September 29, 2012September 29, 2012 by shannonchance

Sights and Sounds of Thessaloniki

Reflection in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki was amazing! I had most of a day to explore the city before the conference started. I had no trouble getting around and the Greek people were amazingly helpful.

Inside the down of the Agia Sophia church.

I was lucky to be exploring the city on a Sunday because all the churches were open for celebrating mass. I observed christenings in two different churches–one that has a basilica (Christian cross) plan and another with a Byzantine cross plan (where all the arms have equal length). The basilica plan is typical of Roman planning (of Roman Catholic heritage) and the other (like San Marco in Venice) is typical of Greek Orthodox planning.

This area was under control of the Ottoman Empire for a period of time, after it belonged to the Roman Empire, and the Ottomans worked to convert the Christians to Islam. There are Roman and Byzantine scattered artifacts throughout Thessaloniki.

I missed the actual baptism and anointing, but after that a team of women dressed the baby head to toe. Here the parents presented the fully-dressed child.

I particularly enjoyed visiting the Greek Agora (which became a Roman Amphitheater during Roman occupation of the area) and the Museum of Byzantine Culture. I had visited the Museum of Byzantine Culture for just an hour on my own, so I was thrilled when the conference included a dinner plus tour there as well. I felt like a kid in a candy store!

I’m not one to dwell on negatives, but I will mention a couple of oddities of my stay in Greece. There were two bus loads of riot police parked in front of my hotel the entire time I was there. One week prior to my arrival, the police had reclaimed the building a few doors down. It had been held by a group of anarchists for the past five years. I could see burn marks on the underside of the balconies of the building as I walked by.

All set up outside for the after-baptisim festivities.

In the past, I had heard that the riots I’d witnessed in Rome were organized by anarchists from the Balkins, and not by Italian people. I’ve been in or near Rome for two, both of which were in response to visits by President Bush the second.

I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that claim, but it certainly seems possible to me now that I’ve seen the anarchists in action in Greece.

Despite the potential for chaos, I felt quite safe everywhere I went in Thessaloniki, even when I was out by myself. However, I didn’t get a chance to visit the oldest part of the city where it’s acropolis is located, so I can’t speak to the atmosphere of the whole place. But my hotel was allowing the police to use the facilities from time to time, and things felt stable enough to me.

I love to see depictions of saints holding models of churches. This one appears to have a Byzantine cross plan.

There was also some sort of transit strike on the morning I left. I had to take a cab to the airport instead of city bus, and my flight to Rome was delayed for an hour. After we finally landed in Rome, the folks at the airport forgot to deliver one buggy of luggage to the baggage claim. That delayed about 40 of the passengers, including myself, for about another hour. I helped get that sorted out by alerting the airport personnel to the problem.

Each time they enter the church, they visit each important relic. And kiss each and every one!

Overall, I was amazed at how orderly the others on the flight were in loading the plane and, later, waiting for luggage. Several of them even waited for my luggage–the very last of the set–to emerge before they set off for the city. They went out of their way to make sure I was okay!

In the interim, I had helped people make their connections by providing advice on how to have baggage delivered directly to their homes. It was great to be of assistance! (It wasn’t the first time I awaited lost luggage in Rome.)

I lit a candle in honor of Dave’s dad.

The flights themselves were great. I managed to get window seats on three of my four flights. As I write this, we’ve just flown over the Ligurian coast of Italy (where Dave and I spent a week this past summer). I must admit that the mountains that looked so scary from the passenger seat still look scary! We blew a tire when we accidentally went off-roading.

On another note: it feels terrific to know the landmarks of Italy and of Rome well enough to get around without a map. Yesterday, when the busses of Rome were detoured around the city center, I was able to help many tourists find their way. I don’t even need a map for getting around Dublin, because I spent so much time apartment shopping on line before I arrived!

September 19, 2012 by shannonchance

Mixing Soup Under a Fine Dublin Sky

Fulbrighting is in full gear here!

The weather is grand — chilly but sunny. And, surprisingly, it was a day without rain. That hardly ever happens. We usually get at least a few drops every day. As they say, “if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes” … it’s certain to change. They also say Ireland has four seasons in a day. Dave and I have definitely experienced that.

I’ve learned never to leave the apartment without a small umbrella and a waterproof jacket of some sort. There’s little humidity in the air here in Dublin. Gavin joked yesterday that humidity tends to fluctuate between 0% and 100%. (Scientifically speaking it’s probably more like 30% and 100% since 0% would be unGodly dry, but the idea is right on. A hundred percent is, of course, when the air can no longer hold the water and it rains or snows.) I’ll include a few random photos of the Dublin sky, snapped as I walked to various buildings at DIT today (the buildings are spread out all over town).

In the past couple of days, Sima, Gavin, Brian Bowe (their doctoral supervisor), and I have been trading articles on design theory, design process, and qualitative research methods in preparation for our work. We’re exploring differences and similarities between phenomenology and phenomenography. Fascinating, eh!? Well, fortunately, we think so! (I’m trying to make time to read a stack of articles and chapters while also preparing to give a conference presentation next week and making final reviews of the article that will be published next month by SCUP, the Society of College and University Planners.)

Among other activities today, I met with Gavin to discuss definitions of “design” and their relationship to epistemology (the way individual understand “knowledge” and what it means “to know”).

Computer Science lecturer Damien Gordan walked past and joined the conversation (see photo). I’m looking forward to talking with him again soon. So energetic!

Chatting with Damian Gordon from Computer Science, who, like us, also does educational research.

Everyone here is amazingly welcoming. Gavin’s office-mate, Kevin, gave me a his own personal HP printer (his wife has just purchased a new one). The librarian at Bolton Street, Brian Gillespie, checked me out a book using his library card, since mine’s in the works. The Head of Mechanical Engineering and Product Design asked me to submit a paper for his upcoming conference.

I could go on… but there’s even more exciting news.

In a few days, Gavin, the Dean of the College, and I will all fly to Thessaloniki, Greece for a conference sponsored by SEFI (the society of European engineering educators). Gavin will be presenting two papers and I will be presenting two as well. One of the papers we wrote together, so we’ve got a total of three presentations to deliver between the two of us. Strangely, all three of these presentations fall in the same time block. We’ll get to see exactly how many places we can each be at one time!

When the conference ends, Gavin will zip back to Dublin mid-week to teach classes. I don’t have to be in a specific class next week, and my flight choices all required a lengthy stop-over. So… I took full advantage of the opportunity. I chose Rome as my through destination and I scheduled a stop over for three nights on the way back. I’ll return to Dublin in time to work Saturday and Sunday.

I have a huge amount of homework to complete for the following week (the same week my Mom and her two neighbors are arriving for a visit). But I can’t fall behind in my work. Gavin and I must stay on our toes in order to complete our study in time for the January 7 journal deadline.

Oh, yes, Sima phoned today to discuss lecturing schedules and research plans. She’s been following the blog and she called with a very excited tone. She’d not noticed the BYOF sandwich board right outside their building, and neither had the other lecturers. They learned about it from my blog and got a big laugh.

I should have taken a photo in the window of that pub yesterday. The students were just back and they hadn’t packed lunches either. So, there were plenty of students in the pub, but few had BTOF (Brought Their Own Food).

On a parting note, I also had to stop for some produce today and I leave you with the following delightful image+thought=idea. The veggie assortment pictured below was labelled as “soup mix.” How cool!

‘Course I’m gonna steam my veggie assortment instead… and I think I’ll do that right now! Apologies for any typographical errors… but I need to go eat… and work on that SEFI presentation… YIKES!

Soup Mix — Irish Style!

September 17, 2012September 17, 2012 by shannonchance

My Partners in Crime

Sima with work by fourth year Architectural Technology students.

It was a fabulous first day of school! I’m off to yoga momentarily, but I thought I’d post some pics of my collaborators. Meet architecture lecturer (i.e., professor) Sima Rouholamin and engineering lecturer Gavin Duffy.

The photo of Sima is from the March 2011, when I visited her studio as a guest critic.

The photo of the students, Gavin and I was taken March 2012. The students had built robotic cars and were racing against each other at mid-terms during their spring semester. They were placing for seeds in the end-of-semester competition. I’ll get to watch the entire competition unfold this time around….

Electrical engineering students with Shannon and Gavin.

September 8, 2012October 21, 2012 by shannonchance

It’s All About the Light

Dublin was awash in sunshine today!

We awoke this morning for breakfast with two of our house guests–Amanda Bernhard and Jonathan Kennedy–who are in Galway for the year studying Irish. They have a very interesting blog going and they manage to post it in Irish and English. I invited them to stay an extra night after the Fulbright Orientation, so we could go to the Cobblestone Pub that’s just down the street. It’s known far and wide as the best place in Dublin to hear traditional music. Amanda and Jon each play instruments and they joined in with the other musicians playing at the pub last night. I’m hoping Dave will provide images of Amanda with her fiddle and Jon with his pipes, so I can post them for you.

We are absolutely loving city life. Everything is right here… no need for a car day-to-day.

Following breakfast (which included a tasty bowl of porridge with rhubarb at the Cinnamon Cafe), I visited a photo exhibit while Dave enjoyed the weekly outdoor market and the wine festival in Meeting House Square. Then we both headed over to the Oxfam Home store (which sells used furniture) and the Dublin Food CoOp. Yelp has proven quite helpful in locating local favorites such as these, which came highly recommended by Peter and Mark at Kildare Street Hotel.

As we ran our errands, we also stubbled across one beautiful place after another. I’ve attached a snapshot of the park beside St. Patrick’s Cathedral that we strolled through.

After a quick bowl of soup for lunch, I dashed off to see a play with my sister, Heather Massie, who is visiting for the Dublin Fringe Festival. The play “Guerrilla Days in Ireland” was performed at the beautiful Olympia Theater. It was a nice complement to the play we’d each seen last week called “The Plough and the Stars.” Both relay twentieth century Irish history.

Amazingly, Heather has seen ten shows in the week she’s been here–in addition to taking a bus trip to Kerry, meeting us in Galway and Connemara for three days, and coming along on one day of Fulbright orientation with me (to see the Hill of Tara and Trim Castle). Today she visited the Goal (former jail), art museum and its gardens, the Queen of Tarts….

In other words, it’s been quite a busy week. I’ve just reported about the tip of the iceberg! I’ll have to tell you about our other adventures in future days. I do enjoy the comments you post and emails you send….

August 26, 2012August 26, 2012 by shannonchance

Novelty Express

I awoke this morning to an excited phone call from Dave. He’s accustomed to going out at dawn to photograph in the morning light. Today, he was out with the tall ships and he summoned me to come see them sail. The ships closest to the city were moving out. The city had opened the Calatrava-designed bridge to allow the ships thru passage. (Calatrava is an architect and bridge-designer whose work Dave and I greatly admire.)

“Take a picture every time you see something that surprises you,” the International Four-H Youth Exchange had instructed me when I was an IFYE to Switzerland in 1994, “because after a few days that thing won’t seem unusual to you and you’ll forget to take a picture.” I recalled that advice today after the Facebook image of my “mini” Irish breakfast raised eyebrows among my friends back home.

After eating dozens of these meals over the years, I’d nearly forgotten that beans on the side seem unusual to the American palette. But our cat-sitter, Morgan, posted a query about our choice of side items. She’s the person who asked me to bring back some Lucky Charms (her favorite boxed cereal product). I guess she’ll be surprised when the luck I bring her comes in a can!

After breakfast, Dave headed back to work editing photos. He’s at in non-stop these days, to meet deadlines back home. I did a bit of shopping on my own (again) in preparation to move into the new apartment. Today, I went shopping on Grafton Street. I’ve posted reflections from the area. The one (to the left) reminds me of the importance of landmarks in creating a beautiful townscape (an idea of Gordan Cullan’s) and of using landmarks to help people orient themselves in the city (as explained by Kevin Lynch). See how effective the church is in providing a visual cue to your location? And how the curved streets provide a sense of mystery (as recommended by Camillo Sitte)?

The reflection on BT2 I captured today (shown to the right below) was completely different from the one I posted yesterday (to the left).

After that, I was off to a tour of the Freemason Hall just up the street from our hotel. The tour was offered as part of National Heritage Week. I learned so much from the guide! I’ve posted some photos of the building–which serves as the headquarters for all of the island’s Freemasons–in honor of my Hampton University office-mate, David Perronet.

On the way back to our hotel, I noticed a sign for the “Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.” Now, that’s a title and combination you wouldn’t see in the States! It’s shown below, to the left. The photo to the right is a memorial to the Celtic Tiger. More on those topics later. (Please remind me if I forget!)