Happy Birthday Aaron!

Today my "little" brother turns 31:



Hey! 31 on the 31st! You're old now, guy.
------------------------------------
In other news, I've made it to Munich. (Will definately look up the Andech brewery, since 3 of you have recommended it now.) Stuttgart went really well. I saw the Steinheim skull, which was totally cool :) The curator of the museum was super nice, but surprised to find out that I was a girl! I'm finding this with the French curators too; they all address me as "Monsieur" in their emails. What's the polite way to point out that I'm a girl? (I've even tried signing my emails as "Mme. Jodi Blumenfeld." It doesn't work.) Maybe I should just enjoy their surprise when they meet me in person.

Entschuldigung?

Took the train to Stuttgart today. (So no more waffles or chocolate. But at least there's still good beer.) With my Eurail pass I travel first class, so I'm surrounded by suits & laptops. Watching them do their business thang, I was reminded of that old Kids in the Hall sketch about little Billy (or Bobby or Kevin) who brought home a stray business man & asked his mom if he could keep him. His mom agreed, and so they named him "Mr. Stevenson." For a while they thought it was cute to watch Mr. Stevenson try to exchange business cards & set up meetings with people, but they became concerned when he kept trying to hail taxis outside their home. Ultimately, they ended up driving Mr. Stevenson down to Bay St. (Toronto's Wall St.) where they set him free. They watched him run up to all the other business men & exchange their business cards. After a minute or two, all of the business men hailed a taxi together & drove off to a meeting. Billy was sad, but he knew he did the right thing by letting Mr. Stevenson go free. He'd be happier among his own kind.

ANYWAYS, so with that running through my head, I kept giggling at all the suits. Well, until one of them tried to steal my seat when I went for a coffee. Not funny, Herr Stevenson. Not funny at all.

Has this ever happened to you? I got in a cab when I reached Stuttgart, and when I told the driver where I needed to go, he just looked at me and said, "scheisse." Um, ok?

Bugasad

I don't like Belgium anymore.

I lost my camera. Not the ShapeCam, but my little Cannon digital camera that I love. I think it was stolen out of my hotel room. I can remember having it when I came back from the university yesterday, but that's the last time I can remember seeing it. I may have had it with me when I went out yesterday afternoon, but I really don't think it could have been stolen out of my bag while I was walking around. (I'm very careful.) Either I dropped it from my bag when I was taking out my wallet or something (which I doubt very much) or I left it in my room where it was stolen. In any case, I can't find it now. I'm so sad.

Back in Belgium after my weekend in Paris. Belgium smells good, all waffles & chocolate :)

It was nice to see Paris again, but I don't think Paris was happy to see me; it rained the whole weekend. I arrived early on Friday & Sandrine met me at the Gare de Nord (it was so nice to have help with all my bags! I can't stress this enough. If Sandrine and/or Téa come to Philly for the AAPA meetings next year, I've promised to meet them at the airport & carry all their bags to their hotel as a thank-you for their help this wknd getting everything on & off the train ;) We left one bag in a locker in the station for the weekend (where I met the smarmiest locker attendent EVER) and braved the Paris metro with the rest. Dropped it all off at Sandrine's apartment & I wandered the city while she went off to work. I hid from one rain shower in Notre Dame but got caught in another while waiting to get into the Musée d'Orsay. Met up with Sandrine & Téa for dinner later. They took me to a really teeny (but really cute) Japanese place. It was really nice, but I was so tired & we all crashed early. Here's a photo of the rain clouds that followed me all day:



On Saturday the 3 of us wnt to the Pompidou. Here's some photos of me playing with a facial distortion thingy in a children's exhibit:



After the Pompidou, we sat in a café for a while. It was nice to have people to do this with. I was alone the last time I was in Paris. Also, it was just nice to have friends to wander with. It's been great seeing so many nice places, but it was getting a little lonely. After the café, we walked around (in the rain, still) the Montmartre area. Ordered in pizza for dinner. In Paris, a three-cheese pizza involves Brie, Gruyère, & Camembert. No mozzarella, cheddar or "American" cheese here! Here's a photo of Sandrine & Téa in the rain:



I'll be back in Paris in May to see the fossils at the Musée de l'Homme. In fact, I may be back in Paris twice before coming home, actually. I've finally been able to schedule in a visit to London on May 4th, and I may try to see the Qafzeh 6 fossil at the IPH on May 2. (Musée de l'Homme is scheduled for May 9th.) There are a few big holidays in the UK & France in early May, and, if you combine that with wknds when the museum labs are closed...well, I may be doing some jumping around. In any case, hopefully the rain will have stopped in Paris by then.

It seems to have followed me to Lèige, though. Got here yesterday afternoon& had a scary moment at the train station with the ShapeCam case & no escalator or elevator in sight -- just a really steep staircase down from the platform. I think I've perfected the "please won't somebody help me?" face, because another nice Belgian stopped & helped me out. (Or maybe Belgians are just really nice in general! Add that to the beer, waffles & chocolate and I think I really like Belgium.)

Saw the Engis Neandertal skull this morning at the University here in Lèige. Again, so very cool. Dr. Poty had no problem with me posting a photo of the Shapecam in action with the fossil, so here you go:



Look how serious I am. Shapesnatching is serious business.

On Tuesday I went to the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique in Brussels to see the 2 Spy Neandertal crania. It was totally cool; these were the first real Neandertal remains that I have seen & held with my own hands. I took tons of pictures, probably far more than I'll really need, but that's ok :) I can't post photos of the fossils online, so here's a picture of a statue of a dinosaur outside the main entrance to the museum:



After I shapecammed the skulls it was lunchtime, so we ate cheese & chocolate, and drank some wine, because, hey -- we're in Europe & that's what we do. I tried my best to understand & participate in the conversation. I kinda caught every third word & got the general gist of what was being said, but my French really sucks. So I just spoke English with a French accent.

Since I didn't need a second day at the museum, I took the train up to Amsterdam yesterday. I walked around, saw the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh museum, etc. I even ate a herring sandwich. One day wasn't enough & I hope to go back again someday.

Here's a crooked canal house and some tulips:

Hello all,

I've finished my week at the African museum in Tervuren. I think it went well; there were no problems with the ShapeCam & I got through a lot of chimps. I didn't get them all, but I got as much as I could.

On Saturday I got a ride from Carla to Gent. She insisted on stopping to show me the Atomium at the edge of Brussels. It was built in 1958 for the World Fair; it's a model of an iron molecule, enlarged 165 billion times. She remembers when it was built & she stll goes a little nutty over it. It's very shiny & it's very big. Here's a photo:



Gent was very pretty. Gent had churches, cobblestone streets, a river -- it even had a little castle right in the middle of the city.



I wandered around for a few hours, then took the train up to Antwerp. Antwerp was cool. It's bigger than Gent, but just as pretty with more churches, more cobblestone streets, big historic squares, statues, waffle stands, etc. (I think there's got to be some kind of potent waffle-pheromone that they pump into the street from these stands, so that when you smell the waffles, you think: MUST EAT WAFFLE NOW.)





Yesterday I wandered around Brussels. Saw the Grand Place & the little Mannekin Pis fountain that's so famous:



Can you see the orange ad on the wall next to the fountain? It's for the "Chocolaterie Mannekin Pis", which makes perfect sense to me, because there's nothing that makes me crave chocolate more than a urinating child.

I'm enjoying the calm of staying in one place for more than a few days because I think it's going to get crazy later on. I've added a few more stops to my schedule. I 'm going to go to Stuttgart now (between visits to Lèige and Munich) to see the Steinheim skull, and I was given permission to see the fossils at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris! Sandrine has offered to act as my temporary advisor while in Paris & supervise my visit to the museum. Yay! (But that won't be until the very end of my trip. Quite possibly the day before I fly home.) London also finally got back to me & I'm trying to schedule a visit to the Natural History Museum during the 1st week of May.

On Friday I'm going to Paris for the wknd to visit with Sandrine & Téa. Museums (at least the research labs) are closed on the weekend, so I have no choice. I can't work, so I must go to Paris. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Shapecammin'

Here's a couple pictures of the ShapeCam all set up & ready to snatch a chimp here in Tervuren. I know Dan & Ben wanted some shots of me actively engaged in snatching, but there's really no one around to ask to take my picture. So I hope these will do for now! I also thought that friends & family who are curious about what this whole shapecamming/shapsnatching thing exactly was, would appreciate a few shots of what I've been talking about!

The jars behind the camera? Full of bats.

(And I'm feeling much better today. Thanks for all the get-well wishes!)

Belgium gave me a cold.

I haven't had a full-blown cold in years. Usually, I can fight off anything I feel coming in a day or two. I also don't usually get sick when I travel. I didn't get sick when I went to the Middle East, I didn't get sick when I went to Morocco (I'm talking illness, dear family), and I didn't get sick during 2 summers in a teeny town in former soviet Georgia (hangovers don't count.) But Belgium? I go to Belgium and I end up wishing for death. I hate being sick. J'ai mal.

I still managed to photograph over 70 chimps so far this week. I am a shapesnatching machine.

Here's the dead owl I saw.

This is a fountain (and its title) outside of the Africa museum in Tervuren.

Chocolate boobs in Bruges. Only 1,50 €!

Pictures of Bruges. Anyone know what's going on in that second one?

Yield to the frites!!

Frites!

This is the house in Tervuren in which I'm staying this week. I've got the very top floor.

Belgian roadkill

I saw a dead owl on the sidewalk on my way home from the museum the other day. A dead owl.

I've never seen that before.

Photos to come tomorrow!

Waffle Update

David will be very happy to hear that I have eaten my first real Belgian waffle (or 'gauffre'.)

And it was good.

Snatching chimps today at the Africa Museum. So far, it's going really well. The only thing I forgot to bring with me today was a plug adapter for my laptop, so I'm running on battery power. (I have one back in my room, I just forgot to bring it with me today.) It's ok; I'm thrilled that's all that I forgot!

I met Emmanuel Gilissen (curator of mammals) earlier this morning. He's a super nice guy. I showed him the all the wonder and glory that is the shapecam, and he thought it was trés cool ('cause he's French.) He wants to keep in touch, and discuss/collaborate on something re: different methodologies of 3D data collection in the future.

I've also made contact with some old Dmanisi friends who are now in Marseille & Paris (Carolina's in Marseille & Sandrine's in Paris, if any of you Dmanisi folk are reading along and are curious!) Marseille is on my way from Italy to Spain, so I'll stop & visit with Carolina and then we may go visit another friend's archaeological site (he's found Neandertal teeth there) in northern Spain. But that won't be until early May, after I go to Burgos. I think I'm also going to go spend a wknd visiting Sandrine in Paris after my week in Brussels (Tea, a Georgian friend, is there too.) It's only a few hours away from Brussels by train. Sandrine may have the special powers needed in order to get me access to the fossils at the Musée de l'Homme. Keep those fingers crossed that she does!!

Today: Bruges

Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Bruges drinking a Hoegaarden. Happy, happy, happy.

Feeling human again after a good night's sleep. Both my flights on Thursday arrived early at their destinations (a first for me, I think.) There's something about flying that just makes me hate people. I don't know why; maybe because I'm a bad flyer so I'm usually tense to start out with. (And drinks are no longer free on int'l flights! At least not on United flights. That was such a cruel surprise. So not cool.) Or maybe it's just the O'Hare airport that specifically brings out the hate. But, c'mon. How hard is it, really, to not walk directly into another person? Or to apologize when you do? Whatever. I'm in Belgium and I'm happy now. Rant over.

The shapecam case is really heavy, and I think that some restructuring is necessary before the next move. I took the train into Brussels from the airport; there was one panicky moment with a downward escalator until a nice older Belgian man took pity on me and helped me out. I must have looked a little freaked. On Holly's recommendation I took a taxi from the station in Brussels to Tervuren. It was a good suggestion; after hearing from Holly and another American student who traveled here with huge, heavy bags (she was leaving the day I was arriving), there are at least 3 transfers if you take the bus/metro/tram. Not feasible with lots of stuff to carry. The cabbie totally ripped me off though -- buddy got lost, and I had to direct him from the backseat using the map I printed off of Mapquest. Had to pay for the extra kms anyways.

But the apt. I'm staying in is great. If any of you ever come to Tervuren, stay with Carla Meertens. She's super nice, the apt is clean and cheap, and the town is very cute (but small.)

I don't need to be at the museum until Monday, so I have a couple of days to play. I took the train to Bruges today (took less than 1 hr.) Met a woman from Kentucky who is a therapist for the army; she counsels troops and their families as they leave/return from where they're stationed. We talked about the annual London Chicken Festival.

Bruges is gorgeous! Walked around for hours, saw Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, ate frites with mayonnaise for lunch (kinda icky but they're cheap and you gotta try it once), had a couple of Belgian chocolates (no waffle yet), and got my shiny fix at the Diamond Museum. Every time you turn around, there's something you need to photograph. Once I can get online using my own computer, I'll upload some photos.

Greetings from Tervuren!

Well, we've made it here in one piece! (That's "we" as in me and the shapecam.) Nothing broke, it all looks good (could you hear my sigh of relief all across the ocean? Of course, now I've jinxed the whole thing, and something will go terribly wrong once I get it to the museum ;)

I'm in the public library right now, having a very hard time typing on this European keyboard (those of you who have seen me type can picture how slow this is going.) But I can type things like ç, ù, £ and à (Ok, I'm totally jetlagged and this is what's impressing me at the moment.)

My room here in Tervuren is really cool. I've got the whole top floor of someone's home (Fourth floor. It took 2 of us to get the shapecam up there.) I have my own bathroom, microwave, tv, fridge, etc. I'll post photos later!

I'm being kicked off this computer, so I'll write more later. But I'm here, the shapecam is safe. I'm sleepy, so I think this bugaboo must take a buganap (after having a quick bugasnack because I'm also bugahungry.)

bugabye!

Almost packed, almost ready.

It's almost 11:30pm and Martin is picking me up in less than 6 hrs. (Gracias, el negro!) It's going to be a very long day; I catch the Lincolnland Express bus to O'Hare at 5:45am (this is when I miss living close to a major international airport) on Thursday, and don't arrive in Brussels until 7:20am on Friday.

I'm finally almost all packed up. (The ShapeCam is in the big black case.) It doesn't look like too much stuff for 1 person to drag around Europe, does it?

Okay, time to get a few hours of sleep!

Hello Bugabooers! Here's the plan.

I leave on Thursday, March 9, flying from Chicago into Brussels. Shortly after landing, I will eat a waffle.

My first official stop will be in Tervuren where I'll ShapeSnatch the bonobos at the Royal Museum for Central Africa. Then it's back to Brussels to see some Neandertals at the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. These will be the first original Neandertal fossils I'll have ever seen, so I'll try not to geek-out too badly in front of any Belgian. (I'll save it for this blog.) The next stop will be the Université de Liège to see the Engis 2 Neandertal.

At the end of March I head to Munich where I'll see some Upper Pleistocene human fossils at the Institut für Anthropologie und Humangenetik. After Munich, it's off to Turin and Ventimiglia, Italy, to see more Neandertals and Upper Pleistocene fossils. After Italy I'll head over to Spain around the third week of April, where I'll get to use all the helpful Spanish that Martin has taught me (chupa mi huevos?), and see a H. antecessor fossil at the Museo de Burgos.

I hope to get up to the Natural History Museum in London at the end of April/early May. If that doesn't work out, then I may try to head back to Germany and visit the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn and/or the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart. Have Eurail pass, will travel.

Or, if I'm running out of money, I'll just come home early. (There are still other museums in the US to visit.)

I'll have internet access for the majority of the trip, so I'll try to post updates and pictures when I can. If any of you have been to any of these places, please pass along any advice on what I shouldn't miss while I'm there!

So wish me (and my Shapecam) good luck!