Carl's Travel Blog

Appalachian Trail - Harper's Ferry

2011-12-04T02:47:00.001+01:00

So today I decided to take a break before my next round of finals and go to Harper's Ferry in West Virginia to check out the Appalachian Trail! As someone who has spent a lot of time in the Wilderness of Northern Minnesota the Appalachian Trail had always interested me, so I decided there was not time like the present to go check it out.

Obviously the Appalachian Trail is probably most famous for the infamous attempts at "Through hiking" it. Meaning hiking the 2,100+ miles from Georgia to Main all at once. Doing so takes between 4-6 months and only about 25% of those who start it manage to successfully finish it.

As I just had one day I did what many other people do which is go to one of the many trail heads and do a day hike on the Appalachian Trail. So I headed to Harper's Ferry which is only about 60 miles from DC. Harper's Ferry is a neat area because in addition to being in the Appalachians it is also the location of the intersection of the Shenandoah and the Potomac Rivers.

I hiked North on the trail up to the Weverton Cliffs which overlook Harper's Ferry and the two rivers there. While the area was quite scenic I must admit that it was a bit "busier" than I would have preferred. The Cliffs had a nice overview of the rivers, mountains, and the surrounding areas but also of a major highway and railway which were constantly busy. Also there were a lot of people out on the trail, a function no doubt of the fact that it was 50 degrees and sunny out in December!

Weverton Cliffs

Hiking down the Appalachian Trail

After enjoying the cliffs I decided to hike further North along the trail to get a bit further away from everything. As I went further along the trail I ran into fewer people and the noise of civilization dissipated. Later down the trail I discovered one of the many shelters that exist along the trail. Apparently they build and maintain actual backwoods structures or cabins for people to camp in. I thought this a bit over the top based on my time in the BWCA (which is 100% traditional tent camping) but at the same time having a more sturdy structure to stay in from time to time I imagine could be nice. When I got to the structure it was already claimed for the night with a number of tents already sent up nearby (I guess there is no 9 person maximum rule here).

Shelter on the Appalachian Trail

Goat!

Back at the Weverton Cliffs for Sunset

I imagine that like most wilderness places the Appalachian Trail would be best if you had several days that way you could get away from the more populated areas and day hikers (like me!) and thereby find more solitude. While this section of the trail might not exactly be what I am used to in Northern Minnesota or the BWCA it still was really nice to get outside and hiking on a warm sunny day in December before getting back to hitting the books once again for finals!

Pagami Creek Fire

2011-09-13T05:21:00.007+02:00

Earlier this summer I blogged about a small fire in the BWCA not too far from Tuscarora Outfitters. Ultimately not much came of the fire as it stayed small and eventually went out. Well since I left Tuscarora a new fire started in the BWCA and has grown to somewhat staggering proportions. In one day alone it more then doubled in size from 4,500 acres to 11,000 acres and is very much still burning and growing thanks to generally dry conditions and plentiful wind in the area. Whats more the fire has been large enough that people not only can smell (and be bothered by) the smoke in most of the BWCA but also as far south as the Twin Cities!

While the fire is a fair distance away from Tuscarora Outfitters (around 35 miles away) its affects are more then visible. Below are several pictures taken by Rachel Swenson, a co-worker of mine from Tuscarora. Needless to say the pictures are quite impressive.

Working in the BWCA: A Summer in Review

2011-09-10T00:25:00.012+02:00

This past summer while working at Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters I cannot tell you the number of times I was talking to clients and had them tell me how lucky I was to spend my summer living on the Gunflint Trail on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Often Clients will admit wishing they had done something similar when they were younger and/or tell their children that they should consider working on the trail when they are old enough.

In response to these types of comments and my desire to simply give a final blog summing up my experience working in the BWCA I have decided to write a type of review of my summer job. I hope it proves to be both interesting to those simply curious what a summer working up north entails and informative for those who might be interested in doing it themselves in the future!

BWCA Location & Employer – The first major decision I (or anyone) had to make before the summer was deciding where to work. As the BWCA is a large Area one can work in a number of different locations ranging from Ely, to the Sawbill Trail, to the Gunflint Trail. I choose the Gunflint Trail as it is more remote and less touristy then the Ely side. This is not to say that Ely would not be a fun place to work, but the culture and experience would be extremely different given the presence of a larger town (at least in comparison to Grand Marias), for example many of the outfitters in Ely expect you to live in Town as opposed to on site. For me the Gunflint Trail provided a more unique and genuine Northwoods experience for the summer.

Beginning of the Gunflint Trail in Grand Marais Minnesota

Another big thing to think about is who you work for? Do you want to work for an outfitter, a camp, the DNR, a resort, or somewhere else? Each place has its own kind of culture and different work that you will be doing. Also as you will be living there all summer, think carefully about the owners and your potential co-workers as you will be with them 24 I worked for an outfitter because it allowed me to work with people speifically interested in doing BWCA trips and because it gave me great access and supplies for doing my own BWCA trips throughout the summer. If you want to be in the BWCA guiding trips most of the summer, a camp (such as wilderness canoe base or one of the YMCA camps) would probably be a better option. The downside to guiding or working at a camp is that you are always doing someone else's trip, as opposed to going on your own trips. Working for the DNR also can get you into the BWCA a decent amount doing campsite and portage maintenance. Resorts have a different sort of feel as you do more cleaning, restaurant service, and other more general summer job tasks.

Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters Logo

Outfitter Work Duties – There are two major positions at many of the outfitters, housekeeping and outfitting. As one might expect housekeepers tend to spend most of their cleaning bunkhouses, cabins, showers, bathrooms, and other facilities around camp. Outfitters on the other hand spend most of their time scrubbing and cleaning outfitting gear such as canoes, Duluth packs, cook kits, tents, life jackets, sleeping pads, tarps, and much more. Regardless of whether you are a housekeeper or an outfitter the truth of the matter is most of your time at work is spent cleaning or scrubbing something, any allusions of these being easy jobs where one spends most of their time in BWCA canoeing or simply chatting with customers are misplaced.

Raking and cutting down trees as a part of general camp maintenance (also notice the black flies get so bad that it is even necessary to resort to head nets at times!)

All that said while these can be physically tiring jobs, they are more than doable and the staffs are often filled with college and graduate aged students that are a lot of fun to work with. Furthermore Outfitters do have several jobs which are quite enjoyable, specifically shuttling clients to the different entry points along the gunflint trail and tow boat driving on Lake Saganaga. Once again though these jobs make up only a minority of the work we do throughout the summer.

Getting ready to go on a Tow to American Point

A final comment relating to jobs, at most of the outfitters and lodges it tends to be (but is not always the case) that outfitting staffs are made up of men while women make up most of the housekeeping staffs. This is what it is (whether it is sexist or simply occurs due to the nature of the work I will leave for others to decide).

Social Life – When work finishes for the day (for me this was normally at around 3:00 pm) there is always plenty to do. Fishing, swimming, tanning, and afternoon day trips in the BWCA are just some of the things we did after work. In addition every week the majority of the staffs on the gunflint trail meet up for different social events. Every Saturday evening we had bonfires at Seagull Lake’s Blakenburg Landing while Tuesday evenings were normally spent at a local establishment (this past year we normally went to Hungry Jack Lodge) enjoying a few drinks while playing pool, darts, and other games. It was also common for people to meet up to play volleyball and Ultimate Frisbee most weeks throughout the summer.

Staff members from all over the Gunflint Trail at Bearskin Lodge

In addition weekly social activities a number of larger events occur throughout the summer on the Gunflint Trail and in Grand Marais. The 4^th of July and Fisherman’s Picnic (a local festival) provide great chances to go into Grand Marais to enjoy, among other things, good food, games, parades, and fireworks. The other major event of the summer is the Gunflint Canoe Races in which all the different outfitting staffs (and some adventurous tourists) compete in a number of canoeing races ranging from long distance paddling to gunnel pumping.

Gunflint Canoe Races at Gunflint Lodge in mid July

Needless to say a summer on the gunflint trail, while away from civilization is still full of fun social activities.

Days off – Days off if spent right will be the highlight of your summer. This is your chance to explore the BWCA. While many places only give their employees one day off a week it is possible to stretch them and make them count. One option is to “bank” days off and then take several days off in a row for a longer trip. Another option is to ask for a late start the day after your day off in order to increase your trip another night. Otherwise many people choose to simply leave after work the day before their day off and spend one night and the following day in the BWCA. No matter how you want to do it, if you are motivated and able bodied it is possible for you to see a large portion of the BWCA. While clients and guests may only do 5-10 miles a day on trips, it is more than possible to do 20-30 miles of canoeing and portaging in a 24-36 hour period and see large sections of the BWCA.

On top of the Seagull Palisades during a trip on a day off

All that said some prefer to take it easy on their days off in which case there are tons of nice easy day trips in the BWCA, places to go fishing, hiking, swimming, or the possibility to go do to Grand Marais for the day.

Canoeing Seagull Lake

Compensation – From time to time people do ask what you make working in the BWCA. My normal response is that I did not come up here for the summer to get rich but I do not think you do that bad either, especially once you consider the other benefits you get. Specifically free food and lodging are two huge benefits that save you tons of money. Not all employers offer these so make sure to check when talking about compensation. Also it is worth know what the housing situation is as the quality of staff housing also varies from place to place. At some employers you may have a roommate while at others you may have a ton of space to yourself. A final major benefit most outfitters provide their employees is permission to use any of their gear free of charge (canoes, Duluth packs, cook kits, water filters…etc.). Once you consider all these extra benefits that you receive when you work at an outfitter, plus what you are actually getting paid I personally think it is more then a fair deal.

The guys dorm at Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters

My room (you do not have roommates at Tuscarora), while nothing spectacular it was more then enough for me as I spent most my time outside doing other things (such as swimming, fishing, hiking, canoeing etc...)

From my perspective working on the Gunflint Trail on the edge of the BWCA is a great job and life experience. If you are willing to put up with some hard and sometimes monotonous work and are not focused solely on making tons of money, working in the BWCA provides you a great opportunity to meet some great people and have an amazing experience exploring the BWCA. If you have any questions about working at Tuscarora or at an Outfitter in general please feel free to contact me (carl.hoeg@gmail.com).

Two Final Adventures

2011-09-06T15:42:00.012+02:00

The end of my Summer at Tuscarora turned into quite the whirlwind. After helping the Ahrendt family move down to Stillwater Minnesota (Sue Ahrent is working as a professor of Math Education this winter at Wisconsin River Falls), I had earned several extra days off for all the overtime work I had done. So naturally I was planning to use the extra time off to do something really adventurous such as potentially canoeing to Ely and back solo! But it was not to be as during my last week at Tuscarora my Grandmother passed away. The extra time off proved helpful as it allowed me to leave early to go to her funeral while still fulfilling my full work commitment to Tuscarora, and to be honest it was really nice to have some extra time to spend with all my family and friends before I headed out to DC for classes the following week.

So while there was not final great adventure during my last week of the summer I did do two other trips in August that I have failed to blog about previously. The first was a solo canoe trip from Poplar Lake to Round Lake and the other was doing the Caribou Rock Hiking Trail which goes from the trail center area of the Gunflint Trail all the way out to Rose Lake and Stairway Falls.

My trip from Poplar Lake to Round Lake is one of the more common routes we sent clients on throughout the summer, so it was fun to finally do the route and get to see the area for myself! Below is a map of my route and some pictures from my trip. Enjoy!

My Route: 25 Miles. I started from Poplar Lake and went to Otto Lake the first night where I camped. The second day I went to Long Island Lake where I stopped early in the day to relax and make camp (and get out of the huge headwinds). The final morning (I had a late start for work that day) I got up and canoed back to Round Lake.

On my first portage, a 300 rod portage from Poplar to Meeds Lake, I came across another trail, the Banadad Ski Trail! A couple winters ago my brother and I XC skied this entire trail which is over 30 km long.

Canoeing into the sunset to make it to Otto Lake the first night

Me after a portage

Campsite on Long Island Lake

A small northern I caught on the trip

The full moon rises over Long Island Lake

My final morning and sunrise of the summer in the BWCA

My last day off (I did not realize that it would be at the time) I did not end up going on a trip into the BWCA as I was a bit exhausted from both work and from all the long trips I had done. So instead I stayed in camp and slept in on my day off. Not wanting to waste the day though I went down towards trail center and hiked the Caribou Rock Trail. Round trip the hiking trail is about 7 miles long, in addition it goes up and down some huge ravines so it is definitely a more challenging hiking trail. The other interesting thing about this trail for me is the fact that I actually went on a BWCA trip years ago with my Church to Rose Lake to see Stairway Falls. The funny thing is we spent 4 days going out to Rose and back and never saw the falls, now in one afternoon I managed to make it all the way to the falls and back. I guess I am just a bit more fast (and efficient) then we were back then.

The Hiking Trail (approximately) round trip way 7 miles

Bearskin Lake

Duncan Lake

Stairway Falls

Me at Stairway Falls

Frost River Loop

2011-08-08T03:50:00.004+02:00

Last week in addition to my normal day off of work I also had a late start the following day (meaning I did not have to be at work till 1:00 pm). This allowed me to have almost 48 hours off in a row and as a result do a two night trip into the BWCA.

Once again I ended up doing this trip solo, as no one else from my outfitter had the exact same time frame off. As I had longer off then normal I decided to pick a longer and more challenging route then I had done in the past. I choose to do the Frost River Loop. Advisable in the early spring when water levels are high, by early August it can be a bit more difficult to navigate. While the route does not have too many long portages (although I did do the 428 rod Tuscarora Portage for the 7th time this summer) it still had over 30 portages total and that does not include the 15-20 beaver dams I had to portage over as well. As I was also going down a river I opted to bring an 15 foot aluminum canoe on this trip as opposed to a single person lightweight Kevlar canoe, which I brought on my previous two solo trips. So needless to say by the time the trip was over I was quite exhausted. None the less it was a fun and challenging route through a very beautiful area of the BWCA.

Below are some pictures that illustrate my trip, enjoy!

My Route: 30 Miles, I started on the Cross River and camped on Frost Lake the first night. The second day I canoed the Frost River and made my way all the way to Tuscarora Lake where I camped for the second night before going back to camp.

The view from my campsite on Frost Lake

The Frost River (although creek, swamp, or brook would all be more appropriate terms)

Canoeing down the Frost

One of the many beaver dams I had to get over

Canoeing a lake at the end of the Frost River

Turkey Vultures eating a dead moose I came upon on Mora Lake

A small northern I caught on Tuscarora Lake

Sunset over Tuscarora Lake

515 Rods

2011-07-22T03:15:00.007+02:00

Portages, love or hate them are a big part of the BWCA experience. You really cannot get anywhere without at least hiking some in-between lakes. Sure you can choose to stay on one lake your whole trip or simply go down a river, but such trips miss out on so much more that the BWCA has to offer. These days though people are increasingly doing shorter trips to only the periphery of the BWCA and not working their way into the interior as much (Forest Service latrine cleaning statistics back this fact up, specifically periphery lake campsites have a lot more you know what in their latrines!). Reason being is that doing so requires a lot more canoeing and a lot more portaging, people would rather set up camp a couple lakes in and relax as opposed to pushing themselves to see a larger portion of the wilderness.

While I have done some trips this summer that have been a bit more on the lazy side, my most recent solo was definitely not! While I did not cover as much mileage as some of my past trips my trip did take me through a route that is traveled by only a handful of daring souls each year. While my route was not exactly deep in the BWCA, people avoid it for a completely different reason.....a dreaded 515 Rod portage! Not only is this portage 1.60 miles long, but the elevation change is brutal as one is constantly going up and down over huge rolling hills.

My Route: Seagull Lake to Round Lake. I originally planned to just spend my entire day off on Seagull relaxing, but when morning came I decided I wanted something a bit more challenging (and perhaps insane). The Entire route is around 15 miles, the first marker (going North to South) is my starting point, the second my campsite, and the third was my final destination of Tuscarora Outfitters on Round Lake. The large portage is from Seagull Lake to JA Paulson Lake

Of course 515 rods and massive elevation change was not enough for me so I decided to do this portage solo (meaning I got to carry all my gear and my boat) and I did it on one of the hottest days of the summer (90+ degrees, sunny, and very high humidity). Needless to say by the time I finished it I was exhausted (although I did find a bit more strength to filter some more water to drink!). Unfortunately the long 515 rod portage was only my first portage of the day and I still had 10 more to go in order to make my way back to Round Lake and Tuscarora Outfitters.

So after a quick rest I was on my way cutting across more lakes and portages. Surprisingly by the end of the day the dreaded 515 Rod portage was not my least favorite of the day. Upon arriving on Fay Lake I was unable to locate the portage to Flying Lake. I searched several deer trails and other potential paths and was completely exasperated. Finally after about 45 mins of searching I went back to where I thought it should be (according to the map at least) and bushwhacked around in the woods a bunch. Finally I discovered what appeared to be a small path heading off in the right direction. I had not found it earlier because there were tons of trees down by the lake so it did not look like a portage from the water. While I had finally found the portage my trials and tribulations were far from over. As hardly anyone does this route the portage was extremely poorly kept up. Trees had overgrown the portage everywhere and there was barely any room to walk. The result of this was that I got to spend 100 rods literally ramming my canoe through brush and trees the entire way. There were many times during the portage where I wondered if I was actually on a portage at all or if I had just followed some deer path into the woods and would never reach a lake on the other side! Needless to say when I finally arrived at Flying Lake I was greatly relived (and tired).

The rest of my trip was mostly uneventful as I worked my way through a handful more lakes and portages, all of which I had done before on previous trips, before finally arriving back at Tuscarora mid-afternoon.

The trip from Seagull Lake to Round Lake, via JA Paulson Lake (also called Jap Lake), is not one I would generally recommend. I loved the challenge and the remoteness of it, but it is not for the feint of heart. Campsites are few and far between and portages are frequent and long. Still if you are up to the task and want to take on a fun challenging route, go for it, just do not say you were not warned!

Granite River

2011-07-17T23:53:00.003+02:00

Last Monday and Tuesday I went on another trip during my day off. Myself and another staffer, Rachel, decided that we would go down the granite river route which goes from Gunflint Lake to Saganaga Lake. While the area is still quite burned from the 2007 Ham Lake fire it still is a great route that offers a lot of cool things including good fishing, river rapids, fairly easy portages, and scenic views.

Rachel actually already blogged about this trip for the Tuscarora Blog, so instead of writing my own blog post about it I am simply posting the route we did (below) and the link to Rachel's Blog Post. Enjoy!

Gunflint Lake to Saganaga Lake (21 Miles) via the Granite River. We camped Monday night on Larch Lake

Seagull Rendezvous

2011-07-14T02:33:00.006+02:00

After a bunch of trips in which I spent a lot of my time paddling and portaging long distances to see large sections of the BWCA I decided it was time for something a little different (and more relaxing!). Lucky for me a lot of other people had the same idea. Staffers from three different Outfitters (Tuscarora, Seagull, & Voyager) all had last Thursday off and decided that we would do a short group trip on Seagull Lake. The great thing about Seagull is that it is a large entry lake in the BWCA and thus requires absolutely no portaging and only some paddling but still allows one to get into the wilderness.

Our trip was full of good weather (minus a few isolated thunder storms), good food, fun people, an amazing stary night, beautiful wilderness, and while the fishing was not great we still enjoyed ourselves and did not get skunked completely! Below are some pictures from the trip, enjoy.

Seagull Lake and our brief (and easy!) route

Maggie and I Canoeing on Seagull Lake

Dylan and I soaking up the sun after an afternoon swim

Sunset on Seagull Lake

The Palisade on Seagull (if you look closely you can see people climbing it)

Part of the View from the top of the Palisade, we took the hiking trail up (as opposed to scaling the 50-80 ft cliff faces)

Picture of Maggie, Dylan, Alyssa, and I on top of the Palisade

Watching a storm approach from across the Lake

Into the Wild with a Friend

2011-07-08T17:37:00.009+02:00

Things have been really busy here at Tuscarora in recent weeks between having a group of 50 middle schoolers come through and the 4th of July festivities. The result of all this has been that I am a bit behind on blogging about my trips (I have actually done two since I last blogged now!). So now I am trying to rectify that by blogging about a trip I did last week with Randon Ruggles (a college buddy from Wartburg).

Way earlier this year (back in January) I told Randon that I would be working up in the BWCA over the summer. He told me that he in that case might just have to come up for a trip. So throughout the spring and early summer we talked and eventually were able to find a time that would work for both of us. We settled on Monday June 27th to head out and our trip lasted through July 1st. Normally I only get one day off a week but I had already banked two days off so far this year so between using those extra days and agreeing to work a late shift on the day we came back we were able to take a trip that spanned over parts of 5 days and 4 nights!

Our Route (Click to Expand): American Point on Lake Saganaga to Tuscarora Outfitters on Round Lake (35 Miles). The first and last markers are the start and finish points and the four in-between mark our campsites on Hansen, Ogishkemuncie, Little Saganaga, and Tuscarora Lakes respectively.

So at 3:00 pm right after work on the 27th Randon and I quick finished up our packing and then headed for our entry point. We actually cheated a bit as we took a Tow Boat across Lake Saganaga to American Point. This allowed us to get a head start on our route and explore some different areas within the BWCA. Our overall route was a one way trip from American Point on Lake Saganaga to Tuscarora on Round Lake. That first evening it was raining a decent amount so a lot of the campsites were already taken (people trying to stay dry!) so we ended up canoeing a lake further then we originally planned and camped on Hansen Lake. Our site was not much to write about but none the less it served its purpose and our trip was officially underway.

Randon and I about to head out on our Tow to American Point

On the 28th we got up, cleaned up our camp, and hit the water early in the morning. Our route that day took us through Knife Lake (which is gorgeous). There in addition to enjoying the large channels, old growth, and rolling hills around the lake we found a large waterfall pouring into Knife right by our exit portage. While it would of been fun to stay longer on Knife we pressed onward to our final destination that day of Ogishkemuncie Lake. There we found an awesome campsite that sat on a high rock peninsula that overlooked the main part of the lake. In camp that day we spent the afternoon enjoying some sun, our first campfire, steak & potatoes, and a beautiful sunset.

Randon Canoeing on Knife Lake

Waterfall into Knife Lake

Looking out over Knife Lake

View of Ogishkemuncie Lake from our Campsite

Sunset over Ogishkemuncie Lake

June 29th took us from Ogishkemuncie to Little Saganaga Lake. The highlight of this day was that throughout the entire day we saw absolutely no one. This made for a peaceful paddle and an enjoyable relaxing camp experience on Little Saganaga. To boot the entire day was perfectly sunny with almost no clouds in the sky. Similar to the previous day we spent the morning paddling to get to our campsite (an amazing Island site overlooking the main portion of the lake) and the afternoon relaxing in camp reading, sunning, swimming, and eating.

Our trusty stead, a 15 foot Aluminum canoe

Sunset over Little Saganaga

The 30th was our final full day of our trip so our goal was to get near to Tuscarora Outfitters so our final morning would not be too difficult or long a paddle. So we headed out from our Little Sag campsite and made for Tuscarora Lake. There we grabbed the famous Island campsite (a common place for Tuscarora employees to go on their days off). While the weather was not quite as nice as the previous two days we stilled enjoyed hanging out and relaxing in camp.

Sunset over Tuscarora

July 1st we decided to get up early and paddle out with the sunrise. While we did get up around 5:00 am, it was a cloudy morning so we missed seeing the sun come up. Still our effort was not in vein as it proved to be an extremely hot day and very humid so by getting up early we missed the worst of the heat. While we were only two lakes away from Round Lake we still had to transverse the Tuscarora (425 Rods) and the Missing Link Portages (a steep 140 Rods), so needless to say we worked hard that final morning. None the less we managed to finish up our canoe by 8:00 am that morning leaving me time to recover before work and Randon plenty of time to make the long drive back to the Twin Cities.

Randon double packing on a portage

Overall we had an amazing trip. Yes our trip like all others had lots of problems such as a rainy first day, a seriously slooooooow water filter, ineffective propane burner, and sometimes less then appetizing dehydrated foods but the upside of good companionship, remote and pristine wilderness, peaceful solitude, beautiful sunsets, and much more easily overcame any hiccups our trip encountered.

1st Solo Trip

2011-06-22T22:45:00.005+02:00

Last Friday I had the day off and was ready to do another trip into the BWCA. This time though there was no one else with a day off looking to do a trip, so I decided to embark on my first solo BWCA trip! So Thursday after work I got my permit and headed off into the Wilderness for the night and the following day.

I decided I would head to Long Island Lake as it was a big lake that I wanted to explore and accessible from the entry points near Tuscarora. The important thing to remember on a solo trip is that you need to carry everything, all your gear and the canoe on every single portage. Thus I made sure that I could fit all my stuff in one Duluth pack and then took a single person Kevlar canoe (a Jensen - only 34 lbs) as my boat. The result was that I had no trouble portaging everything all together.

My Route (Click to expand it): The total distance was 16 Miles, the Blue Marker is Tuscarora and the Red Marker was my Campsite

My Canoe, a Wenonah Jensen Kevlar

By the time I made it to Long Island Lake I found that my first choice campsite was already taken (not surprising on a Thursday night) but I was able to find a good alternative site. There I set up camp, made a campfire, and made freeze dried spaghetti for dinner. I found that being in camp by yourself is a very peaceful experience that allows you to relax, take in the beautiful wilderness around you, and listen to nature and your own thoughts. Still by the time I was in my tent and ready to go to sleep it is amazing how your imagination can convince you that every noise you here is a pack of wolves, a giant moose, or a bear in camp, when in reality it was really just a chipmunk running through camp.

My Campsite on Long Island Lake

View of the Sunset from my Campsite

Friday morning I got up, enjoyed the sunrise, had a campfire, and made hot apple delight for breakfast. After eating I relaxed for awhile, read my book, and then headed out for a morning fish. On Long Island Lake I had almost no success. A couple medium Northerns followed my lures but never really struck. After fishing I headed back to camp, had an early lunch, packed and cleaned up camp, and set off back towards Tuscarora. My plan though was to go lazily back fishing many of the lakes.

View of the Sunrise from my Campsite

Me by my canoe before leaving Camp

After Canoeing around the rest of Long Island Lake and then going through Karl Lake I got to Rib Lake where I had my fishing success for the day. The wind was such that I could float across the entire lake while fishing. The result was catching three Northern Pike! The Largest of which was around 32" and had a sizable belly.

My 32" Northern

Me with a smaller Nothern

After Rib Lake I meandered through several more lakes on my way back, taking time to check them out and occasionally tossed a line in the water. At Ham Lake I ran into a friend from another outfitter (who was also out on a Solo Trip) and hung out with her for a couple hours at a campsite that overlooked the lake. Finally we decided it was time for the final push down the cross river and out of the wilderness. When I arrived back in camp, I was just in time for our staff dinner (coincidence, I think not!) of steak fajitas, needless to say it really hit the spot!

Overall I really enjoyed my first solo trip. It was nice and peaceful canoeing around the wilderness by myself. Still I think in general I prefer having company on my trips and at my campfires at night. Nevertheless I am sure I will go on more solo trips before my time up here is done and I do look forward to them.

Harsh Realities of Nature

2011-06-16T02:15:00.002+02:00

While the BWCA is renowned for being an amazing wilderness area that offers a beautiful and solace escape from the modern world, it cannot be forgotten that when one enters such a place certain risks do exist.

This fact has been put in stark perspective over the last couple days. Last weekend a young man from Wisconsin disappeared on a solo fishing trip and was found to have drowned in Swan Lake. Another sobering story has been the discovery of a forest fire near Gaskin Lake. While the fire is small and unlikely to spread given current conditions (very green trees and wet weather in the forecast), the fact that smoke can once again occasionally be smelled in the air on the Gunflint does give a foreboding feeling.

I guess the message is that while the BWCA is a great place people need to remain vigilante about safety at all times, as you never know what might happen and help not an easy phone call away.

Duluth News Tribune: On man's death in BWCA

Superior National Forest: On BWCA forest fire

Little Saganaga Trip

2011-06-02T14:48:00.006+02:00

So it might not have escaped you that while I have been working in the BWCA for over three weeks now I had not actually been on an overnight trip into the wilderness yet. This was because I spent my first day off in Grand Marais to get some supplies and then banked my second day off in order to take a longer trip later this summer! The time for a trip finally arrived, so last Monday at 3:00 pm after work myself and a friend and co-worker, Andrew, headed off for a one night trip in the BWCA.

Neither Andrew or I had seen much of the area around Tuscarora so we decided the goal of our trips was to "Make Tracks" and see as much of the area in a short amount of time as was possible. I would have to say that we were completely successful in our goal as in 23 short hours (12 of which we were in camp) we covered 21 miles, 22 portages (totaling over 1,300 rods), and over 20 different lakes!

Our Route (Click to expand it)

After setting out Monday afternoon Andrew and I left Round Lake and headed to Tuscarora Lake, where we originally had planned to camp for the night. On our way we got to do the legendary Tuscarora Portage which depending on which map you consult is anywhere from 360-425 rods (anyway you look at it, that is long and over a mile!). To boot I carried an aluminum canoe over the entire portage! When we got on Tuscarora it was still early and we had favorable winds so we decided to keep going instead of making an early camp. The result was we were able to make it to Crooked Lake and find a suitable campsite by 6:15 pm. In camp we enjoyed the delights of expired dehydrated foods (which we get for free from Tuscarora Outfitters as they cannot sell it to clients), a campfire, a beautiful sunset, and starry night (complete with loon calls and beaver tail slaps).

Me at Tuscarora Lake (After the big Portage)

Camp Site at Crooked Lake

Tuesday morning we were up at sunrise (around 5:30 am or so) and had packed up camp and were canoeing again by 6:15 am. As there had been decent winds the day before we decided we wanted to get out early in order to get to Little Saganaga before any major winds camp up (Little Sag is a big lake, despite its name, and unfavorable winds would make canoeing it very difficult). When we arrived at Little Sag the wind was just getting going for the day, but lucky for us it was mostly at our back. As the wind increased we decided that we would take a chain of smaller lakes back to Tuscarora Outfitters in the afternoon as opposed to going into other big lakes such as Gabimichigambi and Peter Lake. The result of this decision was a lot of portages! Despite our aluminum canoe though we only had one big pack and a small backpack so there was no double portaging for us.

Sunrise at Crooked Lake

Portaging away from Little Saganaga to Virgin Lake (Senic Overlook of Little Sag)

While Tuscarora, Crooked, and Little Sag Lakes were all beautiful a lot of the lakes on our way back were not quite as scenic. The area was heavily hit by the Cavity Lake Fire in 2006 that burned a lot of the blown from 1999. Gillis Lake though was still in pristine condition. After crossing Gillis we stoped for a quick lunch around 11:30 am on Bat lake before completing the last leg of our journey back to Tuscarora Outfitters by 2:15 pm on Tuesday.

View of Gillis Lake from Portage to Bat Lake

Overall it was a great trip! We managed to see a big portion of the BWCA that is right in our backyard. Now when I take clients to different entry points around here I will be able to tell them a bit more about some of the lakes in the Area, if they are interested.

Lakes I would Recommend From this Trip: Missing Link, Tuscarora, Crooked, Mora, Little Saganaga, and Gillis Lake.

Lakes/Areas I would Not Recommend: The Northern Portion of my route, Virgin through Brant Lakes (Gillis Excluded). This is due to it being a burn zone which was less then scenic and the fact there are a lot portages connecting a bunch of very small lakes (I prefer larger lakes that you can canoe longer distances as opposed to constantly getting in and out of your canoe to portage every 200 yards).

Blackflys 1 Fashion 0

2011-05-25T23:35:00.004+02:00

Last Christmas I received a number of different items from my family in anticipation of spending my summer working in the boundary waters. These items ranged from tents and maps to sleeping blankets and water-bottles. One item that I received made me roll my eyes and sarcastically say that I never thought I would use the item as it represents a major fashion faux pas...this item of course is the horrific bug head net!

Bug Head Net: a major fashion faux pas

About a week ago here on the Gunflint Trail there was a major hatch of the dreaded black flies! While myself and other staff members armed ourselves with long sleeve shirts, pants, hats, and glasses and fought back valiantly with liberal amounts of bug spray and other long-shot remedies, ultimately our efforts were for naught as the black flies continued to grow in number and thereby were able to eventually overwhelm us by being a general nuisance that drove us to the brink of insanity and consequently threatened to bring our work to standstill. Thus several of us, myself included, in our desperation have brought out our secret weapon against these bugs.

I would like to tell you that when I wear the headnet I make it look good, but that would be like telling you that socks and sandals are a good combination....and we all know that is far from the truth (no matter how much certain fathers protest). As a result you will not find any photos of me wearing a headnet on this blog, instead you will just have to make due with the displayed google image rendition.

On the bright side we have projected lows of 28 and 22 degrees the next too nights, and while that is not great news when you live in an unheated dorm room without any type of insulation, it means the bugs may succumb to the cold and we could be granted a reprieve from their reign of terror, thus allowing us to put this embarrassing fashion trend behind us (for at least the time being).

Wildlife & Sunsets

2011-05-16T20:02:00.003+02:00

Living and working on the Gunflint trail in Northern Minnesota can be a lot of hard work and not the greatest living accomodations, but if you do not mind roughing it (and I definitely do not) it has some great benefits! In particular I have seem some great wildlife and sunsets during my first week at Tuscarora.

On my way up to Tuscarora a week ago I mentioned to my parents how in all my time in the BWCA, in the Chippewa National Forest by our family cabin, and then our trip to Alaska I have never seen a moose in the wild. Not only did we end up seeing one by the road about 2 mins later, but over the next week I saw moose on seven different occasions! At this point it is basically a daily occurrence. Other wild life sightings include tons of grouse, foxes, & deer. A staff friend of mine has also seen several bears in the area as well.

In addition to the wildlife there has been no shortage of brilliantly colored sunsets. Me and a friend have started meeting up every night on the dock to watch the sun go down, and we are rarely disappointed. Below are some pictures of wild life and sunsets that I have taken during my first week up here, enjoy!

No doubt there will be many more wildlife and sunsets to come, all of which I am looking forward to. Today I have my first day off and am spending it in the roaring metropolis of Grand Marais hanging out and getting some random odds and ends. I am currently in the process of getting a season pass to the BWCA (you need permits to go in) and from here on out plan to spend many of my days off doing overnight trips to various lakes, trails, and places in the BWCA.

1 Week

2011-05-02T19:31:00.003+02:00

Just one week till I arrive at Tuscarora, and despite the numerous rumors to the contrary it looks like spring may have finally made an appearance on the Gunflint Trail! Hopefully it will stick around...

Picture from Tuscarora's Blog (click to see more photos of spring)

Ice or no Ice?

2011-04-22T18:37:00.004+02:00

As I sit in the third floor basement of the JHU Library (I have not seen natural light in weeks it seems!) contemplating deep questions such as what motivates US International Trade policy: ideas, political elites, rational choice models, power, or my personal favorite the structure of international anarchy, another question drifts into my mind which is much less complex but will also have wide ranging implications for my future, Ice or no Ice?

Will there be an ice out on the Gunflint before I arrive on May 9th?

Specifically I am wondering if when I arrive in the BWCA in just over two weeks whether the lakes around Tuscarora on the Gunflint trail will still be iced over? According to Minnesota DNR the average ice out for may of the lakes in the region is right around the beginning of May and last year the ice went out in record time by April 10th. This year though has been the year of the never ending Winter in Minnesota with temperatures remaining near freezing and snow storms occurring in mid to (gasp!) late April! While temperatures are warming up in Grand Marais and the Gunflint Trail ice out can be a long slow process. The record for the latest ice out in the region is May 17th back in 1996. Should there be another historically late ice out this year (and it looks like there might be) chances are my first week in the BWCA will be a bit different then I was expecting!

Current MN ice out conditions

BWCA in T-Minus 1 Month!

2011-04-10T17:57:00.005+02:00

It is hard to believe but my time here in Baltimore is already coming to close and in just one short Month I will be leaving this city (and civilization in general) to spend nearly four months in the Wilderness of the BWCA in Northern Minnesota.

A typical BWCA lake

I have been to the BWCA several times in the past on Church and Family Canoe Trips as well as biking the 70 mile long Echo Trail with my Father last summer on a 350 mile long Father-Son Bike Tour through Northern Minnesota. Needless to say between time spend at my Family's cabin near Grand Rapids and time spent in Duluth and the North Shore I am quite familiar with Northern Minnesota and the lifestyle it entails, but this summer I am going to get even more acquainted with it!

Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters near the end of the Gunflint Trail and close to the Canadian Border

From May through August this summer I will be working at Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters (website & blog) on the Gunflint Trail! This place is literally almost at the end of the trail and miles and miles from modern civilization. While I will be busy helping outfit people for their canoe trips, I have no doubt that I will find plenty of time to do some of my own exploring in the BWCA as well (which will of course be documented here)!

Review: MegaBus & BoltBus

2010-12-01T15:51:00.007+01:00

So while living on the East coast this year has not brought nearly as many exciting travel opportunities as Italy and Morocco did, I have still managed to move around some. For thanksgiving I traveled from Baltimore, Marland to Providence, Rhode Island where I spent the holiday with my Aunt Lois and Uncle Jim and the rest of their family. In order to do so I had to travel on buses (MegaBus & BoltBus), as I do not have a car out here. Thus I thought I would share my thoughts on the experience.

Cost: Both BoltBus and MegaBus are quite cheap. For four bus trips (Baltimore to NYC & NYC to Providence each way) I only paid around $50, and this was at Thanksgiving when everything is full and expensive. If you plan ahead you can actually like they say ride for $1 each way, although even full price tickets are only $15-$20 so they are overall very affordable.

Wifi & Outlets: Obviously the biggest promotion these companies offer (other than $1 seats) is the free internet and outlets for you to use while traveling. My advice though is not to count on it. Sometimes the internet worked sometimes it did not or was too painfully slow to use. The outlets sometimes had power and sometimes did not. Basically its great if everything works, but that is not most of the time.

Comfort: Traveling on buses is not 1st class travel, but it is not terrible either. While it is great if you can get two seats to yourself, I was not uncomfortable with someone sitting next to me. Overall the buses were nice enough and seemed reasonably new.

Travel Time: None of my buses were on time. Two were close though while the other two were around 1-2 hours late. Like driving a car if the bus hits traffic, get comfortable because there is nothing it can do about it. Being late in NYC is basically a fact of life due to the awful traffic there. So if you are like me and you are taking multiple buses to get somewhere make sure you leave plenty of time for connections as missing a bus could be a bit of a nightmare as the companies do not work very hard to help you out (even if you were riding both routes on their bus line).

Overall: You get what you pay for. It is a easy cheap way to get from A to B. It might not be on time and all of the amenities may not work or be top of the line but ultimately it gets the job done!

Where in the world is SAIS BC?!

2010-11-10T15:21:00.003+01:00

Many people are familiar with the "Where the hell is Matt?" youtube videos in which this guy named Matt travels around the world dancing everywhere he goes. He has gone on several different trips and has actually become as he puts it "semi-famous". In fact he even now gets paid to travel and dance (not a bad deal). Anyways if you have not seen his videos before you should really check them out. This is the link to his most recent and most watched video.

This comes to mind because SAIS Bologna Center actually did a spoof on this for the summer of 2010, and made a movie with us dancing all over the world during our different internships, language programs, and personal travels we engaged in after our year at the Bologna Center. Unfortunately I was lame and did not send in any dancing footage myself (which is too bad as I have plenty of me dancing at the Moroccan wedding I went to). Still I think it is a cool video and shows everywhere people went over the summer.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXRBXtSO9TM

BWCA - Superior Bike Tour

2010-07-30T21:13:00.005+02:00

For five days my Father and I engaged in our BWCA - Superior Bike Tour across wild and untamed Northern Minnesota! We faced just under 350 grueling miles and five days of forests, lakes, rivers, hills, wild timber wolves, lynx, moose, and the unruly white tailed deer!

Somehow we survived and lived to tell the tall. The route was great with a good diversity of flats, hills, lakes, forests, and even the Embarrass Mountain. The toughest day by far was the 70 very hilly miles between Orr and Ely on the Echo Trail, which in addition to the hills has over 35 Miles of dirt road (not fun for a road bike!). Overall I would recommend the route to anyone who wants to see more of northern Minnesota and is willing to engage in some slight (or some might say extensive) physical activity!

Below is the route we took. If you would like to see pictures from our ride just click here. If you want to hear more about the trip or doubt my tall tales just check out my father's blog as well.

Duluth to Hoyt-Lakes: 68 miles

Hoyt-Lakes to Orr: 65 miles

Orr to Ely: 70 miles (The Infamous Echo Trail!)

Ely to Silver Bay: 67 miles

Silver Bay to Duluth: 50 Miles

Gander Newfounland!

2010-07-18T19:06:00.004+02:00

In order to fly from London to Minneapolis with Sun Country Airlines we had to stop in Gander Newfounland and refuel! (as a Boeing 737 does not have enough range to go non-stop). Gander is a very small town and airport but with a big history. From being the main refueling stop for transatlantic flights in early aviation history, to being a huge military base during WWII, to the amazing story of "The Day the World Came to Town" on 9/11 the place has a rich history!

Cadiz & Travel

2010-07-17T13:29:00.005+02:00

I decided after all my studying and traveling it was time for a relaxing break. So a friend from my hostel and I took a day trip to the beach in Southern Spain. We went to the town of Cadiz, while the town does not boast an impressive history and major landmarks (that I am aware of...) it does posses huge beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, amazing sunny weather, and it is only just over an hour by bus from Sevilla. Thus it was a perfect destination for a lazy day.

Beach in Cadiz

While I have been living in sunny, hot, and desert Fez in Africa the fact that most my persuits occured inside I have aquired very little color thus far this summer. Despite the furious application of sun screen, sun burn still managed to get the better of me. Still despite this slight drawback it was a really nice day at the beach.

Right now I am in the London Stansted Airport. My flight from Sevilla was delayed several hours, much to tha annoyance of most of the passangers. To me it made little difference as it just ment less time bumming around in the Stansted airport. I eventually did make it to London around 1 am where I found a lovely bit of floor and curled up for the night for some sleep! Now in about 6 hours I will get on my plane and head back to Minnesota!

Bullfighting

2010-07-17T12:24:00.003+02:00

So as you may of concluded from my hint in the previous post I went to a bull fight here in Sevilla. Sevilla is one of best known places for bull fighting along with the town of Rondo (also in southern Spain). As most people know bullfighting has become a bit of a contentious issue. Barcelona converted their bullfighting ring into a mall and the bull ring in Madrid sees less and less usage as any bull fight is met with big protests there. It seems that Bullfighting is likely on the decline and will not persist for much longer. Thus I was not going to miss a chance to get to see part of Spanish Cultural before it potentially disappears.

The bullfighting Ring in Sevilla

The poster for the bull fight I went to, notice that the first Matador is actually a woman (Veronica), this is not very common.

I went to the bull fight with several other people from my hostel. The fight was not actually a part of their "Normal Season" of bull fighting, this fight was instead a fight for young bullfighters who are new to the sport. This meant that the Matadors were between the ages of 14 - 18! I have not idea how a 13 year old tells his parents he wants to be a bull fighter or what sane parents would say yes! As the bullfighters are younger and less experienced that means they are often less effective at killing the bull. Thus it often took several tries in the fights we watched for them to finally kill the bull. A side affect of this is that it tends to get a bit more bloody. In all there were six bull fights on the evening we went (one for each of the six young matadors), some went quickly and some took longer depending on the skill of the matador and the size and strength of the Bulls. The last two matadors we watch both got a bit more friendly than they probably would of liked with the bulls, with one getting gored and the other going for a ride on the head of the bull before being tossed into the air. Both matadors to their credit jumped right back into the action and finish their fights.

Watching the bull fight was quite the experience. I can see why there are plenty of people who oppose them, but I can also appreciate it as Spanish Culture. I will leave it up to others to make the judgment call as to which should prevail. Below I have some pictures and video footage of the bull fight.

Inside the Bull Ring

Bullfighting

The Matador and his assistants after a successful fight

There are three major parts of a bull fight. The first part is called "Tercio de Varas" (The lancing third) and is the part in which the bull and the fighter are brought into the ring. During this the Matador attempts to rile up the bull with his red cape and get the bull to make several runs at him. The second part is called "Tercio de Banderillas" (The Third of Flags) in which the Matador and his assistants attempt to place Banderillas on the bull (in other words stab the bull with the Banderillas). The final part is called "Tercio de Muerte" in which the the Matador and his assitants will deliver the final blows and kill the bull.

In the video you will see bits of each of the three parts. Please be forewarned that you will see the bull stabbed and you will see the bull die. Thus the Movie can be a bit graphic at times. If this will offend you then I suggest you do not watch it.

Sevilla

2010-07-15T13:06:00.007+02:00

Well I am now on to my last several days abroad before I head back to the United States. I have parked myself in Southern Spain for the remainder of my time abroad. Specifically I am staying in Sevilla. When I backpacked Europe two years ago I had planned to come down to Sevilla, Granada, and the Southern Coast of Spain, but opted for a soccer match in Barcelona instead. So this is my chance to see the places after all! I am not sure I will make it to all of them but I have no doubt I will enjoy my time here regardless.

Yesterday evening and so far today I have spent my time wander and exploring Sevilla. Here are some photos and commentary of what I have seen and done so far!

Plaza de Espana in Sevilla (it was being renovated, but still was a neat place/park)

More Plazza de Espana, I swear I see the Spanish Flag everywhere here (not just at official places like this), I suppose it has something to do with their recent world cup exploits (as it is kind of a big deal here!)

University of Sevilla

Alcazar Palace

Plaza de Toros (Sevillas Bull fighting ring)

Guadalquivir River that runs through Sevilla

Me standing in front of the Cathedral, it is the 3rd largest in the world behind St. Peter's at the Vatican and St. Paul's in London

As with most Cathedrals and Churches in Europe the Interior was quite impressive

According to Legend (and "Lets Go Europe") the people who built the Cathedral in Sevilla wanted to make it so impressive and extravagant to display their religious devotion that "Those who came after us will take us for madmen." I think they succeeded, as the Cathedral is indeed very impressive.

The Remains of Christopher Columbus are also entombed within the Cathedral

More of the Interior of the Cathedral

Looking out over the Cathedral from its tower

Sevilla from the Cathedral Tower

As you can see Sevilla is a very nice attractive Spanish city. I have some ideas as to what I will do during the rest of my time here, probably involving a beach on the Mediterranean, but also have some free time as well to either relax or find new areas to explore.

I imagine my next post will be quite exciting! The only hint I will give is that if you ever have in the past or considered donating to PETA you should probably skip my next post!

Daily Life in Fez

2010-07-13T18:41:00.006+02:00

It is hard to believe that two months in Morocco has already come to an end and my studies here are over. In just 24 short hours I will be in Spain and then in several more days back in the United States. At this point I have basically been abroad for an entire year (minus 10 days at Christmas) and the idea of going home still seems a bit foreign to me. Still with a new family member to meet and family and friends to catch up with I am very excited to return home.

Before I leave though I want to share a little bit of my average daily life here in Fez with you. I have gotten quite used to it, but in many ways it is a completely different world here and even the mundane daily life activities like taking a bus or walking home through the souks (shops) of the old medena (city) is quite the expearience. So I have posted a number of pictures to give you a glimpse of what life is like here in Fez as an Arabic student living in the old medena.

My bedroom at my homestay, notice the lack of a door instead I have a curtain!

The road/path outside my homes door (one of the 9,000+ roads in the old medena of Fez)

Food Markets right by my house

The Racif part of the Fez old Medena (where I generally live)

Bus stop. Bus to the new city is $0.30 and a taxi is $1....not bad! Taxis come with the bonus of random Arabic conversations with Drivers and other passengers!

I do not have any photos of my actual school but here is a picture from one of my classes we were studying Arabic case endings (Nomative, Genative, or Accusative)....and I thought English grammar was hard!

Fountain on the main drag of the Fez new city

And of course your local American Imperialist and Capitalist center...I like that McDonalds is also written in Arabic script, talk about a cultural mixture!

One of the Kings Royal Palaces in Fez

Souk (market) in Fez, how good are you at haggling! You can also see a mosque minaret in the backgroung

More Souks

One of the Kings private garden's in Fez...it is a shame it is closed to the public as it looks really nice.

One of the Many Babs (gates) to the Old City of Fez

Street shops, food, and more gates.

Wall of the old city

There are literally Kittens and Cats every where in Morocco. I probably see hundreds of stray cats each day, they are cute but watch out for their claws, these are street cats not house cats!

Entrance to the ALIF (my arabic institute) Riad in the Old City where I enjoy internet while drinking their free tea before heading home each night.

In conclusion Fez is a really neat place to study Arabic and I have really enjoyed my time here. My host family has been absolutely amazing, the city of Fez is always fun to explore (and get lost in), and the people here are very open and welcoming. I would encourage anyone studying Arabic to come spend some time here to study in a country where they actually speak Arabic (even if it is a dialect and not Modern Standard Arabic). If I ever have the chance to study Arabic abroad again in the future I would consider coming back to Fez for sure, but at the same time I would probably prefer to try a new country and city simply for the excitement of a new adventure! Still I will always treasure my time here in Fez.

Ifrane

2010-07-13T18:30:00.002+02:00

Life in my home here in Morocco has picked up considerably again. After the hustle and bustle of the wedding, things really quieted down as it was just basically me and my host mother living in quite a big house (good for Arabic practice though). Now though there are two new exchange students living here, Immanuel and Josha (not sure if that is how it is actually spelled). Immanuel English and Italian, she actually lived in Bologna for the first eight years of her life! So naturally we had quite a bit to talk about. She just finished up university at Oxford and is now planning to spend a year studying Arabic (both here in Morocco and Syria). The Dutch fellow, Josha, studies Arabic on and off more as a hobby and is currently still in university. Surprisingly he had absolutely no interest in the world cup final despite the fact that his country was in it! Hard for a crazy sports fan like me to comprehend...I guess some people just do not like sports (weird!).

This past weekend I spent a lot of time with my host family, which was fitting as it was my last weekend here in Morocco. On Saturday one of my host mother's sons, Salah came home for the weekend (he lives and works as an accountant in Casablanca). My host mother, Salah, my host sister and her new husband, Immanuel, and I all went to a pool on that afternoon (Josha was gone traveling). Let me tell you after weeks on end of basically 100 degree weather a pools is basically heaven sent! It was an amazing way to relax. Later that evening then we all drove to a town called Ifrane which is around an hour from Fez and in the Mountains. Ifrane is very different from the rest of Morocco and often called a little Switzerland because it is much more western in style and is of course in the mountains. Ifrane was lovely and the temperature there was probably 20 degrees cooler then Fez, which again was just what the doctor ordered. In Ifrane we spend most our time hanging out in a park by a mountain stream (where you could ride horses and donkeys...see pictures below), and then in a cafe having some tea.

The park in Ifrane

Me on my trusty Moroccan Steed!

Fatima and her Husband

Me with my Moroccan host family

The rest of the weekend was spent preparing for my exam on Monday (which went just fine), and then watching the world cup final on Sunday night in a typical Moroccan Cafe, which is always quite the experience! To top things off in just one day I will be in Spain and will be celebrating with the victorious Spaniards in person!

Summer Heat!

2010-07-04T19:51:00.003+02:00

Its getting hot here! And there is no relief in sight! Looks like I will be getting all of the hot African sun during my last week in Fez. Hard to believe that in just over a week I will be flying on to Spain for a couple day vacation and then on to London to catch my flight back to the states!

Translating & Soccer!

2010-06-23T20:19:00.006+02:00

Yesterday a group from England arrived at my home-stay. They were staying the night before traveling on to see their Sheik (a type of wise Islamic holy man) today. Last night one of their friends from Morocco was at our house so she served as the translator (the people from England do not speak any Arabic), this morning though their friend was not around. Wouldn't you know I was the only person in the house who spoke both English and Arabic (and saying a speak it is a stretch at best still!). So it was quite exciting for me to try and translate between my host mother and the English guests as they prepared for the day and got ready to go! I would say I was fairly successful (I tried to translate exciting things like they wanted bread to make sandwiches for their journey), although I am sure my grammar was abysmal. Still it was a fun experience and we managed to get them ready and out the door basically on time!

The other excitement today was the world cup game between the US and Algeria. Those of you who know your geography will know that Algeria and Morocco are neighbors. Now there is some animosity between Algeria and Morocco over certain political issues (see the western Sahara), but in general the Moroccans tend to support the Algerian soccer team in the world cup.

In addition the Moroccans will generally support any African team in the world cup as they would like to see them do well, especially this year as the world cup is in Africa for the first time in the tournaments history. So needless to say it was a fun environment when the US and Algeria clashed this afternoon. A bunch of students and I went to a local cafe to watch the game and the atmosphere was crazy. The Moroccans were constantly cheering against the US and for Algeria and they got particularly loud as the end of the game neared and the US was looking like they would be unable to win and advance in the tournament. Luckily though fate intervened and the US scored in stoppage time (the last couple minutes of a game) to win the match. the Americans of course went crazy and the Moroccans had to endure our prolonged cheering and chants of U-S-A, U-S-A! Most of them were very nice and congratulated us on the victory (remember at least it was not "their" team that lost).

Landon Donovan after scoring the winning goal for the US

Also funny to note is that towards the end of the game the director of our school showed up at the cafe and exclaimed "So this is where all the students are!". Class was technically in session during the game but there were basically no students at school as most of us choose to play hooky in order to watch the second half of the game. Once the game was over like a good student I quickly made my way back to school in order to catch the last hour of my afternoon class.

Thus all in all it has been a crazy and full day of events here in Morocco between translating and world cup drama. At this point I am basically a bit past half-way done with my classes here in Morocco which is hard to believe. Time sure does fly!

Chefchaouen

2010-06-21T13:47:00.005+02:00

After living in Fez for the past three weeks I decided it was finally time to mix it up a bit and see a bit more of Morocco. So this past weekend I went with some friends for an overnight trip to Chefchaouen, which is located in northern Morocco in the Rif Mountains.

We left Saturday Morning and made it to Chefchaouen by early-afternoon. The ride was fun as it was through the countryside and the mountains offering a very different view of Morocco then urban Fez. Chefchaouen was immediately very different as well. The enviornment was much more laid back and even the old city seemed very different (might of had something to do with the fact it was painted almosty completely blue!). Another obvious difference was that a lot of people now spoke Spanish to us. As Northern Morocco is extremely close in proximity to Spain and the two countries have mixed time and time again throughout history this is does not come as a huge surprise, still it is a big change from French and Arabic.

Country side in Morocco

All the blue in the medina

Chefchaouen

After exploring the old medina (city) and enjoying some of the local cuisine we decided to embark on a hike up a mountain. This hike was to be unique though because we decided we would hike part way, camp for the night somewhere in the woods, and then finish the hike the following morning. Most of the first evening was spent looking for a suitable camping site that would be off the main trail and suitable to sleep at (easier said then done on a slopped and rocky mountain!). Finally though we found a suitable spot and made ourselves at home. As we are all students abroad we did not have much camping supplies so basically this involved just putting down our bags, a few blankets, and finding some good dirt to sleep on (no tents!). Then we ate our meal we had carried up and hung out before sunset signaled it was time for bed. As one might expect on a mountain in a mostly desert climate it gets quite cold at night! While we had expected and somewhat planned for this we were still somewhat cold and did not get the best sleep of our lives (or maybe that had something to do with all the rocks, roots, and dirt we were sleeping on). In the morning we were up before sunrise and began climbing around on the mountain as the sun slowly crept over other distant mountains to begin warming the land back up again (and us). Shortly after we left the trail and began to hike straight up the mountain trying to avoid the random array of thistles, poky plants, rocks, uneven footing, and other mountain obstacles we encountered along the way. Eventually we made it to the "peak" we wanted to get to (there were many more higher peaks around us though) and began to go back down. Of course going down a mountain that has no trail always seems to be significantly harder then going up. None the less we eventually made it down, gathered up our stuff, tidied up our camp (it did not take long), and went back into Chefchaouen.

Chefchaouen from the Mountain

Sunrise over the mountains

Our amazing campsite

Me on the Mountain

Back in the city we mostly just relaxed and ate a bunch of food before walking over to the train station midday where we were able to catch a bus back to Fez. As always the Bus was a bit of an adventure as it took five hours to travel just 120 miles. We had to transfer buses once (something we were only told when it happened), and we later spent 30 mins hanging out in a cafe (I think the bus driver just got off and ordered a meal...) before we finally made it back to Fez. All in all though the weekend trip proved to be quite the adventure.

Moroccan Wedding

2010-06-13T19:31:00.002+02:00

Well it has finally come and gone. The last two days were quite the whirlwind. Things at the house had constantly been building to the wedding and it was quite the couple of days. It started on Friday with the Henna Party in which the a henna lady comes and puts henna on the hands and feet of the bride, while the rest of us enjoy socializing, music, snacks, and eventually food. The henna day started at 3:30 pm on Friday but did not really get started until around 5:00 and then it continued till about 3:00 am when we finally ate dinner! It was quite the evening/morning. The second day of the festivities was the actual wedding and party. Most of what is involved is parading around the bride and groom (but mostly the bride) to a bunch of amazing live music. This party officially started around 6:30 pm, but did not really get going till around 9:00 pm, and while the guests left at around 12:30 am the family stayed later to enjoy a meal until around 3:00 am again! So it has been really crazy these last couple of days! Overall though I enjoyed it a lot. The music was amazing all the time and it was cool to see how different a wedding here was.

Instead of pictures I made a movie that includes pictures from the two days, music (all the music heard is from the wedding), and several movie clips. As you will see it is quite the festive atmosphere. Bonus points from anyone who can correctly count the number of dresses the bride wears during the two day celebration! Another quick note, it is generally expected that the bride should not smile during her wedding, so do not think she is unhappy if you see her looking less excited then would be expected.

The answer is eight dresses, you might of thought seven but the two white dresses are different! Could you imagine a bride in the US wearing that many different dresses (or being paraded like that) considering how long it takes them to get ready to just put on one dress!

Moroccan Wedding Preparations

2010-06-10T17:05:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow the official ceremonies for my host sister’s wedding will begin. On Friday it is henna day, and on Saturday there will be the official ceremony and celebration. I will no doubt have a lot more to say about them after I have experienced them, so stay tuned!

As anyone who has ever been involved with a wedding can attest things get progressively crazier the closer it gets to the big day. Morocco is no different. Each day more and more family and friends are showing up. I honestly have no idea who is living in the house right now and who is not, as there are so many people here. My host sisters aunt actually came an extra week early (she had the date wrong), but stayed anyways to help with preparations. The house right now with all the people and preparations is rarely quiet and constantly engaged in numerous wedding related tasks. I have assisted with some of the preparations such as making a mountain of cookies and biscuits, but in general I just make sure to stay out of the way!

Another common occurrence around the house right now is a certain song. It is an Islamic religious song that is often sung at wedding times. It is not a normal day here if I do not here the women break out in song at least a handful of time with another rousing chorus. To top things off the song ends with basically everyone sing/screaming very loudly at very high pitches (so one cannot miss it when it is sung!) and everyone takes pride in how well they do this part (in other words no one is shy when singing the song).

As the first official ceremonies take place tomorrow preparations are now in high gear! The house is abuzz with cooking and other activities. One thing particularly stood out to me today when I got back from school. When I reached the top of the stairs and the second level of the house I was greeted by a slaughtered cow! Apparently they had marched the cow right up the steps just a while earlier and then proceeded to kill it and start butchering it! Luckily I am a whole hearted carnivore and I did not find the site disturbing, although it was a bit weird to see a severed dead cow head staring at me when I reached the second floor of the house (as this is not something that one sees every day!). At any rate I can be assured that the meat we will eat will be very fresh, and as I know from visiting our family farm in Iowa, that is always the best type!

The only thing I need to take care of before tomorrow is to decide what I am going to wear to the festivities. Before I came to Morocco I shipped most of my nice clothing home, as I assumed I would have no need of it while I was in Morocco. This was a good assumption until I found out that my host sister here was getting married! So I have to either acquire some good cloths from my new friends here at school or perhaps do as the Moroccans do and get my hands on a djellaba! I am leaning towards the latter, but I need to find something that is acceptable and affordable first, so we shall see.

Well I think I have rambled on for long enough, but as you can tell things are getting a bit crazy here as the big day is basically upon us! Stay tuned though as I will definitely blog about the wedding ceremonies as well once they take place!

Moroccan Life

2010-06-04T16:30:00.004+02:00

Well so I decided after almost a week here in Morocco that is was finally time to post something on my blog! I arrived in Morocco last Saturday (after my original flight several days before had been canceled). My first night here I stayed in a cheap Riad in Fez, but then on Sunday I was already meeting up with my home stay and moving in! (Picture - Gate to the old city of Fez)

My home stay has been great so far. My host sister Fatima speaks perfect English, so if there is something I do not understand in Arabic (which is most of the time) we can still communicate. My home stay also makes amazing food! I am sure I will put on several pounds here for sure as they will not let me leave the table until I have stuffed my face several times over! Their home is in the old city of Fez and has been in their family for over 500 years! So I am definitely getting to experience a very authentic Morocco home-stay experience. Another exciting element about my home-stay is that my host sister Fatima is getting married one week from today! Which means the house has been really busy with preparations! The family is constantly baking all types of things for the ceremonies and parties and there is always tons of people always dropping by to help with preparations. I am invited to the wedding so I am sure I will have to say more about Moroccan weddings at a later point once I have actually experienced one!

Class is going well. They keep us quite busy, we have four hours of class each day and a lot more time spent doing homework each day. This is definitely not a leisurely program, but that should be good as I am here to study and not as much to travel. I am sure I will do some traveling around Morocco, but as I have already traveled to most the major cities, I am planning to spend most my time experiencing life in Fez while studying here.

La Doche Vita

2010-05-28T14:59:00.004+02:00

So as you might of heard due to a French strike my plane from Italy to Morocco was canceled yesterday (still trying to wrap my head around that). So this has given me several more days in which to enjoy la doche vita here in Italy. So I decided I would, like when I finished backpacking, give you the run down on some of the best (and some of the worsts) of a year abroad in Bologna Italy.

Traveling in Italy

Best Day Trip: Cinque Terre
Best Old Medieval Town: Siena
Most Overrated Town: Pisa
Places I will regret not visiting: Pompei, the Amalfi Coast, & The San Siro
Favorite Bike Trip: Biking around Lake Garda
Best Beach: Cefalu
Best Church: St. Peter's at the Vatican
Number one place I would recommend going in Italy: Sicily

Food and Drink

Best Pasta: Anything Bolognese
Best Pizza: Spoconapoli on Via San Vitale (owners originally from Naples)
Best Vino: Chianti
Best Beer: Stick to anything German, Belgium, Irish, or Czech (As there is a reason the Italians are not known for their beer)

Bologna

Favorite Place in Bologna: San Luca
Thing I will miss most about Bologna: SAIS Bologna Center and the students
Thing I will not miss about Bologna: Dog poop, people do not clean up after their dogs here!
Craziest Italian Moment: Riding to an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament, while an Italian drove...I was never so happy to get safely out of the car!

Giro d'Italia

2010-05-22T13:50:00.007+02:00

Well I have now officially been to two of the three "Grand Tours" of cycling. I have now been to the Giro D'italia and Le Tour de France, but still need to make it to the Vuelta a Espana. Today I made a quick (because of finals it had to be quick) trip to Ferrara to see the 14th stage of the Giro d'Italia kick off. So far none of the stages had been at all close to Bologna, but today's stage started in Ferrara which is only 30 mins by train. So within just a couple hours I was able to go to Ferrara, watch the riders warm up, see them off, and be back in Bologna to study again! In Fact while I am writing this the riders are several hours away from finishing still!

The 14th Stage runs from Ferrara to Asolo. If I had lots of time today I would of loved to watch it from on top of the Monte Grapa Mountain, as those always look like really fun spots to watch cycling. While this was definitely not like watching the Tour de France finish in Paris it still was a lot of fun. Still the road the cyclists even started on in Ferrara was cobblestone just the Champs de Elysee in Paris.

Warm up area in Ferrara, all the cyclists would come by here

The Italian national champion (that is why his jersey looks like the Italian flag) stopped to sign some autographs and take some photos

All the cyclists at the start

Waiting for the stage to start. We were literally standing right on the road with nothing between us and the bikers (I almost got hit by a bike actually! you can see a bike come really close to me in the video later)

Team Garmin's (an American team) support car with all the extra bikes

Instead of taking pictures of the start of the race I took a video. So you can see how close I am to the action (probably too close) , but it was really cool. As you can see since the stage only just started they riders are not going that fast yet. No doubt they also want to save some energy for the big mountain climb as that is where this stage will be won or lost later in the day.

Overall it was a really cool to see a part of the 2010 Giro, I would love to see more of it, but that is life, enjoy what you can. This will almost for sure be my last excursion here in Italy as I have a couple more things to finish up for Finals and then fly to Morocco this coming Thursday! It has been a fun year in Italy and this was a great last trip!

Cinque Terre

2010-05-19T19:45:00.005+02:00

So now that finals have begun clearly I should have no time left to travel....right?!? Well turns out my first final is not until this Friday. So after spending the weekend and Monday doing as much studying and paper writing as possible I decided it was time for a break. So I checked the weather and saw that it was foretasted to be a beautiful day in Cinque Terre on Tuesday so I decided to make a "quick" day trip.

Quick is a relative term as the train ride is about three and a half hours each way. Lucky for me that gave me a decent amount of time to study and edit papers even more (you can never quite escape studying during finals). So early tuesday morning (6:27) I was on the first train out to Cinque Terre.

I will say that it was a great choice. It was perfectly sunny all day long, between 70-75 degrees, and a nice breeze off of the Ocean. Cinque Terre is five towns strung along the western coast of Italy, it is unique because the towns are sandwiched between Mountains on the one side and the Ocean on the other. In between all of the towns there are walking paths so you can go from one town to another all on foot. To do the whole walk takes about 3-5 hours if you do it straight. As one might expect the Italian beaches, food, vino, and other distractions slow you down a bit! I will not say too much more about my trip as I think the pictures tell the story of the day best!

Path along the cliffs

Town of Manarola

Swimming Cove

Making my way to Corniglia

Town of Corniglia

Corniglia and Manarola from above

Coast line in Vernazza

Ocean...amazing

Coastline and the town of Montorosso in the distance (btw...I want that boat!)

As you can probably tell (if you can't get your eyes checked) it was absolutely beautiful! Only drawback is the insane number of tourists. I probably heard 10x more English and even German then I did Italian throughout the day (quite a difference from Bologna where it is only Italian). Still despite the high tourist population it was more than worth the trip, my only regret was not having more than a day to spend there.

SAIS Bologna Class of 2010

2010-05-17T17:22:00.004+02:00

(Picture: SAIS Bologna Class of 2010, you will probably have to expand the picture by clicking on it to find me as I am hiding towards the back on the left-center part of the picture)

Hard to believe it, but in just over a week my time here in Bologna will officially be over! Classes are now finished and all that is left is papers and finals. Stay tuned though as after I finish up here in Bologna I will be on to Fez in Morocco for about two months where I will be living and studying Arabic!

Viagreggio

2010-05-10T10:00:00.004+02:00

Well for awhile now I have been hoping to make it back to the Italian beaches! After all I thought by May the weather would be perfect every day here in Italy! Well it turns out that there seems to be a lot of clouds and rain in the spring here in Italy and the hot Italian summer has not yet descended on us (this I guess is also a good thing as my apartment does not have AC).

Beach in Viagreggio

At any rate the weather on Sunday was decent and I decided to make a trip to the beach town of Viagreggio! What made this extra cool was that one of my roommates, Connor, from my senior year at Wartburg was in Italy on a May Term trip. So early in the morning I met up with him and a number of other Wartburg students in Florence and then we grabbed a train towards the beach. Along the way we stopped in Pisa as none of them had seen it before, and it is of course one of the great Italian staples. Finally a bit after mid-day we arrived in the town of Viagreegio. The weather was decent and we even were brave enough to get in the water for a while before getting cold and retreating to the beach to relax. As the day moved on the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped and we took it as our hint to start heading back. All in all it was a fun trip and good to see some of my former Wartburg friends!

Siena

2010-05-02T13:49:00.005+02:00

Well after my botched bike trip to Siena a couple weeks ago I decided yesterday to take a day trip to Siena and acutlly see the town. I went with two other friends from SAIS, and the traveling was not all smooth sailing this time around either. This was due to the fact that it was May 1st yesterday, which is a big holiday here in Europe. So being oblivious Americans we had not really thought about this and had to deal with some strange train schedules, canceled buses, and closed shops. Still despite all this we managed to make it to Siena and have a great time.

We left Bologna for Florence at 6:45 (cheap trains leave early!), but when we got into Florence we found out that none of the buses that normally go inbetween Florence and Siena were not going due to it being a holiday. Not dettered we checked the train schedule and while it was reduced we still managed to get a train to Siena later in the day. We ended up having several hours though in Florence (what a rough thing to have happen to someone) and wandered the streets checking out some of the more famous churches, sculptures, and bridges. Finally when it was time to go we ended up on a train that was literally overflowing with people, which made for a less than comfortable journey to Siena.

Me in front of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Once in Siena we made our way to the main square Piazza del Campo, which is probably what the city is best known for. The square is a huge open space with really cool buildings all around it. Twice a year they actually turn the square into a horse racing arena and race horses around the square! If you have seen the newest James Bond film (Quantum of Solace), this is the square where James Bond early in the movie was chasing the bad guys through a tourist filled square where there was a horse race going on. So needless to say it was a really cool square! Thus we decided to eat lunch at a restaurant right on the square and enjoy some of the local food and wine (Chianti!), both of which were very good. After lunch we did as the locals (or maybe just all the tourists) and lounged in the square soaking up all the sun (we had a beautiful day). The rest of the day we spent wandering the town (which is all still medieval looking) and admiring the different buildings and the rolling hills of Tuscany all around the city. We also ran into several other SAIS students as a good number of students made their way down to Siena or were in Tuscany for the weekend as well.

Piazza del Campo in Siena

Duomo

Medieval Streets (you can see the tower from the main square in the picture too)

Another cool building in Siena with an assortment of different medieval flags

Tuscan Country side

Finally around eight in the evening we boarded the train and made our way back to Bologna. All in all it proved to be a great trip, both to Florence and particularity Siena.

كارله سفر بلوق في العربية

2010-04-19T20:32:00.007+02:00

السلام عليكم. هذا العام سافرت الى مغرب و ذهبت الى فاس رباط مراكش وزاكورة. احب مغرب كثيرا. هذا الصيف اسافر الى مغرب و ادرس اللغة العربية في فاس. ادرس الغة العربية في مغرب لمدة ستة اسبوع. انا متحمس السكن في بلد العربية واريد السكن مع اسرة عربية

So if you did not run to google translate to figure out what I just said here are the basics. (Title reads: Carl's Travel Blog in Arabic) After traveling to Morocco over spring break I am officially headed back! I plan to study Arabic in a six week intensive course at the Arabic Language Institute in Fez, Morocco. I am excited to spend more time living in an Arabic country and I also have signed up to live with an Arabic host family during my six week stay (space willing). My course starts June 1st (so right away) and ends on the 12th of July. Within a week of that time I will probably make my way home to Minnesota where I will spend several weeks this summer before heading to the East Coast in the fall.

As a final note I would just like to apologize to any native Arabic speakers who read my Arabic paragraph above as I imagine my grammar is atrocious....but even they should get the basic idea of what I am trying to say!

Biking Italy: Florence to Siena (or at least that was the plan)

2010-04-17T21:42:00.006+02:00

So today a friend and I decided to do a one day bike trip here in Italy. A lot of our friends from SAIS have biked from Florence to Siena or Siena to Florence and raved about it! As the ride is all through Tuscany it is absolutely gorgeous with rolling hills covered in vineyards and wine towns! In addition the route goes through the Chianti region of Tuscany which needs no introduction for its world famous wine.

So early this morning at 6:45 am my friend and I caught the regional train from Bologna to Florence (the early trains are way cheaper!). The early morning was not all the encouraging as it was raining quite a bit on the way to the train station and the weather did not improve much at first while we were on the train. Yet by the time we got to Florence it was only partly cloudy and getting quite sunny and warm out! So we hopped on our bikes and slowly made our way through the tourist packed streets of Florence and past the world famous Duomo before finally getting out of the town and into the country side of Tuscany.

Tuscan Countryside

It really was just like all our friends had told us as it is an absolutely beautiful ride! The entire ride is around 70 km (43.5 miles), and most people did it in two days, but we decided this was easily do able in one day. Considering my past biking adventures, trips, and tours this distance did not worry me at all. Early on it was going wonderfully as we quickly completed around 35 km and made it into the town of Greve in Chianti. There we stopped to spend some time exploring the city, getting some lunch, and of course tasting the regions famous wine!

Greve

Unfortunately while we were eating exquisite pastas and drinking our fabulous wine the bad weather caught up with us and the rain started. We waited for a while hoping it would not last long, but eventually decided to get on with our bike ride as we still had a decent ways to go. So we trudged on into the poor weather, not enjoying our ride quite the same as we had before lunch. After about a 5 km climb up another huge hill out of Greve the rain had finally stopped and we were looking forward to a big easy downhill portion of the ride, but only just after we had started the down hill our trip came to a grinding halt. As I was going down I heard a loud BANG, and my heart sunk and I knew that my back tire had just blown out. Investigating the damage it was clear that the tire was completely shot and there was no chance of riding on it. Being in Italy and not back home with my normal biking equipment I did not have a spare tube and tools to change a flat on the fly. So my friend and I walked back up the hill we had just started to go down to where there was a small town. We hopped to find a bike shop where we might be able to fix the tire and continue. These hopes were soon dashed as there was no such shop. Luckily there is a bus service along the road we were biking and we were able to catch a bus about 40 mins later back to Florence, from where we caught take the train back to Bologna.

So after about 40 km of biking in Tuscany I must admit that we were defeated and forced to turn around. Still overall I would encourage others to go to Tuscany as it is a really popular place to bike and absolutely gorgeous! I am disappointed that I did not make it to Siena as it is a town that I would of liked to see and I am not sure I see myself making it back in that direction before my time is up here in Italy (just over a month left!).

The final lesson I guess I learned is even when you are a cheap student living abroad and biking a second rate bike, it is still worth investing some money in the basics of spare tubs, tire levers, and other basic bike tools! Still my experience for today did make for another fun adventure!

Biking Italy: Lake Garda

2010-04-11T19:13:00.004+02:00

So I know what you are thinking....this guy needs a vacation after a week long vacation?!? Well.....Yes! Most students here at SAIS actually skipped Thursday and Friday in loo of a longer spring break. I at least showed up to class, but with a beautiful weekend weather forecast, a low load of homework, and the foreboding end to my year in Italy drawing close (only alittle over a month left!) I decided to get out of Bologna for the weekend.

I decided to go to a spot I had wanted to go all year Lake Garda! After traveling to other places in the fall and then the winter not being a good time to visit (too cold & most things are closed), I decided the time was prime for a visit. I decided though not to take the ferries, buses, or a car to get around though. Instead I brought along my bike and spent the weekend biking around the entire lake!

So early Saturday morning I got up and caught a train to the lake and began my ride! The weather Saturday was absolutely beautiful with temperatures between 65-70 and almost no clouds in the sky. The cool thing about biking lake Garda is that you get to bike next to huge mountains but never do much climbing as the road stays next to the lake where the altitude is generally constant! On saturday I did the eastern half of the lake from Peschiera del Garda to Riva del Garda which was 65 kilometers (about 40 miles). Overall it was not too hard of a ride. Despite my frequent stops to take photos and take in the beautiful views, I still made it into town by midday. In town I enjoyed eating at a local pizzeria and relaxing on the beach and reading a book (water was much too cold to swim!). In the evening I stayed at a local hostel and went to bed early so I could get an early start to the next day as the weather forecast was not as optimistic.

Path along the lake early on Saturday

As I get further North the Mountains continue to grow larger and more beautiful!

I stopped to watch people parachuting (probably a more specific name, as this was not normal parachuting), the girl pictured was doing flips and all sorts of tricks high above the lake! Lake Garda is a huge place for adventure sports such as Rock Climbing, Hiking, Windsurfing, and many others!

Riva del Garda (far north end of Lake Garda)

View from the beach

Sunday I was up reasonably early (at least for me) and biking before nine. I saw far fewer bikes on the western side of the lake and after biking I can tell why. Most of the first half of the ride is in tunnels which while normally well lit are quite boring to bike it and often do not have as much space for biking. Once I finally emerged from the tunnels I met many more bikers. I also noticed that the road on the western side of the lake is significantly more hilly. Still despite all this the western road has its moments as the road curves along the cliffs and looks like it was made for a James Bond car racing scene! The weather Sunday was a bit schizophrenic as at times it was beautiful and clear, cloudy and cold, and occasionally drizzling. One constant no matter which direction I went was the wind. I thought I was going into the wind on Saturday, but it was nothing compared to the headwind I encountered on Sunday. This was particularly unfortunate as I had a longer ride on Sunday (I did 85 kilometers or about 50 miles). All the same I finally made it and by then I was very happy to be done!

Road along the cliffs (and a small tunnel)

Road curving along the cliffs and lake

Mountains, still snow capped!

Town along my route

While the ride was definately not the fastest of my life (due to a small, old, italian bike and having to carry my overnight stuff in a backpack) I can say it was my favorite in Italy thus far! The sights were absolutely gorgeous and I would love to do it again some time. Some bikers even do the whole thing in one day (150 kilometers or about 90 miles), which while I have done that distance before I would need to be in a lot better shape to do it now (especially considering my bike!). If anyone is interested in splitting it up or just doing half, I highly recommend the eastern half of the lake as it is much more scenic as the road stays along the lake more and rarely has tunnels. Overall though the entire lake is a great ride that I would highly recommend to any biker!

On the Brink of the Sahara Desert

2010-04-08T10:48:00.007+02:00

So my final major adventure in Morocco was to take a two day overnight desert trip from Marrakesh to Zaroga. Despite Marrakesh being quite inland and near the desert it is still quite a trip to make it to the desert. This is because the atlas mountain range is in-between! So on the day of the trip we were up bright and early and the caravan was packed and on its way by 8:30 am! Most of the day was spent driving as we crossed the mountains, but the sights of the mountains and the desert on the other side was well worth it. We stopped several times to take pictures, stretch our legs and get some food here and there. Towards the evening we finally made it to our final destination just outside of Zagora Morocco. Zagora is probably only a couple hours from the real Sahara desert (but after many hours in the car we were not complaining about stopping here), and already the landscapes around us resembled much of what one would expect from a desert with dry barren landscape, an occasional oasis, sand dunes, and of course camels!

Our first major adventure in the desert was to ride the camels into our camp sight for the night! This proved to be a fun and unique experience. While I cannot say I prefer camels as a mode of transportation I will say that it was fun and I would do it again! By the time we made it to our camp it was night time. Once at our camp sight we made ourselves at home for the night in our Berber tents! The Berber people are the locals of the region. That evening our Berber hosts fed us and provided us with entertainment by signing around a camp fire (it gets plenty cold at night in the desert, so a fire was appreciated). That night a bunch of us tried sleeping outside under the stars. While I have heard a lot about how great the stars look from the desert I will admit I was not overly impressed. I have seen much better in northern Minnesota, but that was probably because a lot of dust from the desert was in the air obscuring the view. By the end of the night basically all of us ended up back in the tent as the temperature continued to drop. In the morning we could finally see what was around us and it was a neat sight. Sand dunes in almost every direction, and the general rough landscape of the desert surrounded us. After some exploring in the area and a quick breakfast though it was time to hop back on our camels and begin the trek back out of the desert and then the car ride back to Marrakesh.

SAISers in the Van to the Desert

Atlas Mountains

Town along the route!

Desert Oasis

Our Camels await!

And we are off!

On my camel

Our place for the night

Inside of our tent

Eating with our Berber hosts

Music at the campfire

Sunrise in the desert

Exploring the sandunes

More sandunes

Getting ready to head back

Once we made it back to Marrakesh we had an evening to relax and find dinner, before we needed to head back to Fez. That night we took a night bus back to Fez. In the morning we had a little time to go into the old medena in Fez to get some food before heading to the airport and flying back to Italy to complete the Moroccan adventure!

Marrakesh

2010-04-08T10:47:00.006+02:00

After my crazy stay on the roof in Marrakesh I actually got to spend some time exploring the city! I spent two complete days in Marrakesh and parts of another two there, so I had a good amount of time to see some of the different sights and engage in the local culture!

The first full day in Marrakesh I spent most of the day wandering the souks (markets) of the old medena. The Souks go on and on and on....and you will get lost in them. As you pass each souk the owner will come out and try and get you to enter their shop, and no tactic is below them. Some just ask you to enter, others tell you they have the best stuff in town, others still will run after you once you pass them and try and bring you back, and once they get you in their shop the haggling and bargaining has only just begun! There is no such thing as just looking as the owners are normally in your face telling you how great each thing is and trying to negotiate a price and then offended if you leave without buying anything. It is a stressfull environment, but it is more then worth it for the fun of seeing all the different Moroccan things you can buy and to try your hand at bartering. Throughout the day I did not really buy much, but it is still fun to bargain and watch your friends do the same.

Photo of the souks in Marrakesh

Overlooking the old medena and souks of Marrakesh from the terrace where we had lunch

After essentially a full day in the Souks my friends and I decided we wanted to relax for a bit so we headed to a traditional Moroccan Hammam! A Hammam is basically just the local type of spa, but Marrakesh is well known for the quality (and low prices) of its Hammams. So we decided to give it a try and experienced their massages, steam rooms, and other amenities. It proved to be an excellent way to relax after a busy day.

Another fun activity in Marrakesh was the main square. There you could get all sorts of different food. Watch Snake Charmers charm snakes, take photos with monkeys, get henna (a type of tattoo that last only about a month), listen to local music, and do a number of other things!

My second day in Morocco I headed with a friend to some of the local gardens. We were trying to go to the Kings gardens in Marrakesh but apparently the current King does not allow people to visit his gardens. There were others though outside of the city center that we were able to explore and relax in though. So we spent a good part of the day wandering around the gardens and exploring the outskirts of Marrakesh and in the
afternoon we made our way to one of the old palaces.

In the gardens

Fish pond in the gardens

Palace

In the evening we met up with a bunch of other SAIS students for dinner and had a good time relaxing and having a leisurely dinner in the new part of the city. Also some of us decided that the following day we would leave Marrakesh for a two day desert trip which would be our final major adventure in Morocco!

A $5 Night

2010-04-08T10:46:00.008+02:00

After spending some time in Rabat, I decided to go on to Marrakesh with some friends. My friends already had a place to stay in Marrakesh, but as the typical last second student traveler I of course did not. As far as I was concerned booking ahead for places in Morocco was not advantageous, as many places did not have websites and those that did were normally more expensive. So of course I figured the best plan for this trip was just to show up and find places once I got into town!

Arriving in the chaotic environment of the main square in Marrakesh (it was crazy with performers, street vendors, and street restaurants)

That strategy worked fine at first, but fell apart (or perhaps worked splendidly) in Marrakesh. After an evening train and some delays we arrived in the old medena of Marrakesh at around 11:00 pm. So I confidently strolled down the streets and alleys in order to find a place, but I was met at each reception by a full sign. As I found more full hotels/hostels, ran into random Moroccans who claimed they could find me a place (really just wanted my money for taking me to already full hotels), and the hour started to creep into the early morning it had appeared that I had finally struck out and was in a dire situation. But that is exactly when fate intervened a hotel offered to allow me to stay on the roof terrace for just $5 (WHAT A BARGAIN!). I checked it out and it looked good enough for me so I agreed! They provided me with a mattress but were out of blankets (there were a bunch of other people already up on the terrace sleeping). So I went into the town and bought a cheap blanket for the night. After a quick dinner with my friends I went back to my hotel and slept the night away on the roof!

Outside my home for the night: Afriquia Hotel

Overall it I did not think it a bad experience (although I did not sign up for another night on the roof). It was a little cold but not really all that bad. I will admit that the 4:45 am call to prayer was a bit of a rude awakening....but then again I was just getting a taste of the local culture! When I finally got up in the morning around 7:45 am I looked around at the other hotel terraces around me and quickly noticed that many other hotels allowed people to also sleep on the roof! So I am glad I did not miss out on such a important Moroccan experience! Many other students from SAIS arrived in the following days also later in the evening and ran into similar housing problems (ie nowhere to stay), while they all were offered the chance to stay on the roof as of yet I am yet to meet anyone else who did so! Most of them continued to look much longer and ended up paying quite a bit of money for their rooms (way more than $5)!

Sleeping quarters on the terrace

My home away from home!

View from the terrace

As a final note, I would like to say that this officially sets a new personal record for me for the least amount of money spent for a night while traveling at $5 (excluding home-stays). Previous record was at $20 in Spain. As most of my previous travels had been in Europe this is not too surprising. Should I ever break my new record, I am sure it will be quite the experience and provide me with another great topic to blog about!

Moroccan Parliament & Rabat

2010-04-08T10:45:00.005+02:00

After the day in Fez, my friends and I traveled on to Rabat where we checked into our hotel. That evening we wandered out into the old medena and markets of Rabat in order to absorb some of the local culture at night! The markets were full of life with all sorts of things to buy or foods to eat. We tried some foods, and tried our hands at bartering (useful skill in any trip to Morocco....as basically any price in Morocco is negotiable). I had great sucsess in my first bartering experiences, but after getting the seller to decrease his price by 60% on a Soccer jacket I decided I still was not that interested in buying it after all. I learned an important skill, if you are willing to walk away from the vendor they will run after you and continue to lower their price....I still did not buy the jacket but I definitely used the tactic in the future when I did want to get something! After a fun evening out we returned to our hotel exhausted from traveling (Bolonga to Milan, Milan to Fez, and Fez to Rabat) and settled down for the evening.

Markets in Rabat

Main street in Rabat the following day

The only planned meet up for most of the SAIS students was the second day in Rabat where many of us met for a privately organized tour of the Moroccan Parliament. We were given quite the reception. There was an official photographer there documenting our visit and we were greeted by a Moroccan counselor (a type of Parliamentary member) who took us into a fancy sitting room where he told us about the political process in Morocco and gave us a chance to ask questions about Moroccan Government (all while enjoying cookies and hot Moroccan Tea). The session was neat as we got to discuss intruiging topics such as the Role of the King in Moroccan Government (much more active and still has real power), controversy over the Western Sahara territory with Algeria, and other prominent issues. After the session was over the President of the Parliament came and introduced himself to us as well! After a brief chat we moved on to touring the different parts and chambers within the Parliament building and having several more talks with governmental officials. Overall it proved to a very exciting visit.

Parliament building

Meeting with the Counselor (notice the portrait of the King in the background, we saw these everywhere from the Parliament to local street vendor shops)

First House of the Parliament

Second house of Parliament

Fez: Launch Pad for a Moroccan Adventure!

2010-04-08T10:44:00.007+02:00

So after mid-term exams were finally over I got the chance to head out on Vacation! Thursday morning I took the train from Bologna to Milan and then a bus from the Milan city center to the "Milan" Airport to catch my Ryanair flight (Ryanair never flies out of convenient airports, the airport was an hour outside Milan...but it was cheap!). Finally a three hour flight later I was officially on spring break in Morocco!

Arriving in Morocco!

We planned to just spend the afternoon in Fez as we had plans to meet up with other people from SAIS in Rabat the next day. So we caught a Taxi into town (after negotiating a price first...always a must in Morocco) and found a restaurant to have lunch at in the old medena (city). The place served us all sorts of different foods in three different courses, with meats, couscous (very fine rice, typical in Moroccan foods), breads, fruits, and of course tea which is essential at any time of the day for Moroccans. Throughout the trip I think I drank enough tea to last me a lifetime, especially as I am not a huge tea fan in the first place! All the food at our restaurant was amazing though and the restaurant was in a beautiful old building and a great way to start our trip.

At lunch in our first Moroccan restaurant

Fancy interior of the restaurant

After lunch we decided to explore a bit of the old medena before heading on to Rabat to meet our friends. A friend of our taxi driver explained to us that the city is very confusing and that we will get completely lost no matter what and offered to take us to a couple cool spots. We were skeptical at first, thinking he just wanted money, but he brought us through tons of different small streets (which we would become lost in), told us a lot about the city and its history, and even took us into a Riad (fancy Moroccan Hotel) that was being built. Inside the Riad we got to see the handcrafted wood decorations being made and were able to climb up to the top terrace where we had an overlook of the entire old medena, which was beautiful! Eventuallly we wandered out the city with our guide, who actually refused any money, and headed off to Rabat!

Blue Gate entrance to the old medena of Fez

In the old medena, notice the Arabic!

Handcrafting the wooden decorations

Inside the Riad

View from the top of the Riad overlooking Fez

A week later I would eventually make it back to Fez (barely) in order see some last bits of the city and catch my flight back to Italy! A more general experience that this trip provided me with was a chance to try using my Arabic (both reading and talking). After seven months of only classroom Arabic it was really refreshing to try and use it in the real world! That said, it was most definitely not all smooth sailing. Seven months of Arabic does give a base, but only a very small one. As one of my friends put it "The problem with speaking Arabic is that people speak back to you in Arabic!" essentially meaning we could put phrases together but what we heard back was much more complex and used words we were not yet familiar with, making sustained conversations difficult. It was very convenient to be traveling with friends who spoke a good amount of French as it is also basically a universal language in Morocco! Despite the toughness and challenges of trying to speak Arabic I will admit that this experience has only re-encouraged me to continue taking it and trying to improve!

Africa

2010-03-31T12:12:00.003+02:00

Mid-terms are finally finished and now it is time to enjoy Easter/Spring break! For me that means heading to Morocco! This will be my second trip to Africa and I am very much looking forward to it. We are planning to Visit Rabat, Marrakesh, Fez, the Desert, a few beaches, and possibly Casablanca or some other place!

As I said this will be my second visit to Africa. My first came about two years ago when I went on International Tour with the Wartburg choir in May 2008. One of our destinations was Cape Town South Africa! I have uploaded a short video with some of the music we heard in and some my pictures.

The pictures include but are not limited to: arriving at the airport to a concert, dinner in traditional restaurants with traditional South African music, cape town (quite foggy), boating to see seals, the cape of good hope, safari, Simon Estes' music school, and finally a picture from the Gugulethu concert (which is also where the music comes from).

Bologna Scuderia

2010-03-28T18:45:00.006+02:00

So today was another beautiful day in Bologna! It was right around 65 and perfectly sunny. So instead of staying inside all day and studying for midterms (the smart thing to do) I took a few hour off to go for a bike ride. I decided to Bike up to San Luca Basilica as it would take me into the foothills and out of the city of Bologna (and it is Palm Sunday after all so a Basilica in Italy is only appropriate). I like to take the back roads up to San Luca instead of taking the main road next to the 666 arcades covering the sidewalk up to San Luca. The back roads are less steep and wind around several off the foothills giving some cool views of both the city of Bologna and San Luca. By the time you make it to San Luca though you have still done a decent amount of climbing and are ready for a break!

Foothills/Countryside on the way up to San Luca

San Luca Basilica

Obviously I have blogged about going up to San Luca before so that is not the main point of this blog post. When I made it to the top I was surprised to stumble upon a big event! The Bologna Scuderia were hosting a car race up the steep main road to San Luca, but the cars were not new flashy supercars, they were instead really cool old racing cars! So I spend around an hour hanging out watching all the action as cars came shooting up the road. I must say that this type of "old car show" sure beats the typical American version where everyone just parks their cars in a parking lot for people to look at. It was fun to see them all in action! It is always fun to stumble on events such as this and sure was better then studying for another hour. Below are pictures of some of the cars I saw and some video footage of some of the cars racing around. Enjoy!

This was my favorite Car

Quite low to the ground

Show cars first finishing, then shows cars coming to the very top of the hill, and finally all the cars headed back down the hill before round two!

PS - In case you had not checked lately I changed my blog layout. The picture/title at the top is a photo of the Bologna skyline at sunset! I thought it added a neat new edge to the blog!

Sicily

2010-03-08T21:38:00.013+01:00

While more and more days are starting to look like spring here in Bologna, we are by no means home free. Often a 50 degree and sunny day is followed up by several 30 and rainy days (I know nothing compared to Minnesota winters...but still ugly). So in an attempt to escape Bologna life eight other SAIS students and myself went down to Sicily last weekend!

Our flight was at 6:30 am Friday morning with Ryanair! The upside of the early morning flight was that we were in Sicily by 8:00 am and had the whole day there. We spent the first part of the day traveling to the town we would be staying in Cefalu. Well situated in the middle of the northern coast of the Island we heard it was a beautiful beach town that was well situated for day trips to other places in Sicily.

The weather did not let us down as on Friday when we arrived it was in the mid 60s and sunny out! In fact we were even crazy enough to go to the beach and get in the water (all of the Italians thought we were crazy!). Since the weather was so nice on Friday we spent basically the whole day hanging out at the beach a relaxing. That evening we found an excellent local restaurant where we enjoyed great food and wine. I should also mention that the B&B we stayed in was amazing! It was right on the sea and had a huge terrace that was about 40 feet above where the sea met the shore.

The crew after getting off the train in Cefalu (la rocka in the background)

Me in the main square of Cefalu (where we had breakfast every morning) with the Duomo in the background

The view from the terrace at our B&B

Everybody on the terraceTossing the Frisbee around on the beach

More Frisbee with the setting sun in the background

Me on the beach in Cefalu

Saturday the weather did not prove to be as great as it was only about 50 and mostly cloudy. Still we wanted to make the best of it so we chartered a van and a driver to take us all to Mt. Etna! The driver was very excited to have a bunch of young students and dubbed his car the "Disco Bus" and played crazy techno, disco, pop, and all other forms of loud blasting music the whole way to Mt. Etna. By the time we got to Etna we were all a bit sick (either caused by the Music or those famous Italian driving skills). Once there we were able to walk around the lava fields and craters and explore part of the mountain. As it is still "winter" in Sicily Mt. Etna had a lot of snow and people were even sledding and skiing on it (what a difference from the previous day)! Due to all the snow all routes to the peak of Mt. Etna were closed, but we still enjoyed exploring the volcano. On our way back we asked the driver if we could have a bit more music and managed to sleep a good portion of the way back to Cefalu. The evening then concluded with a good amount of excellent Italian food and Sicilian Vino!

The Disco Bus Crew

Mt. Etna (click on the picture to get a better view)

View Upwards into the clouds towards the top! (note the ski lifts)

Me in the lava fields

Sunday was our last day in Sicily. The weather unfortunately deteriorated further and it rained most of the day. Still this did not stop us from further exploring Cefalu. We managed to go part way up "la rocka" a huge rock right in the town of Cefalu that had excellent overviews of the surrounding areas. Mid-afternoon we took a train into Palermo there we had a late afternoon meal and wandered the town to see some of its sights before jumping on our bus back to the airport for our flight back to Bologna.

Me on "la rocka" in Cefalu

The view from "la rocka"

Cathedral in Palermo

Opera House in Palermo

All in all it turned out to be a great trip. It would of been awesome to have 3 hot and sunny days but we made sure to enjoy our time away from school and each others company no matter the weather or conditions.

Movie of some of our activities. Starts out with a panorama of our view from the B&B, then me getting into the sea to swim, and finally some shots of the disco bus (notice please the crazy music and the drivers lack of hands on the steering wheel)

I imagine I will not do a lot of traveling the remainder of the month now as mid-terms will be upon us very soon and in order to save money for my spring break trip to Morocco! If you would like to see more pictures from my trip to Sicily check them out on Facebook (no account needed).

Basilica Madonna di San Luca

2010-02-28T12:40:00.003+01:00

Yesterday proved to be another beautiful spring day here in Italy, with temperatures around 60 and mostly sunny conditions. While I did have class Saturday morning (not a fan of Saturday classes by the way), I wanted to take advantaged of the beautiful weather. I was not really interested in traveling somewhere since I went to Pisa weekend, and I am going to Sicily next weekend (stay posted for updates on that next week!). So instead a friend and I decided we would go and see one of the sights here in Bologna that had been neglected so far, Basilica Madonna di San Luca.

The Basilica Madonna di San Luca sits onto of a huge hill in the Southwest part of Bologna, and getting to it is not exactly a walk in the park. From School it was about a 5 km walk just to the base of the hill where the path starts to go up very rapidly. Once you get to the bottom of the hill you start going up a 3.5 km path covered by 666 arcades named the Portico di San Luca! While my total round trip hike was nothing compared to the 50 some kilometers my family members did skiing on this day it was still a nice little workout.

The view from inside the arcades going up and up and up....

Arial Photo of the all 666 arcades of the Portico di San Luca leading up to the Basilica Madonna di San Luca

Once we finally reached the top we could see the entire city of Bologna, the Dolomite mountains to the east, and the foothills of Tuscany to the west. In addition the Basilica was also very beautiful and well constructed. All in all it proved to be an excellent excursion.

Pisa

2010-02-21T22:56:00.018+01:00

Well today I traveled to probably the most iconic image of Italy outside of Rome, the leaning tower of Pisa! I had planned on just doing a small day trip by myself to see the famous tower but ended up running into some friends from SAIS also headed to Pisa on the same train as me so naturally we did the trip together. It proved to be an excellent spring (yes I believe spring is just about upon us here in Italy) day for the trip day for the trip with temperatures in the mid 50s and and mostly sunny skies!

Pisa proved to be a very nice town, but of course it was overshadowed by the tower. In addition to the tower Pisa has a unique Battistero, Camposanto (cool old cemetery), Duomo, and three universities. After taking the mandatory "holding the tower up" photos (it was quite funny to watch all the tourists doing this!) my friends and I explored the rest of the sights in Pisa, enjoyed a leisurely lunch, wandered the city, and had drinks in a cafe before heading back to Bologna to face the mountains of homework and internship applications that are all ready accumulating just two weeks into the new semester!

Viennese Ball

2010-02-09T10:43:00.011+01:00

So on Saturday I said goodbye to Pavla and family and hopped on a train to head to the Ball in Vienna Austria. Basically since I was accepted to SAIS Bologna last year I have been hearing about how amazing this ball is, so I was excited to see if it would live up to all the hype and anticipation! It did.

At 6:00 pm on Saturday we had our first event of the evening, a reception with the Mayor of Vienna in the City Hall building. There we had wine and caught up with what each other had been doing over break so far. City Hall was a cool place to start the night.

City Hall

Reception with the Mayor

Outside the Palace

Hofburg Palace, location of our Ball

Red Carpet Entrance on the grand staircase of the Hofburg Palace

After our City Hall reception we had some time so we leisurally made our way over the the Hofburg palace for the main event. The opening ceremony began around 9:00 pm and did not disappoint. The Ball was put on by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), but they did recognize that SAIS students were also there during the welcoming comments.

Ceremonies begin with the Flag Presentation

Welcoming by the IAEA

New Attorney General Yukiya Amano walks by us to give some opening remarks and do the first dance with his wife (we joked that since he became Attorney General in December he probably had to spend just as much time learning to Waltz as to deal with Iran)

Some members from the IAEA singing, you have to be brave and good to do that at a Ball in Vienna in front of 4,000 people!

Korean percussion and ribbon group gives a performance

Video of the traditional debutantes dance (sorry my camera ran out of memory so I missed the end of the dance)

After all of the opening performances were over the bands struck up the music and mass dancing ensued. Several of us gave the main dance floor a try right away but we soon found it extremely overcrowded and moved on. The main room and dance floor seemed to alternate between different styles but there were many other smaller rooms that all played different styles of music including Scottish, Classical, Popular, and Latin music rooms. There were many more but I spent the majority of my night alternating between the Latin and main ballroom.

People dancing in the Main Ballroom

The Scottish Room, this was the Official SAIS room

Latin Room

At 11:30 there was a midnight show. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I was so busy dancing away the evening in the Latin room that I missed it. I heard it was good, but not a huge deal if you missed it. I stayed at the Ball till around 3:00 am when I finally called it a night and left, but there were still many more people left at the ball until 5:00 am when it is officially closed down (so the staff can clean up and start preparations for the next ball!).

Leaving the Ball at 3:00 am

In total it was really a once in a lifetime experience. The Hofburg Palace as a location was as cool as any of the dancing and shows in and of itself! This coupled with a very important international organizations, foreign diplomats (and of course future ones!), and all being in Vienna proved to make an amazing experience!

If you would like to see additional pictures from the Ball or my other travels over break check them out on my Facebook photo album.

Ostrava & Bratislava

2010-02-08T20:12:00.008+01:00

I finally will try and get my blog caught up with the second half of my inter-semester break. In doing so I am also going to abandon my traditional chronological style and have two posts, non-ball post & ball post, this will be the former.

After I moved on from Krakow I took a train down to Ostrava in the Czech Republic last Thursday in order to pay Pavla and her family a visit. Pavla and Pavel's daughter Ellen is now almost three years old and is getting quite big! She chatters away in Czech all the time and wonders why Uncle (me) does not speak Czech as well! Most of my visit was spent catching up with Pavla more than actually doing things and gave me some time to relax as well. I must admit I am guilty of forgetting to take pictures so I did not get any new pictures of Ellen (sorry!). On Saturday morning I took a train down to Vienna to attend the ball and engage in my final travels.

So now fast-forward through the rest of saturday and the wee hours of the morning on Sunday and you will get to my final expedition of my break Bratislava, Slovakia. As I have previously explored Vienna during my backpacking trip a year and a half ago I decided I did not want to spend more time in Vienna on Sunday so I looked for alternative day trips and decided on Bratislava.

Bratislava turned out to be a really neat capital with an excellent assortment of sights to see. The old town included many different old traditional buildings such as theaters, old government buildings, towers, gates, and many others. Also in old town is St. Martin's National Cathedral where many past kings and queens have been crowned. Most impressive though was Bratislava Castle sitting on a high hill looming over the city. Not too surprisingly the castle was my favorite part of the town. In all Bratislava proved to be an excellent and doable day trip from Vienna before I got on the Bus at 9:00 pm before the 10 hour overnight bus ride back to Vienna (not a pleasant way to spend the night...I am looking forward to a real bed tonight!). I will leave you with some of my pictures from my trip to Bratislava.

Gate into Old Town Bratislava

Square in Old Town

More Old Town Bratislava

St. Martin's Cathedral

Bratislava Castle on high overlooking Bratislava

Stay tuned as in the next day or so I should find the time to Blog about the Ball in Vienna which was easily the highlight of my entire trip!

Krakow

2010-02-03T16:36:00.004+01:00

Tuesday morning I moved on from England and flew to Krakow, Poland. It has been fun to get back to traveling to new places, staying in hostels, and meeting new people.

On Tuesday I actually ran into two of my friends from SAIS here in Krakow! Graham and Tanya. We randomly ran into each other out in the city and agreed to meet up in the evening and have dinner and check out some of the local pubs.

As for the city itself I have liked it a lot. Krakow has so many well preserved buildings, churches, and a huge old Castle! Tuesday walked around the old Jewish quarter which was neat, although it is now quite small (there used to be a huge Jewish population here in Krakow) a stark reminder of the close proximity of Auschwitz.

Krakow Wawel

Today I spent a good deal of time up at the Castle going into the different buildings and exhibits. It is a good day to stay inside as it is quite cold and has snowed quite a bit as well today! After thoroughly exploring the Castle I moved to exploring the other parts of Old Town Krakow. Most notable was St. Mary's Cathedral. Started in the 13th Century and completed in the 15th century it is a really cool Gothic Cathedral.

St. Mary's Cathedral

Tomorrow I have the morning in Krakow before I get on a train and travel to Ostrava in the Czech Republic to visit Pavla, Ellen, and Pavel!

England

2010-01-31T22:11:00.002+01:00

So it has been over a month since I have updated my blog, and I am sure while you have all been just on the edge of your seat to hear what I have been up to in Italy after I returned after Christmas I decided to spare you the details of my massive amounts of studying for final exams and term papers! Now that these trials and tribulations are over I have moved on to more enjoyable activities, such as traveling Europe!

For the first part of my trip I have been visiting family friends, the Larkins, in England. The Larkins live just outside of Leicester. My first Day here, Thursday, Mary and I went for a bike ride around all the local towns, parks, and surrounding country side. We had lunch in a local park before visiting a cake shop to have hot drinks and cake!

Tower Bridge in London

Friday I went down to London with Mary and Shaun to see some of the sights and visit Ruth. We met Ruth for Lunch and then went our separate ways as she had to go to Class and we went to see some of the touristy stuff. We visited Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, and walked along a good portion of the Tames River. We spent most of our time inside of Tower Bridge and were able to see how it works (both past and present) and walk up the towers and across the skywalks in the bridge giving us excellent views of London. For dinner we went Ruth's flat where she served us dinner.

Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon

Saturday we went to Stratford-upon-Avon which is the birthplace of Shakespeare. There we went to go see the house in which Shakespeare was born, where he went to school, other old places frequented by him, and his final resting place. While Shakespeare had most of his performances at the Globe Theatre in London there are now several theatres that have shows in Stratford. Unfortunately none of them were showing any plays by Shakespeare, but we were still able to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Arabian Nights, which was of course very good!

Today I visited some of the local friends of the Larkins (as well as my Mom from when she went to University here in England). We had an excellent meal and enjoyed each other’s company. Tomorrow I plan to hang low and spend a day relaxing before heading on the next parts of my inter-break travels!

Merry Christmas from SAIS

2009-12-16T18:49:00.005+01:00

Well early tomorrow morning I head home for Christmas break, so it is only fitting that Dr. Plummer showed up for my last class before break dressed up as Santa. Dr. Plummer will leaving SAIS to work for the OECD (which is a really big deal!) after this semester. His gifts , Economic Journals, were probably the equivalent of coal to most people but at SAIS they are enthralling literature!

Waltz 101

2009-12-15T21:40:00.004+01:00

It has been quite the busy couple of weeks leading up to Christmas break here in Bologna so I have not really had any time to do much traveling this month since going to Venice. Yet even amid all the readings, papers, economic problem sets, and presentations I managed to find some time for some fun tonight!

As you may remember in February I will be going to a Venetian Ball! Well if one is to attend such a ball one should be properly prepared! It really would be a tragedy if someone spent the time and money to go to a ball in a palace in Venice and did not even know how to Waltz! Lucky for me I have had some experience Waltzing in the past in high school shows and theater classes, but that was quite awhile ago. So tonight the ball committee here offered the first of two crash courses in Waltzing! So I of course attended to brush up my skills and learn some new moves! The teacher for the evening was actually a student here who used to do competitive dancing when he was younger, and he did a great job. We learned several different step types, including the Venetian Waltz (which is much faster and more difficult), as well as how to properly ask someone for a dance and escort them onto the ballroom floor (apparently you must do it properly), and how to properly thank them after a dance. All in all the event was a lot of fun and at least we can all say we have some idea of how to do things properly when the ball arrives in early February.

Here is a video of our teacher dancing with one the girls who attended. Enjoy!

Venice

2009-12-06T22:13:00.003+01:00

Well just like last weekend, for better or worse I took Saturday off from Homework and took a day trip. This time with two other students to Venice! No doubt it will be my last side trip before I head home to Minnesota for Christmas break on the 17th as I have plenty to accomplish between now and then!

This was my second trip to Venice, but it was still a lot of fun. We spent our time wandering the streets, canals, shops, gelaterias, piazzas, and churches in this completely unique town....and of course we spent some time in the most time honored tradition in Venice, getting lost in the endless maze of streets, bridges, canals, and dead ends.

As I said this was my second trip to Venice and I noticed a few differences. First off the last time I was there was at the beginning of May and I must say that the number of tourists on Saturday was much more preferable! (something about cold December weather seems to keep them away...nothing for a Minnesotan though!). Another difference is that parts of the streets and main square was under water! I had heard about this phenomenon but it was not in affect that last time I visited.

I also saw some similarities, gondola rides are still out of my student prices rage and San Marco Basilica is probably one of my all time favorite religious sites along with the Cathedral de Notre Dame de Paris! The combination of Golden Mosaics and Marble make for a very impressive aura inside the basilica.

If you want to see pictures from my day please checkout my facebook album.

Biking Italy & San Marino

2009-11-28T21:06:00.008+01:00

Well today against my better judgment (or perhaps as a result of it) I decided to break my streak of mostly studying on the weekends and go somewhere. I decided I had been in Italy long enough and it was time for a break so I decided to go to the next closest country....San Marino!

I decided that I would like to bike to my destination once again in order to save some money. Although I decided biking the entire 120 km from Bologna to San Marino would be a bit much especially considering the last 15 km (more on those later!). So this morning at around 9:30 (thats right I set an alarm to go somewhere!), I hopped on the train to Rimini which would bring me within 25 km of San Marino.

As I got off the train it was wonderfully sunny in Rimini (it is after all a beach town), and I had glorious fantasies in my head about how I would bike at top speeds to this little country and take in all the grand vistas along the way that everyone talks about.

Well reality proved to be much harsher. Once I was about 5 km outside of town I was enclosed in a low cloud cover that blocked basically everything more than 150 meters away from view. Before going I had looked into the geography of such a ride and I notice that obviously it would be uphill, but I grossly underestimated how tough and long it would be. About 10 km in I reached the point where it began to climb and did not stop for 15 km. This also put me right into the clouds so I could not even see where I was going (not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing...could of been motivating or depressing!). Anyways after the long climb with several stops, cursing every time I got to a curve or out of the clouds only to find out that the road goes further up, and constantly wondering why I was still going up when I was sure there would be nothing to see at the end due to the clouds, I finally made it to San Marino.

Just as I expected I could see absolutely nothing, and I almost turned around right then and there and went back down. I told myself though that I might as well go have a look (if that was possible) at the historic city center, which was of course even further up, but this time I had to walk. I enjoyed walking around the shops and checking out city walls but honestly I was not overly impressed with the place, then something happened.....The clouds we were immersed in decended just enough for the city center and castle to be above the clouds and what a site it was!

I will not say much more (I will let my pictures do the talking) expect that I think this castle is probably one of my favorite three that I have visited along with Carcassonne and Warwick!

The clouds clearing

Love this picture, just eery

This is the main part of Castle (there were three parts including the watch tower)

Inside the main part of the castle

One of the many city walls

If you would like to see more pictures from my day go to the facebook album.

Blogger + Facebook > Blogger

2009-11-25T15:01:00.003+01:00

So I have had some fun over the last few days trying to incorporate new elements into my blog. I learned that several elements of facebook could be placed also on my Blog. I now have photo album links to my past major trips and a world map that shows you where I have traveled to, where I have lived, and a few places which are still on the to do lists. I have included the map in the post but otherwise it is just at the very bottom of my blog. Other random parts I have added over the past months include a link to my linkedin profile and a google search option for searching my blog. Hope you enjoy the new parts.

Thanksgiving in Italy

2009-11-22T13:05:00.006+01:00

Well yesterday we officially celebrated thanksgiving here in Italy. It was quite the event with around 130 students, faculty, staff, & family members in attendance. What also made it enjoyable was sharing the experience with many Europeans who had never experienced a thanksgiving before!

As such we had to introduce them to all the important traditions such as stuffing your face with Turkey, saying what you are thankful for, and most importantly covering the history of the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in a small skit (ironically put on by mostly Europeans!).

Thanksgiving in Italy was very different from being home with my friends and family (food was not quite as good as well!), but all in all it was a lot of fun. The evening had a non-traditional twist to it as after the big meal Dr. Plumber's band performed in the cafe. Dr. Plumber is a professor here at SAIS who will be going on a two year leave to lead the conclusion of the Doha round of development for the OECD, but he still has time to get a band together, in which he plays the drumbs, guitar, and also sang the lead on "You can't always get what you want". After the band finished many of us went out to a small street bar and then eventually clubbing. I can't say I ever had a evening quite like this one on Thanksgiving before, but it was a lot of fun.

Check out pictures for the evening here at my facebook albumn (you do not need a facebook account).
Italy Pictures

Budget Traveler at it again!

2009-11-13T19:19:00.004+01:00

As you may remember from my trip last summer, I discovered that many budget travelers no longer backpack across Europe on trains. Instead many now airport hop from city to city via cheap airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair. You can literally travel across the continent for just $10 - $50.

While last summer, except for on a couple exceptions, I obviously choose to travel via the rails (after all that is what the romanticized backpacking trip is all about!), this year with time and money even more scarce than last year I have looked to take advantage of such great deals. So with my semester break coming up at the end of January I finally struck on some deals! In addition to flying cheap, I have managed to once again take advantage of free local hospitality and food (like any good student)!

My plan is to finish up finals on the 27th of January and then fly north to England where I will visit the Larkins (very good family friends) for a little less than a week, next I will fly to Krakow Poland for where I will spend two days (great city & exchange rate!) , before heading to Ostrava, Czech Republic to visit Pavala and her family, my final destination will be Vienna! There I will be joining my fellow SAIS students for our very own Venetian Ball in the Hofburg Palace (I saw this palace last year backpacking!).

Hofburg Palace

Somehow I doubt our Ball will be this big of an ordeal, but it still should be very cool!

All in all this trips costs have been minimized while maximizing its fun! Should be quite the experiences! No doubt I several blog posts on it will make its way onto here!

A Wall that Changed the World

2009-11-09T17:30:00.010+01:00

Today is a very special day; 20 years ago the Berlin Wall fell. Being only just under 23 years old, I obviously have no recollection of the events that took place up to and on November 9th 1989. What I can attest to is just some of the experiences I have had since the fall of the wall that never would have happened or would be quite different had history played out in a different manor. Some of my memories are more trivial in nature than others but the implications that surround them cannot be understated.

1. Traveling in a united Germany as a sixth grader with my family - one of my most ingrained memories of this trip (other than the endless amounts of brats I ate) was my family’s trip to Dachau. The concentration camp there ingrained itself in the memory of a sixth grader in a way that very few things do, it is hard to imagine the atrocities that were committed there and the innocence that was lost. Obviously WWII is what originally led to the split; the fall of the wall is a reminder of what the Western world went through and the progress that has been made since.

2. Having a Czech sister Pavala! After having Pavala as our summer nanny my family invited her to move in and live with us for over a year while she completed her studies in the United States. My family and Pavala got so close that she is now considered part of our family. Getting to know her and traveling to the Czech Republic to meet her family are things that would have never happened without November 9th 1989.

3. In college my choir, The Wartburg Choir, was invited to sing with the Czech National symphony in Prague for a Christmas benefit concert. Two years later we returned to Europe and had concerts in East Germany and Slovenia. Once again these experiences would not of been possible prior to fall of the Berlin Wall.

4. Backpacking through Europe, was a completely different experience for me than my father when he went on a similar trip 30 years prior, the major difference is the fall of the wall and rise of the EU. As a result I was free to travel into central and Eastern Europe and cross borders without passport checks.

5. Today I am in Bologna Italy studying International Relations. As a TA for Theories of International Relations who spends great amounts of time reading academic papers written over the past century I can see the vast difference in world politics that has taken place since the end of the cold war. While the Bologna Center here in Italy has existed since the 1950s, one can imagine being here prior to 1989 would have made for a very different experience.

Later this evening John McCain will be speaking at the Washington DC SAIS Campus (and via a direct line to Bologna) on the continued importance of freedom today, while I am sure it will not surprise my family members to learn that I did not vote for him a year ago, I still greatly respect him as a war veteran, politician, and fellow human being. I am very much looking forward to hearing his speech on a topic that as you can see has revolutionized the world and my life thus far.

I encourage you to take some time today to think how the world and specifically your life might of been different had the Berlin wall not fallen on November 9th, 1989.

Verona: Romeo and Juliet

2009-10-31T18:51:00.004+01:00

So as you may of noticed it has now been about two weeks since my last blog post. I did not die or fall of the face of the planet I have just been buried under long reading lists and various homework assignments that are all too common for the typical grad student. I am sure you are devastated that I did not take the time to blog about the finer points of Classical Realism and Liberal Institutionalism.

Today I took a mental health day and went to the town of Verona, Italy. This town is where it is believed the original Romeo and Juliet story originated. One is able to visit the balcony of Juliet or the tomb of the ill fated lovers.

In addition to the towns famous lovers, the town proves to be an excellent medieval town with a great many different sights, churches, piazzas, and other attractions. Enjoy the pictures blow.

Gate Entering Verona

Main Square

Me with a Roman Theater in the Background

This is Juliet's world famous balcony

This is the millions of love notes people leave by Juliet's home....gross (but I guess enough people think it is sweet because they do it)

Parma

2009-10-18T17:53:00.011+02:00

So today, two friends and I decided to get away from the hustle and bustle of Bologna life, so we took a day trip to Parma. World renown for Parmesan cheese and other eating delights, we made sure to indulge in their culinary genius as well as taking some time to just wander the town and take in the different sights. Below are some of the pictures from the day.

Duomo in Parma

The inside of the Duomo

Battistero

Colorful buildings

Chiesa Di San Giovanni Evangelista

Inside

Park & Palazzo Ducale

السلام عليكم

2009-10-13T22:00:00.007+02:00

As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم) - Peace be upon you. Well today I had my first Arabic class, and I must say it was both exciting and daunting. Above is basically the only phrase in Arabic I learned. The rest of the class time was devoted to learning the Arabic Alphabet, which as you probably know is completely different from the standard alphabets used by the romance languages. Arabic is also written and read right to left, and I feel it is a good metaphor for learning Arabic; forget what you have learned and learn an entirely new mindset! Should be exciting!

Arabic Alphabet

TWINS WIN! (and I watched it in Italy)

2009-10-07T03:56:00.010+02:00

Well it is currently about 4:00 am here in Italy, and being the fanatic sports fan that I am, I stayed up all night watching the Minnesota Twins win game 163! The game started at 11:00 pm here in Italy, and I figured it would not go past 2:00 am....but then baseball has a funny habit of not going according to plan.

It really is amazing the strides that technology has made over the years. The fact that I am able to watch a live stream of my local hometown baseball team here in Italy (via P2P) is really Cool!

Now it is time to get some sleep...if I can...I am still really excited!

Ultimate Survival Italian Part II

2009-10-05T17:23:00.002+02:00

So this past weekend I played in an Ultimate tournament not far from Bologna. I ended up playing with a team from Trent, Italy. A bunch of their players had not been able to come down to the tournament, so I joined their team. The good news was since there very few of us I got to play a lot! The bad news was after 5 games in the span of 6 hours my body killed!

The Team

Still I had a great time. Several of the players spoke some English, but they mostly just spoke in Italian and I began to catch onto the different Italian Ultimate terms. In the end we finished 7th out of 9 teams.

I may play in another tournament this coming weekend and I also just joined a choir at the University of Bologna with a fellow student from Johns Hopkins SAIS. Both should be fun and continue to improve my Italian!

Biking Italy: Modanella (i.e. FERRARI!)

2009-10-03T19:45:00.000+02:00

So today I decided to go for another bike trip. I choose for my destination the small town of Modanella Italy. The town is internationally famous because this guy Enzo Ferrari started some small car company there and named it after himself (perhaps you have heard of this company!?).

At any rate the bike ride was through some beautiful country side areas of Italy, and I managed to get lost a bunch of time and tried to make up a bunch of different detours. The end result was I probably biked around 55 km instead of the 45 it should of taken to get there. Still the effort was well worth it. The Ferrari Galleria was awesome, a true Mecca for car enthusiasts and still worth the trip even if you are not a fanatic. Check out the pictures below to get a idea of what it was like.

One of the first Ferrari Racing Cars

2008 Version of the F1 Ferrari Racing Vehicle

Basically what this picture is showing is that Ferrari Dominates the F1 Grand Prix Circuits all over the world...

Classic Maserati

Newer "pedestrian" Ferrari

The engines are just phenomenal

Ultimate Ferrari Room!

What follows is a video of one of the coolest rooms ever! Every person walked in and a huge smile would just appear on their faces (Ferrari even added mood music for the room!)

Still picture of the amazing room

And of course....this will be my future car!

I talked to some people from Australia at the Museum and turns out you can rent a Ferrari to test drive in Modanella! The Aussies did and said they drove absolutely spectacularly (one would sure hope so for their price tag), well like any good young male I had to check this out for my self! I was not too surprised though when I found that the price tag for a 10 minute drive was around $100. Needless to say after that I got on my bike and rode off into the sunset (as several Ferraris hummed by me!).

Carl of Arabia!

2009-10-03T19:30:00.004+02:00

Ok, so now I know what you are thinking....what the heck could I have in common with the epic character (and real life counterpart) of one of the all time great cinematic films (and probably the record for longest film ever too!). Well as of yet, not much. While I have always longed to roam the land fighting for freedom and philosophizing about the meaning of life, I just have not gotten around to it yet.

What I am about to begin though is taking Arabic here at Johns Hopkins SAIS! In addition it has been common for Arabic students to spend their summer inbetween their two years in a Arabic speaking country. So perhaps in time I will have a few charectorists similar to the all time film great.

Ultimate Survival Italian

2009-09-28T13:45:00.005+02:00

Today pre-term officially ended after my economics final. As such that also means I am on my own as far as Italian goes (no more survival Italian!). I cannot say that my Italian is really all that great, but it allows me to do a few things like introduce myself and say a bit about myself, order at a restaurant (assuming they do not ask too many complicated questions), and say all the great little words like please, thank you, and your welcome!

So while my academic endeavors with Italian are officially over, I will now use the non-academic Ultimate Fields of Bologna to try and rev up on my Italian. I mean literally the Ultimate Fields of Bologna, as in the sport! There is a Ultimate team here in Bologna and it is one of the best in Europe. I am planning to practice with them occasionally and hopefully play in a tournament they are hosting in upcoming weeks! No doubt I will learn great new words such as throw it here, huck, up, and all those other great Ultimate words! At any rate it should be fun.

Biking Italy: Bologna & Ferrara

2009-09-20T17:02:00.005+02:00

Well it took almost no time at all for me to take advantage of having a bike here. As biking places provides good and cheap entertainment (and positive externalities for one's health), I decided to go on several bike trips this weekend after taking my exam on Saturday.

Saturday Evening I biked around Bologna, checked out their soccer stadium, and then headed off into the foothills and found a nice overlook of the town. In total I probably only biked about 20 km, but with the foothills it felt like more.

Overlook of Bologna from the foothills

On Sunday I got a bit more adventurous and biked from Bologna to the town of Ferrara (50 km or 31 miles). A small town known for its biking culture, it also had a cool variety of old medieval buildings. Tired from the ride there I decided to pay the couple Euro and take the train home.

Castello Estense

Duomo San Romano

As much as I like to bike back home, it is really cool to be able to bike a ways and end up in some cool European Town you have never visited, it adds a little extra little motivation!

Happy Saturday....here is your Exam

2009-09-19T08:16:00.003+02:00

Living in Europe does have several differences from the US and one is very evident today, a test! So instead of spending my Saturday visiting old Roman Ruins or in a vineyard in Tuscany I will instead focus on the invisible hand theory and other great Economic theories.

Bologna Bike Trade

2009-09-17T21:47:00.003+02:00

So one of the things I have wanted to get since I arrived here is a bike. Normally this would seem quite simple, but is just so happens that bikes are a much desired commodity in Bologna! In fact when getting a bike it is best to make sure it is not that flashy of a bike. This is because stealing bikes is treasured past time here in Bologna. Once they are stolen, they are then spray painted a new color and sold at the weekend flea market (at which point the buyer better get a good lock or else the bike is likely to be back at the market the following week sporting another new paint job!).

Even Johns Hopkins has a special part to play in this story. After 9/11 it was originally required that all US institutions abroad needed to have protection at all times by the local authorities. So the school had a Bologna Police Officer who was always stationed outside of the school. Well one would certainly think that with a police officer right outside of the school, bike theft would not be a problem at all. But would you believe it bikes still disappeared from the bike racks right in front of the school! Rumor is that the police officer out front was actually in on the local bike trade and allowed the theft to occur as long as he got a cut! (as post 9/11 regulations were relaxed the school was able to let the officer go).

At any rate the main point of this post is just to say, I bought a bike! I went in search of bikes many a times and I was a bit afraid that I would not find what I was looking for. I wanted to get an old road bike that could serve as a commuter bike and allow me to go on some bike trips here in Italy! Finally on my third trip to the various bike stores one bike stood out and screamed my name, a yellow road bike. It is perhaps a bit small and the gears are by no means perfect, but I am very happy with it! (and I have two excellent locks for it!) Since I bought the bike on Tuesday I have already mapped out a few possible bike trips one in Tuscany and one in Northern Italy (Alps?). No doubt this blog will have a few posts in the future about my bike trips!

Florence

2009-09-13T18:50:00.005+02:00

I have talked a lot in my last few posts, so this time I will just leave you with some pictures from my day-trip to Florence, enjoy!

Medieval Medical School

2009-09-12T20:43:00.003+02:00

Today I went on a free guided tour of Bologna offered by Johns Hopkins. We went to many really neat places around the city, but one place that really stuck out to my was the University of Bologna. The school is over 1,000 years old and considered the oldest university in the Western World. While the school was originally best known for its law school, they also dabbled in medicine!

As most academic disciplines, medicine was closely watched by the church in the early days. All in an effort to ensure that academic teachings were in-line with the accepted church views of the day. Opening a dead body up for science was considered an extremely sinful thing to do. So the only time the University of Bologna was allowed to have an anatomy class with a cadaver was during the period of carnival, this is because it was more acceptable to be sinful during this period of the year. So at the time of carnival every year the University would conduct classes with cadavers.

marble slab for the cadaver in the middle of an ornately carved wood paneled room

Cadaver slab with teaching pulpit in the background

While the University was able to teach anatomy with actual examples during this period it did not mean that the Church turned a complete blind eye to what occurred in the classroom. On the wall opposing the teaching pulpit there is a scripture verse carved into the woodwork. This part of the wall is actually shudders with another small room behind them. Inside the room at all times would be a priest or other church official would listen to all the lecturing in the classroom and if anything went against the acceptable religious beliefs the shudders would be thrown open and the church official would immediately engage in debate to correct the professor and ensure that the holy truth prevailed.

Obviously church-science relations have come a long way since (and I have great respect for both religion and science), but I still find it intriguing to see some of the things that were done in order to maintain the order of the church.

Rimini

2009-09-10T10:14:00.004+02:00

So yes it is almost the following weekend, but I am finally getting around to reporting about my travels from the previous weekend. (It is easy to get behind with limited Internet access and this thing called Homework...)

Last Sunday five other students and I decided to go and visit Rimini. While I have traveled to many cities throughout Europe to explore their amazing architecture, unique culture, and other various qualities, the trip to Rimini was aimed at doing one thing.....bumming on their beautiful sandy beaches.

Arial view of Rimini

During the Summer, almost no one is in Bologna due to the heat. This is because all the locals pack up shop (literally, because easily over half the places were closed in town until later this fall when I arrived in Bologna), and headed to the beach. I now very much understand why as the first two weeks here the temperatures were in the 80s and mid to upper 90s almost everyday with a great amount of humidity. One can easily sweat just lying in bed.

So last Sunday we did as the Italians do and went to the beach to cool off. Rimini has perfect sandy beaches and huge waves. In addition the Adriatic sea is a really nice temperature to swim in.

The beach in Rimini

I have not decided where I may go this weekend, but I am considering either the Lake District or Tuscany. Feel free to give me any suggestions, my only condition is that they be relatively close to Bologna (thus saving time and money).

Speakers

2009-09-09T09:53:00.004+02:00

Coming to Johns Hopkins SAIS one can expect excellent courses and professors, but another equally exciting opportunity is the impressive list of speakers the school brings in throughout the year to talk about relevant international issues.

The first speaker of the year came last Friday, and was of particular interest to me. In my undergrad studies I wrote a paper on the Expansion Policies of the European Union and many of the challenges that would be associated with incorporating new members. I was originally inspired to write the paper from a visit to the Czech Republic in 2003 where I had the chance to talk with friends and family there about their impending accession to the Union. While membership was viewed as an overall positive, there were still many concerns with protective politics coming from the more western countries in the Union that made the new Union members feel like second class citizens in some ways. Social, Cultural, and especially Economic differences between many of the old and new member states (at the time) motivated the protective policies. The paper focused on this transition period and the challenges it and future additions to the Union could bring. The paper caught the attention of my professor and he nominated me to present it at a regional Political Science Conference.

The speaker last Friday was Michael Leigh, Director-General of the European Commission on Enlargement. I must admit that it was a really cool academic experience to hear a distinguished speaker talk about an issue I had spent a great deal of time and effort researching in the past. While some of the issues of enlargement have changed over the past few years many similar issues still exist on old and new fronts. Much of the talk focused on the Financial Crisis's effect on the Union and Enlargement, Iceland's recent application to join the Union, and the ever complicated Issue of Turkey pending accession to the Union.

Since the Director-General we have had a speaker who spoke on the Kosovo Independence. Tomorrow we have a speaker on the Stability of the Euro (I personally hope it will start depreciating!!!). I must say in general I am excited for many of the upcoming speakers as they will cover a variety of different international subjects, no doubt a few more may work their way onto my blog in the future.

Bologna

2009-08-30T12:43:00.003+02:00

So with my first weekend day in Italy I decided to go on the grand walking tour of Bologna to see all of the sights. I figure I should become acquainted with the place I will be living in for the next nine months. So myself and two other students here set off throughout the medieval streets to experience the city.

Arguably one of the most famous sites associated with Bologna are the two towers in the city center, Torre degli Garisenda & Torre degli Asinelli. Towers like these two use to line the skyline of Bologna, but now these are the only major towers left. The tower on the left, in the picture below, has a sizable lean to it and people are not allowed inside. Luckily the tower on the right is still straight and one can proceed up 498 precarious looking wooden steps to the top of the tower to get an arial view of Bologna and the surrounding areas. So of course we ascended the tower.

The Two Towers

Looking down from the top at the shorter leaning tower.

View of the city from the tower.

After descending from the towers we later were told by other students that the local legend is that students who climb to the top of the tower will never graduate...but we feel strongly that we can disprove this legend. After the towers we moved on to the main square of Piazza Maggiore. The Piazza is surrounded by huge medieval buildings on all sides. Most impressively is the Basilica di San Petronio. Original planning and funding for the Basilica called for it to be even larger then St. Peter! But then mysteriously the Vatican decided to divert funding away from the Basilica to a nearby Piazza causing the Basilica to be made smaller and made of cheaper materials. We were unable to go inside, one of my friends was wearing shorts, which are not acceptable, so we will have to go see the inside some other time, from what I have heard it is really cool on the inside.

The Basilica (notice the change from Marble to Brick, from when the lost part of their funding from the vatican)

After visiting the square and Basilica we simply wandered throughout the many streets of Bologna and worked our way outside the city walls. There are nice hiking trails in the nearby hills, but despite walking a long ways and finding the hills we never found the trails. Lukily we still have another nine months to explore the city!

Hills surrounding Bologna (view from the tower)

Buongiorno from Italy!

2009-08-29T14:25:00.003+02:00

So I have now been in Italy for three full days and I decided it was high time for my first blog post. I arrived in Italy on late Tuesday night and checked into a hotel room for the night. Since I have been living out of my suitcase and backpack as I waited to move into an apartment here in Bologna. In addition to housing there are many other things I needed to get taken care off. I need to fill out a bunch of documents for my official residency here (which also means pay a bunch of taxes). I also had my first class on Thursday in advanced Microeconomics. So all in all I have been quite busy trying to settle in here.

Today I finally got housing. I am living in a three bedroom apartment with an American and British student. The apartment is quite nice and seems to have been remodeled lately. I pay about $700 a month for my apartment, which includes utilities and furnishings, all in all a good price considering the market here.

half of my bed room

Other half of my bedroom, I like the desk and the doors you can see leads to my own personal porch!

The Kitchen

So after I picked out my apartment I was able to move in right away, so I did so. As I only a suitcase, my large backpack, and some personal things it did not take too long. The next thing I did was go grocery shopping. Being in Italy I figured I would try my hand at pasta. I must admit that my pasta tasted quite bland and was far from the best I have had. I figure I have all year to try and improve my cooking (and it needs it!).

My first supper, I have made this meal before and it is normally good, I think the sauce I bought was just not very good.

When you move into your first apartment you start to realize all the little things you do not have that are somewhat essential, for example toilet paper, dish soap, and other random exciting objects! One thing I do miss from back home is air-conditioning! I now very much understand why it is so common for Italians to take the hottest months off and go to the coasts. It has been close to or over 90 degrees every day here and the humidity is very thick. Needless to say I am looking forward to the weather beginning to cool down here in the upcoming months.

As you can tell the first week has been a lot of getting adjusted to the area and settled in. For now I am happy to stay in Bologna and explore the city more (which is quite nice), before I branch out and explore some other nearby regions (Tuscany?).