<img src="http://www-scf.usc.edu/~meyerhof/logo-1.gif"> 9077589daniel millerSaturday, January 26, 2002publish...English public transportation, American cleanliness, Italian coffee, German cars, roads and drivers, Slovak simplicity and hospitality....(to be continued I'm sure) ...Had a coffee today. Star-f'n-bucks. Hate that place. It is the piniccle of crappy consumerist culture destroying what was once something nice and enjoyable. It was a terrible cup of freaking espresso. I was ready to get back on the plane to Italy. 9076973daniel millerpublishJanuary 25, 2002 We�re on the plane on our way back to Miami. We are both very ready to be back; although I think when we step out of the airport we will be quite unpleasantly surprised at the heat and humidity. We have been enjoying the cold-but-not-too-cold weather in Milan. We�ve had a crazy day already. Up at 5:46, after our 11:30 sleep-in yesterday, was quite a shock. Then, because it was so early, our car still had a layer of frost all over the windows. Miriam went to get the car, but came back for a scraper. So I just used my phone card to get the worst of it off and by the time we got going I could mostly see. Then came the wonderful drive to the airport. As I think I surely have mentioned before, the road system in Italy is for shite. It was extremely confusing, but in the end we only ended up taking one wrong turn. We stopped at some gas station/restaurant for directions and poor Miriam almost died in there because it was totally smoky. We got back on the right track and finally saw some signs. Even so it was very sketchy and we didn�t know if we were on the right path for a while. There are these crazy sections where the whole highway has to go on a one lane overpass for a while to merge with the next highway. You know, where in the states it would be a six lane road or something and then the left three go one way and the right three the other. No. One tiny, I mean tiny, sign that doesn�t say much besides autostrada, and that is a little one-lane exit that then goes on for some time, winding this way and that, and then you get on the highway you wanted. At least you hope it was the highway you wanted. Then, praise God Almighty, you see the first sign for the airport. You might actually get to go home today. If you find yourself driving around Milan�s highways and byways all day long, then you know that you actually died last night in your sleep and sorry, but this is purgatory. It took us a long time to find the rental car return upon our arrival at the airport, too. Then when we got the bill, we ended up getting ripped off like crazy. Worse than in Slovakia last November. Only difference is this is Avis so I can call up customer support in the States and complain. But it was about 300 euro more than we thought and the lady there was like, �Talk to Avis; it�s not my problem.� Miriam goes (as I�m thinking it), �You ARE Avis!� (Of course, I was actually thinking �You are fucking Avis,� but that�s beside the point.) So we finally got everything settled. We could�ve had the same seats as last time, bulkhead in the middle, but Miriam wanted to be by the window so we kept our original seats here. There�s a American teenager in front of me so if she puts her seat back, which thankfully she hasn�t yet, I might try to bribe her or something to get her to keep it up. Or I might just watch the movies and not worry so much about it. I�m feeling not-so-claustrophobic today. I have very mixed feelings about Italy as we leave it. I wonder why the tourist-interfacing people are such pricks and the real Italians are so nice. I wonder if we tourists have ruined it for those tourist-place-workers. I wonder if they are just in the wrong industry. I wonder if they just tire of their job, so they just stick to the form but not the spirit of it. I don�t know. I stopped caring. Every time I travel I learn once again not to rent a car and hang out with locals as much as possible. Maybe one of these times I�ll remember what I�ve learned. There is of course our Utopia. American room to move and breathe and tendency to make things run easier and more smoothly when possible, Italian pizza and carefree style, German interior design and cheese and bread, English graphical design, Slovak prices and food�.(to be continued) 9053051daniel millerFriday, January 25, 2002publishjust fyi i most likely will be unable to update this blog until saturday due to lack of internet access the following two days... 8971378daniel millerWednesday, January 23, 2002publishJanuary 22, 2002 Another great day in Italy. I was really tired at work from our little outing last night, but the people here are so great anyway that it was no problem. Relationships here are so much more meaningful than in the States; even business relationships are much different--<s>genuine and honest</s>. We didn�t venture into Milano tonight, but had an amazing time at this amazing restaurant right around the corner from our hotel. Today: <s>AMAZING AMAZING PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY!</s> Again I'm ready to move! Ha ha!!!! Everythings great but I have a-no-time-a!!! 8971100daniel millerpublishJan 18, 2002 On a flight to Milan. I realized that every time we travel we complain about the actual traveling part. The flights are difficult for us; last time I started my journal with �British F-g Airlines,� and on our return flight they were so good to us. This time Miriam�s going �Nobody ever but BA!� and I�m having to be the positive one. We got bulkhead. We will survive. Then we�ll have the drive to the hotel, which will be a story in itself, I�m sure. We got very confusing directions from Mapquest and no offence, but Italians don�t give the best directions. And they�re not the best when it comes to treating clueless foreigners like ourselves with a little repect. But we keep traveling. More and more in fact. Because it�s worth it. For every day you spend basking in another culture, away from the mind-drain that is American, it is worth the long flight and the hassles of everyday travel. We love new experiences; not just the fake ones at the movie theater or at the amusement park or even at the local �destination.� We take our experiences hard. We don�t shy away from the brutal. Well, as far as our kind of sheltered western existence defines brutal. And we can do it because we have each other. We are here to hear out each other�s complaints, to bounce our whines off of each other� Right now they�re showing the safety video and it�s cartoon characters. Hilarious. They�re SO calm. No problem. We�re crashing into the middle of the Atlantic. Even if we survive the �landing� (.01% probability), my chance of living 30 minutes in the freezing water is (also .o1). So I�ll just ultra-calmly put this �floatation device� over my head and wait in my seat for DEATH TO COME DOWN THE AISLE!! Oh, and there are the oxygen masks falling from the ceiling! Great! I�m about to pass out from the rapid depressurization that also left me half deaf, but I�ll just calmly--no, hypnotically, really--pull the rubber mask to the fullest extent of its plastic tubing and--still, with no hint of emotion on my face--pull it over my head. When the rubber band snaps because it has been 10 years since the last time the masks �fell from the ceiling� and the rubber has long-since dry rotted from the less-humid-than-Tucson air they cultivate in this place, it doesn�t bother me one bit. I just calmly--zombie-like, really--hold the mask to my face while I sit waiting instructions (which, because of my aforementioned temporary hearing loss, I won�t hear). If Shaggy and Scooby are reality, then this �safety� video is the rest of the cast--�What monster? We didn�t see any monster!� We just took off. If you�re reading this then our flight was indeed a safe one. Otherwise this paper would be incinerated along with our frail and unfortunate bodies. Morbid! Hel-lo! Ha! I surprised even myself there. Now the plane is condensating and it is dripping on my headrest, right behind my neck. I thought the AC was spitting a little water on me, but no, it�s my own personal shower. This happened on our last trip and that was the first time I�d ever seen that. It�s probably getting the guy behind me a little, too. Anyway, back to my old thread. Miriam and I are there for each other, and that�s what makes it so enjoyable now. When you�re on your own, there�s no-one to complain to, so, yes, you just deal with it. I guess you could complain to God sometimes, but really it�s never that big a deal. Usually I only talk to God when I�m desperate to get back to Miriam. This one time in Boston I was JIT (Just In Time) to drive through Boston to Logan. Hats off to those dumb-ass planners who put the airport so that everyone has to drive through the city to get to the airport! There was major traffic on the way and I was very late. I remember being in my Avis rental car, on the highway when it goes under the city kind of, stopped, looking up at all the overpasses, going �God, just get me the f- home! GDMF! Get me home!� Ha! I crack myself up now. The plane was so late anyway I was well in time. I wonder why God doesn�t use those moments for direct communication. Like, �Shut up, ahole! Your plane is late you�re going to make it no prob!� Then this ahole would�ve shut up. Instead He took all that verbal abuse. Whack! Another hammer on the nail. So we travel. For the experience. To get out of A-fing-merica. To soak culture. The flight at-ten-dents they a-hav-a the-a authentic-a E-taliano accent-a! It�s great. Life is good sometimes� Jan 20, 2000 We�re sitting in this quaint caf� in an old town (Bergamo -ed.) about 30min north of Milan (if you take at least one wrong turn ha!). We were told to come here by the front desk guy, who was a much nicer guy today than the one there yesterday! Well, it was good advise! This town is very bella! We drove to it and the whole town was blocked off to traffic. However a very simpatico female police officer, who spoke perfect English, let us come all the way to the old town because we were from so far away! That rocked! The lighting wasn�t great (bright but hazy--major pollution--in fact, that�s why thy don�t let cars come!) but I�ve shot a roll of color and � a roll of b/w (w/ Miriam�s help). We strolled around, Miriam bought some great cheese (pray we get through customs with it!), and we got out customary two bottles of Italian wine (major par-tee upon return!). We just had a great lunch of pizza (what else?!) and now we�re at this kind of funky caf� having cappuccino (what else?!). It�s been an interesting trip so far. My contact who booked our hotel had said, �It�s fashion week in Milan, and very hard to find a hotel.� Which I of course took to mean we weren�t in a great place. And I was right. It�s pretty sketch. You can hear everything that goes on on our floor. Wasn�t too bad last night but this morning is was very loud. No sleeping in for us! We�ve also determined that the much-adhered-to star rating in Italy (1-5 stars; our place is 4) is simply based on a couple thing (because the place we stayed at in Venice last May was 3 stars and about the same, except of course in freakin� Venice and not some industrial area!)--a lift, carpet on the floor, and a mini-fridge. That�s all you need for that 4th star. Don�t have to be clean or quiet. Ha! Must not be that hard to make it a full 5/5! One thing I forgot to mention was because this town (Bergamo again -ed.) is closed to all outside cars, there are a ton of cyclists riding around. It is the perfect environ for that and of course there are good club riders on their racing bikes and all decked out and all (and you need some serious winter gear on a day like today, although I�m sure once you�re riding it�s perfect!). Anyway, it very much reminds me of my good old days of riding and racing and makes me want to ride streets like these again! Maybe if Miriam gets into the FS and we get stationed in Europe I will. Jan 21, 2002 Monday night and I just finished transcribing all my journal so far. Whew! I am able to get on the internet via a dial up account for a few minutes a day. Internet is a major issue! Actually I heard they have broadband into their homes so I guess internet cafes aren�t big here (like in the US); and my client just happens to be running proxy server, which would be a bigger pain to set up than a dial-up. So that�s my situation. Anyway, I had a couple minutes this morning; just long enough to get my 23 emails. But my journal was just written, so I�ve had to type it up and in the morning I will copy it into my blog. Walla! Tonight we went out with some people from work, and an Australian that one guy new who�s working here in town. We went to this very cool place called Il Bicicletta (the bicycle). The design in this place was amazing! Had the best Martini I have ever had in my life and a little bit of food. Mostly talked and had a good time. We walked around that area for a little bit (Milan is huge and we�ve only seen a little bit) in the nice cool air. Tomorrow we can�t drive. The pollution is so bad here that they�ve had to limit when people can drive. People with an even license place number can drive on even days of the month and odd on odd days. They enforce this every so often, in this case the next three or four days. Very similar to what we saw in Bergamo. It�s up to the city, so on our day off Thursday we�re hoping to be able to drive to some other city and not get stopped. We also think maybe rental cars are ok because we were stopped one more time yesterday in Bergamo by a different policewoman who we think was trying to ask us if our car was a rental. Anyway, we couldn�t understand her so she let us go. Dirt is definitely a word that can define this town. I don�t know how or when it happens, but every night when I get home my hands are dirty. My fingernails are like I�ve worked in the yard or on the bikes or something. I�m not doing anything remotely dirty either! It�s just this town! Definitely fading fast. Buena sera. Just read this email and thought it interesting considering two paragraphs ago: Vx 4.0 kicks off into 2002 this Sunday at 8pm, usual place. For the next month or so we are exploring ideas around dirt. Classifying things or people as 'dirty' is a by-product of trying to bring order to society. Christ broke these rules by hanging out with the 'unclean', and even 'became dirt for us.' Have we over-purified God to the point of sterility? Is church seen as place that judges rather than accepts? 'I've been scattered in pieces, torn by conflict, mocked by laughter, washed down in drink. In alleyways I sweep myself up out of garbage and broken glass. With my half-mouth I stammer you, who are eternal in your symmetry. I lift to you my half-hands in wordless beseeching, that I may find again the eyes with which I once beheld you.' Rainer Maria Rilke Very much look forward to seeing you! Cheers Vx 8927642daniel millerTuesday, January 22, 2002publish