Ma vie en rose

Mike (my coworker) and Mariia (my student) and I took off early Saturday morning, on a flight to Kiev. Her mother was a gem, and picked us up at the airport -- both Mariia and her mother spent the ride describing the city and the country. I, of course, spent the whole ride listening intently, and trying to pronounce every street sign we passed.

Tips for learning the Cyrillic alphabet:
1. Take a ton of math classes. a bunch of letters look similar to math symbols, like rho and pi...
2. Practice with a patient person for umpteen hours. Mariia is a saint, with pronounciation and correction.
3. Be stubborn. I'm sure Mike and  Mariia were ready to shoot me by the end of the trip, with how often I'd be caught staring in random directions.

Kiev straddles the Dnepr River, like most cities. The left bank has most of the old city (historic buildings/churches), the city center (skyscrapers), and tourist stuff, while the right bank is mostly residential areas and soviet-style housing complexes.

Touring Kiev. Thanks to Mariia's efforst, we saw all of the major sites in the city. Her house is right off Khreschatyk, the main boulevard, and just a short walk away from Independence Square and the Marinsky Palace. We took a tour of the Pechersky Lavra complex and tomb/caves, then took the furnicular up to the "Upper city": Sofiyska Square, St Sophia's Cathedral, and St Mikhail's Monestary of the golden domes. 




Some of the best pictures:


We also walked Andriyivsky Uzviz, the long street where many artisans sell their wares. I bought a nice set of matrushka dolls, and a mounted sculpture of carved wood, both very...ukranian, for lack of a better word.

Sunday night we ate dinner at Tsarsky Selo, an "authentic" Ukranian-themed restaurant. It was hilarious, too, that it was designed in the style of the springtime Ukranian countryside... especially when (1.) it was snowing heavily outside, and (2.) the drunken plastercast 'farmer' was either very cute or very disturbing.

One of the biggest, most impressive things I saw in Kiev (other than the guilded churches, of course): the Ukranian equivalent of the Statue of Liberty, essentially, which overlooks much of the city.




I will post all of the pictures taken (of Kiev and Lvov) on facebook.



The Lvov itinerary included the following: Monday we toured the countryside, seeing the famous Pochayiv monastery, as well as Zolochiv, Pidhirtsi, and Oleska castles. Got some simply gorgeous photos of the ukranian countryside:


Then Tuesday we spent in the city itself, with the University of Lviv, Shevchenko monument, the Dominican, Latin, and Armenain (my favorite, with crazy cool artwork by John Henry Rozen) cathedrals, and with brief stops at the Pharmecy museum, the Royal Arsenal, and the Strysky Park. We also had an interesting evening adventure, trying to locate the newly-opened 'Kumpel' restaurant, on a recommendation from Galyna Nazadorovska, our gracious and knowledgable Lvov tourguide. We eventually found it, and the food was delicious.

Again, I dragged Mike and Mariia to see the old Jewish quarter, which was (depressingly enough) mostly destroyed. Evidences of the old synagogue and mezzuzzot were still there, but that was essentially it. We did go to the city synagogue that is still in use, but the community is very small, and very... well, defensive.
Understandably so, since Ukraine has been through some tough times, and only recently starting to see the light at the other side. I hope it'll improve, honestly... Ukraine felt the most like "the motherland," of all the travels i've done. Felt the most like a darker, more concentrated version of what I knew, growing up in the US.


I'd love to get a chance to go back, and hike in the Carpathians... and perhaps get closer to St Petersburg (russia) and Minsk (belarus).

So much to do, so little time.

Woke up at Abigail's this morning, and planned our next move to Belfast.
The bus from Busarus Station took us from Dublin to Belfast in a little over 2.5 hrs... and we were lucky to find a cozy place to stay in the Crocus Bed & Breakfast. Thankfully, Katie hinted that Belfast's hostels are were few and mostly sketchy, and judging from the "feel" of the city, i would not want to be here without a nice place to stay.



The good ol' Irish Patty.
We've met two "Pat"s since we arrived in Belfast. The first, our scruffy-but-welcoming B&B owner, seemed of the opinion that tea/coffee and biscuits are an important part of an Irish welcome, and had both ready and waiting for when we arrived. He was also a bit blind, and a bit off with directions... suggested we find Madden's, if we were looking for a good pub, but sent us on a bit of a goose chase to find it.

After a few pints at Madden's, managed to pick up our second 'paddy' Pat -- a jovial man of about 60 years, just about most outgoing man I'd ever met. He not only directed us towards a good place for dinner, he also bought us all a round of drinks, then bought us dinner... and then made a pass at Jayne. Needless to say, the adventure that started out so friendly and fun became very strained, very quickly -- namely, Jayne was ready to run, and JR and I worked at top speed make a graceful (tactful?) exit. So after that stress, we promptly went to a grocery store and treated ourselves to a pint... of ice cream. Next to the city hall and a giant ferris wheel with a "VIP" chair.

Then a quiet evening in the B & B... those afternoon adventures were enough.
 

Jayne and I made for a mellow friday night, so that we could 1. take full advantage from our sweet stay at the Globetrotters hostel (which is all the rave reviews boast it to be -- breakfast was amazing, place was beautiful/safe/clean, staff was friendly, etc. etc.), and 2. meet JR at a relatively decent hour, on Saturday morning.

JR landed around 8am, and by the time Jayne and I met up with him at our next hostel, it was almost 11am. Unfortunately, it was still another few hours before we could head back out again, because the Celts House "hostel" was wicked sub-par, for multiple reasons. I have never considered myself a picky person about accomodations, and spending a summer camped out in western Massachusetts woods did nothing to raise my standards... still, this place was nothing short of sketchy, and incredibly expensive, given how bad the service was.

Once we got out and got fed and watered ( = more Guinness, this time at The Duke), Saturday unfolded into a patchwork day... and in JR's case, a very long one. We toured the Guinness Storehouse, which was a bit of a let-down, other than the city photos we took at the Gravity Bar. Then we snagged last-minute tickets to the Ireland vs. Bulgaria football match (a world cup qualifier), which also managed to be a bit of a let-down, with Ireland's team playing rather like crap. 

Then in the evening, met up with Jayne's irish friends from Kerry, who all suggested we go randomly to the Sugar Club... which just happened to be hosting a "Burlesque Night", of all things. Think "men in oldfashioned tuxedos" and "women in victorian corsets/fishnet stockings," and a whole lot of drunken revelry. The best part was the live jazz band playing great music, so we danced the night away.

Sunday became sports and sightseeing, falling into place at the last minute. Katie joined JR and Jayne and me for another game -- this time, it was a gaelic football match, Dublin vs. Kerry. I had no idea what irish football was before that day, and I've decided it's going on my list of "Favorite Sports To Watch"! The game's a cross between rugby, soccer, and volleyball, and the action never stops... great game, ending in a tie.
 

Also snapped some pretty great photos, of the game and crowd. I'll upload them when I get home, but they include:

1. A few good shots of the game itself

2. A great example of typical irish teenagers, complete with scruffy clothes and funny "screw you" attitudes.

3. A pic of the most adorable irish baby in the universe.

Sunday afternoon ended with a drive across both sides of town, to see the Trinity College campus, the enormous Phoenix Park to the west of the city center (with fields, a zoo, and flocks of deer), the docks to the south/east and Blackrock, a little suburban sea village, just south of Dublin along the coast.

Monday's adventure-to-come: Belfast!

... oh, and on a side note: mna means "women", and fir means "men". This comes in handy when searching for public toilets.

Dobre dyen from Eire.

Stories of Ukraine will just have to wait, because there's so much to talk about in the present.

After a long-but-not-unpleasant layover in London Luton, landed in Dublin on Wednesday evening, and (at the request of Jayne and John) took a prompt taxi directly to the Long Hall pub. So, the answer to the question, 'did you do much drinking in ireland?' is: 'yes'. (NOTE TO SELF: a great pub, worth visiting again... the bartender put my unfinished pint under Jayne's coat and told us to take it with us. So provided it survives the plane ride home, I now have a guinness glass.)

Made a stunning successful walk back to our hostel (the Avalon House), and had a relaxing Thursday... filled with (yes) more beer and pub food. Jayne and I promised ourselves to hold back on our actual "tour" of the city, for JR's sake. So we've been catching up on sleep, good food, thrift store shopping along the George Street Market/Arcade, Grafton Street, and O'Connelly Street. Attempted to find a nice celtic ring, and went to no less than three "Carroll's: Irish gifts" stores, but there were none to be found. Some things are just not meant to be.

Thursday night was hilarious, because we spent a solid three hours at the Stag's Head upstairs parlor, chatting with our delightful bartender, Murrish Walsh (from Killarney). Also bumped into a crew of locals out celebrating a birthday, and they brainstormed a grade-A "Grafton Street pub crawl" list for Jayne and me... which is fabulous, because there's no way we were going to spend time and money in the Temple Bar district. People would have you think it's a local scene, but with the tourists all around, it's anything but. So we're excited to drift around the local scene a bit, and Saturday night promises to be fun in that great 'local scene' way, out in the Ranelagh suburb. It is true, what people say : the Irish are some of the most friendly, outgoing people around! (PS - didn't end up out in Ranelagh, saturday night, but it was still a *great* night.)

Friday, Jayne and I met up with Katie for lunch and a bit of sightseeing. We had a great lunch at the Queen's Tart, then drifted to some more thrift shops and to "Twinnings' " craft store off of O'Connell street. I finally bought some circular knitting needles, which i've been wanting for some time, now. And Katie showed me this wonderful online knitting community, so i've never been more excited about new projects!

It rained in the early afternoon, so we went back to our (fantastic) hostel for a nap, some tea, and some blog-updating. And as I wrote this, three women (dressed in bright red 'devil' costumes) walked down into the lobby, ordered a taxi cab to Temple Bar, and wobbled their way out the front door. No doubt they're out for a nutty friday night... glad that Jayne and I are meeting Katie and her friends down near Grafton Street, after some dinner.

Leysin's ski season ends on April 15, but i'm pretty sure that mine ended the Sunday before spring break started... Nicole and I went around dozens of pistes, skiied down the Berneuse a couple of times, had a last hot chocolate/vin chaud/crappy overpriced hot dog at Les Fers, and both agreeing that it was sad to see it end! The whole season's been great, and i've gone from a "fly-screaming-down-the-mountain" beginner, to an intermediate skiier who can at least survive all of the runs in Leysin, however ungracefully.

The last week of school before spring break returned to our 'fall schedule'. The whole situation was bittersweet for multiple reasons, the foremost being that we are all now spoiled (students and teachers alike) buy expecting half-days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. *sigh* oh well.

But then again, like i said, time for new adventures: Spring break!

The plan:
Ukraine (3/21- 3/25)Ireland (3/25 - 4/01)I'm so excited to explore Ukraine with Mike (coworker) and Mariia (student), especially since Mariia can help us get through the language barrier... I found a russian-french pocket dictionary in the LAS school library, and it's totally coming with me. If i don't know how to read the cyrillic alphabet by the end of the trip, it would be pathetic.

Also can't wait for the second half of the trip, too. Jayne and her younger brother, John, are going for the first week, and i'm going to meet up with them both for the second half. Then Jayne and I have a few days by ourselves, relaxing in Dublin, before JR arrives to join us both... he's staying for a week, then drifting onwards to Amsterdam, while Jayne and I are going back to switzerland. As cheezy as it sounds, I'm sure the week will be filled with unhealthy, delicious pub food and an outrageous amount of Guinness. And i'll get to see Katie and JR, and life doesnt get much better than good food with good company.

Not even skiing can top that.

So cousin Adam wins the prize for being the first person to come visit me in switzerland, crashing at my place from last Thursday to Tuesday... well, technically Tuesday. On Tuesday night, after we'd said goodbye and everything, I get a phone call from Carolyn informing me that my cousin is at my door, staying for another night... Leysin is addicting.

I know Adam'll do a great job of describing his stay in his own words, but here's a quick summary. Thursday: snowshoeing, Friday: skiing, snowshoeing, drinking, Saturday: skiing, fondue, Sunday: skiing, (and lesson-planning, for me) Monday: (work for me) skiing, Tuesday: skiing, Wednesday: skiing...fun times.

For me, the more I ski, the more addicting it becomes. I am definitely not one of the people who can forget their own mortality while barreling down the face of a cliff at 50 mph, nor did I grow up on skis like some of the kids in Leysin... consequently, my learning can be described as 'enthusiastic' (like anything I choose to do) yet 'cautious'-- probably a little more so than is good for me. A few weeks ago I feel pretty hard and bruised up my right leg, which definitely knocked my confidence down a few notches, in spite of several self-given pep talks. 

So I can be grateful that Adam motivated me (us) to not only go to Gstaad (the Schönried - Saanenmöser - Zweisimmen - St. Stephan slopes) for the weekend, but also that he didn't tell me -- or didn't notice -- that one of the runs we were going down was labeled as black. I spent most of that Saturday skiing with the Kanes so Adam could throw himself down more advanced runs, but as my collegue Kevin so eloquently put it, "trial by fire." I won't lie, it was a pretty stressful day, going down new slopes, on only 1 hour of sleep (yes, Friday night got a little out of hand...). But there were also beautiful moments:

That's all for now... other than (as usual) I miss everyone else from home!

Here's a gigantic hint: come visit!!

A short update on the latest since New Years, 2009:

- A long, long trip back to Leysin
No longer a surprise. As i mentioned to a friend, transatlantic flights are heinous, no matter how you cut it. A total of 13+ hours of travel, including one sleepless night, a 4-hour layover in Dublin (a small taste of which makes me really, really, want to go back!), three separate flights, and then an irregularly steep/long "hike" from the Vermont Leysin train stop, up to the Beau Site door. My new ski bag left my shoulder bruised for the first two days.

- New acquisitions to the apartment

A spice rack! Perfect timing, actually, that Carolyn offered to pass it on to me the unused one she received last year... now that i have quite a few cooking spices starting to crowd my cabinet. Gives me all the more reason to drift down to the weekend Vevey market to buy more spices... *maniac laughter*

Two paintings! Because a home (eventually) deserves more than just posters.

The first came from the CORA mini "artisan market" near Evian-les-Bains, the French town where Evian water comes from:
View Larger Map it's a tiny little thing, but I really liked it... and that was that.

The second came from Morocco, and it simply caught my eye. I feel like these pictures don't quite do it justice.

A lamp! Inherited from a fellow teacher, eager to empty her own apartment.

…And sheets for my guest bed! Which are not worth showing. But are quite exciting to talk about, because it means that you have officially no excuse to not come and visit!

- Exciting upcoming events:
Tomorrow: A morning "dorm faculty" meeting, afternoon Geometry extra help session, a pickup VB game in the gym, and then an evening snowshoe trip up to Les Fers!
Saturday: Trip to Vevey market with Daryl, to get off the mountain AND to plan for our upcoming "Casino Royale" murder mystery evening extravaganza, Friday the 16th!
Sunday: The "beginner ski" group's first lesson!! Then off to see a matinee showing of the new(ish) Kidman/Jackman movie, "Australia," which has finally made its way to Leysin's excuse for a movie theater.

Way back in August, I purposefully booked my returning US flight for several days after the end of the school term... not that I'd any idea what I'd be doing with that time, but who knew? Better to have a chance to travel than not. And in the end, the gamble worked: six days in Marrakech (or Marrakesh, with French spelling), traveling with a college friend, was well worth it!



Why Morocco? Well, I've been wanting to go to Africa for some time, and thought that such a melting pot might be a good place to start. After all, it's quite francophone (good to disguise my american-ness, if need be), and Marrakesh is known for being a more liberal (safe?) city -- with plenty still to see -- than many other places in the area. That, and one of my students' family is based out of Marrakesh, and he was so enthusiastic at the idea of me visiting that it was settled.

The country is beautiful! Marrakech is a very reasonable distance from the highest mountains in Africa, the Atlas -- in fact, since it was only about an hour's drive away, Amanda and I ended up taking a day trip out there, to hike a bit and visit a local Berber village. The trip itself was slightly touristic, I won't lie, but because our guides, Yousef and Abdul, were so open and willing to trade stories with us, it ended up not feeling quite so cookie-cutter.

The city of Marrakech itself is divided into several parts -- the old part is the "Medina" or the 'Mouassine" and the newer part is the "Gueliz"... there's also a bedroom community part which is known as the "Palmiers" (meaning 'palm tree' in french, because there are a lot of palm trees there). We stayed in the old part of town, where all of the streets are small and windy and the cacaphony of sights, smells, and exuberant street vendors threaten to overwhelm you. Since I was a total idiot, I managed to forget my camera on the trip... but Amanda took plenty of pictures for the both of us, and there are dozens more on the internet, so this entry won't go without some visual sidekicks!

An image of the souks (litterally "the shops,") the cramped part of town where all of the traditional vendors sold their traditional items. There were spices, leather goods, pottery, there was art, woodwork, food, dried fruit, and oh so much more!!

A sight of the Atlas mountains, permanently in the background while we were in the city, but especially beautiful as we drove towards them:
The language was one of my favorite parts about the trip. In Morocco, where they speak a bastardized form of Arabic that mixes classical arabic with Berber dialects, French and Spanish. It's totally possible to get buy in French, and in many places, english, too... but it was a ton of fun to learn a bit of moroccan arabic here and there! Like, s'bah l'khair is 'good morning', and k'feish k'het ghoul...? means 'how do you say...?' . And everyone was so friendly and welcoming that it was a pleasure to wander the streets!

...more to come, soon.

So, my "daily commute" from the home to the classroom is a 7-minute walk, essentially consisting of a flight of steps and a long driveways. And yet, every morning it continues to blow my mind -- whether it's the 'winter wonderland' factor, the sheer quantity of snow that's on the ground, or the ridiculousness of various parts of the walk (to be elaborated on, shortly, below), it was totally worth dragging my camera around with me one morning, and totally worth sharing with you, now.

First thing's first -- on this day, I was lucky enough to be walking to the 'Math Chalet' without having to trudge through a blizzard. On mornings when the snow's falling strong, it's a little hard to see. But on a clear day like this, you leave Beau Site, turn left, and immediately face Beau Site's long driveway down to the main road.
As you can tell, the Swiss do a fabulous job of not plowing their streets. This makes for wonderful sledding ("on peut faire la luge") on the main roads, but also creates less-than-stellar safety for pedestrian traffic. I'm seriously considering investing in "Yak Traks" or some other sort of traction boost that can be tied on to the bottoms of my shoes, because with the snow and ice and general slanty-ness of the roads, my own footwear is sub-par.

Before you go down the driveway, turn to the right and face (what I've fondly nicknamed) the Stairs of
Death. 


The picture provided doesn't do justice to them -- all of the steps are either cracked, broken, tilted at horrible angles, or usually covered in 6 inches of snow. It makes for a hell of a lot of fun in the morning, but is even more interesting on the way back down in the afternoon.

At the top of the Stairs is KLAS, or the Kumon Leysin American School. In spite of the similarity in names, it's quite different from LAS -- namely, it's a japanese high school (grades 10-12) with a fourth of the student body size of LAS, consisting of a campus of two buildings instead of 6+. We fondly refer to them as "Kumon," and they regularly humiliate us in volleyball at every tournament (both boys and girls teams).




Sometimes, when I walk up the stairs in the morning, you can hear the cooks preparing breakfast for its (approx) 60 students and 30 faculty/admin... at 6:45, they are the only people out and about.



Then you turn left, and walk down the main driveway, towards the Math Chalet. Again with the ice and the snow and the slippery roads. But then you turn to the left and look out through the fence at the sunrise... and everything feels worth it.

Today i gave my SL1 kids a 10 minute "nap time" at the beginning of class, in honor of the fact that it's a damn early monday morning and it's one student's birthday.

Spent saturday "leading" a student trip to Geneva (i.e., i was the faculty supervisor on the school bus), then had fun walking around the old part of geneva with a fellow teacher, chatting in french, sampling good chocolate and vin chaud, and browsing through Geneva's pathetic excuse for a traditional european 'Christmas Market'. Some teachers went on a 3-day trip this past weekend, to tour the Strasbourg (france) and Heidleberg (germany) christmas markets, but i have evening dorm duty and couldnt go. So the plan is to check out the Montreux and Lausanne christmas markets (which i hear are quite good) next weekend, amidst all the prep for the kids' final exams. :)

Sunday was mostly grading for a precalc portfolio project for 2 classes (and theres a ton more of that kind of stuff to do). We're in the last week of classes, now, with only 4 days of school... so close to being done! Also had a rehearsal for this friday's upcoming "Open Mic" performance -- i've been snookered into singing two songs -- "Rock you like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions, and "Like a Stone" by Audioslave. So expect to see some pictures soon, with me in full rockstar garb: spiked attire, leopard print, leather, the works :)

...and then break! i'll be back stateside on dec 20th, until jan 2nd. definitely in MA, and probably in nyc for a bit, too.