Watermelony

Paul Might be Jackie Chan

2009-03-11T21:23:00.004-04:00

Video Update:

The Love Fish...

2009-03-11T06:18:00.018-04:00

Tuesday was our last day in Tokyo. My dad and Eric went to Meiji-jingu shrine and Monica and I went shopping in Harajuku. I've been to Meiji-jingu twice so I decided shopping might be more fun. Then we took a train to Hanneda airport and flew to Miyazaki.

Yesterday, we went to one of Eric's schools. I read Green Eggs & Ham to the sixth graders, and Eric translated it into Japanese. It was quite fun to see the kids' reactions. Then we went to Sekino Falls, which I've also been to before. The falls are in Miyakonojo and are absolutely gorgeous.

The first time I went to Sekino Falls, the area had a normal amount of water. The second time, this small bridge below was flooded and we couldn't cross it. Yesterday, it wasn't flooded but we decided to walk further up.

When we walked further up, we saw a small pond with some very large fish. I got excited about the fish and kept saying there were a bunch. Eric said that that was not a bunch and decided we had to go to another place and feed the fish. So we went to a grocery store and bought bread. Eric bought wheat bread to see if the fish liked that better. We walked to this little area and already tons of fish were gathering. This is the area where we stood.

I have a bunch of pictures of the fish, but I think a video is best so you can hear the disgusting noise they made.

They kept opening their mouths and it often looked like they were kissing one another, so Eric called them the love fish. Later, birds and ducks caught on to what we were doing and also tried to get some of the bread action.

Then we drove to Udo Shrine, which is on the Pacific Coast. It used to be the national shrine because it's the location where the sun fled to when she ran away from the sky. The shrine itself is built into the side of the extinct volcano.

Here is the view of the ocean.

Today we are going to an active volcano that actually spewed ash on Monday.

Squirrels in Japan?!

2009-03-09T06:36:00.010-04:00

Today we once again started our day with breakfast at Denny's. In Japan, the juices are always amazing. At Denny's I have been getting kiwi juice each morning. You can drink some of it, but you usually have to use a spoon to finish it. It's made out of shredded kiwis.

After breakfast, we rode the train for about an hour to Kamakura. Kamakura is a quaint little town famous for its statue of Buddha sculpted over 700 years ago. Here's the information about the Buddha.

And here's the buddha.

We kept looking at at from different angles, but this was the most beautiful.

There were so many squirrels in Kamakura. Eric has lived in Japan for three years and these were the first squirrels he's seen. All of the Japanese tourists visiting the Giant Buddha were also very excited to see it. The squirrels had bushier tails than the ones in the US. They kind of looked like raccoon tails. You can't see the tail in this picture but you can see its face.

Finally, here's one more picture of the giant Buddha.

Pete Wouldn't Fit in Japan

2009-03-08T21:26:00.002-04:00

We're waiting to go to breakfast at Denny's again so I'll write a little more. The ryokan we're staying in is very traditional with tatami floors and futons you have to roll up every morning. The ceilings seem slightly lower than what you usually see in the US. The doorways are barely large enough for my dad and Eric. Pete would definitely have to duck!

Food update:
Last night for dinner, we went to a pizza place. I had tuna and corn pizza and my dad had sausage and waffle fry pizza. It was delicious!!

Hello Kitty update:
Hello Kitty is absolutely everywhere in Japan. Here is a photo of me with a my size Hello Kitty.

Tokyo Day Two - Asukusa, Shibuya, Harajuku

2009-03-08T12:42:00.016-04:00

Today started with a traditional breakfast at a lovely restaurant. A Cobb salad at Denny's is the Tokyo way. Then we went shopping since our luggage still didn't arrive and I didn't want to wear the same clothes again. We went to Uniqlo, which is one of my favorite Japanese stores. I love the stores here because many will hem your pants for free. We're staying in a more traditional area of Tokyo called Asakusa. Near our ryokan is a very large Buddhist Temple dedicated to the God of Thunder. Here is the entrance to the Temple.

And the pagoda.

Here's Eric and Monica in front of the Thunder God.

There are often women dressed up in beautiful kimono near temples. Here is a picture of Monica and me with four women.

Traditionally, at temples, you buy incense, light it and then waft it towards you to cleanse your spirit. Here's my dad lighting the incense.

And Monica and me wafting.

After visiting the temple, we rested and then went to Shibuya (Tokyo's Time Square). I love seeing all the people on the trains. So many people actually fall asleep on the train, which completely amazes me that they can do that. Of course, after wondering how they do that and whether they miss their stops, I actually fell asleep on the long ride over to Shibuya. Luckily, Eric woke me up and we all got off the train. Shibuya has one of the most popular meeting spots in Japan. There's a well known story that a dog named Hachiko used to wait for his owner every day in Shibuya. Sadly, his owner got sent off to fight in the war and died there. Hachiko waited and waited but his owner never returned. Here I am with the statue of Hachiko.

The intersection that looks like Times Square always has hundreds of people crossing at once. You can't really see the people in the background but here is a picture of it.

Later, we went to Harajuku which is the shopping district. It closed right after we got there, but I managed to go to my favorite store, Kiddyland, and buy a change purse that looks like toast. Tomorrow we will go back to that area and visit the Meiji-Jingu Shrine.

Don't Be a Panda

2009-03-07T10:10:00.007-05:00

Even after a delay that almost caused us to miss our flight, we made it to Tokyo! Unfortunately, our luggage did not. :( We had to run to make our connection, but our luggage did not do the same. It's supposed to come tomorrow afternoon. At least we got a good excuse to shop!

Once we met up with Eric and Monica, we took the subway to our ryokan (traditional Japanese-style inn). We went shopping for a little while, then ventured to Tokyo Tower. It was built to look like the Eiffel Tower.

We took a glass elevator to the observation deck. The sight of the city was beautiful. Tokyo Tower is a popular date spot and you can tell because it was almost only couples.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day. More to come...

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

2009-03-06T05:43:00.005-05:00

So here I am, once again in the airport. I woke up at 3:00am, but I still have some energy. My dad and I are waiting for our flight to Atlanta, where we will catch a plane to Tokyo. Here is a picture of us at Charlotte Douglas.

I love airports. No matter how early you get there in the morning, there's always a ton of people. Some people look excited, but mostly people look tired.

Check back later for an update from Tokyo!

London Photos

2008-07-18T13:32:00.006-04:00

The London Eye.

St. Paul's Cathedral. Right next to where we stayed.

Big Ben. It's actually the bell inside that you can't see but the clock is still known as Big Ben.

Abbey Road!

Baker Street. The home of Sherlock Holmes.

Gnygel on the London Eye in front of Parliament

More Pics

2008-07-11T05:33:00.004-04:00

Here are some other pictures from the trip so far. First is the mustard shop in Dijon.

These are Alvina's neighbors in Les Nans.

One of the unpleasant discoveries I've made is that there are 4 species of slugs. This is the orange one. Very large, very gross.

One of the towns near Alvina used to be very wealthy because of the salt tax. It is a very old town. This is the decoration in the middle of town.

One More Pic...

2008-07-10T19:49:00.001-04:00

Here's one other picture of a game board in the garden. It's part of the chess board.

Thought you might like it, Dad.

Blog Neglect, Nica Illness, and 9 days in France

2008-07-10T18:38:00.013-04:00

Obviously I've been neglecting my blog. I ran out of time in the final week in Nicaragua. Then I was only home for 3 days, all of which I was sick for. Now I am still slightly sick, but at least I'm in France! I've been here for about nine busy days so far. I always knew that Spanish, English, and French were similar but I am constantly shocked at how many words are the same or closely related. I've never studied French but I can actually read some things occasionally. So far, my time in France has been just as busy as Nicaragua, but without the stress. My friend, Alvina, and I have been to several cities, met tons of people, and eaten lots of bread. There are so many great pictures, but I only have time to post a few.

A few days after I got to France, Alvina took me camping with some of her friends and a foreign exchange student from New York. It was awkward at first since I don't speak French, but it ended up being a ton of fun! We camped in a small town in the county called Arc et Senans. The town has a beautiful place built in the 1700s to make salt. It was a huge area that was supposed to kind of be a utopia. These first two pictures are what we saw walking to the town from the campsite. The people in the first one are some of the campers.

Before we went, we got bread in town for lunch and bought meat at the store. We ate next to the old mill pictured below. I thought it was a castle at first.

There were several buildings where the salt was created (I don't know exactly what they did to it), but we were all more impressed with the gardens. There were all sorts of games and activities right in the garden. We played a giant game of Sorry but there was also chess and checkers. Here we are on the Sorry board.

A few days ago, Alvina and I went to Dijon and spent time with a friend of hers. We tried all sorts of fabulous mustards, and some that weren't so great. My favorite was Coriander. Most of the others were too strong. We became very familiar with town hall because we made circles around it to see the other sights. We finally went inside it and climbed 315 steps to look at the town. Here is one picture of the view from the top.

We also went into several churches. This first one is the Roman style and the second is Gothic.

A tradition for all those who visit Dijon is to touch the owl on one of the buildings, look at the stone salamander under the window, and make a wish. Here I am touching the owl.

We also walked around the university in Dijon. Outside the library, the students spend lots of time smoking. One thing I have definitely discovered here is that the French love their cigarettes. Here is where the students throw their cigarettes after their smoke break from studying.

The whole day was marked by Alvina and her 100 Euros. She was out of money when we got to the train station in the morning to leave for Dijon, so her grandmother gave her a 100 Euro bill. The whole day, Alvina tried to find a store that would give her change for it. No one would so we decided to title that day "The 100 Euros That Couldn't."

Today we are in Besançon which is the bigger city where Alvina goes to school and her brother, Côme, lives. Luckily, someone finally gave Alvina change for her 100 Euro bill!!! To celebrate Alvina's great test scores, we went to McDonald's and wore crazy hats. Apparently, our hats were not popular because we were laughed at and cursed at for wearing them. This has been a common trend recently since we have been wearing the hats a lot in the past few days. I can't understand them anyway, but Alvina tells me what they say. Its almost like a joke that people are reacting to them so badly. They're not even that ornate. We also discovered something great about McDonalds today. French McDonalds sell beer as a drink! Here is a picture of us in our hats (me with my happy meal). Notice the beer on the tray.

Hopefully, I will be able to continue posting about my travels, but limited internet access has made it difficult. More adventures await us as we leave for London on Sunday and Italy shortly after.

Nica Eric: A Photo Comparison

2008-06-20T09:04:00.004-04:00

So here is the picture of Eric and Nica-Eric. My Eric is on the left. This isn't exactly the picture I wanted but I think they look very similar still.

Picture Update: Last Saturday's Canopy Tour

2008-06-20T00:13:00.005-04:00

Here is a picture of one of Nicaragua's many volcanos.

This is the pig that was hanging out near us when we were looking at the volcano.

The guys leading the canopy tour through the trees let us go down the zip line with them so we could do stunts and they could prevent us from hitting a tree. This is the Superman position.

A Tip-Top Night on the Town

2008-06-19T09:01:00.003-04:00

Last night Dr. B, Dr. A, Lisa and I had a very, very Nica experience. First, we had an exceptional dinner at the local Tip-Top. Tip-Top is like Nicaragua's version of KFC/Chick-fil-a. If you want to eat the food there though, they treat it like a regular restaurant. The dine-in menu is extensive, except that just about everything is chicken. We were served by a waitress in a "restaurant" with a children's play area.

After dinner, we rushed to the Ruben Dario National Theatre for El Homenaje a Los Beatles, which I thought was a tribute to the Beatles performed by the symphony of Managua. The theatre was in a bad part of town, in the area where the earthquake of 1972 destroyed what was once downtown. Apparently the theatre survived the earthquake. Nearby is a protest of treatment in banana plantations. The people live in makeshift tents during the protest, but, of course, the national theatre, with a dress code, is across the way. You can't wear flip-flops, shorts, capri pants, or anything somewhat revealing. It is the only building in Managua with central air conditioning.

After walking in the theatre, my guess is that it hasn't actually be remodeled since its creation the 1970s. Everything was blood red. When I say everything I mean EVERYTHING. The walls were red. The seats were red. The floors were red. Even the handrails were covered in red velvet. Just my luck...I happened to be wearing a red shirt. I never expected to be camouflaged while wearing red!

We sit down in our red seats and a rock band (!) comes out shortly after with two guys and a girl as singers. I think they must have belted out the choruses of somewhere between 30 and 50 songs without taking a break. The show continued on for about 2 hours combing the stylings of the rock band, Las Vegas lounge singers with a Nica twist, part of an orchestra, part of a gospel(ish) choir, and a keyboardist.

Highlights from the show:
1. the cheesy head-bobbing
2. the lazy air guitar
3. "SomeTIIIING in the way she moves...."
4. What Dr. A called "interpretive dancing" of the Beatles' songs
5. the seizure-inducing light show

But the best part.....
6. When Dr. A jumped up and started dancing like crazy to "Love Me Do"

All in all, it was a great cultural experience. I never expected to watch a homage concert for the Beatles in Managua, but now it's one more thing I can check off my list.

I Guess Everyone Was Right After All...

2008-06-13T22:45:00.004-04:00

Today was an interesting day for realizations. There's this one woman at Tesoros de Dios that seemed so fascinating and familiar to me. Then I realized why. She looks just like my aunt. Mom, please verify.

And then, I saw a little boy who looks just like my brother did when he was little. Mom, please verify again.

So Nica-Eric made me realize that after all these years, everyone was right. Apparently my family and I do look hispanic and can easily be misjudged. No wonder I'm always offered the Spanish menu in the US.

Baby Stealing

2008-06-12T09:26:00.008-04:00

First of all, I want to say that the title refers to two different things. The last couple of days have been very, very busy as we are all getting used to our centers. We've officially been in Managua for a week now and so much has happened. My legs have been completely eaten alive. It takes all the strength I have to fight itching them.
So far, working at Tesoros de Dios has been very interesting. It is a center for children with disabilities. It's a great community for the mothers because disabilities are frowned upon in Nicaragua. They are looked at as a punishment to the parents for something they've done. You can see how strong the ties are between the mothers at the center. They share the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning the entire place. Each mother brings a different item and they make a meal with all the items. It's a great system. There are some absolutely adorable children there. I've decided that I'm going to steal one of them. I've picked Ramon.

Here he is within Jonathan, another adorable child.

All of us that are working with children have kids picked out that we would steal. I could also take one of the babies at the orphanage that I fed the other day. Her name is Maria and she's three months old. For now, I'll stick with practicing my Spanish with Ramon.
Last Saturday, we went to La Laguna de Apollo and spent time hanging out in the crater-built basin filled with water. While we were there, Chris ran into the owner of his gym, Zack. Zack told us about friends of his who work for Feed the Children. He said they were coming to his home soon and invited us to his house to meet them. On Wednesday night, we went to his house. We were admiring all the beautiful houses and all decided this one yellow one was the most beautiful. Chris said he was planning to model the new Wake house after it. Then he realized he had no clue which house was Zack's, so he called him. Low and behold, the beautiful house was his! So we went in and talked for a long time. Here's the view from his driveway of the city of Managua.

Here's the side of the house by the pool.

Here's the view from his balcony at night.

He lives with his wife Diana, six dogs, several chickens, and an Iguana. The iguana lives behind the waterfall in the pool. We went to dinner with him and the people from Feed the Children. All four of them were very fascinating people. Zack is from Iran originally but lived in the US for several years teaching college wrestling. He has an entire room in his house dedicated to his awards. He and Diana met while she was vacationing in California. Six years ago, they moved to Nicaragua and started a gym. Zack's stories were incredibly funny including the one about how he almost got a plane turned around after September 11 because he was crying over the death of his dog and it scared the passengers. When they asked him for his passport, he showed them his US passport which did not help since it said "born in Iran." Eventually he convinced them that he was simply crying because his dog had died and they eventually believed him. He looks like a really intimidating guy but he's actually not. He's wanted in Iran because he defected. He left decades ago and won't even go close to the country now. Lots more to say, but not enough time. More to come.

The Best $12.50 I've Ever Spent

2008-06-08T02:49:00.004-04:00

Today was an absolutely amazing day! We did all sorts of fun things but I'm only going to talk about one since I'm tired and it's late. So we're driving to dinner tonight and we see a really long line of people along the road. Then someone in the car said "I think there's an Enrique Iglesias concert tonight." We went to dinner and tossed around the idea of going. Chris called a friend and asked him how much the tickets were. When we found out how little they cost we immediately jumped on the idea. We drove to a parking lot and walked to find tickets. We bought some from scalpers who told us they were VIP tickets. Apparently VIP tickets are general admission, but at least they were real tickets. So we were in at the Enrique concert!!! Basically it was amazing! He sang in almost all Spanish, of course, but we sang the songs in English.

After an already amazing concert, his encore was "Hero" which he sang to a little girl who he pulled from the stage. She barely let go of him and in the end he kissed her on the lips. It was so cute. Then he continued and sang another song, but I can't remember what song it was because while he was singing, he jumped onto the fence that we were standing next to. There was so much pushing, shoving, and beer spilling. Jay managed to touch his knee cap, and I just happened to be holding on to Jay. I touched Enrique by proxy!!!! This is the best pic we got of him while he was within a foot of us.

It was amazing to be within a foot of Enrique, but unfortunately Chris' wallet was stolen in all the chaos. He had a good attitude about it though. At least Jay touched Enrique's knee cap!

As Requested...

2008-06-07T10:06:00.010-04:00

Here are some pictures of the hotel.

Outside rocking chairs.

Inside rocking chairs.

The pool!

The bottom window is my room.

Gabriella!

Blacksmiths, Monkeys, Massive Flooding...

2008-06-06T19:44:00.009-04:00

Today was our first real day exploring Nicaragua. We started off with breakfast and class in the morning. Then we went to lunch at a buffet style restaurant, which cost a whopping three dollars. The food once again was delicious. After we ate, we drove to el Ciudad Sandino and visited a trade school that teaches blacksmithing. A guy from the US started it about two years ago. Now he has several guys that make all sorts of awesome creations. Below is a picture of the blacksmith shop.

The guys gave us a demonstration and then Kate made an S-hook of her own. The blacksmith center was in the same area as a school, so children were watching us. Here are the first two that came to observe.

Later, we went to another NGO called the Jubilee House. We looked at all the things they were doing to create sustainability in Nicaragua. They had gardens where they trained the vegetables to grow up instead of out to save space. They also had a lot of textiles. They were even constructing their own textile building.

The center also had lots of monkeys roaming around. One of the monkeys climbed around freely and was very friendly to us. The other one was on a chain because it kept breaking into houses and stealing food. They were trying to chain it to be a tree monkey not a house monkey. The first one was so friendly that it crawled all over the car.

We went to a clinic down the road to see what it looked like after touring the land near the Jubilee House. By the time we left, it was pouring rain. And by pouring rain I mean the whole area we were in was flooded. There were dirt roads and the water was up to about knee height. We started trekking through the flood in Chris's SUV, but the others were afraid to go in the water in a Toyota Corolla. We had to turn around in the flood and go back to them. The man with us from the Jubilee House jumped in the Corolla and drove through the water. There was so much muddy water that we could see it splashing higher than the roof of the Corolla and all the tires were submerged. We got to what I'm guessing was an intersection and there was a taxi stuck in the water, a bus, and a truck. All of a sudden the bus looked like it was coming right towards us. Then it started honking incessantly. Chris quickly steered out of its way and almost into the truck. He had to turn quickly the other way to make it away from the truck. All in all it was only about five seconds, but after we passed the truck the water level got lower. Now I know why there are so many SUVs in Nicaragua.

Bienvenido a Nicaragua!

2008-06-05T19:17:00.003-04:00

Today we woke up at 4:00 am and began our journey to Nicaragua. The flights were smooth and fairly short so we made it by 2:00 Eastern, 12:00 Managua. The most hectic part of the trip was once we got off the plane and almost all the way through customs. There was a mission trip from Texas on our flight which consisted of about fifty people. They decided to cut in front of everyone, including the local Nicaraguans, and to yell at the customs officials loudly in English even though they didn't speak English. Then they decided to yell at us as well. But we made it through though and met the Wake Forest MBA student that will be our go-to guy, Chris. Dr. A rented a car and we piled all the suitcases into her and Chris' cars. I chose to go with Chris which was quite a learning experience. Cars don't really follow any rules on the road. Honking at everything, tires in the road, and people in the road selling things are all very common. Buying mangoes at stoplights is very easy to do! When we finally got to the hotel, we unloaded and rested for a little while. The picture is what is directly behind the pool. It's a coconut tree, a common sight around here. Later we went to a really great restaurant. The food was delicious. Carne asada, rice and beans, and cabbage salad. Now we have work to do for class tomorrow...

Sparklers in May

2008-05-26T09:36:00.002-04:00

Last Summer

2008-05-21T23:13:00.000-04:00

Last summer I visited Japan for two weeks to see my brother. We traveled throughout the island of Kyushu visiting Nagasaki, Fukuoka, and Miyazaki (where my brother lives), just to name a few. A visit to Tokyo was, of course, essential. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Kojima Island

Cape Toi

Cape Toi again...

Nagasaki

Tokyo