a week in europe for Nara

It was a whirlwind week in Germany and Italy last week! I went in order to attend the baptism of my godson, Benjamin (aka Benny), my friend Nadja's son, in Berlin. Meanwhile I also took the opportunity to jet down and see my sister Gillia and her husband John for a couple of days in Naples. My first afternoon in Berlin was spent relaxing with Nadja and Benny ...


... and eating some ice cream. (This was Benny's first taste of ice cream! Chance would be very proud.)


I spent the night at my cousin Jeff's apartment, which has this amazing balcony and a view of the TV Tower.


The next day, I flew off to Naples! Here's where my sister and her husband live, in the second floor apartment all the way to the left in this building with the green shutters.


They took me on a lovely walk of historic Naples, including a stop along the harbor (Mount Vesuvius is in the background).


We checked out the Castel Nuovo, among other things. This was built in the 14th century and has an amazing classical style triumphal arch sandwiched between the two castellated fortress towers. Very cool.


Of course, in Italy, there must be gelato. This was the point at which Chance was very missed -- he wasn't there to insist that we eat these tantalizing desserts!


We did have gelato later in the evening though - mmmmmm.


The next day we spent in Pompeii, checking out the ruins of the city. Here's John imitating Myron's Discus Thrower, very Greco-Roman!


:)


These are Pompeiian crosswalks, raised so that people didn't have to step in the open sewage that flowed in the streets.


Gil & John duked it out in the colosseum ...


and we ended our day at the forum, backed by a gorgeous view of the mountain that started it all.


Then we drove about an hour to Amalfi, which is a coastal town on the peninsula just south of Naples. The Duomo here is an incredible mish-mash of styles and eras, so gorgeous!!


After a lovely night in Amalfi, we finished up our Naples tour the next day with some Neapolitan pizza.


It really is totally different from any other pizza I've had in Italy or elsewhere. It's like thick Naan bread with the regular toppings ... extremely good.


Back in Berlin, I got to spend some more quality time with Benny and Nadja. Here Benny is learning to be a good German boy who eats sausage! (I had one too actually - it's much better than an American hot dog.)


Gil, John and I had dinner and drinks with Jeff and his fabulous fiancee, Debora ...


... and we explored Berlin, visiting (among other things) the Wall Park, where some of the few pieces of the Berlin Wall still remain.


Then there was more Benny time --


-- isn't he cute??? --


... and the week wrapped up with the main event, the baptism! Here I am with Nadja, the other godmothers, Kate (the blonde in the middle) and Nadja's mom Karin (crouching with Benny to the right). Kate's husband Jörg, their son Oliver, Nadja's husband (also named Oliver!), and Nadja's dad Kurt are also pictured.

What an amazing week, guys! Thanks so much for everything ... I miss Europe already, though I am happy to be home, too.

Jenn & Chris's visit!

Our good friends from Seattle, Jenn & Chris, came to visit us over Memorial Day weekend. It was a hot, sunny couple of action-packed days ... kicked off by a visit to Gantry State Park in Long Island City (above) --


and a quick look at the Water Taxi Beach next door, complete with psychedelic palm tree.



Highlights also included the beer garden in Carroll Gardens,


a night in Coney Island, where we saw an unfortunately really really bad burlesque show (sorry guys!)


(but at least there was Coney Island Lager ...)



... a trip to the Guggenheim to see the current Frank Lloyd Wright show,


a walk through Central Park,


and the Met.

Thanks for weathering it all with me, guys!

Chance was studying for a final during most of this, and I'm happy to report he passed everything with flying colors as a result.

wednesday - a lovely afternoon

The weather was PERFECT yesterday! I sat outside on the playground with my tutoring kids (three rambunctious fourth grade girls who it would be a crime to keep inside on such an afternoon!) ... then I walked to the subway through the lovely Brooklyn neighborhood of Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill.

As I was crossing the street, I experienced the most interesting aural effect - Mister Softee ice cream truck in one ear, and 6 o'clock church bells in the other! I had to get out the camera. So here's a little video of the rest of my walk to (and into) the subway.

my semi-annual post

It seems I can't be bothered to update the blog regularly anymore, and I'm very sorry. When you're not travelling or doing anything to speak up except for studying, life doesn't lend itself quite as well to blogging. But here's what we've been up to since Obama got voted in last November (my last post) ...


In January, my cousin Karly came to stay with us. Just back from Scotland, she has decided to go to nursing school, and she was in New York to see if the community college/working part time thing would work for her here ...


So there was some IKEA-going as she settled in. (It turned out she found a better situation back in Seattle, and she left us in March ... but she'll be back someday, we hope!)


In March, it snowed. This resulted in very wet feet on the way to school, which later resulted in the buying of rubber boots.


My friend Cadence (upside down, right) and I went to the Armory show, because she had connections and got us in for free. The most interesting thing was the people watching.


I've been working all year at a public school here in Brooklyn, doing after-school tutoring for fourth graders. Here are some of my students. Aren't they fabulous?


And here's the classroom I tutor in -- it's a first grade classroom during the day, so I get to sit on little people chairs.


One of my classes visited the National September 11th Museum and Memorial planning offices and spoke with the Director of Collections for the museum. The offices have a really good view of the WTC site -- you can see the memorial ("Reflecting Absence" - two huge, square waterfalls in the footprints of the towers) taking shape.


It's spring, and there was a big thunderstorm a while back. It took me about 20 tries to get this photo, but isn't it cool? We don't get this kind of weather very often in Seattle, so it's super exciting for me.


My friend and classmate Aaron and his wife Laurie have been inviting us along to the opera recently. Not only is the music good, but the building is by one of my favorite architects, Wallace K. Harrison.


The chandeliers are cool too.


On a recent trip to the movie theater, we noticed this vending machine. I'm sure it's always been there, but it's in an unobtrusive corner ... only in New York. Or possibly Florida.


Open 24/6, except for Passover ...


Another recent discovery has been the neighborhood of Hunter's Point, which is just a 10 minute walk from our house. There's a really amazing state park there, right on the East River. They've preserved the old lifts where freight used to get transferred from rail to ferry to get to Manhattan.


The park has the most amazing view of the Midtown skyline ...


... and comfy reclining benches! It's our new favorite destination on a beautiful evening like this one.


Here's the view on our walk back home ... and that brings us to spring in Greenpoint, where it's now raining and I'm glad for the rubber boots. Finals are here, we're frantically writing term papers, and dreading the onslaught of summer with its 90 degree temperatures and humidity. It's almost AC time!

See you at Christmas, probably ... :)

OBAMA ... and other things

It's been way too long since I've posted anything, so there's lots to catch up on! First, the recent news -- above is a picture from our polling place here in Greenpoint yesterday. We only waited about half an hour to cast our ballots, luckily.


The very helpful Officer Brown kept the line moving and people smiling and motivated. She was pretty awesome.


We celebrated election night in the East Village with our friends Jennifer, Brooke and Sarah.


Jennifer and Sarah are good friends of mine from high school, and this was the first time they had seen each other in (*gulp*) 15 years!! It was awesome to have us all together again, and especially awesome on this historic night ...


Here is Obama coming on to give his acceptance speech. It's good that he had some words, because I was totally speechless. He is amazing and I'm so proud and happy that he won!



The mood was deliriously jubilant ... fireworks were going off, people were hooting and yelling "yes we can," and running around giving each other high fives, as this guy was doing. It was one giant victory party. Today I am happy to report that New Yorkers seem pretty pleased and many of us are still walking on air ...



... in other news, a couple of weeks ago we attended Open House New York, a day when lots of different sites around the city are open for free. We visited the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue on the Lower East Side, a beautiful late 19th-century, Moorish-style building that has been in the process of restoration for two decades (finally finished now, and they did a nice job).



We also swung by the New York Marble Cemetery. You can't really see most of the marble because it's underground, in the form of vaults! We chatted with one of the caretakers for a while ... pretty interesting!


... and a lovely setting to relax in.


...


... Um, and then there's this. It's the Museum of Sex on 5th Avenue, and they've had an exhibition on animal sex for the past few weeks. I really cannot believe that they are allowed to have such displays in the windows (what awkward questions will little schoolchildren be asking their nannies??) and so of course I had to reproduce it for you here. :)



At the end of September we hosted a back-to-school-and-birthday-party celebration. It turned into a really giant party and we felt really popular and cool.



We had a lot of dishes to do though, unfortunately.

Wow, fall went by fast! I've been heads-down doing homework, so forgive my absence. I'll try to report any further points of interest more promptly in the future!