Şanlıurfa

Turkey

October 24, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

The bus ride form Mardin to Şanlıurfa (178 km - 110 mi) was a straight shot from east to west across the agricultural plain of Upper Mesopotamia. Olive trees, pistachio trees, apricot trees, cotton and corn fields are all irrigated with the river waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. As I travel across "the land between the waters," my university course, Ancient History 101, comes alive.

The area around the city of Urfa (pop 463,000) has been a battleground for more than three thousand years: first the Hittites in c.1370 BCE, then the Assyrians, Alexander and the Macedonians, Aramaeans, Persians, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Armenians, Byzantines, Crusaders, Seljuk Turks, Saladin and the Kurdish Ayyubids, Mamluks, and finally the Ottoman Turks. Urfa was renamed Şanlıurfa (glorious Urfa) in 1984.

Şanlıurfa is a place of history and legend:

Mansfield

Louisiana

October 28, 2008

Have you ever felt the ground vibrate beneath your feet?

I don't mean the sensation you felt when you were window-shopping at Bloomingdale's on Lexington Avenue in New York, and you heard the subway train rumble up towards The Bronx.

I don't mean the sensation you felt when you were sipping a latte in Union Square in San Francisco and the workmen nearby were using noisy pneumatic drills to repair the cable car tracks.

What I mean is something like the vibration I felt when I was walking the streets surrounding the Great Synagogue in Budapest. In 1944, Hungarian Jews, by the thousands were herded into this small area, barely able to survive, until, they knew not what awaited them, they were transported to their final destination. As I wandered these same streets in the summer of 2000, I could feel the earth shudder.

Once more I felt the earth come alive as I strolled the Civil War Battlefield at Mansfield, Louisiana.

{C}

October 27, 2008

Here's a short quiz:

What is the correct pronunciation for the following places?

• Shreveport
• Bossier City
• Louisiana
• Arkansas
• Natchitoches, Louisiana
• Nacogdoches, Texas

Cato Parish
Shreveport, Louisiana
October 27, 2008

Bon jour mes amis,

"How…do…you…pronounce...the...name...of...your...city?" I asked the Continental Airlines agent on the tarmac of the Shreveport Regional Airport. (I anticipated that I would be obliged to modify my speech as well as adjust my hearing as I made my way into the deep South.)

New York, New York
USA
September 21, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

During my extended visit here in the USA , I have been asked several times, "Jan, how was your high school reunion?"

My answer? "It was electric."

From Friday evening, September 12 until Sunday afternoon, September 14, for three days in New York City , the air was charged, ionized, and magnetized with anticipation and excitement. How could it be otherwise? Classmates and teammates, pals, buddies, old chums, girl friends and boy friends, we have not seen each other in oh so many, many years. (Don't ask).

It was electric.

  Miami, Florida

 USA

 Wednesday

 April 25, 2012 

Hello, 

I’ve just returned to Miami after a five day excursion to the South.  Of course, Miami is in the South of the United States.  But with the large population of Latin Americans and hordes of retirees from colder cities, Miami feels more like “Northern Havana or Southern New York.”   

I visited the real South – the South of biscuits and gravy and sausage patties and buttery grits for breakfast, Bar BQ pulled pork and pecan pie for lunch, and a Golden Corral (monstrous) buffet dinner – steak, fish, salad bar, vegetables and side-dishes of every description, soft serve ice cream with all the toppings. The pièce de résistance is a tower-fountain of free-flowing chocolate sauce.  

The City of Aventura

The City of Excellence

Miami-Dade County

Home of the Marlins, the Dolphins, the Heat

State of Florida

The Sunshine State

United States of America

July 6, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

On occasion I hear the refrain, “Jan, I can’t keep up with you!”

On occasion I say to myself, “Jan, I can’t keep up with you, either!”

I just completed a two week trip around the country…from Miami, Florida to Houston, Texas to Portland, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts to New York, New York.