Monday, May 30, 2011

Off to See the Wizard

Bear with me as I shift quickly to the Dominican Republic from Brazil… I will come back to the update for Rio and Sao Paulo…

The trip to the DR began inauspiciously at 0445 on Saturday morning… Checking in at the airport in Sao Paulo was mildly entertaining… 2+ hours including getting in the wrong line… Thankfully there was an Austrian gentleman who spoke English who got in line just behind me which meant I would not be the last one on the plane… He also ensured that I didn't off myself or Aviance staff... Apparently there were systems issues because when we finally boarded, all the seats had been issued in duplicate so we were encouraged to sit wherever there was an empty seat…

Avianca might not have great systems but breakfast was pretty good… I don’t think anyone serves bad coffee on this continent… The layover in Bogota was uneventful and all of 60 minutes with a wireless connection and Dunkin Donuts – no munchkins so just coffee and back in the queue for the final leg to Santo Domingo…

At the airport, Customs involved multiple lines of waiting and then no one checking my luggage… Oh yeah and 3 forms require same information plus the purchase of a USD$10 visitor card which you immediately hand over… No ATMs working in the airport which was a concern… Then a cabbie offered to help me to the hotel… Exhaustion had set in… I threw myself on his mercy and was not kidnapped and sold into white slavery… but merely delivered safely to the hotel in Juan Dolio...

Sunday was our first trip to the MLB academies and the Pirates have a great facility… The idea behind the academies is to develop young men in their late teens into potential MLB players… I have some questions related to operations and the role that they should play in the bigger picture that I will explore in future posts… For today, let’s leave it at the Pirates give good voice to all the right things… Player development via education programs and ESL classes… Enhanced nutrition… Limiting hours of practice and socialization via mentoring… The academy focuses on 16-20 year olds and the portion sizes in the cafeteria surely reflect it…

The facility is modeled on the minor league facility in Bradenton, FL… More than just modeled according to the Operations Manager, the academy is a mirror of the MiLB clubhouse and campus… This is done to provide a sense of security even as they transition to the U.S. and everything is changing so dramatically around them…

The afternoon was spent in Old City Santo Domingo where we saw the oldest church and hospital in the New World... We also visited a cigar factory and shop where I may have picked up a few gifts... All of my attempts to lose the "tour guides were in vain... and we were led around with great gusto...

If you find yourself in Juan Dolio, check out El Sueno for delicious Italian food... Freshly grilled dorade, tostones and limoncello to end the night!

Monday will be the Nationals Academy as well as meetings with the tourism bureau… So far so good…

Saturday, May 28, 2011

My City of Ruin

Day 2 in Brasilia has us up and on the bus early to visit the university where many of the Brazilian companies are recruiting new employees. Our focus today is on the government of Brazil and its actors… This is also where classmates began experiencing some health distresses – I am sure none of it was caused by capirinha consumption nor sushi boats… but I digress…

First up a tour of the university mineral collections and a meeting with a Congressional representative who reminded many of us of politicians in the U.S. – saying so many of the “correct” things but without plan to actually implement them… At times, it seemed that he was still campaigning… I can’t believe I was the only one to notice this similarity to our own representatives… His background as a former prosecutor in the financial crimes sector certainly gave him stage presence… It was during this presentation that we experienced the first conflicting views between the Brazilian populace – academia vs. government vs. private sector citizenry…

While people remained upright throughout the morning, things started going downhill at lunch… A restaurant with specialties from Minas Gerais took a lot of folks down hard… A very small, WARM mom-and-pop restaurant that served cachaca from a goat statue – a specific part of the goat figurine which encouraged me NOT to partake… Lots of rice, potatoes, and pork-based dishes including the first feijoada seen on the trip… If you like black beans, you will like this… Dessert made up most of my lunch… and really good café again plus sweetened and spiced steamed milk…

Once we hit the Congress building and the tour, it was obvious that we were losing people… The tour was great but we lost 5 people between the Senate gallery and the meeting with the Ministry of Finance… stomach problemos primarily but 2 folks ended up with the Senate nurse and others went back to the hotel to sleep it off… For those who remained upright and among the living, we took a trip to a local mall and then dinner near the manmade lake…

The odd thing about Brasilia was how clean and organized everything was… Almost a Reston version of Washington DC… But beautiful sunsets, fountains and architecture…

By Friday night, I discovered just how miserable this “stomach bug” was… The flight to Rio meant catching up on sleep… the ENTIRE flight… Thank God for Pepto…

Friday, May 27, 2011

We Built This City

Brasilia D.F. – A planned city for the future… Shockingly similar to D.C. but in a comforting way…

We flew from Salvador to Brasilia on an early morning Thursday flight… Let’s just say security in Brazil is not security in the U.S. and I am more than ok with that… Put your bags on the belt, walk through the scanner, pick up your bag… Works for me… Oh and great coffee at the airport… Coach is coach no matter what country you are in… Even at 5’4”, leg room is an issue… One interesting note on the flight: no one waits to disembark… When the plane stops moving, everyone – and I mean EVERY ONE (except us) leaps up and races for the aisle… No waiting for row in front of you or grab bags, just race for the aisle…

We arrive to be greeted by Rosa who was a wonderful guide… Lunch at a beautiful buffet in a restaurant built of bamboo and palm fronds – fresh grilled meats, salads, grains, beans and rice, fresh fruit and coca zero… You will soon see a trend in the meals…

Post-lunch, back on the bus and onto a tour of the city… It’s very linear, very minimalist and very clean… Very orderly which appeals to my linear brain but makes some of my classmates uncomfortable… Oskar Niemeyer is the city’s planner and architect… He is still alive at over 100 years old… Chad, I think you would enjoy Brasilia very much given your appreciation of the Salk Institute…

The cathedral is VERY modern but still sacred space… It is under renovation after 50 years but we lucked out and were able to get inside and appreciate the art… Classical and modern sculpture inside an open dome… Feels much like the Pantheon inside with its wide open sanctuary… The Pieta is a copy from St Peter’s but the angels flying overhead are pure Brazil much like the Black Madonna and its disturbing story… One scary moment when Rosa took a flatout tumble which I am sure left her with bruises to remember us by…

Main greenspace in Brasilia is much like the National Mall although here they are setting up a futbol stadium rather than the Smithsonian Folklife Festival…

Onto the U.S. Embassy and our meeting with the Ambassador and his staff…. Lots of information related to activities ongoing in country… Finally churrascaria with university professors, a few lawyers and judges and plenty of meat and caipirinhas… for medicinal purposes of course - Lots of vitamin C in limons...

Coming shortly - Brasilia Day 2 aka The Day Sickness Invades...

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Days Go By...

Let me first say that I cannot believe I’ve been here almost a week… Am currently in airport in Brasilia which is so much like DC it’s almost frightening (more on that shortly)… A significant change from Salvador where we started… Let’s review, shall we?

Our trip started with a flight from DCA (which I still refuse to call Reagan Airport) to MIA where we had to RACE for our flight due to delays getting out of DC… With 22 of us, we were pretty sure they would hold the flight but we racewalked all the same… Even for flights, this body does not run… Another classmate was in first class and she had them call ahead to make sure we wouldn’t be left behind… Suffice to say we got on the plane… Overnight to Salvador… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…

We awoke to breakfast and a little turbulence… but again all was well… and sleep deprived, we wandered into the heat and humidity of an early morning in what is essentially jungle… I was utterly unprepared for just how humid it was… So was my hair… Bus trip along the coast “highway” showed beautiful beaches and a lot of poverty as well as stray dogs…

Breakfast at the hotel was a remarkable buffet of fruit and a tower of bread which I should have photographed… And the café con leich is spectacular…

Salvador is one of the oldest cities in Brazil… It’s also one of the poorest regions in the country… The ratio of women to men is 7:1… Our guide is a 50 year old surfer who lived in San Francisco for either 7 or 17 years (I was never quite clear on that)… Born and raised in Salvador, he knew people all over the Old City, the historic section of town… Our city tour began with a trip to Forte de Santo Antônio da Barra which was much like the fort on Tybee Island in Savannah, GA… Beautiful views of the ocean and small rocky areas where people fish and trap local lobsters…

It was at the fort that I passed my first hurdle… The “memorabilia” vendors left me utterly alone… Apparently (once again) I blended which was much better than having to constantly say “no obligada” when they were offering up their wares… We drank coconut water to ward off dehydration and may I just say that it is so much better out of the fruit than out of the aseptic juice box…

The Old City area of Salvador – Pelhourino - reminded me of a combination of Malta and Puerto Rico… There are definite influences of Europe and the Caribbean… From the old cathedrals including Church of São Francisco that has 800kg of gold leaf adorning the ceiling to the central square surrounded by what were once homes of the affluent citizens, there is a good bit of history here… There is so much traffic through the major areas of the city however that we were plenty sick of the bus after 2 days…

During dinner we were serenaded by both all-female and all-male drum corps… The government has sponsored schools which teach the drumming as well as provide a basic education… It is how they are combating the gangs and teenage prostitution in the city… Paul Simon used a group of these drummers on an album several years ago and now there is significant competition to participate…

On Wednesday, we traveled to SEIB and Ford Motor Company… SEIB is a technical academy funded by a public/private partnership agreement which provides skills training to young men and women… What great ideas I have to take with me to the DR… And why isn’t Washington, DC doing something like this? At the Ford plant, we saw an extraordinarily large campus which employs more than 10K people per shift… All Ford vehicles sold in Brazil are apparently constructed in this facility which is very European in its model in terms of how it cares for the employees…

We finished our time in Salvador with an amazing dinner at Yemanja of mocqueca with shrimp and a fish stew done with tomatoes, olives and the best mashed potatoes I have had in a long time… Dessert was a requirement as quite a few classmates and I have developed a fondness for passion fruit mousse which we tell ourselves is better for us than other things… Heh! A walk on the beach where the water was amazingly warm… and a wild cab ride back to the hotel finished up our time in the city…

Next up… Brasilia D.F.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Leaving on a Jet Plane

When you've been packing for almost a week, creative blog titles give way to trite ones... I'll work on doing better...

Travel – especially international travel – is one of those mixed blessings… I LOVE it but I hate packing for the trip… On my first trip overseas to London (also for school), my dearest friend/sister Tammy helped me not only do laundry and plan wardrobe, she packed the bags, walked me through the nerves and all but put me on the bus to the airport… In addition to all the secrets she knows, she’s also a great travel companion! Oh and if you're in Central PA, she's also an AWESOME travel agent at AAA!

So here it is more than 20 years later and I am off to another bucket list destination – Brazil! 4 cities in 2 weeks is daunting to say the least but offers opportunities and experiences that a state school kid like me never dreamed of… It’s DCA-MIA tomorrow afternoon and then onto Salvador, Brazil – one of the original areas of colonization by the Portuguese… Also an area heavily influenced by African cultures… I have no experience with either of these cultures and am excited to learn more… I wonder what shoes are appropriate for that…

I think the hardest part of packing is knowing what to leave behind… I feel like I have a Talbots and a pharmacy in my large case and a Staples in my carryon… Don’t even get me started on accessories… (and yes, it’s all costume copies so if it’s stolen, it will not break my heart… but I needed a little bling…)

This is also a trip that while I feel I am academically prepared, I don't know that I am culturally prepared so I am going to try something unusual for me - I'm going to ride the wave and let it take me wherever I am supposed to be... (If that lasts a week it will be a miracle, let's be honest... It is not the easiest thing in the world for me to just let go and be...) I do wish I had been able to learn some Portuguese but I'll let you know how well pointing and nodding works...

The Dominican Republic portion of the trip won’t start until 28 May so for those of you looking for those details, you may want to check back then or you are welcome to follow along for the entire trip. It’s still amazing to me that I get graduate credit for studying baseball but I am not complaining! And studying it I will be – under a microscope in the hope that my amorphous idea percolating through my synapses might actually have some merit and ultimately be a career option…

As I pack I am thinking of other trips that influenced me and brought me to where I am today… Some domestic… Some foreign… Some with friends and family … Others on my own… Life is funny but if I get as much out of this trip as I have out of even half the others that I have taken, it will be ok…

Thanks for following along on this little adventure… For the Spotsylvania AP students, feel free to post your questions in the comments section... I promised Miss Anderson I would share whatever I can... Look forward to talking to you... See you when I land…

Monday, May 9, 2011

Memories... Like the Corners of My Mind...

For the record, I have no clue what that song lyric means...

There are very few places that invoke memories for me like a baseball park... From sitting on bleachers at high school and minor league games in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and New York (those are worthy of another post in themselves)... to seats at major league stadiums in Philadelphia, San Diego, NYC, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Houston, and Cincinnati... from the many games at both Orioles Park at Camden Yards and RFK Stadium... and now at Nationals Park... It never fails to bring a tear to my eye on Opening Day when I hear the ticket takers and ushers say "Welcome Home"... If I ever have a beach house, it shall bear that name...

I remember having a transistor radio when I was very young - I think it was a Christmas present - that pulled in stations from what seemed like all over the world... In reality I think it only picked up as far as the midwest (perhaps the prairie) on the AM dial, but that was still a world away from small town PA... There was nothing like listening to a Cardinals game played very quietly in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping...

The first World Series of which I have vivid memories was the Phillies- Royals series in 1980... Grandma and I spent hours listening to those playoff and championship games on the radio with Aunt Ada and Dad... I was mesmerized at the time and still would rather listen on the radio than watch on tv... Thank you XM radio for indulging me... Now SIRIUS, can you find a way that I can have those same games on my car radio?

In the mid-90s, it was still less than an hour's drive from downtown DC to Baltimore and we made that drive after work many times... sometimes arriving early enough to watch the sprinklers making rainbowed arcs across the perfect green turf in the outfield and hear the repetitive crack upon crack of the bat meeting balls during batting practice on the infield... There are very few bad seats at Camden... In fact, Beth and I may have only sat in them once - just at the corner sections where the foul poles are perched... Even those weren't bad enough to ruin a game... And if it's one of those 90+ degree humidity-filled nights in July, find a seat as high up as you can and the breeze off the harbor will actually feel chilly...

Perhaps one of the best memories I have of Camden Yards is of a playoff game - a day game - where I allowed my love of the game to override my otherwise normal workaholic tendencies. Chris and I skipped work on the pretense of taking our mothers' to doctors' appointments but instead hopped in his car and zipped up to Baltimore on a clear blue sky day in early fall... A day we were sure was leading us straight to the World Series (if not also to Hell for skipping work)... The traffic might have been an omen when we were delayed due to lack of parking and didn't make the stadium until the third inning... The Orioles never made the Series either that year...

But the Nationals gave me a place to call my own - yet another "home"... There is nothing like having your own ballpark less than 20 minutes away... When Mayor Williams announced DC had gotten a baseball team in 2005, I was on the phone less than 10 minutes later putting down a deposit on season tickets... They arrived on my birthday... and we spent a glorious summer at RFK... Sure it was old and decrepit... a bit of a dump even... but it was OUR dump...

I was blessed on that first Opening Day to be working downtown... I still allowed 2 hours to get to RFK... As luck would have it, I got lost in Southeast DC... (quelle surprise...) Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to follow what appeared to be a DCPD bus onto an on-ramp going towards the stadium... Somehow we routed around the lines of cars wending their way into the parking lots... When we hit the bottom of the ramp, it was a misery of trying to merge into the gridlock, but merge we had to...

Then everything stopped as another car that had been weaving through barely clearing cars on either side came to a grinding halt... against and IN FRONT OF my bus buddy... The police came up to me and directed me around the incident... When I got past there were more cars but I was 12 cars ahead of where I had started... Suddenly another policeman appears and tells me to pull up and over to the right - AHEAD of even MORE cars... Who was I to argue?? The air filled with the sound of motorcycles and sirens (and maybe some honking horns)... I turned my head to see the team bus followed by 4 black SUVs surrounded by police escort... Close enough for me to touch, it turned out to be the team (obviously) and the Presidential motorcade... Once they passed, I was on my way... and 5 minutes later pulled into the parking lot - one of the first 10 cars arriving for the auspicious day... When I called Jack to tell him where I was, he was still 90 minutes away and the shock of how easy it had been was palpable in his response of "Are you kidding?!?!?"

I will never know if having a license plate reading "X OS FAN" contributed to the helpfulness of the police officers or if it was just my guardian angels yet again looking out for me, but it was the start of a glorious season...

I get chills at the memory of that Opening Day - and not only because we were in gloves and parkas... Watching the elder statesmen Washington Senators take the field to hand off the legacy of the past to the players of the present as baseballs were passed hand to hand at their positions... The flyover by the Blue Angels that scared the hell out of me... That lone positive comment I made about our former president Bush when he threw a great pitch to open the game... (I think I would have preferred him as baseball commissioner and in some ways I think he would have preferred it too...) The brilliance of thousands of flashbulbs as Livan threw the first pitch of what would be the most unexpectedly successful half season I have ever witnessed... If you get the chance to visit the Presidents Club, you can see a panoramic view of that moment caputured... and you can see me and Jack on the far right of the picture about midway up... I am wearing a black turtleneck and blue ballcap... You know... my uniform...

There will never be enough ways to say "thank you" to each of the people who are a part of my baseball memories - even if I did know all the names... Know that you are thanked - publically and personally, silently and out loud - and special to me each time I am reminded of why I love baseball and especially during each moment of my upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

California

Although my grandparents have been in San Diego for more than 10 years, it wasn't until this past Christmas that I realized it had become in a sense home for me as well. It was an important epiphany for me to recognize that "home" is much more about the people you love than the place where they are and home can be more than one place.

I had very mixed emotions (to say the least) about the move when they made it in 1999 - what I knew of California at that point consisted of 2 very brief trips to San Francisco and L.A and the Hollywood tabloids. Other than that it was the place from where my very glamourous auntie flew in once or twice per year dazzling me with her gorgeousness and charm while getting her fill (with me and grandma) of tastycakes! Now I think nothing of hopping on a plane for a long weekend for a visit although the time between Chistmas and New Years is always so much better just from a quantity aspect - not to mention that the weather is always soooo much better than it is on the East Coast.

This visit comes in a time of transition for both my grandparents and for me. Watching the aging process in action is painful but part of the whole circle of life... Is the silver lining being able to do it in southern California or does that just make it harder in comparison? While I am looking at new opportunities to expand my opportunities and world through travel and school, their world is getting smaller as they move to assisted living - one accepting and one fighting it every step of the way. While I am relieved to know that they have good care and less stress I appreciate that this is not the way they would prefer to spend the later years of their lives - if only because of the cost. In my mind, there is no amount that is too much to keep them safe and healthy but then again I have been known to drop $300 on a pair of shoes that make me smile. (No Dad, really I have never done that... I swear...)

It's not the quantity of time at this point that I have to measure but the quality of the visit and the memories that we're able to create. So yesterday I had a tour of the community with my grandma, talked politics and manufacturing with grandpa, walked the beach with my dad and had an early morning (early as in 0500) laughter-filled chat with my auntie. A family dinner for my grandfather's 89th birthday filled with very little angst and some serious bouts of laughter wrapped up a pretty good day. Anytime my grandma teases my grandpa about "not hogging the conversation", it's pretty funny given how little he chimes in. Oh and FTR my dad can ask questions that will take hours to answer and generate some pretty entertaining responses - who knew Liberace was not Mexican... Thanks Google!

For Mothers' Day, grandma and I are debating the Ricky Martin concert but may settle for a movie post-brunch instead. She can't bear to watch the Padres lose so a ballgame is out given how they are playing this season... although it's still better than my beloved Nationals I think...
I don't know how many more trips I have ahead of me like this so I am counting the minutes in this one.

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms and the "moms". It's back to my own reality tomorrow when I fly home to another place I call home.