Jake's Adventures

Morocco

2009-05-04T16:44:00.004-04:00

Dan, Andrew, Sean, Patrick, and I spent Wednesday, February 11th through Wednesday, February 18th travelling to and through Morocco. The impetus for the trip was incredibly cheap airfare Pat found ($160 per person, round trip). See the Wikipedia entry here for some of the basics on Morocco, including it's currency (dirham), capital (Rabat) and cuisine.

Our trip led us from Casablanca, south to Marrakesh, east through Atlas mountains and the Sahara beyond, back to Marrakesh, north to Rabat, and back to Casablanca. We rarely slept more than 5 hours, never stayed in the same hotel (or city) for two consecutive nights, and experienced Morocco as much as we could in 6 days.

I definitely recommend Morocco for people thinking of travelling to North Africa. Keep in mind, we did it cheap. Also, we missed Tangiers and Fez, which are supposed to be two of the most impressive cities in Morocco. Well-healed travelers could enjoy fine dining, luxury accommodations, and impressive beaches (especially along Morocco's Mediterranean coast) if they were so inclined. I enjoyed roughing it.

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009: Rabat, Casablanca, and the Trip Home

2009-05-03T23:14:00.002-04:00

Wednesday morning we left Rabat at 7 am on our way to Casa. Our plan was to catch a half-hour tour of the Hassan II Mosque at 9:30 before our flight at 12:30. We made the mosque tour after the hour-long train ride, but not all of us would end up making the flight. The tour, my first time in a mosque, was excellent. In mosques you cannot wear shoes but are given booties similar to those provide by TSA at airport security checkpoints. It took six years of work, day and night, for the building to be completed. It was made almost exclusively from Moroccan materials. For a more complete review than I could possibly provide, see the wikipedia entry here.

After we left the mosque, things got interesting. First, we couldn't find a cab large enough to take us to the airport. In Casa there are white cabs and red, "petit" cabs. The petit cabs can only operate within city limits and unfortunately for us, the large white cabs do not drive by the mosque. After waiting for several minutes, we decided to take cabs to the train station where we know white cabs look for fares. Since the five of us could not fit in one petit cab with all of our luggage, we split up.

Sean, Dan, and Andrew got in the first cab while Patrick and I got in a second cab which arrived several minutes later. When Pat and I arrived at the train station, the other three were not there. We waited for over five minutes, figured they had already left and got in a white cab. At this point it was around 10:40. On the way to the airport I checked the flight status using my blackberry, only to discover the flight was at 12:05, not 12:30.

Patrick and I arrived at 11:15, got checked in and through security. It turns out our compadres had somehow arrived at the train station after we did, had briefly waited and then departed. They arrived at the airport at 11:30 and were not allowed to check in by the Iberia air staff, despite the flight's posted delay of half an hour. They had to wait in Casablanca two days before catching another flight. The fee they had to pay, 125 euros, was more than we paid for our entire tickets. Bummer city.

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009: Rabat, Morocco

2009-05-03T22:08:00.002-04:00

Monday was a travel day. The most eventful part of the day was waking up the morning to find six of the camels had escaped. We rode our remaining camels back to the compound, with some people doubling up and some walking. The saddles were very uncomfortable with only one person, much less two. We then drove roughly 8 hours to Marrakesh.

In Marrakesh we stayed at a riad run by some Germans. It was a little more expensive than our previous lodgings, but a hot shower (the first in a three days for most of us) was great. We got to bed early that night and left for the train station at 6 am.

At 7 we got on a train to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Rabat is on the northern part of Morocco's Atlantic coast. The train station is roughly in the center of the city, about a mile off the coast. We ate lunch at a cafe near the station and found a hotel just down the main drag, named after Morocco's beloved former king Mohammed V. After finding the hotel we walked towards the sea. On the way we walked through the market, a much more Western version of the market in Marrakesh. All the knock-off staples were being sold: fake sunglasses, hand bags, clothing, and watches. I assume this is due to its proximity to the sea.

After the market we stumbled into an expansive cemetery overlooking the sea. The graves were mostly above ground, in cement boxes. These boxes were presumably tailored to fit the size of the individual, many were small. Almost all of them doubled as flower beds, with a thin layer of soil on top.

The beach beyond the cemetery was very interesting. There were small pools with shells and occasionally fish leading up to the ocean. A gentleman with the longest on-shore fishing pole I have ever seen was trying his luck a hundred yards away from a group of boogie-boarders. As we walked up the beach it eventually turned into sand, but there were no girls in bikinis.

We then entered an old castle at the mouth of a river. Beyond the castle a mile or so was the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. In addition to the Mausoleum itself, with the tombs of Mohammed V and his sons (including Hassan II), the grounds included the tower of an unfinished mosque and the pillars that supported the building. After the Mausoleum, we split up. Patrick went for a walk around the market while the rest of us caught a cab to Chellah, an old Roman and Carthaginian necropolis on the outskirts of the city. The area was littered with storks, but was otherwise a nice break from the honking cars and exhaust of the city.

That night we drank beers, walked through the market, and eventually grabbed dinner at a Moroccan diner.

Sunday, February 15th, 2009: To the Sahara

2009-03-23T21:45:00.003-04:00

Our first stop of the day was at a Berber village at the base of another gorge. The ground here was apparently fertile enough to grow crops, with a few hundred acre plots divided into portions just large enough for a single family. Our guide was friendly enough, showing us plots of alfalfa, pomegranates, and olives. Eventually, however, we were led into his family's rug shop and were peddled rugs at exorbitant prices for over an hour. We later learned the other group was given the exact same pitch (down to calling the tea "Berber whiskey").

PJ eventually called shenanigans on the whole event and we were returned to Rashid.

Rashid took us into a nearby gorge for lunch and to visit some more Berber roadside stands. People were selling rugs, scarves, and turbans. We all bought rugs for roughly $30 a piece. Lunch was good and at this point very similar to most other meals we had eaten.

We left gorge shortly after lunch and resumed our trip to the Sahara. Our next stop of note was at a fossil factory of sorts. Apparently Morocco is rich with fossils. Several stands hawked fossil-jewelry and geodes. This particular shop fashioned counter tops, dishes, and tables containing fossils of various shapes and sizes. This was Dan's favorite.

We then drove a short distance before leaving the road for a long, dirt trail. We drove on this trail for half an hour, passing camels and large sand dunes along the way. We eventually arrived at a large compound beside a lake. Down the hill from the compound was a small set of corrals with about 20 camels. We gathered our things, including a snowboard we rented on the spot, and climbed on top of the camels for the journey into the desert.

The camels immediately reminded me of Star Wars. They yelled deeply and loudly, just like the animal Hans and Luke cut open and used as shelter at the beginning of Episode 5. Earlier in the trip, we saw people that were undoubtedly the inspiration for Jawa costumes.

We rode the camels for roughly an hour into the Sahara as night was falling. The desert was surprisingly different from the landscape we had previously encountered. While the previous terrain reminded me of Arizona with small shrubs and brush on mostly bare ground, the Sahara was pure sand dunes. Some of the dunes rose several hundred feet and were quite massive. When we arrived at the small camp, we immediately climbed one of these large dunes. Being the only member of our group with any snow-boarding experience (though extremely limited), I was appointed to ride it down.

The board was in decent condition, certainly good enough to ride down a sand dune, but I did not have boarding-boots. My shoes were much too small for the bindings, making turning impossible. Thus, I crashed my way down the hill, tumbling whenever we I got going too fast.

That night we ate dinner with the entire group and got to know everyone a little better. We slept in Berber tents and used our saddle blankets for warmth. I suppose this is how cowboys of yore used to do it, but I had never imagined using saddle blankets as bedding material, much less camel saddle blankets. They stunk, but we were tired enough that we quickly got over it.

Saturday, February 14th, 2009: High Atlas Mountains

2009-03-23T21:40:00.010-04:00

The lower Atlas Mountains

That morning we embarked on our 3 day, 2 night tour of the Moroccan countryside, Atlas Mountains and Saharan Desert. Our home was a black van with three rows of seats. Our guide was a good natured, roughly 30 year old Berber man (pronounced bear-bear) named Rashid. He we spoke some basic English (and hopefully not much more, for his sake) and was more of a driver than a guide.

We immediately ascended into the mountains. The mountains were barren and dark, with snow capped peaks (domes). People were walking the entire length of the pass through the mountains, some carrying packs, others not.

We stopped occasionally for pictures and refreshments. The stops were obviously pre-arranged, with some businesses displaying the travel company's logo on a window. Rashid was warmly greeted wherever we went. We eventually found that we (unsurprisingly) paid a higher price for most items as a result. However, most things were very cheap even after the mark-up.

The High Atlas Mountains

While we booked a private 5-person tour, we soon discovered we were accompanied by a mini-bus of fifteen or so other people. They hailed from the United States, England, France, Holland, Hong Kong, and Germany. It was initially fairly awkward interacting with them. Essentially, they were on the same tour as us only they had a larger group. They would eat at the same restaurants, only at larger tables. They would make the same stops, but would all ride around in a bus as opposed to a van.

After passing through the mountains, we drove to a secluded kasbah (description of kasbahs here, familiar song here). The kasbah was apparently the main source of income for the community. A large donkey cartel served those attempting to cross the shallow river separating the community from the kasbah itself. Children of various ages as well as their leader offered round trip rides for 20 dirham. AC was wearing sandals and forded the river both ways. Sean also waded on the way to the kasbah, but shared a donkey with me on the way back. Dan's ride on the way back from the kasbah was hilarious. Dan (6'3") was on the shortest donkey of them all, with his feet almost dragging in the river. This picture was taken by one of the "others" before we had met them (he thought it was too hilarious to pass up).

Andy

Dan, a little boy, and a donkey. Usually these ingredients lead to something different.

Sean and I atop the kasbah, overlooking the village

Dan, in front of the Kasbah

We were rushed on our visit, so Sean, Dan and I literally ran the last half of the ascent. Pat and AC did not bother rocking the kasbah all the way to the top. The top of the kasbah commanded a view of the Atlas Mountains to the North and a rocky, barren terrain in all directions. Our return down the hill, also at a gallop, emphasized the extremely modest living conditions of the kasbah's inhabitants. The rooms had dirt floors and the walls were made of clay and straw. While many of the homes were obviously uninhabited, some were not.

On the roof of a building in the kasbah

Children begged us constantly on the trip. The kasbah was no exception. When we stopped later in the day, kids begged for enough money to buy footballs. Usually under the watchful eye of a parents, at times it was difficult to sort the needy from the merely resourceful. On one occasion outside a McDonald's in Rabat, a boy asked me for some fries. When I gave him one or two he more or less laughed in my face and went to show his friends. It didn't exactly endear me to give more.

The restaurant we ate at after the kasbah was satisfactory. We had arguably the best prepared Moroccan salad of the trip, served with olive oil and bread. However, the chicken brochette (essentially chicken on a stick) tasted like chicken nuggets.

Moroccan salad

After lunch we drove the remainder of the afternoon to the Dades Gorge. The countryside between was barren and dotted with the occasional small town. People in these towns seemingly walked everywhere, often long distances, though some had motorbikes, cars, donkeys, or horses. Women here dressed much more conservatively than in any of the cities we visited, covering their entire bodies except the hands and part of the face. The poverty was overwhelming at first, but after several hours of driving through villages of varying levels of destitution, we were sadly dulled to it.

The drive into the gorge was excellent. We followed a windy river through broken earth and weathered rock formations.

Our hotel in the gorge reminded me of Volcano House of the Big Island of Hawai'i. It was heated only with portable propane units. None of the rooms had any of these, only the hallways. The view, however, was impressive. It overlooked the river and looming rock walls on either side. We of course decided to go climbing. The climb was difficult in places due to loose rock and prickly plants, but was overall not terribly difficult. That being said, three of us (not to be named) quit after fifteen minutes of climbing and crawled back down. The other two surely would have continued longer were it not for the impending sunset.

At dinner we finally ate with the other group. We sat next to a Londoner and his two children of roughly 8 and 10. The kids were entertaining and intelligent. We were on our best behavior for the first time in the trip, slipping only one "that's what she said" into the conversation. Dinner consisted of tagine, oranges, couscous, and bread. Not overly filling.

That evening we met the two Americans in the big group and shared houkah with them while listening to some of the Berbers play drums. They were both teaching English in France and were on one of their many mandatory vacations.

In the morning we drove out of the gorge and continued north and east towards the Sahara.

Friday, February 13th, 2009: Marrakesh, Morocco

2009-03-10T20:49:00.009-04:00

At 5:30 a.m. Friday morning most of us were woken by the first Muslim call to prayer. Just in case you don't feel like going to the mosque, they bring the mosque to you. Every pause prompted a sigh of relief ... which was immediately followed by a muffled groan of disgust when the next prayer song began. This lasted roughly an hour.

Breakfast was provided by the hotel and consisted of warm eggy-bready crepes, bread, jam, butter, and mint tea or coffee. Mint tea is the national beverage of sorts of Morocco. We took a cab to the Voyageur train station, thought we were 15 minutes late catching the train to Marrakesh and ended up being half an hour early.

Andrew, Sean and Dan at the Casablanca train station

First class tickets for the three and one half hour train ride were 125 dirham ($15). The first hour was foggy, but the fog eventually lifted, revealing sparsely vegetated green hills and pastures. Western South Dakota is ubiquitous. Shepherds tended to flocks of sheep and the occasional several head of Holstein-looking cattle. Large cactus, a rather ingenious combination of hedgerow and barbed wire, were used as fences.

We arrived in Marrakesh shortly after noon and rode in another old Mercedes cab to the "Heart of the Medina Hostel." Marrakesh is home to just over 1 million people and is best known for it's large square, Djemaa el Fna.

Our hostel was located in the medina just to the east of the main square. After drinking some complimentary mint tea, we walked a short distance to our room. The room consisted of five narrow beds, extremely firm, with one blanket per bed. There were two toilets: one sitter, one squatter. The shower was pretty standard.

The medina consisted of windy, narrow paths between shops crowded with sundry worthless trinkets, Berber slippers, clothing, rugs, scarves, all being sold by overly aggressive hawkers. Street-meat venders offered hard boiled eggs, grilled kabobs, and frites.

We lunched at a cafe overlooking the square. We shared couscous (which originated in Morocco), tagine, frites, tomato based Moroccan salad, olives, and bread. The tagine, couscous, and salad were delicious. I saw a guy with a Twins cap in the restaurant, meant to approach him to compliment his good taste, and forgot. Compared to the part of Casablanca we visited, Marrakesh had far more Westerners.

Above is tagine served in it's traditional ceramic pot. It is actually baked/steamed in the pot, in this case the tagine consists of chicken, frites and olives. Next to it are brochettes of lamb, baked chicken, and in the distance vegetable couscous.

Fresh orange juice is served in many locations for between 3 and 5 dirham. We each grabbed one from a vender outside the restaurant and began to explore the square. Almost immediately we were harassed by snake and monkey handlers. Sean had a snake put on his neck without warning. When we returned later, the same thing happened to me.

Dan drinking OJ at one of the ubiquitous stands

The Snake with a snake around his neck (his neck is in my hand).

We left the square and headed for the city's largest mosque, the Koutoubia mosque. When you start with the second largest mosque in the world, subsequent mosques naturally seem less impressive. The trash strewn about the garden area didn't help. The fountains and small canals were empty and similarly littered (it is winter, after all).

We then walked for roughly two hours, picking up pastries and glass bottle cokes made with real sugar on the way. We ended up at a rooftop bar/cafe and had a round of San Miguels. Morocco was an expectedly difficult place to find alcohol (at least where we went). We welcomed the beers and the view. This part of town, to the south of the square, was home to a large population of white storks. They nested on the walls of El Badi Palace and were thought to be good luck.

Stork on the castle walls

We returned to the main square around sundown and decided to sup at one of the square's food stands. Roughly fifty full service small restaurants, complete with waiters, benches and chefs had been erected side-by-side in the center of the square. The waiters were typically aggressive and many spoke English very well. We eventually chose the stall with the most locals and the least aggressive waiters on the logic that a) locals know what is good and b) you don't have to be as aggressive if the food speaks for itself.

Me after giving the kids some hand sanitizer (but before they lifted my bill?)

As soon as we sat down small children began begging us for food, money, and sips of our cokes. As we had mixed rum in our cokes and were generally tired of being harassed, I ended up giving them only a few dollops of hand sanitizer, which they could not figure out what to do with. They ran and asked their mothers, now revealed to be standing nearby, who were similarly confused. It turned out, they repaid my generosity by lifting roughly 200 dirham from my pocket. I offer sanitation and this is what I get in return.

Restaurant stall

Andrew and Sean eating snails

After our dinner of grilled meats and frites, we visited a snail stand. I didn't care for them, but Sean and Andy did. At this point, no doubt hearing we were easy marks and urged on by Dan feeding them snails, we were surrounded by little boys and girls.

We eventually made it to one of the couple dozen dried fruit and nut stands. Pistachios were 80 dirham/kilo and dried apricots were 60 dirham/kilo. We bought some of each. Afterwards, we got milkshakes at a cafe with an elevated view of the square before heading out in search of tobacco shisha. We ended up learning no one in the medina had shisha on hand, so we began to return to our rooms for the night.

Dried Fruit Stand

Restaurant stalls in the square from the rooftop ice-cream parlor

On the way home, Patrick decided to enter an arcade filled with local teenage and twenty-year-old Moroccan men. He was immediately propositioned for hashish and other drugs and quickly left. Several of the young men followed and Patrick asked if they could find us shisha. Of course they said they could and began leading us down a street.

Upon reaching our hostel lobby, we tried told them we did not want to walk any farther and thanks anyways. They pursued, eventually demanding payment from us. When we refused one of them got quite belligerent, shoving Patrick and saying rather unpleasant things about what he would like to do to our mothers. Our hostel manager came out and convinced him to leave, but not before the young gentleman told us to "watch out." Nothing else happened, although a very loud, very drunk person tried to get in the hostel in the middle of the night.

Thursday, February 12, 2009: Casablanca, Morocco

2009-03-08T20:41:00.003-04:00

Our trip began slowly. We were originally to depart from Ronald Reagan National Airport at 3:40 p.m. on Wednesday heading to Boston. Instead, the plane was delayed getting into DC and we were shuttled to Dulles for an 8:30 p.m. non-stop Iberia Air flight to Madrid. The flight was half full. The business and first class seats were completely empty.

The economy, man. What a bummer for the airlines.

Iberia jet in Casablanca

We got into Madrid just before 10 a.m. local time, 4 a.m. EST. Our connection at 10:30 a.m. to Casablanca was delayed, leaving us enough time to pick up three liters of duty-free hooch.

Our flight from Madrid to Casablanca was pleasant enough. I discussed, or more accurately, was told the meaning of life by a jovial Nigerian man sitting beside me. Mostly speaking in Beatles lyrics, he pontificated on the characteristics of money (wealth); namely, its coming and going and inability to buy happiness (and presumably love).

After arriving in Casablanca, we stocked up on the Moroccan currency, the dihram. The exchange rate is roughly 8.65 dirhams per dollar. We all took out about 1500 dirhams ($175). I enjoy carrying foreign currency as they are almost universally more interesting than American dollars in design and size. The dirham is no exception. Andrew, keeper of random trivia, told us that the the export of the dirham is prohibited by law. This is confirmed by Wikipedia here.

Andrew and Dan at a cafe in Marrakesh. The bills on the table range from a 50 to 1,000 dirham bills.

After unsuccessfully talking any cabbie down from 300 dirham, we left Mohammed V airport the airport crammed into an old Mercedes-Benz complete with bungee cords to keep the trunk closed. The road into town was initially empty and then crowded with cars of all sorts. We saw a lone donkey grazing by the road, a few flocks of sheep and their shepherds (warning: some bad language), and several fairly rundown buildings. As we approached the city, the air became increasingly polluted and the sky more hazy.

We passed a bus with its transmission below and people sitting along the road. Traffic was chaotic. Cars drifted in and out of lanes. Everyone reminded everyone else their Peugeot 205 came fully equipped with a standard horn. There were few traffic lights and while we saw police responding to several fender benders, very few seemed to be attempting to prevent them.

Crammed in a cab from Mohammed V Airport into Casablanca

Our hotel, the Central Hotel, was on the edge of an old crowded part of town by the sea called the medina. From our window we could see the harbor and ocean, warships, tankers, and cranes. The staff was friendly and they provided towels (something we weren't sure about).

View from our hotel-room balcony

Casablanca (Dar-el-Beida on a Moroccan map) is perhaps unsurprisingly a city of white buildings. Over 3 million of Morocco's 34 million people live in Casa (pronounced kah-zah), making it the largest city in Morocco.

View from our hotel's rooftop

We ate lunch at a French seafood restaurant a few blocks from our hotel. The menu was in French and the waiter spoke very little English. We were lucky to only have one mix up when ordering. In retrospect, it was pretty clear what went wrong:

Dan: I'll have the scallops.
Waiter: Scallops, Ok. Steak?
Dan: What?
Waiter: Steak?
Dan: Scallops, yeah.
Waiter: Ok, yes. Steak?
Dan: Yeah?
Waiter: Ok.

Waiter: Sir?
Sean: I'll have the same.
Waiter: The steak?
Sean: Yeah, the scallops.
Waiter: Ok.

This was the result.

The rest of the food was similar to some of the seaside food we had on the Mediterranean coast of Spain this summer. Small fried fishes (three kinds), fried whole shrimp and calamari were served as appetizers. The local beer, simply "Casablanca beer," was a decent lager. The main course for the reste of us was an earthy (as in, it tasted of dirt) white fish, perhaps monk fish. It was served with ratatouille and a baked tomato.

Seafood platter

Following dinner we walked to the Hassan II mosque, named after the King Hassan II, father of now reigning Muhammed VI. It is the second or third largest mosque in the world and was completed in 1993 after only six years of construction. As with all buildings of this nature, pictures do not do it justice.

Hassan II Mosque

After visiting the mosque we walked through the medina back to the hotel. We sat on the roof of the hotel and had drinks.

Drinks on the rooftop

We then did what American tourists in this city must do: head to Rick's Cafe by the sea. Rick's, based on the bar in the movie Casablanca (trailer here), is actually only six or seven years old. It was built in the style of the movie and in different parts of the bar/restaurant the movie is on constant repeat. We watched most of the movie while sipping the most expensive beers we would have in Morocco.

Sean in Rick's

On the way home we had our first encounter with Moroccan street food: a mystery meat sandwich that cost us 7 dirham. Dan complained for two days after, but the rest of us were too manly to follow suit. It was cheap, not too bad, and didn't make us sick. Success.

General (Random) Observations of Hong Kong

2007-08-27T06:21:00.001-04:00

Hong Kong rain. The constant drips from air conditioners are disgusting. For some reason, the public housing people do not like central air. As such, window air conditioners are everywhere.

No napkins. In any native restaurant, you are not given napkins. In one of the particularly authentic Chinese joints, they actually made us pay for "menthol" napkins. There was no TP either.

No clear right of way. Pedestrians are not yielded to by cars or other pedestrians.

People walk slowly. They rarely walk up or down the escalator. They walk slowly on moving walkways. Maybe I was just used to DC, but for a metropolitan area it was a little annoying.

Stinky fruit is overwhelming. Someone ate a durian on our floor, which is against hotel policy, and our entire floor stunk. We actually called the front desk and complained about a gas leak. They were somewhat amused when they arrived and told us it was a fruit. Click on the link above (the underlined word durian) and read some of the descriptions of the smell.

Bloomberg is the best TV show here for english speakers. We all agreed on this, so it's not just Mom and Dad's influence on me.

Can tops are pull-tabs. Is this the British influence? We only had one pull-tab mishap.

In official walking areas, you are forced to walk on the left. Almost everywhere else they walk on the right.

British influence is very noticable in the city. From buildings to restaurants to widely spoken English, you can tell the Brits were here for 100 years.

Hideous public housing everywhere. And since 50% of the people live in public housing, you are constantly looking at public-skyscrapers.

Nearly constant 95% humidity. It makes DC seem like a desert.

Public transport is fast, clean, efficient, and air-conditioned. Their metro is far superior to DC's. We never had to wait more than 2 minutes for a train, and the service area was pretty extensive.

Overwhelming odors. Hong Kong is a very smelly city. This is probably just a typical Western response to Asian odors.

There are dozens of hookers in every expatriate bar at night. Is that cute girl really dancing with you? Yep. And those flashy red pumps she's wearing aren't as good for dancing as you'd think.

No open container laws. The more I think about it, the more open container laws (while walking) don't make any sense.

Ubiquitous 7-elevens.

American sailors are seemingly everywhere when U.S. gunboats and carriers are docked. Who do you think the hookers were following around?

Beers are cheap at gas stations, but expensive at bars. And by expensive I mean generally more expensive than bars in DC, while beers are less than a dollar per beer at gas stations and grocers.

Night markets. Thriving cheap and illegal goods sales. Fake watches and pirated DVDs abound. Though, they are cracking down on designers shoes and handbags.

Monday thru Thursday

2007-08-23T20:42:00.002-04:00

On Monday, Sean Flynn and I went to a Buddhist nunnery and garden before out second suit-fitting that afternoon. The garden and nunnery are in the middle of the city, surrounded by skyscrapers and honking cars. It is no doubt a welcomed escape from the city for many Hong Kongers.

We went to our suit-fitting that afternoon, before grabbing some lunch and heading back to the hotel. We ate (for the second time) at a "local" Chinese restaurant. We had to point at the pictures and our servers new no English. Once again, we left hungry. The chicken was definitely undercooked and the pork was nearly all fat. The noodles we ordered were of lesser quality than ramen noodles. We did manage to eat all of the fried rice.

That night we hiked Victoria Peak. It is about a 1.5 mile hike, with the first half much steeper than the second. With the humidity, we were soon bathed in sweat. At the top, we grabbed a bite to eat and watched Hong Kong's signature light show. It was very cool. We later found out that virtually nobody walks it as most take the tram or a taxi.

On Tuesday we went to Lantau island to the world's largest outdoor seated bronze Bhudda (could there be any more qualifiers?). According to custom, we ate at the vegetarian restaurant below the Bhuda which is presumably run by the monks. After lunch we got to watch several monks praying and did our best to appease Bhudda by lighting some incense. The Buddhists are big on incense. The Bhudda is on the top of a very high peak in Lantau, and it was foggy all day. As such, we only caught glimpses of him until we got up close. It was fairly impressive, but less so once we found out it was built less than 15 years ago.

On Wednesday we met with an official from the US consulate. He gave us a very interesting presentation on the commercial prospects for both Hong Kong and China. More importantly, he gave us some bar and restaurant recommendations. That evening we went to Soho and grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant (you can only eat so much Asian food before you need some real food) and grabbed some beers at a Cuban restaurant complete with pictures of Che and Fidel. That night some of us went out in Lon Qui Fong, a bar and restaurant district. It was actually inundated with American sailors from the USS Nimitz.

On Thursday the group split. My half of the group - Luke, Sean, and I - went into the hinterlands. We started out the day at a walled city museum before heading out to some actual walled cities. Before heading further into the New Territories, we tried another native Chinese restaurant. Suffice to say we do not need to try that again. The spicy beef was mainly fat and the spring rolls were much too greasy. The noodles were OK until Sean added too much spicy stuff. The staff laughed at us and tried to give us forks, which Sean and I refused, but Luke accepted.

The actual walled city we visited was more or less a ghetto. The trail we walked along, described by Frommers as "wonderful", was better described as seedy. There was raw sewage running in grates along the streets and some of the residents were living in what were more or less tin shacks. It stunk everywhere. The temples and halls we saw were interesting and old (many more than 600 years old) if only because they were in the middle of such destitute poverty. We all agreed it was good to see this side of China.

When we returned, we quickly ran to the night market when we returned before coming back and getting some Pizza Hut and drinking some beers. We called it an early night as Friday will be a big day.

Macau

2007-08-23T19:59:00.002-04:00

On Sunday we went to Macau, the second of China's two Special Administrative Regions. A Portuguese colony for around 400 years, it is now the gambling hub of Asia. Last year, its gambling revenue surpassed the Las Vegas strip and it continues to grow at a fast pace. The gambling revenue statistic is misleading, however, as Macau's has around 13,000 hotel rooms compared to Las Vegas's 130,000. Furthermore, gambling revenue only accounts for 40% of Vegas's revenue while it makes up virtually all of Macau's.

We took a 45 minute "Star Ferry" from Hong Kong at around eleven on Sunday. After getting through customs, we were in the Sands Macao by about 1:30. We ate at their buffet, which was amazing. I had been craving the tasty deserts in the windows of bakeries in Hong Kong. I finally got a chance to sample them en masse. The pork, sushi, oysters, shrimp, and other seafood was good. I have avoided poultry while here, not because of a risk of catching one of the many avian flus, but because it tastes and looks disgusting. It usually has a yellowish skin attached with a bone and some blood vessels underneath. I usually can't even tell what part of the chicken it's from (maybe the goiter).

After losing $10 at the Sands and buying/drinking some cocktails (they do not serve free drinks to gamblers), we started hitting up some of the tourist sites including the ruins of a cathedral, an old Portuguese fort, and the Macau tower. It was ungodly hot. In addition to the constant 95% humidity (that is not an exaggeration), it was sunny and still. The most interesting part of the day (and the vacation thus far) came at the Macau Tower. Here is an excerpt on the tower from Wikipedia:

The tower measures 338 m (1,109 ft) in height from ground level to the highest point. An observation deck with panoramic views, restaurants, theaters, shopping malls and the Skywalk X, a thrilling walking tour around the outer rim. It offers the best view of Macau and in recent years has been used for a variety of adventurous activities. At 233 meters, the Macau Tower's tethered "skyjump" and Bungy Jump by world renowned AJ Hackett. [1] from the tower's outer rim is the highest in the world.

With Sean Flynn pushing us to do it, five of us decided to do the highest bungee jump in the world. At $888 Macanese Potacas (Asians, or at least Hong Kongers, believe 8 to be good luck), around $100 American, it was something we had to do. It was pretty amazing. The first 50 meters is a pure free fall, which means for just over 5 seconds you feel like you have just jumped headfirst off of a 233 meter tower in China. The worst part was after it was over and you were hanging by your feet. It took them a while to lower you to the inflated pad below.

From left to right: Me, Drew Peterson, Trip Leader Andrew Christianson, Luke Sharpe, and Sean Flynn. Most of us were wearing sandals, so they gave us some very stylish shoes to wear for the jump.

After the tower we had what has been one of the best meals of the trip at Fernandos, a Portuguese restaurant. We had clams, suckling pig, and roasted chicken with tomato salad, french fries, and bread. We also enjoyed some sangria and vino verde. After dinner, we returned to Hong Kong.

Farber Fund Trip to Hong Kong

2007-08-18T10:03:00.001-04:00

Trip leader Andrew Christianson, Drew Peterson, Sean Flynn, Jessica Yearous, Luke Sharpe and I are on a Farber Fund trip to Hong Kong. Jeannette Nygaard, an MPA student from USD, joined us in Hong Kong as well. The next few days I will make a few posts on the trip.

For some quick facts on Hong Kong, see the Wiki link here. The Hong Kong Tourism website is here. It was handed-over from Britain to China as part of the 99-year lease of the New Territories. While Hong Kong and Kowloon were not actually part of the lease, Britain handed them over anyways.

We are staying on the north side of Hong Kong Island.

---------------------------

We left for Hong Kong the morning of Wednesday, August 15th at 11:00 AM CDT. After stopping in Minneapolis for a couple hours, we left non-stop for Tokyo around 3 PM. We arrived in Tokyo on the 16th at 4 PM (4 AM CDT) and left for Hong Kong at 5 PM. After entering a different time zone, landing in Hong Kong, going through customs, collecting our baggage, and catching a shuttle we got to the hotel around 12:30 AM (11:30 AM CDT). The grand total on travel time came to just over 24 hours (26 if you count the time spent at the Sioux Falls airport).

That night we went out and grabbed a few beers and a kebab before going to bed around 4. The next morning we went to pick out the fabric and design for our personally tailored suits at Maxwells. I ordered one suit and three dress shirts. It was much more fun than I expected, once I overcame the paradox of choice (and my lacking fashion sense).

The rest of the day was spent walking the streets and trying not to spend any more money after our suit excursion. That night we rode a ferry across the harbor between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon during the "Symphony of Lights." We ate dinner at Gaylord's Indian restaurant, which had a live Indian band playing. The rest of the night was spent sampling Hong Kong's night life.

This morning we swam and laid out at the rooftop pool. We ate lunch at a great Japanese restaurant in Kowloon. The wasabi made my eyes water. After lunch we took a tour at the Hong Kong History Museum. It was probably one of the better museums I've been to. It covered both geological and human history of the Hong Kong area, which has been inhabited for over 6,000 years. The history of the Opium Wars was probably the most interesting part of the tour. During a presentation on recent Hong Kong and Chinese history, the Tienanmen Square Protests were referred to as "the June 4th, 1989 incident." I guess that's one way of putting it (I'm actually kind of surprised I was able to get at the American version of the Wikipedia article on the "incident").

After the museum we went to a street market containing pirated DVDs, fake watches and bags, and other junk. I'm going to buy a Folex watch before I leave. Tonight we're going to take it kind of easy as we leave for China's second Special Administrative Region, Macau, in the morning (which just this year passed Vegas in gambling revenue) pending the fallout from Typhoon Sepat that just hit Taiwan.

Minneapolis with the Fam

2006-09-10T23:24:00.001-04:00

I made the mistake of not writing my post on our trip in the days immediately following the trip, but I will try to write a worthy summary anyways.

The Mortenson clan invaded Minneapolis for three Twins games starting on the morning of Thursday, August 17 and leaving on Sunday the 20th. Grandma Jean, aunt Debra, uncle Todd, and cousins Quinn and Jack joined Curty, Kim, Will, and I at the Radisson in downtown Minne. My uncle Doug arrived on Friday from Los Angeles and stayed until Monday.vIt was great spending time with all of them for several days in the greater Minneapolis metro area. We watched a day game on Thursday, and night games on Friday and Saturday. I had a great time at all of the games, despite the Twins 1-2 record over the course of three games.

Over the course of the trip, we went to the Mall of America, ate at the News Room and a wonderful seafood restaurant (I forget the name), and visited the gravesites of two of my Grandma's brothers and one of her uncles. Grandma's oldest brother died when the military zeppelin he was aboard was shot by a German submarine. His body was never found and the marker was only recently erected. It was a bittersweet moment for all of us, Grandma in particular. I am very glad to have seen the site and having heard some stories about my great uncles.

Getting some serious hang-out time in with my father, mother, brother, uncles, aunt, cousins, and grandmother was great. I sincerely hope we can arrange more trips like this in the future. I had an awesome time.

The Twins, Bachelorette Party, and Van. Awesome.

2006-09-10T23:20:00.003-04:00

Zach and Ted Parsons, Justin Williams, Chad Jungman, and I went to Minneapolis this weekend for two Twins games against the Detroit Tigers. We stayed at the Crown Plaza in downtown Minneapolis.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we had an awesome time.

Friday night's game was a riot. The Twins gave up two runs in the top of the second and scored two in the bottom. They did the same thing in a later inning before breaking the game open and winning 9-4. Over the course of the game, we befriended a troupe of 10 year-old boys on a Twins birthday party. It was great having an extra set of hands to slap after all of the runs the Twins got, and the boys really got into it. Teddo, ever the promoter of good times and good cheer, bought the young birthday squire a Liriano jersey. Just before the game finished, the "mother" (we all thought she was insane for taking 10 juveniles to a professional sporting event) gave us twenty-five $5 off any food or drink purchase coupons. At that point, I thought the night had peaked. Little did I know, we would spend several hours at an Irish Pub (Kireaens) listening to a Van "The Man" Morrison coverband, drinking Smithwicks and Jameson, and dancing with a bachelorette party full of 30 year old women.

On Saturday, the day started with Bloody Mary's and lunch at Brits Pub. The Pub's atmosphere was great and the Steak and Greens, Chicken and White Bean Chili, and Fish and Chips were delicious. After lunch, we walked around downtown and along the river, went to an old flour mill turned into museum, and had coffee and icecream pre-game. Despite arriving 1.5 hrs early to the baseball game, we missed the Jack Morris bobbleheads given to the first 10,000 fans. So, we went to work on spending the 25 coupons. All night long we got $1 twenty-four ounce taps and free hotdogs and brats with the coupons. The Twinkies also had a successful night, winning 2-1. After the game, Teddo went to St. Paul to stay with his lovely bride and the four of us explored some of Minneapolis's finest establishments. It was another great night.

Sunday morning, we got up and left at 10:30 am. We had initially planned on scalping tickets for the final game in the series, but decided getting home at a decent hour was the better option. On the trip home, we got to listen to the Twins stomp the Tigers 12-1 on Santana's 6.1 inning, eleven strikeout, one hit effort. It was a great end to a fun weekend.

Now, Denver; Next, Minneapolis

2006-08-15T14:29:00.001-04:00

Liz was kind enough to pick me up on Friday. That night, we ate at a old-fashioned diner in Luvern, Minnesota. Going from New York City to Luvern was like stepping back in time 30 years, then getting on a spaceship and going to a different planet. It wasn't as big of a culture shock as going from Holland to South Dakota, but DC to NYC to Luvern was still a little weird. We then enjoyed a double feature at Luvern's drive in movie theater (the first I had ever been to). The two movies were Talladega Nights and You, Me, and Dupree. Both were pretty good.

On Saturday evening, Liz, her parents Dave and Joyce, and I got on a plane heading for Denver. Since then, we have visited several of Liz's family members, shopped, biked, and hiked. I have avoided shopping whenever possible. I hope they are not too offended by this. I have really enjoyed meeting everyone and spending time with Liz and her family. Though, my two favorite activities have been the 24 mile bike ride I took and this morning's hike. Liz and I got up before 6 and headed into the mountains. We climbed Devil's Head and took several pictures from the rangerstation on top. The view was 20 miles in all directions. The station is used to watch for forest fires.

We are leaving this evening at 930 pm. We will get into Sioux Falls around midnight. Tomorrow morning, Liz will be driving me to Brookings so I can reunite with my family and drive to Watertown to stay with my Grandma Marge and Grandpa Bob for the night. Thursday morning we will set out for Minneapolis to meet my Grandma Jean, Uncle Todd, Aunt Deb, and Cousins Quinn and Jack. I believe my Uncle Doug will be joining us at some point. We will be taking in some Twins games and will no doubt enjoy some fine dining.

After that, it will be a week of work at the ranch before returning to Sioux Falls on Friday the 25th for dinner at Grandpa Bob's with my Uncle Kevin from Tampa. Then, I will be in Verm either late Friday or early Saturday. School starts Tuesday.

New York, New York, New York

2006-08-15T14:11:00.002-04:00

Thursday the 3rd, Zach Parsons arrived in DC to see me off to New York City. We celebrated out long awaited reunion over several pitchers of fine brews. Friday was my last day of work. With the help of my boss, Katherine Thornton, I bound 5 copies of my portfolio. After the portfolio was finished, I knew my work experience in DC was done. It was bittersweet saying my goodbyes to everyone. I had an amazing time working with all of them this summer. They are a great bunch of people.

Also, I could not have asked for a better bunch of roommates. Ashly, Jacob, and James were great guys to spend a summer with.

Friday night was a night of celebration, though it made the 5.5 hour bus ride from Chinatown DC to Chinatown NYC a little less pleasant the next morning. Jarred Lindbloom met Zach and me at the bus stop and escorted us to the apartment he shares with Brendan Newman. A short while later, a friend of mine from USD, Patrick Johnson, arrived on a different Chinatown bus.

The days seemed to run together for one reason or another, so I will simply recap the sites we saw and times we had in the Big Apple: the Pier, the Brooklyn Bridge, several other bridges, Wall Street, the World Trade Center, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Staten Island Ferry, the Statue of Liberty, a Broadway PLAY (not musical) "The Lt.. of Inishire", Time Square, the subway, the inside of several bars and pubs, Zach and Patrick crying after they were beat yet again by the unstoppable team of Jake and Jarred, the bottoms of several beer glasses, Central Park, and several other things I have failed to mention.

The only thing I did not enjoy was the Broadway Play. Since then, I talked to a theater buff from New York who told me that we should have seen a musical. Unfortunately, getting seats for less than $100 in summer is not an easy thing to do.

I took the Chinatown bus home on Thursday, the 10th and flew out the morning of the 11th. Travel was unexpectedly light despite the ban on all liquids. I was only 10 minutes late getting into Minneapolis and was 10 minutes early getting into to Sioux Falls.

This summer was amazing. I am a very lucky boy.

Trace Buys Lunch

2006-08-15T14:04:00.001-04:00

The weekend after my parents visited, and my last weekend in DC, Lynn Beck, and Kristin and Jesse Bucholz invited me to lunch in Old Town. I decided a break from completing my 40 page portfolio would be great. Little did I know, Trace would end up treating me to some of the best seafood I had my entire trip.

The three were in town as a part of Jesse's High School Graduation present. They had done most of the touristy stuff and had managed to do some fine dining. Sunday afternoon, the three of us walked through art galleries and shops in Old Town and ate dinner at the Chart House. The Chart House is on the banks of the Potomac and served some very cold Sam's Summer Lagers and very delicious seafood.

They are all very interesting people, and it was good to see Lynn again. She is a very cool person. I am also glad to have met Kristin and Jesse. I hope they enjoyed the rest of their trip (I'm sure they did).

Me Familia Visits DC

2006-08-15T14:00:00.001-04:00

The weekend of the 20th thru the 24th of July, Mom, Dad, and Brother visited me in Washington, DC. We stayed at the Marriott in Adams Morgan. As always, it was wonderful spending time with them and showing them what little I knew of my current locale, the District.

All of my family members had seen the monuments and done the really touristy stuff, so we were free to do more cultural things. Mainly, we dined. We ate at some of the best restaurants in DC, including CityZen on Thursday, Dish on Friday, and the Blue Duck Tavern on Saturday.

We did the museum thing for a while on Friday, but lets face it. We aren't really museum people. We need activities or relaxation. Walking around looking at paintings that only half-interests us is not a good way to spend a vacation. Despite our best efforts, we wandered through the unimpressive Native American Museum and the interesting National Gallery of Art.

We also saw The History of America by the Reduced Shakespeare Company on Friday. Three guys did a great job adding humor to our nation's relatively short past. The performance was at the breath-taking Kennedy Center on the banks of the Potomac.

Saturday, we went to Georgetown. We ate brunch in a little Frenchish restaurant and watched Tiger on his way to British Open victory. We did a little bit of shopping before heading back to the hotel. Navyman Caleb Rose joined us from his boat in Norfolk, Virginia for dinner at the Blue Duck Tavern.

Sunday was spent in Old Town Alexandria. We walked along the river, up and down the old streets, and enjoyed beers at a chic bistro. Before leaving, we walked to the Washington Memorial, which is not the same as the fallus-like Washington Monument, but is instead a Masonic Temple. Dad was happy to visit a place in DC with more obvious Masonic symbolism.

Monday morning, the fun was over. They flew out of Reagan National Airport around 8.

(Lt.) Colonel Murphy visits from Tampa

2006-07-24T21:47:00.001-04:00

On two separate occasions, my uncle Kevin Murphy has been kind of enough to buy me dinner and share some company.

One night in June, he and I went to the appropriately named "Murphy's Pub". We both had beers, fish, and chips. Our conversation ranged from world affairs to women to the economy to life in general (and other things not be mentioned on this family blog). It was a wonderful evening.

More recently, a couple weeks ago, he and I ate at a Thai Restaurant, again in Old Town Alexandria. The menu featured, "collonas", but no "flied lice". The main topic of conversations this time were the leaking of the financial tracking program under the Bush administration, baseball, politics, and again, life in general. It was another wonderful evening.

I am very grateful he has been able to come and visit twice. I am not on the Eastern seaboard very often, and time with family members is something not to be wasted. I hope to see him again soon.

Dinner with Bryan Caplan

2006-07-12T22:13:00.002-04:00

Today I ate dinner with two professors of economics at George Mason University: Bryan Caplan and Ilia Rainer. Admittedly, I had never heard of Dr. Rainer, but read Dr. Caplan's blog regurlarly. It can be found here. Bryan Caplan is an extremely intelligent man, graduating from UC-Berkley for his undergrad and Princeton for his PhD. He is frequently mentioned at Marginal Revolution. I ate with them as part of a semi-interview, semi-informational, and very informal session on graduate economics. I was relaxed, despite being star struck by the extremely large brain sitting across the table from me.

It was a pleasure sharing dinner with both of them. I picked up some incites into the process of doctoral application and selection, the life of an economics academic, and economics in general.

I now know that if I want to get into a top 10 econ phd school, I need to A) Get an 800 on the quantitative section of the GRE, B) Get above a 700 in the Verbal section, C) Read many, many more books, D) Write many, many more papers .

Even then, nothing is guaranteed. Still, I am not totally discouraged. If this is something I am serious about, I need to put my back into it. If I do that, I can probably get into a good grad school. If not, I'll do something else.

Liz Was Here, cont'd

2006-07-09T15:11:00.002-04:00

From the Washington Monument towards the WWII and Lincoln Memorials

At a Thai Restaurant

In front of the White House

Liz Was Here

2006-07-05T20:17:00.002-04:00

Jefferson Memorial

In front of the White House

Washington Monument

At the "Iron Gate" ... Good food and affordable champagne ... The atmosphere was the best

In front of the World War II Memorial.

Cenetarians

2006-06-30T12:16:00.002-04:00

An interesting article on factors contributing to living past age 100 is here.

The central claim is that children born to mothers age 25 and younger are almost twice as likely to live to age 100 than children born to older mothers.

Some other factors include: "growing up in the Western part of the U.S., spending part of one's childhood on a farm, and being born first."

Check (Mountain Time Zone), Check (I never actually lived on our Ranch, but certainly spent a portion of my childhood on a ranch), and Check ... Only if me mum and pop would have met earlier!

Kansas City

2006-06-27T09:42:00.001-04:00

All day Tuesday and most of Wednesday, I went to meetings with the Social Security Advisory Board and regional officials from the Kansas City Regional Office of the Social Security Administration. In addition to meetings, we were fortunate enough to tour a massive cave turned storage facility. This cave, carved from limestone, houses documents for dozens of organizations and is home to 1.4 million boxes of disability files under SSA.

Tuesday night we ate at Lidia's, a nice Italian restuarant in downtown Kansas City, MO. The decor was better than the food, in my humble opinion. Click on the link to see an impressive shot of the chandelier and dining area. To be fair, I got a Pasta Tria di giorno dish, which offered three all-you-can-eat portions of the "pastas of the day". With mass production comes a decrease in quality. My coworkers all enjoyed their meals.

The hotel we stayed at was much nicer than my apartment. It had two tv's - both were much younger than my 1972 nineteen inch model with no audio/video hookups back in the apartment. It's best feature, for me anyways, was the queen size bed. Also, it offered a fully furnished kitchen, bathroom, and an open bar (dude) from 5-7 everynight. And by open bar I mean OPEN BAR. They had a full bar, including Boulevard taps, to wash down the complementary chicken wings they were serving. It was all I could do not to slam 8 mix drinks and eat 3 plates of chicken wings. But, I am nothing if not a professional. So, I had my one whiskey-sour tall, grinned, and beared it. I left a good impression on the board as a responsible young man. Growing up is hard sometimes. What a waste. (Click on the "board" link, add Orileus to the second board member's first name, and then tell me I was a good boy for not making any comments during the trip, despite my upbringing. I'll have to delete this section of the post soon, lest the wrong people lay eyes on it.)

Wednesday night we had more meetings and then flew back to D.C. We got in around six. Then, a coworker of mine (Joel) and I went to a DC United v. Chicago Fire game at RFK Stadium. It was pretty intense. United won 1-0. I have picutres of that, too if I ever get around to posting those.

Liz's Visit

2006-06-27T09:29:00.001-04:00

Liz arrived on Thursday, June 15th and left Monday, June 19th. She was not here nearly long enough, but work, money, and other annoyances limit our available time to trampse around the country.

While she was here, the most exciting thing we did was ... eating. We ate at a wide variety of restaurants including Greek, Mediterranean (basically Greek), Japanese, and Thai. We also did a little shopping, watched the Italy v. USA game at a bar (make-up for shopping), toured the Capitol, went to Eastern Market, caught some rays, went to Georgetown, road the Metro a bunch, and just kicked it.

While I was at work, she went to the Natural History Museum and the Monuments.

Monday evening, she left for Sioux Falls via Minneapolis; I left for Kansas City. Both of our flights were delayed due to a thunderstorm, but they made the mistake of boarding hers and then waiting on the tarmack for an extended period of time. I just had to wait in the airport for four hours.

Oooookay Kipp

2006-06-27T09:10:00.001-04:00

Kipp Stahl is in town for a couple of days with his lovely mother, Kim. He got in Friday and we spent the next couple of days going to the National Pork Barbeque Championships on Penn Avenue, walking through the National Zoo, and going to the Natural History Museum amongst other things. I did not, unfortunately, get to show Kipp too much of the downtown life as Friday night was uncharacteristically lame and Saturday we were too worn out to do anything other than play pool and drink beer in the comforts of the penthouse.

Sunday, Kim was kind enough to buy Kipp and me dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We were accompanied by Beth and Terry, two of Kim's coworkers at the BOP in Pierre and Redfield, respectedly. The food and cheesecake were delicious. I had a jambalya pasta and a caramel cheesecake.

I brought my cheesecake home so that my roommate, Jacob, could have some. He had never tasted cheesecake before in his life. If Jacob is at all representative of the Oregonese population, they are a breed of their own.

Back when it rained

2006-06-16T10:42:00.002-04:00

Dad, Jeff, Me, barely visible behind me in the lime-green is Jack, Todd, Will, Grandpa Clarence.

Off camera left is Q-bird.

(2002 or 2003)

Liz is coming tommorow ...

2006-06-14T20:45:00.000-04:00

until Monday afternoon - in fact, we fly out at the same time.

Playing host is always fun, especially with such a lovely lady.

Work and Food

2006-06-14T20:10:00.002-04:00

Work:
Work has been pretty great thus far. In the office, I am doing things very similar to last summer: data entry and data analysis. Outside of the office, I have attended a House Government Reform Committee, a forum at the Center for American Progress, and a forum at the Urban Institute. My coworkers are all very nice people, which can never be taken for granted.

Monday, I will be flying to Kansas City, MO, for a series of hearings with Region VII officials. I am told we will enter a huge underground cave housing tons of Social Security files. I wish I would have known about this BatCave at the Government Reform hearing, as the topic of discussion was information security (the hearing was brought about by the theft of the identities of 26 million military personnel - including 80% of all active soldiers - from a VA employee's home in Montgomery County, Maryland).

Food:
If I can remember, I will start bringing my camera along when I go out to eat and taking pictures of my meals and restaurant settings.

The restaurant food has been pretty good, but I am yet to make it to any restaurants that are truly unique. Washington is known for its Asian and African restaurants, most of all Ethiopian. Food (and everything else here) is more expensive than any place I have ever been, even in grocery scores. Alcohol, when I rarely sample it, is even more expensive.

Interesting Statistic

2006-06-08T15:26:00.001-04:00

Loss of Natural Teeth by State: Click here.

Link via Marginal Revolution

One reason to take an excessive amount of pictures with a digital camera:

2006-06-03T15:41:00.001-04:00

Venice, Italy

Once in a while, you get one of these.

My First Taste of D.C.

2006-05-26T17:01:00.001-04:00

Thursday night, we visited various monuments and memorials.
Lincoln Monument

On the left, Washington Monument; on the right, Jefferson Monument.
The Washington Monument through the fountains of the WWII Memorial.
A fountain in DuPont Circle.

The Jefferson Monument. The two observers are my roommates Jacob (left) and James.

Arrival in D.C.

2006-05-25T17:11:00.001-04:00

I arrived at Ronald Reagan National Airport yesterday around 1:45 pm EST. I met my 3 roommates: Jacob Westegaard (University of Tampa, FL); James Roberts (University of Tennessee); and Ashely Eikelberg (University of Tampa, FL). Yes, Ashely is a male. They are all generally good guys. It should be a good summer in that respect.

I am sharing one bedroom with Jacob, while Ashely and James share another. We each have a twin size bed.

Today, I went to the office I will be working at and met my new coworkers. Then, after much controversy, I travelled to Baltimore for a background check. The controversy arose when Carlos, the shuttle driver, asked for my government ID, which is standard procedure to get on the shuttle van. However, I was going to Baltimore to get my Government ID. So, a mad dash was made by our secretary to bring papers detailing my employment with the SSAB.

When I got to Baltimore, I did the fingerprint thing and then filled out a mountain of paperwork. Hopefully, I'll be able to start getting paid for my work on Thursday.

In half an hour, James, Jacob, and I will be walking to a part of Old Town Alexandria for dinner. I am especially looking forward to sampling many of the fine dining establishments.

So far, I have finished two books in the past two days:

The Invisible Heart by Russell Roberts

and

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

You can click on either of the titles to read editorials on both books via Amazon.com. You will probably have to scroll down in order to read them.

I thoroughly enjoyed both books, but obviously for different reasons. Russ Roberts's book uses a modern Socratic Method to outline the logic behind unfettered capitalism.

Khaled Hosseini's book is - and I'm stealing this from other reviews - a story of betrayal, hardship, and redemption. It begins in 1960s Afghanistan and ends in present day America.

Internship with SSAB

2006-05-01T17:02:00.001-04:00

Today I accepted an offer for internship at the Social Security Advisory Board. A link to their website is here.

I am told that my duties will entail researching academic journal articles focusing on the actuarial projections of Social Security. I will be gathering and analyzing data with which to estimate the historical accuracy of actuarial forecasts of Social Security finances. Also, I will be able to attend several hearings and meetings on "The Hill". The office is four blocks northwest of the Capitol building.

At an Econ banquet I attended on Sunday, I was discussing the amount of crime - particularly murders - in the greater D.C. area. Here is a link dealing with states ranked by homicide and nonnegligent manslaughter. Then, I overheard a friend discussing her upcoming summer in working for the UN in Sudan. Shortly after, I decided that D.C. sounded pretty safe and friendly.

I fly out of Sioux Falls, SD at 8 am on May 24th. I am returning August 12th.

Next Stop, Washington D.C.

2006-04-10T16:38:00.001-04:00

I was recently informed that I am one of the 10 recipients of the Governor's Scholarship to the Washington Center.

I thought this part of the email was funny: "Since this project is funded by the Governor’s Office, USD nor I will be releasing this information publicly until Governor Rounds announces the decision. You may tell family and friends; however, we do encourage discretion. Please do not contact the press prior to the Governor’s announcement."

"Sorry, Mr Rather, I guess I can't tell you what I thought I could tell you. You'll just have to listen to KCCR at noon and five all next week."

The scholarship I received is a substantial stipend to help cover the expenses of the program and housing.

So, Jake's Adventures will resume, complete with pictures and blog-posts of our nation's capitol.

I leave for D.C. on the 26th of May and return some time in Early August - a total of roughly ten weeks.

Last Night in Maastricht

2005-12-13T07:23:00.001-05:00

We, as always, do not know what we are going to do with travel to Amsterdam. We'll decide at the last minute. We arrive in Minneapolis around 4 and then Sioux Falls at 759.

This has been 4 of the most exciting and interesting months of my life. I have learned and seen a ton and have no regrets. I'm just glad I have pictures and a travel journal to supplement my memory - because I'm pretty sure I've set it up for failure in some cases!

Amsterdam

2005-12-13T07:08:00.001-05:00

Thursday afternoon, Justin, Jim (Chicago), Grace (Chicago), Albert(Missouri), Jen (Missouri), and I left for Amsterdam. There was a wreck ahead of us (train derailment) and it took over four and a half hours to complete what is normally a two and a half hour journey. Luckily, we had cards and hence Spades to pass the time. We met Adam (Poland), Chris (STL), and Pat at our hostel.

Thursday night we went into a couple different bar districts and did some bar hopping. We ate at a cheap Italian restaurant. We frequented a number of 'unique' establishments that night. Beers were pretty expensive in the Dutch capitol: 4 euro for a half liter of Heinekin. In Maastricht, it is 3 at most.

Friday we did all of the tourist stuff: Reijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, walked around the Red Light District (again), Erotic Museum, Dam Square ... that night we ate at an Irish pub and watched the World Cup drawing. The United States got a pretty tough draw: Italy, Czech Republic, and Ghana. The Czechs are ranked 3rd in the world and the Italians are top 10.

Later on, about half of the people were sick (and broke) and ended up going back to the hostel. 5 of us went back to the district for some late night fun.

Sunday was kind of a zoo as well. We checked out at 10 and walked to the Anne Frank House - which had a two block line outside. Then, we jumped on a train to Schipol airport so that J-Dubra and I could change our plane tickets ... we waited in line an hour and a half before giving up. Then, we went to Utrecht to see a castle that Pat's Grandmother's family has a claim to, but there was a special event going on and it was too foggy to see even from a kilometer away. And of course, the wreck from Thursday wasn't cleared up yet. We ended up having to take a bus from Denborsch to Eindhoven. From Utrecht, which is normally two hours, it took a solid 3 and a half. Needless to say, not having to deal with public transit will be a definite bonus upon my return to the states.

Munchen

2005-12-05T07:48:00.002-05:00

The Lion is the symbol of Munich ... painted Lions were everywhere

We left for Munich on Friday morning at 9 and arrived around 18:00 that evening. The train from Cologne to Munich was completely full, so we had to stand/lean against a wall for the duration of the five hour ride. This was the first time we've been burned not reserving a seat (at a cost of 8 euro per).

We went on a walking tour of Munich Saturday morning. It was raining/sleeting/snowing and cold... precipitation does not mix well with digital cameras.

The tour started at the Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Marienplatz ... which is the most famous glockenspiel in the world. I know it may seem like a difficult title to live up to, but the world's most famous glockenspiel was actually pretty lame. It sounded more like a drunk German clanging bells than any sort of written melody. To add to the excitement, little wooden figures spun around representing the end of the plague and a German jousting victory. Still, the glockenspiel itself and the buildings attached to it were impressive.

Marienplatz

The Glockenspiel

Then, we went to the Viktuelenmart ... a famous market ... briefly saw the Royal Residence and the National Theater ...

This is the home church of Pope Benedict XVI (formerly Carl Ratzinger) ...

and finally we stopped by the Hofbrahaus ...

It was packed. We walked through, got some brief history about how Adolf held some meetings in the conference room upstairs in the 1920s, and then left the group for Dachau (seperate post).

Saturday night we went out for some traditional German food and drink at the Augustiner Brewhouse. From the local Muncheners we talked to, Augustiner Pilsner and Augustiner Wheat beer are the best beers in Munich. Other than the one liter steins of beer, the atmosphere was the most impressive. As opposed to the Hofbrahaus's German band, the noise in the Augustiner Brewhouse was almost entirely that of its patrons. The food was pretty good as well.

Justin, Pat, Manda from Canada, Daniel from Australia, and yours truly at the Augustiner.

Sunday morning something really strange happened. As we were getting ready to leave, Pat recognized someone staying in our room: Kevin Gruenwald. What are the chances that three guys from the greater Pierre area would stay not only in the same hostel as a different Pierre traveler, but also in the same room? Justin and I didn't know Kevin personally before the trip ... Pat had known him from wrestling. A town of 15,000 people several thousand miles away from Munich and we run into each other ... weird.

After we left the hostel we decided that it wouldn't be a trip to Munich without a liter at the Hofrbrahaus. Putting the hair of the dog to use, the three of us enjoyed a beer around 11 before our 12 o'clock train.

Enjoying a Sunday morning liter at the Hofbrahaus

The trip home was too eventful for our liking ... if you want a slightly different version, go read Pat's entry. Otherwise, it is sufficient to say that Pat had stopped to get beers and a brat and we told him we'd meet him on the train ... Justin and I got separated from Pat because we got on a train going to Cologne - our final destination - instead of a train to Manheim - our midpoint between Cologne (so we got on the wrong train). Unfortunately for Pat, I had all three rail passes in my bag. He bought a train ticket to Cologne, got it refunded minus the tax, and everything was hunky-dory.

For our final weekend we are heading to Amsterdam ... what better place is there to end a Eurotrip than the international city of sex and drugs?

Dachau

2005-12-04T09:04:00.001-05:00

Dachau was the first and is one the most famous Nazi concentration camps. Over 200,000 people resided in Dachau over the course of its 12 years in operation with over 30,000 executions. This number does not include the several thousands of people that died from the conditions. It was cold, wet and dreary ... hard to believe, huh? Walking through the crematoriums and the never-used gas chambers (for some unknown reason) was a strange experience. Behind the crematorium stand memorials, mass ashen graves, and former execution rows. A little under two hours was more than enough for us.

Initial crematorium with our rock on the rail.

The restored Dachau 'headquarters'. Inside you will find exhibits, a museum, and a theater that shows an extremely graphic film on the horrors of Dachau.

These the cremators are in the the 'new' crematorium. The original crematorium could not keep up with Dachau's death rate. This crematorium is a much larger version of the first.

sssNNNNOOOOwww!!

2005-11-27T12:58:00.001-05:00

Our weekend travels were spoiled by Mother Nature and the Dutch. It seems that the Dutch are like our Southerners: put an inch and a half of snow on the highway and everyone freaks out. Dow Jones newswire story here. USA Today story here.

We left for Den Haag at 7:45am Friday morning. By the time 11:30 rolled around, we were 1/3 of the way there (normally a 3 hour drive). We came to a complete halt on the highway several times and made very little progress. So, we stopped in the Dutch village of Den Bosch.

Of course, it had a beautiful cathedral. Other than that it was very similar to Maastricht. The same stores, familiar restaurants, and similar citywide layout. We ended up drinking and eating the 20 euro allowance given to us by our directors whilst aimlessly wandering around. Despite the nasty weather, it was a pleasant day.

Saturday was more of the same. We woke up at seven, checked the weather, and came to the conclusion that 20 mph winds, blowing snow, and below freezing temps did not sound like a day worthy of Bruge foot travel. We ended up going back to bed, waking up at eleven, and taking the train to Liege for beers and lunch. My favorite beer in Liege was Duvel.

After returning to Maastricht, Justin and Karli went shopping while Patrick and I went to the market square. From now until well after we leave, the square will be filled with a winter wonderland. Beer, waffel, kebap, and brat stands are sprinkled amongst amusement rides, a ferris wheel, some live animals, and an ice-skating rink. I'll put some pictures up at some point. Saturday night was Karli's last in Europe ... I hope she had fun.

As for the snow, its still here. Although, it sounds like a big snow storm is getting ready to hit the homefront, so my situation probably mires compared to the accumulation back home.

Go Vikes!

Athens

2005-11-23T06:56:00.001-05:00

We arrived in Athens late Friday night ... Easily the strangest thing about being in Greece was the greek alphabet. At least in other nether regions of Europe that we have visited it was possible to stumble through translations ... Not so in Greece. We could determine a few letters, but that was pretty much the extent of our Greek abilities.

Saturday, we did a bunch of the touristy stuff. First, we stopped at the Areopagus - an artificially flat topped expanse of rock that lies to the southwest of the Acropolis.

Atop the Areopagus ... Athens in the background ...

Next, we entered the Acropolis.

The Theater of Dionysus was immediately to our right.

Next, the Temple of Athena Niki

The Parthenon

And the Parthenon again

We then toured the Acropolis museum ...

The Erechtheion temple on the North side of the Acropolis

7 of the 9 of us

After the Acropolis we walked over to the Hill of the Nymphs

On the Hill of the Nymphs was Socrates Jail

Then, we walked down to the ruins of Zeus's Temple

And the site of the first organized Olympics in 1896

Finally, we walked through the Ancient Agora...

Looking over the Ancient Agora at the Acropolis

At this point, my batteries died. Before we left, we toured the National Archaeological Museum. It housed hundreds of full and partial ancient greek sculptures. Very interesting... Though, to be very honest, we are kind of museumed out at this point. They all start to blur together after the first hour...

My general view of Athens was that it was much more beautiful from the Acropolis than it was at street level. The streets were usually filthy and most of the buildings were in poor shape. A pleasant surprise came on Sunday when we stumbled into a giant flea market at the northern base of the Acropolis. Of the markets we've been to (Praha, Amsterdam, Maastricht) it was easily the most interesting and varied.

We left Athens at 9 pm. Sunday night was spent in the Berlin Schoenfeld Airport. We got back to our dorms in Maastricht around 10 am.

Tommorow, five of us are preparing the Thanksgiving dinner for the 40 or so of us. The remainder of the weekend will be spent in Den Haag, Netherlands and Bruge, Belgium with Karli Larsen as our travel guest. On Friday in Den Haag, we are going to attend an International War Tribunal. Hopefully, we'll see some Serbian bastards get tried. Friday night, we are heading to Bruge ... the "Venice of the North"... we'll return Saturday night. Karli leaves Sunday morning ...

Berlin

2005-11-22T09:59:00.001-05:00

We arrived in the formerly divided capitol of Deutschland around 10 am on Wednesday morning. After we found our hostel and checked in, we were too late for the free walking tour given at 1 pm. So ... off to the bars for grossa biers and currywursts...

Thursday, we did the walking tour of Berlin. We saw, from near and/or far, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Hitler's Bunker, Potsdamer Platz, The Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Former SS Headquarters, and the Bebelplatz.

Descriptions of a couple of these things ...

The Reichstag is both the name of the building and the parliamentary body that met there from 1892 until 1933. Now, the German parliament still meets there, but is called the Bundestag. It is the sight of the 'famous' Reichstag fire ... to make a long story short, Adolf Hitler hired an unemployed Dutch Communist to start a fire in the Reichstag on February 27, 1933. Then, he showed up and started shouting, "The Communists are revolting! They are burning the parliament!" He then convinced President Hindenburg to sign over emergency powers for 30 days. In retrospect, that was probably a poor decision.

The Wall ... not much remains today...

An easy way to tell whether or not a building is new in Berlin is to check for bullet-holes. Yep, this one isn't new.

The Brandenburg Gate ... This used to be a border of East and West Berlin. In the square where I was standing to take this picture, numerous booby traps and snipers lurked in hopes to keep people on the 'right' side of the fence. When Napoleon arrived in 1806, he took the chariot back with him to France. In the mid-1800s, the chariot was returned to Berlin. Now, the charioteer is facing slightly to the left ... and is staring directly at the French embassy only 100 yards away.

My feet, Jim Heywood's foot, and below ... Hitler's bunker. Below our feet, on April 30th, 1945, Hitler and his recently wedded bride committed suicide. Afterwards, his body was burned beyond recognition - except for dental records - so that his body could not be carried through the street and 'defamed'.

Checkpoint Charlie... It was at this spot in 1961 that WWIII almost started. An American diplomat was not allowed to enter East Berlin despite treaties permiting the free travel of diplomats. Later that day, both sides lined up tanks facing each other on the street. Kennedy and Khruschev contacted each other, and the situation de-escalated.

This is supposedly the largest Lutheran Church in the world. It was built by a Germanic ruler in the hopes of creating a semi-equivalent to Vatican City for Lutherans. It was beautiful, but it was no Vatican.

Bebelplats ... the site of the first Nazi book burnings ...

The source of the fuel for the Nazi book burnings ... Albert Einstein was the chair of Physics Department at Humboldt until he left for the United States in 1932 ...

Praha

2005-11-15T06:43:00.001-05:00

Pat, Justin, Grace Hastings, and I left for Praha, The Czech Republic, via Amsterdam on Thursday afternoon. We took a night train from Frankfurt and arrived in Praha a little after 8 am.

That morning, we took a four-hour walking tour of the city. It was very interesting, if not a little too long. One thing I have noticed about walking tours: they are all very nationalistic. Basically, the tour guide molds history to fit their points of view and to create the most interesting presentation... occasionally at the expense of fact. The city had a wonderful feel to it, even though it was littered with eastern European architecture.

Three of the four remaining friends who were meeting us in Prague were at our hostel when we got back from the tour. They took a bus from Liege, Belgium the previous night. Our fourth friend forgot his passport and made it all the way to the Czech border before getting yanked and then dropped off at the nearest train station. Bummer.

Friday night, the wine flowed like ... absinthe.

The next day we went to a massive outdoor-market-complex north of the city. It was filled with pretty much any designer name you can imagine ... and they were all real ... Still, it didn't stop us from picking up some ridiculously cheap clothing and souvenirs. This was the eastern Europe we expected to see. Run-down buildings, graffiti everywhere, 3 guys hanging out in a car with 3 flat tires and a broken window ...

Sunday morning we got on a train at 7am and got back to our rooms a little after 9pm.

Wednesday we leave for Berlin for two nights, then Athens for three nights. We get back early Monday morning.

Praha Pictures

2005-11-14T12:37:00.001-05:00

Overlooking the Vltava River towards Praha Castle

Gate to Prague Castle

Prague

Making a wish on the Charles Bridge.

The Charles Bridge over the Vltava River.

The 'real' Budweiser. Made since the Middle Ages. The Budweiser that you and I know is simply called 'Bud' over here.

Yes, that is 3000 units of currency I have in my mouth/hand.

Me, Grace Hastings (Chicago), Dubber, and Rick

Other Swiss Pics

2005-11-09T17:14:00.001-05:00

The Three of us on the boardwalk in Luzern

Snake, Justin, Irene, Pat, and Irene's Dad

Hmmm ... a waterfall

Green mountain valley

Crystal formations inside of an Alp mountain

View from moving car looking across Irene's town toward her house.

From Irene's village looking out

From Irene's house looking out

Luzern, Switzerland Pics ... and Koln too

2005-11-08T09:12:00.001-05:00

The first thing you see upon setting foot outside of the Koln trainstation... This picture does not do it justice.

Luzern, Switzerland formed around a large mountain lake. We walked along the boardwalk bordering about 1/3 of the lake.

Lake Part Deux

The north bank of the city

A proud Lakota warrior infront of a teepee ... in SWITZERLAND?
What the hell?

Switzerland (and Koln)

2005-11-07T19:41:00.001-05:00

Thursday afternoon the three wayfarers left for Bern, Switzerland by way of Koln (Cologne), Germany, amongst other stops. We spent an hour or so in Koln - just long enough to tour the massive DOM Cathedral. It blew away Notre Dame in Paris. Somehow, the church in Koln avoided the bombings of WW2. The rest of the city fared significantly worse.

We stayed with a Swiss girl named Irene in Bern. She lived in the same building we did until about a week ago when she moved back to Switzerland. Irene (pronounced more like Airin - with a rolling 'r') is originally from a small Swiss village near Meiringen.

Friday, while Irene was at work/class, we went to Luzern. Luzern is a typical Swiss mountain town: located amongst towering mountains on a large, clear lake. We spent our time doing what we do best. We bought some bread, two bottles of booze, and meat for a picnic. The Swiss didn't seem nearly as receptive to picnicing in public as some other peoples have been. Then, we wandered aimlessly and went eventually went back to Bern.

Saturday, Irene took us by train to Interlaken and by car to her village. It was about as picturesque as you can imagine. Her village is home to about 1000 people. The main source of employment - as near as we could tell - is the massive powerplant located on the eastern edge of town. Irene's Dad is one such employee and was kind enough to take us on a tour of the powerplant, located some 2.5 km inside of a mountain. At one point, he stopped and said, "Lake such and such is 60 meters above us." The power is generated hydroelectrically taking water from one lake, running it through turbines and then putting the water back into a lower lake. This part of the tour wasn't quite as interesting to us as it obviously wasn't our first tour of a hydroelectric power plant.

Saturday night we had a Swiss feast of sorts. We made cheese, then chocolate fondue. We dipped bread in the cheese and kiwi and bananas in the chocolate. It was delicious and extremely filling.

The train and car rides through the mountains were some of the best parts of the trip. Unfortunately, it was rainy/cloudy and the tops of the mountains were blocked from sight. Irene was pretty disapointed we didn't get to see her Alps in full form. None the less, we were more than impressed. Switzerland is the most naturaly beautiful country I have been in thusfar.

Luxembourg ... then Halloween

2005-11-01T18:06:00.001-05:00

Leaves changing in Luxembourg

Still changing

Sumowrestler Daniel from Monteray, Mexico

Altarboy, Priest, and the Big Guy himself. You may recognize the son of our lord as the one and only Jim Heywood - my Sam of sorts on the walk to Vaals. He won 100 euro at a bar's costume contest last night.

Chick from Casablanca, Mitchell Hedberg, and Amelia Earhart

UK Policeman Bobby and yours truly

Dutch Striker Rude Van Nistelroy (Kevin) from the Northland

And of course, Halloween just isn't the same without two drunk Texan rugbee players.

Paris Pictures

2005-11-01T17:04:00.001-05:00

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris - Reims's Cathedral was much more impressive.

The Arc d'Triumphe

Paris from the Tower

Jimbo's Final Resting Place

During Eiffel light-show

The Louvre Courtyard

On the Eiffel Tower

Greek Statue Model in training

Luxembourg ... Again

2005-10-31T12:43:00.001-05:00

Luxembourg was pretty much the same this time as it was last - the only noteworthy difference being the day leading up to my visit.

For one reason or another, the three of us all forgot about daylight savings time. I know, WOW, but we have more important things to worry about than time changes. I guess.

Anyways, we arrived at the station at 6 AM instead of 7 and thus had to wait an extra hour for hour 755 departure. Lame.

Otherwise, the weather has been absolutely beautiful and Sunday was no exception. Low-70s, clear skies, and no wind. From what the locals tell us, this is definitely some bizarre European weather.

Paris

2005-10-31T11:05:00.001-05:00

This weekend, Patrick, Justin, and I headed to the French capitol for a three night stay. We arrived around 6:30 Thursday evening, but failed to navigate through the underground system to the stop nearest our hotel until around 8:30. After we got out of the train station, we were having some serious second thoughts about our hotel location. All the windows in the neighborhood around the station were basically barred shut and when we went into a pharmacy to ask directions, the lady had a "don't rob me" look in her eyes.

Friday, we spent the majority of the day at the Louvre. We wandered throughout the massive art and history museum for three hours - and had just barely scratched the surface. So, we hurried through a part of the one wing we hadn't covered and left around 4:30 ... about 6.5 hours all told. That night, we grabbed some picnic stuff at a grocery store, three bottles of wine, and enjoyed the evening in the park beside the Eiffel Tower. At dark, during the first ten minutes of every hour the tower appears to have a seizure of sorts as thousands of lights begin flashing.

Saturday, we did the majority of our site seeing. First, we went back to Eiffel Tower to do the trip to the top. It took about three hours to get on an elevator to the second level, then an elevator to the third, then back to the second, and back to ground level. The view was obviously very cool, though I think I prefer the view from the top of Saint Peter's basilica. IMHO, Rome was much more beautiful.

After the Tower, we left on our second holy pilgrimage of the European Vacation: PÃƒÂ¨re Lachaise cemetery. We searched for approximately 20 minutes for the grave in a crowded (with dead people) cemetery that is the permanent residence of notables such as Frederic Chopin and Oscar Wilde. But we were seeking neither. Finally we found it: Jim Morrison 1943-1971. The gravesite was pretty lame, so we took a couple pictures and left.

Then, we went to the Concorde and on the Arc d'Triumphe. Initially commissioned by Napoleon in 1803 to commemorate his imperial victories, it wasn't finished until the 1830s. It is the largest roundabout in the world and the converging points of twelve avenues. It was enormous and intricately decorated.

That night, we went back to the Eiffel, enjoyed food and wine, and went back to the hotel. Paris - check.

Europa Pt 1 Pics

2005-10-25T09:54:00.001-04:00

Bridge over Luxembourg gorge... I said it looked like Rivendell, didn't I?

Will overlooking the gorge that separates the town of Gare and Luxembourg City

Church of some sort in Aachen

Fountain infront of Aachen Church

Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Peg and the Mortenson Family do Europa Part 3

2005-10-23T06:47:00.001-04:00

Tuesday morning we left for the city of sex and drugs: Amsterdam. We took a train from Reims to Paris and from Paris we caught a high-speed Thalys train to Amsterdam. I can't say I recommend the high-speed train. Even two hours later we all (with the exception of Will due to his mental toughness) were a little woozey. Going 100+ mph on and off for four hours kind of messed with our spacial orientation.

We arrived in Amsterdam a little after five, ate dinner, and then watched the local club Ajax play (on TV). The bars around our hotel were filled with soccer hooligans right up until game time (for a detailed description of Hooliganism, click here). Apparently, those bars are the closest bars to the soccer stadium that are allowed to be open near gametime.

We visited Rembrandt's House first thing Wednesday morning. One of the things that struck us as odd was the short doorways and bed chambers. The Dutch have really done some growing up in the past 300 years. While the doorways at his house were not much above 5'8", the average height for males in Holland is between 6' and 6'1". The average height for females is around 5'8".

The history of the house was very interesting. Rembrandt was a successful painter when he contracted ownership of the house. It was lavishly decorated with other artists' works, weapons, animal mounts, and other knicknacks from around the world. They are all in the same place in his house (pretty much) as they were when he lived there. How was this accomplished? Well, Rembrandt managed his finances rather poorly and after missing several payments the Dutch Minister of Insolvency took a stroll through the house, recorded every item of value in the house, and then claimed them all for the owner of the house. So, a record existed by which to reconstruct it in Rembrandt's fashion. The paintings and etchings throughout the house were amazing.

Then, we visited the Van Gogh museum. He was a crazy dude. More or less a manic depressant his entire life, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest when he was 37 and died two days later. He was only an artist during his last 10 years of life and still amassed an emense body of work. The museum included dozens of original Van Gogh pieces in addition to artists directly and indirectly influenced by his work.

The next stop was the Rijksmuseum. The museum was under some construction when we visited, but all of the 'important' pieces were on display: most notably, Rembrandt's 'Night Watch'. During the German occupation of Holland in WW2, Night Watch and other various valuable pieces were hidden in the caves of Maastricht until the unwelcomed visitors decided to go home.

This was our groups favorite museum. The paintings were wonderfully done and the manual-audioguide helped to explain what was actually being done by the artists. One of the subtleties my Dad happened to noticed was a bull breeding a cow in the background of one painting. Sharp eyes.

Afterwards, we walked through the streets of Amsterdam and eventually found our way into the Red Light District. Mom gave Will and I 50 euro each and said, "Have fun!" And damn, Will and I have never gotten soooo much use out of 50 bucks before in our entire lives!

Actually, we all walked down the District for a while, did some serious window shopping, and decided against any purchases at that time. Girls were standing in the windows at street level in lingerie waiting for business. Porn shops and smoke shops were sprinkled between the brothels as well. Kinda like downtown Pierre.

We enjoyed another wonderful dinner that evening and then came back to Maastricht the next morning. Thursday night we had another amazing meal at an Italian restaurant called Gio's.

We spent our last day in Holland together shopping, eating, and once again happily aimlessly wandering. That night, Pat and Justin joined us for dinner at a seafood grill called the Sagitarius. Another horrible meal of wonderful company and delicious food. It was definitely a wonderful way for all of them to end their trip. They left at 7 am Saturday morning for Amsterdam, Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, and eventually Pierre.

Peg and the Mortenson Family do Europa Part 2

2005-10-23T06:30:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning we left for Reims, France via Vitri, France. Trains do not often travel west on Sundays in France so we had to stay in the rather remote French town due to a 3 hour layover. It was actually a little refreshing to see a non-touristy area of France. We raised some locals' eyebrows walking the streets with our suitcases and backpacks. On the walk from the trainstation into the business district, we walked by a memorial of the French struggle for independence during WW2. The statue was crowned with the symbol of French courage: the chicken. I'm not joking. It was actually a chicken... We ate at a cafe on the beautiful city square. The square overlooked a massive 16th century Cathedral and several local businesses.

We arrived in Reims that afternoon and eventually toured the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was massive in size and intricately decorated on the outside. The inside was much more dark and rather bland. A particularly interesting feature of the church, and something I think is quite common at Notre Dame churches across France, was a memorial to Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc).

That night we ate a delicious dinner at the restaurant Flo. I insisted after seeing the name. Flo is a fancy French restaurant complete with elegant furnishings, staff dressed in fancy black suits, and the strangest assortment of 80s pop music I have ever heard. Don't get me wrong, I am a pretty big fan of Walk like an Egyptian, but I was expecting something more along the lines of Bach or other classical works to match such a setting. Weird.

On Monday we toured the G.H. Mumms Winery (Champagne House). The tour touched again on the German occupation of WW2. During the occupation, the Mumms house, in addition to other wineries in the area, blocked off caverns full of champagne to keep the Germans out. After the tour came the best part of any alcoholic beverage production tour: the tasting. We had three glasses of champagne each. They were all delicious. Three glasses of champagne in fifteen minutes at 3 in the afternoon pretty much guarantees a great day.

Peg and The Mortenson Family do Europa

2005-10-21T16:16:00.000-04:00

My extended family - including Peg Laurenz - just left me to return to their hotel before their 7 am flight back to the real world tommorow morning. Lucky for me, I can continue to flaunt actual responsibility for another 8 weeks.

We did a whirlwind tour of 5 different countries: Germany, France, Luxembourg, Holland, and Belgium.

They arrived last Wednesday afternoon and spent the next 3 nights in and around Maastricht. It was pretty cool to spend some time with them in such a unique setting. Plus, getting to eat and visit some of the restaurants that I had always wandered past and never been able to enjoy was definitely awesome.

Friday we went to Aachen, Germany for the day. We toured the Cathedral DOM and generally roamed the streets and did some light shopping.

Saturday we left for Luxembourg. We stopped in Liege, Belgium for a couple hours and enjoyed breakfast. Although we could order beers at 9am, our waiter told us it was "too early" for Belgian waffles. Weird.

Luxemboug - which has the highest PPP in the world - was beautiful. It reminded me of this place. We ate two delicious meals and checked out Luxembourg Palace and a large chunk of its shopping district. Also, quite by accident we visited a memorial of Luxembourg's struggle for independence during WW2. It turned out to be the first of many references made to the German occupation that we would encounter on our trip.

Daytrippin Continued

2005-10-10T16:00:00.000-04:00

DOM Cathedral

Charlemagne's Tomb and Shrine

Inside the DOM

Aachen

Today I travelled to the German city of Aachen. Aachen is near the Holland-German border and was just close enough for a daytrip.

My two fellow journeymen decided to rest up for tonight festivities so I braved the 70 degree weather, sunny skies, and German beer by my lonesome.

I visited the Cathedral DOM in the center of Aachen. 30 Holy Roman emperors were crowned here from 936 to 1521. Charlemagne lies buried in a Golden Shrine inside the cathedral. Not as beautiful as the Italian Cathedrals, but definitely has its own subtle sort of grandeur.

Then, I basically wandered aimlessly to various shops, stores, and restaurants. I eventually sat and drank some beer and ate a bratwurst next to a square with some live German music.

Now, onto D-Days celebration of the multi-national variety. Cheers.

Valkenburg

2005-10-10T06:14:00.000-04:00

3 rad dudes

Valkenburg Castle

Valkenburg

Yesterday Pat, Justin, Kristina from Kearney (sp?), Nebraska, and I went to Valkenburg, Holland. It was a 25 minute walk to the train station and a 20 minute train ride to the actual town.

We walked around the city for a couple of hours and took in the scenery and the people.

We went on a ski-lift of sorts to the top of a bluff overlooking the city. Then, we went to one of the dozens of restaurants we had seen and got some din-din.

My three companions all had Valkenburgers (not really named that, but still) and I had some spare ribs. Dutch food is generally pretty bland, but the ribs weren't bad - I wish I could say the same for the burgers.

Afterwards, we wondered for a while longer and headed back to Maastricht.

Soccer Tourney Results

2005-10-09T06:45:00.000-04:00

Will and the Governors won their first game over Rapid City Stevens in OT 2-1.

Then, they lost to Aberdeen Central's Screaming Eagles 2-1 in the semi-finals.

In the third place game, the Govs beat #1 ranked Spearfish 2-0. 2nd in 03, 1st in 04, and 3rd in 05 ... these guys are definitely awesome.

Foosball messed up my perception of soccer. I thought you had to kick the ball and then spin 'round and round. I can't do a back flip, much less several...simultaneously with two other guys... that look exactly like me.

Of course, Mitch Hedberg

One more ...

You know, people think I'm into sports just because I'm a man. I'm not into sports. I mean, I like Gatorade, but that's about as far as it goes. By the way, you don't have to be sweaty and holding a basketball to enjoy a Gatorade. You could just be a thirsty dude. Gatorade forgets about this demographic. I'm thirsty for absolutely no reason. Other than the fact that liquid has not touched my lips for some time. Can I have a Gatorade too, or does that lightning bolt mean "no?"

D-Days in Holland

2005-10-08T06:20:00.000-04:00

This weekend is Dakota Days back at the U in Vermon. D-Days is always a glorious weekend of drinking, stumbling, drinking, sleeping for 5 hours from 4am to 9am, and then starting all over again.

Well, on the walk back from the trainstation to our dorms, we stopped at a carnival in the center of Maastricht. Not only is it D-Days in Vermillion, but its D-Days here in Holland! Dutch Days are celebrated nationwide for the entire weekend.

So, tonight the streets of Maastricht will more than likely be filled with 3 drunken South Dakotans stumbling in traditional D-Days fashion and shouting, "Haaaaaaappy D-Days!" to any stranger or building we happen to come across. And they might just think we're abbreviating their nationalist celebration - but we won't be. Righteous.

Best of Luck Brohan!

2005-10-07T01:42:00.000-04:00

My brother Will is a senior at T.F. Riggs High School this year.

This weekend he is competing at the South Dakota Varsity Soccer Tournament in Brookings, SD.

His Governors are ranked #2 in the state with a 7 win and 2 loss record.

Their first game is today, Thursday, the 6th of October, against a yet-to-be-determined opponent (the lower seeds have to complete play-in games to enter the actual tournament).

The Govs won it all last year, defeating Rapid City Stevens 3-2 in the final minutes of the championship game on a PK by Kai Hanson.

Best of luck Willdo

Update #1: The Govs won their opening round match 2-1 in overtime over Rapid City Stevens. Today, they play Aberdeen in the semi-finals.

Today's HIV/SIV Presentation

2005-10-05T09:48:00.000-04:00

Today I gave a presentation in my Biological History Class based on Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs, and Steel. While the presentation was not that particularly interesting, my conclusion was taken from the late great Mitch Hedberg:

I've had the AIDS test four times. And that shit is scary, doesn't matter what you've been doing. So I don't get the regular AIDS test anymore, I get the roundabout AIDS test. I call up my friend Brian and say "Brian, do you know anyone that has AIDS?" "No." "Cool, cause you know me."

Roma Part 4

2005-10-01T12:44:00.000-04:00

On Friday, we went to Ostia Antiqua. Ostia used to be the main port of Rome due to its proximity and location at the mouth of the Tiber. It was abandoned after the Roman Empire spread and acquired better port cities. Eventually, the Tiber shifted its banks and covered the city in silt, partially preserving it for over a thousand years.

Today, the excavated ruins provide a much closer and cheaper alternative to those of Pompeii. Ostia is less than an hour from Rome. It was a 4 dollar round trip train ride from the Termini Station near our hostel.

Here is a link to "A virtual travel of Italy". It is very good. The opening page has a picture of the Trivi Fountain - a main attraction in Rome that I have forgotten to include in my pictures as of yet.

Found via Craig Newmark.

Number Joke - sort of ...

2005-10-01T12:31:00.000-04:00

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing.
He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"
His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

via HedgeFundGuy at Mahalanobis

Other Vatican Pics

2005-09-30T16:24:00.000-04:00

Murals on ceiling of Sistine

Murals Cont'd

The Final Judgement

A long, beautifully decorated cooridor in the Vatican Museum

Pope Pictures

2005-09-30T16:16:00.000-04:00

Also see fellow journeyman Pat's post and pictures on our Roma visit.

Roma - Part 3

2005-09-27T01:40:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was God's day for us: we got to see his right-hand-man here on planet Earth (depending on your views of Catholicism, of course), the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Square and basilica, and the Vatican Museum.

We found tickets on Tuesday to be a part of the Papal Audience on Wednesday. Gates into the seating area in St. Peter's square opened at 8 - we arrived at 7:45. When the gates did open, the mad rush for the entrances was somewhat astounding. At one point, a man ahead of the three of us, apparently after being shoved a number of times, turned to crowd and said, "Remember, we are all Christians here."

We got ourselves all the way up to the 7th row, front and center. Then, we waited two hours for the Pope-mobile. Benedict XVI appeared on his white holy-mobile waving to and blessing everyone and everything in sight. The crowd was going nuts. After doing a couple labs in his little truck, the Pope proceeded to bless all of the pilgrims in 6 different languages over the course of an hour. This was the first time it had occurred to any of us that we could actually be called "pilgrims".

Afterwards, we walked down to the Tiber River and soaked up the sun for an hour or two so that the lines at the Vatican Museum would subside a little bit.

The Vatican museum was filled with Pagan Art, Egyptian artifacts, Etruscan artifacts, Roman artifacts, and mainly Christian Art. The main attractions of the Vatican museum were the works of two artists turned Ninja Turtles: Raphael and Michelangelo. Raphael's works filled a number of different chambers preceding the Sistine Chapel. Inside the Sistine Chapel were the works of Michelangelo. The Final Judgement on the front wall, the several different murals that he painted on the ceiling, along with other artists' Christian paintings took us over a half an hour to absorb.

Then, we headed back to St. Peter's Square and went inside the basilica. The line took over an hour to get us inside. The Basilica is humongous. The murals and biblical representations ... All very beautiful. We paid 4 euro to climb to the top of the basilica - 551 steps - for another breathtaking view of Rome.

On the way home, we walked by the Spanish steps. They were - quite obviously - a bunch of steps. Then we ate at McDonalds. We needed protein. I had a Royale with Cheese.

From Pulp Fiction ...

Vincent Vega: [Y]ou know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
Jules Winnfield: What?
Vincent Vega: It's the little differences. I mean they got the same sh** over there that they got here, but it's just, just there it's a little different.
Jules Winnfield: Example.
Vincent Vega: Alright, well you can walk into a movie theater and buy a beer. And, I don't mean just like a paper cup, I'm talking about a glass of beer. And, in Paris, you can buy a beer in McDonald's. You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jules Winnfield: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
Vincent Vega: No, man, they got the metric system, they don't know what the fu** a Quarter Pounder is.
Jules Winnfield: What do they call it?
Vincent Vega: They call it a Royal with Cheese.
Jules Winnfield: Royal with Cheese.
Vincent Vega: That's right.
Jules Winnfield: What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent Vega: Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.
Jules Winnfield: Le Big Mac. What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent Vega: I don't know. I didn't go into Burger King.

Yeah, neither did we. So don't ask.

Most memorable Convo of the Italian Vacation

2005-09-23T02:37:00.000-04:00

Jake: "So what is this place up ahead?"

Justin: "It's the tome of the unknown solider."

Pat: "The tome huh, you sure its not 'tomb' of the unknown soldier?"

Justin: "PotAto, Potato, what's the differnce."

Jake: "You're right, Rome, Room, its all the same." (sarcasm)

J-Dub: "Agree to disagree."

Roma - Part 2 Pictures

2005-09-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

The Circus Maximus

The Pantheon

The Roman Forum

Inside the Colloseum

Ruins on the Palatine Hill

Venezia Pictures

2005-09-22T21:37:00.000-04:00

The Grand Canal

Chastity Belt ... Damn

Saint Mark's Basilica

The Three Wayfarers enjoying Venice post-2hour downpour

Roma - Part 1 Pictures

2005-09-22T21:31:00.000-04:00

The Italian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Colloseum from Italian Tomb of Unknown Soldier ...

Inside San Maria's Basilica

Inside San Maggiore's Basillica

Roma Part 2

2005-09-21T12:42:00.000-04:00

Monday we met with Dr. Darius Arya of the American Instute of Roman Culture. He suggested several areas to visit and recommended a restaurant for lunch: Cul de Sac.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around Rome taking in the churches, piazzas and fountains. Also, we visited the Pantheon.

Tuesday we went to the Circus Maximus - the old charioteering grounds. All that is left now is a dirt trail, on which we did a half lap. Then, we toured the Colloseum. It was magnificent. It seated 80000 in its hay-day. After much deteriation and looting - namely, by the Catholic church - the Colloseum was in decay until restoration projects brought it back to its current shape. (The Church took tons and tons of marble from the Colloseum and used it to build the collumns in St. Peter's Square).

Then, we were guided by an extremely knowledgable young American scholar living in Rome. We toured the Palatine Hill and sat and looked out over Rome and the Roman Forum. He provided more knowledge to us than we possibly could have digested.

Roma - Part 1

2005-09-19T20:25:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning at 7:30 we arrived in Roma from Venezia. We were a pretty tired bunch after getting only 2 hours of sleep. But, being young and supposedly full of energy, we decided to make a day of it. The first thing that we ventured into was an expansive but relatively plain looking basilica (at least from the outside) - San Maria's Basilica. This was the first of many times we were blown away in this city. The basilica was designed my Michelangelo and was breathtaking. The paintings were intricately detailed and the architecture - with massive marble columns and impressive arches - was pretty outstanding.

After the basilica, we headed down Nationale street toward an ominous something or another in the distance. We walked by several clothing, food, book, and lingerie stores on the way.

When we finally got to what we were walking at, we were blown away for the second time. This was the Italian version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After we saw when it was built, we were less impressed: 1870-1920. That is pretty young by Roman standards. Anyways, it was closed for about 50 years starting after WW2 and was only reopened about 5 years ago.

Then, we walked by the Colloseo and the Forum and headed back towards our hostel. On the way we walked by another basilica - San Maggiore's Basilica. This basillica was architecturally less impressive than Maria's, but definitely more impressively decorated.

Venezia

2005-09-17T18:55:00.000-04:00

The island city of Venice lived up to all of the descriptions we had previously received and then some. It was charming, beautiful, and romantic. The pictures I will add tommorow do not do the city justice.

Friday it began to thunderstorm as soon as we got into the city via ferry. We stood under an awning for 2 hours while it downpoured. It was a pretty crappy introduction to Venice. When it finally stopped, we basically went home and went to sleep ... We were beat after 'sleeping' in the airport the night before ...

Saturday was a different story. We awoke to bright sky's and warm temperatures. We spent the day wandering the back alleys of Venice and taking pictures of various beautiful buildings and gondolas that we saw along the way. But, with Venetian scenery comes Venetian prices and we were rather limited in our activites. We still managed to do a bunch of walking and ended up touring the Doge's Palace. We ended our night in Venice drinking a bottle of Chianti while people watching ...

We had to get up and leave our minicabin at 445 the next morning, caught a 30 euro 15 minute taxi ride to the bus station, then took a bus to the airport. We arrived in Rome at around 730 local time and immediately hit the streets ...

States of Emergency

2005-09-17T10:36:00.000-04:00

OK, I'm not going to do this very often at all, but I'm sitting in this internet cafe for 3 hours wasting time before we leave for the airport and a 13 hour wait before our flight ... So here goes ...

Emergency Declaration Ordered for North Carolina, Sep 15
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Montana, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Massachusetts, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Wisconsin, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Ohio, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Nevada, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For North Dakota, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Nebraska, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Minnesota, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Maryland, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Connecticut, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For California, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Idaho, Sep 14
Alabama Disaster Aid Soars to $41 million; Nearly 48,000 Apply, Sep 14
Disaster Assistance To New Yorkers Nears $35 Million, Sep 14
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Virginia, Sep 13
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Arizona, Sep 12
President Approves Emergency Declaration For South Dakota, Sep 10
President Approves Emergency Declaration For South Carolina, Sep 10
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Alabama, Sep 10
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Pennsylvania, Sep 10
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Missouri, Sep 10
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Kentucky, Sep 10
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Kansas, Sep 10
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Indiana, Sep 10
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Iowa, Sep 10
President signs order declaring Washington disaster relief area, Sep 7
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Washington, D.C., Sep 7
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Washington, Sep 7
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Oregon, Sep 7
President Approves Emergency Declaration For New Mexico, Sep 7
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Michigan, Sep 7
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Illinois, Sep 7
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Tennessee, Sep 5
President Approves Emergency Declaration For North Carolina, Sep 5
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Georgia, Sep 5
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Oklahoma, Sep 5
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Florida, Sep 5
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Utah, Sep 5
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Colorado, Sep 5
President Approves Emergency Declaration For West Virginia, Sep 5
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Texas, Sep 3
President Approves Emergency Declaration For Arkansas, Sep 3

Notice that these 'states of emergency' are only from a time period of less than two weeks ...

Found via www.divisionoflabour.com ... Here is the link to the specific post ...

Wayne Campbell: Say, I smell bacon. Does anyone else smell bacon?
Garth Algar: Yeah, I definitely smell a pork product of some type.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

2005-09-11T20:07:00.000-04:00

September 11th is the big day!

BTW: We arrived in Rome safely today after spending the weekend in Venezia.

We are thinking we should get a discount for flying on such a date!

Next Stop: Italia

2005-09-07T18:01:00.000-04:00

Pat, Justin, and I will be departing for Italy late Thursday night. Our flight leaves an airport east of Brussels at 630 on Friday, but the latest available train to the airport leaves around 2230 Thursday night.

We are flying into Venice and will remain there for two days. Then, we fly to Rome for a week. We will probably spend one day heading south to see Pompei and another day heading to the west to the beaches ... Otherwise, we will tour Vatican City, the Forum, et cetera.

We return from Rome Sunday morning (the 18th).

Kroller Muller Art Museum and National Park

2005-09-05T01:30:00.000-04:00

WARNING: Some of the content of this blog may offend you. If you are not comfortable with viewing an artistic representation of human reproductive parts - or if you do not want to familiarize yourself with them - cover your eyes when you get to the picture section. Some of the actions of the characters in the pictures show the high level of maturity needed when dealing with such artistic pieces ...

Friday morning we went to the Kroller Muller Art Museum and National Park.

The National Park consisted of the art museum and outdoor exhibits in addition to a large coniferous and deciduous forest - very similar to La Fromboise Island without the cottonwoods.

We biked throughout the park and toured the art museum and outdoor exhibits. The collection consisted of dozens of Dutch painters including a couple Claude Monet's and a rather large collection of about 40 to 50 Vincent van Gogh's ... Also, one or two Picasso's were being shown - but I don't think he was Dutch ... All of us were pretty awe-stricken by Van Gogh's works ...

As you will see in the pictures below, our appreciation for some of the more modern art was exemplary.

Indeed, some of the art was very much ... up Pat's "alley" ...

Some Beautiful Churches in Maastricht

2005-09-01T23:06:00.000-04:00

Protestant Church

Catholic Church

These "two" churches were one big Catholic church until the Reformation (not sure on the date).

Then, they tore down a section of the church and built a street in its place - separating the two halves. You can see the Catholic tower on the right hand side of the Protestant church image ...

Now, one half is Protestant and the other half is Catholic. A local we met compared it to the spiritual realm itself ... "Heaven on one side, Hell on the other, and Purgatory in the middle."

This church is no longer a church at all. Many churches in Maastricht have either been abandoned or renovated and reopened as businesses.

This particularly beautiful former church is now a very classy hotel. One night stay is around 200 Euro ...

Epic Photos

2005-08-30T22:42:00.000-04:00

The Four who left Maastricht ....

Our "campsite" and sleeping bags ...

Jim Heywood and I hiking through the hilly woods outside of Vaals, Netherlands ...

The end of our pilgramage...

There and back again - a Hobbit's tale.

2005-08-27T21:37:00.000-04:00

Well, not quite. Our journey was miniscule in comparison to the days and nights Frodo spent saving Middle Earth. However, my motivating phrase was definitely "Hey man, Frodo had it waaay tougher than this."

Our epic journey began around 6:47 pm last night. Four of us - Pat, Justin, Jim Heywood from Chicago, and I - were planning on walking to Vaals, Netherlands. It was 30 kilometers away if you took a straight shot. Those of us who finished the journey ended up walking about 50 kilometers when all was said and done - we took a scenic root of course.

By 9 o'clock, mutiny was afoot. We had reached our first hill and Justin and Pat were contemplating whether or not they still had the will to fight. After hemming and hawing for about an hour, they finally decided that they didn't want to go on. So they went home. Jim and I continued on.

We walked along the rolling hills, green pastures, and wide fields of South Eastern Holland until about 2 am. Then, we set up camp in a field of straw. I know its hard to imagine, but it wasn't comfortable at all. It got down to 47 degrees by 6 - which is when the sky was too light for us to sleep and a bunch of weird birds were much too noisy.

By 6:45 we were on the road again. We got to Vaals about 10:30 and the site we were trying to reach - a place where Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands meet - about 11:45. We thought it was on the right side of Vaals, but it turns out it was about 5 km on the wrong side. Also, a shortcut we were told of by a local turned into ... well some of you know how well I am at following complex directions from a man with a heavy dutch accent ... we were trampsing around the woods for about an hour. Then, we were personally guided to the spot by a couple walking through the woods.

The big moment: we reach our destination ... and ... Lame. Picture the Verendrye Monument without the view - unless you want to pay 3 euro to go up in a tower, which we did. Well, it wasn't THAT lame, but I guess you just kinda build yourself up when you walk 30 miles to somewhere...

Anyways, it was an experience. We took an open air bus halfway back, then jumped on a train after we walked around Valkenberg for a while. Got home about 3 local time. I don't think I'll be able to walk more than 30 feet for a while unless food is involved - or beer.

Pictures tommorow...

Our First Big Adventure

2005-08-26T19:50:00.000-04:00

Pat, Justin, Jim (from Chicago), and I will be going on a backpacking trip South-East of Maastricht. All told, we will probably walk close to 80 kilometers round trip. We hope to make it to a spot where the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium all meet. We are thinking of things we would like to do in all 3 countries simultaneously ...

We should return sometime Saturday evening.

This will easily be the longest walking experience I have ever had. I know the same goes for Pat and Justing. I'm not sure about Jim though ...

We are not sure where we will sleep - other than it will be in the wilderness. Jim and I both have sleeping bags, but Pat and Justin will definitely need to find some grass.

Could be awesome, could be a disaster. I just hope it doesn't rain.

Pictures Monday.

Hey Jackass, Get off that Donkey!

2005-08-25T15:57:00.000-04:00

The Beautiful City of Maastricht

2005-08-24T15:42:00.000-04:00

I finally got a chance to get out and see the city yesterday, and it can only be described as gorgeous.

The picture on the left is not the best example of the quaint buildings and shops, but I generally trying to keep up with our guide and take it all in. More pictures after the Maastricht food festival this weekend.

Damn, I almost forgot about this part ...

2005-08-22T15:25:00.000-04:00

Today I had my first day of class: Integration and Regionalization in Latin America. We have a Spanish professor who currently teaches at a university in central Mexico. So far, the reading is fairly interesting. I'm going to try to transfer it as Poly Sci credit ...

We have four 3.5 week blocs and attend classes from roughly 9 until noon Monday thru Thursday. I will end up with 15 credits after I complete the necessary papers and journals for credit from the Ireland trip.

I really must thank any and all Farber Fund people who may stumble upon this site. Without the money they kicked in, very few of us could have afforded the trip. Also, it gave us a purpose more than just seeing how many pints of dark, creamy, cool Guinness we could dispose of.

The facilities here at Teikyo University are fairly nice, but I do have one complaint: all of the female's rooms are AT LEAST two times as big as the males' rooms and usually include little entryways or balcony access. The males' rooms are standard dorms, which is good enough for me I suppose. The university is significantly smaller than I had expected (29 students in 3 different classes).

Last night we got a little taste of the bar and food scene of Maastricht. We went for a pint at a nearby bar and then went to an Egyptian restaurant. I had what was called a kebob but was more like a euro (the sandwich, not the currency). It stays open late so I'm sure we will frequent it several times over the course of the next semester.

Update: Even though I enjoyed it, the Egyptian food must not have liked me very much. It wasted no time departing this morning! Or maybe its just the water, I'm not sure ...

This week, we will all be setting up budgets to ensure that our money can last. Also, we will plan our adventures of the next 2 to 3 months. Prospects for this weekend: Rotterdam and Amsterdam, or Belgium.

A day of travel

2005-08-22T00:14:00.000-04:00

Justin and I experienced Europe's mass transit systems in full force Sunday, travelling from Belfast, Ireland to Maastricht, Netherlands by way of bus, plane, train, and taxi. We left at 8 am and arrived at the University around 8:30 pm.

We travelled through the countrysides of both Ireland and Holland. They were both fairly similar - much wetter versions of the Great Plains.

I did see my first ever power plant today in Central Holland, it reminded me of Bart's hometown of Springfield.

Saturday in Belfast

2005-08-21T13:24:00.000-04:00

Saturday our group headed north(?) to a very beautiful area of Ireland along the coast.

Before the scenery, we went to the nearly 400 year old Bushmill's Whiskey Distillery. We toured the distillery, learned about the techniques and processes involved in making bourbon, whiskey, and scotch. The main difference between the three being that bourbon is distilled once, scotch twice, and whiskey thrice. Of course, a complimentary serving of a 12 year old whiskey was included in the cost of entry. Also, four members of our group were selected to taste test about 10 different whiskeys - a lot of drinking before noon!

Giants Causeway Park - a member of an international environmental advocacy group whose name eludes me - provided some great pictures (also coming soon) and a pretty cool minihike. This is the part of Ireland I really wanted to see - however, I am told Galway is just as beautiful if not more.

Friday in Belfast - Farber Fund Plug

2005-08-20T13:20:00.000-04:00

On Friday we received a tour from at former U.F.F. member - Protestant defense force and saw several embattled Northern Ireland neighborhoods. Tall border walls between Catholic and Protestant communities were grafittied upon and lined with barbed wire.

The tour was very interesting. I was very unaware of the lasting severity of the situation. Just two weeks ago a spurt of gun violence claimed a few lives.

A Scottish Protestant convict, who served 11 years of a 16 year sentence for illegal arms possesions, gave us about an hour of his time to present us his story and his take on the current conflict. He gave a fairly objective presentation despite being a former militia member.

After discussing it later, a couple of us came to the conclusion that religion has little actual influence in the conflict. No one is arguing the differences between religious perspectives, it just happens that most Catholics are Irish Republicans while most Protestants are Loyalists... Of course, having the English head of state assume the head of the Protestant church and subsequently murdering a couple million Catholics might have something to do with it. However, neither side can claim full righteousness as both kill innocent people regularly. Ugly.

Quick Money Note: Whereas Dublin and Southern Ireland are part of the EU, Northern Ireland is a part of the UK and consequently uses the pound instead of the euro for a currency.

In Belfast ...

2005-08-18T14:55:00.000-04:00

I've only been here for a couple hours, but so far its been good!

... and all of these ladies are staying at our hotel ... rough

Dublin Pictures

2005-08-18T01:13:00.000-04:00

Enjoying my free pint at the sky bar ...............'Justice' in the Dublin Castle courtyard - erected by the British ... notice, Justice is not blindfolded .... 'There she stands at the station, with her face to the Castle and her arse to the nation' ... made me laugh

more pictures when time allows ...

From the Emerald Isle...

2005-08-17T17:08:00.000-04:00

I am currently at an internet cafe in Dublin. I have been spending waaaaay too much money. At this rate, I'm going to run out in September. I'm going to try and spend next to nothing the rest of the trip. That means less beer at £5 a pint .But its been amazing.

We have been taking some very interesting tours around the city and today will be no different.
Yesterday, we took a walking tour given by a very interesting historian. She described in great detail the religious and cultural conflicts that have plagued this island for the past 300 years. We saw many sites from the movie Michael Collins.

Then, we toured the Guiness factory. It wasn't as real as I had hoped, mostly just re-enactments of the different brewing practices. Still, the sky bar at the end of the tour was amazing. It overlooked the entire city. Absolutely beautiful. Also, we got to redeem the complimentary pint that came along with the £9 tour charge. Delicious.

On Monday we toured Kilmainham Jail. Again, very interesting. Many high-profile political prisoners have been held there. Now it is closed. Also, we did a pub crawl. We went to three different bars and listened and watched live traditional music performances. No complimentary drinks, but we made due.

As soon as I arrive in Maastricht (either Sunday or Monday), I will update this post and add pictures to almost everything. I am a bit rushed, so that is all for now.

Cheers.

First Leg of the Journey

2005-08-08T16:27:00.000-04:00

I leave for Sioux Falls to visit my uncle from Tampa - Colonel Kevin Murphy (Air Force) - on Friday evening (August 12th). Then, I'm going on an 8 day trip to Ireland on Sunday morning with Justin Williams and a group composed of Political Science League members from USD.

Next, starting on the 21st of August, I will be in Maastricht, Netherlands until the 15th of December attending Teikyo University. Justin Williams and Pat Adams (AKA Mr. South Dakota - watch for him in November's Cosmopolitan Magazine) will be joining me. I'm told internet availability is extremely limited.

Then (I really need to find a synonym for then, but I'm too deep at this point), I will be going on a family vacation over Christmas break. And anon, I will be driving with Zach Parsons to the University of South Carolina in Columbia for an additional semester away from SoDak. Should be an interesting year...

First Dip ...

2005-08-08T12:01:00.000-04:00

Just testing the blog-format.