In the Desert of Utah

Loooads of Pictures from the Utah trip. I'll deliver the story a little later. The new quarter is starting and I have just recovered from my illness. (Yeah, comin' back from the desert to cold n wet Seattle ain't too great for ya health ;-))

The Roadtrip through the Country:

Shoshone ice cave:

Entering Arches National Park

The Devil's Garden Hike:

Camp in the desert

The dirt-road hike:

Canyonlands:

Delicate Arch:

Salt Lake City

Approaching the last week of Winter Quarter

Lorenda Visit and the Pacific Northwest Ballet!

For the last weekend before Spring Break, an angel had gifted me with a couple of ballet tickets AND tickets for a crazy after party - The Backstage Bash. I thought I'd share this night and invited my musical friend from Boston (well, Greece actually) Lorenda to join me at the event.

While I spent most of my time writing about American Urban design, Lorenda practiced on the piano for a big concert in Germany and some lessons with a crazy pianist in New York City.



Neither of us was really prepared for the Feather Boas and Fedoras, but we were confident they would allow us in even if we were not crazily dressed up.



The ballet performance itself was awesome. It was a selection of great songs from different musicals, among them 10th Ave and Westside Story.
Afterwards, we dug our way through the backstage buffet, which was delicious.



Other then ourselves, some of the other partyers had dressed up appropriately and were not hesitant to show their individual performances behind the scenes.



The "show" thus continued backstage with a more private performance that left surprisingly little feathers on the body by the end.

Inspired by all these performative vibes, the FIUTS trio (Nicole, Alicia and me, from the left) felt quite performative itself... sort of ;-)

Especially Alicia has the dancer/actor in her it seems.

It was a great night and a fun visit. Lorenda tought me how to read musical scores without counting the stupid things up and down all the time! Now I have no more excuse for playing the drums... except for maybe that the rhythm is in my blood ;-).

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Update Thursday 18th:

It is finals week and I am trying to finish all my papers before I leave the city to go into the Utah desert! In the last 24 hours I have written 20 pages of papers, but I still have more to go. I got myself a good four hours of sleep though, which I think is amazing!

Until I'll be able to follow up here, have a look at this little article about the pen pal meeting. Although I was too busy talking with my pal to take pictures for it, I still got to be part of it ;-).

http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=47935

FIUTS Pen Pals

Yesterday, I finally got to meet my little pen pal Bethany.

Bethany and I had been writing letters and Emails back and forth as part of the FIUTS Outreach program with the White Center Elementary School. Most of the children are considered materially or socially less fortunate and have a slim chance of going to college. By meeting somebody at a university (and from a foreign country even), they get introduced to this form of higher education, which might help them to lose at least some of the unknown big world of ACADEMIA.

Wednesday lunch is a great opportunity to come together, so we met the kids there to have peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches.



As I knew from the letters, my little "midgit" is a little shy and not very talkative. When she saw me first, she blushed and turned away. Since I knew she would be hard to crack, I had brought her a camera in order to engage her in an activity and possibly some conversation.



We did manage to talk about her last holiday, locate Long Beach on a map and took a couple of pictures together. Like me she prefers to be behind the camera rather than in front of it.

Rica from Japan had similar difficulties with her little pen pal Zainab, who happened to be Bethany's best friend. We joined froces and learned to write our names in Japanese and Arabic (Zainab's mother tongue).



For Shaun from Australia and his little pal, the connection came a little more natural, it seems ;-)



However, when Bethany got to show off her new name sign (in three languages and with little drawings on it) to her friend Mariah, she bloomed. Mariah teaches Bethany some Spanish and so I learned how to say "can we go out to play" in Spanish: "Podemos ir jugar afuera?"

Dad visit

Dad Visiting

Two weeks before the end of Winter Quarter, I had a very special guest here in Seattle. Admittedly, it might not have been the wisest choice to have him here while I had to work for school like crazy, but we still had a very fun time. Most of the time we went out together we took pictures.



We took the Ferry to Bainbridge Island on Tuesday after his arrival (which was adjacent to my return from Nashville)



The ferry ride in itself was a lot of fun and we had a little picknick on the island. And of course some good ol' conversations from man to man.

I was pretty busy on Wednesday, but Thursday we made it downtown and took a stab at the Seattle Art Museum before I had to do my big presentation in my film class. It was funny discussing art with him once again. We have a very different taste and approach to art, but it is nice to discover the similarities and differences and discuss the viewpoints.

That night we went for a FIUTS Benefiz concert and I saw to it that Papa Britz (as my roomies called him) would get himself on the dancefloor - where he was actually doing really good!



On Friday, after an Odysee in court and on the buses, we took the Underground Tour of Seattle, which is amazing. The Old Man had a close encounter with the "crapper", although I have no idea why he would want to clean his glasses in that ;-).



At night, it was time for a plunge into more new experiences. I finally managed to get Kamil AND Hermina together and Jenna joined us for my Dad's first Mexican food.

Saturday was probably our best day together. After I had shown him MY and THE center of the universe, we went on a hike through the neighborhoods of Seattle to Discovery Park, which is an amazing site!

Apparently, my Dad had been watching me taking pictures and adopted my weird camera positions.

We took great pictures at the site ...

. . . and had the most delicious honey smoked salmon snacks there.

I think it is funny how obsessed he has gotten with photography after I started it, yet he still maintains his own style. We have a different way to look at the world, although I think we can get an idea of how the other one sees "the picture" by now. I was actually surprised by how well we got along considering how thickheaded we have both been in the past.

It was a great visit and I am glad that he had made it over. I think I was able to show him a little bit of my life and how great it is - and maybe I was also able to grind down some of his (what I think is unfounded) Americanism in this awesome city!

Fulbright Enrichment Seminar: Nashville, Tennessee

Fulbright Enrichment Seminar Nashville

Mutual Understanding: Mission Possible
Robert Altman has shown the morode conditions of Nashville's society - time for Fulbrighters to clean up ;-) .

For four days, Nashville, Tennessee was the meeting place for 140 daring Fulbrighters from 69 different countries exploring "Social Entrepreneurship", businesses that incorporate social responsibility into their business plan in order to save the city of Nashville and the whole world!

In order to get to Nashville, I took a red-eye (overnight) flight, which was delayed by a sudden snow "storm" - a couple of snowflakes that Seattlelites unfortunately don't know how to handle since it barely snows here. All odds were against the mission.



With a couple of hours delay, I arrived in Nashville and went to explore the city. Altman had not exaggerated. Crime and offence were all around - and so was the sound of country music from speakers at the traffic lights. We were terrified!



Together with a friend, I investigated among the locals, but they remained silent as to who pulled the strings of these criminal wheelings and dealings.



Finally, we came across some clues that suggested a critical underground movement.



They helped us to identify the source of the troubles that Nashville had slided into - until it finally became the "buckle of the bible belt".



Shocked and appalled, we gathered the Fulbrighters in the conference room of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Nashville and went to develop a plan. Our strategy was clear: Social Entrepreneurship was the mission!



After we heard a talk about the concept and the theory, we collectively decided it would be best to go out and explore the possibilities of applying social entrepreneurship to the city.

We soon found a place to mix with the locals and in order to gain their trust, we engaged in one of the local extravagances: country dancing. This evil vice soon took over some of the Fulbrighter's minds, enhancing the already present red-eye effect among them.

However, the strategy worked and we were introduced to the leader of the underground movement: Ernesto!

Under the cover of an after-school program for children at the Preston Taylor Boys & Girls Club, Ernesto runs a secret network that reinstalls order and justice in the community.

He encouraged us to participate in his conspirative movement and we spent an afternoon working closely with local kids hiding in the the underground movement and spy system from the ill-treatment of society.

We encouraged the children in their work and Ernsto really made us part of his project; it was amazing. We became an integrated part of the subversive element.

In turn, we shared our experiences from all over the world with this great man and his fearless crew, introducing them to the beauty of our own countries.

After a day of hard work, we deserved some rest and nourishment: The Tennessee State Museum had agreed to host our Fulbright troops for a reception, but suspicious of the venue, we continued our research in the country bars with live music.

Saturday morning called for action. Subdivided into eight different groups, we met up to develop strategies that would safe not only Nashville, but the whole world! Public Health, Economic Development, Education and Environment were the main issues we wanted to adress.

In my group, we focused on environment and came up with a sustainable business model that adressed Student Housing Administrations under the cover of Financial Consultants with the secret goal of subversively influencing their students to produce less waste and use less energy by educating them. We would slowly undermine the vicious system of pollution under the name EnSol!

After saving the world - one Fulbrighter at a time - we went to trace our defeated enemy's history in the Museum of Country Music. Under the innocent cover of music, the vices had slowly found their way into Nashville's society.

Guns and steel came to dominate a city that had been peacefully humming and chiming to the clicking of country boots on the streets.

Dancing and celebration followed our success and each of us swore a sollem oath never to forget our fruitful days in Nashville, the amazing community we had formed, the wonderful people we had met, despite the fact that we had to part.

We would stay connected to create more mutual understanding all over the world and save it one Fulbrighter at a time.

(Harmonius cliché group photo to be posted soon)