October 12, 2007
Train Goin' Home
Tags: Amtrak | going home | trains | travel
Posted by acarvin at 7:26 PM
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June 1, 2007
Do You Lug Your Laptop on Vacation?
According to a new AP-Ipsos poll, one in five people bring their laptop with them on vacation:
Sun block. Beach umbrella. Laptop. One in five people toted laptop computers on their most recent vacations, an AP-Ipsos poll released Friday said. Along with the 80 percent who said they brought along their cell phones, the survey shows going on vacation no longer means being out of the electronic loop.Sizable numbers are interrupting their unwinding time to check in at the office and, even more so, to keep up with the social buzz.
About one in five said they did some work while vacationing, and about the same number checked office messages or called in to see how things were going, the poll showed. Twice as many checked their e-mail, while 50 percent kept up with other personal messages like voice mail.
Color me guilty.
From the looks of this poll, they seemed to be fishing to see if people were bringing along laptops as a way of keeping tabs on business while they're on holiday. Some examples they cite:
"I'm the final guy, so I make sure my customers are happy," said Don Schneider, 43, a plumbing contractor from Buena Park, Calif., who also runs an online business that supplies video equipment for plumbers....... "It's like a cloud hanging over my head until I get it done," Lee Ann Harrison, 37, a third-grade teacher from Halls, Tenn., said of the work she did on a family trip to Southaven, Miss., for her young son's baseball team. She said she found herself grading papers "between games, somewhere in the shade."
I'm sure that none of you is surprised I bring along a laptop when I'm on vacation. But it's not for why you'd think. If I merely wanted to keep up with email, I'd use my phone for that. I bring along my laptop so I can make media. I want to be able to post photos of Kayleigh playing with her cousins. I want to upload some audio I recorded of traffic in India. I want to blog about the amazing dinner we had last night. I want to create a video montage of all the cool places we visited that day. Forget work - I want my laptop with me so I can be creative. Because being creative is integral to how I relax - whether at home or on vacation. -andy
Tags: creativity | laptops | polls | relaxing | travel | vacation | work
Posted by acarvin at 1:30 PM
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August 1, 2006
Catching Up on Some Old Photo Albums
Since yesterday was the last day of the month, I decided to max out the remaining bandwidth in my two-gigs-a-month allotment from Flickr by uploading some photos from my previous travels. Before switching to a digital camera, I used to have my 35mm photos burned to a CD when I got them developed, leaving me with a batch of CDs just asking to be uploaded. So I've uploaded three new sets to Flickr:
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Rajasthan 2001: Our second trip to India, including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, the Pushkar Camel Fair, Udaipur and Chittorgarh. |
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Russia & Estonia: My February 2002 trip to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tallinn. |
This brings my Flickr collection to 10,364 photos. Wonder how long it'll take me to reach 20,000. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 6:00 PM
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April 21, 2006
The Great Mosque of Kairouan
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Video montage of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia, one of the holiest sites in Islam. Music by Solace, courtesy of |
Posted by acarvin at 1:56 PM
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April 9, 2006
Carmel Brunch; the Loss of a "Son"
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Carmel street scene |
After breakfast I called for a taxi to take me to Carmel, just a few miles west of the hotel. The taxi driver was listening to the Prairie Home Companion. Garrison Keillor was singing a song about a teacher and something about "laptop blogging" - or at least that's what it sounded like he said.
The taxi dropped me of in the heart of Carmel, along Ocean Avenue, about a half mile from the Pacific. A classic art colony town, Carmel was lined with galleries and antique shops, most of which were open - a surprise for a Sunday morning. One gallery had a great collection of paintings and sculptures by Dr. Seuss, including a set of mounted "hunting trophies" featuring the smiling heads of whimsical Seuss creatures.
I strolled west, heading downhill to the Pacific. Ocean Ave was lined with numerous pine trees, their scent wafting through the morning air. In some ways I felt like I was exploring a row of shops at a Renaissance Fair, minus the knaves and wenches. Getting further away from the shops, the street sloped downhill more sharply, making me thankful that the sidewalk wasn't slick yet from the approaching rain. A middle-aged man in a jogging suit passed me with a playful yellow lab, which paused for a minute to greet me a good morning.
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Carmel's beach, at the far end of Ocean Ave |
Once I realized that the sand was scuffing the hell out of my shoes, I began making my way back uphill, meandering block by block to explore the various shops tucked away just off the main drag. There seemed to be no shortage of Asian-themed galleries. One sported a fine collection of Indonesian and Papuan art, as well as countless Lao Buddha statues. Another shop featured enormous wooden doors that had been imported from Rajasthan, with a smattering of Dogon ladders from Mali, perhaps for a bit of geographic diversity. Several stores offered headless statues instantly recognizable as Khmer, reminding me of the National Geographic Explorer film about Cambodia's losing battle against antiquities smugglers. I wondered if these pieces had been imported on the up-and-up.
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The Tuck Box, Carmel |
The Tuck Box menu offered a light lunch selection, including omelettes, salads and a few sandwiches. I ordered an omelette and iced tea, passing the time by reading my latest Patrick O'Brian book and listening to the Dresden Dolls on my iPod. The omelette was excellent, but the accompanying scones were a joy to behold. Unlike any scones I'd previously tasted, they were baked in a cast iron skillet, giving them a texture not unlike New England corn bread.
Finishing brunch, I decided to call for another taxi and return to the hotel. The light drizzle outside had matured into a steady rain. While I waited for the taxi, I wandered into a home decorating shop a couple doors beyond the Tuck Box. A man working behind the counter smiled politely.
"Hello there," he said, struggling to break a smile.
"Hi, how are you?" I replied casually.
"We just lost our son," the man answered.
"My God, I'm so sorry," I said, otherwise at a loss for words.
"It's okay... I'm sure it'll be back in a few days."
At this point I can only imagine the expression on my face, as I was thoroughly confused. It took me a moment to realize that the son he had lost was actually the sun - as in, "We had just lost our sun."
I felt like an idiot. That taxi couldn't have arrived at a better time.
Posted by acarvin at 5:09 PM
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April 5, 2006
Tallinn in Winter
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Video montage of a snowy day in Tallinn, Estonia, shot by me in Novembe 2004. Music by Dufay Collective, courtesy of Magnatune.com, used in accordance with their Creative Commons license. Tag: videobloggingweek2006 |
Posted by acarvin at 9:16 AM
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April 3, 2006
Muscat Fish Market
It's that time of year again; Video Blogging Week 2006 runs all this week, April 3-9. The goal of this online festival is to get video bloggers from all over the world to post videos for seven days in a row. For me, I've decided to do a travel theme, since I never seem to run out of footage from all of my trips over the last few years. (I may throw in a couple of extra vlogs, far removed from the wanderlust theme, just for fun as well.) I also plan to experiment with soundtracks supplied by the amazing music label Magnatune.com, which generously makes their entire catalogue available to content producers on a noncommercial-attribute-sharealike Creative Commons license.
To kick off the week, I'm posting a video I shot at a fish market in Muscat, Oman. I visited Oman in October 2003 and did some of my earliest multimedia blogging there. I was also invited to go to Oman for a conference that started yesterday, but wasn't able to make it, so the video helps me live vicariously through the experience.
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Video of a Muscat fish market, Muscat, Oman. Music by Solace, courtesy of Magnatune.com, used in accordance with their Creative Commons license. tag: videobloggingweek2006 |
Posted by acarvin at 8:43 AM
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November 28, 2005
Djerba Shave: Tunisian Barber Shop
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Video of me getting a professional shave in Djerba, Tunisia. Camera work by Marouen Mraihi. |
Posted by acarvin at 9:50 AM
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October 26, 2005
Scenes from a Bangladeshi Telecentre
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Video montage of a telecentre based at a girls school in Comilla, Bangladesh. The telecentre is run by Relief International's Schools Online program, which coordinates 20 telecentres across the country. |
Posted by acarvin at 5:12 AM
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September 15, 2005
Casualties of Ophelia
Stranded at Boston's Logan airport. Can't catch connection to Philly because of Hurricane Ophelia. Trying to get a flight change, maybe to Toronto or Dublin or London. Ugh. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 5:49 PM
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July 22, 2005
Just Call Me Kofi
When I first arrived in Ghana, I was struck by the number of people who shared similar names. I'd lost track of the number of Kofis and Kojos I'd met, not to mention Kwasis, Akosuas, Amas and Kwames. At first I wondered if there was a Balinese-like naming system for children, in which first-borns are named Wayan, second children are named Made, etc. But after poking around I figured out it's a twist on the same concept. Rather than naming kids on birth order, Ghanaian children (or at least those who are ethnic Akans) are named based on the day of the week they are born. They're then given a second name, chosen by the parents.
In case you were wondering what names are associated with what days, here's the skinny.
- Sunday: Kwasi (boys); Akosua, Asi, Ese (girls)
- Monday: Kwadwo, Kojo (boys); Adwoa, Ajao (girls)
- Tuesday: Kwabena, Kobina (boys); Abena, Araba (girls)
- Wednesday: Kwaku (boys); Akua (girls)
- Thursday: Yao, Ekow (boys); Yaa (girls)
- Friday: Kofi (boys); Afua, Afia, Efua (girls)
- Saturday: Kwame, Kwamena (boys); Ama (girls)
Needless to say, this got me all wondering what day of the week I was born. I knew the date, obviously, but couldn't exactly remember the day. For some reason, Thursday seemed right - Yao, then? But I wanted to be sure. So I opened up my Mac iCalendar and clicked the month button three hundred and some-odd times backwards until I got to July 30, 1971. So there it was: a Friday. Just call me Kofi.
Oh, and Susanne, in case you're reading this: from now on I christen you Ajao, except when we return to Bali. Then, you can be Made again.... -kwc (that's Kofi Wayan Carvin, of course)
Posted by acarvin at 6:11 AM
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July 17, 2005
Milanese Malaise
Bored off my gourd at Milan's Malpensa Airport waiting seven hours til my flight to Accra. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:08 AM
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June 23, 2005
Pour Me Some More Coffee....
It's 4:30pm here in Seoul, and we're just wrapping up our afternoon coffee break. I needed to have two stiff cups of java just to avoid an embarassing series of yawns back in the conference room; a 13-hour timezone shift can be really tough on the body, particularly during the first day.
It's been a jam-packed day of keynotes and panels, with more speeches in one day than I hear in some entire conferences. Lunch was served in a grand ballroom a few floors down from the plenary hall; I enjoyed a random assortment of sushis and pickled vegetables while chatting with Robert Sagun from the WSIS Youth Caucus, Cosmas Zavazava of the ITU and Rita Tsering from UN Volunteers.
Right now, Ahmad Farshid Ghyasi of UNDP Afghanistan is talking about ICT initiatives in his country. We'll also hear from speakers from Bulgaria, Burundi, Korea and Nepal in this session. I may try to record a few more sessions, but right now I have a backlog of recordings made during the morning session that I'll have to edit and post later. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 3:29 AM
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May 14, 2005
Telecottage Tour, Day One
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A retiree checks email at the Budaörs telecottage |
We drove through heavy traffic, crossing the Danube and driving up the hillside, with a marvelous view of the palace to the right. Eventually, the traffic thinned out; we passed numerous car dealerships and signs for an Ikea, several kilometers ahead. Arriving in Budaörs (BOO-dah-ersh), we parked in the center of town, not far from its central church. The telecottage was located in an office complex; inside, the receptionist invited us to look around, have some coffee and wait for patrons to arrive.
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Senior citizens take advantage of the Budaörs telecottage |
Leaving the telecottage, we crossed town to meet with the mayor and one of his advisors. The mayor was very enthusiastic about the initiative. The city is planning to open a new town hall that will feature free municipal wi-fi, which they recently started offering at the telecottage. They also plan to roll-out half a dozen other telecottages so that every resident would be within a 15-minute walk to a local access point. The mayor then gave me a gift bag full of souvenirs from Budaörs, including a CD of the local orchestra, a t-shirt, and a small bottle of sweet Tokaj wine. From there, we went to a local restaurant for lunch with the city manager; it was a cozy place with delicious asparagus soup and a paprika turkey breast accompanied by roasted fruit.
After lunch, we left the suburbs and went further afield, to the village of Zámoly (ZAH-moy). Known for its wine and a famous WWII tank battle, Zámoly is also home to Istvan, an extraordinary community activist. In his sprawling home, Istvan runs a telecentre and community radio station that provides six hours of programming a day. The telecentre was quiet today, but the radio station was in the middle of a folk music broadcast. In a back room, he runs a one-watt transmitter suitable for low-power FM broadcasting to the surrounding community. Istvan and a team of volunteers also provide public affairs programming to the village. To bring additional financial support to their efforts, he's now planning to open a small hostel upstairs and host cultural heritage tours for Hungarian Americans and others around the world.
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Csákberény telecottage, Hungary's first telecentre |
"Do you know what those are?" Mátyás asked.
"No, I don't," I replied.
"Every May 1, young men secretly go to the local forest and dig up a tree to plant in the yard of their sweetheart. The girl then wakes up the next morning and is surprised to see the tree. It stays there for the whole month."
Back in the car, we drove two hours south through rolling hill country towards the small village of Alsomócsolád (ALL-soh-moh-cho-lad), population 300. Unfortunately, I hadn't spent much time in the back seat of a car careening down country roads at 120 kilometers an hour, so I began to feel rather car sick. I managed not to cause an international incident, though.
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Alsomócsolád's telecottage |
After the tour, the mayor invited us in his office for a drink. He brought out a bottle of palinka (PAH-leen-kah), the local apricot brandy. The bottle was unlabeled.
"Is this home-made?"
"Yes, of course," the mayor said.
"In the US we'd call this moonshine. It's not exactly legal for private citizens to make liquor."
"Here it's not legal either," Mátyás said. "But a mayor can grant distilling licenses so it's okay for him."
I sipped at the palinka; not the smoothest drink I've ever had but certainly far from rot-gut.
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Alsomócsolád's telecottage manager hangs out with a student from the village |
After dinner, the mayor invited us across the street to the local pub. From there, the rest of the evening is rather hazy. According to the pictures I took, we sat around a table eating copious amounts of popcorn, drinking glasses of a dark liqueur that I recall commenting to Mátyás, "It tastes like Jagermeister but not as strong." I should have taken this as a warning sign but the mayor was persuasive, and I did not want to disrespect local officials.
At some point before we finally retired to a local hostel, I remember the mayor asking us if we would like to get up early tomorrow morning to climb the local church tower. It sounded like a fine way to start the day. Or, at least that's what I thought at the time. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 4:42 AM
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February 22, 2005
Arrival in Geneva
Here's something I wrote while waiting to register for the Prepcom yesterday afternoon.... -andy
My flight to Paris was one of the easiest overnight flights I've experienced, no doubt because I was upgraded by Air France to business class. After countless transatlantic flights in coach class, I marveled at the luxury of personal space. I stretched out in my comfortable seat and listened to Air France radio. The first song I heard was by Edith Piaf -- or so I thought. Listening to the song for a few minutes, it took me a while to realize that the chanteuse in question was singing in Portuguese -- a dead giveaway of it not being the urchin sparrow herself.
Not long after dinner, I leaned back my seat as far as it would go, raised the foot rest, and did my best to sleep. At first I twisted and turned like I usually do on overnight flights, but at some point I must have fallen asleep, because suddenly I was woken by a flight attendant trying to serve me breakfast before the plane exited Irish air space. Watching the in-flight navigation system, it seemed we were going to arrive on schedule. But for some reason we circled the airport, round and round, eating up the precious minutes I had between flights. If the flight had arrived on time, I would have had 55 minutes to catch my next fight; by the time I stepped off the plane, I had 25 minutes -- and somehow I had to get to the right terminal.
Usually, navigating Paris CDG airport is easy, but that's because most of my connecting flights have always been in the same terminal. This time, in my rush to get to the right place, I found myself in the wrong place, exiting the terminal at the taxi stand rather than the shuttle connection that goes directly to the other terminal. I frantically asked a policeman how to get to the terminal; he said I would have my best chance of making it if I went on foot. I charged through the concourse and along the moving walkways to terminal 2F. Within 10 minutes, I was at the terminal's security entrance. The queue was short, but it was my luck that I got to be the one subjected to a random search. A policeman went through my computer bag, and all the little bags contained within it: the outlet adapter bag, computer cords bag, allergy medicine bag, you name it. Fortunately the policeman's fingers were nimble and swift, and he completed his task in a couple of minutes. I darted through the terminal, arriving at the appropriate gate with 10 minutes to spare.
I collapsed in my seat, exhausted and cramped -- particularly after being spoiled by the plush surroundings of business class on my previous flight. I didn't have to wait too long, though, as the flight from Paris to Geneva was only 50 minutes. It gave me just enough time to ponder whether my luggage had made the flight as well.
On the ground in Geneva, I soon discovered my concerns were justified -- my green Samsonite suit bag was not waiting for me on the carousel. I went to the Air France lost luggage desk, where they confirmed my bag was still sitting in Paris. "It should be on the 2 o'clock flight," the agent told me. "You should have it by late afternoon."
Unencumbered by most of my belongings, I exited the arrivals area and caught the next train to downtown Geneva, 15 minutes away. I remembered the train station as soon as I arrived, having spent a week here 14 months ago. Outside the station, I could see my hotel directly across the street: Hotel Bernina. Given that it was 12:15pm, I didn't expect them to let me check in so early, but the man at the front desk took mercy on me and gave me my room key, allowing me to kick off my shoes, shower, and wonder when my luggage would actually arrive. At best, my bag would show up in at least three or four hours. This meant I'd have to head over to the UN in the clothes I wore on my flight -- not exactly my idea of a stellar first impression.
Outside the hotel I caught a tram towards Palais des Nations, the UN's home in Geneva. As was the case the last time I was here, I was totally baffled by the tram's ticketing system. There didn't seem to be a simple, one-way ticket option, and the machine kept vomiting my Swiss francs back at me. Fortunately, a good Samaritan offered to use his smartcard to buy me a ticket, keeping my small change in exchange.
I arrived at the Palais des Nations 10 minutes later, standing at the tram terminus, trying to figure out where to go next. The palais itself was just to my right, but my registration information said I needed to go to the Montbrillant building first to pick up my badge. A guard at the entrance of the palais sent me in the right direction, cutting back through the tram stop towards a nondescript office building with the letters ITU / UIT emblazoned across the top.
Inside the building, a sign with the words "Prepcom badges" pointed towards an empty desk. I asked a man working at the information kiosk if I was in the right place.
"Yes, it is over there, at 2o'clock," he said, pointing behind me. I turned and looked in the direction of 2 o'clock -- ahead and to the right.
"But there's nothing there," I replied.
"The desk is there," he said. "There are no people because they are at lunch. You must wait until 2 o'clock."
So now I've had the last 55 minutes to write this. Better go register now... -ac
Posted by acarvin at 3:30 AM
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February 21, 2005
Podcast: First Afternoon in Geneva
Here's a three-minute podcast of my first afternoon in Geneva.
Posted by acarvin at 12:00 PM
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February 20, 2005
How to Pack for Geneva and Mumbai in the Same Suitcase
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Dizzy sleeps on my suit bag |
Packing for this trip has been more stressful than other business trips, since I will experience two temperature extremes on this trip: cold, occasionally wet Geneva and Paris, and hot, steamy India. Additionally, the dress code for India is somewhat more casual than the dress code for Geneva, leaving me with another layer of fashion algorithms to compute while packing. So unless I want to pack two separate suitcase for this trip (which I refuse on principal), I'm compromising and packing a lot of dress shirts and ties, leaving behind the suits I'd typically bring to a United Nations meeting and the lightest clothes I'd usually bring to an India meeting. The result, of course, may run counter to the fashion sense of everyone I meet on this trip, but at least I can still fit it all in one giant suit bag.
So if all goes well, I'll get everything packed (except the cats, who will have to find other places to sleep), catch my flights to Paris and Geneva, and check into the Hotel Bernina before 12pm tomorrow. This should allow me to arrive at the WSIS Prepcom meeting just in time for tomorrow's afternoon sessions. I just hope I manage to get some sleep on the plane; otherwise I will be a zombie tomorrow... -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:55 PM
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February 19, 2005
Whirlwind Winter Tour: Geneva, Paris, India
Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to hit the road for a couple of weeks. I'll spend all of next week in Geneva at the planning meeting, or "prepcom," for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). I'll be participating as a civil society delegate, but also plan to blog and podcast as often as I can. Then over the weekend of the 27th, I'll head to Paris briefly before flying to Mumbai for the Baramati conference in Baramati, India. Hopefully the bandwidth in Baramati will be robust enough to upload podcasts; otherwise I'll post blogs and save the multimedia for later.
As always, you'll be able to find my blogs and podcasts here on my Waste of Bandwidth. If you use podcasting software, you can receive the podcasts automatically with this RSS feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/carvin
The RSS feed for my blog remains http://www.andycarvin.com/index.xml, but I've set up the second feed because it's more podcast-friendly than my blog feed, which has had a few problems that make it difficult for people trying to get my podcasts automatically.
Lastly, if you're interested in following everything else going on at the Prepcom, I'm experimenting with a web page that aggregates blogs from half a dozen bloggers attending the event. You can find that page here:
http://www.edwebproject.org/wsisblogs
It's still a work in progress, but hopefully might be useful to some of you.
Meanwhile, if you plan to be in any of the aforementioned cities, please let me know; I'd love to say hello in person if I get a chance...
Posted by acarvin at 11:36 AM
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December 19, 2004
Ishtar Gate Video
Susanne and I went to see the movie Alexander the Great this weekend, knowing full well that it's supposed to be one of the worst epics ever made. In this regard, the film did not disappoint; it's giving us fodder for days of conversation on the hundreds of egregious missteps that Oliver Stone made in this trainwreck of a film.
Having said that, we were pleasantly surprised to see his depiction of Babylon and its famous Ishtar Gate: the souring blue-tiled gate leading to the heart of the Babylonian palace. Some of you may not know that the gate still exists, reconstructed in spectacular fashion in Berlin's Pergamon Museum. Here's a video of Ishtar Gate I took last month during my trip to Berlin. You can see Susanne at the beginning of the clip, gazing up at the gate. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 10:24 PM
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December 17, 2004
Vicarious Snowball Fight
This morning I woke up to a pleasant surprise: a sizable dusting of snow had covered the neighborhood during the early morning hours. As beautiful as it was, the dusting wasn't enough to make snowballs, so I'd like to offer up this vicarious snowball fight: a group of kids in Tallinn, Estonia, having a snowball fight outside their school, which I caught on my digital camera last month. Enjoy! -andy
Posted by acarvin at 8:27 PM
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December 3, 2004
A Very Vanderbilt Christmas
Yesterday, Susanne and I took our new car for its first weekend road trip, heading down to Newport, Rhode Island to visit some of its famous 19th century mansions. While Newport may be most popular in the summer, December is a great time to visit, because several of the mansions are decked out in full Christmas regalia.
It's only a 90-minute drive from Boston to Newport, so we arrived there just before lunch. We bought a multi-mansion pass that would allow us to visit the three mansions decorated for the holidays: The Elms, The Breakers and Marble House.
Our first stop was The Elms. Built at the turn of the 20th century for coal magnate E.J. Berwind, The Elms is a replica of Chateau D'Agnes in Asnieres, France. Entering the mansion, we were giving an audio guide, a small digital recorder with a room-by-room guide to the mansion. The audio tour took just over 30 minutes, leading us through the mansion's grand bedrooms, drawing room, kitchens and dining room, which was decorated with an enormous painting of Alexander the Great. I particularly enjoyed the part of the tour that led us through the kitchen and pantry: magnificent, spacious rooms that could cook a feast for hundreds of guests at a time.
After The Elms, our next stop was The Breakers. Perhaps the most famous mansion in America and the most visited tourist attraction in Rhode Island, The Breakers is the grand dame of Newport mansions. Constructed for Cornelius Vanderbilt in the 1890s, the mansion drips with opulance, extravagance, grandeur, excess. The Breakers is built around a two-story Great Hall, a magnificent space that could entertain hundreds of guests. At the far end of the Great Hall was a Christmas tree constructed entirely of poinsettia plants. To the left of the tree, a regal red staircase led to the second floor; from the base of the stairs you could see a huge painting of Mrs. Vanderbilt, just below a magical green skylight that had originally resided in the Vanderbilt's New York estate.
We didn't have an audio guide for our visit to The Breakers, which was a shame; the pamphlet given to us simply didn't convey the stories contained in the digital player we used at The Elms. Nonetheless, the mansion was magnificent, particularly the dining room. Inspired by Versailles and reminiscent of The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the dining room is perhaps the grandest eating hall in all of North America.
The third mansion on our tour was Marble House, another Vanderbilt estate. Constructed entirely of marble at a cost of more than $10 million, Marble House is a stunning site. The styles of the rooms varied greatly; in one corner of the house we found a monastery-like Gothic Room, complete with stained glass, while Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom looked like a suite suited for Marie Antoinette herself. While not as over-the-top magnificent as The Breakers, Marble House was actually more interesting because it came with an excellent audio guide. The guide conveyed the personality of Mrs. Vanderbilt and her daughter quite dramatically, particularly since it made it apparent that the daughter resented the mother's controlling nature.
After a brief stop at a local pub, we paid a return visit to The Breakers for a special treat. The mansion was open that evening as part of a holiday tour program that only occurs on Saturday nights each December. It's one of the few chances visitors get to experience the mansion at night. Top it off with live music and festive snacks, it was an opportunity we didn't want to miss.
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| The Great Hall of The Breakers. Click the photo to see a video of the "12 Days of Christmas" singalong. |
Meanwhile, the singers led all of us in a series of Christmas Carols, the highlight of which was a tag-team rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas. The singers had the crowd break into different groups, each having a singing assignment. Susanne and I found ourselves in a the group singing "10 lords a-leaping" and "11 pipers piping." Some groups were better than others, several of them clearly taking their job quite seriously. The best group was the team singing "five golden rings"; the only group on the second floor of the Great Hall, the singers were loud, out of tune, and thoroughly entertaining. It was a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season.... -andy
Tags: 12 Days of Christmas | caroling | Christmas | mansions | Newport | Rhode Island | The Breakers | The Elms | Vanderbilt
Posted by acarvin at 8:42 AM
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November 25, 2004
A Very Floridian Turkey Day
It's Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and Susanne and I have just arrived in Florida for a long weekend with my family. Later this morning, Susanne and I are going to EPCOT for the day before rendezvousing with my parents and grandmother for Thanksgiving dinner at one of the local resort hotels. Tomorrow, we may take a day trip to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States, while on Saturday, we're hoping to go sailing with friends. All in all, it's looking like it's going to be a very relaxing weekend -- let's just hope the weather holds up.... -andy
Posted by acarvin at 8:52 AM
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November 12, 2004
Off to Europe for the Week
This afternoon, Susanne and I are off to Europe for the next week, and you're invited to come along for the ride. I'll be attending the UN ICT Taskforce meeting in Berlin at the end of next week; prior to that, I'll be in Helsinki and in Tallinn, where I plan to have a variety of meetings related to local initiatives on bridging the digital divide and connecting schools to the Internet. I'll have my laptop with me, so I plan to blog throughout the entire week. Please feel free to visit while we're on the road.... -andy
Posted by acarvin at 9:01 AM
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May 27, 2004
Self Portrait in Chrome
Waiting at the airport for our flight to Iceland.
posted from Andy's mobile phone
Posted by acarvin at 8:13 PM
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May 17, 2004
Last Day in Hong Kong
Today would be my last day in Hong Kong; my flight would depart just after midnight, so I'd have to head to the airport at 10pm. After meeting with colleagues for breakfast, a group of us checked out late in the morning to move our belongings over to the Metropark Hotel in Causeway Bay. Suzanne Stein and Marcelo Sant'Iago were both staying there, and Suzanne was kind enough to let Louise van Rooyen and me leave our luggage in her room for the day while the four of us played tourist with the free time we had left.
We hired a minibus taxi to take us to the Metropark; with all of our collective luggage there was no way we could have jammed all of our stuff into a standard taxi. The minibus looked like it spent most of its time transporting livestock, but it still got us to where we needed to go. Over at the Metropark, the hotel wasn't ready for new guests to check in, so we all left our luggage with the bell stand, baffling the attendee as to why this Suzanne Stein character had such a ridiculous amount of luggage going up to her room.
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| Suzanne Stein gets fitted at the tailor in Kowloon |
Back at the tailor, Suzanne got fitted for her suits while Louise browsed and Marcelo politely declined several offers from George to get a suit made. Once our business was done, we went downstairs to the local McDonalds to take advantage of the public bathroom facilities. There was a huge line for the women's bathroom, so Marcelo picked up a fried shrimp snack; it was tasty, but more fried than shrimp.
We then walked towards the Star Ferry to return to Central. A small elderly gentleman in Buddhist robes approached me and tried to get me to make some kind of contribution. This being Kowloon, notorious for its dime-a-dozen scams, I declined. I walked a few more steps with Marcelo before we realized that the elderly fellow was now handing papers and trinkets to Louise and Suzanne. Uh-oh. Marcelo and I just shook our heads and grimaced while the ladies made their transaction: apparently they'd each get some prayers said for them at some local Buddhist shrine for a small fortune -- about 20 bucks apiece. I hope they're damn good prayers for that price.
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| Filipino amahs picnic in the atrium of the HSBC building. Click on the picture to see the video. |
Heading uphill from the HSBC building, we climbed through the park adjacent to the St. John's Cathedral. When it was built in the 1800s, locals complained it was an eyesore; today it's once of the few significant colonial-era buildings left on the island. The cathedral was packed for Sunday afternoon services; a choir sang a beautiful hymn in the back of the church. A man standing near the entrance quietly told us we couldn't take pictures, so we stood silently, listening to the haunting hymn as the congregation fanned themselves for relief from the mid-day heat.
A few meters up the street from the cathedral we reached the entrance to the Peak Tram. This was to be my second trip to the top of the Peak on this trip to Hong Kong, but it was the first time up for everyone else. For a Sunday afternoon it was surprisingly quiet in the ticket line, so we were able to get our tickets and climb into the tram in a matter of minutes. Louise and Suzanne were engrossed in conversation for much of the trip while Marcelo and I quietly enjoyed the view; after a while I had to give Louise a poke on the shoulder so the two of them would look out the window to see what they were missing: a spectacular view of the Hong Kong skyline as the funicular pulled us higher and higher.
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| Andy, Marcelo, Louise and Suzanne pose for a photo at the Peak |
"I just wanted to see how they were organizing their questions," she said afterwards, laughing. "The ‘where are you from' questions were just a list of checkboxes with only a handful of countries, and some of the questions were a bit leading, like, ‘Do you agree or disagree - Hong Kong is a shopping paradise."
"Don't forget they're totally skewing their whole data set by preying on smokers at the garbage can," I added. "Wonder if they're all more likely to show other addictive traits, like compulsive shopping or gambling…"
After having our fill of the view, we needed to fill our stomachs; it was nearly 3pm and we hadn't had any lunch yet. We went to a café on the second floor of the Peak Galleria, which featured a marvelous view of the city. At first we sat outside in open sunlight, but after 30 minutes we felt we were being rotisserie roasted by the hot afternoon sun. Fortunately a table with an umbrella soon opened up, so we moved over to it, probably adding a few weeks to our lifetimes by avoiding the inevitable skin cancer we were giving ourselves in the open sunlight. Marcelo and Louise got noodle dishes while I had an oriental chicken salad and Suzanne stuck with sushi. The food was average at best, and the bill was, well, let's just say you pay for the view and not for the quality of food or service.
By now it was nearly 4:30pm, and Louise had to be back at the Metropark at 6pm for her ride to the airport. I'd wanted to take them to the Man Mo Temple, but time was running tight. So we decided to take the next tram down from the Peak and catch a taxi to the temple. The taxi took us uphill through the Mid-Levels, past the island's main mosque and synagogue, then plummeting downhill again towards Sheung Wan. We exited the taxi a couple blocks east of the temple so the driver didn't have to navigate the local one-way streets.
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| Beams of light cut through the incense smoke at Man Mo Temple. Click on the picture to see a video. |
I found myself checking my watch every few minutes, somewhat concerned about Louise missing her ride to the airport. As long as we took a taxi back to the hotel, we still had a little time. So we walked a couple of blocks to the Cat Street antique market, where we all stocked up on gifts and souvenirs. Soon enough, though, it was 5:30pm, so we caught a taxi back to the Metropark.
Once we got there, though, I discovered that Louise's ride was actually coming at 6:30, not 6:00, so we actually had time to spare. We decided to have a parting drink in the hotel bar. Marcelo and I made it down there first while Suzanne and Louise freshened up. For some strange reason, the bar was playing Elton John's "Your Song" over and over; Marcelo and I lost track after a dozen times in a row. By the time Suzanne and Louise joined us, it was nearly time for her to go, so I ran down to the bell captain and told him that she'd be running a few minutes late. I should have said longer; we ended up spending about half an hour in the bar before parting ways with Louise.
Since I too had to go to the airport in just three hours, I wanted to stay fairly close to the hotel. Suzanne and I hung out at the bar a little while longer while Marcelo had a quick shower, then we went for a walk around the neighborhood. We probably should have gotten some dinner but I was still full from our late lunch, so we ended up swinging by the local supermarket, where we picked up a few beers to drink upstairs, noshing on cashews and watching MTV Malaysia in Suzanne's room.
By 10 o'clock, it was time for me to go, so we all said our goodbyes. Who knows where we'll see each other next; Osama Manzar and Zaman are each trying to organize similar events in India and Bangladesh respectively. We'll just have to wait and see.… -andy
Posted by acarvin at 8:13 PM
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January 25, 2004
Introducing photo.spotlight
With Susanne traveling in Europe with her mom, I've had some free time to experiment with my blog software to see if I could use it for creating a photo blog. After playing around with some templates courtesy of blogstyles.com, I've managed to get a basic site up and running. It still needs some work, particularly its feedback forms and the color contrast in the style sheets, but it seems to be off to a good start.
So without further ado, I'd like to announce the creation of my new photo blog, tentatively titled photo.spotlight: reflections of the global village. The site will feature images that Susanne and I have captured in our trips around the world, as well as pictures we've captured closer to home.
Using a handy little RSS syndication script I found on the Web, I've also added some links on the lefthand column of my blog's homepage that point back to the most recent photos published in the photo.spotlight blog. So whether or not you visit my gallery's homepage directly, you'll be able to click on the latest pics right here on this page as well.
Again, photo.spotlight is a work in process, so please bear with me as I work out the kinks. Hope you like the photos! -ac
Posted by acarvin at 3:33 PM
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June 9, 1999
new Bolivia/Peru travel journal: High Plains Backpacker
Hi everyone. I just wanted to announce the premier of my new travel
website, High Plains Backpacker:
http://edwebproject.org/altiplano
High Plains Backpacker covers my September 1998 journey across the
Andean Altiplano. I've written about my experiences in Cusco, Machu
Picchu/Aguas Calientes, Puno, Copacabana and La Paz. Please feel free to
forward this message to your friends and colleagues. I hope you enjoy
it.... -ac
Posted by acarvin at 3:29 PM
