America? Obama!

As the title suggests, many people from Ghana are very excited about President Obama.  They don’t seem to know exactly what his policies are, but they’re pretty happy that he’s president.  Anyway, as my time in Ghana draws to a close, I’ll reflect on a couple of interesting tidbits of my visit.

On the first day, I went to Cape Coast with a couple of friends.  We took a tro-tro, which is a 12-person van that doesn’t leave until it’s full.  When it finally took off, the ride was kind of like a rollercoaster.  A three-hour rollercoaster.  A three-hour rollercoaster that has no airflow at all.  But the experience was overall good because it was 6.5 cedi, which is like $4.  We found a hostel to stay at in Cape Coast that was also inexpensive and we toured the area a little bit.

One of the famous slave castles is in Cape Coast and it was in walking distance from the hotel.  The experience of going to a slave castle is sobering, to say the least.  I’ve been to two now—I went to Elmina today—and the feeling is strange.  Both castles have “condemned rooms,” where they just let people who were “unfit” for slavery die.  I really don’t know how to explain the whole thing. 

Also weird is the fact that there’s a market in and around the dungeons.  It’s a strange atmosphere.  And it’s a little disconcerting when you walk out of a serious environment and people start surrounding you and telling you to buy their things.  “Friend, I have a gift for you!”  No, sir, you don’t.  You have a business proposal for me and I won’t fall for it a second time!  We did spend a little bit of time in the market and talked to some people.  One person knew where Columbus was and he apparently knows people in Cleveland, so I bought a painting from him. 

The next day, we went to Kakum National Park and did a canopy walk.  IT WAS SO COOL.  I don’t know how high up we were, but it felt pretty high.  Then we had a long tro-tro ride back to Tema, where our ship is docked.

Yesterday I participated in Habitat for Humanity, where I learned that I am unable to plaster walls.  Also, a small child almost stole my watch; I had to barter with silly bands in order to get it back.  But I was successful. 

Today I had a trip with Semester at Sea (because FDPs are the worst) and it focused on slave dungeons.  We went to Elmina, another big castle, and then back again to Cape Coast (but this time on an air-conditioned bus).  Guess what?  The vendors remembered me and didn’t bother me.  Instead they asked how my trip was and where my other friends were.  Yay Ghanaian friends!

I want to take a moment to acknowledge my newfound love of goats.  There are a lot of them here, and they are hilarious.

Sorry there are no pictures.

Neptune Day!

February 8^th marked the day that the MV Explorer crossed the equator in open waters.  We didn’t have class (because apparently we can’t have more than 4 consecutive days of class), and we celebrated an old maritime tradition, formerly associated with hazing marines or something.  I feel like we shouldn’t celebrate these things, but I also don’t want to go to class, so it’s the lesser of two evils? 

In order to become “shellbacks,” we had to be drenched in fish guts (that looked suspiciously like Nickelodeon slime), jump in the pool, and kiss both a fish and King Neptune’s ring.  Basically, they want us all to come down with the same illnesses.  Some people shaved their heads and I’m far too vain for that.  I don’t want a bunch of bald pictures of me to exist. 

The festivities took place from 7-12, and after they were over, we had TACO DAY.  That’s right, taco day.  After weeks of relentless pasta and potatoes, the kitchen came through and we had a fantastic lunch.  It was probably the same quality of Taco Bell, but it just felt so right. 

This one time I went to Brazil

Yeah, this is really late.  It’s okay because I’m sailing around the world.

Advice: While wandering around a foreign country, avoid taking the wrong bus, even if it appears to be traveling in the right direction.  Furthermore, do not exit the wrong bus when it is clear that you still have about 10km until you reach your destination.  But if you cannot adhere to these guidelines, be sure to avoid looking like a tourist by not stopping to check your map every other block.  Also, don’t accept a ride offered by somebody who claims to be a cop (at least we didn’t do that part).  Last, but not least, check online to make sure that your destination will be open by the time you arrive. 

We really wanted to go to IMPA, a science grove in Manaus, Brazil, but unfortunately, a series of unfortunate events prevented us from doing so.  We learned the next day that it wasn’t that good anyway. 

While that part of my trip went less well than I had hoped, Manaus still had a lot to offer.  The city, which is pretty far down the Amazon River, is much more modern than I had anticipated. It’s a city of 2 million and the streets are crowded with over 10,000 street vendors selling everything from underwear to electronics to tourist trinkets that seem appropriate to the Amazon.

One of the best parts of the trip was my nighttime jungle exploration.  Yeah, I held a tiny alligator, no big deal.  Except it was a very big deal and I was extremely excited. 

Swedener in my coffee. Dad Puns. Mocking Colin should be my pastime.

My past three days (Feb. 9-11) were spent roaming the southernmost regions of Sweden with my Sustainable Development class of 21 students. I'll keep this short. Here's a breakdown:


Thursday, February 9, 2012:

Thursday we went to Malmö, oft considered Copenhagen's sister city. They're connected by a giant bridge. It wasn't a very picturesque city like I've come to expect from pretty much every single place on this continent; it more reminded me of Cleveland. Did you know I love Cleveland? Yeah, I'm pretty sure my whole first post was on that.

In Malmö we saw the Scandinavian Green Roof Institute, which was actually a white roof institute because we decided to go in February when it was -8ºC and snowy. I'd post pictures, but you'd actually just be looking at a photo of a roof with snow on it, so I won't.

Next we ate lunch at a restaurant called Salt & Brygga. It was voted the most organic dining location in the world. Don't ask me by who, I'm just really trusting that the owner was not lying to us.

Later in the day we toured the region on our bus and observed the 2nd largest photovoltaic cell in the country, located on top of a maternity hospital. I will show you a picture of that. Here is a picture of that:

It's kind of like a visor for the building. Like what your Dad would wear when you visited Disney Land in 1997. Visors are in this season.

Friday, February 10, 2012:

Friday we visited an after school center for preschool kids that was focused on perma-culture, sustainable farming, and pretty much everything else that I'd want in a place that I'd want to send my children to. They recently installed a station to practice blacksmithery. That's a word, don't look it up.


They had lots of cats. This is a picture of me petting two cats:

So far my favorite European cats. I tried to implore to them what a distinct honor this title was. They seemed to get it.

Later we visited a biogas plant where we learned the town of Kristianstad only puts 1.5% of their waste into landfill, the rest going to biofertilizer and biofuel for cars and heating. The guy was super biased since he worked there, and more than anything he left me curious as to the negatives of the practice. There's gotta be some, I'm just sayin'. I won't bother with a picture of that. If you want illustrations then go read a Maurice Sendak story. Christ. (I recommend Where the Wild Things Are).


That night we visited Bäckaskog Slott, a castle, where we went on a ghost tour and had dinner. Here is a picture of my dessert. Yeah, I know, the Maurice Sendak thing from literally three lines up, but it was really delicious, okay?:

But seriously, Maurice Sendak is great.

Saturday, February 11, 2012:

Today we stood out in the -10ºC cold for a while and learned about how the city of Kristianstad was at the bottom of a lake basin because humans decided they needed more agricultural land to make vodka.

Then we went curling. This is me curling:

THAT IS ALL.

Roman Around, or Mom Puns

Colin - Well look who thinks he's the only one to experience the kindness of strangers. Turns out I ALSO am borrowing a guitar for which I paid zero money. Thank you TA John for letting us use your baby, we'll take good care of it.

the model of contentment yes sir

I went to Rome this weekend. While you all are enjoying your abnormally warm February, I'm experiencing the coldest winter in decades. Actual decades. This cold streak goes hand in hand with the first snows Italy has seen in as long. While snowfall has mysteriously evaded Florence, it has visited every other city around us. So when we got off the train in Rome, we (my class and I) were greeted with a pleasant cold dampness under our feet. As the day went on we witnessed rain turned to sleet to snow at last. Big clumpy wet flakes of snow. The weekend was a weird mixture of always-discomfort and awe. But here, I'll show you some pictures:

 The first place we hit was the Pantheon, which feels twice as large on the inside. The floor plan inside is circular, and the from the ground to the top of the dome can be fitted a circle of the same diameter. This was the cold-and-wet phase of my weekend. My all-cotton clothes we're poorly equipped, so my shoes soaked immediately, and my coat was wet by the end of the night.

 I can't really remember everywhere we went, or what those places were called, like this cathedral for instance-->

But there were many, and all were beautiful. This trip was for the Women in the Arts in Italy class, so our focus brought us to a lot of religious art focusing on The Modonna, Mary Magdalene, and a lot of others I'm not familiar with.

<--Our last stop on Friday night was at chapel Santa Maria della Vittoria, where we saw The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. It really is incredible seeing this in person, as the marble seems to float impossibly against its weight. There was also an out of place (very un-Baroque), but really excellent battle scene painted on the apse of the dome.

Saturday morning, the locals were all out, taking more pictures than any tourist. I decided to document them. They were very excited with their possibly only snowfall ever. Oh Romans, you so silly.

We made our way to the Casa della Farnesina, which, being a city museum, was closed. Somehow our professor Helen got us in, and we had the place entirely to ourselves. There's me below, standing in what is normally a crowded room.

There wasn't that much snow, but for Rome it was like a beautiful end of days.

 I also decided to document the dogs.

<--the final day, our best stop was at San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. This amazing, strangely designed church was one of my favorites. Almost completely white, it is so great for its geometry and the way daylight from the highest tier illuminates the rest dome and the rest of the church.

our final stop, the Trevi Fountain.

This post doesn't touch all of the places I saw. I have a few hundred other photos on facebook, so find me there if you haven't already. Our days were insane. We left our hotel at 8 or 9 in the morning and finished around 6 in the evening. We visited at least a dozen sites each day. Helen is much older than all of us, but manages to walk faster, endure more cold, go to the bathroom less, all the while pouring out the encyclopedia on Renaissance and Baroque art history that is her brain. In our tiredness, we took each night off by hanging out at some good restaurants and dingy bars (I'll miss you Sloppy Sam's). I can't easily forget this trip, with all its cold, which both broke and made our weekend.

A Traveler's Guide to Copenhagen, As Interpreted By Someone Who'd Never Been Out of the U.S. till 13 Days Ago.

Alright. So, you're traveling to Denmark but you don't know a thing about the Danes. I'm here to help. Call me an expert, an authority, a specialist, whatever, but I know what I'm talking about. See: I've been not in the United States for nearly two weeks, so I'm pretty much what you'd regard as an aficionado on this kind of stuff. So, without further ado, I present to you:

The Danes

The Danes are kind people. They will give you one of their spare guitars if you engage them in conversation about being sad that you don't have a guitar for an entire semester abroad.

Danish people literally give you guitars.

Literally all of them smoke cigarettes. If you don't also, you're not going to fit in here. Note: I don't fit in here. Also, about 40% of them bike everyday. Like me at Miami. Like everyday. And everywhere. Everything is pretty much flatter than something really flat, making it easy to get around. They also smoke cigarettes while they bike.

This is typical on many streets, and it's also February.

Alcohol is pretty much part of every social function and/or meal after 4pm. Carlsberg Brewery, the 4th largest brewery in the world, is headquartered here. That's their joint.

So modest.

They are punctual people. Be on time or be scrutinized privately because they're too nice to scrutinize you publicly. One of the only rules I have with my host family (aside from water the plant in my room once a week and keep the window open five minutes a day) is "be home at 6pm for dinner, or tell us the day before if you won't be home for dinner the next day."

This is a picture of a clock symbolizing the importance of being on time.

Socially, the Danes don't interact. If someone is sitting you in on the bus, you don't say, "Pardon me, friend, but I need to get off here, would you excuse me." You instead rustle your bags as to passive-aggressively alert them that they need to vacate their seat so you can get up. My kind of people.

Also, you don't acknowledge strangers as you pass them on the sidewalks. Just keep looking forward.

Furthermore, there isn't a Danish word for please, and their word for "excuse me" is rarely used. I feel awkward when I accidentally let either phrase slip in English. Pretty much everyone speaks English, by the way. Except for bus drivers who usually just get angry if you approach them with questions regarding being lost/finding your way to anything familiar or recognizable.

Don't you dare say please to this man.

Well, there you have it. You're pretty much a Dane yourself now. Or at least you would be, like me, if you visited Denmark for almost a half of a month. Man, I'm so cultured. You're welcomed.

Till next time,

Tyler

Pretty much Danish

Copenhagen, Denmark Expert

Well It's Wednesday

Colin - I'm going to Rome this weekend, then Venice next weekend, then maybe Amsterdam sometime next month. So, I'll probably post again on Monday (well maybe). In the meanwhile, enjoy this art I made:

enjoy it. Not much interesting has happened since I last posted. I kind of got all the interesting out in that one. So I'll bring your attention to a couple things.

First, there are so many kebab joints here. They're awesome. They're just the saltiest, greasiest food you can find in Florence and it's great.

Second, the Orange Fanta here tastes so much better. It's got orange juice in it, so it tastes a bit closer to Orangina than a normal pop in the states. I'm going to be drinking lots of this.

Welp, that's all. See you later.