The Doldroms of 2009

It was about as organized as I have ever been travelling: I had booked somewhere to stay for New Years Eve almost two weeks in advance. Generally, I prefer the showing up and finding what you find approach. At first this approach might seem laden with stress and worry, but with time and enough experience showing up and finding something that works, there is actually less. You don’t have to scour the internet and reviews, find phone numbers, wait for emails, book with your credit card, and then hope you can find the place you booked. Instead, you show up, make your way to the centre where the hostels usually are, and then browse, reviewing the hostels – in person – and assessing their atmosphere, cleanliness, security, and location for yourself. Usually, you go with a few recommendations from fellow travellers heading the opposite direction in the town you just came from or, worst case, a starting point from the Lonely Planet. We had been recommended Pacha Mama’s by Fran and Ronja, a couple Aussies we’d met in Leon that were also going to spend New Years Eve in San Juan del Sur and after a tense couple days with no reply and some hunting of other places (booked, booked, booked), we received the email that said they had space.

The hostel itself was pretty nice. Pacha Mama’s is less than a month old, clean (except for the bathrooms which had a perpetual sludge of black sand on the floor in spite of the foot wash faucet at the entrance) and there was a decent common area, a little backyard bar, and hammocks and rocking chairs. That said, the vibe was not as good. This is always a mystery: the same travellers in another hostel would be social and outgoing but in this hostel that seemed to be absent. You expect it from groups traveling together – especially if they all speak the same non-English language - and this hostel did have a large contingent from Israel that did just that. But generally other independent travellers are more social. The owner or manager of the hostel plays a big part in making this atmosphere happen, and while we found him amusing initially, that soon faded. In fact, without fail every traveller we met said they liked the hostel, but not the owner. He wasn't great but I wouldn't specifically avoid this place and I guess if I were making a recommendation for my readers, it would be the much more amiable Hostel Esperanza. If I come back, this is the place.

Now then, for those that don’t ever want to run a hostel, you can start reading here. We got in to San Juan del Sur, Phil, Jez, and myself, freshly bruised and wearied from a hellish ordeal at Ometepe the day prior. The beach was beautiful. Clean (except for one spot where the storm drains empty into the ocean), and with cliffs on either side, one of which had a large statue of Jesus, Rio style. We didn’t do much but relax after our noon arrival, as we had some serious recovery to do. Dinner at Comedor Margarita was quite tasty and affordable in this town, after walking around and seeing that it was difficult if not impossible to eat for less than $7 anywhere else (generally we were paying $3 for a meal and when put in terms of back home this all sounds cheap, but when you travel this way you get into a local’s mindset and paying double what you usually pay is still paying double). The next day was likewise pretty relaxed, hammocks, breakfast at Jerry’s (best and most affordable breakfast in town), visiting with people and we met up that night with some girls that had been staying at the same hostel as us in Ometepe, from Texas.

Now, we’d drank at the hostel bar the night before and tonight we were looking to cut prices by picking up our own rum and coke and drinking in the hostel’s common area. The problem was, with the hostel so booked, it already had a couple people asleep. So we took a table in the backyard, as far from the bar as possible (even though there were only about 10 people drinking), and didn’t take any bottles of booze or anything like that out with us. Then we got out the Drinking Game Jenga, which is always a lot of fun if not trouble, and an hour later were scolded by Alex for doing so. Understandable, but the thing is that some hostels allow it and others do not. The ones that do not usually make a point of saying so when you check in, with signs, and so on. Even without these indicators we were discreet. The common area where drinking in this hostel would normally be allowed would result in waking people in his overbooked hostel, and we were simply trying to be polite. But I understand where he’s coming from, obviously. We moved back to the common area where the girls that had been sleeping were now awake anyway (two of the Israelis had started playing Ping pong near them) and resumed our game before heading to the beach for a swim and then hanging out at the Pier beach bar.

The days kind of flow into one another but it was now the 30th and Jez, Phil, and I went to the beach finally (we’d avoided it mostly in the day because we’d all gotten too much sun in Ometepe) and kicked around Jez’s soccer ball. Actually, it was pretty funny – I’d finally finished my final Bourne book (The Bourne Ultimatum, which was probably the best of the three novels) – so I arrived a little after Jez and Phil at the beach. I got there, they passed me the soccer ball. It was small and quite bouncy and two dribbles in, flew over my head. When I jogged to pick it up again and start dribbling, I dribbled it right into my head, sending my glasses flying off my head and knocking me a step backwards. There were some locals watching and they couldn’t stop laughing, but then again, neither could we. A great introduction to Dynamite Dean. After adjusting and passing it along the beach, we stopped for some Licuados (fresh fruit juice and ground ice, sometimes with milk) at Pier. It’s a nice place, they have a very cute server, and the licuados are pretty reasonably priced.

This is an example of why Nicaragua is probably my favourite country so far. There are people everywhere selling sunglasses, which gets annoying, but after definitively turning down one guy, we ended up chatting with him for almost an hour in our broken Spanish and making friends with him. He was from Managua and was heading back after New Years died down but he always said hi and chatted a bit when we’d see him from then on, never once trying to sell us more glasses. Just a cool and friendly guy. We also made friends with a cigarette guy (they walk the beach selling those too) and played a bit of soccer with him, plus some locals wanted to have a game with us but by then we’d had too much sun and were walking back to the hostel. And when we arrived, everybody (including taxi drivers who obviously benefit from people taking a ride because they can’t find a place) was happy to point us towards our hostel. Just friendly, friendly people.

Speaking of which, we were delighted to come across two more friendly faces when we got back from the beach that afternoon: Anabella and Maria, our Columbian Christmas Cousins (tm) had just arrived from Ometepe along with Lizzie and Andrea (England and Switzerland respectively). Unfortunately, they had no place to stay as the hostel was overbooked and Lizzie had not “confirmed their confirmation” meaning she’d emailed saying “I’d like to book for 5 of us from Dec 30-Jan 2” and they’d replied “OK, from the 30-2 for 5 people, it’s $12/night, cool?” the day before and she had not been on the internet to say “Cool”. So they looked for another place but could find nothing affordable and eventually gave up (Lizzie and Andrea were going to share beds with the girls and the Columbians had hammocks). Then we all went out for some pretty decent pizza, Jez and I split a Pizza del Diablo (who could resist taking that on?) and caught up. We now had our Christmas Crew back together and ready for New Years Eve and it felt about as close to being home as one can down here.

At last the day came: it was New Years Eve, it was 9 AM, and somehow in spite of celebrating a bit the night before, I was out and about taking photos. I noticed that quite a few places had life-sized dolls outside their houses, usually with booze and sometimes a little sign, which I discovered are effigies of the bad things they are burning away from the year prior. If only it were that easy. The plan for the day, after my little photo shoot, was to go to the beach, come back, get ready, and try to get a nice table at a beach side restaurant for sunset. We went to the beach a little late, Phil, Jez, Maria, Anabella, and myself, probably around 1:00, and sat at the Pier drinking licuados with rum in them. I went swimming with Anabella for quite a while and tried to teach her how to Body Surf but it turns out that I’m not very good at it myself. Generally I jump and maybe paddle once or twice but with these bigger waves that doesn’t work so well. Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun and both did end up catching a few waves. We were also joined by Phil and Jez’s Swedish friends that they’d met in Rancho Tranquilo, who were both pretty hilarious if a little unhinged. They were trying to hide from some woman that they’d been talking to the night before, whom they later discovered was married to a mobster from somewhere, which in writing sounds a lot more serious and less funny than it was, because they really hadn’t done anything terrible they were just wanting to avoid getting into trouble.

Back at the hostel, they were doing New Years Eve around the world, with different drink specials every hour depending on which country it was midnight at that particular hour. A pretty good idea, I think. We tried to get ready for sunset but we missed it entirely (I even ran to the beach about 5 mins too late) and so we wound up having a few drinks for England/Jez and then went out for dinner on the beach. These are the pricey restaurants, by Nicaragua standards, but I ordered the lobster anyway (the most expensive thing they had) and with a beer my tasty meal (and tip) came to $20. We returned to the hostel and Phil, Jez, and I bought a 1.5 L of Flor de Cana rum (excellent Nicaraguan rum) and a bunch of mix, and I made the unfortunate choice of also buying a cigar. Back to the room, I made my second mistake in letting Phil pour my drinks. The rum is so tasty you don’t really notice but you’ve just drank four or five shots with your coke. I had two or three. It was enough.

I should emphasize again what a great group we had. Sitting around in the girls’ dorm was probably more fun than actually being out was, at least for me. Good music, plenty (too much) to drink, good company, and we had a few newcomers from New Zealand that were hilarious as well. Still, we ran out of our rum pretty quickly considering its size and were soon out at the Iguana which is not so different from, say, the Sutherland, except that there is a beach in front with a bonfire. One thing we were missing, however, was a countdown. Phil was wearing Maria’s watch, a stylish pink number that really only he could pull off without looking gay, which was set to Columbian time, so he tried to get us counting an hour early. I do remember looking at my own watch at 11:50 when I saw fireworks, but fireworks and firecrackers especially are pretty much a daily thing in Latin America. As for the actual countdown, well, one minute it was 2009 and then next it was 2010. We lit our cigars and I tried to pass mine on to anybody who would take it but wound up having it mostly to myself. I should’ve thrown it in the fire but I do hate wasting things.

So needless to say, I went home early. And moreover, I don’t remember a lot of anything. I don’t know what’s happened, I guess I eat less and drink less here, but my tolerance is gone. I’m always the first one to feel the effects of alcohol which is good in a budget sense but this particular time it kind of wrecked my New Years Eve/full moon party. Oh yeah, I didn’t mention that it was also a full moon, did I? I would have loved to stay and watch the sunrise like Maria and maybe one or two others did, but I was the first one back to the hostel. I woke up that morning still coughing and tasting that cigar and then eventually, as the others awoke, tried to piece together what else had happened on New Years Eve from everybody and what I had missed out on. The others have some pretty good stories, but I’ll leave it to them to share. Apparently, I was pretty funny but by the end could hardly stand up much less walk straight. This usually doesn’t happen to me unless I’m really far gone, but I did make it home okay and with all my stuff on me which is pretty good or else lucky.

Our first day of 2010 was, aside from the slightly rough morning (I’d gotten sick the night before so I was actually pretty okay aside from that taste and cough). We got a cool cab driver named Jorge to take us (Andrea, Maria, Anabella, Phil and I) to a nearby surf beach called Maderas and bring us back after sunset for $5. The beach was really nice and we had a great day there. Maria and I swam the longest and I have to admit I’m really looking forward to hopefully catching up with both Columbians again when I make my way further south. If today was an indication of things to come in 2010 then it should be a great year. We had our final dinner together, the whole group that is, after a beautiful sunset at Maderas and it did feel a bit sad. I had some pork which I noticed was quite pink in the middle but absentmindedly did nothing about it as I was thinking of beef and only later did it click that, “Hey, that was pork. It shouldn’t have been pink”. I paid for it that night with a crazy fever and a really vivid dream that borders on hallucination that I was telling everyone about my fever and that I thought I had malaria and I would see how I felt in the morning but I might have to go to San Jose for the hospital.

In truth, I said nothing to anybody except in my sleep, though it felt like I was awake almost the whole night. By the time I woke up my fever had died down from the heights reached the night before to normal again though I still felt terrible. At least with the fever subsided, I was probably not dealing with malaria. I realized talking to people in the morning that most of what I thought I had said to them had, in fact, been dreams, and we went for breakfast as a whole, which was our last time together. From there, Jez, Phil, Andrea, and myself were heading to the Costa Rica border, Ronja and Fran were heading up to Belize for some diving, and Maria and Anabella were going up to the Bay Islands of Honduras to hopefully dive the Caribbean coast as well. I feel bad now that I was in a pretty poor disposition the day we left, not that I think I did anything rude I just wasn’t very smiley or talkative, but I hope they understood. The hostel owner called Jorge for us and we got in a cab headed for the border waving goodbye to everyone else, most of whom we’d probably never see again. You get used to the idea of it when you travel, but sometimes it’s harder than others. Still, for the next few hours, at least, I had Phil, Jez, and Andrea at my side.

San Juan del Sur PhotosRead More...

Once I Was the King of Togo

After an action-packed January including Vegas, Chicago, and Mexico, the rest of the winter was Canada as normal. Maybe a bit colder than normal, or so it seemed. There is little to report here because, first of all, as I write this it’s nearly a year later, and secondly, little of lasting interest (that I can remember) happened. I worked, probably went out a few times, saw some movies (what was even playing back then?) and so forth. All the while, Alabama Dan, aka Dan Fritts, a friend I’d travelled with in Singapore and Luang Prabang, was urging me to join his American Expedition, crisscrossing his homeland in search of adventure. I’m not going to tell you it wasn’t tempting, jealousy evoking, or any of that. I just couldn’t get away at that point. The latest request had been Hawaii, where he’d found a very cheap fare (from LA) and planned to do some volcano hiking and beach camping with Rich, his English travel buddy. Though I definitely couldn’t afford that, he floated the idea of going down to Guatemala for more of what I just described in Hawaii.

Even before I came back, I knew that my next trip – and one I’d like to do as soon as possible for age and life sorts of reasons – was going to be to Central and/or South America. When you travel you invariably run into people who have done cooler things than you in places you’ve never heard of. In Australia, that was Southeast Asia . And in Asia, it was South America. And to a lesser extent, Nepal, but let’s not get sidetracked here. The trip to Guatemala was very tempting indeed, except, again that I wanted to do more of the area than one country, but it was a way to perhaps go now. What stopped me from doing this was the prohibitive flight costs from Canada. The day before I would have left to meet Dan and Rich in Guatemala, I discovered that it hadn’t stopped a friend of mine. Megan and Brin, both of whom had also done Australia at the same time as me, were heading down to Guatemala for one month on precisely the day I would’ve been, having discovered a cheap flight. Talk about a small world.

As photos came back from Megan and Dan, I got a bit more excited to make my way into this part of the world. Not to mention that Larissa was working down there and fluent in Spanish, something I was very jealous of. Gears began to turn, but money meant I wouldn’t be able for some time. Luckily, I had picked up Warren Buffet’s biography on a whim and finished it in Mexico. As I read more related works (the Intelligent Investor and then Ben Graham’s Securities Analysis) through the dull winter, his philosophy seemed to crystallize in my mind. It was so clear, so patently obvious, and so at odds with the voodoo spouted by most in that business and I couldn’t put the books down. Moreover, the timing was perfect. The economy, according to all sources, was spiralling down endlessly, perhaps irretrievably. I think some people thought the world was going to end. Certainly, it wasn’t pretty. It’s now November and it’s still pretty shaky. But value is value and with a solid balance sheet and assets, an important company today should, when the smoke clears, be important tomorrow. By March, I’d found the companies I was to invest in – in fact, I found more that were so undervalued as to be almost risk free than I could afford. So I did what any brash and arrogant young man might do. I borrowed from the bank and invested in these gold mines (well, actually mostly copper mines) I’d found.

My selections were educated, my timing was simply plain lucky. As the stocks grew towards what their actual value, as I estimated it, was, the major hurdle to a southern sojourn was lifted. Which, it now occurs to me, is a funny expression because lifting a hurdle would make it harder to jump over. In the meantime, I did do other things besides working and reading company reports at home. A few live acts that came to town included Said the Whale, an excellent Vancouver band that I really love accompanied by The Zolas, whom I also thoroughly enjoyed and later discovered employed the pianist from Lotus Child. That was a great show. Xavier Rudd, Australian didgeridoo dynamo was in town and though he was excellent, the highlight may have been our bartender, Gavin Labelle, doing the worm across stage, telling the opening act (with long hair covering his eyes) to “Let his face be known”, and later recalling his antics at Athena. Jason Webley, a sort of one-man Gogol Bordello, and others came, left their marks, and left.

Winter eventually did the same, and spring quickly turned to summer, though a very windy and cloudy one. Meanwhile, I’d promised Dan I’d take a trip with him even as I knew that before the year was out, probably in September or October, I’d be beginning a trip to South America. As the summer months disappeared all too quickly in the heaps of activities, from golf to soccer to biking the river trails, time was running out and talk was of Alaska. That decided it. I would do Alaska because I’ve always wanted to get that far north, moreso in Canada, but Alaska would do. Plus I’d just watched a documentary on Denali and was very excited. As we researched it more, however, the costs were too great and we had to come up with an alternate. He was going to be on Vancouver Island anyway so that alternative didn’t take long to become apparent. We would journey together from Vancouver to Calgary, stopping at any and every interesting place along the way for hiking, photos, and we would do it as cheaply as possible. This was a plan I could get behind. As summer was threatening to disappear without ever having really come, I booked my flight to Vancouver for August 17. I would accompany Dan through most of the Canadian portion of his American expedition, crossing the mountains from Vancouver to Calgary. This was after my sisters and I packed up the car and drove out to Edmonton for two days and one night at West Ed, for good times, shopping, and waterslides. And it was after an as-always great Folkfest weekend with lots of volunteering, ouzo, and dancing. And, unfortunately, it was before our final soccer game, which I had to miss. But the Pylons went on and lost without my help and all the pieces were set for a great adventure across western Canada. And you'd better believe there are more posts to come on this topic.

Misc Summer Photos
Edmonton Photos
Folkfest PhotosRead More...

Dynamite Dean Lives Again!

The problems with being busy are twofold with respect to this blog. First of all, it means I don't keep this quite as up to date as I'd like. Secondly, it means that I have so very little to tell from week to week. Since last time, I have seen X-Men 3 (very good, deviates from the traditional superhero formula, bound to raise some hackles), The Break-Up (funny at moments, but the fights often forgo comedy and become quite uncomfortable which in itself is something to be impressed by), and a run of Alfred Hitchcock movies which I will probably go into detail on in some other post. Steph also graduated and a bunch of us went out for dinner and to the Hose. Andrea got married and I had a lot of fun there. And so on. For the moment, here's a recap of what I've been up to...

Soccer To Me
Now as I mentioned in my most recent post, we had our first soccer game on Thursday in the rain. It seems the rain is here to stay, I have no idea how people live in Vancouver. So tiring. Anyway, with a light rain, the other team didn't all show up and so we won by default, but played a fun game anyway and came out of it 4-3. Playing in the rain, aside from slippery, was actually kind of nice in a way, because you stay cool even running around. Our game next week is at 7:00.

Kurt also organized a World Cup draft that I bought into. We drew teams. My Australian associates will be happy to know I'm representing Australia's chances at the cup and I also have Mexico, who just won their first game today. So, I'm pretty sure I'm better off than the people who drew, for example, Brazil or Germany. Or at least Togo.

Day of the Beast: Day of Dan
It was an eventful weekend of sorts this weekend. Last week was Dan's birthday... yes, on the supposed day of the beast, 6/6/06. At least, if you're in North America. In Malaysia, Chinese couples were falling over each other to get married on that day, apparently the word for six sounds like "luck" and so it was 'triple luck day' there. One church had 200 weddings. Meanwhile, here at home, people were rescheduling c-sections and doing their best to prolong labours while others were watching The Omen, a movie marketer's dream. Down in Vegas, oddsmakers cheerfully gave 100,000:1 odds that the world would survive Tuesday. Of course, there are some scholars who believe that 666 refers to Nero (not exactly beloved, but remembered for playing a fiddle as Rome burned) using Hebrew letters for numbers.

In any case, it marked the birthday of a friend of mine, whom I've often thought of as evil, Dan. We went out for his birthday on Saturday night, out to Winston's, and had a good time. I don't always get a chance to see all those people, so it was nice to catch up a little bit. And on the topic of things I have not done in a long time, we went bowling later that night at KG and I set some new records in 5-pin bowling. The first game we played I set a personal best and hit three digits. 103. The second game, a much more impressive 64.

Oilers and Hurricanes
Maybe it's just me, but it seems prophetic on a year where meterologists are calling for even more hurricane activity and economists for even higher oil prices as a result, that the two teams competing for the Stanley Cup are the Edmonton Oilers and the Carolina Hurricanes. Still, I'm happy to see my old favourite team back and after the cup. Will they win? Oh, I don't know. It's an uphill battle after losing Roloson, that's for sure, but I will be able to tell you definitely tomorrow night. You see, if the Oilers win tomorrow, they return to Carolina with the series tied, with the momentum of a two-win streak, and the confidence they've been lacking since being thwomped in the first two games. If they lose, the playoffs, effectively, are finished. My two cents.

So, that's all for now. This week, an IEEE Gold Meeting, at least two more Playoff games, recording podcast 9, and hopefully a really exciting prospect for our tenth Frank Black podcast.
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100th Post Spectacular!

It was a very tough battle, but thankfully after my one-year absence, Dynamite Dean and the Formidable Pylons are once again intimidating lesser pylons and soccer balls for profit. This is a co-ed rec league team, which in my opinion is the best way to have fun playing sports. No need to be good, no need to get stressed, just get out on the field, have some fun, run around, and if we win, great. If we lose but have fun, great. I'm telling you this in part because I'm excited to reincarnate the team and in part because perhaps someone from Saskatoon will read and be interested in joining. Soccer experience/skill not required, and I really need female players especially. In any case, it should be a fun season, there are a lot of teams this year! Hope to see you out on the fields, and here's the schedule for those interested (just leave me a comment here or email me). If you scroll down to the calendar on the left side of the page you'll also see that I've entered all the games in there.

Every game is on a Thursday night:
June 8 - 6:00/Field 4 vs. VIDO
June 15 - 7:00/Field 4 vs. Brokeback Mountaineers
June 22 - 6:00/Field 3 vs. Quantum Tunnelers
June 29 - 7:00/Field 3 vs. Team Chuck Norris
July 6 - 8:00/Field 3 vs. The Chernozems
July 13 - 6:00/Field 3 vs. Hanso Foundation
July 20 - 6:00/Field 4 vs. Four
July 27 - 7:00/Field 3 vs. Agent Orange
Aug 3 - 7:00/Field 4 vs. PSA
Aug 10 - 6:00/Field 4 vs. VIDO

Fields 3 and 4 are at the corner of Cumberland Ave and College Drive, Field 4 being on the west/closest to Dairy Queen, Field 3 on the east.

For game rules, please kick here: Summer Soccer Rules

Mohos and Back Again

Well, okay, maybe I'm being a little overly boastful to call my hundredth host spectacular, but a cloned monkey with three arms made me do it. Knife to my ribs and everything. So, here we are. I can't believe you guys have allowed me to ramble on the internet for a hundred posts. Really, someone should notify the CRTC or, failing that, the good people at Shaw Cable. Perhaps there were no good people to be found at either place and so I am able to continue. In any case, thank you all whether you pop in once or check daily, weekly, or when I beg you. In honour of this, I'm hoping to offer a grab bag of random topics, one of which is sure to not offend you. Not the least likely is the resumption of my podcast.

The Podcast Returns
Those of you who wrote me to continue my podcast, rejoice! As for the planet Earth, I suppose you can just wonder what the heck I'm doing putting together podcasts after the fantastic failure that was Episode 1. Well, I'll tell you. Over on FrankBlack.Net, my podcasting associate for the FrankBlack.Net Podcast and co-maintainer of the site came up with an idea. An idea to swap discs with other members of the forum. And then I came up with an idea. An idea to, instead, or rather also, record a podcast where we introduce people to the music and so forth. So, 'my' podcast is no longer mine at all except that I maintain the feed and came up with an idea. Now every week, at least for the next while, someone new will be publishing a podcast on Fridays, with music they like. Already, Kathryn has done a podcast focusing on the talents of Brian Eno and David Byrne. This week, I have a more eclectic mix of stuff. Next week, someone else will be posting theirs. Want it? All you have to do is add the following to your podcasting software (if you're not already subscribed to my podcast): http://dean.katsiris.com/podcast/feed.xml. If you have iTunes, it's as easy as selecting the "Advanced" menu, selecting "Subscribe to podcast" and pasting that link. I'm looking forward to some of the future hosts' shows. I've found out about some cool music from another mix like this I did a year or so ago.

Soccer and Lollies

So, the winter, the constant sitting at the desk, the getting out of shape, it's all done. Done, I tell you! Except for the desk, but now I will hopefully stop after work and get outside. Spring is here and it's glorious. There is magic (aka pollen) in the air, and I'm going to be so outdoors this summer that you won't have a clue how I still keep this thing up to date. I'm hoping to reinstate my team, Dynamite Dean and the Formidable Pylons, for a little summer recreation, and perhaps get some new players. Let me know if you're interested. I'm also thinking of doing an Ultimate Frisbee team this year. And some golf and tennis lessons. And biking. Yup, I love Saskatchewan summers more than I love taffy. Well, that's not true, which is part of the problem, I suppose. I need to work the taffy off. And other 'lollies' which is what the Australians like to call candies of any sort. Except, perhaps, for suckers and lollipops. Speaking of which, still planning on heading away this winter for a year there, but I haven't even begun to start looking at planning or tickets or tours. Perhaps I'll book it whilst biking on the Meewasin trail.

Simpsons Movie

Speaking of summer, and next year, coincidentally, there is a Simpsons movie coming out. Now, I know that the show is one of my favourite of all time, and also that many have lost interest because the writing really went downhill after the twelfth season in particular, but it has come around again if the recent episode with Ricky Gervais is any indication. Of course, he also wrote it, but to be fair, the last few I've seen have been pretty funny. And so, I have some hope that this movie could be pretty darned good. I also hope to win the lottery, but I think the odds are a little better on the Simpsons movie. You can see the trailer by clicking on the image over there. Meanwhile, they've squashed rumours of renewing Futurama, another 'F' show (Family Guy, Futurama, and there are others) that Fox cancelled for no good reason. I don't know what's going on over there. They have brilliant people getting these guys signed up and then idiots deciding who gets to stay. "We're sorry, Futurama has been cancelled. Please enjoy the next five shows which are all from the World's Blankiest Blank" genre. Still, there are also supposed to be some straight-to-DVD movies for Futurama coming, and that's cool. I hated the show based on a few viewings but finally knuckled under (thanks Darren) and now love it. It takes some growing.

Spaced Extras

British media is so ridiculously superior to anything we've got over here that it's scary, possibly with the exception of the BBC, which, although it has some great programming, doesn't have anything that holds a candle to the CBC's efforts at promoting Canadian music. Well done! Still, the BBC did bring us The Office, a brilliant piece of work from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom are doing the second season of a newer show called Extras. Which, if you haven't seen, is (if you will allow) bloody brilliant. Hilarious. Ricky is a movie extra, which is a great role as he seems born to play the ambitious nobody who likes to think he's already somebody, and, well, hilarity ensues. Patrick Stewart, a man I never once considered funny, was on the last show of season 1 and made me split a seam. Which may be related to the whole taffy-love. Who knows? Another show I've heard NOTHING about over here is Spaced, which is probably the closest thing to Family Guy that any show with real people could get. It's not crude, but it does rely on quick flashes and wacky over dramatization/parody for its humour. Check this show out if you can.

Goodbye, Cruel Blog!
And now we come to the least objectionable part. I will be back, of course, with a new post in a new week, but it's about time I got outside and more importantly, to the restaurant for the supper rush that I don't anticipate will materialize (unless I stay home). So, happy Easter to all and I'll see you on the other side of the bunny.Read More...

So, another week has gone by. I'd like to report that I'm now completely fluent in Greek, at times even correcting other native speakers' grammar. I'd like to, but of course I can't. However, I now know when to use things like 'va' (pron: na) in a sentence, put verbs into the future tense, and play a new backgammon game called asodio. It was a good week in school in any case, and my class officially ends tomorrow, after which I have a few private lessons to make up for the fact that I started a little late in the week.

For the week itself, there's not much else to say. Aside from my Grecian studies, I've gone out for coffee - by which I mean various flavour of hot chocolate - a LOT. Especially compared to my relatively cafe-free life back home. We (my teacher and I) play a lot of tavli, and as I mentioned, I've learned a new game or two. We also went to a cafe one night with a piano, and since it was dead (there were three other tables in the whole place, and it seats between 100-200 people), and of course I had to play a little bit. I also have been out for a movie once or twice in my weeks here, having now seen 40 Year Old Virgin (not that good) and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (not that bad). I'm excited about this new Zorro I see is supposed to be coming out, I've certainly seen the old one enough times.

The weekend came, however, and I decided whatever else happened I wanted to get out of Hania for it and go somewhere. Since I probably wouldn't have another chance to see my cousins in Mohos, well, you already knew I headed there from the title. I rented a car Friday after class, checked some flight information here about getting to London (I've ruled out Egypt and will probably head to Ireland and then England/Wales a few weeks before hopping the plane home), and took off for Mohos.

It's about a three hour drive, but I had a bunch of new Greek music courtesy of my cousins up north to keep me company, so it went pretty quickly. Not to mention some beautiful night views, though I didn't take this picture until the next day. Incidentally, I'd like to buy some CDs here, and probably will buy one or maybe two, but they're _20_ Euros! That's almost $40 CDN. Or, to put it in a more universal currency, highway robbery. In any case, I have a bunch of music that I think my sisters (and hopefully dad) will like too. But once again, I digress. I got to Mohos and ate dinner with Maria and Ari, and then Maria stayed up with me and we chatted and played some more Tavli while watching who-knows-what movie with you-know-who and that Greek actor, Then Theimame. Oh, actually, I do remember, it's the one where Sean Penn is an autistic father fighting to raise his child. Pretty good actually, though now that I remember it, I don't think Then made an appearance...

It gets pretty chilly up in the mountains at night, and I was surprised again at the Greek weather. The next day, we went to watch Mohos play Iraklion, apparently the number one and two ranked teams in the league, and the game was in Mohos. The field is awesome, carved right into the mountain with a great view backing it from the stands. The game was not even close, and the home team took the game 5-0, but it was still entertaining, if only for the new Greek I was learning from agitated spectators. Not the sort of stuff you see written on a blackboard.

I mentioned the cold, but midday, it was quite hot. I was wearing a sweater because the house was still cold, but on the field it must've been 28 Celsius. Beautiful! I did eventually decide that I should get some photos of the game just for fun, since the talent was skewed a little in one direction, and I wandered up to where some of the hardcore fans were sitting... on the old cliff that had been carved long before the new astroturf had been put down, not to mention the two-year old stands. It was definitely a soccer game in Greece, looking down on the field from the mountain amidst rocks, shrubs, and various degrees of evidence that goats grazed these same shrubs. That night we went down to Stalida, we were going to have dinner with Mina and Maria, but they had company they couldn't get rid of, so it turned out to be us. It was a nice dinner, and a beautiful night to drive back up - the moon was on the water and the lights of the coastal towns were lit brightly - so I got the photo which I'd wanted the prior night. My picture didn't turn out too well, but it's hard to snap a quick photo when you're sitting in a truck on a narrow road in the middle of the night. We tried, darn it!

Today, Sunday, I went down to the cafeneio with Ari and Yanni (their son) and sat there with them for awhile, and at one point, without asking, the priest took off in Ari's truck which didn't even make Ari blink and I thought it was amusing to just see him drive off. He was back very shortly after, and then we headed home, and Ari came down with me to pick some pomegranates off the tree to eat. Then we all sat around peeling them, and the priest came by again and stayed for awhile. Very nice guy, but I guess you'd expect that...

I had to get going at some point, even though I was unsuccessful at removing the virus from Maria's computer (with the internet connection completely disabled, no Windows disc, and everything in Greek, it was a long shot from the get go, but I really did try), so I said my goodbyes and left after lunch and the Karate Kid (man, I love that movie!).

Now I'm back in Hania, I have a week or less of class left, and then I'm probably heading back to Tripolis to visit and pick olives or whatever else but mostly to see the family before I hit the skies. Speaking of family, if someone doesn't mind telling Aunt Soula, I have pictures of everyone over here up for her.

<Mohos Photos>