Testing...Hello?

So I think I'm going to start posting on this blog again, after two years of negligence! I finally have a job that leaves time for me to write some things for here, so this post is just a test to see if everything is still working with my new blogging software.

Fun in Idaho!

So, for those who don't know, I'm now living in Idaho teaching at an outdoor science school for the next year. My experience here so far has been wonderful, and the area that I'm living in is absolutely beautiful! Right now, we're still in the training process, and the first group of kids come the week of September 10. I'm so excited to get started, it should be a really fun year.

The part of Idaho that I'm living in is not famous for its potatoes, but for it's skiing, mountain biking, boating and hiking instead. It's in the mountains, right on a lake, and surrounded by coniferous forests of Ponderosa and Lodgepole Pines, Grand and Douglas Firs, Engleman Spruce, and a sprinkling of Aspens. There is about 3 feet of snow on the ground for most of the winter!

Here are some pictures from the backpacking trip I took with the rest of the staff a few weeks ago:

Mt. Vesuvius, Venice, and the end of my time in Italy

Well, my time here in Rome is officially over. Sorry for the sparse blog posts the last half of the year! These past 11 months certainly have been quite the adventure! I suppose pretty soon I'll have to come up with a new subtitle for my blog as well...any ideas?

My last month or so in Italy has certainly been fun as well! Immediately after finishing my thesis, I spent a week gallivanting around Rome with my two cousins, Beth and Carey. We went to all the museums, saw all the normal touristy things, hopped the train for a day trip to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius and even squeezed in the Infiorata in Genzano, a "flower carpet" that was made on the main street of a little town just outside of Rome.

Here are a few pics from Mt. Vesuvius:





Last week I decided to head to Venice for the day, since I've never been there before and really wanted to go before I left for the States. I took the night train and got into Venice at about 5:30 in the morning. Walking around the deserted streets and around the mainly empty canals at sunrise was a special treat! It was a nice time of reflection for me, wandering through the thousands of small alleyways, over and around the canals. I took TONS of pictures. Here are a few from sunrise:










Most of the time I was there the whole city was flooded with tourists (even more than Rome!) and I relished finding the small, out of the way parts of the city that weren't quite as crowded. My two favorite parts of Venice were two of the smaller islands, Murano and Burano. Murano is the island where the famous Murano Italian glass is made. It was still pretty touristy, but because there are so many glassworks there, there are a lot of Italians you see just going about their daily lives (on the main island of Venice this is rare). The glass they make there is so beautiful!



Burano was enchanting. It seemed almost like I had stepped into another universe for an hour or so - where Italy is clean, its parks are safe for old people and children to enjoy, and everything is picture perfect. Rather than the huge metal security gates and guard dogs that are so common near Rome, there is merely a piece of cloth hanging over their open front doors to keep out the sun and give a little privacy. It was so peaceful and beautiful. If I ever go back to Venice, I would like to find a place to stay in Burano.


Note the pimped out speaker system in that little boat! Teenagers are the same everywhere.... :)


If you look carefully you can see the colored glass from nearby Murano decorating the flower pots.


Mainstreet in Burano


After visiting Murano and Burano, I headed back to the main island to explore the city by night. Here are a few of my pictures.




Gondolas covered up for the night

I'm still alive! Just busy....

Sorry for the extremely long hiatus from my blog....it's been forever since I've posted anything on here. I hope to fix that soon, and update you on all of my adventures since then.

A preview of what's to come....
-Santa Marinella fun, the beach
-Rail trip across Europe for Easter break: including Germany, Switzerland, Austria and a little bit of Slovenia :)

It's been so long since I've posted anything I've actually forgot how exactly I was doing it - so bear with me! :P

"Safe Pollution"

An environmental ad campaign sponsored by Friends of the Earth, a British government-funded organization, shows condoms covering point sources of air pollution (via Grist). This struck me as rather odd - what exactly is the message they're trying to get across with this? What do they presuppose one thinks about the use of condoms in the first place? The message wasn't very clear to me - other than possibly a cheap shot at sex to get people to visit their website. Here are some possible lines of thought I came up with:

Common thoughts about condoms:

-As long as you use them, you're having "safe sex," where you don't really have to worry about the consequences of your actions.

Presuppositions they make:

-Condoms protect us from unwanted "pollution." That unwanted pollution is specifically sperm, which has the potential for creating human life, or any number of known or unknown diseases.

Possible conclusions one is supposed to draw:

-Pollution has unwanted consequences

-??? I really don't know...

Conclusions that I made from this ad:

I think it's really interesting that they used this metaphor specifically in their ads, because I think it really tells more about the inadequacies of condom use than about air pollution. There's no way you could ever catch air pollution from different sources by using something like a condom, it's very clearly absurd. Rather than taking responsibility for air pollution and looking for ways to reduce it or control it, this ad is showing a culture where immediate gratification is worshipped, personal responsibility is abandoned, and band-aid solutions for unwanted side effects are actively searched for. Sound familiar? Perhaps like part of the Church's argument against artificial contraception?

It's really interesting to me how both environmental groups and Christian/prolife groups often end up preaching about the same values: unselfishness, responsibility, and foresight - but in very different ways. What's the difference? What each group holds as their primary conviction in life. For the enviros - the Earth is sacred (or whatever other pc/equivalent term one prefers) and we must take care of it. For the Christian/prolife groups - human life is sacred and we must take care of it.

Is either conviction a bad one to have? No.

Are they mutually exclusive? I certainly don't think so - although I'm sure there are those who would disagree.

What conclusions would you draw from such an ad campaign?

Technorati Tags: Birth control, Environmental ethics, Pollution

Monte Serrata

At the beginning of January, I found a group of women who go on full-day, genuine hikes every Wednesday. I was so excited to actually make use of my hiking boots again!! They meet early in the morning and bring a packed lunch to eat on the hike.

Two weeks ago I went with this group to Monte Serrata, which is about an hour north of Rome. The group consists of mostly women who are foreigners but living in Italy permanently. I was by far the youngest, but I enjoyed their company very much!

The day started at 8 am, meeting early so as to avoid rush hour traffic in Rome. As we were driving towards the mountain, it was very foggy outside and we were worried that it might be rainy. Being January, what is supposed to be the rainy season, it was a good possibility. The hike started in a city that was positioned on the top of one of three peaks on a the mountain. As we approached the city, the fog was left below us in the valley, creating the illusion of a sea which we were driving through only minutes before. The mountain appeared, not as a mountain, but as three tiny islands. Above the fog the skies were blue and sunny, the air crisp and clear.

The hike started out on a small road that was actually the driveway to a monastery that was on top of the second peak. Then we ventured off the road onto the real trail. It was so refreshing to be climbing over rocks again, rather than pavement! Once we got to the top of the mountain, the trail followed the ridge, providing an amazing view of the valley below. There was still plenty of fog, but it was starting to clear in some areas. We arrived at the main entrance of the monastery and stopped for a water break, since there was a small fountain there. Then we continued on to the last and highest peak, which didn't have anything on it currently, but there appeared to be ruins of a chapel there.

We stopped there for lunch. Oh it was so beautiful! After lunch, we went back towards the town on a different route, that went pretty much straight across to the town where we started. It was such a relaxing and refreshing day, I'm looking forward to many more amazing hikes on the coming Wednesdays!!

Our group

Technorati Tags: hiking, Monte Serrata, Vistas

Epiphany/Befana

During Christmastime, Piazza Navona in downtown Rome is transformed into a Christmas carnival with a carousel, amusement park games, street performers, crafts for sale, the most candy and tacky toys you've ever seen in your life, and little witches hanging on the corner of all the booths. When I first saw this, I was certainly perplexed. What was up with all of these witches? The witch's name is Befana, and she brings Italian Children presents on January 6th. How, in such a Catholic country, is there a tradition that a witch brings presents?

Well, of course, there's a story behind it - and it does link back to Christmas (kind of). Here's the version I heard. There are variations, and I'm not sure which is the "right" one.

The three kings were on their way to visit the baby Jesus by way of Italy, and they needed a place to stay. The witch, being a witch, refused to let them stay in her home when they asked, so they went on and kept looking. Afterwards, the witch felt really bad for being so mean, so ever since then she has given children presents on the day the kings arrived to visit Jesus to try to make up for her mean behavior. Interesting, isn't it?

Technorati Tags: Befana, Christmas, Italian customs, Piazza Navona, Epiphany

Tivoli

Tivoli - the city of a thousand fountains - is about 40 minutes outside of Rome by train. My friend, Annika, and I decided to head out there the day before she went back to Estonia. It's a really cute city just like so many others near Rome, but is famous for it's Villas. Alas, by the time we got out there, it was after lunch. All of the Villas closed around noon for lunchtime, and reopened somewhere between 2:30 and 4. This is to be expected, but what we weren't expecting was that all of the Villas closed for the day around 4:10 because it's wintertime. We missed the 10 minute window when one could gain entrance in the afternoon, not knowing this until it was too late. So we weren't able to see the beautiful Villas that everyone raves about, but the city was beautiful on it's own, and we managed to have plenty of fun anyway.

Of course, there was also the spectacular sunset from the city walls as well.

Technorati Tags: sunsets, Tivoli

The Vatican at Christmastime

Some more beautiful scenes from St. Peter's square.....

I also created a desktop wallpaper of the last photo, if anyone wants to download it for next Christmas, here's a link.

It's pretty much the same as the above, but I added "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." beneath the nativity.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, St. Peter's, Vatican

Christmas party

Ok, so my plan is to try to post all of these pictures and stories sequentially - starting with the oldest. So here goes....

Before Christmas, me and my friends from Torre di Babele (the language school) had a "Christmas dinner." Most of the people in the group would be returning home just before Christmas, so it was also kind of a goodbye party for a lot. We spent the whole day decorating and cooking food, then people started to arrive around 7 pm. The whole evening turned out really nicely. Our idea was to have an international Christmas party, so we tried to incorporate foods and/or traditions from everyone's home country. I brought green bean casserole (made with genuine American cream of mushroom soup!), Eva (who is German) made apple strudel, Nuno (Portuguese) made a pork and rice dish that was very yummy, Annika (Estonian) brought some cookies and Lingenberry jam (which also doubled as the Swedish food), etc, etc. We also made a sign that said Merry Christmas in everyone's native language. It was quite a fun night!

Here's a picture:

Technorati Tags: Christmas, international, food