zeke and wendy

vaporetto strike

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:55:00 +0000

so the vaporetti (water buses) that are a main source of transportation around Venice were out of commission today because of strike action. i had read that they would operate the main services between 7am-9am and 5pm-7pm, so i thought i’d be ok to get to and from the museum (which is directly across the canal from the vaporetto stop near my flat). so i got up earlier to get to the stop by 8:30am.

sunrise over chiesa di frari from my window.

then when i got there it seems they were only running vaporetto line #2 and not the #1 that goes between my stop and the museum. so i had to do what the locals were doing and taking the traghetto instead. supposedly this isn’t supposed to be a scary thing… traghetti are basically stripped down, retired gondolas that take you only directly across the grand canal. they have no seats, but usually so few people ride the traghetti at a time that you can sit on the cross beams. since there was the vaporetto strike many more people were having to use the traghetti. so picture 20 people standing up in a gondola cutting across the canal while boats zoom by (motor boats, garbage boats, constructions boats…). an italian woman near me grabbed onto my arm for stability… and then after laughing i grabbed the man in front of me who then laughed at the two of us. it was actually quite terrifying. i was thinking “this is it. i’m going to fall into the lagoon with my laptop and lose all this research.”

but of course it was fine and i had an hour before i had to be at the museum so i stopped for coffee and made more notes for my next 2 chapters. the women working the coffee bar were singing along loudly to every american song on the radio. the best might have been the love ballad from top gun (take my breath away) or “if you don’t know me by now”, especially because they didn’t know all of the words but sang confidently anyway.

one of the shops i passed on the way from the cafe to the museum had these:

the glasses lots of people are wearing in venice, i’ve noticed. think zeke would want some?

then i spent the morning researching more of Mariano Fortuny’s albums of collected reproductions and photographs.

for my lunch break i didn’t want to try the traghetto again to get back to my flat, so i ate at a touristy restaurant near the museum and upped my caffeine for the home stretch of researching.

though i wouldn’t wish the inability to eat cheese on anyone, this pizza was actually pretty delicious. and i think i scared people with how quickly i ate the whole thing. (do you see its size relative to that normal-sized butter knife?)

i went back after lunch to finish looking at the selected albums. the archives director graciously agreed to send me more photographs of Palazzo Fortuny.

this is the ground floor of Palazzo Fortuny very near the water.

after leaving the museum, the vaporetto still wasn’t operating on my stop so i decided to walk the long way around (up to the bridge at the Accademia and then back down to campo dei frari) instead of braving the traghetto again (though i’m not sure it was easier as i had to deal with some, ahem, ‘chatty’ young italianos on the walk).

yesterday’s research also went well. i had an italian translator help at the museum who had studied in oxford and written her dissertation on the Scouse accent! (that’s liverpool for you american readers) we chatted about england for a bit. i also met with a professor of fashion history/theory at the university of venice whose book i had just read (and, like a nerd, asked for as a christmas present). she was enthusiastic, encouraging, and helpful.

i’ve had a wonderful time here in venice this week. the staff at museo fortuny have been excellent and i feel much more inspired for the last 2 chapters of this thesis.

day 1 at museo fortuny

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:26:40 +0000

so this is what researching looks like…

because i’m not allowed to take pictures of the cool stuff. but they did say they could provide pictures for me of some things i’ll write about in my 4th chapter, and the head of archives told me that no one had written on these pieces before (an art historian’s dream) or exhibited them. i also met a co-curator at the museum who was very helpful, friendly, and interesting.

the museum is in the middle of being closed for 2 months, so the atmosphere is a bit strange with lots of construction and staff busy working on the next show. but with it being closed to the public, i was given privileged access to pieces i’m writing on in my 3rd chapter.

tomorrow i go back for more notebooks and a painting.

and from this evening’s trip to the grocery store- here’s more proof that venetian ladies love their fur.

my day in pictures

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:19:16 +0000

i don’t have the time to narrate, but i will make an exception for the picture of the large beautiful piazza (halfway down). as i walked through this gorgeous tranquil spot a man seated on a park bench blared cher’s ‘if i could turn back time’ on his boom box.

another great day in venice.

LOTS of pictures from Venice

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:21:00 +0000

i (wendy) am here in venice for phd research. (yes, choosing a subject area where the resources are in venice was a conscious choice.)

i love being here in winter! compared to how crowded it was in summer, the city feels deserted (in a non-creepy way). the locals are out like normal and are much more charming when not being annoyed by barrages of tourists.

the first day i was here was the last day of the exhibition ‘Venice e l’Egitto’ at the Palazzo Ducale. it had some interesting ties to my research and i’m glad i got see it, along with touring the Doge’s palace (on right in pic below). also, i got the youth discount without asking, apparently i can pass for 25 or under (woot woot night cream).

here are some iPhone shots i got with captions underneath:

george clooney advert at the piazzette s. marco

sunset from the balcony of the palazzo ducale

sunset and reflection from the palazzo ducale

atlas flanking the golden staircase (palazzo ducale)

golden staircase (palazzo ducale)

view of venice from inside the ‘bridge of sighs’ connecting the sentencing rooms of the palazzo to the prison

other side from within the ‘bridge of sighs’

winter sunset at piazzette s. marco

hello again, tetrarchs.

lots of italian ladies are wearing fur coats.

today i finally went inside basilica san marco thinking of proust and ruskin and my friends bethie (from brevard) and ashley (who hung out with me in a few italian cathedrals). there was no wait at all and i stayed as long as i wanted (until i almost hunger-fainted because i love me some italian churches)

inside the basilica some italian ladies asked me about one part of the church. i managed two sentences of dialogue before they said ‘you’re not italian are you?’ but hey, it’s the 2nd time in 2 days that i’ve been assumed to be italian and at least my speaking wasn’t so bad that they knew right off.

there are no pics allowed in the church, hence why these are iPhone pics of the floor and outside:

beautiful mosaic floors

my gold herringbone toms on the mosaic floor

san marco <3s Doge

on the roof of the basilica

view of the clock tower from the roof

view of the piazzette from the roof of the basilica

doge hanging out with san marco, the winged lion

i wandered back to the apartment and on the way picked up a present for zeke in a cool man store and went into a thrift shop and got a cool button for my sad cardigan. in the tiny square behind san toma (near the apartment) there were many parents who had just picked up their kids from school and were taking them into this beautiful shop for hot chocolate. it was the most luxurious hot chocolate i’ve ever seen (think real european drinking chocolate) and the children were singing and skipping out. it was wonderful!

this shop made me miss dairy pretty hard. but i did get an espresso and watch everyone dip spoons into their hot chocolate.

then i saw these penguins in a bathroom shop on the way home:

zeke would love a penguin rubbish bin!

tonight zeke and i have a dinner date via videochat (thanks for that idea katherine and grant) and then i’ll write a bit more.

here’s my little studio apartment:

i get to write beneath a venetian chandelier! so glam.

there’s a little kitchenette that connects the living/sleeping room to the bathroom. my favourite part is the ceiling and hanging light above this nook:

the rest of the week is devoted to the textiles museum, Ca Mocenigo, and the Fortuny museum where i’ll be in the archives again!

looking tired, but all safe and sound in venice. it’s...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:52:00 +0000

looking tired, but all safe and sound in venice. it’s sunny, crisp, and quiet.

Made the connection in Amsterdam. I feel so short here! Boarding...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:25:05 +0000

Made the connection in Amsterdam. I feel so short here! Boarding for Venice in a few.

hello america (holiday edition) and hello britain

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:06:39 +0000

the last week spent in america was great. we got to see more friends and family and had a few more burritos.

here’s a photo of the new year’s eve family jam session referenced in the last post:

we made it safely back to manchester, despite the snow in DC.

wendy got to hear a favourite professor from UNC come speak in manchester and afterwards caught up with katherine and resumed american tv night.

we brought back a few crazy flavoured M&Ms for our british friends to try, so here’s hello america (holiday edition) with ellie, helen w. and helen h. and what they thought of cinnamon, coconut, and pretzel M&Ms:

soon after we got back we also got to host friends from america for the weekend. hailey, a close middle-school friend of wendy’s (our british friends loved her alabama accent), and her husband stayed with us as part of their 15 day tour of the UK from Edinburgh to Southampton. we got to introduce them to a few british things. so here is hello britain and what they thought of banoffee pie:

we are happy to get back into our manchester lives and see our friends here. next week wendy is off to venice for research at the fortuny museum and to meet with academics.

2.5 weeks in pictures

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:30:00 +0000

before we left manchester we had a couple of friends over for sugar cookie decorating- a smith family tradition. zeke went for the 12 days of christmas as his theme:

we went to london and stopped by the portobello rd market (with all of the other tourists and hugh grant fanatics) mainly so zeke could get this sandwich:

we went to see matthew bourne’s nutcracker that night. it was a very fun production (people were actually laughing out loud).

then we had dessert at a cafe near our hotel where a group of old men were getting quite competitive about their chess matches. (see wendy’s vegan option compared to zeke’s dairy-laden awesomeness)

the next day we split off so that zeke could go to the natural history museum to see the dinosaurs…

and wendy did a quick bit of researching inside the national gallery…

below is a piece on the 4th plinth in london that wendy had just lectured about with her class:

before we left london we met up with a friend from the summer camp we worked at last summer who lives near the tower of london. we had a great time catching up and then attended a carol service at her church which is right next to the ‘gherkin’ building. it was a really nice time. we even saw a few other friends there!

then we woke up monday morning and headed to heathrow. our flight was a little late, but overall it was an easy trip. we picked up our rental car (zeke laughed that wendy picked one with a sun roof, but it has been so warm here that we’ve used it a lot!) and within half an hour we stopped for our first burritos of the trip!

we drove to the cabin and saw family there before heading to the triangle area to see zeke’s brother alex and his wife olynda. we took a stroll through their neighbourhood, ate more mexican food and north carolina BBQ, and watched carolina basketball. see alex and wendy enjoying the park down the street:

then we went back to VA for christmas with the mcpherson and ligon families (pics to come) and headed to greenville to see zeke’s family on the 26th.

yes, that is a light saber. playing with the kids was super fun (despite caitlin’s frowny face, i think she had fun too).

we also have been struck by how the stereotypes of america are sometimes true, but still awesome. after being gone a while, it does seem funny that we have starbucks inside of stores with shopping carts that have cupholders. yes, you could make fun of us for being so fat and lazy that we need caffeine and cupholders to do our grocery shopping- but on the other hand… have you tried it? it’s awesome. and look how big those aisles are! (insert british joke about needing room for overweight americans.)

then wendy went to concord to see her grandmama, who is recovering from her last stay in the hospital. she was in good spirits and really liked the calendar we gave her of the queen’s royal palaces. she rather likes the queen.

then wendy joined ashley, maria, and cam at ashley’s mom’s house in concord for a girly sleepover complete with nail painting, hair curling, and presents by the fire. it was lots of fun!

here are everyone’s paraffin wax hands.

cam says they’re like dead mummy hands.

then wendy met zeke, his mom, alex, and olynda at the NC museum of art where they had just seen the rembrandt exhibition. (they’re big fans, being dutch and all.)

they joked that here, rembrandt painted the first bluetooth.

then we went back to VA and spent new year’s eve with wendy’s dad and his family playing music and Xbox kinect. wendy’s dad played electric guitar with jeremy and uncle big john on drums and wendy on bass guitar. it was fun, but i don’t think recording contracts are up any time soon.

then we spent new years day at the cabin watching lots of football…

in our fan gear

matching fleece football pants were a great present from zeke’s mom.

check out that throwback panthers mug (and the manicure).

we’ve got one more week to see friends and eat more burritos, then it’s back to england where it’ll be good to get back into our routine and see our sweet manchester friends again.

Off to eat Malasyian food before going to see Matthew...

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:20:41 +0000

Off to eat Malasyian food before going to see Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker ballet in London!

On an early train to London. Goodbye Manchester.

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 05:51:37 +0000

On an early train to London. Goodbye Manchester.

market monday

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:21:04 +0000

the past few weeks have been quite busy as we wrap up things in manchester to spend a few weeks back in the US for christmas. tonight we went to wendy’s advisor’s house for a nice get together of american comrades. on the rainy bus ride back home we realised zeke wouldn’t get to go to the christmas markets this year because of our busy schedules. so we did the logical thing and…

went straight to albert square so zeke could have his beloved pork sandwich!

it was a really quick stop, but a good way to kick off our last (for 2011) week in manchester.

edinburgh

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:28:55 +0000

here are a few pictures from wendy and maria’s time in edinburgh last week. we were lucky to have great weather!

uncompleted 19th century monument to scottish soldiers based on the parthenon

dog in the window of an old scotch whisky shop

the castle

george street christmas market

Happy Thanksgiving from the Smiths! Wendy, Maria and Zeke...

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:52:32 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving from the Smiths! Wendy, Maria and Zeke already celebrated turkey day on Saturday, but we’re thinking of family and friends back home getting to stuff their faces and watch football all day while we went off to work. We may be jealous, but we love you all - here’s a little video recapping what went into our Thanksgiving this past weekend.

At the Lowry seeing Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades with...

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:01:39 +0000

At the Lowry seeing Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades with some lovely friends. (Ann and Wendy too)

bacon, fireworks, and candy

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:31:00 +0000

zeke brought back tons of american treats from his recent trip to asheville. and in another instalment of hello america, dan tried a few of them:

hello america: halloween edition

then on saturday we went to platt fields park to celebrate guy fawkes day aka: bonfire night. US friends, you may know a little about this from the movie V for Vendetta. to learn more you can play this game: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/gunpowder/index.shtml

but overall it is quite a strange holiday that seems really just to be about blowing stuff up (which sounds more american than english, really).

we met some friends and started the night off with sparklers

then masses of people crowded inside the park to watch the 20 minute fireworks display.

then after the fireworks, they started a really huge bonfire. some places apparently burn an effigy of guy fawkes! quite macabre for a country that doesn’t even like halloween.

the park is also filled with fair rides, games, and food stalls. zeke and our friends katherine and claire rode this:

it was a bit scary that their ride had to be stopped and restarted before the giant pendulum hurled them upward. the flashing strobe lights were enough excitement for those of us in the tame crowd waiting below.

afterwards zeke got a chilli dog…

and chips for wendy at this place:

yes, it says ‘made in heaven’.

but at least we didn’t eat here:

can you believe there’s a queue for this?

guy fawkes day is such a spectacle. november is a pretty fun month around here, because not too long after bonfire night the christmas markets come!

also this weekend zeke got a special treat…

american bacon! (which here is called ‘streaky bacon’) he ate half of the pack on saturday and the other half on sunday (!) when wendy made biscuits and fried eggs to go with it.

it was the first time vegetarian wendy had ever cooked bacon and she kept thinking it’s no wonder we americans have a reputation for being unhealthy… that being said, the unhealthy food consumed this week (documented in this post) has made us quite happy and fed our nostalgia for home.

zeke is home from asheville and he brought back tons of american...

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:47:56 +0000

zeke is home from asheville and he brought back tons of american goodies! we’re excited to share some sugary junk-food goodness with friends. maybe there’ll even be another hello america soon.

autumn weekends

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 17:28:00 +0100

last weekend we met up with our friend katherine to hang out in chorlton where her new apartment is. she took us to some cute shops, a candy store where we bought tons of liquorice, a vegan grocery store called unicorn, and a great pub called pi (with great pies, of course). the weather was nice enough for us to enjoy being outside, and the nice staff at pi offered to warm up and serve wendy some food from the unicorn grocery (since the menu, like most, wasn’t too wendy-friendly).

wendy was super excited when in the grocery store katherine reminded her, “you can eat anything in here!” sounds kinda stupid, but it was a great feeling to see all the options and not feel so limited by being a lactose-intolerant vegetarian.

see the excitement?

after choosing some savoury wendy pies, we went back to order at the pub. all three of us were so excited to see them serving pumpkin beer!

it was of course an american brand, so much for sampling local beers… but it was so good! saranac pumpkin beer- highly recommended.

zeke had a delicious meaty pie and wendy enjoyed the mushy peas. above, we are posing with the pumpkin we bought at the grocery that was finally cooked this weekend. finding pumpkins to cook is a bit more difficult here in england, and canned pumpkin is nowhere to be found, so we were quite excited. we had a really great autumny saturday with katherine.

then after another busy week and a fun camp reunion day on saturday (yesterday) we decided to have a really relaxing sunday. we slept in and then made proper american blueberry pancakes that were delicious! (we have to specify that they are “american” pancakes because british pancakes are more like crepes- which has previously led to some disappointing misunderstandings at restaurants…)

then wendy used the pumpkin we bought in chorlton to make pumpkin bread! (the recipe is a lot like my family’s favourite apple cake)

zeke is excited to watch tim tebow’s first start for the broncos whilst enjoying it. but in the meantime he loved cleaning up the batter:

a day in the life of the smiths...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:30:04 +0100

this morning zeke went to work early to play football (american soccer) with the staff that play twice a week before school. then he took photographs of visiting teachers from taiwan and worked on the school’s magazine. today’s lunch was an exception, in that he didn’t eat with dan (of hello america). in the afternoon he made changes to the school’s website.

at home wendy read up on the material to be covered in the class she TAs for and then headed to university for office hours.

since no students came this week (they’ll be coming soon for guidance on their essays) she chatted with katherine, who is TAing for the same class. they are super happy that they get to lesson plan together. then wendy and katherine went to a departmental staff meeting before attending a lecture by irish novelist, colm tóibín. after chatting with colleagues at the lecture’s wine reception and a tipple (british slang for a drink) at the ducie arms with fellow phd students, wendy met up with zeke for dinner.

we tried a chinese place that zeke has had his eye on since we moved here.

yes, that says ‘pig’s kidney and squid’! no, he did not order it. the menu was full of really exotic food. some of the pictures were quite unappetising to wendy, the vegetarian. so she stuck with more predictable options. zeke’s entree was marked with 2 chillies, but was the hottest food he’s had in manchester so far! overall dinner was very good, and we found ourselves reflecting on how our 21 year-old selves might be pleased with the days we had. we feel so happy and blessed these days, even through our bouts of homesickness.

after dinner, since it’s been raining almost non-stop for the past 6 days in manchester, we splashed out (british for splurged) on a short cab ride home.

Lots Happening in Manchester

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:49:00 +0100

Life has been crazy since we both returned from our time in the US. There’s been a new job for Zeke, teacher training for Wendy, and even a weekend visit from Zeke’s mom!

here are a few pics from the last week and half:

we had a good bye dinner, hosted by soon yi, for our friends vincent and tamanda, and their new baby who have just moved back to malawi.

last friday we were lucky enough to have charlotte (zeke’s mom) as a visitor for the weekend, since she had been visiting family in the Netherlands and decided to stop by Manchester on the way home from Europe. wendy picked charlotte up from the airport and took her around west didsbury for the afternoon. she couldn’t resist the allure of and the dish ran away with the spoon.

then friday night we went to the opening of the exhibition dark matters at the whitworth art gallery where charlotte took lots of pictures (including one with wendy’s supervisor carol and american phd/GTA buddy katherine).

charlotte also videoed us playing with one of the interactive pieces by daniel rozen. our friend dan, of hello america fame, went with us and saw his first performance piece. he liked this interactive one much better.

then we took charlotte to the curry mile for indian food, but mainly for the pranks our favorite restaurant plays on its new customers. she let out a scream when a rubber chicken popped out of a covered dish the waiter brought. see below her “small beer”

and below charlotte stars in another installment of hello america, morning edition. see her verdict on crumpets (it completely makes up for crunchie bars):

on saturday we went to MGS, the school zeke works at, for their open day. we were lead on a guided tour by two 15 year-old students. they were pretty hilarious, and happy to be leading around people that they could joke with and be their goofy 15-year-old selves. our friend dan later described one of the boys as “a nightmare in class,” but to be fair that’s probably how most of our high school teachers would have described both zeke and/or wendy, so there’s plenty of hope for him yet!

here’s the drive leading up to the school:

and the main quad area, built to look and feel like one of the prestigious Oxford colleges (since hopefully that’s the type of place the boys are headed next):

in the classics dept. at school we learned that harry potter has been translated/published in latin. speaking of which, mom said the school definitely had a Hogwarts-type feel, which we took as a compliment.

after our visit to the school on our way to the historic John Rylands Library, we randomly spotted a giant display in the city centre being put on by Major League Baseball. who knew? (also, side note: watching British people attempt to play baseball, even for a few minutes, is pretty funny and entertaining)

once at the library, we stopped for tea and desserts in the cafe before touring around:

charlotte loved the scone with clotted cream.

after a great visit inside the library we headed home for a nice relaxing evening making Mexican food and chatting.

on Sunday we woke up and went to church together before heading to the city centre with our friend Dan Smith to see an art exhibition. on the way we snapped a few pictures:

mom took a picture of wendy, zeke, and dan that we concluded would make a nice cover for our music album someday. too bad the band name “The Smiths” was already taken by some other Manchester dudes…

we got lunch at the restaurant in Manchester Art Gallery before seeing an exhibition of Ford Maddox Brown’s work, an artist that lived in Manchester in the 19th century and was a big influence on the pre-Raphaelite movement.

we sent mom off the next day after a great visit (thanks for coming mom! love you!), and thought of her several times over the next week as zeke wore his new suits that mom helped us shop for:

on monday we had dinner with our friends Jen and Ellie before meeting up with Rich and Abi at a concert in the northern quarter. we saw an american group called The Civil Wars, who were absolutely incredible, not to mention we had a great vantage point close to the stage. the opening group was a band of 3 sisters with gorgeous voices called The Staves.

needless to say, we’ve been fairly busy and it was great to have a relaxing weekend to sit back, recover from the colds we’ve both been trying to shake off, and watch some football.

back in the saddle again

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:08:49 +0100

with the fall semester officially started now at the university for wendy and at MGS for zeke, schedules are filling up as the days get shorter. it’s quite a change for us now that we both have jobs outside of the house and aren’t working from home (in our PJs) all day.

wendy got a tour through MGS and watched zeke play in a staff vs. parents football (soccer) match at school last week. it was a little like hogwarts… minus the girls and flying. she also met the high master (yes ‘high’ not ‘head’ master).

our friend dan (of hello america) works at MGS too, so he and zeke have been catching up at tea and lunch. since dan loved reese’s pieces so much (see above video link), we decided to take a trip to sam’s club to get his birthday present while we were in america. yes, it is a sam’s club box of reese’s pieces. he was pretty happy about it.

we have also seen a lot of our british friends that we missed while we were away. we finally got to meet josh and rose’s baby, cora mae thorp (i think it’s just cora, but because i’m southern i’ll stick with cora mae), and we had a great time at jon and lois’ wedding last weekend. zeke was their photographer and though he’s a veteran here it was actually the first british wedding wendy had been to, and it had a ceilidh. she has a bruise from being stepped on, but nonetheless enjoyed it thoroughly.

it was nice to have such wonderful people to come back to because homesickness is always looming about, especially when there are no pumpkin lattes or american football games, and a bit less sunshine.

(wendy’s picture from golf at the beach in NC)

at the end of this busy week we are looking forward to charlotte (zeke’s mom) coming to visit. she is spending the weekend with us on her way back to the US from holland.