Coming Home

Today I was awakened by toy mice pelting onto my bed. My cousin and aunt were so generous and good while hosting us, and I’ll miss them.

We went to Heathrow with a nice taxi driver, a Kurdish man from Turkey whom has been here for 25 years. Hearing his appraisal of the political situation in Turkey, Germany, and England was interesting. He was of course affected by the general racism in Turkey when he was a child, and how even now the right wingers don’t want to give Kurdish people rights. He also stated that Turkey doesn’t want to admit to the Armenian genocide because it will then be forced to take responsibly for it and give Armenians their land back. He talked about how friendly and clean Germany is. I’ve never heard “friendly” used to describe the general mentality of the German people, though he was perhaps talking about the large Turkish population there. He talked about how much more integrated these people are, though I have heard otherwise. I don’t know. I think there are bigots everywhere, and an almost disturbing number, at that. It is true that England seems less enthusiastic about its large immigrant population than from an outsider’s point of view makes sense(and I would be considered part of them). I still love England, though, and do think they have plenty of economic activity going on in their country.

It makes me so angry to hear about us powerful nations coming in and just carving up poorer nations for our own benefit. Imagine that happening to you, your country no longer existing because somebody faraway told you so. You’/d think nobody would accept this outrage, but these same people barely seem to know you’re alive. You try to fight and are labeled terrorists. Can you imagine the helpless rage?

Our first flight was seven hours long. It only took me three hours to beat the first five or six scenarios of Starcraft, and I couldn’t read for long or get motion sick. Get vegetarian food on the plane even if you’re not one; we get served first and our food is usually better. We landed in Boston, angry and tired, ate some food and sat at the gate, waiting for four hours for our connecting flight. I fell asleep almost immediately as we boarded for the entire seven hour flight . Note: Don’t do this type of travel. It’s horrible. I dreamt, at one point, about a rock elemental possessed with a spirit who was transported to another dimension where he couldn’t fly. He kept trying to break whatever the dimension’s hold on him was by trying to fly, but eventually found the cause was a tiny city going under the earth, filled with a rich Adriatic-style culture. However, only the princess was good. The rest of the city was not so good, and they could bind together like ants into a behemoth which he had to fight. I blame this on one of the miniatures in the British museum, which was based on a Chinese story where an official wanders into a beautiful city and marries its princess. She dies and he is turned out for turning to drinking while devastated over her death. He goes back to search for the gate, only to find it was an anthill.

We then waited for the Flyaway bus and took a taxi home from Van Nuys. Everyone, exhausted, threw themselves in bed, only to find out they couldn’t sleep. The kittens were also really happy to see us, and there was purring involved. I ate some Indian food and locked Clingy inside, upon which he went a bit crazy and we let him out again.

So that is the end of what seems to have been a very pleasant dream. Last night I dreamt that I visited a large, old cathedral by my house, and was frustrated to wake up and realize that I couldn’t anymore. I’m glad to be back home with Snuggles, who keeps meowing for huggup, and the kittens, who aren’t letting us out of their sight, and my books and capability to work, though. It’s like coming back to reality, which is also a little scary. Time to get down to business.

Full Day Yesterday

I had an interesting dream last night where a friend of mine turned into a god, like Apollo, and lived as a shining, bright center of truth for some time. Then a visitor came and showed him that he and the gods were turning into mysteries of smoke and shadow. It was actually quite touching. The gods went off to find a cure, though my "awake" mind knew it was almost hopeless.

Last night I was too tired to write an entry. We went to the Tate museum and and Stonehenge yesterday. I get angry when people compare side-of-the-road and cheap artists to these people. My favorite were the English romantics,and my favorite painting was "The Deluge", the second picture on this site. This was extremely powerful in person. I could hear the waves and the people. I also saw the first picture, "The Death of Ophelia", which I have wanted to for years. It is much sadder in person, and the foliage is much more defined. There was also this awesome picture with children lighting Chinese lamps in the Victorian section. After lunch, which was good, I went back and got lost in the Pre-Raphealites, and it was actually quite painful to pull myself away.

I want to turn part of my house into a workshop. I've always wanted to do metal and glassworking and grow crystals and crap, and now I can sort of do some of that. We'll see.
I have a lot to do when I get back, including learning a lot of math and physics stuff that I want to.

We took a tour to Stonehenge, which was the most efficient(and cheapest) way of getting there. The guide was nice, though muffled. It was a two-hour drive there and we only got one hour at the site, not enough for me to go explore the barrows and pine forests, which I reallly wanted to. The first henge on that site was erected 5000BC, and the country used to be all forest. Isn't that cool? You can sort of see how the creators meant it to be and connect with people from 3000BC. It bears a strange resemblance to the colosseum, and the altar in the middle reminds me of cult horns.

I was thinking more, but no more time to write. Tommorow we fly back.

I'm on a Boat anndd, it's Going Fast anndd...

Today we mostly relaxed.

We went down to the Riallto bridge, which took a few hours as we shopped in every store in Venice. Or maybe that was how it felt. Anyways, I wasn't blameless since I got a (droool, I love this)pendant, earrings, and other things. I also bought a beautiful scarf for cheap which looks as if it is of expensive Spanish make. I wanted to buy a duck for Chris but didn't have any extra money at that point, and it wasn't that great quality. Hopefully I can get some pasta for him; I know how much he would appreciate that. I saw a jazz cd but didn't know if the music was good or not.

Most of the figurines would break in the suitcase, so we are not considering them, though we got a bird.

We ate in a delicious side place run by a Chinese man who had low prices and well-prepared shrimp salad. The Italians don't serve salad dressing from what I have seen, so I mixed some balsamic vinegar, pepper, salt, and olive oil into my salad, which tasted delicious. It was very cheap, too.

The businesses here in the tourist sector seems to be mostly split into lots of small stores and the high-end designers. I like it, as most of the stores sell made-in-Italy goods at reasonable prices. Hopefully Italy does not make its people slave to produce them, but I doubt it. The goods are also higher quality. I wish that we could have businesses like that, though I haven't seen any, say, office supply stores in Venice. Today was the first time we saw a chain store, which was called coin. It obviously catered to tourists, though, since everything in there was written in English without any Italian subtitles. I really like the "clocky" which runs away, but not at 55 euros. It felt kind of depressing to go in there after all the small businesses.

I wish we had time to visit the Venice where the Venetians live.

We got dressed again after showering and relaxing away from the heat. We ate at a restaurant while it got dark and the street entertainers came out, which was nice, though I felt guilty passing one without giving him change(no hers were present at this time). We walked to the canal and watched the gorgeous water seethe. It reminded me of a beating forest. I don't think it's a coincidence that this picturesque lagoon city is connected with glass. The inspiration is so close by, shining with a light that nobody has ever been able to capture. We watched the boats, talked, and came home.

One thing that bothers me about ancient art is certain symbols such as dark skin meaning evil or slanted eyes meaning evil. We must imbibe those to appreciate what the pictures mean, and personally it doesn't affect my day to day life, but it still makes me uncomfortable. Western society really needs to move on from those.

Tommorow I go back to the UK.

Dance, Dance

Tired; too tired to write a real entry, probably.

-Had a private tour of the Murano glass factory with a guide named Frederico.
This was included in the price of the hotel. We caught a water taxi which was nice with leather seats. Apparently there are "roads" in the water. The art pieces are amazing; the silica sand is so pure that they look as if lead is in the glass. Some pieces looked like porcelain, some had fishes in them, and many were dyed amazingly. There were even cubist pieces. Many were plated with gold and hand painted. We bought a necklace and two sets of earrings from the showroom, where you can't take pictures. It sort of spoiled all the other glass pieces selling around the place, which now look like plastic. From the cheaper room I got a necklace and a pendant, but the difference was clear. I think that, many years from now, museums will feature pieces from this place. So gorgeous. Our guide/salesman was very nice and strangely honest at the same time as trying to sell us things. I liked him a lot.

-Took a boat back to St Mark's Square
My dad and I saw the Archeological Museum, Correr Museum, Historical Museum and Art Museum. The Archeological Museum had a lot of Grecian statues and Roman copies of Grecian statues. The Historical museum featured the life of the Doge and some war pieces, including intricately carved...pikes/scythe hybrids and pistols. The art and historical museums featured art from many different periods, which was nice because of how close we could get to the paintings. I kept getting lost in them.

We then went to The Church of Gold. The line was about 20 minutes long; bring an umbrella. The ceiling is covered in gold and painted with Byzantine figures. We didn't see the treasury, though, but we went behind the altar. Reallllly pretty and different.

Since everything closes at this time, I bought a quick calzone(mmm blue cheese) and headed back to the room, where I took a long nap.

-Wandering Around
We sort of wandered the streets and shopped. I bought a little octopus and crab for Afif and Ilya, just because. I also finally got a mask, which are selling everywhere.

-Getting cheated for Dinner
Again. Plus Mosquitos. I hate these types of mosquito bites, as they don't stop itching and swell up to huge sizes like the ones that made me stop going to Trinidad for four years. That should give you an indication of how bad they were. Bring a bug zapper!

Little story on that later.

Abbr. Version of the Day

Yesterday my mom, dad, and I got up early to go to the Uffizi museum. Though we arrived there at 8:30am, the line was already about 20 minutes long. Apparently they only let people in in groups. The highlight was seeing Botticello’s Rite of Spring and Birth of Aphrodite. They look so much better in person, and the women’s hair glitters with real gold. There were also Titians, Rembrandts, Giottos, a lot of Grecian and Roman statues, and other notables. The ceiling was adorned with paintings. The medieval art glittered with gold and symbolism.
We then walked down to the Ponte Vecchio, which is full of gold shops.
We wandered around a bit, then my dad and I went to Santa Maria Novella. This is one of the few churches that felt as if it had a holy presence inside. Boticello’s Adoration of the Magi and Cross were inside, as were many beautiful works of art. The walls were full of frescos, tombs(?!), and paintings. It really is a must-see if you come here.
We also checked out a Roman fort, but it was closed. Everyone then went down to the Ponte Vecchio, Neptune Fountain, and Piti Palace. We ate at a restaurant with disgusting food, then went home.

Today I got up late to go down to the Eurostar. We took to train to Venice and a water taxi to the hotel. It’s very different. Venice is a city without cars or bikes; only pedestrians and boats roam the islands. It’s also gorgeous, without graffiti and seems more organized than Florence or Rome. Our hotel is luxurious, but has no elevator. We were starving but had arrived in time for the siesta, which takes place for good reason since it is boiling hot. My family ate leftover salami sandwiches and I had to eat gellato. We were all going to go to the grocery, but a bunch of us left and went back home. I saw a gorgeous church in the Venetian style, and we returned to our room to wait until the siesta and burning ended. The grand canal is big and everything glitters with white marble and water, which doesn’t smell contrary to popular opinion. I also bought postcards for people.

It’s funny because I’ve seen a bunch of people walking around with California t-shirts who obviously are not Californians. Also, there seem to be more Americans here. Why is all the music here English when most people speak it brokenly? This is not just in the tourist spots.

We then went to San Marco’s square. The Church of Gold is covered in it and shines when the sun hits the walls, but was closed. We wandered around a bit among pillars and gondolas and columns, then had trouble deciding where to eat. We accidentally ate at an expensive place and went home.

Argh! Mosquitos!

Falling into a Mud Puddle in Pisa

Little note: They serve vinegar and oil instead of butter in Italy. Also, straws are rare.

I feel better today. We got up early and took the train to Pisa. The Italian countryside has the same fractal distrubition as Los Angeles.There are cultivated sunflowers everywhere. There are a lot of decrepid places which we passed. Italy seems to be slowly degenerating from a lack of enforced rules.
We arrived after an hour later, to discover the tower was far away. I slipped in a mud puddle and fell. Yes, I got covered in it. Thankfully, there are a lot of taps in Italy, but there was no way to take the dirt off my white skirt which covered it the entire day.
My dad, mom, and I decided to walk to the tower. Pisa is very broken down, it seems, besides a few areas. My aunts and cousin were shopping. We saw the tower and my mom decided to join them. My dad and I bought tickets and saw the inside of the cathedral and battisere, which were beautiful. The architectural style is very different from Rome; less clutured but still involving many paintings. The ceiling was filled with gold flowers. I really want more time with those paintings. When I am an old, grumpy woman I'm going to come back to every major architectural wonder and museum and gaze at each painting for at least fifteen minutes each. The Battisere was simple, though coloums were carved with great skill. The simple altar was solomn brass.
My mom wanted to know why I like the churches so much. Besides the fact that beauty is not determined by religion, this art is created by the masters of the period using the full extent of their craft to celebrate what was most important to them. Religious art is sort of a doorway into the cultural subconcious and a look into how people viewed their idols and icons, another doorway into that mysteriosness of being human. The medieval icons I saw in retrospect seems to be respective of the period; technically proficent and yet flat, though this changed in later periods.
I wonder if taking pictures instead of writing those thousand words is detrimental in some way to eloquency? Anyways.
We though we had lost mom but I found her, the bus passed us by, and we all took a taxi back to the train which was not air conditioned this time and let us roast whenever it stopped. The train goes very fast, faster than Amtrak.
We returned, ate pizza, and my mom, dad, and I saw Il Duemo. The inside is actually fairly simple, with soaring ceilings and pretty windows. The outside is, well, complicated, full of green and white and statues and gold. Gorgeous. We wondered around for a bit on the streets and then came back to the hotel.

I may not be able to post tommorow.

The Vatican

Today we took a taxi to the Vatican out of practical considerations. Our taxi driver was honest and charged us under the pre-agreed price. The line to get into the museum was long but quick. We walked through room after room of detailed ceiling, faded but intricate tapestries. and walls covered in art. It was very obvious who was a master vrses who was a painter; a painter simply painted flat scenes, but a master made them come to life, like in the Sistine chapel. I love Michelagalo's work on form and shadow, but couldn't see his faces close enough to really appreciate them. Also, we were ushered in the opposite way the church was supposed to be seen, so most of the paintings were upside down. It's frustrating to be around a work of art in its original element and not be able to appreciate it.

No talking or pictures in the Sistine Chapel.

It interests me that everywhere I go I see people with cameras doing more snapping than seeing. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it almost seems as if sometimes people forgo living in the moment for taking a picture of it. I never really thought about this before I read an essay on it. Perhaps it is related to the fact that we are rushed through all of these places without time to truly appreciate the art or carvings.

The food at the Vatican was delicious, but the toilets had no seat covers.

We then headed over to the security check for St Peter's Cathedral, after which my dad and I got seperated from the rest of the group. We thought "Oh, the Cuppola, that seems like a good place to see". Unsuspecting, we bought tickets and took an elevator up to the heart of the beautiful church where all the saints were painted on the ceiling backed in gold. Then there were steps. 320 steps, to be exact. My dad and I nearly gave up, but it was one way only and we made it to the top of the tower where I took a couple pictures. Going down involved the same amount of steps but was not nearly as hard. We exited into the Basilica, which, well, no words. Michelangalo carved many statues in there, and the walls were filled with gold and paintings. Pictures didn't come out well inside, though.

We finally made contact and went into a few shops before going home with another honest cab driver, who charged us very cheaply.

Some Boring Title

I woke up late today after refusing to go to sleep last night. I' bumped my head several times in the night by accident. We accidentally discovered a market on the way to Theremini, which was filled with cheap and beautiful goods. The quality of the jewelry is better here. The silver is really silver, the glass is really glass, and the design is beautiful. I got a vintage pendant and another amber pendant, a necklace made out of the inside of some shell, and a ceramic Roman-style necklace. I nearly bought some beads. I also got a plastic swatch which is about to become the new "fad", methinks, for extremely cheap because it is waterproof. A couple of the guys gave me discounts.

Most of the sellers were Indian. In fact, most of the people peddling goods are either east Asian or Indian. Apparently there is a large Indian population here, and a decent population of East Asians and African-Italians. I'm just reporting from the streets, not statistics, though, and that is skewed by the tourists.

The subway in Rome is only decent. It really needs more stops, and the maps of the subway/busses aren't free. What? I have to assume this is due to tourist season.

We were going to the Colosseum and the middle of Rome. The line was HUGE. Buy a Roma pass or reserve tickets. I cannot stress this enough. I got a parasol to deal with the burning sun. After a couple of mishaps my dad and I waited in line to go into the middle of Rome, and our faces nearly melted off. A single ticketwoman was dealing with more than two hundred people in a line which was constantly growing. By the end of the line I was almost too exhausted to walk inside. The forum, pallecento, etc was inside, and we saw them. But mostly both of us were struck by how sad the crumbling buildings that blended together were. Hints remained about how beautiful the buildings must have once been. Even though Rome was a corrupt tyranny at the end, the art should not have suffered. We half joked that ghosts must wander the streets because of the violence that happened there. It's obvious how great Rome must once have been. I've really come to appreciate their skill and finese. and it's amazing that their buildings still stand as well as they do.

We met my mom and aunt by a restraunt, where I ordered a seafood risotto that had whole baby squid in it. I was scarred, pretty much. I think I'll stop eating squid for the most part, as they are very intelligent. Also, scars.

Mom and I went into the Colloseum. What a work of architecture. This was much better organized than the other tourist-wise, and even had an elevator. I learned a lot about the history and organization of the structure inside the museum, which included many statues from its better days. The wooden floor has been removed so that the underchambers are visible. One of the things I learned is that the ruling emperor, who had pacificed Judea after its rebellion, declared himself emperor by force, but de-privitised many of the areas Nero had made so arbitrarily and built it as a public area on top of the artifical private lake Nero had created.

We're going to go out again tonight. Wheee.

Walking

Yesterday my mom and Brenda went shopping until my dad and I got frustrated and we separated. Nothing against them, but that's just not what we wanted to do. Dad and I walked down to the end of the street and saw the middle of the heart of ancient Rome, that huge propaganda monument which is gorgeous, part of the colosseum and a Trajan's colomn. Two stray cats were around. I tried at first to take a picture of all of the Roman architecture I saw, but it appears the ancient ruins are really the heart of the city and stick out in many places. Rome feels frozen in time to its glory days in the 1800s when artists flocked there in numbers and the might of the Romans, though it could be the fact that most of the locals have left the city and tourists abound.

I also finally got a messenger bag I am happy with. It's so nice that I don't want to mess it up and am considering getting a "casual" one. Why is my extant one not sufficent? Because it doesn't zip and I am constantly in fear of things falling out. It's also too big.

We ate at a restraunt which was very popular. I think there were a lot of native italians there, though the food seemed soaked in oil for tourists. Accents abound, and I've heard French, German, and British. I think I saw Icelandic graffiti.

Today we got up too early, in my opinion, and I cleared my camera off onto the computer. The hotel provides free food which we took advantage of. We waited for my aunt and uncle, then left for the huge metro station Thermini. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to get train and metro tickets. Things were very unclear, partially or mostly because we don't speak Italian, though most people speak some English. There is an excellent book store in the station, though most of the books are in Italian.

We took the subway to what was advertised to be the Trevi Fountain. However, we still needed directions and the map to get there. It's always a shock when walking up to these monuments. Usually they are blocked by buildings, and all of a sudden this huge, intricatley carved things comes into view. I can see why the Romans liked fountains with this weather, though. This is the first place with heat to match the valley's that I have ever travelled to, and to make it a little worse the weather is slightly humid. We then ate at a nearby cafe and went towards Hadrian's temple. My dad got lost and then my aunt and mom got lost and then my uncle got lost. Then we finally made it, seeing another Trajan colomn along the way. My aunt and mom also stayed in a souvenir store for a long time before meeings us there. I have no idea why they decided to put the ministry of agriculture in there.

We then accidentally got to the Pantheon, which is amazing, as you can probably imagine. The church was much more oppressive than St Peter's Basilica, which we visited yesterday. Oh! I forgot to tell everyone about that. It was so pretty I nearly cried, no joke. The architecture and paintings are amazing. Also, ironically, they had dedicated part of a cloister to celebrating Gallelio and relativity. It had soaring ceilings and beautiful paintings.

So after everyone was found, we went to the Piazzo de Navona, which is a huge building with a huge fountain in front of it. A nice French girl gave me part of a cracker she was feeding the pigeons with and one sat on my lap. We then walked to the Campo de Fiori, which was supposed to be a huge market, but had one or two stalls and a lot of neglected buildings. Dad and I checked out an interactive exhibit of Leonardo Da Vinci machines which turned out to be for children, while my mom, uncle, and aunt got gellato.

My aunt convinced us to get a taxi to the Spanish Steps ,which dad and I walked up. The church at the top contained the usual amazing paintings and marble, and apparently was first sponsored by a courtesan. At this point everyone was tired and we decided to go home. We got seperated for an hour during which everyone got very angry, and then rested at home.