Jacob's 8th post part one

Let's start this post on play reviews. The Comedy of Errors is a Shakespeare play I saw with the Susquehanna students. It's about these two sets of twins that were separated at birth, but then collide in the same city without the knowledge that the other twin exists, and anytime one of them gets angry, some thing happens to the wrong twin. This play involves a servant, marriage, divorce,  marriage to the servant's master and ex-wife, a chain, brain damage, pursuit, and exclusive to the modern version, scooters. My rating: 3 1\2 stars out of five.


Les Miserables is an absolute classic, if you haven't seen it: see it, or you'll regret it. It has many side stories to it, but the main one is a prisoner (Jean Valjean) who got out of prison, but Javert, a guard is still going after him. In the production we saw, we had at least 2 understudies and I thought they were both amazing. (especially the one for Eponine) My rating: 5 stars.


Wicked is a musical about how Elphaba became the Wicked Witch of the West, how Galinda became Glinda the Good, and how The Wizard of Oz came to be. (please note there is a dragon who roars at certain parts of the musical and the flying monkeys are weird looking, not to mention scary for littler kids) My rating: 4 stars.

Finally, we have Matilda the Musical, a Roald Dahl classic put into theatre. I'm not going to tell you any thing about it, except that it's good, and I don't suggest listening to any of the songs before hand except When I Grow Up. My rating: 5 stars.

Well, that's it for right now, keep posted for part 2.

Wales!

Our entire group had a 3-day trip doing many activities, with two nights in Wales.  Here's my summary:

Day 1: Saturday

Early wake up call, this morning, at 4:45 for me to shower, 5:20 cab to the students' flats, and 6:00 AM coach.  Everybody was on time (mostly) and the bus was moving by just after 6:00.

Stonehenge.  Given this rock formation was built about 3,000 BC, I was excited to see it.  It's not everyday you see a structure where, if Jesus had seen it, he'd say: "man, that's flippen old!"  The requisite photos:

This one has our kids, and Heather, our guide.  Heather is awesome, and has been an amazing asset for Susquehanna for many years (longer than I've been at SU).

Bath: This is the area the ancient Romans settled in about 2,000 years ago.  They had a hot springs area set up (see link here for full description) that was eventually built over - it was rediscovered several hundred years ago.  Some photos:

We explored the area for a while before lunch (at a British chain restaurant - Giraffe).

After lunch, we took a coach to Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle: We briefly checked into our hotel and then went immediately to the Castle.  We've seen so many castles now that you can grow immune and think things like: "OK, so it's another 1,000+ year old castle.  Anything else?"  This castle was small but neat.  They had a shelter where people could hide during WWII bombings (Cardiff was a strategic target).  They also had a neat little center tower we climbed (by we, we mean the men - the lady-folk stayed on the low ground).


The outside tower we were about to overtake by force. 

A picture of the girls from when we were up at the top tower.

Day 2: Sunday

We started with a trip to Big Pit Caving.  This is a formerly working coal mine.  Heather recommended that we go, and said its great to go now as the mine closed in 1980 so the people who give tours now still worked in the mines. 

She was absolutely correct.  Our guide, Martin, was 59.  He had worked in the mines since he was 15 and was hoping to collect his pension soon.  He was the nicest guy but you could hear the strain of working 45 years in the coal mines in his voice - not that it was raspy - just that he seemed like a man who'd been working hard labor for 45 years.  He was brilliant.

My favorite anecdote.  Our guide discussed several depressing issues related to the coal mine.  How sparks could easily cause fires, the dangers of dying with carbon dioxide, horses were used and they had underground stable so the horses never saw the sun, except for a two week vacation, and more.  After this, he said solemnly: "now it's time to be serious".  What?  What were we just talking about - muffins and lollipops? 

After the tour of the coal mine, we went to our manor house where we stayed, and it was stunning.  We took a walk by the river, where the kids (and kids at heart) had fun skipping stones.  

 

In the evening, we had a great dinner, where everybody got dressed up, and heard from a professional storyteller (Dan Morgan).  It was really a fantastic evening.  I'd never seen a professional story teller before, and he was really good. 

Day 3 - Monday:

After a great night, we ate breakfast before going to a small town called Cheddar.  Here, all the students who were willing/able went caving.  21 of the 25 students (and me) decided to do it and it was awesome.  It's so much fun trying to climb through those caves and crawl through those spaces.  Highly recommend doing this - but only if you're not claustrophobic.  There are some spots where you wonder how anybody could get through those spaces.  

This town had mountain goats all over - I took a couple pictures:

After this, we took our coach home.  Very busy few days, but very fun.  

Italy!

Our family had a great adventure in Italy with the SWSB students.  Here's a brief recap of the trip.

Day 1 - Thursday

Wake up call was at 2:50.  AM.  Ouch.  The cab picked us up from our flat at 3:15, and got to the student flats at 3:30 where the coach was waiting for us.  All the students were on the bus by 3:41 - not bad when aiming for 3:40.  Off to the airport and we arrived in plenty of time.  No major issues from the plane ride - and we arrived in Rome to 70 degree weather at 10:30 AM.  Nicest weather I've felt since November. 

After getting the coach to our hotel.  (Actually, the coach driver decided to drop us off 2 blocks from our hotel, as he couldn't get to the hotel.  Then he pointed and we eventually found it.)

We got checked in quickly, and our family and James went to eat at a place two blocks from the hotel.  We ordered a few pizzas to share, and they were delicious.  One thing our family has discussed is that pizzas in London are not of the same quality as those in the US.  Italy, or at least Rome, has absolutely amazing food.  This pizza was amazing and a great meal to start our trip.  

We met our guide, Nicoletta, who came highly recommended by both previous London program directors and Heather (our guide in London).  We had a walking tour of the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, and more.  Here's Nicoletta

One fun anecdote.  These fountains (pictured below) contain quality drinking water (i.e., you won’t get sick).  To do it, you put your finger below to stop it up, and the water shoots out the top.  When I was trying to hold Zeke up to do it, my lovely wife got in position for a picture.  Right in front of the line of water.  The kids thought that was pretty fun (as did I and the college students). On a 75 degree day, Amanda did also (see photo).  Had it been 50 degrees instead, she may not have been as happy about it.

  

We also had our first gelato of the trip - very tasty. 

After the tour, we found a nice place to eat outside, and had another amazing meal.  the kids had pizza (which, was a recurring theme of the trip), while the adults tried various pasta dishes.  We also had some wine, which was tasty.  I started liking wine during my first trip to Rome two years ago, and I think Italian wine is the best (sorry to my in-laws in Napa). The wines tasted just as good this trip.

One nice thing - the kids would often split one pizza when we went out to eat, so their dining was quite inexpensive for us.

  

Day 2 in Rome - Friday

On day 2 in Rome, we had our trip to Terni for a company visit.  We visit a steel mill most semesters and it's usually pretty neat.  The plan was to arrive at about 10:30 (8:30 coach pickup), take the coach to the steel mill, then get a presentation and tour.  Everything went basically to plan up until the tour.  We got into our funky required outfits ...

but then problems ensued.  We couldn't get into the factory.  It turns out that labor unions decided the day before to start striking.  The story is long and complicated (see story here), but to summarize, the budget and economy in Italy are in shambles, and the government wants to limit the restrictions on companies laying off workers during a down economy.  The proposal is that the worker will "only" get 7 months of pay after they're laid off, but won't be guaranteed to be the first rehired if the firm starts rehiring.  The unions don't like this (what do they like?) and decided to start striking.  They had a 2-hour strike in the morning, then showed up.  So basically, everybody just slept in on Friday.  This meant they were working double time when we were supposed to tour, and we couldn't get in there.  Oh well ... It gave the opportunity for the class to discuss our love for labor unions. :/

After this, we got lunch and had a trip to Spoletto, an historic town.  I had never been here, but heard it was neat from others.  It really was amazing.  The coolest part, I think, was this bridge dating back to 1200.  Some pictures:

  

After Spoletto, we enjoyed a nice dinner (again) and time to sleep.

Day 3 in Rome - Saturday

We took a nice walking tour in the morning going to the Trastevere district with our first stop at Villa Farnesina to see some painted fresco's.  Then we walked around Trastevere.

After the tour (about 12:45), we wanted lunch.  We decided to placate the kids and do a final Hard Rock Cafe visit of our trip.  To get there, we had to catch the bus.  It was a bit of an experience trying to find the right bus, but we ended up finding it quickly and efficiently.  We made it there, waited a few minutes for a table, and enjoyed our 4th Hard Rock Cafe in 3 months. (I think the previous 4 visits I had taken were spread over 6 years). 

In the afternoon, we just poked around shops.  Then we decided for a gelato at a place that our guide recommended highly.  There was a line, but she said it was worth it, so we waited.  It was the best ice cream/gelato I'd ever had.  I think our kids agreed:

Day 4 in Rome - Sunday

Sunday night at 1:00 AM Europe "sprung forward".  In the US it happens earlier, but Europe waits until late March.  Given this and that we were out somewhat late with our kids, we let them sleep in a bit.  We got up, ate, and left the hotel at 10:00 AM, however.  Not too bad.

We went to church service at St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican.  I thought it would be an outdoor service, since the time I was here before I went to an outdoor service.  This one, however, was inside.  We got seats directly underneath the dome.  Here are pictures:

In the afternoon we went to the Roman Forums and the Colosseum.  It's pretty amazing to walk around places built 2,000 years ago.  The perfect weather we had for the trip came to a brief halt, however, as rain rolled in for the afternoon.  Thankfully our tour of the roman forums ended and we got inside the Colosseum right as the rain started.  Most of the Colosseum discussions then took place inside the hallways of the Colosseum to avoid the rain.  More pictures:

Sunday night, we went to a great restaurant that was recommended by our guide, Nicoletta.  Five of our students tried it Friday and said it was amazing.  .  

It was a small restaurant, with only about 10 tables or so inside and another 4 outside.  We started by getting some wine - they had cool glasses to drink from - as shown here:

The food was, quite simply, spectacular!  It was probably the best tasting restaurant meal I've ever had.  I had homemade pasta with a homemade pork sauce topping.  We also shared a plate of meats for the 2nd course. I was too enamored with my food to take pictures, unfortunately.  

Before the food came, the five students who ate at this place on Friday night came back.  The waiter and manager smiled and laughed when our students arrived, went over and hugged and kissed the ladies, and shook hands with the men.  It was pretty cool as a professor to see our students getting such a great reception by the workers - it shows they handle themselves well.

Monday

For our last day in Rome, we slept in a bit, then just poked around some shops and bought a few souvenirs. Before we left the hotel, we took pictures of the cool elevator:

In the afternoon, we toured the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters Basilica.  Some photos:

Later Monday, we had to deal with a bit of tardiness, a forgotten passport, a strike of the security workers, and a 80 minute line in London to get through customs.  Nothing major, but enough to make the last afternoon/night a bit more stressful than one would have hoped. 


All in all - it was a wonderful trip!  Next up - a recap of our trip to Wales!