Miss me yet?
Paris was such an adventure that I´m giving it its own email. Bastille
day and everthing!
The Danish keyboard is mostly the same as home, but not quite... I
expect typos. May they be delightful.

7/14/07 Paris (Bastille Day)
After a race and a quick dip in the lake to clean off yesterday, we
took the three hour train from Bordeaux to Paris. Ryan and I
entertained the family (lots of little kids) in front of us by
creating origami from a free train sation magazine.
Upon arrive in Paris, we took the metro to the hostel, where the three
of us have our own room.
In the morning, we partook of the large hotel breakfast, then set out
for the Louvre, which was free today (though free all the time for sum
of us, who are as yet under eighteen). We saw just about everything,
from Etruscan art to the Mona Lisa.
Outside, it was very hot. We walked down the Tuliaries gardens, in
which there were all sorts of costumed French protestors. They were
against, I believe, French military involvement in Palestine (sound
familiar at all?) by playing and singing music and wearing very
interesting, colorful, symbolic outfits.
We walked on, up Champs Elysees, and learned that earlier in the day,
there had been a military parade. The armed forces were, at that
point, conducting demostrations in font of Les Invalides, such as
archery and parachuting from helicopters to land on a target.
Next was the Rodin Museum, featuring many sculputres by him, including
the Thinker and the Gates of Hell, which he spent 30 years on and
never finished. What was interesting about Rodin is that he would make
many sculptures of the same thing, but larger, smaller, slightly
different until he believed it to e perfect (or got bored, I guess).
In the evening, we ate a delightful dinner in a guidebook-reccommended
restaurant. While there, a man paralell parked a car in a spot so
tight that when he managed (with nearly an inch on either end)
everyone in the restaurant clapped.
We climbed Notre Dame at sunset, and saw the lighting of the Eiffel
Tower and, of course, the gargoyles, which overlooked a terrific view.
Below, we watched fire juggling, firecracker poi, and a magic show on
the street.

7/15/07 Paris
After a late start, we toured the Musee dÓrsay (cant find the
apostrophe-Swedish keyboard- but look, I kan type ö and ä! They have
their own keys.), which featured impressionist artists such as Motet,
Manet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc. There was a very long
line to get in. The museum, as many here are, was much too large,
although it was interesting to see the texture on the originals.
After the museum, the metro brought us to an interesting
neighboorhood, in which we searched out a tiny, barely advertised
Museé de Magique, located in the basement of the former residence of
the Marquis de Sade. It was set up so that things would jump out at
you when you set of their sensors, but it would have ben creepy enough
with bare walls- the fire escape was the most frightening, of cracked
stone, spiraling upwards into darkness. On display were magical
artifacts, such as the door from Houdiniś house, by which he could
tell who was at his door before they knocked, and the box which he
used to saw people in half. There were also mirror tricks, and later,
a magic show, for which I was volunteered and made to look a fool, as
intended. He was very good with sleight of hand.
Another metro ride took us to see the Pompidou, which is built inside
out, with pipes and stairs on the outside instead of within. We didnt
enter the museum, but remained content to watch street performers
outside of the building.

7/16/10 Paris
We walked throught the cemetery today. It was full of gravestones and
monuments, old and crumbling beside new ones. With the aid of a mostly
accurate map, we found the tombs of Henri de Balzac and that of Oscar
Wilde, the latter inexilicably covered with lipstick kisses.
Next we found a park, Les VIlletes, and traveresed its
futuristically-themed length, which included a large, geodesic
mirrored sphere, called the Geode. It was a lovely park, so we ate our
packed lunches there and read books (we found books in English! Hooray
for Terry Pratchett).
After a few false trails, we found a cinema that was playing the new
Harry Potter movie in English. After watching, we sat down at a Pizza
Hut, which, interestingly enough, was a sit-down, knife-and-fork
establishment. Yes, even pizza is eaten with a knife and fork. It¤s a
European thing.

7/17/07 Paris
In the morning, we (at Ryans and my insistence and to Eileens
reluctance) visited the Catacombs. In times past this underground
labyrinth had been a mine for Paris' (hey- found the apostrophe!)
building materials. Many years later, when the mine was closed down
and Paris' cemeteries had grown overfull with the long-dead, it was
decided that the remains of those takingup undue space should be
exhumed and relocated the the mine shafts. In a several-year process,
black-covered carts crossed the city by night, surrounded by priests,
who spoke again the rites of the dead, to the catacombs, where the
bones were stacked and the skulls placed in careful patterns in the
new bone walls. The mine shafts are now tight corridors, through
which, for 1.7 kilometers (the section not closed off) tourists such
as we could gaze, as the dimly lit skulls returned sepulchral stares.
Some of the bones, ona historical note, belonged to Maximilien
Robespierre, orchestrator of the French Revolution and head of the
Reign of Terror. When he fell from favor, he was buried with hi
supporters. Which were their bones is unknown.
Upon returning to the light, we took a train to Chateau Versailles,
home of Prerevolutionary monarchy since Louis XIV. We breezed throught
the sumptuous rooms (as much as one can breeze through jam-packed
rooms filled wth tour groups), quickly growing numb to the lavish and
gold-covered everything. Outside in the heat, an expanse of carefully
trimmed hedges bordered gardens filled with blooming flowers, in
cloying pinks and purples, puncuated by concrete ponds. I might have
enjoyed it more if there were people in costume, for a somewhat
historic effect, instead of only colorful t-shirt tourists, but to be
fair, it was quite nice to lay in the grass in the shade behind the
'keep off the grass' sign.
My favorite part of Versailles was Marie Antoinette's garden, a bit of
a walk from the main ones. Instead of man-made order, there were
rambling paths and even hills and wild plants, with trees and an
(admittedly manmade) waterfall. The signs reassured visitors that they
shouldn't worry, it would soon be restored. I also liked the Hamlet,
where the queen went occasionally to pretend she was a peasant, with
beautifully mown grass, a willow over a clear pond of birds and fish,
and wooden, thatched-roof houses, one with an outdoor spiral stair.

Remarkable and Interesting Facts and Observations
-Everyone in Paris, or at the very least all the women, seems to be
dressed up. Maybe this is a city life phenomenon?
-Men in all-green janitorial uniforms, with green carts full o bright
green cleaning equipment roam the streets picking up garbage.
-Metro stations are diversely and interestingly decorated, one with
alcoes and statues, another with La Concorde written out in tiles
across the curved ceiling.
-There are few Parisians here this time of year. They're on the coast,
escaping the heat and tourists and going swimming instead.
-Paris is HOT. When it rained one evening, I ran out and danced in it.
The next day, it was marginally cooler, but everything had dried
already.
-Young men dance on the street with hats and canes in groups of four
or so. I think it's for fun, not for money.
-There are many excellent street performers, especially be Notre Dame
and Pompidou.

Bonjour, aur revoir, off to Copenhagen, where most people speak English!

Below are the thrilling- and chilling- events which unfolded on the
coast of France, near Bordeaux.
Or, you know, just some stuff we did, your choice, really.
Anyhow, as they actually do say here, rather often, voila!

7/7/07 Rovereto to Verona (train)
This morning, I went out earlyand bought bread, finally having located
the bakery.
We raced today again, but didn't understand the start times, so we all
got an extra twenty minutes or so added to our times- not such a good
ending, but I wasn't winning anyway.
20:34
Following a couple of bored, unenthusiastic games of double solitaire
(it's far too hot to be enthusiastic), we continue to await our
overnight train to Paris, the lonely whirrs of the
poster-advertisement machines scrolling, accompannied by the station
announcer's voice over the speakeres, which summarrizes each train's
route and amenities and punctuated only by the occasional train
clattering through and the mumbles of a beggar woman from Bosnia.

7/8/07 17:00 Paris to Bordeaux
Last night's train came, and we slept in our train compartment's
seats, which folded down into beds. Plastic-sealed sheets and pillows
were provided. Comfort levels were acceptablee, but not optimal, as we
shared the compartment with a mother and daughter from Mexico (I
think) and a man in bunk arrangement.
Upon arrival in Paris, we had a few hours before boarding this train,
so we walked about and saw the Eiffel Tower, acrobatic policemen (nine
or so in arrangement on one motorcycle), the Arc de Triumph, and the
tourists. Lunch was onion soup and a chicken dish.
I have read all of my books (Feed, You Don't Know Me, A Certain Slant
of Light, The Foretelling); Ryan's (Finding Lubchenko); Eileen's
(Saving Fish From Drownig, High Tide in Tuscon), qnd the entire legal
text, in French and English, of my Eurail pass. I brought the Qu'ran,
deciding thqat if I was sufficiently bored, I would read it, but I
find it, while interesting, about as interesting as the aforementioned
pass.

7/10/07 7:37 Lacanau Sud (meet site)
I am glad to see that today there are port-a-potties. Yesterday, the
toilets were holes in teh ground, with spots upon which to put feet
(to be fair, there was a building, though not much else).
My race went well, but for one small mistake, which moved me down
about fifteen places because of the speed of the course.
In the evening, we walked along the beach, wind blowing shivering
jelly icebergs of sea foam across the wet sand. We picked up rocks,
explored others' sand structures, and walked back to the car with
blown rain from the sunset on our backs.

7/12/07 11:54 Bannes (meet site)
Yesterday´s race was great- I disregarded all mapped features and
spiked every control using nothing but compass and pacing- which means
two things: everything is runnable, aided by the lack of hills, and
the map here, if trusted, tends to add confusion. This was a problem
for other people. I had a near perfect race and came in 51st...
In the afternoon, the sun finally came out (it´s been raining daily)
and we went out to the beach, which was very crowded.
13:14
I braided a crown of the wild heather that grows rampantly here and
put it on the head of a little Scottish girl who was watching me from
nearby. She ducked back shyly behind her father, but then gave it a
thorough inspection and shoved it down over her head to be a necklace.
23:17
We walked Lacanau after showers, discovering a geological exposition,
an art gallery, a beach, and lots of French (and other) tourists.
In the evening, after a delicious paella dinner with a Canadian man
who´s staying downstairs from us, we went downtown for a last
internet. There´s a kitten there, Pitzu, which I lured out from under
a parked car the first day using my hair. Today when we came in, the
owner saw us, smiled, and fetched the kitten from the back for us.
In the square, there is music and polka dancing, which I can hear from
here. We particularly enjoyed watching the mixer dance for its
confusion-due to a mishap in steps, a couple of younger teenage boys
ended up paired for a turn. At first, they stood there looking
awkward, then one shrugged and they danced the turn.


Remarkable and Interesting Facts and Observations!
-Our shower has no curtain, only a half-wall (vertically) and a tub. I
believe the intent is that we sit to bathe.
-On a quest for books to read, we've been asking around to other
English speakers at the O meets. We've noticed a disturbing trend.
Books appear to be outmoded. Some girls in my age division, British,
informed me, "oh, we don't read." A man from the Netherlands
explained, "the kids have their mp3 players." A man living in Belgium
told us, "I don't read. My girlfriend does, but I just got to the
movies, where I can get the story in two hours." Well, I was
flabbergasted. What a lovely word.
-Running in sand is Not Fun.
-"chantilly" is whipped cream. And I´d always thought i was a type of lace...
-nutella is incredibly popular here. Meanwhile, one must search the
top shelf in the grocery store very carefully to locate the peanut
butter.
-every morning, you can see people walking down the street with long
loaves of French bread,
-"pain", the French word for bread, will get you a baguette. If you
want anything else, you have to know the words for it.
-Crepes are their idea of pancakes. Delicious!
-There are many pine forests on France´s west coast.
-American music, like McDonalds and Starbucks, are ubiquitous.
-There´s a really sweet kitten at the internet cafe, named Pitzu, It
is, as Ryan says, "a ball of 100% pure squirm".

I´m quite behind, aren´t I? Typing from Copenhagen...

Hi again! This is the Folgarìa, Italy installment.

7/1/07 12:45 Verona (Canada Day)
I'm sitting on a bench in the train station, between platforms three and
four, awaiting a train to Rovereto. Lunch is Coca-Cola and dry sandwhiches
from the main station downstairs. Oh, the train is here!
13:54 Rovereto
Train station. As it turns out, the bus to Folgarìa doesn't come until
18:00, so we've got a wait. It's 33C here, which translates to 93F. That's
about normal for our trip so far. And to think I packed a windbreaker and
polar fleece...

7/2/07 8:45 Folgarìa
I'm sitting in the grass near the finish of Day 1. A couple of minutes ago,
a cow got loose and precipitated a chase up and down the hill, cowbell
ringing, as some of men tried to chase it away from the throngs of people
surrounding the finish.
This morning, we went grocery shopping in the singular, small grocery (and
more) store across town. At the meat, bread, and cheese counter, I asked for
two of the largest loaves of bread, and a half kilo (I couldn't recall the
words for any less, but this is about a pound) of Swiss cheese (Swiss
because it was the only one I recognized). We walked with our loot (these
and other groceries) back across town to the residence, Derby, at which
we're staying.
Our residence (apparently, the difference between a residence and a hotel is
that a residence dosn't provide linens, towels, soap, or housekeeping) has a
small bathroom with the usual European amenities, a bedroom for Eileen and
I, a kitchenette, which has a stove and tiny refrigerator but no oven, and a
living/dining room in which Ryan sleeps, on the fold-out bed.
We walked to the traffic circle that is our bus stop to wait for the
orienteering bus, and rode it twenty or so minutes farther into the Italian
Alps to the meet site. Upon arrival, we asked registration for pins for our
race numbers, believing that they had committed an oversight in not
including these in our race packets. It seems we were supposed to bring our
own; the nice woman went to her purse and managed to scrounge two small,
bent safety pins to complement the one Eileen had found, allowing us one
each (I later lost my number, but someone found it, so it was okay). We
thanked the registration woman and wished we had thought to brigh some of
the many safety pins we have at home.
There's still a while before my start, so I'm off to juggle and catch
grashoppers (it's almost akin to a locust plague, there are so many- they
sound like lawn sprinklers).
15:15
It's raining here. Good thing we're not camping; the streets are rivers. It
appears that weather is a touch more temperamental here in the mountains; it
was quite hot while we were running.
I had a very fun race, although at last look I was number twenty-one of
twenty-three in my category (Women 15-16). I blame this partly on my first
control (fifteen minute error just across the start line) and partly on my
overall lack of speed, particularly in comparison to my ridiculously fast
Swedish competitors. During my run, I befriended one of my competitors- from
the second control onward, we took separate route choices and met at the
control. I was sooner to the finish, but she had started much later. She
hails from Trieste, which is on the very edge of italy, almost in Slovenia
(I think that's the right country name).

7/4/07 (U.S. Independence Day)
Yesterday, we raced again, in a hillier area. I had no major mistakes, so I
got to move up in the rankings to 27 of 40 (some of whom had already
disqualified for mispunches or DNF'ing).
Back in town, I sat on the steps by the square and juggled for a while,
watching people set up for a concert. The concert toook place after the
daily award ceremony, and was by local celebrity Stefano Zarfati. The crowd
appeared sedentary, although I'm sure they enjoyed it. Ryan and I juggled on
the edges of the crowd.
Today is the designated rest day, so no race today. We were going to check
out a nearby town, bt we missed the only bus when Eileen decided we should
sleep in, so nothing really to do today.

[French keyboqard6 v. difficult to use° - ,=m qnd q=a

7/5/07 13:43
Great race todqy. I rqn hqrd; qnd hqd only minor mistqkes. For q
greenish level course, I took qn hour qnd 4 minutes. It was q lot of
fun, topped bythe fqt thqat the qnnouncercqlled out my nqme qs I rqn
in the finish. Still waiting for Ryqn qnd Eileen to finish.

Remarkable and Interesting Facts and Observqtions
-In thestore window of arond hqlf of the shops in Folgqriq 5(grqnted,
Folgariq is smqll) hqngs q smqll orienteering control.
- This event warrants use of q room in the town's centerand of its
solitqry square every evening.
-At the finish, there is q blow-up banner over the finish line and
several large speakers through which blqst loud musicqnd the
announcer's voice, cqlling out nqmes of key runners. All around,
people in their respective club uniforms sit with their other club
members in their club tents, under their club's or country's flqg.
_On our dqily walks to the start, we recieve q small warm_up mapto
show us where to go qnd to get us thinking on the map
-As Americans, our delegation here is small (I am the youngest) and
our representqtion on the winners' podium is nonexistent.
-W15-16 (mycategory) would be qn orange course in the states, but here
is more like a green (W20)
-Interesting rock feqtures are all over the map, such as cliffed-in
passages and what appear to be mine shqftsare leftovers from WWI; rock
walls and ditches were once trenches
-Rounding the back of a hill plagued with cows, bells ringing
variously; a runner can hear the drone of the announcer's voice in the
distance. These combine for a churchy effect
-Everyevening; groups of old men sit at outdoor tables, talking
animatedly. Each looks like a chqrqcter.

I'm in France now, so a bit behind on updates, but here's this!

Europe

Hello again,

I'm writing (at the moment) from the orienteering event center in Folgarìa, about 50 minutes' bus ride from Verona, in the mountains. As Eileen checked us in, I noticed the computers with big signs saying FREE INTERNET, so this is good. I probably won't finish this email today, though.
The nice thing about this computer is that the keyboard types exactly what it says it will, unlike most foreign computers I've had experience. Howerver, I'm still prone to typing 'à' instead of ', and this is not the only character that's been moved from our American settrings, although I'm happt to report that most of the essential ones remain the smae or similar.

Journal time!
6/28/07 (Sweet sixteen..)
We toured galleries today. After a hostel breakfast (this hostel, by the way, tries to cater to a variety of foreign tastes, so we got eggs and toast, as well as the European bread roll and hot drink), we set out to claim our reserved tickets at the Uffizzi Gallery. After some confusing lines, we entered to view famous works, mostly depicting Christian religious figures, including Botticcellis (or however that's spelled), da Vincis, works of El Greco, etc. The halls, too, were lined with lovely sculpture of Classic gods. After many, many rooms, we grew numb, but did traverse the entire gallery. Upon our exit, we elected to try a different sort of museum, this one focused on science, particularly Galileo, with famous scientists' tools, old globes, and really interesting machines. Unfiortunately, the machines all had signs on them saying, 'no tocare,' meaning, as I'm sure you can discern, 'don't touch'. Really. There was a miniature pendulum, which I blew on, and a woman came into the room, gave me a stern look, and halted its swinging progress. It was almost depressing, to see the beautiful mechanics of the machines, and inclined planes with bells to show acceleration of motion, and the mechanically implausible object that rolled up a ramp and not be allowed to see how they worked. Fortunately, later on, we stumbled across a tiny da Vinci machines museum, advertising its hands-on exhibits of the constructions from da Vinci's journal, so that particular urge was eventually sated.
That night, we ate in a little restaurant, and ordered deserts with interesting names in honor of my birthday.

6/29/07
13:13
In the morning, after breakfast, we caught the train to Venice. We had been required to reserve seats on the EuroStar train, but the woman at the counter had crossed out the seat numbers on the ticket, telling Eileen that it was open seating. Unfortunately, it was open seating only for us, and everyone else's seats were reserved. After moving a few times, we found ourselves in the space between cars, where the train doors opened and closed and people left their excess luggage. While there, we met two girls, one going into her senior year and the other just graduated, traveling from Miami to all over Europe. They were good company for the several-hour trip.
21:57 Venizia
I float in a trance
Through a labyrinth of beauty
And drift on the breeze,
My shawl a sail:
Music and romance-
A Venice night.

I know it's cliched to get all romantic about Venice, and I was dubious as the hot sun struck the cobblestones when we disembarked from the train, but we walked out this afternoon to explore and lay on the steps of a church for half an hour, lulled into calm by the breeze and lapping water (also, our feet hurt from walking).
Later, we made pilgrimage to Saint Marc's Square, where we tried to catch pigeons, with little to no success. On our way there, we came across hordes of people (well, a number of them) in very fancy dress and followed them to the Doge's palace, to what appeared to be a fancy dress party. There were reporters and people who were probably famous, but none of us quite had the courage (or words) to ask what it was, so we carried on.
We walked home in the dark, over lit canals, through winding cobbled streets, and all around us, couples smiled, talked, and held hands (thus my poem).

6/29/07 21:59 Venice
We bought a 24-hour water subway pass and went out to neighboring islands. First we went to Murano, of the Venitian glas, saw a glassblowing demonstration, and poked through gaudy, pricey glass shops. Turning into backroads, we saw picnickers in a park (we saw ginkgo, pomegranates, and chestnuts growing) and sat on swings, then got up and walked a small road to the other, residential side of the island, where we sat with our feet in the water, caught crabs, and watched garbage thrown from a boat, picked apart by seagulls, and left to float by us in the time we were there.
Walking back to the peopled (touristy) area of the island, we caught a boat to San Michele, Venice's cemetery island. It was made up of nwested courtyards, centered around a church, with sections portioned off for nuns an mausoleums in the walls for old Venetian families.
Riding back to Venice mainland, we fed pigeons in Saint Mark's Square, holding our arms out, sometimes with breadcrumbs (but not always) for the trusting birds to land on. My record was sixon my arms at one time, some on my head, and some on each others' backs. Ryan caught a dove.

Remarkable and Interesting Facts and Observations
-Somehow, they managed to fit a heater, bidet, stool, trash can, and shower into our tiny hotel bathroom along with the usual toilet, sink, and mirror.
-The shower (very European) is a handheld, on a sliding holder. Also in the shower is an inexplicable cord hanging on the wall. There was one in the Florenine hostel, too. I pulled it, but nothing happened. I was somewhat disappointed.
-I had always been under the impression that all of Venice's streets were canals. This is not the case. Venice is more like several small islands, separated by canals, which are, in turn, bridged. The land is covered in buildings, between which wind labyrinthine, narrow, cobblestone streets and alleys. The canals are used mostly as a tourist attraction (expensive gondola rides) and in the larger ones, in a system similar to a subway, with little ferries as trains, and docks as stations.
-Doorknobs are generally located in the center of the door. I have no idea why, but I'd like to imagine some historical reason.
-The cheaper food is often tastier. The expense of food is sometimes deterined by whether you get to sit down or not to eat, and the places Venitians eat are smaller, efficient places. I had an excellent spinach-cheese sandwich on foccacia at one such location.
-Courtyards and churches are everywhere.
-Each restaurant hass its own oorchestra or musicians, especially after sundown.
-People dress up here for everyday wear. I almost fit in!
-Tides rise and lower the canals.
-Door open onto water. Along streets, stairs lead down into the dirty canal depths.
-Breakfast: little rolls, butter, jam, and choice of hot drink.
-Saint Marc's Square floods 250 times a year through drains in the bricks.

Well, there's all sorts of adventures to recount, and we're no longer in Venice, but someone's waiting for the computer, so I'll just leave it at that. Buono?