Marjorie in Qatar

I may have become a diversity snob...

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:36:59 GMT

I just read this on a university's FAQ list:

Q: What role does religion play at Ozarks?

A: Although Ozarks is a Presbyterian-affiliated school, students represent many different religious faiths and backgrounds. Religious programs on campus honor this diversity while emphasizing our Presbyterian heritage. Chapel services for the entire campus community are held each Tuesday at 11 a.m. in Raymond Munger Memorial Chapel on the Ozarks campus. Campus organizations exist for Baptist, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian students, offering worship, fellowship and service activities. Non-denominational religious groups are also available for Ozarks students.

That's some religious diversity you've got there, University of the Ozarks! Presbyterians and Methodists UNDER ONE ROOF! I take my hat off to you.

Died tragically rescuing his family from the wreckage of a destroyed sinking battleship

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:03:27 GMT

Touring historical cemeteries in Boston, I started thinking about epitaphs.

My great⁹-grandfather's grave in Providence has a little biographical information -- when and where he was born and when he emigrated to America -- but nothing that tells us about what kind of person he was, or what he accomplished with his life. The quote on his crest is a bit less dry -- "Be Just and Fear Not," a quote from Shakespeare's Henry VIII (which if you think about it was written only nine years before he was born -- strange!) but it's still hardly personal.

The graves in Boston are even more terse, almost all following the formula:
Here Lyes the body of [name]
Aged [age] Yeares
Who Died [date]

It's an eerie feeling to think of all the people who lived long and full lives, and about whom nothing at all can be said except their age and date of death. Of all the things you could choose to carve into stone, is the precise day they stopped living the most important? Andrew, always the fatalist, said, "But what else is there to say, really?"

I suppose even today most graves really just say names and dates, and something banal like "beloved husband" or "affectionate mother." You read sometimes about funny epitaphs: Mel Blanc's That's All, Folks, or the physicist Ludwig Boltzmann's S = k.log W, for example. And the internet is full of humorous though unverifiable ones, like "Here Lies Ezekial Aikle, Aged 102. The Good Die Young."

After Andrew said "What else is there to say?" he challenged me to come up with how I'd summarize his life in one line, or my own. Pointless as we'd both prefer to be cremated, but still I couldn't come up with anything. What is there to say, in the end? I admire people who can write pithy six-word memoirs, but I don't know what my six words would be.

What would you choose as an epitaph?

New England road trip pictures

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:14:38 GMT

After my conference in Pittsburgh I went on a week-long road trip with my friend Andrew, who worked at CMU-Q two years ago and now lives in New Jersey. From there we went to New York, NY; Providence, RI; Boston, MA (for several days); Salem, MA; Biddeford Pool, ME; and Kennebunkport, ME, before returning to New Jersey and thence to Pittsburgh.

We combined our pictures and I've just posted them.

As with Spain, I'll put my favorite picture of each city here in case you don't want to scroll through all 175:

New York, NY

Andrew and me on the Staten Island Ferry, with the Statue of Liberty sorta visible in the background.

Providence, RI

At my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Pardon Tillinghast's grave. He immigrated to America in 1643, and all Tillinghasts in the US are descended from him.

Boston, MA

In Boston we went to the Tall Ships festival, where we saw many beautiful sailing ships like this schooner.

Salem, MA

Pages from a 17th century primer, in the Witch House in Salem, MA. "The mouse chirpeth. The duck quacketh. The woolf howleth" etc.

Biddeford Pool, ME

From Boston we planned to bum around New Hampshire and Vermont, but some friends from Qatar, the Reillys, invited us up to their new vacation home in idyllic Biddeford Pool, Maine.

Kennebunkport, ME

We stopped by Kennebunkport with Reillys, where we attempted to take a cruise to see the lobster boats. The sea was too rough and we had to turn around, but the ride until then was really fun, like dune bashing on water.

Spain pictures

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:57:23 GMT

I'm back in Doha, just in time for sandstorm season. Woo.

Pictures of my trip to Spain with my friend Ryan are now posted. Someday Ryan will post his pictures there too, but it may be a while since he's in the midst of moving and starting a job right now.

Since not everyone may want to peruse all 260 photos, I've posted one highlight picture for each city below.

My travel buddy Ryan and me. Ryan is a close friend from Qatar who just finished grad school in Pittsburgh. He was going to Spain for a conference this summer, and arrived early so we could vacation together.

The famed mezquita of Córdoba, which began life as a Christian church in around 600 AD, became a mosque in 784 AD (only 150 years after Mohammed's death!) and then was converted into a cathedral in 1236.

This is not my most beautiful picture of the Alcázar in Seville, but it's one I'll always remember: it's the door to the chapel where Carlos V married Isabel of Portugal. I knew the Abrahamic religions intermingled in Andalucia, but not to the extent that a king's chapel would be decorated with Arabic prayers!

Granada is famed for the Alhambra, which is wonderful, but what I enjoyed most was bumming around the old Muslim quarter, full of little shops and shisha bars.

We then went up to Catalonia and spent two days in pilgrims' quarters in the monastery village of Montserrat. Montserrat is known for its weird landscape as well as for its lovely Black Madonna.

Our two days in Barcelona were all about seeing the crazy, amazing architecture of Antoni Gaudí. This is my favorite, Casa Batlló.

This isn't even my picture; it's from Wikipedia. However, the best part of Madrid is the Prado, and my favorite thing in the Prado was this painting by Hieronymous Bosch, so here you have it.

Or, if you totally can't be bothered, here's the extremely redacted version:

Dreaming of Genie

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:14:16 GMT

A Saudi family is suing a jinni that has been harassing them. Jinn, according to the Quran, are a species of creature much like ourselves, with free will and the ability to be good or bad. However, we can't see them because they're made of fire and we're made of earth.

When I moved to Qatar, the universal belief in the existence of jinn was one of the things that started me questioning my belief in God. I wanted to say, "But how can a rational person believe in invisible beings of which they have, and CAN have, no proof, and whose supposed interactions with the world can be explained in other, more scientific ways?" But that's a rather odd thing to say if you believe in God.

If you believe in God but not jinn, how would you argue against the existence of jinn?

...as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:47:46 GMT

I'm on a Greyhound in central PA, heading from Pittsburgh, where I just spent a week at a conference and then some friends' wedding, to New Jersey, where I'm beginning a week-long road trip with my friend Andrew. Thus I am in fact reenacting the route of the song quoted above. Woot!

It's always fun to drop in on Pittsburgh once a year. It seems to be doing pretty well for itself. A couple nights ago I had dinner at a nice Ethiopian restaurant in a neighborhood I would once have been a little nervous to walk around at night. Way to go, East Liberty.

The annual symposium for people from both campuses was good (my favorite so far) and the wedding was beautiful. It was attended by a variety of people who've lived in Doha over the last three years, so it was quite a reunion for me. It's also the first wedding I've ever attended where, after the groom/mother dance, the DJ said "alright, let's fill the dance floor" and the crowd actually complied. Trust Dave and Karen to have such fun friends! It's also the first wedding I've attended at which we danced to Promiscuous Girl. LOL.

Weeks like this make me so grateful for the friends I've made in Qatar. Earlier this week one of my best friends was surprised to realize he knows all the other people I consider my closest friends, because they're all Doha people. (Well, that's not exactly what was said since I was too shy to say I consider him in that group, but it's what was meant.) The truth is that in the five years after I left college I made only one real friend. But in the five years since I moved to Qatar, my life has been overflowing with amazing people who I feel honored to know and privileged to spend time with. In many ways these have been the happiest five years of my life, and it's largely because of them.

Well anyway, tomorrow I'm off to New York, and then the next day to Boston, and then around New Hampshire and Vermont a bit. This surprises people because I'm pretty well-traveled, but I've never been to either New York or New England before. I'm excited to see what all the fuss is about!

Spain/Pittsburgh

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:38:47 GMT

I promise to get my Spain pictures posted any day now, but I've been busy at the annual symposium in Pittsburgh.

Which is to say: I'm in Pittsburgh right now! Hi, Pittsburgh people! Is there anything fun going on in town this week that I should know about?

Still crazy after all these years

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:59:32 GMT

Ten years ago today! Wooo!

Last day in Spain

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:44:16 GMT

Couldn't post this while I was there, so a brief recap of my last 36 hours in Spain, spent in Madrid.

We arrived in the late afternoon and met Ryan's friend Javi for dinner. Javi was a lot of fun, perhaps because he's a ROCK STAR, or at least has just recorded an album with his band Mamut. It's an indy pop band although his heart is really in heavy metal, which cracked me up because he's like the opposite of the plot of Detroit Metal City. After dinner Javi drove us around the city so we could see the non-touristy parts, which were surprisingly like Any City Anywhere, and then showed us the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple that somehow got relocated to Spain.

Tuesday was my last day in Spain, and I was fixated on viewing as much art as possible. We got to the Prado as it opened and spent 5.5 hours there, and then after lunch spent another hour and a half at the Thyssen-Bornemisza.

We saw many amazing things but I will recap my three favorites:

Hieronymous Bosch's incredible Garden of Earthly Delights and Seven Deadly Sins. I'd heard Bosch's name before but honestly knew nothing about his art. He's like a 16th century Dalí... it was amazing.
A ridiculously extravagant merman salt cellar and jar featuring Narcissus diving into the liquid, from the Treasury of the Dauphin. Can you imagine having those on your dining room table?
At the Tyssen museum my favorite thing was Dalí's Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Awakening. <3 Dali.

I'd hoped to make it to the Reina Sofia to see Guernica, but it's closed on Tuesdays. Ah well, that's the price of spending only one day in a city.

In the evening we headed up to the gay neighborhood, Chueca for dinner. In pursuit of an heladería on the way home we accidentally ended up in the red light district. Madrid's prostitutes are, um, assertive; as we left the ice cream shop with our cones we saw a prostitute physically grab a man and try to drag him with her. Whoa. Ryan complained that his ice cream tasted of fear and shame.

So that was it: Spain in 10 days! Take that, Frommer's!

Barcelona, the lost Myst world

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:13:55 GMT

I haven't written a thing during our two days in Barcelona, since we've been too busy drooling at the amazing architecture. This city is absurdly beautiful, and the neighborhood we're in is particularly notable for its Modernist (the Catalan flavor of Art Nouveau) buildings.

Our first day in town visited La Sagrada Familia, Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece, which Ryan aptly described as what a church designed by Tim Burton would look like. We then visited the Park Güell, with more quirky Gaudí works. Day two we did a walking tour of Modernist buildings and then visited the Picasso museum, where I particularly enjoyed the temporary exhibition on Kees van Dongen (the image gallery there has some of his coolest paintings; the last three were my favorites).

This morning we visited the most confectionary of Gaudí's buildings, the Myst-esque Casa Batlló. It was spectacular.

In a bit we're off to the train station to try to catch a train to Madrid. So excited to see the Prado!

Montserrat

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:02:49 GMT

Every city we've been to in Spain feels like a new country, but the difference between Andalucia and Catalunia is vast. The crowd is very different, too. In Andalucia the other tourists were mostly Spanish, some French, some East Asian, and overwhelmingly young. Here in Montserrat there are tons of Americans, particularly older Americans on bus tours. It's funny how that happens. Once Justin and I passed a resort town in Turkey that was ALL Russian tourists.

Montserrat is a monastery set among a range of weird, Dali-looking rock pillars near Barcelona. (Though of course it's Dali that resembles Montserrat.) Montserrat is known for its black madonna, La Moreneta, who is the patron of Catalunia. We are gradually learning a little Catalan, which seems closer to French than Castillian Spanish; for example, "please" is "si us plau." Today we finally figured out (meaning that Ryan corralled our amused funicular driver into teaching us some Catalan) that x is sh (thus "coche" in Catalan is written "cotxe") but we still haven't totally worked out the dot between l's, as in our hotel, Cel.les Abat Marcel. I think it's to show it's not a double l pronounced y, but then why not write it Celes?

Oh, Montserrat is also known for its choir; it has, apparently, the oldest boys choir school in Europe. Last night we went to vespers, where the boys' choir sang Salwe Regina (the one I remember from Justin and Amanda's music history class, no less). Oh, and there's also a rather stunning museum.

We intended to do some hiking up here -- it was our consolation for not making it to the Picos de Europa as planned -- but since my ankles were alarmingly swollen we've just been taking it easy. Turns out that's also a good choice. We're all rested and ready to hit Barcelona tomorrow! Modernisme, here we come!

Oft gang awry

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:02:45 GMT

The plan Thursday morning was to wake up at 5:45, head to the center of Granada and catch the 6:30 bus to the airport for our flight to Barcelona.

My first thought on waking was "Huh, it's pretty light outside for not being 5:45 yet." It turns out that's because it was 6:30, and we'd slept through my alarm. We managed to dress, pack, strip our beds, leave a note in Spanish explaining where we left our key, and head out the door by 6:45, all without waking our dormmates. Go us! We speed-walked down the hill to the main road, hailed a cab, and made it to the airport at the same time as the bus. Yay!

That main road is called Gran Via de Colon, by the way. I don't think I've mentioned how very much they like Columbus around here. We visited his rather epic grave in Seville, and the graves of Ferdinand and Isabella in Granada. I never understood why they're called the Catholic Monarchs (los Reyes Catolicos) since being Catholic doesn't seem remarkable in the Spanish context, but that's obviously because I didn't understand how long the reconquista took. They were the monarchs who conquered the emirate of Granada and expelled all Jews from Spain. Oh, and started the Inquisition, of course. Catholic, huh?

Slow food

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:01:47 GMT

I am writing this from a cafe in Albayzin, the aforementioned cool bohemian part of Granada, where Ryan and I have been sitting in a cafe attempting to eat lunch for OVER TWO HOURS. I just got and ate my dish (fried potatoes) but Ryan is still waiting for his fish. The owner just came out to apologize and explain that the fish is "bastante gordo" (quite fat) and thus taking a while to cook, which might be a better excuse if we hadn't seen the waitress go off to BUY the fish 5 minutes before. Ugh.

We spend an extraordinary percentage of every day trying to acquire food. The guidebooks say service is laid back in Spain and you won't get your check immediately, which is fine; lots of countries are like that. But we are consistently having difficulty even getting waiters to bring us menus. They bring other people menus, but not us, even when we ask politely in Spanish. What's this about? Yesterday we had to skip lunch entirely because we had to leave for the train in 45 minutes and that's not enough time to get even a sandwich or crepe.

We made it to Alhambra this morning, which was pretty cool but we both feel not quite as awesome as the Alcazar in Seville. It didn't help that the audioguide was narrated by a fake Washington Irving. Still, Granada is just a fun, hip town. It's funny because I came here specifically for the castle and went to Seville for general ambiance, but that was backwards.

Ah, the salmon is here. Whew!

Seville to Granada

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:21:53 GMT

I've toured a ridiculous number of castles in my life, but I was still blown away by the Alcazar in Seville. You should check out some pictures online.

Favorite part: the doors of the king's chapel are carved with "Only Allah can conquer" in Arabic. I knew Christianity and Islam coexisted in Andalucia, but not that they borrowed so freely from each other.

Now we're in Granada. We've only been here two hours and I love it. LOVE it. And I don't think that's just the one-Euro wine talking. :-) Even if we don't make it into Alhambra tomorrow (apparently they sell only 6200 tickets a day and that's not enough?) it was worth it to come here just to walk the meandering streets, take in the laid-back hippy culture, and enjoy the food and shisha. Granada is precisely what you'd hope a Middle Eastern city would be! Except in Spain. :-)

Betis

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:07:25 GMT

Also, bonus points to anyone who can explain to me what being "relegated" means (context: football/soccer), why it recently happened to Betis, and why precisely that means Seville is full of rowdy protesters wearing green.

Seville

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:06:13 GMT

Seville is beautiful! A lot like Florence in some ways. We spent the morning walking around the cathedral area, especially the network of alleys in the old juderia. Gorgeous. Another highlight was the Archivo de los Indios, a National-Archives-like building housing documents related to the New World, from 1492 onwards. The current exhibit is on Spain's role in US history, which was both educational (I knew nothing of Spains involvement in the revolutionary war) and fun (translating the signs for Ryan). A highlight for me was seeing a very early map of NorCal, including Capes Trinidad.

Unforch, Everything else was closed today (Monday! Grr) so we finished up with a trip to a park with extravagant buildings built for a 1929 expo.
The rest of the day has been devoted to eating things. Said things have been both plentiful and delicious.

¡Estoy en España!

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:41:35 GMT

My travel buddy Ryan and I spent the afternoon in Córdoba, former capital of Al Andalus and once the largest city in Western Europe. Its main claim to fame is the Mezquita, which is the opposite of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul: an enormous, beautiful medieval mosque that was later turned into a church.

Al Andalus, Moorish Spain, is often held up as a high point on religious tolerance between the three Abrahamic faiths. Churches, mosques and synagogues coexisted, and Maimonedes and Averroes both called this city home. But Al Andalus also had its share of low points in interreligious dialogue, too. I'll be interested to learn more during our remaining two days in Andalucia, before we head up to Cataluña, where I am longingly anticipating sub-100-degree weather. (At 6:20 this evening we passed a thermometer reading 42. That's 107 Fahrenheit. At 6:20 pm.)

My high school/college Spanish is gradually returning, but not without some hiccups. Today at an ice cream store I asked for a scoop of mente chocolate, which actually means "chocolate mind." I'm pretty sure I already have one of those...

Things That Are Cool

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:57:15 GMT

1. Two days till Spain! Woooooo!

2. When I opened the front door to go to work this morning, the tiniest gecko I've ever seen ran inside -- so tiny it was translucent! Justin caught it and took it back outside, lest it become the tiniest gecko Oliver ever tore limb from limb.

3. A student just found the songs of Fiddler on the Roof on YouTube and fell in love. He wants to show it on campus. That's actually sort of an awesome idea.

4. I will turn 1 billion seconds old on New Year's Eve.

Freedom of the press in Qatar

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:15:10 GMT

Mr. Q over at ILoveQatar.net posted an Al Jazeera story on some local workers not getting paid:

It's cheering to see Al Jazeera pointing out injustices here in Qatar, and not just in neighboring states (even if they do it in an appalling surfer dude accent).

In more chilling news, the Shura Council just called for more stringent punishment for "Qatar-based journalists who write against the ruler, national security, religion and the Constitution," on the grounds that "Qatar’s social and religious values must be preserved at any cost." Very disappointing. The Peninsula almost immediately posted a rebuttal editorial.

I myself think that the Advisory Council should be "stringently punished" for defying the stated emir's desire for press freedom. They're defaming the Qatari Constitution!

Percentage of the world's population who enjoy freedom of the press, according to Freedomhouse.org.

Less flippantly, freedom of the press is one of the Western values I have most come to appreciate and cherish through living somewhere where it is still a work in progress. If people can't talk openly about what's going well and poorly, how on earth can they improve their society? If people can't question each other's political and religious views, even in potentially offensive ways, how can any of us learn and grow and think and change our minds?

We take for granted in the U.S. that I can say "Bush is a stupid, idiot hick" or "Obama is a smug, smarmy elitist," and while I'll definitely offend somebody, I won't get prosecuted for it. I can insult your religious views and you can insult mine, and the conversation will no doubt get heated and we'll all hate each other at the end, but nobody will end up in jail.

We don't appreciate that as much as we should.

Valderi, valdera, my knapsack on my back...

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:08:40 GMT

The friend with whom I'm traveling to Spain asked my advice on what to pack, so as a follow-up to my travel planning tips, I am now sharing my default packing list when going to a new country for 7-10 days. I like to think I travel pretty light, but I know some of you are way more hard-core than me -- your feedback is welcome. :-)

Clothes

3-4 lightweight shirts, some combo of T-shirts and long-sleeved depending on climate
two pairs of pants with lots of pockets and that don't need belts, one of which is convertible to shorts
fleece jacket and/or rain jacket
3-4 pairs socks, 1 cotton underwire or sports bra, 7 pairs cotton underwear
one pair of decent-looking sneakers, for preference my trail runners since they're most versatile
optional: swimsuit if destination involves swimming; flip-flops if destination is South/Southeast Asia; hat/gloves/scarf if destination is cold; tank top and gym shorts if destination is warm & liberal, or I'm staying in a hostel

Toiletries

travel-size shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, SPF 15 moisturizer (necessitating a quart-size Zip-Loc, if I'm traveling to a stupid country). I know taking my own soap and moisturizer is self-indulgent, but I freaking hate getting dry skin on vacation from caustic hotel soap, so I self-indulge
bug repellent and/or sunblock, depending on destination
contact lens solution and case, glasses, backup pair of contacts. My contacts can be left in for a month at a time but I still remove them for flights -- maybe I should experiment with not doing that, and just take eye drops, but I'm totally paranoid about getting stranded without usable contacts
antibacterial hand sanitizer, if I'm going somewhere with sketchy hygiene
whatever medications I'm taking, and a full tube of ketoprofen gel
1-2 doses each of Naproxen, Immodium, Pyridium, and Zyrtec, and 2 bandaids -- just enough to tide me over until I find a pharmacy, if I get sick
female-type products if necessary
the above all goes in a toiletries bag, or a large plastic bag if I'm watching weight
sunglasses
folding brush/comb thing (a QA business class freebies) and two hair ties (I always lose one)
sleeping mask (another QA freebie) in case of migraine
maybe a washcloth or small hand towel, if I'm staying in hostels

Gadgets

iPod touch -- omg, I can't travel without this anymore. Music, videos and games for boring travel interludes, and internet for on-the-go travel planning, blogging and IMing. It's like my laptop away from laptop. Plus, my earbuds double as ear plugs, and can be used with in-flight entertainment systems.
digital camera
my cell phone if I'm going somewhere with GSM (for emergencies, and because hostelworld SMSes you directions to your hostel for free)
charger/converter and cables for the above three
a headlamp
my travel watch, which figures out time zones for me
Justin likes to take our handheld GPS unit, which can be handy for finding your hostel at the end of the day, but lately I've decided it's not worth it

Miscellaneous

passport, of course
credit & debit cards. My friend asked how much cash I take; the answer is NONE. My credit card (CapitalOne) has amazingly low currency exchange fees and my ATM card (PNC) reimburses us for ATM fees -- I get way better rates with them than through cash exchange.
a moneybelt to keep the above in
driver's license, health insurance card, Qatar Airways gold card, possibly in a wallet
printouts of all plane/train tickets and hostel reservations (with directions)
printouts of applicable Lonely Planet chapters, which I then throw away as they become unnecessary
ballpoint pen. I can't tell you how many times I've had to beg for a pen to fill in entrance visa and customs paperwork at airports
a novel to read. I try to choose one with dense type, to maximize reading time relative to weight :-)
a little nylon bag that folds up into its own pocket, a bit like this one but smaller, in case I want to use my backpack as a daypack, or in case I go crazy and buy more stuff than I can fit in my backpack (e.g., tea in Sri Lanka) or stuff that I can't take carry-on (e.g., samurai sword letter opener in Japan)
I often carry a small bag of nuts for snacking, and of course a water bottle

All this goes in my beloved GoLite Jam².

So what's on your packing list? What can't you leave home without?

bbc 4.6.09 dc death malreported rectify

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:27:11 GMT

I apologize in advance for the tasteless nature of this post, but the larger issue interested me.

I happened to check BBC News this afternoon three minutes after they posted the story about David Carradine's death. The second paragraph read:

"Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck and genitals on Thursday morning."

Within half an hour, that had changed to:

"Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck and body on Thursday morning."

As I write this, it now reads:

"Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found naked by a hotel maid in a wardrobe with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body."

I'm not sure if BBC is getting conflicting/updated reports or if they're just not sure how to handle the delicacies of the situation -- but it's a little alarming that the news can change without there even really being any record that it used to be different. Winston Smith lives!

Japan

Sat, 30 May 2009 17:12:10 GMT

Since I got back from Japan, I have not stopped talking about how awesome it is: the beauty of the temples, the elaborateness of the toilets, the wonderful smell of tatami, the fun of eating with chopsticks. Even their socks are cooler than our socks (I bought five pairs!).

Last week I told my mother-in-law that my friends are sick of hearing me wax lyrical about Japan. She said, "I'm sure that's not true." Justin said, "No, actually, it is."

Luckily Danny Choo is around to remind me of the darker side of Japanese culture, with these crazy pictures of a Canon factory. To improve efficiency nobody has chairs, and apparently if you don't walk 5 meters every 3.6 seconds in the hallways, alarms go off! Hmm, maybe Japan isn't Shangri-La after all.

Marjorie's top travel websites

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:06:23 GMT

I love planning trips to new countries, and I am ridiculously lucky that I get to do it so often. As I'm starting to plan another one (to Spain in two weeks) I thought I'd share my vacation-planning process, since I've found a bunch of useful web resources that other might find handy.

Lots of you guys do a ton of independent travel, too. I'd love for you to comment with other resources you find handy!

Planning an Itinerary

I never pick a country to visit without Googling its name and the phrase "when to go," since there's no point in planning a dream vacation and then showing up to realize it's monsoon season. In some cases I also check State Department travel warnings and Google news, too, to make sure it's safeish. :-)

For putting together a rough itinerary, I think nothing beats looking at the "Getting Started" chapters in Lonely Planet guides. These are all available for FREE on the Lonely Planet website, under the "Buy by Chapter" section for each guide (here's Spain's). That chapter gives an overview of the coolest parts of the country and suggests a handful of itineraries. I've never actually copied one of their itineraries wholesale, but it's usually where I start to get a sense of where I'd most like to visit (and which of the chapter I want to buy).

I use lots of online resources to refine my itinerary: the applicable Lonely Planet chapter(s), Wikitravel.org (hit-and-miss: its Japan pages were as good as the Lonely Planet; its Spain pages are paltry), and local tourist websites (e.g., asturiasguide.com), which while cheesy are frequently very helpful. In the case of adventuresome destinations I check out the itineraries of tour companies that do the sorts of trips that I like (e.g., Exodus, GAP). I also Google stuff like "one week in Spain" to find other people's suggested itineraries. And if I'm trying to decide between scenic locales, I often search Google or Flickr for pictures of the places, to see if they appeal.

Don't forget to find out about local festivals and events. My Japan itinerary was entirely built around the discovery that Nara, Kyoto and Tokyo were having major festivals in the same week. And of course, detailed itineraries always have to be worked out in parallel with domestic travel plans, since the order in which you visit the cities on your list depends on when the trains/buses are convenient.

Travel

For international travel I'm a Travelocity girl -- I always shop around, but usually that ends up being the way to go. For domestic air travel, I've found the cheapest tickets are often found by getting a list of the airlines that fly into the relevant airport (either from the airport website or from Wikipedia) and going through their websites.

Seat61.com is indispensable if you're taking trains (and you should!). Figuring out the train system in a new country can be daunting, but seat61 tells you everything you need to know: what companies operate which lines, where to find timetables, how to buy tickets, how far in advance to book, whether you need seat reservations, what to expect at the station, everything. My favorite is that it has pictures of the different classes of train travel so you can decide which class to buy, which is fabulous in countries like India where you have eight choices!

Sleeping

As far as I'm concerned, Hostelworld is the definitive source for information on where to stay as well as the easiest way to make reservations. The hostels are rated by a huge number of people who have actually stayed there (unlike on tripadvisor, where hotel owners can post fake rave reviews), so you get very reliable info on what the hostel's like. I don't even use the Lonely Planet's suggestions anymore; why rely on one travel writer's experience in 2007 when you can see how 20 people who stayed there last week felt about it?

Some of my friends don't book in advance, though, because some of the cheapest hostels don't have a web presence; instead, they just show up and look around for a place to stay. That works really well some places (e.g. Thailand, parts of India) but for others (e.g., western Europe) I like the peace of mind of knowing I have somewhere to stay.

I'll add more sites to this list as I think of them. Fellow travelers, what websites do you find most useful?

Amnesty International Human Rights Report

Thu, 28 May 2009 08:56:30 GMT

Amnesty International just released their 2009 human rights report. Their writeup of Qatar is here.

Their slant is odd to me. The report devotes more room to specific citizenship issues than to worker rights, when workers rights abuses affect many more people much more severely. (And if they want to talk about citizenship, why not mention unfair laws that deny citizenship to children of Qatari mothers and non-Qatari fathers? That seems more egregious than stripping someone of his citizenship for an attempted coup.)

Also their population estimate is off by, like, a factor of two. Bizarre. I love Amnesty International, but shouldn't they do better research than that?

Danger!

Tue, 26 May 2009 12:05:38 GMT

Not the dreaded Road Orks!!!

In other news, it is currently 117˚.