This wonderful tool is a little more hard to come by than I expected here in Italy. Its now Nov. 30th and I am finished with my 2 weeks of work and find my self in Bologna, Italy for 2 days before heading further south and hopefully to some dry sunny weather to Florance. I have 15 minutes remaining on an hour internet card (sorry the first 45 were spent getting funds transfered, credit cards paid, and highly important emails regarding school and my next trip replied to). at 3.5 euros an hour I'll have to spare my remaining funds and wait until i find free access for more typing. Its impossible to sum up the two weeks in Campsirago and the swamp in 15 minutes. Not because of the amazing work we did or the sites we saw but because of the group of people I was with. Its hard to imagine that in 13.5 days a group of strangers can become as close as we did. It snowed about 7 inches on our last full day and another 2 or 3 the day of our departure so we could not take our van that could hold all 13 of us to the train station so we had to take the journey in groups of 3. As one of my old friends Kelly put it, it was like waiting for the excecutioner to be called for the next trip down the mountain that would ultimately finish our time as a group. Our group consisted of 3 leaders ( an italian, german, and frenchman: Simone', Nadja, and Marsial) and 10 volunteers: 3 koreans, 1 frenchman, 2 Americans (me begin one of them), a Grecian?, Russian, Mexican, and an Isreali. I was second oldest at 27, the marjority of the group was around 20 or 21. Hmmm, were am I going with this. No were i suppose but we got along marvelously and I am sad to say that the only violent outburst was from me when my french friend Arrrno was shaking me and slapping my chest while riding in the van on the day I had acquired a very very bad case of uhhhhh the hersey squirts and he would take my pleas to stop seriously ( I was definatley going to puke if he didn't) and a mis calculates gentle slap to the face became a whopper and stunned the poor guy. oooops. But I think our friendship recovered. Well I am down to 1.5 minutes before I'm kicked off. I have 4 movies and 1000 picutures thus far and will get a few of them uploaded when i get a cable that works. Bologna was nice.
Sam
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
How President Bush almost ruined Milan
I've been quietly snickering to myself that I would be 'jumping' into Italy from Denver on Nov. 11 at approximately 11 o'clock. The fates seemed to feel that is was necessary to let me know how absurd this comparison was. As we landed in JFK all ground traffic was stopped for unknown reasons and our plane taxied to the back side of the airport and began to wait. We had been making some great time in the air with a 30mph tail wind from Denver so I was quite confident that my 30 minute layover between landing and departure was not going to be an issue. 40 minutes later we were still in queue behind the airport. we learned that Bush and Airforce1 had just started their engines and were in the process of taking off when we landed which caused the airport to freeze. Once he left and the long line of ambulances, fire engines, police vehicles, shiny black cars, police jeeps, and police cars made their way off the runway traffic resumed and we headed back to our gate. Like any good process industrial engineer would tell you, hitting the go button on everything at once in a complicated system can cause a failure; which it did. another 20 minutes passed before the traffic cleared and we were at our gate. What I like about New Yorkers is that they are completely comfortable with letting you push past them. I guess it makes them feel at home. With a few cheers I sprinted off the plane and down the concourse to gate 26 were the door was thankfully waiting and closed directly behind me. It was smooth sailing from there. It was perfect. How often do you actually get to run like hell, through a crowded new york airport dodging kids and the elderly on your way to your gate? They didn't even check my passport. In the end all the rush was useless because the traffic jam was still in progress and we became 12th in line for departure.
Pictures to come. So far its rained the entire time so they are a bit gloomy.
List of day 1 and 2:
1) enjoyed the Milan public transit system of trains, busses, trams, and subways.
...1a) subway rides: 5, bus rides:4, trains:2 Trams: 2
...1b) became lost: 0 (booya). however, on my way from the bus to where I am staying I took a wrong turn and walked about 2km in the wrong direction back toward the city center before asking for help. I stopped at local meat market and got help. He knew of colorado springs and sylvester stalone.
2) A approached by street vendors with free merchandise: 2
...2a) declined: 2
...2b) gave it to my anyway: 2
...2c) asked for donations after tying the bracelet on my wrist: 2
...2d) moneys they received: 0
...2e) souvenirs from Milan: 2
3) Sites seen:
...Duomo square
...Duomo Cathedral inside and out. its like the death star but made of marble and its square.
...The famous Gallery (one of the first malls) filled with pradda...and ummm...and other designers
...Leonardo Di Vinci’s statue
...Sforza Castle
...2 of Milan’s universities, the names are too long and Italian to remember
...The outside of a really famous opera house, the name escapes me.
4) Traditions taken part of:
...Spun my heal on the bull's balls (see picture later)
...Rubbed the calf of a bronze statue of one of the apostles on the door of Duomo Cathedral
...Cafe' and Brioche (i had a cappuccino instead of plain coffee and a crème filled croissant)
5) Other
...2 amazing pasta meals. 1 was a home made spaghetti and tomato sauce with parmesan cheese, the other was a tiny local restaurant where I had gnocchi with Prego sauce (tomato sauce with meat) and parmesan cheese, with wine. brochette for an appetizer and fried veggies and an after snack, then a very dark sipping liqueur called mezzo? (not sure how that is spelled) I’ll find out.
...watched CSI and the Simpsons at the Borsa's
...went to the bar with 5 lovely italian ladies and enjoyed not understanding a word.
Ciao!
Pictures to come. So far its rained the entire time so they are a bit gloomy.
List of day 1 and 2:
1) enjoyed the Milan public transit system of trains, busses, trams, and subways.
...1a) subway rides: 5, bus rides:4, trains:2 Trams: 2
...1b) became lost: 0 (booya). however, on my way from the bus to where I am staying I took a wrong turn and walked about 2km in the wrong direction back toward the city center before asking for help. I stopped at local meat market and got help. He knew of colorado springs and sylvester stalone.
2) A approached by street vendors with free merchandise: 2
...2a) declined: 2
...2b) gave it to my anyway: 2
...2c) asked for donations after tying the bracelet on my wrist: 2
...2d) moneys they received: 0
...2e) souvenirs from Milan: 2
3) Sites seen:
...Duomo square
...Duomo Cathedral inside and out. its like the death star but made of marble and its square.
...The famous Gallery (one of the first malls) filled with pradda...and ummm...and other designers
...Leonardo Di Vinci’s statue
...Sforza Castle
...2 of Milan’s universities, the names are too long and Italian to remember
...The outside of a really famous opera house, the name escapes me.
4) Traditions taken part of:
...Spun my heal on the bull's balls (see picture later)
...Rubbed the calf of a bronze statue of one of the apostles on the door of Duomo Cathedral
...Cafe' and Brioche (i had a cappuccino instead of plain coffee and a crème filled croissant)
5) Other
...2 amazing pasta meals. 1 was a home made spaghetti and tomato sauce with parmesan cheese, the other was a tiny local restaurant where I had gnocchi with Prego sauce (tomato sauce with meat) and parmesan cheese, with wine. brochette for an appetizer and fried veggies and an after snack, then a very dark sipping liqueur called mezzo? (not sure how that is spelled) I’ll find out.
...watched CSI and the Simpsons at the Borsa's
...went to the bar with 5 lovely italian ladies and enjoyed not understanding a word.
Ciao!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Pictures!
I took picture after packing each item but I think this gets the point across. As you can see, or should I say, I want to point out, there is a sweet brown wool suit jacket with elbow patches behind my backpack. That is for woo-ing the Italian ladies. oh yes.
Be prepared
Like a good scout one must perform a pre-pack before his trip to test for pack weight, packing sequence, and add or throw out missing/adjunct items. This is also a pre-trip blog trial to see if I can add pictures to my blog.
Results of the pre-pack:
1) I need a rucksack for carry-on items which include A book, some pills, snacks/water, camera, cell phone
2) Eliminated: 2 shirts, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of socks
3) Added: shower shoes, long sleeve shirt, head lamp
4) Missing: travel clock, insurance documents, plug converter for camera battery charger. My 'awesome' cell phone came with plug converters for 3 countries but the bastards at motorala designed it with a fancy triangular piece of plastic so it only fits the phone charger and no other devices on the planet.
Results of pre-blog:
1) Can't figure out the picture thing. The Picture adding icon is nowhere to be seen.
2) I think this blog will ultimately become a series of lists
3) This makes sense because every journal I have attemped in the past has turned into itemized and categorized have-done and to-do lists. Yay for an analytic brain. why can't I just draw an f-ing flower?
.....3a) learn to draw flowers
Results of the pre-pack:
1) I need a rucksack for carry-on items which include A book, some pills, snacks/water, camera, cell phone
2) Eliminated: 2 shirts, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of socks
3) Added: shower shoes, long sleeve shirt, head lamp
4) Missing: travel clock, insurance documents, plug converter for camera battery charger. My 'awesome' cell phone came with plug converters for 3 countries but the bastards at motorala designed it with a fancy triangular piece of plastic so it only fits the phone charger and no other devices on the planet.
Results of pre-blog:
1) Can't figure out the picture thing. The Picture adding icon is nowhere to be seen.
2) I think this blog will ultimately become a series of lists
3) This makes sense because every journal I have attemped in the past has turned into itemized and categorized have-done and to-do lists. Yay for an analytic brain. why can't I just draw an f-ing flower?
.....3a) learn to draw flowers
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
In the Beginning
For me there was fear. Lots of it. Fortunately I was sitting in a pretty comfortable space so it didn't really bother me. In the performing world I would call my last 9 months 'the tilt'. No its not because someone was pregnant, but its funny (ironic or coincidence Josh?) that it took that long for me to get on with my new life. Those who know me know what the old life was so I won't go into that here. Too much self indulgence is bad for the soul. But I will journalize my new beginning because it will be fun. And because I hope to write about my adventures into uncertainty and, as Mikey and I discovered, I will no doubt forget most of what I have done in a few years so it will be nice to look back and remember from time to time the names of the towns I went through in Italy and Ecuador between the time after I quit my secure job and ran away to a better life in grad school.
Thanks to God. Thanks to Family and Friends. All three are blessings that I don't know how I fell into and to each I will be eternally grateful. Kevin Kirby titled a sermon series Ready Fire Aim a few months ago and much like Bob and his baby steps the title was all I needed.
Three years ago I came across this quote. It is the type of attitude I wanted for myself even if I knew it wasn't exactly how I lived. To anyone reading this who has a twinge in their heart for something different than their status quo I encourage you to read on. After, that just get ready, fire, then aim; it will work out.
"...We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist, through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be deceptive. If we stand still we shall be frozen to death. If we take the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces. We do not certainly know whether there is any right one. What must we do? 'Be strong and of good courage.' Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes. ...If death ends all, we cannot meet death better."
--Fitz James Stephen. As quoted in "The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy" by William James.
Booya.
I have 5 days to figure this blog thing out so I can effectively make updates while I'm out and about. Be prepared for random pictures
Thanks to God. Thanks to Family and Friends. All three are blessings that I don't know how I fell into and to each I will be eternally grateful. Kevin Kirby titled a sermon series Ready Fire Aim a few months ago and much like Bob and his baby steps the title was all I needed.
Three years ago I came across this quote. It is the type of attitude I wanted for myself even if I knew it wasn't exactly how I lived. To anyone reading this who has a twinge in their heart for something different than their status quo I encourage you to read on. After, that just get ready, fire, then aim; it will work out.
"...We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist, through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be deceptive. If we stand still we shall be frozen to death. If we take the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces. We do not certainly know whether there is any right one. What must we do? 'Be strong and of good courage.' Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes. ...If death ends all, we cannot meet death better."
--Fitz James Stephen. As quoted in "The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy" by William James.
Booya.
I have 5 days to figure this blog thing out so I can effectively make updates while I'm out and about. Be prepared for random pictures
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