4 words

I'm. On. My. Way.

picture it

I was forced to check out of my hotel today at 3pm. I was not leaving for dinner until 5:45, and not leaving for the airport until 9pm. They nicely held my bags, and there was a place to shower after using the pool - so I spent a few hours pool side, showered, and now had 20 minutes before I needed to leave. So I sat with a drink and my French Glamour magazine to kill the time. From across the hotel lobby I spied something on the TV. COULD IT BE? That familiar pattern of green and brown. white and red. grey and blue. and then in all it's glory - that BIG GREEN MONSTER! ESPN was showing a red sox mets game. OH MY! I practically RAN across the lobby, knocked down a very confused group of Japanese tourists and parked it in front of the TV. There they were - Schill, Tek, Youk, Lowell - it was maybe the most beautiful thing I've seen in weeks. For those of you who know me, you know I am only exaggerating a *tad*. I mean, Duomo, Campo, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Merlion, they've all been wonderful. But, the Boston Red Sox. come on now, does it get better than this? (oh, and string instrument band in the hotel lobby bar is currently playing a classical rendition of EVERY SINGLE disney song!) Hakuna Matata!

cultural similarities

I'm over here where night is day and day is night - half a planet away - and I'm struck by how similar life is here. I spent the last two days working in one lab, and it's just like at home. When the boss is gone everyone leaves early, when a few lab members separate from the group they immediately chat about the others, there is little time for sleeping, or eating properly, or grocery shopping. The youngest female member of the lab is given a hard time, is the butt of jokes that make her seem like a wild party animal (whether she is or not), and is question about which boys she is dating now. You get sleepy after lunch and need a coffee break, and at the end of the day when you finally get home from work you sit and stare at the wall for a bit and then start working again. I guess if science is a universal language, than being a scientist is a universal lifestyle. There's comfort in that, I suppose.

lion city

The members of the lab I am visiting have been very good at taking turns taking me out at night to see different parts of the city - it's just enough to keep me seeing the sights and not too much to make me feel like a real pain in everyone's butt. Singapore is quite lovely at night, along the river. The skyline is pretty, like any city skyline. And then just behind the river is this row of "colonial" houses. They have all been turned into bars and restaurants now - but they used to be warehouses where boats would bring goods in for trade, and deliver them to the warehouses. At night all the lights are shining and reflected in the river, people are everywhere - but still it's very quiet. It's kind of amazing to see.

There is a big statue of the Merlion, which is half Lion half Mermaid, and a mythical creature that one of the native Singaporeans claims to have seen. It has become quite a legend in Singapore and a symbol of the country. The big statue is currently being cleaned, and covered in some signs that say "please excuse me while I take a shower" but, there is a littler fountain version that is still visible.

Yesterday I had a day off from the lab so I was out doing some sight-seeing and some shopping. I went to the National Botanical Gardens, which was very lovely. The best part was the National Orchid Garden. The Orchid is the national flower and there were SO many of them. It was amazing. They also have hybrid orchids, which are cross-pollenated to create new strains. They've also created V.I.P Orchids, which are special hybrids named after important visitors. Laura Bush has one, as does Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II, and many other notable politicians and the like. They were all so beautiful - I took MANY pictures, which don't quite capture their beauty, but I tried.

curiosities

why, when I landed in Paris at 9:15pm, was the sun still high in the sky?

why is the alphabet not the same in all languages but numbers are? but why aren't they pronounced the same?

why did some people in some places decide it was normal to drive on the left side of the road, while other people in other places decided it was normal to drive on the right? is one better, or are they just different?

why is it considered the best to be at the TOP of the hotel, when it takes the longest to get up and down from there?

why does Diet Coke (Coca-cola light) taste so remarkably bad in other countries?

why don't Americans care about the World Cup as much as the rest of the World does?

if I flew home the other way, and skipped my birthday, would I stay 25 for another year? would I want to?

jet lag

I arrived in Singapore on Sunday evening. It was a long flight, but it really wasn't that bad. When I got in I wasn't very tired - but I had no trouble falling asleep. It was Monday during the day that it caught up with me. I spent the morning training some people in their lab. They took me out for a nice Singapore lunch. Here there are these open food courts, I suppose like a food court in a mall, where there are many different options - but these aren't in a mall, just stand alone all over the place. If you know me at all you know I am an extremely picky eater, so I hesitate to say that my lunch was *good*. It wasn't BAD. I think it was chicken, supposedly chicken, and tofu, and rice. I'll admit to eating ALL of the rice, some of the tofu, and some of the chicken. The city is incredibly clean - they call it the "fine" city because there are incredible fines for just about everything. Enforced fines. Fines for littering, feeding the pigeons, spitting on the ground, not flushing the public toliet. I could definitely live in a world where people don't litter, don't feed the pigeons, don't spit on the ground and always flush the toilet! But, I guess living in fear of being fined or worse may not be worth it. Gum is also illegal here, because they had a lot of trouble with gum getting on everything, streets, sidewalks, benches, etc. So it's just not legal here anymore. All of the people I have met so far are very nice, and they've offered to take me out at night and show me around. But tonight, tonight I am going to sleep. I am going to shop a tiny bit in the mall at my hotel, and I am going to eat (likely nothing classically singaporian) and I am going to go to bed!

Wednesday is a day off, and I've lined up some things I'd like to do. Hopefully there will be pictures from THAT day!

confessions

the beautiful pictures that I'd been posting from Italy - well, I can't take credit for them. They were all taken with my camera, but not by me. Everyday I'd give-up my camera to a friend of mine from work, who was unafraid to photograph everyone and everything. Unafraid that everyone thought it was annoying. And I ended up with an average of 200 pictures a day - it was wonderful. Unfortunately, I don't have the same dedication. I carry the camera everday, but I don't always remember to pull it out and photograph things. I have about 30 picutres from the 6 days since he's gone home. sad. But, I have such WONDERFUL pictures of Italy - I'm so lucky.

the one unusual thing about not taking your own pictures, there end up being an absurd number of yourself. I've never seen so many pictures of me in my vacation rolls.

its raining, its pouring...

It is now everyone's mission to stop the Boston rain within the next week - I'm not coming home to rain, I'm not.

I'm not.

time difference

I woke up this morning, well, yesterday morning, well - er, I don't know when! I woke up on Saturday at 8:30am in Siena (so thats 2:30am in Boston). I ate breakfast, I packed up, I checked out, and I sat by the pool until about 2:30pm (thats 8:30am). Then I got in a cab, to a bus, to Florence. I arrived at the airport in Florence at 5pm (thats 11am). My flight was a touch delayed, and we left at 7:10pm (1:10pm). I arrived in Paris at 8:45pm (thats 2:45pm) and then boarded the plane for Singapore at 11:15pm (5:15pm). I arrived in Singapore at 5:30pm Sunday (5:30am Sunday in Boston).

At this point I've gotten to the hotel, explored a little, eaten something, showered, and I think it's time for bed...but I truly have no idea!

double t

One of my favorite things is to hear people speaking in a British accent. I've been spending the last few weeks with a group of people from Oxford, and loving it. Another thing I've learned is I love to hear the British people mimic an American accent - it sounds so harsh! A friend of mine from home is from South Africa and that's a similar accent. He told a story of going into a hardware store to buy a "batry" and the clerk had no idea what he was saying. "batry" I love hearing that word, it sounds so nice. But in order to finally get his point across he had to mimic the american way to say battery, and he did so quite nicely, and it came out "baadderry". Which is quite accurate. I love how the British are saying "botil" - like a "botil of beer". It's the same thing. But we had someone not understand what they said. So the word was americanized and it came out "bawddle". Why is it we seem to make the double t sound so ridiculous.

aroma

I'm here in Siena, for a work conference that I am a part of the organizing committee, so it's been pretty demanding so far. Siena has wonderful green rolling hills, and the skyline off the outdoor patio of our hotel is gorgeous, but the best part is it's smell. It's this warm flowery fragrance that I can't quite place. It's almost as if it's a mixture of jasmine, lavender, and maybe some gardenia, mixed up with about 85 degrees of sunshine. It's truly amazing.

Siena is a small walled-in, medieval town. There are 17, or so, different compartments - and each one has their own flag and mascot and they have these compitions sometimes. Last night we were in the fish village and they had these lights all over. It was actually very beautiful. One evening there was this parade or march through the main piazza - Piazza de Campo - with representatives from each group and their flags, and drums and acrobatics. It was pretty awesome to see.

trenitalia

I've said before, I'm a normal mid-twenty year old, but I've really never been on a train before. Until I arrived in Italy.Let me paint the picture for you. You've seen the suitcase - its huge. It weighs somewhere near 70 pounds and is just about as big as I am. The train from Florence to Rome was easy, roll bag to train station, heave bag onto train, leave in convenient little luggage room, retrieve from convenient little luggage room, throw off train, roll away. excellent. totally self-sufficient. The train from Rome to Siena was a little different. First, there was a train change involved. Second, we were no longer riding the Eurostar. Luckily I was travelling with a very nice friend who was rolling my bag and letting me roll the lighter one. But, the guilt that ensued - I hope it's worth it! We arrive at Termini, the train station in Rome, and found our train pretty easily - a little trouble understanding why we had three tickets and what it meant to "validate" them, but we figured it out. Now this train, no convenient room at the front of the car for oversized luggage, so we dragged it down the aisle (which was JUST as wide as my bag) into our compartment. put all of our other bags up on the overhead things, and then heave-ho, up goes the 70 pound bag onto an overhead shelf. I mentioned we had to change trains, so we verified with the Italian speaking compartment-mates how you pronounced "Chiusi". But then, the friendly announcement played (in both Italian and English) describing the stops that we would make, which included Chiusi. SO I fell asleep and my friend pulled out the laptop to get some work done. When I woke up I asked what time it was, 12:02. Knowing our tickets mentioned that we would arrive in Chiusi I said "Shut it down we gotta go!" So the computer shut down took a while, and in the meantime I am throwing all of our bags around (we were each carrying three). The laptop finally shut down and we threw the 70 pounds suitcase down from the overhead bin. Now, with all our bags in hand we push our way out of the compartment and an announcement "We will be arriving at train station in 1 minute" plays. Strapped with three carry-ons and my gigantic suitcase, I pushed my way to the front of the train. We got there just in time to get out the doors before they closed. phew. Until we realized that the train from Chuiusi to Siena was already in the station and leaving in 5 minutes. So we switched bags, so I had the light one, and off we went. Little did we know that this would involve two flights of stairs down, a little walk, and two flights up. Then onto another train, where I loaded all the other bags on one overhead shelf, and then we heaved the monster up as well. What a scene. And what a trooper my personal porter was - for real. And I am even able to send a small bag of stuff home with 'el porter' tomorrow. I'm so lucky!

bella roma

Friday morning I took off for Rome. With two days and so much to see there was no way to do it all. I was able to walk past, or run in some cases, just about everything I wanted - but there was no real timeto go inside or to tour anything. We were staying in a friends apartment that is just over the Tiber River from St. Peter's.

I was able to get to the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Vatican, and a couple of nice little neighborhoods.I found the food in Rome to be better than the food in Florence. We had a few nice dinners while we were there, and evengot to be involved in a tiny riot - just like being in Boston. We were out in Rome after the Italia-US soccer game (where they tied) and it was similar to Kenmore Square in Boston. The police did come to break up the excitement and sent everyone home. It was a touch scary, but mostly comforting to see that no matter where you are in the world people can be so passionate about their sports!


GO SOX! (i noticed the swept over the weekend!!)

david

I did make it in to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David. It was very impressive. So huge and such detail, butunfrotunately you are not allowed to photograph in there, so I can't share any pictures. Instead here are some views of the river in Florence at night.


















My trip is turning out to be a bit different than I expected - it is clearly a business trip first and foremost, so the time to be a tourist is limited. I've had little time for shopping, or in-depth sight-seeing. But, what I have seen and done has been quite nice! At least I'll know where to go and what to do when I come back. Supposedly this is what scientists call "exploratory data".

oh, and I should mention - there has been no rain :) sorry!!

duomo

My apartment in Florence is right near Duomo. It's an intricate and ornate cathedrale that looks totally out of place in the middle of this piazza. It's beautiful. This picture of Duomo was taken from the rooftop of the Astoria hotel, where we have become regulars. We were there two nights in a row for a bit, last night with everyone that works in the center. It's got a great view!






This morning we tried to go and do some sight-seeing, and not science, but the lines were too long to go in and see David (since we had to leave some room for science) so instead we walked around the streets a little. Florence is a city, but much of the area feels like this quaint little town. it's very nice.

I also had my first gelato today - I know three days in Italy, no gelato. But, boy was it good. I choose coconut...yum!

firenze

I've now slept for 5 hours since leaving so I'm very alert and awake and not at all grumpy! Actually, I'm really not grumpy - it's Italy, we're too "ciao" to be grumpy here. I arrived in Florence yesterday morning (i think) and I got into a cab to take me to my hotel. Now, the hotel is NOT a hotel, it's an apartment we are living in for a week, so all I had was an address. I got into the cab and said - "take me to Borgo San Lorenzo 13" - and I wondered if I'd really provided enough information that he would know where that is. We rode for a bit, zooming here and there and screeching to stops. then he stopped, in what looked like the middle of an open-air market and said "this is as far as we can go in a car, the road you want is down there on the left." Great. But I found it, no problem. And what a nice apartment it is. Right near Duomo, a beautiful out-of-place cathedral. We can hear the bells and choir singers from the apartment. I gave my 'elder' co-worker the room with the view, but not without taking pitures out her window first. The rest of the apartment is quite nice a well - and my room is not too shabby.

In the evening there was a welcome reception at Palazzo Pitti, which was gorgeous - as a friend of mine said "this is like something you could imagine seeing in California, but instead of imitating Italian architecture it's the real thing". The food was good, although hard to get to, and the dessert was excellent. And the wine and champagne weren't bad either. I managed to round up the whole gang before the dinner was over - and then we took on the Florence night life. We ended up at a restaurant and convincing them to remain open just for us. It was a great night, although I didn't get home til 130 am, technically Monday morning - and I'd been up since Saturday, so i figured it was time to get some sleep. Good thing I had to be up at 630 for science!!

packed

Who would have thought that this stuff would cause my bag to weigh more than 50 pounds - it really doesn't look like that much!

But - I think it has. I hope they let me on the plane with all my stuff....

I'm off to the airport this afternoon, until then I've got about a billion more errands to run (ok, two, but it feels like more) And I can't shake that nervous feeling like I've over looked something huge. I mean, I have a hotel to stay at in Siena, right?!

monsoon

I was out at dinner last night, and it turned into a late night. When I left the restaurant a little voice in my head said - maybe you should go to the bathroom before you go. But no, I was too excited about the conversation going on to listen to that voice. So by the time I got to the train station and was waiting for my bus home, and I had to pee, BAD! Luckily I only have a ten minute bus ride home. waiting waiting waiting, and the bus comes pretty quickly actually. I'm hopeful, because I can handle this while I'm on the bus - and after the bus it's only a three block walk. Totally do-able.

until.

the bus comes to a screeching halt. My bus was one of those with the wires above it that semi-control where it goes. So now, bam, we're stopped. 12:30am. need to pee. The driver goes out for a few minutes and I'm desperately looking around for a gas station or a patch of grass. Anything at this point. Then the driver climbs back on the bus and informs us that "a piece of the bus is simply missing, and that's why we've stopped" MISSING?! Yep, it's just gone. vanished. So we have to get out and wait for the next bus. waiting waiting waiting. I guess it didn't take that long. When we get on the new bus I'm about to die from kidney failure. My stop is only three away - i can make it i can make it.

Off the bus, hopeful once again. But it was the three block walk that got me. It's been raining here since March, so every street drain was RUSHING, and all the house perpetually have this running-water soundtrack to them. And there were even three houses that appeared to be leaking LARGE amount of water on to the side walk. It was severe torture. By the time I had reached my street I was carrying my shoes (boots with tall heels) and socks and running down the road as fast as I could - keys out, ready to go.

thank god it was so late, because I didn't have time to shut the bathroom door and I'm sure my roommate would not have appreciated the show!

the story of bo and deb

One night, many years ago, I stole a best friend. And it was the best move I ever made. I first met Bo years before that - we had mutual friends and would hang out on a regular basis. But we weren't really friends. Then we went off to college and heard little about or from each other. But then one night after hanging out again a few times, I decided it was dumb that I had no idea how to get in touch with Bo if not through these mutual friends, so I asked my friend for his number. And I was refused. So, I did what anyone would have done...out at the club she asked to put her cell phone in my purse and I agreed, then went to the bathroom and stole Bo's phone number from her phone and put it in mine. So sneaky - but so smart.

Bo and I have the best of times. We've hit every hole-in-the-wall bar in the town we grew up in. In fact, Bo is even vying for a position as town councilman so that he can turn some hot spots into very cool bars. I mean, why can't Smith's Flower shop be a bar?! it would be AWESOME - some white christmas lights, oh amazing!! We're also avid dart players, juke-box hogs, and excellent at getting to Wendy's just before it closes to have late night fries and burgers! yum.

Bo was living in New Orleans, until Katrina told him to get the hell out of there. He was relocated to Houston for a bit. He's now back in our small RI town for a few weeks - all of which I will be trekking through Europe and East Asia, so we will not have a chance to find a one-armed man to buy us drinks together. By the time I return Bo will already have headed back to NOLA, finally, and will begin his third year in med school.

So this here is my tribute to Bo - "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy and Vote for Bo for Town Council." He's really a fabulous friend. and, it's his birthday! Happy Birthday Bo!

packing

The main reason I started this blog is my upcoming trip. For months and months I've been talking about this trip, and it's been months and months away. But, now it's here. I leave on Saturday night. It's a work trip - 3 weeks - in Italy and Singapore. I'm not complaining at all!

And, I've already started packing.



This counts, right?

cutthroat

I play on a field hockey team, some would say I am the captain - I prefer the organizational leader - but I guess captain is more accepted. We play 6 people on the field at once, and there are times when we just don't have enough to play. Usually we'll try and play down a player, but sometimes we have to recruit people from another team. When we do this we generally have to forfeit, unless the other team agrees that we don't have to. A forfeit just means that the other team wins automatically, but we can still play out the game. Our team is always forced to forfeit. We've even had to forfeit when we wanted to play down a few players.

Last week the other team had only 3 players and took on 3 from another team. They asked us if we wanted them to forfeit, and my team sent me - the captain - over the make the decision. I stood there, looking at these girls with disappointed faces asking me "do you want us to forfeit?" And I answered, much to my chagrin, "yes." Of course I made them forfeit. I made them forfeit because they would have made us forfeit. Eye for an eye, right?! But, I hadn't really wanted to make them forfeit. I had wanted to be the first one to let them play. It struck me how difficult it was to be the first person to do the right thing. How hard it was to stop the whole 'eye for an eye' mentality. If I hadn't made them forfeit, is there any guarantee that they would let us not forfeit later? Absolutely not. So I did the easy thing, the popular thing - I made them forfeit. But isn't there some middle ground between 'eye for an eye' and getting walked all over? There must be, sad that it is so hard to find.