We Can Gdansk, If You Want To...

...we can leave your friends behind. And after searching for a music video for that song, I could not find one anywhere. Sad. However I did get to listen to Men At Work's greatest accomplishment: Down Under, my ringtone from 2002-03.

It's time for Gdansk!

July 26, 2008: Gdansk, Poland

G’day from Gdansk! We arrived in Gdansk, Poland today!

The Crane (used in medieval times), Neptune’s Fountain, detail of a balustrade of a local home.

Actually, we arrived in Gdynia, Poland today and drove to Gdansk with a brief stop in Sopot. Poland – at least Gdynia, Sopot, and Gdansk – wins the award for people most friendly and tolerant of tourists. Because we were everywhere. We visited the main plaza where they were having some celebrations and parade, and got to enjoy some of the sights. Much of Gdansk was destroyed during WWII, but the town decided to rebuild it to reflect its former architecture.

Ruins from WWII near the town square, the Green Gate

We visited St. Mary’s Church – the largest brick cathedral in the world. After which, the family got to enjoy some pierogis and potato pancakes alongside the river.

Next: Berlin!

Medieval Times.

Before I post the next day's post, I will preface it by saying that I knew next to nothing about Estonia before visiting it. In fact, the only real mention of it from my childhood that I can remember was in that movie Encino Man -- which I will admit to have watched. Twice. Those of you who may have also seen it...twice...may remember that Estonia was where "the foreign exchange student" (read: caveman), Brendan Fraser, was supposedly from.

Suffice to say, I knew very little and I was very excited to explore it. It did not disappoint.

July 25, 2008: Tallin, Estonia

Today was Estonia…

View of the church steeple through a Medieval Wall, the Veru Gate, and the door of the Blackhead Guild

…and Estonia was pretty great. Jamie and I were originally planning on doing a Bog hike in the Estonian National Park (Lahemaa National Park to be exact). However, our excursion got cancelled – probably not too many people as excited about hiking through a bog as I was. So, instead, Jamie and I ventured out to Tallin on our own. We walked to town from the port and beat the crowds to the Town Square. This allowed us to get some pretty nice shots of the area sans tourists. It really did work out perfectly.

A café on the streets of Tallin.

I knew very little about Tallin before coming, but learned a lot from our walk through the Old Town. It has enjoyed independence from Russia for a mere 19 years, and the architecture of the Old Town is very much the same as it was in medieval times. Everybody in Tallin was very nice and Jamie and I got to enjoy some Estonian cheese and garlic toast on the Town Square.

Fat Margaret (one of three watchtowers), Orthodox Church, Old Town from our balcony

If you ever get the opportunity to visit Tallin, give it a try.

Da Da Da.

Looking back at these posts that I wrote during the trip, it is so clear just how exhausted I was. I napped A LOT on the trip. Perhaps part of the reason was because the week before we didn't get much sleep because of our trip to Chicago and the fact that our flight got canceled on the way back (thereby robbing us of sleep). Of course the 8 hour time change probably didn't help either. It was very sad to lose one hour a night for a while there as our ship cruised east.

Then, all this coupled with the fact that we had to wake up early for our sightseeing and then walked all over various cities, meant that by the time we got back and had a minute to ourselves, I wanted to SLEEP. So, I apologize that I don't actually tell much about the cities we saw in my blog posts. But, I'm guessing Wikipedia would do a better job of that anyway.

Let's continue!

July 23-24, 2008

St. Petersburg! Definitely the most anticipated stop on our cruise. As we are sailing out of the Gulf of Finland after two days in St. Petersburg I am just exhausted. But, St. Petersburg has completely lived up to its expectations. Absolutely gorgeous.

We were told that on average there are 40 days of sunshine in Russia. Fortunately for us, we had two of them.

Our first day we toured the city, saw the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood, and visited The Hermitage Museum.

The Peter and Paul Fortress.

A sculpture at the Hermitage Museum.

Cigarette butts and the reflection of the Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood.

I really enjoyed all three of these attractions, but I felt the most stunning was the Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood. It was so colorful and embellished. The story behind the name was that it was built on the exact spot where Alexander II was killed. He was a reasonably well-liked tsar by all...except, of course, those who tried to kill him.

On our second day in St. Petersburg, we saw Catherine’s Palace (Catherine the Second, that is) and Peterhof Castle. The gardens of the latter win out over Versailles. For sure.

The castle wasn’t bad either.

Tomorrow…Talinn, Estonia.

Helsinki: More than a Great Name

We continued our visit to the Baltic...

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Day three of our cruise was spent in beautiful Helsinki, Finland. Jamie and I opted to set out on our own before taking our tour. We hopped on a bus and walked in the center of the town: got to see the market place, eat some local cuisine, and see Senate Square.

Finnish Paella. Who knew? Some of it later ended up in my belly.

Afterwards, we went to Hvittrask – the home of the famous Finnish architects, including Eliel Saarinen – and got to walk around. It was located in the forest next to a lake.

We got to see Temppeliaukio Rock Church which is an amazing church built into the bedrock. The only part of the church that you can actually see above ground is the cupola. Plus, the acoustics in the church were pretty incredible…

This is the view from the inside of the church.

This is all you can see above ground: the cuppola.

Overall, Finland wins over Stockholm – although, it’s probably unfair to say since Jamie and I had the opportunity to walk around the town on our own.

Also, check out the sky at this time…

It is so confusing to go outside at 11pm, and have it still be bright outside. We are dead-tired though, so it won't be hard to sleep. St. Petersburg is next!

Post...from the Future.

First of all, a big thanks to Drew for the kick in the pants to update. It sort of backfired though, because now I don't want to post and push Jack's adorable face off of my blog. But, update I must.

It has been a long time since I had the chance to sit down and update -- I am going to sincerely try my hardest to be better about these things. Work has been crazy and time has been lacking, but I think that makes it all the more important for me to update since it means I don't get to keep up with people over the phone either...

Now for the biggest update: Jamie and I went to Northern Europe with the family and it was great. I'm actually sitting in the Newark Airport right now. I forked over the $7.95 for 24 hours of internet access because a) I have been out of contact with the world for the past 11 days and b) we have FIVE hours in the airport waiting for our connection. Despite the fact that the gate next to ours in Copenhagen went directly to Dulles and held mostly cruise passengers, Jamie and I had to fly to NEWARK and sit in the airport for five hours. Thumbs down.

But, first things first. Here is the blog post I wrote on the first day on our cruise. I will be updating every day for the next week or so as I post what I wrote while we were on our trip...

[old post starts...now!]

Monday, July 21, 2008
So there has been a long hiatus from the blog. Thanks to our most favorite officiant, Drew, I have been kicked back into the blogging fold. Unfortunately, I’m away from the internet and the ability to do such things as check my mail and/or write to the blog. Fortunately, I can write these blog entries in anticipation of actually having the internet next week. I’ll post a new blog every day – it’ll be like a little time capsule. Fun times.

And so…Jamie and I have been invited to cruise the Baltic over ten days by my ever-so-accommodating parents. I am actually writing this from awesome balcony of my stateroom as we cruise out of the Swedish archipelago after spending a day in Stockholm. The views from this balcony are awesome…

…also, Stockholm is especially photogenic.

But, I’ll back up a little. Jamie and I left for Copenhagen on Friday afternoon and met up with my parents in Dulles International Airport. From there it was an 8-hour flight. Sadly, there was no electricity on the plane – seriously. We couldn’t even turn on the overhead lights to read. So the 8-hour flight felt a little longer…the good thing was that we actually slept. Good thing, too, because by the time we got to our connection in Frankfurt it was 5am.

Before boarding the ship, Jamie and I hopped on the metro in Copenhagen and walked around downtown. Sadly, our camera was packed away in our bag, so we were unable to document this part of our trip. We exchanged some money, traveled around town and ate some overpriced food. We even contemplated – not really – entering the Erotica Museum.

Stockholm was gorgeous. We got to tour the City Hall where they announce the Nobel Prize winners and took lots of pictures in the City Hall’s “Gold Room”.

Did you know: the City Hall was made from 8 million handmade bricks? Crazy. But very nice to look at.

The Stockholm Skyline

Go Forth, Young Seagull.

Our next stop is Helsinki, Finland. We have educated ourselves on the “Daughter of the Baltic” by going to a lecture on its history this afternoon.

I’ll be posting on Helsinki tomorrow.

[end old post]

[Uninvited] Guest Post!

Melissa and Jamie came to Chicago!!!

Now, of course, I'd like to believe that they came simply to see me, or lovely Meredith. Perhaps even our car-razy dog Caper. But, come on... we all know what the true objective here was:

Jack!!!

What a wonderful weekend! And I must say that for people with out a baby, they were incredibly accommodating of all the baby-related shenanigans that occurred on their watch. Seriously, I promise we don't only talk about his bodily functions and sleep schedule. And of course, being the generous types that they are, J&M also helped out with all the day to day activities, including helping to put Jack to sleep (as shown here), and keeping him entertained between bouts of tears!

But it was not simply fun and games. There was a city to see. For carrying around a 7-week-old, we got around...



We took a tour of downtown and Grant Park.














And even a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo where Melissa finally indulged her fantasy of being a Carleton grad by surrounding herself amongst them.


Thank you guys so much for coming to visit. We loved having you, and would love to have you again. No, seriously, come back. Caper needs to go outside, and we've got our hands full here.

Much love,
Drew (a.k.a. Rudy! Rudy!)

You Know You Got It Bad When...

...it's May and you're already planning out the next year of teaching...AND you're not even going to be in the classroom. Seriously.



This weekend was spent "Curriculum Mapping" (sadly, only my teaching friends will know exactly what that entails) for Writing lessons. Actually, last weekend was spent doing the same as well, but I refuse to have anything to do with Curriculum Mapping next weekend. The sad thing about doing this work is not the hours that go into it, but rather it makes me really sad that I won't be the one who gets to implement and execute it. And this is shaping up to be a really great curriculum map. Now that I'm out of the classroom, I am really remembering why I loved teaching. I was burnt-out...but I really miss my students...

But, let's move on. The reason I will NOT be doing any curriculum mapping next weekend is because that weekend marks the one year anniversary of my marriage! Sure, it's actually the Tuesday following, but really...it's close enough. I actually don't have school on Friday or Monday, so I get a super-long weekend to enjoy with my husband. We are traveling to the Eastern Shore, staying in a B&B and taking in some time away from work.

The year has flown by...and it's strange to think about all the things that have happened in that year. Jamie studied for and passed the California Bar, we took Canada by storm, and I started at a new school, reigned supreme as Iron Chef, returned to the Bahamas, was quoted in the Washington Post, and got a new job. It's been a busy year and I've been married to the very best Man Boo in all the world the whole time.

BUT, the most exciting part of my post-wedding life is one that I haven't mentioned yet. Are you ready? I'm going to be an AUNT! Not only that, but I'm going to be an AUNT to TWO new Umezakis! TWINS! BABIES IN THE FAMILY!

I have accepted that I will no longer be the apple of my father's eye...I may have been able to redirect some of the dotage off of one granddaughter. TWO granddaughters is hopeless. Still, it will be worth it to have NIECES! I cannot wait for Melissa Jr. and Melissa Jr. the Second...

Also...baby Weitz is due oh so soon! We're talking days...Sooooo exciting!

Moving Up.

Lots of changes over here!

Things have been "unsettled" at work lately and there have been lots of changes (both good and bad) taking place. One of the changes is that I have gotten a promotion of sorts. I am officially the new Head of Teacher Development at our school! The really great thing about this new position is that it was made for me. Hence, it is exactly what I want. Most excellent. The only downside is that I don't get to finish the year with my students. Fortunately, the teacher who is taking my place is excellent, and I know that my students will continue to do well.

This week is my first week fully-transitioned into my new administrative role. So if I haven't been updating lately, it is because I have been ridiculously busy with the new position. I promise.

And now: a Garfield (without Garfield)

Throwing a Bone.

Lots has been happening around and there is a lot to update about. No time right now, but I will soon! And NO there haven't been any life milestones or anything like that -- it has just been a long time since I have updated the blog.

In the meantime, entertain yourself with a website of which I am fond.

Teacher's Guilt.

I had to miss school yesterday for a dental appointment and was bracing myself for the fallout. Fortunately, yesterday went much better than I expected. One of the only sour spots came from some malicious note-passing: a favorite of little girls across the nation.

This morning, I was debriefed by a colleague who had discovered some pretty mean and inappropriate notes targeted at another girl in our class. Later, the story was reported to me by another colleague who let me know that an upset grandmother came in the morning and told her off. Apparently, little Jakiyah had not written the malicious notes, but rather Rochelle had taken her notebook and wrote the notes. This could have been fixed quickly had I been able to see the notes in question as I could have easily assigned the handwriting...but of course they were no longer available.

I was so disappointed at the prospect of bullying in my classroom that I was hyper-vigilant. When I saw the two bullying suspects writing furiously in their notebooks in the middle of a lesson while shooting each other knowing looks, I angrily ripped the pages from their notebooks and threw them onto my desk.

It wasn't until later that I finally got around to reading them. That's when I started feeling guilty. And I quote: "...Mrs. Long is a great teacher. She works hard to make us smarter. We should always listen to her so we can go to college." I wanted to apologize, but then I figured that it shouldn't matter what they wrote...just that they weren't paying attention while I was teaching. Right?

As a sidenote, Jakiyah did eventually confess to writing the notes herself. Just leave it to one minute of the ol' Long Inquisition.

Grandma was NOT pleased.

Cannot Hold Back.

So I sat on the Sarah Silverman/Matt Damon video from last month because I figured it had some indiscretions that were not suitable for my wholesome blog. For the record, I did think it was pretty funny. However, today the retaliation video was posted on You Tube and I cannot deny it any longer: I need to post these videos. Dad, I'm telling you now that you will not find this funny at all and will want your five minutes back if you watch it...so you might want to skip it.

And yes, I'm aware that all of you have probably already seen both videos. Humor me.

Jimmy's Response:

Eye Sore.

After a nice long break for President's Day weekend, I ventured to the Optometrist to get my eyes checked. I needed to get some glasses for driving and it had been far too long since I had an eye exam. I am now the proud owner of some snazzy glasses -- which make Jamie giggle like a little kid. I will post of picture of me with the new glasses at some point.
I also learned that I had a hole in my retina which needed to be surgically plugged up. Boo. So today I skipped school and went in for the quick laser procedure. After another eye exam it turned out that I had two holes and that my retina was, in fact, partially detached already. Fortunately, I went when I did and did not suffer any permanent blindness. I have to say that this laser surgery was much, MUCH, worse than the Lasik I underwent a few years back.

Also, trying to navigate the big, bright city with dilated and sore eyes was a little scary. Luckily, the ever-attentive husband came to my rescue and taxi-ed me home before I could get hit by oncoming traffic.

Hopefully the eyes will be back in working order tomorrow when I go back to work. I need the laser vision in place...

Will Trade Busted Kitty...

...for this hedgehog.

There really isn't a contest: adorable smiling hedgehog? Or angry as all hell FrankenKitty?


Of course, I am not serious. Junior is well but has a scratch on her head that she continues to reopen just as it's about to fully heal. We've tried everything from trimming her nails, the Elizabethan collar, putting socks on her feet, band-aids, etc. So this was the latest attempt. It was not successful if you're curious. Silly, busted, kitty.

Also, please admire Jamie's hat -- I made it for him last week!

Excited?

So this popped up recently. As excited as I was many years ago for this movie -- I can't believe they actually are going through with it. I was also surprised that this trailer makes it look reasonable as a movie, rather than just something for the Indy fans. What do you think?

The Ice Storm.

So when I think about an "ice storm" I think of something that looks like this:



What I learned after going through the debacle that was The District's ice storm last night, is that ice storms just looks like rain from the inside of the car. It isn't until you get out of the car that you see the foot long icicle perpendicular to your antenna. I also learned that it sucks to be stuck in traffic during an ice storm.

I left school right at 4:30 so that I could rush to my polling place to vote before I left for the College of William & Mary. I was going to be doing recruitment for the school there and was actually very excited for the opportunity to represent my school. Sad to say that after 5 hours of "driving" I was a mere 10 miles away from school -- just barely into Arlington, VA. Keep in mind that the entire trip was supposed to take 3 hours.

Three of the interstates I needed to use were closed and the surface streets were not moving at all. I somehow made it to the hotel after 9 and a half hours. Fortunately, I did meet and interview some promising candidates -- so ultimately worth many freak-outs and some sleep deprivation.

Obligated.

So am I obligated to watch a sub-par sitcom just because someone I know is in it? Last night, Jamie and I sat down to watch "Welcome to the Captain" to see a high school classmate's new show. This is a huge deal because Jamie and I rarely have time to sit down together much less watch television together. Add to this the fact that we already watched the Super Bowl together and you have quite the quality time spent in front of network television. That is how dedicated we are to our high school "alma mater".


Maybe it's unfair to say that it is sub-par. But I worry that the show thinks it is funnier than it actually is. Hopefully, the critics will like it, because Fran truly is a phenomenal and dedicated actor and it's nice to see him in the main role.

My Fifteen Minutes.

I return triumphantly from my hiatus to share this piece of news. Yes, The Washington Post spent a day in my classroom and spoke to my kids and those tiny little quotes at the end of the article are what we have to show for it. Of course, we also have those adorable pictures of my students. Trust me: they are not as cute at hour 40 of their weekly learning.

Also. It's crazy to see me quoted as "Long". So weird.

A "proper" update on my life is coming soon. Don't get your hopes up though...it has been pretty uneventful...

American Wusses.

One thing I have learned by watching The New American Gladiators (it was accident, I swear!) is that Americans are a bunch of pansies. Not a single contender -- or "gladiator" has anything on a Ninja Warrior.

I know it's harder than it looks, but the stuff on Ninja Warrior looks really hard. None of this running up a conveyor belt with the aid of a rope. In Japan, you must run against the conveyor belt using your own stamina and strength!

Of course, I also would have difficulty doing much of anything requiring physical exertion so...