American Museum of Natural History (iPhone)

Had a great day. Loved the planetarium and even shed a tear when the children's voices of the world greeted the dynamic emptiness of space from Voyager.
When the narrator (Whoopi Goldberg) took us back thirteen billion years to when "stars didn't exist yet," instead of saying "oooooh" and "ahhhh," the children behind me dropped the f-bomb.
The evolution of language at its best, I guess.

La Lupa in Bucharest

A very pleasant event happened today, and it has restored some of my magical perception of life.

I took my Wheelock's Latin textbook into Easy Nails in Torrance to go over some sentences while I was waiting for Dawn, the nail lady, to finish giving some woman a manicure. When she was done, she sat the woman (Anka) across from me at the UV light stand. I smiled at her. She looked at me and did not smile back. Her lack of enthusiasm reminded me of myself lately. Ever since the Tech massacre, I have had to put real effort into looking happy to see people.

I got up with my Wheelock and went to sit at the nail desk. Soon after, the woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Ekscuze me, may I eksamine yourr Latin tekstbook?" Once I got over the automatic "must be a crazy person" thought that every Los Angeleno has when a stranger addresses him, I pushed the book over to her.

She was really happy to see someone studying Latin because it had helped her to learn English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian. She already knew Russian and Romanian from growing up in Bucharest. She disagrees with a few aspects of the university system, especially since we aren't required to take any geography or history classes. We talked about Rome and ancient cultures and traveling and learning and the Getty Villa and Roman mosaics in Tunis, all while Dawn was polishing away with her head down over my fingers. Anka said that once upon a time, Italy gave Romania a replica of the famous Lupa statue that is on permanent display in the Capitoline Museum, and now the replica is in the middle of a square in Bucharest. When she saw the real one in Rome, it brought back beautiful memories of her homeland.

Here's a picture of it from my 2005 archives:

I wish waving at people on the street were a common practice here. You can get so much out of human interaction.

Elise McNamara - Roman Roommate

Adriana Streifer at the Getty

I love these. They just speak Adri to me.

I took them about two weeks ago when she, Carlo Martini, and I had a wine, cheese, and grapes picnic at the Getty Center. We saw an exhibit on photographs of America - mostly suburbs, gas stations, underprivileged, you know, the kinds of photos that win awards. Adri explained some interesting tidbits about California to me and Carlo, and I was lucky enough to catch her on digital film (an oxymoron), through some strategically planted weeds.

Paris / Paris / Parigi

Yes, it is true, anyone that has been to Paris has this picture or some variation of it in their iPhoto library, but only a few people can say that their index finger captured this image under the conditions that mine faced: -16.0 degrees Celsius (3.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on a clear, silent night . . .
Imagine it as the glacier that I saw when we emerged from the Louvre.

Adriana Streifer, Laura Chiantri, and I were satisfied and astonished: "under 26 get in free night" allowed us to run through the halls and see our favorites in 3.5 hours, GRATIS!

True to myself, I wasn't very excited about going to Paris. I had only heard negative things about France, it was the dead of winter, and I hadn't done any guidebook reading on it, but Adri absolutely had to see the Chanticleer concert to continue her family Christmas tradition while abroad, so we booked Ryanair flights and had an adventure.

The art was amazing, the architecture was inspiring, the weather was disgusting, and the restaurants warmed me up from the base of my stomach and defrosted my toes. In the short period that we were there, we didn't hesitate to spend money on international food because we were starved of it in Italy.

I took the pictures that follow in Thai, French, and Lebanese restaurants. Thanks to the retired Fujifilm, the pixels are visible, but I could always go back to France and take new ones!