I will continuously update this collection of notes to self as I encounter new situations that I must remember so that I don't duff the same things over and over again Nate-Robinson-Slam-Dunk-Contest style.
Note to self
1. Never trust people who are nice to you in Arab countries, speak more languages than they should, claim to be professional rug buyers, and offer to take you to the best rug shop in town. Especially don't trust them with your huge limit credit card.
2. Don't rent a car in Europe by yourself and expect to save money over taking the train. Gas costs over $5 per gallon.
3. Don't rent a car in Europe and expect to get places stress-free and quicker. Even with four people and 5 maps, navigating foreign roads can be extremely difficult.
4. There's a reason everyone travels in the summer: it's warm. Almost all of Europe is the latitudinal equivalent of the US north of Tennessee. Biergartens, gondola rides, and casual strolls through royal Parisian gardens are best enjoyed when the temperature is not below 30°F.
5. Don't show up to cities at 11pm and hope to find cheap accommodations. They will either all be taken or be so difficult to get to that you will get frustrated and end up staying at the first available place, often at a premium price.
6. Don't carry suitcases. They are for overweight, uneducated Americans who don't know how to travel. Hip Euros carry backpacks, and if you want to fit it, you'd better get with it. Plus, many cities have cobblestone streets and tight alleys, making navigation with a large suitcase almost impossible.
23 February 2006
Houston: Loyalty vs. Objectivity
So my good buddy Jon Hampton sent me this link to Bill Simmons's post-NBA All-star game (which he deems the Black Super Bowl) article, which was actually quite good. Nice writing, great stories like watching MJ play cards and getting real worked up until his wife gets there and he "looks like somebody who took a no-hitter into the ninth, then gave up a triple off the left-field wall."
But Jon sent it to me because of how much it ripped on Houston:
"Maybe Houston doesn't suck any more or less than 20 other major cities, and maybe the people are friendly and likable, but the fact remains, you would never come here for any reason, other than these three:
(1) For work.
(2) To gain weight.
(3) To get shot."
This article has churned up the age-old debate I have with myself. I'm torn between two principles that are extremely important to me: loyalty, and objectivity. This is an impossibly easy choice for many people. Many red-staters lack objectivity - or don't seem concerned about it - and refuse to open their minds to look at the choices they make, their lifestyles, their political decisions, etc, and live in ignorance. Many yankees, on the other hand, seem insincere to us southerners b/c they're so damn objective, cold and calculating that they seem to lack heart. Which they often do.
But I've had the fortune/misfortune to grow up with an open mind but was raised to be faithful to what I know and believe. And this makes opinions about Houston difficult for me to make. It's my home, but I know it's not a beautiful city with a historic past and trendy future. It's a fat armchair quarterback sprawled over the sofa of Southeast Texas, spilling into the rest of the state. But I have roots there and I love it.
It will be hard for me not to want to raise children in Houston if I am blessed with that opportunity. But at the same time, would I rather they were raised in another city and call that home? Maybe yes. Thus the decision will have to be made: loyalty or objectivity. And I'm not sure I'll know which one to make. In the end, though, it's not my choice alone - Becka will have some say in it. And, after all, we probably won't even have any choice at all: we'll simply go where the jobs take us...
thoughts on loyalty vs. objectivity? send me a comment...
But Jon sent it to me because of how much it ripped on Houston:
"Maybe Houston doesn't suck any more or less than 20 other major cities, and maybe the people are friendly and likable, but the fact remains, you would never come here for any reason, other than these three:
(1) For work.
(2) To gain weight.
(3) To get shot."
This article has churned up the age-old debate I have with myself. I'm torn between two principles that are extremely important to me: loyalty, and objectivity. This is an impossibly easy choice for many people. Many red-staters lack objectivity - or don't seem concerned about it - and refuse to open their minds to look at the choices they make, their lifestyles, their political decisions, etc, and live in ignorance. Many yankees, on the other hand, seem insincere to us southerners b/c they're so damn objective, cold and calculating that they seem to lack heart. Which they often do.
But I've had the fortune/misfortune to grow up with an open mind but was raised to be faithful to what I know and believe. And this makes opinions about Houston difficult for me to make. It's my home, but I know it's not a beautiful city with a historic past and trendy future. It's a fat armchair quarterback sprawled over the sofa of Southeast Texas, spilling into the rest of the state. But I have roots there and I love it.It will be hard for me not to want to raise children in Houston if I am blessed with that opportunity. But at the same time, would I rather they were raised in another city and call that home? Maybe yes. Thus the decision will have to be made: loyalty or objectivity. And I'm not sure I'll know which one to make. In the end, though, it's not my choice alone - Becka will have some say in it. And, after all, we probably won't even have any choice at all: we'll simply go where the jobs take us...
thoughts on loyalty vs. objectivity? send me a comment...
22 February 2006
Moroccan Rugs and Con-men
Back in December, I went on a few vacations. Over the course of five weekends, I was in five different countries (Spain, Morocco, England, Texas, Yankeeland). This is the story of the second weekend: Morocco.
With a Thursday holiday and a Friday 'puente' (bridge) linking the X with the SS, I felt the obligation to make a trip somewhere. Somewhere turned out to be Morocco, which, only is a 35 minute (or 3 hour, depending on how busy the port of Tangier is, but 35 minutes is promised) ferry ride away. The original plan was to see Fez, the heavily recommended arts center of Morocco with its medieval labrythny Medina and Fez-donning locals. That changed, however.
We met these two interesting guys from Italy/Germany and Morocco/Barcelona who spoke, respectively 7 and 4 languages, and ended up taking a trip into the Sahara on camels, riding by light of the stars and staying in a Berber tent among the "tallest sand dunes in the world." This was great fun (once in a lifetime experience) and was accompanied by a 15 hour trip back that led us through dunes, arid desert, high steppes where shepherds lost in time herded their flocks of sheep through the treacherous tundra-covered passes, the Atlas mountains and a snowstorm that would close the roads to all traffic shortly after we passed, fields that harvested plastic bags, the chaotic Moroccan coast, the strait of Gibraltar, Jaco-like (Spring Break '05 what?!) Tarifa and back to Cadiz.
Although the geography class went as smooth as butter and the Arabian night in the Sahara was unquestionably cool, the damage was done beforehand. Apparently our two eclectic friends were some sort of con men/scam artists/ crooks/ evil sneaky Africans, whatever you want to call them. I went with English Alex and Tammy, a friend from high school. She and I left Morocco with 7 rugs and about $8000 in debt. $6700 of that was mine.
Now, this wasn't just some splurge purchase (I don't have that kind of money to spend) but a "sure thing" investment gone horribly awry. Even Alex thought it a good idea but hesitated to pull the trigger. Tammy settled at 2 rugs and kept them both as expensive gifts for herself that she hoped would value greatly one day. Mine were straight up money-making schemes. If you knew me in college I'm sure this is somewhat predictable. But c'mon - even I've never done anything on this scale before...
When the rugs got back to the states, my brother took them to some rug dealers who surmised that $1000 for all 5 rugs would be a "good price." At that point, I Sherlock-Holmesed that somewhere in their story, these guys must have been lying.
Not sure if it was that they said they bought rugs themselves and sold them in a shop in Barcelona where people pay "4-5 times the prices we pay here in Morocco" or when they told us that "you can only buy 6 legally, but Rassack (the septalinguist) orders them to all his family and friends and basically circumvents the system" or when they asked "do you have a student card? You can get a big discount on the student card at the rugs stores" (not true), but they got us. I assume that despite all appearances, these guys were neither buying rugs to sell in Europe nor were they even going back to Europe at all. My guess is these guys basically hunted down tourists and brought them to the rug store, where they received a commission for the overpriced sale.
The worst part is my instinct said no, but my desire to make money to pay for a car/apartment upon my return, a trip through Europe, or typical things for a career commencer to need, overwhelmed it. Instead of starting out with some bling in the bank, I'll start out my job next fall with good-ole' consumer debt (albeit on a 0% interest credit card until Jan 15), 5 rugs, a lesson learned, and a damn good story to tell my grandkids.
The most interesting thing about the whole trip is that we thought the two were long-conning us. We just didn't think it was the rugs. In fact, halfway through the trip, Alex and I decided to write a fictional story about three tourists that do the identical trip and in the end, decide the guides are conmen and turn them over to the Algerian police. Who turn out not to be police but the "real bad guys." Realizing their error too late to save them, the tourists are forced to get over their guilt quickly to save themselves. Think of it as a slightly more boring Michael Chrichton thriller, with likely underdeveloped relationships and a lack of drive amongst the characters, whose sole desire in the story is to find out if it's a con or not.
Until quatralinguist Tony pulled a fast one on Tammy and stole a kiss through a dirty trick, however, the story coincided with reality - we weren't sure if we were being conned or not. In the end, I guess we were - but it wasn't really a long con. We had been conned at the rug store, and they went through the motions afterwards to thank us for our business...
With a Thursday holiday and a Friday 'puente' (bridge) linking the X with the SS, I felt the obligation to make a trip somewhere. Somewhere turned out to be Morocco, which, only is a 35 minute (or 3 hour, depending on how busy the port of Tangier is, but 35 minutes is promised) ferry ride away. The original plan was to see Fez, the heavily recommended arts center of Morocco with its medieval labrythny Medina and Fez-donning locals. That changed, however.
We met these two interesting guys from Italy/Germany and Morocco/Barcelona who spoke, respectively 7 and 4 languages, and ended up taking a trip into the Sahara on camels, riding by light of the stars and staying in a Berber tent among the "tallest sand dunes in the world." This was great fun (once in a lifetime experience) and was accompanied by a 15 hour trip back that led us through dunes, arid desert, high steppes where shepherds lost in time herded their flocks of sheep through the treacherous tundra-covered passes, the Atlas mountains and a snowstorm that would close the roads to all traffic shortly after we passed, fields that harvested plastic bags, the chaotic Moroccan coast, the strait of Gibraltar, Jaco-like (Spring Break '05 what?!) Tarifa and back to Cadiz.
Although the geography class went as smooth as butter and the Arabian night in the Sahara was unquestionably cool, the damage was done beforehand. Apparently our two eclectic friends were some sort of con men/scam artists/ crooks/ evil sneaky Africans, whatever you want to call them. I went with English Alex and Tammy, a friend from high school. She and I left Morocco with 7 rugs and about $8000 in debt. $6700 of that was mine.
Now, this wasn't just some splurge purchase (I don't have that kind of money to spend) but a "sure thing" investment gone horribly awry. Even Alex thought it a good idea but hesitated to pull the trigger. Tammy settled at 2 rugs and kept them both as expensive gifts for herself that she hoped would value greatly one day. Mine were straight up money-making schemes. If you knew me in college I'm sure this is somewhat predictable. But c'mon - even I've never done anything on this scale before...
When the rugs got back to the states, my brother took them to some rug dealers who surmised that $1000 for all 5 rugs would be a "good price." At that point, I Sherlock-Holmesed that somewhere in their story, these guys must have been lying.
Not sure if it was that they said they bought rugs themselves and sold them in a shop in Barcelona where people pay "4-5 times the prices we pay here in Morocco" or when they told us that "you can only buy 6 legally, but Rassack (the septalinguist) orders them to all his family and friends and basically circumvents the system" or when they asked "do you have a student card? You can get a big discount on the student card at the rugs stores" (not true), but they got us. I assume that despite all appearances, these guys were neither buying rugs to sell in Europe nor were they even going back to Europe at all. My guess is these guys basically hunted down tourists and brought them to the rug store, where they received a commission for the overpriced sale.
The worst part is my instinct said no, but my desire to make money to pay for a car/apartment upon my return, a trip through Europe, or typical things for a career commencer to need, overwhelmed it. Instead of starting out with some bling in the bank, I'll start out my job next fall with good-ole' consumer debt (albeit on a 0% interest credit card until Jan 15), 5 rugs, a lesson learned, and a damn good story to tell my grandkids.
The most interesting thing about the whole trip is that we thought the two were long-conning us. We just didn't think it was the rugs. In fact, halfway through the trip, Alex and I decided to write a fictional story about three tourists that do the identical trip and in the end, decide the guides are conmen and turn them over to the Algerian police. Who turn out not to be police but the "real bad guys." Realizing their error too late to save them, the tourists are forced to get over their guilt quickly to save themselves. Think of it as a slightly more boring Michael Chrichton thriller, with likely underdeveloped relationships and a lack of drive amongst the characters, whose sole desire in the story is to find out if it's a con or not.
Until quatralinguist Tony pulled a fast one on Tammy and stole a kiss through a dirty trick, however, the story coincided with reality - we weren't sure if we were being conned or not. In the end, I guess we were - but it wasn't really a long con. We had been conned at the rug store, and they went through the motions afterwards to thank us for our business...
19 February 2006
Map of Where I've been
I'm posting a map in the links section with the map of europe colored in to illustrate the countries I've been. It will be updated as I visit new places
Stereotypically Colored = Visited
Gray = have definitive plans to visit
White = unvisited and currently unplanned
Pull that jersey off the rafters: I'm back
After a lengthy retirement, I've decided to return to the blog in typical OCD force, with a flurry of enthusiasm and stories, only to increase the likelihood that I wind up overwhelmed when I realize I can't devote three hours a night to telling my stories like I will do tonight...
In any case, I'm going to backdate my posts covering a slew of topics and a few vacations, including trips to London, The Sahara Desert and Morocco, Germany, and various places in between.
Personally, I'm in a good place right now, and no longer grind my teeth at night in agony over my purgatorian status as far as having a job for next year is concerned, and recently (as in Today) I have decided I have achieved a level of Spanish high enough that I will be comfortable speaking to my children completely in Spanish, one of my main personal goals for this year. This is no small accomplishment, but I also realize I have a long way to go before I can even consider myself proficient in the world's #3 and the USA's #2 language. But we're taking positive steps...
In any case, I'm going to backdate my posts covering a slew of topics and a few vacations, including trips to London, The Sahara Desert and Morocco, Germany, and various places in between.
Personally, I'm in a good place right now, and no longer grind my teeth at night in agony over my purgatorian status as far as having a job for next year is concerned, and recently (as in Today) I have decided I have achieved a level of Spanish high enough that I will be comfortable speaking to my children completely in Spanish, one of my main personal goals for this year. This is no small accomplishment, but I also realize I have a long way to go before I can even consider myself proficient in the world's #3 and the USA's #2 language. But we're taking positive steps...
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