It's Istanbul, not Constantinople!

This past weekend, we had a long weekend from school. Many of us took the opportunity to get as far from Dubai as we could and forget about school for awhile. A friend and I seized the chance to go to Istanbul for a few days. It's a fairly quick trip, being only five hours by plane away from Dubai.

Turkey is a Muslim country, but it has such a different feel than Dubai. Aside from the fact that it was quite chilly, requiring hat, coat, and scarf. It's more laid back, more friendly. Look at the strays in Istanbul. Everyone feeds them. They're not seen dead all over the roads as they are in Istanbul because people actually go out of their way to not hit them. That alone says a lot about the Turkish culture.



The city is full of masterpieces of architecture. We got there in the afternoon on Friday and headed over to the Basilica Cistern. There are cisterns all over the city, built by the Greeks/ Romans to supply the city with water. Most of them are about thirty feet under ground, and consist of huge cavernous spaces filled with columns lit from underneath. The one we visited was almost like being inside some kind of large tomb. It was fed from a lake 16km from the city.

It obviously still gets water, because the floors were wet and covered with sandbags and sump pumps. There is actually a small pool still down there, and it has fish in it. Well, if it's being fed from a lake, lakes have fish. There are also two column caps of Medusa. One is upside down, which is supposed to ward off evil. The other is sideways, and we're not sure what that means. We could have hung out there for quite some time just taking pictures, but there's so much in Istanbul to see!

We headed over to the Blue Mosque next. The Blue Mosque is a mere 400 years old and decorated with blue Islamic motif tiles. It's also one of the few mosques in the world with more than four minarets. It's downright awe-inspiring. As such, it's still in use as an active mosque today. Being a Friday, we had to wait until services were over, but it was well worth the wait.



After the Blue Mosque, we wandered the streets of Sultanhamet for a bit. Sultanhamet is one of the touristy areas in Istanbul because so much of the architecture and oldest history are right there. The streets are lined with small shops selling everything from silver to sweets. There are men standing outside all of the cafes and restaurants trying to tempt you in by showing the menu and pointing at the goodies in the window. There are so many such places that I can understand, the competition for customers is quite fierce. For dinner, we went to a place touting an Ottoman menu and feasted on mezze (fresh bread, hummus, labneh, and mint flavored yogurt) as well as pastry stuffed with beef, chicken, and peppers. Wonderful, hearty, and warming to the insides after being out in the cold. We also meandered into a local sweet shop for some of the fluffiest, tastiest baklava and apple tea I have ever had. All previous baklava pales in comparison. Yes, I explore with open eyes and an open stomach ;)

The next day we headed out fairly early to get to the Hagia Sophia when it opened before the huge masses of European and Asian tourists flocked in with their guides. The Hagia Sophia spans a long period of history when it began as a Greek patriarchal church, then was converted to Roman Catholic in the 1200s, and then in 1453 it became a mosque. Outside, you can actually see the original foundations with Greek columns and friezes. The outer courtyard looks like a column graveyard with pieces of columns and statues standing about like ancient relics from a time little remembered. Inside is where it all really comes together in a grand conversion of history and religion. Every surface that could be done in mosaic, gold leafing, or painted was and is. There are partial mosaics of Christian iconography that have been restored (most back in the 19th century). They were whitewashed and painted over when the cathedral was turned into a mosque. The archways, ceilings, walls, even vaulting are covered with Islamic motifs and designs. In some places, you can actually see where the Muslims tried to cover up some of the Byzantine crosses. There is even a bit of Viking graffiti on one of the banisters. Apparently the Emperor liked tough guys and hired Vikings to serve in his army. The name "Halvdan" is carved into the marble railing on the second floor. We spent a good two hours wandering taking pictures. If you've seen my Facebook, you know just how many pictures I took :)

After the Hagia Sophia, we visited the Grand Bazaar. It's a huge covered market selling anything and everything for whatever price you can manage to bargain. The place is a rabbit warren of corridors with brightly colored stalls and shops crammed in against each other. Yeah, it's a major tourist attraction but it's still worth seeing. My friend and I hadn't planned on buying much, but we got sucked into a shop selling fabrics and home decor. Here's the thing: If the shopkeeper invites you to sit down for tea, brace yourself. You're going to be in there for a time, and he will be showing you his entire shop. The Turkish theory is that if they keep showing you stuff, you will eventually buy something. And true enough, we both bought the most beautiful bedspreads I have ever seen. I've never had anything this lovely. And I so hadn't planned on buying it. Aydin, the shopkeeper, threw in some pillow covers. And just when we thought we were done, he says "Let's have one more cup of tea". Oh, boy. Then he starts showing us carpets. Now, my friend had indeed been wanting to buy a carpet. He showed her one that she fell in love with: flatwoven with knotwork and embroidery with vegetable dyes, 100% wool. He gave a magnificent presentation of that carpet, then sent his helper out to bring more. He spent a good twenty minutes just showing her carpets. The REAL selling began when my friend asked the price. They went back and forth forever with the calculator. Aydin was a funny man, and he said he'd get my friend a rich Turkish husband so he could buy her lots of carpets. Then he looked at me "For you, you can have ME." Huge smile on  his face. I told him that wouldn't work out well, because I wanted a rich husband too. He seemed to take a huge liking to me, kissing me on the cheek, hugging me as he and my friend haggled back and forth. At one point, he cries out "Oh Elena your friend she break my heart!" and he put his head in my lap. I looked at my friend and she got the hint. Time to go! Haggling aside, she wasn't willing to pay what he wanted for the carpet. And I was tired of him hanging on me, though I had let him because he was cute and the more he kissed my cheek the lower the price went ;) My friend said she should have traded me in marriage for the carpet. Oh, no! If I'm to be traded, it had better be for a Persian silk carpet ten feet long at least!

We tried another restaurant for dinner, a kebab place near our hotel. The food was excellent, all kinds of mixed grill with fresh bread. However, we got a major surprise when the bill came and an extra 20 lira was added to our bill for "bread, tax, and service". We hadn't even ordered the bread! Ah, well, some places in Europe do that as well. Live and learn. Schmuck. After dinner, we took a taxi down to the waterfront to the Dede Efendi house, home to some of the Whirling Dervishes. Whirling Dervishes are the closest thing Islam has to monks. They spin around and around in place to music, trying to reach out to God. The house was old and small. A famous Whirling Dervish had lived there, composing music and teaching other Dervishes. What we actually witnessed was a religious ceremony. The audience was told to make absolutely no sound and to not clap until the very end when the ceremony was over. The Dervishes' expressions were almost beatific. I felt like we were spying, peeping even, on something sacred and private.

The next day was museum day. We started with the Ottoman stronghold, the Topkapi Palace. I never imagined how big it was until we passed through the first outer wall which butts right up against the modern neighborhood outside. Literally, the modern and Ottoman walls are right up against each other. We walked through a large courtyard and passed some outer buildings and then through a second outer wall into the main palace. One side faces Istanbul, the other side is on a cliff that faces the Bosphorus river. We paid the extra to enter the Harem, which was the personal quarters for the Emperor, his family, and his extensive collection of concubines. I fell in love with the tilework. Lovely blues, greens, and yellows in floral designs or Islamic motifs. Huge ceilings completely painted, tiled, mosaic'd, really there was very little surface without some kind of ornamentation. The huge Ottoman stoves were rather impressive, with their conical shaped chimney reaching all the way to the ceiling. Wow, it must have been hard to heat that place! We gawked at the jewel collection. There were emeralds the size of large eggs and cut diamonds bigger than a Texan belt buckle. Even Britain's crown jewels weren't that big!

After ooh'ing and ahh'ing at the riches of the Ottomans, we plodded down to the Archaeological Museum. They have a huge collection of Greek sarcophagi, as well as some Egyptian and early Christian. There was an Early Christian (Byzantine?) sarcophagus made out of lead. I have never seen any burial chamber made of lead in any culture. There was a huge collection of funerary epitaphs from the Greeks and early Christians, including a very touching one from a Greek soldier to his dog telling how the dog was loving, amusing, and was his most loyal friend. What I really wanted to see were the artifacts from Troy, on the western coast of Turkey. Nothing like seeing the Iliad come to life. Granted, I'm sure not too many people get excited about pottery and spindle whorls, but I think it's like a doorway to a past that I've only read about. There were little statuettes from household altars, tools, and a rather large bust of Zeus that I had an urge to put my arm around and tell my friend to take a picture. I can't help it, I'm rather infantile at times :) After so much walking, we had an early dinner of roasted stuffed peppers, spinach, and fresh bread. I ate more bread in Istanbul than I had in months, it was so fresh and delicious. We finished the evening off with some kind of strawberry tart and baklava with a final wandering of the back streets of Sultanahmet.

The next morning, we were leaving on an afternoon flight but we still had one more experience to go. We headed to Cemberlitas, an old Turkish bath (or hamam) which was just a quick walk from our hotel. The reception and spa areas were all of white walls and rich honey colored wood paneling. We were led upstairs to change into disposable briefs and emerged wrapped in thin red striped cotton hamam towels. A rather bubbly lady led us downstairs to a huge old wooden door. We walked inside to a huge round room made of stone and marble topped with a large dome. The dome had dozens of tiny windows filled with leaded glass providing the only light in the room. Before I knew it, Miss Bubbly had whipped off my towel and laid it on the large fifteen foot wide circular stone in the middle of the room. With a huge smile, she told me to lay down. The purpose of this sauna like experience lying on the stone is to sweat out any toxins or dirt. I lay on the stone, just looking around at the little marble alcoves with basins and faucets for washing. I was just getting into the zen of it when a joyful voice jolted me back to reality. I turned, and it was Miss Bubbly, wearing nothing but disposable briefs singing, dancing, and shaking what God gave her. I couldn't help myself, I almost fell off the stone I was laughing so hard. She got a basin of water and proceeded to scrub me in a way that I have not been scrubbed since I was one when Mom washed me in the kitchen sink. This was followed by a soap-down and bucket upon bucket of warm water dumped on my body. I can hear my friend getting the same treatment from another washer. Then Miss Bubbly says "Shampoo?" and leads me to a little marble alcove where she sits me on a stone bench. She proceeds to dump an entire bucket of warm water on my head, and pours about a half cup of some lemony shampoo on my head which she roughly rubbed in. This was followed by about two buckets more of warm water. After my drowning, she giggles and says what I think was "Pool?" Seeing that I didn't understand, she put her arm around me like a mother with a small child and walked me over to a small tiled chamber which contained a lukewarm pool and a cool down pool. She watched over me as I slid into the warm water, and continued standing there watching me soak until she was called by another attendant. Overall, the experience was only a little awkward, and I felt very refreshed after cooling down in the pool. When we went upstairs to change, I noticed that my skin was literally glowing. Would I do it again? I think I would. If you need a good bath, head to Istanbul.

I was actually a bit sad to leave. We'd fit so much into four days, and only seen part of what Turkey had to offer. The history is long and vast, the architecture stunning, and the people extremely pleasant. If I do ever take another international post, I would definitely consider Turkey as a possibility.

What to do, what to do

Sooo, been home for a bit now. Enjoying family, friends, food (too much food!) and just generally bumming about in comfy pajamas. Christmas lights are more magickal than I ever remember because it's been so long since I've seen them. Granted, there are some holiday decorations in Dubai but it's mostly for marketing. We had some holiday celebrations, which was a nice bit of fun. I freely admit that it wasn't Christmas for me until I came home. Christmas is where my friends and family are, even if they're on the moon.

I've had a really good time so far, snuggling into warm coats and hats and gazing wide-eyed at tiny little wisps of snow flurries. I've gone to parties, dinner, movies, and gotten to spend quality time with my family. Christmas Eve was a flurry of dinner and gifts, while Christmas Day was a pajama day enjoying my niece's fascination with her new tool bench and old Christmas movies. The Garfield Christmas Special never gets old, and neither does a Muppet Family Christmas. I love the old Charlie Brown Christmas, and Disney's Christmas Carol. Curling up inside a cup of tea with Mom on one end of the couch and Homestar sprawled in a nearby chair is home to me.

As I enjoy shopping for smaller pants (YES!!) and looking forward to a fantastic island wedding, I'm rather haunted by a decision I have to make. It's been creeping around the back of my mind for weeks. I was very depressed before I left Dubai, because this decision is looming.

I have to decide if I am staying abroad; my contract is up in June.

Soo....what to do....

Choices? There are several.

• Look for another position abroad. This would mean another two years.
• Stay in Dubai for a third year.
• Move back home.

Let me tell you, I have gone around and around in my head about this. It's been giving me a headache for weeks ever since I got the letter of intent from my principal. It's due signed on January 15th, the day I get back to school from the holidays.

The time is coming; I have to make a decision. I have a feeling the sooner I decide the better off I will feel.

Choice A, signing on in another country, is tempting. New school, new place, different administration and people...but it means another two years. Frankly, when I have this conversation with my coworkers they always seem surprised to find that I don't want teaching abroad as a permanent career. I planned on spending a few years abroad for teaching experience and travel opportunities and then taking that experience home to teach Reading and ESL in our schools. I don't think I want another two years abroad. I also can't think of any other place I would like to live. Sure, there's places in Europe (would kill to live in Florence or Rome), but the taxes and cost of living are killers. I wouldn't save a dime.

Choice B, staying in Dubai a third year, well, that's got its issues. You see, the investors are clamoring for a return on their investment. So next year, they are going to overcrowd our school. They are taking away classrooms from most of the specialists except for art and music. I will get a smaller room, wouldn't put it past them to put me on a cart actually. Their standards are about to take a dive in an effort to pack the school and get tuitions so the school turns more of a profit. This is one of my big issues; this is a for-profit school. Sticks in my throat, it does. Personally, I'm not done travelling yet. However, Dubai is still the best location to travel from. I can get anywhere from Dubai in 15 hours or less. Daily life is pretty easy. Most people speak some semblance or at least a few words of English. Many signs are in English. I have some good friends there; I have a small social network established. Professionally, three years' continuity at one school looks better than two. I have an excellent and experienced teaching partner; I want to be as good as she is when I grow up.

Choice C, coming home...
I'm not going to lie, I've been frustrated and lonely enough to seriously consider it. I miss my family and friends. My nieces and cousins are getting bigger, and I'm missing chunks of their lives. My smallest niece doesn't really know me. That hurts a bit. I'm missing important events, like weddings, babies, etc. I miss nerding out with the gaming crew, dressing like a pirate, and kayaking at night on Nockamixon. Still, a couple of wise friends reminded me that friends and family will still be there whenever I decide to come home. And it is still home, mind you. A friend got kind of upset when I referred to Dubai as home the other day. Home is where I live, but the real home is with my family and friends.

There are other issues, but they're kind of silly. I feel like I'm getting old sometimes, and so many of my friends are paired up, having families...I don't want to all of a sudden turn around  after staying abroad and I'm 40 with four cats...Yeah, I'm being silly. I get like that sometimes. I'm a rather distrusting, self-preserving sort when it comes to relationships so letting guys get close is...difficult. LOL I know, can I make my life any more difficult?? Sheesh...don't listen to me. I'm an idiot.

Sooo, what to do, what to do? 

I'll be honest. I am leaning toward a third year in Dubai. Professionally, it gives me more experience and continuity. Financially, I will come home with a gratuity big enough after three years that I could float for a year in the US while trying to find a job. Personally, I would be able to travel more to places like Australia, Greece, France, Italy (again ;), and wherever else I can get to. It would also give people more opportunity to save their pennies and perhaps meet me abroad someplace :)

I don't know, I go back and forth. I have until January 15th to commit...or be committed LOL

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to China I go!

China is a big place.
No, really, it's huge.
Of all the places I have gone, I found China to be one of the most daunting because of it's size, the sheer number of people, and the fact that not only did I have no chance in hell of understanding anyone but no chance in reading street signs or even menus. Sure, you say, but Beijing in a modern city, surely many people speak English? Actually, no. And when you do run across people who speak it, it's very limited. That being said, it's an amazing place. I went with two friends from school. We stayed with my friend and teaching partner who moved to Beijing this past summer.

Let me tell you about it.

Saturday, November 5
Today we woke up late (it was a really long trip yesterday) and after showers and a quick breakfast of pastries with red bean paste and some other unidentified but tasty filling we headed off to the art district of Beijing known as 798.

There were cute little shops selling lovely handmade ocarinas, handpainted silks, leather shadow puppets, and handcarved driftwood sculptures. 798 was once an industrial district with factories and warehouses which have been turned into gallery spaces. The old smoke stacks, sheet metal roofs, and rickety metal staircases are still there but are now surrounded by outdoor sculptures. The streets in Beijing are lined with what look like ginkgo trees. It's fabulous seeing autumn slowling becoming winter. Greens, yellows, oranges fading into browns and greys. I'm in Beijing and I'm amazed by something as simple as the changing seasons and the crispness of the air. I guess I've missed the seasons that much. Anyway, 798 is mostly modern contemporary art; I found it to be a real insight into the Chinese people through their interpretation of the world through art. The outdoor sculpture was interesting. Headless statues of Chairman Mao, big brother-esque statues of workers, a pregnant Statue of Liberty as well as a deconstructed reassembled Statue of Liberty. There was a neat kind of quirky exhibition of white dogs with huge gaping white smiles, beady black eyes, and red tipped penises. There were playing with colorful balloons. One was sitting on a balloon with its long red tongue hanging out licking its own penis. Awesome. Spud Mackenzie meets Hugh Heffner?

It was refreshingly cold, my nose was good and chilly, and I was very happy that I brought my warm jacket and hat. We had dinner at a New Zealand themed cafe called Flat White. Flat white apparently in NZ and Australia means plain coffee with milk. Food was good, but not Chinese. I'm in China; I would like to eat real Chinese at least a few times while we're here. I even brought my little card in Chinese that says "Don't put MSG, I am highly allergic". After dinner, we had a bit of hard luck getting a taxi. The Beijing taxi drivers are rude, sometimes illiterate, and unreliable apparently. We did eventually get one and headed over to Yuxiao which is four floors of miscellaneous shit made in China. Tailors, fabric, knock off clothes and handbags, fashion jewelry, knick knacks, curios, salons, etc etc. Almost bought an old opium pipe for some friends, but had a feeling that I wouldn't get that through customs in Dubai. I tried out my haggling skills.  My friend's tip was to make them give me three prices and then offer half. It works. Got a lovely tea set, table runner, and little jade pendant. Seems haggling is the norm in most places. It's a cash and carry country for the most part; my friend says Chinese people don't like to be in debt so they don't use credit cards as often as we do. Seems like a good rule to me. We finished our shopping and headed over to the bar district called Sanlitun. There were hawkers out front of the bars trying to pull us in. There's a lot of competition between establishments it seems. One guy was like "Cheap beer and pole dancing!" Yeaahh, no. I've danced on poles before, but not tonight. We had some gin and tonics at some outdoor tables and one friend ordered some chicken fingers. Then my other friend reminded her that this is China and it might actually be chicken...fingers. Luckily, that was not the case. We squashed into a taxi for the ride home. The taxis are quite small, not really made for multiple westerners of good size :) We finished out the evening in my friend's living room eating Tim Tams and checking Facebook. Heading out to the Forbidden City tomorrow! Dreamed of seeing it for years and finally will get to see it for real!

 Sunday, November 6 

Well, today started off as a bit of a farce. Because of course my friends slept in a bit so we didn't get out the door early. We had to flag down a taxi, and when we finally got to the Forbidden City it was almost 11am. Unbeknownst to us, they no longer sell tickets at the North Gate, which is where the taxi dropped us. Where we were absolutely assailed, ambushed even, by tons of people trying to get us to take rickshaw rides, buy souvenir books, or sell us tours. So we walked all the way around the east wall. We saw some guys fishing in the moat outside. We found our way back to Tianmen Square; it took us 45 minutes. You really don't understand how big the Forbidden City is. It's several NYC blocks. I had already seen the huge crowds at the Meridien Gate when we drove by in the taxi. It was even worse. Guides with flags and umbrellas held high leading tour groups of 20-30 people. So we called it a wash and agreed to attempt again tomorrow. Early.

So we meandered over to Tianmen Square where the students protested back in the 80's. There's not much special about it except for the view of the Forbidden City and Mao's mausoleum. Supposedly they put him on display for a few hours every day, but we didn't get there at one of those auspicious times. The National Museum is on one side, an impressive monolithic monument. We noticed people staring at us, especially at my friend's flip flops. Apparently as soon as it gets even a bit cold the Chinese start bundling up, and here is my friend with her cropped pants and toes hanging out. They were also staring at us because we're Westerners I think. My one friend is Puerto Rican, rather dark skinned and the other is blond, so they definitely looked different. I look like every other Westerner, brown hair and muddled eye color; we all look alike you know ;) We hadn't had breakfast, so I took a chance and bought something that looked like bread with fruit in it. Some Chinese women came up to us and gestured at us a bit and giggled. It sounded like she was commenting on the fruit bread. Who knows? No clue what she said. So I replied with a smile "I don't know what you're saying, you don't know what I'm saying, so let's meander on, shall we?"

After Tianmen, we wandered down to a street market in Wangfujing. Ever see that episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern when he was in Beijing? This is where he went I think. If the Chinese could put it on stick, they did. Beetles, scorpions, still alive. Starfish, seahorses, pork, chicken, beef, squid, octopus...oh my! While we were gawking at the scorpions, some Chinese guy asked to have his picture taken with me. His wife took it, and now I am in some random Chinese vacation photo album. This happened once before in Singapore. Maybe they think I'm a movie star:) There was lots of miscellaneous crap for sale in the market, most of which we'd already seen at Yuxiao. I caught sight of some tarantulas, black scorpions, and other "delicacies" (fried durian fruit anyone?) as I was walking through. I tried a street snack of candied strawberries on a stick. Tasted good, but I think my teeth were crying out for aid. I've seen tons of sticks sold all over the city with hawthorn berries on them. There happened to be one on my stick. It tasted a bit like a crabapple but the seends were unpleasantly numerous and huge. We found the site for the Night Market, home to more weird street foods, and found a kind of street food festival going on. Fried mango, fried durian fruit (stinky stinky!), and various cooked meats like whole softshell crabs fried on a stick.

We were still feeling adventurous so we went to the Pearl Market at Hongxiao. More of the same variety of mass produced crap, except there was indeed a pearl market with more pearls than came out of Venus' clam shell. The sales people were pushy, but not overly so. I think they're not used to Westerner's who will haggle persistently. They seemed so surprised that I would not pay the first outrageous price they quoted me. There always seems to be a song and dance "Oh I give you special price! This good quality!" Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. They've got tons of bridges to sell you, too. One of the best tips I read was to buy something because you like it, not because of the song and dance that they try to sell you on. The salespeople always seem to concede, because bottom line they make a profit no matter what because all of this stuff is mass produced so cheaply. Just act final, start walking away like you're serious and they will fold like a camp chair. My one friend had a moment of brilliance. She saw a tea set that she liked and was haggling back and forth with good naturedly the girl. Finally, the girl hands her the calculator and asks her to name her final price. My friend in a stroke of genuis types in a number even lower than what she had told the salesgirl before. The girl looked like she'd been hit with a board. Her jaw dropped and she said" That even lower!" My friend re-affirmed what she wanted to pay and walked away with her tea set. I'm not into pearls that much, and the ones here are manufactured in bulk so I find them even less interesting.

We met up with my friend again and went to a place called Element Fresh for dinner. Western food again. Don't get me wrong, I want Chinese food but not MSG. We will have Chinese food. I'm set on it. And I exacted a promise from my friends that we would be in bed early so that we could leave early to go see the Forbidden City.

Monday, November 7
My friend rousted us early when she got up for school. I got dressed quickly as kind of a tacit cue to not dawdle...because we were going to the Forbidden City! We got a cab fairly quickly and made sure he dropped us at the Meridien Gate. It wasn't even open yet, and there were already lots of people, large tour groups waiting to go in. Despite this, we got our tickets and audio guides rather quickly and entered the main gate. It was a good thing we had the audio tours because they don't have much info posted and when there is tons of people are crowded around it. Would have never known than an Empress hung herself in one of the palaces. Or that the son of a maid turned low level concubine became Emperor. There really was too much information to remember or relate. You're better off going to the library. What was amazing what to stroll the cobble stone streets trod by 600 years of Ming Dynasty officials, soldiers, servants, and royalty. That place really is a city all within itself. It's massive, with over a dozen palaces and temples, long halls, and narrow streets. The intricacy of intertwining gold dragons, lotus flowers carved into stone and wood is truly amazing. Whole families of artisans and apprentices over generations must have worked on this place for years. The emperor had his own gardens and rock fortress by the north gate. Maybe the rock fortress was so he could escape his Empress and all his concubines for a bit ;) All those women, talk about henpecked, the poor guy. Love the colors of the paintings on the roofs. Gold, blue, green, red. After seeing over half of the place, our feet were tired and we were palaced out. We snuck back out the front gate as opposed to to going out the east gate and having to walk all the way back around to return our headsets. Which would have been asenine. Besides, posted rules here seem more like the Pirate's Code. More like a suggestion but not particularly enforced.

We crossed over to Tianmen and went down to Lao She teahouse which supposedly sported good tea and a show. Guess we got there at a bad time because we saw maybe five minutes of a shadow puppet show. The place was empty for the most part. And here was my first bad luck with a menu. EVERYTHING had MSG in it except for the veggies and the rice. Most everything was pre-made or pre-bought and fried. Which sucked because I was hungry! The tea was expensive, but good. The fried rice was okay, though not overly exciting. We had these yams in toffee which were freaking fabulous! Sticky toffee wrapped around soft sweet potatoey goodnees. Twas wonderful. Some Chinese guy walked by our table and said something to me. Seemed like he was either hitting on me or remarking about our lunch. Could be both. No clue.

We headed out again to Mulian Dao, the Beijing tea street. Nothing but tea shops as far as the eye can see. People contined to gawk and gesture wildly at my friends flip flops. Hilarious. We bought some fruit tea, but most of the shops were very pushy and seemingly desperate to get you to sit down for a taste test. We even witnessed a bit of a street brawl. Two guys on bicycles were having a very loud argument, then they started pushing each other and yelling. Before we knew it, one guy had taken his bike lock out of the basket and hit the other guy across the face with it. They really went at it then until some people broke them up. I asked my friend about it later; she said that's actually really unusual and that Chinese people usually don't have scenes in public.

My friend works with a very nice man who recommended a restaurant to us. He wrote everything out for her in Chinese, as well as his recommendations for dinner. We had no clue what we were ordering, we just handed the paper to the waiter with my "No MSG" translation and hoped for the best. And we were not disappointed. Though I was a little wide-eyed at some of the choices on the menu.

 What do you think? Crunchy or chewy?

 We ordered a nice spicy salad, beef, pork ribs (aah, pork!) and eggplant. All of which was absolutely delish. And I must say that my chopstick skills are improving.

I am told that one has to remember that tastes vary. And not so long ago when the Chinese were truly struggling to feed their people, anything and everything was a food source.

And tomorrow, we're off to the Great Wall!

Tuesday, November 8

Another early day. My friend had talked to her coworker and arranged a driver to take us out to the Great Wall. We didn't go to the Badaling part which is the major touristy part. Fortuitously, that was closed so we had to venture about 80km from Beijing. The trip was enlightening in a way. If you stay in Beijing or Shanghai, I think one might get the impression that the Chinese are all doing quite well for themselves. However, journey outwards from the city and you'll find people living in houses without running water with few windows, open to the elements, with sheet metal roofs. They're out in the fields making a living with their bare hands and selling vegetables and fruit by the side of the road. The wealth of Beijing stops at the city line.

Corn is pretty popular in Beijing, and along the country roads we could see it drying in huge piles along the sides of the roads. Again, I was falling in love with autumn all over watching the trees rain multicolored leaves down into the fields and roads.  But I digress..now, the Great Wall is...

Very long. We could see it as we drove up the winding road to the base of the mountains. It stretches like a snake across the mountaintops. And for a minute, I was reminded of that scene from LOTR when the watchtowers are lit all the way to Gondor...totally nerded out there, sorry :) Anyway, our driver told us where he would be waiting and directed us where to buy tickets for entry and for the cable car. No, I didn't climb the Great Wall per se. I climbed up a very steep mountainside through a gauntlet of people selling knick knacks and t-shirts to the cable car that went up to the top of the Great Wall. From the cable car, I could see trails leading up and down the mountain up to the Wall. Perhaps if I were alone I might have tried it. 800 steps...it would have taken me awhile. When we got to the top, I sucked in a huge lung full of fresh air. I hadn't noticed how bad the air in Beijing was until I was breathing clean air smelling of newly fallen leaves and had a chance to compare the two. The view is stunning, it really is. And I was struck by a bout of wishful thinking. Wishing that all of my friends were there to see what I was seeing. There are fourteen watchtowers along the great wall. The wall itself ends at the sea and is visible from space. Must have been cold and dreary to guard in the dead of winter. The wall itself isn't actually as tall as I expected. Don't get me wrong, that's a nice drop to the bottom and then you'll just roll the rest of the way down the mountain. They could see their enemies coming from miles away, and even if you got close enough they could shoot you with arrows through the murder holes lining the length of the wall. Daunting, to say the least.

I could have stayed up there all day walking the length of it and enjoying the mountain air and views, but we did eventually have to go down. I'll have to go back some day, maybe see where it ends at the sea.

We had taken a bit longer than planned at the Wall, so our driver took a winding back road through the mountains. My friends fell asleep, but I didn't want to miss a moment of it I just enjoyed the view so much. On the way back to Beijing are the Ming tombs. They felt similar to the Egyptians in their manner of burial. The Emperor and his two Empresses were eight flights of stairs below ground. People tossed money at the caskets as offerings to their ancestors, etc. The caskets themselves were a series fo 26 red lacquered nanmu boxes. The largest held the emperor, who was flanked by two smaller boxes holding his empresses. There were also three stone thrones as well as some porceleain vases. The info board said the other boxes held their possessions. Jade objects were also found in between the boxes. The place was much like the pyramids in that there was really no decoration inside. Nothing on the walls or on the floors. The two huge stone doors at either end of the tombs had some decoration but not much.

And what goes down, must come up. We climbed those stairs again to the surface into the sunlight. My feet were starting to really drag a bit, we had done so much walking. I was ready to snooze in the car on the way back.

But there was more walking to be done. My friend's son and his girlfriend were in Beijing, so we all walked to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. I very much appreciated being able to order wine without the restaurant being attached to a hotel like they have to be in Dubai. It still seemed rather surreal to be ordering Italian in Beijing, but it was actually very good. And tomorrow, we get up early for a short flight out to Xi'An to see the terracotta warriors!

Wednesday November 9

We got up at an ungodly hour to catch a taxi to the airport. We'd managed to find the address in Chinese on my friend's IPod app, but it didn't mention terminals. Through a series of hand gestures we managed to communicate which terminal we needed to go to. The flight to Xi'an was uneventful, which is always pleasant. Our guide met us the the airport. Her English was very good, which was very helpful. We had our own guide, as well as our own transport. It's worth the money, trust me. When you're in a tour group of 20 people, you just don't get as much out of the experience. Anyway, while driving out of Xi'An, she booked us a table at a local venue for a dumpling banquet and traditional performance. It sounded like a tourist trap, but the brochure looked interesting. They did the required stop at a "factory" to show us how the terracotta warriors were made. They were actually making reproductions, using molds. The body and the head were separate molds, with all of the detail being carved by hand after the large pieces were formed. Of course, we were then led out onto the factory floor where we could buy a reproduction varying in size from a diminutive 4 inches to life size. We opted out of those and hopped back in the van.

The warriors are right where they were found by that farmer back in the 70's. They built the museum around the excavation. There were originally 7000 of them, created from molds over a period of 37 years. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Hans rebelled and smashed them all except for one which is the kneeling archer that appears in so many descriptions about the warriors.

There are actually three pits. One contains the main army, of which they've reconstructed many of the soldiers from the pieces. Each on has a different face. The details on the armour indicate what kind of soldier is represented. Behind the soldiers, you can actually see piles of pieces with a horse torso sticking out here and a wagon well laying over there. Each soldier had been holding a weapon, but the wooden handles rotted away. The bronze pieces are on display in the museum but I couldn't get really good pictures of those.

In the other two pits are officers and generals. Apparently if their shoes are really pointy and they have a lot of knots on their armour, it's a high ranking officer or general. They call the pot belly a "general's belly" because they were fed so well.

It took so many years and so much work to build them. I was struck by the resemblance to Egyptian burials where the pharoahs took representations and actual objects that they possessed in life which they wanted to take with them into the afterlife. The Emperor's burial mound lays unexcavated a few miles away. It's gigantic. There are schools of thought of what lays inside. What I had read suggests that the ceiling of the tomb is covered in gemstones representing different constellations. The Emperor himself supposedly lies in the middle in a suit of jade armour. He's surrounded by a river of mercury. Maybe one day they'lle excavate it and we'll find out.

After seeing the terracotta warriors, we drove back into Xi'An to see the Wild Goose Pagoda and Temple. Xi'An is home to a scant 8 million people, so it's rather open and spacious compared to Beijing. The temple is actually still in use by monks. Buddhists come to pray and make offerings.



This temple had just been renovated. I found it refreshing to visit a temple still in use and not located on top of a mountain up a couple hundred steps. One of the temples had wall art inlaid with different colors of jade depicting the life of Buddha. I hadn't realized jade came in so many colors. Our guide was really very helpful and informative. She asked us a lot of questions about life in Dubai, and it blew her mind that pork was hard to come by.

After oohing and ahhing over the temples beautiful walls and statues, our guide took us to our hotel to rest up a bit before dinner. We'd been on the move since early morning, so I was very glad to sit for a bit. She got us a very nice room overlooking the bell tower in downtown Xi'An. We watched a bit of TV, but since it's all in Chinese we didn't understand anything going on. So we did our own voice overs. What looked to be an early Jet Li movie became a story about a man who stole the last box of Clorox and the drug kingpin was pissed because he couldn't bleach his shirts. So there.

I was highly looking forward to dinner. I hadn't been able to have dumplings at all because they were all premade with MSG. Our lovely guide had called ahead to make sure it would not be a problem. When we got there, she double checked with the manager and the servers to be sure none of our food would have MSG. Bless her little heart. She even got us a table in the balcony. Like I figured, bus loads of tourists began to arrive, but it was still a neat thing. We were served steamer after steamer of cute little dumplings made to look like the filling inside. I loved the shape of the fish dumplings. And we were indeed treated to a show full of traditional music, song, and dance. Loved it!



Thursday November 10

We had some free time in the morning, so we visited the Muslim Quarter in Xi'An. Those alley ways seem to go on for miles. It's like a labyrinth or rabbit warren, with little shops and people selling street food off carts. It's mostly a lot of knock offs and crappy souvenirs. It's not that bad in the morning, when they're just opening. We nipped into a tea shop because my friend wanted a tea set for her mom and I wanted to get some tea. Things are certainly cheaper outside Beijing. We ran into quite a hard salesperson. She was a tough nut. We pulled the old "we're walking away" trick after offering our last price and she let us get halfway down the street before she folded. It was like playing chicken, seeing who was going to give in first. There were lots of interesting (not scary) street foods that I had no clue what they were, but our guide had told us that the food wasn't clean and not to eat any of it. That sounded like a good warning so we looked with our eyes and not with our hands. I did notice quite a few people staring at us, then I realized that we were the only Westerners around. Yeah, we looked like a couple of circus elephants I'm sure.

 

Our trip is drawing to an end. We felt the need for coffee. The Chinese are more of a tea culture, but coffee shops are starting to pop up, as are tons of McDonald's, KFC, Baskin RObbins, and Haagen Daaz. We stopped in at a Starbucks for a holiday coffee, because many of the holiday flavours aren't available in Dubai. My chocolate cherry mocha was fantabulous. I am all for the spread of coffee culture.

 

Our guide helped us check out of our hotel. Our last stop was to check out the wall that surrounds central Xi'An which is the oldest part of the city. The wall was built by the Ming Dynasty six hundred years ago. None of the buildings within the wall are allowed to be taller than the Wild Goose Pagoda. Anthing right near the wall has to maintain the look of old Xi'An. It makes for quite a moving picture, I think. Our guide helped us rent bikes so we could ride along the wall. She told us it would be about a two and a half hour ride, but those bikes were so old and rusty I didn't think we'd make it all the way around. It was cool, the air was crisp, and the views were wonderful. The bike made the experience just a little painful because it was creaky and the seat could not be adjusted, so we turned around about halfway around the wall.

After our morning ride, our guide walked with us a bit around the wall, explaining that the wall in maintained every year and renovated quite frequently. She was a nice girl. She talked about growing up in Xi'An and going to university, and how she wasn't a big fan of huge cities like Beijing. I had to agree with her there; the noise and pollution get to me after awhile.

We took a short flight back to Beijing. Funnily enough, we got a taxi right away and were back at our friend's apartment in no time. Which was a good thing because we were both exhausted. We ordered pizza from one of the few places we knew spoke English and called it a night.

Friday November 11

Our last day in Beijing, we went with our friend to her school. Of course, comparing it to our own school could not be avoided. They have a lovely campus, with traditional Chinese gardens, an Olympic size pools, and huge playgrounds. They have new computers in their rooms, and their library makes our look like a closet. The teachers are mostly British and Australian, but their student population is actually international whereas ours is more local. It's such a different atmosphere with boys in the classroom as well. They do lend a different energy to the place. We got to observe a lesson in the kindergarten and even got hands on with the first grade ESL class. I almost missed having boys in the classroom. Almost. My god, their school grounds are gorgeous, with trees and a lake. The high school is spacious, with a little stream that winds through the first floor. They give their students so much more freedom than in our school or even in our schools at home in the US. That's a lot of trust they place in their students.

In the afternoon, we went back to the art district 798 to do a little more shopping and take some pictures. That evening when our friend got home, we headed out to Ghost Street for dinner. It's a long street of tons of restaurants. It looks like a ghost town during the day because nothing opens until dinner, and when we got there it was teeming with people. We headed to one of our friend's favorite restaurants. We passed lots of hawkers trying to get us into their restaurants. There's certainly a lot of competition with so many restaurants in one place. Luckily, there was an English language person on staff who understood my issue with MSG. He was able to check with the kitchen and see what I could eat. And oh, did we eat! We had Beijing duck, which you eat wrapped up in a little wonton wrapper with some slices of guava and melon with a nice sauce. We tried toffee'd bananas, much like the toffee'd sweet potatoes we'd had earlier in the week. I braved a little lemon chicken, even though I knew it had MSG in it. While we were eating, there were a variety of acts going on a little stage at the front of the restaurant. There were a couple of little girls doing acrobatics, a man who juggled plates, and a magician doing slight of hand. I always like dinner with a show :) Still, one of the best shows was the view of the street with all of the lanterns lit for the evening.



Later on, our friend's driver came to take us to the airport for the long trip back to Dubai. We had quite a bit more luggage than when we first arrived because we'd purchased a few souvenirs. My one friend practically bought all of China. The wonderful man managed to fit all of it in the car, and even helped us make it to the check in counter at the airport. He told us to call him if we come back to China :)

 

It was such an amazing trip, one of those life experiences that you'll never forget. I can now say that I've seen the Forbidden City up close and personal, and walked on the Great Wall. I've seen the modern city of Beijing, and meandered where the Ming Dynasty used to live. I've seen some truly bizarre food, and tasted some of the best Chinese food that I will ever have (though you never can tell ;) For the most part, the Chinese seem pretty cool, polite, and going about their business just like everyone else. And then there are the Chinese that are still working the fields with their hands and scraping by, so though at first glance China seems like it has it all together but scratch under the surface and you'll see it's not altogether true. I think if I were to go back, I would really like to see more outside the cities, the rolling plains where the Mongols lived, the countryside, rivers, and mountains. I'm not a city girl, and would like to see more natural wonders.

 

Who knows? Maybe I'll go back someday.

 

Maybe you'll come with me :)

One month down, nine to go!

This post is fueled by chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and wine...

September went fast. I'm trying to keep busy so that the time flies, and it certainly is. I am working out almost every day, cooking, going out on odd little adventures (like shooting at Sharjah shooting range), and of course school is keeping me on my toes. I keep trying to plan things to look forward to. There are big things, like going to China in November and going home in December. But it's the little things that keep the weeks rolling, like going out for dim sum or Lebanese with the girls or hanging with friends on the roof by the pool.

School. I have mixed feelings about it. I like my coworkers (most of them, anyway), and for the most part I like my students. They're challenging at times, but no where near the kind of challenge that is presented in today's American classrooms. I don't have to worry about kids stripping off their clothes and running around the building, throwing desks at me, rioting, or cursing me out. Which has all happened to me before.

Our bureaucratic, micro-managing administrators make it tough. They decreased my department's staff by one person, and yet our rosters have increased over 30% since last year. They've raised the cap on the class sizes; some teachers don't have enough desks or text books. Why? It's a for-profit organization, that's why. It sticks in my throat more and more as they accept students who require so much assistance and yet support services is stretched to the limit already. It's tuition, it's money, an unlike the states the schools here are not required to provide any special services. We're one of the top providers for students with special needs, and yet we're still limited.

Still, for all that we bitch about our administration, it can't be denied that we are the highest paid school in our organization, with one of the best benefits packages in the UAE. Ergo, bitching is a natural part of my job. It's actually in italics in my job description, I'm certain.

I have friends here, and some of them are pretty good friends. There are a few that I can talk to about almost anything. Still, they're not like my friends at home. I get homesick periodically, and tend to drink wine, listen to Tori Amos, and blog about it... It's hard being surrounded by women all the time. I think I've pretty much decided that this is the one and only time I will be working with an all female staff. There need to be men there to balance out all this estrogen!

People are already talking about their plans for next year. Some of the staff that thought they would continue on next year are on the fence because their new teaching partners are crazy. A few of my really good friends are looking to move on. I go back and forth about it myself, and every time I start thinking about it I get all muddled. Financially, economically, it would make sense for me to stay here a third year. I would come home with a nice nest egg, more teaching experience, and would hopefully have sated my travel bug for awhile. It certainly doesn't look like the economy at home is getting any better. The baby boomers who were supposed to retire aren't, thanks to cuts in pensions, losses like Fannie Mae, etc. I read about school districts cutting back all over the place; I don't want to come home without either a job lined up or enough money to float me until I can find one.

Personally, it's complicated. I miss people so much. This is not the kind of place that is accepting of a rum drinking, fantasy/ sci fi/ steampunk loving pirate. I have to live that part of my life online via Facebook and try not to let the nerd in me out in public. Still, I do have some good friends here, good people. I know my friends at home are supportive of me and my choices, which I can't tell you how much that means to me.

There are lots of things I wish...

So here I sit, on the fence, with the song "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now" looping endlessly in my head. Trying to keep busy, dealing with whatever bureaucratic nonsense comes along, savoring my little adventures and looking forward to the next big ones.

Love you lots.

There and Back Again, Oh Boy

We finished school on June 30th. I was so done, I cannot even tell you. I practically booted those girls out the door. I had ten days to cool my heels afterwards, which in hindsight wasn't really necessary. I wanted some down time in between when school ended and when I left Dubai, but ten days was a bit of an overkill. Wore my pajamas most of the day, played with the cat, watched cartoons, etc. I did "kitten proof" the apartment, however, which has proven a wise choice. The cat was dropped off at the kennel for a week until a friend came home, then she was delivered back to the apartment so the friend could take care of her.

I have never travelled for extended periods on my own. I was scared, to tell the truth. But then again, you should do things you're afraid of so there are less things to fear in the future. I was constantly catching myself avoiding things I was afraid of, and I got into the habit of marching myself straight back to whatever it was (like the big train station in Rome). So on July 10th, I rolled out to the sandpit early in the morning with my suitcase to meet the taxi. I flew out at 9am, and by noon was landing in Heathrow for a couple hours' layover. Man alive! That is one busy airport. Tons of people, and the airport security there are just as persnickety as those in Philly. Another flight, and around 10pm I landed in Rome. It took forever to get my bags, and when I went through security the guys just waved me through. They were quite engrossed in their cappucino and cell phones to really care who was walking through that late at night. At this point I was really quite glad that I had read up about the taxis, because no sooner did I walk out into the arrivals hall than some guy came up and tried to get me to ride in his taxi promising a "special price". No thanks, man. I'll take the legal cabs with the meters. Easy enough, and again thankful that I had thought to print out my hotel's address so I could show the cab driver.

That night went a bit topsy turvy when I was checking in because I found that I had "misplaced" my passport. No big deal, I thought, since I had a copy and it was bound to be in my bag somewhere. Um, yeah. No. It wasn't. Anywhere. I damn near fainted. The kind man who worked the 24 hour reception then began to call each cab company to see if a passport was found. Just as I was getting ready to cry, a bunch of girls came in asking if anyone had lost a passport. They had found it in the street in front of the hotel. It had fallen out of my pocket when I got out of the taxi. I thanked everyone profusely, and went back to my room promising myself that my passport would never be more than a few inches away ever again. Sheesh.

The next day, I had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. The Hotel Colors is just that, very colorful. Nice location, clean, air conditioned; I highly recommend it. After breakfast, I meandered down to St. Peter's. I really had no plans. I left the day open, going where I felt like it. The walls around St. Peter's are very high and very long, so I just followed the crowds. The square isn't as big as people think. I actually thought it much smaller than I expected. Bernini's statues surround it, looking down on the square and the fountains. The obelisk stands in the center like a monumental "You are HERE" sign. It was at that moment, looking around St. Peter's in the early morning sun, that I said to myself "Holy cow, Eea, you're in ROME!" That thought alone was mind altering.

I wandered around St. Peter's for a bit, then jumped one of the open top buses for a tour. I wanted to get a lay of the land. The buses run all over Rome, so as I rode I made note of the places I wanted to go back to. I knew I would see most of the key sites on the tours I had booked, so I really just wanted to see what else was out there. I spotted some places, and was having a good old time listening to the audio tour. When I got off, I realized how hot it actually was. I had been on the bus for almost two hours, and had darn near roasted alive. I was dehydrated and downed a bottle of Gatorade like it was going out of style. I was sweating so much that my clothes were drenched. I dragged myself back to the hotel, stopping to grab a panino sandwich and drink on the way. I took a shower and had lunch, then took a short nap. When I went out again, I made sure to grab a water bottle.

A word about water: It's everywhere in Rome. Some of those old Roman aqueducts are still in use. Water from the Alps flows down and straight through Rome. You can drink it straight from the tap, and it flows through most of the fountains in Rome. There are fountains everywhere, some just metal faucets sticking up out of the ground while others are decorative marble. It flows constantly, clear and cold. I didn't buy bottled water once while in Rome. The fountain water was clean and tasted good.

We passed under an aqueduct.

The next day I took a train out to the Colisseum for my first tour. Even at 8am, there was a line forming outside. By 8:30 when my tour started, there was at least two hundred people in line. July is a busy month for tourism in Rome, but May and June are the busiest. I can't even imagine that, because it already seemed like Rome was swimming in tourists. The bonus of a tour is that the tickets are pre-booked; we glided past the long lines, got our reserved tickets, and walked right into the Colisseum. BTW, there are penises scratched in at every entrance. Because there were brothels at every entrance. The biggest penis was at...guess who..the emperor's entrance. Tried to get a pic, but it was too dark.

It really was ingenious. Who you were determined where you went in and where you sat. The place filled and emptied very efficiently. The holes are still there that held the poles for the complicated awning that shaded the seats. A few sets of stairs are still intact. Since most of the floor is gone, you can see the labyrinth of rooms underneath where gladiators and animals were put on elevators and raised to the arena floor. A few years ago, some of the floor of the arena was restored so people could see what it must have looked like. They are not sure how often the Colisseum was used, perhaps a few times a year for celebrations. After the Empire fell, much of the marble and iron was taken and used for other buildings. Some medieval houses were even built into the large archways. There is still one there.

After the Colisseum, we went to the Roman Forum. We took a look at the Arch of Constantine, and wandered through old Roman houses, walking on old Roman roads. The Arch of Septimus Severus (not Snape) surprised me. I hadn't known there was another arch like Constantine's. There is also a temple that they are restoring. The columns are huge, and it still has it's original door. We had quite a good talk about how back then, the way to be remembered was to build something big that would last forever. Amazingly enough, a lot of this stuff is still around and the men who commissioned and designed them are indeed remembered.

We went on to see the church of St. Ignacio. It's not a hugely visited church, so thankfully there were no crowds. The frescoes have been there since the 15th century. Our guide explained how rich families would ensure their family's place in heaven by paying for a chapel inside a church and would hire the best painters and sculptors to decorate it. It was also a bit of a contest to see who could have the prettiest chapel. Their family members would often be depicted on the walls, and later buried in the chapel of the church in the floor. Years ago, due to health concerns, the bodies were all moved to cemeteries outside the city. There's no one left buried in the chapels. We moved on to the Trevi fountain, which was absolutely packed with people trying to toss coins in. The superstition is that if you throw a coin in over your shoulder, you are guaranteed to return to Rome some day. Yeah, I didn't feel like fighting the crowds on that one. It is a rather impressive fountain, though. From the Trevi fountain, we went to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is not as big as I thought it would be, but is still rather impressive. There is a statue of Perseus holding Medusa's head out front. Inside, there is a basilica lined with Christian statues. There previously were statues of Roman gods, but these were long since removed. The guide made a point here: If the Christians found a use for an old monument or building, it was saved and if not it was recycled. The Pantheon survived because the Christians turned it into a church. Pure and simple. The dome of the basilica is open to the sky. When it rains, the water comes straight in. There are holes in the floor for it to drain into. Genius. We ended our tour at the Bridge of Santo Spirito in front of Castel Angelo. The bridge is lined with angels sculpted by Bernini. The castle used to be a stronghold of the Pope, and there is indeed a passage connecting it to the Vatican. The Pope still keeps apartments there.

I was so tired by that point, and yet the day wasn't over. There was still another tour that afternoon of the Vatican. I had met a very nice Chinese couple, so we went and found a pizza place for lunch. For food, the farther you get away from the main tourist areas, the better. Rome suffers from a glut of tourism, so the food near the sites is expensive and crappy. Your best bet is to head away from the tourists and down a side street where you will always find a pizzeria, trattoria, or ristorante. The pizza in Rome is a thin crust, and kind of chewy. Fresh mozzarella, sauce, and basil made it one of the best margherita pizzas I have ever had. We meandered down a bit farther and found a gelato place. The way to pick the best gelato is pretty simple, I've been told. Look at the pistachio. If it's bright green, it's mass marketed commercial stuff. If it's a nice olive color, then it's probably good quality. The other way is to look at the containers. There are tons of gelato places, and many of them have the gelato piled high in metal trays with attractive fruits on top. If it's above the tray, it's commercial. If it's in a metal container with a lid, it's homemade. Both of these tips have led me to good gelato :) I really do like the fragola (strawberry) and cioccolato fondente (dark chocolate).

I was so hot by the time we reached the Vatican. I was baking in my skull. It was over a hundred degrees and the humidity was at eighty percent. We had to race up the hill and through crowds to get to our meeting point across from the Musei Vaticano. Cripes. We did have to wait a little bit in the reserve line to get in, and no, most of it wasn't air conditioned. The Vatican has one of the most impressive art collections in the world. They even have Nero's bathtub, which is a gigantic red stone basin in which he was bathed with oils. The Romans didn't bathe in water, they just sat in it to relax. We saw the statue of Apollo which Michelangelo studied before he made the David. We saw huge tapestries commissioned by Raphael to be made from a series of his paintings. A couple hundred years ago, one of the Popes commissioned the army to go out and survey the land to make accurate topographical maps and measure the land. It was done with the most basic of tools, but is almost as accurate as a topographical map today. I was trying so hard to pay attention to our guide. He was a theologian, of all things. He had a doctorate from LaSalle, and being a theologian had an interesting perspective on the art work from a political point of view. But I was baking from the humidity. I thought I was going to faint at one point. I was seeing stars, I felt woozy, but was determined not to be the American that fainted in the Vatican that day. After the Vatican Museum, we went into St. Peter's. They happened to be having mass, and the sound traveled into every corner of the building. I saw Michelangelo's Pieta, hidden behind six inches of bulletproof glass. Because, believe it or not, some years ago some crackpot did take a shot at it. There is indeed a great sadness in her face, but also a look of acceptance. It's amazing to see such emotion conveyed in marble. Near the main basilica, there was a really creepy looking chapel with a winged skeleton whom I can only interpret as death. There was also what looked to be like a saint entombed in glass (too dark, couldn't get a picture). The size of the church itself is awe-inspiring, with huge columns and frescoes. You're literally standing inside a piece of Catholic history.

The next morning, I hopped a train to Florence. I was lucky, the Gypsy who scammed me by pretending to be a nice guy leading me to my train only scammed me out of ten euros and was kind enough to put me on the right train. Note to self: never look confused when traveling alone. When I got to Florence, I got a bit of a shock when the hotel told me that they overbooked and transferred me to another hotel twenty minutes away with no air conditioning, no soap, no bottle of water even. Was a step up from a hostel. Well, one can cry about these things and let them ruin their trip or you can move on despite little setbacks. The bus stop was nearby and was just a short jaunt into the city center. I crossed the Ponte Vecchio and was amazed by all of the little jewelry shops. When they close, their storefronts close up like jewelry boxes. They aren't original, but that look has been kept from the 15th century. The Ponte Vecchio is the only bridge in Florence to have survived WWII. The others were all blown to smithereens. I quickly found my tour company's office and set off on a tour of the Uffizi Gallery. There were paintings there that I had only ever seen in art history books...and I was seeing them for real. Gentileschi, Raphael, Giotto, so many of the masters all in one place. With no air conditioning. So hard to concentrate when you're melting. After a brisk walk back to the tour office, I launched onto another tour to the Accademia Gallery to see The David by Michelangelo, one of the most reproduced images in history. It's so much bigger than you think it is. It was designed originally to be displayed from the top of the Duomo at the center of Florence, but it was instead put outside the public building. It's almost nine feet tall. David's hands and feet are massive. The whole piece was carved from one piece of flawed marble. Michelangelo wanted to show how good he was by producing a masterpiece from a piece of marble that two other sculptors had cut into but deemed unfit. I had seen the piece that Michelangelo had studied before making David, and could see the connections. Amazing. Simply amazing. Our lovely tour guide had also suggested a place to try granita, a kind of Italian shaved ice, so of course I had to try it as I walked back from the Accademia. Granita is like shaved ice, but a zillion times better. It is made from real fruit, I don't know how. There are real pieces of fruit in there, and it tastes like someone froze that fruit at its freshest, ground it up, and put it in a cup. I had plum and pink grapefruit, and it tasted like fresh fruit. I should have gotten a second cup. Instead, I headed over to a very nice cafe and ate in a slow and luxurious fashion, people watching and musing at the Gypsies fleecing the crowd with their beggars' cups. Bruschetta, prosecco, pasta, and cafe latte made such a lovely meal. Leisurely, very much enjoyed. And expensive. But gosh darn it, I was in Italy to see art...and to EAT GOOD FOOD! LOL

The next day, I hopped the bus to the city center once more and got a lovely pastry that I can't even name as I walked down the road to the tour office. Love those pasticcherias, full of baked goodness. I don't even know what most of it is, just look for what's yummy looking and say "Uno, per favore". That morning's tour took me around the city, looking at old medieval buildings dating back to the 12th to 15th centuries, and little holes in the sides of palatial buildings that one would pass a wine bottle through, get it filled, and passed back out. We need some of those! The winding streets are shaded and narrow, cobbled neatly and barely wide enough for cars to pass through. After the morning tour, I got a sandwich and some kind of apricot cookie for lunch and meandered over to the Palazzo Pitti. I wanted to see the Boboli gardens as they had been recommended to me by a friend who had been there. It was worth the nine euros to get in. The palace is gigantic, having been the home of the Medici family. The palace opens up to a large courtyard dominated by a Renaissance fountain. Behind the fountain are a pond, winding paths and steps leading up to a statue of Apollo. Once you hoof all the way up to the top of the garden, you can see all of Florence. The Medici's had the best view. To the right and left of the garden are grottoes, statues, and two guest houses. It was quite hot, but the view was worth it. I ate at a different cafe that evening, starting with bruschetta (again because I love it), and taglianelli with cubed ham, followed by caffe latte with a slice of millefioglie (sp?) which is layers of puff pastry with rich chocolate filling topped with powdered sugar and cocoa. Oh my god, it was lovely. More crowd watching, this time with the added bonus of watching a swaggering hot Italian man charm the knickers off two American girls who were just lapping it up. Ten euros says he was a gigolo, the way he was working those two with flamboyant flattery.

I trotted out to Florence early the next morning for one of the best parts of my trip, a sojourn out to Tuscany for a winery tour and visits to medieval towns. Wow, it looks just like the post cards. Tall skinny pines, rolling hills topped with medieval towns, and fields of sunflowers. I met a rather awesome family of Aussies. They were such a pleasant bunch, very friendly. We got lucky at the winery. They had had a wedding the evening before and had popped open a few bottles of their best red, Brunello. They don't usually offer it for tasting, but they gave us glasses since it was open. I'm not a red fan, but it was smooth and velvety with a full flavor but not overly tangy. Excellent. We hopped over to San Gimmignano, with it's tall 11th century towers, and then to Montereggione with its population of 72. Montereggione used to be a lookout for the Florentines; if they came a-marching, someone from Montereggione would ride to Siena to warn them. Ah, the time of the city states. We ended in the winding streets of Siena, where we saw the piazza where the Palio horse race takes place every year. I took some pictures of the neighborhood heraldry, of which there are fourteen. Everyone is said to be quite loyal to where they grew up there. I wish I could have sat down with a glass of wine to take it in, but that's the down side to a tour. But I saw way more than I would have had I tried to do it all myself.

I went back to Rome for one more day of snooping. I ended up at the Da Vinci museum. I looked at his sketchbooks and just longed to be able to sit down with a cup of coffee and peruse them. Alas, I had to make due with just a few of them on display, open to interesting pages. The recreations of some of the things in his sketches were quite interesting, and again I was reminded of the man's genius and foresight. The self-propelled wagon guided by a rudder was amazing. His war machines were just...nasty. Like the one with the scythes attached to the wheels to basically chop men at the waist as it drove past. Yowza. I found his underwater breathing apparatus fantastic. It was like he looked into the future and saw what it should look like.

The next morning, I said goodbye to Italy and headed off to England. I was enthusiastically met by my friend from Dubai, the music teacher. She and her friend picked me up in Manchester, and then we took an unplanned trip into Wales. Yeah, we were yapping so much we totally were not paying attention to the road signs. Whoops.

 England was refreshing. It was cool (think low 70's), green, and fresh. It was so nice to be out in the countryside after the dryness of Dubai and the hustle and bustle of Rome. Fields of green, old English farm houses, and country roads. That's what I loved. Rose bushes, and fresh lavender. Pots of colorful pansies hanging from pub window sills. Liverpool was neat as well. We meandered in to see the new Liverpool museum, literally a museum about Liverpool. Stuff about the Liverpudlians who had gone off to war, about the Beatles, and there was even a huge picture of Lister from Red Dwarf :) We perused the Albert Docks, visited the Tate Gallery, and had fresh crepes by the waterfront. We also enjoyed a fresh farmhouse lunch one day at a lavender farm. I don't know what I loved better, the smell of fresh lavender or the juicy slices of English ham and fried eggs with hot tea. We also went out to a nature preserve to watch for birds...who all took the day off. Still, it was a lovely walk. I swore, Ewoks were peeking out at us from behind fallen logs.

My friend and her mum were lovely hosts. I stayed on her mum's houseboat, which was often frequented by a pair of swans and their children as well as a host of ducks. The boat rocked ever so gently, so I slept rather well. I was taught how to make a proper cup of tea, or proper enough that it passed inspection. It's very important, I am told, to place the tea bag in first, add the hot water, but don't remove the tea bag before the milk is added. That way, if it's not the right color once the milk is added, then the tea bag can stay in a bit longer. Who knew?



It was really a marvelous summer. After England, I jetted home and tried to see as many people as I could in a short space of time. I found out that a month really isn't as long as I thought. I also found that we can fit way more people in that back area in Micheal's than I thought. I was thrilled to spend time with so many friends and family. I got some quality time with my cousins and nieces, as well as some good pictures which will be going on my wall in Dubai. I didn't get to see everyone or do everything that I wanted to, but I think I did pretty well :) Thank you all so much for spending time with me while I was home. It was so good to see everyone. Pennsic was marvelous this year, though a bit tiring. Who knew that one could actually over-party?! Wow. Underpaaaaaaaannnnttts!!! Flip cup for your soul! Woot! I think it was definitely one of the best Pennsics I have ever had.

I started to get a bit down a few days before I had to leave. Perhaps I had too good of a time at home. Still, I made the long trek back. Damn, why do people have to fly with small children? Can't they just ship them? Let's just say no one slept on the flight from Heathrow to Dubai, mkay? Sheesh. I've been back now for a week. Took a day or two to remember the controls in the Dubai car vs. the US car. Had to do some serious cleaning. The cat chewed holes in the lining of my chaise. Couldn't blame her, though, she'd been very lonely. There were pieces of my wall stickers everywhere, though I managed to salvage my "Release the Kraken" sticker ;) And just general dusting, cleaning, etc. I got back at 1am on Monday, was out at 9am with the new hires to take them shopping and drive them around. Jumped back in with both feet! That's the way. Going to make sure I have plans, things to look forward to. That will make the time to Christmas go faster :)


And the question hangs over my head: Do I stay or do I go now?

To be continued...