Brussels - Atomium August 2008

We spent a whole week in Brussels, the biggest city in Belgium. My dad had to work there for a week, so we went along. We saw lots of cool Brussels stuff. A few things Taj and I enjoyed most was going to the Atomium.













It is a giant model of an ATOM. And they actually wouldn't let you in some of the rooms. They made it for the World's Fair in 1958. The most interesting part about it was that you would take really fast elevators up and down and across the arms going to the electrons.








There was a nice restaurant in the highest electron, and mom drank tea because everything else was really expensive. You could see the Miniature City from the top.

Dad's Week Off ... by Dad

Maybe it was the deadened embers my pupils had become, or the angle and slump of my shoulders, but I recently got an unexpected week off,given to me by my boss, for, in his words, working like a dog for the past month. The time was a complete surprise. Spread before me, broad and luxurious, were some hundred twenty unclaimed hours free of meetings,emails and appointments. The easy answer to a week off-- going to,
say, Aruba-- was unavailable to me as a thicket of activities and obligations had grown around my seven and nine year old boy's lives. Even though they are homeschooled and my wife and I have tried desperately not to schedule every minute of their young lives, it seems the small compromises we made for piano lessons, children's choruses and chess classes have assembled themselves into a psychic vacuum capable of sucking spontaneity out of any soul that dares approach it.

Or so I had heard. The truth is, like a lot of fathers, I had very
little contact with my children's day to day lives. What did I really
know about what they did between the hours of 8 and 7? So with little
else to do, I thought I would find out. Instead of my wife, I would take
them through the subways and onto the buses, to all their cute little
appointments during which I would relax, drink coffee and eat danishes.
It would be fun, like one big saturday.

Monday: I wake up late. The kids wake up late. It's their first
rehearsal for roles in a metropolitan opera production of Manon Lescaut.
They had been going to practices of the children's chorus for about a
year and this was the first thing they had been cast in. And now all that
was standing between them and their rightful place on the cover of
opera news is a bath, breakfast, and a decent alarm clock. Shower steam
clouds of panic fill the apartment. The scoldings and protestations and
pleadings end in a tumble out of a taxi in the middle of the wrong
block. I had never been to the opera, much less to the stage door of the
opera so I was wholly dependent on the navigational skills of two
individuals who only recently started putting their shoes on the correct feet.
Weaving through scaffolding, stopping security guards with pleading
inquiries, dodging dump trucks reversing, we finally dashed through the
swinging black doors a full seven minutes past their scheduled arrival
time. The stern guard behind the bullet proof glass mumbled out the
extension for the children's wrangler and pointed to the house phone. I
held my breath, pressing the numbers out with a sense of doom. Before
anyone picks up, the kids cry out,. "Alicia's here, dad!". I spin around
telegraphing a grin of apology. The small, curly haired woman returns my
smile quizzically, saying, "I think the rehearsal is tomorrow."

Tuesday: the thing about opera parents is most of them are actually
opera fans. Some are even Italian. Having arrived 30 minutes early, I
find myself involved in pleasant banter amongst grownups, banter that
turns into a discussion about operas they had seen. I nod sagely, hoping
to mask the sum toto of my opera knowledge derives the viewing of a
highly compressed version of Il barbiere de sevilla performed by msrs.
bunny and fudd.

Wednesday: I wake up from my nap ( a nap I have taken everyday this
week) at around 830 at night. The morning was a blur of bus rides,
teacher introductions, rehearsal drop-offs and espresso shots. In the
afternoon, I briefly rallied the troops for a visit to the museum of modern
art, which despite my best efforts, the two guys have chosen not to
love. On entry, they burst into the sculpture garden, treating the space
as if it were some sort of obstacle course. I'm not sure it's completely kosher to crawl through the tunnel- like center of untitled by Donald Judd, but I'm definitely glad the guard didn't see it. By my count, it
took 5 firm tugs on the upper arm, 3 dagger like stares, 6 impromtptu
lectures complete with wagging index finger to march through the four
sections of the museum I desperately want to see. The way home is
punctuated by sidewalk races, body checks, outright punches, claims of
universal awesomeness, jokes cribbed from Calvin and Hobbes and wildly joyous
laughter. I acted as goalie, referee, and stern handed sheperd until we
all crossed the threshold of our apartment door and I collapsed into
bed. The children played on.

Thursday: "wWuld you like some tea, Mr monkey? How about you, Mrs.
Baby?" I find myself holding a tea party for a friend of our's three
year old daughter. Her other daughter was sick with a fever so I went to
their place in harlem to bring the elder one, arrayed in pink from head
to toe, to her ballet class. As I dip my pretend crumpet into my
pretend tea, I contemplate what different worlds parents of little girls
occupy than little boys. I'm sure the boys are now communicating their
brotherly love for each other in their special sub dialect of smacks and
wrestling holds. For the next few hours, I am free of their chaos, off
as they are with their mother to a robotics class and another choral
practice. I am supposed to meet them near there, after Sola's dad fetches
her. But when the hour arrives, I find myself in bed again, counting
all the things I had meant to do this week, fixing the stereo, buying an
Iphone, going to the frick and the whitney, replacing two measly
light bulbs in the high ceiling of our living room. These unfullfilled plans
run past my mind's eye like sheep. At five, the anger rising in me
crescendos (couldn't I get just one moment to screw in one hook in the
closet) so by ten, I was amused at my desire for a long subway ride out to
Totonno's pizza in Coney island. I reach 20 and I feel a surge of
understanding, deep and abiding, of just how hard it is to be new york city
mom and how much love it takes to endure. Thirty pushes me to the edges
of slumber, and the true meaning of every plea, every look my wife has
cast my direction for the nine years we have been parents rushes over me
in waves. At thirty two, my eyes shut as spaces carved out by my
ignorance fill and I sleep.

The Lunar Eclipse

August 28, 2007

We read about the total eclipse somewhere, and since we have not seen one, we planned on seeing it. We read at the Liberty Science center site that at 5:52 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, August 28, the shadow of the earth will completely block the light of the sun that would have been reflected on the moon.

We also read that unlike solar eclipses, lunar blackouts are perfectly safe to view and we learned about acool instrument called an astrolabe - since we read that as the Earth’s shadow passes across the lunar face, the Moon will be at a low point in the western sky: 23 degrees above the horizon when the real action begins at 4:51 a.m., and just 4.5 degrees above the horizon when blackout occurs. The Moon will actually set at 6:20 a.m. while in total eclipse.

So we figured we could not see it from Central park because of all the trees. We took a cab and went to the Boat Basin by the west side highway at 4:30 a.m. Boy, were we sleepy.



We joked around a lot about Wallace and Gromit, and how the moon was made of cheese.

Shakespeare in the Park

August 22, 2007

The Line

It had been raining for two days, and we were starting to get cabin fever. Taj also had a real fever. By wednesday, Mom called the Shakespeare in the park hotline ( a new thing she just heard about - the number is 212-539-8662) to ask if it was still possible to get tickets if we got there by 12:00 noon. Surprisingly, the woman said yes! We rushed out. Still a bit of light rain but we had raincoats on.

We got to a reaaaly short line! Wow, this was the shortest ever. The Macbeth line was really long and we reached the BIG ROCK - a bad sign - for Romeo and Juliet. We were not able to get tickets for Romeo and Juliet, which was okay with us. ( too much love interest).

The violin guy was there at the line again, but did not get to play too long because we got our tickets in 15 minutes!

We walked around the park in the light rain and threw pebbles at the mucky pond from the castle. We walked around taking pictures of the hand-made fences because mom wanted to make some up at the lakehouse.




We also saw the backstage of the Delacorte, and saw people working on the props. We wondered what the baby carriage was for. I like looking at plays and how they are made.



Children's Museum

We walked to the west side and decided to eat lunch and then go to the Children's museum. For a long time we did not like going to CMOM because we thought it was too kiddish, We changed our minds when we saw the Greek Exhibit. It is really fun. This is the second time we are seeing it, and we still spent a lot of time there. The wooden trojan horse is Taj's favorite. I liked the talking Aristotle. It was cool because he can guess things.

At 5, we left the museum, went to the library to borrow stuff, and then went to the Diana Ross playground. The sand was perfect! A little wet from the rain. We played with our clay guys we got from the craft hour at the museum. Sand and clay are nice to play with.

Dad came with soup from Ho Yip. Yumm. At 7:45 we walk to the Delacorte. We had invited Tita Mo, and mom's cousin, Isha ( we had 2 extra tickets.)

Midsummer Night's Dream

WE got the same bad seats from before - maybe because there is always 6 of us! But we were happy. The rain had stopped, and the stage had a nice set. We finally figured out what the carriage was for. It was for the Indian Boy!. When we read the play, we always thought it was a lad - like a toddler. I guess it was easier to have a little baby.

The play was really funny. My favorite character was the Wall in the play-within the play ( Pyramus and Thisbe). In the actual play, my favourite was Puck , because he is my kind of person. He was a cross between Cupid and Pan. Oberon , I did not like, because he wore a suit. Oberon was the name of the character in the Revenge of the Shadow King. I like knowing how authors use old ideas and finding out connections between texts. Oberon was even the King of Shadows!

T: My favourite part was the end, -- Pyramus and Thisbe. I think the funniest one was the Wall. In the actual play, I liked John Bottom ( the donkey head) the best. He was very silly. Also the one who played the girl.

We laughed so much- and kept talking about the funny parts as we walked through Central Park on the way home. This was also nice. We like walking home through the park in the dark a lot. The sky is a perfect circle looking up from the great lawn. I lost my jacket though and was upset for a while.

Philadelphia

Friday, August 10, 2007

We wake up early -- 6:00 a.m. and get ready to drive the 1 hour 55 minutes to Philadelphia from NYC. We dropped off our suitcases at the hotel and drove to the Barnes. We needed to get reservations weeks before, but the guard let us in an hour early. We had to see the Musuem before they moved the collection to central Philadelphia. Dad said the paintings are unusual because it has not left the Barnes since the collector died. He also said the museum itself was different.

The Barnes Foundation

We arrive at the Barnes Foundation . It really is a strange museum - it looked like somebody's house. Mr. Barnes was an art collector who became rich by inventing a silver alloy used to clean wounds. He hung up his paintings in a different way. He hung them up with the Renoirs and the Matisse's together but in a very random way. The walls were not white and he put up lots of other kinds of art beside the paintings - like african masks and greek helmets and a big lock collection. I like the way he arranged the collection. Like the african masks beside Picasso's funny faces. I hope they won't change the arrangement when they transfer it. It would just be a Met, only smaller and with too many Renoirs.

I learned one interesting thing: Van Gogh was inspired by Chinese paintings - which used black outlines around the figures. we bought this poster to put in the lakehouse.



















Then we had fun picking out and counting all of the Renoirs, Matisse's and Cezanne's. The Barnes is also strange because it does not have name plates on the walls. They have tiny brass plates on each painting that just says who the painter is.


From afar, you can't tell who painted the works. But it was easy to tell because the Renoirs had spots of light, Cezannes had geometric patterns in strange dark colors, and the Matisse because of the strange bright colors and the weird flower-like things. Mom calls them arabesques. After so many Renoirs, we found them a little foofy. I liked the Cezannes the best.

T: I liked the tiger painting by Rosseau on the second floor. I like tigers and i liked how dark the paintings were, and it was really well done. I also liked these geometric sculptures with one eye. I forget the name of the guy. I have never heard of him before.




The Arboretum

After 2 hours, we go down to the garden within the estate. It was huge and had weird trees like the monkey puzzle tree from Chile, and the cork tree. We had great fun by the pond, where we caught tons of worms to feed to the goldfish. The garden was beautiful, with big trees and tons of nooks. Mom liked the trellises.

We leave the Barnes, and drive to the center of Phiiladelphia where we would see the King Tut exhibit.


Reading Public Market


Before we do, we go to the Reading Public Market where dad is going crazy sampling food - pulled pork, hoagies, Bassett's ice cream, and soft pretzels. We had fun with Philbert, the pig. Someone had dropped a bill which contained 8 zeroes on them - but it was folded, and we could not figure out how much it was really worth. Dad thought it was counterfeit. There was so much good food in there.

The Franklin Institute


The Franklin Institute was huge but not as full of stuff as the NY Hall of Science. We are here to see the King Tut exhibit.

The exhibit was huge, and they laid it out well - but i was disappointed they did not have the Golden Mask. I really liked the crook and flail and i finally saw the blue war crown that i have read about. The best piece was not King Tut but the statue of Akhenaten. It was very strange looking - not like a normal Egyptian statue. It looked almost medieval.

After we went through the exhibit, we went back again to look at things more closely. Then we watched the mummy movie. I did not like their IMAX theater because it is not like the Hayden where you get a good view wherever you sit. I felt a little vomitty. I realize now that you need to sit all the way in the back for theaters like these.

Later, we went around the museum. I really liked the flight area because i got to design an aircraft. We also saw the big Franklin statue in the foyer, and we remembered it from National Treasure. We have to watch that movie again. It has all these Philadelphia places in it.

We go back to our hotel and look for cartoons on tv. Nothing. So we read and slept.

Touch Me Museum

We wake up early, eat breakfast, and go swim in the pool. We drive into Philly at 9:30 to the Touch Me Museum. We are a little doubtful, because it is a kids' museum for ages 0 to 7. We hoped it would not be so kiddish.

We liked only a few things - the dragon exhibit from Vietnam was okay – we learned that Vietnamese dragons spit out water instead of fire. There was a cool play about the legend of that.

We also saw some Sendak mascots, also Alice in wonderland. I only really liked the natural-looking blocks, and built a nice castle with dad. Then we got all these little dragons for only 65 cents each. That was cool that they sold it so cheap. We stayed there for a few hours and then went to get lunch.

Cheesesteaks

We were doing a taste test – Pat's or Geno's. Dad said we should split up since the lines were long. Mom and Taj went across the street, while dad and I stayed in the line at Geno's.

Mom and Taj got their cheesesteaks first. They said the people were very rude and mom was a little nervous, but the line did go fast. Dad and I got ours and we passed the 4 chessesteaks around. We all agreed, Pats was better. It had more cheese, and there was more meat. The meat was also more tasty. The provolone cheese was not good. The chiz-wiz was really yummy.

Later, we walked to the Italian Market and got fresh fruits and Italian Ices. We concluded that fruity ones were better for Italian ice. The chocolate one was not good. Mango was the best.

Academy of Natural Sciences

After lunch, we went back to the Museum Area, and went into what looked liked the American Museum of Natural History - only a lot smaller. The exhibits were all kind of the same- it had dioramas, and dinosaur bones. We liked the dig etc. but nothing too exciting. The only cool thing there was the Amazon Exhibit.

The Piranhas ( they don't eat people), and the anacondas, and the 3 types of rivers – the black, the white and brown. I liked how the white swirled into the black river like coffee.

The Best part was learning about animals I never heard of before: the Knife Fish which gives off electric currents and one guy measured it through sound.

The MUCKFISH was even cooler. It is the size of a hotdog, and it has gills but they can breathe air. They live in the mud. It is kind of like the platypus in that it is halfway between animal families.


Cebu

We picked up a flyer about this Philippine restaurant on Chestnut street – so we decide to try the food there. We just got appetizers and dad was happy to get a San Miguel Beer - a Philippine made beer you can't get too much in America.

We got some pork riblets that were VERY good- they tasted like longaniza with bones. We also had some raw fish and scallops.

Monk's Café

After our appetizers, dad wanted to go to this Café that had good mussels. There was a long line, so we could not stay. We walked around, played with our dragons on the steps of some houses, got some bbq and went back to the hotel to sleep.

Tenth Prebyterian

We eat breakfast and go to church. Mom was excited because she read a lot of the books that their Pastor wrote - Pastor Paul Tripp. It was a big church, and the building was nice. Their old pastor was Pastor J.M. Boice, who, mom said was also famous.

After church, we decide to go back to Monks café and had a fun meal – mussels ! We loved it ! Dad taught us to use one mussel to get the inside of the other mussel. We had good bread to dip into the mussel sauce. We walked around the neighborhood and found a really nice street -- Delancey.

It was very narrow with a brick street. We played with our dragons on the stoops – again.. There was so much sunshine around, and we later realized that it was because the buildings were all very low.

Independence Hall

After church we decide to walk around the parks in the Historic District. We saw Independence Hall, peeked at the Liberty bell. Then there was a very cool story-telling chain – there was a map we were following -- 13 places with storytelling benches . They gave us a flag and at each stop, we would get star stickers to put on our flags.

Bench number 1 was not very kid-friendly. He was an actor and he kept looking at the adults to please them. The story was cool - it was about Margaret Madison, and how William Penn allowed her to be a witch – even if she wasn't. Penn was supposed to have said " Broomsticks are allowed in Philadelphia."

Bench number 2 was about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. 3 was about Sigmund Lubin who was jewish and invented the movie camera, 4 was about the quaker hunchback only 4 feet tall, who protested against slavery ( he refused to drink anything with sugar, or wear clothes from slave cotton) , 5 was about the guy who invented rubbing mud for baseball – Lena. We touched the mud and it was very silky.

The last bench we visited at 4:00 was the most FUN one. It was about the freedom of speech and the food you hated to eat. The storyteller was reaaly funny. He had a funny voice, and when he gave us all the stars, he said
" This is the final episode of Story tellers gone wild. This story teller is going to break all the rules. He is filling up an entire flag with stars!"

He did this because we ran out of time and since we lacked a few more stars, he just gave them to us ( THIS WAS supposed to be a secret). We rushed to Franklin Square to get our free ice cream and free carousel ride. Luckily, the park would not close till 9:00 p.m.

Franklin Square

This park was small and strange because it had a section where you needed to pay to get in ( mini-golf etc.) We just got our certificate for the stories, and our free coupon book and got chocolate ice cream ( a really big one). We also got a free ride on the carousel, so we picked our animals ( taj picked a lion of course) and mine was an eagle . We so wanted to ride a griffin, but there were only real animals, so we rode the lion and eagle as a compromise. The ride was fun but short like all carousel rides. It was good we did not have to pay for it.

There was a pyramid and sphinxes in the square made completely out of sand ( no armature). We got samples of the sand . We are supposed to mix it with glue and water, form a block, and then carve it out. This looked like a good idea.



Rodin Museum












It was getting late, and we needed to drive home -- but we really wanted to see the Thinker. So we went to the outside of the museum and just posed with the Thinker.

We saw he had a funny hat on, and his back is very bony. We loved his toes. We also thought it seemed unfinished – not very smooth like the DAVID we saw in Florence. Dad said Rodin could be like an impressionist painter – where the brushstrokes are very obvious . That seemed like a good illustration.


We played around there a bit and went off to do our final stop before driving home.


Steps of Philadelphia Art Museum

The museum was closed, but we thought we would just do one thing: ROCKY. We had to run up and down the steps, and put our arms up. We did. Took pictures and went home.



That was a very fun weekend.