Travelblogue

Beach Running

2011-12-27T17:48:00.002-04:00

I used to think that the best exercise location ever was on a sandy beach running, especially in Barbados and even more specifically along Carlisle Bay. It is pretty sweet there. See the funky panorama below.

But today I got to jog again at Siesta Key Beach in Florida like I did the last time I visited this blog with a post (bad, negligent blogger!). This time I took my 11-year-old daughter who seems to enjoy running.

View Larger Map

The sand at Siesta Beach rivals the packed, fine sand anywhere and is perfect for running on. The maps shows this. I prefer to run barefoot. This beach may have convinced me that Florida beaches are first-rate.

Photo of runner on beach is from Creative Commons-licensed Vicky & Chuck Rodgers Flickr collection. The panorama of Carlisle Bay is mine.

Running On the Beach

2011-04-16T11:59:00.004-04:00

I am in Florida for the week. The kids are off of school and we're visiting the grandparents. I decided to give a 5K run a try and looked for one in the area of Sarasota. I found a great one on Siesta Key - the 4th Annual Siesta Key Beach 5K Run/Walk for Mental Health Awareness. It was so fun, yet so very hot! I got to about 2.5 miles and started to walk, fearing that I might pass out and totally embarrass myself. But then a woman in headphones, a good 20 years older than I, came up from behind and tapped me and waved me to keep going. She ended up getting first place in her age division.

Though I've been running at the gym at home (it's been too cold for running outside!), I got used to running outdoors on sand. All last year a sandy beach, my backyard, was my "treadmill." This race was so great because it was all sand, no pavement. If you're on the west coast of Florida around this time next year and you like running in 5Ks, go to this run.

Added April 25: I came in fourth in my age category. Who knew!

Creative Commons photos by stephthegeek.

Shipping Barrels To and From the Caribbean

2010-11-28T17:56:00.006-04:00

I never wrote on this blog that we needed to ship back a bunch of stuff once it was time to return to the U.S. from Barbados. I realized that small but significant oversite when I saw this short piece in today's New York Times, "Shipping Christmas to the Caribbean."

Yes, Christmas is pretty huge in Barbados but what is even more huge are the prices of things like laundry detergent, dry cereal, and clothes. Prior to moving to Barbados for the year we were advised to "send a barrel full of stuff because everything is so expensive here." I looked into this but never did happen upon any information about shipping a barrel. All I found was that I could get a portion of a shipping container but that seemed overly large for our needs. I even thought about sending one of our cars over to Barbados, filled with extra "stuff," but worried about getting slammed with a high tariff.

The airlines have made it so that in the year we were away, we could bring home even fewer bags than when we came. We could pay extra for each bag, of course, but it was going to really add up. That is when we got on the stick and found out about shipping a barrel. The only place that does this type of shipping in Barbados is Laparkan whom we bought an empty cardboard drum from (similar to the one in the photo). We took it home and filled it up with 300 pounds of books, long pants, a rip stick and beach towels. Laparkan then came to pick it up and facilitated our shipping the barrel back to New York. We were told it would take about a week. It really took two and a half weeks (not bad) and we had to go down to JFK to pick it up. By the way, our barrel was opened and inspected somewhere along the way, not in Barbados and not in the U.S. but all of our stuff was there, though we had Lego pieces flying everywhere.

If you're moving to the Caribbean, be aware that the prices of all the things you know and love (or at least the things you rely on) are going to be really high. If you're in the New York area, check out this Times article for some advice on who ships barrels to which countries.

Severe Storm in Barbados

2010-10-31T22:51:00.005-04:00

I heard that tropical Storm Tomas hit Barbados pretty hard on Saturday October 30. It struck at 6 am so, fortunately, there were few people on the roads driving to work and school. I also hear that there were, thankfully, no fatalities. These two videos not only show the severity of the storm but also show where I used to live. I drove along this road - the Coast Road on the west coast in St. James parish - everyday.

This one shows the same route only driving south on the coast road, going towards Bridgetown.

I hope everyone is doing okay there in Barbados and that the recovery is quick.

Getting Back to the U.S. - Clearing Up Mail Forwarding

2010-10-25T08:41:00.005-04:00

I got back to the U.S. August 16 after living in Barbados for nearly a full year. I've needed to write this short update to express some frustrations with the U.S. Postal Service upon my return.

Oddly enough, it was easy to forward my family's mail down to Barbados but going in the reverse took months to rectify; we started receiving mail addressed to our Poughkeepsie adress on October 11. In my mind it was a simple "Turn off the Forward" that should have been easily handled at some sorting center somewhere in my county. I'm including here that the problem, in the U.S. Postal Service's eyes, stems from receiving mail from an adress abroad...note the "We don't handle from foreign addresses" written in under Other. Sheesh! How U.S.-centric can we get!

I was so frustrated with the situation of multiple phones calls and run-around and finger pointing - "It's not MY job" - that I contacted my local state representative. It's an election year, so why not? The assistant to the Senator told me she made a call and got the same crazy run-around that I got and said, ultimately, that because the U.S. Postal Service is a Federally-run entity, I should contact my U.S. Senator. Oy!

I'm not one of those "take your hands off my money" kinds of people and I agree with paying taxes for services for the public good. A functioning mail service is a public good. Our U.S. Postal Service is not, at present, a well-oiled machine.

Funny. I went to a small island nation in the Caribbean and had no problem with my mail getting to me.

Coming Home - Making a New Normal

2010-09-19T23:34:00.005-04:00

I've been back in Poughkeepsie, New York, for a month. Hard to believe. There’s still stuff to unpack from our year in Barbados.

Yesterday I received an email from a friend/ colleague/ mentor and in it she said "How're things back in New York? Transitioning back to the old normal can be difficult (so we make new normals)."

This resonated with me and moved me to write as this weekend (starting Friday evening) was Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – and the start of the Jewish New Year. At the Saturday morning service I sat and listened to the rabbi’s sermon. He started by talking about the idea of resurrection, a foreign concept in Reformed Judaism, but something that was part of early Judaism and still believed by Orthodox Jews. In discussing resurrection, the rabbi said that he felt that one's dying and returning could be looked at more of a metaphor. He thought of it more to mean rebirth, or in my mind renewal, that we may or may not come back from the dead. Who knows? Who among us has seen Moses or Abraham Lincoln? (Though some have claimed to have seen Elvis.) Rabbi said that when we feel we have hit a road block or come to the end of a long road or when we feel the most lost, there will be something that turns it around, we're shown a new road, a new door opens, there's a clearing in the forest. So rather than the literal interpretation of resurrection, he gave us something akin to resurrecting a life, a new beginning a new normal.

Barbados, for me was a glorious journey that fulfilled me beyond measure. After a long spate of personal and professional trials, I was presented with Barbados where my family and I flourished. How could I go back to New York after such an amazing year abroad? They say you can never go back. But it is just not true. Sometimes, you have to go back. And who could not wish to return to the beauty that is found within the Hudson Valley in autumn? The weather is now turning cool and crisp, the leaves are just beginning to change. I love this season. My house is spacious and welcoming. I see neighbors on the street who stop and ask how my year was. They missed me. They missed my family. I am home. You can go back.

For the first time in my life, I do not have a clear plan. Since I was a teenager, I’ve known, career-wise, what I was going to do. I came back home to New York following a terrific Fulbright experience without a paying job, but I am more clear-eyed than ever. I am taking a sabbatical. I am resting. I am excited about the present moment picking my kids up from school, moving back into our house, supporting my partner as she goes back to work, and planting my feet back into my Poughkeepsie community. This is my new normal, a new beginning. What the future holds is still to be determined.

To a sweet, happy, good new year, L’shana Tova!

Photo of the Hudson Valley is from Flickr Creative Commons taken by b.reynolds.

Last Day of My Fulbright

2010-08-13T13:36:00.004-04:00

I had my last day of my Fulbright fellowship at CERMES and the University of the West Indies last Friday. I probably should have posted this earlier in the week but here it is. Short and sweet.

This year has been a gift to me. I have had a golden opportunity to spread my wings and take flight and I have had encouragement and a stable base to do so. Sure, I contributed some of my expertise to a few projects. But I gained so much more than I gave. Last Friday the department gave me a coffee, tea, and banana bread party send-off. It wasn't until a little later when I got in my car to drive home that I cried. I cried nearly the entire way home. What a joy to weep about missing a place that embraced me in such a short period of time.

The first project I worked on I did some final edits and additions. You may recall that work was a Google Earth project based on data from the Grenadines. Here is the MarSIS project site. Here is the project KML (will open in Google Earth). Take a look. It came out great, I think. But would love your feedback if the user experience is less than satisfying.

The second project was to organize the CERMES GIS data library. There were already some geodata up on the CERMES server but I just added some more data, organized by country and region, and set up a template for future data to be added. I hope this helps the students out. I'm not a librarian. I should try to go back and get an MLS degree if I really wanted to be an effective GIS consultant, but I don't think I have the time. I really do admire librarians, though.

This week has been spent packing and reflecting and filled with lasts...last full moon, last flying fish sandwich, last Magnum bar, last trip to Animal Flower Cave...our flight back home is Monday. Back to New York. Back to reality.

Monday Night at Ju Ju's Beach Bar and Restaurant

2010-08-09T22:55:00.006-04:00

There's a great restaurant just a short walk or swim from our apartment. It's called Ju Ju's Beach Bar. It's a little tucked away and hard to find so I wanted to make sure to sing its praises.

Ju Ju's is owned and operated by Joanna. She and her skilled chef serve up fresh fish of all sorts (flying fish, dolphin, snapper, whatever is in season and fresh) grilled or fried. Very tasty. The kids like the chips (also known as "fries"), hamburgers (the meat-eater anyway) and the cheese sandwich. The flying fish sandwich is great too. The prices are very reasonable given the high-end location on the west coast.

You don't have to wait for Monday. Ju Ju's is open everyday but closes by about 7 p.m.

Where is Ju Ju's?

Latitude: 13°12'16.83"N, Longitude: 59°38'24.63"W

Located directly off the Coast Road in St. James, Ju Ju's Beach Bar is just south of the Lone Star Restaurant. It is seaside. Look for the lime green house and the sign that says "Dive Barbados" (both shown in the photo to the left) and follow the walking path to the left of the green house. There is no sign for Ju Ju's. Watch the video below to get an idea how to get down to the restaurant and see what it looks like.

But not only do you get delicious Bajan seafood, you cannot beat the location and view of the sea. This was from the beach at Ju Ju's taken in May.

And this was taken tonight.

The photos can be found on my Flickr page and the video is on my YouTube page.

Things We Should Adopt in the U.S. #4: Traffic Circles or Roundabouts

2010-08-05T07:03:00.000-04:00

By whichever name you choose to call them, traffic circles do their jobs well - keeping vehicles moving along the roadways. Here in Barbados roundabouts are employed all around the island, on small roads, in the city, and on major highways. The cars roll on. I'm not saying that there are no accidents here, but I don't see fender benders resulting from navigating the roundabouts.

Barbados was colonized by the British and their influence can be seen in many arenas in Bajan society - the traffic circle is but one of the marks the English left here. Because of living in Barbados (as well as in Trinidad where they also have roundabouts) we could easily adapt to traffic circles when we took our U.K. trip last month.

I write this post because of past experiences with a traffic circle controversy that occurred in my neighborhood in Poughkeepsie. Some community members wanted roundabouts put into a busy, too-fast roadway and some others thought these traffic devices would be a menace by diverting all vehicles to their street causing snarls in front of their homes. It pitted neighbor versus neighbor. I wish I could pull up a couple of letters-to-the-editor from the local newspaper but they are archived and not free. Well, the traffic circles went in, as well as some traffic-slowing devices on the other street, and all is well in Poughkeepsie. To think, if everyone could have just experienced the joys of roundabouts first hand by driving through them in Barbados or the U.K., we could have avoided all that angst.

Here, take a look for yourself:

The Creative Commons photo of the roundabout above was taken in England and was found on ztephen's Flickr page. The video I skillfully took while driving around a traffic circle near Dover Beach in the southern part of Barbados. I was very careful. Note the coconut sellers on the left towards the end of the video. You don't see that in Poughkeepsie!

Turtle Beach

2010-08-04T07:32:00.008-04:00

We moved temporarily to Barbados on September 1 last year. The apartment is nearly right on the beach. We feel very fortunate. It took me awhile to realize that not only do we have access to one of the most beautiful beaches on the island with swimming in Caribbean blue water but we have turtles.

In the first month we would snorkel and see what looked like discarded ping pong balls strewn across the reef that is our backyard. We'd pick them up underwater, bring them to fresh air and realize that these were not athletic equipment but some sort of egg. Then we went on a turtle patrol walk along the south coast of the island. We saw hundreds of baby turtles and one turtle track. Still, I did not think of our beach as a turtle nesting beach. Plus, I knew what a marine turtle track looked like because we became fascinated with Leatherback turtles in Trinidad a few years prior. It was not until November when turtle hatchlings came scurrying up from the sand on our beach that I understood the magic that we have on this beach. They've been here nearly the whole time. Certainly we see sea turtles when we are snorkeling but they've been nesting and hatching throughout most of our time here.

Yesterday when I went for a morning run I saw eleven turtle tracks along my usual route. That was more than usual. Today I saw just two, but the point is there are tracks and nests every morning. Here are two from a couple of weeks ago.

When you come to Barbados, wake up early and take a walk along the beach and you will see the tracks. Most beaches enjoy frequent visits from nesting turtles, I'd say from May to October. It's best not to walk up to a nesting turtle, shine a flash light (or torch) on her, or scare her in anyway. If you see hatchlings, feel lucky! But let them make the journey to the sea on their own; don't help them, they need to feel the sand and stretch their legs because they have their work cut out for them.

These turtle shots are from my Flickr account.

"If Ya Bajan and Ya Love Ya Teacher, Raise Ya Hands!": Junior Kadooment

2010-07-26T22:14:00.006-04:00

For the past few months the Barbadian radio stations have been playing an endless rotation of soca music (hear it in the videos below) all in the run-up to Crop Over. Crop Over happens August 2 this year and is so named for the end of the sugar cane season.

Saturday was Junior "Kiddie" Kadooment and was a miniature version of what we might expect on August 2, only without all the alcohol and bacchanal. This was such a sweet affair that I'm really glad I went and took the kids and I'm glad I got lots of video of the little paraders.

We met up at the beginning of the parade route and watched the marchers make their way to the National Stadium where the various "bands" of kids parade across the stage in front of the judges. The title of this post is a reference to something the M.C. said from the stage. There's a lot of emphasis on and value placed in education and teachers are very well-regarded in Barbados. Yet another thing we should adopt in the U.S.!

The photo of the little reveler is by Risee on Flickr and not by me. I had yet another camera failure and did not get still photos of the kiddie kadooment.

But I did get plenty plenty video of the young paraders. Check it out, but be cautious, it's a little loud:

The event that followed the parade was a Junior Calypsonian competition that, unfortunately, we could not stay for. One of the opening acts for the the show was a young soca group (the Hypa Kidz) that has a song out this Crop Over season called "Happy Feet." You can hear "Happy Feet" in the first video with the little parade marchers. Here is Hypa Kidz' performance:

Hawksbill Turtle Tracks

2010-07-22T17:32:00.004-04:00

School is out for the summer and now we find ourselves heading down to the beach a little earlier in the day. This video was taken at about 7 am yesterday. I went out for my run in the morning and saw a lot of Hawksbill turtle tracks and nests but these two were right in our back yard. I had to bring the kids down to see them.

I love living here. We're going to miss it.

Return Home, Reflections on Trip

2010-07-08T11:09:00.002-04:00

Latitude: 51°10'11.98"N; Longitude: 0°10'21.42"W

We had a L O N G drive to the hotel (Corner House Hotel in Horley) which is very close to Gatwick Airport. We kept is lively with The Mists of Avalon. But it was still a little too long for all of our tastes. Though the scenery has been remarkable for most of the trip, the highway (I believe it was the A1(M)) south towards London is less than lovely. Gatwick Airport is still south of London and not really in London. We never saw London on this trip. It's for another time.

Latitude: 51° 9'1.57"N; Longitude: 0°10'35.95"W

We dropped off our rental car (or would that be a 'hire car'?) at Hertz and then went into Gatwick to wait for the flight. What a wonderful trip we all had. There were so many cute towns and sweet places to see. The countryside is so pastoral. Parts of it, with the rolling green hills and grazing bovine, looking strikingly like...New England. Imagine! The history of the UK is incredible, from the Romans to the Vikings and the Normans. Catholicism, Christianity, paganism. The castles and cathedrals, royalty and the commoners, or I mean everybody else. Just driving around and getting out at places along the way reveal the long history of being conquered and a history of conquering and creating the British Empire. It's all so fascinating to someone from the U.S., where our history of colonialism started in the 1600's, we have no real royals (except for maybe our super wealthy) and we are a much larger, geographically speaking.

The trip was a great way to celebrate the end of the school term for the kids and the wrapping up of the Fulbright and sabbatical work for us. If I could shell out some advice...got your kids a passport and take them places, early and often.

The photo at top is from Alnmouth, England, the second photo is from Cambridge, England, and the last photo was taken in Edinburgh, Scotland. These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

Holy Island (Lindisfarne) England

2010-07-06T22:35:00.002-04:00

Latitude: 55°40'8.49"N, Longitude: 1°47'5.01"W

We made the pilgrimage to the Holy Isle in northern England. Lindisfarne is another name for the Holy Island. Along the way on this trip we've been listening to The Mist of Avalon on an MP3 player piped through the radio, this is to get us in the spirit of Olde England in the times of King Arthur and the priestesses and the druids. Marion Zimmer Bradley invokes the Holy Isle of the Christian priests and the Lady of the Lake, shrouded in mist, next the Holy Isle. I am still not sure if the Holy Island is thee Holy Isle of the The Mists, but I like to think there is some pagan blood and sweat in the ground here. Now, it seems, the property is for sale.

To get out to the island, one must wait for the tide to recede, to leave, you must be mindful of the rising tide. The castle shown at the right is an Elizabethan fort that protected the Holy Island harbor. Building on the castle began in 1570 and was used as a fort for over 300 years. It has been privately owned for about 100 years.

Latitude: 55°40'9.44"N, Longitude: 1°48'3.33"W

The village is the site of the lovely Lindisfarne Prior, one of the most important centers of British Christianity. The Priory was founded in AD 635 and is the site of St. Cuthbert's remains. The ruins are beautiful, with large stone arches of weathered red sandstone and preserved building spaces showing the monks housing quarters for when the site used to be a monastery. There is still an active church right next to the Priory because there are about 200 people who live in the Holy Island.

We got to see an interesting raptor display on Holy Island. Given by raptor rescue people, apparently owls have been purchased in abundance following all the Harry Potter joy. Well, people, you cannot keep an owl in a little cage, like Harry does, and expect it to be very pleased. The kids liked getting to hold an owl and a hawk and now hope to volunteer at the local Raptor Center back home when we get back to the U.S.

For dinner we ate in a pub. I had Shepard's Pie and a pint. One odd thing, though, we couldn't find a place to eat at 5:30 pm and had to wait until dinner was served locally at 6 pm. This is a phenomenon we encountered at that time in most places around the UK. It wasn't a big huge deal but we did not want to get caught trying to get back to Alnmouth at high tide. No worries. We made it.

These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

Seahouses and the Farne Islands, England

2010-07-05T23:57:00.006-04:00

Latitude: 55°34'58.30"N, Longitude: 1°39'9.06"W

We drove from Alnmouth north to a town called Seahouses. From here we caught a boat (the Serenity II, if you go, look for this tour operator) out to the Farne Islands to see the puffins. That was the plan. We ended up seeing so much more. Yes, we saw puffins, Eiders, shags, terns, razorbills, guillemots, and gulls on the shores. We also saw sea lions and loads of jelly fish. We got out and walked around for an hour on a National Trust site on Inner Farne and saw the nesting birds very up close. Sometimes up too close as the parent birds, protective of their young or their eggs would swoop very near our heads, shewing us onward and away. It was fun though. Gulls make their nests right on the edge of a cliff. Puffins make a burrow for their eggs and hatchlings.

We also saw St. Cuthbert's Chapel on Inner Farne. Cuthbert figures prominently in the Christian history of northern England so it was interesting to see this sweet little chapel on this rugged, bird-filled rock island.

These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

Added July 22, 2010. My daughter made a video of her birding experience on the Inner Farne. Here's her YouTube channel.

Alnmouth and Alnwick in England

2010-07-04T23:50:00.001-04:00

Latitude: 55°23'25.85"N, Longitude: 1°36'51.26"W

We are staying in Alnmouth very close to Alnwick, England. This is another self-catering place (Midwood Lodge) and it seems brand new. Our luck! The owner left a bottle of wine, some lemon cake and cookies to welcome us.

Latitude: 55°24'55.50"N, Longitude: 1°42'21.12"W

We went to Alnwick Castle this morning. This castle was on our plans at the outset of the trip. It was billed to us as the "Harry Potter" castle. I imagined the castle of the large spires and rustic setting next to a lake. This is not that one. I think that castle is in Romania somewhere. This castle was okay. The first two Harry Potter films had some filming done on the grounds of the castle. I think that scene where Harry learns how to ride the broom is in the bailey. But still, I don’t have many castles in my American life and any castle provides some intrigue. This castle has been in the Percy family since the 1300's. Yes, they are royalty and no, no other people but the Percy's will ever be able to own or live in this castle and this concept is difficult for an American to take on. Happy Fourth of July, by the way. This is a unique castle in that it is or was both a castle (an armament) and a palace (the place where the duke and duchess lived). The current residents live there in the "off season" after the tourists are no longer allowed to see the place. When they come to live in the castle, they actually use the space; their pictures are all over the place. It was kind of creepy. And when they come to Alnwick, they hunt ground birds. No, that is not a life I am familiar with.

Alnwick Gardens, close to the Castle, were beautiful. The kids really liked the maze made of bamboo. I find those scary and claustrophobia-inducing. The perennial garden and rose garden were stunning. Be sure to go through the poisonous plants walk and see all the medicinal plants that are used for all sorts of cures and that the pharmaceutical industry wants to now label as "dangerous." There was even cannabis in the garden.

These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

Siccar Point in Scotland

2010-07-03T22:50:00.001-04:00

Latitude: 55°55'46.36"N, Longitude: 2°18'2.08"W

We left Edinburgh and drove east to find more connections to James Hutton. We made our way to Siccar Point in Scotland and found a couple of placards, one reading that Siccar Point is "arguably the most important geological site in the world." It was breathtaking. This is the location that Hutton came up with the idea of an angular unconformity (see the picture below)- that much time passed between two very different rock formations and that earth is older than 6,000 years. Much older. Getting down to see and walk on the outcrop was tricky but worth it.

By the way, if you want to view Siccar Point from the aerial view (using the location above), don't use Google Earth as the aerial photography for this coastal location is oddly obscured and out-of-date. Use Bing Maps.

We hit a couple more Hutton-significant locations along the way. But I really liked stopping and picking strawberries. We picked so many strawberries that we went a little crazy. But they tasted amazing.

These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

Beautiful Edinburgh, Scotland

2010-07-02T23:09:00.008-04:00

Latitude: 55°56'59.46"N, Longitude: 3°11'39.66"W

Like all of our accommodations, we found this self-catering apartment (Capital View Apartment) on the internet and made the arrangements before we left. It was in a perfect location for seeing Edinburgh, right next to the Royal Mile.

Latitude: 55°56'56.17"N, Longitude: 3°11'40.75"W

We had breakfast (and then lunch because we liked is so much) at a renovated and re-purposed cathedral, now called the HUB. In addition to food, they have performances at the HUB and the Edinburgh Festival.

Latitude: 55°56'54.92"N, Longitude: 3°11'53.76"W

After breakfast, we walked up the hill to the Edinburgh Castle. This place was packed and was almost a little like Disneyland, but ended up being worth it. The cost to enter was $20 USD per adult. The views from this armament, located on a huge, tall piece of rock in the middle of Edinburgh, were well worth it. You can see the Firth of Forth, Arthur's Seat (has nothing to do with THAT Arthur) and another castle/abbey ruin on another hill. We were fortunate to have a beautiful and clear day.

Latitude: 55°56'47.07"N, Longitude: 3°10'27.08"W

Then we went on a James Hutton quest. James Hutton, a native of Edinburgh, was the father of the science of geology. We visited his birthplace, a memorial and a monument in his honor. We walked along the Salisbury Crag (we are the specks on the picture to the right climbing up the trail) near Arthur’s Seat and saw the contact between an igneous sill that intruded into a sedimentary rock formation. This is a walk young Hutton must have made many times as he pondered the age of the earth and how it formed.

Latitude: 55° 56′ 48″ N, Longitude: 3° 11′ 32″ W

We also visited James Hutton’s grave at Greyfriar’s Cemetery. His headstone was locked away in a part of the cemetery not open to all but that didn’t mean it was in some cared for condition. No, it was difficult to even see his headstone without the help of the person working there. One added bonus to going to this cemetery has a Harry Potter aspect to it. Not far away from the cemetery was the café in which J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. The café is called Elephant House. We had to eat there, as we are all major Potter fans. But this cemetery must have been the location of some reflection and inspiration for Ms Rowling in addition to her long-milked coffee at the café. We saw the headstones labeled with the last names Moodie, McGonagall, Black (this one was Josephus), and Thomas Riddell. From inside Elephant House, Ms Rowling would have looked out the window to see Greyfriar’s.

Edinburgh is a beautiful and terrific city. It reminds me of San Francisco with its hills, youthfulness and loads of things to do. I was wish we had a little longer to explore.

These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

Hadrian's Wall

2010-07-01T21:45:00.000-04:00

Latitude: 55° 1'33.72"N, Longitude: 2° 8'23.24"W

We drove north towards Edinburgh today. Along the way we stopped to see Hadrian’s Wall at Chester’s Roman Fort near Walwick, England. Hadrian’s Wall was built during Roman rule – about 22 AD to 306 AD – and much like the Great Wall of China, this wall was meant to keep out northern marauders from infiltrating Roman Britain. Much of Hadrian’s Wall has crumbled away or was re-purposed for newer walls and stone structures. Add to that the fact that there’s a large build up of soil, Hadrian’s Wall would require a true excavation to unearth all the finials, tombstones, alters, and other clay , stone and metal artifacts. There is a museum at Chester’s Roman Fort that has many of these types of findings. In addition, there is a well documented excavation of a Roman fort. These forts were built about every mile along the Wall and within the fort housed a troop of soldiers, horses, cooks and commanders. Hadrian’s Wall is over 70 miles long.

This was a great stop along the trip.

Zoom to the location (given above) in Google Earth. The aerial view is striking. Turn on the Panoramio photos for the on-the-ground view.

These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

More York - Minster, Clifford's Tower, and Jorvik Vikings

2010-06-30T23:40:00.000-04:00

Latitude: 53° 57′ 43″N, Longitude: 1° 4′ 55″W

We woke up early to get a start on what was to be a long day. All days are long on this trip, with the light of day lasting from 5 in the morning (at least) to well over 9 pm, there’s no excuse for not seeing everything. This morning, we climbed to the top of York Minster...273 steps (Tillie counted) and much huffing and puffing later we had an awesome view of the beautiful city of York. The building tops reflect the red brick used in all local buildings. We got up close with gargoyles and saw the fabulous flying buttresses designed to keep propped up the long, narrow and yet extremely tall cathedral that is the Minster. If you go to York, don’t miss climbing to the top of the Minster.

Once back down on ground level, we took our time in the cathedral. We didn’t have time yesterday to explore the Minster. The stained glass windows are extraordinary. The Great East Window, which is over 70 feet tall and contains the largest area of medieval stained glass in a single window, was undergoing renovation. This turned out to be our good fortune as we got to see some of the panes up close, and in place of the Great East Window was what was billed as the largest digital poster anywhere. I don’t know about all that, but it made for a great display that provided a history of what each of the panels represented. This information would not otherwise have been displayed. The East Window gives the biblical history from the Old Testament to the New Testament. They had on display stained glass panels that were yet to be renovated and another that was in perfect shape. It was a very informative display.

Next, we walked south and east to The Shambles. This is a lovely little street but not that remarkable compared to other lovely little streets that one can observe (as we have) all over England. Anyway, amble through The Shambles as you make your way to other points of interest in York.

Latitude: 53°57'20.91"N, Longitude: 1° 4'48.00"W

We went to Cliffords Tower. This is a strange and small remnant of a large castle at the top of a hill. It is also the site of a siege upon York’s Jews in 1190. A lot seemed to happen in England during the Norman Conquest around 1066 and the flushing out of Jews was one of them. Why must history continue to repeat? Anyway, Cliffords Tower is worth a visit because it is a true shambles. It is fairly well crumbling down, though one must pay to enter the structure. The tower that remains was once part of an enormous castle built by Henry III. One thing I’ve learned is that castles were for armament and protection, palaces were where the nobles lived and the cathedrals were places of worship and teaching of Christian scriptures. Cliffords Tower was a castle, an armament. The Minster is a cathedral. It is in beautiful shape and continues to be a place where regular services occur. It struck me as odd that the castle is allowed to crumble down and yet the Minster is undergoing near constant renovations as is needed for a place built on this spot nearly 2,000 years ago and in this stone building form nearly 1,000 years ago.

Latitude: 53°57'26.49"N, Longitude: 1° 4'48.67"W

A feature we included as a late minute addition was the Jorvik Viking Center. This place was great. It is an excavation on this site in York showing mostly Viking remains but also some Roman artifacts. This was a very interactive and informative exhibit. The kids loved it and especially liked the ride through a mock Viking village (complete with real smells of the olden days…eew) and docents who really know their Viking stuff. Either they were archaeologists or enthusiasts but we learned a ton about the fair-haired Norse-folk.

These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

York, England

2010-06-29T22:55:00.003-04:00

The drive up to York took a bit longer than we expected. We ran into a huge traffic jam but because we took the GPS (with pre-purchased maps for the UK), we were able to confidently go off the main route and find back roads to get north to our destination. We didn't arrive until 4 pm. It stays light out until 10 pm so we had a few hours to see what we could see. There's a lot!

York is a walled city that has changed hands several times from Romans to Vikings and who knows what. Driving into York you can see the walls as well as the Bars or archways through the wall.

We strolled from our hotel (the Churchill Hotel at Latitude: 53°57'54.88"N; Longitude: 1° 5'23.95"W) towards York and the York Minster with a stop along the way through the York Museum Garden. We saw this old ruin of St Mary's Abbey (first photo above) that Kind Henry VIII allowed to fall into disrepair. There is also a remnant of the original Roman Wall within the Museum grounds, called Multangular Tower (to the right).

Latitude: 53° 57′ 43″ N, Longitude: 1° 4′ 55″ W

We took a stop into the York Minster to listen to Evensong, but we instead heard the Solemn Eucharist in honor of St. Peter, the patron saint of the Minster. The boys (and men's) choir sang. It was lovely.

Then we took a walk along the top of the wall. It seems the York wall is called the Roman Wall but, in fact, it is more aptly named the Norman wall. The Roman Wall was smaller and rectangular. There is now (actually, since about the 1200s) a more circular wall around York that stretches out from the various Bars or entryways into the city. We didn't even know we could walk along the top of the wall, so this was a nice surprise. The kids loved it. From this shot you can see the major slope built to detract marauders from attacking York.

These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

Cambridge, England

2010-06-28T23:19:00.002-04:00

Latitude: 51° 9'1.57"N; Longitude: 0°10'35.95"W

We flew into London Gatwick Airport and drove straightaway north to Cambridge. We checked into the Cambridge Holiday Inn Express (Latitude: 52°11'36.61"N; Longitude: 0°10'29.56"E) for a ten minute drive into town. Cambridge was so beautiful with every turn a lovely street scene or a window flower box or an outdoor cafe.

What was especially wonderful about Cambridge was to see all of the colleges that comprise the university. The college system of Yale and Harvard is modeled after Cambridge and Oxford, where a student is associated with a college, living there while she or he attends classes at the university, eating meals and attending faith services. The chapels, libraries, central quadrangles, and gardens are amazing. The chapel for Trinity College (above) was lovely and there was a student practicing when we walked in. Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and Alfred Tennyson lived in Trinity College. The chapel at Kings College was awe-inspiring from the outside but was not open when we arrived. We saw entry-ways to the Master Houses and felt envious as the House Fellow accommodations at Vassar are not quite up to that caliber. The city of Cambridge is a true academic Disneyland.

We ended the day punting on the Cam River. Punting is when you use a long stick or pole to push a flat-bottomed boat along the river. We hired someone to punt but you can also rent (or let) a boat and go on your own. I don't recommend it because most of those self-punters didn't have any idea of how to make the boat go straight. Plus, our punt driver had some very interesting things to say about the history of Cambridge.

These photos and more are located on my Flickr page.

Next Trip...United Kingdom

2010-06-27T08:06:00.011-04:00

We're headed out this afternoon: destination London Gatwick Airport. We'll be in the UK for ten days on sort of a whirlwind semi-work-related family holiday. First, we go to Cambridge, then York, then up to Edinburgh, and then to Alnwick. Lot's of plans of things to see and do along the way. I hope to blog each day with the full scoop.

CC photo by Demetrio Neri 1959.

For the fun of it, I made a video of all of us as we were heading out from Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados...what did we hope to see and do?

Technology Workshops This Week - At UWI

2010-06-18T16:58:00.006-04:00

I am an instructional technologist. When I first got to the University of the West Indies, I tracked down my cohort here, Pat Atherley, to see what the system was like at the UWI and to figure out how we could work together. This week we got to do that.

Pat organized a week of Moodle training sessions for faculty members on campus. From beginning-level to advanced, Pat showed all of us (me included - I don't know how to use the Learning Management System Moodle) many of the tips and short cuts to getting course materials up online. How I was involved was Pat asked if I'd like to give a demonstration or two on some of the educational technologies that I know. I happily volunteered to talk about Google Earth (Monday), collaborative writing with Google Docs (Wednesday), and using tablet PCs in teaching courses inside the classroom and out in the field. The photo at the top shows Pat (on right) and me talking about tablet PCs. Both photos here can be found on my Flickr photostream.

The Google Earth session was developed as a hands-on workshop so that faculty members could learn how to create Google Earth files so they can use the geo-browser while lecturing in class. The Google Docs session (also hands-on) went over not only collaborating in a Google Doc (if you don't know, it is just like Microsoft Word only on-line), but I showed the group how to use and collaborate with Google Spreadsheets, Drawings, Presentations, and Forms. The tablet PC talk was really mostly me talking about how one can use a tablet PC for lecturing, sharing slides and PDFs, and facing the students while drawing on the "virtual chalkboard" which is the tablet's screen. I also talked about how tablets are useful for field classes and data collection. Here are my slides for the tablet PC talk.

Tablet PCs in Higher Education

View more presentations from Meg Stewart.

It was very satisfying to be able to share some of the things I know about teaching and learning with technologies. Thanks, Pat, for asking me to contribute!

Secretary of State Clinton in Barbados

2010-06-11T10:37:00.005-04:00

The U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in town (Bridgetown) for a brief visit. Let me say first off, I did not meet her or go to her press conference, much as I would have liked to. I am a huge fan of the Madam Secretary.

Continuing with the Obama Administration's interest in renewing attention and positive relations in the backyard of the U.S. with evidence from his trip to Trinidad and Tobago for the 2009 Summit of the Americas meeting, Secretary Clinton made a trip to the Caribbean and Latin America over 6 to 10 June. I am thrilled she stopped in Barbados.

I see her visit to the area as extremely positive for the region. She announced commitments from the U.S. for support of such areas as: More assistance to Haiti, energy security and climate change cooperation, health cooperation concerning HIV and AIDS, trade relations, and continued and on-going dialogue among other concerns. There was a commitment to $300 million in U.S. (Barbados dollars are 2 to 1 with U.S. dollars) aid to the Caribbean with about $8 million going towards climate change and energy projects.

And showing off her humorous side, Secretary Clinton has this to say to assembled U.S. Embassy staff and their family members in Bridgetown:

I hope that you all know how much President Obama and I appreciate your long hours, your commitment. Although frankly, serving in Barbados, I mean – (laughter) – I don’t know. I’m not going to hear too many complaints from anybody here. But I do think that it’s important to underscore how everything we’re trying to do to reengage with and deepen and broaden our relationships with our friends in the Caribbean depends on you.

I hear you, Ms. Clinton, it's tough "serving" here in paradise, but Barbados, with its strong infrastructure, solid government, and hard-working, committed people is the perfect place to model success for the rest of the world and, in particular, the Caribbean. U.S. support and attention is a positive thing in a region that has been overlooked for too long. As she stated at the press conference, "We have had a long relationship between the United States and the Caribbean, but there was a sense that the United States was absent from the region. So we are back. We are back 100 per cent. We are back and committed."

The photo of above of Secretary Clinton is from the Barbados NationNews on-line version of the newspaper.

We Did Not Miss Mango Season

2010-05-30T13:36:00.003-04:00

Our view from our balcony looks towards the sea...and a huge mango tree. For months it has done nothing but been beautiful to look at. Now it is covered with mangoes. And I am feeling pretty lucky.

Photos from my Flickr photostream.

Applying for a U.S. Fulbright Scholar Grant

2010-05-29T11:06:00.008-04:00

I am in Barbados on a Fulbright Scholarship. Originally it was a nine month appointment and it was recently extended to 11 months, I am happy to say. I’ll be here until mid-August. This post is to suggest some tips that worked for me in applying for the Fulbright. The announcement from the CIES comes out in April for the next academic year for the U.S. Scholars Core Fulbright Scholar Program. Here is this year’s listing for academic year 2011-2012. The online version is a great improvement over the paperback book. Though it’s fun to rifle through the book, it is easy to sort to what you’re interested in with the web version. This may save on paper, too. The deadline to apply is August 2, 2010, so these tips should help get you on your way for your application.

Comb the Fulbright web page to get a feel for the program. Take a look at the Who’s Eligible page. Make sure you can apply for the Fulbright. You must be a U.S citizen, not a permanent resident.

Go through this list in great detail. It is a huge list so sort to what your interests are. Set the search parameters in Search for Awards area. You can put in your discipline, whether you are looking for teaching and/or research (under Activity), country. As I have said, you do not need a Ph.D. for many of the Fulbright grants so you can sort by No Ph. D. Required. For instance, I just searched on Teaching and Research, No Ph. D. required, Information Science, any geographic location and got 41 countries looking for me! See, that is what I did (with the paperback book) in April 2008 when I was looking for the placement I have now. I was overwhelmed by the places looking for some with technological skills and not requiring the Ph. D. Try it. Another example: Geology, requiring a Ph. D., all locations….there are too many to count.

Next weed out where you do not want to go. If you don’t feel like going to Ireland or the Maldives (picked at random, by the way), why waste your time looking at those countries?

When you have narrowed down your search to your discipline and the country, print out the page of information for each country. Yes, it’s a waste of paper, but jotting notes down on these sheets will help you sort out who you contacted, what department they’re in, dates and other useful information.

Now you need to make some contacts. Look at the university looking for a Fulbrighter. Look at the Grant Activities section. For example for Trinidad and Tobago at the Univ of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, you will find this information on the Grant Activities: Teach and conduct research in a wide range of disciplines including humanities, business administration, social sciences, or natural and applied sciences. Ratio of teaching to research is roughly 50/50. Do some research. Search the university’s web page thoroughly for your department or area of expertise. Contact the department chair. Contact a faculty member who shares your unique area of scholarship. Reach out by email. Make phone calls. Some areas in the world, especially the developing world, have limited and intermittent internet access so be persistent in your search to make contact. You will NEED a contact for your application, by the way, so be respectful and pleasant in all forms of communication. When I found a name and contact that looked promising, I wrote a fairly lengthy email and attached my CV. I wrote what my background was, what I could teach (“I see you teach Geographic Information System ENV707. I would love the opportunity to teach that course because I have taught GIS at XYZ College and I am…” Write about how your areas of scholarship and research might overlap with theirs. Be friendly and engaging. Remember that they do not need to pay you (though don’t write that in your email). You are a freeby to them. Your application will be stronger if you have a letter from someone in country. In fact, some countries require a letter of invitation. Mine did not.

Next, contact the Regional Program Officer (listed at the top of the Country Overview - Award page) to let them know you are interested in a particular country within their purview, an email or a phone call to let them know you exist. If you end up applying to the country that they oversee in the Fulbright program, the first time they hear of you should NOT be when your application rolls across their desk.

Take a look at the past grant recipients list. Contact some of the Fulbrighters that had awards within the past three to five years to the country you wish to apply to. Ask all those questions you want to know about: Did you feel supported by the department you were with? I want to take my children, how will that be for me? Was it safe there? What’s Malta like? How are the resources on campus? What’s the Library like? This was very helpful to me. Past Fulbrighters want to share their experiences (this blog is proof of that!) and some were quite honest with me. If you do win an award, the contact that you made will be someone to get back in touch with for those where should I live questions.

Your letters of recommendation should be from people who know you well, who will say good (but true) things about you, and can cover all the areas you want to highlight about yourself. If you are doing a teaching and research proposal, make sure one of your recommenders covers one aspect of those areas. I think it’s important to NOT have all your references come from the same institution, shows you get out and about.

I should probably have some words of advice about your five page proposal. Write it well. Be succinct. Once you’ve made an in-country contact, you will have a better idea of what 1) will be your research agenda, and 2) what you will teach. Talk about your research in a way that shows you have done this before and will be great at it. Talk about your teaching as though you know exactly what you are doing. Be positive. Use the active voice. Have people read it to see what they think. Intelligent non-specialists will be reading your application, so make it as clear as possible and totally free of disciplinary jargon. Have your in-country contact read it to see if it makes sense. It’s only five pages. Make them count.

That is what I have for today. These are things that you must be doing now if you want to be a Fulbright Scholar in 2011-2012. After your application is submitted (August 2, 2010 deadline!), you will wait and wait to hear anything. You may want to contact the Regional Program Officer to see how things are going. Your application will go through a U.S review first. If you make it through that, then your application goes (along with all the others that made it through the U.S. review) to the host country. If there are only two Fulbright Scholarship appointments for a country and there are ten qualifying applicants, well, you get the picture.

The Fulbright experience is an amazing opportunity. It is worth trying for. Good luck!

Cricket in the West Indies

2010-05-12T13:01:00.008-04:00

Before I even moved to Barbados I heard that the ICC World Twenty20 Cricket matches would be held here and in other parts of the West Indies. I was excited because I have wanted to know more about cricket. I tried to learn about it when I was Trinidad, but never really got the hang of it. I'm starting to get it.

We went to two matches on separate days at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. The video below shows bits and pieces of the matches. What I found out is that Twenty20 cricket is a much shorter, faster-paced sport than all-day cricket or Test cricket (five days, e-gads!). The game is over in about three hours. Each team gets a turn at batting; they are "up" for 20 overs, then the other team has their "ups." The ball, when hit by the batsman, can go anywhere on the oval-shaped field. If the ball reaches the boundary that marks the outer perimeter of the playing field, the batter gets 4 points. That's also called a "boundary." If he (or she) hits it over the boundary, like a "home run," that counts for 6 points. You can get ones and twos for little dribbles and drabbles hit. There are two guys with bats on the cricket pitch. They take turns batting, plus they are both running back and forth between the wickets, sort of like two "home bases."

The "pitchers" are called bowlers. There are two bowlers out there, also taking turns at the batsmen. There's fast bowlers and slow bowlers and spinners. I think that the bowlers are trying to knock the wickets over (they are wooden stumps), so the batsmen are trying to defend the wicket yet still try to hit the ball for some runs. If there is a hit, the ball can be caught in the air for an out, or the ball can be thrown at the wicket, so the fielding player tries to get it there and hit it before the runner gets there.

The stands in the Oval were another thing altogether. There's a lot of noise, a lot of good natured-cheering, there's not a lot of cursing and yelling at "bad calls," and there's lots of loud music and dancing girls and boys. Check out the video for a view into the cricket fan culture.

There, that's an American's view of the game but using some baseball terminology. I loved it. It was great fun. Do I think cricket will catch on in the US? No. They may have abbreviated the game to get more young people (and Americans) into cricket, but the US is pretty saturated with its sports. Cricket is, of course, played in America, but it's played like beach cricket is played here in Barbados, usually pick up games in parks. In Poughkeepsie (where I usually live) there's a significant Jamaican population and there is a pitch on the outskirts of town where I see folks gather on Sundays to play. They dress in cricket whites. I'm sure one can see rousing cricket matches down in Brooklyn and elsewhere. I would love to see cricket in the US. It's a civilized sport.

Fireball International 2010 - Regatta in Barbados

2010-05-07T10:49:00.005-04:00

We got to watch from a distance the Fireball International regatta at Carlisle Bay. Here's another Fireball World link. These sail boats are small and slick and super fast. They are raced by two people, one "crew" who is really just a counterweight hanging by a tether and harness over the edge of the boat and the other is the skipper. I made of video of what the regatta looked like from the event site, the Barbados Yacht Club in Bridgetown. I hope you can tell from the video that there were about 12 to 15 countries represented which you can tell from the IDs on the sails and flags a-flying.

Two international competitions have converged on Barbados at once: the Fireball International races and the World Twenty-20 Cricket matches. More on cricket in a future post.

My kids take sailing lessons at the Sailing Association next to the Yacht Club. That's how I heard about the Fireballs. But I also read about the Fireballs from my favorite local blogger, Planet Barbados' Janet Shattuck Hoyos, who adores Carlisle Bay about as much as I do, I think. She had this video linked from her blog. Check out the speed these boats are flying.

Next year Fireball International 2011 is in Ireland. I think they really might need those wet suits the racers were sporting in sunny Barbados this year.

March and April are Kiting Flying Months

2010-04-20T09:52:00.005-04:00

In Barbados there is a daily gently breeze. The wind is perfect for kite flying (and sailing, and wind surfing, and trips on catamarans...). All during March and now into April, I hear the sound of kites zipping through the air in my neighborhood and I look up and see one lone kite. Or off in the distance, from a hill top, I can see several kites being flown in an open field. Kites stands sprang up in March. Of course, kite flying is an evening or weekend activity.

I asked someone about the kite flying going on now. She said she wasn' t really sure but if one was to fly a kite at any other time of the year, one would look silly. Strange, I thought, with all this wind. Then another person said the reason for the kite flying at this time of year is related to Easter and the resurrection of Christ. The kites symbolize Jesus' rising. Aha!

Creative Commons photo is from orphanjones photostream.

Talk at CERMES on Tablet PCs in Higher Ed

2010-04-09T14:56:00.003-04:00

Taking Technology in the Field: Data Collection and Mapping on a Tablet PC

View more presentations from Meg Stewart.

I was invited to give a talk at the monthly lunch-time brown bag series at CERMES. It was nice to go on about using tablet PCs in teaching, especially in the field. These are my slides with links out to the videos I showed.

More Photos of the Belize Trip

2010-04-07T00:22:00.002-04:00

I assembled many of my photos from the Belize field trip on my Flickr account. Check them out here.

Posted via email from Meg's Scrap Paper

About Belize and Internet Access

2010-03-27T09:40:00.006-04:00

I was in Belize for nine days. This trip was the field trip component of a CERMES course called Natural Resources Management and I was there in a support capacity. While in Belize I got to see the southern part of the country – the Monkey River area – when we did a water quality and sediment sampling project. I saw the hill area – the Maya Mountains and San Ignacio – where we traveled to two hydroelectric power plants and saw Xunantanich. I saw the agricultural practices of Mennonite farmers in the Orange Walk District in the north near the Mexico border. And I spent a brief yet joyous afternoon snorkeling at Hol Chan Marine Reserve (scroll down to Shark Ray Alley - Zone D). With one exception, I had miserable access to the internet. You see, I am a self-proclaimed techie, so this did not set well with me. Some may say that when going to Belize, one should turn off the tech anyway. No. I was working and so were the students and professors. One of the reasons I was present on this trip was for technical support for student blogging. The students were to blog each evening after their day in the field and then use those posts as "field notes" for when they write up their final reports. Well, all plans for blogging each night flew right out the window. It was very discouraging, at least for me, and I found it remarkable that there was this lack of reliable network access. What is this world coming to?

Then at the Miami airport, where I paid a whopping $4.95 for a mere 30 minutes of time on wireless, and on the plane coming home, I read that the U.S. is only 12th in the world with broadband access. Only 69 percent of U.S. households have high-speed access to the net. That seems way too low. But I imagine that Belize would be in single digits for household access, and this is not even broadband as the internet is served up through a telephone line and a modem. That is the way I have access in my apartment in Barbados. While I think that the U.S. and our citizenry should be number one in broadband access and there are plans to make that occur, it is clearly important for the developing world to have greater access to the information found on the web. Those without this information will be left in the dust. And internet cafes are not access.

That one exception I mentioned above, we had web access at the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in Belmopan, where all of us – students, professors and staff – hopped on wireless and caught up on email and such. Did the students also catch up on their blogging at that time? Sadly but not surprisingly, no.

The map of Belize was grabbed from here.

Went to the Top of Xunantunich

2010-03-25T03:31:00.003-04:00

Latitude: 17.089032; Longitude: -89.141769

This is getting posted a little late, but we all went for a visit to the Mayan ruins at Xunantunich in Cayo district on March 22. It was quite spectacular to see the looming pyramid structure and to climb to the top of it where there's a wonderful view. Xunantunich is the tallest structure in this set of ruins. There is a center courtyard area with smaller, mound-like structures lining the court. Some of these shorter mounds of artifacts are yet to be uncovered, but after visiting this site, one can spot them all over the country. These are pyramid-shaped yet covered with grass or other, thicker vegetation mounds. Some of the mounds that we've seen since going to Xunantunich are quite high.

For this leg of the journey we stayed in Cahel Pech Resort in San Ignacio. A nice place with a view of the valley.

Posted via email from Meg's Scrap Paper

Discussion of Video Project for the Water Resources/Climate Change Class

2010-03-22T08:40:00.002-04:00

We got the students together this evening to discuss the video project. The students are in three groups and each group must create a 5-minute video on a topic of their choosing but should be related to an activity that they have seen or worked on during this field trip. Water resources or climate change or both should figure prominently in the project. Each group has been given an HD Flip video camera.

As a start, we told them to treat this project as one would a paper but without all the words. Here are some more guidelines:

1) Formulate an idea, a direction, or theme that you want to go with the video.

2) Just as you would for a research paper, draft an outline. What pieces do you need for your video? Do you need interviews? Do you need imagery of certain sites? Do you need particular sounds recorded? Do you need to do more research?

3) On the trip capture video and images with your project in mind. Talk to the other groups to see if they might have material you can use for your video project.

4) Piece your video together to see what you’re missing. Add still images. If you don’t have a shot of what you wish to highlight, search for an image in Flickr Creative Commons or some other open access, share-alike source.

5) Make a script then do a voice over. Practice it a few times to get the timing down.

6) Add a title clip and also add a clip with your names, dates and places.

Then I walked them through the use of Windows Movie Maker. Though they are using Flip video cameras and could use the Flip software, Movie Maker is a better solution for creating videos. It’s free with the Windows operation system and quite easy to use. And none of the students (or professors) are using Macs which would mean they would use iMovie software.

To get started, open Movie Maker and save your project with a new name. Save often!

Import video by navigating to your video clips. Then load those clips from your Collections to your movie project. Drag your clips into the Video timeline. You can also copy the clips from the Videos folder from you’re My Documents folder directly into Movie Maker’s timeline. You can make your clip shorter and reduce the unwanted parts of a clip by using the slider at the end or beginning of a clip (this will be a red double arrow).

Importing pictures is a way to utilize images of topics that you did not get good video footage of. The default length of time for an imported image is about 5 seconds; you can modify that to be whatever length you wish. Keep in mind that pictures will not have any sound so you will need to have some sort of audio over those images.

With both video clips and pictures, you can fade from one into another by slightly overlapping two clips or photos. This makes a smooth transition.

Remember to save.

There is a narration tool built into Movie Maker. A small microphone shows up in your tool bar. Click that and you’re ready to record. Once your recording is done, stop, save and your recording is found in your audio line of your project. You can also bring in other sounds that you’ve captured by importing or dragging clips into the audio timeline.

Create a descriptive title using the title wizard. Create a second title with the names of your group, date(s), and location. You can add text over your video clip or photograph clip by adding text over the selected clip. For text, you should use a sans serf font like Arial or Trebuchet and not a serif font like Times Roman or Georgia.

Save again!

Once you feel your five-minute video is as exactly how you want it, go to Save to My Computer. Use the defaults and your video will be rendered in a few minutes. You will then have a .wmv file to send to your professors.

Posted via email from Meg's Scrap Paper

More Field Work in the Monkey River Watershed

2010-03-19T22:34:00.002-04:00

Latitude: 16°31'16.934"N; Longitude: 88°33'39.665"W

We started the morning out nice and early and headed to one of the reaches that feeds into the Monkey River, the Swasey River. Some groups did sand grabs to look at the sediment content of the material coming down to feed the beach of the Monkey River. We all did field observations to look for vegetation types and human activities along the banks of the river and each location we got GPS location. I downloaded those sites tonight and everything is looking good and working so far. Whew!

At the base of the Maya Mountains there is a huge area of banana plantations. It seems the workers working the plantations are Guatemalan immigrants or ingenious Mayan. Though there was a school in the village there were small children running around in the middle of the day, asking us questions. Other kids were helping to dig a ditch that will help irrigate the bananas. There was also a moderately-sized and newly constructed water tower paid for by the Belize government and European Commission.

In the afternoon our group surveyed the local health clinic to ask questions about any correlations with health and climate change. After that we visited the Banana Growers Association to talk about climate change effects on growing, harvesting, and selling bananas to a global market. Bananas are the poor man’s fruit so if costs go up to grow a banana, as a result of hurricane’s damaging the plants or rot of the plant because of too much rain at one time, will consumers pay? What will YOU pay for a banana.

After dinner we had another terrific group discussion about each others field experience It rounded out the two days of field work quite nicely. We are in the Monkey River area for just two days and had to make sense of a place quickly. I think this approach, with three group each doing something very different yet related field activities and techniques. These discussions were illuminating for all of us and helped to weave all of it together.

Tomorrow is a travel day. I hope we finally have internet access.

Field Work Along the Monkey River

2010-03-18T23:15:00.001-04:00

Latitude: 16.365363° N; Longitude: -88.484445° W

We broke into three groups today. One did beach profiles. One conducted community surveys in the village. And my group went by water taxi up the Monkey River. The river was running low so we couldn’t get quite as far as we had liked, but where we reached, we put in a couple of sediment samplers to check for sediment flow volume overnight. We dropped a couple of samplers at the mouth of the river, as well.

On our way back downstream, we took observations and collected water quality samples at measured intervals. When I say ‘we’ I really mean the students did all the work and I was along for the ride. I used a tablet PC and GIS data I got from a contact at Galen University to figure out where we were but the students did their own data collection and taking of GPS waypoints.

The Monkey River is beautiful. There were nearly no signs of human visitors along this stretch but plenty of wild life. Alligators, iguanas, black howler monkeys (hence the river’s name), and lots of bird life – herons, ibis’, oropendola, kingfishers, a small hawk – it was Wild Kingdom, man!

At night, once we all get back together back at the hotel’s restaurant, we heard a debriefing of each others field day. It was a perfect first day in the field.

Trip to Belize With CERMES Students

2010-03-17T23:32:00.006-04:00

Latitude: 17°33'21.51"N; Longitude: 88°18'24.88"W (appx)

I am in Belize with CERMES professors Dr. Adrian Cashman and Dr. Leonard Nurse (see photo below) to assist them with their Water Resources Management field course. We took a very early flight out of Bridgetown, flew to Miami and then went on to Belize City where I am now two hours ahead of Barbados time. I am exhausted. But the weather is surprisingly and pleasantly cool and we may be in for perfect weather.

Here we are visiting our hosts Dr. and Mrs. Leslie of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center, at their home in Lake Gardens, Belize.

The plan is: we will be on a nine-day field trip, measuring river flow, making beach profiles, looking at hydro-electric power plants, and visiting agricultural areas. I will be helping the students use the tablet PCs for field mapping, setting them up with blogging and assisting them in making videos. This first evening, the internet is a little weak for all of us, but the idea is that the students will post to an individual blog and then those blogs will feed into a course blog called Belize Field Trip. Please feel free to check it out. I will also try to be useful as a reasonably knowledgeable field hack, as well.

Tomorrow we're up early again to head to Independence and Monkey River. I'll have the GPS working and get a more accurate reading of where we are.

Friday Night at Shakers

2010-02-12T21:16:00.002-04:00

We went to Shakers tonight. We like this restaurant a lot and it always seems we end up there on Fridays. Shakers is in a house, in a neighborhood. You will not have an awesome view of the sea and sometimes a car will whiz by a little too fast, but you will have a great meal.

I like to get the Catch of the Day which is usually Dolphin (the fish) or Marlin. The seasoning is perfect and the dish comes with salad, cole slaw and grilled potatoes. Our carnivorous daughter likes the tasty steak: she gets it every time. And our vegetarian son likes to get two orders of samosas and a side of grilled potatoes. Other good stuff: grilled flying fish, beer-battered catch of the day, grilled shrimp and hamburgers. On a small island nation, I always stick with the fish.

I don't feel comfortable writing the meal prices just in case they change, but three of us ate at Shakers tonight, had drinks, appetizers and entrees and spent $119 BDS (not including tip). That's $60 USD. I think that's pretty good.

Latitude: 13° 4'37.97"N; Longitude: 59°35'29.77"W

Where is Shakers?: You can find Shakers on the south coast, in Brown's Gap. From the coast road, turn up the hill at Big Johns and follow it past the Pirate's Inn, curve around, go almost to the T and there on the left is Shakers.

Shakers is open evenings Tuesday to Sunday 6 to 10pm. Call co-owner Amy for reservations: 228-8855

Don't Miss the Jammin' Catamaran Cruise

2010-02-08T09:31:00.010-04:00

We live in paradise for a year, did I mention that? When you live in Barbados, you get some company from folks living in cold and foreign lands. With all of our friends who have left the chilly northeast to come visit us, we take them on a real treat - the Jammin' Catamaran cruise which sails around the west coast of Barbados. The video below will give you a sense of the atmosphere - music, limin', happy people, fun in the sun as well as in the water. If you're really lucky, when you're on your Jammin' cruise you'll get to see a few sea turtles.

On one Jammin' trip, I overheard the owner/captain Roger say to one of his crew members "give the people what they want!" and Jammin' does do that. Then they passed around a pitcher of Jammin' Rum Punch. Nice!

Jammin's web site: http://www.jammincats.com/

All the photos shown here are on my Flickr page.

Quote about Port of Spain, Trinidad

2010-01-27T09:16:00.007-04:00

A friend of ours just came from a professional meeting in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2003, we lived for six months in Trinidad in a suburb of Port of Spain, Diego Martin, and have fond memories of the twin island country. One might even say we is trini 2 de bone.

Our friend was overjoyed with her conference and the brief site-seeing she got to do around Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago's capital. She studies the writings of Derek Walcott who also attended the conference. The city moved her so much that our friend sent this quote of Walcott's, reflecting on Port of Spain. It reminds me of why I loved the place so much.

". . . so racially various that the cultures of the world--the Asiatic, the Mediterranean, the European, the African--would be represented in it, its humane variety more exciting than Joyce's Dublin. Its citizens would intermarry as they chose, from instinct, not tradition, until their children find it increasingly futile to trace that genealogy . . . This is Port of Spain to me, a city ideal in its commercial and human proportions, where a citizen is a walker and not a pedestrian, and this is how Athens may have been before it became a cultural echo. "

I relish in hearing of Americans having a great experience in Trinidad. Last November, we met a U.S. diplomat-type who had just spent six weeks in Trinidad and you know what she said? "I loved it there. I am Trini to de Bone, and all of that." If you want to witness a true melting pot, take the time to visit Trinidad.

While living in Trinidad, there wasn't much mention of Barbados by Trinis, however, there was a clear animosity towards Jamaica...dat place ent safe, guhl...too too much crime gwan on der. Well, we come to Barbados in September, with a love for Trinidad in our hearts and what do we hear? Trinidad has so much killins der, it ent safe, dahlin'! I doh go der, ya know! Does every place have to have another place they fear or feel superior over?

All I know is that we loved Trinidad and want to go back there while we live so close. The children were too small to remember the feeling of all those cultures mixing and living and blending together. Frankly, that is not a phenomenon they are seeing here in Barbados, but my thoughts on that may have to come in another post.

I'm not going to lie, since coming to Barbados, where the living is easy, folks are friendly and every last beach is divine, we have fallen for the place. There's a lot to like here in Barbados, but there's a lot to appreciate about Trinidad and Tobago. Let's put it this way, Trinidad is so much more than Carnival.

Image of coconut vendor in Port of Spain is from tuchodi's Flickr account.

Exercising on the Beach

2010-01-26T05:45:00.003-04:00

Prior to moving to Barbados, I tried to figure out as much as possible how I could set up my life as similarly to that of my life in Poughkeepsie. Back home, I went to the college's gym. It;s either cold and snowy or sweltering hot and the gym is climate-controlled. In August or so, about a month before our move, a spoke with Kim about a couple of research-related things and then asked about gyms in Barbados. She didn't actually laugh at me, but she did say something like, 'well, I don't ever go to a gym. I've got the beach.'

I haven't been to a gym here. I've got the beach. I run barefoot along Carlisle Bay beach or on my own beach at Alleyne's Bay, where I can jog all the way to Mullin's Bay. The west coast has lots of long stretches of firm-sand beach, perfect for long walks or quick runs.

Lot's of Bajans workout after work. If they don't happen to live near the beach, you can see folks power walking, running or biking along the highway. It looks odd and seems dangerous, but the highway gives one an open stretch of pavement on which to get in the exercise time. If you're driving at dusk in Barbados, be cautious of the exercising crowd.

Creative Commons Flickr photo is by johncooke.

Research Days at the UWI

2010-01-20T18:02:00.003-04:00

On Monday and Tuesday the University of the West Indies had Research Days and I was asked by CERMES to be a part of it. I loaded the Google Earth file for the Grenadines MarSIS project on to a laptop, Dale set it up with a touch screen monitor, and I showed off the project I've been working on. In the video, you'll see me giving a bit of the schpiel to an attendee. It was a nice conference, the first they've had on campus. I was glad to participate.

Video of the Grenadines Workshops

2010-01-20T08:47:00.003-04:00

I finalized the video of Kim's and my trip to the Grenadines for the discussion of the MarSIS project data. Like I said in the blog post, it was a whirlwind trip. But it was very satisfying.

Try Surfer's Cafe in Oistin's

2010-01-19T10:11:00.007-04:00

Since coming to Barbados in September last year, we've found a few places we love to go to every now and again. Surfer's Cafe - Obskewer is one of them. This seaside cafe, as you can see in the video, has a terrific view of the Caribbean Sea. But as they say, 'you can't taste the view.' So, go for the view but keep coming back (and bring your friends) for the food.

Not typical Bajan food, the Surfer's Cafe serves up egg breakfasts, like omelets, eggs benedict, breakfast wraps, frittatas. They have bagels and bacon and grilled tomatoes. And the coffee, although not cheap and not a bottomless cup like at home, is the best we've had on the island accept for our own coffee brewed at home. The prices for meals are totally reasonable.

Latitude: 13° 3'51.95"N; Longitude: 59° 32'46.65"W

Where is it? Near Oistins Fish Market. Across the street from the Super Center. Small hole-in-the-wall, a window to the sea. Oh, and they have free wi-fi. This is my "office" on some of my luckier days.

Yes, the bottle of orange stuff on the table is pepper sauce. Use with caution but put it on everything.

Photos are from my Flickr Photostream.

Don't Litter!

2010-01-13T15:13:00.005-04:00

Look, Barbados is beautiful. It is amazingly gorgeous. The sea. The land. All of it is breathtaking. There's no getting around it. Why do I see people here dropping their litter? Please, don't drop your garbage on the ground or in the sea.

In the past couple of weeks I've seen two examples of blatant trash-tossing. Both were locals. Not tourists. Not the cruise ships, okay. One was a family having a lime on the beach near my house. I saw them when I went for a jog. The next morning their plastic liter cola bottles and other junk was in a neat pile right where they left it. No one is coming along the beach to pick up trash. The second time was a child who goes to my children's school. He was drinking a soft drink, surf board under one arm, bottle held in the other hand. As he approached the sea to hit the waves, he stuck the bottle in his mouth. He paddled out a little ways, tilted the bottle back to finish off the last of the soda and then tossed the bottle into the sea.

The sea washes garbage up onto the sand all the time. There's no getting around the fact that the world has a refuse problem. Don't add to it by getting rid of your own leftovers onto the ground. We all have to live here. On earth.

The photo was taken by me in Speightstown, St. Peter.

Banking in Barbados - Closing the Account

2010-01-11T15:56:00.004-04:00

I got a good piece of banking advice and information from another Fulbrighter who recently left Barbados to go back to the U.S.

As you know, we opened an account here in Barbados. So did the another Fulbrighter, whose fellowship was over at the end of December. When she went close out her Barbadian bank account, she was told she needed a week to get her remaining funds. As a foreign national, she needed to get permission to close the account from the Central Bank, proof from the University of the West Indies that they were NOT paying her, and proof of the original source of the funds, which, I think, was her home bank in the U.S. The CIES Fulbright stipend payment does not go to foreign banks, but to our local banks back home, then we transfer the money to the Barbadian bank. I think that another issue is the Central Bank transactions must take place before noon. Here's her final thought: "If I had known about the need for such documents, I would have started the process the week prior."

So, all you people moving to Barbados, take heed! Follow the steps above and close your bank account in Barbados early.

Photo is from the Library of Virginia's Flickr stream.

Things to Remember Before You Move to Barbados

2010-01-06T13:58:00.006-04:00

I've been meaning to blog, really I have. I've had a marvelous couple of weeks of "vacation" during the holidays. But this post isn't that post.

Around Christmas time some friend from New York and I were on the beach at Dover, in St Lawrence Gap, near some band playing steel pan. An American guy started talking to us and told me in his heavy Bostonian accent about one of his favorite blogs...something like Janet in Barbados. So, big time blogger and blog reader that I am, I looked it up...Planet Barbados. It's a blog by a transplanted American woman who married a Bajan man and now lives in Barbados. Lucky her!

For my future Fulbrighter friends or anyone else out there who wishes to know more about Barbados before you get on that plane, here is some more good advice to add to the list.

From Janet Shattuck Hoyos: Barbados: Six Things I Wish I’d Known Before Moving Here

The picture above shows Bridgetown with a rainbow draped over it. Very appropriate. I shot it in mid-December 2009.

Christmas in Barbados

2009-12-24T22:51:00.009-04:00

Christmas in Barbados is kind of a big deal. All that is on the radio, starting right after Independence Day - Nov. 30, is Christmas music. Every station except for the BBC plays some variety of Christmas songs. There's soca Christmas, reggae Christmas, calypso Christmas, Christmas played with steel pans, and of course, Bing Crosby and White Christmas. The only thing here close to a white Christmas are the white sands of the beaches and white foam in the waves.

Here's an example, it's Scrunter singing "I Want a Piece a Pork for Me Christmas."

This photo of a lady on Christmas day is from notnA's Flickr stream.

We had the great fortune of being invited for Christmas dinner last night. This was a Bajan Christmas. I don't know what other Barbadian Christmas celebrations are like but this was very festive...hats...charades...a beautiful table setting...prayers, one to the Queen (!)...toasts. And the food was delicious. There was baked ham and roasted turkey with fabulous gravy. The stuffing had rum in in. There was jug jug, whipped sweet potatoes, cou cou, beets, macaroni pie, and bread pudding with rum for dessert. You can't tell in the photo but we all have a head adornment of some sort and the table is filled with lovely ornaments, candles and glasses. What a fun time we had and what a privilege to attend.

More photos are here on my Flickr.

Travelers Checks in Barbados - Don't Bother

2009-12-19T12:59:00.007-04:00

I don't like to gripe and use this space for ranting, but American Express Travelers Checks are useless in Barbados. We brought a lot, I blogged about it, but if I had it to do over again, I would not bother with travelers checks. Not one vendor has taken them. They are NOT like cash here in Barbados. Even banks are not thrilled with them. If you're coming for a short visit, bring cash or use the plentiful ATMs and just suck up the transaction fees. Or if you're very fond of travelers checks, make sure there is a bank here that your home bank has a relationship with and then you can cash those checks.

The image above is from Wikipedia.

Workshops for the Grenadines MarSIS Project

2009-11-16T23:00:00.018-04:00

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Kim Baldwin and I went on a somewhat short, somewhat whirlwind tour through St. Vincent and the Grenadines to give workshops on Kim's Grenadines MarSIS project. Kim created a map of the sea using GIS to gather all the data into a single location and I extracted her data and brought it into Google Earth. The details on how that was done, the steps and stuff, I'll but in my other blog.

Here is a reporting of our trip. Unless noted, the photographs are mine.

Also, you can see where we went by using Google Earth. I made this file with the locations (clicking it launches Google Earth).

Lat: 13° 4'41.65"N; Long: 59°29'19.51"W - We left Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados on November 8 on Li at Airlines with only a minor delay. Our flight got into St. Vincent at about 7 pm.

Lat: 13° 9'15.24"N; Long: 61°13'27.55"W - That evening we stayed at the Heron Hotel next to Heritage Square.

Lat: 13° 9'16.10"N; Long: 61°13'35.68"W - The next morning, November 9, we got up early and wheeled our suitcases and gear the two blocks to the Fisheries Division in Kin gstown, St. Vincent. The workshop was to start at 9 am but we got there early because we had to set up a wireless system, get the projector going and make sure the laptops were loaded with the presentation materials. We also had to get the room ready for the participants and pass out folders with the agenda. We carried with us in those suitcases abut six laptops between us, plus all the electronic equipment we thought we might need. We used it all.

The audience consisted of people already familiar with the MarSIS project and this workshop and the others to follow was a way for Kim to update the stakeholders on her progress. Kim gave her talk on what her project was about and what GIS is, but she also ran through many demonstrations on doing GIS analysis with the MarSIS geodata. Using ArcGIS, Kim did select by location, select by attributes, queries and summary tables, among others. This got the participants interested in her data, which is really their data, as they helped collect it and helped to identify what was needed for such a geodatabase.

Once Kim finished her presentation, I ran through a demonstration on how to use Go ogle Earth. I showed the participants how to add their own data as placemarks, lines, polygons and scanned maps. After breaking for a yummy lunch of West Indian food we all came back and they got to 'play' with the MarSIS data using Google Earth. The screen capture to the right is all I can show for now, until I integrate all the great comments from the attendees.

What you do see in the screen capture is a map of the shallow water habitat near the island of Mayreau, plus Turtle Nesting Beaches and beaches where you find Whelks. This just scratches the surface for what's available.

The workshop ended at 3 pm or so with folks filling out surveys, having a Q & A session to get some more user feedback and packing up to make a flight. The response to this workshop was overwhelmingly positive.

We got a ride back to the St. Vincent airport and checked in to take a puddle jumper flight on Grenadines Airlines to Union Island. We sat down and waited for boarding. The appointed time came and went. The sun went down and we kept on waiting. Turns out our flight was canceled (because the Union Island airport does not have runway lights). We had another workshop to give at 9 in the morning so this did not please us. However, it peeved the Union Islanders even more. They raised hell and we ended up getting set up in a place for the night, plus some more West Indies food for dinner.

Lat: 13° 8'39.23"N; Long: 61°13'15.38"W - We got driven to the apartment by the man who owns the apartment. On the way there, he stopped in at a what looked to be closed restaurant to ask for some food to be cooked up and sent to the apartment. When we arrived to the apartment, the room was clean and nice, but it was dark outside so we could not see the view, though we knew there was one. This was the view at sunrise.

When we were at the St. Vincent airport the night before, Kim managed to get booked on the first flight out to Union in the morning. I was going to go on standby but it was pretty critical that I made that flight too.

Lat: 12°35'44.29"N; Long: 61°25'5.56"W - OK, so tragedy averted, both Kim and I got on the first flight out of St. Vincent and we got the second workshop by 9:30am, only a little late. Fortunately, so was most everyone else. Might have something to do with Caribbean time. The second workshop was held on Union Island at the office of Sustainable Grenadines, above Mitchel's Hardware on the main road in Clifton. We repeated the everything we said and did in the first workshop, and we both think our presentation improved. Actually, the workshop had a different flavor than our previous workshop, not better or worse, just different questions and interests. I can't wait to see the survey results.

We stayed at the Clifton Hotel, a funky place right in town and on the water, right down the street from the workshop location. Clifton and Union Island reminded me of a place Jimmy Buffet would sing about. It was pretty cute.

Kim seemed to know everyone in town. Not surprising. Union Island is part of her field area. I think she must know all the islands and the locals living in the Grenadines in this way. That evening we ate at Ciao Pizza and had rum and Hairoun bitter lemon at the rum shop next door.

Lat: 12°38'0.54"N; Long: 61°21'17.45"W - On Wednesday, November 11, we had a free day, so to speak. In the morning, Kim needed to attend to some speech work but in the afternoon, for two hours, she took me out for some amazing snorkeling at the Tobago Cays Marine Park. We were let out near Horseshoe Reef and snorkeled/swam back to Baradal cay to be picked up by a water taxi. We saw sea turtles galore, parrot fish, trunk fish and loads of different types of coral. It was incredible. There are no permanent structures in the Tobago Cays so you get there by boat and then leave when you're done for the day. There were a few catamarans and sailboats out there, but in high season, there are sure to be loads more. It was the most beautiful blue water I have seen...the kind of 'Caribbean blue' in post cards. I did not have my camera with me so take a look at jaja13's shot of the Tobago Cays found on Panoramio.

Whew! That two hours alone was worth all of the efforts getting around with heavy luggage, and we still had another workshop left to do. If you want the fly-through version, check out the Google Earth tour to see how we got around.

Lat: 12°29'0.77"N; Long: 61°27'32.46"W - We took a water taxi to get to Carriacou, went to Immigration and got our passports stamped their, and then took a passenger ferry over to Grenada. I took video on this part of the journey, no photos.

Lat: 12° 2'30.49"N; Long: 61°44'55.01"W - We got into Grenada by ferry and took a taxi to our hotel, The Lazy Lagoon. This is the view from the parking lot, it's right on the bay or lagoon. We stayed here Nov 11 and 12.

Thursday morning we got to the third workshop, at the Fisheries Department (couldn't find the lat/long). This workshop had media present, reporters and cameras. Why? Because the Honorable Dennis Lett, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Public Utilities and Energy gave the opening address for this final workshop. The workshop opened with Justin Rennie, the Chief Fisheries Officer of the Grenada Fisheries Division giving a speech. Kim also gave her overview talk. In the photo to the left is Mr. Lett, Kim Baldwin and me.

The workshop went much like the other two, great feedback, happy participants. We hope to write up some sort of paper on the outcomes of the workshop and the use of Google Earth, a web 2.0 technology, and the ability to deliver geospatial data to anyone with access to a computer.

Here is where we went during the short trip. Clicking on the link will launch Google Earth.

Google Earth and GIS Workshops for MarSIS Project

2009-11-14T16:13:00.003-04:00

Kim Baldwin and I just returned from a five-day stint in St. Vincent and the Grenadines launching Kim's geodata. Here is a little background on Kim's project, the Grenadines Marine Resource and Space-Use Information System, or MarSIS, that I mentioned here before.

I'm not going into a lot of detail here, just wanted to show off some of the workshop photos, here on my Flickr site. Basically, I took Kim's GIS dataset, her 'map of the sea' and brought it into Google Earth. I showed the workshop participants how to use Google Earth and make their own maps and then showed them the MarSIS project as a KML file. I'll provide that KML later, once I integrate all the fabulous feedback we received from the workshop. I'll also get into more detail of this wonderful trip once I rest up a bit!

Hello, Good Day! More Sea Turtles

2009-11-04T22:19:00.005-04:00

I got home from work to the excitement of the family finding baby turtles in our "backyard." They found about twenty five Hawksbill turtle hatchlings and encouraged them to go to the sea where they belong.

Only one of the hatchlings was left by the time I got there and that's what you see on the video below and in my photo to the left. The kids, again, had another turtle episode in their lives. Now, it seems we live on a beach where the turtles have been nesting (though the season is over) and the babies are starting to hatch, so we may have more turtle saving and chasing yet to come!

What Are We Playing?

2009-11-01T20:41:00.006-04:00

A few summers ago when my daughter had a friend over (the same friend of Build-a-Bear and Skype fame), the two of them were playing a game in which they set up an inflatable flotation device, a beach towel and some Cheerios and when asked what it was they were playing, they said simultaneously "We're playing This Is The Life."

That's what we're playing now...This Is The Life.

Photos shot be me.

Thoughts on the Bajan Buses

2009-10-30T07:44:00.007-04:00

I didn't take this video but it gives a glimpse into a semi-typical bus ride in Barbados. This family's observations are similar to what I pick up on when I take the bus home from work. Note the woman says she's sitting on a sub-woofer (the yellow buses can be quite booming.) The one thing missing in this clip is that a Barbadian bus ride is mostly standing and we're usually packed in like sardines. Where these folks are driving looks like my neighborhood. (Did the kid really say "drink rum and have fun"!!?? Geez, what is it with these American families, by golly!)

The yellow and the blue buses costs $1.50 BDS, very affordable, and they run all over the island. The blue bus has a money deposit slot at the front and a receipt dispenser. On the yellow bus, you sit down or take some space in the aisle and a person comes to collect the money. But the most important observation about the buses that is not clear in this video...they all tend to go FAST. If you're on the bus, hold on and if you're driving and sharing the road, steer clear, give them room.

The clip below (also not mine) is an experience I have not enjoyed...a ride on a ZR bus. That's pronounced 'zed R' and what you have along with all of the above (booming soca or reggae, folks squished in, plus super fast driving) as the added attraction of the bus being the size of a mini-van.

Let's hear it for affordable and plentiful public transportation!

Things We Should Adopt in the U.S. #3

2009-10-12T12:36:00.019-04:00

Photo by apalca on Flickr

Photo by basl on Flickr

"Hello, good day."

"Good afternoon."

"Hello, good evening, how're you going? Right."

Pleasantries. I'd love to bring back a tradition of pleasant greetings to the U.S. In Barbados, it's hot. The pace is slower. When people meet up on the street, friendly greetings are exchanged. You slow down, you say hello, then you ask how much it costs to send a letter back home. Ask about how a person's day is going, mean what you ask, then put your groceries on the conveyor belt. Slow down. Be nice.

Sailing at Carlisle Bay

2009-10-04T10:18:00.003-04:00

Adding to the fun of this year-long adventure...sailing lessons for Jill and the kids. Again, I am the documentrix, not one of the sailors. This location is Carlisle Bay at the Barbados Sailing Association. It's a great way to learn to sail, lot's a hands-on and terminology and ropes instruction. Actually, it's an amazing place to learn as you can see from the video.

Here's the link to the Sailing Association's training page.

Things We Should Adopt in the U.S. #2

2009-10-02T18:39:00.005-04:00

School uniforms. I see them everywhere. On the way to work between 7am and 9am and again when the students get out starting at about 3pm. Girls in their orange dresses, belted at the waist, or blue skirts with Mary Janes, boys in their brown short pants and knee socks, or natty white shirts and ties. Always, the shirts are tucked in. I like this. The debate goes on in the States about school uniforms in public schools but American school kids should wear them. Uniforms level the playing field. Everyone has nothing special and everyone is already special within. When I look out and I see a sea of uniformed Bajan children, I see the future of Barbados. Drivers slow down without School Zone enforcement because these children are the future of the country.

Nidhe Israel Synagogue

2009-09-28T14:41:00.010-04:00

We visited the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere, Nidhe Israel, recently. The building is a beautiful light pink color on the outside and on the inside, lovingly restored. It is a two-story square building with only one Jewish-identifiable symbol, a Star of David in a stained-glass window. It was first built in 1654. What I have to say about the synagogue cannot compete with a recent article in Reform Judaism called Diaspora: Miracle in Barbados. There was also an in-depth blog post that I found prior to coming to Barbados, researching what we might find in our new yet temporary home. It was written in 2008 by Drew Kaplan.

While visiting, we met the shamas, Emerson, who gave us a friendly and detailed tour of the synagogue. The museum was closed so we will definitely go back some time in the future. The adjacent cemetery had an odd arrangement of above-ground graves and some propped-up headstones; it's pretty clear that many of the graves were not in their original position and during an earlier renovation these sites were disrupted and not put back with the best of care. Also, there is a renovation currently going on of a mikveh, discovered in 2007, which will probably not be used for its original purpose, once it is opened. The mikveh dates to the 1700's.

The picture of all of us above is outside of the entrance to the upper gallery. The entrance to the upstairs is in the back of the building.

Services are not held here year-round but will begin in the winter, tourist season. Congregation Shaare Tzedek will meet in Nidhe Israel Synagogue from about December to February.

The video and the photographs are mine and can be found on YouTube and Flickr.

Hello, Goodnight! Turtle Watching in Barbados

2009-09-22T16:06:00.006-04:00

I had the great opportunity to go on a turtle watch walk with CERMES graduate students, led another PhD student, Darren. Darren is a marine turtle expert and works for the Barbados Sea Turtle Project. I mentioned Darren's terrific guest lecture previously.

Our walk and turtle watch was part of the turtle watch program going on all around Barbados while the marine turtles are nesting, from June 1 to the end of October.

We met up at 8:30 pm and were out until past midnight and on our watch we saw a single hawksbill turtle track (a failed attempt of the nesting female to come on land and nest). Darren also got a call that a hotel found some hatchlings running towards and into the

hotel. These hatchlings should have been running towards the sea but they get confused by the lights of all the developments in the area and ran towards the brightest thing they saw. In pre-development days, prior to all the hotel and fast food lights, the turtle hatchlings ran towards the brightest thing they saw, which was the sea reflecting the moon's glow. We let out the little turtles near to the shore, in a darker part of the beach and they scampered to the sea. It was so sweet.

In 2003, in my pre-bloggings days, we lived in Trinidad for six months. We trekked out to Grande Riviere to watch the leatherback turtles nest and we all fell in love with these giants of the sea. Towards the end of our (first) Caribbean stint, we went back and saw the babies come up out of the sand. We had no idea what we were doing and there wasn't really a research agenda going on in Trinidad, at least as far as I can tell. I will say, though, that there were turtle guides. We were strongly discouraged from going out on the beach to look at the leatherbacks on our own. We were told not to use flashlights unless we were told that it was okay. The flashlights spook and annoy the nesting turtles and she may not lay her eggs. We signed up for a turtle guide and we were told to go to sleep "and we'll wake you when we see a turtle." I can still remember the lovely sound of the guide waking us up with a gentle "hello, goodnight, we have a turtle."

The first two photos I took last night and these last few I had

to move over to my Flickr account, I took them in 2003 in Trinidad.

This is sleepy Caleb, all of five years old, posing with a

leatherback.

Caleb woke up very early to try to spot a hatchling and he did! he came running back into the room shouting with glee.

Caleb and Tillie (almost 3 years old here) with a bucket of turtleback hatchlings.

A nesting leatherback, after laying her 100 or so eggs, going back to sea.

Things We Should Adopt in the U.S.

2009-09-18T13:36:00.006-04:00

After I was here a week, I was asked to be a second marker on an exam. I had never heard of this procedure (being a second marker) nor the terminology of 'marking.' What this is is just being a second grader on a final; a second set of eyes in the process of evaluating a student's written materials. This is great idea as it would add some integrity to the evaluation system. A poor grade or a great grade is validated by a second set of objective eyes. I wish I could take the concept back with me to the U.S.

Instructional Technology at the UWI, Cave Hill

2009-09-17T09:44:00.005-04:00

I met with my counterpart, a fellow educational technologist, Pat yesterday. Pat heads up the Learning Resource Center. In terms of instructional technology support, she is the one on campus to go to. This campus has 8,000 students and 200 to 250 full-time faculty. This department does no computer repair or support. Pat has her hands full this semester as the UWI decided two weeks before the semester began to fully launch Moodle and give up on BlackBoard. For those not used to the edutech lingo, these are two Learning Management Systems that allow professors to provide course materials to their students in an on-line and secure environment. Anyway, this campus is going with using Moodle Rooms for hosting. The UWI system comprises four campus, one in Jamaica, in Trinidad & Tobago, the Open Campus and this one in Barbados. All other UWI campuses are already using Moodle.

At Vassar, I am missing out on this semester's launch of using Moodle. Vassar went about it in a little bit different fashion than here at the UWI. There were faculty beta testers of Moodle last year. Vassar has used BlackBoard for years, so rather than rock the boat too hard, Vassar is keeping all courses this year in both BlackBoard and in Moodle. Lot's of work and resources, it sounds to me. I like the UWI's approach better.

Notice above that I just mentioned Pat. There is no GIS specialist on campus, no scientific software specialist, no visual arts technologies specialist. But she doesn't maintain a computer facility!

Got the Geodata to Start the Project

2009-09-16T12:31:00.005-04:00

I will be working with Kim, a PhD candidate at CERMES, for the next few months or more. She handed me her MarSIS geodatabase yesterday and now it is time to bring her GIS datasets (aka geodata) into Google Earth. This approach will allow others who do not have access to ArcGIS software to view her data.

There are two goals in the coming months: to create a KMZ of the Grenadine Islands geospatial data that Kim has been collecting and to create a web map, hopefully in the MarineMap interface, of those same geodata.

Let the fun begin!

Skype and Build-a-Bearville: Bridging the Miles Between Friends

2009-09-13T22:22:00.009-04:00

We’ve been here in Barbados for twelve days but my daughter has been missing her friends a lot. Fortunately, we have Skype and Build-a-Bearville accounts to shorten the distance.

Today, I overheard this conversation while she was on the phone (aka Skype) with her good pal. My daughter’s Build-a-Bear avatar is named MaggieMay123 and her friend’s is AJ2Hip456.

MaggieMay123: Hold on, I’m going to do the Dance Sequence number 1 .

AJ2Hip456: Wait, why don’t you do the Trumpet? Okay, and I’ll dance. Start after three. 1 – 2 – 3.

And then AJ2Hip456 started dancing at the same time as MaggieMay123 played her trumpet. They both giggled.

The thing that was so nice about this interaction and the rest of their hour spent in Bearville scooting around to the Skate Park and the Coffee Shop (where they both got ‘jobs’) and Friendship Forest Park is that this is the same way these two play when they are right next to each other. It was as though there was no distance whatsoever.

My son has had his own web 2.0 interactions with another long-time friend. They Skype and talk longer on the phone than these two boys ever spoke before. They’ve played games via Skype.

When we return to Poughkeepsie, the continuity of friendship kept with these children will make it so the kids will not miss a beat.

In 2003, we lived in Trinidad for six months. We had a dial-up internet connection. There was no Skype back then. There was no Gmail. There was no Build-a-Bear or Club Penguin or Second Life. It’s like it was the dark ages and it was only six years ago. What will the fruits of the internets be in another six years?

Surfing at Surfers Point

2009-09-12T10:54:00.005-04:00

Not much to say about this as it's pretty self-explanatory. You can surf in Barbados. Yeah! Not me, though. I'm a landlubber and a chicken.

The surf instructor is Alan Burk, at Burkie's Surf School.

This location in the world is found at Latitude 13° 3'10.40"N, Langitude 59°30'19.54"W

Fly there in Google Earth with this placemark.

Good and Full Day

2009-09-11T23:50:00.007-04:00

Today was a pretty great day. I had a very nice morning getting some minor things cleared out of my to-do pile and then met the CERMES technology support person, Dale. Why should that be so terrific? He came by my office to familiarize me with the UWI and CERMES system and see what I might need, technologically speaking. There was a nice matter-of-fact calm about Dale. What was interesting to me, as someone coming from the IT sector in higher ed, is that he is a dedicated staff member for the CERMES program. He doesn’t need to be the expert on a variety of software packages or the campus Learning Management System. He supports the use the desktop machines, the computer labs, the projection (from what I can tell), and the campus (or CERMES) server access. It was great working with him. He’s going to load ArcGIS on my desktop machine, plus the extensions I need. I don’t have to do it. Just today, prior to meeting this technology support specialist, I tweeted something not too kind about IT professionals, after reading an article on IT staff and “the way they are.” I have to be a little kinder about the IT support folks.

By the way, I did NOT take any of these photographs. The hawksbill turtle (first photo) is from Animal National Geographic. The leatherback turtle (below) is from Gabriel Malor's blog.

In the middle of being shown the technology facilities at CERMES, a professor came out of a lecture room and said to me and Dale, “there’s a talk on turtle in there. Do you want to learn about marine turtles?” Why yes, I’d love to learn about marine turtles, especially in Barbados. I sat in on a fantastic guest lecture from someone from the Barbados Sea Turtle Project. I learned all about hawksbill turtles (above, in water), green turtles, and leatherbacks (the one in the sand), who seem to be nesting in Barbados right now. I know a bit about leatherbacks from our time in Trinidad. All of these amazing sea turtles are engendered in some classification or another. I hope to be able to participate in a field trip with this same lecturer and the students in the class when they go out to monitor turtle nesting in the near future.

I had to sneak out of the turtle discussion to meet with my new colleague Kim for a planned meeting to discuss her Grenadine MarSIS data. Kim is a PhD candidate at CERMES who is heading up the Grenadine MarSIS project which is a “multi-knowledge Participatory GIS (PGIS) which integrates a range of transboundary information on marine resources, biodiversity and ecosystems of the Grenada Bank together with the social and economic aspects of marine resource use patterns and corresponding activity profiles of its users.” It’s an amazing geospatial, space-use analysis project that I will go into more discussion about over the coming months. I’m working on the Google Earth and web mapping integration of Kim’s collected data. Kim’s blogged during her recent, and final, reach vessel outing, which you should check out.

Scooting out of the meeting with Kim to make another meeting, this time with the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. I met Dr. Brent Hardt, we chatted about the Fulbright and what I will be working on, he met my family, we shook hands and took a picture, not with my camera. It was brief and yet, very exciting to be taken so seriously. I also got to meet the person at the Embassy, Juanita, who has been helping me all along the way, after I found out I received the Fulbright award. Juanita’s assistance prior to coming to Barbados was invaluable and helped make the transition very smooth. Oh, one more thing that my family and I got to experience at the Embassy, a security briefing. It got us a little nervous, though it is always wise to stay alert and be sensible. Afterwards, I felt protected. No pictures from my own camera, though. Drat. The photo is of the US Embassy in Barbados and is grabbed from the Embassy's web site. I couldn't take my own photo.

Finally, we ended our evening with a shabbat service at the Shaare Tzedek synagogue. There are about sixteen Jewish families who are members of this congregation (the only Jewish congregation on Barbados, I believe) and for the next 11 months, ours is family number 17. Services were held in a home made into a sanctuary found in a neighborhood. It was lovely. The photo below is from this Jewish Virtual Library site.

Fun in Barbados - Our First Week

2009-09-10T21:53:00.003-04:00

I don't have too much time to blog right now, but take a look at a Reader's Digest condensed version of our first week in Barbados. This is a beautiful island with so much to do.

We Have Arrived in Barbados

2009-09-06T22:14:00.007-04:00

We made it. We left September 1, picked up by a driver at 4:30 am, and we all got to JFK for the 8:30am direct flight to the Grantley Adams International airport in Barbados. It couldn't have been smoother yet we were saying at the end, "let's not do this again." I do believe that all the extra effort that goes into moving to a new country for a year is well worth it, but time will tell. The view to the left is from our apartment in St. James so I think we will be pretty happy here.

Tomorrow is my first day going into the UWI, so I wanted to catch this blog up on what all went into getting off to Barbados. I’ve been without internet of late, detailed below, but now I’m back in action.

I mentioned in a previous post some of the things that needed to be done or looked into prior to departure. Here are a few more items that we needed to take care of before we left:

Mothballing the vehicles - Since we decided on NOT taking a car with us, we needed to winterizing them. We have two cars. We're not driving them so we needed to take care to get the insurance reduced for the year and still have it so that mice won't eat the rubber tubing and start to live in the vehicles.

Internet - The apartment we are renting comes with high speed internet through the phone line. I haven't heard of this, but that is what it is. We needed to look into buying a modem prior to taking off. We were told that we go to a Lime Retail Outlet and buy one and then we are all set.

Packing, packing real real light! - We had a pile worth of mostly essential items to bring. We had two large suitcases or duffel bags each. We had a scale. We did a pretty amazing job of keeping our weight per person down to 140 lbs. I will be going back in October and will pick up those few things that we could live without for a month and a half.

Paperwork for a long-term visa - We needed to take care to remember the birth certificates, passports, extra passport photos (because we'll be in Barbados so long), vaccination records for the kids, police character report, a letter from our bank and a character report from our employer. Wow!

Bringing money - We decided to bring American Express Travelers Cheques. We got the travelers checks at AAA, where, if you are a member (which we are), there are no fees. This was a big cost savings. (Note: Updated travelers checks information added Dec 2009.)

Starting a bank account - We were advised by past Fulbrighters to Barbados that opening a bank account can take some time. With a few phone calls we decided to go with one particular bank. The bank asked us to bring a bank check from your bank in the U.S., plus a letter of good character from the bank, plus two forms of ID. All of this should expedite our new account.

After arriving in Barbados, here are some things to note: Though we brought Travelers Cheques, they are definitely not preferred by vendors. (See this post added in Dec 2009.) The checks take a month to clear at the banks. What we need to do is cash them and then pay in Barbados dollars. Since we’ve opened a bank account, we think that we will be able to cash the travelers check and not have to have the long wait.

The funds that we brought via a bank check will take a month to clear. Seems excessive but we can wait that long.

It took longer to get our car arrangement than we had originally planned so it took longer to get to the Lime Cable & Wireless Retail Store to buy the modem. We finally bought the modem (wireless!) but it is still not working quite properly. We hope this will be resolved by Monday. I need to call into Lime and give them a number off the bottom of the modem and then, viola, we should be in wireless business!

We got to the Lime Retail Store in Speightstown by bus. The bus was a breeze and costs very little to ride. While at Lime, we bought two cheap, no-thrills, cell phones. We also got $25 BBD worth of minutes.

Food and other supplies are expensive. Eating out at restaurants is very expensive. Rum drinks are not expensive.

The Bajan people have been so friendly and welcoming. One guy thanked me for coming to share my knowledge.

We started taking photos and videos. No more co-opting other people’s nice shots! I’ll put them up in Flickr and Panoramio. This is us in full research mode! Cute, huh?

It's all about to begin!

A Little Nice Press for the Fulbright Award

2009-08-20T23:39:00.015-04:00

I'll try not to do this all that often, but this is a cross-posting with my GIS blog.

My local newspaper, the Poughkeepsie Journal, published an announcement about my upcoming Fulbright to the University of the West Indies in yesterday's paper and the geospatial blog All Points Blog got a hold of it. Thanks for posting this, Adena! I hope to meet you some day soon.

No, you do not have to be a faculty member to earn a Fulbright grant.

But I found this blog post from a tweet from FulbrightSchlrs, who wisely thought to send this info along to @vassarnews. Hint!

Added 8/23/09
Here's another blog mention, in a St Vincent and the Grenadines blog.
And MADSVassar blog.
And Employee Leasing Solution blog. (humm?)

Added 12/1/09
Vassar College acknowledges ALL of their 2009-10 Fulbrighters given that Vassar was hailed as a top-producer of Fulbright Scholar and Student recipients amongst liberal arts colleges.

Added 12/23/09
CERMES loaded an end-of-year document with some information about me and the workshop trip to the Grenadines, pages 4 and 5.

The To-Do List: Preparing to Live Abroad for a Year

2009-08-10T22:59:00.006-04:00

My family and I will move to Barbados on September 1 and live there for a year. In order to make this transition smooth, we've kept a running list of things to do on a Google Doc spreadsheet. I've worked with the U.S Embassy in Barbados on some of this, and that has been great. I've also worked with my CIES contact in Washington D.C. and that, too, has been terrific.

Until I start to take my own photos, I'll borrow shots from the internet of where we're headed. This one is from Panoramio and is by Terry Andrews.

Here's a list of some of the more pressing things we've been taking care of in the past weeks:

Vehicle - To take a car or to not take a car. Shipping our vehicle seemed to be an option for a moment and we even fantasized about bringing the kayaks and bikes. However, the more we delved into the matter, the more it seemed cost prohibitive and/or impossible. There is an age restriction of four years for cars imported into Barbados. Ours is ten years old. The other issue would be duties. I never got a really solid answer, but it may be as much as 61 percent of the value of the vehicle. Here is the page that I went by.

What we will do for a car is rent one long-term. I got the name of a mechanic who does this through the person at the UWI that I am working with.

School for the kids - Public vs. Private. We decided on a private school option, the Learning Solutions campus. School will start right away for the children. They are mixed between excited and dread but mostly they are filled with happy anticipation.

Place to live - If you're going all the way to paradise, might as well try to be near the water. As I reported before, we went to Barbados and looked at a bunch of housing options. We settled on one that we love and got that all taken care of. It was very easy to find housing on-line. There were photos, email addresses and phone numbers.

Clothes and shoes - The average temperature is 85° F. We will want to have light clothing but not too casual. The kids will need school clothes. We are buying Keens, sun protection shirts, and shorts (not cargo shorts). When we visited in May, we saw a notice at the airport that there was a restriction on wearing camouflage attire. We will not bring any camo.

Airline tickets and luggage - We got our airline tickets on American Airlines. Jet Blue has a very low fare from JFK to Barbados but it does not start until October 1. As for the luggage, we can bring only two checked bags and one carry-on with us. Checked bags can weigh up to 50 pounds, carry-on can be 40 pounds. We will need to be frugal and conscientious with what we decide to bring.

Diplomatic pouch - We sent four boxes of books and articles via the Fulbright diplomatic pouch. Each weighed 50 pounds and the cost was about $80 total. These boxes get sent by 'media rate' to Washington D.C. and then are forwarded to the U.S. Embassy in Barbados. Utilizing this benefit was important given the weight restrictions on our flight. This shipment was done three weeks before departure.

Phone calls - We will suspend our U.S. cell phone numbers but keep our land-line operating with a message to call our Skype number (same area code). After a paid for the Skype number for a year ($60) I heard about MagicJack, a device that allows you to make calls from your PC through the internet ... for free. Sounds too good to be true so I will need to check this out and report back. The Magicjack costs $39 which includes the first year's service cost. The next year will cost $19. When we get to Barbados, we'll get cell phones.

Visa and passport - We all have passports but we all need to get a visa. This should not be a problem we just need to bring five passport photos of ourselves, a birth certificate, and the kid's vaccination records. I have a working visa while in Barbados.

Medical insurance - I get extra medical coverage through the Fulbright. The family needed to get extra coverage for international travel and emergency medical evacuation coverage.

Miscellaneous items - software for the kids, renting the house, storing the cars(s) and removing the license plate, finding temporary homes for the pets, finding a gardener to keep up the lawn and clean the leaves, buy snorkel gear, new (sun) glasses prescription, medical and dental appointments, hair cuts, and on and on.

This last shot is also from Panoramio and is by jamesbell07. It clarifies the reason for the SPF shirts, snorkel gear and flotation devices. And sun screen.

Second and Third Days of Fulbright Orientation

2009-06-28T02:18:00.003-04:00

DAY TWO
We started the second day with a run-through of how to manage our Fulbright grant. The CIES representatives discussed our book allowance, the diplomatic pouch, the extra allowance for dependents, how to handle medical insurance among many other administrative topics.

The second session was a two-person panel discussing policy issues in the western hemisphere. The first speaker, an executive from the U.S. Department of State, mentioned that we will be thee U.S. representative in our host country, that we need to understand the significance of that fact and that role. He mentioned that initiatives that came out of the Summit of the Americas include a call for multinational (as opposed to binational) coalitions to be called together to work on issues such as microfinance, energy and climate change partnerships, best practices for each country, security issues which really includes narcotraffic and violence related to drug trafficking, a and more focused look at diversity and tolerance and introducing an education program. I will need to go back and look at President Obama’s Summit speech in Trinidad but I hope that the teaching learning truly goes both ways, I think the U.S. has loads to learn about the issue of diversity and tolerance from places like Trinidad, where there is a true diverse culture, with 40 percent of the population of African descent, 40 percent from Indian subcontinent descent and the other 20 percent from China, Canada, Syria and elsewhere. Often times I think the U.S. should sit back and just listen.

The second speaker was an academic with much of his experiences in Mexico. He said he couldn’t think of another time when left-of-center politics were on the rise in the western hemispheric region. I do not know what was implied by this discussion, that the politics of democratically-elected Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, and others, should worry us as a country, but I do not share his (or the previous speaker’s) concerns. What we need to keep in mind as we all go forward are the words Obama said at the Summit of the Americas “I didn't come here to debate the past -- I came here to deal with the future.”

We had breakout sessions for people going to certain countries. Fulbright alumni came to give some words of advice. My breakout group included Barbados, Dominica and Jamaica. This was a great way to meet the scholars and students going to Barbados (though I already met all of them) and to hear from those who recently went to the country I am going to. This was a great session, though one thing is clear, Barbados is not like Jamaica. Neither is it like many of the other locations making up the central American region.

After lunch, we saw a panel of three Fulbrighters showing some images from their time in their host country and offering some words of advice. Some of this panel is shown in the video above. This discussion was helpful though seemed to be giving us something we might already know: be logical, be careful, and immerse yourself in the culture.

DAY THREE
We started the third day with a breakout for the scholars, those teaching in a foreign country. We heard from four scholars about their experiences teaching in their host countries. All four mentioned challenging teaching conditions, students showing up late, lack of resources. There was a lot about what the country didn’t have, there wasn’t much on what to do with that situation. If one is used to teaching with a projector and computer and all one has is a blackboard and no chalk, how does one work with that? Given the technological and physical challenges one faced how did you modify your pedagogy?

I will be teaching a GIS class and I’ve seen the facilities for teaching this computer-based course. I think I will be okay, technologically-speaking, but this discussion gave me food-for-thought.

There was a talk on what is offered as a Fulbright alumnus. This was pretty cool. I can get an email address, access to academic journals and newspapers, a jobs database and information on volunteerism.

Overall, this was a great orientation. I feel really ready for this academic adventure, I met some wonderful students and the other scholar who will be in Barbados when I am there, and I understand the significance of what I am about to embark upon. Here we go!

The above photo is from David E Marshall's Panoramio collection and it is called "UWI Cave Hill Campus - Clock Tower." Looks beautiful!

First Day of Fulbright Orientation

2009-06-25T19:55:00.010-04:00

I am attending the Fulbright Orientation for scholars and students going to the Americas. Yesterday was the first. Here is the schedule and here is what we did the first day:

I’m in Washington D.C. for the Fulbright orientation (at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC, 38°53'58.34"N, 77° 1'35.79"W) for students and scholars going to central America and the Caribbean. There are about 100 Fulbrighters here and 2 dozen of them are Fulbright alumni from the region.

During the welcoming remarks we were told that the Fulbright award is among the most competitive in the country. The remarks were important to hear to set the tone for our future experience in the host country. The program is 63 years old and the Fulbright objective has always been “to build mutual understanding between people and places.” We were told that the program is built on soft diplomacy and for building relationships among countries.

The Fulbright program is ‘at a high-water mark’ in terms of funding and solidity but to remember that the U.S. taxpayers are paying my way. My responsibility, however, is not to defend U.S. foreign policy and I am not an official representative of the U.S. government. They do expect all Fulbrighters to be mindful of what we do and say, especially in the context of blogs, Facebook photos or Twitter tweets. I am the face of America and should get out and mingle with as many people as possible while in my host country.

The significance of President Obama making one of his first international visits to the Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas meeting was underscored and should be of particular interest to all of us traveling to the Caribbean. This kind of regional presidential attention has not been paid of late and the opportunity for diplomacy with and among the United States’ nearest neighbors is ripe.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Joan Dassin, is Executive Director of the International Fellowships Fund at the Ford Foundation, highlighted the fact that we are leaving for a region at a particularly positive time and we are traveling as ‘citizen-diplomats.’ Latin America has welcomed the election of Barack Obama. Dassin asked the hypothetical question ‘How far do the U.S. presidential policies point to real change?’ We will live out that answer as we move and act as citizen-scholars and citizen-diplomats. There is an important shift in hemispheric relations, where Obama says we “seek an equal partnership in which there is no senior or junior partnership.” As Fulbrighters we have an opportunity to listen and learn from the rest of the world. We must learn as much as we teach and reach beyond individual specialization.

This is going to be a fantastic experience, this Fulbright year ahead of me.

Oddly enough, no one seemed to be Twittering the event. People were paying attention! I did do some Twitter searches only to discover that there were simultaneous orientations going on (in addition to the orientation for China scholars going on at the same hotel as mine).

Click here for days 2 and 3.

Living in Barbados

2009-06-15T22:35:00.003-04:00

We settled on an apartment for next year. It's going to be great. You've got to see it to appreciate it. If one goes all the way to a beautiful place like Barbados, shouldn't one try to live as close to the beach as possible? That's the thinking on this.

Next part of the Fulbright experience will be the Fulbright Orientation in Washington D.C. next week.

Next Adventure - Barbados!

2009-05-28T23:59:00.007-04:00

Very exciting news! I was awarded a Fulbright to the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus in Barbados for the academic year 2009-2010. I tend to keep pinching myself in disbelief but it is, in fact, true. I will be heading out in late August for a nearly year-long adventure for the whole family. Photo credit Kate Skegg.

This blog will be a way to document my travels and experiences as a Fulbrighter. CIES, who administers the Fulbright grants, encourages dissemination of the Fulbright experience, so I am starting that process with this blog post. Thank you, U.S Department of State for making this happen. My work with the University of the West Indies (UWI) is based on my geospatial expertise; I will teach a GIS class and work on at least two mapping projects during my nine-month stay. If you want to know more about the geospatial aspects of this research, please see my other blog, GIS @ Vassar. Sometimes, hard to believe, folks don't care all that much about computer-based mapping. Go figure! But while in Barbados and "employed" at the UWI, I will have the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) privilege of visiting nearby Caribbean islands at the travel rate for a Bajan citizen. I hope to do some travel around Barbados, of course, and I hope to make it back to Trinidad for Carnival and Panorama (I went there in my pre-blogging days), and other yet-to-be-determined islands.

I was in Barbados recently to try to find a place to live, a school for the kids and meet with my new colleague at the UWI, Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES). It was a whirlwind trip but very productive. We looked at so many apartments, villas, houses, and such that our heads were spinning. I had a Flip video camera in hand and took lots of video all along the way. Here is our hotel in St. Lawrence Gap, called the South Gap Hotel. I didn't review this hotel on TripAdvisor because I've been more busy than ever but it was not a bad place to land for a few nights. Not bad at all.

Like my other posts from China, I want to make my posts geospatially aware. Though I did not take my GPS on this recent trip, I was here: 13°0'N 59°32'W

Every place we went, every turn we made, the beauty of the country was evident. The ocean on the south end and the west side of Barbados was amazing. Though the locals complain about traffic and travel times, their gripes fall on the deaf ears of a native of Los Angeles. If I have to commute 45 minutes to the UWI, it's a small price to pay for being in what seems to be very close to paradise.

Here's what I want to find out while in Barbados: When is mango season? Are the birds as beautiful as in Trinidad and Tobago? Is Mt. Gay Rum truly superior to Jamaica's Appleton? Is Crop Over comparable to T&T's carnival? Will I get a new soca fix? What is it like to live in a country geared towards a tourist economy as opposed to T&T where they practically spit on tourists (I was NOT one, thank you very much). And...what IS this thing you call 'cricket'?

With any luck, I will come to an understanding of cricket, and the obsession that exists for the game in the West Indies. I was in Trinidad and Tobago for six months in 2003 and got to feel the national love for Brian Lara (running with bat in hand above), but never really 'got it.' Maybe now I will... Photo credit Chennette.

The next part of my Fulbright experience will be a Fulbright Orientation in Washington DC. I look forward to this experience and so much more. Stay tuned!

After the Olympics

2008-08-26T01:14:00.003-04:00

As a follow-up to our trip to China, our colleague, the Geography Professor, was quoted in yesterdays' New York Times. The coverage of the Olympics in the Times has been plentiful and sometimes not that positive.

Geography Professor stayed on in Beijing after the trip to do some research and visit with family and take in some sporting events. She also spoke with the Times reporter, Jim Yardley, occasionally.

Search for "Vassar College," and you'll find her quote.

Thoughts on the Trip

2008-07-15T01:37:00.010-04:00

Latitude 41°41'24.00"N, Longitude 73°53'54.88"W

Back on East Coast US time and not too jet-lagged.

My blog was cut off while I was in Tibet, China. I used a Wikipedia link to the Dalai Lama; that’s when the trouble began. I couldn’t get to some of my Flickr photos that referred to the Potala Palace. Same thing happened with YouTube. My video of the Jokhang Temple was viewed over 400 times and I never linked it out. I hit the sensitive word filter and couldn’t get around it until I reached the Narita airport and a six-hour layover.

If you’ve read this blog, you know it’s totally benign. I have been on a pleasurable vacation, enjoying the scenery and stories about places I’ve never been. I may never get back to these fine places again. I thought I’d try my hand at a digital diary and share some of the locations I’ve seen. I know that there are plenty of people out there who would love to go and experience Tibet and other parts of China, as I have been lucky enough to do. I also know that the web is a resource for providing that information to anyone who cares to google. There aren’t many of us who got to get into Tibet on a tourist Visa after the March ’08 events.

I do not have an opinion about the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism or Tibet. A two week visit to China does not an expert make. I was in Tibet for all of five days. I am not a scholar on the subjects. I can tell you what I saw. In Lhasa I saw a lot of new housing, clean streets, very few extremely poor people, and a lot of hustle and bustle as buses and taxis whirled by. I saw a wonderful vocational school for blind children. I met children who were learning English in rural Tibet. It looked like progress. As a westerner, that newness resonated with me. However, I’ve heard, too, and what seems rather clear is that all that newness comes with a cost. New businesses and housing are paid for by someone, an apparent outsider. One new friend I made on this trip said that if someone gave you 2 million dollars to improve your house, but then told you how to live, what to say, how to decorate, that new money wouldn’t feel so great.

I heard another story about monks. A man told me that his brother wanted to be a monk but the brother’s application wasn’t approved by the central government. A sure way of reducing the number of monks is to curtail the stream of young men who enter the monastery. In the past, a family would give one son to the monastery in part to guarantee a safe, protected life for that child. The number of Tibetan monks has steadily declined in recent years.

While we were in Lhasa there was a strong military presence. They would drive around in riot gear in the backs of trucks. Was it just a month away from the Olympics? Yes. Was it just a few months after the March uprising? Yes. However, again, it’s not a site a westerner is used to seeing.

I read the English-language China Daily while in China, and saw that the door remains open for talks with the Dalai Lama and Beijing. Beijing would like the Dalai Lama to come back as the Tibetan spiritual leader, nothing more.

I think there are people that live in China who are on top of the story who have mixed feelings about Tibet. Some see progress and enormous success or potential for success while others see the usurpation of Tibetan culture. Ten different people, ten different opinions.

It’s a complicated story. Read what you can. Talk to others who might have an informed opinion and, if you can, go to Tibet and see for yourself.

I know one thing. I am forever grateful for having the privilege of visiting Lhasa and Shigatse. The Tibetan landscape, sky and people are all so beautiful. I felt welcome there and would gladly go again.

Leaving Early from Beijng

2008-07-13T00:14:00.005-04:00

I stayed up all night to get myself onto US time. I watched The Producers. No comment.

I took a cab to Terminal 3 to get on a Japan Airlines early flight. This whole Tibet/Chengdu/Beijing trip was such a great adventure.

Once I get back on US turf, I’ll talk about the shutdown of the blog. While I was killing six hours in the Narita Japan airport, I was able to get back to it and restore it.

We were in Beijing in 1996. Since then, the city has gone threw a transformation. It is really a beautiful, inviting city. It's pretty easy to get a around, thanks to all the cab drivers. There must have been a million trees planted and the buildings seem to be all fresh and new-looking. The highways are completed. It really is a city ready for its close-up with the Olympics. I hope Beijing and China get many more tourists during and after the 8/8/08 games.

Back to Beijing

2008-07-12T11:09:00.002-04:00

We flew back to Beijing. I am glad to leave Xining. As our new tour guide might say, enough said.

Our flight was really early. That will make two really early days for me as my flight back to the US is very early on the 13th. We are staying at the Beijing International Hotel again.

We had a great meal for lunch and dinner (as usual!) one at a huge eating complex and the other at a very nice restaurant. The diet will follow!

We got another massage. This time it was a foot massage. It’s really too bad that we don’t have something like an affordable massage in the US. If we can have a nail salon on every corner, can’t there perhaps be a market for reputable massage operations? The place we went to tonight was another massage chain. Very clean and on the up-and-up. It was packed with people working as masseuses and clients.

In Xining

2008-07-11T07:10:00.003-04:00

Latitude 36°36'59.58"N, Longitude 101°47'30.97"E

We’re in Xining. The hotel is less than impressive. I tried to write it up on TripAdvisor and it wasn’t listed. I find that odd because it seems to be a long-established hotel. I won’t name it here because I don’t think that would be very nice.

We went to a mosque today. There weren’t many people there and those that were there (except for us) were all men. We were a curiosity I believe.

Latitude 36°29'23.17"N, Longitude 101°34'5.90"E

We went to the Ta’er Monastery (also called Kumbum). This is a Buddhist monastery. A Tibetan Buddhist monastery. We have just spent DAYS in Tibet visiting Buddhist monasteries. As I’ve said, I don’t mind the volume of monasteries we’ve seen, but this one had a tourist quality to it. There were people there praying and doing something like 100,000 bows, even some children, but there was a different feeling to this monastery. Also, there was a gauntlet of vendors leading the way to the entrance of the Ta’er, many of whom were selling pelts of dogs, wolves, and cats. We could not take pictures in Ta’er but there was some surreptitious shooting and filming going on. One of the first sites we saw was a traditional and familiar courtyard, but along the balcony area were stuffed yak, deer, antelope, and bear. It was creepy and not like anything we’ve ever seen in Tibet.

A short little lunch-time video.

Leaving Tibet on an Overnight Train

2008-07-10T03:08:00.006-04:00

We got on the train bound for Xining in the Qinghai Province at 11:20am, July 9. We will get into Xining, which is out of Tibet, by 11 or 12 noon tomorrow. A 24 hour train ride. The Lhasa train station is beautiful.

It was sad to say so long to our Young Tour Guide. He was terrific, so knowledgeable and nice. He seemed to know everything and could answer any question. And he didn’t seem like he was making it up!

The train ride is fun and comfortable. We are in a soft sleeper (four people) and we are all just kind of wandering in and out of people’s cabins, visiting. The scenery is great. We’ve seen wild donkeys, loads of yaks, and what we thought were antelopes but turned out to be gazelles. The geology is beautiful. We are going slow enough that the pictures are coming out pretty good, I think.

One group of four had some collective spatial challenges as they tried to squeeze all of their luggage into the small spaces available in the soft sleeper. Here’s Anthropology Professor making it work for them and all of the interest this scene created.

The highest elevation on the train trip (not standing on the ground) was when we were on the train. We were at 5,240 m high (17,190 feet). There was a platform outside that stated this information as we whizzed by, I think it will someday be a tourist stop on the rail. An informative LCD display kept us up to date with all sort of useful information like how cold it was outside and velocity. Our ears popped in the middle of the night, and our water bottles caved in, as we descended into a moderate altitude.

The train was really fun. Here are some photos from the train.

Tashilumpo Monastery and the Drive Back to Lhasa

2008-07-08T09:10:00.006-04:00

Latitude 29°16'4.69"N, Longitude 88°52'13.23"E

We went to another monastery this morning, the Tashilumpo Monastery, where there are the fifth through tenth Panchen Lamas entombed. There were a lot of pilgrims and a lot of older monks chanting. It was again fascinating. We have seen so many monasteries that they are tending to merge into one big monastic experience. I feel, though, that I will probably never be here again, it is so exotic to anything I’ve seen before, that I cannot tire from the yak butter candles and incense and chanting monk, the future Buddha, present Buddha and the past Buddha.

Latitude 29°19'9.78"N, Longitude 89° 2'46.27"E

Lunch we had at the hotel and then left the Shigatse Hotel. We then drove to the Braille without Borders Vocational School for the Blind, on our way out of town. What an experience. The children greeted us with a rousing rendition of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and a Tibetan song. Then we were shown some of the jobs that they are teaching the young people how to do, like weaving, knitting and cheese-making. It was a very moving experience.

We then headed back to Lhasa. It did not take us all day. Turns out there is a straight route, a less scenic route, to get to and from Lhasa and Shigatse. It still took a long time, it was still scenic in my mind, but I was ready to get off the bus.

We arrived into Lhasa just in time for dinner where we had a traditional Tibetan meal, which means yak, mutton, yak butter tea, yak yogurt, and the most alarming item, a sheep head, filled with the eyes, brains, and whatever else is in a head. I did not try the head. But the fried yak meat was great. The yak butter tea was not great.

Latitude 29°39'35.20"N, Longitude 91° 5'19.71"E

Another night in the Tibet Hotel before we take off in a train for Xining.

Here were our stops in Google Earth.

Long, Scenic Drive to Shigatse, Tibet

2008-07-07T11:41:00.010-04:00

We piled into the bus at about 8:30am for the long drive to Shigatse, Tibet. The drive is about 300km and we are taking the scenic route. Young Tour Guide told us that about 60 percent of Tibetans are farmers, 20 percent are living in urban centers, and 20 percent are nomads. Tibetans don’t usually eat fish. They are too small and can feed only one person. Tibetans prefer larger animals, like yak and goats, because they can feed more people. Also with water burials, the fish might eat the dead bodies, which is unappealing to anyone, including Tibetans.

Geology Professor gave an overview of the mountain building events (i.e., India colliding into the Eurasian continent) that caused the high elevation and varied rock terrain that we will be driving through and that we’ve been seeing already. On the drive we saw loads of evidence for rapid uplift. These mountains are moving up so fast you can practically watch it in action.

Political Science Professor gave a talk about water resources and water being the new oil.

I took video at a couple of places along the drive, when we would stop. Take a look.

Latitude 29°11'39.86"N, Longitude 90°37'2.15"E

Latitude 28.899048, Longitude 90.163417 (highest point on trip while standing 4,960.2 meters (16,270 feet))

One thing that was not video-taped was when we stopped to eat lunch. We were right next to a lake, a holy lake. We had an uninteresting box lunch prepared by the hotel. As soon as we sat down, an old woman and a young boy showed up. They lived in the nearby village. We all gathered some food from our boxes and gave it to them. They hung around the whole time while we ate and some of us took our time and wandered down to the lake side. A sheep herder wandered by with his flock. Some of the group held a baby sheep. Still the old woman and boy hung out. Then this other boy rode up on his bike. He was from the same village. “Hello.” “How are you doing?” He clearly wanted to test out his English. So I asked him how old has was, but he didn’t know what I meant, even when I pantomimed. Some Chinese speakers in the group came up and asked him his grade, “Sixth.” How old are you? “13.” When did he start learning English? “3rd grade.” He goes to school 30km away and must live there. All of this was in Chinese. We asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. “Do something useful for the world.” Priceless. It’s mind boggling to think about the fact we are in this remote area of Tibet and a poor boy from a sheep herding / farming village is learning Chinese, Tibetan, and English, as well as, Math and Social Studies and has bigger dreams.

Latitude 28°55'28.05"N, Longitude 89°35'42.82"E

We stopped at the Kumbum Monastery (Baiju Temple), which was a very active monastery in that there were many monks around doing different jobs. It was also a walled monastery, which is something we haven’t seen. And there were lots of dogs lying in the shade. At the Kumbum Monastery we were allowed to take pictures inside. So far we have not been able to take pictures inside monasteries or temples. So I took video of the monks chanting. Take a look, it’s at the end. Well, I also got some GPS readings and while I was sitting in the shade making sure the software worked, one monk walked up to me and looked over my shoulder as I was fiddling with the tablet. There wasn’t anything interesting to look at, though, because all I’m doing is collecting waypoints and then at night bring them into Google Earth to figure out where we’ve been. I can’t explain that to him. In the meantime, another monk came up to find out what was going on. So I showed them the video of my day and they really liked it up until the part about them. The video got to the monks chanting and they indicated that they see that every day. So then I showed the monks the first video I made for this trip, the one of me leaving Poughkeepsie on Metro North, and they liked that. Though I didn’t video this interaction, they told us how long they have been in the monastery (since age ten) and how old they are (one was 22 and the other 26), and that whatever they learn, they learn on their own, they don’t have a school. This was one of the best experiences I’ve had yet.

Latitude 29°15'48.74"N, Longitude 88°52'58.61"E

We got to Shigatse and checked into the Shigatse Hotel. This hotel’s lobby is beautiful, very Tibetan and colorful. The desk people and the restaurant people spoke pretty good English. The room was okay, but no in-room internet access; I’ve gotten used to unlimited access to the internet. I’ll write about this hotel for TripAdvisor.

We’ve Skyped the kids every day. I should do a whole blog entry on the wonders Skype (2.1 cents a minute!) and for that matter the marvels of the Web 2.0 world. Although this blog should be indicative of what one can do with the web these days. But you haven’t gotten to know that not only have a blogged, and uploaded photos to Panoramio and Flickr and video to YouTube, but I’ve Skyped with the kids.

It was a five star day.

Here are my placemarks for today in Google Earth.

Sera Monastery and Norbulingka in Lhasa

2008-07-05T12:54:00.005-04:00

Latitude 29.698125, Longitude 91.133502

We drove to the Sera Monastery in Lhasa. The Older Tour Guide said that 40 years ago there were 4,000 monasteries in Tibet, now there are half that. When I go to these sacred places I can’t imagine how someone could dismantle/destroy/remove such beauty. When we were at the Sera Monastery, we saw many young children and babies with black smudges on their noses. This was the mark of a special blessing from the horse-headed Buddha that a monk gives to the child. There were so many families lined up to get this blessing for their child; usually they had just one child.

The smell of smoke or something from the combination of the yak butter candles and the incense makes me sneeze. I don’t want to miss any of this but I sneeze a lot and get a strange sensation in my chest.

Lunch and then nap, of which I needed. I’ve been tired today.

Latitude 29°39'14.20"N, Longitude 91° 5'31.17"E

Norbulingka Summer Palace is the summer palace for the Dalai Lama. It looks like it was built in the 1950s as some of the furnishings looked of that era. Oddly, there was a very western-style bathroom (for display purposes only) that included a bathtub and sit-on-top toilet. Seems the dalai lamas didn’t want the squatting-type toilets. Go figure.

Latitude 29°39'11.13"N, Longitude 91° 5'47.90"E

We had very little time at the Museum. I didn’t take pictures and I didn’t learn too much while there. There was plenty of English signage but I didn’t take the time, nor have the time, to read them.

Here's where we went today in Google Earth.

Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and Altitude Sickness

2008-07-05T11:02:00.004-04:00

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling light-headed and woozy, a little like I was drunk and hung over at the same time. But I had no reason to be either. I think it was either the altitude or the medication to take care of the altitude. I worried that I wasn’t going to do well in the morning.

The morning wake-up call came and I felt fine. Others haven’t fared so well. Mostly they are those who took the Chinese remedy. Vomiting. Bad headaches. Light-headedness. Nausea.

Latitude 29°39'28.26"N, Longitude 91° 7'3.52"E

Our first destination was the Potala Palace. This lovely structure sits high on a hill on the east side of Lhasa. When we got there, we saw hundreds of pilgrims walking around the Palace clockwise. When they got to the front of the Palace, they would prostrate themselves and bow and pray. It was an amazing site.

The Potala Palace was/is the winter home of the Dalai Lama but because he is in exile, there is no Dalai Lama at the Palace.

For the most part, I will let the photographs do the talking. I hope to someday have the time to write captions (when I’m not on vacation!) Oh, and you can’t take pictures inside any of the temples and rooms. I didn’t take notes of all the interesting things the Young Tour Guide and the Old Tour Guide said about the Potala Palace. As we approached the Palace, as we walked up, while we were in the various temples and rooms, they both had very interesting things to say about the history and the relevance of the Palace to Tibetan Buddhism. What I will say is that climbing the stairs and seeing the walls, the colors, the view, smelling the smell of the incense and burning candles was a truly spiritual experience.

We had a great lunch at Weidaochang Hot Pot Restaurant was great. I love hot pot. The boiling broth in the middle of the table, the meat and vegetables plopped into the water, the waiting, the gorging. I ate way too much. Again. If you go to Lhasa, go there. No. 75 North Deji Road, Lhasa City (0891-6818383)

Latitude 29°39'10.89"N, Longitude 91° 7'52.32"E

Next we went to Jokhang Temple. This temple was more active than the Potala Palace in that there were monks around. They were part of the environment. The colors in the temple were so vibrant. I can’t say anything more here that the Lonely Planet Guide couldn’t tell you. It is really nice, though, to have a local person to be your guide. Here are some photographs of the Jokhang Temple.

Latitude 29°39'10.11"N, Longitude 91° 7'47.57"E

Right next to the Temple is Barkhor Square, an old Tibet style bazaar. There is plenty of bartering, plenty of that fun English repeated over and over to ‘entice’ you over to look at the goods. We got some great things and had fun. I put some photos of Barkhor in this set.

Latitude 29°39'13.04"N, Longitude 91° 7'55.04"E

Dinner was at Ashimedok Restaurant but not before doing more shopping at Rhythm of Tibet, an upscale version of the wares of the street vendor offerings on Barkhor, and below the restaurant. This store had some really beautiful items. We bought some manadala thangkas and a rug made of yak wool. They will ship the rug to us.

The food at Ashimedok Restaurant was buffet-style. It was fair. But what was great was the entertainment. There was music and Tibetan dancers performing for most of our meal. It was very fun. The dancing was a cross between Indian and Chinese and the music used drumming, cymbals and a stringed instrument. Go there, too, No. 2 Eastern Barkhor Street, Lhasa. (0086-891-632408)

On the altitude front, we lost one guy who could not make today’s trip and another looked very peaked but trooped on. We all keep checking in with each other to see how we feel. I feel odd when I go into the sacred rooms where there is burning incense, it bothers either my lungs or my heart, I’m not sure. I feel very dried out all the time.

Today was a very full day. I’m exhausted.

Here's where we were today in Google Earth.

First Day in Tibet

2008-07-04T08:37:00.012-04:00

With great excitement we gathered at 5am for the early flight to Lhasa, Tibet. I can’t believe we’re actually getting to go. I have taken acetazolemide for altitude sickness, about half of us have, and the other half thought they’d brave it out and then once in China decided to get some Chinese herbs for altitude sickness. We’re thinking the Western medicine won this round.

Latitude 29°17'39.32"N, Longitude 90°54'37.72"E

We arrived in Lhasa Airport which is really in Gonggar about 60km outside of Lhasa. It’s easy to see why they placed the airport there when you look at it in Google Earth; the airport is in a fairly wide river valley. It is pretty straight and the planes have plenty of room for take-offs and landings. There are no large flat areas to put an airport in Lhasa. I was told that the bus trip used to be about four hours (over 100km) but they ‘found a short cut.’ What they did was blast a straight tunnel right through the mountain. That’ll do the trick.

Two Tibetan tour guides met us at the airport. The Young Tour Guide gave us an overview of some interesting facts about the Plateau, like all major rivers in Asia originate in Tibet. There’s no birth control in the countryside and families have four and five children, but in the cites families are smaller, like 2 children each. There are no grave yards to be seen, there are Sky Burials, which can be expensive, so there are Water Burials for the poor. There are Earth Burials for criminals, and there are Spirit Burials for the sub-Lamas and monks.

We were told to not take pictures of the military or ‘we would have a problem.’

The geology is incredible. Though Lhasa is over 3600 meters above sea level, the surrounding mountains jut up quite high and form a jagged rim around the valley. There are no trees on these mountains and this is indicative of rapid uplift and lack of a wet enough environment to produce soil. The lack of soil is a big reason why the Tibetans do the Sky Burials, there’s no ground to bury people in. Actually, the mountains remind me of those in Nevada and Utah, with just scrubby, low brush and easy to read geology.

Once we got into Lhasa, we had a nice lunch at a hotel. The food was very mild compared to the Sichuan fare I was used to, but it tasted really good. I was prepared for the worst because our guides made the Tibetan food out to be so horrible you had to go out and buy extra snacks just to stay alive. I don’t know if we will have a food shortage problem.

Latitude 29.659802, Longitude 91.088817, Altitude 3,627 meters (11,900 feet)

Arrived at the Tibet Hotel. It’s not too beautiful on the outside, but inside, in our room, it is just dandy. Very clean and comfortable and the view is amazing. Plus the Lhasa air is so fresh and clean. As usual, I’ll write about the experience on Tripadvisor rather than here.

Against the wishes of the tour operator, we took a little nap. He thought it would be best if we just stayed awake to acclimate to the higher altitude but many of us were really tired and sleep was all we could do. Plus we have a big day tomrrow. But after that short nap, we took a walk to see what was in the neighborhood. We found an interesting array of street vendors, all selling what looked like the exact same things in about hundred spots on carts and on blankets laid out on the sidewalk. All had the same approach to lure us over using a few English phrases. But we bought some cool stuff, took some pictures of the beautiful children and had fun.

These are my first placemarks for Tibet.

Drove Back to Chengdu

2008-07-03T05:38:00.003-04:00

We drove back to Chengdu and stayed in my favorite simple hotel, the Tianfu Sunshine Hotel. Had the rest of the day to ourselves so we shopped for snacks (in case we couldn't get any in Tibet or on the train) and had another amazing Thai massage. We have a wake up call for 5am to catch an early flight to Tibet. Don't know if we'll get internet service like we've had thus far.

Going to Emeishan

2008-07-02T11:14:00.005-04:00

Gathered at 8:30am to take a bus ride up to Emeishan (Mount Emei). A very queasy-making windy road up the mountain. We made it to a cable car spot and took it to ‘close’ to the top of the mountain. There was then another stroll up the mountain where we saw ‘wild’ macaques monkeys hanging out in the trees. They were like our squirrels at Vassar, cute but not too trustworthy. It was pretty amazing to see monkeys, though.

Latitude 29.522793, Longitude 103.335935, Altitude 3,046 meters (9,993 feet)

We reached the top of Emeishan where there is very tall golden Buddha with four faces. We were told that it was built in 2006. I assumed that the materials to build it where helicoptered to the mountain, but was told by Geography Professor that there are only 16 helicopters in China (a big problem for the earthquake relief efforts) and that the materials were carried up the mountain. The temple was rebuilt because of a fire and I think they decided to build the giant statue, too. The funding for the project came from foreign Buddhists, mostly from southeast Asia, according to Geography Professor. Note the picture of the guys carrying what seem to be boxes of soda up the mountain.

At the highest part of the mountain there is a lookout and it feels like you’re standing at the edge of the world, you’re above the clouds and the cliffs are vertical.

On the drive down, Geology Professor gave an impromptu talk on the geology along the roadway. It was strikingly noticeable that the rock formations here in this narrow, winding valley, were very similar to the formations in the Grand Canyon or in the Connecticut Rift Valley. There were red beds on the bottom that we could see and stratigraphically above that where some limestone rocks, indicative of a basin that filled in with a shallow sea (as the basin widened). Interestingly, at the top of Emeishan there were columnar jointed basalt rocks dated at the Upper Permian (250M to 260M yo), also a strong indication of the past geological environment…a rift valley.

Total change in elevation from Hong Zhu Shan Hotel to the top of the mountain is about 2,500 meters (over 8,000 feet).

On the way back to the hotel, the temperature really increased. We were going to do a little more walking but it was way too hot. We stopped at Temple that I do not know the name of (I was very hot and pretty tired and didn't even get a lat/long) which was also beautiful. There was wonderful chanting going on and locals coming to pray. Whether it’s a gospel choir, the Kol Nidre, the boys singing Evensong at Westminster Abbey, spiritual music does what it is designed to do, moves the soul.

Don't have many Google Earth placemarks for this part but here they are.

The guys are noticing some interesting messages in the men’s rooms they encounter. Here are a few I’ve overheard:

“Don’t urinate everywhere.”

“Urinate here.”

“It’s civilized to urinate close.”

“You will breath the fresh air after you have a civilized urination.”

What goes on in those places!!!???!!!

Leshan and Emeishan Area

2008-07-01T10:06:00.005-04:00

We started out for a four hours drive to Leshan and Emeishan area. On the bus, with a captive audience some of the professors took the microphone and gave lectures on topics related to their disciplines and things we’d see on the trip. Geography Professor gave a very interesting and personal background of the maternal side of her family. She talked about how the politics of pre-communism played a part in her mother’s family wealth as opposed to the politics of post-communism life.

Religion Professor spoke about the imperial mountain system of the five peaks. They are explained as having specific Bodhisattva (a being that reaches the gate of enlightenment but decides to go back). The Emeishan area that we are in is one of these peaks. Historically, a lot of money from the continuous pilgrimages come to the Bodhisattva sites. Up until the 1920s Buddhist monasteries had a strong affiliation with local government.

Lunch was in Leshan, which is a sweet little town right on the Dadu River. We had more Sichuan food. We had all new dishes. I’ve heard that there are more than 5,000 different Sichuan recipes. I think we are going to try about a tenth of them on this trip.

Latitude 29.546897, Longitude 103.768662

After lunch we took a short boat ride to the Grand Buddha on the Dadu and Min rivers. This Buddha is truly grand. It is a very tall statue (71m or 233ft) carved into a red sandstone very similar to the Navajo (or Aztec) Sandstone found at Zion National Park, Utah.

We hopped back on the bus. We stopped at local village and chatted with the farmers. Political Theorist joked before we got off the bus: “What do you think of the commodification of your culture as a result of global capitalism?” Pause. “Just say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’” All joking aside, this was a good stop and apparently completely chosen at random. As observed from our bus windows before arriving, the region grew rice, corn and beans, all in the same field and near each other. There wasn’t monoculture going on, at least that I observed. When asked if they eat the corn, a farmer responded “We eat the rice!” In other words, the corn is for animal feed. We have not had a dish with corn as yet.

Latitude 29.566295, Longitude 103.440857

We checked into Hong Zhu Shan Hotel (Building 5), which was an amazing place. Quite opulent. I will write about it in Tripadvisor.

From the hotel we walked to Baoguo Temple, our first temple. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I love to candles burning and incense burning at the entrance. We also heard some mesmerizing chanting monks. I got a little bit of this on a video. We had a vegetarian meal at the Temple.

A few Google Earth placemarks to peruse.

Giant Pandas and Ancient Shu Civilization

2008-06-30T11:55:00.003-04:00

Had a very delicious, full breakfast at the Tianfu Sunshine Hotel. There was so much food, so much variety, it was a little like a Sunday Brunch but for Chinese people. There was an omelet station, though, for the egg eaters. Had some soup with noodles, some lotus root, some buns. Wow!

Latitude 30.73508, Longitude 104.143503

We headed out in a touring bus to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. On the bus, Earth Science Professor presented an interesting discussion on the significance of the panda’s ‘thumb’ in the discourse on evolution. The setting for the panda center is a very well-laid out and park-like and is a great place for understanding the importance of studying and breeding Giant Pandas. You can even hold a juvenile panda if you want to pay, the money goes to research center.

Latitude 31.005015, Longitude 104.215235

Back in the bus we made our way to the lunch spot which is where we will be after lunch, the Sanxingdui Museum. Geography Professor and Anthropology Professor talked about the different periods of Chinese dynasties as a lead up to the next stop.

The Sanxing dui Museum is an archaeological dig site that now houses a remarkable collection of artifacts from over 4000 years ago from the Shu civilization. The site was discovered in 1986 along a river, where this old civilization made its mark. What is in the museum are findings from excavations of sacrificial burial sites. Unused knives and other implements made of jade, clay pots, and coins were buried with people for use in the afterlife. Only one museum building was open when we went but in it was enough to keep you occupied for a long time. I could not take pictures inside. Also, the Google Earth aerial photographs of the site are very grainy and may be so to deter looters.

And finally, a few of us went out for a very cheap (110 yuan or $16US), two-hour long Thai massage. When we go back to Chengdu in a couple of days, we MUST go there again.

Here's where we went in (includes all of Chengdu stops), viewed in Google Earth.

Shopping and Eating in Chengdu

2008-06-29T12:20:00.006-04:00

We awoke to a 5:00am wake-up call and then gathered as a group by 5:30am. A tour bus took us to the Beijing airport. I couldn’t get any readings (fixes) from the GPS for most of the day. (See the success story at Starbucks below.) Geography Professor mentioned casually that I could get into trouble for ‘measuring things,’ so I’d like to not draw attention to myself. I’m carrying around a tablet PC with a GPS receiver sticking out one end and attached by a long cord. It looks kind of silly. I look like a dork, but when I have the locations of where I am, I and I think others will be happy for this small sacrifice.

We flew out of Beijing to Chengdu on an airline that I do not know. It was a great flight and the Beijing terminal was very modern, not at all like the terminal I flew into in 1996. And it wasn’t the international terminal all set for the Olympics that I flew into the other evening.

Our Tour Guide for the Sichuan Province part of the trip met us at the airport and we boarded a bus. She gave us an introductory talk about what we would be doing in Chengdu. She mentioned that when she was waiting for us at the baggage claim she noticed that many of the Chinese people there remarked at how happy they were to see our (American) group coming in so soon after the May 12 earthquake. They thought of it as a vote of confidence and support. Tour Guide also told this funny story about what she felt when the earthquake occurred (it didn’t hit Chengdu hard at all where we saw no earthquake evidence). She said that when the earthquake happened she thought ‘some naughty boys were playing the firecrackers in the house,’ and she was going to get up in the morning and go and tell them to stop it.

Once in Chengdu we stopped to have lunch. It was delicious and very spicy hot. Apparently, the Sichuan style of cooking is to use a lot of known, local, simple ingredients and make something really yummy and special. That was what we had. A variety of small dishes came out, for each of us to sample, and they were so good. It was a little like having tapas. Another humorous thing that Tour Guide said was that in Sichuan Province, with all the spicy food, the women are thought of as ‘spicy girls.’ I think she thought of herself as a spicy girl, herself.

Fed and happy, we went to the Wide and Narrow Alley shopping area. This is on Jinli Street. As I said I could not get a reading of where we were, but it was a new area opened up for shopping and strolling. Some homes are there in the ‘alleys’ and some of the former homes are made into shops. One notable building is a ‘church’ built by French people in the 1830s but all the windows had Star of Davids and it was an obvious synagogue. It will soon be a restaurant. Since this area is relatively new there was information on the Wide and Narrow Alley on Google Earth. But perhaps when I get more time I’ll investigate this street and its significance.

Then we went to the Dufu Thatched Cottage Museum. This is well-known and in Google Earth. Dufu was a Chinese poet who lived in the 700s. He is comparable to Shakespeare and highly revered. This thatched cottage is a place he wrote only briefly in his life. The grounds were beautiful. It seems as though Dufu’s works are co-opted throughout the ages and he the current party can find communist leanings in his writing from over a thousand years ago. Certainly.

Latitude 30.647627, Longitude 104.047428

Hopefully this is the last of these shopping jaunts, for next we went to another shopping spot on Qintai Road. I just rested at Starbucks and DID get a GPS location. Probably because I could sit still for awhile in order to get a fix on the satellites. (See Google Earth link for the days adventure spots). Anyway, this was another ‘alley’ for shopping. There will be plenty of shopping opportunities along the way, to be sure. Oh, and though this was Starbucks, the coffee was divine. Much more flavorful than the American brew.

Latitude 30.646595, Longitude 104.043257

Then we walked two blocks to get on the bus to drive one block to another eating establishment. None of us were hungry but when you put terrific and beautiful food in front of me, I can’t help myself. I wouldn’t want to be rude. Again, the food was spicy yummy.

Latitude 30.670017, Longitude 104.076658

We checked in to the Tianfu Sunshine Hotel. The hotel seems nicer than our first hotel, which was great. More on the hotel later with my TripAdvisor review.

Here's where we went in Chengdu, viewed in Google Earth.

Meeting Up in Beijing

2008-06-28T11:06:00.003-04:00

We gathered at 7pm at the lobby of the Beijing International Hotel (note the curvature which is a little like Noyes House) and then went to a ‘family style’ restaurant. I don’t know the name. It had a lot of tourists in it and the food came out and was placed on a lazy Susan in the middle of the table. It was not outstanding. Our tour operator who has planned everything made sure we had an easy, agreeable meal for our first meal, I think. Here's my review on Tripadvisor.

We will be going to Tibet and that’s a good thing. But we will not go there for another few days. First, tomorrow morning we leave for Chengdu for some touring.

I've been to China once before and then as now I marvel at the interesting ways that the English language comes out in Chinese culture. Here's a lovely example of what I mean:

On an advertisement for the hotel spa that came with my room key under new recommended items...

Whitening and tightening body massage with milk 580 yuan/70 mins

Wonderful experience to make your skin and muscle cells regenerate, to whiten and moist your body, to prevent your body from degradation to keep healthy and gloss.

Photo is by PALLYCH72. Mine aren't ready yet.

Getting to Beijing, China

2008-06-27T13:36:00.008-04:00

Day 1 June 26, 2008

LATITUDE LONGITUDE JFK International Airport (40.643532, -73.789168)

I left Poughkeepsie on Metro North at 6:43am to Grand Central Station. I didn’t need to leave this early. I caught the New York Airport bus at 9:10am ($15US). I arrived at Terminal 1 at JFK International Airport by about 10:15am, checked in like a breeze. I wondered aloud to the Japan Airlines staff if I really needed to be three hours early. My flight was not until 1:30pm. He said ‘no,’ and that sometimes all you need is an hour. So, live and learn. The security check-point was much longer, but still within reason in terms of amount of time it took me to get through.

I bought two bottles of water and exchanged $100US (600 yuan) once I got through the check point. I also bought a small bottle of rum at the duty free ($7US) as a sleep aid. I won’t drink the rum with the Benadryl I brought.

I’ve been advised by an airline pilot friend to start to sleep on China time. China is exactly 12 hours different than we are in New York, so it’s a little hard to think about it being 1:00am at the place that I’m getting ready to go to. Airline Pilot said to ‘drink lots of water; suck it up and buy two bottles after you get through the security check point and then drink it all flight long, even after the flight attendants go to sleep; get up and stretch, not just walk, but do knee bends, and legs stretches, especially the legs; take a sleep aid to sleep when China is sleeping (Tylenol PM or Benadryl).’ I’ll let you know how that goes.

So far, this is very exciting and going smooth, but I’m just at the beginning of the trip and have yet to get out of the country. Next stop is Narita Airport in Tokyo Japan.

On the plane (13 plus hours) I saw a lot of movies. I’ll start with the best: “Vantage Point.” I really liked this thriller; right up my alley. If you don’t know what it’s about, you can look it up, but the premise is that we see an assassination attempt from many different vantage points. This was the highlight for a geospatial technologist: the assassin used a geolocated weapon and a mobile pen-based device to 1) anonymously shoot the designated assassinated person, and 2) detonate a bomb on a suicide bomber.

Do not see: “10,000 BC.” Wow! What a dog of a movie. It was incredibly stupid and very poorly acted. Who wants to see a bunch of guys running around with very little clothing and shaking spears at each other? Don’t answer that. I wanted way more of the mastodons and maybe even some saber tooth tigers.

Ditto: “Fools Golds.” Ugho! This was another lame, poorly acted, dumb movie that was all about cutesy flirtatious talk between two fairly attractive people. They talk in that way that real life people think they talk like and don’t and it just sounds so disgusting.

I saw others but they were films I’d seen before. I played a lot of Tetris. Read an Annie Proulx short story in the New Yorker.

My flight was on Japan Airlines. I highly recommend this carrier. Accept for the fact that there was an obvious hierarchy between the poor-folks in the back of the bus and the fancy folks in First Class, I liked everything about this flight. I got up, walked around, didn’t need a sleep aid, got free alcohol. Did all the stretches that Airline Pilot suggested doing.

By the way, the free alcohol is a good thing because when I got to Narita Airport, they took my duty free rum that I bought at the JFK airport AFTER I went through the security check point. Can someone please explain how that is possible?! I kept my receipt so if I have the energy, I can try to get back my seven smackers, but is it worth it?

LATITUDE LONGITUDE at Tokyo Narita Airport (35.777463, 140.39085)

Still Day 1 – now it’s June 27: Connecting flight to Beijing left a little late so I got into Beijing at about 10:00pm. Took a cab from the airport. I had a piece of paper with the name of the hotel (Beijing International Hotel) with the address both in English and in Chinese. First thing you should do is have confidence that the driver knows where he or she is going and how much it will cost you. My driver got lost. The highways, just like the airport, are new and I think confusing to everyone. I saw a lot of cars stopping on the highway leading out of the airport and going into reverse to make an exit. Seemed pretty dangerous. I didn’t think too much of it until my own driver seemed to miss an exit. He told me at the beginning that it would be $100yuan. He got so lost though that I made me pay $200yuan (about $30US). I hope the drivers figure out how to get around before the Olympics start up!

I made it to my hotel, though, and that’s what matters! Very nice room. More later or on Tripadvisor.

Check out the Google Earth file for a blow by blow of where I’ve been to get to Beijing.

Added the Loki Toolbar to Internet Explorer

2008-06-25T14:30:00.002-04:00

I added the Loki toolbar for the trip to China. If you like mapping your every little move, Loki is pretty cool. If you sit at a desk all day, Loki is probably boring.

I will also bring along a tablet PC with a GPS receiver so we'll see how accurate Loki / the GPS are to one another.

Here is where I am today: 41.685476; -73.897733