RIP Benjamin

Just so you know, you were the brother I never had. You were always there, and always happy, and we love you for that.

I hope we'll meet again someday.

Radirondacks: 13 years later

Nassau

School's out, stuff is in storage, time to make an escape. Destination? As touristy and kitschy as it is, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas. Naturally we stayed as far off the beaten path as possible with AirB&B, in the house of a retired Welsh schoolteacher. A delightful week of steamed conch, swimming with locals (and the occasional mantee), jitney rides, snorkeling, books (finally!), and a whole lot of nothing.

Fun facts about the Bahamas:

1) The name "Bahamas" derives from the Spanish baja mar, meaning "low tide" or "shallow sea".

2) Nassau was once the capital of an 18th century Caribbean pirate empire, before it was retaken by the English.

3) New Providence was a safe haven for escaped slaves as well as a settlement destination for slaves carried on slave ships intercepted by the British navy in the early 19th century.

4) New Providence has some of the clearest water in the Bahamas due to its lack of rivers.

5) The hideous and dreadful Atlantis resort in Nassau employs over 7000 Bahamians.

6) 15% of the Bahamas' GDP derives from offshore banking.

Last night: Kaliks and Cubans!

Vacanze Romane

It's a little late, but that's better than never.

At Christmas last year, Anna's family gave me one of the most wonderful gifts: an Easter costume. So what? you might think, especially looking at the pictures. However, Easter is very serious business in Bormio. In fact, for Bormini it is probably the most popular holiday of the year. Why?

Easter or Pasquale in Bormio is a tradition that is deeply rooted in history. For every Easter for the past couple hundred years, the townsfolk of Bormio dress in their traditional costume and march through the city in a parade on Easter Sunday. Prior to Easter, each of the five districts of the town build a religiously-themed float, and during the Easter Sunday parade these are carried by the district lads. The parade culminates in the kuerć or town square, where the floats are judged by a committee.
The competition between the districts is fierce, and although a marginal sum is awarded to the winners, taking first place is a great honor, and the prestige is a greater reward than the money.

The people of Bormio take Pasquale very seriously, and to dress in the traditional costume you must be from Bormio. Indeed, even people from the neighboring villages who dress in the costume on Easter are scorned; don't even mention those from Milan who own second homes in Bormio and dress to participate in the parade.
Thus, receiving a costume for Easter was a great honor as, to a certain extent, it made me a real Bormino. On Easter morning I woke up, threaded up my boot coverings, and we went to town to participate in the parade.
My brother-in-law offered to let me carry the float he and his friends had made, and although it is a great honor I had to decline: I felt it to be fraudulent to carry a float I hadn't helped make. Seeing the floats at the beginning of the parade however, I saw this was a foolish train of thought. Each float must be made of wood and certain types of moss and flowers, and this means they are fucking heavy. Perhaps he asked me not so much as a courtesy as much as he and his lads needed an extra set of muscles. Their float looked particularly heavy, as it included a working fountain and a depiction of the last supper hand-carved from stone. Like I said, the pasquale is serious business.

Matteo's winning pasquale.

The third place pasquale.

For the record their float won, and this meant drinking (indeed, Teo did not come back until 5 in the morning the next day). Although religious in nature, Easter in Bormio is about celebrating among the young folk, and by 5 o'clock PM most of the parade-goers were three sheets to the wind.
I nonetheless was happy to finally be in Bormio for Easter, as it is something that only happens in Bormio, not across Italy, and as a result is a famous and popular event. I was honored to wear the costume and participate in the parade, although Fabio told me that if we come back for Pasquale next year I would have to carry the float with him and his lads (as he put it after viewing this picture on Facebook: You won't be smiling next year after you carry it!!)

Un vero bormino. 

Muh booties!

Since we only had about 10 days off, and because Anna's friend Sara has insisted over the years, after Easter we took the train to visit her in Rome for a few days. Before visiting, Rome was reluctantly on my bucket list, as Anna had always told me how many American tourists there are in Rome (something I like to steer clear of). But since visiting Rome is a sort of rite of passage for Italians (you have to go at least once in your life), I figured why the hell not. Plus it was good to see Sara.

Rome, as expected, was beautiful. We got lucky with the weather, and pretty much walked all over the city for the duration of our two-day stay so we were exhausted by the end. There were a lot of tourists, as one would expect, but they were from everywhere. In the end I had wished we had more time in Rome -- for eating!

St. Peter's

The Pantheon.

Piazza Navona. 

Best coffee ever. 

ශ්‍රී ලංකා

It is a yearly requirement at the school we teach at that during February/March teachers plan a special course (I cannot give its name here) that lasts three weeks and can be on campus or off campus. It is something unique to the school that has been going on for the last fifteen years, and while most teachers plan a travel trip, last year Anna and I chose to do an on campus course as it seemed easier to plan. Big mistake. For three weeks straight we were stuck with twenty students for eight hours a day with only a break for lunch. We swore that we would never do an on campus course again, so when the school year began in August we had already started thinking about where we would go for an off campus course. Over 15 years the school had traveled nearly everywhere, but asking around we found one destination to which there had never been a trip: Sri Lanka. The administration happily approved it, and after months of planning and budgeting on February 25th we were on our way to Colombo via Abu Dhabi with 17 students in tow. 

The reality of bringing 17 kids -- some of which were my own students -- to Sri Lanka didn't set in until getting on the plane. "Aren't you nervous?" family asked before we left. We weren't, mainly because we hadn't really though about it. Truth be told, we were just thinking about getting away from the snow and were looking forward to not having to teach for a few weeks. For myself, I was too preoccupied with gorging myself on curry. But on the plane, buckling my seatbelt I thought, "What the hell are we doing?"

Everything was fine though. We had a good group of kids, and for the duration of the trip we had our own bus, our own tour guide, and stayed in reputable hotels. Everything was arranged, which was a model of travelling Anna and I always steer well clear of, but with 17 teenagers you really don't have any other options. After some time however, we began to see the benefit of traveling with organized "group tours": it sure is nice having your own (air-conditioned) bus to get around, being able to check into hotels worry-free, and having your own tour guide to provide a treasure trove of information, answer questions, and sort out any problems you might have. The downside of all this is that, looking out the bus window and being ferried to different tourist traps, you don't get the "full experience". I suppose no matter which way you like to travel you can't have your cake and eat it too. 

We arrived in Colombo at 3:30 in the morning. The flights and connection in Abu Dhabi were a blur, and naturally having so may international students in the group (all but 3) we ran into a few problems at immigration, but nothing a bit of paperwork and money couldn't solve. Fun fact: when you go to Sri Lanka, immigration stamps your passport and gives you a free SIM card with 100 rupees on it. 

Our guide Vijendra ("You can call me VJ") was waiting for us, and he agreed to let us get some rest at the hotel, but that at 9 AM we had to "continue with the program". Fair enough, I thought, until we got to the hotel. Which was right next to a church. Which was having something of a revival meeting at 5 am and the parishioners were singing loud enough to shake down the walls of Babylon. Oh well. 

To be fair, the first day was easy. We took a walking tour of old Colombo with an enthusiastic local guide and historian to see the colonial Dutch and British architecture, followed by a cool lemon soda at the Grand Oriental Hotel (which I ended up wearing thanks to the shaky novice waiter; I didn't mind [thankful even!] because it was so damn hot, but despite trying to reassure the lad I worried for his job after seeing the menacing face of the manager, and felt guilty for the rest of the day). In the evening we drove to a well-to-do neighborhood on the outskirts for a lesson on Sri Lankan cooking in a local home, which the students enjoyed and was one of the best meals we had in Sri Lanka. 

I should make a note here about Sri Lanka itself. Most assume that Sri Lanka is simply an extension of India - dusty, crowded, gritty, noisy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While I have never been to India, Anna has, and she was astonished by how much Sri Lanka was unlike India. Colombo, the largest city, was uncrowded, organized, and orderly. It reminded me of something between Thailand and Cambodia, actually -- the backstreets dusty and cramped, the main boulevards tidier than the streets of Bangkok. Touts were minimal and not persistent, and everyone was genuinely friendly and generous. Tipping culture remains strong there however, and as our guide succinctly put it, "The only thing free is a smile."

When we planned the trip, we had hoped to make it as un-touristy as possible. We wanted the trip to be educational above all and arranged a variety of cultural and spiritual activities to maximize the students' cultural experience. In other words, we wanted them to get sweaty, get their hands dirty, and look inwards. After a day in Colombo, we headed into the interior of the country to Dambulla. After a 7 hour bus trip (thanks to road works) we ascended the Golden Cave temple at sunset, one of the holiest sites in Buddhism at which grows the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand-sapling of the original bodhi tree under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment. The sunset was beautiful, the monkeys were ubiquitous, and the cave temple itself was amazing. 

Lanka. 

The great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand-bodhi tree. 

As I said, because we had wanted an authentic cultural-spiritual experience, we arranged an alms-giving at the local temple. It was Sunday, and we all dressed in white and went to a local house to cook a meal which we would give to the monks at the temple. This was probably one of the best experiences of the trip, as we all had to prepare the meal using traditional means and cook it over the fire in the back yard. 

The ingredients. 

Preparing the fire. 

Monk laundry day.

Lunch. 

We were pleasantly surprised by how the students took to the task and cooperated with the family, and it was a wonderful experience for both us and the family. After cooking, we went to the temple to offer it to the monks, for which we received a blessing in return. Afterwards we returned to the family's house to eat lunch Sri Lankan-style: on the floor, with our hands. It was the most delicious meal we had eaten the entire trip, and the family was pleased to have us in their home.

In the afternoon, the guide took it upon himself to arrange a safari at the local Ritigala National Reserve. While this was not in the itinerary, cost extra money, and we were not asked, and I was chagrined at first, I have to confess it was a great idea and the kids loved it. We rented three jeeps and drove deep into the park where we saw a number of wild elephants. Apart from the elephants, one of the best memories was to see a jeep full of our Asian girls, normally quiet and buried in their phones, standing up in a jeep barreling down the highway at 50 miles an hour, wind in their hair, howling with laughter and joy.

Ritigala.

Look closely. 

The following day we planned to visit Sigiriya rock. This was an ancient Sri Lankan kingdom that lasted only 17 years but the temple/palace, carved out of a very large and unique rock, is a UNESCO world heritage site and a prominent tourist site. Touristic as it was, it was beautiful. It was also very, very hot the day we climbed up, and while the loose metal stairs bolted to the rock itself added to one's copious sweating, the breeze -- and the view -- on top was well worth it.

Sigiriya. 

From the top. 

After Dambulla, we made our way south to the city of Kandy. Kandy is probably the most visited city in Sri Lanka, as it is the largest pilgrimage destination for Buddhists around the world. This is thanks to the Temple of the Tooth Relic, a massive temple at Kandy's center that houses the tooth of the Buddha. As a result Kandy is peppered with monasteries, temples, and, as a fertile region for tea cultivation, numerous vestiges of British colonial rule. One evening we saw a culture show, which featured traditional dancing and fire walking (and yes, after the show I bribed the guy a hundred rupees and Anna, I, and a few students walked on hot coals -- which is not as dangerous as one might think; check that off the list!), and later we bought lotus flowers and went barefoot to the temple to give devotions. Every evening, thousands crowd into the temple to make devotions, at which time the door to the room which holds the coffin of the tooth relic is opened. It is not possible to see the tooth relic -- very few people have, but this daily ritual causes a mob scene, and we were crushed in the throng of people attempting to get a view of the coffin inside. Ironically, despite my agoraphobia, I felt it was a great experience, but the students weren't happy about getting crushed by the crowd.

The door to the tooth relic coffin.

Hall displaying illustrations of the life of the Buddha.

The same morning of the day we went to the Tooth Relic Temple, we visited a monastery where we were given a sermon on Buddhism by a monk. The kids, having the attention span of a brick, didn't seem to taken up by it, but I thought it was a good experience, and the monk was nice and pleased to have us there. 

A Buddhist sermon. 

Tourist trap shopping.

As an elephant lover, and because elephants are a mainstay of Sri Lankan culture, we had wanted the students to have an experience with elephants. The tour company arranged a visit to the local elephant orphanage, but after reading that the elephants at the orphanage were chained up and hooked by mahouts, we sought a more humane elephant experience, something much akin to the elephant project we had visited last year in Cambodia. We discovered the Elephant Freedom Project, not far from the elephant orphanage, which allowed its elephants to roam free and had work incorporated into its daily program, so we booked a day there.
It was a great experience. Not only was cooking lunch included, but the students were able to walk with the elephants around the village, clean their nighttime enclosure, feed them, and wash them at the end of the day with coconut shells. For many it was an amazing experience, and Anna, Kristine, and I had a lot of fun as well. Should you go to Sri Lanka and wish to experience elephants, please choose the humane option offered by the warm family who run the Elephant Freedom Project and spend the day with their two elephants, Sujee and Wastu.

Rice paddy lunch. Yes, those are my white legs. 

Waiting for a snack from the shopkeep. 

He loved the wash. 

The final leg of our trip took us from Kandy to Hikkaduwa on the southwest coast. While Hikkaduwa, as a beach town, was decidedly more touristic, it was beautiful and refreshing to be cooled by the sea breeze. While the ocean was very rough, it was as warm as bath water and refreshing to dive into after a day of sweating. In Hikkaduwa we took a boat ride through a mangrove estuary and learned how cinnamon is made, visited a sea turtle hatchery, and visited the colonial city of Galle. Of course, the best part was being able to swim in the ocean and wake up with the gentle sound of rolling waves. After the winter we'd had in New York, it was the pot at the end of our rainbow.

Chaperone tea party at the tea plantation. 

Anna and Kristine have a "fish massage".

The rock divers of Galle fort. 

Green turtle, just a few days old. 

Our guide VJ (with turtle).

Sunset from the hotel balcony. 

Back in Colombo before leaving, I was pleased to hear that Nuwan, a former colleague from London, was back home in Sri Lanka. We had to leave for the airport at midnight for a 4:30 AM flight, but we had just enough time to have a drink in the hotel bar (which felt like an English pub, rather appropriately). It was great to catch up with him after a few years, and was a great way to end the trip.

Nuwan, Anna, & I. 

On the 14 hour flight from Abu Dhabi to New York, the Hasidic Jewish couple's toddler in the row behind us kicked my seat and screamed for seven hours. But it was OK. At the end of the day we went to Sri Lanka without paying a dime. And we had an amazing time.