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andydoesbeijing —
Andy does Beijing, UDel-style
Shenanigans in East Asia
Sounds of the Olympics
Aug. 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 PM
Originally published at Andy Does Beijing. You can comment here or there.
We've heard a fun variety of music at the Olympic venues so far, just random background stuff and filler music, some cheerleading music, whatevers. It's a lot of American music, the occasional Asian pop song, some really random remixes, and the Beijing Olympic theme, "Beijing huanying ni 北京欢迎你。" Here's some of the better selections:
Hey Delilah (hockey)
Linkin Park - Numb (baseball)
Earth, Wind, and Fire - September (basketball)
Song in Chinese to the tune of "Do your ears hang low" (hockey)
It's Raining Men (basketball cheerleaders)
Eiffel 65 - Around the World, chinese cover (basketball)
Chumbawumba - Tubthumping (handball)
Avril Lavigne - Sk8er boi
Hey Mickey (cheerleaders)
Cotton-Eyed Joe
Foo Fighters - ? (Bird's Nest - track and field)
Amelie soundtrack (Bird's Nest - track and field)
Stone Temple Pilots - Feeling (?) (Bird's Nest - track and field)
Limony Snicket soundtrack (Bird's Nest - track and field)
Final Fantasy X2 soundtrack (baseball)
World of Warcraft soundtrack (baseball)
Foo Fighters - "You're not the only one, not like the others" (water polo
You Are my Sunshine (boxing)
In-a-gadda-da-vida (water polo)
Lenny Kravitz - American Woman (water polo, theme for USA team)
Billie Jean (water polo)
Shania Twain - The Way You Love Me (Techno remix) (softball)
Sheryl Crow (?) -Sweet Child of Mine (softball)
Of course, we can't forget the official theme of the Beijing Olympics: "Beijing Welcomes You (Beijing Huanying Ni 北京欢迎你)."
In loving memory: Eric
Our faithful tour guide, Eric, had a very charming way of speaking English: namely, he was a college student from Beijing. (That said, his English is a lot better than my Chinese.) Here, I present you a tongue-in-cheek testimonial to one reason why we loved Eric.
Let's abandon this opportunity
Did you like your journey today?
I love you!
This afternoon, we will be all heroes. We will be on top of the world!
It will be an unforgettable opportunity.
If, in ancient China, we step on this [a decorated stone tablet], our heads, it say goodbye to our body.
The Great Wall, hopefully an unforgettable memory.
The walk not for the timid or the week, but for the heroes, and we are all heroes, right?
It is very difficult walk, so you can stay by car if you want not to be hero. OK? Today we are all heroes!
I will keep this memory forever. Today, you are on top of the world. You are all heroes!
Chinar! (China儿)
He is very bad man. I hate him!
This CD was made by Eric. Do you love this song? I love this song. I love you as long as you love me.
Do you love this day?
If you like shopping, you can shopping. Or, have a rest.
I cherish our memories together.
In the coming days, I will try to remember all your names and right now, I remember about ten of you.
Tell everyone to judge Chinar more fairly.
Really, I am so proud of Chinar, always.
He was the king!
I'm so happy of these precious memories with you.
Thanks to friendship of great Chinar and great USA to bring us together.
Thursday, August 21, 2008 - A 36-Hour Day
Aug. 21st, 2008 at 11:59 PM
I'm hooooooome!
Man, it's weird to see so many white people. Americans are SO LOUD.
Our plane ride went pretty well, all 2 1/2 12 hours of it. We took off around quarter after twelve (Beijing) and got in to the US about quarter to 3 (Eastern). We were better-prepared this time for a twelve-hour flight, with books, movies (Horton Hears a Who!), and camraderie.
Customs went well, but I think I prefer the Beijing airports.
Incidentally, we made front-page news on the News Journal:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080820/NEWS03/808200370/1006/NEWS
Bus ride home was a little rough; that whole food-and-sleep thing; also, not being in Beijing.
Now I'm back and you get to see EEEEVERYTHING. Have fun reading. Depending on when you check in, there'll be photos and metadata.
Wednesday, Aug 20 - Softball, Last-Minute Shopping, Hangouts with Snowy
Today was our last event, softball at the Fengtai Softball Stadium. It was only about twenty minutes away by cab, as it was in the same district as our hotel. (I went with Barlow, so he covered the van; also, we took a Chinese girl who was staying in our hotel for her first Olympic event ever!) The venue was pretty small, compared to the Olympic Center and the Olympic Green; it was also just a softball stadium with a warmup field. Next door was some other indoor stadium I didn't notice, since it was rather early (9am game). The venue did have the standard complement of post office, boutique, food and beverage kiosks, etc.
The first game was USA vs. Japan. The stadium had an awful lot of Japanese people there, like, almost every Asian there was holding a Japanese flag. There were American contingents here and there, but Delaware was split up into a couple sections — the professors, the softball girls, and everybody else. We were out in the outfield seats, right on the third base line, but halfway through the game Rich and I said to heck with it and hoofed it over to some open seats almost behind the plate on the first plate line. That was a glorious idea, since we had a great view of how, during overtime after the seventh inning, America knocked a home run into the back left stands and brought in a full set of bases. That, I'm very sad to say, was the only time somebody made a MASSIVE OVERWHELMING KICK-JAPAN'S-BUTT time since, y'know, World War II. Please don't kill me. The second game was Canada vs Australia. The crowd was cool, but I was good for my softball fix by then.
I also learned the joy of "trading" pins in China today. I was sporting my USA House lanyard covered in the Delaware pins my mom gave me to trade, so when I went to go buy a snack, the staff there asked to trade. I traded five or six to them for two: a big one of the Great Wall and a small Yanjing Beer one. I should've hid that beer pin, since I let some ground staff guy trade me it for a small USA pin. I also traded some of the volunteer staff metal pins for plastic pins, which was a silly idea too. An American guy from Boston approached me to trade pins, too, but he wasn't really interested in Delaware pins — don't blame him =p I just gave one pin to some other volunteer guy, too, since he asked for it and I went with Chinese custom: if somebody admires a possession or asks for it, you offer it. Shoulda been an ugly American, but the kid only had an Australian Olympic pin. (To top it off, I had the opportunity to buy a bunch of pins on the street today, but I passed.) So, China: six; Andy: dumb.
Since today was the official shopping day, I held off on getting most of my gifts until today. After the game, I caught a cab with the Goodwins and Linda to the closest subway station. It took some trials and tribulations. First trial: hailing the cab. Second trial: the cabbie wanted to turn the corner before dropping us off instead of just stopping and blocking traffic — god forbid.
We took the 1 line across town and I ditched the crowd to hit Wanfujing St while they continued to the USA House to buy some "amazing awaits" swag. Anyway, Snowy called me once she got off to work to find out where to meet me to go shopping. I was on the subway, so I lost the signal after a minute, but I called her back once I got to Wangfujing and told her to come down. While I waited I meandered a bit, trying to track down the shirt I've been ogling all month: it's white with the red-orange cloud motif on the right shoulder and a China flag patch on the left breast. I keep seeing it on people, but I can't find it anywhere! I'm hoping to order it online when I get home. I picked up some lunch at Yoshimoyo, a Japanese fast-food place in the mall: just some teriyaki tofu on a bed of rice with vegetables and a side of kimchi. Also, they served Pepsi, the first time I've seen it in this country! Yummy, but way too much rice. Whilst meandering back, Snowy called me to tell me she was getting off the subway, so we met up at the McDonald's (aka Micky D's) on the corner.
Without revealing too many details (a.k.a. what gifts I actually bought for you people), I'll tell you about shopping. Snowy was very helpful, since she likes to see her friends get good deals, she speaks the language, and she doesn't mind stretching the truth a little to get a good deal. Oh, and she's Chinese. (Thank you for helping me, Snowy!) First place was Snack Street off of Wangfujing; it's famous for exotic ancient snacks, like lamb testicles and silk worms on a stick. There's also a small market on one of the side streets, so we dickered with a vendor there over a small'n'shiny and only got ripped off a little. After that, we hitched the subway over to the Silk Market and the underground market. The Silk Market is another big five-story market building, not including the market underneath with about a billion counterfeit goods. It was something, alright. Never before have I seen so many counterfeits. The Silk Market itself was pretty boggling, too, almost as many counterfeits in the purse section. We made our way upstairs, to the goods that interested me, and managed to get okay prices on them. They weren't fantastic prices, since the vendors want to make as much money off the foreigners during the Olympics (and acquire pins, too — one had an entire lapel covered in them). The Silk Market, incidentally, is one of those "tourists go here, so other tourists go here" places. Snowy told me that Chinese people don't go there to buy things, that the vendors wouldn't even talk to them because they can make a better profit off the clueless foreigners.
I managed to get everything I was looking for, plus a little extra for fun. I wanted to give the hotel a gift for hosting us, so I figured we could get a calligraphy scroll with something nice and all sign our names. I didn't have any good idea beyond "谢谢," so Snowy said no, we'll ask the calligrapher if he has any good ideas. After we haggled the price, he said to come back in ten minutes and he'll think of something. (We went across the aisle and bought some things there, which took about twenty minutes to choose and haggle over.) The calligrapher suggested something which literally translates to "guests lodge feel at-home," or "Guests who lodge here feel right at home." We thought it a great sentiment, so he did it up for us for 70元. Looks real nice, a 2′x9″ white paper with the calligraphy and a red silk mounting for the rest. I'm having everyone sign it in the midst of finishing up journals and packing; the folks who already went to sleep will sign in the morning.
After I ran out of money, I mean, bought all my gifts, it was already time for dinner! A security guard suggested we walk to a small sidestreet across the road and go to any of those restaurants, so we went in to one that served 老上海饭, traditional Shanghai food. Shrimp dumplings, beef noodles, and vegetable wontons were the order of the evening. Snowy tells me that there are two different words for dumplings: what we think of as dumplings, the larger doughballs filled with whatever, are actually baodan (?); and the smallish ear-shaped things, which remind me more of wontons, are proper dumplings, or jiao4zi. Either way, they're all yummy to me! but we ordered a little too much food and I couldn't eat all of my noodles. At least Snowy taught me how to eat noodles: instead of biting off chunks of noodles, you're supposed to suck/tuck all the noodles up. Yay proper table manners!
Afterwards, we wandered up Chang'an St (?) towards Tian'anmen Square, just for somewhere to hang out and chat, and ended up sitting by the fountains in front of the Malls at the Oriental Plaza (where we first met, incidentally), and talking about things. What I learned today about China: their school system is organized basically the same as ours, age-wise; and the dorms here are more like West Chester's (20-some stories) than UD's (three or four, or 17 in the Towers). Most Chinese uni students use Windows computers, because they're cheaper than Macs (although Snowy notes that Macs are better design). At Snowy's school, the beauracy kills the bedroom lights at 11pm, but the students go into the lounge with lapdesks and stay up working until 12 or 1, then sleep until 7am for 8am classes. Also, the Washington Monument is world-famous; at least, Snowy knows it — but she's also studying landscape architecture. Furthermore, most of the Beijing Olympics volunteers are college students, but not all.
My evening ended when we had to say goodbye in the subway station so I could come home and pack. (Her uni is north of downtown; the hotel, to the south.) So, sad pandaface — but I'll go pick up an MSN account or something when I get home so we can chat no the intarwbs.
I caught a cab back from the subway station. He had to put a new roll of receipt paper into his official cabbie moneycounter machine (which is mounted in the dash above the radio) before we pulled out, but he didn't start the fare till we actually got driving. Last time driving back to Mingxin! Pretty anticlimatic, y'know? and nobody was out at the market again when I get back, around midnight.
Come midnight, half of the group were partying — in their beds! I managed to track down the other half and have them sign the scroll for Mr. Zhang (张先生). Now that half is sitting out in the hallway finishing up our journals, which we have to turn in before the plane ride so our profs can read them on the way home. An auspicious ending to a fun little east Asian jaunt.
Tuesday, August 19 - Breakfast out, Track and Field, Olympic Green, Water polo, Farewell banquet
Our last Olympic event as a group dragged us out of bed at six in the morning so that we could get breakfast at a restaurant before going to the games. Breakfast out was pretty much the same as breakfast in, except for the scenery. Master Sun scouted out the place for us yesterday, though, and settled on this one after checking out six restaurants in the area. What was breakfast? Boiled eggs, fried dough rings, beef dumplings, etc., and hot drinks in metal mixing bowls again. I guess it's a Chinese thing.
We finally got inside the Bird's Nest! It's a fearsome stadium to walk up to, all sorts of crazy cross-beams and red wall paint. Once you get inside, the effect wears off a bit, except for the lamps. The lamps are energy-saving halogen coils mounted inside a funky bee-hive looking dealie made out of recycled plastics Weird, cool, and probably good for the enviroment, too. As soon as you walk into the stadium proper, though, you get a sense for the sheer magnitude of seating for, y'know, 90,000 people. Yes, that's ninety thousand. The field itself is 100 meters plus end zones and, around it, a standard track.
Today's events were all preliminaries for javeline throwing, long jump, and sprints. They started out with javelin and generally warmed up the rest of the crowd. I noticed a few really groovy things about the events and the stadium. The javelin and long-jump points were measured by a laser mounted on a surveyor's tripod, bounced off a pick one of the referees stuck in the ground by the point to measure. The javelins were returned from the field to the throwing area, not by runners, but remote control cars with javelin mounts. Whaaaaat. Two volunteers had the job of sitting at the edge of the field, driving these RC cars back and forth all morning. SO COOOOOOOL. For the long jump, the sand was smoothed over by a big zamboni-type thing mounted on rails just beyond the long jump sand. (It had pads mounted on top, in case the jumpers ran into it.) The athletics were cool, too, some badass javelin-throwing and sprints. I can't say I have an appreciation for long jump, but we did have a good view for it.
Those of us with water polo tickets peaced out around 11:30am so that we could wander around the Olympic Green a bit and get to the 2pm game on time. I called up Snowy, since she was working on the Green today (like most days) but didn't have many responsibilities (because there were few games in that area) and we met up to check out the Chinese cultural story tents. Each tent focussed on a different region in China, about thirty in total. Since I didn't have much time to wander, we looked at Beijing 北京, Shanghai 上海, and Snowy's hometown, 西安 (Xi'an)in 沙安息 (?)(sha'anxi). Then, walkabouts over to the water polo stadium!
We thought the water stadium was across town. Turns out it was across the street. I caught an Olympic special line bus over, since the entrance itself was a block or two away, and joined my party after picking up a visor with the Olympic mascot, Nini 尼尼, for band camp. Then, inside for water polo, a game I didn't care for and then USA vs … somebody! Some Hungarians came in early for their team's game, so I had a nice chat during the game with a Hungarian woman who's a high school teacher. She has to teach the first day home from the Games, poor woman, but she lives in Eger, a tourist attraction in western Hungary. Becky may or may not have gone through there on her Eastern Europe tour a few months ago. We traded pins, of course, so I got a lovely Hungarian Olympics pin in exchange for my rinky-dink Delaware pin =D Apparently Hungarians are very intolerant of immigrants and of jobs being outsourced. That's reasonable, given that their country's population is less than that of Beijing. Beyond that, though, Renata (was her name — a popular Hungarian and German name) did enjoy the various Chinese restaurants she could find around her area.
USA won, incidentally, about 9 to 6?
Noodles coming, Dumplings going
For our last real day on the trip (since tomorrow is our packing slash shopping day), we had a real farewell banquet, too! The bulk of the group took the tour bus back to the hotel, then to the restaurant; the water polo kids caught cabs straight to. We had an hour or so to kill while we waited for the Americans to catch up with us, since the profs grossly underestimated travel time as usual, so we sat disreputably on the front step of the restaurant. After half an hour, they invited us in to sit on the couch and drink really, really hot tea instead of cleaning up the dust on their stoop with our butts.
The restaurant was pretty fabulous. It was decked out like old-school western China feel, with gnarly trees, river stream fountains, and elephant heads. The waitstaff was also western Chinese and wearing traditional garb. The food, however, was standard Chinese; also, delicious — especially the Yanjing. When we came to the hotel the first night, we were told that noodles were the traditional meal to eat, symbolizing longevity and something else, and dumplings were the food to eat before leaving. True to their word, the professors made sure to order … one container of dumplings per table. Those were tasty, too. Speaking of first-night things, Eric came to dinner too and brought his girlfriend, who's a cutie! I talked to her for a little bit and she's also a college student and a volunteer at the games; pretty good English as well.
Dinner included a show: the girls did some belly-dancing and other courtly dances; one guy played a reed between his thumbs (like, a straight-up leaf) like a harmonica; and he came out again later to play a traditional Chinese wind instrument, basically a Chinese bagpipes. He also played it while dancing around like a Russian, velly impressive!
At the end of dinner, the standard banquet formalities went on: thanking our hosts, our tour guides, our bus driver, and our professors with gifts and honorariums; and the floor was opened for everyone to say a nice bit, which a handful of people did. Nate: "You guys are great. That's all I've got." Linda: "Appreciate being young and getting educated, because that's what'll take you places." Hallelujah! Eric; "I love you guys!"
Monday, Aug 18 - Breakfast in Bed, Feng Tai Rest., Walkabouts, Gymnastics
8:00am: BREAKFAST IN BED
This past week, we've gotten in the habit of posting the agenda for the next day or two on a handwritten piece of notebook paper, taped to the inside door of our hallway entrance at the hotel. The last few days, it's listed stuff like when breakfast is served, when the busses are leaving, which events or tourist spots we'll travel to, etc.
Today's agenda: 8:00am BREAKFAST IN BED. I don't know whose idea it was or who executed it, but today somebody dropped by each room, rapped hard on the door, and handed us two plastic tins of breakfast (two muffins, a sweet sausage with corn bits, a pouch of milk, and a small pouch of instant coffee.) I slept right through it and was only vaguely aware that breakfast had been dropped off. The muffins were OK, though nutty. The sausage was a little icky. I haven't had straight milk since sixth grade and never instant cofee. But, the muffins tided me till lunch. It was a lovely morning, sleeping in till 10am — especially since we didn't get back from eating dumplings last night until 12:30-1ish and already missing sleep from the previous day.
Down the Street, not Across the Lane
Lunch found us again down the street at the restaurant. We didn't have the tour bus today, because who really needs a tour bus to drive us two blocks down the street just to eat lunch? (That fact did indeed dissuade some students from coming out to lunch.) Incidentally, I ended up hitching a ride in the back of the manager's van, since I didn't know the turn.
It was lunch. Nothing too interesting save that they serve the soup last, since it's a south Chinese restaurant.
Afterwards, Rachel Young wanted to hit the bank and get some cash out for Olympic tickets (US dollars) and living expenses (RMB 元). I walked down with her, since I wanted to see if the Olympic store has the shirt I've been lusting after and get some cash for myself. She asked for $120 US and it took the bank a good forty-five minutes to authorize it, so we sat around and talked about inappropriate things in the lobby. (We weren't too worried about getting kicked out or anything, since it was our money and they didn't speak that much English.)
Finally, post-money, we hit the Olympic store and Rachel picked up gifts for some of her people. I didn't see anything that I needed, so we meandered about a little and then hit the Vanguard on the way home, which is basically a competitor to the Walmart but slightly smaller (two-story warehouse instead of three stories in a mall). We nearly bought some lime-flavored Lays (乐子), but decided against it in favor of a bagful of chocolate junk food.
That chocolate junk food, which included a baggie of mini Snickers (not bite-size, but mini — like, 2″ long), was delicious on the walk home. The good mood lasted until I realized we were supposed to leave for the second set of gymnastics finals ten minutes before I walked in to the hotel, so I ran around for ten minutes and put my life together for the evening. After that, This trip being what it is with tardiness (namely, if there's more than three people leaving at once, they never leave when they say they wiill), we sat around in the hallway for another forty minutes waiting for everyone to get ready.
Mexican-style Cabbing; also, Mistaken Identities
We had nine in our party: Lauren (skater), Karen (lez), Kelly, Taylor, Kevin, Tiffany, MA, Victoria, and me. Cabs typically only fit four. The first cab fit Tiffany, Victoria, MA, and Lauren perfectly fine. The second cab? Well, Karen took advantage of her horrid communication skills and well-selected wardrobe stunning good looks to distract the cabbie while the four skinny-butts squeezed into the back seat of the cab. Kelly ducked down right behind the driver so nobody could see her between Taylor and me. We were all duly amused — especially the cabbie, who counted us getting out of the car at the subway station and did a double-take: "… five?" At the subway station, we meet up with the other half of our group and hopped on the 5 line to transfer to the 2, so we could get off at the 8 transfer line (the Olympic venue line) and walk up to the Olympic Green.
As we walked up the block towards the Olympic Green, Karen expressed her amazement and confusion that an entire hotel was built next to the Olympic Green specifically for the Games, with a tower resembling a torch. That confused us. "Karen, it's the Olympics. It's millions of people converging upon one city for three weeks. They built four new arenas. They built almost the entire subway system around it. Of course they built an Olympic-themed hotel. IT'S THE FREAKING OLYMPICS." Oh, Karen, please to stop and think open-mindedly before you squeak. This is a very sheltered woman girl who drives her car to pick up coffee at Starbucks and and drive the DC Metro station for a commute to her desk job, where she analyzes data about the economic status in developing countries. Welcome to it.
Getting through security took a few minutes, so we unfortunately missed the better part of the opening event: men's split ring. Nonetheless, the rest of the show was grrrrrrrreat! I hearts rhythmic gymnastics.
Sunday, Aug 17 - Zoo, USA House, Gymnastics
Lions, Tigers, and … Pandas?
We hopped along to breakfast at 7:30 so that head out at 8:00 8:15 on the tour bus for an optional trip to the (as Karen put it) the ZOOOOOooooo! (I was about ready to stab her because she wouldn't stop saying "ZOOOOOooooo!")
The Beijing Zoo is currently housing a special exhibit for the Olympics, the Olympic Panda House. (They have an Asian Games Panda House, too, left over from back then.) Eight more pandas came to the Zoo to live in a newly built house, which includes a pretty large play / viewing area for the pandas (and the people), a store with lots of cute, fuzzy, stuffed pandas, and an upstairs with a photo gallery and a science fair-style set of informational panels on raising and keeping pandas. A couple of facilities are built to house pandas and allow people to tend to them, where interns get to "love train" the pandas: feed them, maintain eye contact, and cuddle with the pandas. Best job ever!
Intern: "Here, Jingwu, time for your bamboo stick!"
Jingwu: [Lumbers over clumsily]
Intern: "Cuddle time!"
Jingwu: *om nom nom nom*
Intern: "Awwwww."
The pandas are pretty cute, but they don't really do much; they kinda just sit around, munch on bamboo, and clamber around on the play structure. I'm not really sure why the panda mania, so after I took my pictures and wandered around the panda house once, I started to scope out the exits. It took me two times around the houses to figure out that I had to go back through the entrance, and then I got to check out the rest of the zoo. They had a canine section (wolves, coyotes, etc.) who didn't really look impressed with their cages. They paced an awful lot. In the human cage, I also saw two USA boxers — they were wearing USA Boxers and their ID tags. (Anybody who's associated with the Games wears an ID tag in a plastic sleeve on a lanyard; the ID tag has name, photo, country, position, and a barcode. Since everyone has to wear them at the Games and on public transportation, so they just end up wearing them all the time.)
The zoo also housed some groovy other animals: Chinese porcupine; lions, tigers, and jaguars; rhinos and elephants; giraffes; basically, the usual complement of zoo animals. I was struck by the variety of living areas provided to the animals. The elephants, rhinos, and hippopotami had pretty homey areas that seemed to suit them fine; but the house for the lions and tigers was a smelly, high-ceiling vault with bars keeping the humans in the middle and the animals in their very simple 8-by-12 rooms. I suppose it suits them, but I'm more accustomed to seeing naturalistic habitats for them.
Other cool features in the zoo: thirty foot tall tiger statue outside the lion & tiger house. Seriously — huge frickin hunk of metal tiger. RAWR! Furthermore, penguin house that costed an extra 10元 ($1.50) and more time, so we skipped it. There was also a very nice lake built into the campus with weeping willows all about it, along with benches in their shade. The paths were lots of curves and a few straight roads.
Team USA! amazing awaits
No, seriously, amazing awaits is the motto of the USA House slash USA team. "amazing awaits" was printed in lowercase on the entrance to the fortress restaurant / house. "amazing awaits" was printed in lowercase on the press materials. "amazing awaits" was printed in lowercase on the backdrop for the TV area. "amazing awaits" is a pretty cool tagline, I'd think.
Each major country hosts a House — the Holland House, the China House, the USA House, etc. It's a chill-out slash meet-up place for the athletes, family, and countrymen. The Holland House is public, you can just drop by and hang out — the Nederlanders are cool like that. The China House is pretty locked up, well-protected. The USA House, you can either get in comped as an athlete, athlete family, some US media, and athlete guest; or you can come as a day guest and pay $50 or $70 for lunch or dinner. Once you've been an Olympian athlete, you're always an Olympian athlete; so Tiffany, our TA, has an official USA Olympian pass for Beijing 2008 and access to the house. That means she can bring guests; i.e., us! She extended the invitation to about half of us over the month, people she knew would be pretty stoked to hobnob with the athletes and be cool about it.
The USA House is over by the Worker's Stadium. It's a restaurant/club which was built a coupla years ago and was pretty cool, but then got run down; the USA House hospitality team came a few months back and had to redo a lot of the house to its current, glorious state. Now you walk in to be greeted at a reception desk / cashier; to your left is a limited (but open) bar; and before you are an assortment of square tables and wide open spaces, behind which you find the buffet areas. Beyond that is a patio with a grill area, staffed by an Aramark cook. To your right is a small patio/courtyard holding several more tables and two massage chairs; also, the masseur and masseuse. Around the other side from the massage area is a coffee bar with wireless access and laptops to borrow (in exchange for a token, like your driver's license). Downstairs is a media area, for making speeches; the USA House store (selling all the gear found at USAOlympian.org); and another bar. All around the house were large flat-screen TVs showing the DX channels, the direct high-def cable feed from the Games. I didn't go upstairs, but I hear it was all quite brilliant. Also, this girl Kate Sirolly, who knows a guy in my Chinese class, is working catering for the house, so she gets to meet see everyone.
The place is generally genial, lots of Americans wandering around and some Chinese staff (although with a lot of the Asians in there, you can't tell if they're American or Chinese until they open their mouths). Anybody who's there is probably significant in some way, so they're all self-assured and just make nice small talk about the game. We ran into Michelle Kwan, the skater, who happened to be Tiff's roommate back at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics, and chatted with her a bit. There were some other important names we were near, but I don't really remember. Some black guy who won the hurdles or the long jump or something back in the '60s, he was giving a speech when we walked in. Oh, and the cookies were delicious. De-lish-ous.
We hung out there for a bit, watched the USA women's volleyball team win (we cheered), until Tiffany picked up a bundle of tickets she was buying from another American for all of us. In the package was an offer for gymnastics tickets for that evening, which were finals — for $25! We snapped them up and ditched the house at quarter to six for the event.
I'm sure everyone saw the gymnastics finals on the tee-vee, of course, because artistic gymnastics is obviously the win in the entire Olympics. At least, we think so =p Tonight was finals, which meant medals ceremonies, and they sure chugged right through them: ceremonies immediately followed the event (as soon as they set up the risers for the athletes to stand on). We saw men and women's floor exercises, women's vault, and men's pommel horse. They all performed marvellously, except that the women in vault were a touch sloppy on their landings. (Nonetheless, they performed crazy difficult vaults, so we'll forgive them a little bobble at the end.)
What you probably don't see on TV is all the set-up/behind-the-scene business. It's all out there for us to see, the multitude of volunteers on the floor making sure things go smoothly. They delegate tasks out like mad to the volunteers and then (it looks like) train them heavily. The volunteers do their jobs efficiently, professionally, almost militarily. To set up the medalists' stands, a group of eight boys (in their cute blue volunteer uniform polo and khakis) carry in a set of four yellow blocks in time, set them down together, and rig it all up. When it's set up, they execute a right face and march back off-stage, arms swinging in time. It's half groovy, half silly to watch. I feel like a bit of the communist ethos shows through in these displays of youth militarism: strong young men, all equal and similar, working in unison to create a great work for the social good. The other volunteers I see, who interact directly with the public (the "spectators," as they say in the Olympic parlance), are a slightly different flavor: the attractive, youthful faces of Beijing, pure and socially-minded. They're all very helpful, cheerful, well-dressed, but still individualistic; and in sum, they put a bright, happy facade on the Games, as it ought to have. Yay Beijing PR team!
Incidentally, there's about a billion and a half volunteer staffers, only a coupla hundred of whom end up on the telly (i.e. the kids who work the games themselves). Every entrance has at least two or three volunteers — that means the main entrances to the large parks with the metal detectors; the entrances to the actual venues where they check your ticket; the doors into the venues; and finally the entrances to the arenas themselves (where they tell you where to sit). At umbrellas and various other points along the walkways, volunteers are available to answer questions and take pictures. Those volunteers even have other volunteers as support staff, running around water and encouragement. Elsewhere are volunteers selling food at the food & bev kiosks and tents in each venue and around the parks, volunteers selling Olympic merchandise at the boutiques, and volunteers selling tickets at the ticket kiosks. Behind the scenes are other volunteers working inside, out of view to the public. It's an amazing operation — also, an awful lot of blue Olympic polos, baseball caps, bucket hats, khakis, and yellow fanny packs. They have to supply their own shoes, which is just as well =)
Volunteers aside, gymnastics was pretty hot. Our seats were up in the second tier balcony, so we had a good view of all the events (especially the vault, which was closest to us), the scoreboards, and the flags. The best bit was the women's floor exercises (my favorite event, anyway), when two of the Americans led the scoreboard until the closer, a Romanian, took the gold. Christina was a little irritated — we were hoping to hear the American National Anthem before we left, but no such luck. Nonetheless, I scored a sweet shot of two American flags side-by-side on my camera phone (since all three of our cameras had run out of power). New phone wallpaper!
Chao-ZI!
Coming home from the competition, we three decided we wanted to eat dumplings. Dumpling dumpling dumplings! We asked a volunteer where we could eat, but they weren't familiar with the area outside the venue. They did teach Tiffany the word for dumplings, so Tiff just kept saying "chao-ZI!" the whole way home. We walked for a few blocks from the venue, but didn't find anywhere to eat. We found the highway instead, so we just hailed a cab and headed home to eat at the market near our hotel.
Nobody was there. Sunday night is supposed to be the hopping night on the town, but there were maybe a dozen people out there (including half a dozen guys selling food). None of them had any dumplings, but they pointed us across the street to a little restaurant which had similar snack food — and dumplings! Asking them for the food was difficult, though, because the girl who was talking to us (who looked about 17yo) kept talking too quickly for me to understand, even after I told her my Chinese wasn't any good. We were rescued by some college-aged guys who were also coming in for a bite and some brewskies, who translated food words for us. We ended up with two plates of cheap dumplings: one chicken, one vegetable. A little oily, probably not too good for us, but they were yummy and went down well with a 40 of Yanjing 啤酒.
A great day, hanging out with Tiffany and Christina and trading gossip, fun stories, good times, and good food! Life in Beijing and at the Olympics? Sweet deal.
Saturday, Aug 16 - Restaurant, Great Hall, Wangfujing St, Volleyball (m)
Breakfast, I seemed to have missed. Whoops. Lunch was down the street at our favorite new place to eat outside the hotel, the … non-descript southern Chinese restauraunt.
Da Hall (I mean, 大厅)
Following lunch, the group hitched a little ride to a Great Hall downtown by Tian'anmen Square. The Great Hall is a huge government building built for huge events, like ginorgamous cocktail parties in the cavernous banquet rooms that will seat 10,000 people. Oh, and Karen, our resident nutjob chair of all matters serious in topic noted that the 2″-thick plush rug wasn't laid down so that the floor pattern matched up at the seams. Oops. The place was HUUUUUUGE. SO HUGE. HUGER THAN HUGE. CHINA PUBLIC WORKS HUGE.
As I said, the Great Hall was Great. Incidentally, they don't ever typically allow in foreigners to the place (just Chinese tourists), so we enjoyed being the fancy interlopers. The place was very big. Verrrrry big. Like, a whole block long, and they built it in only 10 months. I was impressed. Every room was big, especially the ballrooms and theatre (both of which fit 70,000). A slightly smaller room held only thirty seats and plenty of empty space, for council meetings and whatnot. Very luxurious, very impressive … except I was a little unimpressed, as I usually am with matters of state. Great paintings on the walls, though. And the huge ballroom was very cool. Incidentally, they use Bose speakers.
On a Quest
Mark and Lauren (the Asian ones), Anthony, Dan and Casey, and I went straight from the Great Hall a few blocks over to Wangfujing St on a mission: Nike and Adidas apparel. I'm on the search for the white Adidas shirt with the red-orange cloud motif on the shoulder and the China patch on the breast. I see it everywhere except on the shirt rack. Today was no exception, even though we went to several Nike and Adidas stores. What's the deal, China?
I couldn't stay too long, though, because I had a ticket to a volleyball game. The other kids wanted to go hit up the Silk Market for clothes, though, so we stared at a map for five or ten minutes until a Chinese guy came up and pointed it out on the map for us, then told us how to get there on the subway. It took some serious pointing, but we overcame the language barrier (enough). On the subway, we split up, since I was heading north and they, east.
I asked the Olympic volunteers in the subway for directions to the venue; we found it on a map and they had notes on routes, so they told me to take the 1 subway, get off at X, and take the K25 bus. So, I got off the subway where they said to, but couldn't find the bus stop. I asked some volunteers and bus drivers near that stop. (One of the girls had several bug bites on her arms, too, and the bus driver was anointing them with some oil in a little green bottle. Yay China meds!) Anyway, they suggested taking a cab — well, the bus driver said it in regular Chinese, which I didn't understand at all, and then the volunteers said it in slightly less accented Chinese (since they're young and mostly college students) and I got it. Cabs are a little pricey, so I just went back to the subway (free to Olympic ticket-holders) and figured out the closest subway stop, then picked up a cab from there for only 15元 instead of the 45 I probably would have paid from that first stop. At least the volunteers (and Chinese people are helpful and reasonabl knowledgeable — the cabbie knew where to go once I showed him my ticket. I rolled up just in time for the game, too.
Men's volleyball? Awe-some! It was indoor team volleyball, so pretty cool to watch, lotsa power shots but also a fair bit of volleying. I enjoyed the game. I had to go fetch my leatherman from storage again, which was pretty painless since I had a little keytag to redeem it. Then, since it was a largr goup event, we had the tour bus (huzzah).
Friday, Aug 15 - Abbot Du Li, Restaurant, Handball, 护国寺小吃 (Huguosi Snack), Drinks with Donglaoshi
The Abbot dropped in to talk philosophy, Buddhist history, and show us a little more taichi. I'll copy that in later.
Lunch was down the street at our prof's new favorite restaurant. Ehhhh.
Haaaaandball
Handball is one of those lesser-known sports, but it's apparently been around since at least the '80s. I neglected to pick up the beginner's guide to handball, but I'll give you what I know: it's the off-season alternative for soccer players and they get to hold the ball, which is a little smaller than a volleyball; also, it's very hands-on. I don't just mean that they hold the ball; I mean they get to manhandle each other. Around the goal is a semicircle that the offensive team can't enter; just outside that is the scoring area, so there's about six feet of space to stand in whence you can score a goal from maybe ten feet away. Pretty much basketball meets soccer meets Red Rover. Also, the whistle was blown at least once every five minutes so that a bruised player could stand up and recover. Really fast, hard, epic game. Fun! Go check it out on YouTube.
We stayed for the two games and then the other kids headed back to the hotel, while I met up with Snowy.
Meet me at the North Gate
Since Snowy's volunteer job limits her access to the Olympic Green, where she's stationed, and I had to get my leatherman back from the south gate, Snowy called me and said to meet up at the north gate, nearer the bus stops. I ended up walking the entire way around the venue from the south gate to the west gate, totally missed the north gate in a sea of people. I seriously felt like I was swimming upstream, since the sidewalk along the north edge had a good view of the Bird's Nest (and the Torch), so everyone was taking pictures of it. Lotsa people selling stickers and pins and flags and all that, too. Crowds aside, we eventually found each other, thanks to cell phones and me being tall and white. (Snowy was in her volunteer outfit, so I couldn't really spot her in the crowd as easily.)
Did I mention Snowy yet? She's the girl that approached me and some other Delawareans in the mall a week or two ago and asked us to come back to her indoor decoration store, inside a hotel. I got her number and email address, so we've been chatting on email about stuff and figuring out when we could meet up and be, y'know, China-America friends. Since my schedule finally kinda solidified, we figured after handball was a good time to go out and do something.
We caught a bus (which took a while) and rode it (which also took a while) over to Huguosi St (护国寺), so we could pick up a 护国寺小吃,a Huguosi snack. (小池,xiao chi, translates to "little eat", i.e. snack.) It's a traditional Beijing thing, so it's kinda touristy now; the people who actually live near Huguosi (including one of Snowy's classmates) don't actually eat at those restaurants. We did the tourist thing and got some food, except we're still locals — so you share tables with whomever, such as the older couple who was there when we came in and a graduate-school couple who sat down after they left.
The place we went to, which was supposed to be pretty traditional indeed, was on a hutong, a regular old wide alley/road place in the middle of Beijing. For the snacks, there's a variety of foods served: fried dough rings, fried dough balls with sugar (like a funnel cake, but a puffed doughball instead), some thick fermented rice thing with oil on top (not so sweet), red bean dumplings, candied tofu, … um, a few other things. Good stuff, chewy stuff, I should probably ask Snowy to send me her photo of the menu with English on it. We ordered a little too much, but Snowy said "you don't have to be polite and eat everything, I'm just a girl." But that's why I was being polite! =p Our evening was pretty much talking about life, school, and a lot of English / Chinese language skills.
Around nine, we were about full — so much for dinner — so I had to head out uptown a little to meet up with my prof.
Thursday, August 14 - Baseball game, Rain, National Art Museum, Dinner, Peking Opera
Today's main event: a real live baseball game at the ballpark! A few minor catches: the ballpark was the Beijing Olympic National Stadium and the hot dogs were cold — but the sausage on a stick was still hot! (Incidentally, the sausage tasted like a kosher hot dog, but kinda sweet.) Another catch: CHN vs KOR. The great American sport, and we're watching two Asian teams. Oh, Chinar. To tell you the truth, they played a pretty good game: good hits, good catches, good runs, but no runs.
It was a fun little game until, halfway through the fourth inning, xiale da yue:it poured. Man, it started to drip a little, and then the skies just opened up and the thunder rumbled and the crowds deserted the stands to hide under them. I put my cell phone and my camera in my bag and handed it to Linda, who had an umbrella, and just stood there in the rain. The Americans started acting up and singing random songs from the USA in the rain. I don't entirely understand these athlete sorts; but then, these are the same kids who would rather eat at an expensive pseudo-western restaurant than go out and eat delicious Chinese food at a nice, inexpensive, local place. Whatevs, there's still the folks who enjoy Chinar culture. The Olympic volunteer crew, who was prepared for such happenings, had a few boxes of ponchos handy to pass out to everyone at the event; so, pretty soon, the stadium was awash in a field of translucent yellow plastic. The game wouldn't be called for an hour and a half, though, so our fearless leaders decided, in their infinite wisdom, to hoof it back to the bus. The bus driver wouldn't have none of our wet patooties on his nice dry bus, so as we walked up to the bus, he took the ponchos from us to store underneath in the cargo space.
What do you do with a sodden student?
Really, what would you do with forty-some wet, tired kids who just missed half a baseball game? You take them to the National Art Museum, of course! Unfortunately, the Art Museum wasn't ready for the Olympics; most of their exhibition areas were under construction, so we could only walk through two galleries. It was an awful lot of watercolors and line drawings, of mountains and fishies and the occasional goose. There was also two line-drawing portraits! We were duly unimpressed; it was an art museum like many, many others. Also, the translations came out in Engrish. I think this was one area that the Beijing Olympic Committee missed when they anglicized the city.
Our first priority in the museum was finding the bathroom. Apparently, the second was finding something to eat. (I, at least, hit the galleries first.) Turns out the museum coffee shop was on the far edge of the ground floor. You could reach it by either walking around the building or walking through the construction. The museum attendents said it was okay to just head on through between the painters and the carpenters, so we took the trek towards the tea with trepidation. The coffee shop was nice, though; a very tall Chinese woman (like, I could like her in the eye) was hostessing, so she took all of our orders and, as they were made (slowly, since we were many), walked them over. She later asked me for a good English translation for "肤浅" — Would you like to pay now? A lovely coffee shop, I must say.
After looking disreputable in the coffeeshop for two hours, our professors decided it was time to join us. We left soon thereafter to go get dinner.
Delish!
I assume. I forget where dinner was. Seriously, nobody remembers, except that Brenna thought it was a good place. (That must be why we don't remember. I'm writing this a week after the fact, too.)
The Peking Opera closed out our evening — but just two acts, not a full performance. (Peking is, incidentally, the old name for Beijing. I'm not sure why, I might be Cantonse instead of Mandarin.) The theatre we went to is housed in a Peking Opera Theme Hotel. Outside of the theatre, they had two glass display cases showing the history and development of the Peking Opera. In the entrance to the theatre, they had two men doing their makeup before the show — quite fantastic. In the theatre itself, they had many dinner tables in the front half, seats and a balcony in the back half, and large opera masks and paintings of actors on the walls. Also, a nice lady was selling fancy programs for 30元, a nice boy was practicing tea gong fu (pouring tea from a tea-pot with a rapier spout), and another lady was selling regular cans of beers for 18元. The program was a good deal — but the beer? A royal theatre-style rip-off =p
We expected to, y'know, dress up for a night at the opera, so we thought we'd have a chance to go change into nice shirts and pants and, for the girls, all their pretty silk dresses. No such luck, of course, since we went straight from the game to the museum to dinner to the opera. Our professors told us that our street clothes were alright, but we didn't believe them till we walked in to the theatre and saw how casually it was set up, as dinner theatre.
The show itself was pretty fantastic, but not so much as the pre-show annoucement. It was delivered by a man employing a very sing-song voice, like he was already singing in the opera style. Unfortunately, his scansion didn't work out so well in English, as my classmates noted. Our local guides didn't give a hoot, though — one doesn't even speak English, but both napped through it. (They've seen the Opera a few times.)
The show was cute, nice light entertainment with an Asian flavor. After the overture, performed by a traditional Chinese band with string, wind, and drum instruments, we saw two scenes; the first, Autumn River, was a little farce about a woman (a "nun," but not by choice) trying to follow her lover down the river. She had to engage a boat, but the boatsman saw that she was a naive young woman and teased her a bit about getting down the river, getting in the boat, getting stuck in the boat, getting some lunch and leaving her in the boat, … it was cute. The closed caption marquees mounted beside the stage definitely enhanced the experience — indeed, made it possible to watch. (An experienced guide had characterized the Opera as four hours of high-pitched, whinging singing and silly staging.) So, since we could follow, it was rather entertaining and quite silly, with some standard theatre artifice standing in for actual props and scenery: taking a long walk around the stage signified a … long walk; bobbing up and down signified bobbing in the water; two people bobbing in opposition signified two people on opposite ends of a board. I found it both well-acted and sufficient to convey the scene.
The second scene was much more slapstick. The opening scene was a panorama of Buddha (?) and his disciples, a la ancient Chinese painting. Buddha decided that, to tell a little story, he would decide — emm — the Monkey King was acting up in his part of Heaven, so 17 of Buddha's erhu's should go put him back in his place. The Monkey King was a wily-looking man with funny makeup, a kooky demeanor, and a staff, with which he was apeing about. Each of the seventeen erhu's challenged the monkey in turn, with staff, sword, spear, Asian-style morningstar, and one with a jug of wine. He had many jugs of wine — each time the Monkey King stole away a jug, yet another appeared from within the sot's robes! This scene presented some fancy martial arts stickery, lots of trick moves with bouncing weaponry about the stage, tumbling, launching weapons, and so on. The Monkey King was well-versed with his staff; I should have taken video for Steve Keiser and Rah. (At least I've got kung fu tea master on video for them.)
After the theatre, back to the hotel to finally dry off a titch!
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Trip Itinerary
Designed by Michael Rose


newprotest.org: CIA - EXEMPT FROM TORTURE LAWS?
CIA - EXEMPT FROM TORTURE LAWS?
The Bush Administration is absolutely NUTS.
Cheney just proposed an exemption from a bill barring cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in U.S. custody. An exemption for whom? The CIA, naturally. The proposal "states that the measure barring inhumane treatment shall not apply to counterterrorism operations."
Fortunately, Sen. John McCain rejected the proposal, but that doesn't mean that the Bush Administration won't continue to try to push for this - they've attached far less onto the emergency bills.
Cheney's meeting with McCain last week was his third attempt to persuade the lawmaker, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, to accept a less broad legislative bar against inhumane treatment.
Something is seriously wrong with Cheney. Seriously wrong.
COMMENTS for CIA - EXEMPT FROM TORTURE LAWS?


text:
//
//  ROMapAction.h
//  whitewolfdemo
//
//  This App has been generated using IBM Mobile UI Builder
//

#import "ROUriAction.h"
#import "ROAction.h"

/**
 Open map with url
 */
@interface ROMapAction : ROUriAction<ROAction>

/**
 Map uri options
 */
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *mapUri;

/**
 Constructor with uri
 @param uri URI
 @return Class instance
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- (id)initWithValue:(NSString *)uri;

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Dark synth-pop band MTT performing at Northside Festival
245 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211, United States
Dark synth-pop band MTT will perform at Northside Festival on June 13 at the Grand Victory and on Saturday June 14 at the Knitting Factory
Dark synth-pop band MTT will perform at Northside Festival on June 13 at the Grand Victory during 'Dutch Sounds at Northside', and on Saturday June 14 at the Knitting Factory.
MTT (formerly known as Minus the Tiger) is a dark synth-pop band formed early 2010 around songwriter and singer Anne Broekman. MTT draws inspiration from horror movies, ghost stories and blends this other world with universal feelings of anxiety, melancholy and hope. The result is a neatly arranged interplay between deep bass and alienating sounds which place MTT squarely amongst one of the most refreshing Dutch acts today.
Before 2010, Anne Broekman had been writing dozens of songs, but she was not really satisfied with the singer-songwriter-sound of a girl with a guitar. In 2008 and 2009 Anne and her husband Maarten Besseling, known as a studio producer and initiator of The Green Motel and the In A Cabin With project, reproduced the songs Anne had written. The guitar songs were transformed into a poppy style of synth-pop. While this process was ongoing, Maarten and Anne wrote a few new songs while working on the older songs. In 2012, these efforts resulted in MTT's self-titled debut album, released by V2 Records Benelux (Bertus Distribution).
After this, the much darker studio album 'Years From Now' was released, in cooperation with drummer Jos Terlingen. Having cut their teeth on 80's new wave and 90's pop, this album with its deep bass and minimal drums, has a more contemporary sound, that reflects on a sense of loss, of time slipping away through your fingers. With this release, the band decided to change Minus The Tiger to a shorter version: MTT.
Since MTT released their debut album, their songs have been critically acclaimed: MTT even played the biggest Dutch TV show that hosts music, played showcase festivals like Eurosonic/Noorderslag (Groningen NL), Glimps (BE), Canadian Music Week (CAN 2012 and 2014). Was selected to play at POP Montreal in 2012. Besides their regular club shows in Europe the band also toured Canada (2012 and 2014), Russia (2013) and Turkey (2013).
MTT will also perform at Piano's on June 12, and at the Delancey on June 16.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Freshman education major Michelle Harris was selected as the winner of the inaugural Bearkats Read to Succeed essay contest held this fall. For the contest, students were asked to relate their personal experiences to this year's common reader selection 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,' by Rebecca Skloot, following the theme of coping with illness, overcoming adversity, or confronting an ethical dilemma. As the winner, Harris received a $500 scholarship from the First Year Experience Office. In her essay below the League City native and SHSU Honors College student discusses the loss of her grandfather. The narrative is published as submitted, with no amendations.
When I gazed into the eyes of my grandfather and hero, I had no idea that those familiar blue eyes no longer knew who I was. I knew he was stumbling in life and that for the first time in over fifty years, he was separated from my grandmother and placed into an assisted living community. My hero was falling, but to what extent I failed to grasp until that first and most difficult visit. No one in the family knew my grandfather suffered from Alzheimer's until the disease had already run rampant throughout his strong mind, much to the comparison of Henrietta's cancer which claimed her body. It turned his memories against him, seemingly repositioning his axons and changing the Vietnam hero and sheriff into a man who knew not even himself. With each visit he seemed to only split further, confused at the simplest of tasks and often forgetting his identity, leaving the family to mourn the loss of a man so great. Though he was with us for over six more months before being called into Heaven, that which distinguished him as family was stripped away within weeks. There was no longer the soft hum of the harmonica when I entered my grandmother's house, and there was no longer the depression in the couch cushion where my grandfather relaxed with the newspaper while enjoying television. When the time came that he was taken into Heaven, my family mourned greatly. Each of us shared our memories with one another to celebrate his life, and watched as he was laid to rest among his former comrades from war. With the Veteran's salute and rifle fire, he vanished from our eyes and into a much more welcoming place, away from the troubles of this world as my family has always believed.
It was not long after his death that my grandmother surprised me with the gift of my grandfather's truck. It was an older Chevrolet that had seen better days. It was losing its paint, had dents along the side, was riddled with scratches and BB gun dents, and had no air conditioning. Many people had suggested my grandfather sell the truck years ago to purchase a vehicle in better condition, but he insisted instead on working to provide for his wife and family. He was a true believer in the value of hard work and thought that the most important things in life didn't carry a price tag. When I went to work on repairing it and cleaning it up, I found sand in every crack and hinge from the countless times my grandfather drove us along the beach, rushing over the dunes as we bounced in the truck bed with laughter. I found old shotgun shells from the days when he would take us hunting and tell us tales of the old days of his youth. In the glove compartment, I found old title renewal forms and the manual, all carrying his handwriting in little notes and details about the truck's mileage and last oil change. Old maps were riddled with coloration as he plotted out different trips and vacations, many of which I had heard stories from. The toolbox contained all of his old tools—lanterns for camping, pocket knives he collected, chains he used to drag his friends out of the mud should they ever have gotten stuck, and old dirty gloves that illustrated his hard work to fix that which required fixing. Each of those pieces simply brought back more of my grandfather's life, and the fact that I was the one to receive them made it worthwhile. It was several weeks later that I finished cleaning, and in the last little pocket on the driver's door, I found a true treasure, my grandfather's harmonica. Members of my family would swear that my grandfather never left home without that harmonica, it was his signature token and he taught himself to play as a young man. No holiday celebration was left without all the grandchildren sitting in his lap as he played a tune for all of us. When I held that old harmonica in my hand, I was able to really look at it with a newfound appreciation. Though it had lost a screw and the faceplate had come loose, it opened the floodgate of memories from my childhood about how amazing of a man my grandfather truly was, and how he never complained about the difficulties in life. Inspecting the little instrument, I took notice of its imperfections with a smile. Like my truck, the harmonica had its aesthetic flaws, all of which told their own story. I realized that nothing in life is meant to be perfect, not with people, ideas, or objects and though my grandfather passed away a few years ago now, he has taught me life lessons through his memories that otherwise I feel I would have failed to comprehend.
Through the pieces of his life that remained after he moved on and as I grew to cope with his illness and death, I have come to realize the value of dedication and hard work, and how it is through our actions and words that we make this world a better place. Sometimes people forget the value of a warm smile, a hug to those in need, or even the value of dedicated work. It's not about who has the nicest things or the most money, but who leads their life with a warm heart. As I remain here today driving my truck with pride with harmonica in suite, I'll never forget the influence of my grandfather and his life, nor how even after his death, he changed my life. Though I miss him greatly I am proud to remember that every time I turn the key in the ignition, I know he rides along with me in heart, reminding me of life's smallest and greatest blessings.


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text:
The Battle of Ain Jaloot wasn't what ultimately stopped the Muslim world falling to the Mongols
A tale of how Allah helps those who help themselves
BY ABDULLAH AL ANDALUSI
People often think the Battle of Ain Jaloot (1260CE) was a turning point in the invasion of the Mongols, and saved the rest of Muslim lands from destruction. However, this is not entirely true, the battle only delayed the Mongols, the truth, like most of history, is stranger than fiction. Above all the story offers us an interesting and recurring lesson – just when we think we have no hope of success in Allah's cause, Allah gives those who remain steadfast supporting his deen, help from an unexpected quarter.
The Mongol warlord of the Ilkhanate (one of the four semi-autonomous factions of the Mongol empire), Hulagu, led a force of over 120,000 soldiers and besieged Baghdad in 1258, the capital of the Islamic Caliphate and captured it, massacring the inhabitants and killing the Caliph of the Muslims, Al-Musta'sim in 1258. Hulagu then turned his attention to Syria, and began capturing Aleppo and Damascus (with help from Crusaders and his Georgian and Armenian vassals).
Hulagu sent an emissary to Egypt, demanding the Mamluks surrender or face complete destruction.
"To Qutuz the Mamluk…You should think of what happened to other countries and submit to us. You have heard how we have conquered a vast empire…We have conquered vast areas, massacring all the people. You cannot escape from the terror of our armies. Where can you flee? What road will you use to escape us? Our horses are swift, our arrows sharp, our swords like thunderbolts, our hearts as hard as the mountains, our soldiers as numerous as the sand. Fortresses will not detain us, nor armies stop us. Your prayers to God will not avail against us. We are not moved by tears nor touched by lamentations. Only those who beg our protection will be safe. Hasten your reply before the fire of war is kindled. Resist and you will suffer the most terrible catastrophes. We will shatter your mosques and reveal the weakness of your God and then will kill your children and your old men together. At present you are the only enemy against whom we have to march".
While most people would quail in the face of such a demand, from a foe who had never been successfully resisted or defeated (especially those who call themselves "pragmatists", like most of the rulers and warlords who rule the Muslim world today), the Mamluk leader Qutuz rejected the demand and killed the Mongol emissary (not a very Islamic thing to do, but you get the point).
Before Hulagu could attack the Mamluks, the Great Khan of the Mongol empire, Mongke, died, which meant Hulagu had to go back to East Asia to attend the selection of the next successor (although recently historians have claimed that Hulugu had to move his army to pasture in the east as all the fodder for horses in the region had run out). Hulugu left behind one of his commanders, Kitbuqa to consolidate Syria and continue the advance against the Mamluks while he was gone.
Taking the opportunity, the Mamluk leaders, Baybars and Qutuz set out from Egypt and attacked Kitbuqa, meeting him at Ain Jaloot and cleverly using Mongol tactics against the Mongols (which they never expected, and since they never thought of ever developing a counter to their own tactics, they fell for the Mamluk strategy) destroying an army of 25,000 Mongols and their Armenian and Georgian vassals. Kitbuqa was captured, and it was reported that Kitbuqa warned them before being executed, that the Muslims will face a million horses that will destroy them when Hulugu returns.
And return Hulugu did, two years later at the head of a massive army to exact revenge on the Mamluks and storm the remaining lands of Islam – however, Allah (swt) had other plans neither the Mamluks nor Hulugu expected.
To the north, across the Caucasus and central Asia, lay the lands of another faction within the Mongol empire 'the Golden Horde', led by the Mongol leader Berke Khan (who was a cousin of Hulugu). He had strong armies, and had recently embraced Islam after speaking to Muslim merchants from Bukhara. After converting to Islam, he managed to successfully convert many of his soldiers.
Before Hulugu could attack, and assuredly overwhelm the Mamluks and perhaps threaten the cities of Makkah and Madinah, Berke Khan attacked the Ilkhanate with his armies and dispatched forces which retook Ghazni and Eastern Afghanistan from the Ilkhanate control. This caused Hulugu to have to divert much of his army to fight the Golden Horde. Hulugu's army attempted to invade the Golden Horde areas in the Caucasus, but were caught by surprise and attacked by Berke's army near the river Terek in winter and smashed into a rout. It was reported that they ran across the frozen river to escape Berke's forces, only for the ice to break and cause most of Hulugu's remaining forces to plunge to their deaths.
Hulugu's forces were so embroiled in the fighting with Berke Khan, that he could never launch the full invasion of Egypt (and beyond) that he had wanted. He only managed to muster 6000 horsemen to attack the Mamluks – but they were defeated by the Mamluks at the battle of Homs (despite the Mamluk army at the battle only having 1400 soldiers!).
Berke Khan, who was nominally under the rule of the Great Khan, Mongke, sent a letter explaining why he was about to attack a fellow Mongol, it read:
"He (Hulugu) has sacked all the cities of the Muslims, and has brought about the death of the Caliph. With the help of God, I will call him to account for so much innocent blood"
Nine months after the battle of Ain Jaloot, the Mamluk Sultan Baibars, re-established the Caliphate nominating a surviving Abbasid, Al-Mustansir, to continue the role as Caliph of the Muslims, moving the seat of the Caliphate to Cairo.
The Mamluks then received a message from Berke Khan, asking them for an alliance against Hulugu, and asking them to support their Seljuk brothers in Anatolia.
Hulugu was never able to successfully capture anymore territory from the Mamluks till he died. 40 years later, the great-grandsons of Hulugu, Mahmud Ghazan and Muhammad Khodabandeh publicly converted to Islam (albeit nominally) and each succeeded to rulership of the Ilkhanate.
The "Mongol civil war" between Berke Khan and Hulugu is said by many historians to have marked the beginning of the internecine warfare that ultimately broke up of the Mongol Empire, bringing it to an end.
The moral of the story is clear. The Mamluks trained their forces and developed their military technology to a razor edge. They used ingenious military strategies and tactics against their enemy and refused to surrender or lay down (where many "pragmatists" would have thought it "wisdom" to do so). The Mamluks were the last line in the defence of Islam and the Muslim world – and they prepared themselves to defend it or perish. Only after they did everything they could, exhausted every means of material resource and mental ingenuity, did Allah's (swt) help come – from quarters they didn't expect, reducing their burden and ultimately giving them victory.
The Mamluks didn't just "tie their camel", they tied it with a steel cord attached to a lead anchor then put their trust in Allah (swt). Consequently, Allah (swt) gave them such victory as would be remembered for the rest of human history until now.
A lesson we'd do well to heed today
This entry was posted in: Featured, History
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In this delightful second installment in Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling detective series, the irrepressibly curious Isabel Dalhousie gets caught up in a highly unusual affair of the heart.
When Isabel is asked to cover for vacationing Cat at her delicatessen, Isabel meets a man with a most interesting problem. He recently had a heart transplant and is suddenly haunted by memories of events that never happened to him.The situation piques her insatiable curiosity: Could the memories be connected with the donor's demise? Naturally, Isabel's friend Jamie thinks it is none of Isabel's business. Meanwhile, Grace, Isabel's housekeeper, has become infatuated with a man at her spiritualist meeting, and Cat brings home an Italian lothario. That makes for some particularly tricky problems–both practical and philosophical–for Isabel to unravel in this enormously engaging and highly unusual mystery.


Apartment hotel "The Stream Resort"
Nestling among the picturesque pine forests in Pamporovo and inspiring a sense of warmth and hospitality, apartment hotel "The Stream Resort" is a perfect destination for your summer and winter vacations.
When you visit "The Stream Resort", you will be welcomed not only by our friendly staff, but also by the magnificent views of Rhodopi Mountain and the famous Snejanka Peak that will make you touch the beauty of the Bulgarian nature.
The hotel's relaxing atmosphere and amenities help you to recover after a day on the slopes or a summer hike. Cozy wood fireplaces in the lobby and the restaurants, the warm indoor swimming pool with jacuzzi, together with the spa procedures in the spa centre will tempt you to spend the evening indoors.
"The Stream Resort" welcomes guests all year round and features: two restaurants, lobby with log fire, conference hall, modern spa centre with heated swimming pool, sauna and steam room, fitness, game room, kids' corner, barbeque in the open, free parking area.
Whether is spring, summer, autumn or winter, Pamporovo offers a wide variety of activities. Skiing, ski running, snowboarding- you can enjoy your favorite winter sport surrounded by the Rhodopi mountain. A trip to the "The wonderful bridges", "Bachkovo Monastery", "Rozhen Observatory", "Smolyan Planetarium", a visit in the caves "Yagodinska" and "Devil's Throat", horse riding, rafting, bungee jumping- you can choose one of it if you are enthusiastic enough. And if you are lucky to get back to "The Stream Resort" in the summer, you will take an incredible delight in hearing the sound of the Rhodopi pipes at the National Folklore festival in the town Shiroka Luka.
We welcome you at "The Stream Resort" to spend a wonderful holiday with your family and share special moments with your friends.
In "The Stream Resort" we welcome guests and send friends!
If cancelled up to 14 days before date of arrival, no fee will be charged. If cancelled later or in case of no-show, the reservation deposit will be charged.


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There is a little farm in Cedar City, Utah called Red Acre Farm. Because of what one very young girl in 2007, only 12 years old to be exact, wanted to do: grow, raise and sell food, this Center was founded! Her passion for gardening led to a natural progression of selling to friends and neighbors and then a CSA was formed in 2009 , employees were hired and the farm was growing.
Experiencing the Nevada health department raiding a farm to fork dinner while helping a close family friend would change her perspective forever. After that food regulations for small farms and producers in the state of Utah began to be looked at. In most cases it was impossible for a small local producer to sell anything but raw produce without incurring costs, jumping through hoops and dealing with unclear and burdensome regulations.
Only a week after being invited to and being recognized for her growing farm business by the Governor at the 2014 Utah Rural Summit she received a cease and desist order. In 2015 wanting to have a way to be able to sell her raw milk legally she and her Mom headed to the sate Capitol to change the statue that in 2007 had outlawed sharing milk from a cow. Being there resulted in so many asking them "Who are you with?? At the time, they were just a small family who owned a 1 acre farm in rural southern Utah. But that experience, combined with the discovery that they were only one of many who care about good local food, farmers and farms in Utah that felt they had no voice gave them a growing desire to be a voice for food and small rural and urban agriculture. They knew they had to create a way to promote and protect robust local food economies: the freedom to choose what we eat, how it is grown and the opportunity to farm.
Since 2015, they have been actively involved in policy-making and advocacy, aGvocacy as we like to call it. Because of her persistence and much negotiating, sacrifices made, both of time and money, the herd share bill passed in the final hour of the legislative 2015 session. In 2016 we returned to the Capitol and began working on a Food Freedom Bill. We officially filed to be a non profit and in 2017 we could now say we were with "Red Acre Center!? This was done entirely through volunteer hours. In 2018 we were officially granted non profit staus and returned for our 4th legislative session, we started paying a full-time analyst that works on research as well as a part-time lobbyist. We were successful in passing two landmark bills: raw milk amendments allowing raw milk sales on farms and transportation in a mobile unit, and The Homemade Food Consumption Act allowing small diversified farms and anyone wanting to sell direct to consumer now making it possible for consumers to have greater access to local food.
Equally important to the Center is education and building community .
The Center wanted a place to get together, gather from north and south, east and west; a forum to bring in some of the most important and influential voices in the local food movement. A place to hear what is happening here in our state and across the country. A shared experience where we could talk and share a meal together. And so, the first anual Farm & Food conference was held in 2017 ! We have grown both in attendance and sponsors. We added a day , a seed exchange, a charted bus for the farm tour, a town hall meeting, Bites & Beverages, and a farmers market!
Late summer 2018, the Center held its first successful annual fundraising farm to fork dinner and silent auction: Gather. We continue to offer farm tours for schools and focus on developing the Learning Center to further our work to teach and help young farmers and new farms in order to build local food economies.
As farms, farming and the local food movement grow and change our story and who we are and what we do and the story of agriculture both large and small rural and urban will continue to be told We're excited and want to be a positive part of that story we invite you to be part of that story with us.
Copyright © 2021 Red Acre Center


text:
export * from './arrays';
export * from './dict';
export * from './eq';
export * from './objects';
export * from './strings';
export * from './uuid';


text:
package com.appleframework.data.hbase.client.service.hbaseMultipleVersionService;

import java.util.List;

import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Test;

import com.appleframework.data.hbase.client.QueryExtInfo;
import com.appleframework.data.hbase.client.RowKey;
import com.appleframework.data.hbase.client.SimpleHbaseDOResult;
import com.appleframework.data.hbase.client.rowkey.RowKeyUtil;
import com.appleframework.data.hbase.myrecord.MyRecord;
import com.appleframework.data.hbase.myrecord.MyRecordRowKey;
import com.appleframework.data.hbase.myrecord.MyRecordTestBase;

/**
 * @author xinzhi
 * */
public class TestFindObjectListMV extends MyRecordTestBase {

    private RowKey   rowKey_1     = new MyRecordRowKey(1);
    private MyRecord myRecord_1_1 = parseSlim("id=1,name=a,age=1");
    private MyRecord myRecord_1_2 = parseSlim("id=1,name=b,age=2");

    private RowKey   rowKey_2     = new MyRecordRowKey(2);
    private MyRecord myRecord_2_1 = parseSlim("id=2,name=b,age=2");
    private MyRecord myRecord_2_2 = parseSlim("id=2,name=a,age=1");

    private void fillData() {
        sleep(2);
        simpleHbaseClient.putObject(rowKey_1, myRecord_1_1);
        sleep(2);
        simpleHbaseClient.putObject(rowKey_1, myRecord_1_2);
        sleep(2);
        simpleHbaseClient.putObject(rowKey_2, myRecord_2_1);
        sleep(2);
        simpleHbaseClient.putObject(rowKey_2, myRecord_2_2);
        sleep(2);
    }

    @Test
    public void findListMV() {
        fillData();

        QueryExtInfo extInfo = new QueryExtInfo();
        extInfo.setMaxVersions(3);

        List<List<SimpleHbaseDOResult<MyRecord>>> listOfList = simpleHbaseClient
                .findObjectListMV(rowKey_1,
                        RowKeyUtil.appendZeroToRowKey(rowKey_2), MyRecord.class,
                        extInfo);

        Assert.assertTrue(listOfList.size() == 2);

        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_1_2, listOfList.get(0).get(0).getT());
        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_1_1, listOfList.get(0).get(1).getT());
        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_2_2, listOfList.get(1).get(0).getT());
        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_2_1, listOfList.get(1).get(1).getT());

    }

    @Test
    public void findListMVWithHql() {
        fillData();

        QueryExtInfo extInfo = new QueryExtInfo();
        extInfo.setMaxVersions(3);

        addHql("select where name greaterequal \"a\"");

        List<List<SimpleHbaseDOResult<MyRecord>>> listOfList = simpleHbaseClient
                .findObjectListMV(rowKey_1,
                        RowKeyUtil.appendZeroToRowKey(rowKey_2), MyRecord.class,
                        TestHqlId, null, extInfo);

        Assert.assertTrue(listOfList.size() == 2);

        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_1_2, listOfList.get(0).get(0).getT());
        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_1_1, listOfList.get(0).get(1).getT());
        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_2_2, listOfList.get(1).get(0).getT());
        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_2_1, listOfList.get(1).get(1).getT());

        addHql("select where name equal \"b\"");
        listOfList = simpleHbaseClient.findObjectListMV(rowKey_1,
                RowKeyUtil.appendZeroToRowKey(rowKey_2), MyRecord.class, TestHqlId,
                null, extInfo);

        Assert.assertTrue(listOfList.size() == 1);
        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_1_2, listOfList.get(0).get(0).getT());
        Assert.assertEquals(myRecord_1_1, listOfList.get(0).get(1).getT());

    }

}


text:
Lights on the Mountain: A Novel
Click the button below to add the Lights on the Mountain: A Novel to your wish list.
by Cheryl Anne Tuggle
Love, loss, and the memory of an otherworldly encounter haunt the days and nights of a Pennsylvania dairy farmer.
Barely old enough to vote when he loses his parents in an accident and inherits the family farm, Jess Hazel struggles to find meaning in the life he has always loved. Unable to shake the memory of a strange light he has seen hovering on the mountain peak above his valley home, he embarks on a pilgrimage, a halting inner odyssey riddled with fits and false starts.
Like the creek which cuts through the Allegheny foothills of its Western Pennsylvania setting, hope runs through every chapter of this novel. The beauty of the story lies in the unlikely people Jess encounters along the way, transmitters of a grace which at first hounds, then quietly eludes. Through events both tragic and joyous, Jess is led on a journey of self-discovery through ancestral sin, unexpected love, loss, holiness, compassion, forgiveness and redemption.
About the Author: Cheryl Anne Tuggle is a librarian, a freelance writer and a novelist, the author of Unexpected Joy: A Novel (Anaphora Press, 2011). She is a member of the Good Seed Writers Society and a featured writer on the blog Orthodox in the Ozarks. She has one son and one daughter, both grown, and lives in the wooded, rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks with her husband of thirty-five years.
Author: Cheryl Anne Tuggle
Publisher: Other
AFP SKU: 006025
Icon: A Novel
The Wilderness Journal: 365 Days with the Philokalia
Everyday Wonders: Stories of God's Providence
Fasting Food: Lenten Recipes from a Greek Kitchen
Icon: A Novel $14.95
The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality $16.00
The Epistle to the Hebrews (ebook)


text:
THE PRINCESS OF WALES MEETS HARVARD ACADEMICS TO DISCUSS NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN EARLY YEARS SCIENCE AND RESEARCH
The Princess of Wales visited The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University today, Friday 2 December 2022, as part of her ongoing work to elevate awareness of the extraordinary impact the early years have on lifelong outcomes.
A long-standing friend of The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, the Harvard Center is a world leader on research into the lifelong impact of experiences in early childhood.
Her Royal Highness met members of the team and had the opportunity to hear about how research and advances in science can be applied practically to policy and practice to achieve a promising future for every child.
"We are grateful to the Harvard Center on the Developing Child for hosting such a fascinating session and sharing their latest thinking. There is so much scope for further joint working here, given our missions are so aligned, and I look forward to even more collaboration between the two teams in future."
-Amanda Berry OBE, Chief Executive of The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales
The visit was also an opportunity to highlight the importance of collaboration between international organisations in showcasing and sharing best practice.
Center Director, Jack Shonkoff described the visit as a "wonderful opportunity for shared learning as part of a global effort to improve life outcomes for children."
He raised several important areas where science is pointing towards new strategies. Firstly, the interconnections between brain and body and the importance of connecting learning and health agendas; and the impacts that the broader conditions and environments in which families raise children have on developmental outcomes.
The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood will continue to work closely with colleagues at Harvard as the work of both teams' progress.


[?]Got my stage 1 today from the local dealer. Took 45 min.to instal and 1/2 hour to do the trans quick learn procedure. Anyone who is on the fence on getting the stage 1 this was the best money I have spent. The car runs so much smother and performance is what it should have been all along. When you charge $28,000 you should get more than a siruss radio. This turned a great car into an outstanding car. I don't run my car that hard (baby it) but I do want the performance if needed and the stage 1 gives you that. 16 psi boost and holds steady tell you let off the gas. step on the gas from a roll and the tires lite up. my bov is still on backorder. does it make any improvement in performance or just sound good?
my bov is still on backorder. does it make any improvement in performance or just sound good?
THE stock bov is a recirculating one and sends back pressure towards the turbo which slows it down causing turbo lag and eventually will mess it up. The mopar bov and other aftermarket bovs vent into the atmosphere, you won't have turbo lag and your turbo will last longer. Without turbo lag you will get better response which is an improvement in performance and the sound is really cool. You'll love it!
Also, the factory BOV recirculates thru a 3/8" hose that is over a foot long with a U-turn, making a bottleneck, That is the main reason you hear "flapping" noises at the turbo intake when you remove the air silencers.
With the MOPAR BOV you have four 1/4" holes venting to the atmosphere for total of a 1" exhaust, there are no lines to create a bottleneck so the turbo won't loose it's inertia and recover real fast. Since I installed it, the "flapping" noises are gone.
If you increase boost and don't have a good BOV, when you let go the Accelerator, the excess boost will create a return wave stalling the turbo impeller or even reversing it for an instant. This creates incredible stress on the fins and in many cases, the impeller explodes and throws shapnel to the engine.
Well, I'm no rocket scientist, but I DO know that four 1/4" holes do NOT equal a 1" hole. Nevertheless, the venting IS far superior than the stock setup.
Just trying to keep you honest, Ian.
(4)1/4" dia holes = .19 sq. in.
(1) 1" dia. hole = .7854 sq. in.
Sory about that. I was thinking linear, not squared.
Thanks for the help. but still, it is better than one 3/8" hole. Right?
heh, almost got pulled over today too...was passing aggressively. cop followed me for 4 miles before turning away..scared the crap outta me...and no S1 yet.
You are correct sir, a 3/8" hole has .11 sq.in. as opposed to the .19 sq.in. w/ sum total of the (4)1/4" holes you previously mentioned.
I used to ask if one would rather have (2)8" pizzas or (1)12", most would pick the (2) 8".
12"=113 sq.in vs. (2)8's=100.5 sq.in.
Oh well, I'll be glad when my BOV arrives and is installed.
quote:I used to ask if one would rather have (2)8" pizzas or (1)12", most would pick the (2) 8".


text:
Bracey History
Thomas Bracey
Samuel Bracey
Thomas Harrison Bracey
Paschal Hicks Bracey
Altamont Hart Bracey
Some European History of the Braceys
"Bracey, from Brecy, near Caen
Henry and Mamelin de Brecie occur in Normandy 1180-95 (MRS.). Radulphus de Braccio occurs in a Norman charter 1082 (Gall. Christ. xi. 86). William, his son, held Wisteston, Cheshire, and Robert de Bracy, the grandson, held three knights fees in that county from Robert Malbane, his uncle. (Omerod, iii, 177). In the borough of Cambridge, in the time of Edward I, c. 1272, a De Braci owned five houses."
- Norman Names and Families from London
Post Office Directory 1874
"..The manor of Medresfield in Worcestershire, .. has been in continuous possession of the descendents of its first owners, the De Braceys, from near Doomsday down to the present time. (Doomsday was the day or time a survey of England was made by King William I. The record of the survey was made in a book called 'Domes-day Book', which is yet preserved in the Tower; and all possessors of estates who are curious to know to whom their land belonged at the Conquest, whether it was ploughed land or pasture, what was then its value, and, in some cases, what cattle it was stocked with, may there get information of all these matters. - Goorich's Pictorial History of England, 1878) The manor has passed from father to daughter twice in that time, once in 1420 when Joan, only child of William De Bracey, married Thomas Lygon, who took up his residence there ........ Robert was the favorite name of the De Bracey family and one "Robert" held the manor of Warnedon in Worcester at Doomsday (Nash II, p. 452) The first time the name "De Bracey is shown in connection with the manor of Warnedon was in 1166 when Sir William De Bracey held it. (Red Book Exchequer). Robert De Bracey was his successor in 1192. Walter de Balenhall made a claim against him of half a knight's fee in Madresfield as his share of the inheritance of this knight's fee which six sisters divided between them. He died in 1220. (Nash II, p318) William De Bracey was lord of Madresfield in 1250. He was exempted in 1250 from being put on assizes and juries. (P. R. p.199) In 1280 he paid a sbsidy of 10s for his lands in Madresfield. He was in ill health in 1282, but lived until 1289, when he died and was buried at Great Malvern. (Vic. Hist. Worc. Vol. 4, p.120)
Sir Robert De Bracey was his son and of him much more can be told as the records of his time are more voluminous. He is first shown fighting against King Henry III at the famous Battle of Evesham in 1265 and had lands at Aston. Evesham is only a few miles from Madresfield. He was a witness in Worcester in 1282 and 1289, assessor of the Subsidy of Worcester 1283; commisioner for Worcester 1297 to 1310 and in Gloucester 1313. (C. R.)
In 1297 he was enrolled as a Knight of Essex, non-resident, for defense of the coast and having lands worth 20 pounds in Salop, was summoned to serve overseas. These lands were evidently those of his wife for he and his wife Maud had a suit on account of lands in Salop 2 June 1301. (C. R.)
He was Knight for the shore of Worcester 1300 to 1305 (P. W.) and was appointed to raise knight in Worcester for defence of the realm 14 January 1300. (C. R.) These were probably for service against the Welsh or Scots against whom King Edward I was waging war.
In 1316 he settled the manor of Madresfield and Warnedon on himself for life, with t=remainder to Robert, son of William De Bracey, and the heirs of his body. His connection with Madresfield is first shown in an inquisition 20 January 1316 when he was found to hold three knights fees at Warnedon, Madresfield and Braces Leigh, Worcester. (Inq.) He was commissioner for raising the men of Worcester against the Scots 5 August 1316. (F. R.) He was Overload of Madresfield Manor 20 Mar., Custodian of Hanley Castle 20 June 1327, and over load in Salop 25 May 1335.
Sir Roberts wife was Maud de Warren, Daughter of William de Warren, sometimes called William de Blauminister. Eyton, in his Antiquities of Shropshire (Vol. 10, p. 15 to 21) shows that William de Warren was a great grandson of William, second Earl of Warren, who died in 1135, and his wife Isabella de Vermandois, granddaughter of King Henry I of France.
Sir William De Bracey, son of Sir Robert, does not appear often in the records as his father evidently lived to be aged. He was appointed keeper if the manor of Hanley Castle and of the chase at Malvern in 1328. *
Sir Robert De Bracey, his son, first appears in the records about 1343, In 1345 he was Lord of Madresfield. Sir Robert fought as a knight at Crecy in the division of the Prince of Wales. Wrottelesey in his "Crecy and Calais" p. 179, says:
"Among those who had sever in person who were exonerated from the assesment to find men at arms and archers, was Sir Robert Bracey who served in the retinue of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Normandy and at the Battle of Crecy and seige of Calais."
Sir Robert's wife was Juliana, who as relict of Robert De Bracey was patron of church at Warnedon in 1378.
* He was Knight for the Shire of Worcester in 1338.
Sir William De Bracey, his son, was patron at Warnsdon, 1370-1376. In 1376 he went to Ireland with James Butler, Earl of Ormond, in the King's service. His wife was named Joan. As Lady Joan Bracey, she held her first court for the manor of Madresfield in 1390, so Sir William must have died about that time.
William Bracey, son of William, in the seventh year of Henry VI (1428-29) was an esquire returned into the exchequer to attend the King in person with horse in arms in France. This was probably after Joan of Arc had captured Orleans in that year and the English were marshalling their forces against her. In 1431 William was returned as Lord of the manor of Madresfield. (Nash II, p.452)
Joan Bracey, the only child of William, married Thomas Lygon in 1420. In 1429 Thomas Lygon was certified in the exchequer to hold lands in Warnedon which Robert Braci sometimes had; for in 7 Henry (1420) Joan Braci, the hair of the family, has married Thomas Lygon.
- William & Mary Quarterly, Vol. 16, p. 289
© St. Tammany Farm 2003