Thursday, May 31, 2007

A man after my own heart

Is it too late to become an international negotiator and corporate lawyer?

A Garden in Miami, a Loft in Athens

The Buckster poses a question...

How do you find a job you like?

Not just for a little while, but that you get up every day wanting to go to? How do I find that job? I'm tired of looking for it.

I did like this job. I remember liking it when I got here. I want to blame it on the new editor, because that coincided with my dislike of what I do. But maybe it's not him. Maybe it's just me. I mean, I have disliked ALL of my newspaper jobs. At some point it gets to be the person right? It's me. It has to be me.

I just need a new career.

And a hobby.

And probably a boyfriend.

Okay. I need a lot of stuff.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

The City that finally sleeps

The absolute best time to be in New York City is a long holiday weekend in the spring or summer when everyone has abandoned the city and you can walk along without being suffocated. I was up at 8 a.m. Monday and me and my friend were absolutely alone on the streets. It was amazing. At the same time, things are open, so it's not like there isn't anything to do.

Later in the day, there were more people, especially sailors — it's fleet week and so sailors abound — but still much fewer than usual. There were places to sit in the parks, tables open at restaurants, people were nicer and employees attentive. It was one of the best weeknds I've had since being here.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

And the best tourists in the world are...

This article immediately caught my attention because it reminded me of a discussion I had a few years ago when I was covering the opening of a new biotech company in Memphis.

The execs were in town from England and I had a long conversation with one gentleman in particular that wandered far off topic. (He was very funny and entertaining to talk to — not at all what you would expect from a biotech exec.) We were arguing over which made worst tourist Americans or English. I said Americans — thinking of those Americans who go to foreign countries and then insist on eating at McDonalds and complaining loudly about how things are better back home.

He said no, "There's nothing worse than the English working class on holiday." It was funny, as was his description of them bemoaning the lack of a good fish and chips wherever they go.

It turns out, he was right. I was wrong.


Wed May 23, 2007 9:49AM EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - The best tourists in the world are the Japanese, followed by Americans and the Swiss, a survey based on views from hoteliers across Europe said Wednesday.

Japanese tourists stood out for being polite and tidy, securing 35 percent more votes than the Americans who came second.

Swiss tourists were commended for being quiet and considerate, unlike the Britons who were judged to be the fifth worst tourists because of rude behavior, noise and a miserly attitude to tipping.

But despite their faults, hoteliers do look favorably upon British spending habits voting them the third biggest holiday spenders after Americans and Russians.

Based on responses from 15,000 European hoteliers, the survey carried out on behalf of travel Web site Expedia showed that the worst tourist nation was France, followed by India, China and Russia.

Britain was second in the worst-dressed tourist table which was headed by the Americans, and fifth in the least-generous table which was headed by the Germans.

Chickens in the NY Times

I read this article when it came out last week.

I was bothered then by how stupid this woman from the City was when it came to chickens. I suppose I should have realized that anyone who has chickens in an apartment in Manhattan is stupid to begin with, but some of the stuff this woman says in her article...Seriously. You don't have to have raised chickens like we did when I was a kid to know that ALL chickens are female, right?

It was this point that really started to bother me the other day when I was in the kitchen washing dishes. My mind tends to wander when I'm doing dishes and it wandered back to this article. And I just wanted some confirmation that it doesn't take proximity to chickens to know that to have baby chickens one needs a ROOSTER, right?

Key excerpts from the article below:

We decided that Cheep was a girl, with that bouffant hairdo that made her look twice her size, and Chirp was a boy, because he was the epitome of the gallant male.

About six months after their arrival, I was in my office, just back from a meeting, picking up my messages. “Mom, there’s something wrong with Cheep. She’s sitting in a corner and won’t come out. She’s making all this noise and I can’t get her to stop.” On the second call, Isabella was holding back tears. “Mom, she’s really in pain. Please come home. I think she may be dying.” Third call, a completely new tone in her voice, at once serene, excited and very proud: “Mom, I can now confirm that Cheep is a girl.”

She had laid an egg, right on top of the pile of newspapers I can never quite keep up with, while Chirp paced nervously up and down beside her. When I came home that night, Isabella, beaming, held out the miraculous object, cradled in her hands. It was a delicate sandy rose, worthy of a Farrow & Ball paint chip.

Then, a week later, to our great surprise, Chirp laid an egg, also choosing the newspaper pile for the occasion. Suddenly, we had to revise our whole concept. We had two female chickens, which meant no babies (only fertilized eggs can grow into chicks).


Apparently she never learns that roosters are the males. Idiot.


Other annoying tidbits from the article:

— Who knew chickens could fly? (You can see how little time I’ve spent in barnyards.)

— Intriguing fact: chickens like to sleep standing up. Ours invariably nodded off right next to each other.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Not Much To Blog About Today

Yesterday I did a lot of sleeping and some reading. Friday night I watched Pan's Labyrinth.. It was very good, but I didn't expect the gore. I think it was there to contrast the harshness of the main character's real world with that of the imaginary world of fawns and fairies. But my god! There was a scene were the Captain smashes a peasant's face in with a bottle. I was shocked. I guess it was because I wasn't expecting it.

The Hat Parade, which I mentioned in passing or in e-mails to some of you, got rained out Saturday. And anyway, I had to go into work at 8:30 a.m. because a reporter — one that we have countless problems with — called in sick. She said she was vomiting. She was supposed to cover a college graduation that morning. I managed to convince the evening reporter to work 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and then I went in and did the cop calls and updated the Web site. And now she's called in sick again today with Strep throat, which an editor above me has also called in sick with and my immediate supervisor has also called in sick today. So I got a call from the managing editor asking me to come in and work. I didn't really have anything planned for today, but still. Who wants to work on their day off?

Monday, May 14, 2007

Is it just me...

...or does the word "library" seem like something that has never before been paired with the words "George W. Bush"?

UNIVERSITY PARK, Tex., May 13 — The prospect of the George W. Bush Presidential Library’s being built on the campus of Southern Methodist University received a lift over the weekend when voters in this Dallas suburb passed a proposition that paves the way for the city to sell a piece of parkland to the university.

Spanish: 1; Neighbor: 0

First, I made a 93 on my Spanish final. So despite my teacher's best efforts to un-teach me, I managed to pull through with an A in the class. I had a 94 average.

Second, last night as I was making pasta...around 9 p.m...there was a knock at my door. One guess who it was.

He had his dog with him and when I opened the door, the dog immediately came in and start sniffing the cat. The cat, for her part, was like, "What the hell is mop doing sniffing my butt?" The neighbor meanwhile, "We were wondering if Roland could come out to play." So I said sure, put his collar back on and sent him out.

A few minutes later there was a knock again and I opened the door and Roland came in. Luckily I was on the phone and thus avoided any real small talk or having the neighbor invite himself in. He just said, "He didn't want to stay outside without his mommy." I laughed appropriately and then waved goodbye and closed the door.

Finally, in other news, I applied for a job putting together a company news letter for a cancer hospital in the city. I have no hope of actually getting the job, though I am way over qualified for it. But I wrote a pretty good cover letter, I think, which makes me feel a little more confident about applying for other jobs as well. Now if I can just find those jobs....I need something that pays more than what I'm making now. Also, I'd like to get away from the overbearing and crazy new editor. I told someone at work this weekend, it's like he and the managing editor are getting bonuses for every person they drive away.

Friday, May 11, 2007

And the winner of state with most pickup trucks is...

You'll be surprised. From an interesting article in the New York Times today:

By dint of its climate, size, population, lengthy growing season, increasingly long commutes and, perhaps, its casual lifestyle, California is a road-debris leader. It is also home to the country’s largest number of registered vehicles — 32 million, twice that of No. 2 Texas — and roughly four million pickup trucks, the most of any state, according to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in Washington.

Who knew?!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Que horrible

The good news: I am done with Spanish 201.

The bad news: The final was, as expected, bad (though not as bad as I thought it might be).

The worst news: The teacher announces before we take our exam that despite what it says in the catalogue, SHE will be teaching the next class — SPA 202 — and not the really cool, funny and...oh...extremely talented-as-a-teacher teacher that we all thought we were going to have. A mix of horror and panic fills the classroom. You can read the thoughts of...can I still rearrange my schedule to drop Spanish next semester.

I am stuck since that's all I take. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was considering taking a second, much harder class that was Spanish for native speakers. I looked at the teacher's syllabus the other day and had almost successfully talked myself out of taking it...waiting another semester. Now I think I have two options.

1. Look up the nearest four-year SUNY campus's schedule and see if any 202's fit my schedule and then drive the extra distance to take it there.

2. Skip 202 and go straight to SPA 902, using the summer to teach myself the future tense, which I will need in the class. The class description follows. Check out the oral presentations...that's what I'm in a blind panic over.

Well at least I have a few months before I have to decide.

Course Guidelines
Course description:
Spanish 902 is designed for Hispanic students who speak Spanish or have lived in a Spanish speaking, but educated in English. The students had a limited exposure to instruction in Spanish outside the home and desire formal training to acquire a truly bilingual-bicultural proficiency. An important aspect of the course is to explore and foster an appreciation of the Hispanic/Latino culture and heritage.

Spanish 902 introduces reading, writing skills and emphasizes the practice to complex grammatical structures through the
reading and writing of compositions and short essays. Classroom time is devoted primarily to developing spelling, enhancing vocabulary and developing reading strategies. The student also develops writing at the paragraph level using correct sentence structure. Our work in class along with the assigned homework will be based on the textbook, although occasionally we will discuss different subjects regarding Hispanic/Latino culture not present in your book.

During this course we will also view some videos and/or movies to introduce you to different aspects of the language and culture. You will also be required to write short dialogues or essays on material assigned in class. Oral participation in class is required. The frequency and quality of your participation will allow me to know how well you prepare for your lesson.

Goals:
By the end of Spanish 902 you will be expected to demonstrate the following:
a) SPEAKING: Use essentially correct pronunciation, narrate and describe in the present, future and past tenses, discuss
and/or relate topics related to personal or factual episodes.
b) LISTENING: Understand a variety of pronunciations and dialects.
c) READING: Read and interpret authentic texts (literature, poetry, articles) as native speakers do.
d) WRITING: Develop the writing of narratives (e.g., short stories, biographical information, etc.) and expository texts
(e.g., comparisons and contrasts). Use verb tenses correctly and adopt a variety of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions.

Oral presentations:
Students will prepare individual in-class oral presentations, which must include the use of acceptable grammar and
pronunciation. The topic of the presentation will be given from a list by your professor. The presentation will not be a reading exercise, but an exposition of interesting and engaging facts about a particular topic, in order to stimulate class discussion. As a memory aid, you may use a small reference card. Before the presentation, the speaker will provide the professor and the rest of the classmates with a brief outline (in Spanish!) of the presentation. You will be graded on diction and effectiveness of communication, in addition to pronunciation, grammatical structures, vocabulary and fluency.

Homework:
Exercises from the textbook will be assigned during and at the end of each chapter. Exercises (ejercicios escritos)
will be collected and graded. Written homework is to be neatly done and handed in on time. Write your name on top of
your sheet and staple pages together. I will NOT accept late homework. It is your responsibility to complete and to hand
in homework on time. If you cannot attend class, it is your responsibility to ensure that I receive the homework before our
next class meeting. Missing assignments will be given a grade of zero.

Tests and Exams:
There will be three tests during the semester session on dates that appear in this syllabus. There will be two major
exams: the mid-term and the final. The final exam will cover the material of the entire semester, with a concentration on the latest chapters. The content material of the tests will be announced the class session before their scheduled date. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to make up the exam as soon as possible (only one make-up is allowed). Make-up exams are given only in extreme circumstances. Exams not taken will automatically count as zero. All work will be evaluated and be part of your final grade.

Ensayos:
Students will write two essays during the semester on subjects assigned by the instructor.

Monday, May 07, 2007

And now for something compeltely different

This is really freaky!

May 7, 2007
The New York Times
Beam It Down From the Web, Scotty

By SAUL HANSELL
PASADENA, Calif. — Sometimes a particular piece of plastic is just what you need. You have lost the battery cover to your cellphone, perhaps. Or your daughter needs to have the golden princess doll she saw on television. Now.

In a few years, it will be possible to make these items yourself. You will be able to download three-dimensional plans online, then push Print. Hours later, a solid object will be ready to remove from your printer.

It’s not quite the transporter of “Star Trek,” but it is a step closer.

Three-dimensional printers have been seen in industrial design shops for about a decade. They are used to test part designs for cars, airplanes and other products before they are sent to manufacturing. Once well over $100,000 each, such machines can now be had for $15,000. In the next two years, prices are expected to fall further, putting the printers in reach of small offices and even corner copy stores.

The next frontier will be the home. One company that wants to be the first to deliver a 3-D printer for consumers is Desktop Factory, started by IdeaLab, a technology incubator here. The company will start selling its first printer for $4,995 this year.

Bill Gross, chairman of IdeaLab, says the technology it has developed, which uses a halogen light bulb to melt nylon powder, will allow the price of the printers to fall to $1,000 in four years.

“We are Easy-Bake Ovening a 3-D model,” he said. “The really powerful thing about this idea is that the fundamental engineering allows us to make it for $300 in materials.”

Others are working on the same idea.

“In the future, everyone will have a printer like this at home,” said Hod Lipson, a professor at Cornell University, who has led a project that published a design for a 3-D printer that can be made with about $2,000 in parts. “You can imagine printing a toothbrush, a fork, a shoe. Who knows where it will go from here?”

Three-dimensional printers, often called rapid prototypers, assemble objects out of an array of specks of material, just as traditional printers create images out of dots of ink or toner. They build models in a stack of very thin layers, each created by a liquid or powdered plastic that can be hardened in small spots by precisely applied heat, light or chemicals.

3D Systems, a pioneer in the field, plans to introduce a three-dimensional printer later this year that will sell for $9,900.

“We think we can deliver systems for under $2,000 in three to five years,” said Abe Reichental, the company’s chief executive. “That will open a market of people who are not just engineers — collectors, hobbyists, interior decorators.”

Even at today’s prices, uses for 3-D printers are multiplying.

Colleges and high schools are buying them for design classes. Dental labs are using them to shape crowns and bridges. Doctors print models from CT scans to help plan complex surgery. Architects are printing three-dimensional models of their designs. And the Army Corps of Engineers used the technology to build a topographical map of New Orleans to help plan reconstruction.

Entrepreneurs like Fabjectory are beginning to find interest in 3-D printing among aficionados of online games, like Second Life and World of Warcraft, in which players design their own characters. Electronic Arts hopes to offer a similar service to create three-dimensional models of characters in Spore, a game to be introduced later this year.

Eventually, 3-D design software will let people make sculptures and design housewares at home.

But 3-D printers may be useful for people who do not want to learn how to use such sophisticated programs.

IdeaLab hopes companies will sell three-dimensional designs over the Internet. This would allow people to print out replacements for a dishwasher rack at home. And it would open up new opportunities for toys.

“You could go to Mattel.com, download Barbie, scan your Mom’s head, slap the head on Barbie and print it out,” suggests Joe Shenberger, the director of sales for Desktop Factory. “You could have a true custom one-off toy.”

How many people will want such a thing? It is impossible to say for sure, but some who work with the current crop of 3-D printers say they will be very attractive when the price puts them in reach of home users.

“When laser printers cost more than $5,000, nobody knew they needed desktop publishing,” said A. Michael Berman, chief technology officer for the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, which has a half-dozen 3-D printers for its students to use. “The market for 3-D printing isn’t as big as for laser printers, but I do believe it is huge.”

And Desktop Factory’s version is meant to be compact enough for a home office — 25 by 20 by 20 inches — with a weight of less than 90 pounds.

The origin of Desktop Factory was not so much a desire to print Barbies as a frustration with the Internet. After making a lot of money starting Internet companies like CitySearch, IdeaLab lost even more with flops like eToys. With its investors disgruntled, the company shrank, slowed down and turned its attention from the Web to technologies like solar energy and robotics.

“We traded bits for atoms,” Mr. Gross said.

IdeaLab’s new interest in things required it to build a machine shop, and eventually Mr. Gross bought a 3-D printer from Stratasys. IdeaLab engineers kept the machine going around the clock, experimenting with designs.

Mr. Gross even downloaded a model of an octopus to print out for a project on vertebrates in his daughter’s eighth-grade biology class.

This convinced Mr. Gross that there was a market for 3-D printers, especially if the price could be cut.

At first, the prospects looked difficult. The three leading 3-D printer companies all used different technologies, but none seemed simple enough to be modified for inexpensive home devices. Stratasys makes models out of liquid plastic using a very expensive heated print head that resembles a glue gun. 3D Systems uses lasers to harden liquid polymers. And the Z Corporation, a unit of the private equity group EQT, builds models by squirting a sort of glue over layers of sandlike plaster.

In a brainstorming session, Kevin Hickerson, an IdeaLab engineer, proposed the method the company would ultimately choose. First the machine spreads a powdered plastic over a roller, which is heated to just below the plastic’s melting point. Then a sharply focused beam of light melts dots of plastic on the roller. After the unmelted powder is brushed off, the roller deposits the hot plastic onto a platform. This process is repeated until the object is assembled from the bottom up.

It took IdeaLab a year to prove that the basic approach would work and a second year to develop the technology to get the layers to stick to each other properly. (The model is gently squished, as in a sandwich press, after each layer is applied.) And it has taken two more years to write the required software and to create a working design for the first production model.

IdeaLab has made about 10 of the printers so far. It is preparing to begin production at its combination office and factory in an industrial building half a mile from the company’s headquarters. This summer it will start to deliver its initial test machines to the 200 customers who have agreed to buy them.

Desktop Factory says the machines pose no hazard to users because they use a safe nylon-based material.

Some in the 3-D printer industry say Desktop Factory may have cut too many corners. Its first model makes objects with rather jagged edges because it applies layers that are 0.01 inch thick, two to three times thicker than many other machines’. Moreover, it uses a nylon mixed with aluminum and glass that produces gray objects, with a rather sandy finish that many do not find attractive.

Kathy Lewis, the chief executive of Desktop Factory, said the company saw enormous initial demand among small engineering firms that simply cannot afford the larger printers, as well as high schools and colleges that teach computer-aided design.

To appeal to the home market, she said, the company is trying to develop new materials — a smoother plastic and a very soft, bendable substance suitable for toys.

Much of the research in the field is about how to develop materials of various properties that can be applied in tiny digital specs. Cornell’s 3-D printer, called Fab@Home, is particularly suited to those experiments because it moves a syringe in three dimensions that can be filled with any substance. So far, it has built objects out of silicone, plaster, Cheez Whiz and Play-Doh.

Noy Schaal, a high-school freshman in Louisville, modified the design with a heated syringe to extrude a chocolate bar, decorated with the letters KY for Kentucky. (Koba Industries has started selling kits with all the parts needed to make the Fab@Home design for about $3,000.)

Professor Lipson said researchers are developing ways to use the process to build parts with more complex functions. They have preliminary designs for batteries, sensors, and parts that can bend when electricity is applied.

“A milestone for us would be to print a robot that would get up and walk out of the printer,” Professor Lipson said. “Batteries included.”

Uhg! Neighbors

I could spend all day writing about these people. What is wrong with them. I leave to go to the grocery store, all is well with the world. I get back an hour later and it's like my building had imploded. I pull in next to this car that has a crush beer cartoon on the back of it. And cans all around it. Like there had been a party or something in the hour I was gone.

I hear from inside the middle building (our "building" is actually three buildings. If you are looking at it, I'm in the far right. The washing machine is in the middle building. The car with the beer belongs to people who live in the basement of that building) So I hear from inside the middle building a woman screaming bloody murder. At the top of her lungs she's screaming, "Get the hell out of here" Get the fuck out!" And then she just screams. I realize it's from the upstairs of the building. (There are three floors - basement, ground [which I am on] and up.) So for the last hour this has been going on.

Then I go to take the trash out and guess what, oh yes you guessed it, creepy neighbor finds me. Roland went and found his dog while I was throwing away the garbage and the neighbor (his name is Danny, I suppose it will be easier to call him by his name than by creepy neighbor) came around the front looking for me.

After awkward small talk (awkward because I wouldn't look at him, nor make complete sentences), he asked me, "Is anything wrong? You seem tense." Clearly he's not catching on. In this conversation he also asked me how old I was and what kind of movies I liked. Then he said, "We should kill some time together, watch a movie. Be neighborly."

I'm uncomfortable with his definition of neighborly.

More on my neighbors

I came to the conclusion today that most of them do not seem to work. I say seem, though I know, in fact, that many of them do not have jobs. This includes the afore mentioned downstairs neighbor. He used to own a restaurant with his ex-wife and recently said "Screw it!" and let her have it. He's looking for work now, I think.

The other downstairs neighbor doesn't seem to work either. She has the world's loudest dachshund, which she never takes outside. I don't know where he goes to the bathroom. She doesn't have a car, as far as I can tell, and she is often outside waiting for a ride. She is an older woman. She also seems to be gone for days at a time, leaving behind the yapping dog.

There's also a woman in the building next to me. She has a poodle and two sons, who are in their 20s. The older one is off at college and works full time. He does not live at home. The younger son, who I think is only just 20, lives at home and does not go to college, nor does he work. Instead, he hangs out with his girlfriend, friends or fights very loudly with his mother, whom he often calls a bitch. The mother also does not work. She is on public assistance, though she does watch a child after school at her apartment for a friend who pays her. Whenever the son needs something, he asks his mother for it. This includes not just food and clothes, but gifts for the girlfriend. He is, perfectly capable of working, but is lazy (according to his mother).

There is a mixed race couple with a little baby girl and a boxer (dog), I think. I'm not good with dog breeds. I don't know their story and only lately have begun speaking with the man (he seems really young, and I hesitate to call him a man) because he is often out with the dog and I'm out with my dog and the dogs want to sniff each other, leaving us either awkward silence or small talk. Today he was doing his laundry when I went down to do mine and he had taken all of his clothes down in black garbage bags, which he threw away after loading the clothes into the wash. He also sprayed Lysol in the washing machine and dryer before using them. I found both of these behaviors odd.

Anyway, those are the people I'll start with. In the next edition, I'll discuss Jeremy my neighbor across the hall who seems to both have a girlfriend and be gay, and also is never home. And the retired WWII vet and his wife who recently moved here from North Carolina (sometimes I think the old man is hitting on me and that creeps me out way worse than the downstairs neighbor).

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Downstairs neighbor woes

I'm really getting annoyed at my creepy downstairs neighbor.

Just because you live in the same building does not give you the right to impose your company on me and it certainly doesn't give you the right to keep trying to invite me over for dinner and/or a movie. I've been fairly successful at hiding from him, despite the fact that Roland LOVES his dog and whines whenever he sees the dog outside. But today, Roland and I had been outside and were on our way in and we caught him coming out.

So, he says to me, "What are you doing tonight?"

Normally I have a good excuse, but today I finally ran out. And so I said, "Uh, nothing. I don't think I'm doing anything."

So he says back, "I'm going fishing now, but I'll knock on your door later and see if you want to do anything." And then he left.

So now I have to find a reason NOT to be here later, which is not easy on a Sunday night. I shouldn't have to hide or leave my apartment. A person's house/apartment should be the one place at which people do NOT feel free to make moves on you.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

My Job Sucks

I just finished "The Devil Wears Prada" (go on mock me for my movie choice again, I don't care), and I think I have the male version of Miranda as my boss. Seriously. I'm waiting for him to make me pick up his latte on my way into work — though I think he makes his assistant, who wasn't hired to be an assistant, do that right now. She's on the verge of quitting, though. So soon that job will fall to me. I just know it.

The tally so far:
3 reporters
1 new media editor
2 editorial page staffers

That's a lot of people for a paper our size. We're hemorrhaging...my immediate boss said he read an article in the Atlantic Monthly about the situation in newspapers and it's called a suicide spiral. There's a pool on who will quit next. My money is on the afore mentioned assistant and the city government reporter. My immediate boss, has his money on me and a business reporter.

It's really kind of sad when you think about it.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Miami Revisted

I'm still pretty much in a very deep state of depression from my last trip and thus haven't been much on returning calls and e-mails (sorry everyone). I've managed to get to work and class everyday, though, quite frankly, I don't know how. On Tuesday, I went home early. I went in at 3 p.m. and left at 8 p.m. I told them I was sick, which is technically true. I have a cold of some sort. But the truth is I couldn't take it. They said today that I looked "more of this world." But I don't feel it.

In the meantime, however, I have received a CD of pictures from our Miami trip from one of my compatriots. Here you can see the hotel we stayed at that I mentioned in an early post. I can't even tell you how much I wish I were there now.