My New Blog!!!!

Dear Friends,

I am living and volunteering as an English teacher in Palestine/ the West Bank/ Israel for three months. Do not worry, I am safe. The city here is one of the most friendly and awesome places I have ever lived in. There is no violence.
Life is safe. Since everyone knows each other here in the city of Nablus there is also no theft or harassment towards tourist at all. The people here are lovely. Please subscribe to my blog to follow my travels here. While in the West Bank I hope to be able to speak at or attend the only Rotary Club in Palestine. Also, when I return to the States I shall have a few weeks before I head back up to Maine to teach. If you would like to arrange me to speak at your Rotary Club, social group, church or organization, please let me know. It would be a pleasure. You can follow my blog by typing the following into google:

shwei arabic in occupied territory the sun also rises

In Peace (English), Salaam (Arabic), Shalom (Hebrew), Paula

Chewonki! (My new job)

I love Maine. I have seen where my new job will be, teaching in the Maine woods. It is beautiful. It is right on a boat-flecked bay, surrounded by fields, horse farms and spruce trees. I felt at home at once. When I came it was around six at night and the sun was reflecting off the water; boats lazed in the current.

It was a long drive, but well worth the trip. I am struck by how cool Maine is in summer (literally and metaphorically.) It was about 75 f yesterday. There are fields literally blue with blueberries, and roadside stands of pies and produce. Nearly every car is a Subaru or truck with a kayak, canoe and three bicycles tethered to the back with odd rope configurations and fishing poles sticking out the windows. My kind of place. If you drive through Maine on a Saturday, every other house boasts a yard sale or barn spilling with antiques to trade. Sometimes you see tractors driving on the road in more remote places. Maine people are down-to-earth, independent, resourceful and nice. They remind me a bit of West Virginians in a way. I like the way Mainers dress—very practically. No frills. The land is gorgeous, yellow where there are fields, and purple and pink with spiky flowers called lupines. What I find to be most beautiful however, is the ocean.

I recently got my lifeguard certification and will soon get my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) training on a small island in Maine called Hurricane Island before my work begins. To be a WFR I have eighty hours of training to learn how to respond to emergency medical situations in remote settings.

These are pictures my sister Caroline took of the lovely place I shall soon call home. At the moment there is nowhere on earth I think more beautiful.

Saying Goodbye

My year in Holland is over and my new job in America about to begin. And yet, there are so many more European posts I want to include! I want to tell you about some of the magical places I had the opportunity to visit on my Rotary trip around Europe chaperoning high school students. There is simply not time for them all, so, here is a summary:

In Barcelona Spain the seafood is served in bite-sized portions called “tapas” that explode your notions of appetizers and prove that lots of little dishes can make a stunning meal. I discovered Gaudi in Spain—a deceased architect. This Spanish master created Sagrada Familia and Park Guell. These landmarks are well known in Europe but little known in the U.S They are extraordinary. The former is the most magnificent church I have ever seen, the later, the most brilliant of parks. The architecture in both mirrors nature; in the church, the pillars twist like trees. The entire façade is covered with the most intricate carvings. Park Guell is almost as stunning. This park, situated on a hill, is adorned with glass mosaic-encrusted walkways and winding benches. There is also a colorful lizard fountain, covered in pottery tiles.

And then there was Italy—as beautiful as it is famed to be. The majestic hillsides invited comparisons to West Virginia. In Venice, canals were plied by men in straw hats and striped shirts standing on gondolas with long poles. On the island of Mirano I saw glass being blown. And, I visited Burano, Italy, by boat. This island is known primarily for its architecture, and for its lace (like Belgium.) Every house was painted a different color. In Rome I saw the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. There was also a full exhibit of Faberge Eggs. These are easter-egg shaped jewelry boxes commissioned by Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia in the late 1890’s.

And then there was Austria. By this point in the Europe tour I was tired of being on a tour bus so I went for a long run around the Danube. This river is the second longest in Europe and meanders through, or forms part of the border for ten countries. The Austrian countryside is picturesque: the undulating hills are speckled with white castles that looked plucked from a Brother Grimes fairy tale. Vienna was a lovely city: the sound of hooves striking flagstones, squares filled with music and folk dancers twirling in black and red skirts. And then I visited the Czech Republic, whose rural places still maintain an old-world feel, and where arias in their opera house seemed to lift the beams from the gilded ceiling with their sweetness.

There is so much to tell. I learned so much. But now, it is off to another adventure. I am home now, in West Virginia. There is much I miss about Holland and Europe in general. Mostly, I miss the cultural beauty of Old World art and music, folk culture and traditions. I also miss my awesome Dutch buddies. (I hope to send you all postcards soon!) And, I know I’m a cliché but gosh I miss my bike!

This year fulfilled my expectations and further awakened my passion for travel. People were the best part of my experience in Holland. Thank you all for your kindness, your hospitality! I hope to be able to return the favor someday. It has been a wonderful year.

I finished my program, got an MA in cultural history from the University of Utrecht. I am now ready to embark on a new and different adventure. Tomorrow my job begins as an outdoor classroom instructor at Chewonki Maine Coast Semester School in Maine. At this innovative school I will teach most of my classes outdoors and sleep in a tent five nights out of seven. My car is packed with tent supplies, bungee cords and wool socks, for Maine in autumn. I am eager to drive the long distance up the coast to try my hand at teaching and roughing it in the woods of New England. Someone once wrote that there are those who can live without wild things and those that cannot. I cannot. I am one who loves the outdoors. Eventually I hope to return to West Virginia and teach, or start my own school. In the meantime I hope to learn how different schools around America and the world operate. I will cull the best teaching techniques and use them as I grow.

In November I will retun to West Virginia to give presentations at Rotary Clubs. If you are interested in having me speak about the Rotary Ambassadorial Program at your club, please let me know! My email is: kaufmanbrown@gmail.com

Fondly,
Paula

P.S
I hope to try and keep up with this blog everyone once in a while from the Maine woods

Paula



Gaudi's glorious church







Street performers jamming in Barcelona


Barcelona, Spain


A Faberge egg at the Vatican Museum


The Vatican Museum had one of the most impressive collections of art I have ever seen, I thought it was more unbelievable than the Louvre in Paris


Cranes at sunrise from the bus window, Italy


The Roman Colosseum!


The Italian countryside reminded me of West Virginia's hills!


A glass horse I watched being blown in Murano, Italy. The horse was so hot when made that when the artist touched a piece of paper to it, the paper went up in flame


Murano is known for having the best glass in the world


In the glass shops, pictures were not allowed for some of the fancier room-filling chandeliers. I believe this is to protect the designs from being copied.


The glass-blowing tradition in Italy is thousands of years old




The island of Burano, Italy


Burano homes








Venice


Gardens in Vienna


In Vienna, dozens of horse-drawn carriage-taxies line the cobbled streets


Austrian folk dancers. Dancing is a popular tradition in Austria and there are dozens of themed balls a year in Vienna. Young people learn to waltz and dance in school growing up.



A small folk festival in Vienna, Austria


In the Prague Opera House about to listen to the marvelous opera "The Magic Flute."


Me in Prague


Music man playing on a famous bridge in Prague


Czech crystal


Prague, Czech Republic


Beautiful Czech bridge

A Day in Bruges

With a little money left in my wallet, and three days before I was set to depart from Holland, I vowed to go somewhere I had not been. Belgium. I awoke early, fed fifty euro in change into the ticket machine (they do not take bills) and off I went to Bruges, Belgium. This is a story about FOOD. When in Bruges eat and drink. There is not much else to do, except perhaps see women make lace, or nuns perambulate around a lovely nunnery. Bruges is gorgeous; the entire old center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and most of the old buildings remain intact. I have included some pictures of the city in this post.

Course 1: Chocolates
My gastronomic adventures started off in reverse nutritional order. First course was to sample scrumptious chocolates. I had many, each from a different chocolatier (a chocolate shop.) Bruges has more chocolate shops than West Virginia has mountains. My favorite was a violet-flavored chocolate.

Course 2: Cake
At 11 a.m., I greedily sampled a big piece of sour-cherry-cream cake, enfolded in a pastry.

Course 3: Beer
Beer has been brewed in Belgium since the Middle Ages. According to my tour guide, Belgium makes around 750 varieties of beer. Belgium is particulary known for its Trappist beers. (Trappists are a Roman Catholic religious order of contemplative monks.) This beer must be made in a monastery by monks (this sounds ironic to me!) Only seven breweries meet these qualifications; six are in Belgium and one is in the Netherlands.

The brewery I toured was lovely. Tables were set out in the sunshine where individuals sipped beer and speared cheese and sausage with toothpicks. From the ground level one could see steam leaving steel cylinders. The steam comes from the hops, which smells like cooked broccoli. Hops ( a word I did not know before my year in Europe) are the flowers of the hop plant. These buds are used to flavor beer, giving it a bitter punch. Hops were first cultivated in Bavaria the 8th century. The plants, which are related to nettles, could sting the hands and were often difficult to gather, especially for children in older times. However, hops-gathering was a big profession, even in America, during the Great Depression. Today, America still produces the second largest quantity of hops behind Germany.

At first I am skeptical about this tour—I don’t even really like the taste of beer (though I do like this hops smell!) However, I am soon won over by the guide’s aplomb and humor. And by the beer. It is beer you want to savor. Smell it for ten seconds before you drink, says the guide, put your finger into the beer and put it on your hand and smell it to see if it has a metallic taste—if it does, it could have been canned beer, or the water used to brew it could have had a metallic taste. This beer does not taste like metal. It has a meaty, nutty taste. The beer is served in a broom-shaped glass, with a narrow opening to trap the smell inside. If you have a cold do not bother to drink a good beer, asserts the guide. Smell is inextricably bound to taste, she exclaims.

Facts: More beer varieties are made in Belgium than anywhere. Ninety-percent of all bottles in Belgium and Holland are returned to the original brewery. According to the guide, most people buy their beer by the case and receive between a five and seven euro refund for returning the bottles.

Course 4: Dinner

Mussels are a local specialty, so I had to have them--everyone else was. The thing was, most people were SPLITTING a pot of mussels. I ate my own. The mussels were seasoned with white wine. When I finished snapping open the mettalic blue shell of the last one, I looked like a tranquilized animal: stunned and smiling. My mussels were accompanied by a plate of delicious fries “frites.” These are usually made with local potatoes and are a cut thicker than American fries. They are known as “the slowest fast food,” in these parts and people leisurely savor each one, usually served in a paper cone. My fries came on a plate, with mustard. Frite shops are popular here, as they are in Holland.





It is difficult to describe how full I was when I left Belgium. One could be fat and happy in that country, I am convinced (though one could bike off the pounds touring the gorgeous country.) Belgium intrigues me because of its linguistic diversity (Dutch, French and German are spoken there) and its cultural vibrancy. I love the handcrafted lace and the old stone. Oh, and the beer and chocolates. Did I mention the chocolates?