Only in Chicago

As I flitted between cities last week I caught glimpses of emerging Spring. The forsythia and flowering fruit trees in Georgia, the tulips in Portland, the really green grass in Seattle, and the warm sun in San José were all wonderful and the folks who live there expect Spring to just continue and gradually morph into summer.Not my Chicago Spring.

Chicago Spring is a day like today. It was in the 30's early this morning and has gradually climbed up to the 60's this afternoon. The sky is blue. We're promised even warmer weather by the end of the week.

But we Chicagoans know the weather is fickle. It could be back in the 30's on Easter. We've had a touch of snow even in May. We don't dare plant annuals or veggies until Memorial Day, but we still celebrate the first hints of Spring.

Way back in the 50's and 60's, women and girls celebrated Spring by buying a new "Spring Coat." For those uninformed, a Spring Coat is a lightweight wool coat in a pastel color. The sleek, form fitting style you see here (not!) was all the rage! If you were really fortunate you had a husband who bought you a corsage to wear on the coat collar on Easter morning. If it was still good, you'd wear it again the next day...the corsage, that is.

To accompany the "Spring Coat" every woman would purchase a matching hat - preferably one with a small veil and flowers. The coat and hat ensemble hopefully would "go with" the short-sleeved flowery dress that came just below the knee. (And, by the way, even teen-age girls had to wear hats, heels, and white cotton gloves to church and when shopping downtown.)
And then on Easter we'd wear these glorious ensembles....and get snowed on....or at least freeze our butts.

By the way, as a small child I was always thrilled when Spring arrived because I would no longer have to look at the faces of the dead foxes on the stoles women wore to church over their coats in the winter. Staring at one of these atrocities during the sermon could certainly turn a young child into an atheist.
But I digress....

Today in Chicago you couldn't buy a Spring Coat if you wanted to, but we still do rather wacky things in early Spring. For example:

* At the nursing home the receptionist repeatedly has to pull wheel-chair bound patients away from the front door explaining that, although it looks warm outside, it's too cold to go outside and sun-bathe.

* The clerk at Home Depot tells me how excited he is to be off tomorrow because he is going to go to the beach!

* I buy pansies.....lots of them. I have pansies on the front stoop. I hung two baskets of pansies outside my big kitchen window. I have two flats to plant tomorrow in the window box. Next week they'll get snowed on....but as good Chicagoans, they will survive.

*The family next door hosts a yearly Easter egg hunt in their yard and a gaggle of young children run around finding eggs in their parkas.

*Our closets are crammed with our complete winter wardrobe and our complete summer wardrobe. It's guaranteed that it will be warm by noon if we choose a winter wardrobe item. It's also guaranteed that we'll freeze if we choose a summer item. If we're an adolescent, however, its the law that only shorts and flip-flops may be worn after February.

*Asparagus returns. Maybe after pansies, the best part of Spring!

*Tulips emerge. Until the rabbits eat them up.

San José may have been beautiful but how can you compare that boring beauty with the unpredictability of a Chicago Spring!

A Week on the Road

This week of seminar travels took me to Calgary, Seattle, Portland and San José--all cool places with nice people and very receptive groups of participants...with one BIG exception! I got my first "1"! Someone obviously came to the conference expecting something entirely different than I had to offer. My guess is she didn't read the brochure, but a "1" out of "7" is way less than an "F" and is certainly a blow to the ego even with a couple hundred of 6's and 7's. I'm told it happens to everyone sometime....but I'd rather not repeat that humbling experience!

Airplane travel continues to be glamorous....not! Plane to Calgary delayed 45 minutes because they didn't have the right paperwork to enter Canada. Calgary to Seattle delayed over 2 hours due to mechanical problems and bringing in a replacement plane from Houston. Portland to San José actually OK, but San José to Chicago delayed because they again didn't have the right paperwork. If you're looking for a job, perhaps paper-organizer at United might be an available position.

We got to drive from Seattle to Portland and that was a treat. After three trips to Seattle I finally got to see terrific views of Mt.Ranier on a sunny afternoon. I was beginning to doubt that the mountain really existed! Also had a Starbucks in its hometown, saw green grass, budding trees, and lots of blooming bulbs. Must say I actually welcomed the watery eyes that for me accompany the blooming of Spring. We usually stay in a suburban area away from city centers, but we were right downtown Portland and enjoyed a balmy evening eating in a nice restaurant on the river edge. That evening made up for the peanut butter cracker dinner I had the next night!

The "foreign language teacher should know better" award goes to my presentation in Calgary. In an effort to have the participants do activities that will simulate how their students feel, I try to have challenging tasks for teachers to do. One involves flashcards with outline drawings of U.S. states on one side, state names on the other. This is very hard for U.S. participants as so many states look alike when all are pictured on the same size cards. Too bad I didn't think ahead that my Canadian participants would find this virtually impossible! I had to fall all over myself apologizing for that cultural gaffe...and they, fortunately, were forgiving!

Two new additions to my travel annoyances list: #1: too dark hotels. The hotel in San José was recently remodeled in "California style". Did you know that "California style" evidently means that the brightest light in the room is about 60% of what I need? It also means that you have to actually READ A MANUAL in order to learn how to turn the inadequate lights on and to work the alarm clock. That's fine, I guess, when you arrive in the day light hours. When you arrive late at night, you can't even find the manual in the dark, let alone read it! Good thing I was really too tired to read and that my cell phone is a reliable alarm clock.

Annoyance #2: The soggy airport sandwiches are wrapped in plastic, then hermetically sealed with an un-removable label. I guess it does provide entertainment to spend twenty minutes trying to get to the semi-disgusting sandwich within. I'm not so sure the middle seat occupant enjoyed the crinkles and bad words emanating from the window seat, however.

So, now I'm home for a whole month and will not be able to blame others for lousy food,
unpleasant surroundings, or unreliable transportation. Puts it all back in perspective when I again become the cook, cleaner, driver and organizer.........and I care a great deal more about Ken's ratings. Hope I can go back to getting the occasional "7" from him.

Air travel is so glamorous……………………not!

Atlanta Airport, Thursday, March 18, 2010

Arrive at the last gate on the concourse. Walk about twenty miles to the escalator down to the tram level. Take the tram to the baggage claim exit. Walk a block or two to the baggage claim area. Get baggage. Walk outside and across “street” to rental car offices. Take care of paper work, walk a block, go up a level to the tram. Ride tram to rental car garage. Load all my stuff into car, set up Stella the GPS, figure out the controls, and put on the seatbelt.

Wait! Where’s the holder for the seatbelt? Where do I plug it in.? Get help. Watch guy fiddle and crawl all over the front seats. Find out it’s wedged between the seats and will not come loose. Transfer all my luggage to new car. Re-start Stella. Escape the airport!

Atlanta Airport, Saturday, March 20, 2010

Arrive at the rental car return and return car. Go up a level to the tram and ride to the terminal. Do the self check-in. Go to “dump bags” and wait while the attendant learns how to put new paper for luggage tags in her machine. Leave area minus two of my three bags, yeah! Walk to the tram, ride to concourse E. Buy some super nutritious fast food. Walk twenty miles to gate 34 at the end of the concourse. Note that 6:45 flight has been delayed to 8:45. Grumble.

Arrive at gate. Begin to eat yummy, nutritious fast food. Hear announcement that gate has been changed to B34. Grumble, grumble. Walk back twenty miles to the beginning of the concourse, go down a level to the tram, take tram to new terminal…………but, get confused. Think it is D34. Get off at concourse D. Walk to the last gate on the concourse. See a plane going somewhere other than O’Hare, check monitor and realize I’m in the wrong concourse. GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE.

Walk back again, go down to tram level again, take train again, go up from tram, walk to gate B34….at the end of the terminal. Collapse to wait two hours for delayed plane---which is visible outside the window awaiting clearance at O’Hare.

I’m sooooooooo excited that I get to fly four times next week. At least I don’t return to Atlanta.

Between Thursday and Saturday Evening

Had a wonderful 24 hour visit with dear transplanted friends Donna and Ed. Went out in their boat………in mid March. Saw forsythia, saw bulbs, saw flowering trees. Wore short sleeves. Felt rejuvenated.

Had a wonderful on-site seminar in Joneboro, GA today, I feared I’d face hostile teachers angry at having to come to an all-day Saturday inservice. Instead they were 60 of the kindest, most welcoming,, most enthusiastic teachers I’ve ever worked with.

So, if airport hassles are the price for wonderful experiences, I guess they’re worth it!

March 12 in Chicago

Not to rush into things, but..........

• My walking buddies and I walked outside today.....dodged a lot of puddles....but we were outside for the first time in months and months.
• I took down the outside Christmas lights! No snow to dodge in doing so!
  
• The snowmen towels, rugs, mugs, wreaths, and salt and pepper shakers have gone to their deserved rest in the basement.
• The Lladró nativity figures have rejoined their friends in the curio cabinet.

Here come the ceramic bunny and Easter wreath.

But, knowing this is Chicago, we won't yet put away the snow blower!

Boy, Did I Feel Old!

I attended a foreign language conference in Minneapolis last week. It was a good conference, but I felt like a neanderthal much of the time.

Man, teachers are young! The majority of the attendees were size 2 with beautiful long hair and skinny jeans...and they spoke with great enthusiasm and knowledge. The profession is in good hands.

Man, keeping up with technology is daunting! I took two half-day workshops on Podcasting and Using Technology for Assessment. Wiki pages, podcasts, voice threads, and other applications are now in my vocabulary, but my brain hurt after being bombarded with so many new ideas. It's not your old foreign language classroom.

Man, it was lonely. I attended by myself and, except for two other "oldies" who kindly invited me to join them at lunch on Thursday, I knew no one at the conference. During my career, conferences were a giant party as I attended with good friends and met other friends while there. People in Minneapolis were cordial, but my "buddies" have moved out of this realm.

Man, it was nice to re-connect. Although I was alone at the conference, I had the joy of spending my evenings with my good friend Barb. Although we were very close when we taught together in our twenties and thirties and continued that friendship after I left that school, it has been harder to maintain our relationship since she moved to Minneapolis a few years ago. Like any great freindship, however, we re-connected as though no time had passed. (And I didn't feel at all old at her house!)

Man, it was inspiring. I almost didn't go to the keynote speaker. Who cares about a woman who is CEO of a major international firm? What does that have to do with me? Well, it had everything to do with me. Marilyn Carlson Nelson, of the Carlson Company that owns Radisson, TGI Fridays CarlsonLit travel, etc. etc became an un-likely hero. She told story after story of being a woman leader when it was mighty hard to do so in the early 60's. A story from her early childhood really stuck with me. I hope I was half as good at inspiring my children as her father was in this story.

On the way home from church when Marilyn was in 7th grade, she announced to her parents that she wasn't going to go to Sunday School any more. The kids spent the hour throwing spit wads and being disruptive. She told her parents she would learn more by listening to the sermon with the adults.

Expecting praise from her parents, she was shocked when her father pulled the car over and was angry with her. He told her that, if there was a problem with the Sunday School, she should fix it.

How could a 12 year old fix a Sunday School?

Her mother arranged a meeting with the Superintendent of the Sunday School and Marilyn and the "super" had a conversation which led to actually "fixing" the Sunday School.

What a message! If you've got a problem....fix it!

Alice and Ken's Mexican Adventure - The Rest of the Story

Akumal

This is an extraordinarily beautiful place! On Thursday we didn’t do much – had a late breakfast at the outside “snack bar”, lay on the beach – Ken in the shade of the palm tree and me in the sun next to the palm tree – until the area was almost all in the shade. Then we finally got around to getting in the water which was actually a bit warmer than the air.

We tried out the snorkels that David had lent us. Ken did a fair amount of snorkeling right in our little bay and saw quite a few big fish. I was less successful – kept getting salt water in my eyes and found it hard to breath only through my mouth – but enjoyed being in the water. People kept shouting “Tortuga!” so there must have been a turtle in the area, but we didn’t see it. Akumal means turtle and the giant turtles do, in fact, lay their eggs on this very beach in the later part of the spring. There are big restrictions on beach use after dark during the nesting time.

For dinner we went to Oscar y Lalo which David and Lisa had recommended. We practically had the place to ourselves – I think a combination of being a little bit of an odd time, the H1N1 flu, and the economy have resulted in somewhat fewer tourists at this time – and thoroughly enjoyed our meal. They were happy to communicate in Spanish and we had yummy Yucatecan specialties. At the end of the meal the restaurant owner – a gringa who said she had recently inherited the restaurant – asked us if we knew wines. She then said she was testing a lot of wines that had been bequeathed to her and wanted our opinion. So we got to taste an unusual but good wine at the end of our meal.

Today we never made it to the beach, but it was a great day. After having to drive north to find a gas station, we drove south to Tulum. The Mayan ruins at Tulum are the only ruins right on the sea. They are also among the youngest of the Mayan cities as they were here when the Spanish arrived. What a bizarre sight the Spanish ships had to be for the Mayans and what a bizarre sight the Mayan city must have been for the Spanish. Because Tulum was built after the peak of the Mayan civilization, there is actually very little embellishment and detail at Tulum, but the setting is fabulous. When you go to the top of the main outlook pyramid you get unbelievable views of the sea. Actually many people pay little attention to the ruins, rather choosing to swim on the beautiful coves below them. These ruins are also the most visited in the peninsula – loads of tours come from Cancun every day. As a result, the grounds are beautifully groomed. It felt like we were seeing the ruins in a golf course!

We had lunch at a café right at the entrance to the ruins. We expected this to be less than wonderful because of its location, but we actually had a lovely lunch. Then we were off to Coba.

The Coba ruins are about 30 miles back on the highway north that we arrived on last Wednesday. Our first surprise was seeing a lake right at the entrance. I guess the maxim that there are NO lakes or rivers in the Yucatan has to be changed to “almost no”.

In spite of seeing many Mayan ruins by now, Coba is surprising in many ways. It is a huge area and spans many, many centuries – from 300 to 1400! Some 50,000 people lived there at the height of its civilization. What most surprised me was its location in a dense forest. At all of the other ruins, the original forest is gone and you walk between pyramids on stone or grass. Here it was easy to imagine what John Lloyd Stevens and Frederick Catherwood saw when they arrived in the 1840’s---destroyed pyramids hiding behind huge stands of trees.

Since this is a huge site, we only had an hour until closing, and we were really tired, we elected to ride on the Mayan tricycle. Our “driver” pedaled the tricycle while we rode in front of him on a bench seat. It was great!

Many areas of Coba look like big hills but are actually un-restored pyramids. The major reconstructed pyramid is 40+ meters high – second only to the 70+ meters high pyramid at Tikal in Guatemala. We also saw two ball courts and outlying buildings.

In this forest grows a tree that is poisonous – causes a severe skin reaction even if only standing near it. Fortunately, the tree with sap which is an antidote is always next to it! Our bicyclist also pointed out a tree that he called the tourist tree – it’s always red and peeling J

After our short but interesting tour of Coba, we did the tourist thing and bought a table cloth. These multi-colored cloths are used in most of the restaurants and should be fun to use on our patio. I’m not the world’s best bargainer so I’m sure we got ripped off, but so be it.

After an unsuccessful detour to find a recommended restaurant we ended up eating once again at the resort’s restaurant. It was a better experience than our first night here – I didn’t even feel like crying! The mood was quieter, they let me speak Spanish, and there was no silly show or silly tourists to deal with. Ahhhhhh!


Last Two Days of Vacation

Well, we came to Akumal with a list of interesting things to do away from the resort. What we did, however, was……

Lie on beach chair, read, fall asleep, go in the water, go back to beach chair, read, fall asleep, go back in the water.

It was WONDERFUL! Our very first night in the restaurant here we ran into waiters who wouldn’t let me speak Spanish and a few ugly Americans, but we never had that experience again. People were generally quiet (except in the snack bar today when a bunch of Canadians saw their hockey team beat the U.S.), no one talked loudly on cell phones, the beach was not crowded, the sand is made from coral and doesn’t get hot, the sand is super fine, our hotel is in the most beautiful spot on the bay, the water is warm, Ken snorkeled and saw sea turtles, there was a breeze almost all the time, the temperature was in the upper 70’s which was delightfully warm but not hot.

We’re trying to figure out a way to stay longer.