First Week at School

I've completed my first week working at the University of British Columbia.  The environment is much more mellow than my last job.  I'm working 35 hours/week, and I'm able to have lunch and bicycle commute with Brian.

The other school that's started is sailing school. Brian and I joined the Locarno Beach Club and we're taking sailing lessons.  We've only been sailing in little Vanguard 15s and it's pretty fun.  We're always hoping for mild wind.  Our first class was too windy and we almost tipped over, and when we don't have wind we have to practice capsize and recovery of the boat, which means getting in to the Canadian Pacific (brrrrrr). 

Vancouver Visitors

I've been bad about posting stuff here, but I don't think it's cheating to back-blog, so here goes.

In February my sister came up to visit me in Vancouver and we spent four days touring Seattle and Vancouver together. We started at Cafe Mox, a board game bar with our friends Tim and Emily. The next day we soaked in some coffee culture at Vivace and a very fancy Starbucks. We hit up the Seattle Art Museum, which had a great Gauguin/Polynesia exhibit and we went to the Seattle EMP. I think we spent too much time in the Experience Music section and not enough in the Science museum. In Vancouver we did a cycling tour of Vancouver in the pouring rain, checked out Chinatown, and ate some tasty food.

Cafe Mox

Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden

Last week Eric and Ruth came out. It rained the entire time they were here, but we still managed to go out and have fun in the museums, shops and rainforest. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and we went to several botanic gardens to enjoy the cherry blossoms, magnolia flowers, tulips and daffodils.

UBC Museum of Anthropology

Van Dusen Botanical Garden

Italy

It was so nice to finish our trip in Italy. The first time Brian and I traveled together was nine years ago and we went to Italy. Going back felt romantic and nostalgic. It was also a dining delight - we had delicious food, incredibly cheap wine, gelato, and more gelato.

Venice
I had never been to Venice before and I found it unbelievably beautiful. Every town that claims to be "Venice of the [other place]" is deluding themselves. Venice is Venice, and it is awesome. The canals were very charming and the food was delicious.

We were in Venice during the biennale, so we got to see tons of cool installation art. The pavillions at the Biennale let us see amazing contemporary art from countries around the world. The city was filled with tourists, which led to some housing problems, but we still had a wonderful time.

Padua University Anatomy Hall by MaryBeth

Veneto

We spent some time looking at Palladian architecture in Vicenza. We took a brief tour of  Padua's university. The highlights of the tour were Galileo's lecture podium and a creepy anatomy hall where medical students would gather in secret and witness cadaver dissection by candlelight.






Cinque Terra
Beautiful pastel houses lining the sea cliffs of Mediterranean and coastal sea walks through vineyards. We spent three days in Cinque Terra, strolling around, taking tons of photographs, and eating lots and lots of gelato.  There weren't many other tourists, but we did see a few elderly German hiking groups, one of which sang beautiful hymns in the small church in Volastra.

The towns looked so beautiful at sunset, but it was difficult to take pictures with such little light. While the twenty other photographers on the walkway used professional tripods, Brian and I were trying to balance the camera on the rail, bushes and each other's heads to get a steady shot.

Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is so dumb looking. It's a really beautiful pillar surrounded by beautiful buildings, but it so crooked you can't help but laugh. The nearby baptistry and basilica are beautiful.


Milan
We had just a little bit of time in Milan before heading back to the US, so we took in a few of the sights like the Gothic Duomo and the Svorza Castle.  The castle had an interesting musical instrument museum showing pieces that defied the instrument standardization that I have become so used to.


Full Photo Album

Athens

Brian and I took three days in Athens to see the Parthenon and continue our tour of economically unstable countries. While we were there it seemed like everyone was on strike, but the strikes happened at different times and luckily they didn't interfere with our vacation plans too much. For example, the transportation system was on strike for most of the time we were there, but the subway and buses were in service on the two days when we needed to get to/from the airport. The archeological sites were closed due to strikes, but we got to see the Parthenon on our last day in town. I felt bad that we saw the Parthenon after going to Egypt. Compared to the temples and tombs in Egypt, the Parthenon seemed relatively new, in poor condition, inaccessible, and small. If anyone is thinking of doing a similar trip, I would recommend going to Athens before Luxor.

Egypt

The Route 
We came into Egypt from Israel, spent some time in Dahab diving the Red Sea. Our favorite dives were of the SS Thistlegorm, a WWII battleship that was sunk by the Germans. The ship is enormous and you can see machine guns, tanks, and motorcycles as you tour the ship. We took a day to ascend Mt. Sinai and headed over to Cairo where we saw the Great Pyramids, the Step Pyramid, and the Red Pyramid. We got to see the inside of the Red Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khufu, but found the turpentine smell of the interiors a little nauseating.  We headed south to Aswan to view the great wall-carved statues of Abu Simbel and took a short felucca trip at sunset. We visited Kom Ombu and Edfu during a two-day cruise up the Nile towards Luxor. While in Luxor we went to The Valley of Kings, Karnak, and Luxor Temple. After Luxor we took a night bus back to Cairo to catch our flight to Athens (photos of our trip). 

Not Overrated 

Great Temple at Abu Simbel

I had heard people say that the sphinx was really small and the pyramids aren’t that cool. If anything, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the phenomenal sights. There are too many monuments and tombs to see, and museums have hundreds of artifacts in back corners that Western musuems would feature as treasured pieces.  The first time I saw hieroglyphics, I spent a lot of time looking at the intricate carvings, matching symbols from our book, trying to find traces of pigment left on the stele. By the end of the trip, I was breezing past carved columns of temples looking for “the cool stuff”. It’s easy to become desensitized, but it certainly doesn’t mean that the pyramids aren’t cool. Likewise, the monuments along the south of the Nile are amazing, especially considering that most of the temples were moved to higher ground in the 1960s after the Aswan High Dam project. 

Avoiding Trouble 

Protest in Tahrir Square, Cairo

There was a lot of turmoil while we were in Egypt, but we managed to stay out of danger. While we were in Cairo, the interim government instituted Emergency Law, sparking protests across the country. We saw some of the protests in Tahrir Square on the Friday following the announcement. The day before we arrived in Aswan, Muslims burned a Coptic Church in the region. A week later, Copts organized a protest in Cairo that ended in a deadly riot. We arrived in Cairo the following morning, seeing burned vehicles, rubble, and army members in tanks as we entered the city. 
 
We remained close to turmoil after leaving the country: strikes in Athens turned into riots just five days before and two days after our visit to the city. We were never in danger, but we caused our parents a lot of worry. Our travel itinerary (Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Greece and Italy) was in the news for the entire duration of our trip. 
 
“Get Lost” in Translation

Hassle in the Marketplace

Before going to Egypt Brian and I tried to learn Arabic. We listened to language tapes and were still struggling to say “two teas please” and “I would like to go to a restaurant” after two months of work. Studying Arabic was unnecessary: everyone we wanted to communicate with spoke English, and all of the people that we wanted to avoid spoke English. The only Arabic phrases that I actually used were “Go away. I don’t want to buy anything." It's much easier to ignore people when they're speaking a language you don't fully understand.  

Even though  we didn't have language difficulties, Egypt was a very difficult place to travel on our own.  There were transportation issues - we had to charter private transportation or tours to a lot of the sights. The biggest problem was the constant hassle. Many people tried to scam us by giving us incorrect information, trying to prevent us from getting to ticket booths, demanding payment for following us down a street, and generally wasting our time.  People may have been more aggressive about pushing products and services due to the the tourism slow-down in Egypt, so perhaps the unbearable hassle might be an anomaly. The few days we spent aboard a cruise boat were very relaxing, so I can see the appeal of doing a package tour in Egypt. 



Being a woman in Egypt 
Before we left, I was fretting about what to wear and how many scarfs to bring to cover my hair. I wanted to be respectful and I made sure that none of my clothing revealed knees or shoulders. I felt a little jealous of the other female tourists at historic sites - people were wearing tank tops and shorts and I was sweating in long-sleeved shirts and pants. One nice thing about being a woman is that I didn’t get hassled nearly as much as Brian. I guess they assumed that he’s in charge of all purchasing decisions :). 

More photos

Israel and Palestine

Jerusalem
I don’t usually see too many American tourists while I’m traveling, and I think it’s because so many of them are in Jerusalem. During the day, the old city was full of large American tour groups. The biggest draw to Jerusalem is the religious sites: the Stations of the Cross, the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, but I found that watching the people was much more interesting than just looking at the sites.

I did feel a bit uncomfortable because it seemed like every 18 – 20 year old was carrying an assault rifle and many of the residents expressed towards other ethnic groups. However, Jerusalem felt very safe for me as a tourist.

Bethlehem

Bethlehem was the only city we visited in the West Bank, and I was really glad we went. We arrived in Bethlehem just days before Mahmoud Abbas officially applied for UN state recognition for Palestine. Everyone was in a jubilant mood and there was an all-day celebration for the Palestinian freedom movement with parades and dancing.
Grafitti

Outside of Bethlehem are the West Bank Separation Barrier and Aida, a permanent refugee camp. As we drove to Bethlehem, we saw how imposing the wall is and how severely it divides the landscape. Before leaving Bethlehem we went out to the wall to see Banksy's graffiti art, and we were surprised to find so much other art on the wall. The town felt very imprisoned as we left the city to go back to Jerusalem, passing through a crazy security checkpoint along the way.

Akko/Jaffa/Tel Aviv

After Bethlehem we headed north for Akko (Acre) and Jaffa,former Crusader towns. Acre has a neat citadel, a few secret tunnels, and very good hummus. Jaffa had lots of picturesque alleys and great views of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was a surprisingly Western city with lots of tall skyscrapers and delicious and diverse food. The beaches were right next to the city and they were beautiful, much nicer than the beaches we saw in the resort town of Eilat.

More Pictures are Here

Jordan Wrap-Up

It was so nice to start our trip with Jordan because it was so easy to travel there, everyone was really nice, and the sights were amazing. We spent the first part of our trip in Amman, Jordan’s capital. Some parts of the city are extremely Westernized with designer clothing stores and people playing “Hotel California” on Rainbow Street. The old part of the city is much more traditional with souqs, bazaars, and women wearing hijabs. The highlight of Amman was seeing my friend Hala and her family. Amman has a few Roman ruins of its own, but we took a few day trips to Jerash to see the well preserved ancient ruins of Geresa and to Madaba to see Byzantine mosaics from 1500 years ago.

Citadel Hill - Amman

Dinner with Hala and her sisters

Entering Petra from the Siq

We spent the second part of our trip near Petra, which was amazing. The ruins had very few tourists while we were there – the violence in neighboring Syria and the uncertainty in Egypt seemed to keep people away. With so few other tourists, it was much easier to pretend to be Indiana Jones as we wandered the ancient city for 3 days.

The Monestary - Petra

While at Petra, some Bedoin people invited us to stay longer in Petra to have a Bedouin dinner in a cave. We went into the desert wondering if we were being incredibly foolish to follow complete strangers away from the other tourists and out of the park. It ended up being a fun evening with campfires, singing, chanting, and drinking gin.

Following our Bedoin friends into the desert

Bedoin Cave Dinner

More photos from Jordan