New Providence, NJ

New Providence is covered in snow!
The families here like to put out fake candles lit from each window. We've shoveled the patio twice, the driveway once. The rain freezes over and the ground gets icy. I like the squeaking of snow beneath my shoes. The doggie Jessie accidentally cuts her tender paws when she walks on ice to pee outside (poor thing!). A few gusts of wind on our way from the subway station to the Guggenheim Museum froze our noses & made our eyes water. We've probably seen at least 10 different outdoor nativity scenes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
Since being back from Pennsylvania, a bit of snow has melted and the grass peeks out from underneath. The grass supposedly hibernates when it snows. How does grass hibernate?
On our way back from Pennsylvania, Robby and his parents had a heated discussion about evolution, creationism, religion, and faith. Jeanne sat silently and listened, occasionally sighing very loudly. Without going into it too much, a few parties became seemingly apoplectic.

NJ, NYC, and PA Food

Robby and I have been in New Jersey visiting his dad and stepmom since Dec. 21st.
Here is what we've eaten:

1. 1.5-lb steamed lobster with a sherry garlic sauce (Legal Seafood @ Short Hills Mall)
2. Papardelle Bolognese (@ Del Maio)
3. grilled cheese sandwiches (homemade! Sara Lee 7-grain sliced bread, white American cheese, & sliced turkey)
4. Potato & spinach knish & vegetable soup (@ Grand Central Station's eatery)
5. apple cider (@ Bryant Park)
6. chicken & stuffing casserole with canned creamy chicken soup (homemade)
7. layered red Jello with whipped cream (@ Prestige Diner)
8. Christmas Eve dinner (homemade!: meatballs, pasta, deviled eggs, potato salad, green salad
9. Christmas dinner (homemade!): honey-baked ham, pot roast, baked asparagus, mashed potatoes (with a full container of sour cream mixed in), cookies, cookies, cookies
10. cinnamon coffee cake (homemade)
11. cream of potato soup (Prestige Cafe)
12. one egg, country potatoes, & OJ (Broadway Diner)
13. Turkey, cranberry sauce, Russian salad sandwich (diner in Pennsylvania)
14. oven-baken lamb, aloo gohbi, fried rice with pineapple and other fruits, fried tilapia, chicken tikka masala (@ Mendhi Restaurant in Morristown, NJ - plus, Robby and Jeanne got mendhi done on their hands)

15. onion & potato dosa, vegetable dosa, rasam soup, chapathi, thali (@ Saravana Bhavan in Edison, NJ)
16. "sloppy joe" sandwiches from the Town Deli in New Providence ("sloppy joe" is turkey and cole slaw)
17. thin crust New York pizza
18. Falafals from South Street, Pennsylvania, and Greenwich Village, NYC

19. Magnolia cupcakes from the Village (definitely overrated. Kara's Cupcakes in the Town and Country Village of Palo Alto, CA, is better)


This is an indication of how we eat out here. Different than California, huh?
Let's guess how much weight Robby and Jeanne have gained over Xmas break!

Birthday Pictures

What did we do for my birthday?

1. We had breakfast at S&W with my parents and our lovely neighbors
2. Robby taught my parents how to play Wii tennis and Rock Band at his video games "lab" at USC.
3. We went for a short hike at the Griffith Observatory. It was a clear day, and my parents made new friends: a Korean couple whose last name was the same as ours ("Nah" in Korean).
4. Robby and I went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond to buy a wedding gift.
5. CAKE & singing!

December 14, 2008, 7am

Happy birthday, me!

Thank you, Mommy & Deddy, for conceiving me! How un-momentous birthdays can be. I'm in a robe, sitting at the kitchen table with a to-do checklist beside me...the sky is getting light outside, and I can hear crows shouting incessantly at each other; in the background is the steady hum of the 405 freeway. A birthday is just another day. I've sensed that in Chinese culture, they're no biggie, unless you turn 100 days, 80, or 90 years old. Every day is someone's birthday. How cool & how common is that?

Last year, Robby planned the best birthday party for me ever. It started on Friday night, when Robby showed up at my sister's for dinner. He had left Los Angeles 6 hours before he said he would; I expected him to arrive in the middle of the night.

Then, he planned a surprise morning tour of the Baylands in Palo Alto, and my sisters and cousin showed up. A volunteer guide took us on a walk around the bird reserve and we watched all sorts of them hanging out and looking for food. Then we had dim sum nearby at Ming's Restaurant and took a walk on the Dish, a 3.5-mile loop on Stanford campus. After an afternoon nap, we headed out to Three Seasons for dinner with mostly Robby's friends (because I have so few friends and they all live somewhere else - Robby teases me and likes to say that I have no friends). We ate a sumptuous meal: sea bass, shaking beef, caramelized grilled shrimp, spring rolls with mango and duck. Mmmmm. Sure, Three Seasons is overpriced, but tasty! Then we headed to the place where Robby and I had our first "date": Molly Magee's in Mountain View. I put quotation marks around "date" because I didn't know we were on a day and Robby did. When it comes to blossoming romance, I'm always clueless and one step behind.

So, my 30th birthday was a day-and-a-half-long celebration, and I told Robby that he never need to plan anything else as elaborate as that for another 10 years!

Jeanne's Last Day of Being 30

I will be turning 31 tomorrow morning at 6:55am. How does it feel to be (close to) 31?

1. It feels groggy some days. My body creaks and groans a little more than it did a few years ago.
2. It feels like a body settling into stagnancy (doing push-ups and sit-ups every day just doesn't cut it anymore).
3. It feels like I should hear kids running around, but there aren't.
4. It feels like a warm slice of chocolate cake with a thin layer of icing.
5. It's not really caring there will be a cake for me on my birthday.
6. It's loving to be in my pajamas and drinking tea all morning and afternoon.
7. It's getting excited to make a trip to Target.
8. It's noticing the disappearance of elasticity and appearance of veins in the skin on the back of my hands.
9. It's going to Trader Joe's every week, knowing that we should be cooking fresh produce but not yet ready to.
10. It's using the anti-aging cream that my mom bought for me on my 30th birthday.
11. It's walking around the apartment in wool slippers.
12. It's oatmeal with cereal mixed in every morning.
13. It's waking up as the sun rises every morning.
14. It's picking up the daily paper from the walkway and tossing it onto our porch every morning.
15. It's wanting to pull out the stationery and write letters, but conceding to sending an email once in awhile.
16. It's having a gmail account, but not knowing how to use all its features.
17. It's complaining about every grammatical error I see in writing.
18. It's waking up never having to wake up alone again...
19. Though sometimes it's waking up with a bent elbow on my face.
20. It's not that bad!

DJ Recommendation: DJ Jeremy is da Bomb

We'd like to plug our wedding DJ, Jeremy Downing. He is fantastic! Robby already wrote a glowing review for him on yelp.com, but we think he deserves more attention. He did a great job at our wedding. Robby and I wanted danceable hip hop that wasn't mainstream; please, no Usher, no E-40, no Too Short, no gangsta rap (Dr. Dre or Snoop), no Bill Idol, no chicken dance, no macarena, no "Love Shack", no "Celebrate", or no "We are Family,". DJ Jeremy was very flexible in meeting our requests. We were able to email him a list of last-minute song requests too.

We really wanted Frontline's "What I Am", and even though NOBODY knew the song (on the dance floor, one of Robby's cousins raised his arms and yelled, "What is this?!"), he played it anyway. They're from his 'hood, Richmond, and they never really made it big, even though they are talented. He was also willing to play Jurassic 5 and Talib Kwali. After the wedding, he send us a CD of all our wedding songs.

And recently, he sent us about an hours worth of mash-up, a new style that some clubs in San Francisco are playing. Mash-up combines two genres, usually a rock and hip hop song. He does an awesome job sampling different kinds of songs with similar beats. It's fun to try to recognize the '80s song sampled under a popular hip hop song. The most unusual mix is Kanye West's "Gold Digger" sampled on top of Beethoven's symphony No. 6, I think. Hip hop and classical? It works!

Currently, DJ Jeremy works at Asian SF, a touristy restaurant/bar/nightclub in downtown S.F. that features glamorous transvestite performers and serves Asian fusion food. Robby and I hope that he gets BIG gigs in the future because we both think he's extra-talented. Okay, enough praising for now!

And, to think, we found Jeremy on craigslist.org!!

Here is a link to his website.

Our Wedding Dance

Hi, everyone. Robby finally uploaded our silly wedding dance on youtube.com. It is broken into two parts. It's made up of a medley of 10 songs, and we choreographed it ourselves. It's a mixture of my rock and Robby's hip hop choices. We do a little polka (badly!), some hip hop dance moves that we learned from Palo Alto High School's dance group Hipnotik (thanks, Amanda & Kelvin!), and some interpretive dance to Lauryn Hill.
Sure, you'll laugh - it was darn embarrassing, but fun. Everyone there got a good laugh from it.

Enjoy!

Part I
Part II

Nose to the Grind

Robby has started his qualifying exams. His exams started yesterday, and he has been typing for hours on end. His work day was 14 hours yesterday. 14 hours of sitting in the same chair, churning out pages and pages of writing.

I've been busying myself with holiday duties: mostly wrapping the endless gifts piled in our bedroom (now there is a large pile of silver boxes in the living room) and assembling wedding albums.

I have five more weeks of school until the semester ends, and I just entered 15-week grades tonight. In my two most difficult classes, the class averages are 43% and 65%. The other three classes are honors, and the class averages are not so atrocious. They range from 75-85%. I strictly go by the traditional grade cut offs: 90% and above is an A, 80% & above is a B, 70% & above is a C, and 60% and above is a D. I've discovered that some teachers at my school are more lenient about giving out Ds. Some teachers lower the D cut-off percentage at 55%. Or, if the class is very difficult, some teachers consider an 87% and A. I'm not sure how I feel about those methods. Since a student can graduate with all Ds and don't need to retake a class if they earned a D in it previously, I guess teachers are motivated to give out more Ds, so that the F students don't have to return to the same classes next year. But does the student deserve this boon? And does a D mean that the student deserves to graduate from high school?

I have been more strict about sticking to my cut-off percentages. I don't think I should soften my grading policy in order to help inflate the number of students who are graduating from high school. Many kids are graduating who shouldn't be. Many students aren't learning. Ahhhh...the education system...

Sometimes there's so much to think about that my head starts hurting...

Post-Thanksgiving Tummy Ache

Thanksgiving, a day of gluttony and excess.
We stuffed ourselves as full as the 24-pound turkey that we ate: potato salad, Chinese sticky rice, mushroom gravy, creamed corn (made by me), green beans with BBQ sauce, honey-baked ham, cabbage, stuffing, canned cranberry jelly slices (mmmm), salad, and pie. Heaven's sake, Marie Callender's pies never change! I had three slices of the German chocolate; it consisted of chocolate pudding filling with shredded coconut, tear-dropped chocolate chips, and a flaky, pale crust.
We played some competitive Taboo with family, Rock Band 2 with the cousins, watched Transformers. I could see why the New York Times review claimed that the entire movie was an advertisement for the military. Robby explained to me Optimus Prime's speech to Jazz about why they need to save humans - "They're a violent species...who have a lot to learn" yadda, yadda - is really analogous to our government's attitude toward Iraqi people. I'm not sure I fully understood this propaganda because the analogy didn't seem consistent through the entire movie. If the bumbling humans in the movie symbolize Iraqi people, do the good transformers represent Americans? Who does Megatron represent? The terrorists? Well, the shallow movie proffered some food for thought, though, actually, our food dulled our thoughts.

Who do we thank on Thanksgiving Day?

In the third grade, I remember Ms. Bianca dressed half the class in pilgrim outfits and the other in Indian outfits. Our costumes were made of construction paper. I wore a white paper collar and a brown hat (I was a pilgrim). We had to perform in front of the whole school: we sang "America, the Beautiful" & translated the lyrics into American sign language as we sang. Back then, we still celebrated Columbus Day.

Now, in California, we celebrate Martin Luther, Jr.'s birthday in place of Columbus Day. We no longer teach our kids the saying "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Instead of learning about the fateful and meager meal shared between resourceful & friendly American Indians and starving & desperate Pilgrims, high school students learn the truth about Christopher Columbus. I did not learn these truths in school. I had to learn them on my own, when I picked up a few eye-opening books, such as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Lies My Teacher Told Me, and A People's History of the United States. These books reveal the true events when Columbus arrived on Hispanola Island and slaughtered the Arawak Indian population, when he saw gold studs in their ears and forced them to search for gold with the threat of cutting off limbs... Many Americans shy away from this history; they call it revisionist. But our country is built on the blood of the indigenous, and our history of violence is a long and continual one. To ignore it is to ignore the natives who occupied this land first.

I will teach my children that the creation of our country is based on genocide, and out of its creation more violence but also progress, diversity, and opportunity.

Drowning in Happy Photos

Robby thinks that our apartment is becoming a shrine to our wedding. And I'm getting exhausted from organizing wedding photos. I've postponed writing the thank-you cards for a few months now, hoping that I'll have time over Christmas to write them. Now, I've taken up printing and organizing photos, and it has turned into a big task. I've got the scrapbook and the photo corners to make albums for the parents. Now, I'm waiting for the cardstock to arrive. We've been picking and choosing photos to frame and give to family, and that has been an onerous task as well. Of course, it's fun to relive our special day through these photos, but we've looked at them so many times that I know them a little too intimately.

If you read the blog posting below, I must admit that I had a brain fart at that moment I claimed that babies don't pee. I wanted to scare Robby into understanding the frequency with which parents change their infants' diapers, so I tried to be as frightening as possible by stating that they only poop. Oops.

Quote of the week - babies only poop

Wifey and I were walking along, talking about the merits of getting a dog and/or having a baby. In general, I am partial to the former and she the latter, but we have accepted both acquisitions as inevitable. During this particular conversation on this issue, the topic of poop surfaced, so we compared the relative costs (and benefits?) of cleaning up after baby vs canine waste. I do not remember the exact prompt, but at some point in the conversation, Jeanne explained, "You know, infants don't pee. They only poop. ...I think."

It took just a few seconds for us to realize what she had said ...and a few more for me to promise to quote her on this blog.

I Love My Family

I love spending time with my family. Even if my infant nieces craves constant holding, even if my 5 & 3-year-old nieces fight over toys, even if I trip over art projects and train sets in the living room, I love my family!

Robby and I visited family in the Bay Area this weekend. We woke up with the family, ate breakfast with the family, watched the girls as my parents got some rest, and even got the chance to hang out with a few of Robby's college friends. Unfortunately, we had some bad Vietnamese food on Castro Street of Mountain View (stay away from Minh's Restaurant on Castro next to TheRapy). We saw a hilarious film called Role Model starring Paul Rudd & Stifler from American Pie.

Robby invented a game with Maya in which he would pull her by the ankles over a large Pilates ball, bounce her a few times, and toss her on the sofa. She loved it. She likes to rough house and the only chance she gets her dose is when Robby comes. My baby niece Audra is good at smiling and interacting with people now. Sher recognizes faces and can roll onto her belly (though she can't roll back onto her back). The middle niece, Mei Mei, has entered the phase of copying everything her big sister says. Suffering from middle-child syndrome, she still needs to find her own self beyond looking to her big sister for guidance.

I felt a tinge of sadness to leave my beautiful nieces. When we see them after Christmas, they will all be a little taller and a little more articulate.

We did the Monster Mash

Robby and I hosted our first party last night! Well, not really our first. Our first hosted parties were the rehearsal dinner and the wedding, but those don't really count, right?

We organized a little pot-luck get-together with 15 or so people, and we stuffed ourselves with chili, samosas, rice krispie treats, brownies, Korean sushi, fruit, homemade bread, and hummus. We gorged ourselves on food and spirits as 150 or so little kiddies came by our apartment trick-or-treating.

Our building was bright and festive. We borrowed some strands of orange lights from our generous neighbor, who decorated the walkways with pumpkin lanterns, a window display, and a life-sized phantom that hung from a tree. She dressed up as a green-haired witch, her husband as Jack Skellington, our other neighbor in hot pink, and three out of the four apartments passed out candy.

One little 3 or 4-year-old princess was scared by Robby, who stood behind her in his mask and said, "boo!" She stood frozen on our steps for a long time, holding her sister's hand, staring at him. Then she said quietly, "How dare you." Robby thought she said, "You scared me." Robby finally convinced her to walk off our step by inviting her to give him a high-five, which she did. As she walked away from our apartment with her parent, she turned around and shouted something out but we could not decipher her words. I'm guessing she had another indignant comment. Who is he to scare of princess?

After the last trick-or-treaters left, we settled into the living room and watched Shaun of the Dead, the hilarious cult horror movie, starring Simon Pegg from Run Fat Boy Run. It was a great group movie.

Halloween really felt like Halloween this year. We didn't have to search for parties or look for the nearest parade just to find an excuse to dress up. We were surrounded by adults who wore more than lazy costumes, so that put all of us in a celebratory mood. Most of the houses on our street were lit and inviting. All in all, it was a successful evening!

1. Robby & I


2. Group shot: hanging out at the food table.


3. What is this? Champagne on Halloween?

Give Me Something Good to Eat!

Halloween is fast arriving, and Robby keep saying that this is our first real Halloween where we pass out candy to little kiddies. Next, he said in passing as we were driving up the 110 freeway to Pasadena, we'll be celebrating Halloween by dressing up our own kiddies. It was a strange feeling for him to go from dropping by Halloween party to Halloween party as a bachelor to now preparing bowls of candy for the 200+ little ones who will be showing up at our front door.

We've invited a few friends to hang out Friday evening. We'll project some scary movies on the wall - we haven't decided which movies yet, but I'm thinking of Carrie or Saw - and hang out as the kids arrive. Robby is planning scaring the trick-or-treaters with a skull half-mask and a retractable knife. I hope he doesn't go too far by making any of them pee from fright. I will wear all black, put on a set of wings and a wig that I bought in Hollywood. I've never worn a wig before, so I'm anxious to show off the color hair I've always wanted: blue.

Wednesday will be a pumpkin carving night, I think. We'll have to clean up the apartment, find a place to put our new six-foot bean bag, and carry some empty boxes into the garage.

I'm excited!

Relieved to Leave Las Vegas

Robby and I just spent a long blissful weekend in Las Vegas. Okay, maybe not blissful - one does not visit Las Vegas for tranquility and bliss. But I was glad to leave town for a few days, even if we were traveling to the center of a vast and endless desert.

By the end of the second evening, I told myself that 1.5 days is enough to spend in Vegas. On the first night, we had walked the strip, from the unpretentious Travelodge, past the new, shiny Planet Hollywood, the elaborate Paris!, the tacky Buffalo Bill's, and the legs-galore Flamingo, all the way to Treasure Island, whose water show was canceled due to high winds. We were inundated with sparkly lights everywhere, music piped through hidden speakers, men with microphones luring us with "You too can win $1000 on one pull of the lever. Why, look at this man here...", and hundreds of Latino men and women who shoved business cards in front of Robby. These pictured nearly nude women and phone numbers - prostitutes, escorts, call girls, whatever they're called. In the evening, we saw a wonderfully quaint drag show at the Harmon Theater. It was the cheapest show we could find, at $35 per person, including dinner. Albeit, the dinner was disgustingly greasy Chinese food. But the drag show was fantastic. It consisted of 6 large and busty transvestites, like Miss Conception (the MC), Alexis Dealer, and Nia Simone. They wore glittery make-up, 6-inch stilettos, fancy dresses, and large wigs. Nia Simone was the resident clothing designer, and her creations were creative. Each one came out lip syncing a famous pop song and gesturing in lewd and lascivious ways. As they danced down aisles, they flirted with the patrons & took $1 bills. One drag queen dressed as Erykah Badu and sang "Tyrone". She wore a 4-foot-high head wrap for the first half of the song and reappeared with an enormous afro for the second half. The only blonde wore a stewardess outfit and danced to Britney Spear's toxic. The crass and raunchy MC, Miss Conception, was by far the most talented. She lip synced a slow hit single by Evanescence and a Rocky Horror Picture Show song. She made it all look so easy, and she had the perfect facial expressions and gestures to fit each beat and note.

What about the patrons? They were from all walks of life - mostly women. Many more old people that I had expected. There were at least 5 people over the age of 65. One bachelorette party and a large female party with a handful of gay men. All in all, a seemingly wholesome crowd, which surprised me. I guess they had come to see a semi-bawdy vaudeville show. Nothing visual was crude or remotely R-rated, though Miss Conception was pretty crude in speech.

Photo below: Erykah Badu's "Tyrone"


As for gambling, I lost $31 and felt quite satisfied that I had the Las Vegas experience. Robby played roulette, video poker, craps, and Texas Hold'em. I wanted to play Texas Hold'em but it got too late. I lost interest in roulette quickly because it was so easy to lose money quickly.

With the huge crowds in Las Vegas, one wouldn't think that the country is currently experiencing a recession. Traffic was horrendous, the sidewalks were teeming with tourists, and the Cirque du Soleil show seemed sold out. People crowded around gambling tables with stacks of chips, ready to let go of their money at a roll of a die. Recession? What recession? What economic collapse?

Me, I got tired of seeing scantily clad women walking long stretches from one massive hotel to another in 55-degree weather. Saturday was the coldest day of the year to date, and, still, women shuffled along sidewalks without coats, their butts sagging out of super-tight shorts. What bothered me most were women who subjected themselves to 4+ -inch heels. They either wobbled like teetering ballerinas or pushed their hip outward, looking like upright mules. Watching women in heels pains me because I know that NO woman can feel comfortable wearing a pair of heels over a long period of time (by "long", I mean more than 15 minutes of walking). Imagining their pain makes me cringe, makes me pity them. How stupid they are to sacrifice comfort for beauty.

So, this is Las Vegas, where people learn both the insignificance of money and (oppositely) the glamor and prestige that comes with it. Overabundant opulence through and through.

Photo below: I'm exclaiming, "I can't believe I'm in Europe!"

Early Morning Reflection

It’s 3:37am, Thursday morning. Yes, early for a weekday. Today I woke up unusually early - usually, my eyes open before 6am. I toss and turn, trying to return to sleep, but it never works. By the time my consciousness is aroused, my mind is cluttered with thoughts.

My mornings usually start with unwelcoming thoughts about third period class. The images of particular students raid my mind, and with these unpleasant reminders of the coming day, I open my eyes to the dark. I close my eyes, but I start thinking about what I want to say to these few kids – maybe 5 of them – to set them straight. What can I say to set them straight? These few are immature, selfish little smart alecks, who are disrespectful little punks. They feel okay interrupting me and saying stupid or rude remarks to other kids. It’s been going on since the first day of school. Since the first day of school, I’ve threatened to boot out the bad kids, and I’ve tried, but they keep coming back. They’re ignorant and proud of it, and all they are worth is the nothing that they produce in my class – empty pages and unused pens. Granted, I’m not talking about all the kids, just a few. But too many to pinpoint just two, too many to boot out at once.

Most of the kids are pretty decent, I’d say. Beyond third period, I have a total of [42+34+34+26+19 = 155] 155 students. Lots. And most of them are decent. Three of these classes are honors, and the kids who are in there aren’t the brightest or most skilled lot, but they’re motivated, and they value a positive learning environment. Motivation sometimes is the only quality that keeps a student afloat in an honors class. Sometimes it’s enough to be a committed hard worker – not a special kind of intelligence or IQ. That works wonders for me, the teacher. I’m working with kids who want to learn, and we can develop meaningful relationships and help one another become better learners.

In the regular English classes, the atmosphere is totally different. Just a few bad apples can ruin the lot, and these bad apples come in with the intent to tear everyone else down. Maybe they’ve always failed and have given up; nonetheless, they are determined to bring everyone else down, so that all is left is an exasperated teacher (an authority figure to laugh at) and a circus. These are the kids who I need to boot out of class. Like I said, most of the kids are decent. They want to learn; they want to do well in school. Then there are some who are easily led astray. They can’t read, can’t write, & they let the bad apples distract them with their meaningless antics. I have to reel these kids in too, make them know that they have to get serious about school.

I know, it’s all on me. I have to exercise my authority to “control” the class. The thing is, I’m not much good at controlling a class. I have never thought about teaching in terms of controlling the behavior of kids. I just want to teach. I want a general understanding among everybody that we are here to learn and help one another. But in some classes, that just doesn’t cut it. The kids expect a police-type authority, which I’m turning into in third period. I’m just no good at dealing with defiance. I trip up when I’m supposed to step up and follow through with discipline. I try to, here and there. I talk to the kids, call parents, talk to deans, etc. But something isn’t working. Something definitely isn’t working.

Here’s my predicament with teaching: Even though 95% of my students are easy to work with, I dwell on the 5% of meanies who walk through my classroom each day. I become fixated on few who become the banes of my entire school year. Don’t ask me why I hang onto them. All I know that it makes me a lousy teacher.

I constantly think about this. What am I doing wrong? How do I change my own behavior so that I don’t allow for these immature 15 year olds to hijack my class?

Hence, waking up at 4am.

Well, that’s my life so far. Still adjusting to teaching in an urban school. I don’t how much longer I can survive this...

Tender Greens: Eat your salad at home

Sigh, another disappointing trip to a highly regarded staple. Tender Greens is healthy, vegetarian friendly restaurant in downtown Culver City. It receives 4 stars on wwww.yelp.com and has 329 reviews.

It's not all that.

It has a limited menu selection: salad, mashed potatoes, meat (fish or steak), & soup. We got a combo hot plate, which was $10, too costly for four thin slices of steak, a small salad with few fixings, and mashed potatoes.

Pluto's in the Bay Area is a much better deal. For $6, you get a huge salad with seven toppings of your choice! I highly recommend it. It's less pretentious, and it has a larger selection.

Maybe Tender Greens deserves another visit. We'll see. But I feel disappointed as I sit there with a tiny salad on my plate, with a meal that costs nearly the same as a large box of Costco mixed greens.

Go Pluto's!

Wedding Video

We just received a polished, edited version of our wedding video & IT'S AWESOME! We found both the videographer & video editor on craigslist. Both were modestly priced and SO worth the money. Robby was right: video is precious. We watched our unique vows and other people's good wishes for us. Thanks, Joe, for the Borat impression. & thanks, Auntie Yvonne, for the encouragement for Robby to learn Chinese. I'm so happy to see that everyone had a good time at the reception. The dancing was especially fun to watch, especially Jorg & Andrew, Robby & his dad, and Sima & Joe.

What a wonderful day that was!

Robby will load parts of it on youtube soon.

Tito's Tacos: Unhappy stomach

Since we've moved to Culver City, many people have told us to go to Tito's Tacos. It's a established cult eatery in Los Angeles, and it's only a few blocks from our apartment. The website, which even plays the restaurant's theme song, states that it was opened in 1959. Crowds of people always wait in front of the restaurant, so we were curious about the Mexican food here.

Prices are incredibly cheap. A taco, enchilada, and burrito are only a few dollars, and a small drink is only $1. But the food is not authentic Mexican but Americanized Mexican. This baffles me. Why would people line up to buy Americanized Mexican food? The ground meat in the taco is shredded instead of ground (thank goodness), but it's so greasy that the taco becomes translucent with oil. The cheese heaped on top of the taco is bright orange shredded cheese - the plastic-tasting cheddar kind. The salsa looks like pureed tomatoes, and the guacomole is liquified into the consistency of water.

Tito's Tacos was worth trying once, but I would choose authentic Mexican food over plastic-tasting cheddar any day.

5th Week Grades...Ugh

I finally entered all my grades into LA Unified's website.
It's not pretty.

In one class of 43 students, only 6 are passing with at least a C. The rest of the class (37 students!) are receiving Ds & Fs for these warning notices. I will have to talk to them about the urgency of getting their act straight and doing school the right way. Class hasn't even been very difficult, in my opinion. In another class with 31 students, 6 students are passing with C & above. Yikes! What happens when we start reading a 300-some-page novel like To Kill a Mockingbird? Most all the work has been doing in class so far, and I can't possibly NOT assign homework. I will have to talk to other teachers about this.

Robby took a breakdancing class at the YMCA yesterday. The teacher is really good. He not a skilled but impatient breakdancer who expects you to emulate him perfectly. He is a skilled breakdancer who knows how to teach. He had his students practice a new move slowly as he counted, then to slow music, then to faster music. Then, after teaching 3 moves, he weaved them together by the last ten minutes of class. It looked fun. I chickened out and watched, but I'll take a class soon.

Life is good, but work is a little stressful. I'm starting to teach Hamlet to my junior students next week, and the last time I taught it was a total disaster. I ended up showing the students the film. Sure, I scoured the Internet for ideas, but nothing caught my attention. Wish me luck.

Culver City Culture

As Robby and I settled into domestification, we are exploring our new down-home town & avoiding the 405 freeway. Culver City is awesome. The weather is perpetually cool, mostly sunny, there is little traffic congestion, the beach is hear, and there is an overall homely feeling about this small suburb nestled in the middle of L.A. sprawl. What can I say? Robby & I have grown to like the suburbs, where we don't have to fight over parking spaces, settle with expensive, unrecognizable vegan food (I'm reminded of Main Street, Santa Monica), and run almost-red lights in order to get anywhere. We like the lack of crowds and the ability to walk to & support small business.

We've discovered a few delightful and not so delightful establishments:

1. Tanner Cafe: We walk here when we need to get work done but can't seem to do it at home. This chill cafe has great '90s rock and classic reggae playing all the time, great coffee (I drink the chai), and delicious pastries that taste homemade. Today, we hung out there for 4 hours, and nobody bugged us about staying so long because it wasn't very crowded.

2. Ice Skating Rink: A favorite site for us, especially 11-1pm on Saturday nights, when there's adult skate for $8. Dim lights, old-school hip hop and '80s, & a stone's throw from our place.

3. Father's Office: At least 3 people recommended this trendy bar when they heard that we were moving to Culver City. This place is known for its unique hamburger & herbed sweet potato fries. We've been twice already. It's not a place we ever need to go to again. Sure, the burger is fantastic (complicated patty, caramelized onions, arugula, & gruyere cheese), but it's $12 & uber-trendy - low lights, loud music, crisply dressed patrons...Plus, there's no waiting list. If you want a table, you have to be a vulture, hover over customers who are sipping on beers, munching on french fries, and shouting over loud electronic music, , then swoop in as soon as they start standing. You order your food at the bar, and the restaurant doesn't provide ketchup because it's too cool for it. I brought my own last time, and passers-by gave me a funny look when they saw the Heinz bottle on the table.

4. Indian Sweets & Spices: Cheap, vegetarian Indian food. $7 for a plate with naan, rice, 2 side dishes (like channa masala or aloo gobi) & a mango lassi. Not bad, huh? The ladies who work there are a bit cranky, but the food is delicious, and the eatery is inside a little Indian market.

5. Red Mango: We hear that this frozen yogurt place was open in Korea LONG before Pinkberry existed. In fact, Pinkberry took the yogurt idea from Red Mango and brought it to America. Red Mango's yogurt is creamier than Pinkberry's, and it's cheaper too. I like the cereal toppings, especially Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

6. Akasha: A fancy schmancy organic restaurant in downtown Culver City. It's very expensive and the portions are small, but the food is experimental and interesting. It's not a place we'd ever need to go to again, though. Our one meal put a big dent in our wallets.

7. Culver City Farmers Market: Great place to purchase fresh produce. The people who work the booths are friendly, and there are a few stalls to buy pre-made food. We've had dinner here a few times, and it's expensive ($9-12), but the atmosphere beats the restaurant setting. There's hot, pre-made Korean, Hawaiian, Peruvian, BBQ, & Mexican. Trader Joe's is nearby too, so we like to hit the farmer's market first, then walk to Trader Joe's to buy milk & other stuff.

8. The Creek: Nearby, there is a creek that runs from Jefferson Avenue & La Cienega to Marina del Rey. This little cement canyon with low water is frequented by sea gulls, herons, ducks, and jumpy fish. It looks like the L.A. River, where the car race in Grease or motorcycle chase scene in Terminator 2 were filmed, but it looks more like a river. We've run and ridden our bikes along this creek before. There are underpasses under each large street (Centinela, Inglewood, Lincoln...), and many people either use the route as for exercise or transportation. It's a peaceful place to exercise (I've given up the idea that I'll ever escape the humming of cars), and the route dumps you on the expansive, clean Marina del Rey Beach. Breathtaking.

That's all we've explored of Culver City so far. We have a few more destinations to explore, and I'll be updating our discoveries regularly.

My students in Palo Alto SLAM!

A few years ago, in the middle of a poetry unit, I showed my sophomore students Def Jam Poetry, an HBO show produced by Russell Simmons & hosted by Mos Def. This show consists of poets who "slam" on stage. Most of the poetry has a hip-hop, rhyming slant to it, but not necessarily. The poetry addresses issues from personal (love & loss poems) to political, and nearly all have a left-leaning viewpoint. Some of it has profanity, but I try to show the students PG-13 poems & skip through the ones laced with vitriolic obscenities.

Last year, two former students, inspired by Def Jam Poetry, decided to form the Paly Slam Poetry Club. Since then, they've organized at least 3 slam poetry events. I sponsored the club last year and went to one, and I was floored by the talent of the student poets who performed. The poetry varied in tone, style, and length. 45 students showed up to poetry slam in my classroom in June 2008. We moved stacked the desks near the walls & invited attendees to sit on the floor. Then we proceeded to turn out the lights. At first, the atmosphere was a little awkward, but as some students mustered up the guts to take the stage at the front of the class, more students came up to read for the first time. By the end of the slam session, we all felt cleansed & renewed - even though many did not read, they felt emotionally connected to the ones who had. For me, it was an eye-opening experience. Teenagers have a lot of say, and many have the eloquence to write it & the bravery to perform it in front of large groups of people.

One of the co-presidents of Paly's Slam Poetry Club just sent me a youtube link to one his performances at Gunn High School. The poet Shihan from Def Jam Poetry inspired him most to write. Here's a taste of Dan's poetry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAwRy4O_CII

Enjoy!

Surviving the First Week of School

As grumpy as I am about having to acclimate to the school schedule again (mostly waking up at 6am & having a constant stack of homework to grade), I am relatively happy about my new position at this high school. I am officially labeled a "magnet" teacher, which means most of my classes fall within the magnet program, which attracts students from all over Los Angeles and offers a specialization and more rigorous study.

My schedule is as follows:
English 11 honors [two sections] (magnet)
English 10 (magnet)
English 10
English 10H (magnet)

I teach a total of 5 classes. With six periods in the day, my free time falls in first period.

Predictably and heartbreakingly, there is a lack of students of color in the honors classes. It's what we educators have come to call the "achievement gap", and it occurs in every school. The achievement gap is attributed to race & socio-economic status for numerous reasons, and schools struggle to maintain equal opportunities for all students to learn and perform to their potential. The gap is most apparent in standardized tests, where Black & Latino students score lower than White & Asian students. We also see it in the racial demographic of our "college prep" and "honors" courses. It is a phenomenon pervasive in public schools and a reflection of inequalities on a larger scale - socio-economically, historically, politically, etc.

Jeanne cleans room, Robby zoom zooms

I finally received the keys to my classroom and took a look inside. Not bad. Spacious, though it's crammed with 37 desks - I better not get 37 students. I scrubbed cabinets, wiped desks, emptied cupboards, organized paperclips, pins, & rubber bands, posted colored paper on the bulletin boards, stapled pre-made letters to them, arranged 34 desks & unsuccessfully tried to make the room feel less crowded, & placed my lesson plans in a filing cabinet. In other words, I beautified my room the best I could. Below are the results. Not bad, huh?
It's a typical classroom of a large public school: built in the early 1900s (1911, to be exact), light blue walls, built-in chalk trays & book cases, long windows covered by bars, brown tiled floors, & misshapen, wobbly student desks of different shapes & ages. I turned one desk over to find a colorful array of chewing gum stuck beneath it. Once in awhile, I would feel something gooey on my fingers as I moved a desk and find hair gel on the bottom edge. Ewww.

The Big Day: Wednesday, September 4th. I'm still holding my breath.

On Robby's side of the planet, he has bought a new-ish car.
Yup, after living on the westside for 8 years, Robby is officially a convertible-driving California. Now, all he needs is a pony tail, a surfboard, & a pair of Ray Bans. Pony tail...check.
This pristine prize is newer than his 1991 Mazda Protege...by 3 years. He has bought a 1994 Mazda Miata. Below are all the reasons why he loves it (I've been listening to him yap about it for the past 2 days):
- it "handles" well
- it has pop-up lights
- it purrs beautifully
- it is in good condition (only 80-some thousand miles on it)
- its air conditioning vents spin in all directions
- it's got a good clutch
- the back window zips open
He is very pleased with his purchase. I call it vintage because the interior looks like something out of "Beverly Hills 90210" - tan dashboard, round a.c. vents. It feels very early '90s to me. He has been glowing every day since he drove it home, but he is feeling a little separation anxiety from parting with his beloved Protege.

Happy Labor Day weekend!

Today was pre-registration day at Venice High School, and the magnet coordinator called me to tell me that I'd be in Room 122. I showed up to look at the room. There were lots of kids milling around, & I could tell that kids generally segregated themselves by race.

Just looked at the racial demographics of Venice High on the California Dept. of Education website. In 2006-7, there were over twice as many freshmen students than senior students. That's a bad sign...
Stats say,
66% Latino
10% Black
14% White
9% Asian, Pilipino, Pacific Islander
53% of the students are on free or reduced meal plans.

Wow, very different than Palo Alto High School. Look here:
6% Latino
4% Black
59% White
19% Asian, Pilipino, Pacific Islander
4% of the students are on free or reduced meal plans.

I aim to maintain the style of teaching I developed at Paly. But I will have to adjust to the new environment. Reluctantly, I might find myself lowering expectations - I hope not. We'll see. I'll have to gauge what the students are capable of before determining what expectations to set.

Robby is using the food processor tonight to make dal. He is very excited to make dal for me and he is using the big pasta cooker that Nina bought for us. Thanks, Nina! He also surprised me with a blueberry smoothie. Mmm!

Photos of our new apartment!

Our apartment is finally looking like home!

Robby dutifully wipes the kitchen counter after doing the dishes, and I've convinced him that closing drawers and cupboard doors after opening them will make him a more decent person. Plus, I've promised Hollywood Thai food in two weeks if he continues this behavior. My desk is assembled, but I'm missing a chair, waiting to see the furniture of a few generous aunties. We just pulled out the thick Turkish towels yesterday, & they are divine. We've retired our mismatched, bachelor/ette towels, but I told Robby to reassure them that they are now deemed "special" beach towels, so that they don't feel abandoned.

We're using all the wedding gifts - plates & glasses, citrus juicer, food processor, salt & pepper shaker, spices, mixing bowls, cutting boards & utensils. So thank you, everyone for equipping our household with such cool stuff!

So here are some pictures of our apartment:

We're Back! & exhausted....

we've been settling in our new apartment these past few days. we've made three trips to target already, and robby always groans, "i never want to move again!" we've bought some shelving, a vacuum, & some light fixtures. we've just unrolled a crate & barrel 8' by 10' rug from the gandhis - it'll take up at least half of the floor space in our living room & we really like it. we've made great progress in putting things away and storing boxes. we need a few more pieces of furniture, and we will finally be able to call this place home when the last empty cardboard box has been emptied (there are still many boxes in the bay area that belong to me, so this settling will take a while).

yesterday, we strolled around sepulveda a bit - checked out the surprisingly empty ymca across the street. there are a few restaurants nearby, like pho show (asian fusion) & vinotheque (fancy cheese & wine), & we found two cafes (one with wireless). on the corner of franklin & sepulveda is an ice skating rink, which is a nice landmark for people coming to our new home. we're near a popular taco stand called tito's tacos, & the dmv is a stone's throw away (in case robby gets another ticket). plus, target, bed, bath & beyond, & ross are all less than a 5-min drive away. ralph's & costco are about 10 min away. best of all, my high school is less than 10 minutes away, & we've made it to usc in 15 minutes. even though the usc is further away from culver city than robby's hollywood apt., it takes less time to get there because there is very little traffic on jefferson avenue & fewer turns. we also found out that there are 8 farmers markets on the westside of LA each week.
disappointingly, there are a few thai restaurants, but they are all self-proclaimed thai-chinese restaurants, which probably means that they don't do either foods well. we heard that these were once chinese restaurants that are trying to jump on the popular thai bandwagon. we'll have to keep searching for a good thai & sushi restaurants.

we're happy with the size of the apartment, but we scuffle a bit over sharing space. robby wants a weapons wall (i think he is joking...i hope he is joking) & he collects a lot of random paraphernalia. much of my belongings are still in the bay area, so we still have yet to clash about whose stuff gets to be put on display. last night, he grilled salmon & made rice using spices from uncle david, and we had a nice candlelit dinner next to our new trashcan & partly filled spice rack.

we haven't separated for the past 2 months, so both of us are eager to start working. i think we've run out of things to talk about! my high school begins on sept. 3, and after a meeting with the magnet coordinator & dept. chair, i can see that i'll be on my own for much of the year. there will be meaningless bureaucracy coming down from the district (senseless mandates & endless standardized tests), and there is a clear lack of trust of the teachers (like having to request markers & chalk from the dept. chair instead of retrieving them from the supply room ourselves, having to sign in & out in the main office every day, and not having keys to the building). i've also found that just a few incompetent employees severely hinder teachers from doing their job. for these few systematic reasons i miss paly, where practically everyone is reliable & teachers are trusted to show up & perform well.

Reviews of Lonely Planet Lodging Recommendations

Now that we're back, this is the time for reflection and evaluation.
Beginning with lodging, we stuck to Lonely Planet's recommendations & generally stuck to the budget accomodations.

Below are comments on each of the hotels & pensions we stayed at. In some cases, the Lonely Planet's descriptions were accurate and helpful. But sometimes the remarks were random and completely wrong. So, here, we'd like to share our firsthand experience of these particular hotels.

Right now, the Turkish lira is comparable to the US dollar. It's about $1.15 USD for every 1 Turkish lira, so in dollars, the costs will be slightly less than lira listed here.

If you are planning a trip to Turkey, you might find this helpful. Each line is headed with the city and the name of the pension. Also, prices listed are for double rooms.

1. Istanbul: Side Pension
- 95 YTL/night (costly! inc. breakfast)
- excellent location (near Aya Sofya Museum & adjacent to Four Seasons Hotel, which used to be a prison)
- has character & personality (blue room, rounded archways, wood paneling)
- clean, spacious rooms & bathrooms
- no AC :( [boo!]
- beautiful view from the terrace with breakfast (great olives)
- friendly, professional staff
- recommended

2. Ankara: Hotel Pinar
- 60 YTL/night (expensive for what it offers)
- Lonely Planet wrote that the hotel is good for lone female travelers, but it seems no different than any other hotel. Plus, it is not in a particularly welcoming neighborhood.
- located beside the steps up to the Citadel
- dirty, dingy, nasty rooms (one smelled like poo)
- sheets felt dirty, so we slept in liners
- friendly staff
- not recommended

3. Goreme: Elifstar Cave Hotel
- 70 YTL/night (inc. breakfast)
- Mustafa, the owner, gave away our room but gave us a huge 4-person room instead. He also kept promoting his family & friends' businesses (rugs, travel agency, scooter rental) - a straight-up business man, but pretty cool.
- huge cave room dug into the side of a hill
- large, spotless bathroom, though the window fell on Robby's foot & shattered.
- relaxed atmosphere
- delicious breakfasts included in price (real french toast & omelets!)
- recommended

4. Tasucu:
- 40 YTL/night (originally 50 YTL, but we bargained)
- dirty (no joke, some dirt on the walls), but with AC
- shower head flew off when we turned it on
- far from the minibuses & super-far from the ferry that goes to Cyprus
- not recommended

5. Alanya: Hotel Gallyon (not in Lonely Planet)
- 60 YTL/night (inc. breakfast)
- not too close to the harbor so less expensive, but right on a busy street, so lively
- bathroom smelled
- dingy room
- unkempt pool
- friendly staff
- not recommended

6. Antalya: Senem Family Pension
- 55 YTL/night (inc. breakfast)
- the warm-hearted but pushy "Mama" (owner) insisted that we stay three nights & have drinks & dinner on her terrace
-beautiful view of harbor; big windows & pretty curtains
- clean room
- recommended

7. Olympos: Saban Family Treehouse Pension
- 80 YTL for 2 people (inc. breakfast & dinner)
- [note: Lonely Planet erroneously lists 40 YTL per room, but it's per person.]
- Mike, the host, was a talkative and laidback Aussie who enjoyed his job because he could drink with the guests every night
- Lonely Planet is correct in calling the pension family friendly. In my opinion, it was one of the best pensions in Olympos. There were hammocks everywhere & low mood music, which we preferred over the house music across the road at Turkmen Treehouse, which housed 300+ people & made their customers where wristbands like cattle.
- Scrumptious homemade dinners (the best Turkish meals we had on our whole trip!)
- recommended

8. Kas: Ates Pension
- 50 YTL/night (inc. breakfast)
- open-minded & insightful Turkish hotel clerk who was wise for his age (he worked in Costa Rica for a few years)
- clean room, but poo on the trash can, beetle on the mirror & under Robby's pillow
- problem with hot/cold shower faucet
- balcony attached to room with a line for drying clothes :)
- cheap orange juice (3 YTL for a big glass)
- two pets on the terrace: a happy puppy named Buddy & a 2-week-old kitten
- ambivalently recommended (the hotel clerk was worth meeting!)

9. Fethiye: Duygu Pension
- 55 YTL/night (inc. breakfast)
- one of the best rooms we stayed in for its cost: large, clean room with lots of light, large bathroom with great water pressure in the shower & no problem with working the faucets
- the minibus stop that takes you to the town center (a 20 min walk away) is 76 steps downhill, which means you have to lug your pack uphill to get to the pension
- recommended

10. Koycegiz: Fulya Pension
- 30 YTL/night (breakfast inc.) [by far the cheapest pension we stayed in]
- the owner (of 20+ years) said that the peak of business occurred in the early 1990s
- mediocre room (can't complain because it was so cheap!); not super-clean
- shower: low water pressure
- lots of animal noises outside (goat, cow, chickens)
- free use of bikes
- recommended

11. Selcuk: Alihan Family Pension
- 40 YTL/night (inc. breakfast)
- owner: friendly & helpful Turkish Aussie
- rooms & hallways are filled with anachronistic paraphernalia (fake Greek statue next to a Singer sewing machine)
- our room had three frighteningly bright scenic paintings & a big vase of dusty fake flowers over our bed - creepy!
- motion-sensored lights in the stairway don't stay on for very long
- not recommended

12. Izmir: Imperial Hotel
- 50 YTL/night
- Why did the Lonely Planet recommend this hotel when there are 8 more on the same street? It claimed this hotel had clean rooms, but no way!
- overly decorated, tacky lobby
- dingy, dirty rooms with no hooks
- disgusting bathroom: broken sink faucet, broken door knob, & little gnats everywhere
- unfriendly staff
- not recommended (not worth 50 YTL/night!)

13. Istanbul: Hotel Niles
- 140/YTL night (inc. breakfast)
- This hotel is not listed in the Lonely Planet. We had difficultly finding available rooms in cheaper hotels, & we booked a room in the Gur Hotel but later read a recommendation that they housed rats, so we decided to splurge. We chose Hotel Niles because people wrote numerous positive reviews online and we wanted to be near the Grand Bazaar for our last days in Istanbul.
- upscale, spotless rooms & bathrooms (real showers with doors)
- bathroom had a basket full of soaps & shampoos & even shower caps! (with an endless supply from the cleaning staff)
- super-friendly, hardworking staff
- a to-die-for breakfast with cereal, fruit, coffee, & homemade breads & pastries
- recommended (but keep in mind this is not a budget hotel)

So, there it is.
If you are traveling through Turkey, keep these comments in mind. We spent a total of 1865 YTL ($1865.50 USD) in lodging, for the two of us, over the course of 33 nights (we did have 6 nights of free lodging in Cyprus thanks to Robby's dad & stepmom). So that comes out to 56.50 YTL/night (approximately, $47.50/night). Not bad; we're happy with that.


Note on the bathrooms:
All of the hotels (except the ones we stayed in in Istanbul) had bathrooms where the showers were not divided from the toilet or sink. In other words, the shower heads are built adjacent to the toilet (no shower doors, no curtain). So plan on getting everything wet when you shower in one of these. & bring shower shoes!

We're Back!

Hi, everyone. Robby & I returned from Turkey, and we hanging out in foggy Pacifica, CA.
It feels great to be back!

Leaving Istanbul Today

We are leaving for the airport this morning.
Our flight is leaving from Ataturk Airport (Lufthansa, 1pm).
Goodbye, Istanbul! We took one more glance of the Aya Sofya & the Blue Mosque last night, & while Western tourists wandered confusedly with their mouths gaping at the architecture & surroundings, we meandered like wise veteran tourists.

We're excited to return to California, & we are dying for Thai food & sushi!

Mmmmm!

Pondering Putolical: Turkish Tuvalets (Toilets)

Jeanne and I love potty humor, literally. I'm not talking about base-level dirty jokes in general (though I certainly appreciate those as well), but jokes that are about or closely related to potties. I guess it's not always humor - sometimes it's serious potty analytics with no need for laughter - so I hereby dub the umbrella term for this activity "putolics" (potty humor and analytics). Anyway...

The Turkish have provided us with quite a bit of ammunition for this line of inquiry. First, there is the squat toilet. I've seen these in India and Azerbaijan, Jeanne in China. They've always scared me. Even if I really gotta go, I won't do squat (get it? get it?).

Apparently, Jeanne has seen squattors' footprints on modern toilets in China. I guess that's why there was an instructional sign in this bathroom in Goreme.

And now a serious matter: why do Turkish toilets have this little spigot in the back?

Nearly every sit-down toilet we've seen has one. It looks like it's meant to spray water, but I've never seen it on. Is it for cleaning the toilet?

I must admit that a couple of these things have given me an unwanted peck on the cheek during the deed. Ugh. Well, it beats squatting.

Hey look - I got brave enough to turn one on.

THIS JUST IN - a Turkish friend told us that the spigot is for cleaning the "special places"! It's like a bidet integrated into the toilet. This friend told us that they only have these in Turkey and that he feels very uncomfortable when he leaves the country and is unable to clean his special places in this way.

My only question - there appears to be a similar spigot in this urinal. Is that for cleaning special places too? Ewwww.

And that's all the putolics for today!

Getting Lost in the Concrete Jungle

Many Turkish people have discouraged us from coming to İzmir.
'Why would you want to go to İzmir? It's just another big city.'
I think that this friendly advice is based on the assumption that all foreign tourists want to see are Turkish Mediterranean beaches - that all they want to do is lie out under the sun all day, buy chintzy souvenirs in the afternoon, eat fish in the evening, and party at nightclubs until dawn.

But our laidback and insightful receptionist in the Ateş Pension of Kaş raved about İzmir. He said that it was a place where people could feel free to do what they wanted, where people sat outside, relaxed & drank beer (unlike İstanbul, where alcohol is not served at most restaurants). Robby, impressed by this young man, wanted to see İzmir for himself.

We arrived to İzmir & immediately got lost. We had to somehow get onto Lonely Planet's map, which only showed the city center. After going up & down the same wide street for 30 minutes, we finally found our way to our destination and set down our packs.

From first impression, İzmir appeared to be a chaotic, crowded city. But we found a wonderfully large bazaar to get lost in, and then emerged at the sea side, where we walked along the First Kordon, a long, wide, & grassy walkway. Young people hung out everywhere on the grass, chatting & playing guitars. Couples hid behind bushes, and families strolled along the boardwalk. The First Kordon, which was mostly for pedestrians, was lined with cool pubs & restaurants with outdoor seating. We found a Dunkin' Donuts there. Before walking into the Alsancak neighborhood, we walked inland & found many alleyways full of restaurants. There were a plethora of restaurants - another place to get pleasantly lost in - & we sat down for some pasta. We found the most impressive bathroom in this Italian restaurant - comparable to the uniquely designed bathrooms in San Franciscan restaurants. Running along these alleys was a pedestrian street filled with boutiques & young people, very much like Istiklal Cad in the Taksim neighborhood of İstanbul.

Walking back to our pension from this lively area was a little scary though. The streets in the business center were empty, and a drunk man verbally accosted Robby & followed us very closely until he lost interest & walked away. We also had trouble buying tickets to Istanbul because the buses were full. We were finally able to buy tickets leaving İzmir at midnight & arriving at İstanbul at 8am. But there is only one bathroom break during this 8-hour drive, so I don't know how my bladder will fare on this journey.

The following day, we returned our rental car at the massive otogar. Again, we nearly got lost as we left the city center. But now we are sans car. Back to the bus we go.

Since our bus is leaving at midnight, we decided to kill some time at the bazaar. We almost got roped into buying a Turkish carpet. We made it clear that we wanted to learn about carpet making. The English-speaking salesman enthusiastically reassured us that we were not obliged to buy & taught us the different kinds of carpets: wool-on-wool, wool-on-cotton, silk-on-cotton, silk-on-silk, & kilim. As he explained the labor that went into making the carpet & how to distinguish the different qualities, we found ourselves interested in buying one. But if we bought a wool-on-wool carpet (you know, the traditional-looking kind), we could only afford to buy one that was slightly larger than a bathroom mat. Too small! A kilim was all we could buy, but a kilim really just a thin, super-itchy wool carpet. After some private discussion, Robby & I decided against purchasing this rash-inducing souvenir. The salesman was clearly disappointed that we would not buy his carpet. From 200 YTL, he lowered it to 165 then 150 YTL. He kept calculating how much it would cost in American dollars. Smart, but too late! We stopped thinking in terms of dollars 5 weeks ago!

It felt good to walk away from this bait-&-switch game knowing that we were not persuaded by charm, kindness, apple tea, or guilt-trıpping to buy the carpet.

Roman Ruins in Selçuk

We were sorely disappointed with our experience at Ephesus. As grand as it was, there were few explanations of the misshapen stones & lone-standing columns. But the Ephesus Museum, which was much smaller & a quarter of the entrance fee of Ephesus itself, was a much more worthy experience. The museum is filled with all the treasures excavated from Ephesus - statues of Greek gods & emperors, personal belongings from burial grounds, the remains dug from a gladiator cemetery (including explanations of how they died), everyday household objects, and grand frescos. Seeing these items gave us a real impression of Ephesus' true grandeur. Some wealthy households erected large fountains with at least 8 3-meter statues. There was also the large head of a 7-meter stature of Emperor Domitian. As we imagined the elaborate homes & gladiator tournaments, Robby remarked, 'I really want to see a movie that takes place in this time period.'

Overall, we have been thoroughly impressed by the museums of Turkey. Unfortunately, the open-air museums lack information (I have Göreme's Open Air Museum (Byzantine cave dwellings) & Ephesus in mind), but the indoor museums, like Ankara's Museum of Anatolian Civilizations & Antalya's Archaelogy Museum, & Selçuk's Ephesus Museum, have been very informational & interesting.

From Selçuk, we move onto İzmir. Back to the urban jungle...the third largest city of Turkey, with a population of 2.3 million people.

Drive Carefully!

------Jeanne's perspective------

The transportation system in Turkey: There are hundreds of bus companies that service any city in Turkey. There are otogars (bus terminals) in every city & town & they are easy to find. The buses generally leave on time, though some stop by the side of the road frequently for drop off & pick up. They all have air conditioning & stop regularly for bathroom breaks. The roads are well paved & destination signs clearly marked. I've been thoroughly impressed by the transportation system.

The experience of driving on the Turkish road is a whole other story.

Sure, the roads are well paved, but many roads outside of city centers have neither lane dividers nor markers for lanes of opposing traffic. The highways are mostly two-laned roads with yellow lane dividers that indicate when cars can pass the car before them. This means driving towards oncoming traffic, which means that some of the more reckless drivers will pass & squeeze into their own lane when they shouldn't be.
In the city center, cars & scooters abound everywhere. Scooters sometimes ride in the wrong direction. They also weave through traffice, passing on the left & right. Some cars have no reverse or brake lights, so they may not appear to be backing out of a parking space.
There is a clear, general pattern to the driving culture here, and we haven't seen any accidents, but we, being obedient American drivers who are taught to always signal & check blind spots, are unaccustomed to these tacit rules. To us foreigners, it's all chaos & recklessness.

------Robby's perspective-------
I beg to differ.

Sure, there are buses everywhere, most of them have AC, they are usually punctual, and some of them even serve drinks and lemony fresh liquid for cleaning your hands. BUT, the big buses almost always take longer to get places than the bus company indicates. The dolmuşes (mini-buses) are very slow because they stop or slow down and honk for nearly every person walking down the street. And the dolmuşes often fill up beyond a comfortable capacity (forget safe). E.g., on the 40 minute trip from olympos to fethiye, I was perched on a seat handle with my bum in some dude's face and with the bum of an old dude practically in my lap everytime the driver accelerated (I tried to stay turned so he would only hit my hip). It was a windy coastal road - one false turn would have been certain death for us all, except Jeanne, who had a cozy seat next to the driver and a mother with 2 kids, one of whom puked from the curvy road (kudos to Jeanne for not joining him) ...or was it the B.O. from the overcrowded bus?. Anyway, I was certainly happy to get a break from the public transport system when we rented the car (and Jeanne was too). However, for the sake of full disclosure, on the road of life and otherwise, I prefer to be a driver. Hence, perhaps my discontent with the system here is rooted in that bias. Compared to most public transport in the world that I've experienced, I would say that Turkey's is pretty great in general (especially compared to LA - though I'm sure most cities beat LA).

But the main point is that I loved driving in Turkey. It was like New Jersey times 12. Unlike in California, where nearly every driver adheres to the law, takes their time, and is mostly incapable of adapting to dangerous conditions or maneuvering the car to it's potential, the drivers in Turkey are crazy! ...I mean, highly skilled, though slightly more aggressive than necessary. Jeanne was certainly more freaked out by the seemingly chaotic rules of the road, but I think she had a bit of fun too when she braved the seat behind the wheel. For me, I kept wishing I were driving Ad's car (a Honda S2000 that glides through turns like a fighter jet). Needless to say, the little Fiat we rented did not afford the type of handling and speed that would have let me really enjoy the liberation from passing laws and speed limits, but perhaps it's best that I did not let loose in this land where we occasionally come across mountain goats, cows and chicked crossing the road (but why?). Regardless, I am greatful to not have been caught in one of their seemingly arbitrary traffic stops - instead of clocking people and chasing them down, the cops stand on the side of the road, flag people down and ask if they've been driving safely. Situation of unavoidable deceit evaded, phew.

Salesmen riding their emotional rollercoasters

Jeanne and I are quite tired of tolerating the Turkish sales people and their turbulent tactics. Yes, this is another gripe posting.

Walking down any street crowded with shops (especially in the tourist traps such as the grand bazaar at Istanbul, the walkway to Ephesus, Bodrum, Alanya, etc), we hear the following over and over and over:

"Yes, please."

"Where are you from?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Look here. Let me show you a menu"

It reminds me of the World Wide Web in 1997 - pop up ads with flashy animations everywhere, all vying for your attention in an attempt to direct you toward some overpriced product. Luckily, netvertisers learned that this tactic of pushing hard and screaming loud does not win the customer's favor as well as simple ads that provide information and allow people to easily make a purchasing decision or move on (thanks Google for spurring this widespread realization). In Turkey, it appears, the tourist-targeters have not had a similar realization. I guess it's cultural. I'm certain it's annoying.

But what really irks me is what happens if you don't play the game the way they expect, e.g., you still patronize them but don't let them cajole you into spending as much as they want. For example, yesterday in Bodrum we were walking down a row a restaurants that all appeared to serve the same food. As usual, each one had a pushy guy or two outside trying to lure us in. The prices were all pretty high (compared to the rest of Turkey), so I told one guy that his food was too expensive as we were walking by. He was all smiles and fiendly gestures. "I make good price for you", he relpied, beaming. So we commenced to negotiate over a plate of spaghetti. It was listed for 13. He said 8. I said 5. He had already served out a bowl of chicken stew for me (for 5), but I was ready to leave. I said, "okay, 8, but you give us 2 free teas" which would have been another 3 or 4 according to the menu. He agreed and then all of a sudden his mood changed. He went from cheery saleman pop up ad to skulking awnry restaurant industry worker. It was like he was mad at me for beating him at his own game.

Another waiter brought the food, which was pretty tasty, but then disappeared after we ate, so I had to ask Mr Grimace for our check. In fact, I had to ask him twice. He wasn't doing anything in particular, just standing near the front of the restaurant, not really making an effort to draw people in (another guy had taken the lead on that), so it was pretty obvious that he just wanted to make us wait. At last, he brought the bill and we paid. Although the food was good, the experience left a bad taste in my mouth. However, I am greatful for this type of encounter because it assuages my guilt for tipping less in this country than I do at home. I left this waiter a big fat 0%. :)

Similar encounters have occurred many times on this trip. 1) Shopkeeper gets mad when I ask for a lower price on a snorkel, snatches it out of my hands and turns his back on me (he wanted 14, I said 10, I eventually found one for 2.50). 2) Guy at bus company gets mad when I tell him that the other bus company was only charging 10 (he wanted 12). He tells me to go to the other bus company, which he knows is impossible because they don't have a bus that morning. I say okay to 12. He says now its 15. I start to get pissed but I realize he's just saying that to piss me off. He gives it to us for 12. 3) Shoe shiner asks if we want a shine. I show him that we're both wearing sandals. He says, "this is how I make a living." I don't know what to say - I'm not wearing shinable shoes - so we walk on. He curses at us in Turkish.

Anyway, it's been fun riding their emotional rollercoasters. Jeanne and I are planning to do some shopping in the grand bazaar before we go home. We'll make sure we've eaten long before we get on the ride.

Drive through Bodrum...& make it quick!

En route to Selçuk from Köyceğiz, we decided to head to the Bodrum Peninsula to see the tourist-ridden town of Bodrum, which we heard was the Monte Carlo of Turkey. Nonetheless, we were not anxious to walk among the scantily clad, blonde beach goers, nor were we looking forward to aggressive & tactless salespeople & the ever-pervasive house music pumping out of souvenir stores. We had only one destination: the Castle of St. Peter, which held the most important underwater archaelogy museum in the world (as says the Lonely Planet). We walked through several collections of big, ancient shipwrecks (oldest: 14th century BC), none that I will elaborate on. But I'd like to share with you my two favorite signs:

1. (upon entering the museum) 'Our museum is not underwater but most of the artifacts came from under the sea.'
2. (explaining the mythological origins of certain animals) The placard was titled Birds that Live in the Castle: 'There are flying ducks, green-headed ducks, and peking ducks.'

We haggled for our lunch meals because the waiter offered to give us cheaper prices than the menu. But Robby got him to agree to even lower prices. Although the waiter conceded, he was upset by his own acquiescence, so we heard him mumbling & grumbling while we ate. He even made us wait for the bill. Robby will complain about this later, but we both don't like how emotionally involved some of the salespeople become when they don't get their way. Bargaining with them & succeeding is like an affront to their manhood or pride.

After the leisurely walk through the massive St. Peter Castle, we hopped back in the car & headed to Selçuk. We drove for a few hours & found a family-run pension called Alihan, where the owner was a friendly & easygoing Turkish Aussie.

Today, we went to Ephesus, the 'best preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean' (Lonely Planet). We payed a ghastly 20 YTL each to roam around some 600BC rocks. There weren't many explanations of monuments & ruins, and we didn't have a guide, so we stumbled around the sea of tourists. There were hundreds of people there in large groups, and they swarmed all over the ruins like colorful confetti on organized pebble. Weaving through the crowds was quite overwhelming. We felt that paying 20 YTL warranted a better display of these ancient structures, but oh well. We'll hire a guide or buy the audiotour next time.

Lakeside town: Köyceğiz

From Fethiye, we drove to the small lakeside Köyceğiz. It is near a larger seaside resort town called Dalyan. The rent at Fulya Pension was an afforable 30 YTL a night, so we decided to spend two nights in this pleasant & cozy town.

On our first night, we borrowed two bikes from the pension & rode into the town center, where we found a fruit & vegetable market. Robby wanted apples, so we approached one stand that had fuji-type apples & green apples side by side. He asked the fruit seller, 'Which kind is sweet?' The fruit seller pointed to the green apples, so Robby bought 6 of them. Later, we found that these were granny smith apples - not sweet, but sour. What suckers we were! We both had a gut feeling that green = sour, but we entrusted the seller to be honest in his response.

We ate at a fast food joint & had our cheapest meal yet: 5 YTL for the both of us. That was satisfying, even if it was Turkish fast food (a hamburger is still considered fast food here).

We headed home along the lakeside & found a cafe to lounge, watch the water, & play backgammon. We had a comfortably slow-paced evening knowing that we didn't have to pack & leave the next day.

The following day, we drove around the Lake Köyceğiz & stopped at the following places: old ruins, mud bath, & hot springs.

We both liked the friendly atmosphere of Köyceğiz. The absence of bikini-clad tourists was also appealing.

With "suckers" written on our foreheads, we've had to stay on our toes

Since this trip began, we have been griping about the way that many vendors try to take advantage of us, squeezing out a few extra lira here and there through deceit and dishonesty. Since there's no Yelp: Turkey (that we know of), and we don't care enough to write a letter to lonely planet, we will get this off our chests here.

Case 1: The mysteriously valuable bottle of water
In Istanbul, we took the Bosphorous cruise up to the northern tip and walked up to the castle (we weren't good bloggers back then). The boat stopped in a small town from where you could climb up to a castle ruin then return for lunch near the boat before heading back south. There were many many restaurants and I (Robby) was having fun negotiating with a few of them to see who would give us the best price for a fixed fish menu. Of course, each subsequent place offered a better price than the last, so the final place down the line seemed the most reasonable. We made a couple Canadian friends and we all ordered the fish. Without asking, they poured us all a glass of water from the same size bottle as we were carrying in our bags (1.5L). The fish was OK, but when the check came, we saw they had charged us 8 lira for that stupid water. The going rate for the same size water in Istanbul is 1 lira. I made a stink and argued for awhile, but then decided it was not worth missing the boat back. I guess the fish we got wasn't such a great deal after all.

Case 2: The mysteriously appearing mezzes
Same night as the water incident, we went to a small place and ordered some small meals for dinner. They immediately brought out some mezes (small turkish appetizer-lıke dishes). With the water incident fresh in my mind, I asked if the mezes were free. They said no! Luckily, we hadn't touched them yet, so I sent them back. They took them and then put them back on the table free of charge. That would have been nice in the first place!

Case 3: BYO Fish, but not your friends
I wrote about this in the posting about Fethiye.

There have been other cases that we've caught but I'm running out of time. Suffice it to say, I guess we just look like targets...or we are a little daft. But if we were more daft, we'd get ripped off without even noticing, and then we'd have nothing to gripe about. How boring would that be!?!