Geeky Yet Waterproof

A few weeks ago I got to see some of my high school friends again, because Sarah was having a party at the neighborhood pool. Morning practice that day had cured me almost completely of the urge to swim, but the heat of the day and the blue water prevailed over my will.
After a while we were all starting to freeze, so we got out and sat around a fire eating hamburgers and roasting s’mores. I tried to break my previous record of two hamburgers and seven s’mores in a row, but I only made it to six s’mores this time, because — thank goodness — after some time they took away the s’more materials.

When it was dark, we were all sitting around trying to think of scary stories to tell each other, but didn’t progress much farther than, “Somebody should say something scary!” — that is, until Troyce suddenly exclaimed, “Did Eamon bring the Mercedes?!” And before I knew it, Troyce, Joe, and somebody I didn’t know were marching out to go “sit” in my car.

As we were all sitting in the dark car blasting Franz Ferdinand through the speakers, somebody had the idea that “we should go to 7-Eleven and get a slurpy to pour on Sarah!” So we drove half a mile to the 7-Eleven to complete this mission. When we got back, we responded to Sarah’s “can I have a sip?” with, “of course!” *pssssshshhhhhh*.
It was a great success.

But soon afterwards, I discovered my cell phone had gone missing from my pocket. We looked for it all over the car, but unfortunately it was on vibrate mode, so calling it didn’t do any good. I figured it would turn up eventually, so I borrowed someone’s phone to let my parents and Iza know I didn’t have my own with me.
Later, some of my friends started calling (on the other phone) to say they’d been getting constant foul messages from my phone. At first I thought someone from the party must have taken it as a joke, but after further investigation nobody seemed to have it. It then dawned on me that it might have fallen out of my pocket at the 7-Eleven and somebody took it.

I won’t take the time to explain the steps we took in trying to figure out if somebody at the 7-Eleven did indeed take it, but unfortunately that was the case and I’m currently (partially) phoneless. So until an iPhone finds its way magically into my hands, should you need to contact me, call my old number but with a 6 instead of a 3 at the end. (The number of my sister’s phone, which I stole BORROWED for an extended period of time).

Although it was at the time still Winter here in Oregon, I spent the last weekend at the beach in Waldport with Iza, her family, and Mark’s cop friend with his two (younger) boys.
The ocean water being about -200°, we didn’t go wading past about two inches, but we roasted marshmallows on a camp fire and made (many) s’mores.

On the way back, I got a few rather frightening photos when we stopped at a friend’s house for a barbecue…

The one in the orange is yours truly.

Last Friday, my dad and I made our triumphant return to the Alpenrose Velodrome, which I hadn’t seen since track season last summer. Alpenrose is one of the steepest velodromes in the country, with banks sloped at 43°. It was scary going around the track for the first time in so long, but I quickly got used to it.
This was also the first time I was able to try out my new track bike, which I got last December for Christmas, but hadn’t been able to ride until now! Track season lasts only in the summer, so I’ve been eagerly waiting to try it for five months.
The bike is amazingly light, and I can accelerate really fast. Part of the reason for this is the pedals we put on: your shoes lock in like with any normal clip pedals, but to release your foot, you have to pull a little lever on the back of the pedal. Now, remember that this is a fixed-gear bike — so you can’t stop pedaling to pull said lever! It takes some getting used to, but after a while I could do it without any trouble.

I had three races: a ten lap scratch race (which is just a regular race), a 15 lap point-a-lap race (where the winner of each lap gets one point, but nobody else does), and a 15 lap points race (every fifth lap, the top four people get points).
Having been away from the track since last year, the best way to describe my first two races is with the word “pwned”. The last one went a little better though… I didn’t get any points, but then again most of the racers didn’t, and I finished in the middle of the pack, even though most of them were fast 30 year-olds. I probably would have come in a few places farther ahead, but somewhere in the middle of the race a guy wiped out directly in front of me — all I saw was him cartwheeling in the air and his bike flying, but he miraculously landed on his feet, and the race continued. He was surrounded by other riders when it happened, but somehow nobody hit him, although I had to swerve up-track to avoid the crash, which cost me some speed.

It was fun racing at Alpenrose again and getting back into the track culture. And I didn’t even have to face my worst fear: not being able to clip out, and tipping over in the grass!

Although I neither go to school, nor would I be a Junior if I did, last Saturday was Prom. Because Iza, being an exchange student, has certain superpowers here, we went as sophomores.

I met up with Iza and Allison at Iza’s house for Photos Round I. After that we drove over to Trevor’s house (Allison’s date) for italian sodas and then Photos Round II.

After this, we rode in a Cadillac to Corvallis where we had dinner at The Gables, then we went back to Salem where the dance was.
The McNary school regulations were comical. There were teachers wearing identical blue shirts stationed every 10ft on the wall, with the principle standing on a chair (of authority?). There was a rule that the lights had to stay on, but that rule was broken after about 45 minutes. At one point the principal actually went up to the microphone and demanded that everyone “spread out”!
Despite these factors, it was still a lot of fun. At about 10:30 we went back to Trevor’s house to watch a movie before splitting up, and then we all desperately avoided the Keizer cops until safely home (well past curfew).

The next morning we had to get up early for a swim meet in Corvallis, but the last night was worth the 15 second add in my race…

Last week I did my first triathlon since last year: The Gator Grinder. It was a 500y swim, 12mi bike, and 5k run. Unfortunately I don’t have time to post a full race report, but for the record I won my age group and the next two up (up to 35), with 1:08:27.

If you’ve been reading my blog regularly for the past two weeks or so, I’m sure you’ve noticed there has been nothing to read (for two weeks or so). After my vacation, it was quite necessary that I take a vacation from writing: on each of the 21 days of our cruise, I spent hours recording what we had spent hours doing, and while sore feet were one small side-effect of the endless fun we had, sore fingers were one big side-effect of the endless blogging I performed. (Not really, but I know you know what I mean.)

Enough of this folly. You see what happens when I don’t write for a while? “Creative” things. To write is to vent one’s thoughts, which is to expel one’s madness. I just expelled two weeks’ worth.

Life after the cruise took some getting used to. Not only is the ground violently still, but we have to do everything for ourselves: cooking (well, I guess I don’t have to do that), laundry (OK, so I don’t have to do that either), room cleaning (hey, just because I don’t - ! )… But besides all this, The Homework is back. Fortunately I still remembered how to speak Latin, but as for the other subjects… well, I couldn’t even remember how Zygotes are produced differently from members of Basidiomycota and other fungi!
But besides all that, it was tough getting back to swim practice. My first day back was an OhNoDoubleTroubleTwoPracticesInOneDay day (ONDTTPIODD for short), and I found it challenging just to swim a 300 straight.

However, after two weeks of fighting to survive each practice (which builds character!), I’m almost back to normal now. From this we can deduce the most probable result of my recent productivity throughput which predicts that you will soon be reading more of my Wonderful blog posts — if this one hasn’t driven you away completely.

DISCLAIMER: DUE TO A SUDDEN LACK OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS IN ROME, THE CAUSE OF WHICH BEING MY UNWILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR ANOTHER NIGHT OF INTERNET, THIS ENTRY HAS BEEN POSTED ONE (1) DAY LATE. SHOULD YOU SEE ME AT SWIM PRACTICE BEFORE YOU READ THIS, DON’T SUE ME.

Today, which marks three weeks of this trip, was our last day in Rome. We didn’t have time to see the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Forum Romanum like I said we would, but we saw a lot of other things. To be able to see all of Rome, I think the ideal amount of time to spend there would be, maybe… 78 years.

We walked to the Vatican (where the nearest bus stop is) and then rode one of those good ol’ Hop-On buses to the Piazza del Populo. The Piazza del Populo is a big plaza surrounded by buildings (including two churches), with an 80-foot obelisk in the middle.
Here we witnessed a situation that can only be unique to Europe: a man selling roasted chestnuts on the corner, with two people playing an accordion duet on the other side of the street, while a horse and carriage passed through the middle. If you ever catch a scene like this in Oregon, call me and I just might award you a sock monkey.

From the Piazzo, we walked a few blocks to the Spanish Steps, which is, in actuality, just a big set of stairs lined by flowers with a sign that says “Do Not Defecate”. But apparently it’s famous for the fact that it has been featured many times in movies as a meeting place in Rome.

A short walk from this was the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is also a famous monument — it’s even been copied by Las Vegas. It is a huge stone fountain adorned by sculptures of deities, and legend has it that if you throw a coin in, you’ll return to Rome someday. (We threw in a coin.)

Our next stop was another well-known ancient landmark: the Pantheon. You probably know what the Pantheon is, but let me refresh your memory just in case:
Pantheon is Greek for “many gods”. As the name suggests, it was a temple for the worship of many gods. It is a large, round, stone building, with well-recognizable stone pillars outside the front supporting the entrance. The ceiling is dome-shaped, but there’s a big round hole right in the middle! When it rains, you don’t want to stand under the hole, but water will drain through smaller holes in the floor.
Although the Pantheon used to be a place to worship many gods, it has now been converted into a church. It’s strange seeing statues of saints and Roman gods in the same room…

After poking around the Pantheon for a while, we headed over to the Vatican to look through the Musei Vaticani — a huge museum containing ancient artifacts spanning thousands of years.
The first few rooms were full of ancient Roman statues. It was fun looking through these, because some of them we had seen before in pictures and textbooks — and these were the originals. There was one sculpture of Laocoon and his sons being dragged down by serpents, which Isa and I recognized immediately because there’s a picture of it in our Latin books!
It was also fun looking at all the busts of Roman noblemen, because you could tell whether or not the sculptor liked his model… Some looked like Greek gods, whereas others resembled primates.
Another cool thing we saw here was a very large, intricately carved sarcophagus, which turned out to be the tomb of St. Helena — Emperor Constantine’s mother.

After looking at these we went through the Etruscan-Italic room, which contained pre-Roman artifacts from the Etruscans — most of which were from around 700 BC. There was a lot of weaponry and armor, and even some ancient action-figures. One thing we noticed was that many of the helmets had some form of gruesome sword-shaped dent or terrible puncture hole on the back!

One of the most amazing things we saw at the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was built in the 15th century, and is famous because the whole ceiling is intricately painted by Michelangelo, and one wall contains his fresco The Last Judgement.
Because flashes of light can eventually destroy frescos, no photography at all is allowed in the Sistine Chapel. But every two minutes or so, some tourist who couldn’t follow rules would take an illegal photo, and all the guards would shout, “NO PHOTO!”. I was one of these tourists. Come on, if something says not to take photos, it must be really good, right? Well it was, and I wasn’t about to sacrifice a photo like this. At least I didn’t use flash, and I didn’t get caught!

We were at the Vatican for hours and hours trying to see everything there was to see, and by the end my legs were cramping up just from walking. When we came out, we trekked through the rain to a gelateria and then a buffet restaurant, to have our last supper in Rome.

Thus concluded our last day of this Mediterranean voyage. Rome was definitely my favorite place in the whole trip, with Casablanca second. I hope to come back here sometime (sooner, rather than later), and see the other 95% of Rome we didn’t even get to yet.
Since we’ve reached the end of this trip, I’m ready to disclose how many photos I took in the last three weeks: 1001. No, wait, that was the last three days!
OK, how many total? 4,230 photos and videos. I’m not kidding — that’s how much we saw in three weeks.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this travelogue series, because I sure had fun writing it. It’s going to be hard to get used to The Real World now… sort of like trying to get used to solid ground after being at sea for five days (I almost fell over several times, thinking the ground was still moving). But I suppose a few 5am swim practices will pound it back into me (should I walk out alive).
So, thank you for putting up with this ridiculously long posting, and I hope you’ll excuse me to go play Caesar III finish my Latin homework…

I can’t believe we’re actually in Rome. The civilization we’ve been studying for the past seven years, and now we’re at the center of it.

We went out to explore Rome early in the morning, and came back at about 8pm. We took the Hop-On busses intermittently with walking, and we saw a lot of amazing things today. We passed by the Castel Sant’Angelo at least three times, at which a battle scene took place in my dad’s book, The Fall of Rome.

The first places where we stopped were two very old churches. What was incredible was that at one of them, we saw the pillar at which Jesus was flogged.

When we were done looking around and being amazed with that, we briefly stopped by the former controlling center of civilization: the Roman Forum. Of course it’s all in ruins now, but there’s still a lot left. This was the first time I’d seen ancient Roman ruins that are actually in Rome, and it was stunning to see them in person. The ruins are not just in Rome — they were the heart of the known world!

But we didn’t stay long, because one of the most famous monuments ever was staring us right in the face: the Colosseum. We’ve all seen it a million times in movies and video games, but there’s nothing like seeing it in person. It feels unreal walking down a cobblestone street and seeing the great ruins right in front of you. There were even Roman soldiers wandering around, although a few of them were smoking cigarettes…
When, for four extra euros, we had instantly conquered the endless line to get in, we decided to take a guided tour of the inside. The wooden floor is no longer there, but what was underneath it remains: a series of stone corridors in which the gladiators and animals would wait their turn to kill or be killed. People now aren’t allowed in these former subterranean corridors, but you can go on any other of the four levels, including the top.
In ancient times, the wealthy citizens would sit near the bottom of the amphitheater, while the poorer ones would sit near the top. We saw the exact spot where the Caesars used to sit and watch — at the very bottom. I can understand why they call the top the “Nosebleed Section”, but I think they should call the very bottom just the “Blood Section”, because it’s so close to the action you could get splattered!

We spent two hours exploring the Colosseum, although it felt like 45 minutes. We could have stayed a lot longer, but when you’re in Rome for three days, you want to be able to see everything. So (after waiting half an hour for a non-existent bus), we walked half a mile to the Circus Maximus — the ancient hippodrome where public games would take place, and most importantly, the chariot races. It’s a massive venue that could accommodate 250,000+ spectators. Behind it you can see the imperial palace, and down inside you can see… joggers. You may remember a few days ago I said that Barcelona is “a mix of the old and the new”, but it’s nothing as extreme as Rome.

After marveling over this, we waited another 45 minutes for the tour bus (it turned out one had broken down, leaving only two operating in all of Rome), which we stayed on for a while until it started to get dark. Some of it was the same route we had taken before, but there’s just so much out there that we saw something new each time we passed by — including the actual place where Julius Caesar was murdered.

When dusk (and hunger) fell upon us, we sat outside a little restaurant and had pizza (I think I ate six pieces) and later gelato. Those dang Romans not only know how to rule the world, but they also know how to eat!
Tomorrow is our last day in Rome before we leave. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll be doing, but we’ll definitely tour the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Forum. Here comes another wave of 400+ photos…

Today our cruise ended in Civitavecchia, Italy, which is the most important seaport in Europe. We got up early thinking we had to leave the ship by 10am, but then it turned out our shuttle van wouldn’t arrive until 3pm. So we hung around for a few hours, saying goodbye to the observation deck, the hot tubs, and (most importantly!) the free food.
It took us about an hour to get to Rome from Civitavecchia. I was sleeping most of the time, and when I woke up, there was Castel Sant’ Angelo — the site of Hadrian’s tomb — right outside the van window!

When we got to the hotel, we spent just few minutes unpacking (and checking out the Roman internet, which is none too high tech), then we excitedly walked to the Vatican, which is only about half a mile away.
It’s hard to describe the Vatican, except by saying that it was even more astounding than the mosque at Casablanca. I’ve never seen stone carving on such a large scale. The statues of saints were more than twice as big as life size. There were huge paintings on the walls, which turned out to be mosaics — made of such fine stones that even from three feet away you almost can’t tell it’s a mosaic. There were tombs so big that they had a door at the base (but don’t ask me why anyone would need to go inside). Even the side chapels were as large as a normal sized church!
And the whole thing is in a gigantic plaza that can hold thousands of people. With all the magnificent stone architecture, it felt just like going back in time — well, except for the giant TV screen right in the middle.

After we got kicked out at 7pm (the closing time), we set out to get lost find a street pizza place to have a light — and Italian — dinner. Of course, in Rome, pizzerias are scattered on every block like coffee shops in Seattle. So we just picked the closest one, and all had delicious pizza from its country of origin.

Tomorrow I think we’ll be going on a tour of archaeological Rome — the Colosseum, the Forum, the Castel Sant’ Angelo, etc. I’m more excited right now than I have been for any other city we’ve seen on this trip! But I guess this means I have to actually start doing my Latin homework…

When we arrived in Livorno, Italy this morning, it was pouring rain. So it was good that today was the day we’d go on a Shore Excursion (an official tour from Holland America), because that would mean we’d have a charter bus!
There were several different shore excursions today, such as one going to Pisa, one going to Florence, etc. Ours was for Cinque Terre, or “Five Lands”.
Cinque Terre is a series of five villages located on the edge of the sea, about an hour and a half bus ride from Livorno. The five villages are, in order, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterossa.
Thsee towns are surrounded by hills and cliffs, so the bus ride there had some great scenery. The hills are so steep that most of them have been terraced to prevent landslides.

Our tour group first stopped at Manarola. We spent about 15 minutes there wandering around, then we all walked half a mile along the edge of a cliff to Riomaggiore. In this village, all the buildings seemed to be stacked on top of each other, because the cliff on which they were built was so steep!
We took another short break here, just long enough for me to buy a piece of real Italian pizza, which was quite heavenly. Then we all took a 15 minute boat ride to the next town, Vernazza. The boat was rather small, and the ocean rather angry; I was surprised nobody fell and broke a rib!
When we got to Vernazza, our tour guides left us on our own for two hours to find lunch at our leisure. Grandma Nini, my mom, Isa, and I had calamari, spaghetti, and stuffed mussels for lunch. And everything was so good! The waiter was a big boisterous Italian who spoke no English, but we were able to communicate with him well enough to order our food (and a second serving of calamari).
After lunch we had some time left over, so (for €1,50) we climbed a watch tower on one of the hills overlooking the village (where we shouted “Bongiorno!” to all of Italy). From the top, you could see all of Vernazza way down below, and in a different direction all the cliffs overlooking the ocean. No wonder it’s called a watch tower…

When we were done exploring, our group took an underground train back to La Spezia, a town near Cinque Terre. From there we rode our charter bus back to Livorno where the ship was docked.
During the bus ride, we happened to pass by the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Unfortunately, it was too distant to get a good picture, but it was really cool to see the famous tower in person.

Tomorrow in Rome, we’ll be disembarking the Noordam for the last time. Since tonight was our final night of the cruise, the whole crew put on a little show in the ship amphitheater. Of course all of them sang, since they’re all Filipino and Indonesian, and the ones who aren’t are members of the Noordam Singers and Dancers!
It’s sad to be leaving the ship, but I’m looking forward to seeing Rome more than any other city we’ve visited so far. I’ll definitely be adding a lot more to my collection of 3000 photos of this trip!