Coffee from a Reusable Ceramic Mug

In one of my favorite books, Sidhatha, Sidhartha says that he only knows how to do three things: “I can think. I can wait. I can fast.’ It was these three abilities that led him to find the inner peace that he searched for. I have found the last of these abilities especially useful on international flights

Being a (mostly) non-meat eater, I either need have the foresight to order a special meal of go without. In some occasions, I have attempted to buy something in the airport, but there is not much of a vegetarian selection in most American airports (unless you are looking for dessert). I have, on occasion, gone without a meal on a trans-Atlantic flight. I was pleased to get a meal this time on Lufthansa. I managed to remember to reserve one. It was odd. I think it was some sort of Indian dish with rice, beans and vegetables. I am guessing Indian because it had curry in it, but they provided me with a pack of sweet and sour sauce on the side, which just confused me. I never did figure out what that was for.

On this flight, I actually tried the non-dairy vegetarian option. I have usually just gotten the standard veggie which includes dairy and eggs, and I inevitable get a big serving of cheesy-something or other, usually pasta. I was pretty happy with the non-dairy dish. Though, since we did come from Germany, They threw in a package of Alpine Butter and Sahne, just in case I changed my mind.

The poor woman next to me was pretty unhappy about her nasty looking beef dish. She asked for a different option, but, as we were the last seat on the plane, they didn’t have one. And that, my friends, is why I always go into a flight fully prepared to fast. If I have this attitude going in, any food that I do manage to find is just icing on the cake! The same applies to travel to a new country. I fasted for the first two days in Greece until I could find something more than lettuce and cucumber, but learned to greatly appreciate those salads!

PS – if you haven’t flown Lufthansa, I highly recommend it. The service is great, and you get free beer, wine and even an after dinner liquor!

Singing! Sarah offered to show me some singing warm-ups yesterday. For those of you who don’t know Sarah, she is an opera singer, and she can make the whole room shake with her voice! I know, I saw it!

She was very patient with my absolute non-knowledge of music or singing. She would often ask things like “Do you know how to do X?” to which I usually replied, “I don’t even know what X is!” I managed to make a couple of pleasant noises with my voice though, so I was happy. She even helped me understand a little bit about why some noises were nice and some were not. The theory made perfect sense; it was the practical application that was tricky.

I also learned why she was such a natural yoga student. Singing is totally an exercise in awareness and body/mind control. After an hour and a half I had to surrender and ask to stop. I ended up falling asleep at 9:30 last night too! I tell you, singing is really hard! I want to do more…..

It’s not what you think….

For a while now, I have not been eating much fish. I admit it is related to the fact that a lot of science reports have been coming out lately talking about the depletion of many fish populations all over the word and my reluctance to support that trend.

Anyway, I did this quietly without much fuss. However, I was being a bad vegetarian because I didn’t take into account that I needed to think more about protein sources since fish was my main one. With the exception f things like alcohol, refined sugars and caffeine, you need to make sure that if you take something out of your diet, you need to replace it with something else. I have been pretty lethargic in the past couple of months (lethargic for me), but I just attributed to the move and coming down from the stress of last year. However, yesterday, I made my Ceci Soup, and voila!, I am like a new woman! I felt so much more focused and I had a fabulous workout today!

I joked to Sarah over email that it must have been the beans! But the more I thought about it, that might be right. I ate a lot of garbanzo beans yesterday, and that must have kicked up my protein level. Granted, I also had a lovely session of ‘conscious non-doing’ yesterday afternoon - Matthias calls it being unconscious, but I swear, I am doing it on purpose! I don’t think that is responsible for my energy level though. It did make me feel very relaxed for the rest of the day.

So, I’ll be a better vegetarian and watch my protein levels. Ceci soup is good on so many levels!! Feel free to share any high-protein vegetarian recipes.

I just learned that my work (in Virginia) is closed today because of some power outage. My boss called my coworkers and told them since they can’t get into the building or into their computers via remote access to enjoy a vacation day. Brian Skyped me to let me know what’s up (and catch up on office gossip, of course).

So, do I get a forced vacation day too? Most of my files are on my laptop, so I can keep working without a problem, but I feel I should work in solidarity with the folks in the office! I guess I have a bit too much to prepare for this week, so I think I’ll just drop off a bit early….

I knew it! This article on a new report just verifies what I already knew :-). In case you don’t make the jump, here is the gist of the article:

“They found that having a feminist partner was linked to healthier heterosexual relationships for women. Men with feminist partners also reported both more stable relationships and greater sexual satisfaction. According to these results, feminism does not predict poor romantic relationships, in fact quite the opposite.” Hah!

I keep telling Matthias that, but he seems skeptical!

I found the story thanks to feministing.com.

Last night, we went to ‘Wissenschaft Nacht’ (Science Night) in Garching bei Muenchen. That’s where there are a bunch of science institutes all packed together in one big complex. We spent our time in the astrophysics area though most of the science centers had programs. We saw a couple of talks on the Universe and stuff. I couldn’t understand the first talk about the history of the Universe so well. Maybe it was just the way the speaker spoke German, but I couldn’t follow him. He had some great slides though. The second talk was focused on gravitational waves, which was easier for me to follow because I know a little about the subject. Matthias wanted to sit through the next talk as well, and I bailed to get a coffee since I had my fill of ‘Astrophyck auf Deutsche’. I think I made the better choice to leave the talk. Matthias said the speaker was not very good, and in the mean time, I shared a coffee with the gravitational wave speaker and got to hear some updates on state of supernovae models. I have been out of it for a while, but the last I paid attention, no one had gotten their supernova models to explode on their own (a bit of a problem when trying to prove the validity of ones model). Apparently, they got past that issue recently, and the things blow up like they are supposed to.

Being the dork that I am, I was most excited about playing with the infrared camera over at the ESO display! I love those things. Based on my image, I think my body saves all of its heat form my brain. Matthias has a nice even distribution of heat, whereas I seem to have it all concentrated at the top of my head. My fingers and nose are like ice! I’d like to get a camera and observe how my body temperature changes as I do some breathing exercises or yoga postures.

Remember that part where I said that Athens had a lot fewer pickpockets and people generally harassing tourists than I had expects? Well, apparently, I just hadn’t been out at the right time. This morning, one of the people at the meeting had his laptop bag stolen while loading his suitcase in the bus (with about 100 people milling about with him - amazing). I walked through Omonia plaza tonight around 8:00, and it was the kind of scene that I feared I might find in Athens.

I am so grateful for the Italian women who showed me how to look through people and walk with so much confidence that the creeps fade away without causing a big disturbance. I really needed to put on my ‘Roman’ face out there tonight! It was a relief to hit the hotel lobby where I met the people for dinner. I think I had missed the really creepiness before because I was generally with large groups of people, and I didn’t usually go through Omonia that time of the day. I hate feeling that I have to pretend not to look at anyone or anything in order to keep people away who are trying to target you. I also hate when strange men feel they need to lean toward you an whisper things at women as they walk by!

Here is a bit of irony. I am at a conference on communicating astronomy to the public, right. I was talking to Matthias last night, and he told me that the European southern observatory is having an open house night (AKA a star party) on Saturday night. One would think that I would have learned this at the conference. I asked the organizer of the event about it today (the guy who got the job I applied for a few years ago, darn it), and he told to stop by and say hi I come to Garching. I’d like to hear about what he is doing, so I might take him up on it. If any of the Regensburgers are interested, maybe we can arrange something….

I am developing a few travel tips for Greece from my limited time here.

First, and most importantly, don’t stay at a hotel near Omonia Plaza! It is kind of gross, really, though I hear there is a great view of the Acropolis from the beer garden on the roof (Athens is all about the great views). The area near Plaka seems to be the cutest. It is a mix of the typical Mediterranean city and some uniquely Greek things. It is dirty, but is a completely acceptable way – the Germans set a pretty high bar when it comes to clean streets, and Athens is definitely not in Germany. In the Plaka area, the dirt is ‘quaint.’ Near Omonia, it is just stinky.

Yesterday, I learned that GMT, in Athens, stands for “Greek Maybe Time” (rather than “Greenwich Standard Time”, of course) according to my tour guide. She told us this as we were standing out side of the gates to the Acropolis after being told that we cannot enter. The guide thought the Acropolis site closed at 7:00 – that, apparently, was a week ago. Now, it closes at 6:00. Instead, we went for a walk to the next hill and she did her best to show us the features of the site from there. She did a great job considering.

Hailing a taxi – I learned this one today. This seems to be the method. First, stand in the street flailing your arms. A taxi will slow down with the window open. You need to yell your destination. At this point, the driver decides if he feels like taking you. If not, he keeps driving. Note: there will probably be at least one other person in the cab with you because, even though it’s illegal, the cabbies pick up multiple passengers going in the same general direction and charges them both what’s on the meter (or just a little less).

NEVER eat in a place where the host greats you on the street and tries to convince you to come in (which is generally good advice anywhere in Europe). I was told that if you want to find the good Greek places, follow the smell of the lamb. Most traditional places are in internal court yards down small alleys. You can usually smell he slightly old lamb cooking from the street. I have yet to try this approach, but avoiding the street pushers is a good start.

Athens is not as scary as it looks. I have been really pleased with the lack of pick pockets, street beggars and jeering men. I kind of expected that when I first got a look at the city (see tip on Omonia plaza), but I feel pretty safe walking alone here even in the evening. I have a pretty good sense for unsafe areas, having discovered some on past travels, but Athens city center is very welcoming in the more touristy areas. There are some pick pockets (as one conference participant can attest to), but I haven’t been harassed on the street as much as I expected. Either it is better here than it is in Rome or I have just gotten better with my body language to keep people away.

That’s all of the Athens travel tips I have discovered so far. I love discovering a new place!

PS – the internet access is sketchy, at best, which is why all of these posts are going up at the same time rather than when I wrote them.

I did my yoga practice as Venus rose over the Acropolis just before sunrise this morning. How fabulous is that! A local dog watched over me as I practiced, so I wasn’t totally alone, but it was still amazing. My photo doesn’t capture the moment, but it was cool. Nothing like the play ground of the gods to inspire a sense of peace and awe on a beautiful October morning.