Firenze

 The Duomo is probably my favorite building there. We climbed all the through the dome right up to the look out platform at the top. From there you have a pretty great view of the city.

 Here is the view from the top.

 Leonardo

 Santa Croce. We sat and spent some time sketching the church.

All the one way street signs got spiced up a bit with a little pictures. I thought they were pretty clever. By the looks of things they were printed on and not vandalized.

5 Reasons Why I Love My Kindle

Earlier on this year my brother and I decided that it was time to purchase an electronic reader. There are several different ones on the market, but since I am already an avid Amazon fan, I decided that it was going to have to be the Kindle. Now after using it for several months I want to list 5 reasons why I love my Kindle so much.

1. Battery Life: So I have already been reading books electronically for several years. First I used a Palm TungstenE and later an Ipod Touch. They are both great but they lack the Kindle's battery life. According to Amazon.com the battery should last for about a month. What I have discovered (and this is hard to measure since my usage was continual and not continuous) that using it several hours every day will give you about 2 weeks of reading. This is pretty awesome compared to the 3-5 hours that my previous devices had.

2. E-ink: The Kindle has a special screen that uses a system called E-ink. The goal is to make the screen look like actual paper. And the amazing thing is that it actually does look like printed ink on paper. I put a protective covering on the screen which makes it ever so slightly glossy, but does not impede on my reading at all. Also it is not backlit, like most electronic devices and so this is better for your eyes. Another advantage, you can read outside in the sunlight without your screen reflecting.

3. It's light: When reading I really like to hold my books in one hand (mainly so I can hold food in the other). Only 8.7 ounces, it weighs less than most books. It can be comfortably held in one hand for hours at a time (I cannot be stopped once I start on a good book).

4. Free Books: The website www.gutenberg.org offers over 36,000 free books in different electronic formats. These are books that are older and therefore are not subject to the same copyright laws anymore. Some nice people got together and decided that everyone should have access to these books for free and so project gutenberg was born.

5. Storage: It was always a family joke to see us packing for a trip. Every member of the family would take several books with them. Paperbacks do not weigh that much, but when you are taking ten with you it can add up. A Kindle also solves this problem. You can take hundreds and hundreds of books with you and your suitcase does not get any heavier. So, for someone who likes traveling and reading, this is an ideal combination.

Kimonos compared to Dirndls and Aquabats: Why bats need a drink too

During our stay in Japan we got to visit a Japanese bathhouse (Onsen). At the beginning a clerk gives you a bathrobe (Yakuta) which you put on and enter the Onsen. Quite unexpectedly you enter a Japanese Disneyland. Everyone is wandering around in Yakutas and there are stands selling everything from food to tourist trinkets. The food was a little overpriced but the barley tea was free. The entire experience was pretty great, although it was definitely geared towards tourists, both Japanese and foreign. That raises the question as to when you become a tourist. Are you a tourist in your own country, your own city? I would love to hear your thoughts.
A few days after going to the Onsen, Fred and I were in store looking for Yakutas. As you can see on the picture, they are pretty great looking and I thought it might be worth investing in one. We began looking around the store only to discover that they are pretty pricey, until we suddenly found some that were a lot cheaper. We started looking through them to see if we could find the right sizes, when a lady working in the store waled up to us and said: "Those are lady kimonos." We must have looked pretty foolish for our inablility to tell the difference and so we moved on quite embarrassed. Fred joked that had we been in Austria or Bayern, the equivalent would have been us looking at a Dirndl. I guess there is a lot to learn about other cultures.

 To the Aquabats. Yes, they are a band and I think I discovered how they came up with that name. Last night Fred and I were in the pool and the sun disappeared beyond the hills on the horizon. As night fell the bats came out of their hiding places to grace us with their presence. Suddenly the bats came swooping down and would glide above the water while sipping up a drink. Maybe not the easieset way to get a drink, but its the bats only chance to drink something without drowning. We felt a lot like batman as all the bats flew around us skimming over the water. We will try and get a picture. Wish us luck.

Ostia Antica

 

Yesterday we visited Ostia Antica. I really love finding places that are really cool but not overrun by tourists. Ostia Antica is one of those places. The area is called a miniature Pompeii because it is a city that was completely covered (by silt and not volcanic ash) and has now been unearthed. Walking along the roads of Ostia Antica gives you a feeling of how the ancient Romans lived two thousand years ago. Here are some pictures from our outing:

 You put your hand in the statue's mouth for good luck. Well, I hope it is good luck that you get and not a squint.

I wish I could paint as good as that fellow.

Japan Trip June 1-15

Kamakura Daibutsu - The Great Buddha

On Saturday Fred and I took the train to Kamakura, a small beach town south of Tokyo.  The most visited site is the Kamakura Daibutus - the Great Buddha of Kamakura. At 13.35 meters it is an impressively large statue. It was cast in bronze in 1252 and has survived till today. Over the centuries earthquakes and tsunamis have damaged the statue, but even earth's calamities could not interrupt the Buddha's peaceful meditation.

A lot of Japanese visit the statue and apparently it is also a popular place for school outings, since hundreds of school children were running around. About 40 kids assaulted us in hopes to practice their English. Similar to our previous experience the had a small list of questions about our name, our hometown and our favorite Japanese food. After we had given our autograph at least twenty times each, their teacher came up to us and thanked us for our willingness to help. We then got in line to climb inside the statue. Since it is hollow you can stand on the inside and admire the intricacies of bronze casting. Done with seeing the Buddha, we went on to visit many Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples which Kamakura is famous for.

Another thought on traveling: When I left Utah after my semester at BYU was over, I put the majority of my belongings in storage. Then I drove down to California where I left my car at my sister's house (she is very kind to take car of it and make sure the battery does not die). After that I flew to Germany where I spent a few months. Before flying to Rome I left some things in Germany which I would not need in Rome. Once in Rome we got ready to leave for Japan and so I only packed what I needed for two weeks, once again leaving belongings behind in Rome. I'm in Tokyo now and I have belongings strewn across three continents, four countries in five locations. Needless to say, I have become accustomed to living out of suitcase. It takes some getting used to but I am really grateful to have to this great opportunity to travel.

Do you speak English?

Today Fred and I went to Asakusa where we saw the local shrine and surrounding buildings. We had brought our sketch books and so we sat down and started sketching. Apparently people drawing attracts other peoples' attention and so we had several people come up and watch us. One man came up and asked me if he could take a picture with us. First Fred took the picture of the two of us, then I took a picture of him and Fred. He was very amiable and it was nice to meet someone so friendly.
The next to approach us was a group of boys. This is how the conversation went:
Boy1: Do you speak English? [quickly passes on the paper to his friend]
Boy2: We are junior high students and need to practice English [he too thrusts the paper into the next boy's hands]
Boy3: What is your hometown?
Me: Frankfurt
They look at each other and in confusion and give me the paper to write down my hometown.
Boy3: Write your message.
Me: [I'm not sure what message I am supposed to write and so I ask them:] What message?
Boy3: Yes!
So I proceed to write a message and hand the paper back. I had to also draw an X on a map to show where I was from. And finally:
Boy4: Can we take a picture with you?

We got up and took a picture with them. I thought that this was a truly brilliant method of having students practice a foreign language. They really didn't speak any English at all, but they managed to use all the sentences that they knew. Sometimes it is good to stick out as a foreigner.

Meiji Shrine

Comparisons

This is just a comparison between my drawings and a photo. The top is the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. The middle is our family's house in Graz and the bottom is the Koelner Dom.
Does anyone have a suggestions on how to draw bushes/trees/shrubbery?

4 x 2

So this post is a small add-on to my Cologne trip. While I was there I did some sketching of the Koelner Dom. As I sat there a girl came up to me and asked if she could take a picture of me, taking a picture with her camera which had four lenses. She was doing this for her final in one of her classes. I asked if she could send me the picture she took once she was done. Apparently the picture she took of me did not turn out for some reason but instead she sent me the picture that I took with the camera. The picture I took is the upper half of the photo above. But she also sent another picture which someone else took in the vicinity and I happened to be on the picture! So the black spot on the lower four pictures is me sketching the Dom.

Cologne - Köln

 I have not been to Köln for several years and so when my friend Rike invited me to come over I was up for the adventure. In Germany there is a website called www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de where you can find people to car pool with. This is how it works: they post on the website where they are driving to, you call them up to see if they have a spot free, you meet up with them, give them some money and drive to your destination. So I went to meet the guy at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. He arrived in his car and gathered all the people that were planning to drive with him. I saw that he was driving a VW Sharan which seats 7 people, but a quick headcount revealed to me that there were 8 of us. The driver realizes this and proposes: There are only two seats in the very back, but if three of you sit there, then you each only have to pay 10 instead of 11 euros. Two people got in the back right away, but we still needed a third person for the back. Now, for some reason, everyone in the group nominated me to be the last person to sit in the back. I refused since I was not going to sit in the back, cramped between two people and without a seat belt for two hours. So what I did was point out another guy who was a lot shorter than I and told everyone that he should sit in the back. He reluctantly got in the back and so all of a sudden I had become the bad guy of the group. The whole situation was the driver's fault, but for whatever reason they had picked me and when I refused it was suddenly my fault that these guys were cramped in the back. But I was not going to budge. One guy in the back said: "What arrogance!" I responded by putting in my headphones and ignoring everyone. I am glad that I stuck up for myself because the driver was pretty crazy and I glad we were not pulled over by the police. The situation would have played out something like this:
Polizist: "Ok, let's see your driver's license [pauses and reads it, peers inside of the car, counts the people and then counts the seats and comes to the conclusion that the two numbers do not match.] Mr. Nguapi, [African], why are you driving a German, two Turks, two Indians and an Austro-American, speeding and passing on the right lane?"
But I am glad that did not happen. We got to Köln safely and a guy from the back seat my one last attempt at blaming me by shouting: "I need new legs!" I just ignored him and walked off. That concluded my trip there. The trip back was a lot better and safer too.

 All along this bridge people attach locks to symbolically seal friendships or weddings. It was pretty crazy since there were tens of thousands of locks along the bridge. There were quite a few Philipp locks :) I just wonder how many keys are floating on the bottom of the Rhein.

Köln is a beautiful city with some nice architecture. The Kölner Dom is just amazing and really really tall. Rike and I climbed the top which left us pretty tired. There are 533 steps [said the tourist guide], but we did not go to the effort to count them all. Also I went to see the Roemisch-Germanisch museum, which was about the same as the last time I was there. This has nothing to do with anything else, but in Köln there are a bunch of people that walk around handing out roses for free. At least you think they are free, until they start walking after with a sad face asking for a small donation. It is rather annoying because it would be one thing if they sat along the side of the road and sold their roses, but this way they walk after you and try and guilt trip you into giving them money for their roses. Here was my solution: When they came up I just answered in Russian: "Rebyata, mne eto voobshe ne nuzhna, izvini." Needless to say they would leave me alone pretty quickly once the heard me speaking Russian. 
 Unfortunately Rike hurt her foot the second day and so it left inhibited her walking abilities. So as a sitting down activity we picked watching the new Pirates movie, "On stranger tides." I really enjoyed it, I can't get enough of Jack Sparrow's antics. 
That concluded my trip to Köln. It was a great trip and a fun chance to see an old friend.
Thanks for everything Rike!