back to the fatherland part 2

as all of you know, (or should know) i lived in garmisch, germany for nearly three years after i graduated from uni..host of the 1936 winter olympics, garmisch is also part of the munich candidacy for the 2018 winter olympics..town residents have mixed feelings about possibly hosting the ski events of the 2018 olympics..my last visit in 2007 was only 2 nights, not nearly long enough..this time, i was grateful for more days..i took the train from the munich airport, arriving on a BEAUTIFUL clear night..the moon was bright, the snow on the surrounding mountains was glowing..nights like those make me wonder why i ever left..garmisch is an incredibly beautiful town, in the middle of the alps..
my friends jamie and helmut hosted me, they are fantastic people..jamie originally moved there about a month after i first moved there, helmut is originally from garmisch..i was thrilled to be able to spend some time with both of them, they're amazing..before arriving in garmisch i had hoped to do a couple hikes, but after seeing the snow on the mountains, i knew that wouldn't be happening..darnit..
i got to see my cousin bryn a couple times, he works there now..he even has one of the same bosses i did when i worked there! go figure that i end up seeing so many family members while not in the states!..i got to see friends like ron and rhue, who have lives so very different from when i lived there..their lives may be different, but they're clearly so happy, yay!! i got to see my friend bo, who has recently received his italian citizenship, something he's been working toward for years and years..he's a cook, totally awesome..i got to see jill, who recently left afrc, YAHOOOOOO!!!! the company never treated her nearly as well as they should have...not long after she left, her old boss started trying to make nice, as he realized how awesome she is..go figure..
i happened to be in germany during krumpus, my absolutely favorite fest..it takes place in berchtesgaden, 5 + 6 december each year..berchtesgaden is probably best known as being the home of the eagle's nest, hitler's safety spot in bayern..another gorgeous mountain town..the basic premise of the fest is that the krumpus are monsters who come out of the mountains to make the evil leave you..young men (ages 16-28, unmarried) from berchtesgaden dress up at monsters or haystacks with ginormous cowbells on their backs..they move around the town in packs the nights of krumpus..they carry whips, and when the mood strikes them, whip the evil out of anyone near..this isn't a well known fest, but anyone who has ever been has loved it..it's not even well known in germany, mostly only in bayern..
i went to the fest with jenn and donna and yvonne...i know jenn and donna from when i lived in garmisch previously, my recent trip through asia was with donna's sister layna..yvonne was a new friend, but we got along just fine..jenn and yvonne and donna (i think?) are training for the rome marathon, i'm excited for them..when we first arrived in berchtesgaden, we weren't able to get to our hotel because the krumpus parade was winding it's way through the town..howeva, a few minutes later the parade was over, and we were able to check in..while we were out walking through town after getting dinner we ran into other folks who live in garmisch, and i was identified as "bryn's cousin"..shouldn't he be my cousin? hee hee..back in the hotel we bundled up (it was COLD that night) and made our way out again..this year's fest wasn't as fun as in the past, but i still loved it..the packs of krumpus came through the town with their whips, we tried to avoid being whipped..those whips sting!!the girls were drinking gluhwein, i wish i had been able to join in..there were gluhwein stands in several places, they sold sausages and other stuff as well..that stuff sounds really good when you're freezing, even if you're not hungry..jenn and donna brought wine out with them, so they wouldn't have to spend so much during the evening..(this is a german fest, OF COURSE there is drinking involved:)..yvonne and i ended up calling it a night earlier than jenn and donna, and made our way back to the hotel..i know i was so sound asleep when jenn and donna came back that i was completely unaware when they came home..(yeah yeah yeah, i know that's nothing out of the norm)..the next morning we got up and got our fill of the breakfast that was included with our room..needless to say, we (at least me) ate too much, but isn't that the fun of a breakfast buffet? a fast drive, and we were back in garmisch...
my last night in town, i went to dinner with helmut and jamie at their every other monday stammtisch (sp?)..a local restaurant, totally bayerisch..jill, bo, and bo's flatmates cj and cj's wife..cj is originally from calgary, his accent totally reminds me of another calgary friend..eerie how identical they sound..anywho..
the next day i had lunch with cousin bryn and cousin tyra..tyra was making her way back to the states from a semester studying in athens..her way back to the states was as complicated as my way back to my hometown each time i return..not too long after lunch i hopped on the train and made my way back to the munich airport, saying goodbye to one of my favourite places on the planet..

moldova

from warsaw i started the long trip to get to moldova..it's a LOT cheaper to fly to bucharest (the capital of romania) and take a bus or train to chisenau (the capital of moldova) than it is to fly directly to chisenau..(pronounced kishenau)..so i flew into bucharest, then took a bus into the city, to the main train station..i knew there was an overnight bus to chisenau, but finding out where to get that bus wasn't all that easy..i ended up asking at several different information counters, and using a lot of charades..i ended up taking the metro to a certain stop, then hopping on a bus..all the while i was soooo thankful to complete strangers who helped me find my way..the bus dropped me off at a bus "station" where i was able to find the bus i needed..then, because the bus didn't leave for hours, i had to wait..and wait and wait and wait..but i couldn't wait inside the station, as it was being used as a polling station..late november in romania isn't warm!..i was able to spend the last three hours or so waiting on the bus itself..
my overnight bus arrived in chisenau around 0700, at the central bus station..i had an address, but getting a taxi driver who understood wasn't so easy..
i went to moldova to visit my friend natanya, a teacher i knew in korea..she had recently begun teaching at an international school in chisenau, teaching kindergardeners..one of the first things i learned upon arrival is that moldova isn't the same place as moldavia..(i had previously used the names interchangeably)...moldova is the easternmost (and poorest) country in europe..moldavia is the easternmost province in romania..the two countries have a complicated history, and in many ways are just one country..in moldova itself there are two breakaway republics, they essentially function as independent countries..transdniestr has it's own police force, currency and stamps, but isn't recognized at all internationally..it's not an easy border to cross, natanya and i didn't go there at all..the other breakaway republic is a little more recognized and is basically an autonomous area (gaugaza i think it's called?) in moldova..current borders of moldova were only determined when communism fell, in 1989 i think..
since natanya teaches at an international school, she has a great flat..it's far nicer than the average moldovan..though chisenau itself is FAR better off than the rest of the country..the average moldovan makes approximately $200/month..there are lots of russians in chisenau, they're the ones with any real money in moldova..chisenau itself is pretty much bilingual, russian and moldovan..(moldovan as a language is basically a dialect of romanian)..natanya is paid in cash dollars every month, which she then converts at any of the huge number of currency exchange booths all over the city..the exchange rate varies regularly, being paid in dollars means natanya has a steady income..
the day i arrived, natanya had to go to work, so i hung out in the flat during the day..i mostly slept, and let my family know that i had arrived..when natanya came home, we walked through a nearby park (more about that later) and hopped on a tram to a HUGE market..there are several markets in chisenau, i think this was one of the biggest..tons of vegetables, lots of them pickled..lots of fruits..when i say lots i mean great quantities, not great variety..stands and stands and stands of fruits and veggies..bread too..we wound our way through, and then she took me into a dairy building..WOW..cheese and cheese and cheese...butter and butter and butter...and CHOCOLATE BUTTER!!! i had never heard of such a thing but it was fantastic..it looks like a big block of mud, but it's actually fantastic..after the market we walked into the grocery store part of department store #1..in communist days, that's how many stores were named, just by number..this department store is where only the rich folks shop..there are a number of foreign items available, all at high cost of course..for dinner than night natanya cooked me mamaliga (sp?) a typical moldovan meal..different from anything i'd had previously..
one of the days in chisenau i got to go to natanya's school to show the kids a few of the pictures i've taken over the past couple years of traveling..the kids were great fun, some asking some really entertaining questions..some of them talking just because they wanted to talk..lol, kids..the next couple days natanya had to go to work during the days, so i was rather lazy, and walked around the city just a little..i again walked through the park she had showed me, it's only a few blocks from her flat..there are busts upon busts of moldovans, poets i think..at the entrance to the park is a statue of stefan cel mare, one of the few true moldovan heroes..i saw the national church as well, it's beautiful..the national religion is orthodox christian, which uses a different calendar from the christianity we know in the western world..there are no chairs/pews in an orthodox church..the inside of an orthodox church is wonderfully colourful, with lots of gold too..i don't know how worship happens, but i think it goes more than just an hour a week..
during my stay in chisenau i made several repeat trips to the market, as i got hooked on the chocolate butter, and i loved the cheese:)
on thanksgiving thursday natanya hosted a thanksgiving dinner for her coworkers and a few other random guests..it was a potluck dinner of sorts, and go figure, there was only one traditional thanksgiving food on the table..pumpkin pie from scratch, which natanya made...it was fabulous...other foods included chicken prepared in several different ways, apple pie/turnover, several salads, etc..natanya's flat is so awesome that there was plenty of room for all of us to eat, enjoy good conversation, etc..the last guest to show up arrived after many of us had actually finished eating..
pan, the last guest, is a peace corps volunteer...she was late to dinner because she was just coming back from a trip to istanbul..she stayed the night in chisenau because it was too late to take public transport back to the village in which she is living..the next day, pan and i hung out waiting for natanya to come back from work..she works at an international school, which normally works on an american calendar, but her particular school doesn't..so she didn't get thursday and friday off, like most americans do..anywho, after she came home, the three of us rented a car, and started driving to the village where pan lives..it took about four hours to get there, and believe me, the roads in moldova leave something to be desired..remnants of communism i suppose, when roads weren't always kept in great condition because regular people didn't travel around much..the signage on the roads was also awful..you have to know where you're going, cause you'll miss the turnoffs if you don't..thankfully, even though she usually takes the bus, pan knew exactly where we were going..she also knew the rough patches of road, which was helpful..it was sooooooo foggy, at times we couldn't see more than a couple meters in front of the car..if pan hadn't known the roads, and where we needed to turn off, we never would've made it..as we turned off the main highway toward her village we realized exactly how harsh/big some of the potholes in moldova can be..especially when they come out of the fog as a total surprise..we arrived at her house pretty late, but her house mother was still home..pereskova..pereskova's sister was visiting, which was awesome..pereskova loves to talk, and the fact that natanya and i didn't really understand didn't bother her in the least..pan was able to translate and we were offered more food than we could handle..nearly all food is cooked/baked in the soba (i think that's the name?) which is basically an oven in a wall..a wood heated oven..the soba also functions as the household heater..pereskova's bedroom is on one side, pan's bedroom is on the other side..pereskova is what most of you would imagine as a typical russian babushka..scarf over the head and everything..she's 74 or so, (or is it 84?) maybe older..she isn't certain..her older sister is old enough that she actually speaks, understands and reads some russian from her early schooling, in addition to moldovan..both natanya and i had brought sleeping bags with us, and when pereskova saw how we intended to sleep, she insisted on having us sleep on and under really think blankety quilty sort of things..i slept next to the soba, and between that and my sleeping bag i was toasty, despite the freezing temperatures outside..before going to bed pan showed us the outhouse (there is no running water in the house) and the rest of the house..pereskova makes her own wine, she has a vineyard in the yard of the house, pan and natanya both like the wine..apparently people in the village do as well, they stop in at buy it by the glass..in the morning the three of us got up and pan gave us a tour of the village, such that it is..some of the houses are quite colourful, green, blue, purple and yellow..we also saw the graveyard, which was also quite colourful..blue crosses everywhere!! lots of plastic flowers and pictures on the graves too..
around noon the three of us started driving to cahul..cahul is the biggest town in the area, population 60,000 or so..one of the peace corps volunteers lives in cahul, and she wanted to throw a thanksgiving dinner for all the volunteers in the area..before going to the dinner, pan showed us around the town market..every sort of winter clothing was available, most of it used..because it wasn't exactly warm, everyone was bundled up..my feet were so cold, even though i was wearing two pairs of socks..lunch was at a pizza place, most of the volunteers in the area eat there when they are in cahul..anywho, we dropped pan off at the volunteer's flat, then started making our way back to chisenau..when we arrived back in chisenau, we went straight to a grocery store, as natanya wasnted to take advantage of the car to stock up on heavier groceries..hee hee..
since the next day was still the weekend (sunday) we elected to take another day trip..this time to a more northern city..(town)..(cahul is in the far south of moldova)..soroca is in the northeast of the country..it used to be a fortress town, and the fortress still stands..it's small, but pretty nifty..we climbed all over it, looking out over the town from the top..soroca is a town where a number of really well off roma live..they've got some really nice houses, which we wanted to see, but didn't find..we found another small market and walked through that but saw nothing of interest..driving back to chisenau didn't take very long, we returned the car after filling the petrol tank..
the next day, while natanya was at work, i walked around town a bit again and picked up a few items at the market to take with me on the bus..i walked to the bus station with my stuff in the evening, and hopped on a bus back to bucharest..from the main train station i took the bus back to the airport, and started on the first of three flights to my next destination..
a couple notes about moldova..as i mentioned earlier, it's the poorest country in europe..it won't be admitted to the EU anytime in the foreseeable future..back in the days of the USSR, moldova was the vineyard of the country..there are supposed to be several good wines, i wish i had been able to try them..the mindset of the country hasn't changed much since communism fell..customer service hasn't improved beyond what it was during communism...that is, effort isn't always made to get you to buy what they're selling..there is an incredible amount of corruption in the government, i don't think most moldovans think the government has any real interest in the people..the corruption also spreads to the police..twice on our way back to chisenau from our short trips we were pulled over by police, though we knew we hadn't done anything wrong..we figured out the police simply wanted a bribe, but they weren't able to communicate that, so we pretended ignorance, and were let go..i enjoyed moldova, but it certainly doesn't have much tourist infrastructure..the lonely planet section on moldova isn't long, and only covers 5 or 6 towns..i have a feeling most of the information comes from peace corps volunteers..

poland with an educator

i landed in warsaw, where my dad was teaching for the semester at the university of warsaw..he's teaching through the fulbright program..according to the institute for international education, "Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills."...basically, professors from the US go and teach at other universities around the world, while students from the US and other countries do exchanges...
dad picked me up at the airport, and we took the bus into town..(i'll always love any sort of public transportation into a town)..the bus stopped at the university of warsaw, which happens to be almost exactly across the street from the flat in which dad was living..he lived in a studio flat, it was definitely small..(but still bigger than the last flat i lived in in korea!)...
during the days that i was there, dad and i visited two museums...one was dedicated to the warsaw uprising, (1944, not the same uprising as the jewish ghetto uprising, which took place in 1943) which involved the whole city...they fought to free themselves from nazi/german rule, before the russians who were thought to be advancing quickly arrived..(the russians in reality were waiting just outside the city for a while, waiting for the uprising to end one way or another)..the museum seemed huge, but maybe that was just because they had so many exhibits...so much information, so many things to look at..the city itself (what was left of it anywho) was pretty much torn to pieces during the fighting, it's hard to believe anyone lived there..one estimate says that only 64 of 987 buildings were untouched..general estimates say that 180,000 civilians died during the uprising..there is so much packed into this museum, it's almost overwhelming..the other museum we visited used to be a prison..a prison in the former jewish ghetto..it's a much smaller museum, giving information about the people held in that particular prison...many were taken on "day trips" each day, to the headquarters of the secret police, for questioning..they've kept a few cells and there are little plaques that tell who was kept in each cell..out in front of the museum they've kept the original gate to the prison, though it's been ripped in half..there is also a memorial tree out front..it used to be a real tree, but years ago it died, so they built a fake one..there are memorial plaques all around the tree..we walked from that prison/museum through what used to be the jewish ghetto..there is nothing left of the ghetto..none of the walls, gates, etc..there are a couple memorials as to where specific things happened, but that's it..oh, and there is a giant memorial, next to where a museum is being built that will be all about the jews in poland..i was surprised that this museum isn't already in existence, given that prewar warsaw was about 1/3 jewish..the country as a whole was 10% jewish, though the percentage was much higher in metro areas..at this point no one is sure what the museum will be like..anywho...

warsaw managed to stay quite religious over the years, even through the years of communist rule..there are lots of churches, people have been worshipping at them consistently through the years..some are absolutely beautiful, some are just plain old..there are people in the churches pretty much all the time...
since dad was in warsaw to teach, i took the opportunity to do something i've never done previously..watch him teach..i sat in on both of his classes, both having to do with east european media..(one focused on communist media, one on current media)..the classes were taught in english of course, and it was easy to tell which students had better english skills...believe it or not, i took notes during each class:)..(some habits never go away, i suppose)...
one day we walked through the old town, which i believe is mostly authentic..it's a really colourful area of the city, and due to the fabulous weather that day, the photos were fantastic..it's also called the tourist quarter, there are tons of stores selling polish kitsch...
one evening we had dinner with a guy named andrew..andrew is the son of one of dad's east european colleagues who teaches at santa clara university in california..andrew speaks polish, and lives in berlin, working at a foreign correspondent on a freelance basis..he knows poland practically inside and out, which is nifty..(at least for me and dad, who love history and culture and how things change)..we had pierogi (dumplings,) a typical polish food..(though it seems to me that many cultures and countries claim dumplings as a typical food)..another night we had dinner with kasia, who was in warsaw trying to study human trafficking (women, mostly)..she has a huge amount of energy, and was also in the process of applying for graduate programs in the states..i tried to talk her out of ohio state, as i cannot in good conscience recommend that school..(i'm a michigan fan)..that dinner was at a restaurant that was supposed to serve traditional polish food..YUM..i had something that basically amounted to stew, i loved it..we noticed a group having a birthday dinner, it was probably going to be a looooooong night for them..we saw bottles upon bottles being delivered to the table and there were several times when the entire group stood up to take a shot in honour of the birthday boy..lol..
warsaw isn't the city most people think of when they think of poland, most people think of krakow, and auschwitz, the former death camp..but warsaw is rapidly changing, and becoming a fully modern city..i'd recommend it:)

back in the fatherland

after taking a bus from central london, i arrived at stansted airport, ready to spend the night...apparently i wasn't the only one, as there were LOTS of other people all around the building..i ended up putting my stuff down near a guy who had a sleeping pad underneath his body and was covered in a sleeping bag..he was definitely prepared for a night in the airprort!
i didn't sleep much that night, but that's been the norm these days..i have had a lot of trouble adjusting to the time difference..i flew ryanair for the first time, not much to say about that airline..as far as budget airlines go, i like air asia better overall..(and i wish there was something cheaper than southwest in the states)..ryanair flys to frankfurt hahn airport, which isn't anywhere close to the other (larger) frankfurt airport..anywho, my friend mandy picked me up at the airport, and we drove around for a while..it's nice to be on good roads again, (in a nice vehicle,) but go figure, they make me carsick!! argh..we saw rivers and castles and all the lovely german architecture i've missed over the last few years..
and then we got to her flat..it's HUGE!! i got to have my own bedroom:)..mandy had to work one of the days i was there, but the other days we just hung out and got caught up with each other..we know each other from my hometown, so we know a lot of the same people..i learned about the existence of apple tv, and we raided a large german grocery store..she had a snowboarding trip planned for american thanksgiving, so we spent a couple hours in an outdoor store figuring out everything she would need..even though i wasn't buying, it was still fun..
from mandy's little village of schopp i took the trains to stuttgart, and met up with jenn..jenn and i met in australia in 2008, near uluru..she also has a huge flat, in the city..surprisingly, (because trains in germany almost always run on time, down to the minute) one of the trains i took was late leaving, so i was an hour later than expected getting to stuttgart, which has a huge hauptbahnhof...thankfully i had jenn's handy number, and we met up quickly enough..after dropping my stuff off in her flat, we went walking downtown..there is an old schloss, an old church, and other stuff to see in stuttgart..plus, since it was november, the christkindlmarkt had started..even though i couldn't drink the gluhwein, it was still pretty to see..a nice walk..
that evening jenn had a birthday party to attend..the birthday boy was american, but his wife was german, and he threw the party in german tradition..that is, he paid for everything..he had reserved a room at a restaurant and had a buffet set up with lots of yummy food...the evening was fun, and i enjoyed meeting new people, even though i felt a bit odd, since i was a complete stranger to anyone else in the room..the next afternoon we went to the tv tower on the outskirts of stuttgart..the city has a great public transport system, each time we wanted to go anywhere we were able to hop on the s-bahn or the u-bahn...yay!! the tv tower is one of the tallest in europe..i think berlin has a taller tower? anywho, you take the elevator up, to your choice of three levels..one is a cafe, with views all around of the entire area, and the other two are entirely open to the elements..jenn and i had joined up with one of her friends, kristina, and all three of us signed the tower..that evening, the three of us went to the flat of more friends, and i got my first experience playing wii..according to the wii, my fit age is 45..hee hee..i got my butt kicked (in 3 rounds) in boxing, and ended up actually being sore a couple days later! eeek!
jenn had to work the next day, so i wandered around downtown stuttgart again, taking pictures, wandering through shops, watching people, etc..jenn and i cooked dinner that night, fun..the next morning i was up early, to take trains to the airport in frankfurt..(thankfully, these trains ran on time)..when i checked in, i received a "coin" worth 2 euro off anything i wanted to purchase in a duty free store..i ended up not using it, given that things in duty free are still pretty expensive, and there wasn't anything i needed..
the end of germany for a couple weeks......................

my first visit

the UK..a country which i haven't previously visited, at least not that i remember...my dad says that isn't entirely true..he says i spent a night here when i was 4..clearly, i don't remember..so i don't count that..lol..
getting to london wasn't fast, to say the least..it's pretty much on the exact opposite side of the world from new zealand..i flew from auckland to brisbane, coolangatta to kuala lumpur, and KL to london..i finally arrived at my friend brie's flat around midnight, the "same" day i left KL..a measly 14 hour flight, with an 8 hour time difference..i met brie when she and i taught at the same school in korea, she's canadian..once i landed at stansted, i took a bus into the center of the city (liverpool street station for those who know it) and from there took the tube to brie's flat..not surprisingly, the weather as i arrived was crappy..not pouring rain, but definite precipitation..at least it wasn't windy..and not all that chilly..we stayed up a couple hours, getting caught up on each other's lives as well as the lives of the other people we know..i didn't sleep that night, even though i tried..apparently i slept too much on the plane, and my body hasn't been adjusting to the time difference..so i was awake long before anyone else in the flat, but that was okay..
we tried to go to the grocery store to get scones and cream for breakfast, but it was closed..go figure, the biggest grocery store in central london is closed on sunday mornings!! so that plan changed..instead, we took off for some mystery shopping, and then a walk along the thames..i didn't know that the thames is tidal, but now i do..i even got to see a beach..of course, it wasn't exactly the type of weather that made me want to strip down to a bikini and lay out... as we continued walking along, i saw a face that seemed really familiar..another traveler, a woman i had met in nepal, while trekking through the himalayas..nikki is british, but currently lives in chiang mai, thailand..neither one of us knew the other would be in london, we were both surprised..a quick catch up, a quick photo, and we split..brie and i were walking with one of her friends by that point, a girl in the film world..tansy..tansy talks a lot, she's really entertaining..she has fun stories, and has lived in places like cuba and russia..
brie is an awesome cook..she made phad thai, and i stayed awake all the way till 1900..jet lag was horrendous when i got to london..not only did i not sleep my first night in london, but even with falling asleep at 1900, i only slept until just after midnight, then was up all night again..ugh..
brie went to work the next day, i stayed home..i know i should've gone out and seen a few sights, enjoyed london, but i didn't..i didn't do a darn thing but play on the computer and take quick cat naps..after a year of nonstop traveling, i figured it was okay to take a day off and not see anything at all..
the following day brie and i took a day trip to brighton..it's a seaside town, about an hour outside of london..london has a great train system, and the earlier you book tickets, the cheaper they are..brie booked ahead and we only paid 3 pounds each:)..the beach at brighton is a pebble beach, probably not the best for laying out and enjoying sun..it wasn't sunny the day we were there, so that didn't matter..we enjoyed lunch at a lovely restaurant near the beach, and walked along the beach for a while..there is a nifty boardwalk with a bunch of carnival rides, unfortunately none of them were open, due to the time of year..
brighton used to be a seaside getaway for the royal family..king george built the royal pavilion there, back when he was the prince regent..(his dad went crazy while on the throne, so the prince took on ruling duties while still technically a prince)..the pavilion is "interesting" architecturally.. it's built in what they thought was indian architecture..those who designed and built the pavilion had never been to india..the inside is where the prince entertained..a huge dining room, an even bigger kitchen, a music room, several rooms for lounging around..the interior decor is totally over the top, totally flash..chinese in theme in one room, gold gilt in another, etc..it's stunning..there is a free audio tour and while listening it was easy to imagine the life they led back then..since brighton is british, it's easy to find tea shops serving tea and cream and scones and all sorts of yummy stuff..YUM!!
that night i took a late evening bus back to stansted..

nz vol. 4, iss. 4

the three of us (lynne, ann and i) had decided to take a quick road trip up to northland, the area north of auckland in the north island..there is so much beauty up there, and a lot to do activity wise..we ended up getting started a bit late, so by the time we got to the big tree, it was already dark..tane mahuta is the biggest kauri tree in the country..think redwood national park where the trees are so big around it takes lots of people to link arms to get all the way around the tree..tane mahuta is the same..unfortunately, since it was dark and rainy, we didn't get to see much..i should mention at this point that the road was REALLY curvy, so both ann and i were somewhat carsick..we got back in the car, drove north again, to a small village called opononi..we pulled into a motel, and the guy looked at lynne and i a bit funny when we got out of the car and waddled into the reception room..his confusion cleared up when we told him why we were walking so funny..sitting in the car, our muscles weren't able to relax much...dinner that night was basically leftovers of the stuff we had in the chilly bin in the back seat..bagels, rolls, cucumber, and i don't remember what else..opononi is a tiny village on hokianga harbour, which is the place of maori legends..it's beautiful..you can see dunes across the harbour, and we had lovely weather..a camera case had been left behind at tane mahuta, so we drove back..not fun going on the curvy roads again..ugh..by that point, lynne's leg hurt too much for her to walk w/out assistance, so she didn't get out of the car...the camera case wasn't there anymore, so we turned around and drove north again, continuing through opononi to a town that starts with a k (i can't remember what it's called) where we got lunch (more fish and chips for me, YUM) and a cane for lynne..she hated it though..more driving, more driving, and we arrived at cape reinga..it's not quite the northernmost point on the north island, but it's close..there is a lighthouse up there, and a sign pointing in different directions telling how far it is to different locations around the world..i'd been up there previously as well, but the entire area had been redone since, and is much nicer now..the weather was a whole lot nicer too..still super windy, but i'm pretty sure that's the norm up there..i don't think the wind is ever not blowing at cape reinga..one of the coolest spots you can see from the cape is the line where the tasman sea and the pacific ocean collide into each other..on a clear day (like we had) you can see exactly where it happens..you can see the waters creating waves in both directions..i hadn't seen it before, and was thrilled to see it this time..
we got back into the car, (i had been driving all day, and continued to drive for the rest of the time in nz) and drove back down to paihia..paihia is the main town for tourist accomodation in the bay of islands..since we were arriving so late, lynne picked a hotel listed in the gps, and that's where we ended up for the night..two bedrooms, a full size lounge, a full kitchen, and a great view..(though we didn't know about the view until the next morning..too bad we couldn't have stayed there longer, especially because we got the best rate of all the places we stayed..fantastic..
paihia is REALLY close to waitangi, the place where the waitangi treaty was signed in 1840..the treaty is what the crown in the united kingdom used as validation for "ruling" new zealand..there were two copies of the treaty, one in english and one in maori..it's now acknowledged that the maori copy doesn't say the same thing the english treaty does..the maori chiefs who signed the treaty thought they were signing something very different from what they actually signed..the treaties (there are 9 in all i think?) are kept in the national archives in wellington but there are reproductions at the treaty grounds..also on the grounds are the treaty house, a large maori canoe, a marae, etc..there is a large flagpole on the exact location where the treaties were signed..the three of us wanted to walk around, but the entry fee was a lot higher than we expected, (i'd seen it before, so it didn't matter to me whether i saw it again or not) so we had coffee instead..that afternoon we signed ourselves up for a cruise around the bay..it's one of the most popular activities, and well worth it..i think you get to see 9 different points of interest while cruising around..we saw a few dolphins too, they were playing around the boat..soooo cute! there were massive clouds over paihia, but as soon as we headed out, the weather cleared, and we were treated to a lovely afternoon..what a great way to end a road trip..i ended up getting slightly boat sick just after going through the hole in the rock, but that went away soon enough, partially thanks to the ginger beer the girls got for me..(THANK YOU!!)..a four hour drive back to auckland got us back around 2215..
the next morning lynne and i took the train into the center of auckland (ann couldn't come with us, as she had already made plans to go to wellington that day) and got on the ferry to waiheke (sp?) island..it's an island in auckland harbour, well known for the wineries all over the island..we hired scooters and drove around all day..lovely day..we got lost a couple times (the maps weren't great) and both of us tipped over, but the scenery was fantastic (again the theme of great natural beauty all over the country,) and the weather great..we took the ferry back to the city, and met up with amy and ivan for dinner at one of their favourite restaurants..and after that meal, i can understand why..we got there early, and for a while we were the only people there..i wish i could remember the name of the place, i can only remember that i want to go back!! we were all stuffed (and i mean STUFFED) but that didn't stop us from going to mission bay afterward and having ice cream on the beach..a perfect last night in a country i love..
that's it, my last visit to nz for i don't know how long..i will go back sometime, i just dont know when..

nz vol 4. iss 3

after dinner with my mom, we arranged to meet up with her again the next day..then lynne and i checked into a hotel..because the marathon was only a couple days away, we wanted to be in the hotel for that night and the night before the race..
the next morning lynne and i lined up to pick up our packets for the marathon..race number, timing chip, all that sort of good stuff..the expo was smaller than we expected, way smaller..(it wasn't until the next day that i realized the new york marathon had taken place the same day as the auckland day, as well as a marathon in seoul..its not a wonder there aren't elite runners at the auckland race, since new york is the same day)..adidas was the main sponsor, and they had a lot, but there was very little else..oh well..
lynne, mom and i went to a museum..the auckland war museum, it's huge!! i've been there before, but i love historical museums, and both australia and new zealand do those sorts of museums really well..anywho, after the museum the three of us met up with amy and another girlfriend in mission bay..i knew the other girlfriend, ann, from primary school!!! crazy that there were 5 americans who had/have all lived in bloomington having lunch together in auckland..
lynne and i didn't do much else for the rest of the day..we tried to go to bed early, since we had to be up early the next day..trying to go to sleep at 8pm just doesn't work very well..i dont think we made 10pm either..
anywho, the alarm went off around 0400 or so the next morning..soooooooooo early..lynne and i had set out everything we planned to take with us the night before, so it wasn't all left until the last minute..i tend to take too much with me in prep for a marathon..our hotel was almost across the street from the ferry we had to take to get to the start line of the marathon..even though it was a small marathon it was fairly well organized..we were on one of the first ferries (if not the first) to devonport, and ended up with a while to wait before the start..sorry lynne!!..we dumped our bags in the bins with our numbers, and figured out where we wanted to stand in the crowd at the start..i was prepared with my inhaler, my ipod, and a bag of lollies..over the years of running ive discovered that sucking on lollies while running has the same effect as consuming energy gels..and lollies are way more fun:)..as some of you know, i wasn't exactly fully prepared for this marathon..i had run a few times (15x max) including 2-3 long runs, but i hadn't been running for months..but after failure at my last race, i knew i was going to finish this race, one way or another...i knew i would cross the finish line, but i had no idea what kind of condition i'd be in when i finished..somehow, after doing my meditation retreat, i wasn't worried about my mental state during the race..as long as a marathon is, there is plenty of time to talk yourself into and out of things..i went into the race looking forward to the long run, just to see where my mind went..the weather was awesome..chilly at the start, but that's the best for the start of a long race..sunny, slightly breezy..the first half of the race was slightly hilly, the second half entirely flat..part of the course takes the runners over the auckland harbour bridge, which was nifty..but we were on the wrong side of the bridge for seeing the view of auckland that we all wanted to see..running over the bridge was rough, but still fun..not many people get to do that, it isn't like the sydney harbour bridge which allows pedestrians..the bridge was at about the halfway point of the route..the second half was an out and back along the water..beautiful, sometimes a little chaotic in terms of aid stations..it wasn't always clear who was supposed to pass on what side..i usually aimed to pass on the left, as kiwis do..but the person running toward me didn't always go to the left..i'm glad i know auckland a little, as it helped me know how far i had to go to the turnaround..for the first time ever, my mind was entirely fine during the race..in a totally objective way i could feel my body start to break down as i kept running and running and running..the way my lower back was super tight from all the pounding..the way my quads complained just a little more each time i started running again after walking through an aid station..(you all know i'm not the most coordinated person, it shouldn't come as a surprise that running and drinking is far beyond my capabilities)..i remember being so excited that my mind was good that it didn't bother me that my body was falling apart..after all, running 42.195kms is a long way to go..falling apart was expected..i crossed the finish line in my second best time ever, and stopped..and so did my body..it was a struggle to walk, let alone carry the banana and whateva else i picked up to eat/drink..thank goodness there were volunteers to take the timing chip off my shoe, as there was no way i could've done it myself..it took me about 10 minutes to get over to where our bags were being held, only about 300m..i think..distances at that point were tough to judge..then it took me another five minutes to pull my jackets out of my bag and put those on..at that point, i saw both lynne and ann..(amy and ivan had dropped ann off at the race on their way out of town)..lynne didn't have the race she had planned and trained for, definitely a disappointment..she was far better trained, and far better prepared than i was, but she ended up with an injury..argh..
after slowly walking back to our hotel and getting cleaned up, ann, lynne and i enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the viaduct..then we hopped in the hire car lynne and i still had, and started driving north..

nz vol. 4 iss 2

after the weekend in taranaki, lynne and i hired a car, so we could drive ourselves around for the next few days..well, more like lynne would drive us around..given that i have barely driven in the past few years, everyone seemed to think it a better idea that she do the driving..
after a late start (my fault) we made our way out of auckland on a rainy morning..we originally thought we were going to start our trip in rotorua, because of the not so good weather..howeva, the weather started to clear, so we changed our minds and decided to go to the coromandel peninsula..it's an area of the north island of new zealand where lots of people go on holiday..it's beautiful, and close to auckland..after driving for a while, and following the directions of the gps, i realized we were going way too far south, even for taking a scenic route to the peninsula..and whaddya know, we were...it turned out that since it was my first time using a gps system, i had no idea out it worked..surprise, eh?..when lynne asked me if it was set to the peninsula, that's what was showing on the screen at that moment, so i thought that yes, it was set to take us to the peninsula..turns out i was wrong..apparently you had to hit enter a few more times..oh well..anywho, we made sure to set it to a particular beach on the peninsula, made a u-turn, and got going in the right direction..
we made it to hahei beach mid afternoon, and played around for a while...another absolutely beautiful new zealand beach..(i'm pretty sure every beach in new zealand is gorgeous, and there are lots of them)..there used to be a rope swing under a tree, but that seems to have disappeared in the past year and a half..we found the path that leads to cathedral cove, and started walking..with the absolutely wonderful weather we had stunning views (which seems to be another plus of new zealand..the country is full of stunning views)..the walk doesn't take nearly as long as the signs say, and is fairly easy..cathedral cove is a naturally formed area, beautiful, of course...the action of the water over the millenia has formed nifty caves and rocks and what not..one of the caves was used to film the opening scene from one of the narnia movies..(or so i'm told, i haven't seen the movie myself)..as we walked back to the car the weather started to change, the sun went behind clouds, and the wind picked up..not so wonderful anymore..
we drove around the tiny little town of hahei and lucked into finding an amazing little hotel..up the hill, we had a great view all around..the the price was fantastic..the owner said it used to be a restaurant, it was too bad we didn't get to take advantage of the fantastic kitchen..we left our stuff and drove to hot water beach..according to the tide tables i had found, low tide was supposed to be that evening around 2030..hot water beach is a spot where hot water springs come up through the earth and visitors can dig themselves jacuzzis in the sand..ideally you can dig a hole, the hot water will come up and fill the hole and you can hang out and enjoy yourself..lynne and i didnt manage to find one of the hot spots, but we weren't the only ones missing out..we saw a number of other folks looking/digging but only one group was successful, and they had taken over from others..we were disappointed, but hey, life goes on..
the next morning we drove to rotorua..it's a smelly town, sometimes better known as rottenrua..the earth's crust is relatively thin under rotorua, only about a kilometer thick..(i think)..because of that, there are hot springs everywhere, and the whole town is geothermally heated..every hotel in town has jacuzzis in every room, woo hoo!! after checking out a few, we settled on one..(one of the things i love about new zealand is that you can almost always negotiate a price)..rotorua is one of the most popular tourist spots in new zealand, because it has a little bit of everything..activities, natural beauty, (it's on a lake,) good food, etc..we made our way to a hill just out of town, and took the cable car up, read the rules, donned helmets, and got ready for the luge..it's a cement track (three actually, beginning, intermediate and advanced) and you can ride a plastic sled on wheels (lets face it, it's not a real luge, but it's a lot of fun anywho)..the first ride has to be on the beginning track, and it's the most scenic..that's the one where you can pull off in a few places to take pictures, as well as get used to how the little sleds work..the medium track is a bit speedier, and fun..but the advanced track is the best..lynne and i both caught air on the advanced track, and loved every minute of it..we both wanted to stay up there longer and keep riding, but it was closing time..darnit..
next up that evening was a quick stop at a takeaway shop for dinner, then on to kerosene creek..amy had also loaned us a book about the hot springs of new zealand, it has directions to EVERYWHERE..totally awesome..kerosene creek is a naturally heated creek..until a year ago, it wasn't even in lonely planet..locals wanted to keep it that way, and i understand why..it's fantastic..there are lots of little areas in the creek to hang out and enjoy the heated water..we were in there for two hours, both my rings changed colour!! while floating around we ended up talking to another couple, he's kiwi and she's american..she and lynne are from the same area in the states, they had similar accents..the heated water was amazing, even though we were both pretty smelly when we finally dashed out..the air wasn't warm, so we both changed really fast and got back to the hotel..
the next morning we packed up and after a dispute on the price of the motel room, went to visit a place called te puia..it's home to the new zealand maori arts and crafts institute as well as the pohutu geyser..it's almost constantly blowing up, the steam clouds are pretty impressive..the weather wasn't so great, it poured down at times, but we still had fun..there are a steaming mud spots, and beautiful mineral pools..the area is pretty big, so we took a free tour, and went to a maori show..that afternoon we went zorbing..soooooooo much fun..imagine this: a giant plastic hampster ball, with another ball inside..the employees fill the inside ball with a little bit of warm water, and you superman yourself into the inner ball, wearing nothing but a swim suit and socks..lynne and i chose to ride together..and what a ride..the hill the ball rolls down doesn't look very big, but the ride is a lot longer than either of us had imagined..laughing and giggling and screaming the whole way down..FUN!!
we drove to taupo, another cute little town on a lake..windy as all get out..we took amy's suggestion and booked a room in a nicer place..it was HUGE!!! we each had a huge bed (lynne actually had two beds to choose from) and there was a jacuzzi just outside..a wonderful way to relax for an evening..
the following morning we drove to waitomo, to see the caves..there are several different caves in the area, it's possible to take tours of many of them..lynne decided to go blackwater rafting, and she loved it..absolutely loved it..after the caves we drove back up to auckland, and met up with my mom for dinner..
as you all know, my immediate family is very much into traveling..before i planned this visit in new zealand, mom had already planned her holiday to new zealand and australia..perfect timing, i got to see my mom on the other side of the world for the first time in over a year:)..dinner was lovely, we all had a good time..lynne and i heard stories about me that i've never heard before..hee hee..an awesome evening..

another fourth visit

i arrived in auckland new zealand on a blustery rainy sort of day...exactly the same type of day ive arrived on in each of my three past visits...wierd...

amy picked me up at the airport, and we got me into the flat i'm hiring from her and her husband...it's been great to hang out with the two of them, and catch up on everything...

two days later i ran a half marathon...a beautiful morning, blue skies and very very crisp...to me it seemed like fall weather, even though it's spring here...anywho, i spent the first 3K of the race hoping for feeling to come back into my toes...there were plenty of volunteers out on the course to make sure people didn't get lost, which was nice...and there were aid stations (with water, nothing else) every 3 miles or so...the race itself was a loop, us half marathoners did it twice, those running the 11k 'fun run' did it just once...i was pleased that i ran the whole thing...(except for walking through aid stations...i long ago discovered that i can't run and drink, even walking and drinking isn't always the best)...my time was all right, not great, but not bad; and i wasn't sore later that day or the next day, so i had no real complaints...

another night i had dinner with clive and sarah...friends i met the second time i visited new zealand, it was fantastic to catch up with them...clive is in a band, they're doing quite well, and i enjoyed their music...time flew by, and five hours had gone by when i thought to look at my watch!!! sarah's son connor was there as well, but he's going through the quiet teenager stage and wasn't talking to anyone...he's grown like a weed in the past year though...

there were others i had hoped to get together with, but plans changed a few times, i was forgotten once, and then there wasn't any more time available..i was disappointed, to say the least...
just before labour weekend, my friend lynne flew in from the states..i know her from uni, and we've stayed in touch ever since..when i lived in germany she came to visit me there as well..this time she came over to run the auckland marathon with me..we saw a bit of downtown auckland (the view from mt eden is brilliant when the weather is nice, and i hadn't been there previously) when amy showed us around..the friday of labour weekend, after ivan was done with work we drove south, to the taranaki area of the north island..it's not a heavily touristed area, though it's gorgeous..in the middle of the area is mt taranaki (the english called it mt egmont) which is similar in appearance to mt fuji, in japan..so similar in fact that "the last samurai" was filmed around taranaki..most of the time the mountain is covered by clouds, even when the weather is otherwise good, we only got to see the mountain at all on our third and final morning..we stayed with amy's mom and her partner, in a beautiful house hand built 22 yrs ago..as we arrived after dark, all we did was bring everything in from the car, tour the house, and sit around to catch up with each other..amy's mom makes a lot of yummy stuff by hand (chutneys, wines, sauces, etc) so there was some wine tasting as well...(these are the times i miss being able to drink)..
the next morning when we woke up we were treated to a most amazing view..from all the bedrooms of the house one can see the ocean and the black sand beach..you can also see the cows grazing in the area..nothing short of stunning..if i lived in that house, i reckon it would be hard to get me to ever leave the area..AMAZING!! amy made a kiwi classic for breakfast, bacon and egg pie..(since it was lynne's first visit to nz, we tried to make sure she had as many traditional kiwi foods as possible..her first night in auckland we had takeaways, fish and chips)..after getting dressed properly, and sending jill off to work, amy, ivan, howard, lynne and i made our way down to the beach..fortunately, jill and howard have quite a few pairs of wellies in the house, because we had to walk through cow paddocks to get to the beach..and cows, well, they're not potty trained..the beach itself is lovely..a black sand beach, with a river coming through part of it..there is a lot of driftwood on the beach, shells as well..
this is a time of year when whitebaiting is allowed..that is, catching whitebait..(it's only allowed for a couple months out of the year, and not allowed to be done commercially)..the mechanics are easy: put a net into the river, the whitebait swim into it..they're small, and not smart enough to turn around and swim back out..take the net out of the water, put the whitebait in a bucket with a little water in it, then do it again..we all did this, i was the only one who didn't catch anything:(..in time for lunch we packed up the net and buckets, grabbed our shoes, and made our way back up to the house..the afternoon was passed it was some might call a lazy way, but i reckon we all thought it was perfect..reading, enjoying the sun, napping (ivan,) and just hanging out..
it was during the walk to and from the beach that we all realized cows are really good at the game of red light green light..though i doubt they would call it that..hee hee..(they probably don't even know it's a game:)..they would follow us as we walked, but would stop and just stare when we turned to look at them..if any of us started to move toward them, they moved away in a hurry..really amusing, but i suppose you had to be there..
dinner was mostly prepared by howard..whitebait fritters..i admit i wasn't too keen on them, but lynne was even more "unkeen"..it was actually amusing to watch her distaste for the idea of eating whitebait..nevertheless, she documented the entire process of making whitebait fritters..she even got a picture where one of the whitebait looks as though it's screaming "don't eat me!!"..(again, i guess you had to be there)..when we ate, lynne ended up eating two fritters..lol..
the next morning i woke up earlier than everyone else, and went for a run..(remember that i came back to new zealand to run the auckland marathon..given that i hadn't trained much, i reckoned i really needed to do a long run)..so i ran to the end of the road and back..including the driveway, that was around a half marathon! i came back, showered, and hopped in the car with amy, ivan and lynne..we drove to new plymouth, about 30 minutes away..(howard and jill live just outside urenui, a VERY small town)..new plymouth is by far the biggest city in the area, with 50-55,000 people..not a very exciting town to begin with, and since it was a holiday weekend, even quieter than normal..a nice brunch for us, in a cafe near the boardwalk, ice cream for dessert (when i'm around, dessert is always on the menu:)..on the way out of town we stopped at a lookout point, new zealand has lots of them..it's one of the reasons i adore the country..it's BEAUTIFUL!! dinner that night was at the cafe where jill works..very slow service (definitely NOT the fault of the waitstaff) but good food, and we knew it would be slow, so we didn't mind..good conversation, which included meeting a dairy farmer named taemon..(sp?)
taemon is a dairy farmer..we learned he milks 172 cows twice each day..lynne had expressed an interest in seeing a dairy farm, so ivan arranged for it to happen the next morning..we awoke to another BEAUTIFUL day, appreciated again the BEAUTIFUL view and life jill and howard have every single day, and got ready to go to the dairy farm..again, the wellies proved helpful..when we first arrived, taemon saw us, and brought out a big bucket of fresh, warm milk..he indicated that we should poor it into a giant funnel looking thing that had rubber teats around the outside lip..on the inside of the funnel looking thing, each of those rubber teats was attached to a tube that went down to the bottom, and into the milk we poured in there..each of us put a finger in the milk, then found one of the brand new calves in the pen, and put our finger in it's mouth..the calves were so young that they didn't yet know that the funnel looking thing held milk for them..one of them seemed to think it could find milk by drooling all over my knee..we had to bring them over to the "teats" and get them to start drinking..calves have no teeth, and they seemed to love our fingers!! soooooooooooooooooo cute..once drinking properly, they drank rather quickly..from there we moved into the milking shed..the cows are lined up in two rows, with their backsides faced inward..in between is a lower pathway, about 2m wide..along this pathway, on rails, are the milkers..each one is like half an octopus..that is, there are four little suction things that are attached to the cow and when turned on, do the milking..it's an easy process, you just want to avoid being kicked, peed, or shat upon..(it's not the cleanest area i've ever visited..lynne and i were the only ones who actually wanted to try putting on the milking machines..i've gotta admit it was a little scary when the cows stamped their feet as i was reaching toward their udders, because i know i wouldn't have been able to move fast enough to avoid being kicked had they decided to do so..anywho..at one point i looked up to see ivan, amy and jill laughing hysterically, though i hadn't seen or heard anything funny..it turns out, they had..remember me mentioning that cows aren't potty trained? taemon had been putting on the milking machines as well, but had also been watching lynne and i with the cows..he had noticed that one cow was about to go #2, and that it would've gone all over me..so he "defended" me..he stepped in between me and the cow..so everything that exited the cow went all over him, and almost none of it onto me..he did such a good job of blocking me that i had no idea anything had even happened!! and he didn't say anything either..i wouldn't have known it had happened had amy, ivan and jill not seen it..sooooooooo funny..anywho..after getting out of the area between the cows, taemon shows us the barrel into which he had some of the fresh milk being pumped, and told us we should try it..so we did..who knew that fresh cow's milk could be so good? YUM!!! next we took milk out to some more young calves, though they were old enough that they recognized what was happening, and drank 100L of milk i about 10 minutes..our last activity on the farm was to feed the mama pig who had just given birth..she is a wild pig, and quite ugly..she got to drink the same fresh milk we had tried ourselves and given to the calves..the entire time the piglets were cowering in the back corner of the pen, climbing over themselves continuously in order to try to get warm..very very cute..after taemon had taken off his rubber apron and put on some clean clothes, he took us to his house in progress..it's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous..it's not finished (howard reckoned it had taken him 10 years to get to where it is now) but it's easy to see how amazing it'll be when it is finished..taemon has done all the work himself, including milling local logs!! he also took us down to the creek, and fed his "pet" eels..ugly suckers!! they recognized him, and would eat pieces of luncheon right off his boot, or out of his fingers!!
that was our last morning in taranaki..upon getting back to jill and howard's, we cleaned up, put everything in the car, and drove back up to auckland..amy and ivan dropped lynne and i off at the airport, where we were able to hire a car, as she and i were planning to do a little traveling for the next few days..lynne drove the car back to amy and ivan's as no one trusted me to do so:)

my fourth visit

my flight arrived in bali late at night...rather than pay for a prepaid taxi (ridiculously high rates) into kuta just to find a place to sleep, i spent the night at the airport...morning rolled around, the flies became more active, and it began to be warm...i hopped into a taxi that had just dropped someone off, so i got a metered ride into kuta, for less than half the price of a prepaid taxi...i stayed at the same place i had stayed in july, so that was convenient...

during this trip to bali, i started running...i've done a lot of running in my past, but i haven't done ANY running in the past year or so...after my first half hour of jogging, i slowed down to a walk, and realized that my legs felt like jello...no pain, but they were awfully wiggly...i sped up a few more times for a total of an hour or so of running...the next morning, when i started jogging again, it wasn't very easy...and didn't get any easier as i kept going...later, during that second day, i had problems everytime i wanted to go down...that is, step off a curb, sit down, walk down a hill, etc...my legs would pretty much give out at the very last second...NOT GOOD...so i took off the third day...

while starting again, pretty much entirely from scratch, i realized that it really does involve your entire body!!! who knew your oblique muscles actually are used while running? back in high school when my cross country team did so many ab exercises i always thought it was silly...now i know there was actually a purpose!! and i realized that even though i can walk all day long, it doesn't translate much at all to being fit, and being able to run...i don't think i'd ever been that completely out of shape...embarassing...

my days were all pretty much the same...get up early, go running, go check email, lay out on the beach...eat dinner, read a bit, go to sleep early...

as i was walking from the beach back to my room one day i walked past a little stand set up to register people for a charity run taking place that weekend...the next day i went back with money, and signed myself up...the organizing company was hard rock, but it was sponsored by a number of other companies...the charity being benefited helped kids with cleft palates...the run was supposed to be a 5K...

by taking off that third day from running, i made sure i would be okay for the run on the 4th...and i was...it was just a loop around a really busy block of kuta...but it wasn't so busy at 0730 on a sunday morning:)...after everyone finished, (about 700 people had entered, they said it was the biggest run they'd had, and this was the 9th annual run) they handed out all the raffle prizes, as well as the auction prizes...all in all, it was a well organized event...perhaps one of the nicest parts was the free 10 minute foot massage i got at one of the sponsor tents...so nice:)...sadly, it wasn't a 5K, it was only a 4K...according to the organizers, the police who were doing traffic control turned everyone a little early, so that's why we had all had such fast times...hee hee...oh well...

the rest of my days followed the same pattern i mentioned before...i was tan as all get out when i left bali this time:)...

a new passport

after the retreat in thailand, i came to malaysia again...my passport was nearing 6 months until it expired, and in many countries, if you wish to enter, your passport has to be valid for at least 6 months longer...so i needed a new passport...since malaysia and thailand are the only countries in that area with visas on arrival that are free, and i've seen enough of thailand for now, i decided to come to malaysia to have my passport renewed...
landing in kuala lumpur after the relaxation of the retreat was quite a shock...i like KL, but in comparison it was really really big and crazy and LOUD...
anywho, the morning after arriving, i made my way to the US embassy (which technically meant i left malaysian soil and spent an hour in the US) and dropped off my application and way too much money...go figure, i had turned in the wrong size photos, so i had to run to a kodak shop, have proper size photos taken, and turn those in...they accepted them, and told me to come back with my receipt in a couple weeks...
that night, i met up with layna and a friend of hers, we all boarded a bus that took us to a little town called kuala besut...there is no reason to go there, except to catch a ferry to the perhentian islands...there are two islands, besar (big) and kecil (small)...they're virtually the same in terms of physical appearance (other than size of course) so we went to kecil, because accomodation is cheaper...layna had stayed on kecil when she was last in malaysia, and really enjoyed it...we stayed in the same place she stayed the last time, and i loved it...my original plan was to stay on kecil for 4 nights or so...but i ended up staying 11 nights!!
the water was SUPER clear, and warm...the sand on the beach wasn't the greatest i've ever seen, but it was far from the worst...it was mostly white, and the beach was relatively quiet...there are two main beaches on kecil, coral bay and long beach...long beach is bigger, and much better for laying out...(and we all know i'm the queen of laying out)...you could hire an umbrella for the day, but since that would block all those harmful rays of the sun, i didn't do that...the water was warm, sometimes too warm...it was really really really clear, and absolutely lovely...there were small waves, but you didn't have to worry about being knocked over when the waves came in...during my days on the beach i saw several ladies sitting in the water reading!! more sun for themselves, i'm guessing...hee hee...

anywho, my days were filled with checking email, reading novels, talking to layna and a few other random travelers, and eating yummy pakistani food...nothing strenuous or stressful...in a way, it was nice to be back in the quiet mindset i had during the meditation retreat...

one of the books i read while on that beach was moby dick...it's always been referred to as a classic, but after reading it i have no idea why...i felt like i could've written it...and i'm not a good writer...the author got off topic as much as i do!!! A LOT!!! i know that if i had ever turned in a manuscript like that one to any of my english teachers, they would've covered it in red ink, and returned it to me and told me to rewrite it entirely...there is a lot in that story that has nothing to do with the main storyline...argh...they didn't even see the stupid whale until the last 30 pages of a 580 page book!! i definitely won't be recommending that one to anyone...

the islamic holiday of hari raya took place while i was on kecil...hari raya is the last two or three days of the fasting month of ramaddan...even on the island, which basically depends entirely on tourism, nearly everything was closed...there was only one place open to eat on each beach...i was lucky to be eating with the guys who ran the place i was staying!! during hari raya, friends and family get together and enjoy time together, and eat special foods...ramaddan itself is when muslims fast in order to prove their faith to allah...at least, that's the very general idea...during the month of ramaddan, muslims don't eat OR DRINK between sunrise and sunset...i know i could go w/out eating all day, but in the heat and humidity of malaysia, it doesn't seem healthy or safe to go w/out liquid...anywho...

anywho, after 11 nights on the island, i made my way back to KL...a day trip to the nearby town of seremban, which is easily reachable by commuter train...a very quiet town, especially considering how close it is to KL...i saw a couple churches, a couple mosques, a hindu temple, and met a british lady who had just moved there with her husband who worked on semiconductors...exciting stuff i tell ya...

i often miss what is written right in front of me...the receipt i got when i turned in my passport for renewal said to come back between 0900-1100 m-f mornings...somehow, i missed that, and showed up around 1230 when i came back...oooops...the security people took pity on me, and still let me in...being in that room all by myself was kinda eerie, because it's actually quite loud when everyone is there in the morning...and it's FREEZING when there are no other bodies in there to soak up the air conditioning...i was finally called up to a window, collected my new passport (i hate the picture, the guy taking it wouldn't let me smile...argh) and made my way back to chinatown, where i was staying...i stopped at coffee bean along the way for a much looked forward to chai latte, and they said they were out of the tea they use to make those...HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN???? definitely a disappointment...

after that, i went back to my hostel, picked up my stuff, and went to the aiport...i wasn't completely aware of it, but KL has two major international airports...one is the LCCT, the low coast carrier terminal...basically almost entirely filled with air asia flights...the other is the "normal" international terminal...fully modern, efficient, etc...this time i flew out of LCCT...

a meditation retreat

while we were trekking in nepal, layna and i got to know a couple of brits, nikki and ray...one day, as we were all standing around at the top of our acclimatization day hike, they mentioned a meditation retreat they had done several years ago...i don't know what brought it into the conversation, but layna and i wanted to know as much as possible...after that, we talked regularly about doing this retreat ourselves...i was finally able to do it, in september, toward the end of the trip...
the retreat starts on the 1st of each month, and there is no advance registration...you simply show up the last day of the previous month and register...so i did, on 31 august...during registration i was interviewed by one of the monks who would be talking during the retreat, as well as read the rules for the retreat, paid my (ridiculously small) fees, found my room and set myself up...
during this retreat, everyone has their own room...everyone sleeps on a cement bed that is covered with a simple mat, and a wooden pillow...(i slept like a rock, the entire time!)...electricity is on in the dorms only about 5 hours a day...two hours in the morning, and three hours in the evening...there is no talking, no eye contact...no communication with each other...no cameras, no writing other than to take notes during the dhamma talks, no leaving retreat property...(well, you can, but you don't get to come back...at least 20 people left over the course of the retreat...when i noticed that someone wasn't there anymore, i was dying to know why they'd left, but that information obviously wasn't given out)...i thought no talking would be difficult for me, but it wasn't...the most difficult part for me was not having any dairy...we ate only twice a day, which i thought would be a challenge, but wasn't...the food was good, and there was plenty...

 this is the daily schedule we followed...
0400 - morning wakeup bell
0430 - morning reading
0445-0515 - sitting meditation
0515-0645 - mindfulness through motion
0700-0800 - morning talk by the abbott or more sitting meditation
0800 - breakfast
1000-1100 - sitting meditation or listening to a translated dhamma talk
1100-1145 - walking/standing meditation
1145-1230 - sitting meditation
1230 - lunch
1430-1530 - dhamma talk, usually by the british monk, or sitting meditation
1530-1615 - walking/standing meditation
1615-1700 - sitting meditation
1700-1800 - chanting in pali (the language of the buddha)
1800 - tea time
1930-2000 - sitting meditation
2000-2030 - group walking meditation
2030-2100 - sitting meditation
2130 - lights out
i won't go on and on to describe things, because it think this is an experience you have to have for yourself...it wasn't enjoyable, that's the wrong word to use...but i loved it, and definitely want to go back someday for another retreat...i've heard that your second retreat is far more difficult than your first!

china 4

i ended up in beijing again for a day after returning from pyongyang...kitty's boyfriend picked up the two of us from the airport, which was really nice...his name is bing (yes, like the new search engine microsoft is trying to promote) and he speaks fluent english...she speaks fluent putonghua, so their conversations go back and forth between the two languages...i loved listening...
we went to kitty's apartment so we could upload all of our photos to her computer and burn them onto dvds together...she had run out of memory on her camera, so she used one of my memory cards during the last day of the tour...she lives in an awesome apartment...it's in one of the diplomatic compounds, and is HUGE...a big living room, two large bedrooms, a nice big bathroom, an entry hallway, a kitchen, etc...NICE!!! we went to lunch, she ordered for all of us...yummy dumplings with various fillings, one even had soup in there!!! she and bing went for massages they had scheduled earlier, and i was able to play around on internet for a while...she's got some program that makes the computer people in china think she's in the states, so i was able to access blogs and sites like facebook that i wasn't normally able to get to in china...clearly, i wasted a couple of hours, but it felt good...when they got back from their massages, bing called a hostel he knew of in xi'an and booked me in for the next day...how great a guy is that??!!!
after hanging out and watching a couple episodes of arrested development (which i've never before seen but kitty enjoys and bing tolerates) we went to a grocery store so i could get some snacks for the train...by that point i had a massive headache from all the traveling during the day and whatnot, and i was incapable of making decisions...kitty found me in one of the aisles just staring at biscuits, not able to think or figure out what i wanted...lol...after the grocery store they drove me to the train station i needed...again, AWESOME PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!
my night train arrived in xian earlier than expected, which was both good and bad...bing had arranged for the hostel people to come pick me up, but they werent there...and i didn't know the name of the hostel...so i called his mobile and he told me to hop in a taxi and have the driver call him, and he'd give the driver directions...which i did, he did, and everything was fantastic...the hostel was GREAT...i had a six bed dorm to myself the whole time...another water filter, more free internet...plus, at the end, when i needed to print out an address in chinese characters the printer wasn't working, but one of the hostel staff wrote it out for me (i pulled up the message from email) on a piece of paper...i love helpful people...
xi'an is another ancient capital of china...it was the seat of emperor qin shi huang, of the qing dynasty...i think...he was known as the great unifier...i guess before him china wasn't really one country, it was a whole bunch of kingdoms and the like that usually worked together a bit, but not always...anywho, his armies got everyone together...like it or not...he thought a lot of himself, and was rather tyrannical...according to some person or another, he even made most tyrants look good compared to him!!...(though chinese historians are trying to make him sound a bit nicer now)...his tomb is not too far from the city...his tomb isn't actually open to go into, as archeologists haven't gone into it themselves...they don't think they'll find much in there, they're pretty sure it was looted not too long after the guy was buried...some people pay to wander around the area anywho...(have i mentioned that nothing in china is free? even an unopened tomb?)...the guy thought so much of himself that he assumed he would continue to rule even after death...in preparation for that, he had two bronze chariots buried in his tomb...he also had the army of terracotta warriors created...it's one of the most famous sights in china...
absolutely STUNNING...around 7000 individual soldiers were created...the detail in which they were created is awesome...each one of them has a different face...all of their uniforms are accurate, and you can even see things like the treads on the bottoms of the shoes of the kneeling archers!!! the site has been excavated in three pits...pit 3 is where the command center would've been...it's filled with senior officers, and the nicer horses...pit 2 is the least excavated, but it's huge, and promises to have quite a few horses and soldiers in it...pit 1 is the most impressive...it's been mostly excavated, and archeologists are doing a great job of putting some of the soldiers back together properly and standing them all as they once stood...an incredible sight...well worth the 90 yuan ($1USD = 6.5 yuan) fee...the whole thing is brilliant...
because xi'an was an ancient city, that means they also had city walls...unlike just about everywhere but nanjing, the city walls are still intact...you can walk all the way around them, it takes about 4 hours at a leisurely pace...i did it in 3, walking quickly...the walls are wide, and the renovations have been done really well...all the original watchtowers and gates have been kept in decent condition as well...xi'an retains it's original drum tower and bell tower as well...i didn't reckon i'd see anything exceptional from inside either one, so i opted just to walk around outside, for free...they're in the middle of the area covered by the old city walls, and there is a large market area near the old drum tower...the market is mostly full of stalls selling kitchy knick knacks, but there are some good food stalls too...during this visit to china i've fallen in love with chinese street food...it's great!!
from xi'an i took a night train to shanghai...now it was my turn to have a standing room ticket...it was definitely a LOOOOOOONG night...especially as the train was over an hour late in arriving in shanghai...fortunately, my friend claire had given me her address written in chinese characters, as well as excellent written directions, so it was easy to get a taxi to the right intersection, then walk to her flat...
claire has a fantastic flat, i'm quite jealous!! she's really close to her university, and really close to any shopping she might need...and not too far from a subway station, though a new one is supposed to open up even closer to her flat in october (a 5 minute walk!)...claire is a friend of mine through rugby in korea, for those of you who don't know...she's canadian...which, as we pointed out to a taxi driver in seoul, long ago, is NOT the same as american...hee hee...
shanghai is under construction at the mo, well, the parts that tourists would want to see...the city is preparing to host the world expo next year...so i didn't get to walk along the bund as i wanted to, but oh well...shanghai is like no other part of china...it's the most modern city, it doesn't have the ancient traditions of xian or beijing...but it still has a personality...
one of the nights claire and i met up with some of the folks she's met for drinks and dinner...dinner for me, drinks for everyone else...lol...one of the funniest nights i've had in a long time...(claire, you'll remember orange jello and lemon jello?)...the following afternoon i attended touch rugby practice...lets just say that i'm a wee bit out of shape...but it felt good to be running around...whereva i end up next, i need to get involved in the local rugby crowd!
anywho, i thought i was flying out of shanghai...b/c the air asia web site lists shanghai...but when i looked closer at my itinerary, it was actually for hangzhou airport, which is a couple hours away...ooops...so i had to train it to hangzhou, then catch a bus to the airport...not difficult at all, except that the train was over an hour late in leaving shanghai, and finding the shuttle bus to the airport in hangzhou was only accomplished with the assistance of a chinese speaking british guy...thank goodness for strangers!!!
and that's the end of china...

the democratic people's republic of korea

north korea...a place most people don't really know much about...sure, there is a lot in the news, but it's almost always bad, and portrays the country in a negative light...

for starters, a few facts: the official name is the democratic people's republic of korea...(in north korea they simply call it korea...just as they do in the south)...the capital is the city of pyongyang, with just over 2 million residents...no one is sure what the total number of north korean citizens is, as the government hasn't been very clear on that figure...back in the 90s ('95 i think?) there was a terrible famine, and the north korean government was (and continues to be) secretive about the effects on the country...anywho, most estimates of north korean citizens range from 20-25 million...though some people say the number could be as low as 18 million...(by comparison, south korea has approximately 50 million citizens)...the language is still korean of course, but it's different from that spoken in south korea...it's a bit more formal...basically, the language hasn't changed in the north like it has in the south...the president is kim il sung, even though he's been dead for 15 years...when he died, (in 1994) the people mourned him and decided they liked him so much that they still wanted him to be president...his son, kim jong il, the current leader of the country has some other official title...
anywho, for those of you who haven't figured it out, yes, americans are allowed into north korea...at least, they are for the time being...the rules on such things vary, and are never stable...it really depends on the current mood of the north korean government...howeva, there is one additional on americans...americans can only get a visa during the time the arirang mass games are going on, which is usually from mid august to mid october each year...americans also get an extra guide for their group...

my trip started with a meeting in beijing the day before we flew to pyongyang...at the meeting, which took place at the offices of the tour company, we were given some general guidelines on behavior, cultural differences, and general expectations...we were also told what we would, and would not (mostly would not) be allowed to do while in the dprk...no photos unless we had permission...no photos of soldiers, except when we were at the DMZ...no walking by ourselves unless we were on hotel property...no doing anything by ourselves...behave respectfully...(one person in particular in the group had quite a bit of trouble with this)...we were given our group visa and told when and where to meet at the beijing airport...

my group was six people in all...i was the 2nd youngest...the other woman in the group has lived in china for nearly a decade, and speaks putonghua generally fluently...there was another esl teacher who lives in beijing, a lawyer who lives in beijing and is married to a chinese woman...a teacher from minnesota, and the youngun was a guy working his way up in the corporate world and putting himself through school at the same time in new york...
the next day i met the group at the airport, we checked in and boarded our flight...koryo air has old russian planes, they're small!!! one of the things i noticed first was the number of north koreans flying back to the dprk...the way the media portrays north korea, i always had the impression that VERY FEW people travel internationally from north korea...it's easy to tell who is a north korean, they all wear small pins of kim il sung on the left side of their chest...we landed, and deplaned down a short flight of stairs...even though we could see the terminal, a mere 200m or less away, (with a rather large picture of kim il sung visible on top of the building) we still had to board a bus to ride to the building...quite possibly the smallest airport i've ever been through...and also the only airport where it seemed to be okay for us to take pictures...not inside, but outside, before getting on the bus to the terminal, long trip that that was...they had four lines for customs/passport inspection/visa inspection...none of them were designated for foreigners, so it didn't matter what line we went through...but since we were on a group visa, we had to do that together as well...howeva, during our time in line, two of the guys in our group were pulled away into a side room...the first time, we didn't know what was happening, and were a little scared...but when he came back, he said it was just a temperature check...(the swine flu has the entire world worried!)...when they pulled the second guy away, he was in the room for longer, it turned out they checked him twice...needless to say, he was a bit nervous, especially as they had taken his passport to use as identification in case his temperature really was too high...

our guides met us at the airport, 1 woman and two men...they were friendly enough, their english good, their accents good as well...we all introduced ourselves, and hopped in the minibus we'd be riding in throughout our stay in korea...we first drove to the arch of triumph...it looks just like the arc de triomphe in paris (france) but this one is 3m taller, as we were quickly told...mostly the arch celebrates the liberation of korea, and has several dates inscribed on it, dates important in the life of kim il sung...i don't remember what they were, sorry...because there isn't a lot of traffic in pyongyang, it was easy to stand in the middle of the road to get a centered photo...

from the arch we went to our hotel, which is on an island in the middle of the river that runs through the city...(again, i've forgotten the name of the river)...our hotel is 47 stories tall, the highest of which is a revolving restaurant...we checked into the 19th floor, and our rooms were just like what you would find in any hotel in the US...two large beds, ensuite bathroom with a tub, trial size stuff on the bathroom counter, area to hang up clothes, tv that got bbc, window with a fabulous view of the city...there didnt seem to be many other tourists...one thing we never did find out was how many floors of the hotel were actually occupied...the hotel also had a basement area with a sauna, casino, and more...

we met our guides for dinner tonight at one of the restaurants in the hotel...i believe it was restaurant #2 that night...it was the first of many HUGE meals...they just kept bringing us food!! i was happy, as i like korean food, but i noticed not everyone in the group felt the same way...anywho...after dinner, we assembled again, hopped in the minibus, and drove to may day stadium to see a performance of the arirang mass games...
WOW...WOW...WOW...WOW...there are no words to adequately describe this performance...think marching band halftime performance at a gridiron game...then make it last 1.5 hours instead of 10 minutes...then multiply the number of people involved until you get to 80,000...then, instead of the entire stadium being spectators, think the other side of the stadium as another 20,000 people holding up coloured cards and creating amazing backdrops...absolutely outstanding...i took a gazillion photos, of course...but they don't do the event justice...it's incredible...after the show, we went back to the hotel, my roommate kitty and i went to sleep fairly quickly...
driving through the city several times that first day one of my observations was that the city seemed so empty...there were six lane and four lane roads everywhere, but so few people have cars (those are only allowed for the super high and mighty elite) that there is virtually no traffic, save for buses and trolleys...it was a bit eerie...while driving back from the mass games i also realized how dark it was...really really dark...the roads are lit at night, but just barely...and i doubt they're lit all night...this is a city of 2 million, but there isn't much light...certainly no neon signs...there is no nightlife...

the next day was a full day of touring around the city...i dont remember each and everything we saw, but the day included several LARGE monuments, the juche idea tower, (north korea isn't the first to come up with the idea of self reliance, but they do take it to a whole new level,) the grand people's study house, and more...lets just say that nothing in korea is normal sized...we saw at least one museum that day, maybe more...we also saw the sight where the USS sherman was fired upon (way back in the 1800s...the dprk generally considers that the beginning of it's ongoing fight against western imperialists) which is where they now display the USS pueblo...according to the dprk it was an american spy ship (in the 1960s?) they captured...after confessing (the written confessions are displayed in the ship,) the crew were repatriated to the states...the US says it was a vessel on a peaceful voyage...i'm sure the truth of the story is somewhere in the middle...throughout the day, as we visited each place, we were given a brief history of what it was, and thanks were usually given to "our president" (kim il sung) or "our leader" (kim jong il) for their assistance in creating these places...the juche tower was one of the most interesting to me, it basically is a tower with a flame (not real) on top of it...i liked it because we were able to ride the elevator to the top, then step outside and have great views of the city...unfortunately, it was rainy and windy, so we didn't stay out there for long...
the next day was another day of touring around the city...but that morning we started with two of the most important places in the city...well, important to koreans...first, the mausoleum of kim il sung...it isn't open to the general public, even koreans must apply for an invitation...for the mausoleum, visitors are asked to dress properly...that is, close toed shoes, knees and shoulders covered for women...korean women wear their traditional dress, called a chosunbok...(hanbok in south korea)...men are asked to wear shirts and ties, preferably with slacks...as soon as we got there, we all wished we were wearing more, they have the air conditioning cranked in the entire complex...and a complex it is...it makes the mausoleums of other former leaders i've visited (lenin, sun yat sen, ho chi minh) look small by comparison...in one of the first rooms we entered, we deposited our cameras...the room is large, but i don't think they ever have to hold onto much, as koreans don't have much...we road along several of those flat escalators for a while, during which we noticed no one was smiling or talking...eventually we reached a large room with a large statur of kim il sung...it was white, and the white area behind it was lit with pinks/blues/purples...supposed to create a sense of peace i think? i'm not entirely sure...i was freezing already...out of that room we walked into another large room where we faced a bank of elevators...we lined up and were ushered into the next elevator to open...(throughout this particular visit we never had to wait for the koreans who were also there visiting...they seemed to just patiently watch us walk ahead)...a quick ride to the next floor, and we lined up again after walking out...walked through a metal detector sort of thingy that blew air at us...combine that with the shoe cleaners we walked over as we entered the complex, they weren't taking chances on anyone bringing anything into the complex, howeva unintentional...and finally, we walked into the room where the body is kept...we lined up again, in rows of 4...starting at the feet...at a cue from our guides, we bowed...then walked clockwise, and bowed again on cue...walked to the head, no bowing...bowed again on the other side, before walking out of the room...so quiet, and so cold...we also visited a room where every single medal/honor given to kim il sung is displayed...they're arranged mostly by area of the world...that is, by continent...he's apparently an honorary citizen of lots of cities, and has a few degrees as well...some of the medals he was given are actual honours in those countries/cities...some of them they probably hand out to just about any visitor...there is one from the US...well, not the country itself...a uni in the US gave him an honorary masters in international relations...whateva your opinion of the guy, you have to admit he knew all about internationa relations...
from the mausoleum we drove to a cemetary dedicated to the martyrs of the anti japanese revolution...(before what we call the korean war, the koreans has finally gotten rid of the japanese colonialists)...i don't remember how many are buried there, but it's quite fancy...each person has a bust, and the busts all face down the hill, looking over the city...they're spaced so that each of them has a view of the city, they're not blocking each other..at the top of the cemetary is a row of the most important folks...one of those is kim il sung's wife (for the life of me i can't remember her name)...she's commonly referred to as the anti japanese heroine...i think she is also kim jong ils mother?
later that day we went to the hut where kim il sung is said to be born...again, history has been changed in korea, no one outside of korea really knows if he was born there...it seems awfully convenient if he was...one of the stories guides like to tell there is that his grandfather continued to work as a farmer, even after kim il sung became leader of the country...he is supposed to have said that he wasn't a leader, he was a farmer...
after that, we went to what they call the schoolchildrens palace...it's not actually a palace, but it is a huge building...the luckiest kids in the city go there for three hours each day and take extracurricular classes...ballet, calligraphy, accordion, and a whole lot more...we were able to peek into a few classrooms...after seeing some of the classes we were taken to the auditorium for a performance...part of the auditorium was filled with korean schoolkids, i'm not sure whether they also attended the schoolpalace classes?...i don't know how often this performance is done, probably once a week or so...anywho, it was another highlight of the trip...singing and dancing...i know part of it is because they practice practice practice, but these kids are good...really really good...and as the pit was raised at the end of the show so we could applaud the orchestra, i realized they had played the entire show w/out any music...really really impressive...i also noticed that the percussion section of the orchestra was more than half female...that's not the norm, at least not in the states...
the last full day in korea, we took a day trip...about a 3 hour bus ride down south, to the town of kaesong...it's an ancient town, and was a capital of one of the dynasties that existed before the current countries of north and south korea...the silla dynasty i think? we saw an old temple, one that was used by that dynasty as a university to teach about confuscionism and buddhism...(the current regime doesn't have religion in any form, but they don't mind showing that it did used to be a part of life)...we also visited the DMZ from the north side...a very different experience from visiting on the south side...believe it or not, the visit on the north side was much shorter, and far less full of propaganda...we saw the blue buildings that sit on the dividing line of the two countries, and entered the middle one through the door on the north side...as i've been in that building previously, it didn't mean as much to me, though i knew a few things that weren't mentioned by our soldier/tour guide...we walked through the buildings where the armistice meetings were held, and where it was actually signed...interestingly, the US formed one side of the meetings, but operated under the flag of the UN...not the US flag...then the drive back to pyongyang, for our last dinner in the country..
the next morning we left the country...after giving gifts to and thanking our guides because they were fantastic...