Yay, I'm Still a French Horn

In light of many people beginning band camp around this time of year (I'm having to live vicariously through others), I thought this interesting:



You scored as French Horn. French Horn, eh? go practice. right now.

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French Horn		75%
Oboe		75%
Tuba		75%
Trombone		67%
Viola		50%
Violin		50%
Clarinet		42%
Bassoon		42%
String Bass		33%
Trumpet		25%
Flute		25%
Cello		25%
Percussion		8%

If you were in an orchestra, what instrument would match your personality?
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Lists

There is a large thunderstorm underway outside right now.

Well, you'd think after five weeks of being away from working on thesis revisions that I would naturally be able to jump right in and get the thing finished. I'm finding procrastination to be a difficult thing to conquer. Oh well.

On one of the train rides a couple of weeks ago, I think from Cusco to Puno, Peru, about 10 hours, James and I were making some lists of various things while passing the time (favorite books, books read just this year, places in the world we want to visit/travel to in the future but haven't yet, etc.).

Specific places or areas I would like to visit in the future (but haven't already):
-Ruins of Pompeii (near Naples, Italy)
-Amalfi Coast (near Naples, Italy)
-(well, much of Italy, really - Venice, Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Sicily, and aforementioned)
-Greece
-Other places in Mediterranean Europe
-Various places in and around the Alps in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria
-Black Forest and Bavaria in Germany
-Lands End (UK)
-More of Ireland
-Iguasu Falls (Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil)
-Hawaii (specifically Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, and Haleakala National Park on Maui, well and much of the rest of the state too of course)
-Alaska (many places really - Glacier Bay, Anchorage, Fairbanks - Dad was born near there, Mt. McKinley - Denali, Alaska Marine Highway, AlCan Highway, etc.)
-Angkor Wat (Cambodia)
-More of Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Bali, Vietnam, etc.)
-Taj Mahal, Varanasi, and Rajasthan (India)
-Pyramids of Giza and other ruins (Egypt)
-Huangshan scenic mountain area (China)
-Karst landscapes of Guangxi Province near Guilin (China)
-Great Wall of China (well, much more of China in general - Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Yangtze River area, etc.)
-Acadia National Park (Maine), and other parts of New England
-Prince Edward Island and Atlantic Canada
-Japan (Mt. Fuji, and many other areas)
-Easter Island (owned by Chile)
-Galapagos Islands (owned by Ecuador)
-Australia and New Zealand
-Islands of the South Pacific
-More places/islands in the Caribbean
-Central American countries
-Turkey
-The Holy Land
-Chile and Argentina (various places)
-Iceland
-Scandinavia
-Central Europe

Okay, well I might be getting carried away. But, there are probably many other places that I would want to add to this list but haven't thought of them at the moment. I've just been stricken by wanderlust for a very long time. I don't know why. But I don't mind it either. Maybe its part of being a geographer too.

Countries I've already been to:
-Much of the United States
-Canada (Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia provinces)
-Mexico (Sonora, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Morelos, Puebla, Guerrero, and Oaxaca states)
-United Kingdom (London, England, Scotland)
-Ireland
-France
-Belgium
-The Netherlands
-Germany
-The Caribbean (U.S. Virgin Islands, Bahamas, French West Indies, Netherlands Antilles)
-Hong Kong (formerly British, now part of China)
-Macau (formerly Portuguese, now part of China)
-China (Hainan and Guangdong provinces)
-Thailand (Bangkok and Chiang Mai)
-Burma
-India (West Bengal and Orissa states)
-Ecuador
-Peru
-Bolivia
-Japan (just transiting twice, though)

Home Again

Well, my brother James and I arrived home safely around 1:00 am Sunday morning from our five week adventure in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico. It was quite an amazing journey - volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and all. I've posted some backdated entries of some emails I sent out throughout the trip if anyone would like to read about some of the things we did and saw.

I think we spent much more time in airports (Mexico City and Atlanta) Saturday afternoon and evening than we actually did flying between the two cities (about a 3 hour flight). Security was very tight on both ends. Getting on the plane, everyone and everything was hand searched and absolutely nothing even resembling a liquid or a gel was allowed. I even saw women having to throw away their lipstick before getting on board. The line for immigration in Atlanta was very long as usual - took over an hour. Then we were re-screened through another security checkpoint in order to ride the train from the international concourse to the main terminal to collect our luggage, which didn't emerge until probably an hour and a half later.

At any rate, its always fun to go and see other places, but its always nice to arrive back to home sweet home as well. But, there's a lot of the world left to see! As one of my geography professors told me: "I'm pleased it [your journey] is going well, and especially that you are following a time-honored tradition among serious geographers - getting yourself out into the real world and making direct observations about the land and peoples of our fascinating world."

Earthquake in Mexico City

Well, around 9:30 AM we experienced an earthquake here in Mexico City. We were still in the hotel room - James was about to take a shower and I was sitting on the bed watching the news. I suddenly felt a peculiar sensation, as if things were moving. I stood up and the rocking motion continued. It felt like things were moving from side to side and frontwards and backwards at the same time. I called to James in the bathroom, "James, do you feel that...I think we{re having an earthquake!" After he came out of the bathroom, I was still feeling the movement. We saw the window curtains swaying back and forth as well. Then, the quake began to subside. I assumed it wasn{t too bad because, well, the building was still standing and the electricity and water were still on, and no gas smells or anything like that. About 10 or 15 minutes later, in between news from Israel/Lebanon, and London, there was a brief snippet interjected on CNN, "This just in, we{ve just received word of a large earthquake near Mexico City. The Mexican Geological Survey is still trying to determine the magnitude." It was on the local news again much evening. We later learned the quake registered a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter Scale. The U.S. Geological Survey later assigned a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter Scale. The epicenter was about 125 miles west southwest of Mexico City. It turns out though that there really was no damage and thankfully no one was hurt. So, we're all okay. An interesting experience though. We've now seen a large volcanic eruption in Ecuador on this trip (Volcan Tungurahua, which cause evacuations in the towns nearby), and now have experienced a moderate earthquake.

Here is some information about the earthquake:
CNN - Quake Rocks Mexico City
USGS - Magnitude 6.1, Guerrero, Mexico

After all that, we had breakfast, and then traveled south to Cuernavaca to visit my host family from when I studied Spanish at Universidad Internacional there for six weeks last summer. It was very pleasant to visit with them and see them again. We all had lunch together around 3:00 in the afternoon at their home. After looking around the center of Cuernavaca a while, and eating some delicious ice cream, as well as tacos al pastor, we went back to their home, said our goodbyes, and then made our way back to Mexico City.

We're getting our luggage rearranged now due to the new restrictions because of the terrorist threat from London that occurred yesterday. Tomorrow afternoon we takeoff around 3:30 for Atlanta (about a 3 hour flight). Looking forward to returning home after 5 weeks of traveling around 4 countries.

Hope you all are doing well. Take Care!

Buenas Noches en la Ciudad de Mexico

Well, we´re still trying to recover from lack of sleep - so we slept quite late today. Then had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, then booked a tour for tomorrow to go to the Teotihuacan pyramids outside of the city (as well as to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the Plaza of 3 Cultures). This afternoon, we rode the subway to the Museo Nacional de Antropologia and spent several hours there. It is a huge and very well designed museum, with different rooms for the different cultures of Mesoamerica. Also noticed while walking around near the Museum, and near Chapultepec Park (largest park in the city), that the Paseo de la Reforma, the widest and main rode through the city, was completely closed off because of the protestors and demonstrations that had situated themselves on the road. Then we rode back to the center of the city and went up to the top of the Latin American Tower for a beautiful 360 degree view of the city, the Valley of Mexico, and the surrounding mountains and volcanoes. There were patches of rain here and there off in the distance, a rainbow, and the sun beginning to set. After descending, we walked to Chinatown and ate dinner there. I think we´ll go to bed pretty soon because we´ll get up early for the tour to the pyramids. I was able to get in touch with my mexican host family and we´ll plan to visit them at their home in Cuernavaca on Friday. They sounded excited to hear from me, and it will be neat to get to visit with them again.Well, I guess that's about it for now. Hope ya´ll have a great night and a great Thursday!

Hola from La Ciudad de Mexico

Well, we made it safely to Mexico City, landing around 6:00 am this morning, after leaving Lima around 12:15 am. I really didnt sleep on the flight at all (I have a hard time with that on airplanes for some reason). We flew past a lot of lightning storms once we got over Mexico, so that was interesting looking out the window at those. It took about an hour and a half to go through immigration because it was so crowded. We finally arrived at our hotel without any transit delays around 7:30 am and immediately went to sleep for a while. The protests and demonstrations appear to be completely nonviolent and passive. Many tents and sitting areas are set up on the Plaza de la Independencia and along one of the main roads leading to the plaza, which seems to be the only road closed off. Other than that things seem to be running smoothely. We walked around a while all afternoon after a late lunch, and just now finished eating dinner. Probably will go to bed soon - missing a whole night of sleep doesnt feel all that great. Tomorrow I think we'll go to the National Anthropology Museum. Thursday or Friday we'll go to Cuernavaca to visit my host family. The day we don't go we'll go to the Teotihuacan pyramids outside of the city. Its been pretty rainy here today, but a nice change from the dry Andes.

Hola from Arequipa, Peru

Hello Everyone!Here´s another update of what my brother James and I have been up to over the past few days in South America if you´re interested.Our time in La Paz, Bolivia, the highest capital city in the world at almost 13,000 ft. above sea level I think, has now come and gone. We arrived Tuesday night and left Thursday afternoon heading back in to Peru. Our hotel is in an old colonial home and is very nice. Slept late Wednesday morning for a change (have been up at 5:00 am or earlier every day for the past week). Had a nice pizza for lunch, then walked around in the "Witch´s Market", one block from our hotel, where all sorts of strange objects and concoctions are for sale, including dried llamas to be placed in the foundations of new buildings for luck. Wednesday afternoon we took a city tour: saw a variety of neighborhoods including wealthy and not so wealthy, the main plaza and cathedral (apparently, in 2003, a shootout between the police and the army occurred here), the valley of the moon (strange rock formations due to erosion), and drove up to a panoramic vista of the entire city and distant snowcapped peaks. Then we went to a dinner folkloric show that evening. We left La Paz Thursday afternoon at 3:30 pm for Arequipa, Peru, and arrived there around 3:30 am Friday morning.The train ride monday was nice, and met some nice people from Italy who sat next to us. I was amazed at the amount of their Italian I could understand, even though I´ve never studied it - I guess Spanish and Italian have many similarities. We saw some interesting scenery and small villages as we rode through the Altiplano high in the Andes. The highest point the train passed through was around 14,500 ft. above sea level. Spent monday night in the railway hotel in Puno. Tuesday morning we were picked up early for our transit tour to La Paz. Throughout the day we saw many interesting sights on and around Lake Titicaca, the world´s highest navigable lake at 12,500 ft. Walking across the Peru/Bolivia border was easy. The town of Copacabana, Bolivia, where we got aboard the catamaran to go to the Sun Island and cross the lake, is interesting and picturesque. Bolivia is gearing up for their independence day celebrations, which is on August 6 (Peru´s is on July 28 - and we saw a lot of preparations for that, although we were traveling back from the jungle on the actual day). Anyway, the sun island is in a microclimate and has gardens with all sorts of flowers, plants, and vegetables. Got to interact with some llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas, as well as participate in some spiritual ceremony involving offerings to "Pachamama" or "Mother Earth". The whole tour was very interesting and we learned a lot. We also met some nice people traveling with us from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a mother and son from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a couple from Birmingham (Birmingham, England, that is). We exchanged stories about each of our respective Birminghams. The guide, Gloria, from La Paz, was really intersting and funny as well.At any rate, James and I arrived in Arequipa around 3:30 am this morning. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru, with around 1.5 million. The hotel is quite nice (someone from the hotel met us at the bus station early in the morning). Once we were up and about today, one of the young hotel workers walked with us to the main plaza of the city, and, while sitting on the steps leading up to the cathedral, we helped him with some English homework he is working on for his English class, which he was going to this afternoon. He then helped us book a tour to the Colca Canyon: We get picked up from the hotel at 2:00 am Saturday morning, visit the Colca Canyon (one of the deepest in the world), see the giant condors, see some villages, and return to Arequipa between 5:00-6:00 pm. Then, we have bus tickets to Lima - the bus departs around 9:00 pm saturday night, and arrives Lima sometime the next day. We´ll stay at the youth hostel in the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima Sunday night. Monday night, we head to the Lima airport for a flight to Mexico City just after midnight Tuesday morning.After all the bookings, we ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, then visited a large monastery with many brightly painted, winding passages and rooms. There is a nice view of the city, the snowcapped mountains, and the towering volcano "El Misti" from a lookout point on top of one of the buildings. Then we looked around in the main cathedral. After that had some fruit juice and bread, now are here checking email. I think we´ll look for dinner soon, then head back to the hotel to get some rest before our extremely early departure (2:00 am) to the Colca Canyon. The adventure continues!I hope you all have a great weekend. Take Care!

Hello from La Paz, Bolivia

We are now in La Paz, Bolivia. The world's highest seat of government at around 12,500 ft. above sea level. The full name of the city is "La Ciudad de Nuestra Señora de La Paz" ("The City of Our Lady of the Peace"). It actually sits in a canyon surrounded by towering snow-capped mountain peaks. El Alto is another city adjacent to La Paz that sits at about 14,000 ft. on the canyon rim. That is also where the airport is located. Planes must land at about twice the speed that they would land if at sea level. So we heard that the decent and landing at this high international airport is quite harrowing. The distance required for takeoffs is much greater as well because of the thinner air.The transit tour from Puno to La Paz yesterday was spectacular. We were picked up by bus at our hotel in Puno around 6:30 am, then drove a couple of hours to the Peru/Bolivia border crossing and walked across the border. Next, we stopped at Copacabana, Bolivia, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. After looking around the cathedral and the main plaza a bit, we boarded a catamaran for a cruise and transit across the lake. El Lago de Titicaca is the world's highest navegable freshwater lake. Most estimates say that the deepest point is about 450 meters, although some believe that there is no bottom to the lake. Much myth and legend surrounds the area. The Incas believe that this was where the world began, the center of the universe, and the first Inca rulers emerged from the waters (Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo). The catamaran stopped at the Isla del Sol (Sun Island), which is the most sacred island on the lake. We toured a garden, saw some llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas, went through a museum of Inca culture around the lake, and participated in a spiritual ceremony of offerings to Pachamama (Mother Earth). It was all quite interesting. Then had a buffet lunch back on the catamaran as we sailed further towards another shore where we would then get on another bus bound for La Paz.We are staying at Hotel Rosario - in an old colonial home. Today we went on a city tour of La Paz. Saw the plaza and main cathedral, and learned that in late 2003 there was a deadly shootout in that very plaza between the police and the army, right there in front of the government buildings and the cathedral. We also saw the Valley of the Moon with its interesting geologic erosional formations. Additionally we saw the upscale part of town where many diplomats, ambassadors, government officials, narcotraficantes, and others live. The culmination was a high point in the middle of the city where we had a 360 degree view of La Paz and the surrounding canyon and snow-capped peaks.