Yes we went night…

Yes we went night hunting in Arizona but we finally got our goal and coach (?) got his revenge. Film at 11.

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monsoon season? YEP

Spent the day in the rain. It rained ALL day. It went from a light rain to a very heavy rain and back again, but never not raining.

The day went very fast, I saw temples, zoos, parks, and museums.

I met and had a conversation with maybe 10 folks or so. Almost all of them asked me at some point in the conversation something along the lines of “Which is better India or America?” When I was here in 2003 the most common question was more like “Is there something you like about India?”

I think there is a real sense of things getting better here.

My answer was always something like: something better about US, something better here. I think Americans could learn a lot about how to enjoy life. The folks with the worst life in US have it way better than most in India, yet they seem to enjoy things more here. Most places I saw the folks seemed “more happy” than what I see at a similar place in US. It’s not a huge gap, but I see a definite gap. 2 examples.

1) The spill way: It was just a smallish water fall yet the folks seemed to enjoy it more than we would in US. There was more laughter, more excited talk (this might just be the language), more teenagers playing.
2) At another stop. It was on top of the hill where the stream started that folks were palying below. It was raining so hard that you really couldn’t seen anything, so a group of teens played music from their car and started dancing in the rain. It was just a big party waiting for the rain to stop enough to see something.

By the way: still not sick from the soda on day 1 so maybe I got lucky.  MAYBE!!!!

Drive to Pune

I wake up just in time to get to the breakfast. Indian breakfast? I forgot the ??? impact ??? Indian food has on me

The driver picks me up at about 12 and we had down the highway.

It has always been dark when I made this drive so it’s nice to see everything as it goes by. We stop off at a local McDonald’s. I forgot how hard it is to pick the safe stuff. I can’t have anything that is washed but not cooked. Also can’t have ice or anything that has had any water in it. So I order a pizza wrap kind of thingy, fries, and a soda (no ice) I get about half way through my meal and realize THE SODA FOUNTAIN ADDS WATER TO THE SYRUP!!!! This is not good. I hope the acid in the syrup is enough to kill any of the nasty bugs.

So we get back on the road. On the way we make a few stops to see a few things on the way. The most interesting was a spillway for a dam. There were lots of people all around climbing up the spill way, playing in the water, and generally mulling around like a small festival. I hang out here for a bit, meet several people (seems not many white folks get to this part of the world).

At about 6pm we get to the new hotel, I check in, eat dinner, and prop my eyes open until about 10pm.

Off to India

The day of my trip started off nice.  Didn’t have to be a the airport until about 2pm.   Had to do some shopping before I left so ran around to a few stores.  Added bonus: I found a cool travel Ipod thingy.  It’a a travel alarm that has a dock for my ipod, has a sleep function, and lets me hook it up to a TV so I can watch the movies on a TV instead of the itty bitty screen on the ipod.

Got to the airport a little early, got to the self checkin screen and it tells me there is a problem please see someone at the counter.  Went to the counter the screen told me to and they said “OH!!  you need to go down that that line way down there.  Now I’m getting a little nervous.  When I get to the frount of the line the lady says “your plan has been delayed, not sure you can make your connecting flight.”    Then she says “there is an earlier flight we may be able to get you on.”  I was already booked in business class on my flight but will have to go on the waiting list on the new flight.   Well, turns out I do get on the earlier flight and do get business class, so everything turned out good.

The next flight turns out to be delayed for 15 mins.  No big deal.  We board and I’m in a row that is full, shoulder to shoulder.  So I look around and find an empty row so I move to that row and sit in the middle.  Turns out  there are about 30 folks that are running late from another flight so we all wait for about 30 mins just sitting in the plain.

Turns out my empty row get’s full from the people running late, so I look and find another empty row so I sit in the middle of that row.  Well, we pull away from the gate and I still have the row to my self!  WOOOO  HOOO.

The plan pulls back about 20 ft and then stops.  The someone announces there is a traffic jam behind the plane so we will have to wait for a bit.  About 40 mins later  the plane starts  moving again.  About 10 mins later there is another announcements “there is another traffic jam”  About 1 hr later we finally take off.

Considering it was a 16 hr flight that took actually took more like 20 hrs, this was a nice flight.  I got to lay down across the sits and slept.  Not at all comfortable, but a heck of a lot better than having to sit in the chairs.  Watched 4 movies that I had not seen yet and the last movie finished within 5 mins of landing.

The flight was due in at 10pm,  It was more like 2:00am. I got out of the airport at about 2:30am.  The driver took me to my hotel, and arranged to pick me up the next morning to take me to Pune and left.

I got up to the front desk and it turned out I’m at the wrong hotel.  (by now it’s just funny).  So I get a taxi to take me to the correct hotel, check in and head to bed.

LONG DAY!!!!

What is your Favorite?

A Psychological Test / Game – Associated Content

I added question 3 from memory.

Question #1 – What is your favorite animal? Now write down three adjectives describing your favorite animal.

Question #2 – What is your favorite color? Now write down three adjectives describing your favorite color.

Question #3 – You see a vase? Now write down three adjectives describing that vase.

Question #4 – What is your favorite body
of water? (This can be anything from a toilet to the ocean), (i.e.:
lake, river, pool, etc.). Now write down three adjectives describing
your favorite body of water.

Question number five is a bit detailed, so read it very carefully and feel it as you read.

You
are sitting in a chair inside a room, facing a window. Outside the
window you are looking at the most beautiful, peaceful, relaxing
scenery you could ever imagine. Because of the view you are enjoying,
you feel at complete and utter peace within yourself. Suddenly, without
any warning, someone comes up to the window and pulls the shades! There
is nothing at all you can do about it.

Question #5 – What are your three emotions in the order that you feel them? Be sure and write them down.

A Walk Through the Forest

Here is the source for this version.

A Walk Through the Forest

The Script:

1. You awake one morning and find yourself in an odd yet familiar room. Describe the room. Is it warm or cold? What kind of furnishings and decorations are there?

2. You approach a forest. What does it look like?

3. There is a path leading through the trees. Describe the path. Is it pleasant to walk there?

4. A bear now walks towards you and stops in front of you on the path, but you have to carry on. How do you get past the bear?

5. You walk on a little and you see a cottage. What does it look like from the outside?

6. You then go inside. What does it look like from the inside?

7. You come out of the cottage and walk on. You come to some water. What kind of water is is? A stream, a river, a lake, fresh water etc.?

8. You walk on and see a high wall across your path. Do you climb it or turn back? What do you do?

9. You manage to look on the other side of the wall. What do you see? Is it pleasant? Dark? Light?

This is to announce…

This is to announce a new capability. I am using Jott to post new messages to my blog. I called Jott, I speak whatever entry I want, Jott translates it into text and post it into my blog.  listen

Powered by Jott

Amsterdam Day 3

My new friends let me borrow a bike for the day so I expect to see a lot more of the city. Unfortunately it’s raining. Given the facts that it’s raining, I plan on going to some museums today, and I’m on a bike, I think I will leave my backpack and big camera in the room and just take dad’s camera and the guide book.

 

After an art museum and the Van Gogh Museum, it’s official!!!! I am a Neanderthal. It seems, I have absolutely no idea what the difference is between the work of a master artist and a talented 10 year old. There were things I liked and things I didn’t. It seemed to the opposite of what the expert seems to be impressed with.

 

After the museums I rode the bike around the rest of the city I missed on my walk. Had lunch with a nice German couple, then continued my ride. Got back to my hotel around 5:30 ish soaking wet. Arranged to take the bike back and dry out. They invited me over for dinner. Leaving the hotel for dinner was a bit of a mess. I get down to the bike and realize I don’t have the bike light they let me borrow so I had to go up to the room. I get to the room and realize I don’t have my room key, It’s in the room. So I go back down to the desk and get a new key. Get back up to the room and decide that I don’t need the backpack or the guide book so I just grab the light and a small map instead. When I get maybe 2/3rds of the way there I realize that I wrote all the directions to his place in the guide book and that is back in my room. I figured I might as well take my best guess and see if I can find it. Well, no problem. I remembered the road and I just happened to see him standing more or less in the window as I rode by. They fixed me a great dinner, we had some wine, chatted a bit and by about 10 I headed home. Great end to my Amsterdam trip!!

Amsterdam Day 2

Beautiful weather day. First since I’ve been in Europe.

I’m writing this entry the day after because by the time I got home I was too worn out to do anything but get ready for bed. I think I walked 60% of every street in Amsterdam. I started by walking the park areas around here. Then I headed just north of the center of town. I passed the Ann Frank House so I stopped in for a look. It was interesting. I’ve seen this place on TV but it’s much more personal when you are standing in the rooms themselves. My reaction surprised me very much. I imagined most people was thinking “How horrible” and it was. But I kept thinking “I bet everyone in killing fields of Cambodia (or the camps for that matter) would trade places in a sec”. I guess being at the killing fields affected me more than I thought.

 

Anyway, enough of that. I had lunch next to a group of girls from the states. We swapped stories about Amsterdam and had a few laughs.

 

Next I headed to the navel museum. This took me though the major part of the center of town. Found it but unfortunately it was closed. From there I wanted to check out a traditional windmill. Unlike in America (where windmills were mostly used to do things like grinding grains), windmills are used to pump water. Over 50% of Amsterdam is under sea level. I found it interesting to check out the blades. When I look at their shape, I see a design way beyond their understanding of aerodynamics.

 

From there I just started walking the water ways. They are in concentric circle around the city. By the time a walked 2 of these all the way around and back, I was at the hotel and it was time to get ready for dinner. The same guy that drove me from Brussels to Amsterdam invited me to meet him and his girlfriend for dinner. While there we ran into another couple of friends of theirs so they joined us.

 

I had a great time hanging out with all of them. We started at a restaurant and then after a walk ended up at a whisky bar. By the time I made it back home it was almost 2am.

Day 1 of Amsterdam

After class was over I rode up to Amsterdam with 1 of the students that lives in Amsterdam. It was a little after 4 pm by the time we got to the hotel. I was told I needed to make sure I got a ticket for the trip home before they were sold out. So, first order of business was to head over to the station to pick up some tickets. The only thing I knew was the station was somewhere to the west on the other side of town. So I just started walking west. It wasn’t long before I saw a trolley with “Central Station” on it. I guessed that was where I needed to go so I started following the tracks. I lot easier than following a bus

Every time the tracks split I would ether follow the one going west, or wait for the next trolley that said “Central Station”. It wasn’t long before I found the station. After getting the ticket in hand, I went for a walk about. I didn’t really have any objective or plan. Just wanted to see where my feet led me. Found my way back to the hotel somewhere around 9 pm.

My first impressions of Amsterdam as not what I expected. I guess I expected a …. more seedy place. Other than the “café’s “ it’s just a nice, pretty, city with interesting architecture and a lot of water. At just about every turn you will see the lights reflecting of the water.