Today was a laid back travel day. Every day this trip, Connor and I have hunted out gelato. All of them have been great, but strangely today’s gelato (which was purchased in the airport) was my favorite. It might have been the dark chocolate and hazelnut that coated the inside of the cup, or it could have been the perfect combination of dark chocolate (with dark chocolate bits), tiramisu, and strawberry. 

The flight itself was uneventful except that my ears did not enjoy the descent. I still can’t hear out of my left one. We also had a neat miss as one of our travelers left a bag at the baggage claim and didn’t realize it until we got to the bus. Thankfully the traveler could make it through security pretty quickly and find the bag where it was left. 

Our past two dinners had been lackluster (one was downright bad) with neither one having much of anything in the way of protein. Meanwhile, our lunch was just that gelato and the single cookie given to us on the plane. The dinner at our hotel/resort more than made up for it. Ioannis, our tour director who is from Greece has been promising that everything in Greece was going to be better. It was easy to dismiss this as bias, but he has so far been right. The meal was amazing!

Even our hotel/resort is incredible! The Black in Rome was not a bad hotel, but the Alexander …?! It’s a resort with a gorgeous view, wonderful rooms, a full sized pool, a tunnel that leads under the road to get to the Aegean Sea (and a staffed bar waiting there), and a squad of local cats. 

I can’t wait to see what Athens has in store. 

Pompeii has been a fascination of mine for a long time and was a must-see for me when planning this trip. It did not disappoint. If anything, like the Colosseum and Forum yesterday, it was SO much larger than I expected. For me, I could almost feel the ghosts of the tragedy walking about the streets and living their lives before Vesuvius erupted. Perhaps this was due to the documentaries I had seen before (or even that episode of Doctor Who with Peter Capaldi playing someone other than the Doctor). As familiar as it was, I still learned quite a bit too. As an example, they embedded bit of shiny white rocks in the streets and floors to work as a kind of night lights by reflecting the lights of the candles, torches, moon, and stars. 

We then had pizza for lunch which was good, but certainly different than what I am used to. For that matter, Connor picked up orange juice (which was quite red) and I picked up a lemon icy (which is different than the lemon soda pictured) which were both amazing! I also found an amusing bathroom sign which I feel should become the standard. 

We then went to Naples and I was struck by the contrast and similarities to the streets of Pompeii. The stores are just as closely packed, if in taller buildings. The colors are largely gone from Pompeii, but I imagine it was nearly as bright. The streets are both tight and Naples shows how traffic and people have to work together (we had a bit of an incident with a vehicle, one of our travelers, and security, but no one was harmed—or detained). I’m quite grateful that we had the chance to see the two together. 

We made it to Rome! Our flight to Amsterdam arrived over an hour late, but representatives were waiting for us when we arrived. They escorted our group through the passport checkpoint faster than we would have gone through normally and took us to our plane which had been delayed for our arrival. Thus, we arrived a little later than planned, as well as quite tired, but ready for the new adventure!

Like Madrid, I found that walking around Rome was like being in a different dimension of the multiverse where everything is familiar, but different enough to seem strange. Traffic was absolutely crazy, making me once again astounded at the skills of bus drivers. Despite being quite early in their tourism season, there were still many people at the sites we visited. 

The Spanish Steps (which I climbed to the top), the Trevi Fountain (near which I slipped and fell due to the rain-smoothed stone—I am uninjured), and the Pantheon (which was as awesome on the outside as it was within) were the primary tourist spots that we visited. Connor and I also shared a prosciutto and ricotta sandwich recommended by our tour guide which I liked despite the chopped truffles within the ricotta. We also got some delicious gelato from one of the many gelato shops in the area. 

We finished the day with an excellent lasagna dinner. I’m trying to stay up for a while longer to help cut the amount of jet lag despite being exhausted. I certainly dislike air travel more and more with every flight. This was another case where the destination far outweighed the journey. 

Technically, we won’t even get to Rome (let alone Athens) today as we are not due to arrive in Rome until Tuesday. At present, we’re in the Seattle airport, waiting on our next connection—which has been delayed. Our layover in Amsterdam was already short, and this delay might make us miss our flight. We won’t know until after we arrive in Amsterdam tomorrow. 

Other than that, the trip has been running fairly smoothly, so there is not much to report aside from how uncomfortable airplane flying is (e.g. I had difficulties sleeping because my arm (which was fully in my seat) kept getting hit by people going up and down the aisle). However, I figured that I should send this out now as I might not have the time later. Rome and Athens, here we come!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus again talks about reaping where another person has sowed. In the context of the Gospel, He means that His disciples will bring about the conversion of those due to the work done by others who had come before. I’m not sure if He’s warning them not to take too much credit for the souls that they save, or if He’s emphasizing that they happen to be in the right place at the right time to benefit from a harvest set up by others, but not completed.
 
I think about this in regard to my own teaching. Quite often, the students who seem to benefit the most from my teaching are those who have already been attuned to learning through the work of their parents or great teachers from their past. There are a few occasions where I know that I played a critical role in a student's love for learning, but it seems to be more frequently the case that I am reaping what someone else had sown earlier. This really comes to mind when I have parents thank me for the work that I’ve done with their child. I often thank them right back for the fact that they had raised a child so open to learning.
 
This is true in many of our relationships. We are regularly reaping the rewards (and sometimes the responsibilities and pitfalls) of our relationships due to elements from the past of which we had no part. This is true in the reverse, as we frequently bring to our relationships both tools and baggage that we gained from earlier experiences, most of which our friends might know nothing about.
 
For that matter, we should think about the “seeds” we might be sowing now but will never have a chance to reap. What we put out into the world might not necessarily come back to reward or punish us at some point in the future. However, someone will have to deal with the consequences or rewards from our actions (and inactions).

I've had the Blu-Ray for this extraordinary movie at my home, wrapped in cellophane since it became available on DVD. As it is up for an extraordinary amount of awards at the Oscars tomorrow (which I will not watch), it seemed like a good time to finally watch it. I've been looking forward to it since I first heard of it, but I've been afraid that it would not live up to the potential that I had built up in my mind.

It was a fantastic movie that truly explores the idea of a multiverse (better than Dr. Strange or Loki even), and (as bizarre as parts of it are) it deserves all of the attention that it has received if for no other reason than the core story about reconnecting with the ones that we love.

Meanwhile, it feels like everything is happening all at once in my own life. I just finished setting most of the clocks forward for the Daylight Saving Time that I despise so much. Before that, I packed my bags for the beginning of my Rome and Athens trip which starts at the end of tomorrow.

I actually feel ready for it. I've done what I can think of to prepare and now must leave it up to God for everything else to fall into place. Perhaps this was the best time to see that movie considering its overarching, Zen-like theme within a multiverse of choices. For I don't buy into the theory of the multiverse--not that it cannot exist, but that I cannot experience any branching paths in my universe. Once my choices have been made, they are made irrevocably; even changes to them later must deal with that initial choice--and it's fine to be in that messy reality which I have created for myself while accepting the parts over which I have no control.

I'm ready to have a grand adventure, mistakes and all.

Governor Dunleavy has decided to jump on the bandwagon of using the LGBTQ community as a scapegoat for society's ills. His proposed "education" bill is straight out of the DeSantis playbook for attacking freedoms in the name of freedom. Granted, Dunleavy's proposed bill does not have the crazy Floridian support to pass here in Alaska, but it's still yet another way for people to justify their attacks on an already marginalized portion of our students. 

Among his proposals that includes restrictions on teaching sexual education, removing protections that schools provide to students from abusive situations at home, and making it easier to sue schools and teachers, the bill includes a proposal which would make it so "Teachers and administrators would be prohibited from using new names or pronouns used by students without permission from the students’ parents." Of the many problems with this bill, this one section shows how poorly thought out this proposed legislation truly is. Let me spell it out. The actual language from the bill reads that "The policies must include ... (7) requiring written permission from a parent before the name or pronoun used by a public school to address or refer to the parent's child in person, on school identification, or in school records is changed ..." ["changed" meaning changed from the birth certificate].

While this is clearly targeted at transgender students who have taken on a name more appropriate to their identified gender, this is a bureaucratic nightmare for any child who has nicknames or prefers to go by their middle name. This bill literally forbids a teacher from using any name other than what is listed on the child's birth certificate without the parent's written permission first. No more Bob, Rob, or Robby; it will always be Robert. The same goes for Kay, Kat, Kate, or Katie; it will always be Katherine. To be clear, there will be a policy which allows parents to let teachers know which names can be used, but teachers are certainly NOT allowed to just call the students by their own preferred nickname.

I feel for the foreign language teachers who would normally have their students take on names in the language they are studying.  It also makes me wonder about the process with foreign exchange students or students with exceedingly long names whose parents refuse to sign the paperwork to shorten them. I'm in particular trouble, as I have accidently called a student by the wrong name on multiple occasions--I would be a major lawsuit liability.

The willfully ignorant whom I mentioned in yesterday's post champion this as a protection of parental rights--clearly the rights of the students themselves don't matter. I will say this, any supporter of this bill had better get my name right each and every time. After all, I should be able inflict a "civil penalty of not less that $5,000" and maybe even "treble damages upon showing of a violation established by clear and convincing evidence."

It's now a matter of court record that members of Fox News, including Tucker Carlson, not only knew, but personally believed, that there was no voter fraud in the 2020 election, yet they continued to spread what they knew was disinformation and even outright lies because it boosted their ratings. Even now, as a smoke screen to cover for his own malfeasance, Tucker Carlson is trying to gaslight America concerning the events regarding the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th of 2021. Despite all of the evidence laid out in front of them, there are people whom I personally know who are still willingly swallowing this disinformation and spreading it out on social media.

Ironically, they think that everyone else is crazy. They've isolated themselves so far from reality that they only believe the clearly false sources that they've come to trust. Meanwhile, they sit in their echo-chambers of like-minded, deluded fools, thinking that everything is so clear to them.

As a specific example, I had mentioned to a small group that Andrew Tate, the infamous misogynistic social commentator, was still waiting for trial in a Romanian prison. One person immediately said that was "fake news" and that they had seen a video of Tate being released from detention where he talked about his exoneration. I gave them the deadpan stare for a slow three-count before saying that they probably shouldn't believe anything from the site that had told them that. They angrily started looking it up on their phone and clearly started to find the truth ... but they never acknowledged that they were wrong (and had been for months). 

In general, I've been trying to avoid these sorts of posts, comments on people's posts, or even conversations about these topics. However, I just saw friend post a river of vile and fraudulent misinformation, largely focused on the "revelations" of the above-mentioned Tucker Carlson. I am filled with an odd combination of pity and rage for their pathetic willingness to ignore reality rather than admit they have been duped so badly.

T.S. Eliot wrote about a man who "measured out [his] life with coffee spoons." I certainly understand the feeling. Time, the most precious commodity in our material world, so often gets lost in banalities and trivia. I just lost over an hour dealing with spreadsheets, emails, envelopes, and tiny denominations of paper cash. Time seemed to drip away dram by drop--each tiny second clinging to the last one like beads of water turning into rivulets as they wash away.

With the trip coming up with one packed event stacked upon another, I cannot help but think about the time spent in transition as well: the lengths of time spent in lines, the seconds spent sitting and sleeping on planes and buses, and the moments spent munching while waiting on wanderers. Certainly, those quiet minutes might bring the respite so sorely needed after those intense activities. Still, I know that I will be wishing away time while waiting for the next tour, only then to find myself wanting the ability to transfer the time that I had hoped would pass into more time to spend on the present event.

I suppose that I should learn to become more appreciative for the time that I have. 

I'm not a fan of having cameras everywhere. I'm concerned about becoming a type of surveillance society that Orwell warned about. However, that didn't stop me from getting cameras for our yard after there was some suspicious activity around our house.

At the suggestion of a friend and co-worker, I bought Eufy cameras which do not require an online subscription. The cameras still send notifications online, but the cameras and a base hard drive store the actual information themselves. I also went a step farther and purchased solar panels that were designed for the units (if made by a different company).

In short, I've been impressed. Although it can be a little annoying to get continual notifications when Rowen is playing around the yard, it is also reassuring that I can see when he comes home after getting off the bus. It is also nice to know when vehicles or people are stopping by.

I've also been surprised at the solar panels' effectiveness. Although the batteries got a little low during the dark portion of the winter, they have almost managed to charge back to full capacity with the sun starting to appear more often. I had been concerned that I would have to take them down at least once during the winter to charge them up (without the solar panels, they're supposed to be taken down and charged every 3-4 months). I'm quite glad that was not the case.

It's weird that I'm not mentally sold on the idea of having cameras, yet I was physically sold on the reality of them.

In case I haven't mentioned it enough recently, I'm pretty excited about my upcoming trip to Rome and Athens. Seven days from now and we are on the flight, heading its was to Amsterdam, on our way to Rome. Our trip is packed full of sights and adventure with never enough time at one place so that all of the travelers will want to return someday.

Only a few of my travelers are still missing some of the forms that I requested before we travel. I already have all of the tip money divided into envelopes that are labeled for each tour guide and bus driver. I also included Alaska magnets as tokens of remembrance from us and our state. Meanwhile, I've set up the room arrangements for our first hotel stay. In short, aside from the final packing, I'm pretty well set for the trip.

There are a few things that I think that I will do differently in planning for the next trip:
1. I would have the travelers pay me via Venmo, PayPal, or check for their tip money rather than in cash and then withdrawn the money from my account (perhaps in manageable chunks). At present, I have entirely too many small bills which is making for some bulky envelopes. Honestly, I'm almost tempted to go with a company (like Worldstrides) that includes the tip money in the original cost of the trip.
2. I would round the tip money up to the nearest $5 from what EF Tours recommends. Not only would this eliminate many of the $1 bills I now have to handle, but the recommended tip amount was short of the amount I needed to provide a full tip to all of the tour guides and bus drivers. The additional couple of dollars per person would have mostly filled that amount (rather than my paying it myself).
3. I would set up my Remind app at one of the early meetings to get everyone on right away (I could remove those that drop later). That way I could use the app to send out meeting reminders as we approached the trip date. 
4. I would make it clear that the charter bus payment was a required element of the trip from the start. A lot of my stress is concerning some of my travelers not making it to the airport on time. The amount per person would have also been much more manageable (especially when more than one traveler from a family is going) and thus would have more participation.

In truth, things are working out well even without my having done any of the above. I'm glad that I downloaded a traveler spreadsheet from the EF site, set it to an online Google Sheet, and added some of my own categories so that I could keep track of who has turn it what. I even set up "conditions" so that it would color code based on whether certain items were turned in or not. Right now, it's almost all in the "greens" and "blues" with only a few "pinks" showing.

​I just need to figure out the packing.

Jesus is transfigured in front of three of His apostles during today's Gospel. The suggestion is that His apostles get this one glimpse of His perfect heavenly form--a form that fills them with awe. When the voice of God thunders down, they cower in fear. By the time they look up again, Jesus appearance has returned to how He had always been before.

I am reminded again that God chose to be like one of us. His true form--even His existence--is beyond our comprehension, so He became like us to make it easier for us to understand Him. Even then, we still find ourselves lacking in understanding of who He is and what He means.

For that matter, we do not understand ourselves. We are more than the flesh that we inhabit. Certainly, our own transfigurations will help us better understand who we are as well.

There is a moving Starlink satellite "hole" that hits Alaska about once a day. For a period of about an hour and a half, there is almost no coverage for the entire state (well, the Aleutians can pick up on the lower latitude satellites). This "hole" slowly moves later in the day as the weeks progress. Unfortunately, has lately been hitting the time when we usually watch our evening shows online--which has led to us eating a little bit later. 

The good news is that the "hole" is shrinking. Satellites that were launched in November have been reaching their positions as part of the 70 degree polar orbit group. There are even more that were launched in December and January that are making their way into their proper orbits. The word is that the "hole" (and some smaller "holes") should be completely filled by June with coverage only getting better between now and then. 

Starlink has also reduced our monthly fee to $90 a month due to our living in a low demand area. This has us now paying $60 less a month for a service that (when there are no "holes") runs ten or more times faster than our last one. It's certainly not perfect, but I'm glad that I made the switch--despite all of the early hassles.