Harmarama

I’m back!  Hope to make blogging more of a habit, as I do think it helps me process and reflect and it’s fun to read over later.

YEAR-END SURVEY LIKE NO OTHER – 2010

1. Where did you ring in 2010?
On a mountain getaway in Blacksburg, VA with friends

2. What was your status by Valentine’s Day?
Single, although I did go to a rather romantic movie with a boy on that night.  ??

3. Were you in school (anytime this year)?
No

4. How did you earn your keep?
In my organizing business and briefly as a photography assistant

5. Did you have to go to the hospital?
To visit my grandma and to see friends and their new babies

6. Did you encounter the police?
Yes, was pulled over for running a red light

7. Where did you go on vacation?
Went to CA for a friend’s wedding and did some touring, and spent a week at Bethany Beach with extended family

8. What did you purchase that was over $500?
Nothing, unless you count paying taxes

9. Did you know anybody who got married?
Julie and Dan, Shannon and Sam, couple others?

10. Did you know anybody who passed away?
Yes, my sweet Grammy

11. Have you run into anybody that you graduated from high school with?
Yes, it is the burg

12. Did you move anywhere?
No, so nice to be in the same place over 3 years now.  Did get a new roommate in the fall, though.

13. What sporting events did you go to?
Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball game, W&M soccer game, my own volleyball matches

14. What concerts did you go to?
The Legwarmers twice, Mat Kearney with Ingrid Michaelson, Third Day, jazz concert at the Sculpture Gardens in D.C., sang in The Messiah, the Chapel’s Christmas concert, couple local bands’ shows.  Can’t think of any others, but that’s really sad if that’s right!

15. Where do you live now?
Williamsburg, VA

16. Describe your birthday this year.
Was planning to keep it simple and invited some friends to do dinner and an 80s cover band concert, which a few of us did.  Then on my birthday night the girls from my small group took me out to dinner, and about 20 other people were there to surprise me.  🙂

17. What’s one thing you thought you would never do, but did in 2010?
Try eHarmony a second time?

18. What’s one thing you regretted this year?
Real lack of discipline with my time and with business strategies

19. Any new additions to your family?
Not really, although cousin Liz got engaged

20. What was your best month?
March?  Good amount of busy and a really fun trip to CA with my sister and old friends.

21. What from pop culture will you remember 2010 by?
30 Rock (not new, but I finally got into it), Kanye’s terrible interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech

22. How would you rate this year on a scale from 1 (crappy) to 10 (excellent)?
About a 5.  All in all, it was fine and I stayed busy but wasn’t so stressed.  But there was a lot of transition around me that kind of left me out and I fought the blahs quite often.

You’re probably not surprised that all blogging ceased after I got home.  I did have good intentions about posting some final thoughts on the trip!  I also had good intentions about writing up some detailed notes to pass to future tour guides.  Both of those have obviously not happened.  Maybe they will yet…

Another intention of this blog is to be a forum for thoughts and life-processing, not just travel notes.  So, without making any guesses as to how often I might post, here goes.

Is it possible to fully live in the moment, emotionally present, trusting God for daily needs, moving in the right direction but not so fast as to miss the serendipity?  I find myself swinging between thinking about the past or dreaming/fretting about the future.  Thoughts of today mostly consist of to-do lists, necessary decisions, passing fancies.  There is very little intentional thought about today and all the good in it or what God wants from me currently.

I want it all.  I want to have a steady paycheck, benefits, something to retire on, defined roles and goals AND I want to have a flexible schedule, creativity, control, adventure.  I want to have the freedom and uncomplication of the single life AND the joy and sanctification of sharing life with another.  I want a meaningful vocation AND dedicated motherhood.  All that wanting, and wanting contradictory things, leaves very little time and energy for just being.  It gives life a frantic edge and steals peace.  So how do you all balance your wants with what God wants?  How do you enjoy the present and let go of expectations?  How do you get yourself to just be?

Just a quick note to say that I’m typing from my own lovely bed after a long but uneventful day of travel.  It should feel like 4:30am but thankfully it doesn’t.  I can’t wait to sleep with the happy noise of my trusty box fan!  I was greeted at the airport with flowers from my parents and greeted at home with flowers from my roommate and posters, streamers, and an Easter egg hunt in my bedroom from friends!  It’s nice to feel missed.  🙂  I’m so glad I had this opportunity and it was a good experience, but I’m not sure when I’ve been more ready to stop traveling.

Even though I’m home, I’ll update more with thoughts on the last phase of the trip, some recommendations of places to stay and things to do, and a lot more pictures.  Thanks for keeping me company on the road!

It’s 9pm and the kiddos are all tucked in bed with their jet lag.  I knew where I was going today and timed everything right and remembered to call ahead with our dinner orders (last time with this restaurant I remembered last minute so I ordered a variety and said “Everybody share and swap!”).  SO MUCH FRICKIN’ EASIER the second time, at least so far.  Also helps that the group is half as big and doesn’t have the same level of intellectual hunger (already saw glazed eyes, though I’ll chalk it up to jet lag).  After I finish some emails and review notes, I may actually read my novel!  AmAHzing!

Spotted:

(And dodged – he lurrrved me) my Kosovoian friend from last time – he must cruise the Duomo for chicks a lot
Beautiful leather bag in the San Lorenzo market I’m contemplating buying
A young, modern Vincent Van Gogh on my airplane yesterday
Single M&M packet for about $2.25, and not even in an especially touristy area (everything is EXPENSIVE with the euro)
The clock springing forward again since Europe does it later than the U.S. (argh)

Blogging is always interesting to me.  I want to be totally honest but I know that can be dangerous, in this case potentially awkward with my boundaries as a tour guide.  So just know that I’m not holding out on you on purpose.  🙂

Like I said earlier, I dropped group #1 off and I would call it generally successful.  Did the group have a good experience of Europe?  Check.  Did they bond and make memories and learn about each other?  Check.  Did they get to see some things they had studied and expand their worldview?  Check.  Did they remain safe and healthy until returning home?  Check.  I have to say, I felt unbelievably ill-prepared for various reasons and it seemed ludicrous to me that I was the tour guide.  I mean, I can do the logistics, get people from point A to point B, deal with hotel managers, etc.  And I can answer general questions about Europe and talk about what it’s like to live there.  And I do technically have a degree in European Studies.  On paper, I sound great.  But the number of times I had to say “Hmm, I don’t know that, I’ll have to find out” was riDONKulous.  I think they just stopped asking!  Thankfully I arranged for us to have local guides for the Colisseum and Roman Forum because there was no way I was pulling that off.

A good thing was that the group was really fantastic.  In terms of repoire and sense of humor and bonding there was no problem.  Having so many adults as well as 12 students, at times it felt like I was running 2 trips.  But I really enjoyed hanging out with both sets of people and watching the moms learn to let their kids go a little more.  The trip leader from the school and I had very similar philosophies and were very much on the same page as to decisions, so that was really great.  It could have been better and I feel in some ways they got shafted information-wise (and I did get us a teeny bit lost in the labyrinth around the Pantheon on the way to dinner one night), but it could have been much worse.

I had a heck of a time getting my travel plans set to visit friends in Germany and Belgium.  I took the group to the main airport in Rome, then took the train back to the city center at Termini station, then took a shuttle out to the smaller airport to try to change my ticket.  The only change I could have made to fly to Belgium instead of Germany would have cost about $200 so I didn’t do it.  But I was already there, so I spent about 9 hours sitting in this rinky-dink airport.  The paperbacks cost about $20 each (!) so I read a few chapters while browsing but didn’t buy one.  I was thrilled when I discovered my crossword puzzle book in my bag.  It was a waste of a day that I could have spent in Rome or with friends.  I’ve learned my lesson about going to such lengths to save money.  I think I’m just too old to fly Ryan Air much anymore.  I did make a new friend in the airport, though – a little gato.  This cat seemed very healthy and fat although I think it did live in the airport.  It sat on the seat next to me for a bit, then wandered around, then came back and crawled right into my lap and fell asleep!  Some Italian women sat down near me and were making cooing noises to the cat and calling it “bellissima!” (and it was a very pretty tiger-striped cat).  They asked where my carrier was or how I was transporting it, and promptly lost interest when I said “Oh, it isn’t mine!”  But after a stressful day to end a stressful week, the purring in my lap was comforting.

Thankfully, my awesome friends Sasha and Peder were totally flexible and didn’t mind me coming 3 days early or driving almost 2 hours to get me at the airport.  I had a wonderful weekend with them and their 3 kids in Heidelberg, Germany.  We got German food and wandered around the main shopping street downtown, explored a crumbling castle up in the hills, and had great Greek food with a guy they’ve been wanting to set me up with for years (cute pilot, holla).  After a week of going, going, going it was nice to spend some time in pajamas playing on the floor with babies.

While in Heidelberg I was also able to have coffee with a college friend Christy, who I hadn’t seen in a few years, and have lunch with my friend Tiara.  When we were at church on Sunday I also ran into another really good friend, Heather, and her new husband!  I totally thought they had already moved back to the U.S. so thank goodness we were all good and went to church!  We were able to have dinner that night at one of my favorite places, Vetter’s, and had a great time talking by candlelight and swapping schnitzel, spaetzle, and bratwurst.  It seemed like it was going to be too hard to catch up with so many people in 3 days, but I got at least a meal with everyone.

I wish I had a laptop with me so I could have been blogging thoughts and memories more along the way.  When I’ve had good time to write I haven’t been near a computer or I haven’t wanted to sacrifice time with friends.  But here are a few memories and observations in random order:

I love Europe and the Men (and Women) of Europe Love Me

Most of my traveling in the past I’ve been with friends and coworkers.  I’m not the bold type who naturally seeks out strangers.  But this trip I’ve had several days alone and done almost all of my traveling alone.  I think it makes me more approachable and/or more open to talking to random people, because I’ve interacted with locals a lot along the way and really enjoyed it.  Waiting for a train in Heidelberg I chatted with a German girl who spent a year in Oregon (yet again, someone asking me for help or directions!  This even happened to me in Rome, with all my blondeness, studying the metro map with a quizzical look – do I really look like a local in Rome?  Really??).  The German girl told me about her family driving and walking the Franciscan Way, a medieval pilgrim route, and how amazing it was reaching Rome after walking for weeks from northern Italy.  I didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended when a Frenchman asked me to come “drink to the beauty of the river” because his friend was visiting from Japan (maybe I can be a geisha if organizing and tour guiding doesn’t work out).  A guy from Kosovo and I discussed the hope the world has in Obama.  And 3 Italian guys chatted me up while I was studying my map, walked around Florence with me, and bought me a cappuccino at the famous Cafe Gilli.  I spoke Spanish and they spoke Italian and we got along just fine.  (Seriously, ladies – if your love life needs a boost come to Europe, especially if you are blonde.)

Unplanning

Some of the best times to be had traveling, in my opinion, are ones you can’t plan.  I’ve definitely had an agenda on most all of the trips I’ve taken, and had a very germanic need to cross things off at each stop.  But most of my favorite memories are of spontaneous things that happened along the way.  So far on this trip, in addition to the hail in the Pantheon and the conversations with locals:

• Walking along, a pigeon flew right over my head so that I balked and ducked.  A man was standing opposite at his booth and witnessed it, and when I made eye contact with him we both cracked up.
• One of our French bus drivers said my pink coat was “tres jolie!” (good job, Anne)
• While we were in Florence, one of the students saw a statue of Machiavelli, on whom she has a crush (I wasn’t kidding about the nerdiness).  The teacher boosted her up to be in a picture with him and when she put her hand near the statue to balance she got a shock (probably to keep birds from landing there)!  She was right about the electricity between them…
• On the walk home one evening, some boys were playing soccer in a piazza.  Several of our group members got in the game and everyone had a great time.
• Just now as I’m typing, Michelle’s toddler brought me a tiny daisy she picked outside.  🙂

So, tonight Michelle and I are going into downtown Brussels to hang out a bit and get fresh Belgian waffles.  Tomorrow morning I fly back to Rome to get ready for trip #2.  I’ve reviewed the itinerary and wrote myself some notes for next week and I can already tell it’s going to be 100% easier, especially since we’re doing 2 of the same cities.  And I’m sure I will enjoy spending another week in Italy – I can’t complain!  All that to say, though, I feel like I’ve been over here a long time, moving every 2 to 3 days, and I will definitely be ready to come home.

So, so much to write!  I’ve been composing in my head over the past several days, just either had lots of time to write but no computer access (e.g. 9 hours at the grody airport yesterday) or a computer but not much time (yay for a relaxing day with friends and their delectable babies).  I will at least give you a few pictures, finally!  I haven’t had a chance to do any editing, but at least you get a taste.  I dropped the group off at the airport yesterday morning and I would judge it a qualified success.  It did get somewhat easier, and I think the next trip will be MUCH easier.  But I am very glad of a break right now and on that note I’m off to bed here in Heidelberg, Germany.

I’m enjoying a blessed pause while the group is touring the huge Vatican museum.  I just passed a pedicure place and it was very tempting.  I need to finish my notes for tomorrow but I can see the finish line!  It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in Rome.

Yesterday was a fun day.  We took a bus from Florence to Rome through some lovely countryside and it was a nice break from so much walking.  (I wish I had a pedometer – we’ve done a lot of walking on this trip and I have pretty much walked everything twice as I planned out the routes before taking the group each day.)  After a rather laborious hotel check in, we went to the Spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain, the St. Ignazio Church (they painted a totally fake dome on the ceiling – hilarious but amazingly real looking), and the Pantheon.  I can tell you a lot about these places now!

The Pantheon is such an amazing building.  It’s the best preserved in Rome because it was converted into a church so early and therefore people didn’t steal the stones.  It was originally built in 27AD and it’s pretty completely intact!  While we were enjoying the inside, it started to rain for the first time on the trip, which briefly turned to hail.  The Pantheon has an open “eye to the gods” so the rain just comes right onto the marble floors!  If we had any question whether it was really open that answered it!  The hail was bouncing and clattering on the marble and some of the kids went out into the middle of the floor to play in the rain.  It was the perfect time for it to rain and such a fun memory for everyone.

We walked one block in the rain to a great pizza dinner and when we emerged it had stopped raining.  From there we walked by the Vittorio Emmanuel monument and past the Forum and up to the Coliseum to see it lit up at night – very impressive.  I got a great picture of car lights streaming by the night Coliseum which I hope to load here in a couple days.

So tomorrow we go to the Coliseum and the Forum and then have some free time and a finishing talk and devotions.  I have been really stressed and underprepared, but they have had a really great trip and we’ve definitely bonded.  So things are good.  I feel a lot better about the second trip since we’ll be doing mostly the same things.  Thanks for the prayers!

So, the day before yesterday was just a bad, hard day, not that it didn’t go fine, really, and not that it didn’t have it’s bright spots.  The issues have been pretty much sorted and we really had a great day yesterday.  I took them on a walking tour of Florence and I remembered pretty much everything I needed to say, which was a lot, and they saw a lot of amazing stuff.  We were up on the hillside Piazzale de Michaelangelo in the late afternoon looking at the warm sunlight hitting the city, the enormous Duomo dwarfing almost everything else, and I don’t think anyone could be having a bad day.  I stumbled across Dante’s birthplace when I was walking by myself and I added it to the end of the tour, which made the classical school teacher extremely happy.

So today we are headed to Rome, and once again I have to get oriented to the city and do my prep work, but we’re over the hump.  One of the moms said to me last night “There is nothing on this trip that hasn’t been wonderful!” and another said “It’s such a joy to have you with us!”  I know the kids are having a blast, too.  So, I know what I wish their trip would have been like, the information they should have been getting from me, but overall I think they are totally happy.  I’ve got to get ready for breakfast but I’ll try to give a longer update soon.