The problem with not updating a blog is that not-updating quickly becomes a vicious cycle, a pernicious habit.
I think my absence began with a week of mild depression when nobody commented on my brilliant post about doner kebab and the Reichstag. Also, I was starting to prepare final papers for two of my courses, and the research and drafting for those began to consume much of my time.
That weekend I went to the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology annual conference, which was an entirely new and exciting world. Thinking about what I'd heard there kept me busy through General Conference, which gave me plenty more to think about.
And there were still those papers. Before this year, I never thought I'd enjoy writing a twelve-page essay, but I enjoyed writing these (most of the time-- I didn't enjoy it when I was up until 6 in the morning attempting to string together two major sections of my argument, only to give it up for another day.)
Then came exams, and then the drive home to Ohio, and then after 4 days at home I headed off to meet N. for a small reprise of our travels. I stopped to visit friends of a friend near Philadelphia, and then met up with him in NYC. We spent three days there with my sister, a day in New Haven (primarily at Yale's Peabody Museum) and then two days at Brown (where N. goes to school) before he had exams and I went to Boston (stories from this trip to come.)
On the bus, I read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.
These last two things (the East Coast trip and my reading of Calvino) may bring changes to this blog. I've decided to expand the scope from my trip last summer to all of my traveling, and I may start experimenting with the sort of view of a city offered by Calvino.
And hopefully there's not another two-month post drought.
24.3.10
16.3.10
Reichstag and Doner Kebab
When I first saw the mirrored cone inside the Reichstag dome, I didn't think of ice cream. I thought of Doner.
The Doner Kebab, to all who have never experienced the joy of this sandwich, ubiquitous on Berlin's streets, is the main product of almost every Middle Eastern restaurant in the city (or at least every Middle Eastern restaurant cheap enough for me to eat on my college-student budget). A shop generally advertises its doners through the presence of a dondurmek in the window.
The Reichstag's rain cone looks to me just like the meat on a dondurmek:
Doner kebab is, by now, one of the most popular foods in Germany. It's also common in the rest of Europe (the first dondurmek I ever saw was in Paris.) But as Turkish as doner kebab looks and tastes, it's as German as the Reichstag, invented by a Berlin fast food vendor in 1971. Since that time, doner kebab had migrated across Europe back to Istanbul, where it's almost as popular as it is in Berlin, proving once again that the world is far stranger than we could ever hope to imagine.
Next week: a slightly more serious look at the Reichstag building.
The Doner Kebab, to all who have never experienced the joy of this sandwich, ubiquitous on Berlin's streets, is the main product of almost every Middle Eastern restaurant in the city (or at least every Middle Eastern restaurant cheap enough for me to eat on my college-student budget). A shop generally advertises its doners through the presence of a dondurmek in the window.
The Reichstag's rain cone looks to me just like the meat on a dondurmek:
Doner kebab is, by now, one of the most popular foods in Germany. It's also common in the rest of Europe (the first dondurmek I ever saw was in Paris.) But as Turkish as doner kebab looks and tastes, it's as German as the Reichstag, invented by a Berlin fast food vendor in 1971. Since that time, doner kebab had migrated across Europe back to Istanbul, where it's almost as popular as it is in Berlin, proving once again that the world is far stranger than we could ever hope to imagine.
Next week: a slightly more serious look at the Reichstag building.
6.3.10
Mirror, Mirror
This mirrored cone hangs in the dome of the Reichstag Building. Its chief purposes are to collect rainwater and to look awesome.
Next week: what the mirror cone has in common with a fast food sandwich.
20.2.10
Celebrations
I earned my Eagle Scout last July. However, due to the fact that I was in Europe at the time, and then heading almost immediately to college in Utah, the Court of Honor was postponed until December. My super-talented photographer sister got a few shots of N. and I hanging out before the ceremony:
Good times, good times.
Good times, good times.
13.2.10
Conversation Piece
It's our last night in Prague, N.'s going to fly back to Columbus in the morning, and we're walking along the riverside and talking about alarm clocks.
That's right. Alarm clocks.
The alarm clocks we have. The alarm clocks we want to have. Features of alarm clocks that we think are interesting or useful, like having multiple alarm settings, or sounding like the ocean.
It occurs to me that this is the sort of thing only good friends talk about. If you talk about alarm clocks the first time you meet someone, that's strange. But talking about alarm clocks is perfectly natural for us, because we talk about pretty much everything.
And who's to say that alarm clock are less important in our lives than politics?
That's right. Alarm clocks.
The alarm clocks we have. The alarm clocks we want to have. Features of alarm clocks that we think are interesting or useful, like having multiple alarm settings, or sounding like the ocean.
It occurs to me that this is the sort of thing only good friends talk about. If you talk about alarm clocks the first time you meet someone, that's strange. But talking about alarm clocks is perfectly natural for us, because we talk about pretty much everything.
And who's to say that alarm clock are less important in our lives than politics?
6.2.10
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