The beauty of a flight to Europe is that somewhere in the scheduling of three separate flight legs, there is going to be a connection that seems suspiciously too short to actually make. I had originally hoped to exchange my US dollars for Swedish Kronars in the Atlanta airport, but realized that the 45 minute connection time was probably too short to do that, since international flights start boarding 45 minutes prior to departure time. As it was, my plane landed about 20 minutes late and at the opposite end of the airport. So I made it on my plane as the last person to board.
A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
As I was hustling down to the gate, the gate agent told me my seat had been changed. I'm thinking, oh great, does that mean I won't have an aisle seat? It turns out I was sitting in a bulkhead seat, which really threw me for a loop. I had planned on working on my laptop at least some of the flight and of course, but there is not seat in front to store my backpack with the laptop underneath, so I had to place it in the overhead. This kind of upset me. It is only later, much later, when I start to think about it, that I realize that a bulkhead seat is a prized possession for those flying in cattle class as it is one of the few seats that has full leg room. Believe me, on my return trip, I was sorely missing that leg room. So I got to watch a bunch of movies and use my iTouch and sleep a few minutes. If my stomach had not been in full scale revolt for the full eight hours, due to something I ate, it might have even been pleasant. I left Tennessee at around 12 noon and we landed in Amsterdam at about 5 am European time (10 pm Tennessee time).
MY BRIEF STAY IN AMSTERDAM (AIRPORT)
I then had enough time to stroll leisurely through the huge airport with its duty free shopping mall, pass through interminably long passport control lines and make it to my flight to Gothenburg.
IMHO, the Dutch do a poor job of line control for passports. In most US airports, the lines would be controlled by the typical post and retractable bands for however long the lines extend, and typically well passed this distance, so that it is clear that you are standing in the right line and what your place is in the line. In the Amsterdam airport the posts only extend a few feet and the EU passport and All Nations passport lines were running alternatively, so that that you had huge crowds sort of merging from all sides and people cutting in from everywhere and no one really sure if they were surging for an EU queue or an All Nations passport queue. What a mess and not very efficient.
But I had two hours and a half hours to make the connection so I did eventually get my passport stamped (only my second visa stamp, so still pretty exciting to me!) And I had some time to stroll thru the shops and think about about exchanging my money, but decided against it as it appeared that all the exchanges were for euros rather than Swedish Kronars. Sweden is part of the EU, and officially it has agreed to eventually convert to the Euro, but since its citizens keep voting down this conversion in referendums, it seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon.
I had a window seat for the relatively short flight to Gothenburg, so I got a spectacular view of the canals and windmills as we flew out of Amsterdam. I was not really clear if "electronic devices" included cameras, so I didn't take any pictures. Flying into Sweden was also very pretty, we passed over Malmo, with its train tracks that run out into the sea, over lakes and wooded areas, and it was just beautiful.
GOTHENBURG
I landed in Gothenburg, which turns out to be a pretty tiny airport. I thought that I would have to pass through passport control, but I guess since we were coming from an EU country to an EU country, this was not necessary. So I strolled out, picked up my bag and milled around until I found a place to exchange my money and then found the bus stop.
BUS RIDE
I had already bought my bus ticket online (ah the beauty of the internet), so I got on the bus, found a seat and pretended I knew what I was doing. I did a lot of this on the trip. Although just about everyone in Sweden can speak English, and there are often signs in English at museums and hotels and such, its the little things that kind of trip you up. More about that later. In this case, I knew that I wanted to get off at the Korsvagen stop, which according to the website was the first stop, but the little lighted sign at the front had some other word that I had no idea what it meant, and when the driver made his announcement as we were getting into town, he spoke so softly and the guy in the seat behind was jabbering so loudly, that I had no idea what was said. Fortunately as we pulled off the freeway, I recognized the area from the website pictures (again the beauty of the internet) so I figured I was at Korsvagen and it turned out the the bus shelter said this, so I hopped off.
A PEDESTRIAN IN SWEDEN
It took a few minutes to get oriented and start off down the road to my hotel. My printed Google Map had its usual cryptic," there may not be sidewalks" message, so I was slightly worried about whether there would be sidewalks all the way to my hotel. Oh how foolish this worry was. There could not be a more pedestrian and bicycling friendly city in the world than Gothenburg. There are wide sidewalk boulevards and either shared bike paths, bike lanes, or bike roads everywhere, as well as courteous drivers who yield (as required by law) to pedestrians. Amazing.
THE PROBLEM WITH MIDSOMMAR
So I was very excited that my first day in Sweden was Midsommar because I thought that would mean I would get to see some great local culture. However, it turns out that most of the city celebrations on are Midsommar Eve, which was the night before (if you can call it night when there is still some light at midnight) and then everybody stays home or goes to the countryside for Midsommar, so that all the museums and such were closed. Major bummer! The city was pretty much deserted! Since none of the museums were opened I strolled up Avenyn, one of the main boulevards, looking for something to tour. By this time, it was 4 am Tennessee time, 11 am Swedish time and I needed to stay awake for another 9 to 10 hours. It was my only full day to see the sights and I was kind of disappointed that it looked like I wouldn't be able to see anything.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Eating Rudolph
The other day I was in Sweden for a conference which had a smorgasbord for one of the receptions. And one of the menu items was reindeer meat. So I ate Rudolph, (or maybe Blitzen) and he tasted pretty good (and not like chicken.)
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The passing of a legend
My family lost one of its legendary figures today. My great uncle C. died after an extend illness. One of the reasons Uncle C. was legendary in my family was because he had been a professor at Church College of Hawaii (long before it became BYU-Hawaii), and had been an active participant in getting my mom and dad together and married when they were students there. So we heard lots of stories about those days from my parents.
One of the amazing thing about Uncle C. was that for his entire adult life he was a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair after a fall from a second story window during his rowdy days in the military. What made uncle C. amazing is that there are few people on earth who were a genuinely friendly and funny and loving as he was and enjoyed life as he did. He just loved people and he made you feel good to be around him. I remember going to a lot of family parties where there would be all the old folks (now I laugh at this, since they were probably not that much older than I am now, but they seemed awfully old then.) and I would really feel uncomfortable as a kid until I saw Uncle C. and then I thought, okay, I can survive this party if he is here. My grandfather had a lot of brothers, many who were good story tellers, but none was better at making people laugh and enjoy themselves as Uncle C.
I have a lot of memories of going over to Uncle C. and Aunt K's home near Payson after my family had moved to Utah from Hawaii. They lived kind of up in the foothills and they had some farm animals and a well and stuff. Which for a kid coming from Hawaii, seemed like the coolest thing. I think the only time I have ever attempted to milk a cow in my entire life was at their home. (Didn't do very well at this.) While my uncle R. had horses, I was always scared of him (and the horses as well it turns out.) My uncle C. and aunt K. had this enormous family room, which I remember having a foosball table and other cool games and stuff. We had a lot of family gatherings there on holidays and such. I remember the scary Halloween haunted woods thing their kids put on one year when I was a teenager. Ken and David set it up in the woods behind the house, and I think Uncle C. delivered the big set up scare with the legend of some Indian who died in the early warfare in the early days of the Mormon settlement period and came back to haunt the nearby area. I also remember a big family party with a magician and that I was so frustrated at not being able to figure out how he was doing the tricks.
I guess this is to just say thanks to Uncle C. for a lot of wonderful memories.
One of the amazing thing about Uncle C. was that for his entire adult life he was a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair after a fall from a second story window during his rowdy days in the military. What made uncle C. amazing is that there are few people on earth who were a genuinely friendly and funny and loving as he was and enjoyed life as he did. He just loved people and he made you feel good to be around him. I remember going to a lot of family parties where there would be all the old folks (now I laugh at this, since they were probably not that much older than I am now, but they seemed awfully old then.) and I would really feel uncomfortable as a kid until I saw Uncle C. and then I thought, okay, I can survive this party if he is here. My grandfather had a lot of brothers, many who were good story tellers, but none was better at making people laugh and enjoy themselves as Uncle C.
I have a lot of memories of going over to Uncle C. and Aunt K's home near Payson after my family had moved to Utah from Hawaii. They lived kind of up in the foothills and they had some farm animals and a well and stuff. Which for a kid coming from Hawaii, seemed like the coolest thing. I think the only time I have ever attempted to milk a cow in my entire life was at their home. (Didn't do very well at this.) While my uncle R. had horses, I was always scared of him (and the horses as well it turns out.) My uncle C. and aunt K. had this enormous family room, which I remember having a foosball table and other cool games and stuff. We had a lot of family gatherings there on holidays and such. I remember the scary Halloween haunted woods thing their kids put on one year when I was a teenager. Ken and David set it up in the woods behind the house, and I think Uncle C. delivered the big set up scare with the legend of some Indian who died in the early warfare in the early days of the Mormon settlement period and came back to haunt the nearby area. I also remember a big family party with a magician and that I was so frustrated at not being able to figure out how he was doing the tricks.
I guess this is to just say thanks to Uncle C. for a lot of wonderful memories.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tying Shoelaces
So I recently read "To the Rescue", an autobiography of President Monson written by the mother of one of our former ward members. (President Monson's grandson used to be in our ward too, so I guess there is some connection there.)
One of the most important things I learned...
...was how to tie my shoelaces right.
It seems that at some point Elder Monson asked Elder Hunter why Elder Hunter's shoelaces never came untied while his always did. Elder Hunter replied that he was tying his with a square knot while Elder Monson was tying a granny knot. It took me a few seconds to "get" what was meant by this, but then it dawned on me, and now I have switched the way I tie the bow and yes, I no longer have problems with my shoes coming untied over time as has been a problem for many years. I am not sure how I was originally taught this, but I am sure at some point it was easier to remember to do the same motion twice rather than inverting it as is required for the "square knot" variant of the bow.
One of the most important things I learned...
...was how to tie my shoelaces right.
It seems that at some point Elder Monson asked Elder Hunter why Elder Hunter's shoelaces never came untied while his always did. Elder Hunter replied that he was tying his with a square knot while Elder Monson was tying a granny knot. It took me a few seconds to "get" what was meant by this, but then it dawned on me, and now I have switched the way I tie the bow and yes, I no longer have problems with my shoes coming untied over time as has been a problem for many years. I am not sure how I was originally taught this, but I am sure at some point it was easier to remember to do the same motion twice rather than inverting it as is required for the "square knot" variant of the bow.
Q: What do March Madness and the BCS have in common?
Answer: they are both used to decide the NCAA national championship of their respective sports.
Other than that, not a lot.
If the BCS was used to pick the basketball champion, we would have had 1 game and Ohio St. would have faced Duke. But thank goodness, in basketball there is a real championship tournament. Turns out, Ohio St. is not even the best team in Ohio. Given that not a single one of the top 8 rated teams made the final four, and that Butler, given an 8 seed, will now be playing in the championship game for a second time in a row, I think we can pretty much laugh at the idea that humans or computers can pick the winner of head to head game from teams in different conferences and that the "elite" conferences hold any special edge. But in football, the BCS will go on tiredly spinning its yarn and the rest of us are held hostage to it.
Meanwhile, in the real championship, go Bulldogs! Take down them other puppies!
Other than that, not a lot.
If the BCS was used to pick the basketball champion, we would have had 1 game and Ohio St. would have faced Duke. But thank goodness, in basketball there is a real championship tournament. Turns out, Ohio St. is not even the best team in Ohio. Given that not a single one of the top 8 rated teams made the final four, and that Butler, given an 8 seed, will now be playing in the championship game for a second time in a row, I think we can pretty much laugh at the idea that humans or computers can pick the winner of head to head game from teams in different conferences and that the "elite" conferences hold any special edge. But in football, the BCS will go on tiredly spinning its yarn and the rest of us are held hostage to it.
Meanwhile, in the real championship, go Bulldogs! Take down them other puppies!
California Dreamin' 3
So on one of the days, the conference offered the chance to sign up for a whale watching trip during the afternoon break. Of course I signed up and paid my money. The original day, they had to cancel because of the weather, so I was really bummed. But the next day they were able to go, and this actually worked out well anyway.
The Channel Islands are a several miles of the Ventura coast and are the Channel Island National Marine Sanctuary.
On the way out to the islands, we spotted a gray whale (the primary type of whale we were expecting to see at this time of the year. The blue whales don't come by for a few more months, and the humpbacks as well.
In some ways, watching gray whales is less interesting than humpbacks because they are bottom feeders, so most of their activity is below surface and they don't do any of the joyful breaching and such that humpbacks do. They lack a dorsal fin, because they swim so slowly they apparently don't need this stabilization. Additionally, regulation don't allow intentional approach to the gray whales closer than 100 yards. So mostly we could see the blows and the tail lifts at the start of deep dives, but not so much else.
When we reached the Anacape Island, we saw the beautiful formations and also had a superb view of a California stellar sea lion, which is much larger than the more common sea lion. A group of four seals swam out to our boat and play in the near vicinity.
On the far side of the island we found two pods of four gray whales.
But for me the highlight of the trip was on the return, when all of a sudden we were surrounded for about five minutes by literally hundreds of common dolphins. It was simply amazing. If I can figure out how to load movies from my iPod over to a format that my PC can use (any suggestions) I have some cool movies of this to share.
The Channel Islands are a several miles of the Ventura coast and are the Channel Island National Marine Sanctuary.
On the way out to the islands, we spotted a gray whale (the primary type of whale we were expecting to see at this time of the year. The blue whales don't come by for a few more months, and the humpbacks as well.
In some ways, watching gray whales is less interesting than humpbacks because they are bottom feeders, so most of their activity is below surface and they don't do any of the joyful breaching and such that humpbacks do. They lack a dorsal fin, because they swim so slowly they apparently don't need this stabilization. Additionally, regulation don't allow intentional approach to the gray whales closer than 100 yards. So mostly we could see the blows and the tail lifts at the start of deep dives, but not so much else.
When we reached the Anacape Island, we saw the beautiful formations and also had a superb view of a California stellar sea lion, which is much larger than the more common sea lion. A group of four seals swam out to our boat and play in the near vicinity.On the far side of the island we found two pods of four gray whales.
California Dreamin' 2
So my conference was in Ventura, CA, and the hotel was right on Ventura Harbor. Although I mostly saw seagulls, I did see a seal swimming around once.
It was about a mile walk down to the beach and there was a couple hours set aside in the middle of the day for recreation. I really like this kind of conference schedule seminars and meals together from 7 am to 1:30, free time to 4 pm, then science and dinner from 4:30 to 10 pm.
The break in the middle of the day gives some time to let the brain rest, because its way too hard for me to focus on information overload for 11 hours without break.
I had brought my swimming suit, but I have to admit that the water was too cold for me to really enjoy swimming. So mostly I just sad on the beach and reflected.
It was about a mile walk down to the beach and there was a couple hours set aside in the middle of the day for recreation. I really like this kind of conference schedule seminars and meals together from 7 am to 1:30, free time to 4 pm, then science and dinner from 4:30 to 10 pm.
The break in the middle of the day gives some time to let the brain rest, because its way too hard for me to focus on information overload for 11 hours without break.I had brought my swimming suit, but I have to admit that the water was too cold for me to really enjoy swimming. So mostly I just sad on the beach and reflected.