Moscow

My dad just got home from a job in Russia. His first trip there, and he says he loved the food. It was 40 degrees, though, so I don't think I'll go with him any time before August. Here's a shot he grabbed of the Moscow Kremlin. I find it a surprisingly fun archetectural style.

Antiquities

Took the kids to see the Excavating Egypt exhibit at the Columbia Art Museum (COMA) today. I have to say it is just not the same as being there. Basically, in Egypt or in Italy, stuff that is older than our dirt kind of heaps up. Yeah, it's pretty neat, and people like to come over and comment on it. But after awhile, how many death masks or 3' olive jars can a person fit in the living room before there is just no place to sit?

It's different seeing these phenomenal pieces displayed behind 1/2 inch thick plexi, in a room where people stand softly and stare knowingly, lips pursed, at a hieroglyphic laden goat head.

It is nice that they post notes you can read next to the objects. In Cairo, if you want to know what you are looking at, be prepared to spend your life savings on a guide who may or may not speak your language, and may or may not know more than you do about the Rosetta Stone, but will be happy to introduce you to an low-priced, locals-only, approved-by-the-government-for tourists, no-pressure-sales, authentic (!) perfume factory owner/rug dealer/camel renter/papyrus maker when you are done at the museum.

How to speak 12 languages in 12 days

My good friend Laura called from Bucharest, Romania yesterday. Her name is pronounced something like Laugh ruh - like a Southerner would say it but not exactly. Her timing was great because Sarah was busy researching Nadia Comaneci for a school project and we were discussing communism (don't get me started) and the abusive regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.

Laura is another one of my truly brain gifted friends. She fluently speaks five languages and has a smattering of others she can speak better than I speak Spanish. To give you an idea what that means, I have attempted to "study" Spanish for at least 5 years, plus high school, and when I try to hold a conversation longer than "turn right at the corner," people still smile politely at me or just look confused or do that Dominican nose wrinkle thing that means they have no idea what I just said.

Laura's five majors languages are: Romanian, English, Spanish, German and French. Minors include Russian, Turkish, Italian, Hindi and Gypsy (which is probably called something else, anyone know? Roma, maybe?).

Here is how she learns a language. I witnessed this when we went camping together in Italy, so I'm not making it up. Hour one, plane lands. Laura looks at the airport signs and deduces what they say so we can find our way to the rental car. Hour two, she then says hi to some people in the new language. They assume she can speak their language and she learns the basic small talk in about 15 minutes. Hour three, we are hopelessly lost in Rome. We stop the car, she jumps out and asks directions and then laughs and talks with the guy in fluent Italian.

Language aquisition, accomplished.

David in Croatia

Yeah, pretty much looks the same as David in SC. But, I think he is having fun, so that is good. We are going to decorate for Christmas tomorrow. It is early, but with chicken pox keeping us at home, it should brighten the day.

UPDATE, email from David:
(notice in the photos everyone is wearing coats INSIDE. I would not do well there, as I wear wool socks when it goes below 70 here)
It is Wednesday night and we fly back tomorrow. The last couple days have been very crazy and I have not been on line much. My computer was at the building where we were working last night so I could not even use it. We did rack wiring yesterday and the day before and re-worked the whole sound system with the new speakers that we brought. Branko is really nice and wants to be a good host and wants us to see things so he has us scheduled for lunch at this place up north with people that wedge knows and one night with Branko’s parents, etc. Wedge lived here for a month once and has visited several times as well. It is kind of like we are fighting for the time to get the work done that we need to get done.

Well we finally finished the wiring tonight, after the concert. We were pretty much done but went and set up the concert with two wires bypassed and on rack not neatened up yet. The concert went really well. This is their model for local concerts in these little towns and it works really well. The find a children’s hospital or children’s home or something and ask them if they can do a benefit concert for them. They then find a local musician or two to open up the concert. Tonight they raised about $600 for a children’s daycare center that we visited earlier today. About 300 people were there and the children from the center sang a song first, followed by a local musician backed up by the band. The band is Branko on guitar and lead vocal, his son on keys, another son on drums, an electric guitar, and two backing vocals. They are all really good. They just jumped in with this guy doing country music without any rehearsal. The son who plays keys (he has a total of 4 sons and 1 daughter-Sarah) is really good. He played along with these kids singing on songs that he had never heard. He let them start and would just throw in a chord after he heard it but by the second verse he was just playing along. He is a music major in college and plays a lot—pretty much all Jazz/Fusion kind of stuff.

The sound guy they have is really nice. He does not have much experience and they don’t give him as much respect as he deserves but he is really sharp. He is not very good at the art of mixing yet (which is what bugs them) but he has the signal flow and technical ends down. I think he can learn the art of mixing with some time.

The place we went today was right beside the Slovenia border. Yesterday we were somewhere where they said “that hill right there is Hungary”. Unfortunately we did not get to cross the border either time. Some of the things up there reminded me more of Romania—but not as poor. It was more like the Black Church area of Romania.

I have done a really poor job of taking pictures. I think I have about 3. I will get a copy of Leon’s pics. He has been taking more.

Well it is 12:30 and I better pack up and get to bed. We have a couple things we “have to see” in the morning. I also would like to get some paper money. I have not even spent a dime since I got here. The first day Leon paid for lunch at a restaurant and Branko was visibly offended. I have not exchanged a cent or spent anything. They just cart us around and feed us. I said I wanted to get some souvenir money and two different people came back with baggies of change. I am not going to ask or they will just give me bills. I will try to get some after they drop me off at the airport.

It is not like I have had a chance either. We have always been with someone or just been at the shop where we worked. I have not even had a chance to buy anything. Tonight they gave us a gift bag of chocolate, a shirt, a mug, some other snacks, etc. I feel bad that they are spending so much on us.