No one ever told me about "Summer Rates"

I have now realized that Karyn and I are officially homeowners. Yes, I am extremely happy about living in our new condo but after I opened our Pepco electric bill, I now have a whole new outlook on the energy crisis gripping our country. Little did we know about "summer rates", which just happened to creep into our most recent bill. These so called "summer rates" more than doubled our electricity bill - granted it was also a lot hotter last month compared to the prior but still.

Now I am all paranoid that there is some secret whole in one of our windows that is sucking all of this priceless air conditioning out. Many of you know I always praise the fact that Washington doesn't have wildfires, earthquakes, occassional blizzards and nothing to note of in terms of major hurricanes or tornadoes. I guess "summer rates" are better than any of those.

Anyway, I gotta go and hold the fan over Karyn's head while she watches Oprah. Just kidding! We are still using our A/C!

Be still my heart O Megalopolis

For my blog readers out there in cyperspace, I have just returned from a business trip to Tucson, Arizona and have realized here and now two things - A.) I am definitely an east coast person and b.) there are definite differences between regional personalities within in the U.S. and even other countries in the world.

Many times people focus on differences in habits when people are from different countries but in reality the more tangible differences come in comparing common geographical pairings - i.e. East Coast vs. West Coast, Chicago vs. Detroit, Rio vs. Sao Paulo, Toronto vs. Vancouver, Regina vs. Moose Jaw, Champaign vs. Urbana, etc.

The one I want to focus on is East Coast vs. West Coast in this blog entry. BTW, when I say Coast I mean coastal areas therefore adding in places such as Tucson or Atlanta. One thing I noticed upon arrival in Tucson is the physical beauty and the grandeur of the mountains and landscape - don't really have that in the east to a scale as say Seattle, Portland - or even the Wasatch Range in Salt Lake City. I am a true lover of mountain scenery and have to say the west has us beat. But the world is so spread out there and maybe that affects the way people communicate. Perhaps this means that nature plays more of a role in their lives out west? Perhaps people are used to driving long distances in their car because it could take you 10 hours just to get to a new state? Perhaps they can deal with the summer temperature of 108 degrees in Arizona? Even though its a dry heat, trust me, its still unbearable!

In the East we have congestion, threats of terrorism, bad baseballs teams (well just in our area), overcrowded airports with no expandable capacity (except for you my Dulles) - BUT, we do have many other things, cosmopolitan cities with rich history, subway systems for tourists, and a geographical closeness that helps move people to Philadelphia and New York in a heartbeat. The term Megalopolis refers the large urban area that spans between Boston and Washington, DC. The mood of the east coast just fits me better - not to say I haven't had incredible times in West Coast destinations. And yes, there is rich history in the west, but as Americans we tend to feel closer to East Coast history as it was born out of Britain and not from Native American or Mexican history (now Santa Fe, stop your blubbering, you know I love you and your green chile!)

Now whenever I am in the west, I always act appropriately. I spend times outdoors hiking, eat my fill of Western Cuisine, take pictures of the spectacular scenery but in the end, I enjoy coming home to see my Washington Monument, Annapolis, Manhattan, Boston, etc.

Maybe I am just an urbanophile... There have been conversations that have discussed if I am rural racist and just have no ability to fully immerse myself in non-urban situations? Perhaps....but for this argument, I am going to pin it to East Coast vs. West Coast.

Now, what to do about Middle America? That is a whole other blog.

2 Side Notes: 1.) My cousin Rachel who is in med school in SF just left for a month to Uganda to work in a clinic - follow her on her blog at The Last Queen of Scotland and 2.) per a previous blog entry, Elliott Yamin played Tuesday night in Tucson and I missed it! Argh!

Without Geography.....you'd be nowhere

A city that is divided by a river of the same name was the imperial capital of Vietnam for more than a century. Name this city, which is still an important cultural center.

That was the final question in this year's National Geographic Society's geography bee. The reason I thought about blogging about Geography is because I love everything about it. When I was a child, I spent a lot of time reading atlases and looking at airline route maps. One of my earliest memories is sitting and memorizing my dad's National Geographic Atlas so that I could learn all of the countries, capitals, highest points, lowest points, etc. When my dad realized I was memorizing everything, he confessed that I had been memorizing his atlas which was dated around 1964....."Son, there is no more Rhodesia and East Pakistan" (bonus points for those people who can comment on what the modern names of those countries are - and NO WIKIPEDIA help).

The history of maps is very interesting and I even suggest reading a true crime book suggested to me by my cousin Ron in Rochester -- "The Island of Lost Maps" by Harvey Miles. It is a book that parallels a true map theif that preyed on university libraries in North America and the role of maps throughout history. One of my favorite things about my current job is I get to join my love of maps with my love of airline route maps. I have always enjoyed connecting the dots in the back of airline schedules and now I get paid to put them in presentations.

So why is geography so important to everyones life? Here are some reasons I would like to suggest:

• Conversational skills. When you trying to talk to someone either from the U.S. or another country, being able to converse about their hometown or the places around them will help you in the long run. Karyn knows as soon as I get into a cab, I love to ask where the driver is from. People absolutely love talking about the city they are from (i.e. in cab with someone from Pakistan, they tell me the name of their city - "Oh, is that in the Indus River Valley, I have heard that is quite nice".) Then of course, I always talk about airlines in some way. Even by knowing where U.S. universities are can go a long way in conversation - "Hey, you went to Oklahoma, what is Stillwater like?"
  
• Directional skills. They can help when you are stuck in traffic but have a good sense of what is north, south, etc and which diversionary road may lead you to your final destination.
  
• Passing the time. Karyn often is surprised when we are flying together because I point out rivers, cities, airports, moutain ranges, etc. This makes any daytime flight more enjoyable. And who doesn't love the maps on the airplane TV Screens?
  
• Real World Understanding The best way to undersand some of the events in the world right now relates to looking at the geography of the situation. This could include India-Pakistan border issues, Chechenya, Sudan, etc. Sometimes, since the U.S. is so big and isolated in many ways, we can tend to bypass a need to expand our geographical knowledge.

So I ask all of you to become more geographically inclined.... It is a skill that will provide you with many benefits throughout your life.

Oh, and the answer to the above question is Hue. (pronounced H'whey) And you know I love a good side note: Hue is the place where the Spicy beef pho noodle soup is from (Bun Bo Hue)- which my brother in law Justin introduced me too.

Teach your children.....how to spot aircraft

Last week I was lucky enough to take my niece Lucy Fields, who is 5, on her first airport spotting adventure. We went to Washington Dulles International Airport and did a comprehensive tour - it included taking pictures of planes landing and taking off, a tour of the terminal and we even had time to practice our letters by looking at plane tails.

The funniest part of the whole day was when she saw SAS's Airbus A340 - that is Scandinavian Airline System which is the national carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden - I brought some paper and a pen because Lucy is quickly learning how to write down her letters, words and numbers. When I asked her to spell the tail, she first started "A-S-S" which was funny - not to worry, she corrected herself on her own.

We had so much fun and I definitely think she caught the airplane bug!

Here are the pictures (Click here) - Enjoy.

Side note: I haven't blogged since last week due to being absolutely engrossed in Khaled Hosseini's new book: A Thousand Splendid Suns. If you enjoyed The Kite Runner, you will absolutely love this book. It may even be better.