There's no place like home

The holidays are over, the trip is finished, back to the grind... but taking far less for granted these days. Whie I have ABUNDANT criticism for this country and more than abundant criticism for its current leadership, I am delighted to be part of it. For so many, many, many reasons.

I began my vacation in Geneva with my mother, sister, and my mother's brother and his family (wife and four children). We relaxed on Christmas day and followed that with an early rising for a flight that took us to Rome. It was my first time to actually get to go inside the colosseum. I loved it so much but am now much more comfy with the notion that I did not miss my calling in archeology. That work looks way too tedious (a potentially hyper0ironic statement from a lawyer, I know). I will be posting some photos and descriptions of the ruins in the coming week.

A few days back in Europe then it was off to Dubai, a big city heralded as both western and modern. I suppose it is, in some ways. It was extremely clean and shiny... all the buildings seems to reflect the desert sun and the bright sky. Myriad foreign workers (Bangladeshi, Ethiopian) sweep ceaslessly, not missing a single cigarette butt (in no short supply), even underneath parked cars. The city seems to grow under your nose, with floors added to construction sites overnight. Very impressive. The people were kind but not overly friendly. In fairness, I don't know that I was either. I get a little strange when overstimulated, which I was the entire time. But it was the women, the more traditional ones, I should clarify, who seemed least friendly towards me. I still am not able to say all that I felt about them. Contradictory, to say the very least, is a description to which I keep returning.

At the gold market, the shelves dripped with heavy orange and ornate gold - necklaces, rings, bracelets, rings connected to bracelets, crowns. Opulence. Decadence. Excess. But for the many veiled women crowding the windows and counters, clucking and admiring, I was so curious.... black ghosts, no gold in sight.