Christmas 2007 in Maine: Other Highlights

Apologies for not finishing up the highlights of Christmas 2007 in Maine. JT regifted his stomach virus and I was out for a few days. Actually, I should say that I was chained to my apartment for a few days. With the cat. And a whole lot of cable channels with nothing worthwhile to watch.

Other highlights of Christmas were:

My father ensuring that the one toilet remained operational:

Christmas Eve lunch spent serving the homeless in Augusta with my dad:

A trip to Freeport, the home of LLBean:

JT, reading his "I Live in Tokyo" book, courtesy of me.

Christmas 2007 in Maine: Nothing Says "Merry Christmas" Like a Night in a Super-8

Unbelievably, my mother suggested that we find new accomdations for the evening. So we grabbed our luggage and made haste to the local Super 8, making sure that the door did not hit us on the way out. I think we shouted words of comfort to Mer as we ran into the night, but I can't be sure.

The Super 8, while not receiving many stars, did have one coveted thing - cable TV. We initially found The Wizard of Oz, but decided to scan the guide for other options. And am I glad we did, because we came across...

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation! While the film is a crack up throughout, the line that had my parents and I in tears was, after the arrival of both sets of grandparents, Audrey asking, "Mom, would it be rude to ask the grandparents to stay in a hotel?"

Christmas 2007 in Maine: The Day of Reckoning

On Friday the 21st I took the bus to PA to hitch a ride with my parents to my sister's place in Maine. Airline prices were way too high for Maine in December, so I opted to drive 8 hours on Saturday with my parents instead. The day dawned early - way too early for me - and I figured that if the plague was spreading on the tundra, I could avoid a shower and just go back to sleep. I called at 6 am to get a read on the situation. She assured me that, while JT wasn't 100%, he was on the mend and no one else showed any signs of gastro-intestinal distress. I remained skeptical and inwardly thought we should wait another day, but there was no denying my mother access to the Promised Land - the home of her grandchildren.

We arrived around 4 to find , my brother-in-law, somewhat ill. But Mer was fine, as was , my 2.5 month old nephew. Besides, we had already driven 500 miles - we weren't exactly going to turn around and go home.

Fast forward a few hours... after dinner and the kids' bedtime. Kris was on the sofa, head in his hands, looking vaguely ill. My father and I decided to head to downtown Gardiner, the next town over, for a breath of plague-free air and exercise. We also took time to identify our tipping point - the moment where we would cut our losses, head home, and ensure that the toilet/person ratio was adequate before the plague enveloped us. We decided that my sister was it... if she fell, it was all but guaranteed that we would fall too. Kris had spent Wednesday night taking care of JT, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that he would get sick. Alas, we returned to find Kris in full blown plague mode.

And So Christmas 2007 in Maine Began

Last Thursday morning, I awoke to an email from my sister. , my 2-year old nephew, spent the night vomiting with some version of the stomach flu. Since my parents and I were heading to Maine on Saturday, we had immediate flashbacks to Christmas 2001. Then, a similar ailment had infected my cousin's son. Similar to the bubonic plague, the virus was transferred to everyone within a 50 foot radius. It was a pretty ugly 24 hours at my parents' house. However, at least the odds of having a bathroom when needed were pretty good... 3 toilets to 4 people. My sister's place on the other hand... 1 toilet to 5 adults. I pleaded over email for Mer and Kris to rent a heated port-a-potty. My father predicted that fights could break out over JT's potty chair. My brother-in-law, Kris, offered to put a bucket in the basement with a toilet seat. My parents had been in Maine for Thanksgiving and had a jolly time discussing this very prospect. Now it was staring us in the face.

Thanksgiving in Berlin and Prague

I'm a few weeks delayed in posting about my completely fabulous trip to Berlin and Prague. Even working from Arup's Berlin office for 3 days was a lot of fun. I got a TON of work done and was still out by 5. What a novel concept. But on to the more exciting things! 2 things I noticed though (1) I HATE smoking. Cannot stand it. Will bitch about it at every opportunity. Think that smokers are absolute morons. And cannot FATHOM how Germany has not banned it in restaurant and bars. Unacceptable. and (2) Berlin and Prague were damn cold for November. Was not prepared for that.

Berlin: Sascha, being the kind man that he is, greeted me at Tegel. Such a great airport - the setup is such that you clear immigration and customs and get your baggage within 20 minutes. And be on the bus into the city in another 5. Call it German efficiency if you must, but it was pretty impressive. Especially after the pain of accessing Newark, JFK, or Narita. Kasia , a close friend from Tokyo, who now lives in Poland arrived in late afternoon. How terrific is she? She took a taxi 3.5 hours to see me, only to turn around and take a train back 7 hours. As a reward, we went out for sushi, miso soup, edamame, and Asahi. Followed by some German beer. And I stayed awake through the entire evening! Sunday, we gave Kasia a quick tour of Berlin - Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden, etc. and off she went, back to Poland. Quick trip, but so great to see her and catch up AND introduce her to Sascha.

Sunday night Sascha and I went to his sister's apartment... and I met his parents. Seriously, went MUCH better than expected! I spoke some German, but mostly Sascha (and Uta and Stephan) did a great job translating and making me feel included. Props to them. His mom brought his baby book, which was terrific. And interesting - life in East Germany looked just like life in Pennsylvania. Clearly there was a lot of propoganda fed to us in the 80s. Hell, Uta had Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA album!

The early part of the week was pretty normal. Fun to go to work and come back to dine with Sascha. No take out sushi or bowls of cereal that week. We went to the top of the Reichstag one night, although unfortunately, it was pretty foggy, so no views.

My photos are here: Berlin Photos, November 2007

Prague: Thanksgiving morning, we took a train to Prague. Not the fast ICE trains, but a typical regional train. Beautiful city, although definitely a place to visit in the late spring, summer, or early fall. Sascha and I did a ton of walking and even more eating and drinking. We found Thanksgiving dinner - a must for me. He was less than impressed, but sucked it up - all for love. During our trip, we choose our pubs based on the beer on tap. If we'd tried it before, we moved on. Otherwise, in we went. We tried a lot of beers - it was pretty cold out and all the walking was exhausting. What else is one to do other than pop into a pub for a 1/2 liter of beer to relax and revive. And surprisingly, we weren't drunk at any time during the trip. Of course we covered all the major sites, sometimes more than once.

My Prague photos are here: Prague Photos, November 2007

Lack of Motivation

I finished my Christmas shopping today! One would think that would motivate me to move on to Christmas cards. Not so much. I just have no desire this year. Perhaps it is because I don't think much can top last year. I mean, really, how many geisha photos have you gotten over the years? I'll tell you - 1. Me. A lot also is that since I had my computer stolen, I don't have a lot of addresses and don't feel like hunting people down? Or the thought of sending out 100 hand written cards suddenly gives me motivation to do just about anything else. I'm talking the gym. Bills. Anything. So, I'm just saying... no need to wait with baited breath by the mailbox for my card. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

CanStruction

Went to the coolest exhibit last night... CanStruction. It is an annual design competition of architects, engineers, and other groups to design giant structures made entirely of cans. The purpose is to raise awareness of hunger and at the end of the competition (Thanksgiving week) all of the cans are donated to food banks in the area. It isn't a NY thing - it happens in 100 cities (find your city). And yes, it does sound a little strange, but there was a huge Kermit the Frog, a globe which was accurate using green colored cans for land and blue for water, 2 polar bears like the Coke commercials, a piggy bank, a Lightening McQueen, a Caney Island Cyclone (done by colleagues at Arup), a toaster with white bread that even had tan crust... really impressive. The entry fee is one can of food. Highly recommend. Here are some photos of last year's competition:

Ali in the Great White North

It wasn't white (yet), but I did spend this past weekend in Randolph, ME visiting my sister, brother-in-law, nephew #1 JT, and very very new nephew #2 Drew. THEY ARE SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly, kind of made me want one... =) It was really great to go up there - finally get to see JT in action - he's no longer a baby, but now a toddler. And really great to see my sister as a mom (although when she refers to "mom" and means herself, I still look around for our mother). She's so patient with them, although definitely has no fear of using a time-out, which is great and decidedly underused these days. JT definitely tries to push the envelope by throwing things, but she won't put up with it. Wish there were more mothers like her out there! She was even patient with me when, in my attempt to "help" in cleaning up the kitchen, I threw away locks of hair from JT's first haircut. Oops! Luckily, Kris, Mer, and I dug through the kitchen garbage (and even more luckily, they toss dirty diapers immediately) and found it. Probably would have been disowned. And not by Mer, but our mother!

Do Not Mail Catalogues

Big pet peeve - junk mail. Especially from non-profits. And doubly especially from retail establishments. Like the do not call list from a few years back, there is now Catalogue Choice. It doesn't work as smoothly as the do not call list - you actuallyhave to search for the catalogues you get and request to be taken off. But it is a start. LLBean sends out 250 million catalogues a year... that's insane! So, get off the catalogue list and save a few trees.

1 Year Ago Today

I left Tokyo... OH MY GOD! It has been a year!? That is just inconceivable to me... in so many ways, it feels like it was years ago. I don't really think about Tokyo (unless I'm on the NYC subway and then I think about it lovingly), but friends-wise... all the time! Wonder what people are doing, if there are still going to our same haunts... I do always find it weird to know that things still happen even if I'm not there (which I sounds very egotistical and I don't mean it to be).

What do I miss about Tokyo? Friends (obviously), noterity, having every weekend to myself with no obligations, safety of Japan, feeling like I could postpone real adulthood for as long as I stayed, amazing customer service, the cab drivers with the white gloves and the automated doos, the punctuality of the subway, the response I got from people when I said I lived in Tokyo, the response I got from people when I said what I did for a living, availability of new, well-traveled people to meet on an unlimited basis, ease of meeting and making new friends, close proximity to the rest of Asia for vacations...

What do I not miss about Tokyo? My 300 sq ft apartment, not knowing what was going on around me most of the time, being crushed on the subway every day, not understanding the culture, the pressure of wondering what I'm doing with my life, wondering when I should leave, the 20 hour saga to get home, feeling rather big and unattractive for months on end.

What do I love about NY? Being able to participate in anything and everything, having a ton of organizations to participate in, meeting tons of other urban planners who are as excited about things going on in the city as I am, trip to my parents is a 1.5 hour bus ride and costs $37 RT, open houses, working for a company that I can see myelf working for for many years, being back in touch with old friends, English everywhere...

I cannot say enough good things about living abroad and would recommend it to anyone before they could even finish the question. It is, by far, one of the BEST decisions I have ever made. I'm definitely happy to be back in the States though, if just to recooperate before heading off again in a few years time.