Portuguese

Located north of Lisbon, shown above is Vasco Da Gama Bridge, the longest in Europe, and one of those monuments, institutions and a port city in Goa that immortalized this great Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama.

One day, four Portuguese came by the flat (in Paris) and stayed for 3 days.  I said I always wanted to visit Portugal because my grandpa had a Portuguese lineage, in fact he was 6’3’’ tall.  They said matter-of-factly, “But Portuguese people are not tall.  Look at us, shorties.…”  I would have wanted to argue that his Portuguese blood made grandpa tall, but decided against it. 

Georgia On My Mind

After 3 days of exhausting bilateral talks, we were back on the road to Paris.  I was again in the car with Phoung and Jeremy, and this time with my roommate Cyril from Togo, Africa and the only rose among the thorns – Shorena who is from the Republic of Georgia, an Eastern European country that requires no visa to enter.  And for a little bit of trivia, Shorena proudly said that Ray Charles’ hit song “Georgia On My Mind” does not refer to the American State of Georgia, but to her Republic Of Georgia in Europe.  We can’t help but sing “Georgia On My Mind” on the road back to Paris.  I was taken by the melody which made me do a little research and found out that this song was actually written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930.  And that in 1979, “Georgia On My Mind” became the official state song of Georgia in the United States.  That means, Ray Charles neither wrote nor composed the song.  Hmmm, Shorena….

Roadtrip

After two days of Pre-TM we had to leave Paris.  So with Oscar from Iceland, Phoung from Vietnam and French Jeremy who was behind the wheel, we headed south for an 8-hour road trip to Sete for the Alliance TM.   After cruising along the now familiar Parisian boulevards, we were in the outskirts of the city passing by open meadows and rolling green fields before we start ascending to the rugged mountains of the Massif Central region.  Snow covered the mountainsides and it was very cold.  These mountains are connected by viaducs.  Along the way, we have to cross the Viaduct Du Millau, the tallest bridge in the world, and we had to get out of the car for this rare photo opportunity.  So we parked it at the foot of a hill and proceeded to run towards the lookout for a fabulous sight of the whole bridge.  At this time, I left my beanie in the car which proved to be disastrous.  The wind blew and cold penetrated my ears giving me a splitting headache instantly.  We ran back towards the car and turned on the heater.  Man, I never knew cold until that time!  It was already passed 6 in the evening and we stopped at an intersection in the City of Toulouse that gave us a dilemma: The signs indicated that Sete and Barcelona are almost equidistant.  Sete meant the start of TM and Barcelona offered a night of partying.  Hmmm, tempting but no!  That night we hit Sete.

Sete, “the singular island” is traversed by many canals and is fondly called “Venice of Languedoc” and “Small Naples”.  It is situated at the foot of Mont St-Clair and on the south-eastern hub of the Bassin de Thau, an enclosed salt water lake.  To its other side lies the Mediterranean.  Sete is just an hour and a half away from the borders of Italy, Andorra and Spain.  It is very close to the more famous cities of Nice, Montpellier, Marseille and Cannes, and Monte Carlo in the Principality of Monaco.  When we arrived it was dinner time and the other participants were already munching on French cooking.  My colleagues in the car greeted friends as we moved towards the back.  Unbeknownst to us, we were seated in the long table with the freshly elected officers of Alliance.  I thought I knew very little of the people sitting there, but little did I know…..

I shook their hands except one who was seated farthest and on the opposite side of the table. He was obviously grinning at me.  I thought he was just being friendly.  I went over and shook his hand.  But he hugged me and said, “Jun how are you?”  I looked at him closely.  It was Roman, a German friend I met 5 years ago in Seoul, Korea.  At the time, he was a long-haired volunteer, but here, 5 years hence, he is the president of the biggest and most influential network in the workcamp movement, and clean-cut too.  I was so fired up meeting him again and we shook hands for the longest time.

Timeless

On the way to Lower Falls, we have to pass by Yellowstone River.  We stopped for a while and indulged in its soothing sound.  I found a rock for a stool and prepared to skip a few flat stones on the quiet eddies when a trout rose to nip an insect on the water, then it disappeared.  It was one of those times when you are totally lost in the moment.  As if woken from a dream, I suddenly become more aware of the sound of running waters.  Then I stood up.  It was time to go.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone was born from volcanism and is still being shaped by its forces.  The heavy smell of sulfur permeated the air and hot steam was rising all over as we strolled on the wooden walkways snaking around the Upper Geyser Basin.  There were mudpots, fumaroles, geysers and spring pools.  This area is undoubtedly volcanic but we couldn’t find its most distinguishing geologic feature – the volcano.  Small wonder we didn’t see it.  WE WERE IN IT! 

This volcanic Goliath exploded one too many times that its magma chamber was emptied.  Magma is molten rock that collects in a magma chamber inside a volcano.  Lava is molten rock expelled by a volcano in an eruption.  Too much eruptions may empty the chamber, and the surface above to collapse to form a caldera.  Yellowstone’s immense 28×47-mile caldera (basin) was the result of the earth’s collapsing from losing so much lava in volcanic eruptions.  Scientists say that the park is due for another.  Suddenly, it came to mind that I was walking on a thin sheet of earth beneath a bubble of molten terror.  I walked lightly so as not to disturb its sleeping fury.