Well, I am almost at the end of my visit in Utah. It has been lots of fun. I so far have been able to do all I needed to.
Yeah!!!
Our son is having the time of his life. He has been able to spend every day with his cousin and is just loving it! We have been to the park, Holy Cow, Bean Museam, and played with chalk outside as well.
Eliza did my hair today and I love it. It was needing some work. I am so happy with how long it has gotten. And we have lots more planned for tomorrow as well.
I didn't take the camera with us on this trip. So no super cute pictures.
Just imagine the two boys playing on an electric piano all smiles and laughter. That is how this week has been.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
My new project
Justin's mom mentioned that she liked the growth board my parents had. So we thought it would be a great idea to make her one. After two months I have finally started on it. Here is what I have so far:
Felix's new play friend
Up until recently Felix has not had much interest in Risky. But in the last month he has gotten really excited when he sees Risky and started following him around the room. Well this has turned into a cute friendship. Felix chases Risky around the room trying to pick him up. He finally caught Risky the other day. Felix even brought him some toys today while they were on the floor together. Felix also is willing to share his treats, if he has any. Risky is tolerating this wonderfully I was very worried that he would either hide every time he came out or lash out at Felix. It is great Risky gets the exercise and attention he needs and Felix has a play friend.
Best egg sandwich
So the other day I bought a bunch of that Jalipeno artichoke dip. Besides eating it with crackers I thought what else can I eat with it. It was breakfast so I decided to try it out on an egg sandwich.
Cook some Canadian bacon until both sides are browned.
Cook an egg (whatever style you wish I like mine sunny side up)
Cook two pieces of toast to whatever brownness you choose
depending on what you like, spread the Jalepenio dip on one or both pieces of toast.
place canadian bacon and egg on top of one slice of toast
place the other slice of toast on top
eat
mmmmm
I am off to eat breakfast!
Cook some Canadian bacon until both sides are browned.
Cook an egg (whatever style you wish I like mine sunny side up)
Cook two pieces of toast to whatever brownness you choose
depending on what you like, spread the Jalepenio dip on one or both pieces of toast.
place canadian bacon and egg on top of one slice of toast
place the other slice of toast on top
eat
mmmmm
I am off to eat breakfast!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Part 2
After spending an hour or so at the caves we drove to another interesting historic site from early India. Ashoka the Great, one of the most important historical figures in Indian history, was filled with guilt about the loss of life after a particularly gruesome conquering battle in the modern day equivalent of Orissa and converted to Buddhism. For the remainder of Ashoka’s life he promoted peace, built schools and temples, and constructed pillars of rock with his edicts. The site where Ashoka was converted now has Buddhist and Hindu shrines on it and they’re relatively impressive. Since Dr. Krishnayya has some knee pain he opted to stay behind while my friend and I climbed the stairs up the shrine. The Buddhist shrine is more or less a landmark, as there was very little (I actually don’t remember any) worship taking place and no priests. But around the backside are a few very lively HIndu shrines. As my friend and I walked around a Hindu priest who actually spoke English really well came up and introduced himself to us and invited us to perform Puja. Wanting to show our respect we agreed and walked over to the shrine. He started by asking us a place our hands together, which would only be normal for a married couple, and then got right to it. After a minute or so, he asked us directly if we were married. Not wanting to embarrass him or try to explain that we were both married but not to each other (kind of a no no to be out in public like that), I said yes (which required a giggle from my friend). What would be the harm? We would perform a couples puja and be out of there in a jiffy. That’s not exactly what happened. The priest, in semi-broken English, kept saying something about marriage which made me suspicious. What made me even more suspicious was the act of tying string around each others wrists. This wasn’t a normal puja, we were being married! After I made a hefty donation (I was told that no less than 500 rupees would be acceptable. Still cheaper than my first marriage though) we circled the temple with our arms around each other and when we got back the priest explained to us that we were to return in a year with our two children, a boy and a girl.
My Hindu wife and I went to another shrine just across the grounds, performed puja again, and made another hefty donation (they love white people...). It was an awkward walk back to the car.
The next day, there were more morning conference things (although less formal and less demanding), and while Dr. Krishnayya stayed at the conference we went to he local zoo. It was both an eye opening and saddening experience. The Indian zoo operates with the goal of having a first rate conservation breeding program, which is really cool, and because of that we got to see lots of native Indian animals. But, again, there’s absolutely no security in the zoo and people more or less do what they want. The most frustrating moments from least bad to worst. 1. In the reptile section of the zoo the lizards in one of the exhibits were right up against the fencing, and girl in front of us picked up a stick and poked the lizards with it. I almost reached up in front of me, broke her stick, and told her no 2. In the nocturnal animal house there was a man behind us yelling his head off trying to get the animals to react and what not. I almost punched him in his big mouth. 3. There was a leopard pretty close to the front of it’s enclosure and our driver/not-very-helpful-because-he-didn’t-speak-English guide picked up some small pebbles and threw them at the cat. I almost grabbed him to break his wrist. It’s not just the fact that there were signs every 5 feet asking people to not tease the animals that bothered me, it was the blatant disrespect for the animals themselves. If you want to see animals perform go to the circus.
So, seeing the animals was kind of mixed bag. That’s OK, I still had orchids, right? There was supposed to be a glasshouse at the zoo with orchids in it. They were only supposed to be displaying hybrids (of the vanda and dendrobium alliances...not that that means anything to any of you), but I figured that it would sate me regardless. Almost needless to say at this point. It was a total bust. The “Orchidarium” was chain link shed with shade cloth on it, and it was closed and I couldn’t even see anything in bloom. There were horiticultural gardens across the lake, but there didn’t appear to be any way to get across (the tram didn’t appear to be in working condition), and there wasn’t any indication on the map that there was anything to see over there besides maybe some rose gardens and the like. I like gardens, but not when it’s blazing hot and I’ve already been disappointed all day.
Disappointment was thick that day, because the temple we were supposed to go see, and the tribal market that we were supposed to go to got taken off the menu. We non-Hindu students wouldn’t have been able to get inside the temple anyway, but the temple has apparently become quite crowded and unpleasant to visit and Dr. Krishnayya didn’t want to attempt the long trip (another 2 hour drive) just to be let down by the experience. So, my Hindu wife and I slept and read the rest of the day.
Before we left the next day we stopped by an orphanage operated by Dr. Mohanty, the chair of philosophy at the university, saw the facilities and ate lunch. Most of the girls that end up in the orphanage are abandoned at hospitals, train stations, and the like, because like lots of cultures little girls aren’t valuable, and when you’re poor...well, you give up what you think is mostly just dead weight anyway. The emotions that it drags out in you are complicated and dichotomous. On one hand your heart is broken to see so many young and innocent betrayed and hurt by the very people who are supposed to love them the most, and on the other you see strangers, nobly picking up the slack that society let drag out.
Overall, the highlight of the trip: Seeing fireflies for the first time in over a decade.
Justin Tungate
My Hindu wife and I went to another shrine just across the grounds, performed puja again, and made another hefty donation (they love white people...). It was an awkward walk back to the car.
The next day, there were more morning conference things (although less formal and less demanding), and while Dr. Krishnayya stayed at the conference we went to he local zoo. It was both an eye opening and saddening experience. The Indian zoo operates with the goal of having a first rate conservation breeding program, which is really cool, and because of that we got to see lots of native Indian animals. But, again, there’s absolutely no security in the zoo and people more or less do what they want. The most frustrating moments from least bad to worst. 1. In the reptile section of the zoo the lizards in one of the exhibits were right up against the fencing, and girl in front of us picked up a stick and poked the lizards with it. I almost reached up in front of me, broke her stick, and told her no 2. In the nocturnal animal house there was a man behind us yelling his head off trying to get the animals to react and what not. I almost punched him in his big mouth. 3. There was a leopard pretty close to the front of it’s enclosure and our driver/not-very-helpful-because-he-didn’t-speak-English guide picked up some small pebbles and threw them at the cat. I almost grabbed him to break his wrist. It’s not just the fact that there were signs every 5 feet asking people to not tease the animals that bothered me, it was the blatant disrespect for the animals themselves. If you want to see animals perform go to the circus.
So, seeing the animals was kind of mixed bag. That’s OK, I still had orchids, right? There was supposed to be a glasshouse at the zoo with orchids in it. They were only supposed to be displaying hybrids (of the vanda and dendrobium alliances...not that that means anything to any of you), but I figured that it would sate me regardless. Almost needless to say at this point. It was a total bust. The “Orchidarium” was chain link shed with shade cloth on it, and it was closed and I couldn’t even see anything in bloom. There were horiticultural gardens across the lake, but there didn’t appear to be any way to get across (the tram didn’t appear to be in working condition), and there wasn’t any indication on the map that there was anything to see over there besides maybe some rose gardens and the like. I like gardens, but not when it’s blazing hot and I’ve already been disappointed all day.
Disappointment was thick that day, because the temple we were supposed to go see, and the tribal market that we were supposed to go to got taken off the menu. We non-Hindu students wouldn’t have been able to get inside the temple anyway, but the temple has apparently become quite crowded and unpleasant to visit and Dr. Krishnayya didn’t want to attempt the long trip (another 2 hour drive) just to be let down by the experience. So, my Hindu wife and I slept and read the rest of the day.
Before we left the next day we stopped by an orphanage operated by Dr. Mohanty, the chair of philosophy at the university, saw the facilities and ate lunch. Most of the girls that end up in the orphanage are abandoned at hospitals, train stations, and the like, because like lots of cultures little girls aren’t valuable, and when you’re poor...well, you give up what you think is mostly just dead weight anyway. The emotions that it drags out in you are complicated and dichotomous. On one hand your heart is broken to see so many young and innocent betrayed and hurt by the very people who are supposed to love them the most, and on the other you see strangers, nobly picking up the slack that society let drag out.
Overall, the highlight of the trip: Seeing fireflies for the first time in over a decade.
Justin Tungate
The long awaited update from Justin
Been busy doing nothing for the last while, sorry about the long stretch without e-mail.
Bubhanesuwar – Dr. Krishnayya, the site director for the program announced that he was planning on taking a trip to a philosophy conference at the university in Bubhanesuwar as a sly handed way of seeing one of the temples in the area and invited any of us students who were interested in spending a few days in the northern part of Orissa to go with him. Only one student was interested and since she was my friend (I’ve clearly built friendships and burned bridges at this point), I also chose to go so that she would have company and maybe a little safety. We traveled by train, and it was my first experience with train travel in any country. I’ve ridden the metro once or twice, but never a train that travels across the country.
Very kindly, and without us knowing, the chair of philosophy (the one who organized the conference) actually arranged for us to stay in the Guest House at the university (he didn’t have to do that for us students since we weren’t, strictly speaking, conference guests), but we arrived late at night and due to some mix ups we ended up staying in a subpar hotel anyway. It wasn’t really that much of a hassle, but it wasn’t great either.
Bubhanesuwar is the capitol city of Orissa and as such I had expectations that it would be a nicer and larger city and that if nothing really interesting materialized I could at least shop for gifts and whatnot. I was completely wrong. The city is smaller than Vizag both in terms of residents and in terms of access to shops, etc.. “Oh well,” I thought to myself, at least there were supposed to be orchids at the zoo.
The first day started as a hassle. We attended the first part of the philosophy conference, which consisted of an opening ceremony and key note speaker, which we weren’t supposed to need to attend. There are a couple of things to note about this though. First, philosophy in India is completely tied to religion; the two are entirely inseparable, and if one wishes to study philosophy one must also learn Hinduism. I asked Dr. Krishnayya if this deterred non-Hindus form joining the philosophy conversation in India and he said that it did not, but I’m a little bit skeptical of that answer. Second, The meeting started very late. The opening day for the conference just happened to be on the same day as Mohammad’s birthday, and the parade/celebration held up traffic. Third, the conference went late.
However, there were good things about the conference. The first is that the Key Note speaker said something that I think was interesting and not something that I had ever thought about philosophy. See if you agree. He said, “the purpose of philosophy is not to discover facts, that is the purpose of science. The purpose of philosophy is to clarify meanings.” I would add to that by saying that philosophy is also used to clarify relationships between meanings. Besides for that wee got free lunch and it was DELICIOUS! I love the food here in India. It really is the best cuisine in the world. I have yet to try anything, not one single thing, that I have not enjoyed.
After the conference a car took us to a set of caves carved by religious ascetics in the 2nd century BC. They were a real kick. I think that I’ve already told you, but there’s no real protection for treasures like these. You pay money to get in to see them (we paid 20 times the price that an Indian does...20 TIMES), but after that people are free to roam about as they wish. Play on the rocks, destroy whatever they want (although I didn’t see much evidence of this) throw trash wherever, urinate and defecate wherever...you get the idea. But being carved directly out of a rock face has it’s advantages; it makes you resilient, and hopefully this place will continue to exist for a long time. The monkeys there were also pretty damn cute. A whole troop lives on the top of the one hill we went to. I grabbed some dried fruit from my friend (in an attempt to feed the monkeys actually) and before I could grab anything out of the bag a monkey came careening over and grabbed my belt and the bag in an effort to get the whole thing. I knew that the monkeys would get close, but I didn’t expect to be forcefully grabbed (I wasn’t hurt in any way)! At any rate I got a handful of pieces and gave them to the monkey and he was satisfied enough to walk away.
To find out more about this fantastic site, follow the link, http://www.orissatourism.org/udayagiri-khandagiri-caves.html
We only went to Udayagiri, because we were pressed for time and believed that both cave systems would be roughly similar (plus we didn’t want to pay the extremely high price tag for a second entrance).
Justin Tungate
Bubhanesuwar – Dr. Krishnayya, the site director for the program announced that he was planning on taking a trip to a philosophy conference at the university in Bubhanesuwar as a sly handed way of seeing one of the temples in the area and invited any of us students who were interested in spending a few days in the northern part of Orissa to go with him. Only one student was interested and since she was my friend (I’ve clearly built friendships and burned bridges at this point), I also chose to go so that she would have company and maybe a little safety. We traveled by train, and it was my first experience with train travel in any country. I’ve ridden the metro once or twice, but never a train that travels across the country.
Very kindly, and without us knowing, the chair of philosophy (the one who organized the conference) actually arranged for us to stay in the Guest House at the university (he didn’t have to do that for us students since we weren’t, strictly speaking, conference guests), but we arrived late at night and due to some mix ups we ended up staying in a subpar hotel anyway. It wasn’t really that much of a hassle, but it wasn’t great either.
Bubhanesuwar is the capitol city of Orissa and as such I had expectations that it would be a nicer and larger city and that if nothing really interesting materialized I could at least shop for gifts and whatnot. I was completely wrong. The city is smaller than Vizag both in terms of residents and in terms of access to shops, etc.. “Oh well,” I thought to myself, at least there were supposed to be orchids at the zoo.
The first day started as a hassle. We attended the first part of the philosophy conference, which consisted of an opening ceremony and key note speaker, which we weren’t supposed to need to attend. There are a couple of things to note about this though. First, philosophy in India is completely tied to religion; the two are entirely inseparable, and if one wishes to study philosophy one must also learn Hinduism. I asked Dr. Krishnayya if this deterred non-Hindus form joining the philosophy conversation in India and he said that it did not, but I’m a little bit skeptical of that answer. Second, The meeting started very late. The opening day for the conference just happened to be on the same day as Mohammad’s birthday, and the parade/celebration held up traffic. Third, the conference went late.
However, there were good things about the conference. The first is that the Key Note speaker said something that I think was interesting and not something that I had ever thought about philosophy. See if you agree. He said, “the purpose of philosophy is not to discover facts, that is the purpose of science. The purpose of philosophy is to clarify meanings.” I would add to that by saying that philosophy is also used to clarify relationships between meanings. Besides for that wee got free lunch and it was DELICIOUS! I love the food here in India. It really is the best cuisine in the world. I have yet to try anything, not one single thing, that I have not enjoyed.
After the conference a car took us to a set of caves carved by religious ascetics in the 2nd century BC. They were a real kick. I think that I’ve already told you, but there’s no real protection for treasures like these. You pay money to get in to see them (we paid 20 times the price that an Indian does...20 TIMES), but after that people are free to roam about as they wish. Play on the rocks, destroy whatever they want (although I didn’t see much evidence of this) throw trash wherever, urinate and defecate wherever...you get the idea. But being carved directly out of a rock face has it’s advantages; it makes you resilient, and hopefully this place will continue to exist for a long time. The monkeys there were also pretty damn cute. A whole troop lives on the top of the one hill we went to. I grabbed some dried fruit from my friend (in an attempt to feed the monkeys actually) and before I could grab anything out of the bag a monkey came careening over and grabbed my belt and the bag in an effort to get the whole thing. I knew that the monkeys would get close, but I didn’t expect to be forcefully grabbed (I wasn’t hurt in any way)! At any rate I got a handful of pieces and gave them to the monkey and he was satisfied enough to walk away.
To find out more about this fantastic site, follow the link, http://www.orissatourism.org/udayagiri-khandagiri-caves.html
We only went to Udayagiri, because we were pressed for time and believed that both cave systems would be roughly similar (plus we didn’t want to pay the extremely high price tag for a second entrance).
Justin Tungate
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