Hope is the thing with feathers

Going Green

I have unintentionally been living a very environmentally-friendly life in Europe. It started in Italy, when we were asked to take "military style showers" (as in get wet, turn the water off, get soapy, turn the water off, rinse off, you're done). I kept up the tradition my first two weeks in Poland when I couldn't figure out how to turn the water heater on. Something about those Arctic temperatures made me keep my showers nice and short.

Apart from a few tram rides here and there with the kids, I go everywhere on foot. I walk to work, the grocery store, the movies, you name it. I will definitely be retiring my New Balances after this summer. I had great plans to run on this beautiful paved trail around the city in an area apty named the Planty for its rich green surroundings, but at the end of a day of walking, walking, and more walking I'm lucky to be standing.

The main grocery store stopped providing plastic bags a couple of weeks before I got here, so I bought one of their alternative shopping bags. I've really gotten into those at home too, although if I'm completely honest it's partly because they're kind of a fun accessory. My favorites are ones from Silverstar Mountain in Canada and one that says "I'm not a plastic bag."

I support local farmers here, because the best place to get cheap, fresh fruit is at an open air market nearby. There are rows and rows of tables filled with all kinds of yummy produce!

I can't promise I'll take all these new habits back with me, but you know...baby steps.

Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head

I have so much I could write but for tonight I'll just stick to three stories about the rain. I think I packed pretty well considering the chaos of my life before leaving for Europe, but I did not bring an umbrella or a rain jacket (I don't even own one). In Italy, this wasn't a problem, but I have gotten caught in the rain 3 times now in Poland.

Rain Adventure #1
Last week was the 18th annual Jewish Culture Festival in the Jewish district of Krakow called Kazimierz. On Saturday night, I went to the outdoor concert that the brochure described as a "Jewish Woodstock." That was a bit of an overstatement, but there was a good-sized crowd out for the lively Jewish music played by local musicians and even a few Americans. I tried zapiekanka, which looks like French bread pizza but has a very different taste.

About an hour into the concert, it started pouring. I found myself sharing an umbrella with a Polish girl named Ola and an American guy named Jamie. Ola was waiting for a friend but Jamie and I eventually took off to get some hot drinks to warm up. I met up with Jamie again on Sunday afternoon for some sight-seeing and a movie, which was fun.

Rain Adventure #2

Sunday night my friend Chris Sikorowski (from Fuller) came to Krakow for a short visit. I'll have to write more about the places we saw later, but on Monday night we had dinner at this great Polish restaurant that his hostel recommended. Our table was right next to a very entertaining piano player who was occasionally joined by the maitre d', who would burst forth with song. My personal favorite was "Killing Me Softly." After a delicious dinner of Polish pork chops (for me) and pierogi (for Chris), we realized that we'd been sitting there for a while and our waitress was nowhere to be found. In Krakow, they don't exactly have closing times, saying they're open until the last customer leaves. When I went to find our waitress, she was just sitting in a back booth, chatting it up with our server, perfectly content to let us sit there as long as we wanted. Pretty funny! On my way home from dinner, I got caught in rain once again, so I took the picture below to document yet another soaking in Poland.



Rain Adventure #3

Almost every day, we take the kids on a field trip. Today we went to a botanical garden, but yesterday we got caught in the rain when we took the kids to a park with various science exhibits. The kids were enjoying things like this triangle of mirrors when the deluge hit. We took refuge under a sort of mushroom shaped thing that was only a few feet above the ground and finally made it back to a shelter. It was a long trip home, though, because we had to catch 3 different trams (very crowded public transportation) with over 30 kids and 6 teachers...

Kicking it in Krakow

I flew into Krakow on Tuesday. I felt like I was in first class because on both of my flights (which were around an hour to an hour and a half) they served nice meals and drinks. I can hardly remember when they used to do that in the U.S. My Polish contact Kasia picked me up at the airport and took me to my new home for the next 5 weeks, an apartment with two Polish girls. The apartment is a short walk from the old market square, the heart of Krakow, and I have a good-sized room to myself which is nice. One of my roommates speaks English well and the other one speaks just a little bit. The building has a door man which is a first for me!

The YMCA ("Imca" is how they pronounce it here) is right down the street, and Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. I started my position there. I'm essentially a teacher's assistant for a group of 15-16 Polish kids who range in age from 7-11. There is one American kid in my group who is fluent in English and Polish and another Polish girl who speaks quite a bit of English, but the rest speak only a few basic words of English. There's another volunteer from England who started at the same time as me. He's lived in Krakow since May and has friends here, so he's been giving me a lot of information on the area.

The first day we took the kids on a city bus to the public pool. Thursday we walked with them all over Krakow, going to a fountain, a castle, a sculpture of a dragon that breathes actual fire, a huge sculpture of a head that the kids could climb in, etc. It's weird because I've only been here a few days but when I'm walking around with the kids I look like I'm a local and people start talking in Polish to me. The kids have been teaching me a lot of Polish words and phrases, which is fun. Today it rained, so we played games, ping pong, dodgeball, volleyball, etc. The girls don't play soccer, but I finally just joined the boys' game. I couldn't take it any more. haha.

The children are so sweet. One of the boys gave me a flower yesterday, two of the girls painted pictures of me today, and they are constantly giving me hugs. It's going to be hard to leave!

On an evening in Roma

I spent Monday with my friends Liz and Tyler in Rome. I was in Rome four years ago for about 6 days, mostly traveling by myself, so it was fun to be back with friends this go around. We paid to go inside the Colosseum, which was unbelievable. And then we walked up the street to the Capital building for lunch on a lovely terrace and an unexpected visit to a beautiful church. I kept getting this song in my head but only remembering part of the words, so I thought I'd share it. You sing it, Dean Martin.

That night Liz and I sat on Spanish steps and met a Spanish man who was fund-raising for the education of children in the third world. His enthusiasm was contagious and he was thrilled to find out Liz was headed to Barcelona, so he gave her a few insider tips. Next we walked to Trevi Fountain and found a ristorante for dinner. The little tables outside it were packed in tight, so we were literally shoulder to shoulder with the people sitting next to us. To our right, we met two men from Nieman Marcus who won a trip to Milan to visit the Manolo Blanik shoe factory to watch shoes being hand-stitched. They had shopped and shopped and had fun showing us pictures of their deluxe accommodations. At the gelateria, we met a Brazilian who mistakenly greeted Liz in Korean and then tried to insist she was Japanese. We were underwhelmed until he won back our favor by going to another gelateria to get my favorite gelato flavor: capricio! And finally, while we sat by the Trevi Fountain with hundreds of others we met Francesco, a honey-making cyclist from the Italian countryside. It was an eventful night!

Photos taken by Kim Michael

Here are a few pics from Italy. I forgot the cord to connect my camera to the computer so I borrowed a few:

My new Italian friend

I heard back from my friend the Italian train driver. Since he wrote me in Italian, I had to use freetranslation.com to figure out what it said. Gotta love the internet! Here is how it translated the note...

Hello!  I helped you willingly I would be lacking us other! Amused in Rome, there are a lot local and the town is attractive to visit.  If you go for Pisa me it know it, that if it goes there we see you.  Hello hello! 

Yesterday I visited a beach town called Sperlonga, which was a nice treat after the heat and sweat that makes up a typical day in Italy. Unfortunately, I was one of three in our group to get a bad case of food poisoning a couple of nights ago, but I am finally feeling back to normal. Today, my friends Liz and Tyler and I will explore Rome and then tomorrow I am off to Poland. Ciao!

Snapshots of Orvieto

*An older gentleman in the grocery store who spoke very little English, asking me "Americana?" And when I nodded he said in Italian something to the effect of "God protect America." And then in English, with a huge smile, he said "I love America!" It was very sweet.

*Sculpting the face of Mary on the steps of Orvieto's Duomo (cathedral).

*Daily trips to the gelateria with melt-in-your-mouth goodness dripping from every spoonful. (My favorite flavor is capricio, which has nutella in it!)

*Praying the hours, a monastic practice that involves praying every 3 hours, all through the night

*Riding in a funicular (funicolare) up the hillside to Orvieto with an amazing view of the valley

*Attending a choral performance with beautiful acoustics, where the choir sang everything from Italian arias to Lennon's Michelle.

*Lunches and dinners together at a local bed and breakfast, watching Euro Cup soccer games or being serenaded by the owner Mauro on the keyboard.

*Performing a mystery play in the courtyard of the monastery where we're staying. We were dripping sweat from the heat (and the towels wrapped around our heads), but it was fun.

Dell'Amore

I think I'm in love. I have absolutely been blown away by the people of Italy. Perhaps it's because I have been so dependent on them with various travel blunders, but regardless of the cause, I have been so impressed with their warmth, their kindness, and their generosity.

Yesterday was quite the day. I had traveled up to Florence with a group of friends for the weekend. Saturday morning I had breakfast with 2 Australian girls at the hostel. The topic of celebrity sitings came up, leading to our general agreement on the hotness of Johnny Depp.Then four from our group headed to see the David and check out the museum where it's housed (Galleria dell'Accademia).

I decided after the museum that I wanted to head on my own for Cinque Terre, a series of 5 coastal cities that are connected by train, bus, or fabulous hiking trails. I knew the day was going to be great, when they were giving away free Coca Cola Lights at the train station (the nectar of the gods, in my opinion). I ran into 2 guys from our group that had just come up from Orvieto, so that was a fun coincidence. I took 3 trains for a total of 3 hours to get to Vernazza, which was absolutely beautiful.

There's a main walkway with shops selling wine, gelato, postcards, pretty jewelry, etc. You come to a small beach area first but a little further on is a whole beach front composed of giant rocks. I was determined to go for a swim but had no one to watch my stuff. After watching a little while, I noticed people climbing out on to the rocks and stashing their stuff there, so I did the same. The water was perfection. After a long, hot train ride, jumping into that water was heavenly. I had goggles along, so I was able to see several schools of fish swimming along beneath me, not minding my company a bit. I got a kick out of a group of older men standing in a circle in their speedos just chatting it up.

I could have stayed in that water for a week, but I finally decided to head back around 7:30. Unfortunately, I just missed the 7:30 train, so I caught the 8:30 train into La Spezia Centrale station. I tried to get a ticket to Florence but accidentally purchased the wrong kind of ticket. I decided to just chance it and get on a train to Pisa, which I knew had connecting trains to Florence. Luckily, I met a train driver about my age in the station, who first helped me find a bathroom (by letting me into the employee's only one) and then after chatting a bit and finding out I was headed to Florence, let me know I'd be missing the last train out to Florence from Pisa.

I was a bit anxious at this point, considering the train I was taking into Pisa left at 10:17 p.m. but my new Italian friend told me of a bus I could take that would be leaving for Florence at 12:59. Grrrrreat.... I wasn't thrilled about having to wait for a bus in the middle of the night, but he walked me all through the train station and to the bus stop. Along the way, we met 2 teenage couples heading to Florence as well, so I waited with them for most of the time. I really enjoyed getting to use my limited Italian/Spanish to communicate with my friend the train driver, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciated his help. When we said good-bye, he gave me the kiss-on-either-cheek farewell (When in Rome, right?) and we exchanged emails. I made it on the bus eventually and arrived in Florence at 2:30 a.m. only to find that my hostel had a 2:00 a.m curfew (or at least that's what the door said). Fortunately, when I rang the buzzer they let me right in and said that there wasn't a curfew, so I lucked out there.

All in all, it was an exhausting day, and I am really ready for some rest now, but it was a fun adventure all the same. Ciao for now!

Danskin Disneyland Triathlon

Mi Vida Loca

 Last week could easily qualify as the craziest week of my life to date. I survived finals week, graduation, moving out, competing in a triathlon, and flying to Italy. I was running on fumes for the most of the time, staying up 'til all hours of the night with equally overloaded friends, trying to squeeze as much as possible into every minute of the day. The weekend before I babysat my cousins for two nights, arriving home to find the ceiling in my bathroom had caved in and was splattered across the bathtub. Ah, the comforts of home.

Graduation was a long ceremony, but it sweet to be together with many of my close friends from the past two years. It is really amazing that my time at Fuller is over. I had to rush off after graduation to Anaheim to sign in for the Danskin triathlon, taking place at Disneyland the next morning. My mom, her best friend Sharon, my sister, my aunt, four of my cousins, my cousin's roommate, and my brother's girlfriend, and I all competed in it.

Sunday was a very early morning, as we had to be ready for the race to begin at 6 a.m. My mom and Sharon were in the second wave of women to swim around the lagoon in California Adventure Park. I got all choked up seeing them do it, because I know how hard they had trained for the swim and I was just so proud of them both! The bike had a few hills at the beginning of the loop we had to bike twice, but all in all was pretty tame. And the run was through parts of Disneyland (I think), although nothing too exciting. I hope next year they have us ending in front of Cinderella's castle or something. That would be cool! Out of 1,300 women, my sister finished 94th, my cousin finished 123rd I think, and I was 289th. We were pretty happy with that! :)

Sunday night I flew from L.A. to Frankfurt and then on to Rome, taking a couple of trains from Rome to Orvieto and finally a cab to the top of hill where Orvieto sits. I'll write more later but since this entry's running long as it is, here's an Orvieto pic for you to enjoy: