Candle for St Joseph

I had written previously about the chapel of St Francis next to the busy Hynes Convention Centre in the Prudential Tower, Boston.

I have not been back to Boston since my student days there, almost 7 years ago. But somehow, when I was at the Prudential Centre, my footsteps took me almost automatically to the chapel. The first thing I saw was the statue of St Joseph. So, since my grandmother passed away on the 1st of May, just over two weeks ago, it seemed like the right thing to say a rosary for her in this serene and prayerful place and thank St Joseph for his aid in granting her a tranquil death surrounded by those she loved and who loved her.

God bless you, Grandma!

Sea Lions of Pier 39

Went last month to San Francisco.  It was a work trip, but I had time to pop down to look at the sea lions at Pier 39.  Not the most exciting of videos, but I thought it was fairly interesting to see the sea lion swim up to the pier and jump on top.  For more professional videos, see here.

The thrill of seeing one's name in print

It has been more than a month since my last entry. Somehow, the new year has not exactly filled me with new, inspiring thoughts to pen down and share. It didn't start off too well - my mother was hospitalised for dengue fever and so we spent New Year's Eve in the hospital and New Year's Day paying another visit. Stressed, tired for most of the first week.

Anyway I have also been spending some time realising some of my self-publishing projects which I have been doing through Blurb. I received my "Blog Book" on my months in the US and Mexico, and also the rather slimmer journal on my brief trip to Siam Reap. Nothing particularly new or exciting for readers of this blog, contentwise, but definitely looks good on my bookshelf. My only problem is that after going through the text so many times, I don't find it particularly interesting to read right now; it is also irritating to find little errors scattered throughout the book. I look forward to taking the books up at a later date when my memory of what I wrote has dimmed a bit.

For my next project, I'm thinking of doing a family cookbook, something which combines my favourite recipes from my many many cookbooks :-) and recipes pilfered from various family members. It is going to be a really long haul project if I am to cook, photograph and then write about each one. Still, it is quite an interesting project which will occupy me for some time. And one which I can potentially take orders for!

In the meantime, may I proudly present my three self-publication projects:

Schmap!

Haha! I mentioned a few days ago that my photo on the Washington DC National Shrine had been shortlisted for inclusion in an on-line travel website. Well, today I got an email saying that it had been selected. And, there are little Schmapplets which can be put on my webpage to a) show off my photo and b) help direct more traffic to the Schmap site. So I tried to get a Schmapplet. I followed all directions but for some reason I can't insert the little widget on my site. So I can only insert the link to the Schmap Washington DC guide (churches and temples section).

Dominicans and Constable

I managed to have mass with the Washington D.C. Dominican community on my last day in the US. I just wanted to go for a nice, quiet Saturday morning mass (considering that I would be missing Sunday mass due to time lags and such). So I went to St Dominic's down the road from our hotel where there was supposed to be an 8am daily mass. However, the church was locked and this lady I bumped into told me mass would be at 8.15am in the chapel. When I got there, it was completely empty except for one robed figure in a corner who I took to be the priest and so I sat half-way down the chapel. Then, these elderly white-robed men started entering the chapel. No other lay people in sight. I started feeling quite uneasy. Was I in the right place? I contemplated making a run for it. Then I decided that what the heck, I had every right as a Catholic to be present. Never mind that in a group of white-robed Dominican priests, I was clearly the odd woman out.

Anyway we started mass with the psalmody. I had no idea where to find this and the Dominican across the aisle had to assist. Mass proceeded as per normal after that. It was the feast day of St Martin of Tours so the sermon referred to the story of how he gave half his cloak to a beggar, etc and what "we as Dominicans" can learn from St Martin. Apparently the Dominicans don't take a vow of poverty and Martin of Tours was famous for his hermitlike existence. The liturgy of the Eucharist took place next and all the priests started moving up towards the altar and took turns saying their lines. At some points (eg the consecration of the bread and wine) it was a chorus. I stayed put. I do know my place. At communion, of course there was only one (lay) recipient. Was not sure whether to go but the main celebrant gave me a little nod and up I went. I can't say I enjoyed mass, but I did appreciate the experience.

I didn't take any photos of the little priory chapel but here is the crucifix in the main church of St Dominic's. (I'd gone there for All Saints' Day when this photo was taken. What I did not expect was that I would be taking the wine up at Offertory. Someone asked me to do so at Offertory itself! I was not quite prepared for this and forgot to wait for the bread to be passed to the priest before returning to my seat. Ah well, it seems that I am not destined to have "ordinary" masses at St Dominic's.)

The previous day, we'd gone to the National Gallery of Art and since I'd spent time looking at American artists in Mexico, I went to see the special exhibition of John Constable's Six-Foot Paintings in the US! Constable started painting six-footers to attract attention at exhibitions and such. (Artists must always know what's commercial.) Constable started off by painting full-scale sketches of his work and then doing a polished version after that. It thus provides an idea of his thinking as he worked. The Six-Footers were done throughout Constable's career and therefore also show how his style progressed over time. One point which struck me was how the style in the final product began to look more and more like the more fluid and less polished style of his sketches, over time.

The National Gallery of Art is actually quite amazing. It was started off as a donation by Andrew Mellon to the nation in the hope that others would follow his example. And they did. Today, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet don't build museums/galleries. They look to improve public health around the world, and raise educational standards. Apparently the Gates Foundation is now one of the largest donors in the world, in the area of health, surpassing many countries' contributions. But they apply a private sector perspective on looking at effectiveness of aid, which perhaps state donors are less able to do. So income inequality in the US may be pretty stark but it is very difficult for anyone to resent Bill Gates' billions if he is helping to eradicate polio or whatever.

Cultural Learnings of America

On my last full day in the US, we went off to see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. It was strongly recommended by one of my classmates as being completely hilarious. And it was very funny, but I must say that I agree with the review which said that any movie billed as such always finds it difficult to live up to expectations. And after watching the movie, I wasn't really surprised to find out that Sacha Baron Cohen (the actor who plays Borat) is a British comedian. Borat is like a hugely exaggerated Mr Bean with a fake accent and moustache, and with a politically incorrect factor of x10. Borat is a Jew-hating sexist journalist from Kazakhstan making a documentary about the US to show in his home country. But he watches an episode of Baywatch and then gets the hots for Pamela Anderson. For her sake, he drives across America interviewing people along the way.

And this is where Mr Bean meets Reality TV. Many of the people interviewed were ordinary folk who were not aware that Borat was an invented character. He went to a humour coach, an etiquette coach, met feminists, car salesmen and attended a dinner party in the Deep South of the USA (where he brought a black prostitute as his date). Half of these people are now sueing Cohen for tricking them. Its incredible that more people didn't see through his strange behaviour.

There were also incredibly funny scenes which were staged -my favourite is where Borat and his producer engage in a nude wrestling match and run all over the hotel in the nude.

I am trying to work out exactly what makes it such a popular movie and have concluded that it lies in the deliberate way Borat sets out to offend every single last sensibility of politically correct America. Somehow Borat makes it politically correct to enjoy a crude, vulgar movie which helps them laugh at themselves.

Was quite surprised to see that Borat is opening in Singapore, 28 Dec. Well worth watching and it will be interesting to see Singaporeans' reactions.

Washington, D.C. - The Nation's Capital

In DC, it's all government, museums and memorials. We stayed in the middle of all these federal departments which is not much fun after the sun has set (and also not too safe, according to my sources). Apparently its because Residence Inn is the only one with kitchens and dinner provided. Well, at least the dinner was better than that in Residence Inn Cambridge. But I'd rather be a little nearer the centre of action rather than next to the Trade Commission.

Our programme in DC focused on visits largely to various federal departments, one aide to a Senator and visits to the World Bank and an NGO (with links to KSG). We also had dinner with Amb Chan and met Derwin Pereira of ST (I learnt that he had studied at the LSE and graduated one year after me). But the meetings were not particularly memorable. The folks we met were relatively senior (at the Asst Secretary level) but some didn't spout anything but the party line, particularly the political appointees. The professional diplomats at the State Department were more willing to be open and frank by comparison and didn't treat us as though we were schoolchildren. It was interesting to get a sense of the type of people there and to see how they perceived us as a group (clearly not that important).

But there were plus points too. One memorable moment was our visit to the Pentagon. The official hosting our visit told us that he had been sitting in the very room we were in when the airplane hit. No one knew what had happened but they evacuated the room and left the building. Only then did his group realise what had happened. We also visited the memorial at the portion of the Pentagon which was hit. It is a small quiet room with panels listing the victims and a book with a page for each victim - both in the Pentagon and in the plane which hit the building. There is a small chapel next to it as well. The Pentagon itself is a huge complex. There is a courtyard in the centre of the complex and a building right in the centre of the courtyard. The rumour (so our guide told us) was that in the midst of the Cold War, the Soviets were very suspicious as to why there were so many people entering and leaving the building and so trained one of their missiles to hit the structure - which was, of course, the hotdog stand.

We also met one of John Kerry's aides. It was a good session - I thought he handled our questions well eg he threw back questions for us to respond to besides just answering what we asked him. But later that day Kerry made a rather tactless statement to some schoolchildren that if they didn't learn their lessons well they would end up in Iraq. Kerry had to apologise and say he didn't mean to insult US troops in Iraq, and that the original script had a line saying, "just ask President Bush", which he had omitted. But why? Hmm. After making such a statement apparently some candidates told Kerry not to campaign with them any more. Not that they had to worry too much, the Democrats were hot this time round. Other than this chap, we didn't meet anyone else from the legislative side of the US government. Apparently it was because of the elections - everyone is campaigning. I am not sure what alternatives there could have been - perhaps we could have met journalists, and people from other think tanks? Anyway, I didn't really mind too much that we didn't have a packed program. I spent the first three days spending my spare time finishing my last assignment (rather disappointed with it even so) so any extra time was beneficial to me.

But DC in general is really the US in glorified, institutional terms. We visited the executive, legislature and (for some of us) even the judiciary (saw all 9 Supreme Court Judges in action!). Also the National Archives where the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are kept. Their state buildings are pretty grand and imposing (all that marble!), in very classical architectural styles. It reflects the great pride Americans have in their institutions, and the famous check-and-balance system of government. I frankly think that there could be a few less checks to achieve the same level of balance but well, apparently the Americans like it that way.

We also got a chance to observe the US in the run-up to the congressional elections (held on Nov 6, the week after we were in DC). Massachussets is such a Democrat stronghold that most of the Republican campaigning is perfunctory in nature - there was only a rather vicious and nasty campaign over the Governor job. In DC, on the other hand, numerous TV ads, for Senator/Governor in both Virginia and Maryland flooded our TV screens. And instead of reading the rather parochial Boston Globe, we got the Washington Post which has far more analysis and reported more broadly on the elections as a whole rather than on a single race.

The DC field trip marked the end of our official stay in the US. In a sense it has been interesting living in closer proximity to my classmates and I certainly know a few of them a little better than before.

Just another Sunday mass

Yesterday evening we went for mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. I rather enjoyed the sermon which talked about how we all like keeping things private - including our faith. Why do Catholics do that? Is it because we don't know enough about our faith, or we do not exactly what we believe or whether we believe it? Or do we lack courage? Courage needs to be practiced. If we say something once, it is easier to say it again and again later on. If we believe in our faith, we will want to shout it out for all to hear.

Some of my Indian classmates went to mass. Now one of them is a dapper Indian gentleman who is slightly dimensionally challenged (read a little short and plump). He sat in between the two Filipino ladies and was very happy when they hugged him at the sign of peace. I had to restrain him from going to communion though.

After mass, we visited the shrine itself under the basilica, and the crypt church. The crypt church is a massive underground complex in itself. It is heavily vaulted (supposed to be reminiscent of the catacombs of the early church) and around the edges are many individual chapels and shrines to Mary as she has manifested herself around the world, eg Our Lady of Health, Mary at Lavang, Vietnam, and so on. Each shrine is decorated and presented in different styles. Here is the Mary of Lavang, which I took to show my Vietnamese classmate:

Following mass, we went for dinner at my Filipina classmate's colleague's home. It was nice to be in someone's home after so long in an impersonal hotel room. When we left, our hostess gave us each a hug - which made it 3 in one day for my dear classmate :-)

Lincoln Memorial

We just spent our first full day in Washington, District of Columbia. The Nation’s Capital. And it has been quite interesting. We visited the US Trade Representative’s Office, and the State Department.

But the highlight of the day was our visit to the Lincoln Memorial at the end of the day. It was a solemn and awe-inspiring experience. We got there just before sunset (daylight savings is over so it gets dark at about 5.30pm or so now). The Memorial is a simple Grecian building. The huge statue of Lincoln looks out down a long reflecting pool to the Washington Monument, which is reflected in the waters. The statue shows Lincoln’s great height – his legs look rather lanky. The face is sad, but shows Lincoln’s determination to persevere despite the odds. On each side of the statue are two of his famous speeches – the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address – which highlight his moral vision and purpose. Here’s the Gettysburg address and extract of the Second Inaugural address:

Gettysburg:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Second Inaugural Address:

"...Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether".

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

2nd Last Night in Boston

I started off this week with 3 assignments due end of this week, got a take-home exam due mid next week. I finished off one assignment on Thursday, a second one on Friday and am now 25% through the third one.

Earlier tonight we had our farewell dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club. It was a pleasant event and we received our certificates of attendance at the end. I'd been griping about the assignments all day and so one of my Indian classmates sidled up to me on the way back and asked me, "Why are you worried about outputs when you have the outcome in your hands"? Meaning, that with a certificate of attendance why did I want to bother with assignments? He then started pulling aside his shirt to show me his own certificate which he had tucked beneath. Not only was he keeping it close, it was keeping him warm as well!

Anyway, enough of procrastinating. Back to typing.

New Hampshire

This is a busy week for us. We have to finish our final assignments and get ready to go to Washington DC next week! So I will probably defer my posts on my weekend in New Hampshire for a while. In the meantime, do look at my Flickr pages for some photos and commentary. There are also some videos and photos on Multiply.

In the meantime, here is a little preview of what we saw in New Hampshire:

If you are thinking it looks cold, the answer is yes, it was cold!

The Kancamagus Highway

We drove back from North Conway to Lake Winniesepaukee (and I hope I spelt that right) via the Kancamagus Highway, which is touted as the most scenic drive in New Hampshire. It is actually quite a high altitude drive reaching almost 3,000 metres at its height.

The scenery along the way was quite spectacular with waterfalls and rapids, and scenic lookout points. We had to take a little walk to see first the Rocky Gorge, and the Sabaday Falls (photos of each in order mentioned).

There are typically little signs at each stop telling the visitor about it. For example, Rocky Gorge had a story of a girl who fell in the swirling waters of the Gorge. Apparently, there is a huge sinkhole in the gorge which was caused through erosion and the waters create a mini whirlpool at that point. The girl fell into the whirlpool, and her rescuers feared she had been drowned. But then someone saw a hand sticking up - he grabbed it and got a shock when the hand grabbed back! They pulled her out, managed to revive her and she lived happily ever after. And how did the Sabbaday falls get its name? The story is that long ago a work crew cutting a road nearby finished their work on a Saturday and named the waterfall after the next day, the Sabbath. Over time the name got corrupted to Sabbaday.

Continuing our drive, we would stop at the many beautiful scenic spots. Unfortunately for us, the foliage was a little after its peak. Nonetheless, we managed to view beautiful panoramas of mountains, valleys, and bright blue skies.
As we continued driving higher and higher, the temperatures again went lower and lower. Snowdrifts began to appear on the sides of the road. We finally hit 32 degrees Farenheit! Zero degrees Celcius! When we finally got to the peak, it was nearing the end of the day. Bear in mind that at this time of year, the days are shortening and it is getting dark earlier and earlier. So in a sense we were racing against time to get down from the highway before dark. This photo was taken at the highest point of the Highway, just before we started our descent again:




I suppose it is also timely to disclose that I had been stalked this entire day, from the time we reached Mount Washington till now. One of my dear classmates, who had evidently had a childhood deprived of any snowball fights, had taken every opportunity to make snowballs. And I am sorry to say that his primary target was yours truly. One would have thought that a grown man (and supposedly a gentleman at that) would never have dreamt of hitting a lady with a snowball. He contended that he deliberately missed the first 2 times. But he definitely scored a hit with the last one (by the way, he threw it as I turned my back!). What especially riled me is that some of my other dear classmates saw it as no more than a photo opp! Or a video opp! Sigh. But I want to emphasise that I definitely turned the other cheek and did not engage in a snow fight with him.

Mount Washington - 2 Seasons in 1 Day

We decided to go on another driving weekend before we had to leave the country. The plan was to take the Kancamagus Highway, spend the night in North Conway, and then go up to Mount Washington the next day. We would end off at the Lakes the next day.

Unfortunately, it rained throughout the first day. The Kancamagus Highway was covered with clouds and mist. In such bad weather, there was not a thing to see. So we had no choice. We had to go shopping. So we went first to Tanger, and then to the North Conway outlets. Now I realise why North Conway is considered a shopping destination. It is full of outlets! But by the time we got there it was almost 5pm. Dark, dreary and rainy too. We did some shopping at the outlet and then found our hotel - Comfort Inn (again). In the dark, I did not realise that we were next to a pirate-themed mini-golf course. I suppose kids have to do something whilst parents shop.

That night, I checked the weather report. It was not good. It was snowing on Mount Washington and at Bretton Woods. And there were strong winds on the mountain - over 100 km/h. Undeterred, we set off the next morning. Soon, the scenery around us turned white in colour - from the mountain-tops down.

By the time we reached the Bretton Woods resort, all was white. A snow plough must have cleared the roads early but there were still snowdrifts on the side of the roads and the trees were covered with snow. Even the signs were covered with snow - completely useless!

We drove carefully to the cog railway, only to find out that it was only travelling one-third of the way up the mountain because of bad weather (the winds were still blowing) and we would have to pay half the price. And, that the mist and fog enshrouding the mountain meant that we would not be able to see anything anyway. Unsurprisingly we decided to give it a miss. So we drove back down to North Conway.

It was a beautiful drive, past snow-covered trees, mountains, and a waterfall or two. Truly, a winter wonderland of water, snow and ice. But it was cold too! We were watching the temperature gauge in the car and it was pretty much 32 degrees Farenheit also known as Zero degrees celcius outside. And there we were walking out in (essentially) fall clothing.

But by the time we got back to Intervale (between Bretton Woods and North Conway) it had turned back to fall. The bright blue sky, the greens and reds of the trees made the snow and ice seem very far away. We had a quick lunch at a burger joint in Intervale and proceeded to retrace our route through the Kancamagus Highway in the hope that this time round, we could catch a glimpse of the beautiful scenery.

Carly Fiorina at the KSG

I've attended two talks over the past two days at KSG.

Yesterday's talk was by Richard Holbrooke, former US Asst Secretary of State and Former US ambassador to the UN. He was talking on the topic, "Fighting the War on Terror: A Short-Term Vision for a Long-Term Conflict?". It was an interesting talk - he was attacking the semantics of "War on Terror" - terror is a tactic and not any individual, who exactly is the war on? Of course he is a Democrat. Lawrence Summers (Treasury Secretary under Clinton, also former President of Harvard) was in the audience and he exchanged pleasantries with Holbrooke. And whilst we are talking about Harvard big names, I suppose I should add that last Friday Amartya Sen was walking through the KSG Courtyard.

Anyway, let me get to the true subject of my post - the talk by Carly Fiorina, which was this evening. Now I must admit I had pretty high expectations. Carly has a reputation for being a good speaker. And she has just published her book and is promoting it (she was signing copies after the event at the COOP). So I expected a few excerpts (of the more exciting points).

So the session starts off with what was a pretty fawning introduction (Carly said thank you for a very "generous" introduction), and if that was not bad enough it was long-winded as well so we cringed through this lengthy speech.

Carly focused her own comments on leadership - business is about the people, so you have to address people issues in leadership and managing change - and uttered truisms about how people are people wherever they are. She alluded to her own departure from the Board but sort of slipped around what happened. Difficult for people who weren't following the fortunes of HP or didn't skim through her book prior to the talk (which I did) to work out what was going on. I can look at it charitably and say that she didn't want to bad-mouth people in public, but I can also say that she wanted to increase the incentive for people to buy the book! And although her book is titled "Tough Choices" she didn't actually tell us about any of these choices except that it was her decision to say openly, despite the bad press it would attract, that she was fired from HP rather than that she had decided to step down.

I suppose my takeaways are as follows:

• Change - it's a slow process, especially in large organisations. Individuals don't like change - it's great in theory, but should preferrably happen to someone else. So needs patience and discipline. Changing during bad times is even worse - more difficult for people to stay the course and easier for them to lose faith in the leader.
• Importance of processes to appraise and enhance the performance of Board members.

She spoke for only about 20 minutes and then there was some Q&A. The two hosts on stage monopolised the Q&A for about half an hour. Unfortunately the fawning host asked some fawning questions. Whilst the other gentleman asked better questions, I must say the student questions were excellent! One asked Carly to respond to unfavourable reviews of her book (in The Economist and Financial Times) which questioned her leadership but she chickened out! and said that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Another asked her to talk about what she felt her weakness was and how she addressed that. She said that her weakness was that she didn't know anything about technology and therefore it was important to have people around her who were good at technology, that it is about being aware of your weakness and having the humility to acknowledge and address it. Again, I see this as a cop-out because I thought that the question pertained to a personal weakness rather than a knowledge gap. (Oh, and she didn't answer the question on whether she intended to run for public office!).

I personally respect Carly and what she has achieved and I do think (from the little I know) that she was hard done by her Board. And maybe after having high expectations it would have been a let-down in any case. So it is a bit of a pity because I do think she had an opportunity to gain supporters (esp if she wanted to run for public office) this evening and it ended up being a bit of a "poor me" session.

An afternoon with JFK

This morning, we went to a new church - Sacred Heart of Jesus, on 6th Street about 15-20 minutes walk away from our hotel. So near and we did not know about it till now!

It is a lovely church - all stark stone outside and very warm and welcoming on the inside. The wall behind the alter is painted a warm crimson colour and this contrasts with the white alter piece.

It was also a most amusing mass. First of all, it was a memorial mass for St Hedwig. Yes, St Hedwig, wife, mother, queen and saint. Who is she, you may ask. As did we. So here's a link to St Hedwig. Her statue in the church was restored by the Polish Veterans' Association and re-dedicated at the mass, and there was a relic of the Saint available for veneration after the mass. The presiding priest is a round, tubby, Friar Tuck-like priest. He has an Irishman's gift of the gab and he showed it in his lengthy, "informal" prayers of intercession. He prayed for ill members of the parish, the two young men who were coming back from Iraq, and so on and so forth. He also speaks fairly quickly - rushed through the Nicean Creed really quickly. In his sermon, he highlighted the generosity of St Hedwig - she endowed monastries and things like that. He linked this up with a request to the congregation to be generous in their offerings....

(Incidentally I have a feeling that Sacred Heart was merged with St Hedwig's Parish, which is why there were also references to how St Hedwig parishoners lost their parish).

In the afternoon, I went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. We went through the museum which is really a multi-media exhibition on JFK's Presidency. It featured a lot of his speeches - he is such a good orator. It also showed a little about his legacy, including of course the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard... It was a strangely moving visit. There was an exhibition room featuring the role of Robert Kennedy as Attorney-General - looks as though his contribution to JFK's short Presidency was substantial. The Kennedys are a truly tragic family. Anyway, I bought replica JFK campaign badges for my room mate and myself. Now I have a JFK badge and a Mao badge, haha!

The Freedom Trail

Last weekend, I went to Lexington and Concord and found out what happened to set off the American Revolution there. This weekend, I walked the Freedom Trail in Boston which tells what set the stage for Revolution and ended off with a visit to the Old North Church. The belfry of the Old North Church was used to signal to Paul Revere and other messengers that the British were moving off by sea ("one if by land, two if by sea"). So in a sense I've travelled through the Revolution story in reverse!

Anyway, it was a pleasant walk through Boston - the first long walk I've actually had here (excluding through Copley Square last week). We started off at the State House, and then went on to the Park Street Church, the Granary Burying Ground, the King's Chapel and Burying Ground, the Old South Meeting House, Faneuil Hall, etc (in total, the trail includes 4 churches/meeting houses and 3 graveyards! Does this reflect the strong Puritan and religious tendencies of the revolutionaries or is it just that what was said in a church was regarded as "sacred"?). We ended off, as I mentioned with a stop at Paul Revere's house and the North End church.

What was a little surprising was that the Old State House actually seems to have a T stop in it! Here is a building which was the seat of the British colonial government, and subsequently became the seat of the state government. The Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony in the front of the building (can see it in the picture). It may now be a museum etc but I wonder that the city planners could not find a more appropriate place to locate the subway stop.

Viva Italia (Part 2)

Today I did the Freedom Trail (which I will talk about more in my next post). We ended at Paul Revere's House and the Old North Church, which was also in the North End, on either side of the street we had dinner at last night. It was nice to see the North End in daylight, for the very first time. So here is the "Connah Store" - for viewing pleasure.

We also did what we left out yesterday, which was go to "Mike's Pastry" to eat 'cannoli's, which are cream/mousse filled tubes which can be chocolate coated or dipped or just plain. I've never seen cannolis before in Italy so it is either a south Italian pastry, or I did not go to enough pastry shops in Italy. Suffice to say that they are very rich and gooey and sinful. It was good on the first bite but I got a little "jelak" about two-thirds of the way through. We also had the best coffee - a cappuccino - that I have had in the US. Foamy milk-topped coffee, with cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa sprinkled on top with a sugar-tipped stirrer. Bellissima!

Viva Italia

The World Cup came to Boston's North End the other week. Unfortunately, it was only a replica - and when the Italian fans found out they were not pleased.

The Italian identity of the North End is strong indeed. Restaurants, gelataria, and pastry shops line the streets. Above us - banners supporting an Italian-American for political office, and banners supporting the Italian football team. In the "Connah Shop", there were T-shirts supporting the World Cup Champions, and with little slogans saying "France Sucks" and "Yankees Suck". Yankees being, of course, the NY baseball team. The chap standing at the entrance to one of the restaurants also looked a little mafia-like, but I suppose that is a wicked stereotype on my part. There's also a Catholic church - St Leonard's on the street.

We were in the North End for dinner - the second time I've been here, but the first time on a Friday night and it was crowded! We went into a few restaurants but there was no place for anyone without a reservation. Finally we went into the "Florentine". We opened the menu and someone goes, "they have a Machiavelli pasta"! Need I add that we are all reading Machiavelli now for our ethics class. So two of my classmates had his pasta, and flung around a few quotations ("it is better to be feared than loved") for good measure. I just had a tagliatelle with seafood. We are not getting much else except chicken, meatballs, sausages, and vegetables at our dinner buffets so every time I go out for dinner I look for some variety.

I personally preferred Bricco, the restaurant we went to on our last outing to the North End to the Florentine. The menu was more interesting and the cooking better overall (I also thought my seafood could be a little fresher). When we went there (must be around a month ago) it was also a lot warmer. The restaurants have large windows which are opened up in warm weather - they were all closed today. Temperatures are starting to fall.

To end off an Italian post on food, it seems appropriate to say a bit about Fig's pizza. Fig's is the budget restaurant of a celebrity chef, Todd English. He is also the owner of a far more expensive and upmarket restaurant, "Olives". Fig's is a small little restaurant on Charles Street. They don't take reservations but you can call ahead to put yourself on the waiting list. So when you actually get there your waiting time is reduced. The pizza is huge! It comes on a rectangular tray (and in our case was flopping off the tray) and is put on a little stand in front of you so the pizza is elevated to just below your face. My room-mate and I had a half-and-half pizza, half figs and prosciutto and half steak and onion rings. We managed to eat about half and took the other half back. Refer my last post on where the left overs ended up.

Ciao!

Dinner Time

There are two good things about our hotel.

First, it not only provides breakfast, it provides dinner. Second, it is possible to take food upstairs to eat. So we hoard food in times of plenty and cook it in times of famine (also known as the weekends, when the dinner reception is not available).

Let me say that the dinner food is not remarkable. Except for the main dish, it is exactly the same every night:

• chips with salsa
• green salad (with vinegar and olive oil on the side, also croutons)
• mixed salad - raw califlower, broccoli, capsicum, baby carrots.
• main dish - could be meatballs, sausage with peppers, tacos, soup, baked potatoes, etc. Comes with bread or rice.
• fruit - green apples, or red apples
• chocolate cake or carrot cake.

We are plenty tired of this menu. But it is amazing how much food ends up in our rooms. So last Friday evening, when we had a pot luck dinner, it ended up something like this:

• fried vegetables I (from the buffet)
• fried vegetables II (someone bought Chinese lettuce and so this dish was actually made up of "original" ingredients)
• cucumber and green apple in vinegar (the cucumber was actually bought)
• red chicken curry (the chicken was from "fajitas night" and the baby carrots in the curry from the buffet)
• fried rice (all ingredients from the buffet)
• Fig pizza (I must admit this was from my doggie bag - went out for dinner the previous Wednesday)
• bread with cheese topping (this was freshly purchased)
• fruit salad with yoghurt dressing

The cooking was quite tasty but it was a little sad eating the same food ... albeit presented in different ways. But the company was good and my classmate hosting us had a tablecloth (!) plus classical music playing in the background (she turned her radio on loudly). So it was a lot more classy, so to speak, than our dining hall.

Breaking News

I was just leaving KSG when I caught a glimpse (in the plasma TV in one of the building lobby areas) of a breaking news report on a small plane crashing into a building in NY city.

My first reaction was of course, shock and a certain sense of deja vu. My second - that I have 8 classmates in New York, 6 of whom stay in the Upper East Side where the plane crashed.

Got back to my room and apparently the plane was flown by a NY Yankees pitcher, Cory Lidle. So it appears there is no connection with terrorism. I also sent out an email to check on the safety of my classmates. It crossed with another email from one of my NYC classmates saying:

My God, thank you very much. A small aircraft crashed a high building near our street today, it is just sited in 524 East, 72th street. And we are living in 301 East, 96th street,East.
Hope my God going on protecting us.

It was good to hear from him. Of course as a member of the Communist Party he is not supposed to believe in God but one should not quibble about such things at times like these. Especially since today's gospel is on the "Our Father" (Lk 11:1-4) so indeed the Lord has protected them.