Entries this day: Hello_from_Le_Havre Miki Salsa Students_back_in_town

Hello from Le Havre

Hello from Le Havre

2:05pm CEST Saturday 02 July 2005

Hello from Le Havre, France!  This city of 100,000 features some
museums and gardens, and old architecture that I can't name, but
reminds me of old paintings.  I've written more detail about our Le
Havre wanderings in my journal (http://robnugen.com/journal/) dated
July 2nd.

I think the last time I wrote was in Egypt (Port Said) after we saw
the three Great Pyramids and Sphinx in Cairo.

After that, we landed in Piraeus, Greece, which was a short train ride
to Athens, where I walked around alone.  I was pretty much not in the
mood for chatting, though I can't remember specifically why.  It was
probably related to issues regarding plans in Jamaica... but that is a
different story.

In Athens, after visiting an old church (by 'old' I mean 2500 years,
and by 'church' I mean rubble strewn remains of walls) where I was not
allowed to take a picture of Francois sitting on the wall, I padded
barefootedly around the Acropolis entrance and the Parthenon (I think)
though I wasn't allowed to enter either without shoes.

I can basically understand the reason (that I heard later via rumor):
the modern Greek culture desires that the ancient greek ruins be
treated with reverence and respect.  No climbing, funny faces, bare
feet, stuffed animals.  These are 2000+ year old works of art.  Not
part of some large playground.

Instead of putting on shoes, I ate ice cream and wrote post cards next
to a little kiosk where I had seen a rather large turtle trapped
behind a fence designed to keep me out of the Acropolis (not, I
imagine, designed to keep turtles in).  I took a picture of him with
Francois in the foreground.  Had there been no other people around, I
would have put Francois on the turtle, and then later may have
regretted my decision had the turtle become frightened by my antics.

I felt quite better after my day alone in Athens, and after eating
another ice cream.

Interesting things in Athens:

1) while sitting outside the train station, I saw two dogs running
loose in the street, inadvertantly scaring pigeons and basically being
happy dogs.  They ran inside the train station, barked for a bit and
ran back out and down the street.

2) the train stations don't force people to buy tickets.  Bypassing
the gates is a trivial matter; I don't know if there is some hidden
enforcement that I didn't see.

3) while walking back to the boat, I saw some men with an extremely
efficient way of towing illegally parked cars.  They simply remove the
license plates and put a ticket on the windshield.  Granted, this
can't really be called towing, but it achieves the same purpose.  The
car owner must proceed immediately to the license plate retrieval
location and pay a fine to get the plates back.

- - -

In Italy, we landed on Sciliy in Catania.  From there, I walked around
with Niveen, a Palestinian student who has been onboard with Elait, an
Israeli student since Jordan.

((They've been telling us the horrors of the Israeli occupation in
Palestine: 8 meter wall being built through villages; random
checkpoints within the city with rules that change daily, forcing
people to lose hours of time every day; propoganda from the Israeli
government saying "We need the wall for security against these
attacks," when the truth is the attacks are due to the wall and
the occupation itself.))

After wandering around the Catania fish market, ogling the huge
variety of fish, eating gelati and pizza and various fruits, we
convened with Audrey, Allison, Natalie, et. al. near an outdoor
clothing market and chowed fresh large red and green peppers stuffed
with cheese and basil and olives.  Super thanks to Audrey for
expanding my brain to a new way of eating a cheap, simple, healthy,
delicious meal!

Our group took a train to Taormina, which had been accurately
described as a beautiful spot to visit.  The view from the top of the
hill can be augmented with pay-binoculars for a close up view of the
crystal waters and surrounding hills facing the sea.

We had to hurry back, so we took a taxi.  But that put us far enough
ahead of schedule that we were able to stop by the beach (I'll
recognize the name if you say it) for about 10 minutes.  The water
looked clear enough to drink (though I assure you it's too salty to
drink much) and was too cold for me to do more than wade.

- - -

In Barcelona, we arrived on a Sunday, which also happened to be a
national holiday.  Most of the shops were closed, but La Rambla and
the main tourist places were still active.  On La Rambla, a street of
kiosks and street performers, I was impressed by the ability of a man
dressed like the devil: he could leap out of his box and stand on top
of it for a photo, then collapse as if falling back into his box.  I
was unimpressed, however, with his manners.  After seeing a couple of
people come up to him for pictures, I went up and he was like, "go
away" and then he yelled at all the onlookers "go away!  move
on!"...  it was really strange, and I can't imagine it's part of his
act.  I didn't give him any money.

Niveen and I saw the Sagrada Familia (sp) and cliimbed its 340+ steps
to peer over the edges of its spiraling towers and see the continuing
construction.  The church is really beautiful in its ugliness, and I
must give props to the original architect for his vision.  I enjoyed
running down the tight spiral steps, because it could definitely be
described as dangerous, and it made me dizzy.  There is no handrail
in the center: just a vertical column of a hole about a foot wide.

Niveen and I visited Park Guell, another fair climb to the top of its
hill, though escalators are available.  (I didn't use them.)  From the
park, the view of the city featured Sagrada Familia nestled within the
smaller buildings, all surrounded by mountains in the distance.

We chatted about life, specifically her plans for the future and my
lack of plans for the future.

- - -

In Le Havre, France, I am sitting now on the top deck of our ship on
Sunshine Bar.  This place will come alive again in about 7 hours, when
people crowd the sides of the boat for the departure ceremony.  Next
stop: Norway!

Again, my Le Havre entry is online at
http://robnugen.com/cgi-local/journal.pl?type=all&date=2005/07/02 

Miki

10:26am CEST Sunday 03 July 2005

Going to Windjammer right now to meet the German IS students. I've had about 1 sleep cycle of sleep, and am feeling pretty good.

- - - -

Man, Miki is so beautiful. She needs to stop being 16 right away.

Salsa

5+pm CEST Sunday 03 July 2005

At Salsa now. Tons of new students so Natalie is teaching everyone from scratch. Chaotic, but fun.

1:06am CEST Monday 04 July 2005

Wow. July 4th. Three days after Canada Day.

I really enjoyed dancing with Miki. I like the shape of her mouth. Pat was like, "dude, she is sixteen!" and I shouted to the universe, "Miki, stop being sixteen!!"

This is the day I took pictures of Not Enough, Enough, and Too Much tea.

This is the day I wrote my Intermediate and Advanced lesson: "what would you do if you won a hyperjillion dollars?" I predict they will want to buy new cars and stuff like that. If they do, I will say "stoppit; be more creative," or something.

I turned in my requested dates to play Silent Football today.

Students back in town

My three students who were out of town for the first three days of class (second term) are now back in town. Hahaha that's funny "in town." I mean "on the boat."