Phoenix and South Burlington

On Wednesday, I went out to dinner with friends Anne, Shawn, Jane and Cathy.  We had an excellent dinner at the Windsor on Central Ave. in Phoenix.  They are part of the same group that operates Federal Pizza and two other eateries nearby.  I had a heirloom tomato salad with a crabcake BLT sandwich - along with a pitcher of Stella Artois.  A very nice evening indeed.

I continued to be overwhelmed with trying to get prepared for fall classes. 

Friday morning I policed the grounds at the Carlyle - it brought back memories of policing the grounds on military bases and F.O.D. walks.  A Carlyle resident regularly volunteers to walk the property and pick up trash.  While she is gone, a couple of us board members volunteered to fill in and Friday morning was my day.  Friday afternoon, I drove to Tucson and taught my Business Law class there Friday evening.  Same for Saturday.  We finished class about 3:00, then I drove back to Phoenix.  Saturday evening was consumed with packing.  I slept (with many interruptions)  from about 9:00 to 2:30 Sunday morning.

Sunday was a long day.  My Super Shuttle reservation picked up on time at 3:30 a.m. for my 5:00 a.m. flight to Houston.  I was upgraded on that flight, but not on the flight from Houston to Washington DC - but that was okay because it was an older Boeing 767 and the Economy Plus aisle seat had plenty of room.  I did have a talkative seatmate (for me to say that, you know she was really talkative).  The flight from DC to Burlington was delayed two hours, so I got home about 8:30 p.m.  One interesting thing I saw was this sign at the Houston airport which reminded me of the wine tourism (enotourismo) class we did in Brazil.

 

Monday, I went to donate platelets at the American Red Cross.  Usually, the total time is about two hours and twenty to thirty minutes.  Monday was closer to three hours and twenty minutes.  One issue was that the return needle into my left arm did not go properly into the vein.  They gave me the option of putting that needle in my wrist vein.  That was done and I eventually went through the pheresis procedure.  While the vein is better to see and easier to tap into, it also has more nerves and therefore can be felt more - not painful, but I knew it was attached for two hours.

Monday also had another event at home.  Before going to the Red Cross, I was taking a shower and there was low flow of water which got worse as the shower progressed.  I was barely able to rinse the soap off.  Our condo is one of four in the building (all of the Quarry Ridge condos are in buildings of four condos).  There are no water or sewer meters and those fees are paid for by our monthly condo fees.  Contractors were working on the unit on the other end of our building and turned off the water because they were taking out the old kitchen and installing a new kitchen. The water for the entire building comes in through that unit - they turned off the water for all four condos, rather than just the condo where they were working.  Had we been notified, we would not have used the water. Having not been notified, I kept going with my shower - this caused a pressure imbalance in our system and caused one of the pressure relief valves to blow and spray water all over the furnace and floor in the furnace room.  It took all day for Vermont Gas to get  a repairman here and to tell us that everything worked as it should - except that the water release ruined the pilot light actuator and one smart valve because they are operated electrically and the water shorted them out.  The bill will be sent to the other homeowner and contractor.

And so it goes.  Tomorrow, I will be at Habitat Restore driving the truck and making pickups of donations.  Thursday, we are going to a highly rated Vermont brewery in Goldsboro, VT.  Friday is my first meeting of my on campus class at JSC.  Friday night it is wine tasting in Charlotte.  And Saturday is another day at Habitat ReStore. No special plans yet for Labor Day weekend.

We are planning a trip to Peru in April with Fuller Center for the Build and I am looking at going to Spain in February for more time with Vaughan Town.  And maybe even plan for going to Mongolia in the summer for their Blue Sky build (June 29 - July 5) and a regular build in the two weeks after that (July 5 - 19), then time visiting northwest Mongolia mountains and lakes - only time will tell which of these possible trips will happen.

Madrid and Phoenix

Friday afternoon, after our sumptuous lunch at El Rancho, we had a quick and relatively quiet ride back to Madrid.  Everyone on the bus said their goodbyes (some of the Spaniards drove home, so they said goodbye at El Rancho before we boarded the bus to Madrid).

After getting off the bus and saying goodbye, Stewart and I took a cab to Plaza Santa Ana for his hotel and I walked the two blocks to Hotel Moderno where I was staying.

Room 301 is a nice, quiet interior room at Hotel Moderno

Friday evening, I spent another evening at the Friday Night English Speaking Group at Los Rotos Restaurant on Calle Infantas 6.  Richard had copied a NASA problem for us to discuss and prioritize what was needed to survive on the moon if you became separated from the moon colony.  While that was nice, the discussion later free formed into an excellent discussion of politics in Spain, the EU and the United States.

For most of the weekend, I read and did some school work.  While out walking, I discovered that there was a street that had four stores for stamp collectors - this was a side street on the north side of Plaza Mayor.  When my friend Terry B. was here, we visited the large stamp collector store that is in Plaza Mayor, but we did not notice this side street - so I had to take pictures for him and email them to him.

On Sunday, several of the Vaughan Town attendees met at Mercado San Anton.  I had suggested that we do this, but never got a feeling that there was a commitment to do so - thus, I missed a chance to meet with them one more time.  Instead, I went for a walk to Retiro Park.  I found a shaded bench and sat to read.  Much to my surprise, in spite of several adjoining benches filled with Spaniards, I was interrupted by Spaniards asking for directions to the lake in the park.  I was surprised that they asked an American, that I was able to understand them and to give them directions.  This happened not just once, but twice in less than 30 minutes - it made me wonder if I looked like a Madrileno.  I later had a brief visit to see the artworks in Palacio Velasquez and the Crystal Palace, both in the middle of Retiro Park - the displays change on a regular basis and both were things I had not seen before.

Monday was a lllloooonnnngggg day.  I got up at 5:00, showered, shaved and checked out of the hotel by 6:30.  I took the Metro to the airport and the Aerlingus desk was not yet open.  I had a brief breakfast, and then got in line.  Thus, I was near the front of the line.  I was fortunate to get an exit row aisle seat on the flight to Dublin on an A320- however, nothing was free; even bottled water and soft drinks had to be paid for.  Also, no sales of alcoholic beverages on this flight.  I had a nice lunch at the Dublin airport - but they had no charging stations anywhere in the airport.  There were a few outlets around, but the plug adapter that works in Spain is not the adapter needed in Dublin - so I recharged the phone from my laptop battery.  I have started using the Kindle reader on my phone more and wanted to be able to read on the plane.  On the A330 Aerlingus flight from Dublin to Chicago, I was able to get an aisle bulkhead row seat that was across from an exit row.  Decent lunch and snacks, with soft drinks and coffee were free - I did pay for wine with the chicken and rice lunch.

I got quickly through immigration, customs and TSA at Chicago - they now have self operated kiosks for immigration purposes.  The kiosk spits out a receipt with the entry stamp on it, rather than the entry stamp in your passport.  I still had to go see an immigration inspector, apparently because I was out of the USA for so long and had visited and transited so many countries - he was especially interested about passing through Kyrgyzstan but no questions about China or Mongolia.

My flight from Chicago to Phoenix was a code share flight operated by United, so I had no problem getting an exit row aisle seat, and I was able to sleep most of the flight.  I arrived at our condo around 11:00 p.m. - some 27 hours after rising in Madrid.

Tuesday was a quiet day of unpacking, laundry, getting all of the held mail (and sorting through it) - and then there was the HOA board meetings (both executive and open) for our condo association.  The meetings were interesting as I was the one taking the minutes, as well as participating in the meetings as a board member.

Today it is more adjusting to the changes caused by nine time zones, school work and getting things together to bring back to Vermont - my suitcase already is nearly full with the clothes I had brought from Vermont, but also from the many books and materials I need to bring to Vermont.  The joys of being an itinerant college instructor - I think I will start cutting back on teaching in 2014 so I can have more time to exercise and travel.

Our last day at Vaughan Town

We finished another wonderful week of Vaughan Town el Rancho Hotel in Torrecaballeros, Segovia, Spain.   Such interesting and warm people.

Aurora from Avila, married to a widower.  Now she has a big home in Avila and two step-children.  Her grandfather was a Legionnaire.  She wants to make the world a better place.

Jose Manuel from Madrid who works in internet advertising and marketing - I love his idea of holding Vaughan Town where we can ski or where we can scuba dive (how about a one on one underwater?).

Esther, born in Colombia, lived in Curacao and several places in Europe, including now in Valencia where she gives tours.  Great salsa dance leader and much fun to be with.

Andrew from Portsmouth, England.  He is such a delightful and energetic young man. I love his piano playing, guitar playing and his playful spirit.  And he displays amazing maturity for someone so young.

Trinidad (Trini) from Alicante and Murcia - a part of Spain I need to visit.  How nice that she has come to Vaughan Town twice now.

Sandra is a dynamic young woman, born in Alexandria, Egypt and now lives in the US.  She speaks Arabic, knows how to belly dance, is a true romantic.  I hope she will visit us in Vermont when she is in Albany.

Borja works at the el Cortes Ingles travel agency and has many great suggestions for future trips within Spain.  I hope he realizes his dreams and can move up in the company.

Rafael is a university lecturer and an economist for a bank.  He is very smart and well spoken.  I loved his presentation on math and numbers.

Ruth hails from England but has traveled the world, and has lived in Indonesia.  I did not get much chance to talk with her, but would like to learn more about her travels.  She is very energetic.

Stewart is from Scotland and has the best haircut, next to mine.  He now lives on the island of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands.  We shared many fine jokes over drinks.

Carmen is an account manager and has taught flamenco.  We had many wonderful discussions and she is a very warm and kind person.  She also wants to make the world a better place for all.

Isabel loves travel and has been to Kyoto, Japan.  She lives in Malaga.  I enjoyed our discussions and that we sat together for our final meal at el Rancho where we shared bread, olive oil and salt.

John has lived in the Congo, loves travel and is now a teacher in Madrid.  He is quiet but strong and helpful.  His wry sense of humour is contagious, as is his sly smile.

Gabriella is Danish, has family in Texas, has worked in Ireland, Belarus and Russia.  She now lives with her husband and 3 year old in Belarus.  I loved the story she told about being from Belarus and going through US immigration.

Adrian if from A Coruna in Galicia.  His office is in the building where the Ave train crashed killing 78 people.  He is a civil engineer and we had great discussions about water treatment plants, wastewater, and stormwater runoff.

Rose is from Edmonton, Alberta, CA.  She is retired and came to Vaughan Town with her daughter, Lori.  She is down to earth and we had several fine conversations.

Lori now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada - but has lived in many places.  I think it is great that she made this trip with her mom, Rose.  She has a sparkling personality.

Gonzalo is from Madrid and is very quiet - but don't let that fool you.  He is very articulate and helpful.

Inez is from Madrid and is a vegetarian - yet she managed to put up with all of us carnivores, including those who ordered the roast suckling pig and lamb.  She is mercurial and has a contagious smile.

Jens is Danish, runs marathons and is a translator living and working in Luxembourg.  He is very bright and is multilingual - he sometimes slipped into Spanish more than desired.  But full of energy and great fun to have around.

Raquel is from Zaragosa, likes to dance and cook.  She is full of energy and works so hard at learning English.  She is very persistent and works hard to reach her goals.

Antonio lives in Madrid and likes football.  I am glad I sat next to him today, as I got the chance to talk more with him and to share some of the roast lamb he ordered.  He is a solid person on whom you can rely.

David is from Liverpool, has an amazing accent, and likes travel and teaching.  The improv he did with the different phrases pronounced in his northern England accent was amazing. He also has a great sense of humour.

Alfonso is an international coffee buyer.  He gave a great presentation about Valladolid which convinces me I need to visit there.  He will become a father this fall when his daughter is born - congratulations and good luck.

Katy is from Birmingham, England.  She can be shy at times, but faced her fears and sang in a most brilliant manner for us. She is a delightful lady to spend time with.

Mary D. is from London and is another multi-lingual person.  Since she is a teacher, she is free during the summer to do things like Vaughan Town - I hope she does more Vaughan Town sessions.

Iciar is from Madrid and works for a Scottish pharmaceutical company.  She is very quiet but very friendly and helpful.

Joaquin is from Madrid, loves Real Madrid and travels a lot for his own media company.  He is heading to Asia soon for his job.

Justin is from Donnegal, Ireland (originally from Belfast).  He has many talents - including dancing in women's clothes as part of a skit.

Mary M. is from Dublin, Ireland, where she teaches.  She is a delightful young lass, who showed many of us how to do Irish dancing.

Antonia is from Madrid.  We had a delightful one-to-one today where we went to Bar Patas and she taught me about Orense and Ourense, Coruna and A Coruna, and how the best seafood in Spain is in Ourense.  This makes me more sure that I want to hike the via de la plata from Ourense to Santiago next year - this is a trip that I have been discussing with my wife and other friends.

Dino was our Vaughan Town Program Director.  He is full of energy, is quite playful, is a good dancer and kept us on schedule.  Originally from Chicago, because he also holds Greek citizenship, he can work in the EU.

And finally, Julie, our delightful emcee.  I have been on other programs with her and it has always been a delight - this time was wonderful.  I hope to go on more programs with her. 

Mary M., Adrian, Andrew, Raquel, David

Mary M., Ysabel, Antonio, Rose, Lori, Sandra, Jens, Adrian, Andrew, Raquel, David

Lori, Jose, Ruth, Antonia, Rafael, Julie

Jose, Antonia, Julie, Dino, Justin, Katy, Gonzalo,

Joaquin, Mary D., Inez, John, Aurora

Antonio's roast suckling leg of lamb

Cochinillo - roast suckling pigs

Shrimp and octopus on skewers, with fried onion strings - a great last lunch at el Rancho

Videos from the Salsa dance class

Here are the videos of the Salsa dance classes, as taught by Esther.

And here is the grand finale.

Wednesday's scavenger hunt in Segovia

On Wednesday, we we went by bus to Segovia for a scavenger hunt.  My group included Antonia, Aurora and Jens.  The goal was to take pictures of 13 different things during the 90 minutes we were in the city - and the photos were supposed to be creative and funny.

Iglesia de Corpus Christi

Iglesia de Corpus Christi

The cathedral

The Roman Aqueduct

A photo with tourists not from Vaughan Town

A photo in a shop with a a shopkeeper

Calle Real

El Hidalgo Restaurant

Plaza Mayor

Beer and tapas

Monday and Tuesday at el Rancho

We had the usual one on one sessions, telephone sessions and conference calls.  We had a pub quiz after dinner Monday night.  The food continues to be excellent with more seafood dishes.

We had a session where the Anglos each had two minutes to talk about why their home towns were interesting.  In another group session, each group of six (three Anglos and three Spaniards) came up with ten interesting things that all six had done.  And the last session before dinner Tuesday was our first entertainment session.  I gave a short presentation about Habitat for Humanity and building homes in Mongolia, we had three short skits and Esther gave us a salsa dance lesson, both solo and pairs.  I will upload the videos later because the internet here at el Rancho is not the greatest.

From Madrid to El Rancho

I had a quiet, but busy weekend in Madrid - quiet, trying to get readjusted to the six hour time difference from Mongolia and the 25 hours of traveling; busy,trying to get school work done.  I stayed at Hotel Moderno, a very nice hotel just off Puerto del Sol for just $59 per night.

Washroom by the breakfast area

One of the lounges at the Moderno

Another lounge at the Moderno

Friday night, I went to the English Speaking Group at Los Rotos restaurant and bar, Calle Infantas 6.  As usual, this was a fun evening of talking in English and playing word games.  I hope to go again this coming Friday after I return from Vaughan Town.

Los Rotos is a very nice restaurant and bar, the ESG uses a large dining area in the basement

Saturday evening, I went to the tapas reception for Vaughan Town at El Serpentin Restaurant in the Eurobuilding 2, Calle Orense 69.  This week, there are two Vaughan Town sessions, one in Rascafria, and the one I am going to at el Rancho in Torrecaballeros.  We got to meet many of the Anglos who would be attending the sessions.

Sunday morning, we all gathered at the Eurobuilding on time and took the short 75 minute ride to El Rancho.  Since we did not stop for coffee on the way, it meant we got to the hotel early and had to wait to get our rooms.  Our accommodations are excellent and a big step up from what we had in Mongolia.

Nice large beds with comfortable mattresses

Nice sitting area in my room

Attractive art work

Desk and flat   screen TV

Both a full tub and a separate shower

 

My room is about 15 feet (5 meters) by 30 feet (10 meters) and the bath is about 15 feet by 9 feet - this is a really large hotel room, even by US standards and especially for European standards.  I definitely feel like I am being treated very well.

There is a gorgeous infinity pool and since the temps this week are in the 90s, I am sure it will be well used if time permits.  The only limitation is that it is only open from 11:00 to 8:00, so there is not much time when we can use the pool.

Raquel, Ruth and I were the first ones to use the pool on Sunday afternoon

The hotel complex has about ten buildings.  This is the hallway in front of the spa; the spa is open in cold weather and the pool is open in hot weather, so no spa this week.

This is one of three bars at El Rancho and is located in the main building where our rooms are located.

Omat the bartender hard at work

The construction of the buildings has many beautiful beams exposed to view

As with my prior visit, the food is excellent.  People make the 75 minute drive from Madrid to eat here - one of the Spaniards had an unexpected visit when the company where her husband works in Madrid decided to have the husbands management group come here for lunch.

Iciar, Mary and Adrian enjoying lunch

Perch was one of the many fish dishes I had

If this is Friday, I must be in Madrid

Back in Ulaanbaatar, I stayed at the Epos Hotel again.  Early Wednesday morning, I spent a couple of hours chatting via Skype with my daughter in Alaska and my wife in Vermont. I got caught up on some things, including this blog, email and some school work (I still have much to do, especially for the fall semester).  I discovered that the Epos Hotel staff will not clean your room while you are there - you must leave the room and let them know you are out.  So Wednesday morning, I went for a walk.  First stop was the Post Office to buy stamps and mail postcards back to the USA.  I sent five on Aug. 7 - it will be interesting to see how many get there and how long it takes.

I continued west on Peace Avenue to the State Department Store - six floors of stores of all kinds.  After a short tour of the lower two floors, I headed back east on Peace Avenue. I happened to run into Peter - he was out running errands, but the next place on his list did not open for another 20 minutes.  We decided to have a cup of coffee and kill time.  Since my son Ben, daughter-in-law Martha and my daughter's boyfriend Jon run marathons, I thought getting a photo of the 40K Bistro would make them happy.  Peter had been here before and was surprised to see the new coffee machine with discs - this is a competitor of the K-cups we see in the USA.

 

I then returned to the Epos and basically chilled for the rest of the day. I had dinner at the hotel and was accosted by a voluble and friendly, but somewhat intoxicated, Mongolian attorney who wants to send his son to law school in the USA.  It took several minutes, but I managed to extricate myself politely from the discussion.  He works as a staff attorney for the Mongolian Parliament.

Thursday, I was up early.  I wanted to get to the airport when the Turkish Airlines desk opened.  Torgu, the HFH driver, picked me as scheduled at 7:00 and the traffic was light.  I arrived plenty early - enough to have a juice and sandwich at the coffee shop.

The sign in the International Departures area was a bit disconcerting.

The cities and actions are in Mongolian - not much help to an Anglo like me

The good news is that the sign regularly goes back and forth between Mongolian and English.

I was the first person to check luggage all the way through to Madrid and get my boarding pass - but only for TK 343 from Ulaanbaatar to Istanbul.  I got an aisle seat near the front of the economy section and the middle seat was empty on the Boeing 737-800 - this was not an exit row, but not a bad seat.  Turkish Airlines did have very good service on both legs of Flight 343 - I had pasta and red wine from Ankara on the leg from Ulaanbaatar to Bishkek and pasta and white wine on the longer leg from Bishkek to Istanbul.

All deplaning passengers had to go through the Turkish version of TSA before entering the terminal.  So I stood in the long line and after about 15 minutes found out that since I did not have the boarding pass for the flight to Madrid, I had to go to a different location.  It took about 30 minutes to get the new boarding pass and go through security.  I was thirsty, so went to a cafe to get a 12 ounce can of Diet Coke - the register brings the price up in multiple currencies, and it was $5.12 for one can.  I gave $6.00 US and got one Turkish Lira in change.  And then it was a very long walk to the gate - many "Duty Free" vendors trying to sell everything possible.  And my gate was clearly at the far end of the terminal.  While there were many gates where you can walk directly from the gate onto the plane, there were four gates for international departures where you had to board buses, ride to the plane, and then climb up stairs into the plane.  While I was assigned an aisle seat, the exit row was empty on this Airbus 321and the flight attendant allowed me to move there; while the economy section of this plane had three seats on each side, the exit row had only two - the window seat was not there.  This was nice, as I had the row to myself.  Again, good service by the Turkish Airlines personnel and a nice dinner of chicken, rice and white wine.

Madrid immigration, luggage retrieval and customs were quick and easy, and rather than taking the Metro as I usually do, I took a taxi - it was already 24 hours since I had gotten up Thursday morning and it was nearly midnight Madrid time by the time I got to the hotel.  I had been told by friends who live in Madrid that it is too hot to stay in the city during August.  The high temps are in the mid to upper 90s F, mid 30s C.  I am very happy that Hotel Moderno has air conditioning - I actually had to adjust the temp upwards in my room - it was actually too cold, even for an old polar bear like me.

And so I will be doing more school work today, going to the ESG (English Speaking Group) tonight and the tapas reception for Vaughan Town on Saturday - then Sunday off to El Rancho Hotel in Torrecabelleros, Segovia, for six days of speaking English.