Carnivale

It sounded like a good idea back in October when I got back from my first trip to Venice with some of the TASIS teachers. However, when the date was getting closer I started to have second thoughts. I had just gotten back from a 5 day trip to London for February break, had two days of work, then was off for a driving trip to Venice before heading back to London for a conference. In the long run, probably not the best planning but in the end definitely worth it.

We left right after school on Friday afternoon and headed for the border. Only to be stopped, pulled over and told to turn around because I didn´t have an international drivers license. So we did, and Guia, Mara and Martha in the other car turned around as well meeting us at a gas station so we could switch drivers and sneak our way across the border. Mind you, Giuseppe is a bright green with ski racks on the top. Completely inconspicuous, for sure. But there were no guards hanging around during our second pass through so we were in the clear and on our way.

We arrived so late in the evening Friday night at Stacey´s Guest house that we decided to have a simple meal across the walkway at her husbands resturant. He is from the south of Italy so the menu had more of that type of feel. We had a bunch of appetizers consisting of tempura seafood platters and calemari. They all were fantastic and way too much for us to eat, but somehow we polished them off pretty well, along with a bottle of wine.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, having breakfast at the top of the house in her small kitchen that overlooked the rooftops of venice. She was so happy to have American´´s staying with her she had gone out to the super market for breakfast stuff and made a of coffee. I have to say, it made my morning to see Cheerios, or at least a knock off sitting on the counter.

After a leisurely start, we hit the streets heading for San Mark´s square to see the costumes and all the people. The streets were absolutely packed and at times slightly miserable. It is not like the carnivale in New Orleans. People are all really tame and there are kids everywhere dressed in costume, more like Halloween. And the confetti on the streets was unbelievable. It is amazing to think of the clean up after all of the celebrations are done.

What surprised me the most was just walking down the streets were people in full costume, playing the part of earlier years. Couples walking hand in hand, with the man having a walking stick.


This jester was actually posing for an article in a newspaper about the events. There were three other jesters along the canal posing with him.



The people walking down one of the main thoroughfairs of Venice. We stopped a little up to the right for lunch and people watching.
After lunch we were slightly tired of the crowds and decided to catch a water taxi to the island of Murano for a short walk, to purchase more wine stoppers for family, and have a cup of coffee in peace. You have to remember we were traveling with Italians which means we stop for coffee quite often. I am getting accustomed to this and am starting to think it is rather normal.
No matter what I where, when ever we go to Murano I am able tofind a house that is the smae color of the outfit I am wearing. I totally blend in right now, don´t I?
Walking across the bridge in Murano. I love the reflections of the house in the water.

Sunset on Murano

After two bottles of wine, a dance party around a well in the middle of a quiet square and having a devil chase us we decided it was time for masks.

Mara, Allsyon, Martha, Guia, Me and Lizzie

In San Marks Square later in the evening. This women was posing for pictures for some sort of advertisement. I snuck in to grab one for myself because her costume and mutiple masks were fantastic.
This man was standing with three others, equally dressed in slightly freightening outfits. But ver common of what were seeing if people were not dressed in the traditional formal wear.
The whole trip was a great time and such a great group of people. We are planning a nother trip for the spring to get us all back together again.

London Fun Times

February 13 - 17, 2009

What started out as a little trip to London for our four day break turned into an excursion for the elementary school teachers. There were seven of us altogether taking over London, however we were all going with a different purpose. Allsyon, Lizzie, Carla and myself were going for the tourist experience. Allie was heading for an engagement celebration, Angie was celebrating a birthday, and Hayley the luckiest of all was getting spoiled for Valentine's day!

Carla and I who had never been before relied heavily on the other girls and trusted their expertise. Especially Allyson, who was on her eleventh visit and had just found out during the week that she and Hayley were going to be moving there next fall. It added a whole new excitement to the trip. The first night we met up with Eason and a bunch of his friends for a Valentine's Day Singles Party. We got there so late it turned out a little more relaxed and an opportunity to chat, catch up and get to bed early. But not before stopping at Wok to Walk for a little late night snack. I have decided that there needs to one of those on every corner. Very similar to Dunkin Donuts.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and made our first of many stops at Starbucks for a good old fashioned American Coffee in a paper to go cup. Fantastic. We ate there every single morning. Maybe a little over kill but it sure tasted good. Then we were off to the train station for our Beatles Walk as part of the London Walks tours.

Our tour guide is supposedly the most knowledgeable man about all Beatles facts. He has written many books and also has a Beatles cafe not to far away from Abbey Road where he sells all of the memorabilia and junk people seem to enjoy purchasing.


Ringo Stars home where he took scandalous pictures back in the day. He wanted the pictures to be published on his album cover and wouldn't back down, so it was sold in a brown paper bag. Later he rented the apartment to Jimi Hendrix who supposedly also had crazy gatherings that soon lost Ringo his apartment.

Abbey Road studios where the Beatles recorded many of their hits. The studios that they used are still there today and they have not been changed in any way. The furniture still sits in the same place.

Of course I needed my picture on this crosswalk. Who wouldn't. It was intense though with all of the traffic and people acting stupid standing in the middle of the street to get the perfect shot. The thing is, the cars never honked and the people didn't seem annoyed. I guess if you are not a patient person you avoid driving by that location.

After our walk we met up with Laura Currin for lunch. An Italian lunch at that which was slightly comical because that is all we get all the time, but I didn't have the heart to tell her. It was great seeing her after eight years and catching up on some of what we have been doing and life in general.

Later that evening we took a Hamstead Heath Pub Walk, again through London Walks. I think Hamstead may be my favorite location in London. It is a very quaint little area with old homes and narrow streets. It felt like we had left the city for the country, but were not that far away. Actually in the past that is what it was used for. People would come there for the fresh air and the countryside. We went for the pubs and the local brew.
One of our stops was the local cemetery. Here we found out about all of the famous people who have been buried their and heard the story of the True Lost Boys that so many movies and stories have been written about. They were also buried there.

The Mary Poppins home. In the movie this home is replicated because it was built by a sea captain who wanted his home to look like a ship. Every day he would actually shot off a cannon from his roof just like in the movie. At one point he shot of 12 cannons in celebration of something that I cannot recall.

The oldest mail box in London

Sunday Morning I made everyone wake up bright and early to make our way to Buckingham Palace to witness the changing of the guard. We got there at 10:30 and the road outside was already packed. A little way away from the center the girls found some space along the fence, but I wasn't satisfied and wanted to get closer if this was going to be the only time that I was going to see this spectacle. I was lucky enough to squeeze my way into a small space right in the center. However, this little Asian women behind me thought it was a good idea to frequently put her elbow in my back and push my face against the fence bars. But I held my ground, of course.
The first hour we all stood and watched two guards walk back and forth at alternating times. I am assuming this is just to keep them awake while they stand on guard. Then it all started with a few bands marching into the grounds followed by the men on guard currently.

The Marching Band

The Men currently on guard

The incoming guard

The new guard outside of Buckingham Palace

A jumping picture of course. This one was slightly comical to take, at least to me. I was setting up my camera on an island in the middle of a street when a couple asked if they could take the picture for me. I said sure, and in broken English said "We want to jump". I kept forgetting that we were in an English speaking country. I guess I was having reverse culture shock. Anyhow, we got one, not absolutely fantastic but did the job.

After that we made our way through the park around a bunch of really beautiful buildings that I am not sure what they were and over to Big Ben.

The infamous red telephone booths. I guess they are thinking of getting rid of them because no one really uses them anymore. However, they are a sight for tourists and many people pose each year for their photos. Just like we did.

Big Ben

Then we walked, and walked, and walked along the water, past the London Eye to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.
The London Eye. We were planning on riding it but it takes an hour and there was never a perfectly clear day that would make the trip worth it.

The Tower Bridge. This was a great sight to see because it was one of my favorite bridges to teach when I was in Wellesley. The kids were always excited and interested in how it worked and how old it actually was.

The other sight at this location was the Tower of London. We missed the tour by the beefeaters by about 5 minutes and decided that it the tour was a must so we should do it another day. However, we never made it back. I guess it will be something I have to do while I am visiting Allyson and Hayley sometime next year.

That evening we decided we should scare ourselves. After filling up on Fish and Chips at a nearby pub we set off on the Jack the Ripper Walk sponsored by London Walks. This walk is lead by the expert of Jack the Ripper. Johnny Depp met with him before filming a movie to make sure that he accurately portrayed the time and character. It was extremely gruesome and I cannot believe what this man was able to get away with, considering at times he committed the murders right under the nose of the police.

Monday morning Carla and I got up and headed to Westminster Abbey while Allyson and Lizzie slept and did a little shopping.
The outside of the church. This is burial location for many famous Londoners as well as the location of the coronations of the Kings and Queens. The church is packed with tombs and plaques commemorating so many people. It is slightly overwhelming thinking that you are walking on peoples tombs throughout the entire experience.

Inside the Abbey. The architecture was absolutely amazing.


The rest of the day was spent shopping and wandering through the streets of London experiencing the different areas and the sights available. There were a couple of places I would have liked to get to but they will be on my list for next time.

That evening we got all dressed up to see Wicked. The show was playing in a posh area so we figured we would get dressed and make our way there to grab some dinner. Little did we know that is what everyone was thinking and we did not give ourselves enough time to eat and get everything done. So instead we had a gourmet feast.
Oh McDonalds! So fantastic in so many ways. Since it was a special night we all treated ourselves to vanilla milkshakes. Primarily because this particular McDonalds was out of fountain beverages. Didn't know that could happen.

The show was fantastic and well worth the visit.

We were lame that evening, heading directly to bed. Unlike our friends who stayed out that night having a fantastic time. However, we were able to wake up the next morning, get our shop on and still make our plan with no problem.

New Year's Celebrations in the Alps

Happy 2009

I couldn't have asked for a better group of people or place to be for New Year's this year. Allie, Angie, Deanna and I met up in Lugano on December 30 to head for a 7 day ski trip. There were a couple of glitches before it all could happen, Deanna's and Angie's luggage was lost.

We got early on the 30th, piled into the Giuseppe (my little green monster) and drove to Malpensa, crossing our fingers the entire way hoping that the luggage was going to be there. Angie had been unsuccessful the previous night and in the morning to get through to the airline so we were hoping that the airport was disorganized and wouldn't put the skis and snowboard on a shuttle to Lugano. But we were lucky, the airline hadn't touched the bags. Actually they were sitting in the middle of baggage claim with no one thinking twice about them, so Angie and Deanna grabbed the bags and we we were on our way. It a very tightly packed car. Everyone was only allowed the essentials.

Deanna and Angie in the back of Giuseppe

First stop was Saas Fee. We pulled into a parking structure and unloaded all of our luggage. Meanwhile Allie called our hotel for our "taxi" to come get us because Saas Fee is a car free town. Little did we know that our taxi was going to be an electric bread box that was dark purple. We piled all of our goods into the purple machine and laughed the entire way, hoping that Deanna's snow board didn't fall off of the top.



Once we had checked in, found our little rooms that were not quite ready or cleaned for us to move in we headed out to get our lift tickets and find a restaurant for New Year's dinner.

We didn't expect it to be so hard but every restaurant was completely booked and had only one scheduled seating. We went from one end of the town to the next walking into every restaurant. Usually with Deanna in the front, who then backed away because she doesn't like talking to strangers. Finally we walked into a restaurant that had a giant potato over the door and found an open table for later that evening. They had a set menu giving a sample of the local fare, which was tasty at times but the onion soup didn't quite do it for me. However, we lucked out because this restaurant was connected to the hotel who was hosting the biggest New Year's Bash in Saas Fee. After much negotiating and a lot of conversation lost in translation we didn't get any discount and we bought our bracelets for entrance at the Living Room and Popcorn.


View of Saas Fee from our Hotel Balcony on New Year's Eve before it started snowing.

We met a group of guys who had been eating dinner across the restaurant from us. They were from Zurich and they spoke English, which was a huge plus. I asked them what their traditions were for midnight and their response was champagne and heading out into the streets. So that is what we did and we were surprised when we stepped outside into the snow and the entire population celebrating.

Everyone was shooting off fireworks and popping bottles of champagne. It was absolutely crazy. It didn't help that the four of us were no where near prepared for the snow because that had started while we were in eating dinner and we didn't know there were quite that many people in the small quiet town.

Thomas, Angie, Deanna, myself, Stefan, Allie and Jean-Marie

Angie, Deanna, myself, and Allie

Deanna and I dancing in the streets on the way home

The next day we woke up bright and early to hit the mountain and have our first day of skiing. It was absolutely beautiful, with blue skies and no one out. I think most had a late start but we had the energizer bunny staying with us and knocking on our door at 8 shagging us out of bed to get moving. There wasn't much new snow but the skiing was great.

New Years Day Morning

At the very top

At one point Deanna and Angie got seperated from Allie and I. We took the Gondola up and told them we would be waiting at the top. As we got out of the gondola Allie and I thought it would be a good idea to go outside and sit in the sun, but there wasn't any so we continued to follow the crowd. We ended up entering this long tunnel that lead to a funiculare that went the rest of the way to the top. We sat down right in the middle thinking that Angie and Deanna had to come this way if they thought like us and followed the crowd so they would run into us. But they never came, because unlike us they thought the bench immediately when you got off the gondola was a much better choice so they went into the restaurant and bathrooms looking for us.

Deanna in the tunnel trying to find Allie and I. We had already taken off because we had gotten tired of waiting. Oops!

After many phone calls and a funiculare ride to the top we ran into each other finally. However, the funiculare provided much humor throughout the week at Saas Fee, with Deanna wiping out as she entered an empty car and myself getting squished by the people around me that had no general sense of space.


After a hard day of skiing and a long night the celebrating we all crashed for quite some time. When we finally woke up we had missed the apres ski and found a restaurant advertising as Mexican. It was perfect, two orders of nachoes, hot chocolate a couple of beers and several games of banana grams. With Allie totally dominating every single round. At one point in the trip we put Allie to bed and the three of us practiced so that we could at least compete. Deanna got slightly obsessed.

The next couple of days of skiing were really nice. The temperature was rather chilly but we skied full days with many sun breaks to warm up.
However, we realized really quickly that we didn't really enjoy the whole stopping and sitting outside aspect of skiing in the alps. This was the only time that we ever did this. The temperatures were so cold and the wind was biting that there was a no way that sitting outside in the sun was enjoyable. But it didn't stop many of the other skiers partaking in the chill.



At the mid point station before entering the funicolare to the top there is a run off the back side that has a sign stating for good skiers only. We found this to be quite amusing and we had to take our picture in front of it. We also skied down, proving to ourselves that we could handle the mountain pretty well. Granted most of the runs at Saas Fee were gentle blues with very little steepness. This good skiers run was entering the beginnings of a black because of the mogels at the bottom but that was it.



After all of our trying days of skiing and sipping hot cocoa we decided to explore the apres ski scene. We found out the first day that taking a nap was not a good idea because we were not good at rallying later on. So we dropped our skies off and changed our boots and took off in our snow gear to find a bar. All of which are outdoors with heating umbrellas over head. Most people drink gluhwine but I can't stand the stuff so I put my gloves on and sipped on a nice cold Heinekin.

A fun outdoor bar

At Apres Ski

The crowd dancing to the YMCA

On the way home from Apres Ski. We decided to skip through town. Why not, right?

Pastry anyone? We liked this little place and we had our apres ski here on our last day. All we wanted was a little pastry, hot chocolate and a few games of banana grams while sitting inside out of the cold. Those crazy people like their outdoor activities, but we were not having it.

The entire time I was in Saas Fee I really wanted to drive one of the electric cars. Lucky for me there was one sitting outside of a hotel with the doors unlocked one evening when we were walking home. Don't worry, I just jumped in to take a picture and didn't actually try to drive away. But it was a fun one. They were all so creatively decorated.
The next morning we were off to Zermatt. It was only a hour and a half drive to the train station. Zermatt is also a car free town and we had to park about 30 minutes away from the town, load all of our luggage and equipment on carts and role them onto the train. The views were beautiful the entire way and we were all in awe of the systems in place to keep our luggage from rolling away as the train wound through the mountains.
Zermatt is beautiful. Just getting of the train I was in complete awe. There were a lot of the electric cars but there was also many horse drawn carriages for the guests of the nicer hotels.

After dropping off all of our gear once again we put Allie to sleep because she was not doing well. She had come down with something nasty and it had finally caught up with her and the lack of sleep. Then Deanna, Angie and I were off walking through the streets and finding a place for dinner, once again. The town is very quaint and walkable. We wandered in and out of stores, found the gondola that we were going to take up, and took a couple pictures in front of the Matterhorn.

The Matterhorn from town

The whole crew in front of the Matterhorn. This was one of the clearest days so luckily we took a ton of pictures before the clouds settled in.

The map of Zermatt. We could ski from Switzerland to Italy. So exciting!

View of the Matterhorn from Deanna and Angie's hotel room.

The gondola rides were my least favorite part of the whole skiing experience in the Alps. They allow a certain number of people in a holding chamber before opening the glass doors onto the platform. At this point everyone piles out, heading for the huge gondola to the top. The smart ones go to the corners finding a space for themselves and their skies. The other smart ones wait till the absolute last minute to be on the outside and right next to the enterance being the first to depart the gondola. Then there was us, we were not knowledgeable about these things at first and we found ourselves right in the middle of this cattle car. Unable to move, most likely able to pick up our feet and float in mid air due to the pressure that was being applied by everyone around us. We learned our lesson as the days went on but there were many times that we found ourselves in the middle. It did warm us up.
A very comforting sign at the highest point. Do not leave the ski run, crevasses. Yeah we followed those guidelines. The crevices would have eaten us up. They were absolutely huge and I guess we should have also been concerned with avalanches but at that point we were not knowledgeable about that concern.

Yeah we skied from Switzerland from Italy. So cool!

This is the bowl that we spent the majority of our afternoon in on the Italy side of the mountain. It was really gentle with very little change in steepness but we had a good time. We were just happy to have chair lifts and not the T-bars of Saas-Fee.
The Matterhorn. Can you believe how close we were and that we were that high while skiing. No wonder it was -22 at the top on our last day.

Allie got extremely cold and had a fear of frostbite. So she tried something new, gloves on her toes to help change them back from white to red.

On the chair with Deanna

In front of the Matterhorn on the first day of skiing. The second day was nowhere as clear and so much colder. I actually got frostbite on my nose. Oh well!


In town at the Zermatt Hotel having cocktails before dinner. At this point we are listening to a quartet play in celebration of the Russian New Year. It was impressive and we were very lucky.

While wandering the streets I found a skewer of chicken that I wanted to take a bite out of. No one believed me it was real so I had to test it out. The chicken was slightly plasticy but it could be downed if really hungry.

After 6 days of skiing, below freezing temperatures and the final day being completely in the clouds we were ready to come home to start work again. We had taken stock in the local farmacia's trusting the doctors to tells us what we had based on our self diagnoses. Allie was coughing up a lung and was permanently cold, Angie's fever broke because she was smart and stayed home one day, Deanna was coming down with something was absolutely miserable and I was still feeling healthy continually sucking on cough drops due to the dry throat and the feeling of emptiness in my chest. I dropped everyone off at their houses in Lugano. Went to the grocery story for a few necessities and a slice of pizza for dinner, unloaded my stuff and crawled onto my couch for my fever to set in. At least I didn't get sick until I got home but it was bad enough to take me out of work half way through the day and put me to sleep for over 14 hours. It was all worth it!!!