OrienTREEing

Sharon and I love trees, but more than anything we love to walk around looking for them and identifying them. Yes, sounds geeky - and it is - but it is also SO much fun. For Forestry Week, the Faculty of Forestry Dean's Office came up with a great idea : a tree scavenger hunt. We got clues (verbal and visual), including riddles, to go around campus looking for trees and locating them on a map for about an hour and a half. We got points for strategy, for speed and for knowledge, and we won first prize ($100) :D It was quite a fresh activity, fresher than what the FUS usually does for Forestry Week, and hopefully they will also do it next year. Below: the two of us with arbutus and coulter pine.

DIALOG IN THE DARK - New York City

Today, Cam and I went to a sensory tour of NYC to experience the city without actually seeing it. The Dialog In The Dark exhibit opened in New York City just three weeks ago at the South Street Seaport with the BODIES exhibition and the idea is that this becomes a permanent museum. However, this Dialog In The Dark initiative is not something new – it has been around for quite some time, starting in the 80s in Europe and expanding throughout the world (been in 22 countries and 130 cities). I had never “seen” something like it! (Yep, tons of puns like this one in the advertisements.)

So the tour is for a maximum of ten people but for our particular shift we were only three: the two of us and this semi-annoying guy we shall call Farid. We had to sign a form saying we wouldn’t sue the Museum if we fell, had a panic attack, or died, and afterwards we were given walking canes and entered a room were we were seated for an introductory video. The lights started to dim and our tour guide, Romeo, walked in. We didn’t see him, just heard his voice. It was pitch-black and we could not see a single thing.  ABSOLUTE DARKNESS.

All the tour guides are visually impaired and they guide you through the cities landmarks, making you feel quite safe. Following Romeo’s voice, we did the following:

1)   Strolled (well, more like stumbled) through Central Park. We heard the noises from the Zoo, the children playing, discovered bikes and benches, and wet our hands in the fountain.

2)   Entered a supermarket. We made a mess trying to figure out what the things on the shelves were. Romeo said that in real life he doesn’t go around the supermarket squeezing ketchup bottles and smelling pretzel packets to figure out what they are, but there are people in the supermarket that help him out. Or he shops online. Online?? How does a blind person manage to see the screen? Well, there are tons of programs and applications that read out loud and respond to voice commands and stuff life that. Who knew you could write an email, read online newspapers and get on Facebook without needing your eyes?

3)   Rode on the subway, minus the nasty smells and crazy people #win. The subway was super cool, it had sliding doors and actually moved! The seats were just as the subway ones, and there were speakers all around of people talking on the phone and asking you to get out of the way and stuff like that, very realistic!

4)   Experienced Times Square. Even the temperature changed when we left the subway. Times Square without the crazy ass lights was nothing like the real thing, but the noise was still pretty intense. Romeo urged us constantly to discover objects and figure out what they were. Farid was a cheater, he actually got out his cell phone light (which he was not supposed to have with him anyways! And his pants glowed a couple times ‘cause someone kept calling him). WTF, thanks a lot for reminding me I am not blind for an hour, Farid.  

5)   Had a nice little chat at a Café. This is where most of the Dialog In The Dark took place, and Romeo opened the table for discussion and questions. We could ask him ANYTHING we wanted about his life. This was pretty cool, we learnt tons about what it means to be blind.

One interesting thing was when Farid asked how Romeo pictured himself NOW (he became blind at age two). He didn’t picture himself – didn’t really think about what he looked like. I realized the contrast between his attitude and my attitude if I suddenly became blind – I would need to constantly picture stuff, including myself, because I’ve always been able to see. This is why I also felt the need to picture him throughout the tour, and from his voice, touch and presence I nailed his size (big) and color (black). But really, physical appearances did not matter AT ALL here. In the end I had no interest in knowing what he looked like; I had liked his personality so much already through what he said. In a sense it must be a gift to be blind and get to know people through their voices, understanding their personalities without noticing the outside appearance (although a really dreadful voice must also be a turn-off even if the person has a heart of gold...)

It was great walking through these rooms (which would have probably looked horrible and bare with the lights on) feeling like we were actually surrounded by an imaginary reality. Every tour must be different, as there are many tour guides and they all personalize it their way. The group you get also makes a difference because from the questions people ask the tour takes its shape. Our particular experience was excellent and Romeo was just amazing, really funny and insightful, I loved him. I can’t describe how much I admire Romeo and everyone that lost/never had the sense of sight and still lives their life at the fullest. Dialog In The Dark ($18 for students) was totally worth it and I highly recommend you check it out if you're in New York! 

The Big Apple Checklist

THE BIG APPLE? Yes, why New York is known as the Big Apple is a very complicated story that has nothing to do with apples. I would call it The Big Rat, but that’s not a very marketable name.

• Try New York Style Cheesecake (check)

• Visit the Statue of Liberty (check)
  Let me tell you, the Statue is way overrated. It’s TINY and we saw it in the distance by taking the (free) ferry to Staten Island, where, by the way, there is NOTHING to do.

• Go to a Broadway Musical (check)
  We went to see Memphis, which won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical. We got Student Rush tickets for $26 so we were pretty happy. It was a great show with great costumes, music and scenery. It was mostly “black” music, and the story reminded me of the movie Hairspray. The scenery is what impressed me the most, how furniture moved on its own and people came out of the floor. Talking with friends later, though, it was interesting to notice how the level of enjoyment you get from a musical depends on whether you knew the songs from before or not.

• Go to watch a play (check)
  We went to The Select (The Sun Also Rises), a Hemingway adaptation in the New York Theater Workshop. It was fantastic, truly a great production.

• Learn how to skateboard (check)
  My amazing hosts Juli and Elsa taught me how to do it and now I get the basics and I CAN’T WAIT TO SKATEBOARD AGAIN!

• Fall in love with a Killer Cat (check)
  Manola was my cat friend, she was so funny and attacked everyone once in a while.

• Visit the MoMA (check)
  There is this really cool exhibition on right now, Talk To Me, which is about interactive technology. I loved how you could get the free Wi-fi and tweet your impressions using the provided hashtags at each stop – even the way of walking through the exhibition was kind of interactive!
  
  
• Have a picnic in Central Park (check)
  This is a lovely and huge park with trails, ponds and grass! People really do take advantage of it, which is great.
  
  
• Go to Times Square (check)
  Both at daytime and nighttime. So many shops and lights and people and smells and sounds. Sensory overload.
  
  
• Visit Wall Street (check)
  No light shines through this street.
  
  
• Visit Chinatown and Little Italy (check)
  We had dinner at Nagasaki, this tiny little Japanese restaurant you wouldn’t see unless you were looking for it. We entered and there were obviously no seats available, but the waiter made everyone move and rearrange, change table and shift, so that two free spaces showed up. It was funny how people were okay with moving while eating their noodles.
  
  
• Survive Hurricane Irene (check)
  We stayed indoors Saturday AND Sunday, my only week-end in NYC eating Mac&Cheese and watching movies...
  
  
• Go to the SONY WonderLab Experience (check) This sucked.
  
  
• Bike along the Hudson and walk along the city’s Highline (check)
  
  
• Visit the Frogs exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History (check)
  Did you know the largest frog in the world is the size of a newborn baby? And that this tiny little frog, the golden poison frog (Phyllobates terribilis) is one of the most venomous animals (venomous means it kills its predators, poisonous means it kills its preys) and if you touch it you die, just like that. Also, about half the frog species go through the tadpole and metamorphosis stuff, the other half hatch like froglets!
  
  
• Shop in SOHO (called like this because it’s South Of HOuston, which is a street) (no check) because everything was super expensive. There was this really trashy couch that was $18 000 and these horrible guy shoes that were $5 000…
  
  
• Go to McClaren’s and Central Perk (no check) BECAUSE THEY DON’T EXIST :( I feel stupid.

Street chairs in SOHO. Everyone leaves their unwanted furniture outside and you can take it home if you like it. I want THESE chairs, they're beautiful.

Turin, Cremona and Tuscany

Some more adventures with Caro!

TURIN
We went to Torino - seemed huge compared to Cremona!! - for one day with Vale and visited the Museo Egizio (2nd most important one after the one in Cairo), La Mole Antonelliana (the city's major landmark) and the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. We had a picnic in the park, walked down Via Garibaldi, had yogurt ice cream with fruits (getting quite popular in Italy) and that night we went dancing to a place on the Po river's waterfront. I loved how all these discos and bars were found here along the river, and how nightlife started around 1 am!

CREMONA
The following day we all went back to Cremona. We struggled quite a bit with Trenitalia trying to get the cheapest train tickets, so basically we had to change trains like a thousand times before arriving at our destination. Cremona is known for nougat (torrone) and for the violin-making industry (there are around 130 registered workshops). There is a nice plaza/gardens known as I Giardini o Piazza Roma, where everyone walks eating ice cream.

LIVORNO
After Cremona we travelled to Livorno in Tuscany. The landscapes come straight from those images you see on wine bottles: golden lights over fields of olive trees, farmhouses and vineyards.  No wonder it's so popular among the rich and the famous (George Clooney has a villa here or something?) Wines can be quite pricey, there is this Sassicaia wine or something like that, that can be 3000 dollars a bottle... hmm.

We stayed with Vale's friends - Sara, Nico, their five-year-old Isola, and (unborn) baby Libero. They have an Azienda Agricola, Alberelli, where you can rent apartments for your Tuscan dream holiday. This area is beautiful, so you should check it out! They make their own olive oil, they have a vegetable garden, and use firewood from the forest - can it get any better? Our days were spent at the main house, (where there are goats and forest! We had some delicious meals here of bread, fruit, cheese, pasta, wine), at the beach (beaches are not sandy so they are not as accessible and can be quite dangerous but who doesn't love the beach!) and visiting small little towns (eating gelato and buying olive oil). We went to Musica W Festival in Castellina M.ma and traveled along 5km of Viale dei Bolgheri. The food was awesome, and it's so tasteful they don't put salt in the bread (so the bread on its own is not too good).

We felt so so welcome and this family was really warm and filled with joy. I had never seen a more glowing pregnancy like Sara's, and had never liked a five-year old as much as I liked Isola. I realized I truly enjoyed spending time with her and her friend Vale. Would definitely be open to working with kids after this positive experience!

Sardegna Forever

Sardegna (Sardinia in English) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. My mom's friend lives here so my sister and I went there for a week. The flight was about 100 dollars roundtrip with RyanAir. We hadn't been there in ten years but everything was as beautiful as we remembered it. The beaches here are FANTASTIC, with crystlal-clear water, rocks, reefs and sandy beaches.

The first few days Paola took time off work so we went all together, including her boyfriend Claudito. He was a sight! After these first days driving and singing in the car and playing with Claudito beach volley, Caro and I moved around on our own with buses. The first day, after the airport, we went to Cala Sinzias. Our skin color conversion started at that very second! From Impossible White to Beach Baby Tan. Another beach we visited was Solanas, which was quite full of people. This beach was good for playing water polo and things like that in the water, staying close to the shore.

Caro and I visited Chia (AMAZING), Costa Rei (Scoglio di Peppino, this was one of my favourite! Water was very very shallow and you could reach the main rock-island walking in water) and Villasimius (Cala Giunco and a nearby lagoon). In Chia we found our own small private beach, which was paradise. 

There were tons of Senegalese guys in the buses with us, and they roamed the beaches selling stuff. It made me sad to see them carrying to much weight up and down, fully dressed under the scorching Mediterranean sun. That night we had pizza at the port with the neighbours and drove around looking for places to go dancing. We found a place called Alta Marea and the Miss Alta Marea Pageant was going on, so we watched the show. So many gorgeous girls competing to be Miss Alta Marea... so funny to see all of them and their acts, for something so stupid.

Typical Sardinian stuff we tried included malloredus (a type of pasta), culurgiones (delicious ravioli with potato filling! I loved them), and pecorino cheese. We also had tequila shots, they call them Tequilla Boom Boom there hehe. It was not even tequila, just a cheap version that tasted terrible! We also prepared Mexican molletes and they were a success.

I love the Sardinian landscapes. Emerald green, sapphire and aquamarine waters surrounded by cacti.

Dreams

TODAY I will start my Notebook of Dreams. That is a a Notebook that will always be next to my bed and I'll write my dreams as soon as I wake up. I think it's time to start it (another project that has been postponed for YEARS), as I have been having very vivid dreams in the last few days, whereas before I used to dream black. Just black. Or I wouldn't remember anything at all.

The other day I was talking about "waking up" in dreams, or realizing that you are dreaming, so that you can just do whatever you want in your dream. That had never happened to me before, but it did last night. I think because I had this idea in the back of my mind and it occurred to me to wonder if I was dreaming or not. I tried to float and I could (the little test analogous to the thing that turns and turns and never falls in Inception), so I decided I was definitely dreaming. From then on it was great fun, I could really do anything and also create things... I'll try it again tonight. In either case I feel very ignorant in this whole dream business, but I find it very appealing and want to learn more. Same with hypnosis.

Shopping Stories

SHOPPING WITH MOM

Today a typical shopping incident occurred, which has been happening for as long as my sister and I can recall. When my mom likes something in a store, she HAS to buy it for us. This is how a typical conversation goes:

- Look Carolina/Olivia, this sweater/pair of shoes/blouse is so classy and nice.
- Hmm I don’t know, I don’t like it that much...
- Well, how can you say that if you haven’t tried it, huh? Try it on!
- No Mom, it’s just not my style, I don’t want to…
- Come on, won’t you do your mother this small little favour? It’ll take only two minutes. Just to see what it looks like!
- Mmm okay Mom, but I don’t want it…
- No, just to see what it looks like [pushes us into the dressing room]
[We try it on, and it looks bad]
- See Mom, it doesn’t fit, I look fat and the colours are horrible.
- Wow, what a lady! It looks SO good! But SO SO good…You can’t imagine how good you look, really.
- Well, I’d rather not.
- It would go amazingly well with your black pants. It makes you slimmer. Ok, we’ll take it! It’s only half price!
- MOM, I will NEVER use this, I don’t want it!
- You will one day.
- Mom, it will stay in the closet forever and no one will ever wear it, I don’t like it!!
- Well, if you don’t wear it, I will.
- Mom you always say that, it’s not even your size.
- Well, your sister can use it then.
- Mom, pleaseeee...
- Try it at home, and if you don't like it we can always return it.

[We buy the sweater/pair of shoes/blouse]

THE END

Epilogue: The sweater/pair of shoes/blouse follows one of two fates: a) collects dust in the closet because it really is ugly, or b) we have a revelation and finally see what our mom saw in the first place, so we wear it (“I told you so, Carolina/Olivia”).



SHOPPING WITH MY SISTER

The other day we went to this nice little shop of underwear and swimsuits here in Cremona, one of the typical shops on the main pedestrian street. The owner is an old lady with bleached blond hair and a tan (the characteristic tan of old ladies that can’t hold their sun exposure). My sister got some stuff and this is what happened:

- Great, this will suit you very well. So yes, it’ll be 30 Euros…Great, sign here... here is your receipt… my copy, and here is your card back.
- Thank you.
- AND, before you go, let me give you this nice little booklet with the upcoming fall collection, so that you have a look [takes booklet from a pile and places in bag]
- Mmmm… When exactly will the new collection arrive?
- [Looking surprised at the question] I believe around September…
- Hmm yeah well, we’re not here in September, so you can take the booklet back.



SHOPPING WITH DAD

Last Christmas we were in Vancouver and after Boxing Day found sales and discounts on top of sales and discounts. While we usually drag my dad to the mall and shop while he reads one of his papers at the nearest café, this time he came into United Colors of Benetton and found a hat that costed about $1.68 dollars. This was the price on the sticker at the top of a pile of stickers of ascending prices. Basically the first sticker said ~$40, so my dad was SO proud of this purchase and he went around telling everyone what a deal his one dollar hat was. It’s a really cute hat!