Last Week

Something happened last week that I had thought would totally never happen. Nevertheless it did. Keep in mind last week was only the second week of October. Also keep in mind that October is the fall. As it is fall, leaves turn color, people bundle up(a bit,)and we use adjectives like; fresh, brisk, and cool. We normally stagger out of bed and peer at the frosty air greeting us before you journey out into the post summer rain on the way to work. Despite this, last week these things we all expect didn't happen. Watch the video and find out what really happened!

In Celebration of our 50th Post and 5000th visitor!

Well, I've been in the business of keeping a positive attitude, whilst saying nice things about people and places for just over a year now. I have also tried to make the most of my paltry photography skills to show some of what I have seen around the the globe to show you that the world is truly a friendly place, and deserves to be enjoyed more. Recently, I have noticed that I have had about 5000 visitors. So to those people, thanks and keep coming back. Interestingly, this will also be my 50th post. So if you're a numbers person, that makes it a tidy 100 people per posting. Not a bad gig.

Regardless in the spirit of hopping the proverbial fence and escaping out into the great mysterious, I have chosen a few of my favorite pictures to share with you of my own experiences over the last year and a piece. I have included people I have met, places I have seen, and food that was consumed in dangerous portions. Thanks for tuning in, Dan

What's Burning?

One of my good pals in Warsaw, Mohamed, who is from Iran, told me that it is forbidden to make outdoor fires in Iran. It's ironic, since he and his other Iranian mates in Warsaw like nothing more than going to various parks in Warsaw and building gargantuan,roasting fires for grilling. Despite the fact that many Poles(Warsawians included,) like to partake in outdoor grilling adventures, I have also heard that it is in fact quite popular to have grilled food with fires in Iran as well. Even though it's 'illegal' in Iran, it's a pastime partook by most law abiding Iranians.

Moreover, even though myself as an American claim to be one of those west coast barbecue savants, I have to regretfully admit that I got nothing on these Iranian grill experts. Where did these guys learn to cook like this? It's a strange notion for me. If somethng's illegal, then in most cases it isn't done. Anyway, it's just a campfire.

So last Wednesday (for some strange reason) I had the day off, and set out with Mohamed to Powsien park in Warsaw for an Iranian grilling adventure. Usually we cook up chicken or lamb concoction, but this time Mohammed managed to procure some minced beef. With the beef he added some curry spice, pepper and egg. When this was finished; he mixed it all up, smashed it together a bit, produced some metal Iranian kebab sticks, then carefully rolled the meat on the sticks. Once on the fire the kebab roasted quite quickly. It was a difficult task to keep the dripping meat on the kebab sticks, since hamburger meat tends to sag a bit when it cooks. Regardless, we managed and to add a little Californian flair we put the meat into tortillas and indulged ourselves in a delicious outdoor feast, while washing it down with strong Polish beer.

Once the food was finished, we built the fire again and enjoyed the warm fire and cold beer while our stomachs digested the meat. After all that was done, we considered it a mission accomplished, threw away our rubbish, hiked down the road a bit and hopped on the 519 bus back to the city. If you're even slightly interested in Iranian/Californian fusion please take a minute to have a look see at my video from Wednesday.

A Warmer Homecoming!

So as most of you dear readers (all five of you,) probably know, last month I went home to the grand ole USA for a sojourn of a month to see family, friends, and partake in a collection of my favorite cultural revelries like; eating Mexican food and burgers, and watching baseball. Yes indeed, I experienced it all. Like all visits out west in the summer I enjoyed the same comforts of home I always expect; great heat, coastal fogs, barbecues, micro-brews, sipping coffee on sidewalk benches of Berkeley coffee-houses, sandwiches, stunning landscapes, bustling cities, cheap clothing, sleeping on my dad’s uncomfortable floor, and the wonderful opportunity to use my native language with anyone who happened to cross my path.

The only difference on this visit was that I would be landing in a different state-Arizona, and to be completely honest I didn’t know if I would like it or not. The typical adjectives that had flashed to my mind were the ubiquitous adjectives like; hot, sweltering, boiling, and crispy. Hot and crispy or not, I was going to base myself in my mother’s beautiful new home (with a pool!)in Arizona first before I headed up north to see friends and family in Cali. So in a nutshell, Arizona was hot-hotter than I imagined. Regardless, I spent a good deal of time in oven-like Phoenix, despite the fact that Phoenix is too hot to bear outdoors in July *, when I did venture outside, I was surprised at how much stunning scenery abounds in Phoenix-especially the sunsets. Anyway, it’s only too hot to handle for one or two months. After that it’s much more comfortable.

What was even more special about Arizona is the amount of parks within a few hours’ drive of Phoenix, which offer different landscapes and historical wonders. Three hours north is the Grand Canyon, which seeing in person is grander than any canyon you will ever see. Just a bit south is the chillier mountain town of Flagstaff, which has a pretty downtown lined dotted with historical looking hotels, shops, cafés and everything else you’d expect from a breezy mountain town. There are also places like Red Rock Park, Sedona, Wupatki National Monument, and Montezuma’s Castle. All of which I was able to visit quite conveniently. In addition to being home to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the state of Arizona is also opens its doors to a handful of MLB teams in February and March who come to get ready during spring training, which makes it a good time to come and watch baseball.

After seeing so many nice things in Arizona, I packed it up and headed up north to see family and friends in California. It was truly great to see everyone, as well as the new editions to families, (who will most likely be too big to recognize when I return.) I did so much that I can’t possible begin to expound in detail. Regardless, I will say I had an awesome time! After about ten days I boarded a south west plane from Oakland back to Phoenix. Back in Phoenix I enjoyed the last days of my much needed summer holiday home relaxing watching baseball, tubing down the Salt River, and eating fish tacos and pizza with the family. Anyway, it was a truly memorable month that in the end made me a tad depressed to see the time come to an end. If you are interested please see my slideshow of pictures from my sojourn home.

Need Friends, Take a Course!

I have always considered myself in some ways an intrepid person; especially when it comes to traveling to different countries and deciding to live there. Actually, maybe it isn’t intrepidness, but perhaps it’s more like a spirit of adventure that directs me to foreign lands-or is it outright stupidity. Who knows? Regardless, whatever it is, the fact is that I am an American living abroad, and have done so for the last six years or so. Anyway, there are many great possibilities offered to individuals in the same situation. The possibility to work, study, travel, drink beer, and learn in a foreign environment is something that is often rewarding for many valid reasons. Despite this,there is one small problem might occur in most situations when one decides to live in a foreign country for a while. For me and for many of us when we live abroad, it is sometimes easy to feel like a loner. No one likes to drink alone. Moreover, If one is not vigilant and fails to take steps to prevent loneliness, one can easily feel like a permanent wallflower and be spectator watching everyone else’s life, while he or she might feel bummed out from not having a social life. I know this because this happened to me in Poland. However, I decided to do something about it.

One good way to escape this situation is to sign up for a course where you are forced to interact with other people. For me, I signed up for a Polish language course at the University of Warsaw for two months. In that time, I interacted with an enthusiastic group of creatures from all over the globe. In the end I became quite good friends with many of the participants-and even learned a little Polish to boot. Because of this course I now have a social life in Warsaw, which isn’t always easy for a foreigner.

Anyway, our group has become like a gang of foreigners that gets together once a week or so and usually share food and drink from one of our respective countries. We have even partaken in a few sunny barbecues with our own local flavors of cuisine and style, and have even made a few city sightseeing excursions on Sundays. I now have a group of friends from China, Iran, Greece, Spain, and The Philippines. For me, learning Polish is important, but getting it down will take some time. Since my girlfriend is busy with her PHD, I need people to socialize with in English. So if you need friends, do yourself a favor and sign up for a course for something and introduce yourself to your new friends.

The Sound of Music

Last week I had the pleasure of receiving an invitation to visit my friend and Polish language classmate Mohammed in a musical performance with the Polish Philharmonic Orchestra in Lodz. He plays a Persian style flute called a ‘ney’, which he was classically trained with while growing up in his native country Iran. Mohammed is a very passionate and rather casual person socially, which can coincidentally be a way to describe the way he plays his instrument.

The ‘ney’ has a very soft bird-song like sound that is very unique compared to most dominating western style instruments. Despite the political struggles going on in Iran, Mohammed carries on with his music in Poland, whilst sharing something more important than political opinions. If only we could all make our ears only hear the sound of music and drown out the rhetoric of political ideology. If you are interested, he will perform with his wife Anna ( who is Polish,) as well as a percussionist, and also with his Iranian friend Mossen who plays an Iranian stringed instrument called a tar (and quite quickly to boot,) next month on the square in Warsaw. So if you are in town you should feel obliged to meander down for a listen.

Please see the video, which is too short to do any justice to the performance. As I didn’t want to offend anyone in the captivated audience, I only filmed a tiny piece of the evening. Please note the final piece by the orchestra is for all of you in Korea.

Coffee-nomics

Recently I had the pleasure of procuring quite an interesting book from a bookstore on a visit to Ostrava (which is in the Czech Republic,) last week. The title was “The Undercover Economist,” by Tim Harford. As I currently stand with only the promise of a teaching job pending the successful approval of my work visa in Poland, I am unfortunately left without any income until I can ‘legally’ begin work. For this reason alone of being in an economizing situation in penny pinching times I am left without any options but to learn about economics-and am afforded no other choice but to shell out the 290 Czech crowns demanded for this overpriced paperback. Armed with an attractive new paperback, with an appealing cover of a coffee cup on it, I proceeded to skim through the first chapter which is coincidentally about my favorite thing that isn’t economics at all-coffee!

I was quite fascinated at not only how cheap coffee is to make and produce, but also how easy it is for coffee shops like Starbucks, and Costa Coffee to be so successful at nickel and diming their customers. The author claims that the price for a typical cappuccino in a coffee shop at one of the busy tube stops in London is roughly One Pound Fifty (about three US dollars, but mind you this is the center of London not Milwaukee.) If you were heading to work on Monday morning in hectic London, and you weren’t able to get any caffeine into your sleepy department of human of intelligence called a brain, you wouldn’t have any problem exchanging a couple of quid for a strong, frothy cappuccino; I know I wouldn’t. Well, actually I would have a problem, but more on me later. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

First of all, if you are tired and need coffee it is commonly accepted that in most situations coffee isn’t something that really breaks the bank. I am not a rich person, although whenever I am with friends I will often offer to pay for the coffee. For me coffee is just one of those things that have never been much of a financial burden. Despite this, What is interesting is that in this book, Mr. Harford explains that actually when a café proprietor in the center of London pays for the beans, buys the equipment to make the coffee, hires employees, pays for rent, electricity and everything else that goes into making your bitter, extra dry cappuccino, will actually cost him or her about 60 pence (about a dollar) to make your drink. That’s almost 200 percent straight profit!

As I am living in Warsaw, which has a bustling population around 2 million and growing, I have become rather daunted by the actual amount of coffee shops competing for business around the city-center. Actually, in all honesty even though they are all technically competing with each other, they all seem to be quite successful coffee establishments. What is also interesting is that drinks aren’t really that cheap here. As I consider myself a coffee drinker, I will usually only order one drink-coffee. For me it’s fortunate as it is normally by far the cheapest drink on the menu. I am not a frills person, and luckily the frill-less drink is normally the cheapest. The cheapest coffee from a trendy coffee shop is around 8 zloty, which is about $2.50. Although, Starbucks is newly open downtown and serves up their drip coffee for 6 zloty-which is about $2.

Anyway, in the book the author adds that the cafes really make money by all of the extras they charge for things. For example if you order a large Americano-how much is that extra splash of hot water really going to cost the proprietor? Or, how much is that little dab of whip cream going to cost? What about the extra little bit of frothy milk you add to make a latte instead of an Americano? Or, what about paying an extra little bit for white chocolate? It happens, just look at the price differences next time and think to yourself if you really want to pay a half dollar more for a little extra hot water? What about getting a small instead next time? *You would probably save 30 percent more!

Since I only like coffee anyway, and in the spirit of economizing, I have recently set out around Warsaw and tried to find the cheapest cup of coffee around downtown. The cheapest I have found (with the exception of the vending machines serving brown water,) is actually McDonald’s. At 4.90 Zl, they are the cheapest. However, they lose points for atmosphere. The most expensive is probably ‘I coffee’ and Costa Coffee (which has free wireless access) at close to 9Zl per cup. The big chain in Warsaw is the ubiquitous Coffee Heaven. You won’t have to venture far downtown to find a Coffee Heaven that’s for sure. Actually, they actually have a small little take out café next to the metro. Their coffee isn’t too expensive, but if you want wireless access you have to pay. Additionally, I regret to inform Canadians that there is isn’t a Tim Horton’s.