've been taking at the University of Gent. In a just a month of classes, my vocabulary and understanding of Dutch has expanded greatly! Now I can say in Dutch with great precision, "I'm sorry, I don't understand you, do you speak a bit of English?" I can say it so well, that some people continue on in Dutch as if they are certain I must understand what they are saying. I can also interject, "I come from America," and "so please speak slowly".

Okay, I can say some other things to. I can talk about what I like and don't like, and give simple directions. You know those striped lines where you cross the road? They call that a "zebrapad" here. Cute word, eh? I know just enough to badger Travis, "say that in Dutch, please!" Since he doesn't have three hours every day to go to class, I must teach him Dutch. Whether he likes it or not.

But sometimes knowing all of the words in a sentence does not guarantee comprehension. The other day I was working on some homework that involved putting sentences in the book in the negative form. It can be confusing to a non-native speaker. In Dutch they have two different words that make a sentence negative, "niet" and "geen". For example, "ik heb geen geld" is "I have no money". Or, if some one asked, "Zijn jullie moe?" (are all of you tired?) the negative answer would be, "Nee, wij zijn niet moe" (no, we are not tired). Then you get into the question of where to put the word "niet" in the sentence. In the case of a direct object, you would stick niet at the end of the sentence, for example, "nee, ik ken jouw broer niet" (No, I do not know your brother).

Anyway, on my homework I was confronted with "Eet jullie baby vlees?" The direct translation of those words seemed to be, "eat all of you baby meat?" I thought, huh, the writers of this textbook sure have a sense of humour. I hope people would answer that in the negative! So I wrote, "wij eet geen baby vlees" (We eat no baby meat). Later on, when I checked my answers in the back of the book I realized that the word "jullie" in this case was NOT the 'jullie' that is the plural of you, but instead the _possessive_ form (confusing because it is the exact same word, and you must just know it by context) transforming the question to 'Does your (plural) baby eat meat?' and the answer to, 'Nee, onze baby eet geen vlees', or 'no, our baby does not eat meat'. I was laughing so hard that little tears were popping out of my eyes.

I should find out today or tomorrow whether I got into the second level class!

Musee d'Orsay

On Saturday in Paris we visited the Orsay Museum, which contains the collections of art created between the oldest in the Louvre and the Paris museum of Modern Art. The building itself was once a train station, which ceased functioning and was converted in 1977 and opened in 1986. It still looks like a train station, complete with the giant clock, but has art stuffed in the wings, and large sculptures from the likes of Rodin and Carpeaux displayed in the open area where the tracks were.

We viewed paintings by Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, Renoir, Klimt, and other masters of the period. We saw sculptures by Rodin, Gauguin, Carpeaux and others. There were some early photography works on display, glassware, and some models and a respectable display of art nouveau, including an entire reconstructed room based around the theme from top to bottom. Judi is rather a fan of art nouveau, so she was exited to see that.

We had coffee in the café there, which was once the restaurant and feast hall of the hotelthat operated within the congruent wings. This room itself is a work of art, with high painted ceiling and a good view of the Seine. Coffee breaks are good for the feet.

Following our long visit to the Orsay, which is thankfully manageable in a day even if we walked out at the latest possible minute, we once again headed to the Latin Quarter and had Thai food for dinner.

The American in Formula 1

In Europe travelers can save money by staying with a friend, or a youth hostel. If you don't know anyone in Paris and have outgrown dorm-style living, "Formula 1" hotels are the next step up in privacy, without breaking the bank. At breakfast, you can hear a different language spoken at each table nearby. Neat! If you have never stayed in a Formula 1 before, there are a few things you may want to bring with you, as Travis and I discovered:

10.) Your own bottled water and snacks. The hotel does have pretty comprehensive vending machines in the lobby, but they will charge you twice what the products are actually worth.

9.) Your cell phone. Nothing but a payphone in the lobby here!

8.) A travel alarm clock. No clocks in the rooms, or wake up calls either.

7.) Your own soap. Your hotel room comes with sink, and you share a bathroom down the hall with your neighbors. If you want to wash your hands with actual soap in your room, you will need to bring your own soap as none is provided.

6.) Your own towel. The hotel _usually_ does provide you with your own towel. One day the housekeeping staff came into our room and replaced two used towels with only one clean. Seeing as this towel is roughly the size of a washcloth anyway, there really isn't any way you can share it. A full-sized actual towel would be a huge improvement, and use the ones the hotel leaves as hand towels in your room.

5.) Your own breakfast cereal. For a very cheap price you can buy breakfast in the hotel. The choices include plain white bread, chunks of french bread, butter, jam, apple sauce, corn flakes, coffee, hot chocolate, and orange juice. All of it is pretty stale and low quality, and by the fourth day, believe me, you would kill for a cheese omelet or piece of fresh fruit. The corn flakes were the sort that instantly dissolve into mush after the application of milk, and we noticed one family had brought their own mini boxes of much better cereal. Smart!

4.) Some flips flops. This is to wear while you are in the showers, of course.

3.) A blind eye. In our room there were grubby fingerprints everywhere, dust and foot prints on the carpet, and oddly enough, a small wad of gum stuck to the top bunk.

2.) Some The LYSOL® Brand Spray Air Sanitizer. The bathrooms. Oh, the bathrooms. When you unlock the door to leave the bathroom stall, it automatically flushes the toilet. This is the ONLY way to flush the toilet. Sometimes, though, you go into the little room and discover that magically somehow the last person never flushed. Did they never lock the door in the first place??? So you have to lock and unlock the door until the flush mechanism engages. No matter what, every bathroom smells virulently like cat pee. So while you are flapping the lock open and closed, and trying not to look too closely at the dead bugs or curly hairs on the floor, a little Lysol might at least make the air smell better. This whole thing is a bit mystical, as the lights are also turned on as you lock the door. Was someone peeing with the door..open...in the dark?

1.) An open mind. Some people actually seem to live in these hotels as if it is a big dorm. They lounge on their bed with the door open, wander back to their room from the shower in the nude, and their children run around raucously in the halls. It could be nostalgic, if you liked dorm living the first time around.

Or, I suppose, you could save money on all these things and spring for a slightly more expensive hotel. And miss out on this cultural experience? Heaven forbid.

April in Paris

Last week we went on our next trip to Paris, given the four day holiday we had here in Belgium. It was a busy four days, but we continued our exploration of Paris- a feat that can never truly be accomplished in its entirety. This city seems more interesting the more we learn about it, and the “top twenty” tourist attractions only scratch the surface of an ancient and sprawling city covered in monuments, temples, museums, and tombs.

After resting on Thursday night, we set out for The Louvre: Part Deux. It was a heroic effort in stamina, and we spent a full ten hours in the museum (with two breaks for lunch and a snack). This time around we covered the ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian antiquities, the Italian and Spanish paintings, and French sculpture and some French antiquities. We rented the audio guide to the Louvre as an experiment this time around, and it was actually quite informative and helpful.

It was a great pleasure to see the archetypal Egyptian “Book of the Dead”, completely unrolled and on display. I captured a video of the entire length of it (I do not use lighting or flashes per museum rules, so I apologize for any blurred or dark images). Click here for that video: Book of the Dead.

We also saw the Code of Hammurabi, the code of laws of the first king of the Babylonian empire, which later influenced the Torah and other codified laws. I studied this in World History my first year of college and wrote an earnest term paper on it, and was very pleased to see it.

Of course the most famous piece in the Italian painting collection (and probably the most famous painting in the world), is the Mona Lisa. This time around we braved the crowd and went to see the famous da Vinci. Taking pictures in that chamber, even without flash, is strictly forbidden, but somehow I think you have a good idea what it looks like.

From the sculpture room, this is the fresco of St. George smiting the dragon. Dragons automatically make any piece of art awesome, but I thought the light coming from the window was illuminating the dragon slayer was neat too.

After our challenging day we retreated to a dinner of falafel pitas in the Latin Quarter, a section of Paris that we grew quite fond of during this stay. There are many very good restaurants there with excellent deals. In fact, the Latin Quarter really deserves its own post, which we’ll get around to sometime.

The Secret®

This last weekend was the warmest, sunniest weekend in Belgium since September. The sky was blue, the birds were chirping, and the chairs and tables migrated out of the pubs and cafes onto the streets. So of course, I came down with the flu late Friday night.

I was quite ill all day Saturday, and stayed in bed and slept half the day, and Sunday wasn’t so great either. I was feverish, horribly nauseous, and ached all over. I could hardly look at text or even sit up enough to play on the computer. Woe is that day I cannot even manipulate the mouse!

But you know what? I now know… The Secret®. Yes, via the secret healing powers of... The Secret®, the Law of Attraction® taught to me by former reality T.V. producer Rhonda Byrne® visualized the manifestation of my being non-ill, and so I was healed by... The Secret®.

Actually no, that didn’t happen. The truth is my hero was Judi who got me fluids, and went down to the Apotheek and manifested the true secret- a drug called Motillin®. (® for real this time). The FDA has banned this drug from any use in the U.S.A. (despite the fact the FDA’s division of gastrointestinal drugs had approved the active ingredients, and the non-profit medical group Gastroperesis and Dysmotilities Association has strongly requested it be approved based on all evidence). The active ingredient is domperidone, a stomach settling agent found in breast milk. It is sold over the counter all over Europe, and was actually invented here in Belgium by Janssen Pharma.

Praise be to modern medicine, that stuff was amazing. I was even able to eat a little after taking it, my stomach settled, and nausea was kept at bay. Apparently this drug is one of the major “Secret Imports®” to the U.S. from Canada. Sometimes the FDA is an enigma to me- they block Motillin®, but they’ll let heart stopping cholesterol medicine slide. I say they just put the stuff in some alfalfa capsules and call it a “supplement” since the FDA refuses to regulate those, despite the fact many of them are pretty dangerous. But I digress.

Now you know The Secret®. Except I do not yet have the DVD, book, audio book, soundtrack, day planner, calendar, tote bag, and keychain. Nor have I been invited on Oprah.