Thesis is Done!

I defended my this on June 3 and it went well.  I am currently in a state of exhaustion and subdued elation.  It feels good to be done even though I have some corrections and improvements that need to be completed before I can hand in the final draft to be printed and bound.  So glad to be done.  A three year and nine month journey that I did not think would take that long.  At least I loved my topic and really enjoyed the travel bloggers who participated.  I need to send them thank you emails as well as an official copy of the thesis when it is published online.  Now I am going to enjoy my summer then return to blogging myself.  But an enjoyment of summer comes first, including a trip to Europe starting next week.  A well done pat on the back from me to me.  Going with my mother and I am excited!  Congratulations to everyone graduating during this spring season.  Well done to all of us who pushed through the difficult times and joyous moments to experience the end.  Yippeeeee!

The Scarlet Contessa

The Scarlet Contessa: A Novel of the Italian Renaissance by Jeanne Kalogridis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really like her books.  The covers make these look like romance novels but they are history lessons, stories of power and control, and reminders that women did play roles in history, we simply have lost their stories and creatively have to fill in the holes.  Great author.  Page turning books!


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I, Mona Lisa

I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Several years ago I gave this book to my mother as a Christmas gift.  This holiday season while visiting family I saw it on the bookshelf and decided to read it myself.  It was chosen because my mother is a musician and a lover of art.  Having lived in Europe as a pre-teen, I have memories of my mother taking me around to well known art galleries, showing me well known works of art, and whispering in my ear or sharing with me the reasons why a particular painting was so famous, or controversial, or cutting edge for its time.  This book is staged around the famous painting Mona Lisa, which I saw first when my parents took me to the Louvre during the four years we lived in Belgium.  Paris and France is only a short skip away from Belgium.  The narrator is none other than Mona Lisa, and Kalogridis has written a fast paced, intriguing historical fiction account about the time period in which Da Vinci painted this piece of art, the woman in the frame, and her life surrounded by a mix if loving, creepy, controlling, concerned, self-serving and mysterious people.  A time period during which a women's servants could be her best friends, Kalogridis teaches the reader that there are secrets hidden within generations, but the secrets will always come to light.


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Grad School Lazy = RUN

It is time to get in shape using my shapely form.  Going from teaching all day and moving around for 6 hours organizing children, teaching lectures, providing supplies, starting projects and the general mayhem of teaching elementary school, grad school has left me lazy.  Yes, I blame grad school.  Other than the research I completed this summer at festivals and interpretive centres, grad school required my brain, fingers and wrists to function on overload, but not my other body parts.  Hence I am less healthy and fit than I have ever been in my life.  A once former athlete, I have been a casual participant in sports and other activities over many years, and several years ago was so frustrated in a crazy job that I began working out 1.5 hours a day, just to deal with the daily stress and bur-ha-ha.  I was tighter after that job but the insanity lead me to other paths in my life.  I moved to London and started to travel, during which I walked and moved for hours every day, and tried every delicious looking European snack possible (have you been to an authentic patisserie lately?).  Then I transitioned to grad school and lost it all, my sleek calves, my Carnival shaped butt, my tighter abs, and my single chin.  I want these back and in order for this to happen, and under the pressure of great friends, I joined a running club.

This means I have joined the Running Room for a 10 week Learn How To Run clinic.  Now those who know me know I am an athletic person and many of the sports I participate in include running.  My shins have always cried out in pain after a long workout, so I am learning how to run properly and will ease into running with this clinic.  Perhaps I will share interesting wipe-outs and other such nonsense on this blog.  Be prepared for shenanigans!

So far one of the runners this evening told me that there is a new basketball team starting up in Manitoba for women aged 40-49.  I have not found the link yet.  I will keep looking and share because I would really like to get back into basketball.

That would be awesome....must finish thesis first!

My new New Balance shoes:

Love New Balance, always have.

My new ICEtrekkers:

So I don't fall down and go boom!

My new underoos care of Costco and Paradox:

Note: my legs are far more luscious and curvy :)

Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada

Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada by Stuart McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Twenty years later this book is still a relevant piece of Canadian literature reflecting on the lives of those individuals who live in rural communities.  Working hard to survive and communities these people share with McLean what they love about living in small towns, what endures them to their community members, and the various ways in which they are attempting to survive together as urbanization increases and their rural populations decrease.  From a hockey town in Manitoba, to the historic town of Maple Creek, to the far reaches of a bay town of Sackville, the reader is taken on a soft and melodious journey through the eyes of those who live and work in rural communities.  I wonder if he has written an updated version.  I think McLean should.

The most interesting part for me was the meeting McLean secured with the person who created the Canadian flag, George Stanley living in Sackville, New Brunswick.  He was asked to create a version of a potential flag by a member of parliament as he had strong interests in history and heraldry (a means of identification, usually focused on country or familial commitment).  He based his single maple leaf design on outfits Olympians wore during the 1928 Olympics, the games my grandfather Doral Pilling and his room mate Percy Williams both competed in.  "One of the images I have carried with me all my life is a photograph I saw when I was a boy.  It was a picture form the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam of Percy Williams breasting the tape and winning a gold medal for Canada.  He was wearing a white jersey with a red maple leaf on his chest.  It's an image that has always struck with me."  Recently a book was written about Percy Williams by Samuel Hawley titled, I Just Ran: Percy Williams, World's Fastest Human.  Another book to read especially since the author consulted with my Aunt Arta Johnson who was instrumental in documenting her father's, Doral Pilling's, oral history which included stories about the 1928 Olympics and the athletic tours he participated in as the team returned to Canada.  I also have two cousins who have taken this maple leaf motif from their Olympic uniforms and had tattoos made from them.  Family stories and choices coming full circle.  Thank you McLean for shedding more light on a family story of which I was unaware.


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Remembering

As I posted several years ago, I took the opportunity to go on a tour of the Normandy Beaches in northern France while I was living in London.  As November 11 is commemorated today, here are a few more pictures and stories of this experience.

This shadowed plaque reminds the reader that it took several years for the D-Day plan to come to fruition.  The amount of tanks, guns, vehicles, food and people that had to be amassed in order to cross the English channel to create an artificial port in order to defeat the Nazis is incredible.

Fifty years later the pieces of the port still rest in the sand, slowly being eroded or encrusted with ocean creatures.

An encrusted container on the beach with more of the port structures behind out in the ocean.  The sea claiming what used to be claimed by people.

Arromanches-les-Bains the heart of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.

Pointe du Hoc at which soldiers who landed did not find a beach to run across as they dodged bullets and grenades, but who found rock cliffs they were required to climb as they were shot at and bombed.  Such an incredible series of tasks in order to defeat the occupiers.  

Another portion of the Point du Hoc cliffs ready to be climbed by the soldiers.  

A sculpture called Les Braves, which was erected on Omaha Beach near St. Laurent sur Mer.

Moving to the US Cemetery in St. Laurent it is a peaceful place replete with memorials, reminders, crosses, starts and many art pieces reminding the visitor how many Americans died as the country joined in the final chapter of World War II.  This also reminded me how many more people had died from countries who had participated in the war since its beginning.  

The names of those who lost their lives during World War II.

 A water sculpture with a submerged map of the Normandy Beaches connected to a flat, extended pool of water that reaches out, visually, into the ocean from which the soldiers appeared.

A single cross in the US Cemetery.  Note the lack of a name.  A reminder of so many of the unknown soldiers, those who died but who were never identified.

Leaving a rock on a Jewish grave.  Symbolic of remembrance, God as the rock of Israel, acknowledge recent visitors, and adding their piece of rock to the ancient mound of a grave.

A copy of an old picture in one of the Normandy museums.  I love this picture as it juxtaposes the old with the young, the daily tasks of life with the task of unique events, the lack of acknowledgement by each of the main characters toward each other....just doing what needed to be done for survival.  Side by side.

Travel As A Political Act: Part 2

As I really did enjoy this book, I was even more impressed that a travel novel, written by an approachable individual with accessible language, finally presented many of the difficult topics that have been debated within the academic and practical spaces of tourism for decades.  One of the first papers I wrote for an basic introduction to travel class concerned the sex trade and the use of young girls in countries as captured sex slaves for the purposes of pleasing middle and upper class Canadian, American and European travelers in order to draw and increase tourism.  I believe my professor handed me back my paper and said, 'interesting topic'.  That was it.  I think he was surprised about the topic and the criticisms that were evident in the paper.  I wish I still had it, I would give it another read, redo and update as sixteen years later, these countries continue to enslave young girls, boys, women and sometimes men as sex slaves but now have begun to reward them and provide them with an understanding that they are contributing greatly to their country's economy in the best way they possibly could (even scarier really).  Well, in my opinion this is crap and the institutionalization of the poor and down-trodded through ideologies of slavery, misogyny and seeing women/people as sex objects, but I digress...again...

Rick Steves within the last chapter of his book Travel As A Political Act shares with following idea with the reader then proceeds to share a list of books he has read that has influence his opinions about the economics of poverty and the politics of power and corporations.  I am sure he would be OK with me sharing this quote and list (even though I don't know him at all personally) and I have added to each book title a link to the book, a related website, or the authors webpage.  Voila!:

"Read books that explain the economic and political basis of issues you've stubbled onto in your travels.  A basic understanding of the economics of poverty, the politics of the empire, and the power of corporations are life skills that give you a foundation to better understand what you experience in your travels.  Information that mainstream media considers "subversive" won't come to you.  You need to reach out for it.  The following are a few of the books that have shaped and inspired my thinking over the years" (p. 203):

Bread for the World

Arthur Simon

Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity

Frances Moore Lappe

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

Future in Our Hands

Erik Dammann

Manufacturing Consent

Noam Chomsky

War Against the Poor: Low-Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer

Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes

Robert McAfee

The United States of Europe

T.R. Reid

The European Dream 

Jeremy Rifkin

(Click here for Rifkin website and foundation)

The End of Poverty

Jeffry Sachs

Several of these shall be added to my reading list as I have only read the last one while I was living in London.  Off I go...

Travel As A Political Act

Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As Rick Steves is one of the most seasoned travellers of which I am aware, I had high expectations of this piece of writing, in particular because it branches off from his repeated pattern of reporting on the good, bad and challenges of a particular place or city.  This book appeared to meander into the more tempestuous waters of the politics of travel, which, as a travel and tourism graduate student, I have been researching for two years.

Each chapter presents a country (or city) and a specific topic (i.e. after war, taxes, soft drugs, etc.) through which Steves shares his experiences, opinions and political ideologies about what he has learned from each of the places with regards to the people and their lives in relation to that topic.  There is a mixture of positive, negative, warnings, messages, ideas, and comparisons throughout the book always directed at his largest market, the American people.  This book is full of lessons and suggestions that many English speaking people can learn from as non-Americans will also find this information poignant.  

This book presented some very good ideas about race relations, cultural understandings/misunderstandings, differences in choice, varying life perspectives, poverty, all within the subject of travel.  He is honest as a traveler and points to the places where he, as an American, is welcome, where he encounters harsh words, and differentiates between government propaganda and the people in the same country/city who see through their country's poor attempts at defaming other countries.  While I did not agree with everything he says in the book (i.e. the continued myth that the USA won World War II for the Europeans, and calling the USA America), as a person who was raised in foreign countries and continues to travel, I did see his open-mindedness and joy in meeting other people through his writing.  I would recommend everyone read this book, in particular those individuals who are afraid of travel or a particular country.  Time to set fear aside and ride the wave of mutual understanding and respect.


Best Parts:

I worry that the mainstream tourism industry encourages us to be dumbed down.  To many people, travel is only about having fun in the sun, shopping duty-free, and cash in in frequent flyer miles.  But to me, that stuff distracts us from the real thrills, rewards, and value of travel.  In our travels - and in our everyday lives - we should become more educated about and engaged with challenging issues, using the past to understand the present.  The more you know, and the more you strive to learn, the richer your travels and you life become.  In my own realm as a travel teacher....I take it with the responsibility to respect and challenge the intellect of my tour members, readers, or viewers.  All of us will gain more from our travel partners to be engaged and grapple with the challenging issues while on the road.  Your experience will be better for it.  p. 12

While traveling, I'm often struck by how people give meaning to life by producing and contributing.  p. 45

Perhaps Europe's inclination to be tolerant is rooted in the intolerance of its past.  In the 16th century, they were burning Protestants for their beliefs.  In the 18th century, they were drowning women who stepped out of line as witches.  In the 20th century, Nazis were gassings Jews, Gypsies, and gay people.  Now in the 21st century, Europe seems determined to get human rights, civil liberties, and tolerance issues right.  Instead of legislating morality, Europe legislates tolerance and human rights. Along with all the rights an American would expect, the in-the-works European constitution will include the right to work, food, and education.  All will have the right not only to healthcare, but to preventative healthcare.  In Europe, the "right to life" means no death penalty.  Europeans will all have the right to the protection of personal data, the right to access any data that has been collected, and the right to have it rectified if it is inaccurate.  Everyone will have the right to paid leave and paid parental leave.  And all will have the right to join or form a trade union.  p. 72

That first [travel] trip lit a fire in me.  I realized I have a right, if not the responsibility, to form my opinions based on my own experience, even if it goes against the mainstream at home.  p. 87

Traveling reminds us that contentment is based not on surrendering to conformity, but in finding that balance between working well together and letting creative spirits run free.  p. 125

What I learn about Islam from media and the US can fill me with fear and rage.  What I learn about Islam by traveling in Muslim countries fills me with hope...The centuries-old tension between Christendom and Islam is like a human sharing a forest with a bear.  Both just want to gather berries, do a little fishing, raise their kids, and enjoy the sun.  Neither wants to do harm to the other, but - because they can't readily communicate - either would likely kill the other if they crossed paths.  The world is our forest and we're sharing it with others.  As it gets smaller, more and more cultures will cross paths.  Our advantage over the human and the bear: we can communicate.  p. 147

When we travel - whether to the "Axis of Evil" or just to a place where people yodel when they're happy, or fight bulls to impress the girls, or can't serve breakfast until today's croissants arrive - we enrich our lives and better understand our place on this planet.  We undercut groups that sow fear, hatred, and mistrust.  People-to-people connections help us learn that we can disagree and still coexist peacefully.  p. 193

My travels have taught me that you don't want to be really rich in a terribly poor world...[it is] simply pragmatic to bring compassion for the needly along with me into the voting booth.  p. 199


Interesting Websites from book:

Take Back Your Time
http://www.timeday.org/

www.ricksteves.com/politicalact


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A Year in Provence

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I want to give this book 3.5 stars because I really enjoyed it as a selection of stories from an Englishman who has live in the USA then moved to Southern France, and offers the ready a wonderful medley of stories about the people, weather, construction, markets, wineries and neighbours he and his wife find during their first year in Provence.  This was such a good read that I have another three of his books on order from the library.  It is not a 4 start book, in my opinion, because this is a humorous tale but not a book from which I discovered a new history about a place or was captivated by details of a culture that was shocking or caused me a personal revelation.  Still a delightful and quick read that did make me want to rent a small cottage in Provence for at least a summer or two just to put his stories of oddities and eccentricities to my own cultural tests.  Since I do not have those funds at the moment, I will continue reading his books, smiling and laughing at his experiences and stories.  Perhaps I shall add some French Provence wine to the occasions just to increase the read's authenticity.  

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Cattle Research Leads to Food

Currently I am completing some research for a new local museum that has opened just south of Winnipeg, the Farm Food Discovery Centre.  I am completing research in an area that is new to me, cattle.  Yep, this urban woman is knee deep in world wide cattle names, histories of new breeds, the ways cattle is used...including their manure.  Quite the learning curve I have to say.

As I look at webpages, read posts, and attempt to decipher breeding charts (yes they exist and they are like a foreign language), I come across other interesting websites like this one.  A man who lives in Geneva who love gastronomy (this word has always made me cringe a bit), and has a post about Swiss cattle and the cheese he found that is made from their milk after they have feed in alpine meadows on flowers, herbs and grasses.  Now that is the life!  Walking about on Swiss mountain sides, munching on natural foliage, hanging with fellow cows and calves.

This was another website that made me want to lick the screen and wow, what a set up!

Travel.  

Find food.  

Create dishes.  

Take pictures from the photography contraption hanging from your ceiling.  

Eat.  

Motivating me to finish my thesis so I can find something this cool to do with my life.  Plus, now I want to join this man on one of his adventures of travel, gastronomy and photography.  Add to bucket list!

The post I found by typing into Google, "what do swiss cows eat in pasture", garnered me this delectable webpage:

Swiss Alpine Pasture Cheese Croute

I don't think Francios-Xavier or Google is actually saying that the cows eat this dish, but I don't really know anything about cattle remember!?!

Here is the generic page of delicious international goodies:

FXcuisine.com

Bring food to the computer with you  

Quality food  

And a napkin

...for drool...

______________________________

Later in the day......

I came across a Canadian Beef Blog, yes I did.  

Yep there is.

This is for all you meatitarians out there who are hankering for an amazing bar-b-q.

Canadian Beef Blog

(Tonia returns to being distracted now.)