Trieste

Hi all

I ended up taking an unexpected trip to Trieste Italy today. I have to go to either Trieste or Zagreb for my temporary residency however today I was woken up by a text from a friend of mine wanting to know if I would like to go to Trieste today, seeing as I had no other real plans my answer was a lively YES I WOULD LOVE TO GO!!! One hour later I found myself on the way to Italy (which was slightly amazing as I had no plans and then all of a sudden I find myself on the way to another country (and Italy at that)). The trip down was very uneventful except for the fact that this friend of mine is German so we were doing about 180 - 190 on the highway (the usual 1.5 hour trip was over in less then a hour), direct quote from the driver "these roads are much too nice to go the posted limit of 130 I don't even know why they bother posting speed limits at all".

The city was beautiful and there were so many things to see and do, I am afraid that my pictures do not do this beautiful city justice. Of course the first thing that we had to do after arriving was go for a coffee as it was already 10 and we had not even had our first coffee (a crime in Slovenia). Plus Trieste produces 40% of the coffee that Italy drinks so we had to try it. We ambled towards the this town square (the bottom photo) where we sat in the sun and enjoyed an Cappuccino and the pigeons, it is a little strange there were so many pigeons around and no one really seemed to care.

After we had our coffee we headed out to look around and do a little shopping however we found out that the stores were open from 9:30 until 13:30 then closed until 15:30 and were opened until 21:30 so as a result we ended up just wandering around. Also interestingly the streets were pretty empty for most of the day however after 17:30 the city really came alive and there were tones of people around shopping, going for coffee and just hanging out. I wish that I would have been able to take a picture however by that point my camera's batteries had already died

You are never really able to entirely capture the moment with a camera but in the case of the picture with the pillars this could not be more true. Picture this organ music coming from a little church that was behind us, the smell of the sea wafting up towards us and the warm sunshine raining down on us. Really there is nothing that can capture that.

Trieste only has a population of a little over 200000 people but it is built on a hill so you spend much of your time climbing hills and there are lots of little narrow ally ways it is really a remarkable city and I can't wait to return and explore it some more.

Night view from the Castle overlooking the city

Hi all

I apologize for the quality of these photos, I am still not very good with the camera and I don't have a tripod so these turned out a little blurry. I will attempt to make it up to the castle during the day to take some day photos plus take some photos in the castle as there are a lot of things to see and do.

Random wanderings along Lushnje hills

Hey family!!!

Here are some pictures of my random wanderings and animals that we see lots!!!!

University of Ljubljana

Hi All

As per request here are some pictures of my facility. The university here in Ljubljana is not set up like a normal university, all the facilities are not located in the same area they area actually located all over the city. These are pictures of the Economics facility. I apologize as I am still not very good at taking pictures so I have not really been able to do justice to the facility but at least this gives you an idea.

Hot Choco/coffee madness

Wes - the pictures look great - you've got some large mountains over there in Slovenia! Is that a river or a canal we're looking at? Have you added some shots of the University - if so, which ones are they? It would be great to see you in some of the shots too - is that a possibility?

hekebeR (the REALLY correct spelling!) I can understand your jealousy about the REAL hot chocolate that big brother is enjoying - that sounds wonderful (and probably tastes even better!) - must be nice to have the REAL stuff - wish we had that in S.K.!!

Your parents are doing well - we miss going out for coffee - we're just too busy with our lesson preparation and marking - its part of the culture here - plus, there are too few good coffeee shop alternatives here at Handong (a total of 3 on the whole campus - let alone the surrounding area!). Oh well, such is life! Speaking of lesson preps., its time to get going again!

Take care, fellow roamers!!!!

It's off to Seoul on the weekend

Goodmorning fellow travellers. Your father and I are off to Seoul this weekend for an ESL conference. We are looking forward to seeing the big city again. On Friday at precisely 3:00pm we will be in the car and driving to Daegu where we will take the fast train to Seoul. I will try to remember to take the camera this time so that I can take some pictures to add here. The conference runs from Saturday morning to Sunday late afternoon. The main speaker is David Nunan. Dad and I used one of his books in the past which we really liked. I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

Speaking of books - anyone reading an interesting book. I'm reading one on marriage - The Mystery of Marriage. Really good. Someday after you are all married, I suggest that you read it with your spouse.

Have yourselves a good day.
MOM

If anyone believes that biochemists/microbiologists have no sense of humour, then they don't know the ridiculous names they chose for proteins. For example, have you had problems with your Boss? your Boss gene of course. This gene is important for the development of the fruit fly eye, and it is actually an acronym (they all are) for "bride of sevenless", and if you happen to marry the 'bride' then you will probably have the sos gene, the"son of sevenless". Fruit fly researchers appear to be slightly crazy, as they have a wonderful habit of strange names for the genes and their subsequent mutations: ex. Thick veins mutants have defects in their gut, wings and eyes (I wonder if their 'bride' or 'sons' were eating too much fast food). Or you could have a saxophone mutant, which has defects in its back, and nothing to do with its musical ability. My favorite gene so far is the mad gene, which when mutated corrects the Thick veins and saxophone mutant (not too sure how it does it, but it does). These two mutations are linked to a gene called the decapentaplegic gene (ah latin, you gottta love it). So what does the mad acronym stand for . . ."mothers against decapentaplegic" of course (no jokes, that's what it stands for) . . . SIGH, sometimes I think that researches have way too much time on their hands to think up these stupid names . . . at least I'll be able to remember these names better than the ActRII, ActRIIB genes which should not be confused with ActRI which can also be called ALK4. SIGH.