My morning routine (well, for 2 weeks so far anyway): Wake up. Fall back asleep. Wake up again and finally drag my ‘older-by-the-day ass’ out of bed. Pee (horror! Yes, I urinate, just like you). Down some orange juice.  Check email for what should be only a half hour, but invariably ends up being more than an hour…just have to respond to one more…or, ugh, two hours. Throw on some running togs.  Check email one more time. Finally, pull myself away from this damn black hole and out the door for a run along the majestic ocean-like Lakefront. Once outside, I can’t believe I wasted so much time inside when it is just so damn beautiful out.

Springtime in Chicago. Birds are chirping. People are masticating their meaty burgers (sounds dirty) around Rush Street at outdoor cafes (crap, it’s lunchtime already). The lakefront is peppered with Chicagoans (who obviously ‘work’ my hours) running, walking, blading, playing Frisbee, tossing a football around, walking their dainty dogs whose legs pitter-patter down the path like tiny motors,  and other general lazing about like lying in the sand in a bikini soaking up spring’s first warm rays of Vitamin D.  It’s wonderful. It’s infectious.  it’s my tonic. I can’t help, but take a seat on the edge of the lakefront path between North Avenue Beach and Oak Street Beach and just soak it all in – the gorgeous city views, people having fun just being outdoors and alive, the parents playing with their kiddies under the trees.  I love this place. And apparently so do all these other people.  Okay, I’ve said it before and perhaps repeated myself here, but Chicago has a piece of my heart.  I have never lived in a place where the people love their city so much (honestly, nearly everyone I am catching up with repeatedly shares this same attitude) and embrace it so fiercely at the first sign of not needing a scarf.

Once the warm weather hits here, you would never know we are a northern city. Nearly every place has either outdoor seating, or a rooftop deck, or big ‘glass garage doors’ that fly open to let the outside in.  From Chipotle to Dublin’s Pub to Ace Hardware (yes…they even put out their for-sale patio table sets on the sidewalk and in true Chicago form…people sit in them for a coffee break), they become outdoor hangouts. In a few days span, we went from big down jackets to flip flops and shorts.

I realized today, that no matter how bad I feel or what’s going on to bring me down, a dose of the lakefront is all I need. Thank you Chicago.

Bugle Player, St. Mary’s Church
Krakow, Poland

This week, Chicago’s huge Polish community is mourning the loss of Poland’s president and dozens of political, military, and religious leaders who died in a plane crash on Saturday in Russia. Ninety-six passengers died in the crash which occurred in a thick fog near the Katyn forest, where Josef Stalin’s secret police in 1940 systematically executed thousands of Polish military officers in the western Soviet Union.  President Lech Kaczynski and those aboard the plane were actually heading there to honor the dead.

Approximately one million Chicagoans are said to be from Poland or of Polish descent.  It’s been said that Chicago has the second highest population outside of Warsaw.

See more about my time in Poland here.

While spending a few days at my cousins’ place in Bloomington, I met a new and wonderful man. His name was Flat Stanley.  It turns out he was a traveler just like me. *Sigh*

In 1995, Dale Hubert, a 3^rd Grade teacher in London, Ontario, Canada, began the Flat Stanley Project based on the 1964 book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. The project connects children and classrooms around the world via a character who, in the original story, gets squashed accidentally by a bulletin board (ouch!) and then discovers he is flat enough to fit inside an envelope and travel the world (hmmm…where can I find a big bulletin board?!).   Students who participate in the project read the book and then design their own flat character and send him to children, friends, or family in other states or countries.  Those children then write about their special visitor and his adventures with his hosts.

Now teachers and their students around the world are getting to know Flat Stanley and each other.  In 2005, more than 6,000 classes from 47 countries took part in the Flat Stanley Project

Back in Bloomington, Michael and Nancy received their very own Flat Stanley from their goddaughter Faye, a second grader at Increase Miller Elementary School in Golden’s Bridge, New York.

We took him around town, photographing him in front of the Indiana University Stadium and other local landmarks.  I think I scared my cousins with my crush on this two-dimensional, mini-man and maybe got a little ‘too’ creative with my ideas.

I asked Michael, “Why don’t we photograph him lying on the ground next to an empty bottle of Jack Daniels or exiting a strip club with a black bar superimposed over his eyes?”  Perhaps Flat Stanley got into some trouble here in B-ton. He is a bit of a bad boy, ya know.  Yeah, I guess not the message we wanted to send back to the second graders.

Okay, so instead of in front of local landmarks, I thought, why couldn’t we be different and photograph him in front of the suburban mundane: Flat Stanley in front of ‘our’ local pharmacy. It’s a place called C-V-S, kids!  Or Flat Stanley in front of the local Hooters or in front of the Kinko’s Copy shop—where he actually feels quite at home for some reason.

He was cute, a tad petite, but still huggable just the same.  He was a little two dimensional for me, but so are some of the guys I date. Ba. Dum. Bum.

But in the end, we had to bid ‘Flat’ farewell as he had to go back into his manila envelope, back to New York, and back to the classroom.

Thank you for making me laugh. I will miss you Flat Stanley.

Here is Nancy’s letter that she sent back to Faye with Flat Stanley.

Dear Faye,

Hello to all of the Second Graders at Increase Miller!! We had a great weekend with Flat Stanley!  Michael’s cousin, Lisa, was here and she fell a little bit in love with him.  I’m sorry we didn’t get any pictures of her with Flat Stanley.  She has traveled around the world and has a blog called, www.LLWorldTour.com.

He came to visit us in Bloomington, Indiana—the home of Indiana University.  So we went to the football stadium.  It was empty now but is filled with thousands of screaming fans and students in the fall.  We aren’t sports fans so usually try to avoid it.

Flat Stanley really wanted to see where Michael keeps his sailboat.  No one can believe that we have such a wonderful, large lake for sailing.  It’s called Lake Monroe and is a reservoir that has the City of Bloomington’s water supply.  They flooded a small town named Paynetown about 50 years ago to make the lake.  They moved everybody to new houses first, though.  As you can see, there are no boats out yet, but Michael will put his boat out in a couple of weeks.  Yeah!

We were so happy that Flat Stanley got to see the buffalo.  They live on the way to visit my father, who was just 94 years old.  The buffalo are very large and hairy.  I’m sure they get really hot in the summer.

Next to the buffalo is Flat Stanley in front of the entrance to the Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhist Monastery.  We actually have two Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in Bloomington.  The Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibetan Buddhists, has family here and comes to Bloomington when he is in America.  I’m taking a class with him in May.  This is very special.

The last picture is Flat Stanley in front of the Monroe Country Court House.  We have a lovely square around the court house with lots of stores and restaurants.  The inside of the court house has a wonderful painted ceiling.  It was too dark for Flat Stanley to see so we’ll have to visit when you come to see us in Bloomington.

Lots of Love,

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Michael

What kind of bag to bring?

The backpack vs. the suitcase. Many, many travelers prefer the big backpack that you can hoist on to  your body and be hands free and on the move on stairs, trains, boats, etc.   A small suitcase with wheels (rollerboard) can also be fine if you are not roughing it too much and not going off the well-trodden path—basically anywhere with pavement (and not too many cobblestones) where you can still wheel your bag about.   And being the indecisive gal that I am, I went for both. My bag is a suitcase with wheels, but also converts into a backpack if necessary. It has a daypack that zips to the front of it that I can remove once I’m settled in a town and touring around for the day. But I also had to bring a medium sized backpack because of my larger camera and other electronic goodies. Only a few times did I have to use my suitcase as a backpack: in Costa Rica when I had to board a motor boat in knee-high water, boarding some ferries with very steep stairs (very hard to lift my bag up these without toppling over), and on the rocky, gravely roads in Puerto Montt, Chile hiking uphill to my hotel.

What to Pack?

You’ve heard it time and time again: less is more.

Two of the most important things to remember:

**Everywhere you go, you can normally buy things that you might need and oftentimes cheaper than in the US.
**People do laundry all over the world…and so can you. Pack clothes only for about one week or less.

Random Packing Tips:

1. Easy Luggage Tags—Use a business card or return address labels. TMI: don’t put home address—that’s just too much information. The best thing—have your email address and/or mobile phone number (your home phone number won’t do much good when you’re away, will it?)
2. Contain and Separate: Use those vacuum-seal compression plastic bags for your clothes – the ones that you seal like a Ziploc bag and roll up to force the air out. I had one smaller one for t-shirts and a larger one for long sleeve shirts. I also use a couple Eagle Creek packing ‘cubes’ – one for underwear and one for pants. Not only do these save space in your pack, they help you keep your sanity every time you pack and unpack and pack and unpack again.  This way, you don’t really have to think – you just keep everything in the same place all the time. Trust me, it makes life much easier this way.
3. Less is best:  Pack what you think you need and then eliminate half of it. Remember, you will be dealing with all this crap everyday. It is your home and your best friend. You don’t need the added mental stress of worrying if your pack will close each and everyday. Or worrying what kind of overcharges you will incur because your bag exceeds the airlines’ lovely limit. Plus you need to leave a little space for things you may pick up along the way (even though on longer adventures – you will have to mail most things home).

Clothes:

No matter how long your trip, pack the clothes you need for less than a week. This is a suggested list close to mine – give or take, more or less (tailor to your trip/weather):

• 2-3 pairs of cargo/hiking pants
• 1 pair jeans
• 3 pairs of shorts
• 1 sports bra
• 2-3 bras
• 10 pairs undies
• 1 bikini
• 1 pair boxers/PJs
• 1 running top
• 1 pair of running shorts
• 0-1 sweater
• 1 fleece zip top
• 4 pairs socks
• 4 t-shirts
• 4 tank tops
• 1 short-sleeve button down shirt
• 1 skirt
• 2 long sleeve athletic tops
• 1 baseball hat
• 1 pair nicer sandals
• 1 pair hiking sandals
• 1 pair flip-flops (great to wear around grotty-floored hostels)
• 1 pair Cole Haan/Nike Hiking Boots
• 1 pair New Balance Sneakers
• 1 jean jacket/light jacket/or just use fleece
• 1 packable rain jacket(a must and one of my faves in Central/South America and rainy spots)

(When I did find myself in colder climates, I simply bought a cheap coat, scarf and hat at a street market.)

Other items that are sure to help:

• Small micro fiber quick dry towel: great for those hostels that don’t supply towels
• Sleep sack (sheet sewn together on 3 sides like a sleeping bag): great for those hostels where you just don’t trust the sheets
• A couple locks (I always locked my bag when leaving it in my room if there was no storage locker)
• A couple scented tea light candles: to freshen up those stinky rooms
• Swiss Army knife or Multi-tool
• Mini roll of duct tape: 1001 uses including patching holes in screens to keep out the mozzies!
• Half a roll of toilet paper squished flat: a necessity in some spots of S. America and Asia
• A couple Ziploc bags: so many uses!
• Timex Watch: also plays roll of Alarm Clock (I pretty much wore mine non-stop…even to bed. Except if I slept with my arm under my pillow—then I’d miss the alarm. But it’s great and of course—takes a licking and keeps on ticking)

Toiletries:

Pack lotions, shampoos, sunscreen, etc. in small plastic bottles.  Along the way you will be able to beg, borrow, steal to refill.

Soap: bring one bar—get the rest at any hotels along the way

I save half or nearly finished toothpaste tubes to use for travel—it’s the same as buying those mini-tubes.

Important Docs:

Don’t forget:   Passport, tickets, and a couple photocopies of each (packed separately & also scanned and emailed to yourself &  saved in a web-based email account that you can access anywhere), Immunization Card, extra Passport Photos (for VISAs you have to get along the way)

For more packing ideas and tips see my How LL page.
For more on the bag I schlepped around the world check out “Me and My Bags.”

Go Giants!
Tokyo Dome, Japan

The 2010 Major League Baseball Season, the 110th consecutive season that will be played by the American and National Leagues simultaneously, starts this week when the Boston Red Sox will host their long-time rivals, the 2009 World Series champion New York Yankees at Fenway Park.

Baseball is the leading team sport in Japan.  Here, the Nippon Professional Baseball season is eight months long and games started in late March with their Championship held in October.

Several years ago, I was lucky enough to be visiting Japan and caught a game at the Tokyo Dome with the Hanshin Tigers vs. the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants.  It was pretty cool and I especially enjoyed the sushi that replaced the ‘standard’ hot dog back home.  Who won? I have no idea.  Although I like baseball, I was more mesmerized by the animated and exuberant fans.

Oh, and go Cubs!