We're sure that the entire world was watching C-SPAN 3 at 9 am on a Monday morning (or the rebroadcast on C-SPAN 2 in the wee hours of the morning), but just in case, click here.
A still shot of the stars:
June 09, 2008
May 20, 2008
May 05, 2008
Perugia, Day 3
My church in Michigan is just over 125 years old, and I'm proud of it. But today I visited a church that was built 1,500 years before mine. In fact, locals call it a "temple" (Tempio di S. Angelo), apparently because the columns (which you can see in my feeble pictures) were taken from pagan temples (and I suspect those temples were Etruscan, which predated even the ancient Romans). This was right about the time, by the way, when my own ancestors were probably learning how to tie their shoes (wait a second - those were made of wood).
The church is built in the round, so now I know Calvin College's chapel wasn't the first.
My tour continued, ranging from ancient Etruscan walls, with their various vantage points from which to deliver massive pain, to cryptic symbols etched all over local buildings, including innumerable griffins, stars, Latin sayings, and masonic compasses. I also got to see the very place where two famous saints - Assisi and Dominic - met for the only time. It's inscribed with a quote from Dante's Paradiso.
Speaking of Dante: I'm not sure why he didn't include everlasting life in Italian bureaucracy as punishment in one of the circles of hell. Such damnation would have been most fitting for corrupt politicians, who Dante lets off easy by eternal immersion in scalding pitch. I had my first experience with it today (Italian bureaucracy, not scalding pitch). Fortunately my minders were with me and bore the brunt. Actually, it was strangely fun to watch a total of six government administrators and two Italian university professors negotiate for an American's dining pass. The fuss was ultimately over a computer password that only one person in all of Italy knows. Now that's power.
That's it for today. Oh, I guess I should mention that I did "work" today. My lecture went well, though maybe half of the audience could understand me. I hope the percentage is higher with English speakers. I found out about third of the way through the presentation that everyone thought I was saying "even gellatos," rather than "evangelicals" (or something like that). Once clarified, I'm sure I really wowed them - or that pleasant look on their faces was daydreaming about gellatos.
Ciao!
May 04, 2008
Perugia, Day 2
A day for long walks.
Perugia is an ancient citadel built on top of a mountain and ringed by a large stone wall. The streets are built around its topography, which means there's more than a quarter mile of straight road anywhere. I know next to nothing about the key sites in the city - Rick Steves doesn't cover it - but it's always a little fun to discover what's around the next curve (there's some sort of metaphor in that).
The city has it all: Defensive walls, impressive churches, inviting arches, broad piazzas, fountains - even an ancient aqueduct. And panhandlers. And graffiti. And dog poop. As a mountain city, it also has all sorts of opportunities to look out over big vistas: One direction is rolling hills and valleys; the other, the Appenines, some with snow still on top. Here are a few
lame attempts at pictures (stay tuned for an Italy picture album):
A Sunday morning walk means that the walker can chart the way as much by ear as sight, since the church bells ring all over the old city. In fact, I can honestly say I went to mass this morning (for two minutes) at the city's central cathedral, Cattedrale di S. Lorenzo. There's something about an Italian priest performing the Latin mass....
The rest of the afternoon will be devoted to napping, the BBC (the only TV channel I can understand), and preparing for tomorrow (yes, I actually have to do some "work" tomorrow).
Ciao!
Perugia, Day 1
After a series of planes, trains, and automobiles, I've arrived in Perugia.
I flew to Rome from Grand Rapids via Amsterdam and Detroit, and then took the train to Perugia via Orvieto and Trasemino. The train wove its way through the center of Tuscany, with its vineyards, olive groves, and surprising amount of wheat. The terrain was hilly and beautiful; it reminded me of the Sierra foothills, albeit with less dry grass and more grafitti. And lots of of those really narrow, tall, ramrod straight juniper trees, which somehow seem to work in the Tuscan landscape (unlike, say, backyards in central California).
My university hosts have put me up at a quirky hotel, Hotel Gio, which is jazz and wine-themed. It's newer, so its bigger than most European hotels (at least in my limited experience), and its within walking distance of the heart of the city. I ate dinner at a nearby pizzeria, where the waitress and I muddled through our considerable lack of skill with the each other's native language. You can get pretty far if you know "birra" and "pizza."
Out of my window as the sun set: 
April 28, 2008
Family Fine Arts Day
Saturday was Family Fine Arts Day with the den Dulks. Both girls were in the Hearts In Step dance recital at 11am which went all the way until 2pm! Then a quick trip through the Wendy's drive thru before Ethan had to be at his cello recital at 2:40. Finally
it was back to Hearts in Step for Olivia so she could be in the 5pm show. We knew poor Abe would not make it through a day like that so he got to play at home with a sitter! All the kids did a great job, we get a DVD of the girls dancing soon and we included Ethan playing French Folk Song.
Way to go kids!
April 24, 2008
April 23, 2008
April 21, 2008
Springtime in the Hood
I love our neighborhood. The 4 back yards connected with gates so the children can run as a pack through them all. More neighbors just a hop over the fence away. Great playmates for our kids, good friends for us, and happy, happy hours for all! Yeah South Siders!
April 19, 2008
The Borg Kitchen
I compare what our kitchen looked like this week to a Borg space ship. Kevin thought it looked like the incubator from The Matrix. Whatever it was, it was also at least 85 degrees in there and a maze to walk through. It was finally removed Friday and we are down to 2 fans and a dehumidifier in the basement. The good news it that the floor has nearly flattened back out, bad news is that it must be sanded and refinished. And only a year after it was done the first time!
