South Carolina

On Thursday we went down to Congaree National Park, located near Columbia, South Carolina. Congaree Swamp is an area of old-growth forest, containing some of the tallest trees in the eastern US. Although it's called a swamp, it's actually a floodplain for the Congaree River. As we neared the park, I suddenly noticed that all of the trees had their leaves. It was a pretty dramatic change, and Bea said we had reached the Coastal Plain. These trees looked like they were at least a month ahead of New York; of course, SC is one of the hottest places in the country! Early April was probably the perfect time to go there. The park itself has an extensive network of trails, some of which would probably take a day to hike, as well as camping, fishing and boating facilities. There's also a visitor's center, where we stopped first, and a boardwalk through the park for people like us who were only there for a few hours. Along the path, I noticed that some trees had a bunch of knobby shoots sticking up from the ground around them, which were part of the root system of cypress trees. Biologists aren't sure what purpose they serve. They looked like stalagmites in a cave.


About two-thirds of the way down the path, I noticed a weird metal thing rusting in the forest. It looked like a big piece of trash, but I knew there was no way something like that would be allowed to just sit in a national park like that. It turned out that it was an old still! During Prohibition people in the area made a pretty nice profit selling illicit homemade liquor, and they used the Congaree Swamp because it was easy to hide there. When park employees found that still, they decided to leave it there as an artifact of the park's history.

And that's about it. It may not seem like the most exciting vacation, but I got to add two more states to my list and spend time exploring a part of the country I hadn't seen much of before.

North Carolina

I hadn't been to North Carolina before visiting my cousin and her husband there last month, but my relatives kindly showed me around. Sunday after church we drove out to Pilot Mountain, a monolith that stands about halfway between Greensboro and the Blue Ridge. It's weird because the ground around it is mostly flat, and then there's this giant rock that goes up about 2,000 feet. It's a state park, with camping and picnic facilities, although we just went there for an afternoon. We drove up the hill, then near the top there's a place where you can park and get out to look around and enjoy the view.

Catching up

Last month I went down to North Carolina for a week to visit relatives who live there. I'll write more about that in a bit, but first I need to mention the most important thing that happened that week. As I'm sure you've heard, U2 released a new album recently. They're going out on tour this year, which will include two stops at Giants Stadium over in Jersey next September, and tickets for their 9/25 show went on sale the Monday I was in NC. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to go to that. Before their last release in 2004 they gave a "surprise" free outdoor concert in Brooklyn, word of which was never officially announced but spread by word-of-mouth over the Internet. Of course, I didn't find out about it until I saw it on the evening news that night. Then they made a special appearance on Conan; they were the only guests, and the entire show was them performing with brief interview segments between songs. I knew about that ahead of time, but for some reason it didn't occur to me to try to go to the taping until that night! I'm still kicking myself for that one! Then for this release they appeared on Letterman every night for a solid week, and I would have gladly gone to one of those tapings...But of course, that would have to be the week I was in London! And of course, the week before I went to London they gave a free outdoor show there!...There are no words to adequately express my frustration!!!

So anyway, I knew the tickets were going on sale at 10 in the morning the Monday I was at my cousin's. By 9:50, I was on the Ticketmaster website, waiting to pounce as soon as 10:00 hit. And wouldn't you know? when I tried to get a ticket, the computer crapped out on me! I had to reboot the darn thing, and by the time I got back to the page I needed to be on it was past 10 after...There was a line about 15 minutes long at that point, but after all that time anxiously sitting in front of the screen expecting any second to be told the show was sold out I got my ticket!! U2 is playing at Giants Stadium in September, AND I'M GOING!!!! My ticket is sitting on the shelf above my computer as I type this. Now I just have to make sure I don't lose it before the 25th!

London

Like in Brussels, I stayed in a youth hostel in Luxembourg. When I was in the UK, I stayed with Iranga and his roommates in the apartment they share in East London. They were all very nice and welcoming to me, and on my birthday (March 7) they bought me a cake! I was so touched. Rimla wasn't at home then, but the other three were.

Iranga is on the right, next to him is Nazleen and on the left is Asif.

On my last full day overseas, Iranga and I visited the Tower of London and the British Museum. Both were very cool. The Tower was initially constructed in the 11^th century; at first, the only part of the complex that existed was what today is called the “White Tower,” and was first a royal residence, then later an armory.

The first picture is the White Tower, and the second one, taken inside the building, is a medieval bathroom!

Of course, the Tower of London isn't just a fun historic site, but a place where political prisoners were once imprisoned and executed. In one corner of the inner courtyard is a little chapel, and inside are the unmarked graves of several decapitation victims, including Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The stories of some of the victims are really horrific, like one person whose execution was botched because the axeman was too drunk to swing straight; eventually he got so frustrated that he grabbed the person's head and sawed it off! And most of them were so young, younger than me...I wish it weren't all treated as mere entertainment now. These were real people, whose lives mattered as much as ours do and who suffered horrible fates that no human being should ever have to endure.

After the Tower we got lunch at a cafe along the Thames, then headed for the British Museum. I had always wanted to go there; the collection of ancient art is wonderful. Of course, we have museums like that here in New York, but it's still fun to look around, and besides, we got to see the actual Rosetta Stone, which you obviously can't see anywhere else! Seeing all those fantastic ancient artifacts made me even more eager than I was before to visit the countries they came from, and I may have a chance to go to China on a study abroad program next winter. Fingers crossed!

So that was how I spent the first week of March. Definitely the best birthday I've had so far! I've now been to nine countries (actually ten, since the train from London to Brussels passes through a bit of France after going through the Chunnel, but I don't really count that). I still feel kind of bad about allowing Iranga to pay for so much of my trip, even though I know I shouldn't. But most of all, I'm just incredibly grateful to have had a chance to see a bit more of the world. I know I only got a tiny glimpse of the countries I visited, but that was more than I had before I went, and while I would love to visit them again and explore them in greater detail (especially the UK), I'm very thankful to have been able to see as much as I did.

Luxembourg

When you buy a round-trip ticket from Brussels to Luxembourg, it's an open ticket that's good for two months. Southern Belgium, the French-speaking region known as Wallonia (the Dutch-speaking part of the country is called Flanders) is hilly and looks a lot like the northeastern US. It takes about three hours to get to Luxembourg, and it was early evening when I arrived. Luxembourg City, the capital and only real city in the country (and it only has about 100,000 residents) is built in a valley and on the surrounding hills. The country of Luxembourg is unbelievably small, smaller even than Rhode Island. Despite this, they've managed to develop their own language, called Luxembourgish, which to my ears sounded like a mixture of German and French, both of which are also widely spoken there.

I liked Luxembourg a lot. I don't think there's much to see outside of the capital, but Luxembourg City is very pretty, and despite its small size there's a good bus system that covers the town. Most or maybe all of the bus lines stop at the central train station, so it's not hard to find your way around. I got in Wednesday evening (I just happened to wake up around 3:30 Thursday morning to use the bathroom, and I remember looking at my watch thinking: If I were at home, I would be watching LOST right now!), and left on Friday, giving myself Thursday to explore. I had hoped to visit the American military cemetery on the outskirts of the town, but I was told there wasn't a bus that went there. So instead I just spent the day poking around the town and seeing what there was to see. At first I just hopped on a bus and decided I'd ride it to the end and see where it went. (I had a one-day bus pass that you can get for 4.50 Euros, which allows you unlimited rides on city buses.) This one went out to the suburbs and to an athletic field of some kind—not much to see. It turned out the bus driver spoke English, so I explained to him that I was just out looking around and got on his bus to see where it would go. He seemed nice at first, telling me he was from Serbia and didn't like living in Luxembourg, but when he asked me if I liked it there and I said “yes,” he said, “Maybe if we get married and have a child you can stay here.” I figured that was an excellent time to put on my headphones and turn up my new mp.3 player, loud! ;)

I eventually made my way to the center of town, called the “Ville Haute.” It's a very pretty area. I visited the Cathedral of Our Lady, which was constructed by Jesuits in the early 17^th century. Nearby was an area of old, narrow streets surrounded by government buildings. It was so strange—those buildings that were so important to the national government of Luxembourg were just...there. No extra security (except, I'm sure, for CCTVs), no distance between them and the street, nothing to tell you that they were particularly important except for the signs on the buildings that named them as places of government. It felt so weird. In most countries government buildings are both grand, to signify their importance, and set apart, for security purposes. Sure, I know Luxembourg is a tiny country and all, but it's still a country, so it seemed strange, and nice in a way, for their places of government to be so unpretentious. Here are some pictures I took in the area, the first being of the cathedral:

Because of its position along the German/French border, Luxembourg's culture is a mix of northern and southern Europe, and that comes through very clearly in its architecture.

The Ville Haute sits on top of a hill; below it (which you can actually take an elevator to, so there's no need to hike up or down a cliff) is the “Grund,” another historic, and very lovely part of town. I loved walking around that quarter (Luxembourg City is divided into quarters) and took as many pictures as I could. Surprisingly, given the gloomy dark skies, most of the pictures turned out pretty nice. Here are a couple:

The second picture is looking at the Grund from above.

Brussels

On Tuesday, I left to go over to Europe for a few days. I had gotten enough money for my birthday to pay for this part of the trip, and quite frankly, I knew that all the time I was in England Iranga would insist on paying for everything! I actually got the idea from reading Jorge Garcia's blog. (Jorge plays “Hurley” on LOST.) He had blogged about a trip to Europe he took with his girlfriend last summer, and one of his entries described a day trip they took to Paris from London. I knew there was a train that ran between the two cities, but hadn't realized it was such a short trip. When I looked into it, I found out that there was another train that went to Brussels and was actually a little shorter than the one to Paris. I had never been to either France or Belgium, and to be honest France has always held more interest for me, but Belgium is a lot smaller and since I only had a few days, I thought I would be able to see more of that country in the time that I had. Then it occurred to me that I could go down to Luxembourg from Brussels, thereby not only adding one more country to my list but also getting to see a lot of Belgium on the way down.

I arrived in Brussels around noon. Unfortunately, the hostel I was staying at didn't check in guests until 4:00, so I had to lug my bag around with me. The mass transit system in the Belgian capital seems to run efficiently, but it's very confusing for visitors. I don't think I've ever been in a city where the platforms of the subway system were so poorly marked; everywhere I went, I had to ask someone if this was the right train to get where I wanted to go. Northern Belgium speaks Dutch and southern Belgium speaks French; Brussels, being both in the middle of the country and its capital, has both as its official languages, but French is the lingua franca of the city—good for me, since I don't speak any Dutch.

Once I figured out where to catch the train that I needed, I decided to head up to the Atomium, since I knew how to get there. The structure was built for Brussels' World Fair in 1958 and is a model of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. It's basically just a big tourist trap, but it does look kind of cool and you can go inside and get a nice view of Brussels.

Unfortunately, it was overcast and drizzly the entire time I was in Europe! In any case, the Atomium was really the only sight-seeing I was able to do in Brussels, since I was there for such a short time. The country of Belgium is relatively new, and when Brussels became its capital in the 19^th century most of the older structures in the city were demolished to make way for newer buildings housing the various offices of state. As a result, a lot of tourists don't care to spend much time there, using it only as an entrance point to explore the rest of the country, and I can kind of see why. Still, I would have liked to spend a bit more time exploring the city if I had had time to do so. I didn't even get to see the statue of the kid peeing! ;-P Oh well, maybe next time...

Salisbury & Stonehenge

Guess what? The day after I arrived in the UK, we went to Stonehenge! I'm fascinated by ancient history and love visiting old buildings and monuments, and of course, it doesn't really get any older than Stonehenge. I've always really wanted to go there and was so excited to get the chance to see it in person! To get there from London, you take a train to Salisbury an hour and a half away, then catch a bus to get to the stones. I enjoyed the train ride down, even though the scenery didn't look any different from the landscapes I'm used to. But it's always nice to see for yourself what a place looks like, and besides, it was just fun to be able to look out the window and think, Wow, I'm in England! The bus that you take to get to Stonehenge is run by a private tour company. I expected just a ride to the monument, but they actually give you a very nice tour of Salisbury, explaining the history of the town and the Salisbury Plain. Salisbury is a pretty Medieval town and worth the visit just for itself; a lot of the streets there look similar today to what they were like 600 years ago. Unlike a lot of British towns, it didn't suffer any bombing attacks during WWII, and after the war they learned that German bombers had been under strict orders not to touch the Salisbury Cathedral because they were using it as a marker to find their way. Most of the land on the Salisbury Plain is owned by the military and has been a major location for pilot training. Of course, the known history of the area goes back for millennia, and aside from Stonehenge itself a very noticeable sign of this history are the many burial mounds that still dot the countryside. It's really a fascinating place to visit.

Stonehenge itself was really, really cool. Our bus tickets included entry to the site and free audio guides to the site. You walk around the stones, and there are markers along the way that tell you when to move on to the next section of the recording. Seeing this was definitely the highlight of my week!

On the way back to Salisbury, the tour bus stops at the ruins of a 12^th-century castle that you can visit if you want (also included in your bus ticket). We did that as well. On the way up the hill to the ruins we made a new friend:

I think this guy was probably very used to strangers walking past his yard ;) BTW, here's a pic of the castle ruins:

And here's one of the medieval streets of Salisbury:

Vacation

March started off with a very interesting week for me, and now, I have been to nine countries. I have a pen-pal, Iranga, who I've been exchanging letters with for about four years. He's from Sri Lanka, but he's been living and attending school in London for the past two or three years. He's not sure if he'll be staying in Britain after 2009, and already last fall he sent me a letter inviting me to come for a visit, even offering to pay my way since he knew I couldn't afford it on my own. As much as I longed to be able to travel (the last time I'd been outside of North America was when I went to Peru after high school graduation in 2000), my immediate reaction was to say no. I told him that I was touched by his very generous offer, but that I couldn't allow him to spend so much money on me. I mean, he's doing quite well for himself in London, but it's not like he's reached a point where money is of no concern at all, and it just seemed wrong to accept such a generous gift from someone I wasn't even related to. But he kept bringing it up in each letter, and I began to feel more guilty about not accepting his offer. So finally, I said I would come.

I still felt bad about it though; it just seemed so selfish to allow someone to do something like that for me. Maybe that sounds silly, considering it was his idea, but I have a hard time asking my own mother for money for things I actually need. I'm a full-time student, living on grants and the money Mom gives me from my dad's life insurance, and often I feel like all I do is take and take and take and don't ever give anything back. I just feel like such a leech. If I'm being fair to myself, I understand that I'm doing what I can at this point in my life, that being in school now will open up all kinds of opportunities in the future and that the main reason my dad had such a large policy was to put me and my brothers through school if anything happened. I also understand that there are other things that can't be measured that do count for something, like the way I live my life from day to day and the way I treat people, that allow me to be of some good, but I still feel pretty lousy about myself a lot of the time. But I realized that these are my own hang-ups, and that if I allowed my issues to prevent someone from doing something that he clearly wanted, not just for me but also for himself, then I really was being selfish. Plus, I needed this.

I flew to London on Saturday Feb. 28 and came home on Sunday the 8^th. Aside from a weekend in Ontario, it was the first time I'd been out of the country since 9/11, and I wasn't sure if there were any new security measures I needed to be aware of. I didn't have anything to worry about though and didn't have any trouble getting through customs at either end of the trip. I did experience a rather frightening couple of hours when I first arrived at Heathrow though, because I couldn't find Iranga! Turned out he was waiting for me in a different area from where the international arrivals left the terminal.

I'm going to be adding a number of posts about the week, since trying to fit it into just one would be ridiculous. If anyone happens to read this blog, I hope you enjoy the descriptions and photographs of the places I visited. It was definitely an interesting week!

THE LIST: 2009

PLACES VISITED IN 2008:
Rhode Island

PLACES STILL TO BE VISITED:

US STATES AND TERRITORIES:
Alabama
American Samoa
Arkansas
Georgia
Guam
Hawaii
Idaho
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
North Carolina
North Dakota
Northern Marianas
Oregon
Puerto Rico
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
US Virgin Islands
Vermont
Wyoming

CANADIAN PROVINCES AND TERRITORIES
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
Newfoundland
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Nunavut
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Yukon

COUNTRIES:
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua & Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo1
Congo2
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Ivory Coast
Jamaica
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
St. Kitts & Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome & Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad & Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

OTHER:
Anguilla
Antarctica
Aruba
Ascension Island
Bermuda
Bonaire
British Virgin Islands
Canary Islands
Cayman Islands
Christmas Islands
Cocos Islands
Cook Islands
Curacao
Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands
French Guiana
French Polynesia
Gibraltar
Greenland
Guadeloupe
Guernsey
Hong Kong
Isle of Man
Jersey
Macau
Martinique
Mayotte
Montserrat
New Caledonia
Niue
Norfolk Island
Palestinian Territories
Pitcairn Island
Reunion
Saba
St-Barthelemy
St. Helena
St. Pierre & Miquelon
Svalbard
Taiwan
Tibet
Tokelau
Tristan da Cunha
Turks & Caicos
Wallis & Fortuna
Western Sahara

Why I don't put celebrities on a pedestal...

...Or join fan clubs: http://the-screen-door.blogspot.com/2008/12/bon-jovi-fan-club-proves-itself-to-be.html

Now, if you're reading this it's probably because you know me, and therefore you also probably know that the highlight of 2008 for me was getting to see Bon Jovi, a band I've loved since I first heard "Livin' on a Prayer" sometime back in the early '90s, perform at Central Park. Matter of fact, that show was exactly five months ago today. Loved every second of it, and the same can be said for most of the songs from their albums. I know they haven't exactly been embraced by the critics over the years, but listening to their songs closely (which critics almost never do, instead basing their reviews on at most a few times through an album) reveals very technically superior musicians who, in my opinion, have managed to produce some of the best popular music of the past quarter century.

But why do so many people seem to think that good music (or movies, paintings, books, athletic performance, etc.) translates to a "nice" personality? I've never understood that. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that they're decent human beings until proven otherwise, but even the most well-intentioned celeb is as flawed as the rest of us. And of course, quite a few of them are not nearly as nice or decent as we might wish. Why do a lot of people continually find this surprising? And why does our enjoyment of their work so often hinge on our need to believe that their artistic or athletic talents carry over into other aspects of their personalities? In order to enjoy, say, a good meal at a fine restaurant, not many people need to believe that the chef is a wonderful human being, only a wonderful chef. Why do people expect more out of musicians and athletes, and why are they disappointed when the object of their admiration doesn't deliver?

I would never argue that disrespect for fans is okay. When people who have considerably less money than you are willing to spend their hard-earned income on your albums and your sky-high ticket prices, they're entitled to be appreciated and respected. Quite frankly, not having had the opportunity to see Bon Jovi live on any occasion save for last July and never having considered joining their fan club (which, in any case, is much more about just their lead singer, and not the whole band), I don't have any personal experiences on which to judge their relationship to their fans. I've obviously never met any of them, so I don't know what kinds of people they are. I just know I find their music very appealing. Would I love the opportunity to meet any of them someday? Sure, especially if doing so was able to give me any new insight into their songs. But do I expect that being very talented songwriters and performers somehow puts them onto a higher plane than the rest of us? Why should it? And why do any of us allow ourselves to be continually disappointed by any public figure who doesn't live up to the hype?

My own response to the article linked above is #161, so if you're interested in reading it (but don't feel like scrolling all that way down!), here is what I wrote:

I'm struck reading through your comments (yes, I read ALL of them!) that not a single person has chimed in to defend the club. And I agree with everybody else who find it hard to believe none of the bandmembers are aware of what's going on. You can pretend to be a nice guy in interviews even if you're really a douche when the press goes away, but you can't fake smart. Jon is clearly a very intelligent person, so if he truly has no awareness of what's going on he's being very irresponsible. I think it's much more likely that he knows exactly how things are being run and simply doesn't respect the fans enough to address it. I hope that's not the case, and of course I have no idea what gets said between the bandmembers and others they work with. But it strikes me as extremely unlikely that all of this has happened without his knowing consent.

As long as they keep making good albums (and for the record, I LOVED Lost Highway), I'll purchase them, because that decision is about the quality of the songs and not the personalities involved. But I would never consider joining a fan club under such circumstances.

Thanks for an excellent, well-written and thoughtful piece.

Boston and Jeopardy!

Early in October, there was an online test for the annual Jeopardy college tournament. Having returned to school this fall, I decided to take it. I felt like I didn't do very well, but a week later I got an email saying that I had passed the test and had been invited to an in-person audition! When I registered for the test I had to pick an interview city, of which there were several around the country. New York was not one of them, and the nearest were Washington and Boston. I chose Boston because I hadn't been there before and have always really wanted to visit. So a week after that I was completely surprised by this invite, and of course I said yes! Now, I should say right now that the odds of me actually making it onto the show are still very slim. Several hundred people were interviewed, and only 16 will be chosen for the show. But the fact that they had whittled down the applicants to a few hundred meant that I had to have done pretty well on that first test, so I'm pleased I got as far as I did.

The interview was the morning of November 8, which was a Saturday, so I headed up Friday morning. I went by bus (NOT Greyhound), and the trip took about four hours. I had driven through western Massachusetts before, but had never been to Boston. I've always really wanted to go there, so the chance to do so was what really excited me about being picked for the audition. It always seemed strange that I hadn't been there yet, seeing as I've lived just a few hours away for six years now, but given my financial situation I could never justify spending the money to go up there just for a vacation.

I stayed at a Sheraton near the hotel where the interview was held. My hotel was in a neighborhood called Back Bay, which is an old, upscale part of the city. I was on the 18^th floor and had a beautiful view out my window of the surrounding neighborhoods and the Charles River in the distance. I was only in town for a couple of days so I knew I wouldn't be able to do much sightseeing, and rather than trying to run around and see as much as possible I decided to just explore the area where I was staying and see what there was to see. Which worked out great, because it turned out that a lot of the city's famous sites were right in that same part of town. Beacon Hill, the most well-known neighborhood, is right next to Back Bay, and I stumbled upon it while I was out exploring. You know the old sitcom “Cheers”? Well, it was inspired by a real bar in Beacon Hill, and I walked past it while I was out exploring. I also passed by the famous Trinity Church and several other old buildings; I just love the way Boston has found a way to preserve its history by integrating it into the modern city.

The audition, which after all was the purpose of the trip, lasted for about two hours. First we all took another test, and after that three of us at a time played a mock version of the game. (This was very low-tech; instead of actual buzzers, we used pens ;)).After our turn at the game, we were each asked a few questions, I guess to make sure we were interesting enough to not bore the show's audience ;) Everybody else was from a four-year school; one guy went to Yale, a few went to Harvard, and then there was me, from LaGuardia Community College! But I did okay, I didn't embarrass myself—at least, I don't think I did! Like I said, I'm not holding my breath waiting for them to call—though I wouldn't be completely surprised if they did. It was just fun to make it to the next round and see how the whole contestant search thing works.

After the audition I went down to Providence for a few hours. I had never been to Rhode Island before, so I took advantage of the chance to check one more state off my list. RI now makes thirty-one. There is a commuter rail that runs between Boston and Providence; the trip is about 70 minutes each way and is less than $8 one-way.

The most famous landmark in Providence is the Rhode Island State House, which is one of the largest in the country and has the world's 2^nd-largest marble dome (after St. Peter's Basilica). During the week there are tours of the building, but since I was there on a Saturday I could only see it from the outside. It is quite impressive, and it struck me as kind of ironic that this was the center of government for a state most famous for its puny size. The City Hall is also worth seeing. Downtown Providence is pretty small—it's not a huge city—but across the river there's a historic district where a lot of city and state offices are held. I didn't explore it in too much depth, but I walked along the river for a while, and again, I really enjoyed how well the city had managed to preserve its history. The riverwalk itself is very nice, and in the summer they have something called “WaterFire,” where they light bonfires on the river and accompany it with music, often live performances. So, that's about all I did in RI, but I'm glad I got to see a little of another important city and got to add another state to my list! 19 more to go.

And that's about it. I wish I could have stayed in MA a bit longer, but I had missed one class already and had to get back. Boston is a beautiful city, and I hope I get the chance to go back and see more of it in the near future! At the start of last summer I hadn't been to either Boston or Baltimore, and now I've been to all five major cities along the Northeast Corridor, as well as every New England state except Vermont. So, I feel like I've actually done something this year, which is nice.

Time to Learn about Alaska

I wrote an article for The Epoch Times which appeared in their Friday edition. If you care to check it out, here's the link:
http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/opinion/learn-about-alaska-5820.html

Shanksville

Also during the week we drove out to Shanksville. I had been through the area before, right before I moved to New York. My brother Chris and I drove from Grand Rapids to Gettysburg. We took Route 30 across southern PA, which is a very scenic route through the Allegheny foothills. We were driving through a rural area and actually were kind of joking about how different our lives would have been if we had grown up in a place like that, when we passed a sign saying “Shanksville 5.” I was like, “Do you realize where we are?” and I told Chris that we were right in the area where Flight 93 had crashed. My grandparents actually live right on Route 30, so it was just a straight drive west through the mountains to get to Shanksville.

There is currently a temporary memorial across the street from the site of the crash with a permanent one planned for the site itself. It is staffed by volunteers from the area who work in two-hour shifts once a week. When we were there, I asked the volunteer if there was much controversy surrounding the memorial's design, and he said the only significant one was a dispute about the shape, which I had already heard about. The lay of the land lends itself to a crescent-shaped structure, but the crescent is also a symbol of Islam, and some of the families feel that would be inappropriate. (I certainly understand their point. Nothing against Islam as a whole, but it was in the name of that religion that their loved ones were murdered. I mean, there's nothing inherently wrong with the German flag, and most German people are good and decent human beings, but it would be totally inappropriate for the German flag to fly at Dachau, considering what was done there in the name of that flag. But then, a crescent isn't so specific, so I really don't know whose side I'm on. I can see both sides!) Other than that, the only major snag in the memorial's construction has been the acquisition of the land the plane crashed on. All things considered, it sounds like it's been a relatively smooth process, and so different from what we've had here in NY!

Visiting the site was more emotional and personal for me than I thought it would be. I may live at a geographic distance, but it's all part of the same thing that happened to my own city and forever altered the course of my life. There was a wall where people had left mementos and an opportunity to record your own reflections. I didn't write anything because what could I say that hasn't already been said? I just felt that I wouldn't be able to sum it up in such a short amount of space without sounding terribly trite.

The town of Shanksville itself only has about 250 residents. It is a few blocks long and about two blocks wide. On the way back we stopped on a hill above the town and got a picture of it. You can see pretty much all of Shanksville in the photo.

Baltimore

Gettysburg is located in Central Pennsylvania, somewhat closer to Philadelphia than Pittsburgh, and not far from the Maryland border. The bus I took went into Harrisburg, a much larger town about 45 minutes away. The closest big city is Baltimore, and the day after I arrived we went down there for a day. I had never been there before, so I was looking forward to that. The first place we went was the birthplace of Baltimore native Babe Ruth, the greatest baseball player who ever lived. Here's a picture of the outside:

The building is furnished as it was when the Babe was born in 1895 and is now a museum. It was fun to visit, and I think my grandmother actually got the most out of it, because she's the one who had the most to learn! (BTW, there's another Baltimorean who's more recently become a rather well-known figure in his own sport—guy by the name of Michael Phelps. Maybe you've heard of him? ;-))

After that we drove around the waterfront area to Fort McHenry, which is part of the National Park Service. Have you heard of the War of 1812? It was between us and Great Britain—who we'd succeeded in kicking out just 31 years before—that actually went on for two years till 1814. It began because of an ongoing conflict between Britain and France in which American trade was being disrupted. We nearly lost that war, and had we lost, our very young country would have ceased to exist. British forces managed to reach Washington, DC, and burned much of the city, including the president's residence, to the ground. Then they headed to Baltimore, whose only line of defense was Fort McHenry. Right before the Battle of Baltimore, a man by the name of Francis Scott Key went to see the British captain to try to gain the release of an American prisoner they were holding. He succeeded, but because the British were afraid the two Americans had heard too much of their plans they forced them to stay on the ship. During the battle, the smoke got so thick that nobody could see who was winning. At some point in the night, sounds of battle ceased, but because it was dark they didn't know who'd won, and since it was the Americans who stopped firing first they feared the British had gotten past the fort. It was only at sunrise, when they saw the American flag still flying above the fort, that they realized Baltimore had been saved. Can you imagine what a dramatic, emotional moment that must have been, to realize both your city and your country, which you thought were both on the brink of total destruction, were still intact? Key was so moved by the site of that flag that he wrote a poem called “The Defense of Fort McHenry,” which was set to music and later renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It is now our national anthem. This is the view of the fort from the visitor's center on the grounds:

I knew that story before visiting the fort, but what I didn't know was that long after the War of 1812 it was still an important part of the military, serving as a holding area for Confederate POWs during the Civil War and a hospital for wounded soldiers during WWI. What was left of the fort when it became a National Park has been preserved to what it was like in 1814, with exhibits on the officer's quarters, magazines (where gunpowder was stored) and other aspects of its function at that time. Of course, the flag in the middle of the fort isn't the same one that was there then—that one is kept at the Museum of American History in Washington—but it is a replica, complete with the 15 stars that existed at that time. (Each star on our flag represents one of the states, of which we currently have 50. In 1814 there were only 15 stars: the original 13 states, plus Vermont and Kentucky. There were already more than 15 states by that date, but they stopped adding stars for several years because they thought it would look too cluttered.) After Fort McHenry, we went to the Inner Harbor for lunch. It's an area in downtown Baltimore where there are a lot of shops, restaurants and other places geared toward tourists.

Older people and newer music

One thing my grandparents and I talked about during my stay with them last week was music. I put on a Bon Jovi CD because I was curious what they'd think of it, and their reaction surprised me. Now, I wasn't expecting them to instantly love it the way I did when I first listened to it, because after all their tastes are pretty different from mine; I mean, I have a hard time understanding how anyone could not love rock music, and especially this particular band, but I also think there's virtually nothing more subjective than musical taste. What sounds amazing to one person sounds mundane to another.

What surprised me though was my grandmother saying that it wasn't that she disliked the songs, but that she couldn't understand them. She kept asking me to explain what the lyrics were, and that was so striking to me because I'd had no trouble understanding them right away. In fact, one of the things I really like about Bon Jovi is that I've always found their songs easy to understand and to pick up on, very “singable” as my dad would say; I don't like songs that I can't sing along with. So it struck me when Grandmom said she couldn't understand the words. She actually did like a couple of the songs on that CD (especially “Seat Next to You"), and Grandpop really liked “Who Says You Can't Go Home.” I know that different generations grew up with different musical styles and that that has a huge influence on what people of different ages like, but I hadn't realized that it might affect our ability to actually hear the music. (In some ways, my grandparents' reaction to Bon Jovi was an improvement of sorts; several years ago when Grandmom heard one of my Bruce Springsteen CDs she dismissed it outright as “not very musical.”:-P)

Gettysburg

Well, I haven't posted on here in a while, mostly because I haven't done much of anything new in the past month. However, I'm currently in Gettysburg for the week visiting my grandparents, and that should be good for at least three or four posts once I get back home on Monday :)

Saturday, in the park

I think it was...Oops, wrong band :)

I got to the park a little over five hours before the show was to start, and by 4PM I was in and had a spot on the lawn. It was a great location. From where I was, it was a straight shot down to the stage, and while I was too far away to see it well there were huge screens up all over the place. And I was still in the front section, so about half the audience was behind me. The day was beautiful, a breeze was blowing and although I'd brought a bunch of magazines along to read while I waited I ended up spending most of the time looking around and just soaking up the atmosphere.

The show started right at 8, and it was right then that it really hit me that I was at a Bon Jovi concert!!! I just couldn't believe I was actually there! They started out with “Livin' on a Prayer” then went right into “You Give Love a Bad Name.” I'm usually pretty inhibited, but I quickly found myself really getting into the music. How could I not? And let me tell you, those guys really know how to work a crowd. During repetitive parts of some of the songs Jon Bon Jovi turned it into a call-and-response with the audience and continually encouraged everybody to sing along. (I wonder if they ever still get a kick out of hearing tens of thousands of people singing songs that they wrote.) The concert was at the tail end of their “Lost Highway” tour, and of course they played that song, “Who Says You Can't Go Home,” “Bad Medicine,” “It's My Life” (the one I know best—it was very popular in Peru the month I was there in 2000), “Wanted Dead or Alive,” “I'll Be There for You” (Richie Sambora sang that one), “Blaze of Glory”—just about all their major hits. I don't own a camera, but here's a picture I found online to give you some idea of what it was like:

I wasn't this close, but so what? The point is, I was there! :D:D:D

What else can I say? For me at least, it was perfect. I just wish it weren't over :( As exciting as it was to see Bon Jovi, I know it's not the last concert they'll ever give, and hopefully someday I'll be in a position to be able to get tickets even if they aren't free. But what are the chances they'll play at Central Park again? No indoor concert can compare to being outside, and I absolutely love that park. This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I am so, so, so glad I got to be there.

More of the same

Last night I attended a meeting at Community Board 1. (For anyone not from NYC, the community boards are supposed to serve as a liaison between smaller communities and the city council, since in such a big city it's harder for citizens to gain access to city government.) It was attended by Chris Ward of the Port Authority, who last week issued his findings in an audit ordered by Gov. Patterson of the WTC rebuilding process. If you've known me for any length of time, you know that this is kind of a big deal for me. Anyway, the report revealed nothing I didn't already know: the project is grossly over budget and considerably behind schedule. Shocker. Of course, if TPTB had actually listened to the public rather than simply used us for their own gain, both the memorial and two beautiful new Twin Towers could have been nearing completion by now. But that would have required a modicum of integrity, something sorely lacking in New York politics.

But anyway, the meeting. Ostensibly it was for Chris Ward and Janno Lieber (Larry Silverstein's spokesperson, since the Great Landlord himself has never seen fit to stoop to attending something so base as a public hearing, where us regular folk actually have a chance to speak) to answer community questions about the process. In reality, of course, it was a chance for them to give off the appearance of concern without actually answering any of the more hard-hitting questions. For example, retired firefighter Jim Riches and fire safety expert Glenn Corbett both asked questions about the Port Authority's refusal to meet NYC fire codes. (Since they are a bi-state agency, they are exempt from such codes under their current charter.) On both occasions, Ward claimed the PA has a deep commitment to safety while completely sidestepping the specific question asked. He emphasized that simply abiding by the codes is not the be-all and end-all of building safety--which is true, but completely misses the point, since if they are committed to safety there's no reason for them not to at least meet city codes, if not surpass them. The whole meeting was nothing but theater, but as a member of the community and longtime rebuilding activist I wanted to be there and see how things would go.

Talk of scrapping the Freedom Tower plan and rebuilding the towers has started to creep back into the papers, and I'm hoping to add to that myself. I'll post links here if I manage to get anything published. Wish me luck!

That was a new one

Like everyone else, I get several dozen pieces of spam every day in my email, usually advertising either porn or "male enhancement" (which strikes me as particularly creepy, but then, I'm not male). Tonight I found a new one in there, and it really creeped me out. The subject said, "We undertake all kinds of killings." Yikes! I couldn't get that one to my trash bin fast enough.

Pray for sunshine next Saturday!

On Monday, Bloomy held a press conference (at which he made an utter fool of himself, but that's another matter) to announce that, in conjunction with the All-Star game at Yankee Stadium, MLB was holding a free Bon Jovi concert in Central Park! They along with U2 are by far my favorite bands, so I just had to be there! Although the concert is free, you need a ticket, and there were 60,000 available. What were the odds that I could get one? They were being distributed at area Major- and Minor-League ballparks. I got to Shea Stadium less than an hour and 15 minutes before they were scheduled to start handing out tickets, certain I was way too late, but to my surprise and delight I was in plenty of time! I guess most people just heard the bulk of the tickets were being given out at Yankee Stadium and headed there.

So in summary, I managed to snag two free tickets to see one of the greatest bands in the world perform in one of my favorite places in the world, in conjunction with a celebration of the greatest sport in the world. Life is good :)