By Plane & Canoe

We have been traveling in China and in Canada's Wabakimi wilderness. Two extremes.

Sicily's Best Asset: The Sicilians Themselves

The sun is shining, all is well. We leave Villa Farli tomorrow.

Sicily's greatest asset is its people. Sicilians are a delight. They are direct and assertive in their communication style, and at the same time they are pleasant and go to great lengths to be helpful. None of us have encountered any rough edges in our interaction.

Service personnel seem happy with life and their jobs, which contrasts sharply with the sullen attititude encountered in many places, which certainly includes the United States.

'Where can I find an ATM, please?' The waiter tells the owner he is leaving for a moment and takes one of our group in his own car to an ATM and brings him back.

'Where is X restaurant?' The person will most likely lead you there in their car.

A restaurant bill is incorrect. It is discussed assertively, in detail, but without any sign of defensiveness or irritation.

The people's attitude: Italy is nice, but Sicily is BELLO. 'I had the good fortune to be born here, live here and I hope to die here.'

There is, of course, high unemployment and economic hardship. Many smaller towns are closed up with houses and business locales abandoned--drab and sad, falling into ruin. Young people leave for better opportunity. Nonetheless, with all of the archeological sites, fine art and history here, our group of ten friends agree that the Sicilian people themselves have been our best and most enjoyable discovery.

18 May 2008 - P.S. Ubiquitous Sicilian charm does not seem to radiate into Palermo and vicinity. This may be a general characteristic of populous urban areas.

Tu or Usted?

People often wonder just when they should use tu and when they should use Usted to address a person as “you” in Mexico. For an explanation, see http://culturespan.blogspot.com/.

On Cultural Time

© Tracy Novinger 2008

American culture teaches its members to “save time”... In Mexico one “spends” time…

Go to http://culturespan.blogspot.com

How Culture Affects Communication

Go to http://culturespan.blogspot.com

Television Croatia

We read more than we watched television on Korcula. One evening, though, we found a Mexican movie with subtitles in Croatian--more understandable than a movie in Croatian, or a German movie with Croatian subtitles. Viva!

CUT to commercial. Babe on bus holding onto overhead bar. Zoom into pig head in armpit. Wriggles snout to indicate malodor. Hunk next to babe shies away.

CUT to bathroom. Babe sprays armpit with large can of aerosol deodorant. Spray effaces pig.

CUT back to bus. Babe with big smile and armpit with no pig. Smiling hunk moves in. Happy ending.

Zagreb, Croatia

Today we arrived in Zagreb from Frankfurt via Air Croatia, a flight which I appreciate being uneventful. Initiating this post was interesting since in Croatia the blogspot site comes up in--what else--Hrvatska (which as anyone can tell means Croatian in Croatian).

We are staying in the Hotel Esplanade (far left) in Zagreb. We join up with the Victor Emanuel group in the hotel tomorrow.

This afternoon we had lunch in a restaurant about 6 blocks away where locals go to eat Croatian food. First we had a delicious salad with finely grated and seasoned fresh cabbage, carrots, some radicchio and more. Then we had a veal dish cooked in traditional style: it is placed a very large and shallow cast iron pan, covered with a cast-iron bell top, and then red coals are heaped on top. The veal is cooked slowly for a long time. It is tasty, moist, fork tender and served with potatoes. Grilled vegetables that included wonderful eggplant made a perfect side dish. For dessert--I thank Glen for weighing in pro dessert--we had fresh plum strudel with an espresso. See http://vinodol.inet.hr/chooser.html

Frankfurt, Germany

The center of Frankfurt is lovely! Tall modernistic sky scrapers pierce the skyline behind historic old buildings. We strolled along the Main river, walked miles on pedestrian streets with cafes, shops and restaurants and even had our taste of Little Turkey in a neighborhood of Turkish shops, people, apartments, restaurants, newstands, and language.

The French and the English in the Perigord

When we went to the Perigord (some refer to the Dordogne) in France to spend the month of June '07, we knew that there are many English who live there permanently, as well as many who spend the summers in this area of France. I recall reading that there are some 70,000 English in the region. Because of the history of wars and confrontation between England and France, and the two countries' national pastime of recounting mordant jokes at the expense of each other, I expected to encounter animosity between the two nationalities--not usually comfortable for the bystander. We were pleasantly surprised. The resident French had a very benevolent attitude and made kind remarks about the English of the Perigord, and the English we observed there were quiet and obviously made it a point to adopt the norms of French courtesy, including the rituals of greeting and leavetaking. Contrary to what is seen in the Caribbean and in South America as English arrogance and "colonial" style condescension, the English of the Perigord make a great effort to speak the language and respect local custom. Many assimilate well into French life and simply disappear into the social landscape.We saw English with booths at the Friday fair in Riberac selling various and sundry items and integrated into French life. This amiable relationship was just one more welcome and pleasant aspect of our Perigordian experience!

Language Feast

We have been staying in the very comfortable Hotel Real d´Obidos, just outside the walled village. We have walked a lot in the area. Today we turn in the car and will spend the night in Lisbon. These past weeks have been a language feast: Portuguese, Gallego, Spanish, Basque (I speak none) and French, most of which have been overlaid with a variety of accents. I love the sound and the familiar kinaesthesia in the mouth and throat when speaking. Hopefully the stimulation of switching back and forth helps keep cerebral synapses snappy. Through exposure, Glen finds he even understands languages he doesn´t speak. Every place we have visited has been more beautiful and enjoyable than our expectations. Ate logo / Until soon. Home tomorrow 27Jun07.

Musings from Portugal

The lingua franca in the countries we have visited in Europe seems to be English. Germans, Slovenians and Dutch, for example, communicate with the Portuguese, French and Spanish in English. *****Because of temperature, wind and rain in some combination, the most useful item on this trip has been my goretex jacket. We have had perhaps 6 or 7 days that were sunny all day. *****Americans would do well to borrow some energy conservation tips from the European Union. Lights in public places such as halls and bathrooms, usually turn on with motion sensors and turn off with timers. How simple. *****Our sojourn amidst chateaux in France, castle in Spain and paços in Portugal is about to end...

Language versus Usage

We were driving on fumes of gas after a long unexpected detour. We finally reached a bourg with two gas stations. But they had both just closed at noon for lunch. One would reopen at 2:30 and the other at 3:00. "But you can buy gas on a few pumps if you have a Blue Card." We don't have a Blue Card for gas. We found the next day that a Blue Card just means a credit card, because the first cards issued were blue, so theoretically we could have gotten gas. It doesn't matter, though, because the man we talked to at the gas station tried to use his Blue Card and the card reader wasn't working. We had a long lunch that day.

Le Cyber

We are at Le Cyber in Brantome to access the internet at this excellent facility. We are getting better at coming when they are open. Le Cyber is always closed all day Sunday and from 12:00 to 14:00 on all other days. It is open once on Monday from 14:00-17:00. It is open twice on Tuesday from 9-12:00 and 14:00-17:30. It is open twice a day Wednesday through Friday from 10-12.00 and from 14:00-17:30, and twice on Saturday the same hours as Tuesday--but I may be confused. This way Le Cyber is not open more than the maximum 35 hour work week in France. If employees worked shifts, could Le Cyber be open more than 35 hours?

L'Etiquette des Toilettes

Along major highways in France one finds frequent service areas for gas, food and les WC. The bathrooms are nice, large with many cubicles, and very clean. Male janitorial personnel wander in and out of the Femmes and the Hommes facilities at will. The entrance doors are kept wide open and one walks by a view of men lined up to the wall, obviously busy. One can view les femmes lined up as well, but washing hands or combing hair. Men feel free to walk into the Femmes facilities if they can't access facilities in their bathroom, or to wash their hands at a free sink. In some places the facilities for men and women are not separated. In all, this works quite well and speeds up the flow, so to speak, rather than queuing where no facility is available or leaving available facilites unused.

Then there is the toilette arabe in more modest public places. Condition those quads. It is best to have thighs of steel. (This facility is not recommended when wearing a long skirt with both hands full of purse and packages. )

Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain

We arrived in Pontevedra yesterday evening. The dialect spoken here is Gallego, which is like a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. We are with friends, two other couples, who all lived in Brazil and speak Portuguese and Spanish, so we are having fun with the language. This is the city of the great mariners of Spain and is very interesting. Glen finds communication here easy.