Old Cars

I was obsessed with taking pictures of the 1940s and 50s cars.  Many are perfectly maintained, but all of them run, and are used for everyday transportation.  When I get around to making a photo album of this trip, and least 20% of it will be car photos.  Here are some of my favorites.  

Daiquiris

Clockwise:  Laura, Mallory, Emily, Jessica, Andrew

In the airport, we were subjected to a 10 minute inquisition about our business in the country.  I guess they didn't want us stirring up a capitalist revolution.  As soon as the interrogator was done with us, she moved on to two other gringas.  Once cleared of suspicion  we all started chatting in line, and ended up making 2 new friends.  Emily and Jessica teach at a private int'l school in Ecuador, and just like us, were visiting the island nation out of sheer curiosity (and a bit of naughtiness too).

This is my new favorite view of the world... from
behind a daiquiri glass

We spent 3 days with them (more pics to follow) hanging out in the capital city, visiting the museum of  the Revolution, going to the Tropicana, and drinking a lot of mojitos and daiquiris   We spent a lovely long night at the Floridita (one of Hemingway's favorite clubs) listening to fabulous music and drinking daiquiris. I love daiquiris now- they are amazingly good and simple and tasty.

Tropicana Peek-A-Boo

To celebrate Carnival, friends and I went to the famous Club Tropicana.  Although there was an air of faded glory about it, it was a really really fun night.  The costumes were beyond anything in Vegas (pics to follow), the music was great, and the dancers were all gorgeous.  The only drinks served were a welcoming glass of champagne, followed by a bottle of rum and some cans of Coke on the table.  It was very fitting that we were drinking Cuba Libres all night while watching crazy Cuban dancers.

Did you know there used to be a nightly flight from Miami to Havana which was nicknamed the Tropicana?  After seeing the show, and the beautiful bodies of all of the dancers (as seen in these peek-a-boo butt dresses), I understand why that flight was so popular.

touristy Holland images

Escher Musuem in the Hague

Crazy chandeliers adorn the entire palace.

 As part of our goal of preventing massive jetlag, on our first afternoon in the Hague, we did not allow any of the students to sleep, but rather dragged them out into the snow for a visit to the Escher museum.  A gorgeous state palace has been converted into a museum honoring his works.  And the best part is that the museum allows you to photograph the art, so I got some great pictures of his famous drawings.   

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The third floor is full of "make your own Escher" stuff.  This is my attempt at his famous drawing of himself reflected in a silver sphere.

This was a new painting to me, and I loved the juxtaposition of dark patterned mud with trees reflected in the puddle.  I thought he only drew crazy alternate universe stuff, but I was very wrong.

The Hague

One of the benefits of working in a private school is the opportunity to travel with kids.  A group of 16 kids and I went to the Hague in the Netherlands to participate in a Model United Nations conference.  Although there were a few challenging moments (one kid got sent home early for using drugs- bad choice!), we had great time.  This was our first day in Holland (on our way to visit the Escher museum, as seen in the background), and for many of the kids, this was the first time they had seen snow.  Needlesstosay, there were a lot of snowball fights that day.  Good thing, because all of the snow melted the next day.  I kind of lived on cheese and chocolate for a week, and it was glorious.