Final Post-On the way home

Right now I am in a Delta International Flight going over The UK or England, Ireland and Scotland. In the last few days we have been visiting friends in Ebeltoft, Denmark. You should look at where this is on Google Earth. It is WAY up north. The sun only sets for a few hours of darkness between 11pm and 4 am. During the winter it is dark most of the time and many people have light sources that they sit in front of in order to get enough vitamin D and to fight of depression.

I did not write much while there but I did take pictures that I think are really interesting, so I have several blog posts that I plan to write on this plane trip and then post when I get online at home.

This is my final reflection for this blog. I just have a few observations and the sunset in Ebeltoft for this one.

* TRAVELING WITH AN IPAD

I was amazed at how many people were traveling with iPads! I saw them all over. Both local people and tourists seemed to have them.

I could do almost anything I wanted to with it, except flash, which is used in lots of surprising ways.

It was impossible to do all of the work on my blog without flash and there are a few things I did not figure out. I needed to borrow the professor's laptop to get the embed code to post theYouTube videos to the blog. I never did figure out how to get a sound file into the blog from the iPad, even when I recorded the sound on the iPad.

Since I did not have my own computer along and did not want to sync with another computer and lose my stuff, I could not figure out a good way to download things from another computer to mine. Since there is no USB port the only way to get new content is to download it directly. (I only had problems with this when I wanted to get my Audio book files. They were too big to download directly, but there was no way to transfer them from the professor's computer to my iPad.

* WHAT I COULD DO ON THE IPAD

I downloaded and read several books.
I learned to save a picture from the web to my photos so that I could us it. (keep your finger on the picture until you see the choices.)
I downloaded and played AngryBirds.
I listened to things I had downloaded to my iPad.
I tweeted and read my twitter feed.
I did email.
I Skyped with my family.

*WHY I DO THIS

I am extremely lucky to get to travel this way. I can see how the world is getting smaller and how important it is for all of us to understand one another. I think that the more we learn to know about and respect others the better our world will be. I hope that especially students, but also everyone can share and learn from my experiences. Knowing that I am going to be blogging about what I see and do gives me different eyes and better questions for the people and places that I see.

And now the sunset...

ARoS Museum

Arhus is the big town near Ebeltoft. I think it took about a half hour to get there by car. We went there especially to see a terrific art museum. One exhibit is a HUGE sculpture of a boy that is extremely realistic.

Another exhibit is an experience in color. A circular walkway has been built along the whole top of the museum. The walls are colored glass. As you walk through it you can experience being inside a color. The city outside looks a different color depending on where you are, but the strangest thing is that when there is a break in the color and the light shines in you see it as the opposite color on the color wheel! It shows how your eyes always adjust to light and correct, but since you are already in one color it changes your perception of the light outside.

The same artist created another exhibit where you walk through a colored cloud. A whole room is full of mist that is colored with lights somehow. As you walk through it you cannot see anything except color and when someone gets within about a foot of you they appear. It is a little scary and weird, but also cool.

Grocery Shopping in Denmark

Since I have looked at grocery shopping in other places I thought I would check it out in Denmark too. You can see the grocery store in the video. I am showing the bakery because our friends served us lots of great bread and rolls. They also told us that Danish people eat different sorts of pickled fish and we tried some.

Ebeltoft Assorted

This is actually being written in the United States! I have several posts ready to put together, but I was not able to get online, so I have finished the videos offline and also written while on the flight home.

It is great to hear from my friends in Whitefish Bay. I would still like to get a picture of you to put up on the blog so that others who look at it can see who you are! Here is a link I found to your school: http://www.wfbschools.com/schools/richards/ Let me know if that is the right link.

I was glad that you knew I had posted a QR code! There is a message for you in it. Were you able to use a reader to find out what it says?

This video just shows a few things that we did with our friends in Ebeltoft, Denmark that I thought were interesting. We went to a wild animal park. They have lots of animals there that we do not find in our part of Texas! At the park we saw reindeer, arctic fox, polar bears, wild boar, and musk ox. You see me feeding the reindeer! It rains a lot in Denmark during the summer. The double rainbow is one of the benefits of the rain. One other thing that they have a lot of is wind. The video shows some of the huge windmills that capture wind energy. It would not do them a lot of good to depend on solar energy because it is often overcast and raining, but they have plenty of wind!

I wonder how their longitude and latitude compare to Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin and Austin, TX. It is fun to look at Google Earth and put on the Grid to compare. In Austin we are at around 30 degrees North, Whitefish Bay is 43 degrees North and Ebeltoft is 56 degrees North!

Visit to Ebeltoft, Denmark

I have been spending the last few days with some friends in Ebeltoft, Denmark. It has been a very enjoyable time, but too short. Tomorrow I will post a few pictures of beautiful things I have seen, but today I want to show you something really unique that I have learned about Denmark. The Danish people are very proud of their country and flag. On birthdays they put the flag on the table and also put a flag on their door and many flags lining the road up to their houses to celebrate. My friend, Andrea explains this in the video and shows you some of the flags!

Ending the London Visit

This morning at 4 am in London it was raining. I know that because took a Taxi to a bus and now I am on a flight heading to Denmark. This is one of the strangest flights I have had. We had to pay to get our boarding passes printed and it was really expensive! There is advertising everywhere. There are posters on the baggage compartments and there are recorded advertisements for things that you can buy on board: food, drinks, duty free stuff, gift items, special items for today's flight and even lottery cards. This picture of a courtesy phone illustrates the quality of my experience this morning.

My visit to London should not end with such a discouraging note, so I will end this post with a few pictures of things I saw:

First a few pictures of London bridge. I was thinking about the song "London Bridge is Falling Down" so I thought I would put up a picture of it. I had forgotten that it had been purchased several years ago and it is in Arizona now! Here s a link to an article about it in Wikipedia. This pictures are of the bridge in Arizona and some children playing the game and singing the song.

Then there are a few pictures of Oxford. It is a very famous University town. We went there for a one day visit. It is very cute and small.

Observations in London

I have been trying to figure out how to find out about everyday life here in England. It is not easy because I do not have a guide like I did in Greece and I am doing more tourist things and being where tourists are. You can go to plenty of other blogs if you want to see things I have seen as a tourist like the Tate Modern Art gallery, the Thames River or the church called St. Martin in the Fields where I made a bras rubbing of St. George and the Dragon. None of that is really everyday life.

So you will just have to make do with the few observations that I have so far and maybe I will find other things in the next few days before we leave here for Denmark.

Today I have a short video of things that I have seen. First I have noticed that even though this is a big city people have really nice flowers around their houses. Also, people drive on the wrong side of the street AND there are lots of double decker buses all over town. Today I also saw something that was new to me. There was an M and M store and I have never seen so many M and Ms!! I tried asking one of the girls working there if she could tell about everyday life on a short video, but she is not allowed to do that at work. Oh well... I hope you like the video.



I am thinking that maybe you are not taking me seriously when I ask you to send in videos or pictures of your everyday lives, buy I really do mean it. What did you do on the 4th of July? Did you see any parades? If you don't live in the USA what do you do in the summer time? Do you have playground? Do you take ballet lessons?

Happy Fourth of July

My last visit with my guide was this afternoon. I asked her about celebrating the Fourth of July. She is learning about United States history from her Dad and from many books. She wanted to show me her books, so that is what the video today is about. Did you know that yesterday (Friday) was Canada day?



What did you do on the Fourth of July? Can you have Fireworks in your town? In Austin, Texas we are not allowed to do fireworks this year because it is too dry.

My guide would like to see you. I am wondering if you can send me a picture that I can post in the blog or you could make a short YouTube video!

On Sunday, July 3 I am traveling to London by taxi, train and airplane.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Sunset in Corinth

We are about to leave Greece, so I thought it might be appropriate to show you a sunset I enjoyed here.

More Questions- Festivals

I am now back at Corinth for one day. Luckily for you (and me) I got back to Corinth in time for their annual festival called Panagiri. I asked someone at the hotel about holidays and festivals. She said that there are LOTS of holidays and festivals, but especially mentioned that each town has a special festival for a saint special to their village. For Olympia it is the saint's day for Mary and is in August. For Corinth it is the saints' days of Peter and Paul and it was yesterday! We just got back from Olympia in time for me to take a little video so you can see and hear a little of what it was like.



My guide answered your questions this morning and it is sad to say that I have to say good bye to her today. Tomorrow we head for another country. We leave Greece around noon to go to London, England.
What holidays do they celebrate?

My guide's favorite holiday is Christmas because she likes to decorate the tree. All Greek houses have Christmas trees.

We were also wondering about Greek children:
What are their schools like?
They have to find their own things to play at recess. There is no playground equipment.

What do they study in school?
In first grade they do math (even multiplication, but no memorizing. They learn how to read only in Greek and then in third grade they learn how to read in English.

What games and sports do they play?
Kids here like to play soccer and basketball.

I hope you have a great 4th of July! It will be interesting to be in England since that is who we gained independence from. I wonder what they think about it?

We are enjoying following you on your adventure in Greece. How long are you staying and where will you and the Professor go next?

The playground

Not far from where my guide lives is the playground for the village. People here do not have playground equipment in their own backyards like many people have in the US. If you have one I would love to see it! Send me a link to a YouTube video or a still digital picture and I will post it here!

In Ancient Corinth (if you just say Corinth it means New Corinth or the modern part of town.) there is a festival at this time every year. You will see my guide playing on some boats and pictures of bumper cars and maybe other rides. These are not here all year, but are special for the festival.



I asked my guide if she would show me the public library. She said that they do not have one. If you want books you have to buy them. I can't imagine not having a public library to borrow books from. Do you have one that you go to?

I am really glad for the questions from my friends in Wisconsin. I am going to take a video this Friday of the festival that they have every year in Corinth called Panagiri and tell you more about it.  Right now I am in Olympia where the Olympic games took place. I will be here for a few more days and then go back to Corinth.  On Sunday, July 3rd we are traveling on to London, England. that should be really different. How much longer are you in Summer School?

Dancing in Greece

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the ballet recital of my guide. You can see her in the video right dancing in the front and center. The show was not really all ballet. There were all different ages and types of dancing. I saw classical ballet, jazz, modern and traditional.

My guide takes three kinds of lessons after school. She does piano lessons, dancing lessons and swimming lessons. She is busy. I think that is pretty much like what I hear about American kids. I hope that I will be able to show you some of a swimming lesson later... But I may run out of time. On Wednesday I am going to Olympia where the Olympic games were held.




I am also posting a picture and video sent to me from my BFF! One of the things that she does almost every day is take pictures. The picture is of some food she really liked and the video is a parasailer landing nearLake Tahoe. I amlookingforward to posting pictures and embedding video of things you do or see every day. According to the ClusterMap there are people all over the world looking at this. It could be a really fun way to learn about each other.

Modern Greek Questions

I am sitting in the library at the Archaeological house called Hill House and listening to the Orthodox liturgy which is being chanted and broadcast by speakers over the village. I am also listening to the sound of the wind. It is windy and cooler today. I promised you that I would answer the questions about modern Greece next, so here are the answers:

What do people wear now?

I had a talk with my guide about the modern clothing. She said that they dress about the same as in the United States. Some kids wear skinny jeans and shirts with glittery things if their Mothers let them. They also wear new jeans with holes in the knee. The funniest thing is that they like to wear shirts with sayings on them in English even though they don't know what it means. Sometimes my guide will tell her friends what their shirts mean and they are surprised!

What do people eat now?

Kids like to eat many of the same things that ancient Greeks ate. They eat lots of olives and seafood (including octopus and squid). People also use lots of olive oil in cooking and on salads. At almost every meal they have salad made with big chunks of tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese. She said that kids really like hamburgers from McDonalds and another place called Goodys. This is sort of new food for Greeks so the kids especially like it. They also like "toast". After our guide described what she meant by toast I realized it is what we call a sandwich. So, don't order toast in Greece if you want a piece of bread!

I was also told that some of the Greek restaurants in the United States are really good and authentic.

Here are some foods I have eaten here and like!

 Tzatziki-you dip bread in it. It is yummy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dukejeffrie/






 Horiatiki-Greek Salad

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robwallace/

Ancient Greece Questions

The students at Whitefish Bay in Wisconsin sent me some good questions. Today I will answer the questions that the archaeologists helped me with and tomorrow I will write out the information from my guide.
Thanks for your questions!! I love how it helps me to talk to specialists here and they really liked the questions.

HOW OLD IS THE ACROPOLIS?
First-the age of the Acropolis. Acropolis actually means city on a hill. What you want to know about I think is the building on top called the Parthenon. They said that it is about 2458 years old. That means it is more than 2000 years older than the United States! Do you know the poem about Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492? Well that means that even when Columbus discovered America it was OLD already! Can you figure out how old?

HOW OLD IS ANCIENT?

The Archaeologists here thought your question about what ancient means was really good. They did not all agree on what it means and we all realized that it can mean different things in different situations. Like someone can say, "My couch is ancient" and mean 20 years old. And a paleontologist might find a bone and call it ancient and mean millions of years old.

The first thing that they said is that it was before the Middle Ages, so I asked them what that meant. They said you needed to figure that out! You can write me back and tell me what you think and I can find out what they say.


WHAT KIND OF CLOTHES DID PEOPLE WEAR IN ANCIENT GREECE?
I also asked about ancient clothes and they said that they wore tunics. A tunic is a big piece of cloth that they draped around themselves. They know this because of statues and painted pots that they have found. They did not sew, but sometimes used buttons and pins. I am putting in some pictures so that you can see what clues Archaeologists can get from pots and statues. They also said that they never wore pants and they were not sure about underwear or sox.

WHAT FOODS DID PEOPLE EAT IN ANCIENT GREECE?
Ancient Greeks ate a lot of the same foods that we do. They had LOTS of olives, olive oil and wine. They also ate bread, lentils, chickpeas, honey, fruit, cheese, and lots of seafood. They probably only ate meat (beef, pork, chicken, goat) on special occasions. They did NOT have tomatoes, squash, or coffee because those thing were brought from other countries later. The picture is a wine jug that was used to mix water with the wine so it was not too strong. It also has pictures of people and animals. The Archaeologists can learn a lot from this

In the next post I will answer the modern questions with the help of my guide.

Thanks to Eustaquio Santimago for the image of the Parthenon-from Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eustaquio

Foods Kids Like

Today I interviewed our guide and she told me all about foods in Greece. We picked out a few things that you might want to know about. I hope you find it interesting. Please ask questions and send me your videos and pictures of foods you like!

Shopping for groceries

You have already seen what shopping for groceries is like in Austin, Texas. Now you can see what shopping is like in Corinth, Greece. People here really like fresh food, so instead of going to the grocery store for meat, they go to the butcher who cuts the meat fresh every day. They also eat a lot of bread and want it fresh, so they go to the small grocery stores nearby to get fresh bread delivered from a bakery. Most people buy their eggs from neighbors who have chickens.

There are larger stores that they can drive to also.

There are no parking lots because people can walk to the stores. The video shows two small stores and the butcher. Everything looks empty because it is the middle of the afternoon. Many shops close and people go home for a nap.

At the end of the video you see my helper and our guide when she was little. She is older now. She just finished first grade and I think you will enjoy learning about everyday life here from her.



Hi to my friends in Wisconsin!! I hope you will send me some videos or pictures of what everyday life is like for you. What is different in Wisconsin? I have all of your questions and I will try to answer them tomorrow or the next day.

Train Travel

Today I traveled from Athens to Old Corinth. It was an ordeal, but I learned several things about everyday life in Greece. I do not have a video for you because the taxi driver I talked to was too shy and felt like her English wasn't good enough and the video that I tried to take in the train was terrible. What I have in this post soon is the sound file. You will like it.

I started out with a taxi drive in Athens to the train station. The taxi driver was a woman. She has two children, ages 4 and 2. She drives taxi every day from 6 am to 5 pm. She said that in Athens there are are lots of taxis because most plaeople do not want to drive a car in the city. Gas is expensive and so is parking. It costs less and is easier to take a taxi. Most people who have cars use them for out of town travel. She also said that life is hard in Greece. She has to work really hard just to keep her kids fed, but she tries not to let them know there are problems. Instead she plays and laughs with them after work.

Then I was at the train station and I could not read the signs. I got into the line that I thought I was supposed to be in and waited only to find out that I needed to go to a different window to purchase my ticket. Did I tell you that I was pulling my suitcase with me? After I got the ticket I had to roll my suitcase down and up stairs that took me from one train line to another. About half way through the train ride, we met up with another train that
was broken down and so even though we were FULL we took on A whole new trainload of people and their baggage. That is what the recording is of. I hope you like it!

It is harder than I thought to put audio on here! This link will take you to Google Docs where you can download and listen. In order to put the sound right on here I have to upload it to my webspace and I do not know the password.... It is at home and I am in Greece.
Sounds from the train.

Is Athens Safe?

We have been here for two days now. What amazes me is that it all seems so quiet and normal. The day we left there was a violent looking picture on the front page of the newspaper. The evening we arrived we went out to eat at an amazing spot next to the Acropolis. The next day we went on one of those two story tours around the city. We ran into a protest and a little later we went to Syntagma Square where there was a tent city of people protesting about the economic situation here. Look at the video to see the contrast!

Travel Day

I made a short video on the plane last night... At least I think it was night. There is an 8 hour time difference between Athens and Austin, so I am a litle confused about time now. I thought that most people that airports are experiencing travel, not everyday life. I did find a few people at the airport that go there everyday. Let me know what you think.




I will post the actual video later.

Leaving for Athens today

We are just finishing the last bits of packing and then heading to the airport. We should be in Athens at about 10:30 AM Athens on Friday, Athens time. Here is a place to check the time zone you are in to see what time it is for you then.


http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

It may not be the best time to travel to Athens. Here is today's news:

http://www.vietsky.net/world-news/massive-anti-austerity-protest-ends-up-in-violence-in-athens/

We will be staying away from Syntagma Square. It should be interesting.

Leaving tomorrow!!!

Today is packing day. Our plane takes off around 11 tomorrow morning.

Yesterday I was riding in a car in a neighborhood near mine and saw these deer. There were two fawns that had no sense and would run right out in a front of a car! They were so cute. I am sorry the video was shot at a far distance. You can see them better close up. Maybe you can find them anyway.

I am hoping my friends in Palestine from last summer will bse able to make a short. Video for me to share. Greece is not near Bethlehem and I am sorry I will not be seeing them.

Life in Alaska

This short video shows pictures of life in Igiugig, Alaska:
The graduating class of one student.
What kids wear in May.
Ice melting in May. Chunks of ice going down river Kvichak.
The river after the natural ice dam gives way.

First Video Share!!!-What Seals (oops I mean Sea Lions) do!

Four Days

Today I go to church. Send me a video about what you do.



I also went to the park!

Five Days

When it is time for the Republic of Texas Motorcycle Rally I know that the trip is coming close. The video shows you only a little snippet of the thousands of bikes in the parade. My favorite was a guy who had an inflatable doll as a riding partner!

Six Days

Thanks to Students and Parents from Barton Creek Elementary School I just got back from a nice massage. School is really done and now is time to concentrate on the trip. This morning I downloaded Angry Birds to my iPad so that I will have something to do.

Today's video is of a school. Students in Texas are required to attend 180 days of school. This school is out for summer, so it is really quiet!



In practicing making the videos for the trip I have learned something. Using only my iPad I can create a blog post, take a video and upload the video to YouTube. The one step that I cannot do is to post the video to the blog using an embed code. In order to get an embed code I need to use a computer. I think this has something to do with iPad's and Flash. Getting the embed code must involve some flash and so the ipad cannot do that. Too bad.

7 Days before take off

Today's video shows my public library. I went there today to look at books and also to vote. Public Libraries ARE amazing! It is really wonderful to be able to go and borrow books and videos for FREE!!



My voting station is at the Public Library that is walking distance from my house. Do you have a voting station nearby? We have a run off election because there was not a majority in our last city council election. In Texas there is early voting a week or so before the election. Our run off election falls right when I will be traveling, so I am glad that I can go and vote early.

The Countdown begins

This year the countdown really snuck up on me. It is ONLY 10 days until we leave the USA! In fact, I should have started the countdown YESTERDAY.

Here is a video showing the farm where I get vegetables. I am a member of a CSA. That stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We pay an annual amount for the chance to have fresh vegetables every week! We can also just visit the farm and volunteer there. It is a great place.



I think it is also interesting to see a farm in Texas. Notice the Cactus! If you have any farm pictures or video to show you can upload them to YouTube and send me the link OR send me a picture file and I will post it. Be sure to tell me where the farm is and how you are involved with it.

Hey Shrey!! It is so cool to have a follower!

Getting Food in Austin, Texas

This is a short video of the grocery store where I live in Austin, TX. I usually go there once a week to buy groceries. I can get everything I need in this one store. I usually get apples, lunch meat, bread, vegetables for salad, and other things that we need to eat.