Tuesday, October 20, 2009

On travelling with your parents










This is my dear daddy and I at the Spanish Steps in Rome. Throughout the trip I had been trying to teach him the art of the 'self-taken photograph', and this was the best of the bunch IMHO. So it had been a while since I had taken a real trip with my parents, going all the way back to second year of my undergrad, nearly 5 years ago (Ah'm getting OLD). I've certainly
grown up since then, my parents have changed as well but it was a bit of an experience nonetheless.
I first realized how things had changed when we were just in the airport. I've actually done a fair amount of flying this year, and have gotten pretty good at the airport rigamarole. My liquids were already stored in a clear bag, I could remove my electronics and coat in less than 30 seconds, all the while being unfailingly polite to all the security people. It seems that I've also gotten very accustomed to being on my own while I travel, and so often had to slow down from my usual pace to let the parents catch up.









Speaking of catching up, above is one of the many pictures I have of my parents being about 50-100 metres ahead of me on the street (or in Piazza San Marco in this instance), I having stopped to take a picture, appreciate a vista, buy a cannoli. While I'm the more high strung one in the airport, once I'm at a site or place I try to take it all in, while my parents.... we near jogged through parts of the Vatican (budding lines left and right, I've never seen my Dad so pushy in my life) while my parents ignored thousands of years of artefacts to be sure we saw the Map Room.
Of course we saw it. Everyone saw it. IT'S ON THE WAY TO THE SISTENE CHAPEL. *Breathes*
Before I left, my dear friend Anja gave me the advice to just breathe from time to time if my parents were making me crazy, which was excellent advice. While I can soak in a view or architecture for ages, by day 8 of the trip both my Dad and I were a little arted out. We were happy to go to such wonderful museums as those as Villa Borghese in Rome, but weren't studying every single picture in every single room.... unlike my mother. Pictures and plaques, you cannot tear her away. But I managed to keep my tongue and when I was done the tour half an hour before she was, I generally found either the gift shop or cafe for another cappucino.
Despite a few tense moments here and there, I do have to say that travelling with my parents was pretty fun. Did I mention they paid for the trip? And bought me gelato and cocktails? It's sad, but I can be bought with hazelnut gelato or another spritz (Venetian cocktail of white wine, sparkling water and Aperol bitter) and am very happy to be so. Between the three of us, we covered a lot of ground and saw lots of amazing things, and even had stuff to talk about at the end of the day. I shopped with my Mum and went for late night walks to the bar with my Dad. I also don't think that there were really many moments where I felt like the kid, I held my own, did my own thing here and there and we all had a good time. Just, it may be a while before we do it again....

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Home safe, sick

I have arrived home from an absolutely wonderful 10 days in Italy. Venice honestly didn't seem real for a while, Florence was a marvel and I think I am still processing Rome. I however managed to pick up a cold in the last few days, blew my nose through the Vatican and hopefully didn't infect the nice retired medical anthropologist I sat next to on the plane (9 hours may be a bit too long for me). I have very many photos but I am finally getting tired so will retire to bed with some TV I've missed and will start some better updates tomorrow! Hope you had fun while I was gone!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Sunsets

I think the sunsets over James Bay may be the most beautiful ones in the world. Here is just a sampling. I am posting mainly pictures right now as I am too busy editing papers, writing
reports, putting out fires and hoping my inbox doesn't explode while I am Italy next week
(NEXT WEEK!). Anyways, was pretty. I am very lucky to have been able to spend my time in the field in such lovely places.