20 Followers, Including Me (is that okay?)

Crossing Chalk has now reached 20 Chalkheads, thanks to me. Okay, not just me. But these people too:

Amy Allgeyer

MeganRebekah

Katie Salidas

Thanks for becoming the latest, greatest Chalkheads. You will forever walk around engulfed in a cloud of white dust. BTW - is it okay to follow your own blog? I don't think so. Even if it's not, that's fine. Rule breakers are risk takers.

So it's good to be home, back in the good ole USA, where I can now do simple things like say excuse me without sounding like a jack-ass and order food while pronouncing words correctly. Then again, Tsunami Burger is a tough one to screw up. Overall we had a fantastic time in Switzerland and Italy, but both Wife and I swore not to ever fly economy for 12 hours again without sleeping pills or a clown to entertain Blondie. Twelve hours is an eternity with a two-year old, especially when you're trapped in these conditions:

1. Sitting in a seat that's barely wider than you shoulders with enough leg room for one of Snow White's seven dwarves.

2. Sitting behind a seat that reclines into your lap.

3. Did I mention SITTING and 12 HOURS?

4. A portable DVD player on low battery and Dora the Explorer fading in and out.

5. Airline food.

6. A bratty 7 year-old girl kicking your lower back over and over.

7. An obese Italian man wearing shorts, spread eagle and breathing heavily while napping. That would be the brat's father.

8. Whining, overtired children (including your own).

9. Arses, from Serbian to Chinese, in your face.

10. Crappy movies like 17 Again.

Here are my final European vacation statistics:

sleeping: went from bad to decent to good and then took off in reverse all the way back to bad.

running: around 20 kilometers, I think.

writing: 1 ms page (note: it's impossible to write on an airplane in the aforementioned conditions. I bet Neil Gaiman flies business/first class, why shouldn't I?)

Ballenberg & Emmental Region

Blondie standing dangerously close to an electrical fence:

An old Swiss schoolroom:

Cheese, Glorious Cheese:

Our lunch at the cheese factory. Add bread and you're in business:

Schynige Platte train station (2000m):

Boat ride across Lake Thun. Sunglasses required:

Ballenberg & The Passes

Friday, July 24, 2009: Today we visited Ballenberg, an open-air museum with examples of historical homes from all of Switzerland's cantons. Farm life roamed the grounds so the animals kept Blondie entertained most of the time. Blondie also rode the carousel and begged for ice cream. Oh, to be two again.

The grounds require a lot of walking over hills and steps but these days I'm not one to complain about exercise. Old-fashioned furniture and wares fill most of the homes and help transport you to a time when cell phones and iPods were pipe dreams. It was a pricey visit, including an expensive lunch, which was savory (but still overpriced). Overall, the trip was worth every franc. On a side note: I'm pretty sure people used to be much shorter than they are now. Either that or they liked hitting their heads on crossbeams and doorway arches. What is it with humans and our elongating height?

Saturday, July 25, 2009: Grimsel Pass mountain drive. The drive took over six hours, including stops for lunch and photos. We also did Furka and Susten Passes. Photos to come.

Sunday, July 26, 2009: Another visit to Grossi, my wife's grandmother, who lives in Bern. Blondie was great and played by herself most of the time. Another quality visit and then home for lunch and an afternoon nap.

Monday, July 27, 2009: Today we took Blondie down to the dock to feed the entelein (duckies) and see the boats one last time. That nosy swan came around again and hogged all the bread. These swans are huge. This one was taller than Blondie with a piercing stare. Have you ever seen the size of a swan's feet? They're like tennis racquets! The rest of the afternoon we spend packing and getting ready for an early flight out of Zurich.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009: We rose early. Rode to Zurich. Adios to grossmami and grosspapi, through passport check, and back to Los Angeles, via Frankfurt.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009: Now I'm writing this post from home. We arrived yesterday (Tuesday) around 4:30 pm. On the way home, traffic was miserable thanks to a motorcycle fender bender. We arrived home around 7:00 pm. Blondie asked to lie down in her bed for the first time ever. Jet lag, gets you every time. This morning (Wednesday) she awoke at 4:00 am and Wife and I decided to get up with her. I was wide awake anyway so I went to the grocery store at 5:00 am to buy milk and fruit. Then I went back out to get Wife's hazelnut coffee creamer. Now we're all tired. Blondie is napping and I'm typing my last travel journal words.

Switzerland is an amazing place. It's clean, simple, the scenery is surreal, the people are nice, the food is good. Things are practical and make sense. And I'm buying a language book in the hopes of learning something that reflects an American trying to speak German.

Ade.

Murten & Emmental

Wednesday, July 22, 2009: After the post office in the morning, we ended up driving a ways to Murten, a town that still dons its castle and protective city walls, which you can still trek across. Cobblestone streets, store fronts, and a glass of white wine from the vineyard across the river, a pleasant afternoon of strolling and helping Blondie up and down countless century-old steps.

Thursday, July 23, 2009: We hopped in the car this morning for a day trip to the Emmental region, where the famous cheese is produced, not far from Bern. The cheese factory was interesting and tasty. We had an outdoor lunch of bread, meats, and cheeses.

Blondie played on the playground, the usual slide, swing, and see-saw. She was fascinated by the horses that stopped to drink from the trough. She even commented on their horse poops, which were apparent in the parking lot, and said "we can't eat 'em" as more of a question than comment. It rained some of the way home. Not a nice weather day, grey and overcast. Thinking of opening a laxative bar in the Emmental region. Could be profitable.

Hemingway's Venice

More pictures from Italy for your enjoyment or resentment:

Lake Como (no Clooney sightings)

Harry's (Venice), an old Hemingway hangout

Hemingway painting in American Bar (Venice)

Basilica di San Marco a Venezia

Campanile di San Marco

Rialto Bridge (pull up a chair and watch the boats pass by)

Piazza di San Marco

Switzerland Continued

Saturday: We drove over the mountains to Lucern to have dinner with Wife's aunt, uncle, and two cousins. Three of them will be visiting the states in August. Ate too much. Home late. Bed late.

Sunday: Drove to Bern to visit Wife's grandmother. Most of the time, Blondie and I decorated her Strawberry Shortcake sticker book. Nice visit.

Monday: Took a scenic drive in the morning. In the afternoon, we played mini golf in Oberhofen. It was a little bit warm but a lot of fun. On each hole, Blondie got in the way (especially Grosspapi's way) and provided another obstacle for us all. Grosspapi won in a three hole sudden death playoff with Wife. He scored a 4 on three holes. How? I finished three shots shy of qualifying for first place tie.

Tuesday: Took the boat across Lake Thun to Interlaken. Nearly a two hour boat ride full of scenic views. Rode the train up to Schynige Platte (2000m). Clean air, amazing views, and a vast alpine garden. Blondie had fun going down the sidewinder slide with us.

Wednesday: Overcast today, so we have postponed our planned mountain drive until a clear day. Wife and I walked with Blondie down to the post office and mailed post cards.

Seeing (and Smelling) Venice

This city is beyond hot in July and crawling with tourists from all over Europe. But we trekked through winding streets and campos for three days and even found time to relax and enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells...

Five smells to expect in Venice:

1. body odor (or onions, whichever you prefer)

2. pasta and pizza

3. fishy canal water

4. smoke

5. urine

Despite these pleasant fragrances, this city is beautiful, breathtaking at times. And after exploring it for three full days, which is all you need, I can say I would definitely go back, mostly to have a drink near the Rialto bridge or a slice of steaming hot pizza, even when it's over 100 degrees (with humidity). This historical coastal city doesn't have much to offer past ancient basilicas, canals, views, and food/drink, but at the end of your stay you'll be begging for more, which is why it remains a sought after destination for so many travelers.

Our trip in pictures, with more to come:

Reading: I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak

Running: 15 km

Writing: blog only

Quarter till Venice

If there is a cleaner country in the world than Switzerland, I'd like to see it. My fourth time here, but I've never noticed that even the dirt here is clean.

Wife and I are off to Venice tomorrow for four days (Tuesday - Friday) of eating, walking, sight-seeing, and vaporetto rides. We're staying at the Centaur Hotel near San Marco. Eager to eat and drink wine while watching the sun set.

Positives: I'll read a lot on the train rides to and from Venice. We'll be free of Blondie for a few days. We'll miss her tons but it will be nice to get away. She'll be just fine with Gross Mami and Gross Papi in Oberhofen.

Negatives: No running but I'll be walking a lot, which I guess isn't so bad.

We're back in Oberhofen on Friday and then we'll be here in Switzerland for 10 more days until we fly back to LA on July 28.

Enjoy the pictures in the previous two posts. Much more to come....

Thun & Entschwil

Thun, Switzerland:

Water trough in Entschwil. We filled pitchers from this spout for lunch and it was better than bottled water, straight from the mountaintops. Also, a favorite play spot for kids.

View from front yard:

Haunted barn:

Raclette lunch:

Sleep: stayed up later last night, still not normal, but getting there. Never had this much trouble with jet-lag. Blondie still fussing during sleep. What do you expect from a two-year old.

Running: 5.0 km (9 km total)

Writing: 0 ms pages (hoping to change that)

Reading: Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X. Stork

Switzerland in Less Words

Since photos can describe this faraway land better than me, I'll let my little Canon Powershot do the talking. Old and cranky but still takes decent pictures.

Oberhofen, Switzerland ~ 1133 - Present

Arbor near the castle:

Example of the Swiss's obsession with flowers (not a bad thing) and their meticulousness:

Me keeping Blondie from falling into Lake Thun:

Oberhofen Castle:

Arses & Five-Hour Lunches

Five things I hate about overseas red-eye flights, especially while sitting in an aisle seat:

1. Arses in your face.

2. Crying kids (including your own).

3. Snorers.

4. Annoying 12 year-old boys: one who stays up all night and watches movies and eats chocolate bars and continuously hits you accidentally because he's hopped up on sugar and caffeine like an Amish kid at a birthday party off the plantation, all because his mom tells him not to fall asleep on account of going to bed once they arrive in France. Thanks, Mom.

5. Getting up to let annoying 12 year-old boys go to the bathroom

6. More arses in your face (flight attendants, people waiting for the lavatory, people walking up and down the dark aisles like lost zombies, people squeezing out of the row next to or in front of you, anyone else want to put his arse in my face?)

Okay, that's six but who's counting? Apparently I have the look of someone who enjoys arses in the face. I'm reading I Am the Messenger, so the word arse is in right now, at least for me.

So we arrived safely in Zurich to triple kisses and handshakes for the In-Laws. Our first day went something like this:

Day One:

Arrived @ 4:30 PM local Swiss time

Visit Tanta Hedi in Zurich - Wife's 93 year-old great aunt

Drive from Zurich to Oberhofen - 1.5 hours

Dinner: spaghetti and bratwurst, water with gas and red wine

Bed: I go to sleep fine but my eyes pop open at 1:00 am and I lie in bed for three to four hours thinking of how to catch Tigers by their toes. Wife sleeps better than me but Blondie has trouble. She wakes up crying a few times, which is out of the norm. Wife lies on the floor for two hours assuring Blondie she's not sleeping in a spaceship.

Day Two:

I awake at 10:00 AM and Blondie sleeps in till 10:30. With the In-Laws, we stroll through Oberhofen and take in the meticulously kempt walking path that weaves around and beyond the local castle (there is always a local castle). We take Blondie to the park and she slides and swings for a while. View is ridiculously amazing (pictures to come), like something out of a dream involving snow-capped mountains, crystal blue lakes, really old castles.

We go into Thun and walk around the town. Wife thinks it's a good idea for me to buy a smoking pipe, the kind found at 1960s boxing matches in Madison Square Garden. We go into the tobacco shop, I look at a few pipes, and decide against it because I'm 31 not 81. Blondie spends a lot of time looking at the river and the duckies and the swans. She likes Switzerland so far and is excited about everything, especially the steamship that runs from Interlaken to Oberhofen to Thun and back again. Every time she sees a Swiss flag she says, "My flag, my flag," because she has a small one at home.

Dinner: salad, weisswurst, and pretzels, water with gas and weissbier

Bed: I wake at 1:00 am again and lie awake until 5:00, when I fall asleep until 10:00 am. I'm feeling a pattern, hoping it breaks soon.

Day Three:

We go to a lunch on the Swiss army base in Thun. It starts at 12:00 pm and we end up leaving at 4:30 PM. Nearly five hours of food and meeting people from Canada and Switzerland. We have appetizers with drinks outside and then go inside and have a first course followed by a second course. Then we go back outside on a walk to take in the Swiss tank museum. The entire time I wonder how many tanks were used in battle. After the tank tour, we come back for dessert, which is fruit, ice cream, and various cheeses along with coffee and espresso. I stumble out feeling like a giant block of gruyere.

Dinner: Too full from lunch. Skip it.

Bed: Fingers crossed.

Running: 2.5 miles

Writing: Blog post, 0 ms pages

Sun descends around 9:30 pm. Loads of daylight here.

Tomorrow: raclette lunch in Entschwil with Wife's aunt and cousins.

Writing On the Go & Hairpanes

First off, a white-dust welcome to Christy, who compulsively blogs on her site Juvenescence. Christy, congrats on your forthcoming novels in 2010 and '11! I know a few Chalkheads who are editing their manuscripts as I type this, so you all have much in common already.

Okay, so I'm leaving on that thing called a big freaking jet plane and won't be back again until July 28th. After days of contemplating, I've decided to take the laptop. Even though the In-Laws live in the unmapped town of Oberhoffen (correction from: Thun), Switzerland, somehow they've setup a wireless connection, so I'm going to use it.

The Master Plan: to blog and post pics during the trip for entertainment and personal value.

So if you want to sight-see through Switzerland and Italy for three weeks while sitting on your couch or in your hard, flat desk chair, you can. All you have to do is click on over here every so often and do a little reading and picture browsing and then maybe leave a comment or two making fun of my point-and-shoot photographs and misspellings of foreign words.

The Master Plan Part II: to get some writing done on MG novel #2.

It would be easy to leave the laptop at home and be complacent, but I can't because when I return I'm attending the SCBWI Summer Conference here in LA for four days and then before you can say Labor Day school begins looming like the shadow of a giant UFO. So the point is, even though I'm traveling and supposed to be enjoying myself in some kind of suspended reality dreamland, I still want to write. My theory is:

-- If I can write while sleeping in foreign places and lands, I can write anywhere. --

Oh, and I'm taking my running gear. I'm also hoping to do a little bit of that. The body fuels the mind and I believe it. We'll see how it all shakes out. Blondie has been talking about "little hairpanes" and "big hairpanes" for weeks now. For those of you without offspring, that's "airplanes."

-- tew

European Vacation

This coming Wednesday we leave for Switaly for three weeks.

Switzerland + Italy = Switaly.

We're taking the red-eye with fingers crossed that Blondie sleeps well. We'll be staying with the Wife's parents, who are Swiss, in a town called Thun, which is close to the nation's capitol Bern. A week into our trip, we'll be leaving Blondie behind in the land of cave-aged gruyere for a while and sneaking off on a tour of northern Italy like a couple of honeymooners. If you want to get all kissy face, we're going to Venice for four days.

This will be my fourth trip to Europe and these are the things I'm looking forward to:

1. Beer

2. Cheese

3. Cafes

3. No tipping (in cafes)

4. Staring at the Swiss Alps for varying lengths of time

5. Not understanding arbitrary conversations in cafes

We don't have much of an itinerary, but Father-in-law will have plenty of day trips planned, which I fully appreciate. Can you beat traveling through a country with people who speak the language? I don't think so. Some people say it takes away from the feeling of being a real tourist, but I hate feeling like a tourist in the first place so I say it's great. After all, I get to kick back, drink my beer, and let everyone else do the talking.

Here is my Planes, Trains, and Automobiles reading list. I'm taking suggestions, anything from MG to adult.

1. I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak (thank you Ben Esch and PMM)

2. Brain Rules, by John Medina (need to finish)

3. Will of the World, by Stephen Greenblatt

4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon (so good I have to read it again and it's an easy paperback to lug around)

5. Insert Your Suggestions here

My Day Before the Day Before Independence Day

Tutoring. Check (literally). Thank you!

Haircut. Check the mirror. A little lopsided, but that's okay.

Dentist. Check UP. Ouch!

Trader Joe's. Check OUT. Have a great day!

Now, on to writing.

With revisions complete (for now) on MG novel number one, I'm gearing up and getting into number two, which so far has been a completely different experience. Here are the differences between them:

A. One = third person. Two = first person.

B. One = eleven year-old boy MC. Two = twelve (almost thirteen) year-old boy MC.

C. One = divided town. Two = united town.

D. One = boy's father plays vital role. Two = no father (mother plays vital role).

The writing part has been the real difference. Going from third to first person and finding the MC's genuine voice has been tough. For me it's all about visualization and playing the scene in my head as my fingers tap it out on my white, surprisingly clean, iBook keyboard (I want a new computer, but this one is so good and trusty that I haven't been able to talk myself into it). The story is only 15 pages old but the work of it is aging me much faster. Don't take that the wrong way. I love to write but the act of it can be agonizing and downright painful (much like the dentist. See above.)

I agree with Kate DiCamillo:

"I never want to write, but I'm always glad that I have done it."

There is much truth to those words. Some writers really enjoy the process, others dread it. I don't necessarily see it as a dark cloud hanging over my laptop, not at all, but the process of letting those creative cranks turn and grind in your brain until they spew out webs of brilliance or doldrums of disgust can be nauseating and exhausting.

Wow, this post went somewhere I didn't think it was going. That's what happens when you write. The brain takes over and turns the planned into the unexpected.

Back to novel number two.

WRITE away!

Note to Blogger IT Department: step into the 21st Century and fix your annoying formatting tools. You seem to have created a formatting program with a mind of its own. Nice job... if you're working for a robotics company. You're not. Honestly, I'm shocked my entire post has not changed to blue yet. Perhaps it will momentarily... waiting.... waiting...