We spent 9 hours with a tour guide at the Everglades. It was so interesting to learn about the ecosystem, the challenges, the changes, non-native species, etc. our tour guide Gabe was very knowledgeable and presented facts without judging or accusations.
We stopped at a few nature hikes, visitor centers and museums along the way before we had a late lunch and another boat ride, this time at the golf of Mexico
Florida is flat like n ironing board. Rivers are as wide as you can see, more lake than anything, because the water doesn’t flow. It’s just sitting there, knee deep and not going anywhere. Weird in its own way, beautiful in another way. There is water everywhere and with the water there are bugs everywhere. Flying, crawling, hopping, jumping, etc. And because of all those bugs, many species of birds, frogs, turtles, snakes, lizards and fish are attracted because there is plenty of food for all of them. And then there are alligators who happen to like all those bug eating animals. Wonderful!
The variety of plants, trees, flowers is also amazing! And the way they grow, standing in mud and rotting leaves, the perfect symbiosis with all the animals who need them for food, shelter, protection
Spending a few weeks in Europe make you realize what a wasteful society we are here in the US. Is it a picnic in the park, gatherings with friends, a potluck get-together – we use plastic cutlery, paper plates, plastic cups. Buying a bucket of coffee at Starbucks will leave you with a bucket size paper cup, or doubled paper cup with a plastic lid of course.
We are in Miami for a few days before our next adventure. Our hotel is nice, clean, modern. The rooms are spacious, everything you need is provided. Breakfast is included and it’s ok. Scrambled eggs, waffles and that kind of stuff you expect there to be.
And everything is served with plastic cutlery, paper plates and paper bowls and cups. At the end of breakfast time, towards 10am, it looks like that:
I’m not afraid of flying. It’s not my favorite form of transportation, the check in and out, the hustle and bustles, all those people, etc. I just don’t enjoy it. The tight space inside the air plane, economy meaning child size seating and no legroom, nothing really appeals to me. And then the overhead space for carryon luggage: I stick to the rule to have one carryon. Sometimes it is a backpack, a basket, or a small rolling carryon suitcase. And that’s it. But I hate it when people show up with a carryon, a big shopper, and 3 huge paper bags from the @%# outlet stores where they needed to spent the last money they had left from vacation. And that’s when the overhead compartments get too small. And that’s when the stewardess gets involved, shifting things from A to B, then taking smaller bags / backpacks out to accommodate the outlet bags + suitcase + shopper combo. And that smaller backpack is usually mine, so I’m asked to put my bag underneath the seat in front of me, meaning I will not have any legroom for the entire flight as a punishment for somebody else overpacking. I’m not a complainer, but with a situation like that, I do complain, which is swept away in the hectic of boarding a plane and getting everybody and everything stuffed inside. They make me be the bad person, the complainer, although I was the one following the rules, but getting punished for it. So here you go, I’m not afraid of flying, I just don’t like it.
Being afraid and having fear is a different story. Being afraid is more a general emotion, usually without a specific reason. You’re afraid of flying in general, because it might get bumpy. Having fear is more specific. Having fear for your life is connected to an incident. And that happened on my flight over from Europe to the US.
Halfway over the Atlantic, 3 hours away from the closest airport, a passenger decided to ignore the non-smoking sign and went to the bathroom, smoking inside. The sprinkler alarm went on, flooding the whole bathroom. And it didn’t stop. The bathroom was filled with water, over spilled into the cabin, etc. the stewardesses and stewards kept running back and forth, trying to take control. They even used those coffee pots they usually offer tea and coffee with to scoop up water, so here you go: don’t drink coffee or tea on an airplane! You never know what they used it before they made coffee for you….. This whole incident took ~45min before it was under control.
15 or 20 minutes later the pilot interrupted the entertainment program and gave a 5 min speech. I didn’t understand a single word, since it was in Spanish, but I paid attention because he sounded very serious, his voice trembling, almost as if he had cried. This was different, more serious than any pilot speech I ever heard. Everybody on the plane was listening, nobody said a word, people looked shocked. And I had fear. I didn’t know what it was about, I had no idea that it was connected to the smoker in the bathroom, I just was in a “shit, why did I never learn Spanish” state of mind. All different scenarios galloping through my brain, for example the murder/suicide in 2015, where a copilot locked the pilot out of the cabin and crashed the airplane into a hillside in southern France. All 150 people died. I had the flashback and thought that this will end up in a similar way, that our pilot is doing the same. Whom should I write a message now? How much time do we have? Why? That can’t be it! It took several minutes, that seemed like an hour or so, until another person tried to explain what had happened in broken English. Part of it I experienced first hand, sitting on the aisle seat 3 rows behind the restroom. The second part I tried to understand. Apparently the sprinkler system didn’t stop, therefore we were very close to an emergency landing 3 hours away from the next airport. Not a fun idea. The person smoking will be found and hit with a $2000 fine, on top of a criminal investigation, because their action risked the lives of a few hundred people.
But that flight wasn’t bad the entire time. I hadn’t realized that Air Europe was a cheap budget airline, not providing any food or drinks, not even on international flights. So I ended up very hungry and thirsty. On the airlines’ website I saw an option to preorder food, so I just gave it a try. Unfortunately the order didn’t go through, so I tried it again: a rice bowl and a water. Again, didn’t go through. Darn! The surprise came 5 minutes later in form of a tray, topped with a rice chicken mix, gazpacho, dessert, and a glass of water. Very impressive! And very tasty!!! I had just finished every bit of it, when the steward came back and told me that he accidentally gave me the tray that was meant to be given to another person, embarrassing! And I had thought this was my rice bowl with some water! Little did I know. Another stewardess came, telling me the same thing, trying to make me be more embarrassed! And then another steward stopped by and did the same thing: the classic guilt trip! So what should I do? Give it back??? How? My seat neighbor had a good laugh, I felt embarrassed but well fed. The steward came back and asked for my order confirmation (that I didn’t have), he came back another time to check how I actually had ordered and so on. At that point I joined my neighbor laughing. Just wait and I’ll give it back…..
Leaving Europe is getting harder and harder. Is it the age thing? Or is it the critical view on the US with upcoming elections that seem scarier than ever? Is it the aging parent syndrome, the need for their care, their helplessness? Is it the realization that friendships are longer lasting and deeper than anything I ever found in the US, except with other Europeans? Or is it a combination of all? I’m not sure.
Leaving Europe is like leaving a part of me behind, melancholy, openness that wouldn’t be accepted in the US, freedom. Long talks, deep conversations and that love and care I missed for example for my 60th birthday. Everybody in the US is online, has a cell phone, is connected, but for my birthday I barely got any “happy birthday” wishes. I’m not expecting much, but not even my married family remembered. Not a single person. And in Germany they bent over backwards to celebrate with me: b-lunch at a nice restaurant, b-coffee & cake at my sisters house, with homemade cakes, a “60” candle on top, several b-songs and that kind of attention that you feel in your heart. B-dinner followed with a delicious vegetarian antipasto / tapas buffet, white wine, Prosecco, etc. All those things I love and like to eat. Heaven! There is an attention that is just different when you get a party with homemade details. Balloons, a happy birthday banner, cake and songs, etc.
And then there was soccer and the German dream of another European championship. But it ended in a disappointing loss at the quarterfinals, which was – of course – questionable. What should have been called a penalty kick was not acknowledged, what should have been a win ended up with a loss, just a minute before overtime ended. Darn! What a disappointment!!! We were so close and the German summer dream ended prematurely…
Ok, the Spanish team wasn’t bad, they were mostly lucky. Lucky and skillful, but I just liked the Germans play, not giving up until the very end, with leg cramps and everything. But it is what it is – the German are going home….. well, they are already home because Germany is the host country. So the Germans are just staying where they are already!
This time I chose to chop up my flight to Germany in three segments. San Luis Obispo, CA -> Phoenix, AZ -> London, UK -> Munich, DE. It is nice to get off a crowded plane, stretch your legs and walk around before taking the next part of your journey. It is nice to use a restroom that is not miniature size and has a line waiting outside, it is nice to visit some stores, watch people stress about their connection and it is nice to walk seven minutes from your arriving gate to your departure gate when you have 90 minutes between flights.
And then there is Heathrow International Airport in London. Layover: 90 minutes. Time to use a restroom or watch people = 0 minutes. Because at Heathrow, they don’t want you to pee and they are very successful with people who watch you stressing from your arriving terminal to the departing terminal. Visiting store time = 0 minutes, walking = 0. Everything has to be done running. And then you think you arrived at what you thought is terminal 5, but this is just a bus station with a mile long line of people who are all stressed catching the next bus or the second or third bus, because time is running out. And when you finally made it into a bus, you get a sightseeing tour of the Heathrow Airport, because there is no direct drive from point A to B. At Heathrow, the connection is the longest possible way from A to B. It took me 90 minutes to hurry to my connection flight, and I hate to be forced to hurry. I wanted to use the restroom, I wanted to watch people and not be the one being watched. I don’t like Heathrow. Never have, never will…..
But I made it just in time, jumped onto my third airplane and safely flew towards my final destination: Munich! And then there was this mayor storm. The airport was shut down, because a mega thunderstorm decided to give us a little hello party. The delay itself was not so much of a problem, but all the catching up the airport had to do. All those airplanes that had to circle around before landing were in a big rush to land and unload all those people, who were in a sour mood by then. Don’t ask me how the pointy elbows felt at the baggage claim. Everybody had a reason to feel more important and therefore use their elbows to make their way to the luggage. Maybe because they didn’t know that the suitcases, once on the distribution belt, will circle around again and again. It is coming back eventually. It is not falling off the edge of the flat surface of the earth if you can’t get it off the luggage belt the first time around. But people know so little sometimes!
„Viktor&Rolf is the avant-garde luxury fashion house founded in 1993 by fashion artists Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren after their graduation from the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design. Widely recognized and respected for its provocative Haute Couture and conceptual glamour, the house of Viktor&Rolf aspires to create spectacular beauty and unexpected elegance through an unconventional approach to fashion.“
Why do we wear clothing? Is it to show our religious or societal rank? Or because we need protection against the elements? Or because we want to be modest? Whatever the reason, that piece of garment has to be designed and produced, it has to follow rules of chemistry and physics. Materials like icecubes won’t work, especially in warm climates. And then there is gravity. And Viktor&Rolf, who question everything I just mentioned in this paragraph.
This long dress with its simple silhouette is made of fabric that is usually used for blue-screen technology. When the models walked down the runway, the blue-screen material was replaced by videos of thunderstorm, fireworks, nature, etc. The material of the dress was used as a screen, a canvas to go beyond and dissolves the material itself. This plays tricks with your imagination and dissolves the boundary an outfit usually has: inside the dress is the body, and the dress is the border to the outside.
Another way to break all the rules of convention are those outfits below. Fashion designers create gaps and openings in fabrics to stimulate curiosity, to enhance comfort and wearability. But an opening doesn’t have to be limited to a strapless or one-shoulder top, a backless dress or a miniskirt. Why not remove areas in-between? It’s still a long dress, but with maximal exposure.
And don’t forget the fun! Fun with fooling gravity, fun with questioning symmetry, fun with material choices that get your heart smiling and your mind remembering times when you scribbled your first fashion designs with no rule catalog weighing you down.
Viktor&Rolf also show those classics that awe everybody who has an appreciation for a garment that took 600 hours of work, haute couture at its best! This dress was worn by the Dutch princess Mabel van Oranje-Nassau‘s nuptials with Prince Friso. The white satin dress, including a 3-meter train is decorated with 248 silk bows.
Another favorite: it looks like it’s made of 1 yard of nude jersey and some fabric markers. Simple, comfortable, and why not? It takes guts to design an outfit like that, but hey, it’s Viktor&Rolf!
The last time I attended a highschool reunion was 30 years ago. It was our 10th and it was not very well attended. Mostly the nerdy kids, that had landed a great job; they bragged about “my house, my car, my boat” stuff and I couldn’t keep up with any of their lives. I was a single mom with two boys, I had a masters degree, but no house, no car and no boat either.
This time, 30 years later, we really enjoyed each other’s company. We gave each other hugs, because – as one of my class mates said – now we’re brave enough to do so! Very sweet! We talked about life, fate, disappointments, new beginnings. We talked about trauma, struggles, bumps and loosing loved ones. Starting families, blending families, we enjoyed talking about kids and a few already had grandchildren! No house, no car, no boat was mentioned. Very funny: now that I have a house, a car and a boat. Technically it’s 2.5 houses and it is Ted’s boat, but that’s not the point. The point is: I enjoyed seeing my classmates again and sharing stories. It was a very hot and humid day and the white wine was plenty. This event left a warm fuzzy feeling around my heart and I felt closer to my buddies than ever before. Except Ulrike, my BFF! Knowing somebody so well at the age of 20 and still be so close at the age of 60 is special and I feel spoiled…..
BFF: Ulli and I