Digital music at home gets easier

I try to limit my technological posts to things that I think are really cool, and this might just be one. Napster, who came to fame for being shut down as one of the first file sharing services, is now offering free music online (sort of). After Napster was shut down by the courts, its name was bought up and last year it reopened as an online music store. You could still download music from Napster, but now you had to pay for it. Enough history.

Now comes the cool part. Napster will now let you listen to every song in their collections up to five times for free. To listen to it the sixth time, you need to pay a monthly membership fee (if you pay the monthly fee, you can listen to whatever you want, as many times as you want). They have a collection of 2 million songs. If each was 3 minutes long, and you listened to music 24 hours a day, it would take just over 57 years to use up the free songs. Then you'd have to make up a new name and sign up again. Or, discriminating listener that you are, if you only listened to 1% of the songs, it would still take you a year of listening 3 hours a day to hear all the songs just once.

So, I usually look at the Calgary Folk Festival site to see who's going to play at the upcoming festival. Sometimes, I see a name and think, "Oh good, I like that person." Other times, I read about some "alt country sensation" and shrug. Never heard of 'em. This is where Napster comes in. Of the 12 leaked artists, they offer music by 10 of them (missing a Manitoba bluegrass band and a Louisiana Cajun band). So now I can listen to the bands that I will get to see in the summer - just a few songs to find out a bit more about who I'd like to see and who I can stand to miss.

My Turn

Jamie is on babywatching duty, so now it's my turn. While I agree with much of Jamie's review of The Constant Gardener, I'm not dismissing it as complete Hollywood garb. What I liked about it, apart from the interesting sequencing of events, was the honest glimpse it gave of African life - the impoverished towns, the terror of village raids by armed men on horseback, the comparatively decadent lifestyle of westerner diplomats, and the feeling of utter helplessness in the face of extreme poverty and corruption. I also liked the cinematography - in the beginning the camera did nearly all the work telling the story, allowing the audience to form their own conclusions, but later the film felt the need to make sure the audience had arrived at the "correct" conclusions by having the characters verbalize these directly. That is really my only complaint about the film.

I'm also enjoying Aysha's growing ability to communicate. Yesterday I taught her the froggie sign (we are working on baby sign language). When she picked up a leather box Ryan had given me from Jamaica that had a frog on the top, I reached for a couple other frogs we had in the apartment (a wooden fridge magnet, and a plastic toy frog from a cereal box). Instinctively I knew that in that moment, if I found these other frogs and make the frog sign, (tongue darting in and out), that Aysha would learn the sign. And she did! It was so exciting! Almost everyday she learns something new.

Today is free museum day. The last Sunday of each month there is no charge to visit any museum in town. Hence, today we are going to check out the Navel Museum. It's an excuse to get out of the apartment early in the morning and go for a walk in the old town. Yesterday I joined another teacher at 7:30 am for a walk all around Bocagrande and Castillogrande. It took us between two and a half and three hours. I don't usually walk around Castillogrande, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how beautiful and quiet the beaches were early on a Saturday morning. It's nice to know this city still holds a few surprises. I'll have to take Jamie for a walk there one morning!

Alright, the museum...

Sunday Morning

Aysha went to be early last night, thanks to not having an afternoon nap, and we watched "The Constant Gardener" with Sarah, a high school English teachers who is getting ready to leave.

I enjoyed the movie. It reminded me of "Memento" in that the way it was told was the movie's hook. I didn't find "The Constant Gardener" as appealing though. "Memento" is about a man with no long term memory. The movies begins with the last scene and then presents the rest of the scenes in reverse order back to the beginning. Like the main character, you are forced to try to understand the characters and circumstances without knowing how you got there. Each scene provides more insight on the scenes you've already watched and forces you to readjust your idea of what has happened and what each character is after. "The Constant Gardener" begins in the middle of the action, when the main character's wife is killed. Then you go back to the beginning to learn the circumstances around the death and are made to feel the suspicions and confusion of the husband. The second half of the movie provides the scraps of information that let you slowly discard false assumptions and follow the main character's discoveries about who his wife was and why she met her end. "The Constant Gardener"'s story is adapted from a John LeCarre novel and is typical of a Hollywood movie; a passionate activist faces off against a huge corporation motivated by greed that is up to no good. The movie has a good cast who give strong performances. It's worth a watch, but is nothing magnificent.

Aysha is copying more and more of wthat she sees. She started making the sign for frog yesterday and even tries to make the words. Most of her words are not distinct yet. The Spanish word for frog is "rana", which comes out as "nana", which is her word for banana. Or "vaca" (Spanish for cow) sounds almost the same a "papa" most of the time. She is letting us know more and more what she wants - she points, nods and shakes her head for yes and no, and uses a few signs and words too. When we've figured out that she wants something to eat or drink, she stands watching us get it ready and all the while make an unusual combination of laughing and crying that comes out in little bursts that make her sound like a little maniac. There is no doubt that she has moved into the communicative phase.

Karla is in the blogging on-deck area. She has been watching Aysha while I wrote this with the deal that she and I will change roles. Aysha... where are you?

Fun with Aysha

Fun with Aysha

Watch the video

Aysha plays in Cartagena, accompanied by "Good Vibrations" courtesy of The Beach Boys. I used Windows Movie Maker instead of the software that came with the camera because it let me use a few more effects.

Aysha is using more and more langauge everyday now. She is starting to copy sounds that we make. She has copied a few animal sounds from her books for a while now. She roars and makes the sound of an elephant trumpeting (sort of). This weekend, she started saying "uh-oh" when something fell. She started saying "bye-bye" (instead of just "bye") and "more". She says mom and papa quite a bit too.

Enjoy the video.

My Two Bits

Jamie did a great job posting to the web so quickly after our trip, but I thought I would add my two bits. Some of the Aysha photos posted were ones I took, even though Jamie posted them to his flickr account. I told him I was annoyed that many members of the family think that he is the photographer, when picture taking is my hobby as well! I have to admit that these days I end up doing more childcare duty, and Jamie more of the picture taking.

It has been hard getting back to work. The holiday was great - better than I had expected. Aysha really enjoyed the stimulation of being in a different place and around other people. I think she also liked having both her parents with her the entire week without either of them distracted (not giving her the attention she would like) due to school work. I've looking forward to being that relaxed during the summer.

We are now in the home stretch of school - only seven teaching weeks left. I know the time will slip by more quickly than I want it to, as I still have a lot that I want to teach and do with my classes. I'm already thinking that I'm going to miss this group of kids. They are really a strong group academically and in terms of creativity, which makes project work a lot more fun. Right now they are working on scripts for a talk show, where each of the members in a group of six are leaders of the past (people who lead Latin America toward independence). They just finished a project where they made children's books on the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas, which they are going to present to a grade two class later this week. The books were beautifully done. In English we just concluded a novel study, and so I am now focusing this week and next on how to organize a short essay. And there are too many things that I would like to teach that I simply won't have time for.

Well, that's my two bits. My goal is to add my voice a little more often to this blog.

Working links to pictures

Ok, I just fixed the links to all the picutres so now by clicking on them you can see larger versions. Karla went to show off the blog to people at school today, and it didn't work. Happy viewing

Aysha at the Park - Composite

I had a little fun with Photoshop and made this out of a series of five pictures of Aysha. Not bad, huh?

The Green Hills of Bogota

We left early Saturday morning on a mostly empty Avianca flight from Cartagena to Bogota. As we taxied out to the runway, Aysha had made a mess and I was sent to ask for a napkin. The attendant replied, “Not on national flights, only international.” I guess that’s how they manage to fly with planes that are mostly empty. We touched down in the cool Colombian capital an hour later. A quick call to our hotel produced a promise of a ride in 30 minutes. Sixty minutes later, the car arrived, delayed by traffic. We did manage to fit four adult, two kids, the driver and all our luggage, including a stroller and baby backpack into the car, which amazed me every time we did it.

We rode down a big divided highway towards the hotel. In between lanes there was a wide green space with a bike path down the centre. Bogota is very different from Cartagena. Our little city is hot and full of stone and cement buildings crowded around the ocean front. We have a sidewalk system that seems to be voluntary; each building installs its own piece of sidewalk so that it is rare that you see a stretch of sidewalk that continues at the same height, width or distance from traffic for more than one or two lots. Bogota has consistent, smooth(ish) sidewalks that are even accompanied by bike paths along major roads.

The Hotel Marbore was small and very friendly. We checked into our rooms and caught a taxi downtown. We stopped for a vegetarian lunch. Bogota, the big capital, manages to be cheaper than “tourist-friendly” Cartagena. Our first visit was the Gold Museum, which was full of funerary decorations: gold masks, bracelets, belts and other decorations, and gold statues that the indigenous peoples dropped into lakes as thanks to the Gods for their successes.

Next we walked along busy city streets down to the old city. It looked a lot like Cartagena’s old town, except in Cartagena the old town is surrounded by fortified walls and in Bogota it is surrounded by busy city streets and impressive, more recent public buildings.

The Alcantaras in Bogota
Here we are stopping for a rest in Bogota on the main sqare.





Bogota man
Just a guy who walked by



We found the Botero museum which features the works of Colombia’s most distinctive artist. He paints and sculpts fat things – people, animals, objects. By this time the kids were getting tired of the museum visits. Karla and I sped through the museum while Tony and Diana had to work harder to keep two year old Julian busy. Aysha was restless in her stroller if we stopped, but still too small to be really intolerant of the museum. The highlight of the museum was a Chagall, who is still my favorite. We returned to the hotel and spent the night resting up for the next day’s trip.


Villa de Leyva morning
Here's a shot from the quiet morning in Villa de Leyva

Villa de Leyva is two bus rides away from Bogota over twisty mountainous road. We pulled into town just as it started raining. The town of 6000 has maintained their original cobblestone roads. The roads are made of uncut stones that may once have been mortared into a fairly smooth surface, but now are lacking any sort of joining substance leaving a surface that makes pushing a carriage nearly impossible and carrying a child or suitcase precarious. We were all pretty wet by the time we made it four blocks to the hotel.
That afternoon we wandered around to check out the quaint little streets full of restaurants and shops. Villa de Leyva gets a lot of weekend visitors from the capital and has a thriving artistic community. It didn’t suffer from “Cartagena Syndrome” – shops that all sell the same cheap looking stuff that you don’t really want to buy anyway.

Green countryside
In Villa de Leyva









Monkey on my Back

Monday we walked back to the bus station to find a taxi to take us around to see the sights. The Lonely Planet said that the ride should cost $20, but when we talked to the taxi driver, he offered to do it for less. After a few minutes, when I had asked about the price in every way I could, I had to conclude that it wasn't a trick and he was actually asking for less than we had expected. Our first stop was El Fossil, a nearly complete large aquatic dinosaur. The land around Villa de Leyva was a lakebed and is covered with fossils that are often incorporated into the stone buildings. Next we stopped at El Inferntio (the small hell), that was a religious site and calendar for the indigenous people. It earned its name from the Spaniards who misinterpreted the phallic stones that cover the site. We made out way from there to Ecce Homo, a monastery built with fossils. It was a beautiful site. We ended our trip with a visit to the local winery for a sample of their products.

El Infernito














By the Well
Here we are in Ecce Homo










Julian and Aysha














The next day, we planned to take a taxi to Raquira, a nearby town famous for its pottery. We started the day at the French bakery, but before we had finished our quiche and coffee, we had met Carlos, a friendly Colombian, and Sylvia, his 18 month old daughter.

Julian, Aysha and Sylvia - It's hard to get a shot of three young kids all looking the same way at the same time!




He invited us up to meet his wife, Monique, and parents-in-law just outside of town. His parents-in-law had built a house and organic garden on the side of a previously barren hillside. Their beautiful house was in a tiny jungle populated by parrots and chickens, and a cat and dog. It reminded me a bit of my sister and Dave's place outside of Nelson. After a refreshing morning in the hills, we headed back to town for lunch. That afternoon, we went to see Carlos’s parents who had a weekend house a little further outside of town. We spent the afternoon with the proud grandparents. They had build a little park, playhouse (with running water and electricity), lake with boat, and basketball court in expectation of more grandchildren to follow their two granddaughters.

Villa de Leyva Locals
Here is a group of traditionally dressed people waiting for a bus at a town outside of Villa de Leyva




The next day we went to Raquira with Luis, Carlos’s father. He picked us up in a huge van (with room for at least 10 grandchildren in the back). We all picked up a few things in Raquira, a village that for two blocks becomes a shopping mall. On the way home, we drove through a downpour.

Thursday we rose, grabbed breakfast at the Posada de Los Angeles, the little hotel we wished we had stayed at, and returned to Bogota, which almost exhausted us. All along the way, the road was littered with rockfall, the result of the previous day's rain. We checked back into our hotel and then went for lunch in a huge, trying-too-hard-to-be-chic restaurant that left us entertaining kids for 40 minutes while waiting our food. The lunch finished exhausting us. We spent the evening in our hotel watching movies on TV.

Church on the Hill in the Clouds

Friday was Good Friday and we set out to see Montserrate, a church on one of the mountain tops around Bogota. When we arrived, we were behind about a million people waiting for a ride up on the gondola. We decided not to wait for a ride up, but entertained ourselves other ways.

Aysha on an Alpaca
How could we let an opportunity like this go by?

We gave up and found a park on the map to take the kids to. One of the best things about Bogota was the abundance of parks - one every few blocks, and they were full of slides and swings for the wee ones. Even amid blocks of tall apartments, there were green spaces.



Aysha on a Swing
She likes the park

At the first park there were a dozen or so parents and kids around speaking different languages. They apologized to us for the weather, but we were grateful to be cool. When it stated raining we had a bite to eat and took the kids to a mall that had a play area. We were lucky that the streets of Bogota were quiet and nearly empty due to the holiday. It made the centre of town much quieter and more peaceful than if everyone had been there hurrying around in cars and buses.

Aysha at Play












That evening we caught an evening flight home. When we stepped off the plane, Cartagena didn't feel as hot as I'd remembered it.

Fuel for the Fire

It's been a week, and I have been checking to see who's been around. I set up a counter on the website that not only tells me how many and when people visit the blog, it also reports your web provider and location. I can see when you log in from Telus in Calgary, or Atco in Edmonton, or from Atlanta, or Spain or Kuwait. Someone keeps checking the blog from the Medicine Hat Police web provider, and I can't figure out who it might be.

Last weekend, we watched Crash, the winner of the best picture this year. It was very different from the rest of the nominees. It was much more exciting to watch - its character made you like, hate, or feel sorry for them immediately. No ambiguity here. And then each character works themselves into a situation that seems to test the trait that made them evoke such strong feelings in me. By the end, I felt like I had been manipulated - like a ghost story or joke sets up an expectation and then surprises you with its punchline. It wouldn't have been my choice for best picture.

We haven't taken many photos lately. I think it is part of the after visitor shadow. I took the camera out on Sunday for an afternoon walk, but only took two shots. Hopefully by the weekend, when we get to Bogota, I'll be back in the mood to take some pictures.

Until we meet again.

Jamie and Karla's Calendar

George Bush's Speechalist

I think it's kind of funny.

Aysha Leanring to Walk (and more)

The is a little video that I made of Aysha from earlier in her walking career. It is mostly footage of her from when my parents, my sister and Dave were here. This one is only two minutes long and about 5mb. After you click the picture you will have to wait a few seconds for the video to start with Windows Media Player.



There is more footage of Aysha, but her nap was only long enough this afternoon to put together this little bit. The next bit of the park and playtime at the pool with Gabriel will come soon.

Yesterday, Karla went to a planning meeting for the school and I was on baby duty, alone, for eight straight hours. I don't know if is more amazing that Aysha survived the ordeal, or that I did, but when mom rolled in at 4:30 we were still having a good time. We took two trips down to the pool area for a cruise around. Claudina usually takes Aysha down for a little afternoon walk. When Aysha and I left the apartment, it was obvious that Aysha had the routine down. She walked over to the elevator with her push toy, got on and even turned around by herself so she was ready to get off. We cruised around the patio, Aysha stopping whenever a leaf needed to be picked up. She is pretty good at transferring between her two hands and could manage six or seven big leaves and still push her toy. When we got back, she had a good nap and let me get some work done. When she woke up we did it all again.

Today, the art teacher, Patricia and her son, Gabriel, came over for a play date. Gabriel is only 10 days younger than Aysha. The two of them didn't do too much playing together, but they played beside each other without any problems. Gabriel had all Aysha's toys to play with and Aysha alternated between watching him play and eating pita bread. She's got quite an appetite these days.

Well, the video has been uploaded so this post should be ready to go as soon as I click the button.

Another Post in the Blog

It’s another long weekend in Cartagena. We’re a bit spoiled when it comes to long weekends here in Colombia. It’s two in a row, and we have another two to look forward to before the end of the year.

We took Aysha to the doctor this week. She was slow returning to her normal digestive cycle after her little bout of illness last weekend. The doctor gave her a clean bill of health and she is back to full form this weekend. We were very encouraged after the doctor’s visit. She was weighed and measured and when we got home we pulled out the growth charts to see how she’s doing. Her weight was about where it always is – on the low end of the scale for her age, around the 10th percentile. But her height put her around the 60th percentile on the first chart we checked and around 50 on the second. Perhaps Aysha would, after all, provide some hope to the vertically challenged Germaine/Hantke family. On second measurement, Aysha came in a whole inch and a half shorter than her first measurement, putting her back somewhere around the 10th percentile for height at her age. Now, those of you hoping for a tall baby, don’t lose hope. The doctor had a table specially designed for measuring babies. Karla and I conducted the second measurement but getting Aysha to stand beside a wall and balancing a book on her head. The likelihood of an error is probably much higher for our second measurement than the first.

Aysha is continuing to try out little bits of language. She is using the more sign frequently to mean that she wants more food. She hasn’t generalized it so that it applies to activities (but when your attention span is usually about 12 seconds, it’s hard to find an occasion when you need to ask to do something again). She can do book now too. And done. Vocally, up and agua are her two favourite words. She loves to climb things and will come to the edge of the bed and say, “Up.” All she needs is a hand to grab onto then the little goat-girl scrambles up onto the bed and then to the top of the nearest parent. When she’s done that, she will scramble down onto the floor (goat-girl is even better at climbing down) and say, “Agua,” which means, “It’s time for you to come and get me something to put in my mouth.”

Another little video is shaping up. Aysha walked down to the park with the help of one of her little walker toys and played on the play-structure and slide (with close parental supervision). The first trip to the playground was a trial and the second one was the video shoot. We decided to let Aysha walk the second time and by the time she got there she was tuckered out and not in the mood for much playing. Maybe tomorrow, we will take her down in the stroller for some better shots. I tell you, accommodating the needs of this little movie star is hard work!

It’s been a quiet week at school. This week about 1/3 of the middle school students have gone to Medellin for a big sports tournament. The classes were small which made for a mostly easy week. The ones that were left are a mix of the students who wanted to go but, through laziness or lack of aptitude, didn’t have the grades; and the ones who aren’t interested in sports. Last week Karla and I both had a few little crises as students who really wanted to go begged and pleaded to be allowed to slip through the cracks and onto the teams. Despite warnings from the experiences teachers that everyone goes anyways, a few were left behind. The goal of the policy is that the ones who get left behind get more time to do their school work, but it didn’t turn out that way - for my kids, anyway. The ones that had to stay in Cartagena were so mad about it that they sat in class all week and pouted.

We have made plans for Semana Santa (Holy Week) too. We are going up to Bogota with Tony, Diana and Julian, the other young family at the school. People say that the culture her on the coast is very laid back (which it is), but in the interior of the country, people are much harder working. We’ll see. It should be nice and cold up there – positively spring-like, as compared to here, which has been now moved past summer-like into plain-old downright hot.

Friday night, thanks to the DVD black market, we watched Good Night, and Good Luck. It’s the story of Edward R. Murrow, the journalist who worked for CBS and was critical of Sen. McCarthy during the Committee on Un-American Activities. The movie itself was well done (George Clooney directs), but lacked tension and didn’t arouse any great sympathy for the characters. To me, the main point of the movie was to point out the failings of the current media: its failure to report the real news under the double threat of being branded un-American and losing revenue from advertising.

We’ve been trying to work through some of the Academy nominees for best picture. Last weekend we watched Brokeback Mountain. It was sad. I am glad I’m not a gay cowboy in the 1970’s. I’ve been reading the short story since I saw the movie. It’s been a hard read – not because the story is difficult, but because they movie is so closely modeled on the book. It’s like watching the movie all over again.

It will be bedtime soon here in Colombia. Nighty-night.

Summer Plans

Hi there friends and family.

It is time again to begin the planning of the summer schedule. We booked our tickets this week. We leave on June 10th from Cartagena to Saskatoon. We will go to Renee and Brent's wedding the next weekend. We'll have one more week in Saskatchewan and then are flying to Calgary on the 25th. The only other plans we have for the summer so far are for the end of July. The 22nd is Kathy and Chad's wedding in Lloydminster and the 25th-28th is the Calgary Folk Festival (this year already boasting Dan Bern, Dar Williams and Ani DiFranco).

We are scheduled to come back on August 3rd from Calgary to Cartagena in one long day. We start work the next day.

At school it is already going to be the end of the third quarter this Friday. After that there are only 12 more weeks of school left for us this year. In April we have a week off for Semana Santa (Holy Week). We are planning to go to Bogota for a few days and north to a little colonial town in the mountains. It will be cold there - down to 12 degrees at night!

Life in Cartagena has returned to normal. We have been sticking close to home and catching up on the work we should have been doing when all our visitors were here.

Aysha is walking around all by herself. She is speeding up, but still likes to be connected to something. She walks from one piece of furniture to another, or grabs a walker and really moves. If she can get a hold of a hand or handful of clothing, she can pull herself up onto the couch or bed by herself. Sometimes we call her goat-girl due to her knack for making her way to the tops of things. She can slip down backwards from both the bed and couch too. She prefers to crawl down to the foot of the bed to slide down where the foot board gives her an extra handhold.

Her communication skills are still developing. Her current philosophy seems to be that there is no problem that whining won't fix. Slowly, she is making a few more signs, some meaningfully, some randomly. She really has horse down - hands bouncing like they are holding reins (along with the clip-clop sounds, and makes it whenever she hears the sounds of horses passing by on the street. She is also making the sign for more, book, dog, and, rarely, up. She is almost forming words. She manages to almost say mom, bye, up, and, agua too. She has a special na-na-na-na when she doesn't like something.

Aysha and Karla have been sick this weekend. Aysha on Saturday and Karla on Sunday night. Monday was a holiday since several of our Colombian teachers had been recruited by for the Colombian elections on Sunday. Both had threw up for a few hours and have spent a few more hours feeling lousy. I have to hope I am not next.

Aysha's passport is finally being extended. I took advantage of the day off to go into the Canadian consulate and got everything straightened out. In January, the embassy in Bogota said that the consulate here could extend her passport (which expires next month). On Friday, the embassy changed their mind and so I had to go in to figure it out. I had sent an email to the embassy on Friday, and when I arrived at the consul this morning, we called Bogota and the person I had emailed had already figured out how to solve the problem. Both Aysha's certificate of citizenship, which has been on hold since the official photocopy of her birth certificate went lost, and passport extension are underway.

Well, Aysha is crawling all over her recovering mom so I had better go and try to entertain her until bedtime so mom can get some rest.

Poetry

I'm at school and I should be correcting students reading projects. But I'm not. I was drifting through cyberspace in a typically hyperlinked pattern: from tech news to video sharing to google video to this little bit of video poetry. It's about forgetfulness, which seems to be a growing phenomenon (either as a cause or result of our increased ability to note, post, and remind ourselves of life in general).