Checking in

Hey everyone, I know I haven't been posting much recently. It was such a hustle to move out/finish work, and I'm currently traveling. I promise to update with lots of pictures once I get home in a few days about other parts of Italy!!!

I guess winter has advantages...

Because penguins in July are awesome!

this was taken below a boardwalk which was absolutely freezing.  There is an island called Phillip Island that just gets bombarded from the antarctic winds and the penguins just love it there.  I went down there with a couple friends and stopped at a nature reserve for a while and got to experience the other Australian animals (koalas, wombats, echidnas, emus, dingos, and of course kangaroos)

There is a series of rock formations, and the seals love them so I got to see a few from a distance.  The rock formation below is called the blowhole and the seals are there all year around.

The wind here was about 30 mph and with wind chill the temperature was around 0 degrees Fahrenheit.  Tomorrow I'm headed down the Great Ocean Road which overlooks the south pacific ocean with cliffs for miles and has some really cool landmarks.   It's mostly sandstone formations that decay quickly over the decades so I'm really glad I'm going to get to see them.

Cheers,

James

Thoughts of home

The week has been fairly quiet. I gave a short presentation on wednesday about the progress of my investigations which went fairly well. I honestly hate these presentations because(as i'm sure you've all discovered by now) in research there will often be long stretches of time where you get no new definitive results are data. Then i'm stuck presenting 10-12 slides of the same basic results from my last presentation. Sadness
Monday was nice. It was Umi No Hi, which roughly translates to Sea Day. From what i've been told, the previous emperor was a marine biologist in his sparetime, so he pushed for the creation of a national holiday honoring the sea. Hey, whatever gets me a day off. I went to a beach in Kobe with a fellow American in my group. Neither of us had been there before so we got lost a couple times along the way, so we had a bit of an adventure. The beach was nice, although insanely crowded. I grew up in Florida, and the beaches i went to were relatively sparsely populated, so it was a bit of a shock to get off the tram and see the entire shoreline crowded with people. The water was nice, though i had a bit of a run-in (literally) with a jellyfish. I was swimming back to the shore and my hand bumped right into it's smooth bell, so i didn't get stung but it was still startling.
I'm starting to get a little homesick. It's odd for me because i've been abroad for long periods of time before, but i never got homesick then. I'm a little PO-ed because i've been looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight for over a year now, but it doesn't come out in Japan until August 9th, and i return on August 13th. I'm just gonna wait till i get home to see it. My brother(who also highly anticapited the movie and has already seen it) is picking me up from my return and had considered taking me straight from the airport to the movie theater. Don't know i'll be up for that, but i can't wait to see it.

Temples Galore

Well, I didn't get around to leaving Kyoto and exploring the nearby towns this weekend, but i still got plenty of tourist action in. I visited a couple Buddhist Temples instead. I had originally planned on only visiting Kiyomizu-dera, one of the more famous temples in Kyoto, but i got lost along the way and ended up visiting another temple called Chion-in. Both were very impressive, but seeing as how Kiyomizu-dera is more famous, it was also more touristy and crowded, which was a bit of a let down. Still interesting and fun though. Oh, in reference to our meeting discussions about suicide rates in Japan, Kiyomizu-dera is renowned for being a place were people jump off it's large veranda. Originally it was believed that if you survived the fall then you would have your wish granted. However, it has become a site where sometimes people come to intentionally commit suicide, much like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Thankfully, most people survive the fall due to the heavy vegetation below.
On monday, the AC was broken in my office and the office next to mine, as with the heat index at 95 degrees F, we decided to take the day of and go swimming at a nearby lake, known as Biwa-ko, which was considerably more fun than work. This week also so the Gion Matsuri, one of the most famous festivals in Japan. It originates form the repurifaction of the Yasaka Shrine, but as with many things in Japanese culture it has become a secular festival as well, with lots of kiosks, street vendors, parades, and performances.

Villas, Castles, and Prisons, Oh My!

As my time in Rome is soon coming to an end, I'm beginning to feel a little anxiety about leaving, so I am frantically trying to see as much of Rome/Italy as I can. On Saturday I did a little shopping (surprisingly for the first time in Italy!!!!) with my roommate because the season is changing and clothes are pretty much half off in all the stores. Afterwards she went home and I decided to do a little twilight touristing. Along with some churches, I managed to see the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Campidoglio. This was a little oblong square surrounded by civic government houses on top of the Capitoline Hill designed by Michelangelo. This statue is also on the 50 cent euro coin, and I had always wondered why there was a starry/flowery design on the bottom. Now I know why.

On Sunday I got up bright and early to go to Tivoli again to see the ruins of Villa Adriana, which was a retreat for Emperor Hadrian. I met this Korean girl on the bus named He Seoun and we ended up walking around together. The bus dropped us off at this "stop" and we ended up walking another 45 minutes along questionable road signs at brisk pace before arriving at the entrance. However the villa was truly beautiful and I'm so glad I saw it, with lots of ponds, baths, temples, etc. However, the most beautiful pieces are in museums all over the world now. The design of the villa are supposedly to remind the Emperor of his favorite places in the world.

Mosaic on the floor of one of the rooms that housed the Emperor's guard. There are 3 niches for beds and a pretty floor in the middle. Each room's design was unique.

The "Maritime Theater" but actually a round artificial island with the Hadrian's private study. In antiquity there were 2 drawbridges that were let down if he wanted to enter. He is said to have also swam in the canal surround the island. Now there are little fish.

The Canopus, named after an Egyptian city of the same name. There is a long reflecting pool with some remaining fountains

The four figures in the center are copies of the copies Hadrian made of the karyatids on the Erecthion in Athens.

View of Tivoli, which sits on top of a mountain. Beyond are the other mountains: the Monti Tiburtini.

When I returned that evening, a friend and I climbed Gianicolo Hill in Rome. This hill is actually very tall but not considered one of the "Seven Hills" because it is on the other side of the river and way outside of the ancient city. The monuments on the hill were constructed about 150 years ago, after the Reunification of Italy by Garibaldi and his "1000 Heroes," or his Redshirt army Each of these heroes has a bust on Gianicolo Hill, but Garibaldi gets an enormous statue (that I could not capture in the night light) and his wife Anita gets a smaller one a short distance away.

View of Rome from a monument of a lighthouse on Gianicolo, see Piazza Venezia in the center. The cross-shaped building in the foreground is actually a very famous prison. Supposedly from this location, the acoustics are very good so the wives of prisoners (before phones were invented...?) would come to this point and declare their undying love for their husbands.

We then went to the Castel Sant'Angelo, which is the enormous fortress on the Tiber River. It used to be the Mausoleum of Hadrian, but most of it was torn down to build the fortress that also has a fortified corridor to the Vatican to protect the Pope. Inside we got a special ticket to see the the prisons. They were actually nice prison chambers, rather large in size. I think they showed us the best prisons and omitted any torture devices. The Castel is now a national museum, but it has actually been turned into a tourist hotspot. With our ticket, we could eat at the restaurant or get food at the bar and sit on the tables overlooking the Tiber or with a view of St. Peter's. There were also shows of stand-up comics and four-string quartets and the platform to one of the four towers had been turned into a tango dance floor.

A relic catapult? There was a pile of projectiles to the right. See the comedian in the background.

View of the Tiber River from the top of the Castel.

St. Peter's at night.

One of the many fashion exhibitions present in the Castel.

At midnight, we were surprised by the sounds of blasting, so we swiftly climbed to the topmost terrace to see the fireworks display. It was a great way to end the night.

And in lab....I've gotten to perform even more surgeries so I'm actually getting pretty good at it. It still takes me a long time though, because of what others in the lab have dubbed my "gentle touch." People are basically spending these days analyzing the data and such, and Dr. Badiani has gone on a vacation in Brazil. We just got another batch of rats, which I think will be getting some intracranial lesions and then have their self-administration observed. Unfortunately, I will only be here for the handling of the mice, and I won't get to see the surgeries.

I am so sad to have only about a week left in Rome. There is still sooooooooo much to see. Maybe I will get some more in this week before I go.

Crazy

I'm starting to blog about my crazy weekend last week around Tokyo. Hope you'll read it.

tasooey.blogspot.com

Tim Soo

One Blog to Rule them All

Yes, yes, I know I haven’t been posting as nearly as much as I wanted to. There is hardly a dull moment here in Germany that I’m looking forward to having a “quiet week” where I’m not moving a lot but still enjoying the atmosphere. Soooo (imitating my supervisor), in lab I’ve been coming between 8:30 and 9 in the morning and on average leave lab between 5:30 to 6:30. There is almost always work to do but we frequently socialize in lab (auf Deutsch natuerlich!, in german of course). But really, it’s starting to become 50:50 between English and German during my conversations in lab. I’ve even made progress in my German chemistry. And my conversational german has really made great strides in the short time I’ve been here. Short because I can almost smell the end of my time here in Germany, which I don’t look forward to.

And when there is a dull moment in lab, my supervisors Robert or Stefan, “moechtest du ein Bier?” Would you like a beer? This occurs in the afternoons, so we’re not morning alcoholics. And so after work the group is either having a barbeque, soccer, or dodgeball. And when I don’t have these things occupying my time, I have to do grocery shopping, laundry, skyping home, planning my weekends, or again, socializing with German/European Exchange students in my dorm. Ahh, if only my time here was not so finite!

Anyhow/ways, back to the weekend/annual/bimonthly report. I finally irradiated my flavins so that they could oxidize paramethoxy-benzalcohol substrates

We irradiated with 440 nanometer light for five minutes under several pH ranges and had a corresponding relation for the conversion factors. I think we had 75% conversion at around pH 6ish.

After my weekend in Baden-Baden, I went to visit my friend and former German TA at Emory German Studies department, Benjamin Becker in Koeln, or as we know it in English, Cologne. Okay, Okay, Italian churches look nice and fancy and I’ve been to Notre Dame, but the church in Cologne is the titanic of churches. I can’t even come up with words to describe adequately how huge it is. It easily towers anything in the city.

I met up with Ben and we toured the city and also met his Uni-friends from Koeln/Cologne. We watched the Netherlands/Russia game at the D4 (German TV station) and afterwards we got to be in the live audience of the German post-game show “Nach getreten”, which is more of a comedy-spin show for the European championships. I’ll try to find a clip sometime.

We also saw the Gestapo museum. Apparently the Gestapo had an office in Koeln, as they did in many places, but this one also functioned as a small prison. I would like to describe the Gestapo with much more graphic language but I must control such impulses. I also had the opportunity to taste some of the local Cologne beer, which is surprisingly taken in smaller quantities when compared to the Bavarian cousin. The following photo is of me with Benjamin at his office in Koeln before we departed. When he’s not working in the German department in the US, he’s working in the English Department at Koeln/Cologne.

The week following Koeln/Cologne was different because my supervisor, Robert, left for Venezuela on his honeymoon. Therefore, I continued working with the other PhD student in the lab, Stefan, who happened to already have 2 other undergrads working with him. His work has similar applications but instead he works with Friedel craft reactions and Graetzel cells. So up until now I’ve been working with Stefan.

On the week of the 4th, I had the RISE/DAAD conference in Heidelberg, which started on a Wednesday. Therefore I decided to take off the week days leading up to the conference to make a long weekend starting on July 27th. And in that time, I visited Lisbon and Madrid.

I was coincidentally in Madrid the same time as the European Football Championship game. I stayed in La Plaza Colon, which was the main viewing area for the game. They had setup a small open air studio that hosted live artists as well as the pregame, halftime game and post game show. During the game, there was almost no breathing room in that mass of human beings. As we all know, Spain won, and the reaction in Madrid and I’m sure all over Spain was epic. Looking down any street, all you saw was people sporting the nation’s colors, red and yellow. Fireworks were launching and people were celebrating like it was the last night on Earth. I, myself, almost got hit by a rogue firework that someone had set off in the street. Incredible and unforgettable are the only words to describe the atmosphere and feeling that night.

The rest of the time was spent in Lisbon, Portugal. Its a really pretty city and definitely has a different feeling to it from the any German city. For one, it’s an Atlantic coastal city, which there aren’t very many of in Europe, at least, not of the size of Lisbon. The city has many monuments to the famous Portuguese explorers who set sail around the world. There is also a really big castle on one of the higher hills, which overlooks the city. Unlike the German castles that we think of, which are basically fancy palaces, this castle was an actual fortification. It was originally built by the Portuguese Moors but conquered by King Afonso Henriques ( I believe) and since named after Sao Jorge (St. George). Ironically, just like another Portuguese-speaking city, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon has a huge Christ statue facing the city from across the water. Lisbon also has the largest stone arch in the world, if you’re a big arch fan.Parque Eduardo VII (looking onto Rio Tejo that flows into Atlantic)

(25th of April Bridge leading to Cristo Rei statue on other side. A little bit like the Golden Gate bridge? Well, the same construction company built this one too).

Castelo de Sao Jorge. (Its way too big to fit in one picture obviously)

I couldn't resist not taking a photo of this.

From Lisbon, I went to Munich, and from there I went to Heidelberg. The RISE DAAD program hosted us in the local Hostel, which wasn’t bad and used the University of Heidelberg to host the introduction and welcome. In the introduction, the head of the RISE program, Dr. Christian Schaefer, introduced himself and welcomed us on the behalf of the DAAD. Following his introduction, spokespersons from both the Canadian and US embassies came to give us further welcome. The introduction was followed by an information lecture on PhD and masters programs in Germany that were specifically targeted towards North American students. I recall one of them being very rigorous with only a two week Christmas vacation and a little bigger break somewhere during a masters course of study.

RISE students at the Universitaet Heidelberg.

Dr. Christian Schaefer giving his welcome speech.Heidelberg seen from the Castle on the hill.

The next day they divided us into groups based on our research interests and sent us off to different industries in the vicinity of Heidelberg. I went to BASF: THE Chemical Company. In size, the main factory and HQ took up a square area half the size of Manhattan or Rio de Janeiro. If I’m not mistaken, I think it is the biggest chemical industry and thus deserves the title, THE Chemical company. BASF started out by giving us an hour introduction on their research and what they do as well as introduce PhD’s who were doing work there. We then were divided into smaller groups to tour the different regions of the BASF factory. I went to the Polymer section and we saw the R&D labs for polymers that were used to make thin films as well as the surfaces that make cars better scratch resistant. The tour and information session was very informative and well organized but I don’t think it really inspired me to go into chemical industry. The highlight of the BASF tour was that we were catered extremely well in one of their private catering restaurants. For a catering job, I would say it was probably one of the best jobs I’ve seen. Other RISE students visited John Deere, Merck, and Mercedes Benz. I don’t think they were nearly as well catered as those of us who went on the BASF tour.

The night was followed by a RISE dinner at one of the local restaurants in Heidelberg. The food wasn’t bad but it took a while to get it because we had a party of 300. During my nights at Heidelberg, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of the other students around Germany. Overall, it was a very diverse group of people. You had your Ivy’s, State schools, Canadian schools, as well as a collection of schools that I’ve never heard of. Some had been there since May 12th like myself and the others had just been there only two weeks.

The next day, we had a tour of Heidelberg as well as the castle that overlooked the city on a hill. Supposedly, Heidelberg has 20,000 Americans who live there. The city has a long and distinguished history and luckily it escaped the bombings of World War 2. I also semi-celebrated the 4th in Heidelberg. Although I didn’t see any fireworks, I celebrated it with the other Americans in the RISE program.

After Heidelberg, I finished off the weekend at Stuttgart with a friend I made at the conference. We met up with his other friends in Stuttgart. All three of them are from MIT and the two not in the RISE program were doing internships as well and one is also living in Regensburg. We saw the Porsche and Mercedes Benz museums, the latter being the highlight of the trip in Stuttgart. The Porsche museum was tiny but they are currently and almost finished constructing their new museum to rival those of Mercedes and BMW. The Mercedes Benz museum is an actual history museum and it has tons of exhibits and not to mention cars. You start out on the top of the museum at the beginning of the history of automobiles and Mercedes Benz and then make your way down through history until it culminates into the dealership, which had cars worth easily several entering freshman 4 year college tuitions at Emory.

Pope-Mobile at the Mercedes Benz museum!

Mercedes Benz Mclaren. Only a few Euros..

The following Tuesday, the 8th of July, was the annual Chemcup for Fussball (soccer). There were over ten teams in total representing the different chem research groups. We were the Fussballkoenigs because our PI is Dr. Koenig. Koenig means King in German. Our first game was a lost, then we had a tie, then a win, and then the last two games were losses. We didn’t make it to the semifinals but it was a lot of fun and I even got a t-shirt out of it. The chemcup was followed by a barbeque with plenty of beer and sausages. Typical german.

Koenigfussball!

This weekend, I went to Munich with the two other RISE students in Regensburg and we met up with a few other RISE students in Munich. In Munich we saw the Deutsches Museum, a charity soccer game, and the BMW world. The Deutsches Museum or German museum is supposedly the biggest science museum in the world and I wouldn’t disagree because in the 4 hours we were there, we barely scratched the surface of the exhibits. The charity soccer game was hosted in the Allianz Arena of Munich and we saw renowned players like Michael Ballack (GER), Kaka(BRAZ), Gattuso (ITALY), and Seedorf (NED). It was a benefit to send more aid to Africa. Nelson Mandela was also a spectator at the game.

O yea, hanging ten in a river in Munich.

Allianz Arena inside. Ballack and Gattuso are somewhere on the field.

Allianz Arena outside.

The BMW world is also pretty cool and it’s also free. The BMW world is an exhibition of the recent technology coming from BMW as well as their newest cars. In addition, BMW has a museum but we didn’t have time to see it.

Me with the other RISE students, Rince, Oscar and Taehun, or RISErs as we call ourselves at the BMW World.

You could say, "we be RISIN' DIRTY!! "(A lame pun on a recent rap hit, "Ridin' Dirty")

Now, I’m back in Regensburg. Again, I apologize for another late post but I hope the sheer length makes up for it. Unfortunately, I can count my lab days with both of my hands. Yes, I leave Regensburg next Tuesday but I will be more prompt in my posts. I will also be in Europe for another two weeks for pure vacation.

And so concludes the post to rule them all.

Bis später,
Miguel

End of my 5th week, and i'm halfway to getting back stateside. Things are continuing on unimpeded. Dr. Morokuma returned from Europe on Tuesday, but left for Atlanta on Thursday, so the institute remains quiet. Last weekend was pretty i just kinda bummed around Kyoto, but this weekend i'm thinking about taking a day trip to one of the nearby cities, get a little tourist action going.
There's a river that runs just south near my hotel. We're situated at a small delta where two tributaries come together to form the Kamo River. The spot is frequented by people in the same way a public park would be. There are stepping stones that traverse the river, and it is pretty cool to walk across the water. Very tranquil.
Not much else going on. I'll fill you in after this weekend on my adventures.

Under the Tuscan Sun

It's only been about a week and a half since my last post, but so much has happened! Rome is extremely hot these days, with temperatures on par with Atlanta. I've come to realize how much the Italians are benefitting from no air condition. Not only do they save energy from not using the reverse engine known as AC, they also keep the lights off for most of the day to minimize the heat. They also end up eating less because of the heat, and keep their petite figures. And when they do eat, they have cold pasta salads or rice salads, which minimizes the burning of gas for the stove. Speaking of the stove, I'm always afraid I'm going to burn my fingers every time I light one. Other money/energy savers? No dryers or 24/7 wireless routers.

Last weekend was very boring, mainly because it was very HOTTT. I really did not want to go outside. At one point I convinced myself to see St. Paul (Outside of the Walls) because it is an enormous church. When I got there, I was disheartened by the discovery that I had forgotten to put the battery back into my camera after recharging. I decided to walk around a little bit, and noticed that there were hundreds of police (both Polizia and Carabineri) EVERYWHERE. I walked a little bit more, and notice a Swiss Guard. I knew something was up. I heard a tour guide say something about not being able to buy tickets that day, and then followed the tourists running toward the entrance gate. There was a helicopter hovering above as well. When I got to the gates, I just managed to catch a glimpse of Ratzinger exiting his black car, surrounded by several cardinals. I couldn't believe that I had just seen the Papa! Wow.

This past week I went to Siena to join the Emory chemistry people for the Palio horse race. The bus ride took three hours, but I slept through most of it. When I got there Katherine and Saranya met me at the bus station, and we walked to their dorms. I had been to Siena before, but I was really caught by just how small this city was. The streets were pretty small too, so they provided a lot of shade. The last time I was in Siena, it was colder and we were all complaining about the lack of sun. This time it was actually a plus. Before the race, Saranya and I went to walk around. I got to see the head of St. Catherine! No matter how much I see it, the practice of splitting up and displaying saints' body parts as relics is still a little eerie and macabre.

The race took about...2 minutes max, but there was a lot of parade and procession before the race. I bought a flag for the Unicorn contrada, but they didn't win despite their promising horse in the preliminary races. It took a really really long time to line up the horses in the "correct" way before the race, especially since two enemy neighborhoods are next to each other.

The parading had probably been going on for a few days before I arrived, but they were everywhere on the day of the Palio. Each contrada has many flag bearers, but two of them do a performance with the flag. As they parade, they stop every so often to do their skit. Some were more elaborate than others, but in the end they throw their flags very high and manage to catch it, sometimes more gracefully than others, and everyone claps. For the contrada that won the Palio, this continued onto the next day.

The above picture is of the Palio after the race. As you can see, the Porcupine contrada won.

On Friday I got to perform more surgeries as one of the girls in the lab is finished with her experiments. These went better than the one before, and thankfully my rats are still alive!

On Saturday the Siena kids came back, so I met up with Saranya at Tiburtina Station and brought her home with me. That afternoon we went to walk around, which was great fun. That night I went to a party again with my professor, and again he prepared delicious foods. One dish was of half figs wrapped up in prosciutto! I have never had fresh fig before in my life, but I hear they are in season, so I'm going to load up in these couple of weeks before I leave. They are really delicious, with crunchy seeds. Kind of like very soft and sweet kiwis.

On Sunday Saranya and I took a tour of Villa Medici in the morning. It was gorgeous and the house had a great view of Rome. However in the afternoon we took a bus to Tivoli and saw Villa d'Este. The bus ride was kind of long and took place along the road Via Tiburtina, which was an ancient road to get from Rome to Tivoli-abouts. Tivoli is a small city that is built on the side of a mountain, so the view from below makes it very stratified. The view from above is of the beautiful Lazio countryside.

Villa d'Este was built by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, who was the son of the Duke of Ferrera and Lucrezia Borgia, which makes him the grandson of a Pope (yes the papacy was especially corrupt those days). The house was very beautiful inside, with every inch of every room painted according to a theme, but the gardens in the back were particularly magnificent. They diverted a stream which eventually flows into the Tiber to provide all the water for the fountains in the gardens. The fountains were really beautiful and everywhere, along with fish ponds and walkways.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to see Villa Adriana and Villa Gregoriana with the really tall waterfall, so hopefully I can manage to go there before I leave.

On Monday I sent Saranya off to see Ostia Antica with the guidebook I had purchased, but unfortunately there was a public transportation strike, and she decided not to take the 2 hour walk to get to the necessary train station. In the lab I got to do another surgery! This time it was all by myself, from the administration of the anesthetic and preparing the instruments to sacrificing the animal in the end. It went pretty well even though I had minimal guidance.

Today a guest lecturer from Washington State was here to talk about emotions and where they come from mostly in relation to opiate receptors. I didn't really agree with some of his beliefs, but I really liked his ideas of emotions being primal and able to be attributed to animals. Well, Daniele has showed up so I will go do another surgery now. I don't absolutely need him but just in case something happens...

Until next time, ci vediamo!

Do NOT fly with Alitalia!!!!!!

It is hard to believe that today marks the beginning of my 6th week in Europe. I arrived in Bucharesti last wednesday (one day after I had intended). For all you future travelers out there, I urge you to take my word of advice and do not fly with Alitalia unless it is from the US. I booked my flight from Rome about a month and a half ago through Expedia. However, I was not aware of a peculiar policy the airline company has at the time. From what I understood through a translator, Alitalia does not close their scheduled flights despite being full. Thus, I was placed on stand by 3 times! They adhere to overbooking as a perfectly legal policy. I managed to leave on the last possible flight the following day and spent almost 2 full days in the Fuimicino airport. Not only that, the hotel was about a 30-45 mins away from the airport and the airport is a 30 min train ride from Rome. Thus, I thanked them very much and told them I would stay with a friend. However, they refused to reimburse me for the 5 train rides to and from the airport (a total of 55 Euro). Imagine my embarressment when I had to explain to my professor that I would not be arriving on my intended flight twice! after he was already on the way (or at) the airport. It was not until I got to Bucharest that I found out that it was a two hour commute to where he lives. Luckily, he was very understanding and even apologized for not giving me prior warning about the airline.

After discussing in more detail the living arrangement, I decided that it would be best to stay in his apartment throughout my stay. In just a few days, I have become good friends with his fiance and my professor (Andrei). They are a young couple so it is not awkward and they are both students so it is a very informal relationship. Also, I quickly discovered that Romanian may be based in Latin but much of the conjugations of verbs and grammar structure are taken from slavic origins which explains the extra 5 letters and strange accents. (aka I understand nothing!) Every now and then I can catch a noun (no verbs) because it is almost identical to the italian word, not spanish and the pronouciation is taking from a mix of french and italian. Regardless, it sounds very pretty. For this reason, I thought it best to not find myself without either one of them and they thankfully agreed. Please note here...TV is in english with Romanian subtitles (yay!)

A little bit of history helps explain a lot about the initial impression of the city. It is about 500 years old. Before the communist rule, Romania was ruled by an imperial family with Germanic ancestory for about 80 years. Thus, the most elaborate buildings you see were built around this period, the palaces, parts of the university, the public library, large parks, and a couple of the theather and opera houses with most of this being located in the center of town. However, the majority of the residencial areas are grey, simple architecture (almost prisonlike), no balconies and few windows. This is the communist style. (Everyone was equal). Despite this, there is an abundance of construction including an expansion of the subway, condominiums, office buildings because of the big push to be part of the EU. Many systems are being computerized and access to many things is becoming much easier. However, they tell stories of how things were 25 years ago when you would stand in line 5 or 6 hours with vouchers to receive the monthly sugar and oil and when cheese was a precious comodity. It has been very interesting to listen to them. As it turns out, most everyday people cannot speak english. For example, vendors. However, if you have attended a university yes. I feel very fortunate to have Andrei and Iulia ("my roommates") because at least I have someone that can carry a conversation. (else this would be a very long 3 weeks).

Another observation I have made is that despite warnings about my personal safety and that of my things, Bucharest is a very safe city. At night, you can wander the streets and no one will mess with you. Even during the day, no one stares or makes you feel uncomfortable. There are far less homeless people here than in Rome and the gypsies are actually very calm, peaceful people. Perhaps if I was alone it would be different. But typically they try to make a living and do not result immediately to stealing or tricking people as I had understood. They are the vendors of little convinience stores, trash collectors, car washes, ect. It is actually very rare to here the gypsy language as it is only talked at home among family members. I noticed after a couple of days that some gypsy boys occasionally inhale from a paper bag like you would if you were hyperventalating and trying to not pass out. When I asked Iulia if they had respiratory problems, she responded that they are inhaling the fumes of a kind of silver paint as a drug. There are only three classifications that people identify with though it does not impede any sort of interaction and it is easy to tell by the way that you look. If you have blue eyes, blond hair, and fair skinned, then you ar Romanian. If you are the complete opposite, then you are gypsy. If you are dark haired, dark eyes, but fair-skinned, then you are turkish. It is very simple.

One refreshing fact about the people here is that they are not so stick thin. They typically have meat on there bodies unlike the italians. It could be because they smoke less. The majority of the smokers have been men. Plus, they have a large, non-sweet meal for breakfast. yay! And, actually on a couple of occasions such as the supermarket and the mall, I felt as if I was in the US and had to think twice. And perhaps, it is because I blended in with italians in terms of looks and I understood more but it is hard to shake the feeling of being a foreigner. I just look different. It may sound a little funny because I am also a foreigner in the US. But I tend to forget this fact. Regardless the first question everyone asks Andrei and Iulia is where am I from.

I am leaving lab, religion, and food as the topic of another post. (There is a lot to say about these).

Oh, very exciting. This weekend we are going to the countryside about 100 km away to an excavation site of Andrei and Iulia's godparents. (They play a role in the orthodox wedding so they must be decided early on even though they arent getting married for another year). The site is a late Roman milatary fort. Currently, they are uncovering the barracks. So, I will finally get the chance to do some digging. They all laughed about how excited I was to do this and commented that the main difference in anthropology in the US and in Europe is that in the US the students have a very good foundation in theory and here the students have great pratical experience because they are able to carry out each step of a project so theory is learned more through action

Winter Down Under.

I've been in Melbourne for about 2 weeks now, but am just now really getting settled. Finding a place to live has been a nightmare because of all the students coming back for second semester. I was in a hostel for the last 10 days, but it was mainly backpackers and lunatics. The guy who slept above me was insane and paranoid.  He thought that the U.S. and Australian governments were trying to assasinate him, so I told him I was from Canada threw in an "eh and aboot" here and there and moved rooms the next night. I finally got a place to stay that is right next to the "Uni."

The city itself is really easy to adjust to. Its just like england for food and everyone has been very friendly.  My lab is easy going and really sociable just like back home. On friday's we go down to the pub for a few hours and sometimes will go to an AFL (Aussie Football League) game.

No kangaroos yet.  People say they hang around the parks sometimes, which are amazing and I'm fully enjoying each of them. I got a bike after about a week and it makes the city a million times better since public transportation is a bit expensive and slow.   I've been biking around the parks and found some interesting birds that would be as common as a raven or grackle back in the states but make prettier sounds.

The "Uni" is fantastic as well, its got a lot of old architecture with some beautiful buildings, but probably nothing compared to the buildings of Europe.
Reading Ben's post about xenophobia in Japan reminded me about this section of the newspaper that criticizes the replacement of "g'day mate" with american slang such as "sup homes."  Every week the writer attacks about some part of Aussie culture that is dying as a result of Americanization.  (They do listen to a lot of American rap down here.)  Some of the slang here is a bit confusing but not too bad.  The accents aren't a problem at all. A lot of eastern asians come down to australia during this time for vacation and some for work and it's their accent that proves the difficult one (luckily ordering from Wingnuts so much has helped.)
I'm going to a folk festival today before I have to hit the lab on monday!
'Ooray mates!
-James