My New Favorite Place in All of Italy

IT'S IN THE town of San Remo. We've seen this baseball field before (you can't miss it on the drive down to the sea from the A-10) but this time we got up close.




The field is in pretty rough shape, but that makes no difference to a sentimental baseball fan like myself. It's spring. It's sunny. And this is the only baseball field I have seen in Europe. Next time we're bringing our mitts.

Coffee with Pozzato, Thanks to my OV Shirt

AS MY STUDENTS will readily tell you, I have been known to exaggerate for effect at times. A good example of this can be seen in the title of this post. I'm trying to make you think I had coffee with current Italian cycling champion Filippo Pozzato -- but depending on how loosely you interpret the word 'with', I did.

After the Milan-San Remo race last weekend the kids a I were milling about the team busses and we came to the Katusha Team bus and watched as Pozzato was interviewed by the main Italian sports channel RAI. When I turned to walk away a guy stopped me and said, 'Go Capitals!', a reference to the red Washington Capitals shirt I was wearing. He went on to tell me that he used to play in Slovakia in the city were former Capital superstar Peter Bondra has a home. During the offseasons, he'd train with Bondra so he developed a liking for the Caps. We chatted a few minutes and that was that.

About 1 hour later -- after Kerri and the kids and I had enjoyed a nice pizza -- I went to a small cafe next door to get an espresso before the hour or so trip home. When I walked in I noticed a crowd of about 12 people gathered around some tables and they were all wearing Katusha cycling team gear. Upon further inspection I recognized that most of them were guys from the team who had just finished the race -- including Filippo Pozzato. But it was a guy at the far end of the table that caught my eye: the dude I had talked to earlier about hockey.

He stood up and called me over so I took my coffee to the table and we talked a bit about hockey and then he introduced me to the people at the table saying, 'Hey, this guy's wearing an Alexandre Ovechkin shirt.' When he said that the whole table threw up their glasses and gave a cheer. Why? Well (and thank you for bearing with me through this rather circuitous anecdote), Katusha Team is a Russian-based cycling team and many of the riders are from Russia. Ovechkin is one of the most popular athletes from their country so they were happy to see him 'represented' in San Remo, Italy.

It was at that point that I sat down on a chair for a brief moment and finished my conversation with the guy I had met at the bus. He told me he was Italian but had gone to Slovakia to play hockey when he was younger. I asked why he was now having drinks with the Katusha cycling team and he pointed to the guy sitting next to me and said, 'Filippo Pozzato is one of my best friends.' Since my coffee was now finished I briefly shook hands with Pozzato, told him he had a great race (5th overall) and stood to leave. Just then Kerri and the kids appeared in the doorway, ready to head back home.

So you see, while it may be a slight exaggeration, it would very hard to dispute my claim that last Saturday evening I had coffee with Filippo Pozzato.

The Sprint Pics

A COUPLE PHOTOS from Milan-San Remo 2001.

From where we were standing: the start of the final sprint. Cancellara, Gilbert, Pozzato, (eventual winner) Goss, are all getting out of the saddle. (Click to see a much better image. Come on, do it).

Just above our heads

Score!

Stuart O'Grady had a profile map attached to his frame. Got to know when the hills come, I guess.

Garmin Director Jonathan Vaughters saying Heinrich Haussler 'was good today, not great.'

Why is the Rock in my Backseat?

THIS IS THE rock I found on the backseat floor of my VW Golf III GTI (not as cool as it sounds -- it's a 1991 model) last Thursday evening. Why is was there is a bit of a mystery. Unfortunately, how it got there is not -- it obviously came through the massive hole in my back passenger side window.

So now I'm driving around the Cote d'Azur with a black plastic bag covering one window in a sporty little car that sounds like it's ready for a drag race -- you know, because the tailpipe fell off last week.

But no worries, the muffler is scheduled to be fixed on Wednesday and the window perhaps a bit later in the week. Thank goodness for the latest 5-day forecast: sun, sun, sun.

Milan-San Remo, a Hockey Shirt, and Filippo Pozzato

WE JUST GOT back from San Remo where we spent a beautiful Saturday sitting around waiting for a bunch on bikers to ride by for about 20 seconds. But the kids did well in terms of securing free-bees -- the biggest score being a full feeding-station bag from the Saxo-Bank team with loads of energy bars, protein goo, and water bottles.

Then, about 1 1/2 hours after the race I found myself in a small cafe in downtown San Remo sharing a coffee with Filippo Pozzato and the rest of the rest of the Katusha Team riders. More on that later. Meanwhile, here's a peak at what the race looks like...this footage from last year. (The 'coffee with Filippo Pozzato' incident was all because of the Washington Capitals t-shirt I was wearing. Again, explanation and details to come).

Two Great Weekends

I THINK MY two favorite back-to-back weekends of the year are in early March when we go see the Paris-Nice and Milan-San Remo cycling races. Last week we got to 2 stages of a very wet Paris-Nice (photos later) and today we are getting ready to drive over to San Remo, Italy to watch the finish of the first classic of the year.

And the weather today is beautiful! A little lunch on the beach, some shopping in Italy (where prices are significantly lower than in France), a mid-afternoon Italian expresso (which are significantly better than in France), then the final 500 meters of the race.

This is our fourth time to Milan-San Remo but our first by ourselves. It what was fun tradition/coincidence, we have gone to the previous three with friends who happened to be staying with us (Kevin/Lynn last year, Jim/Dana in '09, and Kamran/Gina in '08). We'll be a bit lonely this year.

Brackets Brackets

AMERICANS KNOW THAT late March is a great time of year for sports fans -- mainly because of what we call March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament that captivates the entire country for two weeks. The best part about the tournament is that people try to predict the outcome by filling out the brackets that are printed up on every newspaper website in the country. Even though we don't get to follow college basketball very carefully these days, we still fill out the brackets.

Here are the Final Four predictions for those who participated in our family:

• Julia: Washington, Tennessee, Florida, Kansas
• Henry: Hampton, Florida, Notre Dame, Ohio State
• Patrick: Ohio State, UConn, Kansas, Kansas State
  
• Mine: Syracuse, Arizona, Kansas, Wisconsin

It's fun to pick when you don't really know anything about the teams. My knowledge of this year's field is basically that Jimmer Ferdette is pretty good and Ohio State has been the best all year. That being said, Patrick went 28-4 in the first round!!! How do you go 28-4?!?!

Ides of March

HISTORY MIGHT HAVE been changed forever if, instead of telling Caesar 'Beware the Ides of March,' the soothsayer had simply said, 'Beware the knives of stabbers.' But we'll never know.

The Swan

NOT 'THE BLACK Swan' (the Nathalie Portman film) but 'The Swan' as in the piece of music -- and now this incredible interpretation. Start at about the 1:40 mark and don't stop until you see the tear in the eye:

From Home to 'Home'

DIDN'T PUT UP any posts during the 2 week winter break -- mainly because we were back in the States. A last-minute-decision trip to DC is coming to an end today and we had a great time connecting with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. As usual, we did the surprise routine with the kids: they didn't know we were heading to the US until we entered the US Airways gate for the flight from Frankfurt to Philadelphia. They thought we were only going to Frankfurt...

Now it's back to France just in time for Paris-Nice -- which starts Sunday.

But before we head to the airport today, we're making a stop at IHOP for breakfast. If you don't know what IHOP is...I'm so sorry.

The Next Domino

AFTER A SHORT discussion about the latest events in the Middle East, my class took an informal vote on which country would be the next to boot its leader. The results:

• Yemen - 12%
• Algeria - 43%
• Bahrain - 3 %
• Iran - 12 %
• Lybia - 20%
  
• None, that's it for now - 10%

In this particular class I have students from both Algeria and Bahrain and for they record, they did NOT for for their own country. Neither sees it happening in their country any time soon.

On verra.

Bac Blanc

JUST TALKED WITH two students as they came out of the history bac blanc -- they were generally pleased with the questions, though a bit tired after having endured 12 hours of exams over the past two days. Three days to go!!

The Bac is brutal.

Valentine's Day, Circa late '70s

THE FIRST VALENTINE'S Day I really remember was when I was in the 2nd grade. I remember it so well because it was the first time I experienced the joy of exchanging Valentine's Day cards with my classmates. My teacher at St. Helena (CA) Elementary school was Ms. Spaulding and she sent a note home to all parents explaining that we would be having a class party on the afternoon of the 14th and that every student should be prepared to participate. This meant, of course, that parents had to run out to the supermarket to buy a pack of Valentine's Day cards and some little heart candies that could be put inside each envelope. Each candy had a little message engraved on the front and the hardest part of the whole event was choosing which message to put in whose envelope. For the boys I usually went for the oh-so-platonic messages like 'You're Cool' or 'Way to Go'. Choosing candies for the girls was much more complicated: Who get's the heart that says 'Be Mine'? Do I dare give out the 'You're Cute' candy? And why isn't there a heart that says 'Why Do You Keep Ignoring Me, Bitch?'

To make matters worse, my mom used to make me write a little message on each card. What is an 8 year old supposed to write? Usually it ended up being something like 'Nice Pants' or 'Can't Wait for Recess'. Since my mom was watching to make sure I wrote something to everyone in my class (even the annoying girls) I wasn't able to reference cooties or body odor on any of the cards, making the whole experience a bit of a waste of time in my estimation. But in the end the party was a lot of fun -- and if nothing else I had 24 candy hearts to eat when I got home.

Ah yes -- memories of childhood Valentine's Days. Priceless.

Sat Night in Geneva

AFTER A FULL day yesterday discussing and defending my thesis, I'm now experiencing what can only be describe as heaven on earth for me: I'm in Geneva, at a Starbucks, watching the Capitals live on my computer.

...and as I am typing, Ovechkin scores.

Earlier today I had another heavenly moment when I found a cold bottle of Dr. Pepper at COOP. It's the first bottle of the drink I have ever seen in Europe. I thought it deserved a photo:

Ka-Boom

STUNNING! OF COURSE, the hard part for Egypt starts now.

I told my students last week that I was their age (roughly) in 1989 when half a continent saw a change in political power. I watched communism fall in eastern Europe and fell in love with politics and international relations. I'm not sure we are witnessing the same thing now, but if Tunisia and Egypt are the start of something really, really big -- I hope my students are paying attention.

No Lunch with George W.

LOOKS LIKE THERE is no way I'm going to be having lunch with George W. Bush this weekend. I'll be in Geneva on Friday for a few 'school' related things and I just found out that W. has canceled a trip he had planned to Geneva because of some human rights groups were planning to protest a speech he was scheduled to give. Apparently, there was even the threat of some legal action over allegations that Bush is a war criminal. Some left wing group, I'm sure.

Too bad. I was hoping to run into the former president in the Eaux Vives and invite him for a kebab at Café Istanbul.

Fruits of our Labor

26.5 Liters. That's how much fresh olive oil I picked up at the Moulin de Baussy et Fils in Speracedes yesterday afternoon. Since early November we have been harvesting olives from the more than 20 trees at our house and taking them to the mill in batches. Last weekend I delivered the final 15 kilos, bringing our season total to 161 kilos of olives.

So yesterday I took three containers to the mill -- including the 20 liter gas can you see in the photo on the left -- and had them filled. On the way home I stopped at our local boulangerie for some bread and we had our official tasting. The results from the family are in: Julia: really good. Patrick: really good. Henry: mmmm. Kerri: a nice bite at the end. Me: really good.

Half of the oil will be saved for the owners of the house and we will get to keep the other half. 13 liters should last us a good long time.

We've sort of documented the process and here's a quick look back at the last few months:

After shaking the trees, Julia gets some help sorting the olives from the leaves.

After they are picked they need to rest for a few days in a cool, dry area-- Kerri makes sure they get moved every day so they don't spoil

Load 'em up in the car. This was our first batch - 77 kilos

Carry them in to the mill. Yes, that is snow on the Cote d'Azur. It happens every once in a while.

Put it on your dining table and take a photo.

Today's Schedule

I WAS TEMPTED to simply copy and past my post from last year's Super Bowl Sunday onto this post because my schedule today is almost identical to the one from last year. The only difference is that today I spent 4 hours outside reading and studying in glorious sunshine and an additional couple of hours practicing a bit of music with a little group I play with in a neighboring village. Other than that: coffee in the morning, study in the afternoon, Caps/Penguins online at 6:30, early to bed, set the alarm for just after midnight so I can watch the Super Bowl. To be at about 4:00am.

Tomorrow's classes? The students will probably not get my best.

News Not Good

UNFORTUNATELY, THE NEWS about the missing student I talked about last week is not good. The body of David Manassen was found last evening in a heavily wooded area near Gourdon. It appears as if his car went off the road and plunged down the side of the cliff. Story in French is in today's Nice Matin. A very sad time for the family and his extended family here at the CIV.

Paris-Nice Revealed

THE DAYS ARE getting noticeable longer. This evening I took Julia to her flute lesson at 6:00pm and it was still light outside. A month ago that was not the case. Of course, longer days means spring is coming and in this part of the world spring means...cycling. For the fourth year in a row we will attend the Paris-Nice and Milan-San Remo races and despite the fact that it's the 'boys' who are usually most excited about this -- the girls get pretty excited as well.

And this year should be great because the second-to-last stage of Paris-Nice will roll through our village! The stage starts in Brignoles and finishes on a curcuit in Sophia-Antipolois (where I work). But just before arriving in Sophia the peleton will come down the Col de Gourdon and ride through Le Rouret/Opio/Valbonne/Biot/Sophia. I know what we'll be doing that day!

On the final day the route will be the familiar Nice curcuit that finishes with a mad dash down from Eze into Nice. For the past couple of years we have watched the start (on the Promenade des Anglais) then made our way up to Eze with a little lunch to watch from just outside the village. There's a good chance we'll be doing that again in a few weeks!

I really like this time of year.