December 2011
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April 2011
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Closing Ceremonies
After so many busy museums and galleries, we spent Tuesday with an American guide who showed us some of his favorite neighborhoods. We probably walked more today than any other day, but it was noticeably more mellow without the stress of navigating the touristy attractions.
After learning some Parisian history, we had falafel sandwiches — the guide kept bragging that Lenny Kravitz ate...
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Productive Tourist
I love cities that are easy to get around. We’ve figured out how to use the metro and the city has nice big sidewalks, so we are covering lots of ground.
I can’t say I learned anything new at the military museum, but I really enjoyed hearing the World War II story from a French perspective. I wasn’t surprised that the role of France in the war was emphasized (and maybe a little...
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First Impressions
After a “weather delay” in Chicago and a redirection through London (home of my future wife) I finally met my family in Paris on a beautiful Friday afternoon. They were eager to wine and dine me the moment I arrived.
That night I had the best meal of the week: cheese, baguette, and pastries. I thought I knew a little bit about cheese, baguette, and pastries before coming to France....
February 2011
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December 2010
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June 2010
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Too Much History
The Victoria and Albert Museum is incredible. It is enormous, and every room is impressive. You could spend a week there and not see the entire museum. The Winston Churchill Museum was okay, but the highlight of that visit happened after I exited and I found a perfect English gentleman sitting outside, bowler cap and all. I wanted to pick him up and hug him.
Next stop was an old operating...
May 2010
3 posts
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Where's the Gravy?
My favorite British food is Indian food. It is so good, and it is everywhere. I had Indian three or four times this week and it was all delicious. Traditional British food, on the other hand, is merely… eatable. It seems to come in pairs: fish & chips or bangers & mash. It’s all pub food, and frankly I would prefer the nuts at some of the pubs to the food.
The pubs are great...
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The Day Love Died
Love Never Dies is the sequel to my favorite musical, the Andrew Lloyd Webber masterpiece Phantom of the Opera. To my dismay (but not my surprise) it was a complete disaster.
Let’s start with the music. The best songs in the entire show are the ones from the original. The new music is modified carnival music, which makes sense because the play takes place on Coney Island. I only remember...
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January 2010
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Confluence Point
Spending my first full winter in St. Louis has been a good experience. I have learned that winter is like Chinese food. My favorite Chinese restaurants serve a highly Americanized version of Chinese food, while authentic Chinese food terrifies me. In the same way that a Chinese customer would scoff at what I call good Chinese food, a Midwesterner would laugh at a San Francisco winter. So I...
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October 2009
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America by Road
The drive from San Francisco to St. Louis was amazing. We met up with Ken before we left to discuss taking a scenic route, which was priceless. On the road, we covered 2,463 miles over four days and saw 44 state plates traveling across California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri.
Our first diversion from the main route was to take Route 50 through Nevada. This road is known as...
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September 2009
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Los Angeles
With no job prospects and nothing to do, I decided to spend a few days in Los Angeles this week. Wednesday turned out to be a highlight of my life. I finally spent a day at Disneyland.
Within moments of entering California Adventure, a High School Musical parade began. Soon after, Victoria and I were hugging Minnie and Mickey. I was proudly wearing my first-timer pin, and an employee...
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Hoover Wilderness
My high school has a great outings department, and this weekend I got a call asking if I would be available to help lead a trip to the Hoover Wilderness near Yosemite. Without hesitation, I postponed my road trip to Los Angeles and started packing. There were six students, one teacher, and a dog on the trip, and it was a great group.
Once we distributed the group gear and ate lunch, we started...
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August 2009
4 posts
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Departure
The last week was a lot of hard work, but I actually really enjoyed it. We packed up the tables early, so we are our meals sitting in a circle on the ground. The last night together was one of my favorite of the summer. We had big plans to go out drinking and dancing, but it was a Sunday night, and the bars were dead. After dinner we walked down the street looking for something to do, and the most...
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Breakdown
The summer has come to a close. I sailed a thousand miles around the Caribbean and trained a dozen new rescue divers. I have new friends from around the world, including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Sweden. All the boats have returned, and most of the staff has left. Those of us who remain are in charge of breakdown. Every piece of equipment, from the air compressors to the...
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The Return
My second voyage has come to a close, which means it’s time to enjoy my first beer in two months and some sleep before embarking on the long sail from St. Lucia to St. Martin. I can’t take motion sickness drugs because they will make me drowsy for my graveyard shifts at the helm, so I am dreading the 50-hour nausea that I have to look forward to. I baked some biscuits this morning so I...
July 2009
5 posts
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The Thing
We dove the underwater sculptures at the end of the first trip, so this group got to dive them at the beginning of the trip. We spent a few days at the site because one of the girls needed to spend a few days at the nearby hospital, so we explored the bay thoroughly. On one of the night dives, I had a crazy nightmare moment.
We were exploring the creepy sculpture garden, and I looked to my right...
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A Day Off
Our days off between trips have been lots of fun. We got some much needed rest, ate some decent food, played dominoes, and even found time for a dive. We were looking for a wrecked cruise ship, but the visibility wasn’t great. We descended 120 feet into the deep blue, which was exciting, then explored a little bit unsuccessfully before surfacing.
The site was three miles off the coast of...
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Spice Island
The first program is winding down. We have arrived at our final island, Grenada, known as “the spice island” for all the spices grown here. Today we visited a spice plantation and sampled some nutmeg, cocoa, cinnamon, and cloves. It has been a busy week since the last update, so I will get right into it.
We spent a few days at Tobago Cays doing rescue diver skills. Supposedly, we...
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Grenadines
On a long sail in the middle of the night, I glanced upward to try to keep myself awake and serendipitously found the sky. It was amazing. Stars actually twinkle when there is no pollution or city lights around. I could see the Milky Way like I was in a planetarium. There are too many shooting stars to count. If it weren’t for the periodic mist of the waves, I could have mistaken the boat...
June 2009
5 posts
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Life on Water
After 50 straight hours on the open sea, I have learned that I am not a sailor. I was seasick half the trip, and asleep for the other half, but it was quite an experience. Kristen, Daniel and I took shifts on watch for three hours on, six hours off around the clock.
The shifts in the middle of the night are brutal. I only had my music to keep me company, and it was a battle to stay awake. It...
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Back for More
Today as I was scrubbing rust off a sink at the pad, a fellow dive instructor asked me, “how do you like being here, doing this, with a college degree in neuroscience?” I thought about it, and all I could say is that the “being here” makes the “doing this” tolerable.
The Caribbean is still beautiful, and the pad is still a tortuous residence. Instead of living...
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The Places
Japan is full of interesting architecture, with beautiful temples, shrines, and palaces. I was very glad to see some of the traditional Japanese tourist sites, but also excited to spend some time among actual Japanese people. It was an interesting dichotomy to compare Japanese life then and now.
The Shogun castle we visited was huge. The castle itself is surrounded by two moats, between which...
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The Food
Maybe it’s a good thing that I am not very adventurous when it comes to exotic foods, because otherwise this post would be endless. Japan is full of weird food. Things that aren’t actually food, but that they insist on eating. But for every gross fermented bean sushi roll, there is something delicious to balance. For my sake, I will stick to describing the good memories.
The first...
May 2009
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The People
I love Japanese people. This is such a fun and interesting society to visit because of the people. There are aspects of the Japanese that I really admire, as well as some aspects that make me laugh, but in the end this is a culture that I respect very much. I am no anthropologist, but here are a few observations that stand out to me.
I always thought that holding up a peace sign was limited to...
Transportation
Getting around Japan has been a cultural experience. We spend most of the days walking, and we have been very lucky to have beautiful weather all week. The major complication with transportation by foot is knowing where to go, and we never really perfected the art. A map is only useful if you can read street names or you know the landmarks, neither of which apply to us. Tokyo was crowded and a...
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The Bow
I think my favorite cultural difference in Japan has to be the bowing. People here bow to anyone and anything, all the time. I find myself bowing periodically, and I hope the habit sticks.
The first bow I witnessed was at the airport when a bus pulled up to the sidewalk. Some luggage handlers who had been working nearby dropped what they were doing to meet the bus at the sidewalk, and bow. They...
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The Language
As soon as we landed in Japan, the first thing that hit me was the language barrier. Ever since arriving, communication has been a source of amusement as much as it has been an obstacle. I was delighted that one of the first signs I saw in the airport read: “Under construction. It wishes understanding to be cooperation.” If reading Engrish amused me this much, I was in for a treat when...
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April 2009
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August 2008
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The Pad
Welcome to the conclusion of my summer journey. I flew in last night and thought that maybe you would like to hear about the final third of my trip before I head off to school. So here is what I have been up to for the last two weeks.
After getting off of the boat that I lived on for the first three weeks, my new home was the Caribbean headquarters for the company that I was doing my internship...
July 2008
2 posts
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The Internship
We last spoke after a sail from St. Maarten to St. Barths, so this tale begins where we left off. The longest sail of the trip was a full day from St. Barths to Nevis. It was a long day, but we passed the time with activities ranging from throwing up to riding the tramp, which is the net that stretches between the port and starboard hulls of the catamaran. The sea was so rough that the entire bow...
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St. Barths
I am about a week and a half into my scuba trip, and I have finally found internet access, but unfortunately I only brought $10 to the cafe, which will last me about half an hour. So I will be brief and cross my fingers that my next trip onto land will be less expensive. Oh and please excuse my typing difficulties because I am working on a French keyboard and I don’t know what any of these...
August 2007
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