The Adventures of Joe Trap

November 10, 2008


We went to the Trapani salt making facility located right on the coast. They pump in the sea water via windmills, and evaporate it and gather the remaining salt into huge mounds. It was a beautiful day to be outside. We went to Patro and Rosa’s (Rosa is Maria’s sister) to eat lunch, we had pasta, and chicken. The pasta/chicken soup they made was chicken, pasta, and broth was amazing .

At 8:00, we went to dinner at Dino Lombardo’s house. The dinner was okay …It didn’t help that I wasn’t even hungry when we ate, but oh well. I got to use the internet at their place, which was good…it gave me something to do while Dad and Dino talked. The party consisted of Me, Mom, Dad, Dino, Rosaria, Antonio (31; their son), and Aridanna (26, fiancé of Antonio). Both of the engaged couple are hairdressers, so Mom had a bit to for Dad to translate to them.

November 11, 2008

We started off by going to an old rock quary, where the family goes to buy their regatta and other chesses. We got a quick tour, and outside they even had j3 donkeys, 2 goats, and a number of sheep. Sadly, they did not have any regatta prepared, so we didn’t buy anything. After this, we went to a grave of a person (who has been canonized). The story is that they found the (head of the?) body in the rock quarry, and they brought it to the church and locked it up. In the morning it was gone, and it was back in the quarry. They even did this three times, and each time it was back at the quarry. They built a small chapel around it, and they figured the ancient person must have been blessed. Apparently, several miracles of sicknesses being healed had taken place at this small chapel. I got a few good pictures, but the glass hid the face of the statue inside the chapel.

After this we went to Samperi, where we toured through a cute restaurant (something you would imagine from the 1800’s), and walked through it’s gardens. They even had ducks, and other birds in giant kennels in the back for butchering :(. I wanted to free the ducks, since they were very friendly. We also saw where an old hotel in the tiny village. Each guest got their own tiny cottage, and there was a courtyard in the center. It was very beautiful with all the green trees, vines, and colorful flowers.

Today we went back to my dad’s mother’s dad’s (great-grandfather’s) house where he was born and raised in a farming field in Marsala. During the daylight, it looked as bad as it did at night, being completely collapsed.

After this we came back and had lunch; pasta, salad, lamb (w/ lemon), and fruit. I am getting used to the cooking procedures. I found out that they normally use the plastic cups with the little holder during every meal. They do not recycle these cups, but they throw them away after each use, since they are inexpensive. Every family that we have visited had used these cups and cup holders, pretty Italian I guess.

We went over to the In-Law’s place because the father had constructed a machine that turns a giant pale. With it, they were already kneading bread dough when I arrived. One thing I found out was that they use beer yeast. The two mothers (Maria and the in-law) were preparing the bread and they were putting it in bed sheets, then covering blankets on top. Meanwhile, they were burning sticks, and then small wooden stakes in the oven outside. I fell asleep on the couch because making the bread took a long time, but they told us that in the summer, the entire process only takes an hour. After the bread had risen and the oven was hot enough, we piled the 27 looves of bread in the oven…about 10 minutes later we have fresh homemade bread! We returned back home to Nino’s house and a bunch of relatives came over for dinner. We had panni con sarde (using the fresh bread, tomatoes, oregano, sardines, olive oil, red pepper, prima sala cheese (salty), and fresh basil. We even had two desserts, tiramisu, and a fruit topped cake (2 layers of white cake with a rum taste). The rest of the night, we looked at photo albums of people’s weddings, their time in the US in 1989, etc…

When I woke up, I was told to look at dad. When I did, I found that he had a swollen eye, and a scab on his nose and the side of his eye. He had fallen down the stairs in the middle of the night while mistaking the stairway for a hallway which led to the bathroom. Take a look in my photo's section and look for the large family group picture part 1 to see what I mean. He went to the doctor this morning, and since there was a lot of bleeding, that was good because it pushed whatever may have entered his eye, out. So they gave him some creme to put on the wound.

Much of the morning, we spent laying around, simply because Dad had to take it easy. I don't blame him, I would. We are lucky he is alive!

After lunch, I decided to take a walk, and on the way back, GianFranco picked me up and we went to Marsala to the train station. He buys a ticket once a month for 168 euros to take the train to Palermo (to work) every week day. After we did this, we were on the way to visit the Greek ruins, but as it turned out the site was closed since it was a Sunday. We did stop at a souvenir shop on the way back. We also stopped at a mall that was packed!!! It seems like you cannot find a parking space in these malls in Italy. Past 6 PM, EVERYONE and their mother is out shopping or just walking the tiny malls they have. It's nuts! I took some pictures from Dad's Cannon camera of the one in Palermo, so when we get home I will post those up for you to see.

After the mall, we went to Mazara to a pizzera. I thought we would just grab a bite to eat, but it turns out that this is an annual special event. More and more of the family was there, and soon 27 members were present. The grandmother buys everyone dinner once a year, so this is meaningful to the family. It was nice to be a part of it, despite we are somewhat distant from them.

After dinner, a cousin, Giovanni, asked me if I wanted to go out and play pool. I agreed to play pool with him, his brother, the brother's girlfriend, and his other 17 year-old brother Francesco. Giovanni is 29 and works in Rome as a tank driver with the Italian Military. I found this out after pool at a small restaurant/pub off of Roma avenue in Marsala.

Tomorrow should be a big day, so hang in there!

We started off at 10:00 AM by dropping Maria off at a funeral. Apparently, a 30-something year-old man died (brain tumor?), so many local people were attending the funeral. Meanwhile, Nino showed us around town a bit. We went to the aunt’s new home, but she was not there. Then we went to a place that holds many weddings and fancy banquets. This one was called ‘Bella Beclo’ and it was beautiful. Look at my photos to see some of the images. Today, there was a medical discussion being hosting in one of the rooms, so we got a sneak peek. On the way back, we stopped at his sisters house very briefly, so briefly that we didn’t get out of the car. We then stopped at the parent’s summer home, which is located directly on the coast of the Meditation Sea! Apparently, they stay there 3-4 months of the year during the summer season. The house was a lot bigger than I expected…3 bedrooms with a kitchen, living room, and a bathroom. One thing I noticed that houses in Italy do not have basements. We took some pictures and then drove back home…it only seemed like a 15 minute drive. That seems silly to me to have a ‘summer home’ only 15 minutes from your normal home, although it seems to be normally accepted to carry this practice.

During lunch, I had one of my most favorite foods since I have been here…pasta (big surprise). It had a modest amount of suegu (spelling?), and it came with 2 meatballs, and fried eggplant. The noodles were about 1 ½ inches long and they were rolled to look like an S if you looked at either side. Pretty yummy!

I took a nap, while mom and dad talked for about 2 hours to some more relatives that came over. Probably not the best thing to do after you eat, but it seemed fitting.

Later on, we went to Marsala, where we took beautiful pictures by the sea. We also toured a mini-museum where some of the relics from the Roman Punic wars were discovered in the oceans, as well as an exhibit of Garibaldi’s unification of Italy through the Marsala era. The museum was inside of a place that holds plays and other theatrical events…I believe it was called St. Peter’s square, but I’m not certain. After that, we browsed around some shops. We went back to Maria’s and had some Arancini (rice balls with stuffing inside, usually cheese or meat/sauce). Federico was jumping around and I even got a clip of it! Also I found out he is really 2, and will be three pretty soon…opps!

Today I woke up at 11:30...I stayed up too late on the Internet and talking to many people.
It was good so far, for the first time I took a shower and there was a medium setting between HOT and COLD. Sadly, after I found that precise turn on the handle, the water stopped all together! So I had to turn it a bit colder to finish the shower!

My parents went to the little boy's school (Frederico), and then went to the market and visited some more relatives. I guess when my parents came 30 years ago, this family lived in Switzerland in a tiny house. When my parents told them we wanted to stay at a hotel due to the space, they cried and begged for us to stay. Needless to say, they are rather welcoming.


Here are some snapshots of the house that we are staying at.

























Lastly, here is a picture from the coast of Trapani onto the Mediterranean Sea.

Labels: Family, Italy, November, Rockford, Sciliy, Trapani, Visit

November 3, 2008

We went to the tourist town of Taormino. We left at 7:00 AM for a 4 hour car ride, which I slept through most of the way. When we arrived, we walked aside a English speaking tour, so we got to learn about how the city was built by the Greek’s and then continually conquered by Spain, Roma, etc… It was pretty amazing, because the entire city was built on a cliff overlooking the Meditation Sea. We strolled the streets going into various shops that were grossly overpriced. Finally, we arrived at the ancient Greek theater that was partially intact. Some of it was destroyed by various wars and was partially rebuilt in (approx.) 1956. It was a pretty large arena where various social gatherings were held. It was right on the sea coast, so it VERY beautiful. I talked to an older British man whose son attended Luther College. He was pretty knowledge about some of the ruins. We had lunch back at the car which consisted of small loves of bread with mortadella and salami meats with provolone cheese. We walked all the way back to some of the beautiful villas that overlooked the cliff and to see some of the shops. The walk back was pretty brutal because much of it was up hill. Mom and Dad had a pretty rough time, but they pulled through.


November 4, 2008

In Roccamena we are staying with
Giovanni & Vicenza Armato. Vicenza’s grandmother was my great grandfather’s sister.
Gian Paolo is Giovanni & Vicenza Armotta’s nephew.


Today I spent much of it sleeping (until 9:30 AM)…I had stayed up too late playing pinball/solitaire on laptop. It was rather boring without any internet connection. In the morning Giovanni took us to his farm land that was located maybe 700 feet from the edge of Roccamena. He showed us the lemon trees, olive trees, hot pepper bush, Italian celery, and eggplant. We returned later in the day to take some pictures because we forgot the camera.

After that, we went over to the market. I thought they meant a street market, but I soon realized that they meant supermarket aka. grocery store. We went into the tiny store that had 7 cramped aisles of various foods. Meat was priced around 11 euros per kg, and a liter of Coke was about 2.38 euros. This is about what I would except from a small town store. Mom bought some butter to bake dad’s Betty Crooker package of cookie mix that was brought as a semi-gift; However, Giovanni wouldn’t let her buy it, so he bought a stick of butter and mom also bought a stick of butter. Both for the same thing…I guess they were both a little hard headed. In case you were wondering, the chocolate chip cookies were good, however the butter made them very oily on top. I think the butter might have been from sheep’s milk or goat’s milk. It certainly wasn’t cow’s milk. Also on the subject of milk, Dad mentioned that they have bad mozzarella in Sicily because it is made from sheep’s milk, which makes the cheese taste too sweet.

We came back to the house smelling like vinegar and peppers. Vicenza made a side dish with green peppers, tomatoes, vinegar, and some other spices. For lunch we had salad ( oil/vinegar, iceberg lettuce, Italian celery), the spice pepper dish, pasta with bits of broccoli in it, fried (in olive oil) eggplant and broccoli with egg, homemade Italian bread (they have a mixing machine upstairs), and lots of fruit and some of mom’s leftover cheery jello for desert. The fruit they have here is amazing…it tastes 200% better!! I love the yellow melon, pears, and figudini (prickly pears). After eating too much, I laid around and took a nap since it was in the afternoon and there was nothing to do. The Sicilians have some Spanish influence as many (not all) take sesta’s during the afternoon, only they don’t stay open much longer than normal businesses.

Later on, we went to Corelone, where we walked in the park and saw some old men playing bocce. They played a different version than what we play in the US…they put a stack of euros (coins) on one of the red balls, and tried to get as close to the coins as possible (usually they just launched they ball at the coin stacked ball and knocked them off). We didn’t really understand it, but it was interesting… I guess women can’t play bocce in Italy. We walked up and down the shopping strip with lots of stores, and tourist targeting stores (some signs claimed they spoke English). The town is about 10,000-13,000 (compared to Roccamena’s 1,200) and a portion of the Godfather was shoot in Corelone. After walking up and down the strip we returned to Roccamena, it is only a 10-15 minute car ride.

After dinner, mom and dad went to another cousin’s house (Trapani’s) and I went out with Gian Paolo and his friends to the ‘bar’ (consisting of his girlfriend and another couple). It was really a pizzeria. After a beer, we played some foosball and drove around the small town maybe 15 times. One time, they noted that a bunch of kids were honking their horns to celebrate liberty. From what they told me, 3 years ago the old mayor of Roccamena was arrested for charges of being affiliated with the Mafia. They also said that the Mafia in Roccamena is a joke, but the Mafia in Palermo is much more serious. They also said that Italy’s judicial system is ‘soft’, since a murder could only spend 3-5 years in jail before being released, or a thief can only spend 6 months to a year in jail for burglary. They said there is no liberty in Italy, not like the USA where we have capital punishments (electric chair, lethal injection, etc…) and a fast moving judicial system to back it’s laws. Anyways, Gian Paolo’s girlfriend was in the backseat watching a cranberry’s DVD on her HP laptop, while Gian played “Sistem of a Down” American rock band’s Hypnotize album for most of the trip. Luckily, he brought a Italian to English/English to Italian dictionary with him, since we used it quite a bit…he did a good job at speaking though because at . He said we would go out again tomorrowJtimes I used it more than him night at win at foosball around 9 PM.

November 5, 2008
Today we went to two churches…one that was beautiful on the outside, and one that was beautiful on the inside. The church of Monreali didn’t look like much on the outside, but the inside was lined with gold mosaics of biblical figures. To me, it was more impressive than St. Peter’s at the Vatican. I overheard that the back facing alter was brought in from South America from the Spanish during their 400 year reign of Sicily. The window at the head of the church was also done like the Spanish, with the repeated designs in the mortar. The entire church was a giant mosaic, it was very impressive. People from Roccamena even get married there (if they can afford it). To me, it felt like a giant castle of a great king, something medieval that would fit perfectly in the Lord of the Rings, except where the ugly gray hues of stone would show, gold was shown instead.

The Cathedral of Palermo was second church we visited. It was the one that was pretty on the outside. It looked like there was a Muslim influence on its external structure. There was a funeral for several Palermo police officers that were killed when trying to break up some fight with the Mafia. There were several high ranking officials at the funeral, and a lot of police cars. Vicenza said this happens once in awhile, and it is not uncommon.

Santa Rosellia was in Palermo on top of the mountain. We drove up in the small Ford car to find out that the church was closed. The view of Palermo was fantastic though. On the way home we stopped at a farm to pick up some sheep’s milk for the ricotta. We got to sample a few different types of cheeses…one tasted like brick cheese. I finally know what it means for the cheese to ‘squeak’ when you bite into it. This fresh cheese was very squeaky, but it didn’t have much taste. Finally, we got a few different types of cheeses and some of the sheep’s milk (which had already hardened into a semi-cheese/jello concoction.

Some more relatives came over (including the old women [who is 88 by the way] we met at the graveyard during the day of the dead). I got an email address of her 22 year old grandson, who is studying in Palermo to be an Electrical Engineer. His father spoke very good English, and he said he desired to come to the US two more times before he dies. He loves the USA. His family was very nice. Also, his wife is a economic teacher in a high school. They live near Palermo and offered to host us for a night during our remaining time in Sicily. After they left, we had dinner (pasta with ricotta/broccoli) and played Scopa. Gian Paolo took me out again, we lost to the girls at Foosball (2-3), and we drove around town a lot talking about music. He thought I was going to stay around until tomorrow night, so he was going to take me out again—but I told him I was leaving Roccamena at 4:00 PM on Thursday. I wish I could have hung out with them more…oh well. We leave Roccamena at 4:00 PM to go to Petrosino (on the west coast of Sicily).

November 6, 2008

After a brief breakfast, Mom cut Vicenza’s hair outside on the patio. We are touring a olive oil making facility, and a vineyard. We drove out to the vineyard, where Giovanni has a nephew that works there. We toured the area where there was a giant scale that weighs in the trucks. We got 3 bottles of white and 3 of red wine from the vineyard. Luckily, the place was open…apparently most of the work is... done in September, so we were lucky people were around. After this, we toured the olive oil plant. It was interesting, there were many local farmers turning in their olives to the plant, where they soon fill 10-50 gallon barrels (in the form of oil). After this, we returned to the house, ate some lunch and we took a walk. We walked through town and saw Gian Paolo working for his brother in law removing/installing water heaters. After the walk, more relatives came over (the lady with the glasses and her daughter). Her daughter was engaged since she was 14 years old (now she is 23)…I was told that this is a common practice, as to prevent the couple from dating other people. It also gives them lots of time to get a house, nice silverware, furniture, etc... I think it is pretty strange. After she left, her mother talked with Vicenza for a while (it). Around 4:45PM Giuseppe Trapani (another cousin) picked us up. It seemed like hours waiting for him, but he finally got us and took us to Petrosino.
We stopped at a electronics store to buy a ‘AA’ battery charger, since we thought the rechargeable ‘AA’ batteries were pre-charged. When we arrived there were some distinct differences:

1) This is my grandmother’s side of the family…
2) They seemed a lot friendlier and generally accepting of whatever.
3) They also seemed to know way more about America (and embrace it) than Roccamena.

Indeed, we have kept up with this side of the family from 30 years ago. They came to stay with my parents for one month in 1989. I don’t remember too much of it, other than they loved to make bread, including everyone in the entire family to be apart of the process. They also loved Nintendo (NES) and Coca-A-Cola.

It was rather emotional for my parents too, they have been looking forward to coming since the whole trip. Dad cried a bit when he was saying hi to everyone. After eating dinner, we looked over about 8 mini-photo albums. I seriously felt as if I was back in the 80’s after seeing all of them…the tucked-in shirts, big hair, coke shirts, the photos with the new GM red Grand Prix, and the guitar/drum set photos that they posed with.


The welcoming party consisted of:

1 Mother (this women’s Mother and my Grandmother’s father were brother and sister).
2 Sisters (we are staying with Maria, and Rosa) and their husbands.
1 Daughter (Daniela she is 36 years old) and her husband Gianfranco (a VB.NET programmer for an Italian gambling website).
1 Child, Frederico (he is the daughter’s son, very funny and cute).

Some things I noticed were similar from the other households. One thing is that they always serve the salad after the pasta/meat. Then they follow that with side dishes of meat/cheese, and end the meal with fruit (Kiwi, Pears, Apples, Clementine’s).
We walked over to the daughter’s house to watch the wedding DVD that the photographer created. Their wedding was in 2002. Also, we saw the baby’s DVD movie of the early years, and the first birthday.

The best thing is that I now have Wireless Internet. .JTHANK GOD! Now I can keep in contact with the rest of the world!

Hey everyone,

It has been an incredible time since I’ve been abroad. In fact it has only been 44 days since I left London. I miss it quite a bit, but then again it wouldn't be the same without everyone on the program. Mandy, Peter are the two 'keepers' on the trip. I had the most fun over there with them, and hopefully it won't be the last. Peter and I will hopefully see each other this summer, and it should be quite a bit of fun. I've also kept in contact with Diane (from NY), Laure (the French girl who was my partner in Operations Management), and even a small bit with Gertrud (the Austrian also in Operations Management). It's quite lovely to hear about LMU and all the busy-ness going on in a world oh so far away. I find it funny to describe the trip to people over here, since they really have no idea-but I try the best I can. My last week in London was absolutely nuts...I was wayyyy too busy to update this blog, but luckily I did write a hard copy of the events up to Saturday on the flight back.

Since I've been back I've accumulated a number of tough classes due to lacking choice in modules abroad. I have Computer Graphics, Foundations of Programming Languages, Software Engineering, Business Policies, and Business Speaking and Writing (the easy one). I also may have to take a summer course to make sure my last semester finishes smoothly...but we'll see what the CS department decides on my CLSG Internship. Well, until next time....

Cheers,
Joe Trap

Hey everyone...

Today was my last full day at the London School for Girls. Today, I went out to Lunch with Matt Chance at Marks & Spencer’s and then ate the sandwiches in the park. It was good to hear about how the Corporation of London (which basically keeps the inner city businesses happy and IN London) spends their money for a non-profitable charity causes (through communal investments, such as the London School for Boys, Girls, etc...). There is even a law stating this... After all of the money they have collected from hundreds of years, many foundations have been installed throughout London through their investments. Quite an interesting conversation I had with him...I never knew all of that stuff about who I was working for.

After Lunch, I made some progress on my project...and It is almost done...just a few touch-up's and It'll be complete!! I can't wait...I've been working quite hard on it. Hopefully, the CS Department will approve the credits and I will be on my way to graduating in a year from now. I've felt that I have learned a lot, so if that constitutes for anything, I'm sure it will show through.

Near the end of the day, Ian Phillips (The ICT. Director) invited me to the Fac/Staff Christmas Party on Thursday evening at 6:00 pm. He wanted to give me a small gift when everyone was present, so he felt he could sneak me into the £13 3 course meal :) -- Lucky me! Also, Russell Dovers, Matt Brumpton, Bhavia, and I went to a local pub about a block away after work to have a few rounds. I drank 2 Guinness and a Stella, which held me over pretty well. Some of them usually go out every Friday evening or so...too bad I never worked on Fridays ... oh well. It was nice to relax and talk about Christmas plans. Most of the British people have many Christmas parties to attend for a straight week up until Christmas eve, and most of them are always held at local pubs which are rented out. Presents are generally always exchanged on Christmas morning and even those who don't celebrate still get together to party and give gifts (such as the Indian population, according to Bravia).

Joe, Bravia, Matt Brumpton, Russell Dover

Bravia- She is in her third year at her university (which is basically in a work placement year...since she is practically finished). She has been working with PHP in the Web Tech dept. for 6 months each day of the week with Russell...she also has a small salary from what I'm aware of, one reason I'm glad I wasn't working more...because no matter how much I worked I wouldn't be receiving any money out of it.

Matt Brumpton- He graduated with a degree in music technology, with C++ programming to assist him in his projects. Since he couldn't find a job in that industry, he picked up a few books about a year ago and worked out Macromedia Flash and PHP to build up his resume. His musical tastes are Dn'B, Trance, and deep House which often sparks up conversation with me from his DJ'ing days. We often share samples of music to compare on. The friendliest co-worker in the department hands down, and he is very beneficial in showing off his home projects such as his fancy media server and Macromedia flash action-script programming.

Russell Dover- Originally from Australia, he has worked for a major corporation for about 7 years until deciding to move to London to find a better job, or one less stressful. He lost quite a bit on the exchange rates when coming over, but he says it's worth it, because London has much more to offer. He is the longest member of the ICT Department next to the Director (Ian Phillips)-which has been there for one year since January. He's a nice guy, I was a bit weary of him at first since he is a bit more reserved, but if you talk with him for awhile he can be quite talkative. A master of PHP & SQL programming, yet he still hasn't learned much CGI and .NET.

Brick Lane, Indian Cusiane

Today, I went with Mandy Leblanc to Brick Lane for some Indian food. I had Onion (fried, and squashed down to a patty shape), Lamb Curry, and a spicy pompov. It was great, and really filled me up...ao much that I couldn't even eat any more. Then I went to CLSG for an hour and worked on my PHP/mySQL project. I didn't get very far by the time I logged in and thought about what I was doing. The guys were excited to take me out on Tuesday night, so I'm a bit nervous oh what to expect.

Peanut Butter Balls

On Thursday night, I decided to finally put my thoughts to actions, and I picked up my peanut ball recipe that I had gotten off the internet a few weeks ago. I made about 18 large ones, and I melted a Cadbury's Milk Choclate Bar and dipped them in the melted choclate (with a little veg. oil to keep the choclate from thicking, and burning). Everyone around the Vandon House loved them. The Spanish kids looked at them weird, and were afriad to try them-except for one. I think they were a hit, and everyone loved them. Now I have a good receipe to bring back to the US. Prior to this, I had tired making orange peels dipped in choclate like the ones I bought in Canterbury, but those turned out a bit messy, and stuck to the plate or plastic wrap.

Cheers,
Joe

While I was waiting for my Operations Management professor, and I met a girl named Neslihan from Turkey who was sutdying in England. She had been living here for six years, and only goes back to Turkey to visit, becuase she loves the multi-culturalism of London. I don't blame her. She is getting her BA in Marketing and Advertising after this year since she had a break of 6 years. I learned about turkish -something--it's a candy that is really good! We started talking about American influence, which we probably shouldn't have...she had some harsh views of the US. For example she won't go to Starbucks, Mc Donalds, or any American business (yet she owns an iPod) becuase she doesn't agree with our business practices with "sweet shops", etc... (what does Turkey have? Most likely a simular agenda...I didn't bring this up though). One thing that bothered me was that she claimed that the US Government commited Genocide with the Indiginious people (commonly mistakenly called Native Americans, or Indians). We didn't commite genecide of any race, we forced them to give up the right of not paying taxes and move off their reservations OR stay in them and live a tax free life. I do not agree particularly with either of the options, but by no means is this a motive for genocide! Iggnorance! Other than that sour topic, we got into a deep discussion about Trance music, and the London clubbing scene (on how the bouncers were strict on dress code). She will let me sample some of her world music or some psy. trance . Cool, I love new music! Perhaps I can attempt to give her a more positive impression of America too.


After waiting an hour and a half, Dr. Bisi gave me his card to give to my professor, and he seemed very impressed with my work in the coursework for Operations Management. It was good to hear that we was happy with the month's worth of work I put into this project...I'm sure Dr. Hitchcock will be most pleased with the report.

Today it stuck me a bit that I was leaving, not to mention those I had begun ti care for around me. I hung out with Diane for the last time. We took a stroll down Oxford Street and went to We went to an Italian restuarant and had a great meal. Pasta from the restaurant always ends up much better than my pathetic. I honeslty enjoyed the time we had together, and had some developing feelings for her. It was sad, and she is leaving back to New York this week. I felt a bit miserable on the way home, becuase I didn't want to accept that anything would work out. I knew it was coming, yet I don't feel this way very often. It still came as a shock since It snuck up on me. Oh well :(. We'll keep in contact, and hopefully I'll see her again. It made me realize that in around 15 days, I will be gone as well...Kind of puts a damper on things.

Cheers,
Joe

Friday, December 2nd

I left Vandon House at 8:15am and got the 11:05 flight to Dublin at Heathrow. The flight over was pretty cool, it only took around 50 minutes. Aer Lingus was a good, service and they are owned by British Airways...Something I found out. Once I got to the airport, I waited about 30 minutes until my friend Crystal (From Iowa State) arrived with 6 of her group mates from Spain (who also all went to Iowa State). We traveled to the hostel (The Rainbow Backpackers Hostel) on Marylough Street. One of the first things I noticed was how similar to Irish accent was to the American one. Even if they cannot pronounce their "Th's" (Third sounds like Tird), it is much easier to understand than British and certainly Scottish. We got to the hostel, and one of the group members met up with David (Emily's bf) who traveled from Kent, England. He was also studying abroad. It was good to get everything settled in and organized, so afterwards we went straight to the Guinness Storehouse. It took about 30 mins., partly because of our walking speeds along with our uncertainly on where to go. It was so funny to see the other 7 people in the group walk around and try to cross the street. In Spain the pedestrians have the right of way, so they walk slow and take their time. I have picked up my pace quite a bit and fearlessly cross intersections as if I "have" to get somewhere. Something that London has rubbed off on me. After walked a bit and then stopping to have the rest of the group catch up, we finally got there and took the tour. It was interesting, because Guinness has to pay only 45 Euro a year thanks to it's founder investing his 100£ into a 9,000 year agreement on land tax for his facility. Iwas detemindeddt confident that his Brewerly was the best, anit wouldllasttt thousands of years. Currently, practically all of the work is done by machines, guided by software programs, so there ilittle humannn interaction in the production process. The Tour was neat, and I took some pictures. We went up to the 7th floor of the St. James Brewerly where we got our free pint. All of the girls hated it, so Dave and I drank about 3 pints each before alling it quits on an empty stomach. Next we walked around to find a place to eat, which was a very nice restaurant to go to. I had the Roast of the day, while a few others had Steaand Guinnessss Pie or Irish Stew. It was very good food, although it was a bit pricey...Butt price was something I wasn't concerned with this trip. Afterwards, the Hostel employee told us about a local pub to attend with live music and cheap beer. The beer cost around 3 Euro a pint which wasn't bad...I had a Irish Cider--good stuff. The place was packed with Irish men and women everywhere...I've never seen so many women drink beerand Guinness!!) in my life. It was almost expected!! This is where the picture of "Joe at the pub" came from witthe Irish flag in the background. We stayed till about 1230 am, the kids from Spain were tired so we made it an early night.

Saturday, December 3rd

We got going at about 9am, and went to the Gauprisonon first since David checked it out while he was waiting for us to arrive. It was pretty interesting, considering it was a 17th century prisonon. Lots of old classic locks, and large steel doors. There was never an uprising thoughbecausese the staff treated thprisonersrs pretty well icomparisonon to the other prisons. Mainly, it was an transport prison. If you were in the British military you had been sentenced to life iprisonon. The walls which sectioned off the yards were very high and it was quite depressing to be stuck in the gray stoned building even for a few hours. The inside was transformed partly into museum, while the rest consisted of a walking tour. Afterwards, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where it was closed only on Saturday due to a graduation! Of course, this is Europe we are talking about. We did get some good pics in though. Next we had lunch at a small shop...I had a chicken and cheese panini and I copied Crystal and got a White Hot chocolate. Good choice on her part! We went to the city halbecausese the tour guide from the prison told us to check out that area to get a good history of Dublin. I got an awesome picture of the city sword and learned a bit about the City, along with it's English influence through the Viceroy. After that littlmuseumum, we went to the Dublin Castle, which is more like a palace for special ceremonies and events. They had lotof waterfordrd crystal everywhere, and beautiful carpet (with a 100 yeawarrantyty), so we could walk on it. The Irish lovwarrantieses. After this tour, we got to see part of the Viking wall that was preserved underneath the structure (discovered in 1986!) and the Norman built wall around it. The Vikings were not good builders at all--it was the Normans who brought in the huge heavy building blocks for walls and castles.
We went out to eat near the Temple bar area. U2 owns a hotel in that area, and it is very lively at night. We went to a bar in Temple bar, called the "Temple Bar" and stayed there till about 12:30. We all were pretty tired, but some of us stayed a bit longer till 1:30. We met some Irish locals, who I got a chance to talk to. I found out that Ireland does have socialized medicine and education like Britain. Also, since about 5 years ago, the government started pushing Gaelic (as it is the official language) on the publibecausese it was nearly extinct. I never knew that. They also commented on the French's bitter feeling towards to the British, and they like Americans better than the British sometimes. Also one of the guys told me I had a Dublin accent! I was asked If I was from Ireland twice at the bar. haha, even in Ireland, I've been asked that. I wasurpriseded to hear this along with the Gaelic thing. The Irish and British still need to work on dental care (mainy lstraightening their teeth out)! haha. We walked back and I found my stop on where to pick up the bus in the morning.

Sunday, December 4th

Today I woke up at 5:45 am to catch bus 41 to Dublin Airport. I made my 9:00 flight and got back in London at 10:15 due to some delays. I finally got back to the Vandon House at 11:45 and unpacked my stuff. Luckily, I took a nap later on which helped me concentrate with work later on that night. What a fun and exciting trip it has been, and my Irishness count is now set to 5! I highly suggest anyone to go if they are considering it, especially if they are deciding on which countries to visit within the UK.

Today at work I got asked yet again "What part of Ireland are you from?" by the CLSG Head of the Science Department Professor. What a shock, and she had lived in Cork for 8 years. It makes me think of Tom McNamara and how he always calls me a dego...but what I'm starting to realize is that I'm more Irish than Italian. These people who thought I was Irish (not American, thankfully) also claimed that I have an Irish Accent too...quite odd indeed!

Just a short update.

Cheers,
Joe

This weekend I went to Turnmills with Chelsea for a Trance Friday night. I saw M.I.K.E. and Chris Warren spin, which was nice to see. They also had a once a month "joy" theme night in the back room where the played classic vocal trance, and speedy euro-ish anthems. I had a great time, and learned that Armin Van Buuren is playing on the 16th of December, so I already booked my ticket to go!! Chelsea brought her bubble machine to the club, so we had some fun with that. The three rooms had chilled out trance for the small room, the main room had various styles of trance, and the back room had speedy, vocal trance. I had to say that I preferred the back room the best, because I knew almost all of the songs. There was a lot of jumping around and glowstick spinning as well in that backroom, which made it entertaining. On the way to the club, I miscalculated the time it took to get there, and we arrived an hour too early so we sat in a pub right above part of the club. A drunk British woman in her late 20's was giving and her friend was giving boyfriend "raspberries" on his belly button and they thought it was hilarious. Then she came around to our table and asked us if we didn't mind. We didn't care, so she commented on my hairy belly, but she loved chelsea's belly--she even got two out of it. What a strange thing to do...maybe by dad was right in saying that even the brit's are drunks similar as the Irish. haha!

Saturday, 26th November

On Saturday night I wanted to go to Fabric, but everyone ditched out on me, so I went to check it out alone at 9:45. St James Park was closed, so i walked to Victoria Station...that happened to be closed as well (do to someone jumping onto the tracks at Green Park), so I walked to Sloane Square (for the first time ever!). I met some kids from the theatre from Oxford and Northern England on the way who were trying to get on the district tube line just like me. One of the girls thought I was Irish until I told her where I was from...What a complainant. We finally found Sloane Square, but it was closed because of engineering work on the entire district and circle lines this weekend. So we got a bus to Marble Arch, took the tube to Oxford Circus, transferred and took it up to Bakers Street and went west from there when i should have went east! By the time I got back to Bakers Street It was 12:00 so the tube line was closed! So i walked to International Students House and had a drink hoping that some of the central guys from the program were still there. They never came I later found out...But I met a chief named Joe from Massachusetts who has been in London only a week. By talking with him for an hour, I found out how experienced I was with the British Culture and how I felt he was especially American in his views of the British and even his very slight Eastern Accent. Wow how much I've grown! When I go out with the guys, I may give him a email. After about 1:45, I took a night bus home to Trafalger Square and walked the rest of the way through St James Park. Quite an interesting night!

Monday, 28th November

On Monday night, I had plans with Diane to go see a play together. On the way to Leister's Square, A man stopped me to try to sell something and do you know what he asked?

Diane From Rochester, NY

He asked If i was Irish! Wow that's been twice recently...both times I wasn't wearing my tennis shoes too...maybe that has something to do with it. Either way I was flatterred, but i walked onward. We ended up having dinner at Bella Italiana with two pizzas, and some tirimisu. We went and saw Otherwise Engaged, a comedy which starred Richard E. Grant. He plays Simon Hench, a sophisticated, urbane and selfish publisher. It was quite fun to watch, and I enjoyed myself.



Cheers,
Joe

Date:  11-17-05
Location:  Paris, France
 

    I went to Paris for nine hours with Mandy Leblanc taking advantage of the 28 GBP Eurostar train deal. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there...and we left at 4:20AM. One of us didn't even go to bed yet from the night before...opps! We got into Paris at 9:30am, and fooled around trying to figure out their tube system (called the "metro"). We ended up walking to another metro station and found a bakery shop on the way. I had a
chocolate chip muffin and Mandy had a Strawberry and Sugar Crepe...wow both of those were so good. The prices weren't too bad considering I've been used to London's prices and the British Pounds bloody exchange rate with the US Dollar. We found out how to get the see the Eiffel tower, and were walking around a few blocks to find it. It popped up behind some building. It doesn't look nearly as tall as in the pictures, but when you travel to the top it seems so tall.

    After going up three levels to the top, we got some
great pictures and headed back down.  There were many beggars and people
who asked us if we were American and if could give any money.  I ignored
them and moved on.  We got back on the tube to get off at the Blanc stop on
the northern side of  Paris in zone 2.  Once we were there we stepped
out and Moulin Rouge was right there.  The show is extremely expensive, so
the pictures from the outside would have to make due.  We also did some
little touristy shopping in the area and moved on trying to find a place to eat
a late lunch/early dinner.  We went down to the Lourve to see if some
places were a bit cheaper in that area.  Across the street down 2-3 blocks
we went to a small cafe (which explains the picture of food in my Paris photo
album).  It was quite good with the wine.  Having French fries, French
wine, French onion soup in France made it that much better  (some
good food for a change).  Next we went to the Lourve, and saw the
Mona Lisa.  It was heavily guarded with thick glass, 2 security guards
(watching for people even pulling our their cameras), and a railing and then
another roped off section past it!  So many other great paintings were
around, I don't understand why Di Vinci's painting gets so much glory. It was
cool to see it though, and I can say I've seen it.  Unfortunately, due to
time (it was about 4:30 at this time) we had to think about getting back and I
wanted to do some quick shopping.  If my sister Lisa was at the
museum, she'd be there at least a week!  haha.  I wish I had more
time...maybe another time.  After the Louve, I got in a few quick shopping
places.  We bought some chocolate on chocolate Ice cream for 4 Euro at a
vender, and it was the amazing stuff I've had.  It tasted like actual fudge
creame and choclate chunks and swirls were in it!  I took a picture of that
too.  We got back to the station just in time, and had our 2 1/2 hour ride
back to London, and as you can tell in the last pictures, we were exhausted! 
It was a very very fun day trip!

Date:  11-18-05
Location:  Stonehenge,
England
 

    The Central trip went to Stonehenge.  We got a little
reading material on the 2 hour bus ride to the site.  On the side, we
walked around the stones, and listened to a audio tour with the little battery
charged datapads.  It made some excellent pictures for the album!  We
only stayed about 45 minutes before the hour trip to Bath.

Date:  11-18-05
Location:  Bath, England

    The Romans built Bath around 2,000 years ago.  We
went to the downtown area and toured the bathhouse where they set up different
rooms for worship, leisure, and communal functions.  The city's buildings
were all built of a sandy brown stone.  Some upper class shops were in the
main strip, such as many jewelry stores, two NEXT clothing stores, and other
places that were mainly clothing stores.  The city was very pretty with the
hills in the distance and some water running through the buildings.  There
wasn't a lot of it, just a bit in some areas. It was a cramped trip with so much
history, I didn't get a chance to fully understand what we were experiencing,
but I tried to take from it the best I could.  We were back on the bus by
5, and back in London around 8. 

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh's Castle

My parents arrived here on Monday night, and we were off to Scotland on
Wednesday morning through EasyBus and EasyJet.  We got to our B&B at 2pm
and unpacked and settled in for a four day adventure.  On Thursday we got a
24 hour travel pass for the tour buses in the city and took them about three
times to get the full tour.  We also stopped at the Castle on the first day
and that pretty much summed up our first day there.  My mom feel in love
with the castle, and I'll admit It was one of the more impressive castle I've
seen.  The next day we went to the Museum of Scotland and learned the
history of the Scottish people.  I never knew how poor the Scots were and
how unifying with England by a Scottish King (James VI) was how it was resolved
after all the years the English tried to overtake the Scottish by force. 
The Money (still in Pounds, but with their own faces on the bills), Laws,
Education, etc. are all governed by the Scots, and the rest is by the English. 
We got tours of the free museum and the natural history one following it. 
After that museum I went to the Elephant House (where half of the first Happy
Potter Book was written) and had an amazing hot chocolate with Carmel.  My
parents went to the Natural History museum next door during this time. 

The Elephant House Cafe served me Hot Chocolate (where Happy Potter was written.

    

 

      The cafe was packed, and it was a small, locally
owned heartwarming place.  It was a little cramped, but compared to the
rainy, cold weather outside--that seemed perfectly suitable.  It was filled
with locals, not so much tourists...most of them were outside wandering the
streets or taking pictures of the buildings,  etc... After this short break
I went back to the Natural History museum and met up with my parents, and we
went to the surgical museum to try to get it.  It was closed because there
was graduation from the students at the university, so we didn't get a chance to
see that.  I was getting a little sick of seeing all these museums anyways. 
We shopped for a few hours on Prices Street and found some interesting Scottish
cookies. 

     Then we decided to call it a day since it was 6pm. 
I wrote in my journal for my BES course and watched TV.  Since the weather
was so cold their I was couching through most of the night.  On Saturday,
we went down to the Scottish Parliament and got to look through the main
visitor's lobby.  We didn't get a tour or any of that since they were in
delegation at the current time.  After that we had lunch and headed back to
catch our coach back to airport.  Quite a fun trip if you ask me, even with
the parents. 

 

Brighton, England

Me on the rocky beach of Brighton

     Last Saturday, Peter and I went to Brighton (50
miles south of London on the coast of the English Channel).  The trip took
two hours on the coach, and it was worth it for only 10 GBP return per person. 
That's quite cheap compared to the prices I've seen for flights and B&B's,
etc...  Well, after the two hour bus ride, we got into the town, and heard
the scraping sounds of the ocean moving the rocky coast around.  I've been
told it was a unique sound, and indeed it was! 

     We walked around the city, running into George IV's
Palace, many various shops, and tons of Jewelry stores as well.  After
walking around for about five hours and eating a mammoth hamburger at a pub, We
found a place called "American Bar and Grill" on a huge green banner.  At
this point we were desperate to have a rest and drink or two.  Well after
drinking through happy hour (which was a first for me) and a few mix drinks
later, we met a mate from Brighton who works in the IT industry.  He (Matt)
talked to Peter about American and British Politics (not surprising, since every
British person here has an opinion or two about Politics).  Then we talked
about what to do in Brighton, the numerous night clubs that play Trance, House,
etc..., his brief university experience in IT before quitting and joining the
workforce, etc.  The strange thing is that since public university's are
practically free (about $5,000) that a degree doesn't mean as much since
everyone has one.  Work experience seems to be a major motivator with
employers over here.  I don't agree that college is not important, I feel
that it is.  A Master Degree is highly regarded since you must be accepted
into the program and the admission fees are about  $20,000 a year. One of
the Matt's I work with is attempting to get his MA after his music technology
degree left him unemployed. But back to Brighton, the Matt we met was quite an interesting person, and now we have someone to
party with if we ever return.  Matt had to go buy some groceries, so Peter
and I went to a Chinese Restaurant up the street. 

The Stimulator(s) (Absinthe and Red Bull) during happy hour.

     And I had the worst Sweet and Sour Chicken of my
life.  It was okay I suppose, but not what I would prefer to be eating
after happy hour.  After the food, I wanted to check out the Pier, and they
had tons of arcade games, casino slot machines, a European Mix of DDR!, coin
pushing machines that you win if you knock them off, etc...  Past the giant
casino and arcade, there were many rides the younger kids, and it was almost
like a little fair.  Kind of a fun place if I was 5-10 year younger. but we
both  enjoyed the arcade games.  Very fun!.  We went back to the
bus stop, which left at 9:30 pm (or over here it is 21:30).  The ride back
was long and dark and we were wiped out after our journey. 

Hello Everyone,

The past few days I've gotten by without too much homework, but there has been a lot of papers coming up, so thats nothing new. Classes are going fine also, everything is proceeding as planned. Work has been pretty cool, I'm starting to understand the basics of PHP a little, and I've even wrote a little page on WANDA over some of the concepts I've learned. Click here to see my basic work. I also have been working on a few other pages and scripts, i'll put them up when they are finalized.

As for the trips I have planned here is what I have so far...

• November 2-5th Edinburgh, Scotland


• November 17th Paris, France


• December 2-4th Dublin, Ireland


• December 9-11th Barcelona, Spain (maybe)

Heres a bit from last weekend...

Kendra, Mandy at the pub dance floor,	Lindsey (my neighbor) and Me.	Us walking to the pub.

Here are a few pics from last weekend at a pub around Kings Cross, quite a interesting time. I can officially say that I heard some of the worst DJ'ing, and music selection for electronica ever. No questions asked!!

See Ya,

Joe Trap

Three out of the past four nights I have observed the
unique (or not so unique) British Club Culture. Here is a brief overview of my
clubbing experience in London...

• 
  Wednesday Night -
  Chelsea's 21st Birthday
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Mandy and Kendra	Went out for a few drinks at Club Rocket which is London Metropolitan University's main club for the attending students. It was a pretty fun time.  One of the girls from Adrian College in Michigan had her 21st birthday on that same day so of course we went out!  Of course we were back at a fairly decent hour, because I had Cross Cultural Advertising class at 9:00 the next day.	Me and Chelsea on her 21st
  The night buses run 24 hours, and we picked one up, but we ended up switching buses to get to Victoria Station (which is within walking distance to Buckingham Palace Road-Vandon House).  At Victoria the police came on the bus to check everyone's travel pass, and we found out the hard way that you could not switch passes.  All of us got fined 20 GBP, but luckily Adam showed off his Oyster card, which deducted from having to pay anything.  Luckily, I got mine earlier that week so I along with the whole group got out of the fine.  Now we know!

  
  


• Friday Night - Paul
  Van Dyk & Sister Bliss @ Turnmills    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Yes, thats Paul Van Dyk	Friday was the big event I've been planning for the last two/three weeks.  Paul van Dyk (#2 Rated DJ in the World) was spinning at London's Club Turnmills on October 7th.  So for only 15 GBP to go (which is about $26) when it costs at least $50 to go in Chicago, plus I really like his style of trance music and many of his hit songs--why not go?  So I got Peter excited about going, and soon enough we were off to the Farrington Tube stop to have a excellent night.	The massive crowd at the club
  At first we got in the club and it was separated off into two main rooms.  The first was a more relaxed after party dance room, and the second was the main floor.  We had to push and shove ourselves to get into the main room, even when the first DJ was on, Sister Bliss (from the Electronica group Faithless, which had quite a few hits on their own).  Peter ended up getting sick, due to his medication running out a week ago.  So we left around 3:30 AM.  Incredibility I learned that  the club stays open until 7:30 AM, which gives the tubes plenty of time to open and become fully operational before you head home.  ha-ha, I'm not crazy.  The picture to the left is of some of the Brazilian friends I was dancing with.  They have been vacationing for about a month or so, going around Europe and having fun.  Quite an exciting group of people.  I noticed many cultural difference between the main London Clubs and the ones in the Midwest America.  It seems that much more pressure is put on in American Clubs to impress a girl and hook up, verses the British/Euro laid back style of having fun, and of course--dancing.  Of course the Europeans have their own problems, such as their much more laid back attitude about drugs, small crimes, etc... (ex. there is no such thing as J-walking in England).  Between Peter and I, we got asked 6-8 times outside of the club if we wanted to buy anything.  The unusual thing is that the police are standing 15 feet from them!!  Neither of us felt threatened, so we just shook our heads and walked away.  Another thing i noticed is the dress of the men in particular is much different, than the preppy repetitive mono-clothed style of the Chicago Clubs I've been to. It was a great show, and the ride home was hard, because I didn't realize you had to literally step out in the bus lane and wave your arms up and down to have a night bus stop to pick us up.  Luckily, the fifth bus was a winner, and we finally got our ride back.  I got a poster from a wall of the club which advertised his new Album in stores.  Quite a fun time!

  
  

  
   



• Saturday Night -
  Plaid Played at Public Life (an old tube station turned small venue)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Bryan, Me, and Lindsey	Saturday night I had planned on staying in, but sure enough a new Electronica group called Plaid (pronounced Played) was playing at a small club, and there was no cover, so It was one of those why-not-just-go-out-and-see-how-it-is nights.  The small bar was actually apart of an old tube station that was never used, so they bought it and turned it into a mini-club.  It was CRAMPED in there.  The music was all done through two MAC G4 Laptops and Synthesizers.  It was very industrial like Nine Inch Nails, yet it had a sort of Infected Mushroom dark groove to it (those are two electronic artists by the way).  The music wasn't my style, but it was cool to hear something new.  It could have been classified as a sort of mini-rave.	Lindsey and Ashley on the step
  Most of the people who were there were local people, and there weren't any tourists or visiting abroad students (from what we could tell), so it was very much the 'locals' territory.  There were some good, expensive pubs nearby that I may return to in the future.  The night ended at midnight because the place got raided the night before for staying open past their 2pm regulation for bars and pubs.  Sure enough, at 12 the Bobbies were out and ready to make sure the place was empty.  We went back to the Vandon House, and I along with Ashley called it a night, meanwhile the rest of the group went back out to an after party.  I'm sure glad I stayed in, so I could get some more sleep in.

  
  
  
  

I finally got to work on my first experience with PHP programming on tuesday! Russel Dover helped me out a lot, and showed me many of the basics. It seems pretty straightforward, just a matter of getting the syntax down. Here is some of the code



/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
//This PHP file interacts with the mySQL Database at CLSG. Three outputs can occur, create new, edit, or delete. INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE are the three basic commands that are used to have this operation carry out successfully.
//
//
//
// Input: Data from form on addform.dsp.php, along with hyperlink properties of index.dsp.php.
//
//
// Output: the numbers, the sum (integer) and the average (double) of all
//
//
// Date: October 4, 2005
//
// Author: Joe Trapani, Russel Dover
//
// File: addform.act.php
//
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

//Used to Edit Vars of existing data.
$status = $HTTP_GET_VARS['status'];
$activityid = $HTTP_GET_VARS['activity'];




//Used to Create a new row of data.
if($status == ""){
$status = $HTTP_POST_VARS['status'];
}

//Uses MySQL Delete Command to erase an entire row from the database.
if($status == 'delete'){
$query = "DELETE FROM portal..HOUSE_ACTIVITY WHERE houseactivityid = ".$activityid;
$_DB->query($query);

// Redirect back to index page.
header('location: /joe/house/index.php');
exit;

}

//If a link was used to access this page then update the data, else create new.
if($status == 'update'){

if($HTTP_POST_VARS['Save'] == 'Save'){

//$activityid = $HTTP_POST_VARS['activity'];

$activityName = $HTTP_POST_VARS['activity_name'];
$desc = $HTTP_POST_VARS['description'];

//Calling a number doesn't require '' around it.
//This line updates the portal by setting the variable names with the choosen names.
$query = "UPDATE portal..HOUSE_ACTIVITY SET activity='".$activityName."', description='".$desc."' WHERE houseactivityid = ".$activityid;

//Writes the information to the Database.
$_DB->query($query);

//Prints out the variable query for testing.
//echo $query;

// Redirect back to index page.
header('location: /joe/house/index.php');
exit;
}

}else{


if($HTTP_POST_VARS['Save'] == 'Save'){
//Used to Post Vars to create a new set of data.
$activityName = $HTTP_POST_VARS['activity_name'];
$desc = $HTTP_POST_VARS['description'];

// '' is for the string, and " is for a variable inputed. The . joins the sting. together.
//This line inserts the new data from the form to the database, portal..House_ACTIVITY (Portal Name, Db 1, Db 2, House Activity Db) then Cols Names with Values to be added.
$query = "INSERT into portal..HOUSE_ACTIVITY (activity,description) VALUES ('".$activityName."', '".$desc."')";

//Prints out the variable query.
//echo $query;

//obj db calls query function to execute var. $query.
$_DB->query($query);

// Redirect back to index page.
header('location: /joe/house/index.php');
exit;

}
}

//Calls the data in from the Db using the SELECT command; the Houseactivityid is used to verify the correct row to edit on the table.
$query = "SELECT activity, description FROM portal..HOUSE_ACTIVITY WHERE houseactivityid = '" .$activityid. "'";

//Command for the database to fetch the existing data to be edited.
$existingData = $_DB->query_fetch($query);
?>


I'm quite proud of this, becuase it took about 6 hours to do, even with much of the help that Russell gave me.

On other news, I went out to Club Rocket last night, and celebrated a birthday of one of the girls on the trip. It was a pretty good time, despite that the ride on the buses back at 3am were a bit confusing since we've never taken them before. It worked out in the end and we got home just fine. I hava quite a bit of homework this weekend so I won't be doing much. Well until next time!

-Joe

# posted by Joseph Trapani @ Thursday, October 06, 2005 0 comments

Hey everyone!!

Friday

I just got back in London at about 8:20pm from our loonnnng bus ride through Belgium, The Netherlands, and France. The ride from London to the dock is about 2 hours, an 2 more hour trip across the channel, and a three hour ride to Amsterdam! On the way there I slept most of the way since…but the coach bus was about ½ the size of a normal coach since there were only 12 people on the trip. Peter, Me, and Darrion (from California) made up all of the guys too…which was a bit surprising to find for an Amsterdam trip. We got into the city about 8 pm. From the first impression, I got that it was much dirtier, cramped, and reminded me a bit of how proper London (along with the rest of the world) is. The bus advertisements had a couple in an “intimate” position even! Haha. We got to our “three” star hotel then. Apparently the scale must be out of a 20 star ratio, unlike the typical 5 star ratio. But it still beat another group of kids idea of sleeping in an army tent for 8 Euros a night. The hotel was very basic, and I mean absolute bare, but for 21 Euros a night, what should you expect? It wasn’t too dirty in the rooms…just a big banged up. Peter, Darrion, and I shared a room, while the other 9 girls split up into two rooms. Next, our tour advisor took the whole group down to the red light district. What a crazy place!! It was particularly overcrowded with tourists, thieves, and/or drunk or high people. It was sad to see many girls resort to prostitution to form an income. A waitress told our group that many of the girls are smuggled from Eastern Europe in promise of better jobs, and when they arrive they must pay off the "prostituation mafia", so they are forced to work at the window. Since they don’t speak English or Dutch, it doesn’t help then communicate their problem with the local authorities even if they are willing to getting caught squeaking. After that, We broke off into two groups, and we went to the La Canna Café. I found out that our tour advisor is from South Africa, and he was a computer programmer. He wanted to take a break so he is living in London for a while as he tries to get a real job up here. After the 4 Euro Heineken, we went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Saturday

We started off at 8 AM when we set the alarms for 7…opps. The breakfast pretty much was bread, jam, and coffee. I wasn’t too thrilled to get up for the next one. We hit the road for Volendam, and arrived within an hour. The town was a nice break from the big city. It was so tiny and pretty. Many of the fisherman traded in their boats for leisure and opened up shops for the tourists. Traditionally, every dutch family should have a boat of some kind…and I’m also convinced that every person has a bike over there too. Amsterdam even beats Rome with the bicycle count! Anyways, after we watched a short slideshow on the history of the Netherlands, we were free for an hour. I bought a light jacket, and we went to Lunch at De Vrijheid. It was a small café, that looked like it had good food, since many locals were inside. I took a picture of the food also…bratwurst and a hamburger….very Dutch….well American! Then we headed back into Amsterdam, where I found a few cool shops. We went with one of the west coast girls to Anne Franks house, but It was closed (Sabbath day most likely). I got a decent picture from the outside though. After that excursion, we tried to find a place to eat, but we couldn’t make up our mind on what place to go to. Some went off for the Heineken Beer tour while we were looking for a sit down restaurant. Finally, we agreed on an Italian place, and the host rambled a lot of Italian right past me. All I could understand was Hello, …something for the two of you. We split up a pizza and went back to meet up with the other. Come to find out that the Heineken beer tour was closed, so we were lucky we didn’t get disappointed on that realm. We went back to La Canna Café, and a bum followed us for about 2 blocks begging for money. Peter handled in pretty well being that he was the one who had to deal with him. After brushing him off, we went and played the worst game of pool ever. The tables were tournament tables, with loose cue sticks…something I’m not used to. I still pulled off the win against Peter who couldn’t seem to figure out the pattern of which the cue balls returned on (they had 2 slots…odd). After that, and having Peter stop twice at New York Damn Good Pizza! (yes, it’s actually called that!), he went back to the room to sleep. As for me, I’m more of a late person, so I took out my newly deck of cards and went downstairs to the hotel’s mini club in the basement. I asked a couple at a nearby table if they wanted to play cards. We started off played asshole, and I got to know a bit more about them. They were Australian on a holiday out touring Europe for a few months. Some more from their group came and played other games like Snap!, and BS. I asked them about Fosters, and they said it was crappy beer back at home. They wanted to know if Budweiser was a common drink in the US (they specifically asked if the “everyday brickman” drinks it). Interesting view they have on us over here, and they were very friendly. After it hit about 2 am. We called it a night, and I went upstairs to retire for the night. I learned earlier in London that the easiest way to make friends in a unknown environment can be as simple as a deck of cards.

Sunday

Today, we woke up on time at 7! We packed up our stuff and the bus took us to the medieval city of Bruges in BELGIUM. I found out that I love Belgium also. They have great food, music, and scenery. Not as radical as the Netherlands, but much like the US in a way. We walked up to the town square, where I quickly found a music store and spent probably a half hour in there. Most of the Happy Dance Style of music that we refer to in the US as “Euro” is made in Belgium, plus I used to listen to a Specific Belgium Radio Station each week. The town was a lot bigger than Volendam. It still exists as one of the few medieval cities left since the industrial revolution passed by since the river dried up and trade no longer continued with other parts of Europe. One thing we noticed in both countries was that you had to pay .20 or .30 to use the bathroom even in a public place. It got annoying to break up a euro just to use the bathroom. The ACLU would be all over that if it ever broke out in America. Lol. We continued our journey back to Calais (northern France) where we caught the ferry and took it back to England. There was some major traffic jams on the way, particularly before port Calais and on the outskirts of London due to some roadwork. I got a little sleep in and some journaling for the BES class. Quite an impressive, busy, and tiring weekend.

Purchases from this weekend...

First off,
This Weekend: I'm going with Peter to Amsterdam. I got 100 euros today, and I'm getting really excited. We leave on Friday at 7am from ISH and return on Sunday at 10pm!

Internship: I finally had my meeting with my boss (Ian Phillips, B.Sc. Hons [Portsmouth], P.G.C.E.) and I got my journal questions answered that all internships are required to complete.

I also found out that I get to use the tablet throughout the entire semester! IM soooo excited...its very very cool!

My Tablet :)

Also I've begun working on an inventory database for the school. The person who attempted to create one clearly had no idea what she was doing! I think im going to work from home a little on that. Well thats about it.


Cheers,
Joe

Hello Everyone,

Sickness
I'm sitting in my room writing up in all my journals and getting caught up on my homework while 1/2 of the group is in Paris. It is kind of depressing to see them go, but hopefully if all goes right, I'll be in Amsterdam next weekend. My strep came back after I got off the meds last Sunday, but I'm starting to feel a little bit better now. I can't believe it--it's been practically a month since I've been sick!

Internship
I started my internship at the School of London for Girls. Mostly, I've been labeling and moving around equipment...But I did see how they run their system through RM and Win 2000 Server...Quite a headache if you ask me. I hope I'll start doing a little more high end work next week. I still have to write in my Internship journal (required for the credits). Stuart is the guy I've been doing a lot of my work under. He is the hardware guy of the school (like Steve Williams at Loras), and he is about my age. A pretty cool and easy to talk to, but he reminds me of a puke/gothic kind of guy. I get to dress casually, which is a big plus since I don't have many nice clothes. Also, on Sunday Night I learned (sort of) how to iron shirts...So I'll be looking good in no time :).

Class
I only have two classes still, and they are piling up the reading like crazy. I wonder how my LMU class will work out. My Advertising class would be my favorite, simply because he pertains to my major and a little closer to what I'm interested in. I'm still not in the full swing of things, partly because I don't want to be, and then because I'm still recovering from being sick. I still can't believe how late classes start over here...Quite different from the US.

Greenwich
On Friday, I went to Greenwich with the remaining members of our group that is left in London. We needed to go there to fulfill a journal entry. So We took a boat ride down the Thames and arrived in Greenwich about 45 min.s later. For those of you who don't know, Greenwich is where the Time standards come from, and it divides east and west hemispheres. We went to the Royal Observatory and took a few pictures, walked through the museum, and then went to the Marine museum a short hike away. After looking at the murals, drawling, water exhibits, and glass sections we went into the town of Greenwich (which is still apart of London...Just a different section of it since the city itself is made up of little towns). It used to be the old docklands, and it was the first to be hit hard during WW2. I posted pictures from it on the side link marked My Pictures. You should check them out!

That's about all for now,
Joe