'snow problem at all!

About two weeks ago we had our first and, to date, only snowfall. By local standards it wasn’t a biggie, only about 2 -3 inches at best. By South African standards of course this was a climatological adventure of note. As far as I can remember I have only ever experienced snow up close twice in my life. One occasion being a freak snow fall in Johannesburg in 1982 at the tender age of about 8 years old. The second time was on a college geography tour to Lesotho to see the construction of the Katse Dam as part of the Highlands Water Project. While the first was seriously memorable (ask any kid who was in school in Johannesburg in 1982) the second was somewhat disappointing as there wasn’t very much snow at all. Hence my complete enthrallment with the icy precipitation two weeks ago.

The danger of course with snow is that if it gets cold enough over night, the snow freezes and becomes solid ice and not the easiest surface to drive on. So at the first sign of snow and or icy driving conditions, schools are closed in our, and surrounding, counties. Well, usually anyway, but not this time. It was deemed by the powers that be, that 2 – 3 inches of snow did not warrant a snow day, and that it was still safe to transport students to school. I just happen to have witnessed at least three cars skidding across various roads with shell-shocked drivers who might disagree with this sentiment though. Never-the-less, on the second day of snow we were all contacted at about 5:00 in the morning and told that school would be starting two hours later than normal, in order for the surface ice to melt and thereby make the roads safer to drive on. What nobody took the time to tell me was that apparently that doesn’t apply to teachers. Apparently teachers are supposed to report for duty only one hour later. Oh well!

I have included some photos below of the snowfall around our apartment complex and a few photos of my students having a snowball fight. It was only upon our sodden return to the class that I was informed that we are apparently not permitted to take the kids outside and let them play in the snow. Oops! Oh well! Again!

...and at 3am you have a slice!

There is a small suburb in the northern part of Washington DC called Adams Morgan. It reminds me of Melville in Johannesburg, or even Rocky Street, Yeoville, as we used to know it back in the early 90’s. It is an eclectic mix of pubs, clubs, restaurants and coffee shops servicing a smorgasbord of people from all walks of life. On one side of the street, within the space of about 50m you will come across a bikers bar, an Ethiopian restaurant, some standard issue sports bars, a jazz lounge, a night club and a piano bar. With names like “Anarchy”, “Tom-Toms”, "Millie and Al’s" and “The Reef”, you can just imagine how it makes for an interesting evening of people watching.

And at 3am, after all the clubs, bars, restaurants and lounges have rung the bell for last round, everyone spills out onto the sidewalk and makes their way up to one of three little pizza take away spots and ends the evening (or should that be early morning) by having "a slice” of pizza. What is so remarkable about that you might ask? This “slice” is not your standard issue “slice" of pizza. It is a "slice" of pizza, not a whole pizza, which measures about 40cm from crust to tip and about 30 cm at its widest point along the crust. And it tastes great!!! NO! That’s not because we were all on a "good beer buzz early in the morning!" I have had one of these slices at about 4 in the afternoon and it was just as good. In fact my good mate, Andrew the Aussie, actually packed away two slices on one particular night. But that’s another story!

Ten Things I learned in Pennsylvania and Ohio

For the Thanksgiving holidays I was fortunate enough to visit parts of the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio and stay in the home of a colleague's family from school in order to experience a traditional Thanksgiving . It turned out to be a great way to see another part of the USA, with a local as a guide, and a learning experience of some note. Some of the lessons were one's you would expect I should know already, and others were genuine first time experiences.

LESSON 1: It is possible to put your whole lunch order between two slices of bread and make it taste good.

We stopped in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for lunch. The restaurant is called Primanti Brothers and is famous throughout the Northeast and Mid West states for its sandwiches. I should mention that this restaurant is at its busiest at about 3am, just after last call at the pubs in town. How much this factor affects the restaurant's infamy, I am not sure. For the record, I had a corn beef and cheese sandwich with coleslaw and fries... all between two slices of bread.


LESSON 2: Pictures taken through the sun roof and back passenger window can turn out better than expected.

These are two fairly random pics of the city of Pittsburgh. The city lies at the confluence of three rivers and was at one time the hub of the metal industry in the USA. There are many interesting bridges that need to be crossed to get round the city. Pittsburgh was voted into the top 5 most beautiful cities in the USA at one time. It is an interesting mix of post-modern metal and glass design, and old style Gothic churches and redbrick warehouses.

LESSON 3: The Amish community was not invented for the movie "The Witness" and do actually exist in all their unique non-materialistic splendour.

As part of my Standard 9 curriculum we did a film study of the movie "The Witness" with Harrison Ford and a very young Elijah Wood. This was my introduction to the Amish religion. The Amish are actually a sect of the Pennsylvania Dutch which originated in Switzerland and have at least 2o other sects. Each sect has its own unwritten laws pertaining to how they integrate themselves into society at large. Chris, my host and chauffeur, was kind enough to drive me through a small Amish farm community on our way to Ohio.

LESSON 4: Pumpkin pie is best eaten with loads of whipped cream.

As part of a traditional Thanksgiving meal, pumpkin pie is served as a dessert with whipped cream. The jury is still out as to whether or not I liked it.

LESSON 5: Not everyone is born to be rock star, and that's okay!

Electronic entertainment has risen to new heights. X-Box have a game that comes complete with microphone, guitars (both base and lead) and a drum set. You then stand glued to the television set watching your particular cues to strum and play various combinations of coloured buttons on the neck of the guitar and thereby belt out scary renditions of some of the classic rock songs from the last 35 years. I could just feel Mick Jagger cringing. Even so, it was great entertainment for the evening.

LESSON 6: Snow is cool... literally!

It snowed on Thanksgiving day. This was my first experience of snow in the US. It WAS cool! And we were warm as toast indoors playing RockBand! We actually had about 3 inches of snow, but I just took too long to get outside and take photos. Hence the grass showing through in the pictures.

LESSON 7: Lebron James IS the king of Cleveland.

Chris, his bother Alex, and I got tickets to see an NBA game at the Quickens Loans Arena in the city o Cleveland. The Cleveland Cavaliers took on the Toronto Raptors and won by 111 - 108. Lebron James, the Cavs' captain, score at least a third of his teams points, as well as leading the stat in rebounds and assists. And if the there is something the Americans do well, it is keep record of game stats!!!

LESSON 8: Tequila should always be consumed in moderation!

I am not going to expand too much on this lesson. Suffice to say that courtesy of our old friend Jose Cuervo, we were too late to visit the Rock 'n Roll Hall of fame. I did get some great pictures of the outside of the imitation 'Louvre' museum though.

LESSON 9: Wind energy may be efficient and renewable but it is an eyesore on the horizon!

Being somewhat environmentally conscious, I was thrilled to have my first sighting of the turbine blades used to generate wind energy. While it was a personally exciting experience to witness these giant power generators, I couldn't help but notice how these 6 story high towers cut into the horizon. In my book though, it is still better than the cooling towers and accompanying smoke stacks of a coal power station.

LESSON 10: Black and white pictures of snow scenes can come out awesomely too!

The one they get right!!!

America has become so PC that it borders on the sublime. I understand the ideal of not wanting to rub someone up the wrong way or not wanting to make individuals within an organization or team feel excluded, but seriously, there has to be a limit to how much you pander to people. And it would seem that American education system, or at least the chapter that I am currently part of has lost complete sight of that line. In order that we don’t offend anyone, or lead them to believe that we are not conscious of their religious or cultural differences, the names of the most joyously, and rigorously, celebrated holidays in America have been ‘altered’.

Since I started teaching in the US in September, which feels years ago at this point, I have been fortunate enough to be a part of two traditional holidays. The first was Halloween. However, as the foundations of Halloween apparently have connotations and associations that are considered taboo in certain religious quarters (although the Celts to whom this refers might themselves feel somewhat insulted), we were instructed to refer to this particular occasion as “The Harvest Festival” or, more commonly “The Fall Party” being that the Fall (Autumn for all my South African readers) is the season in which Halloween occurs. However, and here is the ironic part, every second house or apartment, is decorated to the gills with pumpkins, skeletons, cobwebs, jack-o-lanterns, scarecrows and other generally monstrous type adornments. Every restaurant, pub and take away has its windows draped with all manor of orange and black trimmings and every grocery store has whole aisles dedicated to selling the aforementioned ornamentation, as well as islands of chocolates and candy specially wrapped for the occasion, and all of the above is marketed under the very explicit label of "Halloween". On the evening of the 31st of October, the same students, who were encouraged not to use the term "Halloween", dress up as ghouls, ghosts, goblins and many other monstrous creatures and take part in the ‘trick or treating’ tradition. So which message is stronger at the end of the day?

In a similar vein to the PC approach to Halloween, we will not be breaking for Christmas holidays, but rather we will be celebrating the Winter Holidays. Taking into account that the day after Halloween, almost every store had already unpacked its Christmas decorations and repacked the aforementioned aisles with Christmas, sorry, Winter Holiday decorations, I am interested to see how the students react to this particular holiday branding.

However, having had my cynical swipe at the holidays and their related entrapments, there is one holiday that the USA gets 150% right. This particular holiday is Thanksgiving, and were it in my power, I would make it a worldwide holiday. Putting aside the actual history of the day, it is a holiday celebrated with sincerity and generosity of spirit. Family and friends unite to celebrate and give thanks for the things that they have. They sit down to a simple, yet hearty meal in the warmth of their homes and spend more than just a few hours in that old fashioned (and unfortunately somewhat forgotten) cathartic pursuit of conversing and laughing, with, at and next to each other. There are no gaudy decorations, no obligatory gift exchanging and no commercial hype. Just pure appreciation of being able to spend a couple of hours, at the very least, with loved ones. Once the meal is complete, it is traditional to all gather in front of the over sized television and watch some American Football. (The ironic part of this last little chapter in the tradition is that the players playing in the game were unable to partake in the holiday. But then I guess someone has to play in order for the rest to be able to cheer over their full bellies.)

Here’s to Thanksgiving! Cheers!

A Tribute!

Jack, be a gentleman,

Jack, be a rogue,

Jack, is a legend

wherever he goes.

Jack, on the rocks,

Jack, down straight,

Jack, best enjoyed

with a gracious mate.

Autumn

I have just realised why Americans call 'Autumn', 'Fall'. Its got nothing to do with the leaves falling. It's so they don't have to bother trying to remember how to spell 'Autumn'. Seriously though, Loudoun County, Virginia, shares a border with the state of Maryland. Maryland in turn is part of the North East region of the USA. One of the bigger tourist draw cards to this North East region is the change of season from Summer into Fall, when the leaves go through a spectacular colour change. As nature doesn't particularly adhere to political borders and boundaries, I am in the fortunate position of witnessing mother nature's little magic show right in my back yard. The pictures below however, were taken on a walk through a place called Great Falls, which is actually in Maryland. It is also worth mentioning that one of bigger national parks on the east coast of the USA has a 24 hour hotline for the public to call in, in order to find out if the leaves have reached their peak colour change yet. My only question is, who the heck is lying awake in the early hours of the morning wonder if the seasonal leaf colour change is at its peak yet?

The Griffon

What is it that makes us deliberately and willfully stand in a queue for an hour in order to strap ourselves into a plastic and metal contraption that we know is going to be travelling faster than the human body was designed to go, is being controlled by a pimple-faced college drop-out with a bad sense of humour, and inevitably brings us back to where we started about 2 minutes later? Probably sheer stupidity and the desire to see our ashen faces on a 8" by 11" television monitor, screaming like girls.

This particular roller coaster ride is located in an amusement park called Busch Gardens - Europe in a town called Williamsburg, VA. It is hailed as the world's tallest, floorless, dive coaster. The ride is called The Griffon as it is supposed to swoop down and rise victoriously as an actual griffon may have done. While I am not going to argue the mythological accuracy of naming the ride as they did, I will tell you that it involves being suspended for about 6-7 seconds over a 90 degree drop, subsequently being released to drop down the 90 degree drop for about 75 meters, reaching a speed of 120 km/h and apparently allowing you to experience 4G's of gravitational pull.

Having said that though, it is an incredibly smooth ride and I did not need to change my underwear afterwards. Not everything is bigger and better in America, but they sure do know how to put an amusement park together.

The other personal highlight of my day was the haunted castle ride. Curse of DarKastle is a ride requiring 3-D glasses and nerves of steel. If you have ever been made to feel like a twit, and not for how ridiculous you look wearing 3-D glasses, but for ducking away from computer generated arrows and flying rubble from a castle wall being ripped open by who-knows-what kind of ear-piercingly loud, nerve-wreckingly scary monster, then you know what I am talking about.

And yes, I did scream like a girl, again!

Sunday is great day for football

If soccer is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and rugby is hooligans game played by gentleman, where does that leave American Football? Who knows, but on Sunday October 7, Andrew and I managed to secure tickets to a NFL American Football game between the Washington Redskins and the Detroit Lions at the Redskins home ground, FedEx Field. For a game that only has 60 minutes of actual game time, it takes about 4 hours to be completed, give or take a timeout or two. Having said that though, the intensity in the stadium was such that it seemed as if the game passed in the same amount of time as a rugby match. Not once in those four hours did the crowd's enthusiasm waiver, not once did the chant of "DE-FENCE" fade, and every time the 'Skins' scored a touchdown the cheerleaders led a rousing chorus of "Hail to the Redskins," the teams war cry-come-team song. The beers were cold, the nachos and chicken wings were hot, at half time the marching band played, and all the while the sun beat down incessantly. All in, a highly recommended day out!

One for my South African audience.

So there I was, cruising through the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, in absolute awe of some wildlife photography on display in a special exhibit, when I came across the following photo. The photo itself is pretty impressive, you have to admit. A lot of thought went into taking it as is evident from the explanation on the board crediting the photographer. What I would like to know though is which part of the Transvaal exactly was this photo taken?

Overheard one day at the zoo...

Saturday, September 30, saw my erstwhile Australian acquaintance and I, taking a leisurely trip into Washington DC for a spot of zoological research.

Now for those of you who are thinking, "Aha! We knew it! They were checking out the birds again," I would like to point out that the Smithsonian Zoological Park does not have a very impressive bird display. In fact we didn't even get to see any birds, barring one exception, which I will expand upon later.

As with many progressive cities around the world nowadays, Washington DC does not charge entrance fees into museums and monuments. As a tourist on a reasonably firm budget, I appreciate these well thought out, educationally sound policies. However, this does mean that just about anyone and everyone who would like to, can enter these facilities. You can therefore imagine the variety of interesting comments that I overheard from the smorgasbord of visitors while appreciating the animals on display. I have included some pictures to go with each amusing little interlude. I must add, in the defense of the unnamed ignorants listed below, that I am from Africa and have grown up with many visits to game reserves, national parks and a general interest in wildlife documentaries, and therefor have the advantage of some empirical information and experiences.

The first prize winning comment went to a volunteer-guide at the cheetah enclosure. After being asked by an awestruck visitor why cheetahs were endangered, he replied, "Mainly because the farmers in Africa shoot so many of them. The speed at which these creatures can capture a cow is worrying for the farmers, so they have to defend their herds."

Enough said!

Prize winning comment number two.

Little girl says, "Ooh mommy, look at the pretty peacock!"

Mother replies, "Ooh wow, yes honey, isn't she beautiful!"

Firstly, peacocks would be of the male persuasion. Secondly, as the sign slightly to right of this photo states, this is an emu! To digress quickly, the sign also stated that there should have been some wallabies in this particular enclosure. My Aussie mate and I had a good look around and were unable to see any rugby players behind the fence anywhere. We think the sign may have been slightly incorrect.

The rest of the afternoon passed quite pleasantly and I would probably come across as arrogant (if I haven't already) if I were to point out each and every little misinformed comment or statement so I will just add a few more of my favourite pics from the afternoon.

The stuff that urban legends and chain-mail jokes are made of

The following conversation actually happened. A colleague across the hallway from my class was teaching a math class. Keep in mind that we teach fifth grade and that her class is supposed to be the second to top math group in the grade.

Teacher - Please do page 82 #7-8
Kid - How do I know which numbers?
Teacher - It says 7-8
Kid - But what about the ones in the middle? Do I need to do those?
Teacher - Uhhhhhh! - what numbers are between 7-8 that you are wondering about?
Kid - Hmmmmmm..... (actually pondering the question).
Teacher - (Just stared stupidly at her)
Kid - (Finally) Oh there aren't any
Teacher - (Still staring stupidly at her)
Kid - (walks away...)
Teacher - (Still shocked)

Underground, overground, coming are we...

On Sunday August 26, Javier, Javier, Jose and I (yes there were two Javiers in the car) took a little drive out of town to the Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains for about 105 miles (or 160 kilometers if you have grown up and adopted the metric system like the rest of the world.) It is a scenic drive and if you are lucky you get to see some deer, the odd raccoon and some awesome scenery. There are a multitude of trails and viewing stops along the way and it must be said that taking the drive (or half of it as we did) and then stopping for a picnic and a quick 5 mile hike is a very pleasant way to escape from the suburbs and fill an idle Sunday.

The other Javier, Jose and I at the entrance to well, you get the idea...

Skyline Drive

An original carving by Mother Earth

Scenes from an amble

The other Javier

On our way up to the caves we thought we would check out some caves called the Skyline Caves, as advertised by the giant 20 foot billboards all along the roadside on our way to Shenandoah. If the ridiculous adverts weren't enough warning you would have thought that the troll shaped tour guide would have been. Never-the-less, we paid $16 for the opportunity to see how NOT to run a cave-touring operation. Unfortunately, in the name of public safety, they had managed to run some sort of cable or piping over or along every meter of the path we walked along, as well as drill hand rails into the rock on just about every corner. Now maybe this is just me, but I find that his unfortunately detracts from what can be a reasonably pleasant excursion. Even though they managed to turn the caves into a badly designed electrical substation, there were one or two things that I am glad I saw. The pictures below show some of the crystals that were discovered in the caves. Apparently the crystals have not grown any bigger since being discovered in the earlier part of last century. Perhaps it has something to do with destroying the conditions required to grow by adding vast quantities of metal, plastic, foam and concrete? Or am I just being cynical?