Memoirs of a Traveling Linguist: Year 8

No Pictures!

2013-05-20T15:20:00.000+02:00

So, this is an entry that is not about a travel I have recently done. That usually means there's something in here, but now there isn't. Yup, you got it. There isn't a picture at the end of the post. Why?

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Traversing the Ardennes: Ghent's Old Town

2013-05-18T15:00:00.000+02:00

When we were in Ghent, not only did we visit a castle and a bunch of churches, but we also took the chance to walk around and see what the city was like. My overall impression of the city was highly favorable. As much as Ghent was a very pretty town, the tourist sector was not overwhelming. The souvenir shops were discreet, and strolling along the roads felt like the town was very real, instead of something where tourists run the place. It was indeed very different from other big cities in Europe (well, Ghent isn't a big city, after all), where almost everywhere you look, there is something, a shop, a booth, that is right there just because there are tourists.

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Tübingen Again!

2013-05-16T15:25:00.000+02:00

Some good news: I am heading to Germany!

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Traversing the Ardennes: Werregarensteeg in Ghent

2013-05-14T14:44:00.000+02:00

When we were in Ghent, not only did we visit a medieval castle and several churches, we also checked out some urban street art. Ghent is a very clean city, not as clean as Luxembourg perhaps, but still clean. However, there was one tiny alley in the city that is known for having plenty of graffiti. This is Werregarensteeg or Graffiti Alley. It is a small tiny pedestrian road somewhere near the castle, and surprisingly enough, there are houses whose entrance is on that alley. However, given the amount of graffiti, it is very hard to see where the doors are.

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Book Review: Cain by José Saramago

2013-05-12T15:27:00.000+02:00

Cain: the first murderer, the first person who committed fratricide, what do we know about him? In this novel published shortly before he died, José Saramago continues his long-standing argument with God, through the eyes of Cain. It has been a while since I read a Saramago novel (the last time was a year ago, with The Gospel According to Jesus Christ), so it is once again refreshing to encounter the long paragraphs, and his very unique writing style.

Anyway, a short synopsis first. This book tells the Biblical story, from the beginning, so to speak, through the eyes of Cain. After killing his brother, he was condemned to wander forever. He witnesses plenty of things, including the building of Noah's ark, the tower of Babel, the golden calf incident with Moses. And in typical Saramago fashion, he writes in a way that somehow fills in the holes of the Bible (or the Book of Nonsense according to Saramago, as is stated in the Prologue). For example, Cain is the one who rescues Isaac from being sacrificed by Abraham when God's angel arrives late because of a wing malfunction.

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Traversing the Ardennes: Ghent's Church Alley

2013-05-10T14:36:00.000+02:00

At the very center of the Old Town of Ghent, there is this long plaza where there are three churches standing one after the other. Yes, I suppose back in the days, people needed more than one church. So there's St. Michael's Church at the west, then St. Nicholas' Church in the middle, and Saint Bavo Cathedral at the east. We entered all three churches, in that order. The first two churches were empty, so we were able to take pictures, but the last church just had a mass finishing, so people were exiting and while we were able to get inside, there were still plenty of people around that it was just awkward to take pictures.

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Book Review: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

2013-05-08T14:52:00.000+02:00

The pages just flew by.

I don't remember being so engrossed into a novel recently the way I was in this book. I started reading it Thursday last week, and now I am finished with it, and it's just Wednesday evening. If there is something I learned about Carlos Ruiz Zafón, then it is that I can and do devour his writing. I remember reading The Shadow of the Wind back in 2007 (before I even started this Book Review series) and felt the same.

Anyway, this book is actually a prequel to The Shadow. It tells the tale of David Martin, a writer, who is approached by a mysterious character he calls The Boss, who gives him a writing assignment. He gets paid 100,000 French francs for it. And sure enough, people around him start dying soon. Unfortunately, as this is a very superbly written thriller, I do not want to expose too much of it here, or else it'll ruin the reading experience. Let me just say that this novel has plenty of twists and turns up to the very end, and it makes good use of Barcelona's Gothic architecture, providing a backdrop to this Gothic novel infused with magic realism.

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Traversing the Ardennes: Gravensteen

2013-05-06T15:23:00.000+02:00

I have visited several different castles before. Due to the fact that the word castle can mean anything between a chateau to a palace to a fortress, I have experienced several different architectural designs. Among the ones I have visited, Prague Castle and Buda Castle are ones that are more like a separate little quarter in the center of town. I have also visited Kronborg in Denmark, which is most famous for being the setting of Hamlet. I have also visited Egeskov, in Denmark as well, which is a very pretty water castle. And I haven't even started enumerating the various Schloss I have visited, which mostly translates to "palace" but has the same word as castle in the local language. Anyway, this post is about Gravensteen, a castle originating from the Middle Ages, which I visited when I was in Ghent, Belgium.

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Watching Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children

2013-05-04T15:24:00.000+02:00

I rarely watch movies: recently, I've only found myself in a theatre when I am with someone else and they wanted to watch a movie. However, I still find myself watching a movie when it's a movie adaptation of a book I really loved. And so when Midnight's Children was released, I headed to the theatre even though I was just by myself.

I remember reading this 2 years ago: this was the book I was carrying with me during my trip to Chile, and judging from my review, I remember liking the novel, though perhaps not as much as the other two novels of his I also read. I also remember that the novel isn't written in the frame narrative, and is more linear.

The movie is 144 minutes long, and yet as I was watching it, I cannot help but feel a bit disappointed that there are parts of the book that were deleted. I suppose that is always the case with movies adapted from books. But the thing is, one reason I like Salman Rushdie is his painfully detailed narrative. Hence, his books are mostly thick with tons of details embedded in them. When it becomes a movie, then things are ruined. And I cannot imagine moviegoers who haven't read the book marveling at Rushdie's genius with respect to the power of description.

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Traversing the Ardennes: Luxembourg Corniche

2013-05-02T14:32:00.000+02:00

Luxembourg is perhaps the first European country that I really liked. My previous European experiences were nice, I am not saying they were bad. I did enjoy the extended vacation periods I had in Austria, Italy, Greece, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Hungary years before, as well as the other little trips here and there. However, Luxembourg is the first country that really made me impressed.

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Book Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

2013-04-30T15:23:00.000+02:00

I regret the fact that I bought this book. I originally purchased this book because I have heard good things about it, but after spending two weeks and 540 pages later, I sometimes think that this book is not worth the paper it is printed on.

Zen narrates a motorcycle journey that the author took with his son from Minnesota to California. First, they were joined by a couple, John and Sylvia Sutherland. But halfway in the trip, the Sutherlands leave and the ride is just between the unnamed main character (who is the author, thinly disguised) and his son Chris.

No, wait. That’s not what this book’s narrative was about. In fact, this motorcycle journey just served as a backdrop for the larger section of the book, which is this series of philosophical discourses that the author refers to as Chatauquas. It is amusing to see sometimes how he devotes 2 or 3 sentences updating the reader about the motorcycle narrative, and then says “Today’s Chatauqua will be about…” or “Today’s Chatauqua is long.” Yes, this book is pretty much a philosophical discourse, interspersed with a motorcycle travelogue.

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Traversing the Ardennes: Old Town Luxembourg

2013-04-28T15:22:00.000+02:00

We began this trip in Luxembourg. After spending the whole day at work, I then quickly went home, and then grabbed my luggage which I packed the day before, and headed to the airport. I arrived in Luxembourg a little around 11:00 PM, headed to our hotel, and just crashed. The next day, adventures began.

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Religion and the Restaurant Ban

2013-04-26T15:28:00.000+02:00

This is a rant, not a travelogue. Just so you know.

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Traversing the Ardennes

2013-04-24T15:22:00.000+02:00

I am starting a new travelogue mini-series. This is because for 7 days around Easter, a friend and I took a little trip to Luxembourg and Belgium. We visited 3 cities, and increased our country count. Thus, this brings my country count to 28.

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Black Walnut

2013-04-22T15:21:00.000+02:00

I have recently finished a bottle of cologne. And with that, I am moving to a new one.

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Book Review: The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa

2013-04-20T14:36:00.000+02:00

This is one massive book. This is also the third time I have picked up a book written by Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa. I previously read his novel entitled Death in the Andes in 2010, as well as Who Killed Palomino Molero? a few months later. Both of those books were not bad, but I wasn't too impressed either. However, I decided to give Vargas Llosa another try, and this time, my mind was blown away. It made me realize that I just picked the wrong books to serve as an introduction to his style.

So what is this book about?

The War of the End of the World is a historical novel, a fictional account of the War of Canudos, which was an actual event in the history of Brazil. When Brazil transitioned from a monarchy to a republic, a group of people led by Antonio Conselheiro (Anthony the Counselor) decided to form their own country and rebel against the republic. They were mostly a religious group, but they decided to live separate from the ways of the Brazilian republic. After all, they thought that the republic was the Antichrist, so what better reason than to create their own country in the middle of the Brazilian jungle.

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Berlin Boogie: Konzerthaus Berlin

2013-04-18T14:48:00.000+02:00

One Saturday, I went to the center of town to the Gendarmenmarkt square, and visited the Konzerthaus Berlin. This is a concert hall, and also houses an orchestra. There are several halls inside this massive building, so if you check the calendar in their website, you will see that there are plenty of events that sometimes happen simultaneously. I didn't feel like attending a recital or concert, so instead I joined a weekly tour of the building, which happens every Saturday at 1:00 PM.

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DGfS 2013: Day 2-3

2013-04-16T14:35:00.000+02:00

Thursday and Friday were the last two days of the Annual Meeting of the German Linguistic Society. I met my adviser before the sessions, and attended several talks in two different workshops. I was mainly interested in the narration and the salience workshops, so I was shuttling back and forth between those two rooms.

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DGfS 2013: Day 1

2013-04-14T14:34:00.000+02:00

Last month, I attended the 4-day 35. Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, or in English, the 35th Annual Meeting of the German Linguistic Society. It was held in Potsdam, which is a short S-Bahn ride away from Berlin, so it felt unprofessional to be a linguist in Berlin and not attend the largest meeting of like-minded individuals in the country. It was held from March 12 to 15, but I didn't attend the first day, as there were only workshops that dealt with topics that I didn't have much interest on. After all, I am a psycholinguist, not a computational linguist. So for this entry, what I am considering Day 1 was my first day, March 13.

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Snow and the Little German Comb

2013-04-12T14:34:00.000+02:00

A month ago, winter came back to Berlin. There were successive days of warmth, and the sun finally came out again. However, there was a cold front, that after enjoying a few days of 15-degree weather, we were all reminded of winter and negative temperatures. And with it, snow also fell, and guessing from the amount of snow on top of the cars, it probably was around 4-6 inches worth. This was during the weekend of March 8-11.

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Berlin Boogie: Neues Museum

2013-04-10T15:19:00.000+02:00

Two months ago, I headed to the Neues Museum one afternoon. I remember feeling under the weather, and so to cheer myself up, I decided to go and pay Queen Nefertiti a visit. Yes, the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti is housed in this museum. Unfortunately, she didn't like her pictures taken, so I don't have a picture of her. However, I do have pictures of her entourage.

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Bach and my 2 Euros

2013-04-08T14:33:00.000+02:00

The other day, I parted away from my 2 Euros while I was in Berlin's Yorckstrasse metro station. The reason for this was none other than Johann Sebastian Bach.

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Portuguese Synagogue (Esnoga)

2013-04-06T15:06:00.000+02:00

The last place we visited in Amsterdam before catching our flight out was the Portuguese Synagogue. Also known as the Esnoga, this is a 17th-century Sephardic synagogue. We visited this for a change, and so after getting through the double-locked entrance (there are two sets of automatic doors, first, the first one opens, and it has to close first before the second can open), we paid our entrance fee, and donned our head covering.

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Weird Sunday

2013-04-04T14:33:00.000+02:00

A Sunday a couple of weekends ago, I was heading towards the cafe across the city, where I usually hang out and work and just chill for the whole day. I have to take two subway rides to get there. Most of the time, I like Sundays, because Berliners are not outside, they stay up late in bed, and so when you're walking on the streets, things are quiet. Except for the subway stations.

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Berlin Boogie: Nikolaikirche

2013-04-02T14:39:00.000+02:00

Following my little stroll in the Nikolaiviertel a couple of weeks ago, including a visit to the Knoblauchhaus, I also visited the Nikolaikirche, or in English, the St. Nicholas Church. This is the oldest church in the city, which was built between 1220 and 1230. It was originally Roman Catholic, but from 1539 it became a Luthern church. And finally, it was profaned in 1938. After the Second World War, it now functions more as a museum managed by the Berlin City Museum Foundation, and primarily displays religious art.

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